Lightning Serenade

Chapter 66: Internship V

When Denki opened his eyes, it was to the familiar view of the ceiling of Recovery Girl's office. He went through his normal routine of checking his body over, moving different parts until he determined that he wasn't in pain. He sat up quickly and was pleasantly surprised that his vision didn't swim. He was usually dizzy for a while after over-exerting himself and short-circuiting his brain.

He saw Hawks but no sign of Recovery Girl. He groaned, dragging a hand down his face.

"Pushed me over the edge, didn't you?" Denki half-asked, half-guessed.

He didn't quite remember, but he was sure it would come back to him.

"Hey!" Hawks responded, indignant at the accusation. "You went over the edge all on your own!"

Denki furrowed his brow in concentration, confused by what Hawks could have meant by that. He looked more closely at Hawks. He stood in the middle of the room, excited energy wafting off of him as he shifted from side to side.

"What?" Denki asked dumbly.

"You don't remember?!" Hawks screeched. "That's the coolest damn thing I've ever seen, and you don't even remember?!"

"It'll come back to me," Denki assured, pulling his legs up onto the cot to get more comfortable. "It always does. Can you please just explain in the meantime?"

"You... turned into lightning," Hawks said dramatically, looking upwards and spreading his hands in front of his face like he was reimagining it.

Denki laughed. "No really, though. What happened?"

Instead of answering, Hawks just smiled at Denki as he tossed him his phone. Denki caught it easily, surprised that the aftereffects of his quirk overdose hadn't affected him as much as it usually did. Usually, his reflexes would be off for at least a few hours, if not for a few days. Denki tapped on the play icon on the screen and smiled as he watched his 'last words.' It seemed familiar, so it all started coming back to him.

Then the camera shook and shifted just the tiniest bit. The on-screen Denki had abruptly stopped his speech to whip around and look behind him and upwards. On the top left of the screen, Denki saw a black smudge toss a pink smudge off the top of the building. Denki's heart flew up into his throat, wondering if he didn't remember because it was too damn traumatic, but that wouldn't explain why Hawks was so excited.

Denki startled when a bright light filled the screen, blinding him, and he jumped again when it was followed by a loud, crunchy noise, the sound distorted by the recording device. When the light vanished as quickly as it had appeared, Denki was missing from the frame, and another flash of light hit again, further away from the camera, closer toward the tallest building. Denki recognized it as lightning and didn't jump when the crunchy noise blasted through the speaker again.

Narrowing his eyes and moving his face closer to the screen, he restarted the video and watched it again. And again. And again.

Hawks was patient, watching Denki with a permanent smile on his face as he reviewed the footage over and over again, letting Denki come to his own conclusions instead of force-feeding him the information when he didn't understand quickly enough.

"This doesn't make any sense," he concluded, not moving his eyes from the screen, trying to pick out the trick. "Being a TikTok legend myself, I've seen it all, but this doesn't make any sense. How did you do this?"

"Me? Kid, that was all you!" Hawks insisted. "You turned into lightning, practically teleported, and grabbed onto that falling baby before turning into lightning again and practically teleporting to the ground instead of free falling!"