Gotham City. She was a cesspool of crime and disorder; a twisted, mocking reflection of what civilization should be. Ill-intentioned individuals prowled her streets and alleys day in and night out. Thankfully, she had her fair share of heroes to counteract her lesser and greater evils, like white blood cells fending off foreign bodies. Some of them might not be seen the same way by every citizen, but so long as even one person believed, then they were indeed heroes.
In most places, the night stretched longer the further into the year time went. Winter was always heralded by encroaching darkness, starting when the cold Autumn breeze would first sweep over the land. The moon would begin to cut in on the sun's time, and eventually, it would have a major hold on humanity's hours. It was like an unseen eclipse that lasted months.
Things were much different in Gotham.
Within her territory, the nights were always long. Her towering, utilitarian structures blotted out most of the sun's natural light - so much so that barely any non-artificial illumination made it to the bottommost areas of her denser, more industrialized regions. Sunlight was only ever freely available in the few wide-open spaces within the city, and her darkest places only received abundant sunlight when the sun was around its peak. Closer to her harsher cold seasons, it was almost always nighttime.
...
One early morning in October, something peculiar happened in one of Gotham's numerous dark alleys, which ran through her like minor blood vessels. Space was torn open, and to anyone observing (which was nobody), it would have looked like a localized sphere of heat distortions that radiated from a central point a few feet off the ground.
The distortions kept intensifying for a few more moments, and then--
Nothing.
And in its place fell a young man.
"Hugh-hakk! Cough-cough...! Fuck...!"
Having spawned next to a dumpster, this young man hacked and dry-heaved from the nasty smell. The odor was made significantly worse by the scattering of rat carcasses, poisoned by the owner of the 'restaurant' that the dumpster belonged to. But enough about rats and trash.
"Program. Pull up my interface," said the young man after steadying his breath.
[ Understood. Projecting UI. ]
– ৹ – ৹৹◎৹৹ – ৹ –
Host: Lucian Albrecht
Matrix: none
Level: 5 [5 unallocated]
Classes: none
-[ Attributes ]-
Power: 13
Vitality: 13
Agility: 13
Intellect: 12
Mentality: 12
Spirit: 12
Luck: 0
Free Attribute Points: 25
Notice!
You have yet to select a Development Matrix.
You must do so before the rest of the program becomes open to use.
[[Proceed to Matrix Selection]]
– ৹ – ৹৹◎৹৹ – ৹ –
"Well, whatever..." Lucian decided that it would be better to do that later once he'd gotten away from that rancid alley. He picked himself up off the grimy concrete, flicking off any litter that had managed to cling to his loose shirt with a strong feeling of disgust. Thankfully, nothing had gotten in his hair...
Some time later, having taken the time to scrub off some of the smell with help from the rain, Lucian found himself sitting on a bench in a tiny, mostly empty park. The grass had turned brown, looking almost dead. It was Autumn, so some discoloration was to be expected, but this was too much. The park was almost completely barren, clearly uncared for. One likely cause of the grass' terrible health was the innumerable pieces of litter scattered around, half of which were bottles for a variety of pills, as well as spent syringes and used needles.
As for the trees... well, at least they fit the Halloween season really well.
'Alright,' Lucian 'thought' with intent, attempting once again to communicate with the artificial existence residing within him. 'Program, show me the Matrix Selection screen.'
[ Understood. Projecting UI. ]
The program that Lucian had been 'born' with repeated its previous words in the exact same monotone and vaguely feminine voice. A wide window projected in Lucian's vision, one that only he could see. The background was translucent black, framed with plain white borders. The top of the screen displayed the words "Matrix Selection" in bold white letters, pixelated just like the 'main page' that had been shown to him earlier.
[ Notice, ] said the program, echoing in Lucian's head, [ Development Matrices will only act as a channel or conduit for the development of your power. However you grow and whatever you end up becoming with this power is entirely up to you. You may change your Matrix every 25 levels should you wish, but this can only be done up to three times. Level 100 will grant you the ability to select a secondary Matrix or a sub-Matrix, but you will only gain access to its abilities and receive no buffs. This can be repeated at levels 250 and 500 if you make it that far. ]
Though he was initially confused by the wording, Lucian immediately understood once he saw some of the options he was presented with. The Matrix selection was divided into tabs: Default, Mythology, Local, Alternate, and Modern Fiction. All of these had subcategory tabs, but Lucian's instincts led him to the Modern Fiction tab right away.
Video Games, divided by genre and region. Comics were divided similarly; the same went for Shows/Movies, and so on. Zeroing in on the Comics tab, Lucian went on to choose Eastern, and started scrolling through the Manga options...
'Yep... they're all here,' Lucian thought while rapidly scanning through the almost endless list. All of the species, occupations, archetypes, and other things from various franchises had been accounted for. These extended way past the expected shounen and seinen anime, going so far as to have accounted for even slice of life and horror. There were so many options and variations, in fact, that a search function was necessary. A search bar had been sitting in the top right corner of the main window from the very start. Within it were the words "search within current category/subcategory" in dull grey text.
'You know what? Since I'm in a superhero universe, I think Horikoshi Kohei would appreciate what I'm about to do...'
Using the search bar, Lucian quickly typed out the words "one for all" on his personal holographic keyboard. Once he hit 'enter,' lo and behold! It was there. "Jackpot," he whispered, selecting the Quirk without hesitation.
[ You have selected the Matrix: "Quirk: One for All." Benefits include: ]
[ - Increased growth rates for Power, Vitality, and Agility attributes ]
[ - An active ability to temporarily boost the three aforementioned attributes. ]
[ - Buffs when facing off against evildoers, as well as embodiments of evil itself, such as demons, evil spirits, and certain villains ]
[ - Detect evil through a supernatural sense of justice and righteousness ]
'That's great and all,' thought Lucian, focusing his mind on the program, 'but what about the Vestiges?'
[ They are included in the Matrix package, and can be unlocked as your level rises, ] the program answered, and Lucian exhaled in relief.
– ৹ – ৹৹◎৹৹ – ৹ –
You have selected: "Quirk: One for All."
Proceed with this choice?
[ Yes ] – [ No ]
– ৹ – ৹৹◎৹৹ – ৹ –
"Yes, obviously." Lucian snorted with a smile, simultaneously 'clicking' yes on the popup window in his UI. A rush of warmth and information flooded his body and mind. As his body temperature rose, his mind flickered to a sequence of images and sensations. Various diagrams were embedded into his memory, detailing human anatomy, depictions of unarmed fighters, various Quirk users, and so on. Each and every one of them burned information into his mind that all pointed towards one thing: how to use the Quirk that he had just been granted. They even came with a 'guide' on how it should feel when he uses the Quirk, so Lucian should never be lost.
By the time it was finished, which took a few minutes in real time though it felt like hours to him, Lucian's entire body felt warm, and his breath steamed up the air something fierce. He was also in a bit of a high because of the mass-release of hormones and adrenaline, so he had to take some time to cool off before proceeding with whatever he needed to do next.
After he had finally calmed down, the program walked Lucian through the class selection process, as well as the distribution of his free attribute points after educating him on what each of them did.
– ৹ – ৹৹◎৹৹ – ৹ –
Host: Lucian Albrecht
Matrix: Quirk User: One for All
Level: 5
Classes: [Brawler - Level 2] ; [Acrobat - Level 2] ; [Criminal - Level 1]
-[ Attributes ]-
Power: 18
Vitality: 18
Agility: 18
Intellect: 15
Mentality: 15
Spirit: 16
Luck: 0
Free Attribute Points: 0
– ৹ – ৹৹◎৹৹ – ৹ –
Lucian was advised to select classes that would synergize well with his Matrix, but also consider the kind of lifestyle he wanted to live. In regards to that, he felt like the Beginner classes, Brawler, Acrobat, and Criminal (disregarding how ironic the last one was) would serve him quite well. As for his attributes, Lucian was advised to focus on the physical ones, being the first three, and to have Spirit and Mentality as his second priority. This was because a good deal of mental processing speed and willpower would be required to utilize One for All to its fullest.
Now, in regards to Lucian' Luck attribute, it couldn't be raised using free attribute points. If he wanted to increase it, he'd have to do so through other means, such as quests, using items, performing rituals, and so on. Luckily - funny that it should be phrased that way - having 0 Luck just means that fate won't be swayed too much in either direction. Increasing the attribute's value obviously means good things, but it also happens to be the only attribute that can go into the negatives. It need not be spelled out what that would mean for Lucian.
"And that's that settled..." Lucian sighed after finishing his initial setup, slumping in the rain-soaked bench. His clothes caught on the rough wood, causing his bare skin to scrape against the coarse, damp material, but he didn't feel any discomfort. Considering the average attribute scores for regular humans was around 10, his 18 Vitality gave him such durability that regular sources of irritation couldn't affect him anymore. For reference, 15 would put someone at Olympic level with any respective attribute, and 20 would basically border on superhuman.
"Now, the question is... what to do...?" Leaning forward, resting his elbows on his knees, Lucian began to ponder on just what he should be doing and how to go about it. Documents, for one, were something he didn't have; he literally just spawned in from thin air. He had absolutely no identity in this world, which had both boons and banes about it. He didn't want to bother with getting them done, though...
"Fuck it!" he decided. "I'm gonna fucking crime all over the place!"
◎ ◉ ◎
Lucian did not, in fact, crime all over the place. But he would in the future. For now, he just wanted to scope out the city first, see the sights and determine where he should be staying. Even in a hellhole like Gotham, there had to be at least be some nicer neighborhoods compared to the majority of it.
While most of the "low-crime" areas were reserved for the elite, Lucian was pleasantly surprised to find that not everything was as shitty as he expected. Most things looked gloomy and grimy for sure, but not all of it was a gross perversion of civilization. A lot of things actually looked decently modern if one could look past the litter and graffiti, and all in all functioned as well as they could considering their circumstances. Schools were open, businesses were busy, and while gangsters and such roamed freely out in the open, they weren't too common a sight in areas with heavy civilian traffick.
Putting his ear to the ground for a few hours on his first day, Lucian learned that the crime groups in the city functioned more-or-less 'honorably.' They tried to avoid getting in each other's way, protected those within their territories, and even supported smaller businesses. They did need some form of 'incentive' for the last part, but that was more or less par for Lucian's expectations. It's usually when these crime groups would step out of line that the Bat-family or other vigilantes would have to step in and apprehend them. Events like firefights breaking out over disputes, or desperation pushing them to higher profile actions.
All of that only applied to mobs of 'regular' people, of course. Super-crime organizations and the like needed a much more forceful approach.
But again, regarding 'regular people crimes,' Lucian actually saw Batman in action on his first night in Gotham when a mugging broke out in one of the city's numerous dark alleys. When someone cried out for help, it didn't take long for the Caped Crusader to dart into the scene since he happened to be nearby on his patrol route. He worked swiftly and silently, disarming and incapacitating the mugger while causing minimal injury. Lucian couldn't even see when and how the Batman had restrained his target with bat-zipties, or whatever he used. Manacles? Batacles??
...Batmanacles!
With the mugging victim thanking him profusely, Batman sent the GCPD a tip about the mugger, and then left him in the hands of some willing passersby until the cops showed up to collect him.
After that incident, Lucian speed-walked through the city to look for job offers that he could reasonably fit into and live off of. It didn't have to pay a lot; he just needed enough to get by. He spent a considerable amount of the daylight hours looking for hiring posters and asking around.
Quite fortunately for him, he was eventually taken in as a delivery boy by the same restaurant that he spawned next to. It paid well enough, and had a free lunch from leftovers. Since Lucian looked capable and old enough, the owner - one Inigo Suarez - let him stay in the restaurant during the night, under the condition that he cleaned the place up every day before they open. His work would begin at 11 AM and end at 7 PM, though he could work extra hours and his employer would add to his pay accordingly.
"Today was a good day..."
Lucian sighed in satisfaction as he put a backpack filled with clothes under his head to use as a pillow. It was old and had more than a few holes, but it served its purpose well, and while he didn't have any blankets to use for the night, Lucian's 18 Vitality made his body hardy enough to survive cold nights with minimal discomfort.