Reaching Out

First up on my search for the villains of the Coventry Mob, I wanted to search up Phet.

I'd searched up Phet numerous times in the past. I was sure that pretty much everyone had, he was one of the biggest and baddest Villains in the area. Any kind of information could be useful, whether you were Powered or not.

When you searched for Phet, it redirected you to the main page that detailed just about everything you needed to know about the Mob, with a lot of detailed information.

Looking over Phet's entry, it was pretty much everything that I had experienced the night before. I was debating adding that his control panels could potentially be weak against electrical attacks, as a method of taking him out before he was able to ramp up, but in the end, I stopped myself.

If the submission was traced back to the school somehow then it could also be traced all the way back to me, and the only way you'd have that kind of information was if you were Powered and you had fought him. I didn't exactly want to be outed like that.

Phet's right and left hands, listed as Lieutenants on the site, were Loper and Brainwave.

I had some basic knowledge on Loper already, but the details on his powers were a little bit more in-depth than the last time I had checked.

According to the site, his nature as a speedster was a little bit more complicated than it first appeared. When he activated his power to move quickly it didn't just look like he disappeared, in a way he did. The density of the atoms that made up his body lowered somehow, he kind of turned into a super-fast mist before reconstituting at the position that he stopped. When he was in motion, he was basically invincible, though as a caveat he also couldn't really do any damage to people… or that was what I thought.

Anything he was touching at the time of movement also partially disintegrated, and when he let go of it the thing he was holding reformed immediately. There were reports of him using his superspeed to throw objects at people, the objects appearing out of nowhere and immediately impaling whoever it was he was throwing them at.

From what the PHA knew about him, he was also noted down as a sociopath.

He was listed as being brutally violent, that he should never be approached under any circumstances, and that he definitely shouldn't be provoked into a fight. I was very glad that he hadn't been with Phet.

His costume was listed as being a skin-tight black bodysuit with a utility belt that held the things he threw at people, the contents of which ranged from small metal balls to straight-up explosives. Either of which would be deadly, it was just a matter of scale.

Brainwave was a much newer entry, only showing up on the site a couple of days ago. The wiki had the same information that Quasar had given to me, that she could create elemental explosives to devastating effect.

Her costume was pretty esoteric from what I was reading. She wore thigh-high boots with pinstripe trousers going down underneath them. A brown vest over the top of a plain white shirt. A fingerless glove, but only on one hand, with some leather covered armour segments across both shoulders. Her face was covered by a large, yet ornate gas mask with dark green lenses.

For all I knew, Phet could have outfitted both costumes with some serious Crafter tech.

I scrolled down the Coventry Mob page until I reached the 'Defeats' section of the wiki page.

Apparently, Phet had been foiled numerous times over the years by various heroes in the community, but whenever it happened they were minimal losses and he always managed to avoid any capture. That was, of course, until our scuffle last night.

'Quasar successfully defeated and restrained Phet after the Coventry Mob leader was weakened from a fight with a local gang. He was taken to the PHA base in the centre of the Thames for trial. Upon a guilty verdict, it is likely that Phet will be taken to the Mariana Vault for lifelong imprisonment.'

I couldn't help the small grin that spread across my face.

On the one hand I was still slightly annoyed that I'd had to give Quasar all the credit for taking Phet away, especially after I had nearly died at the hands of the pumped-up Powered. On the other hand, I'd made that possible. I'd done enough damage, somehow, to help Wildthing and Quasar finish him off.

I clicked off the page and scanned through the discussion boards, hoping to see something about the fight. There were a litany of posts on different subjects. There were requests for more information, there were Powered fanboys on both sides of the spectrum who were either celebrating or plotting revenge, and then there was someone who asked about the limits on Brainwave's powers and whether she could create a mega-bomb capable of wiping the community off the map as a ransom for the return of her boss.

I shivered at that one. If something like that were to happen, well, I guess it would at least partially be my fault. Nevertheless, getting Phet off the streets was a net positive. The heroes could deal with that if such a situation arose.

On a whim, I decided to search for myself.

I narrowed the search parameters to specifically my community and then searched for a variety of terms regarding electricity and crafters.

There was one post waiting for me, a message on the Central London Community boards.

The title was 'Sparky'.

There was only one person who had referred to me as Sparky so far.

I clicked through, and the message was definitely for me.

'We owe you. Don't debts. Meet up? Cc.'

Crashcourse was reaching out, and now I had decisions to make.