Mar 10, 2018
#2,127
Omaha was an odd experience for Colin. While the city was large enough that his transfer could be convincingly sold as a promotion to the public, the parahuman crime rate was a fraction of Brockton Bay's. Through some twist of luck or fate, it simply did not have many active capes. Gangs were not cape-led, nor were capes involved in the majority of violent crimes. What few villains were around stuck almost exclusively to robbery or petty vandalism. The city had maintained this semi-peaceful situation for years, meaning the local Protectorate was both small and inexperienced. As a location that was both safe and stress-free, Omaha was the perfect posting for Protectorate members who needed seasoning, those who needed a break, and those who needed to disappear from the spotlight. Colin was the latter. There would be no opportunities here to salvage his reputation, nor would there be any disasters large enough for him to further sully it. Omaha was, in a very real sense, the end of the line for Armsmaster.
Such a situation was sub-optimal, but fortunately not insurmountable. Colin could use a break, anyway. He needed time to himself, to tinker, to reflect, to identify his failures and improve himself. His tinker budget, while certainly lower than before, wasn't quite slashed to the bone. His tech still held tremendous value to the Protectorate, and the Endbringer prediction software he was working on with Dragon would be revolutionary. Furthermore, his nanotechnology was filled to the brim with untapped potential and ripe for development. For now, Colin was content.
He made many mistakes in Brockton Bay, but the foremost of them was a general failure to communicate. It was, Colin would readily admit, a long-standing weakness. Many people found his blunt mannerisms grating on a personal level, and as such, he had very few people he felt comfortable going to for advice. Perhaps if he had brought Shadow Stalker's—Sophia's—attitude problems up in detail with Hannah, perhaps if someone he trusted told him that the similarities he saw between himself and the angry young girl were imagined or exaggerated, he might have acted to curb her darker impulses.
But, it was useless to ponder such scenarios. What happened, happened. He would learn from it and move forward. The long and short of it was very simple, Colin needed to try and connect with his peers and subordinates. His posting was rather fortuitous in that regard.
The Omaha Protectorate was small, and the local Wards program was no different. There were two members of the Protectorate, three counting Colin, and three Wards. These were not unusual numbers, and as such, there was a long-standing tradition of direct mentorship within the Omaha Protectorate.
The idea was simple. Rather than the somewhat rotating schedule that Brockton Bay used, each Ward was apprenticed to a member of the Protectorate. The Ward would interact with their mentor each day, train with their mentor, and occasionally patrol with their mentor. Colin found the whole idea a little ludicrous. It was only through sheer happenstance, that there had never been more Wards than Protectorate members in the tradition's entire history. Still, it effectively forced Colin to spend large amounts out of his comfort zone.
His comfort zone being his lab, where he was currently ensconced, elbow deep in his armor's internals.
"I do think that this is a bit overkill Colin," Dragon's said, her tone matching the skeptical face displayed on Colin's central monitor.
"Nonsense, Dragon," Colin replied absently, while affixing a nano-thorn generator to the back of his armor. Combined with the pieces already attached to the bracers and shin guards, his fully assembled suit would be able to project the deadly tech in any direction. The idea was inspired by Catalyst's actions during the Leviathan fight. The tiny, slip of a girl stopped the Endbringer's blow dead with some kind of invisible barrier, and that moment of surprise claimed Leviathan's arm. Colin didn't have an inviolable force field, but he did have a disintegration field, and the balls to cover himself with it. He couldn't stop an enemy's attack, but he could sure make them regret it.
"It won't see much use, you know," Dragon chided, rolling her eyes. Her face aborted the motion halfway through, stopping on a point just over Colin's shoulder. Dragon broke into a wide smile. "Good morning, Melody," she said.
"Hello~, Miss Dragon!" a cheerful voice replied.
Colin blinked at his screen, and turned around. A teenage girl was standing in the entrance of his lab. She wore a form-fitting black bodysuit, perfectly molded to her body. The suit extended up to her neck, where it connected to a full face mask that was currently held in the crook of her arm. The bodysuit contained armored inserts around major organs and blood vessels, and thick layers of padding elsewhere. Over the bodysuit was a dark blue breastplate, along with reinforced gauntlets and shin guards.
The girl was Melody Callahan, the Ward known as Hush, and Colin's apprentice. Her power was unexceptional at first glance. She could produce a sound absorbing field that slowly grew in size over time. The field was centered on her, was always projected in a perfect circle, and rendered everything within completely silent. Sound could neither enter nor leave. The ability had its uses—stealth was almost trivial for her—but in combat it was rather limited. Melody, who was both highly athletic and heroically inclined, was unimpressed with the Shaker 2 rating the PRT assigned her. Fortunately, her power had a second component to it. While her field was active, she was perfectly aware of every possible sound within it, and had the reflexes to act on that information. This sense was precise enough to distinguish locations based on heartbeats, and was the reason Colin actually enjoyed the thought of teaching the young woman. Leveraging an apparently weaker power to subdue strong opponents was something of a specialty of his, and passing on his skills was an effective way for him to scrub away some of the shame he carried.
"I am pleased to see you awake this early, Hu—Melody," Colin greeted. When they had first been paired together a week ago, he had given the teen open access to his lab as an ill-considered attempt to break through the initial awkwardness. That was a mistake. Melody was, among other things, tremendously nosy. She spent approximately all of her free time pestering Colin about his projects and begging for training.
Armsmaster was a disgraced member of the Protectorate, whose inattention had allowed the murder of a Ward, and whose blundering had caused hundreds of millions of dollars of property damage. Omaha had not gotten that memo. The population at large seemed downright honored to host a hero of his (former) caliber. It was honestly a little surreal, meeting people who still looked up to him, and Melody was at the top of the list. It made the constant nagging just a little bit endearing.
"Did you finish your bug-zapper yet, sir?" the teen asked him, bouncing over to his workbench and scrutinizing the mess. Her face scrunched in confusion.
"It's that one," Colin pointed out with a sigh. Melody's head bobbed in acknowledgement, and she peered at his creation for several moments.
"It's ugly," the brat declared, giving Colin an imperious nod as if her opinion was important.
"It is designed to sever molecular bonds, Melody; it does not need to look good," Colin responded stiffly. It was ugly, but that was beside the point. The projectors were a dull red, and looked a bit like rusted solar panels, but a decent paint job could fix that. Problems for the future.
"Oh! Miss Dragon, did you see the latest from Brockton Bay?" Melody asked, spinning away from Colin. Her body was turned towards Dragon's face, but he could see her eyes flicking to him. He didn't rise to the bait. Brockton Bay was no longer his business.
"I saw it," Dragon confirmed, as Colin returned to his workbench. Screws needed tightening. "I haven't told Armsmaster yet, he was quite busy all night and I didn't want to disturb his concentration." Maybe if he continued to ignore the pair, they would forget he was here.
"Vanguard sure knows how to make a statement," Melody said with a dreamy sigh. "If only I knew someone who had live video of Catalyst kicking ass, I could die happy." An elbow dug into Colin's shoulder, repeatedly.
Nudge nudge.
He ignored it. His recording of the Leviathan battle had been confiscated by Legend himself, and while Colin did have backups, he would not risk Melody boasting to her friends and landing herself in hot water. He was a little curious about what impossible thing Catalyst had done now, though. Unfortunately, his immediate curiosity was tempered by the knowledge that Melody would try to barter her information for extra training time and Dragon, the traitor, would likely help her. The young girl was nothing if not precocious, and self-improvement appeared to be an obsession for her.
Old Armsmaster would've thrown her into a rigorous training regimen and complimented her drive. New Colin was worried she was trying to prove something, and would go looking for a fight once she got the training she wanted. The city was only safe in comparison to Brockton Bay. People still died every day, and a bullet could kill Hush as easily as anyone.
He hadn't quite found a happy medium yet, regarding her training, but it was early days still. He wouldn't repeat his old mistakes. He was determined to gain the girl's trust, in time. If she had a problem, he would be there for her. For now, though, a little extra training couldn't hurt. He had something prepared, anyway.
That in mind, he put his wrench down with a sigh, and turned towards his Ward. "What did Catalyst do this time?" he asked. Dragon looked remarkably pleased.
"Nuh uh," Melody replied, waggling a finger at him. "Nothing in life is free! What do I—"
"I'll give you a power training exercise to occupy you while I'm on patrol, and you can use my lab for monitor duty," Colin interrupted, ignoring Dragon's snort of laughter.
"Deal!" Melody announced, solemnly extending her hand for a shake.
Colin could feel his tolerance draining away as he accepted the gesture.
"Vanguard took out the Teeth last night!" the girl burst out as soon as he withdrew his hand. "Forty gang members and four of their capes! Took 'em out like that!" She clapped her hands together emphatically.
The Teeth were in Brockton Bay? Idiots. "I am not surprised by that outcome, as I've seen Catalyst fight," Colin said placidly.
"The thing is," Melody responded, practically vibrating on the spot, "it wasn't Catalyst who took them out. It was Weaver! PHO says that she attacked them with every bug in the city! There are all these pictures from around the city, of huge swarms moving towards where the Teeth were holed up." She froze for a moment in thought. "Oh, wow. Now that I think about it, that's a really horrible way to get taken down. I think I'd rather get punched out, than covered in bugs."
"Weaver? Really?" He glanced towards Dragon for confirmation, and she nodded. Colin leaned back in his seat in contemplation. "I haven't met Weaver, personally, though our reports had her pegged as a low Master. I believe the only cape capture she had before this was Victor of the Empire Eighty-Eight." Colin glanced towards Melody. "Quite a statement she just made. What of Butcher XIV?"
"Oh! Catalyst dealt with her." Melody grinned a bit maniacally. "Apparently she stuffed Butcher into an area of frozen time. Because in Brockton Bay you guys just have those laying around."
"Well in this case, yes," Colin admitted. "It's not as ludicrous as it sounds, though. You see, there was this tinker who specialized in bombs..." he trailed off. "That doesn't make it sound better, does it?"
"Not even a little bit," Melody chirped happily.
Somewhere beneath a pile of scrap metal, an alarm rang. It was time for Colin to patrol. Thank God. He stood abruptly, and gave Melody a polite smile. "Well, it's time for my patrol. I'll be gone for three hours. While I'm away, I expect you to respect my work space and not scatter around my equipment."
"I won't mess with your stuff if you give me something better to do," she sniped back.
"I've hidden a number of devices in this room that mimic the noise of someone's muscles tensing," Colin replied, giving his apprentice the full weight of his attention. "That is to say, barely any noise at all. They will go off at random intervals for random amounts of time. You will find them all by the time I return." He ran his words back for a moment, then added, "You will not expand your field past the bounds of my lab. We don't need another fish bowl incident."
Melody flushed, switching between embarrassment and glee, but settled for startling Colin with a joyful shriek followed by a hug. Dragon beamed in the background, waving goodbye to him. "I'll watch over things here, Colin. Have a safe patrol," she said warmly.
Colin peeled the teenager off himself and gave an uncomfortable nod. "Right, I'll just"—he stepped around her, and snatched up his armor— "collect this and move along. Good luck." One more stiff nod for the road, because why the hell not, and he marched out of his lab with all haste.
As he made his way towards his motorcycle, Colin wondered if it would be better to just retire in shame. Surely that was easier than dealing with a clingy teenage fan-girl?