9th Sighting
Fair Game
The text startles her, but not because she doesn't recognize the number (she never does when it's him-that's how she knows) but because it's blatant and to the point.
Stop.
She hesitates, flexing her fingers in the gloves and roaming her tongue around her mouth. If Rabbit was telling her flat out…
They had texted before.
Usually short, quick snippets here and there. She found out that he knew nearly every hero patrol route, and Eraserhead's preferred brand of coffee (that was a great Christmas gift, and the extra three points on her final agreed). Or it was her asking him something trivial and questionable she didn't feel like she could get away with asking a teacher.
She scrolled back through the texts, unsure if he's ever just texted her out of the blue like this.
Have you killed anyone?
-10:43PM
No comment
-11:08
What's the most illegal thing you've done?
-11:09PM
Depends on who you ask
-12:01AM
How quickly can you hide a body?
Wait-no-how do you hide a body?
-1:13PM
Chicken wire, rocks, river. In that order.
WAIT NO STOP THAT'S MY JOB!
FROPPY
FROPPY!
-1:15PM
I didn't…
-1:20PM
Oh good. I don't need a hero getting charged with murder
-1:24PM
Yet.
-11:09 PM 1/13/XX
Stop.
-5:52PM 2/1/XX
She paged back down through her texts, pursing her lips at that last one. Alright so Mineta got on her nerves. Wasn't her fault he was a pervert.
But he'd never texted her like this.
What?
-5:54PM
Just stop. Go back.
-5:54PM
She hesitated, glancing down the street and then up to the rooftops. She didn't see anything, but that didn't really mean anything in this district.
She reached out, running her fingers over the concrete side of the building.
Technically she still operating under the internship license with Selkie. And technically the warehouse district was definitely in her normal hero route.
Which meant that she should definitely patrol it.
Rabbit… I'm on patrol.
-5:55PM
Don't be on patrol. Be on break. Anywhere but here.
-5:55PM
The reply is instantaneous, and it startles her. She hesitates, drums her fingers on her thigh before continuing to creep up the wall.
Because even if she does somewhat trust him and listen. He's still a villain. And she's still a hero.
Even if they text each other semi-regularly and she's asked him for answers to her chemistry homework because Momo was busy.
That had been a whole debacle getting the girls to ignore that phone call.
She scales the building, fingertips sticking neatly to the side of the concrete as she hauls her weight up. It's an exercise, but one that's she's trained for. She peeks around the edge of the building, into the alley. There's nothing of note in it.
Empty trashcans, piles of garbage-most of which are obstructing the building doors. Graffiti coats the brick walls, and there's no hope of telling what the original color might have been between time, moss/mold, and spray-painted insignia.
She turns her eyes back to the wall.
The roof greets her, empty and open.
Her phone buzzes again.
Froppy.
-6:01PM
She chooses pointedly not to respond to that on, leaving him on read.
She strolls across the rooftop, peering this way and that for a time before settling on the corner, crouching down to watch.
The alley was quiet, calm even, and she couldn't puzzle out any real reason Rabbit wouldn't want her to be here.
Froppy. I said stop.
-6:05PM
Please. I NEED this to go well.
-6:05PM
I CAN SEE YOU READING THIS TEXT! JUST RESPOND!
-6:06PM
See me?
And she looks up, peers across the rooftops because he obviously wasn't tucked down in the alley and he definitely couldn't have been on the ground anywhere else and seen her. Which leaves the rooftops.
And behind her.
The crunch of gravel is what alerts her, but there's not an attack that accompanies the sound, only a frustrated huff.
She turns, expects to find him in anything but the formal wear he's in. White button up shirt, collar clean and stiff against his neck, and offset with a black vest and red tie. He has a black laptop tucked under his arm, a coffee in his other hand, dark leather gloves curling around the cardboard cup.
"Really?" He cocks an eyebrow at her, glancing one way and then the other. "No back-up, student internship, and you don't listen to me?" He huffs and squats down, balancing the computer on his knees while he sips his drink.
She hesitates, glances back down in the alley before walking over.
He's relaxed. Casual even as he flips open his laptop and stares tabbing over something with the touchpad. He glances at her, then his fingers rush to the keyboard, fast and smooth.
"What's this about-Ribbit?" She asks, stopping a pace away.
He hesitates, but only for the amount of time it takes to drink another sip of his coffee. He meets her gaze, and it occurs to her that she's never seen him sleep deprived, and that without a doubt, this is what he is.
She glances at the coffee.
"You really don't need to be here. Literally anywhere but here." He says, setting the cup down and typing away again.
"Any reason-Ribbit?"
"Business." He replies.
She hesitates, shuffling slightly as she looks at him.
They had agreed.
Agreed that if they met in the field, then they wouldn't pull punches. They're go at each other like a real Hero and a real Villain. And yet. Here they were, chatting awkwardly on a rooftop while she fished for info and he stalled.
She swallows, flexing her tongue briefly before letting it slip from her mouth.
"Froppy." He warns, snapping the laptop closed and setting it to the side- away from the coffee. "Please. You know I don't want to do this."
"Don't taze me and I'll still text you-Ribbit." She replies. "And don't stalk my friend."
At that he blushes, and she's reminded that he's literally her age. But the red fades quickly as he stands, cracking his neck again before tugging the gloves tight.
"You sure?" He asks, taking a step forward, and with that single step she finds herself level with his chest.
She glances up at him, at the fierce emerald eyes peering down at her. Uncertain and scared.
"We still have roles to play-Ribbit." She replies, jumping back to the other side of the roof.
And it's the signal, the real start as he dances back, hands going to his pockets to produce- not a tazer- but a condensed stick that uncoils into a pole in his hands. He rotates it, then settles into a stance.
He tilts his head, tabbing what's no doubt an earpiece. "Finch," He grumbles into the comm. "I've run into a holdup, handle the deal. I'll handle the hero." A pause. "Wrap it up quick. Froppy's here. That means Selkie isn't too far away."
She isn't going to ask how he knows who her interning hero was. He probably has informants in that area too.
She rushes him, lept forward with a single powerful bound as she lashed her tongue out at his feet.
Rabbit dances away, skating backwards with a sweep of the pole. That sweep is purely defensive, forcing her to deflect her tongue and cut her own hop short. Another bound as she attacks him with more than just the frog-like appendage.
Rabbit yelps, either unprepared or unwilling to fend off her fists with the staff. He jerks, awkward for just a beat before he finds his footing again and slaps her left hand out wide.
That's her moment.
And her tongue snares the limb, coiling around it and pulling him forward.
He stumbles, and she's on him. Literally. She jumps on top of his back, forcing him to the ground under her weight and pinning him.
He chuckles, and she doesn't reply as she looses the handcuffs from her-
A pause.
She's missing her handcuffs.
Correction.
She's missing her belt. And all the other itmes that go in it.
She turned them in to Selkie before going home.
"You would be willing to just sit there… would you-Ribbit?" She asks after a moment.
"Get me coffee and I'll consider." He replies good-naturedly, despite the sudden flex in his back, the coiling of muscles as he prepares to throw her off.
She pulls out her phone, rattling off a text as she feels him flex, knees curling under his body.
Selkie. Help. Rabbit. 7th Street Alley. Need handcu-
And she barely manages to hit send before Rabbit bucks her off, sending her toppling to the rooftop. She scrambles away, back to her feet. Rabbit doesn't advance, and instead jumps to his feet.
And it's all athletic grace and muscle as he rolls forward-back to his feet in one fluid motion.
"You practiced that-Ribbit." She accuses, and while he doesn't answer, the red that rushes up the back of his neck and to his cheeks tells her she's right.
He instead dusts himself off, tugs his gloves tight again and smiles at her.
It's like a deadly weapon.
It's like a smirk.
She whips back around, first to look at his laptop, which is still there, and then to the alley.
Nothing.
But…
And that's when she notices the trash has been moved.
And that's also when a boot smashes into her side, sending her tumbling from the rooftop to a four story fall.
She flinches with the pain, but instincts preserve her as she slaps her hand against the side of the roof. It sticks, kind of, and the rest of her body swings into the dirty brick as her fall breaks and her quirk holds her.
She lets out a heavy breath, blinking a few times as she looks to the opposite wall.
She's been duped.
Rabbit had delayed her long enough for either his deal to close or start.
And now she'd either be walking into a meeting full of thugs and villains, or an empty room because she'd missed her shot.
She curls a fist and bangs it into the wall.
"Damn-Ribbit." She grumbles.
"Glad you didn't turn into a frog pancake." Rabbit calls from above her.
She sighs, looking up to see him leaning over the edge, only his eyes and the dark green poof of his head visible. Smart. He was wary of her tongue.
"Looks like you won this round." She mutters.
And he laughs, but it's humorless and dry. "Not sure if that's a good or a bad thing Froppy." He replies. "If you wait a couple minutes, I can give you a sketch."
"Or you could sketch in the back of a squad car." She quips back.
"Unfortunately, this deal has booked my schedule solid for the next little bit. So, I don't think I'll have time for a prison date."
"Pity." She responds, finally convincing herself she needed to get back up there and at least attempt to stop him.
Loosing a fight to a friend is one thing. Loosing a fight to a friend like Rabbit is another entirely. She has a feeling he'd tease her endlessly if he gets away without a hitch.
One hand after another, she palms her way up the side of the building, hauling herself over the edge just as he picks up his coffee cup.
He smiles at her, emerald eyes flashing in the fading light.
"Text me for math help if you need it." He winks at her, tucking his laptop securely under his arm.
"Wait!" She hisses, leaping forward and throwing out her tongue.
And it must have caught him by surprise, because he flinches, ducking down.
At her tongue slaps his face, coiling around his head and leaving her blinking rapidly at the taste of his hair on her tongue and him staring at her blankly through the appendage.
It's awkward.
It's really awkward because she can feel his lips squirming back and forth under her tongue.
"So." And his voice rumbles over her tongue and she really wishes she hadn't bothered to try anything. "Is this you flirting or…"
She rips her tongue off him, coiling it back into her mouth with a snap and a glare. "Rabbit- Ribbit." And her tone is an icy warning.
He smiles and winks. "I know you like another." He replies. "My heart's somewhere else as well," and he backsteps off the side of the building, 100% casual.
"Rabbit!" She yelps, leaping forward again, pawing the edge of the building as she slings her tongue out an-
It's all for nothing.
She recognizes the scarf that slings out of Rabbit's hands, though she's completely unsure where it came from. It wraps around a swing point, and he swings through the air, pulling it free with a snap of his wrist and lashing it out to the next point of contact with the same ease Eraserhead does.
She drops down onto the rooftop, dropping her head into her hands and groaning at her own reaction.
Of all the stupid things to happen.
It was just a stupid tongue. And if she's supposed to be a hero, she needs to get over things like that happening. There was no telling where else it might take place in the field.
Selkie finds her like that, give of take in the same position, but she's found what she's starting to think is Rabbit's calling card. Although this time, instead of a sketch it's an index card, neat tidy handwritten in dark blue in all over it.
"Froppy?" Selkie asks, "Where's the Rabbit? Are you alright?"
She huffs, standing from the edge and walking over. "Fine-Ribbit." She assures. "He got away." And she extends the card to him.
He takes it, flipping it over in his hands for a moment before regarding it.
'Did a bit more research on your quirk Froppy. Depending on how deep and how much training you're taking on the 'frog-like' abilities, that includes a wide array of abilities. For your purposes, and underwater advantages, I'd suggest looking into some frog's natural camouflage abilities to try and blend in.
Just a thought.
-Rabbit
"Advice?" Selkie asks in his gruff voice. And Froppy shrugs and sighs.
He shakes his head, turning the card over once more in his hands. "I'll send it in to forensics and see if they can pull anything from it." She doubts it. With how careful he is and those gloves. She doubts he'd slip up just to hand her a note.
[Froppy had access to Rabbit back then? Why didn't this show up in our initial report? Furthermore, where did this report come from?]
(That's my fault. Selkie had her file one, and I didn't need her getting in trouble. I released it back to you once I hit protective services- Rabbit)
[…So you're telling us you can alter our files anytime you like.]
(That's exactly what I'm telling you. But you know I'd never do anything too devious.)
[What other reports have you hidden from us?]
(Some.)