A/N: For those not following me, my second fic, Tarantism, is on SB and FFN. It's gotten really positive feedback, so I definitely recommend checking it out!

Changes 3.7

The world was changing. Snow was pouring down after an unseasonably warm late fall, the few trees were reduced to brown and tan brushes, interspersed with majestic firs, stoic in the cold. Brockton Bay was coated in a deep, comforting blanket of white.

I kind of wished I was still on console, and I was the lucky one. At least I had some minor cold resistance. Poor Clockblocker couldn't keep himself warm.

"I've been on this team a year, and they still don't have a warm costume for me! It's freezing out here!"

Oh, stop complaining. I'm the one being used as a combination handwarmer and street cleaner.

Aegis flew overhead, and his voice came over the comms. "I don't know Clock, I feel great. Not a shiver in sight."

"Screw you and your adaptable bullshit," he said amicably.

I just swept another section of street clear of ice with a handwave. Clock rubbed his hands over the fireball cupped in my right hand, still chatting as we walked.

"I mean, I could have a Christmas costume. Maybe a white sweater with clocks, some mittens, warm, non-form-fitting pants…"

Kid win spoke up from console. "Congratulations, Clock. You're about to gain a surge in popularity on Parahumans Online. Just gotta make a thread real quick. Let's see…"

"No, Kid! Please no!"

"…'Clockblocker's Christmas Wish-list'… fluffy, cheesy sweater… Santa hat… mismatched mittens… and done."

We all had a laugh at Clockblocker's moan of despair.

"I'm never going to live that down. Kid Win, I hereby declare us nemeses! May the prank war escalate to mutually assured destruction!"

Aegis interjected with barely a moments' pause. "I'm officially throwing my support behind Kid. Geometric Tinker beats linear timestopper in a prank war, every time."

I made a motion to second that. No idea what Aegis meant, but it sounded like a better bet.

Clockblocker groaned, rubbing his hands over the provided flame again. "No respect for my genius."

"You mean loveable idiocy?"

He brought his hands to his heart, clutching an imaginary spear through the chest while yelling, "Aaagh, my dignity!"

More laughter across the line. I cleared another section of street, smiling at their antics.

"Heads up, we've got a reported disturbance over near Lords and 10th. Get moving, I'll fill in the details." Aegis swooped in and picked up Clock, and I whipped out my staff and took off. Goodbye, street clearing.

"Armored truck is under attack by a parahuman whose description roughly matches Circus. She's a grab-bag cape; hammerspace, pyrokinesis, enhanced aim, balance. Expect acrobatics. Clown-based costume. Generally, uses a sledgehammer or bat."

"Got it. ETA 2 minutes."

"Acknowledged."

We flew in relative silence for a minute, passing over the neighborhoods of the lower Docks at speed. We came up on a small section of offices and shopping, and Aegis angled down. I followed. Below us, on the street, a figure was approaching the truck, which had apparently spun out.

She was dressed in a green and red elf costume, with outlines of silver and white fur. It looked kind of cold, with so much skin showing. Still, had to give it to her for being festive.

Clockblocker let out a quiet whistle.

She looked up, just in time to see us land between her and the van. I noted the guards were behind her, groaning in the street. I put my staff away, for now, but left it assembled. I wasn't good enough yet to use it versus a skilled weapon user.

"You're under arrest, Circus. Stand down."

She smirked beneath her silver domino mask. "You know, I don't think I will." She looked my way. "You guys his sitters? Didn't know the Wards were a daycare service!" She cackled a bit. "Anyway, move aside, pipsqueak squad. I have a date with that truck."

I didn't like that, but Aegis spoke up again. "I'm going to have to ask you to surrender. We can't let you steal this, and the men you've attacked might need medical attention. Don't make this a fight."

She seemed to consider it, then shrugged. "Fine, I'll just go then. Take care of these losers." She turned away, waving, and Aegis moved forward to check the two men.

Before we could react, she did a backflip, spun, and slammed him into the pavement with a sledgehammer. "Psych!"

Clock shouted something, but I was already in action. Asphalt folded upward to capture her, but she dodged with barely any effort. I kicked some wind her way, which did manage to catch her off balance, but she recovered way too quickly, landing like nothing had happened.

"Ooh, tricky! You almost got me there!" She leaned over and blew a kiss at me, dodging a flying rock like she barely noticed it. "I love the forward type, but you're too young for me."

Clockblocker snickered.

This wasn't going well. Aegis was back up, but for obvious reasons, kept going down as he tried to get close. Clock couldn't do anything, and while I could probably get her, I didn't want to risk the two drivers behind her.

She pulled a road flare from somewhere, twirling it acrobatically, the fire remaining in the air far longer than it should as it moved. Soon, she had a whip of red fire, fizzling as she cracked it in the air.

Clock muttered over the comms; "Fighting an elf dominatrix on the first day of winter. Dreams do come true!" Kid snorted. What the heck was a dominatrix? Another word for villain, maybe- it sounded evil enough.

Aegis said, with a smile in his voice, "Okay, Circus, we have you surrounded. Give up, please. We don't want to hurt you, and my injuries can still be waved from your record."

"Excuse me, who has the fire whip here?"

I threw out my hands, forming whips of fire and snowmelt, which trailed to either side of me.

"Oh. Neat trick." She looked a bit put off by that. "Still, I'm not gonna just give up. Come at me!"

I threw a water whip; she dodged, flung the fire whip at me, and I wrapped my fire whip around it. We struggled over control of the fires, but she had to give up as I struck out again with the water whip. Her whip fused with mine, and the road flare disappeared to her pocket dimension.

Aegis flew in, and Circus dodged a haymaker. Her hammer appeared, and I took my chance. I grabbed the hammer with my water whip, dispelling the fire so I could 'grab' it with both hands, and pulled it from her grasp.

"Nonono, my hammer! Fuck you!" She flung her hand out, and throwing knives flew forth, trying to hit me. A casual handwave ruined their flight, and they fell harmlessly to the ground. I passed the hammer to Clockblocker, who, getting the idea, froze it in the air.

She screamed. "Fuck you, I liked that hammer!" She dodged another pass by Aegis. "It's got just the right feel!" She summoned her whip, and frontflipped out of the asphalt shackles I tried to make. "I wrapped the grip myself! You know how long it's gonna take to get a good replacement? Agh!" She screamed in frustration.

She pirouetted past a hit from my whip, ending up on the far side of the street from the truck and its slowly recovering drivers. Then, she produced a smoke bomb, and threw it, shouting, "Cocksuckers. I'll get you for that!" Aegis and I tried to chase, while Clockblocker stabilized the drivers, but she'd gotten away. We asked one man walking down a nearby street if he'd seen anything, but nothing. It was like she disappeared.

We returned to the scene, unharmed but unhappy. We'd been in a perfect position to capture a villain, and she got away. Aegis probably felt worse than I did; today was his first day as leader of the Wards, and it was marked by a loss.

"Okay, Mr. Thomas here is conscious, but suffering from a broken leg; his associate, Mr. Davis, is unconscious with a head wound. I suggest you guys ferry them to the hospital, while I wait here for the PRT." Wow, that had to be the most serious I had ever heard Clockblocker.

"Okay, Clock. We'll- "CLANG. We all jumped a little, as the sledgehammer fell out of the air. "…be back soon. Hold down the fort."

-Shangri-La-

"A staff-based weapon is an extension of the user's body. By using the principles of one of the most basic simple machines, the lever and fulcrum, you end up with a weapon that both extends your reach and multiplies your force."

I nodded, following Armsmaster through the motions.

"Your hands are fulcrums, the point around which the staff must pivot, and also force inputs, giving the staff the power it needs to move, the force for it to amplify or direct. By using different hand positions along the shaft, you can choose how you wield it."

Hannah snorted. "Sorry, you just reminded me of an old Aleph movie."

Armsmaster thought about it, then shrugged, and continued.

"Staves are great nonlethal weapons, capable of scaling with conflict all the way from aggressive but fairly harmless attacks all the way to blunt force trauma and bone breaking. They work well with physically weak users, although height can be a bit of an issue. I'll have to adjust my training to compensate for this, but I think we can manage.

"The bladed staff is a derivative of the halberd, which itself is a combination of axe and spear. It is a versatile combination of cutting, cleaving, and stabbing weapons, good for any situation where lethal force is needed. I don't personally use one because I can build multiple functions into each blade, but I put a hardlight blade in your staff's settings in case you are unable to use your powers, such as if a powerful Trump is in range of you."

More nodding. I was aware that Hannah probably didn't need to be here, and was glad she was. This would be even more awkward without her.

"Okay, let's try another set." He raised his halberd, or rather the haft of his halberd, and moved through the motions for a series of jabs. Hannah and I copied him a few times as he talked.

"Note how the power comes from the back of the staff, and your front hand is a guide for the force, directing it efficiently into the target. By concentrating force into the small area at the end of the staff, you get more for the force you've put in. In my power armor, I could punch through a brick wall easily with such a strike, and still have enough force to knock out a target on the far side. Michael, you should, if I guess correctly, get good feedback from your terrakinetic powers with this movement."

"Okay, on to the next one…"

Armsmaster was a lot like me. He was intelligent, but neither of us really knew what to do with people; we just kind of said what we thought, with mixed results at the best of times. It was honestly kind of refreshing; he was someone who I could just understand, with no need to really try to puzzle out what he was thinking. We'd even bounced some power ideas back and forth, although I probably needed to learn some more science before I could talk tinkering with him.

I followed his motions, a spin to deflect long projectiles like spears and arrows. Definitely a good move for, well, probably every element, in one way or another.

Armsmaster was a solid contender for the second-greatest tinker alive, and a part of that had to do with his specialty. He made things smaller, more efficient, and much like myself, he liked optimizing everything. Much like how he could make something work with minimal parts, at minimal size, everything he did needed a purpose. A conversation needed to convey a meaning, an explanation should explain in detail, and a moment of free time meant something was wrong with his schedule.

When I thought about it like that, it kind of worried me. Jessica was always telling me to take time for myself, spend time with others, socialize. Maybe Armsmaster was what could have happened, with my schedule so full of training and school and everything. As far as I knew, he had no family, barely went home, and led a whole team of heroes in his spare time, on top of tinkering and sleep.

He was close to Dragon, right? Maybe, when I finally got to meet her, I could see about getting them to spend time tinkering together. At least that way he wouldn't be alone. Or maybe set him up with Jessica as a therapist, see if she could help him calm down a bit.

I filed that thought away for later, focusing on the training once more.