Chapter Text
Tommy ran down the maze of alleyways hearing the heavy steps of well dressed men with the echoes of their screams and shouts following. He turned down another alleyway with the men hot on his trail as he rushed down it toward the well lit streets. He turned to look at the group of men, only to see that they stopped following. Tommy gave them a cocky grin before he ran into something, causing him to fall to the ground.
“What is going on here?” Tommy hears a feminine voice speak from above him. He looked up to see a motorbike helmet with soft yellow lights wrapping around the sides.
“Wha-?” Tommy started before one of the men yelled, sounding like a fat pig.
“This doesn’t involve you!” The helmet turned to the man, the yellow lights turning harsh red, making the man fall silent with a squeak.
“But it does.” The helmet wearing person softly responded and walked closer to the men, putting themselves in between Tommy and the group. Their hooded cape tickled Tommy’s hand when they passed. When they stopped they pushed the cape back; revealing two swords strapped upside down on their back; as they put their hands on their hips. ”This is my turf,” the men’s eyes widened as the person spoke,” and everyone knows that I don’t like trespassers.”
“The Doll.” One of the men murmured while some took a step back. Tommy looked at the helmeted person, or ‘The Doll’ as the men called them, in awe.
“So?” The Doll asked, ”What is going on here?” The men stuttered before one of the men snapped out of it.
“That brat stole from me!” The man sneered, pointing at Tommy walking toward him. The Doll’s only response was unclasping one of their swords, letting it glide halfway out of its sheath with their hand resting on the end of the handle to guide it. The man stopped, staring wide eyed at the polished stone of the sword. The Doll turned their head to Tommy, causing him to flinch back.
“Raccoon, did you steal from this man?” The Doll’s voice was quiet and almost friendly when they spoke to him. Tommy looked in between the men and The Doll.
“And if I did?” Tommy asked after a second.
“I would ask you what you stole.” The Doll replied with humor leaking into their voice. Tommy looked at the group of men before answering.
“I stole a one hundred dollar bill…” He trailed off, looking down only to hear The Doll laugh.
“You boys chased down a little raccoon because he took a one hundred dollar bill?” They got out in between their giggles; their helmet lights turning green. Most of the men started to look embarrassed except for the man who stood in front of them.
“Do you know who we are?” The man shouted, which made the sword finally come out of its sheath and pointed at his throat with the lights turning back to red.
“The Brass Wolves right? The dying family that is in debt to Las Nevadas.” The man paled when he heard them say it, unimpressed. “This may shock a low scum like you, but I have a very close connection to the Las Nevadas gang. In fact, you are just a couple blocks from the crossing of our turfs if you wish to take it to him.” All of the men started to back up afraid. The Doll tilted their head and continued, “Now leave before I leave a message to your grandfather about how pathetic his grandchildren are for hunting down a child because of a hundred dollar bill.” Tommy watched as the men behind the man ran away cursing, leaving the man at The Doll’s sword point.
The man looked around nervously losing his bravo before glaring at Tommy. “They can’t protect you forever brat!” He threatens shakingly before running off, leaving Tommy and The Doll alone in the alleyway. Tommy sticks his tongue out at where the man once stood as The Doll put away their sword; their lights turned to a soft purple pink color.
“Well, that was interesting.” The Doll hummed as they turned to him and offered a hand, “Here kid.”
Tommy took their hand with a grin. “That was so cool! They were so scared of you!” He yelled; excited; once he was on his feet, “Obviously not as scared as they would be of me if I wanted to fight, but still!”
The Doll laughed, “Oh really now?” They looked at him, putting a hand on their hip.
“Of course I am the biggest man in the world.” Tommy stated puffing out his chess.
“Does the biggest man in the world have a place to stay tonight?” The Doll said, shaking their head. Tommy froze and shifted his stance at that, hoping they wouldn’t notice his pause and force him to go to a homeless shelter or worse, the police; even though he knows that isn't their style.
“I- The biggest man in the world does have a place to stay,” Tommy said cautiously, making The Doll hum.
“Oh? Is it close?”
“Yes,” Tommy said firmly.
The Doll sighed with a certain tone he heard before, “What a shame I will have to find out what to do with the extra BadLands burger I have at home.” They turned around. “Oh well. Have a good night, Big Man Raccoon.” Tommy’s stomach growled at the thought of food. He hasn’t eaten in days. That is why he stole the dollar, but there aren’t any shops open that he can go to that are close by. He looked in between the open brightly lit street behind him and the dark alley where The Doll was slowly walking down. He pressed his lips together as he thought about how they didn’t call his bluff that they obviously saw through it as always. He finally came to a choice he hoped he wouldn't regret with a pout.
“Wait!” Tommy ran after The Doll, this made The Doll stop and wait for him to catch up.
“You must really want that burger.” The Doll muses humorously while he flips them off grumpily. He followed The Doll up a fire escape as usual when he heard them curse under their breath as they got to the roof. He smirked, “What ,scared of heights?” He laughed a bit before he realized The Doll wasn’t laughing with him. “Holy shit, you are scared of heights?” Tommy realized, shocked.
They sighed, “A bit it takes me a moment to get used to the heights.” This made him laugh. “It’s not funny.” The Doll playfully wined.
“But you are a hero? Villain? That is scared of heights! How come I never notice?” Tommy laughed harder.
“First off, I am a vigilante and secondly don’t ever compare me to those heroes, ok? And third you were too focused on your stomach the other times we met.” The Doll said seriously.
“Don’t like heroes?” He asked, ignoring the serious expression on their face along with the third thing that they said.
“Yep,” they answered simply as they took out a harness from somewhere under their cape.
“I don’t like them either!” Tommy said happily. The Doll put the harness on him after ruffling his hair like they did a few nights before.
“Oh, really now?” They said as they clasp the end of the harness to their light armor.
“Yep, and why do I have to wear this?” He asked as he tugged on it.
“Do you know how to jump roofs?” They asked, their helmet slightly raising up at him causing him to pout imagining the look they are giving them.
“No.” He muttered, which The Doll muttered back a, I thought so, before they went to the edge of the roof.
“I will teach you another day if you want me to, but for now I will hold on to you and we’ll jump together. Ok, raccoon?” They said calmly, which made Tommy excited at the thought of jumping from roof to roof just like how The Doll did in the videos he caught glimpses of on the TVs in stores he visited.
“Ok!” He said, getting closer to them as they tighten the cord in between them and clinged to them.
“Ready?” They asked with a slight giggle, looking at Tommy, which he answered with a nod. With his nod, they went off into the night.
The Doll’s home was a small two bedroom, one bath apartment that resided in an old building called the Muffin Apartments. Tommy looked around as he ate while listening to The Doll shower running behind the kitchen wall. He thought the apartment looked homey with all the knick knacks that sat around and hung on the walls; his favorite is the sparkly fake spider that sat on the coffee table in the living room that he named Shroud. He spotted a picture of four people that hung next to the window that they came in from. It had what looked like a creeper hybrid, some half ender person, a goat looking boy, and a girl with two tone pink hair. They were in some type of restaurant looking place and the ender, boy, and girl were wearing aprons.
“That was the opening of my café.” The Doll’s unmuffled voice spoke, making Tommy jump and turned around to look at them. Tommy came face to face to a casual dressed and most importantly unmasked Doll. They were pale and boney with the same thin two tone pink hair as the girl in the picture in the same messy style too. In fact they looked the same as the girl but with the inclusion of three small lip rings on the right side of their lip. What really made Tommy stare at them was their eyes, or rather eye as the other was covered with their hair; it was pitch black to the point you couldn’t tell the difference between their pupil and their iris.
“Is that natural?” He blurted out, making The Doll laugh. He flushed as he realized what he said. “Sorry,” he said apologetically, looking down.
“No, it’s fine, raccoon.” The Doll told him. “My eyes are natural.” They smiled at him, in which he returned with a toothy grin. “How is your burger, raccoon?” They continued walking to the kitchen. Tommy glanced at his almost gone burger.
“It is good.” He replied as The Doll came back with their own plopping down on the couch and turned on some show called ‘How It’s Crafted’.
“That is good! Now come sit.” They replied, patting the open cushion at their feet. “I guess you have questions you want to ask. Right?” Tommy nodded as he sat on the other side of the couch copying their pose.
“The first question I have is, what is your name? Unless you want me to continue to call you The Doll or Helmet in my mind.” Tommy asked as they unwrapped their burger.
“Names Ali, just Ali. What is yours, raccoon?” The Doll, Ali responded before taking a bite of it.
“Tommy… just Tommy.” He mimicked before asking his next question. “What’s your pronouns?” His mother didn’t raise a rude wimp after all.
Ali smiled as they responded, “She/her or they/them.” Tommy nodded and finished his burger
.
“He/him for me.” He said, earning a hum for them. “Do you have any powers?” He asked curiously.
“No, I don’t have powers.” Ali stated, “but that doesn’t stop me from being The Doll.” Tommy looked at them as they ate the rest of their burger. He trusted them even though he met The Doll a few months ago.
“That is cool! I can draw power from my confidence and make orbs and lighting and stuff.” He explained, watching them carefully.
“So you are running away from that law too?” They asked. Tommy nodded, wondering what they meant by too, making Ali frowned. “It is a stupid law that gets people killed,” Ali grumble as they glared out the window. The law; known as The Hero Power law; in Tommy’s professional opinion is a stupid ass law that forces people who have powers to become ‘heros’ for ‘the greater good’.
Tommy and Ali’s questions soon turned into playful banter as they started to narrate the show together. He slowly fell asleep smiling while hearing Ali saying something about forbidden honey. He dreamed of the smell of coffee, sweets, and baked goods in the glow green, yellow, red, and pink with an almost unnoticeable hadze from the moon.