CRASH
You plummeted into the remnants of an empty abandoned warehouse, rolling across the floor while a cloud of debris and glass showered over your retreating form. Slowly standing to your feet, you felt the bottom of your shoe adhese to the floor momentarily.
Of course it was tape.
The sound of it zipped into the now broken window you crashed into, revealing Sero hot on your heels, shooting a string of tape towards your direction. You quickly maneuvered out of the way, dodging and weaving past poles and empty shelves that still littered the warehouse's space. As swiftly as you escaped each piece of tape, Sero was quick on his aim, catching only the smallest amount of hair, whether from your head or from the fur trim around your neck.
He left a multitude of strips in his wake, littering the warehouse with every shot he made. Sero ha been on your trail for the past hour today. After a run-in with police enforcement, he had no choice but to take chase after you had committed what looked like a simple pickpocket. From an elderly woman. In broad daylight.
All of that just sounded wrong.
Ever since, he had been doing nothing but chasing you all around the city, making every attempt to apprehend you. The distance you both covered could almost rival that of Deku's speed at this point, weaving up and down buildings, swinging across streets, and the occasional shortcuts throughout (if alleyways were called shortcuts to begin with).
Shooting again yielded no results when Sero missed your fleeting form, climbing up a few poles here and there as a means to avoid his string of tape. Sero questioned if you were once a gymnast with the speed and flexibility you demonstrated evading his attacks. He immediately tore a loose strand of tape from his elbows, watching as you hung upside down from a set of bars above amongst the warehouse's skeletal infrastructure.
"Damn Bucky," you called from above. "Persistent today, aren't we?"
"Gave me no choice this time," he quipped back. "What's up with stealing from the elderly?"
"Hey, don't jump the gun. Like I said before, not everything is as it seems."
"Looks like petty theft to me."
You frowned at the statement, grabbing for the bars to swing yourself upright and balanced atop them.
"I'm not petty," you reiterated.
"Yeah, and I'm Peter Parker."
Sero shot again, and as he did, you fell backwards from the bars before your hands began to glow, a ball of light appearing in their palms. With a swing of your arms, you threw the ball of light past him, teleporting you to the other side of the warehouse and landing on your knees, scraping across the floor. You panted heavily, immediately rolling away from more tape and hid behind a broken wall. You felt faint, light-headed, and your body was forcing sleep. You breathed heavily, your thoughts running through your mind on what your next move needed to be. You were more than surprised that you held up for over an hour without any fainting spells yet.
The sound of tape above immediately caught your ears, rolling away from any oncoming onslaught before you clumsily ran across the warehouse, utilizing anything from the environment to keep the Hero at bay. Even resulting in pushing broken furniture and utilising the available junk to slow the Taping Hero down. Round every corner, over every piece of rubble and debris, you dodged every means of capture before you swung on a pair of bars overhead to climb higher in the warehouse.
"Altitude is my forte," called Sero. "If you wanted to make things easier, you could just surrender."
"What? No competition?" you called back, breath heavy from the symptoms of your Quirk. "What happened to that spark of yours?"
"You're just prolonging the inevitable," retorted Sero while he made his way up the warehouse on your heels.
"Prove it!"
With every climb, Sero was one step behind while he kept an eye on your fleeting form scurrying higher into the warehouse's infrastructure. Meanwhile, your Quirk was taking its toll on you. Every muscle in your body screamed for rest, to stop, to revive yourself, replenish your energy.
God, you were starving.
Your breath grew heavier, almost panting and heaving while the sinews in your muscles burned. Regenerating any light was becoming a chore, as it fizzled out in the palm of your hand. Sero's approach brought your attention to a string of tape in your sights before you rolled into a small crevice, underneath a pile of junk, hiding away in the dark.
"Look," started Sero as his feet found their way on the small broken landing. "Whatever this is, we can talk it out. Have a few laughs? You're not the same, and it kinda hurts."
Despite your exhaustion, you rolled your eyes at the tone of his voice. He was starting to sound a little like you. You didn't know whether to be impressed, flattered, or annoyed given your situation.
"The past week has been weird," he admitted while he strolled on the floor, scanning the environment. "Whatever happened to going big? All of the reports have been theft from homes, small offices, and now this lady."
The more he talked to nothing but air, the sooner you realized what he was describing. It was true that you had been fairly busy collecting a few tidbits of information here and there, but for him to describe it the way he did, it did sound petty. This felt like a tactic, persuasion, coercion, with a hint of flattery somehow, but it also sounded like he had been paying very close attention to-
"You know, I actually thought highly of you for a while," he continued while the crunch of his shoes echoed around the empty warehouse. "Even as a thief, I thought you had integrity, but now, I'm not so sure, Sticky Fingers."
You inwardly sighed. He could've at least thought of better names, you thought. You were starting to get used to being his Darling. Besides, that kind of name is more suited towards you, you thought until his boots came into view. You stilled, almost holding your breath while Sero looked around.
"At least answer this one question for me," he asked. "What does this have to do with UA?"
Your eyes widened at the mention of the school from his lips. Your heart quickened and the rush of blood headed straight for your ears, anxious of what else he knew. Silence was all Sero was met with. Not a sound, not a peep. He sighed, slightly defeated and disappointed.
"I keep seeing the connection everywhere - a past teacher's home, recent news reports on the academy. You know, I even recognized Recovery Girl before you ran off with whatever you took from her person."
Of course, you recalled Sero's academic background was from the prestigious academy, along with most of the current Pro-Heroes on the scene. It just made things a little more complicated, and unfortunately, a little personal. You sighed through your nose, contemplating your choices, before Sero continued moving ahead, leaving you in your little foxhole.
"Come on," he reassured. "Just talk to me."
Sero looked around until the sound of scuffling caught his ear, turning around with a swing of his elbows and shooting tape towards a bright light behind him. The light dispersed as his tape cleanly and swiftly wrapped around whatever materialized from its fractals, meeting with a large pipe that crashed on the floor.
His eyes widened upon realizing his mistake before another ball of light appeared behind him, dispersing to reveal you in mid-air, grappling his arms from underneath and holding him.
"Altitude your forte?" You spoke in his ear. In a flash of light, Sero felt a warm heat wash through his body, his vision absorbed in a blinding light until it cleared immediately, almost instantaneously.
He suddenly saw the sky, then the clouds, then the sound of the traffic reached his ears, before he felt his arms being released from behind. Disorientated, he turned to find you swaying on your feet, then hands on your knees, breathing heavily from exhaustion. Sero eventually found his feet, swaying himself from the intensity of the rush to find that the both of you were now on the rooftop.
You peered through your exhausted eyes, squinting to find Sero swaying to and fro. You banked on the disorientation to keep him from capturing you, and your bet on it paid off. Not many others were used to your teleportations.
"Dammit," cursed Sero feeling slight nausea settling in. "What the hell?"
"Wish I introduced you to the ride in better circumstances," you commented with a breathy tone. "But, you got me cornered Bucky."
You heard him cringe and grunt under his breath until you turned to make your way to the edge of the rooftop. You were swaying to and fro yourself, realizing the extent of your Quirk's side effects kicking in. Great, now you were disorientated too. The body definitely needed a recharge, a rest, probably a five-course meal after this.
"Hey, talk to me!" demanded Sero. "This isn't like you at all. Just why go through all of this trouble for all of these small things?"
You peered at Sero with his head on his helmet, still trying to make sense of the situation and his equilibrium. For the past hour he had been spouting these questions, going through every means to both capture and interrogate you throughout this chase. You had been tight-lipped, hoping that he would give up on the questions, but somehow felt impressed by his persistence. Perhaps he was brushing off of you, or was it the other way around?
"If you must know why, I'm investigating something of interest to me. This is a personal endeavor, not a job," you explained, forcefully righting your back to stand despite the oncoming fainting spell clouding your head.
"Well, what is it?" Sero asked, squinting his eyes from the vertigo induced between them. "What could be so important that you stole from Recovery Girl?"
Immediately you pulled out a phone, pressing a few buttons, receiving a few messages and approached Sero, placing said phone in his hands.
"She can have it back now," you commented. "I just needed a few contacts from her, that's all. But for now Bucky, it's been fun."
You walked away from him, exhausted in your steps towards the edge of the rooftop before the sound of tape zipped past you, missing you by a fraction. You turned around to find Sero breathing heavy, but still not letting up on the chase. Despite the helmet that covered his face, Sero felt his eyes water.
"Tell me," he reiterated, his need to understand eating him inside. "Come on, I deserve that at least if I'm letting you go after all of this."
Now, you were truly impressed. You had met his tenacity back at the museum the first time you met, but it definitely showed, right here, right now. He began to understand you, read into your movements, follow your train of thought. And it felt endearing, that you felt the same way, finally coming to the conclusion that the both of you were becoming kindred.
"How much do you know about the Christmas fires?" You reluctantly asked. If he wanted to know, at the very least you may garner some information from an inside source.
"The fires?"
"Yeah, UA suffered a drastic hit to their dormitories where the students stayed to keep them from any future villain attacks," you explained. "You were there, or you should've been, given that the first year dorms were the first to catch on fire."
"Hey, who's interrogating who?" Sero immediately removed his helmet, revealing his tear-stained eyes. While with phone in hand, he began wiping them with his wrists, hoping that the vertigo would cease.
"Why are you so interested in an event years ago?"
You watched him try his best to find his feet, figuratively speaking, it pulled at your heart strings that you resorted to that kind of treatment. He was doing his best, and despite you foiling him a little, it almost pained you to see him this way.
"A student disappeared in that fire," you answered. "They were presumed dead, but I have every belief that they're still alive."
"Wait a minute," started Sero, squinting again, his vision slowly returning upon seeing the outline of your figure ahead. "The third year? The one that was supervising us at the dorms?"
You nodded, only to realise that Sero wasn't visually sound at this time. "Yeah."
"The teachers said that they lost them in the fire."
"They probably did," you reiterated. "But that doesn't mean that they're dead, right?"
Sero shook his head, hoping that would clear his vision, but it did very little to stop the waves of nausea washing through. While coping with the motions, he thought back to that Christmas, when explosions had destroyed parts of Heights Alliance, causing the dormitories to catch on fire. If it wasn't for the fact that Bakugou was present, people would've assumed it was him until the flames began to consume the buildings.
"Remember when I said not everything is a conspiracy?" you asked, your foot by the edge of the rooftop while you watched the minute changes on Sero's face. "This is not one of them." You smiled at him, watching his eyes slowly adjust, and with a wave of your fingers, saluted him before you hopped off the rooftop.
Sero blinked profusely until his vision finally returned, finding himself alone. He crouched onto the floor, sitting with his elbows on his knees while recollecting the past conversation. In his mind, the Christmas fires were an attack on the school, but not everyone in the media knew this. Everyone outside of the faculty only thought of the fires as just that - an accident. To find that an outsider, like you, had knowledge of it outside of the media, confused him.
He ruffled the back of his head while staring at Recovery Girl's phone in his hand. He heard something being sent from it, messages of the sort. Until he could return it back to his former school nurse, he may be able to discover what information you had taken from it.
A small light flickered before his face, catching him off-guard. It dissipated slowly to reveal a card floating in the air, the stock familiar to his eye when he snatched it.
I'm sorry, it read. And nothing more.
The sound of police cars arrived at the scene before he caught himself growl under his breath. Why do they arrive after the fact, he thought.