On the run. [Izanami/Closed]

Izanami was quite enjoying her villainous persona, which she had affectionately dubbed 'Blackwing.' When she first perched on the rooftop nearest her class, she was pleasantly surprised to see how quickly Hideki Masaru snapped into action. Summon his constructs, he'd managed to shield his comrades from the wrath of Dragon's flames. Granted, Izanami was hardly going full bore on her fire. It was roughly as hot as a campfire at present, a far cry from the steel melting blaze she could unleash at will. Not that it mattered much to the students, fire was fire, and they'd hardly know the difference if they got burned. Either way they'd be eliminated from the exercise and rushed off the infirmary to treat their wounds.

Soon enough the chase was one, and Blackwing took back to the skies, taunting her students as she rained down fire upon them. "FEEBLE HEROES... I WILL BURN YOU ALL TO CINDERS!" She roared loud enough to shatter the windows beneath her, shards of glass falling to the streets below. Izanami kicked off the rooftop, the structure buckling under the strength of her titanic bulk pulling itself back into the skies. Leathery wings beat in a heavy rhythm as the dragoness took to the skies once more, scanning the land beneath her like a hawk watching field mouse scatter. Her pupils were not fools, they knew all too well in the open they were sitting ducks. Izanami dive bombed low, crawls extended and jaws snapping as she raked through the scattered ranks. One claw met its mark, and she felt the struggling body of a student clutching tightly in one of her back paws. One down... a dozen to go.

What transpired afterwards was akin to a horror movie, with Izanami systematically hunting down her class one by one as they attempted to flee the training grounds. Most students scattered, relying only on themselves and moving through buildings or sewers to mask their presence. 'Blackwing' was wise to such tactics, and flushed them out like rats into her waiting jaws. A few stuck together, hoping safety in numbers would lead their way. They too failed, though not without a noble 'sacrifice' attempting to buy time for their partner to escape. Izanami found such bravery admirable, but to do so in a training course was a far cry from in the line of duty. Still, it meant her students were on the right path.

Twenty minutes passed, until one remained. Somehow Hideki had eluded her, hiding among the empty buildings as he moved about. By now he was near enough to the exit Izanami didn't risk toying with him further. Like a huntress she perched on a rooftop to catch her breath, surveying the land before her. A city park offered a death sentence of open ground, and no sewer ran beneath it. He would avoid that region like a no man's land. No, Hideki was in the surrounding apartment complexes somewhere. But where... Izanami leapt from the rooftop like a jungle cat as her wings unfurled and she began to glide slowly down the city's main street. Her head craning slowly from side to side, looking for anything out of the ordinary.

A flicker of movement out the corner of her eye caught her attention, a door closing on a building rooftop a block ahead. Izanami glided past, playing dumb until she knew she was out of sight. Once she knew she was hidden, the dragon latched onto the side of the nearest building like a bat clinging to the side of a tree. She clawed her way up the side, leaving deep claw marks in the walls and gashing the sides like a cat on a scratching post. Normally, she'd never do something so blatantly destructive, but in her Villain persona, Izanami was in character in not caring about collateral damage. Once on the roof she slunk across to the building she suspected Hideki of hiding in, moving as quietly her Dragon form allowed.

At last Izanami was in position, clinging to the side of the building where she suspected her quarry to be. A fire escape mounted on the building's side his most likely avenue down to the streets below. He was sticking to places her Dragon form could not reach. Smart, if not wrong. 'Blackwing' swung her head slowly around the corner of the building, her right eye gleaming as it peered through the windows like a violet dinner plate. Her pupil narrowed into a thin slit as she caught sight of her prey, leaned against the door trying to remain hidden. "I'VE FOUND YOU, INSECT!" The Dragon bellowed, letting out a hellish shriek of excitement. The windows near her mouth shattered from the piercing sound, and her tail swung out to slam into the fire escape, pulling hard on the metal structure until its mountings gave way. With a crash it fell to the ground below, crumbling at it impacted a dumpster. The sulfur stench of the dragon's breath filling the room as she peered at her prize; the cat had found her mouse.

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With her precarious position, Izanami had been unable to look away from Hideki fast enough. Though she turned her head aside as soon as he launched his blinding flash of light, Izanami's right eye took the brunt of the technique, being nearly blinded by the luminous attack. "INGRATE!" She howled in pain, nearly losing her footing as she clung upside down to the side of the building. Eyes watering, 'Blackwing' turned her gaze back inside the hallway, her mouth opening wide as fire filled her throat. The stench of sulfur grew before a stream of indigo fire leapt forth filling the room with flames. Immediately fire alarms sounded and sprinkler systems kicked on throughout the reproduction apartment complex, as black smoke billowed out through the previous destroyed windows.

But her response came too slow, and Izanami was able to catch the last glimpse of Sol as her student sprung into action, leaping out through the fire escape door. 'Quick thinking. He had a flashbang prepared for me, and even had time to throw out a quip.' Izanami said to herself, assessing the student's performance even as she recovered from his attack. With his Quirk she doubted a several story fall would truly slow Hideki down, he may even have found a rope or something to use as a tool in his descent. Izanami shifted her grip, turning her body ninety degrees so she could peer her head around the corner and see if she could catch a glimpse of her prey with her good eye. The dragon's left eye caught the last look of Sol as he dashed down an alley, and 'Blackwing' let out another roar, this time of frustration.

Izanami swung out a fist, punching out a sizable section of the brickwork of the building before climbing her way frantically back to the rooftop. Hideki had to keep heading west, it was the closest perimeter of the course and he didn't have the time to circle around and go a different way. He'd know this though, Izanami mused as she leapt from the roof of the burning building. Between her weight and the damage she'd inflicted to it with her climbing and her flames the already battered structure began to implode as its upper floors collapsed downwards on top of one another like macabre dominoes. As the black dragon took to the skies once more only a burning debris field was left in her wake, she took a moment to reflect on the hundreds that could have perished were that a real apartment bloc.

The great black dragon beat its wings and flew westwards into the industrial district of Test Site Beta. As she flew, Izanami listed to the left to give her good eye a wider angle to sweep. Her right eye she kept closed, it could only make out blurred shapes and colors presently. She needed be more careful moving about this region of the faux city. It lacked large buildings to latch onto, or flat rooftops to perch atop. Most of the buildings were mock factories and warehouses who's roof would never support her weight. Aside that was a tangled mess of pipes, power lines, and storage tanks. Though not filled with petroleum and gasoline, the tanks and their refineries were none the less still volatile. Izanami didn't wish to create a smokescreen to shield her final student on his push to the finish line with an errant jet of flames.

'Blackwing' moved to hover over a large factory smokestack that towered over most the structures in the industrial district. With the coil of her tail she crushed the top of the stack in on itself, concrete giving way to muscle and scales. The top of the smokestack plugged up with rubble, and the flow of smog from it slowed to a trickle. Only then did Izanami shift back into her human form for the first time in nearly half an hour. Landing gracefully, the black clad 'Villain' silently cursed her predicament. Her stomach growled in protest, her Dragon form increased her metabolic rate just as it did her size and mass. More importantly, her eye still watered and throbbed with pain, though now at least it was covered by her mane of violet hair.

'Where are you hiding Hideki?' Izanami mused to herself, scanning the streets below. Solar didn't grant him any superhuman physiology. He could move only as fast as normal person without the assistance of his Quirk. That was the problem, it was also a very adaptive Quirk, his constructs limited seemingly only by his own creativity. Izanami cast her gaze down to a manhole on the streets below. He could be in the sewers, though this portion of the city housed the water treatment plant. The current would sweep him north, and unless he used Solar to propel him through the murky waters Izanami doubted Hideki was swimming 'upriver.' She knew he could fly at decent speeds with his Quirk, though she'd both see and outrun him if he did. Even if he tried to dead sprint to the finish line, would he risk Izanami beating him in an overland race?

That left the buildings themselves. So many structures to sneak though. Pipes, vents, cargo elevators, industrial air conditioning units. He could be crawling through an empty water pipe past her as she speaks. Suddenly leveling the industrial district didn't seem such a bad idea. She could attempt a controlled burn of sorts, destroying and torching everything in the immediate vicinity between Hideki and the city perimeter. It would certainly be in character to rampage about and try to stop him. But Izanami doubted she had the time to, and even with less explosive gases she didn't want risk seriously harming her pupil if one of the large natural gas reservoirs detonated violently. Moreover, Sol could simply use her onslaught as a diversion to mount an escape while she was distracted with destruction.

For now, Izanami decided the best course of action was inaction. She still held most of the cards in their game of cat and mouse. Sol needed to go through her, not the other way around. He had at least a kilometer of heavily industrialized city to traverse in just under twelve minutes. She would wait, and see how the situation developed. It would give her eye another moment to rest, while she formulated a better plan. Izanami set a mental timer, if Sol was moving at the fastest speed she'd witnessed him travel at with his Quirk he'd pass her in under a minute. In one minute's time she'd act, whether she'd spotted him or not. Sometimes the most effectively strategy of the hunter is to wait, and let their prey come to them.

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Izanami heard the roar of a diesel engine, and immediately knew something was up. There were no vehicles being 'driven' within the test sight. While it was populated with a realistic ratio of vehicles, there were no drivers. The woman growled aloud, gnashing her teeth as she turned around face to see one of the emergency response trucks taking off down the empty roads as fast as it could. "Hideki!" She said to herself, agitation in her voice as the 'Villain' took a running leap off the smokestack into a perfect swan dive. Once more she transformed in midair, body billowing into its enormous, draconic form as her wings sprouted from her back and unfurled to catch the air.

In her wrath, Izanami's tail swatted the base of the smokestack as she leveled off her dive, tending it crashing into the factory below. One eye closed, the other burning with rage as fire and cinders dripped from her gaping maw. She flew low to the ground, no longer orbiting high above like a bird of prey on the hunt. No, this was more akin to an owl diving from a tree towards an unsuspecting field mouse. The truck was fast, faster than Sol could have hoped to travel on his own. Izanami admired that aspect of this gambit, falling back on familiar technology when it exceeds the ability of a Quirk. Though the large squat truck was hardly a sports car, and the immense dragon accelerated faster than the industrial vehicle could. Propelled by the momentum of her dive, Izanami reached out her forelimbs, claws bared and ready.

At first she assumed Sol was simply driving the truck himself, which limited her options. She would not risk crashing the truck with her student inside it. Though once she saw he was merely handing on the outside, steering the vehicle with his Quirk, a fanged smile crossed scaled lips. 'Crafty.' The Dragon mused to herself. 'He did so in preparation of abandoning the vehicle.' With Hideki physically outside of the truck, he inadvertently made it a target. As Izanami drew close her arm reached out, clawed hand ripping off the driver's side door before grabbing a fistful of the front dash. Metal and plastic crunched between her fingers, as Izanami's claws sawed through the interior of the vehicle until she gave a sharp tug and pulled back with a handful of what was once the steering column and dash. She grinned at her pupil, as the vehicle he was riding alongside began to lose control and drift across the road.

As the truck began to wobble, Izanami slammed into its rear end with a shoulder check, causing the top heavy truck to roll end over end in a violent crash. It came to a half a half dozen revolutions later, burning and leaking fuel and fire suppressing foam in the middle of the faux roadway. Without the truck to accelerate him, Hideki's speed faltered in the wake of his teacher's, and Izanami surged past him until she reached the vehicle's broken wreckage. 'Blackwing' came to a grinding halt, digging her heels into concrete and coming to a stop besides the wreckage. She turned around, good eye locked on the would be Hero as she reared up on her hind legs to stand upright. One foot stomped down on top of the wrecked truck, causing it to leak more fluids from the added pressure of her weight.

"Give up Hero, you've lost!" Izanami commanded Sol, her tail trashing hard against the roadbed behind her. "I captured all your little friends... What made you think I wouldn't capture you too?" The dragon clenched one hand into a fist, letting out a throaty belly laugh. "Did you really think you could escape me with a car?" The head huge of the creature leaned forward, and two sharp jets of black smoke flared from her nostrils. Izanami knew she could just declare herself the winner at this point. It wouldn't take much effort to just rush Sol and overwhelm his constructs with her superior strength. But Villains were known for their megalomaniac complexes, some had an almost compulsive need to gloat and monologue. It was their way of taking credit for deeds and actions that may otherwise go unnoticed. More importantly, Izanami wanted to see what Hideki did with his last few precious moments. He several minutes left on the clock, with only a sixty foot long twenty three ton fire breathing reptile between him and escape, Do or Die, the Shiketsu way.

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The dragon leaned forward, listening intently to the words of its quarry standing before her. She scowled, annoyed that her student was apparently giving up so easily. This was not the Shiketsu Do-or-Die way, and it visibly irritated the dragon. She stomped harder on the wrecked chassis of the fire engine at her feet, its metal frame groaning against the added strain. 'You thought right, though the results are lacking.' Izanami said to herself, snorting out another jet out smoke from her nostrils.

Her disappointment soon turned to silent anticipation, when Hideki announced he had some as of yet unseen technique. Izanami's curiosity was struck, as she reveled in seeing her students' Quirks tested to the fullest extent of their abilities. With the adaptability of Solar, anything seemed possible. The dragoness narrowed her gaze and allowed the teen a chance to prepare his Super Move. Were this a real battle, she would have flattened him with her tail the moment he muttered in self pity about being trapped. When Hideki asked if Izanami wished to see, she simply snorted and shifted her stance slightly. She did, though as 'Blackwing' she could care less what a Hero could do, so long as he was beaten. It was important not to break character or risk de-legitimizing the training.

When Hideki shouted 'Sike', Izanami instinctively assumed he would attempt another blinding attack on her good eye. She raised an arm to shield her eyes from the flash... only for the attack to never come. "Nani!?" She muttered as her eye glanced down, catching sight of the projectile as it sparked the underside of the wreckage. 'Of course...' She thought to herself as the heat of vehicle's fuel leak igniting washed over her. It didn't hurt beyond an irritating sting, but it had given her pause. Izanami stepped forward as her lumbering frame emerged from the dense plumes of rolling smoke. Her mouth opened wide to unleash another jet of violet flames, only for something to stop her in her tracks.

A blast of white foam struck her good eye, momentarily blinding her as she roared in surprise. A fire extinguisher!? But from where? Her mind quickly pieced together the student's ploy. The truck, the spark, the extinguisher, planned ahead or improvised it mattered little now. 'Very clever...' Izanami thought to herself, swatting aside the extinguisher with one hand as her other rubbed fire repellent out of her eye. It stung fiercely, and she'd need visit an eye wash station in the nurse's office after this was all through.

She knew this was it, Hideki's last ditch attempt at escape. Twice she'd failed to give him credit, and twice he'd temporarily blinded her to buy himself an escape. Izanami hadn't heard which way Sol took off in, though she knew well his only avenue of escape lay due west of her. The Dragon turned around swiftly, reaching down and digging her claws into the burning wreckage of the crashed truck behind her. She heaved with all her might, twisting her body around and sending the wreck hurtling forward towards the exit. It skid across the ground like a battering ram. Leaving in its wake a trail of burning fuel and spilled foam, and carving gashes in the roadbed where jagged steel cut into concrete. It made a truly awful sound, but it was Izanami's last ditch attempt to stop her quarry from escaping.

After launching the flaming wreck of the truck at Hideki, Izanami took off running towards the exit way on all fours. She wouldn't risk flying while still nearly blinded. Her right eye had ironically become her 'good' eye for the moment, and she unleashed a stream of violet flame at anything resembling movement in her forward field of vision. A moment later a siren sounded throughout Test Ground Beta, a buzzer signalling the end of the allotted time for the training exercise. Izanami stopped dead in her tracks, head glancing up towards the nearest siren as she huffed and exhaled smoke from her nose. A moment later and the Dragon had shifted back into the curvaceous form of a woman in her familiar black armor.

Izanami reached into her belt for some eye drops and a handkerchief. When her vision cleared up she found herself standing only a hundred meters shy of the training ground's western exit. The burnt wreck of the truck lay partially embedded in the thick concrete wall that marked the perimeter. Now just one question remained on her mind; had Hideki Masaru escaped at the last possible moment, or had he fallen short of victory by mere seconds? "Time's up..." Were her only words.

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