Colin Wallis, Tinker and leader of the ENE Protectorate, encounters Taylor Hebert and James Baron in Cutscene 3.a of Co-Op Mode. This chapter was authored by Faria Lyton as a part of Co-Op Mode. This chapter is reposted as part of A Bug in the Game with permission.
Scripted Encounters 3.a (Armsmaster)
My name is Armsmaster, and I am not a people person. Yes, I've heard the jokes that I'm so socially inept that I think I'm good with people. This is patently false. I am well aware of my weaknesses. Delusions are inefficient. I am also well aware of my strengths. I am one of the world's most powerful Tinkers and the head of the Protectorate in one of the most troubled cities in North America. Heroes are outnumbered by villains three to one here in Brockton Bay, and under my leadership we are holding the line.
It's almost three in the morning on a spring Sunday. When you've spent as long fighting crime as I have, you get a feel for certain patterns. Semi-professional and wanna-be criminals who commit premeditated crimes prefer this hour. Not many people are awake to resist or witness the crime, and the few that are conscious tend to be tired. With the spring thaw people are feeling more adventurous. More crime in general, more runners and second-story jobs in particular. And Sunday means less teenagers trying to prove they're tough, more desperate career 'entry-level' workers taking a chance at a huge score, so they don't have to go back to work. Or commit suicide-by-cape. Whatever means they don't have to go back to work in the morning.
I'm patrolling by motorcycle tonight, armed with Dragon's latest iteration Tinkertech tranquilizer, sandman. Its nanite-suspension delivery system (PRT-approved non-replicating) automatically adjusts dosages, giving it an effectively 0% chance of overdose. Shadow Stalker has certainly proven that point with her crossbows. The newest adjustment to the formula should suppress regeneration, theoretically. Now I just need a vill- er, test subject, to try it on.
My police scanner crackles to life, "Attention, all units: Lung has been sighted at Sullivan and Ingram. All BBPD officers are advised to focus on crowd control and containment. Leave this one to the PRT." Ask and ye shall receive. My second-most impressive invention turns smoothly towards the docks.
"Armsmaster, we've got an alert." Miss Militia knows that I've got my scanner and that the one thing the BBPD excels at is dispatch, but rules are rules. We can't acknowledge, especially not on recorded frequencies, that I already know. She reads off the same address, and Lung's PRT assessment even though we both know it already, "Lung is a Brute 4 and Blaster 2 at base level, and can improve over time to an estimated Brute 9, Blaster 7, and Mover 4. Extreme caution is advised."
"I'm on my way." Truer words were never spoken, as I'm almost halfway there before she finishes speaking.
"Do you want me to scramble the team?" Miss Militia's voice loses its procedural precision and fills with unnecessary concern.
"Negative." Usually I'd want backup facing Lung. I may be the leader of the Protectorate East North-East, but I know my limits. "I anticipate being able to get a tranquilizer dart into him before he grows too strong. If we need the whole team, it's too late already."
Ingram is one of the oldest streets in Brockton Bay, originally laid as a wagon trail. Now it's too narrow for two cars to pass and is instead home to dumpsters, rats, and wastrels. It's not the most picturesque setting for me to defeat Lung in, but it's as much as I can really expect in this city.
Dragon broke in shortly before I reached my destination, "Armsmaster, I've been monitoring the 911 calls. Lung fought with two unidentified capes, a female in a gold costume and a male with a dark costume. Reports are contradictory, but it seems they took him down once and he got back up."
"Acknowledged." New capes. I trigger the creation of two new files in my IFF system, but leave everything blank for now. Fighting Lung means nothing as far as hero or villain goes. If there's any truth to the reports Dragon mentioned, they must be powerful. And foolish if they let Lung get back up.
I steel myself for the battle ahead, reviewing to make sure all five firing mechanisms in my halberd are ready on my heads-up display. Magnetic: green. Powder: green. CO2: green. Pneumatic: green. Tension: green. The last two would be useless against even baseline Lung, but still work on powerless criminals, preventing unnecessary wear and tear to the more complicated systems. Both of these systems can also be field-repaired easily and are immune to EMP.
My motorcycle's headlight reveals an unexpected scene as I enter the alley: Lung crashing to the street, his currently 300+ pound frame cracking the pavement. An instant later, a slight figure in gold armor lands on his back and transfers her falling energy into a highly efficient strike to his head. The pavement shatters further.
The yell of "Finishing Strike" is less impressive, more disquieting. Lung doesn't have a kill order on his head. I trigger a quick photo for evidence while the weapon is still in contact. My systems immediately beginning labelling all the pertinent details. Oh. She's using a bat. Not exactly what I would expect from a cape in medieval-styled armor. I approve. Bladed weapons are far too dangerous in inexpert hands.
"Um, it's not what it looks like." NERVOUS - TRUTH flashes across my HUD. "This guy is Lung." NERVOUS - TRUTH I knew that already. "If you don't hit him really hard he gets back up again." NERVOUS - TRUTH I'm quite aware of that.
I switch the social analysis system to only highlighting falsehoods, emotional shifts, and suggested scripting as I dismount and retrieve my halberd. "That's true enough. Are you sure you didn't hit him too hard?"
"He's still breathing." She hops to the ground and lowers her bat. "He should be good eventually."
BREAK ICE "I think I would have heard about it if there were any golden armored bat-wielding capes active in Brockton Bay." That's good enough. Now to get information. "Is this your first night? Or are you just new to the area?" I doubt that any cape capable of defeating Lung could have flown under the radar for any length of time, but I've heard people get offended when I make assumptions.
"First night. I'm Lady Bug. My partner, Beetle Knight, should be joining us shortly." Infrared shows a figure on a nearby roof. Probably male, heat signature of the head is misshapen. This Beetle Knight is probably wearing an oddly-shaped helmet. That must be the other cape from the report.
I relax a little. Lady Bug is showing no signs of hostility and didn't defeat Lung single-handedly. If she does attack, I can take her. Still, two rookies beat Lung? "And the two of you took out Lung, by yourselves?"
"Well, Beetle Knight, me, and several thousand bugs under my control." EVASIVE - FALSEHOOD A small flock of moths begin orbiting her. Impressive control. I wonder who else helped them? "That blow I just gave him wouldn't have put him down if his blood wasn't full of spider venom."
Smart. Give his regeneration a sufficient internal threat to deal with while continuing to attack externally. She must have some serious muscle to have pulled off that hit. "Really? So you're a Brute and a Master then?" Odd combo, most Masters are only as good as their minion.
The shrug is labelled by my SAS as FALSE MODESTY. I've been informed that false modesty is better than none at all, and the most I can aspire to, so I won't call her on it. "I'm more of a Master than a Brute. I know the costume doesn't look it. I had a cape that sells the bug portion of Lady Bug, but Lung's a pyrokinetic."
A cape? Really? That's so rookie. Practicality aside, PR would probably approve. I take a moment to run a full scan of her gear. The baseball bat is battered and unremarkable. The rest of her outfit though… Boron carbide plating encased in spider silk. The mask has been painted white but the rest of the armor is naturally golden. My relevant trivia engine informs me it's the natural color for silk excreted by the Golden Orb Weaver spider. The body suit under the armor is also white. Her breastplate is well-rounded. Feminine, but without the false cleavage many rookie capes insist on. My opinion of her goes up a bit. She's got a red belt buckle in the shape of a ladybug. Branding will probably insist on something a bit more obvious. All in all, very good for a new cape.
It's going to need some repair work after tonight. Soot is very difficult to wash out and it looks like her abdominal plating cracked at some point. Brute or not, that must have hurt.
At this point in my observations, Lady Bug crosses her arms across her chest, dropping her bat. UNCOMFORTABLE I've taken too long without speaking. "You're telling the truth about that at least. Do you need a hospital?" I did, the last time my armor cracked. That was when Skidmark and Mush managed to push me off a parking garage.
"No, I'm fine." I increase her estimated Brute rating by a point. ATTEMPT RECRUITMENT "Lung might. Hard to tell. He almost died," That takes a lot, "but five minutes later he was back up and fighting." The reports on that were true. Regenerators. "We both came close to dying," she blurts.
"Sounds like you hit both extremes: too much force and too little." Can't kill them, can't lose to them. It's a balancing act. I see my chance. "If you join the Protectorate, we can help you with that. You took down Lung, so you've obviously got potential." I hate recruitment speeches. Dauntless, Miss Militia, Battery, shoot, even Assault is a better choice than me. I get attacked by new capes during dialogue more than any other hero. Just in case, I keep my focus on her center of mass. If she tries anything, I'll be ready. "As a member we can help you focus that potential, learn to control your powers, and you'll have teammates to back you up." I look forward to working with her.
"Wards." Say what? "I'm not eighteen." Well… all the more time to get her trained up? Wards aren't supposed to fight. What a waste.
A clatter of metal on pavement draws our attention to a figure climbing down an access ladder. He's wearing clean street clothes and a truly ridiculous helmet. Green tee, blue jeans. Not bad for daily wear, terrible for a cape. The exposed skin alone… Knit gloves (without sleeves) and velcro shoes make things even worse. Velcro may be efficient, but it gets no respect. And the helmet… Three big horns with a little spike in the middle, big goofy lenses. My scanners say it's made of some pretty tough stuff, so it's not just some stupid prop. But without any matching pieces, one source is most likely: he's wearing a recovered tinkertech helmet from one of those over-the-top Japanese capes. Fanboy. Ugh. I don't believe in a god, but if I did, I'd pray this isn't Beetle Knight.
Lady Bug immediately ruins my hopes by waving him over. "Come join us. Armsmaster, this is Beetle Knight." Shoot. "He's a… Brute-Thinker combo." EVASIVE - FALSEHOOD
"Humph." Not a Tinker, not a Brute-Thinker. Fanboy. Don't tell me...
"Yeah, what she said. Basically I'm a half-assed Über with a little extra strength and durability. I acquire skills a little faster than normal through training." EVASIVE - FALSEHOOD ...not another one.
"And what skills have you acquired?" Give me something, anything that can disprove my theory.
"A bit of Jeet Kune Do," No! "some tricks with blunt weapons," What does that even mean? "and a few other minor skills." I hate this kind of vagueness. I'm almost certain now. He's a powerless, delusional fanboy and his girlfriend is humoring him.
"Knight, would you check on Lung?" Lady Bug dismisses the idiot.
"Yes, m'lady." He narrowly misses impaling his hand on one of those stupid horns as he salutes. Salutes!
"Do you," I barely manage to resist adding an 'even', "have any medical skills?"
"Why, yes I do," SMUG he shoots back over his shoulder. "Just a bit of First Aid, but enough to tell if he's breathing a check his heart rate." There's an odd emphasis to 'first aid' when he says it.
Lady Bug steps between me and the kid NERVOUS, "So when will someone be here to secure him for transport?"
"Soon, but not soon enough." Lung already got up once, and this is a perfect chance to test the new sandman. I access targeting data, switch to CO2 firing, send a 'successful capture' signal to the PRT, and point my halberd towards his prone form. Lady Bug is in the optimal line of fire. "Move aside." I order. "I need to sedate Lung."
She pauses a moment, INTIMIDATED, then steps aside. "Sure."
The twerp is just barely out of the way. An ordinary marksman would have to hold his fire, but my targeting software is calculating that it would be statistically impossible to miss. Beetle Knight has his hands up like I'm aiming at him. I wouldn't need darts to incapacitate a wannabe like him.
"Sedate? I'm not sure that's-" Whatever she wanted to say, the dart has already been fired.
Instead of the clean straight shot the projectile should have followed, it corkscrews lazily through the air and lodges in Beetle Knight's neck, just below that helmet.
"OW! Ow? Ooh? I feel…" He collapses.
Countless insects (I'll need to recalibrate my HUD to count them in the future) raise into the air as Lady Bug turns on me. "What the fuck did you do to him?!" ENRAGED - PLACATE
"Stand down, Lady Bug. That was an accident," it hurts to say the word, "a malfunction. It was also a tranquilizer dart." I swear, if Chris was messing around in my workshop again…
I must have said something right, as the insects calm down. "I'm sorry, it's been a long night. Beetle Knight went down awfully fast. Are you sure he's fine?" CONCERN. "That dart was meant for Lung wasn't it?"
While usually I wouldn't share so much information with an independent (for now), it will be easier to handle her if I explain things. "It was. However, that was a sandman dart. It's a special tinker-tech formula that Dragon produces for the PRT. It's very safe. He'll just sleep it off for several hours or until someone administers the antidote."
"So, if there is an antidote, wake him up." FRUSTRATION.
"Unfortunately, while the tranquilizer is very safe, the antidote is not." Which is why I'm not allowed to carry it out in the field yet. "Sandman will fight most normal stimulants keeping the subject unconscious." By releasing more sedatives and absorbing the stimulants. "The sedative has to either run its course or be carefully neutralized by a doctor" using a second shot of nanites to neutralize the initial set.
"Fine." FALSEHOOD - UNDEFINED Even my SAS has trouble with female-speak. Dragon has rebuffed all my requests that she look over the coding. "When can we get him to a doctor? I'm sticking with him until he's conscious."
"Good. That will give us time to talk about the Wards program." Not much, but I can probably swing the hard sell. Scare her into the Protectorate. "There is a PRT van already in route to here. They should be arriving soon to take Lung into custody. Which reminds me. I still need to sedate Lung."
Her raised hand pauses me. "Wait! I loaded Lung up with spider venom. He almost died. We hit him with epi-pens to save him." I almost interrupt to ask how that would work, but my talent kicks in. Hmm. I've got some ideas… "Miscalculated a bit there, and he got back up, but are you sure you want to dose him with a tranquilizer?" UNCERTAIN - REASSURE.
How much venom could a few spiders inject anyway? Stop questioning me. "Yes, I'm sure. As I said, this drug was designed by Dragon. It's safe. Now step aside." I'm not risking a distance shot until I've had time to break down and inspect the firing mechanism. A point-blank shot works well enough, and I take a moment to scan his wounds. Broken ribs, fractured spine, and a depressed fracture of the skull from that last hit. Not to mention the extensive soft tissue damage. I can use this.
With Lung under control, it's time to get the rookie cape who soloed Lung under contract ASAP. I coach my mouth into a practiced stern frown. "Now, we have some time to talk. By your own admission you almost killed Lung. I also see wounds that would qualify as excessive force, even brutality on anyone else - except this is Lung." PANIC ALERT - SOFTEN TONE. Pointing out that she would have killed anyone else would be a little excessive, but I'll keep it in reserve. "You're right, you had to hit him hard, but you can either give a full statement to me now, or you can give one to the police." That should throw her off her stride without scaring her too much.
"Right," Lady Bug visibly steels herself. "So Beetle Knight and I were practicing with our powers…" The rest of the story is about what I expected: Lady Bug figured out some tricks with her swarms, practiced a bit with a few weapons, and settled on the bat. Beetle Knight supposedly learned Jeet Kune Do in one day. Uh huh. I'm sure she's exaggerating his part in the battles against Lung, but that kind of loyalty is admirable. Once it's to the Protectorate, rather than an insane boyfriend. She even tells me about meeting with the Undersiders. "Did we do the right thing meeting with them? I don't think we were in good shape to fight after Lung, but they were villains and we just talked." SEEKING ADVICE.
"Could you have taken them in a fight?" And kept the idiot safe? Not against those odds.
"I don't know. Seven against two? I didn't have many good bugs left. I could have used numbers against them, but that's slow and it looked like those dogs alone could have kicked our asses." UNCERTAINTY. "Plus I still don't know what their powers were."
I've already memorized their files, along with the files on every other parahuman in the Northeast. "Hellhound controls and enhances dogs. Grue projects darkness. We don't know what Regent does, and you just gave us more information on Tattletale than we ever had before." Updating files as we speak, this is gold. "She's clearly a Thinker of some kind. So, well done there." A little praise from a beloved idol can go a long way towards swaying a new hero. "As for whether you should have fought them, you made the right call. They had numbers on you," seven to one with a stubborn bystander in the way, "plus they had just seen your powers and theirs were unknown. Even experienced heroes have trouble going up against unknowns." I always prefer having the correct set of gadgets for a given threat. Even if I can easily defeat most capes without an optimized loadout.
She lets out a huge sigh. RELIEVED.
SMILE "Count it as a good thing that all they wanted to do was talk. You captured Lung and brought back valuable intel on a group we had almost nothing on. What you did tonight was spectacular. You took a major villain off the street."
"I can't take all the credit. Beetle Knight helped a lot." MODESTY.
I'm sure. "Of course. The PRT van should be here soon." Time to close the trap. "We need to talk about one more thing, where do you go from here?"
APPREHENSION.
Not quite what I was hoping for, but I can work with it. "If we didn't have witnesses, I would offer to cover for you and take the credit for Lung." She seems too savvy to fall for it, but that kind of a capture could cement my legacy. "I see too many lights on. There will be video on PHO tomorrow at least. Some of them might even try to sell their footage to the local stations for some quick cash. Taking out Lung, that's going to have consequences." Legal repercussions: bad cop. Protection from retaliation: good cop. This is going well.
Lady Bug shrugs again. Shrugs are my favorite form of non-verbal communication. "More attention than I wanted, but I planned to be a hero from the start."
"That's a good thing, but think it through. Lung has an extensive gang throughout the entire Brockton Bay area. More importantly, he has two superpowered flunkies: Oni Lee and Bakuda." Insect minions and Brute strength may have been startlingly effective against Lung, but it will take entirely different tactics to survive those two.
"Yeah, the ABB is really going to hate me now." She's very accepting of this. She must not get how bad this is. "I knew about Oni Lee, like I said the Undersiders fought him tonight, but I've never heard of Bakuda."
"Not surprising. She's new." Rookie capes never spend enough time reading the news. And most experienced capes. "What you need to know is that she's a bomb Tinker. She already engaged in a terror campaign against Cornell University." After seeing the aftermath, I really wish we could have recovered some unexploded ordnance to reverse-engineer. "Lung recruited her recently and brought her to Brockton Bay. Even alone she'd be something of a concern, but put her together with Oni Lee and…" TRAIL OFF I suppose I'll let her draw her own conclusions.
"Oh fuck, that's bad!" ALARMED - SOOTHE.
Perfect. "Now I want you to consider the danger you'll be in once it gets out that you took down Lung. Without a doubt, Oni Lee and Bakuda will be looking to accomplish two goals. Freeing their boss and getting vengeance on the people responsible." Food for thought.
"And you think joining the Wards will make us safer?"
No doubt. "Of course it will. You'll have the support of your fellow Wards and the back-up of the entire Protectorate in case of any altercations." We may even have to confine her to base for a while. Beetle Knight… can go into Witness Protection. In Alaska.
"I'll think about it." HESITANT It's a start. "I'll need to talk about it with my partner as well." Shoot me now.
"Think about it. Talk it over with your partner," lose the dead weight, "but don't wait too long. You'll be much safer in the Wards."
SURPRISE That's an odd reaction. The PRT van arriving prevents me from exploring that further. The pick up goes smoothly. I do have to stop the PRT agents from foaming Lung to the ground. We don't have time to wait around while he's glued to the ground. We need to get him into containment before the sandman wears off. I'd like to keep working on recruiting Lady Bug, but I have to ride escort and keep an eye on Lung. At my suggestion, she takes the opportunity to observe PRT first responders in action. It's very important for heroes to familiarize themselves with how our non-powered support teams function.
The initial dose of sandman lasted all the way to the PRT base, so we don't have to make any stops. The second dart while unloading Lung is just prudent. While transferring him into his cell I text Miss Militia to meet a new potential Ward, along with a tentative dossier. With the inroads I've already established, Hannah should have no trouble getting Lady Bug to sign on.
With all the necessities taken care of, it's time to settle things with Beetle Knight. We need to get him woken up and prove that he doesn't have powers. He isn't in critical condition, but he's wearing a costume, so Lady Bug's permission as his 'partner' is enough for us to treat him, as per the Parahuman Emergency Medical Treatment bill. I order a dose of the antidote sent to the infirmary. Pneumatic tubes I built into the walls are the most secure way to move sensitive chemicals.
..ooOoo..
"What do you mean there's no antidote?"
The on-call physician blinks blearily at me. SLEEP DEPRIVED I wish the higher-ups would take me seriously when I say how inefficient it is to rotate our doctors' schedules. We need them alert. "Shadow Stalker brought in a fuck-load of perps tonight, so we used up the old run." CRANKY - OFFER COFFEE.
"I personally supervised the delivery of the latest batch at 1700 hours. Why can't you use it?" Shoot, why didn't they use it instead of the technically expired batch?
"Someone screwed the pooch on scheduling, so that fuckwit intern from BBU was the only one with the time to load the tubes. He says a hot chick in a sundress tripped him." DISBELIEF. "I bet the dumbass tripped over his own feet staring at her ass or something." STRESSED The doctor's tone isn't very professional.
I count to ten before replying. "What about the saved doses from the first batch? The ones we were saving to check how long it actually takes for the counteragent to expire?"
"It should work, but it might be a bit slower and we'd have to keep an extra close eye on him."
Good enough for me. Since we have to monitor this extra carefully, I don't even have to suggest using the Tinkertech body imaging device I built. A few minutes of observing his circulatory system is enough to establish that the old antidote is working nearly exactly how we expected. Before the supposed cape can wake up, I turn my focus to his brain. Hmm. Takes a bit more power than I'd expect to get a clean read. Maybe he is a cape. I have been known to be wrong on rare occasions. It would certainly make recruiting Lady Bug easier. I just manage to get the image right before he stirs. Nope - Beetle Knight doesn't have a Corona Pollentia, let alone an active Gemma. He doesn't have powers and never will.
Now how to use this...