Hey everyone. I think I might've lied about the next chapter being lone, which is this one. But again, the future chapters might be longer. But it depends on how I'll write it. So I can't really say how will one of them will get longer. Anyway, here are the reviews.

1049 - I know how you feel, but this is part of the character development on how will Lincoln push himself to the limits.

Geo Soul - Again, just like I said to 1049, time is the key to make him improve, and maybe one day he will finally reason out. But I'm so certain that he'll just save them regardless.

Enjoy reading.

Nighttime at the Greenville Mansion somewhere in the streets that's absolutely far away from the Loud residence, or in Franklin Avenue. In a study room that was so wide due to it being in a mansion, Edward is watching a video in his phone, with a serious and focus look as he kept watching another mayoral speech from Teddy Dawson, the running-for-mayor candidate that Lionel mentioned.

"Sir. About the children's hospitals funding and the local dam in Yellow Mountain Forest, how are you going to solve this issue?"

"I, myself, will do everything I can to start a fund raiser around Detroit to support the children's hospital. And as for the dam itself, I have myself an engineering crew that can solve its problem."

"Mr. Dawson, are you also aware about the current crimes that's spreading around Michigan, especially the ones in Royal Woods? If so, how are you going fix this issue?"

"As a former soldier of the military myself, I will do everything I can to tell the government and the military to provide proper equipment, and even assign few soldiers to assist the police force. But, of course, there are also heroes running around in the world. So, to add, we should also start having heroes in our city as well."

Heroes. They're known for wearing costumes or tight spandexes and start to save the people, the city, and the whole world as they could. Many years ago, the start of heroes had started since they became known for their powers, and for their goal to protect the innocent as they can. As time pass, it had reached the to the point that the world is filled with 30.8 percent of heroes across the globe.

Of course, there wasn't a hero in Royal Woods. Not because the people hate it, but they never had one. Of all the six cities in Michigan, Royal Woods was one to have no heroes. All they can think about is how will they live without one, or a dozen of them? How they can live in peace if crime rates are rising? And how can they live, when they all live where the law and justice system is weaker than a stick.

This was Edward's goal. To do whatever he can to make the city more protected and secured as mayor of Royal Woods. To convince the city that he can save the city. He will do whatever he can to protect the people of this city, even his son.

A knock was heard. "Come in." the Greenville businessman said bluntly.

A butler came. He looked older, but still has the spirit to work as one. "Sir, the car is ready to take you to the tower."

"What about Daniel?" Edward asked. "Is he doing his homework?"

"Yes, sir." the butler answered.

"Good." Edward rose from his seat, and grabbed his expensive looking coat, and prepared himself to leave.

As the car that Edward is riding in arrived at Sentinel Tower, he got down and walked straight to the laboratory of Dr. Peters. He took the elevator, and about three minutes, he finally arrived at the laboratory.

"Dr. Peters!" Edward called out, getting the attention of the doctor. "I already arrive just like you said. I hope the serum that you're still working is now ready for testing."

"But Mr. Greenville, the tests results are only from animals. I can't let this happen." Sir, please reconsider this. It will likely kill you!"

"Don't be such a coward. Risks and sacrifices are what should be put in the field of science." Edward stated.

"But if you can just give me two weeks to find a medical staff, and a volunteer, then maybe we can – "

"Two weeks? Give you two weeks?" Edward was bewildered. "Doctor, we are almost this close to get rejected from a contract and the other labs from other companies. We will not waste time. If we don't test this, then Sentinel Corps will be likely to be shut down. And you'll be out of the job." He lectured. "Sometimes, we have to whatever we can to accomplish things." He decided to take off his suit, but his under shirt. "Hand over some anesthetics, Meni-D and citalopram."

"W-What for?" the doctor asked.

"Since Prochlorperazine won't work, then this will act as a proper anesthetic for the serum to avoid any possible side effect to the bloodstream. But as my hypothesis go, it will surely give the carrier a brain seizure. Maybe possible death." He explained, as he drank the 'anesthetic' he made.

As the doctor knew that this was the beginning of the testing, he rushed to a device that was carrying the serum that he made. He presented the serum, in the form of an injection. "Here you go sir, the serum as you requested. We… actually gave it a name."

"No need to say it, I know." Edward grabbed his hand on the serum. "FS-I. The perfect serum to enhanced the evolution of man as we know it." He injected himself slowly, as he pushed all its contents inside his bloodstream. Once he did that, he started to have no effect as he waited. Suddenly, he started to feel sweaty, and uneasy. He held his head, as if there's a hammer banging his head. Maybe the anesthetic wasn't working. He even groaned in pain. This could only mean that the serum really had some side effects on humans.

"Sir? Sir!" the doctor tried to reach him out, but he was feeling a lot of pain right now. "Edward! Edward, talk! Are you alright?"

Edward's pain started to fade, as he started to groan pain, relieving slowly. "I'm better than okay, Doctor. That's just how… the serum is taking into my body now…" he knelt down, with his eyes close. "I just… need to focus myself…"

The doctor tried to console with his boss' painful. But as he glanced at his boss's face, he was confused to see his eyes, now crimson and no longer normal when his eyes widened. The shocked Dr. Peters gasped in fear immediately, and lifted off from the floor with an aggressive Edward doing so.

"Back to the formula?"

WHITE RAPTOR

Chapter 4

Unexpected Start

In the abandoned and rotting Shell N' Beans factory, now dubbed as the Black Bunker, Lincoln was amaze by the small, yet fascinating room of the vigilante Red Shade. The entire room itself caught his interest mostly, and he couldn't even hold back his excitement.

"Woah…" the white-haired boy said, excited as he was.

"I know right? I made all this myself." Jim said, walking his way at the weapon display to store back his weapon. "Scrapped off every rust and rat in each room, placed in my own training rooms to improve my skills, and no one didn't even try to notice the noise in this place while I was doing some construction."

"Was there any reason why you chose this place?" Lincoln was curious about the factory being still old. "I know it's weird for you to have hideout in here, but shouldn't hideouts be in the criminal side?"

"I love the place, that's all. The rooms are all big, but not to be big. As long as I can train well, it'll be easy for me to call it a perfect hideout." Hudson explained. "Also, not all hideouts are always come from criminals and mob bosses. That's just an old saying coming from kids with comic book knowledge. Like what you just said right now." He added. "You can't deny what you said."

"Well… yeah." Lincoln muttered. "I mean, I always rely on comics all the time. That's why people call me a huge joke." He admitted.

"Huh, No wonder." The vigilante noted. He broke off the conversation with clearing his throat. "Ahem. So… you already came here in my hideout, which means that you wanted to be a hero." He said mistakenly. "Wait, let me rephrase that. You came here because, for sure, you wanted to protect this city." He corrected. "Right?"

"Yeah, that's it." Lincoln replied. "I decided to come here because I hope you can help me. This city needs a protector." He exclaimed. "You see, I had a… chat with my old best friend, and he told me that having a vigilante in this city isn't a good idea. I told him that this place needs one. And that's why I thought that… maybe I might be doing the right thing." He admitted his decision. "This city is getting worse and it's somehow falling, and there should be someone out there to stop it. And that's gonna be me."

Hudson listened to his explanation, and was put in sentiment by his small speech about his goal about saving the city. "Well, kid, your speech did touch me." He stated. "It touched me to the fact that you are going to be doing the right thing." He proudly said. "But there's just one thing for you to know. Are you really going to this? You don't mind if the law is going after you someday?"

"I am, really." Lincoln answered. "If there's one thing I know from my knowledge from comics, and from my Gramps, then it's believing what your doing is right, then go for it. And there's no turning back."

"Now that's what I like from you kid." Jim chuckled a bit. "You're really ready for this." He gestured his hand as he started walking to another room. "Follow me." The white-haired boy followed him as he was instructed.

"Where are we going?" he asked.

"Somewhere where we can start your first training." Jim answered. "When it comes to heroes-in-training for hero programs, they were trained to fullest to reach their potential in the future. Which is why I going to start off by teaching you some combat skills of my own."

The white-haired boy was now excited. "Wait, really?! In my first day?! Oh, man! I can't believe this!"

"But don't take this thing like a game, kid." Jim said, cutting off Lincoln's excitement. "When I saw you got cornered by those muggers and that bully kid in your school, I noticed that you really don't know anything about self defense." He stated. "Tell me, have you ever punched. As in, you tried punching someone?"

"No. Not really." Lincoln answered. "But. I did punch a wall when I was mad." He added. But it doesn't count.

"Well, you're in luck, your first training begins now." He said as both of them already entered a large room, "This is where you'll start."

There was a large fighting ring, a punching bag, workout equipment, various sets of training weapons, like a bo staff, a set of knives, and other related weapons. Lincoln smiled, knowing the possible way in what to do in a room like this.

"How do you managed to do all this?" Lincoln was amaze when he asked.

"Doesn't matter, kid. What matters most is that I'm going to shape you right now." He said as stand in a fighting pose, with his arm aligned and his fist gripping. "Fight me."

The white-haired boy was now confused. "What?"

"Fight me." He repeated.

"Look, Mr. Hudson, I'm not gonna fight you." Lincoln reasoned. "How is this going to help me?"

"This is going to help." Jim answered back. "Now, fight me." Lincoln still didn't make a move even if he was instructed to do so. "Hurry up, kid! You can't be waiting on me like this."

Lincoln sighed, and started to do a hit and run move, only to get overpowered getting turned over, and got his leg kicked as he landed on the ground hard. "Ow…" he groaned.

"We're gonna have a long night together." Jim sighed. "A very long night."

So, in a montage, Lincoln is doing what a vigilante must do in order to protect the city. Train. Train is the key to every thing in being a hero, or a vigilante. Lincoln is now already warming himself for laps. His guess is either it's part of the training, or to help him gain the body strength for the push-ups and other exercises. Who knows, it might be both.

"Okay, here's how we're going to start. We're going to start with some laps." Hudson announced. "Laps will not just give the boost for exercising, but it will also train your way on how to keep up with criminals. You don't know if a criminal is either slow runner, or the athletic type. So, you need to know how keep up." He explained. "Ready?"

"Ready."

"Go!"

With his voice commanded, the white-haired boy already made his first move in doing his first lap. It was simple, really. All he needs to is run around from the empty room, make it back to the training room. Simple as that.

"Okay, kid. Good." Jim was a bit impressed. "You're really good at keeping up at pace, and you don't seem exhausted."

"Thanks." Lincoln thanked. "You didn't say how many laps by the way."

"Nine laps." Jim announced, "You did one, now you got nine more to go."

"Oh, boy." He muttered.

Next is some exercises. Again, the laps were just a boost, so he's now moved to the exercising part. Lincoln wasn't in favor with exercises ever since, but he needs to take it, no matter what.

"So, we're gonna be doing some exercises." Jim said. "The laps were just a boost, but we're gonna go back there later. So, the first thing to do is you need to freshen up your entire body will the boost is still there from your running."

"Well, that makes sense." Lincoln, still exhausted from the laps, sighed. "How do I start?"

"Squats." Jim answered. "Five minutes squats! Go!"

Lincoln hurried as he started doing his squats, by counting in his mind. Later, he might be starting to give up from all of this.

After squats, it was push ups. For another five minutes just like his squats. Lincoln struggled to push himself from the ground, as if he did three or four push ups.

"Push ups will also boost your upper body and arm muscles for flexibility. The reason push ups needs a lot of work on it, so it can boost your body's core, to keep up to in case if you're going to defend yourself."

Lincoln weakly did another push up, and started panting to fast. "Yeah. Got it!" he struggled again to another. And breathed in and out slowly, and proceeded back to repeat the process.

Then, it was the sparring lesson. First thing that a vigilante should know is that they need to learn how to fight with their fists and legs. But primarily, the fists. Boxing, Krav Maga, and Taekwondo are the three main fighting styles for him to master.

"First of, we're gonna be doing an all American classic; Kickboxing." Jim instructed. "First thing you should know that kickboxing has that feeling that you wanted to get competitive, but it's all for sports and fun. But also, for self defense. Watch." He demonstrated a jab and cross punch at the same time with a punching bag. "You try."

"Okay." Lincoln stood in front of the punching bag, and did a weak jab and cross punch. It was fast, but weak. It didn't have any force to it.

"What was that?" Jim was disbelieved at what he witnessed.

"A punch… and another punch." Lincoln answered back.

"That's not a punch kid." He exclaimed. "You gotta do it harder. Hard enough, so your enemy can feel some pens and needles on his face. Do it again."

Lincoln repeated once again. This time, when he did a jab, he started to scream in pain after he failed to do a cross jab. "Ah, ah! My left arm!" he groaned in pain, while holding on to his left arm. "Can we take five?"

"Sure."

"First thing you need to know is how to dodge weapons from crooks." Jim grabbed a training knife. "What if a crook uses a knife, or a bat. Guns for sure are hard, but this is one thing you should know more."

"I think I know how to dodge a knife." Lincoln guessed. It wasn't a lie, or the truth, but he just guessed.

"Okay. Demonstrate." Jim was eager to know what he knows about avoiding a weapon.

As Lincoln nodded as a response to get his attention, he was suddenly freaked out when the plastic knife swiped in fast, but was quick enough to dodge it. But he wasn't quick enough to dodge a stab from the abdomen, right after he was knocked from the chin.

"Maybe that's one thing you're not good at; Speed and focus." Jim theorized. "Correct me if I'm wrong, kid."

"Uh, no. You really got that right." Lincoln chuckled nervously after he failed to avoid it.

"Okay. Pull ups. It will give you that upper strength for your body of yours to have some reflexes and to improve your fighting skills." He explained as he gestured Lincoln to the railings.

As Lincoln grabbed onto the railings, he struggled to do one pull up. He even tried, but just started to groan and groan.

Jim watched him struggled, until he decided to break the ice. "Uh... do you even know how to pull yourself up, kid?"

"I... know!" Lincoln groaned as he kept struggling. "I... just... need to con... centrate...!" he already gave when his hands gave up for him. Much to Jim's dismay.

"When I first came into this place. I was so surprised that my first step to becoming a vigilante will be that easy and simple. Yep, that's right. Easy and simple. But that's not how I imagined it all. In fact, it was the opposite. Yeah, I almost peed my pants about the weapon disarming part, and maybe cracked a bone really bad during workout."

Throughout his first training in his first night with the vigilante's guide, Lincoln struggles to keep up with the exercises, combat, and the weapon disarming. So far, Lincoln failed time to time when struggled to do any of the tips of his training. But as seconds and minutes pass, Lincoln was able to adapt one of the skills one by one. He was able to make it through twelve laps, and passed out on the floor after. He managed to make a strong jab and cross punch. And he was successfully able to dodge a knife attack, but wasn't successful enough to dodge a baseball bat both quick and properly.

"But from the looks of it. It's getting well. Pretty well. No, wait. There was progress."

So far, there was progress. Little progress, that is.

"So, how did I do? Do you think I'm ready?" Lincoln asked, who was recovering from the struggling training he ever faced. Since Lincoln made a little progress, he decided to end it with a break, and some fresh juice to recharge, and a relaxing seat on one of the comfiest benches.

"Not quite, kid." Jim said, while he is busy with the computer, in case if there's any crime going on in Royal Woods. "You're not ready for all of this. Not one chance in my eyes, I'm not calling it ready, but I'm calling it an improvement. A terrible improvement."

"What? Come on!" Lincoln whined. "You did saw me how I was when I made a strong punch in that punching bag. Or how about that weapon dodge like you told me." He paused for a minute. "Actually, that baseball bat was a big problem though, so it might be weird to know that." He continued. "But mostly, I even managed to keep up with the exercises for my body to be in shape." He ended. "So basically, I'm ready for this. Just tell me who to find, and I'll stop him." He declared.

"I don't think you're getting the point, kid." Jim stated. "I can easily say that I fully deny what you just said in that big mouth of yours right now." He added. "Being a vigilante isn't just beating up criminals who rob banks, harass anyone in alleyways, or destroy your favorite ice cream shop. Vigilantes don't just beat bad guys all they want. They stop bad guys and stop crime from spreading from your city. You may adapt a little, but you need fully master a lot in your way before saying your ready, kid. Also, you need the full responsibility to have these kinds of skills. Cause if you don't… you will become the very thing you hated." He explained.

The police radio started to pick up something as it starts to give out a police report when someone spoke. "All units! We have a silent bank alarm happening in Elliot St. I repeat, we have a silent bank alarm in Elliot St, would be good to have back up in case if gets worse."

"Looks like it's time for me to be there." Jim said, as he starts gear up by grabbing his weapon, and putting his mask. "Okay, kid. New plan. I'll be right back once I deal with this. Elliot St. is ten times far away from Franklin Avenue, or Kock Avenue. But I can be there in about fifteen minutes while the police are ahead to arrive."

Lincoln gets an idea from his head. "Or, how about you let me join you on this." He suggested. "Who knows, they're a lot better when it comes to beating up bad guys, so my guess is, you need someone there who can help you."

"Kid, I'm not letting that happen. At. All." Jim said in a serious tone. "There's no way in godsake I'm letting a thirteen-years old kid who knows a little about being a vigilante, being my sidekick!" he finished as he starts to leave.

"Come on! You have to understand. You gotta have some – " he was interrupted when Jim cuts him off.

"No means no, kid! I'm not risking it. You either wait here when I come back, or you can go home and we can continue all this tomorrow morning. Your choice." Before he left, he stopped and turned back. "Also, don't try to break anything while I'm out." He warned as he already left. He jumped off from the first floor, which isn't that long. As he landed safely, he used a wristed grappling hook to grapple his way in the rooftops.

Lincoln paid full attention with all of this. He didn't even know what kind of robbers are they. Are they armed? Mutated? Superpowered? Or both. Maybe all of the above. Also, he was given to choices. Wait or leave.

But of course, there was the third option. And it wasn't from what he said. He never said a third option.

Lincoln placed his bag down on the ground, "Wait or leave?" he shuffling through his stuff in his backpack. He even had an idea with a grin on his face. "How about I follow you behind your back?"

Gonna be honest here, I'm not really good at making training montages, so I made them shorter to not bore the readers. Also, training montages aren't that skilled to be written, so I tried my best here. I apologized if this chapter didn't really get your interest, but as I recall back, this is how he'll go through. He starts from worse to improved. And I don't know about the ending to you guys, but all I can say is it did left a cliffhanger. Anyway, see you in the next chapter.