Author's Note: Here we go! Hawks being a hero!

Disclaimer: I don't own MHA or it's characters. Original characters are mine. This story is rated for sensitive subject matter and content that is mentioned and written.

Chapter 49 - Debuting Winged Hero Hawks!

Keigo's wings not only molted and grew back before he began hero duties, they seemed to go through an improved change this time. Since he was turning 17 in a month, it was fair to say his entire body went through some changes as all teenagers did. As far as his wings, they looked more crimson red than their original darker ruby red. Also, as Keigo demonstrated for Mila and Azumi the night before he started his hero work, his feathers were now faster, stronger, harder and listened to his commands faster. With barely a thought he had them all whirling around the living room picking things up, organizing stacks of papers, dusting and putting things away. He was even able to pick up heavier objects with small feathers.

"It's very similar to when you saved all of those people years ago, isn't it?" Azumi mused as she picked up her tea cup that he had brought in from the kitchen, not a drop spilt. Keigo grinned and watched Mila chase his feathers until they went back to his wings. She stopped short of touching them and chirped as she flapped her own. "I wish mine did that!" Laughing at her statement, Keigo scooped her up and spun her around to get more squeals and giggles out of her. "When they finish growing out from being cut I can at least start you on the basics of flying." This satisfied her enough to let him show her how to correct and preen some of her own feathers, going over what they were for, the different ones and why she shouldn't let anyone clip them again. Azumi even confirmed there was no clipping of feathers in this family.

Aside from the changes in his feathers, it made his wings much bigger, to the point that he could cocoon himself standing up and wrap himself completely with both wings. His hair was shaggier, longer and seemed feathered on the tips. His eyebrows also seemed to gain a feathery texture, which he thought made him look laid back and was more comfortable. There was a bit of stubble on his chin now, and he really liked the way it made him look a bit older than his 16 years of age. After taking a selfie on his phone with a smirk for Sasha and a wink for Dabi, he sent both photos and moved back out to the living room listening.

When Mila was being put to bed, Keigo spent quite a bit of time outside on the balcony testing the new hypersensitivity of his wings, wriggling one of his feathers inside to his parent's bedroom so he could listen in on Mila's bedtime story. After Azuni read to her, he heard a soft sound like a bird singing that gave him pause. He knew it was Mila, and wondered why he hadn't listened to her singing before. It was pleasant to hear, even if it was simple in the tune. Once it was done, Azumi gave her another series of playful tickles and kisses before tucking her into bed.

Keigo recalled the feather back to himself and pinched it out of the air, twirling it between his fingers as he thought about how exciting tomorrow was going to be for starting his hero work.

/

His first day as a hero back at the Commission went a lot smoother than he was afraid it would. Everyone seemed to act as if the legal issues never happened. He got his normal "Hello" and a few "Hey Hawks" from others as he headed for what was going to be his office. The Commission gave him a basic office with filing cabinets, a desk, shelves and a comfortable spinning chair to sit in. There was even a large window that looked like it opened so he could go in and out through it. Probably made that way just for him.

Hawks was on the same floor as seven other newer heroes, all with their own offices and a shared office with two secretaries that were to help out the heroes on this floor. Fax and copy equipment, computers and phones at the ready. It had an office vibe but in an exciting and new way that got his heart racing. He walked through the floor getting his bearings, wings resting on his back as he met up in the open area for assignments. And thus began his real day.

Hawks was one of the youngest heroes working, so he was given a patrol to overlap a few other heroes. Sasha came up to meet with him, explaining they would have a meeting every week to discuss his public appearance and interviews that may come up. They had been working on his ability to work with people for publicity sake. How to smile and greet them, pose for quick photos or give out autographs. Sasha also set her number as a speed dial on his cellphone so he could patch it through his headphones if he needed to. She was as excited as he was to get out there

For the first few days, Hawks flew around his area of patrol in his hero costume, waved and took pictures, helped where needed, but didn't really do anything major or flashy that could be considered a debut. It didn't take long for him to build a fan base of young girls who would jump at the chance for a picture with a cute guy. The entire time he flew around, he started memorizing the streets, the buildings and architecture. All the while waiting for that Code White from the police scanner requesting hero backup from any and all heroes who could make it. He shouldn't have been thrilled for it to come but he was ready to do more than catch pickpockets and small time thieves.

And then Thursday happened.

/

Hawks was perched on a tall dividing wall, watching a group of young high schoolers taking pictures as he smirked. He'd been getting a lot of that all week, and was thankful for Sasha's tips on his mannerisms and smiles. Truth be told it had been a lot of people watching and part of him was wondering if he'd made a mistake getting his license at practically 17. They were into December, so his birthday was coming up soon. A little part of him quirked his head to the side pondering where he would be if he hadn't lived with Azumi. And then it came across his headphones.

"Code white at the junction of Amber Street and l

Light Street! The bullet train has been attacked and we have multiple villains, along with a suspended train car that has passengers inside! We need aerial, rescue and combat support immediately!"

He gave a salute to the teenagers, in case they were watching and was already airborne and flying fast to the location once it had been said. He retained the rest of the information as he closed on the area speeding through the air. He made sure to call it in as his vision zoomed on the smoke and high rising train rails that were built to send the train over the city.

"This is Hawks, I am enroute to location with an eta of two minutes. I will prioritize the rescue of the passengers in the suspended car before engaging with the targets unless necessary."

He could see part of the rails were blown apart, and the bullet train had breaked to avoid toppling off the rails completely. It left the lead engine car and secondary car dangling down while the other 5 passenger cars seemed to be on the rails safely. Ok so they weren't exactly safe. There seemed to be two individuals on the remaining cars attacking what few police and rescue personnel had tried to come assist from the nearby station, having run along the rails behind the train.

Hawks scattered half of his feathers into the engine and secondary car to track and find every passenger and person that was in there. He was struggling to fly smooth with half of his feathers gone. But he was finding people and using the same feathers that found them to pull them out of the train and float them gently to the ground. Flying way above the scene to give himself time to react if he lost too many feathers, he saw a few other heroes were on the ground, taking the rescued passengers from his feathers so he could either send them back in or call them back.

He'd done a similar sort of simulation where a cable car full of tourists was about to plummet and he had to fight a villain in the air as he rescued people. This meant he was pretty comfortable with how many feathers to use and how many to keep for now. And then the villains turned on his rescue. In the short time he had been watching them engage with police he also watched the passengers all safely rescued from the engine car and halfway done from the secondary car, and tried to make sure he didn't miss a single person from either car.

The villains on top of the other cars realized he was up in the air where they couldn't reach him hand to hand, currently rescuing people so they split up. One ran along the top of the cars wearing a lot of grey denim with what looked like barbed wire wrapped around him like stripes, pointing his hands up at the red winged hero to engage. Another crouched behind the first, and pointed both hands at the civilians being floated to safety. Hawks stopped reporting everything he was doing and went into a sort of autopilot, moving before he could really think.

His largest primaries were in his hand like swords as he dove like a red and beige blur feet first into the villain with barbed wire. A series of his secondary feathers, that had been keeping him airborne, shot like missles to pin the second villain face down to the roof of the bullet train and facing away from the evacuating civilians. The first villain with barbed wire may have gotten kicked back and tumbled backwards, but the barbed wire sprung to life and latched onto the train to keep him from falling off. There were almost eight different lengths of wire and what wasn't keeping the guy from falling, lashed out at Hawks with dangerous barbed efficiency.

The evacuation of the two dangling cars was complete, with emergency personnel helling to evacuate the remaining cars from the rear. So with a series of red blurs from returning feathers, his wings grew bigger and his maneuverability increased as he scooted backwards from the attacks on foot. If he didn't have such amazing footwear from the Commission, he was certain he would have lost his footing before now. With a majority of his wings back in place, he was able to start attacking the barbed wire in earnest, the only ones not returned to him were the ones restraining and defending the second villain. Hawks intentionally kept three floating to attack his buddy when they tried to free him.

Seeing that this was the endgame for himself, the villain took his last course of action to divert all his remaining barbed wires into attacking the coupler that was barely holding the two dangling cars up in the air. If they fell now, with the evacuated civilians and rescue crews below, the damage and casualties would be worse than if they had dropped full of just civilians. When Hawks realized this, his brain went to the trolly car simulation he had redone four times. He knew the solution, and he knew it was going to be risky, but these feathers were stronger than his previous ones. They were faster and more agile. They had to be or he was going to fail as he had in most of his simulations.

This wasn't a simulation and he couldn't think of it like it was. 'Always prioritize the safety and well being of civilians even before your own.' He mentally chuckled, realizing he would get to find out how good his suit and equipment really were as Hawks gave up his feather swords and every available feather to latch onto the coupler that was being attacked and destroyed. He himself launched his body in the direction of the barbed wire villain and got himself within hand to hand reach. Grabbing a forearm and the guy's neck, he managed to twist and slam the man into the roof of the train car with a knee in his lower back.

Hawks felt stinging blows on his leg and forearms as he realized the guy had thin regular wires around his wrists and ankles to defend himself in hand to hand fights. They were currently acting as small razor whips as they sliced into his costume trying to get the hero to let go. Instead, Hawks snarled and grabbed the back of the man's head and slammed it into the roof of the traincar. The whipping stopped, as did the assault on the train coupler. In fact it seemed like all of the fast paced chaos since he arrived on the scene suddenly stopped.

He was breathing heavy now that he had stopped moving, and Hawks took a few deep breaths to calm himself from the adrenaline still pumping through his veins. A few police officers got to him to detain both villains as rescue support from the Commission arrived to get the dangling cars handled, allowing his feathers to return to his wings. As soon as Hawks was able to stand up and stretch, a police officer was before him offering a hand to shake. "I don't know who you are, but that was amazing! I have never seen such a smooth, well managed take down and rescue at the same time! I mean- wow!"

A grin broke out on Hawk's face as he shook hands with the officer. "Aw, you're making me blush, officer. The name is Hawks. Did everyone check out ok? Everything is all settled now, right?" The officer shook his head laughing as he held onto Hawk's hand. "Yeah. Are you kidding? Not a single casualty and not a single person got injured from the time you showed up and rescued them from the disabled train cars. I mean, those wings and feathers were incredible!" Hawks chuckled with an easy smile on his face, he could sense he was being filmed and there were tons of witnesses.

Hawks kept the smile on his face, affording a laid back casual posture as the officer offered to escort the winged hero to the Sergeant on duty for this incident and the medic to check him over. Agreeing, he wanted to check his forearms for bruises from the smaller wires that had been whipping him at the take down. As well as make sure he had all the information on which police department to list on Hawk's report when he got back to his own office for the day.

It wasn't until they got down to the ground level that the civilians Hawks had saved were able to come up to him to show their appreciation. He shook so many hands, took selfies with people and smiled while rubbing the back of his neck as he was thanked by person after person. By the time he got done with that, he almost missed seeing Medical before they left to check on the lashes his jacket took. Hawks needed to give the Commission Research and development department a huge thank you. The thick canvas material they had used for his jacket and pants, which was supposed to be a form of kevlar, had resisted the wires whipped at him and held tight preventing serious cuts to his arms. Cleared by Medical, he gave his information to the Sergeant in charge and wrote down the precinct he needed to send his report to. The police expressed their thanks to him and all the civilians were heading home or to the hospital. As Hawks prepared to leave, he saw a reporter run up to him with a camera behind her.

"Please don't go yet! You were amazing back there! What's your name, Hero?" Pulling his wings back to poise on his back, Hawks put his hands in his pockets and grinned a friendly grin as he turned to the cameras. "Hey there, Ma'am. Thanks for the compliment. You can call me Hawks, but the paramedics were the real heroes here. I just helped the passengers get to them and handled the grumps who caused trouble." The reporter blushed at his words as she continued to interview him. "You must be new to the scene, we haven't seen you around until now." Hawks shrugged, keeping his posture casual and relaxed. "I've been flying around until I was needed. Other heroes have been great at keeping up with things, though." She tilted her head and motioned to his wings. "We saw some of it earlier, but your wings seem to be multi-functional. Not just for flying but for use with other things, is that right?" Here, Hawks remembered what Sasha had told him to say whenever someone asked about his quirk or powers. "Guess you'll have to wait and see what these beauties can really do. Gotta fly now, but stay cute and be safe!" His wings snapped out and he gave her a wink before taking off into the air. The reporter covered her face from the wing that came back and turned to the cameras, her face a bit flush from the flirting.

"There you have it folks. A man of few words but friendly and reliable. I have a feeling we'll be seeing more of this winged hero named Hawks in the coming days. This is Inkato Niburo with Heroes network reporting on the bullet train incident."