Assault stared at the scene in unrestrained amusement. Battery, his wife, looked resigned as she awaited his inevitable outpouring of puns and bad witticisms.

"Well," the former villain said with a grin, "these fellas certainly knew when to call it a wrap! Eh, Puppy?"

Battery sighed and smacked her husband across the back of his head almost on reflex.

The scene they were looking at was that of a warehouse in the docks. On the walls, several members of the Merchants were secured via several lengths of metal, wrapped around their chests and limbs that had been ripped from the ceiling. On the ground at their feet, Skidmark, the leader of the drug addicts, was secured via having several lengths of those self-same metal lengths wrapped around him until he resembled nothing more than a human tortilla. Whoever had done it had also wrapped metal around his mouth to shut the man up. Even now, the muffled sounds of cursing could be heard from the man.

"Call in the regular police and the PRT." Battery told her husband with a sigh, "Have them bring some cutting tools here as well. Things just got interesting."

Later

Interrogation Room, PRT HQ

"It was a fuckin' cunt-licking knight!" Skidmark roared in fury, the Tinker-made bracelets around his wrists kept him from moving them more than an inch away from the table before they were dragged back down.

"A knight?" Armsmaster queried. He and Miss Militia were doing the interview with Skidmark, as Assault was too immature to be trusted on that front.

"Yeah, a walking ironmongery!" the Merchant leader snarled, his badly discoloured teeth gritted at the memory, "Ripped a fuckin' hole in the wall, waltzed in and order us to surrender! Fucking cum-gargling bastard!"

Beneath her bandana, Miss Militia grimaced. She hated the smell that the man had around him. Skidmark was obviously of the opinion that hygiene was something that happened to other people.

"Mush rolled up his basher and went at her," Skidmark continued, on a roll now, referring to Much's ability to gather trash around him to use as a form of golem armour, "Squeals loaded up on her sweet new ride, a sonic cannon mounted on it, and let rip at the ball licker!"

"What happened then?" Armsmaster asked in a monotone.

"Mush went and swerved into the middle of the fucking cannon's blast, didn't he!?" Skidmark sounded as if he couldn't believe it, "Blasted him to hell and gone through the damn hole in the wall! Then something happened to the cannon before Squeals could fie another shot! It…it crumpled up like a can getting crushed! Squeals got outta there and the entire thing imploded!"

The Protectorate's leader frowned. Just off the top of his head, he could think of three things that could cause the things that Skidmark described; Telekinesis, Magnekinesis and Ferrokinesis. Time to narrow it down.

"At any time did the 'knight' do anything more than stand there?" he asked.

"Fuck no! Bastard must have been too busy laughing at us!" Skidmark spat angrily, "I loaded up my blues and got ready to kick his cunt in, but the fucker attacked me from behind somehow and wrapped me up in metal like a fucking cigar! That's when my boys scattered and ran, though some attacked the bastard and got pinned to the watt with overgrown fucking staples!"

Over 90% of Shaker and Blaster Telekinetics required the use of hand gestures in order to direct their power properly. The same applied to those who used the other two powers unfortunately. The fact that metal had been used almost exclusively pointed towards either Ferrokinesis or Magnekinesis though.

All the metal that had been manipulated during the incident had been iron or steel, which lessened the likelihood of it being Telekinesis. The only flaw to that line of reasoning was when Mush had been hurtled into the line of Squealer's sonic cannon. There had been metal scraps mixed into the rubbish that he had used as his exosuit (for lack of a better term), but most of it had been food wrappers, dirt and a lot of aluminium beverage cans.

'Ferrokinesis or Telekinesis. It has to be one of the two.' He decided. Normally, aluminium isn't magnetic, so it would take a hell of a lot of power to make a mass of cans move to the degree that it had, against Mush's own control. That eliminated Magnekinesis. The last two, Ferrokinesis and Telekinesis were, as he had thought, more likely to be this mysterious Parahuman's power.

After having Skidmark taken back to his cell, Armsmaster conferred with Miss Militia. "What do you think?"

"Either a strong Telekinetic or a Ferrokinetic." She said, "As whoever did this was able to manipulate metal without even needing to look elsewhere, I have to assume he or she has some sort of sense for metal to be able to manipulate them so easily and without looking at them, so a Ferrokinetic makes more sense."

Armsmaster nodded judiciously. That jibbed with his own suppositions.

"When is Skidmark supposed to be sent to the Birdcage?" he asked. Due to the Merchant Cape's unhealthy addiction to drugs and his gang's habit of addicting children to those drugs, the man would be sent to the Birdcage in Canada and the key thrown away. Good riddance to bad rubbish in the Tinker's opinion.

"In two days' time." Miss Militia replied, "We'll have to assign guards to the convoy; Squealer and Mush are going to try and break Skidmark out."

"I know." Armsmaster replied irritably, "But you know what the director's opinions about convoy escort duty are."

The woman grimaced. Emily Piggot tried to ensure that PRT troopers got as many chances to prove they could do every duty that the Protectorate did just as well, especially guarding Parahumans in-transit. Conversely, this meant that the escape ratio of villain Capes was at 70% compared to the 45% in other cities.

"I'll try and talk to her." The female Cape sighed, "The Wards shouldn't be on duty then, so maybe Velocity or Dauntless will be assigned. God knows I intend to go along. It's becoming ridiculous how often villains have been broken out of our custody before even leaving the city limits. Maybe that will get her to see some sense."

Two Days Later

It had.

She hadn't been happy about it. In fact, Director Piggot had been almost incandescent about the fact that Miss Militia was using her failures as a Director to ensure that the convoy carrying Skidmark had a Protectorate presence. This would have repercussions if Skidmark got away, but it was a worth it.

Miss Militia generally liked Emily. She understood why the Director was as hard on Parahumans as she was; anyone would be after being one of only two survivors of the Ellisburg Disaster, when the creations of the S-Class villain Nilbog devoured the townspeople and the heroes of the time abandoned the PRT troopers in order to save themselves. That kind of betrayal could affect anyone badly.

Emily, however, took it to extremes. She forcibly took leadership of the Wards away from Armsmaster, even with her own busy schedule. She refused to allow Panacea to heal her, though she was morbidly obese and on dialysis every day. And she tried so hard to prove that Parahumans weren't needed that the woman behind the bandana had to ask herself if Piggot had been released from therapy a bit too soon.

Still, now that she was here, leading the convoy she had to get her head into the game. She had Dauntless and Triumph on her detail, along with two squads of PRT troopers. She was in the front of the prison wagon, while Triumph was in the back with Skidmark (he wasn't happy) and Dauntless was taking up the rear car following them.

Thus far, nothing had gone wrong.

Seeing Mush stomp at them in a large body made of trash did not inspire confidence in her. She pressed her earpiece.

"Miss Militia to all units. We have confirmed sighting of Mush. As of yet, no sign of Squealer or any regular Merchants. I'll be dealing with Mush. Dauntless, you keep an eye open for Squealer. Triumph, stay put."

"On it." Dauntless replied.

"I'll put in an extra air freshener." Triumph grumbled.

"Director Piggot to Miss Militia." Came over the radio and Hannah had to sigh.

"Yes Director?"

"You were right. Don't screw this up." The line died as soon as she finished.

'That was odd.' Was all the time Miss Militia devoted to the conversation before she leaned out of the window and formed her power into a Tinkertech rifle that fired miniaturised rocket-propelled grenades. She'd seen it being made by Masamune a year or so ago and hadn't had a chance to use it until now.

Firing off a dozen rounds that smashed into Mush's trash body, they detonated, sending the Merchant Cape tumbling into a building, trash scattered and scorched.

"This is Dauntless. I have eyes on Squealer! She has a fucking tank!" came over her earbud. She didn't have time to ponder how the Tinker had managed to throw together a tank in two days.

"Loadout?"

"A BFG on a turret with a fuck-ton of other weapons crammed around it!" the former BBPD officer replied, "It's coming up on our six fast- Shit! Right!"

Miss Militia winced as she got a double-whammy of hearing the explosion through her earbud then hearing it an instant later in real life. "Dauntless, report!"

"Ride's fucked, the PRT troopers are hurt and I'm working my way out of a crashed car." He replied tersely, followed by a grunt of effort, "Be advised, that main cannon packs a punch! I'll secure the troopers before catching up to you."

"Roger that, Dauntless." She replied even as Mush finally accumulated enough trash to stand up again. He started charging towards the speeding, albeit diminished, convoy. She fired off another spread of Mini-RPG's even as he dodged them; the safety devices making them detonate harmlessly as they sailed past the distances programmed into the crude V.I.'s each shell possessed.

Then, things became serious as the knight appeared. Floating in the air, it cast an impressive figure. Looking very much like a medieval knight out of Arthurian legend, it floated in place with its arms crossed and head cocked to one side, giving off what Miss Militia could swear was an aura of exasperation.

The roar of a canon made her flinch as Squealer's bastardised tank caught up with them and immediately fired a round at the knight, who didn't even move.

It didn't have to as the shell was trapped mid-flight, frozen in place before it reversed course and slammed into the tank, detonating with a loud explosion that stopped the tank in its tracks.

The knight actually moved at this point, giving Miss Militia a casual salute and then making a shooing gesture before lowering itself to the ground in front of Mush, who tried to slam a trash-laden fist into it. With the shriek of tortured metal, one of the streetlights nearby was ripped from its anchors and used as an oversized baseball bat to send the Merchant Cape sprawling. Then, as a dozen or so more streetlights were ripped from their places as well, the metal of the first shimmered and liquefied, becoming a silvery ball in the air, the non-metallic extras falling to the ground.

'I guess that resolves the debate on what this Knight's power is.' Miss Militia thought as the van she was in sped past the armoured figure. In the side mirror, she spotted the other streetlights being turned into liquid metal before the concoction was sent at Mush, coating the outer surface of the man's trash golem body with the metal before it returned to solidity, trapping the Cape in his own creation.

Later

Director's Office, PRT HQ

"So then, who is this Cape and why help us?" Director Piggot asked.

"Dragon has gone over the surveillance footage in the area and has deemed it likely, although not absolutely proven, that whoever the Knight Parahuman is, they were shadowing the convoy to ensure Skidmark remained in custody." Armsmaster replied in his usual monotone, "As he or she was covered head to toe in armour, it is not possible to speculate to his or her identity."

"Whoever it was eliminated Squealer's tank before it did much damage though." Miss Militia put in, "How are those troopers doing?"

"Three have broken limbs, one has a broken back and several more have cracked or broken limbs." Piggot replied shortly, "Panacea will be asked tomorrow come in and heal them. Give my…thanks…to Dauntless; had he not stayed to evacuate and provide emergency first aid to them, the troopers might have more serious injuries."

"I'll pass that along to Dauntless." Hannah's eyes were wide as she spoke. Emily Piggot only ever begrudgingly praised Parahumans and even then at the direction of Chief Director Costa-Brown.

"So then, what manner of powers does this new Cape possess?" Piggot asked after a moment.

"He or she is a powerful Ferrokinetic; a metal manipulator." Armsmaster replied shortly, "In addition to manipulating metal as if it were balsa wood, they can also liquefy metal without melting it, which is likely how the knight made their armour."

"He or she was also able to affect metal on a wide scale, so I'd peg them at being a Shaker 4 or 5 at least. Maybe higher given the liquefaction/solidification ability." Miss Militia put in, "Haven't seen someone pull that one in a while."

"And a code name?"

"Assault wanted to call him/her 'Metal Soul' or some such nonsense." Armsmaster grimaced, "I overrode him and had the name altered to Metal Knight, pending your approval."

"Consider it given." Piggot said with a sigh, "As thankful as I am that Skidmark is now out of circulation for good, we cannot depend on this happening again. Having an unknown Cape doing the Protectorate and PRT's job for us is not good PR. Have orders issued to all members of the Protectorate and Wards that Metal Knight is to be asked to come in for a debrief. Courteously. And for god sake, make sure someone mature is paired with Assault and Clockblocker!"

So the votes are in, regarding my poll. First up to have a second chapter is Taylor the Gamer, followed by Gaia, Avatar and Pyroclasm. The rest will follow in order after that. First though, I have to finish the little list I have here…

Shaker: 6 (Able to freely control every type of metal around her for three blocks. She cannot create any metal, but she can alter the density, shape, efficiency and solidity/liquidity of the metal. She is also able to reverse the rusting effect on metal and restore it to full strength, as well as have it polished until it shines.)

Striker: 3 (Able to turn everything from her forearms to the tips of her fingers to metal and then alter them as she sees fit, allowing her to enhance her attacks and even replace her forelimbs if she loses them.)

Thinker: 3 (Able to detect all metal around her with the same radius as her Shaker ability. Able to determine the size and structural integrity of the metal without even seeing it.)