Chapter Text
Tech Showcase Day for HeroTV was off to a fabulous start—not a single 5-alarm fire, building collapse, or natural disaster had cut into the occasion yet this time, and god forbid, they were going to have one hero event without a major incident this century if it killed them.
“Next guest!” a male voice came from behind them, one of the event coordinators whose job it was to keep things moving smoothly.
An unusually scorching, cloudless early September day meant they could expect the crowds to be a bit more ornery than usual, the sunlight so intense that the heat could be seen radiating off the cement in the midtown square. Kotetsu snuck a peek at the time under the table and sighed. He sat with Barnaby at the center of Apollon’s booth with their hero suits on and their helmets resting in front of them, using it as an opportunity to let guests interact with the technology.
He still found himself having to get used to the surge in popularity all over again after their much-lauded return to the First League. The public always showed up in droves to see their favorite heroes, but Apollon Media’s showcase stood out as the clear winner. Everyone from children to hero agency scouts from faraway cities had come to see what was on display, and though they didn’t say it out loud, Lloyds surely had dollar signs in his eyes when he signed off on the event. Obviously, Saito was the real mastermind and resident expert behind all of the company’s tech, but seeing as he wasn’t the best at public relations, they left most of the talking to their more charismatic faces. A large, winding line queued up to meet their two heroes, one so long it extended all the way into the neighboring company’s showcase, a setup that would earn them a complaint from Kronos Foods the following day.
A young boy was next in line to meet them, wearing—what else—a Barnaby Brooks Jr. t-shirt. Kotetsu was used to it by now. Barnaby’s legion of superfans extended to people of all ages, genders, and backgrounds (though young women were a non-insignificant demographic), but children were always his favorite. It was funny to watch the way they always approached him with a sense of wide-eyed wonder, like they were about to meet the real Santa Claus and not Barnaby from Stern Bild who takes the pickles off his hot dogs. This particular child had focused all of his attention on the helmets sitting on the table in front of him, ignoring the two heroes who were curiously watching him from behind.
“Hi there!” Barnaby greeted in his public performance voice, the one that usually disarmed any shy visitors. “Any questions for us today?”
The boy stood quiet, pressing buttons on the side of the helmet. One of them eventually popped open the split-front design of the facemask, which earned a lukewarm smile.
“These new masks are pretty cool, huh?” Kotetsu chimed in, trying to get a better reaction.
“Mm,” the boy finally grunted. He pointed at Barnaby’s pink helmet protrusions. “Are these supposed to be bunny ears?”
Kotetsu couldn’t hide his unfettered glee as Barnaby did that awkward half-laugh he always did when he got asked questions he didn’t like.
“...Not really,” he said, clumsily dodging around it, “but these do help us communicate with each other when we’re in a dangerous place. It’s how we talk to other heroes when we’re far apart, and allows us to whisper when we need to be quiet.”
“Tiger’s too?” the boy asked.
“Of course.”
“Why doesn’t Tiger need those?”
Barnaby’s lungs forced a noise out, like his public performance brain was forcing him to find an answer he didn’t have. Kotetsu reveled in this particular brand of torture when it came to his partner, but little did he know he wasn’t safe either.
The boy made a pitiful expression at Tiger’s mask. “It doesn’t really look like a tiger.”
“Y-Yes it does! Here!” Kotetsu lurched out of his chair and snatched the helmet, turning it sharply 90 degrees. It was impressive how easily he was baited by children’s comments. “When you turn it kinda like this, you see it right?”
He didn’t respond.
“See? It looks like a roaring tiger, with the mouth shape, and the, u-uh,” Kotetsu scrambled, pointing messily at the various shapes and angles. “You know, the whole cheek area… if you kinda picture it… it’s kinda like a, uh…”
“Next guest!” the event coordinator called out behind them again. They waved goodbye to the boy, and didn’t get so much as a shrug as he scampered back to his parents.
Kotetsu leaned over to Barnaby, speaking to him under his breath as event staff rounded up the next guest. “Rude little kid, eh?”
“Kotetsu.”
“You know, my old mask looked more like a tiger. The one that flipped open,” he said, keeping his attention on the crowd. “I miss it sometimes.”
“I miss mine sometimes, too,” he said.
“Yeah, you just like that old helmet because it let you do that bang flip thing.”
He flicked his eyes at Kotetsu. “Excuse me?”
“This.” He flipped the back of his hand at his sweaty forehead, tossing his bangs in dramatic fashion. “You did it all the time.”
“I didn’t do that.”
“Yes you did! You did it all the time!”
He looked away. “I didn’t do it that much.”
“Oh, give me a break! Give me a head start and I’ll find every single clip of you doing just that. We’ll be up watching it all night.”
“Gentlemen,” the coordinator spoke from behind, quietly reminding them to pay attention. Another boy who was barely taller than the table was staring at them, mouth hanging slack, in the way that shy little kids did when they didn’t know what to say. The two of them immediately softened and leaned in, snapping back into their public performance modes.
“Hello there!” Barnaby said in that voice of his, and the boy was immediately won over. After letting him press some buttons and ask some easier questions, he left with a big smile, and it was those kinds of interactions that made them remember why they missed doing these sorts of events.
An adult visitor was next, a man in his mid-to-late 30s. This particular gentleman appeared to be some sort of industry insider or rich investor, as Barnaby sniffed out by the expensive-looking black-gold watch on his wrist, and he tapped Kotetsu under the table to remind him to behave himself. He noted Lloyds had set his predatory sights on the man already, standing tucked off to the side watching over the proceedings with his arms behind his back.
“Good afternoon,” the man greeted in a low, pleasant tone, the faintest twinge of accent in his voice from somewhere outside of Stern Bild. They’d be a little more professional with this one, which usually meant Barnaby would take the reins, and Kotetsu would attempt to keep his comments to a minimum. Barnaby knew more about the inner workings of the suits than he did, even if Kotetsu technically did read the “cheat sheet” of facts they were all given before the event.
“What made Apollon decide to move onto these Gen 2 suits?” the visitor asked, running a finger across one of the helmet's pointed ears.
“A number of improvements. Most people, of course, will notice the way the mask opens,” Barnaby said, and pressed a button on the side to cause the mask to split open in the front. “But the primary draw is the power-assisted movement, and the data and calibrations being more precise. They were developed in part from a large increase in funding to our research & development department.”
“From Gargoyle Technica?” he asked, though it was more a statement than a question. Sharp eyes matched Barnaby’s with keen regard.
“Ah… yes, but we’re no longer affiliated.” It was true, but in the interest of public relations, they weren’t allowed to bring it up. Right now, they were salesmen. “In addition, the materials are much more durable, and the fit is quite a bit better.”
“Yeah, the helmet actually secures to us now, so it doesn’t go flying off when we get popped in the chin,” Kotetsu said unprompted, miming an uppercut motion on himself.
“Wild Tiger knows a bit more about that than I do,” he said, earning a quiet scoff from his neighbor. “If you care to view our Justice Day fight, you can see a bit of the power-assisted movement in action. It allows us to be quite a bit stronger even with our powers inactive.”
The guest nodded along, asked a few more questions, and seemed to like what he heard. He placed a hand on Wild Tiger’s helmet. “Do you mind…?”
Kotetsu nodded in a ‘go ahead’ manner, and the man picked it up for a moment to inspect it. He seemed satisfied with what he saw, and moved on to do the same thing to Barnaby’s. “Pretty similar inside. They must be more comfortable than they look.”
Barnaby gave him one of his fake corporate laughs. “Of course. They do want us to enjoy wearing them.”
“Next guest!” the event coordinator called out from behind, and a pair of loud teenage girls rushed up to the table before staff could slow them down. They rudely shoved the man aside, earning a quick reprimand from security, though if he had taken any offense to it, he didn’t show it.
“Thank you so much. It was great to finally meet you two,” the man said with a polite wave as he exited, and Lloyds stepped in to wrangle him into an extra set of questions whether he liked it or not.
The afternoon dragged along at a slower pace than usual. After a few more exhausting hours of in-depth questions, a handful of cranky guests, and more inquiries about Barnaby’s bunny ears than he was ever comfortable with, the event finally wrapped up with its last few visitors. Without a single all-hands-on-deck emergency call all day, it could confidently be called a mild success.
Despite the success being mild, the weather was anything but, and the two heroes were definitely feeling it in the sinking sun of the late afternoon. The heat wave meant it had been a long day of exposure with no helmets on to shield them, and their temperature-controlled suits could only do so much with their heads exposed. As soon as he assumed no one was looking, Barnaby ran both of his hands up over his face and through his hair, wiping a fine sheen of sweat off his forehead, and Kotetsu couldn’t even make fun of it because he’d just done the same thing to himself. He noted Barnaby must have worn through his sunscreen at some point, because a twinge of pink sunburn had spread across his nose and cheeks, and he was guaranteed to be super extra annoyed by it as soon as he saw himself in a mirror. At the very least, it was a quick walk to the Apollon Media van sitting near a park at the bottom of the hill, where they’d already requested the A/C to be cranked.
Kotetsu walked bow-legged down the steep inclined road, tossing his mask up and down like a baseball, as Barnaby followed with his mask tucked carefully under his own arm. He watched his partner juggle his helmet precariously for a few moments before speaking up about it.
“You know, you should really—”
He didn’t have to finish before his gut instinct was right. A gaggle of kids who had been watching their heroes walk by rushed in from behind to greet them, and nearly took out Kotetsu’s poor knees in the process. The helmet popped out of his hands, hitting the pavement with an unpleasant *crack*, and began rolling down the hill.
“Crap…!” He gestured a quick apology towards the kids, and broke away to chase after it. Barnaby excused himself in turn, albeit a bit slower, and jogged after his partner.
Unfortunately, the helmet was faster than Kotetsu’s legs, and after clattering down the hill in a series of awkward bounces, it managed to roll directly into a fountain at the edge of the park. Unfortunately for him as well, people definitely saw. At least they weren’t being filmed.
He leaned over the fountain and plucked it out, inspecting the interior. Damp, but functional. He shook it out as Barnaby caught up to him, a disapproving evaluation already coiled on his tongue.
“You should consider taking better care of your equipment. Saito won’t be happy to hear you’re already ruining his suit.”
“It’s fine, it’s fine. They’re basically waterproof, it’s just a little soggy in here,” Kotetsu said. “Bet it’d feel kinda good right now, even.”
“Waterproof from the outside.”
Kotetsu stuck the mask on, water dripping out the bottom, and started pressing buttons. “Oh… ope…!” he started making noises. “It’s working… wait…”
A vacant click repeated over and over. Barnaby looked at him, eyebrows drawn.
“Crap. The seal at the bottom doesn’t tighten,” he said, taking it back off and inspecting it. “Whatever, I’ll just be careful. I’ll just stick it in some rice overnight and it’ll be good as new.”
Barnaby’s gaze moved down to the mask and back up. “I hope you have a lot of it.”
“Heh. Wouldn’t you know it.”
He sighed through his nose. “You should still take that into Saito’s lab as soon as you can. I wouldn’t take any chances with it.”
“Yeah, yeah,” he waved him off. “I’ll do it tomorrow.”
Kotetsu strolled through the office doors at Apollon Media the next morning, carrying his helmet like a delicate little egg in his arms. An unusually frantic Lloyds rushed past him, half on the phone and half yelling at Kotetsu to shut up before he’d even opened his mouth.
“Please, Mr. Kaburagi, whatever it is, save it for tomorrow, I don’t have time,” Lloyds blew by him at a blistering clip, leaving Kotetsu more confused than offended. He looked over at Ben, who was bringing a concerningly large stack of papers over to his desk.
“What’s with him?” Kotetsu asked.
“Ah, busy dealing with that other media company they bought out last year. Didn’t catch all the details, but didn’t sound too pleasant,” Ben said. “It’s been a real mess with those guys. Between you and me, I’m glad he deals with that stuff and not me. Ever heard that man swear before? Stick around long enough today and you might.”
“Think I’d rather not,” Kotetsu said, casting a nervous glance at his office door.
Ben looked down at the helmet cradled in his arms. “What brings you in? Isn’t it your day off?”
“On call,” Kotetsu said dismissively. “Is Saito around?”
“Visiting Saito on your day off? Must be serious.”
“N-No, I just had some questions about…uh, some of the things people were asking me at the tech show yesterday.” Ben cocked a brow at him. “Couple things I didn’t know the answer to. Not a big deal.”
He paused for a moment, giving Kotetsu a good once-over. “Well, Saito’s been tied up with Lloyds all afternoon. It’s a suit-related call, so good luck getting him today.”
Kotetsu looked back down at his helmet. He did have a lot of rice back at home.
“That’s alright, I’ll check back tomorrow,” he said with a wave, and backed out the door. “See ya!”
“WELCOME BACK VIEWERS! IT’S ANOTHER EPISODE OF HERO*TV LIVE!”
A “routine” smash-and-grab from a museum in the Stern Medaille district later that day sent the choppers out at the peak of the afternoon sun, a thrill for Agnes who would be able to capture the entire chase in perfect lighting. Two getaway cars fled in opposite directions—one east, one west, each with a trunk stuffed full of priceless artifacts. The heroes split up to give chase, with an understanding that they wouldn’t have any difficulty taking them down and plenty of room to put on a show for the audience. Kotetsu stood with Barnaby on the high overpass, planning to flank one of the getaway cars as they drove by.
“Should be an easy one,” Barnaby said, still calibrating his hero suit. “I’m impressed that there’s anyone left in Stern Bild that are still trying to get away with these things.”
“I’ve been doing this for over 15 years. They’ll never quit,” Kotetsu said.
The getaway car opened up full throttle down the interstate, the roar of the engine getting closer by the minute. After a few moments of last-second coordination, the HeroTV broadcast crew gave them their cue to go ahead. The two of them took off running.
“Alright! I’m gonna move ahead if you wanna catch them from the front!” Kotetsu said, raising his arm up to launch his wire. “OK, Bunny?”
He didn’t hear an answer, and his partner was no longer at his side. Instead, a faint metal *clack* made him stop and turn around.
Barnaby had fallen to his knees, hunched over, grasping at his helmet.
“Bunny?” Kotetsu said over his comm unit, taking a few steps back towards him. “Hey, what’s going on?”
For a second time, he didn’t answer, his head pointed down at the pavement. He clawed and pulled at his helmet, gloved hands digging below his chin. His suit flashed for a moment like a dying candle, and Kotetsu received the audio cue that his partner had activated his Hundred Power.
“Bunny…!” he wheezed. His jog turned into a sprint.
He arrived at Barnaby’s side within seconds, grabbing him by the shoulders and flipping him onto his back. He noted that the suit had gone almost completely rigid, fighting against the joints with great difficulty just to move it. Barnaby’s hands remained locked under his jaw.
“Hey, can you hear me? Are you okay?” he asked. Barnaby responded with a subtle head shake, his back arching stiffly against the pavement. Agnes’s voice in his communicator interrupted the swirling sense of fear that had begun to manifest itself in his brain.
“Wild Tiger, this is Agnes. What’s going on with Barnaby?”
“I-I don’t know yet! Give me a second!” He leaned over Barnaby, still grasping him by the shoulders, eyes darting all over his suit to find out what was causing the issue. Some kind of NEXT ability? But no one else was nearby…
“Tiger. We just got a notification that he activated his Hundred Power.”
“I’m aware of that!” Kotetsu yelled into his mic. He furiously pressed the external mask open command on the side of his partner’s helmet, finding it unresponsive. Barnaby’s gloved hand finally smacked him in the side of his head from below to draw his attention towards a specific spot on his suit. He craned his head back to show it.
The neck restraint, normally a flexible band, was crushing his throat like an iron vice. He felt his stomach drop.
Kotetsu clicked his helmet to radio back to Agnes. “It’s… some kind of suit malfunction!”
Anyone back at Apollon’s headquarters would have heard a strong four-letter word launched from Lloyd’s office, followed by an order to get Saito on the phone with the crew ASAP.
“I-It’s… the neck band… it’s tightening like crazy!” Kotetsu relayed back to them again.
He could tell by the delayed response that there was a frantic reaction over at the HeroTV broadcast booth. While the seconds ticked by, he searched his own body for something to cut the material with, coming up empty. The getaway car, which he’d forgotten about, flew past them unimpeded. Finally, Agnes radioed back, her voice more tense than usual.
“We’re switching to commercial while we move the broadcast to a delay. Keep us posted.”
Agnes switching to delay this fast wasn’t a good sign—it meant we think this is going to get ugly, and didn’t want to say it. Whatever it was, it wasn’t a vote of confidence. Drama was good for ratings—Barnaby fighting for his life on-screen against his own suit wasn’t. Kotetsu pushed his thoughts about the matter aside.
He drowned out the noises of the city, focused completely on his partner while the timer in his periphery ticked down. He ran his fingers desperately across and under the helmet to see what he could latch onto, finding his hands no much more effective than Barnaby’s, which meant he’d save his own power until it was useful just like he’d been asked to so many times before. They needed something small and thin to fit under the material, something to pull it up with. Amidst the ringing of adrenaline in his brain, he became aware of the sound of Barnaby breathing—barely there, like he was sucking in air through a coffee straw. The materials of the suits were designed in such a way to be incredibly strong and nearly indestructible, even against NEXT abilities, a quality that worked in their favor in any other situation. An uncontrollably tightening neck restraint would have suffocated him in short order without his power on.
“All heroes in the area to West Silver Stage Overpass ASAP,” Agnes’s voice droned in his ear, tinny in his comm unit, dragging his attention back to the outside world. “Tiger! Ping your location! We’re sending some of the other heroes your way.”
With Barnaby’s suit out of commission, Kotetsu slapped on his suit’s SOS, sending a beacon to the other heroes in the area. Their communicators would soon light up red with his coordinates. He couldn't remember the last time he'd used that function, and he was certain some of the younger heroes had never even seen one from him.
“We have the Apollon van on its way. Saito is on the line right now,” Agnes’s voice said in his ear. “He’s trying to issue a remote emergency shutdown and the suit’s not sending or receiving any commands. An issue like this shouldn’t be possible without some kind of interference. We’re trying to see what else we can do.”
“We don’t have a lot of time!” Kotetsu shouted, something he was sure they didn’t need reminding. Barnaby’s power had about 3 minutes and 30 seconds left. Down the road, Fire Emblem’s car screeched to a stop a few yards away.
He needed to get Barnaby to calm down, as he could see panic starting to set in, and expending unnecessary energy would make things worse. His movements grew shaky, legs jerking, rapidly trying to suck in shallow breaths of air. Kotetsu steadied himself, hoping Barnaby would follow suit. He placed firm hands against the sides of his shoulders, grounding him in his presence. Kotetsu popped his own mask open so Barnaby could see his face.
“It’s alright, it’s alright, we’ll figure this out. The others are coming.”
Barnaby let his back fall against the ground, hands locked at his throat, his fingers still unable to find any purchase beneath the tightening material, though what little was left of his breathing had steadied. Kotetsu patted his shoulder guard while Fire Emblem bounded up to them, quickly filling them in on the situation while Sky High flew up over the side of the road with Origami Cyclone in tow. An idea came to Kotetsu's mind immediately.
“Origami!” Kotetsu said, pointing directly at him. “Shuriken! Toss me one!”
Origami Cyclone fumbled with his suit, and gently tossed one of his shurikens into Kotetsu’s outstretched hand. He gave it to Barnaby, who with his powers active, was at least able to wedge it underneath carefully and pull it up a few millimeters. It wasn’t strong enough to cut it.
“What else do we have?” Kotetsu said.
“I can weaken it… maybe. If I concentrate my fire,” Fire Emblem said, holding a pair of fingers up together. “They should only be able to withstand heat for so long. But it’s risky.”
“It’s all we have!” Kotetsu said, and looked down at Barnaby before proceeding. “You alright with this?”
Barnaby nodded slightly in approval. He didn’t really have a choice.
“Let’s do it!”
Fire Emblem leaned over him, elbow angled up. A tiny, powerful stream of fire sparked to life from their extended fingers, like a welder’s torch. “Sorry, honey, this might hurt.”
The flame was brought down to his neck. The shuriken holding up the band by a few millimeters would help, but just barely. The fire hissed and sparked at the material, lighting it up red. They weren’t sure how long it would take to weaken it enough to be able to cut it, and time wasn’t exactly on their side. Kotetsu kept his hands firm on Barnaby’s upper body to keep him steady, with Sky High doing the same at his legs, serving also as tactile reminder that the others were here for him. His Hundred Power, they hoped, would keep the flame from burning him for now.
The other heroes soon showed up, one after the other, each of them becoming quickly acquainted with the excruciating scene of the others trying to free Barnaby from his own malfunctioning suit while it slowly suffocated him to death. At this point, there was nothing they could do but watch, and an uncomfortable silence fell over the group as Fire Emblem’s flame seared at the material.
Another minute passed, then another, as a sense of dread began to fill in. If they couldn’t get it off by the time his powers expired, he’d have 30 seconds, maybe a minute at best with the band cutting off his circulation.
“Agnes here. He has 30 seconds left. Can we get a status update?”
He tried to hide the tremor in his voice. “Nothing yet.”
Fire Emblem cranked their heat as high as they could manage, flames spitting out white-hot against the stubborn restraint. Barnaby’s arms shook as he tried and tried to pull the shuriken through it to no avail.
Kotetsu ignored the ticking timer in his ear, the count loud and clear in his own head. 15 seconds. 10 seconds. 5 seconds.
3… 2… 1…
…
Nothing. Barnaby’s power clicked off, and the band snapped tightly around his neck. A strangled choke emitted from his throat. His body convulsed, knees jerking up underneath the other heroes who were trying to keep him calm, and Kotetsu’s suit lit up as he activated his Hundred Power.
“We’re not done here!” he said. He took the shuriken from Barnaby’s hand, wrenching the material upwards with everything he had. “Keep going!”
Barnaby’s loose hand grasped Kotetsu’s arm, for no reason other than to be there. Fire Emblem doubled down, keeping laser-like focus as the other heroes looked on in despair. Blue Rose turned away with a hand over her mouth, unable to watch, as Rock Bison knelt on the pavement with his head down.
“COME ON!!” Kotetsu roared, partially at himself, and partially at that god damn suit that was strangling his buddy to death. It couldn’t end like this. Barnaby’s hand slipped down his arm.
Hang on. Hang on. Just hang on, please.
He pulled and pulled, arms tensed, feet scraping against the ground, yanking with so much fury he thought the shuriken might cut through his own hand. With their time running out, a loud sound became the signal of their salvation—
*SNAP!*
The material ripped open. Kotetsu fell hard onto his back as the blade sliced through it, and Fire Emblem and Sky High rushed in to remove Barnaby’s helmet, tossing it aside where it clattered noisily down the road. Barnaby gasped raggedly for air, face red and hair disheveled, curls sticking to his face where it wasn’t splayed across the pavement. Consciousness returned to him where it had begun to fade, and he gave a weak thumbs up to the team of heroes who’d managed to free him.
The other heroes whooped and cheered in unison, particularly Kotetsu, who jumped for joy at seeing his face. He radioed back to headquarters, leaping around with the adrenaline rush still coursing through him. “We got it! We got it!”
The relief at HeroTV could be felt through their comms. They hadn’t been broadcasting since it started, but it was too close a call for comfort.
Barnaby’s head rested hard against the pavement, still catching his breath, too exhausted to move. It didn’t stop Kotetsu from leaping over him from one side, arms planted around his head as he looked down at him from above.
“Bunny! Are you—”
A loud, metal *ping* on the back of his armor interrupted his thoughts. He looked back over his shoulder, where the others looked just as confused as he did.
“Wha—?”
“A… gunshot?” said Rock Bison.
It was a gunshot. It bounced harmlessly off of Kotetsu’s armor, and would have done so even if his powers hadn’t been activated. Someone had just taken a shot directly at him, with a weapon packing enough punch that he’d felt the reverberation through his chest.
He looked around. Based on his position, the realization struck.
They weren’t aiming at him. They were aiming at Barnaby’s head.
Something definitely more sinister was at play than they imagined. He whirled his head back toward the direction it originated from, and the enhanced eyesight from his activated power allowed him to catch the tail end of a long-barreled rifle being pulled back from the edge of a nearby skyscraper.
“T-There!” he pointed wildly. “On the roof!”
Sky High didn’t waste a second, taking a step and rocketing off towards the building, the roar of his thrusters like a jet engine at close range. Rock Bison leapt in front of the unarmored heroes to move them to safe cover just as Kotetsu’s powers timed out. Kotetsu took a few steps to give chase with his wire, but stopped when his partner’s voice struck him from below, a reminder that there was a more pressing issue at hand.
“Kotetsu…!”
He looked back at Barnaby, who was now very much aware of the situation unfolding. He’d wrenched himself up by an elbow, but his malfunctioning suit fought against him, the joints locked tight. He was exhausted as it was, frustrated and tired, and now someone was trying to shoot at his exposed head and he couldn’t move. They didn’t know if, or when, another shot would come.
Their eyes snapped together, and for the briefest moment, Kotetsu saw fear.
Without a second thought, Kotetsu leapt over his upper body, curling himself around his partner’s head like an impenetrable shell. He pressed his face in close, ensuring not a single vulnerable part of him was exposed. He ignored the barking commands from Agnes in his comm unit, apparent that the broadcast team had now been informed of the emergency at hand. Their chests heaved in unison as Barnaby worked to catch his breath and Kotetsu’s body surged with reactive energy. The two of them filled each other’s vision, shrouded in darkness as they became closed off from the world around them.
Kotetsu leaned in close to his ear, close enough to feel the heat and dampness from each other’s skin. The words left his mouth softly, reassuringly.
“You won’t die here,” he said, and meant it. “I promise.”
Barnaby breathed his name through his lips.
The smell of hot asphalt filled his nose. Barnaby’s loose curls spread out across the dirty ground below him and into his face. It was eerily quiet as they remained locked there together for what felt like an agonizingly long time, the seconds grinding to a halt, soon becoming aware of the sound of Sky High’s thrusters spurring back into action from a far distance. They could only hope he’d managed to capture the suspect, as they had no plan for how to move on from here. Kotetsu would gladly stay here forever if he had to.
Sky High’s jets rocketed in circles overhead. Soon, the deep rumble of the Apollon Media van rolling up was both felt and heard. A pair of strong hands grabbed him by the shoulders, and Rock Bison was lifting him up.
“Come on, they can’t get through both of us. Let’s get him out of here.”
They heaved Barnaby up by his shoulders, keeping his head down between their armor, helping to move his stiff legs along just enough to get him safely into the van. Inside, the other heroes waited on the couch, huddled around in anticipation of their return.
Saito came barreling down the walkway upon their arrival with his communicator on, looking more serious and frazzled than he’d ever been. They didn’t even have a chance to greet him. “GET THAT ARMOR OFF!” he screeched into his microphone. “NOW!!”
The order wasn’t questioned, and anyone wearing a hero suit with moving parts threw it off, where it was safely collected on one side of the lounge. The heroes took a moment to catch their breaths, the majority of them sitting around in their undersuits, waiting for further instruction. The other company vans would soon be on their way to collect their heroes and their equipment, but for now, at least they were all accounted for. The news was received that Sky High was unable to track down the suspect, and a bleak sigh was heard across the room.
Kotetsu helped Saito finish gathering all of the armor pieces in one spot for safekeeping, then returned to the lounge where he reunited with the others, but specifically one individual. He found Barnaby sitting on the couch, head tilted back, staring at nothing in particular. His neck showed a painful, red burn where Fire Emblem’s flame had made contact, which he assumed had occurred after his powers expired. His jaw tightened as he imagined the brutal experience his partner had just endured.
He stepped over to the couch, stopping a few feet away, and leaned in gently. “Bunny. Are you alright?”
He didn’t answer, eyes unfocused. Kotetsu didn’t press the matter any further. He wandered over to his partner’s side and sat down, and placed a comforting hand on his knee.