Chapter Text
His ears were ringing.
With how much was happening all around him; the screams coming from somewhere, the wind all around, the distant shouting from both his co-heroes and the guys they were beating up– Tommy could only focus on that.
And on the fact that Phil wasn’t standing anymore.
Why… Why wasn’t he–
He felt like his chest wasn’t working properly, like he was about to collapse from how fast his heart was beating. And it was so loud, filling his ears and making him feel like he was underwater and–
The ringing was so loud–
But then it just… stopped.
As if violently thrown into cold water, Tommy came back to his body and looked down, looked at his friend and–
“It’s fine,” Phil said through gritted teeth with tears in the corners of his eyes that Tommy couldn’t miss. “I mean– It’s not, fuck, it’s not really– But I’ll live– Theseus, look at me.”
Tommy hadn’t even realized when he zoned out again, his heart almost beating out of his chest– But then he was looking at Phil and kneeling next to him.
The man carefully grabbed him by the arm, the touch both grounding and reassuring somehow.
“I’m gonna be fine,” he whispered just loud enough to be heard over the commotion. “It hurts like hell, but he only shot me through the wing, it’s going to be fine, you hear me? Don’t lose your head.”
It was as if just in that moment did he remember where he was, that he wasn’t just in some peaceful part and that they were both very much still on an active battlefield–
He was thrown back the next second by Phil as the man pushed him down, both of them almost fully lying on the ground as another bullet whizzed just above them, making something inside of Tommy boil with rage–
“Fuck, so close!”
With fire burning in his eyes, Tommy turned to look at the exact man that had just tried to shoot them, to shoot Phil again.
Quackity looked like he was cursing under his breath as he reloaded his gun, as his, contrary to Schlatt’s, didn’t seem to have an infinite amount of bullets.
Tommy decided to use the opportunity and immediately shot a bolt at the man, who noticed it in the literal last moment and moved to the side to avoid it, his eyes wild as they turned to look directly at them, directly at Tommy.
The boy dug his feet into the ground before he shot himself to the side, eyes set on the target as he moved forward, his hands already cracking with the electricity building up in them.
It felt, he had to admit, to actively be going at someone with his bare fists; no weapon, as he seemed to have dropped his staff at some point, only the power in his grasp and the strength he was able to use in that exact moment.
And with how much anger he was feeling at that moment, just after having someone he cared about get shot–
He really wanted to fuck someone up.
He was less than a foot away when Quackity properly realized what was going on, and before the man did anything about it, Tommy’s fist had already connected with his face, throwing him back with a painful sounding crack.
“Mother fucker!” Quackity shouted as he hit the ground, his free hand jumping to hold his face.
Tommy didn’t really give him any time to react before he was kicking the man’s other hand, the one holding the gun. The impact and strength was more than enough to make the man let go of the weapon and the two of them could only watch as it flew away from them from the impact until they couldn’t see it anymore.
The next thing Tommy did see was the angry eye turn to look at him before the man was throwing himself at him.
Tommy quickly stepped back, but it wasn’t enough to not to get grazed, as apparently as he was attacking, Quackity pulled out a dagger and was now trying to, presumably, heavily wound him.
The blade then passed right in front of his face and would probably cut through Tommy’s mask if he hadn’t moved back in the last moment.
His arm rushed to grab at Quackity’s, trying to catch the man’s wrist to stop him, but he was too slow and the next thing he knew, there was another slash at his torso. The knife cut through his suit and flesh, making him hiss as the adrenaline failed to fully muffle the pain. It was a shallow cut, but it hurt like a bitch.
He forced himself to ignore that though, as the next moment he was having to jump back from actually being slashed, and this time, if the look on Quackity’s face was anything to go by, the damage would be much more severe.
As to not be worse, Tommy was then pushing his power into his right fist once more, this time slightly less blinded by rage, this time more focused.
He hit the masked man in front of him in the stomach the moment he had a chance, the pained grunt he received as a response enough to make him smile in satisfaction, some sort of sick victory filling his heart in that exact moment.
“Why are you so annoying?” Quackity wheezed out as he staggered back, his hand on his stomach where he was just punched.
A smile stretched Tommy’s face under the mask. “Most say that about me at first.”
Quackity had only enough time for shock to color his expression before Tommy released a bolt right at him.
The man was thrown back with the power of the strike, his scream strained as his back hit the ground. His limbs twitched a little as he struggled to get back on his feet, but Tommy didn’t wait for him to do so. He moved forward and, without hesitation, kicked the man right in his stomach.
He didn’t let himself feel bad for the painful groan that Quackity let out at the powerful impact and instead focused on making sure the dagger he was holding just a moment before wasn’t in his range anymore–
Only to suddenly have someone bodyslam into him and cause him to fall with the person right on top of him, making him experience a weird sense of deja-vu.
He couldn’t help but scream as his back hit the ground and stones poked him in the spine, but he didn’t focus on that and instead looked at what even was the reason for him lying there in the first place–
“Will?” Tommy mumbled as he noticed the mess of brown hair and the seemingly too fancy for a battlefield suit.
“Almost–” the man started, but then shook suddenly, his voice shaking. “Almost didn’t make it.”
“What?” he asked as he tried to make them both sit up, but stopped at Wilbur’s sudden muffled scream. “Will, what–”
“Shot,” the other hero hissed through his teeth as he raised his face to face Tommy, making the boy almost gasp when he noticed how his skull seemed to be shining through his skin, as if glowing. “Got shot.”
For a brief second, there was quiet.
Then it was as if Tommy’s brain began to scream as he scrambled to move himself from under Will without jostling him. He somehow did so and then quickly moved to look over the man, trying to spot where he was hurt–
There–
There was a dart sticking out of the man’s side.
It–
No. No no no no no no no no nononononon–
That meant that it wasn’t just a normal bullet–
“What is it?” Wilbur asked as he moved his head slowly. “What–”
“Fuck’s sake!”
They both turned their heads quickly to find the source of the sound, dread (though not surprise) filling them when they saw who was walking towards them.
“I missed,” Schlatt growled as he took another step closer to them, his once pristine and clean suit now wrinkled and covered in dirt, his hair a mess as he stared at them with a nasty frown. “You’re really getting on my nerves.”
“You–” Wilbur started, but didn’t get to finish.
Just at that moment, the man moved suddenly, his body spasming and making Tommy fear the worst as Will’s whole body seemed to pulse with light, bones visible through any exposed skin as his tail lashed and light shined behind his mask–
And then he was gone.
He–
He was there the second before, just laying there but now–
Tommy jumped back when Wilbur suddenly reappeared in front of him, this time without the pain visible on his face and instead with a wide grin as he turned towards Schlatt–
What the fuck was going on–
“That’s what happens when you’re a fucking idiot!” someone that Tommy quickly recognized as Quackity shouted before the man was slowly picking himself off the ground. “You do dumb shit and ruin our plans!”
“I’m not ruining anything!” Schlatt shouted back, his teeth bared in a sneer, as he turned to glare at his… partner? Coworker? Whatever– “I’m trying my best and you–”
He didn’t get to say anything more as the next second he was getting thrown back by– by Wilbur, who was suddenly right next to him and punched him in the stomach, effectively silencing him and making him fly back with the impact.
“What the fuck!” Will laughed as he stood up straight. “I think you guys messed something up, because this is great!”
“Schlatt!” Quackity screamed, but it sounded more annoyed than actually worried– “You really fucked it up this time!”
The man looked like he was about to say something more, but the next second he was getting punched by Will, which made him stumble backwards at the same time as Wilbur decided to kick him in the sternum this time, making him practically fly backwards, his back hitting the ground with a loud thump.
For a second Tommy felt a bit bad for the man, with how he seemed to be constantly hurt and all– But then he remembered the burning cut on his torso and the sympathy quickly left.
And Wibur just stood over him, his bones still glowing through his skin as he grinned, reminding Tommy of all those cartoon-like villains he used to see in media sometimes, but no– It was a hero, one of the best heroes around if he was honest, and he was grinning like he was enjoying the things he was doing, the harm he caused.
Though judging the people that were the ones getting hurt, Tommy couldn’t help but think he was in the right.
A loud thud made him look behind himself when he only got to see the body of the golden guy from before hit the ground as he struggled to escape the power suppressing handcuffs, though with little success.
Techno was standing over him now, his hair out of his neat braid as he breathed heavily, but he looked happy with himself, victorious. He looked disheveled and his clothes were dirty, clearly tired if the heavy breathing meant anything, but victorious whatsoever.
The golden man was clearly worse looking; His skin wasn’t golden anymore, and instead was just soft pink, meaning the guy didn’t have the strength or wasn’t able to use his power to make him solid gold anymore. Which meant that the man before him wasn’t a powerful demi-god sort of person anymore and instead had lost his power and was at Techno’s mercy.
“Totem God is no more,” Techno smiled (and only then did Tommy notice his blood stained teeth). “We win these–!”
Techno didn’t get to finish it as a power wave almost made him trip if he hadn’t caught himself at the last moment. Both him and Tommy looked to the site where Minx stood, covered in dirt and looking like she crawled out of hell, but there still.
Tommy barely had time to dig his feet into the ground before another power wave came at him, roaring in his ears as he struggled not to fall over.
Though… It wasn’t as powerful as before.
It was still a lot, don’t get him wrong, but it was definitely not as strong as it was before–
“I’ll kill you,” Minx sneered. “I don’t care if they want you alive, I’m going to fucking kill you.”
Her hair started to flow just before another wave was coming their way, strong enough to make the ground shake, making Tommy fear that maybe he might have underestimated her too much–
“Oi!”
He looked to the site, not recognizing the new voice for a second–
It was Rose.
It was Rose, looking probably even worse than Minx was, with her hair messed up, her skin dirty and her clothes partially torn, looking like she wanted to do nothing more than murder everyone in her way as she stared at them with fire in her eyes–
And she had Phil.
The man had vines around him, bounding him, as Rose held a knife to his throat.
“Don’t move now,” she said lowly, but with how everything was quiet now, nobody dared to interrupt.
In the corner of his eye, Tommy saw Wilbur stop, and even if he only did so for a second, it was enough for Schlatt to seize the opportunity and punch him in the face, resulting in the hero hitting the ground from the impact.
“Don’t move,” Rose repeated louder. “Or the old man gets it.”
“Couldn’t be any more of a cliche, huh?” Tommy heard Techno mumble, but the man was just as frozen as he was before.
“Rose!” Quackity laughed, but his voice still sounded a bit choked as he did so. “I’m so happy to see you’re well–”
“Shut up!” the woman shouted suddenly. “You were ready to leave me there, don’t think I’m suddenly over that.”
It was silent for a few seconds; ones where the only sound around was the howling of the wind and additional grunt from either the Totem guy or Phil himself, as the man looked like he tried hard to get caught and only failed after being severely beaten up.
“Still,” Schlatt said, snapping Tommy’s attention back to him, forcing him to notice the blood coming from his nose that the man didn’t seem to be even phased about. “Now that we are all so quiet and attentive, why don’t we get on with our plan now that those dear heroes aren’t in the way, ey?”
It made Tommy’s heartbeat faster as he could feel the nerves spiking even more than before, and yet he was still scared to even move.
Rose scowled at Schlatt, her brows pulled down as she pondered on the decision, her vines wrapping around Phil even more as the man tried to struggle the tiniest bit even if he was potentially gonna be hurt more for it–
“Fine!” she loudly said. “Whatever! As long as I get my money, do whatever!”
“Theseus,” Techno whispered, barely heard by Tommy. “I need you to listen carefully.”
He didn’t know what to reply, didn’t know if he even could reply, but Techno continued either way.
“Use your lightning,” he quietly said, the rushing of blood in Tommy’s ears almost too much for him to hear. “Can it travel through the ground?”
“I don’t–” he choked in response. “I don’t know, I haven’t tried it–”
“Try,” came the immediate reply. One might think that it was Techno staying cold even in the face of danger, but Tommy knew him well enough to notice the clenching of his jaw and shaking of his hands. “You have to at least try to hit only Rose. And if you can’t…”
The man didn’t say anything else for a moment, a moment during which Rose started to walk towards them, towards Schlatt, Phil still trapped in the vines that now carried him behind her.
“If you can’t, then just hit them both,” Techno finally said, his voice like ice. “It’s– It’s better to have them both be knocked out than to let her use him against me, okay? He– He told me and Phantom that we can’t let that happen, he’s not gonna die if you knock him out, I–”
A shaky breath shook the man’s chest, nerves wracking his body before he turned to look at Tommy, those red eyes shining through the eye sockets of the mask.
“Do it, Theseus,” he whispered, voice shaking. “Try to hit only her or don’t, but don’t let them win, not like this.”
Fuck.
Fuck.
If he were a poet or some shit, he could have tried to use better words to describe the sheer terror currently going through him.
He knew that what Techno was saying was true, that he couldn’t let something like that be the end of them, knew that as a hero, as a professional, he needed to be able to do things like that. He needed to be able to put the greater good above the people he cared about.
But God was it hard.
He could hear his heart thundering with every second he took to think, even if it technically was just a little bit of time, it felt like hours.
He didn’t know what to do, he’d never had to do something like that, never even tried to see if he could use the ground as a way to travel for his lightning, what was he–
He had to do it, he had to, because otherwise they could end up losing– they could fail and then who knows what Quackity and Schlatt would do, oh god–
With the wind howling in his ears and Techno’s desperate stare almost rooting him to the ground, but he knew he had to act, he couldn’t stall for any longer, goddammit–
But he knew he couldn’t try to use the ground now, he could hit them all that way, he couldn’t risk it, he was already risking hitting Phil that way–
So with his heart in his throat, Tommy raised his hand as fast and shoot a bolt right at Rose.
And–
It hit her.
It was the second bolt she got hit in the span of an hour and he knew that could not be good, but as he saw her body fall to the ground and the vines fall off from around Phil, he only felt relief.
Minx screamed at that; a sound full of fury that was his only warning before he was being hit with another power wave (really, that fight seemed like certain things happening again and again–) that threw him back with how strong it was.
He didn’t expect it, too focused on Phil and the fact that Rose was (at least temporarily) out of commission, too focused on how he could see Wilbur passing through the floor when he looked in his direction, happy that all his friends were slowly getting back on their feet, that he didn’t think anything could touch him.
Of course, he was wrong.
He grit his teeth as he used his lightning to catch himself before he hit the ground, but it seemed that Techno didn’t get to do that as the man’s back made contact with the ground with a thud.
Though before he could do anything about it, his upper arm was grabbed and he only had a second to look up and see the mad grin full of bloody teeth and devil eyes of Schlatt before the man stabbed his arm with the very same dart he saw minutes before.