More Than Human.
(workshop terrible name later)

'This was a terrible idea'

I grunted as I skidded across the street. I rolled onto my hands and picked myself up, quickly, as the man-dragon stomped his way toward me. I jumped to the side, dodged a fireball he hurled my way. I yelped as it detonated way too close. "How far away did you say the Protectorate response was?'

The PRT agent on the other end of the line spoke; "Last time he checked in, Armsmaster said he was three minutes out."

"Three minutes!" I rolled as a car flew past. Lung was seriously pissed. I crouched behind my newfound cover (an unmarked white van) and tried to sneak up the street. "Can't he hurry it along?"

The agent's voice was exasperated. "For the third time, he's going as fast as he can. His bike can only so fast." He had no right being this calm. Lung moved his head from side to side. Then, he exploded.

Fire went everywhere. Everything was on fire. The storefronts were on fire. The street was on fire. The car I was hiding behind was on fire. And, of course, Lung himself was on fire.

And he was just across from me.

Yay.

Time to use one of my trump cards.

I focused, and mentally commanded one of my creations into action. Lung's head turned as the sound of helicopter turbines filled the air.

Then my beautiful, beautiful creation entered the street. It wasn't pretty. It was a short, squat box, painted bright red with a turbine attached to each upper corner. But I was certainly happy to see it.

"RAAAAAAAAAAH!" Lung roared at it in challenge.

My drone had no response, except to pop out 8 nozzles from its bottom half. White powder sprayed out, aided by the turbine's downward thrust. The drone span in place to get the most coverage, exactly as I'd programmed it to.

In a more appropriate setting, I might have shed a tear at seeing my baby perform so well.

It then collected a hurled piece of asphalt in its left front turbine, causing it to destabilize and crash into a rooftop.

I crouched back down behind my hiding car, and bemoaned the loss of a good week's work.

I ran out from cover, now hiding behind another van, this one advertising "Max's Plumbing!". Lung's footsteps paused, then started moving back in my direction. I froze hoping he hadn't heard me move, or at least dismissed it as a cat or something. His footsteps continued, stopping right on the other side of the van.

Metal groaned and squealed as it was stressed, then groaned more as right before my eyes the van was lifted right up off the ground and above Lung's head.

His growth had continued from when I'd first engaged him. He was now eight feet tall, and completely covered in silver scales. His hands now bore thick claws half-buried in the van's side.

"'EYE!" He roared.

"You... What?" I uttered, not certain what was going through my mind besides stall stall stall.

And lo and behold, this actually seemed to give him pause. "'Oh," he enunciated as best he could, given his distorted mouth. "'Oo 'eye"

"Oooh, you meant "Die", I understand now." His eyes narrowed at that, and then I had to run to avoid being crushed by the van. I ripped a yield sign out of the pavement and tossed it as an impromptu spear as I ran, but he was beyond that now. His claw caught my foot, and I fell flat on my face.

He dragged me back to him and place a clawed hand the size of a trash can lid onto my chest. I'd seen what that hand could do to panelling, there was no way my armour would keep him out for long.

"Now, now we can be reason-"

The last thing I saw was Lung's fist raised above his head before everything went black.

-0-0-0-0-

I woke up with a start, neatly unseating the sweat-covered neurotransmitter from my forehead as I gasped for air.

I fought Lung tonight.

And I lost, but I guess it was a foregone conclusion from the start.

It had been three months since the locker, since I'd found my head full of blueprints. The neurotransmitter, which I carefully placed back into my bedside drawer, was only the basis of my Tinker ability. The neurotransmitter allowed me to control my tech as if it was an extension of my body, though it took some focus.

The rest of the time had been spent constructing my drones. I guess my specialty was in robotics because I found that easy to do.

I laid back down in bed. It was late, and I had work rebuilding my poor drones tomorrow. Soon my eyelids closed of their own volition and I slept.

-0-0-0-0-

The ArmsCycle glided noiselessly through the night.

BOOM!

Armsmaster looked up from the display. He was close to where the unknown parahuman was reported to be fighting Lung. Why a presumably new parahuman would be suicidal enough to try that when it should be left to more experienced, better equipped heroes he didn't know, but there was nothing for it now. Hopefully they survived wiser for the experience, and the city would be one hero richer.

Still, a comparison to previous recordings indicated that this was not one of Lung's usual 'fire-explosions', but rather a more mundane variety of explosion.

"Computer, update report. Explosion heard on George Street." He heard the tone beep in his ear as the command processed.

"Updating..." the computer's semi-feminine synthetic voice sounded. "Report updated."

He spotted Lung not far away, and skidded the ArmsCycle to a halt quickly deploying his halberd. Lung seemed to be down, but he was already stirring. A needle popped out of the halberd's tip and went up Lung's nostril, Armsmaster's carefully-tailored Brute sedative injected directly into the softer flesh there. Lung stopped stirring then and began to shrink, shedding scales like so many leaves in autumn.

"Computer, update report." The command tone sounded again. "Lung is down. The explosion stunned him, and I have administered a sedative. Lung is now in custody."

"Updating... Report updated. Updating status of the villainous cape, 'Lung' from 'At Large' to 'In Custody' Congratulations, Armsmaster." This got a rare smile from the Tinker. He deployed the extendable cage on the rear of the ArmsCycle and placed Lung in it. With that done, he turned to investigate the blackened crater.

His visor swept from left to right over the scene, taking in part of a gauntlet, a charred helmet the van sitting on its side on the curb not far away, and a melted and still red-hot slab of metal sitting at the very epicenter of the crater.

"Computer, update report. It appears the unknown parahuman was at the center of the explosion. They are presumed dead." It was a shame too, since it seemed they had been a Tinker. There weren't enough heroic Tinkers. There weren't enough heroes period.

"Report updated." Armsmaster mounted the ArmsCycle, and turned back towards home base. He had a prisoner to put in a cell and a report to file.