Armsmaster's footsteps echoed trough the deserted corridor of the Protectorate's HQ. While it wasn't unusual for the leader of the ENE branch to be at the base this late, or early as it was about half an hour until sunrise, normally he'd be in his workshop tinkering not striding towards the landing pads where the flying vehicles of the base were. Then again with both the Brockton Bay Protectorate and Wards on alert because of the disappearance of a close family member of one of them this was an unusual situation itself. As per protocol the rest of the family were in protective custody of the PRT and the hero in question confined to their base and intercommunicated to prevent any attempt of blackmail from the perpetrator and always escorted by another member of the Protectorate.
"Open secure communication channel. Call Miss Militia."
"Armsmaster. Please, tell me you have good news." Came the voice of his second in command over the communication system integrated in his helmet.
"Yes and no. We found him. Well, Dragon did. But the situation is complicated. I am on my way to the PRT building to brief Piggot, ETA Five to ten minutes, I will explain the details then. Triumph is on his way to take over your watch."
"I'll go wake Vista up, I finally convinced her to go to sleep half an hour ago."
"You know the protocol, she can't be involved in this in any way."
"I know, it's just..." Hannah sighted "She has been driving herself crazy coming up with worse and worse scenarios. At least let me assure her that it wasn't the nine... because it wasn't them, right?"
"We still don't know who took him but it is highly unlikely that the Slaughterhouse Nine were involved." Armsmaster paused having reached the door leading outside. "Fine, you can tell her that. But nothing more. I'm about to get to the helicopter, I will see you in the briefing. Armsmaster out."
He stepped out and went directly to the helicopter that was still warming up its motor. He gave a nod to the pilot as he got into the vehicle. 'It will be closer to ten minutes' he thought scowling at the delay and began to mentally prepare the presentation of the information they had so far on the case of the disappearance of Robert Oscar Biron.
-o-
Emily Piggot, director of the Brockton Bay branch of the Parahuman Response Team was walking briskly, or as briskly as he body allowed her. It was times like this, when the responsibilities of her rank took a toll on her body, when she almost considered letting one of the parahuman healers work on her, almost. She arrived at the door to her office to find both Armsmaster and Miss Militia there. Barely acknowledging the heroes the director strolled into the office and with a huff she let herself drop into her chair.
"I guess this is about the Biron incident." she said cutting straight to the chase as both capes entered the office after her.
"Yes, director." Answered Armsmaster going to the wall mounted screen opposite to the directors desk "As you know, sometime between midnight and one o'clock tonight Robert Oscar Biron, younger brother of Missy Biron A.K.A Vista, went missing from his own bedroom." The Tinker then plugged a device to the screen and it came to life showing several images, one of them the photo of a young boy about ten years old. "According to protocol we took Mr. and Mrs. Biron to a PRT safe house and Miss Militia took Vista back to the Wards base and stayed with her." with a gesture the image changed to several pictures of the Biron home "The preliminary investigation did not show any evidence of forced entry or signs of struggle, most probable suspects would be either a Master, Stranger or teleporting Mover."
"Armsmaster, I know you well enough to know that you didn't wake me up at this ungodly hour to tell me something that could have waited until office hours. So get to it." Interrupted Piggot.
"Of course, Director. I requested Dragon's assistance as an associate and honorary member of the Protectorate" Said Armsmaster turning to face the screen. "Dragon." The image on the screen divided itself showing on the right side the image of the world's premier Tinker.
"Good morning, Director Piggot, Miss Militia." Piggot gave the Canadian Tinker an acknowledging nod while Hannah returned the greetings. "As Armsmaster was saying, after he told me about the case I added all the info we have on young Mr. Biron to a monitoring program that runs on all systems that I either created or upgraded for various first response services and law enforcement organizations. About half an hour ago there was a coincidence at the PRT base at Lorraine, upstate New York."
"That's..." Interjected Miss Militia.
"Yes, the base tasked with monitoring Ellisburg's perimeter." The director almost growled. "What else do we know?"
"As you know the Protectorate has a database with the DNA profile of all of its members in case of having to identify any badly damaged remains and as a Ward Vistas profile is also included." Answered Armsmaster "We incorporated that data in the search parameters. The alert came from the results of a DNA test, It was a partial match and as the only close relative that is unaccounted for the logical conclusion is that it is Robert Biron's DNA."
"We weren't able to access the attached report or anything else related to the tests due to clearance issues." Continued Dragon "There was a incident at the east side of the Ellisburg wall at half past two approximately that we can assume that might be related, but it was also classified. Until someone in the PRTs chain of command gives authorization to access both files I can't do anything more."
"Level of clearance required?" Asked Piggot.
"Seven, ma'am"
"As the Director of the East North East branch of the Parahuman Response Team I give the affiliate hero Dragon and Protectorate member Armsmaster access to to both files, I'm sure both of you have your methods to get the files, consider them condoned. Now, we better clean this mess as soon as possible" She added looking at Miss Militia and Armsmaster "because from where I'm standing it seems like somehow a minor, one that has ties with this organization, ended in the middle of one of the most dangerous places in this country. I want to know how, I want to know why, yesterday. You two go to the Lorraine base, Dragon keep working on those files, I'll try to do some digging on my end. Dismissed."
"Yes, Ma'am"/"Yes, Director"
After both heroes exited the room Emily got up from her chair and went to the window. Lost for a moment in her memories of nightmarish creatures cutting down trained men and women, good soldiers. Her scars twinged and once again, for a moment, she almost considered letting one of the parahumans heal her. Parahumans like those cowards that let so many of her comrades die. That moment passed and she went back to her desk. If she was going to have a shitty day she wouldn't be the only one. Time to make some calls and get to the bottom of this.
-o-
After leaving the directors office Armsmaster informed Hannah that Dragon was sending one of her transports to take them to the Lorraine PRT base. They were left waiting at the pad on the roof of the PRT building. Armsmaster was still, but Hannah had no doubt that he was working on something with the systems integrated on his helmet. For her part she couldn't help coming with worse and worse scenarios. Given that all they knew was that a barely ten years old child ended up either near or in a place that no adult with or without powers would go willingly her worries felt justified. At best the incident at the wall was that somehow Robert or Bobby as Missy kept calling him, arrived on the outside of Ellisburg and was picked up by one of the patrols, at worst Bobby somehow found himself inside the perimeter of Ellisburg and if that was the case... she'd rather not think about it.
"Colin," Said Hannah after a few minutes breaking the silence "I'd like to be the one that breaks the news to Missy."
"We still don't know what happened." Answered Armsmaster without looking at her "I just received the files from Dragon. I will go over them during the flight. But if worse comes to worst then yes, it is better that you handle it. I haven't had the time to implement the tact upgrade to my social program."
Hannah tried to stifle a laugh and failed resulting in an unladylike snort dispelling her somber mood. "Did you just make a joke? Maybe we still can make a comedian out of you." She could almost swear that his lips upturned just a bit. "Thanks, Colin." He just nodded and got back to whatever was keeping him occupied in the display of his helmet.
They did not had to wait much longer for the transport to arrive. It seemed that Dragon had one in Boston running some deliveries of tinkertech to the local Protectorate.
They were about halfway to Lorraine when Armsmaster spoke up again "He is alive, and seems to have triggered. According to the report of the patrol that found him he exhibited a low Brute rating, a Mover rating and some kind of Trumph and Mover power. Apparently he came over the wall from inside Ellisburg, the patrol reacted with lethal force as per standard procedure. He then demonstrated his various powers knocking out most of the patrol and several of the reinforcements. They finally caught him with one of the experimental containment foam grenades. He then was taken to the base where they finally corroborated that he was not one of Nilbog's creations. The DNA analysis was part of that."
"So he is alive and uninjured." Said Hannah with a relived sigh.
"Mostly uninjured," Corrected Armsmaster "but there is a couple of worrying details. It might be because of the shock of finding himself transported to a place like Ellisburg or whatever made him trigger but according to the report he didn't know his own name or where he was from. He also presented a strange markings on the back of his left hand."
"You mean?"
"No, they look nothing like the marks on the subjects of the case 53s. But I have to admit that there are too many similarities to be a coincidence. In theory, if someone was trying to create parahumans artificially but the process had the side effects we have seen in the case 53s this could be their next step to perfect the process by eliminating the mutating factor."
"That sounds almost like something from the PHO forums."
"It is only theory." Said Armsmaster shrugging. "Anyway, we are almost there. They are waiting for us, the director came though on her end."
-o-
When the transport arrived at the base both heroes were met with a rather tense scene. A PRT helicopter was already in the landing area and it looked like a squad of PRT troops. On the other side near the door to the inside of the base was Robert Biron with a pair of guards. His small frame lost in the PRT standard jacket that someone must have lent him. It covered him down to the knees, below it they could see the pajama pants that he was wearing when he disappeared stained with mud and what could only be splotches of dry blood. Also confronting the leader of the squad was a PRT captain. Armsmaster identified him as the captain assigned to the base with a quick scan facial scan and a query to the PRT personnel database.
"Dr. Knudson was very clear he wants the new subject at his facilities as soon as possible." The leader of the outsider squad was saying as both heroes were getting out of the ship.
"I don't care what Dr. Knudson wants, lieutenant. I've got my orders." Replied the base captain getting in his face "And they come from inside the chain of command, not from some glorified egghead so either show me some valid orders countermanding what I've got or get out of my base. NOW!"
Hannah and Colin looked at each other. "All yours." Whispered Miss Militia gesturing to the quarreling officers.
"Is there a problem, gentlemen?" Interrupted Armsmaster.
"No, sir." the lieutenant grudgingly admitted. "Ok team, let's move out." Said to his squad and headed back to the helicopter.
"Armsmaster I suppose." Said the captain. Colin simply nodded. "Well then, all yours." He said giving a gesture to the guards who brought the child forward. Hannah noticed that he was a bit too calm given the circumstances. When Robert and his escorts reached the other trio he turned to one of the guards and with a smile he presented his arms showing that he had a pair of tinkertech made handcuffs. The guard took them off.
"Was that really necessary?" Asked Hannah eyeing the restraints.
"Standard procedure when dealing with a Brute Ma'am." Answered the captain. "Also, he knocked out several of my men."
"Said I was sorry" Robert replied with a wry smile and a shrug.
"Anyway, he's no longer my problem." Added the captain retreating to the building with both guards leaving both heroes and the child alone next to the landing area.
"So... you wouldn't happen to have a spare pair of shoes, would you?" Bobby said with a sunny smile gesturing at his bare feet.