Becca's Tale

I leaned forward and let out a slow breath, resting my elbows on the railing as I ate the muffin.

There were a few little wooden boats bobbing along on the water, casting nets to catch fish. There hadn't always been fish in the Thames. In fact, for the longest time, it was far too polluted. But without the rigours of a modern society pushing the environment to breaking point the area had started to see a bit of a wildlife comeback, especially following the destruction of the Thames flood barrier.

"How's your hand feeling?" Lauren asked.

I waggled my fingers and clenched my fist. "Feels good, can't even tell that there's an injury there anymore."

I decided to spare her the details of how hungry I'd ended up being the night before. I definitely hadn't eaten three helpings of dinner. Why would you even suggest such a thing?

"Just make sure you keep eating well," Lauren said as if she could read my mind. "Here, take another muffin."

I took the muffin without question and bit straight into it. It was just as delicious as the first one, if it weren't bought with villain cash I could probably learn to get used to it.

"Look, I want to apologise about Becca and everything that happened last night… again," Lauren said. "It was totally out of order, what she did, and I really meant it when I said that we're never going to let anything like that happen to you again.

I swallowed my mouthful of muffin and let out a sigh, "S'okay," I said, even though it really wasn't. But it also wasn't Lauren's fault. "The truth of being a Powered is that people are going to attack you, yeah? So I guess I just shouldn't be surprised."

Lauren gave me a short nod, but she didn't say anything in reply.

"I was just caught off guard that an attack like that came from an apparent teammate. But hey, I can deal with it. Am dealing with it."

"Just so you know, Tristan, from what I saw after you left last night, and from what she said this morning… Well, Becca hasn't actually made any more protests about having you join the team," Lauren said. "She's still not happy about it, don't get me wrong. But there definitely shouldn't be any more murder attempts."

I snorted at that, no one had called it a murder attempt yet, "I certainly hope not."

"This world that we live in… It's messed a lot of people up," Lauren said. "But Becca? I think she got the worst draw out of any of us. We all had families at some point or another, but she was just left on some street. Brought up by a gang. Escaped later on."

She shook her head, I could tell that Lauren cared about the other girl, despite what she said about ditching her last night.

"She's moved all over the community in her time, covering all the Quarters with different groups. She had to fight tooth and nail, just to survive. And that was before she even got her powers. When that happened and she turned into a giant beast, I figure it was just easier for her to stop playing at being human."

"Yeah… I guess that makes sense," I said, "Lines up with what was written on her wiki page, anyway.

"Yeah, she's a handful to deal with that's for sure… but if you can tolerate her, get to know her…" Lauren trailed off for a moment. "I dunno, maybe it's wishful thinking, but she might become just as protective of you as she is the rest of us."

"I'll promise to at the very least give her a fair shot," I said.

Lauren smiled at me, not her sarcastic smirk, but a full-blown toothy grin. I dropped my eyes back to the water, desperately trying not to let my cheeks come up in a blush.

"Right, I should go give the others their morning tea before they come looking for me with torches and pitchforks," Lauren said. "You could come with me if you wanted to?"

I was tempted. I was so incredibly tempted. "I uh, gotta get back home. Doing a shift in the rec yards with my mum today, planning to swipe some gear for those radios you wanted me to build."

"Ah, right," Lauren said with a nod, "Work and crafting, makes sense. I forget about things like that sometimes."

Of course, she was a villain. Bar the heists and jobs that she went on, she'd never have to think about work a day in her life.

"Well, before we part ways, I've got another gift for you," She said, reaching into her pocket and then extending her hand.

I swallowed hard. How many gifts was this villain going to give me? Surely she'd given me enough already. Either way I put my outstretched palm below her closed fist. She dropped what at first glance appeared to be a necklace, but was clearly a piece of crafter tech when my power started to get to work on it.

"This is a bit of crafter tech the boss gave us," She told me. "There are actually defences down in the tunnels, believe it or not, all installed by the boss. This allows you to get past them without being accompanied by one of the rest of us. You can come by any time with one of these on. I mean that, any time."

"I uh… Thank you," I said, a smile on my face. I meant it, it was a nice gesture.

"Gonna come by later or should I just meet you here again in the morning?" She asked. The idea that she wanted to spend more time with me was threatening a blush from my cheeks again, even though I knew it was really because she just wanted to keep me up to date with any team goings on.

"I'll swing by later," I said out loud, locking in my plans for the afternoon.

We parted ways, me jogging back toward my mum's place, and her strolling across the bridge. I clenched the necklace pass in my hand as if it were the most important thing in the universe.