Chapter 7: The Collision of Ideals
The rain over the Musu-West industrial district was falling sideways, driven by a sudden, unnatural gale.
Rin's lungs burned as she sprinted across the slick, tar-papered roof of an abandoned textiles factory. Her boots slipped on the wet surface, but a glowing, golden hand caught her arm, hauling her forward.
"Keep moving!" Akio yelled over the roar of the storm, his Aegis Pulse flaring violently around his shoulders like a golden mantle.
"Proxy twelve is down. He's in the district." Nocturne's voice was a chilling whisper in their earpieces, utterly calm in the face of their terror. "Do not attempt to fight him in the open. You cannot track his speed."
"I can't open a portal while we're sprinting like this!" Rin gasped, clutching the Black Site decryption drive to her chest. "I need three seconds of absolute stillness to anchor the Sanctuary Phasing! Just three seconds!"
"I'll buy you three seconds," Akio promised, skidding to a halt near the edge of the roof. He spun around, slamming his fists together. A massive, hemispherical dome of violet and gold energy erupted into existence, completely encasing the two of them.
For two seconds, there was nothing but the sound of rain hammering against the glowing kinetic shield.
Then, the sky tore open.
A streak of brilliant crimson light painted the clouds. Before Akio could even blink, a torrential barrage of razor-sharp red feathers slammed into his shield. The impact sounded like a machine gun. The Aegis Pulse shrieked under the pressure, the golden light spider-webbing with cracks.
"Wow, you really are durable!" a cheerful, terrifyingly casual voice called out from the darkness above.
Hawks descended, his massive crimson wings beating slowly as he hovered just outside the dome's perimeter. His golden eyes were locked onto Rin, his relaxed smile entirely at odds with the lethal precision of his Quirk.
"But here's the thing about shields, kid," Hawks drawled, raising two fingers. "They only protect what's inside them."
Hawks snapped his fingers. Two feathers, moving so fast they were practically invisible, didn't strike the shield. They struck the rusted air-conditioning unit on the roof directly beneath Akio and Rin. The heavy machinery exploded into shrapnel, taking the roof's structural integrity with it.
The tar-paper collapsed. Akio lost his footing, his concentration breaking. The golden dome shattered into fading sparks as the two teenagers plummeted through the roof, crashing hard onto the dusty, concrete floor of the factory below.
Rin groaned, the breath knocked out of her lungs. The drive skittered across the floor.
Hawks dropped through the hole in the ceiling, landing with silent grace. He casually strolled forward, a long, sword-like primary feather resting lazily over his shoulder.
"Data theft is a nasty business," Hawks said, his eyes narrowing as he stepped toward the drive. "The Commission wants that back. And they want you two in a very deep, very dark hole."
Akio scrambled to his feet, his Eternal Vitality already knitting his bruised ribs back together. He stepped between Hawks and Rin, his fists igniting once more. "You're supposed to be a hero! We just stole a list of people the Commission threw away!"
"The world is complicated, kid," Hawks sighed, raising his feather-sword. "Sometimes, the good guys have to clean up the messes in the dark."
Hawks vanished.
He didn't run; he simply ceased to be in one place and appeared in another. He reappeared directly behind Akio, the blunt edge of his feather swinging toward the back of the vigilante's neck in a pacifying strike.
But the blow never landed.
A strip of ultra-durable, gray carbon-fiber cloth whipped out of the shadows, wrapping violently around Hawks' wrist.
Hawks' eyes widened in genuine shock. He tried to yank his arm back, but the cloth was pulled taut, anchored to a steel support beam. And suddenly, his magnificent, crimson wings felt impossibly heavy. The feathers hovering in the air around the room dropped lifelessly to the concrete floor.
"The Commission has no jurisdiction in my patrol sector, Takami."
The voice was pure, exhausted gravel. From the shadows of the factory floor, Shota Aizawa stepped into the dim light spilling from the ruined roof. His capture scarf was coiled around his shoulders, one end locked onto Hawks. His hair was floating wildly in the air, his eyes glowing a furious, piercing red.
Erasure.
Rin gasped, scrambling backward. It was the terrifying hero from the Nabu District warehouse.
"Eraserhead," Hawks said, his cheerful demeanor evaporating completely. He tugged at the capture scarf. "You're interfering with a classified, Level-9 Commission directive. Stand down."
"You're operating a black-ops assassination squad in my city," Aizawa growled, his red eyes darting between Hawks, Akio, and Rin. "I've been hunting this vigilante for weeks. He has two unregistered Quirks. I don't care what data he stole; I care who is pulling his strings. You're not taking him to a black site to be buried."
"Shota, I'm not asking," Hawks warned, his tone dropping into something cold and lethal. "If you don't blink right now, I will treat you as a hostile combatant."
"Try it, bird boy."
The tension in the factory was so thick it was suffocating. Rin grabbed the drive, her hands shaking. She looked at Akio, who was frozen in place. They were trapped between the Number 3 Pro Hero and the most dangerous Underground Hero in Japan. If Aizawa blinked, Hawks would take them down in a microsecond. If Aizawa kept his eyes open, they couldn't use their Quirks to escape.
"Hold your ground," Nocturne's voice suddenly crackled in Rin's ear, a dark, triumphant hum vibrating beneath his words. "The board is set. Here comes the rook."
High above the factory, the storm clouds parted.
Aizawa and Hawks both heard it at the same time—a sound like a jet engine breaking the sound barrier, roaring straight downward.
Aizawa instinctively looked up, his concentration breaking for a fraction of a second. His hair fell flat.
Instantly, Hawks' wings surged back to life. He didn't hesitate. He lunged for Rin, his hand outstretched to snatch the drive and the girl in one supersonic sweep.
CRASH!
The concrete floor between Hawks and Rin utterly detonated.
A massive plume of dust, pulverized rock, and rainwater exploded upward, throwing Hawks backward. The winged hero spun in mid-air, his feathers digging into the walls to arrest his momentum. Aizawa threw his capture scarf over his face to block the debris, coughing violently.
When the dust began to settle, a crater ten feet wide and three feet deep scarred the factory floor.
Standing in the center of the crater was a boy in a ruined middle-school uniform.
Kenji slowly stood up to his full height. He wasn't large, but the sheer density of his presence made the air warp around him. He was encased in a blinding, ethereal armor of solid silver light. It was a manifestation of pure, unbreakable willpower—the Knight's Vow.
Kenji looked over his shoulder at Rin and Akio, offering a small, breathless smile. "GateL0ck? Immortal? The Sovereign said you needed a shield."
Hawks stared at the newcomer, his tactical mind racing. Three kids. Three impossibly powerful, perfectly synergistic Quirks. "Who the hell is the Sovereign?" Hawks demanded, launching a volley of five razor-sharp feathers straight at Kenji's chest.
Kenji didn't dodge. He didn't raise his hands. He simply stepped forward, putting himself completely between the feathers and his new allies.
The feathers—capable of slicing through solid steel—struck Kenji's silver aura.
Clang. Clang. Clang.
They didn't just bounce off; they shattered. The crimson constructs broke into harmless sparks of light against Kenji's chest. Hawks' jaw dropped. Aizawa's eyes widened in disbelief. Utter, kinetic nullification.
"Rin! Now!" Kenji roared, taking another heavy, earth-shaking step toward the two Pro Heroes to draw their focus.
Rin didn't waste a millisecond. She raised her hands, her anxiety melting away under the overwhelming safety of Kenji's presence. The silver-blue tear in reality ripped open, expanding instantly into a massive, swirling portal of Sanctuary Phasing.
"Akio, Kenji, go!" Rin yelled.
Akio dove into the void. Kenji took one last look at the stunned heroes, gave a sloppy, two-finger salute, and leaped backward into the portal. Rin stepped in right behind him, the gateway snapping shut with a sharp crack, leaving the factory floor completely empty.
Aizawa stared at the space where the children had just been, his scarf falling limp.
Hawks landed slowly, his wings twitching with agitation. He looked at the shattered remnants of his feathers on the ground, then up at Aizawa.
"Eraser," Hawks muttered, his easygoing facade entirely gone. "They didn't just bypass the system. They have a Vanguard. Who is doing this?"
Aizawa walked over to the crater, staring down into the pulverized concrete. "Someone who knows exactly what they're building, Takami. A private army."
Miles away, standing in the rain-soaked alleyway where he had just empowered Kenji, Nocturne watched the scene unfold through his Emotion Sight. He felt the fierce, protective thrum of Knight's Vow echoing in his own chest, mingling with the warmth of the Aegis Pulse and the vast emptiness of Sanctuary Phasing.
He threw his head back, his dark laughter swallowed by the thunder.
The Sovereign's network was online. And they were glorious.