I threw my head back and screamed in frustration. Quietly, of course, because I was in a library, and I'm not a savage. Idly I wondered why I couldn't have been dropped in a universe where people in America wrote in ancient Greek. The words swam around the webpage every time I tried to read it, but I managed to deduce two general principles:

Point A: I'm screwed.

Point B: Everyone else is as well.

Powers are nice, but in my experience, they just make you a target. Powers make you stronger, but with strength comes reputation, and reputation just paints that target bigger. So, you did good with the Minotaur, Percy, here's a Chimera! Sooner or later someone else is stronger, or smarter, or just luckier, and you wind up dead. A good example here was Oni Lee. He'd been a bad character, but I'd been better, but that victory meant his boss, the biggest and baddest in the city, was after me now. If I beat Lung, I'd probably get the attention of these Slaughterhouse nine psychos or the Triumvirate, or an endbringer or something. My only hope in the long run was to join a team. The same rules that apply to individuals apply to groups of individuals, but a group could cover a lot more bases and spread the rep out a little. Plus, if I was going to go down, I intended to do it with some friends at my side. Back home, between the camps, my monstrous half-siblings, my mortal family and even a few of the gods, I'd had a pretty robust support group. Here, I had limited options.

On the one hand, I could join a gang. Here in Brockton Bay, that meant either the drug-addled losers the merchants, or the drug-addled losers who were also Nazis, the Empire. There were also the Azn Bad Boys, but considering I'd killed the second in command, and hadn't ever been mistaken for Asian, I figured my odds were slim to none.

Although, I supposed, I'd been called 'Mediterranean' before, and part of Asia technically does border the Mediterranean. I thought about that for a good five seconds. Nahhh.

There were other, smaller groups. Uber and Leet would probably take me, but I didn't really think they'd do much to help me. Faultline's crew was pretty sweet, but they were also interested in money, and, uh, Lung had a pretty significant bounty on my head at the moment.

On the other hand, I'd quite possibly been summoned here by the next best thing to a fallen angel, and New Wave or one of the corporate teams would throw me into quarantine faster than you could say 'paranoioa.' My face was all over the news, and while my identity as a transdimensional tourist wasn't public knowledge, the PRT had listed me as a 'possible Canberrra Quarantine escapee.' Honestly, I couldn't completely be sure that they were wrong, except that I didn't remember Angel-girl messing with my memories.

I wasn't sure if that made me feel better or worse.

Which brings me to point two. These 'Endbringer' yahoos seemed pretty terrifying even by my standards. They weren't dying, they weren't trying as hard as they could have been, and new ones keept showing up. These facts combined pretty much meant that humanity was screwed, no matter what way you sliced it. Reading through the reports... it sounded like a bunch of mortals and half-bloods trying to take down Typhon or something.

I held my head in my hands. This whole thing was like a game of Russian Roullete, only all the barrels were loaded.

The endbringers, oddly enough, were my only ray of hope. 'Humanity being totally screwed' sounded like a good reason to go on a quest, and was so far my best theory as to why the gods had dropped me here. Assuming it wasn't this creepy angel thing that had dropped me off, killing the endbringers seemed to be my best bet at getting home. Which was a great idea, but I had a few details to figure out first. Details that were fifty feet tall and wreathed in lightning.

I looked back at the table and blinked. A scrap of paper sat on the desk just in front of the keyboard, along with a gift card.

Saw you on the news. Curious to meet such a celebrity.

~A friend 3

The gift card was to some place called 'Fugly Bob's.' A quick internet search (which, by the way, was swiftly becoming my new favorite thing) revealed Bob's to be a burger joint near the bay that specialized in heart attacks with fries.

This 'friend' was going out of their way to make me feel comfortable, which meant either I really did have a friend, or that they were laying a trap. My gut told me to trust them, which wasn't surprising, given my hunger. I wasn't literally starving. I'd dropped a full two-thirds of my mortal net worth, about twenty bucks, at a chicken joint shortly after I'd come to after the fight. I can heal bullet wounds, bruises, poison, and throw water around like it's going out of style, but using my powers that much takes a lot out of me. Sleeping in the saltwater of the Bay had done me good, and I did have a few drachma I could turn in for gold, but at the moment, a free meal sounded awesome, and if it was a trap... Well, I'd learn who wanted to trap me.

I was careful to stick to heavily populated streets as I walked, and mercifully I didn't have far to go. As soon as I caught sight of Bob's, I knew the owner was a man after my own heart, and my arteries quavered in fear. I ordered enough food to stop my heart three times over and slumped into a chair.

I didn't have long to wait. I'd barely gotten through my first burger when a brutish redhead with an expression you could crush granite on walked over.

"I'm Rachel. I'm supposed to take you to the others."

"Can it wait a minute? I'm eating. Also, not following you if you take me down some dark alley."

She rolled her eyes and clenched her teeth. "Look, just come out to the beach. The others won't stop riding me if I scare you off." With that, she got up and left. Huh.

On the one hand, it was doubtful that these were good guys in any sense. On the other hand, I was stinking curious now and wanted to see what was up.

Once the burgers had departed this earth and gone off to burgery heaven, I set out for the beach, which had about as much traffic on it as you might expect on an overcast, blustery day in March. There weren't a lot of places for a super secret meeting, so I headed over to a big building that I guess was supposed to be a public changing area, but was covered top to bottom in graffiti.

My 'friends' were waiting out there.

The first one sat up against the building, leaning back casually as if to say, 'yeah, I always hang out on the beach in crappy weather.' He was a big guy, all in leathers with a creepy black skull biker helmet. If I'd met him back home, I probably would have pegged him as Ares , Thanatos, or some monster incognito. He'd done a nice job with the armor.

Speaking of monsters, Granite-face was petting this huge lizard tailed thing with bone ridges coming out in all the wrong places. The messy monster slobbered at me in greeting, and I nodded back. He was an ugly slobber machine, but I'd made friends with weirder monsters. Granite face had donned a rottweiler mask as well, which I guess was the sum total of her 'costume.'

The other girl, a blonde had a more traditional spandex suit on, with a simple domino mask. Her skin tight clothing showed off a thin, curvy body that probably made some guys go crazy. She smiled winningly as I showed up, and nudged the fourth member, who sat up straight and ruffled his curly, jet-black hair. Curly was in ren-faire gear: tights, sceptre, and cape; the whole schebang. They both looked soft and unathletic, which maybe prevented me from taking them as seriously as I should have. Overall, the supervillain vibe wasn't really something I was feeling all that strong. Even the dog monster had a sort of charm to it, now that I looked at it more.

"Happy you came," motor-cycle helmet stated. "We don't like sending Bitch out on this sort of thing, but she's the one who doesn't have an identity to hide."

I laughed. "So, this is where you tell me how you're going to take over the world?"

"No." Helmet stated, and threw a backpack out on the sand. "This is where we tell you how you can make a shit-load of cash with minimal risk."

I opened the bag, and found that it contained a, uh, a lot of money. I didn't bother to count it; I just set it down and licked my lips.

Blondie nodded at me. "Five grand. That's what we're offering as a signing bonus to join the Undersiders, in addition to a fifth of whatever we take in, which means hundreds of thousands of dollars."

"Which, by the way, is a lot more than I was offered," Curly noted. "Some people have no appreciation for my talents."

Helmet sighed. "Anyway, we're the Undersiders. We're a team built around getting in, getting out, and keeping a low profile. I'm the team leader, and I go by Grue. Tattletale here does the prep work for our ventures. Bitch brings the muscle and the getaway vehicles, and Regent here mostly just collects a paycheck."

Regent sniffed. "I'm the sexy one, clearly."

I squatted on the sand. "So what is this? Highschool is seriously this bad that you're all turning to villainy? The drama club was too cliquey?"

Bitch glowered and Tattletale laughed. "Come on, you're younger than Bitch or Grue."

"Yeah, but I'm not playing hooky by choice."

Tattletale's reply was cut off by Grue's hand. "We all have our reasons. But we represent your best bet. Assuming you don't want to go into quarantine, you can't go to the wards. Tattletale tells us you're not with the Empire yet, which means that you'll be a target for recruitment sooner rather than later. They don't ask nicely like us, and they're kindly compared to Lung, who's put a bounty on your head. It's big enough that it's got Faultline's attention, and Coil doesn't employ capes. That leaves us. Well, us, the Merchants, and Uber and Leet. So us."

They were pretty much right, I figured, but I wasn't going to join a gang. "Nice of you to take me on. Kind of throws the whole minimal risk thing out the window though."

Grue winced, which seemed to amuse Regent immensely. "Grue agrees with you." He cackled. "He voted against letting you on the team."

"Thanks Regent." Grue's discomfort was clear."Everyone else wanted you on. Even Bitch, and that never happens. " He shifted his position. "Look, I don't like the heat, but we're not doing you any favors. We saw the vids, same as anyone. We don't have many friends in this town, and if someone like Kaiser comes after us, we need someone who can throw down. Frankly, we're perfect for you. You get to lay low, bank some cash, and fall off the PRT's shitlist."

I watched a gull peck at a piece of bread just by the changing house, oblivious to everything human. "Nah," I stated. "Not my style. I like the hero title better."

Regent and Bitch tensed suddenly, like they were afraid I was going to suddenly turn on them and take their lunch money. Tattletale just nodded sadly while Grue seemed more relieved than anything.

Grue started to say something, but Tattletale cut him off. "You were a hero back in... wherever you came from, weren't you?"

I laughed. "Different, uh, idiom, I guess, but yeah. Not joining you guys. I don't know. I'll figure it out." the beach was quiet for a moment, except for the waves on the shore. What would I do? I was probably screwed, I knew, but that had never stopped me before. A smile crept its way onto my face. "Heh. Actually, I think I just decided how I want to play this." I rose to my feet. "Starting now, I'm building my own team. I don't care what we get called, but we'll be heroes. Real ones. I'll help anyone, no matter how shitty a hand they've been dealt and no matter how ridiculous the odds."

Tattletale winced. "Statistically speaking, that's not a strategy that's going to end well for you."

Grue shook his head. "So, this make us enemies then? Sure we can't convince you to join up?"

I sighed. "You guys... I get you. You're at where I was a few years back. Life sucks and powers are a way to get away from all that. Maybe it's hard to even think of people without powers as real people. Maybe it's just fun to play villain. But honestly that's a pretty empty path, and people without powers are worth every bit as much as you are. So no, I can't join up. But if you're ever in a bad way and need a way out, I'll do what I can. I'm guessing if you found a way to contact me this time you can figure it out again."

"Wow," snorted Regent. "Honestly? You'll save us?" He laughed. "With your attitude, you're going to be the one who needs saving."

Grue's face was unreadable behind the mask, but his posture said he was about ready to strangle the other kid.

"Oh leave off it, Grue," Regent groaned. "You honestly believe this guy?"

I tossed the bag of money back. "Don't believe me. Just watch."