Rule #15b: Have faith and trust in your allies to get the job done
It was odd being at the Heroics Bureau of Investigation so early in the morning. The agency buzzed even in the early hours and it still dumbfounded Toru to see so many happy, smiling morning people wandering about the place like it was completely normal. Toru half expected people to be walking around in their pyjamas as she would've like to. Of course, the passed few weeks had been rather odd too, filled with a combination of regular school days and Work Studies days at the agency doing a variety of things. From cleaning the storage room in the basement to hours spent training in the simulator, there was reports to be written and sketchy people to investigate never leaving them to a dull moment for too long.
Toru absently nodded along to whatever it was that Minho was excitedly blabbering on about with wild hand gestures as she spooned miscellaneous shapes of soggy cereal into her mouth and thought on the oddity of seeing each other outside of their hero costumes. Where Ketsubutsu's uniform consisted of a simple grey polo t-shirt, dark pants and a vivid blue fleece jacket that sort of slouched around the form; UA's uniform could be considered far more elaborate. With so many different combinations (likely owing to the various body types & Quirks of the students) it was no wonder that it appeared to be a step up from the comfortable uniform of Ketsubutsu.
Which isn't to say UA's uniform wasn't comfortable—it was!—but sometimes Toru felt like there was too many options. For example, today—as she did most days—she was adorned in a slightly rumpled white short-sleeve blouse, pleated green skirt (which she swore was never quite long enough), blood red tie and grey vest accented with green epaulettes. The only upside was that their dress code wasn't as intensely forced as her junior high's had been, if only because there was so many options to choose from.
It's like seeing teachers outside of school or actors outside of their characters. Toru mused around her spoon as the pair loitered around Snipe's desk. The pair of teenagers were waiting for the hero to be done with whichever early morning meeting he had that day with the ever mysterious Director, before they could hand in their latest reports (after rewriting them to a better standard) and headed off to school. Shindo's first report had been good enough that he hadn't had to rewrite it before handing it in; something which he held no qualms about lording over them the day before and so he hadn't needed to be there.
At least that had been the idea until Stitch strode from the elevator like a man wearing the weight of the world on his shoulders with an active police scanner clenched in his fist and Lopez at his side baring a grim expression, which seemed out of place for the tech. She usually was such a bubbly person, open and outgoing as if not even the most gruesome of cases could bring her down."Sir?" Minho quietened as the pair approached. "What's going on?"
["…Be advised, we have a shooting or something going on in Hosu city…"]
"There's an active villain in a hotel in Hosu—" Stitch replied grimly as he placed the scanner atop his colleague's desk, next to the array of succulents. At that, those nearby gathered close so that they could hear what was going on and to find out what their next course of action would be.
["…Requesting additional units, dispatch…"]
"Oh—!" Toru gasped quietly, hand over mouth as she listened to the voices crackle out cold information clear and precise. Next to her, Minho had paled significantly until he looked more like the noodle he was often referred to.
"—Multiple casualties. ESU is on route and nearby heroes are responding to the scene right now"
["…We have people reporting six or seven shots fired…"]
["…Numerous civilians coming this way…"]
["Yano, 5545, show me going…"]
["5545, I have you going"]
["Coda, 3813, show me going"]
["3813, I have you going"]
"What—what're they saying?" Toru puzzled, unfamiliar with the code that they were using.
"Show me going' and their badge number" Rin replied softly. It was odd seeing the resident genius so still. "They're telling dispatch that they're close by and that they're responding"
["…2976, show me going"]
["2976, I have you going"]
["Kage, 9042, show me going"]
["9042, I have you going"]
"Kage?" Lopez's head jerked up at that with a look of concern and worry that was mirrored in the eyes of everyone else. "As in ms mysterious, unpredictably badass Kage?"
"That's her badge number" Rin nodded solemnly, "Kage's there"
Time seemed to blur after that. One moment, they were all clustered around Snipe's desk waiting to hand in their reports and the next, the entire HBI (or at least the twenty or so people that were there that morning) were stuffed inside one of the larger conference rooms with Snipe and Alpha standing at the front of the room, both looking as solemn as each other. "…So there's limited information about the situation in Hosu. But I did manage to speak to a captain in the M06, who offered an update" Said Snipe as Alpha sheathed and unsheathed his claws in poorly concealed agitation.
"Do we know how many villains?" Shin worried her hands around and around her lanyard.
"Two possibly three" Alpha supplied.
"Again, the situation is still developin', but as of now there are three dead and multiple wounded. All civilians" Snipe continued. Toru let a breath hiss out from between her teeth in relief at that and then felt instantly guilty. She was glad that Kage was still okay, but then again there were all those lives that had just been snuffed out because some dickhead had snapped for some reason or another.
"So we're going up there, right?" Minho pushed himself off of the wall he had been leaning against. "To help Kage?"
"ESU is already on the scene and the M06 has locked down the area" The Pro refuted even though it obviously pained him to do so. "It's a zoo. They want us to remain on alert, but not to respond"
"Yeah, but that's, like, just a suggestion, right? Like how they tell you to drink eight cups of water a month"
"A day" Shin amended, sending a concerned look towards the rubbery teen. A feeling that Toru shared, especially at his reply.
"Ma'am, c'me on, this is no time for jokes" Minho looked at her like she had her head screwed on backwards.
"It wasn't a suggestion, Minho" Snipe replied to the earlier question. "We've been ordered to go about our business as per usual—"
"—But—!"
"—I know you're all concerned about Kage, but she's not going in alone. She's part of a massive hero and police response force"
"And it's Kage, right?" Toru spoke up hesitantly. "I—I mean, she's badass! She's the toughest out of all of us—no offence!"
"No, that's accurate" Alpha agreed.
"Very fair" Stitch nodded, yarn hair bobbing at the motion.
"I could take her" Minho stubbornly murmured as he crossed his arms and pouted like a child. He received several odd glances at that remark. "What? I'm wily!"
"So what? You're rubber and she's glue?" Toru joked lightly, nudging the elder teen in the side.
"Shaddup!"
"…I promise y'all, I will y'all updated if I learn anything" Snipe drew the spotlight back to him with a clear of his throat. "In the meantime, y'all have jobs to do and school to get to. Dismissed"
"Don't worry kits, she'll be okay" Alpha caught the pair of worried teens as they were headed out the door with hands clenched around bag straps and curled inside sleeves. The rest of those gathered easily filtered out into the hall and made their way back to their desks with a heavy air that seemed to settle across the agency like a heavy blanket.
"We know" Toru replied softly; although the white-knuckled grip she had on her bag said otherwise.
"Are you done trying to coddle us?!" Minho suddenly snapped, going from zero to sixty at the drop of a hat.
"What'd you say, kit?" Alpha hissed.
"Sorry—sorry" Minho easily backed down, ducking his head in shame. "I'm kinda freaking out, I guess…"
"Look kit, I'm worried too, but spiralling isn't gonna help anybody" Alpha sighed, running a paw through his fur. "We can't go up there, so the best thing to do is try not to think about, alright?"
"Alright"
"Alright?" The feline turned to Toru.
"Yessir" She nodded.
"But how're we s'posed to do that?" Minho despaired.
"It's called compartmentalising and not to brag, but you get pretty good at it when you have to hide shady stuff from your parents" Both males sent her concerned looks as she explained. "Like, 'Hey, don't play with my opaque marbles! What do you mean they look like bullets? That's insane! Anyways, off to school!"
"Yeah? Well, I can't do that! I dwell on everything! I'm a dweller!" Minho stressed with finger knotted into his hair. "I wake up every morning and worry about the Xero virus—like, why is no one talking about Xero anymore?! There's no way it's already fixed—!"
"—Okay! Okay!" Alpha unknotted Minho's fingers from his hair before he pulled it out from the roots and held his hands between his own furry paws. "Putting that aside—look, you both need to ignore what's going on and focus on your schoolwork today, alright? Can you do that, kits?"
"…Yessir, we'll try"
School was a tense affair, at least on Toru's end. She'd spent most of the day practically huddled over her phone and just waiting for the other shoe to drop. She was well aware that a few of her peers had picked up on her change in attitude; Bakugou certainly had as he—backed by Kirishima—had cornered her on the way back to the locker rooms after hero class to inquire as to what was going on. Not that that was hard to see; for most of the day she had been unconsciously flickering between invisible and translucent as her thoughts ran wild with all of the dark and grim possibilities. From their intense questions however, Toru easily pieced together that they thought she was being shifty again, and apparently that meant she was once again involved with the Yakuza, despite her protests otherwise. The only saving grace was that the blonde hadn't decreed so in front of their peers where everybody could hear. When she finally did admit to being worried about one of her mentors, her peers backed off with Kirishima offering his condolences and support as he dragged Bakugou behind him by the ear.
Despite Alpha's wishes to ignore what was going on and their weak promises to do so, Toru couldn't help but obsess over each and every update that came through both the official news sites and the Work Studies group chat the three of them had set up at one point. Even as she took out her frustrations on the punching bag in front of her (leaving a litter of handprints burnt into the plastic covering of the bag), she could still hear whenever her phoned chirped or buzzed with a new message.
THE AWESOMEST AGENTS OF HBI!
NOODLES HAS JOINED THE GROUP CHAT
NOODLES: How's everyone holding up?
LIGHTBULB HAS JOINED THE GROUP CHAT
LIGHTBULB: Mates are already suspicious.
I keep flickering.
MOVERS 'N SHAKERS HAS JOINED THE GROUP CHAT
MOVERS 'N SHAKERS: So much for a stealth hero!
LIGHTBULB: Like you're Mr Pristine?
MOVERS 'N SHAKERS: :P
NOODLES: When you children are done
LIGHTBULB: Yes Mr Noodles, sir?
NOODLES: Bite me
MOVERS 'N SHAKERS: No thanks
LIGHTBULB: Maybe later.
Any updates?
NOODLES: I keep refreshing the page, but there's no news.
WHY IS THERE NO NEWS?!
LIGHTBULB: Compartmentalise, remember? Try &
think happy thoughts!
Like the ALL MIGHT musical!
NOODLES: C'me on! You know they shut that down!
The Health board said there was too much pyrotechnics
on the stage!
MOVERS 'N SHAKERS: Yeah, that's probably for the best.
Now what?
LIGHTBULB: Well, then what do you suggest, smart guy?
NOODLES: Don't cops have to wear body cams?
LIGHTBULB: So…?
NOODLES: So hack into it! Do that computer thingy thing you
do and show us how she is!
LIGHTBULB: You know I'm not an expert at this kinda
thing, right?
Why don't you ask Lopez?
NOODLES: I already did.
MOVERS 'N SHAKERS: He already did.
LIGHTBULB: Oh, so what? I'm your second choice?
Thanks.
Real confidence booster that.
MOVERS 'N SHAKERS: We didn't mean it like that
LIGHTBULB: Certainly sounded like it.
MOVERS 'N SHAKERS: Look, we're sorry.
Can we please focus?
NOODLES: UPDATE! UPDATE!
LIGHTBULB: Well, go on then! Spit it out!
NOODLES: SHOTS FIRED! SHOTS FIRED!
LIGHTBULB: WHAT?!
MOVERS 'N SHAKERS: Was anybody hurt?
NOODLES: Doesn't say.
LIGHTBULB: Fat lot of good you are!
NOODLES: Hey!
MOVERS 'N SHAKERS: Children! Children!
LIGHTBULB: Sorry.
Just worried.
NOODLES: Me too.
Practically chewed off my nails
LIGHTBULB: Ew
NOODLES: I'M WEARING BANDAIDS!
MOVERS 'N SHAKERS: Look, why don't we all meet up at
the HBI after school?
See if Lopez can get into Kage's body cam like you wanted?
LIGHTBULB: Can we?
MOVERS 'N SHAKERS: I'll bring takeout
NOODLES: Sounds good
LIGHTBULB: See you then
LIGHTBULB HAS LEFT THE GROUP CHAT
The HBI was just as hectic and tense as it was when the teens had left that morning. The air was thick with tension and people went about their day like they were waiting for the other shoe to drop, which they were, but then again it's not like the trio of teens were doing any better. Toru was still flickering even as they strode through the agency in search of a certain techie, to the point where she was almost consistently outlined in violet and the boys had donned sunglasses to combat thus. In turn, Minho's fingers were adorned in a variety of multicoloured superhero-themed bandaids as he had mentioned earlier from all of the nervous fingernail biting, and Shindo's white-knuckled grip on his share of the stacked takeout boxes in his hands, with thinned lips portrayed his own fears and concerns.
"Welcome to the home of unrecognised talent" Lopez swivelled her chair around, taking her eyes away from the screens in front of her. Toru would bet anything that she'd spent most—if not all—of the day staring at the screens for any little clues as to what was going on with Kage."How may I be of service?"
"Hey, we bought takeout" Minho gestured with the stack of boxes in his hands as Toru propped open the door to Lopez's office and the three teens filled the doorway. "Figured you probably hadn't eaten much today"
"This isn't a social visit, is it?"
"Look, I know you said you couldn't get into Kage's body cam before, but aren't you also s'posed to be, like, the best hacker in generations!"
"Please, Lopez!" Shindo pleaded, his voice unnaturally soft as he chewed at his lower lip.
"We just wanna know that she's okay" Toru ended as she stepped fully into the room after the two elder boys.
Lopez slumped back in her chair as her gaze roved across the three harried and rumpled forms of the worried teenagers before her. They had played their cards well, bribing first with food and then with compliments and even Lopez couldn't deny that she was obnoxiously worried about her friend. "…Flattery will get you everywhere, chickadees" Lopez eventually sighed, placing the offered takeout to the side for later before turning back to her ever faithful computers.
"Thank you" Minho breathed as Lopez's fingers flew across the keyboards and she worked her magic.
The seconds seemed to drag by even though Toru knew that in reality, it hadn't taken very long for Lopez to work her magic. Between this breath and the next, the mossy-haired woman was able to bring up the shaky footage of Kage's state-issued body camera for all to see. Kage appeared to be in some kind of dimly-lit hallway—possibly one of the sub-levels of the chosen Hosu hotel—and standing off against four uniformed and armed goons. A particularly shiny electrical uni attached to the wall, featured the reflection of Kage dressed in a skin-tight leather combat suit, bullet proof vest, a black hood and a chainmail mask, which when placed all together gave off the air of a warrior nun.
"Oh! My girl—!" Lopez gasped upon seeing the four goons stretched out before her.
"Don't worry" Toru muttered as worry gnawed at her gut and her hands lay tightly interwoven with the boys on either side of her. "It's Kage. She's badass—she'll be fine, r-right?"
"Y-yeah" Minho nodded shakily, but his eyes remained glued to the screens. Shindo was quiet but Toru felt him squeeze her hand just as tightly as she. It didn't take long for the first goon to charge with electrified baton raised and Toru was granted to an odd out-of-body feeling as they watched Kage easily dismantle the four men.
Misdirection led to the use of their own weapons against them, bones were broken and consciousnesses were lost as Kage flowed between them. The enemy was used as meat shields and battering rams, until they all lay about the dimly lit hallway in various piles of groaning mess. Kage's moves were swift and accurate, never once not hitting where she did not mean to. Watching her fight, Toru was hit with the sudden realisation that the elder woman had been going easy on them during their training sessions and that thought was far more terrifying than watching grown men get tossed around like marbles in a tin can.
The audio from the footage was weak at best, even with Lopez's attempts at cleaning it up some, making it hard for the watchers to hear what was going on outside of the close combat fighting. At least that was until the next scene, which they heard loud and clear as Kage stalked down the hallway with extended staff clenched tightly in her hand as she stepped over the fallen bodies. It was only once she had turned the corner did something make her stop.
Toru tightened her clammy grip on Minho and Shindo when the person hidden behind the corner was revealed to be a fifth man with a firearm aimed directly at them, or rather, at Kage's chest. Like a scared child, Toru spared a glance towards the two elder boys hoping to find some kind of comfort or reassurance in them, but alas. Where Minho had paled considerably to the point where he was visibly ashen-faced and shaken, Shindo stood ram-rod straight and his shoulders shook with minute tremors that he seemed to be trying to either hide or suppress. Whatever she was looking for, Toru did not find it in either of them and so turned back to the screens in the hopes that Kage would be able to hear their manic prayers.
["I'll shoot"] The gun shook in the man's hand, alongside his voice. Clearly he had witnessed what had just happened to his peers and was afraid of what would happen to him since he was clearly out-skilled. They had the numbers and yet they still lost. ["Don't think I won't"]
["Why would I doubt?"] Kage quirked a brow in question as she cocked her staff. On some unseen signal, the two engaged in battle. The gun fire repeatedly and rapidly as Kage swung her staff with ease, knocking both bullet and barrel away from her person until she was able to catch the man off-guard with a knock to the stomach and a whack to the head. ["I'm not an idiot"]
Suddenly, for whatever reason, the live feed from the body camera cut off and returned the HBI screens back to their original desktops. "Wha—where's the rest of it?" Shindo demanded, eyes rapidly searching for some kind of answer.
"That's it!" Lopez replied as her fingers flew back and forth across her keyboard in an effort to bring the body camera back online. "It—it just cut out!"
"It's a body camera, right?" Toru panicked. "So—so, does that mean…?"
"N-no—no, surely—surely not" Minho refuted, resolutely shaking his head as they all refused to believe that something terrible had happened before their eyes.
"But—"
"—Lopez!" Rin suddenly burst through the door, flinging it open and making them all jump when it slammed against the back wall.
"Rin?" Lopez turned her watery gaze over to the resident genius who stood hunched over with his hands on his knees as he panted like a dog. "What's going on?"
"I got…an update…on Kage!"
"Well? Don't keep us hanging!"
"They—they just took the villains into custody!" Rin finally stood upright once he regained his breath. "Officers got injured in the action"
"Did they say how many?" Minho more or less demanded.
"No" Rin shook his head.
"Call Kage!" Lopez perked up, "Get her cell!"
"We already tried that, straight to voicemail. But Snipe's on the line with one of the M06 officers at the moment! C'me on! If we're lucky, they'll be able to tell us something!"
The rush back to the main floor space was all for naught in the end, as everyone still had to wait for Alpha to be finished with the call. Those twenty minutes were probably the longest in Toru's life. In those short few minutes she was able to force down a few bites of the now cold takeout despite her nerves and burn a track of pacing footprints into the linoleum floor as she waited with bated breath.
Minho (whose leg had been irritably bouncing up and down) seemed to have reached his limit with her pacing and snatched her from the ground before plopping her into his lap and wrapping his arms around her. No words were exchanged, although Shindo did spare a thankful glance towards the rubbery boy and Toru soon figured out that they were fed up with her persistent mutters as well as her pacing. She slumped back against Minho's chest like a petulant child and listened to his heartbeat as she waited out the remaining minutes tucked beneath his chin.
"Okay, I don't have the names of the injured officers" Snipe began, catching the attention of everyone present. Even Aldo, the janitor seemed curious. "But if Kage is unharmed then she should be contacting us shortly"
"Or if her phone is dead, perhaps she'll be walking off the elevator at any moment" Stitch added after a beat. The ding of the elevator arriving on their floor seemed to appear as if summoned, but the person that got off was not the one they wanted. When Shin hopped off of the elevator with a collection of papers in her hand, she was met with a serious of collective groans that echoed across the floor, much to her confusion.
"C'me on, Shin!" Called one.
"You can't be doing that, bunny girl!" Called another
"I was just making copies downstairs!" Shin defended herself, voice rising as her leporidae ears twitched in irritation.
"Yeah, well, next time: think!" Rin defended weakly.
"About what, exactly?"
"I DON'T KNOW!" Rin panicked, hands gesturing wildly.
"Okay, Rin" Shin mothered him.
"C'me on, man, go easy on 'er" Kage called out as she entered from the back of the room, where the stairwell lay.
"Kage!" Alpha beamed as everyone turned as one to face their unusually sombre friend and colleague. A few others called out their greetings and reliefs from around the room at the safe return of the woman.
"You're back!"
"You're okay!"
"Kage!" Lopez breathed, hand over heart. "Where'd you come from?"
"I like walking, so I took the stairs" Kage shrugged, hands shoved into the pockets of her jacket. "Also, I thought it'd be funny to mess with you guys"
"Kage, you know I hate pranks!"
"You love pranks"
"I do, I really, really do" Lopez rushed forward and pulled Kage into a tight hug. "You did so good!"
"Were you guys worried about me or something?" Kage mused aloud as she returned the hug to the best of her abilities.
"Who? Us?" Rin laughed half-heartedly. Kage smiled knowingly at his response anyway. "N-no way"
"So what happened?" Minho fired rapid questions at the woman still glued in to Lopez's hug. Toru felt like her relief had flooded through her as soon as Kage had stepped onto the floor & declared herself like the badass she was. "Did they shoot at you? Were you in the thick of it?
"…It's been a really tough day, I just wanna get a beer" Kage sighed, finally extracting herself from Lopez's arms only to be replaced by Rin's just as clingy ones. "I don't feel like getting into it"
"Are you sure? Because the journey I went on today, taught me that sometimes it's best to talk about—"
"—Minho!"
"Right, it was a stupid idea and Shindo told me to say it, so…" Minho quickly backpedalled and ignored both Toru's muffled snort and Shindo's baffled look of betrayal. Toru sunk back into Minho's (now loose) grip and continued to cling tightly to Shindo's hand that she had reclaimed hold of at some point. The invisible teen was sure that they looked like a weird family portrait, but couldn't find it in herself to care.
"Let's go get a drink" Snipe clapped Kage on her shoulder as Rin finally detached from the woman.
"And sit in total silence!" Stitch chuckled softly.
"Perfect" Kage smiled and the tense blanket that had encompassed the floor dissipated like it had never been there at all.