A/N: This a prequel to series I have posted on AO3. I can't post it here due to 's guidelines. I have the same username there as well if you wanna read. It's intended for mature audiences only.
Uravity likes gum when she is paid to promote it; which hasn't quite happened yet.
Ochako likes gum because it is cheap and she can chew on it and feel less hungry. She particularly likes gum that holds its flavor for a bit as she ignores hunger pangs. She gets free food at her agency, but in the evenings, more often than not, she prefers to save money where she can. She isn't making a whole lot as a sidekick. Not yet. And she needs to pay rent.
Food is an expense she can manage.
That being said, she is picky when she buys gum. She has brands she prefers. She is actually kind of a snob about it. Gum is so cheap she can afford to be.
So when her favorite brand Yum launches a limited edition run of unique flavors inspired by the top 100 proheros complete with collectable cards, she naturally falls into collecting them. Her favorite flavor, so far, is Gunhead's; it is vanilla mint with crunchy bits of spiced vanilla sprinkled in. She'd even has him sign her card one day before heading home from work.
So that's how she finds herself perusing the Yum gum section of the convenience store around the corner from her apartment with absurd intensity. She already has Endeavor's (cinnamon and cayenne), Mirko's (coconut and nutmeg) and 13's (black licorice with poppy seeds). She grabs an All Might for Deku (strawberry, blueberry and vanilla), but frowns. She can't see a new one.
Ah! Success!
Jammed behind a Present Mic (lemon saffron) are two RyuKyu (red dragon fruit with black pepper).
She sighs happily. She only needs one, and leaves the other. She also snagged one fashioned after Midnight (passionfruit and blackberry with silver sprinkles).
She blinks in surprise when a very pale hand reaches into her line of vision to grab the other Ryukyu.
Ochako turns to find a woman standing beside her. She needs to work on her situational awareness. "Gomenasai!" She blurts, before her tongue goes thick and clumsy in her mouth.
The woman is beautiful. (Maybe a little hot.)
Hmmm.
She appears to be in her fifties and has long translucent hair. Her eyes instead of being white are clear like her hair with her pupils a dark red. Her skin is extremely pale and only semi opaque so Ochako can see some of her surface veins and arteries. Her nails are long and tapper into a narrow, rounded tip.
She is being silly getting worked up over exotic colors and red lips.
Hmmm. Maybe Tsu is right? Maybe she is bicurious? She's been updating her boy love manga collection and some of the girl love titles seem intriguing.
The woman smiles at her in a way that instantly puts her at ease. "It's no problem Dearie. Are you collecting these as well?"
Ochako nods shyly. She feels weirdly timid in front of this charming beautiful woman.
Hmmm.
The woman laughs. "It's fun, neh?" Her laugh is like the fizz in champagne.
"Yea. I'm workin ' on gettin' mine signed." Even as a sidekick, Ochako has better access to proheros than most.
"Oh?" The woman tilts her head and holds one slender figure to her brightly painted lips which she's colored a bright siren red. "Are you an up and coming hero then?"
She can't stop herself from beaming.
Ochako is up, and coming for more. She is gonna make it.
She can taste it.
"Yea. I'm signed on at the Battle Hero Office with Gunhead-sensei." She isn't super well known yet and can't afford the fees for a personal image consultant. So it is necessary to self-promote; but she mostly just wants this striking woman to think she is worth her time.
The woman asks: "Does his flavor suit him?"
Ochako considers how cute he is and how sweet he's been to her.
He is good to her.
"Un! Totally! He's the cutest!" Perhaps she shouldn't be saying this about her boss to some uncommon civilian, but she figures it'll probably be fine.
The woman chuckles. The sound is dark and smooth like chocolate.
Hmmm.
"Cute, huh? I guess that explains why you signed on with him, ne?"
Ochako feels her cheeks flame and hopes she isn't as red as she feels. "Gunhead-sensei is very kind and an excellent mentor."
The woman nods decisively causing her long hair to sway. "He must be for you to speak of him so highly. Anyway, Dearie, I best be on my way; happy hunting. Ta!"
"Good-bye!" She waves her best Uravity wave affecting the peppy attitude that is her brand. "Thank you for your kind words!" After one last admiring look-
Hmmm.
She turns back to the gum. Maybe she can find a flavor Tsu would like. She hadn't gone for the one modeled after Uwabami (red velvet with crushed tarragon leaves).
"Miss! Stop! You have to pay for that!"
Ochako instantly drops the gum in her hand and runs out of the store only to see the woman she's just been talking to, sprinting down the sidewalk. Ochako removes most of her gravity and launches herself after her. It seems like the only thing she has on her is the gum they were just talking about.
Who steals gum? She is broke and that still doesn't make sense to her.
It makes her a little sad too. (She would have bought her gum if she'd asked.)
The woman is quite fast. Faster than Ochako would have initially guessed, but it isn't too hard to keep her in sight with her unusual coloring.
That doesn't matter. The woman makes it across a train crossing right before the train arrives which wouldn't have been unmanageable, but then another locomotive also appears running parallel to the other train.
"Need a lift, Round Face?"
Trains sure are loudto mask Bakugou's approach. His palms are smoking so he's clearly just been using his quirk.
"I was pursuing a shoplifter, but then the train got in the way." It is a little embarrassing. She's read about him on the news. He is predictably making quite a name for himself. No one thought he'd be a sidekick for much longer.
He probably thinks a shoplifter is a waste of his time.
"Tch, I saw you run by as I was patrolling." He holds out his hand to her, "Hit me up; let's go get 'em."
She quickly complies and in seconds they are over the train and it is lucky they are so high because the woman has already covered seven blocks in the time since Ochako has last seen her. She points her out and that is all Bakugou needs to propel them at a frankly alarming speed. Their velocity isn't enough to stop her from reflecting that Bakugou has come a long way in terms of teamwork.
The woman must hear them coming. (How can she not?) She ducks into what looked to be an abandoned warehouse.
Bakugou and her land not one minute later. "Of course, it's a fucking warehouse."
Ochako swallows nervously. She doesn't think the woman is too dangerous, but they don't know who might be in there. "DynaMight maybe you should call in; we don't know what we're walking into."
He narrows his eyes. "I thought you said she was just a shitty shoplifter?"
She shrugs. "That's all I know currently. Besides that's procedure and you know it."
He curses, but taps his headset to activate his comms. "Oi, I'm at a shitty warehouse with Uravity. We're in pursuit of a shoplifter." His glare intensifies and he turns his gaze to her. "I'm gonna put you on speaker; they want a description. I barely saw the bitch."
"Uravity, please describe the suspect."
For a moment she tries to figure out why the operator sounds familiar, but she doesn't have time. But she resolves to keep up on her networking. "She is older. She has clear hair and skin. Her pupils are red, but the rest of her eye is clear too. Her nails are long and pointed with slightly rounded tips."
"Alright. No one with that description is popping up in our general database. You two have permission to proceed. I have your location noted if you need backup. Uravity, I'll be sending your incident paperwork to your office, out."
"Fuckin' finally! Let's go! If the fucking bitch is even still here."
Clearly deciding surprise is for losers, Bakugou blasts the door off its hinges. Ochako sighs, but quickly follows him.
The warehouse seems to have been some kind of factory at some point, but the thick layer of dust has her thinking it had been a while.
She's barely cleared the door when she feels something small and sharp bite into her neck.
"Ow!"
"What the fuck!"
"Well, aren't you a persistent little hero, Dearie? And I see you brought a friend. He seems a little rude. Hmmm."
Ochako squints at the shadowed area the woman is coming out from. She is finding it hard to move like she is trapped in molasses. She jerkily yanks the thing in her neck out. It is a dart. Shit. Her whole body is going numb. What had been in the dart?
"Fckn' btch . Wht th hll s ths?" Bakugou is as abrasive as ever, but his speech is less clear by half. Clearly he's been hit too.
"It's a paralytic, Dear . Only works for about an hour. Sometimes less."
The words seem to be a dark magic because suddenly her numb legs can no longer hold her up. And for some reason she can't activate her quirk to soften her fall so she falls rather harshly on her right cheek.
"Oh my! Are you trying to blow me up? How cute; it'll have to wait I'm afraid. It temporarily neutralizes quirks as well, you see." The woman is cooler than she thought if she can taunt Bakugou like that.
"Fck y hrd! " Of course, he won't take it quietly.
The woman is kneeling next to them and Ochako can barely see her mouth and how it curls up into a smirk. "You're not really my type, Dear. Hmmm, what to do with you two? I honestly hadn't expected such dogged pursuit over some gum."
Unease snakes down Ochako's spine. This woman may be more than a petty thief. This idea is confirmed when Bakugou's comms, still on speaker, burst to life. "DynaMight, Uravity report! Withdraw immediately! I repeat, withdraw!"
"Oh, they're a little busy at the moment, mmm. It'd be rude, oh yes, for them to leave before I get to have my fun."
There's a moment of silence. "Aiuchi reinforcements are on their way. Let them be."
The woman, Aiuchi, laughs. "Hmmm ? I suppose I won't kill them; they are just children after all."
What is she gonna do?
She hears Bakugou shout something, but his mouth is clearly not following his orders and it just comes out loud and angry without much meaning. So, you know, not too atypical.
Aiuchi rolls her over onto her back. "I guess I'll start with you Miss Uravity, was it? A cute name for a cute girl. The world can never have too many cute things. I know just what I'll do with you."
What is that hard glint in her eye? Why does it make her so scared?
The operator starts to say something, but Aiuchi just taps Bakugou's comms and the voice disappears. "That's better. I prefer to work in quiet."
Ochako watches as she pops a long finger into her mouth , hook it parallel to her cheek and then pull it out with a long string of saliva trailing behind it.
"That should be enough."
Enough for what?
Then Aiuchi drags up the hem of her shirt (what is she doing) and starts scratching (with her long, long, long nails) the skin of her stomach. Rapid strokes and quick lines of light sensation. No, no, not scratching, writing. It doesn't take her very long, probably only a minute or so, before she brings her finger back to her mouth.
Ochako hisses as the words that had been traced on her skin burn.
Aiuchi does something similar to Bakugou, but she writes out the words on his arm. "Wouldn't want you to feel left out, DynaMight; you seem like the kind of child to be jealous."
Aiuchi stands up and stretches before wiping her hand on her pants. "That should do it. I hate to run, but I fear needs must, My Dears. I'm sure they'll explain all about my quirk, but I have decided to show you some mercy." The way her mouth twitches on the word 'mercy' is unsettling. "The condition you're required to meet is in fact possible and I didn't even give you a deadline. I mean, you may still die due to cardiovascular strain or something, but you both seem industrious so you'll probably make it. Oh, and I even slipped in a little extra flavor." (And Aiuchi is using Uravity's wave, the one she'd just showed her, but it is not right.) "Ta!"
Uravity can do nothing about the slight against her; Ochako can only watch as Aiuchi's face and then her feet disappear.
What does she mean? Condition and deadline? How does it cause cardiovascular strain? What the hell is her quirk?
Just how fucked is she?
I will also post the prologue of the main story as chapter two of this.