Hero business be damned, this kid was coming with her; if he wants to or not. She had a lot of questions ever since she fought Hood, none of which ever got an answer. It turned into a figurative itch, halfway between neurotic and motivating. Today would be the day these questions got an answer.

She wouldn't get a chance like this ever again.

True to her namesake she was quick as a rabbit. He hadn't even time to react, before her right hand lashed out, went for the kid's shirt, and fisted it into a hold.

The air was driven from the poor kid even as she held back and shock overcame his till then blank face. Small victories.

"What the hell are you- OH shit!"

She tripped his legs from under him, wholly focused and disregarding the panicked expression. Now airborne she backed the boy into the rooftop none too gently.

"You bitch!" the kid snarled and the chain writhed. "What the fuck is your problem?!"

Her problem was this guy. Her problem was the way his voice hitched and varied between childish and deep bass, as if two people were talking through the same mouth; and she hadn't cared enough because it wasn't personal then. Her problem was his face, a mask of human skin, and his dead eyes. Her problem was that smile, a smile knowing a joke she wasn't in on. Her newest problem was this chain that tried biting at itself and her hands.

She voiced none of that.

"What do you know about the Underground Masquerade?! What do you know about Hood?! Tell me!" it took everything not to spit the words like they would burn her otherwise.

How does Ytem react? (No immediate rolls will follow, this is for how the narrative proceeds.) -Voting closed - 17 voters Votes Retreat (Attempt to run.) 4/8 Aggressive (Attempt to fight.) 3/6 Arbitrating (Attempt to talk.)

Her gambit did not pay off.

She was too deep inside her own head, too preoccupied with things that may or may not be. She did not notice the mouth-chain coiling. She did not notice the boy's every muscle getting loaded for violence. She did notice when it was too late.

With strength unbecoming his diminutive frame the boy bucked wildly and pushed away from the ground. Her hands tightened around shoulder and shirt respectively, keeping him squared against the floor, until his chain sprang out and its many mouths took a passing bite from her.

Out of reflex, out of pain, out of surprise. Whichever it was, it was amateurish and unlike her and beyond stupid; Rumi recoiled, the fabric ripped.

The boy jumped to his feet, a pinch of skin stuck in one of the gnashing links, whereas she held fistfuls of shirt in a bleeding hand.

She didn't cover the nick, didn't even look at it. Her eyes were reserved for the little shit in front of her.

The boy squared up against her, his shirt was turned into dusty rags, his expression set in a gloating smile.

"I have no idea who or what you are talking about, lady," he said. "But you attacked me, and I don't appreciate that overmuch... So, let me ask you again, kindly. Could you please piss off?"

Her left eye twitched.

This... hellspawn had guts. She'd make him wish he didn't. Oh lord, she would do things to him...

With a steady, calming puff of air, she throttled the onset of apoplexy. It would do her no good to strangle a child, as enticing as that sounded right about now. Even if said child was taking the piss, she had to endure it like the adult she was. He must have been under the influence of some body-snatcher Quirk anyway, probably that freaky chain of his, prooooobably.

Luckily, there existed workarounds for these cases. The simplest was freeing the hostage from whatever mind control shenanigans had them under their thumb. Done by applying a boat-load of HQ-sanctioned violence to the controller. She had yet to find anyone fitting those parameters, but that chain, that twice-blasted chain, looked mightily suspect.

"Sorry bud, ain't happening," she only needed to buy some time, get close again. "I get it, I came off a bit too strong, sorry 'bout that. Instead, how about you tell me a bit about that nifty chain of yours. Teeth and tongues, eh? That's... something alright."

The boy did not fall for the bait. He inched backward, closer to the roof's edge.

"Guess you'll never find out, Buns."

His heels met the curb; she shot towards him, a human-shaped bullet.

Choices -Voting closed - 12 voters Votes Keep running. (Ytem against the Rabbit. +10 on the first Bo3 against Rumi. Successes increase the distance and add +10 additively to the following escape rolls.) 9/11 Do the 'ol razzle-dazzle and hide in a conveniently placed trash can. (+30 on the next Bo3 against Rumi. Consider the downsides...)

'Fuck '

Her subconscious worked through the distance, her velocity, and the way she pulled her punches, even right this second, because she could not hurt a kid after all. It came to a startling conclusion: she won't make it in time.

The boy tumbled past the edge and her hands closed around the chain but only managed to grab air.

In a show of inhuman flexibility, the boy twisted, kicked off the nearest wall, and made his way deeper into the maze of alleys and out of her sight.

It was the shock that rooted her to the spot and it took a second for her to register what just happened.

'What the fuck am I waiting for?!' she admonished herself and jumped after him.

He was close, she could hear it, but she couldn't tell where he was exactly. The meandering alleys and many byways jumbled whatever echo she could pick up. Worse yet, people began filling the rat runs the farther away they went from the place this whole shitshow started at.

She should turn back right now, get Hound Dog on the case and track the boy by smell. That was the sensible solution. That was the responsible solution. None of that was Rumi.

If there was one thing she could call herself, truthfully and proud, then it was stubborn like a mule—tenacious on a good day.

She would be no hero worth her salt in her eyes if she couldn't catch this scamp herself.

It turned out, she wasn't a hero worth their salt in her eyes.

"Fuck. Fuck! FUCK!" a particularly guilty-looking stretch of wall suffered Rumi's frustrations in trained silence, weathering her blows well enough.

After bumping into the seventh person—her apology was barely a hasty whisper—in the span of two minutes, Rumi had to concede the point that the kid had gotten away.

She had every reason to justify her failure with a lack of knowledge concerning the city's layout, or, going a step further, HQ's rules on Quirk usage, collateral damage, and protection of underage villains. That said, it would be petty hedging of the crux of the issue on her part and nothing more.

No, she lost. Her and no one else. Rabbit Hero Mirko was had by a kid...

Man, she really did not want to go back to Hound Dog right now. He'd razz her to kingdom come.

'Stop being a pussy! Deep breaths girl. Put your game face on.'

Back to the start, she went.

Rumi came back to a scrum of medics busying themselves all over the street.

Light-headed people lay upon stretchers with physicians doing who knows what. An entire entourage of doctors applied screws and drives and an innumerable amount of medical baubles to the lizard villain.

A sort of heat crept into her chest as she watched the goings. Rumi felt decidedly out of place here, and after the disaster that was the chase, she felt... moreso alien among people acting with such deliberate direction. These people knew what they were doing, while she went on a wild goose chase after a phantom with the barest hint of a connection to an old mystery.

Hound Dog stood head and shoulders over the entire affair in somber silence. To the world at large, he was a stone amidst a sea of people.

She met his eyes, neither disapproving nor disappointed and shook her head. He gave an encouraging nod and beckoned her over. She dragged her feet the entire way.

"Our unknown assailant got away?" he said.

"Yep," she replied curtly and that same hotness clawed its way to her cheeks. 'God, since when did fucking Mirko get ashamed of herself?! Get a grip girl!'

"I take it you got his appearance at least?"

"Yep. Tall kid. Foreigner. Malnourished looking? I think gaunt would be the right word. He got a chain growing from his chest, a real piece of work that thing," she showed him the bitemark. "Has teeth all over and makes these disgusting noises. My theory is that the kid's suffering from some mind-control bull and that's the lynchpin."

Hound Dog stared holes into the sky in contemplation.

"I also got a piece of his shirt, if you... you know, wanna take a sniff?" at his mute nod she passed the fabric to his waiting paw-hands.

She motioned to the downed villain that looked more machine than lizard-man now. "What about him?"

Her colleague, obviously stopping himself from spitting in derision, looked down at the man. "He survived, as you can tell. Had half a mind to let him bleed out. At least now we'll get a testimony one of these days," a sweeping gesture pointed at the dizzied and stunned people being talked to by the paramedics. "I'm more concerned about whatever is affecting these people."

At his inflection, she looked them over again. Her breath caught in her throat, all of them were Quirkless. Her mind worked furiously at the possible ramifications and how they connected with the boy and the body-snatcher. Nothing she came up with bode well.

Rumi has gained a vested interest in Ershin/Ytem, the consequences might be good or they might be bad.

Hound Dog picked up on the trail.

Dice: 1d100+30

Options: Sum. Threshold: 80.

73 + 30 = 103 (Success!)

Hound Dog estimates that all this paperwork will take him 4 days.

Dice: 1d14

4 = 4