The countless lights of Tokyo's nighttime skyline were tracers to Uraraka's frantic eyes as she darted from rooftop to rooftop, barely taking time to land safely before launching herself from tiled slates and the rusty green metal of fire escapes. She would pay for her haste later, unsure if the nausea would even allow her to sleep afterwards. Not that it mattered, she only had one thing on her mind anyway, one smug voice and one menacing mask.
Between leaps, she glanced fervently down to the note clenched between her white knuckled grip, partly to check that she was going the right way but mostly to reassure herself that she hadn't in fact been having a nightmare when she'd first read it. The mocking visage of a cartoon bunny solidified her reality and hardened her anger.
She drove flashing images of the vigilante lingering outside her apartment from her thoughts, ignoring the implications with a willpower impressive for an overthinker such as her.
It was raining now and harsh sleets of tepid water rattled the visor of her helmet and sent waves of shivering discomfort down the back of her jumpsuit. Verandas drowned, gutters overflowed and patches of potentially lethal puddles littered the rooftops that marked Urarakas path, but once again she ignored it, so focused was she on the task at hand.
Further and further she flew, dodging wayward cats and intrusive thoughts along the way, until she spotted the unyielding steel mountain of warehouses in the middle distance. Only then did she allow herself to breathe, landing drunkenly on the roof of the office block he'd indicated, a safe but observable distance away.
At the short range of just a few streets, the place seemed innocuous. A cheap looking metal fence ringed the perimeter of the compound like a prison, with an entrance at either end locked tight by curiously solid looking chains. On the inside, flat, dull walls rowed one by one in a uniform gray block sat in the direct center, not even a window to break the monotony. Corrugated steel roofs capped each building with unflinching mundanity that almost seemed designed to avoid notice by being as ordinary as possible
The large span of identical warehouses stretched a good quarter mile across but even still, not one spark of light drew Ururaka's eye. If there really was something sinister going on here, it was happening in the shadows. No surprises there she thought to herself, eyes scanning the empty rooftops nearby for any sign of her gracious summoner.
"You came."
She knew the voice. Annoyingly well in fact, but the words were spoken with a soft seriousness that Uraraka was unaccustomed to. She turned to face him, fighting hard to school her expression, to remove the simmering resentment she felt at his intrusion of her home.
He leaned languidly against the blocky metal frame of an air conditioning unit, tapping the steel of one boot into a pool of gathered rain water. His subdued costume mixed with the long shadows of the night to give him a tenebrous vibe that Ururaka was sure he thought looked cool. His helmeted head wasn't looking at her.
"You're a criminal, and I'm here to arrest you, what did you expect?" She seethed.
He chuckled. "Okay star girl, I'll make you a deal, work with me for a mere 2 hours," he held his hand in a loose peace sign, "And I'll give you a free shot at taking me in, sound fair?"
"What makes you think I'd work with a scumbag like you? She snorted, derisively, more half formed insults tripping over themselves to escape her tongue that were all cut short by the wad of tightly wrapped papers he under-armed at her. She braced herself, expecting some manner of weapon, but stopped short when the bundle bounced harmlessly at her feet. The glossy finish, evident even in the limited light, tipped her off that it wasn't papers but rather, a collection of cheap photographs, like the kind you'd get from a disposable camera.
Not taking her eyes off of the cloaked man, Uraraka deftly snatched the bundle from the floor and gave the top image a calculated glance taking in as much information as possible while still keeping an eye on her target. All that went out the window however, when her wired brain finished processing the image. Her breath caught in her throat.
It was dark, barely enough light illuminated the subjects. Six girls, young enough to be in school, huddled together nervously in the center of the frame, the terror in their eyes gut wrenching, even through the picture. Each girl had a hightec looking pair of handcuffs, Quirk suppressing ones if Uraraka had to guess, clamped tightly around their wrist, each one attached to a large chain that ran the length of the group, leading into the back of a ubiquitous looking delivery truck.
Uraraka forced herself to look at the next photo, already knowing what she was going to see but desperately hoping to be wrong. She was not. Image after image flew past her frantic eyes, each showing the same thing: victims.
"Security cam footage from six nights ago," Jackrabbit's voice, devoid of his usual humor, snapped Uraraka out of her slowly mounting anger. She stared at him, speechless. The cold metal and glass of his helmet stared right back, and for a second, she could have sworn she saw the fury in his eyes behind the mask that matched her own. "No games Uravity, I want to help these kids," he spoke with a conviction that she recognised well. It was the same one that she knew stoked the fires of her friends, the same one that got her out of bed in the morning.
The conviction of a Hero.
Ryukyu is gonna kill me…
An hour later and the moon at full stretch, Uraraka tried desperately to get rid of the crick that had infested her neck for the past 20 minutes.
Jackrabbit's brilliant plan that only she could help with for some reason, so far involved moving to a rooftop nearby their meeting place that had a better view of the complex and a whole lot of nothing else. Scouting he'd called it, though Uraraka half wondered if he was testing her somehow: making certain that she hadn't called for backup the moment he'd left his little calling card.
Whatever it was, it was killing her with a thousand tiny annoyances, the least of which being the close proximity to the person who irritated her more than anyone.
"So star girl, got a boyfriend?" Jackrabbit asked, with all the innocence of a razorblade. He swung by his legs, bat-like, from the strut of a miniature water tower as he hummed tunes that sounded suspiciously like idol music, and tapped away on a handheld console.
The question hadn't come out of nowhere, he'd been peppering her with inane nonsense for the entire length of their makeshift stakeout, and Uraraka was starting to think herself nuts letting this wackjob convince her of anything. She clenched her teeth to stop herself from hurling his infuriating ass off the roof. "No, now please stop talking," she fumed. "And get down from there! They might see you!"
"Naw, I'll know when they get close don't worry about it," he waved, dismissively, only giving a mild grumble of annoyance at the death throes of Pac-man from his handheld.
Urarakas eye twitched, dangerously. "Then why have I been staring at the warehouses for this long, looking for any sign of movement?" She asked, calmer than she felt.
Jackrabbit gave an upside down shrug. "I just told you to keep an eye on the place, not stare a hole through it," he laughed.
A few steading breaths were needed before Uraraka felt comfortable speaking without screaming her lungs out, so she filled the time by checking her phone, only for the guilt to make her feel worse.
No less than 30 missed calls and a thousand texts from Tsu fired from the screen, each round grinding her exhaustion in, skin deep. In hindsight, her cryptic message of 'Don't follow. Call Ryukyu if I dont reply by morning' followed by the address supplied by Jackrabbit, had been a poor heads up for her closest friend, but really, if she was being honest with herself, she hadn't been thinking straight since her encounter with the vigilante the night before.
She flipped the pink plastic closed, putting her half composed apology down until after she'd done her job. "What are you even talking about anyway, how can you know where they are?"
Apparently finished with his game, Jackrabbit dismounted the perch he had made for himself with more acrobatic flair than was strictly necessary. He landed with a solid *thunk* as his caged boots touched down, and began ambling his way over to Uraraka. A few steps away, he pulled something small and mostly black punctured with intermittent flashes of a red LED from one of the many packs on his belt. "Remember this?" He asked, waving the box that Uraraka recognised as the object that he had looted from the fallen gang members just the previous night. "It's a GPS tracker. Well, kind of anyway."
Uraraka quirked an eyebrow, curiosity getting the better of her. "What do you mean?" He tossed the box to her and she wasted no time in putting her analytical mind to work.
Whatever it was, the flashing box was dense, weighing a good kilo heavier than Uraraka had been expecting. One side, completely smooth save for two rigged bumps housing black painted screws, while the other bore a small vent for a speaker. A faint tattoo of beeps like a metronome or some sort of rhythmic geiger counter issued from the device at varying tempos until the pattern looped after around 20 or so seconds. The red LED that she had noticed before followed the pace of the sound religiously.
A jolt of recognition shot through Uraraka after some listening. "Morse code!" She said, wide eyed.
Jackrabbit nodded, though his helmeted head made it difficult to tell. "Yep, right now it's looping the same message that's been playing since I uhh 'acquired' it: the address of that there warehouse complex. It's how those little rats have been communicating. When they get close, we'll know," he said, the steel in his voice making Uraraka tense. She tossed him back the box.
"If you've been after these guys for as long as you say you have, why haven't you picked one of those up before?" Uraraka questioned, with only slight suspicion. She still wasn't fully convinced that this wasn't a trap of some kind, but she was willing to take the risk as long as there was even an off chance that she could rescue the children he had shown her.
For his part, Jackrabbit didn't even notice the apprehension in her voice, either that or he didn't care. "Oh I've gotten my hands on loads of these bad boys, those slippery bastards just keep disconnecting them whenever I do. Their hideout keeps changing every few weeks too. It took ages for Hats- I mean my friend to come up with a way to trick the system into keeping one connected without them catching on," he said.
Uraraka's eyes narrowed considerably, she was certain he'd just let something slip, something important. "'Friend' huh? You don't strike me as the cooperative type," she murmured.
"Aww come on now star girl don't be so cruel! I love playing with others, especially when they're a cutie like you," Jackrabbit twittered, even as Uraraka made a noise of distaste in the back of her throat, immediate thoughts on the identity of his co-conspirator forgotten in the face of his idiocy. She did file the train of thought away for later examination, however.
"Forget I asked…" She mumbled, mostly to herself. "So they think that things been disconnected while you're using it to track them? Seems a little convenient. You're sure they have no idea?"
Jackrabbit made a smug sound of affirmation, much like a child convinced of his intellectual superiority. "Is it so surprising to you that a dastardly vigilante like myself can come up with an oh-so genius plan? Come on, ask me how I came up with the idea. Ask me, ask me!" He hopped excitedly on the spot and Uraraka could feel a vein at her temple begin to twitch.
"Even idiots can plan ahead and that's what worries me. People like you are running around with all the power of a quirk and you have your own goals that you work towards," Uraraka said resolutely clenching her fist by her side. "It makes me nervous about what you'll get up to next."
The giddy energy drained from Jackrabbit as he sighed and slumped against the railing of the water tower. He was unusually disquieted by Urarakas words and for once, she felt like she'd gotten the better of him. Until he spoke again in the somber, serious and so un-Jackrabbit like voice that he had been rather liberal with in her presence that night. "Do you really believe we're all like that? Just villains-in-waiting?" He stared at her, the unsettling black of his helmet giving him an unknowable look.
Uraraka snorted. "Obviously. Otherwise you'd have just become heroes like any decent person who had the chance," she said, rolling her eyes.
"Yeah well, that's the thing, Uravity. Not all of us get that chance. Some of us aren't left with much of a choice," he shot back. His words were quiet and quick, from the heart, and they made Uraraka stumble. She looked up, retorts half formed at her lips that she wasn't quite sure she believed, before being interrupted by three sharp and loud beeps from the little black box.
Jackrabbit brought the thing to the side of his helmet and listened close to the new sound issuing forth. He chucked it to Uraraka when the message had evidently looped. "Get ready star girl, they'll be here in 10."
Just like that, her vision tunneled. All thoughts about Jackrabbit and his words, all the anxiety and the moral dilemma about whether or not she was doing the right thing, it all sifted from her mind like water through cloth. It was necessary. If she didn't school her thoughts, she'd have to confront the fact that, in the face of potentially letting those kids go, she'd thrown rules out the window, an action that strayed into vigilante territory more than she was comfortable admitting. Then again, she knew she had no choice. She'd lost the battle of reason with herself the moment she'd seen those pictures.
The masked man strided with purpose towards the fire escape but stopped when Uraraka spoke. "Where are you going?" She asked him.
He chuckled softly. "Some of us have to walk to where we're going, floaty."
She scoffed, rolling her eyes in a manner not befitting someone as dignified as her. "Uh yeah, hello?" She extended one hand, flicking her wrists to show him the swirling pads at the tips of her fingers. "I can take us both, moron. Now c'mere, we should get on top of one of those warehouses before they get here," she marched towards him.
In an instant the vigilante was on guard, knees bent and shoulders tense. The metal of his boots creaked slightly in the chill night as he took a calculated step back towards the fire escape and clenched his hands into loose fists. For once, he didn't have anything clever to say.
Uraraka froze, head tilting slightly in confusion at his erratic behavior, before glancing rapidly between the tips of her fingers and the jumpy man. It hit with no small amount of satisfaction.
He really is frightened of my quirk.
The pair of them stared at each other for a long second, both of them aware of the ticking clock, yet neither of them moving even an inch. Then, Uraraka spoke slowly. "You're kiddin' me right? You think I waited on this stupid rooftop all night just to bring you in now? I already said I'd work with ya," she said, bewildered. She guessed vigilantes weren't big on the whole trust thing.
Well that's too dang bad.
She reached out her hand once more, slower this time, before she spoke again. "I'm trusting that this isn't some big set up, so now it's your turn to trust me."
She didn't think we would at first. He stayed stock still while he looked at her, the black abyss of his visor barely hiding how his eyes bored into her skull, trying to read her thoughts. With glacial pace, he extended his arm, allowing Uraraka to softly tap the inside of his wrist of faded white. Above them, the clouds parted, sending shafts of silvery moonlight cascading off his opaque visage. In the slowly shrinking gloom, Urarka watched as he nodded his helmeted head in acceptance and the pair floated gently, quietly towards their quarry.
Despite her quirk being less combat focused than say, Dynamights, Red Riots or even Froppys, Uraraka found stealth distasteful. Perhaps it was the years she'd spent under the martial tutelage of Gunhead, or maybe it was the subtle influence of her classmates who were anything but. Either way something about creeping through twisting shadows and hiding behind rotten iron doors had never sat right with her. And tonight, the act was pulling at the last threads of her remaining nerves.
In a pitch colored pool of shadow at the intersection where one warehouse met another, Uraraka watched a master of the umbral arts dance on the edge of moonlight, slipping easily round the corner wall of rusted metal and sidling up to what looked like a maintenance door of the far building.
The masked man ducked low under the doors aperture and peaked in, making no more sound than a mouse would in a hurricane. After a scant glance though the dirty glass, he beckoned her forward with a low thumbs up.
Uraraka darted forward and pulled up next to her erstwhile enemy, mirroring his stance on the opposite side of the entryway. Once she had settled in, the vigilante held up a solitary finger, gesturing with a jerk of his head towards the window. His dirtied costume blended in so well with the wall, Uraraka almost had to squint to see him.
One guard.
This was it then. Time to be a hero.
Uraraka took a deep breath. With a sharp exhale she touched the grimey metal door with her fingertips and allowed her power to flow. With the faintest of noise that still managed to sound like a gunshot to Urarakas nervous ears, the metal hovered, suspended barely an inch off of the ground, still attached to its frame. Jackrabbit gave a light push and the door swung inwards just enough to allow them entry.
Inside hadn't been what Uraraka had been expecting. Instead of big open spaces filled floor to ceiling with boxes, clean metal walls stretched shear on both sides creating a narrow walkway of dull gray. The hallway was surprisingly well lit, with intermittent but harsh novas of light in the form of strong LEDs that hummed heavy static in the still air, soaking the riveted walls a sharp yellow.
At the end of the long sweep of blank walls and fluorescent bulbs, past another open door, a lone guard leaned against what looked like metal railing, cross legged and puffing lethargically on a cigarette. A low tech but lethal looking automatic, a rarity for japan, hung from a rough brown leather strap, dangling just out of easy reach as the thug bounced his leg in apparent boredom. Evidently, he hadn't heard the rusty squeak of the doors hinges as it opened to allow the two stalking hunters inside. He didn't even have time to yell when Jackrabbit punched him hard in the side of the neck, knocking him out cold. It had been part of the deal, one of Urarakas demands for her cooperation. Absolutely no deaths. The endless reports on Jackrabbit and his endeavors in the past had never included fatalities but she wanted to be certain.
Wraithlike, the pair snatched the unmoving thug and stashed him in the hallway, Uraraka binding his hands and disassembling his weapon as her partner in cri-, well, her partner at any rate, pilfered the body's clothes for any useful information. Coming up with nothing good, Jackrabbit crept towards the new doorway just as Uraraka removed the firing pin and stored it safely in her belt. She took a few seconds to examine the man's peaceful face for any features she might recognise before following.
She arrived to find Jackrabbit kneeling low where the guard had been standing, with one hand to the grated metal of the floor and the other touched lightly to the side of his helmet, as if he were on comms with someone. His head darted this way and that, taking in everything at once and a low stream of mumbling, too quiet for even Uraraka to hear issued from his hooded head
Uraraka knelt beside him, taking in the main room of the building while keeping herself as invisible to wandering eyes as she could given the color of her costume.
The room was gargantuan. She had been expecting that, it was a warehouse after all, but she wasn't prepared for the intricacies. Though they had entered at ground level, several struts of interwoven makeshift walkways crisscrossed beneath them like a great metal web, suspended above a basement level platform that played host to the three trucks they had seen enter the complex. Great stadium lights towered above the elevated platform at each corner of the room, intimidating even when switched off. Against the far wall from the entrance, a muddy green shipping container sat, squat and unassuming, save for long links of chain and padlock that draped over its doors. The muffled voices of a handful of people reverberated off the steel warehouse walls, scattering warbled noises this way and that.
"How many," Uraraka whispered. She swept the room with her eyes, pulling apart weakness and finding hiding spots buried in the gloom. She'd picked out four more guards, two of them with guns and the other two with lethal looking quirks, before Jackrabbit could reply.
"Six that I could spot. Two more just went in the back of the right hand truck," the vigilante gestured with the hand not touching his ear.
Uraraka hummed, going over the logistics of the makeshift plan she'd cobbled together in the brief time she'd had available. It was feasible, but it would require coordination, and more than a little nausea on her part. There was nothing for it, the guns put them at a strong disadvantage. She grimaced, before taking a deep breath. "Think you can put 'em to sleep like the last guy? Quick and quiet I mean," she asked. Jackrabbit tilted his head in a manner that strangely reminded her of Izuku, then nodded emphatically. "Then follow me and stick close."
Waiting just long enough to ensure she wouldn't be spotted, the Pro hero vaulted the railing, slapping the vigilante on the mask with one hand as she passed and gripping the gaunt grin of metal that was his mouthguard with the other. Silent as the grave, the two plummeted and, with a scant few feet left to fall, Uraraka activated her quirk on herself as well, touching down with the faintest puff of displaced air. She released them both and the pair scrambled to a patch of deeper dark, forming behind what looked like an old generator. Uraraka heard Jackrabbit mumble something that sounded suspiciously like a compliment, but she ignored it just as easily as she did the rest of his flirting.
The nearest guard to them was a few feet away and he'd obviously been given instructions to make laps of the interior for any signs of intrusions. A large man with greased and thinning hair, he made slow, lumbering steps, casually picking at one of the many spines that protrude from his skin like hairs. The overgrown puffer fish would pass their hiding spot any second but they were ready.
As one, the unlikely duo moved, striking high and low with pinpoint timing. Jackrabbit caught the man sweet with a blow to the side of the neck, a mirror to punch he'd delivered earlier. His gloved fist shattered several thorny spines in a spray of crimson and the guard dropped, the lights in his eyes panicked as they faded to unconsciousness. Before his rag dolling body could make a sound, Uraraka took a fist full of his clothing and pushed hard off of the ground, floating herself and lulling form to one of the suspended walkways above. Once the body was secure and out of sight, she leapt back down, joining the vigilante once more.
Again, they fell in step and the rest of the guards dotted around the warehouse dropped like dominos. On some level, it unnerved Uraraka how well the two worked together.
Three more takedowns and floatups later and the two found themselves on either side of the back entrance to the truck that Jackrabbit claimed housed two more guards. If the faint but harsh exchange of words was anything to go by, he was right.
Uraraka glanced over at her companion. He was crouched low, glued to the truck's rear tire with his helmeted head swiveling this way and that to make sure no one else could sneak up on them. Apparently satisfied, he locked eyes with Uraraka. At least, she imagined he did, it was hard to tell after all. He held one hand out, palm facing her and mimicked the motion of knocking on a door with the other. When Uraraka nodded her understanding, he counted down from three with his fingers to allow her time to prepare. Then, he slammed his fist, hard, three times into the vans hub cap.
The low level mumbling from inside the vehicle ceased and, for a second, Uraraka imagined the sound of a pair of firearms being cocked. She shook her head, hoping she was wrong.
"That you, Raze'? We packing 'em up again already?" A rough voice, belonging to a smoker of at least 20-a-day called, followed by footsteps that echoed loud in the disquiet.
Jackrabbit slammed the black metal of the hubcap with several more percussive slaps and this time, a second voice emerged.
"Stop fuckin' around, who is that?" This time around, the warbled and nervous voice was accompanied by two sets of footfalls.
Good, the timing would be easier then.
Uraraka calmed her racing heart and steadied her breathing, running through the technique in her mind's eye.
The glimpse of a side profile of two men, one short and stocky and one impossibly tall, came into view and Uraraka leapt. Kicking off the backside of the taller man's knee, the gravity hero boosted herself upward as the man cried out in alarm. On her way up, she grabbed one flailing wrist and twisted it behind her opponent's back while letting her weight return with full force. The man staggered and struggled hard but couldn't hold under the weight of another on just one leg. Uraraka delivered a final knee to the base of his skull to send him over and he crashed to the floor with a resounding thud. She would have preferred to arrest at least one of them fully conscious but it'd been a long night and her patience was running thin.
She looked up quickly to see if Jackrabbit needed any help and he was staring back at her, his own enemy crumpled in a heap at his feet.
"What?" She grumbled quietly, dusting herself free from the debris of their little scuffle.
He didn't answer right away, instead choosing to not move an inch. It unnerved Uraraka, it felt like he was eyeing her up, evaluating her. Finally he said, simply, "You're good". It wasn't an assertion, more of an observation.
She snorted softly. "Do ya think I spend all day filling my nails or somethin'? I'm a pro hero for a reason," she grumbled, unsure of why the idea of him being surprised at her skill was bothering her so much.
"Just glad I keep my distance from you is all," he said, jumping over the larger downed man and inspecting the inside of the truck. Glancing around for a second or two at the grimy interior he shook his head, deeming the contents unworthy. "Alright, let's check out that shipping container before one of these morons wakes up," he said.
Uraraka was about to agree but a rough and cold voice that ran the length of her spine beat her over the head. "Oh I don't think that's such a good idea there bunny boy."
In a flash, she whipped her head around and brought up her hands in a defense position, peering intensely at the source of the voice. Jackrabbit was closer, but he hopped back several steps to stand next to Uraraka. To an untrained eye, his lax stance might seem disarming, but Uraraka could see the tension in his legs, ready to spring.
A hand, dirty, with stubby fingers topped by blunt nails, wrapped itself around the back corner of the furthest truck from them and a man peeled himself out of the darkness. A wall of muscle, covered in taut and pale skin stood before them.
He was bald with several distinctive piercings dotting his sunken face, giving him the striking appearance of a corpse decorated for some ancient ritual. His eyes flickered with the simmering madness of someone well beyond the pale of reason. The intimidating man wasn't particularly large, standing roughly 6 ft or so, but he was almost as wide as he was tall, with shovel-like hands and shoulders like mountains. Every inch of visible skin below the neck was laced with dark red ink, depicting slithering vipers and maniacally laughing skulls. Uraraka may well have found it all beautiful, in a macabre sort of way, had it all belonged to someone, anyone, else. His oak tree neck bulged with sinew and veins as he strolled almost leisurely towards them.
"You have fun taking my boys down? Coz I think I'm gonna have to pay you back for that," he cracked his knuckles like some great cartoonish bully, albeit one who could probably bench press a city bus. "Gotta say though. Didn't expect them to get rocked by a coupla idiots in jumpsuits," he laughed, before eyeing up Uraraka lecherously. "Then again, something tells me they mighta been distracted by something. What's a fine piece like yourself doing with this goon? Never expected to see a pro work with someone like him."
Jackrabbit was uncharacteristically silent but Uraraka could feel the heat radiating from his tensing body. "If you come quietly, you won't be harmed," she ordered the thug, secretly hoping he'd refuse given his crimes.
His eyes widened and for a second, Uraraka thought he might actually comply. But the next moment he burst into a hacking cough of a laugh. "You pros are so predictable. What about you bunny boy? Gonna 'bring me in'? Gonna put me in handcuffs?" He hissed. "Oh no that's not your style. You'd rather put me in a hospital bed for a few months wouldn't you?"
Uraraka could practically hear Jackrabbits teeth grinding. "No more than you deserve," he growled.
Razor laughed again. "HAH of course. What's that saying they use in the west? Something about a pot and a kettle? You ain't no saint yourself, 'Jackrabbit'," he said, voice dripping with mockery.
Jackrabbit tensed. "If you know me then you should probably listen to her, it'll be easier on you," he said.
Razor's sinister grin highlighted his too white teeth and seemed to shine in the weak moonlight. "Where's the fun in that? I'm just itching for a scrap," on his final word he slammed his massive fists against the slides of this tree trunk legs and the low light glimmered as two heavy looking blades the color of bronze, jutted from his forearms. With a flick of an elbow, his overgrown namesake sliced through the air and cleanly bisected the truck's shutter leaving the twin pieces to fall to the floor in a deafening cacophony of metallic screeches.
Uraraka blinked. Okay, probably best to avoid those.
"You're not so different than me, y'know bunny boy. We both do what we feel like," he took a menacing few steps forward and Uraraka coiled her body to fight as, to her left, Jackrabbit did the same. "And right now…I feel like cutting you to PIECES!" He staggered to his right making out like he was going to cleave straight towards the vigilante but collapsed his knee at the last moment, sending his body back towards Uraraka like a great jittering spider. Faster than thought he swung at her and she was forced to leap backwards, giving herself a boost with her quirk.
20 feet away now she could only watch the lunatic engage with Jackrabbit as she sprinted her way back into the fight. The vigilante was faster, no doubt, but Razor knew what he was doing. He kept the smaller man at arms length and made him back off when he got to close with a mad tirade of swipes.
Back on the scene, Uraraka ducked low under a savage swing and kicked the man in the knee, forcing him to kneel. Before she could follow up, Jackrabbit used the larger man's now flattened thigh as footstool, leapt high and brought his metal caged heel down hard on the top of Razor's head. The blade armed thug grunted and coughed up a rivulet of crimson where he'd bitten something of himself. Uneasy, he staggered to his feet and the fury mixed with pain in his eyes was almost lethal by itself. He surged forward again, this time with a grinding battle cry.
But after that it was much the same.
Still dazed by Jackrabbit's solid blow, Razor became desperate and violent. His swings were wild and unpredictable and any one of them would have cleaved Uraraka in two. Still, it was becoming increasingly obvious that he was no match for the experienced fluidity of Uraraka and the savage dance of blunt force trauma that was Jackrabbit.
Once more, the man mountain forced Uraraka back, sending her floating away to avoid a double handed swing. Once more he engaged Jackrabbit alone and once more the smaller man was too fast. At least, that was how it should have been.
After a reckless right hook put Razor off balance, Jackrabbit moved in tight to his midsection, ducking low on tightly coiled legs. Instead of the rapid flurry of blows with gauntleted fists that Uraraka was expecting, Jackrabbit decided to wrap his arms around the larger man's waist and hold on tight.
A panic overtook Uraraka as she propelled herself forward. What was he thinking? He'd trapped himself.
Sure enough, Razor found the window he'd been waiting for. With a roar he shunt the vigilante away and backhanded him, catching him just below the chest with a mighty blow that sent him flying. Jackrabbit had recognised the danger fast enough that he was able to take most of the cleave on one of his slabs of body armor, at the very least preventing himself from being cut in twain. But he could do nothing about the sheer force. With a great crash he impacted a stack of old electrical equipment and slumped to the floor, being buried under the resulting landslide of old computer parts and rusty circuit boards.
Uraraka, still charging forward, heart hammering in her chest, decided that enough was enough. She needed to end this one way or another. She yelled nonsense to get his attention away from her downed ally and readied herself for the fray.
With a cruel smile, Razor thrust his arm forward hoping to catch Uraraka off guard but, unfortunately for him, the pro was an ace student of the great Gunhead. The lethal blade sailed cleanly past her, taking a few shreds of her uniform with it as she pivoted. Like lightning she struck, grabbing the thug's meaty wrist and twisting down at the same time she stuck his elbow with the base of her palm. A sickening but grimly satisfying snap was mostly drowned out by Razor's yelp of pain. He flailed wildly at her, waving the blade of his now only good arm in a desperate attempt to keep the pro at a distance.
In his blind rage he didn't notice the shadow that rose behind him, nor the metal boot that sailed out of the darkness and connected with his ribcage. The blade armed villain flew several feet and only because the metal wall of the warehouse stopped him before the ground could.
He groaned and staggered to his feet, his large and watery eyes wide with a new found fear. His gaze darted around, desperate to find an exit and across the dusty space he spotted one. Uraraka followed his look to where no more than a short sprint away from the cornered villain, a fire exit stood. By the time she looked back the hefty chunk of scrap metal, twice the size of her, was already halfway through its deadly arc. She leapt away frantically and rolled, kicking up a disorienting cloud of dust and debris. When she could see again through the muddy haze, Razor was already most of the way out the door, his useless arm dangling limply at his side.
"Take the damn brats, see if I care! There's plenty more just like 'em! They ain't even a fraction of the 'merchandise' I got!" His vile message, spat with venom and rage, made Urarakas heart cold.
With a final hate filled look, the thug disappeared around the doorframe and into the winds.
"He won't get far like that, let's get after him," Uraraka said, already halfway to the door Razor had left by, but a tight pressure suddenly on her wrist had her rooted to the ground. She turned back, looking into the cold emotionless visage of a helmet and felt her fury mount. "Let go of me. Now," she ordered. He held her for a few seconds longer, all the while apparently studying her incandescent face. Once freed, Uraraka made for the door again just as a powerful motor roared to life. If she'd thought about it before, she might have noticed the cruiser bike they'd seen leading the pack of trucks into the warehouse complex was nowhere in sight.
Uraraka rounded on Jackrabbit, her fury palpable. She grabbed a fist full of the man's dark green costume and "What were ya thinking? He's gettin' away!" She shoved him roughly and made to give chase once more, but stopped when Jackrabbit whipped a small touchscreen device from one of his many pockets and shoved it in her field of vision. A small pulsating red dot moved smoothly across the screen and, as it did, a number counting in meters increased in the top right hand corner.
Uraraka looked up, speechless. When the hell had he planted a tracker on the guy?
"You think I'd let an amateur like him kick me around like that? Gimme some credit here," he said, a smile in his voice.
"Did it not cross your mind it might not be useful to let me in on this plan of yours," Uraraka grumbled. She was still annoyed at him, but she had to admit it was a solid plan. From how he'd acted, she held no doubt that Razor wouldn't tell the police or the heroes a thing. Now though, he'd given them a lead. Something to hunt.
Jackrabbit rubbed his ribcage and stayed silent for several seconds before he answered. "Couldn't risk it. He's smarter than he looks, and besides…" with a thumb, he gestured to the sinister shipping container sitting quietly in the murk. "I'm more interested in what's in there."
He walked with purpose toward the locked metal box, the hollow thunk of his steel soles reverberating in the dingy warehouse, chasing away the ghosts of Razor's voice and horrible words. At the doors, Jackrabbit stood stock still, with only his head glancing briefly at the intricate scramble of thick steel chains and deadbolts. Uraraka could hear his tight breathing from 10 meters away and she could see the tense line of his shoulder shaking with tightly compressed fury. Faster than she could follow, Jackrabbit lashed out with one foot, shearing the largest padlock clean off and sending the offending hunk of metal skittering away into the darkness. The force of the blow nearly made Uraraka flinch. Link by link he pulled the chains free and when Uraraka came over to help, the two of them yanked open the doors with some effort. The metal groaned in protest as it scraped harshly against the concrete of the warehouse floor but soon enough, the hero and vigilante could face the evil locked tight within.
A low and cold artificial light issued forth, sputtering out limply from a single exposed bulb that hung from the ceiling and cast faint shadows in the cramped space. The container was mostly empty. A few rags were strewn haphazardly over the dusty floor, thin with age and yellow with god knew what, while several empty plastic bottles littered the gaps between the old clothes alongside some empty packets of snack bars and other junk food. Uraraka could barely see any of this however, as her eyes were glued to the masses of shadow huddled in the far corner.
In the weak light she could make out the forms of six girls and even in the gloom she could tell one of them looked too young to even be in middle school. She could feel the bile rising in her throat.
A voice, gentle and calming, echoed in the dark and it took a couple of seconds for Uraraka to realize that it was Jackrabbits. "It's alright now, we're not going to hurt you. We've come to get you out of here," he took a step forward but stopped dead when the oldest girl, the one who had put her body between the door and the others, twitched forward, producing a long and lethal looking shard of scrap iron. There was a desperate fire in her hazel colored eyes, one that said she would protect the others with her life if necessary. Behind her, the younger girls shivered in abject panic, rattling the quirk suppressant cuffs they all wore. Tears were forming in their frightened gazes and Urarakas heart broke all over again.
"You're the mom of the group I'm guessing," Jackrabbit chuckled, a far cry from his usual ear straining laughter. He moved forward again, slower this time and held out his hands. "You must be the reason they haven't been bruised up too much huh? You did a good job kiddo," another step. "Think you can put the shiv down little miss? I promise we won't hurt you, we just want to make sure you're all okay," one more. "See the nice lady behind me? She's the pro hero Uravity and she's here to rescue you," he said softly.
At this revelation, a flicker of hope passed through the oldest girl's eyes and she dropped her shaking arm just enough that Jackrabbit could close the distance a little more.
Uraraka stepped forward, finding her voice amidst the horror. "You've all been so brave, you must have been scared."
With a tender touch, Jackrabbit held the girl's weapon holding wrist with one hand and closed a fist around her own with the other, encompassing her trembling grip.
"But it's alright now. Uraraka placed a soft hand on the girl's shoulder and smiled as bright as she could muster. "We are here."
The makeshift knife clattered to the floor as great fat tears streamed from the girl's hollow eyes. With a sob, she heaved forward, slamming bodily into Jackrabbit and Uraraka as she threw her arms around the pair of them with reckless abandon. A rapid stream of 'thank yous' spilled from her hoarse throat but the vigilante and hero just rubbed her back and muttered words of encouragement. At the sight of their broken protector, the other girls began to cry right alongside her.
It took some time to get all six of the girls to a state in which they could answer any questions without breaking down into choking sobs after that, but Uraraka wasn't rushing, they'd been through enough. While Jackrabbit scoured the remaining trucks for any sign of a key to the handcuffs, she led them all out into the cool night so that they might take their first free breath of air in a while. The oldest girl spoke in low tones to Uraraka so as to not trigger the traumatic onset of memories in her charges. According to her, the six of them had been kidnapped individually on separate nights. She had been the first to be taken, around two weeks past by her guess. It was clear that Razor and his gang had chosen their targets carefully as not one of them had any family to speak of. If not for Jackrabbit and Uraraka's intervention, it was possible that they would all have disappeared into the wind, written off as missing persons for the rest of their lives with no one to look for them.
Uraraka smiled at the frightened girls. "You're gonna have to repeat some of this to the police and social workers when we get to the hospital and if you want, I can be there with you," she said, softening her expression more when the girls nodded emphatically. "But first let's get you some food and a shower. Sound good?" The girls looked ready to burst into tears of relief all over again and Uraraka was inclined to join them. But there would be time for that later.
First, she had to make a few phone calls.
She started with Tsu, as the froggy hero was almost certainly still awake and worried about her friend's cryptic message. Over the phone, it was difficult to gauge the usually deadpan woman's emotions just based on her tone of voice, but if Uraraka knew her friend, she was definitely a mixture of relieved and incensed. Several thousand apologies later and Uraraka said her goodbyes leaving her friend with a promise that she would fill her in on the night's events face to face.
Next was the call that Uraraka had been dreading. Ryukyu.
As she watched Jackrabbit exit the warehouse, make his way over to the girls and remove their cuffs, she held the phone to her ear and listened to the white noise of the ringtone, half hoping her boss wouldn't pick up. Before Uraraka was ready, a sharp voice pierced through the static. "Ryukyu agency," it said.
Uraraka choked slightly but managed to compose herself. "Before I start, I just wanna say I take full responsibility Ma'am," she began.
On the opposite side of the line, Ryukyu chuckled. "Oh this should be good. What do you need, Uravity?"
"Police for some unconscious villains and pediatric ambulances, enough for six young girls, oldest ones around 14, youngest about 8. Send them to the address I just messaged you," with the phone on loudspeaker, Uraraka took a quick picture of the crumbled note that Jackrabbit had left her, doing her level best to keep the little rabbit doodle out of frame.
"Done. I'm assuming you'll debrief me first thing tomorrow? Good, get some sleep, Uravity, you sound like you need it."
Uraraka nodded, despite being on the phone. "After I make sure these kids are okay, I'll ride with them to the hospital," she said. She wasn't used to arguing with her boss but she wouldn't budge on this, not even if Lemillion himself told her to.
"Alright, expect a call at 8. Talk to you then," the line went dead.
Uraraka flipped her ancient phone closed and gave a great sigh of relief she hadn't realized she'd been holding in. Her heavy eyelids slid shut but she smiled ever so slightly. It was alright now, the victims were safe and help was on the way.
In the tepid calm that formed in the still night, an impending conflict arose within her overworked mind. Had she done the right thing tonight? It was easy to say yes, yes of course she had! Six young girls were free from the clasp of evil and now they could finally go home after who knew how long. But she couldn't stop the creeping doubt from clawing at her heart.
She remembered a time back in her first year at UA when her good friend Iida had come face to face with another vigilante, a bloodthirsty murderer known as Stain. The hero killer had purged many in his repulsive crusade of justice and had permanently injured the future hero Ingenium, but there was the point. In the twisted bramble patch that was his mind, he thought of himself as righteous. The way he saw it, his actions were justified evils necessary to rid the world of so called fakes. Was she doing the same? Acting without authority just because she thought it was the right thing to do?
Her heart seized, unsure of the answer.
But…
She turned to look where Jackrabbit had assembled the freed victims on a nearby bench under a street light. Some of them continued to cry, grasping desperately at the vigilantes costume as they thanked him still. He spoke in a low voice but she could just about make out the praises he continued to laud on her.
"Remember the name, Uravity. She's the one who you should be thanking."
Maybe she was being too harsh on herself.
Deep in her thoughts Uraraka didn't notice Jackrabbit approach her, dusting the grime of their fight from his shadowed shoulders, He windowmilled his arm and swiveled his neck, loosing up the muscle. Heaving a satisfied sigh, the vigilante came to a stop in front of the gravity hero. "Well star girl, as much as I had fun tonight, I gotta get going before more heroes interrupt our date," he clicked his tongue and did little finger guns with his gauntleted hands. Uraraka resisted the urge to gag. Then it hit her.
"Hey! Where the hell do ya think you're goin'?! What happened to taking you in?" She growled, hating how eager she sounded. Regardless, she marched towards him, closing the short distance between them to naught but a few inches. She wasn't sure why she didn't just make a grab for him, maybe it was her pride not wanting her to take a 'free shot' as he had labeled it.
He just laughed, not the one he'd shown those girls but rather the one that made Uraraka want to pull her hair out. The chalk-on-a-blackboard noise drained away the last dregs of the respect that she had worked up for the man.
"I never said it had to be tonight now did I? Next time, gorgeous. You can put your hands all over me, I promise," he grinned and Uraraka could feel it through the mask.
On some level she'd been expecting this. There was no way he would let her bring him down now, not after what Razor had implied. Still, it didn't change the fact that Uraraka wanted to send him to space.
See how well that stupid helmet holds up she thought with vitriol.
But something was bugging her. Of all the things racing through her tired mind, one thought shadowed the rest, making itself unignorable even in the face of her crisis of ethics. And, as the vigilante gave his final goodbyes, blowing exaggerated kisses as he slipped back into the alleyways of Tokyo, slipped back into his world, Uraraka was forced to confront an uncomfortable fact, one that had the capacity to change her worldview.
Even with all of his thorny annoyances and clever words, he'd saved lives tonight. She couldn't forget that.
As the solid clunking of metal boots faded into the twilight, Uraraka couldn't shake the feeling that he wasn't where he deserved to be. It made her sick to entertain the idea, but he'd shown her something different that night, something worthy of the title 'Pro Hero'.
Making a noise of disgust in the back of her throat, the gravity hero turned her attention back to the children still huddled together under the gold of a street lamp, a blessed raft in the sea of black night. She took a deep breath, removing thoughts of the man from her mind. She could analyze his words and deeds later but, right now, these people still needed a hero.