This Is Reality

Dull metallic thuds echoed outside the packing plant. Butcher slapped the Honda's trunk lid twice.

"All right, time to send this piece of junk where it belongs."

Lucian glanced at the time on his phone and stepped back half a pace, his body half disappearing into the shadows.

"I'll leave the cleanup to you."

Butcher's hand froze in midair as he opened the car door. He whipped his head around and stared hard at Lucian. "You just fucking helped us kill a member of The Seven, and now you want to walk away?"

"Vought will go berserk after sunrise, and I have a macroeconomics class tomorrow morning." Lucian's expression didn't change. "Not getting a full scholarship would be a headache. Remember, don't leave behind any trace of yourselves."

Hughie sat in the passenger seat, still deathly pale, and swallowed. "Lu, you're really... just going home?"

Lucian didn't answer. He simply slipped his hands into his pockets and turned toward the night.

"Suit yourself, kid." Butcher snorted behind him and clamped an unlit cigarette between his teeth. "Keep your phone on. Share any intel as it comes."

The engine roared, and the Honda's taillights soon vanished around a run-down street corner.

Lucian walked alone through Brooklyn's dark streets.

Vought would soon track down the microchip. Once they found that pool of acid mixed with Translucent's remains, the war would begin in earnest.

The night wind carried the stink of urine and stale burgers. His LV1 Super Senses constantly picked up the city's noise.

"Help! Don't touch me!"

A woman's scream pierced the quiet street.

It came from the subway exit ahead to his left.

Lucian stopped.

His hearing, enhanced by LV1 Super Senses, caught not only the woman's cries but also an extremely faint hum.

It was the sound of high-frequency electrical currents stirring in the air.

He rounded the corner and silently entered the shadows by the exit.

Beside the turnstiles, two burly middle-aged men reeking of booze had a uniformed night-shift nurse pinned in a corner.

"Get away!" The nurse desperately clutched her torn neckline, trembling with fear.

Lucian's gaze didn't linger on them. He looked the other way.

A figure in a gray hoodie charged down the steps and drove a vicious kick into one drunk's back.

The man, who weighed over two hundred pounds, flew like a torn sack and slammed into a ticket machine, scattering broken glass across the floor.

The other drunk froze, then turned and cursed. "You fucking bitch! You wanna die?"

Blond hair fluttered beneath the hood in the cold wind.

Starlight.

She didn't waste a word. Her chest heaved as she stared at the remaining man as though he were a piece of utterly revolting trash.

She abruptly raised both hands.

Bzzzt-

Every trace of darkness was stripped from the subway exit in an instant.

The rows of old fluorescent tubes overhead flared with a blinding light ten times brighter than usual.

The drunk covered his eyes and screamed shrilly, stumbling backward.

Starlight strode forward, grabbed his collar, and drove her right fist into the bridge of his nose with a rush of air.

The crack of his nasal bones breaking rang clearly through the empty passage.

Clean and decisive.

Terrified senseless, the nurse seized the chance and fled into the night without looking back.

In her panic, she kicked over an empty can beside Lucian's feet.

Its sharp rattling echoed through the passage.

Starlight whipped her head around. An intense, searing beam lit up in her palm again, aimed straight at the blind spot where Lucian hid.

"Who's there?"

The beam was blinding. Lucian tilted his head slightly and raised his right hand to shield his eyes.

He calmly stepped across the broken glass, walking out of the shadows into the brilliant light.

"Even superheroes come out for a midnight snack?"

Lucian spoke casually, slipping his hands back into his pockets. "Or does beating up a couple of drunks make you feel better, Annie?"

At that name, the light in Starlight's palm abruptly faltered.

She stared hard at Lucian's face and recognized this "fan."

"It's you."

Starlight's tense shoulders suddenly slumped, and the light in her palm went out completely.

She leaned against the cold tiled wall as though drained of strength, covered her face with both hands, and took a deep breath.

The subway station returned to the dead silence of late night, broken only by the faint groans of the two men on the ground.

Lucian walked over and stopped two paces in front of her.

He was close enough to see the exhaustion on Starlight's bare face and the unmistakable redness and swelling around her eyes.

"Those things you told me today..." Starlight stared into his eyes, her voice hoarse. "Who exactly are you? How did you know what a piece of shit The Deep was?"

"I went through Vought's internal forums and the gossip news. Digging up a few scraps isn't hard." Lucian lied offhandedly, his gaze sharp. "What, did that useless bastard with gills mess with you?"

Starlight clenched her teeth, her chest heaving. Too many disgusting things had happened to her today. She desperately needed an outlet.

"He tried to force me to..." Starlight clenched her fists. "Right in The Seven's conference room. He threatened to have me kicked off the team."

"So you did it?"

"Fuck him!" Starlight suddenly swore. "I was standing right there, watching American Pride, the Lord of the Seven Seas, getting ready to take his pants off like some beast in heat!"

She paused and looked straight at Lucian. "I said I needed the bathroom, then went straight to Queen Maeve's door and smashed it open."

"And then?"

"Maeve didn't want to get involved at first." Starlight sneered. "But I told her that if she didn't, I'd go live and expose the whole rotten thing online! We'd all go down together!"

Starlight spoke faster and faster. "Maeve came back to the conference room with me. You should've seen The Deep's face. He looked like a dead fish dumped on dry land! I warned him that if he ever dared take another step toward me, I'd send his scandal to The New York Times!"

It seemed that the mental suggestion he had given her that afternoon really had drawn out the ruthlessness in her bones ahead of time.

"That's the law of survival inside Vought Tower. They put you in a sequined uniform and turn you into merchandise in a shop window. Morality is useless against a beast. You have to be more ruthless than he is and keep a firm grip on his throat."

Starlight looked at Lucian. Her eyes held an extraordinarily complicated mix of gratitude, bewilderment, and lingering wariness.

"You did me a huge favor." Starlight lowered her head. "If you hadn't warned me today, I might really have fallen apart. I'd dreamed of joining The Seven since I was little. I thought it was heaven."

She raised her head, her eyes glistening with tears. "Turns out it's a sewer packed with perverts."

Lucian looked straight into her eyes, his voice low and clear.

"Welcome to the real world, Annie."