Colin Wallis, known to most of the world as Armsmaster, sat down in his chair with a heavy sigh as he felt the tension within his muscles leave him. He had just finished his routine workout, and now he needed to let them relax for it to have its desired effects.
It was not just muscle tension; he was heavy with, it was also thoughts, thoughts about himself, his work, and everything else, and as he looked at the canister with a stylized 'C' on it. Thoughts about what was actually going on.
As then he had found the canister within the now deceased Squealor's monstrosity of a tank, he had been utterly confused and then worried after he had been told she was dead. Killed by a dose of Neurotoxin right as she was about to spill the beans. Meaning someone had been watching and listening in on the entire Merchant Assault.
That someone being Coil, someone who Armsmaster had dismissed as a small fry, unimportant in comparison to even the Merchants, but it now turned out the man had a lot of more reach than Colin had ever thought possible. As the man from what Assault had said had been the one too seemingly, supply the Merchants with new capes through the Travelers. As he was only in the city besides Verity with a snake-based 'theme,' as it were.
Colin had heard of rumors of powers being sold before, conspiracy theories about a group that sold powers in a bottle, but he had always dismissed that as nonsense, as he knew the only way to get powers were to Trigger, to have such a bad day that you almost wished for death, but the mercy could not be granted. Well, if you were a first-generation Parahuman. He was thankful the Dallon and Pelham children didn't have to have it that bad as his own… now was not the time to think about that.
But now Colin was unsure, the canister in front of him that bore the mark of Case 53s, Squealers short but damning testimony. Verity's complicated nature, and the fact that the new Merchant Cape known as Crystal Meth had been revealed to be entirely blue beneath her full-body covering outfit and that, according to Panacea, had an altered nervous system.
The woman was a Case 53 in everything but name; she just lacked that 'C' and no memories, and she would be no different from any other Case 53 except Verity, of course. Though not, that was 100% prof as some non-Case 53 Parahumans did have permanently altered biology, such as their very own Aegis with Bad Canary being an example of an added feature that had nothing to do with her powers.
It made no sense, but hopefully, his talk with Verity would reveal new information as talking with her always shed new light on something or another.
And speaking of Verity, Colin had to admit that the snake-powered, Parahuman had been an unexpected surprise. He had first thought that it would have ended in disaster when the Director had rushed her through integration after the initial power testing, desperate to have such a heavy hitter out on the field as fast as possible to tip the scales in the PRT's favor.
Colin had considered it a gamble, but it had to his surprise, paid off as Verity had taken to the job like a fish did water and excelled in it. Having accomplished more over the last month than the entire Brockton Bay Protectorate had in its entire existence. And that success had brought her a lot of fame, and Colin had thought he would have ended up like Dauntless, a blowhard who liked the spotlight a little, a spotlight that had shined down on them since they started showing them with praise as they unlike barely had to work to get good. He had thought the fame would go to her head.
But it hadn't.
Verity had stayed and was still humble to a fault sure she liked the fame, but she had not let it consume her. She had stuck to her creed, her oath. That she was 'Here To Help,' she acted like a hero straight from the old comics he used to read as a child.
And all of that had led Colin to reflect on himself, and he had come to a realization. That he had just been projecting his own issues and insecurities onto the two of them. For what they had, he wanted, Colin had always desired to his name immortalized, to perform a deed so great he would soar to the top and replace Hero as the Tinker in everyone's minds.
And wasn't that an arrogant thought and an insult to his idol?
And after that, he had gone over his own career, and he had realized something. While he had been an excellent officer of the law. He had never really done anything heroic. He had never done what Verity had done and helped people outside of his job.
And after that, Colin had felt ashamed and vowed to do better, to do the best job he could even with his tech reaching an endpoint and his body getting too old. But now, he wanted to do, even more, to actually 'help' people. And he knew there was a way for that, and for that, he also had to thank Verity again. For hidden within his lab was the last sample of her CRISPR Venom. He hadn't destroyed it like he should have, having saved it. As he now planned to analyze and make a version of it that didn't have the 'side-effects' that various Thinkers had determined it did. For while he wasn't a Biotinker, his specialty still allowed him to make various scanners that could analyze the mysterious substance so that one day he could make a nanomachine-based version that only had its observed healing properties with none of the Changer effects.
Though that would take some time as it was just pure nonsense, he had no idea how it worked; the DNA that composed it was an utter mystery. Not even Dragon had been able to understand anything besides what she had reported.
And yeah, that meant he had lied a little to Verity and everyone else about what he had done with his sample. But, it was just too big to be dismissed like it had by the Chief-Director who had not even been willing to entertain the idea that the Thinker that had determined its possible, just maybe Master effects, was wrong.
But that was for later. Now he had to work with Verity to solve their current and newest mystery.
But before he could set up for the meeting, Colin saw Dragon start a voice call.
"What is it, Dragon?" Collin asked.
"Colin, have you checked the news?" She said in a panicked tone.
"No, I have not? What happened?"
"Somebody has leaked the civilian identities of the entire E88."
Colin blinked a few times as realization set in.
"Shit…"
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