Hello crazy, beautiful world! Surprise amirite?! I got the chapter done a day early so I thought, screw it, posting it now! But please pay attention to this part:

SPECIAL AUTHOR ANNOUCEMENT AT THE END OF THE CHAPTER! SEE YA THERE!

Reviews: hornig3, I am happy you are excited for the Siren lore, but... I hate to burst your bubble, but vaults and vault monsters aren't going to be a part of the story. I debated with myself and just came to the conclusion that alien prisons for giant alien kaijus would kinda break the MHA world. Sorry to be a buzzkill. But don't worry, I have appropriate... replacements planned. Just stick around and you'll probably like where I take this.

Engineer4Ever, Greek backstory for the win! Well there's more to it than that, but it only made sense with how many references to Greek myth there are in Borderlands, what with Pandora, Elpis, Atlas, Promethea, Athenas, Hyperion, etc etc. As for it being supernatural, I will neither confirm nor deny it. You'll have to wait and see!

Yes Rnji, the plot thickens like my Dad's cheese roux. Mmm...

Borderlands is owned by Gearbox and 2KGames and My Hero Academia is owned by Kohei Horikoshi and Funimation. Please support the official release.

Please rate and review!

Now, lets get this festival wrapped up!

"This means someone is talking."

'This means someone is thinking to themselves.'

This means it's a flashback.

*This means it's a sound effect!*

{This means I'm speaking in a different language!}

Angel in a Gilded Cage

Siren, a mythological creature resembling a beautiful woman who would enchant sailors with their songs, luring them to their deaths. Angel remembered briefly reading about them at some point, spending most of her life with too much time on her hands and the internet at her fingertips. A word that up until this point, hadn't had much bearing on Angel's life.

Now though, for reasons she couldn't comprehend, it shook her to the core. Why did it? It was just a moniker of a self proclaimed queen that lived more than a hundred years ago with powers not dissimilar to her own whose book she now held. Sure, that particular grouping of facts was mind blowing on it's own, but why did Siren give her the most pause?

"You too huh?"

She blinked out of her stupor, to see Maya looking upon her with a serious expression and a hint of excitement. "You felt it, I can tell. That weird sensation when someone says that word, like a pulling in your stomach?"

Bewildered beyond belief, all Angel could do was nod dumbly.

Maya broke out into an ecstatic smile. "There, you see?! More proof that there's something connecting us at a deeper level! Brother Sophis can suck it!" She cheered.

At the mention of the word brother, something came to Angel's mind and she jolted.

"Wait! Earlier this week, you called me that! Siren Sister?! Is this what you were referring to?!" She asked, pointing down at the book.

"Yeah… sorry about weirding you out then." Maya chuckled bashfully. "But you have to admit that it's fitting right?"

Angel froze. 'Is she really saying..? Oooookay, this is going too fast!'

"M-Maya," She sputtered, gently putting the book down next to her on the bed. "...as many of these things just so happen to line up, this doesn't really prove anything! Just because you, me and some other lady who lived a long time ago have a few things in common doesn't mean that there's some kind of huge connection or something!"

"True…" Maya hummed, turning away and reaching into her desk drawer again. "Good thing that's not the only example I've found."

With that, she pulled out a manila folder, it's corners dogeared and from use and stuffed to the brim with papers. She reached in and held out a browning newspaper clipping. The headline was in English, reading "CausticCarri Strikes Again! United States Mint Ransacked!" above an image of a young woman dressed in a punk rock outfit, melting through a concrete wall with a glowing, tattooed hand while clutching a bag of money in the other.

"CausticCarri, a notorious bandit that looted across America about four decades ago. Died in a shootout with police at age twenty five!" Maya put the clipping back in the folder and pulled out another one, this time a polaroid of an outline that resembled a female figure, obscured by the whirlwind of water coursing around her. The only thing distinctly visible was the lights of her tattoos and the wings made of the clear moisture around her.

"Vanessa Fraga de Salles, a Brazilian vigilante who fought crime before Heroism was legalized. Died age forty six fighting a forest fire! And I've got many more!"

One by one, Maya showed Angel more proof. Newspaper clippings, blurry photos taken from the internet, she continued well past a dozen different people all with hints of their suddenly common trait. The more she saw, the more her doubts began to leave her to be replaced with burning curiosity. It was when a familiar face was pulled out of the folder that the point was driven home.

"Lilith Cashlin, the Firehawk!" Maya pulled out the artist rendition of Angel's friend that she had spotted on the news report about three weeks ago. "Wanted by Interpol and still at large for a rap sheet a mile long! The Tiger of Maharashtra, Am-!"

"Okay, okay!" Angel waved her arms, cutting her off. "You've made your point, maybe there is something to all this weird stuff!"

"Ah, sorry." Maya apologized with a grimace, realizing that she might have been overwhelming her trainee a bit. "Maybe I got a little carried away there. But there's one last thing."

Angel tilted her head, not sure how many more bombshells she could take tonight. "Okay? What is it?"

"Just a small detail. A tiny, possibly inconsequential one, but it's another thread that connects us and these people together."

She laid the folder down on the bed and spread out the contents along the covers.

"Other than their powers, do you notice anything oddly… specific?"

Angel glanced down and began to scan the articles. More than a dozen people laid out before her, from all walks of life. Her eyes flicked about, taking note of their individual features and backgrounds, specifically their home countries, ethnicities, ages and physical features. Some were heroes, some vigilantes and others villains. But other than their powers, she didn't see anything that more than two of them shared.

Angel's brow furrowed in frustration, growing annoyed that she couldn't figure out this simple puzzle. What was she missing?

She blinked, a hand reaching to her chin.

Maybe it was not about something being there that she was missing, but instead about what was missing from the photos?

So she looked again. And again. And again.

Then it hit her. It was something so simple, yet she hadn't been able to make the connection until this moment, when it all but leapt out at her, a glaring absence of one of the two divisions of the human race.

"They're… they're all women." She said aloud. "None of them are men?"

Maya snapped her fingers and pointed at her eagerly. "Bingo!"

Angel gave her a confused look. "But... why? And what's the significance of that?"

"No idea." Maya shrugged. "Although it does add more to the mystery. I've never heard of quirks being tied to the individual's gender before."

"But what does this all mean?"

"That's what I want to find out! Is this Siren thing some kind of new quirk type, one set apart from emitters, mutations and enhancements? Or is it a combination of the three? Why are they so similar in usage but differ in power? How long has this phenomenon existed? How many more women are like us? Why only women?" Maya rattled off question after question, clearly getting lost in a moment before tightly grasping Angel's hand and fixing her with an imploring stare, making her sweat under her gaze.

"So many questions Angel and so many answers to be found! I need to learn what it all means and I want your help doing so! What do you say?!"

Angel was at a loss for words, unsure of how to respond. Sure, there was a definite mystery to be explored here, she couldn't deny it anymore in the face of all this evidence nor the budding curiosity growing inside her like a sapling.

At the same time however, another feeling was worming to the surface alongside it. A sense of wariness and foreboding. She couldn't even understand where it came from, but there was an aspect of herself that was warning her against this quest for answers. That if she joined Maya in this endeavour, they might uncover something they'd rather stayed buried. It was the damndest thing.

She didn't know what to think, which path to take and what to say. It was then she knew there was one question she needed answered before she could make her decision.

She jerked her hand out of Maya's, still a little uncomfortable with physical contact out of habit. Angel felt a twinge of guilt when her mentor's excited expression fell a bit.

"Maya… before I say anything else, I want to ask something." She gave her a cautious, but determined look.

"Why are you doing this? Why do you want to find these answers?" She questioned quietly, a bit nervous for what the response would be.

Maya seemed taken aback, wrinkling her brow in thought as if she had never considered the question before.

"Huh… you know… I can't quite explain it. I remember myself being kinda aimless when I was younger. I just lived as the monks and sisters told me at the monastery. Day in, day out."

She glanced down at the folder and the herself down next to Angel on the bed, she placed the old book in her lap and began turning the pages, a wistful look on her face.

"But I remember feeling a kind of restlessness inside of me. That I was looking for something, but didn't know what. It wasn't until I found this and started deciphering the text that I guess I figured it out. I never really felt I belonged at the monastery. The other orphans there just seemed so different and I didn't feel like interacting with them. I spent most of my life alone, now that I think about it."

"What about your team?" Angel said. "Axton, Zer0 and Sal?"

She got a shrug. "They're different. I got my hero licence in Greece as an excuse to travel to different countries to look for answers. I worked alone for the most part, but they were the first people to actually invite me to join their team." A soft smile crept onto her face. "They're all incorrigible buffoons, but they're my friends."

The smile fell. "But that's just it. Friends. As much as I care about them, that's all they are to me. It's not what I set out for as selfish as that sounds. Maybe… maybe I just want to find more people who are like me, who feel like…"

She drifted off, lost in thought, half lidded eyes staring down at the aged pages, but the intent of her confession was not lost on Angel.

Perhaps… Maya wanted to find people like herself that she could connect to in a way that friends and acquaintances couldn't. A platonic bond that ran deeper than those of blood that she so sorely lacked.

Just like her.

"I see." She murmured.

Then she placed her hand on Maya's, giving her a supportive smile when she looked at her. "Then I think I'm in."

Maya let out a small breath, grinning a bit despite herself. "Thanks Angel. I mean it."

With their interests aligned, the student and her mentor continued to read through the antique book and gathered evidence well into the night, bonding over the greater mystery that had brought them together.

The next day, the heroes and their trainee set to work, pouring over the hundreds of documents that required to be filled out and processed. Evidence, witness statements, mission reports, damages, the white tide seemed endless. But the warriors of justice were determined to see their task through and by the next morning, the hordes had been quelled. Unfortunately, even with their writing hands cramping up and lacerated with thousands of paper cuts, they only had a couple hours to rest.

It was Saturday, the end of Angel's internship.

She considered it funny in a way. At the beginning of the week she hadn't been sure if she'd be able to last at the agency, it's ambiguity and Aizawa's warnings making her fearful from the get go. But now she almost didn't want to leave.

Evidently, the same could be said for the adults standing across from her at the train platform. Bystanders stared at the odd ensemble of a teen, a caucasian man, a blue haired woman, a tall ninja and a dwarf sobbing into a handkerchief.

"You did a hell of a job, squirt." Axton told her as they shook hands. "If all interns from Yūei are like you, we need to apply more often, well, if they let us after how much peril you went through."

"T-Thanks. I enjoyed myself with you guys, apart from when I nearly died I mean." Angel joked awkwardly.

"Your future is bright… I'll be watching your exploits… with great interest." Zer0 said with a nod.

"BOOHOOHOO!" Salvador blubbered, wiping away his tears. "She's growing up so fast! We taught her so well!"

"You're the only one who didn't teach her anything." Axton pointed out.

"LET ME COPE!" The dwarf roared, kicking the taller man in the shin.

Angel laughed at the grown men's hijinks before turning to the only other woman on the team. "Thanks for everything Maya. I'm feeling a lot more confident about my powers and all."

"Your welcome kid. Thanks for being such a great student. Keep practicing your exercises and maybe find some more hand to hand training from one of your teachers okay? Also, remember to call me if you have any questions or…" She briefly glanced about. "...developments."

"You got it." Angel patted her phone through her school jacket.

They all turned when the roar of the oncoming train reached their ears, the wind whirling through the platform.

"W-Well, this is my ride." She said, lifting her bag onto her shoulders.

"Remember to keep a lid on details about the case alright?" Axton pointed out, nursing his bruised shin while hopping on one foot.

"Don't worry, I'll keep quiet." She assured him as the train settled behind her and the doors slid open.

"Good luck back at school. Hopefully we can work together again." Maya said, patting a grieving Salvador on the back.

Angel nodded and stepped towards the doors, only to stop. Then with a grin on her face, she looked back and waved with her tattooed hand.

"See you around… Siren Sister."

Maya blinked for a second, then widely beamed. "You too, Siren Sister."

With that, Angel boarded the train. It took a moment for her to find a seat by herself and set herself down next to the window. She tucked her bag under the chair, settling herself in for the hours-long ride.

Taking one last look out the window she was greeted with the site of the four pro heroes, the team she had been a part of. The second woman who had taught her so much about the power she possessed and nurtured her growth. Four more bonds that she never imagined she'd have, dreamed about in that room so long ago.

When they spotted her, they all smiled, including Zer0 in his usual way and waved. She gave one back as the doors closed and a few seconds later, the train lifted off, leaving them and Kyoto behind in a blur.

With a heavy, yet happy heart, Angel sighed. With nothing else to do, she reached into her bag and retrieved her sketchbook and pencils. She spent the next hour or so committing her new found memories to paper, while she looked back on the past few weeks.

So much had happened. So many trials had set themselves up on her path to becoming a hero. Things that if she had been confronted by them a few months ago, would most certainly have crumbled under pressure.

But she kept going. Picking herself up when she fell, with the help of some people she was overjoyed to have in her life. From a caring guardian, great friends and supporting mentors, they had all lifted her up in their own way, to the point that she felt unrecognizable, but in a good way.

Now, a fire had been lit within her. One that filled her with a warmth most magical. One that made her straighten her back and hold her head high.

Angel scratched a few more lines along Maya's brow, completing her to match her fellow heroes as they laughed at a stained dining table, in the basement of a rundown apartment building. The site broadened her smile.

She still had her fears of course, but for the first time in her life she looked forward to what tomorrow would bring.

The air was cold. Not cold enough that one could see their breath, but just enough of a frigid nip that would cause them to shiver. Said chilliness could be attributed to the lack of windows in the dark room, the only illumination coming off of the wide computer screen sitting in front of the inhabitant, who was completely unperturbed by the temperature.

He had lost most sensation in his body years ago, a side effect from his near brush with death and the subsequent procedures that followed to restore him to a fraction of his former strength. IV's snaked into the confines of his flawless black suit as he rested in his padded chair, the sound of the breathing tube lodged directly into his throat letting off a wheezing sound that was only overshadowed by the steady beep of a nearby heart monitor.

Out of habit, he propped the side of his head up with his fist, absently rubbing the mass of scar tissue that covered the vast majority of his face and head, his ears, nose and eyes missing, not that he had needed those sensory organs for decades. He could see just fine for example, as he studied the many articles that had sprung up following the Hero Killer's capture.

"My my Akaguro… you've certainly made some ripples. Just as you promised, but not as you probably intended." He laughed to himself.

Then the door behind him opened with a hiss, but not to his surprise. His multiple extrasensory powers had made it so he had noticed when the arrival had entered the building, forty floors down.

"Master, I have some bad news." The second man informed the first, taking a second to smooth his bushy mustache compulsively.

"Please, doctor." He calmly stated. "Whatever you have to say couldn't possibly ruin my good mood right now. Be calm."

"If you say so." The doctor sighed. "One of our "volunteer centres" was raided two days ago. The Pretty Penny's stock was lost and Redman was arrested."

The man in the chair tilted his head ever so slightly, but remained completely composed.

"A pity, but not unexpected. Redman was too greedy for his own good, it was only a matter of time before he slipped up. We'll be fine. Even if the authorities got wind of his connections, they won't be able to trace it back to us."

"Still, we're going to be short on fresh subjects. Should I authorize some kidnappings of our own?"

"No. As impressive as they were, the Nomus produced through those methods were not worth the losses accrued in the incident. We have other sources, they will suffice."

"Ah yes. As much as an insufferable egotist Benedict was, he did good work." The doctor begrudgingly admitted. "Didn't shed any tears when I heard he died though."

"Not many would mourn the death of the "Unflinching Scalpel". In any case, who was involved in Redman's arrest?"

"It was a team by the name of, a moment…" The doctor referenced his PDA. "Double Tap, apparently. These names nowadays." He shook his head in disapproval.

"Ah…" The seated man's head perked up in recognition. "Yes. The underground team with the Siren."

"Additionally..." The doctor continued. "They were assisted by a student from Yūei, a first year intern."

"Oh? Which one?"

"Hodunk Angel, Master."

The doctor paused when he heard a low, rumbling sound as the seated man's shoulders shook. It took him a moment to realize he was laughing, coming out as a deep throaty chuckle despite his injuries and the tube in his neck.

"Hm. How amusing. Not just one, but two. Even after all this time, that woman's legacy keeps getting in my way." He smiled.

"Master?" The doctor asked, his foot shifting from his fraying nerves.

"Nothing to concern yourself with my friend. I am merely enjoying a passing moment of sentimentality." He answered mirthfully, which did nothing to settle his underling's unease. "While we're on the subject, have you checked into her records?"

"Um...well… that's the other bad news Master, or rather, odd news." The doctor coughed a little and cleared his throat. "We… found nothing."

The man stilled. "How do you mean?"

"I-I-I mean to say Master, is that we couldn't find barely anything about this girl." His underling elaborated, frantically tapping on his PDA with his stylus. "The only records we could access was her adoption certificate filed under the hero "Mad Moxxi" Hodunk, dating back seven months ago. Then the trail just ends, nothing beyond that point. No medical, child service or orphanage records. Not even a birth certificate."

Much to the doctor's dismay, the chair slowly spun around so his Master faced him in all his gruesome, yet all powerful glory. A wide, terrifying grin spread across his face.

"Oh... that is very interesting." He proceeded to turn back around. "Leave me. I have much to think about."

The doctor nodded and wordlessly left the room. Alone once more, the man absently rubbed one of his thumbs and pointer fingers together. His mind had been busy with the developments over the last week. Between his protege Tomura's encounter with the prolific Hero Killer and the latter's arrest that same night, things were moving along to his machinations just nicely.

But that would have been too dull for his tastes. Thanks to the appearance of both his nemesis's own disciple and the arrival of the fledgling Siren, his mind was tingling from the possibilities that were now beginning to unfold.

At the moment however, he was currently fascinated with a single question.

"Now I wonder… who would go to such lengths to hide this girl even from me?"

All was quiet in the c-suite of the Hyperion head office building. The wall length windows had been tinted, to provide a dark backdrop for the holographic screens projected over the owner's desk. Said owner's eyes were narrowed as he focused on one of the many videos on display, all of them were recordings of one of the battles in the semifinals of the Yūei Sports Festival from more than a week ago, taken from many different angles. He watched one of the competitors, a raven haired girl, struggle to break free from the ice shell her opponent had trapped her in as the referee counted down.

One of his immaculately polished dress shoes tapped against the carpeted floor as light radiated from within her prison, before a spiderweb of fissures spread across the blue ice. In the next instant, it shattered and after the detritus cleared the girl was shown, standing in awe at the energy that was now wrapped around her.

"End of playback." The automated, saccharine female voice of the operating system declared.

"Rewind by five seconds." He muttered, all of the screens instantly changing back to the desired time frame, mere moments before the glow appeared. "Set playback speed to ten percent and play."

The video played once more at a drastically slowed pace. The man attentively watched every elongated second, the brief instance stretched over several minutes until it reached the moment of the emanation of the ice shattering blast.

"Stop. Enhance fifty percent." He ordered. The computer zoomed in and sharpened the image, giving him a clear close up of the subject ranging from the top of her head and the bottom of her torso. Her face was frozen in an exertion filled grimace, ice shards suspended around her.

"Analyze."

"Analyzing…" The computer said, several technical readouts appearing on screen, scanning the markings on the subject's skin. "Analysis complete. Energy output exceeds previous parameters by an estimated eighty-seven point four two nine nine percent."

He tapped his foot again, his expression cold and grim.

Her powers were growing at a rate he hadn't predicted. It was akin to seeing a goldfish live in a lake as opposed to a body of water, the lack of captivity was allowing her to expand exponentially. Give it a year or so and who knows what she would be capable of.

He needed to compare her to his only reference point.

"Open video files Angel_Race_Flight and Flamingchickenshit_Flight." He said.

The videos were replaced with two more, one of Angel and the other of Lilith, one of his former unwitting pawns, both of them with their wings open in mid flight.

He ground his glittering white teeth, the mere sight of that red hair or those yellow eyes filled him with unyielding rage.

'Couldn't had just died in that fire with your stupid little friends could you?! When I get my hands on you I'm going to drain all your blood and drown you in it, you murdering, daughterstealingMUTATEPIECEOF-!'

He stopped his tirade, becoming acutely aware of the stinging pain coming from his finger nails, his left hand clutching the arm of his chair in a death grip.

He took a deep breath and pried his hand off the bunched fabric, reining in his anger before he did something he'd regret. He'd rather not have to replace the next person who stepped into his office just because of a video.

'Calm your shit.' He told himself, shaking his head. 'There's too much riding on you just for you to go postal. Focus on saving your little girl first, then you can make those bastards pay.'

He rubbed the bridge of his nose and collected himself, getting back to the task at hand.

"Measure and compare the length and brightness of the wings."

"Analyzing… analysis complete. Subject A wingspan is equal to nine point four feet in length and emanates one thousand, three hundred and seventy nine lumens. Subject B wingspan is equal to fifteen point sixty five feet and emanates two thousand, six hundred and thirty three lumens."

He hummed. If his theory was correct, his daughter's quirk was a far ways off from being as powerful as Lilith's. That meant it would be harder to keep her abilities under control the longer they were allowed to grow unchecked. It was time to advance the timetable.

'Will probably need to make some adjustments to the system.' He noted, already designing the modifications in his head. He reclined into the back of his chair, steepling his fingers together. 'Of course, the biggest issue is how I'm going to get her out of the public eye with discretion. Thanks to that stupid tournament, everyone is watching her closely. Probably an idea of those Raider schmucks.'

He closed his eyes in thought.

Then they shot back open. He knew just what to do.

Sitting forward, he leaned over his desk and reached for the phone.

But then he halted, catching something on one of the screens out of the corner of his eye.

"Full screen video eighteen."

The video box in question pulled itself in front of the rest and expanded. It was a picture of the award ceremony at the end of the festival. The crowd was cheering as the winners were given their medals by the supposed symbol of peace. On the lowest podium his daughter stood, standing next to another girl that he cared less about.

Almost as if in a trance, he slowly reached out, as if trying to cup her face in his palm. The face she was making tugged at something inside of him. Something he hadn't felt in a long time.

His expressionless mask softened.

The way that she was holding that bronze medal to her chest.

The way she seemed to glow without using her quirk.

The way her eyes were squeezed shut as tears ran down her cheeks.

The way that she smiled, as if she hadn't a care in the world.

He hadn't remembered seeing her like this since…

Just as the flicker of doubt began to surface, he quashed them down and dismissed the screens with a wave.

He couldn't afford hesitation now, not when there was much work to be done.

He was the hero after all. And he will bring his poor, lost, little girl home.

He jammed his finger on the button on his phone.

"Blake!" He barked, perhaps a bit too forcefully.

"Sir?" His vice president answered instantly.

"Get engineering, land acquisition and international affairs on the line in five minutes! Don't keep me waiting!"

"Right away sir."

As soon as Blake hung up, the man pressed another button and brought the receiver to his ear. The dial tone buzzed once, twice before the other end picked up.

"Yeah, what do ya want?" A deep, bassy voice greeted.

"It's me. Get yourself on the next flight to Japan." He said as he spun his chair to look out the window.

"I've got a job for you, Wilhelm."

.

.

.

...I'm not the only one who has chills right?

On that note, we have reached the end of season 2! As of posting this chapter, this story has accrued 38,553 page views, 235 followers, 189 favourites and 63 reviews! I never, in my wildest dreams a year and a half ago, imagined I would garner this much. I am honestly speechless. Thank you all so much for giving my work a shot and your support! You all make this endeavour that much more fun!

Now. I have an announcement. Brace yourselves.

I am giving AGC a break. Before you all get into a panic or reach for your pitchforks and torches, let me explain. I love writing this story. I love seeing you guys react. I am still having fun writing it. But if I want to keep that going, I'm going to need a break. The last thing I want is to get tired of looking at my own work. So, I will be taking a couple months or so off, let myself recharge and come back with a fresh mind. I will be back for season 3 sometime around January I think.

So TLDR, taking a break to refresh on this story, it's still going, there are no problems on my end, I will come back around January.

In the meantime however, I have some more exciting news. I am going to be trying some news things. By that I mean I am going to write some pilots for one or two other crossovers I have in mind as well as a AGC sidestory, for the fun of it! So keep an eye on my profile/subscribe or whatever it is, I will have something for you all in time!

That being said, this is Mandalore the Scribe, Ven'jii!