Another Life Saved and an Offer Made
Before he could panic, Siren spoke up, his voice scratchy from the voice modulator. “Scream and I’ll shoot you, child. Let us in. You helped me, and I am really hoping that you can help him. I can’t get Ares to our healer in time and he won’t make it much longer.”
As if a switch had been flipped, Tommy quickly moved from his stance of shock, opening the door more, a silent invitation to enter. Siren stepped forward, wobbling a little. Both the fight from earlier and the walk to Tommy’s apartment with a half unconscious Ares must have taken all of his energy.
Tommy placed his knife down, hurried to Siren’s side, and pulled one of Ares’ arms over his shoulder, taking some of the weight off of Siren. Tommy led them to his couch, gently moving Ares to a lying position, making him as comfortable as he can be.
Once Ares was situated, Tommy ran to retrieve his medkit from the bathroom. If he was able to mend the injury enough, Ares would definitely need stitches. When Tommy was leaving, he glanced at the mirror, realising that he didn’t have his mask on. Whatever, that is an issue for future Tommy.
Tommy soon returned to the couch and went to kneel down next to Ares. “We have to move his shirt up, I can’t see how bad the injury is with it on,” Tommy said, already moving to push the shirt up, taking Siren silently helping him as an approval.
Looking to the right of him, Tommy saw that Siren was ghostly pale. He couldn’t tell if it was because Siren’s teammate was dying in front of him or he just fought 3 heroes and almost didn’t make it out alive. Tommy shrugged the feeling of worry off, reasoning that it was because they were villains and Tommy would be in danger if something happened to them while at his apartment.
When Tommy saw the injury properly, he visibly cringed. Along Ares’ whole torso was a long, deep slash. It was quickly seeping out blood, fast enough to kill him in the next few minutes. Without hesitating, Tommy moved his hands over the injury, a faint, red glow emitting from his hands, just like he had done with Siren.
Tommy could feel his powers creeping up his finger tips, a tingly feeling overtaking his whole body. He grabbed onto the feeling and pushed. Although not much, Ares’ wound slowly closed, just enough to stop the constant flow of blood.
Tommy collapsed after a few seconds, grabbing his head in his hands. “You villains need to stop needing me for this shit. Healing you even this much hurts like a bitch,” he groaned. Tommy looked up, seeing Siren stare at him with what looked like genuine worry in his eyes, the only part of his face that was exposed. .
“Do your healing powers always have this much of a drawback?” Siren asked. “I have almost never seen any powers with this bad after effects.”
“Yes and no. Only if I heal people does it hurt this much, considering that my powers aren’t meant to heal,” Tommy huffed out, lifting his head up and grabbing the medkit. Tommy opened the red box up, grabbing the needle and string. Because his head was faced away, he didn’t see the look of confusion Siren gave him.
“Can you go get the bottle of alcohol from the kitchen cupboard and the rag from off of the counter?” Tommy asked, looking over to Siren. He most definitely did not want to give Ares an infection because he didn’t clean out his wound. Thanatos and Siren would not be very happy with him if that happened.
Without answering, Siren stood up and walked to the kitchen. From behind him, Tommy heard cupboards opening and closing, Siren presumably looking for the bottle. He finally found it and walked back to Tommy, handing him the bottle and cloth.
Tommy took them and dumped some of the alcohol over the gash, cleaning it out as much as he could. He also wiped off as much dirt from the injury that he could, gently dabbing at the dried blood. Then, he grabbed the needle and string, and started suturing Ares up.
Tommy was working in silence, Siren seemingly in deep thought beside him. Whether he was thinking or just zoned out beats Tommy, but Siren’s face was twisted in confusion everytime Tommy glanced over to the villain. He was about to ask if something was wrong, but Siren spoke up before he could.
“Earlier, you said that you don’t have healing powers. What do you have, then? Clearly you can heal, and I can’t think of any similar powers that could even come close to healing. Also, you’re a kid. You barely look over 15, how the hell do you know how to do this stuff?”
Fuck, Tommy thought. The villains already knew his identity behind the mask, he didn’t need them knowing his powers, too. If anyone knows, especially villains, Tommy could be found. No one can know.
“It’s not necessarily healing, it just seems like it. But that is all I’m telling you. We aren’t acquaintances, you have no reason to know anything more than the bare minimum,” Tommy snapped, irritation taking over. “And I’m not a fucking kid, and I haven’t been one for a long time.”
“Alright, alright. No questions about powers. Got it,” Siren replied, putting his hands up in faux innocence. “But you’re still a kid. Just because you lost your childhood doesn't mean you’re not one.”
Ouch. Part of Tommy knew that Siren was right, but the other part argued that he had spent so long in the facility, then learning how to survive all by himself, before even hitting the ripe age of 17. He’s never once felt like a kid, and he’s stopped hoping to get a chance to ever be one.
Neither of them spoke after that. Tommy was almost done with the stitches, and Siren was growing more and more tired, finally giving up and laying his head on the couch cushion in front of him, careful not to bump Ares.
“Alright, I’m done,” Tommy told Siren, wrapping Ares’ torso in bandages so his stitches didn’t break as soon as he moved. “I need to clean my hands, make sure he doesn’t roll off of the couch in his sleep.”
As Tommy was walking over to the kitchen, he was, all of a sudden, startled by Thanatos kicking the front door in, his giant, black wings flared up behind him. He was holding his famously known sword in his hand, the other having sharp talons sticking out of it.
In the blink of an eye, Tommy was knocked to the floor in a lying position, sword to his throat, Thanatos above him with anger gleaming in his eyes. “Where are they? What did you do with them?” he demanded, voice deadly cold.
“I didn’t-”
“Thanatos, we’re both fine. Back away from him and put your sword away,” Siren spoke up, interrupting Tommy, and rushing over to his teammate from his previous position on the couch. “I didn’t know where else to go. Lethe was busy and no one else could help. It was too risky to ask for back up, anyways. Ketaphos, Hypnos, and Pyro were there, and more heroes were coming.”
Quickly, Thanatos stepped away from Tommy and hid his sword. The anger in his eyes flashed to worry, vision flickering over to Ares. Tommy did the best he could, but Ares definitely still looked worse for wear. They pulled Ares’ shirt back down, blood coating the fabric. He looked pale and tired, sweat covering his entire body, and his body temperature rising.
“You saved him,” Thanatos said, pupils wide.
“Don’t get too excited,” Tommy responded. “He’s barely alive. He lost a lot of blood and the stitches aren’t great, but they are the best I could do in this situation. I wasn’t exactly expecting a visit today.”
“You’re just a kid, though. How the hell do you know how to give someone stitches?”
“That’s exactly what I asked!” Siren exclaimed. “I knew you didn’t look old enough to be over 18,” he said as he pointed a finger in Tommy’s direction.
“Believe it or not, experience does one hell of a lot to someone,” Tommy angrily responded, tired of everyone calling him a kid. They didn’t know him or his past, and they had no right to act like they cared how old he is.
As Thanatos opened his mouth, most likely about to ask what Tommy meant, Ares grunted, moving his head and trying to shift his arm, slowly regaining consciousness. Instead of replying, Thanatos rushed over to Ares' side, Siren following right next to him.
“As much as I enjoyed seeing you all again, I think you need to leave and get Ares to your healer. I didn’t do a great job, and if you want him to live, which I’m assuming that you do, he needs actual help,” Tommy sputtered out, not wanting Ares to die on his couch. Moving his body would definitely be a bitch.
“He’s right, Thanatos. Eleos needs to help him, like, now,” Siren quickly agreed, his response quick and a little jumbled. Ares needed a healer, but Siren needed rest. Tommy had no idea how much fight Siren had left him. The longer he was at Tommy’s apartment, without proper help, the worse he got.
“I know, I know. Take him outside. Apophis is waiting outside in the car. Lethe is busy so he won’t be able to help. I need to talk to the kid quickly.”
Siren did as told, lifting Ares up to a sitting position and putting his arm around Ares’ side, securing him in place. Carefully, Siren walked while Ares barely supported his own weight. Ares was barely awake and clearly had no idea what was going on. It was a painful sight to watch, but they quickly disappeared out the door and down the hall.
Now that they were gone, Tommy snapped his attention back to Thanatos. He had no idea what the villain wanted, and frankly, he was scared to find out. Was he in trouble? He didn’t think that he did anything wrong. I mean, seriously, he saved both Siren and Ares.
Thanatos must’ve seen Tommy’s panic, speaking up. “You’re not in trouble, kid-”
“Tommy,” Tommy cut Thanatos off mid sentence.
“What?” Thanatos asked, confused by the interruption.
“Tommy. That’s my name. Not kid, Tommy.” Tommy figured that the villains would figure out his name eventually, and he decided to save everyone’s time and just tell Thanatos.
“Okay, Tommy, as I was saying, you’re not in trouble. I think that you would be a powerful asset, and I want you to come to one of our warehouses to talk about working together. You can say no, we aren’t going to force you into it, but think about it. We still owe you, twice now, and you helping us would mean that you have someone to help you. I’m not asking for an answer now, I’m just asking for you to think about it. Find one of us when you have an answer. But know that we won’t wait for an answer forever. Goodbye for now, Tommy.”
Thanatos turned around quickly, running to the car Siren, Ares, and who Tommy thinks is Apophis.
After just thinking for a little, Tommy had decided that he officially had no idea what the fuck was going on. He saved both Siren’s and Ares’ lives, Thanatos told him that they were indebted to Tommy, and Thanatos just offered for him to partner with the Syndicate.
Tommy wanted to say no. He really, really did. If anyone caught news of the partnership, he could be presumed a villain. The heroes might target him more. The public wouldn’t trust him as much. Every possibility of something going wrong that he thought could happen.
He always tried telling himself that it would be awful to be a villain, but it almost never worked. The villains didn’t go out of their way to kill innocent people, and now that he had met them, he doubted everyone else’s view on them even more. If Tommy really thought about it, the heroes weren’t any better than the villains, they just claimed to be.
Tommy had no idea what he was going to tell Thanatos, so he pushed it to the back of his mind for now. Instead, he decided to ponder the mention of both Eleos and Lethe in the span of a few minutes.
Eleos had never been spotted fighting, and she has only been talked about by the villains themselves once. No one knows what she is to the Syndicate, only that she operates in the dark. Lethe has been sighted a couple of times, but he is always that shadow of the mission. He leaves once his job is done, and most of the time isn’t spotted. He is thought of to not be able to speak, considering no one has ever heard him talk once.
Slowly, Tommy walked to his bedroom and changed out of his vigilante gear. Once he was in sweatpants and an old hoodie, he collapsed on his bed. He started drifting off to sleep, memories of the past two days flooding his mind.
That night, no nightmares woke him up in the early hours of the morning.