“What?” He asked, before shaking his head. “Nevermind.” A surge of strength rippled along his arms and Lucien stepped forwards, pressing down with all his might on Jayne’s hands and bending back her wrists like the old game of mercy he’d played with Tiberius as a child, drawing a sudden look of panicked concern from his opponent. “Ah.” He said as a surge of anger rippled through him. “Not used to fighting people who can fight back, are you Jayne?” The image of the brutalized police officers entered his mind, and he redoubled his efforts against the woman, looming over her as the asphalt cracked under her feet.

“I’m guessing you and speedy over there only attack people that can’t resist you, eh? You fucking low-lives.” Jayne’s face blurred as he spoke, demented by his rising fury. “You only take on people that have no hope against you, because you’re just a fucking coward. A pair of cowards. Worthless scum that prey on the weak for your own twisted pleasure.” Jayne was on her knees by that point, her face white with effort. He felt as much as heard the first signs of dangerous strain on her fingers and wrists, drawing pained gasps from her mouth.

“You’re a pair of predators. A couple of regular fucking assholes.” The words spilled from his lips viciously, fueled by an inferno of rage he’d had no idea was lurking beneath the surface. “Just two super powered bullies.” Another surge of strength followed the words and he heard as much as felt Jayne’s fingers break, drawing a strangled scream from the woman as she lost the battle of power between them. Lucien sneered at her and his knee suddenly came up, slamming into her face with bone-crunching force. He thought he heard someone calling his name, but he ignored it, focused on Jayne.

The powerful metahuman groaned, disoriented by the blow, and he hit her again.

“Lucien.”

And again.

“Lucien!”

And again, until he felt the strength of her hands give out and saw disorientation take over her face.

“LUCIEN!” Ty shouted.

“What!?” He demanded.

“Enough dude,” Ty objected. “She’s had enough.”

“Not yet.”

Lucien grabbed her by the head the same way Malachi had done to him and turned his gaze to the speedster, who stood frozen by the armoured car. He lifted Jayne up, hoisting her off the ground before taking one powerful, meaningful step… and smashing her into the ground with a cacophonous boom. Her body jerked as it hit, and he released her face, not even bothering to look at her as he stared at the speedster. “Surrender.” He said simply, straightening from his bent position over Jayne. “I won’t ask again.”

Her eyes dropped to Jayne’s unmoving form and her gaze grew unfocused, legs crumpling beneath her as she dropped to the ground. “We had a deal.” She said hollowly, voice defeated. “It wasn’t supposed to go like this.”

Lucien couldn’t find it in himself to care. His eyes were drawn instead to the police officers nearby and he moved towards them, the heat of his rage cooling rapidly as he knelt beside the first one. His hand stretched out to the officer, a man that looked to be in his thirties, and he lightly patted his face. “Hey. Are you okay?” He asked in a calm voice, attempting to gain the officer’s attention. When there was no response he glanced up at the nearby area, remembering where he’d heard the distant sounds of frustrated radio communications earlier.

“Quarterback, I’m going to let the rest of the police know it’s safe to come in.” He said.

“Copy that.” Ty said, voice sounding a little strange over the radio. “I’ll let you know if I hear anything else on the scanner. Quarterback out.”

Lucien frowned at the odd tone of Tiberius’ voice in concern, until he was interrupted a moment later by the groan of one of the police officers. A quick glance towards the speedster told him that trusting her not to bolt was a foolish idea and he walked over to one of the police. Bending down, he very gently extricated a pair of handcuffs, patting the officer on his chest comfortingly before moving over to the speedster.

After some careful puppeting he had her on her knees, with her left wrist handcuffed to her right foot. “Stay.” He said simply, drawing a muttered curse from her as he stood and tapped into his hearing, double-checking the location of the irate voices and the crackle of radios. Satisfied he’d found them a moment later and with no time to spare, Lucien demented reality and slipped into his speed mode to race over.

The transition from his location to the police took all of ten seconds, finding them grouped outside of a massive residential complex with barricades and defensive postures adopted. He easily bypassed the sentries, bewildered at an odd tingling feeling as he did and wondering what they thought they’d be able to do against a speedster. He arrived near what he assumed was the command post among a group of officers in NAPD jackets frozen in a tableau of argument, arms raised and mouths in various stages of opening that seemed hilarious to his accelerated mind.

He took a few seconds — seconds by his reckoning, which in reality were nanoseconds to others — to steel himself and assume as ‘serious hero’ an attitude as he could before leaving his speed mode, his hands braced on his hips and his eagle symbol gleaming in the well-lit area. For a moment after he returned to normal time the officers were still arguing, unaware of his presence.

“We’ve already tried the League, Selena!” A bald dark-skinned man said tensely, with a soft gut and middle aged features. “Hyperion himself said they have no one they can spare.”

“Then try again!” A tall, willowy blonde woman answered, looking to be in her early-thirties. “We’ve got fourteen officers down in unknown condition, and two fucking Metas that we can’t—!”

“Holy shit!” A young man exclaimed, spotting Lucien. “Freeze! Don’t move!”

The sudden awareness of cocking guns and shouting officers, despite his confidence in the fact that between his powers and suit those guns may as well have been loaded with paper, nonetheless made Lucien nervous. Well-built as he was, his sixteen-year-old mind was still conditioned to be extremely nervous around that many armed police officers, and part of him wanted to just run. He fought down that voice in his head, ignoring the part of him gibbering madly that he had no right to be there, and maintained his hands-on-hips pose.

“Good evening, Officers.” He said in his most mature voice, thankful for the upgraded vocal chords he’d gained with his metamorphosis. “I heard you had some issues with rogue metahumans?”

“Who the fuck are you?” The woman he identified as Selena demanded, staring at him with suspicion. “You’re not on any register I’ve looked at.”

“Ah.” Lucien responded. “Well, no, I’m not technically registered—”

More guns cocked. More officers shouted. He felt his trepidation overcome by annoyance and lifted his hands. “Okay, let’s all just take a deep—!”

BANG.

Lucien blinked at the faint feeling of an impact on his chest, and looked down to where his suit had been momentarily stained by a speck of black. Even as he watched the white colour flooded back in, as if the mark of the bullet were little more than an annoyance to the suit. “Cool.” He said despite himself, patting his chest experimentally. “Awesome.”

He lifted his gaze to look back at the officers, and saw them staring at him far more nervously, his enhanced senses picking up the salty smell of sweat, and a strange odour he somehow was able to identify as fear. Interesting. Also mildly disgusting. Selena was the only one who didn’t seem overly frightened, instead glaring at a young uniformed police officer staring at his lowered firearm in disbelief. “Hold your fire!” She said, waving her arm angrily. “In fact, holster your weapons! He’s fucking bulletproof anyway.”

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A mutter of both fear and nervous amusement spread throughout the assembled swarm of police and Lucien’s ears picked up the endless clicking of safeties as guns were holstered or lowered in the case of higher caliber rifles. His attention remained fixed on Selena, though, whom he’d identified as the leader of the group. “So we can talk now, right?” He asked, annoyance and sarcasm slipping into his voice. Fuck being polite, they shot me!

“Yes.” Selena said crisply. “We can talk. I have fourteen officers down, and at this point I don’t give a shit if you’re a Vigilante. If you can help them—!”

“Already did.” He interjected, resting his hands on his hips again. “The strength-type was subdued, and the speedster surrendered. I borrowed a set of handcuffs to stop her running off, but Jayne—“ he waved a hand “—sorry, the strength meta I put into the asphalt. Literally.” He grinned at that, still feeling quite proud of how he’d handled the bullying mohawk-toting criminal. “No sweat.”

“Hold on.” Selena said while the officers around her muttered. “You took down a strength-type and a speedster?”

“Yeah.” Lucien said. “The Speedster tried to run, but I caught her pretty quickly. The strength-type, Jayne is her name, tried to fight me but I put her on her ass. The armoured truck is a bit totaled though.”

More mutters, followed by looks of alarm. More than a few of the officers were watching Lucien with a mix of fear and awe, by that point.

“Okay…” Selena said, her expression growing more confused. “And how did you find us?”

“I heard you yelling.” He said smugly. “It’s only a couple kilometers from here to the armoured car. No sweat.”

“You heard us.” She repeated flatly. “From the armoured car.”

“Yeah. Your voice carries.” He said, earning some involuntary laughs from other officers. More still were appearing even more amazed, and some had started gesturing less-than-subtly towards Lucien and mimicking something he couldn’t quite discern.

“So you’re bullet-proof, have strength, speed, senses…” She ticked off her fingers, looking at him for a moment. “And what else? Can you fly? Shoot fire from your eyes?”

“What?” Lucien asked. “No, I can’t fly yet. That’s a work in progress, and I don’t shoot fire out of my eyes, that’s Hyperion’s thing. I just have lasers.”

“Yet?” She demanded.

“Yeah, I haven’t quite got the grasp of it yet. Running is fine for now, though. And jumping.”

“… And you have Equilibrium?” Her voice was tense by that point, filled with a mix of suspicion and disbelief.

“I don’t know what that means, but that’s what Jayne said before I kicked her ass.”

“…fucking unreal…” A nearby cop said, drawing Lucien’s attention. His senses sharpened and he increased his sensitivity, allowing more conversations into his awareness.

“…many powers and he’s a vigilante?”

“…very well be the next Hyperion…”

“…god damn lucky he showed up…”

“…unregistered. Dangerous to everyone…”

“…no way the League will let him…”

“…realize the absurdity of his own powers…”

His attention snapped back to Selena when she took a deep, calming breath and spoke again; distracting him from the growing murmurs around him. “So you’re saying the area’s secure? We can go get our people?”

“That’s what I’ve been saying.” He responded testily. “I did the heavy lifting, so go get your friends.”

“You heard the Hero!” Selena shouted a moment later, startling Lucien enough for him to flinch slightly. “Let’s go get our people and a pair of meta assholes. Move it, people!”

The organized chaos of a sudden mass departure alarmed him momentarily before he noticed everyone was studiously avoiding getting in his way or near his immediate area, allowing Lucien to relax as he watched the police work.

“Hey. Hero.” Selena had stepped closer to him, and he noticed her eyes were a very deep green colour. “What do we call you?”

“Uh…” He racked his brain for a moment, before settling on something he’d learned in AP Latin. “Aquila.” He said impulsively. “Yeah. Aquila.”

“Eagle.” She responded in what he swore was amusement, reaching out to tap her knuckle against his sternum. “Simple, but elegant. Alright, Aquila. I’m Captain Selena Grant. I run the fifth unit of the First District detachment of the New Avalon PD.”

“A pleasure to meet you, Captain Grant.” He said formally, shaking her offered hand with controlled strength. “I’ll, uh, leave you to it.”

“Hey.” She said as he turned to go, gesturing for him to wait while jogging over to a nearby unfolded table. A piece of paper was torn off of a notepad and she pulled out a pen, scribbling something on it and coming back to hand it to him. “Here’s my personal number. Contact me with a phone I can reach you on.”

“I thought police didn’t like working with Vigilantes.” Lucien said, accepting the paper with a look of mild confusion.

“We don’t.” Selena confirmed. “But when everyone else said they couldn’t make it, you came anyway. Vigilante or not, you saved fourteen of my officers tonight. Those people are my friends. Fuck the regulations, if I can have a reliable ally in my back pocket? Well, the DMHA can kiss my ass.”

“That seems… a little too pragmatic.” He said, still wary. “Can’t you get in a lot of trouble for this?”

“Yes.” She said without concern. “But the reality is that you’re probably the strongest Metahuman I’ve ever seen outside of the Golden League. I’d normally never take a risk like this, but at least this way we might be able to coordinate in a manner that keeps you from doing more harm than good.”

“So you want to try to point me away from undercover operations and police stings.” He said, remembering an earlier concern. “Alright, Captain Grant. As long as you don’t try to find out my identity, I’ll consider your offer.”

“Call me Selena.” She said with a smile. “Us working together is the best option for everyone, especially people in need.” She looked up as someone called her name, then turned back to him “Thanks again for saving my people, Aquila.”

“Yeah. Sure.” He said, smiling despite his nerves. “See you later, Selena.”

“Goodbye, Aquila.” She said as she moved off to join her people.

Lucien spared one last glance at the officers and their captain before bending his legs and — after a moment’s calculation — launching himself towards the top of the massive residential complex he’d been standing outside of. Only once he’d alighted on the roof did he reach out to Ty again. “Quarterback, are you there?”

A moment of silence followed, before Ty answered. “Yeah.”

“That was intense, dude.”

“Yeah, it was.” The other boy agreed, voice more subdued. “I think we should call it a night there, though.”

“Why?” Lucien asked. “I got plenty of gas in the tank.”

“Yeah, but you’re on their radar now man. Best to end the night with that and we can assess what to do about Captain Bombshell when you get home.”

“Captain Bombshell?” Lucien asked, amused.

“Well, yeah dude. She might be older, but that lady is hot.”

“I guess so. Alright, I’ll see you at home.”

“Copy that. Quarterback out.”

Aquila, huh? It’ll do. Lucien smiled and launched himself from the roof.