I woke to the sound of buzzing, the room entirely dark save for the slight warm green glow. I turned over and found myself staring at the sight of one of my scarabs staring directly into me.

It was like it had its own intelligence even if I knew intellectually that it didn't. I just sighed and turned to the dark room, bringing the blanket part way over my face and breathing in the hot air. It helped to adjust my thoughts, blazing as they were.

There was just so much to think about. Starting with the fact of how easy it was to subdue Lung. Even now, with all his being and the surrounding area in my hand I could not help but feel it was not real.

For so long we, the citizens that was, were so suppressed by the feel of invincibility the capes had. That no matter what we did they would be fine, that they would come out alright.

But that had broken in one night, my whole philosophy of the world. And intellectually I knew, I knew that a well placed bullet, a bomb here and another there. There were so many options to take down problematic capes but we still left them to the PRT.

To incompetents and traumatized teens. For what else could they be? They had dozens upon dozens of years to fix things. To give a semblance of peace in an otherwise deadly place.

Yet they wasted it on PR. On events that barely did anything but rake in money. For who? Of course it was the higher ups.

I sighed as I sat from my seat. Taking in the darkness for a moment before I grew helpless;y tired of it.

With a clap of my hands the lights turned on, and I could see everything around me with startling clarity.

It was as if someone had taken my eyes and forcefully jammed complicated sensors into them. It was only now that I realized that I had a mask on.

The very one that I had forgotten that I had worn. Truly I was tired, for me to not even undress before I slept.

Something that I usually would have done but didn't. I could only chalk it up to the fact hat the clothes I wore were so comfortable that it felt better than sleeping partly naked.

Again a sigh escaped my lips as I brought my legs over the bed and onto the cold ground. A quick tap of my leg fixed that.

The ambient heat running through the floor and into my legs, warming them up compared to the cold air. Something that I also fixed by turning up the heat ever so slightly.

It was enough to make me feel quite relaxed but I couldn't go back to sleep as I had work to do and a sleep schedule to keep.

It would be inconvenient if I happened to develop a neet like sleep schedule. Taking up most of my time sleeping, while appealing, was contrary to my goals.

'Speaking of goals…' I thought, while sitting down at a newly furnished table and eating the pre prepared food.

"I need to find a way to display the Labyrinth but how…?" It was only as I finished my sentence that I realized that I had spoken out loud.

I was a bit embarrassed, I had never done that. Not that I could ever remember. My cheeks flamed with color as I thought of what I had done.

It was a sign of something, what that was I could pretty accurately guess at. It was probably because I hadn't really talked to anyone in days, focusing more on work than anything else.

And without any interaction I was bound to get lonely, searching for any warmth. Which my voice helped with, just the sound itself filling the oppressive silence that was the lair that I lay in.

I sighed, looking to the sky as I gulped down the last piece of bread. A moment passed, then another and another.

The chair that I was sitting on was pushed back with force, a screeching of metal on metal reverberating throughout the room. I sat up, my eyes filled with conflict.

A snap of my fingers and I was in full regalia. There was no point going as anything other than my cape identity. By this point I would be wanted as a witness or something for the disappearance of my parents.

No matter the laxness of the police with people such as us there was still the fact that eventually it would get reported and investigated, however short that would be.

And now my civilian identity was useless as if they had not found me nor my parents they would be searching for us. And any public appearance risks being caught.

It would be better to bury that identity, even if I would still stick to the name Inari. It would just be in another facet.

I had still not claimed a cape name, just the name of my museum. But what name would fit. I thought it over, pacing around the floor while doing so.

Eventually I settled at the wall, my mask and subsequently my face, gazing up to the ceiling.

'Inari' It was a name from Japanese legend. One that was associated with white foxes and what others rarely know… swordsmiths. But since I could not use the name Inari for my name I would need to use some other name, one that would fix me.

Mentally I connect to the internet, the computer on the desk lighting up as it brought forth information on various Japanese myths and legends.

Hundreds of names, deities of different varieties passed through my mind. Yet none of them resonated with me. There was no one name that called to me. Not as much as the name Inari did.

It was not even one that related much to me, other than the fact that she was known to be the patron of swordsmiths which if you squint very hard you might be able to find some relation. But other than that there was nothing.

I sighed as I pushed on the back of the chair, leaning up. There was nothing, nothing that I wanted as a name.

There was one, but it seemed silly to even consider it. Not that it was even a name to begin with.

That one would be to have no name at all, to introduce myself as nothing more than a simple archivist. One that records the annals of time.

'Wait… Archivist' I could use that. I could be the Archivist.

I nodded and smiled, the name was a nice one. A name that I could agree on. Yes, it would be my new name from now on, at least my cape name.

It happened the night before, Lung had been taken down. One of the leaders of the gangs. To be specific, the ABB.

The devastation that he had reigned upon the surrounding population, the deaths that he had caused in his time as a leader could not be counted. Let alone those that he had ruined with his prostitution ring.

But it was for his power that he had been able to avoid arrest by the hero's. But that was not the truth anymore. A dangerous cape, a tinker and a probable master. Had taken Lung down with such ease that to an untrained eye it would have looked effortless.

Yet over the hours that I had poured over the footage, watching every single step of his, and it was a he, that I found something intriguing.

There was a tick, one that may be unconscious or purposeful, which of those I did not know but I could be measurably sure that it was purposeful.

It was something that at occasions I saw no use of. Then inexplicable things happened, the drones that he had used to incapacitate Lung took impossible meanevers with grace and tactics that could only come from a human touch.

And that tick was what I thought the cause of it was. A control panel, one that specific taps on would do specific things. There was not enough data for me to speculate on the purpose of each and every tap but all I needed to know was that it was a possible weak point.

Something that could be taken advantage of and something that would need to be taken into account in the potential that a fight breaks out between the protectorate and him.

The radio at my side crackled, a report of another sighting of the yet to be designated parahuman.

I reported back and told those at the console of my approach and to hold the reserves closeby. I did not know if he was hostile as of yet meaning that there would be a chance for communications.

It was advice that Dragon had given me, trying to fix my supposed social deficiency with certain scenario approved actions.

I shook my head and sighed as I turned the street, the roar of the engine deafening any other sounds.

In mere minutes I had made it to my destination. A building, one that was atop a store.

With a keen eye I found him atop the store. He was sitting and just staring at the stars.

It was harmless but still he was causing public unrest, with those at the bottom and in the store panicking.

With a professional voice, one practiced by hundreds of hours of PR, I directed them away. Even if he was a villain it seemed that the unknown cape had no intention of involving uninvolved civilians into whatever it was that he wanted to do.

Once the last civilian was properly placed away somewhere far it was only then that I dared to approach.

Taking the stairs and the roof exit. I opened the door and took a good look at the figure. At his costume.

And instantly my vision filled with idea's alien ones that told me of how I could use the material, of how I could maybe improve it.

Give it percentage increases in efficiency. But I shook those thoughts, now was not the time to go into a tinker fugue.

"Ah… Armsmaster, I was not expecting such an illustrious hero to find the time for one such as me." The figure said and instantly I was on guard.

I could tell by the way that he spoke that he already knew of my presence and that was reasonable as I had spent time evacuating the citizens but something about the voice he held, that detachment, it felt wrong.

Enough to put me on guard.

"Unknown Cape, you will be taken in for questioning for the disappearance of Lung, do not resist."

It was in that moment, that despite my general awkwardness and bluntness in conversation that I knew that I had done something wrong. I may not be a savant in social navigation but I at least knew when hostilities were thrown around.

And that stance, the glint under his mask, the way that his body tensed. To me it all showed nothing but hostility.

Armsmaster, the most recognizable tinker after Hero and Dragon, one of the best. Especially in Brockton bay but right now I could only feel disgust.

It was not in his bluntness, nor at how he navigated the conversation but it was in his understanding. In how his tech was built with obvious flaws that only one that did not truly understand technology could make.

There were things that seemed to be haphazardly thrown on in the name of aesthetics that somehow seemed to work. And others that should have been placed in other ways in order to work in actuality. But no, everything that he had was terrible, a mockery to any self respecting scientist or even just engineer.

'A tinker…' It was that thought that stilled me. Was this what they truly were, slaves to some sort of mystic power that drove their own technology. Because if they were not then this would make no sense.

By all laws of science the technology that he wore should not work, there was no part that made sense in the reality of this world. It was like an Orc's in how it ran on pure belief.

'Wait… orc' I scrunched my brows even as a blow hit my armor, the metal dissipating the force and blocking the blow.

I stepped back as I thought of the thought I had had. It had come out of nowhere. The race familiar in the fantasy settings that I knew of but in this context, in the context of my mind, it made complete sense.

A fungal species that grew and lived on war. Their own technology only working by the grace of their belief.

And as another blow was thrown at me, my own body moved in algorithmic perfection to block the blow. I couldn't help but think about that implication.

Was there some sort of machine, or maybe some biological organism that fed on the desires of the tinker and made the technology work.

Maybe they were specialized, only making certain technology work and that was why certain people had certain specialization. It was a theory but a theory was just that. A theory and with no tangible proof of my speculations there was no use in pursuing them.

For now I focused back on the battle occurring in front of me. Armsmaster, despite the constant exertion of his tech, had not tired yet. Instead it seemed as if he was energized.

I looked further, calling upon my various sensors but gave up a second later after something in his armor blocked my rudimentary scans. I would need something more specialized to be able to pierce through those defenses.

I sighed and with a swipe of my hand and a subtle tapping to my leg, several scarabs flew from my back and constantly replicated. They formed a shield around me, enough to let me jump from the roof and into a nearby alleyway.

And all the while Armsmaster was caught up with the scarabs I was fleeing, there was no point in doing lasting harm to a hero. I wouldn't want a bounty on my head and as such I would keep to myself, a neutral entity.

Or as neutral as one could be after taking down the boss of the ABB.

I snorted as I took in that thought, my suit dissipating around me and storing itself in a contraption. It was something I had made soon after the labyrinth, a place for me to store my stuff.

As quick as I could I put on regular wear, finding it quite easy to blend back into the crowd. It was already noon which meant that the boardwalk, where I was, was filled with people.

And as such Arsmaster had given up pursuit in favor of going back to patrol. The scarabs that he had taken down merely were gobbled back up by the others who had come back to me discreetly.

And as I sat down at a coffee shop, ordering myself a hot chocolate because I didn't like caffeine, I found myself admiring the day. The way that the cold bit at my skin and the general air of joy with the coming Christmas.

Sorry that this was a bit short but I couldn't really find a good way to extend this any further so I just ended it on a little scene.