"Alright everybody, I think that's good for today!" Midoriya told his team, all of whom were out on a track field, feeling exhausted but confident. Their team leader had already been training with them from the day they became a team, but after their first joint exercise, he'd become even more focused. Now that he knew more combat was ahead, and that they'd need to do an investigation exercise, he was coaching everyone on what they could work on individually, and what they could try as a team.
But it wasn't like Midoriya was some drill sergeant. On the contrary, he was always happy to get feedback from his team, and even just a week into the exchange the five of them felt like a much more cohesive unit. Or at least, that's how Shoji felt. The multi-armed hero was happy that he was working with Midoriya this time around. The powerful hero was as intelligent as he was kind, and it seemed as though he'd noticed Shoji's desire to be more social, always taking time to check-in with him and ask his opinion.
For training, Shoji had been working mostly for the investigation trial. It wasn't that he was awful at combat, but since they were doing one-on-one matches, he was going to be less useful there than in other areas. Midoriya had quickly realized how observant Shoji was, easily the best on the team when it came to picking up on sharp details or looking at a scene from multiple angles, so Midoriya had him focus on training his use of growing eyes and other senses, finding the best combinations that worked for quickly scouting.
When Shoji walked off the field, he found his assigned partner, Victor Stone, waiting for him with a smile. The two had planned to chat a bit before heading to bed for the night. So far, Shoji had been pretty happy with his assigned partner. Vic was a pretty low-key guy, so long as one didn't rile him up with a topic he was more boisterous about. Maybe it was because of his Quirk, but Shoji had never done very well with loud people. "How was practice?" Vic asked him as they started walking towards Shoji's dorm building.
Growing a mouth to talk with on the arm closer to Vic, Shoji replied, "I don't think I can tell you too much, what with you being on a rival team." That got a short chuckle from Vic. "Speaking of the matches, that was a pretty good win you got on Sero." Shoji wasn't completely surprised by the way that fight had gone, but it was still a pretty impressive battle to watch.
Vic's mechanical shoulders twitched in an emulation of a shrug. "It wasn't anything too special, man. Maybe next time, I'll get to really let loose." Then he raised his only eyebrow. "If we're talking about impressive though, I've got to give that Midoriya kid his props. He beat Virgil, and he's no pushover." The smallest of smiles touched the edges of Vic's lips. "He does mumble do himself a lot though."
Shoji nodded at that, an acknowledgement more than an agreement. "Your team leader's something else too. He and Momo were the only ones not to fight directly in the matches though. I've heard he's smart, but can he actually handle himself in combat?" The fact that Tim was Quirkless went unsaid, it was the kind of touchy subject Shoji stayed away from.
A scowl settled on Vic's face in response to that question, and he didn't say anything to it until they were sitting on a couch together in the dorm building. "Listen, man. I get you don't mean anything by it, but you really shouldn't say things like that. If Tim heard it...he's one of the only Quirkless, Human kids in the class without any powers at all, and he's doing his best to be a hero anyway. He can fight pretty well, but if I'm being honest, he'd probably lose any direct match-up against someone from Momo's class." Then he let out a sigh. "Not because he's Quirkless though. I've seen Mr. Grayson fight, and he's a beast. And Batman?" Vic shuddered at the mere thought.
More curious than anything else, Shoji found himself asking, "Okay then, so why isn't he that great in a fight?"
"Your boy Midoriya? He's a thinker, like Tim. But the difference is, Midoriya seems to be able to think on his feet. He can come up with a plan, run through its faults, then put it into practice without skipping a beat. Tim...just isn't there yet. He gets in his own head too much, and his reaction time isn't what it could be. Still, he's not useless in the field. He just...has room to grow." It was an interesting insight into the rival team leader, and Shoji was tempted to share it with Midoriya. Though since the two were assigned partners, he probably already knew all of this.
Having taken all that in, Shoji looked around quickly and made note of the fact that they were still alone in the living room area. "Since we're on more serious topics, can I ask you something?" Once again looking more neutrally stoic, Vic nodded at the question. "Do you ever...have issues with the way you look?" Even after all this time to adjust, the world still had a prejudice against those whose Quirks made them more monstrous. Or at least, it felt that way to Shoji. The question didn't come with any animosity though. It wasn't like Shoji knew any way of living, any other experience aside from his own. Still, he was curious.
The cyborg flinched when he heard the question, and was soon looking at the floor. "Do I have issues with it? Or do I think other people do?" The rephrasing struck Shoji as odd, he hadn't thought of them as separate questions in that way. "Either way, yeah. I'm not...I wasn't always like you. I grew up normal, top of my class in every sports team I tried and a pretty popular dude. But...life got in the way. I needed most of my body to be replaced, and my Quirk made that easier."
[VICTOR STONE/CYBORG! HIS QUIRK: PLUG AND PLAY! VIC'S BODY WON'T REJECT ANYTHING TRANSPLANTED INTO IT, AND IT EVEN USES HIS NORMAL ENERGY TO POWER TECHNOLOGY LIKE IT WAS ALWAYS A PART OF HIS BODY! HE'S A ONE-MAN SUPPORT ITEM ARSENAL!]
It was a weird thing to learn, for Shoji to look at this person he saw as so similar to himself, an oddity, and learn that wasn't always the case. The black teenager's body was mostly metal, with various parts made of some kind of semi-transparent blue glass to show off a little of the circuits inside him. From what Shoji could tell, only half his head, his neck, and some parts of his arms were organic. Vic's right eye glowed a bright red, only adding to the very inhuman feel his whole body gave off in waves. "...I'm sorry for assuming," was all Shoji could think of saying back to him.
In response, Vic gave the first real smile of that day. "Don't sweat it, Shoji. I know you didn't mean anything by it. It's just...before the accident, I thought I saw everyone equally, no matter what they looked like. But now that I'm like this, I know that wasn't true. There was always a bit of...I don't know, fear? Revulsion? Any time I saw someone who looked that...different, that's what I'd feel. Now, I get the feeling every time I look in the mirror."
Two hours into the celebration, Jaime was feeling like this was a terrible idea. He and Kirishima, the Japanese student hero he'd been partnered with for the trip, were walking out of a restaurant where they'd had dinner, and Jaime knew for a fact that sushi and his stomach didn't agree with each other. As he let out a groan, he heard the Scarab make it clear that they weren't happy either. Well, maybe 'heard' wasn't the best word. Jaime Reyes didn't really 'hear' the alien technology attached to his spine, so much as he just understood in his mind whatever it was they wanted to tell him, without being able to translate it into direct words. Right now, they were of the opinion that Kirishima had poisoned Jaime's body, and as such should be treated as a mortal enemy. Like most suggestions from the alien intelligence, Jaime ignored it.
The reason for the nighttime celebration was a bit opaque, even to Jaime, but the way Kirishima explained it made it seem like it was equal parts about the first week of the exchange ending and how their fight had gone the day before. "That was so awesome!" Kirishima said, his arm wrapped around Jaime's neck as they walked down the street, both wearing their casual going-out clothes. "I thought I'd be prepared for anything you could throw at me, but then you went and used that weird sound, and I couldn't move! Something like that's going to be super useful once you're a pro hero, man!"
Jaime had to wince a little at all of that, like he always did when people complimented his battle prowess. "The Scarab deserves more praise than I do, hermano. I wouldn't have any powers if they weren't wrapped around my bones." Jaime knew it was a weird thing to complain about. After all, it wasn't is if anyone deserved special mention for the Quirk they just happened to be born with, the same way he didn't for being forcibly attached to a piece of xenotech. It was all about how the powers were used. With a yawn, Jaime asked, "So, what's next?"
He'd hoped the red-haired teen had gotten the implicit hint of wanting to turn in for the night, but Kirishima dashed those dreams when he gave a shark-toothed smile in response. "There's this karaoke place nearby, I'll rent us a room for a couple hours!" Unable to bring himself to object to the idea, Jaime followed Kirishima to such a business, and they passed some time singing song after song. Once again, the Scarab made it clear to Jaime this was a waste of their time, there was no point to this, yada yada yada. If anything, hearing them grumble just made Jaime want to enjoy the night a little more. Still, Jaime found himself slumping in his seat as Kirishima belted out some theme song from an animated series from before Quirks were discovered. "What's got you down?" Kirishima asked, sitting down after his song. For a moment, Jaime was going to protest that there was nothing wrong, but Kirishima cut that option off. "Don't say 'It's nothing.' My best friend likes to use that excuse, and you can't stonewall me out of talking about what's eating you."
Scowling a little, Jaime let out a huff. "It's really nothing that important. I'm just...homesick." With a big sigh, Jaime started to elaborate, ignoring the Scarab as they made it clear this release of intel was unwise. "I'm from El Paso, Texas, and that's a long way from Titans. Still, I've got wings, so I fly in so see my Mom and Dad, my little sister Milagro, and my best friends, Brenda and Paco. But with this trip, it'll be the longest I've ever gone without being able to see them." The longer the week had gone on, the more the pain of separation hit Jaime.
"I can understand that," Kirishima said with a nod. "Ever since all of us moved into dorms, that kind of feeling has been way more common. A lot of us do video calls with our folks back home, have you tried something like that?"
In response, Jaime pulled out his cell phone, a model at least a decade old. "I've been making due with regular phone calls, but I'll see if my parents have the stuff for something like that. If not, we can always ago my friend's Aunt, she's pretty high-tech savvy." Of course, she was also the leader of an organized family group that employed quite a few villains, but that wasn't Jaime's secret to share.
Then, out of nowhere, Kirishime threw out a new question. "I gotta ask, man: why're you studying to be a hero?" While Jaime was stunned by how out of left field the question was, Kirishima plowed forward. "I mean, some alien bug crawls on your back, you get superpowers, I get that. But why being a hero? You could've just gotten it removed, or ignored it."
[JAIME REYES/BLUE BEETLE III! THIS LATINX DOESN'T HAVE ANY QUIRK, BUT BOY OH BOY DOES HE HAVE POWERS! AFTER AN ALIEN THINGY BORED INTO HIS BACK AND LATCHED ONTO HIS SPINAL CHORD, HE'S BEEN ABLE TO ARMOR UP, AND WITH IT HE'S GOT MORE POWERS THAN I CAN LIST! THE ONLY DOWNSIDE IS THE AI THAT COMES WITH THE ARMOR WON'T LEAVE HIM ALONE, AND IT'S NOT VERY HEROIC!]
The first answer Jaime wanted to give was...a no go. It was the kind of thing he could've have being spread around. Instead, he went to his usual answer to that question. Holding up one finger, Jaime began, "Well, one, it's the right thing to do. I have the ability to help people, and if I didn't...I'd feel like a bad person." He could still remember coming home from his first time rescuing people from a natural disaster, a hurricane in Florida, and crying into his father's arms over the fact he wasn't able to save everyone, every lost life in the tragedy stabbing into his soul as if he'd killed them himself. Sometimes, Jaime woke up covered in sweat, having just relived pulling someone out of the water with his armored hands only to find life had already their bodies entirely.
Raising a second finger, he continued, "And two, it's a great way to make money, while being a good person. If I do well enough, I can pay off my parent's mortgage, put Milagro through college, maybe even buy mi abuela a better house, where she can feel safer, and where I can visit her more easily."
He'd thought the explanation would be good enough, Kirishima looking at him with that weird sense of approval that radiated off him when he felt something was sufficiently manly. "Those are great reasons, man. But...what was that first thing that popped into your head? I saw you talk around it." Damn, Jaime thought. It seemed having an emotional basketcase for a best friend really had given Kirishima a good sense of how people were feeling.
Against the wishes of the Scarab, who was under the impression that the best way to solve this confrontation was to vaporize Kirishima into a pile of ash, Jaime decided to let another person into the growing number who knew the truth. "Okay, but you have to promise me you won't tell anyone." Kirishima nodded, smiling with fervent glee. "That includes Bakugo." Rolling his eyes, Kirishima nodded again, clearly ready to hear what Jaime had to say. "Have you ever heard...of the Reach?"
Thinking it over, Kirishima raised a hand and shook it a little horizontally, in the universal sign of, "Kinda? The name rings a bell, but I don't know where from."
That's what Jaime had been expecting, since Japan seemed to have way less contact with extraterrestials compared to America. "They're an alien empire, one of the few who went through the proper channels the United Nations set up way back in the day, instead of just invading us. Because of that, they have a lot of good will built up with people, they're 'the good kind of alien'." Jaimed said that last bit with all the sarcasm it deserved. "But they're not. They made the Scarab, and sent it to Earth thousands of years ago, to activate and bond with a host when they were ready to take our planet, and our people for themselves. It was supposed to completely take me over, and use me as their slave. But the Scarab got messed up from magic a long time ago, so I'm the one in the driver's seat. The biggest reason I became a hero? So I could stop the Reach, and let other heroes know they can't be trusted." Hearing all this, it was clear from his wide-eyes that Kirishima was shocked, but when that faded, he reached and gripped Jaime's arm tightly. Hope blossoming in his heart, Jaime let himself cling to the idea that maybe, just maybe, he'd just made the struggle a little easier.
