"Don't go there, Lucifer. Your emotions aren't your own right now, but this is between you and me." Dauntless said as he stared down the red and black devil cape. He had hoped to force a quick win, but had seriously underestimated her. The negative power interaction between her and Gallant was just a shit surprise to top everything off.

[BOOST!]

"You and me? Don't make me laugh. I wasn't the one who dragged a couple of kids and a moron into an unnecessary fight because of his hurt feelings." Dauntless flinched at both the words and the increase in pressure radiating from Lucifer. The words weren't exactly true…but they weren't far off the mark. "And if they're too stubborn to stay out of it when I play nice? Well, I'll just need to be a bit less nice then, won't I?"

Dauntless had been expecting Lucifer to maybe swap back to the lightning she used in the last fight, or possibly close in for a hand-to-hand fight now that she had another power increase. He was not expecting another power as the wave of red light raced towards him. How many did she have?!

He dumped the last 'charge' of his power he kept in case of emergencies into his shield, hoping the increase would let him hold out. But even that was hardly enough. The shield only held for a moment before it popped and the beam slammed into his body. It felt like he had been simultaneously set on fire and rammed with a train, so it was a relief when he fell unconscious after skipping off the Bay water once or twice.

Too bad he woke up shortly after.

How did he know it was shortly? For one, even if he was now on the shore, he was still in the Boat Graveyard. Secondly, Lucifer was there, walking slowly towards them radiating even more power than before.

The pure relief Dauntless felt when she announced she was done fighting was almost enough to soothe the agony the rest of his body felt, which immediately turned to horror when Paladin stepped forward to continue fighting.

The Protectorate hero tried to tell him to stop, but he couldn't make a sound thanks to the ruined state of the rest of his body.

[VANISHING DRAGON! BALANCE–]

An almost illusionary suit of white armor flickered into being around the independent. The vaguely draconic theme reminded Dauntless of some of the Dragonsuits fielded by the aptly named Canadian hero, Dragon, but this suit wasn't the product of a Tinker.

It faded in and out like it was just a small push from becoming real, but it was clearly a projection of some kind.

"Absolutely the fuck NOT."

[–BREAKER!]

[Explosion!]

Dauntless watched as the armor finally solidified only to shatter like glass when Lucifer punched him with her gauntleted left hand.

Paladin gaped soundlessly from the force of the punch before falling over unconscious and the only ones left to possibly face the red-haired cape were two Wards and Laserdream, who had been sparring with Lucifer moments before they confronted her.

As much as he wanted to, Dauntless simply wasn't able to do anything. It hurt too much.

"Well that fucked him up pretty good." Lucifer said uncaringly, looking down at the beaten hero. "Anyone else feeling stupid? No? Then like I said, I'm calling it. We. are. DONE. here." One of the devil's 'spell circles' lit up under her feet. "So I'm hungry. How about we…"

Dauntless missed the end of her sentence as consciousness slipped through his fingers again.

-o-

"I hope you have a good explanation for the mess you've dumped us all in."

Shifting uncomfortably between his lingering injuries and the stares of his two bosses, Dauntless did his best to at least look professional. From the unimpressed glares of both Director Piggot and Armsmaster he was probably failing.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

Taking a deep breath, he began speaking. "Our group was patrolling with Paladin like we were ordered to, trying for a softsell. Although I'd like to add that it came out that he is eighteen, not the sixteen we pegged him as…"

"Noted." Armsmaster said dryly.

"...right, um, well we were moving along our route when we got word of a disturbance in the Boat Graveyard. We investigated and found Laserdream fighting with Lucifer. Paladin and I went to confront Lucifer and then–"

"And then you and Paladin managed to get trounced by a girl with a god complex." Piggot interrupted. "We had her marked as 'do not approach' after your last little public disaster with her. What went through your head to confront her directly?!"

A part of him wanted to point out in the last meeting they had, he had practically been ordered to find a way to instigate a fight with Lucifer if only to prove the PRT wouldn't simply follow the lead of someone else instead of determining fault.

That part was quickly silenced.

There was a time to disagree with your boss. When they were in the middle of tearing a strip off you was not that time. Neither one really cared about his reasons anyway and he didn't think that telling them he wanted to pick a fight with Lucifer because she poked at some old trauma buttons would be taken any better than anything else he could think of.

Dauntle– no, Shawn was self aware enough to admit he was always more of a 'wait and see' kinda person. If a decision could be put off till later he wouldn't bother making up his mind immediately. He knew it wasn't the best way to go about life, but he was smart and skilled enough that he could always figure something out in the end…

That mindset was what led to him doing back alley surgery in a mobile home because he kept putting things off. The rain had come hard and fast, but because the campground had always been safe he ignored the warnings. Then the mudslide hit and he wasn't smart, or skilled, or lucky enough to do anything about it.

His inaction was going to be the reason Kelly and their unborn child died.

Things got a bit better after his Trigger and when he joined the Protectorate. Shawn could admit he wasn't really hero material, but there were plenty of other good people he could take cues from, more experienced heroes like Armsmaster willing to push him to be better. But like always, Shawn fell back into old habits and went with the flow when he should have been thinking.

The first fight with Lucifer had picked open those old sores.

While he had tried to not let it get to his head, being called a rising star and potential Triumvirate tier cape made him go back to coasting. The appearance of a cape that was strong enough to handle multiple other capes and could apparently escalate faster than Lung ever could was a bit of a wakeup call. The fact that the PRT had to label her a villain or admit that he fucked up and attacked an unknown because everyone else was doing it was a slap in the face.

A teenage girl was labeled a villain because he didn't do his job and figure out what was going on. Shawn could tell Armsmaster was upset with him and resolved to put more of himself into his public image. To be the hero everyone wanted him to be.

Then the girl had shown up the next day and rubbed his mistakes in his face.

He didn't feel so bad after that. Or about the plan to deal with her afterwards.

He wasn't quite sure who proposed the plan, but it was decided that the PRT would make no moves against Lucifer unless she was doing something obviously criminal. In a perfect scenario, Dauntless would be the one to beat her and they could possibly get her rebranded into the Protectorate somewhere else.

He…might have been a little enthusiastic about taking the first opportunity to attack. Gallant and Vista were a good team and could handle themselves against any normal gangbanger and Paladin was Lucifer's direct opposite, but none of them were used to working together against such a strong opponent and it showed. He and Paladin got in each other's way and the Wards could only assist from a distance.

"...taking the Wards into that fight was a mistake." Shawn winced as Armsmaster practically read his mind. "You should have either called for Protectorate reinforcements if conflict was inevitable or left them behind to make peaceful contact. Now Lucifer has the advantage again if she wants to drag this to the public."

"No, I might have to maintain balance in the city between Nazis and a rage dragon because it would turn into a warzone otherwise but we will not be rolling over for a single powerful teen." Director Piggot denied. "If the Gremory girl decides to take another poke at us, then we will show her actions have consequences."

"But the rules…" Shawn protested weakly.

"Do not cover destabilizing a government organization for pleasure. Especially when she exposes her identity for anyone willing to put the effort of holding two pictures next to each other." Director Piggot countered. "Armsmaster, I want something on her. Tax evasion, shoplifting, hell I'll take a parking ticket. If she makes noise we'll send someone after her."

"The gangs won't stay quiet if we do that." Armsmaster noted calmly. Shawn envied the older man's composure. "They will–"

"–Do nothing they aren't already doing." The Director cut him off. "Handle it. Now, what about our other headache?"

"Paladin is still in a coma after whatever he tried doing. We've put in a low priority request for Panacea to look at him when she has time."

"What the hell was he doing?"

"Helmet-cam footage suggests he was trying to force a power expression and suffered significant backlash when Lucifer destroyed it."

"Why would he do that when the fight was clearly over?"

"Um, I think I can answer that." Shawn raised a hand awkwardly.

His bosses turned back to him.

"Well?"

"I, uh, think the two of them might be a cluster trigger. Paladin got really excited when he realized we'd be facing Lucifer." Shawn explained. "And I know Gallant mentioned his emotions were off when he tried the armor thing. He was terrified but did it anyway."

"A kiss/kill dynamic. Fantastic." Director Piggot leaned on the table and rubbed at her eyes. "What about the recruitment attempt? Any progress on that?"

Shawn sat a bit taller. "Yes, actually. He mentioned he wouldn't mind a position in the Protectorate. So long as he won't be transferred out."

If Shawn was expecting the Director to be happy at the news he was in for some disappointment. If anything she scowled harder at the news.

"It would have been more convenient to trade him for someone that didn't cause so many issues here, but I'll take that as a statement of intent. Upgrade the request for Panacea to medium and work up the paperwork for a probationary Protectorate membership. At least we'll be able to get a leash on one of them."

Director Piggot called the meeting to a close and left shortly after, leaving Shawn alone with a rather annoyed Armsmaster.

"I'd hoped you would keep quiet for a bit but it seems like that won't be happening. I can't add more supplementary training courses until you've finished the last ones you were scheduled for, so we'll move on to your patrol schedule. Since nothing happened I will not waste too much time on this, but you will not patrol with the Wards until you have proven to be capable of analyzing the situation in front of you. I'll have the schedule adjusted so you can work with Battery or Velocity on that."

Shawn nodded at his leader's words and once again promised to make the most of the chance Armsmaster was giving him.