Author's Note: I'm still looking for a new Beta Reader. Also looking to finish the original character short stories I have been working on as its own story with each chapter focusing on a character. Thank you for all the support!

Disclaimer: I don't own MHA or its characters. Original characters are mine but that's it. Story is rated for sensitive subject matter and content both mentioned and written by the author. Includes but is not limited to child abuse, drugs, rape, assault and more.

Chapter 58 - Riot and Collapse

Jin was burning the candle at both ends. He was working extra patrols to get more experience faster. Staying late to train on his own or going in early. Doing extra work for the office crew, he found himself staying overnight on a small folding cot just to be able to get enough sleep to remain moving. Now, he had three days off, and it would roll into the weekend meaning Keigo would be knocking on Sion's door in the morning to hang out as he usually did. This weekend they were going to try and find an apartment together, even though Jin had been avoiding his best friend out in the field while working for Hook Shot. He didn't want to anger the pro hero again, and the pro had been giving Echo a lot of space lately. He wanted to get through his probationary period with the pro and leave, and he didn't need a bad mark on his record before getting to work with Hawks.

Knowing it was later than he had promised, Jin didn't want to wake up his grandmother. So he slipped inside her apartment quietly and took off his shoes. He was almost to his room when the living room lamp turned on, scaring the crap out of him, and Sion was glaring at him with dark eyes from her recliner. Narrowed dark eyes pinned him to the spot as she spoke. "You are home late." Jin grinned wide, setting down his equipment bag. "Yeah. I had to work late. I called to tell you, grandma." She frowned and stood, walking over to gently take his elbow and steer him towards the kitchen table. He flinched in pain, but she didn't let go. "You said a little late. Not almost six hours late. You need to eat dinner, and what happened to your arm? Roll that sleeve up and let me see."

The teenager tried to move out of his grandmother's grip, but she slipped her free hand to his shoulder and pushed him into a chair. "Sit. Stay." Jin swallowed nervously and nodded as she went to reheat dinner. "Keigo came by tonight to invite you to watch a Pro Ball game with him tomorrow after apartment hunting. If you don't start talking and being honest with me I will tell him no when he comes here tomorrow. I didn't raise you to lie to me so don't even try that." Jin sighed and held his head in his hands before telling her about the extra training and work to avoid the EndurX supplement that Hook Shot wanted him to take. How he needed the hours of hands on experience to be able to work with Keigo when he got his agency. How Hook Shot could ruin him in the hero world if he didn't do as he was told, pausing to scarf down the fried rice Sion set down in front of him.

The older woman listened and while her grandson ate, she lifted his sleeve to see bruises on his arm. Following them up to his shoulder, she frowned to see more bruises on the back of his neck and a rough red rash near his jaw points from wearing the synthesizer too long. There was no reply from her as she filled a towel with ice, resting it on the back of his neck. Jin sighed in relief, letting his head drop into his hands as his food settled, the bowl empty. "I know it'th not what I thought it would be, but it'th only for a few more monthth. Then I'll be Keigo'th thidekick and thith will all be a bad memory."

Sion moved to sit at the table. "These bruises look like someone put their hands on you, Jin. Is that man hurting you?" Jin blinked quickly and shook his head, his face looked appalled at her statement. "No! No, it'th from the gym training and work." She gave him a look and the teenager began to point and recount each and every bruise. "Thith wath from the training room and thparring. Thith qath from a rough landing on a building. Thith wath from a guy who uthed a poethe of rebar ath a weapon and my thuit doethn't have enough padding to take the hit. Thith-"

"Alright! Alright, you can stop." Sion pulled him into a hug, ice packs and all. She held him close and let out a deep sigh. "I don't like seeing you so hurt or worn out. This was supposed to be something you wanted to do. Not something you have to do. Please call your father tomorrow and talk to him about this. If he feels it is worth it, I'll stop worrying so much. And if you're going to be more than a little late, just tell me. Even if you have to leave multiple messages. Alright?" Jin started off as his grandmother spoke, his own grip tightening around her. He hadn't realized how much he needed to hear her words, how much he needed to know she saw the same things he did.

"Alright, grandma. I promithe I'll do that tomorrow. And I'll be better at telling you when I'm coming home too." Sion nodded and grabbed his bowl. "Good, I'll get you a refill now." Jin grinned as he watched his grandmother disappear into the kitchen. He rested his chin on his hand thinking, a smile on his face. He would miss Sion when he moved in with Keigo. Maybe he should start learning how she makes her dumplings before he leaves.

"Hey grandma? Can I ask you to teach me thomething?"

/

Soji was walking through the mall with Mila walking beside him. They both had small paper cups of ice cream, and were headed for the large fountain in the middle of the food court. The mall had two floors, with a large food court in the middle on the ground floor. There was a decorative fountain that pushed water high enough to reach the second floor, which was railed off so people could walk around and look down at it. A large glass skylight above made the entire place bright with natural light on top of bright interior lighting. Around the fountain were wood and stone benches to sit on, which now had Mila kneeling backwards on one to look down at the water with coins littering the bottom. Her ice cream in hand and wings flapping happily.

Sitting next to her, Soji laughed at her playful chirps when she saw water splash and move, offering a napkin when Mila would make a mess as she ate. Keigo and Jin were out looking at apartments, while Azumi was working an extra shift, so Soji and Ma decided to explore the mall together. They had walked around the ground floor, checking out stores and the play area. They had grabbed lunch, followed by ice cream before planning to hit the upper floors. Upstairs was a children's clothing store that specializes in making clothes for animal quirks. Soji had bought many of Keigo's clothes from there after he married Azumi.

Loud music broke Soji from his plans as Mila's wings stopped flapping and settled on her back. She looked around curiously as Soji took her empty cup. "What's that, daddy?" She tried to find the source of the music which was getting louder. Other mall shoppers seemed to be looking for the source as well, until cheering could be heard over the music as someone yelled. "Heroes! There are heroes here!" Mila moved closer to Soji and grabbed his shirt as he tossed their empty ice cream cups away. "You want to see the heroes, sweetie?" She nodded quickly and whistled when he grabbed her gently and placed her up on his shoulders, holding her feet. Her blue eyes widened at how high up she was and her wings flared out as Soji laughed.

There were mall employees helping to move the crowd to the side as an impromptu parade of heroes walked through the mall. There were a number of them waving to people, tossing out flowers they created, or making illusions for everyone. One hero was making it snow or rain and the hero behind him was blasting everyone with cool or warm air. It took a moment for Soji to realize this was the recent graduating classes of some of the hero schools nearby. Mila was waving to everyone that she saw, chirping excitedly. "Will Nii chan be here?" She seemed to be looking for him in the line of student heroes. "No, these heroes just graduated from their school. Your brother has been a hero for a bit so these wouldn't include him."

She pouted for all of a second before a flying unicorn made out of clouds circled her and she giggled, waving to the hero creating them. Amidst the heroes were music and sound effects from them, some shaking hands with civilians, others waving and showing off with their quirks. Because of that the small explosions were almost missed until a few more went off. Trash cans all over the mall blew up, causing pieces to go flying and smoke to cloud up the areas. Mila coughed and was quickly pulled down to Soji's hip where he held her close as his eyes darted around. The fire alarms went off and the heroes in the parade started trying to yell for everyone to remain calm.

Wherever the music was coming from, it had stopped suddenly as a woman spoke over the loudspeakers telling everyone to calmly and quickly exit the building. With so many people already crammed to the sides for the parade, they began to trip over themselves and shove at each other to get to the exits. Soji moved to a small alcove with Mila, avoiding the crowds and crouching down with her to check her over. "Mila, you ok?" She nodded and kept her grip on him, eyes wide at everyone and focused on some people who had decided to take advantage of the smoke and emergency to start looting stores.

"What are they doing, daddy?" He glanced over and held her a bit tighter as he looked to find a safe way out for them. "They're being bad guys right now. The police and security will need to take care of them, we are going to leave just as soon as this crowd." She nodded as he shifted her back up to his hip. "You don't let go, no matter what ok?" She nodded and hid her face in his shoulder as Soji ducked out of the alcove and maneuvered through the crowd as fast as he could. He was heading for one of the open food kiosks that has a delivery door behind it. Knowing that way would be more clear than the normal exits. Looking around he saw people were starting to destroy mall property and riot as the student heroes were detaining the looters and trying to find out what caused the trash cans to blow up.

Soji stopped running as a mass wave of people who had just exited the mall came running back in. Some were holding bleeding wounds, others trying to carry injured people back as a woman screamed. "There are villains outside the mall! A man with weird things from his hands was attacking people!" Mila whined and chirped, scared of what she was hearing and the noises, her wings tight around herself and part of Soji's arms. He ducked into a small kiosk that sold hair clips, two women and a child also crouched behind the counters were terrified and didn't try to stop him. Soji tried to get his phone out and call 911, but the lines were overloaded.

"Daddy, I'm scared!" Mila was crying as she clung to him, looking up with tear tracks on her diet smudged face. There was smoke everywhere and they could only breathe because they were so low to the ground behind the kiosk. There were still rioters and looters inside in more numbers than the student heroes. Without being able to get outside because of villains attacking the evacuating civilians, Soji didn't know where to go from here. "I know little bird, I'm scared too. But we're safe here and we can wait here for help, ok?" One of the women with them was also reassuring her son while the younger of the two women was glued to her phone watching news about what was going on.

"The news says All Might is outside fighting the villains, and more heroes are on their way to help us." She smiled more to herself as she gripped her phone. "We just have to stay put and the heroes will save us, right?" Soji nodded and tried to smile at Mila. "See? We'll be alright." She nodded and hugged him tight as a rumbling noise filled the air. Someone screamed and a number of people also screamed about the upper level beginning to collapse. The woman with her son grabbed him and tried to run from the kiosk as Soji pulled Mila closer and crouched over her protectively. The feeling of drywall, glass and debris came raining down on the kiosk as Mila screamed.

And then everything went dark.

/

Keigo and Jin had found, in their mind, the perfect apartment. They had been looking all day and this was the second to last apartment. It was on the 10th floor of a 12 floor building. It had 2 bedrooms and a loft. Large balcony with two different door entrances, one from the living room and one from the master bedroom. A bathroom with a large shower, which Keigo declared perfect for hisarge wings. There was a kitchen with a half wall counter table top between the kitchen and living room. The living room had a large TV built into the wall and was going to come partially furnished with sofa, recliner, chairs, bedding and frames and tall lamps throughout. It was within their budget and the boys were already planning who would get what room and what they would decorate as the realtor got the paperwork ready.

The boys were up in the loft, talking about turning it into a fitness workout area when the realtor gasped over the TV. "Oh my god, those poor people." Jin looked to Keigo and they both headed down to see what was going on on TV. It was set to the hero news network, currently showing All Might fighting a man with a weird mask on his face with a caption saying "Multiple quirked villain!" There was a small side camera showing the mall with smoke coming from every exit and the large skylight above, but replaying the attacks from more villains outside that caused more than half of the roof to collapse in on the mall. The news announcer told of the student heroes inside and the reported riots and looting that was going on. It stayed the number of injured is unknown, highlighting more and more heroes as they showed up to help.

Keigo's phone went off and he saw it was his mother, Azumi. He put his headphones on as Jin explained to the realtor that they would have to sign off on the place later, but they wanted it for sure. When Keigo answered the phone, his mother sounded shaken and scared as she spoke almost too quickly for him to catch. "Hey mom."

"Keigo! I can't get a hold of Soji! He took Mila to the mall today and I saw the news! His phone isn't- I don't know what to do because I know they won't let me go there!" Keigo's feathers puffed up as he listened, golden eyes moving to look at the news playing. "Where are you, mom?" Azumi took a deep breath before answering. "I'm at work." Keigo pointed at Jin and then the TV to signal they were going to head there, so Jin got the realtor to agree to turn off everything and lock up as Keigo spoke to Azumi. "Mom, I'm sending someone to take you home and stay with you. Jin and I are going to the mall now. If Dad and Mila are in there I will find them. It will be ok."

"I can go home by myself, Kei." Azumi tried to argue, but Keigo wasn't having it. "No mom. Please. You shouldn't be alone right now and especially not with everything happening. Please let me send someone to you." She sighed, resigned, and replied quietly. "Alright. Please be careful. You and Jin be safe." He smiled as he slid his glasses on. "We will. You wait there, you'll recognize who it is." Azumi confirmed with him and hung up, Keigo running to the balcony with Jin. Both boys took off into the air, able to see the smoke in the distance. "You have your license, Echo?" Jin nodded and flapped his wings next to Hawks. "I do. Should I tell my agency?" Hawks thought about that, but he knew time was not on their side here.

"No, I'll make sure the Commission reports you were there. They're on my call list before we get there." Echo nodded as Hawks turned off the radio with Jin and called a number on his phone. He knew Dabi was in Fukuoka right now because they had a date tonight. He tried to keep the fear from his shaken voice when Dabi answered the phone. Based on the relaxed tone, Dabi probably hadn't seen the news yet. "Hey birdy, to what do I owe the call for?" His deep, rough voice helped to calm Hawks a bit as he followed Jin higher to avoid any rescue choppers headed towards the mall.

"Hey hot stuff, I need a favor. Have you seen the news?" Dabi made some noise on his end. "Just turned it on at the bar. Is that the mall?" Hawks shook his head a bit with a smirk. Of course he was at the bar, probably with Giran. "Yeah. Dad and Mila are there. Jin and I are enroute but mom is alone and at the clinic. She saw the news and-" Dabi interrupted. "You don't have to say anything more. I'll go there now. Is Mila and Uncle Soji ok?" Hawks heard him moving in the background and let out a relieved sigh. "I don't know. Mom said his number wouldn't work. Can you stay with her at the apartment until we find out anything?"

"Of course. You sure you don't want me there though?" Dabi was walking fast down the street while staying on the phone. "I trust you with my mom, Dabi. Plus I think they're gonna restrict who can go in and who can't. I know Endeavor was spotted nearby but I don't know what he is doing." There was silence before Dabi spoke again. "I'll take care of Aunt Zumi, and you keep me updated. If you or Jin need me, I'll be there. Old man or not." Hawks smiled until he saw the Commission calling him. "Commission is calling. I gotta go. Thank you Dabi, I appreciate it." Dabi sounded like he was hurrying as he replied. "Of course. Go get 'em."

Hawks switched calls to the Commission as he picked up speed, flapping his wings hard to get there as fast as he could. Now he needed to pray and focus on his hero work. He needed to think positively.

He needed to be a hero now.