She seems to be a cunning one, despite being
so young.
-Victoria, from the Mainer Sector
The metallic ceiling looked like it was farther away than what it really was in the dark. Luke’s eyelids slowly open, to then close and open once again. It took some time for them to not feel as heavy. He pulled the blanket away from him, leaving it somewhere near him. He was laying in the old mattress that his uncle had left there. There were so many things in here that it would have been weird if he hadn’t found one six days ago. He then reached with his hands to his right, hoping to find a warm body there, but they only felt the cold ground.
Natalie wasn’t there.
Luke scratched the floor, as he remembered the events of the previous days. And the days before those. Memories came to him, just like they had done as for the previous month and a half.
Luke was pretty immature for being a child coming from a single mother house. Probably because his older brother took care of being there for their family, unlike his father. Despite his small shoulders, Lucas didn’t seem phased even in the slightest with how much responsibility he must have carried from a young age. Luke hadn’t really bothered to help him, since everything that he did seemed easy for him. Lucas had everything under control.
He didn’t know if it was true, but that had been the excuse he had been telling himself for quite a long time. Luke especially loved it when he was getting drunk, because it was easier to convince himself. At that moment, he still thought he didn’t have a problem. How could he if he could go days and weeks without having any? The fact that most of the weekends after his twenty oneth birthday were blurry didn’t mean anything.
Alcohol made it easier for things to make sense, yes. It only took him a third glass to be convinced that he didn’t need to help his brother and mother. It only took a fifth one to convince him that taking his shirt off while standing on a table was funny. But it never came farther than that. He usually didn’t drink more than five. It was a bad idea, even his drunk self knew it.
His friends on the other hand, didn’t seem to agree.
Luke usually told them off, but sometimes they were too persistent. Whenever the sixth glass came, he would always go to his mother’s home smelling horrible, which made it clear for her that he had gone overboard. Whenever the sixth glass came, his mother would threaten him with slapping him so hard that left was going to be right and right left if he did it again. It only happened thrice, twice when he was twenty-one and once when he was twenty-two. But the reason that it only happened a few times wasn’t because his mother got tired of it, but that he had stopped living with her.
By the age of twenty-two, he was already living with Natalie. He had met her on one of his outings, and after it, they both had gone together to some more for about a year. After it, Natalie would still come with him to take a drink, but way more sporadically than in that previous year. The sixth glass came sometimes with her, most of them when she was at home instead of partying with him. Unlike his mother, Natalie didn’t slap him. She would instead make him some coffee, talk with him a bit in the kitchen and then accompany him to bed.
He knew how much she loved him. It was mutual, and it was the reason they got married despite being quite young, him twenty-three and her twenty-six.
Luke had been incredibly happy.
Even though he hadn’t had to suffer the heavy burden his brother carried, he hadn’t been this happy before. Why did he need the sixth glass when he was this happy? He just didn’t, anymore.
Often, sad people drown their sorrows with alcohol. Luke didn’t need to. In fact, he was beginning to take less alcohol, making the third glass that he usually took seldom. It was pretty ironic considering how the people around him, his friends, began taking more than usual.
The glasses always came along with complaints. If they weren’t drinking, they were complaining about how better life could get. How it should be better. How they were truly unlucky whilst Luke had it easy.
He had tried helping them, talked to them and gave them some advice, but they didn’t listen. Instead, they would insist that Luke stayed longer with them, that he drank some more. Even though they didn’t listen to him, they wanted him there, with them.
And the sixth glass came once again, way more often than before.
Luke would wake up with worse hangovers, his memory blurry as he got up in the morning. It had been hard to tell, but each time it happened, things seemed to change from how they had been, albeit only a little. The remembrance of the coffee’s smell weakened as it went on, the conversations taking less space in his mind, her warm body surrounding him less frequently.
But it got worse as he was introduced to the seventh and eight glass. He couldn’t remember anything at all of those nights. They were all too blurry.
Except for the one.
The seventh and eight glasses made everything seem like a good idea. Even bad ideas, such as driving while being drunk or getting home really late despite having to work tomorrow.
He could only remember the screaming and some of his own words.
“Luke?! …you?” Natalie’s voice echoed, sounding as if it were behind a screen of falling water.
“...the boys… drinks,” his own voice grumbled.
“...this late?!” Her long black hair waved around like crazy while her small cheeks were as red as their bedsheets.
“...” He couldn't remember what he had said, since his memory only made him relive a deep mumble.
“You have work tomorrow! Did you really think this was…?!” She fell silent as her eyes laid on his hands. At his car keys. “Did you drive here?” She asked, her voice suddenly quieter.
“...worry… am fine.”
Pain hit his face as Natalie’s hand struck his cheek.
“How could you do something so dumb?! How are you still so immature?! You’re a fucking adult, act like one if only a little bit!” She then slapped the keys out of his hands. “Get the fuck out!”
“...you doing… ‘s fine…”
“Fine?! It is not fine! How can it be fine when the father of my child is an immature piece of shit?! Get out, now!” Natalie then shoved him out of the house. It shouldn’t have been that easy, due to the difference in size, but Luke could barely stand up as drunk as he was.
He couldn’t remember what happened for the next couple of hours. A simple, ‘You’re fired,’ was everything that was vivid enough to remember in that blurry soup of memories. After having gotten to his mother’s house, his head pulsing with pain, he was able to call Natalie.
She did not answer. Nor the call after that one, nor the one after that.
Luke had gotten to their house the next morning. He still had his key, but as soon as he put it in the keyhole, a voice came through the other side.
“Stop,” Natalie said.
“Natalie, please, let’s just talk over this.”
“There is not much to talk about. I think it would be better if we took a break. I… I love you Luke. But I need a break. We all do.”
With that said, Natalie hadn’t spoken to him since, regardless of the many pleads he threw at the door and the several calls.
The weight of the situation finally settled a couple of days later. He had fucked up. Big time.
It was hard.
He didn’t have many places to go, so he chose one of the few and went to the bar. But once he arrived, he stopped at the door, already capable of hearing his friends complaining inside it.
Luke remembered something he had overlooked, something he had ignored.
He was going to be a father.
Luke, the lazy brother and son that didn’t help his family at all, the one that spent a good chunk of his life drunk while saying that he didn’t have a problem, an immature kid, was going to be a father. And if this continued, he was also going to be just like his old man. No, he was going to be worse.
For the first time in his life, Luke felt disoriented. The child he was could not face this situation. If he wanted to move forward, he would have to grow.
Both his father and his friends hadn’t been able to face their problems, and they denied the consequences of their actions, as if they couldn’t be different. He had already a seen a glimpse of how it would be if he didn’t
And Luke wanted to be better.
He got up from the mattress, heading towards the lightswitch near the entrance of the storage room, as he had had enough. It hurt to remember, and despite that, he still did every morning. But only for a moment, before it hurt too much.
Luke put the mattress where it had been before, for how long knows who. He began to put on his shoes before remembering something.
(Today’s my day off.)
Everything ached as he moved, probably from all the running and jumping he had done the prior day. He felt a huge relief as he dropped the mattress on the floor once again before sitting on it.
With his muscles in pain, there wasn’t much to practice, so he would take a break.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
Luke scrolled down, and down, and down, and kept scrolling for a while on his phone, switching to another app from time to time. It distracted him for a while, but sleep grew bigger with every new video and post.
Again, there wasn’t much to do, so he dazed off without worry. The sounds coming from the road increased as the day passed, waking him around peak hour more or less. He pondered once more the mistakes he had made and what had led to them.
He hadn’t turned off the light, so he didn’t bother standing up. Instead, he grabbed his phone from the ground and began scrolling down. Luke stopped as he noticed what time it was.
Afternoon had come by real quickly. It wouldn’t be long until Ludwig arrived.
Luke didn’t want to see him. He may have made progress, but he knew it wouldn’t be enough to satisfy him. He still had time left, and from what he remembered, Ludwig hadn’t said anything of rejecting him if he didn’t manage it in the first try. He had only specified ‘until the week is over’.
But Luke knew that it would be way harder if he didn’t do it right the first time. His anxiety would sky-rocket, and his worry wouldn’t let him sleep if he failed even once.
No, Luke didn’t want to see him.
His stomach grumbled, as he hadn’t eaten anything yet.
“Good enough to get out of here, I guess.” Of course, he talked to himself, since there was no one around.
His muscles protested as he got up, but his stomach and desire to not see Ludwig overpowered them. After getting out and locking the door, Luke left the compound of storage rooms. He didn’t have a place in mind as he entered the streets, so he just walked around even though his legs hurt.
The restaurant he went to the other day was nice. The pizza had been pretty good, but it was a bit too far for his tired legs. He could always go to the donut shop he worked at, since that discount was always tempting, but his palette wanted something saltier.
More places popped up, but with each step, the range of distance he was willing to walk became smaller. It didn’t take a lot more for him to give up than a hot dog stand less than twenty meters away.
He ordered the biggest thing he could get. Luke decided to enjoy his meal sitting on top of a trashcan which had a cube shape and was close by to the stand. It was either that or eating it laying on the ground, but standing wasn’t going to be an option for at least half an hour.
The food he had ordered was similar to a hot dog, but the bun was shorter and wider, and instead of one had two sausages. There were two sauces covering the whole thing, one had a red color, darker than ketchup and seemed to be spicier. The other one was clearer and a mix between white and yellow, probably some type of mustard.
The smell was filling alone, but just with a few bites it felt as if Luke was eating a horse. A very delicious and spicy horse. He devoured the entire thing, thankful for the mountain of napkins that the man at the stand had given him. Otherwise he might have had enough grease to lube a car motor.
The sunset was already nearing as the orange light bathed the city, the sky hidden between the many tall buildings around him. It was a shame, since it would have been nice to look at it, maybe it would have helped him clear his mind or give him an idea of what to do…
(Oh, fuck.)
He had done it, he had reminded himself that he needed to think of something. Luke sighed before standing up from the trash can. The meal must have given him energy, because his legs didn’t hurt nearly as much as they had done a moments before, nonetheless they protested with every step he took after standing up.
(What do I do…?)
Mobility wasn’t something to worry about anymore. If he were to repeat the fight that had taken place that night in the forest, Luke was pretty sure that he would win. As long as that monster didn’t come out of its shell.
Luke turned left in the corner of a building, sparking his memory. Had something happened here before? He shook it off shortly after and kept thinking.
He could hit hard, he could move fast, but he still wouldn’t be able to put up much of a fight against an atlas if a regular punch could knock him out. Durability was still a problem. Luke wouldn’t dwell on how to improve it, he had already tried, and it hadn’t ended anywhere. Instead, he had to tackle the problem in a new angle.
There were heroes and villains out there who were as durable as an average person. Yet they could still bring something to the table. Of course, it was something like lasers or beams or some gimmicky thing, not being a literal glass canon.
Luke crossed the crosswalk to the other side of the sidewalk, and turned right following a side road. Again, that same feeling came to him. This time, Luke decided to try and figure it out. He looked around, trying to remember what might have happened here to leave an impression on him. It wasn’t until he looked at a specific building that he figured it out.
He was standing on the sidewalk below the building where he had talked to the heroine. It was a shame to figure it out this late, because if he had done it before he would have been able to get another kebab at the place he went to yesterday. But thinking about it more, he didn’t regret eating that hot-dog-like-thing, so he let it slide pretty quickly.
The orange color around him was becoming a tad darker, the afternoon being closer to the night.
He raised his head to the roof of the building in front of him. It wasn’t short, but compared to some of the taller ones around the city…
(Why not?) Luke thought as he went around the sidewalk.
It took him some time to find an alley that let him hide from the many people in the street, and it wasn’t even next to the building in question. He stomped the ground, pain rising from his legs not from the reaction, but the movement that he was forcing them to do.
After some moments, Luke had enough energy to jump onto a building before doing the same with the one in question, but before doing the second jump, he kicked around a bit more. He didn’t feel like falling short and having to climb, more than anything because it would destroy his arms.
He got to the roof with energy to spare. Luke decided to keep himself away from the ledges, in case someone were to look up. Instead of nearing the edge, he sat on an air conduct that was near the center, laying up there.
“Guess not.”
The building wasn’t tall enough for him to see the sky. He had made all that effort and the only thing he had gotten back was muscular agony. Even though he couldn’t see the sky directly, Luke stayed there, trying to enjoy the view as much as possible.
(I guess the buildings are pretty. And the lighting is really nice.)
He kept staring at the distant view, hoping that inspiration would find him.
“You sure like hanging around rooftops, huh?”
Luke turned around to see who had found him before inspiration, and it turned out to be the masked woman from the prior day.
“I haven’t done anything,” Luke quickly said as his legs remembered the chase in pain.
“I know. I’ve been looking at you for five minutes.“
Luke raised an eyebrow, “That’s pretty creepy.”
“Had to make sure you weren’t doing anything suspicious, sue me… Although, now that I think about it, maybe don’t. It wouldn’t be good for my image.”
“I’ll think about it,” he said as he faced the buildings once more.
The masked woman approached Luke before sitting next to him.
“What are you doing?” She asked, the yellow eyes of her mask shining with the orange light of the sunset..
“I… Hey, quick question, don’t you have something better to do? Not trying to be rude or anything, just… Shouldn’t you be helping someone out there?”
“Yesterday I got called because of a noise complaint. Do you really think I have much to do?”
Luke gave her a side glance.
“Just curious,” he then said.
The masked woman grabbed the ends of her cape, which was being dragged by the wind, and pulled it closer to her, as if it were a furry coat.
“You didn’t answer my question,” the woman said after a minute of silence.
“I guess I didn’t.”
“You’re acting pretty cocky for a guy who screams like a little girl,” the woman said as she smirked.
Luke sighed, “And you’re acting pretty casual for being on duty. Wouldn’t that ruin your image?”
“Nah, it’s all about that. Are you gonna answer or not?”
“I don’t really think sharing it with a stranger is a good idea,” Luke said.
“Mmh… Is it about your powers?”
Luke narrowed his eyes.
“Did I guess right?” She then asked.
Luke turned to her, causing her smirk to grow bigger.
“Come one,” the woman said as she jabbed at him. “You can tell me.”
(Goddamn is she annoying, ) Luke thought, but of course, his mouth said otherwise. “You’re not gonna stop, are you?”
“Don’t have any plans to do so.”
(Okay, so what do I tell her…?)
He began thinking, since he wasn’t about to put up with her jabbing at him for as much as she was going to stay, nor was he going to tell her that he was thinking of ways to kill someone.
“What I can do. I was thinking about what I am capable of doing,” Luke finally answered, trying to do so as vaguely as possible, hoping that she wouldn’t press further.
“About what?” The woman then asked. He had hoped too much. “Were you thinking about your powers?”
(Uh…) “Yes… There’s…” (Fuck, what now?)
Luke wasn’t good at improvising, nor thinking on the spot. He was more of a do-first-kind of guy, think later. But thinking about that wasn’t going to be useful now. He just needed something…
“About the other day…” He began, but the rest of the words didn’t come out.
“About the other day…? She then asked, mimicking him.
“You know… The thing I told you…” Luke said, hoping that she would interpret it somehow and the conversation wouldn’t depend on him any longer.
“The thing you told me about… Do you mean how you tried to become a hero?”
“Yes,” he said, moments before he realized that that was another topic which he didn’t want to talk about. Mostly because it had been… Pathetic.
“So, you’re thinking of what you’re capable of doing and it’s about how you wanted to be… Oh. Are you gonna present yourself again? To be a hero?” The masked woman asked.
“I…” Luke said, but stopped as an idea appeared in his mind. “Yes. I was thinking of trying again, but… I don’t know if I can do it.”
“Why?”
“I just… I don’t know. I simply don’t see myself being capable.”
“Mmh,” the woman answered. “Do you want any help?”
Luke smiled to his insides.
Why bother thinking of ways to make your power attractive and appealing to someone when you could make a professional hero do it for you? It was a good idea, one of the better ones he had come up with in recent times, and it even surprised him that he had come up with it himself.
“Sure,” he said, casually. “Why not?”
“Okay, well… I don’t know much about your power. Could you give me a bit of information?
He gave her the same explanation Ludwig had given him about Newton’s law, adding the bit of how he could use it to avoid any damage from a fall and how he could gather energy in objects.
“That’s pretty good,” the masked woman said. “You must have had bad luck with the [examinadores].”
(This won’t be useful if you don’t give me something,) Luke thought to himself.
“I’ve discovered most of it recently. When I applied I only could use it to punch really hard after a couple of hits. Besides, I just don’t know if this will be enough. I mean, a general atlas can already do what I can and more, right?”
“No…? I think…? There are some scenarios where your powerset might be more useful, but in general… Yeah, I think average atlas are more versatile.” She scratched her chin as she thought. “Can you use it to cancel hits or something?”
“Only if it is a reaction from my strike or a force that I initiate.”
“Okay, so you can hit hard, you can move quickly, but you can’t take hits…” Luke smirked as he saw her make the same observations he had done minutes earlier. “Have you thought about ranged combat?” The woman asked.
“How? I mean, I don't have lasers or beams or anything like that,” Luke said in return.
“You know… You could just throw something really hard. Like, just grab a tennis ball and just…” She then mimicked an overhead throw, whistling as the invisible object made an arch above the streets below.
“Oh…” Luke said, as a door he hadn’t even touched opened before him. “And I could just keep throwing things around because the object would also make force against me… But… It’s a good idea, but I don’t know if I can aim well enough while throwing that hard.”
“Mmh… What if you store energy in the object, and then, if it’s close enough to the target, you throw it in another direction with the energy inside it?”
Luke gave it a thought for a moment.
“It wouldn’t work,” he then said. “The accumulation and release of energy has a range of about five meters for gathering and ten meters for releasing.”
“Then… Throw it hard first, and then correct the trajectory when the projectile is still close to you,” the woman answered to his complaints.
“But still-”
“Then practice,” she interrupted him. “Go somewhere and practice pitching a baseball.”
(Not a bad idea,) Luke thought.
“Okay,” the woman continued. “And what about your image?”
“Well…”
Luke began getting uncomfortable as he remembered the audition, the feeling that he was being judged, that the committee thought that he was a stupid kid who had awakened recently. And he was, but he was also trying to prove something.
“I didn’t have any problem with it,” he lied as the anxiety was becoming unbearable.
“Sure. And that pause wasn’t suspicious at all. Come on, you can tell me,” the woman said.
Luke sighed, his hands tensing up from the uncomfortable memories.
“I had none,” he finally said.
“That’s more common than you think.” Luke raised his eyebrows. “Yeah, really,” she continued. “It’s rare to find someone with a vision of their brand and how they should look. At least with a decent one.” She then let go of the cape, letting it wave with the now weaker wind. “You don’t have to overthink it, it’s best if you keep it simple. With your power, you can maybe theme your suit around feathers or cushions or something like that.”
“But my power isn’t about that,” Luke replied.
“Do you think mine is just about charging at people?” The heroine asked, pointing at her curved horns. “It doesn’t have to encapsulate everything you’re able to do, you just have to use it to enhance some aspect about yourself. Make it flashy, cool, cute or whatever, but make it unique. Despite what I’ve said, I don’t think you can pass only with your capabilities. You should show them that you’re marketable.”
“That I’m an excellent deal?”
“A good deal is enough-” She interrupted herself, touching her ear twice before speaking again. “Yes, I’m around the area. Aha… Really? Okay, be there in five.” The masked woman turned to Luke. “It looks like I’m finally going to do something.”
She stood before patting some dust away from her costume. Luke followed her lead, sticking a hand out. The woman looked at it for a moment, which made him question whether he was forgetting something… Oh.
“I’ve just realized that I don’t know your name.”
She grabbed his hand.
“Rammy.”
Luke nodded to the name.
(I like it.)
“Well then…?” She said, her sentence ending in an abrupt…
“Luke,” he said as he caught on to what she meant.
“Well then, Luke” She finished. “Good luck.”
And with that, she flew away from the rooftop, going straight to the center of the city, where the enormous Ataki Tower stood. He looked at her fly away, the orange light getting darker with the setting sun, making her a difficult spot to distinguish in the creeping night...
“Wait... Oh! God dammit, her name wasn't what I wanted!”
He slapped his face, surprised as to how he could have forgotten something like asking Rammy to take him out on a flight.