Director Viskol had arrived what seemed like moments after Panzer radioed that the rookie was awake. As soon as she'd told the Director that the aspiring hero had lawyered up, the shouting started.

"I told you to get that damn mask off and find out who that kid is, not to fiddlefuck around and let him call for help!"

Panzer was used to these kinds of outbursts.

"Sir, like I said, the lawyer walked in and took both of us by surprise-"

"How can you be so sure of that? That mask hides his face and his identity from us, what makes you think that there isn't some sort of communication device inside? Huh?"

"Instinct, sir."

"So I'm supposed to take solace in you having a hunch?" Viskol shouted as he closed in on Panzer.

Just because she had grown accustomed to his shouting did not mean that Panzer had the patience for it. Angry Daddy, her signature handcannon, still had a round chambered from when she'd leveled it at that smug lawyer's face. She drew the weapon from her hip and leveled it at the Director's crotch.

"Permission to speak freely, sir?"

The director looked down at the barrel of the gun, then met her gaze. The hazel eyes boring into the Director's were not asking for permission, they were demanding respect.

"Permission granted, put that fucking thing away." Viskol growled.

Panzer holstered the weapon and blew the hair out of her eyes. "The device in the sensory deprivation cradle didn't pick up any transmission on any frequency and even though the mask hid his face, he was about to give himself up when that lawyer walked in. They don't know each other, there's something else at play here."

The Director had resumed the hallway and stopped short at one of the windows. He was a tall man with ashen grey hair, and depite his age, maintained an imposing physique; all to be expected from the head of the GSO. The back of his neck ears took on a bright red hue.

"Riggs," he said quietly, "who the fuck called the press?"

"That's the cue." Sorli said.

Isto's plan was unconventional, but was by and large much more sound than his.

"We make it impossible for them to detain you without looking like assholes. Legally, they have nothing on you and you can claim 'spontaneous evolution' as the cause for omission of powers, which they have no way to contest. I leaked the Debut of a new Super to the press, they'll have at the least, the main entrance covered and the more enterprising reporters are likely on their way in here already. I bet Riktor's about to burst a blood vessel." The contempt that washed over Isto's face made Sorli's skin crawl.

"You and Viskol have history?" he asked.

Isto clapped Sorli on the shoulder, causing him to nearly lurch forward. "In a manner of speaking. Just like any hero, there's a trail of bodies and shattered dreams in the wake of his rise to power."

Sorli took a deep breath. As much as Isto's statement served to anger him, if there were reporters outside the door, a "new super" knocking out the Director of the GSO would only go so well.

"So now what." he growled.

"Now we walk out the door, right past the DIrector, Panzer, and anyone else who gets between us and the front door. If anyone tries to stop us in between, let me handle the talking. When we do get outside you're going to answer a couple of questions from the press. Surface level questions only, don't give yourself away. After all the fanfare, you fly off and wait for my call. You'll need a Hero Alias too, so get thinking." Isto explained.

"So, all I need to do is walk, ignore, talk, and then fly off?" Sorli clarified.

"Correct." Isto answered.

Sorli pushed his intent to the Raven's crest on his chest on a hunch. The smoldering feathers that coveres his body smoothed and solidified into a real supersuit. The feathers crept up his face, covering it entirely and putting an impressive pair of wings on either side of the domino mask that stretched skyward. It was almost like the decoration of a Viking's helmet.

Isto smirked at him, "Not a bad look. Let's go."

The door opened before either of them could move. Viskol, beet red with anger stormed toward Isto.

"I don't know what the fuck you're playing at, but it ends, now, Raita!" he shouted.

"Well Riktor, nice to see you again too," Isto quipped without missing a beat as he produced a thick folder and offered it to the fuming beuraucrat, "and you're right, it does end now. For your records, the suit just filed on behalf of..." Isto glanced over his shoulder at Sorli.

"Grimm Raven." He answered, glad that the suit masked his face and his voice.

Viskol slapped the folder out of Isto's hand sending the papers to the floor in a stretched out mess. "You don't get to decide-"

Sorli stepped forward getting nose to nose with the director.

"We're leaving. Step aside." he growled.

"When I find out who you really are, I'm going to fuck your life up." Viskol whispered.

"You already did." Sorli answered as he shouldered past the DIrector, Isto just a pace behind him.

"A pleasure, as always Riktor. Have fun picking up your mess." the lawyer offered.

Panzer watched the two of them walk out and leave.

Be careful, she mouthed at Sorli.

He gave a half nod and continued down the hall.

"Shoulders up, square posture, level steps." Isto said.

"What?"

"You need to walk like a hero if you're going to play at being one."

"So what am I walking like now?" Sorli asked.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

"A gorilla. Now straighten up. Just think that you're the most important person in the room and the rest should come naturally."

Sorli almost burst out laughing, "So walk like you?"

"I'm the smartest person in the room, not the most important." Isto quipped back.

Sorli rolled his eyes and adjusted his posture to give off "self-righteous importance," shoulders squared, chest out, torso and glutes engaged, and an even stride. It only took a moment for Sorli to notice the difference in how the people throughout the facility reacted to him. Instead of retreating back into their offices a majority of them stepped out to watch, taking out various portable devices to record his exit.

"Keep it up, we're almost there." Isto said quietly. It was as if he could detect the mounting disgust Sorli was feeling.

This was part of the problem.

Society idolized supers, Mega-corps sponsored them, and the GSO regulated them when it was convenient. It was the natural progression of things; when money and influence didn't put you in the top percentiles of society because superpowers did, the wealthy fell out of favor and were replaced by the supers.

Sorli had been the same until the "Home for the Lost."

So many families broken, so many children without parents, all because the supers decided that "justice and glory" came before keeping the people safe.

"Grimm, calm down, now." Isto's voice shattered Sorli's focus.

He froze.

"What?" Sorli snapped, glaring back at the lawyer.

Isto made a wide sweeping gesture with his arm pointing down the hall where Sorli's footfalls had cracked and broken the tile flooring.

"Oh..." he trailed off.

Isto gripped Sorli by the bicep and spun him in place, his cold blue glare meeting the hero's agitated glare.

"Listen to me, Grimm. I get it, okay? Maybe better than you think. Was I sent here to protect a mutual contact? Yes. Do I know that person because the three of us share similar goals? Yes. So, if you're goping to accomplish what you want, and if we are going to help you, you need to get a grip and focus on the next ten minutes." Isto released Sorli's arm and smoothed out the sleeve of his super suit, "You can go find a gargoyle to perch on and brood after."

With a gentle shove, Isto urged Sorli to continue down the hall and cleared his throat loudly to remind the angry young man in the super suit to maintain his "hero" posture. He let out a low whistle when the doors of the GSO facility swung open to a sea of press.

Sorli didn't flinch.

He walked right up to the crowd, reaching for him with their microphones, cameras and other recording devices and started speaking all at once.

Sorli's ears rang at first, but, amazingly, the suit compensated and muffled the roar of questions that washed over him.

Okay, that's cool, he admitted, what else can you do?

Sorli concentrated. He didn't want to entertain any questions about his secret identity or his goals.

"What do we call you?" emerged from the muffled chaos.

Sorli's eyes snapped open and the mask cast a blue aura around the reporter who asked the question. The fact that nobody backed away from the reporter told him that no one else could see it. He raised his hands and the crowd quieted, then he pointed a finger at the reporter.

"Once again, please?"

"What do we call you?"

The reporter was a woman from Channel 9 News. She was smartly dressed, brown haired, bue eyed, attractive, and had a commanding presence. To represent one of the top ten News Networks, you had to be.

"I am Grimm Raven." Sorli declared.

"Follow up question, considering the current political climate, would you say that title is 'dark'?"

Sorli could feel Isto's eyes burning into the side of his head, but this was an opportunity he was unlikely to get again.

"I think, especially considering the current political climate," he started, parroting the reporter's words, "that perpetuating the illusion that all supers are forces of light and justice is a cruel joke."

Maintain this train of questioning. Sorli pushed into the mask.

An arc of light sprang from the Channel 9 reporter to another from Channel 87, a salt and pepper haired, desperate looking man toward the back of the crowd.

"Can you explain what you mean about that?" he asked.

Sorli gestured for the crowd to part. When they did, he beckoned the man forward. As the reporter approached, Sorli strode forward to meet him, illiciting a surprised gasp from the crowd.

Isto groaned and rolled his eyes.

"You want me to tell you what I mean, right?" Sorli said.

The reporter nodded enthusiastically, unused to gaining this level of attention from a super.

"What I mean is that a Super like me is what this society needs to wake up. I'm not here to show mercy, I'm here to save the world, one shitbag at a time, no matter what flag they fly."

With that the crowd roared to life, accusations masked as questions soared in every direction. With a shifting of intent, Sorli shut down the noise and launched into the sky. The suit amplified the force put out by his jump significantly, carrying him over the lower level skyscrapers and out of the public eye.

Two jumps later and he was far enough that he couldn't even see the GSO facility anymore. The suit seemed to balance out the "newness" of his powers by interpreting his intent when he acted.

That's only going to get me so far, though, Sorli thought I'm still going to need to train.

Being as high above street level as he was offered a great view of the skyline, and greater perception than Sorli had ever experienced in his life. He could see almost the entirety of King's Gough from where he was, and what he could hear was even more impressive.

Above the noise of the streets, there was so much more; a feeling of life above the bustle and the smog. Then, there were the screams.

They were faint at first, but the more Sorli tried to discern them, the more the suit opened up to them.

"I said shut up!" a man's voice shouted.

A woman whimpered... it was a pained sound, struggling to breathe, and struggling to stop.

"Stop fucking crying!"

That's enough of that. Sorli decided.

He pushed "Find Him" into the mask and within seconds, a window three floors down and five windows to the right of where he was illuminated in his vision.

Sorli was a blur along the ledge. He dug his fingers into the stone of the building's exterior before swinging through the window and showering the asshole in glass. The man's fist connected with Sorli's jaw, turning his head to the side to see the woman he'd been beating crumpled on the floor.

He couldn't see much of her, but the hoodie and sweats she was wearing were covered in dirty bootprints.

Sorli's jaw and fists clenched. This wasn't an exam. Panzer wasn't here to babysit him.

He weaved around to the outside of the next punch and latched onto the man's wrist with his left hand then brought his right forearm crashing down on the elbow joint, bending the arm in the direction it was not supposed to.

Before the man could start screaming in agony, Sorli's hands siezed the back and side of his head and yanked it down, straight into his rising knee.

Did... did I hold back? Sorli wondered, seeing the man's chest continue to rise and fall as he laid out on the floor.

"Are you alright?" he asked the young woman, peeking out from under her arms.

"I... I think so?" she answered.

"What's your name?"

"Audrey..." she answered hesitantly.

"Can you stand?"

Audrey attempted to do just that, but winced and sucked air to bury a scream when she put pressure on her right leg. She leaned on the small kitchen island.

"Fuck." she growled.

Sorli took a step forward, "How can I help?"

"Help me get to the couch? My phone is there, I can call-"

The familiar sound of a hard shoe sole scraping against tile and shattrered glass reached Sorli's ears. This time it was accompanied by the soft patting of blood.

"Back off, now." Leap threatened.

Sorlie turned.

Leap had a pistol leveled at his head in her shaking left hand and a hole the size of a quarter through her right shoulder. Panzer's handiwork.

"Cat, what the hell happened?" Audrey demanded.

"I could ask you the same thing, he do this?" Lead said, waving the pistol in Sorli's direction.

"No, he did that though." Audrey pointed to the still unconcious scumbag on the floor.

"Alright, who are you love? Tell me why I shouldn't blow your brains all over the wall." Leap asked.

"We've already met," Sorli answered, willing the layer of supersuit over his face to recede, "nice to see you again, Leap."

She narrowed her eyes at him, "You're the intern from the bank... had a hard time recognizing you without all the blood on your face."

"You know, I get that a lot." Sorli quipped.

Leap lowered the gun and dropped it on the floor.

"This is the part where you beat me to Hell and arrest me, right?" she asked sarcastically.

Sorli's brow furrowed at the question.

Taking Leap in would be worth major credibility within the GSO, but with their protocols, they'd need to isolate her powers and process the arrest through the system before she got medical attention.

"No, it isn't," Sorli answered, narrowing his eyes at her behind the domino mask, "beating on someone with a hole I could put my thumb through in their shoulder in the apartment of another person with a broken leg doesn't seem very heroic to me."

"Well, what are you going to do then?" Leap asked.

"I'm going to do the smart thing, call my lawyer."