Alley Cat (Ch 5) (Patreon)

Wait for hero, Eraserhead. Takes time. Think of getting up, but then Eraserhead knows hands not restrained. Not want know. Hide hands. Careful.

Look around room. See dark in new place -oh! Hospital!- grow when blue thing out hole in wall becomes not blue. White stays, but moves slow still. But blue becomes orange. Speak quiet, not want others hear. “Dark? Here? Talk?”

Wait. No response. Ears droop. Dark not here. 

Noise outside, ears perk up, face door. Door opens and eyes focus. Eraserhead enters. New person follows. Closes door behind. New person has clothes like Doctor. Body tense, eyes flick to hole in wall with clear thing. Calm, wait. Dark say trust heroes. Eraserhead hero. New person…

New person smile, Eraserhead introduce. “This is Orakano Bakano. Unfortunate name aside, he's a member of the medical staff that will be making sure you’re ok.”

Eraserhead looks at new person, eyes narrow. Not good look, warning. New person moves shoulders up and down. “I don’t know what the glare is for, you already told me to avoid that word.” New person shakes head. “It’s not like it really matters what I’m called since the reason is the same.”

New person approaches, reaches into pocket of lab coat. I tense, but new person pulls out new thing. New thing small, metal. Hole in front with clear thing covering. “We’ll start with some basic tests, just to make sure we don’t miss anything obvious.”

New person bends, looks into eyes. “I’m going to shine this light in your eyes, and I want you to follow it along without moving your head. Do you understand?”

Head tilts, ears flick. “No.”

New person blinks. “No? What do you mean no!?” Words come out higher pitched, new person looks annoyed. Head pulls back, ears lie flat.

“Not understand.”

New person want say more, Eraserhead stops and lets out breath while putting hand on new person shoulder. “Here, let me try.”

Eraserhead takes new thing from new person, holds up. “This is called a laser pointer.” I nod. “It shines a red light when it’s turned on.” Eraserhead pushes button and points at bed. Red do appears. I body moves back, into pillow, eyes wide. Eraserhead speaks more. “Bakano is going to shine the laser pointer into your eyes, and he wants you to follow it when he moves it. But without moving your head, only your eyes. Now do you understand?”

Head moves up and down, eyes focused on red dot. “Yes.”

Eraserhead breathes out air, mouth behind clothing around neck. Hands new person no longer new thing, laser pointer, and steps back. New person points laser pointer at eyes, presses button. Red dot appears on eye, blinks at odd feeling. Hurt, but small hurt. Barely hurt. Still hurt. Maybe? New person not trust. Eyes follow light when moves. New person turns off, puts laser pointer in pocket.

“Eyesight seems fine. Are you seeing any black specks floating in your vision?”

Blink. Tail lifts, points at dark next to bed. “Dark.”

“Not what I meant, but I’ll take that as a no.” New person nods, reaches to me. “I’m just going to feel around your head for a moment, make sure there aren’t any concerning lumps or swelling.”

Eyes look at Eraserhead, Eraserhead nods. I let new person feel head. Hands move ears, I frown. No like. Feel Weird. New person step back. “Well, there’s something going on with his brain, but my quirk didn’t highlight it as something harmful.”

Shake head to get rid of weird feeling, then tilt and look at new person. “Quirk?”

New person nods. “If I touch someone's head, my quirk gives me some information on the electromagnetic field throughout their brain. Nothing detailed though, it’s more like it will tell me if there’s something harmful going on.”

“Hmm.” I hum. Quirk strange. But interesting. Eraserhead say I have quirk. Wonder what? Maybe Dark know? Ask when Dark visit again.

New person moves to wall, wood things against it. Small metal in parts of wood. New person pulls on small metal, and wood comes out of rest of wood! Hand goes in, grabs something. Speaks. “Now, since you’re stuck in bed for the moment, we can’t test your reflexes. And the hero here said he wanted to ask you some questions, so this feels like a good opportunity to draw some blood and get some tests done.”

Head tilts. ‘Draw blood’? What mean? Eraserhead eyes widen, mouth opens. New person turns around, I see object in hands. Not new thing.

Needle.

Doctor.

Leap from bed, hide on side away from bad person. Things connected to noise thing pull away from me. Noise thing makes single loud noise, not stop. Bad person shouts, I snarl, tail puffs, ears stiff, claws come out. Eraserhead shouting.

“You idiot! Put the damn syringe away!” Eraserhead looks at me. “Calm down, kid. I told you, no one here wants to hurt you. This idiot,” Eraserhead glares at bad person, “clearly should not have been the one making sure you’re ok.”

Eyes dart between bad person and Eraserhead, hero. Breath comes fast, chest moves fast. No like, no like. Dark say heroes good. But bad person not hero. Bad person person puts needle back in wood, closes wood. Raises hands to show not hold needle.

I glare, tail less puffed. Point at bad person. “Bad person. Needle bad. Say not hurt, but needle hurt. Needle hurt much.”

Bad person opens mouth, Eraserhead glares, hair floats eyes glow. Quirk? “You stay quiet and get out.” Hair drop, eyes stop glow. “I promise you that nobody else will be bringing any needles around you. I’ll make sure they understand that. But for now you need to calm down.”

Hesitate. Look at bad person, look at Eraserhead. Dark words in mind.

“You will not be stuck here forever, child. Heroes will come for you, to save you from  this place. Trust in them to help you, for in this realm, heroes are a force for good.”

Dark not lie. Dark nice, Dark good. Heroes good. Unless… Dark wrong?

Door opens. New person runs in. Shouting outside door. More new people. New person in room speaks to bad person.

Dark wrong.

“Doctor! The patient’s vitals suddenly flatlined, what happened!?”

Dark grows from floor, goes into air. Wraps body. I glare at Eraserhead. Dark leaks from eyes. Snarl. “You lied.”

Eraserhead flinch, breathes out. Hair floats, eyes glow.

Pain.

Screaming. Pain. Much pain.

Hurts! Hurts hurts hurts hurts hurts hurts hurts hurts!

Hurt stops, screaming stays. Eraserhead in front. Mouth moving. No listen. Scream, grab bed, swing. Eraserhead go away, into wall. Smoke in room, purple-pink. Throw bed at Eraserhead, still screaming. Run at hole in wall and clear thing. Jump, clear thing breaks. Clear thing cuts skin. Not care, hurt small. Fall far, pass two rows clear things. Land on hands and feet. Large small soft thing, green, under feet. Not care, no time. Hands on ground, feet on ground. Run.

Run. Run far away. Dodge large moving metal things. Loud noise, new noise. Same loud new noise much. Different moving metal things, same sound. Some not same, still loud. People shouting. People in same clothes, different clothes, screaming at me. Screaming at others. New people. Too many new people. New person up shouting. Dark goes up, new person dodge. Not know, not trust.

Run.

Look place no new people. Hide from new people.

Hero not good. Eraserhead not good. Hurts. Eyes glow, I hurt. Hair floats, I hurt. No trust No good.

Dark wrong, heroes not good. Heroes bring doctor. Not Doctor, but doctor. Same. Hurt. Needles. Liquid.

Hurt, much hurt. No want hurt, no like hurt. Hurt bad. Not hurt good.

Find place no new people, stop run, hide behind big metal thing. Metal thing not move like other big metal things. Brown, many same new things inside.

Clothes cut, blood on clothes. No new blood. Skin heals. No cuts on skin now. Breathe fast, try breathe slow. Hand on chest. Nose wrinkles. Not like smell, bad smell in new place. Strange place. Look around. Walls dirty, floor dirty. I frown. No like new place.

But… no bad person. No Eraserhead. No Doctor. No doctor. No needle.

Better than old new place. But want new place not dirty. I move through new place, search new new place. Hide when new people nearby. Wait for new people move away, continue. Find new place in large new place look like old new place, no bad smell. New place behind new new new place broken. Wood over holes in walls, wood over door. Walls not dirty, many things on wall. Different colors, different patterns. Different shapes.

Big metal thing in new place like old new place. Green, color of hair. Like. Big metal green thing empty. Climb in. Dark in. Look up. Blue thing turn orange thing now dark thing. Bright things all over dark thing high above. Smile.

New place much dark. New place nice. New place safe.

`~`

“I want that idiot’s medical license revoked.” Eraserhead growls at Nezu from his position in the hospital bed, waiting for Recovery Girl to arrive and heal his broken arm. Nezu chuckles, the irony of the situation not lost on him despite the seriousness of it.

“I already put things into motion moments after Midnight explained the situation to me.” Nezu responds with his usual chipperness, not letting the rage bubbling inside him breach the surface. He’s had far too much experience hiding such emotions to let it slip now. Even if the current situation does hit a little too close to home for him.

Eraserhead scowls, sighing in irritation. “Idiot doctor. I should have taken his name as a warning to request someone else.”

Nezu shakes his head. “Names do not always reflect the individual. You had no idea that he’d be so incompetent in such a situation.”

The Underground hero grimaces. “And now the kid is in the streets, with a distrust of heroes.”

Nezu nods. “A most vexing situation indeed.”

Eraserhead sighs. “At least we have an idea of his quirk now, so that’s something.”

“Oh?” Nezu raises an eyebrow. Midnight neglected to mention that fact to the principal of UA.

Seeing his question, he explains. “It’s something to do with shadow manipulation. The moment the nurse said ‘doctor’ they started moving. If I hadn’t erased his quirk the man would have probably died. Probably how he got out of the cuffs too.”

Another grimace. “But there’s definitely more. It hurt him when I erased his quirk.”

Nezu frowns, mentally making a note to teach Midnight how to make a proper report. Yes, she and her friends only officially start teaching at UA in two months, once the new school year starts. But it’s best to fix such things before they become overly problematic. Like now.

“From what I know: the most those whose quirk you erase should feel is a mild discomfort, should they not? What could have caused the child pain?”

“I don’t know.” Eraserhead sighs. “And without the information on those computers, the only person who could help us understand will be doing his damned best to avoid anyone that’s trying to help him.”

“Indeed.” Nezu agrees. Maybe he should take a more… active role in the doctor’s punishment. Perhaps dig into other aspects of his life, see if there’s anything that he can bring to light to make him suffer more.

After all, he feels a kinship with the child despite never having laid eyes on him. They have both suffered at the hands of humans and their thirst for power, knowledge, or even just cruelty. He has a permanent reminder of just what humans are capable of over his eye, and he can only imagine what kind of reminders the child has to bear.

Wherever he is, the chimera hopes he is safe.