Chapter 18: A Surprise Catch

U.A., Japan

The days that followed the attempted kidnapping were uneventful, shockingly. After the interviews with police, the U.A. faculty made sure that Josuke, Hana, Tenko, and Hisa were not bothered by any press, paparazzi or 'influencers.' Josuke was the most affected, he was amazed at his own powerlessness in the face of danger. Even though Hisa and Tenko told him that getting them out of there was the right thing, the fact remained that he had left his sister behind to do it. If Mirko hadn't been there, she might have been taken to God knows where and had God knew what done to her.

Shockingly, Hana was the least affected, despite how much danger she had been in. She had no fears or worries, she didn't have nightmares, she didn't feel shut down or bad at all. She felt…good, absolutely fine. Even though she had expended all her power and had been left paralyzed she was never afraid, she knew that she had bought time for someone to save her. The fact that Mirko saved her was just icing on the cake.

Time went on, and there was no notice from their parents about the woman who seemed to be behind everything, Natalia Roberts. The crazy bitch had blown up her home in Summerville, which apparently had a laboratory where she gave people multiple Quirks, but there was no trace left of it. All data was scrubbed or taken; all signs showed that most of the equipment had been moved, so there was hardly anything of value, no indication of where she fled. Finally, it was announced that the U.A. Sports Festival would begin soon, they all had two weeks to prepare for it.

Right after the Sports Festival was announced, all other worries were forgotten by the students. This would be their big chance to show who they were to the world. If they didn't do well, it could affect their entire careers for years to come. Naturally, this meant that everyone in Class 1-A and 1-B were determined to work their sorry butts off for the next two weeks to make sure that they would win.

That was exactly what Hana and Mysa were doing with a pair of electrical generators. They had to practice making their lightning even stronger while increasing their bodies' durability. The air was filled with the crackling of electricity and smell of ozone as the daughters of Chargebolt unleashed their full power for as long as they could. Their Grandmother Midnight was watching them, a proud smile on her face as she watched them pushing their limits, all their youthful passion took her back.

Once the girls used up all their electricity, they both collapsed. "I had more power," Mysa said as she laid down.

"Like Hell," Hana replied, "I lasted 2 seconds longer, and you know it."

"I put more in," Mysa said.

"No, you didn't," Hana told her. The two girls struggled to move, but their nervous systems wouldn't let them. The two sisters continued to argue for two minutes before Midnight finally said, "Alright, that's enough you two." She then got between them and helped them both up, practically carrying them. "You're pretty strong, Grandma," Hana noted.

"Heh, Grandma's been working out a little," Midnight told them as they headed back into the dorms.

While their sisters were training, so were Josuke and Kaoru. The two boys were sparring now, Josuke trying to become a better fighter with his Quirk, while Kaoru focused on improving his skills. They had gone ten rounds against each other, and each round ended quickly with Kaoru defeating his brother despite his Lycanthrope Quirk giving him greater strength and speed. "You're really determined to beat me this time, aren't you, Jojo?" Kaoru said as he got into his fighting stance for their eleventh round.

"Hell…yes…" Josuke said, breathing heavily from various blows to his stomach and solar plexus Kaoru had inflicted on him in previous rounds. Josuke had told him not to hold back, and his brother hadn't. He'd done everything short of breaking him or giving him a concussion; Josuke would need to see the Nurses once this fight was over or he'd be sore for the next week. "Alright, this is the last one. Then I need to find someone I can't take down in under sixty seconds," Kaoru said, "I like helping you bro, but I need to be able to improve too."

"Fair enough," Josuke said, "Let's GO!"

The two brothers went at each other, both of them going for a kick. Kaoru saw what was happening and pulled his leg back just before their legs clashed; if his brother had hit him his leg would have been shattered. Josuke went for a hook kick before Kaoru could try a tackle. When Josuke's leg went down, Kaoru moved in and started throwing punches at him. Josuke blocked his brother's punches easily, only for him to take a hard kick to the stomach. Kaoru seized the opportunity to grab his brother's head and pull him into a guillotine chokehold. Josuke struggled hard, but Kaoru only choked him harder and squeezed his body with his legs. Finally, Josuke tapped out, and Kaoru let him go with a sigh.

"You're too confident in your ability. It's good, but you're not focused on your skills enough. It takes more than a good Quirk to be a good Hero, Jojo," Kaoru told his brother before he went off to look for anyone who wanted a sparring partner. Josuke watched him leave and sighed, "Crap. I hate when he's right."

Everyone in Classes 1-A and 1-B worked their butts off for the days before the Sports Festival, determined to make their mark.

After a hard day of training, the students all decided to lay down and try to relax in their main living area of their dorms. It was a complete shock to Class 1-B when they saw their Uncle Joey arrive. "What the Hell, Uncle Joey!?" both Josuke and Hana yelled in surprise.

"Hey, guys," Joseph Jerome Freeman Jr. aka Silverwolf said to his niece and nephew.

"What's going on?" Josuke finally managed to ask him.

"I was thinking about coming by to help you kids. All the kids here," Joey emphasized, loud enough for everyone to hear, "Anyone in the U.A. Dorms in both Classes 1-A and 1-B who in interested is invited to lessons in hand-to-hand combat, courtesy of yours truly, after class starting tomorrow. It will be for one hour, and we will be reviewing your current skills, and together we will work on finding your weaknesses, privately. No one else will be with us as we work on improving your skills. Sound good to you guys?"

The whole dorm cheered at the thought of training with one of the most popular Heroes in Japan. Rei stepped forward, "Why wait, Silverwolf? Why not give us a little taste now?"

Joey smiled and sighed, "Alright then, one minute. No more. Outside. You can use your Quirk, or not, it's your choice. Just give me your best."

All the students headed out of the dorms to watch the sparring match. They had heard of how good a fighter Silverwolf was, and Rei was one of the best martial artists in their class. They wanted to see how he stacked up. The two of them faced each other, and Rei said, "Come on, man, transform. I want you to bring your A-game."

Joey shrugged, he was in regular clothes, so he took off his shoes and shirt; Josuke smelled hormones in the air from most of the girls and one or two boys. Joey then transformed; his feet became like the hind legs of a wolf as white fur covered his body and his lower jaw stuck out along with his teeth turning into fangs and claws replaced his fingers. Rei unleashed his Energy Claws and both of them assumed their stances.

Josuke set a timer on his phone and yelled, "GO!"

Rei ran at Joey as fast as he could, swinging his arms as he went. Joey had years of experience fighting and easily dodged his strikes. Rei's energy claws left trails of light through the dark night as he tried to attack Joey. "You're wide open," Joey told him, then proved it with a palm strike to Rei's solar plexus. Rei took the hit and fell to his knees, struggling to breathe. "I give," Rei said.

"Time," Joey said as he returned to his normal form.

"23 seconds, Uncle Joey," Josuke told him.

Joey went to the downed Rei and helped him up, "You got skills kid, you're good. But you leave yourself wide open to counter attacks. Plus, attacks like what you do are so large and telegraphed that they're easy to counter or defend against."

"Thanks, sir," Rei said, "I'll keep that in mind."

Everyone went inside, chatting about the fight, how easily Rei went down, and some students talked about how hot Joey was.

Joey was still transformed and stopped when he entered the dorms. "Hold on, everyone quiet for a minute," he ordered, and everyone stopped talking. He went to Josuke and whispered, "Josuke, when you're transformed, do you hear a…'buzzing' sound."

"Yeah," Josuke said, "But…there's all kinds of tech around here, it's like a super mansion. I just figured it was something like that."

"It ain't," Joey said, then whispered loud enough for everyone to hear, "There's someone spying on us. I need you to make noise, chatter, I don't care what. Now!"

Everyone then suddenly cheered, and started talking about how awesome Joey was, and started getting into 'debates' about who the most badass Heroes were. Joey went to Hana and said, "Hana, don't look, but at the northwest corner, that's where the sound is coming from. Blast a small bolt to locate it, then a stronger one to fry it once you find it, alright?"

Hana nodded and pointed a finger at the corner he said and blasted a shot of static electricity. The electricity moved true, and once it hit the bug, she launched a stronger bolt, and a loud POP sounded; loud enough to make everyone stop talking as the electronic bug fell. Joey picked it up and saw it, "I'm taking this to the Principal now. Stay here, don't leave this area… Lock the doors and windows, now! Go! Go!"

The students of the 1-B Dorm moved with all haste as Joey ran out straight to the Principal's office. The Principal of U.A. was now Aizawa Shota, retired Hero Eraserhead. He was shocked when Joey burst into his office and showed him a small, fried, electronic insect. "We got problems," Joey said as he told him how he found the bug. "There could be more, in the dorms. Or other places," Joey said.

Aizawa immediately pushed a button on his desk, and the sounds of an alarm sounded through the schoolgrounds. He then said into a speaker, "This is an official lockdown. All students will return to their dorms immediately. Teachers will be searching for more bugs within the school grounds now. Someone has infiltrated the school and planted electronic bugs in at least one of the dorms. A small EMP will be released in five minutes to shoot these bugs down. All students will remain in their rooms until they are told to leave. The EMP will be released in five minutes. Starting now!"

Joey sat down at Aizawa's desk as the alarm sounded, making sure to return to his human form so the noise wouldn't overwhelm him. "You think it's related to Marie's case?" Joey asked Aizawa.

"It can't be a coincidence, and it explains a few things. Whoever we're dealing with, at least we know thanks to you and Hana that the bugs aren't ruggedized against an EMP," Aizawa said, as Yaoyorozu Momo arrived.

"Yaoyorozu, make sure to check this out, it might help us find more if the EMP misses them," Aizawa said and showed her the bug.

Momo looked at it and then pulled out a scanner from her arm and examined it with the scanner. "I hope that scanner is EMP proof," Aizawa told her.

"Of course," Momo told him, and soon the EMP went off throughout the school and grounds. All of the school's electronics were specially ruggedized against it, but they were certain that any outside technology would be fried. After the EMP went off, they waited several more minutes as more teachers arrived in Aizawa's office.

"I gave you your orders over the air," Aizawa said, "Yaoyorozu will give you scanners to look for these bugs. Find them and bring them here. We need to find all of them. Go!" Momo handed all her fellow teachers scanners before they left the office, and soon everyone was searching for every square centimeter of the schoolgrounds.

For the rest of the night, they searched throughout the entirety of U.A. Campus and dorms, and all the schoolgrounds, top to bottom. In the end, they secured 128 different bugs that had been scattered throughout the school. "These things are ridiculously advanced," said the head of the Support Program, Hatsume Mei, "If it wasn't for those scanners, we never could have found 'em. Whoever made these babies is a stinking genius when it comes to electronics. These are at least…ten years more advanced than what I could make."

"That tracks with what we know about Marie's suspect," Joey said, "This is our big break to catch that bitch."

"Can you figure out where they transmitted to?" Momo asked Hatsume.

"Give me twenty-four hours," Hatsume said as she gathered the bugs, "And I'll tell you everything!" She ran out to her workshop, cackling like a kid that won a ton of candy.

Outside Albuquerque, New Mexico

Natalia Roberts sat down at the latest roach motel and poured herself a drink. She hadn't had any sleep for three days straight, only staying on the road, keeping her eyes and ears open for any sign that the Heroes or police were on to her. She had evaded them, but she had been delayed in reaching her lab, taking alternate routes and avoiding potential roadblocks and obvious paths. She had stayed the night here, The Red Sombrero, to sleep like she needed. She got a bottle of cheap tequila and was halfway done with it. After everything she had been through, she needed it.

Natalia looked at her purse again, and her special Formulas inside. She might need them after all. She would need Quirk Power to get through any entanglements. She was so close now… She just needed more time…