Chapter Text
Igninium was doing his normal route around the city. It was a pretty slow day overall. He was stopped for a few photoshoots, assisted Manual in stopping a purse snatcher, and stopped by a park to play a short soccer game with some school kids.
During the second half of his shift, he started to notice a green blur or a green figure in the corner of his eyes. He kept glancing around, but he was never able to get a clear glance at it. At first, he thought he was just imagining things, but it kept happening. Every time he turned a corner or jogged down the street a green flash would appear.
He began to feel weird about the presence and radioed his base that they should be on the lookout for suspicious behavior. They offered to send him back-up, but he brushed them off, the green presence didn’t seem hostile. He asked them to just stay in contact and prep someone in case the situation changed for the worse.
A few blocks later, a rock was chucked at the back of his head. It was small enough to attract his attention without harming him, but it caused him to turn sharp enough that he lost his footing on the gravel below him. He glanced up just in time to see a small green figure round the corner of the alleyway. Igninium sped off after him, but the green figure just kept slipping away. Igninium was able to figure out that the green figure was most likely a child, Possibly younger than his brother considering how short the presence seemed. Then again, it might be apart of his quirk to help improve mobility. He wasn’t sure if the presence was just playing tricks on him or leading him somewhere, but he figured following him to ask was smarter than blowing him off.
He contacted his office and updated them on his route change as well as left them with a description of the child. Dark green fluffy hair, a red baggy sweatshirt that made it difficult to identify his body type, somewhere between 4'5 and 4'9. He asked the office to send a few interns to intercept the route in case the child was leading him into a trap. The office sent out another intern with a speed quirk that Igninium caught sight of a few minutes into the chase.
They followed the boy to a house where he disappeared over the fence and into the backyard. The heroes made it to the fence when the door of the house slammed open. The door made the heroes pause and glance back toward it. A screaming woman was dragging out a sobbing kid by his hair as he tried to pull the woman's hands off of him. At first glance, it was obvious that the kid had taken a pretty heavy beating before the heroes had arrived. His eye was already swelling up, blood was trailing down his chin, and his left arm hung uselessly by his side.
The heroes ran over to the pair without a second thought. Igninium called the ambulance and calmed down the kid while the intern restrained the woman. Two backup interns showed up at the scene shortly after. One went to chance down the green kid, the other went to check out the house to see if anyone else was hurt. The green-haired kid had disappeared. Inside the house was a bunch of scared kids, luckily only one had been hurt, cut by broken glass, while all the other kids were huddled around the couch far away from the kids with the cut.
When they were asked about what occurred they blamed the kid with a cut for being a ‘villain’ because of his quirk. Apparently, the woman had been yelling at the kid and his emotions had caused his quirk to go off and shattered the glass of water he was using. The woman proceeded to yell at him and force him to pick up the glass until his hands were full of cuts. The kid that had been dragged outside had tried to stop the woman. The woman was more than willing to change her target to the useless quirkless nuisance.
Igninium was disgusted at the treatment these kids were being given. Disgusted by how sure the other kids were that those children hurt were the ones at fault simply because they had never been on the receiving end of the woman's fists.
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Hero Upturn had just started following up on another hero’s fight. A villain had robbed one of the chain grocery stores in the area. They got away with a few hundred dollars in cash and some food. A hero had confronted the villain and slashed a deep cut in his leg before the villain had thrown the hero through the store window and disappeared. Hero Upturn had been called to the scene as backup, but by the time she made it to the grocery store the hero was pulling himself out of the shattered window and the villain was nowhere in sight. After checking on the hero, who pointed her in the direction that the villain sped off in, she went off to chase down the villain.
Running around down different roadways was sure that she had officially lost the villain. Looking down the intersection of a street a few blocks away from the grocery store when she noticed a group of civilians kept glancing down an alleyway with confusion and apprehension. She jogged down that way and as she approached the alleyway she heard mumbling. A distinct mumble of jumbled words that Hero Upturn could not quite make out. As she made it to the entry of the alleyway she heard a hiss of pain then the mumbling grew louder and seemed to turn reassuring.
There appeared to be no one in the alley when Hero Upturn first looked in. But the mumbling got louder as Upturn went deeper into the alley. She passed by the first set of dumpsters and there was no one hiding behind them. The mumbling continued. She passed by some empty cardboard boxes, still nothing. The entire time the mumbling grows slowly louder and more distinct. Upturn noticed that civilians on the street were starting to crowd around the mouth of the alley hoping to get a glance at what the hero was interested in finding. Some civilians who were walking by would hear the mumbling and jog away afraid of the possible crazed villain attacking anything in sight.
Finally making it to the back of the alley, Upturn noticed an open manhole of sorts that the mumbling was echoing out of. She slowly peeked into the hole and upon seeing nothing right away she dropped into it. Quietly, she moved closer to the source of the mumbling. Upon coming along to an alcove the hero stopped with her back to the wall and peeked around the corner.
She spotted several people in the alcove. One was a small green child that appeared to be the source of the mumbling bending over the second person who was grabbing their leg and hissing in pain whenever the green-haired child moved his arms around. There were also two other children in the alcove who were grabbing onto each other watching the pair with furrowed brows. The children's clothes were full of holes and their cheeks were hollow making their face look more like a pair of skeleton than living children.
The next thing that Upturn spotted were grocery bags full of what appeared to be food. She had found the villain and he was holding children hostage. Outraged she jumped into the alcove in an attempt to arrest the heinous villain. Immediately, the green hair child swung around, bloody bandages in one hand, a sewing needle in the other, and planted himself between the hero and villain. The hero hesitated unwillingly to release her quirk in case she hurt the kid.
“Get out of the way! The villain will no longer hurt you!”
The green-haired child just stayed quiet. The villain looked worried and tried to reach out a hand to pull the kid back. In any other circumstance, the hero would have assumed it to be a protective action. But this was a villain, clearly, they were trying to take the child hostage. Then the two other kids moved to either side of the green hair child and grabbed onto his shirt, all three blocking the villain from the hero.
“Move! Get behind me, he can no longer hurt you!” The children stayed quiet.
“He’s not hurting anyone,” exclaimed the kid with green hair.
“P-pl-please do-don’t take our bro-brother?” The little girl with a messy braid begged.
“He’s not your brother. He’s a villain that kidnapped you. I can take you back to your mommy and your daddy if you just walk over here.”
The kids in rags tensed up for a second, gripping the green kids shirt tighter and pulling themselves closer to him. They started shaking and Hero Upturn was convinced that she got them to move away from the villain.
“No, no, no, no. Do-do-don’t … P-Please d-don’t, not back, not back, don’t take up back, p-please, not again.” The kids sobbed and moved behind the green hair child. The villain behind the kid opened his arms and the two children ran into them. He grunted when the kids practically jumped into his lap, but only tightened his hug and glared at the villain.
“Shh, it’s okay, your safe, he’ll make sure that she won’t take you. Shhh, you’ll be fine, he’ll keep you safe, you’ll keep them safe, right?” The villain pleaded.
“I’ll keep you all safe.” The hero was taken aback. The villain was pleading to the child?
The hero looked again. The villain couldn’t have been more than fifteen and his leg was bleeding badly, probably from where the hero had slashed him earlier. The two kids hiding in his arms were younger than ten, but the scars on their arms looked old. One of the kids was holding a candy bar, most likely stolen from the store earlier. The alcove was surprisingly well lit with camp lanterns and some firewood tucked into the corner. On one side was a pile of blankets and pillows, on the other side a single pillow with no blankets and clothes that looked like they fit the fifteen-year-old.
The green-haired child couldn’t have been more than twelve and the bloody bandages in his hands implied that he was treating the villain. The hero dropped her stance. This wasn’t a villain. This was a bunch of homeless kids.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to. I. Can I help you guys? Lead you somewhere safe?”
The kids just tensed up further at her words waiting for her to spring some kind of surprise attack. She knew she lost them. They wouldn’t trust her. Not today.
“Okay, umm. I’ll leave. You can't go around robbing places. If you're in trouble go to the police, they can help.” The kids stayed quiet. The hero took a few steps back. She realized that they probably wouldn't trust the police if they don't trust heroes. “ If I bring some medical supplies to the mouth of the manhole will you use them?”
The green hair child squinted at the villain, looking right through her. He nodded. She left. She ran back to the grocery store and over to the EMT treating the hurt hero back at the grocery store and asked for some supplies. Then she quietly informed her agency what had happened. They advised her to arrest the kid and when she refused, they demanded that they tell her where the kid was.
She left the supplies at the manhole then quickly moved to another manhole a few blocks away and reported to her agency that the kids had disappeared and reported the location of the wrong manhole. She didn't patrol this area, she must've just gotten turned around.
Hero Upturn resolved to visit those kids over the next few weeks and earn their trust. She needed to bring them somewhere safe and warm. They weren't evil. They were scared and hungry.
At the same time, a rumor was started about a ghost about a haunted alleyway that would reveal your darkest secrets if you could make them out in the ghostly ramble.
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The fire was still roaring strong on the backside of the building. After about twenty-five minutes, Backdraft had finally gotten the fire at the front side of the building under control and other heroes were making their way inside the ruins to pull out anyone still alive and, in the more likely case, retrieve the bodies of those that have already passed.
The heroes with water manipulation quirks and fire-resistant quirks moved to the backside of the building following Backdraft to help retrieve any injured civilians from the building. After exhausting the fire from the top floor, Backdraft saw a small green figure hauling an adult out of the building covered in soot and coughing. The figure looked around and seemed to notice the EMTs who were struggling to give aid to those that had already pulled out of the building. The child slowly dropped the adult onto the ground and put his ear onto the adult's chest and grabbed his wrist.
Backdraft lost track of the kid for a while, consumed with keeping the fire contained. The next time he saw the child, the kid was wrapping up the head wound on a different patient. Immediately after he had finished, a child loudly cried from the second floor causing the hero to snap back to where the cry was coming from.
The child was hanging out the window sobbing while holding onto their own hand. Their face was covered in black and they were coughing and gasping as if it was difficult to take a breath. Backdraft took a quick glance around at the heroes who were assisting in the rescue. No one had a float or telekinetic quirk. He cursed. The fire on the second floor was nowhere near controlled. Backdraft felt helpless at the possibility of seeing such a young child die. A flash of green ran by Backdraft, suddenly the green hair child was climbing the building and was already halfway up to the second-floor window.
Shocked, Backdraft was getting ready to catch the kid or yell at the kid for putting himself into such danger. Before he could the green-haired boy was helping the child in the window crawl onto his back away from the fire. Using one hand, the other gripping the child on his back, the green-haired kid slid down a nearby drain pipe.
Then he ran over to the EMT’s and took over bandaging a different victim so the EMT could have a free hand to look at the little girl from the window. Backdraft knew he needed to talk to the kid about his actions as soon as the fire was extinguished. But when the fire was finally under control the kid had disappeared.