Hello everyone, a little earlier than I had initially thought, but I think I did alright considering.

I believe it goes without saying that any locations, institutions, addresses (electronic or street) in the US are not only entirely fictional, but also non-canon to the main bit, this is Fan-fiction after all.

Work and a broken down car have kinda thrown a wrench into my plans for the next week, so the next update may be a while out yet while I put those two situations to bed. Don't worry, I will do my best to get it to you before the 28th of the month.

As the dust from the crushed brick and busted drywall settled for a moment, Dylan seized his chance and ran from the coal skinned humanoid. He had gotten the rest of the students in the lab out, if only moments before the creature shattered the window and most of the wall on entry. Dylan didn't look back, he just bolted for the door to the lab's attached library, the opposite direction from the main exit. The young Meterro knew it was reckless, but with a distraction, the others could get away for sure. Even with Overclock active, Dylan still felt like he was moving at normal speed, even struggling to act beyond base instinct. The freshman even then sure that the creature would catch him and beat him into a fleshy version of what the pair had done to the Campus Administration Tower. With eyes full of terror, he stole a glance as it paused after smashing through the wall into the attached library.
The creature had an exposed brain, shielded with a majority of his toothed beak of a face by some sort of helmet and face-mask. As its eyes flicked open they instantly fixed on him.

With nothing in his body other than paralyzing fear, Dylan waited for the end to come.

But it never came, in a sudden gust of pressure, the outside wall of the narrow room caved in.

Time seemed to stop as a hero's battlecry filled the room,

"DREADNOUGHT IMPACT!"

Just as suddenly the monster had been pinned against the interior wall by a tremendous blow from a man dressed in a Navy blue jumpsuit, with orange and yellow streaks almost like lightning crossing the front of his bulked up chest. The sheer pressure from both the monster's impact on the wall and the titan of a hero on the monster sent Dylan flying and slammed him into the bookshelf up against the wall.

Dylan sat up, awoken with a start. He had been having the dream again; his panicked breathing was evidence enough.
After a quick look at the clock he confirmed the reason for his fatigue after the terror had subsided. It was 6 in the morning. He had only slept a few hours, the nightmare was partially to blame, as was the chill in the room. It was late August, but the weather had already taken a more fall-like turn. Not that he would complain, it would make his shift that evening so much cool-

Meterro paused, as stunned as he was after waking up. He didn't have a shift that evening, or ~any~ more at the restaurant. What was supposed to be a matter of simple discipline for Dan- the manager who had helped Dylan regain his confidence and composure countless times after suffering the continued aftereffects from MQSI- to handle, Dylan made into a verbal grudge-match. His verbal vitriol forced one of his co-workers to haul him out of the store.

"Former co-workers," he said, audible to no one but himself.

Sure, he regretted that it came to a head that way, but inevitably Dylan's nonchalance and penchant for forestalling issues wouldn't have let that situation play out too differently.

I'm going to need to find a new job, quickly, the young man thought, my next- no- last paycheck comes in next week, but rent is due on the fifth, and I'm pretty sure I used up the last of my bread. Shit.

A soft buzz came from his phone. He wasn't entirely sure he wanted to answer it, whatever it was, whoever it was. He just wanted to be alone for a moment. Only when the buzz repeated did Meterro check it.

A pair of email notifications, the likes of which he wouldn't usually check. the subject on the second one, it intrigued him, and more importantly, played to his situation. He figured he would look, even if just this time.

to: dylmet_147
From: mwha_manpower_logistics

Subject: Accepting new Hero/Sidekick Applicants

Do you have a good handle on your Quirk? Do you want to live life on the edge, hunting the villains who would uproot everything this society holds dear? Are you searching for new employment opportunities that will make a difference in this world for the better? Well then the Midwestern Heroics Agency needs you!

With Dental, Eye and Health insurance qualification after 3-months, and 401k available after 6, it just goes to prove that being a Hero pays, in more ways than one!

Interested Applicants must be willing to take a 6-week certification course and sign an agreement to earn a United States Provisional Heroics License within 18 months of hire date

Send any relevant resumes and/or a copy of the attached application to

United States Heroics Agency:: Midwestern Regional Office
CO: Martin Byron
12204 N Capital Avenue: Suite 12C
Chicago, Illinois, 60616

or our E-mail address...

Spam, or some kind of prank. At least that's what Dylan would usually consider it, but that ".gov" didn't lie. This was the real deal.

Heroics, not the first place he'd think to go to look for work in Chicago, but not something he'd keep out of mind completely.

I might have to come back to this.

Three days went by without much progress for Dylan on the job front. He had looked to other restaurants within biking distance, but they were full up on staff, even with fall ending and the National Heroics Convention only a month out. The most common excuse was, "We won't need the staffing for just the weekend event." the loss of MQSI hit Chicago more than just academically, but it wasn't the first blow. After the sensation in the news about All-Might's retirement, Endeavor's succession, and what was now dubbed the "League" effect that started over in Japan, people had a sour taste in their mouths whenever Quirks were mentioned, much less when terrorists used theirs to practically wreck one of the top US Quirk colleges. He thought about going back, apologizing to Dan and Marcus. Asking, no, begging them to give him his job back, allowing him to return to some semblance of the simplicity of years now gone by. The young man considered it, even if just for a moment, a five minute long moment. One that would have lasted longer were it not for a text message breaking Dylan's attention.

~Hey, Dyl, come outside! me and ben have something to show you!~ Natalie, she was one of the few things even close to right with his life, a good friend, one that had helped see him out of the worst of what not going back to school did to Dylan's psyche; not to mention one of the few people that tried to support him in any capacity beyond just the encouraging word. Though his parents had never really let him want for much as a child, they were- to put it bluntly- the kind of people who would push God and spirituality as the solution to his crises. Nat had never once thought to bring any god as his cure-all, and he often thanked her for it.

It often made him wonder, seeing the news, what kind of just god would allow a pillar of virtue like All-Might, a champion of everything good about not just heroes but humankind as a whole, to suffer such grueling injuries at the hands of what the world could only assume was his foil, and to allow any of that foil's machinations to have any measure of success to begin with.

~Hey, are you coming out or not?~ Dylan would often joke that Natalie secretly had a mind-reading Quirk, but she seldom laughed at it.

~yeah, be out in a sec~

Natalie was Quirkless. In a country that claimed to give equal protection under the law to it's people, it would seem to Dylan that since the emergence of Quirks in the majority population, those without had been treated as less equal more times than people cared to admit. So long as quirk effect only affected yourself and didn't endanger anyone else, in the United States you were free to use it as you needed. That allowed some people to shine in ways that had never been possible before the emergence of quirks, but it also left those without further and further behind.
Dylan had more than one quirkless person in his graduating class from high school, which considering Chicago shouldn't have been all that surprising, except for the fact that he and other top-tier students had to compete against one for the top spot in their graduating class, ultimately he decided to go without to try to even the playing field between them, and he was punished for it. Three other kids with memory- or intelligence-based quirks ended up beating both her and him by graduation, and that meant lost scholarship opportunities. Dylan would often sift through his mind to try to remember that particular girl, but he never could recall her name.

After slipping on what he called "proper" jeans and his signature hoodie, Dylan threw his phone in the big pocket. After locking up his apartment and popping outside, he saw two of his best friends.

"Well, Mets, welcome back to the outdoors in this great, windy, concrete jungle."

"Nice to see you too, Ben."

"Still sporting that lime green, I see. Who are you, that new 'Capable Hero' touring over in LA ?" Natalie joked,

"I've heard good things about that "Deku" guy, seems as he was one of All-Might's students. It's kinda hard to believe he's two years younger than us, and already making waves here in the States." Ben wondered aloud.

"He looks pretty modest, but have you seen that guy's hood. When he wears it, he looks like some kind of fox, no joke." Dylan had seen the news stories of the past two days, He'd have to be living under a rock to miss them. Blogs and Editorial magazines like the National Inquest were just going ham, trying to figure out where the "Capable Hero, Deku" hailed from, when push came to shove about it, too many conspiracy theories were touted as fact about this newcomer on the pro scene. Moreover within a day, the guy had a Global Hero Fan Forum thread dedicated entirely to figuring what his quirk really was and what it did. He had come out with it as "Super Power" in more than one press conference considering the sheer number of people he had saved while intervening at the Beverly Hills Noumu attack, but based on the sheer viral nature of the GHF forums, and that thread in particular, few really believed him. Only one other pro hero had such mysterious origins, much less the quick rise to fame, the now retired Symbol of Peace himself. More than one of the less-than-off-the-wall theoretical crowds believed him to be All-Might's illegitimate son.

"So, Dyl, are you going to ask what we brought?" Natalie was markedly less affected by the discussion of the hottest new pro hero, seemingly more focused on the trunk of her and Ben's car. It was just how she was, both Ben and Dylan knew that. Whenever Nat got someone a gift, she always loved seeing people's reaction to it.

"I don't know," Dylan smirked, "What did you bring, some kind of new- What the hell?!"

His voice faltered as he shot a glance down the block and forced himself to do a double-take. A man stood a ways down the street on top of one of the apartment buildings flanked by two monstrosities too alike to something he'd seen before. Natalie and Ben turned to face the scene when they saw Dylan's awestruck gaze. from that rooftop, a strange voice boomed, as if there were some sort of loudspeaker within their collective minds

"Ah, would you just look at this peaceful neigborhood..."

And that's where I'm leaving you guys for right now, be ready for ch 4. we're gonna have us a good ol' fashioned fight scene!

PLUS ULTRA!