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“You got an offer from Professor Nax!”, screeched March, snatching the tablet from Momo “I got an offer from my sister and he’s in the same agency, we can intern together!”
Momo rolled her eyes at the mention of March’s supposed sister. She, like the others in 1A, had heard many stories of her but none were ever verified. Allegedly she was called Evernight and allegedly she was in the same agency as the number 3 hero Khaslana. That last one was the most outlandish, as everyone knows the Flamechaser agency only had 3 heroes: Mnestia, Tribios and Khaslana.
“Anaxagoras sounds interesting, but I think my internship would be better spent under a hero like Uwabami.” Momo argued, prying the tablet from March’s hands.
“But you guys have such similar quirks!” March argued “He’s also great at thinking on his feet, you’ve gotta give him a chance”
That gave Momo pause. After her poor performance at the sports festival, she wanted to find a way to salvage her image by interning under a hero that focused on their image, but if there was a hero that had a quirk like hers and could train her so that an incident like that doesn’t repeat itself…
“Fine, I’ll consider it”, Momo said
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“So this is the Flamechaser agency.” Momo muttered, looking at the agency in front of her. It wasn’t a building like Might Tower that stood out from those surrounding it, instead it had the appearance of a normal office building with Khaslana’s logo, some weird looking circle, emblazoned on the front door.
“You made it!” screamed March as she ran towards Momo. “You had me scared for a second, I really thought you’d go with -“. A notification from her phone interrupted her, she hastily whipped out her phone and read the notification. “I’ll start wiping memories the second you walk in”, she read. “I’d like to see her try.”, she muttered.
She turned to Momo “Anyway I’ve gotta go, my sister wants to spar with me. See you later Yaomomo.”, she said before running off into the agency
She walked in after her apprehensively. If Anaxagoras was a member of the Flamechasers and he wasn’t publicly known then he must be an underground hero like Aizawa sensei and, judging from what she was able to catch from his mutterings, they were more ruthless given their line of work.
“Yaoyorozu.” A deep voice called from her right. Momo jumped, slowly turning to where she saw a man leaning against the wall. He was wearing what seemed to be the opposite of her hero costume. Where she had skin showing to give her more space to push out creations, he seemed to be wearing a bit of everything. A jacket with a small cape draped over and tassels, with gloves and an eyepatch. He also had a strange looking gun holstered on his hip.
“Anaxagoras.”, Momo responded, trying and failing to keep the surprise out of her voice.
“Put on your costume and meet me in the training room, ask Tribbie to guide you.”, Anaxagoras said before kicking off the wall and walking away, presumably to where the training room was.
“Which one?” She asked to no one in particular. Tribbie was colloquially known as the triplet heroines, since her consciousness was split into three bodies.
“He means me”, called a cherub looking girl. “I’m Tribbie, the others are Trianne and Trinnon but Trinnon is with Ciphy. Come, let’s get you changed”
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After changing she met Anaxagoras waiting in an empty training room. He was flanked by two people, one was a woman wearing a long sleeved turtleneck that looked like it ended in gloves, she was also wearing what seemed to be gardening gloves on top of that. The other was a very muscular man with most of his upper body exposed. Momo was sure that if Mina was here she’d be openly drooling over him.
“You were too slow at the sports festival. You had a good idea but the second it didn’t work you froze.”, Anaxagoras said, he gestured to the woman standing beside him “Castorice here will spar with you until you can reliably land a hit on her. It counts as her winning if she places a palm on any exposed skin.”, he gestured to the man “Mydei and I will correct your mistakes. You may begin”
Before Momo could even process this new information, Castorice immediately jumped at her and palmed her face.
“In battle, you should keep your eyes on your opponent. Try again.”, Mydei chided.
Momo kept her eyes trained on Castorice. When she saw Castorice get into a crouch and prepare to lunge she started making a shield to block her, but Castorice grabbed her arm before the shield could even begin to come out.
“My quirk, Reason, allows me to transmute one item into another provided I know the chemical makeup of both.”, Anaxagoras started, unholstering his gun, “in fights I use an empty gun and transmute the air inside the empty chamber to bullets.”
To demonstrate he tried firing the gun at the floor, only to be met with a click. Then his fingers caught alight with a lime green fire and he fired again, this time the gun fired and there was now a bullet lodged in the floor.
“I’m aware our quirks aren’t the same, but have general purpose ready made items on your person so you can counter most opponents”, Anaxagoras suggested, reholstering his gun, “that way you have a faster reaction time and can save your quirk for when the situation calls for it.”
“I’ve seen him pistol whip people when bullets would be overkill”, Mydei added.
Momo nodded, fixing her gaze back to Castorice and created some plastic tonfas
—————————
Momo all but collapsed onto her bed in her room provided by the Flamechaser agency. Everything was smaller than the room she was used to and she had to share with March, but at least she’ll only be staying for a week.
The day was exhausting, what with all the sparring against Castorice who never seemed to slow down. Momo could swear that she sped up as the day dragged on, after they broke for the day she could barely walk and Castorice bristly walked to the back of the agency with a small smile on her face. Mydei told her that they have a garden there that Castorice is the sole caretaker of. That explained the gardening gloves that she wore, if she was always prepared to be gardening.
March flopped down on the bed next to hers, nursing a headache and placing a melting camera on her bedside table.
“Ugh, Big Sis wasn’t kidding.”, she muttered.
It was getting hard for Momo to tune out, seeing as March had been repeating the same phrase for a couple hours now. It was making Momo both want to and afraid to meet this fabled sister that March couldn’t stop talking about.
The door gently opened and a woman who looked like an older March but with red eyes and a question mark earring walked in. Momo blinked, assuming that she would be meeting her early.
“Suit up, both of you. We’re gonna need all hands on deck.”, she said, handing March a pocket warmer and hot water bottle for her head.
Momo sat up, or at least at best she could given her still sore muscles. “What’s going on”, she questioned, staring expectantly at the older March.
Suddenly, a new memory came unbidden to her mind. In it, ‘she’ pulled out her phone and saw notification after notification of villain attacks in Hosu with pictures attached of those things from the USJ attacking everything in sight.
And just as suddenly as it came, the memory vanished, in its place was the sneaking feeling that she was forgetting something.
“Get changed and meet Nax in the sparring room, Tribbie should take you to Hosu. She did go on patrol there yesterday.”, older March said.
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Momo arrived to multiple heroes waiting in the sparring room with Tribbie, Anaxagoras and Mnestia waiting in front of all of them. Older March saw her come in and handed her a powered down earpiece.
“Keep it turned off”, she advised
Momo didn’t really understand why she shouldn’t turn on their sole method of communication but the earpieces of the gathered heroes were also missing the telltale blinking of a turned on earpiece so she decided to go with it.
“Castorice, Mydei, you stay with me”, Anaxagoras said, looking at the mention heroes.
“Hyacinthia, you go to the nearest hospital. There’s a sunlamp there so you should be able to join the paramedics in healing civilians. Tribbie, you stay here in case we need a quick extraction. Trianne, go with Anaxa. You know how he can get.”, Mnestia smiled lightly at the last sentence. Anaxa reached for his gun but was stopped by a cherub girl with bangs covering one of her eyes “Khaslana, you’re there to provide backup to whoever needs it the most”
Khaslana nodded and the tattoo he had on his neck started to softly glow. Midoriya would probably know what that meant, Khaslana was his favorite hero, second to All Might of course.
Tribbie opened a bright yellow triangular portal and everyone ran through. Older March pushed Momo through.
“Have fun”, she said in a way that made it sound like she would be having anything but.
As Momo blinked the white spots from her vision she could see that whatever Older March showed her back in her room was worlds tamer than what she was seeing.
Upturned flaming cars littered the streets, screams of terror filled the air, everything was on fire and the screeches of those things were fighting for dominance amidst the cacophony of chaos.
Momo was lightly pushed away by Mydei as he and Castorice rushed for the nearest monster. Castorice was looking different now, wearing what Momo assumed to be her hero suit, a sleeveless dress that left her arms and back of her back exposed.
The nearest monster, one looking like a monkey, picked up a burning car and threw it at the two heroes. Anaxagoras rushed in, his left arm wrapped in green flames and grabbed the approaching car. In an instant the flames engulfed the car and receded just as quickly, revealing a car made of styrofoam. The car fell to the ground harmlessly.
The monster jumped at Castorice and swung its arm to bat her away. Anaxagoras stopped moving towards the monster and started running in the direction of screaming civilians.
Momo snapped out of her daze and preemptively ran to where Castorice would be flung.
Castorice didn’t brace herself or try to fight back, the instant the monster touched her it fell limp on the floor.
“Yaoyorozu”, Anaxagoras called, he was at the ruins of a crumbling building that civilians were trapped under, “make a carjack to lift this debris.”
Momo hesitantly walked over, keeping her eyes on the unmoving monster. “Anaxagoras,” Momo said, making the carjack, “shouldn’t I make something to restrain that monster.”
“No need,” he replied, freeing the trapped civilians and guiding them to where Hyacinthia was stationed “it touched Castorice’s skin. It’s dead now.”
Momo felt a chill run down her spine. That recontextualized her earlier sparring session. If Castorice wasn’t wearing the gloves, then Momo would’ve been killed multiple times over.
Anaxagoras spared a glance at Momo and pulled out his gun, fingers alight and aimed at her.
She spun around to gather more information to launch a counter to whatever was approaching. She saw a monster that seemed to be a cross between a dragonfly and a fish. It had 4 wings(?)/fins(?) on its side a lashing tail like a stingray and a massive eye in the center.
She reached to her forearm to grab the tonfa she was making when Anaxagoras rapidly shot 5 bullets at the monster. Each bullet hit true and the monster fell, a clear liquid oozing out of each of its wounds.
Anaxagoras looked at the monster like it offended him. It still squirmed on the ground, trying to attack the two heroes.
Anaxagoras reached up to his earpiece but didn’t actually touch it, instead he reached to just in front of it and pulled down what seemed to be an ultra thin golden wire.
“Pollux”, he said in a tone that held barely restrained rage “I need you to come here and kill this monstrosity”, he released the wire and pressed again “Mydeimos, you’re in charge until I return.” He turned and looked at Momo “Creati, you were at the USJ.”, he said like it wasn’t a question “you’re coming with me”
Momo was taken aback at the sudden use of her hero name. She knew she shouldn’t have but Anaxagoras had been calling her by her real name all day, even when in the field. It left her wondering why he was suddenly changing now. She knew it had something to do with that monster, but what exactly happened.
He strode to Trianne who was comforting a crying civilian and gently nudging her in the direction of Hyacinthia “Tribios, I-“
“Uh uh, let me guess”, Trianne interrupted, a sly smile on her face “something came up and you have to urgently return to the agency. Again.”
Anaxagoras curtly nodded, not feeling a modicum of shame from the attempted teasing.
Castorice arrived and sucked in a breath, her eyes fixed on the still wriggling monster. Momo was wondering what it was about that monster that shifted both their demeanors. Castorice ran her hand along the creature’s back and it stilled.
“Tribios, I’m taking that abomination with me so make the gateway big enough”, Anaxagoras ordered, reaching for his earpiece again “Mnestia, call Mr. Principal and Naomasa Tsukauchi. Tell them I have a lead on the League of Villains”
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Momo was walking behind Anaxagoras as he walked into a conference room. They were flanked by Trianne and Castorice, the latter of which donning her glove ending turtleneck with surgeon’s gloves instead of her earlier gardening ones.
Waiting in the conference room was the detective who interviewed them after the USJ, who Momo presumed to be the aforementioned Tsukauchi, principal Nezu, wearing his signature unfaltering smile, and Aizawa sensei, looking as uninterested as ever.
“Anaxagoras”, greeted the detective
“Naomasa Tsukauchi”, responded Anaxagoras
The detective sucked in a breath “That serious huh? Well, anyway Mnestia said you had information regarding the League?”, he questioned moving the conversation along.
“Pollux”, he called, looking back at Castorice. She sighed and threw the severed tail of the monster onto the table.
Momo felt a tap on her shin and looked down to see Trianne signing at her to cover her ears and stand back. Momo was confused but did it anyway, having the sneaking suspicion she’ll find out soon enough.
Anaxagoras unholstered his gun, fingers alight and shot the tail. Clear liquid exploded all over the room, splattering on the walls yet somehow dodging the three gathered.
Momo remembered all the times March would talk about how dramatic ‘Professor Nax’ was. She didn’t believe it at first, even thinking that the girl might not have been thinking of the same man but now, now she could wholeheartedly agree.
Nezu’s smile faltered almost unnoticeably and Tsukauchi held his head in his hands muttering “of course it’s her” repeatedly. Aizawa was the only one seemingly unaffected by whatever revelation the other two were having.
“And what was the meaning of that”, he asked, anger audible in his tone.
“That was the sound of a cold case reopening”, Tsukauchi groaned in response.
“Yes, but primarily it’s the evidence that someone who we thought was dead is unfortunately very much alive”, Anaxagoras said, wiping off his gun and chair before sitting and gesturing for the others to do the same.
Momo couldn’t take any more of people talking about things she wasn’t privy to and neglecting to explain. She already had enough of it at home growing up, she refused to have it again here.
“With all due respect, I’m afraid I don’t follow. Would you please be so kind as to explain who it is this conversation is about?”, Momo requested in the most respectful manner she could. Even if she was frustrated, she couldn’t let it deep into her tone or her word choice after all.
“Right, sorry”, Tsukauchi said “we’re talking about the villain Ruan Mei.”
At her name, Anaxagoras’ frown deepened and principal Nezu’s smile got imperceptibly more strained.
Anaxagoras took out a sheet of paper from his pocket, transmuted one of his rings into graphite and handed them to Castorice.
“To put a long story short she’s a villain that specializes in making life. As recently as 9 years ago, she found a way to implant her creations with quirks in an incident dubbed the Swarm Disaster.”
That was her?! Momo could remember the Swarm Disaster, when man sized beetle things ran amok on Musutafu and the Greater Tokyo Area, they were so numerous they blotted out the sky. Back then, they were called unkillable because they cloned themselves at unimaginable speeds. It was the worst 3 weeks of her life.
Anaxagoras scoffed. “‘Making life’ is putting it lightly. That woman uses her knowledge of biology to biologically engineer quirked monstrosities and doesn’t let some petty thing like ethics stop her. When you think you’ve finally seen the depths of her depravity she’ll find a shovel and start digging.”
Aizawa sensei seemed unperturbed by these revelations. It makes sense since as an underground hero he’s probably seen it all.
“Very interesting”, Aizawa sensei says, in a decidedly uninterested tone “but what exactly links this Ruan Mei character to the Nomu. Looking at the color of blood seems shaky at best.”
“The answer is twofold.”, Anaxagoras explains, he holds up a finger “One, despite being a biologist shoulder deep in animal and quirked animal experimentation she is incredibly hemophobic; the mere sight of blood will cause her to pass out. Therefore, we created a substance that can be used as a blood substitute”, he holds up a second finger “Two, the extracted quirks and synthetic quirk factors she uses for her creations are much less stable than they would be in natural born quirked animals. Meaning that they won’t survive in regular animal blood.”
That was a lot to unpack. Animal experimentation? Synthetic quirks? Momo wishes Midoriya were here instead of wherever he went to for internships, most of this stuff might be going over her head but he’d be able to grasp it all and maybe even explain in somewhat simpler terms.
“Hold on. What do you mean ‘we’”, Aizawa sensei says after unpacking all that, or maybe he didn’t unpack and is just leaving the information for future him to deal with.
“If I may Aizawa” Principal Nezu says, his signature smile one again adorning his face “This ‘we’ might be referring to the time Anaxa and Ruan Mei spent as research partners before their falling that, the details of which not even I am privy to.”
“There is more”, Anaxagoras says, as if there wasn’t already enough said “The quirk found in this creation’s blood doesn’t match any of those found in the quirk registry”
Detective Tsukauchi starts frantically taking notes, not wanting to forget a word of what’s just been said. “That shouldn’t be possible”, he says in disbelief “I thought you said she couldn’t create new quirks, just extract them from DNA.”
“That’s because she didn’t” Anaxagoras says, a smile crawling onto his face despite himself “she found a way to fuse different quirks together to make a somewhat new quirk and modified the quirk factor formula to accommodate.”
Momo was somewhat struggling to follow before but now they’ve definitely lost her. She resolved herself to follow the detective’s example and started taking notes with the intention of giving them to Midoriya. Assuming the information can leave the room of course.
“The quirks I found were Shock Absorption and Poison. You can expect a thorough report on what amalgamation of animals that thing was emulating and the rest on your table come morning.”
“Enough of that”, Nezu said, clapping his paws “Is there any way we can prevent another incident like the Swarm Disaster or this recent Hosu attack from happening in the future.”
“There is a way actually.” Anaxagoras said, transmuting his armband into wool and wiping off a section of the stained table, “Now that she knows how to fuse quirks together she’ll try making her dream project.”, he shot a glance at Castorice and she handed him her paper with the graphite ring, transmuting it back into gold. He then slammed the paper down on the now cleaned table, “Sleepie. A worm that immobilizes prey with its piercing gaze before impaling them on its tail.”
The heroes and detective all had differing reactions. The detective copied down the apparently comprehensive sketch and notes that Castorice wrote, principal Nezu regarded the paper with undisguised intrigue and Aizawa sensei usual unimpressed face was colored with a hint of confusion.
“Why-“, Detective Tsukauchi started
“It’s called Sleepie because the impaling doesn’t kill the prey, it puts them to sleep.“, Anaxagoras interrupts.
“You said she can extract the quirks from blood right,” Nezu asks, Anaxagoras nods “so we just have to monitor Midnight to make sure no one unsavory takes her blood.”
“On that note, add Eraserhead to the monitor list. Sleepie uses erasure in its gaze.” Anaxagoras advises.
Detective Tsukauchi closes his notepad with a sigh. “With that said, I have to go reopen and revise Ruan Mei’s case file and I’m sure you all have security measures to put in place. I also have to get someone to clean up this place”, he said, muttering that last part.
Anaxagoras nodded and Trianne opened up a gateway, presumably back to the agency. Momo walked through on autopilot, hoping that this Ruan Mei doesn’t affect more of her school year than she already had.