37 Masser!

POV Armsmaster :

The last few months hadn't been kind to him, especially the weeks after that damnable ABB bombing. He'd all but became the face of that failure, alongside the now-missing boy who'd torn him and the PRT a new one in front of everyone... That video's still trending internationally, mostly so other countries could throw mud at the PRT to help promote their own security forces...

That's not to say he didn't feel bad about what'd happened. Had he not been severely stressed that day, with mounds upon mounds of projects piled on his desk, his own interest buried under them, plus his patrolling of the city and a lack of sleep for three days resulted in that confrontation...

If he'd just kept a clear head and handed the boy to child services instead of concentrating on the incident and the large press presence, maybe he could have prevented the boy from going missing... It was pretty clear to all who'd done it, the child's scathing words against the ABB had all but cemented their retaliation, and if he wasn't already dead, Armsmaster wished it would come soon, to save him from the torture those animals would inflict.

He'd asked the Director for a task force to remove the ABB immediately after that. Much to his chagrin, she'd rejected his proposal soon after their meeting, with orders not to mention it to anyone, especially the public. Were it not for Dragon's words in the PRT's favour he'd get the impression they WANTED the ABB in Brockton Bay... As daft as that sounded.

They were probably just worried about Lung, as the cape's power limits hadn't been seen yet. And since the man had gone face to face against Leviathan, there was the small possibility that he could grow more powerful than any of the Triumvirate. A scary thought.

Tensions in the city were only getting higher, but he supposed it could be worse. If the PRT hadn't managed to evacuate the area before Lung and Kaiser started going at it he didn't know what would've happened. Though, the reports he'd read stated that Cricket had been killed, which he wasn't too torn up about...

Unfortunately, that whole event seemed to have been artificially manufactured, as during the battle while he and the other capes were protecting the surrounding area, some Empire capes had broken Hookwolf out of prison days before his trial...

He rubs the visible part of his mouth under his mask and lets out a long sigh. The PRT had been taking constant hits from all this bullshit, so he was hoping they'd manage to secure the charity concert completely.

Thankfully, it seems someone inside the ABB hadn't been quite happy with those ruling over them. The PRT had received a rather in-depth tip of what the ABB was planning, apparently they'd purchased explosive tinker-tech RC cars in bulk and planned to use them to bomb the concert.

This could be a fabrication of course, but there was no point in not creating countermeasures. EMP devices had been set up around the outskirts of the area where the concert would be held. If the ABB wanted to use these RC cars then they'd need to deploy them while inside the building, rendering their original use pointless.

God he hoped this went well... The PRT could not afford another publicity disaster.

--------------------------

POV Gallant :

"Status check?" Triumph, the captain of the wards requests over their comms.

"Still breathing." Clockblocker sarcastically reports.

"Be serious for once, Dennis! This is important!" Vista says over the line with an angry, hushed whisper.

"Vista confirmed, try to use cape aliases though, please? We have them for a reason." Triumph replies with a tense sigh.

"Gallant here." Dean confirms.

"Aegis on."

"Sitting back at base, fun." Kid Win's disgruntled mutter states.

"Cheer up, I was on communication duty last time." Vista retorts.

"Yeah, but that was for a patrol, not a big event like this!..."

"You just wanna hear Canary sing. Don't lie, I know you've got her poster in your room." Clockblocker drawls.

"Bro! That's private! Not cool!" Kid Win shouts in embarrassment.

"Private? It's not exactly a secret, like how Triumph has one of Narwhal's posters in his."

"Narwhal? That giant naked chick in Canada? Triumph, you dog!"

"I admire her, that's all... Can we get back on target!? We're here to stop terrorists, remember!?"

"Hey, you do you man, you wouldn't be the first dude holding his pickle with her in mi-" Clockblocker starts but is cut off as all other lines simultaneously go mute.

"This isn't a playdate! I can't concentrate with so much chatter on your communications! This line is for reports and emergencies only!" Dragon, the Tinker manning the whole protection operation chimes in, causing every to go silent.

One didn't argue back to the more powerful tinker in the world, after all.

Gallant shakes his head at his team's antics and looks back at the area where the concert was being held. He was standing outside of it, around where barriers had been erected to prevent any forceful entry. This didn't stop him from hearing it all though, which alleviated much of his boredom from his watch.

Ninety percent of patrols were walking around doing nothing, with the last ten percent being split between running to an emergency and actually doing their job. The singer named Jason Bastiel was currently performing his recent hit called 'Touched Me Not', a song he wasn't particularly fond of given its shallow lyrics and repetitive instrumentals.

It was almost a shame Houxe Toole turned out to be an ABB operative, he'd liked 'Doesn't matter'... Strange the upcoming singer turned out to be a would-be-terrorist.

The event was already halfway done, and he found himself regretting he couldn't join Victoria inside, as it seemed like nothing was going to happen...

Oh, he'd jinxed himself...

He tensed up, and his eyes darted around to scan the surroundings... But after another five minutes he though he was in the clear... That's when the sound of miniature engines alerted him to the danger.

Ten separate, strange-looking RC cars zip from the nearby treeline, bounce off of the curb and towards the venue... "We got hostiles!-..." he shouts over comms, only to trail off as all of the cars lose power and stop dead in their tracks.

"Uh, guess the EMP protections worked? Those bomb cars aren't moving." Gallant slowly reports.

"Keep an eye on them, the bomb squad is on route." Kid Win says before adding, "Don't go near 'em though. They could have mechanical timers on them for all we know! Tinkertech is always pretty fucked!"

"You're a tinker though...?" Clockblocker drawls, seemingly having forgotten Dragon's earlier warning... That or trying to provide some levity to the situation.

"A tinker without a speciality." Kid Win bitterly responds, "Not that any tinker other than Dragon could figure out someone else's tech. It's all black-boxed, y'know."

"Yeah, we all remember it from class, I'm just saying... Anyone else see anything? They should know that their bombs failed by now." Clockblocker asks the group.

"Not on my side." Vista says.

"Cams have nothing." Kin Win states.

"Don't let your guard down yet, I'd be surprised if that was all the ABB had planned." Triumph warns.

...

...

"Oni Lee! Assault is on him and Armsmaster is almost there, Triumph, have your team block off potential exits!" Dragon suddenly reports, which turns out to be slightly too late as the venue window shatters behind Gallant, revealing Assault flying through it with his arms locked around the ABB ninja.

"I'VE GOT-"

*Poof*

"HIM...!?" Assault blinks as the Oni Lee in his grasp pops from existence, leaving behind a small cloud of black smoke.

"There!" Gallant shouts and points at the roof of the venue where Oni Lee was running.

"Oh no, you aren't running this time!" Assault exclaims, bouncing between two walls in a blur and quickly reaches the roof before continuing his chase. Gallant runs around the building, soon meeting up with Vista and Aegis who can only watch as the two capes brawl on the roof.

Assault using his kinetic manipulation to launch lightning-fast strikes at Oni Lee, who elusively evades them with quick dodges and occasional teleports. His clones never lasted long enough against Assault to use a grenade or get a stab in, however, leaving them at a stalemate.

At least, until Armsmaster hit the scene. The engine of his motorbike roared as he drove through where Oni Lee had just been and off of the roof, leaving the observers wondering how he'd gotten the vehicle on the roof in the first place!

Oni Lee vanishes in a poof of smoke and lands on the ground near the wards, Gallant quickly detects him as Armsmaster skids to a halt not too far away. Oni Lee's chest was visibly heaving now, likely from running and teleporting all over the venue to escape his pursuers.

Unfortunately, like a rat backed into a corner, he only became more rabid in response. Unclipping a number of grenades from his bandoleer and tossing them all at the group.

"Cover!" Armsmaster starts but relaxes slightly as Vista throws her arms up, expanding the space in front of the explosives which causes them to float directly in front of Lee. The ninja's eyes widen behind his mask as he hastily teleports away, back onto the roof where he tries to stab Assault in the back.

Assault hears him coming however and throws himself to the side, and in a surprising and awkward series of movies, bounces back off of the floor to deliver a brutal right hook to Lee's face.

*CRACK!*

Leaving a long, zig-zagged line up his metal Oni mask, the punch both denting and cracking the iconic piece. Panicked and concussed, Lee abandons whatever his goals were and rapidly starts teleporting from rooftop to rooftop, quickly disappearing into the city.

"Should we chase!?" Vista hurriedly asks, looking to Armsmaster.

"No, stay and protect the-"

Gallant had thought that was the end of things, but had his hopes dashed as metaphysical wave washed through the area. His eyes widened as he looked to his team, shouting both to them and over his comms, "MASTER EFFECT!"

"Shit! Dragon! Starts precautions, M12 measures now!" the armoured man exclaims before focusing on Gallant, "Can you tell its origin!?"

Gallant squints his eyes behind his helmet and tries to follow the sensation, only to be shocked further as he points towards the concert, which hadn't noticed the sounds of battle over the singers. "I-It's coming from inside!" he shouts, thoughts quickly moving to Vicky who was inside the building.

"Can you tell what it's doing!?"

"I don't think so!"

"Then come on, let's stop them before they can do anything serious!" he says before throwing a hand at the other wards, "The rest of you regroup and prepare for Master quarantine procedures!"

---------------------------

"Never mind, I'll find someone like you. I wish nothing but the best for you-"

Inside the venue, they find an absolutely ecstatic crowd, all cheering for Canary who cried as she sang her newest hit song. None of them ever seemed to notice the two capes barging through the crowd to find the Master cape.

"I think they're backstage, they must be." Gallant says, following Armsmaster as they head behind the stage... Only for Gallant to realise something dire. Canary, the singer, was the origin of the effect.

This was bad. Really bad. How had no one ever noticed this before!? Her power was only supposed to make her good at singing, yet he was the only one to notice it had some mind-controlling influence attached to it!?

This woman had sung throughout the country, in the vicinity of domestic and foreign officials, and leaders of their countries. What would the public think if they found out Canary was Mastering them!?

...

Was she even aware of it? No incident had occurred from it, from what he'd heard... Unless she was like the Simurgh and was laying the groundwork for a future scheme?

His throat was rough and dry as he looked to Armsmaster and pointed to the stage, illuminated by dozens of colourful lights and other effects, with Canary standing in the spotlight singing her heart out. Her emotions were clear to him, so unless she had a way of fooling his power, she was truly sorrowful, mournful, angry, and also at the same time, hopeful. "S-she's the Master..." he has to grab the man's shoulder before he tackles her from the stage, "B-but! I don't think she's doing it intentionally!"

"Oh..." Armsmaster's scowl quickly evaporates, as if it'd never existed. "In that case, let's leave."

...

"Wait, what!?" Gallant inwardly shouts at the man's abrupt change of attitude.

"Master protocols! Armsmaster has been affected! Get out of there now! We need to quarantine the entire area!" Dragon shouts over all the comms at once, sounding almost panicked in her fervour.