[center][color=FF8C00][h1][b]Strain[/b][/h1][/color][/center]

[right][color=FF8C00]Mission[/color]: [i]Teacher's Pet[/i]

[color=FF8C00]Location[/color]: [i]Lighthouse Island[/i][/right]

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[quote=Oh Look I'm So Edgy, Everyone's So Terrified, So Cool, Oh Noooooooooo]"Did we get away with stuff? I mean, if I told you, I'd have to kill you."[/quote]

Lucian let out a laugh at the kid's smarminess. He was getting flashbacks of his younger self...crap, he was only 19. But even so it still felt like ages ago he was the snot-nosed twerp his stepfather drilled into the guy he was today. A kid out to face the world, stubborn and angry and stupid as all hell. This kid was so reminiscent of some of that it could only make him laugh. Sure he had a point about the robot cops, but so what if the city was safer because of them? Heroes did their job, and the robo-cops did theirs. It was all helping people, and to the hero known as "Strain" that was all that mattered...people being safer and able to live their lives. He would fight until the day he died for that. 

But that was perhaps going a bit far beyond the point. 

[color=FF8C00]"Look, kid. Even if you don't go goody-two-shoes, there's a lotta' people who'd still want to kick...much more kill your ass. Hell, even kidnap ya' and exploit the hell outta' ya' till ya drop dead or worse just cause' you have powers. 

But that kinda' stuff don't sink in, least' until it happens outta' the blue. Ya' never think it's gonna happen, then BAM. Kid next to ya' is dead. Someone's tryin' to run. Guy in front of ya' is looking at ya' like the next thing ta' check off on his little list, or is hidin' behind some mask and lookin' at ya' like yer' a tool e' needs at the store."[/color]

Lucian thumped his chest with one fist for a second, coughing and trying to reel himself back in. Too much of 'Brookside Luce' there for this situation. Too much. Was easy to fall into that and get a bit stuck. No. 'Brookside Luce' had some point at least, as crude as he'd delivered it to the kids. Lucian, no, Strain needed to try to talk some sense into the kids. If that failed, try to at least not knock the kid senseless. Tough love only went so far. 

But then came the note, which was eventually passed along to him. 

[color=FF8C00][i]'Oh no.'[/i][/color]

A fake villain atta-...was Principal Lee out of her mind?! He'd go along with this for her sake and the mission beyond, but heck that was one way to cheapen the experience for the kids. That and an underpaid teacher looking for revenge was a risk. Or not. Standard humans trying to tackle superpowered kids down was one idea, and not totally farfetched at all to be frank, but at the same time it left a bad taste in Strain's mouth to do it. That or it risked some actual shenanigans happening, depending on whatever was going on with this stunt. 

Either way, Lucian kept oddly silent as the group moved into the yard. Beyond that, however, he cracked a smirk inside his mask as Blaze tried to get them to race her. 

[color=FF8C00]"If one of you beat her to the top I'll shovel out $10 to the winner. You all beat her without blowing the thing up and you get $10 each. I've got the cash for it before we leave later, if you've got the two seconds of patience for it now."[/color]

Bribery. He'd brought fifty bucks here just in case he had to stoop to it. Small cash for him in the long run, even if someone potentially nabbed it. No idea what approach they'd be trying to use, at least on his end, so he'd tried to come in with an idea. Anything from tough love to the simple stuff. He preferred the later, truth be told, but he'd seen a lot of the former before...