Chapter Summary: Lucian shifts his focus as he realizes a few things, brought on by a gruesome and honestly odd flashback.
Life is idyllic for a good bit. There is some flirting, familial bonding, and an invitation is made.
Shit hits the fan, and violence ensues as recent demons come back to haunt a family.
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"Your defense is still sloppy."
Lucian barely processed the words when a haft made of black wood flashed in front of him. He tried to duck out of the way, as his own polearm had been cut into pieces and lay broken all around him. Blocking was impossible.
In the end, all he felt was the rush of wind in his hair as something whizzed over his head. Despite the lack of impact, he knew better: he had lost. Yosef definitely intended to have the halberd's handle pass over him — with the difference in speed, Lucian couldn't avoid the attack that followed.
The weapon's blade struck true, and his head was cut open at an angle, just above the eyes. Chunks of his grey matter spilled across the ground as his body fell lifeless. Dark red blood splattered over the training plot's tamped soil, oozing from his open skull.
Still, he didn't die. He had already been dead for around a week by that point.
Seconds after Lucian's body hit the ground, the blood that had been draining into the earth seeped out and back into his head. His brain reassembled itself like living chunks of tofu moving to fuse together, and the top half of his skull flew back into place with a clacking noise. Afterwards, his skin mended back together like a video of marshmallows being torn apart, played in reverse. Not a single trace of the fatal damage remained.
Lucian opened his eyes and sluggishly sat back up. "I am never gonna get used to that," he grumbled, voice slurring.
Footfalls approached him in perfect pace, not even a single millisecond's worth of discrepancy between each step. A hand reached down toward him, which he accepted.
"That's enough for the day," said Yosef. "This is about as much as you can take right now. Any further efforts would be pointless."
Grumbling, Lucian allowed himself to be pulled up to his feet. "Do you have to kill me every time our sessions end, though?" Through his incredulous gaze, Yosef's expression remained unchanging, red eyes as wide as ever.
"I thought you said you were fine with death."
Lucian sighed. "Yeah, I did, but I didn't think you'd start killing me on purpose!" He sounded dejected. "I only had accidental deaths in mind for that..."
Yosef's eyelids lifted marginally. "Oh. You should've clarified that," was the only thing he said.
In the middle of rubbing his face, Lucian's hands fell to his sides. "You're shitting me. This whole week we've been training, you thought I told you that I expected, was fully prepared, and wanted to die every time?"
"Yes." Yosef nodded. "According to you, it could help you train your reflexes better, as the desire to avoid dying would force you to adapt."
"Oh, for fuck's sake." Lucian let himself fall backwards, returning to the ground.
"If you want me to stop killing you at the end of each session, then I will," Yosef offered. He didn't seem to have moved at all during their entire exchange.
"Yes, please do," Lucian replied, completely dead inside. "I'd rather keep my deaths strictly to accidents..."
"I don't do accidents," said Yosef, "But I suppose you're still imperfect. If you perish while we train, then it will be entirely on you."
Sassing, Lucian replied, "That's what I meant the first time..."
He heard clothes rustling. Yosef bowed. "Then, I apologize for misunderstanding."
"Yeah, yeah... go take a break from training now, ya fuckin' weirdo."
"That I will. Next time tomorrow, then."
"Actually..." Lucian sat up. He was glad when he did — Yosef had already half-turned to leave, already mid-step. He managed to speak up in time. "Let's change our venue from now on. Ruins."
Yosef's expression shifted visibly. "Yes. The ruins would be perfect. Tomorrow, then."
Just like that, Lucian's trainer disappeared without any indication of movement.
"Fuck..." He got up from the ground, hearing the faintest noise coming from his knees. "Guess my body's still dead tired, even after regenerating from physical death..."
...
That all happened two years ago, soon after Lucian died in his universe of origin. The memory still made him shudder every time, how ruthlessly powerful the Headmaster's son had been.
He recalled the memory for the first time in a long while on the walk to Bailey's workplace. What instigated the recollection was the incident from earlier — when a desperate or irrational man, maybe both, attempted to mug him and Maxie.
It was so easy, putting down a regular person. Lucian barely had to exert himself, and that was without drawing actively on One for All's power. The difference in strength was familiar. After all, he had steadily been growing stronger all this time, and had been fighting nightly since he first went out to act against crime. Yet, that power gap still managed to feel disconcerting once Lucian consciously thought about it.
'There's this gap between me and ordinary people. Then, there's this gap between me and everyone else,' he thought to himself. 'I need to start training. Physical conditioning and polishing my skills. I need to upgrade my equipment, too. After this whole Donovan Debacle, I'll go talk to Batman about it. I'm sure he has something.'
Just as he finished musing, Maxie squeezed his hand, staring up at him with the cutest neutral expression he'd seen in both lives. "We're here," she said.
It turned out that Bailey was helping to build a new private clinic being funded by Wayne Enterprise. The construction project's end goal was pretty sizeable, too. Judging from what he could see at a distance, Lucian thought it would end up almost as big as West Mercy.
"So, was this a new thing, or...?"
Maxie looked up at him when he asked, then turned her eyes back forward. "It's new, yeah... she was reassigned here after mom was brought to West Mercy. Bailey would've accepted in a heartbeat just on principle, but she was promised bigger pay, too, so..."
As the two of them neared the barracks where half the workers stayed, someone in a parked backhoe called out loudly. "Hey, you! Yeah—you lovebirds over there! You visiting someone? You don't look like you work here."
Receiving confirmation, he continued to yell — he was quite far away. "Who you looking for? We can radio 'em to let 'em know you came!"
Maxie answered. "Her name's Bailey! Red hair like mine. Tall, bit of a fatass, ugly mug?"
"Haha! Yeah, I know her!" The worker responded. He spoke briefly into a radio attached to his vest, then turned his attention back to Maxie. "Her break's in ten minutes! If you can wait, some of the guys can take you to the mess hall!"
Maxie looked to Lucian, who shrugged at her. "That'd be great!" she yelled back. Her voice cracked mid-sentence.
The Backhoe Man waved her off and turned to yell into the construction compound. "Hey, fuckheads! Someone's got visitors! Take these two to the mess hall!"
Quite quickly, someone who was eating a sandwich, seemingly slacking off, got up to take a perfect excuse to skip out on more work. "Follow me, it's right this way."
Lucian and Maxie fell into step behind him. Their destination soon came into view: a wide area protected from the elements by a sturdy white tent. The tent itself was surrounded along the sides with huge crates and cargo containers, as well as barrels and piles of construction material. The only spots that weren't covered were the entrances and exits.
"They have a mess hall here," said Maxie, voice tinted with wonderment. "And it's huge, too..."
"Did Bailey's old site not have one?" Lucian asked.
She shook her head. "Most don't. They kinda just eat wherever, usually. Sometimes, they eat right on a hanging I-beam, support harnesses be damned."
Pausing, Maxie looked around. Everything seemed very orderly, especially compared to other places that Bailey had worked at before.
"Looks like Bruce Wayne doesn't take half-measures in anything, from what they got going on here," she mused. "Or, well, at least his management teams don't. I don't really get how this whole super-company thing works..."
Luce looked up to the sky, picturing a bright yellow signal up on the smog clouds. How a single man could manage such a massive mega-conglomerate while fighting crime every night still baffled him. Beyond his physicality, Bruce Wayne's mental strength and coordination must be through the roof. "That makes two of us..." he hummed in the end.
The mess hall was packed when they finally entered. The guide split off from them then, explaining that they could sit wherever they wanted, already moving to join some people he knew.
The pair moved on and scanned the place for a spot to wait at. More than half the seats were occupied, and with the way the workers were arranged, it painted the illusion that the place was more than three-fourths of the way full.
"This is a lot of people," Maxie muttered, guiding Lucian to a spot where fewer seats were taken.
Luce set down the food they brought, onto one of the long tables as he spoke. "Brucie Wayne probably wants this place built as fast as possible without cutting any corners."
He heard a snort beside him. "Pfft. You're in on that Brucie Wayne thing?" Maxie snickered at him. Then, eyes narrow, she stared right into his. "Don't tell me you've been secretly gay this whole time~"
Lucian blinked once. Twice. "Oh, was that what that was?" he asked, completely genuine.
It was then Max's turn to do the blinking. "You were just saying that without any of the context??"
"I was," he replied, shrugging. "Just overheard it at the gym, started copying them 'cause I thought it was silly."
Maxie couldn't help it — she rolled her eyes and turned away, though the smile never left her lips. "Of course you did," she grumbled, amused.
Before long, Maxie's phone rang. Bailey had texted her.
cavewoman: 'Twiggy, some of the guys said you came to visit.'
spicy twig: 'yeah they took us to the mess hall'
spicy twig: 'we brought u some food'
cavewoman: '"We"?'
spicy twig: 'just get over here before i poison it'
cavewoman: 'It's lucian, isn't it?'
spicy twig: 'yep foods poisoned now'
cavewoman: 'Don't eat it all til i get there! 😝'
Maxie's expression flattened during the exchange. Just then, she felt a tiny puff of wind on her skin. Lucian, sitting right next to her, had just laughed. When she looked, he was resting his jaw on his hand, elbow on the table, and was wearing an amused expression. When their eyes met, he said, "You're adorable when you make that face."
Eyes wide, brows furrowed, Maxie felt the beginnings of heat coming up on her neck and cheeks. "Well, you're not seeing it anymore!" She turned away, copying Lucian's posture.
"You're even cuter when you pout~" he added.
Wearing her Unamused Face™️ once more, this time flushed and veritably pouty, she jabbed a finger into his side.
Lucian recoiled, mostly to keep her from hurting herself. He even put on a startled expression just from muscle memory.
Just as Maxie was about to say "Serves you right" or something to that effect, a loud, familiar whistling echoed from the hall's entrance.
"The chili pepper's showing her sweet side~" Bailey was approaching. Her hi-vis vest was unzipped, and her thick sweater was stained with smatterings of dirt, dust, and other debris. It was darkened with sweat across her back and chest, and it clung to her bulky form in those areas, somehow making her look even more well-built. Beaten-up work gloves were clipped to her belt, and her ginger hair was done up in a messy bun.
"Am not!" Maxie argued, indignant. Regardless of her present feelings, she huffily yet gingerly unwrapped the sizeable box of takeout that had been set aside for her sister.
Seeing that, Bailey excitedly sat at the table across from her. "Ooo! Lunch! This from the diner??"
"It is," Lucian replied.
There was a note taped on top of the box — "All the meats and greens that a working woman needs."
Bailey snorted. "That didn't rhyme quite right." Her expression was something that one might wear upon seeing somebody attempt a difficult task, fail, but be amused by the determination or gall to even attempt it in the first place.
"Hey, our boss tries," Lucian spoke up in defense of Inigo Suarez.
"Sure, sure. But— well, damn!" Upon opening the box — which had gone cold at that point — Bailey was still amazed by the strong, savory aroma. "Yeah, this is some good shit right here. I almost wanna save it for later..."
"Don't," said Maxie. "We can just come to the diner for fresh helpings later, my treat."
Bailey stared at her, face unreadable, then grinned. "Heh, sure. Payback for all those times I forced you to eat out on my pay?"
Max huffed, crossed her arms, and looked away a little to hide the small smile forming on her lips. "That and more."
"Alright. But maybe not tonight. How about we all eat as a family this weekend?" Bailey turned to Lucian. "You can come, too."
Luce turned to Max, who tried her best to maintain a mask of neutrality. She was failing. "Yeah... it'd be great if you could come..."
"Count me in, then," said Lucian.
The two of them stayed for only a little while longer, catching up with Bailey on mostly trivial things. They soon left, taking the rest of the food to West Mercy where Brodie was watching over Adelaine.
...
The walk to the hospital took about the same amount of time as it did when traveling from the apartments to the construction site. As Lucian and Maxie drew near, Penny suddenly piped up in the former's head.
[ Warning. [ Justice Sense ] indicates trouble in the building ahead. ]
'Well, that ain't good,' Lucian thought. 'What kinda trouble is it, Penny? Kinda hard to tell from this distance, especially with everything else polluting my senses.'
[ Coercion, ] the SI replied. [ The victim is a familiar presence. ]
Sighing, Lucian said something under his breath. "I got this bad feeling in my gut," he muttered, just loud enough to be heard by Maxie, who walked while hugging his arm. "Let's hurry up a bit."
Her expression tightened. "Okay." She had witnessed Lucian's borderline psychic ability to forecast trouble before. As outlandish as the concept was, she deigned to follow his lead. She reluctantly freed his arm, opting to simply hold his hand instead so they could both move more freely.
After being let in by security, the two of them rushed through the hospital's sterile white halls. They treaded as fast as they could without flat out running. Even as crowded as it was, West Mercy felt empty. Overbearing. Like the people were just little insignificant specks of dust, near-pointless bits of set dressing as the living environment closed in around them like a starving coffin.
Lucian walked with purpose. He didn't feel claustrophobic like Maxie did, but there was this feeling of being chased by something as [ Justice Sense ] started blaring louder and louder in his head. He led Maxie into an elevator — the stairs were still a ways away, and Adelaine's room was in the fifth floor. As the elevator reached the second level, even [Danger Sense] started pitching in on the incessant warnings.
Maxie, meanwhile, was paling. She realized deep down in her gut that something was wrong. Her heart beat fast as a result, yet instead of heating up, she felt so cold. Her fair skin turned ghastly white, and her usually reddish freckles had shifted closer to grey. She looked like a zombie, restlessly swaying left and right as Lucian led the way to her mother's ward. The elevator felt more like a cage than vertical transport.
During the agonizingly slow trip upwards, Maxie's mind briefly considered how Lucian seemed to know exactly where her mother's hospital room was. He hadn't asked for directions, and she had never said anything, yet he led the path with absolute conviction anyway.
She decided not to question it. If something had happened to her mother, brother, or both, she would only be glad that Lucian might have helped her make it in time to help.
They reached the third floor. The elevator dinged, doors swinging slowly open. Maxie felt her guts drop just the slightest bit, and she felt Lucian's hand tense and heat up as it held hers. She squeezed, and the tension eased in both of them.
Through the elevator doors came an old couple, hunched over and visibly wizened. Their steps were so painfully slow-going, and they were all smiles. As the old man ushered in his wife, the old lady noticed the young pair who seemed to be fighting for their lives on the inside.
"Oh dear... are you two alright...?" she asked.
Lucian was the one to answer — he felt Maxie go even colder, stiff as a corpse. "We're... not. It's an emergency. Not much time."
The old lady's breath caught. "It's a good thing we're both going up, then," she said. Then, solemnly, she added, "I'm so sorry, dears... we might've slowed you down..."
"It's alright," Lucian replied. He pulled Maxie closer by her hand, thumb rubbing soothingly over hers.
[ She's feeling a little warmer now. You're doing wonders. ]
The fourth floor passed by without being held up by boarding passengers. Finally, the elevator dinged once more as it reached the fifth. The dull metal doors couldn't open fast enough. Lucian stepped out, pulling Maxie along.
"Good luck out there," said the old lady as they left.
Lucian waved back, then quickly refocused. [ Justice Sense ] and [Danger Sense] just alerted him — somebody had gotten hurt.
Gently, he let go of Maxie's hand and sped up ahead. [Danger Sense] had already been familiarized with one of the presences — it was definitely Brodie, and he had been hurt. By association, the unmoving signal was definitely Adelaine. There were two aggressors in the room with them.
Lucian burst through the door, the action sounding like a gunshot to everyone inside. Three presences startled. Directing all of his hostile intent on two of them, he thought, 'That's right. You'd better be afraid.'
His Mentality attribute sat right at 30 — well within superhuman territory. It took less than a second for him to digest the scene.
Brodie was there, on the floor, slumped against the wall. One of his crutches lay broken to his side, and the other was in the hands of an assailant — some heavyset guy in several layers of thuggish clothing, who looked like ugly would be described as him. His arms were mid-windup, an expression of startled terror on his face as his head swiveled towards the door.
The other was a much smaller man in comparison, dressed up in relatively normal streetwear. His hands were already reaching for the life support machine hooked up to Adelaine's unmoving body, but he had stopped to turn towards the door as well.
[ [Sheer Will] is active. Emotional regulation engaged. ]
With inhuman speed, Lucian dashed into the room and grabbed the skinny one first. He felt skin and muscle squish under his grip as he hoisted up this thing way above his own head, nearly touching the ceiling. Before it could struggle, he tossed it across the room and against a far wall where it made a loud thud on impact. It fell into a breathless heap on the floor, curling in on itself as it writhed in agony. A red mark had been splattered against the wall where its head had connected.
[ [Non-Lethal Strike] has been activated. Throwing arm has been weakened mid-swing, and damage has been distributed across the victim's body. Immediate death has been avoided. ]
The other problem in the room moved to attack Lucian instead of Brodie now. Good. He dashed forward and swung his elbow down in a diagonal arc. There was a sick, wet crunch as sharp-ish bone connected with nasal cartilage. The creature's pug-like face was crushed into itself. It had been sent falling so fast. Blood only started squirting from its crushed nose after it had impacted the floor..
[ [Non-Lethal Strike] has been activated. Some force has been converted into recoil, returning to the host's body. Reabsorbed impact is negligible. ]
Both assailants writhed on the floor now in untold pain, and it was impossible to tell whether one was suffering more than the other.
[ Violent takedown of an unarmed entity. 40 EXP has been granted. ]
[ Violent takedown of an unarmed entity. 40 EXP has been granted. ]
[ One individual has been saved from excessive injury. 40 EXP has been granted. ]
[ One life has been saved. 80 EXP has been granted. ]
[ Total EXP: 200 ]
[ EXP to next level: 2,396 ]
Turning to Brodie, Lucian took a second to assess his condition. His left eye was bruised, his cheek was cut, and his lip had burst.
Luce crouched down to help Brodie up, who thankfully didn't refuse the assistance. Subtly, he channeled some of his lifeforce to help heal the present wounds. The effect wouldn't be immediate, but Brodie's injuries would fade away much faster than they otherwise would have.
[ Assisted in healing minor injuries. Earned 8 EXP ]
[ EXP to next level: 2,388 ]
"Lucian!"
Maxie had finally caught up once the dispatchment was over, which took around three seconds in real time. She was was breathing heavily when she arrived, and when she saw what had happened, her face had trouble deciding which expression to contort into — fear, anger, disgust, or relief.
In the end, she settled for worry as she realized that her brother had been injured pretty badly.
"Brodie...! Was it them...?"
He nodded, struggling a laugh. "Hah... yeah, it was them. Said they didn't appreciate us being 'ungrateful' and ghosting after we 'destroyed their property'."
"You know these cunts?" Lucian asked. He had taken a first aid kit from one of the metal drawers with flaking paint, and was treating Brodie's wounds the normal way.
Maxie answered for her brother. "They work for our landlord... well, former landlord. Guess I should've known they'd find us eventually..."
"We should get mom transferred to a different ward," said Brodie, wincing from the pain. Maxie was about to protest, but he cut her off. "Remember who's paying for her treatment. The hospital has to move her."
In the end, she agreed and nodded.
It didn't take too long for a crowd to form around Adelaine's room — passersby, patients, and hospital staff all gathered nearby after the commotion ended.
Lucian did his best to keep people out, with the exception of hospital staff. The men who had invaded the room were dragged out to be treated of their injuries while the authorities were being called, and when questioned about the situation, Lucian answered with only the truth.
"Those two attacked the guy with crutches — patient's kid. One of 'em was gonna do something to the patient's life support machine, probably to threaten her life or kill her. You can even ask the guy himself — he can confirm my story. I just protected them both."
Without much to argue against, the hospital staff quickly accepted Lucian's story and had the bystanders disperse.
Maxie asked to be given some space so she could talk in private with Brodie. She also added that she wanted to keep an eye on both family members there as nurses checked in on the three of them.
Lucian went to the rooftop level for some air and space. While there, he received a ping that went perfectly in line with what he wanted to do.
– ৹ – ৹৹◎৹৹ – ৹ –
[[ New Quest: Strike Back ]]
Description: People that matter to you have just been attacked. You will not let this slide. Find those responsible and brand fear into their souls.
Time Limit: 24 hours.
Penalty: Reduced EXP rewards. Item rewards diminished by one grade. Unresolved fury.
Objectives:
[1] Find the Steele family's former landlord.
[2] Make them know fear.
[3] Optional: end their life.
[4] Hidden Optional Objective
Rewards:
[1] 200 EXP.
[2] 300 EXP; one D-grade item of your choosing, or one Basic non-class ability of your choosing.
[3] 500 EXP; one C-grade weapon of your choosing, or one Intermediate non-class ability of your choosing.
[4] Rewards Hidden
– ৹ – ৹৹◎৹৹ – ৹ –
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[A/N]: Heyo! It me again!
This chapter was honestly kinda hard to write. For days, I was stuck at the opening part and was like, "Well, where tf do I go from here?"
Then, after some time, I managed to progress a bit more... before getting stuck again at Bailey's part. Again, I thought, "Now where tf do I go???"
I was 🤏 t h i s close to just scrapping the entire chapter and starting over from scratch.
Instead, I decided to take some time off and do other things. I did pixel art, sketched a few non-DC:SR related things, played a lot of Fire Emblem and Castlevania on the GBA.
After coming back, I started writing well again. Over the course of a few days, I finally managed to come up with this. And guess what? Not starting over was worth it, because I just got even more setup done for future action and drama. I'll see y'all again when we get there!
Toodles~!