Interlude 1: Armsmaster

Yet another night on patrol, away from the workshop.

They knew he was more useful to them when he was Tinkering, yet they persisted in sending him out onto the streets. Any of the others was more suited, especially when it came to dealing with the public.

At least he didn't have to do day patrol anymore, when he would spend more time in crowds than actually patrolling. The public relations team had caved on that at least.

But even at night there were still so many people around. The drunks and the gangers and the date-night couples.

He needed to work.

Programming a patrol route into the bike, he set the suit's sensors to full automatic mode and turned his attention to the schematics that were flashing before him. He knew he was close to a breakthrough, but that also meant he was pushing far beyond his previous work. He took a great deal of pride in knowing that there was a handful of Tinkers in the world who could build devices on the nano-scale, and none of them could rival his current project.

Well, maybe one other. Dragon would be able to understand it at least, perhaps replicate it given time.

He could just imagine her chiding him for designing while on patrol. "You can't just cut off the world, Colin."

It had been said enough times before, but she never pushed it further. She understood that his work defined him, even more than most Tinkers. But she never fully stopped trying.

He realised he was smiling. Shaking his head, he was turning his attention back to the designs when a bloated gout of red flame rose over the nearby rooftops. Various alerts and alarms triggered inside the suit, which he quickly silenced.

He triangulated the location using a camera he had set up at PRT headquarters. The fireball had originated in the worst part of the Docks.

Calculations were performed, and various readouts flashed across his visor. The temperature of the the flame was relatively low by Tinker standards. Either a car had blown up, or someone was using conventional explosives. The other possibility was a pyrokinetic cape. If that was the case, there would be more flames coming. He readied his spectral analysis unit just in case.

Plotting the most efficient route through the streets and alleys, he pushed the bike onwards.


The bike slid to a stop at the mouth of the alley and he climbed down quickly, Halberd fully deployed. The second explosion had shown a very familiar spectral pattern. No accelerants. And the heat had increased considerably.

The headlights of his bike revealed the combatants. Or the victor at least. The suit easily identified Lung on the ground. His heartbeat was sluggish, his breathing more stops than starts.

And the alleyway was littered with bodies. Body parts at least.

His visor highlighted the blue and red clothing of ABB members.

He barely noticed. His attention was entirely directed to the monster that was standing over Lung.

Shit.

He directed his suit to communicate the need for backup to the PRT headquarters. Code yellow at least, all available capes to respond.

His earpieces crackled to life.

"Dragon here Armsmaster, backup is already on route. I noticed the explosions too. What is the situation?"

He had expected her to be awake and watching out, but it still relaxed him a little to know she was there.

"I am patching through my helmet-cam," he replied. She would be able to access his feed and recent history.

"Colin..." she gasped, clearly having seen the scene in front of him. He frowned, she rarely used his name in public, even over a secure channel. "I know you think you have to stop that thing, but I would recommend waiting for backup. You know it defeated Lung."

He shook his head at the concern in her voice. "I can't let it escape. We always hypothesised a lethal pre-emptive strike would take him down, before he powered up. This villain simply proved it." Yet another way we hamstring ourselves against the criminals, he reflected.

He took a step towards the alley.

For the first time the creature noticed him, spinning around and screeching, baring its fangs. His suit could detect nothing familiar in its appearance other than disturbingly human hands on the lower arms. The rest looked more insectoid than anything, and the body-language was all predator.

He took another step forward.

A black wave dropped from the sky and rushed around him into the alley obscuring the monster from view. His suit identified various insects among the swarm. So the creature was a master too?

Directed by the suit he turned his gaze upwards and watched a small figure leap from the roof, landing interposed between him and the alley. Stupid, he thought. Why give up the element of surprise?


The lie detector was either unable to read it (her?) through the costume, or she was telling the truth. Either way it didn't change the situation.

"Colin," Dragon cut in. "Listen to her, I have analysed your suit readouts. You know as well as I do that those flames were getting hotter. Lung had already started changing, this wasn't a pre-emptive strike."

"I know," he said.

He knew she understood, and that she wouldn't stop him. He walked into the wall of bugs and disappeared into the alley, moving to where the monster had been -girl obviously wasn't happy with that, as waves of insects pushed against him with the strength of a stiff breeze. He snorted at the ineffective gesture. If she ever joined the Wards he would have to keep her away from the frontlines.


"She saved your life Colin."

His jaw set, arms folded across his chest. He refused to turn towards the screen to look at Dragon.

"I talked to her Colin. Without the costume. She was telling the truth. Lung was almost ten feet tall by the time that creature arrived. It beat him in under five seconds."

Armsmaster did look up at that, surprise clear on his face.

"Why did she let it go then?" he asked.

"She knew the others were distracted, with you and her. She came to the conclusion they weren't ready to face something like that and they weren't going to listen. So she gave it an exit on the other side of the swarm. Considering it just disappeared without any more casualties, I agree with her Colin. She probably saved more heroes than just you last night."

His lips thinned as he considered the information, but finally he nodded, shoulders slumping.

Dragon smiled gently. "You don't have to do everything yourself Colin. Let us carry some of the load."

He nodded again. The embarrassment would pass. The damage to his career would take longer to overcome, yet further that Dauntless would leap ahead of him.

He needed to work.