Neutrality Order (TomBoo)

R.C. - Chapter 6

'Fuck my life sideways,' Tommy wailed in his head, feeling his cheeks pinken, and was thankful at least for Crow Father calling more attention to the lesson to give himself a moment to hum and calm down.

It shouldn't have so much meaning, he rationalized to himself. It was just like the exercise from the first week of school. If Team A had been picked for villain, he wouldn't have had a second thought about it.

But Crow Father is upset with you.

He's having doubts about you as the Ninth.

He wants to see if you're REALLY a villain.

SHUT UP, he growled to himself, schooling his features and going to stand with Tubbo when Crow Father handed out a new floor plan for them to use, their station being a huge industrial warehouse this time. Tubbo was much more confident this time around, pointing out several places they could station themselves while coming up with a mental plan, the two of them going to the warehouse to set up.

Tommy passed Wilbur en route, seeing the other boy giving him a hard look that Tommy couldn't quite put an adjective to. Something similar to having something to prove, but worse.

It might be the day or the situation, but it rubbed Tommy all the wrong way.

Wilbur had been a hair's breadth from snapping on him for weeks now, everything piling on from the last time he tried to wring information out of Tommy and failed. Now he looked somewhat like he did the first time they did this; like he was going to beat the information out of Tommy by any means necessary.

Tommy paused in following Tubbo, turning and facing Wilbur to look him in the eye and pull pitch black gloves from inside his costume sleeves, tugging them on and then reaching up to pull his hood over his head. He didn't care if he was exacerbating the challenge or not, following Tubbo out to get their station set up.

"Do you have any plans?" he asked, finding the same paper mache bomb ready to be relocated like last time. Tommy thought for a moment, looking at Tubbo, the bomb, and out the window.

"...I think I do," he said, putting his earpiece in. "But in this vein, it's going to be out-stealthing rather than just putting up guard duty." He flexed his hands, looking at the stopwatch he had stashed away in one of his pockets; eleven more minutes for setup. He quickly took inventory of what they had available to use, nodding and grabbing some rope and prying open empty transport crates. "Help me out here. Might as well make their search difficult while we're at it."

Ten minutes later, the alarm sounded for the training to begin.

Tubbo quietly touched his own hand and levitated up to the box vent, climbing through the grate and closing it behind him. "I'm in," he murmured through his earpiece. He peered out through the grate, seeing Tommy up by the window staring out at Wilbur and Sam heading in, watching him reach into his hood and pull down a full black-out mask before running his hand over the front of his suit, the green turning black.

"Let's do this."

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Sam was thankful that Wilbur had at least formulated a plan with him this time around. Sam was faster and would take the larger rooms in order to round whoever they saw first up while Wilbur would take the narrower paths. Sam went through the large front entrance designed to let trucks in and out, while Wilbur went around the building and found a broken window to climb through on the top of the building.

"Nothing on this end," Sam said quietly through his earpiece, keeping a close eye out; being in a wider area meant being seen more easily.

"Empty back here," Wilbur muttered. "The floor plan mentioned a basement but the bomb wouldn't fit in the door. It's more of a crawlspace." He looked around, scowling as he surveyed for any sign of Tommy or Tubbo. Not so much as a sound. "Unless they stashed the bomb somewhere and went down themselves."