Team-L: Discovery
Please Read Authors Note At the End.
Team-L split up for the rest of the day. Lori had requested Luan and Lynn to go back to base and get checked up by Lisa due to their encounter with Psychosis. But after they pleaded to her several times, Lori allowed the two to stay on duty. Lori decided to go solo, as well as Luan and Lynn. However, Lori had assigned Luna to stay with Leni while on patrol.
This part of the job when it came to hero work was the least difficult. Just merely looking out for people a report any suspicious. Ever since Team-L made their debut, less low-level thugs have dared to pull anything big. However, superpowered villains were still a threat and they were becoming more threatening. While Lori's sisters were out protecting the people, Lori was on another mission: to find any leads on how villains were getting stronger.
She had investigated Psychosis' home, only for nothing to turn up. His entire home, while old and worn out, was painfully ordinary and even relatively clean. After going through a detailed background check of him, nothing interesting was discovered either. He was just your average Joe who had a cubicle job for an insurance company. Everything about Psychosis' house and himself seemed normal to her. And when police questioned him, he had told him he went on a rampage solely due to the fact his life was ordinary and he wanted some excitement. Yet, when they asked about his abilities, he simply told them that it was his raw power. Lori didn't believe it.
Lori knew that his power and skill was something that would've taken years to accomplish. Lori knew something unnatural going on allowed him to nearly take down three of her sister. Lori knew because villains back then were never this tough to take down.
A year ago
A man in business casual was thrown out of a window on the first floor of an office building, with shards of glass flying past him as he lands on the ground. While people in the background were running for their lives, a woman was seen walking out of the hole in the window the man flew out of. The man anxiously tried to stand up and get away from her but she has already caught up to him. Grabbing the fearful man by his collar, she begins to float a few feet off the ground and starts to spin herself rapidly in a circle while holding onto the guy. After a few seconds of rotating her victim around like out of control carousel, his shirt ripped off from her clutch and was sent airborne again. Crashing onto the sidewalk, the man groans in pain as he held his aching body. The levitating woman slowly approached him.
The scared man raised his arms out in defense and began to plead with the woman. "Look, I am sorry I gave Gina the promotion and not you. I know you been working really hard for that position but Gina has been with the company far longer than you have. She deserves it!"
The superpowered woman was now only a foot away from her boss and landed in front of him. Letting out her hand close to his chest, the woman created a fist and closed the short distance between it and him. The man was once again sent tumbling back again, landing flat on his butt.
She began to angrily speak. "I had to put up with you and all of your annoying mannerisms. I had to suck up to for the past two years just to get a chance on having that spot. And while I've practically been slaving for you for that job position, you decided to give it to the hag instead of me when the time came!"
A new voice appeared on the scene. "Yeah, but literally, killing him won't solve anything either."
The pissed of woman viciously turned her head to face the owner of the voice, eyes melting from madness to fear. It was the heroine Barrier, standing proudly behind the villain with arms to her side.
The once enraged woman turned and quickly floated toward the superhero, who merely stepped aside and let the villain fly past her. Barrier created a transparent blue wall in front of the still flying woman, crashing into it. The woman fell to the ground and before she could get up, Barrier made another wall on top of her that was pressing hard on her entire body.
"I think you should consider yourself 'demoted'," Barrier quipped.
The heroine turned to the attacked man. "My wall construct will last for fifteen-minutes on top of her. That is plenty of time for the authorities to arrive and apprehend her."
The man nodded and Barrier began to take off from the scene by making platforms in midair to jump onto as she ascended above.
Present day again
It was so simple to stop villains in the past. But now most superpowered villains required the entire team to take down. And that was not good. What if they went up against a team of villains? They would practically be done for. Luckily, that day hadn't come yet. Team-L could still have a chance against their impending enemies. But Lori could feel like their luck was gonna run out soon...
The first thing Lincoln felt when he woke up was numbness. It felt like his whole body was given some sort of paralyzing agent. His vision was still blurry and clearing up but he could make out where he was. He was in his room on his bed. But he swore he was at their private gym. In fact, how did he get there? Lincoln mustered up the little strength he had left and sat up, letting out a groan.
"Lisa had to put you down," a sudden voice spoke.
Lincoln quickly turned his head to the right, where the voice was coming from. Sitting next to him was Lucy, with Lisa standing next to him. Lucy opened her mouth again. "Do you even remember what happened?"
Lincoln pondered for a moment. He was trying everything he could to remember what he had done. But he could only hold a vague memory of what happened.
"I got angry. That's all I can remember."
Lisa was fidgeting with her tablet, swiping and tapping on it vigorously. "Perhaps this could be of use to you," Lisa said, handing her brother the tablet with the screen facing him. It showed what looked like surveillance footage with a play button in the middle of the frame. Lincoln pressed it. The video footage showed what happened a while ago.
He was in their gym with his sister, talking. Lana suddenly threw what seemed like a weight at him and he caught it and- crushed it? there was no way he was capable of doing that- wait, were his eyes green? Unless…
The video continued to play and he could not take his eyes off the screen. It showed what looked like him taking a simple step, causing the entire gym to shake violently, with weights falling off and mirrors crack and shatter. He did that with just one step. As the video played, the video quality became progressively worse and soon started to cut to black and white. As Lincoln kept walking towards his sisters, who looked visibly scared at what was going on around them as it seemed like an earthquake was going off.
The video stopped and Lisa took out of his hand. "That was the only footage we could salvage. The rest of the cameras were either destroyed or had horrible quality."
Lincoln was silent. He had no idea how powerful he was. How much potential he held. It was amazing yet scary. "I activated my super strength again."
"Indeed, and I have come up with a hypothesis of the fundamentals on how your power works. But first, I need to ask you questions before I can share it."
"Go ahead sis."
"How many times have you activated your super strength and please elaborate on how they occurred?"
"It has happened 3 times, not including today. First was when I Lori called me all of a sudden and scared me. The second time was when I got into a fight with a high schooler. Third was when I woke up from a dream, no, a nightmare to be specific. Why you need to know Lisa?"
"Because elder male sibling unit, it proves my hypothesis. Your power is a defense mechanism."
"Whoa…" It all made sense now. Lincoln for the first time could feel assured. They had finally made progress on what his power could be. How he could use it to be a hero and work with his sisters. Heck, he could start training now!
"That's awesome but is that all it?"
"No dear brother, there is much more to it," Lucy spoke up.
"I'll leave this subject to Lucy here who is more, ahem, 'experienced' in this field," said Lisa.
Lincoln turned his attention to the gloomy girl. "Well, what is it Luce?" he asked.
"Lincoln. Believe me when I say this but there is a paranormal element to your power."
Lincoln gave a puzzled look. "Say what?"
"Yes, when you were in that powerful state of yours, you were emitting a massive amount of interference to the technology around you. Hence why most of the surveillance was unable to capture what happened. A common occurrence when there is an apparition near."
"Since when did you learn that?"
"Since I started binge watching all three seasons of A Paranormal Hunter's Adventure."
"Are you even sure they're credible?"
"Hmpff, they're more credible than you."
"Excuse me?!"
"Anyways… The biggest piece of evidence for this assumption is your possession."
"Wait a second, so you're telling me that I'm actually possessed when I get strong?"
Lucy nodded her head in confirmation. It made sense to him now. Why he never was really in full control while his strong mode was active. How he felt like he was being manipulated into doing what he did. Lincoln this whole time only had one hand on the wheel. But that only left a bigger question for Lincoln:
"The who's the guy with me when I am strong?"
Lisa and Lucy fell silent, looking down while one of them bit their bottom lip. Well, they had to tell him; he needed to know.
"Lincoln, when you spoke… It was not your voice. It was our fathers."
Lincoln froze, questioning what he had just heard. "Come again one more time."
"The person that possesses you Lincoln is our dad. It would explain how you get your strength. Super strength is not your power but instead, our father lends you it. You just have the ability to call upon him for help."
But the distraught look never left the boy's face.
"You have to believe me brother. I saw you speaking but all I heard was his voice come out of your mouth. You can even ask the twins," Lucy continued.
However, it only caused Lincoln to begin to chuckle."Kinda hard to believe. I mean, this is so much to take in that I starting to confuse myself." The white-haired boy got off his bed and stood in front of his younger sisters.
"So let's get this straight, whenever I get threatened, I get possessed by our dad. Who got into a car accident 2 years ago and died. And he gives me his powers to protect myself with while also telling what to do inside my head. Are we clear?" Lincoln ranted with a careful and confused tone.
Lisa readjusted her glasses."Precisely. You explained it yourself better than I could have ever done it."
Lincoln began to rub his temples and took deep breaths. Despite having an idea of what his power was, he couldn't help but still feel dissatisfied. He felt like there were still many questions to be answered but he just couldn't formulate them. It was seriously bothering him. Lincoln looked at his sisters once more. "How did I knock out again?" he asked.
"Lisa freaked out after she saw you in your strong state after she came back from her lab. So she pulled out a stun gun and tased you until you collapsed," Lucy told.
Lisa quickly added, "In my defense, you were causing a massive amount of destruction and fear. However, I will admit that putting you into an unconscious state was indeed unorthodox."
"Wow Lis, I really appreciate being electrocuted into submission. But I guess that's a sign I should start working on controlling our dad's raw power."
"Thank you two. I owe you both one," he said. He took a jacket off its rack and put it on; He proceeded to get on his knees and shuffle through things under his bed. Lisa raised a brow and looked to her older sister next to her, only getting a shrug. Lincoln pulled out an Ouija board and tucked under his arm, walking out of his room. "I'll be back in an hour."
"Wait, where are you going though? And why do you have my Ouija board?" Lucy asked.
Lincoln had made it to the stairs. "I'm heading to the cemetery. If my power is coming from our dad, maybe I can find some answers there. So I'll need this board to communicate with him. Also, you left it in my room last weekend."
"Lincoln. How can you resort to such superstitious pseudoscience? It's all false and unreliable." Lisa disapproved.
Lincoln was now at the front door, with his sisters tagging closely behind. "Well considering a sixth of the world have superpowers, I think anything is possible. Including boards that communicate to the dead." Opening the door, Lincoln walked off the porch and to the side of the house while his sister stayed at the front entrance. Retrieving his bike, he kicked the stand up and sat on the seat.
"Stay safe brother," Lucy called out. "Remember to proceed with caution when interacting with spirits."
"Don't develop typhoid fever. That is your true worst adversary," Lisa warned.
"Don't worry you two. It's just the cemetery. The dead can't hurt me there," Lincoln assured.
A man in a black cowl that concealed his face paced slowly around the Royal Woods Cemetery. In his left hand was an archaic piece of parchment paper that had Ancient Greek texts written all over it with a large symbol in the middle of it. In the right hand was a piece of obsidian carved in the shape of a bone. After walking continuously around the area, the man stopped at a particular tombstone. He faced it and got onto his knees, beginning to chant Ancient Greek with a British accent being very present as he spoke. Placing the slip of parchment in front of the tombstone, the mysterious man stopped chanting. Now firmly holding both ends of the obsidian bone with each hand, the man spoke again, but in English.
"Conduit of Hades, I call upon you on this very day. Allow me, a mere mortal man, to inherit the power of the God of the Underworld. To help gain vengeance on those who have wrong me, and avenge the ones who were wrongly taken from me. Allow me, James Thead Honen, to hold the title of Baron Von Death till the day I join the afterlife."
James, with all of his strength, broke the black stone artifact in half and let it fall into the grave. The remains of the bone began to make a hissing noise and produced a reaction much similar baking soda and vinegar added together. The shards started to sink into the grave and the parchment paper was suddenly set aflame with a brilliant green hue, engulf the entirety of the sheet.
"Yes, it's working," James excitedly started to clap. "After fifteen years of research, the fruits of my labor are now being bestowed to me."
However, James smile quickly dropped. Enthusiasm soon turned into disgust, nausea, and anguish. He began to throw up, holding his stomach as he began to hold his stomach. Soon he was rolling on his back and groaning, twisting his head from left to right as the worst feeling erupted throughout his body. 'The price I must pay to inherit this power. To control the dead, I must experience death to understand it.' He realized to himself. He was going to die. Blood squirt out of Jame's mouth as the excruciating torture continued. His head and his heart felt like they were being ripped from him as he wailed helplessly.
"What kills you make you stronger," a chilling, raspy, demonic voice whispered into his ear. Upon hearing those word, James used his final breath to let out the most horrified shriek he could possibly make. The deathly scream resonated across the cemetery. James had completed the ritual. All he needed to do now was become alive again….
Hi everyone. After like a month, I am back! I was vacation for a while and was helping some people out. But now I give you the new chapter! Anyways, I would like to thank Hatoralo for his/her idea on a villain with necromancy powers and Sulfur Angel for his/her idea on a person who can fly two feet off the ground and master the one-inch. Omni Spector, I also love your idea but I'm saving it for later. You guys were a big help and I hope I'm doing you some justice. I am still very open to villain ideas, though just telling me a cool superpower for one is more preferred. More big news is I am canceling Heroic Rejects and I am redoing. I thought after re-reading it that it wasn't really the best way to write a story and I wasn't proud of it. So I am planning on redoing the whole thing while I am working on this story's development. I'll try to be quicker when it comes to writing from now on for you all who like my story. In the meantime, have a nice day.