Winds of Destiny: Rising
Chapter Eight: Spy Games
"I really have to wear these things twenty-four seven?" Hawks asked, glancing over his shoulder at the small, one-millimeter camera that a lanky man with long black hair was carefully affixing to one of the feathers on his wings.
He'd arrived at the location of the coordinates Dabi had given him at the specified date and time, which he'd discovered to be a large villa practically built into the side of the Gunga Mountain range. He'd been ushered into an elevator before being led down through a series of wide, underground tunnels that had eventually opened up into a large, cavernous room which was filled nearly wall to wall with people. Given the size of the space, there had to have been a couple thousand of them packed in there. Although, a large portion of that space was being taken up by All For One's pet monster, Gigantomachia.
Hawks had recognized several of the people on the stage before the meeting had begun. Namely, a pretty busted up looking Shigaraki Tomura. He'd been seated next to the CEO of the Detnerat Company, who'd been accompanied by the leader of the Heart and Mind Party, and some guy in a heavy coat that he hadn't recognized. After introducing himself as Re-Destro, the leader of the Meta Liberation Army, the Detnerat CEO had launched into a speech to name Shigaraki the new leader of the group, which they'd decided to rebrand as the Paranormal Liberation Front. They'd been joined onstage by the rest of the League and a man he'd recognized as some big shot from the tech giant, Feel Good, Inc., who was the one currently loading up his wings with tiny spy cameras.
"The boss still doesn't trust you," Dabi, who'd been standing off to the side and observing the process, began to explain. "All of your actions and communications will be monitored and recorded at all times. Since you have nothing to hide, there's no problem, right?"
When Dabi had approached him after the meeting, he'd been told that they had an important job for him and that they'd be relying on him to be their eyes and ears into the hero's movements and plans. He'd spent the night at the villa, going over the literature that detailed the history of the Meta Liberation Army and Destro's will. The next morning, he'd been taken into a lab and sat down on a metal table for the man who'd identified himself as Skeptic to begin tagging the cameras onto his feathers. He'd expected them to keep an eye on him, but this was taking covert surveillance to a whole new, and slightly uncomfortable level.
Hawks shrugged nonchalantly and scratched his cheek. "No problem. Just seems a little intrusive."
"Get used to it. Or don't. If your privacy is that important to you, we can go ahead and kill you now," Dabi replied, also nonchalant.
He raised his hands up in front of himself and responded in an obliging tone, "Take it easy! It's all good!"
"Just do your job and don't complain," Dabi told him dryly before turning to walk toward the door.
Hawks held up a mock salute and called out, "Roger!"
Dabi paused for a second to look back over at him before opening the door and walking out without another word.
"Yeesh! No sense of humor, that one..." He trailed off with a deep grimace.
The guy was a tough nut to crack. When he'd looked into the backgrounds of all of the known members of the League of Villains back when he'd been given his current assignment, Dabi and Shigaraki had been the only ones he hadn't been able to dig up any history on. In the case of Shigaraki, he'd found mentions of a kid matching his description who'd grown up alone on the streets. But with Dabi, it was almost like he didn't even exist until a few years ago, and even then, it was only in vague mentions in reference to his firepower and telltale patchwork skin pattern. It wasn't like the guy was exactly an open book; if anything, he seemed a little extra cautious.
"So, anything I should know about these things?" Hawks asked over his shoulder to the Feel Good, Inc. executive working on the cameras.
"Huh!?" The man suddenly grumbled, one big, bloodshot eye staring at him wildly through his long bangs.
He grimaced at the extreme reaction to the question and shied away a bit before explaining, "I just wanna make sure I don't break any by accident."
The man huffed and turned away to continue his work. "If you break any, I'll replace them."
"What kind of range do they get?" Hawks asked, trying to ferret out if he'd have any kind of leeway within the constant surveillance.
Skeptic gritted his teeth and peaked at him with open hostility from behind his hair.
Hawks held up his hands in front of himself with an acquiescent grimace and hastily covered his inquiry. "I fly all over the country sometimes, ya know?"
"Feel Good's satellite network will track you no matter where you go. Don't worry about that." Skeptic answered with a haughty tone as he hastily turned and went back to work.
No wiggle room there it seemed.
"Right. Can they hear stuff too?" He asked after a moment in an effort to get an idea of the kinds of sounds they'd be able to pick up. His coded relay options were going to be pretty limited at this point.
Skeptic tossed the soldering gun he'd been working with onto the table with a loud bang and exclaimed, "Ugh! Yes! The have a built-in microphone that will pick up any sounds as low as twenty decibels within a one-meter radius and as loud as one hundred and twenty from up to one kilometer away! Any more questions?!"
Hawks grinned and shook his head, leaning back away from the outraged man and quipped, "Nope! I'm good!"
"I apologize, Mr. Skeptic's people skills are somewhat lacking, I'm afraid," The familiar voice of the leader of the Heart and Mind party sounded out from the doorway a moment later.
Hawks swiveled his head around and replied jovially, "Hey, no problem! I just want to make sure I'm doing everything I can for the cause."
The man gracefully entered the room and walked up to him, still speaking in his trademark, pragmatic voice, "Indeed. I notice you've been reading our book."
Hawks blinked. So, they had cameras in the rooms as well. He'd figured they did, which was why he hadn't even bothered looking around for them. It would have seemed suspicious anyway and he didn't want to give them any reason to suspect his behavior at this point. He'd keep playing the happy-go-lucky gofer and maybe they'd start to let down their guard around him a little bit. Hopefully soon.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out the book he'd been looking over the night before. "What, this? I figured it'd be a good idea to brush up on my MLA history, since I'm gonna be working for you guys from now on."
"What do you think?" The man asked, his tone was light and curious, but his gaze appeared slightly calculating.
"There are a lot of good points, actually," he replied as he flipped through the pages. "I've been going through and highlighting a few here and there that really stood out to me. I was thinking it would be a good way to pass on the word to some of my friends and coworkers."
Not that the word he'd be passing had anything to do with the Liberation philosophy. The passages he'd highlighted actually spelled out a message detailing as much as possible about what he'd discovered concerning the Liberation Army and their team-up with the League. He had to get word to the Safety Commission as soon as possible so they could start preparing. It was going to take every honest hero they had, and then some, to combat this new threat.
Through his covert feathers, he'd overheard Shigaraki talking to who he was pretty sure was the League's new backer, with All For One out of the picture, and who seemed like he might even be the one behind the creation of the Nomu. Hawks was planning on looking into that more a little later, but their conversation after the meeting had led him to conclude that Shigaraki would be undergoing some sort of procedure soon and the process was going to take about four months.
"In that case, perhaps I can give you some pointers on persuasive speech techniques," the Heart and Mind Party leader said, his expression lightening into an amiable grin.
"Thanks! I'd appreciate it!" Hawks replied magnanimously.
There was a knock at the door and a man peaked his head in before addressing the man. "Trumpet, Re-Destro is looking for you, sir."
Trumpet nodded to the man before turning back around and bowing his head to Hawks, saying graciously, "Next time."
He rose his hand in a small wave as the man walked away. "Yeah, sure. Later."
He really needed to figure out what their plans were, and who all was involved, as soon as possible, if they were to have any hope of standing up against such an overwhelming force. He'd learned from talking to a few of the members in attendance last night that the Liberation forces numbered close to one hundred thousand, from villains to regular citizens, and even a few heroes; and then there was the League and the Nomu to consider. Regardless of the four-month time frame, the quicker he was able to pop the lid on their whole agenda the better.
The President of the Hero Public Safety Commission walked purposefully into Misaki's office and carefully shut the door behind her. She strode up to her desk and abruptly held out the little red and black book she was carrying across the desk to her. Misaki recognized the book. She'd seen it in the windows of several of the bookstores she frequented over the past few months. It was a reprint of the autobiography of the villain Destro.
Many years ago, he'd amassed a small army of people who didn't agree with the government's regulations on quirk usage and had sought to overthrow the status quo. The Meta Liberation Army, as they'd called themselves, had been suppressed eventually, and Destro had been incarcerated, during which time he'd penned his manifesto. After he'd died in prison, his writings had been reworked into a manuscript that had been published and released as an autobiography of the villain's life. The republication of the book had been creating quite a stir within society as of late.
With all the publicity Stain had been getting for his anti-hero rhetoric, and the citizen's response during the attack on Deika, copies of the book had been practically flying off of the shelves. She hadn't bought one herself, but she'd read a detailed review on one of the book blogs she followed that described the writings from an unbiased perspective. She'd drawn the conclusion pretty quickly that it wasn't something she would be interested in reading.
Misaki reached out to take the book, gazing down at the title briefly before lifting her confused gaze back up to the President. "What's this for?"
"It's new intel on the League," the President said as she moved to take a seat in front of the desk. "I'd like you to analyze it, discretely, and report directly to me."
"You don't want me to report anything to the League Task Force?" Misaki asked, glancing down at the book suspiciously.
She lifted her gaze to meet the President's serious stare as the woman carefully replied, "The situation with the information source is delicate. We can't afford to take the chance of there being any leaks that might lead back to the League of Villains."
With a sinking suspicion suddenly weighing down her gut, she dropped her eyes to the bright red book in her hand and asked under her breath, "Is this from Hawks?"
"It is," the President replied succinctly.
Misaki immediately dropped the book on top of her desk like a lead weight and pushed herself back in her chair. Her wide eyes shot up to the President and she sharply asked, "Why are you giving this to me? I thought you didn't want me involved?"
"The situation has changed. Your analytical skills are too valuable not to use on this case," the woman replied calmly as she folded her hands in her lap.
Again, she was going to toy with their emotions for the sake of convenience. At least this time she was being up front about it. After the rollercoaster of emotional upheaval she'd gone through already in concerns to Hawks's covert assignment, the fact that the President was going back on it all of a sudden seemed incredibly tactless; not to mention underhanded if she'd neglected to inform Hawks about it as well.
Misaki's brow drew down and she narrowed her eyes before asking, "Does he know that you're assigning this to me?"
"Any correspondence between Hawks and this office is being conducted on an as needed basis by way of coded message only. As of yet, your involvement in this capacity has not been deemed to be necessary information," the President explained matter-of-factly.
Her eyes grew wide again at the President's assessment and she caustically replied, "Unnecessary? After everything you put us through to keep me away from all of this?"
The President fixed her with a pointed stare. "The situation between the two of you hasn't changed. It's still safer to limit your personal involvement. Your professional involvement is another matter. Can you handle this, Misaki?"
"I don't really have a choice, do I?" She asked bitterly, lowering her eyes as she slumped back into her chair.
The President looked down, her tone taking on a more imploring cadence when she addressed her next, "You're in a very unique position here. Due to your close, personal history with Hawks, you are more attuned to his communication style than anyone else in this office. You also possess exceptional analytical skills and investigative reasoning. You are the best person within this organization to handle this task."
She raised her eyes to the woman and grumbled, "No pressure."
The President tilted her head up, gazing back at her considerately as she told her, "I wouldn't be entrusting this to you if I didn't think that you could handle it."
Misaki looked down as she considered the proposition. It wasn't as though she was going to have any close, personal contact with him; she'd just be reading and interpreting messages related to his work with the League. She couldn't really say she was completely unfamiliar with the Commission's usage of coded correspondence either. But asking her to rely on her personal history with someone she'd just gone through a painful breakup with, and remain impassive in interpreting his messages, was a lot. It wasn't like she could just objectify their entire relationship for the sake of the job. She was certain that had been a contributing factor behind Hawks's own reasoning for breaking up with her as well, regardless of how he'd presented himself to her at the time.
Misaki sighed and closed her eyes, raising a hand to rub her forehead as she said, "I don't feel right keeping him in the dark about my involvement in this."
"Would the two of you be able to work together objectively otherwise?" The President's openly suspicious voice asked her a moment later.
"You mean, can we keep our personal feelings separate from the job?" Misaki asked candidly as she raised her knowing gaze to meet the woman's dubious one. "I'm not gonna sit here and lie to you and tell you that I don't have any feelings for him anymore. But if you're asking me if either one of us would allow those feelings to in any way jeopardize this mission..." She cocked her head to the side and shot the President an incredulous look. "I would hope that you know both of us better than that."
The President was silent for a long moment, just staring into Misaki's eyes as she considered what she'd said. Eventually she let out a short sigh before inclining her head and telling her, "It's your call. If you think it's necessary, I'll leave it up to you to find a way to tell him."
She relaxed her shoulders in relief before reaching out for the autobiography on her desk. "For now, I guess I'll focus on figuring out what's in this book."
The President stood and turned to walk back to the door. As she opened it, she stopped in the doorway and turned halfway back around, addressing Misaki on her way out, "I look forward to good results, Commissioner."
Her wide-eyed gaze lifted, following the woman out the door. That was the first time she'd used her title to address her. It carried with it a weight of responsibility attached to the monumental task she'd just been handed. If she interpreted anything incorrectly, it could mean the difference between life or death for Hawks, and possibly many others, depending on what his correspondence had to say.
Yeah, sure. No pressure at all.
Misaki leaned back in her chair and rested her eyes for a moment. With the combination of this new assignment, and the utterly ridiculous board meeting she'd been involved in earlier in the week, she felt both mentally and emotionally drained. It was a good thing the President had warned her about the meeting. Even though she'd come in prepared, it still felt like she was being interrogated for some sort of heinous crime instead of presenting her progress with her geographic profiling models.
Oh man, they really hadn't liked that she'd been able to counter all of their probing questions.
She hoped that she'd managed to get them off of her back for a little while at least, but she kinda doubted it. Several of them seemed to have it out for her; Shadou being one of them. He'd actually been the one to lead the majority of her uncomfortable inquisition. She wasn't quite sure what she'd ever done to royally piss that man off, but boy did he ever hate her. She wished she could say that she didn't really care all that much, but she was starting to take his animosity toward her a little bit personally.
Whatever his problem was, she wished he'd just come out and say it already so they could move past all of the passive aggressive corporate drama bullshit. She had much better things to be doing with her time than trying to thwart whatever twisted scheme they had going to boot her back down the ladder where they felt she belonged. The only reason she even cared about being on the board at all was the avenue it gave her to make her opinions heard. But if none of them wanted to listen to her because she was young, or inexperienced, or a woman… She'd just have to make her voice loud enough that they had no choice but to hear her.
She wasn't going anywhere. Whether they liked it or not, she was going to stand her ground. Someone had to speak for the people. And if no one else had the care or compassion to do it, she would. Because it was important. Not only for the people who'd been victimized by the hero industry's corporate agenda over the years, but for the future of their society and the Hero Public Safety Commission's role in it. She truly believed that heroes were necessary, but they couldn't continue to be used as puppets to maintain the status quo. Society was changing, and they needed to be able to change with it, or they'd just end up getting rolled under the tidal wave of revolution that was steadily closing in on them.
"This is the message, word for word, from the book."
Misaki tapped an icon on the screen of her tablet to display the image of the pieced together message on the television screen in the President's office. It hadn't taken her long to figure out the code. It was a pretty straightforward stenographic null cipher. Basically, the second word in each highlighted phrase spelled out a message.
Once she'd finished deciphering the book, she'd called a meeting with the President and Shadou. Both of them had been tied up until later in the afternoon, so in the meantime, she'd dug into the history of the Meta Liberation Army. She'd combed through whatever she could find about Destro's Liberation movement, and any incidents that seemed to be even remotely related in the years after his arrest. Nothing she'd found had come anywhere close the overwhelming force Hawks had described in the message currently displayed on the screen.
Opponent is Meta Liberation Army League hijacked over one hundred thousand members four months from now rise to action before then will send signal bolster our numbers if we fail destruction for all—
"One hundred thousand...!" The President trailed off, holding a hand up to her mouth as she stared at the screen in disbelief.
She couldn't blame her. It had been a lot for her to take in as well when she'd read the message. That kind of following would have taken years to build; and the fact that they'd been able to do so right under the noses of both the heroes and police was downright terrifying. Given the current state of unrest in society at the moment, this Meta Liberation Army was a potential powder keg just waiting to blow up in their faces if they handled the situation badly.
"This corroborates my theory about this being a civilian based group. Even though they may be scattered, they're organized and methodical and utterly loyal to the Liberation philosophy. There've been several isolated incidents over the years that tie back to the writings in this book as a trigger, but nothing major enough to suspect this kind of organized rebellion," Misaki explained with a shake of her head. She huffed ruefully. "At least now it makes sense as to why they would want to attack the League of Villains; they saw them as competition."
Shadou shot the President a meaningful glance. "This kind of following is far too great for us to handle using conventional methods."
The President slowly shook her head, her disbelieving expression taking on an edge of deep concern as she asked in a low tone, "How was the League of Villains, with just a handful of remaining members, able to assimilate such a massive force?"
Misaki swiped her finger across her tablet screen and the message on the television switched to an image of the giant hole in the ground that had once been Deika City.
"This is an aerial image of the crater in Deika. The pattern of the striations on the ground indicate that the landscape collapsed inward instead of exploding outward, as one would normally expect of a crater this size. This pattern is consistent with Shigaraki's Decay. I suspect that sometime during the battle, he experienced an awakening in his quirk," Misaki explained, her tone heavy and grave. "If he'd been capable of something like this before now, he would have used this power when we ambushed him at Kamino. The circumference of this crater is far greater than just what he'd have been able to touch with his own two hands."
"They could have deployed one of those High End Nomu," Shadou piped up from his seat on one of the couches.
Misaki shook her head. "I don't think the leaders of this Liberation group would have handed over control to the League if they just unleashed a Nomu against them. They've been working on this rebellion for decades. It would have taken a lot more than a physical defeat to sway them. He had to have converted them somehow, and not just with a show of power, but by appealing to their cause."
"Just like All For One..." The President trailed off gravely, her eyes narrowing with unease.
Misaki turned toward them and spoke imploringly, "Even though the League of Villains and the Meta Liberation Army have joined forces, I don't think we should be looking at them as one enemy. Especially Shigaraki. If he's capable of something like this now, there's no telling what kind of power he'll be able to wield four months from now."
"We can't ignore the threat of the Liberation Army's sheer numbers," the President responded, her tone dark with foreboding.
"It's possible they even have a few heroes in their ranks," Shadou mused darkly.
Misaki closed the picture of the crater on her tablet and loaded a list of names a second later. "I've compiled a list of possible Destro sympathizers from within the active hero database. Nearly all of them were in or around Deika at the time of the attack."
"What makes you suspect these heroes?" Shadou asked, his brow drawing down in a frown.
She turned to him and replied succinctly, "Family history, geographical influence, academic records, social media posts, personality profiles, online purchase history. I could keep going through the variables, but the point is, using similar values from known Destro sympathizers as a base, I applied a regression analysis model to all of the heroes in the Commission database. These were the ones who fit the profile."
He was silent for a long moment as they stared at each other before he averted his eyes and cleared his throat, glancing back at the list before commenting grumpily, "At least none of them are very high up in the ranks."
The President, who had been deep in silent contemplation through Misaki and Shadou's confrontation, suddenly looked up and announced, "Draft a memo for distribution to all hero training institutions around the country. Inform them that we are recommending all hero course students participate in practical field training over the next four months."
"Do we really need to involve the students?" Misaki asked incredulously.
"We need to bolster our numbers. The quickest and most efficient way to do that is to enlist the aid of all potential hero candidates," the woman replied, her tone and expression resigned.
Her decision had clearly not been made lightly. But the overall threat the Liberation Army represented was far too great not to take seriously. They would need every bit of their considerable number of forces to counter them. Including all of the provisional heroes.
Misaki sighed. "The people in charge of the academies aren't stupid. It's likely that they'll figure out the veiled message behind this sudden rush for practical field training. We don't know for sure yet which heroes might be involved with the Liberation Army. What if news of this gets back to them somehow?"
Shadou crossed his arms and said, "We'll need to make sure we give them no reason to suspect that we're onto them. That's where Hawks will be of great use. He will inform them that we have no suspicions at this time about anything related to the Liberation Army. Any new training for the students will be seen as a means to prepare them to combat the League and the possible militant groups they've blamed the Deika incident on. We'll twist their story in our favor."
"What about Shigaraki and the Nomu?" Misaki asked after a moment, conceding the point.
"That's actually where I'd like your focus, Misaki," the President said, turning her gaze toward her. "Detective Tsukauchi and Gran Torino have been attempting to interrogate Kurogiri in Tartarus, but they're having a hard time getting him to talk."
Misaki shrugged. "He's displayed a pretty staunch attitude toward Shigaraki and All For One in the past. That's not so surprising."
"It's less concerning what he won't say and more what he can't. For the limited time that he's awake, and not attempting to use his warp quirk to escape, any attempts to interrogate him about crucial information concerning the League results in him shutting down," Shadou explained, his low tone somewhat grave.
"Like he's been brainwashed not to spill important details?" She asked, raising an eyebrow at them inquisitively.
The President sighed and closed her eyes before replying, "After hearing the report from Endeavor about his battle with the Nomu Hood, Detective Tsukauchi and Gran Torino began to suspect that Kurogiri may in fact be a Nomu."
Misaki widened her eyes in alarm. "Are you serious?"
The President took a deep breath and rose from her seat, fixing Misaki with a pointed stare. "Until we receive another message from Hawks, I'd like you to concentrate on confirming that possibility. This is your top priority for now, Misaki."
Clicking the button on the side of her tablet, she nodded to the woman and said, "I'll get right on it."
~ Author's Note ~
I totally didn't time this chapter with this week's episode of the anime, but it fits so well! 😭 (And there was a pretty little sneak peak at the cameras on Hawks's wings! 😍)
Thank you so much for reading! ❤️
LOLSAT