Running Wild

"I wasn't trying to kill you," Becca announced, the first time she'd even bothered to speak to me. "I was just… I wanted to hurt you, is all."

The comment pierced through me like a bladed tail through the palm of my hand.

I laughed again at that, in utter disbelief. "Oh, well then, I guess that's completely fine and okay. You just wanted to hurt me, rough me up a bit. Are you for real? Like I said, screw all of you. Consider this recruitment thing over."

I shook my head and made for the exit, only to walk straight into a flickering orange wall of energy. It was like walking into a brick wall. I'd had enough of this.

My gauntlet kept on proving itself to be more powerful than it seemed, and I was going to test that out once again.

Without even bothering to turn around I let power cycle through the gauntlet, building up to its maximum. The device on my hand began to spark and shudder as it started to overload, the blood working its way through its systems not helping stability at all.

Then I let the shot free. It shattered the force field before me like a pane of glass and kept on going until it burrowed a hole into the wall at the far end of the corridor.

Good. That would show them how strong I was.

I stalked out of the room and rounded the corner, only to find myself in pitch back darkness. Damn it. I'd completely forgotten that this base was literally buried deep underground in the centre of a pitch-black catacomb.

A hand rested on my shoulder, slender and feminine.

"Get the hell off me, Lauren," I seethed, all but ready to lash out at her as well.

"Look, Tristan, please. I'm sorry about Wildthing. I should have known," She said, her voice quiet and small.

"Damn right you should have known," I cut her off before she could get any further. "Don't worry. I'm not going to tell anyone any of what you told me today. I wont even attack you if I run into you out there. I just need you to let me go." I felt like some of what I'd just said was the truth. I didn't think I would attack them in costume if I saw them.

She didn't reply. It felt weird to have her on the back foot for once, so I added, "You gave me the choice. I could take the grand and a half and leave, or I could join. Well, after all that, I'm changing my mind. After what that… thing… did to me, you at least owe me that."

"Tristan… If it were up to me I'd ditch her and offer to keep you around instead," She said, sounding utterly exhausted and defeated.

It was like I'd had a bucket of ice cold water tipped over my head.

I had been furious with them all. I'd been blinded by my anger. I'd felt betrayed and disappointed in these four supervillains. There was a distinct irony in that, considering I was planning to betray all of them at some point in the future.

Would I have been so disappointed if I didn't actually sort of like them? And here was Lauren, basically telling me the exact same thing.

I let out a sigh that turned into a groan, breaking the silence that was only punctuated by the tip-tapping of my blood on the stone floor. "You won't do that though, will you?"

"It's complicated, Tristan," She said. "I want you on the team, yeah, but Becca is our main heavy hitter. As good as your tech is, as good as it has the potential to come, if we kicked her out of the group right now then we would lose that… and if we lost her, we'd lose all the backing we have from our Boss, and that's basically the same as losing everything.

It was childish stuff. All of it. Just like school. Becca was being protected just because she was useful, just because she could do things for others. The exact same reason that Micheal was being protected. I didn't matter as much as he did, and I didn't matter as much as becca did.

"Lauren, I became a-" I disguised my stammer with a cough, I'd almost said hero, and that would have ruined all of it. "I became a Powered to get away from school crap like this. Away from bullies like Wildthing. I deal with enough of that with my mask off, why would I ever want to deal with it when I had the mask on?"

Lauren gave a long, suffering sigh.

"Please, Tristan, Just come back inside. I promise you that nothing like that is going to happen again. If it does, I'll quit the team right alongside you," Lauren said, practically begging me to stay. "Besides, you're hurt, you've already lost a lot of blood, and you left your cash back in the room with your bag. Pulsewave can patch you up, and you can borrow some of Greave's clothes, yeah?"

I clenched my fist, which was both still bleeding and in the gauntlet. I'd broken it again, it'd have to be repaired again. Could I really go walking through the Northern Quarter completely unarmed like that while carrying so much money? Damn it. I knew I couldn't.

"Fine," I said through gritted teeth. "I'm not doing this because I want to, though. I'm doing it because she wants me to leave. I've been bullied so much, been pushed around all my life. If I quit, that means she's won. Another bully that I've lost to. Nah mate, I'm not having that. Not this time."

Lauren gave me her trademark sly grin, almost as if she'd known what I was going to say all along. Hell, maybe she had.

But the fact of the matter was, I had a job to do. It was going to be a hard job, too. But damn it, I was going to do it.