Weapon's Check

"You could just think of it as a game, you know," Lauren pointed out, "Didn't you ever play police chase games when you were a kid?"

The drumbeat of the rain thrummed on the corrugated metal roof of the shelter we were standing under.

It drowned out the noise of the people passing about on their business and was so strong that looking through it blurred our view of the street.

We were waiting for the guard shift change at the Vault, it was the perfect time to get into place undetected. To break the silence of our waiting, I'd asked Lauren why most of the villains that were captured didn't end up having their secret identities revealed when it happens. Little did I know the topic was actually one of her favourites.

"Sure, but this is real life, we aren't just playing some game at the moment," I pressed.

"Oh come on, just hear me out, okay?" Lauren shot back. "We've got grown adults running around in silly costumes, making up even sillier names for themselves, right?"

I nodded, I was following her so far.

"Well, it's absolutely absurd. You know it's absurd, I know it's absurd, and just about everyone else knows it's absolutely stark raving bonkers absurd, yeah?"

I nodded again, she was still making sense.

"Right, so then there's Powered like you and me, right? We go out in our costumes and it's a nice bit of fun. We might have an agenda or a goal, but when you get down to the basics of it all, we're just getting some thrills, blowing off some of the anger that comes from living in the apocalypse and pretty much living a second life, you get me?"

I did still get her, but I had the feeling she was about to start making a lot less sense.

"Okay cool. So then, there's the other people, the people on the complete opposite end of the spectrum, the nutjobs and the crazies. Those people who are so messed up and dangerous that, unless there's someone to keep them in line, they'd go completely off the rails. Like Phet, or well…" She paused as if she felt uncomfortable about what she was about to say, "Someone like Wildthing."

I nodded again, I was surprisingly still following what she was saying.

"But then… then there's the absolute monsters. Those creatures out there who aren't even human anymore, you know who I mean. We don't have them in this community, but people out there like the Harbingers, Toxin-"

"The Wretch's," I cut in.

Lauren paused again, before deciding that I was right to include those… things… in the same tier as the rest. "Exactly, but Tristan you have to understand that ninety per cent of all Powered activity fits into that first category, adults dressed up playing chase with crazy superpowers and technology.

"The way I see it, having a superhero team in your community is a bit like having a pro football team in an old world city, right? Everyone wants them to do good, they make for good news a lot of the time, but they also need a bit of competition to make things interesting, right?"

What she was saying clicked to a degree, "So that's our role in all of this, competition for the heroes?"

"Bingo! At the end of the day we're really not doing all that much damage. Sure, bit of theft, bit of damage to some property. Maybe, if it's a bad day, some civvies get hurt if they don't get out of the way quick enough, but for the most part? We're nothing compared to the monsters that lurk out in the dark," She explained, beaming a smile at me with the end of her speech.

"You know… I'm not sure that I buy into all of that," I said, carefully. I wanted to disagree, but I didn't want to twig her into the fact that I wasn't as in on the villainy as she was.

"Oh no?" She shot back, "Well if that's the case, why don't they send people like Blindside straight to the undersea prisons after their trials? They're locking Phet up in maximum security, but the cute harmless villains just get a regular cell that they can break out of easy peasy so the game can start up again."

Was there any way that I could argue against Lauren's philosophy without giving away the fact that I was a hero?

I didn't think so.

Instead, I just kept my mouth shut and rotated the handle of my new vibroblade over in my hands.

The boss that ruled Hypogean from the shadows had came through with all of the components that I had needed to build up some new tech.

I now sported a brand new vibroblade, which I had been informed by Allen was a lot like a weapon called a Lightsaber from an old-world movie series called 'Star Wars'.

The blade could pierce through just about anything on its highest setting, but at its lowest would just apply a stunning shock and some light burning.

The vibroblade wasn't all I had, either. I'd managed to get my portable energy shield working. On my belt sat a small spherical device, containing a high powered cell of energy that I had designed. It worked by reversing the magnetic fields around me to give off a polar opposite charge from anything that tried to attack me.

If someone tried to hit me with a punch it would land no problem, but any bullets, energy attacks or even knives would be diverted away as if nothing had happened, up to a point at least. The cell could be overloaded, but it would take a whole lot of power to do it.

I'd also upgraded my gauntlet again. The design was much more streamlined than before. The entire gauntlet was made of metal with some red trims going along the fingers where the capacitors and charging loops were stored. It could now fire beams out of each finger tip, each just as strong as the original beam from my palm had been.

In other news, I was very much ready for the raid.