To Be a Hero

Chapter 19

    As soon as Schlatt entered, Toby put himself between him and Tommy, despite being significantly shorter than both of them, ignoring Schlatt's words. This made the man chuckle, meeting both of their eyes.

"Relax, I'm not going to hurt him...as long as you both behave and don't give me a reason to." He smirked, the door closing behind him, "I wanted to talk about you, Tubbo..."

"Why?" He scowled, confused

"Well like I said, we're going to be working together now are we not? Your abilities are extremely powerful, but severely underdeveloped. Did you ever think you could do more? Control animals? Plants? Do your powers work on inanimate objects?"

He shook his head, though those were actually pretty good questions...

"Well, now more than ever, I think we could make an empire. My influence and your powers would make it easy..."

"Yeah, no, I-" Toby started, before Schlatt casually glanced at Tommy, who was watching quietly for now, which seemed unlike him, before looking back to Toby.

"What was that?"

Toby got the threat, and swallowed his objection for now. "I thought you just wanted me to work for you...not building an 'empire'"

"With" Schlatt corrected, "and I just had a theory of mine confirmed, and have decided to 'promote' you i suppose"

That confused him. He was about to ask about it, when Tommy asked one instead.

"What did you mean before? When you say 'this makes things more interesting'?"

Schlatt chuckled, "So glad you asked..." he glanced at Toby, "I'm sure this will answer the question you wanted answered too."

Schlatt smirked, leaning against the door and crossing his arms, "Let me tell you boys a story. Once there was a handsome young man, just starting out in a promising new career..."

"Being a villain?" Tommy snarked, and the villain sent him a venomous look.

"It's rude to interrupt," he said darkly, and Tommy shut up.

"Anyways" Schlatt cleared his throat, "One day, the man found a child on his doorstep, an infant really, barely a year old, with a note telling him the child was his. He didn't know who the boy's mother was, but that didn't really matter. He was excited to have a biological child, who might be able to carry on his legacy...however this man had taken in another boy the previous year, a now three year old named George.

"George had developed his power early, and had little control over it at the time. He was able to see glimpses of people's past, present, and/or future when he met their eyes. One day he looked into the eyes of the child, and discovered that he would eventually be my- his downfall...and George is always right...so the man decided to get rid of the child-"

"You killed him?" Toby gasped, horrified.

"Of course not!" Schlatt mocked offense, "I'm not a monster"

Tommy snorted, but kept his mouth shut.

"No, I- the man instead put the boy in a box, and left him by the road, never expecting to see him again..."

Toby's eyes widened. No. No no no there was no way- he didn't mean-

"Y-you don't mean-"

Schlatt chuckled, spreading his arms, "I do. To paraphrase a pretty popular movie, 'Tubbo, I am your father"

"No!" Tommy suddenly yelled, marching over to him, but Toby put a hand out to stop him from getting closer than he was, "Toby is the son of Philza Watson! Not some psychopath! He's my brother! He's my family!"

Schlatt's grin tightened with irritation and anger. "Tubbo, or Toby, whatever you call yourself...keep your 'brother' in line, or next time Alex won't be able to heal him." He hissed, turning around and starting out. "We'll start your training tomorrow, son"

And with that, the door slammed shut behind him, leaving the two boys alone to process this new information.

~•~

Meanwhile at the Watson house, stress had risen to an all time high. Especially when Phil, Wilbur, and Techno had returned to a panicked Kristin holding a note and saying Toby was also gone. Techno had actually set something on fire that time. Phil had run to put it out, processing this new information, while Wilbur stood frozen in shock. They all read the note eventually, definitely surprised by its contents, but it did make a lot of sense the more they thought about it. However, it didn't make them worry any less.

"God, I wondered why he seemed more tired than usual..." Wilbur muttered, pacing in the living room.

"I should have noticed how strongly he reacted to the threat on TV...I figured it was about Tommy, I just..."

"You couldn't have done anything love..." Phil gently wrapped an arm around his wife to comfort her, "None of us could..."

"Why didn't he tell us he had powers?" Techno crossed his arms, his left one slightly more bandaged then it had been before.

"Well, think about it..." Will frowned, taking a moment to pause from his pacing and glancing at his twin. "That kind of power...lots of people would see it as villainous...if you look at social media, plenty of people love Tubbo, but almost as many fear him, think he's really a villain, etcetera...maybe he didn't want to risk us reacting like that?"

Techno paused, "that's stupid...He should know better than that. We wouldn't care.."

"He's still a kid...he worries about things he doesn't have to.."

"You guys are still kids to us..." Phil said, "Our kids...I-I should have done a better job of protecting-"

"Hey, none of that-" Techno interrupted, "You do protect us, you're a great dad...but we're our own people too. We make our own decisions. You can't shelter us from everything. Toby chose to go and try to save Tommy."

He glanced at Wilbur, "Now we need to figure out how to save both of them...we will save both of them..."

Kristin nodded, hugging Phil, "beautifully put Techno..." she smiled at him.

They sat or stood in the living room discussing for a little while, when suddenly they heard nervous knocking on the front door, startling them. Techno was the first person to get there, putting on a blank, intimidating face. When he opened the door, he saw three guys about his age. There was a nervous looking dude in the front wearing a blue shirt and wearing circular white rimmed sunglasses, flanked by two others behind him. One wore a white shirt with a fire design on it and a white headband across his forehead. The other wore a lime hoodie, though the hood was down revealing sandy blonde hair, and a circular mask with a smiley face that covered his facial features. Techno could see an axe strapped to this guy's back. They seemed to take in his long pink hair, not braided like it usually was; He hadn't cared to braid it when he was searching for Tommy, it hadn't been important; And his outfit, which was basically his hero costume without the cape.

"T-Technoblade?" The guy wearing the glasses asked nervously.

He tensed a bit. Was he that recognizable without the mask now? "Can I help you with something"

"We actually came to help you." The guy in white said, the masked man nodding.

Techno raised an eyebrow at them, before glancing back at the brunette, who uttered five words that made Techno freeze.

"I know where they are"