'Oh yeah, things are certainly going well,' Clockblocker thought to himself sarcastically as he ran for cover.
He and the rest of the Wards (well, minus Starburst) were in class when the call came in to respond to the robbery at Brockton Bay Central Bank. Actually, the first call was to the E88 attack on PRT HQ, but the Wards were instead rerouted to the nearer bank to handle the robbery. As if responding to capes robbing a bank was safer than facing armed gangbangers...
Still, initial reports was that the Undersiders were the ones behind the robbery. A rather low-level threat (compared to, say, E88) that the Wards could probably handle without any hassle. The gang of villainous teen capes were more on being escape artists and burglary, not heavy hitters. A cakewalk, right?
Any and all notions about this being a cakewalk flew out when office furniture launched themselves through the windows at the Wards via Ballistic express.
Now, on one side of the plaza in front of the bank, Ballistic of the Travelers was trading shots against Kid Win, who was struggling to both dodge the return fire from the mercenary villain and staying on his wildly maneuvering airborne hoverboard despite his limbs randomly spasm-sing against his will. Vista was nearby dodging stray shots while trying to keep both her balance from her randomly tripping legs and steady the twisted Gordian Knot of space around the bank to prevent escapes.
Near the entrance, the reason for Kid Win's and Vista's troubles, Regent was frantically gesturing with his Scepter. Next to him was Tattletale, who was holding a gun to the head of her hostage, a woozy and cross-eyed Panacea. Tattletale's full body suit must have prevented Panacea from doing anything to the teen villainess. In front of them was Sundancer, who was holding a miniature sun in front of her to ward off any attempts by the Wards or the BBPD to rush them.
Gallant was knocked out by stray friendly fire from one of Kid Win's 'Nighty-Night' shots near the perimeter of the police encirclement. From Clockblocker's running position, he could see the sprawled unconscious forms of Grue and Hellhound, plus one of the mutated dogs lying on the bank entrances' lavish stairs, their state thanks to Gallant's and Kid Win's opening shots when the villains tried to rush the Wards.
On the other side of the plaza, Aegis and Browbeat were per-occupying two of Hellhound's dogs, the two boys struggling against the beasts who were really, really intend on mauling them and using them as improvised chewtoys.
And Clockblocker could see the last dog heading towards him, its face locked in a wide ugly ferocious snarl. He was starting to wish that he hadn't come up with the 'brilliant' idea of swapping costumes with Aegis to 'confuse' the villains. He really could use the armoured padding against this monster bearing down on him, and he wasn't sure his powers would buy him enough time to think up a better plan-
A ball of teal light slammed into the dogs' face from above, cutting short its' charge and causing it to trip and collapse. Looking up, Clockblocker could see the swooping figure of a rather battered Starburst flying in and strafing the field with balls of teal light. Judging from the way the monster is still breathing and yet unconscious, most likely Starburst was using her 'Sleep Blasts'.
Regent, Ballistic and another of the dogs were hit on Starburst's first flyby. Once Kid Win had steadied himself, he took down Tattletale and Sundancer with 'Nighty-Night' shots, the miniature sun sputtering and dissipating out of existence.
Aegis and Browbeat tagteamed the remaining dog until ClockBlocker could freeze it, and they waited for Kid Win to quickly come over put the oversized ugly puppy to bed.
As Clockblocker tiredly slumped to the ground, he saw that the BBPD officers and EMTs had began to move in to treat the civilians that had been in the bank. As Starburst landed and checked on them (he didn't blame her for being worried, Aegis looked a frightful mess with his blood on Clockblocker's white costume.), Glory Girl finally swooped in and zeroed in on the EMT treating Panacea. Apparently, the Undersiders and the Travelers got into an argument in the bank regarding Panacea and Ballistic had decided to whack her in the head to keep her 'out of trouble'. Hopefully, Panacea didn't get a serious concussion from that.
As the clean up progresses and the BBPD starts to take statements, Clockblocker saw that Starburst was looking impatient and fidgeting restlessly. She kept glancing at something in the distance. Curious, he called the rest of the able bodied Wards (Gallant was still a tad woozy, having been revived by Kid Win; Aegis and Browbeat still being examined by EMTs.) over and head to Starburst to ask.
It couldn't be a big issue, right?
**************************
Dinah kept her head down as she was shepherded through yet another set of heavy security doors by the burly mercenaries around her. She stifled her tears, trying to keep her fears from being shown on her face.
The mercenaries had burst into her class, intimated the teacher and her classmates and bashed the nice security guard before grabbing Dinah. Dinah was dragged a bit roughly out of the middle school and into a black van by one scowling mercenary. The entire trip to their destination, Dinah tried to hold back her sniffles and tears, knowing it wouldn't help with the situation. But, she's very afraid....
Despite what the numbers said, despite her powers, despite knowing that Taylor would come to the rescue, Dinah was still a scared twelve year old girl being kidnapped by rough mercenaries working for a bad man.
'Odds Taylor will save me?'
'94.83%'
Dinah held to those questions and numbers as tightly as she could, as the van stopped inside a parking garage. She mentally chanted the numbers to herself as she was escorted through a hidden doorway of the base and down a brightly lit corridor. Even as a part of her hope fell as the security door she had just through slid closed, she held on to those numbers.
Suddenly, a wave of soft teal light passed through the door and walls, speeding down the corridor. The mercenaries around Dinah jerked in surprise, some of them going for their weapons, only to start swearing and cursing as they found their weapons encased in a teal shell. One of them started talking rapidly into a walkie talkie while he tried to drag Dinah deeper into the hidden base of the bad man. For once, Dinah dug in her heels, resisting the increasingly insistent mercenary.
Before any of them could react, the security door behind them abruptly glowed teal. Then it was violently shoved back into the wall with a loud crash, revealing a furious looking Taylor- no, Starburst when she has the mask on. Behind the teenage cape, PRT and BBPD officers were charging in through the busted wide open security doors and the previously concealed doorway.
The mercenaries tried to do something, anything, but Starburst and the PRT Troopers let loose balls of light that toppled the hardened hired guns like toys.
Dinah stood there pressed against the wall with her eyes closed. She heard the PRT and BBPD officers moved past her. When she felt a gentle hand rest upon her shoulder, she opened them to find the concerned face of Taylor Hebert; she had taken off her mask. With her relief overwhelming her, Dinah surged forward and hugged her savior gratefully, tears of joy flowing freely down her face.
**************************
"Thomas Calvert has been captured by the PRT." Doctor Mother commented as she paged through the reports.
"Hm?" Rebacca Costa Brown aka Library of Alexandria hummed in response as she pursued her own stack of paperwork. "Numberman owes me money now. He had bet that Calvert had a good chance of taking over Brockton Bay." she answered to the unasked non-sequitur.
"I wonder how would this impact the parahuman feudal experiment." the labcoat wearing dark skinned woman commented as she put down her papers and look about the brightly lit sparse meeting room. The other people on top of the Cauldron hierarchy were busy with their own duties, leaving only the two woman on the room alone.
"Not much." the heroine commented, her remaining eye roving over a clandestinely obtained report about a country in South America. "The experiment doesn't depend on Calvert after all." She shuffled the paper to the next page. "It doesn't matter if he succeeded or not. Only the results of 'no active interventions from Cauldron in the city of Brockton Bay' matters."
"True." Doctor Mother admitted as she leaned back and stretched out to work out the kinks in her back. "What's interesting is what the PRT had found in his base of operations."
"Oh?" Rebacca looked up. "Anything that could expose us?" She frowned. "I thought Calvert had plans for situations like this, and rigged his base to self destruct as well."
Doctor Mother shook her head. "Nothing of the sort. As to the later, he did trigger the self destruct sequence, but the Ward Starburst had accidentally rendered it inert while attempting to neutralize all the weapons in the hands of his mercenaries. Though whatever power it was didn't work on computers, so all electronic data was scrubbed clean. As for Calvert himself, between Starburst's Thinker powers and the PRT's manpower, he was tracked down and arrested."
"I see." Rebacca said, perking up an eyebrow at the mention of the 'Eidolon-lite' Ward. "What had the PRT found in that basement?"
"Two previously unknown Travelers." Doctor Mother answered. "One was inconsequential. But the other, a Noelle Meinhardt shows some promise." she said, handing over the report to the other woman.
Rebacca silently took the report and started reading it. Her eye widened. "Interesting. A touch based cape cloning ability, with variants of the original's powers."
Doctor Mother nodded. "Yes. Shame about the insanity and the overwhelming impulses to both defend their 'mother' and destroy anything the original cared for, but it's possible those impulses can be remedied."
Rebacca's brow furrowed as she read the report, her mind whirling at the implications. "Hm... It's risky. Very Risky. But if we could mitigate the downsides and keep them under control, it could be a powerful multiplier in the Final fight."
"Perhaps we could covertly ask Starburst to help." Doctor Mother suggested.
Rebacca frowned. "It's tempting, but I'd rather not allow a potential game changer cape to come near someone like Nolle. Not without a lot of precautions and measures in place to prevent her from being endangered." She put the report down. "Her contributions in the field of thaumaturgical tech alone makes her too important to risk."
"It couldn't hurt to ask her for help regarding Nolle." Doctor Mother pointed out.
Rebacca sighed. "I'll consider it. But only if we take precautions." She stood up. "I'll have to drop by Brockton Bay anyway. Calvert's actions, seen through Starburst's bodycam, were pretty damning and I'll have to step in regarding the Travelers regardless."
Doctor Mother nodded. "Perhaps see if you can indulge Starburst's enthusiasm a bit. Keep things positive between you two. Word is, she quite a big fan of yours."
Rebacca let out a small smile. "That'll be... interesting." She was about to call for a Door to her Protectorate office when she stopped. "By the way, where is Contessa? It's very rare I don't see her by your side during our meetings."
Doctor Mother shrugged. "She's busy stabilizing India and the Middle East. There was a nascent anti-cape movement forming in those regions."
Rebacca nodded. "Okay." She turned and called out for a Door, exiting the meeting room.
Doctor Mother sat alone in the meeting room for a few moments, before a glowing rectangular portal opened nearby and a latino-skinned, black haired woman in a trenchcoat and fedora steps through.
"Were you successful?" Doctor Mother queried.
Fortuna aka Contessa smiled in response. "Yes. The movement has been discredited and the leaders are jailed for corruption practices."
Doctor Mother nodded, then sighed. "May I ask, why do you want me push Rebacca to positively interact with Starburst more?"
Fortuna nodded and spoke. "It's part of two Paths. A Path for optimizing Triumvirate members and another Path to discretely maximizing Starburst's potential to help others."
Doctor Mother hummed. "Odd for you to dedicate a Path for a Ward, even if it's a rather low-priority one."
Fortuna smiled enigmatically. "She could change the world for the better with her Magic. Her powers and tech have significantly improved our chances. Her friendship would be invaluable."
Doctor Mother chuckled. "Friendship for Magic? At least the price for that isn't high..." she commented as she turned back to her reports.
As Contessa turned and asked for a Door, she whispered softly to herself, too softly for Doctor Mother to hear. "No. Not for. Is. Friendship is Magic."
**************************
Dragon blinked and shook the metaphorical cobwebs out of her head.
It was odd for her to have these brief moments of 'day-dreaming' and 'idle spacing out'. Ever since she had started working with Starburst's thaumaturgical tech, particularly when Dragon had started to build Starburst's Anti-Masters tech into specialized suits.
Dragon had been sure that the Anti-Master tech was unable to interact with her coding, considering the vast difference between a biological brain and a CPU, even though her suits had a biological 'core'. Still, Dragon had been experiencing these odd moments ever since the Anstrum frontal assault suits and Schild support suits that incorporated thaumaturgical tech were made and came online.
To be sure, Dragon had checked her coding against her backups, but her internal diagnostics had turned up nothing wrong. If anything, there seems to be a gradual but significant improvement in overall performance of her core functions. Dragon wonders if there will be a significant change if she started working on a CPU based on thaumaturgical principles...
'Ping!'
The virtual alarm alert shook Dragon out of her musing. 'It's nearly time.' Dragon thought to herself. She checked the Anstrum 'Beta' drone suits, the winged dragon-themed highly automated mechanoids with the large 'Sorpor' arm cannons (upscaled versions of the Trooper's 'Nighty-Night' guns, designed for crowds.) and flight systems were good and ready.
Dragon switched perspectives to the lumbering Schild 'Beta' drones, checking the highly automated mechanoid's massive thaumaturgical shield projectors and heavy ground motive legs. These will be crucial in protecting the squads of troopers and capes shielding behind them.
All the suits, troopers and capes involved in this operation either wore or incorporated the Mind Shield matrix to protect them from malevolent influences and shield them from detection via their emotions (it was a surprising input from Gallant of the Brockton Bay Wards.). Dragon incorporated them into her suits just in case they could be detected or affected somehow, especially the 'Alpha' variant that she'll be remote piloting personally that has a biological 'core'. She would rather settle this quick with a lightning strike, before the opponent could muster a coherent defense. To be on the safe side, everyone had at least two 'Lockdown' gorgets to restrain any Master powers. Just the amount of known Masters in the vicinity was high, let alone any unreported ones. Better to restrain them before the troops were subjected to anything more exotic.
"All forces." Dragon announced through their communication net. "Begin operation."
With that statement, as the PRT Trooper squads escorted by Schild 'Beta' drones began to move, the spearhead of half-a dozen Anstrum 'Beta' drones, led by Dragon's personal remote-piloted 'Alpha' Anstrum suit dove down from high altitude and landed with a massive crash right in the middle of HeartBreaker's mansion.