Chapter Text
“Top Psyker Cassian Lee Moves to Gadam,” The headline read.
Driver set down the paper to take a sip of his Grapefruit-ade.
“No one’s ever beaten him one on one,” A villain to his right was saying.
“I heard that he got sent here because they wanted to jail him for his use of excessive force. Dark Treeman told me he heard that some rookie villain died from fourth degree burns after fighting him.”
“Fourth degree?!!! And they’re sending him here?”
Another villain sidled into the conversation.
“I heard that Cassian isn’t really a psyker at all.”
The two who had been talking turned to the newcomer with interest. He took that as encouragement to continue.
“I heard that Cassian’s actually a Lampas experiment to see if they can train villains to work for them.”
The first villain snorted.
“There’s no way…”
“He does run way over the top emotion wise,” The second one interrupted. He tapped his chin with a finger. “He likes fighting people and setting shit on fire. Have you ever seen a video of him fighting?” He shuttered. “That smile is the stuff of nightmares…”
They continued to gossip but Driver’s attention was turned away from the conversation as he felt someone lean against him. He looked to his left and found Crow eying him through glinting goggles.
“So what are you planning to do?” She asked. A coy smile was curving her lips as she studied him.
“I think we should avoid him.” Redeye took the stool to his right. “He’s S-Rank. Even if we all were to gang up on him I doubt we would win. And if we did Lampas would take that as a declaration of war.”
“Hmmm…” Driver swallowed down the last of his Grapefruit-ade and rose from the counter. He stretched leisurely –pulling one arm behind his head and reaching for the ceiling to produce a satisfying pop- and then began to make his way to the door.
Crow and Redeye followed.
He strolled down the streets of the Vilzone with no obvious direction, hands clasped behind his neck. The sun was sinking behind the tall buildings turning the ruined blocks into a strange painting of black shadows and orange light.
Eventually he stopped and he watched the sky for a moment. He could feel his friends’ eyes on him.
“Don’t worry about Cassian,” He told them. He turned to regard them with a lazy smirk. “I have a plan.”
One that should at least be fun to try.
Cassian’s kick sent the ice villainess flying through the air. She hit the ground and stayed there, still and unmoving. He waited for a moment and then approached carefully –Cassian couldn’t count the number of times a villain had played dead in an attempt to catch him off guard.
This villain, however, was well and truly out, so Cassian began the automatic process of restraining her and checking her over for injuries and weapons. Once she was properly restrained he reported her capture and the relevant information on her condition to Villain Containment.
He leaned back against a nearby wall and brushed his hair out of his face before surveying the area. There were a few charred areas but minimal damage overall. The clean-up crew would have an easy time.
Cassian stretched and started prowling around. He was rather pleased with himself. He had managed to finish this fight quickly. The villain had only first degree and a few second degree burns, so human rights wouldn’t be on his tail. He thought he had wrapped in up quite neatly.
Pity it hadn’t been a bit more of a challenge.
Not that he wanted to deal with the mess but…
There was a flicker of moment to the left. Cassian spun into a crouch, flames forming in his hands. A quick glance revealed a person in a garish purple costume on an oversize screw driver –definitely a villain- far too close. Cassian was already throwing a fireball before he registered any further details.
The villain dodged, riding the screwdrive in a midair loop like a surfer on a wave.
Cassian readied another fireball.
“Woah. Woah!” The villain called. He held his hands up placating. “I’m not here to fight.”
Cassian snorted disbelievingly but paused anyway. It would be good to assess situation before escalating further. He hazarded a quick glance behind him to make sure no one was sneaking up on him before turning back to study the villain.
His eyebrows went up slightly as he realized he recognized him.
The purple mechanics outfit, the oversized screwdriver: this was clearly the Gadam Vilzone’s boss Driver.
Now that he thought about it, the area they were in was rather dilapidated, they must be near the Vilzone. Driver was probably here to warn him off.
“What do you want?”
Driver gave him a disarming grin and floated to the ground. He dismounted the screwdriver and, with an overly showy spin, shrunk it to the size of a normal one and stowed it in one of his many pockets.
Cassian’s fingers twitched with the urge to attack. Driver was only a B rank villain but he was clever: he would make for an interesting fight. Unfortunately the local Psyker branch had informed him that he was not to attack Driver unless he was actively doing something harmful. Apparently they thought he was a stabilizing influence on the local villain population.
Stupid really, but Cassian was currently on thin ice, so he would hold back for now.
“Well?”
The villain chuckled, a relaxed and rather birdlike sound, and cocked his head.
“I just wanted to meet the infamous Cassian Lee,” He said with a grin. “I heard you’d moved into the area and just couldn’t resist dropping in to watch you fight.”
He eyed the downed villain and let out an appreciative little whistle.
“I must say… You almost live up to your reputation.”
“Almost?” Cassian asked skeptically.
Which part of his reputation did the villain mean?
“I was expecting a lot more burns and HellFire,” Driver said with a shrug.
Ah, so it was that part of his reputation. Good to know.
He opened his mouth and almost said something about human relations before remembering that he was talking to a villain. It would be better for him if the local Vilzone believed the rumors. It would keep the small fry from starting anything.
“It was an easy fight,” He said instead.
“Still impressive,” Driver said with a grin. “I don’t see a lot of Striker-Mages. Most Mage types tend to stick to ranged fighting or rely heavily on their elements but you have not slouched on your combat skills.”
Cassian shrugged. A lot of people were surprised by that.
“Well since my trait is fire…”
He narrowed his eyes and tensed. Driver continued smiling innocuously at him.
“What are you playing at?” He asked sharply.
Why was he being so friendly? Cassian shifted to where his back was to the building and did another quick scan of his surroundings.
“You are a suspicious one,” Driver drawled. “I mean what I said earlier: I just wanted to meet you.”
“Why?” Cassian demanded. This was a villain, everyone knew you couldn’t trust a villain. “You don’t strike me as one just to gawk.”
“I’m not gawking,” Driver said with a little huff of amusement. “I’m welcoming you to the neighborhood.”
Like Cassian was going to buy that. Past experience said being welcomed to the neighborhood usually included explosions and attempts at bodily harm.
Before the argument could continue, the sound of sirens drew their attention.
“Looks like my time is up.” Driver said. He gave Cassian a mock salute. “Nice meeting you, Cassian. I’ll be seeing you around.”
With that he pulled out his screwdriver and shot off into the night.
Cassian was left staring bemusedly at the empty sky as the sirens grew steadily closer.
Driver landed in the Vilzone. With and easy spin he transformed his screwdriver and tucked it away. Time to go get some food and then back to work on his…
“What were you doing?”
It seemed Redeye had seen his little meet and greet with their newest Psyker.
“Just welcoming our neighbor,” Driver said giving him an easy grin.
It had gone much better that he was expecting. He knew that the local Lampas preferred to leave him alone but he hadn’t been sure that Cassian would care about that. Judging by his facial expressions Driver was confident that he had managed to at least throw the Psyker for a loop.
“Why would you want to meet that bloodthirsty pyromaniac? Shouldn’t we be encouraging him to stay away from the Vilzone?”
“Maybe,” Driver said agreeably. He pulled a piece of one of his drones out of a pocket to fiddle with. “Bloodthirsty and hotheaded,” He mused. “He’d make a good villain wouldn’t he?”
The rearview on his goggles gave him a nice view of the way Redeye froze at that comment.
“You’re… you’re not trying to recruit him are you?”
Driver let him squirm for a moment before answering.
“Naw, that wouldn’t work out for either of us.” He tucked the drone piece away and folded his hands behind his neck.
“So what are you doing?”
Driver hummed.
“Damage control maybe? Having a little fun? We’ll have to see.”