The smokey streets of LA (Lucas)

The Ruby Slipper was just the latest of many clubs opened across the country by an often called eccentric business woman. Lately young people had begun taking to establishments that offered drinks, dancing and a thin veneer of nostalgia. They were of course wildly popular and his shared business associate decided to invite Lukas to one of these parties. Sending a black envelope with neatly pressed red wax in the shape of a flame pressed into a seal. Unnecessarily pageantry that she so enjoyed putting onto him and yet here he was, stepping from a sleek black limousine in one of the many fitted suits his father expected him to wear. Thinking back, he always remembered being lectured to wear the damn thing and his mother always hovering over with those worried eyes. His eyes, an odd piercing blue scanned over the parking lot and various patrons that walked through the door.

Not many of them were so interested in looking as well dressed as him but they also lacked the same stringent upbringing. Red lights flashed from a stylish sign above the entrance, portraying a large red high heel as expected from the joint. Pretentious like the raven haired woman who was likely waiting for him beyond the threshold which he breezed through with a flash of his identification. Taking in the loud music that began to wash over him, alongside the lights brilliantly illuminating the entire floor and the places beyond it. A mixture of semi-casual and whatever else he didn’t bother worrying about the small people and their dancing. Only occasionally drawing a glance from one of them due to how he apparently towered over the average man.

It all felt a little too lively for him, most of the people drinking or past that point to the dance floor full of writhing bodies lost to the rhythm of the music.  Absently he adjusted one of the cuffs, rubbing the metal piece between index and thumb. He was expecting The Queen of Cinders to be here waiting for him, so that meant moving through the front and into the back to where the true business was taking place. Every time he met with the woman he felt antsy, as if each time she would have worked up some way to betray him. These ventures weren’t connected with his family, just his own attempts to get ahead and he had been told that there was something new on the streets that could make them big money.

Of course he was expected to push the damn stuff.

That was part of their agreement. He thought to himself with faint annoyance, moving through the floor which made him feel more annoyed than anything else. She knew how much he actually hated scenes like this. Give him a quiet room with a glass of scotch and he would have been fine with it. Finally he made his way to the back of the club, reaching a bodyguard around the same frame as him with eyes hidden behind black shades. He reached into his coat pocket and produced a card emblazoned by red and outlined by gold which glinted in the undulating neon lights. A few seconds passed and he was allowed to step through into the VIP room.

”I hope you have a reason for inviting me to your club, ” He stated with annoyance, eyes narrowed into minor slits.


”Do you always need to be so short with me?” She questioned with a smirk, dressed in a tight looking dress cut up to the left with splashes of orange, reds and black. Black hair spilling over her shoulder. She pressed a glass of dark colored liquid forward. ”I wanted you to be in on a break through with this new drug i’ve come across. I know Spark has been big but...this might change the game,” She produced a small vial of orange fluid from her sleeve and allowed the faint light within the room to catch it.


”So what exactly is that?” he questioned, taking a whiff from the glass and allowing himself a small sip.  His own tolerance would allow him a little before his mind went fuzzy.

”Spark is all too chaotic but one of my many associates have been trying to make more controllable results. I’ve set up a small little scenario to test this out,”

”You’ve set something up?”

”Oh yes. You’ll see soon enough,” She produced a remote and pointed it at a screen which came to life with static before the sight of a large warehouse that stood out as much as any other warehouse with the shape of humans moving through the faint illumination. ”Just watch.”

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The light of a street lamp flickered in and out from what he assumed was a lacking bulb. Victor hated moving through the shadows of the streets, dressed up in the macabre costume that he tended to wear when he was being Geist. A hero of sorts that he learned got a little attention from an online community but not enough to be really seen as anything more than a glorified criminal as many commenters stated. Public attention wasn’t why he was here, instead it was more on the level of dealing with a few criminals around here. People peddling their drugs which grew more and more dangerous because it added more people with powers that could cause damage to so many things.

He felt over the collapsible staff strapped to his back leg, the blades and even a few other non-lethal weapons. A few people were moving outside of the building, dressed in black with what he assumed was ski masks. Seriously? That was so cliché criminal he couldn’t even help judging them.  He crouched low, feeling the power flow through him. Flesh, cloth and everything else shifting to smoke as he became nothing more than a cloud clinging low to the ground.

He moved along and through a grating which allowed him into the building and a top a stocked section of what he assumed was a crate. A lot of creates when he took a few seconds to acclimate to the room around him, hearing people talk lowly in the distance. One, two, three, four, five, and six people were here at the moment with what looked to be automatic weapons. This would take a while to deal with but he didn’t think it would be too hard. So long as the two guys outside didn’t come in until he deal with their friends.

He took in a deep breath and waited until someone came in under his view.

Then all at once he let himself jump down, drawing the escrima from their sheath and slamming it across the back of their head. Fading to smoke and slipping into the shadows while their friends quickly came to see one of them unconscious or maybe even assumed dead. There was a small amount of curses followed by them searching around the room while he slipped back to his hiding spot. They would find him soon enough though.

Boredom consumes me Lucas thought to himself as he leaned back in a desk chair. Despite the posh hotel penthouse he was staying in, the teen found himself twiddling his thumbs. Maybe it was because he didn't come to LA to enjoy some fancy resort. He had business to attend to. Or, rather, crime to stop. He had been going around, city to city, trying to contribute in some way, with no real specific, grand goal in mind. It had been fun, sure, but slow going.

You have literally been saying that for the last four hours. For the love of my sanity, find something to do. Sven said in Lucas' head. The boy's OPTIC lenses provided a mental connection to the AI.

Stretching out in his chair as if fatigued, Lucas groaned.

You were supposed to look for stuff for me, Sven. Lucas responded in a 'am disappoint' tone. Lucas could have looked for crimes himself, sure, but Sven was much more efficient..... So long as you could get him to work at all.

Ah, yes, but then that tabloid show I like so much finally started airing. Know what they're saying now? That Lucius is acting weird because he's in love with Travis Masters. I mean, preposterous, sure, but........ Seeing it makes me so happy. Just imagine Red's face if he heard it! Sven was rather addicted to this show of his. Lucas could only roll his eyes whenever it was brought up. In this situation in particular the AI's obsession was testing Lucas' patience.

"Could you just take a second to find some gang or something for me to break up? I'm boooooorrred," Lucas said, out loud this time. Sven sighed in his brain, apparantly submitting himself to the job. The AI knew he wasn't going to get Lucas to shut up until a crime for him to stop was found.

A few moments went by, and then Sven came back with something.

Alright. There's a like, drug thing going down over at this warehouse. Tapped a camera. Looks promising. Address is on your HUD. Happy? Sven was being a bit short, but you could tell it was because he just wanted to get back to relaxing. Nonetheless, Lucas smiled wide.

"Thanks Sven! You're the best AI ever!" Lucas said, jumping up from his chair, overly excited. Sven groaned with irritation.

Ok ok, please..... Cap the enthusiasm. Not used to it. Lucius didn't exactly throw a party every time I did something for him. Sven had been telling Lucas to chill for weeks now, but Lucas didn't. The AI had a sneaking suspicion Lucas was trying to get him to loosen up.

Lucas put his gear in a bag and left the building, getting a car to drop him off about a block away from his destination. From there, he changed in an alleyway, and made his way to the rooftop of a building adjacent to the warehouse where this was all going down.

"Sven, can you give me a visual? You said you tapped the cameras before," Lucas said. Sven didn't respond, instead just doing what was asked. His show was over, and that meant the only thing that was interesting was this mission Lucas had going.

Lucas observed the cameras. Looked like some kind of transfer, no doubt from the suppler to the lesser dealers. There were lots of men with automatic weapons and masks, but nothing Lucas figured could match him straight up. It was very likely he could just go in there, knock some heads, and end the whole thing...... But Lucas was anything but rash.

He would wait, watching and analyzing. If anyone had powers or hyper-competence, or an unusual weapon, ten minutes of observation would most likely be enough to find and plan around those individuals.

The warehouse was tense once they realized that someone was here and not exactly on their side.  He was used to dealing with them, fighting their less than well trained people that thought praying and spraying was how people did things. How his family got as successful as they were he didn’t know, though maybe he assumed it was some kind of weird prestige and fear thing with the lame normal criminals. He took in a deep breath through his nostrils, keeping his mind on the heavy booted footsteps that thundered through the echoing room. They would react in certain ways and he expected didn’t really know how to deal with what he could do.

Once again his body became smoke, slipping through the cracks between the crates he had perched on. Hovering above the grainy smoothed floors, feeling some feet stomp through his now intangible body without even thinking about what they were running through. Ew, he put his fucking boot in me, He thought to himself, solidifying enough to knock something over and waiting for them to come around while slipping into the shadows. Hurried and worried muttering happened as they sent two backwards to check on what was happening. Their automatic weapons in hand and looking for the problem.

Should have sent one more.

Like a shadow he emerged from the darkness and with a quick motion one of his batons slammed against one of their wrist with a loud crack. Their gun clattered to the ground ad he assumed the wrist was broken. They stumbled back from the kick squared into their gut and the gun was then trained on him. Because two people. He had less than a second and the spray began, slamming into him and through with small puffs of smoke. They hit the crates behind with a spray of shattered wood and chunks of what he assumed was the stuff in it.  He smirked, knowing that it was obvious even in the low light.

They realized that their clip was open not fast enough as his weapon was slammed across his face. It felt almost too good to watch one and then another to fall to the ground with a bleeding nose, lips and likely unconscious. He kicked their guns under the nearest spot and began running through the small labyrinth of large shelves as he tried to think of what to do next. At least some of these people had dealt with him before and would know what they were doing.  

He wasn’t expecting the fire.. Ripping through the compound and from the hands of one of the man that would have normally been using guns. No...that was plasma being shot out in bolts. When did the mean get the ability to shoot fucking plasma? He panicked for a moment ducking under what looked to be a shot that went through metal and event he wall on the far end of the building. Well, this just got so much more difficult.

"Whoa! That was sudden! Look, Sven!" Lucas yelled as he watched the camera feed on his contacts. Some smoke turned into a guy, who beat up two of the traffickers, then turned back to smoke. Unfortunately, this meta didn't do that before the criminals got some shots off, effectively alerting everyone in the building to his presence.

I see it. I always see it. I'm a computer program right now. I don't have to 'look' at things I'm connected to, Lucas, Sven said telepathically. He figured the boy already knew that, but he was reminding him more out of habit at this point.

Down in the warehouse, the smoke metahuman seemed to draw the attention of another meta, who seemed to work for the traffickers. The smoke dude was now getting plasma shot at him. This didn't look good.

"I.... I don't get it. What was his plan? He's surrounded now! Meta or not, this is bad. He could die!" Lucas said, starting down the fire escape of the building he was perched on. When he got to the bottom, he did a little front flip from it onto the ground, landing on his feet just outside the warehouse, which was lighting up with flashes of plasma and gunfire.

I say let him handle it. It was his dumb plan. Maybe he deserves it. Besides, you'll have a better chance of taking them down efficiently once they eliminate this metahuman. It's doubtfult they'll expect a second attack, Sven advised, not that he particularly cared what Lucas did. It was most likely his programming coming through. He was made to give strategic insights, after all.

"Are you insane? What do you think I'm doing this for? I'm trying to save people. That includes that guy! That includes everyone in there!" Lucas said. He then raised his hand, blasting the warehouse with a wave of brilliant white energy sparked with crimson. It blew a hole in the warehouse forcefully, getting plenty of attention as the teen stepped inside.

"Hi. I'm Novus. Here to stop you," Lucas said, awkwardly scratching the back of his head. Almost instantly the men fired on him, and Lucas flinched, wincing at the slight pain the projectiles brought.

The bullets hit the ground, though, and Lucas was unscathed. Everyone in the room just looked at each other, confused.

"Oh, yeah. Kinda neat huh? Bullets don't work on me," Lucas said, sliding his sword from it's sheath as he nonchalantly got ready to fight. The sword got caught on his belt though, and wouldn't come out.

"Ugh, darn. Hold on. Just a sec. Gotta get my......sword out," Lucas said, struggling for a moment, but finally unsheathing his weapon. That's when he took a fighting stance

The men didn't know whether to run or laugh.

Okay, so metahuman with laser beam powers. Something he would have liked to know about before coming here but all that training wasn’t for nothing. Not like he had any weakness to the superheated gasses aside from the normal human one and that was only occasionally.  He stayed low while the beams tore through a few sheleves, causing some to threaten to fall and others to bypass threatening and just falling altogether. He took two deep breaths, noting the collection of steel which threatened to fall on him. It would have crushed his form, but all it found was a cloud of smoke which curled around the deadly weight and moved him through the new obstruction.  He reformed on the other side with the sound of gunshots ringing through the air but he couldn’t tell where they were hitting.

Dinging off of steel and carving some dent into the little barricade he had formed for himself.  However something else happened, which was a loud explosion not associated with large blasts of plasma. A bright flask of light filled the large warehouse, white tinged with what he assumed was red. More gunfire followed that while he moved to a more advantageous point, watching over what appeared to be someone having joined in on the fight. Dressed from what he could tell in a dark outfit with a..sword strapped to his side.

Victor was not one to judge how someone heroed but something about using a sword felt so archaic. Maybe that was what he was going for, which could be respectable in its own right. Add in the fact that the sword got caught in their own belt and he couldn’t tell what was going on. Was he getting help or dealing with someone that didn’t know what they were doing. Aside from literally treating bullets like they were little ants biting at him. Well, it looked like he had some kind of help, if not only because that guy was a good distraction.  

”Hopefully they can keep the laserbeam guy busy,” He muttered to himself with a faint smirk, hopping down to the ground and hefting what looked to be rusty chain  around maybe five feet long or longer. It was heavy, but not too heavy that he couldn’t lift it up with some exertion. Lukas would have been laughing at him the damn musclebound bastard. One of the men seemed to be interested more into him. They were the one who caught the blunt end of his chain across their face, hitting the ground with a thunk and allowing him to move through the shadows without being focused on.

Now how would he help this new part of the fight. He removed one of the blunt batons from their thigh holster and allowed his fingers to tighten around it, taking in everything before him. Before one of them could respond to him they found a strike across the back of their head before ducking back over one of the  falling section of what he assumed was a crate.