30.12.2021

Hello, it's me the guy-who-has-no-idea-where-to-go-with-this-introduction and I'm back with a second chapter to what is the most popular one-shot/trailer released over the previous week. This means that I'll focus mainly on this one, though I'll also try and give some love to the other, less popular ideas.

But before I post the chapter proper let's answer some comments! (it's my tradition):

Fate OW - Happy to have you hear and hope you'll keep coming back for more

BoundlessSea - I see you are a fellow man of culture as well! Honestly I think that I might go with shy Mirko here just to have some more comedic potential

Notasavior - I didn't really think that people might think of it as a cliffhanger to be honest, but fret not, for your wait is now over!

LS14 - Correct mister! This is in fact inspired by the Watchdogs series. Although if we are talking about rabbits and foxes in terms of relationships then I believe Zootopia is a better example, and before anyone starts yelling friendship is a relationship also, right?

And now the story!:

Even with his relatively normal walking speed, it took the stranger only a couple of minutes to fetch the clothes and return to the room whereas it probably took her twice as much to traverse half the distance. Though he probably knew this place well and she was shot a couple of times a few hours ago, so her competitive spirit decided to lay low for the time.

He brought a black fair of sweats and a plain white T-shirt and then went back to his previous seat to let her dress in peace.

She was appreciative of the gesture even though she was almost sure that he had already seen more of her than what she was currently displaying.

Nevertheless she put on the clothes and then walked over to the stranger a bit more confidently than earlier.

"That's better", he commented as she approached and then spun in his chair to face her. "I know you have questions, you always do, so now is the time to ask them. If you prefer to skip the small talk we can head over to my infirmary right away", he offered and left the decision to her.

"Can't we just walk and talk?", Mirko asked.

"Huh, maybe there's a brain under those ears of yours…", he mused probably to himself, but loudly enough for her to hear. Yet before she could enact her righteous punishment he stood up abruptly. "Let's go then", he commanded and headed towards another poorly lit corridor that was kinda sorta hidden behind some complicated machinery.

She caught up to him so that they were side by side and started asking questions. "Who are you?"

"Depends on what you want to hear. Though I suppose you've already pieced together my identity, so you can just call me that, despite it being too long and inefficient", he answered without giving a straight answer.

"What's your name then?", she questioned further.

"Aiden Pierce", that… didn't sound right, at all.

"Is that your real name?", she asked whilst looking in his direction.

"Do I look American enough?", the stranger - Aiden - asked back with a small smirk on his lips.

Mirko growled, though she decided to drop the question and try with a different one. "Where are we?"

"It's a secret underground submarine base, dating almost three hundred years back, all the way to the World Wars, though you may have not heard about that", he explained just as they stopped at what Mirko guessed was their destination. He opened the door, ushering her inside before stepping in himself.

The so-called 'infirmary' turned out to be nothing but a small room with a table, bed and a single chair as well as some cupboards for storing medical supplies. Looking back at the situation she should've expected something like this, but at the time she wasn't really in tip top shape.

She motioned for her to sit on the bed whilst he started rummaging through some cupboards to procure necessary equipment. The whole process of taking a blood sample took only a couple of moments thanks to Aiden's surprising mastery. It got Mirko thinking that maybe he was some sort of a doctor before becoming… whatever it is that he is now.

He put the vial with her blood into some sort of a device and turned it on before sitting down in the chair himself. "No more questions?", he asked after a few moments of silence passed.

"What's that 'Reversal' thing you've mentioned before?"

"It's the proper name of what you people call Anti-Trigger, awful name by the way", Aiden explained and then stood up to take something else out of a cupboard. It was a small box which as he soon showed held a handful of bullets coated in some strange substance. "These are similar to the ones you've been shot with", he said as he took one of the bullets out of the case and brought it closer towards her. "Thankfully, you've been shot with a relatively weak knock-off of Reversal, so your Quirk should come back in a couple of hours. Now, if it was the real deal, Reversal in its purest form, then you would've kissed your career goodbye"

"Why?", Mirko had a feeling she didn't really want to know the answer, she was right.

"Because Reversal identifies, attacks and destroys Quirk Factors responsible for everything Quirk-related within your body, including the Quirk itself. To put it simply, Reversal is a drug capable of rendering people Quirkless, permanently", a serious expression was present on his face throughout his entire speech, highlighting the urgency of the situation. "Judging from your shocked expression I presume that Tsukauchi introduced Reversal as a Quirk Suppressant, which it is, but only at low concentration levels"

"Woah… That's a lot to take in…", Mirko mumbled, as her energy levels dropped significantly at the revelation.

"Take your time, I'll analyze the sample in the meantime", he stated and got to work, leaving Mirko alone with her thoughts.

A couple of minutes was all it took for Aiden to declare her clear enough to leave, so she intended to do just that. Yet he stopped her as soon as she stood up.

"Don't you want to get rid of this first?", he asked motioning towards his neck. "I believed you'd enjoy putting collars on people rather than wearing one yourself, but who am I to kink shame you?", the second comment was clearly intended to lighten the mood, which it did. It also had a side effect of - at first - confusing and then embarrassing as she discovered that she had in fact a metallic collar around her neck.

"I must really be out of it if I didn't notice this thing… What even is this?", she wondered out loud.

"It works exactly like your Quirk-suppressing cuffs, but in the form of a collar, so as to not limit your movements too much", he explained and then started rummaging through his pockets, probably to find a key or something.

"So I know what it is, but why do I have it on in the first place?", she questioned as she idly inspected the device.

"What would be the first thing you would've done if you woke up and there was a total stranger right next to your bed?"

"Kick them of course!", Mirko answered as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Exactly, and there is no way in hell I'm risking being on the receiving end of one of your kicks that are pretty famous for their destructive power", he stated as he finally found the key he was looking for and walked behind Mirko.

She felt his fingers brush against the back of her neck, sending shivers down her spine due to the unfamiliar sensation, as he gently removed the collar from around her neck. His careful approach would've been really nice if Mirko didn't suspect that he was simply worried about damaging the device.

She still wasn't sure what he was exactly, though there were two very probable options. Either he was an Underground Hero or a Vigilante, but she was leaning towards the latter. It would explain why he had a hideout instead of an Agency as well as the fact that she didn't recognize his face and she knew most of Tokyo's Heroes.

"Don't think so hard or you'll fry that fluffy brain of yours", Aiden warned jokingly with a smirk as he set the collar down on a nearby table. "You ready to leave now?", she nodded in confirmation. "Great, the quicker I get you home the quicker I'll be able to go back to tracking this branch, though a couple of bodies might discourage them from arranging deals any time soon… I really hope you were worth it Fluff", he mumbled under his breath, yet thanks to her slightly enhanced hearing Mirko was able to pick most of what he said up.

And she could confidently say that she felt similarly about him. The sooner she got home the sooner she could go beat some Villains up to release some of her anger. Whilst his initial banter and sharp wit were a breath of fresh air at first, now it only irritated her, especially since he kept throwing all of those Quirk-related insults calling her fluffy and whatnot. At least he had the decency to stay away from calling her a bunny. He may have saved her life, but she drew a line at 'bunny' no matter what. Point is, she was as happy to leave as he was to have her gone.

"So are you gonna drop me off with a super secret submarine thingy or something?", Mirko questioned as she followed him through the maze of corridors.

"Do I look rich enough to own one?", he answered, not even sparing a glance her way.

"Sorry for trying to hold a civil conversation", she sassed him as they reached a dead end. "What the fuck are we doing here?"

"Can you just shut up for a moment?", he groaned and then took out his phone from one of the pockets. She saw him blitz through some applications before tapping a big button that appeared on the screen. Immediately after she heard something creak open and stared in awe as the dead end was revealed to be a hidden entrance leading to… the sewers.

"Really?", she deadpanned.

"You can always try to swim out through the dock, though I'm not even sure if the waterways are open since they could've easily withered away and collapsed in the past three centuries", he offered in an even voice before stepping through the newly revealed doorway. "Let's go"

Mirko huffed in annoyance but followed Aiden nonetheless, navigating the smelly sewers was well worth it if it meant that she could finally leave his company.

At least they didn't have to walk for a long time to get to an access ladder that led to the outside world. She climbed the ladder, removed the heavy cover and then placed it back once she was out without uttering a single word.

"Ha, fucking bunny", Aiden growled under his breath and started making his way back to his hideout.

He had a city to look after.

Getting back to her place took Mirko way more time than she expected. For starters she arrived on the exact opposite side of Tokyo and the last train going even remotely close to her destination. This meant that she had no other choice than to go hunting for a cab, which turned out to be surprisingly difficult and she didn't have her communicator so she couldn't even contact someone to come and pick her up.

In the end she managed to find a cab, though it took her over an hour to finally stumble upon one and the driver was even understanding enough to wait when she sprinted up the stairs to her apartment to fetch her wallet.

First thing she did after locking the door to her apartment was take a nice, long bath and take a stock of her wounds.

"He may be annoying, but he at least knows a thing or two about first aid", Mirko grumbled under her breath at the mention of that infuriating man as she inspected her body.

She counted a total of five gunshot wounds. One in her left arm, in the left shoulder, one grazed the side of her midriff, one to the thigh and the last one a few inches under her knee.

"No wonder my leg felt like jelly", she concluded and got to work applying fresh bandages on her injuries.

Once she was done all that's left to do was to get dressed and get some proper rest on her comfy double bed. At least that was what most people would've done if they found themselves in her position. But Mirko was not like most people.

That's why immediately after getting dressed in some casual clothes she sat down in front of her computer and got to work scanning all available archives to try and find out who her savior really is.

She started by ruling out the most obvious option by searching for the name he told her. Mirko was surprised by the fact that there really was a man called Aiden Pierce living in Japan, but a quick glance at his photo confirmed her suspicions about her savior's identity being a fake one. It was still worth giving it a shot in case he wanted to mislead her by only pretending to be misleading her or something.

The next thing she tried was searching for specific traits, mainly his green eyes and hair, though she later would remove the hair color as he could've easily dyed his hair to make her job that much harder.

Mirko continued her search even as the Sun started shining through her window indicating that she had already stayed up quite a long time. Thankfully she wasn't a part of an Agency, which meant no boss to breathe down her neck for taking a day off all of a sudden. Unfortunately, the time she spent looking through all of the archives was ultimately wasted as she didn't manage to find anything even remotely close to being connected with the mysterious man who called himself Aiden Pierce.

A long yawn reminded her that she still had to get some real sleep, so she decided to stop her fruitless search - for now at least - and go get some rest. She made her way to her bedroom and set her phone down on her nightstand, but just as she was about to grab some pajamas her phone pinged, indicating a new message.

Mirko curiously grabbed the phone and opened her Line only to be greeted by a text from an unknown user. She was about to dismiss it as some sort of spam, but one single word caught her attention and prompted to check it out.

And so check it out she did. 'You must still be pretty beat up if you're throwing the towel in so quickly. Honestly I was expecting you to already be dressed in that skimpy leotard you call your costume and beating up thieves and purse snatchers left and right', the message read and Mirko instantly knew who it was from.

'I don't recall giving you my contact info', she wrote back with an annoyed scowl on her face as she went over to her wardrobe.

She was halfway through changing into her pajamas when her phone pinged a second time. Mirko took her time getting dressed before picking up her phone again. 'It's not like I need you to give it to me. I can just take it if I want it'

'And how exactly did you do that?', she sent a reply before laying down.

'You'd be surprised how easy to exploit your day to day devices are', Mirko guessed that he had that annoying smirk on his face as he wrote that cryptic message.

She decided that she had had enough of the guy and pulled the fluffy covers tighter around herself.

"I'm definitely going to get to the bottom of this and then make him suffer for disrespecting me", was her final thought before drifting off to sleep completely.

And that's it for today! If you're new then free to check out some of my other works.

In any case have a great day and I hope to see you next time!