Lucien threw himself into his training and nocturnal activities with gusto following the massive revelations he’d received. With Ty’s support and the backing of his godparents, he made learning to better control both his powers and the weight of his magical legacy his primary focus. His evening with Carmine the Friday following the Aquila reveal was postponed thanks to a convincing case of himself and Ty being grounded; cover for their heroic antics every second evening.

He even found himself an encrypted phone courtesy of Malachi, which he used to set up a tentative partnership with Captain Selena Grant. When he told his godparents of the arrangement, they were far more supportive than he’d suspected, and seemed thrilled that he was doing things as ‘legitimately’ as was plausible for an unregistered vigilante.

Videos of his escapades as Aquila continued to hit the internet across social media, and more than once he’d spotted a member of the Golden League doing a rapid patrol over First District. He’d managed to evade both Dreadnought and Nullifier, though it was only a matter of time before he ran into Tempest or Hyperion himself. King Raven and Patriot, luckily, were both still dealing with other issues across the breadth of New Avalon and the greater United States — which worked out well for his patented attempts at avoidance.

What didn’t help was the sudden attention he was receiving from the other side of metahuman society. The Supremacy Corps, or more specifically Atlas, had put out their own video condemning him — though theirs had been far more of a direct declaration of hostilities than the League’s. Atlas had shown a rare level of perfect agreement with his former ally, Hyperion, and had denounced Lucien as a ‘repulsive gnat’ that was ‘desecrating the memory of Olympus’ as if his own criminal acts were irrelevant.

More than a few metahuman villains had taken a crack at him, ranging from groups of C+ singles to some of the more unknown B and A-rated heroes and villains. In several instances only Ty’s rapidly developing skills as ‘Quarterback’ and some of the interference run by Selena had managed to give him an escape. His life had hit a pattern of normalcy blended with insanity, and he’d come to cherish the time he had just being a regular teenager.

His relationships with formerly distant peers had become far stronger as well, and he quickly came to count Eddie, Sam, John, Trigger, and James as reliable friends. Despite past failures, the boys had truly become pleasant to be around — and seemed to accept both his nerdy side and his new athletic side. Part of him would never be able to forget what it had taken for them to give him a chance, and for that reason he’d never be as close with them as he was with Tiberius… but as the days passed the other boys became an island of social stability in a sea of change.

Jason had all but vanished from Lucien’s radar as his social standing solidified within First High, almost as if the polo captain were intentionally avoiding coming into contact with him. Meanwhile Alize had integrated herself fully into the Squad, and had developed a kind of rivalry with Carmine. Lucien had avoided any significant commitments to the latter, in spite of her attempts to coerce them, and it had seemingly emboldened Alize.

Now the pair of them spent as much time trying to garner his favour as they did needling and sniping at one another. This had, bewilderingly to Lucien, also created a strange alliance between them — and anyone that attempted to intervene in their competition was swiftly shut down by a united front. It had especially shocked him when Carmine had outright punched one of the Seniors that had shoved Alize, prompting Hailey, Taylor, Harper, and Alize herself to get into a fight with a cadre of older girls which the boys had been forced to break apart.

The term ‘frenemies’ had never made more sense.

Time had bled together in the days following the first week of junior year, and Lucien found himself falling into a steady rhythm as the end of summer melted into a cooler fall across New Avalon. Where California had been largely devoid of overly massive changes in climate, its new position in the ocean afforded it a much more drastic alternation between seasons; and with the coming of autumn came a notable drop in the overall temperature.

One of the benefits of his powers, Lucien had discovered, was an immunity to things like temperature. It made sense given that he was remarkably hard to hurt and what he knew of Olympus’ capability to endure both volcanic heat and the vacuum of space. He wasn’t sure he’d be able to do either of those things with immediacy, but he definitely felt confident that anything short of sub-arctic temperatures would fail to bother him overmuch.

Carmine and Alize had both commented on his remarkable warmth at different moments in time as the cold had settled across New Avalon.

It was one such cool evening, almost three weeks to the day since he’d been told about the inheritance of Olympus’ intention, that Lucien stood upon the roof of the First District’s Fifth NAPD Unit headquarters. His arms were folded as he looked out over the orange haze of the evening, the sun already lost behind the horizon. Even at thirty storeys high the police building was dwarfed by the sea of steel around it, and it was only thanks to the intuitive planning of New Avalon’s skyline that he could even see the distant horizon.

“Man, I envy that view.” Tiberius said in his ear, drawing a smile from Lucien.

“Yeah. One of the best parts of the whole superpowers thing has to be the views.”

“It’ll be even better when you can fly.”

The familiar blend of anxiety and bitterness twisted together in his stomach at Ty’s words, but Lucien forced himself to ignore the feelings. He knew that his best friend hadn’t meant to do anything more than draw attention to the greater heights that awaited him in his ‘career’, and it wasn’t as if the flight question hadn’t been raised already several times in his sessions with Malachi. The grizzled Israeli was relentless in his desire to see Lucien break past his psychological blocks, and had quite literally almost tried beating them out of him until Tiberius — who had started to observe their training sessions — had talked him down.

“Maybe we can convince your Dad to get you a suit as well.” Lucien said in reply, choosing to move on with a joke. “Then you can enjoy it too.”

“Dude that’d be dope.” Ty agreed. “Definitely filing that away for later.”

Lucien was interrupted by the sound of unfastening bolts when the secured steel doors to the roof of the headquarters unlocked. He turned as footsteps followed the door’s opening, bracing his hands on his hips and smiling in greeting to Captain Grant. Where he wore only his suit and mask, the NAPD officer was bundled up in a thick calf-length black coat. Three equidistant buttons from lower abdomen to sternum held it closed over her chest, and her gloved hands gripped her biceps. A look of playful accusation was on her features as she came to a halt a few feet away.

“You aren’t bothered by this weather at all, are you? It feels like the wind is cutting through me!”

“Perks of being a superhero.” He replied with a grin. “Plus this suit is airtight, so no worries about wind-chill for me.”

“Ugh. Lucky.” She replied, rubbing her jacketed arms and demonstrating an exaggerated shiver. “I hate the fact we’re waterlocked now. These Pacific Ocean airflows are lethal.”

“I’ll take your word for it.” He said casually. “Should we make this meeting quick, then, to spare you undue exposure?”

Selena nodded appreciatively and reached into her jacket, offering him a tablet. “Here’s the latest target: A Metahuman that goes by the alias Constantine.”

“Constantine?” Lucien asked in surprise as he looked at the pre-loaded file. “Like the first Christian Emperor of Rome?”

“Exactly like that.” Selena said with distaste. “He’s a serial killer that specifically seems to target couples. Gay couples. He always leaves the same calling card when he kills, written in the victims’ blood: Genesis 19:24.”

“Not familiar.” Lucien admitted, forcing his stomach to stop twisting at the image of gore and viscera used to write messages on walls above murdered same-sex couples of both genders.

“Sodom and Gomorrah, Aquila. Constantine is a big fan of biblical verse.”

Lucien scrolled through the dossier to the known information area, his breath catching as he read it. Constantine was purportedly in his fifties, and appeared to be a Nigerian man attired in a classical priest outfit based on available images. That was not what gave him pause, however. As he scrolled through the information, his eyes had settled on ‘known affiliations’ and locked onto the single name in the box.

Messiah.

“He was part of The Brotherhood?” Lucien asked as he looked up to Selena.

“He was.” She confirmed.

“Holy shit.” Tiberius said into his ear as Lucien looked back down at the intense face of Constantine, scrolling the dossier down to his known abilities. Strength, speed, and ferrokinesis. The last one was what made Lucien hesitate, staring at it in surprise. Ferrokinetics were incredibly rare metahumans, with the ability to manipulate metal in all its forms. Despite the name ostensibly referencing iron, the overarching capability extended far beyond that.

“Why isn’t the League handling this?” He asked, looking up at Selena. “Trumpet Cultists are their purview, everyone knows that. What makes you think I even stand a chance against this guy?”

Selena gave him a shrewd look before responding. “I don’t think anyone is more qualified than you to take him on.”

“I don’t see how you could possibly believe that.”

“Look.” Selena said instead of answering him. “I’ve managed to keep this secret, because I think it’ll be good for both of us. If you can catch Constantine and I can arrest him? It’ll make both of our lives infinitely better.” She gestured between them with a winning smile. “You’ll be the incredible metahuman that took down one of Messiah’s Priests, and I’ll be the hero police captain that collared one of the greatest mass murderers in human history.”

“That doesn’t explain what makes you think I can even fight this guy. Christ, Selena, I’ve only been doing the hero thing for just under a month.”

“True.” She allowed. “But it’s not as if you’re just any old metahuman, hm?”

His blood ran cold. “What does that mean?”

“You tell me, Kid Olympus.”

Lucien’s expression hardened. “That isn’t my—”

“Spare me.” Selena said without hostility while stepping closer to tap his eagle symbol. “Strength, speed, enhanced senses, laser vision, soon flight, and you don’t even demonstrate a single elemental affiliation.” She wagged a finger under his nose, and he resisted crossing his eyes to look at it. “Your words lie, but your eyes don’t. You’re too green to convince a skilled interrogator. You’re absolutely his son, Aquila. No way you have the gifts you do without that being true.”

“My abilities don’t prove anything.”

“Please. Are we really going to do this song and dance? Let’s just skip to the part where you refuse to confirm, and I revel in my own excellent detective skills. I’m not about to complain about you hiding who you are, Aquila, though I doubt you’re fooling anyone.” She lifted a hand to pat his cheek affectionately.

“Selena…”

“I understand why you’d want to keep it quiet.” She continued unabated, rolling over his words. “There are a lot of monsters out there who’d love to take down the son of Olympus, but the cat’s out of the bag. Hyperion denouncing you along with Atlas actually helped you quite a bit, since it planted a lot of doubt out there — but we both know it won’t convince everyone.” She tapped Constantine’s image on the tablet. “Here’s your chance to prepare for those attacks in a relatively controlled environment.”

“Damn dude. Captain Bombshell’s got you.”

Lucien didn’t respond to Tiberius, instead trying to find a way to wriggle out of the corner Selena had put him in. Either he denied it, which she’d see through, or he confirmed it which would give her a victory a petty part of him refused to give. Unwilling to take either choice, he settled for the third option: Ignoring it. His eyes looked back down to the tablet, and he made it clear he was studying it, stepping away from her as he did.

“…Alright, so what’s the plan?”

“I’ve got officers at every gay hotspot in First District. When Constantine shows, they’ll alert me — and I’ll alert Quarterback.”

“Then he’ll guide me in. Okay.” Lucien’s eyes scanned the dossier again. “How disabled do you need him?”

“Unconscious is preferable but restrained enough for meta-shackles will do.”

“Alright.” Lucien agreed. “Are you going to give me a pair to use on him?”

“Ha! No chance, Aquila. Sorry, but giving a renegade a pair of enchanted handcuffs that can suppress metahuman powers?” She grinned at him. “That’s career suicide. I like you, cutie, but I don’t like you more than my job.”

“Fair enough.” He said with a degree of disappointment, lowering the tablet and looking out at New Avalon. “I’ll get somewhere higher and wait, I guess. Get an eagle eye view.” He smiled at his own play on words, even while Ty groaned in his ear.

“You do that, Aquila.” Selena said. “And by the way?”

“Hm?” He asked, turning back to her.

“It… It really is an honour to be working with the son of Olympus.” She said after a moment of uncharacteristic nervousness, her cheeks reddening with heat. “I’m not the only person who shares that thought, either. Most of my officers are in support of you, and there’s more people out there than you realise that are waiting for you to really announce yourself.”

Lucien was stunned for a moment, before he reached up to run his hand through his hair. “Selena, I don’t…”

“I get it.” She said more calmly. “But I do mean it. You’re a symbol, Aquila, whether you like it or not. People look at you, and it makes them hope again. Olympus died when I was pretty young, but I remember how people would react in the rare cases when he’d visit New Avalon to check in. It’s hard to put into words the gravity of what he meant to us. To the world. Your father was… He was like the avatar of justice for the entire human race.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “He made us feel safe in a way we haven’t since.”

Lucien’s gaze broke from hers as she spoke, and he looked down at the dossier in his hand. Selena had no idea how literally correct her words were. Olympus had been fuelled by the desire for justice beyond simply his own creed. That same fuel burned within Lucien, a low ember that he knew would one day grow to a roaring inferno. “I’ll wait for the call.” He said simply, looking to a distant skyscraper and idly bouncing on the soles of his feet in preparation to jump.

“Good luck, Aquila.” Selena said after a moment of thoughtful silence, her words followed by her retreating footsteps.

He thought back to the image of Constantine’s cold eyes as he launched himself from the roof. Luck, huh?

He felt like he was going to need it.