Red Ink

Part 17 - Dynamight

"Dammit!" Bakugou seethed. "Five? We only apprehended four. One of the fuckers dipped."

Kirishima grunted and flexed his hand again, trying to relax his arm and disperse the jagged material to no avail. It had been happening since the branding of his back. Activating and relaxing his quirk had become much more difficult of a transition than before. "It was the one with the quirk. I don't know how he got away, Red's pepper spray aced him. There was no way he could even see."

It had only been about ten minutes since Tink and Red escaped the scene, and the remaining heroes made quick work of their opponents. They were now restrained with Whirlwind's state of the art containment cuffs, a device that neither man understood but knew were heavy duty.

Bakugou huffed in frustration before nodding at the detainment team to take the criminals back to the agency. He hated when a straggler got away. Unfortunately it was par for the course, especially when he was called in at the last minute, but it still royally pissed him off.

He was angrier than usual– he'd never admit it, but his pulse was kicked into overdrive knowing it was the Crimson Doves. Only a month ago he'd led himself and his partner right into the animal's den because of his overconfidence, and now his back was completely scarred and Kirishima's was branded. Because of him. Because the Doves actually bested him.

Tinkerbell wasn't gonna like this. In fact, she was probably going to try and pass this off to a different agency again. It's what she did with the last Crimson Doves case, insisting that it was too much to handle after their injuries.

"What the hell even happened? Why were you here?" He asked.

Kirishima was still laser focused on his arm and hissing in frustration. "I was coming with Red to get her tattoo stuff."

"Why?"

"You're really asking that?"

Bakugou saw the look on Kirishima's face and rolled his eyes. He took a few steps over to his partner and gestured to his still rock-like arm. "This shit's still happening? What's the deal?"

"I dunno man," Eijirou sighed. "Since then it's just been... harder to lower my guard after it's up, I think." Finally, the harsh lining of his arm began to soften into his skin again. "Ugh. That's better."

"How did they get in?"

Kirishima climbed to his feet. "The door was open."

"She didn't lock the damn door? This is a giant fucking workshop with high-end equipment," Bakugou scoffed. His brow furrowed in suspicion. Kirishima didn't seem to notice.

"Thank God I came, right? Can you imagine what would've happened if she was here alone?" He took a shaky breath when he thought about it. "Shit. And the Doves knew she was gonna be here, too."

Katsuki's frown deepened. "How do you know?"

"They said 'take care of the girl' before they even saw we were there. Fuck, man, I'm so fucking glad I was there."

"Was she?" Bakugou muttered.

"What?"

"Did she want you there? Did she explicitly invite you?"

"I mean... yeah."

Bakugou squinted at him. "Without persuasion?"

Kirishima matched his partner's frown. "I didn't force her to bring me, if that's what you're asking. I just offered to help her carry things."

Bakugou stared at him for a bit before running his fingers through his hair in frustration. "They said they were 'lied to' about her coming alone, right?"