Fortunately, for Gabriel, he’d know anyway. Getting access to those cameras would be easy enough, just needed to call in a few favors — then again, Iphi might not help him out considering the situation. How would they even get in touch with one another? He knew how to reach the hero association, but how could he patch himself through considering it was all secret… if he called them directly, that’d be problematic, too.

A house visit, maybe. Is that weird?

“RIPPED ASUNDER?” The man in the van yelled, loud enough to alert Chirp. He thought he’d hear an engine start or something, but a voice will do.

“Damn, right.” Gabe opens the door, as he sees the man with a headset on, looking at a screen inside of the car via their allies’ POV. They were carrying glasses with a camera inside of them. Gabriel sent a fist flying a knocked the man out. Now, it was time to see what the hell he was talking about.

Looking at the camera, then JoJo, Gabriel gazed into the past.

---

“Khepri,” Gabriel doesn’t have time to engage with the absurd. Scripts weren’t his only wheelhouse, he dabbled in improv, too. ‘Yes, and’ would shine through as he nodded to their inane rambling — Gabe, bad at conversation? Please. With all the hearts he’s broken, it’s a surprise Retsu was the first to pull a gun on him, “Tutor me sometime!”

It’s a fake request. After tonight, he’d hope to never see any of these bastards again. Khepri was just a victim, but with the way they acted, he wouldn’t be surprised if they volunteered.

They prove their reputation, they used insane physicality to… activate their jetboots. Underwhelming, but Gabe was able to catch the ball, now wielding two of them. They didn’t need his plan, Khepri took the lead and gave them an opportunity.

“No time to Illinois. We need to be two clowns on a unicycle.” Without warning, he tossed one of the balls to Taro and then motioned for him to toss it back. Then, he’d toss the other ball, too. It was at the exact moment he lost track of which ball was which was that he realized he didn’t have to use the decoy in the first place.

Fuck. He thought. I hope he’s keeping track… Then, he sees Khepri falling. “Huh… don’t think I’m getting those lessons.”

Tl;dr
- catch ball from khepri
- Confuse self by juggling both balls w/ taro
- Hopefully taro keeps track… if not it’s up to him to choose which ball when we arrived woo
- IDK HOW TO HELP KHEPRI DONT DIE IG LMFAOOOO

---

“If you’re gonna get that close,” Gabe says. “You might as well sit next to me.”

The cabin isn’t particularly large, but it’s meant to fit up to four people. And if he were to get a demonstration of the quirk — something he desperately wanted, considering how it was one of the few ways someone could experience him the way he experiences others — then they would have to get close enough to touch without falling over.

He scooches over and taps the seat next to him, using the hand Kysaly was so eager to grab to lightly tug them in his direction.

“I want you to use your quirk.” It’s not difficult to hurt yourself. For most people, it is. But most people don’t put themselves in life-threatening situations daily. And, even without that, the nature of movies required injury. Directors could usually skate by unhurt, but he had a very hands-on approach to his craft.

“Not at all,” He says. Doctors often tried to understand the body. And a few quirk specialists went out of their way to address his inability to connect with others after The Incident. He thinks of them fondly, even if most were necessarily distant. By this point, they’d reach the apex of the Ferris wheel. “Are you afraid of heights?”

---

“8.4” Gabriel didn’t hesitate. “I’m the hotter one, so if you want your score to go up, then mine has to, too.”

Flirting was second nature. Banter and writing and everything that came with the obsessive study of his craft helped him navigate social situations in ways that he could not have fathomed. Most of his words were variations upon variations that he’s read, watched, written, or said, thousands of times. Carefully crafting his response to each situation as he saw fit. But flirting was a defense mechanism. He wanted a friend. Someone he could trust.

‘20 questions’ was meant to facilitate that. Even now, he was deflecting from the heart of the matter. He was afraid to bare his soul to another. And while this was a stranger, a person you’re supposed to keep up the charade for, he knew he’d have to ease into the meat and potatoes of the date sooner or later.

How about later, though?

“That doesn’t count, by the way.” He says. “You can’t just ask my question back at me. So, it’s still your turn. You’re just lucky I answered it cos you’re cute.”

A wink.

He knows how to get what he wants.

---

It was only a moment of hesitance, but as a detective, you learn to observe the tiny details. Before you know it, you realize tiny details comprise the world. We are more than people. We are everything we’ve ever touched — physically, emotionally, spiritually. There have been millions of lives that changed the world before we arrived. And we are one of the billions who would change the future — even if we were eventually long forgotten, our impact remains no matter how unnoticeable it seems.

“Kys is good,” Gabe winks. “But how will you know when I’m asking for one?” He doesn’t let the thought sit as they hurriedly make their way through the nearly nonexistent line, finding themselves across from one another. He’d be lying if he said he didn’t prefer it this way — being surrounded by people was overwhelming, even in the throws of directing.

Film was a way to express himself in a way that words were incapable of. He knew the limits of language Gabe’s quirk showed him that he would never be understood. Not in the way he wanted. Art was his outlet. Without it, he prefers small, personal conversations. Conversations like the one he planned to have now.

“On a scale of 1-10 how hot am I?” It was a joke, but a real question. He didn’t care about the answer as much as he cared about Kysaly’s reaction. Gabe offered a wink and a mischievous smile, knowing he’d put them in a difficult situation.

How honest were they with strangers?

---

Being undercover was horrifically lonely.

Gabriel had lost access to most of his friends and lovers after becoming a criminal. Outreach was a strong suit of his, and it’s not like they wouldn’t respond and offer a helping hand, but he didn’t want to compromise their lives if the underworld learned of his precious comrades. And if his secret were to be exposed, then they’d be at greater risk, too.

So, he got access to an underground dating app that was generally private and trusted and all of that good stuff! Unfortunately, with his quirk, he was able to steal an invite code from someone who knew none the wiser and created a profile for himself.

Really, he was looking for friends. But if something more popped up then so be it. That’s how he lived his life. And with his commitment issues, it led to a lot of broken hearts on the other end. With the encroaching loneliness, however, he could use someone to confide in.

“Hey,” Gabe says, pulling up behind Kysaly. “KysYrself?” It was their online handle. “It’s me, BigRoost.” Yeah, he’s still sticking with the bird bit. They’d already exchanged real names, but this proved to each other who they were at a moment. “Let’s get some tickets, yeah?”

---

“Evenin',” Chirp says. “Let’s get straight to it, yeah?”

Chirp points to the bank nearby. Then to the general direction of where a far-off van is parked. People are clearly scheming. The van is meant to be their escape vehicle. These two were going to stop the upcoming heist on two fronts.

“Bank robbers. Two are going in and are going to be armed with guns. I can’t deal with that, hence, tada…” He broadly gestures at Peacemaker. “You.” He puts his arms down and points his head to the previously addressed van. “I’m going to sneak up on the getaway driver and dispose of them. Then, I’ll tinker with the van so it can’t move at all.”

“Simple, yeah?” He shrugged. “Should be done in ten minutes, maybe.”

The crooks made their move. They exited the van with masks in their hands, only putting them on when they were close enough to be seen on the cameras — amateur considering all of the other cameras in the area. And as they walk in they immediately draw their guns, making a stink of it all.

“Showtime.”

---