Hero's And Villains

"My help," he said as if it were a novel concept that he had never even entertained before.

His tone was harsh and short. I'd thought we'd parted on good terms, especially when I allowed him to have the credit for the takedown and capture of Phet. Had I somehow misread the situation entirely?

"That's right," I said, trying to avoid the pauses and stutters I so frequently made. "But I should probably explain things first. I was offered a place on the team of Hypogean, and it's a position that I accepted."

Quasar didn't react much to that, but the reactions he did make were enough to tell me he was very much on edge all of a sudden.

He rose his chin slightly, shifted his weight to the balls of his feet, and I could feel a strange shift in the air, as if the Powered in front of me was charging up his power.

"You're going to need to start talking, and when you do it needs to be fast, concise and it needs to make sense," his voice was calm, but everything about it screamed danger.

I took a breath, long and deep, to help calm me down a little bit.

"I've been thinking about the conversation that we had, and I've been thinking about it a lot," I said. "I was wondering how you manage to peg me as a good guy so quickly, do you have some sort of lie detector built into your costume? I can't see how your power would allow you to tell the truth like that."

He took time working out his reply, before revealing the truth. "I have a crafter friend, they give me certain elements of tech that can help me in the field. The lie detector is one of many such devices, however, any lie detector can be fooled. No matter how good they are."

"In that case… Just let me know if anything I'm about to tell you triggers that detector, or if your instincts tell you that I'm not telling the truth because," Another breath, just as deep as the first. "I'm one of the good guys. I was one of the good guys then, and despite joining Hypogean I'm a good guy now."

He looked at me critically, but he hadn't said anything to indicate that he thought I was lying yet.

"I joined their team because you said that the PHA didn't have any information on them, so I figured after they asked me to join up that I might be able to change that. I already know their faces, their names in and out of costume, I know what their powers do and I even know where their base is."

It was like a light switch had been flipped. The tension slipped out of his body in an instant and all of those instincts that had been screaming at me to run away finally quietened down.

"In that case, you've managed to do a great thing. Would you come to Headquarters so that you can present all of that information to the wider team?" He asked, his tone was now bordering on excitement.

Every part of me wanted to say yes.

Meet the local main hero team? Their roster was incredible, featuring some of the best and biggest Powered's in the community. I'd be able to see their reactions to everything that I'd found. I could tell them about my battle with Wildthing, about how I helped to take down Phet if Quasar would allow it. Maybe they'd tell me some stories in response.

But…

"No, I can't, not yet," I said.

"Explain," His tone had shifted right back to scathing, and once again it felt like he was ready to put me straight into the dirt.

"I still need to find out one more thing," I said, "Without that knowledge, the rest is completely useless."

If I didn't find out who their mysterious benefactor was then I would really only be doing half of a job. There was every possibility that the shadowy figure would just pick out another ragtag bunch of Powered's and start up all over again. I wasn't about to let something like that happen.

"Okay then, tell me what you know now and find the last detail that you need."

"That's… not possible," I said, giving him another negative answer.

I wanted to tell him everything, I really did, but the way Lauren's power worked was weird and I still didn't entirely understand it. How did she pick out past moments to view? Was it something that was always running in the background? If I told him, would it be more significant of a moment and thus easier for her to find? There was too much risk already, just by talking to Quasar, let alone what might happen if I told him everything and Lauren found out.

"There better be an incredible reason behind that choice, or I'll be dragging you straight to the base myself right now," He seethed.

That… could end up being an absolute disaster.

"What if I told you that there was a spy in the ranks of the PHA," I asked.

"Then you'd be lying," He responded quickly.

"Okay fine. What if I told you that there was an active power, one that would essentially make it so that there was a spy that would give me away," I said, giving him more detail than I was comfortable with already.

He took longer to reply that time, "No alarms on that one…What is it?"

"If I told you then they'd find out, no question about it, even me being here is dangerous," I said.

"If that's the case, if you weren't going to give me any information that we could use, then why would you even bring me out here?" He asked, seemingly exasperated at how the evening had gone. I couldn't say that I didn't agree with him.

"Because I needed that favour," I replied, "If you agreed, it would help… a lot."

He didn't reply, so I decided to just take the plunge and ask.