Author's Note: The boys are back together! I know you've all been waiting for it so here you go. I hope you enjoy and thank you for the Kudos and Reviews. I've started getting the short stories up. Check them out as they go up.

Disclaimer: I don't own My Hero Academia or it's characters. Original characters are mine, and I write what I want to read. Rated for content and mentions of suggestive themes that may be triggering in regard to abuse, assault, rape, child abuse, drugs, violence and more.

Chapter 37 - Rescue Operation

Soji stood with Keigo in the living room as Jin was changing into his hero gear. Keigo was dressed in his own, nervously fixing the feathers on one of his wings pulled around to his front. "I know this is against the Commission's orders, Dad. I have to try. I trust him, and I know Jin will have my back. I can't wait for the Commission to study all the data only to be told they took her fingers." Soji looked down and nodded, looking back up at Keigo and rested both hands on his shoulders. "Be careful. Please be very careful and don't take a risk if it looks impossible. Get help. I can't lose you on top of your mom." Keigo's golden eyes locked onto Soji's sleep deprived bright blue ones.

He had been hoping he wouldn't have to force his decision on his father, and it made him feel something akin to pride that his father believed in him so much as to support his choice to do this. Jin walked from Keigo's bedroom, his dark outfit made him blend into every shadow and dark spot in the room as Keigo suddenly hugged Soji. "I'll save her. I promise." Soni hugged him back tightly and then patted his back to let him know he should get going. Keigo and Jin looked at each other, Jin's earbud in one of his ears while Keigo's headphones were on. Not the Commission ones, but his own personal ones. He didn't trust the gps to be off.

Sion hugged Jin before the teenagers headed for the back balcony door. Once they were outside, they wasted no time in getting airborne and heading for 33 Willow Way. There wasn't much chatter on the way. Jin would go ahead to scout the meeting spot and Keigo would keep an eye on 33 Willow Way before meeting up with Toya and Jin. Even thinking about it sent goosebumps along his skin in hope. It was Toya, it had to be. His mind briefly went to an argument he and Soji had years ago about who could be on the other end of the pbone reading his messages. But Toya was the only one who ever called him birdy.

Jin spoke over the radio giving the all clear and Keigo banked towards the newsstand that they were supposed to meet Toya at. He saw a tall black haired man standing with Jin in the shadows of a streetlight. He wore black combat boots, black jeans, a long dark blue trench coat with thick silver bands around the upper arms. His sleeves were short exposing his arms which were burnt and scarred to a deep purple that looked sutured to the healthy skin on his hands. When the tall black haired man turned, Keigo held his breath and stared.

Toya was taller, wearing a white tee shirt under his blue jacket. The collar was low showing a line of sutures connecting healthy skin to more purple scarred skin. It stopped halfway up his face at his mouth, making his smile look wider and as manic as he remembered. His eyes had bags of purple scars and tiny sutures, a series of earrings on both ears. He looked so different and yet the same, with his bright turquoise blue eyes that glowed faintly in the light and stared at Keigo with a slight smirk.

"Hello birdy." Keigo moved with a speed he didn't think he ever moved before as he grabbed Toya in a tight hug, receiving a tight hug in return from the 18 year old. Keigo let his held breath out and squeezed his eyes shut to prevent himself from crying as he gasped. "It's you. I knew you were there. I knew it." Toya let go of Keigo to gently hold his cheeks in both hands and grinned looking over his face. "Damn Keigo, you look like you've done well the last few years." Keigo laughed and Jin walked over throwing his arms around them both. "Thith hath been too long guth. Too long." Toya nodded as Keigo wiped his eyes.

Toya was the first to speak. "I go by Dabi now, because my old life is dead." Jin nodded and pointed between himself and Keigo. "My hero name ith Echo and Keigo'th ith Hawkth." Dabi looked at Hawks and tilted his head. "Hawks. I like it." Hawks was unable to stop his wings from puffing up with pride as he motioned to Dabi. "Dabi fits. Cremation, given your quirk. You going to be ok for this?" Dabi nodded and adjusted his regulators. "I have regulators on each arm to prevent myself from overusing my quirk. You two look really good in your outfits though." Jin grinned and then pointed down the street.

"33 Willow Way?" Dabi nodded and turned serious. "Yeah. I ran into Ren Hamada recently and he gave up that address. Said Ito was keeping Auntie there." Hawks looked down the street, just able to make out the old house that looked rundown except for the lights on downstairs. "How reliable is that information?" Dabi smirked. "Reliable. He'll probably be found at the Fukuoka General Hospital nursing some severe burns." Jin winced but Hawks didn't flinch at all. "We need to scout that building out. Get an idea of how many are there and where Mama is." Dabi nodded and pointed to himself. "I know through my street brokers that Ito was looking to get his hands on some gun cartridge sedatives. That's what Ren was looking for when I caught him. I have some with me and can claim I'm delivering for my contact. That would get me in the door." Jin thought and nodded. "We need to do a fly over, but if you can dithtract them long enough for Hawkth and I to get inthide the building, we can search it from there."

Hawks shook his head. "We don't even need to go that far. I can send my feathers in through any opening we can find and get all of that information. We can use Dabi as the distraction to break in and get Mom out." Dabi peered at Hawk's wings. "They're that sensitive to your mental commands now?" Hawks nodded and both Dabi and Jin agreed this was the better plan. Hawks offered to fly Dabi up to the roof with them. But Dabi shook his head. "I need to be on the ground to deliver the sedatives and be the distraction, remember? Save the flight for another time."

Keigo nodded and watched as Jin took off to do a fly around with his stealth and dark outfit. Dabi started walking down the street towards the house and Hawks called out to stop him. "Dabi." The taller teenager turned around to glance back at his long time friend. "Thank you. For being here." Dabi smirked and looked pointedly at Keigo before talking loud enough for Keigo to hear but not quite yelling.

"That's what best friends do, Keigo. And we're best friends for life."

/

Azumi felt ill. They had hit her up with another sedative almost as soon as she woke up from the first shot. Then, they came in around sunset with a meal and watched, ordering her to eat the entire thing. Once she was done, Ito had slapped a piece of tape over her mouth and stuck a bag over her head, causing her to go rigid with fear. Were they going to kill her? Was she being moved? Where to? Her leg chain was unlocked but the cuff remained on as she was yanked upright by her upper arms. She couldn't hear Ren and she hadn't seen him since earlier that day.

She was pushed ahead of Ito down the hallway. He told her there were stairs coming up, which gave her time to grab the banister railing so she wouldn't trip as she stumbled down the wooden stairs. Her feet were bare and freezing on the hardwood. It felt gritty, telling her this place wasn't really cleaned up or lived in. She was pushed into a warm room with bright lights, something she could finally see through the bag. Her vision looked like double vision, being forced to stay awake and standing through the sedative that was still in her system.

And then she heard the man talking to the camera. They were making a ransom video. She was going to be put on display, probably for Soji and Keigo to have to witness. Blinking quickly to stop the tears, she tried not to cry and struggled to keep her face neutral. Azumi didn't want Soji blaming himself for this, or Keigo to be distracted and upset over this. Both could easily happen if she showed any weakness, and Azumi was trying her best to remain strong. When she was shoved into the speaking persons arms and the bag removed she was very disoriented. She only just looked at the camera when the masked man grabbed her hand and showed he had a pair of bolt cutters.

Azumi moaned and tried to speak through the tape, pulling away from him as best as she could in her drugged state. It wasn't until she was shoved towards the camera after he threatened to gauge out her eyes that she accidentally let tears slip down her cheeks. The camera in front of her looked blurry, the room was spinning and the masked man signaled for them to cut the feed before he yanked his mask off. His voice sounded warbled when he lowered it and she heard Ito's response just fine because he was behind her holding her by her arms again.

"I would but I already used the last of the sedatives. Ren was supposed to get more but he isn't back yet." The man who had been in the video said something and handed Ito a green and blue bottle. He took it and yanked the bag back over Azumi's head causing her to moan through the tape. She was guided back upstairs and into her room, the overhead light on as the bag was removed again. Ito pushed her onto the cot and read the bottle in his hands before removing the top. He reached over and locked the leg chain back onto her ankle and ripped the tape off her mouth.

"Ah! Thank you." Azumi shook her head to try and clear it as she glanced at him. "When are you letting me go?" Ito paused and glanced down at her before he held out the bottle. "You need to drink this. The entire bottle." She blinked and furrowed her brows. "That's a nighttime cold medicine. I can't drink that whole thing, I might throw it back up, or pass out." Ito reached over and grabbed the copper chain around her neck pulling. She was too slow to stop him from yanking the chain and locket off her neck and Azumi stood trying to grab it back. "No! Please that's from my son! Please give it back!"

Ito held out the bottle with the lid gone. "Drink the whole thing and I'll give it back." Her hands shook as she grabbed the bottle of cough medicine, staring at him through blurring eyes. She let her tears drop down her face as she started drinking, eyes squeezed shut at the horrible taste. She coughed a few times, gagged and almost threw up once, but she eventually finished the entire bottle. Holding it out, she held out her free hand palm up and begged in a shaky voice. "Please give it back." Ito took the empty bottle and placed the locket into her open hand. Azumi clutched it despite her handcuffs as he threw the bottle away in the bathroom trash. "See? If you listen to us, things won't be bad for you. Now lay down. I'll bring your dinner up later."

Azumi tried to get the necklace clipped back on with her shaking hands, having to turn it around and try to clip it from the front because of her restraints. He paused before walking over and offering his hands. "Allow me." She hesitated before he took the ends of the chain and claspee

D it around her neck. Ito left the room and the lights went off, leaving her in the almost pitch blackness of her room. The boards over the windows only let a little bit of the light from outside slip through to the floor, and she curled up on the cot gripping the locket in one of her hands. She cried silently as she tried to breathe deeply to stop the nauseous feeling in her stomach. Already her vision was swimming and the shadows and thin lines of light were warping and moving on their own. She saw the bedspread shifting as if she were hallucinating and squeezed her eyes shut.

A soft feather brushed against her cheek, seeming to wipe at her tears. At the feeling of it, she opened her eyes and saw a middle sized red feather hovering in front of her, gently stroking the other cheek. "Keigo!" She whispered and tried to grab the feather, only to have it circle her and dart along her arms and around the handcuffs. It was as if the feather were feeling everything that Keigo wanted to see. It circled the handcuffs, her leg cuff, the end of the cot and followed the line of the chain. She moved to try and stand up, wanting to follow it, but her head spun as a dizziness hit her all of a sudden. Azumi fell back onto the bed and moaned as she suddenly pressed her palms over her eyes.

The feather darted back and forth, circling above her before it gently stroked her cheek and wiggled under the door to the hallway and disappeared.

/

Hawks held still crouched on the roof of the old house with Echo. They had found a window that was cracked open just a bit. Enough to let him send a third of his feathers inside to get the intelligence they needed. His eyebrows were furrowed as he focused his eyesight straight ahead on where his feathers were going and what they were sensing. Echo kept a lookout, ready to signal to Dabi who was across the street smoking a cigarette at the bus stop. "Ith the here?" Echo asked, a nervous tone to his whispered voice. Hawks nodded and tapped his own chest. "I can feel her heartbeat through my locket I gave her for Christmas. I just need to find her."

They knew they were going to have to be quick. They were essentially leaving Dabi to fend for himself against however many would be downstairs. Echo and Hawks would have to be fast in getting into the room where they were keeping Azumi, get her freed and get her out. Hawks mumbled as he focused on what his feathers were finding. "Two guys upstairs in a playroom of sorts. They're going over some plans with a movie playing in the background. There's quite a few rooms up here, the attic is full of clutter by the way. There's three guys downstairs, one of them is Ito. I can tell from his build. I can't seem to find mom out in the open so I'm going to start checking in side rooms and closets." Echo nodded and began to pace.

"I hope Dabi knowth what he'th doing. We did tell him about Ito'th quirk right?" Hawks nodded as he narrowed his eyes. "She's not downstairs. None of the closets or side- wait a minute!" His eyes widened and his wings fluttered excitedly. "I found her! She's in a room upstairs!" Echo slapped him on the back in praise and darted back and forth on the roof. "Whith part of the houthe?" Hawks pointed as he let his feather feel around to see what they were dealing with. "She's handcuffed, has a leg restraint that's chained to a metal bed. I think she's been drugged, her breathing is erratic and her heartbeat isn't normal."

Jin moved to peer over the roof and waved to Dabi down on the street. He pointed below him and carefully crawled down to the side of the building. He began to crawl on the wall like a giant bat towards one of the two boarded up windows as Dabi tossed his cigarette away and looked around before crossing the street. Hawks frowned as he recalled all of his feathers, waiting for his wings to be complete as Echo spoke through their intercom. "Dabi ith getting in pothithion for hith part. Thith lookth like they boarded it up inthide and out. I can remove the boardth on the outthide, but I can't get in with the boardth nailed in."

Hawks stood at a different side of the house looking over the roof and down at the cracked window. "I'm going in through that hallway window. I'll get her freed and get the boards down. Then we'll exit the window while Dabi distracts them and I'll meet up with you guys at the newsstand. Can you get those boards off and watch Dabi's back?" Echo took a bit to reply, he seemed to be motioning to Dabi on the ground, the teenager watched as Jin carefully pried the boards off one at a time. He dropped them down into Dabi's waiting arms, and the wood disappeared into ash with a small flash of blue flames. "Workth for uth. Be careful Hawkth."

Hawks flew up into the air and then let himself down to the window, removing two feathers and hardening them like knives. He gently wiggled them into the crack and slowly pried at the window to get it to move. It took a bit of time, but the window eventually lifted, allowing him to open it enough to crawl in. The hallway floor was hardwood flooring. Hawks knew they were going to creak as soon as he stepped on them. Releasing more feathers, he sent some of them to keep alert of the two men up here. If they started to come out of their room towards him, he needed to know. Then he grouped a bunch just over the floor making himself stepping pads out of feathers.

Moving carefully, he stepped only on the feathers, the floorboards never being touched as he neared the closed door where his mother was. Lightly touching the doorknob, he realized it was locked from the outside. He unlocked it and cautiously stepped inside, his feathers returning to his wings as he moved to shut the door and relock it using a feather. The room was dark with interrupted moonlight as he realized Jin was outside the window. Looking around, he saw his mother laying on a metal cot and hurried over to check her pulse, concern raising when she didn't move.

"Mama?" Her pulse was slow and her face was pale enough to stand out in what little light was in the room. Hawks gently shook her, as he removed his gloves to get a better grip, sitting on the cot next to her. "Come on, Mom. Wake up." Azuki moaned and cracked her eyes open to see the blurry image of Keigo in front of her. "Keigo?" He grinned and helped pull her into a sitting up position. "I'm here." A feather in his hand began to pick the lock on the handcuffs. Azumi shook her head roughly to clear it as she blinked at him. The moment he had one side unlocked he hissed at the red marks around her wrist. She grabbed him and clung to him tightly. "K-Keigo."

He hugged her with one arm and sliced the chain off of her ankle. "I have to get the window cleared for Jin so we can get you out of here. Can you stand up?" She shook her head no and pointed to the door. "Do what you need to. I'll be ready when you are." He nodded and she held onto him a moment longer before she nodded. "Go." Hawks hurried to the window and waved at Jin as he started carefully prying off the boards. He got the bottom off first so he could lift the window and paused when he heard the window creak. Once he realized the men across the hall hadn't noticed he continued, passing the boards out the window to Jin, who dropped them down to Dabi.

Azumi put a hand to her head trying to clear her blurry vision as she watched him from the bed. He was being so quiet, his wings twitching every now and then. Standing, she shook a bit on her feet before heading over to lean on the wall next to the window. "Who's out there?" Hawks grinned and kept a hand on her as he moved his mother to peer out the window. "It's the Heroes Echo, Dabi and of course me as Hawks." She blinked at Jin's grinning face as he waved, grabbing a board and dropping it to Toya who flash burnt it to ashes. She blinked at the blue flash and whispered, "Toya." Hawks stared at Azumi before he breathed out. "You knew?" She looked at him with watery purple eyes that had almost no black even in the darkness. A sign of the drugs in her system. "Can we talk about that later? Why aren't we just going out the window?" Hawks worked on the last board. "It's too small. I'm going to have to blow part of the wall with my feathers and that's going to make a lot of noise."

She nodded and as he got the last board off, pausing to glance back at the room door. "Echo, they're moving around more. We need that distraction and I'll get mom ready to move." The dark bat hero gave a mock salute before he flapped his wings down to the ground level and shook hands with Dabi before taking off into the darkness as Dabi waved from the ground with a grin and headed for the front door. Hawks moved Azumi back towards the bed. "I'm pretty sure they're going to check on you once Dabi starts his distraction. Lay still acting like you're put. I'll cover the window with feathers. Once they shut the door again and Dabi has them distracted downstairs I'll break you out while Jin backs up Dabi." Azumi nodded and moved to lay down, Hawks moving the leg chain so it was on the bed in a pool.

There was a loud knock on the front door as Hawks scattered his feathers across the window and moved behind the door waiting. Like he thought, the two men across the hall came out, one unlocking the bedroom door that Hawks had relocked with a feather and he saw the door swing open blocking his view. The man was tall, dressed in casual clothes like jeans and a t-shirt. He watched Azumi laying still for a moment before he shut the door and relocked it. There was a pause as the two men hurried down the hall as muffled voices from downstairs echoed in the house. Hawks tiptoed over to Azumi and helped her stand as he brought all of his feathers back to him. He had gotten a pretty good gauge on the window and knew where he needed to strike to blow it open with the wall.

He readied himself, moving to stand in front of his mother as she held onto one of his arms tightly.

And then the downstairs exploded.