"Hello, Starburst," Alexandria asked quizzically as Starburst nervously approached the heroine. "Is there something of the matter?"
Starburst fidgeted in place. "I- uh- I-" she stammered. "I just want to say that I really look up to you, and-"
Alexandria quirked an eyebrow. "...you were much more composed and collected when we were discussing earlier." she commented idly.
Starburst blushed in response. "That's because we got a task to do, to see if we can fix Noelle. Now we're done with that..."
Alexandria chuckled. "I see. Casual talk is a bit more tricky, isn't it?"
Starburst looked aside, not meeting her eyes. "So- Um," she fumbled around verbally. "What's going to happen with the rest of the Travelers? Or Coil?" she blurted out.
Alexandria frowned a bit as she thought. "It'll be up to the courts to decide their fates. Trickster and Coil will probably see heavy punishment for their role in your attempted assassination. The rest, it depends on how well their previous actions will reflect on them. For the time being, they'll stay in these high security cells onboard the Rig." she admitted.
"Oh" Starburst answered. "...what about the Undersiders?" she asked, with a quick glance at Tattletale."
Alexandria again quirked an eyebrow. "Since they're juveniles and they as a group haven't committed anything more serious other than robberies, I expect their fates will be handled by Director Piggot for the time being. What serious crimes they individually did commit can be argued under the premise that they were forcibly coerced by Coil, or there were... difficult circumstances surrounding their Triggers or home life."
"Oh" Starburst repeated. An awkward silence lapsed between the two of them, as Starburst flailed away mentally for something to say, and Alexandria appears to be contemplating the teenager.
"I did mentioned before," Alexandria suddenly started. " That we hope to see great things from you. Perhaps greater than what the Triumvirate has done." she continued.
"You- you do?" Starburst squaeked.
Alexandria gave a light nod. "Yes. Your Trump powers and the ability to translate those powers into mass-reproducible devices, that gives you a lot of versatility. Though I worry a bit that you might have too much expectations heap onto your shoulders."
"Oh" Starburst said in a small voice. Then she took a breath and asked in a louder volume. "...any ideas?"
"Pardon?" Alexandria questioned.
Starburst stumbled a bit, before rallying her courage. "For great things. I ...am not sure about how to proceed?" she asked timidly.
A thoughtful look came over the older cape's face. "Hm. Interesting thought." She suddenly chuckled to herself and shook her head a bit.
"Um..." Starburst wanted to ask what her idol was thinking, but she trailed off uncertainly.
Alexandria waved one hand dismissively. "It's nothing." she reassured the insecure looking teen. "I just remembered something that Hero once said."
"Hero?" Starburst parroted in puzzlement.
Alexandria gave Starburst a small smile. "Let's start with something. I noticed most of your powers are focused towards cape and gang threats, right?" she queried.
"Yes?" Starburst hesitantly answered.
"How about you expand your focus?" Alexandria probed. "Using your powers to solve problems that aren't related to parahumans or crime."
Starburst blinked at the odd statement. "Like what?" she asked.
"Hero had complained once that if we didn't have to deal with villains, we can really help fixing things like world hunger." Alexandria responded, her helmeted head nodding a bit.
"Um..." Starburst uncertainly started. "That's seems a bit... over my head." she said timidly.
Alexandria cocked her head. "Well, you don't have to jump straight into something like that. Try to help with something smaller scale." She suggested.
"Like what?" Starburst blinked owlishly under her mask as she asked wonderingly.
Alexandria smiled warmly at her. "I think you're smart enough and independent enough to figure something out."
**************************
The idea pre-occupied Starburst on the entire trip back from the Rig to PRT HQ. She mulled over the idea even as she absentmindedly bid Glory Girl and Panacea goodbye at the garage ("Bye! Don't be a stranger!" Glory Girl waved back, with her quieter sister at her side.) and at Tattletale as the ex-villain was escorted back to the PRT holding cells ("Back to my home away from home." the blonde cape said cheekily.). The thought nagged at her as she went into the Wards common room and changed out into her civilian clothes.
As Taylor was perusing her textbook for ideas, Chris walked over from the workshop and looked at the intensely studying figure in curiosity. "What are you're doing? World Affairs self-homework?" he asked, looking over her shoulder.
Taylor blinked at the sudden question, and turned to the boy, putting her book down. "No, I'm working on something that my powers can help with." she answered.
"Come again?" Chris asked, a questioning look on his face.
"It's something Alexandria said to me. Use my powers to help the world with normal problems. Start small." Taylor clarified.
"Huh." Chris responded. "Got anything?" he prodded.
Taylor shook her head. "I don't know. She said start small, but I don't know where to start" she admitted, gesturing towards her book.
"Hm..." Chris contemplated, picking up the book and flipping the pages. After a few moments, he put down the open book and pointed at a paragraph. "How about this? Ground contaminated heavy metal poisoning?" he suggested.
Taylor leaned in to read the indicated article. "Heavy metal poisoning?" she asked.
"Yeah." Chris nodded. "Lots of industrial land were cordoned off because of heavy metal compounds like lead or mercury from the refining or smelting process got leaked into the ground. It's a major worry that the compounds might get into the groundwater, because it's very poisonous. And the process of getting the stuff out or containing it is very difficult and time consuming. If you can speed that up somehow or make it a lot easier, it'll really make an impact." he concluded.
"Yeah..." Taylor said, in deep thought. "Yeah," she brightened. "And I think I don't need a new power to deal with the problem. I think I can just use the telekinesis power for this. Just have to be more selective about what I grab." she excitedly said.
"Though if you have to travel to each site, it'll still take a lot of time..." Chris said wonderingly, one hand rubbing his chin in thought.
"Not if I convert the power into a crystal matrix." Taylor countered as her mind starts to really think about the problem. "I can save a lot of time and space by designing the telekinesis power to grab only the target material, pull it out or phase it out and put them together in one spot. I don't need too much complexity for that." she finished, pleased that she doesn't have to put off the project because her Trump power was still working on the 'super-healing' power. The 'matrix-making' aspect was independent of that.
"How about we start with cadmium as a test case?" Chris suggested. "Leftover from zinc refining, one of the elements in heavy metal poisoning, and we can test the extraction on a couple of rechargeable Ni-Cad batteries."
Taylor nodded as she stood up from the table. "Yeah. That will be good for a test case. And we got some crystals in the workshop."
Chris nodded along. "Yeah, let's try it out!"
**************************
"And here's the batteries." Chris said as he placed a pack of Ni-Cad batteries in the target zone. The two teens were grouped around a water bottle-sized crystal that sat on the worktable. One cord leading from a thaumaturgic battery was connected into the crystal. A few more wires connects a computer-linked circuit board to a few select divots in the crystal.
Taylor nodded. "Alright, if it all works, the crystal matrix will telekinetically grab all the Cadmium atoms within the targeted area, phase it out of the way of the other mass, clumps it into a solid sphere and drops it into this open Tupperware." she recited.
Chris gave Taylor an odd look. "...yeah. I knew that already." he said.
Taylor shushed him. "I like thinking out loud and going things over in my head. Helps with my nerves." she clarified. She took a deep breath. "Okay. Safeties built in, batteries plugged in, target element matrix plugged in, electrodes seated properly into the crystal, matrix is configured to grab the stuff in a short narrow cone in front of it." she muttered under her breath.
Chris chuckled. "Huh. Can't believe it's possible to make a pseudo Manton limit into this thing. Excludes any atoms that are inside living bodies, right?" he asked.
Taylor distractedly nodded. "Yeah. Any living thing above the size of a cockroach." She took another steadying breath. "Alright, let's start before I lose my nerves."
Chris nodded. "Okay. Activating crystal matrix in three, two, one-"
**************************
Numerous electrical and electronic devices within fifty meters of the PRT HQ building abruptly stopped working; mostly those that were powered by rechargeable batteries or used infra-red sensors or motion detectors. Witnesses claimed that they saw the devices glow momentarily, before a glittering cloud of sparkles flew out of the devices and away into the open sky.
In the Wards common room, two Wards scrambled out of the workshop in a panic, as the clouds of phased Cadmium atoms reconstituted itself into a large beach ball-sized sphere of pure solid Cadmium metal above the Tupperware and landed on the worktable with a loud metallic 'Clang!', before rolling off it with a heavy 'Thud!'.
The sound of the thaumaturgic crystal battery splintering and fracturing apart from the sudden strain of the rapid draw and emptying of all of its stored energy at once almost went unnoticed in the commotion.
**************************
Much later, after the two contrite Wards had left the office, Director Piggot rubs her temples in irritation. 'Teenagers' she grumpily thought to herself.
A wall mounted screen flickered. "They had good intentions." Dragon gently said, her face looking amused.
"You know what they say about good intentions and hell." Director Piggot retorted.
"At least they didn't set the device to draw in mercury." Dragon pointed out.
Director Piggot frowned at the simulated face. "God, no. That'll make a fine mess of things." She leaned back. "As it is, I had to get the hazardous materials team to haul out the sphere from the Wards workshop." She sighed. "How bad is the damage?"
Dragon shook her head. "Not as bad as it could have, considering they accidentally mixed up the target directional volume and range settings. Cadmium is mostly used in rechargeble batteries, as well as in semiconductors for infra-red detectors and motion sensors." Dragon's face took on a thoughtful look. "The applications of this is very, very promising. Clean up of industrial sites, waste recycling and mining are just what I can think of right now that'll be of use for this.
Director Piggot straighten up in her chair. "Well, maybe in-between their Wards remedial training sessions regarding Tinker Tech testing, they can give you the matrix pattern and their notes for it." she growled. "In the meantime, I'll have to fill out these paperwork regarding replacing the affected devices. In just the building alone, there's already plenty of equipment to be replaced, let alone outside the building. Not to mention the total loss of one of the thaumaturgic crystal batteries provided to the Wards workshop."
Dragon chuckled. "Noted. I'll leave you to it then." she said, and the screen winked off, leaving the portly blonde woman alone in the office to her task.