Blueprint 3.x (Interlude: Medhu, Dauntless)
Leecifer
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Blueprint 3.x (Interlude: Medhu, Dauntless)
Medhu came to with a mouthful of blood and a chest full of pain. He stilled as he waited for the beeping of his watch, but it did not come. Trying to open his eyes, and only managing one, the other felt sticky, swollen shut. He looked around. He was seated on a chair, strapped in by the feel of it, the restraints digging uncomfortably into his wrists and ankles informing him that he had been divested of his standard dress shirt and slacks, left in his undershirt and underwear.
Well, this isn't optimal he thought as he took in the room around him. He'd expected to be in some dark and dank basement, but the place he was in had an almost clinical look: well lit, clean white walls, and the faint odor of disinfectant barely discernable over the metallic tang of blood. Shifting, the chair appeared to be bolted to the floor, and padded, oddly enough.
His musings were cut off as the steel door leading out opened, a rough looking man walking in with his beeping watch. Medhu looked at him. White, blond, though if you looked closely you could tell he colored it, clean shaven, but with a couple of minor scars. Edging up, barely visible, was the top of a tattoo. Normally that wouldn't be enough, but he'd done his research, and that particular piece of body modification was unfortunately common om this city. What could only be a member of the Empire Eighty-Eight addressed Medhu, unfazed by his injuries, asking only "How do I turn off the alarm. Tell me, or I'll break it."
Medhu smiled, or tried to. It felt like one of his teeth was loose. That probably explained the blood. "Press the button by the six twice," he instructed, trying not to hiss in pain. Yes, one of his ribs was probably broken, and while it hadn't pierced anything, it made breathing too deeply. . . interesting. The Neo-Nazi did so, checking his phone afterwards before nodding and putting both watch and phone away as he walked out. From the glimpse Medhu had of his captor's phone, it was running a frequency tracker.
That was smart, he mused as the racist left. If that had been a distress signal, they would have noticed, and this room may be shielded. I hate dealing with intelligent foes. What was far more interesting had been the identification badge the guard had been wearing. It appeared he was being held within the Medhall building itself, which was apparently in league with the E88. Well, that explains why it's doing so well. Probably should sell my stocks though.
With that in mind, he let go of his power, the world fading out in blurs of black and silver, which was still something he was getting used to. Returning back to his breakfast, twelve hours before his capture, Medhu glanced at the clock, seeing only a minute had passed. He made a note to cancel his meeting with the new client today, taking a sip of his coffee to wash away the phantom taste of blood that hadn't been spilled just yet.
The man took a deep breath, the memory of the pain such an action would have entailed in twelve hours dispelled by the act. Sighing, he looked over his possible futures. Laid out in front of him like this he only got vague impressions, enough to gain an emotional sense, but glean no true information, which he apparently needed now more than ever before.
Ever since the day that the. . . merging had happened, his life had become more interesting, in the Chinese sense. It was hard to believe that it was less than a week ago when he'd rushed from place to place, barely even using his powers as he was awash in memories that where not his own, another flavoring his own that had changed how he viewed things, how he did things, and, unfortunately, still did. If he went down to his office as normal, he ended up hurt, a ten second dive into that possibility bringing him back to that secluded room in the Medhall building, though his tooth wasn't loose, and he had what felt like a lightly broken arm.
Looking down the path of if he stayed and worked from his penthouse, doing the best job he could, for the third day this week, the sense of bored safety expanded. His surroundings faded out in black and silver, which itself was also different. Normally everything faded in deep ochres and reds, the colors Medhu had always associated with his powers, though he wasn't sure why. Now it was black and silver, and feeling the metallic color instead of the grey his eyes saw was an odd sensation, and he had to put it down to his other sets of memories, Jack's memories, affecting his powers, though he wasn't sure if there were other effects, which bothered him greatly.
Seeing himself uninjured and at his desk, he looked down at the list in his hands which gave an overview of the day's events. It was a habit that he'd carefully cultivated, as his power only let him choose general paths, letting his normal habits take root and guide him between needed events. As such, he'd made it a habit to, always, between eight and ten past eight, have written a list of the important events of the day to better review what had happened. He had a pad of flash paper at both his home and office desks specifically for that purpose, burning it afterwards and claiming it to be a "mind clearing exercise" to his assistant. Staring at a piece of paper for ten minutes was terribly boring, but his power gave him a twelve-hour view into the future, exactly, and doing these dives took time, so he needed to do the boring chore to make sure he was looking at it when he peered down the periscope of fate.
Focusing on his list, he had apparently approved a few new hires and negotiated with the new construction company, a Fortress Construction, to rebuild his shop across from the Medhall building, having asked for additional surveillance and security options. The additions, once again, validating his first dive, unpleasant as it was, as the information gained from one shaped all the others. He prioritized the unpleasant ones first, making any passing discomfort from them worth the effort, so as to choose one that avoided them for real.
Third on the list, with the star symbolizing an outside event, was the robbing of Bay Central at one in the afternoon. The participants listed were three names. The first was The Wards, though why you'd send children to stop a bank robbery baffled him, but also stirred a faint feeling of moral outrage that he wouldn't have had . . . before. The Second group, The Undersiders, might have explained the first, as they apparently sent children to fight children. Once again, the ironic humor was tinged with a disgust born from another life, one that Medhu hadn't lived.
The Third?
It exemplified the problem he'd been grappling with. It was completely unreadable, the letters shifting, growing, shrinking, and blinking out entirely as he looked down at the page, completely unable to be read.
That meant it must have been his son, no, Jack's son, who had apparently taken the identity of the hero Vejovis, that was there. It hadn't taken that much effort to put together, after all, as he'd identified the young man that his new memories had tagged as Lee Rycroft as the source the corruption of his power. And shortly after that, he becomes unable to see the actions that this new hero 'Vejovis' took. That and the e-mail that the hero had sent him, which spelled out his name in the margin, helped.
He turned his focus back to the list he was looking at, as his power did have a timed aspect to be mindful of, and if he stayed lost in thought too long this version of himself would torch the list before he finished reading it. It was something he'd done before. Fourth down on the list was a fight between the E88 and a new parahuman pair calling themselves "Boojack and Jackhammer", with "Black Supremacist?" written immediately after.
Fifth was the kidnapping of the mayor's niece, which he didn't care about, though, again, part of him wanted to do something to stop it. He squashed that impulse, one he hadn't felt in years, as doing so would have outed him as a precognitive, and as one he wouldn't be able to avoid notice, which was his first, and best, defense.
Deciding to go with this fate, Medhu activated his power, dropping back to the present, his body started finishing his breakfast, his mind in the passenger's seat. He'd continue on with his power like this, able to think freely and observe what was going on without disturbing what he did as he made the vision he'd seen a reality. If something went wrong, or if he saw a possibility that he hadn't considered, he could take over his body again, aborting that fate. He wouldn't have the pre-prepared list to review, but sometimes, occasionally, it was worth doing. What it did allow him was a great deal of time to think and plan while the boring details of the day were taken care of. As his body finished eating and started doing the dishes, Medhu's mind considered the e-mail.
He hadn't responded to it, as every future that he did was borderline impossible to see, shifting and glitching into uselessness. Part of him, the newer part, wanted to track down his son, if only to get answers as to just what was going on. The rest of him, what he wanted to think of as his original self, wanted to do no such thing. His power was what kept him safe from harm, from kidnapping, from death itself, and if he were to meet his- no, Jack's son, he'd be doing so completely blind. He wanted to keep that other set of memories, that other personality, separate from his own, but they were settling into him, changing him, and quite frankly he found that terrifying.
To contact Vejovis, Lee, whomever this person was, would be something that Jack would do in an instant, and was thus something he was avoiding as hard as he could, though some part of him, part of the him that was originally him, knew that struggle was futile.
That struggle was also, he considered, the source of his current. . . difficulties. After that first day, his following of the source of the interference with his powers, and his momentary mercy, so out of character for him, made him of interest to the Empire. Arriving at his Medhall shop, and dismissing the workers to try to keep them safe before the miniature gang war blew through, had attracted the attention of no less than Kaiser himself.
Two days later his power had shown him that the new client he was to meet had been with the leader of the Empire, who had come to him with an offer: Turn over the mole he obviously had in their organization, and he'd be compensated for helping them close a hole in their security. He'd been given twenty-four hours to consider their offer, but it was a matter of time before they found out he didn't have anyone, and after that he'd have an angry blade generator to contend with.
Aborting that timeline, he'd cancelled the meeting, citing a flu, which just made things more tenuous. His new self, the one with Jack's memories, had wanted to try a third option, to fight and call for help, but he, his old self, the division was easier then, overruled himself somehow, he wasn't sure how anymore. The next day he dodged another meeting, and he'd received a message from the gang-leader directly via e-mail with a new offer. Turn over the name of the mole, or the name of the precognitive that he had on staff, or they'd kill him.
After that at least one path, per day, resulted in his death or capture, and it was really wearing on Medhu. As long as he could continue avoiding them, he was fine, and the fact that he used a fake identity when renting his current abode was surely paying off now. He, his new, merged self, reminded the old that his powers were all about information gathering, and it was only a matter of time until he needed help, and if he just reached out to his son, he'd have the help he needed. That if he had listened to himself before, he wouldn't have gotten himself into this situation in the first place. Medhu, the old Medhu, though that distinction was slowly becoming irrelevant, shut down his own thoughts as his body sat down to go over his e-mails for the day. 'I told you so's' after the fact where of no use to him right now.
After all, anyone could be a post-cog.
As he walked towards the meeting room, Dauntless rotated his shoulder, working the stiffness that lingered from his fight this morning, if you could call it that. Against the new pair of capes that had been killing the members of the Empire Eighty-Eight, they'd been practically useless. They'd arrived to a scene of carnage, some thugs unconscious, some maimed, and some little more than crushed bodies under the feet of the one who kept changing into animals. Rhinoceroses, elephants, even a giraffe once, but all stronger than they should have been, and by the time his team had arrived the fight had turned deadly at what seemed like a shapeshifting, barnyard version of Lung. They now had Crusader in custody, though not the new parahumans, as they had run after clashing with the Protectorate, though it didn't feel like a victory to the hero.
Entering, he nodded to Velocity, who was writing up his report at super speed, and Battery, who was doing the same at a more sedate pace while Assault joked and tried to get her to laugh. "I'm just sayin', we didn't really need to get in the middle of it. There weren't any innocents involved, and the situation was pretty black and white!" he smiled, Battery putting down her pen to hold her face in her hands.
"I cannot believe you just said that," she groaned, mouth twitching minutely as she forced herself not to smile.
Dauntless walked to his normal seat, giving the Wards a nod as well. His team had been sent to support them, when the impromptu gang war had diverted them to a higher-priority threat, and while the report the man had read had said that they succeeded in securing the hostages, they didn't have the air of a group who'd won either. "How's the arm?" Velocity asked the newcomer, not looking up.
He shrugged experimentally. "Not that bad," the item-enhancer responded. "Boojack was stronger than he looked, but my shield took most of it."
Velocity nodded, still writing his report, "And faster. Even with my power I've picked up a few bruises."
Dauntless' eyebrows rose at that. The suited cape hadn't been that fast when he'd fought him. Was he holding back? he thought. Why? Triumph came in, taking his seat on Dauntless' other side, no longer limping like he'd been when they'd gotten back to the Rig. He was about to ask the younger man about his take when Miss Militia and Armsmaster walked in, followed closely by Director Piggot and a PRT tech, who plugged in his laptop, typing away as everyone else took their seats as usual. The Director didn't, always insisting on standing at these meetings.
It was probably a power move, but Dauntless didn't mind. She was the director of the Brockton PRT branch, and, as a member of the Protectorate, he ultimately answered to her.
She looked around the table, gaze dispassionate and disapproving, though she usually wore that expression when talking to them, so he wasn't sure if that was just how she looked normally. "I'm sure you've known why I've called you here, but in case some of you haven't been reading your reports," her eyes flicked over to the Wards, and Dauntless wondered if something had happened at the bank, "we've had at least seven new parahumans appear in almost as many days, and while most of them are presenting themselves as heroes, events have transpired such that we need to consolidate our resources and brief you formally."
"The first," she stated, as the tech turned on the table, the image of a shakily taken camera video playing. "Has no official name. For now we are calling him Spectrum, given his eyes." The clip of a man in a white hoodie with an embroidered red lion on his bank having a confrontation with Lung played, the man dodging blows before hitting his foe, knocking the Yakuza villain back and forth, immune to the flames the man-dragon was giving off. Flashing a thumbs up to the camera, the image stilled, showing two glowing eyes set against the unnatural shadows the hoodie cast across his face, the orbs prismatic in their coloration.
The video resumed as the cape was taken off his feet by Lungs tail, fire obscuring what happened next as Lung was sent flying out, impacting the store across the boardwalk, Spectrum and a dark-skinned man covered in soot with a canary yellow jacket wrapped around his head ran out of the flames seemingly unharmed, taking off at almost inhuman speeds as Lung started to pursue and the clip restarted from the beginning. "As for the other individual, we have no evidence of powers, other than his resistance to fire. What is of note is that Spectrum's clothing seemed unharmed, both by flames and Lung's claws." The video played slowed down clips of the cape getting hit by claws that could tear steel, the cloth merely depressing. "We're giving him a preliminary rating him Brute 5, Mover 3, given his bursts of speed in the video. He or his friend may be one of the others that have shown up recently, but we cannot be certain."
"Second of all is the hero Vejovis," she continued, and Armsmaster gave a dismissive snort, drawing Dauntless attention. Had they had met? Director Piggot paused, annoyed, before continuing, the screen showing security camera footage of a man in a white and blood red bodysuit. "We first heard of him when he walked inside our office, asking to register his independent team." Her statement was met with expressions of shock and surprise. Dauntless himself thought of his own recruitment into the Protectorate, working on his own as an independent hero before meeting Miss Militia on patrol.
"Who does that?" asked Assault acerbically. "There's no flair to that at all; it's just so boring!"
The Director raised an eyebrow at the jokester. "When informed that he couldn't name his group Twilight Protectors, he changed it to Penumbral Defenders." Assault snorted. "Yes, it was only after the name was officially approved that someone pointed out the acronym issue." It took Dauntless a second, but he saw it as well. What naming yourself the PD meant for the parahuman's intentions, he wasn't sure. "His abilities appear to be a mosaic power expression, though our experts say that the other factors involved are not present. He possesses an Alexandria package similar to Glory Girl's, though thankfully lacking in her shaker power. He possesses a healing power similar to Panacea's, though again, weaker than hers. His unique power appeared to be insect control," Clockblocker shuddered, and Dauntless was now sure that something had happened at the bank, "But one of the other new parahumans appears to have that as her power as well."
"Ma'am?" Gallant asked, voice thick with thought. "I've studied parahuman science with Glory Girl, it would fit if he had insect control, and the other controller had some other power but patterned the one we saw of his. There are cases of that happening, but no one has more than three powers."
Director Piggot nodded. "That is one of our theories, another is Tinkertech. Please keep your comments to yourself until the briefing is over, Gallant." The boy apologized, and the image changed to a still shot of Vejovis as he was lifting off the ground. "He has been labelled a Mover, Brute, Striker, Master, though as usual no values are assigned until he proves himself to be a threat." Armsmaster shifted unhappily, obviously disagreeing with that assessment without words.
"The other two members are a pair of African American brothers, going by Break and Enter, both are claimed to become stronger as they fight in a similar manner to Lung. Enter is able to turn into dinosaurs." Assault looked incredulous, but the Wards looked unsurprised.
The image changed to a familiar man in a suit with pitch black skin, clear mask on his face next to larger man wearing working clothes, skin leathery and almost grey. "Another pair of Parahumans, that we became aware of today, go by Boojack and Jackhammer," she continued, ignoring Assault as he tried to say something. "Who we know are separate, as they were seen the same time as Break and Enter, and the fact that Jackhammer seems to only be able to turn into mammals confirms it. The two pairs are almost certainly cluster triggers, though we don't know the circumstances, or even their identities. Break and Boojack are Brute 4's, Enter and Jackhammer and Brute 4's and Changer 6's"
"The only female in the group," Piggot pressed on, "is an insect controller who goes by The Lady, Bug. From what we can tell she's a recent Trigger, and is a probationary member of the Vejovis's team." The image shifted again, showing the entrance to the PRT building again, at a later hour, Vejovis and a girl completely covered in black and grey armor, except for her chestnut brown hair and wasp yellow lenses. She-"
"That's her!" Clockblocker said, "The one at the bank!"
Director Piggot regarded him coolly. "Are you saying you can make a positive identification. That you saw her clearly, or have evidence that she was there? Because that's what the Defender's lawyers are requiring before they will cooperate."
"Um, no, but I saw that yellow, and they had all of those bugs!" he defended.
"Seein' a color and getting hit by insects' not enough kid," Assault responded before the Director could, "Not when there might be a third one that controls creepy crawlers around, even if it does bug you."
"She is considered a Master, though she may have other powers, as stated." Piggot rolled on, with the tiniest of nods to Gallant. "Lastly we have 'Boardwalk', who has been active at night, targeting the Merchants." The screen changed to a drawing showing a man in drawing studded leather, hood, and mask, different colored spots across his form, feet completely white. "Mover, Breaker, Blaster, and Brute, Gallant and Shadow Stalker made contact last night. He gave his name, and provided them with thumb drives which contained coded information on drug trafficking. What is of note is that he knew Shadow Stalkers civilian identity."
"That glowing asshole unmasked me!" the Ward in question yelled. "Fucker needs to die!"
Gallant sighed. "No, he didn't Shadow Stalker, he used the first syllable of your first name, and he was doing so as a joke. His emotions were anger and humor, and he wasn't loud enough for anyone else to hear."
"But he knew who you were?" Triumph asked, sitting up.
Gallant nodded, "Definitely, and his powers interacted oddly with hers. To me he was dark, like Stalker, but with different colors that moved across his body. Whenever he flew his feet turned bright white. To her he apparently was always glowing like Purity, which is why she missed when she tried to shoot him."
Director Piggot turned to the recalcitrant Ward. "You did not mention that you attacked him in your report."
She shrugged, indifferent. "Didn't hit the fucker, who unmasked me, so who cares?"
"I do," was the response. "That brings us to today's events. Boojack and Jackhammer attacked the E88, and displayed a level of violence such that they should only be approached with overwhelming force unless we find out more. While that was happening, Dinah Alcott, the mayor's niece was kidnapped. At the same time, the villain group known as the Undersiders attempted to rob Bay Central Bank. At least two of these events are related, if not all three, so all parties involved are wanted for questioning."
"What about the Defenders?" asked Aegis.
"Not at this time," Director Piggot told him, Armsmaster scowling next to her. "I'll be reviewing your individual reports tonight, but in short, what occurred?"
The Wards, except for the pouting Shadow Stalker, shared a look. "We received the call at school," Aegis started, "And headed towards the Bank with Glory Girl."
"And your handler approved this?" Director Piggot asked leadingly.
Aegis shook his head. "No Mam, he didn't respond when we tried to contact our support. We chose to continue as time is of the essence in a robbery."
Her eyebrow rose. "I'll have to review the logs. You know that, by bringing Glory Girl along, you were responsible for her actions, correct?"
He nodded curtly. "Yes Mam. I believed her capabilities outweighed the risks. When we arrived, the windows were blacked out with Grue's power. He said he was going to send the hostages out, extending the smoke, but we were attacked by insects, the Undersiders engaging us immediately after. Sometime during the encounter Break and Enter, um, entered the conflict, fighting both us and the Undersiders. We were incapacitated, as was Break, and the Undersiders fled with the money they stole. Vejovis, who was inside with the hostages, was injured, and Panacea and Glory Girl were able to get the hostages to safety. We met Vejovis, who was healed by Panacea, before he, Break, and Enter left. We were not in a state to detain them, and we were not aware of the legality of such as an action, as our handler could not be reached."
She looked at the Ward, studying him, but he held fast under her gaze. "Is that all?" she asked. She knows something Dauntless realized as Aegis nodded. "You had no other plans, such as switching costumes with Clockblocker to attempt to fool your opponents into making a tactical error?" What? Dauntless thought. He could see how that might work, especially with Clockblocker's power, but the risks!
Aegis paled. "I," he started, apparently caught in a lie. "I did not believe that would be of interest to the group as a whole. It won't happen again."
"See that it won't," she informed him coldly. "If your handler was indeed absent, he shares some of the blame. I'm sure you're wondering how I knew about your deception attempt. It is one of the reason the Penumbral Defenders are, regrettably, hands-off right now." She leaned back, eyes dark and arms crossed as the display flickered back to life, showing a video of, what Dauntless realized, the bank robbery.
The camera angles weren't great, and one of the cameras was partially obscured by what looked like a beetle covering part of the lens. The darkness that Aegis described was indeed covering the front of the bank, blacking out the windows in a wall of impenetrable shadow. The sound was of low quality, but they could hear Grue call out that they were sending out hostages, only for the darkness to billow out, an almost biblical swarm of insects pouring out of those black mists, attacking the Wards as three monstrous creatures, presumably Hellhound's dogs, leapt out, going directly for Clockblocker, actually Aegis. They knew Dauntless realized, the disguised Aegis getting knocked over as they ran over him, not worried about Clockblocker's neutralizing touch. Hellhound emerged from the darkness, quickly re-orienting herself and going for the downed form of the Ward's leader, only to be hit by a blue ball of energy from Gallant.
As she screamed in rage Gallant explained from his seat, "I hit her with a calming blast. Sometimes they don't work, but I haven't seen a reaction that bad." The Director nodded, but said nothing as they all watched. The new member, Browbeat engaged Grue as the villain shed darkness around himself, quickly obscuring the fight. Kid Win pulled something off his back, what appeared to a backpack folding out into a floating cannon.
The thing was almost three times as big as he was, floating and glowing ominously. Climbing aboard, he pulled a lever, and sheet of lightning spreading out, bridging between raindrops and frying the swarm in front of him. Swiveling it he fired one shot from the cannon itself, blasting a dog off Aegis. Firing again, he hit it midair before his head snapped over, obviously seeing something beyond the camera's view.
Kid Win smiled broadly as he turned the cannon and pressed something, the cannon firing out a beam nearly twice the size of the previous shots into the bank, the camera angle changing to show the glowing beam firing into the darkness. The video paused.
"Now," the Director's voice practically boiled, simmering with anger and disgust, "I know I might have missed that particular piece of paperwork. I am, after all, human. But I'd hope that I'd recognize seeing the form detailing that. What is the name that particular piece of Tinkertech, Kid Win, to help jog my memory."
"I-It's. Um," the boy stuttered. You didn't, Dauntless thought, stomach sinking. Even though he could have argued that his empowered equipment didn't need the testing, he still made sure to get all of his pieces checked out every month. It only took a few hours, helped him quantify his increase in power, and avoided problems. "It's my Alternator Cannon, I just finished it."
"You mean you just finished getting it tested, correct?" She asked, tone now icier than the arctic. "Because you know that using untested equipment in the field means that you not only will be up for disciplinary review, but possibly criminal charges as well."
Kid Win paled. Probably didn't even think about it, Dauntless thought pityingly. "I. I built it to take down A-class threats and-"
"And you decided to use it in a hostage situation, against an unknown foe, when you had no confirmation that they did not-in fact-have hostages in the battlefield." She cut him off, practically hissing as she glared at the quaking Tinker. "According to Panacea's report, your blast would have sent shards of flying glass into the hostages, had not she and Vejovis gotten them out of the line of your fire. Your second blast nearly killed everyone inside, villain and hero alike, and it's only due to sheer luck that no one died. Luckily those who could do so are not pressing criminal charges, which is yet another reason the Penumbral Defenders are hands off. I cannot charge you directly, but the damages done, and they are extensive will come out of the pay of all of the Wards on-site when this fiasco occurred. Am. I. understood?" she snapped.
It looked like Aegis and Clockblocker wanted to say something, but they kept their mouths shut. "Y-Yes mam!" Kid Win stuttered, looking like he wanted to bolt, but Director Piggot wasn't done.
"Furthermore, you are to turn over every piece of equipment for re-review, are on Monitor Duty for the next 3 months, only allowed to return to active service after you have finished the training you will receive to make sure something like this will never happen again." She gave him a moment to understand what she said, turning back to the display after he broke himself out of his shock to nod frantically.
The video picked up where it left off, the image of Kid Win still smiling as he swiveled the cannon back around, sighting in on another dog as a roar of anger rang out, distorted by the Grue's darkness, but deep and masculine. From the shadows a large man in an odd combination of black formal suit, purple sneakers, and purple metal gauntlets practically flew at Kid Win, who tried to swivel the cannon to hit the new threat.
A second even larger man came out of the darkness, dark skin oddly shiny, eyes obscured by shades, dressed head to toe in what looked like alligator skin. Jacket, shirt, pants, boots, all of it was the same material, though only the jacket and boots matched in pattern. The second man leapt with a speed that spoke of powers, pushing the first man, and launching him farther upwards, twisting himself to avoid the blast from the cannon that missed him by what looked like inches.
The first man, still flying, was pointed towards the fight Gallant was having with Hellhound as he started his decent, but ended up twisting to land on the cannon fist first, the entire thing buckling under the impact, hitting the ground as whatever let it hover was overloaded.
Kid Win drew a pistol to hit the man who'd hit his cannon, but was interrupted as the first man rolled off the piece of artillery, grabbing the Ward by the face and taking him to the ground. Dauntless noted that man seemed careful to make sure that his opponent didn't hit the ground head first, but flat on his back, the man's weight impacting Kid Win's chest, knocking the wind out of him and probably bruising his ribs.
The care that the first man, who Dauntless assumed was Break, displayed was not shared by Enter. That man, after dodging the cannon blast, had hit the ground, form shifting into what he was pretty sure was a velociraptor, and tore off so quickly he almost left a path in the rain, covering the distance towards his new target in an instant.
A bark from one of the dogs gave Hellhound a half second's warning to duck as Enter's fist, having shifted to human form, passed right where the back of her head had been. She sidestepped her attacker, trying once again to go after Gallant, only to get caught by the back of her jacket by Enter, who threw her back, stepping between the two.
Hellhound gave a guttural growl as she glared at the interloper, sound carrying clearly over the rain. Enter tipped his glasses down and growled back, a deeper but infinitely more menacing sound. They stared each other down before Hellhound lowered her gaze, turning to go fight Aegis, while Gallant shot Enter in the back with a blue blast, drawing looks from those assembled.
"I was aiming a blast at Regent, and he changed my aim. I hadn't thought that he'd seen me," the Master/Blaster explained a little defensively. The tech backed the video up, and you could see Gallant's arm twitching to face Enter's back at the last moment, while at the corner of the screen Regent's arm twitched as well in a similar motion.
After being hit, Enter's aggressive posture slackened as he turned to face Gallant, head tilting in confusion, or disbelief, before the large man shrugged and calmly stalked towards the Ward who appeared to have just shot him in the back.
Dodging several more blasts with an almost casual air, Enter reached out an open hand and casually smacked the Ward in the side of the head, sending the teen stumbling away from the force. As Gallant tried to come back with another blast, Enter struck the Ward's arm, sending it wild, before smacking the other side of his head, sending him stumbling off again. It dawned on Dauntless, he's playing with him.
"It worked," Gallant told them, having a couple of glances sent his way. "It wasn't like Hellhound, he calmed down, and was just having fun with me. He was strong enough that he could've done a lot worse." The back and forth that was going on, with Enter completely controlling the fight, batting the smaller grey armored figure back and forth, brought up unpleasant parallels to one of his ex-girlfriend's cats, whenever it caught a mouse.
At this time Break had gotten up from Kid Win, who was flat on his back gasping for breath, the Tinker coughing as he inhaled water, and the older man charged the confrontation between a downed Aegis, two of Hellhound's dogs, and the villainess herself. However, instead of taking down Aegis like Dauntless expected, Break ran to one of the dogs, giving it a brutal kick to the ribs, lifting it up and sending it flying almost a meter away, what must've been half a ton of flesh landing with a crash as it impacted a parked car.
With the unexpected support, Aegis was able to get to his feet using his flight, chest bleeding freely from bite wounds that would have been deadly on anyone else. Hellhound turned on Break, throwing a wild punch which he grabbed, twisting her around and lifting her into the air before landing in a move that looked like Aleph professional wrestling, yelling "Steiner Bomb!" as he did so to the surprised looks of those assembled to watch.
The dog that had been sent flying leapt at Aegis' back, only to twist down unnaturally mid-jump and crash face-first into the ground at speed, the space it had been passing through warped. From the cloud of darkness Browbeat came running, moving towards for Vista, who had been busy keeping Hellhound's third dog away from herself.
Instead of tackling the hound however, he turned and punched the young girl in the jaw, sending her backwards, a look of betrayed surprise visible on her face, the camera angle showing it easily. As the heroes started to look at Browbeat, the theoretical Ward started emitting darkness, obscuring his form completely.
The video paused as Director Piggot addressed the Wards. "And this is why you need our permission for new tactics. If you do something, they will do it right back, and you need to be prepared for the backlash of your actions. From what we've seen, the leader of that group can see through the darkness he makes, which means he probably knows Browbeat's face, but as long as he doesn't say anything, we can't do anything to him in response."
She gave them another cross look before continuing the video. Break, getting up from Hellhounds moaning form, glanced over and saw Kid Win had gotten up and was getting the cannon back online. Charging him, Break dodged the Tinker's sidearm, lasers twisting randomly as they were fired, encountering areas of Vista's twisted space and missing, though Break's dodging also encountered them, slipping and throwing him down into the street, up into the air, and into cars as he tried to close on the Tinker.
Watching it from a remove like he was, Dauntless could make out the twists in space by the changed trajectories of falling rain, but from experience he knew those details slipped by in the haze of battle. By the time that Break was close to Kid Win, the Alternator Cannon was back online. As it turned to face him, Break dodged backwards, his path twisting to be thrown in front of the bank.
The Ward followed his target and lined up the shot, while Break looked behind himself, a frightened shout of "Watch out!" immediately drowned out by the sound of the weapon firing a blast several times larger than the first. Launching himself upwards, the beam passed right under the older an, impacting something in the darkness covering the front of the bank, the blast sending Break spinning off into the shadowed section of street. The Tinker tried to turn the cannon to follow him, probably to shoot him again like he'd done to the hound, not seeing Regent coming at him from behind.
The Undersider's scepter sparked as it was jammed into the back of the Ward's neck, sending him into spasms and falling to the street below, the darkness growing forward to cover both hero and villain.
Enter finished playing and knocked Gallant out, casually striding to where Aegis was fending off all three hounds. The man casually backhanded one of the dogs, sending it flying away, before grabbing Aegis' arm and pulling him out of the way of monstrous snapping jaws from another. The help was short lived, as Enter used Aegis as a cudgel to smack another dog, dropping the stunned hero as he glared at the third, who stopped trying to rejoin the fight, instead turning tail and running, retreating back to Hellhound, helping her to her feet and carrying her into the darkness.
From a side bank of Grue's dark mist, which covering part of the street, flew something small, which crossed the road and flew into the slowly dissipating blackness covering the front of the bank. A loud boom and flash of light came from within, the burning white brilliance barely shining through the wall of shadows.
As he stood over Aegis, watching this happen, Enter was hit by Clockblocker, who had stumbled out of the darkness a moment earlier. Instead of freezing in place the man gave a scream of pain, form flickering before exploding in a shower of gore that shocked the viewers.
"Holy shit!" yelled Assault as Clockblocker shuddered. Onscreen, Clockblocker froze in horror at what he'd done. A saurian roar was heard as Enter, alive and undamaged, ran in from an alley, turning into something that looked like a small T-rex, spinning to tail-whip Clockblocker into the side of building, where he slumped down, unconscious.
Grue's darkness quickly cleared, the Undersiders no-where to be seen, and Enter the only one still standing in soaked street. Vejovis, twin crimson trails of blood from his ears running down his mutilated neck, stumbled out from the ruins of the bank lobby, speaking far too loud. The cameras easily caught his words, as well as Aegis' demands that he identify himself, and Panacea accusing him of covering the villains escape. They watched the rest of the conversation, Vejovis echoing the Director's sentiments, the video ending as the cameras started to fly up towards the retreating group.
"And that is why the Penumbral Defenders are hands off," Director Piggot reiterated to those assembled, teeth clenched. "While they have not released this to the public, they are using it to blackmail us into not holding them responsible for their actions. Unless you catch them committing a crime, have proof that will stand up in court, and only then if I give the command, you are not to work against them. This is not the first encounter we have had with them." That statement got looks of surprise from everyone. Dauntless searched his memory for anyone he'd heard of whom had the power the Break, Enter, and Vejovis displayed, but couldn't come up with a single name. "Armsmaster, your report." Piggot spat, her dislike of the position she'd been forced into clear from her tone.
The leader of the Brockton Bay Protectorate stood, addressing the heroes. "Three days ago, I was contacted by a young woman, the parahuman who would later identify herself as The Lady, Bug. She asked about joining the Wards, but had my personal number, which was my first clue that something was amiss. She asked to meet in an abandoned lot off Canal street, and I agreed. After scouting the area, I met with her, but it quickly became clear that she had no intention of joining. From there I was ambushed by Break and Enter, with Vejovis likely prepared to stop me if I attempted to escape. I found that Enter was able to resist Brute-level tranquilizers, as well as electrical currents of several thousand volts, and temperatures of several hundred degrees Fahrenheit. They subdued me, before stealing my suit, my weapon, and my transport, finding and disabling the trackers within. I believe they are working with or for either a Tinker, or the Toybox themselves, and in my report suggested they be brought in with extreme prejudice, before they ambush any other heroes."
The bastards! Dauntless thought. They'd looked almost heroic, well, Vejovis and Break had, but that was obviously just a show for the rest of the heroes. If it weren't for what was obviously a setup, they probably would have stolen Gallant's suit, and Kid Win's equipment as well. Assault voiced Dauntless' thoughts: "So they were just playing for the cameras. Assholes."
"Funny you should mention cameras," Director Piggot remarked, voice humorless. "Today's video isn't the only one the Penumbral Defenders have sent us." Armsmaster's head snapped over to look at her. "Sit down, Armsmaster. I'm sure you'll find this video enlightening. I know it showed me something I'd hoped I'd never see."
The tech started another video, the camera angles much better, depicting The Lady, Bug standing in an empty lot. The differences in composition where completely different, almost cinematic. They prepared for this one, Dauntless realized. The other was a spur of the moment thing.
They saw Armsmaster arrive on his motorcycle, approach and engage the girl in conversation, voice easily audible. Finding out that that girl was the one who had taken down Lung was a shock, and it wasn't the only one. Assault was the first one to start glaring at their leader, but after a minute into the video he wasn't the only one. "It's obviously falsified." Armsmaster tried to say, talking over himself.
The video paused as the Director responded, not even turning to look at him. "Video is a lot harder to fake then reports, as you know. Our experts however, concluded that this valid, barring unknown Tinkertech. Now, be quiet and don't interrupt." The video rewound and played, the part that Armsmaster had tried to talk over showing why Lung had almost died. Did he do that on purpose? Dauntless thought, his image of his leader crumbling before him. Of course he did, this is Armsmaster, and, from Dauntless's experience working with the man, he never left anything to chance if he could help it.
Disheartened, Dauntless continued to watch as, verbally backed into a corner, Armsmaster chose to attack what was probably a scared teenage girl instead. The video froze on a ball that shot electricity, destroying the swarm the girl had summoned to defender herself, as the Director spoke. "You seem to have something in common with Kid Win, Armsmaster. I don't believe I've seen the plans for that weapon either."
The video continued as Break and Enter charged Armsmaster, Vejovis swooping in to pick Lady Bug up, pressing a hand to the back of her head. Healing her he realized, small electrical burns closing up visibly in the gaps where her costume had been burned away. The fight, if you could even call it that, continued, the two men surprising the Tinker and keeping him off balance as he tried to retreat. When he started to flee, it was Enter who followed, not Vejovis as Armsmaster claimed, though given the magnitude of his lies that was a relatively minor point.
As he watched Armsmaster hit the ground, he had to wince at the impact, but the hero's killing of Enter took them all by surprise, the girl as well by her cry of distress. Her bugs started to swarm before settling, her conversation with Vejovis clearly audible. After the reborn cape had rendered Armsmaster unconscious, they stripped him and rendered all of his hard work to scrap, a fact that Armsmaster hadn't known about, given the Tinker's pained expression, looking as if he had been kicked in the most vulnerable of places with each land of Enter's mace-like tail.
Their parting words were captured as they left, the video ending immediately afterwards. "If this was the only video they sent us, I could have worked around it to make sure they could be contained, but after today, that's not the case. Armsmaster!" the Director's voice held the whip-crack of command. "You are to turn over all of your remaining equipment for testing. You are not to go on patrol. You are not to serve monitor duty. You are not to leave the Rig unless I personally give you permission. You are relieved of command, and the only reason you are not confined to your quarters is for the sake of public appearances. Publicly you were injured in the confrontation with Boojack and Jackhammer and are currently convalescing. Miss Militia, you are now in charge of the Protectorate, with all the duties such a position entails. Am. I. Understood?"
Miss Militia looked like she wanted to object, but responded with a meek, "Yes Ma'am." Armsmaster sat there, not responding.
"I said am I understood Armsmaster?" Piggot reiterated.
"Yes," he ground out.
"Good. All of you are dismissed." The director glared at them all. "You've put the PRT in the kind of position that I do not like to be, and rendered us unable to respond to this," she waved at the video in disgust. "See that you don't make it any worse."
The assembled parahumans quickly and quietly left, Armsmaster sitting there for a moment before stomping out, Clockblocker jumping out of his way. Dauntless took his time, lingering at the door. "Can I help you Dauntless?" Piggot asked, with a tone that hinted that what he said needed to be important, or else.
"Ma'am," he started, pausing to pick his words. "As far as we know, have the Defenders done anything illegal?"
The Director, having turned to the tech's computer, informed him "We haven't caught them. Yet. That is all you need to worry about."
She seemed to be reviewing the second video, pausing it at points as Enter struck Armsmaster. She froze on one shot of him being punched in the face, lip split and blood flying. The woman seemed to be looking at this part in particular, playing and rewinding back to the strike, slowing it down frame by bloody frame. "Do you see something, Ma'am?" Dauntless couldn't help but ask.
"Yes," she announced with a cruel smirk and a click of the mouse. "My new wallpaper."
Medhu came to with a mouthful of blood and a chest full of pain. He stilled as he waited for the beeping of his watch, but it did not come. Trying to open his eyes, and only managing one, the other felt sticky, swollen shut. He looked around. He was seated on a chair, strapped in by the feel of it, the restraints digging uncomfortably into his wrists and ankles informing him that he had been divested of his standard dress shirt and slacks, left in his undershirt and underwear.
Well, this isn't optimal he thought as he took in the room around him. He'd expected to be in some dark and dank basement, but the place he was in had an almost clinical look: well lit, clean white walls, and the faint odor of disinfectant barely discernable over the metallic tang of blood. Shifting, the chair appeared to be bolted to the floor, and padded, oddly enough.
His musings were cut off as the steel door leading out opened, a rough looking man walking in with his beeping watch. Medhu looked at him. White, blond, though if you looked closely you could tell he colored it, clean shaven, but with a couple of minor scars. Edging up, barely visible, was the top of a tattoo. Normally that wouldn't be enough, but he'd done his research, and that particular piece of body modification was unfortunately common om this city. What could only be a member of the Empire Eighty-Eight addressed Medhu, unfazed by his injuries, asking only "How do I turn off the alarm. Tell me, or I'll break it."
Medhu smiled, or tried to. It felt like one of his teeth was loose. That probably explained the blood. "Press the button by the six twice," he instructed, trying not to hiss in pain. Yes, one of his ribs was probably broken, and while it hadn't pierced anything, it made breathing too deeply. . . interesting. The Neo-Nazi did so, checking his phone afterwards before nodding and putting both watch and phone away as he walked out. From the glimpse Medhu had of his captor's phone, it was running a frequency tracker.
That was smart, he mused as the racist left. If that had been a distress signal, they would have noticed, and this room may be shielded. I hate dealing with intelligent foes. What was far more interesting had been the identification badge the guard had been wearing. It appeared he was being held within the Medhall building itself, which was apparently in league with the E88. Well, that explains why it's doing so well. Probably should sell my stocks though.
With that in mind, he let go of his power, the world fading out in blurs of black and silver, which was still something he was getting used to. Returning back to his breakfast, twelve hours before his capture, Medhu glanced at the clock, seeing only a minute had passed. He made a note to cancel his meeting with the new client today, taking a sip of his coffee to wash away the phantom taste of blood that hadn't been spilled just yet.
The man took a deep breath, the memory of the pain such an action would have entailed in twelve hours dispelled by the act. Sighing, he looked over his possible futures. Laid out in front of him like this he only got vague impressions, enough to gain an emotional sense, but glean no true information, which he apparently needed now more than ever before.
Ever since the day that the. . . merging had happened, his life had become more interesting, in the Chinese sense. It was hard to believe that it was less than a week ago when he'd rushed from place to place, barely even using his powers as he was awash in memories that where not his own, another flavoring his own that had changed how he viewed things, how he did things, and, unfortunately, still did. If he went down to his office as normal, he ended up hurt, a ten second dive into that possibility bringing him back to that secluded room in the Medhall building, though his tooth wasn't loose, and he had what felt like a lightly broken arm.
Looking down the path of if he stayed and worked from his penthouse, doing the best job he could, for the third day this week, the sense of bored safety expanded. His surroundings faded out in black and silver, which itself was also different. Normally everything faded in deep ochres and reds, the colors Medhu had always associated with his powers, though he wasn't sure why. Now it was black and silver, and feeling the metallic color instead of the grey his eyes saw was an odd sensation, and he had to put it down to his other sets of memories, Jack's memories, affecting his powers, though he wasn't sure if there were other effects, which bothered him greatly.
Seeing himself uninjured and at his desk, he looked down at the list in his hands which gave an overview of the day's events. It was a habit that he'd carefully cultivated, as his power only let him choose general paths, letting his normal habits take root and guide him between needed events. As such, he'd made it a habit to, always, between eight and ten past eight, have written a list of the important events of the day to better review what had happened. He had a pad of flash paper at both his home and office desks specifically for that purpose, burning it afterwards and claiming it to be a "mind clearing exercise" to his assistant. Staring at a piece of paper for ten minutes was terribly boring, but his power gave him a twelve-hour view into the future, exactly, and doing these dives took time, so he needed to do the boring chore to make sure he was looking at it when he peered down the periscope of fate.
Focusing on his list, he had apparently approved a few new hires and negotiated with the new construction company, a Fortress Construction, to rebuild his shop across from the Medhall building, having asked for additional surveillance and security options. The additions, once again, validating his first dive, unpleasant as it was, as the information gained from one shaped all the others. He prioritized the unpleasant ones first, making any passing discomfort from them worth the effort, so as to choose one that avoided them for real.
Third on the list, with the star symbolizing an outside event, was the robbing of Bay Central at one in the afternoon. The participants listed were three names. The first was The Wards, though why you'd send children to stop a bank robbery baffled him, but also stirred a faint feeling of moral outrage that he wouldn't have had . . . before. The Second group, The Undersiders, might have explained the first, as they apparently sent children to fight children. Once again, the ironic humor was tinged with a disgust born from another life, one that Medhu hadn't lived.
The Third?
It exemplified the problem he'd been grappling with. It was completely unreadable, the letters shifting, growing, shrinking, and blinking out entirely as he looked down at the page, completely unable to be read.
That meant it must have been his son, no, Jack's son, who had apparently taken the identity of the hero Vejovis, that was there. It hadn't taken that much effort to put together, after all, as he'd identified the young man that his new memories had tagged as Lee Rycroft as the source the corruption of his power. And shortly after that, he becomes unable to see the actions that this new hero 'Vejovis' took. That and the e-mail that the hero had sent him, which spelled out his name in the margin, helped.
He turned his focus back to the list he was looking at, as his power did have a timed aspect to be mindful of, and if he stayed lost in thought too long this version of himself would torch the list before he finished reading it. It was something he'd done before. Fourth down on the list was a fight between the E88 and a new parahuman pair calling themselves "Boojack and Jackhammer", with "Black Supremacist?" written immediately after.
Fifth was the kidnapping of the mayor's niece, which he didn't care about, though, again, part of him wanted to do something to stop it. He squashed that impulse, one he hadn't felt in years, as doing so would have outed him as a precognitive, and as one he wouldn't be able to avoid notice, which was his first, and best, defense.
Deciding to go with this fate, Medhu activated his power, dropping back to the present, his body started finishing his breakfast, his mind in the passenger's seat. He'd continue on with his power like this, able to think freely and observe what was going on without disturbing what he did as he made the vision he'd seen a reality. If something went wrong, or if he saw a possibility that he hadn't considered, he could take over his body again, aborting that fate. He wouldn't have the pre-prepared list to review, but sometimes, occasionally, it was worth doing. What it did allow him was a great deal of time to think and plan while the boring details of the day were taken care of. As his body finished eating and started doing the dishes, Medhu's mind considered the e-mail.
He hadn't responded to it, as every future that he did was borderline impossible to see, shifting and glitching into uselessness. Part of him, the newer part, wanted to track down his son, if only to get answers as to just what was going on. The rest of him, what he wanted to think of as his original self, wanted to do no such thing. His power was what kept him safe from harm, from kidnapping, from death itself, and if he were to meet his- no, Jack's son, he'd be doing so completely blind. He wanted to keep that other set of memories, that other personality, separate from his own, but they were settling into him, changing him, and quite frankly he found that terrifying.
To contact Vejovis, Lee, whomever this person was, would be something that Jack would do in an instant, and was thus something he was avoiding as hard as he could, though some part of him, part of the him that was originally him, knew that struggle was futile.
That struggle was also, he considered, the source of his current. . . difficulties. After that first day, his following of the source of the interference with his powers, and his momentary mercy, so out of character for him, made him of interest to the Empire. Arriving at his Medhall shop, and dismissing the workers to try to keep them safe before the miniature gang war blew through, had attracted the attention of no less than Kaiser himself.
Two days later his power had shown him that the new client he was to meet had been with the leader of the Empire, who had come to him with an offer: Turn over the mole he obviously had in their organization, and he'd be compensated for helping them close a hole in their security. He'd been given twenty-four hours to consider their offer, but it was a matter of time before they found out he didn't have anyone, and after that he'd have an angry blade generator to contend with.
Aborting that timeline, he'd cancelled the meeting, citing a flu, which just made things more tenuous. His new self, the one with Jack's memories, had wanted to try a third option, to fight and call for help, but he, his old self, the division was easier then, overruled himself somehow, he wasn't sure how anymore. The next day he dodged another meeting, and he'd received a message from the gang-leader directly via e-mail with a new offer. Turn over the name of the mole, or the name of the precognitive that he had on staff, or they'd kill him.
After that at least one path, per day, resulted in his death or capture, and it was really wearing on Medhu. As long as he could continue avoiding them, he was fine, and the fact that he used a fake identity when renting his current abode was surely paying off now. He, his new, merged self, reminded the old that his powers were all about information gathering, and it was only a matter of time until he needed help, and if he just reached out to his son, he'd have the help he needed. That if he had listened to himself before, he wouldn't have gotten himself into this situation in the first place. Medhu, the old Medhu, though that distinction was slowly becoming irrelevant, shut down his own thoughts as his body sat down to go over his e-mails for the day. 'I told you so's' after the fact where of no use to him right now.
After all, anyone could be a post-cog.
<AB>
As he walked towards the meeting room, Dauntless rotated his shoulder, working the stiffness that lingered from his fight this morning, if you could call it that. Against the new pair of capes that had been killing the members of the Empire Eighty-Eight, they'd been practically useless. They'd arrived to a scene of carnage, some thugs unconscious, some maimed, and some little more than crushed bodies under the feet of the one who kept changing into animals. Rhinoceroses, elephants, even a giraffe once, but all stronger than they should have been, and by the time his team had arrived the fight had turned deadly at what seemed like a shapeshifting, barnyard version of Lung. They now had Crusader in custody, though not the new parahumans, as they had run after clashing with the Protectorate, though it didn't feel like a victory to the hero.
Entering, he nodded to Velocity, who was writing up his report at super speed, and Battery, who was doing the same at a more sedate pace while Assault joked and tried to get her to laugh. "I'm just sayin', we didn't really need to get in the middle of it. There weren't any innocents involved, and the situation was pretty black and white!" he smiled, Battery putting down her pen to hold her face in her hands.
"I cannot believe you just said that," she groaned, mouth twitching minutely as she forced herself not to smile.
Dauntless walked to his normal seat, giving the Wards a nod as well. His team had been sent to support them, when the impromptu gang war had diverted them to a higher-priority threat, and while the report the man had read had said that they succeeded in securing the hostages, they didn't have the air of a group who'd won either. "How's the arm?" Velocity asked the newcomer, not looking up.
He shrugged experimentally. "Not that bad," the item-enhancer responded. "Boojack was stronger than he looked, but my shield took most of it."
Velocity nodded, still writing his report, "And faster. Even with my power I've picked up a few bruises."
Dauntless' eyebrows rose at that. The suited cape hadn't been that fast when he'd fought him. Was he holding back? he thought. Why? Triumph came in, taking his seat on Dauntless' other side, no longer limping like he'd been when they'd gotten back to the Rig. He was about to ask the younger man about his take when Miss Militia and Armsmaster walked in, followed closely by Director Piggot and a PRT tech, who plugged in his laptop, typing away as everyone else took their seats as usual. The Director didn't, always insisting on standing at these meetings.
It was probably a power move, but Dauntless didn't mind. She was the director of the Brockton PRT branch, and, as a member of the Protectorate, he ultimately answered to her.
She looked around the table, gaze dispassionate and disapproving, though she usually wore that expression when talking to them, so he wasn't sure if that was just how she looked normally. "I'm sure you've known why I've called you here, but in case some of you haven't been reading your reports," her eyes flicked over to the Wards, and Dauntless wondered if something had happened at the bank, "we've had at least seven new parahumans appear in almost as many days, and while most of them are presenting themselves as heroes, events have transpired such that we need to consolidate our resources and brief you formally."
"The first," she stated, as the tech turned on the table, the image of a shakily taken camera video playing. "Has no official name. For now we are calling him Spectrum, given his eyes." The clip of a man in a white hoodie with an embroidered red lion on his bank having a confrontation with Lung played, the man dodging blows before hitting his foe, knocking the Yakuza villain back and forth, immune to the flames the man-dragon was giving off. Flashing a thumbs up to the camera, the image stilled, showing two glowing eyes set against the unnatural shadows the hoodie cast across his face, the orbs prismatic in their coloration.
The video resumed as the cape was taken off his feet by Lungs tail, fire obscuring what happened next as Lung was sent flying out, impacting the store across the boardwalk, Spectrum and a dark-skinned man covered in soot with a canary yellow jacket wrapped around his head ran out of the flames seemingly unharmed, taking off at almost inhuman speeds as Lung started to pursue and the clip restarted from the beginning. "As for the other individual, we have no evidence of powers, other than his resistance to fire. What is of note is that Spectrum's clothing seemed unharmed, both by flames and Lung's claws." The video played slowed down clips of the cape getting hit by claws that could tear steel, the cloth merely depressing. "We're giving him a preliminary rating him Brute 5, Mover 3, given his bursts of speed in the video. He or his friend may be one of the others that have shown up recently, but we cannot be certain."
"Second of all is the hero Vejovis," she continued, and Armsmaster gave a dismissive snort, drawing Dauntless attention. Had they had met? Director Piggot paused, annoyed, before continuing, the screen showing security camera footage of a man in a white and blood red bodysuit. "We first heard of him when he walked inside our office, asking to register his independent team." Her statement was met with expressions of shock and surprise. Dauntless himself thought of his own recruitment into the Protectorate, working on his own as an independent hero before meeting Miss Militia on patrol.
"Who does that?" asked Assault acerbically. "There's no flair to that at all; it's just so boring!"
The Director raised an eyebrow at the jokester. "When informed that he couldn't name his group Twilight Protectors, he changed it to Penumbral Defenders." Assault snorted. "Yes, it was only after the name was officially approved that someone pointed out the acronym issue." It took Dauntless a second, but he saw it as well. What naming yourself the PD meant for the parahuman's intentions, he wasn't sure. "His abilities appear to be a mosaic power expression, though our experts say that the other factors involved are not present. He possesses an Alexandria package similar to Glory Girl's, though thankfully lacking in her shaker power. He possesses a healing power similar to Panacea's, though again, weaker than hers. His unique power appeared to be insect control," Clockblocker shuddered, and Dauntless was now sure that something had happened at the bank, "But one of the other new parahumans appears to have that as her power as well."
"Ma'am?" Gallant asked, voice thick with thought. "I've studied parahuman science with Glory Girl, it would fit if he had insect control, and the other controller had some other power but patterned the one we saw of his. There are cases of that happening, but no one has more than three powers."
Director Piggot nodded. "That is one of our theories, another is Tinkertech. Please keep your comments to yourself until the briefing is over, Gallant." The boy apologized, and the image changed to a still shot of Vejovis as he was lifting off the ground. "He has been labelled a Mover, Brute, Striker, Master, though as usual no values are assigned until he proves himself to be a threat." Armsmaster shifted unhappily, obviously disagreeing with that assessment without words.
"The other two members are a pair of African American brothers, going by Break and Enter, both are claimed to become stronger as they fight in a similar manner to Lung. Enter is able to turn into dinosaurs." Assault looked incredulous, but the Wards looked unsurprised.
The image changed to a familiar man in a suit with pitch black skin, clear mask on his face next to larger man wearing working clothes, skin leathery and almost grey. "Another pair of Parahumans, that we became aware of today, go by Boojack and Jackhammer," she continued, ignoring Assault as he tried to say something. "Who we know are separate, as they were seen the same time as Break and Enter, and the fact that Jackhammer seems to only be able to turn into mammals confirms it. The two pairs are almost certainly cluster triggers, though we don't know the circumstances, or even their identities. Break and Boojack are Brute 4's, Enter and Jackhammer and Brute 4's and Changer 6's"
"The only female in the group," Piggot pressed on, "is an insect controller who goes by The Lady, Bug. From what we can tell she's a recent Trigger, and is a probationary member of the Vejovis's team." The image shifted again, showing the entrance to the PRT building again, at a later hour, Vejovis and a girl completely covered in black and grey armor, except for her chestnut brown hair and wasp yellow lenses. She-"
"That's her!" Clockblocker said, "The one at the bank!"
Director Piggot regarded him coolly. "Are you saying you can make a positive identification. That you saw her clearly, or have evidence that she was there? Because that's what the Defender's lawyers are requiring before they will cooperate."
"Um, no, but I saw that yellow, and they had all of those bugs!" he defended.
"Seein' a color and getting hit by insects' not enough kid," Assault responded before the Director could, "Not when there might be a third one that controls creepy crawlers around, even if it does bug you."
"She is considered a Master, though she may have other powers, as stated." Piggot rolled on, with the tiniest of nods to Gallant. "Lastly we have 'Boardwalk', who has been active at night, targeting the Merchants." The screen changed to a drawing showing a man in drawing studded leather, hood, and mask, different colored spots across his form, feet completely white. "Mover, Breaker, Blaster, and Brute, Gallant and Shadow Stalker made contact last night. He gave his name, and provided them with thumb drives which contained coded information on drug trafficking. What is of note is that he knew Shadow Stalkers civilian identity."
"That glowing asshole unmasked me!" the Ward in question yelled. "Fucker needs to die!"
Gallant sighed. "No, he didn't Shadow Stalker, he used the first syllable of your first name, and he was doing so as a joke. His emotions were anger and humor, and he wasn't loud enough for anyone else to hear."
"But he knew who you were?" Triumph asked, sitting up.
Gallant nodded, "Definitely, and his powers interacted oddly with hers. To me he was dark, like Stalker, but with different colors that moved across his body. Whenever he flew his feet turned bright white. To her he apparently was always glowing like Purity, which is why she missed when she tried to shoot him."
Director Piggot turned to the recalcitrant Ward. "You did not mention that you attacked him in your report."
She shrugged, indifferent. "Didn't hit the fucker, who unmasked me, so who cares?"
"I do," was the response. "That brings us to today's events. Boojack and Jackhammer attacked the E88, and displayed a level of violence such that they should only be approached with overwhelming force unless we find out more. While that was happening, Dinah Alcott, the mayor's niece was kidnapped. At the same time, the villain group known as the Undersiders attempted to rob Bay Central Bank. At least two of these events are related, if not all three, so all parties involved are wanted for questioning."
"What about the Defenders?" asked Aegis.
"Not at this time," Director Piggot told him, Armsmaster scowling next to her. "I'll be reviewing your individual reports tonight, but in short, what occurred?"
The Wards, except for the pouting Shadow Stalker, shared a look. "We received the call at school," Aegis started, "And headed towards the Bank with Glory Girl."
"And your handler approved this?" Director Piggot asked leadingly.
Aegis shook his head. "No Mam, he didn't respond when we tried to contact our support. We chose to continue as time is of the essence in a robbery."
Her eyebrow rose. "I'll have to review the logs. You know that, by bringing Glory Girl along, you were responsible for her actions, correct?"
He nodded curtly. "Yes Mam. I believed her capabilities outweighed the risks. When we arrived, the windows were blacked out with Grue's power. He said he was going to send the hostages out, extending the smoke, but we were attacked by insects, the Undersiders engaging us immediately after. Sometime during the encounter Break and Enter, um, entered the conflict, fighting both us and the Undersiders. We were incapacitated, as was Break, and the Undersiders fled with the money they stole. Vejovis, who was inside with the hostages, was injured, and Panacea and Glory Girl were able to get the hostages to safety. We met Vejovis, who was healed by Panacea, before he, Break, and Enter left. We were not in a state to detain them, and we were not aware of the legality of such as an action, as our handler could not be reached."
She looked at the Ward, studying him, but he held fast under her gaze. "Is that all?" she asked. She knows something Dauntless realized as Aegis nodded. "You had no other plans, such as switching costumes with Clockblocker to attempt to fool your opponents into making a tactical error?" What? Dauntless thought. He could see how that might work, especially with Clockblocker's power, but the risks!
Aegis paled. "I," he started, apparently caught in a lie. "I did not believe that would be of interest to the group as a whole. It won't happen again."
"See that it won't," she informed him coldly. "If your handler was indeed absent, he shares some of the blame. I'm sure you're wondering how I knew about your deception attempt. It is one of the reason the Penumbral Defenders are, regrettably, hands-off right now." She leaned back, eyes dark and arms crossed as the display flickered back to life, showing a video of, what Dauntless realized, the bank robbery.
The camera angles weren't great, and one of the cameras was partially obscured by what looked like a beetle covering part of the lens. The darkness that Aegis described was indeed covering the front of the bank, blacking out the windows in a wall of impenetrable shadow. The sound was of low quality, but they could hear Grue call out that they were sending out hostages, only for the darkness to billow out, an almost biblical swarm of insects pouring out of those black mists, attacking the Wards as three monstrous creatures, presumably Hellhound's dogs, leapt out, going directly for Clockblocker, actually Aegis. They knew Dauntless realized, the disguised Aegis getting knocked over as they ran over him, not worried about Clockblocker's neutralizing touch. Hellhound emerged from the darkness, quickly re-orienting herself and going for the downed form of the Ward's leader, only to be hit by a blue ball of energy from Gallant.
As she screamed in rage Gallant explained from his seat, "I hit her with a calming blast. Sometimes they don't work, but I haven't seen a reaction that bad." The Director nodded, but said nothing as they all watched. The new member, Browbeat engaged Grue as the villain shed darkness around himself, quickly obscuring the fight. Kid Win pulled something off his back, what appeared to a backpack folding out into a floating cannon.
The thing was almost three times as big as he was, floating and glowing ominously. Climbing aboard, he pulled a lever, and sheet of lightning spreading out, bridging between raindrops and frying the swarm in front of him. Swiveling it he fired one shot from the cannon itself, blasting a dog off Aegis. Firing again, he hit it midair before his head snapped over, obviously seeing something beyond the camera's view.
Kid Win smiled broadly as he turned the cannon and pressed something, the cannon firing out a beam nearly twice the size of the previous shots into the bank, the camera angle changing to show the glowing beam firing into the darkness. The video paused.
"Now," the Director's voice practically boiled, simmering with anger and disgust, "I know I might have missed that particular piece of paperwork. I am, after all, human. But I'd hope that I'd recognize seeing the form detailing that. What is the name that particular piece of Tinkertech, Kid Win, to help jog my memory."
"I-It's. Um," the boy stuttered. You didn't, Dauntless thought, stomach sinking. Even though he could have argued that his empowered equipment didn't need the testing, he still made sure to get all of his pieces checked out every month. It only took a few hours, helped him quantify his increase in power, and avoided problems. "It's my Alternator Cannon, I just finished it."
"You mean you just finished getting it tested, correct?" She asked, tone now icier than the arctic. "Because you know that using untested equipment in the field means that you not only will be up for disciplinary review, but possibly criminal charges as well."
Kid Win paled. Probably didn't even think about it, Dauntless thought pityingly. "I. I built it to take down A-class threats and-"
"And you decided to use it in a hostage situation, against an unknown foe, when you had no confirmation that they did not-in fact-have hostages in the battlefield." She cut him off, practically hissing as she glared at the quaking Tinker. "According to Panacea's report, your blast would have sent shards of flying glass into the hostages, had not she and Vejovis gotten them out of the line of your fire. Your second blast nearly killed everyone inside, villain and hero alike, and it's only due to sheer luck that no one died. Luckily those who could do so are not pressing criminal charges, which is yet another reason the Penumbral Defenders are hands off. I cannot charge you directly, but the damages done, and they are extensive will come out of the pay of all of the Wards on-site when this fiasco occurred. Am. I. understood?" she snapped.
It looked like Aegis and Clockblocker wanted to say something, but they kept their mouths shut. "Y-Yes mam!" Kid Win stuttered, looking like he wanted to bolt, but Director Piggot wasn't done.
"Furthermore, you are to turn over every piece of equipment for re-review, are on Monitor Duty for the next 3 months, only allowed to return to active service after you have finished the training you will receive to make sure something like this will never happen again." She gave him a moment to understand what she said, turning back to the display after he broke himself out of his shock to nod frantically.
The video picked up where it left off, the image of Kid Win still smiling as he swiveled the cannon back around, sighting in on another dog as a roar of anger rang out, distorted by the Grue's darkness, but deep and masculine. From the shadows a large man in an odd combination of black formal suit, purple sneakers, and purple metal gauntlets practically flew at Kid Win, who tried to swivel the cannon to hit the new threat.
A second even larger man came out of the darkness, dark skin oddly shiny, eyes obscured by shades, dressed head to toe in what looked like alligator skin. Jacket, shirt, pants, boots, all of it was the same material, though only the jacket and boots matched in pattern. The second man leapt with a speed that spoke of powers, pushing the first man, and launching him farther upwards, twisting himself to avoid the blast from the cannon that missed him by what looked like inches.
The first man, still flying, was pointed towards the fight Gallant was having with Hellhound as he started his decent, but ended up twisting to land on the cannon fist first, the entire thing buckling under the impact, hitting the ground as whatever let it hover was overloaded.
Kid Win drew a pistol to hit the man who'd hit his cannon, but was interrupted as the first man rolled off the piece of artillery, grabbing the Ward by the face and taking him to the ground. Dauntless noted that man seemed careful to make sure that his opponent didn't hit the ground head first, but flat on his back, the man's weight impacting Kid Win's chest, knocking the wind out of him and probably bruising his ribs.
The care that the first man, who Dauntless assumed was Break, displayed was not shared by Enter. That man, after dodging the cannon blast, had hit the ground, form shifting into what he was pretty sure was a velociraptor, and tore off so quickly he almost left a path in the rain, covering the distance towards his new target in an instant.
A bark from one of the dogs gave Hellhound a half second's warning to duck as Enter's fist, having shifted to human form, passed right where the back of her head had been. She sidestepped her attacker, trying once again to go after Gallant, only to get caught by the back of her jacket by Enter, who threw her back, stepping between the two.
Hellhound gave a guttural growl as she glared at the interloper, sound carrying clearly over the rain. Enter tipped his glasses down and growled back, a deeper but infinitely more menacing sound. They stared each other down before Hellhound lowered her gaze, turning to go fight Aegis, while Gallant shot Enter in the back with a blue blast, drawing looks from those assembled.
"I was aiming a blast at Regent, and he changed my aim. I hadn't thought that he'd seen me," the Master/Blaster explained a little defensively. The tech backed the video up, and you could see Gallant's arm twitching to face Enter's back at the last moment, while at the corner of the screen Regent's arm twitched as well in a similar motion.
After being hit, Enter's aggressive posture slackened as he turned to face Gallant, head tilting in confusion, or disbelief, before the large man shrugged and calmly stalked towards the Ward who appeared to have just shot him in the back.
Dodging several more blasts with an almost casual air, Enter reached out an open hand and casually smacked the Ward in the side of the head, sending the teen stumbling away from the force. As Gallant tried to come back with another blast, Enter struck the Ward's arm, sending it wild, before smacking the other side of his head, sending him stumbling off again. It dawned on Dauntless, he's playing with him.
"It worked," Gallant told them, having a couple of glances sent his way. "It wasn't like Hellhound, he calmed down, and was just having fun with me. He was strong enough that he could've done a lot worse." The back and forth that was going on, with Enter completely controlling the fight, batting the smaller grey armored figure back and forth, brought up unpleasant parallels to one of his ex-girlfriend's cats, whenever it caught a mouse.
At this time Break had gotten up from Kid Win, who was flat on his back gasping for breath, the Tinker coughing as he inhaled water, and the older man charged the confrontation between a downed Aegis, two of Hellhound's dogs, and the villainess herself. However, instead of taking down Aegis like Dauntless expected, Break ran to one of the dogs, giving it a brutal kick to the ribs, lifting it up and sending it flying almost a meter away, what must've been half a ton of flesh landing with a crash as it impacted a parked car.
With the unexpected support, Aegis was able to get to his feet using his flight, chest bleeding freely from bite wounds that would have been deadly on anyone else. Hellhound turned on Break, throwing a wild punch which he grabbed, twisting her around and lifting her into the air before landing in a move that looked like Aleph professional wrestling, yelling "Steiner Bomb!" as he did so to the surprised looks of those assembled to watch.
The dog that had been sent flying leapt at Aegis' back, only to twist down unnaturally mid-jump and crash face-first into the ground at speed, the space it had been passing through warped. From the cloud of darkness Browbeat came running, moving towards for Vista, who had been busy keeping Hellhound's third dog away from herself.
Instead of tackling the hound however, he turned and punched the young girl in the jaw, sending her backwards, a look of betrayed surprise visible on her face, the camera angle showing it easily. As the heroes started to look at Browbeat, the theoretical Ward started emitting darkness, obscuring his form completely.
The video paused as Director Piggot addressed the Wards. "And this is why you need our permission for new tactics. If you do something, they will do it right back, and you need to be prepared for the backlash of your actions. From what we've seen, the leader of that group can see through the darkness he makes, which means he probably knows Browbeat's face, but as long as he doesn't say anything, we can't do anything to him in response."
She gave them another cross look before continuing the video. Break, getting up from Hellhounds moaning form, glanced over and saw Kid Win had gotten up and was getting the cannon back online. Charging him, Break dodged the Tinker's sidearm, lasers twisting randomly as they were fired, encountering areas of Vista's twisted space and missing, though Break's dodging also encountered them, slipping and throwing him down into the street, up into the air, and into cars as he tried to close on the Tinker.
Watching it from a remove like he was, Dauntless could make out the twists in space by the changed trajectories of falling rain, but from experience he knew those details slipped by in the haze of battle. By the time that Break was close to Kid Win, the Alternator Cannon was back online. As it turned to face him, Break dodged backwards, his path twisting to be thrown in front of the bank.
The Ward followed his target and lined up the shot, while Break looked behind himself, a frightened shout of "Watch out!" immediately drowned out by the sound of the weapon firing a blast several times larger than the first. Launching himself upwards, the beam passed right under the older an, impacting something in the darkness covering the front of the bank, the blast sending Break spinning off into the shadowed section of street. The Tinker tried to turn the cannon to follow him, probably to shoot him again like he'd done to the hound, not seeing Regent coming at him from behind.
The Undersider's scepter sparked as it was jammed into the back of the Ward's neck, sending him into spasms and falling to the street below, the darkness growing forward to cover both hero and villain.
Enter finished playing and knocked Gallant out, casually striding to where Aegis was fending off all three hounds. The man casually backhanded one of the dogs, sending it flying away, before grabbing Aegis' arm and pulling him out of the way of monstrous snapping jaws from another. The help was short lived, as Enter used Aegis as a cudgel to smack another dog, dropping the stunned hero as he glared at the third, who stopped trying to rejoin the fight, instead turning tail and running, retreating back to Hellhound, helping her to her feet and carrying her into the darkness.
From a side bank of Grue's dark mist, which covering part of the street, flew something small, which crossed the road and flew into the slowly dissipating blackness covering the front of the bank. A loud boom and flash of light came from within, the burning white brilliance barely shining through the wall of shadows.
As he stood over Aegis, watching this happen, Enter was hit by Clockblocker, who had stumbled out of the darkness a moment earlier. Instead of freezing in place the man gave a scream of pain, form flickering before exploding in a shower of gore that shocked the viewers.
"Holy shit!" yelled Assault as Clockblocker shuddered. Onscreen, Clockblocker froze in horror at what he'd done. A saurian roar was heard as Enter, alive and undamaged, ran in from an alley, turning into something that looked like a small T-rex, spinning to tail-whip Clockblocker into the side of building, where he slumped down, unconscious.
Grue's darkness quickly cleared, the Undersiders no-where to be seen, and Enter the only one still standing in soaked street. Vejovis, twin crimson trails of blood from his ears running down his mutilated neck, stumbled out from the ruins of the bank lobby, speaking far too loud. The cameras easily caught his words, as well as Aegis' demands that he identify himself, and Panacea accusing him of covering the villains escape. They watched the rest of the conversation, Vejovis echoing the Director's sentiments, the video ending as the cameras started to fly up towards the retreating group.
"And that is why the Penumbral Defenders are hands off," Director Piggot reiterated to those assembled, teeth clenched. "While they have not released this to the public, they are using it to blackmail us into not holding them responsible for their actions. Unless you catch them committing a crime, have proof that will stand up in court, and only then if I give the command, you are not to work against them. This is not the first encounter we have had with them." That statement got looks of surprise from everyone. Dauntless searched his memory for anyone he'd heard of whom had the power the Break, Enter, and Vejovis displayed, but couldn't come up with a single name. "Armsmaster, your report." Piggot spat, her dislike of the position she'd been forced into clear from her tone.
The leader of the Brockton Bay Protectorate stood, addressing the heroes. "Three days ago, I was contacted by a young woman, the parahuman who would later identify herself as The Lady, Bug. She asked about joining the Wards, but had my personal number, which was my first clue that something was amiss. She asked to meet in an abandoned lot off Canal street, and I agreed. After scouting the area, I met with her, but it quickly became clear that she had no intention of joining. From there I was ambushed by Break and Enter, with Vejovis likely prepared to stop me if I attempted to escape. I found that Enter was able to resist Brute-level tranquilizers, as well as electrical currents of several thousand volts, and temperatures of several hundred degrees Fahrenheit. They subdued me, before stealing my suit, my weapon, and my transport, finding and disabling the trackers within. I believe they are working with or for either a Tinker, or the Toybox themselves, and in my report suggested they be brought in with extreme prejudice, before they ambush any other heroes."
The bastards! Dauntless thought. They'd looked almost heroic, well, Vejovis and Break had, but that was obviously just a show for the rest of the heroes. If it weren't for what was obviously a setup, they probably would have stolen Gallant's suit, and Kid Win's equipment as well. Assault voiced Dauntless' thoughts: "So they were just playing for the cameras. Assholes."
"Funny you should mention cameras," Director Piggot remarked, voice humorless. "Today's video isn't the only one the Penumbral Defenders have sent us." Armsmaster's head snapped over to look at her. "Sit down, Armsmaster. I'm sure you'll find this video enlightening. I know it showed me something I'd hoped I'd never see."
The tech started another video, the camera angles much better, depicting The Lady, Bug standing in an empty lot. The differences in composition where completely different, almost cinematic. They prepared for this one, Dauntless realized. The other was a spur of the moment thing.
They saw Armsmaster arrive on his motorcycle, approach and engage the girl in conversation, voice easily audible. Finding out that that girl was the one who had taken down Lung was a shock, and it wasn't the only one. Assault was the first one to start glaring at their leader, but after a minute into the video he wasn't the only one. "It's obviously falsified." Armsmaster tried to say, talking over himself.
The video paused as the Director responded, not even turning to look at him. "Video is a lot harder to fake then reports, as you know. Our experts however, concluded that this valid, barring unknown Tinkertech. Now, be quiet and don't interrupt." The video rewound and played, the part that Armsmaster had tried to talk over showing why Lung had almost died. Did he do that on purpose? Dauntless thought, his image of his leader crumbling before him. Of course he did, this is Armsmaster, and, from Dauntless's experience working with the man, he never left anything to chance if he could help it.
Disheartened, Dauntless continued to watch as, verbally backed into a corner, Armsmaster chose to attack what was probably a scared teenage girl instead. The video froze on a ball that shot electricity, destroying the swarm the girl had summoned to defender herself, as the Director spoke. "You seem to have something in common with Kid Win, Armsmaster. I don't believe I've seen the plans for that weapon either."
The video continued as Break and Enter charged Armsmaster, Vejovis swooping in to pick Lady Bug up, pressing a hand to the back of her head. Healing her he realized, small electrical burns closing up visibly in the gaps where her costume had been burned away. The fight, if you could even call it that, continued, the two men surprising the Tinker and keeping him off balance as he tried to retreat. When he started to flee, it was Enter who followed, not Vejovis as Armsmaster claimed, though given the magnitude of his lies that was a relatively minor point.
As he watched Armsmaster hit the ground, he had to wince at the impact, but the hero's killing of Enter took them all by surprise, the girl as well by her cry of distress. Her bugs started to swarm before settling, her conversation with Vejovis clearly audible. After the reborn cape had rendered Armsmaster unconscious, they stripped him and rendered all of his hard work to scrap, a fact that Armsmaster hadn't known about, given the Tinker's pained expression, looking as if he had been kicked in the most vulnerable of places with each land of Enter's mace-like tail.
Their parting words were captured as they left, the video ending immediately afterwards. "If this was the only video they sent us, I could have worked around it to make sure they could be contained, but after today, that's not the case. Armsmaster!" the Director's voice held the whip-crack of command. "You are to turn over all of your remaining equipment for testing. You are not to go on patrol. You are not to serve monitor duty. You are not to leave the Rig unless I personally give you permission. You are relieved of command, and the only reason you are not confined to your quarters is for the sake of public appearances. Publicly you were injured in the confrontation with Boojack and Jackhammer and are currently convalescing. Miss Militia, you are now in charge of the Protectorate, with all the duties such a position entails. Am. I. Understood?"
Miss Militia looked like she wanted to object, but responded with a meek, "Yes Ma'am." Armsmaster sat there, not responding.
"I said am I understood Armsmaster?" Piggot reiterated.
"Yes," he ground out.
"Good. All of you are dismissed." The director glared at them all. "You've put the PRT in the kind of position that I do not like to be, and rendered us unable to respond to this," she waved at the video in disgust. "See that you don't make it any worse."
The assembled parahumans quickly and quietly left, Armsmaster sitting there for a moment before stomping out, Clockblocker jumping out of his way. Dauntless took his time, lingering at the door. "Can I help you Dauntless?" Piggot asked, with a tone that hinted that what he said needed to be important, or else.
"Ma'am," he started, pausing to pick his words. "As far as we know, have the Defenders done anything illegal?"
The Director, having turned to the tech's computer, informed him "We haven't caught them. Yet. That is all you need to worry about."
She seemed to be reviewing the second video, pausing it at points as Enter struck Armsmaster. She froze on one shot of him being punched in the face, lip split and blood flying. The woman seemed to be looking at this part in particular, playing and rewinding back to the strike, slowing it down frame by bloody frame. "Do you see something, Ma'am?" Dauntless couldn't help but ask.
"Yes," she announced with a cruel smirk and a click of the mouse. "My new wallpaper."
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~ she wrote in return.