Ochaco's breath was quick and panicked as she ran in the direction the mysterious teenager, 'Izuku', had instructed her too, not once daring to look back for fear of what she might see.
She ducked and weaved around corners, feeling sweat start to trickle down her as it settled in her mind she'd just been told she might die. This was not how she expected the day to go when she woke up.
She hopped over a cardboard box in her way, turning the last corner she was instructed to and feeling her eyes go wide as she slowed down, seeing she was at a complete dead end. 'What?! Did that kid trick me?!'
She considered using her quirk momentarily but decided against it as she likely wouldn't be able to get high enough from her position and even if she could and somehow land safely, she'd be left in a state of nausea, which would be far from ideal when she was running for her life!
Turning around, she was hoping she'd still have time to run elsewhere but that hope was quickly dashed as she saw the green haired boy backing into the alley slowly, the weeping angel just in front of him.
"Hey, you there?" He called as he reached into his pocket, pulling out an alien looking device. "Can't exactly turn around at the moment."
"Y-Yeah! But you lead me into a dead end!" She shouted, voice laced with fear and worry. "Unless you have a quirk to pass through walls or something, we're screwed!"
"I don't exactly have a quirk at all." He said, making the brunette blink in surprise before her fear began rising ever higher. "I do however have a plan. I need to turn around though to make sure I'm in the right place for this, so I need you to keep an eye on the angel, alright?"
"R-Right! Doing it." The girl nodded after taking a moment to prepare her eyes. In seconds they were already beginning to hurt, as Izuku turned and hurried to her side. She wasn't sure why she was doing what he was saying so easily but she supposed if it meant she wouldn't die to a statue then there was no point in refusing. "What are you doing?"
"Making sure we're both within the boundaries needed for us to both be saved by this." He said simply as he pointed the device in his hand at the ground, as it let out a loud buzzing sound. After a moment, a new noise sounded, a sort of groaning sound as an entire room seemed to begin to materialize around them.
"W-What the?!" She exclaimed aloud, as suddenly they were no longer outside but in a massive room that looked as alien as the device in the mysterious teenagers hands.
"No time to explain, hold that door shut before the angel gets in! This is the last place we want a weeping angel getting into!" Izuku instructed in a voice more urgent than before. She wasted no time complying, pressing her shoulder against the door, surprised to see it seemed to be made simply of wood. There also was also windows, which the girl could see the angel outside of.
"Wait, we're still in the same place? Shouldn't we have moved forward?!" She asked, the placement not seeming at all like she thought it should have been in relation to the size of the room and where it had materialized.
"I'll explain in a minute!" Izuku's voice shouted, as she heard.. levers being pulled? "Get ready for a bumpy ride!"
"Huh- WOAH!"
All too suddenly the room began shaking and the girl fell back onto the metal flooring beneath her. She pushed back up and grabbed onto the railing she spotted nearby before looking up and feeling her eyes widen at the sight before her.
The room was massive, with a centre console Izuku was flitting about, gripping onto it tight to stop himself from falling while the centre pillar pumped up and down and the top spun around, lights flashing. The green haired boy reached over, pulling down on another level and all too suddenly there was a loud thud and a powerful jolt before everything stopped.
"There, landed." He said simply, clapping his hands together with a small smile, turning to her. "Sorry, I'm sure this must be a little confusing to you."
"A lit… A LITTLE?!" She asked incredulously, turning on her heels and looking out the window again, expecting to see the weeping angel in the alley still. Instead, what she saw was… a street that looked like it was in the eighteen hundreds?
Before she could contain her curiosity, fed up with not having any answer she threw the doors open and stomped outside.
"Ah, wait, you shouldn't-"
It was too late though, the brunette was outside and met with the sight of traditional houses lining the streets, people wandering about in Kinoko's with facial structures far removed from what she was used to seeing anywhere she had been before.
Even the air felt fresher, her eyes widening as she slowly stumbled forward, looking all around before she turned back to the room she had been in… only to see, of all things, an old English police box.
A rather small one at that. 'W-What?'
She walked towards it before looking around the sides, putting her hands on it to confirm it was real as she wandered around it in its entirety, ignoring the odd looks she got from the people around her, eventually making her way back to the entrance and walking inside, taking in the massive impossible room once again.
A single, simple phrase escaped her lips.
"It's… bigger on the inside…."
"Truly, a ground-breaking revelation." Izuku's voice said, making her jump as she looked at the boy, who was still at the console.
"Where are we? Did we move?" she asked, walking forward slowly. "This is some kind of quirk right? I mean it has to be…"
"It doesn't have to be and it isn't." The green haired teen said simply, clicking his fingers and causing the doors to close. "What street do you live on? I'll take you home now."
"O-Oh, Mie city, block seventeen, building six, apartment twenty-three." She listed off, before she realized she just gave a total stranger her full address and hit her palms against her face as her face heated up a little.
"Right, that's easy enough. I'll take us back in time by ten, fifteen minutes to before we met, that way the angel will be distracted. It might come after us as soon as it senses the TARDIS now, though. This thing is like an all-you-eat-until-you-destroy-the-planet buffet."
"…O-Okay… that was a lot to unpack. Did you just say something about time travel?! And what the heck is a TARDIS?! And while we're at it who the heck are you?! My week has been bad enough without some monster out wanting to kill me, and you just stand there acting like this isn't more of a big deal." She started ranting, surprising herself as her annoyance bubbled to the surface and she stormed up to him, putting a finger to his chest. "So explain mister!"
"Bit aggressive but alright. I'm Izuku Midoriya, as I said before. This ship we're standing in right now is called the TARDIS, 'Time and Relative Dimension in Space' and yes it is quite capable of time travel, as you saw outside. Eighteen sixty-two, if I'm not mistaken." He said rather casually, somehow not noticing the look on Ochaco's face as her brain crashed. He was lying right? This was just some major, elaborate prank, right!? "As for who I am, aside from my name, I'm a Timelord. In summary, an alien with two hearts who, as you probably guessed, travels in time. Any other questions?"
"I… bu…. I mea- WHAT?!" she exclaimed, shaking her head to try to reorient herself after that. "You're lying right?! I mean you look human, you're just pranking me, right?!"
"No? I mean for one, you look Timelord to me and besides, my mother was human. I can get pictures of some x-rays I've had if you want to confirm the two hearts thing." He said in such a genuine voice that Ochaco simply couldn't bring herself to think he was lying despite how insane what he was claiming actually was. It wasn't like there was a lack of evidence either, even if she could just claim quirks were at work to try to explain it away…
"….I need a drink or something…" The girl just muttered quietly, looking at the floor with a gaping mouth. Izuku pulled down a lever, a much less bumpy ride starting this time even though it did still cause the room to jolt a little, while the brunette just wandered over to a nearby chair, lifting up the device on it and sitting down. "Why me…"
"Huh?"
"Why did it come after me? It's like It was toying with me… Was it following me?" She asked, clutching the machine to her stomach as her brain continued to try to make sense of any of this.
"That's a good question." Izuku hummed, walking toward her and holding the device out, scanning her as she just blinked. "There are a few things I have learnt over the years about the weeping angels, such as how to get a rough estimate of how old some of them are, based on the specific colouring of their bodies, the speed at which they move and their behaviour. Was it like it was stalking you?"
"Yeah, it was like it was toying with me." Ochaco shuddered, absent-mindedly starting to fiddle with a knob on the machine, too stunned to realize maybe messing with the alien device she didn't understand wouldn't be the greatest idea. Izuku didn't notice yet however, as he finished scanning her.
"Yeah, it's definitely a younger one then. Some angels, especially the younger ones enjoy essentially playing with their food for hours and on rare occasions, even days before striking. 'Kind' killers, yet still sadistic. In this case, the food just so happens to be you-" izuku suddenly stopped talking as his eyes widened and he inspected his device closer. "Oh… now that IS interesting."
"What is? And what is that thing anyways?" She inquired, looking up.
"Sonic screwdriver, as for what's interesting… Sorry what was your name again? I don't think I got it yet." He suddenly got distracted, waiting expectantly.
"Ochaco Uraraka." She supplied, waiting for him to explain his reaction.
"Well, Uraraka, have you ever been exposed to a quirk that messes with time in anyway at all?" he asked curiously, making the brown eyed girl blink in confusion, while a thud indicated they had landed again.
"I don't think so. I don't remember anyone I know having a quirk like that. Why?"
"Because you've got trace amounts of temporal energy all around you, more than what you should from the two time jumps we just made. I assumed it was just the weeping angel beforehand so I didn't focus on it but… " He finally looked her way before scowling. "Hey! I spent ages calibrating that!"
"Huh?" He pointed at the machine in her grasp and she finally realized she was messing with it, quickly stopping and her face flushing. "S-Sorry!"
"I'll deal with that later." He sighed, doing his best to ignore the sudden beeps that came from the TARDIS, as though it was laughing at his misfortune.
Ochaco simply leaned back, sighing as her brain finally caught up to the insanity dropped on her and that was when a thought hit her, her eyes widening. "Wait a minute… Weeping angel…"
"Something the matter?" Izuku asks, raising a brow at her face, which had scrunched up as she was thinking.
"You said you were taking me to my house right?" She asked as her eyes widened in surprise. 'That…. It has to be a coincidence…'
"yeah, it should be right outside." He said, watching as she suddenly stood up and ran out. "Uraraka?"
His footsteps weren't far behind her as she burst out the machine into her bathroom, surprising her for a moment before she shook her head, continuing on towards her bedroom.
She strode towards her bedside table with purpose, as she heard a door open behind her while she began searching her belongings, eventually finding a book inside and turning to see the green haired teen had followed her.
"Uh… you want to explain what that was about?" he asked curiously and she came forward, simply shoving the book into his grasp.
"The third story." She said.
"Huh?"
"This is a book of stories my parents told me as a child, fairy tales they said they made up." She explained, shaking slightly. "Turn to the third story."
Confused, he obeyed and began flipping through the pages. As soon as he found the mentioned story, his eyes widened as he took in the title of the story before him.
"'The Crying Statue'…" he read aloud, before continuing on. The story described a statue of a winged angel, usually seen sobbing, that would come to life when none were looking at it.
And its description was exactly the same as the one that had been chasing them, there was only one single difference. The one in the story had only a single crack, while the one chasing them had two.
"….Somehow, I get the feeling this isn't a coincidence." Izuku said simply, surprise evident in his voice. "Weeping angels are certainly no fairy tale, so how-"
"-Did my parents know about them to tell me a story about them?" Ochaco finished, crossing her arms as confusion and unease bubbled up inside her. "I don't know. I do know I don't like this however, it was just to be some silly story! Not something trying to kill me…"
"Well… we can be sure of one thing now…" Izuku muttered, getting a questioning look from the brunette. "It's most definitely after you for a reason."
"Oh… great… " The girl muttered under her breath sitting on her bed, hoping the tears starting to form in her eyes weren't too obvious. "Just what I need! Miss my application to U.A., get rejected from the job I needed to pay for my apartment for being a bumbling idiot, then finally have one of my childhood stories come and kill me!"
"Hey, hey, hey, everything will be fine, okay?" Izuku said, walking over and gently taking her arms down, to see her face. "You'll be fine! I'll make sure of it. As long as the Angel doesn't-"
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Both their eyes widened.
The Weeping Angel had arrived.