This chapter was beta-read by SpaceBattles user dwood15. I much appreciate the assistance.

Interlude 2a: Colin

"Colin?" Dragon's voice, emanating from his earpiece, broke his contemplation. Assembled on the table before him was Annatar's silvery armor—mithril, she claimed, a substance she could transmute from other metals.

"Yes, Dragon?"

"Director Piggot wants to talk to us. Any luck with the armor?"

"Well, I can't damage it with conventional weapons or lasers," Colin said, turning away and picking up his halberd where it leaned against the wall before striding out of his lab. "Haven't tried the monomolecular blade."

"Could you repair it if you damaged it?"

"Probably not," he admitted. "Which is why I've been taking it slowly. Besides, we already tested it when Annatar was here."

"Then why—wait." Dragon stopped for a moment. "You're saying you can't damage it. As in, you can't get a sample to test?"

"Right," Colin said. "I can't exactly put the whole suit under a microscope. I've deduced that it's immune to most ionizing radiation. Alpha, beta, and gamma rays all just bounce off with almost 0% loss. It's highly photoreflective as well; I wouldn't recommend fielding lasers against it."

"Good to know," said Dragon. "Anything on the spear?"

"Annatar told the tester the name means 'icicle.' That's not figurative. The blade is cold enough to the touch that I'm surprised it isn't steaming. It's also sharper than I'd expect of ordinary metal forged with her limited equipment. It's not on par with my halberd, but it's sharp enough to cut through steel with some power behind it, and flash-freeze organic material it goes through."

"Flash-freeze? It's that cold?"

"It's more complex than that. To the touch, the blade is only around 260 Kelvin. When penetrating a substance, though, it seems to get much colder. I charted the warming rate of a clay sample I cut with the blade, and extrapolated the initial temperature. At the moment of severance, the sample's temperature appears to have dropped to 70 Kelvin."

"That's below the boiling point of nitrogen."

"I'm aware."

"And you still can't find any sign of electrical activity in the device?"

"None."

A pregnant silence followed Colin as he walked down the corridor towards Piggot's office.

"That's bizarre," Dragon said eventually.

"I'm starting to think her powers aren't mechanically tinker-like at all," Colin replied. "We'll have to see if you can analyze her gear, but it seems more similar to Dauntless' trump ability."

"You'll have to ask her if I can have a piece of her equipment to analyze," she said. "Or wait until she finishes the trial period so you can requisition it."

Colin nodded. "We'll have to see what the director thinks. While we're on the topic, what happened in her conversation with Shadow Stalker?"

Dragon hummed uncertainly. "That's… a hard question," she said slowly. "Annatar wasn't… her speech patterns shifted drastically when she was alone with Shadow Stalker."

"Shifted how?"

"She became more formal. Almost cryptic. Used archaic or formal diction a lot more. Her body language shifted a bit, too—she seemed to be trying to avoid synchronicity, even unconsciously."

"Synchronicity?"

"The unconscious 'mirroring' people do in conversations. When one participant in a two-person conversation leans forward, the other will often follow. It's an unconscious or subconscious mechanism to build rapport, according to some psychologists. Annatar was leading that conversation from the moment Shadow Stalker walked in, and didn't follow her cues once. I don't think that was conscious."

"An unconscious thinker power?"

"Possibly. It certainly put Shadow Stalker on edge, which only helped Annatar get her talking."

"And what did they talk about?"

Dragon sighed. "I expect Piggot will want a replay of the conversation in full," she said. "I'll play it back for both of you."

"Great, thanks."

Colin reached Piggot's office and knocked.

"Enter." The woman's voice was harsh, tired. He obeyed.

She was seated at her desk, typing something on her computer, her brow furrowed. She nodded at him as he entered. "Armsmaster," she greeted. "Dragon, you're here?"

"Yes," came the Canadian woman's voice from the room's speakers. "Where did you want to begin, Director?"

"Let's start with Annatar's master power," said Piggot evenly. "Dragon, you were watching our conversations with her. How much would you say it affected us?"

"Not much," Dragon said. "It probably made you somewhat more inclined to take her seriously, but not to the point where you would agree to anything you normally wouldn't. From what I got out of micro-expression analysis, you were both behaving as you might when presented with an independent hero of Protectorate age, rather than Wards age."

"That's not too bad," said Piggot slowly. "Annoying, especially if she can't be trusted to turn it off. It's certainly no worse than dealing with Glory Girl on a regular basis. Is that the extent of that ability?"

"Not at all," said Dragon. "When she damaged your desk, she seems to have… overcharged her aura. She did so again through her entire private conversation with Shadow Stalker, and again, once, when introducing herself to the Wards. When she does so, the aura usually manifests as something like Glory Girl's fear aura. If Armsmaster were anyone else, he might have backed down when she got into his face."

"It was certainly startling," Colin muttered. "I wasn't afraid of her, but I found it hard to remember that I was the Protectorate hero and she was the trial Ward."

"Right," Dragon said. "The power seems, at its basic level, to make it more difficult to keep perspective on Annatar's relative position in a conversation. It makes her seem more significant than she is. The closest analogue, really, is Nice Guy's power, but it's far less dangerous, even when she pulls out the stops. At best all she could do was compel Shadow Stalker to seriously consider her questions, rather than answering off the cuff. That's what my analysis suggests, anyway."

"Any idea whether the Master 2 rating we gave her is reasonable?" Piggot asked.

"If anything, I might lower it to Master 1 or Master 0," Dragon replied. "She can't make minions with the power any more than any relatively charismatic person."

"Good," said Piggot dryly. "Her apparent master/striker power in that other module is worrying enough; we don't need a shaker/master who can't keep it in her pants. Now, her conversation with Shadow Stalker. Can we get the recording?"

"I'll bring it up on your screen now."

They watched as Shadow Stalker entered the room and was summarily deconstructed. Colin and Piggot both watched the show in attentive silence.

Once the two young parahumans had left the room, the footage stopped.

"I have several questions," Piggot said dryly. "Easy ones first. 'Quenya?'"

"She told me the same thing," Colin confirmed.

"I heard," Dragon said. "Quenya, as a language, does not exist. Either she made it up, or her powers gave her complete knowledge of a language that no known culture speaks. It wouldn't be the strangest things powers have done."

"No, but it's up there," said Piggot. "Any sign it's particularly important?"

"Not especially."

"Then we won't worry about it for now," Piggot decided. "Ask her about it if and when she confirms her membership. Now, this definitional discussion of heroes and villains. It's something I'd expect from a philosophy student, not a Ward talking to another Ward. What's going on there?"

"She seems to be trying to cause dissonance in Shadow Stalker's world-view," Dragon answered. "Shadow Stalker considers herself a hero; Annatar is forcing her to consider a model whereby Shadow Stalker's behavior makes her a villain. It certainly made Shadow Stalker uncomfortable."

"It strikes me as dangerous," Piggot said slowly. "Annatar seems to have a very established idea of 'heroism.' If she ever decides we're not conforming…"

"If we ever stop conforming to the idea of 'protecting people,' Armsmaster said evenly, "Annatar isn't the only hero you should worry about leaving, Director."

"I'll take that." Piggot chuckled mirthlessly. "I suppose none of us would be here if we weren't idealists on some level, believing that the human race is redeemable. All right. Dragon, how would you rate Annatar as a security risk?"

"Low," Dragon said immediately. "Lower than Shadow Stalker, even before we knew most of what she was up to. Higher than, say, Vista, but no higher than most of the Wards. She's a remarkably well-adjusted young woman with a powerful, and slightly frightening, set of abilities. That doesn't inherently make her a security risk. As a full member of the wards, she'll be extremely useful."

"Good. She seems eager." Piggot sighed. "Now the hard part. Winslow. I can't pull her out until her transfer to Arcadia is complete, because as a governmental employee I can't facilitate truancy. But something needs to be done."

"I have a feeling she can keep Shadow Stalker in check," said Colin dryly.

"Learned helplessness can be a real problem in such situations," Dragon cautioned. "But in this case, I agree."

"Yes," Piggot said. "There are issues on our end, however. Blackwell, the Winslow administration, and Officer Darbes." Darbes was the name of Sophia's handler, Armsmaster recalled. A woman who had always seemed professional, if ambitious.

"Darbes is entirely at your discretion, Director," Dragon said.

Colin interjected. "Whatever you decide, it's probably the easiest thing to keep from Annatar if you decide not to fire her, as Annatar is probably expecting."

Piggot shook her head. "Her orders were to watch Shadow Stalker and keep her in line," she said. "I'm forwarding all relevant details to the police department; they can handle her as they see fit. I'll ask them to keep the details confidential, but other than that, she's their officer. Their problem. If Annatar asks, that's all she needs to know."

"What about Winslow?" Dragon asked. "They're decidedly not under our umbrella. We can't really do much about them."

"No," Piggot said coldly, "but I have a problem with people who take positions without taking the responsibility that comes with them. I'll make that much clear to Blackwell directly, then report the problem she allowed to fester to the school district with a letter of concern."

"Good," said Dragon. "With any luck, that'll be enough for Shadow Stalker, too. I'd recommend you try to get a therapist transferred into ENE to see her, more regularly than standard evaluations."

"Do you think Annatar might need therapy as well?" Piggot asked.

Dragon sighed. "I think just about every parahuman needs therapy," she said gently.

"In that case, the standard screening will have to do for her. Back on topic," said Piggot firmly, "Annatar's modules. She's worried about security. If they're half as powerful as she makes them sound, they cannot be allowed to get into the wrong hands. She's currently got them stored at her home, but it's worryingly easy to find a cape's identity if one really tries, and I don't want any villains getting bright ideas. Can we secure them in your laboratory?"

Colin nodded. "I can," he said. "They'll be more than safe with my spare halberds."

"Good, thank you," Piggot said. "I'll probably wait to push her on it until she's signed on. Also, be sure to impress upon her the importance of reporting when she's using a module, and which one. We need to at least make sure we know when master powers are flying around."

"Understood."

"Good. While we're on the topic, Dragon, any insight into whether she's likely to join?"

"She was planning to join before she knew about the trial program," Dragon replied. "I'd be very surprised if she backed out now, so long as we don't do anything to put her off."

"Annatar's a powerful cape." Piggot's tone was cool. "As with all heroes and Wards, we'll do our best to make sure she understands the PRT and Protectorate are there to help. Moving on, I assume you've been studying her gear?" she finished, turning to Colin.

Colin nodded. "Her 'mithril' is hard to get a read on because it's impervious to most of what I can do to it, including for purposes of analysis. I'm starting to make progress. Should have something by the end of the night."

"Try to get some sleep, Armsmaster," Dragon pleaded. "You're no use to the Protectorate dead on your feet."

Colin sighed. "I'll try," he promised.

"Make sure her gear is back in her locker by morning," Piggot ordered. "Just in case she decides to come by early. We may have permission to test her equipment, but I'd rather not remind her that we can just pull it out of her locker if we don't have to."

"Understood."

"Good. I expect a preliminary report on my desk by tomorrow afternoon. Dismissed."