Cutscene: Tinker Toys (Un-Betaed) (Un-Finished) (Early Draft)

Cutscene: Tinker Toys (After 6.12)

Miss Militia coming in to talk to Armsmaster

Armsmaster in shorts and a shirt working on a helmet

His new armor off to the right

Discussing with Dragon on using that myofiber on himself

Militia wants to talk to him about “the boy”

Arms: I know what you’re going to say, but we’re not intending on making a dedicated effort to apprehend him as of yet. Scope him out? Yes. Take him in? No.

Militia: What? Why wouldn’t we?

Arms: He’s not a priority.

Militia: Not a priority? He’s committed homicide. He’s attacked two of our own. He threw a van into a building, Colin!

Arms: Yes, not exactly, and it was an Empire safehouse. Unoccupied, at that.

Militia: He’s done enough to be considered a problem so why aren’t we taking him in.

Armsmaster: He’s a distraction

Militia: What

Armsmaster: Did I forget to tell you? I apologize. I shared this with Piggot and Calvert, receiving their approval last week.

Militia: Please go on.

Arms: He’s a distraction for the Empire, keeping them occupied.

Militia: And why do we need them occupied

Arms: We have it on good intel that some of the gangs from New York and Boston, specifically the Flying Dragons and the Sky Triad, are intent on making a move towards our city, intent on replacing Lung and taking over what remains of the ABB.

Militia: What

Arms: Yes, my reaction was much the same

Militia doubted that

Arms: While it is not confirmed, I have heard reports that the ABB has a new leader but information is cagey about him. The Thinkers at WEGDG are… not as helpful as I would like, given that they don’t seem to get much from him. Especially the precogs, for some reason.

Militia: Mmm-hmm

Arms: Back to the point, apprehending the boy would not be as easy as you’d think.

Militia: And why not? From what Battery informed us, he’s a high-speed Mover but nothing outside of Velocity’s pace. We could trap him, foam him and have him at PRT HQ within the week.

Arms: Id argue that you’re underestimating the same cape that took on Lung.

Militia’s eyes widened above her bandana as Armsmaster’s words sunk in. “What?”

Armsmaster nodded slowly. “Yes.”

Miss Militia shook her head. “But that makes no sense. The vast array of powers, the differing ability, strength, everything…”

Arms: His regeneration ability is especially potent. Some of my cameras caught him on the day of Bakuda’s first attack – at least the ones that were still functioning. His body was entirely… It’s actually rather hard to describe properly. Honestly, I don’t think anyone has ever seen a human body in quite that shape and still intact. Huh…

Militia: So, they’re…

Arms: One and the same?

He nodded.

Arms: That is the most likely option. Again, WEGDG is dragging their feet on giving me a definite answer but voice analyses and appearance approximation has me strongly agreeing with that hypothesis. Other options are a cloning ability or powered projections that possess his appearance or even multiple personality disorder… but those are much less likely. The only other option is some sort of cluster trigger and, given the similarities in appearance, that is highly unlikely.

Militia thinking for a few

She had heard mention of certain rumors like that, the idea that both capes could be one and the same, but she had dismissed them out of hand as the ridiculous online theories of those who didn’t understand the reality of parahumans. Multiple costumed personas and a buffet plate of powers was something belonging to old comic books and movie screens, not real life. While the latter was possible, it was just so rare that it fell just short of impossible.

Militia frowning.

“Then we’re facing a possible Fairy Queen-level threat.”

Armsmaster frowned. “Curious that you’d use that as an approximation of his abilities. I might have argued that he is to Eidolon what Glory Girl is to Alexandria.”

Militia: Does it really matter? We didn’t give this sort of leeway to Shadow Stalker.

Arms: Shadow Stalker was using lethal force on random muggers in alleyways. Shadow Stalker was not facing off against terrorists and large well-embedded gangs. Shadow Stalker was barely even known to the public. Shadow Stalker was not a national topic of discussion. You are comparing two entirely different situations in search of some level of equity that can’t be applied here, Miss Militia.”

The patriotic cape could only glare back.

Armsmaster wasn’t one to care much about people’s feelings, at least not unless those people were members of the public, but even he couldn’t miss the annoyance and tension on display from his second-in-command. “I’m going to assume you have misgivings on the plans we have for… the boy.“

Militia: You’d assume correctly.

Arms: Well, I’d ask you to shelve those for now.

Militia: I would have struggled to do that even before you dropped on me that he was much stronger than I thought possible. He could break the sound barrier, Colin. The sound barrier!

Armsmaster nodded. “There’s not much can we do. You saw how he fought against Lung. None of us could contribute at that point, given that we have never seen Lung reach that stage before. I don’t know if you seen Battery’s helmet cam, but the boy was literally playing with them. We can’t afford to alienate a cape like that, at least not in the long run.

Militia:

Arms: That is a fair assessment but I’d like to ask something of you.

Militia: And what would that be?

Arms: I want you to think carefully about something. Granted, all of those things you said are true, but place everything he has done in the context of protecting what he feels is important to him – whether it’s family, his neighborhood, whatever – and also understand that his relative freedom to act against certain criminal elements in a way we can’t gives us – the legitimate protectors of this city – an opportunity down the road to both recruit him and do our job without being overwhelmed.

Militia: … You know, throughout everything you said, I honestly can’t decide if you’re empathizing with this kid or just using him.

She shakes her head.

Militia: Honestly, I’m not even sure what would be worse right now.

Armsmaster’s expression betrayed nothing as the armored cape remained silent, simply giving Militia a slight shrug.

The woman in fatigues made to turn around but Armsmaster’s voice made her stop and face him again. “Militia… Hanna…”

“What is it… sir?”

“Come on. We’ve known each other too long for that. Just think… do you really think we’re going to see a repeat of the ABB situation from him?”

Militia closed her eyes, unable to help herself as she internally acknowledged that she couldn’t disagree with that. After a few moments, she did the same externally albeit with a sigh. “As much as I’d like to argue the point, I do think you’re right. He’s far more dangerous than Shadow Stalker but… if Shadow Stalker had his powerset, she’d probably have tried to do much more than what she has.”

A little bit more relieved than when she walked in, Miss Militia let out another sigh. After all, what was the worst he could do?