Startup 1.4

[April 11th 2011 ; 09:36 AM]

It didn't take long for Harrison to go full tilt into preparing for the meeting, as a partner of his firm, he had the power to call in an army of associates and have them prepare a solid frame for both the company that I'm planning to sell my products through, but also all the financial details for a deal with the PRT.

We spoke a lot about what exactly we were planning to do, and I gave him my opinion on how I wanted the start this enterprise. I was pleasantly surprised by his agreement since money wasn't really the goal for me.

"I'm a full-fledged Brocktonite, Son. Do you know how many better job offers I refused elsewhere? Money was never the priority." He said.

I came back home and checked out PHO, and sure enough, I've had a message from Weaver.

Parahumans Online, abbreviated to PHO, is the "go-to" website about capes. The main website displays recent international news about parahumans, and it also includes a cape wiki, message boards with private message functionality, a chatroom, and other information on cape groups and events.

Its popularity stems from the fact that it is common knowledge that it was made by Dragon Tech, and so it is implied that it is a side project of Dragon's.

[A.N: The last remark is all fanon, although Wildbow did hint at the fact that it was the truth.]

[01:12 AM]►Book_Owl: Hi

[01:12 AM]►Book_Owl: this is wver

[01:20 AM]►Book_Owl: tattletale sent me a message

[01:20 AM]►Book_Owl: https://parahumans.net/threads/Bug.854277/ 

[01:20 AM]►Book_Owl: i found it here

I checked out the link, and soon enough there was a message.

Subject: 

Bug

Owe you one.  Would like to repay the favor.  Meet?

Send a message,

Tt.

So it was true, she did save the Undersiders. 

The Undersiders are thieves operating on a "get in, get out" mindset when pulling off their heists, using their abilities to guarantee success. They only fought to ensure their escape.

I couldn't find a lot about them in the wikis, especially Tattletale. What we do know is that they have four members, Grue, Hellhound, Regent, and Tattletale.

Grue's power is to generate clouds of smoke-like darkness that erase all light and mute sounds. It also interferes with microwaves, radio frequencies, radiation, and certain Breaker powers such as those possessed by Shadow Stalker and Velocity. He does not actually 'see' this darkness, he is aware of its location and when it is affected but it does not obscure his vision in the least. It's like Batman's dream power.

Hellhound can empower dogs into monstrous creatures, they are known to be able to push around Hookwolf, one of the Empire 88's heavy hitters, and control them.

Regent can make certain parts of another person's body spasm, comments say that it is deceptively powerful, and was responsible for many of their getaways.

Almost nothing is known about Tattletale, all we know is that she has some sort of Thinker power and that she claims to be 'psychic'. But everyone knows Telepathy is actually impossible, some powers can be poor imitations of it, or be able to reliably mimic it, which is probably the case here.

People also claim that she is a smug prick, who likes to ferret and publicize her enemy's secrets in the open.

From what I knew of Grue and Hellhound, they were both marginally successful B-list villains who had been barely scraping by.  Now both were on a team that was pulling high-profile heists and confounding even the likes of Armsmaster.  The two of them seemed totally different in methodology and style, and if I remember right, both Grue and Hellhound had lived in different cities prior to teaming up and setting roots in Brockton Bay.

This all screams Tattletale.

The fact that she is messaging Weaver and not me paints a clear picture. The Undersiders are recruiting, and they don't think they can recruit me.

They definitely know I was culpable in bringing Lung down, it's trending in the Brockton Bay PHO, but then here comes the question, why approach Weaver?

I pull up an empty piece of paper and a pen, putting my observations on paper so that I can comprehend them better.

In front of Weaver, I put in Teenager, Antisocial, and Heroic. She's obviously underage, and both her shyness and her comment about teenage drama suggest she's either antisocial or attention-starved, and she attacked Lung, the worst, most terrifying cape on the block because she heard he was going to kill children.

Then I put in Tattletale under the Undersiders, with a Thinker on the side.

Now it is possible that the Undersiders will offer recruitment to any teenage Parahuman they meet, which is possible. However, I can't exclude the fact that Tattletale may have been able to deduce something about Weaver that may have convinced the hero to join her. 

If she did, then what is it? She calls herself psychic, which means she either can make deductions from contact with other people, or she has some sort of psychometry or precognition that feeds her information about other people, I think precognition may be more likely since she has a habit of speaking people's words as they happen.

I move back to the keyboard, sending a message back to Weaver.

[09:49 AM]►Accelerator(Unverified Cape): Alright

[09:49 AM]►Accelerator(Unverified Cape): This is probably a recruitment pitch

[09:49 AM]►Accelerator(Unverified Cape): You have two choices 

[09:49 AM]►Accelerator(Unverified Cape): Either you tell her no or you meet her

[09:49 AM]►Accelerator(Unverified Cape): I'd recommend the former but you should probably chat with her for a bit, and try to figure out something.

[09:50 AM]►Accelerator(Unverified Cape): And DONT OUT YOURSELF nor ask her to do so herself

[09:50 AM]►Accelerator(Unverified Cape): Seriously, I may not have a secret identity but parahumans are very sensitive about it, not even the Protectorate messes with other people's civilian identity

I had made a new PHO account before my first patrol to represent myself on the site, the Unverified Hero tag is because people got my hero name from the PRT's public database and leaks from PRT employees, then realized that my account was literally made the same day.

I decided not to patrol today and video-called Harrison to hammer out some last details about tomorrow's meeting, we agreed not to meet again until before the agreed time, since he has to run around tomorrow and prepare some things that have nothing to do with me, so aside from some comments here and there, I'm not really needed from his side of things.

I was waiting for a reply from Weaver before I just said fuck it and started researching some more stuff about the general Parahuman landscape.

[A.N: Info dump coming up, skip if you already know this stuff.]

For all of the 120 capes of the Bay, there are two actual heroic factions, the most obvious one is the Protectorate. The Wards count too, but they are practically useless due to their limitations.

There are seven members in the current roster. 

Armsmaster, the current leader and Tinker of the heroes is an old veteran who is infamous for always having countermeasures for local villains. His specialty is rumored to be Miniaturisation and efficiency, it is broad enough that he can make most things and is able to take inspiration from most Tinkers. 

Miss Militia, most famous for being part of the original Ward team in New York, is also a veteran, literally. Her main power is a green energy attachment that can turn into projections of any mundane weapon, it can range from guns to bazookas to nuclear bombs. Her ability as a Noctis Cape -Parahumans who don't need sleep- and her eidetic memory make her an immensely skilled and competent member and is said to stay most of the time in standby at the PHQ.

Dauntless, a new addition to the team, is very famous due to most people believing him to be capable of possibly matching members of the Triumvirate in the future. His power is to get a "charge" per day that he can imbue items with, the more charges he puts in an item the more powerful it is.

Velocity is the local speedster, he has a Breaker state that allows him to slow down his own time, however, he isn't able to affect objects and people the same way in that state, and has to come out of it in order to do something significant.

Assault and Battery, heh, are a famous duo that is rumored to be married irl, Assault has kinetic energy manipulation, while Battery can stay still to charge her power into more speed, strength, or durability, the longer she stays still the better the boost.

Triumph is a recent Ward graduate and has a Brute rating along with a sonic roar, pretty simple but surprisingly effective.

The Wards, even though they don't matter, have six members. some have to be watched out for.

Aegis, the leader after Triumph's graduation, is a basic Alexandria package, as in flight, and a Brute rating that comes from his ability to make some of his body parts act like others and his healing factor. If his heart stops beating? Then his kidney will suddenly have the ability to pump blood. There was a case where he lost his sight and suddenly began to see from his skin.

Gallant, a Tinker who specializes in emotion manipulation, can make those laser blasts that have kinetic energy but are also capable of inducing emotions like "calmness" and "anger".

Kid Win is another Tinker, no one knows his specialization but he has Lazer pistols and a floating skateboard, pretty cool but nothing impressive.

Shadow Stalker was an anti-hero vigilante before getting recruited, it was not confirmed, but people believe that she was forcefully inducted into the wards as a probationary member. She uses a crossbow and can turn both herself and her arrows into intangible shadows.

Vista, however, is the one to look out for. She was rated Shaker 9, and while she is just 12 years old, she has the most experience as Ward as she triggered at 9. It is common knowledge that capes who trigger that early are often very powerful, and Vista perfectly fills that mold. She has the ability to warp space in her surroundings, shit like infinite corridors, and walking into a door only to come out another are common occurrences next to her. For all the PRT try to put her in cutesy bitsy costumes and child-friendly clothes, give her a taser and she'd destroy most capes in the city, if it wasn't for Labyrinth, then she'd probably be the strongest Shaker in East America.

The last hero group are New Wave, they originally started as a group of 6 capes known as the Brockton Bay Brigade, and are all unmasked capes with public civilian identities.

They were a big advocate of cape accountability, that secret identities are unfairly used by villains to be able to escape the law, and that it is not fair for normal people to have to live with that. 

They were at the height of their popularity when they took out Marquis, who as an infamous "noble" gang leader who advocated and actively enforced "morals between criminals", as in basic rules of honor between criminals and leaving normal civilians out of harm's war. He was a ruthless motherfucker though, and both the fledgling Empire and the heroes were scared shitless out of him, he was truly the Lung of his day.

But when an E88 mook targeted Fleur, a member of the group, in her civilian identity and shot her in the head, their whole momentum stopped in its tracks. The culprit is said to be publicly executed by Kaiser due to breaking the Unwritten Rules, and that was that. Lighstar (Fleur's Boyfriend, and Brandish and Lady Photon's brother) left the city out of dejection, while Brandish and Lady Photon shacked up with the remaining members.

Now they are a family group, upon which the parents are kind of passively present while the children actually do Hero stuff, the children are:

Laserdream, Daughter of Lady Photon and Manpower, with flight, a personal forcefield, and 'hard light' blasts.

Shielder, Laserdream's brother, has powers similar to his sister but has very powerful shields in exchange for weaker blasts.

Glory Girl, the golden girl of the city,  is the Daughter of  Flashbang and Brandish. Has flight, invincibility, and enhanced strength, combined with an aura that makes her allies more inclined to like, respect, and look up to her, while making her terrifying and intimidating to her enemies. 

Panacea, arguably the only thing that is holding this city together, the best healer in the world, and the adopted daughter of Flashbang and Brandish, has the ability to heal any and all injuries/illnesses that a person can have outside of their brain, cancer, tumors, HIV, a stopped heart, literally anything. She is the reason the heroes can fight with their all in the city, and come back the next day brand new, if not very exhausted. While the villains (who don't regenerate or don't have a healer) have to wait several days to months in order to do anything else.

Yeah, Panacea is neutral territory, you don't touch her, you don't approach her, and if someone tries something, you won't just have heroes on your ass, but every single person she saved the life of, including a huge amount of parahumans that participate in Endbringer battles, heroes and villains included, as she volunteers for every single one of them. 

Rule #1 of Brockton, don't fuck with Panacea.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

[April 12th 2011 ; 05:10 AM]

Weaver never texted me back yesterday, so I thought that she didn't have easy access to an internet connection and stopped at that.

The next day I was accompanied by Harrison as we entered the PRT HG, while the Protectorate HQ(PHQ) was this shining beacon of heroism meant to inspire hope and safety for its observers, the PRT's was the typical, boring heavily fortified/guarded government building.

We were instantly greeted and recognized by the receptionist, who quickly stood up and directed us toward our meeting room.

The woman didn't talk much, aside from some comments here and there about their facilities, and we quickly found ourselves in a conference room.

As she left us in front of the entrance and left, Harrison whispered in my ear. "I will let you take the room, and I'll interject whenever I'm needed."

I nod and enter.

The thing that I quickly recognized was the familiar blue armor of Armsmaster, who sat at the side of an obese woman with steel-grey eyes and a bleached blonde bob-style haircut wearing a navy blue jacket and skirt. She had a simple laptop open at the table.

For all her unhealthy appearance, her face was stoic and indifferent, and she radiated a certain sense of unyielding authority that you couldn't ignore.

"Mr. Amel." She greeted in a clipped tone. "Please take a seat."

"Of course, Ma'am." I smile and gesture towards Harrison. "I hope you won't be opposed to the presence of my lawyer, I had to get some consultation about my business."

Harrison greeted the both of them from afar. "Hello, you can call me Henry."

I nod toward Armsmaster while taking a seat, which he gave one in return.

"Mr Amel." Said Piggot. "I heard you have something to propose to me."

I chuckle. "Straight to business, I see? Well, I don't mind it."

Henry pulls out several papers and a USB out of his suitcase and puts them on the table. "We are here to propose a product to the PRT as a whole, and not just the local branch." He began.

"The specific product is the stun gun that I showcased on my first appearance as a parahuman-"

The woman interrupts me with a tired sigh. "Mr Hamel, as you well know, selling Tinker tech is a tricky matter, not only would it require constant maintenance from you, but the nature of it in itself would limit mass production, the weapon is quite interesting I admit, but the cost of these two factors enough would outweigh any utility we can get from the weapon."

"It's not Tinkertech." I interrupt before she continues with her charade.

At this point, I think I got the gist of Piggot's personality, she's the overworked but capable boss type, who doesn't put up with what she considers "bullshit" and enjoys putting people who annoy her down. 

I got to break her out of her mindset first.

"Ma'am, my weapon is completely self-replicable and can be understood by any competent scientist over a certain period of time, but can be easily built through mundane materials and methods, it is a simple and effective method of incapacitation that can work on 90% percent of Parahumans."

I almost smirk at her dumbfounded expression (which for her are just raised eyebrows and the slightest gaping mouth) and the sound of Armsmaster slowly leaning over the table.

"This may not be as good as Containment Foam at neutralizing Brutes and such, but it is much easier to hit someone with a laser than it is with slowly hardening foam." I pause. "Every PRT trooper in the world can easily be equipped with one of those, it is actually slightly costlier than their current standard issue pistols, but can be much cheaper long term as instead of ammo, it only uses constantly evolving batteries that can be charged with any random socket, no need to spend money on bullets."

I didn't give them time to pause and think, so pushed the USB in the table even further in. "The USB has the actual blueprints of the weapon, which I trust you'll safeguard. And if you analyze it you'll notice that the reason it works is not because of the power of the lasers, but rather their natures. Currently, the equipment needed to be able to generate a laser equivalent to one of Kid Win's shots would need to be the size of this room."

"But as long as the laser can gain access to a person's nervous system, they'll use the body's faculties against itself to knock them unconscious. The fight against Lung showcased that it can slow down biologically based regenerators, and with enough bolts, you could even stop their healing factor completely."

And then, Silence.

Harrison slowly chuckles at their immovable bodies. "Don't worry, you'll get used to it."