Mirko refused to get out of the driver's seat, and Shine finally just surrendered and got in the back. Iida was dead silent.

Mirko drove way faster than Shine did.

Shigaraki kept looking like he wanted to grab the seat but couldn't because of his quirk.

"Rumi, please, slow down," Shine asked finally.

"Why? We're gonna be ahead of schedule," Mirko said.

"We were behind schedule already," Shine said.

"Then we'll be caught up." Mirko took one hand off the wheel to lean on the window.

"We'll come up to a place with more cars soon," Shine said, "and if you get us pulled over, it'll make the news."

Mirko sighed and slowed down. "Not doing this for you."

Suddenly Ren's phone buzzed.

"Ah, there's our lady spy now," he said, "About time. I'll put her on speaker."

He did so.

"Please tell me you're in the country." Kayla didn't even bother to say hello.

"Si, Senorita," Ren said.

"Hablamos Espanol ahora?" Kayla replied. [We speaking Spanish now?]

"Eh, no, force of habit." Ren went back to Japanese. "How many languages do you speak?"

"Five," Kayla said, "And you?"

"Two," Ren said.

"If you speak three languages," Shine said to Shigaraki, "you're trilingual. If you speak two, you're bilingual. If you speak one, you're an American."

Shigaraki gave her a blank stare.

"It's a linguist/cultural joke," Shine said, "I speak 4 though. And you speak one, so it's not always true."

"Are you mocking me?" Shigaraki asked.

"No," Shine said.

"I can't hear," Ren complained.

"I can," Mirko said.

"You're driving!" Ren said. He consulted his GPS.

"We're just outside Alliance, Alberta," he said. 

[Real city--but all depictions of it will be fictional. Any inconsistencies with real life Canada can be explained by it being in the future in a world of quirks, so no one stress over it.]

"You're...closer than I thought you would be," Kayla said, "I'm not there yet... I just got off my plane...and it was hard coming up with an excuse to come here. Officially, I'm just overseeing some new arrivals from other provinces. Alliance doesn't have one of our bases in it, but there're some meeting points in the city. I can't meet you at one of them, but I can point them out. From there, it's luck. If she was brought here, we can just hope she wasn't shipped somewhere else."

"Are you sure you're not being followed?" Shine asked her.

"I shouldn't be, but are any of us sure?" Kayla said.

"Did you dad have a nice birthday?" Shine changed the subject.

"Yes...I just hope it wasn't his last," Kayla said.

"I've been meaning to ask you," Shine leaned on the seat, "do you hide your quirk because of your dad?"

Silence.

"How did you guess?" Kayla said.

"Perhaps I know what it is like to be born and raised with certain expectations," Shine said, "Don't we all? It made sense."

"My father is quirkless," Kayla said, "My mother was quirkless too, but my grandparents were not. It skipped a generation. My parents wanted to raise me the natural way, so we never registered my quirk." She had lowered her voice. "And it's easy to hide. We don't exactly do a lot of outdoor swimming around where I live."

"You were always ashamed of having a quirk," Shine guessed.

"Stop that," Kayla said.

"But they didn't just remove it?" Shine went on, "Because it would be hard to remove quirks like yours. Now they have the tech to do it, probably. But you don't want that."

Kayla hesitated. "It's more practical to... It's not that useful...so... Look, we are not talking about me. Why are you asking this?"

"I'm trying to get a read on you," Shine said, "It's what I do. Helps me get to know you better."

"You have no reason to need to know me," Kayla said.

"But I do," Shine said, "Surely, we are put in people's paths for a reason."

Pause.

"Huh..." Kayla said, "That's something my dad likes to say... How did you...?"

"I just get this stuff," Shine said, "I don't know how."

"You'd better hope he's right, then," Kayla said, "This is such a huge risk... I'm going to text you somewhere we can meet up. I should be there in an hour. Don't be late. I hope at least you did not come in costume."

"We're not that dumb," Shine said.

"Good. Bye." Kayla hung up.

"You know she's not very polite for a Canadian," Shine said.

"Stop with the jokes about it," Ren groaned, "How did you know about her like that? Is your quirk mind reading?"

"Oh, no, Ren," Shine said, "but one of my gifts is insight. The more I talk to someone, the more I tend to know about them. Sometimes I even get facts and names."

"That's useful," Ren said, "What do you get about me?"

Shine tilted her head at him. "You think you know better than anyone else."

Ren blinked.

"She's got you pegged," Mirko said, glancing in the mirror.

"You're just saying that because I'm a nerd." Ren pushed his bangs up.

"No, I don't make those kinds of assumptions," Shine said, "Usually, anyway. But from all I know of you, I think it's true."

"Don't you always think that?" Ren replied, "You like to lecture people. I've seen you."

Shine leaned back. "I do think that. But I am open to change, and you are not."

"What?" Ren said.

"Figure it out," Shine said, "You're smart, right?"

Mirko smirked.

"No. 5," Iida said suddenly, "Deer!"

Mirko looked ahead in time to see a deer jump across the road. She slammed on the brakes and swerved. Luckily there were still no other cars in sight.

The car still skidded and spun a little.

Iida slammed into the side.

They came to a stop.

Shine peeled herself off the seat.

"Sorry..." Mirko said, taking a deep breath.

"That...could have happened to anyone," Shine managed, "In fact, not sure I would have reacted as fast, so I'm glad you were driving."

"What was that?" Shigaraki hadn't really gotten a good look. He suddenly looked down. He'd disintegrated some of the seat...

"A deer..." Mirko said.

The guilty deer was already gone off the other side of the road.

Ren picked up his device that he'd dropped. "Well...that was exciting... We almost died."

"You should have your eyes on the road!" Iida complained, "Really, Mirko, if you can't drive responsibly, perhaps Miss Likstar should take over again." 

Mirko glared at the road and tightened her grip.

"Iida, even if she'd been looking, that deer would have still been there. At least you alerted us in time," Shine said, "Let it go." 

Iida was silent.

"But I can take over again, if you want," Shine said.

"You think I need it?" Mirko said tightly.

"It's been a while, and you're tired," Shine said, "and that jolt was enough to make anyone want a break. Come on, it's no big."

"Just let her," Ren said.

Mirko scowled but got out of the driver's seat. She clearly didn't want everyone to start begging her. It would be too embarrassing.

Shine got back in the driver's seat. Wally was calling. "Are you guys okay?"

"Oh, you saw?" Shine said.

Wally had fallen behind since Mirko drove so fast.

"Yeah, it looked bad," Wally said, "but you didn't go over, so I didn't get out yet."

"We're fine. It just came out of nowhere," Shine said.

"We're almost there anyway," Wally said, "There's so gonna be more traffic, right?"

"Yeah. I'd keep Hawks out of sight as much as possible," Shine said.

"I heard that," Hawks said.

* * *

Sure enough, in just the next 20 minutes, they saw more cars and came into Alliance, passing the welcome sign.

There were tall fir trees everywhere, but other than that, it looked a lot like any city Shine would have been in in her home state. It looked quiet.

Shine drove around a bit reading street signs until she finally found the spot Kayla had picked. It was around 9-10 in the morning.

Lag was starting to hit the students. It would have been their bedtime soon in Japan. 

Wally was hungry again by now, so he was glad Kayla had picked a little Bed and Breakfast.

She was hiding in the back of it again, this time dressed much more for travel. She didn't look like she'd gotten much rest since yesterday.

"Who's this?" She looked at Iida.

"Extra help," Wally said.

She snorted. "He'd better be good... All right, we need to hurry."

They sat down.

"I have to be at the pledge center in an hour," Kayla said, "I barely made it here... I think our best bet is sneaking one of you in there with me. One who hasn't fought with them before. They don't keep tabs on everyone, just their targets."

She looked around. "Perhaps it's lucky you brought two nerds here with you."

Iida looked at her oddly.

"So if newbie and I snuck in, maybe," Ren said.

Kayla nodded. "Pledges are screened after they commit, but not before, so as not to scare them away...though they'd probably investigate you anyway, but we won't get you that far. I can just put your names on the list, say you're my own recruits. Do either of you speak English?"

"A little," Iida said.

Ren shook his head.

Kayla tapped her chin. "I'd rely on Spanish, then. That's more likely than Japanese, and you look Spanish. If you speak Japanese to them, you'll only raise curiosity."

Ren nodded.

"From inside, if you can get on the computer system like before, you can find where they took that last shipment from the plane, which I have." Kayla slid a timetable out of her purse. "I was able to confirm from my father (who is higher up than I am) that only two of these flights had human cargo on them."

Since they were all conversing in Japanese, it was safe enough for her to say that, even in the diner. No one else around there spoke it--they were all chatting in English.

"Your father is okay with this?" Shine said.

Kayla looked down. "He is ready to leave...because I am. So he agreed to help. We're close, but I didn't want to drag him into it further, so I didn't ask for more than this."

"Does he participate in the smuggling?" Wally said.

"He...has..." Kayla said stiffly.

Silence.

"Many people have a checkered past," Shine said, "I mean, Amazing Grace was written by a former slave trader. He was a real, hot mess. We shouldn't judge."

"I'm going to," Shigaraki muttered.

"I would. I can't believe you," Iida said.

Kayla looked up at Iida with something like hatred. "I can't believe hero schools can legally train super soldiers that will follow every order against whoever they're told to."

Iida gaped at her. "Is that what you think of us?"

"Is that not true?" Kayla said, "They brainwash you to work for the system, drill you like you're Navy SEALs. I've heard stories. I'm inclined to think the LOV does less damage overall. Heroes disgust me. They use their abilities to push around others, and they treat people like garbage who aren't special enough for them. Quirkless people can't play sports with people with quirks, not on any fair scale. They aren't even allowed to carry weapons to defend themselves from them, except in places like America. I hate heroes."

"And you're right about pretty much all of that," Shine said, "but our response is to feel compassion for these misguided people, not to hate them."

"Dig your own grave," Kayla said, "but I for one just want to be away from it all." She frowned.

"Do you hate people just because they have quirks?" Ren was finding this quite fascinating.

"I hate people who use them forcefully," Kayla said, "but not just for having them. They can't help that."

"You don't seem to agree, then, that they are a curse," Shine said.

Kayla fiddled with her teaspoon. "I think some are. Some are more like a part of nature. Not all of us are as extreme as the ones you've come into contact with, from what I heard. Many of us just wish for quirkless people to be seen as just as human, if not more human, than people with quirks. I personally think quirks make you less human, but, mine is so slight..."

"So you can just go back and forth, then?" Shine said, "You don't have to pick a camp."

Kayla sniffed. "This is not about me. You want your friend back? We have to hurry."

"Intelli can hack it once we're there, if we're just talking getting simple information," Ren said, "probably not bug the whole system though."

"I don't want him to do that," Kayla said, "Just find out where she is. We get in, we get out... If she's at a camp, I can enter it without suspicion, but I can't go so far as to break her out. I'll only be able to point you in the right direction."

"That's more than enough," Shine said, "We appreciate this, you know... For the record, Kayla, I don't have a quirk. I think I'm objective enough."

Kayla shrugged. "You have power without needing a quirk. You're like a goddess." She spoke quite casually.

"We've been compared to that before." Shine was just as casual. "But human beings, fully alive, are far more like the idea of gods than anything else. We think of gods just as more fully realized humans, don't we? But it's not dependent on power. Demons and monsters can have power. Gods have to be something like humans."

Kayla gazed at her a moment. "I've never head anyone talk like you... I'm impressed, I must say. You've rallied heroes, villains, and...whatever you are--" (meaning Ren) "--to work together. I didn't think anyone would even do that."

Wally rubbed Shine's shoulder. "She is quite special."

"Don't give me all the credit," Shine said, "You helped, and God deserves the glory."

"You're Christian?" Kayla guessed.

"Yes," Shine said.

"I'm not surprised. Plenty of us are," Kayla said, "My mom was... I never saw much in it, though."

"You've talked to the wrong Christians, then," Shine said.

"Wait, I thought you all were a cult," Wally said.

"Not everyone in it knows the full extent of it," Kayla said, "Is that not common with most groups? And I don't like the word cult."

"But it is," Shine said.

Kayla rolled her eyes. "Do you have a plan for how you'll get that girl once we find her?"

"Kayla, if we did, wouldn't it just be a risk to tell you?" Shine said.

Kayla conceded the point. "Let's go, then. I still have to drive there. If you're coming with me, we'll go in my car. The rest of you can follow me if you want but don't come into the parking lot. It's reserved."

"You got it," Wally said, "I wouldn't want to get at ticket when I don't have a license."

Kayla shook her head.

* * *

Ren and Iida were a little nervous about going with Kayla... Really, they didn't know that she wasn't just luring them into a trap. She knew all their plans--it would have been brilliant.

"How do we know we can trust you?" Ren asked, as they got on the road.

"You can't know," Kayla said, staring ahead, "You can only believe."

"Is that a quote?" Ren asked.

"Chronicles of Narnia," Kayla said.

Ren didn't know what that was.

[Which is disgraceful! Why does no one read those books anymore!?]

Kayla had the radio on to a local music station--all songs which the two boys couldn't really understand.

The drive was short, about 10 minutes. It was just across town.

The pledge center, as Kayla had called it, was just a Community Center, with plenty of ordinary activities going on inside of it.

Kayla led them to a section of rooms that were reserved for a conference.

"You meet this openly?" Ren switched to Spanish.

"Our group isn't illegal," Kayla said, "Many people in the US as well as Canada support quirkless rights. They may be a smaller group, but we can have meetings about it. We are not so threatened by giving people a voice."

[I'm sure this difference must exist in this world. No hate at Japan still. Clearly every country is different.]

The ladies at the check in desk took one look at Kayla's credentials and gave her the VIP treatment. They didn't even question Iida and Ren.

Kayla than began to engage them in questions about the conference and asking to go and inspect the new recruits herself. While she did this, she motioned the boys to get behind the desks.

She walked away with the two ladies. Ren and Iida pretended to follow at first, then doubled back.

Ren got on the phone with Intelli, who began walking him though how to get what he needed. It was painfully easy.

"What does it say about her?" Iida said.

"One thing at a time," Ren said, "I'm just now finding... Yeah...okay, we're signing into their main database... Kayla gave me those flight numbers..."

A few minutes went by. Iida bit his lip.

Some people started coming.

"We're here for the PrimeL Orientation," a couple of college aged kids said.

Iida looked up.

"Oh...uh...this is the wrong hall," he said in English.

They looked at him oddly.

"I could have sworn they said it was this..." they said, oddly, "Which is it?"

"Uh, just to your left.." Iida gestured frantically.

They thanked him politely and walked away.

"Nice save," Ren said, "Not sure what you said, but still..." He was looking over something.

"Aha...found it," he said, "Cargo from those planes was shipped to these two processing sites, and both of them are close to this city. If she's here, she's not far."

"That's wonderful news!" Iida said.

Ren took a picture of it. Then he started shutting it all down and logging out. "Let's jet before they get back. Vamonos!"

They made their way back outside.

Of course Kayla couldn't join them right away, so they just walked back to where the others had parked on the street.

* * *

While waiting for the boys to come back, the rest of the group had watched who came and went.

"I can't believe some of these guys are with those ninjas..." Mirko said, gripping the back of the seat in front of her, "and we're just letting them walk by."

"We don't know they're guilty of anything," Shine said, "A lot of good people belong to bad groups. I've known my share."

"You think villains are okay," Mirko said.

"I didn't mean villains," Shine said, "Wow, Shigaraki actually fell asleep."

He had.

"He must have been tired from the lag," Shine said.

"Or from not sleeping for days," Mirko said.

"Hmm?" Shine said.

Mirko shrugged.

"So he is having the same issues?" Shine said.

"Not just that." Mirko lowered her voice. "The doctor did something to him a couple days ago. He's been coughing blood. And he passed out twice."

"What?" Shine said, "That's not good."

"I know!"

"And you let him come?" Shine said.

"I didn't let him. I thought it was a bad idea. He insisted," Mirko said.

"Well, he shouldn't be fighting, then," Shine said, "I hope he'll just wait in the car or something. Not that being out of those rat-infested lairs might not be a good thing. I hope you're careful."

"This one isn't too bad," Mirko said, "At least it has a working bathroom."

"You're a trooper, Rumi."

"A what...?"

"Oh...it's way to say a good sport. You know...tough. Not easily put off, good attitude about stuff," Shine said.

"Oh...yeah," Mirko said. She tapped the chair. "I don't think Ren should have come either. This is just the kind of thing I didn't want him to do."

"But family helps each other."

"Mine is different."

"Well, okay," Shine said, "but if Ren wants to help you, then let him. It'll make him feel better."

"I have a feeling he still wants me to ditch," Mirko said.

"But you're not going to," Shine said.

"I'm weighing my options--but not at the moment," Mirko said, "It may not matter, if this doesn't go well. It may not matter at all..."

Shine put a hand on her arm. "You have to have faith. We've been led this far. I have to believe we're meant to succeed. I don't think my work here is done yet."

Mirko smiled wryly. Leave it to Shine to be confident because of that... It would be nice to be so sure.

Ren tapped on the window.

Shigaraki sat up.

Shine rolled down the window. 

"We've got her," Ren said.

* * *

Kayla finally rejoined them after at least 45 minutes. "Please tell me you got what you needed."

"Right here." Ren showed her.

Kayla looked at it. "Wow, not bad... I've been both of these places. The one doesn't have a facility for...unwilling recruits, so I think we can rule it out. I'm sure she's here."

She pointed to the name.

"What does it say?" Ren asked.

"It says Pure Lake," Shine said.

"Pure is a common part of our names," Kayla said.

"I think your name can mean pure in one language, doesn't it?" Shine said.

"Latin..." Kayla looked at her oddly. "In fact, I was named for the idea...being quirkless is being pure."

[It's true. Kay means pure or clean in Latin. Kayla can just be a more trussed up version of it. Kayla can also be a derivative of a Hebrew name Michaela that means "who is like God." One could compare that to her saying the DJs are like gods because of their non-quirk based power.

Funny, I did not plan it when I named her character. Often names just see to fit to me, and then I find out what they mean, and they suit the character's purpose in the story. It's a gift.]

"Actually, the Word says 'to the pure all things are pure' [Titus 1:15] ," Shine said, "Pure is something inside you, not your quirk."

"Whatever," Kayla said, "The point is, if she's there, we need to hurry. She's been there for days already. No telling what they've done to her by now."

"Done to her?" Iida said, suddenly wary.

Kayla bit her lip. "Prisoners are not always treated well. Especially ones from Japan... Sorry, but it is the hero capital of the world, and people around here tend to view all Japanese people as...well...tainted by their society."

[Again, all this is based on the idea of quirks and quirkless, not any statement on how real world Canadians see Japan. Please do not take it out of context. Reminds me of the 3rd Divergent movie.]

"Just what kind of things would they do?" Iida demanded.

"Trust me, it's better I don't give you ideas," Kayla said, "If you find her, you'll know."

"I can guess," Shine said, "I read about stuff like this."

"You're an odd person," Kayla said, "but regardless, you should hurry. The longer we wait, the more time they have to find out you're here... Are you ready for a fight?"

"As ready as we can be," Wally said.

"I wish we'd brought our costumes," Bakugo growled.

"We'll have to make do without them," Shine said, "They're a dead giveaway."

"You want weapons?" Kayla said.

The all stared at her.

"'Cause...I can get you...guns, you know..." Kayla said.

"This isn't America," Wally jibed, "I'm sure we're not allowed to have those."

"Who said anything about that? You've broken enough laws just showing up here," Kayla said, "Can you shoot?"

"Yes," Shine and Shigaraki both said.

"Kind of," Ren said, "I mean, a gun is technology..."

"Wait, you can shoot?" Momo looked at Shine.

"Of course I can. American," Shine said, "We do it for fun. My cousin's family hunts their own food. I'm not a bad shot, actually. But I already have a weapon, and I don't kill, so it would be mostly for intimidation to even carry one. I do have a friend who uses guns though. You should see what he can do with a 7 shooter."

"I thought it was 6..." Wally said.

"He has 7, holy number," Shine said.

"Going once," Kayla said.

"Better let Shigaraki have one," Shine said. She didn't want him to use his quirk. "How much more trouble could he really get in?"

"We're arming him?!" Iida said.

"Technically," Wally said, "he already has hands. Doesn't that count as being armed?"

"No, he doesn't have the arms," Shine said.

"Are you making fun of my...hands?" Shigaraki said.

"Yes," Wally said, "Is that okay?"

"Frick off!" Shigaraki said.

"If guns aren't your flavor, we have other weapons too," Kayla said.

"Ooh, can I use the throwing stars?" Camie said, "Ninjas are cool. It's like Naruto."

"You know how to do that?" Bakugo said.

"Yeah, duh. Didn't you train with weapons?" Camie said.

"A lot, actually," Momo said, "but I can make my own."

"I brought a few too," Ren said, "Shall I pass them around?"

"Perhaps you should do that when we get there," Kayla said, "They close for visitors at 6 pm. It's noon now, and it's going to be a three hour drive. Unless we took the helicopter, but I don't have clearance for that. I'll still have to snitch on you to even get access to the girl."

"We can drive," Shine said, "I pray she can hang on a few more hours. You riding with us?"

"Since I'll need to escape with you probably, yes," Kayla said, "Otherwise, they'll track my car. It's too easy for them. We should switch vehicles once you get out too. They'll be looking for yours by then."

"Perfect, you're with us," Shine said, "Because I have a lot more questions for you that can help me once we get there. Let's get going...after a bathroom break."

[Shine design by Onerose, original template to original owner.]

"Oh, thank goodness," Camie sighed.

[Gotta love Camie.]