10 The Breakdown

The adrenaline was wearing off, that was the only reason I could think of to explain my mind going to such a morbid place all of a sudden.

"That's why we have the Juniors, you know," He stated. It was a statement with a very obvious subtext. I was a kid, I was a new hero on the block, I should get myself out of the way by joining the Juniors.

The Juniors were, of course, the Junior PHA team in the community. Essentially they were the division of the PHA that took in heroic Powereds that were under 18. A nice safe space for the kids to feel like they were doing something without being subjected to some of the real horrors that were out there, unless it was absolutely and completely necessary.

I had considered joining up with them, when I'd first received my powers. But at the same time, I'd never really gotten on with people who were my age, and being on a team of Powereds who were the same age as me sounded like the ultimate hell.

"Was Phet still down there?" I asked, desperate to shift the topic from the subject of the Juniors.

There were some pretty heavy chances that heroes in the PHA were professionally obliged to try to get any kid Powereds they saw on the streets into the Wards, just to keep the children safe or something, but I'd never heard of anyone being forced in so I was hoping he took my casual dismissal of the subject at face value.

"Phet was nursing a pretty bad head injury when I caught up with him," Quasar explained. "I disabled his drug injectors and wrapped him in a gravity field, so there's no way he'll be going anywhere any time soon.

I couldn't help but let a small half-smile creep onto my face at that news. "With Phet off the streets… I dunno… I guess I can feel like I accomplished something tonight. I got involved because I heard him ordering some of his goons to murder some kids. I didn't realise those kids were villains until after I actually met them."

Quasar tilted his head to the side, so I explained what had happened over the course of the fight, right from how I took all of the gangsters down with my wide beam attack right down to the arrival of Wildthing and the rest of the teenage villains, as well as what they looked like.

By the time I was finished, Quasar looked distinctly uncomfortable.

"These so-called teenage villains, you said they knew I'd be showing up?"

I nodded, "Seemingly down to the second, yeah."

"That clears a few things up," He said with a slight nod of his own. "The Juniors and the PHA have both been in skirmishes with a teenage villain team that matches your description. They're an incredibly difficult bunch. They've either won every fight they've been involved in or managed to slink away before we can really get a handle on the situation."

I hadn't realised that the teenage villains were such big shots, I'd never even heard of them before.

"If they have some way of tracking heroes, though… well, at the very least it explains how they're managing to get the drop on us so many times," He said.

It surprised me that a big shot hero like Quasar was being so liberal with information considering we'd only just met, and considering that information was basically him admitting that he and the rest of the PHA got their butts kicked pretty frequently.

"It's weird," I remarked. "Other than Wildthing, they're not all that scary. Crashcourse said they were actually pretty freaked out when they got wind of Phet hunting them down, but when the fight between Wildthing and Phet was going on, they all seemed pretty… I dunno… happy? Relaxed?"

"They were relaxed with you around?" He asked.

"I think… well the implication from Crashcourse was that I helped them out. They seemed to think I was on their side or something." I shrugged, wincing slightly as my shoulder popped, likely slightly pulled from when I'd taken a dive underneath Phet. "I dunno, I guess from their perspective I was doing them a solid, and hiding in the shadows probably didn't help."

"If they had turned on you then, do you think you could have taken them?" Quasar asked.

I wanted to laugh at that, but I kept the urge buried. "I kinda used all of my gear on Phet. If they'd decided I was a threat or something, I'm pretty sure they'd have taken me out in seconds. For all intents and purposes, I might as well not even have had a Power at that point."

"Then you should be thankful that you appeared like a villain to them, else you would probably be dead," Quasar conceded.

He definitely had a point there. "I… I guess I'll take that into consideration," I said, surprised once again by his candour.

"Good," He said with a grin. "Now, onto much more important matters. Immediate ones, in fact. We need to decide on our next course of action."

Damn it. I had thought that I had managed to dissuade him from bringing up the Juniors, but if anything it sounded like he was just going to push the point even further.

"Look, I mean-" I started, but the hero cut me off before I could really get going.

"Let me put it this way, nameless hero… You have done an incredible thing here today, and played a major role in bringing one of the most dangerous villains in the community to justice. But, if you were to claim this victory then you would face numerous consequences going forward," He said, taking me off guard entirely.

"Uh… consequences?" I asked, straight back to stammering.

"Indeed, the Coventry Mob is a vile and dangerous gang, if it came out that you had been involved then both Loper and Brainwave would be on the hunt for you," He explained.

Brainwave? The Coventry Mob had three Powereds after all? I was in way over my head.