Colors in the Dark

[16] A Step

A/N: One fanfic-exclusive take on the internship with Hawks, served hot and ready with a side of fan characters and quirk-honing. Plus, Guardian's full costume reveal! Hope it's not too incredibly unbelievable!

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Ayami had quickly taken to staring out the window at the quick-moving landscape as the train pelted by, gently stroking Dark Shadow. Every so often she'd check her phone, but it always just displayed what felt like a slow-motion clock and no new messages.

The spirits busied themselves by doing the same thing as always: talking amongst themselves, with Ayami sometimes joining in. "So this internship will focus mostly on Hecate?"

"Relax, Ares, there's something each of you can do. Hecate is obvious with her wings, but Ares could copy Hawk's quirk to give us a more sturdy and efficient pair of wings for a little while. Gaia, we could work on controlling air, or just elements in general from a safe distance above people. Asclepius could be useful if we find any victims of crime that are injured, Prometheus is our living map, Ansaluia can make any object we need, Brizo's passive visions and telekinesis can help. And Deimos, I think it's high time we practice with our own fears, like those ribbons and moon for Mr. Aizawa and Midnight."

"Not to mention Hawk's main weapon is his feathers that he throws; we could mimic this with telekinesis," Ansaluia pointed out.

"But then where'd the wings go? I can only host one at a time, so Ares or Hecate's wings would dissipate," Ayami countered.

The indigo spirit flooded with embarrassment at forgetting one of their clear weaknesses. "Ah, right, I forgot. Silly me..."

Once the train finally came to a stop, Ayami and Tokoyami left with their things. Tokoyami pulled a folded-up map from his pocket and they began to follow its directions, but soon found themselves walking in circles, back where they began at the train station.

"If we can't find them, how can we even go to our internship?" Tokoyami asked, irked at the false directions. Ayami thought for a moment.

"Tokoyami, can you pull up a picture of Hawks?" She asked suddenly. "Just on your phone is fine, I have an idea..."

The bird boy gave her a questionable glance but did so, bringing up an image of the ash blond hero. Ayami scanned his features, trying to memorize his face, before she allowed Prometheus to merge with her. "See, Prometheus gives me this passive effect, Aura Vision, that lets me see people's auras. It works through walls and across pretty long distances, so I wonder..."

She spun in a slow circle, now scanning the landscape around and all the colors wisps dotting it, until a tiny one caught her eye. It was red and gold weaved around one another, speeding across the low sky, and she had no doubt who it was.

"Bingo. I found him, he's flying low..." The more she concentrated on the wisp, the brighter and clearer it got until a thin path in midair shimmered into view heading toward it. "Alright, I think I just figured out how to do some sort of tracking... follow me!"

The girl's ginger hair had faded a deeper red as determination went through her, true blue eyes locked on Hawk's aura. They weaved through streets, following after until it finally stopped and the young man appeared.

"He's shorter than I thought he'd be," Brizo admit, though he still had a few inches on Ayami.

"Hawks!?" She called up to the blond hero. "It's the students from 1-A; we signed up to intern for you this week?"