Chapter 26
"There's a party in this one"
Alarice arrived at the agency for work as normal. Though Fatgum refused to explain what the night job was going to be.
So the day went by as a normal patrol, with the average stopping of criminals. By evening it was time to get 'ready' to head to the job. Alarice following behind, like the dutiful little dog-duckling she was, heading to the large, convention-center sized building. Flags advertising a musical artist's show were hanging everywhere the closer they got, and decorating the building of course.
They headed towards the back of the building.
"Are.. I don't understand, are we going to be bouncers or something?" Alarice asked as they headed into the building, past workers and people setting up for the show.
"Somethin' like that. We're heading to meet up with the other Hero who called us in... or the one I responded to, anyway", Fatgum explained vaguely, a smile still on his face, though the big grin had a mischievous slant to it, Alarice noted. "Heros have a network we can use to ask for help on. Anyway, ye'll find out more when we meet up with the Hero we're helpin out."
Alarice nodded quietly, and continued on their quiet walk, till they got let into a back room, another hero-looking person was settled into the couch. A lady with purplish hair that Alarice didn't recognize at all. She simply nodded politely to the woman, who returned the nod. After a very brief moment an individual walked in, who looked like the person on the posters. Someone else followed behind her...
Was her English teacher, Present Mic.
"Heyy The help I asked for made it!" He announced for himself proudly, resting one closed fist on his hip while the woman, next to him, all done up for the show looked anxious.
"Thank you all for coming to help me out. Mic is being far to generous to me." The woman said gently, looking immensely nervous despite clearly being dressed for the performance tonight. "I am Shimizu Shinju, I am the artist behind the show tonight, it is nice to meet you all."
"It's no big deal Shimizu, or rather, Soundwing!, I can explain the whole thing if you want!" Mic took over, with no problem as befit his personality, the woman nodded, despite being the star. "The lovely lady here, has asked for help so she can continue her show, as she's been receiving threats from an ex-lover in regards to this show. Threatening ones, in fact! Now, while the police are looking into it, we're gonna make sure this individual doesn't get into the show! Capiche? Here's a picture of the guy by the way." Mic handed out a picture of a rather bland looking individual to the group. Dark hair, pale skin, bland face... but the eyes were solid black. He looked like a bug. A very boring bug.
"What's his quirk?" the purple haired woman asked. Looking to Mic and Soundwing. "I'm assuming he threatened to use it or some other thing?"
"Well, he did, among other things." Soundwing answered, She moved to the little desk behind them and pulled out a stack of papers. She continued her answer as she did so. "He has a.. I think its an enlargement quirk? I only saw it once or twice, and he always threw up heavily, afterwards.. these are what he has sent me." She handed them out to the Heros, except Mic, who probably had already read them.
"This guy sounds like a real piece of work..." Fatgum stated, flipping through the few letters he got handed. The purple haired hero nodded in agreement. "Some of these threats are really serious ones."
Soundwing nodded to the comments. "Thats why, I asked Present Mic to come MC for me," Said man gestured emphatically to himself, of course. "That way, I could have a Hero nearby, even after I had contacted the police."
"And then I asked for assistance at crowd management! Can't be every where at once! The show has go on!" Mic smiled broadly. Alarice stuck her hand up, before he could continue. He pointed at her of course, though she could see the tugs of smile on his face.
"Excuse me, but, do you have anything that might have this guy's scent on it?" Alarice asked, Focusing on the task at hand vs the fact she was getting some looks over the request.
"His... scent?" Soundwing looked perplexed, but recovered quickly, grabbing one of the envelopes from the bag of criminal evidence. "I think... this? It uh... has some of his hair inside."
The woman handed the envelope over to Alarice, who took the item, noted the letter inside. The room of Heros and one Musician tried to get back to its discussion on what to do, when Alarice stuck her whole face in, and inhaled deeply. As if she was trying to snort the contents up her nose like a line of cocaine. Not really noticing the silence, she shifted into a were-hound and did it a second time. This time she had a little bit of a sneeze on top. When she stopped, she noticed Fatgum's very amused look, and he gave her a thumbs up.
When she handed it back she noticed the slightly awkward stares in her direction, from Soundwing, the other Hero, and even Mic. "I uh, should be able to smell them now when they get near."
"Now we got more than just one sense to count on when lookin' out for this trouble maker." Fatgum was hardly bothered, more like proud. "Alright well, Mic where you do you want us at ?"
"You'll be at the front big man, you and Arariel both!~"
000
And they were, Alarice trying to appear more calm than she was. Even though she could hear her favorite hero's voice quite clearly through the walls. Perhaps that was because her ears had elongated up and into hell-hound ones. Mostly the night was going really smoothly, besides one upset person whose ticket turned out to be completely fake, and a mom who had long since had enough with their kid's behavior. She was also pretty sure she saw a familiar face she didn't like, in the crowd. Or at least, they just looked a lot like Gale.
Fatgum was also getting a fair amount of attention, and he was using some of that Hero status to calm some of the more rowdy guests, as they had to wait to get into the building. The show didn't start for another half-hour or so, but seating was taking a lot longer than anticipated.
Even once everyone was in, the fact there were at-least two very well known Pro Heros and a well-known musician with a sold-out show playing, meant there were still crowds outside, hoping for a chance spot, or just a slip-up by security. Perhaps a glance of the show or a whisper of it, too. Alarice admittedly was in the slightly latter category, though she was splitting her focus a little, sniffing for any scent of the man causing trouble.
"I don't see anything, and all the scents of perfumes and stuff make it hard to tell... Fat, can I use my were-hound to keep better track and circle the roof? It'd be a lot easier for me to scent him out if he's nearby at all." Alarice suggested, looking up to the large Pro Hero, puppy eyes at bay, a little apprehensiveness but determination in those weird eyes of hers.
"That sounds fine to me, I'll circle on the ground." The big guy conceded, relaying that across the radio earpiece he had on, before nodding to his little intern, who grew marginally in size and furryness. Even accepting a toss to expedite getting her onto the roof. After making sure her own little earpiece had stayed on her big ears.
She landed with some amount of grace on the roof, cat like and such. Crawling along the rim while her boss walked below, sniffing the air and taking in all the scents on her much improved olfactory system. The wind was harsher too up there. Her ears pricked and she darted over to one of the corners on the west side of the building.
"What are ya smellin' up there Arariel?"
"I think its our stalker, approaching from the northwest, he's upwind of me." Her voice growled back over the intercom. "What do you want me to do?"
"Stay up there for now, if he's got an enlargement quirk, ya bein' up there will have an element of surprise for us." Fat acknowledged, hearing her weird, noise of confirmation, and noting that her form up on the roof, backed off from the edge to further hide herself. He radioed over what his intern had reported, the other purple haired hero stated that they, as yet, didn't have any visual confirmation on that.
The tension was thick, for Alarice, it made her feel like she was made of rock. Holding so still and waiting for the moment she was either presented an opportunity or called into action. One of the two would occur. The third was also possible that the cops would have him nabbed extremely quickly.
"This is Haze! I've got a villain on me right now!" Called the purple haired hero from earlier, The wind was audible through her own ear piece. "It's not him!"
"Damn, there's two?!" She heard Fatgum swear from the ground.
"I've got 'em! Keep an eye out for our trouble-maker!" She heard Mic call over, in response to the other hero's distress call.
Alarice noted the shift in the wind, to a few flags on the other side of the building. Whoever they were fighting must have had some sort of air related quirk...
She snapped back to reality at the sounds of shouts from below, and there were several pops and smoke was already filling the air. Burning her nose on contact, and making her want to drop her form, instead pushing herself into full hound, where her adaption would be working at full force. She dropped down from the roof as she saw the man's quirk activate, making him larger. He was screaming for Soundwing in a sad desperate call.
She landed on the mans back and they both tumbled to the ground. She heard Fatgum shouting, but as they both landed hard on the concrete below, she noticed he had continued to grow. He was getting huge! How big could his enlargement quirk take him?! She only came up to the Stalker-Villain's knee now!
"Don't let him grab ya, Arariel!" she heard Fatgum yell, and she barely scrambled back on all fours, not fully understanding why. Till she felt the stranger grab just her tail, and suddenly, she realized. She was a lot smaller! "He steals the size of others, so he can grow!"
Fatgum made some unintelligible noise, before he took a swing at the man's stomach, which was now bizarrely eye level for the already enormous Fatgum. An attempt to 'touch' him failing as fist connected with stomach and the Villain stumbled back, groaning in pain. He looked sick top of it.
Alarice scrambled to try and continue to participate, even as the villain reached for Fatgum too. The smaller hell-hound sinking teeth into his ankle, Trying to help knock him down and stop him from interfering any further with the event! Or stealing any one else's mass!
000
While Alarice and Fatgum were taking care of the would-be villain with a troublesome quirk, Mic was dealing with a more polished Villain.
He threw his arms up in guard of his face, the purple haired heroine was on the ground behind him, unconscious and bleeding. He was bleeding too, as the ripping wind around him tore at his own tough leather jacket, digging deep past the protective layers. He let out a hiss of pain, before a letting out a short burst of noise that disrupted the razor sharp winds trapping him.
"So, did he talk you into crashing the party with some kind of sob story or what, wicked witch?" Despite the fact she'd wounded him, and proved to be a deadly villain, Mic still managed a light tone.
"Who?" The other responded back, before smiling manically back at him. "Ohhhh! Nah, he's just an excuse to have some fun with such a commendable pro!"
She threw up an intense tornado force, even if it only affected 10 feet. With a smaller center that was some what unaffected in the interior. The small window chamber effectively reduced the strength of Mic's voice attack. With Mic's voice he could disrupt the wind-users quirk, but similarly she could use it to block his attacks.
"Fine then, you wanna give yourself a name?" Mic danced back from a burst, and canceling it out again.
"Nah, I already got one," She threw down another, this time catching him in it's eye! "I'm the Knight of Skys!"
"A knight huh?!" He couldn't help but smirk back at her proud, maniacal grin. "Is that really the best name you could have?" Laughter seemed to trail that, killing her Tornado once again. Followed by a sharp inhale, and of course, Release. This shout was loud, as any good voice attack should be, but, where this particular move excelled, was duration. Letting out one big yell was one thing, and people could say that Mic could talk for hours, (or even your ear off), but he could definitely scream for a solid minute. (And your ear might actually come off)
The sound rattled windows, made small objects bounce and vibrate on the ground. Killed Knight of Sky's tornado, and also, the one she threw up to defend herself. Forcing her to focus on protecting her ears, as even her bones felt the sound waves. Mic kept up his attack up till he saw her run, cutting it off and gave chase, alongside a few other police peeps.
"I don't want the last thing I hear to be your shitty singing voice!" Sky barked out, running off into a narrow alley way. Using her quirk to boost her speed, launching herself over a wall. Mic and the small group of pursuers scrambled to get over the wall, or around, to catch the Knight of Sky, only to have to painfully admit they'd lost her incredibly quick into the chase.
Heading back, the responding paramedics were already taking care of the purple haired woman. The regular, hired -n door guards looked concerned and waited for Mic's signal that they were done. Which he non-verbally gave, before collecting a few Medics himself. "There was another villain, had a wind-type quirk, on the west side of the building." He told them, a few of them trying to get him to stop moving so they could treat his wound.
When he eventually did stop, looking rather bothered that they wanted to treat his wounds. You couldn't even see them under the black leather! Not to mention he had a spare coat inside! It was fine! The laceration on his leg was wrapped and treated with a few stitches on-site in the little ambulance truck. But his arm's scratches were far more minor, there were just a few of them. So his arms were wrapped up and what was left of his Jacket pulled down over them. He wanted to know how Pupper and Fatgum had done with the Stalker.
As he came around the corner, he saw the enlarged figure of the guy on the ground, and a small dog sitting on top of him. Growling? Looked fine too.. Where was..?"
"OH noooo, Arariel is that you!?" He shouted out, not being able to hide his mirth that the tiny looking dog was actually Alarice. The little skull-headed hound huffed at him audibly. "What happened ?!" He couldn't stop a few more giggles from escaping.
"He had a size-stealing quirk." Fatgum explained. "Arariel got hit a few times, but it should wear off in a few hours... I keep tellin' her she should try to transform back but she keeps shakin' her head."
"Arariel can you transform back?" Mic leaned over to ask the slightly larger than a 15 pound dog, hell-hound. She shook her head. "Is that a 'No you won't', or a 'No you can't'? Two shakes for won't, one for can't."
One shake.
"Ohhhh Arariel-listener this just such a sight!, you look so adorably small. Weird. But adorable." Mic riffled into his pockets to retrieve his phone. Ignoring, with a smile of course, all the wild noises she was making that probably counted as 'throwing a fit'. He was definitely having a laugh at her expense. Fatgum barely hid that he also was finding it somewhat amusing.
"Despite the mini Hell-hound we got the guy taken care of, now we're just waitin' for the effects of his quirk to wear-off on both of 'em." Fatgum stated, picking Alarice up off the guy like you would a small dog, and carefully putting her on the ground. She definitely looked out of place, and pissed about being so small.
"Haze is being treated, we got attacked by another villain, supposedly un-related to this guy's attack, on the other side. " Mic informed his fellow heros and one mini student. "Unfortunately she escaped."
"That's a shame, any villain ya recognized?"
"No, I don't know who she was..." Mic admitted, going into thought for a moment. "I'll send you a description too, in case you run into her later. She's got a nasty wind quirk, it'll rip the skin right off. Called her self the Knight of Skys if that rings any bells." And fuck up your carefully done updo, as a few bunches of blonde hair were flopped over.
As Mic got the description down, passing it immediately to Fatgum and it being distributed to any cops who hadn't seen the fight. Mic noted in his peripheral vision, Alarice nearly getting stepped on as she scrambled back. He scooped one arm under Little Alarice's hound body, and held her up off the ground. Her legs dangled unceremoniously as he held her under one arm. She wiggled them in attempt to not be held like this.
"What? Do you want to be a pair of Hell-hound shoes? I just saved you from getting stepped on!" Mic defended, while she wiggled her legs almost in argument, looking up at him, wafting flame-like smoke billowing out of her eyes. "Do you mind if I hold on to to the mini-hound?" He asked, almost like he was teasing, all teeth, to Fatgum.
"Hah, that little dog delivers a fierce bite even at that size, so more like I'd be careful holdin' her." He chuckled as Alarice wiggled again before just letting her legs all dangle limply, though her tail's hand was gripping onto leather, in the off chance Mic dropped her.
"I take that's how you toppled this big boy?" Mic asked.
"Ya got it!, had to use a car, unfortunately, to trip him, but that bite was enough to get his attention on somethin' else, and then POW!" Fatgum enthusiastically described the story, the two Heros making finger guns at each other. Stopping as a loud crescendo of noise erupted from the building, Mic's smile turning to something softer and more honest.
"And Soundwing's show is in full swing..."
000
Alarice remained as a tinyfied hell-hound for longer than she would have liked. She was sure the cops who had been hit were feeling the same. Similarly for those waiting for the guy to size back down so they could easily transport him. How much easier it would have been to have a quirk-canceller on hand!
She'd been sitting on the table, looking like a weird little statue, when Soundwing came back in. Fascinated by this tiny Hell-hound, right before Alarice jumped off the table, and awkward shift from were-hound to normal girl again took place, just in time to save the table. Alarice looked back at her with dinner plate eyes. "excuse me"
"I wanted to thank you all, before I went to the after party, for protecting my show. I'm having flowers sent to Haze." Shimizu said, with a pleased smile, little relieved tears at the corners of her eyes. "You're also.. all welcome to come to the after party if you want!"
"Ooohh After Party! I'm all for it Soundwing!" Mic chirped before, realizing the time, and the puppy-eyed look his student was giving him. "Lucky for you pupper, you're on break! But it is up to your mentor..."
Fatgum gave no indication he was opposed to them going to an after party.