September 26th, 2008
A&S Apartment Building, Downtown Brockton Bay.
Eight days since she woke up in this hellhole and just now was she able to finally nail the last bit of preparation on her first-ever invention. She'd heard and read all about the difficulties that new Tinkers would go through to not get kidnapped, but a very close encounter with a Merchant patrol of thugs had put some healthy amount of fear into her bones.
Caution had paid off however, a few extra strolls during the weekend had landed her just enough metal to finish the chassis of the helmet, and an additional trip to the pawn shop granted her the magnifying glass she needed in the shape of a comically large implement meant to be used as a reading aid.
Oh, she also identified the kid who was working the shop as Dennis. She clued instantly to the fact that he was to be Clockblocker, mainly due to the little chat she had the last time she looked through their shelves. Turns out his dad wasn't doing so well in terms of health so he'd taken a leave of absence from school to take care of the shop. How he managed to run it without getting mugged was a question that Angela pondered for days to come.
Still, she felt a little guilty about knowing where the situation with his father would go, but at least she now knew the kid had a future a little brighter than his current situation was looking like. Angela decided to just put a pin on his situation, maybe in the years to come she'd be able to build something that could cure his father's condition. Hopefully, at least.
Anyways, going back to the Tinker stuff, Angela finally finished her first-ever invention a week after waking up in Brockton Bay, and now she had to test it. She could just sneak on into the boat graveyard, shoot a few lasers, and run away into the night before any capes turned up to look for the source of the light show, but since she wasn't a really big fan of working at Winslow of all places, she figured she'd go and procure some extra income.
She would need it to fund her Tinker work and to give herself some measure of experience when it comes down to cape stuff. For now, Coil wouldn't be a factor to worry about, so she could try and hit the Merchants without worrying about the snake man scheming a way to get his hands on her.
The Empire was a threat, but at least she wouldn't get conscripted into their ranks, they'd just straight up dispose of her. Death was a better alternative to practical slavery, and she figured if she could start pestering the Merchants she would be able to try and triangulate Squealer's resource depots for future scavenging runs.
"Alright. Now I need a suit." She looked at her halfway-empty closet and sighed, her past self didn't have the time to pack up her clothes, so all she had was some comfy PJs, some casual pieces that wouldn't work for any respectable cape, and her father's old suit.
It was there mainly as a memento, the last thing she could put into her bag before she had to run.
"...I should have some thread and needle around here…" It was a Saturday morning when she finished the helmet, and it wouldn't be until Sunday evening that she would be ready. A minor fugue forced her hands to keep stitching, to keep cutting and putting back together the old formal outfit into something that it considered worthy of bearing her cape identity.
"Wow." By the time she looked at the finished result in the mirror, she couldn't recognize the old suit anymore. Instead of a tuxedo that sat just a bit too wide on her shoulders and too narrow on her chest, an elegant bespoke suit sat on top of her body, hugging her in all the right places without being difficult to move on.
It was reinforced with thicker padding on the back and the vest, as well as the forearms and knees, and from the cut-offs a pair of black gloves fit over her long fingers, preventing her fingerprints from touching anything.
The helmet was the cherry on top.
"I look like a fucking supervillain." She smiled. Sure, she wanted to be a Hero, and she was going to get registered as an affiliate or maybe even join the PRT in due time, but for now, she merely marveled at the sight of a threatening, classy, and frankly intimidating villain staring back at her from the mirror.
"Alright. Last test before the test run." She cleared her throat and took a deep breath. "Voice modulator: On."
The verbal command was identified without issue by the microphone installed inside the helmet's chassis and she felt a faint pressure over her throat. It wasn't uncomfortable, but it was a little odd at first. She would get used to it though.
"Testing. Testing." She spoke, instead of her scratchy and soft voice, a low, threatening one spoke with unnatural calm. "Alpha. Bravo. Gamma. I am your darkest moment."
Angela smiled under the helmet as she went over the last diagnostics and finally found herself free to go out into the night. She made sure to keep the disposable phone she bought a few days back inside one of the inner pockets of her jacket and did much the same with the zip-ties. Once she was finally ready to go, she stepped up to the front door of her home and listened.
The sensors in her helmet caught no noise, so she opened the door, walked right out of her home, and locked the door behind her as she calmly walked down the stairs of the apartment building. She was fairly certain that, given the fact that it was 02:00 AM and the minimal number of neighbors that could be sticking around this late, she was pretty much the only soul wandering the old hallways of the building.
She made it out the back door without so much as a single sighting of life, and so she calmly made her way further into the alleyways of downtown Brockton Bay to see what the criminal underworld was up to this early into the night.
"Let's hope I find at least something, would be a bit disappointing if my first outing is just a boring patrol." She mused, hands on her jacket's pockets as she waltzed through the dark alleyways of the city.
Two hours had passed before she found anything.
Truly, two entire hours of walking right into Empire territory saw nothing but a few late-night workers hastily making their way home, trying not to get mugged, and a few thugs just chilling around a few street corners. She was almost tempted to go in laser blazing, but then again she had a new suit to keep in good shape, and she wanted her first time out here to be a little more classy than just hitting a few kids trying to look tough.
Her patience did pay off a little bit, as she found herself a neat little trio of criminals suspiciously close to a jewelry store. Angela didn't know where the Empire territory ended and Merchant/ABB began, so she figured she must've been right on the edge for a few guys wearing red and black, two shaved bald and the last one sporting blonde hair, to be doing recon work on a store of that caliber.
She decided to hang back and wait, so she kept the faceplate tucked into the shadow of the alleyway, the rest of her outfit fitting neatly into the dark corner she'd chosen to stalk from, and waited for the criminals-to-be to make their move.
Fifteen minutes later the window was smashed open and two of the guys rushed inside with balaclavas covering their faces, each holding a backpack over their shoulder, while the last one was hanging back just outside of the store to do his part as the lookout.
Angela decided it was time.
The first to go was the poor lookout. She lowered the laser's output to non-lethal levels and kept it kinetic, she aimed using the built-in HUD in her helmet's display and twitched a pair of muscles just above her right ear to fire. The beam shot out at the speed of light, hitting the lookout with enough force to knock out a horse right across the jaw. She saw it distend a little, probably dislocated or broken, and he fell limp on the concrete.
The hit rattled his brain like a house of cards.
The beam itself had made no noise when fired, but the sound of the guy falling limp on the ground probably called the attention of his accomplices, as she rounded out the corner to look past the broken window at one of them sporting a crowbar in his right hand, and the other reaching back for some sort of handgun most likely.
She fired once more, breaking or bruising badly the sternum of the guy who reached for his gun and had just enough time to look at the very heavy tool coming down on her head. Normally, one's first instinct would be to flinch and back away, or maybe even try to block the hit with one's arms.
Angela though? She leaned forward and the tool struck the helmet right over the panel holding the shock absorber.
The crowbar went flying in the opposite direction as the thug started crying from the pain that just shook his wrist. She felt not an ounce of sorry as she reached out with her left hand, grabbed him by his blonde locks, and slammed him face-first into the wall a couple of times until he passed out.
She didn't even register the calm with which she'd taken down these three thugs before she realized she should probably call the police.
Angela dug the burner phone out of her jacket's pocket and called, letting the audio connect to her helmet's internal computer as she started to zip-tie the thugs. Sure was a good idea to deconstruct the TV, one could never underestimate the need for a portable computer. Thank god her powers let her cheat physics and logic, otherwise, this whole hero business would be a lot harder.
Not impossible mind you, but she wasn't rich enough to be Batman so she'd settle for a Tinker.
"This is the Brockton Bay Police Department, what's your emergency?" The operator replied, his voice was a bit tired, probably by the end of this shift or the very start.
"Hello, I want to report an attempted robbery of a jewelry store." She stated if she knew anything about how to handle authority it was to talk with confidence. Not arrogance, mind you, but enough confidence to let them know you know what you're doing. "Should be in the corner of Gallagher with Maine. Downtown. Name of the store's Monty's Silver&Gold."
"..." The operator took a few seconds to respond, either writing down the info or just processing what she said. "Attempted you say? Did you stop this robbery, by any chance?"
Probably the first option then.
"Yes, I did." Angela could only wonder how the tone was transmitted through the voice modulator. She hoped it wasn't too threatening. "Three perpetrators. One armed with a crowbar, another with what looks to be a snubnosed revolver, and the last one with an aluminum baseball bat. They suffered minor injuries, but I did break the jaw on that last one so an ambulance would be appreciated."
"..." Again the operator took a few seconds to respond, though this time Angela did hear a dim voice mumbling something about troublesome capes. She smiled a little. "A patrol car should be closing in on the address, and an ambulance has been dispatched, thanks for reporting the situation. Would you be amenable to staying on-site to offer a formal statement?"
Now wasn't that a good question? Angela felt like she probably could just say no and walk away back home, taking care to kindly requisition what little cash the thugs had on them, but she figured it would be a bit rude to just let her first impression as a cape be so…Lame.
Yeah, she could stay and chat for a few minutes. Not like it was a school night or something, she could just sleep through the entire morning the next day if need be.
"Sure thing." She replied, apparently much to the operator's surprise. "I already zip-tied them but I can stick around to give a statement. I'll probably go after that though, it's a bit late and I want to take a longer walk before I call it a night."
"That's-That's completely reasonable, Ma'am." The young voice replied, and she could almost hear the little grin on his face through the call. "Just sit tight, the patrol is five minutes out. Thank you."
With that, the call was cut and Angela was free to do as she wished.
She immediately rifled through their wallets and pocketed a nice little bundle of twenty-five whole dollars. Of course, she didn't take every bill they had on them, that would be far too suspicious.
"I do believe the law about vigilantes says they can take a relative amount of compensation in return for their service to the city." A voice called from behind her, a feminine voice in fact. "But I would still prefer if you notified the police of your…Requisition once they get here, you know?"
Miss Militia stood there in all her glory, smiling at the antics of one poor Raven going after the shinies.
