The Broker's Assistant

Episode Fourteen: I Hate Four Square

Episode Fourteen
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Hawks and Izuku crawled through the vents of the Illumina City bank. Their knees ached, but they knew that this was the only way the heist could be completed as Hawks needed an aerial entrance while Izuku disabled the banks' vent security systems. The pair worked together as they headed towards the vaults where they knew a lone security guard would be waiting.

Hawks was clearly against the life of a criminal, and it made Izuku wonder why he wanted to join Dabi. To Izuku heroes were mostly incorruptible. The hero schools made sure to weed out any heroes that had the potential to turn into a villain, so Hawks shouldn't even dream of turning to the villain side.

"So Hawks I um." Izuku tried to find the words, but Hawks pieced together what he wanted to ask.

With a sigh, he began to speak his words, coming out like a melody. "You want to know why a hero would switch sides, I could give you a speech on the corruption of the system and how this Era of peace is built on lies and falsehoods but those aren't my reasons." His wings seemed to flap despite the tight space of the ventilation shafts.

Curious Izuku asked, "If not for the system, then what reason could you have?"

Hawks sighed, "When I was a boy, my father was a criminal trying to rebuild some of my grandfather's status as one of Reo Yuki's henchmen. Pathetic really as after everything went to shit no one could raise a criminal empire besides the old legends." Hawks paused, causing Izuku to stop as well. "He tried to kidnap Endeavor's wife for some reason, and he failed, leaving me to bail him out at ten years old. Long story short, he grabbed me out of the sky, saving me and my father's life." Hawks said, seemingly happy by the memory.

"What changed it seems like you looked up to Endeavor?" Izuku asked as Hawks began to move again through the vents.

"Endeavor is obsessed with the symbol of peace title, with everyone chasing after All Might people stopped being people, I'm not choosing a different side I'm choosing to live my life as a human not a puppet or a lapdog." Hawks said as he seemed to grow more tense. "You only have one life, wouldn't you rather be free than chained to the ground." He added the question, which seemed ironic to Izuku considering Hawk's quirk.

"Now you're chained to Dabi." Izuku said, regretting the words as they left his mouth.

Hawks grunted, "I'm choose to involve myself with Dabi, his leash isn't a permanent one like living a heros life would be." Hawks wondered if he was telling the truth, of course he couldn't tell the full truth but the story of his criminal heritage was truth. Izuku wasn't a mass murderer like Dabi, he wasn't dangerous, but he could easily rat him out if he made any comments that showed symptoms of disloyalty.

Izuku pondered his answer, but he didn't want to question his reasons. He knew he had a different relationship to Dabi then Hawks did. Between saving Dabi from eventually burning himself out and not being a pro hero, Izuku was placed in a much more favorable position. Looking at his phone, he saw that they were in position.

Hawks looked at Izuku, expecting another question before realizing that they were in position. Looking through the vent, he could see the guard. He was definitely a quirk user, yet Hawks couldn't tell which type. If he was a pure physical quirk user things would be simple. He prepared his feathers as he considered the alternatives.

If the quirk user was able to sense his feathers both he and Izuku could be compromised. It would be an end to the mission unless they fought their way out, and even being so far north, there was no fighting the entire hero association at once. Going against the world like that was more than foolish, and so they would only have one shot. Hawks was more than okay with this, plenty of times, he would shoot targets from vast distances. This was child's play when compared to his own missions. "Aim and fire." He echoed as he let his feathers go towards their target.