Lawrence's first reaction was similar to a cat seeing himself in the mirror for the first time. Very, very confused.
He stared at the ceiling for a few seconds, trying to make sense out of what just happened. After a little bit, he decided that was solving nothing, so he got up once again. He was still groggy, so he picked up different slippers this time (a bunny-shaped one and a chick-shaped one) but that wasn't important right now.
First things first. What woke him up? The last thing he remembered was falling asleep thinking of Waking Season and people's useless hope (not the brightest dreams). The next minute, he felt a jolt on his spine, and he was awake. He also felt like there was someone talking to him in his sleep, but that wasn't important either...
... So, falling asleep, suddenly waking up feeling something big just happened...
"Isn't that just a nightmare?"
Yep, it sounded just like a nightmare. That would explain it all. He did read some perturbing things on the newspaper today... No, looking at the alarm clock, it was yesterday already. The fact that his body flickered didn't quite match, but he was no expert to determine a thing.
So, a nightmare...
Still, he wasn't feeling like going to bed again. For some reason, he felt... Full of energy. And all his experience with cases like this told him that there was another all-nighter coming up.
"Well, there's no use to it, is there?" Shrugging his shoulders, he headed downstairs, looking for nothing in particular. He wasn't in the mood for playing with his Y-Cage, and watching crappy films on TV wasn't the ideal right now either. What to do...?
Oh, he hadn't eaten anything (proper) in the whole day! That was probably it. And sleeping with your stomach stuck in your spine was probably not the best way of resting.
So, he decided to eat something decent. Nevermind that eating at 4:00 AM was also not very healthy.
With that in mind, he headed to the kitchen, opened the fridge and scooped inside. There were some eggs and ham for a nice omelet, tomatoes and sliced onions for salad, and maybe some preheated rice to make it company. Peel and fry some potatoes and...
Voilà. It wasn't the fanciest dish, but served for his purposes.
Feeling satisfied, he was starting to feel the grogginess take over him once again. So this wouldn't be an all-nighter, after all... For some reason, the prospect of sleeping right after eating didn't strike him as wrong.
Truth be said, he had never once in his whole life suffered stomach issues, even when he went to his grandmother's pool (yes, she had a pool) just after having dinner.
But enough with curious facts about him. It was time to go back to sleep.
He went to the bathroom, picked up the toothpaste, put it on his toothbrush and brushed his teeth (what else were you expecting). Then, he went to the bed and slept the rest of the day till it was 12:30 AM...
... Is what he would've normally done. Instead happened this.
"What the heck?"
Lawrence was staring at the mirror, dumbfounded. No, he wasn't so narcissistic as to stare at himself nor he was saying "are you talking to me?".
There was a mark on his hand. A scrambled black square with white pixels... Or the opposite. With QR Codes, as metahumans named them (after Quintana Rodríguez, the person who first studied it) it was like zebras. You never knew of they were black with white, or white and black...
But the fact remained.
"Why on earth do I have a QR Code on my hand?"
This was hero stuff. And villains, but nevermind that. This wasn't something that happened by coincidence. If you had one of these, you were linked to the Root, which meant you had a meta-ability. And he didn't have one...
...
...right?
"Alright, calm down. This is nothing. This is just a coincidence. Or a dream. Or both. I'm probably just dreaming too hard of getting a power..."
Actually, thinking about it it was pretty lame. He had always seen himself as a realistic person, so this was a hard blow on his pride.
And besides...
"Besides, a real metahuman would have a status–"
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Lawrence Lakewood --- Villain
Meta-ability:
Criminal Mastermind --- Certain actions you make trigger a chain of coincidences that will eventually act on your favor. (Grade: C)
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You have no unlocked features at the time.
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Pending Tasks:
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
-Embrace Evil
-Payback
-Growing Menace
-First Stain
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0 FP
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At the mention of the word "status", a hologram-like image appeared in front of him. It didn't reflect on the mirror, which meant it was inside his mind. There was currently no technology so advanced as to that, except...
"What."
...
Wait. Wait, wait, wait wait wait wait wait!
What?! What on...?! A status display? But... But only metahumans had one of those! No, just, calm down... But what the hell you mean, calm down?!
At this point, Lawrence's brain split in two sides.
This isn't real.
Just look at the evidence.
The chances are too little.
But not inexistent.
Why me of all people?
Just look! There's a freaking QR Code in your hand and you're loking at a status display! With your freaking name on it! What else do you want?!
Inhale, exhale.
Sigh...
"Alright."
After avoiding hyperventilation and once again being able of rational thinking, he sat on the toilet and pondered about his... particular situation.
He was a metahuman. That was a fact. No matter how hard he tried to deny it, this was the truth... No, wait. In fact, why was he trying to deny it? Wasn't it great? Being one of the few hundreds...?
"Alright. Let's take this one step at the time."
He was a metahuman now. So what? How did it affect his life from here on?
No, not a metahuman. A Villain.
He took a deep breath.
He hadn't thought of the fact he was a Villain yet. Not only that, even his meta-ability sounded outright Villainous. Criminal Mastermind? Could you be more specific? And what was with that shitty explanation?
...
First things first. What was he going to do from now?
As far as he knew, there were three possible options for him. First: going to the LHU headquarters and asking for help. That would be the simplest choice... But how would they react in front of a villain, he didn't know. And the thought of being chained up and interrogated in a cold, underground cell wasn't helping to reasure him.
The next would be completely ignoring he had powers. However, this wasn't possible since his meta-ability was the passive type (as far as he knew). Besides, having an advantage and not using it would be stupid.
And then, there was the third path.
To actually become a Villain.
Others would usually plain ignore this option when they found themselves in this situation. Lawrence, on the other hand, wasn't terribly adverse to the idea. While he wasn't a fan of vulgar mugging or murder...
He had to admit, he had always wondered how it would feel to look at things from the "I have the world in the palm of my hand" perspective. And while his power didn't sound too flashy, it sounded like something the guy pulling all the strings in the background would have...
...
After a lot of thinking, Lawrence decided on a... Test drive of sorts.
Rigth. At least checking out the pending task and completing the easy ones was no big deal, was it? He could perfectly do that without making a big commitment or anything. After that, he could decide what route to take.
There was a single prohibition. Do not piss off the Heroes.
He was perfectly aware that Worne YK was one of the cities with more hero activity in the world. He wasn't living in some small-time town where a couple of masked guys could call themselves protectors of peace. Heroes in Worne were trained, and they were trained good. And rookies appearing on Waking Season were strictly carried.
In other words, marking himself and having heroes all over him would be very, very bad. He wasn't even sure if he wanted to take the villainous path in the first place.
"Well, I hope that doesn't happen. I'm good as I am... Anyways, let's check our pending tasks. Status."
Choosing one of the tasks, he murmured "expand". He was so glad he took that meta-society course. Now he didn't have to look for instructions in Glasses. Practically everyone could access your search history in there, and it wouldn't be good for him if someone caught him looking on powered people's business
He selected the first task. It sounded... Introductory. It would do.
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-Embrace Evil-
Perform your first evil deed.
Reward: Unlock Feature
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Oh. Okay, that was... Even simpler than what he expect. Well, that would depend on the grade of severeness something needs to be called "evil" but, it sounded too simple. And the reward was unlocking a feature.
If he still remembered correctly what class had taught him, Features were a kind of power expansion. Instead of increasing the rank of your power, features were a kind of side effect that originated from the meta-ability. And features could be assigned more features, and those even more features. So you could focus on increasing you main power, unlocking its side powers or branching the feature you like the most. Of course, tasks that outright unlocked a feature were scarce. Instead, performing tasks satisfactorily would be rewarded with a certain amount of Feature Points. These could be invested in unlocking features, and the price to do so would increase each time you did that. So you had to choose wisely.
"Hmmm..."
He stared at the mirror for a few seconds. Then, something occurred to him. What if he did something that completed two tasks at the time? If this Embrace Evil only required that he did something bad, what about goals for other tasks? Wouldn't those count as well?
"Just in case, let's check the other missions."
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-Payback-
Get your wallet back from the mugger
Reward: +5 FP
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-Growing Menace-
Convince, pressure or hire someone to become your first minion
Reward: +20 FP
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-First Stain-
Let everyone know your name through your first big hit
Reward: +50 FP
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Hmmm.
Hmmmm.
Hmmmmm...
Crap.
That damn girl!
He hurried to the coat he was wearing when he left for a walk yesterday. He certainly remembered putting his wallet inside his pocket. But never taking it out. And the only person he met in all that time was...
Suddenly, someone knocked on the door.
"Lawrence Lakewood? This is the Worne PD! Open up!"
His heart thumped. Crap, crap, crap! Now what?! How did they find him so fast?! Did they have a fortune teller or something like that?! Why did surprises keep piling up?!
The door banged again.
"I'm coming!" He saw himself in the mirror. His hair was a bit messy, but the biggest problem was that he was wearing pajamas. And unmatching fluffy slippers. Oh, and the obvious black and white/white and black square on his left hand.
Shit.
Lightning fast, he undressed (including his slippers) and put the first thing he had at hand.
He ended up wearing a couple of loose jeans with an "I ♥ Worne YK" shirt, and a couple of rubber slippers (there were a lot of slippers in his house) before the policeman banged the door for the first time and yelled "Sir, open up! It's important!"
In the end, he grabbed a cotton patch from an open first-aid kit and hurriedly put it on his hand.
He dashed downstairs as fast as humanely possible, praying that this was all a big misunderstanding and he would get out of this one without having to spend the rest of his life in a jail.
He opened the door.
"Lawrence Lakewood?" An officer dressed in the typical dark blue uniform questioned him. He, however, wasn't paying attention the policeman anymore. Instead, his eyes were locked on the person right next to him: a girl wearing an extravagant yet weirdly cute caterpillar hoodie with blue jeans and bright-red sport shoes.
"You..." He whispered, frowning his eyes.
It was Mika.
Things were about to heat up, a lot.