Chapter 12

"Draw your form together like you're inhaling. You're the center. Your unconscious remembers what your body feels like. Where all the parts go." Snatch offered as Jack tried to gather the cloud of organic material into a real body. "Don't overthink it. Concentrate on letting your quirk manage the material. Stay fluid until you become … you!"

After a minute Jack saw the nude form of a teen boy reflected in the practice room mirror.

"Yesh!" he cried, his newly formed lips shaping the sound poorly. At the exclamation, the body exploded back into a cloud of organic powder.

"Outstanding!" Snatch called. "You did it. A full body manifestation. All the internals were right, or you wouldn't have managed to speak. Well done."

Jack caused the cloud to stir in response. He was too excited to do much else.

"Now calm down and try again," ordered the experienced shapeshifter.

Twice more over the next forty minutes Jack managed to from a body. The third time he kept it solid for just over a minute.

"Alright, That's enough for now." Snatch reached into the mini-fridge and took out two chilled bottles. "Go grab your costume and come back here. I want to talk about your next steps."

Two minute later Jack was seated next to his mentor. The man had offered a cold tea, but Jack's combat suit was not designed to allow him to eat or drink.

Snatch nodded then said, "You need to keep practicing, but not too much on any given day. You need to build up to it. You're creating a physical body and you don't know what the requirements or limitations of that new body are going to be. It's possible that transforming could put a significant load on you, which you might not realize until you had done permanent damage to yourself."

Jack nodded acknowledgement but did not interrupt. He rather thought that if he did any real damage to a physical form, he would be able to dispel the body and create a new one, erasing the damage. But he could not know for certain until he had tested it. Better to not take the chance.

"At UA there aren't really any shape changers who are personally familiar with this process, though Ectoplasm's quirk may be close enough. I'd suggest you go talk to him privately, or with Recovery Girl. Between the two of them they should be able to help you continue to train this process safely. She'd also be the best there to make sure your new body is working correctly. It'd suck to accidently forget your liver or something and collapse from blood poisoning, right?"

Both men laughed quietly.

"I want you to take it easy for the rest of today. In the morning, you and Pinky are going to be joining us in the field. While I don't expect any action, I want you to be ready just in case. Got it?"

"Yes, sir." Jack's response was automatic, his mind more on the feeling of flesh he had experienced for the first time in half a decade.

"Empyreal, pay attention." Snatch's bark caught Jack by surprise.

"Sorry," the teen replied. "I'll be ready."

"Get out of here." Snatch continued as Jack was leaving the room. "Oh! Blip wants to see you for some reason. Look her up when she gets back after 1900."

"Yes sir." The response was crisp this time. The pro nodded.

Jack spent the rest of the afternoon going over his combat suit. It was a new one, with a few functions he was not fully accustomed to. As he and Oba had discussed, it removed many of the shape changing options while increasing the ability to safely channel energy, but the internal controls functioned slightly differently, and he wanted to be sure he would remember the new commands in an emergency.

Beep!

A message, relayed from his phone, scrolled across the bottom of his HUD. Meet me in the lobby @ 2000. Wear mufti. Blip.

Jack shrugged and prepped his social suit and casual wear. He set an alarm to give him enough time to get changed and prepared. He wondered what the hero had in mind.

Blip was the only female hero at the Agency. She was young looking, though Jack knew she was in her early thirties based on her graduation date from UA. Her quirk was portal teleportation, which she used for both movement and combat. By opening micro-portals in various hostile environments like the ocean depths or a lava chamber, she was able to produce elemental jets for combat.

The implication of the message was that she was taking him out on the town. He wondered how large the group would be but decided not to contact Ashido in case she had not been invited. That might cause unnecessary awkwardness.

The golden teen was slightly disappointed that he and his new classmate had not spent much time together during the week. Jack had spent most of his training time with Snatch, Red Rover, and Flywheel. Ashido had been spending her training time with Rolling Thunder and Borderline. She had also connected socially with the agency's youngest sidekick Hijinx – a shapeshifter with a playful sense of humor. The two UA students still interacted and occasionally trained together, but they had not spent the week growing closer.

When his alarm sounded, Jack was already in his social suit and was trying to decide whether a denim jacket would be appropriate. It was a cool evening for May, but that did not really affect him. He decided to go without. Jeans and a dark green oxford shirt would do. When he arrived in the lobby Blip was waiting for him wearing tight maroon pants and a light green top that stood out against her magenta skin. With her coloring she could easily have been mistaken as related to Ashido. Blip was a few shades darker in both skin and hair, but they looked very similar.

"Great timing. You look very nice. We even match a little," the older hero said as she waved at Jack. "Let's get out of here."

"Are we waiting on anyone else?" Jack asked.

"Nope. I wanted a chance to talk to you. We have a friend in common." She led Jack out to the street and around a corner. "When we're out of the office, please call me Tamaki. May I call you Jack?"

"Yes, certainly."

"Great. I know Kardog prefers to use codenames only. I think when we're in civilian clothes and away from the job it's better to use real names. Much easier to get to know each other and form relationships that way."

"Ok." Jack wasn't sure where this was going.

"Since I've been working at the stadium all week, I haven't had much chance to get to know you. I thought we might rectify that with a night on the town, my treat." She caught Jack's eyes and smiled slowly.

"Uh, what about Ashido-san?"

"I think she's out with Hijinx and Borderline," the pro replied. "So, I hear you like yakisoba. I know the best place."

This caught Jack's attention. He had not had his favorite dish all week. "Let's go."

Two hours later Jack was not sure what was happening, why the older woman was paying him such attention. They had eaten at a nice noodle shop, where she had started buying him drinks, and matching him pint for pint. Beer had no effect on him. His suit stored it for later conversion into energy. He could taste it, but not get drunk. Tamaki did not seem to share his immunity. She was not truly inebriated, but her social filters had been lowered. After they left the restaurant, the hero had led the teen into a park. Jack noticed several couples were wandering the paths through the flowerbeds or sitting on semi-secluded benches conversing tete-a-tete.

"So, my father disappeared," Blip concluded her story under the shadows of the trees. "We never found out what happened to him. That was twelve years ago. All that I have left of him is his quirk." She opened a small portal. Through it Jack saw a bed with lacy lingerie carelessly strewn across the purple coverlet. Tamaki released the portal and for several minutes they strolled in silence. Their hands bumped together several times as they walked.

When the path let to a small fountain, Tamaki took Jack's hand and pulled him to a stop. She stepped close, pressing herself against his chest. "Kami-chan said you were special. She didn't say how cute you are. Or how good a listener. I'm sorry to be such a hosepipe. But talking about my dad always makes me sad. Could I get a hug?"

Jack remembered that sometimes he had asked his old minder Tetya for hugs when he was feeling particularly sad or lonely during his captivity on the Moon. The Russian woman had taken him in her soft embrace. It was almost the only solace he had in that horrid place. If Blip need the same sort of comforting after remembering her dead father, he could understand.

Carefully wrapping his arms around the older woman's shoulders, Jack bumped the temperature of golden skin up a few degrees to offer her his warmth. He had always been cold on the Moon, so warmth and comfort were linked in his mind.

"There, there," he said as he patted her back somewhat mechanically. He had never been in this situation before and was not sure quite how to respond.

The woman clung to the teen for several seconds, soaking up his warmth. Then she started to squirm, undulating her body against him. Jack felt more than heard her humming into his chest, the vibrations reverberating oddly on the inside of his hollow body.

It was when she started tracking little kisses up his neck that he stepped back, pushing her to unlock her arms.

"Um?" he asked tentatively. "What are you doing?"

"You're being so nice to me, and you're so cute." She smiled up at him, standing as close as Jack's arms would let her. The teen realized he was looking down at her and could see deep into her loose shirt's cleavage.

"I thought maybe I could make you as happy as you're making me," she concluded and gestured. A portal opened behind her, large enough for them to walk through easily. Jack could see it was the same bedroom he had glimpsed earlier.

"I have my own apartment," Tamaki said, releasing Jack except for one hand. She pulled gently while stepping back into the room. "No one would have to know."

Jack pulled his hand free and stepped away from the woman and the portal. He could not understand what she was trying to do. She was sad and a little drunk, but she was throwing herself at him. He knew it was some people's fantasy. He could imagine what Maxim would do in this situation. But that was not him. He had no fires of puberty driving him to procreate, no raging hormones to cloud his judgement. This would be a monumental mistake, for more than the normal reasons. His social suit – built by his adopted mother – was not created anatomically correct nor did it have the capabilities to receive sexual sensations.

"No. I do not want that. It would be a bad idea." He stepped back further. "Thank you for the pleasant evening. I think I should get back to the Agency. I'll be fine finding my own way."

As he turned his back, the light changed around him. His sensors showed the portal had closed, swallowing the pro hero. Jack kept walking. He had a lot to think about.

Why had she done that? Was it just beer and bad judgement or was she already planning on seducing him when she invited him out? She mentioned having a friend – Kami – tell her about him. Jack assumed that was his grandfather's assistant. Kami had also been acting a little strangely around him recently. Jack determined to have a conversation with the executive assistant to see if he could discover what was driving this weirdness.

Or maybe it was just the beer.

The next morning Jack was riding in the back seat of the armored van. Pinky was next to him.

Snatch speaking from the front passenger seat. "Remember the rules of engagement. In the case of an attack, interns are to remove themselves from the fight, taking the client with you if possible. Even if Borderline and I are attacked, you are not to come to our defense. You are only allowed to use you quirks aggressively if you or the client is directly attacked. Even then, your primary responsibility is to get the client and yourself to safety. Do you understand?"

"Yeah, sure."

"Yes, sir."

The vehicle stopped outside the door of an expensive Tokyo home. The two students disembarked through the back door while Snatch exited the front. Jack immediately launched into the air, circling to look for threats. As the only flier, he had been trained to take an overwatch position. Snatch walked to the front door of the mansion where he met the client - Toyama Atsuko, the President of the Hero Public Safety Commission. She was to be a VIP guest for the May Grand Sumo Tournament at the Tokyo Kokugikan. The Agency was providing her secure transportation.

Once the pro hero had the President securely in the second row of the van, Pinky and Jack reboarded and Borderline maneuvered the vehicle carefully into the moving traffic.

"Madame President, we anticipate a forty-seven-minute trip," Snatch said. "Due to traffic, we're going to have to that the Keio tunnel. Otherwise, we'll be late."

"Whatever you say, Higawara-san," the olde woman replied with a smile. "I trust your judgement."

"Thank you. Please sit back and relax. Team 2 – keep an eye on our six."

Jack and Pinky swiveled to watch the rear-left and rear-right quadrants. Both were quaking with nerves.

For all his training, Jack was beginning to realize it had all been exercises, simulations, and games before. He had never been in a real fight. Now he was preparing to place himself between the woman in the second row and any who would try to harm her.

While he scanned the roads, buildings, and air behind the van, he kept picturing a group of villains; Peerless Thief, Toxic Chainsaw, or even Destro and his army, all coming to attack them. The teen kept questioning why he was doing this. He could get killed. According to Kaminari, there was a villain named Garvey that had killed a UA student during his internship just a few years ago. Had Jack come so far and survived so much only to die for a school project?

He watched the road pass behind them as the unease in his mind grew.

# # # # #

"Greenomorph, Spike, you know what to do. Spinner, this is your first time with the Green Boyz, so I want to make one thing crystal clear. You fuck this up and I'll kill you myself. Got it?" Komodo snarled in the face of the fucking new guy. He didn't know what rock Spike had dragged the little lizard out of, but the leader of the Green Boyz thought the only thing the kid had going for him was his scales.

Limiting the gang to only green reptilian mutants left them with few choices for new recruits. Survival of the fittest demanded that the dragon dispose of anyone that made too big a mistake, for the sake of the reptilian species.

Aratake "Komodo" Taiga was born in the slums of Osaka, Japan's forgotten city. Tokyo had All Might. Kyoto had Hawks. Osaka had no major heroes, so the villains ran rampant. Taiga, the child of an impoverished Japanese mother and a long-gone Chinese father, had grown up determined to become that needed hometown hero. He had made it into Isamu Academy High School, an actual hero academia, if not the best or most famous. In his second year Komodo had been kicked out for excessive violence against other applicants during the Provisional Hero License Exam. He was devastated and enraged, especially when the damned test proctor, Toyama Atsuko, decided to ban him from ever retaking the exam, putting his heroic dream forever out of his reach.

Over the years, Komodo had shown everyone what a mistake that had been. He'd banged around with the gangs in Osaka before the Creature Rejection Clan had driven him from the city; but only after spending several months in their torture chambers. That experience had shown him the only people he could trust were those most like him – other reptilian mutants. Eventually he found a few like-bodied fellows in Yokohama and together they had taken over the docks. Now no one fucked with the Green Boyz!

When one of his boyz had brough him word that Toyama, the same woman that had forever banned him from being a hero and who had risen to the top of the Hero Association, was going to be attending the last day of the sumo tourney, Komodo decided it was time for her to reap the whirlwind, or in his case, the wildfire.

"Come on. Do this right and we're set. We get a little revenge, and we paint our name across the sky. This time tonight everybody will have heard of the Green Boyz!"

"You got it," said Spike. The little chameleon-looking creep was such as kiss-up. He was always hanging around the knock house girls, invisibly watching them between customers. If he weren't so useful the dragon would have burned him years ago.

CLICK-click. Greenomorph simply snapped his inner and outer jaws in acknowledgement. The alien-looking mutherfucker was the second scariest lizard in the gang. But he almost never spoke. His weird extendable inner jaw made it almost impossible. Komodo knew what he meant though. He was ready to rock.

"The jeep's ready," Spinner said. "I got it specially reinforced and got the engine overclocked. It should be able to stop anything but a full-sized bus or lorry." Komodo looked at the kid. He was green in both scales and experience. He was wearing a black worksuit with a bunch of pockets. The only splash of color was his stupid long pink-purple hair. Spike said he could drive, so he was the wheelman on this.

"Then let's go."

# # # # #

Jack had never been nervous in enclosed spaces. He had spent most of his childhood in three small chambers under the Moon's surface. But somehow driving into the tunnel under the bay screwed his nerve analogues tighter than violin strings. He watched the vehicles trailing behind them for any untoward interest or sudden movements. On the right, two lanes of traffic streamed past in the opposite direction separated only by a raised median with the occasional support pillar. No one appeared to be making a move on them. A quick glance showed Pinky was paying as much attention to her assigned quarter.

"What the …?" Borderline barked as the van jerked to the side.

The momentum slammed Jack's helmet against the armored glass of the driver-side back window. The shock disoriented the golden teen, but he could not miss the open-topped jeep flash past driving in the opposite direction on the van's side of the divided road.

Once it was passed the van, the jeep slammed on its brakes and spun halfway around so it was pointed in the same direction as the rest of the traffic. It then leapt forward to follow the van.

"Its coming after us," Jack yelled. "There are four people in it. They're all lizard mutants. One is a big guy, bald, with a dragon tattoo covering his chest. No shirt on. There is a … they're catching up."

"Borderline, get us out of here," Snatch barked.

Jack watched nervously as the jeep closed, despite Borderline's best efforts. The bald guy puffed up his cheeks and blew a thin stream of fire directly at Jack.

"Ahh!" the frightened teen yelled. Jack saw another, smaller lizard guy spitting something at him as well. "They're shooting at me!"

"They're shooting at the tires," Snatch corrected him. He unbuckled and jumped back in the middle row next to their client. "Stay on the opposite side of the vehicle from them," he told her. "You may need to move around. Pinky, help her move if needed."

"Can do," the girl replied, putting one hand on the President's shoulder.

"I can shoot their tires," Jack offered. "Or their engine." He felt desperate to do something.

"No!" Snatch barked. "Just keep telling Borderline what's happening. You don't attack unless directly attacked, remember."

With that Snatch slide open the side window and leaned out. Jack's attention was brought back the bad guys when a sheet of flame washed over the back window. It was quickly countered with a spray of sand.

"I can't see anything. I think they're still closing," the teen reported frantically.

Suddenly Borderline swerved again and the jeep was right next to the van. Snatch slammed the window shut as another jet of flame splashed against it.

The van accelerated, the engine's whine climbed into the ultrasonic, and the cabin was vibrating as the imperfections of the road became much more noticeable at the increased speed.

"They're swinging around to the other side," Jack reported. The long, alien-looking one tried to reach out to grab onto the rear of the van but missed and had to pull itself back into the jeep quickly before he overbalanced and fell out. "One tried to board, but missed."

Borderline swerved again as the jeep connected with passenger-side rear corner. This jarred everyone and added to the swerve they were already in.

"Brace!" Borderline called as he slammed on the breaks. Suddenly Jack couldn't see anything and felt like he was smashed in the ground from a medium height.

Seconds later the darkness retreated, and Jack realized Snatch had filled the interior of the van with his sand form. That along with air bags and Borderline's force fields ensured everyone was healthy enough to move.

"Borderline, fall forward with the client and the interns. Call in backup and a dust-off. GO!" Snatch ordered then threw himself out a shattered window.

Jack noticed the van had ploughed into a tunnel support column.

He also saw the bald man, who looked much bigger up close, along with the long whip-tailed monster were out of the jeep and closing on the van. They were met by a deluge of sand that knocked them back against the tunnel wall.

"Come on," Borderline ordered, opening his door and trying to pull the President out.

"Empyreal, we gotta move." Pinky pushed her seemingly stunned classmate.

"Yeah," the teen said, turning away from the fight. He followed the others.

As they cleared the side of the van, the jeep's driver was aiming a bulky weapon at them. He fired and a net shot out, opening as it rushed towards the President. Borderline gestured and a translucent wall formed. The net slammed into it and slid to the road.

Beyond the jeep, Jack could see flashes of fire and hear the rending of metal. He could not make sense of what was happening.

"Jack!" Pinky barked as she kept the President moving, passing behind the sidekick. The golden teen turned and stumbled after them. Several steps later, he tripped and started to fall only to remember he had powers and floated into the air, quickly coming up against the low tunnel ceiling. Looking down he noticed something sticking into his lower left leg, the one that tripped.

"Good," Pinky called. "Keep a look out from up there. Warn us if something is closing or following."

Just then there was a crash that caused Jack to look back towards the vehicles. Snatch had just slammed the alien-tailed monster into the side of the jeep. The big man, now a giant covered in scales and flames, wrenched himself from Snatche's sand holding him cemented to the wall.

"Keep moving. We have to get to the end of the tunnel," the sidekick ordered. Waving them forward. Jack noticed the tunnel ahead of them was empty of traffic, at least on their side. On the other, the oncoming traffic had all stopped as no one wanted to get closer to the ongoing battle.

They moved. Pinky took the lead, with the President right behind her. Jack followed in the air. Borderline stayed between the client and the known threats, his force wall covering more than half their side of the road.

After they had travelled several dozen yards, Jack noticed a figure nearby. The small, spikey lizard from the jeep was standing against the tunnel wall almost next to them. He was already behind the force wall and was looking directly at the President. Jack realized it was his IR sensors that were highlighting the guy. He was almost invisible in the visual spectrum.

"Hostile, against the wall!" Jack yelled, shining a tight beam of light on him.

Pinky danced around, placing herself between the highlighted chameleon and the client. Borderline whirled and moved his force wall to barricade the bad guy against the side of the tunnel.

Surprising them all, the spiked menace ran up the tunnel wall, higher than the force field, and leapt at Jack, blades suddenly in his hands. He spat something just as Jack reacted instinctively and blasted the lizard guy with a low-strength kinetic bolt.

The crimson bolt hit the lizard in the chest. He flipped backwards and slammed flat onto the road, his knives skittering away on the pavement.

Jack quickly turned in the air, looking for other threats while Borderline quickly secured the attacker. At the crash site the flying teen saw Snatch securing his two opponents while the fourth lizard was backing the jeep over the divider.

"The driver's getting away," Jack announced. "Should I stop him?" he asked excitedly. Having proved himself once he suddenly felt capable of taking on an army.

"No." Borderline replied tersely. "Stay on overwatch. If there's one stealth specialist, there may be more. You have the best senses. We'll keep moving towards the exit, slow and careful. Snatch will catch up soon."

And that is what they did.

The pro hero rejoined them within minutes. He led the half- kilometer march to the surface. Once there, Blip opened a portal from the secure room in the Kokugikan and took the client and the interns to safety. Snatch and Borderline started back towards the wreck to deal with the bad guys and the authorities.

The client was led somewhere, and Jack and Pinky were required to sit and recover. Soon enough the pinkette was showing the expected signs of an adrenaline crash. Red Rover checked them over for injuries. He pulled a spike out of Jack's shoulder.

"That guy was spitting these," Jack realized.

Red Rover sniffed the projectile then growled, "Poison. Are you ok?"

"I'm pretty much immune to toxins, but I'll pay attention to any issues that may come up." Jack said, speaking like he did to Oba during their lab experiments.

"Alright. Take a rest. When Snatch gets in, he'll let you know what he wants you to do." With a wave the senior sidekick left the room.

The two students sat silently for several minutes. Jack was reviewing his actions during the conflict and was not pleased. He turned to his classmate.

"You didn't panic or get confused," he stated. "I was overwhelmed. There was so much going on so quickly. But you stayed focused. On task. How did you do it?"

She looked at him for several seconds. "It was your first time. First time for real. But I was in the USJ. Loads of villains were trying to hurt or kill us. I had it easier than some of the class, but I still had to face a villain who was able to scatter most of the other students and almost killed Thirteen. I didn't get hurt like some, but it changed us. All of us. It showed us the hero thing isn't just exercises and sports festivals, but real life or death battles. You saw a bit of that today.

"It all happened so fast. I'm not sure what I saw."

"You didn't do so bad." She laid a hand on my shoulder. "You got out of the van, got moving in the right direction, even took down one of the villains. You did ok. And you'll do better next time."

"I hope so. I just … I hope so." Jack said then lapsed into a pensive silence.