"He's hit four more warehouses this month, that's twelve all together."
"We're losing money, materials, men, all because of this damned rabbit!"
"We need to bring in an exterminator, someone who can take care of the damned rodent."
"Do we still have Double Down on contract?"
"Yes, he should be enough to deal with this child. With extreme prejudice."
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"Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap!"
Izuku repeated this word over and over again as he roared through the streets, weaving through traffic and taking narrow alleyways in a blind terror, the reason for his terror?
"Get back here bunny boy!" Mirko snarled, running right behind him, only stopped from grabbing him by his erratic driving, "I'll teach you to try and be a vigilante IN MY HOMETOWN!"
"You weren't here! I figured you needed the help!" Izuku yelled back.
"Maybe don't antagonize the number five hero." Melissa said conversationally, watching his progress not only on her monitor, but on another monitor showing a news helicopter recording the chase, "oh hey! You made Juzo news!"
"That's not something that interests me right now!" Midoriya cried as he revved his engine, hitting a straight away that let him hit the bike's max speed. He risked a glance back and almost began crying when he saw MIrko not only keep up, but slowly begin to catch up, 'shit! She's gaining! What do I do!?"
"Hmm…center right button on your dash."
Izuku quickly hit the button, smiling when two arrows were shot out from just above hsi tail light, they exploded in mid-air to release bolas, which quickly wrapped the hero up, sending her crashing to the street.
"WHEN I GET MY HANDS ON YOU YOU'RE FINISHED BRAT!" she snarled after him, making Izuku laugh.
"If you catch me!" He snarked back, banking hard into a narrow alleyway, following it all the way to the hidden bike trail, and then into the flood ways.
"That was close." he sighed, leaning back as he slowed his pace, "maybe we should lay low for a bit, that's the fourth night in a row that a hero's almost caught me."
"They're cracking down for sure, but we can't go to ground just because of a little heat!" Melissa exclaimed, "besides! Until tonight you handled it pretty well!"
"I did, didn't I?" Izuku agreed, pride tinting his words. 'Alright, maybe going to ground isn't the best idea, but I can't go to any of the towns I"ve been active in, they'll probably have a hero or two waiting for me.'
"Hmmm…we should steer clear of Naruhata," Melissa said slowly, "there's already a vigilante group operating out of there. And they'll probably take exception to you muscling in on their turf. Okinawa is a bit of a drive but it doesn't have any big name heroes that could match with you."
"I think you're giving me too much credit." he said as he hit a new tunnel, emerging out of it into the warehouse, "most heroes could catch me if I wasn't so fast on the bike."
"And you have me to thank for that." she bragged, jumping up from her computer and walking over, "that thing can go over four hundred miles an hour; I think only the top twenty can keep up with you."
"There's several top 100 that could keep up," Izuku rebutted,pushing his hood off, carefully removing his domino mask, "had the Tick chased after me last month instead of Smile Man I would've been caught."
"Yeah but he didn't, and no one else other than Miruko and Kamui have gotten close!"
"Still, we shouldn't get cocky just because the heroes haven't caught up." Izuku muttered, heading over to his stuff, grabbing his spare change of clothes.
"What's got you in a funk?" she asked, eyebrows furrowing in worry, "you've been snippy all day."
Izuku sighed, "sorry," He muttered, running a hand through his hair nervously, "I've been feeling on edge all week, and I don't know why."
"Maybe you do need a day off." she said with some sympathy, "it has been about four months since you started, and you've been going out almost every night! Day patrols on the weekend-you know what? I take it back! You're taking off the rest of the weekend!" she declared, making Izuku blink.
"Weren't we supposed to go sit on a potential Triad buy this weekend?" he asked.
"...Next weekend! Next weekend you can rest!" she cheered, making him laugh.
"Alright, sounds good," he said, heading into the bathroom to change, "hey, maybe while I'm on break you can take over as the rabbit, it would throw off the heroes at least."
"Huh, yeah right." she scoffed with a chuckle, "I'm support, I may be physically fit, but i'm nowhere near fighting ready like you are."
"Oh come on, anyone can do what I do." he said dismissively through the door.
"You've hit 99% of all the targets you've aimed at." she deadpanned, "that 1% are the ones that didn't stick, or were destroyed before hitting the target."
"I'm sure I've missed more than that." Izuku said as he walked back out, now in a green t-shirt with the Kanji for 'orange' written on it and blue jeans.
"Right," she rolled her eyes, "anyways, intel says the triad should be making their move sometime friday night, you ready to bunker down for a bit?"
"Oh yeah," he said, sitting on the desk as she went back to her computer, "I got my Hulu updated, some snacks, camelback to keep hydrated-" he grunted when she threw his journal at his chest, the thick sheath of papers actually taking his breath away a bit with it's impact.
"You're only allowed to be a smartass with the heroes and the villains." she sniffed, smirking at him when he opened the journal, an eyebrow raising at the key she'd made for his code, "you figured it out?" he asked, impressed.
"Yep! Got it done tonight." she preened, "didn't even take me that long!"
"Oh no, only about three months," he said with an eye roll, setting the journal to the side, "Still, congratulations." They shared a smile before Izuku was putting his journal in the bag, "I'll see you tomorrow night, mom thinks I'm staying overnight at a competition."
"Wouldn't she call the school to confirm?" Melissa asked with a frown.
"Nah, even if she does, the coach will probably just say "oh yeah, he's there." And nothing else, he doesn't even know when my competitions are."
"Too bad we can't go after villains like him." She huffed, making Izuku chuckle.
"Hey, it's helping me keep suspicion off of me-anyways, you have a good night Melissa!" With that he was gone.
Melissa smiled and began locking down the hideout, unlatching safety bars and pushing desks and monitors into the ground, solid metal shutters covering them from the eye. She didn't hide everything; in the event of her father or-god forbid-All-Might dropping in unannounced she had several personal projects out as cover. She also had an emergency button that would immediately drop the Rabbit's hardware into their hidden caves.
With a groan she stretched and went to go warm up her microwave dinner before she started on her projects.
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The Next Day
Katsuki Bakugo knew Deku was up to something.
The shitty nerd had been uncharacteristically happy the last few months. Even when they had roughed him up a few months back he'd managed to keep that infuriatingly bright smile afterwards.
And then that Blonde Girl had picked him up outside of the school one day, on a shitty electric scooter no less! Who would be stupid enough to go out with Deku of all people?
He'd tried to follow the idiot several times to give him a piece of his mind, but the wimp would always slip away before he could confront him.
But not today, today he was going to be on Deku's ass like flies on shit, and he wouldn't let the asshole go anywhere until he explained himself!
And there he was, a slight skip in his step as he ran out of the school, heading towards a low point in the wall that separated the school from the park.
He jumped over and was immediately stiff-armed by Bakugo, sending him crashing to the ground.
"What the-Bakugo?" Izuku spluttered as he got back to his feet, dodging the boys attempt to grab him, "The fuck did I do now?"
He didn't sound scared, or cowed, not like he had the last time they had clashed, no this time he sounded annoyed with him, as if he had better places to be.
Well fuck that.
BOOM!
Izuku grunted as he was knocked back into the wall, nearly falling back over it before Bakugo grabbed him by the front of his shirt and dragged him back.
"The fuck did you say to me Deku?" Bakugo snarled in his face, "you've been getting big for your britches, it's about time I showed you your god damn place!"
His Ire raised as he saw that annoyance in Deku's eyes before it was replaced with compliance, "please bakugo, I got somewhere to be, can't you do this tomorrow?" the boy pleaded, and Bakugo's Ire rose, he closed his fist and swung, the blow landing on his chin.
"What the fuck so I care-" he began, only for the words to die as Izuku jabbed him hard in the throat; his grip loosened as he choked on his breathe, any hope of regaining it lost as Izuku drove his elbow into his sternum, driving all air out of his lungs and doubling him over for his nose to meet Izukus driving knee.
CRACK!
Pain exploded across bakugo's face as he landed on his back, he didn't cry out in pain, he couldn't, not with the combo that the nerd had just hit him with.
"Shit, didn't mean to go that far."
Those words infuriated him, he forced air into his lungs and tried to jump at the useless fuck, but Deku slammed the sole of his foot into his chest, driving him back down into the ground, pain blooming in his chest as he felt something crack.
"Stay down."
That cold, commanding tone didn't fit his version of deku, his Deku cried and plead for his life any time he so much as looked at him; his Deku couldn't hope to match up against him, forever doomed to be his punching bag.
This wasn't Deku.
This deku stood tall after the blows he took, uncaring of the little bit of blood trailing out of his nose, all too willing and able to hurt Katsuki back; where had he learned those moves? How had he trained them so proficiently to get the jump on him?
"You're gonna leave me alone from now on." Deku Said firmly, shaking Bakugo out of his thoughts, "I'm done being your punching bag, and I'm through letting you think you have any power over me." He removed his foot from his chest, taking a few steps back, "and the next time you use your quirk on me, I'm gonna break your arm. That's not a threat, it's a promise." With that the quirkless boy disappeared.
It took a few moments for Katsuki to finally get up, cradling his ribs and wiping blood away from his mouth from his broken nose as he looked deeper into the woods where Deku disappeared.
There was no way the Nerd was that well trained without help, without hiding something, and Bakugo was going to find out what. He wouldn't let this go unanswered.
He didn't care what help Deku had gotten, or what advantages he thought he had.
Bakugo would prove to that quirkless fuck that he wasn't anything special.
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Izuku ignored his worried thoughts about Bakugo, reassuring himself, quite poorly if he had a say in it, that Bakugo would take his warning and heed it.
But the boy wasn't one to let things go, and he knew he'd be hearing from the explosive blonde again, and soon if Bakugo had his way.
He ignored these thoughts, pushing them to the back of the mind and bringing his mission to the forefront.
"You ready?" Melissa asked as he walked into their hideout, already pulling his jacket off as he headed for the alcove that housed his gear.
"As I'll ever be." he said lightly, "east Naruhata right?"
"Their warehouse district, yes." Melissa said, eyeing him, there was something wrong with him, if his tense shoulders and glare meant anything, "are you alright?"
"Fine." he said shortly, pulling his uniform on, "do we have intel on their manpower?"
"...guns and some low level B-ranks." Melissa informed him carefully, she wanted to ask what was wrong, press it until he revealed what was wrong, but she couldn't, not with this important mission on the horizon, "there's talk of an A-rank. So you need to be careful."
"Of course," he said with a smile, putting his domino mask and pulling the hood up, the Jade Rabbit looked at Cyber, giving her a reassuring smile, "I'll be back by midnight, with another drug bust under my belt."
"You better." Cyber smirked as she took her position at the command center, "otherwise I'm telling your mother and grounding you."
"Haven't even met her and you're already on her side." He sighed with faux exasperation, slinging himself onto his bike, "doesn't surprise me, honestly, she's a pretty convincing woman."
"I doubt she'd condone what I've been doing with you." she said teasingly, adopting a distraught, sappy voice, "helping to corrupt your poor innocent soul!"
"You had nothing to do with that." he scoffed, revving the engine as he shot into the tunnel, his headset crackling to life as he went, "that was gone looong before you came around."
"And who had a hand in teaching the Jade Rabbit all about the dangers of life?" Cyber, "who do we need to send off to the cops for corrupting a poor innocent cinnamon roll!?"
"Cinnamon Roll?" Izuku asked, offended, "Excuse me, madam, but I am no Cinnamon Roll!"
"Please," Cyber scoffed, "even the villains know you're way too nice for your own good; we may need to work on that if we want to continue this for more than a year."
"I haven't held back against any villain yet." he argued, twisting and turning through the confusing tunnels; a layout he had memorized months ago, "if anything, I"ve been pretty tough on them!"
"No doubt you're effective and non-biased with villains." she agreed begrudgingly, "and your attitude with villains gives a devil-may-care attitude, but your actual personality with the citizens as a whole is a sarcastic cinnamon roll."
Rabbit deflated on his bike, "I'm not a cinnamon Roll," he grumbled petulantly.
"Keep telling yourself that, Bunny Boy." Cyber chuckled, "we all know the truth, next right tunnel by the way."
"I know," he said launching down a slightly smaller tunnel, coming out into an open flood-way, his headlight turning off and the engine noise cutting down to barely a whistle, "going stealth mode." he whispered as he carefully piloted through the empty concrete waterway, shooting up a ramp and onto the regular street, weaving through traffic before taking off down a derelict looking alleyway, "are you sure it's just guns and b-ranks? I'm getting a bad feeling."
All intel says so." she said, "but trust your gut, a bit of caution never hurt anyone."
Izuku pulled into a dry, musty alcove between two buildings, barely large enough for him to squeeze through past his bike and the walls, "I'll go from foot here," he said, quickly climbing the side of the wall and taking off across the roofs, soon reaching an old warehouse, not a soul in sight as he took position beside an old clock tower that hadn't been one in a very long time. "Guess I'll wait here until we get movement." he said, bow out and eyes scanning the surroundings.
'I'll keep an ear out for anything." Cyber said, "settle in, no telling when they'll move."
Four hours later.
Rabbit boredly played a game on his phone, moving back and forth across the platform-like game as he shot generic bad guys until he got the last one to move on, "anything Cyber?" he asked once his watch chimed the hour."
"Nothing yet, everything's eerily quiet for something like this, usually we get chatter on some of the villain channels, or even the police! But it's like everyone went home."
"
Maybe they decided to stay home for once." he said, putting his phone up and staring out into the area once more, eyes scanning the pipes and walkways that extended out of the warehouse, "maybe we finally started scaring the-" he stopped as he bent backwards, eyes wide as a hypersonic playing card cut a lock of his green hair as it sped past his head, with a grunt he threw himself over the edge of the tower as two grenades flew into the room he'd been in; an explosion sending debris flying and forcing him to fall to the ground, barely slowing down as he used pipes and the wall to slow his decent.
"Rabbit, your heart rate just spiked, what's going on?" Cyber asked worriedly as the rabbit rolled to his feet, vaulting away as a few more cards landed where he had, most stabbing into the concrete and walls, while a few were able to cut his arms and leg.
"Someones attacking." Izuku barked out as he back-flipped away from another grenade, landing behind the warehouse and giving himself a respite, "some kind of accuracy quirk I think, not a good one, but he's getting close.'
"Any injuries?" Cyber asked, already getting ready to call in the police.
"Couple of scratches, I'll live." Rabbit said as he pulled an arrow, he shot it at the wall adjacent to him, it bounded off and into the air, where it erupted in a bright flash of light. He rolled out of his cover, a few cards whizzing past his head as he came to a stop on his knees, sharp eyes scanning the labyrinth of pipes and walkways before losing an arrow.
A figure leapt from where he shot, another barrage of sharp cards forcing the fledgling vigilante to take off, firing off more arrows at his adversary, who expertly dodged the dangerous finally dove into an alley-way, nocking an arrow as he peered around the corner, having already lost his adversary, "Usually you Triad's wait until i'm in the warehouse to attack, bad form." he snarked.
"Plans change." a sneering voice called out, "triad's done dealing with you, so they sent Double Down in."
A couple of grenades flew towards him, but Izuku shot them out of the air, using the explosions as cover as he ran out, gas arrows flying towards his hidden enemy, who leapt from his hiding place before the arrows could release their noxious gasses.
Rabbit gasped as a few more cards cut through his costume, slicing the flesh around his ribs and stomach, he dove into the warehouse, his eyes wide in panic as he hid behind an old piece of machinery, "Cyber, he's got me off-foot, I need to get out of here."
"Police and heroes are ten minutes from your location, Get out of there rabbit!" Cyber shouted and he jumped out of the window again taking off into an alley, he cried out as something shot through his side, blood splattering the concrete as he kept going, tucking and rolling every now and again as more cards landed around him, "damn it!" he snapped, backflipping and losing three arrows at the height of his jump, he heard a cry as one of the taser arrows connected and took off once more, grunting as another card shot through his leg, sending him stumbling to the ground as he finally saw his opponent.
Every inch of his skin was tattooed with playing cards, only one hand was free of them, his fingers clutching a handful of them as they materialized, he was shaking a bit from the electrical shock, his brown eyes narrowed dangerously as the young Vigilante nocked an arrow.
"I'm not in the mood for this right now, kid." Double Down sneered as he stalked towards him, running his free hand through his shocking red hair, "I'm getting paid to take you out, about time if you ask me; who needs some shitty vigilante throwing a wrench into all their plans."
"That's the best part about this job," Rabbit snapped back, standing and drawing the string of his back just as Double Down threw his barrage of cards, the explosive arrow he had chosen exploded at the mans feet and sent him flying back as three of the seven cards shot through his body, one through his chest and two through his other legs, sending him sprawling.
"Rabbit! You need to get out of there now! Heroes are closing in! Rabbit? Rabbit!" Cyber shouted as Izuku dragged himself out of the alley, sparing a single glance back to see Double Down stagger away, clutching his dangling arm.
"I'm going, i'll be…on the bike…soon…" Rabbit gasped out before he collapsed again, his breathing rapid as he forced himself to roll over on his back, eyesight blurry and darkness creeping in at the edge of his vision as he stared up at the empty night sky.
Rabbit! Come in Rabbit! Damn it, Izuku, respond!"
The last thing he saw before the darkness took over was a crow approaching him.
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"Rabbit?" Melissa demanded, she was standing at her station, fear and anxiety running through her when she didn't get a return, "Come in Rabbit! Damn it, Izuku! Respond! Izuku!"
All she got was static, she began to pace, worry taking place of her fear as she bit her lip, what do I do? What do I do? I can't go get him myself, the heroes will arrest him, his life will be over! But if I don't think of something he'll die! Damn it, why didn't we plan for this? She berated herself for not thinking of a way to retrieve an injured rabbit, "Rabbit!" she practically pleaded into the comms, 'Please, answer me!"
The silence was deafening, and Melissa felt like she'd start crying.
And then there was a crackle over the line, "Hello?" a gruff voice said, it wasn't Izuku.
"Who is this?" she demanded to know, "where's Rabbit?"
"...he's unconscious." came the calm reply, "I've gotten him out of immediate danger."
"
Who are you?" she demanded to know again, clutching the edge of her seat until her knuckles turned white.
"A friend," came the cautious reply, "where must I take him?"
Melissa hesitated, this was unknown territory, and she didn't want to tell some random stranger where their hideout was.
But Rabbit was in trouble, and she needed to get him help.
"If you can get him to his cycle, I can have the autopilot bring him to me,' she began slowly, "you'll have to hurry, heroes will be there any minute.
"I've seen a few pass overhead, can you make the cycle meet me somewhere? Once the heats died down a bit."
"
Non-negotiable." she growled out, "I don't even know if I can trust you."
"You'll have to, or we'll be caught."
Melissa turned the comms off for a moment, biting her lip as she thought long and hard about what to do, then she turned it on, "Get him somewhere safe.' she said, her voice shaking, "get him somewhere safe and I'll send the cycle once it's clear."
"Revelry in the dark." was the reply before all was quiet, and Melissa was left wondering if she'd just handed her friend over to the enemy.
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Fumikage Tokoyami looked at the bleeding vigilante as he carefully wrapped his jacket around the unconscious boy.
"On my honor and service to the dark, I will save you, Rabbit." the crow headed boy vowed, grunting as he stood up, his quirk Dark Shadow extending his own arms to help bear the weight, "do not worry."