Interlude - Aquiline

Lawrence Ackerson suppresses the urge to smile as the police van holding him bumps. He may have been caught earlier by that brat Alexandria and that bitch Guardian, but Lawrence still has a few tricks up his sleeves.

Quite literally as he has a cloaked version of one of Claudia’s energy knifes with a deactivated blade. They took his armour and anything else they could find away, but let him keep his clothes.

It’s shame that those two didn’t make it. Krystal’s illusions proved quite effective at keeping them hidden and Claudia’s ability to make impossible technology by poofing the parts of thin air gave them excellent access to wonderful equipment.

It is also shame that they fell so easily to Guardian. It is made even worse that the superheroine was so easily able to counter all of their powers when the powerhouse that is Alexandria was helpless against them.

Guardian is definitely the biggest threat to him. Especially with her powers that are apparently related to technology.

Perhaps he ought to find a way to make style so it doesn’t use technology. His powers would quite helpful in that.

As for his powers, his main one is the ability to access all of memories of those that share his blood or genes and are also dead. In effect, it lets him access all of their skills and knowledge at will. And best of all, those skills and abilities stack, meaning the more of a skill or piece of knowledge has access to, the easier it is for him to recall it.

Beyond that, Lawrence has become the physical peak of human ability. He’s stronger, faster, tougher and smart than anyone that isn’t superhuman.

Not that any of that did a damn when against @#$%ing Guardian.

He really doesn’t want to go to prison or where ever they are taking him. Nobody knows what has happened to any of the other captured supervillains.

Lawrence can’t afford to be locked up if he is going to become famous. To be remembered throughout history is what he desires and now he has been given a prime opportunity.

There have been many famous people in history, but the vast majority are forgotten after their time. Only the truly infamous are the ones that nobody forgets.

Adolf Hitler, Genghis Khan, Nero, Jack the Ripper, Caligula, Joseph Stalin, Julius Caesar and Vlad the Impaler. Those are all names that nobody will forget and he wants the Aquiline to join their ranks.

And with the suddenly appearance, Lawrence has the opportunity of a lifetime if he moves quickly. An infamous superpower serial killer is what he desires to be and Lawrence doesn’t get himself established as the first and greatest in these upcoming weeks, someone else will take his place.

So no, he can’t afford to be imprisoned simply because Guardian stopped him.

Time to escape.

The feds gave him and the others drugs to keep them unconscious, but with his enhanced body, Aquiline soon recovered from them and has pretending that they still have him sedated.

Just him, his skills, his wits and a single blade versus whatever the authorities can throw at him.

This will be fun.

Lawrence slips the knife so when he activates the blade, it slices through the hand cuffs. Bring his arm around, he quickly cuts the hand cuffs around his ankles.

Before the police in the front of the van can react, Lawrence dash for the doors and slices the lock on the door and kicks it open.

He leaps from the moving vehicle and rolls as he hits the ground. That’ll leave him roughed up, but Lawrence is still okay enough to get away. He gets to his feet and runs.

He is definitely needs work on his parkour skills. He already has some thanks to his dead relatives, but Lawrence can still improve quite a bit.

He runs into an alley and slices off the reminder of his hang cuffs with the energy knife. He needs to put some space between himself and the cops.

The Battle-Zone is definitely out of the question as that is Guardian’s territory and there is no way that Lawrence is messing with that bitch again unless it is on his own terms.

Down south side, Lawrence had Claudia place a teleporter so they could get away in an emergency. And this feels like an emergency to him.

Lawrence makes his way through the back routes of the town, murdering a guy for his coat and snagging a gun off a local gangster who wouldn’t get it up willing. He needs both the warmth and the firepower.

He is almost to the warehouse when a police car rolls up down the street and a couple of officers exit.

Keep calm, they haven’t noticed you yet. Act like you got nothing to hide. Trying to avoid them will just get their attention.

It turns out that those two officers were stopping to investigate some more local gangsters. Just Lawrence crosses the road, one of the gangers flees towards and one of the cops pursue.

And here Lawrence hoped to get away without any more trouble.

He walks alongside the fence before coming to a halt as the gangster scrambles over. Without a moment’s hesitation, Lawrence jabs the knife into the neck of the criminal, angling upwards towards the brain. He yanks it out and throws into the eye of the stunned police officer as he freezes in his attempt to climb over the fence.

The body falls on his side the fence and Lawrence calming retrieves his weapon. He quickly strides away without a look back, now very eager to reach the teleporter.

Lawrence reaches the warehouse without further incident. Using his ancestral skills, he swiftly climbs in through a broken window and starts to locate the teleporter. Just as he finds it, Lawrence hears a thud behind him.

Sighing in annoyance, he turns around, energy knife at the ready. He really ought to get replace them after they proved so useless against...

Guardian.

She is right there, marching towards Lawrence in her grey armour, concealing any trace of the human that lies beneath it if there is even one at all. The vigilante is silent as she advances on Lawrence, the only sound being the soft thuds of her footsteps.

He tosses the energy knife at Guardian as he draws his gun and is already moving. Lawrence knows it will be useless against her, but it beats having it explode in his hand. Right now, his only hope is the teleporter and Guardian doesn’t destroy before he can use it.

As he predicted, the knife explodes mid-air and Guardian is already drawing those two weaponised pipes of hers. Lawrence fires his gun, aiming for the pipes. He can’t afford to let Guardian use her weapons on him if he is to make it through this.  

The bullets tear through the pipes and Lawrence dashes behind some crates. He doesn’t expect them to conceal him from Guardian if her armour is worth anything, but he needs the time to reorganise.

Lawrence rolls out and fires at Guardian. He gets lucky as bullets take out the third pipe that Guardian has drawn even if they useless ding off of her armour.

Only two bullets left in his clip, no time to reload, only Guardian and her armour are standing between Lawrence and the teleporter.

Lawrence snarls as he rushes Guardian and tosses the gun at her face. She halts as it bounces off the front of her helmet and he tackles her, knocking them both over backwards.

He tries to get to his feet, but he collapses his right leg lights up in pain. Lawrence vague recognises as it as the sensation of a broken leg using his memories. He grabs the small teleportation device and looks behind him.

Guardian has drawn a sidearm and is aiming it at him.

Superheroes don’t use guns. They just don’t. It doesn’t work that way.

Lawrence activates the teleporter at the same time as he hears the bang of the gun being fired.