Veiled Viper

In a dark alley hidden from prying eyes and coated in shadows, lay a small figure, wrapped head to toe in bandages. Under the greasy black hair are black eyes blown wide that follow every shadow, darting to every corner, eyebrows furrowed in pain and skin prickling with sweat. Their breaths are labored from fear and adrenaline, hands shake with fatigue. The alleyway cats sit and watch the young figure as they catch their breath, the twitching of their tails being the only sight of life as they stand guard.
After what must feel like an eternity to the young human, they stand on trembling legs, leaning heavily on the grimy alley wall as they make they're way out into the main street. They walk until they collapse from their injuries, just a block from their goal, and succumb to the darkness creeping into their vision, but not before glimpsing a figure walking towards them.
The alley cats watch as the figure walks towards the injured child with caution, before noticing the blood and quickly closing the distance. Gently, they pick the child up and walk a block over, where a lone red door, barely visible from overgrowth, sits hidden in an abandoned alley.
~
Rin wakes up with a start, sweat clinging to their skin as the remnants of the nightmare wear off. With a pounding heart, they slide out of bed, wings trailing behind them into the kitchen, switching the coffee machine on like second nature before turning on the radio and going about their daily routine. They let the sound of Present Mic, a newly debuted hero, wash away the night's terrors and bring forth the new day. Looking up from the sink, they meet their own black eyes, eyes that fade into brown as they're appearance changes for the day. Their wings disappear and hair grows long and brunette, height shrinking from the previous 5 '8 to 5' 2, and their muscular build melts away to be replaced with a softer figure. Huffing in satisfaction, they head back to the kitchen for their coffee and keys, and slip out the door to blend in with the morning traffic.
Every day is the same for Rin. Get up at 7am, make coffee, change their identity, go to work, go to the shelter, go to the gym, and come home. At least that’s what the cameras see, when in reality that’s just the half of it. Under the cover of darkness, everything changes. Height goes back to 5 '8, muscles reappear, eyes fade to black with gold specks, fingertips turn black, and two large black wings emerge from their back.
They get their gear on and head down the hall to the bedroom, where they take out a dresser drawer to reveal a fingerprint pad. Pressing it, they put the drawer back as a hole opens in the floor, exposing stairs that lead into an underground warehouse. From the warehouse they collect their weapons and head down a path that leads to the city underground tunnels, and into the night they creep.
They send a few feathers into the nearby bars to listen for information, walk a few girls home, knock out a few villains and place their calling card, a sticky note with hastily drawn bird wings with the arrest reason underneath, on their chest. They watch the city, perched on the highest building, eyes scanning every alley for danger, and when the clock hits 4am, they head back to sleep before they start another day undercover.
~
Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Rin Yoshida, I'm gender neutral, 17 years old, and my quirk is called Permacopy. I can take copies of any quirk permanently. I have the option to take the original from the user as well, but I don’t use that unless I need to. It’s activated through eye contact, no matter how brief, though it's optional whether or not I copy the quirk, and any quirk I have copied doesn’t work on me in return. My drawbacks are going blind and trouble focusing. I like coding, gymnastics and coffee, and I hate the cold, which leads me to right now, where I’m in a fight with a guy who can freeze the air around them. Of all the quirks I could’ve come across, it had to be this one huh? Oh well. I copy the blasted quirk before knocking him out and pulling out my sticky notes and cuffs. Slapping them on him, I whip out my favorite pink glitter pen before scribbling some wings and “Attempted Murder” underneath before flying to a nearby roof and pulling out my phone. Shooting a text to Tsukauchi with the location, don’t ask me how I got his number cuz it wasn’t legal, I fly a couple more buildings over before settling down to wait for the cops.
I’m on my phone when the cops show up 11 minutes later so I start recording, catching the officers stepping out of the cruiser to collect the unconscious murderer wannabe. Tsukauchi picks up the sticky note and I can't help but snicker at the absolute done look he throws at the sky. Checking my watch a few minutes later, I realize it's already 3:45, so I glance over to check if they’re gone, before lazily taking off in the direction of the nearest bar to collect my feathers. I don’t even get a few yards in the air before I feel my quirks vanish. All of them. Erasure quirk? There's only one person that i’ve found who has it and he's still in… oh… Welp, it's confrontation time! I look down and, yep it's Eraserhead, hopping across the rooftops towards me with his hair in the air, capture weapon moving with him like a second limb. Do I want to fight that? Yes, yes I do. I fly over him just out of reach of the nope snek, and hover there. He seems to realize I'm not coming down, and his hair falls, although he keeps his hands on his capture weapon. We watch each other for a few seconds, daring the other to move, and after a large mental debate I start floating down. Only, as soon as I move, the hair comes back up, so I stop and wait till it comes down again before continuing my descent, albeit a lot slower. Is it rude for me to treat this situation like I would a toddler? Yes. But do I care? No. We watch each other as I touch down on the roof, and slowly, obviously telegraphing my movements, I remove the top half of my face mask, changing my eye color to blue at the same time, before finally making eye contact.
As soon as we connect eyes I copy the quirk, relaxing my body and watching him tense for a fight that won't happen. “What’s your name?” He asks, though I stay silent. His fingers twitch, but before he can move I activate a paralysis quirk, effectively freezing him in place. I walk towards him, touching his exposed hand skin, before modifying his memories to a night without me and taking to the sky once again. Once I'm out of his sight I drop both quirks, watching him stumble and then continue as though he knew where he was going. I check the time and holy heck it's 4:45! I zoom through the air, calling my feathers to me before dropping into a manhole in an abandoned alley and heading home. Giddy with adrenaline, I take off my gear and walk to a mirror, activating erasure for the first time. Instantly, a massively sharp pain shoots through my head and I collapse. Vision spotty and swimming and ears roaring with blood, I slowly sit up, taking care not to move too fast, and activate an injury scanning quirk. Concussion. So the secret to beating Eraserhead is to bring a mirror, got it. While using a healing quirk, I climb the stairs as fast as I dare before heading straight to bed, falling asleep before I hit the pillow.
~
The next night Rin is up in the air surveilling the streets when they hear something concerning at the bar across town, so they land on a roof and listen, focusing on that feather. Confirming that they did indeed hear what they thought they did, they took to the sky again flying towards the bar. They land an alley away and shift into an older man with graying black hair and a business suit, and walk into the bar, ordering a beer as they take a seat. Glancing around, Rin takes note of a group of men in suits lounging with a nearly naked young woman sitting on one of their laps. She sits stiffly, eyes dull and vacant, telling a tale of pain and sorrow and her skin is covered in marks and scars. Promising themselves that they'll save her, they close their eyes and guide a feather towards them. Slowly, the small feather creeps across the bottom of the wall till it reaches the booth, and slithers in-between the cushions. Focusing, Rin lets the conversation to the front of their mind, recording at the same time for evidence.
“So how long have you had this little doll?” said one guy, gesturing to the girl. “Ah, just 4 months, I like it, but I heard the boss is getting a new package soon, and I think it's time for a new pet, y'know? The boss always gets the pretty ones.” drawls the man holding the girl. She shivers, starting to tremble, and he laughs. “I hear ya man,” said another. “I’ve been wanting a pet myself, what’ll you do with this one if you get a new one?”
“I’ll probably auction it off, it’s still got some life and I’ve got no use for two of them. Why? Are you interested?” Her eyes dart around, seemingly looking for an escape, before finding none and returning to their distantly resigned state.
“I wouldn’t mind taking it off your hands man, and I’ve got cash on me. How much?”
“200,000 yen and it's all yours. You’ll need a cage though, it’ll try to escape for the first two weeks or until it realizes it can’t leave.” Her trembling increases, bordering on shaking.
“ I’ve got a cage, along with a few other things .” A single tear slips down her cheek.
The man pulls out his wallet and puts the money in the waiting hand of the other guy, before reaching out a hand to the girl. With shaking hands she grabs the buyer’s hand and allows herself to be roughly yanked up and into the arms of her new owner. He looks at her and smirks, before swiping the tear off and practically dragged her to the door. Deciding to follow them, Rin leaves the feather where it’s at, slipping away from the bar and out the door while putting up an invisibility cloak. Reaching out, they lightly brush her arm, establishing a mental connection.
‘Please don't freak out,’ Rin thinks through the quirk. ‘I have a mind link quirk, it was me that touched you a few seconds ago. You can respond back in your mind. I want to help you, can you tell me your name?’ They can feel the flame of hope come to life as she responds.
‘My name is Suzako Emi, but I'm not the only girl. Please, there were five of us with that man.’ Rin bites back the urge to swear, replying back. ‘I'll do my best. Is there anything you can tell me that could help? Anyone’s quirk, or maybe you saw the location where the other girls are?’
“I remember a few, the guy I just came from is called Haru Fujimoto and he has a money making quirk of some kind, and he has two bodyguards that he called Kai and Ren. Their quirks were silver flames that didn't burn things and editing’
‘Editing? Do you know what it does?’
‘He can edit quirks. He didn’t mention anything else though. Haru had us in a white mansion, I saw it but I -I don't remember any details. I’m sorry I’m not much help.’
‘No it’s okay, you’re being a great help already. Can you think of a picture of the mansion? Think of what you saw.’ A picture of a massive white house with a separate 5 bay garage and a perfectly kept lawn come through.
‘ Alright I’ve got it, I'm going to let you go now alright? To have the best chance at saving everyone I'll have to let you go with him. Can you hang on just a little longer?’
‘I'll try, thank you.’
Reluctantly they say goodbye and let the disguise drop, collecting the feather on the way and shooting to the warehouse. Once inside, they settle into their office and start transferring all the recordings and conversations to their computer, picking out the important conversations separately. Going through all the recordings takes longer than they'd like, the sun already starting to rise by the time they're done, so they call out of work and start putting together a case file for Tsukauchi, labeling it “Sex Trafficking”. They look up the mansion from earlier thinking ‘With a house that big they should have a security system to hack…’ They get access to the cameras and see 4 young girls, all seeming to be younger than 15, locked in a large cage in the basement. The girls are all curled up together in the center of the cage, shivering from what Rin can assume is the cold. Putting picture proof in the file, they look around the house, finding nine men in total, all seated in an office. Looking through them, Rin recognizes Haru and assumes the two men seated at his sides are his bodyguards, Kai and Ren. All the other men don’t have any visible mutations, so they assume that they all have emitter type quirks. Saving that information, they jump to an underground network and look for the other 6 men, quickly finding their identities and quirks and add that to the file as well. Rin uses a quirk to send the file directly to Tsukachi’s computer, with a note of “To be Continued” attached, and finally shuts off their computer.
~
They'd been sitting on a nearby roof, watching and listening to the massive house, before a shiny black car pulled up to the driveway. Recalling the conversation from the night before, where the man mentioned “the boss” would be getting a new “package, they started recording, zooming in on the doors as the driver got out, opening the back door. A man stepped out and reached back in to grab something, something that turned out to be someone, as a young girl lay unconscious in his arms. ‘She must be the new “package”.’ They thought, disgusted at the idea of treating a human like an object. As soon as the man walked through the front door, Rin activated a ghost quirk, giving them the abilities to be undetectable and go through objects, and followed him into the house.
As Rin entered the house, they had to pause to breathe and push down the rising anger at the sight before them. There, in the large open space of the room, were a bunch of chairs in a u shaped formation, facing a small platform with a cage on top. An auction? Rin hoped it wasn’t today. They needed to make sure the hero’s got the girls out before they got sold and split up.
Focusing, they followed the man as he brought the girl into a room down the hall, shutting and locking the door behind him. The room itself was plain, if a bit bare. White walls with a bed pushed up against a corner, a desk and a dresser. Nothing special, except for the cuffs on all four corners of the bed, the cage next to said bed, the whip casually hanging on the wall, and the chain bolted to the wall with a metal collar on the end of it. But other than that, plain.
The man walked into the connected bathroom, pulling out a pair of scissors from a drawer and cutting her clothes off, before practically dropping her in the tub. He turned on the showerhead, spraying her down and beginning to scrub her clean. Thoughts of this man’s quirk were running through Rin’s mind. The girl couldn’t just be unconscious, she would have woken up by now. Sleep quirk? Or maybe she is awake but paralyzed.
Rin was pulled out of their thoughts by movement from the girl, her eyelashes fluttering and fists closing. The man put his hand over her nose and mouth, and teal gas flowed from underneath. All movement the girl had been making stopped, going slack beneath his hold. He let out a sigh of relief and continued to bathe her, now moving on to scrub her hair.
‘So he has a gas quirk, probably sleeping gas because she wouldn’t have gone slack if it was paralysis. It has a time limit till it wears off, and why did he sigh in relief? Was he worried it wouldn’t work? Maybe it doesn’t work on everyone? There have been cases of people being immune to a type of quirk. Or maybe he was worried that he wasn’t fast enough and she has activated her quirk. I don’t see anything on her to suppress a quirk, so maybe its just that. Does she have a dangerous quirk? Why would he be worried about her using her quir-’ Their mental ramblings get cut off as the man lifts her bridal carry out of the tub and carries her into the bedroom, setting her on the bed. He goes back to the bathroom, grabbing a towel and brush and sits next to the bed, pulling her head towards him.
Beginning to brush her hair, he pulls out his phone with one hand and dials a number, putting it on speaker and laying it on the bed. It rings one, twice, three times before someone picks up. “What is it Daichi, I’m busy.” a familiar voice drawls.
“I’ve got her boss. She’s almost ready for the viewing.” At this point Daichi has started braiding her hair, making two dutch braids run across her head.
“Wonderful, have her ready in 15 minutes.” “Yes sir.” He ties off the braids and gets up, walking to the dresser and pulling out a  baby blue nightgown and slips it on her. Hefting her onto his shoulder, he unlocks the door and takes her out into the main room again. Rin quickly follows, not wanting her out of their sight, following as he takes her into another room off of the main room. This room is the opposite of the other room. Were the other was white, this one is red, with a massive silk covered bed in the center of the room.
Daichi takes her to a door on the far wall, leading to a small room covered ceiling to floor in mirrors. There in the center of the room, is a pair of cuffs bolted to the floor, and a chain with another set dangling from the ceiling. Daichi sets her down, supporting her weight from his hold on her wrists. He locks her into the cuffs and steps back with his hands behind his back, waiting.
Daichi’s familiarity with this situation has Rin seething, fury burning for the girls like a hurricane. ‘I wonder if I should leave this situation to Tsukachi or take care of it myself. If I leave them to get arrested then they’ll face the system and get out just to do it again. If I take care of it I can make sure they don’t do anything like this again, or anything else. I’m pretty sure I have a quirk that could erase the evidence… No, stupid murder is bad! Maybe some light mai-’ The internal monologue cuts off as the door opens to reveal “The Boss”, or Haru, flanked by Kai and Ren.
He doesn’t say a word, slowly walking around the chained girl, eyes lingering on all the cuts and bruises. “Kai, get rid of the blemishes.” he says, lazily waving a finger at said marks. As instructed, the taller of the two guards, Kai, walks up and swipes his hand through the air in front of her. A wall of silver flames jumps from his hand, but no heat comes from it. No, instead all the cuts and bruises vanish, no scars left behind.
‘I need that quirk.’ Rin thinks, already coming up with possible uses for it. Kai steps back, face impassive. Haru continues to slowly circle her, before stopping as though he’s decided on something. “Daichi, I want you to dress her up, makeup, jewelry, everything. I think she’ll bring a pretty penny. She’s to be kept asleep until after the auction tomorrow. Clear?”
“Yes sir.” Daichi says, already moving to unchain her.
‘No, no, no, dammit, I doubt Tsukachi will be able to plan a raid so soon but I've got to push him. If they get sold tomorrow they’re gone.’ Slowing their breathing to prevent the panic, they follow Daichi as he takes the girl to another room, different from the one before, and sets her on the bed. Pulling out his phone, he makes a call, leaving the room and closing the door behind him.
“Hey Mika, the boss got a new one, he wants her dressed up for the auction tomorrow.” a pause “Yea he said makeup and jewelry too. No leave her there when you're done, I’ll be by every few hours to regas her. Alright, thanks, bye.”
Plans already forming, Rin quickly left the building. They took to the skies, rushing home and booting up their computer. Opening the case file again, they started adding the new information, looking through the web for Daichi and putting his information there as well. They easily doubled the size of the file by the time they finished, and sent it over. Picking up their phone, they opened Tsukachi’s contact.
Me: Did you get my case file?
Tsukachi: Viper, what the hell
Me: This is important. Read the damned file
Tsukachi: I read it, what do you want to do?
Me: I want you to take care of it. If I have to do it, I'm permanently disfiguring them all. Do you want more paperwork?
Tsukachi: Alrighty then, we’ll take care of it
Me: Thank you
~
Tsukachi had been having a shit day, if he was honest. A small villain group had been brought in, and they seemed to be hellbent on giving him a headache. The office coffee was burnt, again, and right when he was ready to leave there was a villain attack down the street, and of course he had to do the interrogation. He had been feeling pretty spread thin as it was, and he didn’t feel the need to test his limits.
He had clocked out and packed his briefcase, and was sitting in his office chair sipping the burnt coffee as he scrolled through his emails. It had been oddly silent from Viper tonight, usually he’d hear from them three or four times a night through obnoxious pickup lines and locations, but there was nothing tonight. He wasn’t worried, he wasn’t, he just didn’t want them getting in too deep of trouble, that’s all. He stood up and reached over to shut off his computer, when a loud alarm rang and his screen turned red with an alert. Startling, he quickly skimmed the alert, eyes focusing on the label, reading the large “Sex Trafficking” in bold 
“GOD DAMMIT VIPER!!” rang out throughout the precinct.