A strong woman looks a challenge in the eye and gives it a wink.
Track 38; Jumpsuit by Twenty One Pilots
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Even though you were technically a pro-hero now, you still needed an escort according to Keigo. To your dismay, Eraserhead and Present Mic agreed with him on that part. You were pretty upset about being treated like a damsel in distress but you underhandedly thanked their concern for your safety by not putting up much of a fight.
As you stepped outside the main lobby doors of the penthouse you shared with your raptor of a significant other, you noticed Hizashi parked in his car. You'd mentioned to him and Aizawa that you needed to run to the new bar to make sure construction was going to plan, so the two of them made sure that one of them was able to be by your side since Hawks was busy.
He wasn't home a majority of the time anymore which you really didn't appreciate but you understood why. You were glad to have Momo officially in the house for good as the days went by. You found yourself getting lonely more often than not when he was gone, though you knew that you were safe since he was doing everything in his capabilities to keep an eye on Dabi for you.
Hizashi was blaring to music, loud enough that you could hear the muffled audio on the outside. He was tossing his head from side to side, singing at a reasonable level of volume for himself. When you knocked your knuckles on the window he shrieked, causing a crack to go through his windshield. He gave you a halfhearted glare when his pointer finger slammed down on the unlock button to let you inside.
"You scared me half to death!" He whined.
"Maybe you should be more observant of your surroundings, you ding dong." You teased him, buckling yourself up as he huffed and turned on his blinker to signal him reentering traffic.
"Okay mom." He replied mockingly, checking his mirror as he pulled into the road.
"I wish you guys would've let me fly there." You sighed, propping your head up on the palm of your hand as you looked out the window.
"And I wish that we didn't have to escort you out and about too." He gave you a glance out of the corner of his eye. "But with what you've been through, and what's happening underground is reason enough for us to be cautious."
You lifted your gaze to look out the sky once you got bored of the buildings blurring by you. There were quite a few grey clouds, though the sun was visible once some of them passed by. It was only slivers of sunlight, leaving the world beneath cold and foggy.
"What was the point of becoming a hero when I can't defend myself?"
"Now don't be like that," Hizashi replied softly. "As heros we all have our limits, even All Might."
"You don't have to remind me about him." You shot back sullenly. You couldn't ever forget the fall of the Symbol of Peace. The world was forever changed that day; citizens were already questioning the role of heros thanks to Stain but that was only the tip of the iceberg. All Might's retirement had society in shambles. Who were they supposed to call to in their times of desperation?
Hizashi continued on with a particular rant about how you were a strong individual, a hero setback by the misfortunes that occurred through the first eighteen years of your life. You weren't paying much attention to it, instead your mind was running with your emotions. You missed Hawks. You wanted to hold him, kiss him, fall asleep in his arms, eat dinner with him; be a true couple for once. Like the two of you didn't have any undercover work to do—just you and him.
Your mind was slow to bring you back to the present. It was even slower to give warning to Hizashi when he drove forwards after the light at an intersection turned green. All you could do was stare at the ginormous foot nearing his side of the car.
On impact, you blacked out. You weren't sure if your vision failed you in those moments or if it all happened too fast to comprehend, but when you were able to see again you were upside down. You could see the intersection that you had just pulled into, confirmed by the car behind you having been recently abandoned in the middle of it.
To your right, Hizashi was unconscious. He was hanging from his seat much like you were, except he had blood running from his head. Otherwise he looked relatively unharmed. You would have waited for help, but the panicked screams of the citizens around you informed you that this was no place to wait for assistance. Reaching over with an arm, you shook his shoulder to see if you could rouse him. You realized after a few tries that he wasn't waking up anytime soon.
Your hands felt heavy when your fingers fumbled for the button on your seatbelt. Your heart almost failed to work properly when the thought ran across your mind that it was jammed, but it soared when the button finally gave in to your relentless pushing. You were thankful for your wings protecting the flesh of your back from the shattered glass, but didn't rejoice in the fact that the shards would have to be picked out later. You took a few seconds to regain your composure before taking a deep breath and kicking the already cracked windshield once. You were frustrated that it didn't give on the first try so you continued until it did. Fortunately it broke the rest of the way when you kicked it for the fourth time.
You were thankful that you had broken the glass when you noticed the large pair of feet that sent the car flying approaching again. You could feel yourself beginning to panic when you whipped around to unbuckle your old teacher. His seatbelt was easier than yours oddly enough, even though he shared the side of the impact but you didn't question it. You took the brunt of the glass shards when you pushed yourself through the windshield, slowly pulling him out after you.
You scrambled to your feet once you and Hizashi were clear of the car, leaning over and grabbing his shoulder pads and dragging him to the sidewalk as fast as you possibly could. It was almost pointless when the large human stopped at the intersection you had been kicked from. The giant looked around like he was deciding on where to go, before grunting and running to the right.
You felt yourself break when you realized that it was heading straight for your new bar. The one that you were so close to reopening. Your reaction to the hero's approaching your side was visceral: shielding Hizashi by hovering your body over his and prepping your wings like you were about to attack. You softened when you realize who it was.
"Oh good. Can you take him? I need to go help the others."
"Present Mic?!" One said in shock while another started checking his vitals. "What happened?"
"Our car was kicked by that giant." You replied, looking over your shoulder in the direction it went. "Please make sure he's okay." When you turned around, the unfamiliar hero spoke up again.
"You should stay here, too. A civilian shouldn't try to go up against a criminal. Besides, you're hurt, too."
"I'm not a civilian." You replied as you opened your wings. "I know people who have fought with more than a cut on their forehead, so leave your concerns in my imaginary complaint box." Then you took off.
The wind in your face sobered you from the adrenaline that was rushing in you from the wreck. You were able to question what your plan was when you got to the giant in order to prevent him, but you didn't really have the time to process it when you noticed he was maybe twelve blocks away from your bar. You could feel yourself internally screaming when you pushed your wings as fast as you were able to. There had to be something that you could do before it all fell apart before your eyes once again. You couldn't let that happen. Not if your life depended on it.
Not soon enough in your opinion, you were right behind the giant. He stood at least 24 feet tall and wasn't all that memorable. He was pretty plain looking besides the huge gut bouncing about as he moved. You wondered if this was somebody with a gigantification ability who got ahold of some of the last remaining quirk-booster drugs, but you couldn't be too sure of yourself at that moment.
You were thankful for the fact that you were legally a hero again when you noticed a teenage girl standing frozen in the giants' path of travel. You gritted your teeth and dived down, snatching her out of the way just before she was squashed. She screamed in either surprise or terror, but gave you a shaken thank you when you set her down on the sidewalk.
"Go that way." You pointed up the street where you had just been. "There are heros up there handling evacuations. Please inform anybody that you see on your way; move quickly."
You turned to see the giant kick a car just because he could. You lifted your hands to block yourself from the debris flying about thanks to the explosion. Just as you were lowering your hands you noticed a boy who seemed to attend junior high due to his school uniform peeking out at the giant from the alleyway. Your eyes landed on the handle of a wooden baseball bat sticking out of his backpack.
"Hey!" At the sound of your voice his head whipped around quickly. He stared at you with wide eyes. "Can I borrow your bat? I need to use it to take down that big guy over there." He didn't seem to have any words to say to you but pulled the bat out of his bag anyways, subconsciously memorized by the blue wings attached to your back. "Thanks. I'll uh, get you another one. Go on up that road to meet heros who are evacuating people."
You took off once again, partially aware that you'd more than likely never meet that boy again but that wasn't your main concern at the moment. Instead you focused on the giant who was still seemingly on the path of destruction towards your bar. As you followed him, you permitted yourself to stockpile mana into the wooden bat you were holding in your dominant hand. You just needed a few more seconds to load as much as you felt you required, so you veered off to the side to give yourself that sliver of time but not waste any in the process.
If you didn't know that the giant would've had to bash through a building if he refuses to go around it you wouldn't have had the chance you got. Perhaps it was reckless, but all you had to do was change his path of direction and evade his attempts at grabbing you.
"Waxing Crescent." You muttered under your breath, exhaling deeply before procuring a small, right crescent that circled your torso.
After it appeared, you darted forwards towards the giant as his hand lifted to smash the building. "Hey!" His eyes rolled into the back of his head as he blinked before he looked directly at you, eyes dilating into tiny saucers.
That moment was when you threw that bat as hard as you possibly could at his face, making your exit past his other side. He roared in pain, using a hand to cover his eye as he stumbled about while he was temporarily blinded. You could feel an indescribable amount of rage begin to pour off of the monstrous man in waves as he turned and charged after you. You zigged and zagged between buildings in order to remain being caught, but you weren't fast enough when you were snatched by it's free large hand out of the air.
The crescent that had been revolving around you shattered as soon as you were grabbed. You couldn't help the silent scream that escaped your throat as you tried to force his grip to loosen. He was quite literally squeezing the oxygen from your lungs.
"You bitch!"
He roared and his spittle narrowly missed your face. If it had actually hit you it more than likely would've temporarily waterboarded you. You couldn't do anything but hold back your nausea when he arched his arm back and threw you.
You were either moving too fast to see anything properly or your eyes had failed you yet again, but at the rate you were going it wouldn't be too long before you splattered against the side of a building. If you'd been dressed in your hero suit like you were prepped to go on patrol you would've had your support items to interrupt your unplanned flight.
Even though you couldn't see, you closed your eyes in acceptance of your fate. You were disappointed that you hadn't done more with your life, but you were fully prepared to be able to finally see your parents again. The thought of how the people you knew would handle your death didn't cross your mind.
Suddenly the air around you stopped and you felt yourself collide with something soft and warm. Immediately you knew that it was Hawks, and softened into his grip. The comfort that immediately surrounded you was one that you knew you would have missed if you truly had died.
You felt your feet touch the concrete and you frowned, stepping back once you felt capable of walking again. "I could've handled it."
"Sure you could've, stardust." He replied with a smirk. He leaned down to give you a kiss, one that displayed every emotion he was feeling in that moment. "I'll be back."
He left you breathless when he pulled away, turning to look off into the distance. The looming silhouette of the giant was hard to miss.
"I can't lose you."
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