Eleven days ago.
"Is this thing on?"
Tommy prodded at the camera until it came into focus, showing him in a plane at the window seat. He had a small smile on and was squirming in his seat excitedly. "November 2, 2068. US Vlog, the prelude!" he said, hushed, keeping his voice low so the other passengers wouldn't hear. A brown-haired boy with blue eyes poked his face into the camera view just to be shoved away by Tommy obnoxiously.
"Move, Tubbo, this is my vlog!"
"This is our vlog, you snob!"Tubbo snaps back, shoving him away again so that Tommy was pressed against the windows. Tommy let out a growl and snatched the camera from Tubbo's hands.
"We're on our way to the US right now," he told the camera. "Probably not the best time with all the villain attacks, but Tubbo really wanted to go, so I went with him. We're gonna meet a ton of heroes, ladies and gents, lots and lots of heroes!" He grinned toothily, and Tubbo moved the camera to face him.
"Wilbur Soot! Dream! Philza! Tune in for the rest of the video to see them!" Tommy smirked and gave a peace sign before ending the recording. He tucked the camera into his backpack and pressed his hands to the window, looking outside. "Eleven-hour flight, here we go," he mumbled under his breath. Tubbo leaned his head against the plane seat and closed his eyes, sighing deeply.
"On the bright side, we can watch movies," he hummed. "Let's watch Alvin and the Chipmunks,"
"Again?" Tommy groaned, but leaned into his friend's side regardless and watched as Tubbo started playing the movie on the screen before them.
———
"Here's our hotel room," Tommy said, panning the camera to view the entire room. It was pretty standard- two beds with pristine white sheets, the walls painted light beige, three or four lamps with more lights in the ceilings... one wall was an entire window, there were a bathroom and kitchen and a big TV on the wall right in front of the two beds. Tubbo sat on one of the beds cross-legged, hugging a bee plushie close to his chest and beaming at the camera awkwardly.
"The bed is comfy," he commented.
"My dad is in the room right next to ours, don't worry guys. We didn't come here alone! We'll probably be with heroes a lot of the time, though," Tommy winked at the camera before striding over the windows, showing the city view. It was nighttime and the moon was in the first quarter and was half-covered by grey clouds. The lights from all the buildings and street lights glittered in the dark. "Tomorrow, we go to Hollywood... and we have a special guest coming with us! But right now, Tubbo's a bitch and he's tired from the flight, so we're gonna go to sleep. Goodnight!" The recording ended, and Tommy turned to Tubbo with a smirk. "We're totally not gonna sleep right now."
"We totally are," Tubbo refuted, already rummaging through his luggage for sleepwear. "I'm too tired to watch another movie, we watched tons on the flight,"
Tommy frowned and sat on his own bed. To tell the truth, he was also a little tired. "Yeah, I guess, we need to save up our energy for tomorrow!" he grinned, looking back to the windows at the night sky. "I can't wait to meet Wilbur!"
———
The three of them strolled down Hollywood Boulevard, talking rapidly. Tubbo handled the camera and filmed as they talked. Wilbur was wearing his glasses and occasionally stopped to wave at fans. Of course, neither Tommy nor Tubbo went unrecognized either with the size of their YouTube and Twitch channels. The trio was followed by a crowd of fans with every step. Tubbo panned the camera to show the fans behind them, and a few of them began squealing and waving to the lens.
"We're famous!" he snickered and blew kisses at his fans, who tried to catch them wildly. Wilbur stopped to sign some autographs, so Tommy did too. Tubbo moved the camera to view the street and grinned. Shiny stars decorated the sidewalk in front of them with names engraved in them and the path continued for many blocks. "Guys, look, the Walk of Fame..."
"I wonder if any heroes have stars on here," Tommy pondered as he finished signing a little boy's backpack with a black Sharpie. Wilbur rolled his eyes and laughed, turning back to the two teenagers.
"Course not," he scoffed with a smile on his lips. "We're not entertainers, we're heroes. There's a hero monument in New York though and I'm on there," Wilbur smiled at the thought, and Tubbo shoved the camera in his face.
"You must be pretty proud of yourself then!" he whistled as Wilbur nudged the camera away with a nod. The two teenagers laughed and continued walking, trying to film everything they saw as a train of fans followed excitedly.
———
The screen flickered on to see a magnificent building with a large white smiley face a few feet above the fancy doors, the green ribbons that were tied to the base of the face flapping in the wind. In big, bronze, blocky letters on the roof spelling out the words, "DT AGENCY". The screen stayed still for a few seconds save for the wavering of the camera in Tubbo's hands before it turned back to Tommy who was staring up at the building in awe, mouth slightly open. "Excited?" Tubbo sniggered and Tommy began nodding feverishly.
"You should be," came a familiar rasp. The camera whirled around and faced a figure in a green hoodie, the motion blur causing the facial features to be unrecognizable. Tubbo let out a shriek and covered the lens with his hands.
"Dream! Put on your mask, we're filming, we're filming!" hissed Tommy, the camera still dark and covered. There was a hearty laugh and a shuffle before Tubbo removed his hands to show Dream, the number 10 hero, in a lime green hoodie and a snow-white signature mask covering his face, his dirty blond hair peeking out from under the mask. He waved towards the two teenage boys and the two returned the gesture.
"So, welcome to my agency," he drawled lazily, walking towards them and pressing badges into their chest. "Pin these to your clothes or just hold them, this will make sure you don't set off the alarms when you go anywhere higher than the first floor."
Tommy immediately pinned it to his shirt and Tubbo scrambled to follow as the three walked into the building. The front lobby was similar to that of a hotel's but a little bigger and no dining room. It was half-packed with people taking pictures of the photos and paintings on the walls, flipping through brochures on different heroes, and lounging in the couches on one side of the room. The receptionist looked rather bored and was nonchalantly answering questions at the desk. He wore a headband and had dark eyes and hair. His skin was tanned and he had his cellphone in one hand and a telephone in the other. A stack of papers sat beside him that he handed out to a few people who took it eagerly and a few Herotooz were sitting before him at the desk, one of which was knocked over. The man turned his eyes towards them and a smile tugged at his lips, but he looked away when the telephone began ringing.
"Sapnap, my friend and one of my receptionists," Dream mumbled, tugging his hoodie hood over his head to avoid being seen. He grabbed Tubbo and Tommy by their wrists and tugged them towards a private elevator which he unlocked with a silver key. He slipped in just as a little girl stopped sucking on her lollipop and pointed at them.
"Look mommy, it's Dream!" she squealed, catching the attention of nearby civilians. Thankfully, the elevator door closed before someone could jam themselves into the small area. The elevator began lifting itself to the second floor as Tommy continued mumbling in excitement to the camera.
"This is so sick, man, this is amazing..."
Tubbo noticed Dream's chest puff with pride as the elevator doors opened, showing a room full of office workers. A few of them waved at Dream hastily and a couple bowed deep before hurrying back to their cubicles with a cup of coffee in their hands.
The tour went smoothly. Dream showed them the two floors of training rooms for aspiring young heroes, a meeting room for... well, meetings, a room with a lot of people trying to repairing support items, a kitchen and a lounge on a floor and above that three floors of living quarters with a couple of heroes talking to each other. Finally, they got into the elevator for the tenth floor. Tubbo's hands on the camera were shaky and Tommy's eyes were still wide with wonder.
Suddenly, Dream snatched the camera from Tubbo and saved the recording before turning it off swiftly. "Stop filming for this bit," he said simply and jabbed the button to the tenth floor.
With a ding, the elevator stopped and the doors slid open.
The room was open with only two separate rooms that looked to be a bedroom and a bathroom. One wall was entirely a window and gave the view of Los Angeles and another wall had two corkboards with coloured strings stretched from nail to nail. There were a few images of Technoblade, an image of TimeDeo, Eighty, Purpled, and Sammy respectively with a blurry picture of a girl next to them, a photograph of a burnt down building next to one that seemed to be the same but not destroyed, several slips of paper with Dream's writing scrawled across...
In front of the corkboard, couch with a bookshelf and lamp next to it. Before the couch, there was a coffee table with many papers spread out across it, a few spilling onto the floor even. Many seemed typed, but many had the messy scrawl of Dream's handwriting over it too. The final asset to the assortment was a television that was turned off.
A large digital map hung from the ceiling that showed California, though you could obviously zoom out. Confusing settings were on one side and there were many red stars and dots scattered across the state and many blue ones too. Tubbo couldn't help himself but move forward and brush his finger over the screen.
"Most heroes have a map like this," Dream's voice soft voice came from behind him. "You can personalize settings, and I made my own. The red dots are Technoblade sightings, the stars his attacks. The blue versions are for NOLIFE," he appeared next to Tubbo and pressed down on one of the red stars and an image with a description popped up, It showed a destroyed building half-burnt black- the image that had circulated the web many months ago. Technoblade's first attack on a small local orphanage. The caption read the death toll, time, location, a list of heroes who attempted to handle it, and the offender.
Tommy began to explore the room further, though the rest wasn't nearly as exciting as the map or the mess of papers. There was a desk with a computer setup that looked both suitable for work and gaming, a fridge and a cabinet of snacks, two speakers on the walls, but that was about it. "Woah!" Tommy whipped around to see Dream dragging Tubbo away from the corkboard. "That's private, don't touch that," he snapped before drawing a black blanket over it for the time being. Tubbo cocked his head, confused.
"What's on it?" the brown-haired boy asked curiously. Dream laughed and turned back to them with a grin behind his mask and gave them a long stare before walking to his fridge.
"Nothing. Do you want some juice?"
———
"Ah, it's already been two days in LA if you don't count the night we got here,"
Tubbo nodded and took a bite of his ice cream bar. It was nighttime after a long day of vlogging with Dream as a special guest. The two boys were roaming the city now that the streets are a little less busy, both of them wearing a hoodie with the hood pulled up to avoid being recognized by a fan. Tubbo took another bite of his ice cream and followed Tommy as the two walked.
"Dream's office was so cool," Tommy gushed with a twinkle in his eye. "I wish I could go back there! Too bad he didn't let us film," he pouted. Tubbo giggled and nodded in agreement.
"Going to Hollywood with Wilbur wasn't bad either. Wilbur's really nice!" Tubbo stated with a toothy grin.
"I'm totally gonna come back here next summer if I can," Tommy agreed.
The two continued on their stroll, chattering nonstop about an endless list of topics. They went from Minecraft to food to America to food again, then all over. The streets of LA were still quite busy at night- understandably so when night strolls are so breezy and nice.
"Did you hear that?" Tommy suddenly piped up just as Tubbo tossed his popsicle stick into a nearby trash can. Tubbo turned and looked around quickly before glaring at Tommy.
"No?" Tubbo answered, crossing his arms. "Are you trying to scare me?"
"No!" Tommy refuted, pressing a finger to Tubbo's lips and turning his eyes to a dark alleyway that they stood in front of. "I heard something! It came from there!"
"Probably just a raccoon or a rat, or something... no, Tommy, c'mon!" Tubbo protested as Tommy began to walk down the alleyway energetically, disappearing into the darkness. Tubbo bit his lip, looked around restlessly, then followed his friend hesitantly. "Tommy! I'm not sure you should do this..."
Tommy ignored him and continued walking, glancing around frantically. There was an overturned trashcan with a rat skittering out of it and a series of muddy footprints leading from the streets down the concrete, a cloaked figure with a suitcase walking in front of them. Tommy stopped and moved backwards. "Uh... yeah, let's go back to the main roads..."
Tubbo huffed and nodded, seizing his friend's arm and starting to move back when suddenly the figure turned around and darted towards them. Tubbo squealed and scrambled backwards as the man grabbed Tommy's shoulders wildly, pushing his friend up against the wall. Tommy hissed as the man glared at him before seemingly realizing who he found. "Tommy?" The man had fluffy brown hair and a pair of sunglasses that hid his eyes. He was taller than Tubbo but slightly shorter than Tommy and had a badly hid knife under the long cloak.
"Who are you?! Go away!" Tommy snapped. The man released his hold on the teenager's shoulders, backing off a little but keeping a hold on the blond's wrist tightly.
"You can talk to ghosts, right?!" the man asked, breathing heavily.
"You can what?!" Tubbo wheeled around to look at Tommy incredulously, who looked just as shocked as Tubbo. Tommy began spluttering, eyes wide and still.
"Wh- how did you know that?!"
The man didn't answer and bit his lip, leaning away. "C-can you talk to Astelic? Please, I want to know where she is, how did she- when- talk to her, please-" he cried hysterically and Tubbo saw the hesitation and pity in Tommy's eyes. "Please... her name is..." the man trailed off into a whisper and Tommy perked up, closing his eyes and letting out a shaky breath.
A few moments passed over with no answer from Tommy. The man seemed restless now, his grip on Tommy's wrist tightening. "Is she there? I know you can- she's there, right?" he begged once more. Tubbo was frozen, an indescribable amount of shock and fear flooding through him. His friend could talk to ghosts? Was that his quirk? It couldn't be possible... he always thought Tommy was quirkless. After all, he never answered questions about his quirk and refused to reveal it.
"Sh-she's not dead," Tommy's voice cut through Tubbo's thoughts. The man stilled and took a step back.
"You're lying."
"I'm n-not," protested Tommy, twisting his wrist from the man's grip and scrambling back to Tubbo's side, cowering behind his much shorter friend. "I promise, I- she's not dead," he whimpered as the man continued staring at him with a blank expression before finally heaving a breath. The two terrified teenagers watched as he picked up his suitcase and continued to walk down the alley, his silhouette growing smaller and smaller before it disappeared around the corner.
"I've never told anyone my quirk before," Tommy finally breathed, eyes wide and skin pale. "Never. I've only told- I thought he was dead."
1st fanart is by @/prinprinter on insta of the villain tommy au, ty! ^^
2nd is by @pigandciu on insta of dream, pls check them out! tysm <3