Disclaimer: I own nothing, this is purely for recreational purposes.

AN: Got bored between the different things I had on and came up with this over the course of the last few days. Figured it might be interesting, but enjoy the fruit of my boredom!

XXX

Pressing a hand against a section of exposed flesh, I felt the bioluminescence kick in as the connected doorway opened. The contraction of muscle groups allowing it to move near silently as I walked into the Bar, slipping passed the retracted walls of chitin and carapace. Behind me, Cinder followed easily, looking around with interest, letting me know that she was memorizing everything she could see, reaching out with her abilities as well, ensuring that she missed nothing.

After, reluctantly, pulling ourselves apart, I had chosen to give Cinder a tour of the Lair and show her around, giving her the cliff-notes version of the details that she probably picked up on her own. I had little doubt about the more detailed aspects of the base, having seen her own biology morph slightly when she saw some new aspect that she found interesting. The number of changes she had made after encountering a few Drones had been interesting, but nothing overly impressive beyond minor improvements to select systems. Another benefit had also been in interacting with the New Growth in turn, letting me learn more about both her and her power, even with the ghost of her file floating through my brain. One thing that had quickly come out was the fact that her ability to see biological entities was limited, even while she was in physical contact with them. The long and short of it was that she could only see everything within two metres of her point of contact before her view of a given biology simply cutout, which helped explain the reason that she had remained within two metres of me throughout the entire tour. Another thing I had learned was that, if another creature touched one she was in physical contact with, so long as it was within two metres of her own point of contact, then her sight could leapfrog to the new creature as well. We had talked about that idea, and had quickly brainstormed about the possibilities of how we could extend such biological vision ad infinitum through the use of creatures that were all in contact with each other, probably with lengths less than two metres.

Absently taking a seat, that idea had still spawned a few others that made me think of the possibilities of using it to create either a surveillance system, or something similar. I was still working on the exact details, even as I watched Cinder take a seat opposite me, leaning back in the seat even as she raised and crossed one leg over another. I could only give a flat stare at that, even as she kept a sly smirk on her lips for a moment before offering an unrepentant shrug at the action. The fact that I couldn't muster the will to be even slightly annoyed by it probably didn't help, especially given her repeated attempts to start her... Stress testing early. A gesture, and a metre tall Homunculi came over with two glasses filled with drinks, an empty pair of cups, and a pitcher of water as it worked without a sound to put it all down before taking it's tray and leaving back to the side of the room. Cinder watched the small being with interest as it moved, her eyes most noticeably looking at what I knew were weapons, a mixture of Acid Nodules and Chemical Sprayers that could pour out an impressively lethal mixture of liquids.

A moment later, I took my own drink and took a sip, the taste of something mildly alcoholic being exactly what I needed at the moment to deal with the recent events of the New Growth. Cinder, in turn, picked up her own glass with some care and took a sip, a pleasant hum escaping her lips as the taste one of her favored wines met her tongue. She looked at me with curiosity present in her gaze as I offered a slight shrug in return.

"The simulation generated extremely thorough files." I simply stated unrepentantly, a half-shrug escaping me as Cinder raised an eyebrow.

"And you would admit that you manipulated me so brazenly...? Oh, you terrible fiend, to toy with this maiden's heart..." She jabbed as she mimed holding her heart, with no heat coming with her words as she seemed to smile even through her performance as I rolled my eyes.

"Not like I was being very discreet about it, since I'm pretty sure you figured that out within a few seconds of coming into the real world. Still doesn't mean that anything I said was any less true." I pointed out as I took another sip of my drink, savoring the taste once more as I remembered it from the life I had lived before being dropped into this Clusterfuck of a universe.

"Hmmm... True enough, though, I'll at least admit that you did a decent job of it." Cinder remarked as a compliment, she tipped her glass to me in a salute as I nodded back with a smile in turn.

"Thank you for the compliment of my skills. Though, skills and compliments aside, we still have a few things to discuss, so shall we?" I asked as I placed my glass down, sitting up and looking at her in the eye even as she put her own glass down with a look of interest.

"And what do we have to discuss, exactly? I thought we had covered much of it during the tour of the 'Lair', as you called this place?" Cinder inquired as she gestured to the ceiling, segmented plates of carapace acting as a room with braces of darkened bones being plainly visible above that, through gaps in the plating. I shook my head slightly at that before continuing.

"Key word there being 'much', not all. Honestly, there are only two things that I wanted to cover with you, the first being some ground rules." I stated as she raised an eyebrow, lips twitching down and a slight frown forming.

"Rules?" She remarked questioningly, not sounding happy about it as I considered if that was the right word with a tilt of a head before shaking it.

"More like guidelines, really. Simply things in truth, but things I felt should be covered just to ensure that we're both on the same page." I corrected as the New Growth nodded, gesturing for me to continue, less unhappy, but still curious about what I had to say.

"The basic gist of it is this: If you're going to kill someone, make sure you're thorough about hiding the body and ensuring that no traces can be used to track a connection back to me, you, or anyone else that may join us. If you're kidnapping someone to use as a Human test subject, please ensure that they aren't someone that will be noticed. If they are, please set up a suitable accident, with an equally suitable body-double, takes place to cover up any such events. Other than that, use common sense if you go out, and don't attract too much attention from either the authorities or the gangs for the wrong reasons." I explained as best as I could as I took another sip before carrying on.

"Likewise, you can either use a lab I set up for you, or one you can set up for yourself, but please ensure that anything you do within it isn't too dangerous to anyone else within the Lair. I don't want to have to clean up after an experiment gets free and destroys a section of the base before we put it down." I finished simply as Cinder nodded at the points I raised.

"All fair points, and reasonable ones as well. Though, one could argue that not being either thorough in the disposal of a body, or securing an experiment would be the height of foolishness, something that anyone with sense would avoid." She stated with a raised eyebrow, the unspoken allegation that I was calling her a fool floating in the air as I snorted at that little fact.

"I have found that it is better to be safe than sorry, especially when working with biologically enhanced creations that even the worst creations of Mother Nature couldn't match." I quipped in bemusement as Cinder snorted in turn as she sipped her wine.

"Fair. One can never be too careful." Cinder notes before looking at me as she cradles her drink for a moment. I watch her from the corner of my eye as she lets it swish around before stopping after a moment of thought.

"... You mentioned setting up my own lab, correct? What kind of considerations did you have in mind?" She asked as I grinned slightly, seeing the grin on her own lips as well as I copied her motion as we both leaned forwards, both getting ready to get down to the brass-tacks of the discussion in getting Cinder settled in.

It was a good talk.

XXX

Flying through the air above Brockton Bay, I took in the sights even as I took advantage of the thermals to keep myself up in the air. Looking down, enhanced vision let me see the details of the world with an ease that simply wasn't possible for anything that had evolved naturally. Nature didn't allow such optimized vision, never allowing something to go beyond the stage of 'good enough' if there was no longer an evolutionary pressure to see something improve in the first place. Human eyes were no different, without a need to improve them, natural evolution simply let them be as other aspects of Human biology evolved.

Skimming past a cloud, I swooped around the next before slowly circling and heading for the ground as the PRT HQ came into view. The massive building that seemed to dominate downtown Brockton Bay was something of a constant reminder of the PRT's presence in the area, probably as the means to try and act as a deterrent. Whether or not it actually worked as a deterrent was anyone's guess, but I was willing to lean on the side of 'no'. That probably wasn't helped by the fact that I could practically smell the drugs carried by some of the people in the back alleys of the area, or the gunpowder in the loaded guns of others.

Shaking my head, I pushed those thoughts away as I focused on more pressing details as the hand of my Host Armor slipped down to the case holding a series of vials and a larger tank of Healing Fluid. The case itself was made from a thick layer of bio-plastic, as touch as I could make it with layers of padding and a skeletal work of more bio-plastic to hold the various containers in place. The containers inside were a bit less impressive, bio-plastics made through a mimicry of an industrial process, transparent and allowing the cyan liquid to be seen. Absently, I still considered whether or not I wanted to keep that colour or change it to a crimson hue that glowed, if only for the fun of it. An amusing idea, if nothing else, but not on that anyone in the Protectorate would either understand, or take with good humor, considering that Uber and Leet were both in town.

Cinder had considered it an interesting idea, if only for the potentially amusing reactions. Then again, her interest in such things was mostly half-hearted, especially with other stuff on her plate, which was rather full with a mixture of her own projects, and some work she was doing for me. Said work was mostly in the way of making a number of bio-systems more efficient and more potent, even shrinking them down in size to allow for better usage of space. In just the few days since she had been de-canned, she had even managed to shrink Bio-Array down from its original size to something approaching portable. It was still bulky, but in the way of a fully packed rucksack, rather than a large car or small van. Along with that, there were a dozen small tweaks to efficiency for various different augments I had created, making them just a bit better all the while. Said upgrades were rather interesting in that they could be done via a simple injection of retrovirals that were targeted to make the changes, though, coming up with something that could bypass my sub-dermal armoring had been tricky.

A happy side-effect of that had been that Cinder had taken the idea and ran with it, using it to help set up the beginnings of her own, private, lab by creating a seed of organic matter from her own body and allowing it to grow from there. The actual process would take more time than my own methods, but the end product had been finished just the day before, where Cinder had practically skipped all the way to it and through the door. What she did inside her lab, I kept to her discretion, so long as she didn't do anything to endanger herself, me, Rachel or any other guests, I didn't really care. Even so, I had given her a lab-warming gift of a DNA-datacore filled with files and designs for some of my Bio-tech, including, but not limited to, general equipment, weapons, armor and augments of many types.

Needless to say, she was a happy New Growth. And that was before she saw some of my more... Experimental ideas...

With that thought, I came around in a final pass over the PRT building. Out the front of it, I could see a few dozen people gathering, picking out Armsmaster among the various individuals that had gathered and was clearly looking up at me. Next to him, I could pick out the figure of Miss Militia as she seemed to hold her ground next to her boss even as I came around and started to land, leaning back and starting to pull my wings in even as my feet touched the ground. Specially made muscle tissue and compress-able bone sections meant that I could absorb the impact with ease while leaving minimal damage to the surface of the concrete itself. I didn't want to play the game of 'Cops and Robbers', mostly because I knew it wasn't a game. I just wanted to focus on the bigger problem, especially since I knew that some of those same problems would only cause even bigger problems down the road.

"Good to see you once more, Armsmaster. A pleasure to meet you, Miss Militia." I stated, the voice coming from the Host Armor no longer slitted, but more normal, a slight lisp thanks to the shape of the throat and tongues, but not enough to be noticeable beyond a slight hiss in the back of the throat. Of course, the fact that the voice itself sounded like I was gargling gravel probably did a good job of masking it as I looked at the two Parahumans before me, nodding to them in turn. With my power, I could see Armsmaster twitch in minor surprise from the less slitted voice, but not much else. Miss Militia seemed a fair bit more effected, but seemed to push by it with practiced ease of having seen plenty of weird shit in her career.

"You as well, Dreadnaught. I trust that you were able to bring the samples you wanted to tested?" Armsmaster asked, his response was blunt and cutting straight to the heart of the matter as I nodded in response, my hand tapping against the case at my side.

"Forty individual samples in sealed vials with a larger container filled with three litres of Healing fluid, in case you wish to send smaller samples to other locations without opening the larger reserve." I stated simply as Armsmaster nodded, a slight smile present on his face at the efficiency of it, if I had to guess. Taking the case from my side, I undid the latches holding it shut and presented it for all to see. Armsmaster seemed to look over the different vials and containers even as I watched him pick one up and hold it close to his visor. I'd be willing to bet that he was probably giving it a look over with any sensors he might have, a thought that was proven to be possible as he waved his halberd over the vial in question before nodding.

"Everything appears to be in order, no sign of anything dangerous that my sensor array can't detect. Should be safe to take into the building for testing." Armsmaster stated as he put the vial back into its previous location as Miss Militia seemed to give her boss a distressed look before looking over at me, probably hoping to avoid alienating me by covering for her boss in some manner.

"I'm sorry about that, Dreadnaught. Armsmaster is just following protocol in that untested Tinkertech has to be scanned and checked to ensure it isn't dangerous before we let it into the building." Militia offered apologetically as I waved her off, closing the case and handing it to Armsmaster.

"I am well aware of the reputation of Bio-Tinkers as a whole, especially due to a notable few who have... Soured the reputation of anyone with similar abilities. I also am well aware of the Protectorate's history with such individuals, so I fully understand the caution that Armsmaster is taking, even if a part of me can't help but feel insulted by implications that my work isn't safe." I remarked, the gravel-like tones gaining an amused lift to them as I allowed a snort of air to escape through nasal passages, steam almost seeming to condense with it. Miss Militia seemed to relax at that, her body loosening up even as Armsmaster took the case as I handed it off to him.

"I'm... Glad that you're so understanding to our position. Once more, thank you for that." The Heroine remarked, relief colouring her voice even as I nodded along, showing my own understanding of the situation.

"No problem, Miss Militia. Though, if you don't mind, may I ask a question about the testing process?" I queried. Truth be told, it was something I was partly interested in due to the lack of any real information online. What I had found was a mixture of complaints and frustrated rants by Tinkers across the country about how the review board wouldn't let them build stuff. Most of it was decades old, back before things were run so tightly, but it was clear that they had quickly transitioned to keeping things more in-house. Sure, there were general statements that were available online for an overview, but most of them lacked any kind of detail beyond the anything that couldn't be boiled down to 'Tinker submits tech to either be approved or denied'. I see and feel Miss Militia glance at her boss for a second, said Tinker visibly paused for a second before continuing onwards. I could see the faintest indication of a nod, not enough to normally be visible, but when you have eyesight as enhanced as mine, such things tend to stand out like a sore thumb.

The fact that I can see his muscle groups contracting and stretching also helps.

"What exactly are you interested in? Keep in mind, we tend to keep a lot of information about our testing procedures confidential, as a matter of safety and security." The Blaster stated as I nodded.

"I'd gathered as much from what I'd seen online, though, I can guess why, but it's better to know than to make an assumption and then be fucked over by said assumption. Anyway, I've only got two questions. The first is pretty obvious, in that I'm curious as to why such details are confidential? The other question I have is how long will the process take? I tried researching both online, but, as I said, finding accurate information proved to be more difficult than one could think, with every official and unofficial summary I could find just boiling down to the same thing." I stated, noticing the way that the Heroine winced at my swearing, probably having gotten into the habit of avoiding such words to manage her image. I kept my smugness to myself, of course, one of the reason I wasn't planning to join the Protectorate was for the simple reason that I didn't want to be de-fanged by their PR department. Still, Miss Militia quickly put that behind her and moved forwards, her exposed features smoothing out to ensure that her expression and stance only showed what she was trying to put forwards; A happy, open and approachable 'Hero of the People'.

... For some reason, I felt like whistling the Russian national anthem.

"The reason for the classified nature of what may appear to be mundane knowledge, is primarily due to the potential for Villainous elements to take advantage of it. Early on, we used to make such information a matter of public record, but after the first few times where Villain groups infiltrated such review boards, such information was removed and made confidential, both to protect review personnel, and to prevent easy infiltration. To my knowledge, such attempts have only happened 27 times, with only nine of them successfully managing to steal Tinkertech while the rest were more focused on trying to prevent a given Tinker from expanding their capabilities." Amazingly, it was Armsmaster who explained it to me as he stood with the case in one hand, his halberd in the other and placed on the ground. I hummed in thought, following on from the new information, as Miss Militia picked up where the Tinker left, answering my other question.

"As for your other question; Typically, a review of Tinkertech, including testing, can take anywhere from three weeks, to three months. Reviews often have to be structured around individual pieces of Tinkertech to ensure it is safe to use, again due to the often individual nature of each piece of a Tinker to Tinker basis." I grimaced at that slightly, three weeks probably wouldn't be so bad, but I was hoping to have it so I could sell it soon. Having some money to use would be useful, especially to buy things that I couldn't produce myself. Even so, I'd still need to look into getting a hold of a Lawyer to ensure any contract I made with a buyer wasn't going to bite me in the ass. Considering the local area, and the laws regarding Vigilantes being able to confiscate a select amount of cash from criminals and gangs, I could always go that way and see about raiding a few storehouses. Already, a plan was starting to come together in my head, but I was interrupted by Miss Militia, as she kept going.

"However, due to... Recent events, and the enormous potential that your Healing Fluid provides, the review period for your biological Tinkertech has been shortened. Potentially to as little as a single week." The Heroine stated as I couldn't help raising some eye-ridges at that. I knew about the 'events' she was probably taking about, what with Behemoth attacking Havana in Cuba. Official casualty counts over almost half of the total population, just over a million people with at least a hundred dead capes, not to mention an entire city that was little more than a radioactive crater in the ground. Not only that, but Healer Capes were rare, and even Panacea could do so much, the capes might have already been healed, but I was willing to bet that a lot of other people were still going to be looking at a rather large reduction in their quality of life due to third-degree burns, missing limbs and other injuries. And that was without going into the fact that many of them had probably lost their homes and way of life.

"Understandable, and much appreciated. Though, if there is anything further that you need, please feel free to contact me. Though, keep in mind that I might not be able to reply to everything straight away, mostly because I might be busy dealing with other projects" I stated as I handed over a folded piece of parchment, an E-mail address having been written on it that I had created a day ago, one that I fully planned to only use when in contact with the Protectorate and when I was outside of my Lair, so as to prevent tracking attempts.

"Thank you, Dreadnaught. Though we should only need to contact you once the testing is finished, but we'll keep that in mind." Miss Militia stated as Armsmaster offered a single nod in agreement with his 2IC. Shrugging in response, I started to turn and head back, my wings already extending as I took a few steps away from the two Heroes.

"Then, I'll be off. Until we meet again!" I shouted as my wings spread fully, the sound of air being displaced thundered around me even as I caught the response of 'And you!' being shouted back as I rocketed into the sky. Non-standard senses mounted across my Host Armor let me know that Miss Militia was waving me off while Armsmaster had quickly had quickly turned and was power-walking towards the main entrance of the base, Miss Militia following behind him a moment later after she stopped waving after me. Once both were inside, I stopped keeping an eye on the PRT building as I turned my attention towards flying even as I activated the internal Bio-comm. unit built into my Host Armor.

"Hey, Cinder, how interested would you be in the chance to bankrupt at least one gang?"

XXX

"Shhh... Don't think, big boy... Just listen and do as I say... Do that, big boy, and I'll give you something real nice... Doesn't that sound good, big boy...?" Cinder whispered in a husky tone, her nose almost touching the nose of a drugged-up Merchant that was looking into her eyes as though he was utterly mesmerized by what he saw. Though, one could argue that he hardly had a choice with her pressing her enlarged bust against his chest, a hand around his jaw helping to keep his head pinned against the brick wall of the alley while keeping him from looking at anything but her. His own hands were currently hanging limply by his sides even as her remaining hand traced down his dirty body, sliding over his inner thigh and applying just enough pressure to get the right reaction. Said reaction was immediate to see, already dilated eyes suddenly dilate even further until it was nearly impossible to see the iris of either eye. Cinder had little doubt that if she let go, the idiot would have fallen to the ground without her hands keeping him up, but that could wait until after she got what she wanted.

A stray thought was enough as she started pumping out more pheromones that were tailored to make her seem more trustworthy, already helped along by the mixed batch of psychoactive chemicals that she had injected into the Merchant through her barbs.

"... Ye-Yeah... Yeah... real-l nish..." The Merchant replied, his voice slurred from the effects of a cocktail of a few different things that Cinder could already see working away on his brain, inhibiting his ability to lie, to feel frightened even with her looming over him, eyes glowing a hypnotic yellow, and putting him into a state of drowsiness that made him unable to connect the dots in what she was doing. All together, it put him in a very good position where he would answer the New Growths questions with the minimum of resistance.

"Now, big boy... I'm going to ask some questions... And you're going to answer those questions... You're going to tell me everything... And I'll give you something good after each question..." Without hesitation, barbs fired into the Merchant, releasing their payload of a short-lived aphrodisiac, the effects of which being enough for his eyes to go cockeyed from the pleasure of the experience as Cinder applied a bit more pressure to the inner thigh that she gripped, helped along by the increased sensitivity that the pleasure was causing the Merchant as she saw his legs almost shake from the effort of standing.

"So... First question... You're a Dealer for the Merchants... Right...?" Cinder requested, her voice never losing the husky tone to it even as she peered at her prey, enjoying the little game even to get the answers she sought. Maybe it wasn't needed, but it was fun to toy with the little man in front of her, especially as he tried to nod frantically, stuttering out words in the same slurred voice while his eyes blinked lethargically.

"Yeah... I... I'm... Wiz da Merchantz..." Cinder nodded, releasing another burst of pleasure into the man as she grinned at the confirmation. She already knew the answer, of course, but getting a confirmation while touching her prey meant that she could see his brain light up, showing her how it looked when he was telling the truth as opposed to lying. Admittedly, she doubted that he would have been capable of lying to her in his current state, but one never knew, especially with what she had learned of the Merchants and their drug addictions. Still, she rewarded him with another burst of bliss before moving onwards.

"Good Boy... Now... Next question... The Merchants... They have a lot of dealers around here... Right...? Can you... Tell me how many...?" She asked, building up her questions as she started to rapidly condition the man to answer her questions with as little difficulty as possible.

"... I... I da'know... a-abot for-tie... Fortie... Fortie-something..." He answered, buzzed slightly from the bliss and liking it as he answered more earnestly, trying to be as accurate as possible as Cinder gave a slightly longer burst than before to ensure he understood, even if only unconsciously.

"Again, Good boy... And those forty of you... You must make... A lot of money over time... Right...?" Once more, the Merchant attempted to frantically nod his head, held in place by her grip of his jaw that made it nearly impossible for him to actually nod properly.

"...Y-Yez... Lotz oh cazh..." The Merchant Dealer hissed his answer, trying to say something that would get him another buzz even as Cinder's own smile grew wider even as she continued onwards.

"Once more, Good boy..." Cinder complimented, noticing how the man shivered from her voice alone, recognizing the effects as the conditioning seemed to take effect with little effort, but was reinforced further with a bit more bliss from her to the drugged-up idiot as he spilled his guts to her. Leaning in further, she went closer, increasing the amount of pheromones she was pumping out even further as she flooded the air with such a strong scent that it would have made an non-drugged idiot have a difficult time thinking straight.

"Now... Big boy... Last question... Where do you keep... All your cash...?" She asked as her hand traced over his thigh, gliding over his inner thigh in gentle circles as the nails of her other hand changed, sharpening and lengthening as they strapped along skin, channels forming to allow something to flow through them as she let some of her fingers slide down his exposed neck.

"... It... I-Itz... Itz in the Houze... Da Houze on Bakerz strit... Da une wih de... De borded windas... Numba... Numba siz..." Understanding him, if just, Cinder nodded with a smile on her face even as her finger nails suddenly plunged into both the major veins on either side of his neck. At the same time, Barbs fired from the pores of her skin and released their payloads into the idiot before her as she felt him lose control of his body, his eyes rolling up to the back of his sockets even as his lower head finally let out the load it was holding in for so long, drenching the inside of the man's pants and trousers with cum. Quickly after that, however, the man lost consciousness as sedatives took him to the realm of Morpheus while other bio-targeted chemicals went to work as she let him go, retracting her nails and letting the fool drop to the ground.

Crouching down, she placed a hand on the man's neck to ensure he was still alive, noting the chemicals in his brain were working to prevent his short-term memory from transferring into his long-term memory, so that he wouldn't even remember the last few hours. Perhaps it was a bit on the side of overkill, but Cinder felt that getting rid of too much was better than getting rid of too little, not that the Dealer would have missed much of his night since the end result was still probably the same; Passed out somewhere with vague, if any, memory of the previous night. A quick check of the neck wounds was enough to show that they had already sealed up and closed, leaving no visible sign of injury, and clue that could be used to track her. With that, she smirked smugly as she absently pulled a rag from her trouser pocket and wiping her hands clean even as she padded away, and around the corner, checking her surroundings to ensure that no one was watching her all the while.

Old skills came in useful, especially with her enhancements. A few tweaks and she was back to how she was after being 'de-canned', as Jason had nicknamed it. A tad bit shorter to not draw attention, but still fairly tall with all the right curves in all the right places. Even so, it was a bit of a balancing act to ensure that the compressed bio-mass she was moving around didn't get too close to the surface of her body, least someone notice that the illusion was only skin-deep. It was annoying, but a reality of her powers, one she was willing to live with as she twisted a bit of bio-mass in her shoulder into a Bio-comm. unit, quickly tuning into the right frequency as she sent a message.

"I've got location of one of their storehouses, probably has a metric ton of drugs and cash lying, but I didn't bother getting more than an address from my... Guide." Cinder sent, feeling impish as the reply came a moment later, words appearing in the back of her mind as memories and transmitted bias provided thought and tone, respectively.

"I have little doubt about that, since I know for a fact that you can be rather persuasive. Still, you need a hand with raiding the place?" Cinder allowed a snort as she heard the message playing through her mind, quickly composing her reply even as the traces of dry wit faded from her mind. Glancing up, her vision changed as she took a note of the stars through the cloudless sky, shifting visions to ensure that any light pollution wouldn't get in the way as she considered old information related to lunar cycles, constellations and their positions relative to her location and time of the year. An advantage of her enhanced brain allowed her to hold all of this information with ease, and with such clarity that she knew she could never forget something unless she wished to. Within moments, the knowledge had come and gone, but it served its purpose well enough as composed her reply.

"No need. It's still late at night, probably another eight hours until dawn and I doubt that these Merchants are going to be anything else than out-cold when I reach them. If they aren't, then I can go from there and improvise." Cinder sent back even as she picked up the pace slightly, moving out of the light of one streetlight before a twitch in her leg was enough to send her into the air after a quick check to ensure that no one was looking.

"Alright, just remember not to leave any evidence, or anyway for it to be tracked back to us. I don't feel like getting into a gang war anytime soon, especially when we both know there are bigger fish to fry." Jason replied, somber tone coming through even as Cinder mentally nodded at that, knowing that getting involved with the local population of adult-shaped children would do them no favors, at least, not without sufficient preparation and fortification.

"Will do, see you back at the Lair... With my Loot." Cinder sends before cutting off the transmission, severing the link even as she heard the beginnings of a reply, something she was sure was some promise of retribution, but one she knew lacked heat. The New Growth knew that it was just banter, just as her creator did, both knowing that good interactions helped them both build stronger relationships, and thus trust each other in the ways that counted.

Still, as Cinder silently slipped from rooftops, recalling street maps of Brockton Bay and judging direction based on Magnetic North before correcting for True North internally, she couldn't help but think about that. She knew that Jason trusted her, and that she trusted him, but she still felt as though she still needed to prove it, to work harder to show that she trusted him just as much as he clearly trusted her. The sheer fact that he gave her access to even a partially complete copy of his own, personal, database was a massive showing of trust on his part, one that he didn't need to make. Admittedly, she had a lot of the augments in it, but not all of them, some of them had been installed in his Host Armor while others included things that he was still working on. The sheer implications of just giving such a thing to her were enough to almost cause her brain to crash as she had hesitated in accepting what was, for someone like her, a literal armory of biological upgrades. All of which she had eagerly memorized with her augmented brain and retained even as she jumped across rooftops, and further into the night.

XXX

It took the better part of an hour to reach her target, but with it in sight, she had allowed herself to change, digging into the knowledge that she had eagerly absorbed even as she skimmed the edge of the deepest files in the repository that he had gifted her: The Experimental Designs.

Even as she stood, her skin replaced with biological armor capable of shrugging of anti-tank weapons, she still shivered when she considered what she had seen within the files she had been gifted as a sign of trust. Even her Thinker abilities seemed to stutter with some of the ideas for biological systems within, such things as being not so much impossible, but so advanced to make them insanely expensive to create, even for Biokinetics. Admittedly, Cinder was sure that the folder was only the tip of the iceberg for what Jason probably considered as Pie-in-the-sky ideas, but she knew that a lot of them could be used, could be made usable. Perhaps it was her way of trying to balance the scale, to show that she could be trusted with the information she had been gifted, but it felt like something she needed to do, if only to even the scales between them. As such, she had worked through the ideas in them, ranging from simply impressive, to truly awe-inspiring as she remembered one such design in particular. One design for a biological combat construct that had been included as a kind of 'next generation bio-tech combat construct', as the file had called it. The file itself for these 'Makhai' was further split into sub-folders that contained such designs that she could barely understand half of the technical descriptions. And even with what she had, she could see that it was just a taste of what the Makhai were to be fully capable of she could see the missing links to other files that weren't included.

Still, it proved to be an enlightening experience, if only to highlight that the same person that had created these things had also created her. As it also showed just how seriously he was of taking on the threats that plagued this world, the threats that he seemed intent to kill. It was a humbling experience, to know that even what she had seen in those files, the masterpieces that Jason had created, weren't considered as such, simply seen as tools and iterations of tools to act as stepping stones to something greater. After seeing even a segment of the Makhai, Cinder struggled to imagine something better than them, but that probably was why she was a Thinker where Jason was a Tinker.

Shaking her head from such thoughts, she focused on the present; On her objective; On the possible resistance she might face. A thought and her arm reconfigured, changing to have multiple tubes connected to fast-twitch muscles to launch darts at a given target, each dart loaded with a cocktail designed to ensure both unconscious and memory lose in even the most brain-dead and drugged-up of Merchants. A quick check of her Thinker aspect and she nodded, a few tweaks and the system was ready as she silently dropped down.

Padded feet, shock-absorbing muscle layers and spring-loaded bones all worked together to ensure that her impact left no trace as she hit the uncut grass behind a small house tucked in next to a corner shop that looked close to shutting down. Vision shifting, night became day in her eyes even as she looked over the outside of the house before seeing an entry point on the top floor of the house, a window that had been cracked open. Hypersensitive ears helped her pick out the sounds of heartbeats from within as she felt bio-electrical pulses flowing in a steady beat, unlike the near constant buzz of live electrical wires that lined the walls. Already, the outlines of the number of Merchants in the building became apparent to her as she saw some upstairs, some on the ground floor, and a few sleeping in what must have been a basement.

It wasn't much, but it was enough for her to move on as a quick step launched her up a dozen feet before she clambered over a slate-covered roof and to the window. The window itself wasn't open wide enough for her to fit through, but a tendril extruded from a finger solved that problem after undoing the latch. Slipping inside a moment later, she left the window as she looked around, five Merchants lying on the ground or on half-ruined mattresses in filth-drenched clothes. Filtering the scent out, she loaded five darts before shooting each merchant, ensuring that they'd remain out of it for the next few hours, long enough for her to do her business and be gone. The darts themselves would biodegrade into nothing but more dirt inside half an hour, so no traces would be left beyond a bit more dirt.

With that done, she slipped out the room and down the corridor to the main hall, avoiding the floor in case there was a squeaky board that might wake someone up. Cinder knew that no one was awake, but it was better to be safe than sorry, especially as echolocation helped create a more complete map of the environment as she slowly moved from room to room. As the New Growth moved, she found more Merchants, more filth, empty bottles of spirits and the scent of sex and drugs filling the air. It didn't stop her from ensuring that everyone remained asleep, but it was a delay as she slowly moved downstairs, finding more Merchants sleeping on a sofa, one of them being within arm's reach of a shotgun as Cinder took special case to render him unconscious before moving on.

A quick count gave her fourteen Merchants, nine of which were already dead to the world, but another three still slept below as she carefully checked every room for any hidden compartments or items of interest before moving down, into the basement. In said basement, that was where she found what she was looking for.

On one side of the room, there was a single table, it's surface covered in clear plastic bags filled with various powders, needles with an assortment of liquids, and a dozen other things piled up on either the rest of the table or a half-rotten pallet that was haphazardly wrapped in cellophane. On another pallet, however, was her prize. Dozens of neatly stacked bags of money, sorted into large and small bills and tied with rubber bands. All surprisingly clean for a gang like the Merchants, but Cinder wasn't about to throw stones as she quickly shot the remaining Merchants before she went to work.

Later, Cinder climbed back out of the house through the same window, having spent half an hour of her life in the run-down house with nothing but the scent of sex, drugs, alcohol and sleeping, unwashed Merchants as her company. However, this was balanced by the fact that she practically skipped away several thousand dollars richer. A quick change of the ledger in the basement had been enough to ensure that it looked like someone was skimming from the top, rather than it being stolen. And even then, she doubted that they'd even consider that, probably not even noticing the difference in the morning.

Still, if they were too stupid to notice, then that just meant that Cinder could take advantage all the more.

Besides, while she happily accepted the clothes provided by Jason for working and living in the Lair, they were not the kind of thing that she wanted to be caught in public in. With that in mind, Cinder already started to consider what to buy, as a particular outfit came to mind, only causing the New Growth to smirk as she jumped a few rooftops before heading for home. A final jump gave her air long enough to grow wings, the quiet flaps of the massive limbs being far enough away as to no draw attention to her actions, or the idiots she hoped to steal from once more.

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AN: Well, there you have it! Hope you lot enjoyed it and, as always, feedback is appreciated! Until next time!