Jonathan stepped off the elevator into the bustling office. Agent Pike looked up from his desk and said, ["Glad your back, Ranger. We're going over some surveillance footage we managed to get from the hotel Mr. Butler went to."]
He walked over to the group gathered around a monitor; he saw a hallway lined with doors, probably the La Quinta that Jason and his girlfriend went to. A few seconds passed, a door opened, and a girl walked out with ruffled dark brown hair. Jason came out soon after trying to flatten his hair. ["So, the kid was telling the truth then,"] muttered Chuck.
["I guess we're back at square one then,"] sighed Carla. She leaned back in her chair and gazed off into one corner of the office. Jonathan was afraid of that; they had no leads, no witnesses, and more people were gonna die before they'd find the bastard behind this. Then Carla said ["Holy shit."]
Pike looked to her, ["I get you're angry, but we've got a job to do."]
Carla suddenly stood up, ignoring him, and ran to a corkboard covered with missing people's photos. She tore off the picture and ran back, ["Rewind the video to when we can see the girl's face."]
["I-what are you on about?"] asked Chuck.
["Just do it,"] said Carla. Chuck compiled and started rewinding the tape until the girl's face was visible. Carla then put the picture she grabbed next to the monitor.
Chuck went wide-eyed, ["Holy-"]
["Shit."] finished Echo.
The girl in the video looked exactly like the girl in the missing poster that Carla grabbed.
Missing
Tiffany Rosenbaum
Last seen Parker County May 23'rd wearing Green hoodie with UNT logo.
["At least we solved one case,"] said Pike.
It didn't help their current case, but he guessed that something was better than nothing. At least they'd help one family reunite with one child. But what puzzled him was why she left in the first place. He looked her up in the database and found that she didn't have a power, no record of any criminal activity, no record of, well, anything. Even her driving record was squeaky clean.
So why was she on the run? Was she running away from her parents? A family member? Just because?
["Carla, contact Jason, see if he can't introduce us to Tiffany,"] said Pike.
Carla called Jason and convinced him to bring Tiffany to the station; a few hours later, Jason arrived with Tiffany in tow. As one would expect, she put off an air of nervousness. And almost flinched as Carla came up to her, ["Mrs. Rosenbaum?"] The girl nodded, ["Can I ask you a few questions?"]
Tiffany glanced at Jason, then nodded. Carla gestured to her, ["How bout we go somewhere more private."] Tiffany and Jason followed.
Before Jason could enter the room, Jonathan gently grabbed Jason's shoulder, and as Jason looked at him, Jonathan shook his head, ["Sorry, but we need to talk with her alone for a moment."]
Jason frowned, ["But why can't I-"]
He cut Jason off, ["Several reasons I can't tell you about. But I do have one question. How'd you two meet?"]
Jason looked confused, ["I don't get why this is so important."] He scowled, then said, ["Why does it matter?"]
["I just need it for my report. How did you two meet?"] asked Jonathan again.
Jason crossed his arms ["We met at the arcade one day. About a month ago."]
["Did she say anything about her parents?"] asked Jonathan.
["No, even when I asked, she didn't say anything."] said, Jason.
Something was off about that girl, but he couldn't quite place it. ["Do you know what her power is?"] He already knew what it was, but sometimes people "accidentally" don't report their power to the Department of Interior. Primarily due to reluctance to give out that kind of personal information, especially to the government.
["Oh, ummm, yeah. She can change how she looks. She says she needs to be close with the person to do it, like emotionally close. But don't you guys already know that?"] He could tell that Jason was telling the truth, or at least what he thought was the truth.
So either Tiffany was lying to them, or she didn't register her power. ["Have you seen her use it before?"]
["Yeah. A couple times."] said Jason; he looked a little embarrassed. He'd make sure to put this in his report.
["Alright, that's all I need. If you could have a seat over there, please."] Jonathan pointed to a row of chairs along the wall.
["Is she, is she going to be in trouble?"] asked Jason.
Jonathan shrugged, ["Hard to say; it all depends on how her parents feel."] Content with his answer, Jason took a seat, and Jonathan leaned against the wall. A few moments later, the door opened, and Tiffany came out, followed by Carla.
Tiffany went to Jason a sat next to him, ["So you question the kid yet?"]
Jonathan nodded ["Yeah, Jason doesn't know why she ran away, he just met her one day at the arcade, and things went from there."]
Carla hummed, ["Yeah, that's what she told me."]
["She tell you about her power?"] asked Jonathan.
Carla nodded, ["yeah, able to change her appearance. Most likely why she ran away."]
["Once her parents get here, I'll talk with them and let them know what happened."] said, Jonathan. As they spoke, Jason and Tiffany quietly spoke to one another.
They waited for a while, minutes turned to hours, and finally, Tiffany's parents entered the precinct after three hours. They looked around the lobby, then when their gazes settled on Tiffany, they rushed forward, tears streaming down their faces. Jonathan waited for them to finish reuniting before heading over and introducing himself, ["Mr. and Mrs. Rosenbaum?"]
The two look up at him; Mr. Rosenbaum was the first to speak, ["Y-yes' officer."] His tone was drenched in relief.
["I'm Officer Jonathan Tyson, Tarrant County sheriff's office; before we release Tiffiny to you, I just have some paperwork to go over with you. If you could come with me please."] Mr. Rosenbaum nodded and followed him. They went into one interrogation room and sat across from each other. Jonathan handed him some paperwork detailing her situation, and he explained how they found her.
["Do you have any questions?"] asked Jonathan.
Mr. Rosenbaum finished signing the documents and shook his head, ["Nothing that comes to mind. Just,"] he paused for a moment, then said ["thank you for finding our daughter."]
Jonathan took the paperwork and smiled softly, ["It's just what we do."]
Once the Rosenbaum's had left the station, Jason in tow, Jonathan and Carla heaved a heavy sigh, happy they managed to reunite a family and deeply frustrated that they now had no leads for the case.
Rumi followed her team as they lined up at the door, a practice pistol drawn and pointed to the ground. She thought it was ridiculous that she had to participate in this exercise, mainly because she could do this alone, arguably faster and better than anyone here could have. Still, if she wanted to get out of this academy, she'd have to play along.
The headset Rumi had clicked once, indicating someone was about to speak, ["Team two in position. Over,"]
At the rear of her formation, their squad leader, Señor Dick, pushed the buttons on his throat-mic and whispered ["Team one in position, over."]
It was incredibly off-putting; whenever they were doing menial tasks, exercising, or in off time, Dick was doing everything he could to hook up with her, but when they were doing drills, he was the model of professionalism.
A heavy pat on her shoulder brought her back to Earth; she needed to focus. She tapped the shoulder of the person in front of her, and a moment later, the person adjacent to the door rammed the wooden door with a heavy metal ram, busting it right open. Then one by one, the squad stormed into the room yelling ["POLICE DEPARTMENT"] and ["GET DOWN"] at the top of their lungs.
It was pretty impressive, and if she was on the receiving end, she might have been startled long enough to be cuffed. But she doubted that any SWAT team on the face of the Earth could actually take her out without a fight. That is, if they could take her out in the first place.
The first room was empty, and she could hear team two breaking through a window at the opposite end of the building, yelling loudly. They made their way from room to room and eventually found their "perp" and several "hostages."
["Stop right there, you fucking cops! Or I blow her brains out!"] yelled the perp.
Rumi peaked around the corner and saw a man holding a clearly distraught woman at gunpoint. Geeze, these actors are something else; the woman got almost every detail right, the sobbing, ragged breathing, even down to the quivering. It was the expression that she had, poorly masked boredom, that gave it away that she wasn't in any actual danger.
["I SAID STOP RIGHT THERE, YOU FUCKING BITCH!"] the perp pushed the gun into the woman's head. The woman yelped at how rough the perp was handling her.
Rumi pulled her head back behind the corner and motioned for the other officers arriving to stop. She called ["Hey man, just put the gun down and let the woman go, we don't want any trouble."]
["You don't want any trouble? I'll show you shitheads trouble!"] replied the man.
Rumi rolled her eyes, ["Take this seriously, Usagiyama,"] said Dick smoothly. She forced herself not to glare at him, then whispered just loud enough for the mic around his throat to pick up, ["Alright people, cordon this area off, nobody in or out, Peterson, contact dispatch and tell them to send a negotiator."] He let go of the throat mic and loudly said, ["Alright, sir, we won't come any closer, but if you harm that woman, I can't promise that we'll just sit here."]
The perp replied, ["Well, you better not fucking move then! Cause if I see any of you fuckers I'll splatter her fucking brain on the fucking wall!"] Cue terrified screaming from the woman.
Rumi holstered her pistol, turned, and started to push her way through the crowded hallway. ["What the hell are you doing, Usagiyama?"] whispered Dick as he grabbed her arm, stopping her.
She pulled her arm free and spat, ["While the rest of you sit here with a thumb up your collective asses, I'm gonna rescue that woman."]
["Wait for the negotiator, you dumbass!"] replied Dick.
She ignored him and went around the side, ignoring the questioning looks from the other trainees. Rumi took off the stuffy helmet, freeing her ears, and she quietly found a spot along the wall that was behind the perp. She shooed a couple of trainees away and got against the far wall, ["Stop right now!"] said Dick as he approached.
She launched, her powerful legs forcing her through the thin wooden wall. The perp turned in surprise just in time for Rumi's head to slam into him, knocking him back. Before he could recover, she kicked the gun from his hand, sending it pinballing off the walls. She grabbed the perp by the jacket and slammed him into the wall, and grinned ["Hey there, dirtbag."]
The man groaned from pain, ["what the fuck just happened."]
["Nothing much, save for kicking your sorry ass,"] replied Rumi.
She turned him around and put cuffs on him when Dick pushed his way through the hole in the wall she had made. ["Goddamn it, Usagiyama, listen to orders next time!"]
["Hey, I got the perp, saved the victim, no casualties, no time wasted. You're welcome."] She grinned as she finished cuffing their perp.
She released their perp when they got outside, and he rubbed his wrists, getting the blood flowing again, and headed for the ambulance they'd set up for accidents. Their Instructor yelled ["FORM UP!"] and waited for their team to get in formation in front of him. Once they were all in line, he scowled at them all. ["What in the fuck just happened?!"]
Rumi interrupted Dick as he explained, ["I rescued the victim. Sir."]
["Out fucking standing Usagiyama!"] for a moment, she let a smirk play across her face, but the Instructors following words wiped it away, ["It's a shame that the perp shot the victim!"]
["Wha-"] said Rumi.
The Instructor stepped so close that he was spraying her with spittle as he yelled, ["When you Kool-Aid Maned yourself through that wall, the perp was so startled he pulled the trigger! And now, instead of calling a therapist, you get to have a lovely chat with a goddamn mortician!"]
Rumi didn't have any words. She thought she'd gotten him before he'd had time to pull the trigger. ["What, you got no snappy comebacks? No witty remarks?! Good!"]
The Instructor turned and stomped back, ["GROUP ONE FAILS!"]
["But sir! This was my fault!"] said Rumi. She couldn't let the rest of her team fail this test just because she messed up.
The Instructor stopped, turned, and yelled, ["You either pass as a team or fail as a team, Usagiyama! I don't want any "but it's my fault, sir" out of any of you dumbasses!"] The Instructor turned and stormed off, leaving Rumi stewing in her self resentment. She could almost feel the glares from her teammates as they silently walked to the locker rooms.
Izuku peaked around the corner down the dark empty hallway. He sighed and took a step forward. Then his foot snagged on something, and it suddenly snapped. A cylindrical object fell from the ceiling and clattered to the floor, rolling a little before coming to a stop. It took his brain a moment to catch up with what he was looking at, and when he realized it, he could only say "Shit" before the grenade exploded. He instinctively covered his eyes and turned his head away from the blast, but it didn't stop his ears from ringing; when he opened his eyes again, he couldn't see. He blinked a few times, but all he could do was slump against the wall and try to regain his bearings.
After several minutes of blinking and praying that the grenade didn't do any permanent damage, he could finally see again. But while he could see, the ringing in his ears was persistent and didn't go away for several more minutes. Either nobody noticed he'd set off a trap, or nobody cared because he was still alone by the time he recovered from the flashbang. He guessed that Yaoyorozu had set the trap not to incapacitate someone but just to slow them down and buy time.
He cautiously made his way down the hall and peered around the corner. Another empty hall, but he thought he better check the floor for more traps. He leaned over, and his fingers brushed against a taught steel line running a couple centimeters above the floor. Izuku grinned and muttered, "Fool me once; shame on you." He stepped over the line and was about to head down the hallway when he felt a section of floor give just a little. Then, another flashbang clattered to the floor as if it came from thin air. "You've gotta be kidding me."
This time he didn't wait like some deer caught in the headlights and activated his quirk. He charged down the hall, rounded a corner, broke another tripwire, and kept on going. If he was going to set off traps, he might as well just set them all off at once. It only took him a few seconds to find a stairway up to the floor above. When he stopped, he felt the floor below him shake, "Is she trying to kill me?"
He wiped his brow and looked down the ominously dark hallway. He had a rough idea of their location, but he wanted to avoid going through an entire minefield looking for Yoiyorozu and Tsu. If Izuku was a betting man, he'd put down his entire allowance that Yoyorozu had set traps along every route to where they were.
"Hey, Midoriya, what was that?" asked Ashido.
Izuku tapped his earpiece, "Just Yaoyorozu's welcoming committee. Be careful; she's probably set up traps along every access point."
"Okey, Doky, I'll be careful," said Ashido.
Izuku rolled his shoulders, ready for anything Yaoyorozu would throw at him. Then, of course, he rounded a corner and came face to face with Tsu holding a net gun, "Sorry, but I gotta stop you here," she pulled the trigger of the net gun and launched a net that covered the entire hallway. Izuku jumped back around the corner, and the net smacked against the wall.
"That was close," muttered Izuku. But as he said it, Tsu bounded around the corner, a pair of cuffs in her hand. Izuku dodged her attempt to cuff him and pulled out some capture tape he'd stashed in his pocket.
He activated his quirk and moved in, wrapping the tape around one of Tsu's arms. Before he could tighten the tape, though, she managed to hop backward and pulled the tape off her arm. Then using the wall behind her as a springboard, she kicked off and rammed her shoulder into Izuku, sending him tumbling backward.
His head slammed against the wall, and he felt dizzy as he got up and could barely stop Tsu from cuffing him. He shook his head and regained his bearings, and pushed Tsu back away from him. Pulling a strip of capture tape, he launched himself forward and managed to wrap the strip of capture tape around Tsu's arm and tie it tight.
When Tsu realized that he'd managed to "capture" her, she sighed and said, "Darn, and I almost had you."
"Yeah, almost," replied Izuku. Tsu was scarily strong for her size, although he guessed it was because of her quirk.
"Well, good luck with Yaomomo; she's got herself barricaded pretty well," said Tsu.
Izuku shutters slightly; he really didn't look forward to storming fort Yaoyorozu. Maybe they could find another way in. He let Ashido know he'd "captured" Tsu. Then over the next half hour, the two looked for where Yaoyorozu was, all while dodging traps set by her. The problem was they were running out of time. They were given a time limit of forty minutes to apprehend the villains before their plan succeeded.
Izuku and Ashido met up near the top floor, "Okay, she's gotta be somewhere here," said Ashido. Izuku nodded and pushed on the door to the last room. It didn't budge. So Izuku took a couple steps back and charged up his quirk. "Wait, she probably set a trap on the door."
It was probably safer to go through the wall instead of through the door. He took a few steps to the side and launched himself through the wall adjacent to the door. Turns out Ashido was right; Yaoyorozu did set a trap. But she'd been wrong that Yaoyorozu had booby-trapped the door.
Standing in the middle of the room, wearing a set of tinted goggles and headphones, stood Yaoyorozu. Izuku heard a clatter and saw something small roll across the floor before coming to a stop.
"Son of a bi-" *BAAAANNNNGG!*
All Izuku could do was blindly stumble around, his ears ringing. Before he could regain his sight, Yaoyorozu got a net around him. Ashido, who hadn't entered the room yet, waited for a moment, likely also regaining her bearings.
When she entered the room, Yaoyorozu had readied another net and shot it at her. But Ashido was expecting this. She sprayed the net with acid and melted a large enough hole in the net that she could fit through it without being slowed down.
Yaoyorozu pulled out a baton, likely her last weapon, and raised it, ready to defend herself. "Ashido! Go for the bomb!" Ashido glanced at Izuku, still trapped in the net, and nodded.
Ashido raised her hands, "Give up, Yaomomo!" Yaoyorozu seemed to falter for a moment but kept her baton raised. She was going to fight to the last second, wasn't she?
Ashido was by no means a bad fighter, but Yaoyorozu held the advantage of skill, and she had a weapon. But, Yaoyorozu was probably tired because of how much she'd been using her quirk, so Ashido may be able to overpower her.
The two girls moved almost as one; Yaoyorozu charged, her baton raised above her head, ready to strike Ashido down. Ashido reactivity raised her hands as if she was trying to defend herself, but then she sprayed a thin jet of acid in an arc in front of her.
As Yaoyorozu brought the baton down, it passed through the acid and struck Ashido in her raised forearm. As the baton struck Ashido, the end snapped off and clanged on the floor. Before Yoyorozu could move away, Ashido grabbed the rest of the baton and coated it in acid, forcing Yaoyorozu to drop it.
Yaoyorozu moved back, raising her fists, defiant to the last. But despite her iron-willed defiance, her body betrayed her, and she swayed slightly. That last swing was all the strength she could muster. Ashido sprayed the floor around Yaoyorozu with acid and sauntered over to the bomb, happily humming a little tune to herself.
But as she reached out to touch the bomb, another trap was sprung; a nearly invisible net made of a fine mesh lifted Ashido from the floor and held her just out of reach of the bomb. "Oh, come on! That is so not fair!"
Yaoyorozu chuckled, "Victory is mine."
Then over the PA, Mr. Aizawa dryly said, "The villains win."
Izuku slumped against the wall while Ashido pouted as she swung back and forth in the net. "Hey, could you get me down, Yaomomo?"
"Yeah, just give me a sec," Yaoyorozu took a shaky step, trying to step over the ring of acid she was in, but misjudged the distance, and she stepped in the acid and slipped, falling face first into the floor.
Ashido was surprised for a moment, then started laughing, "Got you, Yaomomo!"
The Doctor tapped the tank; the large specimen inside was growing comparatively slower than his others back in Japan. He'd hoped it would have been finished by now, but considering that he was working with less than adequate personnel in a less-than-adequate laboratory, he'd have to settle with the slower growth rate.
He spoke into a recorder, "Specimen three has yet to fully develop but seems to be developing properly."
He moved on to the next specimen and grimaced, "Specimen four has failed." Inside the green liquid was a humanoid figure that had split apart; one of its arms had fully detached, while its abdomen had ruptured in several places. He pulled a latch next to a control panel and purged the tank. "It seems that the transfer had overwhelmed the subject's body; it seems that five is the maximum number of quirks most people can obtain without the body rejecting itself." Although now that he thinks of it, it may be the type of quirks. Some create abnormalities that the body may consider to be foreign bodies. Suppose he, for lack of a better term, deactivated the subject's immune system before fusing the quirks with their bodies. If that were the case, they could overcome this problem.
But that was a test for another day that he'd bring up to his master eventually.
The Doctor continued down the line of ten tanks and took careful notes over each specimen. Each Nomu, save for specimen four, was developing well. He hoped that young miss Toga was still doing her part; although it was certainly risky, it was necessary. They hadn't received any packages from her in the past week. But it had only been a week. If it had been a month, he would have been worried they'd been found out.
["Hey, Doctor, how's your little science project going?"], the man who'd asked was a short, pudgy Hispanic man. The little man's little goatee was perfectly groomed, while his thin wispy hair was haphazardly combed. The Doctor merely grunted in reply; this small-time crime lord didn't need to know his progress.
The man seemed to understand without the Doctor having to speak, ["I guess it doesn't really matter."] The Doctor grunted again, not really paying attention to the small man's prattle. ["But seeing as you are using my facilities, I do hope that they are to you're liking."] The Doctor grunted again, neither in affirmation nor denial.
This caused the small-time crime lord to shuffle nervously, then he awkwardly coughed and said, ["I see that you are busy, when you have time, please come dine with my family and I, we would be honored to have you as our guest."]
The Doctor didn't give him an answer; the thought of dining with this little man and his little family revolted him. If he had his way, the little man and his little family, along with his little cartel, would be destroyed by his precious creations. The only reason why he was even here was that his master wanted him to be. To what end, he did not know. But regardless of his desires, his master's come first. So he would tolerate this little man and his little cartel for as long as his master does.
And when the day comes to cast off the cartel and emerge from the shadows, the Doctor would be more than happy to kill the little man himself.
Jonathan was back at the Tarrant County sheriff's department until a lead appeared in the case back in Collin County. He hated leaving mid-investigation, but he had a laundry list of other cases to finish. Mostly it was just paperwork, but he was supposed to be on call for any emergencies. And today was one of his lucky days in the sense that there wasn't a single call, and he was able to steadily chew his way through the small pile of paperwork.
He slid the last piece of paper into a folder, sighed, then leaned back in his chair and rubbed his stinging eyes. There was a dull throb in his wrist from all the typing and writing he'd been doing for the past ten hours. Looking at the clock, it was almost quitting time. He yawned and stretched his arms above his head.
Pulling out his phone, he scrolled through various news feeds; most were the obligatory 'protests' and a prolific amount of crime. He didn't put much stock into the media's fear-mongering; most of these incidents were almost a week old, and he knew the media latched onto any. All tragedy they could find would be milked for all it's worth.
Then there were the 'feel good' stories about people banding together to help pay for a medical treatment or how students were going around giving donations to the homeless. While these stories were about objectivity, good people doing good things. They should definitely be recognized for their good actions. His problem was that the news was trying to spin this as a good situation instead of people having to beg complete strangers for enough money to buy essential medicine for their gravely ill child.
Finally, there was the national news, how President Kimble was on her reelection tour, another crisis with Russia, and how the nationalist movement in Canada was beginning to die down and sputter out.
He glanced at the clock and saw it was time to go. The night crew should be coming in in just a few minutes. Jonathan got up and opened the door. As he was leaving the office, Specialist Hero Humanoid Typhoon stopped him. Humanoid Typhoon was a recent addition to the ranks of Specialist Hero's. He graduated from the academy last year with top marks; his power was interesting. He had the ability to predict the path of any object. ["Hey, Riot, we were thinking about hitting up one of the local bars, wanna come?"]
Jonathan paused; he didn't have anywhere to be; nobody was waiting for him at home. But then again, he didn't want to be around people right now, not yet. ["Maybe later, guys, I'm not really feeling it tonight."]
Humanoid Typhoon smiled, ["alright, we'll see ya tomorrow, bud."]
Jonathan nodded, ["drive safe."]
["You too,"] replied Humanoid Typhoon.
Jonathan entered the elevator and went down to the parking garage. When he got into his car, he sat there for a few moments, an empty feeling slowly spreading through him. It was an almost out-of-body experience like he was viewing the life of Jonathan Tyson from the outside. That he didn't belong in his own body. The moment came and went, and he headed home.
When he entered his apartment and flicked on the light switch. He hung up his coat, pulled off his boots, and set his effects on the floor next to the door.
He trudged into the kitchen and stopped when he saw the distressingly large pile of unwashed dishes. He really didn't feel like washing those tonight, so he was happy to ignore them for the time being. But when he opened the cupboard where he kept his various plates and bowls, he realized they were all currently in the sink and very much not clean. Maybe he should have gone out with the other Officers. Then he wouldn't have to face the prospect of cleaning all these dishes.
But there were other options; he'd get something delivered, pizza sounded nice. After ordering one, he sat down on the sofa and turned on the tv. He didn't bother to change the channel from some cheesy cop drama, even though it was somewhere in the middle of the episode, and he had no idea what was happening. But the show did a great job of distracting him from his thoughts, the terrible, horrible thoughts plaguing him ever since his mom passed away.
Before he knew it, there was a knock at the door, and he got up, opened the door, quickly handed the teenager a few bills, and took the pizza. He set the box down and ate a few slices before closing it and shoving it into the fridge.
He debated whether or not to pull out the bottle of vodka he'd stashed in his freezer, but he ended up just leaving it in there. He shouldn't drink tonight, especially since he had to get up at a ridiculous time tomorrow and do it all over again.
Sometimes he felt trapped in a never-ending cycle of work, eat, sleep, work, eat, sleep, work, eat, sleep, work, eat, sleep, work, eat, sleep.
His phone buzzed with a call from Claire. His spirits lifted almost immediately, ["Hola mi amore."]
["The only words I understood were Hello and my"] replied Claire. He'd occasionally say these kinds of things in Spanish to her. While she didn't always understand what he said, she'd always get this cute little grin on her face and look bashful as she playfully swatted him, demanding he repeats it in English.
He grinned, ["But it would lose all its charm and passion."]
["I swear, I'm gonna learn another language one day just to get back at you,"] said Claire.
He chuckled and said, ["I didn't realize you didn't like me saying stuff in Spanish."]
He could almost hear Claire's pouting look ["It's not that I don't like it. It's just, I do wanna know what your saying."]
Jonathan sighed, ["We'll, I guess I can tell you this time. What I said was, hello, my love."]
There was a brief moment of silence before Claire spoke, ["It just sounds better in Spanish."]
["Sí, lo hace, mi hermosa paloma."] Again, he almost heard Claire pouting.
["Alright, I've decided to learn French or maybe Italian."] said, Claire. Jonathan laughed, and he heard Claire laughing along. It was a great moment, just the two laughing over a phone call. He silently hoped this moment would last forever.
But eventually, their laughter died down, and Claire spoke; she asked about his day and listened as he told her about the mountain of paperwork and how the case back in Collin County had hit a brick wall.
Then he asked about her day, ["Well, it was apparently far more exciting than yours."]
["Oh really? Do tell."] said, Jonathan.
["Promise you won't freak out. And I'm gonna start out with, I'm fine, everything's okay."] He felt his heart skip a beat, did she get hurt? Did something terrible happen?
["Okay, yeah, I promise."] Said Jonathan; he sat up straight, listening intently.
Claire paused and took a deep breath ["So, I went out on patrol; everything was going great. Perfect weather, hardly any traffic, just perfect flying weather. One guy did get lost, but he managed to get to an airport safely. Then, there was a collision between two military trainers."]
["Jesus, are they alright?"] asked Jonathan.
["The Trainer is, the Trainee's a bit ruffed up, but he's alive. But during the process of saving him, I might have, well, crashed."] Claire seemed to be finished with her story, and Jonathan took a moment to let what she said settle before saying anything.
["Well, that's, I'm glad you're okay."] They'd talked about how their jobs could put them in life-threatening situations. While neither was okay with the other being in danger, they wouldn't try to convince the other to find a different, less dangerous career.
["Yeah, me too."] Claire sighed and was quiet for a moment, then asked, ["How are you holding up?"]
Jonathan rubbed the back of his neck; he should face his feeling head on; he shouldn't ignore them, ["I'm holding it together, for now."]
["Alright, just promise me that you won't bottle it up again."] She spoke in a serious yet also comforting tone.
["Yeah, I promise."] he grinned a little; it had been a long time since he felt like someone cared for him as much as Claire did. He was grateful for that, more thankful than she probably realized.
They talked for a while longer after that, mainly about the conference coming up in about a month. They sorted out the details of their visit to I-island coming up in a couple weeks. They'd both made sure to get that week off, and they both managed to dip into their paid vacation time.
They hung up after about a half hour of idle talking, and he felt much more lively, more himself. And with that cheery mood, he retired to sleep.
Alright, that's another chapter done, I've been playing around with potential characters, a couple I've gotten ironed out. One or more might show up in the next chapter, possibly briefly, possibly not, who knows.
Anyways, it should be pretty obvious who I based "the humanoid typhoon" on. Should be pretty obvious. But if you haven't watched "Trigun" or the new "Trigun Stampede" I highly recommend it. It's one of those shows that's just *chefs kiss* fantastic.
Personally I prefer the og "Trigun" but from what I've seen from "Trigun Stampede" It'll be worth the watch.
I do not own My Hero Academia and Probably never will, Rangers armor is based off the Riot Gear from Fallout New Vegas and I also do not own that.
This story is also loosely based off of other fanfictions that I have read. Any persons or events that mirror reality or another story are completely accidental. If anyone wants to see any specific quirks or have any ideas about quirks, they would like to see in the story let me know and I'll see about adding them.
Where do fruits go for vacation?
Pear-is!