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Chapter Text

Tommy is... He's sixteen, right?

Yes, it is right. His birthday was only last month. The boy still remembers his… probably the first birthday in his life, which he could actually call really good. 

Too much in the boy's life does not go according to any of his plans at all. 

However, this little moment of confusion -the very fact that he needed some time to process his age- opened blondes eyes to the fact that lately he had completely forgotten to keep track of not only his age -Prime, he's actually sixteen now!- but also the passage of time in general. 

It's already been half a year since Minecrafts adopted Tommy! The boy grew to be so relaxed that he even lost track of time.

The very thing he wasn't supposed to lose. 

This... This is not good. That... That's terrible!

This is one of the main rules Tommy had set for himself. He can't afford to break any of those so easily! Really, what's wrong with him?

Does a relaxing and truly safe environment really do that to a man?

Wait a minute. When was the last time he had set a checkpoint?

Fuck. He should check, because he's not sure about that right now.

Memory for dates, names and all that other shit -even though it's important- fails Tommy a lot, as he paid with this type of memory at that very period of his life... Although, most likely he was destined to lose it one day anyway. So nothing so supernatural after all. He has already managed to get used to it, and this is not really a problem, considering what the boy received in return.

Fortunately, The Universe did not demand anything more from him at that moment than just that. She - The Goddess of Fate as the boy assumes- generally seems to be smiling at him considering how much he has gotten away with unscathed. 

Now, the most important thing for the boy is to not go beyond the limits of his powers any more than he already did. Preferably. 

At the moment Tommy has only 3 open loops, so actually there is nothing to be afraid of.

The boy turned his gaze to his wristwatch. It's only been 5 minutes since the last time he checked!

Tommy is in the most boring history class of his life.

No, seriously!

This is another lesson on the same topic that has probably been brought up for close to a hundred, if not even more times. Even his classmates, including the straight A's student, are looking rather bored, especially Tommy, who already remembers this one by heart, considering how many more times than the other's he had to attend it.

Early L'Menburg's War for Independence led by William Soot and his younger brother Thomas Innit. By the way, Tommy is the namesake of a guy! It's funny, isn't it? 

Wow, how low Tommy has fallen to somehow entertain himself during this lecture. Even such a useless fact he already knew for a really long time seems a little bit entertaining to the boy. 

But is this very story really that important?

No, of course Tommy understands the value of history, and the value of individual local themes and events for each region.

However, the fucking war is lost and L'Menburg's rebellion is crushed to ushed. This city -noe named Manburg- is still considered part of The Essempi. So to exaggerate the same topic so much, talking about the impossibility of a protest... There is no actual need for this.

Seriously, is the government so afraid of rebellions and L'Man- khm. Manburg's residents? What bastards lot's of them. Another reason to hate the Essempi's government adds to Tommy's list. 

Someday. Someday he'll get out of here. Because waiting for a change here is quite pointless. 

Oh yes! The date of his last checkpoint. How the hell did his mind go from such an important matter to the stupid history? (Ignoring how he's in history class at the moment.) 

Tommy touches his watch a couple of times and it flashes semi-transparent somewhat holographic numbers that only he can see.

Clock synchronization is the best thing that ever happened to a boy, really. Apart from a couple of other things, of course. 

And so it was-

2 months ago?!

…

Tommy should definitely set a new checkpoint when he gets home.

During these 2 months enough things had passed that he did not really want to accidentally lose and have to recreate due to an unexpected death.

You never know when a car might hit you or something. And with Tommy's ability the only thing he'll have to deal with because of sudden death, besides the damn pain of it, is the Butterfly Effect.

This is such a thing, that it is extremely difficult to compete, and the reality of the phenomenon is beyond doubt. At least Tommy doesn't have any, because he had been taught by this bitter experience of his own.

Tommy returns home after a short walk with his best friends after school.

Tubbo had already rounded the corner for his home, and Ranboo went with him, as the two of them are having another sleepover tonight. Although this is a frequent occurrence for the trio. 

Tommy is not in the mood for coming today, and he also wants to set a checkpoint.

The boy worked out several conditions necessary for this process, one of which is a calm environment and no plans. 

In fact, when he thinks about it, Tommy notices a lot of oddities with Minecrafts. Especially lately.

Tommy is more than familiar with the fact that their work schedules are screwed up. Phil's schedule can be considered the most stable, but this 'normality' only works when compared to Will's absolute chaotic schedule -or the total lack of it- and Techno's extremely confusing one, while the latter claims that he actually has it, and that it's quite stable.

Tommy is perfectly able to tell that is a lie -for Prime's sake- and is a bullshit, if he've ever seen one.

However, now his family stays at work much longer than usual.

No, Tommy, of course, has already encountered such behavior way more than once. When, for example, Will's music store met an opponent in the form of a popular music chain store, it decided to open right across from Soot hing rhymes. It has been a very difficult month for the entire Minecraft's network and has partially affected all businesses due to the instability of their owners.

However, no such events right now did happen.

When Tommy asks what is keeping them late, they refer to mystical 'problems in the business'. Yeah. Tommy has eaten this way more than once.

The emotional tiredness of his dear family members hurts Tommy, and just imagine how he felt when he saw a strange bruise on Techno's hand!

Something has recently settled on the subcortex of Tommy's consciousness. He doesn't have a very good feeling about something which involves his family.

If the boy has learned to trust anything for all the -Prime knows how many to be honest- years of his life, it's to trust his own feelings.

When he finally reached the house, Tommy stopped interrupting his train of thought.

The boy can hear the muffled sounds of the television and Wilbur's voice -Tommy can't quite make out what exactly his brother is saying though- from the slightly ajar window. He is sure that the whole family is sitting on the couch listening to TV in the background, chatting with each other along the way.

Maybe..? They'll never know... Tommy has done this before with pretty much all of his foster families! However-

Tommy hesitated, weighing the pros and cons of doing what he had in mind.

Yes, he has done this before. Many really had it coming, while at other times Tommy did it for his own well-being, or sometimes literally survival.

But Tommy respected Minecrafts. Really loved and appreciated their feelings and privacy, because he received all the same in return. Habitually, at the very same moment in parallel with his thoughts, Tommy began the standard procedures of starting the loop. 

Time coordinate: determined. Terrain coordinate: set. Fast response: -Tommy touched his wristwatch- set. 

Technically speaking, he doesn't have to touch it for synchronization to work. He just needs to concentrate on it, though touching is easier. 

Wait. 

Oops... it's even a bit embarrassing. Apparently, he no longer has any other choice... 

…

Tommy is already too lazy to cancel the fresh perfectly tuned loop.

With a nod, the boy loudly exhaled, grabbed the doorknob and activated his second ability.

Tommy has 2 abilities. As unexpected as it may sound, it's true.

Not that it was rare for a human to have the ability. And dual powers are way more common than you might think at first. Yes, this is not the most frequent occurrence according to statistics, but this is only because most of these individuals are hiding the fact of possession. Tommy is also hiding one of his powers after all...

However, rare hybrids such as Enderman hybrids like Ranboo tend not to have any abilities, just like Tommy's best friend himself.

While no one knows about Tommy's time loop ability -the boy did a fucking great job of hiding this fact- probably everyone knows about the boy's second power, though they don't question it enough to know the whole truth about it. But is half-lie really a lie at all? 

It's name is attention. Tommy often uses it openly. Everyone thinks that it's a very minor invisibility. It is, in fact, not. 

When someone asks the boy how his ability works, Tommy is happy to tell. 

There are many senses people has. It's like- Five or so. Tommy mainly work with only two of them: vision and sound. 

While Tommy can't disappear, or become invisible or completely mute himself of any sound, Tommy can shift anyone's attention away from himself, and/or any object he touches. 

Attention is quite an important matter to shift, though not exactly the one you would've thought you lost your track of because of somebody's power. 

That's why it's handy. And that's why it works only for a couple of seconds or so. But it's enough! 

And even though everyone who asks him that doesn't really question it further, satisfied with such a complex answer -which is kinda out of character for Tommy- he still has hidden the other side of a medal away from their eyes. 

Tommy can shift the very same attention not only away from himself, but even directly into himself too. 

Usually, he tweaks it so that others consider it his natural charisma or luck, but the guy is not that worried about revealing this moment.

After all, it's a good response to what Tommy might respond if forced to. What is he hiding about his ability? Reverse action! And not a single word about the mere existence of time loops.

Tommy really has too much to think about ahead of time and it has already exhausted the guy so much… 

Okay, it's time to celebrate back in reality. 

The boy activated his attention ability and distracted everyone -even himself- from his own sound, and the door's sound too. 

It's ability is great for pranks on someone, playing hide and seek -nobody really plays with him anymore since he always cheats- or... or just hiding. 

Tommy can completely remove his visual or sound presence for all people around him and/or an object/creature he touches on a psychological level.

Now he has removed any door sounds. Seriously, right now Tommy can rip that door to shreds, knock it off its hinges, or basically do whatever he wants, and to the other people around it would make absolutely no sound for the next few seconds.

But, due to time limits, Tommy had to slip inside very quickly and hide behind a closet at the last moment, when the boy already felt like he was running out of time.

With difficulty -due to the fact that he has to be quiet- catching his breath, Tommy listens to what is going on in the house. 

He's right, judging by the sounds Phil and Techno are sitting on the couch right now, while Will is on the chair.

They're watching- Prime knows what. Tommy can't quite make out the gist of the dialogue going on on the TV.

An episode of some shitty show that his family -for some unknown to him reasons- decided to watch -Really, what is it?- as interrupted by an advertisement that apparently involved playing the piano, judging by Will's annoyed subsequent reaction to as "The actor doesn't even play at the same tempo as the music! Indeed, it is obvious that he had never seen a piano in his life before this, of course, a terrible period of his career."

The piglin hybrid is great at playing a range of instruments, Tommy will give him that. Therefore, he knew exactly what he was talking about, so the boy decided to trust him in this matter.

As Wilbur himself told him, his passion for music began as a hobby and at the same time a possible school activity. He persuaded Techno to start his own training in playing the instrument so that the twins could play in a duet once they were in middle school. 

What started out as a hobby ended up being the synchronization of his ability.

Synchronization is something that enhances powers, makes them easier to use, or something that makes it possible to use the abilities in new ways. Everyone has it completely unique and it is extremely difficult to find what is your own.

In Will's case -as far as Tommy was able to figure out- his synchronization works in such a way that when he plays an instrument, his mind control gets a bit stronger or maybe just less noticeable? 

Tommy didn't pry into that matter though. And it's not that Will stands out for the incredible strength of his ability. Tommy himself manages to easily break free from the fetters of his seemingly soft, but yet sharp and commanding words that penetrate deep into the mind. And Wilbur seems to be trying hard for this! 

Will is surely no match to Siren, who`s the first to spring in mind of Manburg citizens at the mention of mind control. A terrifying villain who uses his ability to do very scary and even crazy things. One of the three founders and leaders of the Syndicate. It's like comparing a wolf and a -quite a cute one if you so please- chihuahua, really.

Speaking of synchronizations, Phil and Techno seem to share a simple one, which is extremely odd if you`d ask Tommy. He had heard about one of the rarest types of synchronizations before: syncs with certain people. However, for the first time he saw one was at this exact family.

Tommy still doesn't fully understand exactly how the piglin-avian synchronization works.

They call their Chat of all things- Like they`re fucking streamers, for Primes sake.

Techno has voices , which is his ability. He hears them… All the time. Tommy is sometimes really amazed by the endurance of the man and his psyche. He wouldn't have been able to live like that himself, to be honest.

Techno has been calling his voices a Chat for a long time, and somehow his Chat is connected to Phil's flock.

The power of a man with wings is just this flock as he calls it. He can accept a variety of birds into it. Though it seems to work best with crows. Actually, they are very smart birds. They are apparently quite fond of the boy too. 

Phil's flock lives in a poultry house which is a small extension near their house. Phil also calls the members of his flock Chat.

They are separate yet collective consciousnesses(?), but sometimes they can transmit information to each other..?

Look, Tommy really doesn’t understand how this works at all and gave up understanding a long time ago. He just takes it for granted, for Primes and a bit of his own sake.

Speaking of birds, he really hopes they won't somehow tell Phil OR Techno about his eavesdropping before Tommy feels satisfied with his search.

That thought forced Tommy to come to his senses and return to the eavesdropping he nearly forgot about, lost in the thoughts as usual.

Tommy noticed nothing interesting and worthy of attention for the next 10 minutes. When the boy had already begun to despair, the news intro music began to play.

The male voice of the announcer began to tell something Tommy didn't really care about that much, until one moment.

The man announced that the authorities had officially confirmed the fact and even the date when some heroes from The Capital would be sent here to Manburg. Heroes such as the Dream team, which is the most popular small hero group, will arrive in the city in 3 weeks.

Tommy remembers just recently there were rumors about the matter, and looks like they turned out to be true. 

Villains from the shadows and even in the open like the Syndicate, pose a great threat and therefore it seems like the government decided to deal with such threats to their power and control over the population.

Lately, Tommy has been hearing here and there that "Manburg is now back on the road to becoming independent through rebellion and at this rate it could soon become the villainous capital, throwing the current one from the throne."

...

Actually, Tommy can understand a lot of the lessons of history fixated on that fucking Independence War now.

Once again immersed in his thoughts, Tommy almost missed the next dialogue.

But the thing shocked the boy, not only catching his guard, but completely shattering him.

“As Jester predicted, this is indeed happening…” Wilbur spoke somewhat quietly compared to his usual way of speaking.

Stop. What? Jester who`s like- Jester from Las Nevadas ? That Jester?

The Jester who is the leader of -arguably- the most feared yet secretive villainous organization? THAT JESTER!?

Why does he even say it like- Like he heard such information firsthand ? What?

“What, you really didn't believe him until the very official announcement? Bruh. Typical Wilbur.” Techno habitually mockingly responded to its twin.

“I've just tried to stay optimistic, Blade.” Brunet threw his brother in response to the instigation.

“Uh-huh.” Tommy almost really saw his brother's nod in his skeptical voice.

“What? Would you like more heroes in the city?” And at Will`s question he heard a rising brow. Prime, he really grew to know his family pretty well.

“We are ready for their arrival anyway.” Phil added into some sort of a somewhat regular dispute.

What the fuck is going on?

For the sake of Holy Prime, why is his family talking about such things in such a casual tone!?

“Why are you so skeptical of him anyway? He is our ally, and we have been working side by side for years. You know full well that such predictions of his can almost certainly be trusted, Wil.” Techno sounded casual. Way too casual for the things he just told out loud.

And- Wow.

His family are fucking ALLIES with Las Nevadas ?! He just found out for the first time that they are simply involved in a villainous community, so that must mean that they also turn out to be -

Wait-

No way.

No fucking way…

Wilbur, Philza and Technoblade are in the Syndicate ?! 

No-no. More. Way more than just that.

Tommy was able to practically feel the gears inside his head turning. Puzzle pieces he gathered during the 6 months he spent with Minecrafts are coming together, finally starting to form a somewhat full picture.

Philza`s dark wings and the crows basically being his flock and following around at home. 

Techno`s musculature and fucking light pink hair

Will's fucking ability and musical synchronisation...

They are Zephyrus , Protesilaus and Orpheus , the three leaders of the Syndicate.

They're fucking supervillains or some shit...

Wow.

Tommy`s just-

Wow.

He doesn't even know how to react to it.

However, the boy's body apparently knows how to, and knows very well. It has long since developed a defensive reaction to such moments: a panic attack!

Tommy couldn't breathe normally due to the fact that something blocked the access of oxygen to his lungs. Rapid breaths instantly switching with almost no breaths from the boy.

Tommy couldn't see properly because of the cloudy mist that appeared in his eyes. Tears flowed from the boy's eyes like they were oceans.

Tommy couldn't stop shaking . Chilling shivers ran through the boy's entire body.

However something -albeit not for long- brought him back to consciousness.

The TV went silent and the voices in the background stopped, and he could- He could hear footsteps coming his way!

Fuck- He was heard by. Shit, fuck.

FUCK! Fuck, fuck, fuck… 

What will they do to him when they find him in such a condition?

No, no, stop. Fuck. Even worse. What will happen to him when they find out why is he in such a state.

They'll find out that he- That he was fucking eavesdropping!

Fuck.

Tommy panicked even more. However, the boy's reflexes worked despite himself. When Tommy could already see the shadow of the one who was approaching the passage leading from the living room to the corridor where Tommy now sat curled up in the ball, the boy pressed the button on his watch and-

The loop collapsed, bringing Tommy back .

The boy found himself at around fifteen minutes prior to what had just happened to him. 

Standing before the entrance. Again. 

When returning with a panic attack, in fact it's much easier to deal with.

After all, the boy's body was in a normal state, and therefore, if Tommy was able to return, then his mind would be able to deal with it very quickly so as not to start a new panic attack in an unaffected body. Tommy sometimes tends to use that strategy to fix his condition. 

A minute later, his breathing is finally even, and the boy himself has calmed down.

So, the first thing Tommy needs to do now is think through what he had just got to know. And therefore it’s better for the boy to do it inside his own room. 

Standing like this on the threshold -as he dies right now- is not only creepy as a shit, but also raises questions not only from passers-by, but also from Phil's crows. Seriously, these little shits are like on the human level of consciousness!

So, yes. In general, that's why Tommy needs to move on, yeah. At least just shift, moving a lot isn't really required-

Taking a deep breath, exhaling it. Tommy clears his head for a time being and steps inside, unlocking the door as loudly as possible.

He brushes away his family's(?) greetings, making a weary grimace and yawning here and there.

“I've been like- scrolling Twitter all night so I'ma head out to my room where I'll sleep till tomorrow evening, aight?” Tommy came up with an excuse as he went upstairs. 

“Alright Toms, good night.” Wilbur answered him with a very warm smile that almost left a warm feeling in Tommy's chest. But the boy quickly cut it off with a simple nod in return. With a usual whining, he headed upstairs.

Entering his room and quickly shutting the latch, Tommy finally stopped the performance.

Throwing his facade, the boy slides down, leaning on the door.

Ok. Good.

His family may or may not be villains.

There's a chance. 

A possibility.

Although-

Yes. They are definitely some kind of villain. This does not mean that they will turn out to actually be-

Who is he trying to fool? Himself? 

No. Denying the case certainly won't help in any way...

Wilbur is Orpheus. Will is Siren, as the villain was called by the people. Tommy was literally just making his brother comparison to a mind-controlling villain and-

Tommy loudly exhaled. 

No, no, no. No panic attacks, everything is fine. Everything is just fucking awesome! In fact, that's great! Yea. If you keep lying to yourself, you will start believing, that's what he read about once. 

Technoblade is Prothesalius. Blood God. Man was called the most cruel villain. Yes, pfft. The very thing that Tommy's completely uninjured freshy little old teenage mind needed.

AND-

Phil.

Oh dear Gods, Philza Minecraft. Crows chasing his very steps. Man's terrifying aura of a seasoned villain. And fucking withering too.

Tommy's world began to crumble again. Spinning around his head. And he thought he had finally found someone different, someone hitting close to home...

His family are villains. Supervillains , you be more specifics. The leaders and founders of  arguably the most terrifying of any villainous organizations, The Syndicate .

Should he be afraid? For his life, health, the remaining pieces of the mind?

Should the boy be afraid of them ? Are they just the same as everyone else? And so did Tommy just start enjoying life...

What will they do when they find out that Tommy has revealed their secret?

Will they demand silence from him? By force? Or forced to obey? 

Would they kill Tommy? Or maybe forced to become a villain with them?

Oh Prime what may they do if found out about Tommy's powers-

No, no, for fuck`s sake no!

They... They're not like this-

They're not!  

Tommy believes in it by heart. Or- at least he wants to. 

He-

Tommy needs to sleep.

Yes, this is a good decision. With a fresh mind, thoughts are way more coherent.

Tommy turned his gaze to the bed.

“I'm definitely not up to checkpoints tonight.” he whispered, getting up and heading to bed, not even bothering to change his clothes.

Tommy did not even notice how much this situation exhausted him, and therefore right at the moment when his head touched the pillow, the boy was instantly out like a light.

Chapter Text

Tommy woke up late at night.

Yes, his regime is now officially broken…But what did he expect though? 

The boy woke up pretty rested, which is really good. He will need all the strength he can get to think about what he should do next. 

Tommy remembered everything he learned and opened his journal. He decided to put all of the known details into one puzzle.

Will said “As Jester predicted, this is indeed happening…”

Predicted . Like- The guy just made a guess, he's good at analyzing stuff, or is that his..?

"You know full well that such predictions of his can almost certainly be trusted."

It's... Whatever it is, it's definitely something Tommy can think about a lot in the future. It might be his power too. 

"He is our ally, and we have been working side by side for years.” Techno's voice sounded in his head one more time. 

Alright. His family- Minecrafts . 

He... What does he thinks of them now?

The boy's first kinda subconscious reaction was to assume the worst. He is already used to expecting the same thing, having spent that many years in the foster system.

Yes, Tommy is well aware of his traumas. However, this is not something he can easily control. He cannot at all, actually. It is only fair that the boy assumes what may be expected of him by his guardians. Obey, do good. Be a perfect kid at the best homes, servant at a quite ok ones- And… Just try to fucking survive at the least lucky one.

Although ... If these six months spent by Tommy being adopted -not fostered, adopted- by Minecrafts have told the boy something, is that his new family absolutely does not fit into any category known to him before, which Tommy has already become so accustomed to in all the years of his life. (Which is already…. Long. Probably is around double the amount of his physical age.) 

They never raised a hand at him, not even a finger, apart from brotherly mocking and silly fights he had with Wilbur and Technoblade. They respected him, loved him. Tommy finally got what he had only seen in movies before. A real family .

But... Huh, yes. How much the boy hates that 'but' .

But now Tommy has absolutely NO confidence in knowing anything about his family. They fooled him long enough to cover up the fact of being a fucking supervillains . Now the boy can't quite trust his own shadow. He should be careful around Minecrafts. Much more careful.

BUT-

Tommy can't stop thinking about the good side of Minecrafts. Fuck, he's torn between his heart and mind. He loves them but- He's scared as fuck of them now.

He... Yes, now Tommy is afraid of his own family.

And now, after reflecting on it... There were so many times when Tommy could've figured it out himself! For example, the most obvious one would be…

Tommy was getting ready for a difficult exam. Of course, preparation never hurts, so he is preparing! ... For- about 10 minutes right before it in the hallway.

Blame the boy for this, but he cheats on all of the exams. Tommy already spent too many nerve cells on school in his past. He doesn't want to go through the hassle of trying to be an A student any more.

Therefore, Tommy's preparation for the exam goes something like this: 1. Take an exam. 2. Get results and correct answers. 3. Write them down in his journal. 4. Go back to the beginning of the loop. 5. Memories the answers. 6. Make a cheat sheet. 7. Use power to distract everyone when required and hide the cheat sheet in the blind spots of the cameras.

Answers to such exams are nowhere to be obtained without bribes. The boy goes to an elite school, so the chances of cheating are almost zero. Very few had managed to cheat, and even those did it primarily because of their abilities. Tommy hasn't told anyone about his scheme -duh- which is why everyone thinks he's a diligent yet lucky student, since he tends to have great scores only on important tests. Naives.

So the exam has passed, the school day now ended and Tommy was free. In fact, he can do whatever he wants and can spit on any rules at the moment since everything that he will do in this loop is meaningless anyway, because he will restart it.

So Tommy decided to go and spend all his pocket money at the best candy shop in the city.

However, on his way there... Tommy had found himself being right in the middle of a battle between The Blood God and some random hero who's name Tommy didn't know. 

A building not far from him suddenly exploded and surprised Tommy was affected by the blast. After that the random shrapnel hit him in the head.

The boy remembers very little from that moment due to a concussion, which he most likely received at that moment. He remembered something for sure. Pain, fear, confusion.

When Tommy opened his eyes, disoriented from a faint that supposedly lasted at least several minutes, the boy struggled to his feet leaning against the wall and started looking around.

Protesilaus raised his sword over the hero, who was pressed against the wall. But at that very moment another hero threw him away, apparently with his ability. 

The Blood God was pushed back and just began to rise while the heroes were busy with each other.

At that moment, the villain's head randomly turned towards Tommy who was silently standing and looking at the scene that was happening around him. 

Tommy was able to feel that look aimed at him, coming from under the boar skull mask.

The villain began to act in a weird way. At first he froze for a few seconds, but then convulsively got to his feet and ran- Ran right towards Tommy! 

The boy felt pure animal horror. Before his body even had a chance to react -and do that in the form of a panic attack- Tommy instantly reversed the loop.

Being back, he asked Techno to pick him up. Fortunately, there was a reason to leave school. He had a severe migraine. Apparently the result to his present body of a supposed concussion during the loop.

Techno drove Tommy home, and Tommy had to take the exam the other day. He decided not to risk meeting the Blood God again, and therefore he paid for the answers to the exam this time.

However, no one forbade memorizing the answers and returning to the moment right before buying the answers! He's a genius, yes. 

So just like that, Tommy avoided the horror and even found a way to effectively cheat! 

At home after looping back Tommy didn't get to see any incidents related to The Syndicate on the news, which normally should have covered all the front pages. 

However, at that moment, Tommy was surrounded by care of his family, and he brushed out this fact ignoring and blissfully forgetting in the end.

An idiot he is. 

Although, analyzing the villain's movements at that moment...

He looked rather- startled and most likely acted instinctively, running to protect his loved one... At least that's what Tommy desperately wants to believe right now that he knows Techno's and the rest of his family's secret.

Tommy spirals. He cannot think straight . After a singular thought several others come at once, some of which are absolutely opposite to the first.

Fuck it.

Tommy... Yes. Tommy will also put himself into this hero-villain world, keeping it a secret from Minecrafts. The boy will be able to learn more about The Syndicate -his family in particular- to understand the motives and goals that the group pursues.

They also mentioned the difficulty that will come with some of the heroes being sent from The Capital to Manburg.

The young blonde will look after them from afar. So that if- when everything is revealed, they won't be able to blame him for not doing anything, for not helping them in any way before.

Tommy really has too much work yet to do.

Actually... Yes, Tommy understands that a lot of people might -to put it really mildly- not like the current life in this country. He is no exception. Rather the opposite. 

Only socially high and wealthy members of society can boast of a more or less decent existence, to which now -thanks to his fucking luck that works only after dozens of horrible things happening, due to the lack of it, to be adopted by Minecrafts- the boy also belongs to. 

But, Tommy never liked recalling his life before Minecraft's adoption… Even though he values each memory as a lesson. 

Tommy has died before.

And way more than only once! 

Each death taught the boy something. Be it something not big, for example, problem areas of the city, but sometimes even things much more serious.

Tommy highlights 3 deaths in particular. Yea, only 3, if you count one series of consecutive deaths as a single, given that they all occurred in the same loop in which Tommy was stuck for a time being with no way out.

These three deaths taught him three lessons. Which the boy still comprehends, supplements as they appear, follows them. 

Tommy based his rules on what he had learned from these lessons, the formulation of which is now at last starts being quite stable.

The lessons imbedded on the back of Tommy's journal are:

1.1. Life is unfair, 1.2. and you cannot change everything throughout the loops without losing your mind in the process. 1.3. You are not particularly a good person (and that's okay). 1.4. Always set checkpoints.

2.1. Be careful with your checkpoints, limit their use. Set them only at important moments and after a sufficiently long period of time. 2.2. Don't trust - verify. Get ready to get hit from the back. 2.3. The world is gray. No one is 100% good or evil, so you can afford not to be a saint. 2.4. You have acquired a number of useful skills for survival on the streets, try to never forget this experience. 

3.1. Set not only checkpoints, but also regular loops for important events. 3.2. Do not push beyond the limits, you have a second power. 3.3. The butterfly effect is real, and is a terrible force. 3.4. Sometimes, you pay a price too high for crossing the limits of your normal possibilities. Try not to cross the line.

Tommy's first death occurred when the boy was 7 years old.

The blonde's parents abandoned him at birth, so he was taken in by his first foster family.

These people were probably the best of Tommy's parents up until the age of 15 when he met Minecrafts. They had 4 more children outside the boy, with him being the oldest of them.

Tommy grew up as a really happy child.

But moving onto the boy's last memory.

His foster parents received a strange call and with tearful faces bought plane tickets.

They took all the children with them. Tommy was glad that they were flying -as he thought back then- on a cool family vacation. Why else would they be on the plane, right?

The boy sat quietly in his seat. He got to sit a bit away from the whole family, because the boy was the oldest and could look after himself. Tommy was playing with his favorite toy, the cow plush Henry. 

Suddenly, the lights turned off without any warning and the whole world around Tommy went into darkness, after which it began to shake really terribly.

The boy gripped the plush even tighter. What's happening ?

But before Tommy got to understand the situation, complete darkness swayed him away. 

Opening his eyes, Tommy distantly realized that he was awake now. There was noise in his ears and through a blurred vision Tommy hardly was able to see anything. He was definitely outside, considering how bright it was. 

Tommy tried to move but found that he was barely able to do so.

He was sitting in a puddle of something warm, sticky and viscous.

Tommy's vision finally started to focuse and he was able to see his surroundings.

There was real devastation around. Turning his head to the right, the boy was able to see dead bodies. Someone else was alive and-

Alive and screaming in agony.

The boy's hearing returned, leaving only a little static behind. It was horrible. 

The boy did not know -didn't get a chance to know- how to properly react to this situation.

Not immediately, Tommy discovered that among the screams and wheezing of people around was his own too.

After bowing his head, Tommy saw an iron beam sticking right out of his own stomach.

Oh.

So that's what's going on. A plane crash.

And Tommy-

And Tommy dies. He is dying. 

“Huh.” The little guy murmured right before the world turned black again.

"Forever. " The boy's last thought was then.

Turns out, he didn't die . 

Or… No. Actually, he did die. But right after that he witnessed his own birth for the second time. 

As the boy had noticed, it is way more difficult to think in the newborn, and even toddler's body. 

But the older he got, the more opportunities opened up to the boy.

Naturally, he started walking way earlier than other children. As soon as his body was formed, he began to relearn everything.  Holding objects, only crawl at first, and even walk soon after. 

The boy did not dare to start coherently -or in any way, actually- speak for a long time. It... It would be too out of character. 

Tommy is a baby right now, Innit? 

And it's not just a rebirth the boy read about in a picture book once. Some little silly fairy tale. He saw the book on the shelf even right now!

Tommy seems to- to have gone back in time .

Same family, same Tommy, exactly the same body, except for one funky detail.

A really strange birthmark appears directly on the boy's belly. Just like scar.

Tommy really is dead. But he- He came back! 

Tommy went back in time!

This realization caught up with the guy when he was already around 3 years old. Yes, all of the brain work up to the very point was extremely limited due to the underdvelopment. Tommy really didn't like being little again. He's a big man! And everyone else will see it, one day or another. 

But how exactly did he get back?

Thus the boy learned about his powers! 

That's the nature of this world. Usually, within the first ten years of life, in kids spontaneously -but more often than not it is provoked to some degree- acquire their ability.

It seems like the boy's power was triggered by his death. It's kinda sad, actually...

No. Tommy is a very big man. Tommy certainly didn't cry at this realization and the coming memories from his death. This is a pure lie.

Tommy began to secretly test his power. It turns out that it can open and closing… Something.

The boy did not immediately understand this. But when Tommy noticed that he could come in , he tried it.

For some time he did not understand what exactly was happening until he looked up at the clock.

Holy Prime! He goes back in time!

Searching in secret from his foster parents for information about the incidents on the Internet, Tommy found something that fit the description quite well. Time loops.

That's how Tommy began to call the time channels he opens.

These time loops did not last quite long, and more often than not were accompanied by a slight headache for Tommy. They closed on themselves after a while, finding their limits. Plus, Tommy couldn't open more than two without getting really strong pain in the head, soul and even in the whole body when trying to open more.

It is said that training in the usage of powers allows to strengthen them, stretch the limits and improve them in general.

From that moment on, Tommy took a deep dive in his new life. It was another chance given to the boy by the Fate herself. 

However, in one of his tests, the boy went too far by trying to open about ten loops at once.

Coming to consciousness after that moment was terrible. Adults and younger children were crowded around the boy.

But, he remembered something happening to him somewhere outside of reality. 

He was visited by... Some woman? More like a little girl, barely a teen. Her voice is hardly lower than his own, the voice of a five-year-old boy at the time.

She told him that there were consequences to overusing such a great power, and that Tommy must be held accountable now and henceforth.

After what happened, Tommy wasn't able to find some of his memories before the first death. He barely remembered his first life before 6 now.

Huh. Weird.

Apparently, he better be more careful with his abilities from now on. 

A little bit after that the boy discovered checkpoints . Thought by Fate -the very goddess, that Tommy calls so now- that life is unfair, Tommy began to set new checkpoints as often as possible. First as a training, second as a precaution. One can die at any given moment, so it's not really surprising for the boy to want to play it safe. 

Tommy began to understand more. No wonder, since he is kinda already almost twice his physical age. However, the boy's behavior has changed too. 

He... He is much older than the rest of the kids his age on a mental level.

Of course, his thoughts are too childish for his liking. Body and mind interact much more than Tommy wants it to. However, the path to these thoughts is way more twisted than should be for any other person his age. 

That's what trauma does to a person in the early years of his life, apparently? Tommy will never forget what happened during the flight on an airplane and will not step foot in this nightmarish thing ever again in his life. Nope. No one will make him. 

So, the boy's seventh birthday crept up imperceptibly, and not long after that so did the incident.

Tommy now understood why his foster family urgently had to buy tickets for the next plane and fly to another country.

The boy accidentally overheard the phone conversation of his foster mother. A close relative was dying from some form of disease.

Indeed an emergency. However, Tommy already promised to himself to never step foot on that plane again. Even if other planes are safe, THIS one definitely is not . 

The boy started a loop.

For several months worth of tries combined, the boy tried to save his foster family from taking that stupid flight. 

After having enough with useless tries, unable to stand it, Tommy finally confessed his power.

Yes, it saved everyone because they bought other tickets to the plane that was safe . 

However, upon his return, Tommy was handed over to the authorities. And that was in return to him turning his guard down, opening himself and fucking trusting someone.

This is what happens when an extremely rare and useful ability is found in a child. It's... It's terrible, really. The boy had several paths from now on, the best of which was to become a hero under captivity, not having a choice to reject, working and being under control. 

Even to this point, at the memory of such a betrayal by the first and only -up to meeting Minecrafts- people whom the boy considered family, tears are forming in his eyes.

Fortunately, the boy quickly escaped from the hands of the authorities when he found out more about the situation by returning to the beginning of the loop. But still, the betrayal left a mark, affecting the boy. These people knew perfectly well what they were signing Tommy for. They cared about their finances more than Tommy's literal life . You see, there's huge fines for hiding individuals with such abilities as his own.

From that moment, the boy's hatred for the foster system and the entire Essempi's government as a whole took root.

This was Tommy's last return to that loop.

He didn't find any other way to stop the adults from dying. And- Not that Tommy was now able to- Or- or not even wanted to save this couple.

Tommy doesn't have to save everyone ! Nor is he physically able to.

The only thing the boy still decided to do was to save the lives of at least his foster siblings, who had enough bad luck to be stuck in that family with him. Fortunately, by this time Tommy had long ago found a way to make adults leave all the children at home. They themselves were quite already inclined to such a solution in loop zero, apparently. Therefore, the simple conversation was more than enough. 

Tommy suggested for them to be looked after by an aunt from his foster father's side, and both of them were quick to agree with the boy on that.

When these two people were about to leave, all the children gathered to see them off. Tommy was no exception. However, what was the exception in his case is what exactly he said. His younger siblings were sad, some were crying or smiling when they were reassured that ‘mommy and daddy’ would be back soon. Tommy didn't do any of that.

During all these long farewells, he stood somewhat far, keeping a distance. He stood with his arms being crossed over his chest and a neutral expression laid on his face.

However, when the couple was about to leave, Tommy leaned back from the wall and put on the most spiteful and creepy smile that he was capable of.

“Have a nice flight !” He said, making an emphasis on the last word.

Noticing how they flinched at him after that, Tommy didn't bother to emphasis a small laugh coming out of his twisted grin, Then he turned around and walked away a bit slower than his usual speed. 

He did not turn back for a bit, showing that he meant for this to be a goodbye.

The boy looked at the subsequent message about the crash of the plane with an empty look, not feeling at the death of his foster parents anything inside. 

Anything apart- Hurt from the still fresh wound of their betrayal. Betrayal of the ones he tried so hard to save life`s of. The one`s he hates with all his guts now.

“I am not a particularly good person.” The boy understood with a smile. Not that he was too sad about it.

Tommy had a lot to think about when planning to become a vigilante.

Yes, in oppose to his family, Tommy understands what he is capable of.

Kill people, do crimes... This isn't for him.

He can if necessary, or if someone really deserves it, but...

The boy is well aware that no matter how much he refuses it, but deep inside him is a soul that fits the role of a hero much more better than a villain role. Hence why Tommy is a vigilante.

If Tommy decides become a hero, Minecrafts will be notified about the fact, as his guardians. And the prospect of fighting with his own family does not appeal to Tommy at all. 

And what even might happen to him when the boy actually decides to voluntarily surrender to the hated government...

Tommy doesn't want to think about it. Again, that's why s vigilante it is. 

These are free, cheerful and quite pleasant -as for surprise- lads, highly respected and appreciated by ordinary people.

A perfect fit for Tommy. 

The boy borrowed some money from both twins. Enough to buy decent things, but not enough for them to notice. And then he began to think about a suit for such goals he puts himself.

Without any questions, he definitely needs a new watch. 

The watch that Tommy wears on a regular basis is dear to him, as it is far from a cheap gift from Phil for his birthday. Tommy would not like to lose or break them during his nightly -most likely not only nightly- adventures. So far he has bought 4 pairs of quite durable ones. Under the right leg is where the first one -the widest- goes, a pair on the left hand, and one on the right hand.

The watch is the most important element in his costume, due to Tommy's synchronization with it.

The boy gets tangled with his kinda chaotic loops. It's not so easy to navigate in each one when you already have more than three open. That's why Tommy synchronizes specific loops with specific watches in order to avoid sleep-ups. The least he wants to worry about is going back to way earlier than intended. 

Also the boy, in contrast to completely binding a loop which is scaled as one loop on the clock, can make several marks at once about the beginning of certain loops on the same watch. 

These look like a holographic timer that can show up at any point of time, requiring only the clock itself to be in working condition. However, even if this watch breaks -or at any other given time if he simply wants to- Tommy can always put exactly the same notes on other watches at the same time.

For this purpose, Tommy decided to choose the top watch on his left hand, its the only one of all four that is electronic, and therefore sync for notes even better. 

The most important thing is done, and his little old savings and stolen -borrowed- money are almost over.

Without thinking twice, Tommy borrowed from Phil too. 

The next in his list will be the rest of the costume. Tommy plans to become a vigilante, not to simply go out for a walk. Therefore he needs to choose what exactly he will wear as a vigilante and only a vigilante, so of course he needs to purchase brand new clothes for exactly this purpose. 

Preferably with a plural. And stylish. Tommy needs to be recognizable if he wants to make a name for himself, right? 

However, Tommy still decided to choose something simple. It's quite nondescript -which is good, actually- and easily replaceable. What's even better for him, is that he'll be more difficult to identify by his taste in clothing if he chooses something like that.

On the one hand, according to such logic, it’s better not to bother with the costume at all and just wear whatever he'll be up to. But on the other hand, he would have bigger problems in hiding his identity without making a stable and clear alternative persona.

Tommy couldn't quite come up with a special twist, so he decided to wear a red bandana under his reinforced brown hoodie.

In fact, every other distinguishing feature that comes to his mind is already connected in one way or another to his personal 'brand' he's built during all his long life. Tommy could've used it in any other given situation, but with his secret identity. The boy must first and foremost fool his own family , and therefore he must go against his own beliefs and quirks.

Tommy also settled on simple black sneakers, blue jeans and a plain black mask with gloves.

Vigilante look is ready! 

Now, Tommy only had to collect his thoughts and make the first move. 

Chapter Text

After the death of his first foster parents, Tommy was drifted in the system for a long time. For a while he lived in an orphanage, some families fostered him. However, everyone usually returned the boy even before the passing of the first six months from the moment he was taken.

Each of these families wanted something from their 'acquisition', from the boy they took pity on and 'welcomed into the family'.

Tommy was not the kind of prey who would so easily give the predators what they wanted.

During this period of time Tommy, surprisingly for himself, discovered a second ability. 

At first, Tommy thought he was imagining it even seeing things when he didn't see his own reflection in the mirror for a second, but during the second spontaneous use of power, the others around him also noticed that Tommy was visibly missing for a couple of seconds.

The boy failed to keep it a secret when several people had already seen it with their own eyes. Therefore, he decided to use this power openly.

Tommy shifted his focus to this ability when he noticed that he had reached his limits -at the time- with loops.

Although the boy uses the distraction for show, Tommy also decided to hide the attraction part of it, as well as the loops. Fortunately, it's use is almost unnoticeable if used in the right environment and at the right time.

And so, after about 4 years of Tommy being thrown from one place to another, the boy has found himself in another family, in which he finally stayed for a long time, having lived for almost 3 years. However, it's not like he liked that kind of life at all. Yet there were no alternatives. This system doesn't care about kids at all.

He can't do anything against this system. Tommy is just a little kid -even if he calls himself a big man- in a huge system that is supposed to protect kids, but ironically in actuality does everything to hurt them as much as possible.

Why else do you think this country has one of the highest crime rates of all?

Although, Tommy is no longer surprised by anything after all that he had to endure in his life, which was much more longer and way more difficult than it might seem at the first glance at the boy.

The second Tommy's death, and the second lesson learned by the boy. All this happened in this family.

Probably, they decided to adopt the boy precisely because of his ability.

Why? Why would these people need someone like Tommy? It's quite obvious now . Money, a free worker... And Tommy's ability made him an excellent candidate for a future member of the dark side of the powered world. Perhaps their goal at some point was to bring the boy up in the criminal/villain ranks. Not that Tommy succumbed to them anyway.

For the first month Tommy even almost liked these people. They did a great job of pretending to be adequate, not bad people.

Yes, even then the house was, of course, not absolutely perfect. However, their behavior seemed rather intriguing and promising to Tommy. The boy almost managed to feel a sweet and good family at first glance. 

This  shut show quickly stopped when the adaptation period ended. The façade skillfully put up by these two finally fell. Tommy quickly learned the real side of these people, which they usually hide for the others. 

They were high-ranking members of some kind of a criminal gang, one way or another connected with drugs and other illegal substances, which Tommy does not understand at all. Tommy couldn't quite see the whole picture at that time.

The head of this family was a woman. Her ability was to create illusions. As far as Tommy noticed, she tried to use her ability when she was holding a lit pipe, a cigar, or in extreme cases, a simple cigarette. It seems like the tobacco smoke was the woman's synchronization.

With her illusions in the future, she hid everything that happens in the house out of what's normal and of course Tommy's whole condition at the periodic checks of the foster agency. This allowed the couple not to care at all about what would happen to the boy, and whether anyone would notice.

Tommy first became their errand boy, on which sometimes, in a fit of anger, these people would take their emotions out. In both emotional and physical abuse. 

The more time passed, the more often these punishments and almost direct torture of Tommy occurred.

At first, the woman slapped her face, forced to stand in a variety of poses in which the human body should not be located, and laughed at the torment of the boy. When he was lucky, she just gave Tommy new tasks. Nothing impossible, but they made Tommy exhausted, which led to Tommy's fatigue and, accordingly, new punishments, due to the boy's inevitable mistakes later on. Sometimes, a woman extinguished cigarettes on the wrists of the boy. This is probably the most ingrained in his memory.

“Oh come on. First you cannot finish the SIMPLEST request, and now can't stand a single burn of a cigarette? How pathetic you are, little BRAT.” The woman said, pressing harder on the cigarette, burning the still unhealed burn on Tommy's skin harder. 

In this regard, the usual beatings from the man were much more preferable to Tommy. With him, the boy immediately knew what the man needed or wanted. Go there, bring that, or don't even bother, but just come and obediently present your face for a fist. The less you resist, the easier it will go.

He didn't like something? Get on your knees and pray. Forgiven? Happy day! Most of your limbs will be intact, Tommy. Lucky you.

The boy did not like the mindset that he developed at all (In the future, the boy will spend a huge amount of time working through his traumas with a psychotherapist. And far from all such sessions -rather the contrary- took place in the current timeline). However, there was nothing here for him to do at the moment. 

And after a year of an already terrible enough life, something slowly began to change.

With each week, the financial condition of the boy's 'foster parents' became more and more noticeable to be becoming poorer. 

At first, the changes were minimal. Tommy did not even understand what they were connected with. However, the beatings became more frequent, which could not but strain the boy.

One day Tommy was called as usual. The teenager at that time was very tired from constant beatings, humiliation, and they even began to feed him less.

“Go to the streets and do not come back unless you have money or something valuable enough” was said to the boy.

When asked about how Tommy should do it, he was told “Improvise. Steal, beg, get a job... Spin as you like, I honestly don't care. But by the end of the day, the money would be on the cabinet. Or else…”

And so began the worst two years of the boy's life.

 So yeah, Tommy had to steal. He never liked it, but even with the use of his ability -which greatly simplifies life in this matter- Tommy could not earn enough from begging, so he just literally had to. Very few in Manburg shared what little they had. And the rich are all rotten to the core souls who would never bother to help the poor (though this statement will be revised by Tommy in the future, after he starts living with Minecrafts).

The thieves' life taught him a lot. The unspoken rules of the street. Necessary movements and techniques. Hardening and training of the body and organism. Few known paths used in the circle of both criminals and vigilantes. 

Let alone a bunch of situations and the experience he gained hardened the boy.

Not everything Tommy learned quickly. Quite the opposite, really. The first few months were a lot of trying and failing and trying over and over again. Just as everything in his life goes. 

Many times Tommy was caught and even more times he escaped capture. With both normal and avoiding the situation itself by loops ways. Not instantly, of course. 

Both the vigilantes and the heroes were already beginning to notice that little -quite agile- thief with golden curls and a black homemade mask from the first piece of fabric he found covering his entire face, but Tommy tried not to show to anyone, which allowed him to go into the ranks of faceless low-class criminals. All the rabble of Manburg 

in their glory. Tommy purposely didn't steal anything more valuable than he needed.

In fact... The boy has always had it much easier than all those who have only one attempt. 

Here's what Tommy appreciated about his position: He has the right to make mistakes. Tommy might be wrong. He could afford it . And, if necessary, he can make the very same mistakes again and again. But after that, there will always be a follow-up: Tommy always gets up after every fall. No matter how badly he fucked up, Tommy can start over, fix the situation, or if he has an early enough loop, prevent it from happening altogether.

Not even death can stop Tommy, never could, never would be able to. Yes, it would be foolish to assume that Tommy never died during his time on the streets. He did, and suffered a lot during this. Yet he still found himself in bed, albeit shaking with fear, perhaps in the middle of a panic attack, but Tommy returned . Tommy would come back and start again. From scratch. Over and over and over again. Prime , that's fucked. 

At that time, Tommy had to use his ability every day, and in large quantities, but he tried not to overdo, taught by his previous mistakes.

Up to one case.

Tommy were setting his checkpoints very often. Death often happens, and so taking in consideration a chance, or Prime forbid intentional murder, no one is safe. Especially not Tommy, practically living on the streets as of lately. And in fact... The streets have lately been much friendlier than the place that the boy is forced to call home . Ugh. Even the tongue does not turn to do it. 

This situation was no exception. Tommy literally set a checkpoint right before standing out of bed in the morning. It is better for a boy to be in a safe, familiar and comfortable place -for as much as it can be- when he wakes up immediately after death, whatever it may be. Considering that Tommy had been feeling extremely sick the last couple of days, the checkpoint was necessary. 

The boy apparently managed to catch a cold. Fortunately, he feels better than during his last illness, and therefore, although with great difficulty, he is able to do his job.

Or it seemed so to him.

At the moment when the boy was leaving his room as quietly as possible, he was called for. He immediately straightened up and lowered himself from tiptoe to the straight feet. It no longer makes sense to occupy the least amount of space and make the least amount of sound when he has already been noticed. Might as well chill for a moment. 

Tommy silently approached the man, who had obviously drunk much more than he was supposed to.

This couple went much deeper into their habits. They even seem to be addicted to their own product they sell. How ironic.

“Not only did you broke the yesterday’s curfew by sneaking into the house after midnight, but you also had the audacity to bring in so little?!” It was the man's words, turning into a scream as he rose from his chair.

Everything else was in the fog. The boy is even sometimes glad to forget such moments. Clearly nothing good was happening, judging by the throbbing pain in his head -is it just a bump, or…?- and the cutting pain in his back.

One glance at his surroundings was enough for Tommy to determine his location. Not that he can be anywhere else either way. 

Logstedshire.

Tommy decided to call so the old dusty store room, in which he always found himself after being sentenced as being 'especially guilty'. 

Tommy can spend either just a day or even more than a week here. He never liked this place at the beginning, yet he taught himself to even kind of love it now. At least here nobody touched him, Tommy could rest, heal his wounds, and he doesn't have to go out of his way for a few jingling coins.

Seriously, he seems to have been cured from a but of claustrophobia he had back then. He's completely fine with such places now. 

He may even cure his sickness during his stay here. Not bad, actually. Tommy will gladly accept a little rest time granted to him.

Why Logsteadshire, you may ask?

There is a lot of dust in the closet, strange or broken pieces of furniture and household appliances, as well as boxes with a wide variety of contents. In one of these, Tommy has managed to find a real treasure: magazines, old newspapers, random books and even a few comics! It's not much, yet he will take anything. The boy re-read all this more than a hundred times each, but it will do for killing time. Sometimes he secretly snitches new flashlights here -he needs them to somehow be able to read in this unlit place- and sometimes even new books or comics he spends almost all of saved money on.

Although Tommy is allegedly 'homeschooled', no one, of course, teaches the boy. And- Partly Tommy is glad not to go to school. This is a terrible place, and whoever came up with the idea to put a bunch of teenagers with different views, interests and from different social groups in one place, where everyone is brainwashed and tortured with unnecessary classes, has long been burning in hell. At least that's what Tommy hopes for.

However, not going to school means not getting the knowledge you need in life either. And given the absence of any teacher in the boy's life and his basically working in the streets mode, which leaves no time for self-study... Yea, Tommy had even more advantages from being in Logstedshire.

One of the first magazines Tommy ever took out of the pile -hence why this memory stuck with him- was about beautiful places with which nature proves that despite the actions of men, it will still continue to live, no matter what. Just like Tommy himself does… You see why he loves that magazine now? 

It was there that Tommy saw the place once called Logstedshire. It is located near Manburg, next to the ocean. 

As far as it's known, part of the L'Manburg rebellion was sent here, exiled from the city now again belonging to The Essempi.

This part of the remaining soldiers was led by his namesake, Thomas Innit. Judging by the photographs and drawings from that time, there were many explosions and arsons around the wooden walls built by his people, eventually hitting the main building too. 

Although this part, which shows that Thomas still suffered even after already being exiled, does not fit with Tommy's experience, there is one thing that is the same in their situation: the exile itself. Tommy is also forced to stay in one place, even if he doesn't mind it now, back then he surely did mind it.

And because of the beautiful picture that this place is being now, and because of the fact that his namesake experienced the same, Tommy chose an identical name for this place.

Sometimes, Tommy pretends to be on this beautiful sandy beach, surrounded by his friends and brothers by battle, that he will never trade for anything else. Although they are not in an ideal place, they yet go through this shit together. And someday... Someday they'll be saved.

This fantasy often calms the boy, and therefore he decided now to drown in his imagination for a bit. 

Tommy is sick, and that leads to that as soon as he got comfortable enough, he immediately fell asleep.

Thus began the cursed loop in which Tommy found himself stuck.

  Loop zero was quite normal at first.

Waking up, Tommy found a bowl with some kind of soup inside and a small bottle of water both sitting next to the locked door.

And here's the worst part of being in Logstedshire: the great lack of food, especially water.

They usually feed Tommy once a day if he's lucky. And they give water only once, or maybe twice during the entire time Tommy has been here, and therefore the boy needs to save every ounce of what little he has here.

However... the boy's throat is tormented by a great thirst. Tommy never liked to be sick, it's terrible.

Suppressing the desire to say goodbye to a good half of his supply of water and drink it in one go, Tommy decided to take a bowl of soup instead.

As the boy thought, this crap is already cold as a shit. Well, Tommy can't complain. At least they gave him something , thanks for that alone.

Nothing out of the ordinary happened for the first few days. Tommy habitually spent his time in Logsteadshire, reading magazines, rummaging through boxes looking for anything the boy hadn't seen yet -spoiler: he didn't find anything new- and sleeping. The boy knows that when you're sick, you need to rest more and also eat a lot. Oh and hydrate too. Welp- He was not lucky with the last two, but he at least can finally get enough sleep. Not only does he feel better now, but even the circles under his eyes subside a little.

It may seem surprising how Tommy navigates through day and night, given that he is in a locked room with no windows or lights. In fact, everything is simple!

Although Tommy is forced to give his proceeds to his adoptive parents, the boy still keeps a very little amount of money out of the big catches for himself. He spends this money on useful things for his work, new flashlights and books for Logsteadshire, or simply on extra food when he is not fed enough at home.

Not that long ago, tired of being isolated from the outside world while in Logsteadshire, Tommy decided to get the cheapest watch from the same shop where he buys flashlight batteries.

Now he knows not only if it`s the day or night out, but also the exact time! Now he can tell how much he has slept. The boy likes to have an account of his surroundings, it's a little comforting, and it also gives him some kind of control over the situation, which the boy desperately needs at any doses, even that small.

So while the first days were normal, on the fourth day something completely unexpected happened to the boy.

Tommy heard the knock on the front door. Yes, the walls are quite thick, but by making himself comfortable by the door, with his ear next to the barely existing gap, Tommy can at least hear a little of what is going on in the house.

At first, he heard the rough voice of a drunken man, obviously unwilling to get up from his seat in order to open the door.

However, after a few seconds everything went quiet.

Maybe there was some kind of dialogue Tommy wasn't able to hear from over there, but even so it was on a notably lowered tone.

Then Tommy heard the sound of quick footsteps on heels. Apparently, the woman was walking right past the Logsteadshire towards the main entrance.

After a few moments, screams were heard, and immediately after- Were gunshots .

Tommy shuddered, leaning back from the door.

What- What had just happened?

In spite of the bewildered Tommy, the world around continued to crumble. The boy heard multiple steps, on the verge of running. Loud claps, blows, shots.

“What the fuck?” Accidentally escaped from the comprehending situation Tommy. The boy quickly realized his mistake, covering his mouth with his hands with a sharp exhale.

The footsteps that had been heard right outside the door stopped.

"Did you hear that?" Tommy heard someone's bass voice from behind the door.

“Yes, I heard. It sounded like... A child?”

Fuck, fuck, shit. This... This is not good. Very - Very bad . 

Tommy began to carefully crawl back, trying not to touch anything in his path.

“Where is that little bastard?”

Tommy let out a shuddering breath as his hand bumped into the dictionary he stupidly left on the floor but kept moving, keeping his eyes locked on the door.

He will hide in all this rubbish, everything is fine . Now, Tommy just has to carefully get to the wall-

And at this point, just a little earlier than expected, Tommy hits something with his back.

Everything would be fine, according to the plan of the room in the boy's head, there should be a wall. However, turning around, Tommy finds that he has hit and loosened the tower of boxes. Leaving Tommy no more time to react than to dodge the trajectory, the upper box collapsed.

It's... Tommy sure it just couldn't have been quiet.

And the boy was right. Of course he was, he's always right.

“There!” One of the men outside said.

Next comes the breaking of the door, which Tommy, who barely had time to hide inside one of the boxes with clothes, could only guess based on the sounds he heard.

At this point, Tommy was very pleased with his small stature and size.

However, he was quickly discovered.

The fucking box was the only one open besides the fallen, duh. Of course it will be suspicious!

Tommy was quickly found by turning over the box in which he was hiding, along with all the contents including the boy himself.

A bullet to the head and a quick death were the last memories of Tommy finding himself back in his room.

The boy could hardly breathe, his hands were- Screw that statement. His whole body was shaking terribly, and this state is only partially the state of his body.

Cause- Yes. That momentary return to normal immediately after a stressful situation -What else can death be considered?- Always did that to Tommy.

He forced himself to roll over in bed and fall to the floor, violently and literally throwing himself out of that state.

Running his hand over the top of his head, Tommy found a healed scar that had obviously just appeared in this place, after the last death of the boy.

Those are tending to appear on his body right after him looping back from getting some life threatening injuries by both regular loops and checkpoints.

And the question immediately arose: What to do now, given the information received by Tommy?

Is- Is this even a situation that Tommy can escape from?!

Can Tommy somehow avoid such death?

...

Spoiler alert: hardly.

In the first loop, Tommy did not find a way to escape his imprisonment, as he did in zero.

If Tommy even did manage to do anything, it only made things worse by the fact that he decided to stay huddled in the corner of his room, deep in his head, thinking of a plan to avoid repeating the loop zero.

Tommy did not even notice how the door to his room opened, and a figure, staggering from the amount of alcohol taken, approached him.

Tommy could not escape his imprisonment in Logsteadshire by staying in his room.

Of course, he didn't succeed. But what could he ever do right, especially on the first try?

After a particularly severe beating due to his 'disobedience', Tommy felt even worse . And yet he thought it was impossible. It didn't help that Tommy returned to a period when his body felt even worse in terms of the fact that the disease he almost cured in the loop was at its highest here.

This loop won't be any nicer than the loop-zero, so might as well try to ignore all his problems by huddling in a corner and not showing?

The police obviously should start investigating the house at some point , right?

...

Right?!

Of course not, who is he kidding. When did anyone really care about him?

The last people he thought gave a fuck about him actually didn’t!

They wouldn't put Tommy into that fucking government program so easily if they cared.

So... Nobody cared about Tommy, which means he should pull himself together alone.

These were the thoughts of Tommy, who again found himself in his room, after yet another death. 

It was- Probably the longest one Tommy has ever experienced. Death from hunger. Or- Rather, death from thirst. Tommy couldn't save enough water.

This time the boy heard rumblings, gunshots, screams and the sound of quick footsteps and a thorough search of his house, but now he sat in absolute silence, in the best place to hide there. 

However, no one decided to break into the fucking store room he was in, so Tommy sat locked inside for the entire amount of time it took him to die.

Perhaps in recent days someone has come, and maybe even searched the house, but it's not like this someone found Tommy. Or it's not like the boy himself noticed the very fact of any sounds, or of anyone's presence. For most of his last days, he was either asleep, or delirious. Completely unaware of what -or who- surrounded him. It's actually better than feeling stomach pains from not eating, and, as Tommy read in one of the books, his stomach overworking itself(?). Actually, the boy wasn't entirely sure that it worked that way.

Therefore, waking up after trying to avoid death, Tommy -as always- died anyways, yet differently so. 

One more chance to go.

He... He can't survive by staying in the house. So- It's only fair for the boy to simply run away.

Finally suppressing the emotions rushing out through rapid breathing, profuse sweating and the desire to scream at the top of his lungs, Tommy found the strength to stand up.

He will survive .

Tommy pressed his ear to the door of his room.

It sounds quiet enough…

Looking down at his clothes, Tommy brushed his hands over it once more. This is the most inconspicuous of all that Tommy has.

The boy checked his bag again. This is the bag that Tommy takes on the more dangerous outings that bring in a little more than what he usually does.

Now the bag was full of food, medkit that Tommy was still in the process of filling with his savings, and the rest of the necessities that Tommy had. Not that it was a lot .

"Well, it’s time to go." Tommy whispered to himself.

Opening the door Tommy-

AND-

Yes. He bumped right into her. Tommy stumbled upon his foster mom.

Why? How? These questions were not important.

The important thing was that they understood Tommy's intentions.

This beating session was particularly brutal. Tommy remembers the echoes, and they are now embedded in the boy's memory as strongly as his first death in a plane crash. These two situations equally haunt Tommy in nightmares.

Blood, unbearable pain, screams and the sound of cracking bones were ingrained in the boy's memory.

Tommy woke up with such a pain in his head as he had never had before.

However, there is no time to relax. Tommy quickly put together almost exactly the same set of everything. This time, it barely took him five minutes. He had spare clothes with him, but he put on a different one now. It's impossible for them to understand this time.

Opening the door, Tommy did not find a woman or a man standing behind it. Passing by the aisle, Tommy wasn't seen. Of course he wasn't, he used his ability to become visually invisible for a few seconds.

Carefully, trying not to make a single sound, Tommy got out of the house through the back door.

He-

He was able to get out of this place.

He did it!

Now…

Now everything that remains is only to really escape, and then call the cops so that they finally return the boy back to the system.

Anything will be better than this.

…

The boy's plans, as usual, are simply not destined to come true. Always -was it like, called Murphy's law?- Everything that can go wrong, would go completely off the rails.

The boy found himself in his bed. Again.

This time he just- Froze? Or maybe burned out?

It's not like he remembers the specifics.

It was so cold on the streets... And Tommy got so sick because of the lack of treatment for his illness...

There was not enough food, and even more so he couldn't get enough rest. 

No one bothered enough to somehow help a child dying in the streets. So- Here he is. Back. AGAIN.

Tommy already simply does not have both moral and, partially, physical strength to escape.

Although Tommy returns to the body with all the same forces that the body has at that moment, returning to the same point repeatedly consumes more and more of these forces.

It's not that noticeable when he’s in a normal state, but in a state of being ill it’s just simply killing him. Let alone his mental state at the moment probably at the lowest moment ever.

Tommy again allowed himself to be sent to Logstedshire. Tommy finally allowed himself to simply rest there. And so Tommy safely spent the whole day after the incident in the box farthest from the exit.

When Tommy finally woke up, it was the next morning on the clock.

After sitting for several minutes in complete silence, listening to every rustle, the boy got out of the box as quietly as possible.

Tommy knows how to pick locks. It would’ve been quite hilarious if he hadn't learned this from all the time he spent on the streets. So- The boy had no problem with the lock preventing him from getting out of Logstedshire.

Yes, the boy simply allowed himself to be closed in all this time. For his own sake.

Opening the door, the boy immediately discovered complete devastation.

The whole house seemed to be upside down. The doors were smashed, the walls were dented, the floor and carpets trampled. The boxes are overturned and searched. Everything shiny that once adorned the house has been taken out.

Tommy also noticed blood.

When approaching the main exit, Tommy first discovered the body of a woman who was clearly trying to run and hide in the house or escape from the back door, but was stopped by an accurate shot to the head.

At the very door, the boy had a view of a man with a ragged face.

The sight was terrible, though nothing he hadn't seen before.

Tommy has no attachment to these people. Moreover, he is happy with this outcome. This is probably Tommy's only chance to get out of this place. The boy would never miss such a great opportunity.

These were the thoughts of the boy, stepping over the corpses of people who made the last two years of his life a living hell.

Tommy called 911. He waited for the cops to arrive, recounted the situation, and sat through a bunch of things. 

And, finally exhaling, Tommy allowed himself to fall into oblivion.

Tommy ‘woke up’ a few days later. The boy does not know exactly how much time has passed, but during this period he has testified more than once. During this time, he recalled a psychologist being assigned to him too.

Before that, the boy had by obligation met with a woman, a sheep hybrid with white curly hair, but for that period -during the six months that she was his personal psychologist- Tommy managed to unwittingly become quite attached to the woman.

The Captain resigned from her post, and Tommy -kinda depressed by this fact- was assigned a new psychologist from that moment on. Bad. Tommy didn't tell him much, especially not about his past. Tommy didn't think this good-natured demon could stand the whole truth. The whole shit Tommy went through. 

Oh, and he wasn't allowed to swear in his presence. For some reason that resulted in the demon shouting ‘Language’ at him. 

So- He revealed very little to the psychologist, sure, and the boy barely revealed anything significant from that period of time to the second one.

And now to how he received the base of his third -at the moment the last- lesson.

The next 2 years of the boy's life in the zero loop passed... 

Welp-

They've passed eventually. After a long time repeating.

A few weeks after the incident and Tommy's recent lesson, the boy was assigned to a new family.

Taught by experience, he did not trust them by a bit, but after the first month of adaptation, their behavior hasn't changed.

Yes, they were far from perfect, Tommy did not even consider them good, but anything is better than what he escaped from...

Tommy even began to think that he was lucky. 

He wasn't even being beaten up. However, if there was a valid enough reason, he was punished. 

He was regularly fed. Although sometimes food was partially taken away as punishment. But Tommy never starved like in his last family. 

He finally went to school(!), even if he was expected to have perfect grades.

To simplify his feelings- Tommy felt like walking on shells even more so than he did before.

Later, Tommy will realize that this family, although not the same monsters as the dead, is also abusive as fuck. 

Though not really physical, but mental.

This family, in addition to Tommy, had only one child, moreover, it was a biological one. 

This little asshole was allowed everything. He didn't have to do anything Tommy was asked to do. He wasn't expected to achieve perfect grades in parallel with activities AND housework . He-

…

Probably not worth throwing out all his hatred on simply a lucky one. After all, the kid himself did nothing wrong to Tommy. Laziness may be a mortal sin, but who is Tommy to judge a kid? Tommy is clearly very far from the definition of ‘saint’ himself.

In fact, from his time spent in this family, Tommy got something. Experience. Knowledge. Upgraded his skills… And paid for the Diary. 

Almost immediately, this family named everything that was expected of Tommy.

1. Perfect studying.

How fucking much Tommy had suffered with this... Considering Tommy hadn't practiced at all for three years, getting to the 'acceptable' level was a difficult task in itself. Get to the A grade in the shortest time ... It was nearly impossible.

I t WOULD’VE been if Tommy didn't have his powers! However, that was far from the only thing the boy had to do, oh hell nah.

2. Tommy was required to choose an activity.

There were a lot of options, however, after thinking about the load, Tommy decided to choose not a mentally demanding one, but a physical one instead.

It was necessary for the boy to be able to turn off his brains from constant work at least for a little while.

Hence why Tommy found himself on the sports ground among the runners. To enjoy freedom and silence, he needed to choose something simple that Tommy is absolutely sure of being quite alright in.

The boy managed to learn how to actually properly run for all the time spent on the streets. Moreover, additional training will never be useless.

Even considering what happened in the end, these training sessions will help Tommy way more than once in the future with the experience gained by the boy.

3. Housework. That's another thing he had to do.

Sometimes, Tommy felt like he was back again. Back to that life when he had to do something every day, or be punished otherwise. Back to the time when he had no control over his life.

Although the latter must have been true.

All these tasks by themselves looked quite real to deal with. If there were any difficulties, then only with studying. 

Though put it all together and you get...

That is why Tommy prefers to forget about this period of his life. 

And here's the thing.

For the first month nothing was really demanded of Tommy. In itself, returning to school was already a test for the boy. And just as difficult was Tommy's return to society. He never thought that making friends would be so difficult. So it's quite easy to get the memo that- No. He didn't have any

However, already at the end of the first month, when Tommy almost relaxed, he was put forward with some expectations .

And- Prime. What's the quickest way to move up from F to A grades?

Therefore, Tommy decided the following: start a loop in which the boy will spend 2 months, and then go back, having already raised his grades, as well as with an already done homework.

The preparation period for this was the period of time in which Tommy decided to test the theory of whether he could bring any things back with him. This is a necessary term in the boy's plan after all. 

After a huge number of experiments that lasted for- Prime knows how long, Tommy realized how he indeed could carry practically anything with him.

The first success was met with a very strange feeling.

It was as if something- Something was missing. But it was not important because Tommy did it! The boy found himself back at the beginning of the loop, holding a piece of paper with a random number written by him in the not too distant future.

This filled the boy with pure delight!

And that moment- The one time Tommy managed to get that fucking piece of paper through- The only time he ever got what he wanted out of his ability-

This set off the start of yet another hell alike experience for the boy

Tommy's plan was a success. Even more so! Tommy himself was surprised that for the first time ever -well, technically- something could work out in the thirst try.

The first two months of the loop zero flew by infinitely fast. Fully determined not to waste his energy and time on anything other than studying, in these two months Tommy rose in knowledge to the level of his age group.

It cost a lot. He begged his teachers to help him -And to those who agreed, Tommy is immensely grateful. Not all heroes wear cloaks, but these one's definitely should be viewed as ones- he suffered at some point in time simply unbearable punishments for almost not doing the obligatory work given to him. At some point, the time came for serious punishments. It never reached the level of the previous family, but the bruises on the arms and back were Tommy's eternal companions.

But still, he went out on the track. And Prime, how he loved those moments. Not once -well, except at the very beginning- did he regret this couple of hours of mental rest he could get.

If someone asked Tommy then 'what do you love more than anything in the world?' Tommy would have answered running .

Returning back, bringing all his homework notes for two months in advance back with him, Tommy discovered that some of the memories he received during the memorizing loop were missing. All the time the boy had spent understanding a variety of topics was wasted.

This upset the guy a lot, but there was no time to retreat.

After the first two months had passed again, Tommy finally felt the gravity of the situation he had put himself in.

Tommy had to be perfect . He carried a huge number of things with him from very recent loops, and he kept an even larger number of loops open at once. 

At some point, the number of loops opened by the boy at the same time exceeded the third dozen, which -for the record- is kinda impossible to maintain on a permanent basis. Yet Tommy is the one to do the impossible. 

Tommy himself ceased to be guided by how many loops he had open and why it was done. Moreover, his memory was getting worse and worse, because for every small object carried by Tommy into the past, the boy lost a large piece of the recent memories he needed.

Hence why notes here and there became commonplace for Tommy.

While the boy kept the whole house clean, his workspace and school bag were in total chaos, and there was an always shifting record of his current loops on almost every piece of paper that Tommy came across. 

Needless to point out how desperately Tommy then needed to optimize his power that he now has.

And it was during these desperate times that Tommy came to the conclusion that he needed a single place for all his records. It was then that he went to that random nearby supermarket and bought the first large enough notebook with white blank sheets that came across. And it was then that he decided: " this thing will now always return along with me back on the loops". And just then, something clicked. 

The boy found himself passing out at his desk.

He only vaguely remembers the sad expression on the woman's in black face. Her contrasting to the cold look a warm and sweet voice. Tommy remembered that she regretted something.

"It's not yet your time to die such a stupid death from your own ability." Was the only phrase Tommy remembered being said by the- Goddess? Someone who Tommy met in the haze with. If this is a deity, then it is clearly different from the one that the boy met way back to when he was a child. 

Death, right? She has long since been familiar to the boy, and the presence of the Goddess wasn't new to Tommy.

That's why Tommy called the woman Lady Death. And no one bothered to correct the boy. Because- When he met the other Goddess, he felt that her name wasn't Fate . It's something else for sure, though it's not that Tommy was corrected then either. Although a hint about the wrong way of reasoning was given to him.

Distracted from these thoughts feeling up his head, Tommy looked at what laid on the table in front of him. That notepad...

Trying to reach for some loops, Tommy found that all his old ones were gone. This-

It threw the guy off track.

However, having tried to come back with the notepad in hand, Tommy didn't explicitly try to carry the item with him in the same way as before. However, at the root of the loop, Tommy found the notepad in his hand anyway. And the price for this action was-

None! 

There wasn't anything different from what Tommy felt a couple of moments ago! 

Although, to the sadder part. Tommy ran through his memories and regrets swept over the boy.

Even upon awakening, the boy lost almost all his remaining memories of the period of his life from 13 to 15 years. It couldn't be more disappointing...

However.

Tommy looked down at what appeared to be not the cheapest notebook out there. Can it even be called so?

Diary fits the thing way better. Tommy took a permanent marker that caught his eye, writing the word in big letters on the soft brown cover. After thinking for a moment, he decided to add the following 'Tommy's property. Not your idiot. Put me down.'

The boy smiled. Something tells him that this diary will definitely be worth it.

Tommy spirals.

A boy stands on the edge of a roof in the middle of a panic attack.

Bad told- 

He- He said-

Tommy said something he really shouldn't have said to the governmentally assigned to him therapist . 

No. No, Tommy can't live in this loop anymore. Moreover, nothing can be fixed. Tommy has no open loops left! 

The boy is desperately trying to open at least one closed by a rather mysterious event that occurred during Tommy's acquisition of the Diary.

He doesn't get out.

It doesn't work out and he doesn't know what to do. He does not know how to take responsibility for his actions and suffer the consequences. Moreover, this situation is not so much of his fault anyway. Or is it? 

Prime- God. Goddess. Goddess of Fate or whatever. Why???

Finally completely desperate, and having no other choice, a delirious Tommy steps into the air, thereby falling from a twelve-story building.

Tommy returned to his checkpoint, which was 13 years old, immediately after the incident, which the boy calls the second lesson.

The boy flatly refused every family, or forced these people to throw him away themselves.

For two years of such a life, it was no longer expected from Tommy that the boy would be fostered by anyone before he came of age. However, to the surprise of both the boy and the agency, the Minecrafts came.

Chapter Text

A dark figure was crossing the roofs in the evening. They were illuminated mostly only by the light of lanterns from the streets below the roof of the house on which they were currently moving. 

He was moving towards a soon-to-happen robbery he studied all about before.

In fact, running through the roofs like that is much harder than it seems at first glance! Now Tommy really understands how difficult it is for other vigilantes on a regular basis. 

Tommy still feels himself being somewhat a cheater. Although the boy does not remember almost anything from the zero loop during the time he got his third lesson, his -somewhat- both body and subconscious memories of all the time spent on the track make themselves felt. Tommy involuntarily uses the breathing technique so familiar to him, as well as methods of movement that allow his body to consume minimal of needed energy. 

It's good if Tommy can finally get his muscle mass to… Some sort of a level during his patrols. But he isn't sure that his body won't be in need of any extra exercises. He will probably have to start morning exercises again. And Prime, how sore would his muscles be afterwards, considering he is already kind of tired! 

Once again bumping into a long gap between the houses, Tommy takes a running start and lands right on the edge of the next roof. 

Almost losing his balance, Tommy manages to redirect the trajectory of his free fall forward at the last moment. After a moment, Tommy discovers that his body has worked despite himself. The hands reflexively caught the boy, barely stopping his face from getting injured by the gravel of the roof. 

Carefully getting up and looking back down to where he almost fell, Tommy decides to put loops before each of such difficult jumps for the time being. He must be sure not to die such a boring death, really.

Prime- Tommy has clearly loosen his shape...  

Finally allowing himself to exhale at the end of such a stressful situation, Tommy looked at one of his wristwatches. 

He has time yet. 

Finding the stairs with his eyes -for which he made this dangerous jump to begin with(literally, why is there such a big gap?)- Tommy descends into an alley facing the street with a jewelry store to be robbed any minute now. 

All this Sunday in the zero loop, Tommy spent on a thorough study of all the crimes committed today. Well- At least the ones that were in the public domain and he had access to, obviously. 

Tommy sighed. 

"I definitely need to find a more convenient way to find out about crimes than whatever this is ." The boy muttered to himself. 

In fact, Tommy even chose an approximate area of the city that -as it seems- is not a home for any vigilantes, and heroes rarely patrol the surrounding area. 

Oh, and it's not so far from home! Just about the perfect place for a new vigilante like him. 

"To save others and catch some wronguns who aren't my family, am I right?" He continued his thinking aloud further. 

And- really . How the fuck did he get from 'my family are fucking supervillains' to 'Ima become a vigilante so I can go and save everyone including them' ? 

Prime, who is he kidding? It was never his brand. 

Although it probably reflects his original mindset, but not anymore though. It's not like him to listen to his impulsive thoughts and make his own life harder. He suppressed that in himself in order to fucking survive !

Dismissing these thoughts which once again filled him, Tommy weekly slapped himself on the cheeks. 

Such thoughts are only distracting. They do nothing to help in action. 

Speaking of which, Tommy really must return to.

Tommy has already made up his mind and has done a huge amount of work. There is no turning back anymore! Even though there is-

Pulling his sleeve a bit up, Tommy tied the newly created loop to one of the watches. 

Even though the Vigilante profession is not much different from the Hero one, it is much more dangerous in a way. 

The vigilantes are not backed by the government, and these good-natured people have as many as two enemy sides, which is twice as much as heroes do. 

Moreover, it's obvious that all the vigilantes, with very rare exceptions, are either completely poor, or those who do not have a lot of spare money. Rich people don't have as many reasons to go for vigilantism.

While the heroes are saved and treated by the government. And the villains commit crimes, and therefore usually have enough money to pay doctors or healers -or can simply pressure them to heal too. The vigilantes, instead, can only rely on human kindness. 

Therefore, realizing all the risks, Tommy went against his ideals that he himself formed after the second lesson.

2.1. Be careful with your checkpoints, limit their use. Set them only at important moments and after a sufficiently long period of time. 2.3. The world is gray. No one is 100% good or evil, so you can afford not to be a saint.

Tommy has set up a checkpoint. He fucking set the checkpoint just an hour ago, when he was sitting on his bed, already with the costume on. 

The checkpoint, at Tommy's death, will bring him back at the time of it’s set. It's very risky to put it right before such an event. Tommy can unintentionally get stuck in a loop… Once again. 

But the boy shook his head. Now is not the time to think about all this! 

Hiding, he waits. Tommy is barely in the alley. Take a little more than a quick glance at the alley and you will easily find the vigilante. 

Hearing the sound of footsteps, Tommy peeked out from behind his hiding spot, distracting attention from himself with the ability in advance. He uses the visual aspect at the moment, and therefore the boy needs to stay really quiet to not be heard. Fortunately, he can do it. 

Tommy saw them. A suspicious person, with a mask on their head, hanging around the panoramic glass of a jewelry store. 

After a couple of seconds of peeping, Tommy was already pressed against the wall of the alley, as the effect of his ability wears off. 

He should definitely train it better, for fuck's sake. This time is simply not enough for Tommy’s needs. 

After waiting for around 30 seconds, listening to every rustle and movement made by the thief, Tommy took off his mask, making as few sounds as possible. 

Having made up his mind, Tommy comes out of the alley. 

He knows more than to stay with his mask on his face. Now the boy is not doing his vigilante work. He’s more of an actor at the moment. In this zero loop, Tommy is a 'simple passerby'. He just looks, observes the situation, simultaneously thinking over his movement on the next loops. 

Firstly, he was wondering why there was no sound of breaking glass, breaking in, or opening the lock or the door, despite the fact that there were sounds of penetration and footsteps inside. 

The answer to this question was revealed by the simple glance over. In the center of the panoramic glass leading to the jewelry store, there was a hole in the shape of a perfectly flat oval. Or an ellipse..?

It doesn't matter now. 

Although the interesting thing was that the hole was as if drilled with some tool. And very carefully too, observing the cut. How was it done in such a short time?

...

Ah. Exactly . 

This must be that "glass thief" who kinda balances between being a simple criminal -though quite a well-known as of lately- and a villain. The only reason why this thief is not yet qualified as a villain is the guy's lack of resistance to heroes or the police. They haven't even seen him in person yet. He’s that good at his job. 

But, dude is really interesting. Tommy finds his ability very fascinating. 

Now the boy witnessed how the man lightly touched the glass of the display cases and shelves and immediately squeezed(?) them one by one???

Compressed, maybe. 

Tommy thought so because of the transparent spheres he saw appeared in the dude's hand after the glass disappeared, which he either put in his pocket or aside. 

That's how the thief bypasses the alarm system, and that's why it's customary to keep silent about it. 

Tommy was barely able to dig up any information on the robbery back to the loop zero! But- fair. If someone else comes up with some way to get rid of glass and only then start stuffing their bag, then a breakthrough in the theft business is bound to come. Which is not cool . Na-ah. 

Meanwhile, the dude has already got rid of the top parts of almost all of the glass in the store. Opening his bag, he visually took a deep breath and exhaled-

Fucking Prime! Tommy almost missed the moment when the thief started collecting jewelry one by one. These movements were so well honed-

Tommy, taken aback, did not even immediately notice the deafening roar of sirens that were triggered by a thief. 

After exactly a minute and 39 seconds -as Tommy noted- the thief climbed out of the window, giving Tommy a strange look. (At least that's what Tommy was able to tell, considering that the mask hid the man's entire face.) 

In response, Tommy just smiled toothily, pointing to his wristwatch. 

The thief shrugged off the reaction to this. Which is fair. Most likely, Tommy looked like a real madman right now. 

However, oh what awaits the dude! 

With a chuckle, Tommy hid back in the alley, timing the arrival of the police. After which he twisted the loop back-

Tommy again found himself with a mask on his face. 

Poggers.

After looking at the watch, Tommy began active brain work. 

The dude will come at 19:56:26, and the best times to take action wil probablyl be... 19:58:14, 19:58:57 and… 20:00:43 at the very least, mhm. Exactly. 

Perhaps Tommy will choose the second option first. The police should arrive by 20:02. He'll have plenty of time! 

Tommy exhales and slowly, measuring out each step, comes out from behind his hiding spot in the form of an alley. 

This time he doesn't take off his mask, why would he do that? The boy, on the contrary from the last time, really needs to hide his face, and therefore his identity. 

Quietly, so that he was barely noticeable, Tommy leaned against the wall. 

He takes his time until the very second of when the ‘Glass Thief’ turns his back to the window and will not be able to see Tommy's movements. 

Exhaling and counting to three, without taking his eyes off the clock, Tommy mentally gives himself a push. "It's time," he almost said out loud. 

Tommy ran and drowned out his sounds by his power. At this moment he is visible, though inaudible, and therefore the slightest remark by the thief's peripheral vision will be kinda fatal for the loop. 

1 second in. He jumped through a round hole in the panoramic window of the store with a running start, folding up during the flight to fit exactly into the free space. 

2 seconds in. He landed and began to look around his surroundings. 

Fuck. Now is not the time for that. Why didn't Tommy do it earlier???

3 seconds in. He rushed in with all his speed, almost hitting a pot with a flower standing at one of the shelves. It was close enough-

Who the fuck needs a flower in a jewelry store anyway?

4 seconds, Tommy almost reached the thief, the boy had only about a second of running left, but-

Tommy dropped the thread of his ability he was able to hold onto for kinda longer than usual too. The boy's inaudibility subsided and his footsteps were hearable from now on, to which the thief turned and fought the boy back. 

Tommy was taken aback when he saw the knife. 

How-Where did he make a mistake? 

Tommy dodged the man's cutting blows with a knife until he came across that fucking flower pot. 

The sound of the breaking pot and the pain of the splinter piercing his leg distracted the boy enough to miss the decisive blow to the chest.

This is an experienced thief… 

Tommy recklessly chose a strong opponent as his first target. Only an unexpected attack from behind seems to be Tommy’s chance here. He could shorten the time without stopping after jumping through the hole in the window, and not to forget about the damn flower too… 

And so, clutching his chest with one hand, looking straight into the face of the thief in a balaclava, seeing the mockery Tommy got really angry. 

Having already thought about the possibility of retiring, the newly-born vigilante was directly inflamed at the moment. 

No. He had mistakes, Tommy can never do anything right the first time. However, something else in this context is also an important feature of Tommy’s. He never gives up. 

"You're going to pay for this, pussy." Tommy croaked. His clothes began to turn red, and his hand felt a warm viscous liquid oozing from the wound. 

The vigilante pressed the button on the wristwatch. 

Tommy's rapid breathing hit the alley yet again. 

This is the boy's 6th attempt, and he probably finally found the best course of action. 

Phantom pains in the chest, especially severe ones in the abdomen, on the right leg and in several places on the left arm kinda distract the boy, given the lack of adrenaline in his body at the beginning of the loop. 

Although- It seems like the first wound he received in his attempts left a scar. How fucking weird the loops work... if Tommy gets a fatal or near-fatal injury, there is a good chance that it would scar when turning back at the beginning of the loops. Not a 100 percent chance, of course -otherwise his whole body would have already been covered with scars at the moment, even in the parts of his body that he actually shows to others, which is already too little for his own good- though not a 100 percent, but enough to make Tommy always wear clothes with long sleeves and shit, that cover most of his body. 

He does not let anyone near his head at all, since this place is strewn with scars in the hair area. He is totally not keen to let anyone cut his hair, so he does that himself- Which is probably why it grew longer as of lately. Because of this, at the last moment he had to make his way to Techno and 'borrow' a couple of his hairpins. 

Grown hair very much interferes with movement and sight, even though it does an excellent job in hiding the scars. 

Tommy's entire back and chest were already scarred as fuck after the second lesson and several deaths on the streets at that time. He is extremely insistent not to show them to anyone. No one -in this timeline- has seen them, and Tommy plans to keep it that way. 

So far, things are going quite well. That's just Tommy's debut as a new vigilante, and he has already begun to fight on equal terms with a somewhat-known criminal. Moreover, Tommy has almost no weapons other than a hand knife, which he, however, refuses to use yet. 

The glass thief became famous for his elusiveness. Well, apparently Tommy will quickly gain in popularity when he catches him. 

With that in mind, Tommy cautiously began moving along the wall after the thief who’s already inside. 

Apparently, the tightening tapes sold in almost all stationery stores are quite good for being used as homemade handcuffs when used in numerous amounts. 

Tommy took a couple of them out of his pocket and prepared them for use. 

Although this is a boring way, it must be the most effective for the time being. 

On the way out of this inconvenient hole, The Glass thief will need a little more time and body movements than with a simple passage through the doorway. This fact will allow Tommy to take advantage of the man's uncomfortable position and catch him. 

… 

In theory. 

Let's see if he succeeds on the first try!

Three.

It took him only three attempts and Tommy was able to quite easily catch a man, a couple of inches taller than him and with a clearly much better complexion. 

And everything thanks to what? To Tommy, who is the biggest vigilante ever. The Big Man of this city himself. The only man ever. The great-

Wait a second. 

Tommy does not have a vigilante name yet! It's-

It's not the time to get lost in thoughts though. 

Tommy squatted down and pressed his knee right on the shoulder blades of the man he held in the lock position. 

The vigilante tightened the homemade 'handcuffs' saying "Sorry man-" Loud sounds of plastic tightening forced him to stop. "But you kinda deserved it."

"For all the amount of stabbing you've caused me." Vent unsaid, though meant by the still-flinching-boy. Phantom pains are the worst, really. 

But yet a smirk painted a visible part of Tommy's face. The boy was not afraid to show glee and mischief to the defeated criminal. 

If the accompaniment of the whole process of surprised furious exclamations of the man was saying something, it was that the thief was clearly not happy with what was happening. 

"How- What the fuck, dude?!" It was a response to Tommy's gloating. 

"Maybe next time you should try- I dunno. Looking around ?" Vigilant suggested.

"But I- Wait. Who are you anyway? Did you just steal my loot?!"The criminal objected, looking at how Tommy picked up his carelessly thrown bag of loot. 

The boy shook his head. 

"No." He straightened the bag on the ground, leaning it against the glass. "I'm the debutant vigilante. The best in the history of ever!" said Tommy, whose smile was brighter than the sun, which had already disappeared over the horizon.

 "Mhm." The man snorted sarcastically, nodding. Then he sighed, apparently admitting defeat. "And what is the name of a hero-wanna-be who defeated me?"

"I-" Tommy was taken aback.

Yea. Now that is finally a good question. 

Tommy can't just simply go with the first ones that come to mind, such as The Big man or Big T.

His family are- 

They-

No, they are not his enemies. Probably . 

Tommy has no fucking idea of The Syndicate stands on vigilantes.

However, they are not his allies either, that's for sure. He can't take that risk by choosing obvious personal brand names. 

Time-related ones are not his take too. Tommy here tries to hide the fact that he has a second ability as his secret weapon. Although- 

In fact, by hinting at this fact, he would be able to divert suspicion from himself. 

Tommy will definitely have to think about it later, but now the more important point is the NAME. 

Why the fuck didn't he come up with such an important thing in advance?

Think, Tommy. Think!  

He drove himself into this situation so he just has to sort it out now.

What could be suitable? 

...

Oh. 

How about- "Theseus." Tommy whispered. 

A puzzled "Pardon?" came from the ground. 

This brought the boy out of some sort of a trance into which he almost always enters at such moments of the thinking process. An extremely inconvenient thing, actually. 

"Tell the police who’ll be here in a-" The vigilante shifted his gaze to the watch barely sticking out from under his sleeve. With the help of the second hand checking the time, pushing aside the interfering layer of clothing. "1 minute and 47 seconds, to be exact actually. Tell them to call me Theseus from now on."

"Huh? But- Wait. What? Wait. Come back!" Sounded from the man in the distance, but Tommy ignored him. 

Giving a two-fingered salute to the defeated opponent, Theseus disappeared into the alley. 

Tommy was much more tired than expected, but he caught a much bigger fish too. Tommy didn't even know that it was a Glass thief behind this robbery while doing research. 

Even if the police linked the man's crimes together, this information did not appear anywhere in the press and other publicly available materials that Tommy studied in loop zero. 

Although, this is rather fair. As soon as more people find out about the secret method, it will cease to be a secret and Prime knows what’s to come. 

Moreover, overpaying for the new protection systems, just to exclude the possibility of such theft… It is not profitable for anyone . 

In fact, for his debut, Tommy did very well. 

Maybe he even can afford to realize an idea of his? 

Tommy can cancel all the petty thefts that he was going to originally stop today, and instead do a way more interesting, risky, but potentially much more profitable thing. 

Tommy wants to see the night work of the hero in action firsthand . And, potentially, get an ally.

Tina had a long, long-long day. 

From the sunrise to the late evening. She decided to take this day to patrol, as this week turned out not to be that stressful for her. 

It is a normal practice for a vigilante to sometimes arrange a ‘patrol’ or 'full-time job' days as others call it. 

Yes, in the circle of vigilantes, these nocturnal (and sometimes diurnal) activities are usually called a job. And considering the time spent by 'unpaid interns' at their work, it is actually may be considered to be a half-time unpaid job. 

Recently, there are way fewer vigilantes, and that makes the streets more restless. Self-proclaimed heroes -that’s who they really are, aren’t they?- are simply forced to sacrifice their free time for the sake of fighting crimes. 

That's why Tina, despite the decreasing of her own security with this event, is still glad that the government will finally send some new heroes to Manburg anyway. Especially including the well-known Dream Team. These three seem to really be morale-boosting.

Tina's vigilante name is Kitten. 

The girl, of course, looks appropriately to such name. 

A mask with a cute cat face and whiskers, neat white ears and a tail that are firmly attached to clothes. 

Appearance is very important for Tina, as for any other vigilante. It was very important for her to draw a line between Vigilante Kitten and an ordinary girl Tina. 

The main difference, probably, in addition to the obvious slightly different behavior of the girl when she's out as a vigilante, is that she is not a hybrid of a cat, but a demon , contrary to other's beliefs (which she herself led them to think so very intentionally). 

Yes, she's a demon. And the cat's ears and tail in actuality are attached to the real tail and horns . 

Tina barely remembers her life before adolescence. They say that up to this point she almost never used her ability, because the girl's parents managed to hide the existence of Tina's ability. 

The girl always dreamed of becoming a hero, but when she found out about the severity of their life... Fortunately, after an unexpectedly received amnesia, the girl's passion did not vanish like most of her memories. That's why she's here now. In a vigilante costume, fighting villains. Although, much more often than not they are simple criminals. 

Kitten's power is telekinesis. A strong yet rare ability. The government would definitely want to get their hands on Tina, if information about it ever came out. 

However, nothing of such has happened yet, and therefore Kitten still has the opportunity to wander the streets at night in her cat costume, playing the hero.

Prime, what a child she is still… 

Hearing the roar of the alarm system nearby, Kitten rushed to the original signal, guided by her clock with the map on it. With the grace of a cat, she habitually jumps over the roofs of houses, shortening her distance. 

She has long since learned acrobatics to pass for who she pretends to be. Moreover, in especially difficult jumps, she can always help herself with the ability, so that no one notices and she doesn't get hurt. 

The girl arrived at the crime scene quickly enough to catch a glimpse of a dark figure running out of- a furniture store?

Apparently this person must have one of the types of a common amplifying type ability. Well, it's way easier to deal with a criminal whose hands are busy and he himself is loaded to the brim. 

What a dilettante. 

With a slight movement of her hand, accompanied by the use of the ability, Tina picked up the man's boxes one by one. Some of them were quite heavy, however, within the limits of her ability. 

While the criminal was still comprehending what exactly was happening, Tina had already put the boxes on the ground and was rapidly approaching the man. 

In an instant, a great-thief-wanna-be became a captured idiot , and Tina celebrated another caught dirty crime boy. 

At that moment, with her peripheral vision, she noticed a bright figure on the roof, and after glancing at the map in her device, she realized that she just made a fatal mistake. 

For the tiniest bit, sure, but Kitten still stepped into the territory under the supervision of the Hero Aimsey. It's them! 

Holy Prime-

The exhausted Tina can manage to catch slow criminals or maybe even compete with small villains in this state. But she definitely won't be able to fight the hero. And... she doesn't have a lot of chances to escape either. 

As if the situation couldn't get any worse, it's still spring . 

And this means that the hero right now has their nature abilities.  

Which in turn leads to the fact that Aimsey has access to the vine, on which they are currently rapidly descending from the roof of the building. Right in the direction of Tina! 

This is arguably the best of their powers, if judged from the capture and hold capabilities. Even the winter ice cannot compare with a spring vine in this regard. 

No matter how surprising it may be, this hero has a rare feature: they have 4 abilities at once. The ones that replace one another at the same time as the seasons do. This is one of the rarest types of superpowers, called cyclical . 

However, no matter how much Tina admired this hero -

Now she urgently needs to think of something! 

A panicking girl -in luck of options- decided to shove a newly caught villain into the Hero with her power and fleeted. 

"Sorry". Kitten cried in her way, addressing both the Hero and the criminal. 

Tina was in an open area. 

It's bad. 

This is very, awfully bad. 

What to do? 

Questioning the universe, Tina looks around. 

What the-

Having lifted the boxes in the air, Tina separately took out the contents of it, throwing the box itself directly into the face of the Hero who had already recovered from the criminal who flew into them and hurried right in pursuit of Tina! 

Prime- Items from the box will be enough for throwing at the Hero for only a minute or two at most . 

It is worth going to the nearest long and weird enough alley. 

Remember, Tina, remember. Where is the nearest such place? 

With this in mind, turning the next corner, Tina caught herself on an absolutely unexpected desire to look in the direction of a random roof. 

Unable to resist it, Kitten fixed her gaze on the roof as she ran. 

There, a rather tall silhouette in a dark brown hoodie with a hood thrown over, immediately captured her attention, and - isn't that a mask? Is he a villain? 

As soon as Tina fixed her gaze on him, the guy started shouting. 

And- Although the voice was rough, Tina, who works in a Call Center, is good enough at distinguishing the age of a speaker. This boy deliberately made his voice rude, and quite skillfully though, since he will definitely be able to fool most people, but not Tina. That`s a teen, if she ever saw one.

In fact, she didn’t listen to what he said exactly. Something about the fact that he 'though new, but already the best vigilante of this city'.

Literally, how childish of him. Such a weirdo! 

Turning around, Tina noticed how interested Aimsey looked by staring at him. 

Well- That was the very moment when Tina realized that this guy was probably literally saving her. That must be his ability! But... Why is he-

Never mind. 

Nodding, mentally thanking the boy for saving her, Tina rushed to the nearest alley. Fortunately, Kitten's memory immediately surfaced exactly where it leads. 

She didn't even notice how she was already back on her own territory. Perfectly! 

After a couple of minutes, having run around the floor of the area patrolled by her in the most confusing way possible, Tina finally came back to her home. 

That’s enough fighting crimes for today.

Theseus , right? Kitten had never heard of such a vigilante before.

Well, it's worth acknowledging the kid. Oh, and she must thank him somehow too.

In their community, it is customary to stick together, and the literal salvation from both villains and heroes will never be forgotten.

There's always favor for a favor.

Tommy was- Kinda lucky today? 

His plan worked on the second attempt! That’s unheard of.

Running away from the fast Aimsey was clearly a mistake, given their spring mobility, as well as capturing capabilities. 

No, really. Spring for the hero is fucking OP!

So after the failed attempt to flee, Tommy immediately realized that he would not be able to escape. He tried to hide instead, in which -surprisingly- he immediately succeeded! 

There is one nice feature about his second ability. Tommy can alternate different aspects of his power without any cooldown of sorts! That’s pog.

Only once though, because after that the waiting time will begin for both aspects of Tommy's ability. 

But no cooldown just 1 time is better than the total lack of it, innit? 

However, another question arose. Tommy now sees that even though he was lucky today, the boy's available abilities are categorically not enough for the type of work he's got into. 

Moreover, Tommy really does not want to spend the whole day studying the events that occur before each of his outings, which, as the boy is prompted by feelings, will be quite frequent. 

For all his time spent on the streets in the past, Tommy had managed to find out about that one place in the city. It’s initially designed for villains and vigilantes, where they are forbidden to fight, yet that place provides services to both groups. 

Las Nevadas. It is, though small -and as the stories say, very beautiful- a city within a city. The place with the largest and most prestigious casino in the city, the habitat of villains operating deep within the shadows. The Jester himself is at the head of this place.

Although Tommy knows a bit about this place, he doesn't know enough , because he has never been there. 

The boy avoided the place like fire. Very alluring, yet too unpredictable and dangerous. The boy's caution did not outweigh his excessive curiosity for nothing. That’s the whole reason Tommy survived so far. 

To be honest, even though everyone knows that Jester really doesn't like violations of his rules, it's no secret that it still happens everywhere. It's just that most of the ones violating get caught on this, while someone is able to hide. 

Besides Tommy's potential danger, the boy wasn't there for another reason: why would he? Tommy didn’t have a good enough reason. Not that it was cheap there, and it's not like Tommy would particularly need any of the devices presented there for the crimes he did back then. 

Thinking about it, it's really worth overcoming his fear and visit Las Nevadas for the first time. If Tommy didn’t have his loops, today's situation would’ve been fatal for an almost unarmed Tommy. The boy cannot afford to rely entirely on his abilities. 

In fact, everything Tommy thought earlier is just prejudice. Jester closely monitors compliance of his rules, and villains, as well as vigilantes, are in no hurry to break any of  them without an emergency. 

Las Nevadas is a special area of the city. 

The atmosphere of the casino, the black market, villains, vigilantes, the rich of the city, illegal operations… 

And the most important thing is that the vigilantes there are not in danger. In this place, you can buy not only information, but also all kinds of equipment that both villains and vigilantes may need. 

In general, they work there on both sides of the conflict, as if deliberately setting vigilantes and villains on fire to fight one another. Only strictly outside their borders though. 

A shady place indeed… However, Tommy really should come there at least once when the vigilante has money. 

This will once again consolidate Theseus' position in the night life of the city. Who knows, maybe he'll even get himself some popularity? 

Tommy is more than sure that the camera in that jewelry store managed to catch a glimpse of him. 

Oh. Tommy can't wait for the day when he finally hears others talk about him! However, this is not the most important thing right now.

When he got home, Tommy carefully got back to his room through a specially left open window with a rope thrown out of it unnoticed. He thanks the dear Prime that his windows aren’t on the side that is visible to the crows.

Tommy had as little contact with Minecrafts today as possible. Just in case. Given their personalities, the boy was very afraid to influence them and their actions in any way today. The butterfly effect is not a thing to be played with, and a fucking lot can go wrong on the opening day, it was not worth risking a meeting with such a threat as the strongest members of The Syndicate.  

Well, Tommy saw beautiful women at work today, saved one of them, and overall the day turned out to be perfect. Speaking of women and the Syndicate… Now Tommy would like to meet Nemesis. Her ability is too pog for him not to! 

But to think about it. He personally knows only 3 members in the Syndicate, and in person he only saw Techno in his villain attire of the whole group. Blood God as the nickname, or Protesilaus as the official name of the man. 

How much pathos is in the name ... Although he himself is no better. 

Who will the rest of the villains turn out to be? The boy cannot help but be intrigued by this question. 

The syndicate scattered a lot of names here and there, but only some of them eventually turned out to be names belonging to official members. Some are possible allies, while others must definitely be secret members. Tommy just feels it in his gut. 

They are, in fact, such an interesting group! Tommy wants to know more about his family, their friends and colleagues. After all, like it or not, but he feels the pain of them hiding -and they technically still do!- it's all from him. 

Tommy has yet to find out their motives, but he already seems to have some vague idea. Tommy's life as an orphan was already extremely difficult. Especially in this country... He already knows a lot, and most likely he will learn more himself during his adventures as a vigilante. 

But for now... Tommy would like to traditionally watch a movie with his dear people, or maybe Phil or Techno will insist on anime? Tommy didn’t like it at first, though is slowly turning to the direction of tolerating it. He will never admit it though! 

Who knows what would they do? Who can predict this? 

Definitely not Tommy. 

He would never want to experience such moments again just to somehow 'fix' it like most moments in his life. 

His time spent with Minecrafts is already more than ideal for the boy.

Chapter Text

Through a strange veil, at first Tommy barely realizes how he is in black car that is driving in an unknown direction. 

After a short period of time, awareness of what exactly was happening returned to him. 

Not the most pleasant moment in his life. 

He is 7 years old, Tommy clutches Henry the cow plushie in his hands, which he won in a toy vending machine that -although he knows that he behaves very childishly- he almost does not ever part with. 

Looking ahead, Tommy knows perfectly well that he will lose the cow almost immediately upon arrival at the place that still haunts most of his nightmares (That this one is an exception, surprisingly). 

The woman will burn the plush to the ground, as Tommy’s punishment for something that the boy has even managed to forget the specifics of. Something about ‘not behaving’ probably.

Therefore, while there is an opportunity for this, Tommy squeezes the toy as tightly as he can. 

To the left, one seat away from him, in the left passenger seat sat a man in ordinary clothing. 

Although this man was in civilian clothes, Tommy could clearly see the pistol holster from under his T-shirt now. 

Ah, yes. He was made to believe that the boy's first family abandoned him at that moment and Tommy was escorted to the orphanage back then. 

And-

Yes, in such a situation they would already be complete scums -seriously, Tommy just fucking saved their lives, for Prime’s sake- but Tommy could’ve ever forgive them -not anymore though- The boy was very angry now, but for what happens next-

Welp, it happens exactly right now anyway. No need to turn back to the fading memories. 

The car stopped and the man on Tommy's left got out of the car, after a couple of seconds already opening the door for the boy. 

Tommy, of course, didn't budge. Although it's just a dream, Tommy still does not intend to repeat his mistakes in any way-

And, yes. Uh-huh. Sure. Just as it always is. 

Tommy has lost control of his body, so now he has become a simple observer. 

To the huge disappointment of the Watching-Tommy, Past-Tommy moved forward after the man. 

It didn't even occur to him then why they didn't take his luggage, or why this building looked so new. The government does not care about children. All the shelters that Tommy knows look like they're at least like- A hundred years old! Just as old as Philza Minecraft is. Centuries old indeed.

But the boy was too busy sulking over the betrayal and squeezing his toy so hard that he still wonders how Henry didn't deform then. 

There were mostly scientists(?) he met on his way. And- People in suits…  

From that moment on, Tommy finally decided to pay attention to his surroundings. That's why Watching-Tommy has now finally been able to clearly see his surroundings. 

To the surprise of the boy, in the flow of all people around he met another child only once. But for some reason, up to this point Tommy had completely forgotten about this meeting. 

A demon. 

Dark skin, dark curly -much more curly than his own- hair. A single bright red eye stood out from the appearance. The second one was a natural brown color. 

The boy was dressed in mainly white clothes. Which confused Past-Tommy a bit. Why white clothes? Wait- Is this a mental hospital??? 

However, what made the boy even more confused was the red liquid curling in the air around the boy's right hand. Is that blood?! 

How did Tommy manage to forget such a strange event? 

The boy's white sleeve was sprinkled with small red spots, showing that the blood was flowing around his arm for a big enough amount of time for some drops to paint clothes. 

If Past-Tommy had Watching-Tommy knowledge back then, he would have drawn parallels with- Cyberonix? Was that the name of the hero?

Oh, shit-

He looks the same age as Past-Tommy. And this means that-

Yes, judging by the guy's grimace, he clearly doesn't like being here, and judging by Tommy's age at the moment-

…

The government has been raising at least some heroes since childhood. Moreover, Cyberonics at the present is not older than 17 at the very most . Tommy might bet that this guy is even younger than he himself , which means he is around 16, if not even less!

And Tommy thought that there was nowhere to fall even lower…

But they finally arrived into the room, which reminded him too much of one of this interrogation rooms in the movies. However, it was one indeed. 

Tommy has spent too much time here. Maybe an hour, maybe three. It surely feeled way longer than acceptable. Although, most likely Tommy was exaggerating. However, it was really boring. 

And so, from the usual questions, the woman moved on to questions about Tommy's power.

And- Prime, how lucky he was that he decided to tell her that. It was risky. Too risky. But worth every Tommy’s stressing brain cell.

Tommy noticed the approaching figure of a scientist with a pair of different bracelets in his hands. Tommy recognized one of them immediately, since the boy he saw was wearing exactly the same one.

This moment with the approach of a man… It caused an instant reaction from the Watching-Tommy.

If no one tells the clueless boy what this bracelet does, he will forever be stuck in this shitty place. And who knows what he will grow out to be!

If these bracelets are put on him, then it is not only a power suppressor, but also a terrifying shock bracelet that is usually put on fucking slaves to obey. Moreover, a GPS tracker is also included in it, and therefore Tommy wouldn't be able to run away on his own two feet…

But, it still happens. Fate? Pure luck ? (As if Tommy had any) Maybe the conscience of the woman that interrogated him tormented her so much that she simply could not resist?

Tommy does not know the answers to these questions, and, however, he will never know.

The same woman who asked all these questions to the boy, practically tying a noose around his neck, warned the boy.

“That`s a power suppressor.” She whispered, pointing by her head at one of the bracelets. “If I were you, I would've used my time-traveling power to get outta here as fast as I could.”

A chilling horror covered Past-Tommy with his head. So strong that even the Watching-Tommy instantly became completely affected by it.

Pulling away from the scientist's powerful hands reaching out to him, Tommy jumped up from his chair and huddled in a corner, mentally groping for the threads of his ability. And then-

Get away both Tommy`s did.

This is Tommy's second outing. The second night of the boy being behind the mask. The second official appearance of the vigilante Theseus.

Having had time to watch the nightlife boiling in the city for a while, he realized that the vigilantes -and, potentially, villains!- have a lot of unspoken -and maybe even spoken!- rules that are still unknown to him though.

Well, he should be careful, then. Ignorance is no excuse , as they say.

Having finished dealing with the petty thief, Theseus almost habitually waved him a two-fingered salute and went on to wander the streets. Is this going to be his thing?

Tommy hadn't met such hard opponents as on the first day yet. But this is already the third criminal caught by him today in a row!

All thanks to the preparation of the boy. However, if Tommy can somehow simplify his work, then he would really like to stop spending the whole day before the patrol simply collecting information. It’s fucking exhausting on it’s own

He really does not like the excessive usage of loops. The boy is afraid of accidentally bumping into the limits again which will cost him quite a lot. Now he finally has something he doesn't want to lose ever .

Moreover, Tommy wants to reduce the expandable use of his abilities, since he puts a new loop instead of almost every new checkpoint in order to be able to return to these points in time.

If there was one thing the third lesson taught him, it surely was this. 

Although changing checkpoints as often still goes against his lessons, rules, ideals and the boy does not like it very much in general.

Non-compliance with the rules does not lead to anything good.

Though, back to the current problems.

In addition to several minor crimes in his neighborhood -which he has already dealt with- something else happened that night. If he plays his cards right, Tommy can get himself an ally -another one?(if Kitten is considered?)-. 

Jack works as a salesman/electrician at Man's Folding , an electrical equipment store that also repairs its own products. Not the best place to work, indeed you would be right in there.

Things haven't been going very well for him lately. Therefore, it is simply necessary for him to let off some steam -both figuratively and literally- on his patrols.

Being a vigilante is Jack's outlet. In his life... No. In general, even. Nobody cares about someone like him. 

The guy is just a background character, about whom no one will remember once he spontaneously disappears. Only- Maybe his boss would be pissed at him for disappearing. Surely nothing more though. 

Even among the vigilantes, Thunder is probably the most unnoticed by society. Sometimes Jack even thinks that he actually has an ability, and it lies in this effect of being completely extra. (Although, he still knows that he is the same average hybrid that shows only his hybrid traits and no superpowers.)

That's why he was so surprised by what happened next.

Things were really bad for Jack. 

Blaze hybrid had almost exhausted his entire daily reserve, so this villain was supposed to be the last one today. As for evil, he also forgot to bring a lighter with him! Therefore, he cannot restore his heat reserve.

Today is a terrible, terrible day. 

First the problem visitors, now this... An extremely inconvenient opponent for a blaze, he’s fucking wielding ice . It's literally like beating a baby, and the baby here is Jack ! Will vigilante Thunder come out of this battle alive ?

“Fucking Prime!” Thunder hissed, clutching his side with a hand. 

It just can't be not a serious injury. Tearing his hand away from the place of wound, Jack turned his gaze to his side in bewilderment. The hand was absolutely clean of blood. Why?

Ah. This is not just a simple wound. This is a wound made with by fucking icicle that’s still kinda in his wound . Which, moreover, frostbitten the vigilant’s gut and part of the skin around. This in itself is terrible, especially for a blaze hybrid like him! He can only hope that no vital organs were touched by the freezing thing. Jack has absolutely no money for a doctor right now.

While the vigilante was distracted by thinking about his injury, he almost missed the villain's lunge with a long sword, which he covered with a thin layer of ice at the very beginning of the fight, making this weapon way more lethal in relation to Jack.

And at the moment when Jack's life flashed before his eyes -a pitiful sight, to be honest- and the sword raised above his head was only a couple of inches from the guy. A figure that swept through from the alley a few meters from the fighting couple abruptly stood right in front of Thunder, covering the vigilante from the blow and parrying the villain's sword with his short gleaming in the dark- knife? Yes, it's definitely a knife. Wow, they're clearly not at an advantage there, comparing the largeness of two blades.

For some reason, it seemed to Jack that his own attention, as well as the attention of the villain, was completely taken over by this man. It seemed that the villain literally forgot about Thunder. He himself was now leaning on the wall with one hand and holding his frozen wound with the other hand.

"Be careful, Thunder. I don't want you, nor any other vigilante to die or get injured. Not on my watch . I have a feeling those couple of weeks before and after the heroes arrival are gonna be really rough." Jack heard the guy saying- That’s just a boy! Clearly not a grown adult, holy shit.

Although he tried to hide his breaking teenage notes by lowering his voice, during sudden movements that’s inevitable during a battle, it becomes much more difficult.

Not only that, Jack is surprised that this guy knows his name. Very few experienced vigilantes have ever even heard of such an inconspicuous vigilante as Thunder. Needless to say, even people living in his patrolled area have hardly heard of him. And there… A strange guy, whom Jack himself knows nothing about.

For maybe a minute, maybe three, this couple of the villain and -as Jack had time to guess- the vigilante danced, exchanging attacks. The surprising thing was that the boy did not seem to know how to fight with weapons at all , however, thanks to timely attacks and dodges, he still fought on equal terms with a seasoned villain.

It began to seem to Jack that the boy seemed to just simply know something hidden to others. As if he knows in advance what his opponent will do, and what is better for him to do himself. Although- Perhaps he just exaggerates. 

At some point, the kid completely disappears from view. This confuses both Jack and the villain, causing the latter to start turning around. Invisibility? Teleportation? What is it?

However, after just a couple of seconds, the vigilante appears right behind the villain, tying his hands.

Wow. The guy seems to be quite experienced on the streets. It's a wonder Jack hadn't ever heard of him before. 

"Thank you, man." Thunder said, turning to the guy now standing over the villain who had just been caught. "Use this." He held out an hour-long power suppressor sticker to a boy when he realized that his holding device did not have the effect of suppressing abilities. 

In response to this, the guy first raised an eyebrow, but after a couple of seconds and poking Jack in the direction of the caught villain, he put a sticker on the bastard's skin.

"No problem, big man," he continued naturally. Smooth. "It must be really hard for a blaze hybrid to fight against someone with ice-type power. You good?" The kid nodded, pointing his head at Jack's frozen side. 

Welp..  It doesn't look or feel lethal . Though it would certainly do some damage, maybe even permanent, considering Jack cannot afford going to hospital right now. 

"Eh-" He twirled his hand uncertainty, removing it from the wound. In fact, it didn't help holding it anyway. "Manageable." Was all he said about the situation. He doesn't think telling the truth would be a good idea at all. "How about we leave this guy here and go talk for a bit somewhere else? I really wanna thank you and maybe(?) get to know you. It’s not everyday that someone saves me." He decided to offer. 

"Yea, not a bad idea. The police are coming here in-" The guy pulled up the sleeve of his hoodie, revealing two(!) pairs of different watches. Electronic and mechanical ones. "about twenty minutes or so." And then he looked back up at Jack. 

Why would this guy need-

Yea- No. This is not the territory that Jack will deliberately step into. It is not customary for vigilantes to point out each other's oddities, even the most obvious ones. 

Some retain oddities from personal life, others have oddities as a way to cope with everything related to being a vigilante. The rest of the oddities are themselves haunt these people. Like Synchronizations or how the powers work…  

That's why Jack decided not to think about what the case is for this particular vigilante. 

"How do you know it for sure?" Jack decided to clarify. The guy sounded like he knew it for sure as a fact. 

"Eh." He shrugged. "I called them. That's the average wait time for the area, you know." The Vigilante replied. 

And it's not that Jack wasn't happy with this answer, but something sketchy was going on there.

And it's not like Tommy called anyone in the first place. Someone else of the passersby would do it at some point, and Tommy only knows the exact time of when police come.

A couple of minutes later, the guys were already sitting on the roof of one of the buildings. 

"So what's your name?" Jack decided to ask. 

It's worth at least finding out the name of the one who saved his life. In this night life they have -abilities and everything that comes out of it- life is the most important thing that you have, yet can very easily lose. That's why all the inhabitants of the night world are very careful about both their own and other people's debts.

"Theseus". The vigilante answered, grinning. 

"How come I've never heard of you before? You sound like a nice lad." He asked.

"That's actually only my second day of being a vigilante. I'm kinda new to all of this stuff." The boy shrugged. He sounded rather embarrassed by this fact. 

"Really?" Jack couldn't believe it. "You sure do not look like someone who's doing all of it for the first time in their life." 

"I mean- I've got some experience here and there.You know how it is." The boy sounded a bit off. But-

Welp, it's not up to Jack to judge. 

In fact, he didn't expect any help at all, especially from a debutante!

“What do you think about the work so far?”Jack decided to find out.

“I don't know much yet. But-” Theseus turned his head away from Jack towards the night city spreading out under the guys' feet. “I do like being a vigilante so far.” He confidently said.

After listening to the guy a little more, and then telling a little of what he considered the necessary knowledge from what could be useful to Theseus, Jack decided to make a small gift to his savior.

The vigilante took off a single earphone with an antenna.

This thing is tuned to police and most importantly to the heroes’ frequencies. An indispensable thing for both vigilante’s work and avoiding government curs.

The earphone has saved Jack way more than once, and it is near to ideal for working on a daily basis.

Yes, the thing is old and not the most durable at all, but it will definitely work for the time being. The guy seems to be doing without any devices so far. Soon he will feel that there is no way of continuing without them.

“Take these.” Jack nodded at the earphone handed to Theseus, in response to the guy's puzzled look.

“Huh?!” Theseus looked surprised. “You-” At this point, although the vigilante tried to hide this moment behind a cough, Jack clearly heard how his voice broke. The man decided to ignore this point. “Are you sure? This thing looks important to you.” The boy was clearly confused and in shock.

“Yea. I have an extra one at my place.” Jack said with a reassuring smile. He did not.

The boy narrowed his eyes, staring intently into the masked face of Thunder. In response to this, Jack only smiled even wider.

“Well, if you insist-”

“I do!” Jack interfered.

“Then I would love to take your gift. It looks poggers!” The guy's face softened, and his hands carefully took the earphone.

Jack showed him how to use it, and also explained what frequency refers to what. 

Theseus, during the explanation, to Jack's surprise, took out of his inner pocket- is this an armored hoodie ? Okay, now Jack understands that the guy is still ready for night work. However, the boy took out a thick fucking notebook from the inside pocket of his armored hoodie. Why would he - 

Nevermind.

In fact, Jack doesn't have a spare earpiece. There never was one. Jack can't afford extra expenses for his nighttime activity. The regular replenishment of the first aid kit alone takes much more than Jack can afford.

He has had this earphone almost since Jack became a vigilante Thunder, which has almost jumped past the two-year mark. 

It's about time to think about getting a new one anyway. He can request a little use of the workshop during non-working hours from the boss, and buy himself something in Las Nevadas as a basis...

Yes.

Something tells him that he will have to take a break from nightlife. The icicle that pokes through his wound melts, thereby revealing considerable pain from the wound inflicted on Jack.

This earpiece is not such a big loss for the man, but Theseus, who is now playing with frequencies, will need it. He's just a teen...

The guy reminded Jack a lot of himself in his teenage years.

This reminded him that it's still worth telling the guy, while he still has a bit of time before the icicle finally melts.

There are several unspoken rules of vigilantes and agreements between vigilantes and villains. Which is an important part of their job. For the non-compliance of these rules, both parts of the Manburg’s underworld kinda suffer. So it’s better to teach the newbie. Good that the thought crossed Jack’s mind.

Surprisingly, Theseus reacted very calmly to all this. 

Jack did not expect such a turn at all. Back to him being a debutante, he extremely disagreed with some of the rules, since at that time he still believed in goodness and justice… 

Apparently, the guy already knows too much, or is wise beyond his years. Although- Most likely both. Hence why he seemed so experienced.

“I guess it's my time to go.” Jack said, rising from the pipe which the duo was sitting on. 

This action was extremely uncomfortable and- Painful as shit. It seems like somehow he stayed here too long… How would he be able to come home now?

“You good?” Theseus immediately jumped up, putting his hand on the man's shoulder.

“Yea, all good. Just stings a bit, nothing to worry about.” Jack tried to brush it off, simultaneously hiding the wound behind his cloak.

“Are you sure? ‘Cause you don't look fi-” Theseus kept worrying, and-

He's just a boy. A kind teen who decided to fight evil and help others. He still has at least some faith in his eyes left. Just like Jack himself once did…

“You know- You really should get a voice changer.” He said, touching his own, imperceptibly located on the neck. Judging by the guy's reaction, that comment made him embarrassed as shit. “My advice would be to go to Las Nevadas-”

“Okay-okay- Prime!” Theseus began to move away from Thunder. “You look quite healthy, Big T. I think I'll go help some men or maybe women in distress… A lot of women, they love me, because I’m a big pog man. I’m that good, yea. K, bye!” The boy hastened to retreat.

“See ya.”Jack said to the fleeing vigilante.

Turning in the direction of his house, Jack wonders if he can get there on his own two feet.

After a little reflection, he decides to take off the mask and tie the cloak around his waist.

In civilian attire and on public transport he goes. Conveniently, single buses travel through some of the streets of Manburg even at night. 

Tommy was definitely NOT flattered. Nu-uh. Not in the slightest. And even more so, not at all was he embarrassed. 

That Thunder bitch-!

But, Tommy is really grateful to his new friend(?) for the earpiece. 

The boy has not yet had time to decide which devices he will choose for orientation on the streets. He doesn't even need to think now, which means he will have to spend less of his hard-earned money. 

Listening to police and heroes frequencies... It's brilliant, really!

And-

Yes.

Tommy is well aware of the problem with his voice! It wasn't necessary to poke at the elephant in the room… 

And what if he's technically still a teenager whose voice tends to break a lot and yet quite high in general. Tommy is a big man and gave rudeness to his manly voice! 

However, the senior vigilante was right. He DEFINITELY needs a voice changer. 

Well. It looks like he'll have to use ‘Tommy's best way to earn extra pocket money’. 

It is carried out quite simply. 

Tommy simply has to cheat on his exams.  

It just so happened that after living through his third lesson and the events taking place at that time, Tommy completely lost his desire to learn. Therefore, he clearly cannot be called a good student. 

Because of this, Phil decided to motivate Tommy by giving him some extra pocket money for good grades, encouraging the boy to study. 

Actually, it is the fact of preparing for the exam, which will be in two days, that Tommy covers up the fact that he 'sits in his room in the evenings, preparing for it'.

Usually, before the exams, Tommy locks himself in his room to play on the computer and simulate hard work. But secretly getting out into the streets to stop crimes, kick some asses of the ones deserving it… Just being a cool ass vigilante in general. It is way cooler than just sitting and playing Minecraft all day long. 

Tommy will go to Las Nevadas the same night after he writes the exam. It's decided now. 

And tomorrow he- Maybe he will arrange a day off? It would be nice to actually spend some time with the family. He is almost over the shock of them being in The Syndicate now and kinda misses spending his time with them.

In conclusion of his thoughts, Tommy is very happy with this night, so he decided to stop wandering the deserted streets for today.

Chapter Text

School was especially boring today.

No, seriously. 

A Google T-Rex level of boring (Though that's about the funniest thing Tommy was doing today). Some kind of a superhero battle nearby caused the breakdown of Wi-Fi towers, which led to the absence of signal in a solid part of the city. 

This made Tommy think that this was one of the reasons why he didn't want to be involved in all this superhero stuff back then. Because of the activities of heroes, villains, and sometimes especially vigilantes, the little guys -just like Tommy himself once were- suffer.

Today there even wasn't a history class, which is the most boring of them all. How the fuck can a day without a single history class be that boring?

But the facts are on the face. Hence why Tommy is in desperate need of serotonin right now.

After saying goodbye to Tubbo who was walking alone to his house on the usual alley, Tommy headed towards his own house.

What exactly is Ranboob doing today, again? 

Uh... Nevermind. It's not that important anyway.

When Tommy got home, he found no one on the ground floor -where the living room, kitchen and a couple of home offices are located- and there was not a soul outside either. Except for Phil's Chat consisting of crows of course. Tommy stopped in his search, deciding to feed the lil guys. 

These ‘little shits’, as Phil likes to call them, are actually quite fond of Tommy. When he entered the aviary, he was greeted with numerous excited croaks.

“Where’s everyone?” The boy asked, once he fed the birds with some grain.

Of course, there was no verbal response. Phil wasn’t keen on the boys’ idea of teaching crows to talk. Quite reasonably though, there would be too much these birds would scream otherwise. 

However, accompanied by cawing, several crows flew out and began circling around the second floor. A couple of them even sat in front of the window leading into Will's room, currently curtained off.

“Awww, who are the good boys? You are! You’re the best , chatters! Thanks a lot.” Tommy said, coming back to the house.

Now that was something.

Tommy was now sure that Will was sleeping in his room at the moment. This fucker aperently has the damnest schedule out of all inhabitants of this home. 

Seriously, sometimes Tommy wonders how his brother even manages to keep up with everything he does when this bitch is sleeping at the most unpredictable timings of them all.

“Wi-i-il! Wake the fuck up, you moron!” Tommy opened the door with all the terrible power of his big man's muscles, and blurted out at the full power of his lungs, stretching out ‘I’ in Will's name for as long and as loud as he could.

That surely jumpscared the bitch, since he was instantly out of bed, with his eyes being the size of walnuts.

“What the- What the fuck, man?” His expression of utter confusion mixed with surprise was a beautiful sight that made Tommy smile with all his teeth.

“I've just had the most bo-o-oring day of school in like- The history of ever .” Tommy continued, leaning on the beam of the doorway, accompanying his loud speech with active gestures.

“Yeah? And what do I have to do with it?” Wilbur finally calmed down, landing back on his bed, now sitting across from Tommy.

Tommy decided to ignore him, continuing his tirade. “Because of this random fight between some hero and villain, Wi-Fi in a good quarter of the whole city was knocked out.” Judging by Will's reaction to this, the happening was to some extent a revelation for him. “I've even had to play Google T-Rex , Will. I mean- No offense it's a great game but it was this low in terms of boring boring.”

Tommy, as usual, over exaggerates everything. However, that's just how he is. It’s what keeps him sane. To some level , at least.

“I’ve heard it wasn’t just some random villain though. Will said, straightening his curly brown hair, brushing individual strands out of his eyes. “What was the name of this one-” He paused for a second, seemingly to take some time to remember something. “This one cool guy from the Syndicate…”

‘Cool guy from the Syndicate’, huh? Ok, that's how he's playing then. Welp, Tommy can surely fuck with him on that, even without man realising it. That would make the situation 1000 times funnier.

Now that's not the opportunity for Tommy to miss.

“Cool guy you said? Well- I guess Zephyrus is the coolest one out of them, considering his dark black wings.” He made some shape of his arms, for it to seem like he has wings. Tommy is a good actor. It would've been hard not to learn how to lie well for all the time that he had, given the great need for it. “Protesilaus is quite a great lad either. Though he's considered more of a frightening way of ‘cool’.” He pretended to look thoughtful, while glancing at the reaction of the one he’s acting for.. 

Judging by what Tommy had noticed, his brother now seemed interested and intrigued.

Hmm. It’s- fair, though.

Tommy wasn't particularly interested in villains or heroes before. 

“No-no. The other dude. Like-  All tall and mysterious.” He tried to pull.

Ha-ha. Nooo, Will. It doesn't work like that. You were destined to lose here .  

“This Le- Lethe guy you mean?” Fuck. Who the fuck even considered themselves to be named that? Surely someone weird as heck. And a wrong`un. Yea. Surely. “He is quite mysterious, considering he doesn't show much that often. There are speculations of him being an enderman-” 

“No! The other guy!” Now Wilbur looked straight up desperate. Great, that's surely something to mock him about once everything is revealed.

In case they would still be on good terms…

“I mean- Perses is not that tall on all the pictures he’d been at -which is not a lot-” Tommy purposely ‘didn't look’ in Wilburs direction while listing, making it look like he's working hard to get all that information out of his memories. “But there's speculation about that Totem guy being Har-po-crates” He didn't really need to spell this name like he did with Lethe. For the acting sake though- ”There’s even some major evidence supporting this theory, but-”

Now that was Wilbur`s breaking point.

“NO! I mean Orpheus .” He cried out in defeat. 

“ The Siren ...” Tommy made a disgusted face, saying the name with as much disdain as he could muster. 

Well-

Maybe he went too far… 

And if Will looked anything at all, he clearly was hurt. Poor man's face changed from desperate to just simply depressed. 

It's not that he didn't try to brush it off though. 

"Why so harsh on the man?" He tried, covering the hurt out of his voice. 

"I dunno." The boy shrugged. "I never liked him. Too tall, thin and pre-preten-" Now he did not have trouble with that word. He didn't!

" Pretentious , you mean? Why though? Surely That Blood God looks way- Fancier , if that’s a good word?" Now that was impressive. Wilbur really seemed quite natural now. Either he didn't care, or was that good at hiding his emotions. Considering his power…  Yea, Will's simply a great actor.

"I dunno. Maybe the fact he literally went for the fucking Wi-Fi tower in the battle, rather than anything else?" The blonde offered. Now that’s a straight up personal attack. "He's quite literally the reason for my boredom, Will. That alone is the biggest crime of them all!" He switched to his bad acting voice now.

"Uh-" He had the audacity to shrug it off. 

Shrug it off like it was nothing . 

That fucking cunt-

Okay, calm down Big T. You're above that. You’re above him! Considering the fucker is sitting right now-

"Do you like villains, Tommy? Since when did you get interested in all the superhero stuff?" The brunette brought Tommy out of the depths of his thoughts. 

"What? No! Villains are gross . They are wronguns and I despise them by heart." Tommy was quick to react. Even if it seemed too quick. 

Wilbur must have noticed this quick reaction. However, apart from a narrowing of his eyes at his younger brother for a moment, the man decided not to react any more. 

It’s not true after all. 

Tommy doesn't mind villains at all. Prime, he lives with three of the most infamous ones in the same house , let alone speaks with one at the very moment. 

One of the vigilantes' agreements with the villains is that both parties do not touch each other unless it’s necessary to, or when literally doing their job . 

The only villain Tommy has caught yet is the one who was already fighting with Thunder. 

The boy did not plan to touch the villains in the first place. 

In fact, vigilantes have too much in common with villains, if Tommy were coming to think about it. 

" Anyways , why did you wake me up?" He said, getting up to open the curtains. A slight surprise slipped on his face when the brunette saw crows circling around his window. "Were you the one to rile them all up?" He turned one of his brows up in question, looking back at Tommy. 

"I asked them the where-abouts of everyone, but the chat were no use." The boy said. "Where's Phil and Tech?"

"Oh, they're at their usual literature club meeting." Will said, looking back at him from watching the black birds. 

Seriously? How could he not have guessed that right away? 

"Well, thank you. You may go to sleep now, cause I'm going to bother them from now on." Tommy smirked, looking at the yet again changing expression of his brother. 

"What the- Why did you need to wake me up in the first place then?! " The man exclaimed. 

Though it was met with a simple "Sweet dreams, The Sleeping Beauty." from the heading downstairs boy.

Tommy is currently heading to Techno’s bookshop, one out of a chain of Minecraft’s very different shops. It just so happens that Minecrafts are quite rich. Multiple shops network stage of richness, to be exact. 

Tommy likes to live in a rich family. Who would even refuse such a thing? His life for the last six months has been literally the dream of any child in the foster system. 

In fact, despite the conversation the guy overheard -the one which launched his vigilante career- so far he has not noticed anything strange about his family, which somewhat alarms the boy.

However, if he comes to think about it, it is kinda logical, given that they were able to keep everything a secret from Tommy for the entire time that he lives with them. 

However, the facts of their guilt are on the face. Will's ability. Phil's wings. Even Techno’s fucking long pink hair! 

No wonder he loves to braid them, yet doesn't do it often. He’ll immediately would’ve been recognised as fucking Protesilaus. If Phil's wings can hardly be called an indicator with a stretch, since there are quite a lot of avians living in Manburg, at least some of whom are just destined to have black wings apparently, then a person with Techno musculature is very much given out by long pink hair in a braid. Plus, the dude looks like he is spending a lot of time on his hair. Which he does. Tommy saw how fucking much hair products he uses, it’s actually insane.

If he comes to judge, then his family has simply terrifying powers.

Tommy, of course, knew about his older brother's voices. The dude is strongly bothered by fuckers. Techno can't spend a minute in silence. Man's self-control has always been admired by Tommy, making him incredibly respectful towards Techno. 

However, apparently, there was another ability in Technoblade's possession: super-fucking-strength. That's why he sometimes lifts the heaviest things way too easily, and that's why he's so strong. It’s cheating ! 

Although... Who is Tommy to judge? And abilities of the empowering type are quite common too.

As well as he knew about Techno’s voices, about Chat, Tommy knew about their physical embodiment - Phil's flock of crows. 

But, Phil literally has in his possession, arguably, one of the most dangerous powers of them all - Withering . Although it is not the strongest ever, like some representatives who go far into history had, however, the man, if desired, will be more than able to turn the skulls of his enemies into ashes.

Wait- This means that three of the four members of Tommy's family, including the boy himself, have two abilities . That’s crazy! Isn’t it rare? Especially for hybrids???

And Will's ability… He knew about Will's ability, of course he did. That wasn’t a secret. However, just like everyone else, Tommy was overplayed by the man into thinking that his ability is way weaker than it actually is.

Considering what Will is able to do even with professional heroes... Yes. Orpheus -or much more frightening for the inhabitants of Manburg the name Siren- truly deserves his place as one of the most dangerous villains not only in the country, but in the whole world.

Deep in such thoughts, Tommy finally arrived at the place of his destination. 

The boy rarely comes here, but he still visited the shop more than once. 

Entering through the glass doors, Tommy notices the bookshelves first. It would've been weird for a bookshop if its endless shelves didn't attract attention. 

Tommy next heard a monotonous deep voice in the back of the room. He instantly identified it's owner as Technoblade. 

Looking in the direction of the voice, Tommy came across a counter in the distance with a cute girl leaning on it. 

It's Nikki. The shop manager, that seems to be working behind the counter today. 

The girl's loose hair was dyed pink, which -according to her- she dyed to be matching with Techno, despite the fact that her shade of bright pink is much brighter than the more delicate pink of the man. Apparently, they seem to be close friends in some way . That`s a bit surprising to Tommy, considering the socially awkward nature of his older brother.

Given the Techno’s voice and the fact that Nikki leans -supposedly in the direction of the others- there really is a meeting of that very literature club right now. 

As surprisingly as it may be, Tommy has never been to one of such meetings. Although, after the boy's first refusal to join them at the very beginning of Tommy's stay with Minecrafts, there weren't any more offers. 

Halfway through the passage between the shelves filled with books to the counter, Tommy greeted Nikki. Which led to an instant stop of the Techno’s monologue.

Tommy walked to the end, looking around the counter and the sofas with cushions arranged around a large round table nearby. 

The first, of course, in all her glory, appeared Nikki herself. A tube led from her nose to a special device on her leg, in which the water that the girl needed for- Life and breathing? Um. The water circulated in there. That’s for sure. 

Tommy always liked this Merling hybrid. She is a nice woman, always smiling warmly at the boy when they meet, ready to listen to any of his complaints- Although, the latter most likely related more to her work than anything… But Tommy likes to imagine that the girl actually likes him at least a little .

The duo nodded to each other, smiling.

Techno and Phil are sitting on one of the sofas arranged around a table. 

His brother dressed up today, although it was not uncommon for him. With the book open in his hand, he turned to Tommy, greeting the boy almost at the same time as Phil.

Tommy, as always, lingered his gaze a little on the emeralds of the pair that hung from the earrings of one of their ears. They often called themselves the Emerald duo, and Tommy couldn't really help but admire the stones. They must have cost like his life does…

Also, several other persons gathered around a round table filled with books, sheets of paper -both scribbled and empty- and other stationery.

Two more men were sitting at another sofa, Tommy had never met these two before. A fluffy dude was sitting behind an armchair. It seemed like he was a fox hybrid. And that very tall bastard Ranboo was sitting on the pillows next to-

Wait-

“ Ranboo? !” Tommy found himself accidentally saying. Once he started, he decided to continue. “What the fuck are you doing here?” 

Apparently, Tommy seemed to be looking rather comical, as the boy was able to cause a couple of laughs from strangers around.

“What do you mean ‘What am I doing here?’ I'm currently at a literature club meeting, like many other members of this club are . Where do you expect me to be at that time?” Ranbu looked a bit puzzled.

“You're a part of Techno’s club?!” Tommy shouted. And that was what finally got the crowd, as the boy found everyone around him to be laughing, apart from Ranboo. “What are y'all laughing about?” He exclaimed in the very same shouting manner.

“I've literally told you this like- Ages ago! And I'm quite positive that I did bring it up on numerous occasions.” Now Ranboo joined the screaming pit. Though the lad was never really the one to scream, so it was simply a bit louder than his regular talking manner.

“Must have split my consciousness, man.” The boy shrugged it off.

“What the-” Ranboo had just started, but then paused right before the curse. Yeah, right. The skyscraper of a man tended not to be cursing and using all those fancy words that Tommy likes to.

After the crowd finally calmed down, Tommy learned a lot of interesting things.

It turns out Tubbo also has a membership in the club. However, the guy almost never comes to the meetings. Not surprising though.

Seriously, why does a dyslexic Tubbo have a membership in the literature club in the first place???

In addition, the club has several other members besides Will and those already present. Tommy was introduced to the latter.

In the chair sat a fox hybrid, whose name was Fundy. The guy looked quite comfortable in this company, Tommy was explained that the dude is an old friend of Will, and accordingly everyone else’s too. He looked probably the youngest of the company, apart from himself and Ranboo. Although Tommy isn't sure if he's qualified enough to judge the age of a literally anthropomorphic fox.

That dude is quite chill, Tommy liked him.

He was sitting with a laptop on his lap, as he was working on some code. According to the man himself, he often goes to the club just for some company, conversation to have in the background and in general to clear head and see friends. Not that he was interested in books at all. Relatable.

The next was one of the people sitting on the couch. The dude turned out to be a shark hybrid with bright green sparkling eyes. They reminded Tommy a lot of the emeralds that hung in the form of earrings from the ears of his adoptive father and brother.

He seemed to be the most massive in the room, and at the same time he had a terribly contagious wide toothy smile. The boy liked this dude too, as he concluded.

During the conversation, Tommy found out that Foolish -that was the man's name- apparently has a bakery of some sort. It's a little surprising, because from afar he can't say that the guy can get carried away with baking, but Tommy finds it really cool.

However, Tommy's favorite yet turned out to be the only other human in the room besides himself. His name is Skeppy. On one of his cheeks, slightly below the eyelids, was something like a voluminous makeup, representing- Some crystals? When Tommy asked him about it, it turned out that it had something to do with his ability, and it turns out they were r eal diamonds . This dude should be fucking loaded if he wasted fucking diamonds on that. Although, Tommy didn't really expect that there would be a lot of poor people or someone from the middle class in his family's social circle anyway. 

Even Nikki seems to be quite rich, even if she doesn't show it. However, considering how much she brings home according to Tubbo's stories -he is her younger foster brother- Techno must be paying her a lot since they are close friends.

However, although wealth is cool to have, Tommy didn't like this dude for that. In fact, the boy has just found himself a partner in jokes about Techno! The dude clearly resonates with Tommy's humor, the two quickly found a common language. They even planned a new prank when no one was listening to them!

Yes, as shocking as it may be, but Skeppy is a close friend of Techno too. This socially awkward pig has two best friends ? Whaaat?

Anyway.

Tommy has already managed to join the conversation of literature nerds and good friends. He himself rather belongs to the second category, since he has not been particularly a book reader as of lately. The desire to study, which the boy had until he turned 13, was killed by the following events in his life and he still somehow couldn't fully get it back. 

That's why he wants to finally get through tomorrow as soon as possible. He had already bought the test answers, memorized them and returned back on his loop. 

It was the only interesting event for today, by the way.

However, Tommy likes to listen to his loved ones. Especially Techno, which is one of those from whom the boy takes as a role model. Tommy really likes to listen to Techno when he discusses something related to Greek mythology, which the man really likes. And when the piglin hybrid really likes the topic of conversation, it becomes almost impossible not to listen to him. 

However, the sound of the opening door made Tommy turn his gaze to the entrance.

A woman came into the store and was heading towards the members of the club -plus Tommy- and the boy instantly recognized her.

Lush long white curls of hair hung from her head. The horns peeking out of this unusual hairstyle standing out from the crowd indicated that it was a sheep hybrid.

The blue eyes turned to Tommy in surprise. Similar eyes, belonging to a boy and slightly different in hue, stared back, probably even more comically indicating the shock of the boy they belonged to.

“Hey, Puffy. You’re a bit late. What’s up?” Phil greeted her. 

Yes, now there isn’t any chance that Tommy was wrong. Is the world -well, or Manburg in particular- is such a small place?

“Oh, I've had to reschedule a couple of sessions and the last one I've just had was a bit longer than intended. ”She finally tore her gaze away from Tommy, directing it at the boy's father instead.

Tommy must have finally been able to shake off the numbness. 

“Captain Puffy?” He blurted it out.

The faces of those present were confused. Huh? Did he say something wrong?

A couple years ago, when Puffy was still working with children at his foster care agency, she asked to address her that way. The woman really made up an image of the historical captain of the ship, which Tommy personally always liked. 

The woman's therapy sessions were his fondest memories since Tommy's days in the foster system.

“Tommy? Is this actually you?” Puffy visibly perked up. “I’ve had a feeling that it’s you who might have actually been Minecraft's new kid, but I wasn't completely sure-” 

“Do you know each other?” Techno looked like the first one who finally digested the information received.

“Yes, of course.” Puffy smiled. 

Oh. Tommy managed to get out of the habit of this sweetest smile, which the woman scattered at the sight of Tommy. At such moments, a feeling appeared in Tommy's chest that could well replace the boy's feelings towards his parents, if he had them.

“Tommy was one of the kids I've worked with. Apparently, he seems to be given to Bad after I’ve-” She stumbled for a moment. “ Switched agencies .” Now that was a bit suspicious, though Tommy was quick to brush it off since it was Puffy who he was actually meeting again with.

“I’ve been guessing where you've been this whole time. I loved our sessions.” Tommy responded warmly.

Yes. Tommy really liked those moments. 

Puffy really put whole soul into her work, so the boy was just shocked by the woman's departure at that moment. Especially considering the boy's terrible need for at least some stability back then. 

The reunion of the two led to numerous questions from others.

However, it dawned on Tommy after a moment. 

“Wait. Y’all know Bad, my therapist?” He blurted it out. And indeed, Puffy said something about it.

“Duh.” Techno muttered.

“I mean- He's literally my best friend, so...” Skeppy quickly added to the pink-haired man.

“Of course we know him.” Phil chimed in too. “He was the one who advised us to adopt you in the first place.”

"For Prime's sake. You're friends with each of my two therapists . What the fuck, Phil?" Tommy jokingly accused his adoptive father, which was met with laughter from everyone at the table. 

However, after a short period of time, Tommy became uncomfortable with one crazy thought. What if someone from this group is somehow involved with the Syndicate?

In general, this whole meeting somewhat confused the boy. Only the presence of his heterochromatic enderman friend kept Tommy from thinking in this direction any further. 

Indeed, Ranboob can't hurt a fly, but here he will suddenly turn out to be a villain? 

Pffft.

However, the arrival of a new familiar face changed the situation somewhat. What if Puffy is somehow involved with the Syndicate?

No matter how small, the chance of this particular woman's interference in the affairs of the Syndicate cannot just be ruled out. 

The group was officially formed shortly before Puffy left work. Can it be somehow connected? As far as Tommy knows, the Syndicate has a lot of people up its sleeve who can help them from the shadows. Or, at least just some random names they are throwing around.

Or maybe Tommy just as always complicates everything way too much and just imagines the dangers?

Well- Okay.

At the very least, he needs to keep this possibility in his mind and be more careful. After all-

Puffy is the only one in the current timeline who knows about the mere existence of Tommy's second ability. 

The fact is that a woman's ability is a lie detector. Tommy can't just lie to her answering a direct question. 

Back then, he was too young for him to be able to get out of the situation when he had to admit that.

Yes, he did not change the fact of his accidental slip-up to Puffy. The boy considered the situation uncritical then. Oh, now he truly understands how fucking wrong he was...

Now this potentially dangerous woman knows that he has a second ability. 

Puffy, of course, doesn't know which one exactly . Even then Tommy knew better than to let slip everything he fought so hard to protect. However, the very fact of the boy having a secret is in her hands. 

If she really is involved in the villainous world, then the threat to the boy's identity has now increased significantly. 

Well, that's one more reason to give his best on the test tomorrow! After all, then he will be able to afford a trip to Las Nevadas. 

But these are the problems of tomorrow Tommy. Today, he wants to take a little break from the facts that have been constantly mixing in his head lately. 

Oh, how he already misses the days when he didn't know anything of what he now has to face on a daily basis. Ignorance is a bliss, truly.

He's getting into something very big . 

The boy understood this perfectly well before, but now it seemed to really get to him. 

Indeed, Tommy is quite suitable for the role of a vigilante by his character. This is how most imagine these funny heroes-wannabe. But the boy's ability does not match his personality at all. 

‘Do first, think later' could’ve well have become his motto if circumstances -the very Fate herself- had not forced the boy to make well thought about decisions. 

But Tommy decided to put such thoughts aside for the moment. 

He is in a pleasant circle of friends, in which he quite likes to be. Therefore, he let the moment carry himself forward, carelessly enjoying the moment. 

Who knows, it’s very easily may be his last pleasant day he spends with his family.

Chapter Text

Tommy, as usual, passed the test for almost the highest possible score, making only a couple tine mistakes for realism or something. 

In order to organize everything, yesterday during his time at school Tommy borrowed some money from Tubbo. He bought answers from his informant -who, of course, does not remember a single time that Tommy bought answers from them- memorized them and came back to the beginning of the loop. That's why his day was that boring yesterday. On top of everything, it lasted twice the usual amount after all. 

But, there are no flaws in his strategy! 

In fact, after yesterday, it was not so much the exam that bothered him, but the reaction of his family (especially Wilbur) to the fact that Puffy was his psychologist that continues to bother him still. 

She may tell them a lot of dirt about him. Even though Tommy believes in the principles and morals of the woman- She has no right to tell his confidential information to anyone, right? Still, doubt easily finds its way into Tommy's mind. 

In addition to Will's complaints that he missed such an opportunity to learn more in the moment, nothing else seems to threaten the boy, and therefore he has omitted this moment for now . 

Armed with his results and pre-prepared methods of persuasion, which Tommy experimentally managed to find out a long time ago, the boy was able to get some money out of Phil. 

How convenient it is to live in a rich family! Even if their methods of earning these are not very- Legal …

Now, somewhat reluctantly, Tommy is almost habitually rearranging his checkpoint. It is important to do this before each outing, given that each of them involves a high risk. However, he also needs to save the previous ones in order to be able to return, which he does by putting normal loops in place of old checkpoints. That’s a new strat, and definitely not something he was able to do in the past too.

Tommy has now - on a permanent basis(!) - the largest amount of loops open since the very third lesson! Oh Prime, how he doesn't like it at all...

The boy decides to close his last copied checkpoint. His last outing was perfect, so he has nothing to regret there. Although other copies of checkpoints should be left running for now. It's too risky to close them yet. This time his stakes are probably higher than ever before. 

Urgh- Although it became much easier for Tommy to use and navigate the loops after discovering his synchronization to the clocks, however the boy still dreams of improving his powers yet again. 

But, now he needs to get out of his silly dreams back to reality. Tommy was approaching Las Nevadas. 

This is quite a tiny territory on the scale of the entire Manburg. One casino and another couple of smaller nearest buildings around. The tallest tower in the very center stood out the most. They say that at the top of this Needle is the office of the Jester himself, an opened supervillain (Tommy still thinks that such a concept is weird as shit. How come he’s not being arrested while having his identity revealed?). How much money did the man pour into the government so that he would not be pestered about the legality of such a place..? 

However, Las Nevadas did not become less grandiose from the simple fact of being ‘small’ compared to a megapolis. 

As he got closer, Tommy became increasingly nervous. 

Previously, he avoided that part of the city like a plague, but now he goes to the very center of it! 

Going against his own principles is becoming quite a habit for Tommy… 

A bad habit.  

Standing on the roof of a building close to Las Nevadas, Tommy took one last breath and opened a new loop. You never know what might happen. Tommy can't afford to risk doing anything as a vigilante without being able to go back. 

Yes, now Tommy is not a random teenager who forgot something in the rather shady neighborhood under the cover of night. Although he is a kid of the rich, Tommy obviously will not spend money on casinos and alcohol tonight. 

He is now a vigilante Theseus. He should not be afraid of meeting heroes, villains and vigilantes just as himself. The rich people should be even less scary to the guy and the children of such personalities living their lives were rather ridiculous in comparison! 

Therefore, Theseus confidently stepped forward to meet the previously unknown, but so inviting in the dark of the night with its bright lights. He came to Las Nevadas.

Despite the fact that the sun had already left the horizon, making room for the moon, in Las Nevadas it was almost as bright as in the daytime. Numerous lanterns, bright signs and literal searchlights aimed at the sky are doing their job. 

However, that only made the dark alleys seem much darker than usual. Peering into the darkness, Tommy felt a presence, and it seemed that the darkness was looking back at him. That surely made him shiver a tiniest bit.

The rest of the visitors of Las Nevadas, who seemed accustomed to this place, shunned such alleys, or deliberately tried not to look in the direction, pretending to be completely unaware of their existence. 

The vigilante came to the conclusion that there was something extremely shady even for normal Las Nevadas’s inhabitants going on there. And he’s not really interested in learning what exactly.

By the way, to Tommy's surprise, he saw a lot more people than he originally expected. 

The most diverse amount of men, women and other possible folks from all strata of the population. Some hid their faces, some did not. For someone, it was easy to distinguish a rich man (such people are probably here because of the casino, or maybe even the purchase of illegal substances or worse. The list of what can be found in Las Nevadas is rumored to be very large), while others clearly tried to hide their own identities. 

Sometimes Tommy saw some famous in Manburg faces flashing, and even more famous masks were seen here too. Villains and even vigilantes. Of course he didn’t judge the vigilantes strolling around the city. Considering he himself is here right now. Would've been quite hypocritical of him, wouldn't it? 

And so, calmly strolling through the streets of a fancy place, Tommy was suddenly called from somewhere behind. Or rather, of course, it was not Tommy himself who was called, but rather who he was at the moment. The vigilante Theseus was called. 

Is his name already starting to appear in the media, and people recognize him? Tommy has seen a couple of posts about himself on Twitter, but they are not even close to trends in popularity. Therefore these posts cover such small auditories that there are more people who have nothing to do with Manburg have seen it rather than the actual residents of the city. 

Turning around, the boy was met by a familiar cat hybrid. 

"Kitten!" He exclaimed. "I didn't expect to meet you here." He said to the vigilante who was rescued by him not that long ago. 

"Same here!" The vigilante with cat characteristics lowered her hand in a greeting sign. "Though, I guess you might need quite a few things that you'll be able to get here. Being a vigilante is way harder than it looks like. I believe you've felt it through already." She said, leaning against the wall. 

"Yea, you're right. Once I've got enough money to afford anything here, my feet themselves brought me to the very place." The boy nodded. 

"You're new to vigilantism, am I right?" The girl asked, clearly feigning negligence in her tone. 

"Ouch. What gave me away?!" Tommy visibly winced, as if the phrase itself hurt him. 

This forced a giggle out of the girl. "Well, apart from your speech you did when trying to get Aimsey's attention off me-" Her grin probably spread, as the girl's voice was telling, and Tommy could practically feel that masked gaze staring at him. This made the boy feel embarrassed, but she wasn't wrong- "Which- thanks a lot. Though I’m surprised it actually worked, I'm still afraid I would've ended up captured otherwise.”

Tommy replied with a nod. Of course this would've been the outcome. The very reason for Tommy's intervention was to prevent this event from happening. 

After receiving Theseus's acknowledgement, she continued. "So apart from my grand supersecret knowledge ," She mocked. "It is more than easy to guess if some weirdo like you is a newbie. Gait, behavior, appearance… Are you even trying to blend in with your surroundings if your goal is to fool others?" Her words cut deep. Tommy couldn't do anything but cringe, raising his hands and conceding defeat by bowing. 

"Oh, great Sensei . Your wisdom is so great!" He almost sang. 

This time, the boy's action caused not just a little chuckle, but a real laugh from the vigilante with whom he was talking, which caused a lot of glances from the crowd walking around. 

Somehow, the laughter sounded somewhat- Robotic? Ah, yes. Voice changer. Most likely, it is not intended for proper laughter. 

This reminded the boy that it would be great to get one too. 

"Hey, Kitten. Do you have any recommendations for good voice changers?” Tommy asked, once the girl calmed down. 

"Hmm." The vigilante looked him over. He could practically feel this narrowing eyes under the girl's mask. "Yep. You definitely need one, kiddo. It's too dumb of you to debut without a voice changer anyway." She nodded, as if answering more to herself rather than to Tommy. 

Now that's a bit embarrassing. Tommy flushed, poking a cheek with his finger. 

"Okay." Kitten cleared her throat and clapped her hands. "I know the best place that sells voice changers, plus I do have some recommendations of what exactly to buy. How much can you afford to spend at the moment?"

During this shopping trip, Kitten warned the boy about a lot of things, and simply told him even more. She suggested the best voice changer on the bass range. Tommy was able to save quite a sum without losing efficiency at all! 

The boy is not quite used to this black ribbon around his neck, but the work of this little thing is absolutely worth this slight uncomfortabily. Instead of his own voice, Tommy was met by the voice of an adult man, almost comparable to the deep bass of his pink-haired brother. Maybe even a deeper one.

When Tommy asked how she was so familiar with voice changers, the girl replied that she had tried too many of them back then in order to find the perfect voice changer with her own important criterion: she needed a built-in autotune. 

The girl didn't talk much publicly about it, but so that during her patrols she could sing the same way as if she wasn't in the middle of a battle or running across roofs, she needs one. 

Tommy never ceases to be surprised by the oddities of his colleagues. However, who is he to judge them? He recalls something similar being said to him by Thunder.

Just like that -quite simply too- Tommy has already got two allies! At least the boy hoped he could trust them at least a little. 

After saying goodbye to Kitten, who went back on her patrol, Tommy continued his shopping.

Tommy was able to try his new acquisitions already on patrol the next evening. 

He spent most of his money on the device, which is indispensable for a vigilante like him. An interactive map! Tommy had to wander in Las Nevadas a lot in order to put his hands on one of these. 

As he was told, the heroes use similar ones. However, this one is the development of the Awesome Dude. He’s an important villain in Las Nevadas, by the way. And that's why the device of his production cost Tommy a pretty penny. However, it was definitely worth it. 

In a regular condition, this is yet another electronic watch on Tommy's left wrist, which is extremely comfortable to wear and does not contrast with his brand. The third pair of watches isn't much stranger if he already has the other two on one hand. The weird cannot get any weirder, can it?

On the clock map, which turns on by pressing a certain button, the positions of most of the heroes and some villains and vigilantes are displayed, as well as the information about events taking place in the city is processed in real time. Given the built-in GPS tracker, which is triggered strictly when the map is turned on, Tommy will not be surprised if his location is indicated on this map for other users during the map’s use too. Better be cautious with using it around his home area then.

This map, of course, is not perfect. If it is even possible to create one, then they will definitely not sell it to the public and in such masses as they did with this one. However, huge respect to this dude! Tommy has already managed to feel the usefulness of his new purchase. 

Complete with an earpiece given to the boy by Thunder and this map, Tommy now perfectly navigates the city and quickly sees problematic situations that require his quick solution. The places where calls to the police are made are also indicated on this map. Does Las Nevadas have access to hero systems? 

Although… 

Yep, that wouldn't be a surprise to the boy. 

Theseus is doing a great job. And he didn't even prepare for the patrol, as he used to do before!

The boy went like every other vigilante does. Unprepared, not knowing what was waiting for him today. 

But... Yes- 

He probably lied there. There is one vigilante who has similar abilities to him. 

Rewind. Tommy remembered him because he felt the man’s calculating gaze on him yesterday. 

No one is sure exactly what kind of ability the guy has, but it's somehow related to time. He is able to see some shit . 

Perhaps, in some unimaginable way, he found out what kind of ability Tommy had. At the very least, the man should have had suspicions and guesses. This look, the one penetrating The Time themself… The gaze which made the boy experience several stages of discomfort and even fear, simply cannot mean anything else. 

This- Isn't good. 

Not good at all. 

But, Tommy needs to return to the present. 

There really is a huge con in the fact that Tommy went unprepared. A significant one .

He doesn't know at all what awaits him today, and therefore he was absolutely taken aback by one thing- one person shown on the map. 

Nemesis . 

A pink-haired girl, piercing your very soul with her sharp dark red eyes. A woman with a terrifying ability to control one's blood. 

Tommy just can't help but jump at the chance to observe someone from the Syndicate firsthand! Moreover, Nemesis is not a frequent guest at the field in solitude. 

Part of the reason is that the Syndicate does practically anything less often in general as of lately. Recently, as it seems, they have sunk to the very bottom. Everyone who is not familiar with their goals, including Tommy, is wondering why, but the boy seems to have a distant understanding of what's going on here. 

He doesn't think his family will be villains for no reason. As far as he found out, they had already opened businesses for a long time on the money earned in their first years being villains, and now they don't really need to be villains for the money at all. 

Moreover, Minecrafts spend extra money on charity. The house they live in is just an improved version of an upper-middle-class house. 

By the look of it, you can't immediately tell about Tommy's family being loaded. 

But if the money option falls, there's another one. Why do they need this? What is all this villainy for? 

There may be many answers, but those that sound like power, intimidating the population, or being villains for the sake of it… All of it doesn't fit them. 

They clearly have a good reason to become villains. Also, the boy feels that every day of him being a vigilante moves him closer to understanding these reasons. 

But, returning to today's topic. 

Nemesis. 

The vigilante throws away all his business and goes to watch the girl and whatever she will do. 

What will Tommy witness today?

Nikki is on a mission today.

Perses, as usual, is the communicator today. Seriously, it's about time for him to take a vacation, especially considering the upcoming exams. This little rascal does not care about his own well being which would certainly be the death of him one day…

His childish, but never less collected voice skillfully directs the movements of the villain. The boy is probably the most competent person for this job, if you won't consider the professionals. He himself understands that the entire Syndicate is now too dependent on him and his work.

So far, everything seems to be going according to plan.  

This is yet another not the most important or difficult for the Syndicate outing. Hence why it was decided to give this one to Nemesis, who rarely appears on the stage.

After all, each of the Syndicate members needs to preserve their own image of the villain in the media, if the group wants to maintain their infamous reputation. 

However, as it always is, if the girl would struggle with anything, then Lethe will be urgently called to her rescue. (Nikki really hoped the guy wasn't sleeping right now.) 

Whatever one may say, Nikki is primarily a Syndicate’s healer and is not really known to be that good with the second side of her ability. Although, it was the blood control in a damaging form that Nemesis became infamous for. 

Her healing abilities as well as her being a merling hybrid are the secrets behind her villain's identity. These secrets are as necessary as hiding the Orpheus being a piglin hybrid, or the real age of two teenagers who quite recently made their way into the Syndicate. 

Nemesis, as befits villains, moved through the city by dark alleys, avoiding external eyes.

In one of these alleys, not that far from the destination point, she was met by a mysterious figure who almost literally fell from the skies -although they probably just jumped off that ledge in the wall- blocking the road. 

In such dark lighting, it was difficult to notice the appearance in more detail than the hood of a dark brown jacket. Nikki didn't notice any wings, tail or other prominent features, and so she decided to go with considering that person being a human for the time being. 

The villain was about to bypass the weirdo, as she was stopped by a warning gesture. 

Moreover, rather involuntarily, the girl decided to take a closer look at him, sharply and unexpectedly getting interested in the guy for some reason. 

"Be careful, Nemesis. This guy seems shady. I'm currently trying to find any info on him." Came from the earpiece. 

Now, if you think about it…  His jump didn't seem accidental, and given the intention to talk with or detain the girl seemed quite intentional. 

Was this dude waiting for Nemesis on purpose? 

On the other side of the communication line, Nikki could clearly hear Perses' rapid taps on the keyboard and a mumble showing him reading. Dyslexia must be a pain in the ass. 

The micro-camera attached to the Nemesis' suit, as well as the cameras on other Syndicate members, has a live connection with Perses' office, and with a place to store the records. Moreover, in the dark, the camera turns to night vision. So it was much easier for the boy to see the details of the appearance of the stranger standing in front of the Nemesis, tense in a fighting stance, in order to be able to identify him. 

However, this wasn't really necessary anymore. 

The lad in question slowly, avoiding any quick movements, raised his hands in front of him, in a gesture of surrender.

"I'm Theseus." He said. A deep low voice, clearly coming from the guy's voice changer, contrasted strongly with his appearance. 

Someone in particular surely has got a couple insecurities here and there for such a choice of device. Even Techono's voice changer was seemingly about an octave higher.

Nemesis decided not to answer him immediately, waiting for information from Perses. 

After a few seconds, he replied.

"A debutante vigilante. Apparently as an ability he has some sort of invisibility? It seems to be a very minor one though, and it doesn't even work on cameras." It came from Perses through the earpiece. 

In response to this, Nikki nodded. 

Theseus, apparently, took this gesture as an invitation to continue his speech. 

"I'm sorta on your side." He said, though instantly the man corrected himself. "I mean- As much as it counts. I don't exactly hold anything against you myself, so what about a truce ?" He was somewhat stammering in his words, clearly showing nervousness, but apart from that, he sounded rather confident. 

"Yea? What a nerve do you have." Nemesis blurted out the first thing that came to mind without thinking about the choice of words. 

It's not every day that a clearly young vigilante offers a truce to one of the most infamous villains . 

The guy definitely intrigued Nikki. 

"Well. I may be talking to Nemesis right now. Nemesis, who is one of the most infamous villains out there. And I am against killing and doing petty crimes, but I do have a feeling that our goals are-" He flipped his hands in search of a better word. " Pretty much one in common, I guess."

The girl's response to this was a raised eyebrow and a grin, which, however, as she quickly realized, the guy could not see behind the baggy scarf-like mask covering the lower part of the villain's face and neck. 

"And what are you trying to say here, Theseus ?" Without trying to hide the joy in her voice, she asked. The girl decided to ignore the comments about her behavior that Perses threw at her. 

After these words, though rather hearing the girl's tone, the guy visibly relaxed, as Nikki noticed, by lowering both his shoulders and arms.  

However, at the same time, Theseus somewhat clamped down, as if he had not expected such a question. Although, rather, he did not expect that he would be able to get as far in the first place. 

Well, Nikki's real character is not at all like how she behaves on cameras. Moreover, if such cases of simple small talks with random vigilantes were frequent, the Syndicate would have greatly diminished in their reputation. 

Most of the members of the villainous group are not at all against those who have done nothing wrong to them. Especially for vigilantes. These guys are doing the things that real heroes are not capable of. 

"Right now my only wish is to give you that. It's for your own safety." He said. 

From his pocket, the guy carefully pulled out a round- disk? 

A black disk with a hot pink circle in the middle. In appearance, this thing reminded Nikki more of a vinyl record. 

"Huh?" Was the only sound that burst out from the girl, who had already managed to get her hands on the very thing that she had been considering just a few moments earlier. 

"Today, I want you to be especially careful at the safe house you're breaking in." Theseus continued to chatter, not giving the villain the mere opportunity to process what was happening. "Rely less on your ability. It doesn't work on everyone , is it?" The boy spoke so confidently and with pauses, sufficient to focus attention on some things, but not long enough for Nikki to have a chance to interfere. 

"Wait, what are you-" The villain tried to nudge her words in, but quickly gave up under the pressure of more information that the vigilante was currently pouring into the girl. 

"When you will be in need of any backup, cause there are a couple of people who might interfere," He said like he was certain about that information. "just press this button on the middle and throw the disc as high as possible." The man pointed at where the button was supposedly located at. "After that you'll just have to run . Run no stop, without even daring to look up and/or back- To anywhere other than where you absolutely have to, I guess. It's the most important part for me to actually be able to help you. Just run, please." 

Nikki digested everything that she was told. Both by this Theseus guy and Perses droning in the earphone, which she did not pay attention to. In this state, she didn't even have time to have a truck of time, as the vigilante farewelled and literally disappeared into thin air. The only sign of his presence was the rapid footsteps retreating around the corner. Maybe Nikki even noticed a shadow flickering at the last moment. 

Although, perhaps it was just her imagination. Surely the guy can't have invisibility lasting only for a couple of seconds? It's too minor of an ability to have if you're a vigilante . 

"What the hell was that?" Nemesis whispered. 

The vigilante sighed wearily. 

This is already... Which exactly return on the loop? It was definitely over 30, if he counts the fact that he had to spit on everything that he had already managed to do that night and use earlier loops to simply meet with the villain. 

He even had to risk handing his brand new acquisition to Nemesis. The boy did not think that he would use these things that early.

Initially, a pair of discs -one of which the boy temporarily handed over to Nemesis - were purchased to be used for distraction or as something like flares or shit. 

Although Tommy's very first thought was using them by throwing like a frisbee as a weapon. The weight kinda allows, but the edges of the disk are not sharp at all. And it'll surely damage the thing. 

Maybe one day he would offer to think about ordering such custom weapons when Theseus gains popularity though. The guy already has a few ideas for these bad bois. 

Even at the time of purchase, Tommy was considering handing the discs to someone in order to save this person, and now he's trying it in practice. 

The process of handling the disk itself was another hassle. At the first loops, the villain refused to accept the disk at all, then, as it turned out, she threw it away in the nearest alley... 

However, now Tommy is sure that he finally managed to convey to the girl his desire to help, since she had already used the disk in earlier loops. So this is a passed stage of his operation. 

However, Tommy has not yet managed to do the most important thing: actually find a way to save her . 

The boy thought for a long time about whether it was even worth showing his intention to help the Syndicate. 

On the one hand, it is dangerous. Moreover, the boy may be mistakenly recorded as a villain! It is not customary among vigilantes to be friends with villains. And Tommy really likes his reputation as a cool down-to-earth big man who saves little people. 

On the other hand Tommy- Theseus will be able to find out more about them if he earns some kind of trust from the villains. 

That's why Tommy decided to help the Syndicate anyway. However, he decided to be helping them in the form of accidents. A la 'ran by'. 

That's the catch. How to 'accidentally' attract attention to oneself? 

But, Tommy finally found a way. It has already failed 5 times. 5 times he fell from this fucking rope stretched between two houses on the opposite side of the streets. 

The fact is that in order to pass for "accidentally passing by", Tommy needs to do such a trick as quickly as possible. 

In general, armed with a random straight piece of pipe found by him, which will pass for a gymnastic stick for balance, the boy gave himself an ultimatum: this attempt is the last one. Because he will finally succeed . He has to. 

The boy watched Nemesis, who ran out from around the corner, and was pursued by Sovereign and his partner Cyberonix. 

There was a reason that Tommy warned the girl not to rely too much on her ability. Cyberonix is a newcomer to the hero society. Though... It's not up to Tommy to say that. Cyberonix is much more experienced than Tommy himself, if the boy's memory from his dream the day before is true. 

However, the hero's strength is the most dangerous for the villainess. 

The fact is that- Nemesis and Cyberonix have similar abilities to one another. One is able to cancel the other, and therefore while each of them is in the field at the same time, their abilities are almost useless. That's truly a 'don't dig a hole for another' dilemma. 

Therefore, the villain has to run away from two heroes, only on her own two legs, not relying on her powers. 

If Tommy ever finds himself in a stalemate again, he will definitely remember this one. Nemesis will be caught sooner or later if he does not intervene, however, Theseus cannot intervene before her signal. 

The vigilante must be sure that the villain will follow his instructions at this moment, and therefore must wait for her signal. 

Although he already perfectly remembered the moment when the villain will be surrounded and she will desperately need help. That is why his loop is now placed right here, and begins just 40 seconds before the arrival of the trio.

Tommy got off to a low start. 

Without waiting for the upcoming signal, the vigilante ran out of the shadow of the building and ran across the roof. 

He is approaching the point at which he activates his ability. 

Despite looking at whatever that was happening below, Theseus could tell by the pink glow. 

Tommy can adjust the color of the glow of the disk, and therefore decided to give the villain hot pink, in the color of her hair. 

The villain threw the disc, which will slow down the heroes and distract them for exactly three seconds. 

In another two seconds, it will be Tommy's turn to use his ability.

1. Tommy gracefully jumped from one roof to another. 

2. He landed and at full speed, confident in his movements, rushed further to his goal. 

3. Theseus activates his ability. 

He no longer has to turn his head to determine what is happening below. The vigilante must create the appearance of simply passing by, therefore he can't just show any interest in what's happening below. 

The last two times he had almost been able to cross the entire thing, and with the help of a pipe in his hands, he was now almost sure of success. 

He believes in himself, and therefore confidently steps on the rope. 

Now, the most difficult part of the plan begins. In fact, the effect of Tommy's ability has already ended, but he must do something to keep the eyes of the heroes on him for at least a few seconds more, and therefore he acts in this shit show. 

With a grace that Tommy did not expect from himself, the vigilante strides rapidly along the rope, keeping his balance with the help of that very rope. 

Oh, it's so helpful that he did gymnastics for those 3 months somewhen in the past loops! Although the boy's body does not remember most of this (it was outside of this timeline after all), the mind knows what to do anyway.

Tommy's self-confidence also plays a significant part in success. Very few people can compete with the boy in the strength of his spirit. 

Two seconds on the rope. The boy steps carefully, looking ahead for the first time. 

He imagines the chase right behind him, and that makes him move quicker . He knows that there are heroes below, and he himself is at an incredible height, so he also needs to move carefully . 

Seven seconds in. Tommy is in the middle of the rope. That's the most difficult part, because it bends the strongest here, and therefore it is much more difficult to keep the balance. 

A few careless moves scared the shit out of Tommy, but he didn't fall. The pipe greatly simplified the task of maintaining balance. It would be correct to say that the best ideas come absolutely spontaneously. In his case, it almost always works that way. 

Thirteen seconds. One step, two, three. The fourth step.

Fuck! Tommy slipped, but it's okay. With his other leg, he literally miraculously kept his balance, standing up like a crane.

Prime, he definitely needs to get a lottery ticket, since he is lucky only at such stupid moments. 

Deciding not to risk losing his balance from this extremely uncomfortable position, Tommy somehow twisted out and jumped, doing a somersault. 

A second later, the boy had already crossed the rope and found himself standing on the roof. 

Prime, how much does his spine hurt.

Taking a breath, after a couple of seconds Tommy came to his senses. 

Theseus continued to move and disappeared behind the fences on the roof. 

When he was sure he couldn't be seen from below, Tommy looked out. 

Nemesis was gone, but the heroes clearly lost their sight of her, and therefore decided to split up at crossroads. 

Tommy has done his part in Nemesis's escape, which means it's time to come down to collect the disk and get out of here. 

For the sake of those few seconds that Theseus was able to win for Nemesis, Tommy went through so many loops ... 

Every day the boy gets more and more desperate. 

No one knows how much work every of his carefully calibrated actions are worth, calculated to the very tiniest detail, but happens in just a few seconds. 

No one knows how much time Tommy spends on such appearances, which last at best only a couple of minutes. 

Today, Tommy spent a total of something like about 20 hours on these few seconds of distraction. Fucking 20 hours!  

However, Nemesis was able to escape. 

And this is the main thing in his work. Helping others. 

There are no updates on Nemesis on his map, and the heroes are apparently still searching for her through the city. 

It's about time for Tommy to get out of here, without forgetting to pick up the disk.

Picking up this useful thing, Tommy decided to immediately set up a personal setup.

By default, these disks' lights colors are white, but from the state of hot pink, the boy set his signature color - red. 

Convenient thingies, really! 

After finishing the setup, Tommy put the disk away and ran through the night streets. 

Of the other acts Theseus did earlier, apart from saving Nemesis, today there is only one capture of a simple thief left, since Tommy had to come back way more back than previously intended. 

For a Vigilante-Theseus , today's day is extremely counterproductive. 

However... 

For a potential ally of the Syndicate - Theseus , however, the events of tonight can serve as a very good start point. Can help to get closer to these villains. 

Well. Tommy just doesn't have the strength to do anything else today. 

His body was almost not tired. Yet, some things affect him. Fatigue is like scars. When moving through the loops, there are remnants of it too. And Tommy clearly needs a break. 

That's why...

There's no hurry for Tommy today. Instead of traveling back in time, the guy can slowly go back in the present.

Although the results of this night are contradictory, even he can only learn about their consequences in the future. 

So, Tommy rushes home to rest.

Chapter Text

Jester is a very busy man.

Moreover, the reasons for him to be busy have severely increased as of lately. 

But... There must be a limit to everything, really !

The arrival of the heroes from The Capital, and in particular the Dream Team and the Operator , is extremely dangerous for every Manburg's villain. And even more so. What exactly worries Quackity is that it's dangerous for Las Nevadas .

Dream Team may be an overhyped bunch of idiots, but the Operator , a mute hero dressed as that one Christmas reindeer with a glowing red nose, is a huge threat due to his ability, which is named the Console .

Quackity simply drowns behind all these papers, and therefore it is necessary for him to be distracted from big problems at least for a minute.

What can he do as a distraction..?

The man ran his hand over the numerous stacks of documents on his desk.

On top of one of them lays a new folder with a fresh case.

Exactly. Here's a great puzzle.

A couple of days ago, as usual, through Fox's telepathy, Jester received a request from the Syndicate.

A strange new vigilante that unexpectedly helped Nemesis . His name is Theseus.

It's already intriguing in itself. Parodies the Syndicate with their manner on the names from Greek mythology. Who was it? The hero who defeated the Minotaur? A laudable goal.

However, this is what confuses the most. After analyzing the boy's behavior, Quackity came to the conclusion that he was the most typical vigilante who shouldn't really have a desire to have anything to do with villains other than a possible entry into Las Nevadas (in which he had already been to at least once).

Quackiti said 'boy' for a reason. And so there is one. They came to the conclusion that Theseus is a teenager, or barely a young adult.

You can’t immediately tell by his physique, but the boy obviously wears not a simple, but a compacted, possibly even an armored hoodie, which visibly adds to his muscle volume. He is also clearly tall enough to pass for an adult. He would most likely be taller than Quackity himself... Not that the man was unaccustomed to this, though.

It was the voice of the vigilante that led the Las Nevadas' analysis team to this conclusion.

According to the only recording of his voice, the one that they got straight from the heroes' data storage (oh, boy. How many footprints have you left… Who the fuck seeks meeting with heroes without even a voice changer to cover the identity? ), one can clearly hear the boyish voice that the owner is trying to lower. 

Yes, it would be wrong to judge only by voice. What if that's the type of a voice changer?

But here's the next voice line that's available to Las Nevadas.

Perses provided Las Nevadas with a recorded conversation between Theseus and Nemesis.

This happened already after the boy's visit to Las Nevadas, and his voice here became obviously very rougher, lower and simply different, electronic and metallic notes were traced in it.

Clearly behind the red bandanna around the neck of the vigilante is a choker model voice changer, which is a popular choice of Las Nevadas' devices.

Honestly, this whole situation with a teenager being a fan of the Syndicate very much reminded the villain of the situation with Perses and Lethe.

As far as Quackity knows, Perses found out that his sibling was a member of the Syndicate. He tried to learn more about the villains and imbued with their motives. Moreover, the boy pursues his own goals. Something to do with revenge ? On the same man with Quackity too… These two have the same goal, but are not really cooperating that much. 

Taking Lethe with him, the boy ingratiated himself with the villains, pretending to be a vigilante for several months in order to more conveniently monitor the Syndicate. After which they revealed their identities, breaking into a meeting of villains. Jester himself was present there at the moment.

Something tells Quackity that these situations will be extremely similar to one another.

However... No. It's impossible to pretend he's not. The boy really passionately wants to help people, which is evident from his actions.

What are his motives?

Quackity sighed and once again opened the case file. During these couple of days they have already managed to find out a lot about Theseus. The next step will be to order Slime to spy, or to direct Zephyrus's crows at some point. Though it will get less profit. But Las Nevadas has information about Theseus' location when he uses the minimap after all. That’s a good enough idea.

It would seem that this vigilante isn't worth such a fuss around him, but it so happened that he seemed interesting not only by the Syndicate, but also Quackity found himself being intrigued by the boy too. 

It's about what happened to Karl.

His fiancé was walking the streets of Las Nevadas.

Since he is a vigilante that officially has no connection with Las Nevadas, it is somewhat dangerous for him to walk around the streets infested with villains.

In addition, Quackity often asks him to keep an eye on specific individuals. The extent of their threat to Las Nevadas, it is possible to learn some interesting facts while they're here.

Jester values any scramble of information that he can get more than anything else. The information gives power. However, the villain is in no hurry to share this information. Moreover, confidential information as something like someone's personality will almost never go outside of Las Nevadas' borders. 

Such are the principles of the head of this place. He doesn't want anyone who didn't wronged him to suffer as he himself once did. Although... In these cases, the damage would be even worse.

This bastard learned about Quackity's identity from the man himself. The same cannot be said about hypothetical victims. 

The identities of almost all of the slightly important villains and vigilantes are known to Las Nevadas. And these villains, let alone vigilantes, would've never given that sort of information themselves. They don't have a death wish, for Prime's sake.

The powers of Quackity himself, Karl, and a few other Las Nevadas employees do an excellent job of gathering any needed information.

Rewind regularly takes walks around Las Nevadas with his ability activated.

More often, the power is turned on to show everything that happens in 2 or 3 seconds time in the future. Karl sees two timelines layered to one another. 

Quackity can't imagine how difficult it is for his lover. Consciously voluntary to live in slowdown (due to the other side of his ability), and even with blurry vision due to the -as Karl calls it- 'time trail' that everything leaves. 

He examines the victims of interest in detail and separately re-uses the power on them. That allows him to see way more far forward or backward, but the visions of the future are very vague (which is only natural, since the future is not yet predetermined, and Karl sees only it’s variants), while the past is extremely fragmentary, so it’s hard to understand what exactly is happening in those visions.

Rewind's passage was a routine. Nothing really remarkable happened, and the vigilante managed to collect a lot of important and not so important information for Las Nevadas.

At first Karl didn't even notice the seemingly average vigilante, but then quickly returned for a more detailed inspection of him.

What he saw shocked him . 

Karl had never seen anything like this before!

When the 2 seconds future of most people, if not predetermined, then limited to a maximum of just a few options, this does not apply to this guy. Not at all.

Karl saw a huge variety of options for just his 2 second future! Some are clearer, others less so. By focusing not only his gaze, but also the effect of his ability on it, even more possibilities opened up for the vigilante. The guy could be located almost everywhere in Las Nevadas at the same time for as far and as long as Karl could see.

And this...

Wow.

This... This scared Karl. He has seen a similar effect of his foresight on the endermen since they have teleportation powers, hence why he usually avoids looking at them if possible. But never are these Endermen’s variations as precise and unvague -almost certain, as if predetermined - as this guy's. Karl had never seen someone so- Ubiquitous , if that’s the right word.

So- Yes. It scared the shit out of Karl.

However, it intrigued him even more so! It's something new , that's for sure.

Don't get him wrong, one person can have many futures. It’s very rare for something to be exactly predetermined. There’s no thing such as fate . Just the butterfly effect. Because of the impulsiveness, different decisions made... The butterfly effect that is inherent in everything and no one has influence over is close to unpredictable, after all. But never was the range of possible futures for targets of Karl's observations as wide as this guy's.

After a couple of seconds of observing the guy, Karl could no longer resist looking into his past. He just had to read this intriguing book, as he sometimes feels to do when looking into other’s past.

Just a moment earlier, the vigilante of interest had noticed an appraising, interested look of the man and hurried to retreat, so this was perhaps Rewind's last chance to read his past.

… 

For a second, nothing happened. 

Karl already started to think that for some reason he wasn’t able to activate his ability, which is an extremely unlikely explanation. But it wasn't the case anyway.

After this, what now seems to be a beautiful serenity and calm peace to the man, his gaze was opened. It was opened to a huge number of memories rushing extremely quickly one after another. In itself, this happened more than once when Karl came across very quick memories, especially with elderly people, but these were different .

Karl felt that his mind couldn't withstand the influx of information it's being given. And the information itself was... Uncertain. As if unpredetermined. Several events happened at the same time, as if Karl was watching several films on the same screen at the same time.

Why?

Why is the past, which has always been and should be absolutely stable, wasn't predetermined for this guy?

Why does the past, which is something whole, unified, certain. Something that already happened. Why isn't it the same in the fate of this vigilante?

Karl remembers all the pain and suffering he experienced at that moment when all the information was pouring into him.

Karl no longer has any memories of the previous 3 days too. He doesn't remember anything except partly of this moment, which he was able to convey to Quackity.

Who is this guy who, by his mere existence , made Karl pay so much for the ordinary use of his ability?

His fiancé doesn't even remember the boy's memories that were pouring into his head at the time, which saddens Quackity even more. What is the point of such a price, if Karl doesn’t even remember what exactly he paid for?

And who is this guy that acts so gracefully, so clearly and accurately? All his movements are precise, as if rehearsed more than once. He acts as if he knows what is happening around him, even without the need to look in the right direction, or acknowledge it by any other instances. And he is absolutely ready for all other’s movements that are unexpected even for an outside observer. Although... Maybe he really just- Knows .

Maybe he sees it like Karl? Or predicts similar to Quackity himself?

Or- Or is it something much stronger?

At Las Nevadas, the portrait of a young vigilante begins to emerge.

His obvious ability is invisibility. And it’s a minor one, since he cannot use it for a long time. It looks like a very common ability. Many thieves possess almost the same ones. Although, some oddities in this ability are still present. For example, the fact that this invisibility does not work on cameras. Huh, weird. It’s not exactly how a simple invisibility works.

Abilities of this type are extremely common, but not in the hero circle.

Yes, it is not bad for an ordinary criminal, but not for a villain. And certainly not for a vigilante.

How does Theseus manage to cope -very successfully too- with the tasks of a vigilante, with such a weak ability?

AND...

Why does he have so many watches on him?

He obviously doesn't try to hide them, as cameras often capture their presence, but he does not put them on display either. Can clocks serve as synchronization for the boy? The only person known to Quackity with such synchronization is Karl. The one who sees through time.

Therefore, Las Nevadas has some speculations about the possibility of Theseus having a second ability related to time .

Quackity sighed.

The ability of Theseus may be even stronger than Karl's. The man definitely wants to find out more about the vigilante, and maybe he can try to recruit him faster than the Syndicate does.

However...

At the slightest thought of this when using his ability, Quackity realizes that this plan is most likely doomed to failure. Well.

While Quackity is not the type to give up at the slightest difficulty, the Syndicate are the closest allies of Las Nevadas. Hell, two of their members literally work for Quackity. And messing with a minor...

The Syndicate clearly has more experience with this, given Lethe and Perses.

Las Nevadas can only boast of Alien. This mercenary is already almost one of his direct subordinates.

Quackity pretends to know next to nothing about the boy and the latter gets away with a lot, as he is too good of a worker and loves anonymity. Yet the man is well aware of the immaturity of this professional who always wears a purple hoodie.

After fiddling with the barely activated ability, Quackity decides to look at possible options of what to do with Theseus.

Gambling . That's how Quackity calls his ability. 

Quackity wants . He asks for more information about the vigilante Theseus.

How can he get it?

The man throws a twenty-sided die, which, just a few moments earlier, habitually ended up being in his hands.

...

14. Not that bad of a result.

The world answers to Quackity.

He always answers differently. Sometimes, the universe- The Fate. X… XD?

Sometimes, he gives the man something almost directly into his hands .

Other times, the deity makes hints so vague that Quackity can't decipher them, no matter how hard he tries.

Now , Quackity saw the roofs of houses and a dark silhouette, highlighted by the glow of his power. Next to the person, on the surface lies something flat, which is also highlighted in his vision. This is something vaguely familiar.

Where is it? These houses look like...

Quackity quickly turned to the map and pointed to something on it with closed eyes. Looking up, he saw an illuminated area.

Indeed, not that far from the place that the Syndicate plans to 'visit' tomorrow.

When is it?

Quackity in one go turned to the clock on the wall. Along with its normal hands, the phantom ones sparkled with the same gold of Quackity's ability. Approximately... The scheduled time of their operation? Very convenient .

Well. The Syndicate will be able to obtain this item, which Quackity is pretty sure was made in Las Nevadas.

He has no idea how, because the object itself doesn't seem to carry the slightest informative value, but it will help his allies learn more about Theseus. At least it should , because that's how his ability works .

Well. Already good enough.Quackity wouldn't say it's a clear 14 , but he has no idea what he did yet, so he cannot quite judge.

“Slime!” Jester screamed for his right-hand man.

In just a few seconds, seeping through the closed doorway just as usual, the slime hybrid appeared at the call of the villain.

Although this is the safest place for them in the entire city, Jester still refers to his direct subordinates by their villain names, derived from their race. You can never be too sure.

"Yes, Quackity from Las Nevadas?" On the contrary, no one really tries to hide the identity of Quackity himself. It just so happened that it has long since been known to the authorities, and therefore is simply pointless to hide.

"Call the Fox to my office, please." He asked.

"Of course, Quackity from Last Nevadas." The slime hybrid said and literally sank through the floor. Quackity was already used to such a sight, but pretty much everyone else still shied away from the ubiquitous Charlie.

He, as well as the entire head of the Needle (Jester, Slime, Fox, Creeper, partially The Totem and even Alien as of lately), is needed by Las Nevadas in order to fully operate as they do now.

Obviously not in the best state of his mind -of course he isn't in the current situation, when everyone is forced to overwork- Fundy climbed to the very top of the Needle to Quackity's office.

“Yes? You needed me, Jester?” He said and then yawned right afterwards. The way he didn't even try to hide the exhaustion, at least for the sake of formality, clearly speaks of the fatigue level of this villain.

Yes, Quackity would definitely give him an unscheduled day off. Because big circles under the eyes that were noticeable even on a fox hybrid clearly do not mean anything good.

Jester cleared his throat, ignoring Fox's inappropriate behavior under the circumstances.

Back to prediction.

Quackity himself is able to use the information obtained through his ability on his own as he pleases. But , he can't tell anyone everything that he has seen and learned, from that he has to limit himself to share only pieces of this information with others. 

This is the price he has to pay for his ability. Just as the owners of spatial or temporal abilities have to pay with their memory.

Although, in Karl's case, the price is not an amnesia -as in cases of someone like Lethe with spatial abilities- but an impaired short-term memory, leading to forgetfulness. Moreover, for some of the influences, his beloved pays individually with some concrete memories.

So, although Quackity is forbidden to speak directly about what he saw, however, nothing forbids him from making hints, or speaking incomplete, partial information.

“Please tell Orpheus that he and Protesilaus might be interested in looking higher at their mission. This may or may not help with their little situation with this Theseus guy .” He said to the telepath, smiling the usual, yet a bit tired toothy smirk. It had one gold tooth right where the scar, covering a huge part of his face, started. 

His tooth, eye and the beauty of his face, as well as the secret of his identity was not, in fact, taken from him by the Protesilaus, as everyone -even in the Syndicate, as far as he knows- believe. It was taken by, once a lover, but now a mortal enemy of the villain, now taking the place of the city's mayor.

And Prime does Quackity have a feeling that this man would pay for his wrongdoings quite soon.

Wilbur was really pissed.

Seriously, how could he miss this moment? Tommy was opening at yet another angle. And Prime- It’s Puffy who turns out to be the one to know him the most? Really?! She's the key to understanding their youngest?

His Tommy- Their Tommy . So vulnerable, even if he himself is extremely persistent in proving the opposite. So closed, even after everything they've been through in this half a year. Especially recently, he began to distance himself again, which Will did not like at all.

But, actually, Phil and Techno have some points. The ones like the boy’s personal space . 

He has a right to secrets. Especially when they themselves hid such serious things from Tommy...

So yes. The man is still extremely controversial about this.

But he must return to the mission now.

He is the villain Orpheus. One of the Syndicate members. Together with his brother Protesilaus, they have finished their mission today.

A banquet hall, popular among the wealthy and influential people of Manburg.

One of these days, in one of the auditoriums of the building will be held an event, which will be attended by some of the most unpleasant to the Syndicate representatives of the authorities and the rich.

The Syndicate carefully plans their next steps, and therefore, for grandeur, they decided to choose this particular event.

Will and Techno have checked the building and planted explosive devices. Las Nevadas helped The Syndicate a lot in this operation.

Jeter, through his subordinates, provided not only the scheme and plan of the building, because of which Perses had to confer with Awesome Dude a lot. Las Nevadas also provided Perses with assistance in temporarily shutting down the cameras in the building.

Apparently, it was quite a difficult task for the boy. Which says a lot about the security of the place, if it left even him puzzled.

But now, after half an hour of work, Orpheus and Protesilaus left the crime scene unnoticed.

Well, not exactly unnoticed... A particular someone still managed to notice them. Although it was a great success that it was the villains who were able to notice him.

Thanks to a hint from Jester sent by Fundy, the men tried to keep an eye on the rooftops as they retreated.

And it paid off.

Theseus. An extremely controversial person that Will doesn't even really know what to think about.

Who is he? What are his motives? Why does he do what he does? Why did he help Nikki? What is the man looking for?

In the exact second he discovered a strange shadow on the roof of the house, Will immediately signaled to his partner.

He, without even trying to hide it, directed not only his gaze to the person watching them, but almost without hesitation began a rapid movement in that direction.

What is he doing?!

Orpheus was already grabbing his brother by his fluttering noticeable red cloak, as there was no longer any need for this.

Theseus realized that he was noticed and quickly dumped.

Techno, of course, started chasing him.

Will didn't really have any other choice, so he decided to go up to the rooftop where the vigilante was standing just a moment before and take a look around.

It is unlikely that Jester sent them here only for a possible dialogue with Theseus. They themselves would have been able to find him for this matter.

No, he needed to dig deeper there.

Climbing up the fire escape stairs, duplicates of which are generously scattered in large amounts on almost all the buildings of the city, Will almost immediately noticed the gleam of something metallic on the roof.

Aha!

Coming closer, he took the item in his hands.

What is this? Some form of a disc ? It is extremely similar to Nemesis' descriptions of what Theseus handed to her at the meeting.

Was that the way for the vigilante to pass it to the Syndicate? 

But- Why?  

Why in such a strange way? And even more so, why would he even need to transfer such a thing to the Syndicate?

And how did he know about this secret mission?!

Now Will has a lot of questions. Too much. Way more than he had before. And the answers to them are very unlikely to come by themselves.

One thing that he must do for sure, is to give this thing to Perses, or even directly to Creeper? This dude is the main tech guy in Las Nevadas, even has a more independent villain name Awesome dude. Unlike Fundy, his ‘son’ who still goes under the lame name Fox that Quackity gave him.

Will turned his head, looking at the targeted building.

Who knows what awaits the Syndicate on this mission?

Given that Theseus had already predicted some 'trouble' for Nemesis, should they expect danger now? And since he gave them this disk… Does this mean that he is ready to help them in an emergency?

Yeah. What a weird dude Theseus is.

Chapter Text

It was awesome! Poggers even !

Tommy -absolutely by accident, by the way. He was simply heading home when saw these two- witnessed Siren and the Blood God in action!

Technically, their villain names were Orpheus and Protesilaus. But all these Greek names are so boring !

...

Said Tommy , whose name is Theseus, literally a hero from Greek mythology- 

But he had to choose that one! And it's not like he had any other options at that moment…

Anyway, Theseus sounds much better than this Pro-te-si-la-us, or the fucker that Will chose. 

Tommy even remembered how to spell their names! -Although he still has quite some difficulties with Techno’s name- And all thanks to that the boy once asked his pink-haired brother who’s obsessed with Greek mythology about it. 

Well, to get to the point, Tommy had the right to say so. 

He... Now, when he looks at them in person, Tommy couldn't help but see his dearest brothers in these two villains. The brothers, whom the boy involuntarily managed to start to love during these half a year.

It seemed as if the masks didn't hide their faces at all for the boy.

And then Wilbur noticed him. And then Techno started to fucking chase him! Shit.

While running away, at some point Tommy heard a metallic click, as if something had fallen behind. 

Tommy shrugged it off. He must have accidentally kicked a rock. The boy did not attach any importance to this moment, since his thoughts were only about one thing:

Fucking- RUN. He needs to get out. And URGENTLY so!!!

And this left one disk out of Tommy's pair lying lost, forgotten on the ground. Until a figure in a trench coat picked it up, studying the thing. 

Not that all of it was known to the running-away Tommy, though.

Waking up on a day off, the first thing right after washing up that Tommy does is go downstairs. 

To eat? Ha, you bet ! 

Undoubtedly, eating is an important component of the day and one of the basic needs that everyone is obliged to satisfy. 

However- Come on! On particularly bad days -which, fair, bad days has been getting rarer lately- Tommy automatically returns to the state where he considered regular meals a luxury. 

So the boy definitely can take not eating in the mornings, which he does, and quite often so. It saves time, and he just doesn't fancy eating most mornings anyway.

So- Why is Tommy coming down then? To check on who is already awake, and to terrorize found victims, of course!

In theory, the boy expects to see Phil or Techno. It's 12 a.m. at the moment -yes, Tommy sleeps a lot now, considering his new night life- so it's very unlikely to find Will awake-

That’s what Tommy thought right before finding his brown-haired older brother sitting at the table.

“Holy Prime, Will ?! You're up before me? ” Tommy said, stretching his arms, coming closer to his brother and yawning practically at his face. “ And already working?! The world is definitely gonna end in a day or so.” The boy stretched his neck a bit with the help of a hand.

At the last words, Tommy caught the way his older brother's eye twitched, although they both gave no sign of acknowledging the very fact of what had happened.

Will looked like shit. It was as if he had just got out of bed and magically appeared here right away. 

His hair, which is almost as curly as Tommy's own -if not more curly- looked more like a bird's nest. Dark circles began to form under his eyes. And it was Wilbur who we’re talking about! Wilbur, who looks after his skin almost the same way Techno looks after his hair. And everyone knows how many shampoos alone the man has. 

Judging by the sound of the laptop that the man is staring at, he has been working for at least a couple of hours already.

Yea, even Tommy himself, for sure, when getting out of bed looks better than his brother right now. 

It’s because he's always better than Will, since Tommy is a much bigger man than everyone else, especially Will! 

But that isn't the point.

“Yea, I do feel like tomorrow is a fucking doomsday.” His brother murmured. 

“Why so?” Tommy perked up. 

Is this the time when Will blames his supervillain affairs on the ‘affairs of his business’? After a long enough inactivity of the Syndicate -not counting the one-time Nemesis’ outing- Tommy saw him and Techno at work just that very night after all. Is something grandiose getting planned?

Almost every such episode with “business problems” or “important meeting" is accompanied by an event in the Syndicate. What is it this time?

“Ah- You see…” Will looked troubled. He never thought about an excuse beforehand, didn't he? Improvisation is good enough to fool Tommy now, right? “Remember that little shop opening right across the street with my ‘Soothing tunes’?” The man managed to play off his panic to something more… Thoughtful? Tommy doesn't even really know what he tried to reach with such an act.

“Yea? Like- It’s name was like ‘ Swag’ or something of the genre? I remember as clear as day how much you've complained about it.”

“Yea, ‘Sound Swag’. So we have even more troubles in the bureaucratic area because of them trying to throw us out now, so it's really a pain in the ass.” He sounded rather- Tired.

“`kay, well. Need any help?” Tommy tried not to sound disappointed, but he wasn't able to.

Of course being lied to is sad.  

Welp- He's technically lying now too. But not like them, though. He's not being asked anything of the sort to even be in need of thinking of a lie.

“Nope. I guess the best help would be um- Maybe a cup of coffee- And a bunch of silence.” His brother answered with a sigh.

And- Ouch. Yea, that hurt.

“Ok, you go get yourself your own coffee then. Imma gonna go bother Phil or Techo, I guess.” Tommy said, flipping him off after turning to the other side.

“They aren't home! Go bother your friends if you want to be a chaotic little gremlin that much!” That lanky bitch shouted after Tommy turned to the kitchen.

Well, then maybe eating is a good enough option.

Prime, mornings are the worst, really. Are all of them really that busy right now?

Phil's note he met in the kitchen at the plate says about such thought being true. 

“Love you, please actually eat this. Your eating habits are kinda bad, mate.

We will be home late.” It said.

Yea. Burn this thing .

After eating breakfast left by his foster father, Tommy texted to a chat with his friends. For some reason, it's called BENCH . This sometimes alarms the guy…

Unintentionally sent away by his family, Tommy really wanted to spend his time with friends, but, apparently luck was not on his side today. Neither it was ever, actually.

When ever is she on his side? The only time was when his power randomly decided to emerge itself right after the boy's death. 

Tubbo almost immediately replied that he was currently working on an important code, so he would not be able to distract himself for the next couple of days. In general, this happens a lot with the guy, so Tommy was not surprised.

However, what surprised Tommy, was that Ranboo was also busy ! 

He referred to the fact that his moms needed some help today. 

And- Yes. 

Well. 

… 

That's what it means to be forgotten on your good day, huh?

When Tommy got out of bed, the residual adrenaline he received from his patrol and the first official meeting with Orpheus and Protesilaus was still circulating in his veins. 

Now... He's empty.  

Is this how it feels when you are ignored and forgotten by people dear to you? 

And fucking everyone at once too! 

With such thoughts, the boy walked aimlessly through the streets of the city, kicking from side to side a random pebble he found. 

Tommy really wanted to have a rest, as he went out on patrol every day lately, but, apparently, as it seems, he should go home for his suit… 

The boy was about to stop and turn back home, when he found himself standing right at the door of Techno’s book shop.

Hmmm... That's an idea. 

Apart from the one time Tommy saw Nikki at a literature club meeting, he hadn't met Tubbo's sister in a long time. 

And Tommy, actually, considers the girl his friend! 

Well, having put on his smile, the boy desperately -no, not desperately. He wasn't desperate. He was not! - grabbed at the now opened to him option. 

As far as Tommy knows, it should be her shift at the counter right now. 

Opening the door, Tommy immediately went to the counter, examining the row of bookshelves on the way. All kinds of textbooks fit on the left stand, when the classics were on the right.

To be honest, none of it interested Tommy. 

At the end, almost skipping, the guy reached the end, making a 180-degree turn. 

"Hey, Nikki. How are you to-" Tommy started, but then he opened his eyes and saw a surprised- Man behind the counter. "-day. You're not Nikki!" He said automatically, even though it was obvious. 

The man in question looked like a young adult, and his multicolored hoodie with a swirl print in the middle caught the eye. 

His disheveled brown hair added to the image of a simpleton, and the comic book that he -as it seems- read added windiness. 

"Um- No I'm not?" He said, which sounded more like a question than anything. 

"Okay, so what's your name then?" Tommy couldn't help but sound disappointed. He expected to meet the woman at her usual work time there. 

Moreover, this is the first time he sees this guy. 

The man looked at his own chest in question. "Oh, right." He must've understood that his badge wasn't there. Why wasn't it, though? "My name's Karl. And if you were talking about Miss Nihachu, she asked me to take her shift, since she's apparently too busy. I don't mind working today." He shrugged. 

And- Prime. 

Why the fuck everyone's busy today?! 

And- Judging by Karl's curiously raised eyebrow -way too curiously though, but that doesn't matter- he must've said it out loud. 

Tommy cleared his throat. 

"I mean- I hoped that someone might be free right now… Or at least forced to deal with me due to their work." The last bit was accompanied by a smirk. 

"Well, I mean…" Karl looked at him pitifully. 

Tommy doesn't like pity. He hates it, in fact. Tommy isn't someone who should be pitied. So he bit his lip. 

That led to Karl looking down. 

"Hm." He suddenly hummed. "What do you think about comics?"

That simple question led to the fact that the guys chatted about the Avengers at first, accompanied by the rest of the Marvel universe. Then they smoothly switched to DC, and ended with some kind of a popular anime about a green-haired guy in the same world as they live in where everyone has super powers. 

From these few hours, which quickly flew by completely unnoticed for Tommy, a large stack of comics managed to pile on the counter in front of him, which the boy plans to read before his next meeting with Karl. 

"You're a great marketer, I'll tell you that." Tommy said, pointing with his head at the said stack. 

"Oh, crap." He instantly stood up. "Do you even have enough money to pay for all of these?"

Tommy waved it away. 

"I don't need to pay, big man. Don’t worry."

He stood up, pulling a bunch of keys out of his pockets. A couple of them were from here. Minecrafts trust Tommy enough to entrust duplicates of some keys. 

"I haven't fully introduced myself yet, did I?" As the answer he got a negative head shake. "I'm Tommy Minecraft. The brother- Or son? Is this Techno's, or is it technically Phil's shop?" Self doubt struck him, but as a real big man he was, Tommy's quick to find a choice of words to overcome it. "Doesn't matter. I'm Minecraft. It's technically my shop too."

In addition to everything said, the boy strummed this bunch of keys in front of Karl, showing him identical with those that Nikki gives to all the employees. 

"So I guess I'm free to go, right?" Tommy reached for the place with the bags and, after a bit of thinking it over, took the two largest ones. 

"Hm?" Karl reacted a little late. Apparently Tommy shocked the man too much, or rather- Made him think something over. "Oh. Yea, of course! I'll be waiting for you once you've finished at least some comics from this pile."

And so, saying his goodbye to a new acquaintance, Tommy wandered to the exit. 

Involved in his own thoughts, the boy didn't notice what happened just a few moments before he completely disappeared from Karl's view.

He hasn't seen the way this man almost passed out once again.

When Tommy returned home, he didn't find a soul in the house. Except, perhaps, The Chat, which the boy decided to feed. 

Grateful birds chased him all the way to the room. Fortunately, Phil explained to them the concept of privacy , and therefore these overly intelligent crows did not come into his room without the boy’s permission. 

Taking advantage of the excited and happy state of the birds, in record time Theseus -who had changed into his costume now- managed to easily and quickly slip out of his window unnoticed. 

It just so happens that the biggest concern of the vigilante during his evening -this time it's daytime- escapes are the crows. Since Tommy wants to keep a secret from his family, he should keep it a secret from the whole Chat. 

Fortunately, these birds do not look like they know the wrong thing. 

But, having successfully coped with the task, the young vigilante quickly climbed onto the roof of the nearest multi-story building and turned on his map on the move.

What he saw shocked the boy. 

How- How many reports have been made to the police in the last five minutes?! This is clearly the largest amount Theseus has ever seen.

Hmm. It's probably a good thing that Tommy decided to sacrifice his weekend in order to do his vigilante job. Now he definitely can't afford to miss at least those criminals who are closer to the center of Tommy's chosen area. 

Wow. This is going to be a long day!

During an endless series of new bursts of activity on the map, at some point Tommy discovered the loss of one of his disks! 

It broke the boy's heart, even though he didn't have enough time to fully display it. 

After dozens of criminals caught by him and even one minor inexperienced villain, Theseus decided to take a break, gradually reducing the pace of his reaction to the calls. 

Yes, the boy has become much better at catching criminals. On average, it takes him only a couple of loop usages for each, and sometimes he catches some without needing to go back at all. 

In fact, such a huge influx of criminals and even villains is kinda alarming. Given that all three members of his family, who are authorities in the villain world, are busy with something right now, the likelihood of a raging storm is indeed very big . 

Well, this will be the first time in the career of vigilante Theseus, when he will witness a large operation of the Syndicate. 

Although, considering how few heroes have been seen on the map as a result of responding to such a flow of calls, the boy can't help but think about what this means.

Well, even if the heroes themselves are already saving their strength, perhaps preparing to fight back against the Syndicate -Tommy has no idea how they imagine it- then perhaps Tommy himself should save up his strength, because his help may still be needed. 

Tommy may be overthinking everything, but his intuition rarely failed the boy. 

However, it is too early to make any assumptions.

With these contradictory thoughts, the vigilante decided to take a small walk at last. He's already done too much for his supposed ‘day off’. 

At that moment, Tommy noticed a figure moving along the same row of roofs as him towards the boy. 

Normally, he would have ignored the person. 

Today he has already managed to cross paths with some of the villains that minded their own business and just so happened to be in his way. Of course Tommy didn't interfere with any of them, the vigilante knows the rules . 

But this one wasn't a villain, or even a vigilante. Moreover, it was not an ordinary civilian. 

Tommy recognized this fox hybrid. What was his name- CPK ?

Wait. Shit. 

This is a Hero! This dude is a hero , whereas Tommy is a vigilante ! 

After all, heroes are obliged to catch not only criminals and villains, but also the ones like Theseus, since vigilantism is also a crime ! 

Fuck, Tommy’s screwed.

Or, that’s what he thought. However, just as throughout his whole day, to his deepest surprise, Tommy was wrong again . 

The hero calmly passed by Theseus, who was already preparing to fight back against any attacks, and was frantically starting a new loop. 

If anything, the hero kinda smiled at him, nodding his head in some sort of- approval? 

This completely baffled Tommy. 

At the last moment, the boy managed to see the sparkle of CPK's crimson eyes.

Hmm, how can any race except demons and piglins have red eyes? Moreover, Tommy saw the bright blue eyes of the hero in all the images of him. 

Weird. Although, not as weird as the situation itself. 

Do the heroes really need the help of vigilantes now, and therefore don't stop them? 

Standing in the middle of the roof of a high building, Theseus must have looked ridiculous with such an expression on his face. 

"Now that was weird." Was all he said, continuing walking back to the direction of his home.

Chapter Text

Tommy once again witnessed the Syndicate at work. However, this time it wasn't just a glimpse at all. Moreover, he put aside everything he was doing and returned to the very first loop of today to observe. And there was a damn reason for that!

Then, when Tommy crossed paths with his brothers in their villain guise, apparently, they were preparing for what is happening today, because all the events are taking place in around the same place. However, today it’s not only Orpheus and Protesilaus that gathered there. 

Zephyrus. The Angel of Death, as everyone calls him. Or in other words Phil . Philza Minecraft. The one who really managed to become Tommy's father in such a short time.

Unlike Will and Techno, whose once seemed to be threatening auras that they radiated in their villain attires, the vigilante now simply ignored as if they were absent at all, with Phil, for some reason, this does not work. Maybe it's what his wings do, black as the ashes of his enemies he leaves behind him, that now menacingly hung behind his back, making a relatively short man seem much taller and bigger than he really is. 

Maybe the man is just affecting Tommy's mind itself. After all, the boy is involuntarily afraid of almost all of the adults in his life. It just so happened, considering his past. 

Yes, it doesn't work with Will and Techno, but that's only because Tommy subconsciously puts them on an equal footing. They are his brothers . Phil on the other hand ... Yes, despite the fact that Tommy's mind is not afraid of his family, however, the boy's emotions rush out with such a terrifying appearance of the men.

Or maybe this impression is created by the very flock of crows that follows Zephyrus on the man’s heels. Moreover, in the short time that he’s been watching, Tommy has already managed to notice a ton of birds hiding in the most unexpected places nearby. You can’t trust crows in this city at all…

Well, the Chat must be telling both Phil and Techno a lot with such arrangement of their’s. Tommy shivers a bit every time he feels the gaze of one of the crows on him. He is more than sure that the Syndicate is already aware of his presence.  

These little shits don't know about him actually being Tommy, do they?

By the way, there is a barely noticeable red ribbon hanging off the crow's leg next to him. Is it really- 

Heliso ?! It's Tommy's favorite! 

He couldn't resist smiling and waving to the bird sitting next to him.

The boy was very surprised at the time when he found out that every single crow in Phil's flock has a name. 

Moreover, he was even more surprised that it wasn't Phil who named each of the dozens on his own -wait, there are clearly more birds in total here than Minecrafts have- each one of the Chatters chose their own name themselves ! And such weird names too… From that moment on, Tommy was even more convinced that Phil and Techno were doing some kind of streaming in secret from Tommy. Why the fuck else were Chatters having random underscores or digits in their names?

However, returning to the situation looming from below.

In addition to his family, Tommy observed probably every one of the official members of the Syndicate gathered together. 

Nemesis. The girl today removed the outer part of her medium-length pink hair in a ponytail, thereby wrapping the length. Her gaze was more serious and collected than from what he had caught at their last meeting. All the same unnatural almost bestial red eyes -by the way, they are hardly naturally like that. Tommy bets that it's contacts. She doesn’t look like piglin or demon after all- that are examining the stop, while her hands are tense in a fighting stance by the girl's chest. 

The boy reluctantly wondered what led her to the path of becoming a member of one of the most terrifying villain groups in the country.

Next to her was The Totem. In fact, his Syndicate name is Harpocrates. However, this is an extremely controversial villain, and even the official news usually refers to him as The Totem. A weird guy indeed 

No one can say for sure whether he works for the Syndicate or Las Nevadas. The dude is so torn between the- bosses(?).

His golden skin and the absence of any mask still worries Tommy though.

Of course, many powers give the ability to partially shift some of the traits inherent in oneself -and most likely Totem is just one of those lucky ones who received such an opportunity on top of his weather control- however, the way how easily and freely this golden shark hybrid moves even in fights while being in a fairly open suit, parodying something between ancient Greek and ancient Egyptian attire, was a little surprising. However, Tommy found himself surprisingly liking the guy's style. 

Of all the Syndicate figures precisely known to the public, only two are missing here... That couple . A tall and a short one. Lethe and- Perses, was it? 

If Lethe is usually just a support dude, which literally appears out of nowhere and comes to the rescue at the most unexpected moments, then the small one shows up extremely rarely at all. 

Is it because of his ability? It's literally an explosion! Villains should like the devastation caused by their own abilities, shouldn't they? 

Although, if they do it on purpose and do not want to allow more useless victims...

Hmmm. Then Tommy can only show the dude his respect for this. 

Well. A combined hodgepodge of Orpheus, Protesilaus, Zephyrus, Nemesis and Harpocrates it is.

Something tells Tommy that this is going to be a long night... If only everything would work out! Theseus is already sacrificing too much in favor of the villains. 

This is clearly not beneficial for his brand.

Everything that could have gone wrong as if on Tommy's cursory estimation of the situation eventually went, and went completely off the rails with a bang. 

And- How the fuck did the Syndicate get his disk ?! That's where it's gone to! 

Theseus has been reliving the same thing for maybe about a total 5 full times from the very beginning. It's not worth talking about the many times when he came back just for a couple of minutes watching, studying every detail. 

He wrote down in his book all the posts, all the exact places occupied by the heroes , and even he himself had already managed to memorize almost everything that only happens in the zero loop. 

Tommy has no idea how to get the villains out of there. This is an almost hopeless situation... 

He needs to learn more not only about the layout of the building, but also about where heroes and the police - who somehow found out about the Syndicate's plans - will be stationed. Tommy clearly sees that the villains were caught off guard. No wonder. Tommy himself was taken aback by SO many heroes hiding here and there. Even the crows are less subtle with their hide places than these guys…

The vigilante finally fulfilled this part of the plan. He had to run a lot wherever he could, and of course he was seemingly endlessly using the loops too. Yet, he was finally able to collect every possibly useful information. Or at least almost everything. 

Now it only remains to do exactly what Tommy is only gathering his courage for now. 

He needs to talk to the Syndicate themselves. He must find out their plans and goals, which the boy could not fully understand yet. This is simply necessary for a complete overview of the situation. 

So, right now Tommy is sitting and making a conversation plan in his Diary. Procrastinating, if you will. Preoccupying himself with anything but the most important. 

Finally, Tommy let out a long whine and closed the book. 

Having put the most valuable thing in his life into his inner pocket, he again, for the umpteenth time today, twisted the loop back.

Tubbo is a very busy man. Especially as of lately! 

The boy is a villain . And not just any petty and insignificant criminal or reckless dumbass. He's Perses . A member of The Syndicate .

Even though Tubbo is the youngest member of the group - although Ranboo is only 1 month older!- he is still irreplaceable as for the information, technology and everything that the guys in the chairs behind the villains are doing. He's one of those . 

The boy has been a professional hacker ever since the age of 13. And it's already been over a year since he's been working for the Syndicate. 

Moreover, the goat hybrid kinda won this place for himself with a fight, and therefore he simply has no right not to do his job. 

Although Phil, being formally an unspoken head of the Syndicate, never forced him to work beyond the norm. Rather, on the contrary, he inclines the brunette to the least work. But, to no avail, of course.

To get to this scumbag-

No.

To pay one little humble debt to the mayor of Manburg , the boy has too much left to do in order to be able to. As for now, it is enough that he is simply being Perses. A member of the very group of villains that not only keeps the whole city in fear, but also puts a stick in the wheels of the government, and therefore Schlatt himself. 

The Syndicate, for the most part, are anarchists. Although Tubbo himself doesn’t follow this ideology at all -honestly, the boy considers communism to be superior- they still have the same goal: Overthrow the current tyrannical government.

This is a priority task, and then the political views of individual members will be discussed just as anything does. 

Although... For now, even a simple overthrow of Schlatt will be enough for Tubbo. That bastard who has the audacity to be such a respected person, even despite how much suffering he caused his fucking own-

Fast inhale, and a bit slower exhale.

Tubbo is calm. He is! Really.

A deeper breath in and a longer exhale. 

Tubbo never considered himself greedy for revenge. However, even stress-resistant people like him have their own desires and aspirations. Like- Their own breaking points . And this is Tubbo’s one.

And therefore his fucking biological father will pay for everything.

"Tubbo, you good?" Ranboo lightly tapped him twice on the shoulder, bringing the boy out of his ocean of thoughts. 

The guy was already from head to toe in full villain attire. It’s only the hood that in the moment is lowered did not hide his single black horn, purple wig and mask hiding his entire face. 

Ranboo has to hide his obvious appearance. An enderman was unluckily born half albino which really stands out, so it’s quite necessary to.

He has no plans to interfere today, of course. After all, Tubbo's best friend has no strength other than his improved racial characteristics. Though, his teleportation is the escape measure of the villains, so Ranboo has to be ready to step in once needed.

Oh, right . 

Tubbo turned back to his many monitors.

Right now, a good part of the Syndicate members are preparing to depart from the office straight to their destination.

Nikki reported an unexpected meeting on the way to her destination.

“Again? That’s starting to be a pattern.” Tubbo has noticed, though didn’t voice it up through the earpieces, leaving it only to be heard by Ranboo, who let out a chuckle at that. 

Just like the first time, the man blocked the Nemesis's path by jumping from somewhere above, though it was with the help of a grappling hook this time. 

Huh. A technological improvement? He surely loves being pretentious. The vigilante is similar to both Orpheus and Protesilaus in that.

Theseus. Why is he there again? 

Was the disk that the villains received from him during the vigilante's meeting with Orpheus and Protesilaus really a warning? 

But, then why did he show up in the open then? 

"Hi, Nemesis." The guy tilted his head at the name of the woman. "Can you ask everyone to come here right now? I have something very important to discuss."

And- Isn't that weird now? 

He says this in such a tone, as if he knows for sure that she is not alone here. As if he doesn’t have a single doubt in that. 

Well, not that he was wrong . 

"Everyone, head to sector B6. Nemesis got a run-in with Theseus and he's asking for all of you." Tubbo spoke into his microphone, addressing the general channel. 

If the past times when Theseus crossed paths with the Syndicate taught the villains something, is that the guy clearly knows something unknown to them, or rather everyone in general. And therefore the mission can wait, since the man decided to intervene.

Ranboo perked up at this. As well as everyone else though, judging by their short but excited answers. Enderman also connected his communicator to the general channel. Tubbo is sure that his partner's gaze is now also directed to all those numerous monitors in front of them. 

Already after a record 1 minute and 56 seconds, the last of the five villains that were now on the field mission, finally reached the specified place. 

All five surrounded the man who had called for them in the shape of a crescent moon, but without pressing, leaving the guy his personal space and a way to escape. 

So far, the vigilante expresses only good intentions towards the Syndicate, and therefore they should not frighten a possible ally. 

Nothing happened for a full minute. Neither side was in a hurry to take the first step. Instead, the vigilante stared into the void, clearly gathering his thoughts. While the villains themselves studied the guy in more detail. It is worth appreciating every minute of being in person next to him, as this can give a lot of valuable information for villains about this secretive person. 

At some point, Tubbo seemed to see Theseus' face change slightly, as though he instantly switched off to something. However, the boy brushed off this moment. 

Theseus sighed. "May I have one of your earpieces please? I really need to talk to your tech guy in order to help you." He asked. 

And it wasn't really that much shocking, as boldly, brazen and weird. The vigilante also sounded rather tired all of the sudden. 

Of course, quiet signs of protest were heard from all sides. 

However, Tubbo shushed them, interested in what the vigilante might even need from him . 

"Give him an earpiece, anyone. I trust him." He can always disconnect it at any given time anyway. Doesn’t worth worrying that much. 

Hesitantly, Harpocrates disconnected the device from his ear and handed it to the vigilante who gratefully accepted it. 

During that, Tubbo checked the work of his voice changer and cleared his throat. All this time he was watching Theseus intently. However,so did all the other villains . Even more so, Ranboo was sitting on his hind legs, at any moment preparing to take off and teleport straight to the vigilante at any of his careless movements. 

Theseus, without even removing the hood from which golden curly curls peeked out, put an earpiece on his left ear. 

After tapping the microphone a couple of times, vigilante addressed him:

"Hey. You are-?" He started with a question, obviously waiting for the villain's answer. 

"Perses." He simply answered. 

"Cool." He made a light pause, as if choosing the words. "Um- What exactly do you think I'm here for? That's the question to all of you, by the way." He took a glance around at the last words.

Now it's getting weirder every minute. 

"To help?" Harpocrates was the first to react. Though the man’s uncertainty was obvious. 

"We received your warning. I've got it myself." Orpheus took out the device received from the vigilante out of the pocket. "The- disk? It's weird you've interjected before we've even used it though. Doesn’t really correlate with what you did last time." 

"Fucking asshole-". Vigilante's silent whisper would've been barely heard if not for the quality of every tech piece villains owned. Then he coughed. " How the fuck did you even get it? "

The villains around Theseus looked at each other. Some of them shrugged. Tubbo himself also looked back at his friend, with whom he exchanged equally puzzled glances. 

"We- Thought you gave it to us yourself? You know, when meeting Orpheus and Protesilaus." Zephyrus tried.

"Meeting? I- Oh. That's when it was." Vigilante's trace of thoughts were practically visible with all those gears spinning in his head. 

He cleared his throat. 

"Okay. Then another question. My- Warning..? What do you even think my power is ?" He sounded just as perplexed as Tubbo was himself. 

"Invisibility, duh." Protesilaus said directly, which caused a chuckle from Theseus that he clearly could not suppress it. 

"We have some reason to believe that you are able to- Somehow predict the future? One way or another." Tubbo has finally decided to speak out. After all, for some reason Theseus asked for a conversation with him particularly, too. 

Theseus chuckled at this. 

"Well, it seems as if everything is going to the direction I have planned to turn our conversation to anyway." He shoved his fidgeting hands into his pockets. He raised his head to the sky, not so much looking for something, as if distancing himself from the conversation. 

Without waiting for a reaction from the wary villains, the guy sighed.  “Honestly- I don't have a damn idea of how to approach you.” The man cupped his own face in hands, which made him look rather vulnerable in huge contrast to the usual behavior of the vigilante. “It doesn't matter how much I try. The only useful information I get from you is something I already fucking know!” He went on.

“H-hey, it's okay! You don't have to stress out this much, right?” Orpheus tried to calm the vigilante, who was talking complete nonsense, clearly being on the verge. Maybe he even tried using his power too.

“ Stop this! I won't be able to get to know anything further without revealing some of my cards in the sleeves. So listen closely to what I have to say.” He took a deep breath in and then out, visibly grounding himself.

“I'm not seeing the future. Nor am I finding out about future events via any other predicament powers . I`m straight up going back in time . Again and again. It's called Time loops , if the name's ringing any bells.”

And this explanation… Although it sounds like it is beyond the realm of fiction…  However, it explains too much not to make sense! 

"I- Wow, man. You good? How much have you spent here before even trying to communicate with us?" Ranboo suddenly spoke behind Tubbo's back, after plugging in his microphone. 

"You sound an awfully lot like-" Theseus coughed, covering his slip up. "A lot. A damn lot- Lethe, aren't you?"

This was the moment when first Ranboo and then Tubbo realized that the enderman hybrid had forgotten to connect his voice changer, since he was maskless at the moment. 

"'Let's be professional villains', he said. ‘Nothing would go wrong!’ he encouraged me." Lethe put his mask on and started complaining under his breath after disconnecting from the general channel. 

Well, Tubbo really did drag his best friend after him almost by force. 

"What exactly do you want our help with, Theseus?" Philza Minecraft is the one who is the savior of all The Syndicate Ensemble. O’ great and mighty Zephyrus! He will always cover up all the mistakes of his subordinates. 

" Tell. Me. Everything. " The vigilante said. And God, did he sound dead serious. "I want to help you. I really do. But for me to be able to help you, I need to understand your plans and motives."

The villains looked at each other again for the umpteenth time during this little conversation. Surprise is still visible in those unmasked parts of their faces. 

However, this time a silent dialogue took place between those present on the street. Tubbo, on the other hand, did not reason out loud, and did not even look at Ranboo. 

"Perses, what do you think?" Zephyrus eventually asked. 

"I kinda trust him?" Tubbo was surprised with himself. 

"Look. Even if we won't tell him anything now, then with enough tries he will eventually find out all he needs anyway." Protesilaus decided to insert a voice of reason. Ironic, though. Perhaps the voices also trust Theseus. 

Even though these things are blood-hungry little freaks, they still do often provide Technoblade with useful information. They are not only negative, which is partly why the man is so perceptive. 

"That's exactly what I mean." Tubbo added. Seeing how vigilante himself was nodding this whole time added positive points. 

"Okay. So the first thing you need to know about is-"

The two sides exchanged quite a lot with each other. 

The syndicate talked about their plans and goals. Tubbo also dictated to Theseus the frequency with which their communicators are tuned on today. 

From that moment on, Harpocrates got his earpiece back, while Theseus himself set up his personal one that was obviously used a lot in the past. Isn’t he a newbie? Why does he have something so worn up? 

Moreover, Theseus himself surprised the villains. 

It turns out that the heroes also found out about the Syndicate's plans and trapped them in a ring around the building. 

Dozens of heroes (almost every single one in Manburg) gathered together, setting a trap for the villains. 

At some point in the conversation, the vigilante, who was talking to the group, sat down right on the bare asphalt. Moreover, he suddenly unbuttoned his jacket, taking out a BOOK from an inner pocket. 

And not a simple cheap notebook with small pages, but the size of a school notebook. How did it even fit in there? And why would he have such a big diary with him?! 

The word 'Diary' on the cover was crossed out, replaced by the word ‘Journal’. Part of it was covered with stickers, hiding something written behind it. Only ‘urs’ was clearly visible. Most likely, it says yours at the end of a- phrase? Judging from the length of stickers. Hmmm… 

Having finished recording the information received, and having once again made sure that the Syndicate was sure of the importance of its mission, he fell silent for a long time and thought about something. 

The vigilante began to draw graphs, connect some sentences, or just sat with his head immersed in a book, but his thoughts were clearly somewhere very far away. 

When the villains were already starting to think that they had lost Theseus, the guy suddenly nodded, closing the book, putting it back in his pocket on the way. 

"I think it's time for me to go." He buttoned up his open jacket, and looked around at everyone present around. "Thank you, guys. Especially you, Tubbo ."

"What?" A barely audible surprise escaped the boy's lips. 

Everyone around froze. Utter astonishment was read in the exposed parts of the face, and their body language.

Tubbo himself was basically at the edge of tears. He- The random vigilante knew his identity. 

How?! 

"Knew it." Theseus whispered, hopping back at the start of the loop before anyone got enough consciousness to interfere.

Chapter Text

Ranboo does not remember his biological parents. 

He knew for sure that he had not always been a child of this cute couple of an enderman and a human, whom he now calls mothers -due to obvious reasons- The only thing he knows is what they themselves told their son. And they told him only what the women themselves knew, which definitely isn't a lot. 

Surely he knows that he was taken away for a good reason. A sudden amnesia just has to do something with it, right? 

His first memory the boy does not particularly like to share, instead usually telling others the second one. However, before finding himself in the circle of loving mothers, Ranboo met someone else first. 

X- XD, was their name? The deity said something about him, a mortal, not being able to comprehend their real one. Not that Ranboo really minded. 

The deity told the boy about his own decision to give his memories in return for activation and the awakening of his powers. 

Apparently, Ranboo really wanted to teleport away from something which led to him paying such a prize. 

Sometimes, Ranboo longs for those memories, but on the other hand… He has some scars in his body. His moms told him that at some point he was at the hospital because of his biological parents. 

Yeah, if that did save him, Ranboo doesn't mind not having some of his bad memories. He wouldn't be here right now with them anyway. 

But where's 'here and now'? Oh boy. Ranboo certainly took a wrong turn somewhere.

He was in Tubbo's operating room at the Syndicate's offices. 

And- Prime, was everything crumbling at the moment. 

All of their plans were thrown away simply because the heroes somehow found out about them. Ranboo doesn't even know how this could have happened at all. 

Theseus -a vigilante who for no reason at all recently decided to start helping the villains- flashed several times on the roofs of buildings and in alleys, according to reports which Zephyrus and Protesilaus received from the Chat. 

Apparently, the guy was already helping the Syndicate somehow, but even this didn't make the situation any easier. 

The villains were surrounded in a ring, locked in a building with no way to get out without a fight -which obviously won't be fair, given the number of heroes around- 

The structure itself was completely empty of anyone who could be taken hostage. Even the bombs laid just a few days ago by Protesilaus and Orpheus were missing.

This isn’t good. Not good at all. 

However, Tubbo came up with a plan. A plan, the implementation of which is based on two personalities: Lethe and Theseus. 

The goat hybrid himself can hardly afford to step away from the post of communicator. The entire infrastructure built will instantly fall. 

Honestly, one day he will overwork himself to an extreme amount. And Ranboo doesn't like it very much. The syndicate has long needed to afford someone to help Perses! 

Now, Lethe is just waiting for a signal to teleport exactly to the point chosen by Perses visible to most of the heroes.  

He distracts the heroes from this side of the building, and Orpheus goes unarmed to the other side and asks for help from Theseus -who is definitely present nearby- throwing his disk in the air. 

Maybe the heroes didn't notice the vigilante, but the Сhat did, and so did Protesilaus with Zephyrus as a consequence. Now Theseus is helping the villains from the shadows. 

Seriously, what are this guy's motives? It is now a mystery that the villains are trying to solve by requesting the help of Las Nevadas (In fact, they paid for information. Jester is not someone who does anything for a simple thank you). 

Even Ranboo wouldn't have helped the villains in his right mind before, without at least something in return. Moreover, wanting to maintain his status as a vigilante! 

Lethe and Perses initially pretended to be vigilantes for a while. However, almost nothing of what Theseus does every day even occurred to them to do. 

The guy immediately shows how much he values his title and a good name. Which only makes it even more alarming and questionable. Why is he willing to risk everything for the Syndicate?  

A real mystery indeed. 

However, this is not the right time to think about it now. 

The moment has come. 

Orpheus comes out of the surrounded building with his hands raised, hiding the disk he received from Theseus the other day in his sleeve. 

The tension of the moment is felt even through the camera. Moreover, Ranboo himself almost felt sweat on his own face. Huh. It would’ve been funny, since endermen don't sweat! 

By the way the man's shoulders are shaking -one of which holds his microscopic camera, so that’s how Ranboo could tell- one can understand how worried he is. After all, every policeman around is wearing those new unusual helmets that drown out the surrounding sounds. The villain's ability is now useless on them, which immediately deprives him of more than half of his arsenal -of course apart from the great amount of weapons on the man at the time- which can't help but strain.

Ranboo has now taken up a position on the right side of Tubbo. He focused his gaze on one of the monitors, on which the view of the camera was open, which shows the place chosen by his partner. 

Although the villain does not have an ability, he still has his enhanced features of the hybrid. 

Endermen are extremely rare, but they do live outside of the closed to humanity end -at the very thought of this forbidden place, Ranboo unconsciously notices thoughts about the word home - or a somewhat limited hell. Ranboo himself has been to this warmest place only once, and judging by his love of coolness, it’s unlikely for the boy to be originally from there.

Usually, endermen can't choose exactly where they teleport to. In contrast, their teleport location is determined almost by chance. The only thing is that they manage to avoid water and solid objects, so as not to teleport and get stuck in one. Otherwise, their set point is extremely blurry, they can only choose a vague direction of where to shift. 

Ranboo paid for his enhanced teleportation to the Gods , and therefore was able to overcome this threshold. Such endermen are rare- Prime, not just rare . They can hardly be counted on the fingers. Even the process of payment itself is unknown to mankind, and believe him when he says that he was looking for any information about it . Jester won't yet cooperate with him, telling to wait a little bit more till he’s older and more ready for it. And Ranboo knows that the man has a lot of information about it!

Ranboo probably accidentally discovered this possibility to improve for himself and- Yes, probably the only person who believed him one hundred percent is Jester. However, the man himself seems to have met with some of the gods, so does it really count, if they're the same?

“Okay, guys. Are you ready?” Tubbo asked. Ranboo heard his partner through both the earpiece and his left ear. It's a bit annoying that it doubles, but he needs to be connected already, because there won't be any time for that after teleporting.”Three,” The short boy started the countdown.

Wilbur’s hands shifted a little bit in the direction to be able to take the disk out of his sleeve.

"Two," Brunette said, taking a deep inhale as if getting ready. There must be so much pressure on Tubbo… "And- wait. Is that Theseus? We haven't even made a signal yet!"

And- puzzled, Enderman looked away from the screen. Following his friend's gaze, Ranboo actually saw an agile figure in a brown hoodie rushing from one side of the street to the other. Theseus . 

He gracefully dodged all the attacks of the heroes, even responding to some with a couple of kicks and punches. It looked even somewhat… Fascinatingly . How easily he bypassed so many heroes!

“R- Lethe!” The echoing shout of his best friend returned Ranboo to reality. “Why the FUCK are you still here? Teleport to your damn position !” He commanded. 

And dear Prime. How much power this short boy has over him- Over everyone in the Syndicate, actually.

So without any further ado, Lethe did teleport to his spot.

Now, the only thing he had to do was just simply… Distract everyone around for about- 30 seconds, or so?

Yeah. 

So- This can’t go poorly, right? 

There's only- A couple of dozens of heroes. Not a big deal. Not at all!

Besides, Ranboo has Perses’s voice updating him on what's going on on the other side with Theseus and other villains. Even if that’s informal, it’s still kinda distracting from the intense scene.

The enderman even has an advantage! Heroes were distracted by Theseus before, so they're a bit unfocused. Though Ranboo was distracted by Theseus himself too…

Okay. It's- It’s okay. All this crazy teleportation he does will come to an end soon.

25 seconds left.  

That- That was a close one, for sure. Having your head hit by this bat can’t be good for your health. Though Ranboo is lucky enough to be able to dodge it.

20 seconds left. 

“Hey! Careful with your guns, officers!” Lethe found himself mocking after dodging several bullets in a row. It seems like some of them even hit other heroes and policemen. “Friendly fire is on?” He asked with a grin. Even though it isn’t seen through his full-face mask.

5 seconds left.  

Okay. It's close enough. He needs to catch just one breath.

It's almost done. He just needs to-

“Whoa.” He backed out from a very personal hit. 

At the next teleportation from the hero's throw, Lethe did it without really looking. However, the villain did not take into account that the heroes had finished lining up in a grid ideal for his capture.

That's what happened. The enderman bumped into someone with his back, his arms were twisted, and before he could recover from that, the second pair of hands were already putting the power suppressor on him.

The timer set by Perses rang, after which the earphone abruptly cut off. 

Ranboo is in some serious trouble…

After a short but desperate resistance from the villain -Ranboo struggled yet tried to fight back anyway. If he hadn't had a mask on his face, he would have even spat at someone- but he was thrown into a police car anyway. 

It’s one of those equipped with a cell and made out of netherite. No villain can escape out of these on their own under the influence of a power suppressor. 

His earpiece was taken away, but fortunately Perses had long since disconnected it from the others. 

All alone, without the ability to teleport and even without communication with the Syndicate. 

Huh... 

"Well, that was quite mean." Lethe summed up, after the doors were slammed shut right in front of his face with full force

"Yeah, dude. I feel ya." It was heard from somewhere inside. 

"What the-" Ranboo almost jumped -which would’ve been quite comical- from the situation. "Who are you?" He asked, once his vision fixated on the other person inside. 

This guy looked... Yeah. 

Ranboo will not comment on this man dressed in the costume of Sonic the Hedgehog. He even has the same red sneakers! The dude is clearly a fan. 

"I'm Pants Eater." He waved at Lethe. "Got caught for some kinda stupid reason. I mean- Usually I'm too fast for anyone to touch me."

"Seems like today wasn't your best day then. Sorry, man." Ranboo shrugged and sighed, coming closer to sit on the bench near the vigilante. Ranboo remembers him now, he saw the guy once. "May I?" He gestured to the space on the bench near Pants Eater. He won't ask about his name.

After receiving a nod he sat his long legs on a low bench. Yeah. Maybe it would be better to move to the floor.

"You aren't really responsible for that. My own stupidity to come across those heroes actually did that to me." The hedgehog -actually, Ranboo is pretty sure that he's human- sounded rather resigned, and therefore calm. 

"Yet still the two who were NOT supposed to be caught are here at the moment anyway.” The villain said.

"Welp- Looks like both of us are losers." Pants Eater shrugged.

For some moments awkward silence filled the space. Ranboo took a look around. Nothing really caught his eye, since it's one of the most secure places like- in the whole city maybe. 

"Do you play solitaire?" Vigilante said, waving a hand that held a deck of cards in it. 

"How the- You know what? I won't question that. Yeah, I don't mind playing solitaire with you." 

‘Even though it’s usually a one-player game’ Went unsaid.

Ranboo better start getting used to this guy.

Ranboo found himself having a good time in the company of a vigilante. No wonder they say that from vigilante to a villain is just one step. The guys get along pretty well, like- For two complete strangers at least. Although, rather now they can even be called friends..? 

That's why Ranboo was surprised when the loud sounds of battle so soon changed to much louder sounds of explosions. 

After exchanging glances with his new friend, Ranboo stared at the cell door in anticipation. 

The results were not long to come. The police car shuddered, while clearly at least scratched -from such an amount of force energy invested in the explosion- door swung open. 

Although Perses can do a lot on his own, and therefore Lethe -like everyone in the Syndicate- is a bit afraid of him for this, even he can't blow up the netherite.

This is confirmed by the card that the goat hybrid holds in his hand. 

A portable hacker developed by Perses together with Creeper. Since the thing is quite a secret, it is reasonable to cover its use with explosions, as Tubbo just did. 

"Lethe? My beloved platonic husband, are you okay?" The short boy shouted at the enderman, taking a look inside the car he just tried to explode. 

And- Of course Tubbo was the one who first abandoned all his affairs, left his place as a communicator and ran to the rescue of his partner.

Laughing at the choice of words, the taller villain threw cards away, standing up. "Perses!" He cried amused. 

He wasn't able to resist the urge to peek outside. And of course there was a glimpse of Protesilaus fighting off some heroes. Ranboo bets he was the one who instantly sat to think of an escape plan while Perses came running here. 

Turning to the dumbfounded vigilante, Lethe firmly decided to save this guy, too. Taking him by the hand, the villain dragged the Pants Eater after him, ignoring the man's protests about his cards. Seriously, he can always just buy the new ones. 

"Who's that?" Perses asked, pointing at the vigilante. Ranboo could practically feel his partner's brow raised at the question. 

"No time to explain," Enderman said, coming closer. "Break this thing please." He held out his hand with a suppressor looking rather like a handcuff.

After a quick swipe of the card over the device, it disappeared with a click. The card itself partially crumbled. So it was the last of its three charges. 

On the other side of the door, Ranboo saw Zephyrus joining the battle. Well, then Protesilaus will be able to escape from the battle with the help of his father. Then there's nothing to worry about left. 

Nodding, Ranboo turned to the two occupants of the cell. Putting his arm around their shoulders, Ranboo directed his gaze to the nearest alley and opened his arms to purple particles and the void opened its gentle arms to the group.

Chapter Text

Tommy is 6 years old. He is clutching his cow plushie Henry tightly in his hands. 

He had just been betrayed by his foster parents, whom the boy TRUSTED. 

They ruthlessly put him in the hands of these scientists as soon as they were free from their business and no longer needed him. 

But Tommy didn't just come back. He came back angrier.

And now these two were standing in front of him. 

Tommy's tear-stained face was reflected in the mirror. Though it wasn't a little boy's face as it should’ve been. Not at all.

In the reflection was 16-year-old Tommy. But he didn't cry with an expression of sadness and grief on his face, rather the opposite . The teenager's face was serious, with barely concealed rage. It's accurate, because that's about how he actually felt then, but- Why is he in this house, at an age not suitable for the timeline? 

The boy's head turned, and only then did he see that the two figures of his first adoptive parents were replaced by now three figures of the people closest to Tommy in the whole world now. 

Minecrafts. Why are they-

And at that moment, Tommy was met with everything that was pouring straight out of his mouth. All the hostility, the rage, the spite. This guy didn't even try to hide his tone and mood.

Why- Why does he say all of this to those whom he loves endlessly?! 

It hurt Tommy. But, it scared him even more. And judging by the change from once caring to now indifferent faces of Wilbur and Philza, to the now undisguised straight up rage of Technoblade…  

Why does he say everything that's left in his fantasies addressed to those traitors he saw just a few minutes ago now when it's not them in front of him anymore?!

"I wish you a nice flight," He shouted as loud as possible. " To hell. " The one behind controls in Tommy's body decided to add what he intended, yet restrained himself from saying all that time ago.

And that seemed to be the very thing to actually break the camel's back. 

"We know everything, Tommy." Technoblade said calmly. As he could. Even though Tommy knows how angry he is, Techno always is able to stay calm, at the very least visually . Otherwise his voices would've corrupted him long before . 

" How could you? " Wilbur's face wasn't angry. No. Neither was his voice. The man looked rather- sad . "How could you lie to us like that?" He asked like the hypocrite bitch he was, but-

That actually broke Tommy's heart. Really, how could he? Why was he lying in the first place? He knows how pointless it is. He’s been taught that so fucking long ago…

But the next thing showed why. 

"I don't think we have any other choice, kid." Phil said. At that Tommy raised his head to look at him.

But now he looked- He didn't look like Phil Tommy knows. No. He looked like that man . The foster father Tommy hated the most. The one who always beats him up whenever he gets a chance to. The one who hates Tommy's guts and is not afraid to show it, a bit differently than his wife that does not miss any chance to do it.

And now he wore that cryptid smile so out of Phil’s character. And Prime- Did his silhouette just change too? Why is he taller than Tommy? How could he have become that big?! A simple ruffle of his wings doesn`t do that much!

But Tommy didn't have much time to react to this, because the next thing to cross his sight was the wooden floor he found himself on. Why was he-

Oh. Tommy saw a glimpse of something metal and sharp at Phil's hand and then the boy looked further down to the pool of red sticky liquid pouring through his gut. 

Is that really gonna be his end?

Tommy woke up in sweat. His whole body was tense and trembling. His state was progressively turning into a panic attack.

It took the boy a while to finally steady himself. The ways to help oneself in the state of panic attack are bright in his mind. 

Tommy has been having nightmares a lot recently. Maybe even a bit too much for someone who has just started to finally heal. 

Welp, it seems like Tommy is not as safe as he considered himself just a bit earlier. And dear Prime did he gather a couple more traumas to the never ending list. 

Tommy hadn't been out on patrol for a week since the day the Syndicate was on the verge of the tragedy. 

It's been a whole week and- 

Tommy is fucking exhausted . 

Everyday these nightmares and subsequent panic attacks haunt him. Moreover, all this is complemented by the most terrible pain in the head, which is about the same as migraines are. The pullback has never been so strong and- So strange . Almost out of character. 

Like- Tommy still has all of his funky lil' memories -as far as he could tell- yet the boy's head is throbbing with the worst migraine he's ever had. 

Although… 

Tommy would one hundred percent prefer whatever this is to losing any of his memories. Though is that the price, or a simple kickback? Tommy desperately wants to believe it is a new form of price. He practically begs all of the existing Gods for it to be so. 

In fact, during this whole week Tommy managed to have a surprisingly decent rest, despite all the difficulties with sleeping and not the most pleasant pastime in general. During this time, Tommy managed not only to expand his island in Animal Crossing, but even regained his desire to play minecraft -which had apparently gone away at some point- exploring the new versions. 

Tommy found out about this game after Phil told about his distant relative who created it. His name was- Notch? Something like that.

For this week, the boy took a break from both school and patrols. This is not even so much for the recovery, as in order to wait out the hard times for vigilantes. 

The Dream Team -on par with a bunch of other heroes from The Capital- finally arrived in the city. The last week has been surprisingly quiet. Neither villains nor vigilantes were coming out of their hiding places. Tommy thinks they're doing the right thing, actually. 

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Tommy takes this time to build further relationships with his friends and family. 

The day of the Syndicate's failed terrorist attack clearly ate up a couple of years of his life -if that's even possible- although-

...

Yes, it's better not to think about it ahead of time. Tommy often wondered what would happen when he inevitably died of old age. 

Will the loop just close? 

Or will he get stuck in an endless series of repetitive events, finally not having a single way to get out? 

Or will he have to reset his checkpoint and be born once again?

…

Neither of the last options are pleasant at all.

It's better to move away from this topic... 

The Syndicate! 

Not only that, Tommy already had an uncountable number of loops open that day, which the boy opened for his investigations. And all of the loops that he had to open just to cross the street to distract the heroes… 

The vigilante, in his stupidity, took upon himself the distraction of all the heroes on one of the sides, and therefore had to run a ton. 

In order to understand the full scale of the situation: Theseus had to take off one of his watches -he chose the electric one- and held it in his palm in order to have some support of the synchronization in restarting and twisting new loops. Optimisation from the synchronization is exactly what made the shit show possible.

In this longest a minute and a half in his whole life, Tommy opened more than 70 different loops, and way more than once used each of them while dodging and running from the attacks of a bunch of heroes. 

However, from the outside perspective it looked really epic . More than once a recording of this event was played in the news, and it went viral in social media  too! Tommy was more than able to enjoy the recording of his performance. At one point, passing-by Techno even praised ‘the guy's movements’. 

And Tommy would be lying if he said he had a hard time trying to hide himself being fluttered at the unexpected praise. 

He was portrayed in the news as a "passing-by at the wrong time vigilante", so he was lucky that he was not suspected -or at least called- as an ally of villains. Tommy would like to preserve the good reputation of vigilante Theseus. Fortunately, his earlier moves were almost perfectly planned, so that they were noticed only by Phil and Techno via Chat, and they're the ones who Tommy helped, so it’s not a dangerous thing. And therefore he managed to create a reputation as a stupid yet lucky vigilante. 

Probably, his exclamations of surprise and the uncertainty in the voice that he had fabricated helped the boy fool a bunch of heroes even better. 

It's a miracle that he didn't have to pay with his memories for all these moves. However, now he is in a state akin to some rather serious disease, and migraines have just begun to leave his head. 

Tommy just decided to call himself sick, and according to his condition it wasn't a hundred percent lie. Fortunately, Phil was sympathetic to this. Seriously, the man is the best father Tommy has ever met. 

The boy had a lot of time to think about what had happened, and there was plenty of information to unpack.

Only one thing pleased him. The syndicate were able to save Lethe themselves and Tommy didn't need to intervene. Although he still quietly helped them in a couple of places. Tubbo was very persistent in saving their best friend, so Tommy was able to just let the guy do all the work himself. 

If Tommy kept going, it’s very unlikely that he’d was left with simple migraines. 

Oh, yes, the most important thing that happened that day. 

" I- Wow, man. You good? How much have you spent here before even trying to communicate with us? "

At that moment, Lethe sounded genuinely concerned, worried, kind and strangely- Ranboo-ish . Like, everything in him screamed 'I'm Ranboo' at Tommy. Not only his tone, but the voice itself. The boob-boy straight up forgot to put a voice changer on, as it seems. 

Actually, it's a very Ranboo thing to do. 

So- Yeah. It took Tommy to get THAT sort of evidence to finally let himself click all the puzzle pieces in his mind together.

And that little discovery led Tommy to figuring out the person behind Perses mask shortly after. 

That whole sudden realisation of both his best friends being fucking supervillains on par with his whole family… Well- It's surprising and quite unpleasant to say the least. 

Seriously, does he even know any civilians?

The moment Tommy asked to contact Perses the boy was doomed to recognise these two. 

Tommy knows his friends too well . 

Small talks, the manner of the villain's speech, intonation, even Tubbo's signature phrases. A sudden realization hit Tommy, forcing the boy to take away a solid part of his thinking time there for just thinking that over. Right before closing the loop, he decided to find out the truth for sure. Rather to finally prove that to himself. 

According to the reaction of both Tubbo himself and others around, two more identities of the Syndicate members became more than obvious and their masks fell for Tommy. 

But- Why..? 

Tommy can understand Tubbo. Screw that, he does understand Tubbo. 

The man is a literal bundle of chaotic energy. He is a hacker -a very good one too, judging by what Tommy has seen- and has repeatedly threatened him and Ranboo with knowing the codes of nukes. Well. Now it's much more likely to be the truth, huh?

Wait- Did Tubbo lie to him about his power?

"What's your powers though, if you have any?" Tommy asked the two, when their trio had these little get to know conversations everyone has at the beginning of their friendships. 

They clicked with each other almost instantly, but still it is necessary for every sort of relationship to have these sorts of talks. 

"I'm just an enderman. You know, teleportation and this stuff. Our kind rarely gets any powers anyway." Ranboo shrugged. 

"I get it, Boob-boy. You're still full of the main character vibes. Especially considering you take only your glasses off even when surrounded by friends. Wears a mask all day 'round and calls it 'fashion'" Tommy mocked his friend. 

"Hey! How many times have I told you that it's not my name? And where did you even get that main character reference?! The taller boy sounded offended as fuck. 

"I'm literally the step-brother of The Technoblade, duh." Tommy said as if the sentence made any sense. 

Which it did though.

"I- Fine." Ranboo said, defeated.

"Bee-boy. What about you?" Tommy turned to his other more interesting friend. 

"Come on. I've mentioned bees ONCE." Tubbo groaned. 

"Yeah, yeah. I get it. Answer my question." Tommy was ruthless, but he really wanted to know. 

Yeah, he knows what a jerk and a hypocrite he was at the moment. 

"I mean, nothing that cool," Tubbo sighed and freed his hand. "Just whatever this is."

At that moment, black smoke began to ooze right out of his barely glowing red palm in the center. Tommy was able to barely smell something burning mixed with some chemical shit. 

"Wow! Is that-"

"Smoke. Like- I can make a great realistic trail of smoke. Like from fire or something explosive. Nothing useful, actually." He shrugged, wiping the hand with some random cloth from the pile at the floor of his bedroom. The boys often spend their time there at Tubbo’s. 

"No, I think it's so cool, man!..."

And like that -without noticing it himself- Tommy yet again started an hour-long conversation, in which only the blonde was truly a speaker, while the two around played some random games, listening to him with fond smiles on their faces. Those moments with his friends is something which Tommy enjoys.

Perses' ability is not just 'smoke from an explosion'. It’s the explosion itself .  

Tommy can't believe Tubbo hid something like that . 

Moreover, Ranboo is clearly one of those enhanced or something endermen who can choose where to teleport.  

Although- Yes. Tommy doesn't judge them. He can’t. It's only fair he was lied to if he himself was a big liar. 

Well, Tommy could understand why Tubbo suddenly became a villain. 

But Ranboo? 

Are we really talking about the same Ranboo ?

Ranboo who hasn't hurt a fly in his life? Even if he did, then he definitely felt terrible for a week or something. 

The same Ranboo who blames himself for all the others' mistakes, and in the chaotic Bench trio -as the guys were once called at school- is the only voice of morality and reason? 

Tommy doesn't even ask "how?". That one is obvious. Tubbo dragged him along, and the weak-willed Ranboo just couldn't say no. 

But why then? Why is he still Lethe for such a long time?

Not only is it probably against his moral principles -as far as Tommy knows- it is also dangerous as fuck! 

Tommy had literally to participate in his rescue for fuck's sake. 

This question was now tormenting Tommy the most. 

A week has passed. Tommy himself is already much better, despite the remnants of a headache. It means that it's time to go back to school. But it felt so good just staying at home! 

Tommy finally decides to leave his room. 

He is a big man, and therefore the long physical inactivity is contraindicated for him. Especially now that he always wants to do at least something after becoming a vigilante, as his muscles want exercising. In the first days, running around the city exhausted the boy as fuck, but he acclimatized rather quickly. 

As he always does. 

As far as Tommy can tell, the only one he's sure is in the house right now is Wilbur. And even him Tommy can tell only because of the sounds of the guitar, coming from behind the barely closed door. 

"Hey, Will." Tommy opened the door a little more than it already was, looking inside. 

"Hey Toms. How are you, sunshine?" Wilbur stopped at his song, looking fond to see the boy. 

Subconsciously, Tommy widened his own half smile. 

"'m much better now. May I-" He gestured to the door. 

"Of course! Come in." Wilbut nodded and shifted at his bed, making some space for Tommy. 

And Tommy would lie if he said his smile wasn't a hundred percent genuine at the moment. 

Once the boy settled up, Wilbur turned back to his guitar. 

"What do you wanna hear?" He asked. 

And that's a common occurrence for Tommy to randomly come to Will's and for the older to play him something. Not even always on guitar, though it is Wilbur's favorite. 

"I dunno. Something of your own choice." He said more like groaned, because of a sudden new-coming migraine. 

Tommy leaned to Wilbur's side, comfortably laying his head on the man's shoulder. 

He could practically feel his brother's smile at the gesture. 

"Still have those migraines?" His voice was much softer now. 

"Mhm." The boy nodded, relaxing. He tried to copy his big brother's breath. For some reason that always calmed the boy down. 

"Then how about 'Your city gave me asthma'?" Will offered. 

"Maybe 'Jubilee line'? Oh! Or 'Saline Solution'?" Tommy offered at the expense, excited. 

"I don't know, you choose . Feeling these vibes today?" He half heartedly chuckled.

At the luck of any other answer except for a simple weak shrug, Wilbur took that as an invitation to start singing. 

Tommy loved those moments. Treasured them even. 

And he loved Wilbur too. The very presence of his brother was enough to calm the boy down.

Thus, for the next couple of hours Tommy was able to clear his head, relaxing listening to all of his brother's songs in chronological order.

Seriously, his ARG-like shit is kinda weird, if you ask Tommy's humble opinion.

In the middle of one of Wilbur's best songs, the man was interrupted by the sound of an alarm going off. 

"Oh, shit!" Will quickly put the guitar down. "I've almost forgotten!" He practically jumped out of the comfortable position. 

"What the-" Tommy was quick to copy his coming out of the room brother. "What did you forget?" He asked. 

"I-" He stopped in his tracks at the door. "Me and dad were meant to go and get ready for an important upcoming meeting taking place at the main office in a couple of days." The man went on explaining when Tommy joined him at his walk down stairs. 

Now that was interesting. Is that a regular business meeting, or is there something more to this..? 

The upcoming question "Do you need any help?" was what he decided to go with. 

"I mean- Uh..." Wilbur hesitated for a second. He shrugged. "Phi-i-il?" He shouted once they both came down to the first floor of the house. 

"Yeah?" It came from the living room. A couple of seconds later, the guys came into the room. 

Phil was sitting on the couch watching random shit that was going on at the TV at the moment. Was it the news? 

"Phi-i-il?" Now it was Tommy's turn to pester Phil. Which he did in a mocking way, copying Wilbur. 

"Hey, mate." Phil said with this cooing sappy voice of his that he used whatever in a family presence. "What's up?" He asked. 

"Can the little gremlin come with us?" The brunette asked.

And even though Tommy rolled his eyes at the nickname he still saw the man's- Nervousness? 

Tommy hasn't really been in the main office building much. Usually, he was not taken to preparations for such serious meetings, although Tommy himself didn't show much interest in it anyway. 

After first impressions of the building, Tommy quickly became rather bored in the whole bureaucracy. 

Now, at the opposite, he craves to get to know more of his family’s secrets. And holy Prime does he think he got on the right path with that reaction!

“Oh, I dunno Tommy. You usually get bored pretty fast. And there’s nothing really to do for you here while we're busy, you know?” The avian man unanswered him, not having that much content on his face either.

“But I want to help you! I’ve got nothing to do here anyway.” He found himself saying. “The location change may help me with headaches.” A plea masked for something reasonable like that may help at the situation.

And yet that meant Tommy started to get desperate if he was using such tricks now.

In response to that, others started to silently debate something.

Oh… It’s-

It seems that Tommy’s not going anywhere.

“I’m sorry Toms, this meeting is really important so it would happen at the secure floors. You’re not exactly allowed there .” Phil said with a sympathetic look on his face.

“Yet!” Will went to cheer Tommy up, at which Phil threw him a weird glare.

Wait.

Have they discussed opening to him one day?

That’s- Whoa.

But. That's not the point at the moment. He needs to make a realistic response.

“I see…” He said with a sad look on his face. He was sad actually. More so that they even get to know. “Well, if you're so secretive around me I'll go to Tubbo's then.”

After a last glance at his now looking rather guilty brother and father -yea, they kinda deserve to feel guilty- he took his leave outside.

That’s minus one great opportunity, yet Tommy knows there is something villain-related going on at the office.

And that makes him way too curious and excited.

Chapter Text

Looking back, the incident had its advantages. 

Tommy hopes that his sacrifices for the Syndicate were appreciated, or at least noted by said villains. 

There was too much at stake, and they certainly don’t look like complete bastards that they won’t appreciate all that Tommy has done at all. 

Also, what happened answered the question of where Tommy's disk went. He even managed to get it back! 

Will discreetly tossed it to where he was standing before quickly getting the fuck outta here. 

In their confusion, the heroes didn't notice the fallen disc, while Tommy miraculously managed to play off his reach for the thing. 

In honor of this, the boy took it out of the pocket allotted to the disks. 

He should probably name this bad boy something. 

First, to his mind immediately comes…  

This disk is basically like a stray kitten. A rather venturous one too. But somehow, someway, it still found its way back to Tommy. 

So, for short it would just be Cat. Tommy thinks that such a light hearted name perfectly suits this disk. 

By the way. For some reason, it's glow was fucking neon green of all the colors. 

No offense, green is an okay of a color, but Prime does Tommy hate the neon version of it. 

Sure, it is quite noticeable, but why? Just- Just why?  

He switched the neon greenish color to whatever random one that was close. 

Hm. A darker and less bright shade of green is way… Way more fitting all of the sudden. 

Thinking of it, green always was Phil's and Tubbo's color to him. And Cat seemed to like it as much as it liked the name too. 

So, a whole new personality for the disk is created. 

At that moment, the second disc was sadly looking at Tommy out of his opened pocket. 

Oh... Apparently, he will have to carry the same naming procedure with the second disk. 

Tommy took it out of the pocket. 

That was the one disc that Tommy gave to Nemesis. He wonders that if he knows Lethe and Perses personally, are there any chances for him to know this woman too? 

Tommy was brought out of his thoughts by the glow of the disk in his hands, due to the fact that he accidentally pressed its button while fidgeting with it. 

Magenta. Wait, but why magenta though? Tommy clearly made it pink last time.  

Though, it seems like after all the time that the disk was lying in the pocket of a constantly moving vigilante, several buttons were destined to be pressed. That's why a couple of shades have changed. 

Hmm... Pink symbolizes Techno and Nikki -perhaps also Nemesis, maybe?- while purple has always been the color of Ranboo. The combination of these three different shades is magenta. Cool, then that would be Mellohi's color now. 

Wait. Mellohi? Why Mellohi?

…

Ok, he won't even question his own unconscious naming techniques. 

Tommy proclaims the magenta-colored disk as Mellohi. 

And now, perhaps, the only thing to add to the character of the discs is to maybe write songs for them? Since, they are like vinyls or something. 

Cat is a rather light, but at the same time lively music. It's like dancing on the beach in the rain . It’s not that important for everyone, but for experienced warriors who have had a lot in their lives… It’s their only joy. 

Whereas Mellohi is rather…  Waltz-ish melody, that is somehow forcing the atmosphere, yet not to the extreme. Obviously not for everyone, and certainly not the melody that you listen to in order to laugh. However, in addition to Cat, it plays a very important role for one child left alone in this world, sitting on a bench, grieving that he will never be able to dance like that with his loved ones again… 

These scenes feel surprisingly real. It's as if he once felt it all, and now he's just become distant of it. 

Oh. When Tommy reveals his identity, he will definitely ask Wilbur to write melodies suitable for these two pictures he imagines for some reason. 

… 

If Wilbur would still want to have any kind of relationship with him. And of course, if Tommy himself is still alive to that moment. 

...

Yes, it's better not to get ahead and make plans based on false hopes. 

So far, it's already enough that Tommy associates his disks with these scenes in his mind.

For some reason, this alone warms his heart, as if it clicks with his soul as a missing piece. 

Moving on. 

Tommy was able to beg for some more pocket money yesterday. He covered himself with the needs of 'pleasing all of his many women'. 

Laughing, Phil surprisingly transferred some cash to Tommy's card rather easily. 

Cash is preferable, of course, but Tommy can always withdraw funds from his account at the nearest supermarket, so it's okay. 

After running back and forth, that same evening Tommy, or rather vigilante Theseus , went shopping in Las Nevadas. 

There, the guy finally got himself his dream: A grappling hook for his night affairs! 

And some rather small things too, of course. But the hook is the most important and the coolest purchase of them all. 

The next patrol followed the trip to Las Nevadas, and he was able to try the bad boy at work. Although the patrol was rather sluggish due to the villain's inactivity, the grappling hook still managed to already be in active use. 

Seriously, this thing is irreplaceable! It's a wonder how Tommy was coping all this time without a tool with which he can climb walls much faster and easier. 

Of course, these are not such cool things as the ones specially designed for heroes. And even the villains are much more original in using such devices. But Tommy can't afford the same thing yet for the lack of a stable income. 

Therefore, he has to make do with whatever he has. And even this is much better than nothing.

For a change from the usual gatherings at Tubbo's, a trio of friends are at Ranboo's today.

Mrs Black and Mrs White, as Tommy calls them -cause Ranbo always wears this black&white mask of his, so he is kind of a combination of them both- are really nice women. Tommy likes his friend's moms, they give off pog vibes, considering they get him in his love of women -unlike his two clear gay best friends who are kinda a couple, even if they call it platonic-

The boys had finished their homework -every time Ranboo calls them to his, it means that at least one of them needs his help- so now they were just relaxing, watching a random melodrama on the TV in the enderman's room. 

Tommy is now a little unusual -yet again- to behave with someone close to him as if nothing had happened. 

Even though Tommy has to do the same thing with his family, the fear plays in keeping a secret there, rather than common sense as for here. And Tommy is known for the lack of it . 

Moreover, his familiy's tomorrow's meeting with someone in a forbidden part of the office does not give him peace of mind, intriguing the boy as fuck. 

His ass itself feels that this event is exactly what he needs to decipher most of the pieces of one big puzzle called the Syndicate. 

Tommy really wants to go there -no, screw that. He needs it - yet he knows how impossible that is. 

"Argh-" Tubbo groaned. "For fuck's sake. Alexis, he loves you! How much simpler does he have to get for that one hell of a main character to understand?!" He complained about the actions taking place on the screen. 

"Tubbo, chill out. You know Alex was out with Karlos and lied to poor Nick in the face about it." Ranboo pleaded. 

And-

Prime. Tommy does know another one -or, rather two- who lied to his face. 

And if this isn't a chance to voice out these two in their faces, then Tommy doesn't know what is then. 

Tommy clenches his jaw until it creaks. Unable to restrain himself, the boy starts the loop. 

Interrupting the growing discussion of his friends -which has long gone beyond simple comments about the series they were watching- he coughed, drawing attention to himself. 

After that, Tommy pointed both his head and his hand at the remote control to Ranboo. It is better for there to be silence in the room at this moment. 

The enderman, at that, raised an eyebrow questioningly, yet still turned off the sound of the TV. 

"Hey, I was watching that-" Tubbo yelled, clearly being driven into the story on screen now. 

"Tubbo." Ranboo threw a glance at Tubbo. "Tommy clearly wants to tell us something." The enderman shushed the goat hybrid. 

And- Tommy can't go back now, can he? 

But he can, in fact, just go back to the beginning of the loop-

No. No excuses, no turning back. This is the very moment when Tommy can no longer suppress the desire to speak out. 

"You know…  I-” He gulped. “I know that you lied to me about your powers." The boy said, as nonchalant as he could. 

And at that, Tommy saw the shocked faces.  He saw these looks they've started to exchange. And he tried to stifle his laugh, in which he perfectly succeeded. Not a single muscle was out of his take at a poker face. 

"What do you mean, man?" Tubbo asked. Nervousness was obvious not only in his voice, but on the face, and the way his body trembled too. 

Ranboo was no better. The enderman was pitiful to look at. 

"Oh, cut this bullshit, Tubso. I know about your secret ." Tommy was harsh. "The secrets of both of you, actually." He decided to add that to sound a bit fancier and more dramatic. 

The look of horror was worth every second Tommy tried so hard to keep a straight face. 

Though, he has yet another show to play. He has to convince his friends he's a dumb citizen, who has no idea what it's like to be a super-anywho. 

"I just wanna ask-" He mysteriously said, keeping a pause for the duo to be as tense as they could be. "How poggers is it to roam the night streets, blowing shit up and all that?!" He screamed in an excited tone. "And you," He pointed at a particular enderman. "How come you didn't tell me you could teleport that far and cool and-"

"Tommy!" Wide-eyed Ranboo was the first to react and yelled the boy’s name. That was so out of his character, that it surprised Tommy and made him shut for a moment. “You- What do you mean ?” The enderman was way more surprised than Tommy thought, as it seems.

“You act as if- As if you don’t mind it???” The smaller boy continued, seemingly understanding Ranboo’s loss of words.

“It’s because- I don’t ?” Tommy didn't find anything better to answer, so he just shrugged it off. “Anyway- Tubbo, how the fuck did you convince Ranboo to join the Syndicate too-”

“Tommy, are you serious?” Tubbo nearly whispered.

And to that- Tommy sighed. 

Yea. It seems that civilians don't really tend to be “okay” with such stuff. Blame Tommy for his past …

“I am, big man. I mean- Heroes are a bunch of assholes. Believe me, I, as a foster kid with a kinda ‘traumatic’ past or whatever… I know this as a fact.” He tried. And it wasn’t a lie! “Hell. One of them screamed at me for completely no reason just a couple of days ago!” And that was the complete truth either. Tommy just- Didn't mention that it was at night, and he himself was in his vigilante attire. “What an asshole he was.” He started nodding to himself.

It took a while for Tommy to convince his friends that “ Yeah. I’m actually totally fine with you two being supervillains and a part of the Syndicate.” 

It took a while, but Tommy did it.

It got to the point that now the trio are kinda back to their normal state. They even make jokes about it all!

“I just don't understand why were you hiding your power, Tubbo?” Tommy asked, looking to the ceiling. “I mean- It’s so cool! I would’ve liked to have such a nice ability!” He went.

“Tommy, I- Have I ever told you how I got my scars?” That’s what a tensed Tubbo answered to the boy’s silly comments. 

Tommy, in response, looked at the now removing his bangs that were covering the upper half of his face Tubbo, shaking his head.

This action of the brunette revealed a large scar on his cheek and a part of the nose, extending to one of the boy's eyes, making him partially blind. Tubbo clearly doesn't like his face because of this. And- Understandably. No matter how Tommy tries to convince -both of his friends, actually- of their absolute normality, both of them hide their faces. 

Facial dysphoria and dysmorphia are the worst, really.

There’s nothing wrong with scars. They only make you appear manlier or more courageous, if anything. If you have scars, that means you've overcome something .

They are a sign of trying . If anyone, Tommy for sure is the one who knows that.

And the way half of Ranboo’s skin is white is not a bad thing. That’s his brand! That’s what makes him stand out in a good way! 

And Tommy would literally kill anyone who tells his friends otherwise.

Anyway, back to Tubbo. Right now, Ranboo put his hand over one of the Tubbo’s. These two were always quick to support one another. Tommy never really was fast enough to do the same in return.

“You know- I got these when I was a little kid.” He also rolled up his sleeves, showing two missing fingers -in whose place stood the prostheses now- on one of his hands and numerous scars extending all over his hands. A sight vaguely resembling Tommy of his own body. However, those were scars of a different type. “My ability just developed and I, as a little dumbass I was, was playing with it...”

And- 

Yeah. Shit. Tommy never really saw the possibility of the opposite side of such abilities. Of course their owners could hurt themselves, or something precious to them! How could Tommy never think of it?

“I- I’m sorry…” Tommy said, imagining -practically seeing- this scene with a small goat boy who basically blew himself up.

“It’s okay, big man. You didn’t know. And I- Basically overcame it, I guess?” Tubbo said softly and shrugged it off. Tommy pretended he didn’t notice how his friend’s voice stumbled at the end. Tubbo coughed. “Anyway- I imagine you have quite some questions .” He looked at Ranboo who nodded at him.

“I guess it would only be fair for us to answer that.” The enderman declared.

“I thought you would never let me do that!!!-” Tommy practically beamed at them.

Of course, Tommy’s first questions were the basic ones. Like-

“Could you possibly tell me, if there is someone else who I know is in the Syndicate?”

And the response to that was something among the lines of-

“Absolutely not. It’s not our place to reveal other’s identities.”

Of course the blonde wasn’t expecting any of such questions to be answered. He’s not dumb. Although these dumb questions are necessary to make Tommy look a dumb citizen. These are the questions they don’t see any troubles in, innit? Perfect for Tommy’s act.

At some point Tommy decided to finally try to get some useful information.

“By the way. You said earlier that you'll both be ‘busy’ tomorrow,” Tommy finger quoted.”Is it somehow related to the Syndicate stuff?”

"I mean-" Ranboo got a bit firmer. 

"Yeah, we have a meeting tomorrow." Tubbo said lightheartedly. At which he received a surprised look from Ranboo, who seemingly didn't want to reveal such information. 

"Really? Wait- You like… Every single one of you is present at the meetings? And are they regular? How aren't you afraid to be found right in the middle of one of your meetings? " Now it was that Tommy was genuinely interested, that he started to bombard his friends with questions. 

"I- Umm... Okay, would you be satisfied if I just showed you the layout blueprints, and told you exactly what I created for its technological part? I just could use someone to whom I could tell all this, because Boo is already tired of listening to my rants." The goat hybrid answered out of the blue.

And- 

That's way more than Tommy has ever expected to get out of these two. 

Ranboo was quick to try and protest the smallest boy in the room, yet to no avail. 

While for Tommy… The boy was frozen. Is that his chance to get inside info?! 

When Tubbo took his laptop out of somewhere -as if out of thin air, since Tommy was too preoccupied in his own head to notice where from exactly- Tommy asked him about it. "Where the fuck did you get that from?!"

"I always have at least one or two of my work laptops on me. Just in case." He shrugged it off, as if that was the most mundane thing ever. 

Although, Tommy was lost at the moment when his friend actually opened the blueprints. 

The blonde didn’t believe his eyes. He wasn't able to believe it was actually happening. 

"Don't worry, Boo. It's just blueprints. Tommy wouldn't really be able to understand where and what it is, if not for my explanation." Tubbo reassured the enderman. 

To that, Tommy just started frantically nodding. Of course that was a complete lie. Considering how he actually knows right where it is, and just simply needed to know how to get into… It's exactly what he needed. 

"Actually, the inside was built by Harpocrates. You might better know him as The Totem. But, the whole security system is completely my development." Tubbo proudly went on to explain something among the lines of that, but it's not that Tommy was listening at first, simply nodding as if to show the recognition. 

Though, after the boy's calculated gaze finally studied everything he could, Tommy went to actually listening to Tubbo. 

From there, after about two hours of kinda actually interesting explanations -Tommy didn't know Tubbo could actually get him interested in something boring like this- now Tommy is almost ready to actually sneak into Syndicate's meeting . 

He knows exactly the place to hide, and now he just simply needs to know the way in. 

"By the way, how are you getting inside this room?" He asked, pointing to the main area. 

"Oh, we have these cards as a pass." Ranboo said, showing his one. Tubbo was quick to copy him. 

Actually, it was rather hilarious how once protesting enderman now was happily participating in the conversation. Shows how much the guy can bend under the ones dear to him. 

"And what do you do, when you lose them?" The blonde asked. At that, Ranboo started smirking, and Tubbo deadpanned. "What?" Tommy didn't understand what exactly was wrong in what he said. 

"Man, I just wait for others, or simply hack in." Tubbo said, sounding very offended. 

Tommy cringed a brow at that, masking the way his gaze lingered on Tubbo's card, and the way he was putting it back to his backpack. 

And now that sent Ranboo laughing. "Tubbo loses his one like- All the time ." He said through laughter. 

"That's so Tubbo of you, big man." Tommy was quick to join. 

"Hey!" Now that made Tubbo even more pitiful than he was earlier.

Right when the trio were playing games and Tommy lost -he did that on purpose! Yeah!- he was weighing the pros and cons. 

Having decided, while the pair were absorbed in the game, Tommy wrapped the loop. After that he immediately used the other ability and distracted any attention off of himself. 

After going through Tubbo's backpack, the boy found a pocket with a laptop and a lot of different cards on the first attempt, and then took out one. 

It was a bit weird, but the plan was a success either way. 

How could Tubbo always lose his pass, if he literally has a stack of them in his backpack?

Right then Tommy didn't notice the way this card was different from the pass one's. The boy didn't know he took the wrong card, and of course he didn't know that it was exactly the reason why he wasn't detected in the future. 

Thus, the clueless boy straightened his shoulders, now determined that he has everything needed for tomorrow. 

Hence why, when Ranboo turned out to be the winner of this match, Tommy went to jokingly tease him as if nothing happened. As he always did.  

And that's why Tommy loves his best friends. No matter how they've wronged each other, at the end of the day they still are a trio . Because that's what they are. Three best friends, understanding each other more than anyone else does, and the ones who are always there for one another.

Chapter Text

An avian man sighed.

Recently, he has too much work to do, due to the arrival of a group of heroes from the capital. It's too extraordinary of an event. But, nevertheless, no villain can not take it into account when planning their next moves.