Chapter Text
Momo stood on shaky feet as she organised the sidekicks from her agency to best help with the fallout from the fight raging a few blocks away. The villain and the hero fighting them both had very destructive quirks, so priority number one was clearing the rubble and getting all civilians out of harm's way. Momo had produced an uncountable number of dusk masks so far, handing them in stacks to anyone who got close enough to her, and it was starting to take a toll on her.
The sidekicks she had with her were well suited for this, Fumiko’s hands could melt through anything and she was using it to get to civilians under significant rubble, but she wasn't trained well enough in sensing the structural integrity, limiting how much she could do. Yasuko’s hair functioned as an antenna, and she was using the boosted signal to report where civilians still were, pinging off anything she could find but especially cellphones.
Momo was about to re-enter the structure to help Fumiko analyse one of the piles of rubble when she heard footsteps running behind her. She turned around, thankful for any relief at this point. Uraraka was running towards her, and while Momo hadn't been able to keep up with her former classmates' frequent costume changes she could confidently say this wasn't Uravity’s costume.
Uraraka was in leggings, a sports bra, and a hoodie that Momo would bet money on was a piece of Ingenium merch tied around her waist. Uraraka stopped by Momo and began rattling off the standard. “Rescue Hero Uravity reporting at the scene, Rescue ID: 873912 Hero ID: 9955320, Hero Creati what's the brief. “ Uraraka paused and looked at the scene. “And please make me some safety glasses.
Momo immediately started rattling off the details of the scene “Hero Windstorm was in combat with a currently unknown villain with a energy whip like quirk, their battle passed through here and weakened the structure near the third floor. I was on patrol with H-Heat and Celltower through the area and we stepped in to aid the evacuation efforts. The scene is currently stable aside from two groups of civilians, a group of we believe four near the northeast side of the building currently under rubble being overseen by H-Heat, and a group on what we believe to be a secure out cropping on what's remaining of the west side of the third floor.” During this Momo created both a dust mask and a pair of safety goggles, as well as giving Uravity a comm from her pack on her belt.
“If you could aid those on the outcropping get down with the help of Celltower, I was about to help H-Heat with the rubble.” Momo said. She mentally flinched when Uravity frowned.
“No. I don't think that would work. We have a good situation here because it's stable for the moment.” Uravity looked upon the scene with critical eyes.
Momo scoffed. “Are you pulling rank??” She asked.
“I’ll help H-Heat, I’m better suited to it. You and Celltower take care of the outcropping, make them a rope or use a grappling hook.” Uravity said before leaving towards the area Momo described.
Momo allowed herself to fume for just a second before going towards the dilapidated building. She carefully picked across the rubble, Celltower had reported the area as stable, and Momo wouldn't do anyone any good if she was pissy. Once she got there Momo produced a rope ladder with weights on the end. Between the two of them they managed to get it caught on a stable piece of rubble on the outcropping and get all the people down, leading them towards the ambulances.
Uravity was already talking with the news agencies that had managed to come close enough to the area. “Yaoyorozu’s agency had already managed to take care of the situation by the time I arrived, I merely came to provide additional advice. The credit for this rescue goes to hero Creati and her two sidekicks, H-Heat and Celltower.”
This made Momo fume. The nerve! To pull rank on her then go and give her and her agency all of the credit. Momo turned to her sidekicks who were milling near the ambulances, more than happy to not deal with the press. Momo sighed and resolved to send them to a public speaking seminar. “Alright. Back to the agency to debrief, then you’re off for the rest of the day.”
Momo lead the two past the press, making a small comment to one of the journalists on the outside of the crowd, crediting her side kicks and Uravity for her assist. It may have been upsetting but Momo would go along with it, the agency would be better off with the credit. They were barely away from the destruction zone when Uravity caught up with them and fell into step with Momo.
“Hey! Momo! Can I come with you guys to your agency? I already checked out of my hotel for the day and could really use a shower after that.” She chirped.
Momo mentally sighed, forcing herself to maintain a relaxed expression. She was in control, that disaster situation went really well. “Of course! I still owe you a tour after all.”
-
Momo tried not to feel ignored when Uraraka chose to talk to Celltower during the walk to the agency. She wasn't obtuse, she knew that Yasuko would be better off in a rescue agency in the city, or if she could work on her range, out in the wilderness helping track down missing hikers. But she couldn't spare any sidekicks at the moment, maybe closer to the licensing exams when she could take on new sidekicks from anyone who was getting one without going to a hero school.
Once the elevator opened to the open floor plan agency Momo immediately dismissed her sidekicks, guiding Uraraka to her office. “It's a good sized space, it can comfortably hold up to 5 heroes and 15 sidekicks, but we haven't needed the full space yet.” Momo moved to her tea cart as she spoke, pulling the top off and putting it on her desk, doing her best to steady her hand as she started the lighter, trying to light the burner.
Momo startled as Uraraka gently took the lighter from her. The two made eye contact. “Hey. I appreciate all this.” Uraraka waved around with the hand not holding the lighter. “But I need a shower before anything else, and I think you do too.”
Momo felt her brain physically rebooting. “Are you saying I smell.”
Uraraka stifled a laugh. “We both smell. Could you show me to the showers?”
Momo put away the tea set, and led Uraraka to the back of the floor, where there were a few bunks and a set of small private baths. “We have in suite laundry, I’ll grab you a towel and a set of clothes.” Momo looked over Uraraka before going to the linens closet, pulling out a towel and a sweatshirt, and making a dark pair of leggings on the fly. She spared a second glance over to Uraraka, mentally insisting she wasn't checking out the other Hero who was sending a text on her phone.
She handed Uraraka the clothes and towel, everything neatly folded, before entering her personal private bath. It had a small metal cabinet above the toilet with a few sets of her own clothes, some energy bars, and towels. All her towels were the wine red colour that had become her signature since high school, a personal touch she allowed herself to have.
Momo looked into the mirror as the water warmed. The usual scrapes and bumps that came with Hero work, the backs of her heels were rough from the new boots, she felt a headache coming on from having her hair tied back for so long. Momo ate an energy bar then showered, taking her time cleaning the grime from herself and going through her post patrol checklist.
Hosting Uraraka would put her behind on her paperwork, it would have to be a bit of a later night, but if Momo thought about it she did enjoy seeing her old classmates. She had missed the year prior’s heroescon, too busy trying to get some interns from Shiketsu. It had been easier to convince Nedzu to put her agency on his lists than to convince the Shiketsu staff. Running an agency involved more paperwork than Momo had expected but she picked it up quickly.
Sometimes she felt like she had been running this game for years.
Momo came out to the lounge area after putting hers and Uraraka’s laundry in. She saw Uraraka on the phone and slipped away to pick up her pile of forms to fill out and tea set, returning and settling across from Uraraka. She set the tea- a cherry hibiscus blend, she recalled Uraraka was a fan of sweeter brews in school- to brew, and settled in, starting on the incident report.
Fortunately, her agency wasn't the cause of the disaster, so she didn't have to fill out any insurance paperwork, just detailing the rescues done by her and her sidekicks. They would each have to fill out their own to confirm hers, but Momo took the brunt of the paperwork as both the CEO and headliner of the agency.
“Ok, Thank you for setting that up! I’ll talk to you later.” Uraraka said, tossing her phone on the coffee table and sighing. Momo looked up as the tea timer went off, signalling the end of the brew. She would have preferred to do a full tea service, but recently she’d switched to single brew loose leaf, it was easier when she was busy. She passed Uraraka a cup.
Uraraka thanked her, and craned her neck to look at the paperwork. “Oh. Is that the incident report? You don't need to fill those out to that degree.”
Momo squinted at the pages for a moment. “No I do. I was the Spotlight hero at the scene.”
“No, I pulled rank, remember. I’ll need to fill out a set myself, you just need to record your agency's involvement. I’ll take care of sections G-K. “ Uraraka took the pile from her, and pulled out the rescue sections. She gave Momo the rest of the pile back and started filling it out, going at a pace Momo wouldn't have expected. Uraraka had never had the highest grades, Momo would never admit it but due to that she figured Uraraka would struggle with clerical work.
A pot of tea and a pile of completed paperwork later, Uraraka put her cup down and cleared her throat. Momo looked up from what she was working on, schooling her face into pleasant curiosity. “so, I gave mine and my agents' contact information to Celltower.” she winced. Momo must've made a face. she barely noticed with the hundreds of thoughts that suddenly rushed through her head.
Uraraka rubbed her neck sheepishly, tightening her grip on her phone. That must've been who she got off the phone with earlier. “I know, the last thing I should be doing is poaching rookies from you, but I think her skills would really suit the rescue setting. I encouraged her to complete her contract here first, it will benefit her after all.”
Momo gritted her teeth, “You're right. it will be a better fit. A good career move. you'd know all about those. You're practically retired already.” Momo stood up. “I imagine you need to head on out to the next city that needs the extra rescue help. I’ll grab your clothes for you.”
Momo went to the dryer and took out Uraraka’s clothes, folding them neatly and bringing them back to the lounge area. Momo detoured to the storage room to grab a tote to put them in, marked with her Creati logo. Some of her more creatively inclined classmates had better logos, hers was just a stylised version of her Hero name in english.
Uraraka was standing when she returned, talking on the phone again. Momo suppressed an eyeroll, Uraraka really wasn’t her own boss it seemed. All of Momo’s calls were carefully planned around her patrol schedule, giving them all the perfect amount of time. Uraraka hung up the phone with a sigh. “Thanks for having me Momo.”
Momo smiled, “Of course! My pleasure.”. Her smile felt forced. She handed Uraraka the tote bag and saw her out. She returned to her office, looking at the tall stack of papers in her cutely labelled wicker in box. Her office was decorated with the finest pinterest inspired items, a few action figures that had been made of her, framed design sketches of all of her support gear, and a gallery wall of all the batches of interns she had had so far.