Tommy's Ultra-Important Keychain

Chapter 1: It's called being polite

Author's Note:

     This hasn't been spell checked in months, so please bear with me. This was originally made for ao3, but it's being moved over here so that more people might have access to it! This is the official Wattpad version of Tommy's Ultra-Important Keychain. Any others are being posted without my permission. 

     Just as I have done on ao3, I will include a list at the end of each chapter with the names of all the villains and heroes mentioned to make this easier for you. I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I've enjoyed writing it!

-Calamitous

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Tommy couldn't say he was incredibly pleased as he walked home from school on the first day of summer. It was unreasonably hot for the end of May, and news stations called it the hot flash of the century. By mid-afternoon, the temperatures had reached a boiling point that would've been unbearable to anyone else.

Tommy wasn't special, but he liked to pretend he was in his bright red hoodie. His roommate had chastised him, saying, "You'll burn to death," but he didn't consider that a terribly important warning.

Occasionally, he considered regretting his clothing choice, but the weird stares he kept getting made it all worth it. He enjoyed feeling their eyes judging him from afar. He took pleasure in knowing he'd occupy their minds, if only for a second. For a moment, he'd be important to those randoms. They would never see him again, but they would wish to understand him right then.

Tommy had a flair for the dramatic in the most cynical way possible. His teachers referred to him as a troublemaker, though he'd never officially broken any rules. He loved theater, but he stayed in the tech booth. He ate his gummy bears head-first. All these factors and more made him a dry-humor enthusiast's dream.

Truthfully, he was just bored. Keeping his life entertaining was hard, but the minor details kept him going when nothing else would. His parents had passed away when he was young, and for a while he was put in the foster care system. After about a year of jumping awkwardly between homes, they found a distant uncle to take him.

It wasn't bad there, but his uncle was hardly around. He was a heart surgeon who traveled frequently and he was the first normal person Tommy had met with a power. He was gifted with steady hands. In any other profession, it was terrible, but his uncle saved a lot of lives. Naturally, that also meant he made a lot of money.

Unfortunately for Tommy, his own power was far from life-changing. The doctors believed it was a disorder at first and it took several full-body scans for them to admit it was his power: Heightened Pain Tolerance.

Don't worry, he was aware it sucked.

To add to it, he got a bit of resistance as well. It wasn't anything stellar, but it meant that no matter how much he fell out of the tree in the schoolyard, he never got any broken bones. Maybe a bruise here or there.

His skin was not as stubborn though, and minor things like paper cuts turned out to be quite a problem. Since he couldn't feel slight pains, he rarely even noticed if he got any. This resulted in a nasty infection when he was ten.

Believe it or not, Tommy wasn't terribly fond of his so-called gift. His uncle promised that even the most insignificant powers could make a difference, but it meant very little when they were drinking out of crystal glasses in his penthouse apartment that he'd bought thanks to his gift.

He was fifteen when his uncle had to move away permanently. Tommy was intent on finishing high school in the city of Pogtopia, and no amount of fighting made him want to leave. His uncle allowed him to stay on the condition that he get a job and call once a month.