Chapter 1

Changing Spaces

A/N: Been sitting on this one. Let's see how it goes.

"Stop!" Shota Aizawa didn't really need to shout such an order when he'd already caught her around the waist and shoulders with his Capturing Weapon. He'd cancelled her quirk well before he'd even figured out what it was but she was so fast.

She huffed heavy breaths and turned to face him. The mask over her mouth and nose made the air come out almost like a vapor. Her voice had a bit of a lilt to it as though she were amused, the mask releasing an almost robotic sound "I haven't been able to use my Quirk since you started chasing me. Are you doing that?"

"I ask the questions, criminal."

"Criminal?" now clearly amused she moved her free hand up to her face. Aizawa pulled the restraints tighter; the action pinning her arms to her chest and making her visibly wince.

"I'll show you mine if you show me yours?" she teased.

Behind his goggles he squinted, annoyed. "Where's the drive?"

"Oh you mean the drive you stopped me from getting from the actual bad-guy? Long gone."

Another subtle tug and another wince, "Stop lying."

"My name is Jumper, asshole, and I'm a hero. My license is in my bag." Her eyes were narrowed and she was now no longer amused, "Feel free to check for the drive while you're in there."

There was a pouch strapped around her thigh, the only other thing on her person sans the mask on her face and gloves on her hands. She didn't look like much of a hero. Just a sleeveless black bodysuit zippered to her neck and that mask made her look a more like a villain...or a cat burglar.

Aizawa approached her slowly, taking the time to be sure she was restrained.

"I really don't have all night." she hurried him along.

He continued to take his time however and reached into the pouch. He pulled out the laminated card and found himself surprised at the International Hero License in his hand. And there in the bottom left corner, a sparkly American flag; signifying country of hero origin.

When she snatched the card from his hand and fell backwards off the edge of the roof, Aizawa was too busy trying to figure out when he'd loosened his hold to comprehend what had just happened. He was hanging over the edge the next second though, but there was nothing there. Just the empty street where the police were finally arriving.

A whistle sounded, pulling his gaze across the street. Jumper waved once, before again stepping off the side of the building, where a hole opened in mid air and swallowed her up.

"If you didn't work on your own terms you would have known about Jumper being here. The villian she's after has been all over the globe."

Shota crossed his arms, "I didn't believe she was a hero."

"So I was told." the man behind the desk spun his screen for the other man to see. A video of Jumper showing her quirk in action, one of the very few times she'd done so in public at that, "She makes portals." he explained, "She can open holes in space to get from one place to another."

"What's with the mask?" it hadn't seemed decorative, with the vapor coming from each breath.

"The air in the space where her portals open is very thin. She needs it to breathe. Her quirk isn't very useful for rescue purposes because of this, but she can send objects through."

In the video she opened one of these portals under a car parked on the street, it fell from a hole in the sky a moment later.

Aizawa was only a little impressed, "Looks like she causes a lot of damage."

"Her missions are usually stealth based." the man sighed, "Look, Eraserhead, she works for her country's government and her license allows her to operate in any country virtually without permission, she only need notify the country she's headed to."

"I know how the International License works."

"Then you know the longer she's here; the more you hinder her, the more bullshit I have to deal with? I'm too tired for this nonsense..."

"I was just answering to the alarm."

"If you're going to continue operating as an individual, you need to research better." the head of the hero commission tossed a large envelope at him, "Get in her way again and I'll take your license for six weeks."

Aizawa had chosen to be what one would refer to as a freelance or underground hero to avoid crap like this. Being reprimanded and ordered around wasn't his idea of real Hero work and honestly, freelance was getting boring. He was switching to teaching soon. This Jumper though, she seemed to have a pretty free setup happening for her. He was a little jealous.

With that being said, an international license was almost impossible to obtain. Of Japanese Heroes, only All Might, Endeavor and Best Jeanist had one. Ranking first, second and fourth respectively. While obtaining one was usually a rank-based opportunity, it varied from country to country and had to be approved by all other countries in the United Nations. The current number three had made it as far as the country leader's approval. But the UN passed him over.

Aizawa tossed the packet onto the table when he entered his apartment. Going about his usual evening routine of basically just getting comfortable.

It was well over two hours later when he came back to the small common area, a towel around his neck, and threw the hunk of papers a slight glare. He couldn't deny though that whatever Jumper was after, to have been sent from the U.S., it must be something big. The type of big he wanted a hand in before he stopped hero work all together.

He turned on his police scanner and various other alarm tracking machinery before sitting at the table and opening the large envelope.

For such a large pack of paper there was very little information. Most was redacted or just too vague. Locations without mission parameters or items without locations. There was nothing about why she was currently here either.

Her profile had been the top page, her hero name, quirk and rank; which was blank. An odd piece of missing information for the license she held. Her real name and where she'd received training had been redacted as well. In her picture her mask hung around her neck. Aizawa was sure it was the same picture on her license, but he hadn't really noticed on the dark rooftop. He studied her face a touch longer, feeling laid bare by her green eyes, before abandoning the papers and standing to make coffee.

Where would a criminal with a top secret hard drive go?

Despite himself he couldn't help but think on the drive. He'd only known that's what it was because of the police scanner. The robbery had actually been reported by a technician working late and he said that a hard dive had been stolen.

He'd also reported that the thief "changed the walls".

Jumper couldn't change or create walls as far as he knew... but then again, he'd given her no chance to show her quirk before cancelling it.

What was done was done and he tried to clear his head of it.

Would need a computer...

The teapot was whistling when it hit him and he decided to abandon the idea of drinking his coffee in peace.

"I hope you're here to apologize."

Jumper didn't even look over her shoulder to acknowledge him as he approached her from behind. Her voice came clear; without the robotic distortion of her mask.

Aizawa joined her side at the edge of the roof line and looked down into the dark streets. They were in the middle of what was essentially the corporate district. All buildings were mostly dark and the streets were lazy at best. A car or two passed every few minutes, but otherwise all was still.

"I came to help."

"I don't need help. I move better and faster alone." she said.

So did he.

"This thief has a quirk?" he was aware that they did. But fished for more info on it.

"Yeah he-" she finally looked over at him and he felt himself start at her gaze. She was shocked as well as she wasn't expecting his eyes to no longer be covered. And he held his head a little higher, not hiding the rest of his face behind his Capturing Weapon.

He was handsome, she wasn't ready for that.

"He changes the walls." she finished

"That's what the emergency caller said."

"So that's how you found me. I thought I'd be out before the cops arrived but they must have sent you ahead."

"I work underground actually."

She smiled, turning back to the street, "Funny. So do I."

Aizawa thought she worked for her government. He started to question her but without a word she pointed to the street. The street itself was distorting as if it was a glitch in a video game, "If you really do work like I do, maybe I can use your help. If you can stop his Quirk and contain him, this will be over in minutes."

She looked hopeful that it was that simple. He nodded and pulled up his goggles, "Eraserhead, by the way."

She smirked before covering her mouth with the mask and taking a deep breath. After the exhale she chuckled, "Picked your name in school huh?"

He couldn't help but grumble at the memory, "A friend of mine picked it."

She only chuckled as she watched the distortion move right up to the doors, "He's inside."

Eraserhead turned to where the rooftop door should have been only to find nothing. "What the hell?"

"That's his thing, his quirk is some sort of spacial distortion, but it's not an illusion. The door is actually gone."

"Then how do we-?"

"Hold your breath." she cut him off, opening a hole in the rooftop.

Stepping out of the space horizontally when they'd fallen vertically was definitely strange. Not to mention there was no real sensation of falling, just of being squeezed almost. Spacial reality Quirks like Jumper's and the thief's were rare. Just like elemental Quirks like wielding fire, water, ice or earth. They were much harder to study than the elemental and other quirks though and their wielders died from them often.

"Ok." Jumper's distorted voice brought him out of his head, "The computer in this building runs codes and passwords from all of the top secret institutions from all over the world. It's basically just a giant server."

"I've heard of those. Aren't their several around the world?"

"Six." she continued to speak quickly, checking a small compact computer she'd pulled from the pouch on her thigh, "They bounce the information around the globe on a non schedule schedule. But if you have enough hard drive files containing the matching encrypted files..."

"You could unlock more than enough secret information for multiple countries."

"Nuclear codes, major city power grids, sensitive information on country leaders, military secrets..." she trailed off before starting down a hallway.

"But why Japan? Why stop here?"

He followed close behind her, looking around for more glitching walls, doors or floors.

"Unfortunately the security in Japan is lax because of the dependence on heroes. A skilled enough quirk owner can get into buildings without tripping alarms and generally move without alerting hero agencies."

Aizawa already knew this. It's why he was underground. Japan was of the few countries with heroes who were revered and recognized around the world, but it also suffered in it's normal agencies of protection and prevention as a result. Heroes were relied on for everything from putting out fires to stopping bank robbers. In countries like the US, heroes were reserved for special cases and regular humans in police, fire, and the military were well trained to handle Quirk bearing villains without a hero's help.

She slowed to a stop and looked down at the computer, "He hid the access door."

"Can't we go through the wall?"

"I can..."

Aizawa was confused until he remembered, "The air in the space where her portals open is very thin."

"I can't keep taking you through or you'll pass out. Holding your breath isn't going to work over and over." she elaborated.

"It's just one wall."

"Unless he put up more, or worse."

She had a point there.

Shota's brain was working when he felt a tap and she was handing him her mask, "Take it."

"You need it."

"I trained without it. I'll last longer than you will."

There wasn't time to argue so he put it on. It was the oddest feeling seeing the vapor in front of his face as he exhaled. When the hole opened in the wall he jumped in without hesitation, but he didn't expect to not hit floor when he went through.

The thief had distorted the room to almost completely remove the floor. At the bottom of the new pit he'd created was broken cement and rebar, almost like a pit of spikes. Deeper than it should have been for the building's construction but very real. Jumper opened a new hole for Aizawa, landing him precariously on a tiny piece of floor still attached to the wall.

She couldn't open portals at the same time though, only in rapid succession. Open, close, open then close. So she was dangerously close to the bottom herself when she reappeared dangling from what little floor there was supporting the giant computer.

It looked like a giant egg, lit soft blue and humming.

"You're too late!" shouted a new voice.

Then Eraserhead realized, the thief was out of his sight, on the other side of the computer from where he'd landed. "I can't see him!" he shouted. Although he could see Jumper's lower body as she dangled.

There wasn't enough floor for her to climb up so the thief didn't even bother trying to move her. He went about typing away. Wires and cables bundled under him as he worked. She had an idea but it wasn't a very smart one.

If the thief was falling, maybe Eraserhead could see him, stop his quirk, and possibly snatch him from the air with his weapon. The catch here was hoping that's how the other hero reacted.

She didn't have time to hope.

She let go, falling through a hole just under her and appeared a moment later just above the thief. It took split second timing to open another hole, just as the one above her closed, under the thief.

Aizawa wasn't expecting a falling, kicking and screaming villain to appear before him but he immediately snatched him from the air, making sure to also stop his quirk in the process. He was heavy and falling fast though and without the proper leverage, the thief's weight pulled him off the platform.

"Jumper!"

He wasn't sure how she'd managed it, but he and the thief rolled out onto the pavement outside the building a moment later.

"I'll take it from here, Eraserhead."

As he looked up at Best Jeanist, It was then that he realized his gaze wasn't on the thief and what sounded like an explosion shook the street and shattered the windows on the first few floors of the building.

His cold glare was on the thief again a moment later but all he did was smile.

That last hole had been a guess and she hoped Eraserhead landed safely outside. She turned to the computer but felt her stomach lurch as the rest of the floor vanished. The heavy computer fell faster than she did and hit the pit bottom.

Debris shot up at her and bounced off the walls. She felt a pinch in her gut as she fell through a hole before she blacked out.

"-an American! Jumper. She's in there!"

Aizawa had been heading for a shattered window when he was stopped. The villain had been properly detained, his quirk neutralized through an injection.

Best Jeanist held his fellow hero back, "The foundation of that building is gone from what you're telling me! We have to move to a safe distance."

"We can't leave her in there."

"But we can't send anyone inside."

They glared at each other for a moment before there was a commotion behind them.

"We got another one!"

The two rushed over, Aizawa recognizing the unconscious woman, "She's a hero!" He corrected the mutters about a second villain.

An EMT fell to her side and rolled her over. Showing a short piece of rebar protruding from her gut, "She's not breathing!"