The Trick to Falling in Style

Lightning

Logstedshire was the only place Vermillion had ever made his home. His time with Apex- called Arch at the time- was not a time he liked remembering. Those sterile labs and glorified cages would only be considered a home by happy lab rats or someone who could be clinically referred to as insane. The Ravine, similarly, wasn't much of a home. The limited amount of time he spent with Alyssa and H. Bomb prepared him for the world, but they never babied him or gave him anything that could be considered love. He didn't mind since he never wanted to be treated as a child or defenseless teenager. He needed them to just tell him how the world worked, and he was grateful for that more than he would ever admit to their faces.

When Alyssa set him free, she brought him to Logstedshire. It was mainly because it was the closest to the Ravine, but some part of him believed that part of it was an inevitable fate. He lived among the homeless in Logstedshire, and he was astounded by their effortless kindness. They welcomed him into their huddles around dumpster fires or in the places where they hid from the authorities after curfew. The people of Logstedshire had an ideology where they took care of each other because no one else would take care of them. The crime rates proved that not everyone held this philosophy, so Vermillion considers himself lucky that he was found by the homeless groups instead of a gang. In his malleable years, that gang could have turned him into a weapon, and he probably would have never escaped them.

Vermillion ventured into other districts, but he always came back to Logstedshire. No matter how objectively better the other districts were, how they were safer and financially stable, his feet would carry him back to Logstedshire. He didn't care about the other districts where the people were mean out of habit. He didn't care for the heroes who spent so much time cleaning up the messes of the other districts that they neglected Logstedshire and the Ravine. He came to Logstedshire because he wanted to pay back the kindness that the residents had graciously bestowed upon him when he was a strange boy with absolutely nothing to his name.

The people of his home accepted him when they realized he wasn't going to walk away from them. They gave him the title of Red Angel, praying in their homes that he would be their salvation. For a long time, he was. Even though his civilian identity worked in L'Manberg, his secret one did everything it could in Logstedshire. He saved people's lives, put an end to gangs, and tried to stop the Pit, somewhat succeeding in the near impossible endeavor. He helped run fundraisers and made appearances at charities. He visited the sick in the rudimentary hospital in Logstedshire. He did what he could to get people scholarships and means of supporting themselves. It was hard work, even after Beau started to assist him. He was always nagged by the thought that no matter what he did, Logstedshire was always going to suffer. No matter how much money he raised, someone was always in need of it. No matter how many scholarships he got students, there were dozens more who were forced to give up their studies. No matter how many lives he saved, more people were going to die. Vermillion realized early on that he was working at a Sisyphean task.

It was around this time, when his hope was running thin, that he stumbled upon a hero from L'Manberg. Vermillion hated Banshee on principle, but he soon discovered that Banshee was not someone who gave up. After many meetings, Vermillion finally accepted his fate as Banshee's friend. His tolerance over the situation led him to meeting more of the heroes. He continued to be an illegal vigilante from Logstedshire, but none of the heroes he met were keen on turning him in to the proper authorities. They, at first, respected Vermillion's drive to deliver Logstedshire from merciless harm, no matter how laborious the task seemed at a glance. Later, they just genuinely liked him. They were his friends, and some of them were like his family.

Vermillion, in the present, scoffs at the idea now. No matter what they were before, they weren't that anymore. Vermillion had messed it up the second he hurt Banshee. He had messed it up the moment he purposefully drove everyone away from him, fearing that he would hurt them all unintentionally. Everything went down the drain the moment his head was slammed against the warehouse wall and he had accepted his death.