Interlude (Assault)

Assault was surprised things had went so smoothly.

The cape from the Lung incident was much less scary than what Armsy had shown them on the footage he had managed to get. She seemed like a nice enough gal, besides the whole she probably ate Lung and wow wasn't that something that was utterly terrifying. Especially with the fact that when they had gotten on the scene of what they had thought might be Lung fighting someone or a new Parahuman testing out any powers they might have, they find her in a mess of disfigured and wrecked hulls with flames licking at her skin. So not only did they have an extremely strong cape who wasn't registered with anyone, they had one that could turn people into sweets like it was magic and then eat them and gain their powers in a way.

The closest analogue they had to that was The Faerie Queen.

Not someone anyone wanted to be compared to.

From the moment they had stepped on base, he noticed that Djinn looked at everything with a giddiness that told him that despite how she restrained herself, she was at least firmly interested in the Heroes which was a blessing. He really didn't want to have to try and fight her, nor be the one to try and detain her if she suddenly decided that there base was the perfect place for her to suddenly betray them. It'd be especially bad since he'd been the one to argue for the soft-sell, not that it had been a hard argument. Even Piggot realized that despite the associated costs that would come with getting Djinn on their side, or at least make sure she wasn't turning towards villainy, it was much better than the alternative.

Assault liked to think the extra work that he got for it was worth it.

So here he was in a meeting to discuss what they had learned from meeting Djinn in person and the bits of info they managed to get out of her.

"Parahuman, codename Djinn, was invited on base today and as of today is officially classified as an Independent Cape." Armsy's voice was serious as he spoke, a picture of the cape in question coming up on the display. A close-up of her in the night sky right before she had flown off. "Temporary power designations are; Brute 8, Mover 6, Blaster 6, Striker 5, a tentative Changer rating of 7 as we presume that this form of hers is not her standard appearance to go along with her other acts of shapeshifting. Unofficially, she also has a Trump rating that has currently been undecided."

Everyone's faces went serious as the display played the video that Armsmaster had captured.

There was flames all around, the sound of earth being torn apart as what seemed like two monsters battled across the Docks.

Flames that Assault knew well enough could melt steel were either matched with blasts of pink and black energy or dived through as if they were merely a hindrance.

A high-pitched laughter played throughout the entire thing, it made him flinch a bit.

It wasn't a good laughter, it was the laughter of one who was enjoying this way too much.

The crazy kind of laugh that spelt trouble for those who heard it.

It wasn't natural.

It made it harder for him to parse that the cape that he had met today was the same as the cape that had fought Lung only a week ago.

The final shot of Lung being turned into a cupcake and being eaten before Djinn flew away made him wince.

The Wards in the room had went pale, he noted that even Shadow Stalker seemed shaken.

He saw MM's expression tighten a bit from the corner of his eye, Velocity and Battery did much alike. Triumph seemed to shake hard, as if he was holding himself back from saying something.

"She is dangerous, extremely dangerous, but Director Piggot has decided to try a soft approach until we figure out more about her, as despite her possible propensity for collateral damage and the action she took against Lung, Djinn claims to not be a villain and has further discussed the issue with us. Until then, Wards are to not approach her if she's seen in public. Call-in her location and merely continue on your scheduled patrol, if she makes contact first, be polite and try to disengage if you can. If you are unable, be as cautious as possible and try not to do anything that would possibly upset her or set her off. Understood?"

Armsmaster's reply was the shaking nods of the Wards one by one.

"Wards, dismissed."

At once, the Wards stood up from the room and left one after the other, Stalker was dragging her feet looking particularly shook. He would have to tell MM to check on that for him later.

Armsmaster looked at the rest of us, Dauntless missing in action due to sickness, and the rest of us all feeling some sort of way.

"Assault, having interacted the most with her today, can you tell us what you think about her personality, her general mind-state, and any other information you managed to get from your interactions?"

"She was calm, almost strangely so at times really, but nice. It was easy to tell that she enjoyed being here, that she seemed mesmerized just a bit by being next to the heroes, especially you and Miss Militia. Djinn also eats a lot, like enough to be feeding several people minimum and from her own words whilst she was eating, it's because her power requires a lot of energy to actively use. The way she eats is a bit terrifying to be honest, her mouth stretches a bit too far and the way she gnashes at the food is a bit... beastly for the lack of a better term. It was only after several plates that she seemed to move away from that hungry, "I'm thinking that you smell delicious", look. After that she was a bit more chatty, laughing at my grade-A humor and just seemed more lively. She even made some jokes of her own. I think her hunger affects her mentality a bit more than she let on, and that might've been why she was at the Boat Graveyard today, besides whatever else she was dealing with. It was to help distract her from life, probably."

"Possible age?"

"Eh, if I had to take a guess she seemed college-aged, no older than 21 but definitely at least 18." Assault's answer came easily.

Armsmaster seemed to think to himself for a moment, before nodding.

"I got a similar reading from my equipment, so whatever issues she has would be something more personal..." Armsmaster was silent again, it was strange to see him like that. The man wasn't the best with the social aspect of things, too blunt and usually not able to show subtlety when engaged with people, but he could do it when he tried. Assault liked to think it was all the interaction with Dragon that helped Armsmaster out so much.

Triumph took that time to speak up.

"So we're just fine with having such a dangerous cape, with a blatant propensity for destruction and known murderer running around and acting like she didn't do anything wrong?" His words were terse, he was angry. Assault knew that Triumph had a strong sense of wrong and right, a bit too much so.

"Along with the fact that trying to bring her up and legally arrest her for the potential murder of Lung wouldn't be effective, we got her to reveal in a way that Lung is very much still alive. Our current working thought is that she has him locked inside her body in a way, as she refused to expand further. As for the damages, they are in expected parameters for a drawn out engagement with Lung, and Dragon and I estimate that less than 20% of the damage was actually caused by her. Director Piggot agrees that if she does something so blatant again then we will change tactics, but until then we do things safe. Having someone as dangerous as a ramped up Lung actively want to be good, or at least neutral was agreed to be more important than trying to throw her in jail for crimes that would likely not stick." His words were blunt in his retort.

Moving on before Triumph could speak, he turned to him and MM. Triumph definitely had more to say, to argue, Assault knew him well enough that he could tell he'd probably talk to Armsy and Piggot later.

"Director Piggot agrees that Assault and Miss Militia should be the ones that try and make more contact with her on if spotted. Assault as she's shown to be receptive to conversing with you, and Miss Militia to provide a strong female support if necessary as well as Miss Militia having the necessary skills to speak with a young woman of such an age and not accidentally offend her or do something that would be seen as socially awkward."

Armsmaster admitting that he wasn't that great at something, if indirectly? Wow, Piggot must be really serious about this.

"Any questions?"

The room was silent, Triumph seemed conflicted.

"Then, Dismissed."

Today had went much better than Assault had thought it would.

His only wish was that things could stay that way.

He'd rather not get turned into food anytime soon anyways.

He imagined being turned into a sweet would certainly be an Assault on the senses.