Location: Kashiya Ward – Cow Lady Agency
Time: Next Day | 09:00 AM
Cow Lady stood at the far end of the room wearing her gym clothes. She stared at a thick foam impact pad resting against the concrete wall.
Kaito stood a few feet away holding his digital tablet.
"Take a breath," Kaito said, keeping his voice calm. "Start your sprint. Do not activate your quirk until you are exactly one step away from the pad."
"Got it." Pam nodded.
She dropped low to the ground and pushed off her back foot.
She sprinted across the gym floor in her human form, reaching her top speed quickly.
The impact pad rushed closer.
But.
Her brain was completely used to transforming at the start of a fight. She triggered her quirk three steps too early.
FWOOSH.
Her body instantly expanded. She packed on five hundred pounds of dense muscle and bone in a split second.
The sudden shift in mass threw her center of gravity completely off.
Her heavy hooves hit the rubber mat awkwardly.
THUD.
Pam tripped forward. She crashed hard into the floor and slid right past the impact pad, bumping her shoulder against the wall.
"Ow," Pam groaned, sitting up and rubbing her arm.
Kaito walked over and offered her a hand. He pulled her up to her feet.
"You missed the timing window," Kaito told her gently.
He held up his tablet and played the video recording of her sprint. He paused the video right as she transformed.
"You shifted your weight while your front foot was still in the air," Kaito pointed out, tapping the screen. "You have to plant your foot on the floor first. Plant the foot, transfer your momentum, and then shift. Let's try it again."
Pam looked at the frozen frame. She understood exactly what went wrong.
"Sorry, habit." Pam said, shaking off the soreness in her shoulder. "Plant the foot first. Give me another run."
She walked back to the starting line, highly determined to fix the mistake.
...
Time: 4 Days Later | 11:00 AM
Sarah sat at her desk, looking highly stressed. She rubbed her temples and stared at her computer monitor.
Kaito walked past her desk holding a cup of coffee. He stopped and handed it to her.
"Thanks," Sarah sighed, taking a sip. "I am trying to draft the launch campaign for Pam's new brand. It is a nightmare."
"What is the problem then?" Kaito asked, leaning against the edge of her desk.
"The public still associates her with the dairy company she built back home," Sarah explained in frustration. "I am setting up social media teasers for this new heavy industry gear line. People keep replying and asking if we are dropping a new flavor of protein milk."
"You're doing it wrong," Kaito advised. "You need to show them. Do you have any raw footage of Pam lifting bridge rubble from her past patrols?"
Sarah clicked a few folders on her screen. "Yeah, I have a few clips."
"Leak them online," Kaito suggested. "Don't add any flashy PR music or logos. Just post the raw clips of her doing it. Let the internet see it first. Reframe the narrative before you actually drop the new merchandise."
Sarah's eyes lit up. "That completely changes the angle. I can do that right now."
Across the room, Mark groaned loudly from his desk. He had a massive map of the Japanese highway system spread out on his monitor.
"Mr. Arisaka," Mark called out, sounding totally defeated. "I can't find a transport truck for the mobile base."
Kaito walked over to Mark's desk. "What is the issue?"
"The standard Japanese cargo trucks don't have the axle strength," Mark pointed at the specs on his screen. "If Pam transforms inside the trailer, the sudden weight shift will snap the rear axles while we are moving on the highway. It is way too dangerous."
"You are looking at civilian cargo vehicles," Kaito pointed out. "Filter your search. Look for decommissioned military transports or heavy-duty mining haulers. You just need the chassis to be strong enough to hold her weight. If there is nothing available, then commission it."
Mark blinked, quickly typing the new parameters into his keyboard.
"That work too," Mark muttered, reading the new results. "I will start calling these surplus yards."
...
Time: 3 Days Later | 02:00 PM
CLANG. CLANG.
Huge impacts sounds echoed through the basement gym.
Pam stood completely barefoot on the rubber mats. Two solid iron blocks rested on the floor in front of her.
She raised her right leg and drove her heel down as hard as she could.
CLANG.
Pam winced slightly. She stepped back and sat down heavily on a gym box. Her heels were deeply bruised and covered in red marks.
Practicing the Quake Cleat meant she had to repeatedly break down her keratin layers so they would heal back denser.
Thud.
Dave walked inside holding his digital tablet.
"Manager," Dave called out, walking over to Kaito. "I finished the 3D design for the new chest plating."
Dave handed the tablet over. The screen showed a digital render of Pam's new suit.
"I used the heavy-duty Texas leather for the outer shell," Dave explained, pointing at the dark brown surface. "And I added a thick layer of Detnerat kinetic foam underneath. I am about to send the files to the Detnerat manufacturing plant so they can build it."
Kaito inspected the 3D model closely. He rotated the image, checking the arm joints.
"The materials are perfect, Dave," Kaito praised him. "But look right here at the shoulders."
Kaito tapped the screen.
"If Detnerat builds it exactly like this, the leather around the rotator cuffs will be way too stiff," Kaito pointed out. "Pam won't be able to throw a punch or lift her arms above her head."
Dave leaned in and looked at the joints.
"Hehe... You're right," Dave realized, rubbing the back of his neck. "It looks too bulky. I will thin out the leather around the armpits in the CAD file before I send it to the manufacturer. Maybe ask Detnerat to use a flexible mesh weave in those spots instead."
"Good catch," Kaito smiled, handing the tablet back.
He walked over to a small freezer in the corner and pulled out a plastic bag filled with ice. He walked over to Pam and handed it to her.
"Put this on your heels," Kaito told her.
"Thanks," Pam sighed. She pressed the cold plastic against her bruised feet.
"Your body is adapting to the stress," Kaito assured her. "You are doing great."
...
Time: 2 Days Later | 10:30 AM
HUUFF.
Pam stood in the center of the gym. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
COUGH. COUGH.
She leaned forward, holding her throat. She sounded incredibly raspy.
"You are still using your vocal cords," Kaito instructed from the sidelines. "You are yelling. Pull the air deep into your diaphragm. Use your massive chest cavity."
Gulp. Gulp.
Pam took a drink from her water bottle. She nodded and tried to focus on her breathing.
THUD.
The gym doors suddenly open.
Mark ran down the stairs holding a set of keys attached to a large plastic tag. He looked completely exhausted but had a huge smile on his face.
"I got it!" Mark yelled excitedly. "I finally found a heavy-duty military transport from a surplus yard! The engine needs some work, but the axles are fully reinforced! It is parked outside!"
Pam opened her eyes.
She pulled the air deep into her lungs and forced the sound through her chest instead of her throat.
"Ooooooh".
She let out a low, baritone sound.
It wasn't a perfect, paralyzing shockwave, but the low-frequency vibration shook the air inside the gym.
Mark stumbled on the bottom step of the stairs.
He caught himself on the handrail, looking completely confused. He felt a weird, sudden shock travel up his arms.
"Whoa," Mark said, shaking his hands. "What was that?"
Kaito smiled.
"That was her new technique," Kaito explained. "It needs a lot more work, but the frequency just hit your nervous system."
Pam grinned and crossed her arms.
"Progress," Pam chuckled, feeling her throat. "It finally didn't hurt to do it."
Kaito told Pam. "Now let's go outside and look at that truck."
...
Location: Underground Safehouse
Time: Thursday | 11:00 PM
SCRAPE. SCRAPE.
Spinner sat on a broken wooden crate. He dragged a heavy sharpening stone down the edge of his massive knife-sword.
He looked annoyed.
Mr. Compress sat at a dirty plastic folding table across the room. He wore his yellow trench coat and quietly shuffled a deck of playing cards.
Twice paced back and forth near the loading doors. He held the sides of his head.
"My suit is completely ruined! I need a tailor! (I love the new ventilation holes)" Twice yelled, pointing at the tears in his black and grey bodysuit.
"Will you shut up?" Spinner groaned, tossing his sharpening stone aside. "We all got beat up. You aren't special."
"I almost died!" Twice argued, waving his arms. "That crazy lady shot razor blades out of her hair! Who does that? (She had beautiful red hair!)"
Spinner grabbed his sword and rested it on his shoulder.
"I know," Spinner complained. "Where the hell is the man-child finding these freaks? That giant wolf-dragon mutant quirk just stood there. I hit him directly in the chest with my sword, and he didn't even budge. He just laughed."
"Don't forget the guy wrapped in toilet paper," Compress chimed in, smoothly flipping a card over. "He manipulated his bandages like steel cables. They have a very well-rounded cast of monsters now."
Spinner shook his head.
"We have the numbers," Spinner pointed out. "We have the whole network backing us up. But every time we push forward, those three new recruits just stall us out."
"And their boss is super annoying!" Twice shouted. "He keeps screaming about HP and party members! (He is a terrifying boss monster!)"
Spinner scowled. "Goddamn right. I can't stand fighting a guy who talks like a twelve-year-old on a gaming headset. He called me a trash mob."
"His vocabulary is severely lacking," Compress agreed. "However, his quirk is not. He decays everything around him. We cannot get close to him aside from those two."
Step. Step.
Dabi walked out of the shadows. He wore his heavy black coat and kept his hands shoved deep in his pockets.
He looked completely bored with the conversation.
Dabi pulled his right hand out and snapped his fingers.
FWOOSH.
Flicker. Flicker.
A burst of flames erupted from his palm.
The fire wasn't blue anymore. It was a blinding, pure white.
The heat in the warehouse spiked instantly. The air grew heavy and suffocating.
"The hell dude!" Spinner immediately covered his face with his arm to block the intense, stinging light.
Fwop.
Dabi closed his hand. The flames vanished.
"That constant use of trigger drug somehow awakened my quirk," Dabi said lazily, putting his hand back in his pocket. "So it a good trade off."
Stendhal sat in a dark booth near the back wall.
"The drug pushed our bodies past their biological limits," Stendhal said quietly. His voice sounded raspy from behind his cracked mask.
Spinner lowered his arm, still feeling the heat away from his body
"I wanted to awaken my quirk too," Spinner looked at Stendhal. "Same as yours."
Stendhal stopped wiping his sword. He slid the katana perfectly into the scabbard on his back.
"That bastard quirk is on a different level," Stendhal stated calmly. "If we don't make our quirk stronger, his quirk can just outright kill us."
Stendhal walked out into the dim light.
"But because of the frequent battle with them and us injecting trigger, it awakened my quirk. I no longer need to physically ingest blood to paralyze my targets. " Stendhal explained.
"Hehe..." Giran laughed
The vigilantes looked at him.
"Shigaraki's new team should have ingested trigger drugs. That's why they are stronger and can play with you three." Giran summarized while looking at Spinner, Compress and Twice.
"So we need to take drugs too? If they attack us again?" Spinner asked.
Mr. Compress stopped shuffling his cards. He gathered the deck and tapped it perfectly square on the table.
"It should be able to make us stronger and even the playing field." Compress said smoothly.
Spinner grinned, gripping his sword tighter.
"Those bastards!" Spinner said. "I don't get their motive on attacking us."
"You can't reason with man-child." Compress agreed, sliding the cards into his pocket.
...
Location: Kashiya Ward – Cow Lady Agency
Time: 5 Days Later | 01:00 PM
Pam stood in the basement gym.
Sweat dripped down her forehead. She wore a heavy weighted vest over her tank top.
She stood in front of a massive wooden plyometric box.
"Load the weight back," Kaito instructed from the side. "Put the tension onto the back joints of your hooves."
Pam crouched down deep. She focused entirely on her Achilles tendons. She felt the heavy tension building up in her legs.
"Now," Kaito ordered.
SWOOSH.
Pam snapped upward.
She exploded off the rubber mat, launching herself high into the air for the Stampede Launch.
She got the height right.
Then her mid-air posture completely loosened up.
She landed awkwardly on the very edge of the tall wooden box.
THUD.
Her foot slipped. She fell backward and crashed onto the rubber mat below.
"Damn!," Pam groaned, laying flat on her back.
Kaito walked over and checked his tablet.
"You have the spring action down," Kaito told her, holding out a hand. "You lost your balance before you even touched the wood."
Pam grabbed his hand and stood up.
"Hehe... My legs are shaking," Pam laughed, wiping the sweat from her face. "I forgot to brace my stomach."
"Take a five-minute break," Kaito smiled. "Then we reset and try it again."
Pam nodded and grabbed her water bottle.
...
Time: 6 Days Later | 08:00 PM
The agency break room smelled with pizza and cheese.
Six massive boxes of pizza sat open on the center table.
Pam, Mark, Sarah, Dave, Kaito and other personnels sat on the couches and chairs around the room.
They were all holding paper plates and staring at the large hologram on the table.
Episode three of America's Got Quirk played on the screen.
[Let's see what you can do!] Neon Rush yelled through the speakers.
A civilian walked onto the stage. He held three heavy chainsaws. He turned them on and ignited them with a small fire quirk. He started juggling the flaming machines in front of the cheering crowd.
"That guy is completely insane," Mark said, taking a bite of his pizza. "One mistake and he loses an arm."
"I give him thirty seconds before he drops one," Dave joked, leaning forward.
On the screen, the cameras panned over to the judges' table. Christopher Skyline smiled and waved at his wife and toddler in the front row.
Sarah laughed from her chair.
"Look at Captain Celebrity playing the absolute perfect family man," Sarah pointed out. "His PR team is working overtime. I bet they told him to wave exactly at that timestamp."
Kaito chuckled, grabbing a slice of pepperoni. "The American public loves a redemption story."
Pam smiled and took a drink of her soda.
She looked around the room at her team. The last two weeks of training and logistics planning had been incredibly stressful for all of them.
Sitting down, eating junk food, and watching a familiar show from back home felt really good.
"I miss Texas barbecue," Pam admitted, resting her feet on the coffee table. "But this pizza is pretty good."
"You will be back in the States soon enough," Kaito told her casually. "Let's enjoy the downtime tonight."
..
Location: Kashiya Ward – Firing Range
Time: 5 Days Later | 03:00 PM
Pam stood at the far end of the indoor firing range.
She wore the modified blue-collar hero suit.
Dave had swapped out the stiff leather around her armpits for a flexible mesh weave.
Dave stood behind a protective glass window. He loaded a solid baseball into a high-speed pitching machine.
"Ready?" Dave asked through the intercom.
"Ready," Pam answered loudly.
She contracted her chest and abdominal muscles tightly.
Dave hit the launch button.
THWACK.
The pitching machine fired the baseball at high speed.
It hit Pam near her right shoulder, right on the edge of the new flexible mesh.
BOP.
The baseball bounced off and rolled away.
Pam groaned and grabbed her shoulder. She rubbed the spot. A stinging red welt was already forming on her skin.
Pam said, rolling her arm. "Still hurts."
Dave sighed from behind the glass.
"The mesh is too thin," Dave realized, writing on his clipboard. "It gives you the mobility, but it sacrifices the kinetic padding. The impact transferred right through to your skin."
Kaito stood next to the glass.
"It is a huge improvement, Dave," Kaito praised him. "Cow Lady can actually throw a proper punch now. Just tell Detnerat to double the thickness of the mesh weave on the next version. We will find the right balance."
Dave nodded and started drafting the new email to the manufacturer.
Pam stretched her arms over her head, happy she could actually move her shoulders again.
...
Location: Kashiya Ward – Basement Gym
Time: 7 Days Later | 09:00 AM
A massive block of solid concrete hung from a heavy iron chain in the middle of the gym.
Pam stood ten feet away in her cow form.
She dropped her chin and locked her spine into a rigid line.
Anvil Thrust
She charged forward.
CRACK.
Her heavy horns slammed into the concrete block.
BAAM. CRACK.
The block cracked heavily down the middle.
CRUMBLE. CRUMBLE.
Large chunks of stone fell onto the rubber mats. The block did not completely shatter.
Pam stopped her charge. She stepped back and immediately rubbed her temples.
Pam grumbled, closing her eyes. "My head is pounding."
Kaito tapped his tablet screen, recording the data.
"You absorbed about sixty percent of the recoil that time," Kaito told her. "You let your neck muscles relax right before impact. The shock traveled straight up your spine into your skull."
Pam sat down on a bench and grabbed a water bottle.
"I can't seem to hold the tension all the way through the hit," Pam said, looking frustrated.
"This is attempt number forty today," Kaito pointed out calmly. "You are hitting a four-out-of-ten success rate. Last week, it was zero. You are making real progress. Your neck muscles just need more conditioning."
Gulp. Gulp.
Pam took a long drink of water. She knew he was right. She just hated the headaches.
...
Location: Kashiya Ward – Commercial Garage
Time: 4 Days Later | 04:00 PM
The massive, heavy-duty transport truck sat parked in the center of the room. Mark sat in the driver's seat. He turned the key.
VROOM. VROOM.
It sounded incredibly smooth.
"Engine is fully repaired!" Mark yelled out the window, giving a thumbs up.
At the back of the trailer, Dave stood near the heavy metal ramp. Kaito stood next to him.
"Let's test the pneumatic release," Dave said, holding a remote control.
Dave pressed the red button.
CLACK.
The air cylinders hissed. The heavy ramp started to drop.
SCREECH.
The metal ramp stopped halfway down. A loud grinding noise echoed from the hinges. The ramp just hung in the air, completely stuck.
Mark turned the engine off and climbed out of the cab. He walked to the back of the truck and sighed.
"What happened?" Mark asked.
Kaito crouched down and inspected the heavy air cylinders bolted to the floor. He ran his hand along the rubber tubing.
"You have a pressure leak in the left valve," Kaito pointed out. "The right cylinder pushed down, and the left one stalled. It jammed the hinge."
Dave groaned and rubbed his forehead.
"I need to replace the entire seal," Dave said, walking over to his toolbox.
He tossed a heavy metal wrench to Kaito. Kaito caught it easily.
"Let's get it apart," Kaito smiled, rolling up his sleeves. "We will bleed the air lines and reset the valve."
"I still can't believe you also know this manager. You almost know everything." Dave commented.
"I just read more books on my free time."
"Really? I haven't seen you do it. It's like your omniscient. Is your quirk really not related to brain or memory?"
"I only have a normal unusable quirk."
"Hmm. I see. I see..." Dave looked at Kaito with Doakes-type expression.
"..." Kaito.
Dave and Kaito crawled under the ramp and started loosening the bolts.
...
Time: 3 Days Later | 02:00 AM
The night air was freezing cold.
The massive transport truck drove down the empty, closed section of the Japanese highway.
Mark gripped the steering wheel. He checked his speedometer.
"We are holding steady at forty-five miles per hour," Mark announced through his radio earpiece. "I am keeping it under the speed limit for the first run."
Inside the dark trailer, Pam stood waiting. She wore her thick Texas leather suit.
Kaito stood near the front wall, holding a radio.
Three miles ahead, Dave had set up a large concrete testing barricade across the empty lanes.
"We are approaching the drop zone," Kaito said over the radio. "Drop the ramp on my mark."
HUFF.
Pam took a deep breath. She crouched down, loading all her weight into her Achilles tendons.
"Green light," Kaito ordered.
CLACK.
The heavy back doors swung open. The metal ramp dropped completely smoothly this time.
The loud rushing sound of the wind filled the trailer.
Cow Lady's tendons snapped back.
WHOOSH.
She exploded out the back of the moving trailer. She hit the rushing asphalt and maintained her forward momentum.
SWOOOSH.
She sprinted down the center of the highway.
The concrete barricade appeared in the headlights.
Cow Lady sprinted right at it. She activated her quirk one step away.
FWOOSH.
She expanded into her heavy cow form.
The massive weight combined with her running speed.
BOOM.
She hit the barricade with her body. The wall broke into large pieces and crumbled across the road.
But.
Cow Lady's timing was slightly off. She lost her balance on the impact.
THUD.
She stumbled hard on the landing. Her knee hit the rough asphalt, tearing a small hole in her denim pants.
SKKRRRT.
She skidded to a stop, sitting on the road and breathing heavily.
The truck slowed down and parked on the shoulder.
Kaito walked down the ramp and jogged over to her. He held out a cold bottle of water.
Pam took it and looked at her scraped knee.
"Almost," Pam said, wiping the sweat off her face.
Kaito looked at the broken concrete barricade scattered across the highway.
"You destroyed the target," Kaito pointed out, handing her a towel. "You got out of a moving truck and you hit the timing window. Good job."
Pam looked at the rubble. A huge grin spread across her face.
The last thirty days were full of bruises, headaches, and broken gear.
They still had a lot of work to do before they flew back to America.
Gulp. Gulp.
She drank the cold water, feeling incredibly proud of her team.
"Let's go again. I need to make it perfect."
...
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