The Protectorate tinker, Armsmaster, spoke into the built-in microphone of his power armor helmet, "Shadow Stalker's unidentified cape neutralized. Preparing to transport to HQ." He was dubious that a cape would decide to debut by infiltrating a high school and terrorizing some teenage girls but it was enough reason to exercise a high level of caution. It seemed like overkill but it didn't hurt to be prepared for anything. It was easier to ask forgiveness than to ask permission.

PRT agents began to close in on the foam hill when they heard a booming voice declare, "Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? HAHAHAHAHA." The foam surrounding Haru exploded away from him as his double Rasengans swirled around him and tore at the material like a chainsaw. Eventually, the spinning balls of chakra dissipated and Haru dusted the remaining foam from his coat.

Haru pointed at the armored cape. "Evildoer! I will not allow you to foam this high school for whatever nefarious purpose you have. I, pretty soldier sailor Haru, in the name of the moon, shall defeat you!"

Everyone wearing a PRT uniform turned to Armsmaster for their orders. The hero spoke, "What are you doing in this school?"

"I was visiting someone."

"I'm going to have to ask you to come with us."

"Never! I don't care what kind of offer your evil master wants to make. I will never compromise with evil!"

"I am Armsmaster of the Protectorate. I'm not evil."

"You have a hoard of nondescript goons, a massive deadly looking weapon, and a totally evil looking robot suit. I'm really supposed to believe that you're not evil?"

"Did you or did you not assault several teenage girls in this school?" Armsmaster changed the subject.

"Of course not. They attacked me! It's incredible what some people think they can get away with. My head still hurts from that one girl's fingernails," Haru whined, rubbing his scalp.

Armsmaster's lie detector had yet to alarm. "I think there's been a misunderstanding here."

"I won't give you any more chances to deceive me, evildoer. Even though I've made a vow not to kill, I can still punish scum like you just fine!" Haru shouted before he body flickered next to Armsmaster and stabbed his armor with a kunai. Before Armsmaster could react, Haru channeled electrical chakra through the kunai into the power armor and flickered out of the reach of Armsmaster's Halberd.

Armsmaster's built in HUD flickered red and listed damage readouts faster than most people would be able to understand. Manipulating his fingers inside the power armor's gloves, he facilitated emergency damage control, rebooting several systems and rerouting power. It took only a few seconds to regain control of his armor but Haru had already manage to incapacitate three members of the response team who were now unconscious on the ground.

The cape spoke into his radio, "Armsmaster here, requesting backup. Under attack by unknown cape. Powers unknown but for sure speedster."

"Roger. Miss Militia and Triumph are on the way. ETA two minutes," the radio crackled back to him.

"Alright, I just have to hold on for two minutes." Armsmaster gripped his Halberd and swung at the boy.

Haru looked over and realized he couldn't dodge the impending shockwave since he was holding a PRT agent above his head. He threw the hapless infantry away and braced himself. The blast crashed into his AT field, creating rippling waves of octagons. It wasn't enough to stop the blast completely and Haru was flung bodily into the wall of the high school, creating several small cracks in the concrete.

Haru got up to his feet and smirked. "You got some good tech." He pulled a folding knife from his sleeve. "Let's see how your weapon holds up to my Chibi-Kubi." Haru deflected Armsmaster's second shockwave with his AT field at an angle, looking like an invisible buckler over his left arm. The blade in his right hand began to glow brightly as Haru circled the tinker and looked for an opening to strike.

Haru wondered why the man in the robot suit was being so defensive. The helmeted minions also seemed to be staying back and not engaging. He threw a couple kunai at Armsmaster's suit, which bounced off the tinkertech armor. But instead of falling to the ground, they embedded themselves into the ground in a cross over Armsmaster's boot, anchoring it in place.

Unable to turn around, Armsmaster was easy prey for Haru's progressive knife which sliced through the Halberd's shaft like butter. Haru ended the fight in a pose looking away from his defeated foe, part of which included dramatically folding the progressive knife and stashing it in his sleeve.

Haru spoke to the humiliated Protectorate member, "Now turn yourself in to the police and renounce your evil ways or I will punish you a second time!"

"I'm with the PRT, you moron!" Armsmaster shouted. "We're on the police's side!"

"What really?" Haru asked.

Armsmaster groaned and covered his face with his hand. "Yes, really."

"Then you should have said so in the first place!"

"I did!"

"No, you didn't! You tried to drown me in foam!"

"And then I said I was with the Protectorate."

"Which I assume you're going to tell me isn't some kind of League of Evil."

"No, it's not."

"Well, shit...sorry?" Haru offered.

Another armored van showed up, this time with Miss Militia on top of it with a high caliber sniper rifle trained on Haru's chest. "Get down on the ground with your hands behind your head!" she shouted.

The teenage boy asked Armsmaster, "Are you going to tell me that she's a good guy too?"

This time, no longer holding his destroyed Halberd, Armsmaster was holding his head in both of his hands. "Yes."

"Are you going to tell her not to shoot me?"

"That depends on whether or not you cooperate."

"Wow, you're a massive douche."

"Whatever."

Inside the PRT armored van, Haru was handcuffed and seated next to Armsmaster. Miss Militia sat next to Triumph, who spoke to the boy. "So, Haru, was it? Care to explain what happened back there?"

Haru shrugged. "I don't know why everyone keeps attacking me. I was just defending myself from you guys. I didn't know what containment foam was. I guess it's just a big misunderstanding."

Triumph looked over at Armsmaster who said nothing. Then the gladiator armor clad cape asked, "How did you not know about the Parahuman Response Team?

Haru shrugged again. "I'm new in town."

Triumph again checked with Armsmaster to see if the young man was lying. The tinker simply sighed and continued to watch the boy. "Then where did you come from, Haru?"

"I dunno. The sky?"

"Are you saying you don't remember where you were until you appeared in Brockton Bay?"

"Like amnesia? Not really. It's kind of hard to explain. I don't know how I got here but I'm pretty sure I was in Japan. I couldn't tell you whether or not I've forgotten anything because it doesn't seem like I have. It's like there was never any information about the phenomenon in the first place. Hm, maybe it's not even really me. I might be a clone. I'm sure I'm not an android though."

"He talks in circles but the kid doesn't seem to be lying."

"If I were capable of giving you a straight answer, I would. Also, sorry about breaking your toy. You can fix it, right?" Haru asked, patting Armsmaster on the shoulder.

Armsmaster replied, "I see ordinary handcuffs are useless on you."

"Haha, yeah. I know you insisted I wear them but they seriously get in the way, you know?"

Miss Militia burst into laughter. Wiping a tear, she declared, "I like this kid! Have you considered joining the Wards, Haru?"

"What are the Wards? A team of superhero sidekicks?"

Triumph stepped into answer, "Kind of. They're a division of the Protectorate for parahumans who are still younger than 18. Like the Protectorate, they fight crime and help people."

"Sounds like buckets of fun. I don't know how old I am but I'm pretty sure I'm older enough to drink though."

Armsmaster immediately said, "Lie."

"I'm still older than I look though."

Armsmaster said nothing.

"Oh, hey, if I know someone with superpowers, can they join the Wards?" Haru asked.

"Yes, assuming they're not old enough to join the Protectorate and wish to do good with their powers," Triumph answered.

Miss Militia asked the boy, "Capes usually have a special name to identify themselves with in order to mask their identities. I am Miss Militia and this is Triumph and finally we have Armsmaster. Do you have a name you wish to officially be known by?"

"Is Haru not good enough for you?"

Armsmaster was the one to address this question, "You wouldn't be the first cape to let your identity be known publically but even they have cape names that they go by, if only to help others remember what your powers are. On that note, I'd like to know exactly what your power is."

"Hm...powers...powers like what?"

"What can you do?" Armsmaster clarified.

"I can do a lot of things. I wouldn't really call them superpowers or anything though."

Miss Militia tried to explain, "For example, I can make weapons and Triumph can make sonic shockwaves and Armsmaster is a tinker, meaning he can create advanced technology. So what do you do?"

"Is that it? You guys can only do one thing?" Haru asked in confusion.

The female Protectorate explained again, "There's more to it but parahumans usually only have one or two or maybe even three powers."

Haru rubbed his chin in contemplation. "I guess you could say that I can manipulate chakra and make forcefields. Those are pretty broad statements though."

Armsmaster asked, "What does that mean exactly?"

"Hm...I guess the best way to describe it is to call it a rudimentary magic, except instead of using an external power source, you manipulate reality through your body's own energies."

Armsmaster scoffed, "Magic?"

"Not really. But kinda." Once again, Haru shrugged, unable to answer the heroes' questions.

"It's about as good an explanation as any other parahuman theory," said Triumph.

The van stopped and the driver spoke, "We've arrived."

Armsmaster opened the door of the vehicle and revealed the plain looking PRT HQ.

Director Piggot and Miss Militia stood behind a one-way mirror watching Haru scribble on a sheet of paper at a steel table.

"So this is our mystery cape?" the director asked.

"He's very interesting. Did you see his eyes? Given the situation, I wouldn't discount the possibility of him being a case 53. We gave him a list of the different power categories and let him try to figure out where he falls. He's been staring at that piece of paper for the last ten minutes."

"And he defeated Armsmaster?"

"The boy claims he mistook Armsmaster for a villain and was defending himself. By the time we arrived, Armsmaster was completely disabled and a quarter of the PRT was taken out nonlethally."

Haru's voice came in over a speaker, "Okay, I'm done. I'm feeling hungry so I'm gonna get some lunch. Do me a favor and give Armsmaster his wallet back for me."

The ninja picked the lock to the interrogation room with a chakra string and disappeared, wrapped in a genjutsu for good measure.

Miss Militia had asked Haru to rate himself on a scale from one to ten in twelve categories, not explaining that this was what the PRT does for any new cape. Each category had a short explanation with a few examples.

There was a question mark next to Trump and a smattering of random numbers on the bottom of the paper in no particular order or arrangement. Instead of ink, the numbers seemed to have been burned into the paper by a laser.

The largest number had been circled and underlined. "36?" Upon seeing it, Director Piggot first wondered why the boy had added the numbers together and then she immediately realized it was because he had added his self-surveyed PRT ratings together.

She dialed a number on the wall-phone intercom. "Cafeteria, this is Piggot. Tell me if you see a red-haired boy with a black coat down there." Then Director Piggot rubbed her forehead as she dialed another number. "Armsmaster, we found your wallet..."