Chapter 9

July 23, 2164

1135 Hours

Mei led the team at a decent pace through the tree line, her eyes constantly scanning through the foliage to assess the area. Because of her quirk, it made sense to have her take point as she could easily spot anything out of the ordinary. Like right now, when she noticed a touch of red amongst a wall of green. She threw her fist into the air just high enough for the others to see it. All four stopped in their tracks, waiting for her next signal. After a few seconds, she shook her head from side to side.

Trouble ahead.

Izuku was by her side in an instant. She hadn't heard him move at all, but she wasn't too surprised. Mendez-sensei had been teaching them all how to stay light on their feet while moving. Shifting your weight, using the ball of your foot, and all that other good stuff. The others formed a small perimeter; Hitoshi and Will were watching different directions to provide a full three hundred and sixty degrees of surveillance.

"What's the issue?" Izuku whispered. It was important to be as quiet as possible, since they weren't sure what Hawks' range was for listening with his feathers.

"One o'clock, eighty meters out, in the tree just left of the one with a broken branch," Mei explained.

Izuku squinted his eyes, trying to make out where she was talking about. He sighed in frustration. "I can't see it. You're sure?"

"Positive," she said.

Izuku pulled out the small map of Training Ground Alpha that they'd been given, along with a marker. "Alright, mark it and let's get moving. You all know the drill."

This was the fourth feather that she'd spotted so far, and each one that they'd had to backtrack and plot a different route which cost them time. Not a lot, but it was still frustrating.

The area they were in, Training Ground Alpha, was oval shaped and a few dozen square kilometers. Normally, they'd be able to find the objective - which was predictably near the center - and exit the grounds in well under an hour. However, at their pace and with all the stops they'd been making, it would easily be well into the afternoon before they'd finish. And that was if everything went smoothly.

She quickly drew an 'X' where she'd spotted it and passed the items back to Izuku. It was as he folded and stuffed it into one of his pockets, that Mei heard the faintest rush of air. It sounded like the beating of wi-

NO.

"Above-!" Hitoshi tried to shout. He was cut off on account of being launched into the air by a pair of feathers. Mei, Izuku, and Will all whipped around to see Hawks and their teammate floating a few meters in the air, a gloved hand pressed firmly against his mouth. They each assumed a stance, ready to fight at a moment's notice; but remained in place as they were unsure of what to do. Not only had he gotten the jump on them, but now he held their teammate in his grasp.

"Huh, easy enough. Now that you're outta the way, I can focus on the rest of you," Hawks said cheerfully. With that, his wings turned into a flurry of red as small projectiles flew out to capture them.

Mei jerked herself to the right, deftly evading the first feather that shot towards her and just barely dodging another that swooped in from behind. She knew that Hawks had already won; that his whole situation, from the big theatrical entrance to this, was just him being his usual, dramatic self. He could've sent in a dozen feathers as soon as he spotted them and been done with it.

Oh well, more training for us.

It didn't take more than a few seconds for the three of them to become overwhelmed. Not only were his feathers agile, but none of them really had a good way of fighting back against them. Soon enough, the entire team were dangling in the air with Hawks giving them his smuggest of smiles. "Next time, try to make it just a little more challenging, ok?"

Minutes later, they were back at the edge of the Training Ground. Right where they'd started. An hour and a half ago.

Will swore, Hitoshi groaned loudly, Izuku put his hands to his face, and Mei simply looked up to the sky.

This was going to be so much harder than they originally thought.

July 23, 2164

1615 Hours

They never got as far as they did the first time. Hour after hour, failure after failure. It didn't matter what they did: between the feathers that could hear even the faintest of breaths and Hawks who could spot them from kilometers away, they were always caught. Not even when they came across other teams and worked together were they able to make a difference. Hawks would simply just prioritize their capture and swarm them. It was at this point that Izuku was practically seething. As much as he was able to keep a lid on it, the rest of his team and the other teams that they'd joined up with weren't bothering trying to control themselves.

"Seriously, how the hell is this possible," Serin grumbled. All five teams at Training Ground Alpha were huddled together in an area near to the perimeter. Camie had used her illusionary Quirk to make it appear as if nothing was there, but they still had to keep their voices down lest any nearby feathers detected them. "He's supposed to be split between five different grounds, how's he able to catch all of us? Every single time?"

"He's been training since before our own Initiation. That, coupled with his Quirk, means that he should be stomping on us," Hitoshi groaned.

"Enough of the griping," Camie commanded. "We've only got a few more hours until dusk. After that, then we're really gonna be in trouble."

"We're never going to get past him at this rate," Keiichi lamented.

"That's because we're going about this all wrong," Izuku muttered. All those nearby turned to face him, to hear what he had to say. "We need to change up our tactics, think outside the box."

"Uh, Izuku," Camie said, "that's what we've been doing. That's what we're trying to do right now, remember?"

"No, I mean-" he cut himself off. He tried to think of how to put his thoughts into words. "We've been trying to find the best way to sneak past him. What we need to do is change the game entirely: we need to overwhelm him."

"You mean like bum rush him?" Hitoshi asked.

"No," Serin said slowly. "No, Izuku's onto something. We need to think bigger."

"We don't exactly have a lot to go off of here," Keiichi interjected. "Our supplies consist of little more than a few MREs, bandages, and a handful of glowsticks."

Izuku wracked his brain, trying to come up with a plan on such meager resources. Hitoshi, however, was quick to come up with a solution. "Well then, I say it's time we sought out our instructors and got resupplied."

A low cackle emanated from where Himiko was keeping watch. "Oh, this is gonna go disastrously bad."

July 23, 2164

1900 Hours

They stole a truck.

Correction.

They stole two trucks. With everything that was on them.

Kiego had wanted to push them, try to get them to branch out a little and use their imaginations. Going up against an army was one thing, but fighting Pro-Heroes - some of whom had decades of experience - was another. They had to understand what it was like to fight someone leagues above their own skill level. Well, he'd gotten what he'd wanted.

The little gremlins had changed their game and were probably executing a plan that would have him pulling out his hair by the fistful. The instructors who lost the trucks and gear had radioed it in not too long ago. The candidates had snuck up on them, incapacitated them - which wasn't hard with people like Hitoshi, Camie, and Himiko - and were long gone before they'd woken up. He was assuming that they were all working together at this point. It only made sense.

He had no idea where, or even what their objectives were. That information had been purposefully kept from him so that he couldn't just set a dozen feathers over them and call it a day. It was, honestly, the only advantage they'd been given and even then, he'd overheard talk of changing that up too. So here he was. Flying around in lazy circles over Training Ground Alpha, waiting for the other shoe to drop because that's all he could think of at the moment.

Poor kids. Poor, dumb kids, Keigo thought solemnly. He'd become quite attached to them over the years. How could he not? They're situations were so similar and yet so depressingly different. They had teams and other kids around their age to support each other. He had to go through his upbringing alone, with only the doctors and suits to accompany him. It could've been worse.

But it also could've been better.

He shook his head to clear his thoughts. No use thinking about that now. What I need to do is focus on them. Make sure that they'll be as ready as can be when they meet the outside world. Damn, that's gonna suck.

Movement. Movement and noise. Lots of noise. He was able to pick up on the sound of what could only be truck engines. Their headlights, along with their brights, were on and shining spectacularly in the evening light. The machines revved and roared as they sped along the perimeter of the oval towards the edges closest to the center. They were parallel to each other, on opposite sides of the Training Ground as if it were a race.

It was so obviously a trap that he wanted to slap a palm to his forehead and scream out into the open air at the insanity. The trucks weren't some civilian made ones that he could stop in their tracks with a few feathers. No, that'd be too easy. They were military models, with six wheels, bullet-proof glass, and weighing some six thousand kilograms. He could stop both of them if he pulled every feather he had from the nearby Training Grounds; which would also allow any team in those areas to proceed to their objectives completely unopposed.

"All right, looks like we're doing this the hard way," he muttered to himself. With a few beats of his wings, he was right above the closest one. He noticed a kid crouched in the bed of the truck, pouring something out of a red canister at a steady rate out the back.

There's no way that's what I think it is.

When the smell finally caught up to him, he knew that he had to act fast. Immediately, his feathers swooped in. One smacked the gasoline canister out of their hands, while another dug into their collar and pulled them off of the truck. He refrained from doing something as crazy as slashing the tires, since he didn't know if the vehicle would topple over from its speed. He instead opted to use his sharpest feather like a sword and slice a large, jagged opening into the roof. He pulled the kid out of the driver's seat and threw him into the passenger's side before taking the wheel himself. He hit the brakes, sending the truck to sudden stop. Hawks caught the kid just in time, saving him from smashing his face against the dashboard.

He kicked open the door and pulled him out by the scruff of his collar. He had his feathers bring in the other one that he'd snatched up just a moment ago. He brought the two of them to his face so that he could properly intimidate them into giving him some answers. The eyes of Akari and Rei were smug and full of mirth. They declared to him in no uncertain way that they wouldn't break no matter what.

You little brats, we'll see about that.

"What are you idiots up to! What's with the gasoline!" He exclaimed. It was too late, though. Out of the corner of his mind, he picked up on the telltale sound of flames crackling, and in the distance he could see a fire racing towards the truck as it followed the trail of gasoline. It didn't go all the way to the truck, but he wasn't taking any chances. He flew back a hundred meters or so from both the truck and the woods, unaware of the mistake that he'd made.

It was at this moment, when he was distracted, that the two candidates enacted the final part of their mission. Rei reached up with his left hand and ripped the golden visor from Hawks' face. Simultaneously, Akari slammed the handful of sand she'd stashed in her pocket into his wide and startled eyes.

That night, as Training Ground Alpha burned, Hawks inadvertently taught the two candidates several new obscenities.

July 24, 2164

0200 Hours

The plan had worked beautifully. Izuku remembers the moment when Hawks' feathers went from what can only be described as an 'alert' state, to absolutely frenzied. They were erratic in their movements, zipping to and fro, stopping for a few seconds, before going back to racing off in some random direction. More than likely, they were trying to track down the small critters that'd been disturbed by the fire. Hawks had shown before that he could tell the difference between the sounds a human made and those of other animals. But that was when things were quiet, and he could better focus. Thanks to Akari and Rei, he didn't have that luxury.

But that was just one thing amongst many. Sure, they could've had Camie create illusions of fires to get a similar reaction from the wildlife, but it wouldn't have been as far reaching in effect as the real thing. Besides, she was already making illusions that produced human noises to confuse Hawks' feathers even further.

The equipment they'd stolen from their instructors proved to be invaluable. Night Vision goggles, handheld radios, stun batons, even little things like wrist watches were an absolute boon. Life was so much easier when you just took everything you needed. Life was also easier when you got your enemies to fight each other. The crews that showed up to contain the fires, also came under assault from Hawks' feathers, leading to even greater discord. It was magnificent.

Of course, all good things came to an end.

When all the objectives had been acquired, Izuku and everyone else proudly stepped out into the open. Only to come face to face with Mendez-sensei.

He was not happy.

Which was how they found themselves here, face first in the dirt at some ungodly hour in the morning, struggling to breath as Mendez-sensei continued to call out reps. Despite the fact that every single one of them had passed the point of muscle failure.

"On your feet!" He shouted. Izuku tried to snap into a standing position, but in reality, it resembled something more along the lines of a zombie rising from the dead.

"Izuku-013, remind me! What was your mission report?"

"Sir, all objectives complete," he shouted out. Well, as best as he could. He gulped down another breath of air before finishing. "Did we win?"

"Well, candidates? Do you all feel like winners?" Mendez-sensei snarled.

A chorus of the most downtrodden and resentful voices called out, "Sir, yes, sir!"

"Good! Now, we're not leaving until you all have done a rep for every single yen the Commission had to use to bribe the authorities!"

Izuku wanted to cry. He's pretty sure a few of them actually did.

Author's Note: I'm sorry that this chapter is so late, I was just struggling with ways of how to end it properly. Even now, I'm not entirely satisfied. Anyways, next entry will be the long awaited "augmentation" chapter.