Chapter 1: mondays amiright?

You saw a lot of weird shit walking around the city at night.

For one thing, Tommy saw a lot of rats. Big, fat rats scurrying into gutters, looking like little more than blurred shadows in the gloom. He also saw drunk people stumbling down sidewalks, sometimes laughing in groups, sometimes alone, usually muttering strange things under their breath. And of course there was the occasional vigilante he’d pass by, patrolling the smaller neighborhoods that so often got overlooked by heroes. Tommy always made sure to wave at the vigilantes whenever he saw one.

But his current situation was one he hadn’t actually come across before. He’d been taking the closing shift at Puffy’s cafe for nearly a year now, and had gotten used to the strange shit he’d on his walk home after the sun had set. At this point, Tommy was pretty convinced he’d seen every weird thing this city had to offer after dark.

However, finding one of the city’s most wanted supervillains bleeding out in an alleyway wasn’t something he could say he had experience with.

It was a miracle Tommy had noticed the guy at all. He’d just been strolling down the sidewalk, humming to himself while he thought of what he was going to harass Ranboo into making for dinner tonight, when he’d heard a loud thud come from the alley he was passing by. Now usually when you heard a strange noise coming from a dark alleyway at night, the smart thing to do was to mind your own damn business and walk away. But Tommy could admit he was a bit on the impulsive side, and his curiosity immediately flared at the strange sound. So he turned on his phone’s flashlight and went to check it out.

Which was how he ended up in his current position. Squatting in the corner of a dark alley, staring at the unconscious body of one of L’Manberg’s most wanted supervillains.

Tommy had recognized Siren the moment his flashlight had landed on him. Although Tommy had never had very many run-ins with supervillains in the past, everyone knew who Siren was. He was one of the Big Three Bads in the city. It was Siren, The Blade, and Zephyrus who made up the Syndicate—a trio of supervillains that had been terrorizing L’Manberg for years now. No matter how many times they’d gone up against the city’s best heroes, no one could take them down. They were beyond dangerous, and in a way, Siren was the worst of the trio. His power made it so he could coerce anyone into doing his bidding just by using his voice. Mind control was a terrifying power, and Siren made sure to put it to good use.

When Tommy had realized the unconscious figure was Siren, he had considered simply turning around and pretending he hadn’t seen anything. While the ‘noble’ thing to do was probably to call the police, Tommy wasn’t an idiot and wasn’t going to get himself on the Syndicate’s bad side by turning him in. So, the logical thing to do was to turn around and let fate run its course. This wasn’t his problem. Siren was a supervillain. Normal people like Tommy needed to stay far away from supervillains.

But as Tommy had been approaching the unconscious Siren, he heard a splash and realized he’d stepped in something wet. Shining his flashlight on the ground, Tommy’s jaw clenched when he saw he was standing in a pool of blood. Siren’s blood.

Siren was hurt, and badly so. There was a gaping hole in his stomach, and although his coat was already dark, Tommy could tell it was soaked through.

Tommy had no idea what happened. He hadn’t heard anything about a fight going on while he’d been at work, and usually the news made sure to keep citizens updated on any hero-villain altercations going on so they would know to avoid the area. That night, he hadn’t heard a single thing about Siren.

But here he was, and Tommy knew it was him. The dark blue stretch of fabric that covered the upper half of his face like a blindfold almost glittered in the harsh light of his phone. Siren’s curly dark hair splayed out behind his head in a mess of knots. Lips that were always seen curled into a dangerous smirk weren’t smiling for once. Instead, his mouth was slightly open, with no words coming out.

If the giant blood pool wasn’t a dead giveaway, Siren’s skin was deathly pale. Tommy knew that if he left now, Siren would bleed out very very soon.

“C’mon Tommy, just walk away,” he muttered to himself, unable to tear his gaze away from the giant wound in Siren’s abdomen. “This isn’t your problem. Just leave.”

He willed his feet to move. To carry him to the end of the alley and go back to his apartment where his roommates were waiting for him.

But he couldn’t. He was frozen. Siren may have been a supervillain, but he was still a person. A person who probably had family, and friends. People who would miss him if he was gone.

While Tommy wouldn’t necessarily call himself a good person, he knew that no one, no matter how bad, deserved to bleed out all alone in a dirty alleyway.

“Fucking hell,” Tommy cursed, dropping his bag and kneeling down next to the supervillain. If he was going to do this, he had to do it fast before someone else showed up. While he didn’t think there was anyone around, it was clear Siren had been in a fight, and whoever had inflicted this wound might still want to finish the job. Tommy definitely didn’t want to be around if that person found Siren, so he should just be as fast as possible with this.

Rolling up his sweatshirt sleeves, Tommy cracked his fingers and gently tried to lift the fabric of Siren’s shirt away from the wound. The dark cotton clung to the blood, and Tommy winced as it tugged at the raw skin, nervously glancing over to Siren to see if he stirred.

Thankfully, the man stayed unconscious.

Once he’d lifted the shirt, he hissed between his teeth at the sight of the wound. It was nothing short of a literal hole in his gut, as if he had been impaled with something. Tommy didn’t see the remains of any spear-like object that could’ve been the weapon nearby, meaning Siren likely didn’t pull it out himself. If he did, he was an idiot because the one thing you should never do if you were stabbed is try to pull out the thing that stabbed you.

When you get impaled, that object is holding in all your blood like a cork. If you’re not in a place where you can get medical attention to close up the wound immediately, removing the object is going to just make you bleed out. So yeah, don’t try to remove the knife or whatever if you get stabbed, otherwise you’ll end up like Siren.

Either way though, it didn’t seem like Siren had been the one to pull out whatever had gotten him this good, so Tommy couldn’t fault him too much. He narrowed his eyes, noticing the ragged edges around the wound itself. It wasn’t a clean slice, meaning it wasn’t something sharp, like a sword or spear. It was more likely some kind of debris, something not meant for impaling but was going at a high enough speed to slice through him anyway. A pipe maybe? Tommy wasn’t sure, but it didn’t matter much now. He was running out of time.

“Better fucking thank me for this,” he muttered to the villain.

Taking a breath to steady himself, Tommy put his hands on the edges of the wound, doing his best to push the skin together. Then, he closed his eyes, and concentrated.

For the longest time, Tommy was completely unaware he had powers. He had always thought it was just plain luck how he rarely got scratched up, or how injuries that usually took weeks to heal would only last a few days for him. Then one day Tubbo had sliced his palm open while trying to open a box. Tommy had grabbed his hand to wrap it up, and noticed a strange warmth coursing through his palms. Then, he watched with wide eyes as his hands began to glow orange, and the cut on Tubbo’s hand knitted itself back together. That was when Tommy learned he could heal people.

So of course after that he started practicing with his power because that’s fucking cool. Any time Tubbo or Ranboo came home with a cut or scrape, Tommy would fix it for them. It was pretty easy for the most part, he just had to focus on fixing the wound and his powers did the rest.

A wound like this though… this was way bigger than anything Tommy had ever tried to heal before. It didn’t matter though. Tommy was a Big Man with the best powers. He could fix this.

Hopefully.

As soon as his hands began to warm up, Tommy could tell this was going to take a lot more out of him than any other wound had before. He kept his eyes shut, focusing on keeping the energy flowing from his hands. He could tell that it was working. Underneath his fingers, he could feel the skin knitting itself back together. But as the seconds ticked on, Tommy’s head began to pound. There was a throbbing behind his eyes that he’d never felt when using his powers before, and it was getting worse with every beat.

Tommy grit his teeth, struggling to keep his focus. It fucking hurt healing this wound. The pain behind his eyes was like being stabbed in the head over and over, and it was getting hard to breathe. He just needed to get the wound to stop bleeding. It didn’t need to be a complete fix.

Finally, when his head felt like it was going to explode, Tommy lifted his hands from Siren’s stomach. He breathed a sigh of relief, the pounding in his head fading almost instantly. He took a few moments to catch his breath, shoulders shaking with exhaustion, before opening his eyes to see his work.

The wound wasn’t fully healed. Tommy had figured that already. Healing a wound as massive as that wasn’t something Tommy could do in one go. But the gaping hole was much smaller now, and had stopped bleeding entirely. Along with that, there was more color in Siren’s cheeks, and Tommy wondered if his powers had helped fix some of the blood loss Siren was suffering from as well.

Either way, his work here was done. Looking at his hands, Tommy winced when he saw they were slick with blood, and ended up using the edge of Siren’s jacket to wipe them off. Hopefully he wouldn’t mind. The thing was already covered in blood anyway.

As he pushed his sleeves back down though, Tommy didn’t notice the way Siren’s lip twitched. Nor did he notice the way he flexed his fingers.

No, Tommy didn’t notice any of that until Siren was bolting upright and lunging for him. Tommy yelped as the villain grabbed his shoulders, slamming him into the hard brick wall and pinning him there.

“Hey man! What the fuck?!” Tommy shouted, squirming against the arm pressing his back painfully into the wall.

“Where the hell am I?” Siren hissed in a scratchy voice. Logically, Tommy should be terrified considering one of the most dangerous supervillains was awake and pissed, but the exhaustion weighing down his bones smothered any fear he might’ve felt at this moment.

“Take a look around, dickhead. You’re in an alleyway,” Tommy snapped, wincing as his skull dug into the stone.

“Yeah, I fucking figured that, Einstein,” Siren shot back, sneering at him. “What part of the city am I in?”

“Eastside. Quite lovely at night, save for the rats and trash everywhere,” Tommy deadpanned.

Although Tommy couldn’t see Siren’s eyes behind his mask, he could imagine the man was frowning. “Eastside, yeah, that sounds right,” he muttered, nodding to himself. “What happened? How did I get in this alley?”

“Beats me, mate. I was just walking home when I found you here lying in a pool of your own blood,” Tommy told him, still squirming against the arm pinned against his chest.

“Blood?” As if he had been too confused by his situation to feel any pain, suddenly Siren winced and glanced down to his stomach, pulling his shirt up to see the partially-healed wound. “Oh fuck, yeah, that.” He stared at the wound for a moment, pursing his lips, before he whipped his head back up to Tommy. “I should be dead right now. How am I not dead?”

Tommy attempted to shrug, but it was kind of difficult with Siren pressing him into the bricks. “That would be thanks to me. I saved your life, you’re welcome.”

“But there’s no bandages. What did you do?”

Holding up his one free hand, Tommy grinned. “It was your lucky day. You were found by the one Big Man in this city who can heal people with his hands.”

Siren was (likely) frowning again as he glanced at Tommy’s hand. “You have healing powers?”

“Sure do. Though lemme tell you, it was a bitch trying to heal that stab wound you got. I’m not used to healing bigger stuff like that, so it’s all the more reason to thank me.”

There was a beat of silence as Siren considered him, a faint dripping noise echoing through the alley. The grin slowly slid off Tommy’s face as he realized he might’ve pushed it a little too far. Here he was demanding a thank you from one of the greatest supervillains around. If Siren wanted, he could tell Tommy to go jump in the river right now and Tommy wouldn’t be able to do anything about it.

“Do you have any idea who I am?” Siren finally asked. Surprisingly, he didn’t sound angry. More than anything, he just seemed… confused.

Tommy had to admit, that wasn’t what he was expecting. “I think you’d be hard-pressed to find someone in this city who doesn’t know who you are, Siren,” Tommy said, giving him an unimpressed look.

“What do you want from me, then? No one would just save my life without expecting something in return,” Siren asked, a deep bitterness in his voice.

“Uh… nothing?” In all honesty, Tommy hadn’t even thought of that as an option. “I dunno, man. I didn’t really have a reason. I just didn’t think it was right to just leave you to die.” Tommy paused, then smirked. “Besides, it would’ve been really embarrassing for the Big Terrifying Siren to bleed out in a random alleyway. I figured I’d save you the humiliation.”

Siren’s lips twisted. “You’re lying,” he snapped. “You want something, or you’re working for someone, or-” Siren cut himself off, stiffening suddenly. “You looked under my mask, didn’t you?”

“What?! No-”

“Tell me the truth,” Siren said, a strange echo reverberating through his words.

Tommy blinked. The words rushed out without him thinking of them.

“No I didn’t look under your fucking mask! That’d just be a shitty goddamn thing for me to do, now wouldn’t it?” Tommy snapped, bristling at the accusation.

“Then why did you save my life?”

“I told you already! I didn’t think anybody deserved to bleed out all alone in a gross ass alleyway! If you’re gonna die on the street you at least deserve to do it in a nice neighborhood, like West End or some shit. Somewhere the rats won’t get you.”

Siren stared at him for a moment, the confusion practically radiating off of him. Even so, after a few tense seconds, the grip on Tommy’s shoulders loosened and Siren backed off.

Tommy slumped forward immediately, rubbing the back of his head where it had been pressed against the brick. “Fucking hell, mate. You’re stronger than you look.”

“What, do I not look strong or something?” Siren asked, now leaning against the opposite wall of the alley.

“I mean, next to The Blade you’re a bit of a twig,” Tommy shrugged, rolling out his neck.

Siren scoffed. “Okay, yeah, compare me to the fucking Blade who I’ve seen lift a car. I know I look like a twig next to him, literally everyone does.”

“Eh, Dream holds up pretty well next to him,” Tommy pointed out.

“Oh, are you a Dream fanboy or something?” Siren asked in a mocking tone.

Tommy resisted the urge to grimace. “Uh, no way. That guy’s a douche.”

This made Siren snort. “You’re not a fan of the city’s ‘Number One Hero?’”

“Not really. You can only watch so many ‘say no to peer pressure’ and ‘stay in school’ videos during detention before you start resenting the guy.”

“Wait, he’s in those?” Siren asked. Tommy nodded, and the villain let out a bark of laughter. “Holy shit! That’s fucking hilarious! Oh I am so gonna make fun of him with that next time we fight.” Then, as if a switch had been flipped, Siren’s smile fell as he glanced at his stomach once again. “Well, that probably won’t be for a while.”

There was something in Siren’s voice that made Tommy frown. There was a reason that talking about Dream had made Siren remember the wound, and the logical explanation was that Dream was the one to do that to Siren. But that wound was… brutal. Even when it came to the most dangerous supervillains, heroes were always encouraged to incapacitate, not kill. While Tommy could understand accidentally hurting someone enough to kill them, there was no way a wound like that could be accidental.

“Did… did Dream do that to you?” Tommy asked in a low voice.

Siren glanced over to Tommy and sighed. “You don’t need to know, kid.” Gripping the edge of the wall, Siren pushed himself to his feet, wincing as he held a hand over his stomach. “Anyway, I should probably get going. I guess I’ll, uh, see you around.”

“Wait, are you gonna be able to make it back to your evil lair or whatever like that?” Tommy asked, standing up as well.

Through the blindfold over Siren’s eyes, Tommy could feel the deadpan stare.

“Evil lair?” He questioned.

“I dunno! You’re a big supervillain! You guys have evil lairs, right?”

Siren snorted. “For the record, no, we don’t have evil lairs. We have houses like normal people. And yes, I should be able to get back on my own.”

“Oh.” Tommy looked at the ground. “Well, you should have an evil lair anyway. It’s a lot fucking cooler than just having a boring ass house.”

“You’re such a weird kid,” Siren muttered, shaking his head.

“I’m not a kid! I’m a Big Man!” Tommy protested

“Whatever you say, strange child.” Before Tommy could argue, Siren was limping out of the alley with one hand over his stomach, waving at Tommy with the other.

Tommy watched as the shadowy figure turned left out of the alley, disappearing from sight. When Tommy followed, he looked down the street trying to see where Siren went, but only saw empty sidewalks bathed in the orange glow of the streetlights.

He was gone.

While it felt a little strange to just go back to his apartment after saving the life of one of the city’s most dangerous supervillains, Tommy didn’t exactly have much else to do. So he ignored the way his legs shook his fatigue, swung his backpack back over his shoulder, and continued down the street like nothing had happened.

It was a cool night out in the city. The air was thick with the promise of rain, the stars blotted out by the dark clouds that hung overhead. By the time Tommy got back to his neighborhood, he breathed a sigh of relief he hadn’t even known he was holding. Sure, he was Tommy Innit and never got scared of anything, but those streets were pretty damn creepy when they were super empty like that.

Trudging back into his apartment building, Tommy slumped against the back wall of the elevator and closed his eyes as it began to go up. The vibrations of the elevator car reverberated through his head, and all he could think of was how excited he was to pass out in his bed.

“Guys, I’m home,” Tommy announced as he swung open the door to his apartment. Stained carpet crunched under his shoes as he stepped inside, the door slamming shut behind him.

“It’s about damn time,” Tubbo called out from where he was sitting at his computer desk, the bleached strands of his hair glowing in the white-blue light of his monitor. “You should’ve been home ages ago.”

“Yeah yeah, I got held up by something but it’s fine,” Tommy said, waving off Tubbo’s concerns as he dropped his backpack to the floor.

Shuffling over to the couch, Tommy collapsed against the cushions next to Ranboo, promptly stretching his legs out across the length of the couch (with his feet ending up right on top of Ranboo’s own legs).

Ranboo glanced down at the feet in his lap and sighed, but didn’t say anything as he readjusted his own sitting position to be more comfortable. This was a battle they had fought many times before, and Tommy always won out of sheer stubbornness—his most valuable asset.

“What held you up? Everything alright at the cafe?” Ranboo asked instead, resting his elbow on the arm of the couch.

“Oh yeah, everything’s fine. I just, uh, had to fix the espresso machine again,” Tommy lied, eyes darting to the old TV that was playing some random cartoon he wasn’t familiar with.

While Tommy didn’t like lying to his roommates, he had already decided on the way home that he couldn’t tell them what happened with Siren. In retrospect, what he had done was stupid and dangerous. He wanted to trust that Siren was a decent person who was grateful for Tommy’s help, but it was also very likely that he saw Tommy as a loose end now. A thing that needed to be taken care of because he’d seen something he wasn’t supposed to.

Although Tommy didn’t think that was particularly likely, it was a real possibility, and the last thing he wanted was to get Tubbo and Ranboo involved in this. They didn’t need to get caught up in all the bullshit that was superheroes and supervillains. If he kept them in the dark, even if his connection with Siren got him fucked over, Tubbo and Ranboo could continue their normal, civilian lives.

“Breaking news,” the TV suddenly blared before Ranboo could respond, a news screen popping up over the cartoon. “Wanted vigilantes Nuke and Ender were spotted in South Bay earlier this evening after halting the robbery of a convenience store.” The TV showed grainy footage of two figures—a small figure wearing a gas mask, and a much taller figure wearing a black and white face mask and ski goggles—as they finished tying up two muscular men dressed in dark clothes, leaving them in front of the convenience store doors.

“The two suspects were pursued by police, but escaped via rooftop.” More footage, this time of the taller one, Ender, grabbing the smaller one and teleporting to a nearby roof in a flurry of purple particles. “While they are not considered to be active threats, please report any possible sightings to the vigilante tip number. Also, do not approach, as they are wanted criminals. Holt, back to you.”

The news switched back to the cartoon that had been on before, and Tommy frowned at the screen. There was no mention of Siren being spotted, and usually any mention of one of the Syndicate would completely take over the news for the entire evening and following day. Was there really no one who had witnessed the fight that had gotten Siren so badly hurt?

“Tommy? You good?” Ranboo asked, waving a hand in front of Tommy’s face.

“Oh shit, yeah, sorry. I zoned out for a second,” Tommy said, glancing back over to his friends. “Just thinking about, uh, Ender and Nuke,” he continued, laughing awkwardly.

Ranboo for some reason stiffened at this and quickly turned his head away. “Oh, um, really? What about- what about them in particular?”

Shit. Tommy needed to come up with something to say.

“They seem pretty cool,” he shrugged, although he had barely paid attention to the two vigilantes in the past. “The small one can blow shit up, right?”

“Yup, he sure can,” Tubbo chimed in from the computer.

“That’s poggers,” Tommy muttered, leaning back against the couch. Then, in as casual of a voice as he could muster, he added, “there hasn’t been any other vigilante or villain or hero activity tonight, has there?”

“Uh, besides Ender and Nuke? I think I heard something about Arson and Iceman getting into a fight with the police, but they escaped before any heroes could arrive,” Ranboo said, tapping his chin in thought. “Why? Did you see something?”

Tommy bit his lip, trying to think of how he could say this without sounding suspicious. “I just thought I might’ve seen, uh, Siren earlier tonight. But it was just for a split second so it probably wasn’t him.”

Instantly, Tubbo spun around in his computer chair while Ranboo leaned towards Tommy. “Wait, you saw Siren? As in, The Siren?” Ranboo asked.

“Uh, maybe? Like I said, it was super fucking dark-”

“Where?” Tubbo demanded. “If you saw him here in Eastside that can’t mean anything good.”

“Just a few blocks down. I was walking down the street and I thought I saw a flash of his coat from the rooftop, but it was probably just my imagination,” Tommy said, scrambling to back up the conversation.

“Okay, but just in case, where do you think you saw him exactly?” Ranboo pushed, giving Tommy a strangely intense look.

“I-I don’t know! What the fuck does it matter? Like I said, it probably wasn’t him, and even if it was he’d be long gone by now!” Tommy exclaimed, looking wide-eyed between his two friends. “Besides, what the hell are you two gonna do about it? You’re not gonna call the police for an empty street.”

Ranboo and Tubbo shared a look for a brief moment, before they turned back to Tommy.

“You’re right, sorry. I think we both just got freaked out hearing that you might’ve seen Siren,” Ranboo explained, slumping back down against the couch.

“Yeah, I don’t wanna think that the Syndicate is hanging around anywhere near Eastside. God knows the last thing we need is to come home and find the Blade fighting Dream on top of our apartment building.”

Tommy snorted. “Well, while that would definitely suck, there’s not much we could do to prevent that if it happens,” he shrugged, also falling back against the couch.

Once again, Tubbo and Ranboo shared an unreadable look, and Tommy frowned.

“Why are you two giving each other those weird looks?” Tommy asked.

“What weird looks? We’re not looking at each other,” Tubbo shot back, immediately turning his head away from Ranboo.

Tommy rolled his eyes. He could tell there was something going on between the two of them, and if he was a bit less exhausted he probably would’ve pushed to find out more. But his energy reserves were completely sapped from healing Siren, and the pounding headache behind his eyes was only growing worse by the second.

“Well, I’ll leave you to your weird staring contest or whatever,” Tommy said as he pushed to his feet. “Meanwhile, I’m gonna go pass the fuck out.”

“Wait, but you haven’t had dinner yet,” Ranboo pointed out, giving him a worried frown. “I left yours in the microwave so flies wouldn’t get to it.”

“I appreciate it, big man, but I’m too tired to eat right now. I’ll eat it tomorrow for breakfast,” Tommy told him, patting Ranboo’s shoulder as he shuffled towards the bedroom.

“Spaghetti for breakfast?” Ranboo muttered under his breath, which Tommy ignored as he shut the bedroom door behind him.

Given the nature of their less than stellar incomes, the three of them could only afford a one bedroom apartment. The bedroom itself had come with a queen-sized bed, and it ended up being cheaper to just hold onto that instead of trying to buy three single beds. As a result, the three of them had a rotation going as to which two slept in the bed, and who took the couch. More often than not though, Ranboo would voluntarily take the couch because his feet hung off the end of the bed since he was ridiculously tall. Tommy didn’t mind this arrangement at all, due to the fact that Ranboo had a tendency to talk in his sleep.

If Tommy remembered correctly, it was supposed to be him and Tubbo sharing the bed tonight. And knowing Tubbo with his horrible sleep schedule, he wasn’t going to crawl into bed for a while, meaning Tommy could stretch out as much as he wanted.

Starfishing onto the bed, Tommy groaned and buried his head under his pillow. There was a lot he had to think about tomorrow when he woke up, namely how the hell he was going to deal with the possible issue of Siren, but for now his most important job was to just fall asleep.

And that he did. Within minutes, Tommy was out like a light.