"Lending a helping hand!" (internship:Red Horn)

Mia had been at the site for a few hours already helping the teams set up. This wasn’t the emergency response team but instead the direct rebuilding efforts that came once the civilians were safe and the area was more stabilized. With quirk development still in its infancy as the wars between heroes and villains had only just begun, the damage to the streets during combat never got too extreme but a bit of help from heroes here or there tended to keep public favour on their side in the long run. Mia wished they didn’t have to do that just to keep people from pelting bricks at them while on the job but… eh. Not everyone was a fan.

Still she decided to use it as an experience. She’d been warned by a member of UA staff that she needed to show she could go a day with one of their students without the students coming back with torn leg muscles or smoke damage or the like. So she decided to go for something a lot tamer here. Picking out one of the students apparently known for wanting to take a more accepting and ‘loving’ outlook on her work, she decided this might be a good opportunity to expand her own horizons. Didn’t innately seem the type she’d get along with, but she’d give it a go.

From name alone, Mia hadn’t realized she’d actually recognize the kid, and when they finally arrived on the scene, though it had been a near year since they’d last met, Mia’s eyes would flair a little as she could tell she recognized something, stepping away from the trucks that were parked up on the scene next to a ruined storefront and a few broken down market stalls, walking up to the Angelic heroine in training as she crossed her arms.

“Yeah something like that but… real quick. We met before?” She held one hand behind her back, resting her knuckles into the back of her hip, two hard hats hanging off her fingers, one specifically cut with an electric saw to have an extra divet in it to make room for the blonde heroine’s horn, but before she’d offer it across she’d check her memory wasn’t failing her. “Sorry, just feel like we’ve met before come to think of it. I mean I sent you an email cause the teachers said you’ve got a pretty ‘loving’ outlook on hero work and all that but… I could swear I’ve seen ya before. In person I mean.”

The gears in Mia’s head started to click pretty quickly as Angel helped provide a light jog to her memory, lightly using her free hand to bonk the side of her forehead with the base of her palm. “Ah, right. Now I remember.” In truth she still remembered very little, it wasn’t really a conversation that had managed to lodge itself in her rather cluttered brain, but she did recall enough to know the girl had left… an impression, of a kind. Specifically she remembered the part where she advised her not to drop her tragedies on everyone she met. She hoped she hadn’t been too rude about all that but… the kid at least seemed to emphasize she took it to heart, so she must have at least made a clear point for her not to be upset or holding a grudge about it.

“Ah sorry about that all the same… if I remember right you fought against my old partner in crime Jaz eh?” She teased lightly, remembering it a little more fondly once she recalled the connection between that blonde bombshell and this student. “Good to see you’re healing well. If I remember right you said you wanted to keep that scar like a battle wound eh? Was a bit gnarly when I first saw you but it kinda suits you now it’s faded!~”

As the kid seemed eager to get going Mia offered a warm smile and tossed her across the hard hat without a horn hole.”Don’t worry, you got full permission to use your quirk to aid the rebuilding effort.” She thought for a moment on the warnings UA had been giving her before adding. “We shouldn’t be expecting any crime, but if anything comes up, unless I say otherwise, only use your quirk to defend the workers, I’ll handle the criminal alright?” She didn’t wanna rip the potential for the spotlight from the kid, but she was on thin ice with UA as is, so probably best to at least have one safe internship.

“So, bottom of the line. We’re not experts here but we gotta do our part. This whole street was wrecked the other day by some pillock with a telekenisis quirk running rampant. Now as heroes we can’t be held responsible for the actions of criminals, but we can be held responsible for the moves we make in taking them down. I personally didn’t cause much of the damage trying to knock the guy down, but it never hurts to lend a hand, so in the off chance you ever end up doing some property damage in pursuit of a villain, this should be a good lesson on what the consequences will be like all the same!~”

She tipped the rim of her hard hat, not that she really needed it, before gesturing for Angel to follow. She hesitated for a moment before reaching the scene of the workers however, fishing in her pocket and offering an earpiece across. “Oh before I forget. Hacchi gave me this. Apparently it’s designed to work with your own hearing aids? Should help us talk across the site.”

“Eh you’re not the only one.” She jokingly commented but with a lackadaisalce shrug. It had bothered her a lot when Jaz first left but she could look on it a little more like a joke these days. It was still a bad memory, losing someone she felt such a connection with, but what’s done was done, she just needed to push past her old regrets in Jasmine heading off on her own back to America.

She was about to start walking to the scene but stopped on the spot as Angel put out some words she recognized and Mia tried to briefly grit her teeth but… Nope. Nope. Couldn’t let that fly. She turned back and pointed at the girl and narrowed her eyes. “That’s not your personal hero Creed. Or at the very least it’s not ‘personal’. You stole that from the 12th doctor when he was about to regenerate.” Yeah she watched doctor who re-runs what of it. “Look it’s a good message, but don’t try and pass it off as your own. You didn’t ‘form’ that, you stole it. So… yeah.”

She sighed through her nose, trying not to be too much of a hardass, but she was always a blunt and firm individual, and she didn’t want Angel walking away from today spouting that to someone who might be less kind about her motto theft than Mia was. “Like I said nice message just… yeah.”

She was pretty good to have around all the same, she seemed pretty on board with the fact she’d be playing defense if anything went down, though again she fully doubted that’d be the case so they could just focus on the rebuilding efforts here. As she approached the trucks of supplies and a few people already setting up temporary scaffolding, Angel made herself known and Mia made sure to do the same in turn, giving a two finger salute off the rim of her hat.

“Red Horn happy to help in turn. Some of you already know me but just point us at whoever’s in charge.”

The workers directed them in the general direction of a rather bulky looking fellow with Red skin and four beefy arms. As a mutation quirk he was allowed to use what looked like some intense muscle for the job and Mia had to respect the guy on looks alone, if only in part cause he was one of the few people she could meet on eye level without having to crouch down.

“Ah, Red Horn, finally got that kid you were waiting on eh?” Mia gave a quick nod and the bulky fellow crossed his arms, the girl insisting she was deceptively strong but.. well they’d see. He glanced to the back of one of the supply tricks and then gestured to the roof and it at the same time. “Well we got a few bags of metal parts to fix the roof vents. You ain’t gotta put it together but if you wanna use those wings of yours to get it up there we could sure use the hand. Usually we’d ask Red Horn to handle that but we don’t need any cracks in the pavement from her super jumps.”

Mia gave a hearty little chuckle, recalling when she was first learning to handle the strength in her legs and how it translated into the ground beneath her. She used to practically leave craters wherever she went from how hard and heavy she moved. “Yah don’t worry about it. You got that right Angel? They’re big laods but they’re not all that heavy.”

Mia did feel a little bad about taking a hard line with that thing, it was a good motto to have but she knew it was taken word for word from something else and… she didn’t trust that level of coincidence to have occurred. Still the kid seemed like they’d just taken it up by accident or really had hit that level of coincidence given how surprised she seemed to be by the revelation it was from something else. “No worries kid… didn’t mean to get all hardass with ya but hey I mean. Better I catch it than someone less nice right? I mean, imagine If you said that as a pro and some newspaper figured out it came from something else. Trust me. They’d have a field day with that. Heck even the fanbase of the show would tear you a new one online… just maybe work on something a little more original aye? It’s a good motto but…” She patted her chest with a fist. “Get somethin’ closer to the heart. Aye?”

With Angel getting into her own work Mia shot her a proud little smile, glad to see her getting engaged so readily and watching her flitter up to the roof with some ease thanks to her strong wings, turning to the head of the project here and offering a warm smile to him in turn. “Yeah so sorry about this crap. You know this all ain’t me right?”

The guy rolled his eyes, two more opening, smaller than the primary set and a little further up along his face. “Look we got the report like always. Most you did was leave a dent in the 4 way crossing.” He gestured to a huge crack in the middle of the road. “Trust me Red we know this ain’t you. Guy was throwing shit all over the place you can’t be expected to catch all of it. Besides if ya did I’d be out of a job.” One of the arms not holding his clipboard jabbed her playfully as they chuckled together.

Back on the roof Angel would find a few workers working on the base of the old vent to pull it out as the new pieces came up, glancing towards the girl flying them up. “Ah just in time-“ The little leader of the group spoke up, tipping his hard hat. His hair coming out of the hat seemed spikey and quill like but that seemed to be his only mutation. “Hope it wasn’t too heavy a load miss…” He looked between his buddies and thought for a moment. “We got nothing that needs taking down but er-“

Another in the back, seeming entirely quirkless at face value called across. “Can ya take down our coffee orders?”

The leader sighed, thinking it was a little rude to be so blunt but nodding along. “Yeah. That. I mean just if you’re heading down anyway.” They clearly didn’t mean to be rude with the menial task, and if Angel was okay with it they’d all give her their orders in turn.

Most of the men definitely looked impressed at the numbers she was pulling, looking between eachother just clearly, without words, sharing their look of just generally being impressed by the whole thing and nodding along. “Impressive young lass. They really working you young heroes to the bone if you’re lifting that stuff. Still don’t work yourself out too much here. We appreciate the help but we don’t wanna be sending you home with a sore back.” He smirked as he gave the young heroine a proud look, glad to hear of her accomplishments but caring for her wellbeing all the same.

The leader of the group could tell a little though that she wasn’t happy with the coffee orders, shaking his head and dismissing her even as she tried to offer more genuinely. “’Ay don’t worry about it. Just tell our boss we’re waitin’ on the usuals when you get down there.” Turning about he gestured to the whole ventilation system, the warped metal of which was making it hard to remove from the rooftop. “Here how about you put those muscles to a better favour here?” He gestured to the ventilation. “We ain’t havin’ any look wrenching this thing out. Think ya can pull it off?”

The little leader of this small group of the workers nodded along and stepped aside, the others moving apart too to get Angel some room to flex her muscles as she moved towards the ventilation system, a small word of “If you’re sure you can handle it.” Was all they gave before letting her get to work, the boys making sure they weren’t on her opposite side or anything just incase she lost control of the thing once she ripped it up out of the ground. Afterall once the bolts popped out of place it’d be a big shock to the system how light the thin metal actually was compared to the force it took to rip it out.

None of them expected the approach she took, her fingers literally digging into the metal and one of them even giving a small, impressed whistle sound as she started to tug and pull on the metal with a flap of her wings to help her out. “Well she’s on the ground but-‘ang on.” One of the guys got out their phone and started recording so they could show Red Horn later, watching as she continued to put her back well and truly into it.

The boys all let out a chant of “WOAH!” As she finally ripped the whole thing out with one last hard tug, giving her a small round of applause as she started to fly back down to the ground. “Nice one Angel!” They chimed out, not aware of her full hero title but giving her a nice cheer all the same for the impressive display. After getting rid of a few last metal scraps that had been torn apart from the tug, they’d get to work, but even with the scraps it was far less work than it would have been for the lot of them.

Once she came back to the ground, Red Horn was wresting some rough fabric over her shoulders, scrapping it in place as she glanced to Angel coming down with the vent, whistling a little herself since she could still see the bolts in it and how hard it must have been to remove, a low chuckle escaping her lips. “Damn that’s nice work there. Heh, shame about the coffee run but that’s damn impressive work there kid.” She’d add in, the four armed chief of the show nodding along too.

“They’ll get there coffee don’t worry. Stay down here with us though kid they’ll be busy installing the new shaft.” He’d turn his head and call to a man in a hard hat but without the rough overalls the rest of the crew were wearing. “HEY KEN! Coffee run chop chop!” His two lower arms clapped to emphasize a speedy job and the guy quickly got moving to the coffee shop across the street. The chief meanwhile gestured for Angel to follow him. “I could use you inside while Mia’s working another job.”

“Red Horn.” Mia corrected with a cheeky smirk. “I’m on the job ya gotta call me the hero name bud.” A playful jab of his shoulder told Angel the two were just playing around with eachother despite the correction.

“Aye, aye, Red horn. Anyway you go do what you were doin’ I’ll take the kid for a moment… ‘sumin that’s okay with you little miss? Wouldn’t wanna take you away from your boss for the day.”

Mia looked between the two of them before looking to Angel and giving a light shrug. “I don’t mind them usin’ ya. I gotta act as a support pillar so I’m not gonna be the most ‘mentory’ till they replace it. Besides I was just tellin’ the chief here about how you can shoot your feathers. Apparently he things that might be useful, assumin’ you don’t mind helping him out.”

Mia held a warm smile. She wasn’t too sure how much ‘weight’ Angel held in her opinion of the young heroine herself but Mia was at least glad to see she seemed to have some respect from the girl. Afterall, her goal was to be number one, and it was a goal she’d thankfully achieved even if it wasn’t in the manner she’d hoped. As such it was still a pleasant experience to hear a sense of praise from the young heroes to be, whether it was the general fangirling of the first year shouko, or it was the more genuine sense of admiration that came from a student like Angel who seemed to hold weight in her view of her.

“No worries kid. I mean hey, you’re wasting a day here helping me work with these guys. Pretty sure that’s impressive enough. Pretty sure most’a the kids at UA would be bored outta there minds doing this crap.” She turned to the chief of the operation and raised a hand with a cheeky smirk. “No offense.”

He raised two of his own with a cheeky laugh of his own. “None taken. I’d rather be doing something else myself.”

As Angel seemed pretty agreeable to work with the foreman Red Horn shot her a light smile and gave her a playful jab after seeing Angel go for one but stop, but with RedHorn’s side and Angel’s skinny frame and hollow bones, it was likely enough to knock the small girl off balance a little, earning a quick “Woah sorry-“ From Red Horn before she had a little chuckle about it, not meaning to be rude but just remembering her own strength for a moment. As the three of them walked inside the building, Mia would stop by the pillar getting knocked down. With her size, the moment the base was knocked out, she shoved her shoulder under the structure. The stone creaked but Mia stood strong, her knees bent for some proper strong form as she supported what must be a good chunk of the structure’s weight on one of her shoulders while the boys got to work.

“You guys go on ahead! Won’t be here long!”

The foreman himself took the sharp feather as they walked but seemed not to have any issues brushing his fingers along the edge, having somewhat tough skin himself it seemed from how he didn’t flinch or worry about it. He nodded along to her words, considering the drill angle but offering the feather back incase Angel needed to replace it. “We’ll see. For now let’s start simple. I know this is probably boring work but you are saving us some time. Afterall we can’t use our quirks to hurry the job up like you can.”

Stepping into a back room, the kitchen most likely, it seemed that most of the damage was to the front of the store but the shockwaves it made in the structure had started to crack the tiling in the kitchen. As they were mostly here for more dangerous recovery jobs it wasn’t their job to re-tile the whole kitchen, buuuuut whole all of it was cracked and sharp it was still a health hazard, so they had to clean it up before the insurance companies did their work. “Okay, boring job like I said. Normally it'd take 3 of my guys an hour to un-tile this whole room. I’m thinking maybe you can fire off some rounds of feathers and shatter the rest of the tiling for us to clean up a bit faster. Your accuracy good enough for that? Got enough feathers to work with?”