It was supposed to be a peaceful day downtown.
The day was perfectly sunny, only a few scattered clouds threatened to overcast the massive expanse of blue that was the sky. Dozens of pedestrians passed by, whether rushing to work, running late to summer classes, or simply passing the day away.
It was the ideal day to go out, not to do anything strenuous that is, it was still a hot summer day after all, but it was great to go and browse the town.
That was the situation Luciana had been left in. Although, she was supposed to walk about the town with a friend, but as usual she was running late, close to half an hour late. She should've known better by now, never arrive on time, it's only setting yourself up for failure, but after Katarina gave a heart-felt speech she would arrive on time over text, she decided to have faith in her friend. A major mistake.
Luciana was stuck standing on the street corner they had decided would be their meeting place. She had gotten a few confused glances as the walk sign over head changed over, and a few people offered to help her in case she was lost, but she had simply smiled and waved them off with a simple "thanks." It almost brought a grin to her face that complete strangers were more courteous than her supposed 'best friend,' but it was par for the course at this point.
It was coming close to an hour after their arranged meeting time before Luciana made a decision. Five more minutes, five more minutes and then I'm going home. It was a simple declaration, but one that needed to be made.
Although, soon after she made her silent promise, a woman bumped into her. The woman came out of nowhere, running at top speed, Luciana was almost knocked straight off her feet. The woman was dressed very gaudily, wearing a bright purple dress, high heels, and what looked like an entire bucket of make-up.
The woman hadn't recovered from the impact as easily as Luciana. She tumbled onto the concrete, scraping up her knees and scuffing her dress as she fell. "Hey, are you okay?" Luciana reached down to her, trying to help her up, but the woman slapped her hand away.
"Get away from me!" She screamed. She dragged herself to her feet and took off running once again, although she was a little wobbly on her heels. She quickly disappeared around a corner, vanishing from sight.
Luciana didn't know what that was all about. She put her hands on her sides in exasperation, but as she did, it dawned on her. Her wallet was gone. That woman just picked her pocket.
"Argh, DAMMIT!" Luciana took off running. Figures her day could only get worse.
Luciana rounded the corner and looked over the crowd. It was relatively crowded, as she had seen earlier, but luckily, the purple dress was pretty hard to miss. It was odd, why would a pickpocket dress so flashily? Wouldn't it be better to dress casual and blend into the crowd?
It didn't make sense; all Luciana could do was push those thoughts out of her mind and chase on. She wasn't running for long; the woman clearly didn't have any kind of escape route planned. She was taking turns at random, looking around wildly, and her chest was heaving from all the exercise. It wasn't long until the thief took a wrong turn, leading her to a dead-end alleyway.
Luciana was right behind her, standing at the entrance to the alley. The woman was panting as she gripped the walls, taking another look at her, Luciana could see the fear pasted across her face. "Hey, come on, just give me my wallet back, I won't even call the cops." Luciana didn't want to make a big scene, but she couldn't just let some stranger waltz off with her wallet.
"Wallet? Huh?" She gasped between breathes. She was genuinely confused for a moment, there wasn't a hint of deception on her face, but suddenly a realization dawned on her. The woman checked her pockets, grabbing wildly at her dress.
After about a minute, she fished a wallet out from under her dress. Out of breath, the woman squeaked out an apology. "I'm sorry, when I panic, my quirk acts up." She then threw the wallet over to Luciana, though it was a bit short, so it landed just in front of her on the floor.
"Your quirk?" Luciana thought to herself. That's right, in this world, most people had a special ability, a super power unique to them, called a quirk. These abilities could manifest in any number of ways, Luciana could only guess this woman's quirk somehow stole valuable from those she touches.
Luciana bent down to grab her wallet. It seemed like just a harmless accident, but there was still something wrong here. "Wait, if you didn't know you had my wallet, why were you running?"
"I was running..." She paused for a moment, but she quickly lost any composure she had left evaporated. "From him!" She pointed past Luciana, there was a new figure on the scene. It was a man, dressed like an old-school biker, complete with leather jacket and chains. He was very lanky; his arms were long enough that they could reach his knees without bending down. He didn't have much muscle, but in a game of quirks, that didn't mean much.
Luciana took a step back from him. He didn't look physically dangerous, more... unhinged, like he could snap any second. Lucian had met plenty of tough guys, guys that acted dangerous because it made them look cool, but this guy was the first who actually felt like they could hurt her.
"Sonya, why're you runnin', girly." He slurred as he spoke, drunk, most likely.
The woman, Sonya probably, backed herself further into the alleyway. There was nowhere to run, the only way in or out was blocked by the man. They were both trapped like rats.
"Sonya, is it?" Luciana looked back. "Stay behind me, alright? We'll get out of here." Luciana tried to sound reassuring, but she was freaking out just as much. Maybe they could stall him out and wait for a hero, someone who could knock this guy out and save them. No, not a chance, they weren't exactly out in the open, and if they just started screaming for help, he'd only attack sooner.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to drag you into my problems. I didn't think Barnum would take it this far." Sonya apologized.
"The hell? You grow a conscious or somethin'." The man, Barnum apparently, shouted. "'Ay, little girl, don't you know who yer protectin.'" A smarmy grin spread across his face. "Thass Sonya golden finga'. She's as quick to stab ya in the back as she is to help you out. She stabbed me in the back too, took me all this way, only to try an' pull out last minute, damn disgrace to thieves everywhere."
Luciana stopped for a moment. The woman she protected was a thief, a pretty prolific one from how Barnum spoke. She may not have meant to steal Luciana's wallet, but she doubtlessly has stolen plenty of others. Doubt flashed through her mind, why should she have to risk her life to protect a criminal?
No, she couldn't cut and run now. Luciana wouldn't be able to forgive herself if she left a person, any person, to die. "Sorry, but I'm not letting you lay a finger on her." She let out a low chuckle. "That's what heroes always say, right? Feels pretty good to be a hero."
Barnum's eyes flared with rage. "Fine, ya know wot, it's just' one extra body. I'll just kill ya both."
As he finished speaking, Barnum started to grow. His skin changed colors, before settling on a dark green hue. His arms shortened, his fingers grew together, becoming stubby little forks. His head extended into a long snout, and his mouth filled with razor sharp teeth, pointed like a vicious carnivore of ancient times.
Barnum slowly became the kind of creature you could only find in textbooks. A beast that hasn't walked the earth since prehistoric times. An apex predator that went extinct millions of years ago. A tyrannosaurus rex, the king of dinosaurs.
He didn't quite fit in the alley, but he blocked the exit even more so now. He gazed inwards at the two, but it was clear he wouldn't just be waiting for them to come to him. He crashed into a wall. Bricks were crushed and shattered as the took the full brunt of the prehistoric force.
Barnum's progress into the alley was slow, but his advance was undeniable. At first, he was entirely stuck outside, but now his entire head was poking in. There were screams and shouts from every direction. Passersby begged for a hero to take this villain down. Residents of the two neighboring building gasped as their floors shook and walls collapsed.
Luciana wasn't about to sit back and let this dinosaur eat her, she'd use her own quirk to fight him off. Technically, I was illegal to use your quirk in public without a license, some issue with endangering public safety, but they had to be lenient if it was self-defense, right?
Luciana felt a familiar tingle. A burning sensation spread across her palm and begun to radiate light. Luciana didn't have much experience with her quirk, the most she got in the past was special high school electives, like quirk P.E and minor hero studies, but at this distance, and with this big a target, there was no way she could miss.
She raised her hand. Light gathered in her hand. Luciana could never really explain the feeling; it was almost like holding in a sneeze, that building sensation, like a pile of explosives just waiting for a flame. And Luciana held the lighter.
With a thought, her quirk activated. A scorching beam of light erupted from her hand. The beam wasn't large, only as wide as a flashlight's, but underestimating it would be a fatal mistake.
The beam collided with the T-rex's snout. Light might not normally have any weight, but Luciana's didn't work the same way. The force of the beam pushed the beast straight out of the alley, and left a large burn mark underneath its left eye. The dinosaur roared in pain and drew back.
But Luciana wasn't done just yet, three more beams wracked the creature's body, creating the same burn marks that had scarred his face. However, Luciana's eyes grew heavy, she couldn't fight at this level for very long.
Like most quirks, hers had a weakness. Producing light directly took away from her stamina, and while she could replenish her strength with a bit of sleep or a good meal, fighting cornered like this only drained her. She bordered passing out, but she couldn't fall just yet.
Luciana continued her barrage of attacks, and they were having an effect, but she lacked the power to take him out on her own. It didn't help that her energy was running out, one blast didn't even burn his scaley flesh, another went wide and shot off into the sky.
Barnum must have sensed she was weakening, because he began to back up. He wasn't retreating, the exact opposite in fact, he was preparing to charge. With a bit of run-up, he could smash through the alleyway easily, and if Luciana didn't have the strength to push him back, he would destroy both her and Sonya.
Luciana didn't want to just give up, she wasn't going to roll over and die, but she had nothing left, maybe two or three more blasts before she collapsed, and those wouldn't even reach half strength. She was stuck, there were no more options.
The beast had gotten his distance, and he was all set to begin his charge. He roared and stamped his feet. His roar was loud, in fact, loud was an understatement. The windows that haven't been shattered rattled in their frames, and Sonya and Luciana could only clutch their ears in pain.
But even with all this noise, it was eclipsed by a violent crack.
It was a noise Luciana knew all too well. The shout that followed only solidified her suspicions. A sharp "I'M! NOT!"
Untroubled by the sudden crack, The T-rex charged forward, but he wouldn't even make it to the alley entrance. As he began his charge, a small figure collided with the side of his head. Like of bolt of lightning, wreathed in electricity, Katarina made her entrance. "LATE!" It was a single powerful kick, one that reverberated through the air, the force must have sent shockwaves through the entire city.
The great beast stumbled and Barnum's form shifted, transforming back to a human before he collapsed, knocked out cold. An imprint of a shoe was now pressed into his face, and Luciana could bet it would take weeks for that to fade.
Katarina landed next to his unconscious body. "Yo, Lucy, what was with the big lizard guy?" She was dressed more or less like she always was, some casual white clothes with blue highlights, she always said that was her 'color scheme,' the same colors she planned to design her hero costume with.
Luciana was still feeling the exhaustion that came from overusing her quirk, but she still couldn't stop the overwhelming feeling of relief that came over her. "It's great to see you, even if you are an hour late." A grin spread across her face.
"Hey! Hey, I'm not an hour late, daylight savings time screwed me."
"Wasn't that three months ago?"
Katarina grasped the sides of her head. "Ugh, TIME, you fickle mistress! once again you curse me." At that, Luciana couldn't help but burst out laughing, and Katarina joined her. They laughed for so long they almost missed the police sirens closing in. Pretty soon heroes and cops had flooded the scene, tending to the wounded and evacuating civilians.
Barnum was quickly dragged away in handcuffs. He didn't put up much resistance, at least not as much as when he was destroying buildings, a minor struggle and jostling, but that's it. He must have been injured, too injured to transform a second time. Luciana couldn't tell what was hurt more, his face or his pride, but considering he was taken out before any real heroes showed up, Luciana could guess it was his pride.
It wasn't long before a pro hero approached both Luciana and Katarina, a minor hero called Monarch, named as such because of the two butterfly wings that sprouted from his back. "Hey, are you two alright?"
Katarina waved him off. "Yeah, yeah, we're fine, all in a day's work."
"Well, that's good to hear." Monarch had finished the usual hero treatment of civilians, but he still lingered. "You know, I've got to ask, you're that lightning girl that beat the villain with a single kick, right? You know, you'd make a great hero."
There it was. Luciana's smile quickly faded. The same thing everyone had told Katarina since they were both kids. 'Katarina would make a great hero,' 'she'd be the best hero ever,' 'why can't you be as strong as Katarina.' Luciana had heard it all before.
It wasn't a bad thing. Katarina had been blessed with an incredible quirk, strong enough to rival pro heroes by the time she was ten. She had also been onboard with becoming a hero since a young age, it bordered on obsessive. No, none of that bothered Luciana, but being best friends with the hero prodigy since they both started walking had its downsides.
Everyone had high expectations for Katarina, but the only expectation for Luciana was 'be as good as Katarina.' Even her parents thought the same thing. Luciana had spent most of her life growing up in Katarina's shadow. She was the best friend of the future number one hero, but that was all.
Monarch continued. "You know, I can't give you a direct recommendation, but I can get you in touch with some other alumni from Northpeak University, it's got the best hero department in the country."
Katarina shifted like she always did when she was excited, though she tried to hide it. "Oh, uhh, sorry. I can't say I'm not tempted, but me and Lucy were going out today, probably to get some food from the looks of her." Katarina was itching to speak to those alumni. It wasn't unsurprising, as he said, Northpeak was the best in the U.S when it came to hero studies, it was basically a must for anyone who wanted to be a pro hero.
"Don't worry about it, Kat. I can wait for you to finish up." Luciana bit her lip as she spoke, she would love getting tips on Northpeak just as much, but they only wanted Katarina, as always.
She shrugged, but her eyes were beaming. "Alright, suit yourself. We were actually going to be taking the placement exams next week, so this should help, right?" She was led off by Monarch. Luciana didn't doubt she would hear all about it later, but she still felt like she was missing out.
So, without Kat, Luciana was just stuck standing alone. Luckily that wouldn't last for too long.
It wasn't long before she was approached, but not by a hero or even a police officer. Instead, she was approached by Sonya, the woman she protected in the alleyway. She was flanked by two police and her hands were cuffed together. It seems the dinosaur man wasn't lying when he said she was a thief.
She recovered a lot compared to how she was in the alley, but she still seemed meek, at least compared to how she dressed. It was a rough day for everyone it seemed. "Hey." She squeaked out.
"Hey, you're looking better." Luciana wasn't sure what to say, that was all that came to mind.
"Yeah." a silence settled over them for a moment, before one of the officers nudged her on the shoulder. "I know, I know." She took a deep breath. "Sorry, the suits here are nice enough to let me speak to you, and here I am, wasting the opportunity. I wanted to say thanks, I don't even want to think about what would've happened if you hadn't been there standing up for me."
Luciana almost blushed. "Oh, don't worry about it, that's what heroes do, right?" She wasn't used to getting praise like this, normally it was always heaped on Kat while Luciana fell by the wayside. "So, what's going to happen to you."
For the first time since they met, Sonya laughed. "Heh, I'm not exactly going to any parties any time soon. I'll be filling a cell in some prison, but I've got some info, so I'm hoping I'll cut my sentence to a year or two with good behavior."
"I'm sorry to hear that, you didn't deserve all this."
"No, I probably did. I've been cheating people since grade school; figures it would all catch up to me." She fell silent once again, but only for a moment this time. "Hey, can I ask, why did you do all that for me. Most people when they hear what I've done they distance themselves from me, and I know no hero would stand up to defend me, but you did. Why?"
"What can I say? I guess I just really wanted to help, even if you are some master thief, I'd never leave another person to die."
A small smile stretched across Sonyas face. "Ah, I see." She turned away and began being led by the officers to a squad car. She was about to get inside before she turned slightly and said her parting words. "You know, I might not be the best judge of character, but I think you'd make a great hero someday." And with that, Sonya was loaded into the car and driven off.
There was no almost about it this time, Luciana turned bright red, the praise overloading her brain. She felt a warm feeling build up in her chest, a feeling of immense satisfaction, not unlike when she was charging her light attacks. A calm warmth.
This was what she strove for, this is what she wanted to be. A hero who saved everyone, no matter who or what. In the end, she'll probably never become the number one hero, she may never even surpass Katarina, but moments like this would be her fuel. And either way, Katarina better watch out...
Because she's not the only one that wants to be a hero.