A/N:I am using They/Them pronouns in the story but please feel free to change them while reading. I will also try to write this in a way that Y/N can be all genders, so if you notice any mistakes, please let me know so I can correct them.
Y/N = Your Name
Y/H/N = Your Hero Name
Y/V/N = Your Villain name
L/N = Last Name
!Important info for the story!
Reader has an emitter-type quirk called Hacker. It enables them to simply touch any electrical devices and change it's programming to their liking or gather information as long as it is turned on. However, they have a time limit of three minutes and with each use they risk getting electrocuted if the device has an issue. They also have to go through the hacking process as if they where using another PC for it and always get a bad migraine that persits for hours after using their quirk.
The sun pierces my eyes as I wake up to my phone ringing on my nightstand. It shouldn't. Today is my day off.
'Did I forget to turn off the alarm?'
"Too early...", I grumble and reach for my phone to turn it off.
I can't reach it and groaning I sit up to see where I left it last night. It is on my nightstand. On the far end. I'm still grumbling away as I grab it and look at the time.
It's not my alarm that woke me up. It's a call from my boss.
I am wide awake in an instant and sit up straight as I answer the call.
"Yes, this is Y/H/N speaking?", there is not even a hint of sleep in my voice.
"Ah, good morning Y/H/N. This is Sir Nighteye. I need you to come in as soon as possible."
My boss sounds very agitated, which isn't exactly rare for him but there is a sub-tone to his voice that tells me there is something important going on. Every thought of reminding him that today I have an off day immediately leaves my head.
"Of course, sir. I'll be right on my way", I reply and he ends the call without saying anything else.
I speed through my morning routine as fast as I can and take off running out of my apartment. I barely pay attention to the people I wiz past. There is a group of teenagers down the street, blasting music and dancing. I can see a few younger kids with them too as I pass by them.
I am tip-toeing around the train platform, barely able to stand still long enough for it to arrive. Across from me, another train arrives and I for a second I can see a furry tail boarding it. Just when that one takes off, mine arrives and I jump in as soon as the doors open.
It takes ten minutes to arrive at my stop and I am nervously fiddling with the strap of my bag the entire time. Sir Nighteye doesn't like people being late and 'as soon as possible' means 'best would have been yesterday' most of the time.
He is considerate and aware that I will still take a few minutes to come in, since I have to take the train, but I don't want to keep him waiting for longer than absolutely necessary. Least I incur his wrath like Bubble Girl did last week...
I shudder at the memory. Sure, it's funny to watch. But only if it's someone else who has to endure it. Plus, I do feel bad for her.
The second the doors open, I jump out of the train and speed towards the agency. Bubble Girl and Sir Nighteye are already in the foyer, waiting for me to arrive.
I stammer an apology between heavy breaths. They wait for a short moment to let me catch my breath, then Sir Nighteye walks off towards his office, motioning for me to follow.
As the door closes, he turns around to look at me.
"I asked you to hurry, because we have a request for help from UA. According to Principal Nezu, they seem to have a traitor amongst them and he wants your help to try and find that person", he explains the situation to me in his usual calm way, but I can see that he is worried.
"How would I be able to help them, if I may ask?"
"Principal Nezu said that there has been an incident at one of their training facilities were the communication was cut off. I hoped you could get some sort of info out of the communication devices."
My brain starts working really fast, going through all the possible information I could get from a communication device. I get stuck with the thought that, if it doesn't have some sort of programm recording the commands given to it, I probably won't be able to tell much.
"How advanced is that device? Did Nezu-san mention anything?", I voice my thoughts.
Sir Nighteye shakes his head a little and replies: "He didn't say much about the type of device you will be dealing with. All I can say is that UA usually takes pride in their equipment being top notch."
I sink back into my thoughts and go over any communication devices I ever came across. There are so many, from the smallest once who don't record anything and literally only transmit the signals to the biggest ones that keep track of conversations and stuff.
"You're rambling", Sir Nighteye calmly mentions and I feel my ears turn hot.
"I'm sorry, sir. Uhm, if I can actually help, I'll go and take care of that", I reply and bow to him.
"Good. I'll let Principal Nezu know right away."
Sir Nighteye grabs the phone and dials a number I can't make out. We both wait for Nezu-san to pick up and when he does, Sir Nighteye tells him that I will come over to the facility first to check on the communication device there.
They seem to agree on something and only when Sir Nighteye hangs up the phone, he informs me that after the training facility, Nezu-san will have someone pick me up and drive me to UA to check on the other one there.
"Don't forget to take your license with you, otherwise they won't let you in. And put on your costume. There shouldn't be any kids, but it adds credibility" he reminds me and I nod.
I'm waved out of his office after that and head down to the locker rooms to change. Again, I hurry through the practiced steps. I grab the pack of migraine pills and shove them in my pocket after checking its contents.
As as I step out of the locker rooms, Bubble Girl is already there waiting for me. She leads me to a car waiting out front and after seeing me off, returns inside the building.
The drive is silent safe for the car's engine. I look out the window as tall city buildings turn to family houses. There is a short distance through a forest and when the car turns, I can see a dome-shaped building.
The closer we get, the more apparent it is that this building is massive. I shrink in my seat, feeling like an ant compared to a giant. The driver opens my door for me and I thank him quietly.
The area in front of the dome is empty. Tire marks cover the ground and I can vaguely see footprints. There are a few darker spots in the dust and intuition tells me that those are probably blood.
"Is it a mouse, is it a dog or is it a bear? It's none of those and all of them at once, it's me, Principal Nezu!"
The phrase makes me look down and I can see Nezu-san standing about five feet away. Snipe, Midnight and Present Mic flank him, their eyes all trained on me. I fidget with my hands under all the attention focused solely on me.
"Your license, Y/H/N?", Present Mic helps me and I flinch and scramble to take it out of my pocket.
As I take a step towards the group, Snipe suddenly aims at me. A shriek leaves me and I accidentally drop my license. My whole body has the jitters now and I raise my hands above my head in fear.
Cold sweat rolls down my neck.
'What did I do wrong? Why is he aiming at me?!'
My brain goes into overdrive and I can't form a coherent thought. Panic has a tight grip around my heart that's trying to beat out of my chest and make a run for it. Despite that, I stand still like a statue and don't move a single muscle.
The tension in the air is thick enough to be cut with a butter knife and hangs heavy like a ton of bricks. My head is spinning and my vision blurrs.
I barely register that Present Mic takes a step forward and carefully gets closer. He picks up my license and immediately retreats. He takes a long look at my license, then at me. Inches closer again.
Mic takes a good, long look into my eyes and huffs.
"I can't find any hints that they're not Y/H/N. The picture and description is accurate down to the color of their eyes."
Snipe takes a moment to think. Then, without lowering his gun, he shoves Mic to the side and sets the gun onto my chest. My panic doubles and so do I. Without a warning, I turn around and empty this mornings breakfast onto the ground.
Which as of a moment later comes uncomfortably close to my face. I don't hit it, but the distance between my nose and the stinky puddle of my food's remnants is incredibly small.
"That's enough, Snipe. Nighteye told me they don't like attention and panic easily. It's Y/H/N, without a doubt", Mic's voice is very close to me and as I get pulled back to my feet I can see why.
He's the one who caught me. He's wearing an apologising smile on his face and doesn't let go of me until I stop swaying like a leaf in the wind.
"I'm sorry for Snipe's rude behavior, but as of current circumstances, we have reason to think that there is a traitor among us", Nezu-san explains.
I remember why I'm here and nod weakly. My stomach hasn't calmed down yet, so too much movement is probably not the best idea.
"Sir Nighteye informed me of the situation as far as you told him."
"Ah, good. Then we should hurry and check if there is any valuable information to get out of the communication device here."
With the attentive eyes of Present Mic, Midnight and Snipe staring holes in my back, I follow Nezu-san to what looks like a breaker room. There are blinking lights everywhere and I instantly feel a little more comfortable. A little bit more in my element.
I immediately spot the box in the back of the room. It's a pretty new model, that records conversations and saves them for up to thirty days. If the hard drive runs out of space, the oldest conversations are deleted.
There's practically nothing that can be done to it from the outside, at least not for deleting data. It requiers a password that is automatically changed each week and only sent confidentally to the owner of the system.
"I knew it when I had it installed. I purposefully had them put it here. Nobody has a key except for myself", Nezu-san's remark makes me aware that I had just rambled down the entire catalogue of specifications for this system.
Heat fills my face for a second and I apologise profusely. Nezu-san waves me off and motions for me to do what I'm here for.
"Just a fair warning, but I either need the password or this will take some time", now that I'm completely in my element, barely aware of the other three pro heroes, I am a lot more confident.
Nezu-san cups his paws around his snout and I kneel down. He whispers the current password into my ear and I get to work.
Getting into the system itself isn't all that hard with the password. I go through the maintenance and crash logs first but find nothing out of the ordinary. So whoever did this must've either known what they where doing or they haven't fiddled with the system itself.
I try to get access to the connection logs, but they are blocked. Weird, this system shouldn't be able to do that. I'm less hacking and more doing maintenance work righ now and the connection log should be easly accessible. I can feel the frown on my face forming already.
After a few more minutes of endless numbers and commands, I finally gain access to the connection logs and find that the connection back to the station located at UA High has been disrupted for about three hours this morning.
I trace back to the crash logs and there is still nothing out of the ordinary. So, it's not the system that is malfunctioning. I cut connection and immediately feel the migraine pounding my head in.
With one hand on my temple and the other scrambling for my migraine pills, I inform Nezu-san: "There is nothing wrong with the system on this side. I need to check the one in the school building, but so far I'm fairly certain that the problem wasn't the communication system but the signals themselves got disrupted somehow."
I can't help the slight groan escaping from my lips as my migraine gets worse the moment we step outside into the sunlight. Midnight shoots me a look of question and I gesture to my head.
"My quirk causes me to get a pretty bad migraine whenever I use it", I stammer and hold out my migraine pills.
"Oh, I didn't know. Can I check them? Just to make sure they're actually migraine pills", she keeps her voice low deliberately and I'm thankful for it. I nod meakly and hand her the pack.
She opens it, takes a long look inside and sniffs it briefly before handing it back to me and giving me a thumbs up.
A little ahead of us, a black car is waiting. Snipe and Nezu-san seem to have gotten on already, Mic is standing beside it and waits for us. I wait for Midnight to climb onto the backseat and follow suit once she's settled.
The car's engine is pretty quiet and I have a moment to rest my head and wait until the pills kick in.