wipe the blood off your face (it may stain)

First I Pull You In, Then I Push You Away

"He what?!" Phil asked Techno.

Techno sighed. "Crimson tortured Eret last night."

'Torture' was an aggressive word. He just taunted with the Hero's feelings. And Royal's life.

"Prime, I knew he was a Villain but that's a lot." Phil shook his head.

"At least it was Royal though, right?" Tommy said, causing the two to snap their heads to him. He immediately regretted the question when noticing the shocked look on both of their faces. "Uh- I mean, Royal was kind of a bitch. He was talking shit about you guys, so I'm glad it's him out of anyone, you know?"

"But he was tortured." Phil reasoned.

"You're right. Yep. Sorry." Tommy mumbled.

They sat in uncomfortable silence.

"What exactly happened?" Phil inquired.

"He apparently played Russian Roulette with Royal by threatening to shoot him if he doesn't answer the questions. He told her that only one bullet was there out of six rounds. He didn't answer a few questions, but he luckily was fine." Techno answered. The Hero's face grew more serious. "One of the questions were asking about us."

Phil widened his eyes. "What?" He rasped. "What did he say?"

"He asked Royal about their problem with us." Techno frowned. "Royal didn't disclose what they answered, but they did tell the Heroes that the reason Crimson wanted to know was because he has heard Heroes and staff chatting about us."

"Gossiping, really." Phil scoffed. "Is Royal okay though?"

"Okay enough," Techno replied. "They've gotten a broken leg and a bruised jaw, but that's about it. I think Crimson was just scaring her a lot by hanging her life over her head."

"So, like, mind torture?" Tommy asked.

Techno shrugged. "I guess."

"You seem oddly calm about this," Tommy said suspiciously.

"For it to be called torture, it was relatively mild." Techno responded. "And Royal wants me to die, so I'm not exactly fond of him." Phil gave the man a stern look. "Uh- I mean, what happened to them was horrible and I'm quakin' in my boots because of it all."

Phil sighed in exasperation.

"Alright, so what's on the agenda today?" Tommy questioned.

"Oh! That reminds me," Phil said excitedly. "You get to go to a meeting today! It'll be a fairly big one too, you just have to jot down some notes from the meeting, that's about it."

Tommy was surprised he was going to a meeting, but he didn't get his expectations too high on it being interesting. The few meetings he had attended were usually about suit designs or things about robberies. It made sense that they wouldn't want a 'civilian' to know about any of the important information, so he understood, but it was still annoying.

So when he asked, "what will the meeting be about?" He didn't think it'd be anything interesting.

"It's going to be about Crimson," Phil answered.

Tommy's brain felt like it short-circuited. "I'm sorry, what?"

Phil had nearly a prideful smile on his face. "I know! I can't believe they're actually allowing interns into this meeting. They usually don't do it for things like that, but you've been working here for a month and a half or so, I'm sure it'll be fine. And you have on idea how nice it'll be for me not having to worry about taking notes!"

Tommy nodded slowly. "Right," he drew the word out. "But like, what exactly are they talking about when you say Crimson?"

Phil shrugged. "No clue. Maybe the torturing thing? Attempting to assassinate Dream?"