Tommy's Ultra-Important Keychain

Chapter 17: Don't run into walls. They hurt.

"I can't believe summer's over in two weeks," Tommy sighed.

Wilbur steered the car down their usual route. The east side wasn't terribly far from the boy's apartment, but the drive always felt long. As usual, he was excited for whatever his mentor would be teaching him when they arrived.

They weren't going to be doing hand-to-hand combat for once. Not that there was anything wrong with it, but it was extremely repetitive to learn. Wil had promised that Tommy would like his next lesson, and he hoped that was true.

"No, really? I thought you still had three weeks," Wilbur said. "When do you start back?"

"August 26th," his apprentice answered. He rested his elbow on the car door. "It's literally four days after my debut. If I get pummeled into the ground, you're writing my teachers a fucking note."

"I'm not the one who chose the date," Wil huffed defensively. For once in his life, he was driving carefully. He hadn't run a single stop sign, or flipped off any other cars. That, in and of itself, was a miracle.

Tommy was in the midst of one of his very rare days off. Niki had something better to do, and he didn't have a shift at Ender-Ice. The latter of the two occupancies had been rather strange lately. Ranboo's mom had taken over for her son for the past two weeks, and he didn't know how to approach the topic.

Ranboo was one of his closest friends, but they didn't talk much outside of work. Tommy only realized once he stopped seeing him altogether how much he relied on him to get through work. They would crack jokes, laugh at Karens, share stories, everything. Ms. Ender was a lovely woman, but he worried about why his friend couldn't show up.

Despite that, Tommy was determined to have a good day off. Wilbur agreed to starting their lesson earlier, and even promised to switch it up. As if that wasn't enough, Eret had finally finished his costume. He put it on the second they got to the warehouse.

It wasn't his first time seeing it, but he still felt like a giddy little kid. Eret was a really talented designer. He'd honestly expected some skin-tight monstrosity like certain heroes had, but that wasn't what he'd received in the slightest.

The costume was a mix between fabric and bits of what he assumed was soft metal. The metal covered his knees, elbows, stomach, and wrists. It was obviously meant for protection, like wearing pads in sports, but he didn't feel like his motion was disturbed at all. On the contrary, it bent with him.

His favorite addition had to be the red hood on the back, which reminded him of his signature hoodie. It was impossible to deny that his designer had made it especially for him.

The colors went together as well as Eret and Wilbur had promised they would. The fabric was red, and the metal was white, setting up a healthy balance between the shades. Tommy had been left in charge of the shoes, so he'd used Wil's credit card to buy a brand new pair of black sneakers.

Eret had taken those and made some improvements. When they gave them back, he didn't notice any immediate differences. Wilbur said they would go over the upgrades during practice. Tommy remembered that as he tightened the laces.

Once the suit was on, complete with the shoes, only his most important features were left. Wilbur handed him a little box of completely-black contact lenses. Tommy wasn't terribly worried about touching his eyes, but he had a few failed attempts before he could finally get them in.

Wil snapped a picture, smiling like a proud mentor, and Tommy made a mental note to crush his phone.

Lastly, he was left with his mask. It was a simple over-the-eyes style, similar to Icarus' in everything but color. Whereas the infamous supervillain had a posh silver-and-gold, Tommy had a deep scarlet color.