Lucian biked through Gotham's city streets using Mr. Suarez' cheap motorcycle. The old machine's engine rumbled unevenly and roared like a hoarse beast when pushed. It had taken a few days to get used to the rough ride and loud engine, but Lucian found himself enjoying it eventually.
Considering the climate of Gotham's traffic, Mr. Suarez' rickety old motorbike actually fit in pretty well, to the point that it was completely ordinary despite how beat-up it was.
To Lucian, it was like seeing an off-brand M&M in a bowl and going, "Oh, how did you get here?" before realizing that it was all off-brand M&Ms - just different kinds.
To see an actual M&M in the bowl would actually be stranger.
Biking around the city and constantly making food deliveries was how Lucian earned his living for at least eight hours a day, with a break somewhere in the middle for lunch. He usually worked for around eleven hours since he had nothing else to do, and he quite liked riding around on the rickety old motorbike.
It was basically a fetch quest that he could continuously repeat all day every day and tune out while doing do. The best part was that it had real, tangible rewards.
Lucian would keep on doing this job, but probably stop once he could make a better living on his own and become self-sufficient.
If it would serve as good enough cover, however, he might just keep doing it until he was no longer needed, or the restaurant went out of business somehow.
On the topic of becoming self-sufficient, Lucian has already started considering aliases for himself in preparation for when it came time to finally start acting on his own. So far, his list included the names Gargoyle, Manticore, and Hippogriff.
He came up with those names based on a certain image, which came about while pondering which Vestige he should unlock first. In his mind, it had to be either Blackwhip, Smokescreen, Float, or Danger Sense.
Wanting to narrow down his options, Lucian checked through the classes available to him, as well as their abilities. Danger Sense was the first to be removed from the Vestige roster; Lucian discovered the Brawler class' level 5 ability, which was ironically also named Danger Sense. Their effects were identical: detect hostility and/or intent to harm, and alert the user. He could unlock this ability before getting to choose a Vestige, so Lucian had no trouble making that decision.
With Danger Sense out of the way, it was now a three-way contest between Blackwhip, Float, and Smokescreen.
There just so happened to be a Tinkerer class among the Basic list, which could spec into the Intermediate class "Inventor" after reaching level 5, which was maximum level for all Basic classes. He was also sure that he could make smoke bombs or canisters with various secondary effects using the Tinkerer class alone, not to mention being able to just learn how in his own time. That put Smokescreen out of the priority list as well.
Finally, after less consideration than he anticipated, Lucian decided to follow in Deku's unintentional footsteps and deliberately walk into unlocking Blackwhip.
Unlike Float, which only allowed the user to levitate without any other uses, Blackwhip had incredible utility - especially in a city like Gotham. Additionally, unlike wires, chains, and grappling cables or what-have-you, Lucian should be able to use the Vestige intuitively like extra limbs. There was even the benefit of not needing to damage any infrastructure while moving around.
He would definitely take Float after Blackwhip, however; the latter would quite literally allow him to fly with the former's help, just as long as there was air to propel himself through.
Now, back to the image that inspired Lucian's choice of names...
The mental image was influenced by Deku during his vigilantism arc, Spawn from Image comics, and the Prowler. Specifically, the Spider-Verse version of the Prowler.
Lucian would keep Deku's cowl and the Iron Soles that Hatsume Mei developed for him, and he'd also take the Prowler's clawed gauntlets and color scheme. After that came the task of replicating Spawn's living cape, K7-Leetha, using Blackwhip.
The Quirk Vestige couldn't do everything that the neural parasite from hell could, but it was close enough.
All in all, Lucian's choice of aesthetics and behavior generated the image of a dark, winged creature of the night - obviously inspired by the Batman. The biggest difference in Lucian's approach, however, was that he planned to alternate between stealth and showmanship - acting more like a movie monster than a sneaky vigilante.
There was also the fact that his choices were all winged creatures.
Well, the manticore was winged in D&D, which was one of Lucian's inspirations. Not all depictions of the creature had wings.
As for some more technical stuff...
Blackwhip would be instrumental for vigilantism because of its vast potential for mobility and adaptability. Considering his plans for being showy and the general Gotham aesthetic, it let him fit in really well, too.
What's that? "Red Bull gives you wings?"
I raise you: "Blackwhip is your wings!"
[ A: eugh, kill me now... ]
Anyway, Lucian planned to further amplify both his performance and stealth by prioritizing the Acrobat and Criminal classes moving forward. Brawler would be really good for One for All, but he decided to focus on that after hitting level 5 in his other Basic classes.
Besides, there were other ways of learning how to fight, so it's not like it'd be a complete loss on his part. He just couldn't be fucked to actively train himself in stealth, acrobatics, and performance arts.
Unfortunately for Lucian's plotting on the job, the program snapped at him in his head.
[ Host! You have skipped your delivery's address. Make a U-turn. ]
"Oops," Lucian exclaimed, waiting to get to a legal U-turn spot before doing as the program told him.
Was it ever mentioned that the program was sentient? Well, the program was sentient, even bordering on sapience. It was actually part of the reason why Lucian was sent to this universe: to test how far and how well the program could develop through interactions with him and the world.
"Around over here, right...?" Lucian asked as he brought Mr. Suarez' bike to a stop in front of an apartment building, and the program confirmed. [ This is the address. ]
This process of making deliveries with the program's occasional input repeated until the sun began to set, around an hour before Lucian's shift was supposed to end.
When he returned to the restaurant ready for his next set of pickups, Lucian was surprised when Mr. Suarez dismissed him for the day.
"You can hop off early now. You deserve a day off. Also, Marsha will be in charge for the foreseeable future." Inigo's announcement puzzled Lucian.
"I'm gonna have to go out of town for a bit," Inigo explained, then added, "and here's a bonus for you. The customers really like ya, y'know?"
Lucian laughed sheepishly, accepting the fattest stack of cash he's ever held at once since coming to Gotham. This was disregarding the building pile of money inside of his backpack.
'This must be over twice my daily,' mused Lucian. 'Actually, speaking of money... I should stuff some money back at those places I took clothes from. Yeah, I'll return at some point to do that.'
[ Notice. As a reward for the first open sign of your reputation increasing, you have been awarded 120 EXP. ] [ EXP to next level: 591. Total EXP required: 1,100 ]
Inigo began to speak again. "Anyway... I'm not sure how long the trip will actually last, so listen to the old lady for a while, yeah? If you have to stay out at night again, well, just make sure you return with enough time for important stuff. I'll be back before you know it."
After that, Inigo reached up to tousle Lucian's hair before changing to leave, which he had to reach pretty high up for; Luce was almost a full head taller than he was.
With nothing else to do until the next day, Lucian geared up for a night out in the city. Locking up Mr. Suarez' restaurant that night, he drifted into the darkness in his cool, yet cheesy slasher villain getup...
◎ ◉ ◎
"I should probably get a new mask," Lucian grumbled.
At some point, he ended up looking at his reflection in a car's side mirror. He found the vehicle under some overpass in a mostly abandoned area while looking for places he might want to hang out at for some alone time. Having nothing better to do, he slid down the slope he was standing over to investigate.
The car itself was broken down, with the hood and front bumper all banged up. The sides had a few bullet holes, but the windows miraculously survived unscathed. Most of the vehicle's surface was covered in rust and grime, but the rest was relatively intact.
Lucian broke one of the windows with an elbow strike. The attack only used his base strength, which he found really cool considering his elbow only stung a little for a second after striking the glass.
'Having high Vitality's gonna save me from a lot of hurt...'
Reaching in, he opened the door to find that it was never even locked in the first place. Regardless, he started rummaging around inside.
The driver's seat was heavily stained with blood, and the other seats were a whole mess. Streaks of the red-brown, near-black residue trailed through the front passenger seat, which made the owner's fate painfully obvious.
Inside the middle compartment were a few bills of money and spare change, along with the driver's keys.
'Too bad this car probably won't work anymore...'
The glove compartment held two magazines, but no firearms; the weapons must've been taken with the car owner.
With what Lucian could remember, that should total 30 9mm rounds if both were full, which he confirmed they were after figuring out how to check. In the backseat was a metal baseball bat, a hatchet, an old rifle, and more blood that had seeped and dried into the covers.
"This is a lotta fuckin' loot," Lucian muttered.
[ A whole lot of EXP. ]
Completely ignoring the implications of this scene, considering that nobody would probably care to look here anymore, Lucian picked up everything that he could carry...
[ 40 EXP received for 9mm magazines [2]. 25 EXP received for the metal baseball bat. 15 EXP received for the rusty hatchet. 5 EXP received for useless car keys. 15 EXP received for $15.30. 100 EXP total. ]
[ EXP to next level: 491 ]
"I'm progressing a lot faster than I thought I would," Lucian said mostly to himself while tearing off the car's seatbelts. It took some effort, but it felt more like tearing strips of cardboard from a fresh box.
He used the seatbelt straps to fashion some makeshift harnesses for his new rifle and bat. As for the hatchet, he could just slip it under his belt; the axe head doubled as a secure hook.
He planned to sell off the rifle and hatchet later, but decided to keep the bat and magazines. The baseball bat was innocuous enough at a glance, and the ammunition could easily be concealed.
Activating Full Cowling, Lucian was briefly covered in glowing streaks of gold. Once those markings disappeared, he became illuminated by arcs of purple electricity as his physical stats shot up from 21 to 29 with his current 40% boost.
It was a relatively substantial increase, and his vertical leap was enough to cover the handful of meters needed to reach the overpass without pushing himself too much.
Lucian stuck the landing on the concrete barriers that lined the overpass' sides. He dusted himself off before 'jogging' his way over to one of the places he'd heard would buy stuff like the things he just looted.
...
Lucian wove through a winding path in Gotham's labyrinthine alleys, destination clear in his mind. Blinking lights from failing electronics would occasionally illuminate his path, so there was at least that as far as comforts go.
Unlike most of his physical ability, his attributes unfortunately couldn't provide him with something like night vision. It was enough to spot and avoid cockroaches, though, as even the slightest light gleamed off their greasy, yucky wings and false eyes.
'Maybe I could get better vision with the Criminal class...?' he mused. He did see the Spy and Assassin intermediate classes in its branching class paths, so even if he couldn't get it from the Basic, night vision or something similar would definitely be in the more advanced classes.
It took Lucian a good ten minutes of basically wandering around these alleys to finally hit his destination. Luckily, having boosted intellect made memorization much easier for him. Take a turn here, secret entrance there. Jump a fence when you get to X point and hop into a 'restricted area.'
You get the idea.
Those were the sorts of instructions that he had to follow to get to a place that'd buy his loot.
"Joel's," Lucian mumbled, seeing the 'signage' above the backdoor of one of the countless buildings around him. It wasn't really a sign. That would just be terrible advertising, as they'd eventually get caught real fast, even hidden away in a location such as this. Instead, they were a pattern of scratches and stains that would be incomprehensible to anyone not in the know. The 'sign' also happened to be under one of the few light sources, so Lucian could actually read it since he knew what to look for.
'Even without these precautions, the GCPD wouldn't put them on high priority because this spot's so inconvenient, but there's always a chance. Then, there's also the vigilantes... well, like me, but ignoring that. Every layer of security that these criminals could stack, they'd take. I should keep that in mind for my permanent hideout.'
Lucian knocked a secret pattern on the faded red door, the rusty metal underneath the chipping paint ringing out louder than he expected. A panel opened just above his eye level, and a pair of sunken, baggy eyes peered down at him menacingly.
After the glaring eyes seemed to finish inspecting Lucian, they receded and several metallic clicks and clacks came from behind the door, barely audible. It swung open quietly unlike what one might expect of such a neglected-looking door, and he was beckoned in by a middle-aged man of surprisingly ordinary stature.
'He must have a terrible sleep schedule,' mused Lucian. 'Or he's a zombie. Heh.'
"Get in," the figure groaned. He sounded dead inside.
Once Lucian had entered, the zombie-man shut and relocked the doors behind him. When that was done, he snapped at Lucian. "And be quieter about it next time."
Lucian didn't feel like saying anything in response, and what he assumed to be the dealer moved behind a desk on one corner of the room. He probably didn't choose to work here if he's so... standoffish. Probably being forced to by some crime group.
"Eugh, so what do you want?" the supposed dealer groaned.
"Looking to sell," explained Lucian, and he was beckoned over to the counter.
"Just drop 'em on the table. I'll pay you whatever I think your shit is worth."
Without another word, Lucian unclipped his stuff and placed them on the counter. He wasn't careful about it, but not careless either. He felt totally indifferent to this 'dealer' person now.
Apart from the things he originally planned to pawn off, Lucian decided to also sell the magazines he found. He realized that he didn't want to use guns anyway, so what was the point of keeping them?
He just didn't much care for using firearms. Not after he peeped the rest of the Brawler tree, which included Martial Artist, then Monk, then Ki Master...
Yeah, no way he'd take guns in favor of becoming a Dragon Ball character.
By the end of the illegal trade encounter, Lucian left a little bit richer than he had been when the night started.
[ Notice. As a reward for your first successful illegal transaction, you have been awarded 100 EXP. Further sales will not grant EXP unless you make the sale of unusual items. ]
[ EXP to next level: 391 ]
◎ ◉ ◎
Bruce Wayne hummed, intently watching one of the numerous screens before him. They were the only source of illumination active at the time, and being a creature of the dark, Bruce felt no need to turn on much more light than was strictly necessary. He also wasn't wearing his cowl, since he was supposed to be taking it easy for the night.
With most of the major criminals and supervillains still either in hiding or detainment, he didn't have any good reason to be out and about while still recovering from a recent encounter with Bane. Because of these things, he had to leave most of the crime fighting to the rest of the bat-family.
"A new player entering the field, Master Bruce?" Alfred's voice rang through the vast chamber. As he approached from the direction of one of the secret entrances from inside the Wayne manor, his footsteps echoed. The noise grew fainter as Alfred made his way over to the Bat. Every few steps he took made certain lights in the bat-cave light up, and another to dim down as he neared his destination.
"I'll have to contact Flash for this one," Bruce said plainly, quietly accepting the tray of exquisite food that his butler presented to him. The aroma was sublime, and the presentation just as mouth-watering. To Bruce though, it was an ordinary dinner.
"Quite a lively one," Alfred commented, and Bruce promptly returned to focusing on the live feed while absentmindedly munching on his butler's cooking.
The screens surveilled a black-clad individual, dashing across Gotham's rooftops to stay unseen. Though, with the purple electricity trailing behind him, anyone who was at least at eye-level could spot him easily. He also happened to be wearing a hockey mask, which didn't do his image any favors - especially with the various weapons currently strapped to his body.
Still, having witnessed this person's reaction to an extortion incident, as well as most of his daily life, Bruce was fairly confident that the Justice League might be able to gain a new ground-level ally in Gotham. All he needed was a bit of guidance.