**Age 18**
The news report that changed everything came across Suguro's monitors during a routine evening of research review.
"Breaking news from the Gotham Forest Preserve, a mass casualty incident involving what authorities are calling a 'plant-controlling villain.' Dozens of workers from Daggett Industries were found dead in brutal circumstances, and due to chairman Roland Daggett's personal outrage a large hero response is currently underway..."
Suguro's attention sharpened. A plant-controlling villain was unusual, botanical Quirks were rare, and ones powerful enough to kill so many people were even rarer. He pulled up multiple news feeds, gathering information.
The victims had been killed by plants, impaled on tree roots, poisoned by toxins, in one case literally eaten by a massively enlarged carnivorous plant. The sheer brutality suggested rage rather than cold murder, and the fact that the killer had remained at the scene to fight heroes suggested either stupidity or desperation.
Then the news showed footage from a helicopter, shaky, distant, but clear enough. A girl with red hair and green-tinged skin probably around his age, surrounded by aggressive plant life, fighting five heroes simultaneously. Trees bent to her will, vines lashed out like whips, the forest itself seemed to be attacking the heroes.
She was losing, overwhelmed by numbers and experience, but her power was extraordinary. Even through poor footage quality, Suguro could see the potential.
"Jaina," he called out. "Are you monitoring this?"
One of her duplicates appeared at his shoulder. "The forest incident? Yes. Looks like a new player. Why?"
"That girl has one of the most powerful Quirks I've ever seen. Botanical control at that scale, that precision, do you understand what it could in the right hands?"
Jaina studied the footage and sarcastically replied. "You mean your hands?"
"Exactly and they're about to lock her in some containment facility where her Quirk will be useless and her potential will rot." Suguro stood, already planning. "I want it."
"She's surrounded by heroes and being transported under maximum security. Extraction would be nearly impossible."
"Nearly impossible is not impossible."
Jaina's duplicates scattered to their tasks while Suguro began calculating. A direct assault on a hero transport was risky, it would draw enormous attention, potentially make Crane's Wings the focus of a major hero operation. But the potential value of that girl's power...
He made the decision with his characteristic cold logic. The benefits outweighed the risks. They would take her.
The convoy transport happened two days later, late evening on a route that passed over Gotham's North Wayne Bridge but when they got there they saw multiple trucks on fire and decided to take the tunnel instead thinking there was an ambush on the bridge.
Suguro had assembled everyone for this
They would hit the convoy at the planned location, a midway point in the tunnel where Jaina had sabotaged lights hours earlier, creating a dark zone perfect.
William and Crane sent 30 people they experimented on now mindless drones to form a wall forcing the convoy to stop and the hero at the front and the first hero panically told the convey to stop, a younger man drawn by an idealistic dream to help fix Gotham asked them all to move but the crowd of drones remained silent then Jaina sent a duplicate to the hero and told him they are taking the tunnel because of the bridge chaos, the young hero now sympathetic motioned for the tucks to pull over. "What is going on up there!" an older hero in the back yelled making his way up to the front when seeing the trucks move but once he saw the crowd not moving he realized something was wrong. At that moment three other jaina duplicates popped out from the crowd carrying heavy missile launchers. *BOOM* Three heavy trucks were hit and disabled or outright blown up then dropped the weapons and pulled out machine guns firing on the armed guards while the young and old hero fell behind the wreckage while yellening to the others heroes at the back to move up but then they heard another *BOOM* the wall behind the convey fell and a giant grey man ran through unaffected by bullets fighting the heroes at the back and a masked man stepped out and the older man realized this was a lost cause "we need to breakout through the front its our best chance" but the younger hero already began charging to the back to save his comrades, but when he got there he saw the masked man throw a glass sphere with gas inside and in his last moments realized he should have stayed home in Boston.
Cranes modified bomb of his quirks gas and explosive created a large gas explosion and he signaled Grundy to stand next to him, flooding the area with fear gas.
The heroes and remaining guards' response was immediate, any who were caught in the expanding into the chemical cloud. collapsed and began experiencing personalized nightmares.
One hero who could generate energy blasts started firing wildly at hallucinations, hitting his colleagues. Another with enhanced strength fled in panic past Crane and Grundy from something only she could see only to be shot with a sedative by a gas masked William in the back excited with the thought of using whatever heroes remained alive for his own uses. While the young hero collapsed crouched into the fetal position while seeing swarms of monstrous fire monsters around him paralyzing him with terror. Crane and Grundy who now put on his massive gas mask which took a long time of training to do for him began walking to the central prison truck the one the made sure not to harm in the attack, but as they were walking the young hero in his final moments grabbed Cranes leg as he walked by finally holding onto something real pleaded for help but was met with a bullet to the face and once dead crane kicked his body away annoyed. Meanwhile at the front of the convey the remaining guards and the old hero charged the crowd but they didn't flinch and simply fell at their attacks and once they thought they were out one of the Jainas shot a guard in the side of the head and the old hero charged and ready to attack with his fire quirk max power but once he did a group of the mindless drones on the ground stood up forming a protective wall around the woman being burned to a crisp and as he looked around seeing the last guards being held down by the drones and shot by other versions of the white haired woman he ran and just as he was almost out multiple bullets sprayed into his back. In his last thoughts he knew, he always knew this was how it would end in a hell like this city.
Suguro walked through the chaos with his characteristic unhurried pace and observed the dwindling reactions as whoever was left was captured by William or killed themselves to escape whatever nightmare they couldn't escape, finally arriving at the transport truck containing the girl.
He pointed at it and Grundy ripped the door off, and then Suguro found himself face to face with the plant girl.
She was probably his age, maybe a year older at most, with wild red hair, distinctly green tinged skin. She wore a hospital gown from whatever facility had processed her, and her hands were bound with specialized restraints.
"I'm not here to hurt you," Suguro said, his distorted voice probably not helping his case. "I'm here to offer something more but first" he threw a mask at her "it'd be best to put this on I don't want to undo any unnecessary damage later. The heroes are incapacitated, you can run, or you can come with me and I'll provide protection from recapture."
She stared at him, then seeing the gas outside and ending of the chaos put the mask on and confused.
"Why?" Her voice was rough, as if speaking was unfamiliar.
"Because your Quirk is extraordinary, and locking you in a cell would be a waste."
She looked at her restrained hands. Then she nodded once.
"Good decision. Grundy!"
The giant appeared, and Suguro gestured to the girl. "Carry her. Carefully. She's not a threat."
Grundy gently scooped her up as if she weighed nothing, cradling her carefully.
"Please don't crush her."
They exited back through their makeshift tunnel and blew it up at a safe distance meaning any attempt to track them through the way the came would take time an ultimately be meaningless
By the time hero backup and one of the GCPDs militarized units arrived, Crane's Wings had vanished