It's not exactly how I would have wanted it and the character I introduce at the end is spectacularly hard to write well enough to satisfy myself, him being one of my favorites.
Also, you guys (and gals) rock. I've gotten so many likes and reviews in such a short amount of time.
lastly, Colin is a little more force over finesse here than he was in cannon. (And for those of you who don't get it go to tv tropes and look it up)
o0OXWX…..Armsmaster…..XWXO0o
Armsmaster climbs through the hole in the emergency room wall, tinkertech scanners active. his long strides carrying him up to the desk, politely but firmly jostling the line out of his way. A chorus of "not again", "this is the third bloody time", and "Halbeard" coming from behind him, he writes it off as mindless background noise.
"We got your call. where is he?" He says in his usual short authoritative sentences, Trusting his reputation to fill in for a formal introduction.
The nurse behind the desk looks up at the hero with just a little bit of awe on her face before quickly writing instructions down on a slip of paper.
"They took the patient up to this room after the surgery. that… man hasn't been more than a few feet from her since he did that." she indicates the destroyed wall.
"thank you." Armsmaster nods as he steps away from the counter. He surveys the waiting room once more, checking for outstanding warrants through the facial recognition system he and dragon had whipped up during one of there early tinkering sessions. He gets no hits.
His helmet bleeps, notifying him that the structural analysis he had started upon entering the building is finished. No danger to the structure was indicated. With a nod of approval the tinker starts towards the stairwell.
"Did you have to climb through the hole in the wall?" A familiar voice says, someone having come up behind him while he was checking his results.
"My program needed to see the damage from all angles to measure the structural impact accurately." He asserts, still walking. "besides I should be asking you what you're doing here Miss Militia."
She has beautiful soft eyes.
"The console asked if I could back you up, I wasn't far so I agreed." she says with a slight shrug. "What are we dealing with anyway?"
"Potential parahuman threat. provisory rating is brute 3 mover 2."
Miss Militia cocks an eyebrow at the low ratings.
"He had a girl with him. from what I can gather it sounded almost like they were afraid it could turn into a hostage situation, and standard procedure for a hostage situation states that"
"All available Protectorate Capes must respond." they chorus.
"fair enough." she says, nodding her head. "lets get to it then."
They walk the rest of the way across the hospital and up three flights of stairs in complete silence. Armsmaster, engrossed in the output from one of his simulations, letting it play across his HUD while his armor walks for him. Miss Militia busy relaying updates back to the console via text message.
o0OXWXVXWXO0o
"It should be just around this corner." Armsmaster whispers, having stuck his arm out to halt his partners advance. "You ready?"
The energy field that is her power flashes through a few different forms before settling on a large caliber shotgun with a huge drum magazine. She often picks it for mid level brutes. Its drum is filled with a mix of bean bag and pepper rounds.
"As I'll ever be." She smirks.
Armsmaster draws his halberd off his back and rounds the corner, immediately coming face to chest with a literal mountain of muscle.
"Can Ah help ye?" The colossal man rumbles.
Armsmaster has to look up. and up. and up. He takes a step back so as to not overstress the servos in the neck of his suit. They're still whining a little before he gets to the man's face
"Are you the Parahuman responsible for the disturbance downstairs?" He asks in his most powerful,commanding voice. It sounds meek in comparison to the cape in front of him, whose baritone rumbled his HUD.
"Whit, is a parahuman?" The ogre of a man asks.
It takes Armsmaster a few moments to process that no, this man has no idea what a parahuman is. His HUD is also kind enough to inform him the enormous man was telling the truth.
"I.. But.. you're telling the truth. How… How do you not know what a parahuman is?" Armsmaster asks, starting to doubt the validity of his lie detector.
"Swatch, ah dunnae kinn fa ye ur, an' Ah dornt caur. ah dunnae kinn whit a parahuman is, an' Ah dornt caur. but if ye start a barnie wi' 'at matchstick yer holdin', 'en i'll caur." The man gestures at Armsmasters most precious possession.
(Look, I don't know who you are, and I don't care. I don't know what a parahuman is, and I don't care. But if you start a fight with that matchstick your holding, then I'll care.) Armsmaster's HUD provides.
straightening slightly Armsmaster looks the giant in the eyes.
"I'm going to have to ask you to come with us back to the PRT headquarters for questioning." He deadpans.
The massive parahuman looks at him thoughtfully for a second.
"Nae, Ah dornt hink i'll be lea.." The brute stops mid-sentence, a look of confusion spreading across his face. "'at feels pure weird."
(No, I don't think I'll be lea.. that feels really weird.)
A red light appears in the center of the giant's chest, just over his heart. It expands to encompass his left breast, and then for lack of a better word he melts into the light. Its color changes to green and it coalesces into a small sphere. hovering for just a moment it zips backwards through the door.
The monstrous humans sudden light show and subsequent disappearance through the still closed door left the two parahumans standing in shock. Armsmaster, whose HUD informs him he needs to close his mouth, is the first to recover. he growls an obscenity under his breath and brings his halberd to bear on the door.
"Stand back from the door!" he yells with great force and authority. "This is the protectorate East North East, we're coming in!"
Flicking a series of switches on his halberd the iconic sword like head retracts and folds impossibly in on itself, slotting back into the perfectly designed recess in the handle. In its place emerges a short black tube with small nubs in six neat rows along its length. The nubs light up with what could only be described as thick, hard, light. They brighten until they are projecting a sphere around the cylinder. His servos have to work harder to support the his Tool as the second half of this weapon activates and gravity around the HL projector is multiplied by 500, giving the one eight ounces of lead hidden within the force of a 250 lb sledge hammer. Armsmaster smirked a little, he'd gotten this idea from New wave… mostly.
He strains a little, lifting the hamberd, (he would admit to no one that he thought of it as such in this form.) a quick command to his hud and the jets in the backs of his wrists ignite.
Then he hits the door.. hard.
Armsmasters suit had analyzed the door. fracture points, grain density, hell he knew how old the tree it came from was. It told him so he knew that a heavy oak door like this one would shatter when met with the force of his halberd. It told him so he knew where the little pieces of door would fly.
It bounces off with a resounding CLANG that echoes throughout the hospital.. and the neighborhood.
armsmasters jaw hangs open. That blow could have crushed the glacis plate on an A-1 abrams. not to mention it would have incinerated what was left. The door just stands silently mocking him. He takes a deep breath and brings the halberd around for another crack at the door.
"Wait!" shouts Miss Militia from behind him. With barely a thought he triggers the emergency stops on his servos and brings the momentous force that is his weapon in flight to a screaming halt.
"What!"He nearly yelled. Only keeping his composure through direct effort. He'd never be able to thank glen enough for the coaching. " Hes getting away! we have to get through!"
Working her jaw to clear her ears of the ringing miss militia steps forward "look at the door, Armsmaster. Its… its not right." The patriotic cape runs a hand down the door. "Its.. metalic. look." she picks at the spot armsmaster had spiderwebbed, flaking a little of the blackened paint off. what is revealed is not the solid oak door that it should have been, but instead a dull grey metal with only a faint scratch where the HL weapon had mard it.
Colins power screams at him. He needs to sample that material. It can't tell him exactly what it is, just that it's an alloy an order of magnitude above anything he's ever seen. Even spheres work was never this strong. Colin does not drool a little.
Nope.
"I.. I need to sample this. I.." he swallows harshly then straightens in his armor. "No. we have to maintain pursuit. A potentially dangerous parahuman has taken refuge in this room and we need to apprehend him." pushing down the all encompassing need to tinker is always hard but Armsmaster manages it relatively easily thanks to his many hours of practice. His jaw set, he starts fiddling with the tiny switches and knobs on the side of his halberd, accessing the most advanced tool he has ever created.
The hard light mace disappears and the projector detachs smoking silently, he pays the one shot device no mind. With a few more flicks of his little finger a warning message pops up on his HUD. The red box simply asks for authorization in bold print.
"Override ARMSMASTER, Zed Zed nine Plural Zed Alpha." A small feral smile cracks across his lips. he wasn't technically authorized to use this yet, but he did the tinker authorizations for ENE anyway so what the hell. It needed a test run.
what unfolds from the end of the swiss army halberd is no bigger than a butter knife. like most of the tools in his arsenal it is made from a featureless black metal that seems to absorb the light.
"Stand back MM." He says. placing a gauntleted hand on his partners shoulder. "I'll have us through in a second."
He takes his junior members place in front of the door. "Initiate." He speaks, the only confirmation that he's not just talking to air is a near silent beep from his helmet.
His halberd bursts into grey flame.
He wastes no time bringing the 'flame' down through the door. there's no resistance, no sound, just the flame and a steadily growing pile of door.
within moments he's carved the outline of a man sized hole in the door.
"STAND CLEAR!" He yells, using his suits speakers to augment his already intimidating vociferousness.
He kicks the door. Nothing, then a CREAK that wouldn't have been out of place coming from a transylvanian castle, and the door falls inward.
If the sound from armsmasters failed attempt at smashing through the door had been loud, the noise the door produced when it made contact with the floor was was deafening. He smirks and steps through the void where there was once a door.
Standing in the middle of the hospital room… which looks more like the sick Bay from a Sci-fi spaceship than an intensive care ward, is a lizard. A humanoid lizard. It doesn't even look up as Armsmaster steps through the destroyed doorway. It merely raised a blatantly tinkertech machine pistol at his face and continued on as it had been.
"patient human female, Late adolescence. Sustained multiple traumas, suffering severe infection, High fever." The figure rattled off in kurt, concise sentences into a recorder of some sort.
It stops its frenetic recital of afflictions to look down at the prone figure on the hospital bed. It only pauses for half a second, but Colin's HUD lights up with almost a dozen different emotions displayed. they run the gambit from confusion to compassion to anger, finally settling on cold fury.
"multiple, pointless, amputations. Could have saved legs if arrived sooner. administering high dose medigel, constant observation recommended." The strange… creature? a case 53 perhaps? Belts out faster than Halbeard thought possible. "should start preparation for cybernetic implantation immediately, reduced recovery time."
Turning, the case 53 grabs a small handled device off a table made from the same grey metal as the door. Faster than Armsmaster could react to, he presses it to the prone figures neck and presses a button on the handle, It make a noise like a soda bottle fizzing.
pointing his halberd at the strange creature and trusting his armored form to protect himself and Miss Militia from the strange gun Armsmaster starts forward. "What did you just do? What did you inject her with?" Reaching the much shorter thing, he reaches out to restrain and disarm it, only for it to not be there anymore.
There are two startlingly muffled thuds and the halberd, the product of dozens of hours of tinkering, falls apart in his hands.
Shock is close enough to what he feels as makes no difference.
Armsmaster stares at the mangled metal pole in his hands. The top half is gone, most of the control system is splattered across the far side of the room, away from the patient some small part of him realizes. The hilt hangs from his left hand by a small number of graphene strips and germanium wires.
His helmet did not whisk away a single tear.
Nope.
The smooth metal of a gun barrel pressed against his chin brings him back from his lamenting to the present.
"should probably kill you. would save time. hassle cleaning weapon though." The thing says into his ear. It is hanging from the armor of his back, using the stubby ridges on his helmet as hand holds.
"you don't want to do that. you'll have the whole protectorate after you. Not to mention my partner is pointing a gun at your back as we speak."
"Partner no longer issue."
Armsmaster stiffens. "What did you do?" he hisses.
"She'll live. If had wanted you dead, would be. Will you cooperate?"
Armsmaster takes stock of the situation. He has no tools left, just his power armor which is just that. Powered armor. Ninety percent of the strength went right back into moving the monster around with something close to resembling agility. He quickly comes to the conclusion that no, he doesn't have anything he can do about this thing, clamped like a limpet to the shoulders of his suit. And he needs to check on MM. But the civilian comes first.
"I can't let you hurt these people. I have to know what you're doing. I will stop you if you hurt them."
The thing sighs. "Noble to fault. reminiscent of.. nevermind. verywell. Will slow work down to much to stop. let me work while I explain." The thing leaps and performs a perfect front flip over the top of Colin's head. It lands, hand outstretched.
"I am Mordin Solus."