Chapter Text
Fitz Vacker wasn’t sure what to do with his life.
And he was very aware that this wasn’t a good topic to think about at 2:50 in the morning while he was supposed to be cooking a meal with his roommate, but Tam was busy doing something off to the side and the food still had a couple more minutes to go.
Job-wise, there was a clear choice. His entire family had been Pro Heroes since the day they came about, and the same would be expected of him soon enough. Being top of the class with prior mission experience only cemented the path.
The thing about having heroes in his family, though, was knowing exactly went on behind the scenes. While his classmates and friends raved about the ways they would "make the world a better place" after they graduated, he saw first-hand just how many heroes fell under the government's jurisdiction and how it affected them negatively. The United States supported a Pro Hero system that rewarded the heroes with a salary to rival most careers in medicine or law at the cost of contracts that dragged them into questionable missions; often alongside their nation's military.
It wasn't like he didn't want to be a hero. He thought the concept was pretty cool from the outside. But he didn't want to be the kind of hero his father was. Someone who tricked the public with faux kindness, using them for their trust.
But he was still a hero, despite working under the Department of Hero Coordination, better known as the DHC, and their questionable mission statements.
“Most of my spices are at Linh's dorm, so I don’t think it’ll taste the way it’s supposed to.”
The clatter of tools snapped Fitz back into reality. His friend was currently going through the drawer next to the active stove, rifling through the stashes of sauce packets and other cheap spices they got on sale at the local campus grocery store.
With the disheveledness of Tam’s dark hair and the curry stains on his cat-themed apron, it was hard to believe that his roommate was Tam Song, the infamous former vigilante “Shade”, who controlled all shadows within a kilometer radius through his quirk. He had his reservations when Sophie initially adopted him into their friend group. The shadow-user’s reputation preceded him, and he was pretty sure Tam’s glare induced migraines on its victims without the usage of his quirk, so there wasn’t much going for him until he transferred to Foxfire and unveiled his ability to cook.
Fitz was pretty sure his mom would forego her reservations about same-sex marriage entirely if he brought Tam home as a spouse because of his cooking expertise alone.
“We’ve already subbed out the rice cakes for gnocchi. I don’t think it was ever going to taste the way it was supposed to.” Fitz reminded his roommate, stirring the pot of makeshift finals week tteokbokki. The wooden spoon’s lip was stained with evidence of previous cooking expeditions. “And anything you cook will be good, as long as you’re the one making it.”
“Huh. Maybe Sophie had a point.” Tam looked up from where he was crouched in front of a cupboard. He resembled the cats on his apron as he tilted his head, opening his eyes wide at the praise.
“Wait,” Fitz frowned, his body glitching in place as Tam seized the spoon from him, his forearms flexing from the effort. “What does that mean, bro?”
Tam patted his back, a pitiful smile spreading across his face. “Think about it, champ.” He returned to the dish, tossing in something at the last minute.
Fitz wished he had Tam’s knowledge of flavoring. Maybe he could finally make the Indian side of his family proud. He was already pale-skinned, going to a PWI, and barely spoke the language.
Thinking about Tam’s comment, he wondered if it had anything to do with Sophie and him being cognates. It didn’t make that much sense, but other than that Tam and Sophie weren’t that different from each other in terms of their relationship with Fitz. Though he didn’t live with Sophie at their student dorms. She lived with his little sister, Biana, instead.
Sophie was…special to him, in a way. She was found on one of his DHC-sanctioned missions; an orphan with 5 quirks hidden within the quirkless-dominant city of San Diego. It was the end of that sort of mission for him, which was bittersweet because he liked the freedom of wandering streets of different cities, the thoughts of pedestrians drifting through his mind.
Since he found her just over two years ago, she had gathered a strange group of people and brought them with her on enough missions to boggle the minds of most pro heroes. In the span of two years, they had uncovered an underground villain organization, discovered their leader was related to one of them, captured several of their high-ranking members, became vigilantes, got expelled from Foxfire, enrolled at a vigilante-heavy school, joined a pro hero agency, re-enrolled at Foxfire, plus some change.
And then there were whatever side quests Keefe was up to. He didn’t want to think about his former best friend that much. It made his blood boil.
But none of this would have happened without Sophie. Despite the inherent stress of keeping up with DHC duties, his father’s orders, his school grades and attendance, and Sophie’s shenanigans, he’d had more fun than he ever could have imagined. He made several memories which he revisited at night to feel warm inside.
And it was all thanks to her.
He couldn’t help but feel grateful for her presence in his life.
“Damn, you actually thought about it,” Tam commented, waving a hand in front of Fitz’s face. The brunette snapped his gaze over to the shorter individual, taking in his furrowed brows and steel grey gaze. “Huh. You good, man? We don’t have to keep studying after this. We can just eat and call it a day.”
Static filled Fitz’s mind, like he was about to receive a transmission from Sophie. He fell silent, ignoring Tam’s scrutinizing glare to wait for the transmission, just in case Sophie was in danger again.
“Help!”
That was not Sophie. The voice behind the transmission was soft and young, like it came from a child.
And he was pretty sure it was in Japanese.
“Please, if you can hear me, help!”
The transmission stopped there, and a weird feeling settled in his chest. He cleared his throat, refocusing on the stove in front of him. “Yeah, I’m fine, I just -” Fitz was cut off by a sensation which indicated he was very much not fine.
Intense pain attacked his chest, forcing him to find a purchase against the countertop. He propped his forearm against it, using his other hand to brace against the source of his pain. His eyes fluttered shut as he winced.
The pain receded, then hit again like a series of waves against a cliff. His awareness had gone down slightly, but he was pretty sure Tam had noticed his behavior, since he felt two strong hands steady his slow descent to the ground, where he leaned against the countertop.
“Oh shit,” Fitz breathed as his vision went white behind his eyelids. His eyes shot open to see Tam totally disregarding any semblance of personal space as he started a rapid assessment, like they had been taught in hero training. “No idea what’s going on but I hope you get good medical assessment practice, man.”
“Not gonna lie,” Tam breathed as he lifted up Fitz’s oversized tee to see the damage. “I’m doing the rapid head-to-toe from the trauma assessment because I don’t really remember the medical assessment and we’re more likely to get injured than sick with our age and life choices. And you’re lowkey fucked. Can I, uh, palpate your chest. I know I should go for the ABCs first but your chest looks like you just got stung by a poison quirk or something -”
“Is it black and sludgy at the center?” Fitz asked through clenched teeth. With Tam’s calm nod, he continued, “then don’t palpate it. I think I know what it is, and you’re right. Anything else?”
“It’s red and swollen. There’s blistering too, and really strange black vein-like lines spreading out further. They’re slow but they’re moving and oh my god -”
Tam’s voice cracked towards the end as Fitz swatted his hand away from his abdomen so he could get a proper look. His abs screamed holy murder as he crunched inwards, but Tam’s description sounded too much like, “the Athropleura sting?”
“Aren’t those extinct?” Tam’s head tilted to the side, momentarily forgetting the gravity of the situation.
“Councillor Clarette’s quirk.” He hissed, watching as the poison seemed to spread through his veins like it did the first time. Where was the poison even coming from? The wound had been healed for months. “Bringing back any animal for 30 minutes, as long as it’s extinct.”
“Insanely overpowered quirk,” his roommate’s brows furrowed again. “Lemme change your position, then I’m calling 911.”
Fitz allowed Tam to help him to the floor, propping up his legs the way you’re supposed to with abdominal issues. He didn’t feel like telling him to change it, since they never exactly studied the position you were supposed to put patients into when they had poison coursing through their veins. Or maybe that was another lesson to come. He didn’t have the heart to tell Tam to put him in a different position when it really wouldn’t make that much of a difference. “Don’t call,” he said with a thick voice. “Please.”
If Tam called 911 and Fitz got taken via ambulance to a hospital, there was no way his father would take the public display of weakness so lightly.
He already had a weak body without the random poisoning incident. Even with some training, he had less raw strength than the average hero student.
That, and according to public health records he wasn’t really supposed to have medical history involving stab wounds to the chest, since that was during the era when the Black Swan was covering him as the vigilante Brainwave.
“No, I’m calling.” Tam reached for his phone urgently, bringing it to his ear despite Fitz’s attempts to swat it out of his hands. “Fitz!” He yelled when Fitz extended his leg with just the right amount of force to bruise Tam’s shin.
“Call Elwin,” he breathed, clutching his chest like it would help the radiating pain that now sent stabbing feelings throughout his blood vessels. His lungs spasmed, restricting his ability to breathe as he wheezed, “his personal number is in Sophie’s contact on my phone.”
Even as Tam reached awkwardly into Fitz’s rear pocket to grab his phone, he decided to pick fights. “It’s 3 AM on a school night, I really think 911 is the better option. You could fucking die without going to an actual hospital. Not a high school healing center.”
“This isn’t a hospital issue,” he snapped. “Elwin and Physic fixed it with their quirks and I had to throw the poison up for a week.”
As Tam brought the phone to his ear, his face expressed clear discomfort with the situation. “Well, clearly it’s not a sustainable cure if your body starts producing the poison.”
“Tam Dai Song, if you don’t call Elwin right now -”
His roommate swore up a thunderstorm as he paged through to Elwin, studying Fitz with a careful eye. He lifted Fitz’s shirt haphazardly.
Fitz elected to stay quiet and stare at the ceiling while Tam listened to Elwin on speakerphone.
“Hey, kid, are you okay?” Elwin’s sleep-addled voice crept through the connection. That was an oddly soft reaction to getting woken up in the middle of the night.
Tam cleared his throat. “So, there’s a minor situation. This is Tam. Fitz’s roommate. I don’t think we’ve met formally.”
“Nice to meet you, Tam. Sophie mentioned you. What’s the situation?” Elwin already seemed to be in work mode, given the rustling sound of him getting ready in the background.
“Fitz wasn’t doing anything strenuous — he was just cooking with me — when he collapsed with chest pain.” The next words out of Tam’s mouth reminded Fitz that they were studying for their emergency medicine course just a couple of hours prior. “He’s definitely pale, cool, and diaphoretic. His breathing’s rapid and shallow depth.”
Damn, Fitz hadn’t even noticed that one. Was he that out of it? He watched the unnatural rise and fall of his chest lazily.
“The source looks like some sort of poison in an injection site that looks too gnarly to be a normal needle, and there’s black veins spreading from the origin. They keep moving further. The center also has some redness, blistering, and necrosis near the origin as well.” Tam stared at Fitz with a weird look in his eyes. “Wait, is he having a heart attack? We have aspirin and nitro somewhere in the first aid kit, and -”
Elwin interrupted suddenly, “Fitz? Can you hear me?”
Fitz nodded, wincing at the motion. Realizing nods were visual and Elwin was on an audio call, he added, “yeah, loud and clear.”
“Good.” The doctor released a heavy breath, opening a door in the background. “Does this feel exactly like the last time? What are the differences?”
The brunet leaned closer to the phone as Tam extended it towards him.”I don’t think my lung is collapsing, and my heart feels fine. I think it’s just the venom.”
“Fitz,” Tam hissed. “You have symptoms of cardiogenic shock. You can’t say it’s not affecting your heart.”
Fitz clicked his tongue. “I’m not going to the hospital.”
“Yeah, I’m actually going to veto that.” Elwin said, and they heard the rev of a car in the background. Tam stuck his tongue out at Fitz, who huffed at the direct contradiction to his statement. “Call 911, and tell them to wait for me to get there. Describe his symptoms and say this is a quirk-related injury. There's a specific doctor I want him to see. I’m three minutes away, and I want to go with you two since I have Fitz’s medical record from when he was a vigilante.”
Tam nodded. “I’ll keep you with Fitz while I call 911 on my phone.”
Fitz’s phone was nestled in his hands before he could register Tam moving. His eyes followed Tam’s body as he stood, walking to the other side of the kitchen. He grabbed a familiar metallic rectangle and started typing away.
When his roommate finally spoke, his voice sounded way too far away. And like it was underwater. Fitz was smart enough to know he was going unconscious, but not smart enough to figure out how to let Tam or Elwin know.
A pins-and-needles sensation spread from his fingers to his toes. Another round of pain seized his chest, and when his eyelids drooped to a close, he couldn’t find the strength to open them again.
He exhaled, and his mind went blank.