Hawks appeared in a flurry of feathers--and was at once shocked to see a villain just casually sulking on the same roof top as a top pro and two--well he wasn't sure what they were.

That it was Shigaraki was further shocking...and made him nervous. Dabi could, he thought, keep his mouth shut, but Shigaraki seemed unstable, what if he just blurted something out?

Rumi was no help, she didn't even look happy to see him.

"Hey..." Hawks said, trying not to sound nervous--and failing. "So...uh...should I ask why the head of the LOV is here...unrestrained?...In the open...and you two..." he glanced at Shine and Wally.

Actually, he didn't even recognize Wally, he'd never seen him before.

Shine waved halfheartedly. "It's a long story, Hawks. Oh, Hawks meet Wally West, my partner. Wally, Hawks."

"Tower guy, yeah I know," Wally frowned at Hawks. "You know, he's not that scary in person."

"Am I scary?" Hawks said oddly.

"Maybe to someone with acrophobia," Wally only knew that word because Shine had used it repeatedly around him.

Hawks winced. "Oh...uh sorry about that, Miss Likstar...but it's all good now, right?"

"Sure, I'm over it," Shine nodded.

"What are you on about?" Rumi asked.

"Oh...just this one time we had a conversation on a roof...well, tower top, and she didn't care for it," Hawks said.

"What? You mean it wasn't just me?" Rumi was floored.

"I've also done that," Shigaraki said, because they weren't special.

"Whoa..." Wally gave Shine a look. "That's so trippy."

"I want to get my card stamped so I get a free sundae next time," Shine said. " Or is it the third time...I want one."

"I'll get you one," Wally promised. "Only I think they should pay for it."

Hawks chuckled nervously. "Well...uh...so what's the problem? Sounded urgent."

"All I said was I need to talk to you, meet me at XXXXX." Rumi raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, for you that's urgent. I thought a bomb was going to blow up the whole city or something," Hawks said.

"Oof, been there," Wally said. "But I ran it out of the city before it went off...even Supes was impressed."

They looked at him blankly.

"Are you a Pro?" Hawks asked.

"Not here..." Wally said.

"They're American," Rumi said.

"Oh," Hawks said.

"Enough of this crap, get on with it," Shigaraki snapped.

Shine rolled her eyes at him. "Hawks, let's get something clear first of all...I think you should tell Rumi here the truth. This situation is very complicated...and we must talk openly about it if we're going to know if you can help or not--but we need all the help we can get. So, I think it'd be best to lay all our cards on the table."

"Ah, is this where you tell me how you know the League?" Hawks thought that would end the conversation.

But Shine just eyed Wally, then shrugged. "I know the league because they attacked me, I became curious, I started to meet up with Dabi to learn about them, began to feel kind of like they had a point, but steadfastly stuck to my own principles, and we've become sort of vaguely defined friends. I knew about you because it was easy to figure out, but we did not swap info at any point about pros or students. Does that answer your question?"

Hawks gaped.

"I can confirm that is basically what happened," Shigaraki sounded annoyed. "So let's skip the whole "you're a lying, dirty spy' routine. Likstar couldn't be a spy anyway, she has absolutely no sense of guile."

"Aw, thank you," Shine said.

"Not a compliment," Shigaraki growled.

"I want to know why you're involved, finally," Rumi pointed at Hawks in annoyance. "I'm sick of being kept out of it, and now we're all in deep s--- anyway, so it doesn't matter."

"Look, what does whatever I'm doing have to do with whatever is going on here?" Hawks said. "Did you all get in trouble with the metas?"

"Knew it!" Rumi muttered.

"Not quite," Wally rubbed his head goofily. "Uh...how do we explain this...there's another cult."

Hawks stiffened. "Another one."

"Time to compare notes," Shine held up her hands. "Cards on the table? Agreed?"

Hawks didn't want to...he looked around. "I'm watched, every minute...out in the open like this...I'm sorry, but chances are you've already been spotted. If I'd known you'd have a villain here, I wouldn't have just shown up at all without warning you."

They all glared at Rumi like she should have mentioned that. She shrugged. "Wasn't sure I should say it, come one, it's not like it's a normal thing to say over the phone...or period."

"You know, though, it's not like she knew," Shine said. "And we did, so it's our fault."

"I didn't know he was watched that closely," Wally defended himself. "I bet only Face Palm guy knew that."

Shigaraki had not known, actually. The details of Hawks' involvement had never interested him. He just shrugged.

Shine looked around.

"Well...I don't know...if someone did see us, why has nothing happened yet?"

"They'd wait till we let our guard down." Hawks said.

"But Shigaraki is supposed to be working with you, for now, it's not so shocking he'd be seen with you," Shine said.

"Yeah, but Rumi isn't, if anything, she's the one I'm worried about...it's going to look like I let her in on it without permission," Hawks said. "I'll have to tell them she's sympathetic...it wouldn't be so far fetched, a lot of Pros are, but she's not known for really caring about the metas..."

Rumi twitched her ears. "I don't want people to think I'm into this kind of stuff...working with metas."

"And that's worse than working with the LOV how?" Wally pointed out.

Rumi scowled. "It just is."

How could she say the idea of another creepy cult approaching her was just too freaky?

"Okay, we'll worry about that later, it's too late now," Shine said. "Let's all sit down, on the off chance that no one has seen us yet. You're not tapped are you?"

"I'm not what?" Hawks said.

"Like a wire...you know, bugged," Shine said.

Wally tried not to die of suppressed laughter.

"Oh...uh, I think it's just movement tracing, not voice...or I'd probably be dead by now..." Hawks said.

"And did you ever get in trouble for the camp?" Shine asked.

Hawks flinched. "I guess that's one card I'll have to lay out, if you get what I mean."

They sat down so the wall hid them pretty well, even Wally, who was by far the tallest.

"So, Hawks, tell us, what do the metas really want?" Shine asked.

[What follows will be conjecture based off what's been in the show so far, and what I've gathered...also it may be different for the purpose of this story than their canon goal, as I want it to fit more with my plot. But all cults in anime are usually the same, so who knows if I'll even change it that much?]

Hawks looked around nervously. "Well...you know already they want to free people with quirks right? Heroes are kind of in their way, we have all these rules."

"You've been kind of critical of heroes lately," Rumi interrupted right off the bat. "And you've been passing around that dumb book."

"Oh, you read it?" Hawks said.

"No," Rumi looked disgusted. "I took one look at the cover and tore it into pieces. Load of garbage."

They all just looked at her.

"What?" She said.

"Typical," Shigaraki said.

Shine smiled. "Well, good for you Rumi...though I would have read it before I tore it up. I only destroy books I know."

She shrugged.

"So, you've been spreading their propaganda on purpose," Rumi accused Hawks.

"Oh sure," Hawks said, not making eye contact.

Shine tilted her head. "You were trying to warn people...because something big is coming, isn't it?"

Hawks nodded. "Wow...you got that so fast?"

"Oh, wait till she gets started," Shigaraki muttered. "This will get pretty disturbing soon, I'm sure."

"Oh, you shut up," Shine said airily. "All right, important question time: Hawks, does this big thing have anything to do with something called The Originals? I mean have you heard of them?"

"Wait, you think they're connected?" Rumi interrupted for the second time.

"I fail to see how they could not know about each other," Shine said. "They want two opposing things, surely they are a problem."

Hawks nodded. "It's funny you asked that...up till after that...uh, rescue mission, I hadn't heard about it, but...well...I might eavesdrop a little, unknown to everyone else..." He ran a feather through his hand.

Shigaraki glared at him. "Just what did you hear, you piece of s----?"

"You're never at the meetings, why are you worried?" Hawks said. Then he went on "I don't know who they are...or how you know about them...just that the Metas don't seem to like them, what I heard was really vague, just along the lines of "they're on the move" and "take necessary measures," and so on. I don't have a clue what those guys do...I'm guessing you do though."

They nodded.

Then they explained in brief what they knew. Going over it again just made Mirko feel sick, but she didn't say so. She acted like it was nothing.

Shigaraki didn't have a problem, except his urge to yell at all of them constantly presenting itself, but he was a little wary of doing it with so many of them there to stop him.

Hawks was not happy at all to hear about this group.

"That they'd be so powerful...and we'd not know anything about them...but they must hate the metas, then. They're all about liberating quirks from restraint, not removing them."

"You know, groups like this will tear each other to shreds," Shine said. "But will usually  work together if they find some common ground--and believe it or not, people with opposing goals almost always have some common ground."

Well, case in point with the people sitting here on this roof.

Wally sighed. "We don't have a chance of defeating them head on, there's too many of 'em, and we don't know enough. We don't have time to stage a coup even if we did that...I'm stumped, how do we fix this?"

Rumi rubbed her head. "I suppose we could just fight them when they find us."

"Then we can just die," Shigaraki snapped.

"Well, better than just hiding out forever!" She shot back.

Shine ignored them. "Hawks...perhaps you could get away with this...if the metas don't like the Originals, and you help to expose them, they would see it as a service, wouldn't they?"

"You mean...be a triple agent?" Hawks said. "Is that even a thing...look, I'm not even good at being a double agent...you all know now, I'm probably screwed already."

"Well, only 4 people isn't so bad," Shine said. "And only three of us are not supposed to know. The rule with being a spy is to make yourself too valuable to get rid of. How many people will they be able to get into the Originals directly? They'd be asked to give up their quirks, probably. These people are clearly more purist than the Metas...so if you got in, they'd have to consider you useful. And info on them is just what we'll probably get...plus, Dabi is your...what, supervisor, right? So he can cover for you."

Hawks stared at her. "Uh...and you just thought that out just now? 'Cause I think that plan would have taken me a week to come up with."

"So, you are just stupid," Shigaraki said.

"But it won't work," Hawks argued. "There's no way they'll believe I just stumbled across the Originals."

"But you're friends with Rumi, and she was approached by them, I'm sure that rumor will get around in no time anyway," Shine said. "So you say she told you...oh, it's not perfect. Because both of you are going to be targets even more...but you'll be that anyway. If at least one of these cults is not trying to kill us right now, I'd take that as a step forward. Technically, all that would be the truth. Truth is always safest to start with. It can't be proved wrong, generally."

"Generally? When can it be proven wrong?" Wally asked.

"In court," Shine said.

Pause while they appreciated that savage burn.

"Well, why not?" Mirko said, still pissed at Hawks. "I'm already in this anyway. And you're just going to have to do whatever to survive right? So throw me under the bus too, it doesn't matter. We just need to buy time."

Hawks winced. "Uh...why are you so mad at me?"

"You sold out Pros!" Mirko had put this together while they'd been talking as she thought back over all the weird things surrounding Hawks on the news, and even at gatherings. "You're basically a traitor! But we'll have to use you, I guess."

Hawks looked both crushed...and unsurprised.

"Big ouch..." Wally felt sorry for him. "You know, Bunny Girl, he probably had a good reason..."

"I don't want to talk about it anymore," Mirko dismissed him. "Let's just focus on the plan...I guess... if there is one."

"The plan?" Shine said. "Well...getting to that--"

She was interrupted by something hitting the wall next to her face, missing it by a few inches at most. She broke off and yelped.

Wally grabbed the object--some kind of throwing star? Note attached.

"What does this say?" He asked Hawks, as the two pros, and Shigaraki all got down more.

Hawks' feathers rose up to provide cover for them as he read it: "Quirkless brethern, help us fulfill our righteous cause. Turn over the villain and hero you're consorting with and join us."

"Do they really think that's going to work?" Was Wally's first reaction, instead of fear.

Mirko gave him a weird look. "These freaks are completely delusional, they think everyone will agree with them on nothing."

"Cults can be kind of like that," Shine had her arms over her head. "But how did they know we were quirkless?"

No one knew the answer to that.

"Where did that come from?" Wally asked.

Hawks pointed with one feather. "A roof top across from us. Someone's there, I can sense it."

"I hear it now," Mirko put her ear out. "A bunch of them...how did they find us here so quickly?"

"No doubt they have spies in every city, they must have sent out a red alert," Shine guessed. "Look, I can get us out of here again, they won't wait forever. Maybe it's okay, it seems like we're thinking about it. Where do we go?"

"I can't think of anywhere that wouldn't be a bad idea for me," Hawks muttered. "And why didn't they mention me?"

"Or you're already dead, man," Wally said. "That's what they think. They might know about you...or they just don't care."

Hawks looked at him oddly. "You know, you're not very comforting for a pro."

"Oh, sorry, I thought you'd be happy they didn't want to recruit you," Wally said.

Mirko covered her head. "So what's the plan then? Let's just get out of here first."

Shigaraki cursed suddenly. "My quirk isn't working."

"Were you just going to disappear and leave us all here?" Mirko snapped.

"Why shouldn't I? But I was going to take all of us, if you must know," Shigaraki snapped back. "You people are the only decoys I have available, you think I want to go up against them alone?"

"Not the time for bickering," Shine hissed. "How close was it to block you before?"

"It was under 30 meters at least...how far is the roof?" Shigaraki couldn't really see.

"Oh, it's further than that for sure," Hawks said. "Not by too much."

"Then how are they disrupting it?" Mirko asked. "Why do they always have so much backup?"

Shine looked up at her from her face downward position. "Honey, they don't have quirks and you're asking why they have a crap ton of backup devices? I doubt they go into battle without a quirk disrupter if they can avoid it."

"Let's just go to UA," Wally said.

"Oh, sure, we'll lead them to our kids then," Shine said.

"Okay...uh...street somewhere?"

"Might have to be," Shine said. "But everyone needs to get closer. I know you don't want to, but if you want me to take all of us, you have no choice. The bigger the door the more draining it is. The amount of people isn't really the issue."

"That's the opposite of my warp," Shigaraki said.

"Good, so move," Shine said.

They all crawled closer together.

"Uh oh, they're moving," Hawks said. 

So, they'd gotten tired of waiting for Shine and Wally to decide. Shine lost no time, purplish gold light flashed and they all fell downward--which incidentally, was a terrifying feeling when all you saw was a flash and then a street under you.

But the actual fall was less that 6 feet.

"Ow," Shigaraki still whined about it. "You couldn't hover closer to the ground, Likstar?"

"Oh, sorry, next time I'll take more time to aim and they can catch you," Shine shot back sarcastically.

She brushed dirt off herself.

"Nice save, honey" Wally kissed her cheek. "Where are we?"

"Somewhere in hell--that is, Dabi's favorite place to tour me around," Shine said. "I figured they'd never look for two pros here after what he told me, and I doubt they know how my portals work."

"Clever," Hawks said. "I remember here, I picked you up just that way," he pointed. "By the way, what was the Vamp incident about?"

"Believe it or not, that was just me hanging with my students, and it was an accident, not league related, until I ran into Dabi, that is," Shine said.

"So you just accidentally ran into Dabi," Hawks said.

"Yes...it happens oddly often. We have some kind of bond," Shine shrugged.

"Hey, let's move," Mirko urged them. "I want to get out of the open...where in the heck is this? It's a junkyard."

She got dirty looks from a few people on the streets.

"I remember this," Shigaraki looked around. "I lived here for a while."

"You too?" Shine said. "Wow, you and Dabi have a lot in common."

"Yeah, it was just as detestable then," he sneered. Then he very deliberately looked away from the streets. "Well, let's go."

"It's not that easy, I can't just hop us around without a plan, where are we going to hide you?" Shine insisted. "If it was just Rumi, I could take her to UA probably...or a friend...or an agency, anywhere, really. But a villain is not so easy to hide."

"Uh...so why can't he just go back to the LOV, they have a  bajillion hiding places," Hawks said.

"Because they want the LOV first," Shine said. "I've been pondering, and I think they have for a while, they just used Rumi as a means to that end, they knew who she was after the first incident...and probably that she didn't get her source from the normal channels, that could be traced, couldn't it? They aren't stupid, are they."

"You mean this was never a secret?" Mirko was angry.

"Nothing is," Wally said sagely. "Right Shine?"

Shine nodded. "Sorry, Rumi, big news of working in the underground. Nothing is ever really a secret. We should know, we always end up in that crowd sooner or later. Rebels...I don't know what it is about me, they just find me."

Hawks snorted. "Yeah, hard to say, huh? So Rumi's not safe no matter what? That's not good news."

"But, also," Shine said. "They must not know where the LOV is themselves, or they would just go after them directly. Unless they have a reason to use a pro first. I suspect they want Shigaraki as leverage before they kill him, they'll flush out everyone else, and then take all of their quirks and use them as examples for new converts and the world. They may be planning to come out of the shadows all together, If they depower the LOV, they'll seem like heroes to this frightened world. And it will be easy to get a following as big as Stain's, or bigger."

How did Shine just do this? They all froze in horror and stared at her in amazement.

[It's called being trope savvy, suckers]

"Oh s---" Rumi summed it up. "Does that mean our pejorative is to protect the LOV of all people?"

"Rumi," Shine said. "Like it or not, they matter. People see them as a threat. Any rival group will want them out of the way, or to join them...now wouldn't Twice be the perfect candidate for instance? His quirk makes him crazy. If they took it, he might return to normal (though I doubt it), and that's a great selling point for hundreds of people just like him. The LOV is full of crazy people who are crazy because of their quirk, look at Toga. It's perfect. If I wanted to accomplish their goal I'd do the same thing."

"You sure do think like a villain for a good guy," Hawks said.

They all glared at him, even Mirko, though that might be kind of hypocritical of her.

"It's called understanding people," Shine snapped. "And stop saying that. If I thought like a villain, Hawks, you'd be dead."

Hawks was actually kind of freaked out by her just saying that out right.

"Shine's a good person," Wally hugged her shoulders. "She would never hurt anyone like that...but we've both been the target of these kinds of plans enough times to just know, okay? That's why. Don't be so quick to call us villains, man, should you even talk?"

He didn't mean that to be as hurtful as it clearly was, Hawks just looked dead inside.

"Likstar, your idea is only all too likely," Shigaraki admitted. "And that's a very bad thing to happen at this moment. I am not going to be some example for people to follow these hacks. So start saying the part where we get out of this."

"I haven't got that far," Shine said. "The key here is always to know what they want, and how to make them think you'll give it them, while getting what you want instead...unless negotiations are out the window."

"They are," Mirko said.

"Let's not rule it out, we might have to play along," Hawks said.

"I'm sure you would say that," Mirko shot back. "But I tried that, they wanted me to take a blood oath, so I don't these guys are the playing along type."

"Oh, tell me you didn't do it," Shine said.

"No...why?"

"Just...you don't want to do that," Shine looked freaked. "It's binding...in more ways than one. In fact--don't make an agreement with them at all, words are powerful."

That didn't help Mirko's inward freaking out about this that she was so desperately trying to hide from them.

"Should we be talking about this out here?" Wally said suddenly. "It just occurred to me this would be a prime place for people who want to get rid of their quirks to hang out and be interested in this."

They all wondered why they didn't think of that before.

"Oops," Shine said.

"Hey, look out!" Hawks suddenly moved and shoved them all away with his feathers, something like small arrows came flying over where they were just standing.

Mirko cocked her head. "They found us already....more of them this time."

"We've been here for like 3 minutes!" Wally said.

"They're tracking us!" Shine was ducking behind a trash bin now. "How are they tracking us?"

"Get out of plain sight, fools!" Shigaraki was already backing into an alley.

They followed him.

"They'll find us here too," Hawks said, unnecessarily.

Shigaraki rolled his eyes and put his hand on the wall. The bricks started to crumble outward.

"Hey, that's someone's house!" Wally said.

"Too bad." Shigaraki said. "Anyway it looks abandoned as it is. Stop being such a goody two shoes."

The wall fell out in front of them. And a good portion of the higher floors too, they all backed up from the dust. Hawks had to swat away a few chunks as it was.

"Your quirk," Shine glanced at Shigaraki. "They didn't block it...too far away? Or...wait, I think these must be different people. There's no way they got here this fast. So multiple locations, like we thought, they're just looking for us anywhere...they probably realize we could just warp away if you could use your quirk, they prepared for it...Dang it."

"Now, we really need a better hiding spot," Hawks muttered.

"You know what, frick this," Mirko said. Scrambling over the bricks. "I'm not going to just get chased around like this is some kind of sick hunting trip."

"Rumi!" Shine grabbed her arm and yanked her back. "Do not rush out there and do something stupid! Don't make me hit you over the head."

"Yeah, are you crazy?" Hawks used his feathers to drag her back. "This is no time for heroics...uh, can't believe that just came out of my mouth."

"I can," Shigaraki said snidely.

"Shut up," Hawks grumbled.

Wally started moving all the bricks into more of a wall for them. "I'm sure they know we're still here, but without quirks, they can't just bust through this without being more careful. As long as they don't come from above, we can buy a little time."

"Discs...arrows...guns..." Shine muttered. "Something different each time. I wonder why."

"But still, how did they find us so fast...?" Wally mused.

Mirko suddenly sat up. "Chip." She said. "I was chipped."

"And you didn't take it off?" Hawks said irately.

"No, I took it off, but Villain boy here was held at gun point for like 5 minutes straight, you don't think maybe they slipped something on during that time?" Mirko said.

Shigaraki looked freaked. He started feeling around his back.

Hawks used his feathers to start combing over him.

"Hey stop it!" Shigaraki said.

"Ah, found it," one feather spiked a small tracking chip that blended in with his dark clothes way too easily.

"I guess it was too easy to feel if it was directly on you," Shine muttered.

Hawks grinned. "Well, I guess if they're tracking us, let's give them a real race."

"No, keep it here," Shine said. "I have a better idea."

She portaled them all again.

The chip remained.