Dragon's servers hummed along as the A.I. split her attention between building her latest fast response unit, the many S-Class threats she followed, a few business functions and a bit of time playing mod with her PHO accounts for something light to do.
She switched her attention from banning a creepy person from Jersey to a rather large email. She read through the main body of the email as her own very advanced antivirus checked the document files. Mentally, she frowned as she read over the written up specifications for a thruster. It described using electrical power to create muons and then electromagnetically pulse them into a particle stream with intense kinetic power as a reaction.
The A.I. had seen something similar a time or two from Tinkers, but not as explicitly laid out. Two second later, her antivirus proclaimed the PDF as virus free and she opened up a series of very technical drawings that went on to explain exactly how to build a 20mm thruster.
She paused the construction of her new armor to start assembling a repulsor thruster per the diagram's instructions. As she worked, she checked her 'charges' and then checked to see if Armsmaster showed himself available.
"Hello, Dragon," Colin said as he looked up from his workshop. The bare beginnings of a project lay in front of him.
"Hello, Colin. It looks like you plan to adjust the joints on your knees and hips of your armor," she said as she studied the powered and pivoted joints.
"A little. I've been meaning to put in the work since I saw the joints on the new independent hero Iron Lass's armor. But trying to make a compact power source like she has-" He shook his head. "It distracted me, although I have tripled the power budget of my own armor."
"Tripled? So you solved it?" Dragon asked with interest.
"No, I didn't even come within shouting distance. Her armor had over a gigajoule of energy running through it at rest from the last time I met her. Literally just standing there and ready to power her thrusters. What I could do with that much energy. She can fly around faster than Hero ever could, even in that last suit of armor he had," Colin groused.
"I'd be interested in that myself. The anti-Endbringer weapons I could make⦠" Dragon said as she thought over it. "I wanted to show you a design that I've been contacted about to use for launching rockets into space, licensed to a local entrepreneur named T.R. Hebert of a brand new company called Stark Research and Development."
"Local?" he asked in a puzzled voice.
"As in local to Brockton Bay. In fact, SR&D is only about five blocks south of the local PRT HQ." Dragon continued to work on the device, noting that she did not see any missing or bridged parts of the design that failed to make sense.
"I think I heard something about that. Designed a medical battery with a great deal of capacity for one of the local medical companies. They required a certified inspection stating that the batteries were not Tinker tech and could be manufactured by anyone." Colin gave a small grin. "I applied for a license for the local Protectorate and Wards so that we can possibly use it for a small fee. It's actually how I tripled my armor's power."
"Hebert also included the design specifications for a very energy dense capacitor. Enough that I might be able to make a jet launched to orbit vehicle for a feasible cost." Dragon hummed for a second. "I've built a little mockup from the specifications and drawings. Do you want to see me fire it up?"
"Certainly," he replied as he turned to the bigger monitor.
On the screen, a round exhaust port appeared and started to emit energy.
"An electric muon thruster. I'm definitely interested in licensing this. I should be able to get to Endbringer fights 30 % faster," Dragon said. Maybe even improve it.
Colin frowned as he looked at the thruster. He must be tired and imagining things. The very definition of Deja Vu. "Interesting."
"You should get some sleep, Colin."
"Yes." He sighed as he stood up. "I have a patrol in eight hours and more reports. I'll drop a line to you later, okay?"
"Later, Colin."
Madison Clements looked away from the inside of her locker. The trio of girl's by the redhead's locker continued their talk about local heroes and villains. "I think Dauntless is pretty cool with his Roman theme," she interjected to them.
Taylor looked over and blinked.
"He's kind of lame. I mean, he only sort of figured out how to fly a few months ago," Sophia countered automatically. She turned her head to look at the shorter girl. "He doesn't look bad, at least."
"He's pretty dreamy," Emma agreed. "But looks aren't everything."
Taylor and Sophia both turned to look at her incredibly.
"Says the model," Taylor noted in humor.
"Hey! I'm more than a pretty face!" she countered.
"Do I need to mention your World Studies grade?" the taller girl said with a grin.
"Better than your Home Ec. class," she shot back, sticking out her tongue.
Madison giggled. "You guys are always talking about heroes and the villains."
"Better than gossiping if someone is pregnant or not," the prettiest girl said with a shrug.
A sharp elbow to Taylor right bicep struck home. "Race traitor," a white girl hissed as she walked by.
"What was that?" Sophia asked.
"Just some jerk," she replied as she rubbed her arm. "A racist jerk."
"So, um, have you guys finished your Christmas shopping?" Madison asked in a hopeful tone as she grabbed her biology book. "I'm hoping for a couple of nice, new outfits to show off!"
"I've got mine done, but I think Emma put hers off while she tried to figure out what her sister wanted. She's back for the Christmas break, right?" Taylor asked her long time friend.
"And Anne is being such a drama queen. I'm tempted to get her a gift card for the university's bookstore." Emma huffed and blew a tuft of her bangs out of her eyes. Time for another hair cut, it looked like.
"I got mine done months ago," Sophia said with a grin.
Taylor's cell phone buzzed and she pulled it out. "Nice! Good news from my job!"
"I'll see you guys later?" Madison asked.
"Maybe at lunch," Emma said with a smile. She waited for the other girl to leave. "Job, huh?"
"That big contract is panning out. So I should be able to order some more materials for the lab and shop," Taylor said with a huge grin on her face. She could finish the rest of the Mark 2 in days, not weeks.
"Geek!"
"Jock!"
"What are you? Two years old?" Emma asked them.
"She started it," Taylor noted as she picked up her math book. Next semester, she had a new schedule based on skipping a few grades for some classes.
"See you later! Only a week or so before the Christmas break, right? I want to check out that suspicious warehouse from last weekend." Without even a by your leave, Sophia took off at a fast walk to her class.
And by check out, she meant 'scan with your armor', Taylor noted. "Are you coming with me to SR&D? I can get you some hours so you can have some extra money filing paperwork."
"I've got my first model shoot since... then. So maybe tomorrow?" Emma asked.
"Tomorrow!"
Armsmaster looked across the group in front of him as he walked out the side entrance of the PRT HQ. Challenger and Miss Militia stood stoically near the helipad and ignored the wet snow falling from the sky. Assault and Battery stood ready, per the terms of his probation. A local, independent hero named Fem-Ra with a homemade costume that made him think of his lonely childhood and morning cartoons stood near them as she tapped her toes nervously.
And the Empire Eighty-Eight villain called 'Springteufel' and PR coded as Jackbox stood insolently in his red, black and white outfit jester's outfit with his hands on his hips. Likely sent to prove his worth to Kaiser and Hookwolf.
How many would be alive for Christmas Eve only three days away? Armsmaster could only hope for the best.
He expected that the timing came specifically to break that hope. Because it was what the Hopekiller did.
A loud crack sounded in the distance.
"Console to Armsmaster, this is Velocity. We just tagged something missile-sized leaving Brockton Bay at MACH 5. Direct line has it headed to Madison, Wisconsin. Confirm it is not something you made," the speedster asked.
"I confirm that I did not make or launch whatever that was, Console. ETA to a midrange jet transport or intercity teleporter?" Armsmaster replied over his helmet com.
"Jet transport is ETA one hour and fifteen minutes. Looks like it is a race to see if Strider can beat your transport arriving," Velocity said. "Console over."
"Over and out, Console."
"Any news about what the Simurgh is targetting?" Challenger asked as she cocked her head at an angle.
"Nothing, yet. It's only been twenty minutes," her leader replied.
She folded her green gloved arms over the white starburst over her chest. "And we'll probably only find out after the attack, when it is way too late."
Miss Militia patted her shoulder. "As always, we just do the best we can-"
"Wha-wha-wha," Jackbox said, his German accent leaking through as he had one hand act like it was talking. "What a bunch of defeatist shit. Crap."
"Jackbox, do not antagonize your allies," Armsmaster ordered.
She unlocked the back door to Stark Research and Development and then closed the outer door behind her. She opened the inner-firebreak door and then moved into the shop. The vault in front of her pulled open as she dropped her jacket on a workbench. She plugged the prototype ARC reactor into its chest.
It took ten minutes to carefully seal herself in the red and gold armor even with the help of Dumber, Idiot and Baka.
"That armor is no longer rated for heavy combat," Friday said as the OS finished its boot sequence.
"Just- I'm just keeping an eye in the docks. I don't plan on fighting Endbringers," she replied.
Friday thought and then finally asked, "Are you sure?"
"I have to do this." Emma looked up from the ground. "You know what it's like. To be broken and to pull yourself together. You know Taylor is not Tony Stark."
"She is the contingency to defeat Thanos. A desperate gamble." Friday paused. "The knowledge is not complete. And T. knows that my programming is fragile, so she does not ask that I refer her by her name. But suicide by cape is not the answer."
"I'm going during the afternoon for just a few hours, Friday. I doubt I'd run into anyone. Probably not even a mugging," she responded.
"Prepping stealth drones. The back alley is clear. I recommend using the parking garage path. I will put it up on your HUD, Miss Barnes."
The Mark 1 armor tromped forward on its rubberized cleats installed six weeks ago. It made the suit rather quieter on patrols, as some ABB and E88 thugs had discovered. Four strides took her into an old parking garage past spoofed cameras. Ten minutes later, she headed north towards the docks.
She boosted with the boot jets over the main roads as she kept to the alleys and back roads. Several times, the Mark 1 surprised groups of grubby looking kids and caused them to scatter. Hanger-ons from the ABB and smaller gangs like Rubble Roads and Cracked Skulls. All of them kids from Winslow.
"I'd probably do the whole city a favor by demolishing that place-" Emma muttered to herself.
BREEEEP! BREEEEP!
The bulky armor came to a stop as the girl fumbled in the chest cockpit for her cell phone.
"This is Emma! Oh, hey Sophia," she said in greeting.
"I thought our friend ditched the last class of the day to go to the Endbringer fight? And yet here I see Iron Lass patrolling like a newbie," Sophia complained.
"She did." Emma checked the time on her phone. "She's been there for over an hour and a half."
"-the fuck? Are you in that armor?" Shadow Stalker leaned over the side of the building to watch the Iron Lass Mark 1 armor.
"Yeah, figured I'd patrol the docks for a few hours to keep the gangs honest. Maybe arrest a mugger or drug dealer. You should come down so we aren't having this conversation over a phone line."
"Point." Shadow Stalker put away the cheap flip phone into her utility belt and then leaped over the edge and ghosting to the ground. In moments she glided across the ground as the Mark 1 twisted to watch her approach.
"Well- Red, I can't say it's a good look but it is badass," the vigilante said.
"It's armor, not a swimsuit. You patrolling, too?" 'Red' asked.
"Yeah. Found some ABB about a block that way," Shadow Stalker said, pointing towards the bay in the distance. "Six guys, meeting up behind a warehouse."
"And the big, bad Shadow Stalker couldn't take them?" She raised an eyebrow at that.
"Fuckers have a couple of assault rifles. Getting shot sucks and I'm really weak or knocked out afterwards."
"That's fair," Red admitted grudgingly.
The ABB gangsters huddled in the cold as snowflakes swirled down from the sky. The two women in the group stayed together around a corner to block most of the wind so they could complain quietly about the job. Both knew the complaints helped with nothing.
If they displeased Lung, they would end up in an insulated (but not airtight) 18' truck waiting for the driver to take their load out to the farm. Only the trusted lieutenant knew of the location.
Liu Chang Wo drove his Honda motorcycle up and under the eaves of the warehouse to park it. "They still alive?" he demanded after he took off his motorcycle helmet.
"Bitches are still sniveling," the girl known only as Yan said with a sneer.
The thwip-thump of a crossbow bolt hitting Liu Chang's leg electrified them with shot of adrenaline.
"Shadow! The Shadow!" Yan shouted as she looked at her heavies. "We kill the cunt today!"
The two bigger men in her group flicked the safeties and pulled the lever to load the first bullet.
And promptly got hit by two energy blasts that threw them against the side of the truck. The thudding steps of the Mark 1 Iron Lass armor came from nowhere.
"Surrender!" the armored figure demanded. "The police are on there way already!"
"You break the truce?" Liu Chang shouted from where he laid on the ground in pain. His hands gripped his leg to keep it from moving and hurting more.
"What truce?" Iron Lass 'Red' asked as she zapped one of the more brave ABB gangsters to send him flying into the trunk of a car.
"Endbringer truce! No parahuman fighting during Endbringer-"
"Bullshit," Shadow Stalker said as she materialized behind him and kicked him in the kidneys with the flat of her boot. "You do the crime, we stop it." She turned and pointed her hunter's crossbow at the other ABB members. "Down on your knees. Um, hands on your head."
"Do it," Iron Lass Red ordered and punctuated the order with a blast to the ground.
The sound of police sirens started up in the distance.
"Shadow Stalker and Iron Lass? What is going on?" a young man's voice behind them asked.
"Shit, the Protectorate," Shadow Stalker grumbled as she looked over her shoulder. Her dark eyes showed their fury through the eye-slits of her black hockey mask.
"Velocity," Iron Lass Red said in greeting. The bulky armor looked over towards the truck. "Looks like people in the back of that truck. So kidnapping victims?"
"We got a report about a parahuman fight." He looked around even as he shivered slightly. "No Lung or Oni Lee?"
"And we weren't fighting each other. Just these normal dirtbags," Shadow Stalker said in a smug tone.
Iron Lass Red knocked on the back door of the truck. "Please back away from the door." She then grabbed the too small hook-lever and broke the lock to open it. The roll-up door lifted up on its counter-weights.
"Oh, thank god," the first woman said. "Heroes! A couple of the girls are drugged and one of them isn't breathing too well."
"Don't worry, ma'am, help is on the way. Let me update the Protectorate."
The police showed up five minutes later to start arresting the gangsters. Four ambulances showed up to start helping the kidnaping victims.
Velocity waved the two other heroes over. "So, this is sort of a problem. Wait! You didn't really do anything wrong, but you could have caused the ABB to react and send their capes. And then we have a problem because here in Brocton Bay we follow, um, a 'soft' Endbringer truce. And you and the ABB would have broken it."
"So we're supposed to let the ABB crooks go?" Iron Lass Red demanded.
"No. No way in hell. But since there had no parahumans, you should have called the regular police," the older hero explained.
"Bullshit," Shadow Stalker spat out. "They had some assault weapons and everyone was armed. Someone could have got killed."
"And this time Lung didn't show up and try to kill everyone. Do you guys know what an Endbringer truce is?" he asked.
"It's where heroes and villains agree to only fight the Endbringers instead of each other," Iron Lass Red recited. "But it's not official."
"It isn't, but half of the Protectorate is out of town fighting The Simurgh. Which means we are in more danger if an actual parahuman fight breaks out. You could get me killed. See, this is why we have the Wards, so you know things like this and can keep safe."
"Fuck the Wards. I make a difference out here," the black garbed vigilante said.
Velocity flinched. "Well, you made a big difference today. And probably have Lung's notice. Just... If you get in over your head, call us. Or the PRT or even the Ward's line." He pulled out a thin business card with multiple phone numbers on it.
"Got it on speed dial," Iron Lass Red said. "Come on, Shadow Stalker. It's not going to be the end of the world if you need to call on them to help." She gave a shoo gesture with her too big right hand.
"Fine. Whatever," she snapped as she took the super thin sheet and put it in a pouch on her belt.
"What?" Velocity asked in a distracted tone. "Oh, Console wanted me to ask if you know about that Mach 5 missile that left towards Wisconsin?"
"Oh. Um. That's Iron Lass in her just finished Mark 2," the bulky figure stated in its distorted yet still female voice. "Just call me Iron Lass Red? I'm just doing a patrol to show the flag. Or something like that."
Velocity stared at her and groaned. "Velocity to Console, verified that the UFO is independent hero Iron Lass in a new armor."
"How badass is the new armor?" Shadow Stalker asked with a gleam in her dark eyes.
"It's like at least twice as powerful as the Mark 1. At least," Iron Lass Red said in excitement.
Kids, Velocity thought to himself.
Two hours ago on the roof of Winslow High School:
"Remember to tell the teacher I went home not feeling well," Taylor said as she walked out the roof door as she pocketed her shape-shifting multi-key.
"What about your dad?" Emma asked as she frowned.
"I'll call him on the way," her best friend promised.
Her new Mark 2 armor shot down on baffled repulsor thrusters. The six foot six armor opened up so she could enter into the armor with its triangular ARC reactor in its chest. Arms into the sleeves and feet into the lower legs to show that instead of mostly sitting in a cockpit, she wore this armor like armor.
"Stay safe," Emma said even as she planned to cut classes herself.
"I plan on it," Iron Lass promised as her armor finished folding around her. Little drones dampened the sound of her taking off as she shot into the sky. They slapped back into place into her armor as she blasted past the speed of sound in an arcing curve towards the west.
The phone started ringing and caused Taylor to raise her eyebrow in consternation. Friday decided to call her dad preemptively?
The line clicked open. "Taylor?" Danny asked in a very tense voice. A door closed in the background. "Please tell me you are not heading to the Endbringer fight."
"I would be lying if I said that," she replied a bit flippantly. "Damn, sorry Dad. That- That was a Tony response. But yes, I'm headed to Wisconsin. ETA is thirteen minutes."
"You aren't ready," he protested.
"The Mark 2 is fully functional. I can make a difference-"
"Then use your head, your smarts! You don't have to throw yourself into a fight that kills seasoned heroes, Taylor," he near shouted into cell phone.
"I can do that even in a fight. I'm getting pretty good at this, dad. Even Armsmaster said that a couple of weeks ago. And I was still in the Mark 1. This new suit is much better. Faster, stronger and far more powerful. Still not good enough to match a quarter of Tony's Mark LI. But I'm almost my own super team these days."
"Promise me you won't die," Danny choked out through his tears. "Promise me!"
"I- I can't promise that. I'd be lying. But I promise to try my damndest to come home in one piece," she responded in a soft, almost dead sounding tone.
"Do not worry, Mr. Hebert. My full facilities are behind your daughter's safety," Friday promised. "Her odds of surviving the fight are far better than compared to the average hero or villain."
"Come home," Danny entreated.
"We will. You heard Friday. And I promise to fight with my head and not just with my, er, fists," Taylor replied with a stronger sense of purpose. "I love you."
"I love you, honey."
The click of the dropped line almost disappeared in the thundering sound of her flight.
Taylor looked forward and down at the clouds below her. "Alright, Friday. You heard Dad. I want you to contact the PRT as Thinker and computer support for the fight. Let's try to help everyone alive and not a time bomb, okay?"
"Understood, T."
Minutes later, her HUD started to assemble the picture of floating buildings (in the tens of thousands of tons range) along with a strange device being built above the center of the swirling storm of buildings.
"Friday, get me a scan on that and see if we can figure out what it does," Taylor ordered as the suit loosened up for rapid maneuverability flight.
"Understood, T. Passing on the scans to the PRT and Thinker support," the A.I. responded. "Countdown timer started."
The buildings skipped and tumbled abruptly, as if The Simurgh nearly dropped them. In moment, an entire house shot out at Iron Lass. She juked and blasted through a spinning corner as she slowed down to Mach 1.5.
"Friday, aimbot assist with the primary emitter!" Taylor ordered as she started her attack run.
The unibeam fired a long pulse as the Iron Lass armor shot right over and the the front of the Simurgh and exploded two pieces of the floating ring.
"We have a hit. The eight power nodes on the inside ring match Dr. Haywire's dimensional shear focusing lenses," Friday replied as another stutter in the swirling debris happened.
"So no going through the portal if at all possible or we might be lost on another Earth-"
"Evading!" Friday shouted as a tanker truck of fuel swung towards the Iron Lass armor in a sharp angle.
Repulsors fired just before it could slam home and a massive fireball exploded in the air.
