Two weeks later the five lieutenants stood in the bar. The time had just passed 1:30 in the morning, they all were staring at the hero suspect and target boards where Endeavor's name was crossed out on the hero side and rewritten under target. "We have to do this where everyone can see it."
"The Billboard awards." Dabi said. "They already have a huge following."
Fais nodded slowly. "Turn his triumph into his undoing?"
Dabi nodded "Exactly, It's the perfect place to show the country just how screwed up the hero world can be, show them the monsters they put on these ridiculous pedestals while true heros work without the need for recognition or any of those stupid rankings."
"Cold, even for you." Fais mused.
"This one hits close to home." Dabi hissed, basically calling dibs on running the take down, Fais sighed at his emotional reaction.
"I'm guessing you want to run point on this?" Dabi nodded. "Anyone have an issue with it?" Fais asked looking around the room, none of them had an objection, which in hindsight should have tipped Fais off that the Lieutenants were planning something. "Ok, just don't let your emotions get into this, that's how we end up with a botched operation. If at any point I think you can't handle this I will order you to stand down. Is that understood?"
"Understood." Dabi nodded, convinced Fais would thoroughly approve of the plan he'd started unrolling. He locked eyes with Tarnish who nodded understanding what Dabi wanted him to do.
"Fais." Tarnish turned to the smaller hooded form. Fais turned toward the lavender eyed man, "I found an odd report that went to the council this last week."
"Oh?" Fais questioned "What was it?"
"It was a report that was signed by a hero that as far as I've seen isn't up on our board. They took down that whore house on the river a mile down or so."
"A hero not on our board?" Fais asked "We have all active heros working out of agencies on this board."
"I know" Tarnish acknowledged "That's why this threw me off. I asked a few contacts about the hero who signed the reports, turns out they don't work out of an agency, and they don't normally take work as a citizen facing hero."
"Interesting, who is it?"
"So far I don't have much, just a few reports and names including a hero name, Corpus Iuris, but then it gets interesting they seem to have 3 last names, each more confusing than the last. But it's enough to have me interested."
"Isn't that the hero that was part of the One for All take down?" Slade asked, her eyes widening at the name, Dabi nodded, that was the only 1 of the 4 heroes involved in the take down that hadn't made it into the top 25 of the rankings that year. In fact Corpus Iuris hadn't even made the top 75; she came in at 87th and hadn't been ranked since.
"That is one of the many huge operations she has been a part of," Tarnish nodded.
"Why haven't we come across this name before?"
"She seems to keep out of the spotlight, she teaches a theory class at UA one of the most popular ones and has voiced a general upset with the way things are currently being run by the council." Tarnish said. "The classes are recorded and alumni can access them as well as the students. She has a very unique perspective"
"You mentioned three names? What makes them so confusing?" Liqui asked her head tilting,
"Because each carries a huge amount of weight, but all together, she may be one of the most influential heros our world has ever seen by name alone."
Kerra's eyes widened. "How have we never heard of her."
"Probably because she doesn't want to be heard of," Fais mused "Someone with that much influence can probably choose to fly under the radar"
Tarnish nodded. "That's exactly why, she is All Might's God-daughter to start with, She is married to Shoto Todoroki current number 2 hero, her parents are Koichi Henkan, Anatom and Riona Murphy, Regime, the current top duo ranking still at 15, but this also makes her a Murphy by blood, and they have extended her the family name, putting her on par with the rest of the Murphy family, but rumors have circulated that she is the strongest of them."
"Sounds like you've already done a fair amount of work, Tarnish." Fais laughed as tarnish shrugged, looking away rubbing the back of his neck with the tinge of embarrassment for being called out.
"I was interested in the subject, it's not often that a Hero of that ability and prowess goes undetected for as long as she has." Tarnish admitted. "I want to know if there are any dirty secrets though.. There has to be a reason she isn't operating in the open."
"Very well, lets add her to our board and look into this matter. " Fais nodded walking over to the board adding the name to the board as well as a question mark. "So is one week enough time for that Tarnish?" Tarnish nodded.
"Yes it should be."
"Alright one week, Dabi, I want a plan by then about how you plan to take down Endeavor." Fais instructed receiving a nod from the black haired man. The lieutenants nodded and exited, Fais stood in the middle of the room filing the folders, their head dropped slamming into the cabinet drawer "Fuck." Fais snarled punching the wall next to the cabinet.
"Hey Love!" Aydin called to the man next to her, as a knock was heard at the door. "Can you get that?"
"Of course." Shoto said, washing his hands and kissing her cheek before going to answer the door, "Should I bring Takea?"
"No. I'll bring her out with me, we should give her favorite uncle some time to relax before she takes over and takes him away from us for the whole evening." Aydin mused pushing her back into her husband's chest briefly before he moved to answer the door.
"Ok" he agreed, grabbing 4 beers from the fridge opening one and setting it next to her before moving into the other room to answer the door. Aydin was just finishing up with dinner when the tv in the other room was suddenly turned up.
"Aydin!" Shoto yelled from the living room.
"Yes love?"
"You uhh, you might want to get in here."
Aydin rolled her eyes and turned off the stove scooping Takea off the ground along with her sippy cup and teddy bear before walking into the living room. She grabbed her beer from the counter and walked into the other room. "Yes love?" She asked setting Takea on the floor as she squealed and attacked Bakago's legs scrambling up to sit with him and Izuku on the couch. Shoto just stared wide eyed at the tv pointing at it, Aydin looked at the tv which was showing commercials.
"Well we just had it on in the background, when the headline cut in, it was a picture of you, and we stopped talking,-" Izuku rambled making no sense.
"Anyone care to translate?" Aydin laughed cutting him off, she shook her head in amusement at the fluffy green haired man that was trying to explain.
The blond next to him staring at him with a look that mirrored hers of confusion and amusement. "Normally I'm pretty fluent in Deku but I don't even know what that was." Bakago laughed, earning a grumpy pout from the smaller man followed by him sticking his tongue out at him childishly. "Hey don't go sticking that out unless you're prepared to use it." Bakago challenged.
"Ok and not in front of Takea, you two!" Aydin chided. "Izuku what were you trying to say? Why does Shoto look scared of the tv? Or like he's about to hurl it out the window? I'm not really sure which option he's leaning toward." she said looking quizzically back at Shoto.
Izuku took a breath before starting over. "Well the tv was on in the background and they were doing a weird special on underrated heroes. It's a special program they are showing before the Billboard voting opens tomorrow. The voting for new ranks has been the main thing the news has been on about the past few days." Izuku ran a hand through his hair fluffing it and flattening it at the same time. "They have been doing half hour special stories on heroes that deserve to be in the rankings that either haven't been ranked before or ones that deserve to be higher than they are. The stories started this morning with number 5 and have been winding down to the number 1 underrated hero. We just saw the little up next preview for the last part of the mini series, and you're going to be the one they feature." Izuku explained, chewing on the inside of his lip nervously. Aydin looked over Bakago for confirmation, to her dismay he just nodded.
"Shit." She hissed. "Well I guess we are going to need to watch to see just how bad this is." She sighed closing her eyes and shaking her head in disbelief that after being so precise the media was potentially going to undermine the carefully curated stealth platform she had built that had allowed her to operate as effectively as she did.
She sat down next to Shoto, her hand resting on his knee. "Hey we knew this was going to happen at some point. We haven't been hiding it completely, we just haven't been public about it."
"I know but I really would have liked to not have it outed like this. No control of the narrative." She curled around him, she didn't like this, she didn't have control over this, she had a plan and this wasn't it!
"Actually you may have some control." Izuku said, causing all of them to look over at him.
"Well don't go holding out on us now." Aydin said, turning to face Izuku her back against Shoto's chest, encouraging him to go on.
"They have a hotline you can call into during the show and comment so while it's not the most ideal way, if you need to rebuff something you have a way."
Shoto pulled Aydin closer against his chest, his head resting on her shoulder, he didn't like this feeling of turmoil he'd been feeling lately his gut was telling him that his life was about to get turned upside down. His grip tightened on Aydin's hip with the feeling of unease. Aydin leaned hard against him, her hand rubbing soothing circles on his arm feeling the tension in his body. "You ok?" She asked, they both knew things were changing, it was that uneasy feeling you get as the roller coaster climbs to its first drop in the dark, the one you can't see coming; she knew it was coming but she never would have guessed how steep it was going to be.
He didn't answer at first, just wrapping his arm around her, his arm crossing her chest, her body being pressed back against him. "I just have a bad feeling things are going to completely change soon and not for the better." Shoto mumbled against her neck, she could hear him though and she squeezed his bicep that was draped over and around her shoulder. Bakago leveled a steely gaze at the two, his mouth curling with annoyance.
Izuku ran a hand through the blonde's hair "Hey, Kaa-chan what's wrong?"
"Don't worry about it," Bakago sighed, his face still pulled into one of exasperated annoyance. He pulled the greenette over kissing the smaller man's temple. "It'll all come out soon enough." He grumbled, Izuku nodded curling his body into the larger man ruffling Takea's hair who cooed and nuzzled into her uncles as they cuddled up with her safely tucked between them.
Aydin nodded at Shoto's concerned words, settling back against his chest tension creeping across her shoulders at his words, she knew he was right, everything was going to be changing and it wasn't going to be easy. "I have that same feeling Love, but we will cross that bridge when we get to it."
Shoto just relaxed into her, they could get through this together.
The tv blared to life and Aydin's phone buzzed with a text 'Turn to Channel 5.'
Aydin texted back quickly 'Already watching it.'
"The count down to the number one underrated hero ends here! We have the hero who easily should be in the top 10 yet has never ranked higher than 87th!" The tv yelled as they watched a shadowy form of Aydin's hero form appear on the screen. "A hero who has been a part of multiple takedowns over the years and is one of the favorite teachers at UA!"
They watched as the tv talked about all the takedowns Aydin had helped with and been a key role in. They seemed to be counting down to the All for One take down.
"This brings us to the final and biggest reason she should be a constant in our Top 20 heros at least! We give you Corpus Iuris a currently undefined hero, but after today we are leaning toward her being the new face of our hero society! And if you have other reasons, call in we would love to hear your story about Corpus Iuris." The picture was fully in color now Aydin in her full costume black lightweight half sleeve kimono style top that remained open her chest covered by cloth wraps to keep everything in place while still allowing for excellent movement, wrist wraps that guarded her knuckles and helped with the force or her strikes, the mid thigh length lack skirt with a high slit that ran up one side to her hip allowing for mobility and maximum skin exposure since she did need to touch the villain for her quirk to be effective and mid calf high steel reinforced combat boots "While many remember the take down of All for One, it is a classically forgotten fact that Corpus Iuris was a part of this take down."
The screen flashed to the classic picture from that day the four of them were coming out of the building, Izuku was helping Bakago, and Shoto had been carrying Aydin out on his back, her eyes closed as she hissed with the movement from the migraine the fight had given her. Izuku's costume was completely shredded on one side, a few deep gashes were still viable on his torso. His arm was around Bakago though whose arm was over his shoulders as he hopped alone, one leg having been broken at the time. Bakago didn't look much better than his boyfriend in the picture, he only had one gauntlet on and one of his cross straps had been ripped as he was helped out of the building. Aydin was being carried by Shoto piggyback style, her face buried in his neck, her hair falling down the left side of his body in obvious auburn waves, her ponytail having fallen out. She had no wraps on her hands and only one boot on. Shoto didn't look much better, almost the entire left side of his costume was gone, unable to take the heat he'd produced that day. The four sat staring at the image. "That feels like a lifetime ago," Aydin breathed. "I barely remember that fight."
"Well you did have a vomit inducing migraine for the next week" Bakago snickered.
"Oh shut up, you didn't fare much better Sparky." Aydin snapped back. "You still favor your left side due to that shattered right leg he gave you."
"I've never gotten to that temperature level since" Shoto said "I think it burned out my top yield having to hold that level as long as we did."
"Yea I don't think any of us came away without some kind of lasting effect from that fight." Bakago sighed, earning nods from the others in the room, except for Takea who kept playing with her teddy bear.
"We can clearly see from this picture that Corpus Iuris was at the scene for this take down. With the knowledge that she is a Murphy by blood, one can only assume that she has some form of a manipulation quirk. Also in replaying the interviews of that day, our current top three all admit that they would not have succeeded without her. No interview was found from Corpus Iuris, this may be due to recoil from her quirk as was minimally suggested by Ground Zero's interview that day. So we give you our pick as the number one underrated hero, Corpus Iuris, the hero world's contingency plan. When things go south and you need a certain win, Corpus Iuris is who they call in. While she has in the past hung back in the Pro world it isn't from lack of ability Corpus Iuris hails from the Murphy family showing that she is used to the spotlight and has a very large backing in the hero world, with the Murphy family topping hero charts all over the world. If you have any other Corpus Iuris stories of your own we would love to hear them!"
Aydin groaned, "This is just great, lets have random people call in and comment on my life and my pro reputation."
"I'll call your parents see if they can take Takea for a few nights while we can sort this out." Shoto said, picking his phone up off the arm of the couch and hitting send on a number as Aydin nodded.
"That's probably for the best. That house has some of the best protections in the country. I'd rather not have to worry about her while we figure this out."
"We'll stay and help." Izuku said offering himself and Kaa-chan to help, Aydin nodded appreciating the help. Aydin's parents agreed to watch Takea for the next few days after Shoto told them about the show that was currently airing. They would come grab her when their shift ended that night.
"We have a caller with knowledge of a recent dealing that Corpus Iuris was a part of!" The host of the show practically crowed when the special came back from commercial "I hear you have knowledge of an incident we didn't cover."
"I do" the cool voice came across the television speaker. Bakago shifted in his seat, he knew that voice, but the person it belonged to was slipping his memory at the moment.
"And how did you find out about this incident?"
"I happened to be enjoying a cup of coffee and breakfast when she walked in, I didn't realize who she was at first. The girl behind the counter called her Todoroki or would have if she hadn't cut off the girl insisting she be called by the name she goes by at UA where she teaches one of the Theory Classes."
"How would you know that?"
"Well later she referenced her husband and I think I know my own last name and the name of my youngest brother when I hear them."
"Wait, are you saying that Shoto Todoroki is your brother?"
"Yes"
"And that Corpus Iuris is married to him?"
"Again yes, but I'm pretty sure that's not what I called to talk about." The voice was clipped, obviously annoyed with the turn towards gossip the call had taken. Shoto was frozen all eyes were wide and fixed on the screen, Aydin looked ready to murder someone with the stunt they were pulling her facial muscles twitching as if wanting to ring the caller's neck. Bakago looked away from the tv glancing back to watch his friend's reactions.
"Oh yes yes of course, what are we missing?"
"She got to talking with someone in the cafe," Aydin's glare increased if they was even possible, Bakago watched her curiously, she was not happy with this turn of events, and he had a name to the voice, Dabi, or Touya Todoroki a fact that he was sure very few people knew. Shoto looked like he was about to be sick, hearing his oldest brother's voice over the tv after so long not hearing him. "She was waiting for a pastry to be finished in the back, despite being so high profile between her family and the one she married into, she expected no special treatment she even waved it off when it was offered. It was refreshing to see a pro hero so dismissive of the special treatment that comes with the territory, especially in the house I was raised in for the first 19 years of my life. Endeavor never really was a hero type at home. A man walked in, he was scittish and he looked nervous, it wasn't the normal way people act when they walk in to get their morning coffee. Well she noticed that and got him to relax and start talking. I'd never seen someone genuinely care and talk to someone, I'd always seen the instant judgement and retribution side; it was interesting to watch her work, she didn't even flinch when the man pulled a gun on her, a situation that most people would have been frazzled by."
"Aydin?" Shoto growled.
"I told you about this, 2 weeks ago when I went to get breakfast, and I touched his hand already, he wasn't going to do anything" She waved his concern off.
"Next time at least tell me if there is a gun."
"Ok love, I will next time." She kissed his lips gently, effectively wiping the disapproving look off her husband's face, stroking his cheek as she cuddled back into his chest and arms.
"She got the man talking, he told her what was going on and by the time he left 20 minutes later she had planned pretty much the entire take down of the whore house on the river we heard about this morning. I just found it fitting that this story just came out and this show was going on about her yet the paper at no point mentioned Corpus Iuris."
"So what is your take on her potential role in the future of Hero society?"
"Well given that she is a current theory seminar teacher shows she should be at the forefront of our current society, she has the ability to truly look into what has been pulling apart the community from all sides and combat that growing distrust and the laws that hamper us all. In these trying times with the rise of Fais and this new surge of anti-hero press and groups forming, a person who doesn't focus on the limelight or even want it, is the perfect person to lead us forward. And as it has been shown she is strong enough to keep up with the best of our best and has an incredible streak of being a hero for the good of people instead of for personal benefit, I think anyone can agree that is something missing in our world."
"So you would like to see Corpus Iuris rise to be a force in our world that changes it for the better."
"That is exactly what I want to see. I want to see the rise of the true heros with this year's Billboards and the fall of those who are only heros when the public is watching them."
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"Turn in to the Billboard awards and see," The voice said calmly before hanging up.
They all sat in silence as the show ended. Shoto finally moved from his place behind Aydin. "I'm going to go pack Takea's bag." he said, moving almost zombie-like out the door.
"I'll go help." Izuku said, following Shoto up the stairs to Takea's room with the little girl bouncing her on his hip.
"I'll be right back. I need some water." She left the room. Bakago heard her moving around in the kitchen, followed by a scream "Fuck!" and a loud thud as he could only assume she had kicked a cabinet, he couldn't help but laugh at the auburn haired girl's antics. Her phone buzzed next to him, a message popped up on the screen, 'Phase 2?' Aydin walked back in handing him a glass of water sitting down next to him on the couch, her head immediately burying itself in her hands as she stared at the floor. Bakago shook his head chuckling and pulled her sideway into his side in one of his few and far between shows of concern and comfort for his friend as he flipped through channels. "Are you hungry?" She asked quietly.
"Don't worry about that right now, I'm sure Izuku will handle it when they get down, he's a nervous cook. Your phone went off though." he said allowing her to lean forward and grab it. She opened it up messaging back 'We will talk later.' she typed back "Nezu?" Bakago questioned looking at her with a challenging look that told her he knew exactly what was going on. She stared at him, her eyes wide for a moment before the sound of feet on stairs snapped her out of her shock.
"Oh talking to Nezu would be a good idea." Izuku said as he and Shoto walked back in with Takea and a few bags, they dropped the bags by the door before retreating to the kitchen.
"Oh uh yea, it would be." Aydin agreed before hissing to Bakago. "How long?"
"A month" he shrugged.
"And"
"Better you than anyone else. You've been planning this for a while, now it's actually happening."
Aydin sat still stunned by everything she'd just heard, before nodding. "Yea, but I'd really like to have done it on my terms." She buried her head in his stomach "UGHHHH! WHY!" She yelled her voice muffled by his black sweatshirt causing him to start laughing as he ruffled her hair.
"Chill out puppeteer," he laughed again, " Also it took me all of about 3 days to come to terms with it."
"How did you do that?" She asked, sitting up leaning back into his chest, his arm over her shoulders.
"Uh, remembered your senior theory project," he said, smirking as he looked down at her. "Phase 1, Phase 2, Phase 3, Result: Change the World. Or at least I believe it went something like that."
"Oh." They sat quietly watching the tv for a bit in a rare moment of silence between the two friends.
The doorbell rang and she got up grabbing the door opening it to her Mom and Dad, her mother sweeping in and yanking her into her arms. Her father guided the two into the house closing the door behind him scooping his squealing granddaughter up off the floor who had come charging out of the kitchen, Shoto having shown her who was at the door, throwing her small arms around the hazel green eyed man's neck. "What happened?" Riona asked pulling Aydin into the kitchen, the others followed, Shoto was back at the stove, hovering over Izuku who was reheating the forgotten food Aydin had left in the kitchen just an hour ago.
Shoto hopped up onto the counter Aydin reacting to his open arms beckoning her to him, she curled into him her head nuzzling into his neck her hands squeezing his waist her hands twisting in his tee shirt. He stroked her hair, kissing her forehead as he soothed her nerves rubbing her back with the other hand. Aydin's mother stood next to her watching the semi regular ritual of one of the two sitting on the counter acting as the others comfort and rock. Riona leaned back against her husband engaging with Takea playing with the little girl who always enjoyed her grandfather's long hair even though all she did was tug on it. It took Aydin a few minutes but eventually she found the ability to answer the question her mother had posed. "Well one of the stations did a countdown of sorts on underrated heroes. Heroes that aren't ranked or should be ranked higher than they are. They somehow found out about me, they must have had someone on the inside that was able to sort through council records. They found just about every case I've ever worked on or helped solve, basically any report I've ever signed. They used all of them to build this case for me to be a top hero idea with no respect to the amount of effort I've put into staying underground, no regard to the fact that half of those were possible because I work as an unknown. Then they had people able to call in with opinions and stories, it escalated, I don't think there's a way to put it back in the bag, not after that, too much has gotten out. They know about Papa, and Shoto." Aydin said, barely keeping her calm, she pressed into Shoto's touch, one arm rubbing her back, the other hand holding the back of her neck, his fingers massaging the base of her skull, it was the only thing keeping her grounded at that moment. "I knew this had to happen at some point, there was no way to keep it a secret for forever, but I at least thought I'd have some say in it."
Riona nodded placing a hand on her daughter's shoulder "That is definitely frustrating my dear, I know you laid low for a while like we did when we first moved, it gives you a lot more ability to move about unnoticed, undercover and in many cases be much more effective in certain situations. But I think you were getting to the end of your limits with that, you may have had another 6 months, but from the intelligence I have been hearing, you were getting close to operating on borrowed time." Riona said, smoothing down her daughter's hair. "And all you can do know is take it in stride and work on the damage control, the Hero Billboard Charts come out in less than a month, by then I'm sure you two can climb to being the country's favorite hero couple, you have a lot going for you already."
"I know, I just didn't think Phase 2 of my plan would come about this way, I didn't think it wouldn't be in my control when it happened."
"Things are never easy or go the way we plan Aydin." Koichi said, "But I also have yet to see you not be able to face a challenge head on and most of the time you also manage to convince the world, the problem and even the people who planned whatever it is that got in your way that it went exactly the way you wanted it to go. It's a little frightening sometimes to be honest, I'm not quite sure how Shoto deals with never being right but that's a discussion for another time." Aydin blushed as he father a man of normally very simple words that were few and far between raved about her reaction and planning abilities.
"She lets me be right, that's how. It's not often but she gives me one every once in a while." Shoto laughed, kissing her forehead. Aydin giggled into his chest a warmth spreading through her pushing her closer into her husband's arms.
"Alright well we should get going. We'll bring Takea back in a few days, give you two some time to adapt to being in the eyes of the public as a couple before we add this crazy little tike into the mix." Riona said, Aydin nodded and shuffled back from the counter, Shoto hoping off as they walked Koichi and Riona to the door, giving Takea a long hug and kisses making her giggle before they waved bye to her from the front door as she was loaded into the back of the car and driven away.
Shoto and Aydin retreated back to the kitchen dishing up the now fully reheated dinner, dinner was weirdly quiet as they ate, Izuku suddenly jumped up. "Wait, does this mean I can finally put a picture of all 4 of us up?!" He spun to look at Aydin who laughed at the enthusiastic greenette, "Please Aydin! I have so many and they are adorable."
"Fine Izuku, you can, but I want to see it before you post it!" She called as he tore off into the living room.
"Well at least you now can walk down the street together hand in hand and not blow your cover. If anything I think people may stay away from IcyHot here more now, especially since they know his wife can kick their ass."
Shoto rolled his eyes "You know we still like that whole privacy thing though. Having the press constantly follow you around has never been a part of an ideal day for any of us." He sighed giving the blonde a withering look.
"True, but I at least can blend in a bit, you don't stand a chance with that hair, add Aydin and Takea to that and you don't stand a chance." Bakago laughed, flicking a beer bottle cap at Shoto across the table. Shoto glowered at the fiery tempered blonde throwing it back. Bakago grabbed Izuku's discarded chopsticks and threw them next. Aydin rolled her eyes grabbing her water glass off the table, taking a drink and leaning back from the table, her glass resting in her lap. The mini food fight continued til Bakago scooped up a spoon full of rice and took aim at Shoto. Aydin took another drink emptying her glass into her mouth as Bakago yelped from his spot, his eyes spinning to Aydin as he jumped up his thighs slamming into the table, up ending the last of his water into his own lap. He opened his mouth but then closed it with a low growl. "Try that again, Marionette I won't hold my tongue." He hissed before leaving the room yelling to Shoto he was going to borrow a pair of pants since his had been waterlogged. Aydin laughed smiling as the blonde cursed, walking off to their gym where a few sets of spare clothes were always kept.
"I'm glad you're smiling again." Shoto mused collecting the plates off the table and walking them into the kitchen setting to work cleaning them off and loading them into the dishwasher. Aydin brought in the glasses, loading them in as well as she put away the rest of the food, Shoto taking the dishes and washing them, moving seamlessly around Aydin who had turned her focus onto making tea and setting out some sweets for them for dessert.
"So I heard that there was a cyber attack on the school system the other day. Have they figured out who it was behind it? Or what they wanted?" Shoto asked, sliding in next to her pouring hot water evenly over the tea leaves in the teapot. Leaving the tea too steep as they walked out to join the other two.
Aydin set the tray on the coffee table, Izuku was flipping through his phone looking for pictures and Bakago hadn't returned from changing his pants yet. "Not yet, so far the only thing we know is that it was targeted at the staff and personal information," Aydin said "They used a computer that at one point was linked to Shigaraki in his early days back when the League of Villains was still fairly unorganized. So Nezu took some standard precautions, just in case they got the jump before he could figure out the motive. He also set up an alarm code for the staff if he finds more and gave us each a kit for supplies if he thinks we need to take extra steps to be prepared and safe." Bakago walked back in wearing a pair of athletic pants that fit more like a pair of chinos than sweats, he relaxed into the couch next to Izuku, as Aydin excused herself to grab the tea. As she walked past him her phone buzzed on the table, he leaned forward and handed it back to her, "Thank you." she said, clicking the message as she left 'Henkan-san, please utilize the kit you picked up on your seems that your file was the one accessed by our cyber attack. Your name and address were both accessed. Please proceed with caution. I am sending out back up to keep lookout around your house until we can apprehend this villain.' Aydin scowled, turning to sprint up the stairs and grab the kit next to the bedside table. She ran back downstairs into the kitchen rifling through its contents before she found she was looking for dumping a bit of the antiserum into each tea cup thankful Nezu had given her more when she'd asked. She poured the tea into each of cups keeping hers separate; she didn't need the serum since Nezu had already administered it to her and the rest of the staff. She pocketed the transceiver and clipped the two emergency pouches under her clothes, one buckling around her leg the dagger laying flat against the side of her thigh. The other clipped on to her sports bra, the medical pouch hidden between her breasts. Shoving capture tape in her pocket and clipping the two tap activated bracelets on. One would extend into a force enhancing gauntlet, the other into a modified crossbow that was fully equipped with a dart for almost any situation.
She sighed, grabbing the tea tray and walking back out to the living room, taking her tea cup off the tray she flipped open her phone typing a quick thank you response back to Nezu. Settling back against Shoto who looked down at her "Is that what came in the kit Nezu sent home with you?" He asked, feeling the outline of the stashed dagger against his leg and seeing the new cuff bracelets on her wrists, he had to admit the design didn't stand out as unordinary, the support course always was mindful when it came to their items blending in. Izuku leaned forward handing the Bakago one of the tea cups that was full. Katsuki slammed his back even though he had never been one for tea. But he drank it, begrudgingly out of respect and so Izuku wouldn't stamp on his foot again like he had last time for being disrespectful. The smaller man could be quite the nag and had the memory of a vengeful elephant causing him to be quite the handful for Katsuki when he wanted to be. Something Bakago was weary of provoking since he hated being on the receiving end when Izuku was in such a state. Izuku glared at the blonde before rolling his eyes with a sigh but leaned back against the bigger man all the same enjoying himself as the blonde's arm flopped over his shoulders. The fiery man at ease with his childhood friend against his side, it was the only time he truly felt like he could relax and enjoy the moment.
Izuku slowly sipped his tea, "So Aydin, how does tomorrow work?"
Aydin shrugged, "We do things like normal, but together, when things get tough we have to get closer, I move my work out into the open,"
"You can work at my agency." Bakago said, "I'd love to have you."
"You are not having my wife as some side kick when she can kick everybody in the room's butt without moving a muscle." Shoto said, "Besides if we are going to be bringing everything out, it makes more sense for my Agency to take her on and for us to work it together, she already consults with almost every case, my entire staff knows her and she's my wife, it makes the most sense for us to work together."
"That's probably a sound plan, especially since Aydin is still teaching, and if she works with Kaa-chan they'll be rebuilding the city block every 3 days."
"OY! Fuck Off Nerd!" he shoved Izuku sideways, Izuku almost spilled the tea as he was tossed across the couch. He giggled drinking the last of his tea saving it from ending up on the couch or floor. "You're supposed to be on my side!"
"3 days?" Shoto snorted "Well aren't you the optimist. More like every 5 hours."
"Screw you too! We get along just fine."
"Yea, tell that to our home gym, you two have torn that apart almost weekly." Shoto sniped back with a smirk, Aydin howled with laughter as Katsuki snarled.
"Say that again half and half!" Katsuki yelled, leaping to his feet.
"Kaa-chan sit down." Izuku sighed, yanking the man back into the couch. "Besides you need some competition on finding Fais, with Aydin actually working the case she'll probably have it solved within the first week." Bakago glared across the couch at the woman who was still laughing her husband smiling over at him as if he was daring him to say something to the contrary.
"About that," Bakago huffed, biting his tongue, his hands curling and uncurling in his lap before taking a deep breath and biting out the next words slowly like they physically were burning him. "Aydin, I had a few things I wanted to run past you, can I talk to you outside?" Bakago snarled.
Aydin was still laughing but nodded standing up "Sure but after I think we should actually get serious and figure out the plan of attack on this." The others nodded, as she followed Bakago outside.
"Seriously?" Izuku laughed as the door closed "They tore up the gym again?"
Shoto nodded, "Yea, we have a giant scorch mark on the wall and there is a hole in the wall by the grappling mats."
"Damn, you send him the bill again?" Izuku laughed, Shoto nodded. "I'm pretty sure with that temper of his we have bought you two a new gym at least 3 times over."
"Honestly that wouldn't surprise me." Shoto nodded "He's taken ours out a few times over as well."
"I could see that,"
"So what do you think, how bad was it, well is it going to be?"
"I don't think it was bad, just surprising, and not exactly respectful of our family, which they will be hearing about, because outing our family like that puts us at risk," Shoto said with a huff shaking his head in disbelief. "We both knew it was going to happen eventually. Now we just have to play catch up instead."
Izuku nodded "Yea, but I think the fact that she is so effective underground will help to moderate that, it makes sense that she stayed hidden and out of the public eye. She always has a plan, and five contingency plans just in case that doesn't work, she's the best person any of us have ever seen when it comes to putting theory into real world application."
"That is true," Shoto laughed, "She is something else when it comes to having a plan and making it work out exactly how she wants it to."
"Very true." Izuku laughed "I'm just glad she's on our side." Izuku suddenly looked at the door, "Is it just me or are those two unnaturally quiet?"
Shoto stopped and looked over at the door as well his eyebrows knitting together "That they are." He looked back over at Izuku, "We should probably go check on them." Izuku nodded standing up and setting his empty cup next to the last cup on the tray, it was still full.
"Yea that's what I was thinking." They moved over to the door stepping outside into the darkness. They looked around stepping up to the porch railing to see out into the yard better. Izuku's head whipped back toward Shoto as he felt two pinches in the side of his neck. Shoto was already leaning heavily onto the rail fighting to stay upright. Izuku felt what he assumed was the same concoction hit him like a bulldozer, his legs giving out on him since he didn't have the assistance of the porch rail. Fear coursed through him as his eyes closed, he hit the porch with a thud, not even registering Shoto's heavier body falling backwards on top of him as the darkness swept around the two heros.