A Mockingbird In The Crows Nest

So Many Shades Of Gray

When Tommy stepped out of the bathroom after talking to the League, he sank down to the floor against the wall in an attempt to calm his nerves. Raptor was thrilled to hear that he would be back in the field tomorrow; and he said they'd schedule the heist for when he'd be on patrol so he could distract Charon.

And Tommy could do that!

He could distract Charon and get him away from the bank like they need.

But..

For some reason, his stomach twists into a knot at the idea of more people being put in danger because of him. He's no stranger to bank heists, of course. He's helped with several over the years as Raptor's right-hand. He knows that the civilians don't typically get hurt since the League tries to keep them out of the cross-fire. They get used as hostages sometimes and they get scared and threatened- but no one usually gets hurt.

But of course, the occasional civilian would decide to try and be a hero- or would get caught up in the sidelines and end up getting hurt; but that wasn't really his or the villains fault. And sure, the occasional cop would die. But it wasn't normally on purpose. The one time it was on purpose was the one time he and Raptor got cornered on his third heist.

Tommy shivered as the memory tried to resurface and shoved it away, dragging his hands down his face and slapping his cheeks a few times to knock some sense into himself.

"Get a grip, Vex." He muttered to himself. "You're a villain. Act like one."

He huffed, running a hand through his hair and peering around his room-

Tommy's thoughts screeched to a stop as he registered what he'd just thought.

His room.

His room?? When did he start considering this room his?? Because while he was using it and the heroes all called it his- it wasn't. He's not a member of this tower. He doesn't own anything in this tower. This tower isn't home. It's enemy territory.

Fuck, he does not have the energy to dissect that right now. What he needs is a distraction. Something else to focus on so he doesn't have to try and untangle whatever the fuck his brain is doing.

Fishing his phone out of his pocket, he decided to look into the articles Sally's written. After all, she did an amazing job describing their time under the rubble. So surely her other articles must be just as interesting right?

When he typed her name into Google to browse, the first things to pop up were all about him. Or rather- his fake persona Mockingbird. He scrolled past them- as well as a few interviews she apparently did with other news outlets -until he hit an article she wrote a while ago that looked interesting.

He didn't even finish reading the title before he started reading the article. And he was right! This one was Sally interviewing a really powerful hero from another country about her early life. The hero- Paradox, as the article names her -rightfully stays vague about her life and where she grew up. But when Sally eventually asked about her powers and how she'd discovered them- the hero went into great detail.