Remove ads

Space Ninja Summer Camp ( Warframe/Worm )

Reader mode
if you aren't relying on integrated graphics: Did you try adjusting all the settings down (especially motion blur) after it, or did it manage to crash during the cutscene?
 
Aklyon said:
if you aren't relying on integrated graphics: Did you try adjusting all the settings down (especially motion blur) after it, or did it manage to crash during the cutscene?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
It was a slide show. The audio kept going (kind of. Lots of audio jittering), but the visuals were about 1-2 frames per minute.
I force quit the game because it just kept getting slower (somehow). Uninstalled the game and made a note to return when I get a better system.

My PC is a potato and I'll be getting a better one after this college semester.
 
Last edited:
There are actually 57 Warframes. 56 if you don't count the Founder's only Excalibur Prime, 55 if you don't count Umbra and 31 if you don't count primes.

However, Mesa, Valkyr, Volt and Umbra are the best frames and anyone who says otherwise are liars.
 
Cmd. Frost said:
There are actually 57 Warframes. 56 if you don't count the Founder's only Excalibur Prime, 55 if you don't count Umbra and 31 if you don't count primes.

However, Mesa, Valkyr, Volt and Umbra are the best frames and anyone who says otherwise are liars.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

As a Nova main I disagree, though admittedly I'm new and it's my only frame aside from excalibur
 
I would recommend Rhino as a third. He tough (using Iron Skin), he buff (with Roar), he cc (Stomp), and most conveniently, he super ez to get, being from the Venus boss and having a bp i nthe market.
 
I'm be down to see Equinox in action. She has two modes she can switch between that specialize in either support or PURE PAIN respectively.

Support Equinox would earn at least Master 9 just for her ability to put a building to sleep by pointing at the front door.
PURE PAIN Equinox would earn a Shaker 9 if it came out she had a PURE PAIN field that could instantly kill every civilian in the block, and turn the last vestiges of their dying lives into an almighty attack to kill anyone who survived, and just for the shit cherry on top, if it were trumped and shut down for any reason (including Equinox's own death) the final blast would go off anyways.
Worse still, a specific Warframe modification lets Equinox split herself in half temporarily and use both abilities simultaneously. Even worse, one of those halves is merely a temporary copy (killing it doesn't help stop the other, nor prevent the other from just splitting again) and you can only tell it apart from the original by knowing that a) it will be the form Equinox was using before the split, and b) it'll be the one hitting four times harder than she's supposed to.

Equinox is gud.
 
Last edited:
Equinox also has an augment that in nightform builds up a s l o w f i e l d as they take damage (which stacks with nova iirc), or in PAIN MODE makes them and nearby allies even stronger as they deal damage.

Also, night equinox's massive burst heal can be amazing if you remember its there.
 
Last edited:
I've been trying to farm equinox prime but my internet decided no you dont get to have fun and now I lose connection after 5 minutes in any mission.
 
Cmd. Frost said:
There are actually 57 Warframes. 56 if you don't count the Founder's only Excalibur Prime, 55 if you don't count Umbra and 31 if you don't count primes.

However, Mesa, Valkyr, Volt and Umbra are the best frames and anyone who says otherwise are liars.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Cower in the shadow of Mag Prime, peasant.
 
Yeah, the whole "Best Frame" discussion is incredibly subjective for the most part anyway. Personal preference more than anything.

Getting back on track, I would love to see Battery's reaction to Tayno, as well as Coil freaking out over this seemingly unstoppable force that could easily wreck his shit. I also would like to see Amy's thought process during the bus interaction from the most recent chapter, and if possible her maaaaayyyybe bluescreen reaction to trying to figure out any form of Taylor's biology, depending on whether or not Sleethr goes with the idea I've seen a lot of authors have of the Void making the Tenno not entirely human anymore. It's expressed in different ways by different authors, but it's a common enough idea that I wouldn't be surprised to see it, in fact it would be rather interesting to see Danny's reaction to finding something like that out from Taylor. It also depends on whether or not this is a story where Amy's over-stressed mental state and guilt complex overshadow the other facets of her character, in which case I can't see Taylor offering to give her a ride to Mars to examine her odd biology due to how hard it could be for them to be friends in that scenario. But if Amy does end up befriending Taylor, in any form of characterization, then there's a good chance she could get a ride to Mars to check out some pretty interesting biology. She'd definitely need the ride though, because we already know Amy can't get a clear reading from any projection that isn't something like Genesis', where it makes a physical creature she controls in her sleep that has to be at least somewhat realistic to survive for any significant length of time.
 
Considering the fact that being near a Tenno's real body is quite literally like standing next to a nuclear reactor in terms of how it affects your life expectancy, no one's getting a sample of Taylor without her specifically giving it for some reason. And in which case they'd find normal human flesh when analyzed under normal means, the fact that it never rots and tinker sensors will probably detect the existence of the exotic energy suffusing it.
And we've already gone through the fact that the Technocyte in all its forms is just as much machine as it is biological, Amy will probably get a general sense of what the thing does but only through reasonable deduction out of the biological systems. So she'll probably never figure out that it has shields (as those are completely mechanical) but she will probably figure out how Warframes see things even without any obvious optical sensors (Ivara notwithstanding).
 
*Raises finger* Put Melee Ember is second best build. Need to see about Saryn's tweaks before offering best build. Third best build is Revive-bot Valkyr.

Onto discussion: hey Sleethr does Taylors Valkyr have a duration/efficiency mod build for it? Or do we have a place to suggest builds for her Frame using pre-Ballas Mods?
 
Remove ads
Syndicates 6.0
  • Threadmarks
    • So, yeah. I'm a bad author. Sorry ya all. On a side note, Wisp is awesome, but that means she will be nerfed soon. Oh yeah, story stuff. Onward, ho!

    Again, mucho thanks goes out to @Desdendelle for his mad editing skillz and putting up with my poor writing skills. Maybe they balance out? :)
    Syndicates 6.0​

    With my shopping cart of books stored away and, not wanting to deal with mundane travel methods such as walking, city buses or cabs, I recalled myself back to my Warframe that stood in Emma's room. Visiting the bookstore was nice. It brought back fond memories of spending time with my mom and the rows and rows of books stacked neatly on shelves made me feel nostalgic. I spent a few minutes with Emma, regaling her with my almost-adventures in Normal Land. She had a little trouble believing me about Panacea but appeared mildly troubled by my assessment of the famed healer's mental state.

    Since it was getting late and my dad would be getting off work soon, I had Ordis patch me through to his cell phone. He picked up after only two rings. "Hey kiddo, what's wrong?"

    The 'kiddo' nickname freaked me out a little. It was heartwarming to hear my dad say it, but it reminded me of the Man in the Wall. Furthermore, why did my dad assume something was wrong? "Dad, do you still need to call me kiddo? I'm not ten anymore, ya know? Second, why would you think something was wrong?"

    He had the nerve to laugh. "You're my daughter..."

    He wasn't wrong, and in a city like Brockton Bay I could understand his reasoning, but I wasn't a parahuman. Ergo, I was perfectly capable of not getting into a fight. I simply didn't care and no one offered me a fight. "Not funny old man, not funny! For your information, nothing is wrong. I deposited check for slightly less than one million today — damn taxes are highway robbery — and picked up a few books. I was calling to find out when you would be home, err, at Becky's home or if I should swing by your office because I want to get a few things started on my foundry."

    "Uh, I'm probably going to be here another hour or so." My dad sighed. "The Merchants broke into a warehouse and made a mess looking for drugs."

    That was mildly alarming. "Oh, okay. I'll be there in a bit then."

    "No, no, no," he added hastily. "Everything's good here. Kurt and the boys are working on it."

    "And if they come back with the heavy artillery?" I asked, concerned about Dad's safety — I was pretty sure he wasn't keeping his Clem Clone handy.

    "They won't, and they know better than to mess with us," he tried to reassure me. If it was a syndicate like the Empire or ABB, I might have trusted his assessment.

    "I'll be right there. Bye!" I said quickly and disconnected before he could try to tell me no again.

    After bidding Emma and Aunt Zoe a quick goodbye, I walked down their street and summoned my Warframe to me in a semi-secluded backyard. I briefly debated taking an overland parkour route but decided time was of the essence and activated my Archwing Launcher. Instead of blasting off and making a mess of the yard, I used my Itzal's teleport to get airborne. Just as gravity started to take hold, I hit my afterburners and left Emma's peaceful suburban neighborhood behind.

    "Waaaahoo!" I yelled as the landscape blurred beneath me. Flying over my hometown was way more fun than jumping between buildings and it was ten times more fun than flying over the Plains of Eidolon.

    Halfway to the dockyards, I detected an enemy targeting lock and teleported a couple of times, breaking the lock and lowering my ETA at the same time.

    {"Operator, the —primitives— air traffic control operators are angry,"} Ordis helpfully informed me.

    "Oh yeah, forgot about that. Oh well." I found it quaint to have someone care about when and where I flew.

    I guess it was a good thing I elected to ignore my dad's assessment of the Merchants' intelligence because I arrived in the nick of time. My dad, along with a group of his fellow dockworkers, was facing down a larger group of Merchant druggies led by Mush, their giant trash man.

    I came to a halt and hovered thirty meters above the two groups on the ground. The jet-wash caused by my thrusters caused some loose debris — mostly paper and plastic bags — to blow around; it was quickly caught and absorbed by the Merchant garbage Cape.

    Seeing that my dad was facing down the Merchants, without having deployed his Clem Clone, caused me to sigh with frustration. Why did the man have to be so stubborn?

    I was willing to give the Merchants a chance to surrender and maybe even walk away, but their idiot Cape decided to point up at me and yell, "Shoo' tha fuckwad!"

    My dad and his fellow dockworkers wasted no time retreating into the warehouse. A good thing, since about half of the idiot crackheads started firing towards them instead of me. I saw one of the dockworkers stumble as a bullet struck his leg. Thankfully, a couple of his buddies pulled him in as the large metal door started to slide closed. Why they didn't do that from the start was beyond me, but maybe they were surprised by the Merchants — after all, my dad said they went away.

    My Archwing's shields easily handled the one or two random rounds that came close to hitting me — their aim was, as expected, crap. Old habits die hard, so I pulled out my shotgun and was aiming at the idiots when I remembered the PRT's restrictive rules of engagement and the U.S. thing about 'innocent until proven guilty in a court of law' — even though they're shooting at me, I guess it could be argued that I wasn't really in fear for my life.

    So much for the easy way. I sighed and re-holstered my shotgun.

    I had zero non-lethal options, but my Archwing's Locust Drones might work; if I had them use their lowest power settings, maybe 10% of their full power anti-Grineer setting, and only have each drone target a single enemy.

    I held my breath as the tiny drones deployed and began firing their low-powered electricity-wreathed lasers. I exhaled with relief when my hack seemed to do the trick because, despite a lot of screaming, all the targets hit by a single beam ended up flopping around like a fish out of water and — more importantly — not dead. Well, not immediately dead.

    In less than two seconds, only the trash monster remained standing and boy was he pissed at the single Locust Drone firing at him.

    "Huh," I huffed after a glance.

    I misjudged the effectiveness of his garbage armor coating. I corrected that by sending a second drone to attack him. A few seconds later, the Merchant Cape was starting to feel it but was still putting up a fight. A third drone firing on him made him see the error of his ways. He went from mocking the single drone that initially fired at him to swearing up a storm followed rapidly by screaming his head off. It was almost comical to watch him ineffectually flail his trash-augmented limbs around as he tried to bat my drones out of the air.

    It was a shame he elected to use random garbage as the basis for armor. I almost felt sorry for the guy because, with a little forethought, he could have used a more consistent and protective material. How hard would it be to carry around a few garbage bags of kevlar or keep a truck full of scrap steel handy? I guess it goes to show that drug addicts aren't known for being the best at long term planning.

    Before my Locust Drones' energy ran dry — or they killed the moron — I pulled them back and watched the King Kong impersonator fall to the ground. I lowered myself to hover just above where my drones had been pouring their fire. The jet wash from my engines blew away the smaller bits of burning garbage and revealed Mush feebly writhing in agony. The Merchant Cape was smoking from bits of trash that were literally on fire, and he had third degree burns over most of his body.

    I canceled my Archwing and dropped the remaining ten meters to the ground, landing less than a meter from the fallen Cape between him and the now slightly open warehouse door through which my father's head was peeking. I turned and addressed him. "Mr. Hebert, the area is secure. Please bring your injured out here for medical treatment."

    Pretending that my dad was a regular citizen made me feel like a real hero, and my dad's eyes widened with shock and surprise as he took in the scene. The badly-burned and still-smoking Merchant Cape was on the ground surrounded by his druggie thugs. His helpers were either unconscious or moaning in pain and trying to crawl away. If it weren't for the injured dockworker, I wouldn't have bothered wasting an oh-shit canister to heal the Merchants, but letting them all die would've probably made the PRT mad at me.

    "Merchants!" I heard a man yell a rallying cry and looked up as one of the Darwin Award nominees tried to shoot me. His pop gun made a sound, something pinged off my shields, and before I could blink, my Sentinel's targeting systems locked on and fired. The man was instantly flash-frozen, and his momentum caused his body to topple forward. He impacted the ground with his frozen popsicle arms bearing the brunt of the impact; they made a distinctive crystalline cracking sound as they shattered to pieces, leaving his frozen torso and head riddled with icy cracks.

    The area became silent. No one moved, not even the Merchant idiots.

    "Huh, never seen that before..." A squishy human had never attacked me before, and the results were impressive because I had always considered my Sentinel's weapon to be underpowered. The Grineer, Corpus and even the Infested always seemed to end up more annoyed than dead.

    I was pretty sure the remaining druggies got the message, but just in case, I glanced back to my dad. "Oh yeah, and some rope or something to tie these idiots up until the police get here."

    As soon as I spotted the dockworker who had been shot being carried out, I dropped an oh-shit canister on the ground and calibrated the IFF so it would apply to everyone.

    The device's red cross emblem rose up, perpendicular to the device, catching everyone's attention. I managed not to laugh out loud when everyone flinched as the oh-shit canister flashed and the green restore wave washed over the area.

    "Holy fucking shit!" I heard from the dockworker group say. When I turned my attention to my dad's friends, I spotted the injured dockworker looking at his leg with a blend of shock and awe.

    The few Merchants still cognisant of their surroundings screamed with panic when the green energy wave flashed over them, but stopped and glanced down at their bodies as if they were surprised to be alive and uninjured. One or two of them were in the process of lifting burnt clothing to verify their suddenly healthy condition. A benefit of including the Merchants was that they stopped crying and whining about the pain.

    While the healing device couldn't treat the poison in their veins, the field seemed to have a secondary effect of washing out the stupid because not even a suddenly healthy Mush resisted when the dockworkers used some heavy-duty plastic zip ties to secure his arms and legs. I guess 'healthy' wasn't exactly correct because the skinny, malnourished Merchant Cape very closely resembled that creepy Gollum creature from the Earth Aleph Lord of the Rings movie my family watched when I was eight. The guy even simpered and shivered with fright when I glanced toward him. The fact that my Sentinel also turned toward the man when I looked his way may have contributed to his reaction.

    Unfortunately, the popsicle was deader than dead and remained that way.

    "Ordis, open a comm channel with the Brockton Bay Police and" — I glanced down to the Merchant Cape — "the PRT, please."

    "911, what's your emergency?" a male operator answered with a hint of concern in his voice.

    "Hi, this is Tenno. I'm at the warehouse on" — I paused as I consulted my map — "6th and Baker Street, in the dockyard, and I have a bunch of Merchants, one of their Capes, Mush and one fatality. Can you send some officers to pick them up?"

    "Uh-" I think I broke the 911 operator. "Tenno? Does that mean you're a parahuman?"

    I couldn't stop the giggle. "Oh no, I'm not, but it's probably easier to say I am. Why, does that make a difference in my emergency?"

    "No ma'am, it's just that most parahumans call the PRT instead of 911."

    "I was planning on calling them next, but since there are some regular Merchant idiots here and one dead one, I thought the police would want me to call them first."

    "If only…" I heard the operator mutter before returning to script. "Yes, thank you, ma'am. Are there any weapons?"

    "Just mine now. The Merchants have been disarmed and restrained by my— the dockworkers here." I almost slipped and said my dad's friends.

    "Thank you, I will dispatch some units to your location."

    "Thanks much!" I said with a smile, then I disconnected the call and called the PRT.

    "PRT Rapid Response Line. This call is being recorded. Please identify yourself."

    Well, that wasn't as friendly as the 911 operator, but oh well. "Hi, this is Tenno. I have Mush," I heard the sound of rapid typing on a keyboard as I spoke, "here at 6th and-"

    Before I could finish giving the address, I was interrupted. "Ten-oh is not a registered hero in our database. Are you a rogue or villain parahuman?"

    The PRT Operator interrupted me to ask me what? "No. I'm at 6th and Baker Street. I have Mush and a bunch of-"

    "This line is for PRT affiliated parahuman calls only. Please hold while I transfer your call."

    And, crappy on-hold music began playing over my comm system. The PRT red-tape was amazing to witness first hand. Thank the Lotus that the friendly BBPD made their appearance.

    Three squad cars arrived with lights flashing and parked in positions that would provide some cover and block escape while the officers facing sprang out, using the doors for cover. It looked like a scene from a police show and I fully expected them to start shooting or try ordering me to drop my weapons. Just in case one of them tried to shoot me, I turned off the Sentinel's targeting systems.

    Imagine, then, the officers' surprise when no-one shot at them; there was nothing but the dockworkers standing over the bound Merchants and waving cheerily at the policemen.

    "You there, are you the Cape that called?" An older police officer wearing sergeant stripes yelled from the opposite side of a squad car. Smart man, he was using the engine block instead of paper-thin car doors for cover.

    "Yes Sergeant. I was the one." I glanced down to Mush laying at my feet. "Mush is here with me while the dockworkers" — I half-turned toward where they had collected all the idiots — "have his helpers over there."

    Of course, that was when Mush decided to put on a show for the officers in blue and irritate me with a display of resistance. He sat up and, spraying spittle everywhere, he yelled, "Mutha-fucking cocksucka cuntsack. Ski-mar gonna- grrk!"

    With a metallic ringing sound, the claws on my right forearm deployed and I placed my Warframe's clawed foot on his chest, pressing him down. I leaned forward a little and he winced when the claws on my feet pressed against, but did not pierce his skin.

    "Shhhh..." I purred, feeling very satisfied when his eyes bulged out of his head and filth stopped pouring out of his mouth.

    "Didn't your mom ever tell you that it's rude to interrupt someone?" I asked, taking the abject terror and gasp of breath to be his answer.

    I straightened while keeping my foot firmly pressed against Mush's chest and my right arm pointed toward his face, then turned back to the officers. "Hello and sorry about Mr. Potty Mouth there. I called the PRT and they have me on hold. Something about-"

    I paused and held up my hand as I was interrupted by a new PRT phone operator's voice — a woman this time. "PRT Rapid Response Line. This call is being recorded. Please identify yourself."

    "Tenno. 6th and Baker. I have Mush and the police are here. Thanks, bye," I said, disconnecting the line before the operator could reply or try transferring me to another department.

    "Okay." I lowered my hand and turned to the police sergeant. "Is it just me or is the PRT syndicate kind of annoying?"

    That got me a few chuckles from the BBPD folks and, more importantly, their body posture seemed to relax a smidge. They focused on getting statements from my dad and his co-workers and arresting the Merchant gang members.

    After the area was secure, a police lieutenant, with his hand resting on his holster, cautiously made his way over to me. "Is that Mush?" He asked, glancing down to the idiot being held down by my foot.

    "Yep." I nodded and, since the idiot tensed like he was planning on saying something, I flexed my foot, causing my toe claws to press in a bit. Mush got the message and stopped moving.

    "Sorry, he's got a bit of a mouth on him and" — I made a sniffing noise — "he probably smells like burnt shit." I couldn't actually smell him, but my Warframe's chemical warfare sensors indicated an elevated level of airborne compounds.

    The lieutenant smirked and nodded. "Ahh, yeah. He does have a rather distinctive odor and for once, I'm glad he's going to be the PRT's problem." He grinned and took a step back.

    After the BBPD had arrested the rank and file Merchant members, the PRT finally made their appearance. A full fifteen minutes after the BBPD had arrived. Yeah, I was not impressed with the PRT syndicate. If this was their typical response time, it was no wonder the villains were as brazen as they were.

    Two vivid blue armored personnel carriers emblazoned with the PRT logo pulled up, blocking half of the BBPD squad cars and preventing them from departing with their prisoners. I watched impassively as the APCs disgorged their faceless troopers, which reminded me of Star Wars Stormtroopers. They started to set up a defensive perimeter and I noticed that their weapons were predominantly pointed in my direction.

    I sighed, feeling mildly disappointed by their reaction. The PRT syndicate continued to fall short of my expectations. While I took stock of the troopers anxiously fingering their weapons, two parahumans — one male, one female — stepped out from behind a cluster of troopers who took up a position by the ramp of their APC.

    "Tenno?" asked the man, who was wearing a red costume with a red-tinted reflective visor that covered the top half of his face. I recognized him as Assault and my HUD helpfully added his name to my targeting reticle.

    The female parahuman walking next to him wore a body-hugging black costume with circuitry designs traced onto the fabric. Where Assault went, Battery was sure to be at his side. A matching protective helmet with a reflective visor protected her head and identity. I liked it. She looked good and very heroic in it, but what caught my attention the most was the fact that the circuit designs were glowing.

    "Yes. Your syndicate's response time is" — I paused, stealing a meaningful glance over to the BBPD and censoring myself a little — "not impressive."

    I was going to say "shit", but even my less profane assessment still managed to provoke a reaction.

    Battery clenched her fists, her lips began to turn up in a snarl and it looked like she was about to yell or attack me, but her partner reached out and took hold of her arm. "Whoa there Puppy, Tenno is new here and the Director said she's on our side."

    Battery pulled her arm away and spun to face him. "I don't care. She attacked a Ward and killed four men!" she growled, her voice just above a whisper — no doubt in an attempt to keep their conversation private.

    Assault glanced over to me, shook his head and sighed, then he turned back to face his partner. "I know, I know, but they were armed Empire thugs doing what they do best, assaulting a woman."

    With the PRT syndicate here, Mush seemed to think he was safe from me and he decided that now was the time to try and voice his complaints to the new management. "Hey! This cuntmun-"

    Lotus he was annoying, and this would've been so much easier if I had just killed him. Instead, I interrupted his tirade with a forceful push, slamming him back to the ground and causing his head to bounce off the pavement. I re-deployed the claws in my right arm and leaned down, my claws poised to take the worm's head off. A low growl escaped my voice emitter. I had no plans to kill the man, but judging by the sudden terror in his eyes, he didn't know that, and neither did the PRT troopers and Protectorate Capes.

    "Whoa, whoa, whoa! Tenno!" Assault yelled as he jumped forward; Battery dropped into a fighting stance.

    It was a good thing I had placed my Sentinel in safe mode, or Assault would have next on the "turned to a popsicle" list owing to his aggressiveness.

    With Assault in their line of fire, the PRT troopers hesitated, giving the Cape a chance to reach me just as I was pulling back my claws from Mush's face. Assault placed a hand on my shoulder to pull me away from Mush. In response, I retracted my claws and turned to face him. "This man is annoying and I am losing my patience with him. Please instruct your Storm-" — oops — "uh, I mean officers to remove him."

    "Yeaaah, that seems like a good idea…" Assault nodded hesitantly then glanced over his shoulder toward a PRT trooper with an officer's insignia on his uniform. "Hey, LT! Can you get some men over here and take Mush into custody, pretty please?"

    I couldn't see his eyes, but he sounded a little shaken. Thanks to Ordis, I knew he was once the villain escape expert known as Madcap, reformed by the power of love. Because of that, I expected him to be made of sterner material, but I wasn't about to relax with Mush still under my claws. He might decide I wasn't actually prepared to eliminate him and do something dumb. Or, rather, do something really dumb and make me feel compelled to remove him from the gene pool.

    A pair of anxious-looking troopers reached us, so I lifted my foot, allowing them to remove the idiot and rapidly pull him into a third APC with "PRISONER TRANSPORT" helpfully stenciled on its side. I snorted with amusement because they might as well have painted a bullseye on the side of the damn thing.

    With Mush out of the picture, I relaxed a little. I turned my attention back to Assault and pointed toward the transport. "Hey Assault, in your professional opinion, what are the odds that it'll be attacked by his fellow crack-heads?"

    "What makes you think it will be attacked?" Assault asked.

    I turned and pointed to the troop carrier APCs and then back to the one labeled prisoner transport. "I understand the need for specialized vehicles, but why the bullseye?"

    He shrugged, giving me a half-nod, seeming to agree with me. "Uh, yeah, the PRT do come up with strange regulations sometimes."

    Battery chose that moment to walk up and lightly cuff her husband. "Stop it!" she muttered.

    "What was that for?" Assault asked.

    "You know." Her visored face turned back to me, her lips pressed together with annoyance.

    "Hi, I'm Battery and this idiot" — her head turned slightly back toward Assault — "is Assault. Can you tell us what happened here?"

    I spent the next ten minutes going over the skirmish. I couldn't call it a battle or even a fight since it was very anticlimactic and I didn't fire a single shot — a record for me.

    Battery seemed to be a little angry at me — well, really angry — and made it a point to tell me she would be happy to arrest me for letting my "untested" Tinkertech drone kill a man, except she was overruled by whoever was on Console, so she told me I was lucky.

    "So, what's with this look?" Assault placed a hand on his wife's shoulder and stepped forward, putting himself between me and her. "Not that I'm complaining, but where's the bad-ass bow, broody cowl and creepy eye?"
    Whack! Battery slapped the back of her husband's head.

    I didn't understand what Assault was doing to earn her reprisals, but it was probably some hidden, married couple insider communication. I also didn't know why Battery appeared to not like me but based on what I overheard, my guess was that she was upset about me chastising Shadow Stalker. I could understand her position, but I wasn't here to make friends. I turned my attention to Assault. "Different mission requirements call for different weapons."

    "Oh," Assault peered over my shoulder. "taking down Merchants requires that elephant rifle?"

    I shook my head. "Not really. It's a shotgun, and I didn't select it for them."

    "What, the E88?"

    I decided that he really didn't want to know that I selected the loadout for my visit to the PRT. Instead, I shrugged. "If they were dumb enough to attack me, sure."

    "I hope you're not planning on attacking the Empire." Battery inserted herself back into the conversation and, if I wouldn't have known better, I'd have thought she sounded concerned for me. "I know you think you're tough, but Hookwolf is a convicted killer and he would rip that fancy suit of yours apart like it was tissue paper."

    "No, I'm not planning on it." I wanted to leave myself an opening because Kaiser seemed like a greedy and power-hungry man. He was bound to try recruiting me for his syndicate sooner rather than later.

    "I heard a 'but' in there," Assault said. The reformed villain was very perceptive.

    I nodded. "Yes, I'm sort of on vacation right now and will not be happy if anyone tries to force me to join their little syndicate."

    I glanced over and focused my attention on Battery. "And yes. I know about Hookwolf, his murder blender method of attack and his multiple murder convictions. I also know he has managed to escape from a Birdcage transport twice. I would ask why he doesn't have a kill order, but after my meeting with your Director and Chief Director, I guess I know why."

    Battery crossed her arms. "And why would that be?" she asked, her voice dripping with skepticism.

    I couldn't stop the giggle from escaping. "Sorry, Top Secret and I'd tell you, but that Costa-Brown lady seemed very serious about 'the secret'."

    "Uh huh." Battery nodded, clearly not convinced.

    I shrugged. "Hey, not my call. Ask Piggot if you don't believe me. Anyway" — I glanced at my wrist, as though I was wearing a watch — "I need to get going. Things to do, people to see, et cetera, et cetera."

    Battery did not look amused with my flippant response; when Assault chuckled, she slugged him. "Shut up!"

    Assault chuckled and turned to her. "Come on Puppy, you gotta admit she's got spunk!"

    Whack!

    Assault ducked, rubbing his head like he was grievously injured. "Ow! What was that for?"

    "Don't even start!" She growled. "I saw you looking…"

    I didn't even try to not laugh at their byplay. "You all are a cute couple, but I gotta go."

    They both gasped and turned to me. "We're not!" they said together.

    "If you say so." I took a step back, activated my Archwing and waved. "Bye."

    Battery started to say something, but I had already triggered a teleport and missed it.

    Zip!

    I was a hundred meters in the air and, just as gravity began to take hold, I hit my thrusters and aimed for downtown. I executed a few random direction changes and teleports; after the final one, I ended up approximately thirty meters above the flat roof of a skyscraper. As soon as I appeared, I activated my Archwing's stealth, which told physics to go suck on an egg, stopping me instantly..

    After giving the rooftop a quick scan for possible witnesses and not finding any, I retracted my Archwing and fell the remaining distance, landing with an easy roll. It was just starting to get dark out and I took a few minutes to survey my hometown from up high.

    From the east side of the rooftop I could see the PRT's converted oil rig with its protective force field shimmering against the setting sun. It was nice to look at and it was prominently displayed on all the tourist brochures. So, I guess it had PR value. From a practical sense, I found the force field, missile defense systems and gun emplacements a waste since those defenses probably wouldn't stop any parahuman determined to damage or destroy the structure. Powering the force field 24/7 was a huge waste of electricity that could be used by the citizens of Brockton Bay who were struggling to heat their homes and pay their electrical bills.

    The government-sanctioned 'heroes' have lost much of their lustre, as far as I was concerned. My experience with the PRT and Protectorate heroes in the field this evening showed me how ineffective and borderline incompetent they were at achieving their mandate of protecting un-powered citizens from parahuman threats. They had damn near unlimited funding and state of the art military equipment and it took the PRT damn near three times longer to respond to a parahuman assault, compared to Brockton Bay's underfunded police force.

    It was almost like the PRT was afraid to fight parahuman villains or the bureaucracy of the government agency was so full of red-tape that it failed to do anything. Or maybe both. I could tell that Battery was fully indoctrinated by the system. Assault seemed to understand, but his wife looked like she was sucking on a lemon and biting her tongue while I gave the pair my report.

    I felt rather proud of myself for coming up with a way to use my Locust Drones like tasers. Sure, their weapons caused second- and third-degree electrical burns, but the idiot gang members were alive; I even healed them. Well, except for the one who got flash-frozen by my Sentinel. The BBPD officer who took my statement simply shrugged and said, "Yep, self-defense. Thank you for your statement ma'am", while Battery chewed me out for using unapproved Tinkertech, letting my uncontrolled and weaponized drone kill a civilian and almost killing Mush. Oh yeah, and being visibly armed with 'scary' looking guns and threatening Mush's life with my claws.

    The damn Unwritten Rules about killing parahumans, even parahumans who were trying their best to kill you, pissed me off. It pained me to admit that the encounter with the Merchants showed me that I needed to carry at least one possibly less-than-lethal weapon option. When in Rome and all that, but I didn't care what the PRT thought; if a cape attacked my friends or family, the kiddy gloves would come off.

    Tonight, once everyone went to bed, I'd rendezvous with Ordis and make some loadout changes, but first, I needed to return to Becky's house in time for a mouth-watering dinner I couldn't eat. I swear, sometimes, being me is suffering.

    ~**~​

    The PRT armored personnel carrier hit another freaking pot hole, causing the armored men and women inside to sway from side to side while their gear clattered. Jennifer could've sworn that the driver was hitting them on purpose, but the roads in this side of Brockton Bay were notoriously bad. She stole a quick glance over to her husband. He sat opposite of her and, while everyone else in the APC clutched their weapons and sat tense and alert, the unrepentant asshole was pretending to sleep.

    She clenched her jaw in frustration and kicked his leg. "Wake up!"

    "Five more minutes, Mom…" Ethan moaned, eliciting a few snickers from the troopers.

    Yes, he did it on purpose, and while part of her appreciated how his apparent levity helped reduce tension, it still pissed her off. "Damn it! This is not the time. Can't you be serious for once in your life?"

    Ethan blinked and made a show of yawning and stretching. "Ahhh, much better…"

    She sighed, wondering what she did in a past life to deserve this fate. "Did you pay any attention to the briefing?"

    "Yep." Ethan smirked. "Tenno. Danger, Will Robinson, Danger!"

    "Damn it Assault! She put a Ward in the hospital!" Jennifer yelled and the circuit designs in her costume began to glow. "It's not effing joke time."

    He immediately sat up and made calming gestures. "Hey Puppy, no need to get upset. I'm here and I'm sure the big bad Tenno will behave herself now that Piggot explained the rules and all."

    "Why, why, why…" Jennifer glanced up to the heavens and slowly shook her head. "Please dear God, explain what I did to piss you off so much."

    "Now, that just hurts, Puppy." Assault clutched his hands to his chest.

    Jennifer ruthlessly squashed the pang of amusement that tried to worm its way past her anger. Ethan might pretend to be a clown and she knew he took everything seriously, but he was still frustrating. "I don't care what Director Piggot said. I saw what Tenno did to Shadow Stalker and, in case you didn't notice, Vista and Clockblocker changed their minds and took the day off after Aegis met with the girl. What does that tell you?"

    Assault shrugged. "That they were missing some xmas goodies at home?"

    "No!" Jennifer wanted to slap him so badly. "Tenno said or did something in that meeting that scared the crap out of Aegis and I don't care what the Director says, the girl is a villian!"

    "LEOs present. DZ looks secure. One unidentified and armed parahuman spotted," the vehicle commander's voice came over the vehicle's speaker system.

    The APC made a final, hard turn before coming to a halt. Jennifer hated riding the back of the tin cans because she found not be able see where she was going very disorienting. The rear troop door descended and the armored PRT troopers rushed out to form a perimeter and, if needed, begin operations against the parahuman.

    With the APC now empty of troopers, Assault took the lead, exiting the carrier with Battery hot on his heels. Her nose was immediately assaulted by the pungent odor of burnt garbage, but her eyes were drawn to the armored form standing with her foot resting on the prone form of a weakly struggling man like a conquering hero. The man was wearing what appeared to be a half-burned, used paper trash bag over his face as a mask. His clothes were burned tatters that barely provided any modesty, showing large patches of pale, white skin underneath.

    Battery's first sight of Tenno confused and alarmed her. Tenno's Tinkertech armor was different from the pictures taken during her capture of Saint. Gone was the bulky armor plates, cowl and cyclops eye helmet. Her armor looked sleeker and more organic, colored primarily slate blue with blood red accents. It looked more like a metallic bodysuit with smooth, flowing lines, accenting a lithe and distinctly feminine shape, highlighted with sharp points and edges. This was a suit of armor designed to rend, tear and inspire fear while looking good. The Image and PR department would have kittens if a Protectorate or Ward hero tried to get this armor design approved.

    If they saw the weapons she openly carried on her back and hips, those kittens would've turned into full grown Bengal Tigers. The girl was armed to the teeth with a massive rifle on back and a set of matching pistols on her hips that, to her eye, appeared like they were probably automatic.

    The crosshairs-shaped drone hovering over Tenno's shoulder added to the lethal force image the Tinker projected. Battery would have been surprised if the snub barrel in the middle wasn't a weapon instead of a camera. If true, it was both highly illegal and one more strike against the young Tinker.
    Tenno's helmet reminded her of a cat. A cat that was measuring her like it would a bird or mouse. It made her appreciate the PRT's Public Relations policy on keeping part of their face exposed to allow for human expressions to be seen. There was no telling what the cape behind the mask was really thinking or feeling. Was she smiling and happy to see them or was she snarling and about to attack?

    The spell was broken when she turned her head to glance at the PRT troopers arrayed behind. The cape's head turned slightly to the side, as if she was confused by what she was seeing.

    "Tenno?" Assault asked.

    "Yes. Your syndicate's response time is… not impressive."

    Tenno's voice was slightly distorted by her speakers — or whatever she was using to speak through her helmet — and there was a subsonic rasp, or growl, in her initial acknowledgement.

    Battery felt her temper flare at the girl's slight pause and dismissive verdict. Tenno's meaningful glance toward the local police officers seemed to imply, 'they did a better job'. How dare this girl judge the PRT. She wanted to end this farce and arrest her. She clenched her fists and started to charge her power, but her husband placed a lightly restraining hand on her shoulder, turning her slightly toward him.

    "Whoa there Puppy, Tenno is new here and the Director said she's on our side."

    Piggot wasn't in the field and seeing what she was seeing. Piggot wasn't being insulted by Tenno. Piggot didn't see the huge cannon strapped to the girl's back or the armed combat drone hovering over the girl's shoulder. Battery spun, brushing his hand from her shoulder. "I don't care. She attacked a Ward and killed four men!" she growled, not caring if Tenno overheard her.

    Assault glanced over to Tenno, shook his head and sighed, then he turned back to face his partner. "I know, I know, but they were armed Empire thugs doing what they do best, assaulting a woman."

    It felt positively unnatural for her man-child of a husband to be the voice of reason, but he had a point even if she didn't like it. Piggot would crucify her if she openly antagonized Tenno. Battery sighed with resignation.

    "Hey! This cuntmun-"

    Battery gasped as the Merchant cape's tirade was cut off midstream by Tenno using her boot to violently push Mush down. The air rushed out of Mush's lungs and his head bounced off the hard cement. A trio of vicious, glowing red blades snapped into place on her right arm — more like claws — as she pressed harder on her leading leg and leaned toward the helpless Merchant cape.

    Tenno growled, causing Mush to cry out in abject terror.

    "Whoa, whoa, whoa! Tenno!" Instead of letting the PRT troopers safely foam Tenno, Assault rushed forward in an attempt to stop her from murdering the helpless Merchant cape.

    Battery cursed her husband's reckless action but prepared to back him up. The fucking drone had to be weaponized because it orientated on Assault, but didn't fire.

    Tenno must have seen Assault coming at her because she pulled slightly back. Battery couldn't tell if it was because she was about to attack her husband or if she was simply following his orders.

    She sighed with relief — the fucking idiot — when Tenno allowed him to pull her arm back and retracted her lethal claws.

    Battery's adrenalin was pumping through her veins from the close call and she didn't know who to be more angry with, her husband or Tenno.

    "This man is annoying and I am losing my patience with him. Please instruct your Storm- Uh, I mean officers to remove him." Tenno spoke in an emotionless, flat tone, making her sound like she wouldn't have felt any regret if she killed her prisoner. The near slight against the brave men and women standing behind her was like a slap in the face.

    "Yeaaah, that seems like a good idea…" Assault nodded, placating the violent Tinker as he glanced over his shoulder to Lieutenant Graves. "Hey, LT! Can you get some men over here and take Mush into custody, pretty please?"

    Battery warely watched as Tenno's helmet tracked the brave PRT troopers approached her position. She felt a little tension leave as the Tinker lifted her boot, revealing a pair of mean-looking claws built into the toes. What the hell was the girl thinking when she designed her armor?

    Mush was visibly shaking with fear and seemed almost thankful that he was being arrested. He offered zero resistance as the officers guided him into the back of a PRT APC modified for prisoner transport.

    Tenno's shoulders briefly shook as her faceless helmet tracked Mush all the way to the prisoner transport. What in the hell? Was she laughing?

    Tenno pointed to the APC and turned to her husband. "Hey Assault, in your professional opinion, what are the odds that it'll be attacked by his fellow crack-heads?" she asked, her voice dripping with condescension.

    "What makes you think it will be attacked?" Assault asked warily.

    "I understand the need for specialized vehicles, but why the bullseye?"

    Battery didn't see a bullseye, but now that Tenno pointed out how the obvious "Prisoner Transport" stencil on the side made the vehicle stand out; she reluctantly found herself questioning the PRT's regulations.

    Assault, being Assault, failed to disagree with the girl. "Uh, yeah, the PRT do come up with strange regulations sometimes," he said as he stole a glance to Tenno's shapely posterior.

    "Stop it!" Battery huffed as she lightly cuffed her pervert of a husband.

    "What was that for?" Assault asked.

    "You know." Battery sighed with annoyance as she turned her attention to Tenno.

    "Hi, I'm Battery and this idiot," Battery glanced to her side, "is Assault. Can you tell us what happened here?" She asked, knowing she wasn't going to like what the armored Tinker told her.

    Tenno's head canted slightly to the side, seeming to imply the question was unexpected. "Merchants attacked, thinking there were drugs here. I stopped them. Cops got here pretty fast and now you're here."

    Battery sighed. "Yes, but what did you do? How did you know that the Dock Workers were under attack? How did you, uhh, capture Mush and are you responsible for," she pointed to the slowly thawing corpse, "his death?"

    "Ahh, well, I was just flying by and saw-"

    "You can fly?" Battery read the girl's threat report and there was nothing in it about her having a Mover flight rating. Mover rating for teleporting, but not flight.

    "Yeah?" Tenno hesitantly nodded.

    "Okay, and then what happened?"

    "So, I saw them advancing on the Dock Workers and Mr. Hebert there," Tenno glanced over to where the Dock Workers were standing, "and at first, I was going to just kill them all, but-"

    "Whoa, whoa, hold up. 'just kill them all'!?" Battery couldn't believe what she just heard. Did this girl honestly think the use of lethal force was the first option?

    "Well, yeah. I don't really have any non-lethal options. But then I remembered my Locust Drones fired electrical beams. So, I thought, what if I reduced their power down to a minimum, and it worked! It did take a couple extra to take down Mush though. His trash armor was more effective than I expected."

    Holy shit. Battery couldn't decide was part of the girl's statement was more damning. "You used untested Tinkertech? What if it had killed them?"

    The girl shrugged. "Then they would be dead."

    Battery was rendered momentarily speechless by the girl's casual attitude for murder. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't arrest you!"

    "Because I'm on vacation, sort of." Tenno's helmet canted slightly to the side as if she was confused by Battery's legal right to arrest her.

    "What the fuck does that mean? You," Battery pointed to the frozen corpse again, "killed a man!"

    Tenno nodded. "Yeah, that kind of surprised me too, but he did shoot at me."

    It took Battery a few seconds to wrap her head around the girl's statement. How could she sound so casual about her drone killing a man with a fucking freeze ray? She knew Tinkertech routinely broke the laws of known science, but why did this man end up frozen while the rest got mildly electrocuted? "I thought you said your, umm, insect drone fired electrical bolts?"

    Tenno glanced to the hovering drone, "Nah, those were my Locust Drones. This is my Taxon and I didn't expect its beam to kill the idiot. It never seems to do much in combat." She turned to Assault. "It's on safe mode now and I guess that's a good thing since it would've fired on you when you jumped over to me earlier."

    "Console, this is Battery. Requesting authorization to arrest Tenno and charge her with murder and uh, ten or so accounts of assault with a deadly weapon."

    Battery turned to the nearest PRT trooper. "Get me some brute restraints please."

    "Denied." Battery flinched as Director Piggot's voice replied a few seconds later. Why was the Director stepping in?

    To give herself some privacy, Battery turned away from her suspect. "Director, a man is dead here and this, this girl doesn't seem to care!"

    "We'll investigate and if charges are deemed necessary, then an arrest warrant will be issued."

    "But…"

    "You heard me. Piggot out."

    Battery sighed, "Yes ma'am." She turned and waved the approaching trooper holding the Brute restrains back. "Nevermind."

    Spinning back to face an infuriatingly relaxed-looking Tenno, Battery said, "You're damn lucky! I don't know what the hell is going on, but you need to get your powers under control because one more 'accidental' death..."

    "Okay, no more accidental deaths. No problemo!" Tenno gave Battery a cheerful thumbs up.

    Battery grit her teeth with frustration. A man died and she was treating it like a game.

    She absently smacked her husband when he commented on Tenno's armor change. The man had a single track mind, but his intel gathering methods did yield results. Battery gasped with shock and alarm over the monster shotgun Tenno displayed. The damn barrel on the thing she called an Astilla had to be at least 30mm and she knew enough about weapons to know that a 12 gauge shotgun barrel was around 18mm. The recoil on the thing had to be insane.

    When the conversation came around to the Empire, Battery felt the need to try to warn Tenno about how brutal some of the Empire's capes could be, specifically Hookwolf. While she had some deep reservations regarding Tenno's character, she didn't want the young Tinker to be captured or killed by the Empire — or any other gang, for that matter. She did not expect the girl to toss her concern back in her face with a barb about him escaping Birdcage transport. Once again, she wished the Director hadn't overridden her decision to arrest or at least detain the girl for a few hours. Tenno was going to get herself killed if she kept discounting how aggressively the gangs in this city would attempt to recruit her into their ranks.

    Assault earned himself another shoulder smack for laughing at Tenno's attempt to sound like she was late for an important meeting. Then, the jerk had the nerve to, once again, focus his eyes on the girl's butt. Due to his unprofessional conduct, she almost missed Tenno's remark about the two of them being a couple. No, even worse, a cute couple.

    "Armsmaster enroute to interview Tenno." Battery heard her boss' announcement over the radio.

    Tenno took a step back and a freaking winged jet pack appeared on Tenno's lower back, catching everyone by surprise.

    "Wai-" Battery started to hold up her hand, but Tenno disappeared. Her eyes were drawn upwards by a muffled boom and she watched as the armored Tinker rapidly shrank from view as she rocketed towards downtown Brockton Bay.

    "Shit…" Battery muttered before activating her radio, "Tenno has," she was going to say 'fled', but that might imply that Tenno was evading them, "left the scene."

    Armsmaster was not going to be happy about not being able to question and inspect Tenno's Tinkertech, but Battery was more concerned about what the girl would do with her monster shotgun and bullshit Tinkertech when one of the gangs tried to force her to join their ranks.

    ~**~​

    It took surprisingly little effort to get one of his Merchant informants to leak the address of the warehouse containing a pallet of pseudoephedrine awaiting shipment to a Medhall plant. Of course, there was no pallet, but the drugged idiots couldn't resist the juicy target and sent a group of men to recover the pallet. The dockworkers easily handled the first Merchant group, but the group led by Mush was a different story.

    The addition of the Merchant Cape had the desired effect of drawing Tenno to the ambush location. Thomas was mildly shocked by the quickness and method of Hebert's arrival. A rocket backpack of some kind that also allowed her to teleport was very interesting. The drones she deployed to subdue the Merchants were a pleasant surprise and the Tinkertech healing device was a game changer. The young Tinker would either work for him, or die.

    Everything was going swimmingly for him. In the first timeline, he ordered the sniper and his spotter to simply watch. In the throwaway timeline, he ordered his sniper to take the shot. He had to know how hard she would be to kill if she refused to serve him.

    The camera caught a flare of what had to be some sort of energy shield just as it was overloaded and failed. The .50-cal armor piercing round continued and punched a large hole through Tenno's helmet, causing her head to snap back. The distance was too far to get the bloody details, but based on past performance, Coil grinned as he imagined the small entrance wound and large exit wound, the annoying Tinker's brains exited at high velocity out the back of her helmet… Mission accomplished, he ended the timeline before her armored corpse hit the ground.

    "Well, that was informative…" Coil drummed his fingers on the desk and split the timelines again. A sniper was clearly the easiest option to remove her from the board, but what if they didn't have a shot? He needed to know how Tenno would perform in a conventional situation.

    In the safe timeline, he continued to observe Tenno's interaction with the Merchants and BBPD.

    In the new timeline, he spoke into the mic, "Teams Alpha and Charlie, deploy. Delta, maintain overwatch position. Viper, clear to fire on Bravo Target."

    Coil smirked as Tenno lost her shit as the round punched a hole through her father's chest. The speed with which she located his sniper and arrived at the team's position did, however, surprise him. The webcam was violently jostled as the team retreated from the room. He caught a glimpse of Tenno aiming her large-caliber rifle and firing. He grimaced as his sniper was shot in the back and likely killed by the flying Tinker. Less than a second later, his spotter slammed through the door leading to the building's emergency stairway.

    "Viper One down, Viper Two inbound with Tango on my ass," the spotter huffed as he lead the brash Tinker to the ambush.

    Boom!

    Coil heard the sound of the Tinker's slow-firing rifle.

    "Fuck!" yelled the spotter. "Bitch almost got me!"

    Coil was on the edge of his seat as he watched Viper Two burst from the building and run directly toward his Tinkertech-armed fire teams. Predictably, Tenno took the bait and blindly ran into the ambush. The girl might be a good vigilante, but it was obvious that she had no experience dealing with professionals.

    The underslung Tinkertech lasers performed as expected. While the first few conventional rounds were deflected by the Tinker's ballistic energy shield, the lasers bypassed her protection and left molten holes in the girl's armor, reducing the inexperienced girl to a charred corpse in record time.

    With his intelligence mission a success, Coil wasted no time ending the timeline. He didn't even consider keeping the timeline, but the data gathered was priceless. Tenno was a threat to his plans, but one he was confident he could remove when the time was right.

    ~**~​

    Amy sighed and stole another drag from her cigarette. The hospital roof and empty helipad was the perfect spot to wait for her sister to pick her up and, best of all, no one came here since it was rare for a medical flight to land at the hospital with Boston just a short hop away. Thank God she didn't have to ride the damn bus home. The girl telling her she needed to charge patients for healing didn't know what the hell she was talking about.

    Just thinking about the nosy and condescending girl she got stuck sitting next to made her want to scream. Why was she having so much trouble putting what she said out of her mind? The fucking flat chested bitch and her ideas. Only a villain would even consider charging for healing!

    "Ames, what are you doing?" Victoria's silent arrival surprised her.

    Panacea twirled around with alarm, guiltily tossing away her cigarette in the process. "Uh, waiting for you."

    "You were smoking again!" Victoria glared down, making Amy feel guilty since she promised her sister she would stop.

    "It was a shitty day." Amy sighed, feeling emotionally, mentally and physically exhausted.

    Vicky frowned, crossing her arms and drawing Amy's attention to her sister's assets. "You shouldn't have come in today."

    Amy forced her eyes to look away. "You would not believe how many kids were brought in due to Christmas gift injuries."

    "Ames…" Her beautiful, perfect sister sighed.

    Amy turned back to her floating sister and focused on her eyes. "Someone has to do it. You don't see Othala volunteering, do you?"

    Vicky's smile was dazzling. "Actually, there's a new healer in town. Tenno!"

    Amy snorted with disbelief, "Yeah, right. I didn't see him either."

    "Her and she's a Tinker. Makes healing devices." Vicky sighed, placing a hand on her hip. "Seriously Ames, it's all over PHO."

    Amy sneered. "Who has time for that cesspit?"

    "Hey!" Vicky tossed her hair over her shoulder, causing Amy's breath to catch. "I'll have you know that while it might be a cesspit, it does occasionally have good info."

    Amy couldn't resist making a little fun of her sister. "Yeah, isn't it PHO that came up with Collateral-"

    Vicky glared and dropped down. "Hey! Not funny Ames! It wasn't my fault!"

    "Uh huh." Amy nodded. "Anyway, can we go home now? It's been a long day and having to ride the bus didn't help."

    "Sorry." Vicky frowned. "You could've come with. Dean had a friend you might have liked."

    "No thanks. They needed me here." Amy managed to hide her shudder over the idea that any guy would be better than her sister and immediately feel sick to her stomach for feeling that way.

    "Okay, but as soon as we get home, you need to login and read the forums because everyone is freaking the fuck out."

    The flight home, safely carried by her sister, allowed her to temporarily forget her troubles and bask in the warm glow that was Victoria. Amy knew her sister loved her, but not how she wanted her to and feeling the way she felt about her sister only made her feel worse about herself. It was wrong on every level, but she couldn't help how she felt.

    "How was your day, Vicky?" Carol asked as soon as the pair entered the house.

    Amy tuned out her sister and headed up to her room as Vicky regaled Carol about her date with Dean.

    Amy sighed with relief as she removed her costume robes. The cloth robes weren't heavy, but their emotional toll was sometimes more than she could bear. After a hot shower, she pulled on her super-soft terry cloth bathrobe, she sat down in front of her computer and logged into the cesspit of humanity known as PHO.

    "No fucking way!" Amy couldn't believe what she was reading. Tenno was the Cape who beat the shit out of Shadow Stalker. She didn't recognize the name since the PRT were calling her Sagittaria and they sure as hell didn't mention a healing device to her.

    How in the hell did Tenno capture Saint on the same night she allegedly beat the crap out of a Ward? The picture of her Tinkertech armor almost broke the forum.

    The next thread claimed Tenno captured Mush and killed one meth head in the process. Not exactly a huge loss, but it hardly painted the picture of her being a hero. The ten-second video clip of her Tinkertech armor taken in the Dockyard definitely made her look badass, but she didn't look anything like she did in Canada. Was she the same person? Where was the hoodie and cyclops camera eye thing?

    What really caught her attention was the link in the main Tenno thread that pointed to an earlier sighting of Tenno without her Tinkertech armor. Allegedly, she saved the life of the store manager and healed an old knee injury in the process. Due to the Cape identity warning, she hesitated clicking on the pictures and video linked in the post. It took her reading a few more posts on the thread that explained how Tenno had her face covered the entire time before she felt like she could look at the pictures and watch the short video.

    The still pictures of Tenno sans armor made her feel perplexed. The girl's eyes glowed an eerie green color, her lower face was hidden behind a scarf and she had red metal bits stuck to her face, but something about her reminded her of someone. Amy clicked on the URL for the video and with a growing sense of anger and disbelief, she watched the clip to the bitter end.

    "That fucking bitch!" Amy screamed as she recognized the voice of the girl from the bus.

    ~**~​
     
    Last edited:
  • Threadmarks
    • Reader mode
    You must login or register to reply here.
    Remove ads
    Back
    Top