Mysterious Myth (angel/RH apprenticeship)

"Yeesh. Must be an emergency if you guys are actually deciding to call on me. What's the situation?"

With a destination in mind Mia wasn't wasting any time getting to the scene either. It was unusual for them to call her into a scene in progress as they kept trying to bench her and keep her on the sidelines. She'd been managing to get more and more work as her popularity was rising again, but she knew the guys running the show didn't exactly want that either, so if they could help it they tried to keep her on the smaller jobs unless she was the closest to the scene. Akihabara though? Low crime area, and way off her normal route. It'd take her some time to get there so if they needed her on scene it was gonna be because the lower strength pros who got assigned there for patrols weren't up to it or already had their hands full. She wondered why Akihabara of all places but as she got the lowdown on the situation she wasn't getting much in terms of motivation. The powerset though? Yeah, she could see why they were calling her in...

Hearing the comments of Angel, hoping what he did could be reversed? He let out a low chuckle. Too much of his life did he feel like the stand out, the freak. All this power that made him look so unnatural and horrid to so many people and he just had to hold it back and bundle it up? Not anymore! He knew how to undo the stone gaze of his quirk sure! But he was gonna make damn well sure he kept that to himself. That didn’t mean he couldn’t tease the two heroines of course.

“Ooooh it can be undone alright but only when I say so! You really think I’d keep a collection of toys I didn’t plan to play with!?”

“Well that is what you nerd types tend to do…” Mia grumbled through a grimace, already not liking the vibes this guy was giving off. Big ass wings and big ass muscles? Yeah, she was on board. Seemed like he might even be a challenge, but she could do without the creepy as hell motivation. What happened to the great villains like Muramasa who wanted to tempt her to the dark side or some shit… ah well. She supposed her ‘everyone’s human’ mentality also pushed to creeps like this. For every great cult leader like Muramasa, there was a pain in the ass would be nerd overlord like horny here.

Her gaze shot back to Angel as they mentioned running to the scene without a hero. She could never fault her for that but that didn’t mean she was too eager to work with her after their last interactions, her gaze shooting back forward, crimson gaze trying to drill holes through the minotaur’s own, the three holding up the street as distanced police started to put up barricades around what was undoubtedly about to turn into a battleground. She could feel the peppy energy Angel was trying to exude, and frankly? She wasn’t too in the mood for it knowing she was going to be on babysitting duty for this one. She wasn’t upset Angel came here without a pro, she wouldn’t be upset if any student did that. She’d risk her career to cover their ass.

She was just upset it was Angel.

“Trying to get an angle on me eh Angel?~” The beast teased, his wings spreading out wide from his back before covering himself in a cover from above. While it didn’t do much to suppress the shockwave, a loud ringing soon sounding through his ears, it at least acted as a strong guard for the barrage of feathers that soon came, a flap of his wings knocking the barrage away from him, and preparing to take to the sky. Not about to let this guy get an aerial advantage, Mia rushed forward to close the distance.

“I said I got-!” Mia came in with a downward hook, clipping him at the edge of his skull, and rising up with a grasp of his horn, pulling his head up and dragging him by both horns into a powerful headbutt. “This-! She kept a firm hold on his horns, dragging his head down from the recoil and slamming her knee up into his chin, sending the minotaur flying a good few meters down the road and scraping up the tarmac as he landed, groaning from the assault of the heroine. “COVERED!”

Glaring across to the dazed minotaur, their head frazzled for two reasons now, she shot a look to Angel. “Dunno where the hell you got the mythical creatures from but maybe just say ‘he turns people to stone’. I don’t need a fucking history lesson. I mean the fuck’s a gorgo-!?”

Her frustration with Angel wouldn’t be allowed to reach a full boil as a steely beam of energy cut between the two of them mid yell, Mia jolting backwards, thankful for the disorientation of the criminal as she watched the effects of the beam, even the tarmac it hit becoming more grey and gravelly. Even if he couldn’t aim he could adjust, and scooping up the manhole cover she tossed it at Angel. “SHIELD!” She called, making it clear why she was tossing it to her. Knowing it’d come out of her paycheque Mia dived for a car as the beam chased her haphazardly too, ripping a door off the nearest parked vehicle and using it like a shield herself. The beam didn’t deflect, just slowly turning the car door to stone as Mia guarded behind it, the disorientated beast barely able to keep focus and shifting his beams between the two of them back and forth.

Everytime there was a break on the beams focusing on her, Mia would try to break the distance between her and the criminal, but she was barely getting a meter or two at a time before risking turning to stone if she didn’t put her guard up or hide behind a car again.

“No we don’t! You don’t seem to ge-!” Mia had begun to yell back mid advance just as another beam cut her off and she fell into a defensive position, glaring over her cover at the disorientated bull and not by any means having a good time with this one. She loved when her power was enough to barrel through opponents, the unbeatable, unstoppable redhorn, but when criminals had a quirk like that. An instakill if you will, it definitely sapped the fun out of a fight for her as she had to play defensive. The talking down she felt she was getting from Angel didn’t help either. This would be a tough fight, no doubt about it, but that didn’t mean she NEEDED her help!

“Just this-!?” Her gut reaction was to yell at her again. ‘Just this once’. Where the fuck did she get off!? Just this fucking once! She listened to the kid half the damn time! It was listening to how needy she was that got the two of them in their currently strained relationship. She wouldn’t harp on it though, gritting her teeth and holding her tongue as she listened to the definition of a gorgon, shooting a sharp look back as she tore up a chunk of the road and pushed it upwards like peeling a potato to act as cover against another stray beam. “Then just say it shoots stone beams! Why the obscure reference!?”

Despite her complaints she was seeing the larger picture here, and as she spotted the stone transformation slipping around the edges of her current cover she dipped for another one, diving behind a nearby car again, breathing quick through her nose. She had no idea if that stone shit spread through touch, like if her cover turned to stone and she was touching it so would she, but best not to take the risk eh? She turned her eyes to Angel as they seemed to have a plan and let them flow with it, peaking over her guard to keep an eye on those eratic beams as the dazed minotaur continued to flail his head about wildly.

Mia watched the initial toss of Angel’s makeshift shield, pinging off the minotaur’s head and causing a brief break in the lazers. Angel rushing to her however felt more than a little risky, turning two moving targets into a single bundle, but as frustrated as she was with them, she’d trust the kid’s instincts. She didn’t know how much weight she’d put in a mirror being their saviour, but it seemed they were on the money with that one, watching as the beam briefly reflected up towards the sky, before some shifting of the angle had it hit the minotaur’s feet. The moment he felt the stiffness in his feet, the beams stopped, and he looked down to his lower limbs in confusion.

“Got one!”

The moment the beam’s stopped Mia broke from cover, vaulting out along the street and over a car in her way with ease, leaping without even hoisting herself across it and refusing to break momentum. The heavy sounds of her footsteps were enough to tell him she was coming of course, and the confusion at his legs shifted into an angry fury pointed in her direction. “Oh you heroes and your damn tricks!” Arms pulled back, a burning flame coated them before shooting forward with a double thrust. Mia’s momentum briefly came to a close. The burst of flame was large enough to engulf her entirely and she was so close she didn’t have an opportunity to dodge. He chuckled maliciously, thinking for a moment that he’d managed to devour her with his flames.

“GUESS AGAIN COW-MUG!”

Bursting out the other side of the inferno, Mia had a fury in her eyes, channelling her frustration at his dirty tricks and a certain winged heroine into a hard strike across his face. Despite the surprise of her surviving his flames, the Minotaur took it better than before. In seconds the two devolved into an exchange of blows, Mia taking a gut punch to manage a hard slame against his shoulder, suffering a kick to the leg to deliver a harsh knee into his own chest. Without going red, they were a solid match for eachother. He wasn’t no Muramasa, but he was a decent sparring partner.

“Aw! That all the former number one got!” Despite the confidence in his words, Mia could tell he was sweating from the effort. He’d been using his power all the way down the street and now some fresh heroes on the scene could take advantage of that. Rearing back her arm, she felt the tightness in her skin as her muscles bulged, the red overtaking a single arm.

“Not even close!”

With a striking uppercut divered square into the Minotaur’s gut, Mia sent the criminal flying up into the air, instinct taking over her more petty urges as she yelled out, seeing the minotaur spread his wings. “TAG IN ANGEL!”

Mia was a bit too busy throwing punches to make an argument back about the information secrecy. This guy lived with his quirk, he probably knew all the names for it. Gorgon eyes, minotaur body, phoenix whatever. It didn’t really do them any good being secretive if they couldn’t really understand eachother, but even while she was trying to break this fucker’s snout she could admit that was maybe more her fault for being a bit dense as heroes go and not Angel’s. She was just trying to throw in a bit of creative cover for them afterall.

As she launched the Minotaur up into the air she heard the warning call about the ‘sky having eyes’. That she wasn’t too dense to catch. While she’d managed to control her red rage these days, and it’d probably be good to show the media that now and then, it was early days and she didn’t want anyone going into a panic thinking there was another villain who could push her to those limits again. She shook out her arm, the red skin fading and her arm slimming down a little as the muscle slimmed too. For now she just kept her eyes on the fight, looking up with sharp red eyes and backing up, ready to move and catch any drop strikes Angel might deliver. She didn’t quite get the warning about trying to avoid sending him into the air though, tending to find news choppers knew how far away to fly so as not to be caught up in these messes.

“As a teacher kid I can tell you that ain’t the case half of the time. Guy’s got plenty of oxygen to burn in the air so unless it specifically comes from his lungs that ain’t gonna do us much, and trust me, if I give him a throat punch? I’m likely to kill him.” True enough, Mia had spent most of her career basically learning how not to kill someone through strength alone. As devastating as he blows could be it was from a lot of learned experience about what her opponents could handle, and where she could strike to wind them rather than kill them with internal bleeding or, in this case, shattered windpipes. “Just focus on wearing him down…!”

There was a low growl in her voice, and as the minotaur started to rise from the road again Mia cut the distance with a bursting leap that left imprints in the tarmac, striking him hard with her carried momentum, trying to slam him back down only for his wings to fan out, acting like wind breaks. He caught her fist and then the other, the two of them digging their feet into the tarmac as they tried to gain some ground on the other with their immense strength. Mia knew she could take him easily if she tapped into her red, but Angel had a point that it probably wasn’t best to do that too soon.

“Let’s see you do with an up close and personal Roast huh!??” Mia felt the heat in his palms as the fire built up his arms again, and tugging one of his arms in rather than pushing against it, she pulled her fist from his grasp, gripped one of his horns, and aimed his fire blast elsewhere. She could probably take it but she needed to give him the sensation he was wasting his efforts. The flame couldn’t travel far, but the edges of the burst seemed to flicker at the edge of the streets. Mia wasn’t too worried since stone didn’t tend to melt all too easy, but she did notice curiously enough that the women who’d been trapped in stone started to have their casing crack. She got the minotaur in a headlock, making sure he wasn’t firing any more flames as she watched the stone casing peel away. The women looked a little pale but they soon their feet, grabbed one another and started bolting it down the street.

“Well I guess we know your little trick e-GCK!” Too focused on watching the effects of the flames on the statues she left her self open to a blow beneath her chin, thrown off the lock and staggering back.

“Yeah!? So what!? It’s not like you’re gonna make me do that for all of ‘em!”

(Feel free to control the villain a little too rather than just using him like a punching bag. It’s easy for me to control him and Mia fighting but accounting for angel too rather than just having Mia tackle him is hard, cause if Mia’s up in his face it’s hard for me to write an opening for Angel too.)

Mia could admit, the kid had some spunk on them in a fight to be taunting the beast like that. A few of the new first years she’d seen a lot more. A lot of the new kids tended to worry about beating up even criminals, like they’d wanna avoid it, but here Angel was taunting it out of them and bringing them to a boil. Honestly if it didn’t come with the frustration that it didn’t really fit the ‘angel of mercy’ image they always tried to force she’d have almost respected and played along. The frustration wasn’t so easy to ebb away at, though, it did get a small smirk at the very least.

As she sprayed out the flames she’d baited out into a wider area, saving all but the stragglers of statues at the very edges of the streets, at the very least they didn’t have to worry so much about collateral in their surroundings. Mia felt her body growing and tightening, growling a little under her breath as she let her Red flow over her. She was getting better at tapping into it on purpose, and it was coating most of her arms and legs by the time Angel landed beside her.

“Low and high. Got it.” The red finished encompassing her, the bulky heroine’s muscles tightening and condensing beneath the thick, hard, red skin layer that now encompassed her muscles. A crack formed in the pavement beneath her feet, showing that despite getting slimmer and leaner she was no less heavy, if anything it had all just been refined into a more streamlined, red coated form. The scar in her horn seemed to burst, a golden spray that made her wince before igniting into a similarly vibrant flame that mixed with her hair without burning it. She didn’t have a reason to go easy anymore. She knew the kid had given her a warning before… but the world needed to see she had control of this now.

Bursting forward, she held her warms wide ready to take the minotaur whichever way he went, a rumbling growl in her throat. The Minotaur meanwhile looked furious as his eyes darted around his escaping collection. The mirror kicked towards his face caught in a tight grip. He looked to it briefly to it, it’s shape curved… and an idea formed. With a cocky smile he tossed the mirror up, the disk spinning and shooting his stone beams up at it. He struck the mirror dead in the middle, it’s curved shape spreading his beam out in a myriad of directions as it split, many of the women trying to escape struck again. He didn’t get much of a gloat in, just chuckling victoriously.

Mia’s eyes flared with rage at the audacity of the turn on them, but that just steeled her resolve to put this guy down quick. If they could put him in custody they could force that quirk out of him and fix what he did. She shoved hard off the road again to close the distance, with enough force that the shockwave of it might likely throw Angel off course above her.

Alas, all it took was a downturn of his eyes to turn the petrification Beam on Mia, so eager to take him out she left herself open to a full blast, frozen mid swing, the dense air collecting around her fist seeming to have been turned to stone too creating a devastating effect like an artist had carved this statue to represent someone trying to punch the very sun itself out of orbit, her glare focused hard on the beast, chuckling in his victory.

“Not so tough now huh?~”

He rounded the statue, looking up to Angel with a wicked smile, pounding his fists into his chest, and taking to the air to meet her in the sky.

“Well that’s one ‘rare item’ added to the collection… you next?~”

“Girlie I dunno exactly what you think you have to apologize for but let’s be real here, I’m more horrific than anything you could-!”A yell of pain interrupted his taunting words, having assumed the words were intended for him he felt a sting of pain in the right side of his jaw. Having taken to the air he didn’t have the ability to dig in his hooves and hold his ground, finding himself flying like a boulder towards one of the buildings lining the edges of the street. He tried to spread his wings and break his launch but the extension of his wings left the center of his back wide open to the kick to his spine, face planting the tarmac soon enough once again, a blood shot tinge to the edges of his manic eyes as he shoved himself up out of the mess of the road they’d been making throughout the course of the fight, glaring over his shoulder.

“Aw, and you act like some dutiful hero protecting people. Playing the good guy card just because you don’t kill me. I mean-“ He gestured around himself. “I don’t think I’ve killed anyone either.~” He chimed back as he shoved himself out of the tarmac, a constant scowl on his features, struggling to maintain a cocky, cheeky tone as his own anger and frustration was starting to seep into his voice at this point. “As much as I appreciate you trying to lighten your own conscience. I don’t think I’m gonna take that offer. I mean, what do you expect? My prison sentence isn’t gonna be any lighter if I stop fighting back now is it?~ I took down one of the most devastating heroes the city knows just by staring at her! I think I’ll take my chances with some pompous little twerp who’s trying to pretend she’s better than me!”

To emphasize his point, he pushed his head forward as if powering behind the beams he fired, trying to hit her, or at least graze a wing to bring her out of the sky. Whether he was able to meet her on the ground or had to rise to her level, he’d charge forward, beefy arms raised above his head and brought down powerfully against Angel, but before she went flying from his range, he’d shift the pounding fists into a grasp, grabbing her clothes should she have left her guard open, or her arms if she guarded, swinging her around and trying to toss her along the street, chuckling below his breath as he tried to push himself, panting harshly at this point, his vision starting to blur as he was pushing his limits.

“Heh, course ya woulda-“ He began before he launched up to her, clearly not believing her. “But ya know, it’s also wasted picking up trash, so I think I’ll take my chances!”

As he made his charge and attempts to toss her around, he found her meeting him blow with guard. The feathers she tossed, even those that turned to stone embedding themselves in his tough skin, thigh with muscle they didn’t get too deep, but the wounds were definitely there as he took a moment to catch his breath after the assault, feeling it drain his stamina further as the minute blood loss was messing with him more than it should have with his heart beating so fast. A harsh hiss sounded out from him, a sigh of his healing as fire spawned around his wounds. They couldn’t push out the feathers, but they sealed the wounds shut and stopped him bleeding out around them.

“Yeah I’m familiar… but you keep talkin’ about your boss… heh! What exactly are you?! Take away fame, money, power…! You sound like some tantrumming little brat who only decided to fight cause your idol got beaten down! You’re practically just a random weeb getting upset ‘cause goku lost to vegeta one time! HAH! Don’t make me laugh with all these… p-pompuss… speeches…” He took a wobbling step, the drain of the fight getting to him for sure, but managing to hold his ground for now.

His own bravado didn’t last much longer however. As Angel flew circles around him, the one true thing she had over him being speed, his attempts to blast a stone beam at her or a burst of flame were for naught. First his right arm went dead as a feather dug into his shoulder muscles, then his left wing, the other, and finally his other arm in turn. He roared out in frustration, his vision a hazy blur, only able to see a snap of pink in the blurry motion before pain filled his face, smashing through the petrified car, the build of it crumbling to ash where he landed through it, his eyes practically spinning for a moment as he lay there, groaning. No more dramatic callouts of his own… his head tipped back, and he passed out with a groan.

From where he passed out, an invisible wave almost seemed to pass over the street. The car first, being the closest, what little remained of it returned to metal and the leather of the seats. The girls closest started to turn back to normal, and seeing the danger was at an end paramedics rushed in to try and get them somewhere save for a checkup.

When the petrification’s retreat finally reached Mia, the force of her punch that had been locked mid-throw echoed with a loud BOOM through the street. It thankfully didn’t strike anything even with it’s shockwave but it was clear the force had still been there. Mia’s own red skin quickly retracted to a normal peachy color as she caught her breath, dropping to a knee, and spitting out a chunk of ashy gravel that was lodged in her throat.

“Ain’t fucking doing that again…” She chimed out to herself.