Annihilate

“So,” Ranboo sighs, “what’s the play?”

Tommy, Wilbur and Techno have settled on the couch in one big mess of limbs. There’s bullet holes in every wall and Phil is out helping Fundy deal with the bodies, and they’re left to make a battle plan together. It’s honestly quite the hilarious picture: three vigilantes, an ex-criminal and one very tired and very normal Technoblade.

Tubbo is pacing up and down the length of their living room. “My dad put a hit on Tommy,” he thinks aloud, “if it’s anything like the one he put on Deo, that means he’s open game for all hitmen in the city.”

“I do not like that,” Techno flatly states. Just to get it out there, Tommy supposes.

Ranboo shakes their head. “Schlatt is nuts,” they say. “He had some sorta weird reasoning before. Now he’s just, I dunno, gone off the rails. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if he put a shitton of money on Tommy’s head. And you’d be surprised at how dumb hitmen get if the price is right.”

“Speaking from experience, I see,” Tommy humorously says.

Ranboo winks at him. “Hey, I’ve been doing the vigilante thing for a hot second. I know the way these people work."

Wilbur snorts. “Eh. Hitmen are closely connected and word of mouth travels fast. Don’t ask me how I know that. I think they’ll keep away if they get a whiff of the fact that Tommy single-handedly fucked up six guys and threatened Fundy with alphabetical bones should they ever come back. And if Schlatt dies, the contract is automatically done for.”

“Woah,” Techno says, “we’re talking about killing the guy?”

“I sure as fuck want to kill him,” Tubbo says. “He had Deo murdered, turned Sapnap into a fucked-up lizard, tried to have Tommy murdered and would’ve killed Ranboo if Tommy hadn’t been there.”

“Okay,” Techno mutters, “when you put it that way…”

“He also killed my parents,” Tommy casually throws in the mix. “And Deo’s parents.”

“What?”

Suddenly, all four of them are staring at him. Tommy nods and shrugs. “That was why he had Deo killed. Deo wanted to find out where I came from, and he got onto Oscorp’s trail eventually because my mum worked there. He found out that his dad did too, and that both our parents died around the same time in a workplace accident. They were against human trials in the company, so. Deo figured. And then he also died for it.”

A short moment of silence. Then Techno says, “Okay, so we kill the guy.”

Wilbur snorts out a laugh. “Technoblade with the steel chair!”

Tommy gnaws on his bottom lip. They don’t have to kill Schlatt. Or do they? He has no idea how the serum affected his sickness. For all he knows, it might’ve cured it. He did go from looking like he could barely stand on his feet to throwing grenades at Ranboo and him. And besides, no matter how much he hates the motherfucker, his words still ring true in his head.

I don’t want to tell them. I don’t want them to live in constant every-day fear of the first symptom showing up. So I’m asking you, because I hardly trust anyone else with it, to just look out for them. You know. When it happens… maybe, until then… maybe you can even find a cure.

He elects to not mention the sickness. His spider-sense weakly protests, but he ignores it.

“Yeah, but we have no idea where he is,” he says instead. “Haven’t seen him since he threw a grenade at me and Ran.”

“Ran and me,” Wilbur idly corrects. “Also, come again? He threw a grenade at you?”

“And throwing stars,” Ranboo says just as casually. “Was a bitch getting those out of my wings.”

“Was a bitch getting those out of my chest,” Tommy says, “I think I sustained more physical damage in the last couple of days than all of you in your entire lives combined.”

“Yeah,” Tubbo nods, “that about sounds right. Please stop doing that.”

“Alright, bossman. Can we focus on the problem? Charlie told me he has no idea where Schlatt is, so he hasn’t had any contact with Oscorp either.”

“So we lure him out of wherever he’s hiding,” Ranboo says. “He doesn’t exactly have a lot of places to go. Dream is gonna let us know the second Schlatt shows face around Oscorp or at their house. Theoretically, we could just wait that out.”

“No.”

They turn to Tubbo, who firmly shakes his head.

“This has to end,” he says. “The lizard. Deo. Tommy. Schlatt is dangerous, and the law isn’t gonna do shit about it as long as he has the company to back him up, and he only has that as long as he is alive. We need to find him now,and put an end to this madness.”

“Good,” Tommy says, “I need five minutes to get my gear and then like fifteen to make myself new webs. You need to get your gauntlet thingies. And Ranboo their wings.”

“Wait, hold on,” Techno interrupts, holding up his hands. “You can’t– you three are teenagers. You can’t just go up against a crazy-ass scientist with maybe enhanced performance and grenades and throwing stars.”

“Tommy can crush metal with his bare hands,” Wilbur deadpans. “Ranboo has been single-handedly fucking up criminals all across New York for months now, and Tubbo is Schlatt’s son. Who else do you want to stop him?”

Tommy, Ranboo and Tubbo turn to look at Techno in unison. His older brother seems kind of startled by the idea of them going up against Schlatt still, but he does end up nodding even though he defensively crosses his arms. “Alright, fine,” he says, “so how do we find him?”

“He wants me dead,” Tommy says. “Last I checked, he also wanted the Vulture and the Shocker dead.”

“Surprise,” Wilbur sarcastically says. “Why exactly does he want you three dead anyway?”

“Eh,” Ranboo shrugs. “Because of the lizard, probably. Tubbo and me accidentally freed him for the first time.”

Tommy actually jumps in surprise. “Huh? That was you?” I thought that was Deo, goes unsaid.

“Yeah,” Tubbo says unhappily. “When you showed us the sketch at the school and told us what happened, or your original version at least, we freaked out. Tried to keep you away from the danger. Fruitlessly, as it turns out.”

“Oh,” Tommy dumbly says. “Oh. And when he found my flawed version of the cure, he put two and two together about why I was suddenly so interested in interning at Oscorp. Probably figured I’m Spider-Man from the second time the lizard escaped. Was that also you?”

“When it burst into the school bathroom?” Ranboo shakes themselves as if they need to get rid of goosebumps. “Nah.”

Wilbur clears his throat in the quiet. “Uh. That may or may not have been me.”

Now, all four of them whirl on him, Techno included. “What?”

Wilbur defensively raises his hands. “Hey. It was a day after Tommy came home late at night and had the worst panic attack I’ve ever seen him have. I found the USB drive he left me and went to Oscorp, used one of Deo’s exploits to get in, and bumped into the lizard. I did not think through what a shitshow freeing him would turn out to be. I never would’ve done it if I knew that it was going to go straight to the school and attack people.”

Techno leans back and exhales heavily. “Okay. Anyone else got any more crazy confessions about breaking into Oscorp, being a superhuman or being a vigilante, or having any more information that’s relevant to Schlatt?”

“What on earthare you guys talking about?” Phil asks, shooting them a horrified look as he comes into the living room. He’s still wearing his coat and shoes – Tommy supposes there’s no point in trying to keep the apartment clean now that the walls look like Swiss cheese.

Tommy waves dismissal at him. “We got off track again,” he decides. “What I meant to say is that Schlatt wants all three of us dead. If we show up somewhere, chances are he’s gonna show up too and try to throw grenades at us again, no?”

“Grenades?”

“Get with the program, Philza!” Wilbur hollers. “The minors are going to kill Schlatt!”

“Kill him?”

“Shut up,” Tommy says, raising a pointed finger at his dad, “you shot me point blank yesterday. You don’t get to say a word.”

Phil shrugs. “Fair enough. So your grand strategy is going out and hoping he’ll see you? Do you have a spot in mind or something?”

“The Chinese New Year’s parade,” Tubbo pipes up again.

Ranboo snaps their fingers. “That’s an idea, yeah. They’ll blast us in the Daily Bugle if we show up there. It’s the biggest thing in the city, Schlatt will see us for sure.”

“Uh. I think we need to think about that twice. I don’t want any grenades in streets where civilians are celebrating,” Phil says.

Ranboo snaps their fingers again, pointing at Phil. “That’s a point, yeah!”

“We’re not gonna fight him over the parade. As soon as he shows up, we’re dipping to the outskirts of the city. Our combined presence will piss him off enough to make him give chase.”

“You seem awfully sure of that, Tubs,” Tommy remarks.

Tubbo gives him a bitter smile. “Green Goblin or not, he’s my father. I know how he is.”

“Ain’t that just wonderful,” Techno mutters underneath his breath. “This is the messiest family drama of all time, but half the participants are genetically altered and the other half are vigilantes. I dearly hope none of you die."

Tommy can’t help it – he has to laugh at the way Tubbo grimaces at that.

Half an hour later, he’s heading towards the parade – not by swinging through the city, but by taking the subway. He whizzes past 91st, where his spider emblem shines striking red still, and has to grin to himself. With his brother’s music blasting in his ears and the backpack he’s carrying, he can almost imagine himself being a normal kid again.

But normal isn’t a thing in his life anymore, and it’s about time he accepts that.

Of course, that's kind of easier said than done – Tommy knows he's not exactly a poster child for mental stability. He's been constantly exhausting himself with self-doubt and hatred lately, all the grief over Deo and then his parents, the guilt that still haunts him. He's still keeping secrets, after all, and even without that, he's no saint. He lost a lot in these two weeks; not just Deo, but also the person he used to be. He thinks a lot of how sad and angry he’s been has just been his grief over losing himself like that – grieving his old life, the old him, the old… everything.

But as he looks at his reflection in the glass of the subway’s windows, he thinks he's kind of getting sick of it. His losses made him fragile, and his guilt ate at him. He needs to at least try to work on all of his emotional turmoil, or else it might end up swallowing him whole. He needs to get ready to face the future, however abnormal and freakish it might turn out to be. Maybe abnormal and freakish isn't so bad anyway - after all, his family didn't even blink at his general weirdness, nor did they cast him out for it the way he so strongly believed they would.

Honestly, he thinks when (if) he survives today, he’s going to ask Phil to sign him up for therapy. There’s something deeply complicated about the way he bases his self-worth around family even though he’s never had one until now. He doesn’t think he’ll like getting to the bottom of all his fears would suck ass, but it would make life easier, maybe. After all of this - maybe, at the end, he can try to start healing whatever deep wounds keep getting infected inside his heart and head.

Just maybe.

Tommy is torn out of his thoughts by the subway coming to a stop. He gets up and turns up the music, shaking his head as if that helps to dispel of his thoughts. Electricity is still prickling beneath his fingertips, but he tries to push down the nerves that are making him jumpy. He gets off the Flushing Line and onto the Sixth Avenue Line. Through the noise of the underground, he can hear the parade above if he concentrates enough - people laughing, music playing, cheering, singing, chattering. It clashes with the music of the musician he's walking towards, playing guitar for spare change.

"And love will make you do wrong," he sings, "love will make you do wrong..."

He's worried about Tubbo. He kind of always is, but this whole thing can't be good for his best friend. Tommy pushes down another wave of guilt. Schlatt only injected himself with the flawed serum because he thought it might cure his sickness. Because somehow, he thought that Tommy held the solution to his illness problem. He may not have injected him with it, but the whole goblin thing is kind of his fault anyway, isn't it?

He reaches into his backpack and closes his fingers around the cool glass tube Wilbur recovered from his stuff. The second dose of the serum he made. The one he originally meant for himself. There are a lot of choices to be made today, but for once, he has a home to return to after - and so, even though he's terrified as all hell, Tommy gets off at East Broadway, and he knows what he's going to do.

The public bathroom is good enough to change into his original get-up; his suit is still full of chemicals and it's probably a better idea to just straight-up make a new one. Now, he has to do with the scrappy outfit he first parkoured across New York in, and nothing to conceal his identity with save for a hood and Tubbo's green bandana. He changes and closes his freshly re-filled webshooters around his wrists, pulling on his serum on his trusty lanyard.

The parade is pooling on East Broadway just as he gets to the surface. Just as he looks up, screams of surprise ring out from the end of the crowd. Ranboo whizzes past with gleaming, patched-up wings, casting a shadow on the ground that really does look like a vulture. Tubbo is their wild card today.

Final stretch, he tells himself, pulling the bandana over his nose. Time to end this for good.

Another shadow falls over Tommy and his spider-sense goes off like a fucking air siren. His head snaps up and his eyes catch the movement of a familiar green figure. The world narrows down to Schlatt on his glider as he lets out a really comic book-esque laugh and throws something that blinks green and orange.

Tommy barely has time to curse in his head before the world goes to hell.