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CHAPTER START---
"No pat down?" Hawks asks as he steps out of the Warp Gate, entering a well lit hallway that gave the impression of a mansion.
"Don't need it," Dabi says. "Keep those feathers to yourself and follow me."
Walking behind Dabi he looks around curiously, wiping the blood from his face with his sleeve, and he does contemplate sending a few feathers to get a proper look of this building.
But ultimately, he plays along.
"Awe, and here I thought you didn't trust me."
"Tch, we don't need to take your phone, the Radio Wave Nomu controls all broadcasts in this area, including blocking any trackers, microphones, GPS in your phone."
"Sounds useful, can I have one?"Dabi stops walking and looks back at him, annoyed at the smiling Pro Hero, then continues walking.
Eventually they make it to the end of a hallway and Dabi pushes open the double doors.
"Wooowwwwwww!" Hawks gawks about as he hovers through the room.
A massive formal dining room overlooking the ocean.
He entirely ignores all the villains sitting around having lunch.
Around the massive table was Shigaraki, at the head.
Spinner to his right and Twice to his left. But beside Twice was Toga, in a wheelchair, which Hawks made special note of.
Across from her was Magni, and a seat prepared for Hawks.
On the table was a monitor that remained blank, but right now everyone was glaring at Hawks who hovered above them.
"Take your seat so we can get started," Shigaraki says in a annoyed tone.
"Sure thing boss," Hawks says as he sits beside Magni, who continues to glare at him.
"Kurogiri, lets begin," Shigaraki says.
Immediately a Warp Gate appears behind him, and another appears above his right shoulder.
Kurogiri stands behind him as the larger Warp Gate closes but above his right shoulder a small Nomu, reminiscent of a frog drops onto his shoulder.
It has dozens of large eyes all across its body and back, each of which are tracking the people in the room.
"Cute," Toga says.
"Gross!" Magni covers her mouth in disgust.
"This is Shinji," Shigaraki says as he pats the Nomu, who nuzzles up to him. "In light of recent revelations, he'll always be with me from now on."
Dabi rolls his eyes, "I hope this isn't just to show off your new creepy pet."
"No, this meeting is about this," Shigaraki snaps his fingers and the monitor turns on, showing a picture of Horizon midway through ripping the arms off his Double.
Toga sees this image for the first time, laying eyes on Horizon for the first time in months.
And immediately begins hyperventilating.
Hawks looks at everyone as they are immediately concerned about her.
"You don't have to worry about him baby he isn't here," Twice says as he pushed her out of the room shutting the door behind them.
"Horizon really left some scars on you guys huh," Hawks teases.
Shigaraki gives him a bored look as he rubs his arms, "well after seeing what he's willing to do to me, you can understand why we've been extra cautious since."
"Not like you're one to talk," Dabi says to Hawks. "You're sweating more than us..."
Hawks passes a hand on his forehead, feeling it drenched in cold sweat, and holding his hand out they could all see him shaking, even before he realized it.
"Yeah well, you got the hypothetical, I got the real thing," he adopts a somber expression. "He did things to me that I'll never get over."
"We heard as much," Shigaraki says. "That's why you're here now, we finally realize that you don't really care about our cause, right?"
"I do."
Shinji ribbits on Shigaraki's shoulder.
"That means you lied," they all get ready to attack him. "Stand down."
"But---"
"I said stand down," he silences Magni. "Hawks was never on our side, but he was always against Horizon. Because let me guess, the government thought they could control him, but he's a bigger monster than any villain, right? And he turned against them..."
"Not exactly," Hawks says. "Pantu has a deal with Horizon, and she's willing to let him literally get away with murder if it means he'll stay in Japan as our #1 Pro Hero. Because his presence is more than worth a few bodies in the ground ever so often, especially since they've all been villains."
"But you disagree?" Dabi asks.
"Horizon isn't that simple. First he didn't want to be a Pro Hero, but now he's enjoying it, but now the public is being swayed to accept his more...honest self."
"You mean them cheering when he tore the arms off my Double?" Shigaraki asks.
"Yeah, and that kind of stuff has been happening a lot," Hawks says. "You guys have done so much to hurt the public that they want you gone, by any means necessary, and now they're just taking bets on how he'll do it."
"Are there any other Pro Heroes that want to help us out?" Shigaraki asks.
"I know a few," Hawks admits. "But, they wouldn't associate with Villains, especially not your group. And even if I got all of them together, its Horizon, we can't win."
Shigaraki sighs, "I want to become an invincible demon king, but it seems I'll have to get rid of one first, there is always a bigger monster, for now."
"Yeah, even Horizon isn't the absolute strongest right," Magni says. "That Star and Stripe chick is a monster, and I remember he said she was stronger than him, but that was a few weeks ago."
"Well, we might have something that can kill him," Shigaraki surprises them all with that. Only he and Kurogiri knew about Machia's new upgrades after all. "If I leave a trail of breadcrumbs can you feed it to Horizon and put him where I want."
Hawks considers it, "it'll have to seem like I spied on you to get it, since Pantu sent me to spy on you and he figured that out. And it'll only be possible once, because if this goes wrong and you miss, he'll probably kill me."
"Kurogiri?" Shigaraki asks.
"It can be arranged, within a matter of weeks," Kurogiri says. "And what bait might entice Horizon?"
"Pantu has us collecting info on two people," Hawks points at Kurogiri. "You, and twice. Everyone else she just knows we can get whenever you pop up."
"Well that's insulting," Dabi says.
"It makes sense," Shigaraki says. "They're the backbone of our operation."
"This places us in great danger," Kurogiri says. "Judging by Horizon's track record he likely won't fall for the same Double trick again, the bait will have to be...live."
"Then you will be our bait, we'll collect some samples and have Twice use his Quirk to replicate yours."
"Aren't you getting a bit cocky there brat," A mechanical voice comes from Shinji.
"It can talk?" Hawks asks.
"Its not the Nomu you moron," the Nomu opens its mouth so they can all hear. "I'm speaking through it, something I didn't think was necessary until this brat decided to put one of my most prized Nomu in danger."
"Kurogiri will be fine, if your weapon actually works."
"You're doubting my work! How dare you! Don't forget that I'm not one of your loser lackeys, I'm a dear friend of your master, the true demon lord. You only get to use OUR Nomu soldiers because for some reason he thinks you're worth more than gum under my shoe! And I can take them back whenever I want."
"Are you saying you're so scared that your newest masterpiece can't handle Horizon you aren't willing to use Kurogiri as bait."
"Mmm, I'll consider it," Shinji's mouth closes as Shigaraki plays on his mysterious benefactor's ego.
"That guy is also on Pantu's list by the way," Hawks says. "I'm suppose to be collecting data on whoever is making the Nomu for you."
"Well you'll need to get in line, or question All For One," Shigaraki says. "Even I don't know who he is, he says I haven't earned that honor yet."
"Seems like we're all working with some annoying people," Hawks relaxes a bit. "So, what info do you want me to feed Pantu about you guys, after we sort that out we can deal with what to do about Horizon."
"Hmm, well you can tell her we'll be expanding out reach and being more aggressive in controlling contraband movement in Japan. I already have all the major criminal groups under me, its time we put them to work and stress out the public."
"You want me telling her all of that?"
"We'll be operating too loudly to hide it, the new year has begun, now get to stress out the public and show them they can't rely on Pro Heroes to solve everything, that they have to fight for themselves. And slowly we'll erode the Quirk Regulations of this nation."
"Alright, I'll tell her I uncovered that, oh," Hawks snaps his finger. "Someone hacked into the Hero Public Safety Commission to get into Horizon's files, was that you guys?"
"No, the last thing we want is a trail leading back to us, plus that what you're here for."
"Did they get anything good?" Spinner asks.
"They weren't looking for personal files, Pantu is still looking into it."
"Hmm, getting that person on our side could be useful, keep your ears open for anything about that."
"Got it," Hawks says. "Right now we're keeping that incident away from Horizon, because then he'll go on a warpath to silence loose ends."
"I'd imagine so, now, lets discuss the breadcrumb trail we need to setup to trap him..."
END CHAPTER---