Sable [MHA]

II. Rescue

It's dark out by the time she decides to leave the abandoned school, dressed in her costume. She'd installed a voice changer in her mask and her hair is styled to cover her turquoise eye, while she'd managed to make a basic wig with yarn and other basic materials, sticking with the half red half blue theme she wanted. She hopes no one looks too closely at her eye, especially since there is no way to hide the wide cat-like pupil her eyes adapt when it is dark. She huffs, tucking her hands into the long sleeves of the hoodie. She has a knife hidden in her sleeve, but she'd carefully put plastic over the blade and wrapped it in fabric so she didn't cut herself on it. She regrets not putting any pockets in the hoodie or putting sheaths built into her pants. No matter. She's already regretting it, no need to mope around when she could be moving around. She walks quite far from the abandoned school she's living in, not wanting to lead people to her base if she were to get chased.

Of course, getting chased is only an issue if people can see her, otherwise, she can turn into a cat and leave. She has no plans on people knowing she has a quirk. She's thirteen, there is still hope for her to get into a hero school. She studies enough that she should be able to get in even if it is going in through the support course. That reminds her- she needs to get a job.

Sitting on a roof, her visible red eye focuses on the ground below. Her shoulders hunch, the black stitches of her symbol on the front of her hoodie flickering into her view- an 'S' overlapping an 'A'. Her ears twitch at a scream. It was close, and at this time of day, there aren't many heroes despite all the crime. She jumps to the next building, adjusting her mask and turning on the voice changer.

The glint of a knife gets her attention, and she drops to the alley below silently without bothering with the fire escape. Not only would it ruin her surprise appearance with how noisy it is, but it would also be too slow. The silence of her landing can be attributed to her quirk, which makes landing on her feet second nature even without taking on a feline form, and the relative cleanliness of the spot she landed in, which is strangely free from dirt and stones.

"Give me your money and I won't hurt your pretty face, miss," a rather ugly voice comes from the knife-wielding man. The girl being threatened cries out, taking a step back.

"I don't have any money," the girl winces when the man brings the knife a touch too close and nicks her skin.

"I didn't think my first fight would be against a cowardly mugger," the masked girl speaks from behind the man, her voice coming out monotone and at a pitch that makes it hard to tell if it belongs to a boy or a girl. She even sounds older than she is. The man spins around, startled. It makes sense, seeing as she'd made no sound when she arrived. "You may call me Sable."

"A hero?" the man questions, getting a head tilt from Sable. Naturally, she tilts her head to the left to keep her turquoise eye hidden. "Or are you a vigilante?"

"If you guess all the answers, you're bound to be right eventually, right?" Sable takes a calm step forward. The man seems to grip the knife tighter. Sable hums, her gaze shifting to the right where the girl who was being threatened had run at the distraction. "Miss, can you get behind me? I don't want him getting his hands on you."

"Damn hero," the man snarls, lunging forward. Sable doesn't allow confusion to fall into her expression, keeping her eyebrows in their resting position. Some say she has a resting bitch face ignoring her eye shape, others say she has a resting laughter face considering her eye shape. She never cared to say her eyes are shaped to be constantly smiling.

"I guess I'm the first quirkless 'hero' then," Sable responds, grabbing the man's wrist when he goes to stab her. He tries to tug his hand back, but Sable doesn't allow it. Instead, she kicks him harshly in the crotch. Even the girl winces from her spot watching from behind Sable as the man curls up and accidentally stabs himself in the thigh. Sable winces as well at that, glad she made her costume out of a material that repels blood and other liquids. "Miss, do you happen to have any gloves on you?"

"Yeah, uhm..." the girl rummages through her bag, the name stitched into the side catching Sable's attention from where she stands with a mugger at her feet. Where had she seen the name 'Mei Akiyama' before? Oh right, the notebook she found. The girl doesn't look to be a student, though. A teacher, perhaps? "Here," the girl hands some gardening gloves to Sable. "They probably aren't the ones you were expecting, but it's better than nothing."

"Thanks, miss," Sable puts the gloves on, unconcerned about the fact that they fit despite the girl being much, much shorter than she is. She has a whole head on the girl she just saved, yet their hands are similar sizes. She blames it on being thirteen. She crouches, inspecting the accidental self-inflicted stab wound on the man. The man had passed out soon after stabbing himself, but his thigh is still bleeding. "Call the police and explain your situation. I'm a vigilante, so I'll have to go before they arrive, but tell them the mugger stabbed himself in response to getting kicked. I'll stick around until I hear sirens."

"Thanks, Sable," the girl smiles. "I know this is strange, but my name is Mei Akiyama. I'd like to meet you outside of your costume if that's alright. There's this school that was abandoned two years ago because of a fire. We could meet there."

"I know that location, but I don't know when I'll be able to meet you, Akiyama-san," Sable sighs at the sight of the man's thigh. Not much she can do. The mugger is a guy and she's a very innocent young girl. Taking the knife out would be worse. Sable listens to Mei's soft voice make the call to the police, standing and keeping the gloves to avoid fingerprints. Speaking of, she did grip that guy's wrist earlier, didn't she? Running through the incident in her head, she realizes that the long sleeves of her hoodie kept her fingertips from touching the man's wrist.

"Three days," Mei speaks as distant sirens barely prod at Sable's ears. Sable nods without looking, stretching. "Keep the gloves."

"You weren't getting them back even if you didn't give me permission to take them," Sable lowers her arms, huffing. "He's alive but is bleeding out. I can't do anything because you are here and because the knife is what is slowing the bleeding," Sable informs the girl before she leaves the alley. Down the street, the fluffy form of Fat Gum waddles towards the alley she just left. She curses internally but walks calmly across the street. Running would only draw attention. Getting away without attention would be better than getting chased by heroes. Another hero is with the BMI hero, making Sable sigh. The hero with Fat Gum breaks off into the alley while Fat Gum goes after Sable.

"Wait there," Fatgum calls as Sable jumps onto the lowest level of the fire escape with the assistance of the walls of the alley. Sable pauses, crouching on the railing of the fire escape without worry. She'll land on her feet no matter the distance. "Did you stab someone?" Fat Gum doesn't even try to get onto the fire escape, seeing as Sable has control of the fire escape at the moment and, though she's crouching in a rather relaxed way, she could be dangerous.

"No," Sable answers, her visible red eye closing. Fat Gum is one of few heroes, aside from underground heroes, who she views as a true heroes. He genuinely cares. "You are a true hero, Fat Gum. I have nothing against you. I have nothing against most heroes. I am not after heroes. I'm not even after villains. My appearance here was just me reacting to someone's scream and then getting a man to accidentally stab himself."

Both hero and vigilante wince at the end of that sentence- the man had been checked over, according to the hero Fat Gum was with when the police notified them, though the woman who was attacked mentioned that the vigilante couldn't do anything because of the gender and the fact that the knife was slowing the bleeding. The hero followed up with the fact that the assessment was correct.

"There was no report of a scream," Fat Gum comments, watching Sable's visible eye for a reaction. When there wasn't much other than pure disappointment, Fat Gum frowns. The expression is unlike him, and Sable stands on the railing.

"This area is prone to nighttime crime because heroes rarely take up the nighttime hours, especially in this area. I did some research on it. I suggest asking at least the police to patrol here more frequently if they have an issue with me being in the area," Sable informs Fat Gum before climbing the stairs of the fire escape rather quickly. She feels too vulnerable despite her positioning, and she'd said what she wanted to say. "I'll report to the nearest police station from here in about a day."

Sable leaves before Fat Gum could respond, footsteps light and silent despite the small pieces of trash and small rocks littering the roof. She frowns at the dirt, realizing she may also have to play clean up the streets at some point. Litter on the streets themselves is rare, but she's seen some dirty roofs during the three or so hours she's been in costume. She becomes a chubby white cat when she knows no one can see her, plopping down a fire escape and into an alley. This alley is cleaner than the other, and the area itself is more residential than anything. Deciding to take a walk and see if any charitable souls are willing to feed a stray, she pads into an area where there are many, many apartment buildings lined in rows. The sun is rising now, as she took a while to get out of the area she made her debut.

She sighs but is stopped by a gentle hand petting her back. She twists to look at the owner, finding it to be a plain-faced green-haired boy. He offers her something with his other hand.

"Treat?" his voice is kind and warm. Sable sniffs it, the green eyes of her current cat form wide with curiosity. It smells like turkey and chicken, an odd combination. She licks the opening to the packet cautiously but finds nothing wrong with the flavor. She eats as much from the packet as the boy her age allows her to, green eyes glittering with happiness. She won't be hungry tonight. With a flick of her tail, she bids the boy farewell the best she can like a cat before trotting off, her chubby belly swaying with the movement.

Kind, genuinely charitable souls are nice when they aren't expecting anything in return.