It's a few days later, after Susan and Hannah have finally finished all the initial paperwork for their new department, that they're looking through their leads.
"How do you want to do this?"
Hannah leans back in her chair, "I think we want to prioritise Coil, as everything that Prospector has said suggests he's a thinker of some description. I could check the area that he's rumoured to control and record licence plates for a couple of days."
Susan pulls up a map on her computer, "That's a large area, I don't think you could cover all of it. It's also in the Commercial District, which means the only sightlines are down the roads."
"I know what you're thinking, and I can't help thinking that we're going about this wrong. But I don't know the right way to do it."
"Well, we can't exactly ask one of the kids to sniff around as they're in school, Amy isn't in watchdog, and Taylor is off near Jupiter, so out of range for direct thoughts."
"How about we actually just wander around the area and see if anything looks out of the ordinary."
Susan shakes her head, "It probably won't help. However, it will give us a lay of the land and maybe we can find some contacts in the area."
"It's funny, in the protectorate, we had our contacts but they were always things we cultivated to keep tabs on known gangs and locations. I've got quite a few around the Docks and downtown coastal area, as that's where the ABB and E88 are. Even some in the southern commercial district, again E88. That being said, it's just occurred to me that we can go invisible. Lisa, could you come to the office when you're able to please?"
"Grr, sure. What's up?"
Susan smiles, "We're going to wander around Coils area, and we'd like you to invisibly join us."
"I can do that, any reason?"
"Seeing if we can locate any stashes or places where his mercenaries frequent."
There's a flash of fire and Lisa is standing there, "Right, so how are we getting there?"
"That was quick."
"It's Coil, the bastard that gave me a 9mm interview. Yours was much politer, and ironically harder to refuse."
Nearly half an hour later, the three of them get out of the car. Though to both Hannah and Susan, Lisa appears to be washed out.
"Lisa, are you sure you're invisible?"
Lisa walks up to a pedestrian and waves her hand in front of their face, "Yes I'm sure."
Over the next hour they walk around the area, and past the same construction site 6 times.
"There's something odd about that construction site. I'm not sure what, but my powers says it's hotter than it should be. Which implies that there is something causing that heat. And now I'm thinking that I need to make a Yautja bio-mask. What the hell power? I'm not a tinker. Of course it also wants a colony assistance tool and the wrist computer to go with them. But, yes, this is probably worth looking into."
Hannah frowns, "You sound as if your power is sentient."
Lisa grouses, "Well, it's more that it's super good at inferring things, so when I look at that spot, I get everything from a budding volcano to an underground lair or metro vent. Which given we don't have a metro in this city… Then I wonder how I could find out more, and before I joined the hive I'd have expected to spot vantage points, people I could talk to, and ingress points where I would be undetected by most forms of surveillance."
"Any other changes that have happened?"
"Yeah, people are even grosser than before. I did not need two different medical degrees in my head. Did you know that Henry was a Dentist? Neither did I until I saw someone wiggle their jaw and my power suggested they have toothache, an abscess, TJD, or were just stretching. Instead of just pointing out their lack of dental hygiene, it's also pointing out just how bad it is. Oh, and I also want to make a sterilisation beam so that everyone can have clean and healthy teeth please."
Susan shudders, "I can't imagine what that must be like."
"No need to imagine, I can pipe it straight into your head."
"I think I'll pass on that."
"Don't worry, you'll be getting the full treatment sooner or later, I just asked Dinah."
"You bitch!"
Lisa sticks her tongue out and runs, invisibly, down the road as Susan follows.
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Armsmaster looks through the viewing window at the egg Taylor placed into the safe over a week ago.
Dragon's voice calls from a console that's just out of sight of the chamber, "Colin, what are you doing?"
"I'm looking at a parahuman artifact that we were given at the time of the incident that led to Miss Militia being in M/S."
"Colin, I was under the impression that no investigation could be done on that artifact until the testers finally arrived, and all of the equipment has been air-gapped and checked thoroughly."
Reluctantly, Armsmaster presses the button to close the shutter on the viewing window, "You're right. It's just something that Al said that has me wondering if it would be worth becoming a case 62."
"Colin, you can talk to me about it, you know that don't you?"
Armsmaster sits down at his workbench, and takes his helmet off. As Colin places the helmet on it's stand, he looks at the back of his armour that's open on the bench, then over towards the sketches he's been making over on his desk. After a couple of minutes he takes one of his stress balls and throws it against a wall as hard as he can. On impact it shatters into pieces in a most satisfying way, before falling to the floor. Turning back to the screen on his workbench, he runs his fingers through his hair, "I wish I could Dragon, I wish I could. But as long as you're here remotely I can't, not about this stuff. You're the only one that really gets me, and I can really talk about stuff to. But the director classified the information eyes only, and it's no longer under PRT jurisdiction either, so we can't unclassify it."
"You could talk to Dr Yamada about it."
"I wish I could, but I need to talk to someone that understands me, that understands this." He waves his hand over his armour, "I need to talk to you."
"Would it help if I sent a suit down?"
Colin shakes his head, "No, even those are remote controlled. It's just, everything's changing, and I've been given an opportunity to take my tinkering to the next level. But that means more changes."
Over the next hour, Dragon helps Colin navigate his meltdown, all the while being unable to talk about the underlying cause of the problem.
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Taylor jumps high into space above Europa for the 50th time today, as she scans around for the source of the rumbling she felt just before she jumped. Just as she's passed the apojove of her jump she catches a faint plume of heat coming into view from the horizon. With a pop of displaced water ice, she appears in an active plume of rapidly freezing water. Pushing herself to the edge of the plume, she elf pops to the surface before crawling into the hole the plume originates from, towards the liquid ocean below, magic and biology allowing her to breathe the unoxygenated water as if she was in the ocean on earth. Her journey down the plume conduit takes her several days, after the initial rush to stay ahead of the rapidly freezing cap at the surface. Driven by her instincts, she knows that the centre of this moon will be a perfect place to carve out a laying chamber.
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Jon Franks looks around the tiny office that the two of them have been assigned in City Hall. Already situated are two desks, back to back, with cheap wheelie chairs and an FBI issue secure filing cabinet. Pervading the entire room is that new paint smell, hinting at the fact the room wasn't originally a two tone blue.
As he does, Imelda Rossner, the recently graduated FBI psychologist, shakes her head, "Well Jon, now that we're here am I going to find out why I'm on permanent assignment here rather than a junior on a profiling team?"
Jon walks over to the chairs and pulls them out until they bump against each other, "Hrumph, what did they do, clean out a supply closet for us? At least neither of us are particularly big. As for your question, it's time to stow anything you don't need walking around, and then we're off to Watchdog ENE."
As she starts emptying her bag into the drawers, Imelda complains, "Jon, that's not helpful."
"I know, but it's all you're going to get until we know this room is secure, or we're in a secure location."
It doesn't take long before the two of them have left the building once more, and are walking the mile and a half to the offices, gamely following the Garmin satnav, while trying to get a feel for the local area. The only thing they note on this walk, is that nobody bunches up. Even at the crosswalks they are given a healthy amount of space, as is everyone else. This is in stark contrast to the couple of busses they see pass, where there seems to be no spreading out. After a few minutes of trying to find the entrance to the offices, Jon finally gives up and calls the office with his mobile phone.
A couple of minutes later, Susan opens the downstairs door and walks out from behind a badly placed rotating ad board at the edge of the Walgreens pharmacy, and the two of them troop up the narrow stairs to the office space. Once they reach the top of the stairs, Jon pauses in surprise at the large pallet of wood samples sitting in the corner of the landing area.
Susan turns back for a moment, "Come on through, it's still a bit basic, but at least there's plenty of room here."
Jon looks over from the pallet and starts to walk into the main office area with a grumbled, "Teleporter, right. Forgot about that."
Susan nods, "Indeed. They're samples that we're going to be using for wand making, though Queenie is currently busy out by Jupiter, so we're waiting for her to get back before starting."
Imelda frowns, "Do you believe that your powers are magical then?"
Susan laughs as she leads the way into the smaller office that she's claimed with Hannah, "Not at all, I know that they're magical. Hannah, the FBI are here."
Hannah looks up from her computer, "So I see," she snaps her fingers, and a couple of comfortable office chairs appear beside the desk, "take a seat. I'm Hannah Washington, aka Miss Militia, the lead parahuman on this taskforce. Susan O'Donnell is our PRT Liaison, and head of the department. Not that we can really call it a department yet, with only two adult members."
Jon pokes one of the chairs experimentally, before sitting down, Imelda following his lead, "Well, I'm Agent Jon Franks, and this is Profiler Imelda Rossner. Are these projections?"
Susan laughs, "Nope, those are from storeroom 3 at the PRT HQ. Tea, coffee?"
Imelda sighs, "Jon, am I going to find out what's going on now? And coffee please."
Jon nods, "Coffee for me too please. I've been informed by head office," he blinks a couple of times as two steaming mugs of coffee, and a pot of cream appear on the nearby desk, "that these offices are to be considered secure. I've not yet seen the original files, as they are under an eyes only classification. Though, from my understanding, their actual classification isn't actually that high."
Hannah nods, "PRT level 5, so Senior Protectorate, and Wards identity cleared PRT staff, or equivalent."
Imelda asks, "What do those different classifications mean. Sorry, I only graduated last week, and I was expecting a junior position."
Susan waves her off, "It's no trouble, 'eyes only' is a storage classification, that means that it cannot be stored on any digital medium, so hard copy only. PRT levels 1-4 are all Top Secret, I don't know their exact legal classification as I'm only cleared for Secret classifications. 5 and 6 are both Secret, while 7-10 are Confidential. Further levels are all differing levels of unclassified information."
Imelda glances at Jon before turning back to Susan, "Thank you. Though I'm unsure why I've been assigned to this department."
Jon coughs, "Ah, yes. Before I continue, is Miss Willborne available?"
Imelda watches as Hannah's eyes unfocus for a moment, and then jumps when a plume of fire appears beside her. When it clears, a young, blond, woman is standing next to her, "Hello Miss Rossner, I'm Lisa Willborne, and the secondary reason you're here. Your primary purpose is actually your original career as a psychologist. No, don't worry, none of us are like that. In theory, we're all trained psychologists, but using somebody elses memories is not generally considered to be a legally recognised qualification. Oh, and don't worry, we have nothing to do with Victor from the E88 either, so your hard earned skills are safe from us. No, I believe the important part of your qualifications is your training in gender dysphoria…"
Everyone jumps as Hannah slams her hand on the desk, "Tattletale, enough. Miss Rossner, please forgive Tattletale, she's a parahuman in addition to being a case 62 and she hasn't had an opportunity to show off her parahuman ability for a couple of weeks now."
Lisa folds her arms and pouts, "Fine, you're here partly because I'm a high level thinker that is basically Sherlock Holmes on steroids. But I wasn't wrong about the primary reason being the fact you're a trained psychologist, and our granted powers are skewing our thoughts slightly, with one hive member also going through a sex change as part of it. Which is also why they picked you, rather than one of the men who scored better in your graduating class."
Jon looks at her, mouth agape, "How did you know all of that?"
Lisa just looks at him, "What part of high level thinker did you miss? Before this, I would have claimed to be psychic, but Hannah would just set you straight if I did. My power allows me to take disparate information and draw conclusions from it. Anything from your dental hygiene, based on the way your teeth and jaw look, yours is ok, but you need to floss more, and you have a cavity forming on your L2 molar. To your computer password. And that was before I got access to the memories of a prescribing psychologist, a dentist, and…"
"Lisa…" Hannah warns, "you're fugueing again."
Jon coughs, "Right, yes, Miss Willborne has covered the salient points of your position. What she didn't cover is the fact she's one of the under age members of watchdog ENE, and is only working with the department full time because she's passed her GED. The other full time, under age member is Miss Hebert, who is apparently near Jupiter at the moment. At this point, I think we should take a break while Miss O'Donnell and I do the handover for the physical files."
Susan nods, "We can do that, I'll flame us there once you've finished your coffee. Leave any electronics here, as I'll be cleaning the room before we start the handover."
Jon nods, before handing his phones to Imelda.
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In one long running timeline, Coil is greeting the Travellers as they arrive at his base. In the other, Thomas Calvert is sat at a hot desk in the PRT HQ, going over secure paperwork that they want him to consult on. Just as the vault door starts to close, his timelines split off into infinity before closing down to the one where he's doing the paperwork. Angerly, he swipes his laptop off the desk, into the wall before slamming his head into the desk while swearing up a storm. 36 hours down the drain, 36 hours from just before he called Accord to finalise their deal, to having the Travellers safely secured in his base, all gone.