tommyinnit's guide to committing crimes

vi. eavesdropping and close calls.

Tommy felt as if the universe was fucking with him. There was no way that he kept running into Raven, Blade, and Siren purely on coincidence. Even if the three were after him, that wouldn't be a good enough excuse for it. Well, maybe it was, but still; Tommy was very annoyed by this.

Staring at the top three heroes who were walking along the road right in front of him, Tommy found himself at an indecisive standpoint. Run into the alleyway and hide from them or walk up to Siren and slap him; it really was a difficult decision.

Luckily, however, Tubbo thought much faster than he did. His friend grabbed his arm and pushed him into the alleyway, following behind him. Tommy was about to complain about how Tubbo shoved him, but when a harsh glare was sent his way, he decided to keep his mouth shut.

So, once again in silence, the duo stood rigid against the alleyway wall, straining their ears to hear the heroes who were approaching. "Ghost, press the record button." Tubbo whispered to his earpiece, staying as quiet as humanly possible. The heroes were still a little bit away, so they were unlikely to hear Tubbo's command; thank prime for that, because if they would've heard the two would've been screwed. Well, not completely; they still had Ranboo, but screwed enough to disrupt their patrol for a few days.

Through his own earpiece, Tommy heard Ranboo question Tubbo. "It's under the map, right?" The boy being questioned hummed in response. Tommy hated to admit it, but he gave props to Ranboo for being able to find the damned button. Tommy saw Tubbo's setup one time; he couldn't process a thing there. There were tons of buttons and shit, and all of them made Tommy feel lost. He didn't like feeling dumb, so he just avoided Tubbo's setup from then on.

After a short second, right as the three heroes' voices came into earshot, Tommy heard a faint click in his earpiece, signaling that the audio was being recorded. Time to professionally eavesdrop.

—

"If we come across that little, dumb vigilante and let him slip out of our grasp again I swear on my life I will find a way to track him down into the depths of hell." Wilbur proclaimed as he strolled down the streets of the run-down district alongside his brother and father—Blade and Raven.

Ever since he ran into the vigilante, his mind had been dead set on the guy, his fixation mainly spurring from the fact that the person had gotten away from him. To deal with this, Wilbur trained vigorously over the past few days to strengthen his power and physical strength. When Techno asked him why he was doing this, he made up a fake explanation; there was no way that he was admitting to training this much over a vigilante.

Sure, that may have been the whole reason the three of them were in the district—to catch the many vigilantes in the area—, but he didn't like the idea of actually putting in effort to stop them. It was supposed to be an easy job, not one that would cause him to lose his mind!

"What's your problem with that vigilante anyway? All he did was get away from you and Techno; it's not like he shamed you or anything." Phil questioned, exasperation and amusement practically dripping from his voice. The older male must've heard about the vigilante over one-hundred times in the past three hours alone, not counting the past days; he just didn't get the whole commotion about the guy.

"That's exactly the problem, Raven! He got away so effortlessly, it was so annoying! I just-" Wilbur cut himself out with a frustrated groan. One thing was clear now; that vigilante was driving him insane.

With an amused huff, Phil patted Wilbur's shoulder. "Don't stress over it, mate. It's just a vigilante, after all." It's just a vigilante; that's all it is. Suddenly, Wilbur felt a new sense of security and confidence. "Thanks Raven, that was very fatherly of you."