Chaotic Pack
Taylor Hebert knelt atop a building in the Docks area of Brockton Bay and grimaced. Down on the street, two gangs were laying into one another with reckless abandon. On one side were the ABB, the pan-Asian gang run by Lung, the Dragon of Kyushu. On the other side were the members of the Empire 88, the Neo-Nazi gang that had infested the Bay for years.
Taylor hated them both. They, along with the Archer's Bridge Merchants, were slowly but surely killing the Bay with their drugs, their intimidation and their philosophies. The PRT, the Protectorate and the police…they had been all the use of a chocolate teapot. Sure, there were the occasional fights, but the PRT and the Protectorate may as well have installed revolving doors in their prisons for the effort it took the gangs to break imprisoned members out.
There was another reason, but it hurt too much to think about.
'Well, now they have to deal with me…and my friends.' Taylor thought grimly. A purring growl came from next to her and she placed her hand on the metallic shell of the raptor-like robot she had built with her power.
"Sorry for getting grim, Zeke." She whispered, "Are the boys in position?"
The white raptor's head nodded and he rumbled a question at her. For whatever reason, Taylor had always been able to understand him, and he was asking something along the lines of 'Is it time to hunt?'
"Yeah. It's time." She answered, "Have the Pack hit them from both sides, with the Swarm harrying them from above. Keep the Flock in reserve. Got it?"
"Hrrrm." Zeke answered with another nod.
"OK then. In three…two…one…" Taylor breathed in, held it for a moment, and then let the breath out in a rush, "…now."
Zeke reared back and let loose a roar that resounded across the street, making the fighting gang members falter as they looked around to try and identify the source of the roar. Before they could react, the howls of the Pack resounded down the street as well before the bark of guns being fired overlapped them and gangbangers and skinheads started to fall. Then the ABB and Empire saw their enemies.
Wolves made of metal, twenty of them, bounded down the street towards them from both sides. Their orange main cameras blazed in the twilight, even as the double barrelled guns mounted on their backs barked again, each shot taking down gangsters and skinheads
Taylor smiled proudly as her Command Wolves loped into battle for the first time. Their pack nature made them the ideal force to use as hit-and-run troops, just like real wolves did.
"Shred these fucking machines!" one ABB officer screamed as he tried to charge on Command Wolf with a katana. It neatly dodged his strike and attacked back with a swipe of its glowing claws on the right foreleg. It cleaved through the steel blade like a hot knife through butter. The Command Wolf then lunged in and bit the man, sparks of electricity dancing over the man as he spasmed and collapsed limply as he was let go.
Unnoticed by most of the gang members below, a swarm of tiny robots descended on them. Taylor's first ever robots, her first 'Zoids', had been these, the Blitz Hornets. About the size of a playing card, they were really only meant as a proof-of-concept, but she had made hundreds of them. Each was almost completely unarmoured and armed only with a miniaturised Taser mounted in the head, but they were speedy and highly agile. And, with no one thinking to look up with the Command Wolves stalking them, they were made for this kind of stealth ambush.
Sparks flew, men cried out in pain and bodies thumped to the ground as her tiny minions did their job with precision and efficiency. Barely five minutes had passed since the start of the ambush and every gangster and skinhead in the street had either fled (the lucky ones) or had been immobilised by her Zoids.
"Withdraw the Swarm. Send in the Flock, capture mode." Taylor ordered Zeke tersely. With a growl, Zeke issued her order for her. The Blitz Hornets rose up in a wave and started to head back to her base after dispersing. No one paid any attention to what went on above them, but Taylor wasn't one to be incautious. Paranoia was well trained in her.
Larger shapes swooped down towards the gangers. After the success of her insectoid Zoids, Taylor had tried her hand at avian-types next. After several false starts, she had successfully developed the Hurricane Hawk. It was primarily for missions like this: bombing runs. They were also equipped with complex infra-red sensor suites so they could function at night.
The bombs they were dropping on the gangers were very benign in nature; simply a form of capturing liquid that would restrain those caught in it. It wasn't knife-proof, but it was knife-resistant, so if any of the gangers' friends decided to come and rescue them, they would have a hard time of it. She'd tested it herself.
"Well, I'd call that a good first outing, wouldn't you, Zeke?" she asked her Organoid, who nodded.
Looking down, she saw the last of the gangers become bound by her containment liquid. The Hurricane Hawks smoothly swooped out of their bombing run and started to head back to base. Taylor decided it's what she should do as well.
"Send the Pack home. We'd best get going, Zeke." She said and stood up and turned to face away from her Organoid. The outfit she wore was a suit that had multiple round connection slots placed all over it for what was about to come.
Rearing back, Zeke's chest and abdomen opened up, disgorging a multitude of cables that reached out and mated with the openings on Taylor's suit before pulling her inside of him, the opening shutting behind her. Then, with another roar, Zeke pushed out two jets from his back and blasted off, flying through the air to Taylor's base, leaving behind over thirty semiconscious members of the ABB and Empire behind for the police to puzzle over for a couple of hours before the PRT took jurisdiction as a Parahuman had been involved.
Four Hours Later
Director's Office, PRT Building
"So what do we have?" Emily Piggot asked wearily. She had been supposed to be off duty an hour ago, but this new situation with the new Parahuman had caught her attention.
"Approximately four and a half hours ago, there was a street fight between thirty members of the ABB and Empire 88 respectively." Armsmaster said, his voice almost monotone in tone variation, "It had been ongoing for about five minutes when a loud roar echoed around the street. Scant moments later, both sides were caught in a pincer manoeuvre by what have been described as 'metal wolves' by almost every person interviewed regarding the incident. They were armed with a double-barrelled rifle on their backs for ranged attacks that fired stun gun bullets. For close range, one was observed to have claws that cut through a katana with ease, as well as a type of Taser linked to their teeth."
"My god." Piggot whispered.
"In addition, some have claimed that there were two other types of robots there." Miss Militia chimed in, "One that was insectoid in design and about the size of a playing card, while the other type was avian in design and size. The first type appears to be armed with Taser-style weaponry and helped to take down the gangers after the initial assault, while the second type dispersed the odd containment gel that restrained them until the police arrived."
"I…see." The Director tapped one finger on her desk, "This is almost certainly a Tinker or Shaker/Master that we are dealing with here. Armsmaster, has the gel we requisitioned vanished yet?"
"No, it is still there in my lab as we speak." The Tinker replied shortly.
"Very well. Assuming that this is a new Tinker, I want to know how our watchdogs at the city's junkyards didn't pick up someone grabbing enough metal to build robot wolves, insects and birds!" Piggot growled. The PRT and Protectorate watched the three large junkyards, and the four smaller ones, in The Bay just for this sort of reason. New Tinkers were terribly vulnerable to being attacked and coerced by the gangs until they got themselves fully set up with a workshop. The damage the Squealer alone did with her vehicles was justification enough.
She ignored the fact that the PRT wasn't much better when it came to the coercion front, using emotional blackmail on the parents to get them to sign their children into the Wards almost regardless of the will of the Tinkers in question.
"No teens or adults have been seen as buying anything highlighted as useful for creating the simplest of Tinker devices." Armsmaster replied slowly, as he read the reports via his visor's HUD, "This means that the Tinker in question has an alternate source. The Toybox, perhaps, or maybe they are using a legitimate front to purchase the materials legally. Whichever it is, the Tinker circumvented our system."
"What about the Boat Graveyard?" Miss Militia mused.
Both Piggot and Armsmaster shook their heads at this, but it was the Director who answered her, "The place is watched by the gangs and it is well known that if you have powers, you do not test them in the Graveyard if you don't want to be 'invited' into the Empire or the ABB or drugged and forced into the Merchants. I think Armsmaster has the right idea as to where our new Tinker got their hands on the materials to build these…robots."
She was silent for a moment before continuing, "Armsmaster, I want you to analyse the stun gun bullets recovered from the scene. Try to determine where the metal came from if you can, but otherwise find out if the bullets are any different from conventional stun guns. I also want you to analyse the gel that was used to capture the gangers. I want a counter-solution to dissolve it if this Tinker uses it against us, as well as a way to produce it if she turns villain."
The PRT and Protectorate could confiscate any Tinkertech from villains and use it pretty much as they pleased. When it came to Independent Heroes and Rogues, however, the lines were less well defined. They could confiscate the tech if the Capes in question left it at the scene, but they were only permitted to research ways to neutralise it, not fully reverse-engineer it until and unless the Cape either died or turned Villain.
"Understood." Armsmaster nodded, "Should I bring Kid Win in on this?"
"No, he's still struggling with discovering his Tinker specialty." Piggot answered, "Besides, none of his work has had anything remotely to do with chemicals, so I doubt he'd be able to do much with the gel. That one is the highest priority."
"Understood." The Leader of the ENE Protectorate repeated before turning around and leaving to follow his orders, ignorant that he was once again being rude.
Once the door closed behind him, Miss Militia spoke again. "What do you think?"
Piggot sighed tiredly. "I think that whoever this is, they have prepared to go it alone against the gangs. The machines, from what the report says, seem to be…intelligent. That suggests either multiple people controlling them at a distance or they have on-board AI."
Unsaid was that AI were highly regulated within the PRT and Protectorate, and Tinkers who joined the Protectorate and the Wards were subtly (or not so subtly in some cases) encouraged to not have anything to do with them. Those that did had to place hundreds of restrictions on them, shackling them and rendering them almost useless in combat.
The bandana-wearing heroine nodded slowly. "That would explain why the Tinker didn't try to join the Wards or the Protectorate. One look at the restrictions on AI on the PRT website would dissuade them."
"They may not have a choice." Piggot grimaced, "Chief Director Costa-Brown handed down an edict a month ago directing that any and all AI Tinkers were to be recruited 'for their own safety' and transferred to LA to be placed under Alexandria's supervision."
Miss Militia frowned. "That's an odd directive. The Chief Director hasn't concerned herself with AI Tinkers before now. Have the Precogs predicted something?"
"If they have, the Chief Director has placed it under a black-level seal that only she and the President can access." The ENE Director frowned as well, "At the moment, we have to find the Tinker regardless of directives. Finding out their motivations will help us develop a strategy to recruit them."
"And if the Tinker continues to refuse to be recruited?" Miss Militia asked softly.
Piggot met her eyes. "Then I am to inform the Chief Director, who will make a decision based on the information we gather about what to do regarding the Tinker. It will be out of my hands at that point."
Again, left unsaid was that Rebecca Costa-Brown took a dim view on any Cape going against her edicts, whether they worked for the Protectorate or not. She would come down on the Tinker like a ton of bricks.
"We had better hope that they are reasonable then." Miss Militia muttered as she turned to leave.
Later
Taylor's Base
Taylor finished screwing in the last bolt and stepped back to look at her latest creation. It was grey, dull metal at the moment, but she could see a bright sky blue on it in the future. Larger than the beast it was designed to impersonate, the Shield Liger was the same size as a carthorse, albeit far bulkier.
"Hrrm." Zeke rumbled.
"Yeah, give it a try." Taylor agreed.
The raptor-like Organoid glowed white before leaping into the air and speeding straight for the back of the Liger. The back opened up to reveal a space just large enough to accommodate the Organoid. Zeke sped into it and the plates clicked shut behind it. The Shield Liger glowed white for a moment before the tail thrashed and the sensor array where the eyes should be lit up. With a roar, it sprung to life.
"Happy birthday, Liger." Taylor smiled at her new Zoid, "Zeke, you in there? How's it look?"
"Hrrrm!"
"That's good to hear." The Tinker smiled. The Shield Liger was designed to be her mount, so she could get around the town quickly and support her Zoids in battle. She'd have to get a proper mask before that happened. Maybe one that looked like a raptor?
"Taylor, you still up?" a sleepy voice asked from the doorway to the sleeping quarters.
The brunette looked to the side and smiled at her friend. "Hey Ems."
Dun-dun-dun! Yeah, so that happened. Sorry for not updating, but I got sucked into Gundam Breaker 3: Full Burst. This idea got stuck in my head a while back, and I've finally put finger-to-keyboard about it. No clue what her Cape name should be. Iron Beast, perhaps?
On to happy news. One of my ficlets, [Adapt, Survive, Win] has been adopted by Shadows of Vanity under the title [Because of the War]. I'm betaing for him, so please go and read it.
Tinker: 7 (Specialty: Zoids and Organoids) (Has full knowledge on how to create Zoid Cores, Zoid Bodies and Zoid weaponry.)
Thinker: 3 (Has the ability to communicate with her organoids and can eventually talk to her Zoids as well. Technical Technopath.)