“So you’re new to the bay? What made you come here of all places?” One of Laserdream’s friends asked once I finally managed to convince them my hair color was natural and I didn’t use any specialty products.

Of course it would have been too easy for them to simply leave me alone after that. No, one of them had looked at what I was buying and correctly guessed I was moving into a new place. Then it was decided that they would help me pick things out since they were all mature college girls who had learned some things about moving in. (My own opinion of needing their help was ignored)

That naturally led them to asking about my background. Nothing major, and I was light on details, but it did come out that I was moving into a new house by myself and my parents weren’t in the picture.

I shrugged at the question. “Inheritance, mostly. I got a letter saying I had ownership of a property here and decided it was easier than trying to find a place with no background and no job.”

“Well don’t worry, the rumors about the city are way overblown.” Sam, another redhead if one with a much duller shade than mine, said.

“Yeah, just stay out of the worst parts and it’s actually a pretty chill city.” Alex, a tan, vaguely asian girl with a bob cut, added in. “And we even have our very own superhero to keep us safe, right Crystal?”

I glanced at the hero and saw she was very pointedly attempting to not look in my direction even with Alex poking her in the side with an elbow.

An attitude that didn’t last long as the final friend in the group, another blonde named Clover, pulled her into a headlock with an indignant and undignified squawk. “Yeah, Crystal here is a member of New Wave. If anyone is bothering you, you can go to her. And if they don’t back off she’ll blast them!”

“Come on guys, don’t make me sound like some attack dog.” The heroine protested.

It was actually a little funny how quickly the three friends managed to drag both Crystal and myself into their pace.

What initially was a simple conversation about hair tips quickly changed into an offer to help me with the rest of my shopping, and then into an offer to join them all for dinner. And they didn’t exactly take no for an answer.

I quickly identified the initial symptoms of being adopted by a group of extroverts and decided to just let it happen for now. I could accept spending time with them and being social as payment for their help getting everything I needed for the house. It also meant I wouldn’t need to go shopping again later.

It helped that the three other girls made it so Crystal and I didn’t really have time to do awkward silences. The conversation topic was constantly changing so one of us was being asked for opinions every so often without it being forced.

I decided I liked them. I might have to hang out with them again if this whole thing didn’t crash and burn horribly.

“So, where are we taking all this stuff?” Clover asked out of the blue when we were cleaning up the remains of our meal.

“I’m sorry?”

“Oh, come on, you didn’t think we were just going to leave you to carry all this home yourself, did you?” Alex asked, pointing at the various bags we had accumulated.

“Yeah, we can at least help you to your car.” Sam added.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

“Oh uh. I took the bus this time. It’s fine.” I tried to wave them off. I was honestly going to just dump everything in my storage space when no one was looking and then go home.

“Well, we definitely can’t just let you go now. The buses are pretty safe, but they aren’t THAT safe.” Clover chimed in. “Come on girls, we can take my car.”

-o-

I put up a bit more resistance this time, but Laserdream’s friends didn’t have much issue just grabbing my stuff and walking towards Clover’s car. And while I could stop them, at this point I was mostly just amusedly resigned. Besides, I did just decide I wanted to possibly be friends with them. They might as well know where I lived.

“Woah, you must be loaded!” Sam cried out in surprise when we actually pulled into the driveway of my house.

I shrugged at the incredulous expressions of everyone in the car.

“Not really. The house is paid for and everything, but I’m still working on getting access to the bank accounts.” And needing to remember to actually open a bank account in the first place. “So while the house is really nice, I’m not that much better off than most people.”

“This just proves we have to be friends now. Could you imagine the kinda bash we could throw here?”

The girls helped bring in and unload various things or at least dump them in the right room or near stairs. With four extra pairs of hands things went really quickly. Which meant that everyone was ready to leave soon afterward.

“You sure you don’t want a ride, Crystal?”

“Yeah, I just want to talk to Rias about something real quick. I’ll just fly home later.”

Well, all of them except the one person I didn’t want to be alone with.

“Must be nice being able to fly. Okay, see you around! Bye Rias!”

I politely waved as the three girls piled back into their car and drove off. When they were out of sight I turned back to a serious looking Crystal.

“So…want something to drink?” I offered in hopes of delaying actual conversation.

“I know you’re Lucifer.” Crystal said bluntly, destroying all chances of deflecting this till later.

“Aren’t there supposed to be rules about this kinda thing?” I sighed and covered my face. Not that I truly cared. If I didn’t want people identifying me I would have taken steps to cover my most noticeable features besides a bodysuit and a domino mask.

“You already knew I figured it out.” Laserdream countered. “No point in dancing around it.”

“So, what? Is this the part where you warn me to stay away from your friends ‘or else’?”

She huffed. “Like they hadn’t figured it out either. Well, maybe not Clover. She isn’t always the most observant. But Sam and Alex both figured it out too.”

Okay?

“So why were they so insistent on hanging around me if they knew I had just fought you?”

“Because I told them about the shitshow that went down after you got away.” Laserdream almost groaned. “None of the thugs knew about your cape identity until the cops gave them a description and then they clammed up, but it was pretty obvious they were following you around but had no idea you were a cape.

Then they had to get statements from the rest of us about what actually happened and it came out that neither the E88 members or the victim placed you at the scene until after Paladin started taking them down and you went to inspect the victim.”

Right, hypnosis. I idly wondered if the people there created their own version of events that had me show up later or if they would simply skip over anything related to me until after Paladin actually showed up.

Regardless, I wasn’t about to advertise that power if no one suspected.

“I was going to give him a basic first aid check, but he thought I was with the Empire and yelled at Paladin to finish the job.” I said with a shrug.

“Yeah, see that's the problem. Independents don’t exactly have the right to just decide someone is a villain unless they see them committing a crime. So him and Vicky attacking you afterward is technically assault. Especially since you weren’t declared a villain until afterward.”

I raised an eyebrow at that. “So even knowing I wasn’t doing anything wrong I’m still considered a villain?”

Crystal slumped and rubbed her forehead. “Yeah. It’s…kinda our fault. Like, no one would believe that someone innocent was going to fight against so many heroes unless they were a villain or someone fucked up. Problem is the PRT is going to probably classify you as a villain anyway because they went into CYA mode when it came out you hadn’t committed a crime.”

“Because Dauntless also attacked me?” I guessed and earned a tired nod back.

“Yeah, even if it was just once it opens them up to a lot of legal stuff to attack without warning unless it was against a confirmed villain, my aunt could explain the details better but, yeah…”

So the local PRT was going to make sure to arrest me, probably tack on a couple trumped up charges so the legal problems went away, and then either offer me a deal or try to strap me with a collar.

“Well I guess that solves my conundrum of deciding to be a hero or not.” I joked not that Crystal appreciated it.

“Somehow I don’t think that was a big issue for you.” She said flatly.

I shrugged again. That was probably true, especially because I didn’t exactly make much of an effort to stop fighting once we got going.

“Thought so, but yeah, I didn’t like that we were basically forcing you to be a villain even if that was the direction you were going anyway, so I wanted to avoid you when we saw you in the store. But the girls heard the whole thing from me already and thought you deserved a chance to prove yourself as a person and then we ended up hanging out. After that I figured I at least owed you the full story so you weren’t blindsided the next time you go out.” Crystal said and then started moving towards the door.

I just watched her go as I tried to figure out exactly what this changed for me.

I never really planned to do the whole ‘Ally of Justice’ thing so being labeled a villain wasn’t the end of the world. In fact it gave me an excuse to do almost whatever I wanted and the worst that would happen would be a greater call from the public to bring me in. Probably.

Meh, at least it gave me an excuse to beat up Paladin with no unexpected repercussions.