74 Interlude: James 'Junior' Xiao Long

February 17th.

Only one week since she's joined the family and Lucy is already settling in well.

It took a couple days for her to really start coming out of her shell. Expected, considering her circumstance. But with the others all being supportive and not trying to push her it didn't take too long before she was opening up with us.

It brought a certain warmth to my heart to see the others welcoming her to the family so seamlessly, giving her a place where she can belong, surrounded by friends who will help ensure she never has to go through an experience like her trigger ever again.

She's gotten close with the Boss and Stacy more than others. In the case of the former it's their shared hatred of the so called 'lords' that has brought them together, giving Boss an opportunity to finally open up with someone about his feelings, rather than just keeping it all bottled up because he thought we wouldn't be able to understand.

With Stacy it's different though. The energetic young girl that she is had no problem dragging Lucy around and showing off all her 'pets' with great enthusiasm.

Thankfully, rather than being annoyed at getting dragged about, Lucy seems almost as excited as Stacy about her mechanical creations, even if in her own more subdued way.

But if I ignore my feelings and focus purely on the family as a whole, then I'd say the best part about her recruitment is her skill in combat.

I'm not sure if it's an aspect of her powers or if she's just a natural but her skill in a fight is second to none in the family and I've already had her start taking over the mandatory CQC lessons to great effect.

It's only been a few days, but I sat in on one of her lessons for about a dozen of our enforcers and she is not just a natural at fighting but also an incredible teacher.

Not because she's super wise or anything, nothing like those kung-fu movies. It's just that she makes the lessons 𝘧𝘶𝘯. She doesn't just teach people but she makes them actually 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 to learn.

It's like she's a natural born leader and I know it's something Tai has noticed as well. An aspect that no one else in the family seems to possess.

I don't think it's too out there to think that after she's been with us for a bit longer that she might be a candidate for the position of Boss should the need ever arise.

I certainly wouldn't contest it. I'm no leader, same with the others and she reminds me a lot of Boss anyway, so I think it'd be fine.

She just needs some more time, so that we can be sure of her allegiance.

But that's also part of what today is for. See, the 'lords' have started stirring some trouble. Or at least some of them have. We don't know what the situation is exactly, but Boss has been doing some thinking on it and believes that is might be that some of them are getting 𝘢𝘮𝘣𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴.

Never a good thing on this side of the world.

But it still means that we need to push back to defend our territory so Boss has sent Lucy and I, or Rose as she's decided her cape name to be, something about having thorns and spilling blood, to go and fight them off, at least for long enough for the Heroes to arrive and do our job for us.

"You ready?" I ask, perhaps not for the first time going by the way Lucy rolls her eyes.

She hasn't been here long so her costume is a simple one. I think she said something about it being 'gothic lolita' but I honestly have no idea what that means.

She's wearing black combat boots that go up to just below her knees and has black stockings covering her legs up to her red skirt that is part of a one-piece that covers her shoulders but leaves the arms bare and she has black corset over it.

Then, over all of that she has a red poncho that has a hood. She also has a thick brown leather belt around her waist with some pouches to make up for the outfits lack of pockets. She even has another similar belt on one of her thighs, so she can carry more stuff.

I asked her why she doesn't have one belt on both thighs to carry even more stuff but she just looked at me funny and said 'fashion', so I guess that's that.

"Do you remember what we're likely to be up against?" I persist in asking her, ignoring the deadpan, exasperated look she's giving me.

"Yes." Is all she says before leaning back on her seat in the truck we are taking. The normals that are coming with us are in a van just behind us, half a dozen of them each armed and ready.

"It's probably going to be Bang and Scarface, along with a few of their mooks." She sighs a deep, depressed sigh that I ignore. "Bang can cause a sphere of space two by two metres wide to more or less collapse. With my power I'll be fine, or well enough should I get hit but we don't know if the same can be said for you, no matter your regeneration. So I'll take him on, you deal with Scarface."

She doesn't respond and I don't push her to. I know that I've already explained all this already, but I just don't want her to make any stupid mistakes.

At least she shouldn't be in much danger against Scarface, named such by PHO. Once again showing the world that you should have a cape name picked out 𝘣𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦 you do any cape activities.

But his power is just a rapid fire energy ball. It's stronger than a bullet for sure, but it's nothing extraordinary to a cape. Its main strength is the fire rate, but even then that only makes him strong against large amounts of normals, not a singular cape.

Especially one like Lucy, I mean, like Rose. We haven't tested her regeneration too much, for obvious reasons, so no one really knows how well she can take damage. But we 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 tested how sharp her claws are and so far they have cut through literally everything we have with ease.

Considering that they are each about two feet long and she has ten of them, I don't think Scarface's power will be able to so much as touch her before getting cut to pieces.

Which is good, as when we turn another corner we are greeted with the sight of a dozen or so Hispanic men dressed in gang colours and wearing bandana's to cover their faces.

All except for two, both of whom have full face masks depicting skulls in the style of the face paint used on the Day of the Dead.

At least our intel about the capes present was right, is what I'm thinking as the driver pulls the truck over, blocking half the street. Not two seconds later the van with the normals in pulls up next to us, covering the other half of the street.

"Time for us to earn our pay check yeah?" I say while nudging Rose with my elbow, trying to inject some levity to the moment.

It doesn't work.

The look she gives me makes me feel like I'm some out of touch uncle trying and failing to understand the 'youth'.

Am I really getting old?

"Just don't die." She surprises me with her words but I follow her out of the truck with a smile, patting down my suit and double checking that my domino mask is properly in place before I start walking ahead of the cars, towards the assholes in front of us.

The normals all take cover behind the cars, waiting for the shots to start firing. There's something of an unspoken rule that us capes will fight each other while the normals do the same.

Mostly for the benefit of numbers, as most of us capes could mow down normals like reaping wheat.

I stop about a dozen paces away from the cars, Rose right beside me only because we know that her Brute rating is enough that bullets aren't too much of a concern, same as me.

It is an unspoken rule after all. No one would be shocked if a gangbanger thought they could get a lucky shot of.

The leader of the little posse in front of us, Bang, keeps walking until he is only a few paces away from us, despite being a blaster, while the rest of them stick back and start fanning out so they aren't such an easy target.

Once he stops, he gives Rose an exaggerated once over, tilting his head to make it clear that he's looking at her from top to bottom, putting a hand on his chin as he greets me.

"Wassup foo. See ya got a new girl 'round eh? Don't change nothin' tho. This street 𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴 now. You ain't welcome no more. Get lost before ya get hurt." His threats really don't mean much of anything to me.

Mostly because they are juvenile, but also because of the intense glare I can feel coming from Rose even with it not aimed at me. The feeling of bloodlust is practically palpable and Bang must either be stupid or simply pretending not to notice it.

I'm guessing the former, because it would be too impressive for someone like him to not react to it, especially considering how dangerous she can feel.

Still, I have to keep up the charade because it is a good way of buying time, and this problem is only really going to be a problem for however long it takes the Heroes to arrive.

Because speaking frankly, this is one of the few cities in the country where those of us on the wrong side of the law are actually outgunned by the Heroes.

"Funny, I don't recall you ever doing business on this street and I certainly don't recall allowing you to. So how about you go back to whatever hole you crawled out of and calm yourself down with some enchiladas or something?"

I've never really been one for petty insults, but as I watch his fists clench and his body stiffen in anger I can't help but admit in my mind that Lucy was right.

It 𝘪𝘴 fun.

"Die." Rose reacts instantly to his sudden words and dives to the side, already forewarned that he would likely target her first and as predicted a purple ball of fluctuating energy appears where she was the very next moment, barely avoiding her.

I guess we're fighting now.

I engage my power, focusing on speed even as gunfire erupts around me and I reach Bang faster than most could react, but instead of throwing an attack I flip my power back, sacrificing my speed in exchange for density and durability.

The next instant, my world turns dark as his power envelops me. It only lasts half a second but for any matter that is not sturdy enough to resist it that half a second is enough to reduce it to dust.

Luckily, I know how he fights and predicted this so I am unharmed by it, only feeling a slight stinging sensation wash over me.

But almost as fast as it came, it's gone and Bang is still right in front of me, only having made it a few step back.

Density is lowered and speed is enhanced as I rush for him again, only sparing a single glance to see how Rose is doing, focusing back on Bang as I see that she is tearing into Scarface and anyone else that comes near.

Clearly she has everything under control, so I should focus on the actual threat here.

With that in mind, I ignore the world around me and put my full focus on reaching Bang so that I can bury his face into the ground, doing my best not to get disintegrated while I'm at it.

One upside is that some of Keeper's robot-dogs should be here within the minute. With them, the fight will probably be won even without the Heroes' intervention.

Looks like things are going to work out for us today.

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A/N: He~llo! Dear readers!

Kinda feels like a lame place to end the chap, and I once again missed out on something I wanted to add.

I swear, I get ideas for the fic and then when I write the chapter I just completely forget it and miss out on a plot point. It's not like I'm going to bother to rewrite a chap just to put it in either, I never rewrite chapters, or proofread them either. We rawdog this shit baby.

Idk why I said that last part. Either way, I might be able to squish it in the next chap, who knows? certainly not me.

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