Viridian: The Green Guide

Chapter 22: Return

Izuku squinted in the darkness of his room as he slowly switched between different camera feeds. He was feeling more confident in his hacking abilities ever since he completed his programming class, so instead of just looking up hacking videos on youtube like he normally did during his vigilante time, Izuku decided to try hacking into some security cameras. It had taken just over half an hour to make his way into the system, but that was partially because he had to set everything up so that he wouldn't get caught. If the police figured out that he was Viridian, then they'd prevent him from going out on the streets when he got better and that would mess up all of Izuku's plans, so he needed to make sure the hack was untraceable to hide his identity.

He was kind of worried that he would have to hack into each camera individually, but once he'd gained access to the city's security system, it was pretty easy to just switch cameras around the city. He obviously didn't have access to privately owned cameras like the ones stores put in, but baby steps. Izuku wasn't really planning to do anything besides get into the system, honestly, but as he was getting some practice switching between cameras, he saw a woman get roughly pulled into an alley and he couldn't just do nothing!

It was probably the adrenaline combined with the fact that he'd already made his computer untraceable that let him hack into the hero comm link so fast. He put in his headphones, grateful that they had a mic attached, and quickly double checked where the issue was. What hero was the closest?

Shouta scanned the streets below him, searching for any signs of the drug dealers he was supposed to be catching, only to come up empty. After Hamasaki's capture and subsequent disappearance, most of the larger dealers had gone to ground. The only ones that Shouta had been able to find were small fry, but he already knew they wouldn't be of any help to his investigation.

It also didn't help that he'd been distracted recently. It had been weeks now, and it was looking more and more like Viridan wasn't coming back. Shouta knew that the problem child wasn't one of his students, so he didn't technically have any responsibility for the kid, but it still felt like he'd failed, or like he should have done more to help him. If only he'd realized that the kid was suicidal earlier, he might have been able to...

He was startled out of his thoughts by a soft click in his ear that indicated that his comm link had opened, followed by silence. Shouta frowned. He was an independent hero, so the only people who would normally talk to him over comms would be the police or sometimes other heroes requesting backup, but it would be nice if they'd actually talk to him! He could hear someone breathing on the other end, so he knew it wasn't just his imagination, but who was it and what did they need?

"Hello?" Shouta couldn't help the annoyance that found its way into his voice. "I can hear you breathing, stop wasting my time."

There was silence for another long moment before a familiar young voice blurted out, "Imagine I'm throwing a marble."

Shouta felt himself melt from sheer relief, "Viridian? Is that you?"

He hadn't even realized how much tension he'd been holding until he heard the kid's voice. The kid was alive. He was alright. He was alive.

Izuku was trying not to panic. When he'd decided to hack into the hero comms, he hadn't thought of what he was going to say! Eraserhead was the closest hero to the alleyway he'd seen, but if Eraser suddenly heard a random voice in his ear, he would freak out and think it was a villain! Izuku wasn't supposed to have access to the comm link!

Apparently, it was at that moment that Izuku's brain apparently decided that filters were overrated, because all that he could think to blurt out was something about marbles, since that was how he normally got heroes' attention when he was out on the street. Eraser probably thought he was a complete idiot and was probably really annoyed with him for wasting his time and hacking into the comm link, but at least it had worked...right? Eraser had sounded oddly relieved when he said Izuku's vigilante name, probably because it confirmed that a villain hadn't somehow gotten access to the comm link.