208 Epilogue 8

Brockton Bay, New Jersey, April 11th, 17:00

"Wards, allow me to introduce you to your newest teammate, Redemption."

Miss Militia's introduction gets a set of curious and speculative looks from the five teenagers present, each of them wearing casual clothes and a simple black domino mask. Especially the youngest, the only girl who doesn't even look to have hit puberty yet.

"Now, I know it has only been a couple of days since you welcomed Vista to the team, but I hope you can get along with Redemption here just as well." Miss Militia pats Redemption on the back as she finishes speaking, urging her forwards slightly to introduce herself.

With the Wards' attention now fully on her, Redemption brings a hand up to her head, pushing some of her long, chestnut hair out of the way as she takes off her own domino mask.

"Hey, I'm Redemption, but I'm cool with you just calling me Emma. I'm uh, a transfer. From Columbus, in Ohio. Been a Hero for a couple years now." She pauses, looking between them for a moment as she tries to figure out something more interpersonal to say, but after an awkward pause, she gives up. "Nice to meet you." She lamely finishes.

The first person to take the initiative and break the awkward silence is a ginger-haired, blue eyed boy of average height, who steps forward and offers a hand to shake.

"Ohio huh? I hear they have a lot of corn!" His odd greeting catches her off guard enough that she almost doesn't hear as he continues. "I'm Clockblocker by the way. Y'know, like co-"

"I'm Aegis!" The tall, tanned boy with long hair now named Aegis suddenly exclaims, quite literally jumping into the conversation, pushing Clockblocker to the side as he does, one hand over the shorter boy's mouth. "I'm sorry about Clock, please just ignore everything he says in the future."

Letting out a small amused smile at the interaction, Emma shrugs one shoulder and turns away from the now bickering pair of boys and faces the other three.

"I'm sorry about them," the tallest one says, standing about six foot despite looking to be about her age at sixteen and with black hair, blue eyes and a welcoming smile, "you'll get used to it. I'm Triumph, Wards Team Leader, but you can just call me Rory if you want. It's a pleasure."

As he says that, he, too reaches up and takes his mask off. A showing of trust, to make her feel welcome and then offers his hand for a shake.

"Nice to meet you, Rory." 

Nodding his head once, Rory turns to the side to allow the final two Wards to step up.

"Greetings Emma, I am Gallant. I hope we can be friends." The male of the two, blond hair, broad shoulders, but shorter than the other boys, follows the trend and offers his hand for greeting, to which she shakes as is required by social contract.

"Yeah."

Ignoring Emma's lame response, the final Ward, a small girl with dark blonde hair who barely seems to even have hit the double digits of age, also reaches up to take her mask off and a hand out to shake, though the height difference makes it seem somewhat comical.

"Hello. I'm Vista. I'm also new here, so if you want to get the lay of the land with me, I'd be more than happy to keep you company."

Just looking at the smile on the younger girl's face, Emma can tell that there is something behind it that is less happy-go-lucky. But considering she's a cape, Emma isn't surprised. To have triggered before even hitting puberty, clearly it's recent and clearly the girl still has issues.

That, in combination with Emma's personal experience with looks being deceiving, gets rid of her initial dismissal of the younger girl as just a child playing dress up, and causes her to actually take the hand and smile back, if only lightly.

"I'd like that."

"Well, with introductions out of the way," Miss Militia says, her smile visible even through the scarf covering her lower face thanks to the way her eyes crinkle, "there is also a new transfer in the Protectorate, so while you lot get to know each other, I've got to go supervise Assault."

Her words get a small chuckle out of the boys, them having been around for long enough to find the idea of Miss Militia feeling the need to supervise him over the literal superpowered teenagers funny.

The moment the elevator doors close in front of Miss Militia's face, Clockblocker immediately jumps over to the middle of the room, where there are a few couches set up around a table, and calls out. "Now that the police is gone, it's time for the age old classic of show and tell! New girl goes first!"

Collectively shaking their heads, the other boys move over to the couches, followed by the girls only after Vista urges Emma forward with a questioning look.

As they sit down, Vista and Emma taking the spot opposite Rory and Gallant, with Clockblocker and Aegis to the side, pushing against each other, Emma smiles a little bit at the clear comradery, only to frown right after and force her face back into neutral, with only Gallant noticing the change of expressions.

It's Rory who breaks the ice, giving Clockblocker an exasperated glare as he does. "Alright, it would be best if we all know each other's powers since we will be working together, but don't feel pressured to go first just because Clock says so. As a general rule, you can ignore his opinion."

"Hey! I resent that!"

Ignoring his outburst completely, Rory speaks up again. "For instance, my power is audiokinesis, but it's not as cool as it sounds. Basically, I can shout really, really loudly."

"And yet he still can't find his voice when the barista gets his order wrong."

Clockblocker's muttered words cause Rory's head to immediately snap to his direction. "That was one. Time. And I already told you that I'm fine with black coffee too, I didn't mind the mistake so I didn't speak up about it."

"Didn't you only drink half of it?" Aegis adds, smiling innocently, with one finger raised to his chin as if pondering.

His words cause Rory to close his eyes and take a deep breath, opening them with an annoyed, if slightly fond, smile. "We were called away for an emergency. I like black coffee."

"Sure sure, and I like my tea bitter," Clockblocker says with a roll of his eyes.

"You do like bitter tea! That's like the only thing you drink when we go out!" Rory exclaims, before realising that he's letting his friend get him worked up and forcefully calming himself down.

"Yeah yeah, that' what they all say."

Resolutely not responding, Rory turns to the only other boy he can trust to be mature. "Gallant, why don't you introduce yourself."

Smiling, Gallant turns back to Emma. "My power lets me shoot out concussive blasts that also alter the emotions of the people it hits, though, I was intending to market myself as a Tinker to the public in order to throw that off, but uh. That does not seem to be an option anymore."

Not knowing of the death of the resident Tinker, Armsmaster, but recognising the way the mood of the room dropped, Emma was about to ask what happened until Clockblocker jumps to his feet and interrupts her.

"Enough about these bozos, my power's great. High-five me!" He says, offering out his hand, to which she leaves him hanging for a long, awkward moment.

Eventually, she accepts and high-fives him.

But the instant she does, the world around her seems to change, like going from one frame to the next, there is suddenly food on the table, Gallant is in the open kitchen, Vista is on her phone and the rest are chatting.

"Wha?"

Noticing her movement, the others all turn to look at her, Clockblocker with a shit eating grin on his face, while the other boys just seem exasperated and Vista slightly worried.

"What just happened?"

"My power happened!" Clocblocker helpfully exclaims, taking a bite from a sandwich and continuing to talk as he chews, though he at least endeavours to keep his mouth somewhat closed. "I 'an 'eef 'ings in 'ime." He swallows. "I can freeze things I touch in time, though how long they're frozen can be anything from half a minute to ten, can't pick unfortunately."

As she takes that in, he proceeds to continue eating his sandwich, and Emma turns her attention to Vista by her side, who quickly answers the unasked question. "It's been about six minutes."

"Huh."

"Yeah, he did that to me too, when I joined." There is a hint of resentment behind her words, but Emma can tell it's superficial. "My power is spatial manipulation by the way. Inorganic only, but I can walk from the street to a building's rooftop, so it's pretty cool."

"I suppose that leaves me." Aegis says with a friendly smile. "My power isn't that interesting though. Redundant biology." At Emma's tilt of the head, he explains further. "If I get blinded, my skin will change to sense light, if I was drowning I'd get gills, that sort of thing. I usually return to normal after a little while, but it's why my costume is the colour of blood."

Laughing lightly, Aegis scratches the back of his head, his long hair getting messed up as he does so.

"Sooooo..." Clockblocker says, staring expectantly at Emma. "What about you?"

She doesn't respond right away, looking down at her hands as complicated emotions run through her mind, before eventually just deciding to get on with it.

Flakes of flame start dancing on her hands, and she keeps the fire low and in control. "Pyrokinesis, but my fires burn different people to different degrees."

Misunderstanding her to mean that it's random like his own, Clockblocker gives her a smile and holds out a plate full of cupcakes for her. "Pyrokinesis means you're immune to fire, right? That'll be pretty nice to have here."

Taking a cupcake, Emma tilts her head inquisitively. "How do you mean?"

And so they explain the dangers of the Bay, getting her, and Vista too, up to speed on what they will need to look out for and what to keep in mind.

Meanwhile, on the opposite end of the building, a man is sitting alone in a lounge, lost in thought, and seeming to doze slightly in his chair.

See, Mimic hasn't been sleeping well recently.

Not since he saw the news regarding Oakland, or, more specifically, regarding Lusia Abel.

Her being on the news only served to fill his dreams with memories of what happened this time last year. Back when he was the leader of the Columbus Protectorate, down in Georgia. When she came to town with the Nine.

The city has just been shut down since then. There have been a few expeditions inside to bring out valuables and the like, but plenty of the traps left behind were Tinker made, or at least Tinker influenced. 

It was enough of a problem that the government decided to simply write the city off entirely.

Of course, that means that his Protectorate team, at least what was left of it anyway, was forced to split up.

Carl has been moved to Houston, to make up, even a little, for the loss of Exalt, and last he heard, Devi and Asura moved to Nashville and are actually trying for a kid, which is nice, he supposes.

As for Mimic, he's been moving between cities, getting deployed wherever was needed at the time until a decision is made on where to station him.

That decision has been made now.

Brockton Bay. Nazi capital of America and one of the cities with the highest Villain to Hero ratio in the country. It also just so happens to have recently lost it's Protectorate Team Leader.

So he's basically been stationed here both to make up for the loss of manpower, and also to be a Vice-Leader to help Miss Militia get used to the position.

That's one thing he is happy about with all of this; getting to work with Miss Militia is pretty cool, given that she is one of the inaugural Wards.

But he is not the only one getting transferred in; he's also coming in with a new probationary Ward.

From what he hears, she's had a rather interesting career. Starting out as a Vigilante, then joining the Wards when offered, only to end up quitting later on and going back to being a Vigilante, just more violent this time. 

Now, thanks to a video of her basically torturing a criminal getting on to the internet, she has been given a choice between going to juvie, or becoming a Ward once again, just on probation this time.

She agreed, if not amicably, and is going to be joining him in Brockton Bay.

Now all he has to do, is introduce himself to the local Director, Emily Piggot.

Then, after getting settled in, maybe he'll be able to sleep peacefully again.

His thoughts are interrupted as the door opposite him is opened by a dark haired, olive skinned woman with an American flag scarf covering the lower half of her face, dressed in fitted army fatigues that draw Mimic's attention to her curves.

"Miss Militia," he greets, getting to his feet, "it's nice to finally meet you in person."

"Indeed it is, Mimic." She responds, her bottle-glass green eyes expressing her smiling face perfectly fine even with it being covered as she shakes his hand. "Let's go meet the Director then."

Nodding his head, he follows after her as they leave the room and walk a short distance, ending at a door with a placard stating 'Director Emily Piggot.'

"Word of warning." Miss Militia says, one hand on the doorhandle but not opening it yet. "Director Piggot can be a bit of a hard-ass, don't tell her I said that, but just be professional and you'll be fine."

Taking her words to heart, Mimic nods once, and she opens the door, leaving him with the feeling of walking into a lion's den.

=================

A/N: He~llo! Dear readers!

Ehhhhh fuck you, no Piggy interaction, I cba. It'd just be a whole lot of passive aggressive bs anyway, who cares.

Also, lookie here, it seems that two of my OCs have moved to brockton bay. It also seems like a lot of these epilogues are mentioning brockton bay. I wonder if that means anything for the sequel? (this is mostly for the non worm readers who don't know brockton is where canon takes place)

Also yeah, y'all think I just forget about my characters? Oh ye of little faith. :)

Also, this is like the second or third time I've written a chapter backwards. Did half the mimic bit, then timeskipped a day to the wards bit, then realised I didn't have to and undid the time skip and put the mimic bit after. :3