The Silence of a Somber Day

Prevailing Winds

"Do you have any idea how reckless that was?" Dream- or as Tommy knew him 'Clay'- half shouted as he passed the small room. When he had almost ran into one of the waiting chairs, he kicked it aside with his foot, the plastic slamming against the wooden desk. Tommy flinched at the noise.

"Oh, I was the reckless one? I could have been killed when I was having my muscle spasm because one of you assholes decided to use the collar!" Tommy retorted in a low, angry tone. He hadn't changed out of his hero costume (didn't have time), but his mask was gone and his hood was down, making the collar a little more prominent. It was a black metal device that circled his neck, a thick box positioned beneath the left side of his face with a red blinking dot to inform Tommy it was active.

"We did that to keep you from getting hurt. You were in a room with three of the most dangerous villains in the world," Clay said like Tommy wasn't aware of the situation he had been in.

"And I had one of those fuckers held hostage at knifepoint. Even if I got killed, one of them would have gone down with me," Tommy said with a growing smile. It was surreal to him. He was used to dealing with petty threats. The moment he stepped up to the plate at the big boy games, Tommy had succeeded where others had failed. That deserved celebrating, not lectures.

While Tommy was lost in his thoughts, Clay had leaned down to be eye level with him, a hand grasping Tommy's hand in the boy's lap. "Tommy... I don't want you dead. Not even if that means we get the Syndicate. Don't trade your life for a villains."

Tommy didn't even realize he let his lack of self preservation show. Tommy knew he needed to keep that in check. It wasn't his job to reassure heroes. He just didn't want them to be worried about him. Especially not Clay. "I'm sorry. Big man Tommy didn't even know he said it. Let's forget about that, m'kay?"

Clay looked like he wanted to do anything but forget. He would have said as much if the door didn't swing open. In strolled XD, man in charge of the Heroes Association and someone citizens viewed as a god. He wasn't actually a god, but his power did give him a 'straight from the Heavens' vibe. He had five floating plates of varying sizes made of green energy that trailed his back, connected by something magnetic that made them look like wings enhanced by technology. He wore a green dress with white armor with long sleeves that all four of his arms came out of. He had light greenish gray eyes with thin dark green slits. Some called godly, Tommy called ugly.

"Tempest, Dream," XD acknowledged them as he lowered himself into his seat. Dream stood up, hand leaving Tommy's. The big man would never admit this, but he had to repress a whine at the loss of contact. "Today, we discuss the matter involving Tempest vs. the Syndicate."

"I did nothing wrong," Tommy spat out before they got the ball rolling. XD gave an unamused expression while Dream looked distraught. Tommy didn't care what they had to say, though. He would stand by the fact that he wasn't the one in the wrong here. Tommy knew he wasn't perfect, knew he made his fair share of mistakes, but this one time, why couldn't everyone agree that he did the best he could in the situation?

"You should have waited for other heroes to arrive," XD said it like it was obvious. Tommy didn't scoff no matter how badly he wanted to.

"What do you shits think I was doing?! I was waiting for back up! That's why I didn't fucking fight them! I distracted them with a bullet, waited for one to see me as a subdue-able threat, and turn it back on them so I could stall for as long as necessary. I told Scott what happened. He should have pressed the emergency button. If he didn't, that's on him," Tommy argued, anger flaring as he brought himself to his feet. Dream was there, hand on Tommy's chest to keep him from fighting XD. Like Tommy was stupid enough to do that. He has established that he wasn't stupid, right?