It was another bright and sunny day in the Willow Wood orphanage, and Lucan was enduring another day of basic lectures and a lunch that was barely filling. However, after a few weeks of this same routine, he could say he had grown accustomed to it. 'Being human can be quite nice sometimes. '
He took his lunch and happily sat down at the table, about to eat, when he paused, staring at the space by his side intensely for a few seconds, then smiled and took a spoonful of the unwelcoming porridge. 'Not here today I guess.'
"Boo"
But before Lucan could enjoy his newfound peace a whisper had entered his ear making him nearly drop his spoon, he glared in the direction of the voice, and a soft giggling sound could be heard and a crimson-haired girl with brown eyes that resembled desert sand, her dainty frame clutching her stomach as she laughed. "Hah hah"
Lucan chuckled dryly watching as she wiped a tear from her eye and sat up with her legs crossed "Come on admit you were scared". She said in excitement, drawing her face closer to his while he wore an exaggerated expression. "Not even a little bit?"
"Uh no?". Lucan said gently pushing her face away from his own "You pull this stunt every other day, I'm used to it now". Polly started to sulk, rainclouds forming over her head while Lucan inspected them with interest.
'There's even lightning, talk about committed to the bit' torrents of rain started to pour out from the cloud onto her head while Lucan took another spoonful and observed her with interest, there was no way the water could wet the table after all it wasn't real.
The news about the Caped Crusader had died down or rather it had just become part of the conversations people had now, though recent news is that he has some friction with the local police force and is currently a criminal. 'I guess vigilantes are looked at a bit strangely in every world'
He naturally knew it was all propaganda, he may not have been familiar with how things worked but he was fairly certain that the news was greatly exaggerated , he thought back for a moment remembering how similar information dissemination was across both universes.
He had often just accepted that the truth was always blurred in some way back in his world but now that he was in a completely different universe the ridiculousness and shameless nature of the ways the truth was obviously being butchered shone through.
Lucan looked around, noting that some groups had missing members or simply one person standing or sitting on their own just eating by themselves 'So people are getting adopted i see', with the number of children reduced the place was slightly less lively but it was fine.
He looked at a small key in his hand and rolled it between his fingers 'Well at least I can go outside for a while' when he had initially asked for a pass to wander outside of the orphanage, provided he made it before the curfew, he never imagined they would agree, but he was certainly pleasantly surprised.
***
He didn't know what to expect leaving the orphanage but honestly, Lucan had a rather bleak perspective of this city, the sky was always overcast, and there was always that lingering suspicion every time you walked past an alley that someone was getting mugged. It made him wonder why people even lived here 'well maybe rent is cheap'
He walked until he was now at the very same alley he had woken up in, he took a deep breath, remembering his feelings when he had just woken up, he had thought seeing this place would trigger something, but it would seem that wasn't the case. 'I guess I really won't be getting a system or anything'
Tucking his hands in his pockets he continued to walk around, he gradually got a better idea of where he was living, it was somewhere called Kane Town, which is connected to the central east side of Gotham. 'Someone said something about a public library there I think'
The fact that he was only just learning about his environment made him feel somewhat embarrassed, but it was rather easy to forget about stuff under the playful eye of Polly, he sighed, wishing he had at least gotten powers as well instead of a curse, he tenderly rubbed his left shoulder.
'It prevents me from gaining power from this world if I remember correctly but does that mean I can't become a metahuman? Or like I will never have the opportunity ?' Both were effectively the same thing, at least in principle, if one never came across the opportunity to become a meta then such an individual would never be one.
Lucan walked past a newspaper stand and took a look at the headlines which contained the usual bandwagon of propaganda that had and is still popular… he could only roll his eyes and place it back, he didn't feel like engaging in anything to do with mainstream heroes. 'For now'
He quickly checked his watch; it was still on the earlier side of the day, just around twelve o'clock. Maybe if he hurried he could make it back before six.
Since his only mode of transportation consisted of walking he would have to pray that he didn't faint along the way. 'Yeah, let's not do that, I'm only eight years old'
Lucan shook his head dismissing the idea of having to walk all the way to the central east side, perhaps if he were just a bit more insane he would have tried it but not today at least.
He swiftly turned around, heading back towards Willow Wood planning to end his adventures early and find something else to do with his free time, like making some actual friends instead of just Polly.
Lucan squinted a bit, 'Polly', they got along well but ultimately he didn't really know anything about her, if anything she seemed to know more about him, or well the old him anyways. 'It's like I was just superimposed on someone else and everything shifted accordingly'
He had seen transmigrators often land in bodies with people who bore the same name as them, and almost flawlessly assume their lives as their doppelganger 'at this rate I doubt we were even actually the same person'
He quickly brushed aside his idle thoughts as he passed by the alley he had woken up in, although this time it was occupied by a certain group of people.
"Huh? Hey look over there, ain't it that the crazy kid from before?". One of the men asked, shocked with his unlit cigarette dangling in his mouth.
The man next to him drew a long breath before craning his neck and squinting his reddened eyes to take a look at him "Oh wow, I thought the body got picked up or something, he's tougher than he looks".
"Hey, kid!" The smaller of the two shouted waving Lucan over, who only quickened his pace and ignored them leaving the men a little bit stunned as they turned to look at each other "You think the kids gone deaf?"
The larger one flicked his cigarette "let's find out".
Lucan had heard everything they said and was just short of actually running when he noticed that they were following him.
He had no idea who they were, but the conversation they just had made it fairly easy for him to guess what their relationship with him was 'They're the ones that killed this body'
He may have been wrong, but there was room to doubt that they didn't know about what had happened to him but there was something else that was also bothering him 'Picked up? Is there someone regularly picking up dead bodies around this place?'.
Lucan shivered. There was a strange thought that had entered his mind, he didn't know why he had thought about something like that, but the fact remained that he had already brought it to the forefront of his consciousness: 'Was something eating the corpses?'
He had unconsciously picked up his pace, just shy of breaking into a Sprint, while the two men followed behind him, Lucan could feel his heart racing and despite the clear activity his body felt cold.
Lucan quickly glanced behind him only to see the men gradually getting closer, in his panic he ran forward turning a corner only to bump into something before falling over and scraping his knees "Oh, ow, sorry I need to…Mr. Bradley?".
He was shocked, he had never seen the pale man anywhere outside the confines of Willow Wood before. Granted, this was really the first time he had left the orphanage, but he had always assumed the man lived there so seeing him outside was a bit strange.
"You…okay?" Lucan furrowed his brows and then let out an exasperated sigh which caused the tall pale man to tilt his head "Hurt?"
Lucan shook his head and pointed behind him, the man lifted his gaze in the direction of Lucan's child-sized finger and asked "Trouble…you are in? Yes? No?"
Lucan furiously nodded just as the two men caught up with him with friendly smiles plastered on their faces.
The smaller of the two approached Bradley with Lucan on the floor between them with both his palms pressed together.
"Good afternoon sir, our little friend seems to have caused you some trouble, please let us take him off your hands," he stretched out a hand to grab Lucan's wrist "We'll give him a good talking to"
Just as he was about to grab him, a larger pale white hand grasped his wrist tightly "Sir?" he raised his head only to lock eyes with the narrowed and burning gaze that was in Bradley's "Please let go sir we promise it's a misunderstanding"
The grip on the man's hand only tightened, and sweat started to appear on the man's forehead as he visibly strained to free himself from Bradley's iron grip.
"You are bad people, you will not be allowed to harm him". Lucan's eyes widened in shock, it was the most coherent sentence he had ever heard the man utter since he had come to this world, and apparently, he wasn't done.
Bradley straightened his back standing to his full height, which towered over both men his empty yet furious gaze had caused his supposed helper to cower back a step.
"What business do you have with my charge?" He asked, and the two men's eyes widened in shock as they looked between Lucan and the tall pale man.
"We–ah just want to talk". The man pleaded and Bradley's neutral expression slowly morphed into a frown, extending his other hand he grabbed one of the man's fingers …
And broke it
The man screamed and his compatriot flinched "Waste my time, I break one, lie to me, I break one, dodge my question, I break one, clear?".
The man furiously nodded but it would seem his friend had finally collected himself "hey what's the big ide–"
Mr. Bradley had grabbed him by the scruff of his shirt and pulled him down, the moment he fell to the ground he kicked the man square across the jaw like he was a stray dog.
The man coughed, nearly choking on his own blood then he turned his attention back to the man in his grip and broke another finger. "AHHHH!"
The man's scream was ear piercing, tears rolled down his eyes as he still attempted to weakly struggle meanwhile Bradley had placed his boot over the other larger man's hands
"Don't be stupid"
Lucan couldn't believe what he was seeing, he knew the man was effectively the orphanage's security since he was always patrolling at night but the man was usually so docile that he never imagined this could happen. 'Doc, I think you might need a Psyche eval, because what part of this currently looks like someone with a soft heart?'
As Lucan was going over his thoughts Bradley asked again "What business do you have with the child?"
Author's Note:
If you're enjoying the story and want to read ahead or support my work, you can check out my P@treon at [email protected]/LordCampione. But don't worry—all chapters will eventually be public. Just being here and reading means the world to me. Thank you for your time and support.