Lucian moved to the street-facing side of the building that he'd climbed. He then leapt down from the rooftop, latching back to the wall's surface halfway down. From there, he started sliding instead of falling, just to make sure he could avoid any potential traps in time.
The moment he was a handful of feet off the ground, he heard something shift along the pavement, followed by a click—
Bang! Bang-bang!
Gunshots.
What saved him then was a combination of all the sensory abilities he'd acquired so far, with [Sharp Instincts] playing a major role.
He leapt off the wall and into a roll just as the bullets left the shooter's gun. There was a frustrated grunt, followed by cursing. Lucian broke into a sprint, ducking into an alley across the street as the cursing continued. As he did, he made sure to check if he had been hit by any of the bullets. Luckily, he was left unharmed.
Not far behind, Rico started chasing after his target. With how fast the Phantom was, he was sure that Aleck's armed support would never be able to catch up.
It was all up to him now.
As Lucian ran, he could hear heavy footfalls following him. Deciding to shoot a quick glance back before turning a corner, he confirmed his suspicion: it was the same guy that had been glaring at him in the waiting area.
Just before he completely disappeared into his right turn, Lucian made sure to flip the bird at his pursuer. A gunshot soon followed, and he couldn't help but snicker.
He kept leading on the man chasing him, all the way until he found a fire access. He leapt up the wall, then bounced off of it and onto the fire access balcony. He hadn't ever displayed any real wall-crawling capabilities as the Phantom, so he couldn't risk showing that off, lest a connection be made. He just kept on climbing and climbing the fire access. Seconds later, a heavy clang resounded from down below.
He looked and saw his pursuer, eyes brighter green and his body a bit larger. He seemed a bit more grotesque now, which disturbed Lucian for some reason. Maybe it was the sudden change in appearance? He definitely hadn't felt the same when facing the bigger guy earlier.
Regardless of how he felt about the the unsettling transformation, Lucian's pursuer was steadily gaining on him. He had to step up his game.
He redoubled his efforts to climb while making sure not to rely on his Tiger Climbing Gear too much, bouncing off the walls and leaping up from any available footholds.
Meters below, the now hulking man did much the same in his pursuit, only much louder, angrier, and with a lot more grunting and roaring.
Eventually, Lucian neared the top of the buildings. Just as he was about to pull himself over the edge, a brick hit him in the back of the head. He noticed it coming, but didn't expect such speed; the projectile hit the bottom right of his skull, one of its corners nicking the skin behind his right ear.
'Shit! Fuck! Shitfuck!' Lucian swore his head as his vision blurred for a moment, his grip on the ledge waning. 'I never thought the phrase "seeing stars" would've been so literal!'
The attack wasn't nearly enough to knock him down completely, but it was proof of how vulnerable he was without Full Cowling active—he faltered for half a second and nearly lost his grip, but pulled himself back together in time to absolutely book it.
"Just give up and let me fucking catch you!" a distorted voice shouted furiously.
Lucian didn't afford him a response and just maintained his full sprint, leaping over the gaps between buildings as he went.
◎ ◉ ◎
The roar of a powerful engine dominated the highway as Batman drove the Batcycle with urgency. With him riding it, the absolute beast of a bike wove through street traffic with uncanny grace.
Word had just gotten to him through Oracle: Lucian needed help, and an independent supplier of Venom had been involved.
"Where are they right now?"
Oracle's answer to Batman's question came quickly. "They're down this block in the Bowery! The chase is happening on the rooftops, and it looks like Lucian's headed for the police headquarters!"
A white holographic map projected above the Batcycle's speedometer, two dots highlighting Lucian and his pursuer—purple and red respectively.
"Smart move," Batman remarked. "Even if the police can't be much help, they can distract and buy him time."
He kicked the Batcycle into high gear and drove through Gotham's streets like a bat out of hell.
"Keep updating me on the situation. He only needs to hold out for one minute. Even if he can't, we can still help."
◎ ◉ ◎
Fighting against this guy—Rico, Lucian finally remembered—was much easier than the last Venom user he faced.
Rico was undoubtably stronger than the last guy because of his better base physique aided by his much sharper skills, but Lucian held a major advantage: Gotham's rooftops and alleys were his homefield.
Despite his inability—or rather, unwillingness—to display his full power, Lucian was ahead. He used his better experience maneuvering in the tight, largely-vertical environment to chip away at Rico's durability while staying largely out of reach.
The enemy had long since run out of bullets by that point, but debris was plentiful in Gotham. Even then, while both of them could use thrown weapons, Lucian had a much easier time hitting and doing actual damage with them.
"Cocky son of a bitch," Rico growled as a beer bottle flew into his jaw, shattering on impact.
"That's no way to talk about someone's mother..."
Rico threw a stray piece of sheet metal at Lucian, who retaliated with two bricks; one to the cheek, and the other to the sternum.
"I mean, how would you like it if I said that about your mom?"
Rico leapt forward with a roar, trying to throw a punch at the Phantom. Since his ranged attacks were just as ineffective, he might as well stick to what he could do best.
"She was a bitch!" he yelled after his punch had been so expertly evaded.
"Well, shit... my bad, dude. Didn't know you had it like that."
The 'chase' kept on going like that: Lucian would exchange taunts with Rico while hurling objects at each other. Whenever an opening presented itself, he would keep on running.
This pace was choppy, but at least he was making good progress towards reaching the GCPD headquarters...
'Alright... just a few more blocks, and I'll make it. Hopefully, that station has a Bat-signal... Even if it didn't, I'm sure bullets still work on this guy.'
Then, just as he'd crossed the gap over to another building, two things happened simultaneously.
Rico stopped his pursuit, and he seemed to be listening to an earpiece. The wind up on the rooftops was too strong, and the distance between them was too great—Lucian couldn't pick up on what Rico had been listening to.
As that happened, the roar of an engine could be heard, coming from down below. The engine noises were followed by the screeching of tires, and then something metallic striking the edge of the building he was on.
Cursing, Rico turned around abruptly and made a mad dash to some random direction. As he crossed the second building over, Batman appeared from the side of Lucian's rooftop.
"Are you alright?" Batman asked, his grappling hook whirring back into place.
Lucian was breathing heavy, despite the bravado that he'd been displaying. "Mostly, yeah. Just... really tired."
"I'll have to advise against maintaining two alter egos... if I were you, I'd call it quits with the Phantom in some way."
Lucian scratched his head, near the spot he'd been hit with a brick earlier. It was a little moist, but the blood had caked and dried into a crusty paste at that point. "Yeah... I think I'll just retire the Phantom now. I think I've got a good precedent for it, and at least I went out with a bang, right?"
Batman stashed his grapple away. "Retiring the Phantom is a good idea. The Manticore already has a growing reputation, but news of the Phantom has been relatively slow-going. Go say your goodbyes to those people soon."
"Maybe..." A pause. "Actually, any idea who that guy is?"
"Nothing concrete. Judging by his actions, he's likely part of an organization."
"Eugh, that means thinking," Lucian grumbled, staring off in the direction that Rico went. "Can I leave it up to you to track that guy? If there's anything I can do to help, I'd appreciate an invitation."
Batman nodded. "I'll let you know."
With that, Lucian reciprocated a respectful nod before turning around. He shifted to his Manticore gear after making sure that nobody but Batman was watching, and ran all the way home.
◎ ◉ ◎
[ You okay, Luce? ]
"Yeah... I'm fine..."
Lucian didn't take any detours and ran straight back home to his hideout. Well, squatting apartment. It didn't quite qualify as a hideout anymore, since the Steele siblings had moved in two doors down.
Speaking of those siblings, Bailey had left to return to the hospital. As for Brodie, he went off, saying that he'd be handling some business for the night—this information was left on a note, slipped underneath the door and into Lucian's apartment.
Now that he was completely alone, he started munching on some cracker sandwiches that he had stashed, since he didn't feel like going out to get proper food.
"Let's see about that last quest, Penny."
[ Quest: Hold L-Shift to Run has been completed. All objectives cleared. ]
[ Rewards: ]
[ 500 EXP ]
[ Retractable Claws [D] ]
[ Mask of Fear [C] ]
[ Congratulations! Your level has risen to 14. ]
[ Redeeming Villain Takedown reward... ]
[ Successful! Your level has risen to 15. As this is a milestone level, no EXP will be carried over. ]
[ Notice! Your Loadout ability has been upgraded. You now have 3 loadout slots. ]
[ In addition, you are now also able to stash one handheld weapon or tool within your subspace. Further upgrades will only count towards weapon or tool slots until a certain point. ]
– ৹ – ৹৹◎৹৹ – ৹ –
Host: Lucian Albrecht
Matrix: Quirk User: One for All
Level: 15
Classes: [Brawler - Level 5] ; [Acrobat - Level 5] ; [Criminal - Level 5]
-[ Attributes ]-
Power: 43 [85]
Vitality: 43 [85]
Agility: 43 [85]
Intellect: 27
Mentality: 27
Spirit: 27
Luck: 0
Free Attribute Points: 0
New class ability unlocked!
Brawler:
[4] Tough as Nails: Your time getting scrappy with various opponents has toughened you up. You now have more endurance than before, can tolerate much more damage, and have resistance to ailments and disease.
[5] Danger Sense: Your combat instincts have been honed past regular human limitation. You are able to detect malicious intent directed towards you, and you also have an early warning system for general danger. Seeing as you have other abilities that function similarly to this, they will apply a cumulative boost to each other, raising overall potency.
Vestige unlocked!
Blackwhip: You can produce black energy tendrils from anywhere on your body and command them at will. This Quirk Vestige acts as an extension of your body, and grows stronger when you enter a state of heightened emotion. Anger is the most effective.
– ৹ – ৹৹◎৹৹ – ৹ –
"That's a lot more than I was expecting," Lucian marveled. "'Mask of Fear,' huh...? This shit ain't really random, is it?"
[ I can neither confirm nor deny... ]
"Heh, it's fine. The Headmaster can do whatever he wants. He's the entire reason I'm even alive at all, anyway."
Laying back down, Lucian switched to his Manticore gear to put the Retractable Claws over his climbing gear-infused sports gloves. His loadout ability registered them together no problem, since their effects didn't interfere with each other, nor did they overlap with each other physically. Layered on top of each other, yes, but neither needed to take up the same space over his body. The claws were full gauntlets and could fit the much smaller gloves inside of them without issue.
After that, he had the Mask of Fear infused into the cloth part of his cowl...
[ Infusion successful. ]
"Now..."
Lucian switched back to his civilian outfit and pulled out his phone. He had it powered off while he was out. The moment it powered on, he was met with several notifications.
M: 'luce, can we talk?'
M: 'there's something i wanna ask you'
M: 'youre probably busy'
M: 'ill be up all night so get back to me when you can'
'Three-ish hours ago... that puts it somewhere between 20:00 and 21:00, which was around the time I left for the ring.'
Lucian decided not to overthink it and typed out a response.
L: 'Hey Max. I'm back. I just had some business to deal with earlier. Anyway, what'd you want to ask me?'
Lucian then set his phone down and went to test out Blackwhip.
He started by forming a pair of tendrils from his palms. They were tiny and slim, some three or four inches long. He swirled them around each other—it looked like they could glide along the surface of his body if he wanted. That was good to know. Incidentally, the image made him think of a tiny little kraken living inside his body.
[ Wouldn't that just be a squid? ]
'Mini-kraken sounds much cooler though, right?'
[ I concede. ]
The first thing Lucian had in mind after confirming that he could use Blackwhip was a dexterity test. He extended that pair of tendrils and had them grab the bouncy ball from across the room. They latched on no problem, and retrieval was swift.
He then picked up some loose rebar outside, bending it into an oval shape. Extending more tendrils, enough to weave together, he wove a sort of net using the rebar as a frame. It was an improvised tennis racket.
He tested its weight—it felt light and comfortable, but he wasn't too confident about precise handling. Putting that assumption to the test, he used the first two tendrils from earlier to fling the ball up into the air, then used the racket tendrils to send it flying across the room—all while keeping his entire body still, including his hands. The ball bounced back, but when he made to strike it again, it was off-center. The resulting trajectory made it so the ball just kept bouncing away, nowhere near where Lucian intended for it to go.
'Looks like I'll need to practice some more.'
He thought about what to do next then, and decided to spend the night experimenting with Blackwhip in every way he could come up with.