Unmasked

I had agreed to join Hypogean.

The three villains before me seemed pretty pleased by that, and I couldn't help but feel a little bit guilty about the fact I was basically lying to the three of them regarding my reasons for joining the crew.

On the other hand, I also felt intensely happy that I was making headway, that I was actually doing something to get to the bottom of the mystery that was their team.

"Well, what's the plan now?" Greave asked Lauren.

"Well, if Sparky here is okay with it, we should probably head down to our place," Lauren said. "We'll see if Becks is there, celebrate the addition of Sparky to the team, and then get him up to date with… well… all of the stuff, really?"

"Sounds like a plan to me," I said, though I had to admit that I was a little bit worried about meeting Becca considering she had already seemingly made her mind up about adding me to the team.

"It's not too far away," Lauren said, "But if you travel with us in costume, you're going to stand out like a sore thumb."

I swallowed hard, for a moment I wasn't even able to parse what he said. Then it sank in. He wanted me to unmask, to reveal who I was to all three of them, and then Becca when we made it to their base.

I wanted to kick the crap out of myself.

I should have seen this coming the moment that they made their opening pitch to me. They all knew who the other members of their team were, both in and out of their masks. If I joined up, then I would obviously be expected to share the same courtesy with them. Until I did that, there was no way that any of them would trust me with any of… well, anything.

"Um, right," I said, unable to keep a slight waver from my voice. "I'll just uh… yeah."

I slipped off my gauntlet and shoved it into my backpack, which was then followed by the domino mask that covered my eyes.

"Um… Hi," I said, my mouth suddenly incredibly dry. "You can call me Tristan, not Sparky or new guy."

I had to admit, using my actual name was a pretty ballsy move, even when compared to some of the other things that I'd pulled over the course of the past twenty-four hours.

A big part of me was worried that I was going to regret the choice later on, just like I regretted getting myself into a situation where I had to unmask myself in front of all the villains.

I rationalized all of that by reminding myself what I was doing this for, and how far I was going to have to go to actually pull it off.

If I was completely truthful, or as truthful as I could possibly be without revealing the real reason that I had joined their team, then if any of them decided to try and do any research on me or the things I'd been through in the past it would all check out.

By the time everything was over and Hypogean were all locked up in jail, I figured that Quasar would be able to pull a string or two in my favour to stop the villains from leaking my real name. Anonymity was huge in the world of the Powered. Losing that, even at this level, made me feel a little bit naked.

On the announcement of my name, Lauren finally held her hand out for me to shake. I looked at it dumbly, it was like I'd suddenly been slingshot back to a time where I had no idea how to talk to or interact with girls. Oh, wait, that had been me this morning before I put my mask on. Somehow wearing the mask made all of that just a little bit easier.

I swallowed hard and loosely grasped her hand before allowing her to give it a short shake, before she pulled me in for a hug.

She was a little shorter than me, but the hug felt… really nice. I hadn't had a hug from anyone who wasn't my mum in… since the day dad died.

"Welcome to the team, Tristan!" She said as she let me go, a blush sprung up on my cheeks.

With the introductions firmly out of the way, the trio of villains led me deeper and deeper into the North Quarter.

Having never really left the Main Quarter for most of my life, I'd never really been in any of the abandoned or downtrodden areas that made up this area of the community. I could see why it got its bad reputation.

The Reclamation projects hadn't reached the Northern Quarter yet, and likely wouldn't for a very long time. That was both due to the villain infestation in the area and the sheer amount of work it was taking to basically rebuild the city from scratch.

It gave off the impression of a city that had been caught in the middle of a war and then abandoned completely.

I supposed, in a way though, that was exactly what the area was.

There wasn't a building in sight without some sort of damage done to it, whether that be holes in the walls, doors that had been blown off their hinges, or even buildings where the roof had collapsed in on itself, only leaving piles of rubble behind.

The pavement was riddled with weeds and other plants, while the road itself was pocked with holes that were so deep you'd be forgiven for thinking it was the surface of the moon.

The true sign that this was truly a dead area of the city was the fact that, on the street lights, weeds had wound their way up the poles, only to have withered and died themselves. Now the poles just had masses of dead and decaying plant matter hanging off of them.

And we were travelling deeper still.