Chapter Text
Remus didn’t like the superhero suit they’d put him in. It felt all weird and wrong (not to mention it was ugly), and he hoped eventually he’d get to design his own costumes. Mama had taught him and Ro how to sew when they’d been five and despite the fact that he usually just used that skill to make butt shaped pillows, he was still sure he could have stitched together something better than this orange monstrosity. He could feel the seams of it on his skin and it was driving him bananas. Maybe he could have ignored it if he really tried, but he didn’t want to really try. It also didn’t help that he was bored.
Training had been nothing but boring. Honestly, if they were trying to test him, they were doing a very bad job at it. Unless it was about seeing if he’d snap under the pressure of having nothing to do. Then they were doing swimmingly.
He knew he was only one month into the first phase of his training and that it would definitely get harder… but seriously? He’d thought being a superhero for a year would be about going out and taking down villains left and right not…
“Want another donut?” Officer Brigs asked.
Remus resisted rolling his eyes only because the man was nice if a bit boring. “No thanks.”
“Suit yourself kid,” he said with a shrug. Remus wondered if the man knew who he was or if The Coalition had kept that a secret from the man he was partnered with for this first year. Brigs was a cop that had missed working with Remus’s grandfather by three months. In other words, he was as old as dirt, but he’d seen a lot and worked with a lot of superheroes. They probably picked him because of his involvement with The Onslaught since that event was the entire reason The Coalition existed. The goal was probably for him to impart the necessity of the job Remus was training for. They wanted him to get a firsthand account of how horrible that event was so he could understand why his job was needed. Of course. Remus was already very well aware of that.
“Are we ever going to do anything?” Remus finally asked.
“When there is something to do, we’ll do it.”
“…Can’t we make something to do?”
“No.”
“Just a little bit of something to do,” Remus begged.
“I think I have my grandson’s steering wheel toy in the backseat. I can drive around the block and you can pretend you’re driving.”
“You know for such a boring bastard you’re quite the dick.”
“Thanks.”
Remus slumped against the passenger seat with a groan. The next second his world got a whole lot more interesting when there was a knock on Brigs’ window from someone in a beat cop uniform.
Brigs took one look at him and sighed. He rolled down the window. “I have a message from Antarctica,” the guy said looking dazed. “The penguins have taken over the Mars Rover.”
“I told you not to go after him David.”
The man blinked at him slowly. “Hi.”
Brigs shook his head while opening his door and ‘David’ stumbled back a step to let him out. Remus scrambled to get out of the car and round it because he absolutely needed to know what this was.
He quickly noticed that Brigs was looking at a man leaning against the building next to where they were parked. He wore a long cape and had a bowler hat on his head. Remus recognized him, of course, having grown up in this city. He was a vigilante that been in the city since mom was just a kid who went by the pseudonym Deceit.
“I think that,” he pointed at David, “belongs to you.”
Brigs sighed. “Unfortunately, he does. Get in the car David.” David looked at him and then slowly moved to do as he asked. “Penguins?” Brigs asked Deceit once David closed the backseat door.
“Oh, his mind chose that,” Deceit said, sounding just a touch amused. “I had to rip him away from a small tree he thought was one to get him here. I think he shed a few tears when he had to say goodbye.”
“Sounds like fun,” Remus interjected.
Deceit glanced briefly at him before dismissing him. “Well,” he said peeling himself away from the wall, “have a nice evening officer and,” he looked up and down Remus, “traffic cone.” Then he seemed to disappear, but Remus felt just the softest fluttering sensation in his head that told him Deceit likely hadn’t disappeared but gave them a gentle nudge into not seeing him. Ooo. He was fun.
“I didn’t choose the costume!” he informed thin air before turning back to Brigs. “Isn’t he a vigilante?” Remus asked Brigs. “Aren’t you supposed to at least try to arrest him.”
“Unlike David, I’m not an idiot,” Brigs said. “His powers are strong enough that he could easily down almost anyone in the city if he wanted to. We’re just lucky he doesn’t want to. The old folks already know not to mess with him, but some of the rookies get ideas of grander in their head. Let David be a warning to you.”
Remus hummed and got back into the car. Yet, despite the warning about Deceit’s powers, when he glanced back at David, he didn’t seem very worse for wear. He was a little confused and sometimes reached for objects that weren’t there, seemingly surprised when his hands closed around air, but he did not seem to be in any particular distress.
Remus, of course, already knew Deceit could be dangerous. He’d heard about the three different fights in the city during The Onslaught as they’d happened and had studied them during his college courses a decade later. One of the three battles had been waged at the Lial bridge, the major bridge that crossed the river that cut through the city. The perpetrator had been a compulsionist and had taken control of the citizens that had been driving on the bridge as well as a large chunk of the police force, included Officer Brigs as it so happened. The threat was that he’d make them all jump off the bridge if his demands were not met.
Yet, Deceit had stepped in. He’d somehow managed to rip away the villain’s control over the people on the bridge without killing them all and then, by all accounts, just absolutely ripped the compulsionist to mental pieces before shooting him in the head.
So, yes, Remus knew Deceit was definitely very powerful and could hurt someone if he wanted. Yet, his influence on David seemed quite gentle. He’d twisted him up in knots for sure, but ultimately, he seemed fine.
The effects of Deceit’s powers on David’s mind had faded completely by the time they made it back to the station leaving him with nothing but what he described as a “really weird hangover.” Brigs told him to go home and sleep it off, seeming to not even be worried enough to suggest he see a doctor. It sounded like this sort of thing had happened before.
When Brigs took him back out on the town after that, Remus had a lot of time to think. So he did. He thought and thought and thought. He thought so much that he was absolutely sure what he had in mind was a bad idea.
But, oh, it was going to be fun.