“Hey, I’m a racer at heart, ya know. However fast you go, I’m pretty sure I can handle it.”

If that didn’t get her jeered to the other end of the arcade and back by the antivirus, nothing would. Vanellope knew exactly what any of the other kids would say if they heard her saying anything like that, and it essentially came back down to the same baseline of glitches can’t race, yadda yadda yadda. She was, maybe, kinda testing the guy for his response to that.

Wasn’t like he could be any more of a jerk to her than Taffyta and co. were already, right?

If she was honest, the little child still had no idea what exactly was going on. Someone actually stopping to help her was new, and he had yet to give her a satisfactory answer for just what his motive was. The fact that he was okay with the supposed ‘glitch’ touching him only baffled Vanellope even more.

It was a welcome change, of course. But no less a strange one, for that.

Then again, if he really was a genuine antivirus, he probably already knew that the glitch germs the other racers accused her of passing to them whenever she got to close weren’t actually a thing.

“You got a name, by th’ way?”

She climbed up in place, getting a firm grip on the collar of the boy’s jacket; but even as she did, she looked quizzically down at her unlikely companion. He hadn’t given a name yet, so far as she could recall… and knowing it would probably make this at least a little less awkward.

“Vale. Vale Dimitriyev.” And he had no words in response to her claim about speed; positive nor negative; simply as Vale knew what ‘difference in scale’ truly meant.

“I understand. Just as a warning... I can beat most karts.”

And the fact that the alarm was likely being raised - didn’t even register. Vale, as an entity, was designed for... heavier games. Unless someone in Sugar Rush had figured out how to weaponize jawbreakers, Vale was pretty confident.

“Technically, I’m a “Mobile Antivirus Platform”, but that’s a mouthful. Just call me Vale.” A nod; the incongruity of their appearances only more evident with Vanellope clinging onto his back. Vale took a moment to think; puncutating it only with him extending a freshly licked finger into the wind in an attempt to gauge its speed.

“Brace.”

He crouched, before launching himself from the ground - taking to the skies almost instantly. It was not flight, the arc was clearly ballistic but the target was clearly the bakery.

He reached a single arm around his back, holding Vanellope in place, as they reached the crux of the jump. Vale focused for just a moment-

-a flash, and-

“We’re going down hot! If Taffyta raised the alarm... well, I can escalate to match.”

He stirred. Looks like he was waking up.

It was a new day; a dawning light on the world. This day truly required something deep, prophetic - a profound statement.

“Bleh.”

“… If you say so?”

She still wasn’t sure she totally bought this. Who even was this guy, beyond random antivirus stopping by, and why was he helping her? It was bizarre to Vanellope, and she wasn’t sure whether he was leading her into a trap… or was just genuinely overconfident. What Vanellope did know, though, was that those bear claw pastry guys weren’t ones to be messed with… and she kind of had a nasty feeling that, one way or another, this little escapade would end up with her languishing in King Candy’s Fungeon.

Whether Vale would be a fellow-prisoner was far more up for debate.

But at the same time… it wasn’t every day a chance like this presented itself, practically gift-wrapped, to her. On top of which, the way he was talking to her like she was a real person, not just the flawed piece of code everyone around here saw her as, was definitely doing him a few favours in her estimation.

And, nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?

“Ah…”

She paused, again, as Vale proposed carrying her. That was a new one to Vanellope… but by this point? In for a penny, in for a pound, basically.

“I mean, sure, why not?”

This was going to be… quite the experience.

Within a moment, the thrum of strength that constitued Vale grew in intensity, the gentle sense of power growing into a torrent of ability that - had anyone been of the right capability to see it - would mark Vale as threat. Despite everything he had done in his life to be seen as someone far more gentle than his capabilities allowed, it stood to reason that a fight in this game would end badly for whoever stood in his way.

And as his mind processed the faint lines of suspicion and concern over the treatment of Vanellope, he felt his temperment tested.

(If someone tried to stop him, they’d regret it.)

Still, with all that was thought - he held a soft smile on his face for Vanellope, almost as reassurance.

He knelt down, the three-point stance favoured by many antiviruses. He would have preferred to carry her, bridal style, but despite the ease of it - it got awkward, fast.

☀  “You…you really think so?” Kaz felt the blood rush to her face. Having people compliment her quirk was still something that she was still getting used to. “I guess it can have a lot of uses.”

Kaz hesitated for a moment, tapping her chin thoughtfully, “Well…right now, white light is pretty much my limit. I’m trying to push that further, but it’s pretty slow going. My body usually kinda…shuts down before I can do serious damage to myself, so I have to improve my heat tolerance first.” 

“If I do that, I might eventually be able to use blue light, but…”

“…right now, that one gets so hot that I’ve passed out pretty much immediately almost every time I tried it, no matter how big of an object I make. And I wouldn’t recommend anyone being nearby when I do it.”

She sighed softly. “As for a bridge… I could do that. I mean, if it was a giant bridge, I would have to use my weakest form of light, but that would be enough for people to walk on.”

Vale - the undisputed master of a single focus quirk - nodded, almost sagely, at Kasandri. “Constructs - the sort you generate - are... kind of a game-breaker, if applied with enough creativity.” A small nod.

“...I understand that.” For Vale, having had no upper limit to how hard he could push his Overclock meant that he had become acquainted with unconsciousness fairly often. “I can’t really manage anything higher than 200% for long, and the last time I managed to push myself to 350% for a few seconds, I immediately broke my arm and a leg.” A nod. “I’m sure you’ll get there, eventually - like you say, you just need to improve your heat tolerance and your resistance.”

His voice was cheerful; the sort of cheerful that came with having absolute faith that it would be done.

☀  Ah, so he absorbed it from the environment. Sounded liege he had an emitter-type quirk then.

Imagining him sleeping with an electric wire elicited a surprised little laugh from her, though it made sense when she thought about it. Exposing himself to electricity would be necessary for him to absorb it, and that was a pretty easy way to go about it.

Kaz nodded slowly. “That seems to be how limits work for quirks like that, things get more difficult the harder you push yourself past your current limit. Of course, that limit isn’t rigid. It can be moved.” At least, that’s how she liked to think about it.

“My quirk?” Kaz paused for a brief moment. Vale had explained his quirk, so it was really only fair that she do the same. “It’s called Hardlight. I can compress light into solid objects. Sunlight is best, but any light source will do.” As an example she held out a hand, a glowing, red orb condensing on her palm.

“I can make almost anything, but simple things like spheres or walls are easiest. It’s also possible for me compress objects more to make them stronger, but that also makes them give off heat.” Her fingers twitched, and the orb shifted from red to orange, giving off a small but noticeable amount of heat. Then she let the light disperse, dropping her hand back to her side.

“The heat gets exponentially worse the more I compress things. It can be really dangerous for people nearby, and if I overdo it I’ll overheat and possibly pass out.” She blushed faintly at that last bit.

Vale politely nodded as Kaz spoke, listening - paying close attention to how she spoke. Particularly about the concept of ‘limits’; and how they oft tended to work. He had not put too much thought into it - a lot of the Overclocker quirk came to him through instinct.

“Indeed. I’ve been known to discharge entire car batteries in emergencies.” Which was true; the way he drew power seemed to be unpredictable.

“...wow. That’s...” His mind reeled; thinking about how powerful that quirk could potentially be. A white-hot compressed light sphere would likely turn any physical combatant into a non-problem within moments.

“...that’s really cool!” His excitement was genuine.

“That sounds like - and looks like - a really versatile quirk. Is there a limit to how strong an object can be before the heat becomes a problem? Could you, say, make a giant bridge to cross a gap?”

☀  Kaz flinched at the sudden spark of electricity, but then she smiled at the sight. It reminded her a little of Kaminari’s electricity quirk.

“Oh, well, that’s good,” she muttered, still somewhat distracted by his little display. When he started explaining, she shifted her focus to his words, nodding slowly. That certainly seemed like a strong quirk, and honestly, she was a little interested in seeing how he would use it in a fight.

“Oh, wow…”

“So…you can use electricity to enhance your own abilities?” she asked, tipping her head to the side, “Where does the electricity come from? Does it come from you, or do you-” Kaz raised her arms to gesture at the hallway around them “-pull it from your surroundings? Do you know how much you can power yourself up? What happens if you go too far?”

There was a brief pause, and then Kaz breathed a faint laugh, rubbing the back of her neck sheepishly. “Ah… Sorry. You don’t have to answer any of that.” Quirk specifics could be a kinda personal topic for some people, and she basically a stranger to him. She wouldn’t blame him if he didn’t want to tell her.

Vale had little care about ‘quirks being personal’; in his own mind, the more people that could comprehend the specifics of his quirk, the more likely in the (extremely likely) event that they had to work together, the better they could mesh.

The navy-haired boy paused, as he considered how to answer her questions; a hand raised to his chin in the universal symbol for ‘thinking’.

“I can. To a degree - much like a computer part, I do have an upper limit of a ‘normal limit’. I can go higher than that limit, but then the power drain starts increasing extraordinarily fast.” A moment of companionable silence. “It takes ten times as much power for me to go from 200% to 210% as it does for me to go from 100% to 200%, for instance.”

“...as for the rest... I draw it in by absorption. I tend to fall asleep every night with an open wire from a plug socket resting on me.” A chuckle graced that. “And... as for an upper limit, I’ve not yet found one - I always run out of reserve energy first. And for storage, I’ve not yet hit an upper limit either; I just can’t ever recharge enough.”

A nod, carefully.

“Overclocker?” she repeated, raising an eyebrow, “That’s an interesting name.” Kaz wasn’t sure exactly what it meant. Some quirk names were self-explanatory, but that one left her guessing. Did it have to do with clocks? Time maybe?

“Oh. Ah…” Kaz glanced down the hallway, nodding slowly. “That’s true. If you want to walk with me, I’m okay with that. I’ll admit I am curious to hear more about your quirk…” 

She suddenly paused, her eyebrows knitting together. “Wait, are you sure you want to walk with me? Don’t you have class too? I wouldn’t want you to get in trouble because of me.”

Vale, as if in answering all of Kaz’s questions in one fell swoop, summoned a portion of his quirk; clocking himself to - in his own guess, about 10%. A small spark of light moved from his feet to his hair, shifting over him.

“Do not worry about my class attendance.” A nod. “I have a free period, thankfully.” For schedules oft did not line up exactly, most students relying on friendships within their classes or seeking their friends outside of class time.

“As for my quirk... it’s partially named after something with computers. A computer part generally comes at a standard ‘clock speed’ - it’s how fast it runs. But if you are careful, and put more electricity through it, you can make it run faster; and that’s called ‘Overclocking’.”

A moment longer, as he let the power fade, clocking back down to standard.

☀  Kaz giggled a bit at that. “Sleep for sure. I worry he might pass out in the middle of a lesson sometimes. How he manages to be that sleep-deprived and still mildly terrifying is beyond me.”

She muttered a faint, knowing “ah” when he explained about his quirk. Backlash was something she understood completely. In fact, that was a big part of why she’d applied to go here too. 

“Oh! It’s nice to meet you, Vale. I’m Kasandri.” She reached out and shook his hand, smiling. Her hand was abnormally warm and covered in faint scars. “But just Kaz is fine.” She glanced over her shoulder for a second. It would probably be a few more minutes until she really had to be in class, and it felt a little rude to run off right when they’d introduced themselves.

“I’m guessing you’re a hero course student then?” she asked, turning back to him. If he was here to improve his quirk, then she assumed that was probably the case.

Vale chuckled as she spoke about the infamous teacher; his sleep deprived nature was almost a running joke. Having seen him literally resting in a sleeping bag proved that point far better than anything else.

He felt a small touch of curiosity as he felt her hand - it was warm, warmer than a hand should be with the weather - and he couldn’t help but notice the scars across it. But she, of course, was at UA. With quirks existing in the world, there was any number of ways for someone to be hurt and to receive many a scar.

(Vale himself had several; they just weren’t on places often showed to the public.)

“Yeah, I am. Really.”

It surprised her, if she was honest, how much she’d just needed to let all of that out. She felt a little dazed; she so rarely allowed herself to let her emotions out, even silently like that, that it left her feeling somewhat light-headed, but it was definitely an improvement. Removing her glasses for a moment, Margo wiped them on the tail of her shirt - more for something to fill the space than because they actually needed it - before returning them to her face.

Even still, the moment seemed to drag awkwardly. Between Vale standing around all superpowered, and her feeling a bit silly for having let the other girls’ words get to her so visibly in the first place… it wasn’t exactly easy to think of anything to say.

To be fair… it wasn’t even the girls’ words that had hurt her so much. They’d just been the straw that broke the camel’s back, so to speak. Everything that hurt her was so instinctively shut away, so as not to give anyone the satisfaction of a reaction for her, that there inevitably came a point when she couldn’t keep on doing that.

She tucked a hair back behind her ear. Rubbed her neck. Rocked on the balls of her feet for a moment. And found the only thing she could think of to say felt decidedly anticlimactic.

“Did… you ought to power down before you explode anything again?”

That was what always happened when he got too overpowered like this, wasn’t it? And if it made her sound like a mom-friend… that was just another instinctive habit.

Vale’s previous forays into his Overclocked state in the ‘real’ world had been explosive; dangerous and with a modicum of collateral damage. But something in him had changed; keeping him grounded and focusing his strength

This time - there would be no explosion of rage or power.

And while Margo had needed to let the emotion out, to seek comfort and peace in whomever was available (Vale, in this case) then Vale needed to play the other half of the role just as much. In a world where he struggled to channel his protective nature and desires, faced with power that was dangerous at best...

...being able to provide comfort to someone he cared about was a balm to many mental struggles he didn’t know he had.

“...not this time. I... I feel the control within me, for a change.” A nod, golden eyes casting themselves over Margo before matching her gaze. “I’m not sure why - but I feel... stable.”

Margo was a grounding rod, in more ways than one.

“Uh… pretty strong, I guess?”

It wasn’t something she’d ever given consideration to. While Vanellope had spied on the bakery enough times to know how it worked and where to get in, she hadn’t actually gotten close enough to do so much as poke the place herself, much less put any pressure on the walls.

But she knew exactly where the door was that Vale would need to bust open.

She still wasn’t completely buying this. She’d been caught out one too many times before, when other kids would lure her in with offers of friendship - such a change from how they normally treated her that she would always jump at the opportunity - only to find it was part of an elaborate prank at her expense. The girl didn’t much care to fall for any such trap again…

But she also wasn’t prepared to dismiss it in case Vale actually was telling the truth.

“Ah… then ya might wanna do something about her.”

She indicated below. Taffyta had clearly decided that she had had enough of this; the blonde had turned on her heel and was making a run for it… and Vanellope barely had to guess to imagine where she was going. To King Candy, she was pretty sure, this whole conversation would be practically treason… he’d want to know about it. Again, a nervous little tremor of code ran Vanellope’s frame.

She had yet to see the inside of the monarch’s rumoured Fungeon, and she really wanted to keep it that way for as long as possible.

“’Cause if I know anything ‘bout Taffyta? She’s on her way t’ turn us in.”

The constant thrum of power in the back of Vale’s mind was beating low; a gentle pulse as opposed to the torrent it normally was. Vanellope’s lack of knowledge of the area - or the strength of the walls - which was normally information conferred to residents ‘somewhere’ in their minds...

He was starting to get suspicions about what had happened in the game; and they all left a sour taste in his mouth.

Vale paused, looking towards where Taffyta was clearly running - weighing up his options. One of the flaws of being _so far above _normal game residents that, short of talking to them, he had little options for incapacitating that didn’t involve violence. (And, despite everything, Vale did like Taffyta. At least a little. Enough to not want to hurt her even in the course of his role in life.)

A nod, as Vanellope continued; she would probably tell him.

“...let him. If he sends people at us - well, I’ll win.”

It was spoken as an unescapable fact; Vale would win that fight.

I’d like to apologise for not being overly active recently.

☀  “Oh, good,” she sighed in relief, fumbling with the zipper of her backpack. She got to her feet and slung the bag over one shoulder, offering a sheepish smile in return. “Yeah, I’m fine. I’m just trying not to be late for class. Mr. Aizawa doesn’t really appreciate tardiness. Anyway, sorry again, but I better be going.”

She turned to leave, then paused and looked back at the boy curiously. She was fairly certain she didn’t recognize him, and she was usually pretty good at remembering people. “Hey, um, are you new here or something? I don’t think I’ve seen you around before.”

Vale merely nodded at her mention of Aizawa-sensei. (Russian, as a primary language, did not translate well when dealing with honorifics, but he somehow made it work.) “He really doesn’t, does he? I imagine he would do well with another hobby... or perhaps some sleep.”

A pause, as she continued to speak; her gaze moving over him in a way he found unsual. “I am... fairly new. My quirk is one that got me entered here a little early.” Another pause.