Tyrone didn't answer what Tandy said right away, just staring down at the table while he thought of becoming a Hero.
In truth, he definitely was excited to do so. After all, he was in the DC Universe, and he had extremely useful powers, and a staunch ally, but he also was completely untrained, and still was barely in control of his new powers, so he'd be way in over his head.
"I know you're thinking of a-lot of things, but in truth, the people who did this to us will definitely still be searching, so we'll eventually need to go out ourselves. We can let them come back and turn us into weapons, or we choose to take aim ourselves," Tandy said.
A bright light shined from her hands as she formed multiple daggers, swishing them around before dissipating them into nothing but sparkles, "I've been working to control these powers and I'm sure you have been too,"
Tyrone let out a slow breath through his nose as she continued speaking, listening all the way until she finished before finally giving his response, "Wow," he muttered, "You really don't do things halfway, do you?"
She shrugged, "I just want to use my powers for something good,"
Tyrone nodded, leaning back in his chair that creaked softly, eyes lifting to meet hers, "Okay, " he said, "Let's say...hypothetically, we do this and try to become heroes,"
Tandy's eyes brightened instantly. In fact, her emotions spiked so hard she began unintentionally emitting her light, which she nervously stopped herself from doing after realizing.
"Hypothetically?" she echoed with a nod after.
"Hypothetically," he repeated, holding up a finger, "Then the first thing you're about to say is that we should march straight back to CADMUS, kick the doors in, and make them pay."
She opened her mouth, but Tyrone cut her off immediately.
"And that," Tyrone said, pointing at her with that same finger, "is exactly why we shouldn't do that."
Her expression shifted, confident excitement giving way to confusion, "Why not? They hurt us. They hurt other kids. They deserve, "
"They deserve to die," Tyrone interrupted, voice firmer now, the shadows around his shoulders thickening slightly, "Not a reckless suicide mission."
Tandy frowned, "You don't think we can handle it? Look what you did to those gangs?"
"Not now, since they can give us these powers, who's to say they haven't done that to other people and controlled them? We need to take them down smartly, not run in like idiots and give ourselves up," Tyrone explained.
"For them to so brazenly kidnap us, and easily cover up the explosion that happened, they have way more power and influence than those gangs can ever dream of," He finally finished speaking, and the room grew quieter.
Tandy exhaled, "Fine you're right, but then what do we do? Do we just let them get away with all of this?"
He tapped the table lightly with his knuckles, "Of course not, we're gonna destroy them, but first, we need to train and master our powers, figure out our limits before they find us,"
Tyrone's eyes darkened as he spoke, not with hunger, but with resolve, "And we also need other stuff, like a Home-Base for our Hero Operations, Equipment, all of which will cause a-lot of time and money,"
Tandy tilted her head, studying him as he said that, "You definitely thought about this before didn't you?"
"Yeah," he admitted. He'd thought about it pretty much since he gained powers, replicating what Cloak and Dagger did in Marvel but to much bigger effect, but with so much other stuff on his mind, he didn't have a chance to really extrapolate everything.
"I can pay for anything, I have a huge amount of money just sitting around in my card as allowance anyway, but how do we get everything else?" Tandy excitedly asked.
Tyrone hesitated, just a fraction of a second, before responding, "I'll just make whatever we need. It stops us from getting traced and I can do it, I was into engineering remember?"
Tandy raised an eyebrow and her eyes widened as she heard that, "Wait seriously? I thought you'd given up forever?"
He nodded slowly, jaw tight, "I thought so too, but I know my dad would want me to continue on anyway, and it's for the best if I use all that knowledge to protect people,"
Tandy stared at him for a long moment. Not really in disbelief or anything, but more specifically admiration at how knowledgable he was.
The shadows around Tyrone had settled into something steady, no longer coiling with anger or hunger like he was when he had arrived at her house the night before.
This didn't look like the boy who had torn through gangs in a night of vengeance. This was someone thinking long-term. An extremely strategic mind.
Finally, she nodded, "Okay," she said, "If you're doing this… really doing this… then I'm all in."
Tyrone looked at her as he waited for her to continue.
"I'll buy anything you ask for," she continued, a grin slowly spreading across her face, "However, you'll need to be specific with your spending. I have a-lot of money yeah, but if literally ALL OF IT disappears, then even my step-dad and mom will get suspicious,"
For a second, Tyrone just blinked before he responded, "That's fine, I know exactly what we need, and I'm not exactly fond of wasting money either,"
Tandy laughed, light spilling softly from her shoulders. "Good."
Something in Tyrone clicked as she said that, and he quickly leaned forward, elbows on the table again, but this time there was a spark in his eyes—focused, alive, the same look he probably had years ago when he was sketching machines and prototypes beside his dad.
"Alright," he said slowly. "First things first."
He lifted a finger.
"We need a base. Not this place, too obvious since it's your actual house. It's preferably somewhere in the City or close to it for Rapid Deployment," he explained.
Tandy nodded eagerly, "A house?"
"A house," Tyrone confirmed. "With a massive basement. Concrete foundation. Something we can reinforce."
"I can get one of those, we have all sorts of real estate properties lying around. I'll just tell my mom & step-dad I want one to hang out with friends or something," Tandy explained and Tyrone nodded, holding up another finger.
"The basement gets split. One side is a training room, durable materials, shock absorption, room for you to throw light constructs without collapsing the building."
Her smile widened.
"The other side becomes our main operating room. Servers. Monitors. Secure power source. Independent network. No cloud connections."
He started warming up now, words flowing faster.
"I'll need high-end computer parts. GPUs, processors, cooling systems. We build everything offline first, then add layers of isolation. I want to make sure no one, not CADMUS, not any other organizations can trace us."
Tandy leaned forward on her elbows, eyes shining.
"This is amazing," she breathed, reaching across the Table and grabbing Tyrone's hand, squeezing it firmly.
"We'll figure it out," she said. "Together."
He squeezed back.
Tandy straightened, practically vibrating with excitement now.
"We're going to be the best hero pair in the world," she declared. "Better than anything anyone ever imagined. Better than anyone expects."
Shadows stirred at Tyrone's feet—not threatening, not violent.
Just ready.
He looked at her, really looked at her, and for the first time since everything had gone wrong in his life, the future didn't feel like a void.
"…Yeah," he said softly. "We are."