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?

A sly smirk formed on Jack's face, taking a fighting stance for a moment as Retsu would again place herself in between him and Springboard. "And yet, you sound just like those stupid people back then did," he retorted, watching her carefully. History had a tendency to repeat itself, he noticed. Throughout history, a small, if not extremely vocal, minority always blamed a certain group for all of their troubles. The Christians, the Jewish, the Islamic. All persecuted purely for their beliefs, because they were different from 'the norm'.

Of course, the Quirked fell straight into that group as well. Stereotypes and all. Which, of course, just brought them right to where they were right now.

Retsu lobbed a frag grenade right towards Jack, the dragon man charging energy in his hand the moment he saw it flying towards him. Lowering his hand just below his chest, the moment the grenade got close, he would explode just enough energy to cause a huge gust of wind to soar, launching the grenade high up into the sky before it would explode! "Bee tee dubs, ya definitely ain't the only one playing with explosives, amiga," he quipped, smirking devilishly.

The news drones would fly all around the clashing forces - Jack could also faintly hear phones playing the news from a distance as well. His eyes narrowed, wondering how they were going to phrase all of this. 'Overconfident Rookie takes on Mass Murdering Maniac?!' A snort emitted from his nostrils at the thought, even though, just looking at Retsu, he didn't get that kind of vibe from her, ironically enough.

Nah. Just another wannabe comic book villain, one who just got lucky up to this point.

Rushing towards Retsu, he would aim a quick jab right at her side, looking her dead in the eyes the entire time. Even as she tried to feign a strike, Jack would hold his arm right to the point where her knee wouldn't get far. A pain would shoot through his arm, but better than the gut. "Always blaming another group for your problems, when the big problem stares back at ya in the mirror every damn day!" he spat, shooting the smallest of energy blasts towards her forehead from his mouth, just enough to make her dazed for a split second.

Rearing his fist back, he would hit her with a right hook, followed up by a quick leg sweep! As he would essentially begin to pummel her, he would continue. "I've seen what kinda crap you can pull, dunce! With your talents, you could have easily have made a name for yourself in the hero scene, or any other scene! But, nah! Let's blame all the Quirked peeps because 'WAHHH I DIDN'T GET SUPER POWAS!' Don't make me laugh!"

Finishing off his assault with another small burst from his hand to send her back, Jack would continue to approach, if a lot slower compared to before. "You don't even know what it is you're missin'. And I mean that in a good way. Power always comes at a price. Plenty of people face death in the face purely because of the Quirks they have. But, nah. Let's just blame all ya problems on them, cuz they're different, yeah?" he said, spitting off to the side in disgust.

Looking to all of the cameras hovering around them, he would spread his arms out wide. "LET IT BE KNOWN HERE AND NOW! THIS PIECE OF GARBAGE DOESN'T SPEAK FOR ANYONE BUT HERSELF! QUIRKED OR QUIRKLESS, PEOPLE MAKE THEIR OWN FATES! DON'T LET PEOPLE LIKE HER MAKE YA THINK OTHERWISE!" he hollared, before turning back towards Retsu. "What ya gotta say to that, eh? Maybe the next time ya look in the mirror in what's gonna be your jail cell, ya might think once or twice about what went wrong. And it ain't that dumbass over there," he said, pointing towards Springboard.

The moment that Jack attempted to teleport to the other side of the Nomu, he could feel an odd sense that he hadn't felt before, at least not during the other times he's used the gadget so far. Though, this wasn't exactly a normal field test or easy fight. Maybe adrenaline was getting the better of him, was all. Even if it took longer, Jack ended up brushing off as sheer hesitation. Gritting his teeth, his eyes narrowed as he would internally chastise himself.

This wasn't the time to get worried about a repeat event. There wasn't people around other than him and Farrin. So why was he getting so nervous?! Shaking his head, he got himself airborne using his Vine Whips, carefully aiming a shot at the dark green half's eye. However, this is quickly where he began to notice things starting to go wrong. As the chaotic energy battled with the effects of Stagnation, Jack's eyes widened as he realized quickly what was about to happen.

Looking towards Farrin, the dragon man would again focus on teleporting out of there, but he again felt a pause. Then, the ripping, as if the front half of his body was being torn from the back. Even if only for a moment, that shock of pain would cause the dragon to yelp. Teleporting towards Farrin nonetheless, Jack would make it just as the energy detonated. He could feel the massive, cold force hitting his side just as he warped. Huffing a puff of steam from his nose and stumbling just a little bit, he still grinned nonchalantly. Shoving the fear in his heart down as far as it could go, especially now as he realized what was going on.

"Pretty sure this bastard's rippin' off ya gimmick, amigo. Ya just gonna take that?!" he chirped at Farrin, cracking his knuckles as he began to charge up more energy.

The monster then began to do something odd - one eye on Stagnation would shift towards the other half, causing it to come to a complete halt. The weirder part, though - suddenly there was another guy. Blinking in confusion, not even remotely recognizing the crazy bastard as he would throw himself on top of the pale half's head, attempting to blindfold it while it was stuck in place. "Uh...he with you?" he asked Farrin, worry suddenly filling his eyes. He wasn't exactly counting on a crazy civilian in the area.

Then again, maybe crazy was what they needed right now.

Shifting his attention back to Stagnation, his eyes suddenly widened as the Nomu would start firing off scales from all over it's body! Feeling the rush of Farrin's Quirk flowing through his body, Jack would hold his hands up, firing off continuous shots towards as many scales as he could possibly comprehend in the split second reaction! Shards from the explosion would cut across Jack's face and body, but nothing so dire that he couldn't keep moving.

Glancing back at Farrin, seeing how he was holding up, his eyes would end up following the direction of where the other student was aiming, realizing what he was thinking. Following his lead, Jack would aim at Stagnation's eyes as well, firing off as a couple of shots from each hand, hoping that this time the shots wouldn't blow up in his face. He had an inkling that teleporting wouldn't exactly be a good idea for now, so.

---

-Initially mistook Stagnation's gaze as nerves getting the better of him.
-Realized something was wrong the moment his energy started acting up, attempting teleporting away before the energy exploded.
-Teleportation lag, made it out as the energy exploded, leaving minor damage on his side.
-Finally notices Arc, what a crazy bastard!
-Joined Farrin in firing at as many scales as he possibly could in the moment.
-Shifted towards again firing at Stagnation's eyes with Farrin.

Jack's wild grin grew more into a devilish smirk. "I mean, yeah, but Leo's a lot less likely to kill me than YaoYao would be," he replied, cackling again. Of course, he wouldn't actually do his boyfriend dirty like that - he was just excited, was all. Even his edgy boy would understand that. From what he had heard about YaoYao, though...

Yeah, no. Ain't touchin' that can of worms with a ten-foot pole.

Stretching out his limbs casually, he raised an eyebrow at Kei's sudden questions. "...You been bingin' sci-fi movies again? It would be 3397, 'bout a hundred years off there." Crossing his arms, cocking his head to the side. "I'm all here, amigo. Thanks to someone's particular genius and safety precautions. Dunno who that is, though." He would slightly bump Kei's shoulder with his own, chuckling.

Cracking his knuckles and his neck, Jack would look back around towards the obstacle course. "Right, so we got the self-teleportation down. Now we need to test teleporting more than one thing at a time," he said, looking up and around, just so he knew where he was going. "On your mark!"

Once Kei again gave the word, Jack would suddenly warp to one of the civilian dummies. Putting his hand on it, he would quickly teleport back with it in tow. Before actively looking at if it ended up working properly, he was already off towards a duo of dummies, repeating the process several times! Again, it only actively took a matter of seconds to get the test done - it was genuinely amazing how fast teleportation actually was in practice. He'd probably put the fastest people alive to shame with this thing!

Once it was all said and done, Jack would look towards all of the dummies he had brought over - roughly ten in total. Looking them all up and down, it would be apparent that none of them were damaged in the slightest! Whistling lowly, he had a relieved look in his eyes as he would look back at Kei. "Looks like we're all good in that department," he said, taking a deep breath. Looking down at the little shark pup besides them, Jack would give Jawny a good pat on the head, before looking back up at Kei. "Now...for the final test! And the reason I asked ya to bring Jawny with ya," he said, stepping back a bit.

He would go quiet for a second, mentally putting in the command to teleport him to a specific location. He already had a couple of 'waypoints' programmed into the GPS - the school, home, a couple of specific places on campus. It would make it easier than having to mentally picture the exact place he needed to go like would normally have to. Even if the fact that was even an option was a feat in of itself. "Right, be right back!"

With that, he was suddenly gone, away completely from the field. Teleporting home, Jack would quickly pop up in his bedroom. He knew he had made it safely once he head the meowing and yapping of Lapis and Opal. The two animals quickly jumped on their owner, sniffing him up and down relentlessly! "Okay, okay! Sheeeeeesh, you two, settleeeeeeee." he cooed, kissing them both on the head. Smirking at the two of them, he could feel his heart racing. "Y'all wanna go out? Y'all wanna go ouuuut?"

Lapis would end up cocking his head to the side, looking confused at the sudden invitation, while Opal would suddenly be spinning around, yapping in excitement! Jack chuckled, nodding. "Alright, alright...hold still, hold still." He would put his hands on the both of them, before promptly teleporting with them back to Ground Beta!

Appearing back to where he was just standing a minute prior, Jack would appear with Opal and Lapis in tow, the animals, of course, completely unharmed! Smirking at Kei, he would spread his arms, gesturing towards his pets. "Pet playdate?"

"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.

Jack couldn't help but grin devilishly at Kei's surprise. "Sorry, I can be a bit anal about fixing a problem that I know I can fix," he laughed, shaking his head a bit. Throwing the can away, he would come back, ready to sketch things out and talk all the while. Honestly, his type of perfect day.

Raising an eyebrow at him, Jack snorted another small burst of starry steam. "Ah, yes, a dog-like-creature. Definitely one of the best of pets," he joked, shaking his head and chuckling. "If that's ya way of skirting around the fact that ya also have a Quirked pet, then we have that in common." He stopped drawing for a second, pulling out his phone. "Here, one sec," he said, before pulling up a photo of Opal and Lapis, sliding the phone over to Kei for him to see. "The white lil fox there is Opal, and the big ass cat there is Lapis. He's an actual lynx, but they're both sweethearts, trust me," he said, smirking again at Kei. "That help ya relax a lil on the matter more?"

That being said, as they would continue to chat, Jack would get the first drafts drawn up quickly: the one that stood out to him a little personally was the more star-shaped gem that would extend on his back a bit like an exoskeleton. "I think if we connect the teleporter to my back it'll naturally draw energy as Chaos Energy passes through my body- it, uh, does that instead of electricity in me. Same results, just different energy. I think with that we could wirelessly connect a GPS mapping system to make precise coordinates when teleporting over long distances..." he started, rambling on a bit on how he thinks it would end up working out. He had a surprising amount of technical knowledge, but nowhere near the amount to ever really put it into practice.

After a little bit of rambling, Jack would smirk a little bit if they would end up coming to an agreement on the idea. "What say you, Professor Kei? Let's get to work?"

---

2 Months Later...


The next couples of months that they would work on this were...eventful, to say the least. Sea monsters randomly attacking the city, people going out and about off the coast of Japan for various reasons, a Vigilante group suddenly going on a rampage...it was a lot. Something that honestly kept Jack going through all of the chaos was this project, not even for the sheer excitement of the breakthroughs they constantly made.

He couldn't help but admit that he clicked extremely well with Kei. Something about the gadgeteer's own energetic nature, especially for his own passions struck a chord with him. The more they talked, the more the dragon got interested in his own ambitions. There was even one point where Jack would open up about his past and childhood, why he's as passionate about things as he is. That probably in of itself showed how much he trusted the guy, all things considered.

That said, there were definite ups and downs to the whole project. Trying to even figure out how to make a teleporter from scratch alone was a headache, but there was also the matter constructing something that could be powered by Chaos Energy to begin with. Many days and nights were spent trying to achieve what was thought to be science fiction in the past.

It just made it all the more sweeter when they successfully managed to teleport an apple from one side of the room to the other. At that point all that could be heard from the room was absolute cheering. All that was left from there was testing the range, testing the limits of the size and weight of the objects being teleported, and finally if more than one thing could be teleported at a time.

When that was finally all said and done, the final day had arrived. Donning his Hero Suit for the special occasion, Jack would shoot a quick call towards Kei. Making sure the C.A.T.S. was all put together and ready to go, and a bit of an odd request. "Okay, this is gonna sound weird but roll with me for a sec. You mind bringing Jawny down with you? I promise on my Mama's soul he will not be used for any sort of testing, but if everything works out I got something y'all will enjoy," he said, grinning from ear to ear.

He couldn't help but be glad that this day had come, and all the more confident and proud in what they had accomplished.