"Stop fidgeting," Cassie nudged me surreptitiously, her voice issuing out of my helmet's speaker system. "Everything is built on first impressions."

I drew in a deep breath and squared my shoulders, my crimson cape flapping in the salty breeze as the ferry to the Protectorate's floating base sped across the water. I glanced over at her, she looked cool. Standing with practiced confidence, sunlight glinting off her cat themed helmet, ribbon like coat tails catching the wind.

The costumes themselves had turned out pretty good too. They weren't exactly like in the sketches, being quite obviously hand made by an amateur and were a little less close fitting to hide the armour, but their striking gold and red lines conjured exactly the look we were going for. They too were partially made out of carbon fabric, with calico making up the majority of the weave the carbon really only gave it colour.

This was it, three months of effort. Of tinkering and training, planning and preparing. Our debut appearance.

Butterflies didn't even come close to fucking describing it.

The ferry passed through the shimmering forcefield that encased the Protectorate base and gently slid up the ramp. The ferry operator moved to open the gate, his outline glinting in the wireframe representation my radar provided. If I wanted I could summon up a mini-map to track everything around me, but we had decided the Protectorate would probably not appreciate that sort of tech being switched on in their headquarters. In fact, I was going to have to turn it off altogether. A few taps on the touchscreen and the outline on everything vanished.

For now I had to access the interface for my helmet through my phone, something I was extremely glad I had built. It did everything I'd wanted it to and could only be activated for use in proximity of a special microchip embedded in the glove of our armour suits, or in our civilian guises one embedded in a ring.

As the gate opened I strode forward with confident, purposeful steps and saluted the ferry operator. As the social Thinker, I was the front man. The face of our team. And as such I had to be friendly and in control. I had to be the cape, not the person. My every action today had to lay the foundations of our image, we couldn't afford to pay for my mistakes.

The East North East Protectorate headquarters was a very impressive building. Made of a remodelled oil rig it sat out in the bay, a shiny white symbol of Heroism and Law.

We ascended the grey concrete steps outside, the big opaque glass doors sweeping open as we got close. The interior looked a lot like the PRT building, but with more turrets and cameras and a lot less people. A pair of PRT troopers stood just inside, they waited for us to walk up to them.

"Good morning," I said, my voice deeper, more mature, curtesy of the voice modulator in my helmet. "I'm Psychonaut, and this is Ghaster."

I flicked my wrist, retrieving a business card and holding it out to them. That little bit of sleight of hand had been surprisingly easy to learn.

"We represent Team Satisfaction as independent heroes, we called earlier to let you know we were coming."

The PRT troopers were not impressed, though they hid it well enough that someone without thinker powers would be hard pressed to read them. It was kind of annoying even though that was what we were going for at the moment.

"Of course," one of the troopers smiled. "Please step this way, a representative will be with you shortly."

"Is it possible for me to speak to Armsmaster, if only for a moment?" I asked as we were led away. "I have something important to give him regarding a Tinker's work."

"I'll put the request through," the trooper said, ushering us into a comfortable looking room just past the foyer. "If you'll excuse me?"

The trooper left, presumably to get back to his post guarding the door, leaving us alone.

"We should sit down," Cassie said through our comms. "I bet they're watching us right now."

We sank into the white leather chairs, they had looked hard backed but were surprisingly comfortable.

They were probably listening in on us too, it wouldn't be that hard for the Protectorate with all its tinkers to design a monitoring system that bypassed other tinkertech's soundproofing.

I shifted in my seat, readjusting my cape so I wasn't sitting on it quite so much. Cassie seemed to take my silence as a message because we sat quietly while we waited.

It was a short wait, only two or so minutes until the door slid open and Armsmaster walked in.

"I don't have long I'm afraid," he said with a roguish grin that belied how much he didn't want to be here. "I was told you have something for me?"

I glanced over at Cassie, tuning my power between her and Armsmaster. It was a testament to just how nice his smile was that she bought it hook, line and sinker. I stood up and flicked my other wrist, nearly fumbling the card trick this time.

"It's a pleasure to finally meet you, Armsmaster," I held the business card out to him. "On behalf of Team Satisfaction I'd like to thank you for taking the time to see us personally."

"Of course," Armsmaster gave a fake little swagger as he took the card, his opinion of us plummeting as he skim read it. "I'm always happy to meet new heroes, especially if it involves a tinker."

Subtle. It really was. I reached behind my back and slipped my hand into the equipment pouch sewn into the material over my lower back, retrieving a small sheaf of paper held together by a paperclip. I hoped this went according to plan.

"A gift of goodwill," I handed it over. It wasn't like I was ever going to make what was on them, it was way too big and I needed to be at a power level higher than I could achieve in my normal day to day life.

Armsmaster accepted it without a word, carefully scanning the half-finished schematics for a space dreadnaught.

"This is some interesting work," he said finally. "I assume the creator is willing to work with us?"

"Of course," I said, stepping forward and holding out my hand. "Psychonaut, tinker."

He began to frown as he shook my hand, feeling the armour under my gloves grate against his gauntlets. He turned to look at Cassie, then back to me, taking in our amateurish outfits. All the obvious seam welds on our carbon polymer helmets.

"Oh," he said.

"Nothing gets past you, does it? This was partially a test to see how people reacted, the derision you felt was close to our desired effect. We want to remain unthreatening to the local villains until we're ready."

"Congratulations," he smiled, more genuinely this time. But not completely genuinely. "You had me thinking you were a thinker. But I have to ask, why go independent instead of joining the Wards? We always welcome new capes, tinkers especially."

Damn. I guess nothing really did get past him now that he was on his game. I was hoping the curvier frame of our armour and voice modulators would make him think we were older.

"We have plans to, eventually, join the Protectorate if our current organization proves untenable. Today was to introduce ourselves and to demonstrate that we are willing to play by the Protectorate's rules."

"It's a better plan than most," Armsmaster ruffled the papers charmingly, thinking we were idiots for not joining. "Just keep in mind that if you ever change your minds we're always open."

"We will," I paused. "And, uh, do you mind putting me down as a low level social thinker, just so it doesn't get out to the gangs another tinker is around?"

"You can mimic that?"

I tapped the faceplate of my helmet and Armsmaster frowned again, looking back at the schematics.

"Do you mind answering, if you know, what your specialisation is?" He crossed his arms. "Being able to mimic a thinker power and design a spacecraft with tinkertech is unusual, normally each of those would be its own thing."

"I don't actually know," I said. "At first I thought I was a universal tinker, but then I found out I can't make a vacuum cleaner or a clock and other things like that."

I thought it was perhaps a bit early to go around saying my speciality was Total War!

"Hmmm…" Armsmaster dragged out the sound, tapping his fingers against his armour thoughtfully. "Well, if you ever find out, please let me know. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a very busy schedule to get back to. Psychonaut, Ghaster," he shook our hands. "Thank you for being so upfront with us, I'll put the memo through about your powers."

"Thanks," I said as he took his leave.

"Phwoah," said Cassie through the comms. "He's so cool."

"Yeah," I switched over to the comms and glanced at the thread of her hero worship. Sickening. What kind of hell must she be enduring, must those without thinker powers be enduring, not knowing the truth behind a person's mask? "He is."

He was pretty cool though.

"Switch to speakers," I said as the representative waved goodbye to Armsmaster and entered the room. I hoped this conversation was going to be less stressful, I'd be needing some industrial strength cleaner to get all the sweat out of my suit.

"So!" The middle aged rep rubbed his hands together excitedly, "How can I help you?"


"Are you sure this is a good idea," I said as we crouched behind the chest high fence of a local primary school, obscured from view by the garden shrubbery.

"Yes," Cassie hissed, her mask stripping the last vestiges of her English accent from her voice. "Now be quiet and get the bomb ready."

I still wasn't sold, and we'd had to skip school for this. I was starting to like school. Sure, I still didn't have any friends there but my grades were higher than they'd ever been and watching Emma's impotent anger over getting suspended for trying to prank me again was always a treat.

The babble of chatter began to swell up from the direction of the school building, my map helpfully telling me the exact location of the students. I gave Cassie the signal and hefted the bomb. I took a deep breath, moved into throwing position and let fly. Three months of pushups, pullups and weights propelled the canister through the air in a high arc.

There was a muffled thump and a shout of alarm.

"Go, go, go!" Cassie breathed, and we vaulted over the fence and burst through the shrubs.

We sprinted across the field towards the heavy plume of dark grey smoke issuing from the canister I had just thrown. It was a simple thing, anyone could make it if they had the right chemicals though it probably wouldn't be as good as mine. I palmed the lighter I had in my belt as we slipped into the smoke. I crouched down, glancing at Cassie. I could see her in my radars wireframe layout taking her stance. I flicked the lighter, the spark catching the smoke, and stood up; slipping the lighter down the front of my costume and crossing my arms.

Fwoosh!

Fire consumed us in a rush of hot air as it ate the smoke, sending my cape into a mad dance.

A dot rapidly approached on my map, turning into a flying teenager in a red costume as the brief haze of smoke and flame drifted away.

Aegis, one of the Brockton Bay Wards.

Today it was our mission to join him, and the other Ward he had with him, on their PR mission to entertain the children of Brockton Bay. I thought the thing was a waste of time, but Cassie insisted. I also thought our entrance was a bit much, but again Cassie insisted. Sometimes I wasn't sure what she was trying to do with our image, it seemed like she was enamoured with the parody of moustache twirling villains.

"Identify yourself…" Aegis drifted in closer, dipping to hover a few inches off the ground in front of us. "Oh, are you Psychonaut and Ghaster?"

"We are," I said. Naturally, he was very confused about what we were doing. And in very polite opinions too. "And we're here to help."

I gestured at the children.

I could only surmise from my power that either Armsmaster or Director Piggot had told the Wards to be nice to us because there was an air of obligation towards us about him.

"Ah, well," he gave us a polite, if uncertain, smile. "It's always good to have local independents take an interest in the community. Come join Vista and I."

"Ok," said Cassie as ghosts began to spill out of her sleeves. Six or seven of them caught her as she leant back, bearing her aloft as though she were reclining on a throne. "Lead the way."

God I was jealous of that. She'd eat her smug fucking grin once I finally made those anti-grav boots, I'd make sure of it.

I was left to walk as Cassie and Aegis drifted through the air. It was her turn to do the talking today, without the high stakes of yesterday even someone without a thinker power could handle it, and her flashier power would have a greater impact.

It was lucky she could handle acting as a cape because she was pretty quiet usually, unless she was talking to me, though she tended to overdo it on the ham.

I switched over to comms, "They've been given orders to play nice, Aegis doesn't have much of an opinion on us yet but even he thinks our entrance was too much."

Cassie twitched, but didn't turn around or respond.

Maybe this would get her to tone things down a bit. I knew she wasn't a nazi now, but if we kept appearing in bursts of flame other people might start to get the wrong idea. Well, it would probably be fine so long as she didn't say the N word again, though in her defence I don't think she expected me to pull a gun out and have her shoot me.

"Ask him about the candy," I told her, my right hand going behind my back to my pouch, brushing up against two bags of assorted candies and my upgraded sonic pistol. We had both agreed that pretending to be a thinker was more of a guideline than an actual rule, subject to revision upon encountering danger.

"Tell me, Aegis," Cassie said imperiously with an insolent tilt of the head, both of which the cat mask luckily filtered out. "Can we give the children sweets?"

"Uhhhh…" Aegis scratched his chin jerkily. "Technically you can do whatever you like as long as it's legal but um, if you were a Ward you'd need permission first."

"Then we shall proceed as planned."

Aegis didn't like that, but he was going to have to deal with it. I began loosening the packets of candy in preparation.

We approached the crowd of grade schoolers who were all straining to get a better look from behind the teachers, who were in turn standing behind Vista.

In her cute green skirt and jacket it was jarring to remember that Vista, despite being twelve, had the most experience out of all of Brockton Bay's Wards and one of the strongest powers. A powerful Shaker, she could warp space like nobody's business.

"I confess myself… disappointed," Cassie intoned, ghosts swirling around her outstretched hand. "That you're not more excited! Psychonaut, do the thing!"

She body popped off her throne of ghosts and executed a ghost assisted front flip. Honestly, that girl. It was a good thing I'd gotten her to tone it down or else she'd be introducing us as The Dread Cape Psychonaut and Ghaster the Army of Darkness.

Bags in hand I flung my arms out, letting go of the open ends of the packets at the apex of my throw, sending colourfully wrapped candies showering over the children who immediately began scrabbling for them.

Aegis sighed. "So it turns out we have some surprise guests today, Ghaster and Psychonaut, some new independent heroes here to help us out today," his voice projecting impressively.

I hung back, letting Cassie deal with the kids. As per our plan I was to provide intel while she handled the majority of the interaction. Of course, she probably wouldn't need it today, what was I going to tell her that could help? Who little Timmy was friends with?

I clicked the button on the side of my phone, switching back to speakers, and walked over to Vista.

"Hey," I said, giving her a quick check with my power. Compared to Aegis she thought we were cool.

"Nice to meet you," Vista gave a professional looking nod, standing confident and straight. It looked rather at odds with her short stature and costume. I probed further with my power… poor Vista. That was a pretty strong desire for me to take her seriously she had going on there.

Time for a little more sleight of hand.

"A pleasure," I said, taking advantage of her looking up to hide my palming of the business card hidden in my gloves wrist as I extended my hand, palm facing slightly down. I managed to slip it into her grasp without her noticing as we shook hands, if my power was reading her right. "I look forward to working together as heroes."

Vista smiled, then looked down suddenly as she nearly dropped the card. She held it up, peering at it through her visor.

Thinks my team name is shit

Thanks, Vista.

"Shall we join the others?" I asked, seriously starting to regret letting Cassie handle team image. Oh well, we'd only be laughing stocks for another two years until I was old enough to join the Protectorate.

"Sure."

We turned to see Cassie and Aegis zooming around over the kids as they leapt up, trying to tag them as they passed.

It was clear she really enjoyed this even as I found it dull, I just hoped I could convince her to step up our schedule so we could actually go out and fight crime.

It had been three months since we had teamed up and if we didn't go out and do something soon I was going to go crazy.