A/N:
Coming back here, I didn't like how this chapter came out. I felt like more paper pushing and PRT protocol stuff was skipped over. Maybe I should fix it before making the next chapter?
Diggin: The Protectorate knows that Rumia's name is Rumia and that Alice is from an alternate reality.
Whiskas2: NO! *shifty eyes* Actually, how did you come to the conclusion of Ex Rumia existing? I'm still on the fence on whether that should be a thing or not.
reynard9234: Rumia's totally lying! Armsmaster's lie detector just needs another month or two of tweeking and testing. There's no way that anything this 10 year old brat said could possibly be true! Lalala! I'm not listening! I'M NOT LISTENING! *breaks down into insane laughter*
PRT headquarters...
"So let me see if we have the story straight. Kid Win and Gallant are doing a patrol just outside of Empire territory and Archer's Bridge, and the two of them intersect with Glory girl and Panacea of New Wave who are on their way to Med Hall Hospital."
"We need to clear up whether they were on their way to or from Med Hall, actually."
"Around this time, if we can trust a a bunch of thugs' word on it, Rumia comes across a bunch of Empire Gangers. The Neo Nazis had received orders that whenever they engage Rumia or if Rumia engages them that they are to use lethal measures since the cannibalistic parahuman seems to be unkillable. They were then supposed to escape while she was incapacitated.
"Along comes an independent tinker on his first day out, having heard the gunshots. He assumed that the Nazis were killing a child without knowing who Rumia was and shot each of them with a stun gun. He calls 911 but then is interrupted when Rumia attacks and kills one of the downed gangers. The independent tries to stop her and they do battle. The battle is taken from the alleyway to the street, and he's about to die when the Wards and New Wave show up and save him.
"Despite Glory Girl's and Kid Win's best efforts, Rumia does not seem to be permanently harmed by any injury inflicted until the Tinker gets back up on his feet, thanks to being healed by Panacea, and then repeatedly shoots Rumia with his stun gun until she falls unconscious.
"The independent then collapses from exhaustion, and the police and the PRT come to collect the apprehended."
"This begs the question now, what do we do with them?"
"Perhaps we could convince them to join the Wards program?"
"Are you seriously suggesting that we allow somebody like Rumia to be a part of the Wards? She's a freak who enjoys human flesh. And even if we could convince her to stop attacking people for food, I doubt that the populace will accept this. There are enough people with video evidence of her killing and eating people, and they'll be able to make any connection."
"Why not just send her to a different city?"
"Because we have reason to believe that she was behind several murders before she came to Brockton Bay to begin with."
"Actually, we do allow some costumes to completely cover the face; so that shouldn't be an issue... Although, frankly, we are not even sure if they're Parahumans."
"Excuse me, can you explain that?"
"According to Panacea, the unnamed tinker does not show actual signs of being a parahuman. While he appeared to have produced an energy that powered his tinker-tech pistol, he lacks both Coronas. Meanwhile, Rumia shows no signs of actually being a flesh and blood creature to the Healer's power. The only reason we'd assume she wasn't a projection is because her body looks like one to our scanning equipment. Even then, she doesn't have either Corona."
"So the cape that just stopped the notorious supervillain isn't a parahuman, rather he's an ordinary person being supplied with Tinker Tech?
"Is it the same as whoever is running the protection racket in Downtown?"
"According to the Wards, the lasers weren't purple and only stunned Rumia and the gangers, leaving a few burns behind on Rumia. Also, neither Armsmaster nor Kid Win were able to make sense of the devices that the independent Cape used. So it's highly unlikely."
"Why would we extend the Wards offer to her? I know there have been cases of villains turning over a new leaf, but she has actively been hunting people down, killing and eating them."
"She's still only a child, and we don't know if she needs to prey on people for her powers to function. Nor do we know the circumstances of her trigger event."
"So we need to give her the hard sell when she regains consciousness?
"With the alternative being the Birdcage..."
"And the independent hero that brought her in?
"He got his equipment from somewhere. We want his supplier, and it will be problematic if a hero team is made up of both parahumans and normals. Perhaps a soft sell for both of them? The PRT for the hero and the Protectorate or Wards for his supplier?
"Actually I'm fairly certain that our non-parahuman cape is a teenager.
"Well that complicates things."
...
And then shadow-stalker reported Alice Margatroid, a known parahuman, appearing on Winslow's Grounds when she wasn't a student there.
...
Velocity did not hear everything, only that when Miss Militia approached Alice Margatroid at the school Winslow, Margatroid did not initiate any hostile or violent actions and quietly came with them.
Among those who were at the PRT building at the time, it was suggested that he perform the interrogation as he was the only one who had actually shared dialog with Alice Margatroid before.
As the actual interrogation room was currently being used up for interrogating the cannibalistic parahuman known as Rumia, the questioning of Alice would take place in a standard office room.
"Velocity," she said as he entered the room. It was nice to see that she recognized him. If he was mistaken for Assault again, he would at the very minimum be... sad was not the word that he wanted to use. She gave him a smile and a polite nod before continuing, "How nice to see you again, and under better circumstances."
"Where's your mask?" The speedster hero asked in a worried tone. Wasn't she supposed to get a standard issue domino mask while present?
"It was hiding my face from others, so I declined it when they offered it to me."
"A maskless cape then?" He wanted to make a comment regarding New Wave, but according to the file but they had on Margatroid, she was from a different Earth. Not to mention that New Wave denied any interaction with her beyond her fleeing whenever they spotted her.
"Technically, it is called a shawl," Margatroid answered, gesturing to the white shawl with red trim that she was wearing.
"I mean the term for a superhero or supervillain. Not the clothing article."
"Oh," she responded, her smile being replaced with a more neutral expression. "I would hardly call myself super as far as villains go."
He was not sure how to respond to that; why was it the idea of being a villain the thing that the girl had zeroed in on?
"You are admitting to being a criminal?"
"No," she answered with a raised eyebrow. "What crime would I even be charged with? Besides being on the school's grounds when I wasn't supposed to be, I mean."
She clearly did not have anything to do with the missing Empire 88 cape, then. He would use that to segue into the next topic that they needed to discuss.
"It's just that the people we call villains are individuals who use their powers to commit crimes."
Or so he tried to anyways.
"Well when the two choices you give me our hero and villain, of course I'm going to assume that you meant villain. But if a villain has to distinctively commit a crime to be one..."
'... Roll with it.'
"You do not consider yourself a a hero?"
"Why would I?" Alice asked, as if the idea of her being a hero was confusing or alien.
"Well, according to Dauntless of the Protectorate, you aided him in defeating and capturing two Empire Capes and according to the people at Winslow High School, you helped a girl who was injured due to a prank gone wrong. Those both sound like things only a hero would do."
"The incident with the Empire was simply me defending my pride as a magician, and the hero known has Dauntless being close enough to render aid when the people who had insulted me instigated an assault."
"And the incident with the locker?"
"That girl now owes me a debt, although I will need to look up any laws regarding the extraction of favors."
With that reasoning, Margatroid was sounding less like a good candidate for the Wards program. Especially given that she was saying all of this with a smile.
"Even so, the Empire might not take that sitting down. If you were part of a large group or organization, they would be less likely to take action against you. The Wards Program was made for individuals such as yourself."
"And how exactly are they supposed to take action against me?" she asked quizzically. "I have made it abundantly clear to them that they need a team of parahumans to fight me, much less defeat me, and they have to go through Asian Bad Boy territory in order to reach me."
"Azn Bad Boy territory," he corrected her. Or perhaps she was a racist who considered herself above the Empire? Otherwise, her logic seemed sound so far, even if she didn't touch on the Wards program.
"Not to mention that I am ineligible to be in the Wards program."
'How are you ineligible? You look sixteen, seventeen at most.'
"Are you an adult?" he asked for clarification. "The program is still applicable to adults, although they only get one year in it."
"No, Mister velocity," she said with it in neutral expression. "As I understand it, the Wards Program is intended to train parahumans. I am not a parahuman."
...
"I'm sorry, what?" the speedster asked.
"I said that I am not a parahuman."
"Your ability to project and control dolls, fly unaided, and heal people as if you are the second coming of Panacea would indicate otherwise."
"Sir, I am a magician." Oh, she was one of those type of parahumans. But even then, the people who believed that their powers were supernatural in nature (the Adepts, Myrridin and even Haven), accepted the term parahuman.
"Parahumans refers to anyone with special abilities, magical or otherwise."
"Really?" Now she seemed confused. "That seems like a dangerous generalization, given the various power sources. But still, when it was revealed that I was not from this Earth, the government officials in charge of me at the time had put me through some sort of head scanning device which indicated that I was not a parahuman or even capable of becoming one."
"The Corona Pollentia and Corona Gemma? While it is true that somebody needs those in order to have parahuman abilities, there have been cases of people who were not born with them getting them later in life. They are few and far between, but even here in Brockton Bay the Protectorate has at least two such individuals."
Triumph, the son of the Mayor; and Battery, Assault's wife.
"Regardless of that I still cannot in good conscience join an organization that requires me to take orders from people whose powers are borrowed."
That argument made Velocity give pause.
"What do you mean by 'borrowed'?"
"I have my powers because I loathed my own weakness as a human, and have spent years honing myself."
Velocity paused at the thought.
"You are telling me that you have had your power for over several years, yet didn't have the Corona Pollentia when you got your MRI a year and a half ago." She nodded.
"And unless I know you can somehow scan my brain without one of those complicated machines to prove otherwise, I still do not have one."
Velocity did not know how to take this information.
"Anyways; while my power has been earned by, those who call themselves parahumans..."
...
"... A what?" Velocity asked. He felt like he heard her say something, but couldn't remember. And it did not feel like a normal case of him simply not paying attention.
"Oh right, sorry," Margatroid said. "I forgot that if magicians or normal people talk too much about it, the parahumans present forget."
"You're a stranger?!" This was not taken into account, this whole time it was believed that Alice Margatroid was a Master and Tinker.
"I am foreign to this land, yes," Margatroid answered, her eyebrow raised again.
"No, I mean do you have a stranger ability?"
"What does 'stranger' mean in this context?" Her eyebrow was still raised.
"An ability that warps other people's senses, manipulates their perception, or simply allows one to hide more effectively."
"If I do, I have not used such abilities since coming to Earth Bet," she said, relaxing.
"Then what do you mean by 'parahumans forgetting'?"
The self proclaimed magician frowned for a moment and looked down cast as if to think deeply on how to answer his question. Less than ten seconds had passed before she looked back up at him and answered.
"Every time I come across an individual that identifies as a parahuman, I see that they are being followed by... Let's call it a deity, although they are not like any deity I have ever seen before..."
"You are telling me that a parahuman's abilities come from gods and that you can see these gods?"
"I can see them, but they are not gods," she claimed. "At least I don't think they are. The point is that if I talk about them in enough detail the parahumans forget that I even talked about them."
"And this only affects parahumans?"
"It has not affected the ordinary humans, the Yokai or the magicians that I have spoken to regarding this."
Velocity was able to paint a picture out of this; as far as the girl knew she did not follow the standard rules parahumans did. From her perspective, she had earned her powers over trial and error unlike a the standard parahuman who gained it form these non-god... gods.
Assuming that Alice Margatroid was not lying through her teeth, of course she would see herself as better than any other parahuman.
However, there were still too many unknown factors.
"We'll table that conversation for later if possible; since Winslow is not pressing charges regarding you trespassing, there is only one other thing that needs to be addressed."
He placed an image down on the table, a picture of the independent cape from the day before that was currently in the PRT's medical ward.
"We believe that this individual, while his body armor appears to be different, was seen with you before. Do you know who he is? And if so can you tell us your relationship with him?"
She did not even seem to pause before she responded.
"If I recall correctly, his hero name is Void Cowboy, although that could just be his name as a magician. I am teaching him magic and I made the armor that you see in that picture."
'So were there multiple Tinkers?' He recalled Armsmaster and Piggot wanting access to the boy's Tinker backing.
"What about the rest of the equipment?" Velocity pressed, trying to process the information that he was being told. Margatroid smiled before using her fingers to list things off.
"While I taught him how to do it, he himself was the one who made the helmet, the boots, the gloves, the shield and the stun pistol."
And it was the shield and the stun pistol that had Kid Win and Armsmaster confused.
'Wait a minute,' Velocity thought to himself. 'She claims that she can teach Magic to other people. Does that make her another Teacher?'
He felt like this was getting too big for him. Were the others watching their conversation through the security cameras? He didn't see any cameras in the room, now that he actually bothered to look around. Perhaps he should end the meeting here and bring what Ms. Margatroid told him to his co-workers before they approached Margotroid again?
"Well," Velocity said. "That seems like all we need to know for now, you're free to-"
At that moment, he was interrupted by the commlink in his ear going off.
"Velocity!" came the voice he recognized as that of Armsmaster's, "Are you still speaking with Miss Margatroid?"
"We were about to finish the questioning," Velocity answered, "She's right in front of me. We are still in the office."
"Ask her if she knows Rumia."
"Understood," Velocity said before turning to the girl... Who was looking at him with a look of wonder and amazement.
"No matter how many times I see devices like that, I can never get used to them," she said.
"Communication devices?" Velocity asked dumbly.
"Ones that run neither on a magic, divine power, or Yokai power," she confirmed.
'That's... No, Focus.'
"Do you know Rumia, Miss Margatroid?"
"I know of two," she answered. "The first one is my neighbor, she was with me when I came to Earth Bet. I actually just saw her a week ago. I also have heard of the parahuman serial killer also named Rumia, although I have not seen her. Then again, since they allegedly have similar appearances and powers, I would not be surprised if they were one in the same. Except for the fact that my neighbor is distinctively a Yokai, not a human, much less a Parahuman."
"... Ask Rumia if she's a youkai," Velocity told Armsmaster.
Apparently, Rumia believed that she was.
"Ask her what Rumia looks like."
Velocity asked her.
"Bright red eyes, blond hair with a red amulet in the form of a ribbon tied in it, might possibly be dumber than the rock she can break in half with her bare hands. Has power over light and darkness."
Velocity repeated the magician's answer to Armsmaster.
There was a brief pause before Armsmaster responded.
"Is it possible that we can get her up to interrogation? Rumia is giving us problems."