The Exchange Hero

Episode 19

"Does someone want to tell me what my son is doing in the middle of a frikking war zone?!" Captain Armstrong bellowed, his hand reaching out to pull me into a hug. I tried to convince myself it didn't feel a little like safety and home.

All eyes turned to me. So much for the secret identity, I thought. I stunk at it anyway. "Um ... It's my first-term work experience. Like a short internship," I replied in English as I pushed free of his embrace. "Things just got a little ... exciting. I'm fine."

"Exciting, my red, white, and blue behind! This is a major disaster." Dad stated hotly. He turned to Air Jet. "I thought you were going to take care of my kid, AJ?"

"Calm yourself Captain. He subtly gestured to a news copter circling above the buildings. "You have an image to maintain."

"We'll talk later." He speared my boss with a glare that said more than a week of talk radio. Then he turned back to me. "Otis, are you sure you're alright. You look a little singed around the edges." He ran a finger over a bit a char on my costume that had come either from the burning car I had caught, or an attack from the walking fire hazard.

"Your son did well Armstrong," Endeavor said quietly to Dad. Not quietly enough that everyone I there could not hear though. "For his age, at least."

The police arrived, followed shortly by the press, cutting off the discussion. It turned out the unkempt man was the notorious hero killer, Stain. A very tall Labrador-headed man in a trench coat took over the police investigation. He had everyone separated before they were questioned. Dad and Crimson Riot accompanied me for the questioning. Not unexpectedly Kocho-sensei and Aizawa-sensei showed up soon thereafter. With four Class1-A students involved while on an official school activity, they were bound to.

"Should we have a lawyer?" Dad asked me quietly. He was looking around uncertainly. I had no idea how much time he had spent in Japan, but I don't think he was very comfortable. I knew he didn't speak the language.

"Don't think so."

"OK ... so other than this, how have you been enjoying the exchange?" He seemed genuinely interested.

"It's been ..." I thought back to the shunning after first combat exercise ... the matsuri with Pony and Nee-chan ... the USJ battle ... jamming with the Jiros ... getting my rear handed to me by everyone in the first hand-to-hand class ... training with Momo-chan ... the sports festival ... my coffee conversations with Midoriya and Todoroki ... the attack on the train bridge ... my discoveries with Dr. Shuzenji. I couldn't determine how I felt. "...a lot more than I expected."

"Do you want to stay? It's still summer back home. You could start school at the end of the summer if you wanted."

"Which school?" I asked almost automatically? My quarrel with Dad had become almost reflexive at this point I and I fell back into it without thinking.

"Hero High, of course." He replied just as reflexively. "I mean ...' he gestured to my costume. "It looks good on you. Not the colors I would have chosen, but still good."

"Thanks," I said and was surprised to find I was not being sarcastic. I was pretty proud of the suit, and of my actions while wearing it tonight. I may have been taken down by the number two hero, but I saved some people and captured a real villain.

Dad stayed with me, and was uncharacteristically quiet, while I gave my statement to the police detective. As the only time I had anything to do with the villains was catching the burning car thrown by the flyer, getting caught by the flyer, and taking down Mesmer, most of what I reported on was my getting the civilians out of harm's way. I made sure to give Tinker the credit for upgrading my little robots to make them more independent and provide me with scenarios and behaviors for their expanded programming. Dad did roll his eyes when I started talking about my tech.