Chapter 1: Prologue
Chapter Text
From this height, Japan was beautiful.
Izuku Midoriya didn’t usually go on plane trips. The last and only time he’d been on one was on his trip to the I-expo, which… hadn’t gone perfectly. Granted, most things didn’t go perfectly for him, but he held out a reasonable amount of hope that maybe just this once, things wouldn’t go quite as badly.
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One month ago.
“Good evening class.” Mr. Aizawa started, in his usual dry tone. Most people in the classroom had immediately snapped to attention, apart from a few stray stragglers. Kaminari was too busy zoned out, staring at the window, and Ashido too busy trying to look over Kaminaris shoulder at what was so interesting. Regardless, their teacher continued.
“I’m sure many of you are excited to return to your agencies for further hero work, maybe even a few of you to new ones.” The classroom erupted into loud, excited chatter that drew in even the most distracted amongst them. Iida had already begun to get up from his seat to tell them off, before Aizawa gestured for him to sit down. He allowed the chatter to continue for a few more seconds before silencing it with just a few words.
“However, U.A will not be participating in the usual programs this time. So no student here will get to spend time with any Japanese hero agency.”
Everyone spent the next few seconds staring at Mr. Aizawa, waiting for him to break a smile, or chuckle; anything to show he was joking. He did no such things, causing the class to instead wait for the first person there brave enough to confirm this betrayal. “Mr. Aizawa, sir?” Kirishima summoned the courage to be the one to ask. “Why?” The hero in training looked heartbroken. The idea of not being able to do any good, when they’d worked so hard for their provisional licenses, it had broken his heart. Hell, it broke everyone's heart. Bakugo seemed to be taking it the worst, having been stunned into a rare silence.
“U.A will be undergoing renovations, designed by the principal himself, over the next month. Maybe longer. For this reason, Nezu has decided to cancel the usual programs-”
“Why?!” Bakugo finally managed to find the drive to yell at the top of his lungs again. “So we can learn absolutely nothing over the next month?! The hell does that rat bastard think he’s doing?!” As usual, Aizawa was undeterred.
“And has instead opted to greenlight an experimental program he’s been planning for a long time. Each one of you will be working with an agency in another part of the world, to make you better at working in areas with different hero laws.” Aizawa internally smiled when he saw each of their conflicted expressions. If he had led with this, they’d have all been excited, ignorant of the risks that could come from this. All they’d see is a cool heroic vacation, and Aizawa would not have that. He was happy to see that everyone there looked more confused than anything else.
Well, except one student.
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Izuku knew precisely where he was going the moment Aizawa had mentioned the programs: America. The location of All Mights ‘real’ debut. He could only hope that it was as incredible as All Might described it (I-island didn’t count. It wasn’t the mainland, more an amusement park mixed with a city). Of course, he wasn’t quite going to the same places All Might had learned from.
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One week ago.
“Problem child…”
Aizawa should’ve known. He should’ve known that Midoriya would find a way to do everything he hadn’t wished for. That Midoriya would do his best to age the teacher by ten years with every action taken.
Izuku, on the other hand, simply smiled that god awful smile of someone who knew exactly how everything in this conversation would go. “I want to go to the US.” He restated, looking from Aizawa to the principal, who had that same smile on his face.
“Oh?” Principal Nezu said. “Most interesting choice, I trust this isn’t just because that’s where All Might learned?” It was, and Izuku knew it was. But the hero-in-training couldn’t get this approved if he confessed that. So, he’d organized some arguments beforehand. Of course he had.
“The US was the birthplace of heroes, and has lots of things I could learn from it! Heroism in it is just as celebrated as it is in Japan, and-” He looked back at his teacher for this one. “It has very different laws about heroes. Great for learning how to work in areas with different hero laws.” Of course the problem child would use his own words against him this way. And of course Nezu was enjoying every moment of this. Crap. Aizawa needed to turn this conversation around as quickly as possible.
“Right.” He began. “But all US agencies contacted unfortunately did not accept our offers to be part of this program, right Nezu?” He turned, no, glared at the principal. There was no way he was letting Midoriya go to the US just because of All Might. All three people in the room knew that was the reason, but not one of them would admit it.
“Aizawa has a point. We were unable to find any American agencies that would accept this program without lengthy negotiation. Negotiation that we simply don’t have time for at this point.” Aizawa should’ve been relieved by this, but both of the other two people in the room still had that smile. God, he hated arguing with people smarter than him.
Izuku had known that fact. And before he started speaking, Aizawa knew he'd found an alternative.“What about an agency too desperate to refuse? One that just began and had barely any heroes under its employ?” Nezu grew interested, and Aizawa grew horrified. “The Gotham Police Sponsored And Approved Hero Agency, or G.P.S.A.A.H.A.” Izuku smiled like he hadn’t needed to practice that in the mirror ten times. And judging by the look on Nezu’s face, it’d paid off.
“Why, what a wonderful idea Midoriya! Helping people in need, while simultaneously developing important skills!” The principal said. “I suggest you tell your fellow students about this opportunity! See if any of them are interested.”
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A few seats behind Izuku was Hitoshi, who had seemed interested in what he could learn from ‘the worst city in the world’, and a few seats in front was Shoto, who’s interest in this city was still a mystery to the other two.
From what Izuku knew, Gotham wasn’t the best city, but if it began a hero program, surely that was about to turn around. The badly named G.P.S.A.A.H.A was an experimental attempt to attract heroics in a city lacking heroes. Started by the G.C.P.D, or more accurately, started by the mayor then given to the G.C.P.D to deal with, the experiment would have heroes work with the police to stop crimes and help out around the city. It had also just begun, and desperate for something to prove it wasn’t going to fail. Nezu’s negotiations with it only lasted a day.
He was reaching that point in the flight where he should begin to doze off, and when he woke up, it’d be morning in Gotham city.
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Five hours ago.
Aizawa was almost done sending each one of his students away to their respective flights, and was now looking at just Midoriya, Shoto, and Hitoshi. He had very little time to say all he needed to say to these kids, so he had to be quick. He’d never forgive himself if any of them got hurt.
“Sensei-” Midoriya began, before Aizawa cut him off.
“Save everything you have to say for later, it’d be a waste of time. You won’t convince me that this is a good choice, and I can’t stop you at this point. But know this, all three.” The teacher paused before continuing. “I know of Gotham. I would not send my students to any city without researching it. It is the city with the lowest quirked population on the planet. It is the murder capital of the United States. The D.A there had acid thrown into his face, and went mad because of it.” Midoriya and Shoto didn’t react. They already knew most of these facts. Hitoshi reacted, but only with mild surprise. Time to bring out the big guns.
“Heroism and goodwill are foreign concepts there-” That got their attention. “Be careful, don’t act like it’s Musutafu, you’re fighting serial killers, not supervillains.”
They were shocked by Aizawa’s strong words, but they all remained silent, only giving three simultaneous curt nods. A sigh escaped his teacher. “Good, now go on. You’ve got a flight to catch.” It was only after he made it through customs that Izuku realized he forgot to thank Aizawa for his advice. He would do it the moment he got back, Izuku decided.
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The first thing Izuku noticed when he woke up was the fact it was still dark outside the plane window. Huh, they must not have gotten to Gotham yet. The second thing he noticed was the blood red cloud they entered. It suddenly occurred to Izuku that ‘the moment he got back’ just became ‘if he got back’. Welcome to Gotham City, Izuku thought.
Chapter 2: Blood Red Clouds
Chapter Text
The plane landed before long. As Izuku waited for the line leading out of the plane to thin out; it gave him a chance to continue staring up at the sky.
The clouds weren’t really blood red on second thought. It was more a strange copper like color, made red by how it looked against the sky, though said sky was a whole other question. Izuku checked the time, confirming that yes, it was around 10:30, so why was the sky still looking as though it was the middle of the night? He didn’t look away from the window until someone spoke up.
“Hey.” Izuku turned to see the flight attendant next to his aisle. It was a young woman, with eyes that had a gentle softness to them. “First time in Gotham?” She asked, and Izuku took a moment to respond.
“Ah, that obvious?” He nervously scratched the back of his head.
“Only if you’ve got eyes.” She shrugged. “The red clouds are on account of the pollution, and the constant night… Well, that one no one knows. Used to be: Gotham is cursed. But it’s recently become: Gotham's under the effect of a quirk. Personally, I think a curse is funner.” The flight attendant gave a chuckle, one that Izuku shared soon after.
“Well, there’s no quirk like that recorded. But I guess it would make sense. Maybe a quirk related to time? Or, maybe the day night cycle is the same, but if you’re in Gotham you perceive it differently? Or-”
The flight attendant nodded along until Izuku heard her giggle, at which point he stopped.
“I was rambling again, wasn’t I?” Before she could respond, he quickly started to get up. “W-Well, I should get going now! Things to do, sights to see! B-Bye!” He quickly got up, and left the plane, unable to hear the flight attendants farewell.
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Renee Montoya was a police officer, one of the best. That’s why Gordon had entrusted her with this. That’s why she was here at the airport. Because she was a good police officer. She was not a babysitter, as Bullock had mockingly called her when she was chosen for this job. She was here because Gordon saw her leadership talents, and trusted her to keep anyone from blowing up half of Gotham.
…She was a babysitter, and the people she was sitting for were late.
Renee leaned back in her chair at the airport with a groan. The flight had landed twenty minutes ago, which was in turn twenty minutes after it was meant to land, which itself was twenty minutes after she arrived, so she’d been waiting for a full hour by now. Great. She woke up early for this.
She looked back up at the door, waiting impatiently. She tried to remember all the traits for each of her new ‘interns’ (something she was very excited about), and all she could remember was ‘weird ass hair.’ Thank you for that description, Crispus. How weird can hair-
Oh, very weird. She stood up as she saw 3 people, one with purple hair, one with green, and one with red and white split down the middle, as well as a burn scar on the left side of his face. Looks like those were them. With a mental cuss, she walked over, mentally preparing for the next couple weeks of her life.
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“What took you so long, anyways?” Todoroki asked, to which Izuku simply looked down shamefully as an answer. Hitoshi whistled a tune as he stared up at the ceiling. The usually dull boy seemed almost chipper today.
“Must be admiring that beautiful Gotham sky.” Hitoshi flashed a smile. “There’s no sun til noon, which means that we get to have a real good night's sleep.” Izuku looked up at his classmate with a confused glance.
“You… do realize we’ll still have to wake up early? Just cause the sun rises late doesn’t mean we’ll get to sleep in.” The green haired boy explained.
Hitoshi frowned. “Don’t ruin this for me.”
“But, you guys don’t think that’s odd?” Hitoshi sighed, and Shoto looked away. Izuku was rambling, time to tune it out. “I mean, it has to be the effect of a quirk, but what kind of quirk could cause this? Besides, the quirks that are in Gotham aren’t too strong, so-” Izuku was only stopped by someone in front of him. A woman, with her arms crossed.
“Can we-” Shoto began talking in Japanese, before stopping and resuming in well practiced english. “Can we help you?” He asked.
“Are you three Hitoshi Shinso, Shoto Todoroki, and Izuku Midoriya?” She asked, eyeing them all up carefully.
“Yes.” Shoto dryly answered. He stared for a few moments more, not noticing that she was waiting for clarification on who was who.
“Err-” Izuku stepped forward. “He’s Shoto, I’m Izuku, and he’s Shinso.” Izuku’s English, compared to Shoto, was more hesitant, like he needed to mentally double check every word before speaking. “Who are you?” He asked, hesitantly. He definitely didn’t wanna come off as rude to the first person they meet.
The woman rubbed her temples. Great. The situation seemed to be getting worse with every second that passed. “I’m officer Montoya. I’m in charge of supervising those in the G.H.S.A- Whatever the hell.”
That caused Izuku to blink in surprise. “The G.P.S.A.A.H.A?” He said, perfectly. Despite only trying to help, this seemed to worsen Montoya’s headache.
“Yeah, sure, whatever.” She began walking away, audibly trying to practice it under her breath. Izuku was about to try and help again, before Hitoshi held his hand out in front of him, shaking his head. They walked to Renee’s car, in a very awkward silence, as the officer proceeded to repeat the acronym over and over again.
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Renee made it out of the airport parking lot before one of the kids, heroes-in-training she reminded herself, finally spoke up again. “So…” The purple one, Hitoshi, spoke up. “Why does the Gotham Police Department need heroes anyways? Isn’t Gotham mostly quirkless?”
“And doesn’t Gotham already have Batman?” Shoto was the next one to speak, and his comment nearly made Renee miss her turn. Still, she managed to recover perfectly.
“A-Ah.” She stuttered out with a shaky smile. “You guys know about him?” Smooth.
“Well, we do.” Shoto replied. “His presence has become intertwined with Gotham as a whole since he arrived. Despite hostility shown, there are rumors he’s been working with the polic-”
“His mere existence is a rumor!” Greenie, Izuku, Renee reminded herself, suddenly cried out. Everyone was silent for a moment as he sheepishly looked down. “S-Sorry. But, there’s never been confirmed sightings of this ‘Batman’, a-and even if he was real, he’s a vigilante who attacks the police! There’s nothing heroic about him!”
Everyone was quiet for a moment, as Izuku slumped down in his seat. Renee looked at him as though with new eyes. Clearly she’d mistaken passion for naivety, but still, she didn’t have too much fate in a kid's ability to be heroic.
…Crap, she needed to say something, didn’t she?
“You’re right that as of now, he’s little more than an urban legend. And yes, as officer Montoya, I need to disapprove of the Batman's, if he is real, illegal activities, especially after what happened to Flass.” A broken collarbone was nothing to laugh about, even when it was incredibly funny.
Izuku nodded, clearly proud of himself, so the Gothamite paused before saying what she needed to. “But speaking as Renee, you’d be surprised what’s considered heroic in Gotham.”
Izuku wanted to say something as a response, Renee could tell from just the exhale he gave as a response, but at the same time, didn’t know how to respond. She turned on the radio, though the music that came on did little to ease the tension in the air. What a wonderful team they were making.
She purged that thought quickly. They were not a team, she worked with adults, not children.
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Batman was very, very stupid.
That was what Izuku reminded himself as he sat there in silence, crushed between both Shinso and Todoroki. Didn’t matter what Renee said, the adoration for Batman came from Gothams lack of heroes. In place of All Might, they had this brutal vigilante with no regard for the law or rules.
Which didn’t matter, because he wasn’t real in the first place! Again, the rumors surrounding him are just because there were no heroes. But Izuku had faith, both in the program's ability to spark heroism, and in said heroism erasing the myth of the Batman for good. Izuku slowly nodded to himself, reassuring himself of this fact. Because that’s what this was. A fact.
His thoughts were cut off as the car suddenly stopped, and Renee exited. It wasn’t too long before Todoroki followed, and then Izuku. He looked up at the towering stone building, the face of a man carved into it. Next to him, two sides of a scale. Below, 4 letters: GCPD.
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Before this moment, the worst thing Shoto had smelled in his life was burnt flesh. It was a smell he’d gotten as used to as you can, but it was a horrible smell nonetheless.
But the smell was dreamy compared to the inside of the Gotham police department. It was a terrible mixture of dirt, smoke, and booze that attacked the 3 of them the moment they stepped into the building. Renee barely reacted. He could only hope the booze came from detainees, and not the employees.
The teenager looked at the people surrounding him, surprised by how… normal they all looked. There weren’t any horns or extra eyes. He knew Gotham was quirkless, but even quirkless people in Mustafu and other parts of Japan had colorful hair, weird pupils, tiny differences that hadn’t been considered quirks for generations. Here it was all… missing.
Some cops gave him stares back, though the ones who made the least effort to hide it were the ones in tactical gear. They looked like the Special Units from Japan, SWAT in the US, he reminded himself. They stared at him from behind polycarbonate protection, and he stared right back.
“Hey,” He was broken out of his distracted stupor by Renee. She looked at him for a moment, clearly trying to remember his name “Shoto. You with us?” She waved his hand in front of his face. He politely nodded. Out of the corner of his eyes, he could see something similar happen with the others, as their leader, name engraved into his helmet, moved them along.
Renee’s demeanor was shifty, looking around. “Is something wrong?” He asked.
The cop gave a weak smile in response. “Nah, just had to mention you guys arrived. We should go to the meeting room we had set aside just for us.”
Shoto nodded. Truthfully, he wanted to ask around a little more, get someone's perspective on quirks. But he supposed hero work came first. Truthfully, he was curious about what this meeting room would look like.
It was an interrogation room with a whiteboard, a few extra chairs, and an overhead projector. Shoto stared at the room for a while, as Renee sat down on the side of the table with only one chair; naturally, she had her back towards the one way glass. Not one of the 3 of them sat down, with Shinso looking particularly frustrated by this development. Despite this, Midoriya was the first to say something.
“This is a joke, right?” He gave a sheepish laugh. She didn’t.
“It’s not funny.” Shoto heard Shinso mumble. Seemed no one liked this development, least of all Renee herself.
“It’s not.” The officer said. “But, I asked for a room, this was all anyone bothered to spare. So from now on, we work out of here.” She looked around for a moment. “Bigger than my last office, believe it or not.”
There was a long silence, as all three of them stared at her in disbelief for a moment, before they all yelled.
“It’s nice to know what you all think of me at least!” Shiso sarcastically protested, looking into the mirror.
“That thing barely looks like it works!” Midoriya exclaimed, pointing at the projector.
“How are we meant to work here?!” Shoto found himself joining in too, gesturing to, well, everything.
“Kids, kids, kids!” Renee matched their volume. “Do you think I’m happy about this?! I couldn’t solve any of this when I shouted about it, you think screaming now will make any difference?!” That… was a fair point. The three of them quickly quieted down.
“Just, sit down, I’ll walk you through the rules while you’re here. With any luck, you won’t have to do much at all for your stay here.” She pulled out a piece of paper, gesturing for them all to sit down.
It took no time at all for Shoto to zone out, looking around at the dark, damp room they were stuck in. He sighed, some condensation visible in his breath.
Welcome to Gotham City, Shoto supposed.
Chapter 3: Peaceful. Real peaceful.
Chapter Text
The one part of hero work Izuku had never been faced with before was the waiting, so he supposed this would be a good experience. Didn’t make it any less mind numbing though.
Montoya was on her laptop, screen faced away from them, into the mirror. Attempting to read over her reflected shoulder was the most entertaining activity in the room for the past hour. Still, it didn't mean he wouldn’t kill to go on patrol at the moment.
“You’re sure we can’t even go outside? Explore the building?” It was Shinso who broke the 10 minute silence. Coincidentally, it has been Shinso who broke the silence 10 minutes ago, with the exact same question. Renee gave him the same answer she did last time, a long silent glare.
“We can’t do hero work if we’re here all the time.” Shoto insightfully pointed out. Predictably, this only earned him a groan from Renee.
“Y’know, just because you want it, doesn’t mean a couple hundred criminals will pop out of the ground for you to fight.” The officer replied.
“We don’t want to see more criminals though, we want to stop those who are around already.” Shoto's explanation didn’t seem to help much.
At this point, Izuku couldn’t help but say something. “Gotham is the most crime-ridden city in America! There has to be something we can-” But the hero in training found his voice trailing off as he got hit with the most powerful glare of his life. Seriously. She could give Aizawa a run for his money with how much authority was in her eyes alone.
The officer replied with a little bit of Gotham pride, a first.“On average per year, around this time, Gothams pretty-” Renee stopped herself from speaking suddenly, her face paling as though she’d seen a ghost.
“Pretty what?” Izuku asked.
“Nothing. Forget about it.” She paused for a moment, then sighed. "I was just about to say a word that causes trouble here." That seemed to end the conversation, as they all got back to their previous activities. Until Shinso decided to break the silence once more.
“...Is the word 'peaceful'?” Renee paled, placing her finger on her lips. Shinso rolled his eyes, and Izuku almost found himself doing the same. He didn’t believe in jinxes, and he was surprised Renee did.
“Didn’t take you to be the superstitious cowardly type. Peaceful, peaceful, peaceful.” He sing-songed. Montoya continued to glare at him, her shushing only growing in volume.
“You don’t get it, everytime someone says that word about Gotham, stuff goes wrong! Crispus said that word to me on his first day a year ago, Scarecrow attacks the pier. Two years ago it was Gordon to Bullock, and then Johnny Viti is found bleeding in his bathtub. Three years ago Loeb said it during a press conference, and, well…” She trailed off. “Point is, bad things happen when that word is said.” Still, Shinso scoffed, and Izuku couldn’t help but be doubtful. Approximately fifteen seconds passed before he got evidence on the side of jinxes.
Renee was reading something from her computer, an email from what Izuku could see, and with a completely unreadable expression, turned back to them.
“Arkham Asylum is reporting multiple inmates unaccounted for, including Edward Nygma, Garfield Lynns, and the Joker.” She turned to the purple haired teen, a twitchy smirk forming on her face. “Thanks, Hitoshi.”
The purple haired teenager stared ahead in shock.
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Having three people looking over her shoulder towards a screen displaying an empty podium wasn’t even remotely odd for Renee at this point.
It took around twenty minutes since she got the email for the Mayor to organize a press conference. Damage control might be the only thing Hamilton Hill was good at, though not by much. She decided, in the wait for the talking to begin, that now would be a good time to educate, teach, mentor. She was pretty sure that was meant to be part of her job here.
“That-” She pointed at the apparently shivering man in the background. “Is Carl Finch. He’s the D.A for now, though rumor is he might resign soon.”
Two of them nodded distractedly, but Shoto squinted and pushed his face a little closer. “No one else looks cold. Does his quirk make him more vulnerable to the cold?” Renee couldn’t help but snort a little at that.
“No quirk, he's just a little shaky. Didn't want the job after what happened to the last guy. Kinda funny if you think about it.” She looked back at Shoto who… had a very noticeable scar on one side of his face. Suddenly, she felt very awkward about her comment.
Thankfully, the kid didn’t take offense, only looking at her a little weirdly. “Why’s it funny?” Those words were the usual sign that she went too Gotham. Only things that mess up your sense of humor worse than living in this city was working in Arkham and, apparently, falling into a vat of chemicals. She quickly moved to change the subject.
“And that man over there?” She pointed at the mustached, gray haired commissioner. “That’s our boss, Jim Gordon.” A fond smile made its way to her lips. “He’s never let us down, if there’s one person to credit for how much better Gothams become, it’s him.”
“And the Batman.” Shoto interjected again. Kid seemed to have a habit of speaking up. Renee could see Izuku prepare to start yet another argument, and as she braced herself, a voice not belonging to any of them spoke up. Mayor Hamilton Hill, an old man with a thin mustache and thinner glasses, had finally appeared on screen, eyes squeezed shut as they adjusted to sunlight. Renee braced herself for whatever half thought out speech was about to follow. Who knows? Maybe it’d end up coming out well just this once.
“Today is a dark day for Gotham.” Or not, Renee’s groan earned her a few side eyes. Still, the speech continued alongside her developing headache. “A break out of this scale, on this day, in this city, I truly, honestly, wish that this could be described as something unprecedented for this city. But tragically, it isn’t.”
Renee was pretty sure she heard someone booing caught on Hamilton’s mic. Izuku looked up at her. “That’s… not a very good speech.” Yeah kid, spot on. She gestured at the screen, to signify it wasn’t over.
“Know that Commissioner Gordon has promised me he has his top people working to catch these criminals. Firefly, Killer Croc, and the less infamous criminals held there will be caught. With luck, even the Joker will be behind bars soon.” Immediately this caused a wave of murmurs to erupt among the crowd. Gordon walked up to and whispered something into the mayor's ear.
“Apologies, apologies. My mistake. Killer Croc-” Hamilton got elbowed by Gordon in a not so subtle way. “Waylon Jones is still imprisoned in Arkham. That oughta… show… them.” The mayor grew more and more lacking in confidence with each word. Renee got the feeling that her new employees were starting to get a grip on what Gotham was like.
“Who’re… them?” Izuku asked. Renee merely chuckled in reply.
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“Who’re… them?” Izuku asked. Renee gave an unhelpful chuckle in reply.
The young boy was beginning to think Gotham sucked. This was possibly the most unhelpful, ignorant speech he’d ever heard, and he’d gone through countless of All Might's lessons at this point. Not that he meant anything against the hero, it was just that some days, he brought in the cue cards from the last class, and other days he ends up restating what another teacher said, and then-
“You’re muttering.” Hitoshi mumbled. Izuku managed to stop himself before Renee noticed, giving a grateful nod in return to his fellow student. Looking back at the screen, he saw Hamilton Hill begin to shamefully walk back away from the podium. He gave a silent ‘thank you’ to the universe for finally ending the speech. But unfortunately, the universe had one last trick up its sleeve.
“Mayor Hill!” A voice called out from the crowd of reporters. “Vickie Vale, Gotham Gazette. I couldn’t help but notice that Edward Nygma, known to our readers as the Riddler, was not mentioned during this speech. May I ask why?”
Hamilton chuckled, and headed back to the microphone. “Are you kidding?” Izuku got a sinking feeling in his stomach. “Have you seen the guy? Eddie’s got no jetpack, no deadly gasses, nothing. He’s just a guy who’s ever so slightly above the bell curve. Where’s the threat?” Gordon had entered a slight coughing fit in the background. The commissioner reached over to try and drag the mayor away, but not before Hamilton managed to say one last thing.
“I mean, seriously. How much damage can a quirkless person do?”
The crowd erupted into questions unanswered by the mayor. Izuku stared blankly at the screen for a moment, before turning at a pale faced, speechless Renee. He paused to stare at her for a moment, before speaking. “Was that-” He stopped, then corrected himself nervously. “How bad was that?”
“Bad.” She quickly stood up. “Bad, bad, bad, bad. Stay here.” Walking out of the room, she stopped at the doorway, looking back at three very shell shocked teenagers. “Stay. Here.” With that, she left, shutting the door.
Chapter 4: Picking and Choosing.
Chapter Text
“So, who’re we gonna go for?” Hitoshi began talking immediately after Renee left. Izuku blinked.
“What?”
“I said, who’re we gonna go for? Nygma, Lynns, or Joker?” He restated, causing the two others to pause.
The question caused some pause. “Joker.” Izuku eventually replied. It was the only smart choice: the villain was dangerous, sadistic, and one of the most feared ones in Gotham. If they wanted to make progress, they’d start with him. Some of Aizawa’s words made their way to the forefront of his mind, and he pushed them back.
Hitoshi smiled, nodding his head. Joker it was, and it shouldn’t be too hard. For all his reputation, the clown had very little tricks that hadn’t been done to death before by other villains. And since they were all in agreement, it shouldn’t be too hard-
“Batman would stop him first.” Todoroki interjected, for the third time today. Hitoshi and Izuku both stared at him like he was crazy for a moment, before sighing in unison.
“He’s not real, Todoroki.” Izuku stared at his fellow hero in training pointedly, Todoroki looked back in an equally defiant way.
“You don’t know that. People anywhere can use their quirks in unapproved-”
“That’s the thing!” Izuku interrupted. “The reports about him, they make no sense! One second he has a quirk that lets him fly, then a mutation quirk, then a strength quirk! I’ve looked at each public report, there’s no way that Batman can be real!”
Todoroki didn’t move, instead leaning forward in his chair. “Show me.” In contrast, Shinso leaned back with a groan the other two ignored. Izuku walked towards the whiteboard, picking up a green marker. Both knew exactly what was coming: a Midoriya rant, approximately ten times the ramble power of a Midoriya mumble.
“Right-” He wrote down 6 things on the board: phasing, wings, smoke, projectile, and flight. And then, at the end, quirks. He underlined that last part.
“If Batman was real, if, he’d need a quirk. Probably one that gives him a physical advantage over his opponent, correct?” Todoroki didn’t get to nod before Izuku continued. “Well, most reports swear that he had one of these five quirks." Izuku pointed at 'phasing'. "People have sworn that bullets phase right through him, hence him being nearly invincible. Sounds fine.” He began writing dates under phasing, and then writing down ‘reported’ next to them. Before he even moved on in speaking, he was already doing the same for ‘wings’.
“But Batman also has wings, according to some reports.” The list under wings grew to over twice the size of the phasing list. “He flies through the air, swoops down, and pounces on someone. With wings. We’re onto two quirks now, and we’re not even halfway through the list!" Now he moved under 'smoke'. "Reports say he can summon smoke with his hands-" And now 'projectile' and then other reports say he can summon things to throw!” He wrote down more dates underneath. Todoroki, after waiting patiently for a while, finally spoke.
“What about flight? Didn’t you already mention wings?”
Izuku shook his head. “No, because these reports specifically indicate one thing. He doesn’t use any wings, he just shoots up, straight into the air, with nothing to help. No wings, just points his hand up and flies.”
These quirks-” Izuku couldn’t help but chuckle a little as he said it. “Are incompatible! Even if there was a quirk out there to hold them all, it’d have been heavily documented. The owner of it published in every quirk magazine in the world! Batman can’t be real, because he’d have the most powerful quirk ever seen!”
Todoroki stared at Izuku, expression as blank as always. For a moment, Izuku thought he might have convinced him, but then:
“What if it was support gear?”
Shinso groaned, and waved his hands. “Stop.” He ordered. “You two can discuss this later. But for now, Joker or no Joker?”
“Garfield Lynns.” Todoroki’s statement earned a shake of Izuku’s head.
“Two against one.” Izuku pointed out. “We’re going for Joker.”
And that was that.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Absolutely not.”
Hitoshi and Izuku stared at Renee as she shook her head. Joker? They thought she was going to send them against Joker? To hell with that! She didn’t even want to think about what that creep would do to them.
“Look, you’re all heroes, and you’re all tough. But I’d rather not have you all skinned on your first day on Gotham! No Joker, that’s final. Gordon’s already on it, pick something else.”
The two of them looked at the Shoto kid, looking somewhat smug, and Hitoshi sighed in defeat. “Lynns it is.” He leaned back in his chair.
“I don’t want you cremated either.” God these kids would be the death of her. “Firefly, Joker, they’re all off limits.” Now the Shoto kid seemed to be upset as well, and all three glared at her.
“So.” Izuku started. “We’re not going to do any hero work at all? Just sit here until we’re forced to move?” Renee expected anger, not the betrayal in the kids eyes. She sighed.
“I talked to Commissioner Gordon on his way in.” Renee needed to give these kids some comfort. They did have a point. “I managed to convince him to give us a case: Riddler.” She smiled, hoping that would make them think that convincing Gordon meant she fought for a good case, and not the one every cop in the city likes to give someone else. Detectives tend to be used to inspecting crime scenes, looking around for bullet holes, making those kinds of connections. Usually, they find trying to solve clever wordplay tedious when chasing a criminal. Still, despite her best efforts, the kids didn’t seem to be convinced.
“...I thought the mayor said he wasn’t much of a threat.” Shoto pointed out. Hitoshi nodded a little, but Izuku simply looked down. Odd reaction.
“Well, he’s a different sort of threat than your usual villain. He won’t kidnap or kill anyone, but he’s smart! And dangerous.” She was losing them, and sighed. “Look, the first time Riddler showed up, half the city had to go analog until he was caught. We don’t want that again, so we’ll catch him, get a medal from the mayor or something, and then maybe I’ll- I mean, we’ll let you take on harder cases.”
The slip of the tongue didn’t go as unnoticed as she’d hoped, causing a tense moment only broken up by a question.
“Analog?” Izuku asked. “What does that mean?”
Huh? What’d he- Oh, right. Second language. “Just means not digital, old technology, that kind of stuff.” She looked at him, to check if he understood, to which he gave a pointed glare at the overhead projector. Yeah. He got it.
“...Well.” The green haired hero looked up at Renee. “What’s the first step?” Renee grimaced in response.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hitoshi thought Izuku was dealing badly with needing to wait more. Still, for once he agreed with the officer. Riddler didn’t strike him as the reckless type, if you considered giving everyone a puzzle that lets them predict your next crime and catch you during it a calm, rational thing to do. But still, he doubted they’d catch him before he gave his first riddle, and Renee assured him he'd give a riddle, especially after that press conference.
Still, the day was essentially over, and not one riddle. He hadn’t even seen a question mark since Hill’s press conference. Overall, the day’d been one slow trudge that ultimately amounted to nothing.
“That’s not true.” Todoroki seemed far more optimistic than Hitoshi about the events. At least, Hitoshi thought that was optimism. Hard to tell. “We learned plenty about Gotham.”
“Like?”
“How bad it is.”
Hard to tell whether that was a joke. Hitoshi chuckled all the same. Renee looked up from the computer, and sighed. Still nothing then. The four of them briefly sat around in silence, before Renee stood up.
“9:45.” She announced, and the three of them collectively groaned. They knew precisely what that meant. “The G.P- We’re officially meant to clock out at 10:00.”
Hitoshi refused to accept that. What if Riddler gave the world his riddle at 10:01? They had to stay a little longer. This was definitely not out of a need to prove himself as a hero. “Don’t cops do overtime all the time?”
“You’re not cops.” Renee replied a little too fast, Hitoshi couldn’t help but take note of that. “Besides, most cops don’t have a room in the Gotham Royal to check into.” Hints of jealousy trickled into her voice. Hitoshi sighed, supposing she had a point. As the four of them got up, Izuku was still silent, Hitoshi comforted himself with some of Hamilton Hill's words. How much damage could a quirkless person do? Maybe he was underestimating Riddler, but he most definitely wasn’t the worst villain to sleep on.
Still, even as he got into the officer's car, the idea brought him very little comfort.
Chapter 5: When is a Villain not the Villain?
Notes:
Warning for Mentioned Fantastical Discrimination and Implied Child Abuse.
To skip fantastical discrimination, stop reading after 'Midoriya made a face.', and skip the next 5 line breaks. To skip the implied child abuse, skip the line break directly after these five, or after 'Neither of them questioned how he could be so sure of this.'
Chapter Text
Izuku really should’ve been admiring the architecture of the luxury hotel. Renee said this was the only place she’d describe as ‘nice’ in all of Gotham, and judging by the floor, that was an accurate assessment.
So why couldn’t Izuku find it in himself to look up? Usually, slow days didn’t leave such a sour taste in his mouth, but the problem is that today hadn’t been a slow day, there was a breakout! Izuku was pretty sure that if something like that happened back home, all of the heroes in the country would do something about it. But here, he was meant to take it lying down? It didn’t sit right. He hadn’t even gone on patrol!
…With vigilantism laws as lax as they were in America, Izuku couldn’t help but wonder, what would happen if he quickly did a patrol around the hotel? I mean, he’d be subtle about it of course, but if he saved just one person like this, he’d rest easy that night. Plus, it wasn’t like what Batman did, he made no effort to work with the police. And he wasn’t real, so it didn’t matter. Yes, Izuku looked up with new determination. He’d go on patrol while people slept, and wow, the Gotham royal hotel was incredible.
A huge chandelier was up hundreds of feet off the ground, a window as tall as the wall showing a view of the Gotham harbor. Somehow, in this building, the red sky of Gotham was something of beauty, not of horror. The Gotham Royal was the first time Izuku really realized why someone would choose to live in this city.
“Engine?” He looked over at what appeared to be Renee arguing with a very tired receptionist. “The reservation is under engine?”
“Enji.” The officer corrected. “E-N-J-I. Last name Todoroki.” The receptionist briefly typed before nodding, motioning to some other staff, who promptly grabbed the three’s luggage.
“Room 404.” The receptionist instructed, and the four of them quickly moved, keycards given to Shoto and Midoriya. Before they got to the elevators however, Renee stopped Izuku, her hand pulling his shoulder back.
“You guys go up ahead, I’ve got something to discuss with your friend. Don’t drink the tap water!” Renee waited for the two to leave, before she moved in front of Izuku, crouching down to meet him at eye level. “I know what you're thinking.”
Izuku blinked, cut off before Renee kept talking. “Don’t. Vigilantism is technically legal in Gotham, but you will be held responsible for any and all damage sustained. Unless you’ve got deep pockets, it’s not even close to worth it.”
The hero finally managed to speak. “How do you know what I was going to do?”
“You’ve been looking down for the entire car ride, but you were just muttering something in Japanese, before suddenly stopping. You got an idea. You kept quiet about this idea, despite me already knowing you’re a talker.” Renee frowned, and Izuku looked down again. He supposed she was a detective. “And this entire day has been nothing but you begging for heroism, and me shutting you down, which has… predictable results. Plus, you didn’t deny it.”
She paused, and Izuku couldn’t find it in himself to speak. “Listen, kid. I have to leave, which means I can’t stop you from doing this. Your friends probably can’t either, so I’ll just ask you this. Why do you want to do this?”
Why? Why? Izuku suddenly felt incredible anger at the question. Something terrible had happened, and he couldn’t do anything about it. Was Renee heartless? Could she not understand?
“They broke out! We have to do something or else they’ll hurt people. Why have you been acting like it’s just any other day?!”
Renee paused. For a moment, Izuku thought he’d stunned her. Then he realized he was waiting to see if he was done. People rarely did that for him. “It is.” She eventually said. “Yesterday, there was a Scarecrow attack in Park Row. Got caught, but the hospital got filled. The day before, an ‘accident’ at Blackgate injured two guards, and killed an informant. Three days ago, a robbery gone wrong ended the life of a colleague of mine.” She paused, Izuku scratched at his wrist nervously, suddenly feeling shame. “He had a kid. Younger than you.”
Both of them were quiet for a long time after that. For Izuku, things were suddenly starting to make sense. Aizawa’s words returned to the forefront of his mind. Don’t act like it’s Musutafu. Things were different here.
Still, Izuku wouldn’t, couldn’t, let this happen. “But, we can stop those things, can’t we? We can’t just give up.”
“It’s not giving up.” Renee sounded like she’s said these words over and over. “We do, and you will. But if we tried to stop every tragedy in Gotham… We’d never have time to rest. And if we never rested…”
“It’d affect our work.” Izuku finished. “We’d be unable to save anyone.” U.A had hammered those lessons into every aspect of his being. A hero should pace themselves, not work until they can barely keep it together. Ironic, considering All Might’s fate.
“Get some rest kid.” She walked away soon after, leaving Izuku to think. Going out for patrol… didn’t seem like a good idea anymore. Watching the door swing shut after Renee walked through, Izuku retreated to the elevator. Room 404, he reminded himself.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Room 404 had two beds. This was a problem.
“Take turns?” Hitoshi suggested. He expected that otherwise, he’d be shoved to the couch. He was the new one, of course. The student that hadn’t formed quite as many friendships as the other two. And the beds looked really soft here.
“I don't want the bed, I’ll take the couch.” And Todoroki very calmly moved to, and lay down on the couch. Crap, now Hitoshi felt selfish. Was this selfish? He’d volunteered. But had he volunteered because Shinso sounded too desperate?
“No, no, it’s fine. I’ll take the couch.” And so, Shoto and Hitoshi swapped places, with the latter on the very uncomfortable couch, and the other standing up. The purple haired boy suddenly began considering the fact that Shoto was trying to guilt trip him. He might do the same in the other’s situation. That… probably made him a bad person. Yeah, he deserved the couch.
The door swung open, and Izuku walked in, head held low. Silently, without looking up, he took off his shoes, and jumped onto the nearest bed. There was a moment of silence before Hitoshi finally asked the question on both their minds.
“What’d she say?”
“Nothing.” Izuku responded, a little too quickly, before sighing. “Lets… Let's just go to sleep. Big day tomorrow, and all that.”
Izuku was clearly upset, so Hitoshi chose not to argue. Punching while they’re down isn’t his style, despite what he was sure others would claim about him. So, with a stuffed down groan, he placed a blanket over his bed as Shoto changed in the bathroom.
“...So, what do you think about Gotham?” He finally chose to ask Izuku something. His classmate had been staring off at the window for a while now, and it was starting to become worrying.
“It’s fine.” Izuku mumbled, and Hitoshi knew that was a lie because, well, it’s Gotham. Still, he chose not to press, despite only feeling more and more worried. Why was this so weirdly hard? Izuku was clearly upset, Hitoshi could notice that, yet every attempt to comfort him felt pointless. Hitoshi tried to think of words, yet not one sentence he thought of felt appropriate. A few more moments of silence passed before Shoto came back in, and the three of them got in their respective beds.
Well, maybe bed was a bad term for a couch that was way too small, and not even the tiniest bit soft. And so, Hitoshi was left staring at the ceiling, unable to sleep. To his left, Shoto was busy moving around in his sleep rather aggressively. To each their own, he supposed. He didn’t know even close to how long it’d been, before he heard Midoriya’s whispered voice break the silence.
“Are you alright, Todoroki?” Was he… trying to not wake Hitoshi up? Well, that had been pointless. Besides, he didn’t think Todoroki was awake anyways.
“Yes.” Came a whispered reply. Hitoshi almost chuckled, before speaking.
“So, not one of us is asleep?” The purple haired teen finally asked, which he got a brief pause and two mumbled ‘no’s as a response. Hitoshi sat up on the couch, looking over at the beds, where both of the others sat up as well, before sighing. “Great.”
There was a long drawn out silence, before Midoriya finally decided to ask a question of his own: “Hitoshi? What do you think of the Batman?”
“...What?”
“The Batman, what do you think of him?”
Hitoshi had definitely heard him the first time, but part of him was too thrown off to respond. With a grimace unseen in the dark room, he answered.
“I don’t think he’s real.” He began, making out Izuku’s nod of approval through the lack of light. “All the quirk stuff you mentioned. But… would he be too bad? He’s kind of like Eraserhead, an underground hero. I think he’d be fine.”
Izuku fell down onto the bed, sighing. “I guess.” A feeling of guilt crept over Hitoshi, and he shook his head. Different subject.
“So, what’d you think of the Riddler?” Midoriya didn’t answer, so the responsibility to say something was passed along to Todoroki.
“He doesn’t seem too dangerous. We’ll catch him quickly.”
Izuku looked over at the red and white haired kid. “That’s what the mayor said, or along those lines.”
“So?”
“He didn’t seem too smart.” The three of them nodded in agreement. “I’ve been getting a bad feeling about Riddler. He has to be somewhat dangerous, like Montoya said.”
“That, or Montoya is just keeping us out of danger.” Hitoshi pointed out.
That killed the mood, and all three heroes in training sat in silence for a bit, pondering that option. Was it possible? Very much so. But each one of them would rather believe, just for a bit, they were doing genuine good.
“...I bet he was a carnival worker.” Hitoshi tried to break the silence. “I mean, with a gimmick like that? Riddles? He had to be some kind of showman.”
“He’s smart.” Todoroki pointed out. “Maybe… Computers? She mentioned something about technology, so maybe Riddler worked with computers?”
Midoriya, lighting up for the first time all night, interjected. “You can be smart and be a showman, but I don’t think it’s a carnival worker. Computers seems reasonable, but, why go into crime? Surely being as smart as he was, he could’ve gotten rich!” He looked down, before moving his head back up. “Maybe he wrote books? He’s good with words, and you have to research all kinds of things there! He could’ve learned things for writing!”
Hitoshi loved Midoriya’s thinking, but that felt like a stretch. “What kind of books would he write?”
“...I’m not sure.” Midoriya rubbed the back of his neck. “Maybe… children's books? Hence the riddles.” That made a little more sense, but Hitoshi still wasn’t sure-
“Private investigator.” Todoroki was now on his phone, reading something. “According to this, he was a private investigator.”
That… made a lot of sense. Theming, experience, all wrapped up into one neat little job package. Midoriya held out his hand, and Todoroki handed over the phone, lighting up Midoriya’s face in white.
“From little Edward Nashton Jr, to Private Investigator Edward Nygma, to the villainous Riddler. The story of Gotham's newest supervillain.” He scrolled down a little. “This is from two years ago.”
“Keep going.” Hitoshi spoke up, now he was interested.
Midoriya scrolled a little more, reading. “According to this, Riddler was born Edward Nashton in Illinois, after his father. Growing up he was-” Midoriya made a face. “Excluded due to his quirkless status.”
Hitoshi never knew anyone quirkless, but if it was anything like having a villainous quirk, he already felt sympathy for the guy.
“To make matters worse, he was constantly accused of cheating in school due to his lack of intelligence quirk. It’s unconfirmed-” Midoriya suddenly stopped reading, just staring at the screen. Hitoshi swore he saw his hair briefly grow green.
“What’s unconfirmed?” Todoroki asked, his usually flat tone now concerned.
“It’s unconfirmed whether or not these accusations were true.” Midoriya looked up, scowling for once in his life. “They’re not.” Neither of them questioned how he could be so sure of this.
“His father-” Izuku paused, paling. “His father proudly stated in an interview that whenever Edward cheated, he was disciplined.” Todoroki looked like he’d been burnt by the words, and Midoriya offered a sympathetic stare.
“...Poor guy.” Hitoshi always expected to eventually say this about a villain, but not so soon. “What happened next?”
“Years of this passed, until Edward was 18. Rejected by most schools, he was accepted into Gotham University. Moving and changing his name to Edward Nygma, he began excelling in his tests, eventually graduating with a degree in criminology and a minor in cryptology. Honors in both. Opened a P.I business, and later snapped for… no discernible reason, apparently.”
Hitoshi crossed his arms. There had to be a reason, but- He closed his eyes a second too long, almost drifting off to sleep. How long had they been at this? “It’s late.” He managed to yawn out. “Let's just go to sleep. Think about this in the morning.”
The other two seemed to nod, but Todoroki continued to sit up. “I’m not great with soft things.” He suddenly spoke. “Can we trade?”
For a moment, Hitoshi was sure Todoroki was joking. Then he jumped to his feet, right as Todoroki began to get up. The other slowly getting to his feet.
He didn’t even look at the teen as he collapsed into the soft bed. It took him all of two seconds to fall asleep.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Shinso.” Hitoshi heard. “Shinso.” He slowly blinked his eyes open, to the sight of Midoriya. What was going on? Midoriya was grinning, oddly excited. The green haired teen began softly shaking Hitoshi.
“The riddle!” Midoriya squeaked. “He released the riddle!”
Suddenly, Hitoshi was very much awake.
Chapter 6: A Mystery, Broken into a Jigsaw Puzzle, Wrapped in a Conundrum, Hidden in a Chinese Box.
Chapter Text
The riddle had been posted on the mayor's social media accounts, all of them, at precisely 6:28. Throughout the next ten minutes, each post was taken down, but the damage was done: all of Gotham had pictures and copies of what had been posted, and luckily, Renee was no different, having sent a screen capture of the riddle to Izuku phone number (had he even given it to her?), the notification of which woke him up.
“It’s impressive.” The hero in training said, in between bites of breakfast: scrambled eggs with a side of pork sausage. The Gotham Royal had an incredibly good restaurant. “He manages to undermine the mayor's authority, put it somewhere enough people will see it and-” He takes another bite, carefully chewing through it, causing an extended pause in his sentence. “And show off his skills.”
“You almost sound like you're admiring him.” Shinso stared at his phone, and Todoroki did the same. Unlike Izuku, they hadn’t memorized it yet.
“It has no one answer.” Todoroki stare had more intensity, as if intimidating the riddle would make it spill its secret. “And it’s vague, riddles should be more than one line. And it doesn’t rhyme.”
Izuku finished his meal before looking back up at Todoroki. “I mean, it’s not just the one line at the end. The other parts have to mean something, but what?” Izuku stared at the ceiling, while mentally rewinding the riddle through his head.
So, Mayor Hamilton Hill has challenged me?
Rest assured, the Riddler shall not rest till I can prove myself superior.
Unfortunately for you, Hamilton, your taunts have merely strengthened my resolve.
Of course, I play fair, so listen closely as I explain the rules:
You will be punished if my question goes unanswered.
‘Fore the weekend, announce your answer to the world, so it may be heard.
Obviously, you’re allowed to get help.
Lastly, you will fail, and when you do. I will relish it, and offer you a new riddle.
Looks like that’s everything I needed to state. Good luck, Hamilton. You need it.
Anyways, the question is: how much money can a quirkless person spend?
The weekend was one hell of a deadline, considering it was a Friday.
“Maybe it’s a trick?” Shinso suggested. “He wants us to overthink it, and the answer is just any amount?”
“Or it’s activism.” Todoroki added. “We need to tell him the highest paying job in Gotham that a quirkless person has, to show how hard it is to make money in this system.”
The two others stared at Todoroki strangely for a moment. He merely shrugged. “I looked up quirkless struggles, as to understand where he’s coming from.”
“He’s no activist.” Izuku said. “Besides, the richest man in Gotham is quirkless. That angle wouldn’t work.”
So, square one. That was fine to Izuku, because at least they had something to go on. A riddle. Izuku never thought the concept would make him so excited. Not about the crime, of course, but about the prospect of stopping it.
…That was probably still pretty bad, huh?
Izuku shook the thought off just in time to see another text from Renee. This time, it was just a simple heads up that informed him Renee would be there in an hour. A quick look up showed the other two reading their phones, no doubt reading similar texts (had they given her their phone numbers?) With a quick nod, the three of them got up, moved to leave, before doubling back.
Couldn’t forget the check.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Renee needed a bigger car. That, or she could stop cramming the 3 of them into the backseat, and let one of them ride shotgun.
Renee needed a bigger car.
Still, they didn’t seem to mind their predicament, too invested in discussing the riddle to care. At least, she was pretty sure that was what they discussed. They were all going a mile a minute, except for Shoto, who seemed to take in each tiny bit of information silently. Odd kid, but it made sense, seeing who his father was.
The name Enji had seemed familiar, but Renee hadn’t quite placed it until she looked the three of them up. Realizing you were now the boss of the son of Japan’s number one hero, the kid who broke all his bones fighting said son, and maybe most terrifying of all, an unknown, was all a lot for Renee to find out via google.
Seriously, Todoroki had gotten thousands of results, and Midoriya a good couple of them as well. But Hitoshi Shinso was… nothing. A nobody. But surely he had to match them in power, right? Which meant she had three insanely powerful, and equally impressionable kids, in her backseat. What had she been thinking about? Oh yeah, they were discussing the riddle.
“So.” The three of them stopped talking. “Any idea what the riddle meant?” As far as she could tell, it was a piece of protest, kinda like activism, where he needs to prove how oppressed quirkless people are by pointing out how little they can gain and therefore spend. A rather roundabout point, but she supposed he didn’t want people figuring it out early.
“We briefly discussed the idea of it being about quirkless salary, but we threw out that theory pretty quick. Just… doesn’t seem right.” Izuku’s words made her blink. He… had a point. It was odd, and Renee was operating off lackluster evidence. But there wasn’t much else.
“Well…” It had to be something like that, right? Renee couldn’t think of anything else, and everyone in the precinct was more preoccupied with other things to help. Joker could never show up again, and he’d still get more attention than Riddler trying this hard. “He’s trying to call out the mayor for the insult, right? And pointing out the oppressive system would hurt the mayor. A lot.”
The three frowned, thinking. Renee pretended not to be as stumped as they were.
“You said he’d be insulted by the speech, right Montoya?” A spark had appeared in Izuku’s eye.
“Yeah, when Hill said-” Everyone in the car paused to look at each other.
“How much damage can a quirkless person do!” They each shouted at the same time, though it slowly grew more out of sync with each word. Long sentence to say simultaneously.
“It’s so obvious!” Izuku said.
“Of course he’s just referring to himself.” Hitoshi grumbled.
“Same phrasing.” Shoto added.
They all chuckled a little, before Renee stopped, then Izuku, then Hitoshi, and Shoto hadn’t really chuckled in the first place.
“Which gives us…”
“Absolutely nothing…”
“Still could be any amount.”
They went in the same order, this time ending with Renee shaking her head.
“Tells us one thing: this is still the Riddler. This is still pettiness. Which means, this is still something personal. He’s almost definitely targeting the mayor for this.” That seemed to comfort the three of them, which was good. Renee was getting a hang of this leadership thing. “That’s about all we need.”
The drive to the police station was silent, aside from the radio. Renee heard Izuku humming along to the Gotham Infirmary Blues, despite the fact he’d only heard it the day before.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Their meeting room was… still a repurposed interrogation room, but with things written on the board, it felt a little less grim. The riddle has been written on the board, under it the time it was released, and next to that, a box labeled possible theories. The box was blank for now. Although it was doubtful that’d stay the same for long.
Shinso and Todoroki walked up next to the board, talking amongst each other in Japanese, while Renee got on her usual seat on the computer. Izuku stood in the doorway a moment longer, before moving a chair over next to Renee. She quickly closed her computer, looking at him with a sigh. “Shouldn’t you be helping them?” She had a fake, strained smile as she gestured at the other two.
“What are you doing then?” He asked, a bit confused to be honest.
Renee paused, before relenting. “I’ve never been… great with his riddles. Sometimes, Gordon has to get some outside help to solve them for us.” She admitted. “But, I’ve still gotta help.” She opened her laptop again, showing Izuku what she’d been typing.
A bunch of quotes from articles, written down on a digital notepad application, decorated the screen. Izuku could see quotes from the Gotham Gazette article they had read last night, as well as others. Izuku noticed that Renee underlined the part about Edward snapping for no reason. Unorganized facts, such as ‘obsessed with proving his intelligence’ and ‘unempathetic to others’ were written in between excerpts.
Renee was about to speak, but Izuku cut her off. “You’re trying to figure out how he thinks.” He nodded, as he slowly put it together. “Figure out what his next move is likely to be, so we don’t have to follow his riddles.”
Renee blinked, but nodded. “About as much as I can, yeah. It’s… hard to get into the head of someone smarter than you.” She stopped for a moment, looking at Izuku, cogs clearly turning. “Say, you go to U.A, right? Big school, good classes? Can you think of anything I missed?” She pushed the computer over, letting Izuku read through her notes.
The hero took a moment before nodding, reading through more of Renee’s notes. There were some things about hating Batman, which Izuku silently agreed with, but found ridiculous since, as everyone should realize, Batman isn’t real. There was an excerpt praising his analytical mind from an interview with a retired Gotham University professor. He thought some of it sounded similar to what All Might sometimes said about him, although Izuku had to admit the professor was far more professional sounding. He flinched as he got to a part about facing quirkism, which Renee took notice of.
“Ah, right, you’re probably less familiar with this.” A piece of Izuku died inside. He wasn’t, but he chose not to admit to that. “For quirkless people, it’s harder to be seen as an equal, especially outside of Gotham. It’s-” Izuku’s brain managed to fill in the blanks before she finished talking. Agonizing, demeaning, soul crushing. A hundred different ways to describe it flooded his head. “-bad.” Renee finished.
Izuku nodded, before looking back, trying to distract his mind from what Renee had said, time was running out, after all. Truthfully however, thinking too hard about what Riddler had gone through opened a wound of his own, and Izuku wanted to move on quickly.
He had to focus, think. There was a riddle on the board, the way Riddler thinks on the computer, all Izuku had to do was piece it together. Figure out how Riddler thinks, and how that connects to the riddle, he turned his attention back to the board, reading the riddle again.
“Least we have three days.” He mumbled in Japanese, to which Shinso looked back, surprised.
“What?” Shinso replied.
Izuku blinked, going back into English for Renee’s sake. “I said, at least we have three days.” The other three looked back at him, blinking. “...What? Izuku asked meekly.
“We only have one day. That’s what the riddle said.” Todoroki pointed out, pointing at the 6th line:
‘‘Fore the weekend, announce your answer to the world, so it may be heard.”
Izuku blinked. “For the weekend, yeah. We’ve got Saturday and Sunday.”
Everyone blinked, Renee being the first to recognize the misunderstanding. “‘Fore, Izuku. As in before. We need to answer it now.”
There was a long pause, before Izuku looked down with a silent ‘oh’. “That’s… a dumb word.” He mumbled. Why not just write before? Why shorten it at all?
Suddenly, Izuku blinked, looking up. “It’s a dumb word!” He shouted out, much to the surprise of the others in the room. He stood up, quickly moving to the whiteboard, looking for a marker to underline “‘Fore” with.
Renee lit up, though Shinso merely tilted his head in confusion. “I… don’t follow.”
“Riddlers smart.” Renee explained before Izuku could. That was fine, he was still thinking. “But he wants people to know he’s smart, and that he’s the best. He’d never use a shortened word like this-”
“-Unless it was necessary for the riddle!” Shinso suddenly put it together, looking towards the board. Todoroki copied the motion, understanding suddenly.
“It’s the first word of the line.” Tororoki pointed out. “Could that be important?”
Renee stared at the board for a moment, before snapping her fingers. “First letter of each line, maybe?”
Izuku counted each letter, pointing at them. “They don’t spell out anything…” He mumbled. “Maybe it’s just some choice words that are needed? Not the first sentence of each paragraph?”
“No, no.” Shinso cut him off. “Todoroki said it himself during breakfast, it doesn’t rhyme. These aren’t random line breaks, it has to be something.”
The combined minds of the G.P.S.A.A.H.A continued staring at it for a long couple moments, before sighing one after the other. Still nothing. They’d made progress, but the letters seemed random still, even though they couldn’t be. Three of them sat back down, but Izuku remained standing, continuing to stare for a couple moments.
S-R-U-O-Y-F-O-L-L-A. A bunch of letters, seemingly random. For a moment, Izuku worried the riddle was about One for All, somehow, before becoming confused at that notion. Why had he even thought that? The mention of ‘all’, his mind supplied, though that still didn’t make sense. Where had he seen all? Had he imagined a word then gotten worried about it? That made no sense, but it seemed to be-
The last three letters, he suddenly realized. All in reverse. He picked the marker back up, and began writing.
Shinso looked up, blinking. “What are you-” He began, only to stop as he saw it. The rest did the same.
All of yours, Izuku had written. The first letter of each line, placed backwards. How much money can a quirkless person spend? All of yours.
“Hill.” Renee gasped. “We need to contact Hill. Now.”
Chapter 7: Helping The Habitually Helpless Hamilton Hill.
Chapter Text
Renee hated trying to get through to the mayor. Sometimes, she thought Hill didn’t want to be helped with how many hoops she had to jump through to do so. Currently, she was on hold with his assistant, having just managed to convince the assistant’s assistant to contact someone else. It had taken her 30 minutes. At this rate, she wouldn’t get to tell Hill the answer in time.
She took a sip from a cup of coffee as her phone continued to play hold music. Her mind wandered a little to the heroes in the interrogation room. They… actually figured it out in time. Second day in Gotham, and they’d already begun to prove themselves. Maybe Renee should take them on patrol or something.
…Take three quirked kids into Gotham’s streets. Yeah. Brilliant. Renee quickly shot down that idea.
“Afternoon Renee.” She turned to see Harvey Bullock walking into the room. His tie was slightly undone, his coat looked like it hadn’t been ironed out for days, and there were some really old coffee stains on his shirt. Overall, he looked good, for him at least.
“Harvey.” She greeted. “How’re things? Ignoring everything, of course.” Renee thinks that a few years ago, as a beat cop, she might’ve never made friends with a man like Harvey. He was a slob through and through, with an attitude to match: rude, consistently improper, and constantly smug. But he was clean where it really mattered, so as far as Renee was concerned, the man had the right to be as smug as he wanted.
“Even ignoring everything, it’s pretty bad.” He replied, taking a big gulp of coffee. “Y’know how I’d been put on the Joker case yesterday?”
Renee shook her head. She’d thought Gordon gave the job to the outside contractor, and a cop bad enough to not get in the way of the outside contractor. Harvey didn’t fit the criteria.
“Well, I had it. But I didn’t even get to establish a single lead before SWAT took the case from me.” Renee nearly choked on her drink. That was… not what she was expecting, and she barely knew where to start.
“And Gordon let them?” She managed to wheeze out between caffeinated coughs. Harvey shook his head, showing no concern for her state.
“They went over his head on this one.” That was… a whole new set of questions. Renee hadn’t even gotten to asking how Branden managed to steal a case from a detective. “I don’t know what has them so riled up about the Joker case, but it’s worrying.” A long pause followed, as both of them stood in silence, only broken up by the faint sound of hold music.
“How’s babysitting?” Harvey eventually asked, and his nonchalant, almost genuine way of asking it made Renee snort.
“Surprisingly good. They’re smart, Harvey. More cooperative than most of the precinct too. Plus, they were smart enough to solve the riddle.”
“No kidding? What was the answer? I can never figure his stuff out.”
“All of yours. First letter of each line spelled it out backwards.” Renee saw Harvey mentally think back to the riddle, before looking back at her.
“Huh. How about that? Good for them.” He tried to sound casual about it, but Renee could tell. He was impressed. Not like she wasn’t too. Now if only she could get in touch with the mayor.
She paused. “Hey, who’d SWAT go to who’s above Gordon, anyways?”
Harvey looked confused for a moment, before shaking it off. “Apparently, Branden’s good friends with the mayor, who decided the Joker was an issue that could be considered outside of a regular cops pay grade. Way I heard it, the man had Hill's personal phone number.”
Immediately Renee hung up, finishing off her coffee. “Thanks.” She said, tossing the cup in the garbage. “Good luck with whatever case you’ve got now.” She quickly moved out the door, and asked around for Branden.
The man was hard to work with, and just overall a jerk. But still, she managed to get in touch with the mayor through him faster than through bureaucracy.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A lot of things happened very quickly, Izuku thought as much anyways. Renee had somehow gotten in touch with the mayor's personal phone number, which was the first thing. The second thing was that they were now heading for a press conference, and the three of them had to put on their hero costumes, though Renee insisted on calling them uniforms.
As mentioned, a lot of things happened very quickly.
According to Renee on the car ride over (once more, none of them got to sit in front), the press conference was necessary as per the riddle, but she didn’t trust the mayor to get it right, so the four of them were coming if anything went wrong. Truthfully, Izuku didn’t believe that explanation. Hill didn’t seem the brightest, sure, but even he could say back the answer to a riddle he was just told. No, something else was up.
“I think Montoya expects the Riddler to act during the press conference.” He whispered to the other two, in Japanese of course.
Shinso looked over, raising an eyebrow, while Todoroki remained looking straight forward.
“What makes you say that?”
“She mentioned trying to predict his next move, and she’s definitely lying about the reason we’re coming. She thinks he’s going to act, that’s the only explanation.”
Shinso blinked. “...Really?” He said, clearly not believing Izuku. Or at least, Izuku thought that was the tone he took. Hard to tell through his mask. “You did see how Hill acted, right? I mean, I buy that he’d forget the answer to the riddle.”
“It’s not just that.” Izuku looked forward, to check if Renee had attempted to eavesdrop. She hadn’t, not that she could. “It’s just… I don’t know. Forget about it.”
Izuku slouched down in his seat, looking out the window to see what he could spot. He noticed that where Renee had driven them, the streets seemed a little cleaner, and the buildings less vandalized. There were advertisements for Gothcorp brand heaters, joy-cure from Ace Chemicals, and a place called the Iceberg Lounge.
“A hunch?” Todoroki said. Izuku looked up. The boy hadn’t looked towards him, still staring perfectly in front. “You have a hunch?”
Izuku nodded shamefully. He was saying all these things, assuming Renee was lying, all because of a hunch, it-
“I believe you, then.” Todoroki eventually said. Izuku blinked.
“Me too.” Shinso followed up. “Aizawa always says that a good hero has to trust their first instincts. If you can’t, you won’t make a good hero.” Izuku felt a bit of dread build in his stomach, though it dissipated as Shinso continued. “I trust you, Midoriya. I trust your thoughts. I trust your instincts. We’ll be on guard.”
Shinso followed it up with a thumbs up, which affected Izuku way more than he’d like. Such a tiny action, just a confirmation of what had just been said, it somehow meant the world to-
“Alright, that’s enough.” A voice called out in English. Renee, right. “What the hell are you three discussing back there? And don’t you dare say nothing.”
Izuku and Shinso froze up, trying to desperately think of an excuse. Luckily, Todoroki had them covered.
“We were discussing whether Shinso is Aizawa’s secret child.”
Three people choked on air, Renee included, even though she didn’t know who Aizawa was. Izuku tried to suppress his laughter as Shinso began half-yelling at an unresponsive Todoroki.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mayor Hamilton Hill wasn’t even close to the bumbling idiot persona Izuku had seen on the screen. No, in person, he was also incredibly rude, having completely ignored Renee so far.
“Mayor Hill.” Renee had greeted. The man didn’t even look at the officer, mumbling as he looked over some cue cards. Izuku, Shinso, and Todoroki all stood behind her as she gestured at them. “These are the ones who figured out Riddler's riddle. This is Izuku Mid-”
Hill stopped just to interrupt Renee, waving her away. “Yes, yes. You may leave now.”
Izuku's jaw dropped a little. He wasn’t in this to hear ‘thank you’ of course, but, he’d be lying if he said he hadn’t expected something. He saw Shinso build to say something, before Renee’s hand was slapped over his mouth.
“Of course, mr. Mayor.” She stepped back, giving them a glare that shut them up for the time being. At least, until they were far enough from behind the podium so that Hill couldn’t hear them.
“What the hell was that?” Shinso hissed out. “You may leave now? We gave him the answer!”
Izuku nodded in agreement. Even if he wasn’t grateful, anybody would see that it’d be smart to communicate with the people you depended on. Instead, they were waved away like a bothersome bug.
“You should’ve been here for our first meeting.” Renee sighed. “He asked me for a cup of coffee. Two sugars and non-fat milk.”
Izuku thought about some of the many words Kacchan had taught him over the years, as an internal reaction. Part of him had hoped that the mayor would at least be receptive, and that bit of hope was shattered nearly instantly.
“Ignore him.” Renee ordered, looking around. Some paparazzi had already begun to gather, and she moved almost as though to hide the three of them. “Right, so, just to make sure. What’re your quirks?”
Izuku blinked. “Shouldn’t the school have told you about that? Or at least the G.C.P.D?”
“If they did, someone forgot to tell me.” It was easy to tell that wasn’t the first time such a thing happened. “Just, go through it all. Izuku first, then Shoto, then you.” The ‘you’ had an accusatory edge Shinso didn’t seem fond of.
“Strength emitter. I can rapidly increase my strength and agility while focussing. Oh! And I recently found a hidden aspect of the quirk that lets me extend whips of energy that can grab things. I… don’t have much control over it yet.”
“Half-cold, half-hot. I can emit flames from my left side, and ice from my right side. But never at the same time.”
Shinso hesitated before speaking. “Brainwashing. If someone replies to something I say, I can order them to do things.” Renee blinked a little at that explanation, despite her lack of reaction to the first two. “I’ve… also got this.” He held up the bandage like ropes around his chest. “Capture weapon. I can immobilize my opponents with this.”
“Right.” She said, “Izuku, Hitoshi, come with me, we gotta stick close to the mayor. Be ready in case anyone tries something. Shoto, your quirk’s good for mobility, stick to somewhere up high, keep an eye on the crowd and anyone suspicious. Don’t use your quirk in any way unless I give the order.”
The three of them nodded, Todoroki moving away, before Renee stopped him. “Where’s your brick?”
Todoroki stopped. “My what?”
“Brick, walkie talkie, portable radio, whatever you call it. Where is it?”
The three paused, Shinso speaking first. “We don’t have any.” He said, what was visible of his face almost looked like it was smiling. “No one ever gave us one.”
Renee paused, before rubbing her temples. “God- You’ll get one next time. You got a phone?” Todoroki nodded. “Good. Send me a text if you see anything.” A pained tone entered her words, and a word Izuku didn’t know passed through her lips before they began moving.
Todoroki split from the rest of them as Renee led/dragged them to a place behind the podium, and out of sight from the cameras. She was stopped by a man in a suit, one of Hill's guards no doubt.
“Renee Montoya, G.C.P.D and G.P.S.A.A.H.A.” She looked pleased that she’d gotten it right. “I’m here with Izuku Midoriya, and Hitoshi Shinso to help protect the mayor. Shoto Todoroki, who’ll be taking up a vantage point on a building, is also with us. We should be allowed in.”
The man gave a suspicious glance to the two teens, which Izuku couldn’t blame him for, before holding a hand up to his ear. After a moment, he nodded, and stepped aside to let them through wordlessly. Renee thanked him, before moving away towards Todoroki, to escort him properly as well.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hitoshi was very thankful that Renee was gone.
He’d expected it for a while. That moment when he stops being a hero-in-training, and becomes a villain from birth. The moment someone figures out his quirk. Brainwashing. Yeah. He’d be lucky if she even tries talking to him outside of ordering him around.
He heard Hill begin speaking, though he tuned out immediately after ‘today is a dark day for Gotham’. This was definitely gonna be a bad speech. He turned to Midoriya, who also seemed to be tuning out.
“I think Renee is quirkist.” He blurted out, to which Midoriya blinked.
“Huh?”
“Her reaction, to my quirk. Different from yours. I think she’s quirkist against ‘bad’ quirks.”
Midoriya paused, thinking for a moment. Hitoshi already had a prediction for what his response would be. Logically, Midoriya’ll agree that it’s odd how she only reacted to his quirk, but optimistically he’ll say that they should give her the benefit of the doubt.
“I don’t know. It is a little weird how she only reacted to your quirk, but maybe we should give her the benefit of the doubt? Just in case.”
Hitoshi lied with a shrug. A truthful answer would’ve been a shake of his head.
“-The answer, as deciphered by my good friends in the G.P.S.A.H…” Both the heroes were distracted by the mayor's speech. It took every bit of willpower to not crawl out of their cover and yell at Hill for brushing them off after that comment. “...is ‘All of yours.”
Silence. Camera’s clicked, sure, but no one said a word for a moment. Then, the speakers screeched with feedback, and Hitoshi’s hands raced to the side of his head. After a moment, he took them off, to hear what was happening.
“-ell, well, well. Hamilton! Congratulations!” Smugness oozed out of the voice, which made it clear to Hitoshi just who was speaking. Guards rushed to the mayors side, though Midoriya and Hitoshi stayed back. “I was honestly hoping you wouldn’t. Then I could have punished you by draining your bank accounts. Yes, even the ones you don’t want people noticing. But hey! You deserve to win, Hill. You managed to get someone else to save you from your mistakes again!”
Riddler seems to like to talk, which was good. It probably meant they’d be able to track him and triangulate his position. Maybe. Hitoshi had only really seen that kind of stuff on tv shows.
“Speaking of which, good job with the G.P.S.A.A.H.A. It’s really done a lot for you, hasn’t it? In just a few weeks, it’s already got… What? Three members? But hey! They stopped me. That has to mean something.”
A sickening feeling of dread pooled in Hitoshi’s stomach. He knew? Of course he knew, Hill had just painted a target on his back. But Hill said it wrong, Riddler hadn’t. He knew.
“Speaking of which…” That feeling of dread worsened. “Midoriya Izuku, AKA Deku. I assume you’re listening? Wonderful.”
Hitoshi looked at his friend, and his friend looked at the nearest speaker with a panicked expression. Hitoshi’s phone began buzzing, presumably urgent texts from Renee. He didn’t answer.
Chapter 8: It All Adds Up to a Sinister Riddle
Notes:
TW: Once more, implied child abuse. Skip everything between "Cheating, the word alone..." until "...he was safe."
Chapter Text
“Speaking of which, Midoriya Izuku, AKA Deku. I assume you’re listening? Wonderful.”
Renee’s hands darted to her phone like a lifeline, and immediately she called Hitoshi. He didn’t pick up after two buzzes, so he switched to just texting him a bunch of advice.
“Riddler. Be careful. Get to Izuku. Don’t let him respond to Riddler right now.” Each message was separated, but no response. Shoto tapped her shoulder gently, snapping her out of the panicked stupor she’d been left in. The two of them had only barely gotten to the top of the nearest building, Renee having to escort Shoto through the many security checkpoints, when Riddlers announcement came on.
Renee had never been targeted by a villain. But she’d prepared for it. You have to if you’re in Gotham. She always thought about what she’d do if Joker, or Killer Croc, or Two Face decided that she’d be good to kill. Because it was inevitable. At this point? She was pretty sure she’d barely flinch if it did happen.
“Simply wonderful.” Riddler continued.
God this was so much worse.
Shoto looked about the same as ever, but his hands had clutched themselves into fists. The kid needed something to do, and Renee needed to do something.
“Get to the cameras, drive them away. We can’t give Riddler any more of an audience. Minimal quirk usage authorized.” Shoto nodded wordlessly, moving away as Renee turned to her radio.
“This is Renee Montoya, at the mayor’s press conference. We have a 39-27. I repeat, we have an ongoing villain attack. Please respon-” Shoto had disappeared, she suddenly noticed. Looking around, she saw him down on the ground, every camera now trained on him. Now how the hell had he-?
She leaned over the edge of the building, and saw a giant, very noticeable ice slide the hero had presumably made. After a brief moment of speechlessness, she ran for the stairs.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Izuku’s only thought as he stood there, frozen in shock, is how much he hates freezing up.
The feeling had always been simple but dreadful. His thoughts passed through his head as normal, but his entire body felt almost completely numb, and the only things he could really feel were his nails digging into his palms. It was almost exactly how he felt when he activated full cowling for the first time, except he was full of dread, not power.
“...Simply wonderful.” Riddler continued, which managed to barely snap Izuku out of his panic. He looked at Hitoshi. The boy looked back with a stare that revealed he was just as worried as Izuku was. Both of them froze, unsure whether to move or stay hidden. If Riddler was targeting him, surely as long as they all kept out of sight, nothing bad would happen?
A familiar sound reached both their ears. That of something being spontaneously frozen, before two boots slide down it. Izuku stepped up the stairs cautiously, hanging by the back of the stage, out of sight from the cameras. Hill was gone, escorted by his security. As suspected, a huge ice slide had been created, and Shoto was now trying to talk down a wide variety of live cameras. So now Riddler definitely knew they were there. Which meant there’d be consequences.
Izuku’s brain went on overdrive, essentially, thinking a hundred thoughts a second to try and figure out what to do. Eventually, his best thought was a fairly simple one: what would All Might do? Yes, All Might wasn’t great with… most things. But heroism? He never needs to think through his heroism. It’s like the man runs on perfect instinct, never making a bad call when he’s working. “All Might has never failed to rescue someone upon arriving at the scene.” He recalls detective Tsukauchi saying.
So what would All Might do?
He’d get all eyes on him.
Izuku sprinted onto the podium Hill was at just moments before, pulling the mask on his hero costume up, before finally speaking.
“I’m here, Riddler!” Each camera, plus Todoroki, turned towards the podium. “I, Deku, am here!”
“What are you doing?!” He barely heard Hitoshi yell after him. He didn’t respond, too focussed on Riddler. Even though he couldn’t see him, he knew the villain was smiling. Why shouldn’t he? Izuku had just played into his hand. The feeling of dread filled his stomach once more.
“Ahh, Midoriya. How wonderful of you to join us.” Riddler's smugness slowly gave way to anger. “Behold, Gotham! One of the three heroes Hill brought in, to save us from our quirkless plight.” The man was no longer talking to Izuku, he realized, but the hero still paid attention. He had a feeling that whatever Riddler said, he’d be able to use.
“Do you remember Hill mentioning the G.P.S.A.A.H.A? It’s his little way of bringing in heroes to Gotham. Bait for self righteous people who believe their quirks will solve everything, with an incredible name on top of it.” Sarcasm dripped from each word like poison “Brings to mind GLARBIMACTAFIN. Remember that anti-drug campaign, Hill? Nearly cost you re-election yet here. You. Are.”
Chatter emerged from the crowd of reporters. From the little Izuku could make out, it seemed they were agreeing with him. Re-direction was desperately needed.
“You called me out!” Izuku's voice echoed through the mic. Izuku tried not to think about the thousands of people who had to be watching. “Why?!”
“Don’t you dare interrupt me!” Riddler's voice clipped with how loudly he yelled. And there was a brief moment of deep breaths as the villain regained his thoughts, before speaking calmly again. “I called you out, so people would see you, and people would know what you are. You’re just like Hill. You think that Gotham needs quirks to save it. You think that Gotham needs you to save it. But you’re nothing more than a stuck up, quirk obsessed idiot, who’s had everything handed to you, because you’re special!” Izuku shrunk down into himself. He knew where the villain came from, and yet… he couldn’t say anything.
Once more, Riddler took a deep breath to calm himself down. “I think we can all agree, we don’t need anyone like that in Gotham.”
All Might would speak right now, Izuku thought. But a sentence felt impossible to make. He was glad he had a mask, so no one could see his face. He was sure he was about to cry, when a hand put itself on Izuku’s shoulder.
He looked over to see Shinso, who looked at the crowd with fiery determination. He wasn’t scared of them, because he knew that they'd be wrong if they tried to call him someone who’s had everything handed down to him.
…And they were wrong about Izuku too. Finally, the hero found the strength to speak.
“You’re wrong Nygma!” Don’t give him time to respond and get in your head, Izuku realized. “I’m not like Hill. He was wrong about you. He’s wrong about quirkless people. I’m here not because I think my quirk makes me better, but because I think my quirk is something I can help people with! And I want to help Gotham!”
There was a pause, which meant he’d shut Riddler up a little. Good.
“Tough words, Deku.” He spat the word out the same way Bakugou used to. It caused Izuku to flitch. “But a quirk doesn’t make you capable of helping. It doesn’t make you a hero. You’re an idiot for thinking that.”
“I solved your riddle, didn’t I?” Izuku didn’t mean for that to sound as smug as it did. Truthfully, it was just an observation.
“Yes, you did.” Riddler begrudgingly agreed. His frustration was audible even through the speaker. “But I gave you time, I gave you a chance. If not, you’d have-“
“So test me again!” Izuku began to forget the pressure, just focused on Riddler. “Give me another question, another problem to solve, whatever it takes to convince you I’m here to help!”
“I was getting there.” This time, Nygma sounded ready with his response. “Riddle me this, Izuku. And answer carefully.”
“I define quirklessness.” He began. “I am a hiccup in evolution. A misstep and a deformed limb. I am the telltale sign of inefficiency and of lesser people. What am I?”
It was a hard question that most people would struggle with. Izuku was sure most people who heard it wouldn’t be able to answer it. But for Izuku? Each word rang an alarm bell in his head, telling him what the answer was almost instinctively. It all pointed back to information that’d he’d never forget.
“Take your time.” Riddler began. “But not too much. You have five minutes to-”
“The toe joint.” Izuku heard Riddler sputter. “You’re the toe joint present in quirkless anatomy.” He still remembered the doctor telling him the news, showing him the X-ray. It was the first time Izuku ever froze up.
“How’d- What’d- You-” Riddler stumbled over his words. “Lucky guess Midoriya, that’s all it was, you hear me!” And then the speakers clicked off, and Izuku breathed a sigh of relief. It was over. He felt himself get slowly dragged away by Shinso, as cameras clicked from the crowd.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Edward’s most present thought as he sat there, shaking with rage, is how much he hates getting angry.
The feeling had always erased any chance for him to think things through. His thoughts passed through his head in a rush, his entire body felt tense, and the only thing he could feel was a deep desire for retribution.
How? How had Izuku Midoriya, someone with a quirk, known about the toe joint? Even if he had heard about it, the information should’ve been so niche for him, there was no world in which he answered so quickly. For quirkless people, a toe joint defined their life. A quirked person shouldn’t even know about it.
Yet here Edward was, in an abandoned warehouse within Gotham’s Park Row, surrounded by a conspiracy board, computers, and a screen showing Izuku walk away from the podium, victorious. Against him.
Standing up, Edward walked to his corkboard, and ripped a piece of paper off his wall. On it, the riddle he’d been certain would stump the hero. He crushed it into a ball and threw it into the can he’d set up.
He stared at the rest of his information on his board, trying to figure out what he missed.
This was a riddle, and therefore child’s play for him.
On the corkboard, he had: a printed version of the G.P.S.A.A.H.A page on the G.C.P.D website, copies of emails between officer Montoya and the Commissioner discussing giving the Riddler case to the heroes, a self-made transcript of a call between Montoya and the Mayor surrounding his riddle, and translated information on the aforementioned heroes. Everything from copies of the quirk certificates, to articles on any heroics they’d done, even their junior high report cards. (Much as he hated to admit it, even Edward couldn’t hack through U.A security. Yet.) He focussed on Izuku’s for now, and immediately, things didn’t make sense.
This was a riddle, and Edward would decipher it.
His grades at Aldera junior high were all middle of the road. At best. There were a few where they dropped significantly, most notably, a class labeled “quirk biology”, where Izuku flunked out between the first 3 months.
So how had Izuku known about the toe joint? Thinking of it, how had Izuku figured out his riddles in the first place? All his grades showed a lack of above average intellect or critical thinking skills. Edward of all people knew a school could rarely measure someone’s mind accurately, but how had they been this off the mark?
This was a riddle, but Edward couldn’t solve it.
Had U.A whipped Izuku into shape? Edward grimaced. That was it, wasn’t it? They didn’t even need to check his grades, all they needed to see was a strong quirk, and they let anyone right in. If they bothered giving their top of the line education to someone who actually earned it, maybe the world would be-
Riddler paused. Something didn’t make sense. He knew that schools gave preferential treatment to those with strong quirks. He looked back at the quirk certificate, and read it:
“Quirk: Superpower. Can rapidly increase his strength, agility, and energy on demand. Also grants him usage of whips made of energy that are hard to command.”
That was an absolutely incredible quirk. Izuku could go up to the principal, punch them across the face, and still have perfect grades with a power like that.
So why had he failed? Why were his grades so terrible for so long?
This wasn’t a riddle, Edward realized. A riddle doesn’t ever lie to you. Something here is a lie.
He sat back down, and began looking for the complete files surrounding Izuku’s grades he had somewhere. He found them, and immediately went to the worst class he had. Quirk biology. Three perfect 0’s on three exams, along with a teacher's note. He ran it through a translator immediately.
“Izuku needs to learn to stop this behavior.” It read. “A perfect score is impossible for him. We at Aldera do not tolerate cheating on official exams.”
Cheating. The word alone made Edward panic, as a familiar feeling of terror returned to torment him, and it became hard to breathe. He was back- No. Edward forced the thoughts to stop as best he could. He was here, in Gotham, miles from where he was raised. He was safe.
Relatively so. He was still a wanted criminal.
He focussed back on Izuku, trying to ignore that painful word. So he… did something against the school, and got in trouble with it. Or allegedly so, Edward knew how it was for the quirkless-
Izuku wasn’t quirkless, he reminded himself. He was just a quirked person who cheated… And didn’t get preferential treatment despite how obviously powerful his quirk was. No, that was wrong, and Edward knew it.
He needed to get back into the Japanese quirk database. Technically shouldn’t be legal, but when something can be broken into so easily, is it really a crime? Yes, but he was pretty sure the Hero Public Safety Commission would be adverse to admitting that a man hacked into their files from across the ocean. It took him around an hour, slightly less than how long it took him the first time, and he began digging through. Once more, he found Izuku’s quirk certificate, provisional license, but nothing more. He leaned back in his chair, exhaling slowly.
…What about outdated files? Maybe his quirk was weak for a long time, hence the lack of preferential treatment. That made sense, Edward thought, so he reached into those, and looked up what he had done beforehand.
Izuku Midoriya, hair color green, eye color green, born on July 5th. And as expected, many old copies of his quirk certificate. According to this, it had changed a lot very quick-
Another thing, at the bottom, outdated for only a year. Not a quirk certificate, not a provisional license, not anything related to heroics. Edward would not be ashamed to admit that he gasped upon reading it.
Quirkless certificate. For Izuku Midoriya.
Since only a year ago.
This had been a riddle, and Edward had solved it.
Chapter 9: Like a Harp from Hell.
Chapter Text
Izuku felt… weirdly great after the verbal bout. He’d come out on top! It was confirmation that he was more than his quirk. He’d managed to outsmart a villain! He’d managed to keep himself from stumbling over his words! He’d managed to talk in front of thousands!
Suddenly, he felt really sick.
“You-” Shinso reminded Izuku of his presence by staring at him with barely disguised awe. He’d managed to drag Izuku back away from prying eyes, thankfully. Izuku began to take deep breaths, trying to calm himself. “You did it. You’re amazin-”
“You idiot!” Izuku looked over at a very angry Renee pushing a very confused Todoroki towards the two of them. “What were you thinking?!”
Izuku blinked, taking a moment to process Renee’s words. Was she angry? She glared at Izuku, as though reading his thoughts and taking a moment to confirm that yes, she was. Izuku couldn’t open his mouth before Hitoshi cut him off.
“He was thinking that with a villain around, he might as well try and do something. Is that a problem?” When Renee switched targets, glaring at Shinso instead, the purple haired teenager didn’t flitch.
“It was Riddler. You don’t put yourself in a position like that with Riddler. It’s a bad idea.”
“But Midoriya answered correctly?” Todoroki obviously didn’t mean that as a gotcha, but regardless, it caused Montoya to rub her forehead. “He seemed to scare the Riddler off. That seems like a-”
“Is he behind bars, Shoto?” This time, Renee interrupted the hero-in-training for a change. “Is Riddler stopped? Can we close the case yet? If the answer is no, it’s not even close to a win.”
Now, Izuku could respond, his brow furrowed as he stared at Renee, not quite as angry as her, but still rather offended. “He was winning the crowd over!” He protested. “I managed to gain support back.”
Renee glared at him for a moment, before shaking her head with a huff. “Fine.” She said, anger slowly disappearing. “But no more podiums, and no more cameras, we get to the car quietly.” The detective looked around the three of them, until she got a nod from each. Izuku still crossed his arms, he did good… Right?
She led them opposite of the direction of all the cameras, and as they kept walking, Izuku couldn’t help but feel he did something wrong. But that was ridiculous, he did what any hero worth half their grit would’ve done! He acted without thinking, yes, but that was what a hero had to do. But still, an inexplicable feeling of guilt crept up on him.
“You did good.” He looked over at Todoroki, who’d begun talking in Japanese. “You got his question right. I don’t understand why Montoya is angry, I-”
“If you’re gonna try and talk about me in a language I don’t know, don’t say my name.” The detective stopped when they managed to reach a sidewalk, not looking back at them. “Stay here, I’ll come around with the car in a few moments. Don’t any of you dare move.” And with that, she walked away, disappearing around a corner. Shortly after, Shinso blew a raspberry at her.
“How dare she?!” He began. “You step onto the podium, embarrass the Riddler in front of the entire world, and she’s mad?! Maybe we should make fun of her next time she arrests a murderer, since apparently that’s so bad.”
Izuku can’t help but snort, a little out of surprise. But still, any signs of a grin on his face are short lived. A frown takes its place soon after.
“I don’t know.” He mumbled. “I mean, embarrassing the Riddler, getting him mad, isn’t this just what Hill did to start this whole mess?”
“It’s different.” Shinso shook his head. “Hill insulted him for no good reason. He came after you, and you beat him!” He threw in a punch against the air to punctuate his sentence.
“Yeah, but, maybe we should ignore him? Not feed his desire for attention?” Izuku argued
That got a snort out of Shinso. “Midoriya, c’mon, that’s what they tell you to do against bullies. You’re not gonna report Shiguraki to your teacher, are you?”
“Our teacher is a hero, Shinso.” He pointed out.
“You get my point!” The boy protested nonetheless. “You did exactly what you should’ve done. You’re a good hero, Midoriya. Tell ‘im Todoroki!”
The heterochromatic teenager nodded in agreement, and Izuku smiled. His doubts slowly erasing themselves from his mind.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“What does this kid think he’s doing?” Izuku read, a picture of himself underneath the text.
“Never thought I’d find myself agreeing with the annoying question mark man, but here we are.” The post below said.
““Quirk obsessed idiot"” Found my new favorite term for heroes.”
The doubts had returned in full force for Izuku. They were back in the interrogation room, and Izuku was reading from Shinso’s phone. The purple haired teenager sat defeated in the corner, Todoroki right next to him, and Renee was looking through her computer, occasionally glancing up at Izuku, expression stuck half way between ‘I told you so’, and so much pity it made Izuku shrink every time.
People in Gotham really, really hated quirks. And heroes, it seemed. Now, Izuku was sure he was about to throw up.
He’d been so sure that he’d done everything right! He felt confident when he spoke, didn’t stutter, and even proved Riddler wrong! How had it all gone so wrong?
“We martyred him.” Renee muttered, reading something on her screen. Izuku looked at her with an expression she’d learn to recognize by now. “Martyred. Means that when we tried to fight him, we instead turned him into a symbol for quirkless people.”
Symbol? For quirkless people? No, that couldn’t be right. Izuku would’ve never admired this man! He was a villain!
…But Izuku was raised with All Might constantly on the news. He had a quirked hero all his life to look up to. He couldn’t understand what a Gothamite would feel.
“Good will is a foreign concept.” He muttered, to which his two classmates reacted with some recognition of. “...We messed up.” He concluded, to which Renee gave a sigh.
“Now, you’re getting it.” She rubbed her forehead. “I’ll admit, this is… worse than I thought.” She flinched at one of the posts, scrolling down before Izuku could read it. Probably for the best. “It was an unnecessary risk what you took, but I couldn’t have imagined this much backlash.”
“Is the program over then? Working in Gotham? Do we have to leave?” Todoroki was the one to ask this question, to which Renee had to pause to answer.
“...No.” She answered, though not after a worrying amount of hesitation. “We probably should be, but we’re lucky in that any attempts from the mayor to shut us down have him fighting the Riddler alone. He’ll be happy he’s targeting us.”
The room was quiet after that, as Izuku’s guilt only worsened. He should’ve just ignored the Riddler, and kept them all out of the spotlight. Now, they were all at great risk both from Riddler and the mayor, and it was all his fault. ‘Bad’ did not even begin to describe how Izuku felt. What if this mistake had cost someone their life? What if it ends up costing someone their life? Izuku felt himself stop breathing properly, but no matter what he did, he couldn’t force air in. He was drowning and-
“Izuku, need your help.” Renee’s words broke him out of his stupor, and the vice around his lungs lightened.
“Huh?” He managed to finally say, looking up to see Renee waving over the other two.
“I said, I need your help.” He didn’t move, causing her to sigh. “Look, you messed up, badly might I add, but that doesn’t mean it’s over. Riddler won’t care if what he did hurt you, hell, he’ll love it. I’ll chew you out later, but for now, I need help.”
The words themselves didn’t help much. Izuku still felt really bad. But she had a point, and he’d gladly take the chewing out later. Standing up, he wobbled over to her, where he saw she had the notes on Riddler back up, with new information surrounding his previous reactions. He usually escalated battles very quickly, but rarely got to outright violence, which was somewhat relieving.
“We’re here.” She pointed at a part of the screen that said ‘attacks via technology’. “I’m expecting him to hack into the G.C.P.D servers at any point, try and take us down that way. He’s done this before, so we’ve got protocol for an attack that’ll help us figure out his position.”
Izuku blinked, then blinked again once it clicked together again. “You mean we could take him down if he tried anything?”
Shinso, for once, looked impressed with Renee as she nodded. “How does it work?” He asked.
“The idea’s simple: we increase the security on most of the precinct computers, which slows them down a lot, but we leave one dummy computer with less security. He thinks he gets into our systems through there, but really, if he tries to access it through there, we’ll find out where he is.” She smiled, almost proud of herself.
“...How’d you get this?” Izuku asked, which caused her to frown.
“It… cost a lot of department money, but we got someone outside to create it for us, just in case something like this happened again. Which is happening, so, I’d say it’s worth it.”
The three of them nodded in agreement. Frankly, Izuku was just glad they could cut the knot instead of having to untangle Riddler’s game.
“So, what do we do?” Todoroki asked. A valid question. The sooner they got this defense up, the better.
“You two are going down to the IT offices, give them the heads up. I’m going with Gordon, make him send the approval to you. And you-” She pointed at Izuku, who stood at attention. “Are reorganizing the board.”
Izuku blinked.
“Really?” He said, a little taken aback. It felt like things were starting to get done, shouldn’t the board be an afterthought?
“Yes. Really. Needs to be done, besides-” She stood up, and began walking to the door “You still risked a lot with your stunt. Just clean up a bit, and I’ll spare you the paperwork.” She opened the door, and gestured to the other two to leave. Both gave a quick look behind at Izuku, Shinso being nice enough to offer a shrug.
Izuku sighed, looking down in acceptance. He heard the door shut, before he moved onto the board.
He quickly erased the already solved riddle and its answer from the board, before beginning to move on. Since yesterday, Renee had put up a few newspapers from previous Riddler attacks on the board, and Izuku briefly looked over them.
“Riddler caught: the dangerous villain that’s tormented Gotham for a month was brought into G.C.P.D. headquarters earlier today.” An evocative headline, but he doubted it’d have much reliable information. He looked for one dated a while later, when there’d be a trial and facts would come to light.
“Edward Nygma, AKA the Riddler, sent to Arkham Asylum for rehabilitation due to insanity plea.” There we go. It was dated six months after the first newspaper, and he quickly grabbed it to read through.
Izuku had been aware that Riddler, and quite a few of Gotham's villains, were sent to an asylum instead of a prison like Tarturus. It was… interesting, to say the least. Odd too, Nygma seemed to be in control of his actions so far.
He flinched as he realized that he was calling Riddler by his name again. He tried to shake the habit off.
According to the article, Riddler got an insanity plea due to having allegedly suffered a nervous break right before committing the crimes. Multiple witnesses were called up by the defense to provide evidence of a sudden and severe change in character. And what caused this change?
Batman.
Izuku pinned the newspaper back onto the board. He’d almost forgotten about the fake vigilante, so preoccupied with the Riddler case. According to this, Riddler developed an obsession with proving himself better than Batman in the months where his initial crime spree happened. Izuku shook his head. Shouldn’t he, as intelligent as he was, recognized that Batman was fake?
…Was Batman fake?
He hadn’t doubted it before, but, maybe if Nygma had committed crimes fighting against Batman, could it be that he had in fact faced off against the vigilante?
…Oh, right, insanity plea. Nearly everyone who claims that Batman is real is currently in Arkham, being treated for delusions. The insanity plea was because Riddler was fighting against a fake person. Yeah, that made sense.
Still, there was a little bit of doubt in Izuku’s head now.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The day finished pretty soon after, and they were back at the Gotham Royal hotel. Izuku hadn’t gotten a chance to really admire it from outside and just… wow.
Two identical, art deco buildings connected by a lobby on the ground level, and a bridge with a circular area in the middle halfway up. The overlook bar, Izuku recalled. Just- Wow. This might be the fanciest place he’s ever slept in, just barely beating out U.A itself.
Renee’s car stopped abruptly, and Izuku opened the door, stepping outside, followed by the others soon after. The driver, notably, didn’t exit herself.
“Gotta head back to the station, lots of paperwork to do.” She gave a pointed glare at Izuku. “Stay safe, don’t get into trouble.” And with that, she drove off, leaving the three of them to walk into the hotel together.
“Long day.” Shinso yawned out. “We should probably rest soon, get an early start tomorrow.” His tone made it fairly clear he was just excited for the bed.
Izuku couldn’t think about sleeping yet. His stomach felt… weird. Was he sick? It was probably because of the guilt. Oh, what if he threw up? Would they kick him out of the agency for being too sick? He needed to stop Riddler now! He had-
His stomach growled. Oh. He was hungry. Come to think of it, he hadn’t eaten since breakfast.
“Y-You two go up ahead, I’m getting something from down here.” There was a vending machine tucked into the corner. Seemed to have some candy bars. That should hold him for a bit.
He split off from his fellow heroes, heading to the vending machine, behind a man and a woman. They picked up a soda can from the bottom, turning to look at Izuku. His expression was one of shock, then of anger.
“You’re the-” His partner dragged him away before he could finish, but he didn’t need to. Izuku already knew what was coming. Quirkist, so-called-hero, and other colorful insults. He sighed, inserting a 5 dollar bill (he still struggled to properly translate that into yen) into the machine. He was about to push the buttons, before his phone rang.
He pulled it up, blinking when he saw Renee’s caller ID on it. Had she forgotten something? What if she was calling to chew him out more? He shook that thought off. Couldn’t be that bad, he reassured himself.
He put the phone up to his ear.
“Hello?”
“Deku.” Izuku’s heart dropped. That wasn’t Renee.
In place of a response, he hissed out a gasp.
“Ms. Montoya is fine. She’s not even aware of this call.” The voice reassured him. “I can explain everything, but we must meet tonight.”
Izuku could hardly breathe, but he still managed to force an answer out.
“W-Why would I do that?”
“Because I’m asking you to?” The voice said it as though it was the most obvious thing. “Oh, you don’t need to pretend to hate me anymore. I understand now.”
Izuku’s dread grew.
“Understand what?” He swore he could hear the person on the other side of the phone smile.
“That you’re quirkless.”
He knew, Izuku realized.
Riddler knew.
Chapter 10: Riddle Me This.
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
“And you’re sure it was him?” Shoto asked.
“Pretty sure. Yeah. Not a lot of people in Gotham with green, bushy hair. He ran out a couple minutes ago.”
Shoto held back a hiss of discomfort. It’d taken only two minutes of delay for them to realize Midoriya wasn’t coming. And in that time, they’d completely lost track of him. He got a phone call, apparently, and then ran out of the hotel. The question was, to where?
Shoto thought on the question as he approached Shinso, who stared out the revolving door intently. According to the one witness report they had, this was where Midoriya ran out. Neither of them liked the idea.
“We need to look for him.” Shinso eventually said, stepping forward. Shoto nodded in agreement, looking in his pockets for his phone. Shinso shook his head in response.
“Already tried calling him. Busy line.”
“I’m calling Renee, not Midoriya.” The phone began buzzing, and Shoto put it up to his ears. Shinso had… a reaction.
“What?! No, no. This is a villain, this is for us to handle. As heroes. I don’t think she’ll-”
“She’s in charge of heroism here” Shoto cut him off. “We need her help, Shinso. There’s no other option” Shoto could feel his normally deadpan tone slip for a moment, but he couldn’t care at this point. Midoriya was almost definitely doing something that could end up getting him killed. He still remembered when Stain attacked, that Midoriya immediately sent messages to get anyone at all to help. No such message this time, which meant trouble. Big trouble. They needed Renee’s help.
The purple haired boy seemed to relent, just barely. With a grumble, he stepped back, right as Renee finally picked up the phone.
“Shoto?” Her voice faintly buzzed over the speaker. The faint sound of car horns and an engine humming betrayed her location. “It’s getting late, whatever you need, write it down and tell me it tomorrow. Right now there’d be nothing-”
“Midoriya is missing. We don’t know where he went.” Once more. Shoto interrupted Renee.
A long silence followed. Shoto briefly wondered if maybe Shinso was right, that Renee wouldn’t be of much help, before he heard a siren begin blaring over the phone.
“Stay in the hotel.” She ordered, before the phone was hung up. Shoto took a sharp inhale, knowing the worst was still to come.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Izuku wasn’t thinking when he ran out of the hotel. He wasn’t thinking as he activated One for All and leaped up onto a nearby building. And he most definitely wasn’t thinking as he hissed out words.
“If you hurt Renee…” He trailed off, unsure of what he’d even do in such a situation.
“Calm down, Izuku.” The use of his name made Izuku feel like throwing up. “Montoya is fine, as I said before. Are you feeling alright?”
The hints of genuine concern made Izuku even more conflicted. What was the game? What was the trick? What was going on? “H-How-?” He hated how his anger made his voice stutter. He hated how weak he sounded right now. He hated everything about this situation.
“How’d I fool your phone? Funny story, actually. Did Renee make you aware of the cyber security measures the G.C.P.D made specifically for me?” Izuku’s heart dropped as Riddler began to click over the phone, the tsking worsening Izuku’s already distraught state. “They really should know better than to hire someone over the internet.”
“So, it doesn’t even work?” He growled out.
“No, it works. Perfectly, might I add. I just added a few backdoors only I know about. It gave me full access to whatever data I wanted, including what I needed to fool your caller ID, as well as a few… interesting emails.”
Izuku stayed quiet as the situation began to dawn on him. All this time, and he probably knew every move they’d make. For how long has the Riddler had access to G.C.P.D files? The thought alone made him shiver.
“Do you want to know what Hill really thinks of you?”
“W-Why?” Above all the dread, fear, and anger, he felt confused. “Why are you telling me this?”
“…Have I not made it clear?” A hurt tone entered Nygma’s voice. “I’m doing this for you, Midoriya. I targeted you, and I’m willing to admit my… mistakes.” Despite the mostly genuine tone, he audibly gritted his teeth at the end.
“How is this for me?” Izuku couldn’t help but ask.
“Well…” Riddler began. “Maybe we need to talk in person for that.”
Izuku clenched his teeth. “Where are you?”
The smirk could be heard over the phone. “Riddle me this, Midoriya. I’m over the hill, yet still at the top. My career is little more than a series of major mistakes. I am the greatest example of how much damage a quirkless person can make.” There was a pause. “Who. Am. I?” And then, the line cut off.
The mayor. Riddler had to be at the mayor's home. Immediately Izuku began looking it up, but there was no answer. Makes sense. Izuku would also like to stay hidden if he was anything like Hill. He was about to break into a sprint, before his phone rang again: caller Id said Renee, so probably Edward again. He pressed the phone against the side of his face.
“Izuku?” The voice on the other side caught him off guard.
“R-Renee?”
“Izuku, where the hell are you? Hitoshi said you disappeared. What’s going on?” It was the genuine concern in her voice that made it sting even more.
“Renee.” Izuku kept his voice as steady as possible. “Do you know where the mayor lives?”
“What the hell does that have to do with anything? Izuku, what’s happening?”
“Just- Tell me, ok?”
There was a pause. “001 Burnsider. We’ll meet you there.”
“No.” Izuku answered honestly. “You won’t.”
He hung up, and looked up the street. It was a 30 minute drive from the hotel. More with the traffic piling in the city. 1 minute for him. He took a deep breath, and got to running.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Izuku stumbled his way from rooftop to rooftop, until the rooftops ended… And he began falling.
The sidewalk cracked as he slammed into it, but his quirk left him undamaged… Aside from his clothes, which he had only just realized were a casual shirt and pants, not his outfit. He shook the thoughts of clothes shopping off, he had a mission.
The houses on Burnside were large, expansive, and incredibly expensive. So much for Hill trying to hide. He looked for the street number, only to flinch when he saw the number 050 on the nearest house's gate. With a sigh, he got to running down the thankfully deserted street, green lightning crackling behind him.
The numbers got lower slower than Izuku’d have liked. Once he got to house 20, the space between the buildings became wider than the buildings themselves. The road became steeper as it began going up a mountain, house number 7 adorning the last spot on the street before the climb began.
It took a full 45 seconds of running up the street at full speed for the next house, a clean modern looking building overlooking the cliff from a safe distance to appear. And to make matters worse, there was no number visible. Regardless, Izuku kept going.
Twice that time passed before the next house appeared. And this was… more disheartening. It had old gothic architecture, and where the last house had a good distance between it and the cliff, this one seemed to be placed at the maximum distance outward. It looked grim, abandoned. Incorrect. And again, no number.
Time was running out. Izuku was about to continue running, when a light flickered on inside the old house.
Izuku could keep on running, but asking for directions could save someone’s life. After plenty of internal debate that sounded suspiciously like two of his teachers arguing, Izuku ran over to the door and, upon finding no doorbell inside, relented on using one of the heavy knockers.
Nothing happened for a moment, then he heard footsteps and the black wooden door swung upon slowly. A voice with an accent unlike what Izuku had grown used to in Gotham spoke.
“I regretfully inform whatever tabloid you work for that-“ An older gentleman, with a thin mustache and balding head, stood in the doorway, his expression turning into one of surprise as he looked down at Izuku. “-Master Bruce is not currently residing in the manor.” He finished, voice weakening in its confidence.
Master Bruce? Did he mean… Bruce Wayne? Richest man in Gotham? And he lived in this? Izuku would’ve expected something less decrepit. Maybe a penthouse apartment, or something. He realized he was thinking about unimportant things.
“I need-“ He suddenly realized he was somewhat out of breath, briefly gasping. “To know where the mayor’s house is.”
The older gentleman blinked briefly, and for a moment, Izuku thought he’d sounded too suspicious.
“It’s two more kilometers up the road, or, if you had the appropriate quirk, I suppose you could go over the mountain and save some time. It’s overlooking all of Gotham.” The gentleman’s voice was tactical, and even all the way through. Izuku was surprised for a moment, before nodding in a wordless thanks, he turned to move, before the accented voice stopped him.
“I assume our dear mayor Hill has found himself in trouble?” Izuku looked back, and paused, rather suspicious.
“How do you know that?” He asked, taking a more combat oriented stance.
“There’s very few other reasons for a hero to knock on my doorstep.” Izuku was about to ask how he knew he was a hero, before the gentleman answered his question before it was asked.
“I saw you, on the television. A rather impressive display, if I may say so myself. I think even the Batman would‘ve been rather impressed.”
Izuku frowned. “The Batman isn’t real.”
The gentleman smiled knowingly in response. “Some days I wish that were true. Best of luck with the mayor.”
The tone used was so even, it caught Izuku completely off guard. He only came to his senses once the door had been shut.
“Umm, thanks?” He said, his response too delayed. He shook off that odd experience before looking up over the mountain.
In a flash of green light, he leaped into the air, landing almost perfectly by the peak, and looking down, he did indeed see a building half cloaked in shadow with what looked like a helipad on top, overlooking Gotham. This was the place, maybe. There was no way to make-
A green flare was suddenly lit up by a man who’d been standing on the helipad. He was looking up at Izuku.
This was it. And that was him.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Izuku’s journey down the mountain is as graceful as it can be, considering the circumstances. When he lands on that helipad, he’s just happy none of his bones break.
“Incredible.” Nygma gasped out. “So it isn’t your suit, like I suspected. You have yourself a quirk.”
Izuku looked up, and noticed many things about the man in front of him. Aside from aspects he’d already seen in photos, such as his ginger hair and purple glasses, Izuku took note of his clothing (white button shirt, dark green vest, and purple glasses), and his expression. The confident smirk mixed with the extreme eye bags was a conflicting mixture of traits.
“Edward Nygma, you're under arrest.” He’d practiced the phrase a few times, and now? He was just glad to be able to say it and finish this once and for all.
Nygma shook his head with confidence, beginning to walk away. “You don’t mean that.” He said. “It’s just what they’ve convinced you to say right now.”
Izuku took an aggressive step forward. “You’re a criminal.” He growled out. “You can’t break into the mayor's house while he’s not home and-“
“While he’s not home?” Nygma turned around suddenly, and though Izuku knew the man posed no physical threat, the suddenness of the action had him stumble back a little.
“Oh, my sweet quirkless friend.” Nygma shook his head. “Walk with me, won’t you?”
Izuku hesitated, taking a tentative step forward. He should arrest Riddler now, he knew that, but he had to see what Nygma wanted to show him.
The villain led the hero down a staircase, and the sight once they entered the hallway left Izuku briefly shocked.
On the wallpaper, scrawled into each wall, were riddles. Everything from the famous to the obscure to Nygma’s originals. Nygma showed no reaction, simply moving ahead to what looked like the master bedroom. Once Izuku recovered, he followed, only to freeze once more at a differently horrifying sight.
Riddler had gotten a switchblade from his pocket, and slowly stepped towards a tied up Hill, who thankfully looked unharmed apart from his limbs being stuck to his chair, and a piece of duct tape over his mouth.
“This is my apology to you, Izuku.” Nygma continued, unaware of the shock the hero was feeling. “I targeted you, when clearly, someone else was far more deserving.” He ripped the duct tape off, and the man immediately turned to Izuku.
“Please! You’ve gotta help me! He’s insane, he-“ Hill stopped talking as Riddler brushed the blade against his neck threateningly.
“Please Hill. The adults are talking.”
“Let him go!” Izuku cried out. Nygma’s smirk only grew.
“If that’s what you want. But first, I wanted to ask Hill a riddle. And don’t worry, it’s suited appropriately for him…“ Nygma turned distastefully towards the politician. “Intellect.”
Izuku wanted to move, but every time he did, he saw the blade, so close to cutting open Hill, and hesitated.
“Please.” Hill begged. “You want money, Eddie? I’ll get you money! You hate the heroes right? What if you got their funds!”
“Shut up!” Riddler barked. “All I want is an answer,then you go free, or die, depending on what our friend says.” Hill nodded meekly, and Izuku was once more paralyzed by the knife dancing along his Adam’s apple.
“What-“ He pointed at Izuku with his blade. “Is his name?”
Freed from the fear of getting Hill killed, Izuku moved to disarm, only to be completely caught off guard by the question. That was it? That was easy. Hill was in charge of starting the G.P.S.A.A.H.A, he should easily be able to-
Izuku looked at Hill's face, and his expression was one of horror. “I-I d-don’t have my glasses.” He stuttered out.
“You’re farsighted, Hill. Come on! He’s the hero who was at the press conference! What’s his name?”
Somehow, Hill managed to pale even more. He couldn’t even get a single word out.
“You insulted his school in an email to the commissioner? You labeled him and his friends as good diversity PR in your private texts?! I SAID HIS NAME COMING IN HERE!” Riddler got more angry, and Hill more meek with every word.
“See?” Nygma looked at Izuku. “Quirked or not, people like us, we don’t matter to him. But give the word, and I’ll make sure he-“
“Let him go.” Izuku repeated, and for once it was Riddler who was left speechless.
“…What?” He said, almost disappointed.
“Let him go.” Izuku repeated.
A long silence followed, only broken up by Riddler moving his knife to cut Hills restraints. The moment he was out, Hill punched Nygma across his face, and moved behind Izuku. For a moment, the hero thought he was hiding behind Izuku, before Hill shoved the teenager over and continued to run away.
Izuku couldn’t help but sigh as he got to his feet. It was all unnecessary anyways. Nygma was simply leaning against the wall, defeated. The punch had knocked his glasses aside.
As Izuku walked over, he got a look at Nygma’s eyes, previously hidden behind purple tinted glass. They looked sad and tired, with a very unhealthy red hue present.
“Why?” He finally asked. “You’re so much better than him, you deserve to take him down for what he’s said. Why just let him go?”
Izuku paused for a moment to answer, before finding it in himself to put it into words.
“Because I am better than him. Not in being smart, or in being stronger, but in having better standards. Better morals.”
Riddler stood in silence for a moment, before sliding down to the floor.
“I’m a good person.” He argued. “I just, I don’t like people saying I’m not smart. I’m smart.” He looked down at the floor. “I matter.”
“You do.” Izuku said, and just from the silence, he could tell Nygma hadn’t heard that in a long time. Izuku knew how that felt. For a while, he didn’t matter either.
The villain and the hero stood peacefully in silence. reflections of each other, naturally pushed to opposite sides. The faint sound of police sirens marked the end of their briefly fought battle. For Izuku, however? This was merely a test. His real trials were yet to begin, right in the middle of life and death in Gotham City.
Notes:
And thus ends the first "arc" of this fic. I hope y'all enjoyed, and are as excited as I am for the next one. :)
Chapter 11: Riddle Me That
Chapter Text
Izuku watched as Nygma was escorted to the back of Renee’s car by Todoroki. It occurred to him that this was probably a relatively peaceful arrest, with Nygma barely fighting back.
Compare this to his situation with Renee, and you could find a little bit of contrast.
“Is protocol not something they teach you in hero school, or were you out sick that day?” She sounded calm compared to her temperament after Hill’s press conference. But every time Izuku looked up at her eyes, the murderous intent within her soul became clear.
“It’s not rhetorical.” She added. “I want to know who I need to yell at right now.”
“...It’s my fault.” Izuku admitted. “I-”
“If any word of what you say next is an excuse, forget it Midoriya.” Izuku found the power to look up at Shinso, who was standing next to Renee, perfectly replicating her crossed arms ‘I’m mad and disappointed’ pose.
“What he said. I want an explanation of everything that happened. Don’t leave out any detail. Understand?” Izuku sheepishly nodded. “Alright then. Begin.”
“Well,” He began. “it was after I split up from them to get something from the vending machine when Nygma- I mean, Riddler called me on my phone. He managed to make it so that it looked like it was you calling me. He… gave me a riddle telling me to come to the mayor's house, and then hung up. You called me, gave me the address, so I ran over. W-When I arrived… he wasn’t doing well, and had the mayor tied to a chair. Riddler told Hill to say my name, but he couldn’t remember me, so Riddler asked me if I wanted him dead. I said no, so Riddler let him go, a-and then Hill ran out and shoved me-”
“He shoved you?!” The two of them interjected simultaneously.
“I guess he was scared?” Izuku took a deep breath, having forgotten to do so for a few seconds at this point. “Wanted to stall Riddler. Nygma wasn’t a threat at that point.” He couldn’t help it. Izuku let a little bit of a concerned tone enter his voice. The villain had been far… sadder, then he’d initially thought. “Where is Hill, anyways?”
Renee sucked in a breath. Shinso looked away for a moment. Todoroki was now walking over.
“Is he ok?” Izuku couldn’t even force himself to sound as concerned about the mayor as he did for Nygma. Hill just wasn’t remotely likable.
…Suddenly, it occurred to him this was the same thought process that led to Riddler being celebrated on the internet. Huh.
“He’s…” Renee began.
Todoroki, who’d apparently been eavesdropping, entered the conversation with an explanation. “Hill nearly crashed into us driving a sports car when we were coming up here. Then got scared by our car, and rammed his car into the side of the mountain. He seemed mostly fine.”
Izuku blinked. “Why didn’t you help him?” He turned to Renee, but once more, Todoroki answered.
“She seemed more concerned about you. We all were.”
Izuku saw her gaze soften, and he blinked. Somehow he hadn’t considered that he’d be a priority. Especially above the mayor in a car crash, though it was Hill.
Izuku wasn’t too sure what it was, but suddenly he began imagining Hill, the man who’d pettily shoved him over while running, crashing into a wall. Ruining an expensive sports car. All while in his pajamas. All while escaping a threat that simply wasn’t there.
Maybe it was the fact he still hadn’t slept, and was a little hungry, and just really tired, but Izuku started laughing. It was a soft noise, barely there, but it was laughter. He thought he saw Renee snicker too, before returning to stern expression.
“Glad you’re having a good time. Because I am not sparing you from any of the paperwork this time. You’ll be spending half your time left in Gotham filing forms, understand?!” Izuku stuffed down his laughter, and nodded, having the wisdom to look ashamed.
She stared at him for a moment, before sighing, and walking towards her car. “I need to bring him in, and there’s not enough space for the rest of you. Stay here until either Bullock, Allen, or Gordon show up for one of them to drive you back to the station. Trust not a single other cop.”
Before Izuku had the chance to realize the implication of that statement, Renee already entered the car, and was driving off. He looked back at the house, taking it the mess it was, with modern brutalist additions having been slapped on top of a very old building haphazardly, before sitting on the stairs. Shinso and Todoroki soon followed, sitting near him.
“I can’t believe you went on your own.” Shinso said. “What were you even thinking?!”
“It was reckless.” Todoroki agreed.
Izuku paused, looking down. Before sighing. “I just… Did either of you feel like Nygma needed help? At all?” Izuku chose not to look at their most likely confused expression, choosing to avoid the shame. Until…
“I sympathized with him.” Todoroki stated, without much tone.
“I can’t say he sounded as evil as most villains.” Shinso agreed. “Did you go here because you thought you could help him?”
“Yes.” Izuku admitted after a moment of hesitation. “I… didn’t want to come here with you two, I thought it’d be better-”
“Why?” Todoroki interrupted, and Izuku didn’t reply.
“...Listen.” Shinso said. “You don’t want to tell us, fine. But just this once, understand? This is the one time you get to work without us.”
Izuku nodded in understanding, before Shinso spoke again.
“Good.” Another pause. “That way, next time, we can both see the mayor veer off into a rock together.”
And Izuku laughed again. And the tension was gone. And all that was left was a few friends together.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When Midoriya got back to the station, having been given a drive by a surprisingly lax officer named Bullock, Renee wasted no time at all to drag him away. Leaving Hitoshi and Todoroki alone in the police station. Hitoshi shrugged, having very little problem staying there overnight… until he looked over at Todoroki who appeared to have fallen asleep on a nearby bench. Great. So he was alone.
With a sigh, he decided to move away. If he recalled correctly, he was technically allowed to roam around the building, except in private offices and stuff like that. A part of him wanted to explore, get to know the building, even though he knew it might have been risky. Regardless, he began moving down a hallway, where he was alone for a while… before finding himself outside the shooting gallery, accidentally eavesdropping on a conversation between two heavily armored officers.
“Think we got him?”
“Oh yeah. That’s the point of these things. Y’know, maybe they do have a purpose after all.”
“Branden’s gonna be real pleased, I’ll tell you that.”
Branden? The name was familiar- Oh, he had seen that name on one of the SWAT officers helmets once. Must be their boss or something. He let out a small ‘huh’, which seemed to notify the two to his presence. They turned, both their faces completely covered by reflective shielding, giving them a more ominous appearance. Especially considering one of them towered over, well, anyone.
“Who’s the kid?” The shorter one muttered to the other.
“Don’t know. Hey, who the hell are you, kid?”
Hitoshi couldn’t help but frown at the dismissive way they referred to him. “Shinso Hitoshi. I’m one of the heroes working for the G.C.P.D’s agency.”
“Oh, one of the freaks!” The first one said, scoffing. Hitoshi scowled
“Right, almost forgot about you. Fighting the Riddler, huh?” Hitoshi nodded after a moment of pause. “Guess kids like you can’t be trusted to get the real criminals in this town. That’s what we’re here for.”
“Joker, right?” Hitoshi had off-handedly heard Renee angrily mutter something about SWAT taking the Joker case.
“Yeah. But we already got him.” The big one spoke again. Hitoshi couldn’t help but blink. Joker? Caught? He was surprised this wasn’t already on a newspapers front page. “We’re keeping it under wraps.” The man said, apparently having detected his confusion. “‘Cause pretty soon, we’re gonna have a bigger fish to fry.”
He leaned down closer to Hitoshi, which somehow made the hero feel even smaller. “Who?” He asked.
“A freak. Just like you.” And with that incredibly ominous statement, they walked away together, laughing among each other. Hitoshi quickly walked back to Todoroki, who was thankfully still on a bench. That had felt bad, ominous, and any other collection of words. He got a feeling things weren't going to get easier.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The night had been long, and tiring. But now Izuku, after getting a proper understanding of why so many heroes liked coffee so much, was back in a place where once he’d been shamed: at a press conference with the mayor. But this time, it was under far better circumstances.
Shinso and Izuku giddily looked at each other. Todoroki had a slight smile. Even Renee looked impressed. Apparently, the mayor had immediately worked to organize something to celebrate the four of them for having rescued him and caught Riddler.
Was this most likely a pseudo-apology for all that he said the other night? Absolutely. Was Izuku taking it? Most definitely. You’d be crazy to pass up on something like this.
“Today is a bright day for Gotham.” Izuku heard over the speaker, which Renee seemed to find funny. “Three heroes have saved me, and Gotham, from the evil grasp of the evil Riddler. And we can never thank them enough.”
“Little inaccurate.” Shinso commented, and Izuku nodded in agreement. “But got the broad strokes right.”
“And so, it is with great honor that I present-” Hill suddenly became quiet, and Renee frowned. Izuku’s smile fell as well.
“What’s going on?” He asked, to which Renee shrugged. In the quiet, he could hear a slight commotion, so he peeked over some curtains to see what was happening. The others quickly followed.
“You know what the hell this is? Huh? Huh?!” A man with dirty blond hair waved a… wallet at some of the mayor's guards. Wait, no, was that a badge? “You know who the hell I am?” He continued shouting, before the mayor called out.
“Gentlemen, gentlemen, let him through!” Izuku heard the mayor, off mic, order. The dirty blond man pushed past the guards in an overly aggressive way. Izuku thought he saw him mutter something under his breath.
“Oh God.” Izuku heard Renee mutter. “Why the hell is he here?”
The rest of the conversation was unheard, but after the man showed something to the mayor. It clearly took a turn, and Izuku managed to make something out.
“Is this real?”
“Absolutely.”
“My friend, you’ve done us a great service.” The mayor moved over to the podium again.
“Today, my good friend Howard Branden of the Gotham police force has given me incredibly shocking news. Last night, he and his team managed to capture the Joker.” Immediately, chatter was evoked in the crowd. The four of them were already aware. “Apart from that, they managed to capture footage of the specter that has been plaguing Gotham for years now. It is with great pride that I announce that we have confirmed footage of the legendary-
Time froze for a moment. Renee’s expression became one of horror, Shinso’s one of realization. Todoroki frowned, and Izuku? He was hit with a sudden mix of emotions, as he realized exactly what Hill was about to say.
“-Batman.”
And the crowd erupted into questions.
“We’ll have further statements soon, and we will also be releasing the official footage. But for now, know that our police will not rest until this dangerous vigilante is finally brought to justice.”
He could feel people tug at him to move away, but he kept staring at Hill and Branden as they left. He suddenly felt a new sense of determination pull at him, as he realized something.
The Batman was real.
And he was going to have to help deal with him.
Chapter 12: In the Shadow of the Bat
Chapter Text
Izuku rewinded the video one more time.
On screen, a dark, shadowy shape with what looked like wings disarmed a SWAT officer, before pointing his hand at the camera. Some kind of projectile flew at the camera, breaking it and ending the recording. Izuku rewinded the video again.
The figure had two triangular ears on top of his head, and piercing white eyes. Apart from that, everything about him blended together in the darkness. He was taller than the other person in the frame. With very little to go off of, Izuku would estimate him to be around 6 feet tall. Again, the figure disarmed a SWAT officer, before throwing a projectile at the camera. Izuku rewinded the video.
The way the officer was disarmed, it wasn’t just knocking the rifle out of his hands. The vigilante first reached out all the way to the safety of the weapon, turning it on, before slapping the cop's hand away, his other hand already gripping the rest of the weapon tight. He pulled back his hand all the way to the magazine release of the rifle, and the magazine effortlessly slipped out. He ejected the last bullet, before tossing the rifle to the ground. All this in a fraction of a second. Then, he threw the projectile, and broke the camera. Izuku rewinded-
“Stop!” Renee slammed down the computer, and Izuku pulled his hands away from the keyboard.
The three were back in the room, all of them in various states of distress. Todoroki’s brow was only slightly furrowed. Shinso, on the other hand, was sitting with his back against the wall, staring intently at the screen. Renee sat down a little closer, with an utterly distraught and defeated look on her face. And Izuku? Izuku had a weird mixture of confusion and determination.
Batman was real. The tape, one of many Hill has released, proves it. He was villainous, the clear footage of him attacking the police proves it. And he was good. Izuku watches heroes obsessively, and most of them aren’t nearly as graceful or skilled as this man was. He had to have trained for a while to do so much in addition to his quirk.
What was his quirk? Before Izuku could start thinking too hard about that, his thoughts were interrupted again.
“Right.” Renee stood up to the board. “I know you all want to go after Batman, for better or for worse.” She looked from Shinso to Izuku. “But-”
“But we’re not ready, so we can’t?” Shinso interrupted, in a half-mocking tone.
“No.” She said, “We’re getting to be part of the case. Eventually. First there are a few things that need to happen.”
The three students looked between each other for a moment, before it suddenly dawned on them what she said.
“What things?” Shinso said, trying to hide the mixture of surprise and excitement he was so clearly feeling under suspicion.
“For one, I need to go up the chain of command and get the request filled out. For another thing, we need to act quickly, before Branden gets another death squad.”
The three of them blinked.
“Death squad?” Izuku said.
“Another?” Shinso added.
“Real old history at this point.” Renee said. “When rumors of Batman first showed up, the mayor wanted quick action. The end of his term was coming, and he wanted a second. So, he gave SWAT a bigger budget to hunt down and bring down Batman.”
Izuku blinked.
“But, I thought Batman was declared an urban legend?”
“He was. After SWAT was unable to get anything resembling proof of his existence for months. In order to save his votes, Hill declared the reason why Batman couldn’t be caught was because he didn’t exist.”
Izuku’s mouth became round, as he let out a silent sound of realization. Internally, he felt disappointed in having been unable to see the signs of him being real. But, still, some things didn’t make sense.
“And bodycam footage? Shouldn’t that have caught him earlier?” It was Todoroki who said what Izuku was considering.
Renee looked at the son of Japan’s number 1 hero for around 5 seconds. Before she snorted, then began to laugh. When she spoke again, she was clearly stuffing down laughter.
“Oh, that’s a serious question isn’t it?” She chuckled, walking towards the door. “If you can’t figure it out by yourselves, I’ll tell you.” Before she managed to step out the doorway completely, Izuku called after her.
“Where are you going?”
“To get Gordon’s approval. We want to be on this case ASAP.” She gave a weak, assuring smile towards the three of them. But Izuku could see there was something else. A little bit of worry. And he couldn’t tell why.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Renee stared at the cigarette in Gordon’s mouth. Its soft orange glow. The way it was already halfway used. She remembered clinking a glass a week ago, celebrating the commissioner being 1 year clean. She remembered him giving one of his rare, once in a blue moon smiles then.
“...Montoya.” He spoke, plucking the piece of tobacco out of his mouth. “You can take a seat.” Right, she was just standing awkwardly by the doorway. She moved to sit down swiftly, before taking another moment of pause, calculating the best way to talk about this.
“You think he’ll-”
“No.” Gordon cut her off. “He won’t risk it.”
“Great.” She muttered. “What if you-”
“I wouldn’t know where to start.” He cut her off again, and Renee sighed.
“How’s the wife?” She finally found the courage to ask.
“Understanding. Unhappy, but understanding.”
Renee knew about Gordon’s home life. Everyone on the force did. The commissioner had a hard time balancing work with everything else. Hence why he turned to smoking. But there’d been improvement. Now… Renee really didn’t want to think about what’d happen if this problem escalated.
“Well… Maybe I have a solution.” Gordon looked up, caught off guard for the first time in this conversation. “We need to get to him before Branden right? Well, it turns out, we have three people perfectly suited for that.”
It took the commissioner far too long to realize what she was suggesting. “We-”
“Listen to me Commish.” She leaned closer. “I don’t like it either, but they’re good. A little reckless, but if they get to Bat-”
“Don’t say his name!” Gordon hissed the words out. “It doesn’t matter anyways, because-”
“There’s no risk!” Renee cried out, getting to her feet. “We both know he won’t hurt them. Come on, they can find him, and then we can talk! Time’s running out, and if we don’t act soon, the mayor’ll give Branden another-”
“He doesn’t need another!” Gordon yelled it, and the noises of the precinct behind them faded. Renee sheepishly sat down as the commissioner stuck the cigarette back in his mouth for a bit. “The first was never shut down.”
Renee blinked. “What?!”
“I had just been promoted, Montoya. There was a lot to handle. I thought it had already been shut down, and never bothered to check.” He sighed, taking his glasses off to rub his temples. “But it was there, just never getting funded. Until today.”
There was a moment of pause before those words fully set in. Branden. Fully funded. To hunt down Batman. Praying it was a joke, Renee looked at Gordon, who did nothing to answer her prayer. With a sigh, she gestured at the cigarette.
“Can I have one?” Her voice came out far weaker than she’d hoped.
“No.” Gordon answered, blowing a cloud of smoke out. “They’re not good for you.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Shoto thought that Renee looked strangely defeated when she stood in the doorway. For a few moments, she was dead silent, looking at the three of them as though she’d failed in some way.
“What’s wrong?” He asked, when the other two were too nervous to do so.
“Nothing.” She lied. “Get in the car, we’re going on patrol.”
The three of them didn’t need to be told twice. Nearly immediately, they were walking through the precinct, towards the garage. Shoto spectated in silence as Midoriya stepped up to talk.
“So, are we finally going after Batman? Because, I’ve been thinking about his actions for a while, and I think he needs a patrol route so-”
Renee held up a finger to shush Midoriya. Odd. She should recognize the value in what he’s saying.
“Not Batman. Not yet.” Shoto didn’t believe that for a moment. Time was of the essence. If she was delaying them, it could only mean one thing; their chase after Batman had been taken off the table as quickly as it had arrived. Only question was, why?
“We have to check up on someone first. With Batman back, I suspect they’ll be targeted. Quirk discrimination victim, I think it's important to check on them.” Shoto thought for a moment. It’d be a terrible idea to give such an obvious lie and then not follow through on it, which meant this was somewhat true. And yet the signs of a hidden motive were there. The way her hands shuffled in her coat pocket, or the way she didn’t make eye contact. So… What was it? When they arrived at the parking lot, secluded from the rest of the police station, Shoto decided to test the waters, subtly.
“Why are we really going?”
She didn’t stumble, over her words or feet, but there was still a moment of pause that told far more than Renee would’ve liked.
“It’s complicated.” She said, and that got the other two heroes to finally react. “I was rash, there’s a lot going on-”
“Oh come on!” Midoriya exclaimed. “No! You said we’d go, so-”
“Branden got it.” She caught him off, and caught him off guard with her calm collected tone. Though her words were anything but. “We’ll go. I’m telling you. We’ll go. But I need to show you something. Do you understand? This city is a piece of shit, and I need you to understand that before we tackle-” She stopped herself.
“Batman?” Hitoshi said, as quiet as he could manage while still being heard.
Renee gave him a look that made it clear this was a ‘peaceful’ situation.
The four stood in silence, and Todoroki watched the others carefully: Renee was pained, exhausted, and clearly tired. She didn’t hold anything against the others, that’d become clear by now. Hitoshi looked both understanding and so incredibly angry, his mouth curled downwards in a sign of clear begrudging acceptance, but his eyes had bloody murder reflected in the iris. And Midoriya?
All this time later, Todoroki still couldn’t read Midoriya.
“Who’re we going to?” The green haired hero finally asked.
“His name’s Kirk Langstrom.” Renee answered. “Now get in the car.”
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