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

As the two walked back to the group the foreman gave a soft chuckle at her attempted small talk. “Ah I used to just rip spare holes in shirts as a kid but once more people like me started showing up there were brands for this sorta thing ya know? I custom order the odd thing now and then, but working for the government has it’s perks. They’re extra careful not to discriminate so I get my uniform custom made. I’d just google some quirker clothing options, probably find tonnes of start ups by now.”

When Angel mentioned how drawing the extra limbs would be for a second time, Mia parted her lips to say something, but the foreman, standing a little behind angel now, shook his head firmly to give Mia the sign it wasn’t really a bother, and Mia shrugged a little herself, though she’d maybe bring up the issue later. “Yeah if ya say so kid.” She’d respond, still rubbing her shoulders, a small dent in her flesh present from where the weight of the building pressed into her, but it was slowly fading with the passing seconds.

Still, Mia, with the more trained eye of a pro could see when someone was about to topple, and with a cheeky smile on her maw she rounded Angel’s side and gave her a firm squeeze of her shoulder, both as a silent ‘well done’ gesture, but also to keep her steady and help her move to the break area. “Come on kid just take a load off for a sec. I mean already you saved this guys like 2 hours of work so you ain’t makin’ a bad pace on the whole thing.”

Once they were outside Mia would find them the base of some ornamental plant, the base of it a huge square seating areal with the tree sticking out of it’s pot in the middle. She’d shift a little to get comfortable, pinching her fingers into her lips and whistling to wave down the guy lugging back the snacks, dropping a mcdonalds paper bag that seemed filled to the brim with just burgers and a few large cokes beside it, while looking to Angel and dropping off the items she’d requested earlier, and asked if she wanted anything from the spare food he was gonna lay out for the rest.

Once they were both settled, Mia would pull out about 4 small burgers, and start pulling the meat from 3 of them to put onto the 4th to make one super burger. Still, as she made sure the thing was stable and wouldn’t fall apart, she’d idly bring up in a more gentle tone than when she called out her speech thing earlier.

“Hey er… given the whole… tolerance and love stuff you got going on?” Was that right? She may have misquoted it. “I’d mayyyybe stick away from talking about people’s quirks FOR them. I mean, if I just started talking about your quirk like I knew all about it, even if I was right I doubt that’d be too comfortable for you. Same for the foreman. Guy actually eats a pretty normal load for a guy his side. Heck er…” She scratched her cheek. “He’s been on a bit of a diet even for his missus, so erm… yeah. I dunno. I get the idea, more arms, more energy to burn but… not like that for everyone, and always best not to assume aye?” She hoped she didn’t sound like she was giving a lecture, just a bit of humble advice not to go talking about someone’s quirk like you know it.

With the addition to her request, the person doing the food run having gotten plenty spares for snacks for everyone later when they needed a refuel, offering out a burger from the bags he was carrying before pulling out a bottle of coke to go with it, having been sure to get bottles rather than cup drinks cause he knew he wouldn’t have been able to juggle it all otherwise. With that he’d tip his head to the two of them and make his way to keep dishing out the food amongst the other workers.

Red Horn herself was glad that the girl seemed to take on her words at least. She didn’t like feeling like she was giving someone a lecture, she wasn’t a teacher afterall and in terms of being ‘insensitive’ it wasn’t like she could claim to be a strong authority on the matter or anything. Still, Angel reacted in a way she didn’t fully expect. Before actually saying anything to Red Horn on the manner she watched as the young hero in training moved right for the foreman, chuckling a little through her food at the forward acting nature of Angel to walk right back up to the foreman, who was currently ticking things off on his clipboard with one set of hands and eating his lunch with the other.

He’d look across with his 4 yellowy eyes and quirk a brow as she started to apologize, chuckling heartily and shaking his head. “Ah Red Horn give you a mouthful or something? Don’t worry, really. It’s hardly anything new and I got thicker skin then most. Besides you were trying to be… thoughtful, or finding a connection or something, so it’s hardly a bad thing.” He’d tuck his clipboard under an arm, playfully jabbing her shoulder. “Yer good kid. Just keep an eye on those assumptions.”

He’d send her off with a smile and a nod, and Mia and Angel seemed to eat their meals quickly enough, Mia giving Angel a light, reassuring pat on the back when she first sat down, unable to offer verbal congrats since she had a mouthful of chicken and beef.

When Angel was ready to get going Mia would ball up all their scrap into a tight ball and lob it to a trashcan, managing to sink it in a single shot and smirking to herself for it before turning her head back to Angel themselves. “Okay so we should check in with the foreman and-“

A sudden loud crack and creak came from the buildings they’d been working on, a wobbled cry and before the two of them could fully grasp what had happened, one of the temporary supports they’d set up seemed to have splintered, the weight of the building falling and one of the workers on the roof took off guard enough that he was toppling off an unguarded side of the roof, with a chunk of rebarbed concrete falling too towards one of the workers on the ground.

“ANGEL MOVE!”

Mia yelled out, kicking hard off the ground herself. As she rushed back towards the main building she reared a fist back, pumping blood deep through her veins as she threw a titanic punch towards the two objects falling to the ground. A gust of air followed her punch, suppressing their fall and giving them a few more seconds of air time. Mia couldn’t stop however, leaping into the building itself. With the Foreman’s help the two of them took the falling weight of the building and hoisted it back up, slowly pushing all the weight carried on the now unsupported point.

Outside, Angel had a chunk of rebarb falling towards the workers, and a falling worker themself to rescue. Mia had bought her some time to react but it was still a short distance to the ground by now…

Glancing out the window as she tried to support the weight of a fucking building… or a good chunk of it on her shoulders Mia tried to grin through a grimace of pain and agony as the weight continued to bare down on her. Without the shoulder pads helping she was feeling sharp, jagged edges of the building’s structure just trying to penetrate her thick flesh. The Foreman was helping sure but Mia, being much stronger, was still baring a huge bulk of the load as the workers rushed to get more emergency pillars to try and hold it up in Mia’s place. Her grin still tried to form however, watching Angel act quickly and catch the falling worker before he became a bit of red paint on the street. As much as Mia could appreciate a bit of unusual graffiti… that didn’t sound like a paint job anyone wanted…!

The worker himself was still in shock when Angel initially caught him and needed a moment or two to find his feet when Angel let him go, a paniced series of nods coming from him as he held onto Angel’s shoulder till he was sure he could handle his own two feet. With Angel rushing back into the store to try and provide her help, Mia tried to part her lips to speak, but immediately grit them shut as the building shifted and dug deeper into her shoulder.

“GGGHH!!!” The skin around her shoulder bearing the weight was starting to turn Red. Not with blood…though some had begun to leak through the skin, Mia’s actual flesh was turning a deep red. If Angel was a big fan she’d know this was something that happened during Mia’s most spectacular feats. It was a symbol the heroine was pushing herself to her limits, which meant the weight of the structure was REALLY something even Mia was struggling to handle, the deep red color starting to form in patches along the back of her shoulders, the muscles baring the brunt of the weight.

“She…kid she’s a bit busy here just-!” The foreman didn’t mean to yell, and he did need all hands on deck, Holding a chunk of the weight himself he tried to think rapidly on his feet before something came to mind. “ROOF! Workers on the roof! Till we know it’s stable they ain’t safe up their either! Start air lifting ‘em down while we handle this!”

Up on the roof Angel would find a handful of workers, no more than 5 waiting to come down. 2 of them had been lingering beside the scaffolding that was meant to be their way down but with people on the ground floor calling up to them that it wouldn’t be safe to descend. The others were holding up together on the roof trying to focus on one of the corners of the building. Afterall if the thing did come tumbling down, the corners would be the most likely points to remain standing if the break down was focused on the center of the structure… at least that’s what they tried to tell themselves in a moment of panic.

As Angel came to them a few of them paniced just a little more seeing the intern of all people come to their rescue, but the junior foreman who’d been leading he operation on the roof was making an effort to get everyone calm and make sure they were all paying attention and getting so safety as best they could, gesturing for some of the more unstable of the crew (in terms of their nerves) to go first so that Angel could come back to the two more confident and assured members of the crew on her second trip.

Back on the ground floor a majority of the workers were getting clear of the building while a smaller group were rushing in with metal rods that would act as the additional support pillars they needed. Just the one should have been enough but with that staffed they were pooling everything they had into getting this place upright. The foreman seemed to be grumbling something under his breath about how the report said nothing about the damage being this bad. Mia meanwhile wasn’t managing to get words out, focusing too much on supporting the collapsing building. While the foreman was clearly putting some aid in, a majority of it weighed on Mia’s shoulders.

When Angel came to help the foreman called out- “Kid just-!” Too late. Angel not only put herself in the situation but focused on getting in the MIDDLE of them with her huge ass wings. Heck, with how tall the foreman and Mia where, Angel would have to flap them if she even wanted to reach the ceiling with them so the fore armed man had to work even harder to focus. Mia’s eyes were squeezed shut but she could feel the odd tickle of a feather when a wing brushed past her, and as the support pullars were coming into place, shifting the weight of the building here and there, more of it seemed to press into the point they were supporting. Most of the building would survive but a huge chunk in the middle was about to come crashing down on them.

“MOVE!”

Mia yelled out without thought, her voice so loud the building seemed to quake some more. The red flesh that had been spreading had covered a majority of her face now as she glared towards the other two with an animosity she maybe shouldn’t have to the two people trying to help her. The foreman could see Mia needed to let loose here and took Angel’s waist in one of her arms as she rushed off and away from the chaos. The other workers rushed in with more pillars to support what might have been about to come crushing down on Mia, while the blonde beast pushed harder and harder with the force of her beastly muscles. The Red skin covered her entire arms now and was descending down her torso, across her abs like a creeping infection almost as she supported the weight solely on her own two hands…!

The last support pillar came, and the weight gave, Mia let her arms drop just as the red was about to disappear beyond the waist line of her pants, panting harshly as he slowly began to fade back up along her torso, and from the edges of her knuckles up along her arms. The red beast just needed to… breathe, leaving her panting harshly as she tried to just get through this moment of burning pressure in her muscles.

“Haaah….haaaah…”

Red horn’s breath’s seemed to steam against the air, each one so hot that even the moderate chill seemed to create almost a miniature cloud with every breath she took. The red skin coating her body was slowly receeding back to the points it had spawned from, but a thick coating was still over her forearms and the back of her shoulders, the main points where she’d been carrying the weight. Her horn was even slowly receeding back into her scalp, the bulging veins around it starting to calm down as she did, but still remaining quite the beefy brute even as she took her breaths.

“Heh…?” She questioned, glancing across to Angel as the young heroine was clearing trying to address her. She held her head for a moment and winced, the foreman stepping forward and resting a hand on Angel’s shoulder, cautiously keeping the kid at a distance. He wasn’t trying to treat her with kid gloves, as the look on his face when aimed at Red Horn was one of a begrudging sense of worry. It seemed like this wasn’t the first time he’d seen this, and while he was concerned for Angel and Red Horn both, there was clearly some odd sense of frustration aimed at Red Horn herself.

“I… yeah er… don’t worry about it.” She rose up to her full height, rubbing her head with a deep sigh and shaking it. “I’m good really… I get what you were going for kid it’s fine. I ain’t upset…” The red was disappearing more and more but small splotches of it seemed to persist a little longer. “Hey er… go make sure everyone outside is okay for me ay?”

She, without wanting to be dismissive, tried to guide Angel aside, looking a lot more worn out mentally than she was physically. “I just… need to see what went wrong in here. Mind giving me a moment?”

She’d give Angel a weak but hopefully reassuring smile, most of the red disappearing. Maybe a smidge or two here or there but it would be gone within the next few seconds. Mia would try to hold her smile till Angel was out the front of the building, but the heroine in training might be able to pick up the Foreman in a hushed but concerned tone as he walked to Mia.

“That’s the second time Red Horn. You sure you-“

“I’m… I’m good. I’m working on it.”

As angel flew out to check on the workers, they seemed to mostly be catching their breath from rushing inside and setting up the temporary support pillars, a few sitting on their asses and leaning back on their hands, another leaning against a wall or so. Each of them gave weak, slow nods to the questions put their way and took in a deep breath as they realized, as much as they might have earned a small break, they still had a chunk of the day left ahead of them to work.

“Aye we’re good. Thanks kid…”

The one she’d specifically saved from falling was being mildly supported by a few back rubs from a fellow worker, lifting his head and nodding a little slower than the others. He was clearly a little more than shook from the near death experience, but Angel’s chipperness made him laugh a little at her suggestion. “Yeah we… we’ve been in a bit of a rush on these projects but we’ll… we’ll look into it.” Typically, with how most Japanese buildings were designed, a railing wasn’t necessary. They had fences around the roof or elevated brick work to act as a railing. The poor sap had just leaned on it at the wrong time.

When Angel finally got to asking what was next however, Mia entered to sadly disappoint, crossing her arms and letting out a little scoff. “Sorry kid I think that’s it for you today.” She’d chime into the conversation, waiting for Angel to flutter down to ground level, rolling her neck back. By now there wasn’t a hint of Red left on her skin, but some of her skin where it had started to sprout from before did look a little rough and dry. “When I go red like that I gotta call it a day for er… safety reasons.” She sunk her hands into her pockets with a casual shrug. “And without me keeping eyes on you you ain’t allowed to use your quirk… so sorry to say it but I think the business day’s over for you.”