Chapter Text
Phil
The last thing that Phil expected when he woke up this morning was to be tied to a chair in an unfamiliar living room in an apartment that he was sure he had never been to before.
"Hello," he called out hesitantly, unsure if he had company or not.
"Hiya, big man," a child, of maybe fifteen or sixteen, answered.
"Who are you?"
"What, so you can track me down later and kill me? no thanks man, I just need you to tell me where your goons are holding my friends."
"And their names are?"
"Tubbo and Ran-boo," not their real names surly but they were apparently known by those names well enough.
"Sorry mate, I don't think your friends are in my custody."
"Fuck!" The kid shouted, it sounded like he was rather fond of the word.
"Kid."
"I'm not a kid."
"Whatever, I can't help you find your friends if I have no other information to go off of."
The kid, not a kid, whatever, rolled his eyes at Phil and began to pace back and forth in front of him, the cramped living room not really offering very much space for such an activity.
"Well if you fuckers didn't take them than did the Las Navadas fuckers take them or the Badlands fuckers?" The blonde child continued into a muttering ramble around the room for a few moments before shrugging to himself and circling back around to Phil.
who the hell where this kids friends involved with that he didn't know which crime family had taken them.
Well he wasn't really one to talk when he was the head of the Syndicate and the one to let his grandson get kidnapped when Kristen had been in the hospital, but that's irrelevant.
"Welp seeing as you have out grown your usefulness I guess I'll have to get rid of you."
Well this was a short lived vacation from reality, hopefully the fam would show up soon, take him back home and help him figure out how this random child had kidnapped him, tied him up, and most importantly, how he had carried him literally anywhere when said child had the lankiest build he'd ever seen a healthy human being have.
"Hang on mate, no need for murder, we can talk about this like adults," Phil reasoned.
He flapped a hand at the man,"I'm not gonna kill ya', though I've certainly thought about it."
Well that was a mild relief. this chair was starting to become wildly uncomfortable.
The kid flicked the black-out curtains apart long enough to see out of them before resetting them, he flexed and unflexed his hand into a fist for a few seconds before he turned and asked, "Do you have some sort of tracker on your person?"
Under my skin, but I'm not gonna tell you that, "no, why? Do we have company?"
The blonde kid shook his head, more to himself than to Phil, and then stocked off in to a different room.
He came back soon after with a gray can of mystery liquid, ratchet straps, a piece of cloth, and a furniture dolly, was this kid really moving him around like he was furniture? What the hell is going on right now?
The kid pored some of the liquid on to the cloth and shoved it into Phil's face.
Later ~
When Phil woke up for the second time this morning, the probable chloroform the kid used was likely how he kept Phil from waking up the first time, that shit can not be good for your sinuses, he was back at the house, in front of the main gait mind you but back home non the less.
Both Techno and Kristen where coming out to get him, "Hello family how are you this morning?"
"Phil," Kristen gasped, exasperated, "we thought we had lost you for two hours, we couldn't track your location, Nikki hadn't seen you on any camera footage, we were about to start a search party, dammit, are you OK?" She finished.
Techno simply started to untie his father, like the pillar of reason he is.
"I'm fine Darling, I might have a couple of bruises but I am OK."
"What happened?" Techno asked, seemingly unperturbed.
"I was kidnapped by some lanky kid that thought we had taken his friends, why for I have yet to ascertain, but here we are."
"Names." Techno demanded.
Phil sighed, "I don't know the first kid's name but he said his friends names were Tubbo and Ran-boo."
"The two younger lieutenants? But how the hell would he know them, their like nineteen and twenty." Kristen shook her head.
Phil hadn't known that they actually had staff by those names/aliases but in their line of work it stood to reason, no real name, no real chance of pursuit if you decide to leave the business.
Regardless, now that this child had piqued Phil's interest he was going to find these people for him, if only to have a reason to speak to the kid who had managed to kidnap him from his own bed, without awakening Kristen, and take him at least across town to question him about his friends whereabouts.
Tommy
Tommy stood in front of the Badlands Enterprises building with determination and spite in his veins (read caffeine) and a piece of paper in hand.
He looked up at the perpetually gloomy sky line and followed it until his gaze landed on the twin smoke stacks high up in the air, always active, always pumping the air full of a smog that made it perfectly reasonable for most residents of the grater Server area to wear some form of filtration mask, like the one on his face right now.
If you thought about it to hard you could draw a striking parallel to Gotham.
Walking in the front door he dropped the paper into his messenger bag and went up the the check in desk.
A friendly woman in a rose print cardigan waved at him, he waived back and gestured to the bag, she gave him a thumbs up and hit the button on her desk for the elevator, it opened for him just as he stepped to it, these crime families had gone lax with their security in recent months due to a lack of challenge from a no longer existent threat. That threat? Dream, and his family, of which Tommy used to be a part of, but that was the past and this is the present.
Anyway, the elevator pinged and opened to the top floor and Tommy stepped out into a small waiting room with blue and white decor, there were two doors that faced the elevator and the plaques on them read Mr. Halo in black and Mr.Halo in blue respectively.
Tommy stepped up to the black plaque and knocked, "come in!" Called a chipper voice.
Tommy opened the door and stepped inside, the man that sat behind the desk was broad shouldered and had long dark curls that were pulled up into a messy bun, reading glasses sat on his nose while he read over some forms, "how can-" he froze.
Tommy smiled at him and held out the piece of paper to him. The clearly printed pictures of Tubbo and Ran-boo gleamed in the light of the window wall, Bad's hand shook as he extended it to grab the paper from Tommy's hand and examine it better.
"I'm not here to make threats or bargains or anything like that, I just want to know if you have any idea where they might be," Tommy assuaged calmly.
Bad shook his head and handed back the paper before jerking a thumb towards the other office, "I don't, but he usually handles the physical side of things, Tommy please don't start anything serious, Skep and I just got married."
Tommy nodded, "saw that, congrats by the way, as for starting shit, as long as my friends are returned to me, mostly unharmed and within a reasonable amount of time I will have no real reason to do anything drastic. I'm gonna ask him and if he doesn't know anything I'll head out and try somewhere else, bye now."
He left Bad's office and simply barged in to Skeppy's, freaked the hell out of him but you gotta take your laughs where you can ya know?
"Hey Skep, Bad said you might know where Tubbo and Ran-boo are, do ya?"
"No, The last time I saw them was with you when we ran into each at the Dippin' Danish's last week, why? what happened?" skeppy asked, breathing starting to calm down.
Tommy sighed, "they were taken from work yesterday while on break and I have not seen them since."
"Ah, Fuck kid if I knew I'd tell ya but I've been on honeymoon with Bad for the past three days, I'm happy to help you look for them though."
"Nah man you just got married take a load off for a bit, I'll handle it, thank you though."
Skeppy nodded and waived him out. Satisfied that they weren't lying to him Tommy turned off the audio recorder and stepped back into the elevator, letting the doors slide shut he pushed the bottom floor button and waited for the ping again.
Phil
Turns out Toby Shlatt and Rowan Born were his lieutenants of shipping and distribution and had been hired six months ago after they had gotten married to each other in the Prime chapel.
Their friend Tommy, an ordained minister and the younger brother of one Dream Hunter had performed the ceremony.
Phillip Watson had been kidnapped by Thomas Hunter and lived.
Somehow the thought of Tommy being an ordained minister was still harder for Phil to wrap his head around.
Phil pushed off from his desk where he had been sat for the better part of two hours, he stood and stretched out before heading to the kitchen downstairs.
In the kitchen he pored himself a glass of water and leaned against the counter in contemplation, mulling over the things he had found while looking for Tubbo and Ran-boo, first, he had learned that Dream had been killed by Tommy, who was being manipulated and abused by Dream.
Second, after Tommy inherited the family business from his brother (how that went off with out a hitch was still a mystery to him) he liquidated a large majority of it and had most of the people who owed him favors quietly pay him back or write him IOU's for later use.
So this kid's a ball of pain and trauma with a big bank account and a lot of cards up his sleave, oh yeah and he's best friends of both of the best lieutenants he has ever employed.
And he lives in an absolute shit hole with them.
Also, the two had disappeared from their day jobs midday and had not shown up for their evening employment at all.
OK, so on paper that is the whole picture, but in practice that just cannot be the case.
Tommy
It had been half an hour since Tommy had met with Bad and Skeppy and he was now in line at Dippin' Danish's for his mobile order when his business phone rang.
Caller ID. :Phil Watson:
Fantastic in italics and all caps, is this a ransom call? A threat? Information? Well he won't know until he answers, "Hello?"
"hi, is this Thomas Hunter?"
Tommy cringed, "yeah, but I would prefer Tom or Tommy."
"Of course, Tommy, I am sorry to bother you at this hour," it's almost six in the afternoon, not super late, "but I have a couple of questions about your friends' disappearance."
"Who are you, fuckin' cops?"
Phil laughed, "far from it Tommy, I just wanted to know, do you think it's possible J. Shlatt took them as a power grab?"
"I'd be shocked if Big Q's ex has that many brain cells floating around in his head but it does fit his MO," fuck it, "I have an appointment with big Q tomorrow, if you want to come along, arrangements can be made."
"Why do you have an appointment with Q, do you think he took them?"
"Nah, it's 'cause I figured he might know who did."
There was a rustling of cloth that may have been a nod before Phil responded, "that makes sense, what time and where are we meeting him?"
"Seven, PM, I don't do early, at the Little Lamb's bakery on second. I made a reservation for two however it's still early enough to change that, I'll send you a text when adjustments have been made."
"Understood, please send me a text with the information so I can add it to my calendar."
Phil
After Phil got off the phone with Tommy he called out to Techno from his place on the couch.
He came in and sat down on one side of him and leaned against him Phil wrapped an arm around him and pulled him close, "soon, some day soon we will bring him home."
Techno nodded and deflated in one breath, Kristen came in soon after bearing hot cocoa and blankets.
She sat on Phil's other side and passed around the drinks, Phil took a sip noting a hint of whiskey, "ya think we're that bad off hon? Phil questioned.
Kristen gave a sad smile and hugged them both tighter, "I think we all need a little pick-me-up right now, TV anyone?"
Techno picked up the remote and handed it to Phil, who chose an older cooking show and they settled in for a while.