"Ya did good, kid," Rex said, placing a hand on Izuku's shoulder.

"It doesn't feel like I did good," the green haired teen said, causing Rex to chuckle at his comment. "I know you say I'm learning but I got tagged a lot today!" He pulled his shirt out a bit to show off the multitude of fruit splotches on it. Said shirt for some reason said 'Pants' on it though Rex had never really gotten fashion choices; for him unless it was armor it really didn't hold his interest. And even then he'd never gotten into decorating his armor as much as some of his brothers did.

(Which was saying something considering that, though Rex didn't realize it, nearly 63% of clones would point to him as having the most unique armor in the GAR)

"And it was less than you got tagged yesterday," Rex pointed out. The two of them continued along on the sidewalk, not really running into anyone as Dagobah Beach wasn't a tourist attraction and there really wasn't any businesses near by that people liked to frequent; the beach didn't stink but it WAS an eyesore with all its metal rubbish. "Thing ya got to remember is you're just a tubbie at this point. Haven't even gotten your armor yet. It is expected for ya ta get tagged. That's how ya learn to deal with it when you get tagged for real. I'd be worried if ya didn't get hit."

"Really?" Izuku said, surprised.

"There were some of my brothers who were quickly selected for tech work. Not fighting but manning computers and the like. Some would ask for field training anyway while others waved it off, thinking it didn't matter. Thing is that when you face off with the enemy they don't care if ya aren't meant to be on the battle field… they will still put a bolt in ya all the same. My brothers who waved off that training? When things went to hell they lost it. They were as bad as the civvies. You need to learn how to take a hit. That's why we spar."

"Right," Izuku said, rubbing his shoulder. They'd done that yesterday as Rex argued that they needed to alternate what they did with training; the body needed time to recover and the mind needed to be thrown different things so it didn't develop bad habits. That was part of the reason why Rex was thinking about asking Ahsoka to come down to help them train, or see if Nedzu could point him to some civvies looking to become heroes that would like to practice their hand-to-hand. "What are you thinking for tomorrow?"

"Finally time for you to get in some target practice."

"Really?!" Izuku said with a grin, eyes lighting up in anticipation. He had been hoping for a while now that Rex would let him begin using a blaster, having been so utterly impressed with how the man was able to fire off crack shots, mind instantly going to heroes like Snipe, but Rex had been holding off, saying (and rightfully so) that Izuku wasn't built for a blaster quite yet. The thing had a kickback if you didn't know how to hold it properly or lacked the muscles to handle it.

Izuku had instantly understood that. He'd theorized that Kaachan's quirk had something similar; when it had first come in he'd become irritable (more so than usual) after he really showed off. Considering the blasts he could generate it only made sense that he was suffering kickback too. He'd tried to suggest different stretching exercises but Kaachan had barked that he wasn't interesting in Izuku helping him jerk off which he hadn't understood back then because they were 6 and he didn't think Kaachan really got it either but he had-

"Kid," Rex said, giving him a light tap on the shoulder.

Izuku grimaced, realizing he'd been mumbling. "Sorry about that."

"Nothing wrong with thinkin' but remember what I told ya."

"Any sound can give you away," Izuku repeated.

Rex nodded before saying with a huff, "When we make your helmet I'll have to put in some kind of dampener to make sure you can mutter without alerting anyone. I don't think we'll be breaking you out of that habit."

The way Izuku lit up at the idea of his armor never failed to make Rex smile. The Prime had taught them all that armor was the most important thing in the world. Much like the Jedi with their lightsaber, armor meant that you were ready to serve and protect. Tubbies would whisper about when they would get their white plate. Shinies would care for it, making sure it didn't have any damage. Troopers would see every dent and every mark as physical proof of what they had done. Seeing the green haired boy so excited to get his own armor… it filled a spot in Rex's heart that he'd feared would remain empty forever. It reminded him that while he didn't have his brothers with him there were others he could pass his knowledge onto. Who could fight the good fight.

Finally making it to Izuku's door Rex smiled as the kid promised to be at the beach bright and early the next day before darting inside; school was out for a two week break and that meant they had even more time to train. Rex turned to leave… only for a soft hand to press against his bicep.

"Rex?" Midoriya Inko said with a voice that, while seemingly soft and gentle had a bit of steel to it. He turned to look at the woman who, while perhaps a bit on the heavier side due to her age, clearly had a bit of steel in her as well. "Thank you for all you have done for my son. He… ever since you've taken him under your wing it's like the sun coming out from behind the clouds."

"He's a good kid. Bright one too. Just needs a lucky break."

Mrs. Midoriya nodded at that. "Well, I was wondering… you have a bit of a travel after you get done with your training with him. That must put dinner time a bit late for you."

"Sometimes, ya," he said. Usually he just made himself an instant dinner; microwave it and he got some grub that was far better than the C-Rations.

"I was thinking that it might be more convenient for you to eat here, with us. That way you and Izuku wouldn't have to rush through your training just so you could get back to have something to eat. And if you needed to rest up a bit you'd be able to sit…"

Rex considered politely turning her down. He was a soldier. She was a civvie. Yet the words he'd told the Generals a few weeks ago rang in his head: the Jedi sometimes forgot that the civvies were people too. That they needed to interact with those that they were planning to protect.

As such Rex smiled. "Don't suppose you have extra tonight?"

Mrs. Midoriya nodded. "I do, in fact."

"That thank you ma'am, I'd be glad to join ya."

"Inko."

"Thank you, Inko."

~MC~MC~MC~

Anakin frowned as a reported shoved a microphone in front of his face. "Excuse me, I'd like to ask-"

"Sir, I'm willing to talk to you but let me finish getting this villain to the police," he said, gesturing at the man who had a quirk that caused him to be able to produce broken shards of glass from his shoulder blades.

The bastard had decided to begin running around a crowd of people lining up to get tickets for some concert, cutting up a lot of them. Anakin had been in the area doing a patrol (which was still taking some getting used to but that was what heroes did in this world) when he'd spotted what was going on and quickly moved to yank the guy away. It hadn't been much of a battle, seeing as Anakin was able to use the Force to lift the guy up and hold him in place. He hadn't even needed to take out his lightsaber, choosing instead to just bring the man in close and try out the new taser that Powerloader (he'd been told to think of the man by his hero name so he wouldn't slip when people asked him about his support gear) and him had set up in it. It had worked rather well, knocking the guy out and now Anakin just wanted to get the criminal to the police and check to make sure that the bystanders hadn't been hurt too badly. Thankfully medics had arrived pretty quickly and were seeing to the victims so Anakin was hopeful everyone would be coming out of the whole ordeal in one piece.

"Just a few questions!" the reporter tried again and Anakin forced himself not to grind his teeth. Now he understood why Obi Wan had gone with a full face mask; Anakin had gone with just a cowl that covered his hair and the upper part of his face meaning he had to be VERY careful with what facial features he made. Maybe it wasn't too late to make some adjustments…

"Fine," Anakin said, using the same voice he adopted when Master Windu would complain that he was being far too loud in the halls as he described to some other Padawans and Knights why the newest in hyperdrive engines wouldn't be as galaxy-shaking as the marketing departments were claiming they would be.

"You are one of the three new heroes that were given a chance to take the License Exam?"

"Yeah," Anakin said, forcing himself not to smirk when the reporter clearly waited for him to say more and the awkward silence filled the air.

"…Sir Steel, I believe you name was. What can you tell us about your quirk?"

"Well, you can see it in action," Anakin said, gesturing to the criminal he was floating into the waiting police van. "You'll want to get some cuffs on him… he won't escape but if he wakes up before you arrive at the jail he could cause some headaches." The officers nodded and took out some quirk suppressing cuffs. It was only once he was safely inside and restrained that Anakin finally let go of the villain and turned to the reporter. "Now, if that is it-"

"What are your thoughts on Mirko's chances of cracking the Top Ten during the next Pro Hero Rankings Event?"

"I…" Anakin was thrown off by that. "I don't know Mirko so I can't say."

"Is that so?" the reporter said with an odd… glint… in their eye.

"What Sir Steel means," a voice called out above them, "is that he hasn't had a chance to work with her yet so it would be unfair to judge her. After all, you wouldn't want him to give her a lower ranking than she deserves."

"Hawks!" the reporter called out and Anakin looked up at the Number 3 Pro Hero and the man that had given him so much trouble during his Exam. He landed effortlessly, folding his wings up before waving to the people that were moving to gather around. "Hawks, what are your thoughts of Sir Steel's work so far?"

"I've only been able to browse his case file briefly but if he is as good as he was on his Exam I know he will be giving me a run for my money!" Anakin felt a huff coming on at the preening but bottled it up, not wanting to have Obi Wan chiding him for giving off a poor showing to the masses. "Now, if you'll excuse us I need to discuss something with Sir Steel… lend him a few pointers." Hawks winked and everyone began to talk amongst themselves as the winged hero leaned in. "That roof up there, can you make it?"

"Yeah," Anakin said, deciding to show off just a bit. Rather than use his grapple he used the Force to leap up and grab onto a window, quickly scaling up the side of the building, hearing the crowd gasp in surprise and delight at his actions. He was about half way up when he saw Hawks flying past him and he picked up the pass a bit, unable to handle being shown up by the other man.

Arriving at the roof Anakin flipped over the edge and easily landed, looking about as Hawks settled in to sit down against the edge. There were times when he looked at the sky of this world and missed his fighter. And that of course made him miss R2; he wondered what the little droid was doing now. Had he waited for him at the ship, ready for Anakin return even as the building blew up? Or had he flown off when it was clear that Anakin wasn't coming back, to spread the word of what had happened? He supposed he'd never know.

Hawks patted a spot next to him and Anakin walked over, settling in beside him.

"Not a fan of the press, are you?" Hawks finally asked.

"You can tell that?" he said dryly.

"You hide it well," Hawks teased and Anakin smirked at that.

"So, what brought you by?"

"Can't check in on a new hero?"

"You are in the Top Three. I doubt very much this was just a casual visit."

"You don't think that top pros can't take time out of their busy schedules to see how the next group of heroes are doing?" Anakin gave him a flat look. "Not buying that for a second?"

"And not just because I can sense that you are lying to me," Anakin said. "I looked up the Top Ten and they tend not to play nice with others."

Hawks laughed at that. "Come on now, the Top Ten is the Top Ten because they are so nice and great!"

"Like Endeavour?" Anakin asked, eyes narrowed slightly.

"Of course you'd go with that burning bastard," Hawk snarked. "Not a fan of him? Yeah, I get it. He rubs people the wrong way."

That wasn't why Anakin had a problem with Endeavor. Obi Wan had been researching much of the world… Padme too. Even Rex and Ahsoka to a lesser degree. Anakin had been careful to make it look like he didn't care and was letting them figure things out and tell him what he needed to know. It was something he'd done often as a Padawan in order to get out of long tedious study sessions with his Master; Anakin knew if he showed any aptitude for studying Obi Wan would simply make him do more of it.

But the thing was that Anakin actually didn't mind at all studying and researching. He just liked doing it his way. Obi Wan tackled tasks like some grand collector needed to find every single piece of some rare collection, with every bit of data something he could lock away. Padme attacked knowledge like it was a foe; to her learning something was like battling an Opie to get them to break so one might begin training them. But for Anakin research was just another tool. Sometimes he might put them away for years before needing them but they were still tools, those bits of knowledge.

Knowing that he would be acting as a hero in this world meant that Anakin had taken to studying up in private the heroes of the world. It was no different than Rex or Cody giving him readouts on the troopers so he understood what their strengths and weaknesses were; the last thing one wanted was to be in the middle of a battle, need a slicing expert, only to discover that the entire squad was made up of heavy artillery.

But Anakin didn't tell Hawks what he'd found out about Endeavor. How the man had more civilian injuries and deaths on his record than the rest of the Top 10 combined. Or the mysterious nature of his eldest son's death during "training". Or how Endeavour reminded him greatly of many of the slave owners he'd encountered in his youth who saw not just their slaves but all around them as lessers.

He didn't say a word of that.

Instead he merely said, "If you look at the Top Ten most of them don't like to work with others. All Might has only had one sidekick. Others have more sidekicks but no true allies or partners. The first team you can find is the Wild, Wild, Pussycats." He shook his head. "So pardon me if I think you sought me out form something other than a chat."

Hawks glanced at him and while he was trying to remain aloof Anakin knew at once the man was anything but. "I actually like the low ranked heroes," Hawks said. "They are honest. The Tops… they tend to be frauds. You ever look at All Might's pictures back from when he first appeared and now? The smile is so utterly fake once you know what to look for." He shook his head at that before looking up at the sky. "You're going to find out a lot of things are fake when it comes to heroes. Question is if you really give a shit." He chuckled at that.

"What else you got for me?"

The winged hero paused, looking at the city beyond them. "Just a piece of advice, that's all. Just a piece of advice."

"And that is?"

"Stay small. Stay free."

"Oh?" Anakin asked. "Tough at the top?"

"Yeah," Hawks said. "You won't listen but believe me… the bigger you are the more eyes are on you. The more people want to have a say in how you do things. Today you were able to stop that criminal. Tomorrow someone is going to tell you that you can't because it's too risky for a big shot to get involved because you might get sued by someone who purposely put themselves in danger. Or that it isn't good for your PR to be handling such small things, you are meant to tangle with bigger villains. You suddenly have schedules and deadlines and goals you have to meet. No time to save this person or that… you're needed at this photoshoot or to do an interview. And even if you don't listen they begin to make life difficult for you because you just happened to go after a villain who has a powerful family or who the Commission has deals with or it breaks some treaty with the Underground…" he shook his head. "Believe me… Stay Small. Stay free."

Anakin remained on the roof even after Hawks flew off.

'I'm going to become a Jedi and return and free all the slaves'

He hadn't done that. Hadn't even thought of his childhood wish in ages. Because he'd come to understand that Jedi had to obey the will of the Council, the Senate. That there were treaties with the Hutts and missions that were seen as more important…

Anakin clenched his fist, feeling the Force swell around him, making the bits of garbage of the roof rising and tremble in the air. Even on another WORLD he was restrained from doing what was right!

Or… was he?

He looked down at the costume he was wearing.

"…I'm going to need a new costume… and a mask."