[ginarrative]

Dawn; A beautiful time of day in Japan; The sun was falling, letting its light reflect through the golden leaves as it bid farewell to the waking world. Around this time, most students at UAU would be returning to their dorms, a fact Payne Preston was counting on.

A taller man, he couldn’t look older than thirty, but his face was that of an older, more hardened man, a stern look on his face that went from his chin to his widow’s peak haircut.

Dressed warmly in an overcoat and scarf, Payne watched over the horizon, just as the man he’d been waiting for showed his face.

Jack’s dragon wings and horn were unmistakable, the spitting image of the teen he had seen at the Sport’s Festival.

Reaching into his coat, Payne pulled out a couple of files, and started to walk towards Jack. He’d made sure to choose a public place, right outside UA as to make sure to not come off as threating.

“Jack Orion.” He spoke over, calmly waving the young man over.

“My name is Payne Preston; I need a minute of your time to talk about what happened at the sports festival, with one Mark Haga?” His voice was non threatening, but stern, like a teacher that needed to talk about a low test score.

[Jack Orion]

"Bleh...I need a frickin' shower..."

Jack grumbled to himself as he trod slowly out of class for the day. It had been a relatively hard day of training, lasting basically all day, save for a few short breaks. Of course, it was his own doing - it was becoming clearer by the day that Jack had been trying to push himself to the absolute limit, for one reason or another. Honestly, after everything that had been going on the last few months, the dragon felt it would have been weird for him to take it easy on himself now.

The threats kept on coming. Sooner or later, things were going to end up coming to a head, and he had to be ready for it. Even if it meant going after every single advantage he could end up finding.

Scrolling through his phone, he was texting a couple of people, mainly Jason and Leo. The usual stuff - making plans for dinner, setting up dates and stuff for the fraternity, seeing how Opal and Lapis were at home. At least it was all just stuff that would take his mind off of anything particularly stressful.

That was, until he heard an unfamiliar voice call his name.

Glancing up for a moment, he would see a man approaching him, holding up files and introducing himself. Of course, Jack's eyes would quickly narrow as he mentioned Mark. Already, a multitude of alarms starting blaring inside of his mind, but he didn't let it show on his face too much.

Looking back down at his phone for a moment, he seemed to make a big show, as if he were still texting someone. However, he instead went towards a voice recorder app on his phone. Generally a first instinct when someone decides they want something with him - dangerous or not, anything that was said could have a purpose later.

Sticking his phone in one of the pouches on his belt, he would look up at the man, who would be a good bit taller than the short dragon, but his arms crossed all the same. "Uh huh? What about it?" he asked simply, his own tone stern, clear that he didn't appreciate suddenly being talked down to. He didn't particularly care if some 'representative' from the Thunderbolts or whoever wanted to talk about what had happened. At most, he expected a form of apology for being dragged into whatever that was to begin with.

Judging by the man's tone, though, he could tell that wasn't what was coming.

[ginarrative]

Good; He was going to hear him out. Payne had almost been afraid Jack would ignore him outright.
This meant he could get to work.
“Mr.Orion, you may or may not have noticed, but Mark has taken…” The man paused, searching for his words. “A liking is the right word. More of an obsession. I’m sure the Sports Festival incident has already shown that to you.”
Reaching into his coat, the man pulled out a manilla folder, and approached Jack. “I work closely with the Thunderbolts; Or, more specifically, with Polymorph, aka Basilo Haga. Officially, I work with public relations. Unofficially…”
Opening the folder, the PR member pulled out some photos, mostly consisting of Mark and of some men that would be unfamiliar to Jack. The pictures seemed to have been taken without the target’s knowledge.

“I’m part of a specialized ordinance, known as the False-Face protocol.” Extending the papers to Jack for him to get a better look, Payne would continue.
“In this varied world of quirks, many, of course, can shapeshift. This can prove to be a problem; What if someone goes into the Oval Office of the United States disguised as the president, and decides to fire off a few nukes just for the fun of it? Preventing that was the general idea of the introduction of this protocol; Unfortunately, it was shot down due to privacy concerns.” Payne’s voice was emotionless, almost a bit cold.
“Still, unofficially, many organizations are around, to keep an eye on the more problematic shapeshifters; Only watching, never acting.” Waiting a minute, Payne would watch Jack’s face, carefully judging how he felt about this revelation, before asking his next question.
“With your closeness to him….I’m personally asking you to keep an eye on Mark Haga. If you agree, I’ll fill you in further. If not…That’ll be the end of it.”

[Jack Orion]

Jack's eyes quickly narrowed even further as the man began to speak. This guy works with Mark's father? was his initial thought. Considering what his current theory about Mark's situation was - that was, at least, to say not a fucking good one - it didn't exactly give a bunch of good vibes on the matter. He didn't trust Basilo in the slightest, and he hadn't even met the guy.

Regardless, going deeper into the matter, Jack couldn't help but cock his head to the side. "So, vigilantism." he said bluntly. Raising an eyebrow at him, his tail swishing from side to side, he would look at Payne with a frown. Honestly, if anything Jack would end up agreeing with the idea of such a protocol being shot down. He understood the dangers of someone with the ability to shapeshift, but it still was made under the assumption that all Quirkers who had the ability would use it like that to begin with. Needless to say, Jack was against the stigmatization of any Quirked person, regardless. That's how villains are made.

Plus, to put it nicely, Mark didn't really seem like the type of person to try and pull that kind of thing even if he wanted to. And that was just based on how he's seen him use his Quirk so far. Hell, he even had to put a suggestion in his head to even try something more creative than what he's used to to begin with.

Then again, if he started to strive more towards freedom, maybe something that drastic wasn't out of the question.

"Right, so...I'm going to need a lot more information before I agree to anything," he replied, stopping for a second. "For starters, isn't this blatant vigilantism? You're asking a Hero student to do something considered unlawful, unless you've got somethin' to say otherwise.

Even besides that, outside of Mark's interest in me, your suggestion sounds like you're jumping the gun. Unless you've got another good reason for thinking that? That, and, because this doesn't exactly sound like something that's normally up my alley, what exactly is in it for me?"

Asking all the hard questions, making sure that he got as much information as he would possibly need, either for agreeing to such a term, or using the recording to assist Mark against whatever is supposedly coming his way. Honestly, it sounded like Payne wanted to use Jack as a wild card. Something that would be counted on in the future. Otherwise, why approach him of all people at all?