35

Date

2011 January 29th - Friday - Earth Bet Time

He stepped over the last spasming criminal, absentmindedly dropping one of his last ConFoam grenades, and looked in the tank's direction. He was relieved to note that Dragon was also finishing up with the stragglers, so he started for the leaders of the gang.

They were suspiciously silent, and that worried him. Every time he fought with Skidmark, the man was nonstop talking and cursing. So silence from him needed to be investigated.

He was halfway to the tank when the makeshift doors snapped open and Skidmark stood there, grinning while holding a giant gun. It was definitively a tinker tech creation, just based on how he could actually see that they used an entire vacuum in its construction, its end connected to the vehicle with a thick tube.

He immediately took one of his experimental magnetic grenades and threw it at the villain. Unfortunately, as soon as the grenade reached the airspace in front of Skidmark, the familiar purplish-blue field appeared, and the grenade bounced away.

He remotely deactivated it. No use wasting equipment.

Skidmark meanwhile laughed like a loon, and he could hear Squealer on the other side doing the same.

"Skidmark, stand down. You are surrounded and no hope of escaping," he yelled out while sending a quick message to Dragon. He didn't actually expect the man to comply. He wasn't famous for being rational.

"Fuck you, you tin-can! I have an awesome gun! You only have that fucking toothpick. Come at me if you dare!" yelled the obviously high villain, frothing a little and then throwing his head back and laughing. He also fired his monstrous gun.

He had to jump aside because the same coruscating blue projectile (though smaller) came towards him.

He landed in a roll, sprang up, and ran towards the back of the tank, hoping to get out of the firing zone of Skidmark. He also could hear Squealer doing the same on the other side.

The plan was simple. Reach the tank and using precise strikes, disable the generator to stop them from firing. Of course, Dragon could have crushed that part of the tank simply with one of her suits, but they both agreed the possibility of the explosion was too high, so they needed precise strikes.

They could have also attacked the parahumans themselves, but he knew from experience that while Skidmark was an addict, he still was rather good with his power.

He still fired a few things from his halberd at the man, just to make sure he stayed put while running.

He ducked under a volley of projectiles and took a leap to cross the last feet between him and the backside of the tank.

Reaching it, he was relieved to note that Skidmark had enough brain to stop firing, and he could hear him moving around, probably trying to get a clear shot at him.

"I'm at the engine."

"Roger. On your mark, I will jump Squealer."

He didn't even bother to answer; he started on the engine. A quick review allowed him to find a few pipes, then following them, a connection, and so on. He was looking for a connection to the generator that would allow him to disconnect it.

Unfortunately, due to it being tinker tech, and more importantly built by a drug addict, it was a grand mess. Still, he didn't spend some of his valuable time reviewing other tinkers' work to fail here.

In the time it took Skidmark to clamber down the side of the tank (rather foolishly), he managed to pinpoint a weak point. Severing a specific cable, according to his experience, would force the generator into idling.

"Mark on three."

Dragon sent back an acknowledgment.

"One."

He readied his halberd while Skidmark was raising his giant gun at him, thankfully forgetting the field.

"Two."

The villain took aim, and he prepared to jump away just in case.

"Three."

He cut down immediately, and the machine let out a whine. He turned towards the grinning Skidmark, wanting to know which direction he should move in case his sabotage was ineffective.

"I got you now, asshole!" yelled the delirious parahuman, and pulled the trigger.

Click.

He was in motion immediately (the sound of a scream in the background proving that Dragon did her part) while Skidmark was looking dumbfounded at the gun, wondering why it didn't fire.

He expected that if he wouldn't be here, the man would try to look down the barrel to see if something was clogging it.

Luckily, he reached Skidmark before the man could put up his field.

"I demand a rema…" was the only thing heard from the villain before his electricity-clad hand reached him and collapsed on the ground. He watched him twitching a little in satisfaction, then contacted Dragon.

"Skidmark down."

"Squealer down too. Excellent work with the engine."

"Thank you," he answered while dropping his last ConFoam grenade on one of the foulest men he ever had the displeasure to meet.

While the foam was growing, he looked around the battlefield.

The truck was falling apart because apparently, Dragon was less than gentle with it. The other detained criminals were groaning or mumbling in all sorts of position, and he noted with some small happiness that Skidmark's wild firing was prevented from reaching them by the drones.

The same couldn't be said about the grounds and nearby buildings.

The ground was pockmarked with craters and detritus. Some of them even glowing. He already hated the time it would take to take care of it. Some of the projectiles hit a few nearby warehouses, and those were in the process of burning and falling apart.

It took him a second to realize that Dragon deliberately directed some of the enemy fire at them, probably hastening the demolition time for them for her future projects. She was really efficient. He was a little jealous.

He was about to ask her for confirmation when his radio came alive.

"Armsmaster, come in! Armsmaster, do you copy?"

He sighed a little, mourning the loss of his alone time with a competent Tinker, and answered. "This Armsmaster. Copying you Assault."

"Great! People were worried because they could only reach Dragon." came the always jolly tone of Assault.

Deciding against telling him he didn't turn on his radio because he wanted to enjoy a fight where he could win without trouble, because obviously, that would attract unneeded attention from his superiors. He was about to open his excuse generator when a prompt showed up on his screen. Smiling slightly at his friend's helpfulness, he answered in a confident voice.

"Squealer came with a jammer. Dragon recently upgraded, so her equipment was unaffected."

"Makes sense. I'm two minutes out with Puppy, Dauntless is coming from the water, and the PRT wagons with the firefighter escort are also coming soon."

"Don't worry, all of them are down. Including Skidmark and Squealer."

There was a silence on the line for a few minutes.

"What?"

"Skidmark and Squealer are d…" he couldn't finish before Assault interrupted him.

"I heard the first time. I was just surprised. This is big Armsy. You need to call the Director immediately, she needs to know."

Before he could answer, Dragon, now walking towards him, replied to Assault.

"Don't worry, Assault, she already knows, I've kept her appraised."

As she walked, the helmet unfolded, showing her face and the smile on it. "I even recorded it in high def!"

"Cool!" came the excited answer, and he finally could hear the sirens. "By the way, how was your first date?"

She gave a quick laugh at Assault's joke, mostly because of the face Colin made. At the same time, she was coordinating the drones and suits, collecting the captured criminals and parahumans. She also took time to have one of the suits turn off the giant death machine built from trash.

The weapon system was rather fascinating, so she assigned one of her forks with an army of drones to examine it.

She took another look around, noting the damage to the surroundings, and sighed. It was just finished…

Still, she had the contact information of the people who could help, so as she was watching Dauntless arrive and Assault and Battery arrive, she placed a call.

It rang for a short time before picking up. "Hello, Danny Hebert speaking."

"Hello, Danny," she greeted the father of her friend.

"Dragon, what a pleasant surprise!" came the reply from the other end, his voice perfectly calm. "Are you perhaps calling because of the surprise fireworks we just saw?"

"Of course, Danny," she answered smilingly. "It seems inconsiderate people have damaged the ground of the loading space."

"That's a shame. Hope you reprimanded them. But I'm sure you didn't call me, just to tell me that."

"Yes, it seems I need a competent work crew that can work overtime to repair it."

"What a surprise," came the still completely calm reply. "It seems the Dockworker's Union can help with that."

"That's nice to hear! Would you mind sending over them as soon as you can? I will send over the paperwork after the call."

"Yes, I can. I think, give it a half an hour and they will be there," replied Danny, and she could hear the clacking of a keyboard.

"Thank you. I will warn the crime scene people to let them through."

"Good luck with them."

She laughed a little then hang up, only for another call to come in immediately. Not that she wasn't fielding several dozen calls already from all sorts of people, but she made sure to pay special attention to the important ones.

Like Taylor.

"Hello, you've reached the Dragon Hotline Number. If you want a signed autograph, please press the number one, if you…" she began in her best robot voice, only for the younger girl to interrupt her.

"Tess, what the hell? I just saw a video about the Merchants attacking you! Why didn't you call me?" exclaimed Taylor rather angrily.

"Because there was no need for it. They are Merchants, and I had enough suits with me to fight a small army. And Armsmaster. We outnumbered them." she explained calmly. "Do you want an autograph from him?"

"It's not about that! What if something happened? What if the other gangs tried something? What if it spilled over to the Union?"

"I have 24/7 protection around the Union offices just as I told you. And thank you for worrying about me, but I had everything in hand." She had to smile because Taylor's worry towards her felt really nice. "You being here would've just caused unnecessary issues."

"Ugh…" came the frustrated reply. "I just hate that I can't go out and fight people! What's the point of these powers if I can't use them to save people?"

She really wanted to point out that the girl probably already saved several thousands of people with the devices she created with her power, but she knew she was just complaining for the sake of it.

"I will come over after I organize the repair here and briefed the Director. Then we can sit down with your dad and talk about going out. What do you say?"

"Fiiine!" replied Taylor. "AlsopleasebringmeanauthographfromArmsmaster. OK. Thanks. Bye."

She took a second to work through the last sentence, then let out a laugh. Colin, hearing that, turned towards her, dismissing the PRT agent he was talking to.

"What's so funny?"

She gave him her best grin. "Do you still carry signed pictures with you?"

The sour look on his face made her laugh again.

Date

2011 January 29th - Friday - Earth Bet Time

He looked at the screen and put down the headset he wore for the operation.

He glanced away from the screen, then back, making sure what he saw was real.

It was impossible.

His power.

Failed.

He had set up the Merchants properly, thanks to their unusually low intelligence it barely required any resource. He even made sure that they found several high-grade parts that could be used for tinkering, just to make sure their strength was top-notch.

He had his Tattletale go over the details, in several timelines, with several different instructions, and even she gave him a green light. It seemed after he solved his current issue, he would need to have a proper talk with the girl. There was no way in hell she didn't see something wrong with it.

However, before he could get his pet in, he would need to figure out why his power failed.

When he got the notification that the Merchants departed, he ordered his man to get into position to observe and, if necessary, intervene. He also used his power to split the timeline.

He watched calmly through the screen in both timelines as the Merchants approached the building, the buildup, when he saw Armsmaster preparing to dodge, in one timeline he ordered one sniper to fire.

The sniper missed, and the events unfolded in the same way as in the unaffected timeline.

He promised himself that he will harshly punish the sniper later, but it wasn't something that hasn't happened before. He simply ordered another sniper to fire when there was an opportunity.

Making Armsmaster fail in this kind of situation would tarnish the reputation of the man (if he survived) and the PRT enough that he could move up several of his plans.

But the sniper missed. And all the other snipers did too. A grenade stealthily thrown under Dragon was a dud. An RPG was accidentally fired backward.

Nothing worked.

Everything he prepared failed sometimes in some small way, or rather spectacularly, with one of his men who got hit by a speeding car getting into position.

It was impossible.

He watched numbly as the heroes dealt with the Merchants while wondering what happened to his power.

In a final desperate move, he instructed all of his men to open up on the two heroes standing in the middle of the neutralized gang.

The beat down they received made him wince, but Dragon's next action of searching their equipment and loudly telling Armsmaster that they belonged to Coil was finally enough to shut down the timeline.

He needed to figure out how Dragon was spoofing his power because this was unacceptable.

And now the Merchants were captured.

Well, not all of them…

Maybe a breakout?

Date

2011 January 29th - Friday - Earth Bet Time

They sat together after dinner, enjoying some simple TV show, but both of them were waiting for the news to come on.

When Danny came home, she first gave him a quick once over to see if he had suffered any injuries, then gave him a hug and demanded everything he knew about the event.

There were dozens of videos on the internet and PHO was melting down reacting to the fact that Armsmaster and Dragon took out an entire gang alone (the shippers were in heaven) but nothing concrete was said by either Dragon, the Protectorate, or the PRT.

And anytime she texted Tess, she always diverted the discussion to other topics, so she had no actual idea what really happened.

Sadly, neither did her father. The moment they heard the explosion, they sought shelter. All he could tell her that Dragon requested people for repair work.

So frustrating.

Her only chance to get information (because she refused to believe the internet theory that Dragon was taking over the city, and she wanted to establish herself by taking out a gang) was the news.

How far she has fallen…

Her father sitting next to her glanced at his watch and changed the channel. "Let's see what they are saying about it."

She listened to the news jingle and hoped they would start with what happened today.

"Welcome people of Brockton Bay. Today the Archer's Bridge Merchant's led an attack on the new recycling facility that Dragon has built. The Mayor's Office announced…" started the pretty blonde on the screen. She immediately tuned out the parts that weren't about the attack. Instead, she started to design a better entertainment system.

After a few minutes of other local news, they finally returned to the attack.

"It seems for some reason the Archer's Bridge Merchant gang, using an actual tinker created giant tank, attacked the recently built recycling facility. Fortunately, the Protectorate leader, Armsmaster, was there to provide assistance. According to the PRT, the heroes suffered no injuries and managed to detain all the criminals, including the notorious leaders of the gang. The PRT will hold a conference where they will share further details, but this network's reporter managed to get onto the scene and also succeed to get an interview with the famous Dragon. Sadly, Armsmaster was unavailable."

So no additional information. She didn't know what she was expecting. According to her father's snort, he agreed.

They still listened to the interview, where Dragon nicely explained again what happened, once again providing no new information. Though she noticed that she seemed to emphasize how easy it was.

Maybe as a warning to the other gangs?

The only interesting thing happened at the end of the interview.

"… anything else to say, Dragon?" asked the peppy reporter.

"Of course, Cathy. I would like to announce, that the recycling facility will be operating in a few days, and I'll be also starting a new project on behalf of Weaver Industries."

"Oh, what kind of project?"

"Weaver Industries has hired me, due to my expertise with tinker technology, to build a factory for producing the newly revealed medi-gel. They hope to distribute it free or at a cost to hospitals and those that need it, so I'm happy to help."

"That's amazing. Thank you, Dragon!"

"No problem."

"Well, people, you heard it here first…"

She ignored the rest and looked at her father.

"Is that good?"

He seemed to think about it for a second, then answered. "Yes. If she can keep up the protection from the gangs, and the Congress doesn't fuck up the medi-gel legislation, then it will be great."

"Is that possible?" she asked, worried.

"It's the Congress." came the answer with a shrug. "I'm more curious about Weaver Industries. I wonder who they are?"

"I have never heard of them."

"Me neither. I will ask Dragon tomorrow."

"Cool." she stood up, stretching. "I'm going to take a shower, then go to bed. Worrying about you tired me out."

"Okay, honey. I still have a few emails to write, so I will go later."

"Have fun!" she said while heading upstairs.

While getting ready for a nice hot bath, she wondered why the Weaver name was so familiar.

She was sitting in the bathtub, relaxing, when it came to her.

Wasn't that one codename Admin offered?