[August 14th, year 2063, 8:30 AM]

It has been about a week since Shindo had decided to become a hero. Ever since Diva had found the he used to be “The Undaunting Villain”, he had decided to seclude himself to his old base. It was too risky to be out in the open, since there was a chance that other informants took notice of the “Hostage Incident” that occurred at Unwin's. That was how the news decided to portray that event: just another “accident” caused by one of the villains who the heroes carelessly let escape. Bastards.

However, that wasn’t the worst part. When Shindo read the news this morning he almost choked on his coffee. The goddamn Heroes' Operation Center decided to put up a recruitment bounty on Shindo himself! Or at least, they publicly put the bounty up for the person who defeated Pyro and the person who saved Unwin’s. Thankfully, they seem to be lacking in the information department, as they didn’t know who did it and they didn't know those two cases where related to same person. Yet it still surprised him that neither Diva, Ben, Angela, nor Oscar revealed anything on this subject.

That's why Shindo didn't even think of going out in public. In fact, he only did two things this week:he developed all the gadgetry and armor he would use in preparation for his exam, and... he e-mailed Ben his official resignation due to "psychological damages''.

His former boss's scared eyes flashed brifely through his head as he finished shaping the last of the gadgets.

"Finally, it's over." Shindo breathed in relief, pushing his thoughts aside. He leaned back as he took a small towel from under his desk and was extremely pleased to know that there wasn't any gum under his work desk. He then took a small step back and marveled at the armor and gadgetry he had worked on. It was an utterly satisfying feeling to finish off a week-long crafting session.

But as quickly as he relaxed his body, the door behind him opened.

"Hey, gremlin." A female voice purred in a teasing tone.

Shindo internally groaned. Diva had arrived.

"That again? You do know I have a name, right?"

Diva had a teasing grin. She was leaning in the doorway holding a few grocery bags. "Well, you've basically been in a basement for a week. In my book, you're either a gremlin or a neckbeard. Pick your fill."

"You are an asshole, you know that?" Shindo replied as he stretched his back.

"it takes an asshole understands another one." She replied sagely with a lopsided grin, causing the two to erupt in laughter.

During this last week, Shindo had the chance to get to know Diva more as a person. Her teasing attitude sometimes hid her more serious personality quirks. However, she had also gained his respect. She was extremely knowledgeable in both the general workings of HOC and gadget smithing. The woman had talent and a keen eye for mistakes, but they both knew that her expertise leaned more towards information gathering than creating gadgets.

Diva took out a can of soda from one of the bags.

"I went to the grocery store to get you some decent food for once. Want one?"

Shindo looked at her and nodded.

"Throw it here," He said as he put the towel on his shoulder. Diva threw the can, which he caught gracefully and opened it. The cold liquid refreshed and energized the former gadgetsmith.

"Show off." Diva rolled her eyes at the display as she opened another can. She went to find a chair to sit on and got her laptop out of her bag.

"You know, while you were stuck here like a gremlin..."

"Oi."

"Don't interrupt me. I found something that may interest you."

Diva typed on her computer for a few seconds before beckoning Shindo to come. She opened a security feed of what Shindo assumed were two young heroes facing a slightly older heroine. There was no audio, but he could see that the two heroes had some sort of animosity towards the lone heroine.

"This happened around an hour and half ago. Seems like heroes have their own inner squabbles," Diva commented, but Shindo's focus was on the heroine.

At first glance, she looked like a typical heroine. Her long black hair contrasted heavily with her white and blue bodysuit. However, what surprised Shindo was that she was cold. Her pose rippled with an alertness and confidence Shindo had only seen in his villain days.

Her non-stop glare also caught his eye. How can a hero be that cold? Was she a hero from before the Night of Fear?

Still, she rippled with a decisive and calculating aura, like if she had dealt with a situation like this countless times. Nevertheless, when he saw the woman fight, he grew more and more confused with this woman. Why did she let the other two hit her? Was it to spare them, or was it to gain an opportunity to finish them? Her motivations were intriguing, to say the least.

"So, what do you think?" Diva asked expectantly.

"I'd rather avoid her," Shindo responded almost immediately.

"Avoid her?" There was a hint of disappointment laced in her voice, "But she reminds me of you with that fighting style! Maybe you could partner up with her?"

"No, Diva, her fighting style is different from mine." Shindo looped back the feed, showing the heroine calm and poised. The woman didn't have a formal stance, but her methods were precise whenever she struck at her enemies.

"While I attack in short consecutive bursts, she waits and reacts accordingly. Look at how she reacts to the hits she takes." He paused the video, and it showed the heroine taking the punch of an armored girl. "She may fight similar to me, but she is sharper and more calculating than me. It's best for us to not meet at all during today's exam."

In frustration, Diva closed the laptop. "Really, East? This is the fifth time this week!"

With this frustrated declaration, Diva went on a rant on how he should keep an eye on different heroes. Why was this? Well, if he succeeded in finishing the exam, many team leaders or solo heroes would offer him a choice to join them. Seems like it was a sort of etiquette for a newbito to join a team. However, Shindo wasn't interested in that at all.

In his opinion, finishing his armor and gadgetry were more important than learning about those bastards. They were his way of fighting after all, and in a sense, his lifeline. Specially his armor, which had to be designed to deal with threats and be breathable. Sadly, the original concept of the armor was scrapped due to a little mishap: some of the alloy from his old villain armor was wasted, so he had to change the armor's overall design. That's why he had spent a non-stop week of crafting: he had to make do with what he had, but he also had to follow a strict deadline.

Still, he grew fond of the final form of the armor, but he himself wouldn't call it an “armor” by any gadget smithing standards. The "costume" consisted of a black bullet-proof vest and a forest green aviator jacket that was padded with the alloy from the old armor. The costume's brown pants had less padding than the vest, which provided flexibility and less weight for Shindo, which was great when taking the black combat boots into account. Finally, Shindo's favorite part of the armor was the green-tinted visor, which was a masterpiece of a string visor that had the same green shade as the jacket.

"Are you even listening to me?" Diva snapped when she noticed Shindo wasn't paying attention.

"Not at all actually," Shindo replied as he made his way towards the table, "I just thought that I'm late for the exam."

Diva rolled her eyes but didn't say a word. At least until a teasing smile appeared when he approached his armor.

"Ugh, please turn away," Shindo said in disdain.

"Why? Are you going to change?" She asked innocently. Her grinned widened.

"I just want to test if the armor fits me. Plus," The former gadgetsmith flashed her a cold, deadpanned look, "I don't want you seeing my eyes."

They looked straight at each other until Diva went for the door.

"... Fine. Just tell me when you are ready so that we can test the com functions."

With that, she closed the door to the base, allowing Shindo to change into his hero costume.

However, curious about the time, he checked his phone. He was surprised to see that he had received multiple calls from Ben and Oscar.

Shindo stared blankly at the screen for a few minutes debating on if to call them back or not. Scared eyes flashed through his head. His back started aching. Immediately, he closed the phone, tucking it in one of the pockets of his gadget belt, and then started suiting up.

After putting on his armor, Shindo decided to check himself in the mirror. After a few checks and poses, he felt satisfied with his look. It was sort of a biker look, but Shindo thought this was generic enough to blend in.

Then he started to slowly put away his gadgets. Sprawled over the desk were a vast bundle of darts, a baton, a grapnel gun, and nine controllers. He quickly put the darts right behind him. He then holstered the grapnel gun on his right side, and the baton on his left.

Lastly, there were the controllers. He could only manage to make nine with the limited materials he had, but these suckers were what elevated Shindo to infamy when he was Hertzz. After all, even one of these controllers was enough to take down a powered individual, since the chemical reactions inside of them could cause extreme heat or coldness, basically making a disruption zone. He put six of the nine in the front pockets of his belt.

This left him with three other controllers, which he ironically called statics. After his retirement, he discovered that passing an electrical current through the controllers' chemical reaction causes a sprawling of electric tendrils, enough to stun a man and lower their power output. This is what he had used on Pyro. He quickly put them in a separate pocket.

With that done, he holstered his belt and called Diva in.

"Oi, Diva. I'm done."

"About time." She said as she entered. She scanned him up and down, and nodded in approval.

"Now you're looking part, East."

“Now, now, I'm in costume Diva. don't go calling me "East". Call me Wattz.”

Diva rolled her eyes at Shindo’s playful chiding. She then went towards the green-clad hero and tapped his shoulder so that he could lower himself. She proceeded to look at coms of the string visor, teak with them for a bit, and then tapped him and put her thumbs up. The coms were up.

Shindo then turned on his visor and checked the time, which was around nine in the morning.

"Well then, Diva, I'm off." He said.

She didn't say anything, but Shindo felt her smile. He simply went out of the base and un-holstered the grapnel gun. He sighed for a bit, before shooting the hook to the nearest rooftop. It thankfully attached to a railing safely. Shindo grinned a bit as the adrenaline started to boil in him. It was about time he went to take that exam.