Chapter 5

A few weeks had passed. Tommy could say that Orpheus was growing to be like a brother to him. He would bring snacks every few nights for Tommy to take home. They would talk about their days, leaving out names and places. They would look at the stars and one night Orpheus even offered to play a song for the vigilante.

Tommy would refuse to admit he had dozed off while the hero played. While Orpheus would refuse that he had waited beside the younger boy until he woke up. He dismissed Phil and Techno when he walked in just after the sun rose, withholding any information of where he had gone.

Truth be told, Tommy was growing to trust the hero. By no means would he tell him his real name or age. He wouldn't risk bringing the hero home to his friends, his family. However, there began to have an appeal to bring his friends to him.

Or, he was beginning to have the appeal of bringing Ranboo to meet Orpheus formally.

Tommy sat on the edge of the building right next to Orpheus, fidgeting with the gloves that covered his hands - a nervous habit that Orpheus had recognized.

"Would you… be okay with a friend joining us tonight?" Tommy asked softly, very different from his normal, boisterous voice. Orpheus wouldn't mention it, but he could practically see the anxiety rolling off the boy in large waves.

Tommy sighed in relief at the nod Orpheus gave. Orpheus recognized the grin under his mask as he saw the corners of the vigilantes eyes crinkle.

"Okay! I'll go tell him to meet up here!" Tommy rushed off after the words slipped from his mouth, going to talk to his friends through his earpiece.

"Tubbo!" Tommy spoke the harsh whisper just after turning his earpiece on, "Ranboo needs to be here! Now!"

Tubbo couldn't hide the slight fear as his voice raised a pitch, "Tommy?! What's going on?"

"I need Ranboo here now!" With that, Tommy turned off the earpiece skipping back over to Orpheus, knowing it would only take a few minutes before the teleporting vigilante showed up.

"He's on his way," Tommy gave another signature grin. Orpheus returned the smile, nodding.

"I'm excited to meet this friend of yours," Orpheus expressed cheerfully.

Tommy opened his mouth to say something when the 'vroop' interrupted him.

"Big Man! You're here!" Tommy said instead, "I'd like you to meet Orpheus!"

The vigilante opened his mouth to say something, only to let out an annoyed huff. He turned to Orpheus, giving a small wave and a shy smile.

"You must be Charon," Orpheus returned the smile. At the confused looks, he rushed to explain, "That's what Odysseus started calling you. It caught on for the SBI,"

"Odysseus chose a name for him but not for me?!" Tommy sputtered, "What is this shit?!"

Ranboo - Charon - gave a small, awkward laugh nervously turning his head away from Tommy. He faced Orpheus instead, "Why Charon?"

"Odysseus chose a name for all of us." Orpheus started, "He likes Greek Mythology, hence the names. He has to have some meaning behind it all, though. Like, for example, I'm Orpheus because of my ability to play music. I think he chose Charon because of the grim reaper like suit - with the all black and whatnot- and you're ability to transport yourself and others,"

Charon nodded. He really was interested in the reason behind his new hero name. It was creative and a personal name. Though he didn't understand why Odysseus put the effort into making a name for him.

"So why don't I have a name?!" Tommy scoffed, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Because, Odysseus is still trying to think of a name for you. Like I said, he likes putting meaning into it. He's only seen you here and there. That and he wants more meaning behind the name other than you just have wings," Orpheus explained calmly. Charon's mouth formed a small 'o,' surprised by the hero's ability to stay calm with his boisterous, and quite rude, roommate.

Tommy nodded, "Then I better not get some basic bitch name! And it needs to be cooler than fuckin' Charon!"

Charon let out a small enderman noise at that. He didn't think that his was a basic name, nor that it was boring.

Orpheus looked over at Charon in surprise, "Are you an enderman hybrid?"

"Uh- I mean… yeah?" Charon stumbled over his words, anxiety spiking. He wanted to get out. To leave. To run. He wanted to go home. How did this hero figure out so fast? Did he do something wrong? Was it the noise he made? It was bad to be an enderman hybrid yet…

Orpheus didn't attack him? He wasn't- he didn't do anything.

Orpheus only gave a smile, nodding, "That's cool." He let out a small hum of reassurance before continuing, "I've met another mob hybrid before, Awesamdude. I'm sure you two have heard of him? He's a pretty popular hero. He's a creeper hybrid,"

Both the vigilantes perked up at the hero's name. Sam? That's right. Sam worked at the Syndicate. He had mentioned that. Multiple times actually. If it weren't for Sam, Tommy wouldn't have even started his vigilante work.

"Oh, you guys are a fan of Awesamdude?" Orpheus asked, seeming to notice the expressions and body language of the two of them.

"Um… yeah," Charon answered for the two of them before Tommy said something stupid that gave them away or got them in trouble, "Our other roommate has been really inspired by him too. Got into inventions and whatnot because of Sam,"

Orpheus paused, trying to think of how to respond to that. There was a third. That and they called the hero Sam. Not many others did that. Despite the hero name being longer, only heroes that worked with the Syndicate dared call the creeper hybrid Sam.

"You have another roommate?" Orpheus decided to respond to that instead of thinking too deeply into them calling Sam by his actual name. He was probably just overthinking it.

"B- Charon! You weren't supposed to mention anything about him!" Tommy glared at Charon.

"Well… sorry! It kind of just slipped!" Charon defended himself.

Orpheus let out a quiet laugh at the small argument that followed. He would guess that it was the third roommate that tied the two of them together. This third roommate must be someone special if that were the case.

Finally, after the argument had dragged on for what felt like forever, Orpheus decided to interrupt, "So, Charon, how old are you? If you don't mind me asking,"

"22," Charon responded after a moment.

Orpheus gave a small laugh, looking over at Tommy, "So you first tried taking his age?"

Tommy scoffed, "I did not!" At the look he got from Orpheus, he let out a huff, "... okay so maybe I did,"

Orpheus shook his head with an amused chuckle, "Of course you did,"

Tommy froze up in surprise at the alert that he got from Tubbo.

"New mugging down at the intersection of El Rapids and Las Nevada's,"

"On my way, Big Man," Tommy responded immediately.

"Crime to stop?" Orpheus questioned.

"Yep," Tommy responded, stretching his wings in preparation to take off, "I'll see you tomorrow night?"

"Most definitely," Orpheus nodded, "How about you, Charon? Will we see you tomorrow night?"

"Uh, maybe…" Charon gave another one of his shy smiles, "We'll see,"

Orpheus gave another nod. He looked over as Tommy gave a quick, two finger salute before diving off the edge of the building. When he turned to look over at Charon, the cloaked vigilante was gone.

"It's late anyways," Orpheus mumbled, "Might as well head home,"

He had some things to catch his family up on anyways.

—————

Wilbur stepped into the house, letting out a tired yawn. Phil was already on the couch, ready to be caught up on whatever new thing Wilbur had learned about the vigilante. That, or, Wilbur was going to rant about the boy he had practically adopted as a little brother. Techno was there as well, sitting in his own seat. Even he was growing curious about avian. He wanted to give him a name soon, he just needed to know more. Hell, at this rate he wouldn't even be opposed to meeting the brat.

"He has another roommate," Wilbur sat down on the couch beside Phil, curling into the older man. Phil wrapped his wing around his son as a way to comfort him, "They didn't mention a name-"

"-Wait, wait, wait," Techno interrupted, "They?"

"Oh, yeah. The avian managed to get Charon to come. He was the one who let it slip there's another one of them," Wilbur explained. He shook his head, "Anyways, they mentioned he's into technology and shit. Probably the one in the earpiece everytime. I think he may have also made the voice changer both the vigilantes have and probably also a few other tools. They mentioned he was a Sam fan. I think they all were, actually. Sam fans, I mean,"

"Daedalus," Techno muttered. Phil shot the pink-haired male a look. How the fuck did he already come up with a name for the third vigilante, yet he still had to think of one for the original?

"So they're all Sam fans?" Phil asked, urging his son to go on. He instinctively began to run his hand through Wilburs hair, trying to get the messy tangled undone.

"Yeah, they even called Sam, Sam," Wilbur mumbled, feeling himself beginning to doze off with the soft touches and the warm embrace of his father, "I may be looking too much into it but-" he yawned, "-it's weird,"

"That is weird," Phil mumbled, using his free hand to remove Wilburs mask. He could tell his way dozing off and wouldn't last much longer.

"Wil, where could I meet the avian?" Techno asked softly, glancing between Wilbur and Phil.

"Hm, he usually goes to the tallest building in his sector," Wilbur responded, voice growing softer with each word.

Techno nodded. He stood, grabbing his own mask, shooting Phil a look, as if questioning Phil if it was okay.

Phil gave a single nod, mouthing a, 'go ahead,'

Techno opened the door, walking out with light steps and closing the door behind him without a sound. Time to find the winged vigilante.

—————

Tommy settled on the rooftop. Ranboo had already gone back home and Tommy was planning on following soon. He could hear the soft snores of Tubbo in his ear through the earpiece. Honestly, Tommy was hoping to catch back up with Purpled. It had been a while, after all.

He wasn't, however, expecting Odysseus to decide to visit. He didn't even expect Odysseus to know where his usual spot was.

He didn't even know the hero was there until Tommy turned to leave. It seemed like Purpled wasn't going to show and Tommy was growing tired.

"What the fuck?! Where the hell did you come from?!" Tommy chirped in surprise, jumping back to feel like Odysseus wasn't towering over him. It didn't help much.

"I've been here," Odysseus deadpanned, staring Tommy down with blood red eyes.

"That's fuckin' freaky!" Tommy shouted, "You're a fuckin' freak!"

Odysseus scoffed. The avian was already getting on his nerves with the shouting and cursing. He had trouble seeing how Orpheus enjoyed hanging out with this vigilante. Then again, Orpheus did seem a little insane here and there. One moment he'd seem fine, the next he would seem like he was about to blow up the whole city.

"I made my presence here obvious," Odysseus drawled, "Multiple times,"

Tommy scoffed at that, mustering up his best glare to give the most intimidating hero known to man-kind. Odysseus did not look amused.

"I wanted to talk to you," Odysseus finally spoke after a few moments of awkward silence. He was a great hero, managed to take down crime in second and had a badass power, however when it came to being social, he struggled, "Orpheus mentioned you wanting an alias?"

Tommy blinked in surprise. He was not expecting that of all things. He expected Odysseus to kill him before trying to converse with him. "O-okay," he stuttered in response, still completely taken aback.

"Why'd you become a vigilante?" Odysseus asked suddenly, almost forcefully.

"Isn't that a bit personal, big man?" Tommy glared at Odysseus.

"I was just curious,"

"Well then, don't be fuckin' curious,"

"It would help me choose a name for you,"

"Choose a name without getting into my business, will ya?"

"Fine…"

Tommy, despite being tired, did not end up getting home until after sunup. Techno didn't tell his family anything when he got home, instead going straight to his room and looking for his Greek mythology book.