Director Piggot glanced at Assault and Battery as they entered the conference room; joining her, Armsmaster and Dragon (via a teleconference rig) at the table. The blond, portly Director of the PRT ENE took a moment to center herself before starting the meeting.
"Thank you all for coming on a short notice." Director Piggot started. "Assault, Battery. I trust you two have briefed yourselves on the more discrete details of the Shadow Stalker investigation?"
While Battery nodded on confirmation, Assault got started with a slightly sarcastic tone,"Yes, though it'll be handy to know this before Battery went into the interview room."
"I rather not have an already victimized teenager become office gossip." Director Piggot flatly commented. She then looked down at the printouts before her, said papers contain the transcripts of the Wards recruitment interview with one Taylor Hebert. She haven't had time to properly read through them, having quickly called the meeting with the other people in the building who knew the full details of the investigations.
"Report, Miss Militia." Director Piggot requested. "What's the damage?"
Miss Milita straightened in her chair. "Surprisingly little." She replied. "While the Heberts were understandably upset-"
"I'll say." Assault remarked. "I think I saw our little Eidolon-lite there started smouldering right there and then. Literally!"
"Anyway," Miss Militia continued, choosing to ignore the byplay of Battery elbowing her husband in the side, "While the Heberts were justifiably upset, Taylor Hebert chose to accept our explanation and apology, deciding to give us a chance and stay on as a full Ward." Miss Militia glanced at her papers. "Her father, Danny Hebert and their contracted lawyer did negotiate with the legal department and gotten some additional compensation to the standard Wards contract, mostly it's additional financial aid and a possible tertiary-level education sponsorship for Taylor. Danny Hebert requested as well to be kept in the loop regarding our case against the Winslow administration, and their lawyer suggested to the PRT to hammer out more solid procedures to better handle and rehabilitate any future Probationary Wards the courts may foist on us."
"All in all, the Heberts were refreshingly reasonable to us." Miss Militia concluded.
"I see" Director Piggot responded. "It's a favorable outcome, considering the potential for blowback and the kind of reactions we were expecting. If Taylor can keep her level-headed temperament, she'll be a good addition to the Wards."
"I did mention that she was literally smoldering for a moment there, right?" Assault pointed out. "Wisps of smoke and everything!" He leaned back in his chair. "I'm surprised she didn't set off the building's fire sprinklers!"
"Yes. Yes you did." Director Piggot acknowledged. "And thankfully Miss Hebert chose to reign in her temper rather than lash out. That is a surprisingly good sign in a relatively recent trigger. I'm hoping that she continues to surprise us in this manner."
"It is fortunate that Taylor had decided to remain with us, considering the three new powers she had revealed to us during the interview." Armsmaster joined in. "If I interpreted the descriptions correctly, Taylor now has three potent anti-Master powers. One to shield the mind and nullify any on-going Master effects, one to restore and heal the mind of long term Master victims and the last is a restraint aimed towards containing and preventing human Masters from using their powers."
There was a moment of silence after Armsmaster dropped that bombshell. Dragon then spoke up. "There's more. The documentation Taylor had provided to us about her 'Shield Watch' were very detailed and thorough, providing insights the operating principles of the device and construction methods required." Dragon paused. "The documentation alone could provide much deeper insights into how parahuman powers function."
Director Piggot mulled the statements, before asking. "Taylor had mentioned during the interview that she had somehow 'translated' her 'Hardlight Shield' power into a device anyone can wield. How much of it is like an average Tinker-tech device?"
Dragon shook her head. "Not very. Tinker Tech tends to have black boxes somehow incorporated into their tech that even their makers had trouble understanding and removing. These black box were a major obstacle to any efforts by a third party attempting to reverse engineer even the basic operating principles. In contrast, Taylor's 'Shield Watch' was very thoroughly documented, and the basic principles behind the operation and even the construction methods were laid out clearly like a university textbook. The only limiting factor in reproducing Taylor's tech would be tool requirements."
"Tool requirements" Battery asked curiously.
Dragon nodded at her. "Yes. The tech requires a tool that uses a unique 'energy' to finely 'imprint' a three dimensional matrix into a regularly structured solid like a crystal. Said tech also runs on this unique 'energy'. Basically, it's a bit like Einstein and the atomic theory. Although he came up with the theory in the 1900s, it had remain a theory until the 1940s because the tools to make the tools to prove and implement the theory into something usable doesn't exist. Here, we have a similar problem. To make a tool that can finely manipulate the unique 'energy' needed to make the devices, we need that tool in the first place. A bootstrap problem."
Armsmaster continued, "Fortunately, Taylor had resolved the issue. I was the on-site Protectorate presence when Taylor had came in for power testing. I requested that she help us by making the imprinting tools, both as a power testing demonstration and to help us make more of her tech independently." Here, Armsmaster quirked a quick smile. "She made three 'imprinting' wands and wrote up the documentation behind them."
"And they work?" Director Piggot asked in interest. Even the Shield Watch alone would be very useful to troopers on the field, and if it was independently reproducible...
Armsmaster nodded. "We had a few randomly selected troopers come in and use the wands on some new clear quartz to make what Taylor had referred to as a battery/power source component for the Shield Watch and the wands. The new batteries performed similarly to Taylor's, the differences can be chalked up to lack of experience on the troopers part."
Dragon came in. "At the moment, a human operator is required to use the wands to visualized and set the pattern matrices to 'imprint' them into crystals. I'm currently studying the documentation to see if I can automate the process. But the tech is reproducible. Our limiting factor is the number of the wands available, training and their distribution."
"But," Armsmaster interjected. " There's another factor that limits us. The fact we have no experience or knowledge in creating new 'pattern' matrices. Thus, we are reliant on Taylor's contributions for the time being." He paused, "I suggest we add another compensation to Taylor's Wards contract, that the PRT will be willing to reward her for any new patterns she submitted in her own time. Similar to Dragon's rewards system to any Tinker for any successful reverse engineering by her of their Tinker Tech for general mass production. Perhaps we should intercede on Taylor's behalf regarding patenting rights as well. The three anti-master powers alone, if Taylor could translate them into usable patterns, would be nearly invaluable."
Director Piggot nodded and wrote down in her notes. "Agreed. If this pans out, Taylor's tech would be a massive game changer. I'll have legal prioritize on the matter."
Assault suddenly spoke up in concern. "Hang on. Are we going to keep Taylor stuck in a lab all day thinking up these new patterns?"
Director Piggot considered, then shook her head. "No. As much as a part of me wants to, Taylor needed the guidance, training, experience and socializing the Wards program provides more than we need any new patterns right now. Especially when we consider her power set. We don't want to unleash a maladjusted psychopath with a superiority complex into the world here. If she is inclined to pursue that line of work after she graduates, that's fine with me. But for the time being, she'll be on the usual Wards routine, maybe with a Tinker rider add-on like Kid Win's."
Battery cautioned. "We might want to keep a closer eye on her and her family anyway. For sake of her own security at the very least. There's quite a number of groups out there who would like someone as versatile as Taylor under their thumb."
Director Piggot nodded. "Noted." She looked at Miss Militia and Armsmaster. "We'll make arrangements and scheduling of available manpower to accommodate."
Assault chuckled. "With her power set, I really don't want to be near if someone decides to go after her and ticked her off enough to set her on a warpath."