16 Research Time

Going on a run had helped to clear my brain fog a little. The hot shower and cup of tea afterwards even more so.

The fatigue was still there, though, clawing at the sides of my eyes and making the whiplash of a normal day from the abnormality of last night even worse.

Just a few hours ago I'd been in the fight of my life, barely avoiding death from every swing. I'd met one of the coolest Powerds in the city, Quasar, and he'd even asked me to call him in on the radio if I ever needed assistance.

Now though? Now it was a day just like any other.

And despite all of that, I was still nervous as I walked into the classroom.

I'd never been the best at school, most of the topics didn't interest me and ever since I got my power I felt like some of the stuff came far too easily, and others felt even more out of reach.

Sometimes, like last weekend, I'd skip classes altogether. But after they called my mum in, explaining that I'd stopped attending on certain days, I knew I had to at least make an appearance.

Today, though? Today was a day that I would usually at least somewhat enjoy, despite the overlay of anxiety. Today was the day that we got to work with computers.

After the collapse of society, there were many things that happened, ranging from the collapse of national power systems to the loss of certain technologies.

Over the past five years, one of those technologies that returned was the world wide web.

A group of crafters had come together and decreed that enough was enough and that for the world to truly continue to grow and prosper global connections were necessary. The return of the internet was the result, as were the return of computer classes at school.

But today I had no intention of following the curriculum.

The internet was home to many interesting websites, most of which facilitated communication. The biggest of them all was the Powered Discussion boards.

PoD was the best place to go for any news and discussion on Powered people, whether they be Heroes or Villains. Not only did they have extensive discussion boards for people to talk on, but there was also a dedicated wiki section that allowed people to read up on a variety of Powereds. That was what I was interested in today.

It was pretty obvious from our interactions that Crashcourse was the leader of the group that I had encountered last night, so I started off by searching the wiki for her name.

Unfortunately, the results were a little bit underwhelming. There was pretty much just a single sentence, claiming that she was a Powered villain that allegedly engaged in illegal activities throughout the Central London Community. Other than that there was no information at all, nothing about what her power was, and absolutely no statements about her on any of the discussion boards. That was impressive in of itself.

Next, I searched up Bastion.

His wiki page was a little bit more fleshed out, but there was still nothing too detailed about the villain noted. The page stated that he had been active for at least two years, though it may have been longer, and that he mainly dealt in petty crimes. Sometimes he'd rob a stall in the central quarter marketplace, other times he'd work as a freelancer for a bigger villain if they needed some extra powers at their disposal.

Recently though, his entire MO had changed.

He was hitting bigger businesses, making off with more loot, and had even gotten involved in a few scuffles with the Juniors. That was ever since he started appearing with Crashcourse and the rest of the team.

His power was defensive in nature, which was probably where he got the name Bastion from. He could project spectral forcefields, capable of resisting a lot of damage while allowing projectiles through from his side. Basically, it was a one-way shield, which while simple had endless applications. As of yet, no one had managed to break it.

Wildthing was next on my search list.

The beastly Powered was listed as a shifter, someone who was able to change from one form into another, which meant that she didn't always look like a giant monster. Apparently, before joining up with the rest of Crashcourse's crew she had been homeless and barely ever shifted out of her monstrous form just out of necessity. Back in those days, she would attack anyone who got close and even had a few close calls with the PHA.

A search through of the discussion boards revealed way too many results for me to sift through. There were arguments, there were speculative posts, and most disgustingly there were way too many villain worship posts. All of that did reveal one thing though, she was notorious, and probably the teams current heaviest hitter.

The final member of the group was Pulsewave. Given the name, I was expecting some sort of energy projection abilities, but what I found on the site was surprising. In so much as I found nothing at all.

When searching for Pulsewave I was met with a basic "no results found" message, the guy was a complete and total ghost in the system.

I'd felt anxious when I got into the class, and the lack of information I could find on this team was only making that worse.

With a suppressed sigh I turned my attention to the actual point of the class. We had to create a spreadsheet that could automatically work out profit margins when you input certain values. It was simple work, and with my power, I was able to complete it in under ten minutes.

That gave me plenty of time to go back to browsing PoD, which was good because next I wanted to search up the Coventry Mob.

I knew I hadn't seen the last of them.