Disclaimer: Tiger & Bunny belongs to Sunrise. This is a derived piece of fiction without the intention of profit.
I've found out something I shouldn't have Chapter 2: Appearances are deceptiveYuri Petrov had never struck him as a fan of heroes —granted, he worked with the them, he was expected to act courteous and fair. But still…
With all those thoughts rummaging in his mind, Wild Tiger went on patrolling. Another explanation that Kotetsu was ready to accept, was that his memory was faulty, and the name of Yuri had just popped from an already blurry image from his past.
Tiger and Barnaby received a call from Agnes around midnight, a group of activists had trespassed in Sternbild Zoo and had released a lot of animals from their cages. The zookeepers had captured most of them, while the apprehension of the delinquents had come on the account of Fire Emblem and Dragon Kid. Therefore, the duo to retrieve some missing animals. Barnaby and him were dispatched to Silver Stage, where residents had reported sightings of two black bears.
As Wild Tiger meandered the streets of a middle-class neighbor, looking for bear tracks, his mind sidetracked to the boy in his memories. Maybe the boy's name was something else, or maybe his name was Yuri, but he looked completely different than what he had thought.
"Wild Tiger, we've received a report. The bears are moving to the East River Gardens children's playground. Turn on your personal camera, we will go live in five." Agnes spoke through his communicator. Silver Stage was always a pain to shot from the helicopter.
"Roger." Tiger's inner screen in his helmet settled the shortest distance to said park.
Or, the boy and the judge shared an ill number of similarities appearance-wise. But that didn't mean they were the same person.
"Agnes, before we go live…"
"What is it, Tiger?"
"Do you know Yuri Petrov, the judge?"
"If it's about your damage fines, I'd recommend you to be careful with the bears. Those cost a small fortune, Tiger." She retorted with a somewhat bemused tone, she cut the transition before giving him the chance to utter his real question.
Barnaby was waiting for his partner around the corner, leaning on the double chaser. A large truck branded with the Sternbild Zoo logo on its side had parked on the same street; the huge vehicle took almost half the place of the street. Upon seeing him, Bunny called to the zookeepers. The bears were indeed in the playgrounds, and the heroes had to catch them with their hundred power and put them in the cages the zookeepers had prepared. About two dozen of people had stopped in the proximity to witness the spectacle, some had their phones filming the action —or just plain filming Bunny, despite the risk.
"I understand you are worried about your damage fines but, you'd better see for the wellbeing of the bears."
"Wait, were you listening to our conversation?"
"We can discuss it later." Bunny led him to the dark gardens where the poor bears were more anxious and afraid than the people around them.
Bunny chased the male out of the park and cleanly led him to the designated cage. Wild Tiger had a hard time with the female bear, who made her darn best to daunt him; and when that resulted in nothing, she attacked. Tiger's suit sustained most of the damage, the rest, he used his power to lift the lady bear and perform a rather uncomfortable carry to the cage. She resisted entering like a cat when it doesn't want a bath. At the end both bears were safely carried away back to their home.
Once the show was over, the heroes were delighted and their chitchat revolved all around the events of that night. Since HeroTV had catalogued the animals as victims, all the heroes had won a generous amount of rescue points, aside from the capture points that had gone to Nathan and Pao Lin. Keith had helped with all sorts of birds, from toucans, to parrots, to a hawk. Tiger suppressed a smug chuckle when he heard Blue Rose had been tasked to capture a flock of monkeys. While Antonio had to deal with a tiger!
"I have enough dealing with this Tiger daily, am I right?" He had seen Kotetsu snickering and proceeded to perform a boogie on his friend.
Agnes entered the hero lounge to congratulate everyone for the great night of work. Now they could go and take a rest, they deserved it.
"Wait!" Kotetsu caught up the producer without thinking. She quickly got a hold of what he meant and asked Tiger to wait for her in her office. She'd be there in a couple of minutes.
The heroes saw the exchange and were puzzled at least, and suspicious at most.
Nathan mentioned something about the room getting hotter, which Pao Lin refuted to Karina's dismay. Bunny didn't ask questions, believing his partner would fill him up later if the matter was important.
"You do realize Justice Petrov is the curator of HeroTV? He won't appreciate if you go and talk about him during the show transmissions." Agnes went straight to the point, pushing her hair backwards and sitting by her desk to sign a couple of papers before sending a second stern look at him.
"Do you mean he watches the transmissions?" Kotetsu saw the chairs by the desk, but he decided to remain stood up.
"He is the curator. We cannot air anything he considers illegal." Agnes huffed. "And we mustn't add slander to your list of misdemeanors, right Tiger?"
"No, I wasn't —I mean, I wasn't going to speak badly of him."
"Between you and me, he's a real pain when it comes to themes like Lunatic. You don't know how much editing he request whenever that man appears." She massaged the bridge of her nose and mimicked the judge. "We cannot showcase murder in public television, that'd go against the politics of rating."
"Oh right, we are supposed to be family friendly." Kotetsu hadn't reflected how, despite being a show about capturing real criminals, had a solid fan base of kids and teenagers. As a hero, he had seen really gruesome events that never made to the final edition of the show. Agnes was so good in her job, that even in live she could predict when to cut to commercials, whenever something unsettling was peeking around the corner.
"Ah, but such is work. Is something bothering about Justice Petrov?"
"Uh? Not at all." Kotetsu scratched his beard, unsure of how to put his doubts at rest. "I just wanted to ask you, if you know something about the judge's family? I was remembering the other day that when I was a kid, I met a boy in Oriental Town that looked pretty much like him. He told me his family worked for HeroTV."
Agnes raised her thin perfectly trimmed eyebrow.
"Doesn't ring any bells. But you've piqued my curiosity, it sounds like something worth examine. I will ask around and tell you if something comes up."
He returned home to call Kaede, despite the late hours she was awake and excited for the episode of HeroTV that had just aired —Barnaby looked so manly taming that wild bear.
Her daughter reminded him of her visit to Sternbild tomorrow. One that Kotetsu couldn't remember having agreed to.
"It's part of the celebrations during the week before Justice Day, you didn't forget, right dad?" She said. He had forgotten. Kaede proceeded to reformulate her explanation, she was getting better at hiding disappointment. "My class is vising Justice Bureau; we are going to represent a fake court hearing."
"And no dad, you can't attend to the trial." Kaede stopped before he even suggested it. "It will be closed to the public." Not that Kotetsu would be excited walk in the courtroom anytime soon, but the idea of Kaede acting prosecutor had put him on his heels for expectation.
When finished his call, his apartment felt empty like always. Instead of hitting the bed as he should had done, he resorted to browse news sites who were soaring with coverage from the Zoo incident —in hindside, it would have been better if he had been tasked to find the tiger. Mere causality made him stumble in Barnaby's fan blog. He half laughed, half cringed, at some of the content. Was Bunny aware of all those drawings of him half naked? Although the pictures of some altars were inventive.
And soon he found a forum dedicated to Wild Tiger. Most of his fan base ranged at ages thirty to fifty —no wonder his trading cards were having problem to sell. At least it meant those few Wild Tiger fans had stuck with him ever since his hero debut.
Among the entries, he read speculation about the type relationship he shared with Bunny, and discussions related to his old suit, along with embarrassing pictures taken by passersby.
Kotetsu found a long sticky thread called "How much has Wild Tiger paid in damage fees?" Where a username under the pseudo of ManlYon22 had dedicated every week to document the number of properties, that led him to the title 'Crusher for justice.' Those reports traced all the way back to when he worked for TopMag, he read all the damage reports —some of which he had long forgotten, and had sparked fondness instead of their original dread. He reached the last post: the Moorviews abandoned hospital.
About this case, ManlYon22 commented that it was virtually impossible to get away unscathed like Wild Tiger did from such a Himalayan blunder. It was almost as if Justice Petrov had helped the hero with his defense. The judge helping him, that's impossible! Petrov was the most severe, boring, stern and square-minded person around. That Wild Tiger had slipped away from some severe damage's fees had more to do with the bad defense of the other part, not the judge.
Kotetsu quickly created an account under the name of WT1945 and he contacted via personal message ManlYon22 to confront him —implying the hero and the judge were confabulated was a big deal.
His poor argument got a lengthy response in question of minutes, this user was well informed.
"I'm not saying they are confabulated (I'm a lawyer I know the full extent of the implications). However, it is hard to ignore how Justice Petrov went far beyond his line of duty to consider evidence that was presented by the prosecutor against their own.
Judges should be impartial and neutral, and they should keep their involvement in trial to a minimum. Thus the defendant found a reason to appeal Petrov's decision.
In my opinion, there's nothing left to fight for them, they lost out because they had seen suing as a quick buck (everybody and their mothers know any sue against Apollon Media for property damage because of Wild Tiger is free real state).
And don't get me wrong, I'm a huge fan of WT (I wouldn't be here otherwise). But I attended once to one of those hearings (I was the prosecutor lol), and it is painfully sad how Apollon had straight given up on Wild Tiger. The poor man just stood there with a bored to tears expression, agreeing at every accusation from our part. My boss even had told me to attribute some other collateral damages that weren't his direct making, but I'm not that heartless.
If the hero could have gotten a decent defendant, his company wouldn't have to pay half of the property damages he's well known for.
And what Justice Petrov did on this occasion (and during that famous prosecution for the destruction of the Justice Enshrined) was to present evidence than neither of the parts had put to his examination, or that it hadn't been presented in a correct way.
I understand his judgements are impeccable, it just rubbed me in the wrong side that he had risk a bias by helping Apollon with their weak defense."
Kotetsu read two times the response, the first go was to figure out the vocabulary; the second to understand the implications of what ManlYon22 had concluded. He wrote a reply asking if it meant Justice Petrov had a hidden agenda for protecting Wild Tiger.
ManlYon22 sent him an even longer reply with his thorough research related to a theory about reptile-like aliens substituting and impersonating the world's leaders and other figures representative of power. This was not the answer he was expecting, but it helped him to take the forum member's analysis with a grain of salt.
Does it mean Petrov is a Wild Tiger fan? The thought sent Kotetsu a wave of laughter. He decided he may have been overthinking and went to bed, eager to see Kaede the next day.
"Dad!" Kaede ran towards him as he opened his arms to give her a crushing hug. She had grown so much since the last time they had seen each other. He showered her with kisses and her daughter giggled like a little girl.
Suddenly, the floor started to tremble and something petrified Kotetsu in place. His little girl became unable to see him, she wandered at lost in the ice rink. Debris and scattered chairs adorned the place now. And Kaede was screaming his name but he wasn't able to open his lips to speak. They were separated for mere ten steps but the situation may have put them in different dimensions from what it mattered.
Another rumble from the Earth. A huge boulder fell upon her.
Kotetsu woke up with a big gasp for air, tangled with his sweat drenched sheets. He sat up, rubbing his eyes with the ball of his thumbs, they were sightly damp. Looking at the alarm by his bedside table, it was four in the morning. He laid on bed for a couple minutes waiting for the drowsiness to come back —it didn't.
Resolute to make the most of his day, Kotetsu started his usual morning routine and hit the route less than an hour later. He had decided to workout for a while before starting his job in Apollon Offices. Bunny was always complaining he didn't do enough training, even though he was more than physically able for his age.
In the hero training gym in Justice Tower, he wasn't expecting anyone at these hours in the training area, so he was a bit surprised when he found Justice Petrov running in the treadmill.
The sight was quite odd. Instead of his usual tailor suit, he was wearing an electric blue sleeveless hoodie and grey jogging pants; his long hair kept out of his face with a headband. It had never occurred to Kotetsu that the judge may have been the muscular type, therefore he awkwardly stood there staring at the man's biceps for a complete half a minute until he snapped out of it and greeted nonchalantly.
"Mornin'" He though the settling was not right for a formal approach, so he dropped any attempt to make it sound like it.
Justice Petrov almost sprung out of the running band like a Jack-in-the-box once he heard his voice. It appeared that he made the automatic decision of pulling up his hood before addressing the hero.
"Wild Tiger, what a pleasure to meet you." It clearly wasn't. "Pardon my reaction, I wasn't expecting to meet anyone at this time in the morning."
"I was having trouble sleeping and, Bunny always nags that I don't exercise enough. Do you come here often?"
The fact that Petrov hadn't gotten off of the treadmill, neither turned it off, meant he still wanted to finish his routine; but when Kotetsu came closer he scurried away like a scarred mouse. It was an unusual behavior to the always composed and confident judge.
"Yes, since justice bureau is just some levels below and I have an all access to the facilities, I can make use of them before my working day starts." He spoke while heading to the lockers. "Please don't mind me, I have just finished my routine."
Kotetsu saw the water bottle forgotten on the treadmill alongside with a hanging white towel. He called out Petrov as he hurried to him to give them back. When the judge received them, the hero could see what seemed a pinkish birthmark on the man's face, which Petrov promptly covered with his sweaty hair and hood as he thanked him for the gesture.
It was obvious the poor fellow was too self-conscious of that mark, and the hero was in no place to ask about it. Instead, he decided to give ManlYon22's theories a go.
"Your… uh, can I ask you a favor?" He failed to call him 'Your Honor' when the man only wanted to run to the showers to drown his face in concealer.
Too lake it occurred to Kotetsu that last time he had spoked to the judge outside of working hours, the man had referred him to his secretary. Before feeling too much of a fool, Petrov saved him the embarrassment and half turned around while nodding —his face still carefully covered with the shadow of his hood, he looked like a blond version of Sadako.
"Of course, Wild Tiger, it is my duty to help the heroes. If it's something in my hands I can help."
"It's… it's a bit personal issue but it would give me peace of mind. You know, my little daughter is coming today for a visit to the Justice Bureau. It's something her school organized in preparation to Justice Day next week."
"Kaede Kaburagi." Petrov nodded, a thin smile forming on the corners of his thin lips.
"How? You know—"
"I read you records when I stepped in to the position of Curator and overseer of the heroes —everyone's records. It's not something I peer at frequently, but I needed to know in case something happened to you heroes." He implied that life risk situations came with the professional level heroics.
"I see… anyhow my Kaede is coming today. She's an amazing kid but, she's prone to get in trouble whenever she comes to Sternbild."
"Like father, like daughter?" Not in a million years had Kotetsu imagined the judge was able to pull a joke. He found himself more comfortable with this kind of Petrov.
"Yeah, sort of." He chuckled. "You don't need to monitor her every move just, keep an eye on her? I'm almost sure she'd want to sneak to this level of the tower —she's a huge Barnaby fan. I hope it's not asking for much."
Petrov hooked the towel around his neck and hid his hands on the hoodie's pockets, then nodded.
"Not at all Wild Tiger, I was going to attend the event anyway. I will send you pictures and report on her behavior, good or bad."
"Wait, how is your hand going?"
"It has already healed, thank you for your concern." He started waking to the showers. "Now If you excuse me, I will be late for my early morning activities."
"Sure. Thank you. See you around…?" He waved, biting his tongue back as soon as he had spoken. He wasn't implying to see the judge in court again, but there weren't many reasons to meet with the man than a court hearing. Luckily, it seemed he didn't hear him.
That very afternoon Wild Tiger received a personal message in his phone, he didn't have the sender among his contacts but he read the contents anyway. It was a set of pictures from the mock trial Kaede's class was enacting.
Judging from the quality and the places the pictures had been taken, they probably belonged to the journalist covering the event. Kaede was in several of them. She had dressed up accordingly in a sober gray robe, making her look older than she was. One particularly amazing phot had her little girl speaking to a jury, conformed by a set of kids who were probably her classmates. Kotetsu's heart was swollen in pride and his smile was hard to hide while scrolling at the generous number of images. At the end of the album, a plain text revealed who the sender was:
"Your child can become a great prosecutor. Justice Martinez was quite impressed with her performance. I will keep looking after her in the level my schedule allows it."
Barnaby had gone to a magazine shooting, which left his partner with too much free times on his hands. He'd rather go straight to Kaede, but she was free until the evening —if nothing came up, he could meet her before her school bus would take her back to Oriental Town. He was half way tapping a response to Petrov when Agnes called him out.
She had come to discuss some arrangements for Justice Day with Lloyds, and decided to visit Apollon heroes while they finished their paperwork before the evening patrol. The producer invited the hero to get some refreshments in office lounge, two levels below.
"It's a bit weird seeing you in this setting." Said Wild Tiger while handing her a paper cup with freshly brewed coffee, he had taken an iced tea from the fridge and both went to sit on a near couch. "Normally it's either your face in the communicator or you in the recording booth."
"I have a life outside HeroTV." She sipped her coffee and eyed Tiger matter-of-factly. "Although I admit this visit was also to talk to you in private. It's about your request from yesterday."
Agnes reached for her purse and pulled out her phone. The screen showed a list of about fifty names, one of them was Anton Petrov. Agnes explained as she opened the record and handed him the device.
"You were right, Yuri Petrov's father worked for HeroTV fifty years ago. He was a technician, part of the camera crew, and was mainly assigned to document Mr. Legend's feats."
"This is amazing!" Wild Tiger could barely contain his excitement, even though that record didn't have a picture, he was already forming a mental image of Petrov's father. It meant the boy Kotetsu had met as a kid was indeed the judge.
"I don't think you should keep asking around this topic." Agnes took her phone back. "Barely days after Mr. Legend retired, Anton Petrov couldn't withstand that the hero wanted to live the rest of his days in private, and tried to set in fire the Legendmovil."
"What…?" Tiger gulped, not prepared for what Agnes had just said. Anything would be better than that: the man may have lost his job, or he went to prison, would have been a respectable end —albeit grim, for a story.
Instead, the image of kid Yuri was replaced with the broken one of the adult Yuri. It fell on him that the mark he had seen on the judge's face may not be a birthmark, but a burnt. How had he gotten such large injury? Had Yuri witnessed his dad's setting ablaze the car and had tried to stop him? Now the thought couldn't abandon him. If Yuri Petrov had stood up to his father in that downer moment, more than compassion, he'd feel respect towards the judge. No wonder he's so righteous.
Thanks to Agnes' intervention, Kotetsu could get a couple of free hours in the evening to reunite with Kaede. She was walking out of Justice Tower along with her class and two teachers. He called her name as soon as she saw him, and ran to give her a huge bear hug… which Kaede swiftly dodged.
"Not here, dad. You are embarrassing me in front of my friends." Said friends were three girls, also in adult like clothes, snickering at the sight.
"D'aww, you are being so mean to daddy. At least let me give you a kiss." Kotetsu formed a beck with his lips, finding the girl's hands on the way.
"No way, that's even worse!"
"All right, all right. But just so you know, you are hurting daddy's feelings." Kotetsu let go. Pouting, he hid his hands on the pockets. And not only Kaede's friends, this time even the teachers were sniggering at the scene. "And I don't know when it will be the next time I see my little girl."
"Dad, I'm coming back for Justice Day parade, don't you remember?" Kaede huffed and rolled her eyes in typical preteen fashion.
He hadn't, but he preferred her to mention it because her expecting eyes were priceless. He reached out to scuffle her hair —which made her grumble even further. A teacher called her out since the rest of her class had already boarded the bus. Kaede announced she was coming before saying her goodbyes to her father.
"I'm glad you made it before I leave. Grandma told me to give you this." She pulled out a heavy magazine from her backpack. It was the monthly hero dedicated to Mr. Legend. On the cover, bold letters in black marker read: To Kotetsu.
Kaede hopped into the bus at last, promising she would call him tonight to tell him everything about the events of the day. He waved his hand to the bus all the way until it turned the corner and disappeared.
He got a message from her daughter several hours later, announcing her class had arrived to Oriental safe and sound.
Bunny had come from the photoshoot. His young partner wasn't too interested in drooling at the hero monthly signed by Legend himself. Instead, he was driven to attend a fan gathering next, as part of his evening's schedule. Tiger had preferred to go patrolling, but he ended agreeing to come along out of Mr. Lloyds pressure —even though he knew fans were attending only for his partner, not for the hero duo.
At the end, he was pleasantly surprised it was fulfilling for both heroes. Wild Tiger meet a selected group of people who had been following his career since the debut —he had his suspicions they were the same from the forum. They had attended the event in hopes of seeing Tiger, despite being told the meeting was for Barnaby fans.
Among those Tiger fans, Kotetsu recognized ManlYon22 —not that he could tell him he was WT1945. His name was Manny I. Yon and he was a young graduate of Sternbild Law School who had gained interest in Wild Tiger thanks to his late mother. He was the youngest among the group of fans, and it was flattering that new generations still cared for old school heroics.
He disregarded much of the conspiracy theories the young attorney had, and made friends with another old man called Ernesto. He almost wished not having left the Monthly Magazine back in his car, as it seemed those guys could actually appreciate the greatness of that collectable, but that would have given away his secret identity, so he saved the thought for later.
At least, the Wild Tiger fan club informed him their gatherings were in a themed café on the center of gold stage, where they gathered from time to time to play TCGs. Ernesto extended the invitation to the hero, humbly asking him to invite whomever he seemed fit to join the fun —It stuck Kotetsu later that night that the old man was probably inviting Tiger in his civilian identity.
At the end of the night, it had been a good idea to accompany Bunny. Kotetsu got sure to thank him for that before heading each back home.
Anju was against waking up Kaede, giving the time her father was free to call, but as the kid woke up as soon as she had heard the phone, Kotetsu's mother couldn't complain.
"Took you some time." Kaede retorted with her well-rehearsed indignation.
"Sorry Kaede, daddy was in a reunion." A fan reunion, that is. Just he couldn't explain further, risking to reveal his hero identity. "I made my best to come home soon but I couldn't. And I was dying to hear how it went in your trial."
At the question Kaede's mood sifted. She started to narrate, with a lot of detail, and involving people he barely knew, the development of the event. Who said what, who were the witnesses, and the jury, and what was the accusation about. As a prosecutor, her team had won the trial and the defendant had been sent to prison.
"Justice Petrov saw my close-examination, and he said I would do a great prosecutor." Her smile chirped through the old telephone line.
"Oh yeah, so I did hear."
"Wait a minute dad, how do you know it?"
"Uh? You just said it, I'm merely agreeing one hundred percent with you." Uncomfortable silence. "It's true."
"Can it be… did someone tell you about this earlier?"
"Kaede, I cannot compare your detective prowess. I actually had seen the judge earlier and asked him to keep an eye on you. I was worried for my little girl."
When Kaede asked him how had he met Justice Petrov, Kotetsu half invented a truth, that they crossed each other often at the gym.
"That actually explains a lot." His daughter mussed. And then she sent him a picture from her phone.
It was Yuri Petrov sitting on what looked like a booth in a family restaurant, he was surrounded by a bevy of young girls with big grins that contrasted his prude smile —he was clearly uncomfortable posing for the picture. Kaede was sitting on his right side, making a victory sign. It was unusual and comical.
Kaede explained the judge had arrived for his lunch break, one of the girls had recognized him from the event, and blatantly invited him to take a seat with them. They were having lunch with all the class, it was part of the school trip schedule, but Petrov invited each girl a milkshake. Kaede had a mint chocolate one.
The girls had bombarded him with questions about his job as curator of HeroTV —his other job as judge didn't sound as exciting, however Kaede made a few comments of it out of politeness. The man had a lot of intel of how the heroes worked with the tv staff to bring every season alive. He didn't share as much as the girls would have liked, but he was super cool about most of what they ask him.
"He said he was reviewing a future collaboration of Barnaby with a makeup brand. And that Pepsi was about to launch a Blue Rose themed bottle, although I'm not excited of trying blue colored soda…" Kaede droned on a while about all kind of petty gossip from the heroes.
"What about Wild Tiger?" Kotetsu interrupted her once she finally paused to catch some air.
"Oh yeah, it's your favorite hero, right dad? He told us Wild Tiger is the hero he sees in person the most. You know, because all the Crusher for Justice theme. But he has high regards for him and his justice. The girls and I were all weirded out —I mean, the guy doubles his workload with all those small court hearings, but he said we will understand it when we grow older."
At this point Kotetsu had his face brazing, he wasn't sure if it was embarrassment or shyness. How would he look at Petrov in the eyes next time he goes to court? Despite all the destruction to private property, and his usual stern expression while giving the harsh verdict, the judge still believed Wild Tiger was a great hero.
"Dad?" Kaede brought him back to reality when he was out of words. "Are you still there?"
"Yeah, yeah, what is it my little princess?"
"I was telling, we should invite Mr. Petrov to the Justice Day parade."
"I don't know honey; he seems like a busy man."
"Would you try at least. He seems like someone who needs to take a break." And at that, his daughter couldn't be righter.
Kotetsu had agreed to invite Justice Petrov if he found the man at the gym during the week. In foresight it seemed like a great idea. The three of us strolling the streets of Sternbild, watching the parade, eating crab candy, it would be a blast! Problem was, Petrov would probably refuse. There was his prohibition to get close to the heroes to keep his impartiality; asking him to come to the Festival would go far from calling it a work-related favor.
"You have been more distracted than the usual, Old Man." Bunny called him out during a car chase. Agnes had just explicitly called him out before his usual thoughtless jump to action, and he wasn't even fazed.
"Arg, it's all this annoying rain." Kotetsu formed a tiny tent with his hands over his forehead, it didn't have any use since he was wearing his helmet, it was more to highlight the statement.
It all had started in the afternoon with an unexpected drizzle after days of spring heat, and in a matter of hours it had escalated to a downpour that didn't seem to have an end.
"Seriously, who steals a bank with this weather?"
"Apparently the robbers we are going after." Barnaby suggested as he maned the double chaser through the slow traffic of Bronze Stage. "You shouldn't complain, it's me who's driving in this storm."
"Bonjour Heroes, Blue Rose and Sky High are the closest to corner the robbers. Dragon Kid and Fire Emblem, your powers are dangerous with this weather, leave the chasing to the others and focus in the rescues. Rock Bison, would you be able to arrive on time?" Agnes was already giving instructions to the heroes through their communicator, she waited for Bison's affirmative answer to continue. "Barnaby and Tiger, I believe the situation with the robbers is already dealt with, and we have witnesses Lunatic has appeared near your location."
It was an unspoken agreement that whenever it had to do with Lunatic, Agnes would pick the hero duo over the rest to stop him. Bunny acknowledged after receiving the coordinates of the last sighting and veered at the next corner. The raindrops tapping on both heroes' armor like tiny drumsticks and reducing visibility. So much that when they arrived to the meeting point, it was hard to pinpoint which direction to take.
Lunatic had been seen by local witnesses of this industrial area. Usually bustling during the day, Bunny drove the double chaser through the emptied streets and closed warehouses. His partner relied in Tiger to figure out from where the vigilante may appear, but the rain was not helping! In fact, the water was pooling around, and driving the motorcycle was risky.
About to give up and call it a false alarm —it wouldn't be the first-time people mistook a random car light or a reflection for the vigilante—, something gleamed on the rooftop of a building ahead.
"There he is!" Tiger pointed at the source of light, emblazoning a human shape shadow, standing above a three-story building. The unmistakable fire arrow appeared, pointing at a warehouse across the street. "I'm heading out, Bunny!"
Tiger jumped from the vehicle still in motion using his wire to climb on the nearest building, as he heard his partner saying something about capturing Lunatic that Tiger quite didn't hear. He was too focused on swinging in direction to the building where the vigilante's figure got clearer despite the downpour. Tiger feared not arriving in time, until something unusual downed on him —Lunatic was having trouble maintaining the shape of the arrow. He wasn't shooting because what it usually looked like a solid stick of pure heat, it was now dancing like messed up blue flames on his crossbow.
"We meet again, Palm Face." Wild Tiger greeted Lunatic with an aerial punch that the villain swiftly dodged. He threw a couple more of jabs at his opponent, which the other eluded like an intangible mass. Tiger activated his powers.
"Wild Tiger, wouldn't you do better in that chase your circus of heroes was enacting?" Lunatic ducked to one of the hero's strikes, and backed away from another.
"I'm here to stop you, and save whoever's life you are after tonight." Tiger was not confident about getting the upper hand. He knew something was off when he almost connected a hit on his opponent's chest and this one didn't activate his powers to stop him, resorting to block the hit with his gloved hands.
"What's wrong? Are you finally in the mood to surrender?" He daunted as the vigilante backed away, his hands had taken a lot of damage and were trembling.
"Hardly." A thunderous roar stopped their usual banter; however, it didn't come from the sky but from the street down below.
Tiger got his guard down and ran to the border of the roof to stare down at an unexpected tragedy. A flash flood had swept cars and trees, creating a river where the street used to be. In fact, it was the same all the way to the nightly sky horizon, where lights had gone off, leaving large chunks of the city in appalling darkness. The HeroTV helicopter appeared in the proximity.
"Help! Somebody help us!" Someone cried in the streets, it was two or more masculine voices. A bang from inside the warehouse across the street explained it all: the floor had pushed cars over the main entrance, there was people trapped in there. And the water was raising at an alarming rate.
Wild Tiger spun around to find Lunatic had disappeared, he didn't give it a second thought and jumped down the three stories to the stream underneath. However, midair he almost got a direct hit from a burst of green flame. He avoided the hit by inches and landed at the warehouse's roof.
"Do you ever give up?" He yelled at Lunatic with frustration when the vigilante landed like a broken puppet on the warehouse's roof at six feet from him. The people underneath kept screaming, now urging that the water was rising, and pleading God for mercy.
"I suppose Thanatos would tolerate drowning as a way to punish these sinners."
So it was it, since Lunatic was going to kill them anyway he preferred mother nature to do the job for him. That twisted psycho bastard!
Wild Tiger had one minute of his power left. He yelled at the men trapped inside to get their backs on the wall. He was unsure if they'd could listen over the uproar caused by the rain and through the concrete ceiling, but he was short in options. Lunatic didn't take good being ignored, he threw a ball of flame to the hero. And then it made sense why the vigilante wasn't using his hand fire jets to fly or blazing up his eyes for the show: any fire he produced formed a dangerous cloud of steam.
Thanks to Dr. Saito, Wild Tiger knew his suit could resist Fire Emblem level of heat, nevertheless it probably wasn't the same for the spandex the vigilante was wearing —again, Dr. Saito had made a fair point using Tiger's old costume. Suddenly the hero had two concerns, to save the men trapped in the warehouse from drowning, and to hinder Lunatic from burning himself with steam.
When he stopped hearing the victim's pleas, the hero called his lungs out to the people inside the warehouse. The lack of response could only mean one thing —Kotetsu's heart clenched, but he had a plan. He made his best representation of a distraught and, blinded by rage, he threw desperate jabs at Lunatic. The vigilante evaded every hit as if it was nothing, carefully refraining to activate his fire powers. When the hero had him on the border of the rooftop, it seemed the vigilante was going to depart on his usual flight but he was hesitating to do so.
At three seconds before his powers ran out, Wild Tiger activated his good luck mode. Lunatic predicted the hero's attack and leaped backwards to the flooding street. What he didn't see coming was Bunny leaping from the nearest car roof to activate his good luck mode as well.
The vigilante got caught between the full blow of both heroes, hitting with their hundred power from each side. His body creaked and bent under the strength of both heroes combined —could it mean the duo was going to finally capture this criminal? They didn't have time to celebrate though. Lunatic activated his powers and the rain around them became a heavy curtain of hot steam.
Tiger heard the splash produced by a body falling on the river underneath and leaped down despite having lost his powers. He ran over the parked car's roofs like Dragon Kid was used to do, following Lunatic being taken by the current. He caught up and reached out to grab the vigilante by the hand mere seconds after the man had submerged in the dark water.
The resistance of the water apparently gave up and Tiger pulled up with all his might, only to fall on his back over the last available car on near distance: he had only retrieved a glove.
He returned to Bunny to thank him for helping the trapped men. His partner thanked him on his behalf since, apparently, Wild Tiger had followed the young hero instructions. Agnes congratulated the duo via their communicator for the amazing encounter, she didn't care if they captured Lunatic or not. She sent the heroes off duty but Kotetsu knew the flooding had been worse than expected, and he asked Agnes to stick around to help the victims as much as possible.
Bunny agreed, and joined him in one of the longest nights of their lives. In fact, all of the heroes had their hearts in helping the people of Sternbild. Some citizens had lost all their lives in a single night.
Noon came the next day and Wild Tiger was sitting on the back of a pickup truck which had the back door broken. The hero was holding a paper cup with coffee but his brain no longer registered it was getting cold. Bunny came to sit beside him. As worn down as his partner, he was staring down at a plain BTL sandwich someone had given to him.
The disaster ahead didn't seem to end. In some areas of the city, the water had raised to four feet tall. They had been activating their powers every hour to move boulders and push cars and find missing people.
"You know, you could auction it." Bunny broke the silence. Hadn't he been in the outside in public, he would have wolfed down the sandwich, instead, he gave it a dainty bite before pointing at the piece of electric blue fabric coming from Tiger's suit pocket. "Some people would pay a fortune for anything belonging Lunatic."
"Nah, I'm keeping it to myself." Kotetsu pulled out the glove to caress the garment, it was made of a snake like material —so it wasn't spandex, uh? The size of the hand had long slender fingers, definitely belonging to a man, just not one who made heavy lifts. He waved the glove as if it was a flag, mockingly. "Heey Palm face, I've got your glove. You'd better give yourself up if you want it back."
Bunny chuckled. It was nice to make him laugh from time to time.
Author's Notes: The case of the destruction of the Justice Enshrined comes from chapter #28 from the T&B Miracle Jump manga. Even though I don't know if it's considered canon, I take pieces of the mangas and the dramas for this fic.
Without giving much spoiler for the manga, Yuri figures out a way of saving Kotetsu from a huge fine for destroying a public historical statue.