Chapter 28
Mr. Brave looked at the two new interns in front of his desk and he was surprised. He had thought he had a good idea about their physical sizes from the televised sports festival and he was way off. Way, way off. The green haired young man was getting close to six feet tall, if not at or above it, and the young woman was five feet and eight inches tall herself.
They're supposed to just be first year high school kids. Mr. Brave thought and took in their uniforms. The young woman was smartly dressed in a greenish colored military-like uniform that was a different style than any he had seen before. He also didn't recognize any of the awards above her left breast or the symbol on her hat. Even the silver wings he assumed were for a flight award, wasn't something their own military gave out, which seemed to make her uniform more into a costume.
The young man's costume was in a mostly different vein. He wore a formfitting spandex outfit made of a kevlar weave that showed off his muscular legs and arms. It had a foot wide thick strip of dark green down the front that went from his neck to his feet with a thin white strip on either side. The rest of the spandex was a light green to show off his muscle definition.
He also wore knee high dark green boots with thick soles and dark green gloves that went up to his elbows. On his face he wore a dark green visor that went from ear to ear and across his eyes to protect them. That was the extent of the differences. He also wore the same double breasted jacket with only a couple of awards above his left breast and he wore the same hat. Both were in the same color scheme as his spandex, making it so you didn't really notice it until you looked closely.
“Should I say 'at ease'?” Mr. Brave asked with a smile.
Tanya chuckled and nodded at Izuku, who grinned and they changed to parade rest. They had bet if he would say anything when they stood at attention. Izuku now owed her a chocolate milkshake.
“You're busting my balls, aren't you?” Mr. Brave asked.
“Just the first time, sir.” Tanya said with a smile. “We're here to work and wanted to show you that we can follow orders, even the simple ones like 'relax' and 'don't shoot the civilians'.”
Izuku laughed and then coughed to cover it up. He didn't succeed.
Mr. Brave laughed as well and shook his head. “I'll need to change the rotation again. I don't know if I can let you have access to some of the people that work for me.”
“No sense of humor, sir?” Tanya asked.
“Completely and deadly serious in one case, anger at making jokes with two others.” Mr. Brave said.
“Were they like that before or after working for your agency?” Izuku asked, genuinely curious.
“Why do you ask?”
“It could be the result of the high crime area nearby and dealing with criminals constantly, while not being able to turn them in because they didn't catch them doing a blatant crime.” Izuku explained.
Mr. Brave was surprised by his observations. “How did you guess that?”
“It's just a reasonable assumption.” Izuku said and nodded at Tanya. “Do you want to take this one?”
Tanya nodded. “There's a reason that the military rotates people back from service near hostile areas. It's to give them breathing room and a break from the constant pressure of having to be ready to fight.”
Mr. Brave sat there, stunned. He couldn't believe what he just heard. “I... I can't just fire people because they are weary of their job.”
Tanya laughed. “Fire them? What for?”
“But, you just said...”
“You actually need to hire more people and rotate them in and out. Having all ten of your employees and their interns on patrol constantly every day, is wearing them down mentally. They need breaks to unwind and relax.” Tanya said. “Do you have a media room? A game room? A workout room?”
Mr. Brave sighed. “You haven't been here ten minutes and you're already changing my view of this place.”
“She's not done.” Izuku said with a grin.
“Your people are sloppy and they make mistakes. Stupid mistakes.” Tanya said. “Who sees the patrol schedule? Who else knows the areas you go through? Who knows how many heroes you have on each patrol in each area? Do they stop and eat while on patrol? Who's watching their backs when they do that?” She asked and waved at the office. “You're spending too much time behind a desk running the place and you're missing a lot of the things going on around you.”
Izuku turned his head to smile at the assistant that stood in the open doorway with a shocked look on her face. “Now she's done.” He said and looked forward.
Mr. Brave was just as shocked and stared at the two interns, very opinionated interns, that he now had to deal with. “Gretchen, if you could...”
“Right away!” His assistant said. “Colonel, Captain, this way please. I'll show you to your rooms.”
Tanya and Izuku saluted their new boss and followed the assistant out of the office. They picked up their bags by her desk and went with the woman to their rooms.
Mr. Brave sighed and put his hands to his brow as he leaned over his desk to rest his elbows on it. Screw it. I'm not changing the patrol schedule again. Let them deal with it on their own.
*
“These rooms are actually really nice.” Tanya said after the assistant left.
“You didn't tell them that we only needed one.” Izuku said.
“That's because they won't approve of us bunking together, even if we don't do anything except sleep.”
Izuku chuckled. “I think it's the potential of what could happen that they would be trying to stop. If we wanted to, I think we could find a lot of places that could be used instead of a bed.”
Tanya laughed and walked over to the window to look outside. “We'll need those schedules and when we're apart.”
“You think he split us up?” Izuku asked as he came over to the window as well.
“I know he did.” Tanya said. “With only ten heroes in this area, he would want us spread out as much a possible.” She said and pointed. “There's a yakuza right there on the street.”
Izuku looked and his visor zoomed in for him. “He has two swords in his jacket and a knife in his boot.”
“What an idiot.” Tanya said. “Concealed carry of a deadly weapon is a crime. He's literally walking around a hero agency with 'arrest me' written on his forehead.”
“I don't think his tattoo actually says that.” Izuku joked and she laughed.
“It should.” Tanya said. “I'm going to assume the heroes here are going to leave us alone for the day to let us settle in.”
Izuku nodded. “They are wasting us already.”
“It's all right. We can wait until the morning to get our permission slips to openly use our quirks.” Tanya said and turned around to look up at his face. “We'll do the hero patrols and make ourselves known to the locals.” She said and then let her manic grin out. “Tomorrow night we can finally get to the real work that needs to be done around here.”
Izuku nodded in agreement and they went to their bags to put their personal items and clothing into their respective rooms.
*
“How are they fitting in?” Mr. Brave asked his assistant that evening as they sat in the common living room.
“They haven't left their rooms since they arrived.” Gretchen said.
“Excuse me?”
“I assume it's because you haven't given them permission to leave them.” Gretchen said with a shrug.
“Why are you only telling me this now?” Mr. Brave asked and stood up.
“I thought you knew. You ordered them to go to their rooms.”
“I didn't say to...” Mr. Brave stopped talking and sighed. My words could be interpreted that way. “Never mind. I'll go tell them now.”
“The Colonel is assigned to Mr. Flagrant and the Captain is with Wiggleman for tomorrow's shift.” Gretchen said.
“Why did we give them those two for the first day?” Mr. Brave asked.
“They were the first on the rotation that don't already have their own interns.” Gretchen said.
“Right. I'll let them know.” Mr. Brave said and left the common living room and went up the stairs to the rooms. He reached the Colonel's room and prepared to knock, only he didn't hear anything inside. He thought that was odd, because Gretchen said that they hadn't left their rooms.
He moved over to the Captain's room and heard sounds inside. He knocked and waited. The door opened and a tall and very muscular young man stood there wearing a tank top.
“I assume you're here to finally give us permission to leave our rooms, even though you wasted our skills an abilities for the entire day?” Izuku asked.
“Uh... yes.” Mr. Brave said.
“Thanks. See you in the morning.” Izuku said and shut the door. A second later, it opened again. “What time does the first shift start?”
“Nine.” Mr. Brave said and then told him who he and Tanya would be working with.
“I don't recognize the names. What are their quirks?” Izuku asked.
“You can find out tomorrow.” Mr. Brave said. He didn't want to stand there and discuss quirks for however long it would take to satisfy the young man's curiosity.
“What time do you show up at your office?” Tanya asked from somewhere inside the room.
Mr. Brave couldn't see her. “Eight thirty.”
“We'll be there to get our permission slips.” Tanya said. “Izuku.”
“Yeah, another completely wasted morning when we could be working.” Izuku said and shut the door.
Tanya chuckled at Izuku. “I meant you should say goodnight.”
“I wasn't going to lie to him.” Izuku said and then they both laughed.
Mr. Brave stood outside the door and was sure that he had made a mistake inviting them to his agency. He tried to listen to what was going on inside the room for several minutes, then he gave up and went to his own room. He needed a good sleep after the things he had heard today.
*
Tanya and Izuku were dressed in their hero costumes and waited outside Mr. Brave's office. At exactly eight thirty, he appeared and unlocked the door. He didn't ask them what they had been doing until then, because he really didn't want to know. His hero name was Mr. Brave and he was debating if he was brave enough to tell them that he had changed his mind and didn't want them there.
Mr. Brave went to his desk and opened a drawer, pulled out two pieces of ID, and handed them over. “Meet your assigned hero in the lobby at nine sharp.”
“We'll be done of the first sweep by then.” Tanya said and lifted from the ground in a swirl of air. “Let's go, Izuku.”
Izuku had green lightning bolts flow over him for a moment, scooped Tanya up into his arms, and disappeared from Mr. Brave's sight.
“What the hell was that?” A man's voice shouted from the lobby.
Mr. Brave walked over to the stairs and looked down to see Mr. Flagrant standing at the bottom of the stairs with a shocked face. “What happened?”
“I was there...” Mr. Flagrant pointed at the front door. “...and now I'm here.”
Mr. Brave sighed and didn't bother telling the man that he would be working with the new intern. He just pointed to Gretchen and walked back to his office. He shut his door and sat down behind his desk. He sat there and just stared at the desk. He didn't move or tried to do any work, because he was sure that he was perpetuating the stress on the people working for him.
Colonel Degraff's words kept coming back to his mind and he started to slowly nod his head. He would need to make some long lasting changes to ensure the health of the heroes of his agency and to keep his agency viable for the foreseeable future.
*
“I can't believe this is working.” Tanya said and shook her head as they continued their sweep of the patrol area. “How stupid are these guys?”
“Extremely.” Izuku said.
They had only dropped hints that a rival gang was making a move into the yakuza's territory and then pointed the gangs at the yakuza to prove that they were encroaching on another gang's territory. They were all gathering together and were going to have a major rumble right in the middle of the main district.
“We need to be back at the agency in five minutes.” Izuku said. “Can we get back here before the fighting is over?”
“We can only hope.” Tanya said with a grin. “Let's go.”
Izuku picked her up again and ran with her back to the agency. He stopped when they were in the common living room and saw the heroes and other interns were there.
“There you are.” A stern man spat at them.
“By the looks of your costume, you're Wiggleman.” Izuku said and put Tanya down. “The shift doesn't start for another four minutes.”
“You should have been here for the mission briefing and introductions!” He spat.
“We weren't told about that, even though we've been here since yesterday afternoon.” Tanya looked at Gretchen and then at Mr. Brave. “Someone has been spending too much time behind a desk and is losing touch with what heroes have to deal with.”
Some of the other heroes nodded their heads.
Mr. Brave sighed. “She's Colonel Degraff and he's Captain Midoria. You have the central district patrol today.” He said and walked over to the stairs.
“Boss? Where are you going?” Gretchen asked.
“I'm going out to randomly walk all over. I'll be back for lunch.” Mr. Brave said and went down the stairs.
“You're with me.” Mr. Flagrant said to Tanya.
Tanya nodded and followed him down the stairs.
“I guess I'm stuck with you.” Wiggleman snarled.
“No, I'm stuck with you, you ignorant ignoramus.” Izuku said.
“What did you say to me?” Wiggleman asked and his body started to distort.
Izuku darted his hand out and slapped the man's face with the back of his hand. “Get a hold of yourself! You're a hero, not a villain! STOP acting like one!”
Everyone was shocked at what just happened. Gretchen actually shivered a little, because she knew what kind of temper Wiggleman had.
“You. You struck me.” Wiggleman said and touched his face.
Izuku swung his had the other way and slapped him properly. “Every single time you act like a villain, I'm going to keep doing that.” He said and stepped close to the man. “Before you think you'll get the drop on me at some point, be warned. I can crush your head with just my hands.”
No one moved. Some didn't even breathe.
“Would you like proof?” Izuku asked and disappeared.
A moment later, he reappeared with a chunk of concrete in his hands that was the exact size of Wiggleman's head. In fact, it looked a lot like him.
“Here's your head. Here's what happens when heroes become villains.” Izuku said and then slapped his hands together as if there hadn't been anything between them.
The concrete head blew apart and covered Wiggleman in dust. For some reason, Izuku didn't have any on him.
“Any questions?” Izuku asked and Wiggleman didn't say anything. “No? Then get cleaned up and we can get moving. I'm going to be annoyed that you move so slow; but, there's nothing I can do about that.”
Wiggleman looked down at himself and then at Izuku. He was shocked that he had just seen a copy of his own face disappear into dust.
“You're going to be late for your shift.” Izuku said, a bit loudly.
That startled everyone into moving and the other heroes and interns scrambled down the stairs to get out of there quickly.
Gretchen didn't move and just stood there as she stared at the handsome young man that had scared her. She was grateful that she had already gone to the bathroom or there would have been a yellow puddle on the floor.
Izuku stood there and waited for Wiggleman to come back. If he was lucky, he could guide the traumatized man to the gang fight and let him get some of that frustration worked out. He smiled at using Tanya's old army motivation tactic against someone on his own. It was oddly satisfying and he would enjoy telling Tanya later about how effective it had been.