The door opened, and we stepped into a dimly lit room.
Vista was wearing a brave face, but a deep purple cloud of anxiety surrounded her. As I watched, a lightning bolt of neon green raced through before vanishing.
"Gallant, Vista, thank you for joining us. Please take a seat."
Armsmaster was standing at the head of the table, with Miss Militia, Velocity, Battery, Assault, Dauntless, and Challenger sitting in various seats. There were two left open for us, between Velocity and Battery. A screen with the Protectorate Logo sat prominently on the far wall.
"We were about to discuss the events at Ridgewell Park. Velocity suggested including you two, to give your first-hand accounts of the incident." Armsmaster seemed to look more closely at the two of us. A rusty cloud surrounded him, frustration, mixed with the light teal of concern.
"If you don't feel up to it, we can rely on your reports."
"I'm fine." Vista sat herself down and kept her back straight. The neon green lightning raced through her cloud again.
"Same." I gave a simple response and followed her example.
"Good." He pressed a button on a remote. The screen swapped from the Protectorate Logo to the beginning of a recording.
"At approximately four o'clock yesterday, Uber and Leet began their stream. Calling it the "Stalker Christmas Special", referencing an Earth Aleph video game import released roughly three and a half years ago."
"As you can see," He hit the play button, though the video was muted with only subtitles. "It appears Leet developed multiple new pieces of tech for this specific event. While rare, Leet has done this for their larger events in the past."
He hit pause. Uber and Leet were inside a trailer, the walls lined with cages. Inside each was a mutated dog.
"The mutated animals he is referring to as "Blind Dogs" are currently believed to not be Tinkertech in of themselves, but rather the result of the utilization of a device. This would fit what we know of Leet's power, in that he cannot make any device more than once."
"Uber was equipped with what has been labeled the "Gauss Rifle", a piece of tech used before. It fires a cluster of iron sand that releases a scalable electrical charge on impact. This ranges from taser level to lethal."
"In Leet's hands is what he called the "Console". This device allowed him to manipulate temperature, gravity, and electrical charges over a pre-set area. These effects seem to create opposite effects when manifested. An area of high temperature has an equivalent area of low temperature somewhere, for instance. The area was set with boundary spikes that we found at the park's corners."
"I suppose we can be thankful that he wasted so much of his tech on this." Miss Militia threw in as a comment, though her aura showed frustration. "The park had a relatively small number of people in it."
The video started again, as the two villains explained the premise of the stream. Uber needed to 'navigate the Zone', gathering 'artifacts' and 'loot' while trying to 'avoid the deadly anomalies and mutants'. The two opened the trailer, went to the semi-cab, and pressed a button to open the cages.
"This is the start of the incident. The video does not show it, but almost all released animals ran towards Ridgewell Park. Three are unaccounted for as of this moment. Police have been notified to keep an eye out for animal attacks. These dogs are not a large threat when encountered individually, but even two could be dangerous to the civilians, agents, or certain parahumans if taken unawares."
"There were no fatalities in the park itself?" Battery spoke up with a frown.
"No fatalities or missing persons from the park itself." Armsmaster nodded. "Primarily due to three factors."
Uber got out and the stream followed along behind him, as he ran into the forest. It followed along over his shoulder as he suddenly dropped to a knee. In the distance, a mother was kicking at a dog trying to follow them up a slide, their child crying behind them. He took aim with his rifle and fired, the dog falling off the slide in a spasming mess.
"Uber himself was limiting the damage the dogs could do by hunting them." His mouth thinned into a line as Uber snatched a purse from the ground as he ran past. "While stealing anything that might have gotten left behind in the panic."
The air in the room seemed almost cloudy with swirling red eddies. Everyone was angered to different degrees, with Miss Militia being the lightest, and Velocity the most. Armsmaster fast-forwarded the video, eventually slowing it down when it split off from Uber.
"The second factor was the quick response from Gallant and Vista. The current belief by analysts was that Uber and Leet actively planned for this, as Leet was fully prepared with commentary for the arrival of the two Wards."
I slowly curled my hand into a fist as I watched the video. Space stretched and squashed as Vista focused on getting a father with his two sons out while corralling a ball of fire. It left me having to deal with a pack of dogs. They couldn't hurt me, but my power hadn't been working on them. Blood had splattered onto the snow as one of my fists smashed into one's chest.
"As messy as it was." I could see people glance at us, the red of anger getting muddled with other colors. "It is partially thanks to you two that the situation did not turn out far worse. Congratulations are in order."
"We were just doing our job… sir." Vista tried to play it cool, but a bright purple surged through her cloud.
"We had to help." I couldn't help but feel the same pride Vista felt.
"All the same, quick thinking and quick reaction times helped prevent this from being a tragedy. To get back onto the topic, do you have any insight you might give from your first-hand experience?"
"The Console's effects looked scary." Vista chimed in first. "But they were easy. Leet couldn't move them fast enough to get out of my power."
"Noted. Gallant?"
"Despite being blind, the dogs didn't struggle to find people." I tried to remember more details. "It was almost like they weren't blind at all. Enhanced hearing or smelling? Beyond that, they were just dogs. No stronger or weaker than whatever breed they originally were."
"As we figured. There is evidence in the video that supports them utilizing their sense of smell." He clicked the fast-forward button on the remote.
Our fight went quickly and then the video shifted, the Snitch flying away from us quickly.
"I spotted the Snitch while it was leaving." Vista quickly added, getting a nod from Armsmaster.
It darted over the treeline, before finally ducking down. It revealed another small battlefield and a familiar figure.
"The third factor is the arrival of the independent hero, Sequoia."
The subtitles showed her arguing with Leet, demanding he either leave or fight her. It was impossible to see her expression behind the wooden mask she wore, but Gallant knew she had to be furious.
"At this point, Sequoia had rescued three individuals; a mother and her two children."
Behind Sequoia, a pack of three dogs were sneaking towards her. Vista let out a quiet gasp as they lunged.
"This recording is the best indication of Sequoia's overall capabilities. Her power seems to be a type of touch-based plant manipulation ability. As we can see here," He paused the video and gestured to one of her arms, going frame by frame. "A spike was produced from her armor quick enough to injure the dog. The material flowed down her armor to her hand and formed a dagger."
He sped the video up and then paused again to point at one of her hands.
"Here, we can see the dagger transform again. It seems to fall apart into individual capsules. Forensics revealed that these were each filled with capsaicin, proving highly effective against the dog. This evidence proves the smell theory."
Part of him couldn't help but feel bad for the dogs as Armsmaster started the video again. Leet had turned them into cheap entertainment. It wound up with us having to put them down.
"Sequoia showed no hesitation at any moment to take the lives of the dogs. Her armor shows only faint signs of damage from the dogs. We collected two arrows and half of the spear she left behind. Preliminary testing has revealed that both seem to outperform conventional steel weaponry. If this is true, her armor is very likely similar."
The Snitch took off and found its way to Leet and Uber. It stopped by Leet, though his face was impossible to see in the hazmat suit he had put on.
"Get ready for the Blow-Out!" The Snitch suddenly shot back into the air, revealing a small roiling cloud of color above the fountain.
Armsmaster paused the video and looked towards the two of us.
"Before we continue, you two encountered Sequoia around this time, correct?"
"Yes, sir." Vista nodded quickly. "Sequoia came around a tree too fast and smacked into Gallant face first."
"Yes." I let out a sigh. "She was hurrying to catch up with the Snitch."
"She did some kind of trick with her sword, all the blood fell off it." Vista made a face. "Don't think she noticed what was on her armor though."
"More fine control with her power, then." Armsmaster nodded. "What can you tell us about her? Gallant, what was her emotional state?"
"Angry and Determined." A swirling cloud of red and blue. "She was more than willing to go after Uber and Leet alone if need be. Didn't wait for us to agree to help her before running off to go after them. It was reckless."
"They did have a good reason." Vista countered. "Uber and Leet went too far, and needed to be stopped."
"That, alongside her presence, was part of why you were permitted to engage Uber and Leet." Miss Militia sighed.
The video started back up, and we got a good view of Uber trying to snipe us. The fight proper. Then the Blow-Out. The last thing before it cut abruptly was the sight of Vista getting dogpiled by Sequoia and me.
"A knight clad in cabinetry." Assault joked and got jabbed in the side by Battery
"Gallant." Armsmaster ignored it. "Anything out of the ordinary in her emotional reaction?"
"I don't think there was much conscious thought in how she protected Vista." I ignored Vista's grumble. "Outside of that, nothing you wouldn't expect during the fight."
"She isn't a new cape," Vista added. "No way a new cape would just… do that. She's had to protect people before."
"She made a mistake." Dauntless cut in. "Attacking a tinker-tech device directly can always result in blowback, especially while in use."
"Considering the circumstances," Velocity spoke. "It seemed like a good option. Throw her sword at the device, damage or disable it, and no more effects. Frees Vista up and reduces incoming damage."
I didn't know for certain if she had planned it or not. I didn't speak up, thinking about it. She had been furious at the end there. Had she been angry enough to just act without thinking? Maybe.
"Either way, the result was the same." Armsmaster shut down further discussion. "Leet's device suffered a catastrophic failure, creating a rapidly expanding energy field."
"It moved faster than I could expand the space around it." The cloud around Vista became that same rust-colored frustration.
"It's more than likely your efforts may have saved you all from severe injury, alongside a great deal of infrastructure damage." An aerial view of the Park appeared, with a circle overlaying it.
"The field dissipated here. At this point, its energy only damaged the trees. Those closer to the center were killed outright. If you hadn't acted, it likely would have caused significant injury to the three of you. You only avoided injury as is thanks to Sequoia and Gallant shielding you with their bodies, alongside your efforts"
A small shiver ran up my spine as I was reminded of how close we had come. A small surge of sickly yellow shot through Vista's cloud.
"Vista, you were the only one not to pass out due to the energy field. Following you was Sequoia, correct?"
"Yes." She gave a quick nod. "I was trying to talk to Console when she woke up."
"She did a…" There was a moment's hesitation before she continued. "Weird thing with her armor. It was like the undersuit was liquid. A bunch of dust and bark fell off her, then she didn't have armor. Just the suit, her helmet, and a pair of boots."
"A further example of her fine control, likely repairing the damages. Which implies she has a direct ability to tell when it is…" Battery trailed off, lost in thought.
"I helped her stand, and we woke Gallant up. She uh, slapped him upside the helmet and yelled at him to wake up." That got a snort out of Assault. "Said we just needed to startle him awake. It worked."
"Not much of a bedside manner, huh?" Assault threw in the comment and got an elbow to the side from Battery.
"Gallant, after you woke up, did you notice anything unusual?" Armsmaster ignored the two and focused on me.
"Pretty usual emotional reaction. Anger and frustration. Anxious after Velocity arrived." After thinking, I added. "I don't think she liked me though. Maybe a reaction to me running into her and arguing not to go after Uber and Leet though."
"Noted. Velocity, you made the offer for her to join the Protectorate after the statement." The two nodded at each other.
"I avoided a hard approach. Between obviously heroic inclinations and the firm no, I decided it'd be better to take a soft approach. Let her see what we have to offer on her own time rather than try to force it."
"I got her to promise to try and stay in touch?" Vista offered. There was gold in her cloud now, hope.
"She left in a hurry, saying it was something in her civilian identity. Might have left someone nearby, or had prior arrangements that the attack interrupted." Part of me felt bad for speculating on her civilian identity.
"We'll table that discussion for now. After she left, Velocity did a run of the park and found the last two victims. PRT Agents escorted Vista and Gallant back to transport to return to the HQ. Panacea arrived, having been in the area, and aided first responders. Only the two last victims, who were caught in the energy field, will suffer lasting injuries due to her presence."
Armsmaster clicked a button and a picture of Uber and Leet appeared.
"A total of sixteen people were injured, however, and the potential for fatalities was high. Public outcry has been strong, and as such, Uber and Leet are being marked as high-priority targets. While it's likely they will lay low for some time, we will be waiting for them to resurface. When they do, our objective is to hit them hard."
"Vista. Gallant." Armsmaster directly looked at us. "Did anything about Sequoia seem familiar to you?"
"No?" I didn't need my power to tell Vista was confused.
"Why do you ask?" I internally agreed, but didn't speak outright.
"Sequoia has made three appearances so far. The first we can only assume to be her first night out. She wore much simpler armor and used a simpler weapon. She saved one Janice Higgins and Patrick Smith from a pair of muggers, while also healing Patrick's broken jaw."
I nodded along. It had made the rounds at Arcadia. The connection was easy to make.
"Second appearance, she fought a group of Empire 88 on Parks Street. This is where we first get reports of her finished costume, the shaped wood over the undersuit. She worked alongside Shadow Stalker, and while all the criminals apprehended were more injured than I would prefer, none suffered fatal injuries. They both fled the scene afterward."
"This is the first time we've gotten a good look at her abilities. Her primary ability seems to be touch-based manipulation of plant matter, down to the cellular level. She follows a tinker-like pattern of each subsequent appearance having improved equipment. Which doesn't fit with the experience she seemed to show at Ridgwell Park."
"A cape using their power in a new way? Trying to hide their identity, perhaps?" Miss Militia's cloud darkened.
The pieces clicked together in my head.
"Panacea." Everyone turned to look at me at once. "You think Sequoia might be Amy Dallon."
"Wait, what?" Vista couldn't decide where to look, Armsmaster or me.
"That is one of my current leading theories." He pressed a button, and an official image of Panacea appeared. "As we all know, Panacea's power gives her the ability to manipulate biological life on skin contact. She uses this primarily to heal. It would explain how Sequoia was able to heal Patrick on her first appearance. It would explain why Sequoia is following an almost tinker-like growth rate, despite having obvious experience."
"And," Velocity's brow was furrowed as he thought. "It'd explain why Sequoia ran off so quickly, only for Panacea to appear right after. She was… in shock, I think, after healing everyone. Ran into some people she knew more closely and it seemed to have affected her."
I wish I had gotten a chance to see Panacea after the fight. There hadn't been a chance.
"The two have different builds though." Battery spoke up, staring at the picture of Panacea. "Sequoia is taller, broader, and more athletic than Panacea."
"Padded undersuit, distorts the figure and helps protect her. Boots add an extra inch or so and help change her posture." Assault was serious for once as he chimed in. "The helmet completely covers her head and hair, leaving nothing exposed. If I was trying to hide my identity, you can't get better than that."
"Her voice sounded completely different." Vista crossed her arms. "And she acted… mostly differently. She was a little snappy like Panacea, but I've never seen her… like that."
"And, we have no motivation. If she wanted to start going on patrols, why not just speak to New Wave about it? Why go through all of this trouble to make a second secret cape identity?" Dauntless stepped in.
"A moody teenager could have any number of reasons to want to hide something from her parents." Challenger glanced over at us. "No offense to you two."
"Gallant." Armsmaster hadn't stopped staring at me. "As of this moment, we have no hard evidence of this. I don't want to bring this to New Wave without knowing for certain."
The intent was obvious.
I went back to my memory of the fight. The red and dark blue aura that hung around her before the Blow-Out. The simmering red and rust that followed it, the deep purple of anxiety after Velocity arrived—the sharp spike of red anger when she caught me staring at her.
"I don't know." It was the truth. "There were some moments that felt similar… But the rest of it? Almost completely different person. I've never seen Panacea so determined before."
The only emotion that was consistent between the two was anger. I didn't mention how often Panacea was surrounded by dark gray guilt and green envy. None of those were present on Sequoia.
"Then we'll stick to the new independent theory for now. If we get more evidence of Sequoia being Panacea, we'll bring it to New Wave's attention. We'll try to recruit Sequoia through the light approach, assuming she remains generally cooperative with us." Armsmaster gave us a nod.
"You two are free to go."
We pushed ourselves away from the table and stood up. As we turned and walked out of the room, I caught Armsmaster beginning to talk again.
"To move onto the next talking point, Shadow-Stalker has begun to become more active…" His voice cut off as the door closed behind us.
"You don't believe it, do you?" Vista didn't wait a second to turn and stare at me.
"Believe that Sequoia could be Amy?" I let out a small sigh and shrugged.
"There's no way that it's true. Sequoia's so cool. Amy's like… she's Amy. It'd be so weird, right?" Her cloud was a bright orange and yellow, confused and excited.
"Who would have known she had it in her." It wasn't something I ever thought she was capable of.
"Are you going to tell Vicky?" Her voice lowered to a whisper as we got closer to the offices.
"No." I already knew my answer. "If it's not Amy, it'd cause problems for no reason. If it is Amy… It's her secret to share."
Besides, Sequoia seemed to be in a healthier mental state than Amy Dallon had ever been.