[A/N]: Longer chapter than usual. Also it's a double drop.
From here, two things will happen:
Possibility #1: I'll take a week off after this to draw a new cover + Lucian + maybe another character.
Possibility #2: I'll get a new chapter out next week and then take the week off after that to draw the stuff.
Doesn't really change much, just the order that things will happen. Aight, ciao. I'll see y'all in the chext napter.
—=—=—=—=—=—=—=—
Lucian had many assumptions about Gotham before his transmigration. Maybe it was just this particular incarnation of the cursed city, but he figured that a "real version" of it would have atrocious street flow. Something along the lines of traffic being so bad that not even cyclists could squeeze through. He couldn't have been further from what he saw now.
All around him, people drove with far more skill than anywhere else he'd been in his old life. On top of that, they treated traffic laws more like they were guidelines—traffic lights especially—but he would be damned if they didn't do it with either finesse or style. Most traffic enforcers just ignored the violations, too. As a result, Lucian got on with his morning business quite a bit faster than he thought he would have been able to.
Speaking of business, his first few batches of deliveries served two purposes.
The first was obvious: get food to where it was wanted. That food though, was basically free. It was just a way to get messages sent along with those meals. That, or deliver small packages for deals that couldn't be made out in the open, but weren't important enough to meet up for.
Judging by the heft in the packages and the way their contents shifted when moved around, none of them contained drugs that Lucian knew of, which helped prove Iñigo's words during the "interview." The only trend he noted was that many of the packages were weapons and ammunition, which made a lot of sense.
The second purpose to his early deliveries was to collect protection fees from every place he visited. Convenient, really. He was just some delivery boy handing over meals in exchange for cash, no matter that some of them seemed larger than they should, or that the payment he received was... generous.
Nobody suspected him the entire time he worked, and he believed that Iñigo had likely chosen him for his appearance as well. Pretty privilege and all that. He collected fees without a fuss, from residents and small businesses to larger practices that could afford a greater degree of "security."
While those two were the official reasons for his work, Lucian had his own agenda as well. While on the job, be scrutinized every home and establishment that he collected protection fees from on behalf of the Lucky Coyote. From what he observed, the fees were adjusted based on whether they were regular residents, businesses, and how much they made.
As a result of that scheme, most under the Lucky Coyote's protection benefited more for lesser cost, compared to those in the territories of other crime groups. Still, it was far from perfect. The Coyote was still taking from people, and considering Lucian's mission in this universe, he couldn't abide by that.
When he finally took charge of the city, he wanted to make sure that nobody would have to pay for safety and peace of mind.
...
Soon enough, Lucian was done with fees and secret exchanges. All that was left for him to do were the actual food deliveries. It was on one of those regular deliveries—one to a nicer building with spacious and well-kept apartments—that he came upon someone he hadn't expected to meet on the job.
He stared down at the woman in front of him, expression as flat as the world in the eyes of a conspiracy theorist. She stared up at him in turn with a similar expression, though the dusting of pink on her freckled face was an interesting sight to see. Her eyes, though... her bags were ruddy under them.
'She's been crying. Should I try to figure out why...?'
Before either he or Maxie could decide how to react to this chance meeting, a set of voices cooed and squealed from within the apartment. That drew Lucian's eyes past her and towards the sources of the noise: there were other girls seated around a glass coffee table, with laptops, phones, and papers strewn across its surface.
He recognized none of them—not from experience in Gotham, and most certainly not from his admittedly-limited comic book knowledge. Nobody gave off any impression of concealed power or greater intellect, though. He decided from there that it was best to assume they were all normal people.
In his time deliberating and observing the situation, he noted that while those girls were making eyes at him, they seemed mostly curious about how Maxie would react to his presence. They were even anticipatory. That gave him an idea.
"Maxie," he finally said. "Didn't expect to see you again so soon."
"Uh... yeah," she replied, listless. Her hands moved mechanically to bring up the purse she held. "How much was it again...?"
"For you? Just this once, it's on the house," he said in turn.
Her eyes snapped back up towards him, wide open. It was the greatest change that he had seen in her expression so far, besides when they had been joking around after a spar. Any words she might have been collecting behind her lips fell right back down her throat.
Behind her, the girls had gone completely silent, watching with eyes as wide as hers. They all hid their smiles and grins behind their hands. Some even had one hand on someone else, shaking them like they'd gone mad as the scene went on.
Lucian proffered the wrapped meals to Maxie, and her hands accepted on their own. He then took a step back and asked, "So... you're still available later, right?"
That seemed to be the cold shock that Maxie needed to return to her normal self. She clicked her tongue and said, "You know the answer to that... you dick..." The two words were muttered under her breath. Her eyes fled from his gaze and, just the smallest bit, her face grew pinker.
"It's a date, then," said Lucian, already turning away.
The door shut quietly as he walked, leaving one flustered Maxie to the wolves that were her companions. Even as his distance from the apartment increased, the shrill screams and unintelligible yammering were still easy for him to hear.
Hopping onto his work bike as if mounting a little pony, he took out his phone and sent Iñigo Gutierrez a quick text message.
"Hey, boss. Just gave one delivery for free, said it's on the house. We're clear if you just took what it cost out of my pay, right?"
"It should be fine," Iñigo replied in one burst, followed by, "Were they needy, or did you do it for some other reason?"
'Am I really doing this?' Lucian questioned himself... then decided that he was, indeed, doing this. "Girl I was flirting with. I promise this won't be a habit, I just saw an opportunity earlier."
The last message sent between them was a positive response from Iñigo. He also wished Lucian some luck, and warned him to be careful with some of the girls at work, as they seriously were eyeing him while he was there.
...
The sun was hot above the smoggy sky by the time Lucian got off the clock. Sunlight weakly penetrated the barrier of pollution and cast a pallid yellow glow across the city. In consequence, shadows spilled forth at a steep angle like a series of inkwells had been knocked over.
He returned Iñigo's motorcycle for the next guy to use, then collected his marginally-reduced daily wage. It was still a lot, all things considered—Iñigo was generous with how much he gave to his employees. From there, Lucian went to wander the city once more.
With nothing better to do while waiting for Maxie to call, he skirted the edges of places he'd visited before to build up the Program's 3D map of Gotham. He traveled both the main and side streets, and plunged into alleys of all kinds to ensure he captured every vein and capillary in Gotham's network. He did come upon trouble here and there as he stumbled into hostile territory, but none of it was anything he couldn't handle.
[ Combat EXP: 100. ]
[ ... ]
[ Congratulations! Your level has risen to 5. ]
[ Next level: 595. ]
[ One for All bonus: Power +1, Vitality +1, Agility +1 ]
[ Class Points: +1 ]
[ Free Attribute Points: +5 ]
– ৹ – ৹৹◎৹৹ – ৹ –
Host: Lucian Sant-Pearce
Matrix: One for All: Lost Flame
Level: 5
EXP: 5/600
Classes: Brawler [5]
———
Attributes:
Power: 20
Vitality: 20
Agility: 20
Intellect: 13
Mentality: 14
Spirit: 13
Luck: 0
– ৹ – ৹৹◎৹৹ – ৹ –
[ Brawler [5] has given you its capstone Ability [Danger Sense]. ]
[ You have developed a sixth sense to detect active threats around you. ]
[ You have developed a sixth sense to detect environmental hazards around you. ]
[ [Danger Sense] scales with Mentality and Spirit. Mentality affects the Ability's capacity to detect corporeal threats, while Spirit affects the metaphysical side. Higher values increase the range and precision of this Ability. ]
[ ... ]
[ [ Full Cowling ] output has risen to 4%. Physical Attribute multiplier while active: ×1.4. ]
...
Soon after reaching Level 5 in his aimless journey, Lucian finally received Maxie's call. She gave him a street to find which, luckily, he'd already explored—it was visible and named in the Program's map. He was told to meet her at the skate park along that street, and so he went.
Maxie was sitting on an old, rusted bench when he arrived, phone in hand and chewing on her thumbnail with her brows tied up in a knot. He initially thought that her state of mind was his doing, but she didn't sound tense when talking to him over the phone. The actual cause was likely what she was currently looking at.
"Yo!" He called out, raising a hand up high as he sped up his pace.
Maxie rose from her seat when she heard him. She turned off her phone and pocketed it, and waited until he was within arm's reach before speaking. "What was that earlier?" She questioned. Though her brow was knitted, her tired and lazy posture indicated no true anger.
"Sorry," Lucian said, slackening his own stance to show that he was on the same page as her. "I just thought it'd be funny in the moment. Hope I didn't go too far."
Maxie opened her lips to say something, but paused and sighed instead. "It's fine," she replied. "It's really no big deal... but you still owe me one. My friends wouldn't let up on me until they thought I was gonna blow up on them..."
That made Lucian grimace. "Yeah... I'll make it up to you somehow," he said to assure her. Then, noting that the tension in her expression hadn't quite gone yet, he followed the instincts he'd developed growing up around his mother and sisters. "Something's still wrong, though," he said. "You can vent to me if you want. I can tell there's more on your mind than my little stunt earlier."
Maxie's jaw set, evident in the shifting of her cheeks and pierced ears. She blinked some moisture away from her eyes while pretending that she just caught something in them. "I'll tell you later," she said. "You owe me a spar first."
Nodding, Lucian started walking after Maxie did, matching her speed.
The gym wasn't far from where they were. Some ten minutes later and they were already there. When Lucian opened the glass door and stepped in, the employee at the front desk, who was responsible logging member visits, barred his approach.
"Woah. I'm gonna have to stop you right there," said the middle-aged employee. "I was away when it happened earlier, but what you did this morning? Not cool. That earned you a ban."
Lucian sighed. "They had it coming," he said, but he already knew that wouldn't affect the outcome. He just wanted to make his stance clear.
"I won't say they didn't," the guard replied, "but we can't tolerate things like what you did. It's bad for our reputation."
Shaking his head, Lucian could only accept the decision. Beside him, Maxie grumbled "Reputation my ass..." under her breath.
Whether the guard noticed her utterance, Lucian couldn't tell. Regardless of that, the guard shifted his gaze to her and spoke again. "And you, missy. They say the trouble came because of you. You can still come in, but I'll be keeping an eye on you."
Maxie's consternation seemed to compound then. "For fuck's sake," she hissed.
Lucian braced himself to be the target of her anger, as was her right, but it never came.
"Come on." She grabbed his arm and started leading him away. "We'll go somewhere else. I was getting tired of coming here every day, anyway."
...
After turning several corners, Lucian finally thought it was a good time to talk again. "I thought you were gonna blow up on me."
"Do you want me to blow up on you?" Maxie replied, keeping her eyes ahead while still pulling him along.
"I mean... no," he said. "You would've been right to, though."
Maxie sighed, letting go of Lucian's arm as they approached a convenience store. "What did you even do earlier?" She asked, pushing into the establishment. "You remember what that guy said earlier."
Lucian followed closely behind her. "So... these two guys were talking creepy about you," he began. "That pissed me off, so I goaded them into a fight. One of them's gonna have to eat through a straw for a while... the other guy, I don't think he'll be breathing right any time soon."
Maxie didn't reply as she piled food and soda onto the counter. Most of the food was the type marketed to athletes, but the soda was nothing but sugar and caffeine.
Across the counter, the clerk gulped to herself as she scanned and bagged the products without a word. She refused to meet either of her customers' eyes, too. When it was done, Maxie turned around and looked at Lucian expectantly. Without missing a beat, he went ahead and paid for everything.
Soon, he followed her out of the convenience store. "We're even now... at least for when you teased me," she said.
Lucian only hummed his acknowledgement. Then, he followed with "And for the gym?"
Again, Maxie didn't say anything, but her silence lasted only for a few moments. "Thank you," she mumbled.
Brows rising, Lucian sped up to move to her side from his place behind her. "You're not mad?"
She shook her head. "It's not just the two of them, but... well, any gym I went to, there's always been at least a few guys that try to get in my pants. I never really had the guts to do anything about it besides say no and hope for the best, so... thank you."
Stunned, Lucian's reply to her explanation was only a grunt.
"I could still work off some stress," Maxie said eventually when the silence between them stretched a little too long. "Do you know anywhere we could go?"
"How about a park?" Lucian suggested. "Robinson's pretty close. As long as we don't go too hard, people shouldn't bother us."
"... okay," said Maxie, shifting a bit closer as they walked.
—=—=—=—=—=—=—=—
[A/N]: Next chapter comes up! Man, I think I might be enjoying myself a little too much here. Doesn't matter, though. If this is what feels right to me, then this is what I'mma do.