“It’s time we moved up to the big leagues bro.” Castor laughed, as he pointed across the street.
Pollux shared his brother’s mirth, as he looked where he was pointing. A Maserati dealership.
“Is that a truck?” Pollux asked.
“Yes it is. I can carry that out. You load it up.” Castor said. “I’ve always wanted one of these things.”
“Shotgun the red ones.” Pollux said, as he picked the first one up.
“Sure, you can have them. I’ll just get first pick of the Ferraris.” Castor said. “We’ve taken out all the heroes, this city is ours until Liberty Force comes back from wherever they are.”
“Wrong on so many levels.” Firestorm said.
“Firstly, there’s Hire-A-Hero. Captain Awesome, you might have heard of him.” Pixel added.
“Secondly, you don’t think the first thing Jack Roman did when he got back to Boomers Headquarters was call in the East Coast team?” Ice Princess asked. “Thunderbolt is probably on his way right now.”
“And thirdly, it takes more than that to take down the Brat Pack.” Mr Perfect finished.
The twins looked at their teenage enemies. “You’ve got to be kidding me.” Castor said. “Back for another beating?”
Mr Perfect smirked. “Something like that.”
“Uhh… Bro?” Pollux said.
“What do you mean?” Castor asked, ignoring his brother.
“I mean I’m here for a beating, but I’m not the one getting beaten.” Mr Perfect said.
“That’s the best you can do? Really. That’s your line?” Castor asked.
“Bro!” Pollux shouted.
“Quiet.” Castor said. “I’m taunting the kid.”
“And you’re doing a terrible job of it.” Mr Perfect said.
“And you taunt like you fight.” Castor retorted.
“Castor!” Pollux shouted.
“What!?” Castor spun and glared at his brother.
“The ground…” Pollux pointed. The entire ground was covered in frost.
“I wasn’t taunting you. I was distracting you.” Mr Perfect said.
“You’re using the same plan as before? That’s never going to work!” Castor said, rounding back on Mr Perfect. Too late he realised Blackbird was missing.
“I wouldn’t be too sure.” Blackbird was perched on Castor’s shoulder, as he dropped a trio of disruptors onto the villain’s armour, shutting it down with a faint buzzing sound.
“Don’t worry bro, I’ll save you!” Pollux shouted, charging towards his brother’s motionless body.
Mr Perfect was too fast, and airborne, he collided with Pollux and sent the supervillain sliding across the ice, crashing him into a nearby car.
“Yeah, we’ve got a new plan now. Castor’s out so long as those disruptors are intact.” Mr Perfect said.
“So we’re going to make sure they stay intact.” Pixel said, as she grabbed Castor, before disappearing.
“So now he’s off somewhere safe, we get to wail on you for a while.” Firestorm said, as he began blasting fireballs at Pollux.
“It’s going to take more than that.” Pollux said, as the fire hit him in the chest. The villain almost ignored the attack.
“At least your aim is getting better.” Blackbird said, as he threw a flashbang at Pollux, the sudden bright light blinding the juggernaut.
Pollux laughed. “It doesn’t matter if I can’t see! You still can’t hurt me.”
“We’ll still try.” Fissure said, as he dropped half the parking lot on top of Pollux.
It only took Pollux a second to turn the chunk of asphalt into gravel, exploding from underneath and charging straight at Fissure, who had already adopted his stone armour. There was an audible crack as Pollux shoulder-tackled him, sending him flying through the air and into the side of the car dealership.
Fissure groaned, as he rebuilt the front of his armour, preparing himself for the second attack. It didn’t come. Blackbird glided towards Pollux, landing on the behemoth’s shoulder and punching at his face, with little to no effect.
Pollux tried to grab at the hero, but The Blackbird managed to maneuver out of the way, causing Pollux to lose his balance, which was disastrous on the frost-covered ground, forcing the giant to come crashing to the ground.
“You’re just pissing me off.” Pollux said, as he managed to strike Blackbird full in the chest. The masked vigilante went tumbling across the lot, coming to rest after he crashed through the windshield of a new-model Maserati.
Pollux was back on his feet when Mr Perfect tackled him again. This time, Pollux had grounding, as his fall had broken the ice beneath him. Mr Perfect bounced straight off.
“Now, I know you’re tough… But how tough are you?” Firestorm asked, as Pollux was surrounded by flames, which began to burn hotter and hotter. Pollux began to sweat. It was getting hotter and hotter.
“At the very least, I’m going to cut off your oxygen supply. You’ll pass out, and we win.” Firestorm said, as he focused his powers more and more.
Pollux fell to one knee. The heat was unbearable, even for him. And the brat was right, it was getting harder and harder for him to breathe. There was only one way out. Using the last of his strength, Pollux leapt straight through the flames.
He hit the ground outside his prison, and sweet oxygen filled his lungs. He lay on the ground panting.
“Give up yet?” Firestorm taunted, unable to see the smile on Pollux’s face.
Pollux ran as fast as he could to the nearest car. Firestorm only saw a blur. Fissure barely had time to earthport Firestorm out of the path of the car, as it flew as hard as Pollux could throw it. Instead, it crashed through the dealership building, and through a wall.
Pixel appeared next to the heroes. “You guys almost killed me!” She shouted.
“What?” Mr Perfect asked.
“I had Castor in there, that car came crashing through the wall. What the hell guys?” Pixel asked.
“Wait… Castor was in there?” Blackbird asked. There was another crash, as the roof began caving in.
“Oh crap.” Firestorm said.
“You’re screwed now.” Pollux laughed.
Castor emerged from the wreckage of the building swiftly, flying into the air as quickly as he could. “I’m going to enjoy this.” He said. Suddenly, he was flying directly at Firestorm, fist outstretched.
Mr Perfect wasn’t fast enough to save Firestorm from the deadly blow, neither was Pixel or Fissure. Firestorm closed his eyes and awaited the inevitable.
It never came. Firestorm opened his eyes to find Castor hovering in midair, fist not an inch from the teen hero’s face.
“As much as I enjoy watching Firestorm get punched in the face, I’m less partial to him being turned into pudding. Figured I’d better save him.”
“No way!” Pixel squealed.
Everyone turned to see their saviour, but he wasn’t alone. Back to back, floating in the air behind the Brat Pack, in full costume were the last people they expected.
“You guys seriously can’t survive without us, can you?” Mr Universe asked.
“Ok Brats, reunion comes later.” Belle said. “Let’s do this.”

“Don’t be so down on yourself kid.” GL said, placing a hand on Mr Perfect’s shoulder.
“We should have been able to win this.” Mr Perfect said.
“No. No you shouldn’t.” GL said. “Castor and Pollux have had us on the ropes for months. All we’ve been able to do is keep them on the run.”
“I thought maybe it would be different.” Mr Perfect said.
“Look, you kids have come a long way, and I don’t doubt that one of these days you’ll be taking over my job, but trust me on this one: Castor and Pollux are out of your league.” GL said. “They’re out of our league at the moment.”
“Talon’s team has all the firepower nowadays.” Corona complained.
“And she took the only eye candy on the team. It’s a total sausage fest.” Plasma added.
The two team leaders ignored the reformed criminal brothers. “Look kid, you lost one. It happens. You can’t let it get you down.”
“You expect me to just ignore the fact we were getting our asses kicked?” Mr Perfect asked.
“No. You lost. You’re right. That’s a big deal. But you know what? You can learn from it. Improve yourself. So that next time, you can put up a bigger fight. Make them retreat of your own accord, or at the least, hold them off long enough for backup to arrive.” GL said.
Mr Perfect was silent, deep in thought. GL nodded, and took his hand off Mr Perfect’s shoulder.
GL turned to the rest of the Brat Pack, who were watching. “What happened here was no-one’s fault.” He said. “You were outmatched, that is all. You went in prepared, but you just weren’t good enough this time.” He looked at each Brat, making full eye contact. “But you did what few others can. You stood against two of the strongest villains in the world, and here you are, completely intact. You can be proud of that.”
Fissure and Pixel stood in awed silence, staring at the legendary hero in front of them, giving his speech. Ice Princess looked bored, like she had somewhere else to be. Mr Perfect and Blackbird both didn’t seem to be listening, instead concentrating on something else. Firestorm…
“That’s a load of crap.” Firestorm said. “We’re not here for the ‘Most Improved’ trophy. We’re here for the win. We’re here to kick ass and take names.”
“Firestorm…” Fissure warned.
“No. You come down here from your ivory tower and you want to tell us that we’ve tried really hard, and we’re going to be ok? That’s a load of bull.” Firestorm said. “Perfect screwed up. We shouldn’t have been here. We don’t need to be coddled. We don’t need to have our hands held. Stop treating us like children.”
“Look, I understand you’re ang-“ GL was cut off.
“No. You don’t. When was the last time someone talked down to you?” Firestorm demanded. “You don’t remember, do you? No. Because you’re fricken’ GL. You’re a Boomer. That’s it. You’re on top.”
“Last warning.” Fissure said.
Firestorm turned to look at his teammate, and realised the whole team was staring at him. The Boomers were doing the same. Firestorm just smirked.
“So how about you guys do your job? You guys take down Castor and Pollux, instead of showing up at the last minute to claim all the glory, and tell us that we’re not good enough.” Firestorm asked.
“Perfect! Stop him!” Pixel yelled.
The assembled heroes turned to look at Mr Perfect. Firestorm looked ready for a fight.
“No.” Mr Perfect said, to a stunned silence.
“Sir…” Fissure said.
“He’s right. Fissure, take the team back to the Penthouse.” Mr Perfect said, his voice hollow. “We’re done here.”
Before Fissure could respond, Mr Perfect took off into the air, disappearing into the blue as quickly as possible.
Fissure looked at GL, almost apologetically, before the team disappeared into the ground. The last thing the Boomers saw was the shock on Firestorm’s face.
<><><>
Mr Perfect couldn’t believe what had just happened. He had stood by and let Firestorm talk down to GL of all people. And then he had agreed with him!
The entire world was falling apart. The Brats were in way over their heads, and it was his fault. He was too overconfident, he made too many mistakes. He wasn’t fit to lead them. Maybe it was time for Fissure to take over? He had led the Brat Pack in his own time, he knew the tactics, and he was far better at field command than Mr Perfect was.
Mr Perfect took a lap of the city, before touching down on the balcony of the Brat Penthouse.
“Sir?” Fissure was waiting for him. “All due respect: What the hell was that?”
Mr Perfect looked at his teammate. “I was making a stand.” He said. He had to back up his actions now.
“Against who? Last time I checked, GL was on our side. He’s treated us a lot better than we ever deserved, and you’re just going to throw that away?” Fissure asked.
Mr Perfect shook his head. “We’re fighting on the same side, but they’re treating us like rookies. Like we don’t know what we’re doing.”
“Because we don’t!” Fissure shouted. “You taught me that.”
Mr Perfect stood in stunned silence. Fissure had never raised his voice at him before.
“You were the one who set the age limit on the Rebellion. It was you who decided that kids shouldn’t be fighting, because kids weren’t up to it. You kept us apart from everything. Mr Universe saw it the other way. The number of times you almost split over it…” Fissure just shook his head. “The fact is, sir, we’ve still got a long way to go.”
“You said it yourself. Kids aren’t up to it. We’re not kids anymore.” Mr Perfect said.
“Ally is. And when we were old enough, we didn’t go straight into battle. We didn’t lead groups of teenagers into battle. We were trained. We followed orders. We always had someone with more experience backing us up. We were a unit.”
Mr Perfect scowled. “You were sent back in time alone.”
“I was the last resort. And I was a Brat. That meant something where I was from. Don’t ruin it now.” Fissure said, melding into the tiled floor and disappearing.
Mr Perfect sat down and buried his face in his hands. It had been a long day.
“I knew you’d regret it.”
Mr Perfect looked up and saw Mosley standing there. Mr Perfect just scowled at his teammate.
“But you know it’s right. And I saw it in your eyes. You’re sick of this crap too. We’re not kids anymore. They need to stop talking down to us.” Mosley said.
Mr Perfect sighed. “We were disrespectful.”
“And so were they!” Mosley said. “Who took down Gauss? Who took down the Order of Darkness? Hadi? The Assembly? I’ll tell you now, it wasn’t GL and the Boomers B-Team.”
Mr Perfect shook his head. “You don’t get it, do you? Those guys are small time. GL has fought Constellation, Extreme, Malachi. GL has saved the entire world, dozens of times.”
“Umm…” Ally stood in the doorway.
“What?” Mr Perfect asked.
Ally pointed at the television on the wall, Mr Perfect hadn’t even noticed it was on. The news showed a battered and bruised West Coast Boomers being teleported off a battlefield by Jack Roman.
“They took it to heart.” Mosley said, heading to his room. “I guess he was right. The Boomers aren’t any match for Castor and Pollux.”
“We are.” Blackbird stood on the balcony.
“What? Weren’t you there?” Ally asked.
“I was. Our plan was solid. We just need to be more careful.” Blackbird said.
“Oh hell yes!” Mosley said. “You guys call Fissure and IP back, I’ll get changed.” Mosley ran out of the room, pulling his shirt over his head as he ran.
“Kev?” Ally asked.
“Mr Perfect when I’m in costume. And go change into yours.” Mr Perfect said. “L-“
“Let’s do this!” Mosley shouted from the other room.