Chapter Text
A busy morning with people bustling in the Musutafu Metro-station to get to where they need to go. Mid-week. Sunny.
Dynamight and Red Riot stopped at a café to grab coffee before their patrol time.
It was one of the patrolling routes Dynamight absolutely hated.
Why? Because it meant he’d be dealing with more crowds, fans and vloggers rather than doing actual hero work. Unfortunately, it was apart of PR and press month, vital to his popularity. These kinds of months were usually filled with new merch releases, photo shoots and promotional junkets.
Back in the day, he didn’t mind this kind of work, but in the last 4 years, the media shifted and they were doing double the PR events, on top of hero work.
Now a days, they were chasing “the next” new brand, viral clips, posting more on hero-pinsta, influencers and vlogger collabs.
In his 11-year career, Dynamight had never been so irate over vloggers and influencers getting in the way of his hero work. They love goading him into getting angry for the camera, all just to get that next viral clip. There was even a challenge going around where these vloggers would infuriate him just to see how long it would take to get yell at. The shortest time won.
Best Jeanist Agency had a field day of dealing with complaints of Dynamight confiscating phones and even breaking some of them. Cry me a river.
That’s not even the worse part, it’s gotten to a point where influencers would fake distress calls and put themselves in dangerous situation just to get saved by heroes for their dumb videos. Deku, Four-eyes and he were almost seriously injured saving blockheads illegally filming in a dilapidated building, collapsing onto them.
For views.
Red Riot didn’t mind much, but that’s because he was a people-person. He didn’t appreciate the stupid challenges and vloggers getting in the way, but knew how to compose himself better, and did his best to redirect them away from danger.
It didn’t always work, but he made an effort to be polite.
“This part of the job is important too, Baku-Bro. Don’t you want to go up in the ranking?”
“I want to go up in rank because I’m a great hero, not all this fan-service shit.”
“You can’t pick and choose the parts you like. Try a little bit more fan service and see how quickly you’ll climb up to number 1, on top of your hero work.”
Bakugo just grunted, “more like sucking up to the right people.”
Kirishima gave him a sympathetic smile before handing him in coffee.
“No doubt in your skills Dynamight, but being a hero is also kind of like idol work too. We are symbols of hope and strength, our image and influence matters.”
“Wasn’t like that before.”
This part was partially true. Heroes are meant to be seen and to be role models, but they also took care of major crimes involving dangerous quirk. There are genuine heroes around, like his classmates and those coming up during the war.
But these new kids currently coming out of the woodworks were coming into the profession with all the wrong intentions. Dynamight had recently rejected fresh recruits trying to be his sidekicks because they didn’t meet his standards.
These recruits were more concerned about looking like a hero, getting the right headlines and getting sponsors from specific brands to elevate their status, instead of taking part in actual crime fighting and working on being the best they could be with their quirks.
Being seen at the right place and right time by the right people was becoming more important than public safety and it was changing the standards of the hero profession.
Even at Best Jeanist agency, they were shifting priorities, pushing for more fan-service and ambassador deals with luxury brand.
Best Jeanist retired and left his agency to his trusted sidekicks. The current lead heroes and staff.
At the beginning of the transition, the heroes working under the agency were dealing with major crimes and public safety. Things changed when investors got involved, then the money and empty promises of efficiency blinded the agency executives.
Once the vulture capitalist/tech-bros infiltrated the agency, there was a transition in leadership and real nitty-gritty hero work seems to be an afterthought to the suits upstairs. The lead heroes’ command of the agency weakened at the hands of money power.
“You can always start your own agency with the reputation you’ve earned.” Kirishima had been encouraging Bakugo to start his own hero agency for some time.
The explosive hero sighed. It’s not that easy and he didn’t half-ass things. Bakugo was doing the research and saving up, but the more he was looking into it, the less confident he felt about starting one right now. I want to be over-prepared and absolutely sure before starting such a huge commitment.
“Yeah, some day. Let’s just get on with the patrol.”
Kirishima sigh and took one last big gulp. “Alrighty. How do you want to tackle this?”
“You patrol at ground level. I’ll find a higher vantage point and scope from there.”
“You’re avoiding the crowd.”
“Most definitely or do you want to see me break another phone today. I know there’s a bet going on.”
“Hahaha...I don’t know wh—” “I saw the whiteboard before the janitor came.”
Once they got closer to their patrolling area the crowd went wild. Clamoring. They were surrounded. The pair did their usual fanfare, being seen, posturing and monitoring the area.
Red Riot was taking photos with fans. Dynamight was aloof, getting his picture taken. Only giving the crowd five minutes before he burst into the air and landed with grace on higher ground.
The crowd cheers, Red Riot smirks up at him with a knowing look. Dynamight quickly glared back before turning his attention to his real work, patrolling. Even though Bakugo complained, he knew what his fans liked and delivered every time.
Dynamight ignored anyone trying to get his attention. He locked in laser focused on scanning for any suspicious activity and signs of villains. And not too long, got ’cha asshole.
This one was a really cool customer, a pickpocket just snatch a wallet. He almost missed it and honestly, any other hero would’ve, but I’m not like any other hero.
Dynamight is Number 4 for a reason. And he didn’t get there being chummy with the right folks; he got there on his own accord and merit. He tapped his in-ear radio on.
“Red, I got a pickpocket on the ground heading away from the station toward the main street, let’s cut them off at the alley.”
“Roger that.” Red Riot apologized to the crowd and got his game face on.
The main crowd dispersed, but there were groups still lingering to see if they’ll catch any action today. Some even followed close by, which meant Red Riot had to do crowd control and hero work at the same time.
“Don’t scare him. I’m tailin’ him right now.”
“A little tied up, but I’ll be there.”
Dynamight could hear some of these vloggers in the background audio of his in-ear and that gave him a gut feeling, this isn’t going to go well. Shook his head and decided to trust Red. Just focus on the thief.
The bombshell hero observed the pickpocket as he tailed them. They were dress warm for a sunny morning, dark blue jeans, black hood jacket with a grey striped scarf and large grey beanie.
The thief was taking a nice stroll, until they turn a sharp right into an alley.
Hmph, predictable idiot. Thinks he can get away. “Red, they just turned sharp right, into the alley.”
He relayed through the in-ear and didn’t wait for a response. When Dynamight entered the alley. The pickpocket had paused. Red Riot appeared at the end, with a small group of people with camera phones in tow.
They tried to turn around, but Dynamight was blocking their path. Got ya, bastard.
“Oi. Hand over the goods or else.” He commanded.
They didn’t say anything and just stood there, relaxed.
“Everyone stand back. This could get dangerous.” Red Riot directed and pushed back the group of people.
The Unbreakable Hero made sure to keep a safe distance, not knowing what quirk was going to be unleashed. The figure unnerved him. Something was off about ‘em. This guy is too relaxed.
Dynamight didn’t like this calm demeanor either. Then they saw the thief pull out their jacket pocket and shrug. Lint.
“Are you fuckin’ mute? I know you have other pockets inside your jacket.”
The explosive hero was losing his patience and reached for their jacket. The pickpocket acted quickly, palm strikes his hand downward, evading his attempt at grabbing them. What the fuck? He didn’t expect such a heavy hit from such a short guy. He came face to face with the culprit, their eyes met when they lifted their face. Ruby red eyes met dark brown.
That distracted Dynamight enough for the thief to use that momentum to flip over him and knock over trash to obstruct both heroes, but that didn’t deter our heroes. The chase was on. You’re mine, ya bastard.
Unfortunately, the culprit ran through another hoard of vlogger. “It’s heroes in actions.” They said in passing.
And the vlogger and fans were on them in no time, creating the perfect barrage to escape. In the hustle and bustle of the crowd, they lost their scarf. Dynamight cursed as he lost the sly thief in the density of the morning commute. Fuck! Shit! There were too many civilians to use his quirk properly.
He saw the discard scarf and picked it up after swatting away numerous different phone cameras shove in his face, interfering with his peripherals. Red Riot came up to him after shaking off fans and admirers. There were audible sounds of disappointment and groans at the lack of action.
“Did you get him?”
Bakugo took a light sniff of the scarf, scent of rose and citrus. Tsk. “It’s a chick.”
Red looked confused. “What?”
“We’re looking for a female pickpocket. Come on, let’s get the report ready for the BOLO.”
“Oh, how’s your hand?”
“It’s fine. She got lucky.”
“Didn’t she feel kinda eerie?” Red Riot tried to focus back to patrolling the busy area.
Bakugo didn’t comment. He just got his phone out and began typing out notes for the BOLO. His nerves were on edge from the exchange. He didn’t like that his day started out with so many distractions and a loss.
“Well, get’em Baku-Bro. You’ll see…”
Bakugo had an inkling that this day was going to piss him off. Once he sent the BOLO to his assistant to send out, he pocketed his phone and went on with his patrol. Kirishima followed right behind feeling a little dejected that they lost such an easy catch.
“What a morning…” Kirishima sighed.