Point of No Return

"You realise that none of that was my fault, right?" I seethed, my voice strained with how much I was trying to keep my anger under control.

The fact of the matter was, while I might have done some damage to Phet, there was no way that my blast of power would have been enough to almost kill the guy. Wildthing had also had her way with the villain, and then Quasar battered him a little bit to keep him under, as well.

"That shock may have been enough to put him on his arse, but it was nowhere near strong enough to kill him. What I think is that you and Wildthing knocked his head around a little too much, maybe ripped his drug mixers out a little too quickly, which sent him into his catatonic state."

I glared at Quasar. Quasar glared right back at me. Neither of us could see the others eyes, but it was clear that we were both staring each other down.

He broke first.

"If you reach out to me again, you're going to have to answer every single question that I have, or I'll be arresting you myself. Other than that, I'm not giving you the green light for anything you're trying to do. You're on your own. Entirely on your own."

A large part of me wanted to storm off there and then, or give him another angry piece of my mind, but there was still something that I needed from the man.

I had originally assumed that Quasar was going to accept my offer, and in that vein, I'd had one final tiny favour to ask of him. Now I had been shot down by the man and had gotten into an all-out yelling match I had been placed into the awkward situation of practically having to beg a man that I wanted to blast into the river with my gauntlet.

"I need you to not tell anyone that we met tonight," I said carefully, knowing how pathetic I probably now sounded. "You can't record it, not on paper or on a computer. You can't do anything differently because of what I've told you. I need you to act as if nothing has changed."

He shook his head, and I was sure I heard a chuckle come from under his mask.

"I know I don't have anything to offer right now, not until I find out who Hypogean's sponsor is, but if they learn that I met you then it's… well… It's going to go really badly for me."

He looked at me again, and I could feel the pressure behind the stare.

"You made your bed," He sneered, "Now you have to lie in it."

"No… You can't," I shook my head in anger, I was furious that he was being so stubborn over this.

With clenched fists, I continued, "You can't toy with me on this. Sure, you might not agree with what I'm doing, but I started doing all of this because I wanted to do a favour for you, not even the rest of the PHA, but you specifically. The least you could do now is not mess with me on this, you can't do something that would get me hurt or killed just because your damn reputation got a little bit tarnished."

As soon as I'd said them I regretted the last words of my speech. But at this point, I couldn't exactly take them back.

"Fine," He grunted after a moment's deliberation, clearly he didn't want the death of a kid on his mind, "You can go, now."

He was being obstinate and difficult and he knew it. If I left now I would basically be just following his orders, it would widen the power gap between us. If I didn't do as he asked it would make me look like a stubborn arsehole.

In a way it almost made me feel grateful that I'd had to endure so much bullying over the years at school. Because of all of that, I was able to handle the sort of bullying tactics that Quasar was employing just that little bit better. I was sure that if I hadn't had that experience backing me up I definitely would have lashed out at him in some way.

Instead I left and didn't bother looking back.

Sure, I was angry, but it was much easier to be angry at Quasar than it was to be angry at myself.

This meeting hadn't gone anywhere close to how I'd originally planned it. To be honest, I didn't even know if his declaration of 'fine' had been an agreement to not let anyone know, or if I'd be assaulted by the members of Hypogean the next time I went to the base.

I was back into another situation where I had two decisions to make. I was at a crossroads once again.

On the one hand, I could drop my plans, put my gauntlet and mask into my backpack and then throw the lot of it into the river and never craft another item again, just like Quasar had suggested.

On the other hand, I could continue my little undercover adventure and prove him utterly and completely incorrect.

It didn't take much walking for my mind to settle on the choice that I was going to make. The only choice I could really make, considering Hypogean knew my real name and could probably track me down pretty easily.

I was going to rob that bank with the rest of the team. Then I'd gain the trust of all of Hypogean, I'd figure out who was bankrolling them and calling the shots from the shadows, and then to top it all off with a nice little cherry I'd hand over all of that information to one of the Powered's of the PHA.

Would that person be Quasar? No way. Not after the way he'd treated me. I'd give it to one of the other heroes instead.

I went home resolved with new purpose. I could do this.