Chapter 13
Wednesday 26 May 2020
After school was finished, Lauren went home so that she and Kyla could be picked up together by the PRT. After all, this would be their first work day with the wards. Even though it would be spend testing her powers, in Lauren's case, or tinkering under supervision, in Kyla's case.
However, first they needed to officially sign up Kyla for the wards. Yesterday, Lauren's dad had mentioned that the PRT had created all the paperwork necessary for Kyla to appear as a 7 year old niece of Lauren, which means she now could become an official ward too. He would be waiting at the PRT building to sign them himself as Kyla's official adoptive father.
Lauren also shouldn't forget to visit director Piggot while she was there. After all, she wanted to speak with her about one of her powers.
As Lauren arrived at home, she could see a suspicious non-descriptive van parked outside, which was almost certainly from the PRT. Lauren summoned a clone inside the van to say hello, and was greeted by the sight of two surprised PRT officers. Both of them were female, which Lauren suspected was because the higher ups preferred wards to work with PRT troopers of the same gender, one of them being a small African American woman and the other being a tall women from European descent.
As the two grasped their sidearms, Lauren realized this might not have been her best decision and quickly tried to defuse the situation:
"Hello, sorry for scaring you! I'm Lauren, one of the wards you have to pick up. Specifically, the one with too many powers. I'll quickly grab my sister and join you in the van."
The two instantly became more relaxed.
"Ah good, I briefly thought a villain figured out your identity and was attacking us." Said the tall trooper. "Please don't make any more clones in people's cars in the future though, they're likely to freak out. I'm Abigail Scott by the way."
As she said that, Lauren got a feeling of unease. This women was not trustworthy and very likely to betray her for money. Was she a mole? Was this the reason why director Piggot wanted to speak with her?!
The other woman introduced herself as Sarah Baker, and luckily seemed to be trustworthy, so this was at least a legit PRT transport and not a fake one from the gangs.
Meanwhile, Lauren's real body walked to the house and opened the door to an enthusiastic Kyla. After saying goodbye to Sophie, who had somehow managed to get Kyla to call her mom already, Lauren brought Kyla to the van. She resolved to keep an eye out on Abigail during the ride, but reasoned that she wouldn't try anything on a real mission accompanied by another loyal PRT trooper.
Indeed, nothing happened during the ride. Signing up Kyla as a ward also went a lot smoother than Lauren's own. Kyla would work the same hours as Lauren, but would not be allowed to go on patrol for at least half a year, and probably longer. Of course, she still could do console duty and PR events, although she would have to be accompanied by either a PRT trooper or another hero while on console. As Kyla was officially and biologically only 7 years old, she was not obligated to come to work or go to any PR events if she didn't want to, although it would mean that she wouldn't be paid for those hours.
"Welcome to the wards, Kyla!" Said director Renick when dad signed the last page of Kyla's contract. "Normally, I would call Armsmaster to help supervise your first tinkering session, but with his behavior yesterday, it was decided to keep him away from the wards for a while. Instead, Miss Militia will be accompanying you, along with Kid Win. With your similar tinker power, I suspect you and the other ward will work well together."
Kyla became visibly excited at being able to meet another actual hero, even after Armsmaster proved to be an inconsiderable dick.
"Lauren, we have prepared the testing chambers for you, and made sure that all nearby rooms are cleared out of people in case you get another large range master effect. Doctor Gibson will put you through the testing remotely. Abigail and Sarah will accompany you there."
"Actually, could I first go and see director Piggot? She wanted to speak with me today."
Director Rennick was surprised, apparently Director Piggot hadn't told that to him. Which makes sense if she truly wanted to talk about possible moles.
"If the Director told you that, then it's fine. She doesn't have any appointments right now, so you can see her immediately. I'll tell doctor Gibson that the power testing will be delayed a bit."
After saying goodbye to Kyla, who stayed behind to wait for Miss Millitia, Lauren was accompanied by her pair of troopers to the director's office.
"Come in!" Said the voice of Director Piggot when Lauren knocked on the door.
It was followed up by a "Close the door." When Lauren entered the office. Once the door was closed, the director surprisingly ordered Lauren to turn off her phone. Once Lauren had visibly done that, the director pressed a button on the desk. Suddenly, the shutters came down on the windows, all computers went out, and the door was sealed shut.
Before Lauren could panic, Piggot told her "Don't worry. This is just to make sure nobody is listening in on our conversation."
Once the whole room was fully sealed from the outside, Piggot addressed the issue: "What I'm going to talk about should not leave this room under any circumstance. Even if you don't want anything to do with what we're about to discuss, I still expect you to keep quiet about this. Do you understand?"
Lauren nodded at this. If the director truly wanted to talk about moles, it was no more than obvious that Lauren should keep quiet. "Yes director, I'll not talk to anyone about this."
Director Piggot looked at Lauren for a few seconds before she relaxed. "Good. If anyone asks about this meeting, tell them I wanted you to tell me all your current permanent powers in private. It's not even a lie, as I still want you to list them, but this has more priority.
Now, much as I don't like to admit it, the PRT has a mole problem. Both the empire, the ABB, and even the Merchants have found out the exact timings for prisoners transports at least once. Even when we also send out decoy transports, they still managed to find the right one and break free their capes or unpowered lieutenants. Once or twice could be happenstance, but the consistency proves that all three of the gangs have at least one mole in our organization.
I've known about this for years, and even spend some time trying to find them, but they are all well-hidden, and have likely be part of the PRT for years. Mentioning this to the Chief Director got me nothing, as she wanted me to bring concrete proof before setting Watchdog on them. As if all those breakouts aren't proof enough!
And that brings me to you. Your thinker power has the potential to see how trustworthy people are and see what they want. Although this does not confirm whether they are moles, it will be enough to start a quiet investigation on the most untrustworthy of them. More importantly, it allows you to clear trustworthy people, which I can later trust with information I want to keep hidden from the gangs.
However, as you're a thirteen year old new ward, you don't have to agree to this plan. It's fine if you're scared to do this, or just don't want to be involved in the PRT's inner struggles. If you're interested in this plan, please say so. Otherwise, please forget this conversation happened and we'll discuss your permanent powers."
Lauren thought about this. It did sound a bit scary to ferret out moles of the big gangs. However, even if she didn't get involved in this, the moles would still be here, and would continue to ferret out information on her and Kyla to the gangs. No, Lauren was definitely going to help with the mole hunt.
"I will help with hunting the moles! I might even have found one already."
Director Piggot raised an eyebrow at Lauren's casual acceptance of the task, and frowned when she heard the rest of the sentence.
"You have found someone untrustworthy already?! No wonder the gangs know everything we do. Well, who was it?"
"Uhm, it was one of the troopers who picked me up. Abigail Scott. She is very untrustworthy and likely to betray me for money. The other trooper, Sarah Baker, was trustworthy, as is director Renick. I haven't talked to any other PRT agent with my thinker power active."
Director Piggot then muttered a lot of words that would have gotten Lauren extra chores from her father if she would have repeated them in his presence.
"So I can't even trust my drinking buddies! God freaking damn it! Well, that means I can throw away my small list of people that I trusted not to be moles. I'm almost surprised now that Renick is not going along with the trend of selling out the PRT to the gangs!"
Director Piggot then took a few moments to calm down.
"Well, at least we know that this method is likely to work. For the next few weeks, I want you to try and talk to any PRT officers you come across. Just say hello and introduce yourself as the new ward, that wouldn't raise any suspicions, and would already be enough to get your power to work. However, don't go out of your way looking for PRT officers to say hello to, that might alert the moles that you're trying something.
In the future, I will try to arrange a moment where you can exchange a few words with the higher ranking officers and consultants. Maybe we could plan a meeting between us just before the general PRT leadership meeting, and let you introduce yourself to them when you leave or something similar?
Finally, I want to know if you have told anyone else about your new thinker power. I have kept it a secret from the rest of the PRT myself, so I don't think anyone except you, Kyla and whomever you might have told about it knows you have that thinker power."
Lauren definitely didn't like to sell out Aisha. However, she had to be honest here, otherwise director Piggot would not trust her judgement anymore, which would severely hamper the mole hunt.
"I have told one person about it, she is my best friend from middle school. She knows I have powers, and also knows most of my individual permanent powers."
"And you think she can keep quiet about this?"
"Certainly! I already would have trusted her with my life, and my thinker power confirmed today that she is trustworthy and will not betray me voluntarily."
"Then I will trust you on this. I don't think there is anything else to discuss here about your assignment, so let's go back to our cover topic of this meeting. Please tell me all your permanent powers, and the time when you obtained them. I won't write them down unless they directly affect the PRT, wards or protectorate, as that would only get the information to the gangs."
The next few minutes were spend by Lauren explaining all her powers. She didn't really like telling them to the director, as it would make going out with a second identity in the future harder. However, she needed there to be trust between her and the director. Said director visibly groaned when Lauren mentioned her new anti-aiming power before mentioning the PR team would hate that power, as making pictures would now be a lot harder.
When Lauren finally finished listing all her powers, including the thinker power that she still didn't know anything about, she changed the topic.
"Director, I wanted to make a proposal regarding my schooling at Arcadia. The friend I talked about has a strong case of ADHD, which normally makes it impossible for her to focus on lessons or homework. However, when I went to school this Monday with my new calming power, she was finally able to focus longer than a few minutes on the lesson and the exercises. Is it possible to arrange with Arcadia high school that she and other children with ADHD or similar learning problems can go to that school with me? The school could get great publicity from it if they frame it as 'using a new method to help children with certain learning disabilities'."
Director Piggot thought a moment about this, before she responded.
"I don't see any large issues with that plan. However, the principal of Arcadia and its school board first have to agree with it. Additionally, the plan will require you to reveal yourself as a parahuman to at least all the children in the program, and probably their parents. If you don't have issues with this, I will inform the school."
"I don't have problems revealing myself to the children in the program." Which was true, as Lauren thought this a small price to pay for getting Aisha into Arcadia and helping her with her schooling.
"Then I will inform the school about this. You will hear from me when I receive a reply. Do you have anything else important to discuss?"
Lauren almost shook her head, before she realized something important. She had not yet told anyone about her theory that powers were mastering their owners. Director Piggot might actually be the best person to confide in.
"Director, I don't know if you have heard this before, but I think powers are actively mastering their owners. On Sunday, when Armsmaster asked me to touch him to make a new Tinker child, I had the urge to agree. Even after I told myself how bad an idea it was, the urge still remained. It was only when you mentioned how inappropriate the proposal was that I was able to drown out that urge.
I also suspect that my power makes me addicted to grabbing new powers, and using existing ones. When I got a really bad power, I stopped grabbing new powers for a few days. However, after those days, I started grabbing powers again, even as I was deadly afraid to get a similar power again, but permanent. I don't think I can stop grabbing powers, or using my powers in general. I would probably go insane after a week if I tried.
I think Panacea might have similar issues, as she is spending more time healing people in the hospital than is healthy for her. Being mastered by her own power to do that would explain that issue. What is weird though, is that most other parahumans seem to suffer from a different mastery than me and Panacea. The large number of cape fights, suspiciously low amount of rogues, and aggressive personality of many villains and even heroes lets me suspect that they are somehow mastered to be more aggressive and seek out conflict. However, I don't feel any more aggressive or conflict seeking than before I got powers. Instead, I think that my calming aura is even making me less aggressive than before. If I had that power from the start, I might not even have tried to become an independent."
Director Piggot was listening intensely to Lauren's theories. When she was finished, the director responded:
"Researchers have long suspected that powers were subtly influencing their owners. However, I have never heard of such concrete examples as yours. Additionally, according to the theorists, all parahumans are somehow driven to conflict, although some more than others. If what you say is true, then you and possibly Panacea are outliers. If you are okay with it, I will forward your theories and experiences to the Chief Director and the Parahuman Theory branch of the PRT. They might want to speak with you about this if I do that, although that will have to wait until after your public debut."
Lauren thought for a moment before consenting. After all, if her experiences were able to help the researchers, there was no reason not to do that.
"If you have no more earth shaking revelations, then I'll open up the room and let you out. Good luck with your mission."
With another push on a button, the shutters were raised and the door was unlocked. Lauren grabbed her phone and went on her way to the testing chamber.
The testing chamber looked a little less impressive than Lauren had expected from the heroic organization. Most of the equipment in the chamber was very simple. There were weights for brute testing, a fancy treadmill for mover testing, and a few testing dummies with sensors for blaster, striker and shaker testing. The room was also filled with a lot of cameras and sensors for the researchers to record the power usage from different angles. Specifically for Lauren, they had also brought in a table with materials in case she got a tinker power.
"Welcome Fortuna! I am Doctor Gibson and I'll help you through the power testing. Today, we're supposed to be mainly testing your temporary powers, so please tell us whenever you're going to grab a power, and what you think the power does once you've grabbed it. Afterwards, you can use the equipment in the room to test out the specifics of said power. We will continue with this testing until you want to stop, or you have no more slots for those temporary powers."
Lauren got a quick feeling that the man was trustworthy and really wanted to know the secrets behind powers. She was happy that the man was genuine, as the latest discussion with Director Piggot had made her a bit paranoid about the intentions of PRT agents.
"Okay Doctor Gibson. I will now pick my first power."
Power type: Master
Threat level: -1
Duration: 40 seconds
Synchronization: 76%
Wiki article: Tracheobronchial injury
Power: Host has full control over her own lungs and any other lungs she touches directly, letting her more efficiently take in oxygen and fix issues with the organs. However, as the lungs are no simple organ, most of her attention at any time will have to go to her own lungs to make sure she doesn't die from oxygen shortage. Power Synergy: The multitasking from her forcefield clone power lets Host manage her own lungs without any issue, at the cost of being able to summon one clone less.
"Okay this power doesn't seem that good, it lets me control my own lungs, and perhaps other lungs I touch directly. And it will last only a few more seconds."
"That is fine. Weak, short lived, powers also provide us with information. Try to grab another one."
Once the power was gone, Lauren grabbed the second power.
Power type: Master
Threat level: 4
Duration: 20 seconds
Synchronization: 67%
Wiki article: Morchellium
Power: Host has total control over any marine invertebrate animals within a 1 block radius, and can access all their senses. (Similar to Skitter, but more limited in the type of animals and range)
"This power is a lot stronger, but very specific. I can feel and control different kinds of sea animals with low intelligence. Right now, I can feel coral in someone's aquarium, and a crab in what I assume is a Chinese restaurant. Wait, someone is grabbing my crab and ….. That's animal abuse! The poor crab is being boiled alive! …. And the power is gone."
"Uhhm, that's an unusual power. I'll write it down. Please continue."
Power type: Striker
Threat level: 1
Duration: PERMANENT
Synchronization: 57%
Wiki article: Oracle
Power: Host is able to delay the force of any attack she uses with a melee weapon up to one hour in the future. Basically, this means she can stab at empty air, and if a person is standing there 15 minutes later, they will get hurt. However, she will have to specify the delay time in advance.
"Oh! This is a new permanent power! It somehow lets me hit things in the future or something. I'll test it out"
Lauren grabbed a baton from a small weapon rack, and moved to the testing dummy. She felt that she had some control over the time until the attack hit and set it to about 1/100 of the maximum value. She then hit the dummy with all the force an untrained 13 year old girl could muster, which was unfortunately not very much.
When the baton hit the dummy, it immediately bounced back, while the dummy itself wasn't affected at all. Lauren was a bit confused until she remembered what her power did exactly.
After waiting half a minute, the dummy suddenly shook as if it was hit by some unseen force.
"Hmm, interesting power. Although the hit was delayed, the force was equivalent to what it shoot have been originally. Is it possible to stack multiple hits so that they all hit at the same time?"
Doctor Gibson might be on to something here. Lauren then hit the testing dummy 5 times, setting the delay time in the right way for them to hit at once. A few seconds later, the dummy was hit so hard that it fell over, and a dent was clearly visible on its artificial skin.
This power might be a lot more useful than Lauren originally thought, although more for demolishing than for actual heroing. Still, Lauren welcomed any new permanent power that didn't hurt her.
"Okay, I'll grab some new powers now."
Power type: Thinker
Threat level: -1
Duration: 4 hours
Synchronization: 75%
Wiki article: Nina Jeriček
Power: Host gets extremely proficient at throwing objects with her hands. However, she becomes unable to hold anything in her hands for more than a few seconds before reflectively throwing it away.
Power type: Shaker
Threat level: 2
Duration: 1 minute
Synchronization: 74%
Wiki article: First Ladies of Wisconsin
Power: Host creates a gravitational field that is either attractive or repulsive for people within a range of 30 feet of her. If host chooses the field to be attractive for females, than it is repulsive for males, and vice versa. The gravitational force is equivalent to that of the earth.
Power type: Blaster
Threat level: 1
Duration: 6 minutes
Synchronization: 31%
Wiki article: Ranchi–New Delhi Garib Rath Express
Power: Host can shoot a blast at someone that on hit teleports the target up to 60 feet in a random direction. It cannot teleport the target into a solid object or in the air.
"Ugh! I just got a very annoying power. Apparently, I cannot hold anything in my hands for the next few hours unless I throw it away!"
After showing her annoyance at the throwing power, Lauren looked at the other two powers and described them to Doctor Gibson. She couldn't really test out the shaker power, but she did test out the inconvenient throwing power and the teleporting blasting power.
This type of testing continued for a while until Lauren was left with only long lasting powers, which unfortunately included the throwing power. Doctor Gibson seemed very happy with all the data on the different powers, so Lauren considered this session a success.
As there was still some time left, they proceeded to test a few of Lauren's permanent powers that didn't require a living test subject. When the researchers got their data, and Lauren the provisional permission to use her safer PR friendly powers in emergency situations, Lauren went to the wards room to pick up Kyla.
Kyla turned out to have had a great day tinkering, although she had some complaints.
"Kid Win was ridiculously shy around me the whole time! He was fine while tinkering, but he became flustered every time I tried to ask him a question about anything else! Also, I had this great idea about an alternator cannon, which Kid Win also liked. But Miss Militia for some reason forbade us from building it. Like, what is wrong with a big modular cannon?! I ended up just trying to build myself a jetpack, which is still cool, but less cool than a giant cannon."
Lauren had her ideas about why Kid Win wasn't comfortable in Kyla's presence. Panacea had confirmed that Kyla was biologically his child, and suddenly becoming a sort-of father would certainly take some time to get used to. Hell, the only way Lauren was able to deal with Kyla being her biological daughter was by ignoring that and treating her like a sister.
Lauren and Kyla were brought back home by two different PRT officers. Luckily, none of them seemed to be moles or untrustworthy in general. However, Lauren was not happy to know what kind of disgusting things one of them liked to watch in his spare time. It took a lot of effort to keep the disgust of her face during the ride back home.
AN: Here we have a chapter that is less intense than last interlude. Just some mole-hunting, power-testing and making Kid Win uncomfortable. Thanks for everyone who favourited/followed/reviewed my chapter
In case you're wondering who the 'tinker dad' is from the child in last interlude, note the direction of the first door and the tikertech made by the child.
If you're still confused by last interlude, I can summerize what happened (Skip everything below the line if you don't like any spoilers!):
Lauren was kidnapped by Cauldron during the start of chapter 12. In their base, they arranged for multiple tinkers to touch her so that they could create multiple child-tinkers. One of these (The PoV of last chapter) got Lauren's negociation thinker power and was immediately disposed of in a way that would end with him as a loyal ward. The other children will either be kept at Cauldron's base (If their power is especially useful), or be released without memories at heroic/rogue organisations around the world without memories after a few weeks/months.