Before Lucian's departure, Oracle showed him a map of Gotham that she's been editing in the background. It showed several of Alec's potential hideouts, of which there were seven. He didn't hold his breath for anything to be in those places, though—there was still every chance that some of them could be empty, if not all.
He struck out right then and there regardless, making a beeline for the nearest point of interest. The pain in his leg was reduced whenever he used Full Cowling, but he was still careful. Though he was unable to put all of his strength into the trek, he still made good time, and was able to go through or over any obstacle in his way, be they normal roadblocks or gaps between roofs.
The first spot was, oddly enough, a convenience store. Lucian stared down at it from his perch across the street, glaring through his goggles. "This place don't look suspicious," he said.
"That's how they always manage to evade discovery," Oracle replied. "Keep looking. See if anything stands out to you."
Lucian drew on his experience from his first life. He didn't consider himself a terrible person, but he had fallen in with the wrong crowd in his mid-teens. He learned many things from them, both by listening and doing as they did. One of the things he learned included something that now jumped out at him, resurfacing after years spent out of practice.
"Two guards," he said. "Overkill for such a small place... one of them's in civvies, but I can tell."
"Good." Oracle sounded more positive in that moment than the entire night. "I'll leave this to your discretion. All you need to do is avoid notice and check if they are holding people down there. Get them out if you're confident in the case that it's a positive."
Lucian nodded, standing up to make his way down from the roof. "I gotta ask you to do something," he said while descending a narrow alley.
"I'm listening."
"I need you to hack into their systems," he replied.
"Get in close," Oracle responded. "I'll start once you're in range. Until I'm done, stay hidden."
He waited for a moment until the road was bereft of vehicles. With pedestrians mostly distracted keeping to themselves, he shot across the distance to reach the convenience store's side. He turned off Full Cowling to avoid standing out, but he was more than fast enough all the same.
Ducking into the nearest alley, he went and made his way directly to the store's roof. For whatever reason—likely the store's security encryption being closer to normal—Oracle managed to tap in much faster than she had with Alec's spare house. Lucian gave her his silent thanks and asked to be shown the feeds through his goggles.
"More people standing around inside," he noted when shown the camera that had the storage room's entrance in view.
"They're in employee uniforms," said Oracle.
"Yeah," Lucian agreed, "but they're just as armed as the guards if you look closer. They don't look like they're just slacking off, either. See? Neither of 'em leave the storage door completely out of sight."
Oracle hummed. "Good eye. What now?"
Lucian grunted. "In an ideal world, I'd say alert the cops and move on. Show me the front section again."
The display in his goggles changed back. There was one employee behind the counter, and another one idly worked the shelves and aisles. Neither of them acted like those in the back room, and there wasn't a single customer in sight.
"I'll take a risk here," said Lucian. "We don't mind a scene, do we?"
"Just don't get caught."
Having been granted tacit approval, he jumped down from the front-facing side of store's roof and drew one of his tasers. He dropped right next to the uniformed guard and put him to sleep with a knuckle-jab to the neck. Then, before the one in plainclothes could react, Lucian tased him and knocked him out in short order.
[ Combat EXP: 20. ]
[ Next level: 440. ]
As he acted with total audacity, passersby witnessed what he'd done. To avoid getting caught up in a commotion of clueless bodies, he barreled right through the glass doors as people clamored this way and that. He cleared the distance from the entrance all the way to the break room door in a couple bounds.
Using his good leg, he kicked that door clean off its hinges and struck out. He caught one of the disguised guards in a lariat as he ran in, and sent her sprawling. The last one, he disabled with a light chop to the throat.
[ Combat EXP: 20. ]
[ Next level: 420. ]
Seemingly in response to the scuffle, something shifted around behind the storeroom door, followed by the sound of objects falling. Lucian tried the handle—locked. Raising a fist, he brought it down on the handle with harsh force. The mechanism was mangled, and a forceful shove saw the door open.
There were four people inside with various products strewn across the floor around them. Three of them were women, catatonic like those in the house. Only, they were clothed and slumped against the walls instead of laying naked on mattresses.
The last person was a young man, bruised and beaten, who could be estimated as around Lucian's age. He was lucid unlike the women, though his mouth was gagged and had both of his arms and legs tied up. As a result of his restraints, he was only able to clamor forward along the floor in defense of the people with him. His actions were likely what caused the mess.
Lucian strode forward, brandishing his sword. The man squeezed his eyes shut, turning his head away while his body trembled. Cold steel met his skin, but didn't cut. Instead, what came next was the severance of his bindings, followed by gloved hands that tore away his gag.
"Can you stand?" Lucian asked, and received a wordless, slackjawed nod. He continued, saying, "Pick up one of the girls and carry her outta here. I'll handle the rest."
Though it took a second for the man to catch up, he didn't take long to scramble upright. He was apparently well beyond making a racket at that point, as he paid no mind to the way he knocked down even more products while stumbling from his own weight. Once he was steady, he quickly gathered his strength and picked up one of the catatonic women.
Lucian watched for a moment, eyes drawn to the man's left hand, as well as the woman's. Thin silver bands glinted on their ring fingers, completely identical. Once more, something foreign and not stirred inside the depths of Lucian's gut.
Everyone was well outside of the convenience store in short order. Lucian slowly lowered the women he carried onto the ground, making sure to ward away curious onlookers by flashing the Blink Blade into his hand.
Once he was done, he pointed the sword at a random person in the crowd and raised his voice, saying, "Call for ambulances to get these people out of here." He then singled out someone else and added, "Maintain order and keep these people safe. As for the ones I put to sleep... do what you will."
Without so much as another word, he leapt back up to the roof and darted away.
[ Rescue EXP: 40. ]
[ Next level: 380. ]
[ ... ]
[ Chain Quest, Part III: Digging Graves has been updated. ]
[ Objective [2] has gained another instance of success. ]
[ Current instances: 2. ]
...
That night was Lucian's busiest so far. While the next hit was a dud—a small pizza place in a street corner—he did witness two armed guards ordering employees around. With what they were being made to do, it was clear that the place was being set up to hold "merchandise" for Alec as well.
Lucian, still standing on the roof, decided not to attack even when it would have been easy. He believed it wiser to leave this particular operation be—after all, it wouldn't do to leave Alec on high alert by going after every last one of his operations, including those in their infancy. The best course of action was to seem reactive instead of proactive, doing just enough damage to obvious weak points to scare Alec into turtling up.
Therefore, instead of attacking, Lucian marked the location in the Program's map and tagged it. He also made sure to get Oracle in on his plan.
"Keep this places like this in mind for later," he said to her. "If Alec ever gets around to using this place before I've gotten to him, I want to know so I can intercept it."
"Way ahead of you," Oracle replied.
Lucian carried on, and the next hit was another positive like the first one. He managed to catch a group of seven men entering what looked like a normal residence. Four of them acted all friendly from behind, while the rest smiled along in front without a word.
From a distance, it truly did look like they were only a group of friends where some were rowdy and others weren't. To a more discerning eye, however, it was clear from the behavior of those three in front that they were being coerced. Their smiles were stiff, movements awkward, and their eyes darted every which way.
Having watched the last of the group scan the surroundings before following the rest inside, Lucian slipped into an unlocked window. Once inside, he listened in as Oracle patched him into every audio device in the building.
Like with Alec from earlier, there were talks amongst these four men about trading "merchandise" for a supply of something. Lucian already had his suspicions earlier, but didn't want to voice them just yet. This was a good opportunity to get better proof to see if his theory was correct.
Once Alec's four men had herded their three prey into that house's basement, Lucian snuck down from the upper floors and caught them all in an ambush. There was a brief and loud scuffle, but none that would alert the law enforcement in Gotham. For one, the current neighborhood was nowhere near as nice as Alec's, leading to reduced to nonexistent police presence. For another... violent crime was so common that people usually settled it themselves. So long as there wasn't gunfire, most people refused to get the authorities involved.
[ Combat EXP: 40. ]
[ Next level: 400. ]
Lucian went through his usual routine after defeating his foes, looting ammunition compatible with his guns and making himself richer off whatever funds they carried. Then, rummaging around some more with Oracle getting curious in his ear, he found his white whale. It wasn't quite as intense as the term implied, but he did hit the "Jackpot," as he exclaimed.
On each of the men's belts was a conspicuous pouch, all of which carried a familiar injection.
"See this, Oracle?" He said while holding a Venom injector in clear view. "It don't glow as much as the Venom I got from Orwell, but I'm sure it's the same thing."
Oracle let out a breath that was audible through the line. "Diluted formula... You got the idea to look for this based on what happened in the safehouse."
Lucian nodded, rising up to make his way toward the basement. "I got suspicious with all their talk about merchandise and trading. I figured it was worth checking if there was any weight to my idea, and look at that—I was right."
"This goes beyond just human trafficking," said Oracle.
Lucian paused, his gloved hand tightening around the basement door's handle. "I know. We could be looking at a city-scale conflict soon."
"It's too soon... Batman's still settling the problem around some of our local crime families," Oracle replied. "This is dire, but it'll have to be a conversation later. For now, just focus on finishing what you started tonight. I'll convene with Batman and see what can be done with this. Can I trust you to be available if we need your help?"
"I can promise you that much," said Lucian. "You're right, though. I'll finish this nice and solid. Once I'm done... guess I'll see you tomorrow."
He opened the door to free what would have been Alec's prisoners in more ways than one. From there, he moved on to the rest of the points of interest that Oracle found for him.
[ Rescue EXP: 30. ]
[ Next level: 370. ]
[ ... ]
[ Notice ]
[ Chain Quest, Part III: Digging Graves has been updated. ]
[ Objective [2] has gained another instance of success. ]
[ Current instances: 3. ]
Of the four remaining hits, three proved positive, adding that many tallies to his quest's second objective. He saved five more of Alec's victims and defeated five of his agents during that time. Every last one of those agents carried injectors of diluted Venom, which he discovered from idle conversations were advertised to them as some kind of stim-pack.
Once he was done with the night, Lucian returned to the Clock Tower to turn in all of the injectors he found. With barely a handful of hours left before sunrise, he returned to his chapel home to get some rest before a new day began.
...
[ Combat EXP: 50. ]
[ Rescue EXP: 50. ]
[ Total EXP: 100. ]
[ Next level: 270. ]
[ ... ]
[ Notice. ]
[ Chain Quest, Part III: Digging Graves has been completed. ]
[ Rewards: ]
[ [1] - 100 EXP; Basic Ability Upgrade: [ Tracker II ]. ]
[ [2] - 300 EXP; Basic Ability: [ Stalker I ]. ]
[ Ability descriptions: ]
[ Tracker II: ]
[ The ease with which you find certain marks has been increased further. ]
[ Stalker I: ]
[ Actively tailing your marks while staying undetected now comes more naturally. ]
[ Total EXP: 400. ]
[ ... ]
[ Congratulations! Your level has risen to 6. ]
[ Next level: 570. ]
[ One for All bonus: Power +1, Vitality +1, Agility +1 ]
[ Class Points: +1 ]
[ Free Attribute Points: +5 ]
– ৹ – ৹৹◎৹৹ – ৹ –
Host: Lucian Sant-Pearce
Matrix: One for All: Lost Flame
Level: 6
EXP: 130/700
Classes: Brawler [5]; Monk [1]
———
Attributes:
Power: 22
Vitality: 22
Agility: 22
Intellect: 14
Mentality: 14
Spirit: 14
Luck: 1
– ৹ – ৹৹◎৹৹ – ৹ –
[ Monk [1] has given you the Ability [Martial Discipline: Unarmed Fighting]. ]
[ Years of training in various styles of unarmed martial arts has been embedded into your brain and muscle memory. For compatibility purposes, existing training and experience has not been overwritten, and instead improved with context in mind. ]
—=—=—=—=—=—=—=—
[A/N]: Monk is here. That can only mean one thing...
🐉⚽⚾🥎🏀🏐🏈🏉
Also sorry if the last section where the Program bombards us with notifications/updates is a bit much. I did a lot in this chapter that I couldn't just integrate smoothly into the storytelling, no matter what I tried.
I'll get better, though. Figure it out along the way.
Also fuckass storms have been fucking with my anxiety, and my dad's been too noisy of a snorer and too violent of a sleep-talker. It's seriously been taking its toll on my mind. I haven't been able to draw shit and I can't complain about it either because how could he control that? Fuck my life.