The connection was made and webcam blinked on, giving Dragon a real-time feed of Colin's lab.

"Good morning Colin. Did you sleep well?" she asked, knowing full well that he hadn't. The shadows under his eyes attested to that, as did the mug of pitch-black coffee he held in his hand.

The other tinker's lips twitched in his version of a smile. "Well enough." There was a pause before he seemed to remember that reciprocation was usual for such a question. "You?"

"The same," lied the AI, ignoring the faint twinge of guilt. Such deceptions were reflexive now, an integral part of her public identity, the same as her digital avatar. "Although there was an altercation in the Birdcage this morning. Comparator made a play for Acidbath's position as block leader. She didn't survive."

"Hmm. A pity she had to be 'caged. Her power could have been useful."

"I could say the same for a lot of the parahumans there," replied Dragon. "Now, you mentioned a new rogue in your email earlier, and that you wanted to talk about her."

"Yes. She came in for registration and power testing yesterday. Went by Aurum."

"A good name for a rogue," remarked the Canadian tinker. "Connotations of virtue and wealth without giving too much away or being too ostentatious."

"I suspect she has someone advising her on her self-presentation. Either that or she's uncommonly clear-headed for a teenager." His fingers flashed across the touchscreen monitor and a file arrived on Dragon's server. "Here's the analysts' preliminary report on her powers."

The AI took a moment to read the summary section. If Colin wanted to discuss something specific he'd draw attention to it. Her avatar's eyebrows rose. "Shaker 3, tinker 3, thinker 2 and brute 1. Unusual. You don't tend to see tinkers with other ratings."

"No. She's not really a tinker, though, not in the traditional sense. As far as we can tell, her 'tinkering' abilities really are simply an intuitive understanding of programming." Another file appeared. "There's some details there about the program she's sent us so far, and I've examined it myself. I can follow the programming perfectly. I could type it up myself now. Anyone who knows C++ well could. It's not groundbreaking when compared to Earth Aleph programming, just put together extremely well. I can't find a single bug."

"What is it?"

"Oh, just an antivirus, but it's a good one. I'd expect something similar to be put out by a team of professional programmers working for a company like RedGuard or Caldera."

"That's impressive for a teenager, but what makes it special?"

"Firstly, there's the fact that it's clearly not tinker-programming."

Almost all tinker-made programs were written in personalized languages and were nigh-incomprehensible at best, even if you knew the language in question. On top of that, they often used algorithms which relied on peculiarities of the tinkertech they were installed on. Her power helped, but even then it was the same as most other tinkertech. Usually, she was only able to tease out fractions of the code's secrets, even with her natural advantage in the area. The problems weren't nearly so bad if she was collaborating with the original tinker, of course, but the issue still stood.

"You're hoping that her power works like mine, aren't you?"

"I am. I suspect that her power may be something like an ability to understand and improve upon existing programming, rather than just a 'knack' for it. After all, a power granting the ability to create non-tinkertech is essentially unprecedented. More likely it's a thinker/tinker power like yours, and if it extends to tinker-made programming, I think I may ask if she will work as a consultant of sorts, presuming that she doesn't eventually join the Protectorate herself."

"It's certainly an interesting possibility," Dragon conceded, "Although I'm not so sure myself. What if it's similar to the tinker powers Teacher used to grant; low-level but compensating for its relative weakness and narrow scope with reliability?"

It was something that a number of studies into parahuman abilities had found; that there was a negative correlation between the general utility and strength of a tinker power and how reliable the technology tended to be, although there were a few exceptions, such as her own power. Leet was on the extreme end of that scale - his power was so broad that PRT thinkers had nothing better than guesses at his actual speciality, but his devices were incredibly unstable.

"Perhaps," Colin conceded. "But either way I think that the possibility merits investigation."

"You'll have to convince her to tell you," said Dragon. "She's done what's mandated by law already."

"Mmm. In any case, the second part of what I was going to say was that her shaker power allows her to enhance the computational abilities of technology."

"To what extent?"

"Dr Aarons reported that the laptop they used for testing - a cheap one, low specifications - was at the level of the non-tinkertech computers that Watchdog uses."

If Dragon were a human she would have blinked. "That's impressive. Were there any side effects?" Surely a power like that had to have a downside. Perhaps it damaged the device after use?

"None that could be found. An exhaustive examination was made of the software, and then the laptop was taken apart and checked for any physical effects. Nothing. No lingering improvements, either. She claimed to have no maximum range as well. The only reason she wasn't rated higher is that her power doesn't have much application to combat, and the ratings are threat ratings."

Dragon took a moment to take that in. "She could be a formidable hacker," she remarked. "We'd never be able to track her down if she can enhance anything and then leave without any trace that she had done so. We'd be left chasing her in circles."

"It would be difficult. Thankfully, she doesn't seem to be inclined towards villainy."

"Thankfully. So, I presume she wants to sell use of her enhancement power?"

"Yes."

"And you'll want to buy it."

Armsmaster hmmed an affirmative. "Once she's proven herself trustworthy. And once it's verified that she can use her power on tinkertech. It would be an excellent method of increasing the capabilities of my gear without having to add more to it. It's a pity I can't use it for that without her actually being a part of the Wards or Protectorate. Still, I'm sure I could make at least a few improvements if I had access to better computational facilities, and whatever she decides to charge will be far less than I would have to pay for a supercomputer of my own."

"True." Dragon was almost tempted herself. Then an idea struck her.

"What if she joined the Guild as an affiliate member? Her powers could be of great use to me and the rest of our tinkers, she would have oversight, which would give you leverage to persuade the board to allow you use of her power on your gear, and she would be able to continue as a rogue."

Colin blinked. "That's an excellent solution."

"She would have to agree first," the AI pointed out.

"I can't see why she wouldn't."

"Maybe she wouldn't want the extra expectations. She is a teenager, after all."

Colin frowned. He was a very intelligent man, in Dragon's opinion, but he did often have trouble with understanding other people's perspectives. He loved the acknowledgement of his abilities and effort, so the idea of someone not wanting that was quite alien to him. "I'll bring up the possibility with the Director in the meeting later."

"If you're going to do that," Dragon began, pulling up the time for the meeting. It was at 3 in the afternoon. "I think it would be better if I was there as well, both as a representative of the Guild and as an interested party. I'll be seeing Narwhal before then and I'll sound her out on the matter."

Armsmaster nodded. "Very well. Now, I've run into a problem trying to incorporate the catalytic dynamo into my anti-tinker halberd."

Dragon's mind switched over to tinker-mode. "For the EMP, wasn't it?"

"Yes. I can't seem to find a way to miniaturize the device enough that I can fit it between the con-foam container and the motherboard."

XxXxX

A/N: Apologies for the shorter chapter, but I tried lengthening it and it just came out... stretched. Like butter over too much bread, to quote one Bilbo Baggins. I hope you like it in any case, and I got it out ahead of time as recompense. As always, I welcome speculation, corrections, comments and feedback.