Lightning Serenade

Chapter 70: Endeavor

Denki sat, his uniform only half on, staring at the screen of the television. His face was completely blank, but his heart hurt. He saw it coming. They all did. But it was worse actually experiencing it than just imagining it.

Denki's eyes trailed over the repeated BREAKING NEWS floating across the bottom of the screen. Anything to not have to look at the stupid, excited faces of the news anchors. This was just an exciting story to them, but this was Hawks's life. And they had the audacity to be grinning and giddy? Disgusting.

"The Hero Public Safety Commission has made an official comment. Number two Pro Hero, Hawks, was sent in undercover to infiltrate and leak information from the League of Villains. Hawks has not been spotted since Friday evening when he was patrolling the city limits with his intern, Chargebolt. The Hero Public Safety Commission asks that the public keep an eye out for Pro Hero Hawks, speculating that he could be a hostage of the League of Villains, or potentially in hiding to avoid further confrontation."

Sure, they didn't exactly call Hawks a traitor, and there was no actual civilian manhunt being called by the Hero Commission, but it was so obvious. Wasn't it? Would civilians overlook the fact that just outing this information could put Hawks into harm's way if he was still with the League of Villains when it aired? That was, of course, the Commission's intentions, Denki was sure. But to observant citizens, it's a questionable comment to make to a news station, even if they had believed it was the truth.

Denki figured it could have been worse. It was a relief that Hawks's original mission wasn't a secret among the League of Villains. There would be no surprises there to talk his way out of, at least. And it also didn't seem like the Hero Commission had imagined that to be a possibility.

Denki's phone vibrated against his hand. He didn't even remember picking it up and unplugging it from the charger before sitting down to watch the news segment.

Unknown Number

"Hello?"

"Kaminari! Oh! Guys! Kaminari answered! I'm putting you on speaker." There was a change in the ambient sound coming through the phone, then, sounding more distant and echoey, Hawks asked, "have you seen the news?"

"Yeah. Just watched it now. Are you okay?"

"It's not as bad as I thought it would be," Hawks said. "I'm just worried that they mentioned you."

"Do you think they'll come after me next if they can't find you?" Denki asked, taking a deep breath to calm down, his racing thoughts doing nothing to ease his anxiety.

"I don't know, so we should get our stories straight now. I think they're thinking that I just blatantly ignored their orders and sent you back to the dorms instead of taking you to meet with the League. I think that's our safest bet."

"I'll be able to avoid Force Majeure's quirk that way, too. Maybe that's why they haven't come barging in, yet," Denki guessed. "They know that even if you did take me, I wouldn't be able to tell them anything."

"That's a good point. While they might not look at you as suspicious, thinking that we just had a distant and strictly professional intern relationship, I don't doubt that they'll try again. They're either going to try to get you to sign on with them after graduation, or they're just going to keep being careless when you're concerned and hope that the villains take care of you for them." Denki heard the wince in Hawks's voice, even as he spoke the truth and everyone listening knew it. "You need to make strong ties, and fast, to someone who the Commission knows better than to mess with."

Denki knew he was safe as long as he was a UA student, but with graduation nearing, that protection had a time limit.

"Who did you have in mind?" Denki hedged, bracing himself for an answer he wouldn't like.