Dashing through the snow…
"Showtime!" Hitoshi declared, bounding to his feet and hoisting a laughing Toga up behind him, yanking her to standing by her wrist. "Ready to make an appearance?"
"As Denki?" Toga asked.
"Nope! As your beautiful self!" Hitoshi gushed, squinting his eyes and poking Toga on the nose.
Toga giggled, her eyes crinkling with the force of the smile overtaking her face. "Flattery will get you everywhere!"
"Oh, he knows," Neito deadpanned with a targeted glare as he stood up on his own, without help from his soulmate as he was too busy helping someone else, and stretched, lifting his arms over his head. He continued to watch as Hitoshi's eyes were drawn to his stomach as the hemline of his shirt was lifted from his movements during his stretch, and his glare fell into a faux innocent, questioning look. "Collecting all the blondes, Tosh?"
"Gotta catch 'em all!" Hitoshi said and stuck out his tongue at Neito. Neito smiled cheekily in return.
-.-.-
"This is a mess," the man grumbled, his eyes switching between the two televisions in the break room, both on different news stations.
Nato Hachisho was a simple man. He figured that being the public relations manager of the Hero Public Safety Commission wouldn't be too challenging, and it had worked for a few years. They had a lot to lose, so they would tread carefully and not put him in difficult situations, right?
Wrong.
One television was turned to channel four; it was muted with captions turned on. The pretty pink-haired newscaster wore a grim expression on her face as she explained the recent developments of how notorious villain Toga Himiko was spotted along with Spinner, speeding down the freeway. The man cringed as the newscaster was replaced with shaky, amateur cell phone footage of a red beater car with Spinner behind the wheel, a focused grimace on his face as he sped past. Toga was hanging haphazardly out the passenger side window, quickly securing her equipment back into the car with seemingly little regard for herself. The camera changed position back to where the car was coming from to see a frazzled Present Mic rounding the corner, yelling about her taking his blood. By the time Present Mic had reached the civilian who was recording on the cell phone, the red car was no where in sight, and the captions read that the civilian excitedly asked Present Mic for his autograph. The footage tilted and jolted, probably as the civilian reached for something for Present Mic to sign, and Present Mic's incredulous look was quickly replaced by the corner of a skyscraper and the glare of the sun.
Maybe the Hero Public Safety Commission could have run damage control and assured the public that it must have been Twice's clone posed as Toga in an attempt to break the real Toga out of Tartarus in some elaborate scheme. There were a few problems with that idea, though. The League hadn't even made a single attempt toward Tartarus. There hasn't even been any scouting of the location that anyone has picked up on, which was strange. As far as everyone could tell, Toga was a vital asset to the League, so they figured that this was their chance to start picking them off one by one as they tried to come to her rescue.
The other problem happened to be broadcasting to the public on channel six news. The man turned his attention to the other television, the one that had its volume turned up past its normal low background murmur.
The newscaster whose head looked like the top of a half-melted candlestick was talking quickly, his voice wavering up and down with empathetic emotion as he interviewed the two Pro Heroes on-site with Tartarus looming in the background.
"When did you realize that Toga had tricked everyone into believing that she was the real Chargebolt?" the newscaster asked.
"It wasn't until a few hours ago," Hitoshi said, his voice rough and his eyes deep set and red rimmed. He ducked his head and pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration before shaking his head and immediately perking up again, like he was just remembering that he was on screen and had a task to accomplish and couldn't break down until later. Neito placed a reassuring hand on Hitoshi's shoulder, but Hitoshi didn't look back at him. It was probably a good thing because Neito didn't look any better.
"Fucking hell," the man muttered to himself, his coffee long forgotten on the break room table. Coffee couldn't fix this. Nothing short of a miracle could. Maybe some groveling and begging of forgiveness? Yeah, he'd have to suggest that at the emergency meeting taking place in eight minutes.
"We don't know how—" Neito started when it was clear that Hitoshi wasn't going to continue, but then Neito's voice choked itself off. The newscaster waited patiently as Neito cleared his voice, took a breath, and tried again. "We don't know how she tricked us as long as she did. There should have been something that gave her away, but even now, thinking back…"
"There was nothing," Hitoshi said, reaching down and intertwining his fingers with Neito's, finally looking over and meeting his eyes.
"Still," Neito said. "We've been inseparable since middle school. We should have known."
"Please excuse my saying so," the newscaster said. "But Toga has not lasted so long as a free villain without being very talented and skilled. I think it's easy to look from the outside and say, 'that could never happen to me,' until, quite frankly, it does. Chargebolt is the public face of Endeavor's agency, so it would be easy for anyone to get a good feel for his personality and mannerisms. I would also say that it's easier to replicate the personality of such a bright and happy person."
Reluctantly, the Pro Heroes nodded.
"That's why we need him out," Neito said. "Now. He's never done anything wrong. He's the best hero ever, and he doesn't deserve to be punished for anything, let alone being locked up in Tartarus over a mistake."
Hitoshi nodded his agreement, picking up steam. "Right. And now they're saying that they can't be sure either way, but the Chargebolt in there hasn't transformed back into Toga, and there's a Toga out here on the outside, and the Chargebolt that came back with us is gone. I don't know what more proof they need to give us our boyfriend back!"
"Boyfriend?" the newscaster inquired.
"That's right," Neito said, stepping forward. "Maybe it's discrimination! We're good heroes, aren't we?! So, what does it matter that Mind Jack and I are soulmates and also love Chargebolt just as much as we love each other? Whose business is that? Are they doing this to separate us?! Why is that so wrong?! Who are we hurting?!" Neito continued, growing more and more hysterical as he continued until he collapsed, sobbing. Hitoshi fell right along with him, holding him close, and squeezing his eyes shut to hold off his own tears.
"The public deserves to know," the newscaster said, speaking directly to the camera. "Who exactly is being held in Tartarus right now: the villain Toga, or beloved hero Chargebolt? What is the reason that this has not been resolved already? Could it be discrimination against something as pure as love? A conspiracy to keep three separated? Tune in tonight for channel six exclusive updates or follow live updates on our website."
"Fucking hell," the man repeated, reaching for the remote to turn the volume back down to it's low rumble. What else was there to say?
Reluctantly, the man visited channel six's website, and already there were comments pouring in, raging against any and all authority over Tartarus and heroes in general. Some were pissed that the heroes had to out their relationship in the first place to have anything done about it, stating that heroes deserve to have privacy, too.
While not many people kept up with Mind Jack after he left UA, people loved Phantom Thief's personality and versatility, and everyone absolutely loved Chargebolt. There was no way that this was going to go away quietly, not now.
The man stood up, feeling like he aged fifty years in five minutes, and headed toward the board room for the meeting. He took some deep breaths and prayed that Tartarus had treated Chargebolt well.
When he entered the board room and saw pictures of Chargebolt in the infirmary with a black eye and busted lip, people already arguing over whether or not he deserved it based on if he was actually Chargebolt or not, he could have screamed. Maybe he did scream, actually, based on the way everyone stopped and looked at him with wide eyes. The room was finally silent.
"Let's begin," he said.
His throat hurt a little. He definitely screamed.
There was a lot of back and forth as everyone got up to speed with all of the information that was known. Then it was time for ideas to be offered.
At one point, one agent said, "well, Chargebolt didn't go to the press after we tried to recruit him while he was still at UA."
"What?" Nato practically snarled. "That's against the contract you have with UA."
"Yeah," another agent said, tapping her long nails against the tabletop in boredom. "He knew that, too."
Nato took a deep breath. Then another. Then another.
When the first agent opened his mouth to speak, Nato deadpanned, "shut the fuck up." The agent wisely did as he was told.
After a good two minutes of deep breathing, Nato said, "I'm ready to start hearing suggestions and brainstorming. Before we start, I'm putting rules in place. If it's illegal or against a contract that is already in place, the agent who suggests it is going to stand in the corner for five minutes."
"You can't—"
"Corner."
"But—"
"Corner," Nato repeated, pointing his finger in the direction of the preferred corner that the agent should put his nose in.
After a brief staring competition, the agent did as he was told.
"Our contract says that you'll do as I say, so going against what I say is breach of contract, which means you stand in the corner. This isn't a democracy, as all of you have eagerly taken advantage of. Now you're all going to know how it feels to be on the inferior end of the pecking order. Am I understood?"
Reluctantly, everyone nodded and averted their gazes.
"Great!" Nato chirped with sarcastic enthusiasm that made those closest to him flinch. "Now let's get started, shall we?"
What Nato, the agents at the Hero Public Safety Commission, and many other major hero agencies and their staff didn't see due to being in the middle of their own major meetings, was what happened right after the commercial break.
When the cameras went down, Hitoshi and Neito thanked channel six staff for helping them out, and channel six was glad to do it, even though some of them were a little concerned about how different Hitoshi and Neito were on camera versus off. As soon as the cameras were off, they wiped the tears away, stood up, stretched, and cracked their backs, and were talking and bantering with those around them like nothing was wrong.
They weren't sure what was going on, but channel six loved Denki. He treated them great, and even showed them favoritism from time to time, so anything that would benefit Denki, even if it wasn't the 100% the truth, was actually fine with them.
"Is he really your boyfriend?" one of the camera women asked.
"Yeah. Has been since high school," Hitoshi said, accepting a bottle of water with a nod of thanks from the van driver.
"Oh…"
"You're wondering why we seem to be fine, then," Neito said. It wasn't a question.
The woman shrugged. "It's none of my business, so I didn't ask."
I'm beggin', beggin' you, so put your loving hand out, baby…
"He's the friendliest, most outgoing person I've ever met," Neito answered anyway. "He makes friends with everyone, basically. Everyone loves him, heroes and villains alike, because he treats everyone with dignity and respect. Plus, he's a damn good hero, and he can take care of himself."
"You sound like you speak from experience," the woman commented with a knowing smile.
"He's given us quite a few heart attacks in the past, yes," Hitoshi quipped with a laugh. "It always works out, though."
At that moment, there was a loud crash behind them. The heroes and the crew turned around to watch a section of the roof of Tartarus crumble. They stood there, wide eyed and silent. A few seconds later, flashes of lighting started to emit out from the new hole in the building. Hitoshi and Neito swore and started running forward. The camera crew started to run the cameras again.
Before they even made it ten steps in, there was a flash of bright light and a crack of thunder. Hitoshi and Neito tracked the lightning through the daytime sky, straining their eyes to see the lightning head west, so that is the direction they headed in, too.
-.-.-
The day after Toga's visit was when the guards started acting more hesitantly with Denki, and he knew that they were finally starting to question if he was really Toga or maybe telling the truth about being Chargebolt. They were muttering their commands and still shoving him around some, but not as forcefully. They were interacting with him as little as humanly possible and avoiding eye contact.
Denki figured that it was time, so he sang his alert song the second he was alone long enough to do so to start to get his exit plan in motion.
What he didn't expect was for them to try to continue to kill him, anyway, even suspecting that he might really be Chargebolt.
The guards still lined him up that morning to receive his daily dose of quirk nullifying injection, and the nurse still used a larger than necessary needle, in Denki's opinion, so at least that wasn't any different.
After he ate the barely edible mush they called lunch and played a few rounds of various card games as he made his way around the tables during recreational time, chatting with the inmates and gathering more evidence against the place, he was beckoned over to the door.
When he asked where they were going, they wouldn't answer him. When they shoved him yet again through another door with it locking behind him with a click, he stumbled into the room only to find an empty room with only Full Throttle in it.
Full Throttle had been sitting on the floor with his back against the concrete brick wall but jumped to standing when Denki was introduced to the room.
"You can't lock us in here together—" Full Throttle started to protest, but his words died on his lips as the doors locked behind Denki. He quickly realized that no one cared about his rights and whether he knew them or not. He apparently wouldn't be alive long enough to complain that they were violated if the guards had anything to say about it.
"Listen, Toga," Full Throttle started, backing away from her with his hands up to show that he didn't want to fight. "I swear I didn't know that Chargebolt was under the League's protection. I'm not stupid or reckless! I'm just ignorant and uniformed, okay?"
"I'm not actually Toga," Denki admitted. "I'm Chargebolt."
"And I'll support that. I'll tell the guards that I believe that, okay? Whatever you want. I just think we don't need to be enemies here. Us trying to kill each other would just be giving them what they want, you know? We already have it rough enough as it is with the guards after us," Full Throttle said, gesturing vaguely toward Denki's face to indicate the bruising. "Uh… how have you been, by the way? Are you okay? You know what—never mind. I shouldn't have asked. It's none of my business. Sorry."
"Kill each other?" Denki repeated, circling back.
Full Throttle paled. He sighed, dragging a hand down his face. "Well, you killing me. We already know how this would end if it came down to it, yeah?"
"It wouldn't be very heroic of me to kill somebody," Denki said lightly.
Full Throttle looked at him then. Really looked at him.
"Chargebolt?"
"That's what I've been trying to tell you!" Denki said.
"Huh," Full Throttle said, and just continued to look at Denki like he had never seen anything quite like him before. "Sucks to be us."
Denki laughed, found a spot against the wall, and slid down against it to sit on the floor. After a hesitant moment, Full Throttle did the same on the other side of the room.
"You really did take Toga's place, then," Full Throttle said. "Or did you just play along so I wouldn't catch on while we were locked together in that truck?"
"Maybe a little of both," Denki said, "for the truck part, at least. I totally saved Toga's ass back there, though! It was a team effort, so I can't take all the credit. We—"
"I'm sorry," Full Throttle said suddenly.
"What?" Denki asked dumbly.
"For what I said in the truck about you not coming to her rescue, when obviously you did. It was a low blow anyway because I thought there was no way for you to actually do that, and yet here you are. You're something else completely, and I regret targeting you at all."
"I'm sorry, too," Denki said with a nod.
"For what?" Full Throttle asked incredulously.
"For making fun of your villain name," Denki said with a nod.
Full Throttle laughed for the first time since he was shoved into that damn truck. It was funny, too, he thought, because the last time he laughed before that was because of Denki, too.
"Apology accepted, though I do think you had my best interests in mind. Do you have any suggestions for an updated name if I ever make it out of here?" Full Throttle asked.
Denki hummed. "Depends on if you want to continue to be a villain or if you want to take a vigilante or hero route, really."
"What?"
"Eleven would be cool."
"Wait! Back up! First of all, Eleven is that girl from Stranger Things—"
"Oh, so you know about Stranger Things, but you don't know that Chargebolt is under the protection of the League of Villains, huh? Likely story!" Denki teased.
"Second of all," Full Throttle continued, completely ignoring Denki's interjection, though he couldn't help the smile on his face, "I'm already a villain. A villain can't wake up one day and decide to be a hero instead."
"Why not?" Denki asked.
Full Throttle squinted at Denki from across the room. "You're actually serious?"
"Of course! My friend and colleague, Pro Hero Deku, is great at quirk analysis! He would be able to give you great options about where you'd fit in perfectly!"
"Even if anyone could just overlook my past—"
"It's been done before," Denki chirped.
Full Throttle rolled his eyes. "—my quirk takes two weeks to recharge after I use it. Every time. I would be useless."
"I think we should leave that for the professional analyzer to decide, don't you think?"
"But—"
"That's what professionals are for, of course."
"You—"
"I liked you before," Denki said. "But I like you even more now that we're on more equal footing. This is nice."
Full Throttle snorted but didn't disagree.
"I don't know how I didn't see it before. You're not anything like I imagined Toga to be," Full Throttle said, crossing his legs in front of him and leaning back against the wall.
Denki barked out a laugh. "I definitely thought I blew my cover with every word out of my mouth on the way here! But as soon as we got here, I told the guards and nurses and everyone that I'm actually me, but of course they didn't believe me. I couldn't tell them that I'm Toga though, or that would come back on me once I get out of here. I'm pretty sure they've figured out I'm not Toga now, though, or at least they suspect it. But now they shove me in here with you, anyway? If they weren't dosing us all up with quirk nullification drugs, I'd truly believe that they were trying to kill me!"
It seemed like a long time before Full Throttle spoke again. He just stared across the vast expanse of the empty room, the glare of the fluorescent lights harsh on their eyes.
"They haven't given me a single dose."
A/N: Songs used in this chapter:
Jingle Bells
Beggin' – Måneskin
