2010 October 17th:

The government agent left and Lucian could finally get back to work. He hated how they were trying to get him into another home, since that would not work with what he wanted to do.

He had a Tinker to kill and making sure that he could work on his projects now that he too was a Tinker.

Being someone who had reincarnated meant that he understood in which world he had been dropped in and how badly shit got here, but since he lived most of his life in Canada before finally moving into the US, he didn't think too many problems were going to come his way. Especially since he didn't even have his powers until two days ago.

Everything has changed now, since even if he was reincarnated and had memories of his past life, he still loved his new parents. They were great people. As much as they were weebs who loved the imported stuff from Aleph, he still loved them.

Shaking his head from the memories, he now had to focus on getting the most out of his specialization. His trigger was unusual but his power was also that. Tinker of Fiction should grant the user the ability of a specific universe and change after a certain amount of time. Lucian had gotten the specialization of a single character instead for 28 days.

He knew that it would change, he had gotten that knowledge when he triggered.

Rummaging through the house, he found most of the materials he was looking for. He was planning to make powers in a bottle, basically. The Extremis was something extremely useful to have.

Tony Stark did perfect it after Pepper Pots got injected with the incomplete version. He even made a variant that was toned down to make him able to heal himself. Lucian was planning to use that after being done with the legal situation he found himself in.

Being underage and not having parents was a big thing and now he needed to prove he could take care of himself since otherwise the court would issue him a new home. But that didn't mean he couldn't get a head start on many things, like making his own AI that would help him in the legal process of things and other small things that Tony Stark did invent but weren't as popular in the movies.

He was already mostly done with the AI, which he had decided to dub S.P.A.R.K. or Sentient Processor for Advanced Research and Knowledge. The core of it was done, now he only needed to wait until the AI was done programming itself until it could help him.

Another thing he wanted to create was a Sonic Taser. It was the thing Obadiah used pm Tony to paralyze him. It would function as his 'non-lethal' weapon until he could finally get production going for some actual weapons.

Lucian had most of the things to create the Extremis at home, he just missed a few things, but that could wait. For now, he planned to create a Sonic Taser to help him out in case he gets in trouble when trying to find himself a hideout.

Finally finding the last bit he needed, he sat down in the basement to make sure that nobody could peek into what he was doing before finally getting to work.

It was weird, tinkering. He somehow understood what he was doing, every single step, but it was still weird. It almost felt like Tony was holding his hands while he was working on the Sonic Taser, guiding him to make the most optimal moves.

It took him a few hours of work but he finally made it. The Sonic Taser didn't look pretty, some wires exposed, and the design mostly looked cobbled together but it was functional. That's what matters most right now, that it was functional. When he got better materials later on, he could make it look more pretty and maybe a better range.

Stretching a little, he got out of the basement and went into the kitchen to make himself something to eat. It was already noon, so he decided to make himself something quick so that he could get back to tinkering with his AI instead.

Making a sandwich wasn't hard, and then he was back in his room. Since he didn't have the endless resources that Tony did, he had to improvise most of his work. Like how to make sure there was enough storage room on his computer for the AI. He had gotten all the other laptops and computers at home and plugged them together. He'd also used every single USB drive they had. And with some programming, he had linked them all together for the AI to grow into. Again, it wasn't exactly pretty but that could be arranged later on when he got his hands on the good materials.

Checking in on SPARK, he nodded his head since it was still going as expected. He'd be usable in about two or three days but to get SPARK to a JARVIS level AI, he'd need much more time.

Instead of just doing nothing, he instead got his laptop, the one thing he hadn't plugged in with the rest of the computers, and began programming another AI but this time, it was a much smaller one that didn't need as much storage. This one would help him with the legal situation he was in, to get all the laws and compile them so that he could use them to make his situation much better.

He also had another goal in mind when he made this other AI, to get as much of Tony's programming skills to stick with him when he changes his specialization later on.

It didn't take him as long this time, about an hour before he was done. He then made the AI go look into the laws while he thought about what to do next.

In the end, he decided to try and hack a place, probably a company to begin with, to make sure that he also retained that skill later on.

—

Philip walked into the meeting room, already tired of the day. It's been three days since the attack of Hivegeist and they were still having problems coming in. Too many people were injured in the attack and some people had even died, making this one of the worst attacks Hivegeist has ever done.

"Afternoon, Director." Nutcracker greeted. They had brought in the Thinker in hopes of him finding out where Hivegeist was currently to try an assault on him. Not to mention that the attack was made on his wife, Snubnose, so he was even more invested than usual.

"Good afternoon," Philip greeted back before finding himself a seat. He didn't even need to sit there to make small talk too long, since it looked like almost everyone was already there. They were only waiting on Gasconade, who joined them not a minute later.

"Good, it seems like everyone's here, so why don't we start this meeting a little early?" Nobody seemed to have any objections, so he started the projector. "Hivegeist attacked on the 14th, trying to kill Snubnose while she was on a patrol in the downtown area. A few of his henchmen had bombs on them, and they sadly detonated before we could do much of anything."

"The casualties are still being counted but current estimates have it around 46 killed and over 300 injured." He continued on. "As of now, we have requested support of different Thinker groups in the PRT and Protectorate to help us fish out where Hivegeist is hiding for us to finally get the Tinker out of our city."

Hivegeist have been a problem for a few years now but the Tinker has never done anything this public before. While a Birdcage order had been made on Hivegeist, it was never something they went too public with. The order was mostly made because Hivegeist kidnapped people and implanted them with different technology. But now, the main branch was debating even putting up a kill order for the villain.

If Hivegeist was brave enough to do this once, he'd do it again. Nobody wanted that, so it was either they manage to capture him or hope that some vigilante was able to kill him.

It wasn't a pretty situation but since the Tinker was so mysterious and they weren't even sure where his workshop was at, they didn't have much of a choice.

"I sadly haven't got much more information currently, since the henchmen who detonated the bombs died too. My powers don't work on dead people." Nutcracker informed, making the rest of the table frown.

It was a Manton limit on Nutcracker's power, so they'd just have to find another solution.

Philip still nodded his head, writing down a note that he should get more Thinker help. A Postcognition might not be of much help but a different type of Thinker should be.

"For now, we need to get our 3 cape teams out there to show that the PRT isn't weak, should other villains get any ideas." It was a known fact that if a villain attack didn't get responded to, other villains would also try to take advantage. It's how Brockton Bay ended up the shithole that it was. Multiple gangs in the same city with over a hundred members each? That was unheard of in any other place.

Even Hivegeist didn't really have a gang, just mostly kidnapped people who were forced to break the law and even then, they didn't exceed 50 people.

"How should we do the patrols?" Fume asked, leaning against the table. "From what I can already tell, it seems like the Speedrunners are planning on something. Though they're not the only ones, we have a few more that have been observed to make a few moves here and there, probably planning on doing something big."

Fume was always the most informed about things, since he was always dealing with the police and other agents. Philip nodded his head, also making a note of that.

"I think we should involve the Wards in this, if only to serve as something to sooth the public." Gasconade said, and it got a reaction from the table. Before anyone could say anything, he held up his hand to explain. "Please, I'm not saying we should involve them in fights or so, that'd be the height of stupidity to risk children. What I am saying is to let them patrol the more safe areas, to give us the more dangerous areas, and to hopefully make it so that they don't get restless and go on their own private patrol without any of us being aware of things."

It… was a good point, all things considered.

Parahumans usually liked to use their powers, so when they had to stay still and not do anything, it usually led to stupid actions being taken. And this was teenagers they were talking about, so it'd be double the amount of stupid.

Sighing a little, Philip really wanted to object but he knew that objecting would only make the situation worse. "I don't like this, not one bit, but it's a good idea to get the Wards involved since otherwise, they might do something stupid."

"I'll have them informed when we're done putting down a plan." Gasconade nodded his head at his own statement, and Philip nodded too. The Wards had the most interaction with Gasconade, the breaker being the most available person since he didn't need to sleep.

"Anything else we need to know before we get down to planning?" Philip asked to be sure.

"One thing," Snubnose waved her hand, "We really should make a statement about the people who died in the attack, something to make sure the public knows that the PRT isn't just going to be ignoring Hivegeist any longer. That should hopefully also make sure to prevent most villains, or at the very least, not make them do something big."

Philip wrote that down too, since he had a similar idea.

Seeing as nobody had another thing to say, Philip put the map of Seattle and the patrol routes the heroes used on the projector. It will be a long meeting, he just knew that.

—

AN: Hope you enjoy the chapter since I had a little trouble writing it.