Ayumu nuzzled her head on the rotting pizza box. The warmth of the decrepit cardboard soothed her pale cheeks with her arm tucking between it and the bed of crumpled beer bottles and trash bags underneath her frail frame. The horrid stench ruminating in the landfill was of no bother to her; she had little use of her sense of smell. However, she was perturbed by the loud beeping of a dump truck pouring more garbage into the sea of trash.

Ayumu smacked her lips and cracked her eyelids just an inch to see the bright spotlights surrounding the perimeter of the landfill. Plastic and metal crashed like a tsunami wave at the entrance the garbage crunching onto the surface and crushing the layer below.

"Do you mind," Ayumu grumbled to the garbage truck. "I'm trying to sleep."

At the entrance to the landfill, the glowing Dodge Charger pulled up to a guard shack with a yellow security arm holding back unauthorized vehicles. From the passenger door, Izuku pushed out of the car and ran up to the guard shack. A stocky man with a giant Afro munched on a slice of old, chilled pizza and watched Izuku scramble to the opening separating him from the outside world with plexiglass.

"Hello, mister," Izuku said. "I'm looking for a girl."

"Strip club is down the street," the man said before turning back to his television.

"No, I lost a student of mine in this landfill," Izuku said. "I need to get her out."

"You can't come in here without an appointment," The man said. He opened up a large binder at the desk and scrolled his finger over the pages. "And I don't have nobody coming in here at eight tonight."

"Why do I need an appointment for a landfill," Izuku shouted. "Don't you know who I am?"

"Yeah," the garbage guard screamed back. "You're another thief."

"What?"

"You're a thief coming in to steal my garbage," The Garbage Guard grabbed a baton and smacked the plexiglass. Izuku jumped back at the rattle. "We've had break ins every other day around here. That new gang popping up comes in and steals old catalytic converters and guns people throw away. Well, I'm not letting it happen on my watch. No, sir."

"I'm not stealing anything," Izuku said. "There's a person in the landfill, and I need to get them."

"Who?"

"A student of mine," Izuku said.

"You lost a student of yours in the garbage," The Garbage Guard said.

"Yes!"

"And now they're just laying in this landfill?"

"Yes."

"And you're their teacher and let that happen?"

"Well," Izuku gave pause and realized just how stupid and awful as a teacher he sounded. "Yeah."

"I don't buy it, bro. Please leave."

"Look" Izuku glanced at the name tag on the guard's grey vest. "Jose. That's your name, right? It's my first day at this school, and I need to make a good impression. A lot is on the line to make this a success, and News getting out that I lost a student in a landfill won't help me. So, I'm asking you man-to-man to just let me in this one time."

"Sorry, Bro," Jose said. "You gotta go."

Izuku bared his teeth. He smacked the window and barked out at the guard. "Listen, bro. I am trying to run a hero school. And I'm trying to be responsible and find a student of mine. So, either you help me, or I'll break in here with force. You got it, bro?"

The man sighed and turned back around. "Look, Broccoli Head, I hear excuses every day about people wanting to come in here because they lost something. 'Oh, my cat is in there. Help me, my grandpa's baseball cards are in there. I accidentally threw my breast implants away.' I've heard it all, okay? Sometimes, you just have to let things go. You have to forget about what you lost and move on. Sometimes, you just can't get things back! Sometimes…you have to leave things where they belong. In the garbage."

The Garbage Guard known as Jose sighed and looked down at his hand. He rubbed his bare ring finger and slumped over the desk. He ran a hand through his Afro and sniffled.

Izuku stood in an awkward silence. Part of him wanted to console the man. The other part of him wanted to burn down the shack and run into the landfill.

"So can I go in or not?" Izuku asked

"After you make an appointment," The Garbage Guard said. "And the waiting list is about a month long, so-."

Izuku reached into his pocket. Pulling out his wallet, he threw out a hundred dollar bill and slid the money into the small hole in the plexiglass.

Jose grabbed the money and punched it into his pocket. "Enjoy your visit."

He pressed a small button. The security arm rose into the air.


It took awhile to drag Ayumu out of the garbage site. However, Izuku pulled the thin girl through the mountains of trash and refuse all the way to Moxie's car. On the drive back, Izuku hosed down Ayumu at an empty manual car wash. Fortunately, only the remnants of pizza crust and bits of soggy paper cling to her black hair. She hardly moved while she sat in the chair; the hot water bashing over her making her even more tired.

Hawks found Ivan floating on a piece of driftwood in Lake St. Claire. Ivan saw him flying above with one of his eye tendrils and waved him down. Outside of glowing green due to some strange radioactive soot he combed through in the sewer, he was in good spirits. Hawks flew him to the car wash, and Izuku hosed him down as well.

Now, the two were covered in a thick wool blanket in the back of the Charger heading back to school. Ayumu had her head on Ivan's shoulder with her hair drenched in car soap and water. Ivan smiled out the window at the copper streetlights illuminating the barren streets of northern Detroit. It was not a pleasant neighborhood with ink marks and potholes dotting the broken road. Abandoned buildings stood before thistles of wild weeds that dotted the landscape. Occasionally, a random man would zoom past in an ATV drinking something out of a brown paper bag. Ivan was unsure how legal that was, but he found the display of rambunctious human nature amusing.

"I again want to profusely apologize," Izuku said. "There's no excuse for having you get lost in the sewer."

"It's not problem," Ivan said in his thin, breathy voice. "Although you could make up for it by allowing us to stay in school."

"Don't worry," Izuku said in the passenger seat. He folded his hands together as Moxie took another turn down a lonely road. "I'm not kicking anyone out. I recognize some quirks aren't suited for certain aggressive challenges like bank robberies. However, all quirks can be used to make someone a hero. That's something I learned early on in my training."

"Like who?" Ivan asked. "Was there a person that really surprised you?"

"Well," Izuku looked back at Ivan. "Shinso Hitoshi. He was the hero paired up with Moxie today. He tried to be in the hero course, but couldn't get in due to the entrance exam. It wasn't tailored for a quirk like his. Yet, he succeeded and became a great hero. There as this one classmate I had in Japan naked Mineta. No one thought he'd be a good hero, and he's doing well. There's a way for everyone to be a hero in some way."

"I understand," Ivan said. "People have their motivations."

"And what's yours, Ivan," Izuku asked.

Ivan blinked his main yellow eyes. He looked up at the plastic upholstery in the cockpit and stretched an arm across the top of the backrest. Ayumu grumbled, and her head fell into the crook of his arm. In his mind, snippets of fire and exploding auburn flashes popped into his sight. A silent film of destruction that shuttered over his many eyes.

"I guess I just like knowing things," Ivan said. "Humans are so interesting, aren't they? All of the secrets and lies they tell. What pains they go through to be dishonest. And why? To sidestep an awkward situation. To avoid hurting someone. Only for them to cause even greater pain. I wonder why people do the things they do, and maybe my quirk was given to me so I can find that out."

Izuku glanced to Moxie. She drove without a care in the world. He bit his lip and swore that he felt one of Ivan's eyes pointed right into his soul. He wiped away a bead of sweat, and grabbed the roller handle for the window.

"Gee, it sure is hot in here," Izuku said. He rolled down the window to let in the crisp, autumn air.

Moxie took her eyes off the road for a second and looked over the the gust of air that whooshed through like a soft wave onto hushing sand. In that time, the car rolled right to one of the many potholes in the street.

Bang! With the impact into the pothole, a pop emanated from the front tire. Air wheezed out of the rubber with the material smacking the road in a dire thump. The car hobbled up the a corner with a lone tungsten street lamp hanging in the middle of the overgrown weeds and chopped concrete that were once bush sidewalks.

"Aw, man," Moxie said. "We gotta flat."

Moxie parked the car at the corner. She switched the car off and grabbed the keys. With a flick of her hand, she popped open the trunk to get the flat.

Just as she was about to climb out-.

"Hold up," Ivan said. "There some people out there."

Izuku turned back to Ivan. One of his tendrils pointed to the abandoned house across the street to their left. It was a small mid-century home hollowed out with rotted wood and a crumbled brick facade. Izuku narrowed his eyes, but he could find nothing abnormal about the deserted property.

"I don't-."

"There's someone there," Ivan said. "And in the bush to our right."

Izuku craned his neck towards the bush next to the lamppost. The prickled shrub betrayed no movement save for the wind bristling the short branches. He peered right at the bush and saw a strange, silver glint shaking in a small hole through the leaves. In the middle of the glint was the darkness of a barrel.

Next to her, Moxie held her breath. She looked to the left at the old house. The wind stopped. A terse stillness suffocated the block. Izuku heard the saliva drain down his throat with his heartbeat echoing in his heart. His eyes wide and scanning the horizon, he glanced at Moxie who held the keys in hand.

"They have guns," Ivan said.

"Who are they?" Izuku asked.

"They're wearing some green bandannas or something," Ivan said in a surprisingly calm tone, as if he were commentating on the weather. "I think one of them is walking up from behind us. He's rounding the corner right now."

In the rear-view mirror by Izuku, a dark and ominous shape trudged down the road. Izuku grabbed the roller bar and yanked upward to pull the window up. However, the glass would not budge.

"I can't get this up," Izuku said.

"It gets stuck."

"What?"

"I don't use that window much," Moxie said.

Footsteps clacked close down the tough road. In the brown luminescence of the streetlight, the figure approached with a dark green hoodie and matching scarf wrapped around his thin neck. He was a wisp of a man with tattered jeans and black steel-toes boots chopped on the surface just inches away from the road. The man skittered a finger over the side of the vehicle before tracing his finger right to the lip of the windowsill. The man, a pale and sickly wisp of a person, poked his head right up to the window.

"You all lost?" the man asked with a quiet giggle hidden at the end of his sentence.

"No," Izuku let out a nervous chuckle and hit the handle of the window. The top of the glass rose up over the precipice but would go no further. "We're fine."

"But you seem lost," the man said. "I can help you out."

"No, we know where we're going," Izuku hit the hand.

Click. Click. Click.

"You sure?" The man laughed. "Cause me and my friends can help you out if you need something. Though, it might cost you."

"Sorry, we don't even have anything," Izuku said.

Click. Click. Click.

"Really," he said. He traced a finger over the roof of the sparkling vehicle. "Then, maybe…this car looks real nice. This like a 71' Charger."

"Sixty-nine," Moxie said.

"Yeah, nice," the man said. "How about I help you out? I won't need my friends to come out here, if you just give me this car."

Click. Click.

Bap!

The window finally started to roll up. Izuku charged the handle and rose the window to shut it.

Before it got halfway, the man reached into his waistband. He pulled out a small pistol and thirsted it into the hole between the window and the top sill.

"Ah!" Izuku grabbed the glass and pulled the window up into the wrist of the man. "He's got a-."

The glass punched the man's wrist. He yelled out and jumped back with the gun in his hand. He looked at the small gash in his wrist, and he seethed at Izuku. Then, he pointed his gun back at the man int he passenger seat.

"You piece of shit!"

Right as his finger touched the trigger-

"Hello!"

The man screamed and fell back. Ayumu, in her corporeal dream state, blocked his aim towards Izuku and floated above the man.

"It's a fucking ghost!" The man screamed.

Then, a pounding of gunfire stormed out of his gun. In the bush, another man stood up with a mini-RPG and aimed it right at Ayumu. She laughed as the bullets raced through her and up into the night.

"Ha ha," Ayumu said. "That tickles!"

"Moxie!" Izuku shouted. "Drive!"

Moxie turned the keys back into the ignition. The engine tumbled with the headlights exploding into white beams illuminating the crevices in the road before them.

"Hey," the man pointed at the car. "Get 'em!"

Ivan, another tendril pointed across the street, grabbed the sleeping Ayumu and threw her onto the ground. "Duck!"

From the house, a supersonic flash strobed from one of the windows in the abandoned house. The sound of bullets rained down with the projectiles aimed right for the left side of the car.

Izuku fell to the side as Moxie jammed her foot on the gas pedal. The car screamed forward, but the flat tire caused the car to flail into a hot tailspin that burned rubber into a concrete donut. Moxie dipped her head underneath with the sound of gunfire rattling into thin aluminum from three different directions.

"Professor Deku," Moxie shouted. "The glovebox!"

Izuku, without hesitation, fought his arms through the g-force of the nauseating spin and debilitating rain of bullets and tire screeching to flick open the glove compartment. Inside, there was a small revolver at the very back of the compartment. His back smacked the side of the door, and he leaned forward with all his might to snag the small revolver. The metal kissed his hand, and he scooped up the firearm and cradled it to his midsection as smoke burned into the car from the cloud twisting around them outside.

Ivan, seeing that the head gangster was about to time his shot properly at the car, opened up his door. As the car whipped around once more, the door swung wide towards him as the car broke from the donuts and zoomed forward.

Bam! The door smashed into him. He flew backwards and banged his back onto the light pole. He collapsed forward and crashed on the pavement with his pistol bouncing away to the middle of the street.

The car lurched to a halt. The hamster in the bush ran out with Ayumu chasing after him like some drunk ghost. He shot back at her as he sprinted away, but the bullets simply flew through her. She chased him another block before the man disappeared into a small wooden area off a brown sewage runoff.

Moxie opened the door. She turned and examined her car. It was riddled in bullet holes and blood smeared on one side due to Ivan's stunt. The windows were shot out with glass strewn all over the floor. The leather of the seats was disrupted and cracked with the dashboard sparking due to the electrical components in the car battered by the projectiles. To top it off, smoke billowed from the hood which was a telltale sign that the vehicle had overheated and would be out of operation for a while. Her sweet Charger.

Moxie's eye twitched.

"That one's gun jammed," Ivan shouted with an eye tendril pointed past Moxie towards the abandoned house.

Moxie whipped around. In the second story window which was an opening with no glass, another gangster was hitting his mini-RPG in an attempt to unjam the weapon. She frowned, and a strange cloud of electrons flowed around her. Izuku, sitting back up in his seat, brushed away shards of glass from his head and watched his own hair stand up on his arms. Moxie's brunette mane frizzled, and she looked back to Izuku. Her eyes, normally grey, had morphed into a deep scarlet.

"They ruined my car," Moxie growled.

Before Izuku could protest, Moxie spun back to the house. From what Ivan could tell, the assailant had just finished clearing his weapon. He pointed it down to the street where the car sat shielding him along with Izuku and sleeping Ayumu.

He laughed right as he pulled on the trigger.

Click.

Only to be met with silence.

And then, a brisk wind from the young Pro-Hero who seemed to teleport before his presence due to her lightning speed.

The firearm was now out of his grasp and in her hands.

"Oops," Moxie smiled at the man. "Here, let me help with that jam."

Snap! She split the gun apart as if it were a toothpick under the foot of an elephant.

The man, now petrified, tried to run. However, it was too late as Moxie grabbed his collar and flung him back to the street. He slammed on the ground. With his momentum, the poor gangster tumbled like a skipping stone over the concrete ocean until he banged into the light pole and collapsed on the ground with his friend. Blood oozed around his bald head like a halo with the pole reverberating with a bright ring that echoes over the otherwise deserted neighborhood.

Ivan and Izuku exited the vehicle. They examined the comatose gang members wearing dark green and now bright red blood splotched on their outfits. Ivan nodded in amusement while Izuku stammered out unintelligible noises.

"Well down, Miss Lagniappe," Ivan said. "I now see why you are such a star hero."

"That was awesome," Ayumu's dream form floated up next to her teacher. "Can we have her as our teacher, too?"

"No big deal," Moxie laughed. "I reckon there ain't much bullets could do to me that hasn't already been done by worse villains. Though, most heroes honestly ain't gonna last against a shotgun shell or two. It reminds me of when-."

"Look out!" Ivan jumped backwards and grabbed Izuku's shoulder.

Izuku spun back just in time for Ivan to pull him backwards and out of harm's way. As they both fell onto the side of the damaged car, they saw the main gangster sitting up and cocking his pistol right in their path.

In the time it took Izuku to realize this, he had already fallen about a foot in Ivan's grasp.

In that time, Moxie charged forward with brush of red electricity traversing her path.

Three feet in front of the ground, Izuku gasped when she grabbed his gun. Then, she snapped it in two.

Two feet away from impact, he cried out when she flipped in mid-air while reaching for a strange object in her boot.

One foot away, and Izuku closed his eyes to brace for the splatter of blood that would erupt from-.

Blam!

The gunshot.

Izuku fell onto Ivan. Both hit their heads on the side of the car. Both of them were now covered in blood as the main gangster screamed in pain.

Blam! Blam! Blam! Blam!

The main gangster fell back and writhed on the ground. However, no sound escaped his throat with his midsection pummeled by the .50 caliber handgun bullets that was somehow hidden in Moxie's thick boots. He clawed to the sky, perhaps for forgiveness or for a way out, Izuku would never know. What he did know was that Moxie looked over him with one bullet remaining, and the man's end would be completely senseless, violent, and also (in Ayumu's later opinion she would share) awesome.

"Wait! Moxie, don-!"

Blam! She fired off the final shot.

Right into his skull.


"Blam! Blam! Blam!"

The lobby for the boy's level of the dormitory building was small and cozy. A thick beige carped curled underneath Aiden's knees as he sat in front of the box television set. His tongue stuck out in concentration while the warm light above cast a soft pallor over the room. The soothing green walls, painted brick, glistened with fresh paint that still smelled to Aiden. Behind him, a pool table with a mini fridge sat by the entrance which was a staircase to one side and an elevator on the other. On either side of the rectangular common area, a plush leather sofa sat along with a cocobolo coffee table. In the very corner closest to the entrance, an old grandfather clock ticked the night away.

Aiden, shirtless and yet sweating due to his concentration on the game, leaned forward and mashed his fingers on the game pad buttons. Next to him, Merle bashed his thumbs over some of the controls, but the whole device was foreign in his meaty hands. He wiped his palm on his leather vest, but that opening was enough for Aiden to unleash one final attack.

"Kill him!" A voice over the television stated.

Aiden roared and flipped one final combination on the controller. Then, he tapped one final digit on the red button in the center.

Blam!

"You're winner!"

"Hell ya!" Aiden threw his controller in the air. Before it landed in the ground, Sam The Dog grabbed it in his mouth and set it down in a gentle fashion. He sat between the two boys, and the dog lay his head on the floor to emphasize his sadness at Merle being a giant loser.

"That's eight in a row," Aiden said with a dumbass smile. "They don't have this game back on the ranch?"

"We don't okay no games on the ranch," Merle grumbled. "Out there, it's eat or be eaten. I never had no time for games."

"Man, just go to the grocery store like everyone else," Aiden said. "Speaking of that, I think the cafeteria is open late cause we all got back after dark. I'm freaking starving."

Aiden jumped up and slipped on a jacket that he had crumpled on the sofa. He zipped it up and held the door open for Sam who, hearing the notion of food, had perked up and immediately hustled for the door. Merle sighed and pulled down the brim of his cowboy hat. He moseyed over the the staircase and entered the well.

The stairs were painted black steel with white walls and bright flourescent lights illuminating the pathway. Merle's boots echoed with each jiggle of his spurs over the steps before they made it to the bottom level. Aiden pushed through and turned down a hallway leading to the atrium of the building.

Folllowing Aiden and Sam, Merle's mind began to wander to the day. He had a small swell of pride from his actions taking down that Phantom and Helter whatever guy. Both of them were quite annoying, so he was glad his team banded together to defeat them. He felt a twinge of shame, however, from losing the overall challenge. He prided himself on focusing enough to finish a task at hand. For him to fail the very first one showed that he did not have the discipline or team leadership to accomplish the mission. He could hear his father now admonishing him for not roping up his team together and running around like a cartoon character as Sam chased after him. No doubt his mother and sisters, however, would have keeled over and died from laughter if that were the case.

He frowned at the thought of Sam. Yes, he understood Monoma's quirk. Even before that, Sam had acted strange. His noises were not as personalized for Sam. He nuzzled his snout into his arm, but he did so at an odd angle. And he could have sworn his eyes changed colors within the last few hours. It was almost like Sam was examining the area with great intent to capture the most detail of each place. Perhaps Sam was simply being more attentive to protect Merle from tripping on any exposed wires or people he could not see.

"Ah!"

Speaking of which, Merle bopped right into the back of a boy just about his height. Merle's hat ripped, but stayed on his head as he blinked rapid and swished his gaze around the room. Sure enough, he was in the cafeteria without even noticing. Sam sat next to Merle and wagged his tail while examining the blonde boy who spun around.

"Oh, hello Mister Cowboy," Skylar waved. Merle, always hesitant when personal interaction was involved, tipped his hat towards the hyper sunshine boy with a glowing ring over his head.

"Howdy," Merle said.

"This line has been super long," Skylar whined. "It's like everyone at the school decided to eat late today! Apparently, we were the only ones that had a busy day like today, but that's what happens when Mister Deku is involved, I guess."

Merle poked his head to the side of Skylar's strange golden wings that had a strange translucent layer showing what was behind them. A gigantic line of students ran all the way into the main hub of the cafeteria.

The room itself was the size of a massive warehouse with red brick lining the perimeter. Steel rafters hung overhead with stainless steel and chrome piping shimmering under the white lights that appeared to be old spotlights from an athletic field. The monochromatic chessboard tiling under his feet ran through the entire room. At the corners of the cafeteria we're specialty food counters with a main food hub planted in the center. It was a long wooden circular table with a brick oven and grills smoking up various cuts of succulent meat. Merle noticed the various license plates and pictures of old Cadillacs on the wall, and he realized the aesthetic of the room was of a giant garage complete with red vinyl seating reminiscent of a Ford Edsel's backseat bench.

"What's taking so long?" An older boy in front of Skylar shouted. He stepped to the side of the line and glared at the end of the line with his deep, chocolate eyes. His dark chestnut hair, combed and gelled neat, shined under the lights with his glasses reflecting a white sheen from the frames. His outfit was impeccable. While most students had resorted to casual wear this late at night, the boy wore a pinstripe black suit with a Windsor knot holding a forest green tie around his neck and over his periwinkle dress shirt. Not a wrinkle was to be found from his angular shoulders down to his matching silk pants that covered the tops of his obsidian Italian penny-loafers. The only article of clothing with a brighter sheen was the vintage silver Rolex watch clinging to his wrist. The boy, a lithe and serious young man with an uppity voice and pompous upward tilt of his chin, peered down at the rest of the line.

"Can we hurry the hell up," He shouted. "I have a project in my room to finish!"

Gavin Carter! Second Year! His quirk: Matterforge! He has the ability to manipulate and mold the structure of solid objects with precise control.

From the rafter, a pair of red wings waved down towards the wooden counter. Landing next to the boy, Hawks stretched out his arms and cleared his throat.

"Sorry for the wait," Hawks said. "The cafeteria workers couldn't make it today. So, we ordered pizza and it will be here any moment."

"Pizza?" Gavin cried out. "That is not at all nutritional."

"We ordered veggie pizzas, too," Hawks said. "Now, if you excuse me, I'm going to fly go and fly them in from the van."

Hawks took off and skied to the exit. A few students mumbled in admiration with some of the female students swooning at the Pro-Hero zooming past him.

"That feels my heart with ease," Melanie stated in front of the grumpy boy. "Clearly, Mister Hawks cares deeply about us, and we should take that lesson out onto the streets when we are Pro-Heroes."

"Or," Gavin faced the pink-haired Canadian. "This school is still broke and they can't afford real food. Just like last year."

"Oh," Melanie pointed at Gavin. "You were at the previous learning dispensary at this facility."

"Well, it was a dispensary of some kind," Gavin grumbled.

"Are you then, by chance, a second year student?" Melanie asked. "Perhaps you can assist me with my various projects and activities by imparting wisdom of an upperclassman."

"Excuse you," Gavin said. "I don't even know who you are. And also, my wisdom is for me and nobody else. Besides, I'm in the support pathway, and you are still in the general path until next year. What do you want to be, a Pro-Hero?"

"Of course," Melanie said. "And you can help me with various future support needs."

"Yeah, right," Gavin snorted. "How about you stay out of my path, and I'll stay out of yours, freshman. Besides, I can't think while I'm starving."

"Then, perhaps I can be of assistance," Melanie rummages into her backpack and dug her hands through the mountains of hooks and notes that she somehow took throughout the day. "Aha! I have found my stash of poutine-flavored granola bars! You are more than welcome to have one!"

"That sounds disgusting," Gavin said. "I'll have no part in-."

Gavin gagged at the gasly granola. Melanie shoved the whole bar into his mouth, and the poor boy grabbed his throat with the bits of granola clogging his oxygen pathways. However, he resigned himself to not choking, and he chewed at the bar. The granola broke down between his teeth, and he crunched the food with a tangy, but robust flavor coating his tongue.

"You see!" Melanie chirped. "That was quite nutritional, wasn't it?"

Gavin swallowed. He looked at the peppy girl who was about his height. He pushed his glasses up his nose and examined the heart-shapes face of the smiling underclassman.

"That was…fine," Gavin said. "Where do you even find poutine-flavored granola bars."

"At the poutine granola bar store!"

The two started to converse about Melanie's trip to Detroit. Merle was surprised that Melanie could just start a conversation with a random, grumpy person. Yet, this Gavin guy did not shut her down as he discussed his project on nuclear fission that he had started in his dorm room. Merle wanted to ask if something like that was even allowed on the first day, but a roar erupted from the crowd as Hawks flew in with towers of pizza. Behind him, some of the teachers had joined in to carry the pizza over to the main hub.

Soon, the boxes opened, and pepperoni-scented steam wafted over the room as each person took a few slices. When Merle arrived to the front of the line, Hawks handed him a slice of pepperoni. Hawks asked Sam The Dog what slice he would like, but Sam simply reached over and dragged a whole box away in his snout. Hawks wanted to chase the box down, but he decided that Sam had a long day and would let the dog eat the whole pie if necessary.

Merle sat next to Sam who munched away on the food. Across from him in the booth, Riley sat in silence and picked away at a piece of pepperoni. His mind drowned into thought while he played with a thread of cheese off the slice.

"So," Merle said. "You from Texas, too?"

"Right," Riley said. "Around Austin."

"You like one of those liberal techie guys," Merle asked.

"No," Riley said. "Uh…military. Dad was a military guy."

"So not San Antonio."

"No," Riley said. "He liked Austin."

"Well, I reckon that whole area is one and the same with the high-speed rail now," Merle said.

Riley blinked. "High speed rail?"

"Y'know," Merle took a bite from his pizza. "You can travel to San Antonio from Austin in like ten minutes now. On the train."

"Oh, right," Riley said. "I know all about that."

The two chatterboxes stared back down at their table. Sam looked at both of them. Then, he booped his snout on Merle's arm to prod more conversation from him.

"You watch football?"

"Yeah," Riley said. "Big Oilers fan."

Merle frowned. "Okay, but what about current team."

Riley tilted his head. "Current team?"

"Well, since the Oilers left and all, are you a Texans fan?"

"The Oilers le-," Riley caught himself and rubbed his temples. He blinked and wiped a bead of sweat from his chiseled jaw. "I mean, yeah. I'm a big…Texans fans now."

Even Sam The Dog found the awkwardness of the conversation unpalatable. He grabbed his box of pizza and dragged it away from the table. He bumbled backwards past the maze of students and personnel crossing over the tile like pawns in a chess game. He trailed past the legs of other students and found a corner by the window overlooking the Detroit skyline. Sam sat and munched away on more pizza before another voice caught his attention.

"-speak with him, please."

Behind a pole, Sigi spoke on the phone. She cupped her ear as the loud students' conversations reverberated throughout the room into an ear-splitting wave that made the phone hard to hear. She frowned at the words spoken to her through the smartphone and grunted through her teeth.

"Because he's an expert in these kind of things. I have a very pressing matter, and it involves his former teacher. Yes, Deku! He's my teacher, so he needs to know about this! What? Whaddya mean he's not interested? Did you ask him?"

A litany of words erupted from the phone. Sigi squeezed the device in frustration.

"Oh, so you can read his mind? That's your quirk? Read my mind, then? What word am I calling you right now? I'll give you hint; it's at least four letters."

Beep.

Sigi groaned out loud. She slammed her phone into her black backpack and stormed away from the pole. In the corner booth by the window, Lynn at a Detroit-style pizza folded in her hand and stared at the girl who kicked the doors of the cafeteria before exiting.

"What's her problem?" Lynn asked.

"I think she's normally like that," Leon said. The snow-haired boy still wore his school uniform with crumbs from the pizza crust raining onto his lip. Next to him, Skylar was vlogging the day away on his phone. He held the device on a gimbal with an LED ring light peppering a bright tan pallor over his face. His golden eyes sparkled as he explained his whole day.

"What's up, SkyStars!" Skylar shouted at his phone. "It's your boy, Skylar here! Just sitting in the new cafeteria. We got some pizza here, and you won't believe it. Daddy Hawks showed up and gave me this pizza! I'm gonna save it in a glass case and keep it forever!"

Skylar turned the phone over towards Hawks. He wore an apron and handed out pizza to more of the students. Skylar zoomed in on his face to were one could see his nostrils flare from the tomato sauce stench permeating the cafeteria. Then, he turned the camera back around.

"I'm gonna leave a pole up. Should I ask him to do a dance with me on this account? Or should I try to get Deku to do one first!?Let me know, and I'll see you later! Sparkles!"

Skylar waved at the phone and set it back down. Lynn munched on her slice while Leon gave a blank stare.

"Are you normally going to do that?"

"Sure am!" Skylar grinned and leaned closer to Leon. "I've gotten like so many subscribers since people found out I'm here. I might get to number one assuming there aren't any others doing this in our class. Think! Exclusive access to Deku as a teacher! Everyone will want to see us!"

"Being a hero isn't all about the fame, y'know," Lynn said. "It's nice, but that's not all of it."

"Yeah, I know. We save people and kiss babies and yada yada," Skylar said. "But we gotta play all angles! I mean, most of our heroes are wearing costumes from spring when it's almost fall. We can't be looking dusty when we save the day, right?"

"We can't help getting dusty," Leon said. "Especially if their is fire involved."

"Uh…Skylar scratched his head. "That's a saying. Dusty is when you look-."

Ding! Lynn pulled out her phone and read a message. She gasped and looked around the table. The boys before her stared in concern at her sudden shock.

"I gotta go," Lynn said. She scrambled out of her seat and ran away with her phone. "Good job today, boys. See you tomorrow."

Lynn ran out of the room. Leon blinked and rubbed the gauze still taped to his right cheek. In that time, he looked around and admired the scope of the cafeteria. Father had outdone himself in renovating the building. However, he was still unhappy at not receiving a single message from him this day. Of course, he had requested that his father not talk to him publicly. He wanted to have as close to a normal experience that the typical teenager would have in a public school setting. The less he saw of father, the better. That said, he would not have minded a phone call or text from him.

"That was weird," Skylar said.

"Perhaps that's normal for her," Leon said. "To run out of rooms at random."

"Like how it's normal for you to stare off into space all the time."

Leon scratched his neck. He looked sheepish down at his half-eaten pizza. "It's a habit."

"Worse habits out there," Skylar said. "But look, being a hero is a popularity contest. You see all these students out there?"

Leon twitched at Skylar's soft touch. He wrapped an arm around Leon's built shoulders and gestured out at the crowd.

"Look at them," Skylar said. "They're all competition. We're all looking to be cast for the lead role. America's Next Top Hero! I mean, you don't want to be some no-name sidekick in some nowhere town like Newark. Where all you do stop some drunk old guys from throwing bagels at each other? No, we, Leon, we deserve the top spot. We beat real heroes today. No one else can say that, right?"

"I guess not," Leon said.

"Exactly," Skylar put his lips up to Leon's ear. "This is the big callback for the big role. And part of that is making yourself known. And I've already taken a big step to do that. And I could help you and Lynn do that, too. Because one day, the people that make the hero charts will look at us. They'll see how great we are. And with one smile, and suddenly no one else-."

"Will do."

Skylar let go of Leon. He blinked and, after a moment of silence, laughed with a light lilt. "You know A Chorus Line?"

"My father," Leon said. "Took me to many shows growing up."

"I think," Skylar said. "You, me, and Lynn…we're gonna get along really well."

Leon nodded. As strange as these two classmates were, Lynn certainly had a quirk that was powerful. Skylar had shown himself to be quite agile and daring as well. He hated to admit it, but Skylar had a point about popularity. If he couldn't make friends or followers all by himself, then perhaps Skylar's presence could be to his benefit. If it brought him one step closer to being a top hero, then it had to be worth the risk.

"Very well," Leon said. "I'll see you tomorrow, Skylar."

Leon got up and left his half eaten pizza. He was unsure if a person came to clean up after himself as the servants did back at home. He just assumed that someone would show up to throw his food in the trash. It had been an arduous day, and Leon was looking forward to some sleep.

Back at the table, Skylar grinned watching Leon leave like a wolf in a hen house. He giggled and grabbed his phone. The recording button was depressed, which meant that he was recording the whole conversation.

"You see what I mean, SkyStars," Skylar whispered at the phone. "Total cuties! How am I gonna decide between them? Do I have to? Everyone knows sharing is caring, ha ha! I do know one thing though, this year is gonna be messy! So tune in next time to 'Skylar's Life At USAHS!'"

Beep!


Thank you so much! I think this is another self-Indulgent chapter with not too much story, but then again, maybe there is.

What did you think? What just happened? What will happen next? What would you like to happen next? Let me know!

I think this crazy night is almost over. Hopefully no one else will have their head blown off. But we will see.

Thank you. See you soon!