Chapter Text
Tommy’s perfectly normal Friday evening went a little like this:
“DRIVE!” Tommy yelled even though he was sitting directly next to the driver.
“Let me put on some music, chill out Tom.” Bill fiddled with his phone and scrolled quickly through his mega Spotify playlist. Tommy had always thought it was stupid to just have one playlist becuase then it took forever to find the perfect song.
“Just go!” Freddie yelled from the middle row of the van.
“Give it to me.” Tubbo reached to the front of the car from his spot in the middle row and snatched the phone from Bill’s hand. “I got the perfect song.”
The song Stick Up by grandson began to play and Bill took it as his chance to drive.
“What the fuck is this?” Tommy turned around to face Tubbo.
“I don’t know, I just started playing a playlist by some random person called: Robbing a bank.” Tubbo shrugged and shut off the phone to stare out the rain covered window.
“Fits the vibe I guess.” Ranboo commented from the back of the van.
The song began the first verse.
“Bill, could you possibly drive any faster? I don’t know if you remember but we are currently some of the most wanted criminals in the city.” Aimsey brought the group back on track from her spot in the back next to Ranboo.
“Calm down Aims, I am the best driver out of all of us. No debate.” Bill jerked as he turned the wheel out of the back alleyways and onto the main road.
“I’m not gonna even start this argument.” Ranboo sighed.
Then the van began to flash red and blue, followed by the overly annoying sound of sirens blaring behind them.
“Shit.”
“Shit.”
“Shit.”
“Shit.”
“Shit.”
Ranboo was the only one who didn’t swear. He’s weird like that.
Bill began to weave through cars and put all his force onto the accelerator. The group had learned long ago to not talk to Bill when he was distracted. They all sat in a tense silence, eyes looking out the back window at the cop cars.
Bill narrowed his eyes and focused only on what was in front of him. He made random sharp turns in a city he knew better than himself.
The song began the second chorus.
“Guys I want you not to freak out.” Bill straightened his posture and swerved to the right down a busy and traffic-filled street that led to the bridge connecting the two parts of the city that was divided by a river.
“Bill… please don’t hit anyone.” Aimsey pleaded.
“Dude the number one rule of having the getaway driver job is-”
“Never fucking cross a bridge.” The group finished Ranboo’s sentence. The group had always alternated their robbery roles based on the mission. They had all been getaway drivers at some point, except Tubbo. He couldn’t drive for the life of him.
There was always a 25% chance that the bridge would be up to let a big freight boat through. Tommy guessed that Bill was just hoping this wasn’t the case.
Bill weaved between the heavy traffic and zoomed towards the bridge. His face unchanged when he saw it was blocked up and was beginning to split in half and draw itself up.
The song almost reached the final beat drop.
“Bill…” Tommy grasped for the door handle, gripping it so tight that his knuckles turned white.
The cop cars were still on their tail and Bill zoomed through the cones that blocked off the bridge, letting them scatter behind him. He began to accelerate more and more, reaching the end of the bridge which was already separating from its other half.
Tommy closed his eyes. “Fuck you Bill.” Tommy was sure this was how he would die.
The song hit the final beat drop.
There was a brief floating sensation and then a thump which made the group all groan in collective pain from the force of a falling car.
Tommy opened his eyes.
They were on the other side of the bridge.
Bill had somehow used the bridge as a ramp to fly to the other side.
“That was…” Tommy settled back in his seat at a loss for words.
“FUCKING AWESOME!” Bill grinned in exhilaration.
The van took off down the rising bridge at a record speed, like a rollercoaster. He parked the van in an empty parking lot where the group took the money bags and took the short walk to the small apartment complex they lived in.
The black duffel bags settled on the counter of the cluttered and cozy apartment. Tommy smiled proudly at the group for the debrief and then he continued with his perfectly normal Friday evening.
“Another building belonging to the Dream Banking Company has been robbed. The incident occurred on Friday night around eleven. There is unfortunately no security footage from the night, but the criminals are believed to be a group known as the Cricket Crew. If you have any information regarding the robbery please call the police hotline at…”
“Oh for fucks sake turn it off already.” Tommy reached over for the remote. It had been four days since their last heist yet it was still the only talk of the city.
“I thought you loved the attention, Tommy.” Bill mocked his friend as he grabbed the remote first and held it just out of Tommy’s reach. “Yesterday you literally almost threw my phone out the window because I wasn’t listening to you talk about your Animal Crossing island.”
“But they aren’t getting it right at all! They’re just talking about the police and the crime but not the head of the fucking bank who is a complete pyschopath.” Tommy climbed over Bill to finally grab the remote and turned off the TV.
“Why did we call ourselves the Cricket Crew again?” Aimsey asked from the other couch as she scrolled through TikTok aimlessly.
“Uhhhh…” Bill looked at Tommy.
“Cricket up the ass innit?” Tommy said casually.
“Right. Ok stop. Now I remember why I hate you all.” Aimsey covered her ears to emphasize her disgust.
“Not our fault you were in the bathroom when we chose the name.” Tommy shrugged and pulled out his phone.
Bill took this opportunity to turn back on the TV, purely out of spite.
Tommy looked at Bill and rolled his eyes deciding that this was useless. He watched the news story as the reporter started a new segment discussing the Cricket Crew in a bit more detail.
“ It’s just amazing that the Cricket Crew have become the most successful bank robbers the city has ever seen, yet they appear to be teenagers. ” The news reporter commented. “ I’m just glad that SBI are hunting them down.”
For once the reporter said something Tommy actually agreed with. He really had no idea how all of them had become such good robbers. It was just the right people at the right time.
Just a few years ago (the Cricket Crew hadn’t even had a name yet) it was just him and Toby who was fondly nicknamed Tubbo since before Tommy had taken speech lessons. Tommy and Tubbo had known eachother since birth and it just so happened that both of their parents worked at the same banking company. It was when their parents started a union with the workers of the company that both Tommy and Tubbo’s life collectively went to shit.
Both of Tommy and Tubbo’s parents tragically died in an accident involving a fire in the building where their union met. Both Tommy and Tubbo knew that this was the doing of the banking company’s leader, only ever known to the public as Mr. Dream.
Tommy could easily replay it all in his mind. He was sitting in the car with his mom and dad. Tommy’s babysitter had canceled at the last minute so his parents were bringing him to the union meeting that day. Young Tommy watched from the car parked across the street as the building's top floor went up in flames. He watched his parents tell him to stay put as they ran in to make sure everyone was ok (at that point only one floor was on fire so it didn’t seem that dangerous). Tommy watched the bank owner Mr. Dream walk out of the building, holding a gas container. He watched Mr. Dream lock the door behind him with all those people inside. He watched as Mr. Dream drove away in a limousine. Tommy watched as the firefighters couldn’t get inside at first because the door was locked. Tommy watched the building collapse.
No one else came out after Mr. Dream and it was a few hours before anyone found Tommy in the back of his dead parents car.
As soon as Tommy arrived at the orphanage (luckily the same one as Tubbo) he explained what had happened to anyone that would listen. He would quickly learn that no one listens to five year olds who just lost their parents.
Tommy and Tubbo were always problematic children and so even after a few foster homes and long orphanage stays, the duo never got adopted by anyone. This made it easier for them to move out of the orphanage the second they turned eighteen. Technically CPS was supposed to check on them to make sure they were ok, but Tommy and Tubbo were really good at falling off the grid. For a while they lived on the streets (which was less than ideal), but the duo worked really hard to get a place to stay.
Now a barely eighteen year old Tommy sat in a crappy two bedroom apartment that he shared with his best friends.
Tommy knew he should probably deal with the grief and trauma created by his parents death, but for the last thirteen years Tommy had one goal in mind: revenge. He figured it wasn’t worth wasting his tears and time over his parents. His parents deserved more than a sobbing son, they deserved justice. Tommy isn’t exactly sure why his parents had started that union. But it certainly was important to them. Important enough for both of them to leave Tommy alone in that car and run into a burning building.
Whenever Tommy thought too much about his parents, it sent him down a spiral of unanswered questions. The most annoying thing is that Tommy doesn’t remember enough. If only five year old Tommy had stopped focusing on what he could see and instead focused on what he could hear. Then he would have heard what his parents said to him before they ran into the burning building. Then Tommy could know what was more important to his parents than him. Then Tommy would have some closure. Then Tommy could spread his parents final words to everyone he knew. Then Tommy could have maybe convinced his parents to not run into that burning building at all. Then Tommy would maybe know why Mr. Dream killed them. Then maybe someone would believe Tommy and Mr. Dream would be in jail.
But Tommy couldn’t remember a single word either of his parents had said.
And so grief could wait.
Tommy looked over at Bill. The asshole wasn’t even watching the TV that he insisted to have on. Tubbo had met Bill randomly on the street one day. Tubbo was just sitting on a bench eating a Domino’s pizza after his work shift at a cafe and Bill sat next to him and started to rant about something stupid his foster parent had done. While it caught Toby off guard, Bill’s situation with his foster parents didn’t sound good so he brought him back to the alley where Tommy and Tubbo had been sleeping. Tommy and Bill hit it off right away because their personalities were very similar. Bill hadn’t gone back home to his foster family since and after hearing the fucked up shit that happened to his friends parents, he was glad to help. He tried to pitch in some money, but Bill got fired within a month from any place that hired him, so most of his time was spent at home, planning the robberies.
Tommy peeked over at Aimsey. Considering that Tubbo was an introvert, Tommy was impressed he had found so many friends. Tubbo met Aimsey because she was a regular at the cafe he worked at and after one of Tubbo’s shift the two bonded over some stupid childhood cartoon. Aimsey started hanging out with the rest of the Cricket Crew once a week. Then she would be there every other day. And eventually Tommy just asked if she wanted to move in. It was a bit harder to convince Aimsey to help them rob banks, but eventually she was involved in the crimes by proxy. Aimsey always insisted that she was the only thing holding the group together. As much as Tommy hated to admit it, this was probably true. Half of them would be dead if Aimsey hadn’t reminded them to eat, sleep and drink. Even in robberies Aimsey was the one who looked at the plans Bill and Tommy made, and found ways to make them so much safer.
Tommy rose from the beat up leather couch to avoid more of the news story and settled in the kitchen to grab himself a Coke. “Get me one!” Bill yelled from the couch, somehow already knowing what Tommy was doing.
Ranboo, another member of the Cricket Crew, sat at the dirty granite counter eating a bowl of spaghetti. “Hey Tom, when Bill finally falls asleep… you wanna watch Star Wars?” Ranboo looked up from Twitter briefly.
“Yes please. He’s been torturing me with the news for hours.” Tommy closed the stained fridge and smiled at Ranboo. Ranboo was the first friend that Tommy and Tubbo ever had let into their group (besides themselves of course). Ranboo had two mom’s that constantly took him to the same park that was next to the orphanage. When they were little the trio had played in the jungle gym for hours everyday and as they got older they frequently took walks around the park trails. They talked for hours about everything they could think of. Once Tommy and Tubbo left the orphanage, Ranboo let them stay at his house sometimes (as long as he could before his mom’s got suspicious and almost called CPS or something). When Tommy and Tubbo asked Ranboo if he wanted to pitch in and buy an apartment, Ranboo contributed the most money out of all of them to the savings account.
Ranboo wasn’t a big fan of the whole criminal stuff, but he got used to it pretty quickly. He was a people pleaser and usually did whatever he was asked.
“Any idea where Tubbo is?” Tommy asked as he opened the coke with a nice sizzling sound.
“Pretty sure his office.” Ranboo continued scrolling on Twitter. Tubbo’s office wasn’t really his , it was a bedroom but whenever he was in there it quickly belonged to him. He used it as a room to code and Tubbo was scary when he coded.
Tommy started walking down the halls to the bedrooms. “Hey where's my Coke?” Bill looked at Tommy from the couch.
“Fuck off.” Tommy threw up his middle finger as he walked by and Bill just huffed in response.
On his way to Tubbo’s office, Tommy bumped into Freddie (the final member of the Cricket Crew) who was leaving the bathroom. “Hey Freddie, don’t go in there. Bill’s in a mood.” Tommy advised.
“I’ll take my chances. I’m starving.” Freddie laughed and continued walking. Freddie had known Tommy and Tubbo since before the whole parents' dying situation. Freddie’s parents were friends with Tommy and Tubbo’s parents and so Freddie was forced to visit Tommy and Tubbo a lot when they were kids. He came by at least once a week to play Monopoly or practice on the terrible sounding piano the orphanage had. Tommy knew that Freddie was just a message of sympathy from Freddie’s mom. Maybe it helped her sleep at night knowing she helped the two troubled orphans feel better. But as time went on Tommy and Tubbo grew fond of Freddie and as they entered their teenage years, they felt comfortable calling him a friend. Freddie started to visit more than just once a week because he genuinely likes hanging out with Tommy and Tubbo.
Freddie had seen Tommy’s need for revenge grow over the years and had also watched Tubbo deal with the terrible grief that Tommy had yet to face. He was more than willing to help out and moved in with them right after the apartment was rented.
And so that was the entirety of the Cricket Crew. They were all pretty different people, but they were Tommy’s family all the same.
They were also Tommy’s only shot at revenge.
And they happened to all be good at robbing banks.
Tommy pushed open the door of Tubbo’s office. “Hey Tubs, how's all that hacking going?” Tubbo was the only person good at computers out of all of them.
“Three words.” Tubbo spun around in his spinny chair smiling. “Let’s fucking rob another bank.”
“That was like five words.” Tommy pointed out.
“Shut up, you get the idea.” Tubbo frowned. “I’m ready, one click of a button and the security systems are down.” Tubbo’s pride set back into his face.
Tommy smiled.
They were going to rob another fucking bank.