Meet Up

Before going to meet up with the villains, I swung by my house and threw my gauntlet and my mask into my backpack.

I was going to show up with all of that on, and to be frank I didn't care if they thought it was paranoid or not. The fact of the matter was, these were two villains that I'd only ever met once before.

I wouldn't be revealing my identity to them, and I certainly wouldn't be unarmed while dealing with them.

I'd managed to do a little bit more crafting, too, and had made some slight upgrades to the gauntlet with some pieces of scrap that I'd found on my way home.

On the back of the gauntlet, there was now a small screen, with a wireless transceiver embedded underneath. That transceiver linked up to a small quadcopter drone that I'd designed, no bigger than a bumblebee. I was going to use it to scout out the area when I arrived.

The walk from my house through to the Northern Quarter didn't take too long, it was a straight shot over one of the bridges that spanned the Thames and then a short walk down the winding streets that made up London City.

As I made my way into the Northern Quarter, I found an alleyway to dip down so that I could slip my mask and the gauntlet on.

I also engaged my Beecopter. A poor grainy image fed through to the screen on my gauntlet, it wasn't great but it'd serve the purpose that I had in mind.

The copter was controlled by gestures made with the gauntlet, and thanks to the applications of my power I already knew exactly how to use the tech as if I were a master.

I flew the copter up and over the building, the small rotor blades cut through the air with ease even though a headwind was trying to push it back.

The little copter zipped through the air toward the place that I had originally met the villains, and it seemed like they had kept to their word. Three people were there, one girl and two guys, and none of them were in costume.

I wasn't going to just rush up to them, though. I needed some more assurances that this wasn't a trap.

I piloted my Beecopter back and stowed it away in my backpack before engaging the darkness field of my gauntlet. It may not have been nighttime, but the darkness of the alleyways and ruined buildings helped me to blend into the background nicely. I wouldn't be spotted unless someone was looking really hard.

I snuck through the shadows until I ended up at the building that I had climbed the last time I was in the area. It was easy enough to scamper up the roof once again.

Carefully, I crept to the edge of the roof and brought my gauntlet adorned hand up to my ear, creating the same okay hand sign that had allowed me to spy on Phet and the Coventry Mob the night before.

"We've been waiting here for 15 minutes already, he's not gonna show," One of the two guys said, he had a young voice, he had to have been a similar age to me.

"Just be patient," The girl said, I recognised CrashCourse's voice.

"Yeah, sure," The first voice repeated. "I bet they've set us up with the PHA, I bet they'll be coming 'round the corner or from the rooftops any minute now."

"That'd break the accords," A second male voice said, "And the heroes value those just as much as we do. Besides, this is a friendly meetup. We owe the guy, after all."

I decided to risk it and peeked over the edge.

The younger of the two boys had a mop of black curly hair, unruly on top of his head. It wasn't a look that many men decided to go with these days, it'd be hell to wash and deal with in the crappy showers that we had in the community. He wore a denim jacket and a pair of jeans, a daring combination, and was leaning moodily against the wall of one of the abandoned theatres.

The older of the boys was the complete opposite of the younger. He was a tall bloke with strong muscles, I wondered how much of that muscle gain was natural and how much of it had been brought on by the defensive nature of his power. He too was wearing jeans, though instead of a jacket he wore a dark green hoodie.

The last of the three villains, the girl, had blonde hair that was tied up into a braid. Her face was filled out but not fat, and the freckles that covered her cheeks made her look distinctively cute. Her mouth was curved into a permanently foxy grin that almost crinkled the corners of her green eyes. She was wearing a knee-length denim skirt and a heavy black jumper that was covered in custom graffiti.

I took a deep breath, there was no turning back from this now, before walking back down the stairs of the abandoned theater and back into the alleyway.

I deactivated the cloaking field in the gauntlet and stepped out into the street, only for Crashcourse's grin to widen even further.

"Well, well, well, look what the cat dragged in," Crashcourse all but crowed. "That's ten quid each to me, I think."

Pulsewave rolled his eyes before bringing the note out of his jacket pocket, while Bastion handed his money over much more willingly.

"Betting on whether I showed up, were you?" I asked, trying to project an air of confidence that I had severely lacked the night before.

"More like whether you would show up in costume, however lacking that costume may be," Crashcourse replied. "I won. As usual. Obviously."

She seemed full of herself, but not in a way that was annoying.

Hopefully I'd be able to use that overconfidence to pull the wool over their eyes.