“Oh, okay?” Emily said. She didn’t know how to look sharp, but she’d try.

“What are we looking for?” Teddy asked. “Like, Villains and stuff?”

Melaton snorted. “I doubt it. Villains don’t last long here.”

“They don’t?” Emily asked.

The Hero shook her head. “Nah. Think about it. How many new Heroes do we get every Power Day?”

“I-I don’t know.”

“Here? Two or three. Twice as many people who just want to mind their own business. And as for Villains? Maybe one every other year or so. They don’t have time to get strong before they’re completely swamped by Heroes. It’s why it’s so damned hard to get stronger. The best quests are those against an opponent of equal or greater strength. Being a Hero gives few opportunities in that regard.”

“Oh,” Emily said.

What did that mean for her? Other than that she had a lot of people who would be gunning for her if she messed up. That . . . wasn’t ideal.

“We’re here,” Melaton said.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Sleepy Time

Here” wasn’t what Emily was expecting.

She’d developed a mental image of the kind of place a gangster would hang out. Maybe a sleazy bar, or a strip club, or some abandoned gas station. Maybe even a tenement building if they wanted to be subtle about things.

A perfectly ordinary-looking office building wasn’t it.

“This is where, uh, Homie is staying?” Emily asked.

The office had a sign behind its front window reading Whitechapel Technical next to some generic stock vector art of a computer. It looked like any of a thousand shops Emily had passed by already.

“Nah,” Melaton said. “Homie and his Try Hards are more of a street gang, if you can even call them that. I think the only reason he hasn’t been nailed yet is that the crimes he does commit are so small they’re barely worth noticing. At least, those that can actually be pinned on him.”

“But he’s a Villain?” Emily asked.

Melaton wiggled her hand in a so-so gesture. “He’s a Dealer. It’s not an outright Villain morality. If he were, he’d have been in a cell a long time ago, but as it is, his morality isn’t outright illegal.”

“There are illegal moralities?” Emily asked.

“Not really. But if you see someone with Criminal floating above their head, you don’t just smile and wave.”

“But . . . but just having the morality doesn’t mean they’ve done anything,” Emily said.

Melaton looked at her.

“I mean . . . aren’t they still innocent until they’ve, uh, done something?”