Chapter Text
“Theseus! Give yourself up, you’re surrounded!” The man bellowed, silhouetted against the sky, vomit green cape fluttering obnoxiously in the cool evening wind.
Tommy, standing on the opposite rooftop, snorted disdainfully. Heroes were always so f*cking pretentious . He was ‘surrounded’ apparently. Yeah, sure. It was only Dolos and his timid sidekick. Granted, they were annoying, and Tommy would really rather not get involved in Dolos if he could avoid the man, but he was easy enough to get away from when it came down to it.
Named aptly after the god of trickery and deception, Dolos’ power was the irritating ability to create illusions. On top of that, the guy had super speed. And he was a bitch.
Really, that was at least 3 strikes.
He was an absolute nightmare, quite contrary to the media’s affectionate nickname for his team. ‘The Dream Team’, consisting of Dolos and two of his closest co-workers, Hypnos and Hybris. The nickname was, in Tommy’s humble opinion, quite possibly the furthest from accurate he’d ever heard, but the rose-tinted glasses that the public had were a bitch.
Ignoring all that, the little mirages were easy enough to get rid of with his simply amazing (if he said so himself) upgraded glasses. They could still be a bit of a pain, and the man wasn’t the number two hero for nothing, but Dolos seemed tired today, which Tommy found to be a relief. He really didn’t have the energy to deal with the hero's bullsh*t tonight. Or ever, really, but some things were unavoidable.
Checking the built-in tracker map, it was clear there were only two heroes in the surrounding quarter-mile, and they were both standing in front of him. Dolos, still grinning smugly, and his almost invisible sidekick, Aether. That wouldn’t be an issue, as long as Aether didn’t try any of their stupid teleport-y sh*t. They probably wouldn’t, the poor sod seemed terrified to move, let alone try and attack him.
As he was thinking, Tommy had been slowly edging towards the side of the building. He peered over the side, wincing. It wasn’t really too bad. Only about… what, five floors? Yeahhhh he’d be fine! Probably. Well, maybe not. It wasn’t a gamble he was really willing to take.
Dolos moved forwards, his stupid grinning mask almost luminescent in the dark, evidently taking the momentary silence as surrender. He spoke again, a smile as obnoxious as the one plastered across his mask evident in his voice. “There's nowhere for you to go Theseus. Face it! You’re cornered, and I’ve already called in the other heroes.”
Tommy wanted to slap him. That wasn’t an unusual feeling, so instead he just backed impossibly closer to the edge and scoffed, rocking back and forth on his heels.
“Oh yeah, ‘cause that's worked so well for you before hasn’t it? Isn’t it getting a bit boring now? You know you’re not gonna catch me, might as well just leave me be, innit?” He snorted, rolling his eyes and spreading his arms theatrically. There was movement in the corner of his vision, and he whipped his gaze around to where Aether was once again frozen under his gaze.
The kid – as they couldn’t be much more than that – was tall, standing well over 8ft. Still, he figured they couldn’t be much older than Tommy himself, baby fat still clinging to their unmasked face.
That in and of itself was worrying, since technically – legally – people couldn’t even start hero training until eighteen, and not until twenty-one was someone properly allowed out on the field. The only exception was Deimos, who was, as far as Tommy knew, around nineteen. But even he’d only started at around seventeen, and that was because he was, apparently, exceptionally overpowered. In all his three years of vigilante-ing, Tommy had – thankfully – never had a ‘proper’ run-in with the hero. The few times he’d come across him, Deimos had just… allowed him to go about his day. Which, yes, was a bit illegal. But Tommy wasn’t going to start complaining.
Still, Deimos was the exception. No one, no one under eighteen was supposed to even be enrolled in hero training, and there was no way in hell this lanky teen was more than sixteen. If, by some wild chance, they were sixteen, that didn’t exactly make things much better, as Tommy could still say with full confidence that they were nowhere even close to eighteen or twenty-one.
They were still shifting somewhere behind Tommy, who had turned his attention back to Dolos after clearly deciding the split-haired teen was less of a risk, and was moving from foot to foot but posing no threat as of yet. If anything they seemed to be trying to melt into the wall, and jumped violently when Dolos called their name.
“Aether! Handcuff him! If you let him get away now I swear to-” And that was about the time Tommy stopped paying attention, as a new flashing dot appeared on the map. It was pretty far out, but getting closer. And checking the name it was- Hypnos. No issue, no physical enhancements so… he’d probably arrive in just about 6 minutes. Plenty of time! He just needed to figure out how to get off the roof without breaking any limbs or revealing any secrets. Simple enough.
Probably.
Well, maybe a little harder given how his hollow bird bones were very prone to snapping. Mind racing, Tommy tried to formulate a plan to get away.
Glancing over the edge it was clear there was no conveniently placed body of water or bin that had magically appeared during the confrontation, so jumping was out. Dolos seemed to choose that moment to run out of patience, and darted forward in an attempt to grab Tommy by the sleeve. With no time left to think, the decision was made. It was a stupid decision, but a decision nonetheless.
Tommy leapt backwards off the roof, twisting in the air and stretching his arms as he fell.
And fell.
And fell.
And… flew, as a pair of heavily bandaged wings sprouted from his back, ripping through the jacket and extending outwards. The wings were small, no more than his arm span, but still somehow able to support his weight well enough to fly. Tommy was well aware that it didn't make any anatomical sense, but it worked so he couldn’t really bring himself to care.
Right now, and for almost as long as he could remember, they were covered in grime and loose bandages, but somewhere beneath all the dirt they were a deep bloody crimson, fading into a midnight black at the tips with flicks of gold all along them. At one point they might even have been called beautiful. But those days were long gone, if they’d ever even existed. He swooped down, spiralling between buildings and whooping loudly as wind rushed past him, whispering encouragement in his ear.
Tommy touched down in a tight alleyway nearly five minutes walk from the roof and began rebandaging his wings. He tucked them back against him and groaned in pain and irritation. He’d really liked that jacket, and now it was not only ripped but also splattered with blood. And on top of all that, he’d been forced to reveal one of his biggest secrets to bloody Dolos of all people! No one was supposed to be aware that his wings existed, and now the number two hero knew about them. Still, Tommy couldn’t help but feel a slight twinge of relief. It was good to get his wings out every now and then, the excruciating pain was proof enough that he needed to do that more.
And besides, it's not like anyone else saw. There were no cameras in the worse parts of town, as there was nothing valuable enough to be worth protecting, and anyway, his wings were so dirty it would be a miracle if Dolos could even discern which colour they were. So it was really fine. There were loads of people with wings! Hell, Tommy had even met a decent number in his life. There's no way they’d be able to identify him from those alone, it was all fine. Probably. f*ck, he should’ve just gone home after that last mugging he’d resolved.
His glasses beeped, a notification spreading across them. sh*t, it was just past one am. He really needed to get home now if he wanted even a couple good hours of sleep before work. Quickly, he crouched down behind a dumpster and changed into civilian clothes before he began the boring but thankfully short walk home.
The crappy apartment came into view soon enough, and Tommy breathed a sigh of relief as he entered the building and made his way up the stairs. Sure, it was a bit of a sh*thole, but it was the place he’d considered home for almost… 3 years, at this point. And yeah maybe it was a little bit shady that the landlord had been willing to rent to a kid clearly no older than 13, no matter what he had insisted at the time, but hey. Everyone has to make money somehow and he wasn’t one to judge as long as it didn’t come at the harm of others.
At any rate, he wasn’t complaining as he let himself into the apartment. The lights were all off, and Tommy didn’t bother to turn any on before he flopped down onto the bed with a grimace. Sleep would not come easy, he knew that, not after the adrenaline rush he’d just experienced. Rolling over onto his back, Tommy sighed and stared at the off-white ceiling as he ran a hand down his face.
He was really pissed off about the wings. Almost over two and a half years of hiding them, just for them to be revealed because of a few stupid decisions. He knew that realistically nothing bad would come of it, there were thousands of avians in The SMP, and a good few hundred in Lower Pogtopia alone. Hell, he even knew a couple himself! It was fine. He was going to be fine.
Should we tell him?
HEY no spoilers!
aww but-
PogChamp
Message deleted by moderator
Shush he needs sleep
you shush
bitch
OI NO BEING MEAN TO CLEM
YEAHHH
ModPats
Tommy groaned, smushing his face into the pillow as he mumbled groggily. “Shut the f*ck up you lot, I’m tryin’ to sleep and it’s hard enough without you dumbasses blastin’ my ear off the whole night.” He tried to tune out the voices, twisting under the covers with a sigh. They always got over excited whenever something even mildly interesting happened.
The phone he’d left on the shabby little side table vibrated loudly and he grinned as the familiar message tone rang out, knowing he wouldn’t be the only one who was dead on his feet for work that morning. It took a few minutes for the phone to eventually go quiet, and Tommy rolled over to face the wall, revelling in the silence. While sleep would inevitably evade him, he may as well try.
So, sighing, he pulled the blanket up over him and closed his eyes, groaning quietly as he did so. It was going to be a long night.
