Kyoshi leaped down from the building and rushed inside of the building, the idea of being a bit stealthy pretty much thrown out the window. Now was the time for action, and boy was she ready to get this party started!

She rushed in, and before anyone had time to react, Kyoshi rose up a large semicircular wall around the entrance that the Minutemen were at, the wall also surrounding the group of men that were prepared to swing at the hero team. Blugh, didn't these guys know to run like their boss did? With a quick chop to her side, Kyoshi delivered a nasty chop to the head of the guy on her right, the chop also sending a concrete pillar out from the opposite side of the wall and into the guy on her left, knocking both of them out cold. The final guy stood there for a second before raising his hands and surrendering to Kyoshi.

"Run," ordered Kyoshi, and like she was Shatterpoint himself, the man barreled out of the warehouse, past all of the Minutemen, down through an alley, and into the streets. "That... was kinda fun, but that's not the objective."

Kyoshi lowered the barrier to about half her height as she ducked behind it. That way, her team could pass through and get inside the warehouse or use the wall as cover. Whatever they wanted was cool, but for the moment, Kyoshi was gonna try and recover from her arms being in pain from that chop. She'd need some ice later...

Listening intently as Ira addressed the villain, Evelyn--having donned her mask as well--nodded her head before shivering slightly as the nullifier activated. She turned her attention to their prisoner.

The prisoner, Love Craft, perked up upon the Wards entering their room. Their eyes locked with every single one of the junior heroes in turn, with a wicked gleam. Not wicked in the sense of mischief, but in a seductive sort of way. The shapeshifter seemed especially keen on Epsilon once she started speaking. Must have been something in her voice.

"Heh, do we all really need to gang up on little ol' me? I must admit that I've never been able to go family style before, but if that's what you all want..." So it seemed they would continue the parade of sexual indiscretions. "If you think that my team almost killed those heroes, then you don't know anything. There was never any chance that they were going to die."

After a brief second, the Wards' communication earpieces all rang with Decoy's voice. "They're telling the truth."

"What's with that seductive glare?" Ruben whispered as he watched the events unfold from behind the door. Nothing caused him alarm just yet, and the only shadows so far were those of Love Craft just shifting around, so he remained silent for the time being.

Narrowing her eyes slightly she couldn't help but be a bit disbelieving of Decoy's truth detector, or at least in regards to this...Lovecraft. Having followed Ira into the room and positioned herself leaning against a wall, arms crossed, she kept a close eye on the prisoner, not trusting them in the least, which was probably just as well.

"You say that, but can you prove it?"

The words slipped out of her mouth before she could catch herself and as a result her tone carried most, if not all, of the distrust and latent frustration that she was harboring. She swallowed hard and unconsciously shifted position, clenching and unclenching her fists every few moments. She really wished she had a stressball or something, it would help.

Alessa would admit, the young... person's... over-sexualised tone was a bit discomforting. But it wasn't like it was any worse than fighting some villains, right? Then again... could he have fooled whatever sensors Decoy was using to tell the truth? Probably not, since his powers were disabled, and he didn't seem to possess any form of Thinker abilities anyway.

'I think if they were lying, we'd be able to figure that out,' Alessa soothed Lyn, trying her best not to sound condescending. 'I trust Decoy's ability to sort that stuff out.'

Love Craft feigned a recoil from Tulpa's harsh words. "My my, how forward. I suppose I can't prove it, but I'm happy to tell you why I know that. In exchange for certain..." The shifter looked the Wards up and down in turn, but focused the most on Margrave. They seemed to appreciate his strong physique that came with long hours of training as a kickboxer. "Leniencies..."

"... do they mean sexual favors or body parts?" Ruben honestly couldn't put a finger on which thing they meant.

Quiet until now, Margrave -prompted by the suggestive glance of Love Craft, stepped forward. Something changed about him, something discreet and insignificant, but still perhaps recognizeable to his teammates. The ever-so-slightly exaggerated intake of breath denoted that the Eloquent Enigma was about to perform.

Keeping his eyes fixated on the captive's face, Margrave wiggled his eyebrows just a little. When he moved closer, it was with an almost tantalizing slowness. He gave Ira and her nullifier a wide berth, for an as-of-yet unknown purpose, but passed by Alessa. "Would you all kindly...turn away?" Once by her, he stretched out his arm to push her away, and gave a slight lean toward Love Craft. "You know," he whispered, his voice husky and low. "I've kept it bottled up a long time around these...these stiffs." He gesticulated to his teammates. "But once in a blue moon I get lucky, and someone like you pops along to turn my world upside down. You seem like the kind of person who can keep a secret, so I thought I'd share...."

"...I happen to have a very specific pair of fetishes."

A bashful grin crossed the Margrave's face. He glanced down at the floor, his cheeks reddening. Gingerly he raised his closed fist, making it clear that it held something he wanted Love Craft to have. "I know this is all very sudden, but this can't be your first rodeo, now can it?" The Margrave edged ever closer. He turned his fist upward and with the tantalizing slowness of a blossoming flower pulled back his fingers to reveal a small, black shape. "It'd make me so...so happy...if you were to...to..." the young man was breathless. One could practically feel the thump-thump-thump of his heart. "Eat this. Just...swallow it whole...make it a part of you...you crazy devil." Suddenly spurred to forcefulness by a fit of passion, he seized Love Craft's hand and deposited the oddly-shaped rubber thing inside it. Then the man swept away, hiding his giggling face behind the back of his hand.

"... what... I saw that twice and I couldn't understand it."

Though most of the room had cut off all access to powers, special exception was made for Margrave, who stood just at the edge of the device's radius at all times. After all, he was known to carry any number of things in toy-form and to have him suddenly burdened with such weight would be... Problematic. Plus it meant he had to keep his distance from the others, which suited everyone just fine.

Love Craft breathed in a husky manner as Margrave approached and got so... Close. The androgynous shifter gave him a wink as he went on about his special "fetishes." In the back of their mind, Frankie couldn't believe it. This Ward was trying to honey trap them. Really? Did they think a honey trap would honestly work? Well, it's not like they were in much of a position to argue, were they? Might as well play along. Lovely took the small rubber item and did as was asked, swallowing the whole thing very suggestively. They even licked their lips afterward.

They were no fool. Love Craft was a scientist and wanted to experiment on the nature of powers. The Wards and what they could do was all highly publicized. This was an opportunity to study the toy-man's ability in a most personal way, and the reward outweighed the risk. At least in their derranged mind.

Ruben was pretty calm and collected until he saw the shadow of Love Craft... expand. Margrave was doing something else entirely that Ruben was not concerned with, but what was going on with Love Craft really alerted Ruben. The thinker pulled over a passerby and asked to borrow their earpiece, to which they let him borrow and Ruben immediately spoke to Decoy. "Hey Decoy. Something's about to happen right... now."

"Then I suggest we keep watch," the tinker responded quickly in the borrowed ear piece.

An abrupt silence took hold of the Margrave, who looked back over his shoulder. In the flattest of tones possible, he said, "Goodness gracious. By your sensual compliance I am titilated. You can't imagine how pleased I am." The antihero's leer from behind his mask of a hand was pointed. He took one step farther away, and a distinct pressure began to build in Love Craft's stomach. It was as if a solid object was growing inside him, stretching his organ in a manner that, though still slight, was nothing short of excrutiating. "Come on now. Even if you didn't buy it, a miserable fuckup like you should've known better than to do that. That's right!" He spun in place, flourishing his longcoat with unadultured bravado. "It was all a ruse! I have no fetish for things being swallowed, none at all!" His cheeks were still red, but not from excitement; rather, it was embarassment. He glanced back at Love Craft. "Though, the other one I mentioned was a bit more on the mark. I really love proving to self-righteous morons that I'm not some two-bit goody-goody possessed by pathetic ideas of comic-book heroism. So, 'Love Craft', you're going to answer each question these fools have to offer to the letter, without any of your autistic desperation for attention, or your organs are gonna rupture bit by bit."

The Margrave took another step back, increasing the pressure. "Of course, I'm sure any good shapeshifter can modify the shape of your insides. Whew! Takes a lot of pressure off me. I can count on you to keep things interesting for however many hours it takes. Call it a learning experience for all of us!" He chuckled, and crossed his arms before staring up at the ceiling. "Ladies, feel free to begin the interrogation."

Love Craft groaned, feeling sick and queesy at first. The groan escalated in a crescendo of pain, becoming a small wail. The shifter tried to compensate for the pain, tried to shift their organs around, increase their elasticity, but found their power to be completely unresponsive. Completely and utterly unresponsive. The villain was overwhelmed with a sudden terror, like they'd lost a dear friend. Yet they couldn't help but be fascinated. What caused this? None of the Wards were known to be trumps. Well, maybe the new girl. She was brand new, so the public didn't know a lot about her yet. Was this Tulpa's doing?

Evelyn hadn't turned away, though she had covered her eyes in a facepalm of sorts, barely managing to make it look somewhat convincing. Of course, when Margrave had finished his little act and she removed her hand she found herself...both disgusted and gratified. The clever bastard had slipped Lovecraft something and now the poor shapeshifter had expanded somewhat. Her hand fell to her side and she glanced at Margrave as he spun and mocked the villain. She knew that this...wasn't very hero-like behavior, but then why did she feel so gratified by it, she wondered.

Beneath her mask she grinned a little, a good portion of her brain quite pleased with the discomfort that the shifter must be feeling. He deserved it for what he'd done.

...

Right?

Clearing her throat, she stepped up and circled Lovecraft, gazing at him. She didn't care if he did try to use his disgusting innuendos to disarm her, it wouldn't work. He was scum, as all villains were. He didn't deserve her consideration, "So, how about that explanation, hmm?" She said, smiling beneath her mask, though her eyes were cold, her tone almost flat. "Perhaps Margrave will provide some leniency to your organs, mmm?"

As she said it she felt her heart jump a bit, she hadn't realized how exhilirating this was...to hold power over others. Still though, she only felt that way because Lovecraft was a villain, because he was evil. It wasn't because there was something wrong with her, she was fine, totally logical, in her right mind.

This was right.

She hoped.

"Aaaargh," Love Craft doubled over in pain, then tried to stand straight again. "You're into... Kinkier stuff than I thought." They smirked through the experience. All they could do was grin and bear it. "They weren't in danger because... Our sniper... Is a thinker."

Love Craft stopped talking, but it wasn't clear if that was due to the pain, or because they were waiting. Either way, after a brief pause Decoy chimed in the ear pieces once again. "Truth."

Ira frowned, concerned about how this was unfolding. Although she could appreciete how well it was going, it still almost felt like they were torturing the villain. She was all for the bad people being punished, but justice wasn't built on retribution. Still the information that these tactics had provided were invaluable. Thinking about it now, whether right or wrong, this was the perfect situation to torture someone in. Instantly verifiable information was the only useful information that could be attained by torture, and Decoy was making all information provided exactly that.

She opened her mouth to speak, but decided better and didn't. She eyed her other teammates warily, trying her best to meet each of their eyes in turn. It occured to her that she had misjudged the radius of the field, as Elliot was perfectly able to use his power. That, or deactivation of a previously applied effect wasn't disabled by her field. though that seemed unlikely.

Tulpa said nothing, instead she continued to circle the villain, almost predatory as she did so. Only about ten seconds after Decoy confirmed the legitimacy of the villain's words did she speak, her tone low. "I see. How about you tell us about this ability." it wasn't a question, it was a statement, almost an order. She felt a small shiver pass through her body and she swallowed, feeling like everyone in the room could hear it, even though she knew better.

Man this was crazy, and exciting, and awesome. Did the Protectorate capes feel like this all the time? 'Holy shit,' she thought as she finished circling him and walked away, turning her back on him blatantly, her actions saying she was in a position of power more than her words had--even if they had been somewhat commanding in her own right.

She felt herself beginning to slip into the act, into what she felt could very well become her as Tulpa. She gave Margrave a small companionable smile as she walked away from Lovecraft, acknowledging him, really seeing him for the first time. He really was pretty valuable to the team. Though he was a bit of an asshat at times.

Finishing her walk near the far wall, she took up a position, leaning against said wall, arms crossed under her chest, directing attention, distracting slightly from the danger--even if she didn't like the idea of this creep staring at her she figured people would do it anyways. "So? Out with it," she said, before falling silent. Waiting.

'There's no need to be forceful, Tulpa,' Alessa reminded her ally, holding a hand up to suggest she calm down. 'I'm sure Love Craft knows exactly what will happen to them if they lie...' In truth, Margrave's sudden ruthlessness was a tad shocking, and perhaps a squeamish topic to think about, but ultimately a beneficial measure if it helped get the villain to speak up more quickly. By contrast... did Evelyn seem to be acting a tad ruthlessly herself, she wondered? And would that be helpful? For the time being, she felt not, hence her move to calm Evelyn down.

'Just so we're clear, though, Love Craft,' she continued, 'the sooner you tell us about your teammates - all of them - the sooner we'll be able to help get that out of your stomach.' Knowing their sniper was a Thinker was a great start, but they needed all the information they could get. Speaking of which, she quickly added 'And that includes the name your team goes by, incidentally' to her request. The sooner they had names, the better.

Love Craft moved their eyes between the two girls as each one spoke to them in turn. As eager as they were to experience Margrave's power first hand, they weren't that eager, especially without their shifting to mitigate the pain. "Most of that is all easy. We named ourselves the Jacks just last night. That sniper? He's called Headhunter, and a very sexy man. His power guides his aim, so he can't miss whatever target he wants. That's how I know those Protectorates weren't in any trouble. He was specifically shooting to disable. I better be getting a sweet plea deal out of this." Well, this little villain was suddenly becoming quite cooperative, weren't they?

"Then there was Arsenal, the little man with a big sombrero and an attitude problem. He's a tinker and specializes in offensive bionics. That's weaponized cyborg kinda stuff, for any of you that are too slow. Then the charming man in the gaudy green is Chatterbox. He's some kind of Master with a magic voice, but he was dodgy on how it actually works. Then finally there's So-Ah, ooh, I almost made a booboo." Love Craft held a hand up in front of their mouth as though they had just made some serious social faux pas. "The, uh, young girl has no cape name, and taking advantage of civilian identities is against the rules, isn't it? Hahaha. Well she doesn't talk much, real bland fade-into-the-wall kind of girl. Stranger abilities that let's her make things intangible, but she has to close her eyes."

There was a brief pause, shortly followed by Decoy's voice in the earpieces. "All one hundred percent truthful."

"There's one more, too. Put the team together and pays stupid well, but he explicitly didn't want anybody knowing he was involved. Calls himself Br-uuuugh. Brogigigigi. Guuuuh." Like a shorted out fuse, trying to spark to life, Love Craft suddenly found themself unable to speak. They tried a couple times, but all that came out was a gurgling mess. Then the gurgling mess repeated like a broken record. Finally the young villain's eyes rolled up in the back of their head and they slumped over. A small bit of blood trickled out from both ears. A quick check would show that they were not dead, but the situation was very serious all the same.

Oh, this was too good. Alessa was already fantasizing about how much good would be done by developing countermeasures to every one of the Jacks' powers - that is, if Ira's ability to negate powers outright somehow wasn't sufficient. Whatever they'd done with the parahuman they'd kidnapped, Gamble... if the Protectorate dealt with them quickly, they'd not get a chance to do it again. They even knew who the one setting the team up to begin with-!

And then they appeared to die of a stroke. After half a second of processing, Alessa squealed just slightly out of shock, before forcing herself to stow her emotions for a moment. It was just a little bit of blood, right? But out of the ears... but wouldn't the eardrums...? Hell, she wasn't a doctor. Maybe she should start aiming to become one in her spare time, though, since that now made two incidents where somebody suffered what seemed to be horrific injuries, with no realistic way for her to assist. In any case, the pulse at Love Craft's neck suggested that he was still pumping blood, at least, which meant...

'We need a doctor in here!' she called out, assuming (or at least hoping) that she could be heard by Decoy, if nobody else. There was no reason to assume Director Kens and Protean hadn't heard, though...

"Oh..." Ruben gagged slightly at Love Craft failing to finish his... her... xer's words. The blood made it all the more unsettling. Ruben's immediate reaction to this situation was to think that Margrave had something to do with it, mainly because of the rubber, but he doubted that it did anything else besides whateverthefuck that shit was. He'd have to wait and see, he guessed.

Intrigued initially, Evelyn had eaten up every word, memorizing what she could of the descriptions of the villains...and their powers. Then, right as the villain was about to tell them who their employer was, something terrible happened. They stumbled on their words, then they seemed to almost seize. Her eyes widened and she started moving towards Lovecraft, then stopped halfway, realizing she didn't know what to do. Frozen by indecision. A villain didn't deserve death, that just wasn't civil, it wasn't right. Wait, hadn't this been a bit too convenient??

Her eyes narrowed and she looked around a moment, though her mind was still going through the motions. When she looked back at the villain, there were lines of blood dripping down from their ears. She winced and bit her lip a bit, backing up.

Alessa checked their pulse and then, smartly, called for a doctor. Evelyn just kind of stared. Part of her didn't want to run, but another part of her--the more normal, civilian part of her--wanted to bolt.

She didn't like this. It felt...staged somehow. But how could you stage something like this?

It was in that moment that, in her fear and internal turmoil, she decided that whoever led these so called "Jacks," needed to be dealt with. They were dangerous.

Very...very dangerous.

The young tinker hung on every word, surprised at how much information they were being provided. He didn't even ask for a lawyer, things were looking good. Then Lovecraft started... Ira couldn't really describe it, but it was strange. He seemed to be having an adverse reaction to something but it was impossible to tell what it was. Reeling, she quickly turned off the field, hoping someone could fix what she could only assume was their mistake. "Did you do something Margrave?" She asked, sounding concerned.

Her face was pale, though you couldn't tell under her mask. She glanced at the glass, though it was double pointless she realized. Decoy not only wasn't in the room but was a hologram in there, and she didn't know if fake decoy had moved. She often forgot that what she was seeing wasn't actually Decoy, though she assumed a lot of people made that mistake. She shifted from foot to foot nervously, knowing they might be reprimanded for this, or worse Lovecraft would get away.

Her mind went back to the powers mentioned, instinctively. It was almost her safe zone, thinking about powers calmed her down, they always ended up making sense. Arsenal, a cowboy with the flare for the dramatic. His weapon was guns, more than likely a terrible way to express an elegant and beautiful power. Chatterbox, he had a silver tongue and didn’t explain his power fully. Made sense.

Headhunter was a beautiful way to express a terrible power. She couldn’t understand why his power was what it was though. Her inherent understanding of powers didn’t line up with a power like that. She reached at her power, and it didn’t respond. Not enough information, more of those beautifully intricate details were needed. Next was “So-” who’s power was a stranger, who could ignore things when she closed her eyes. That was interesting, though a bit too specific for general usage.

She went back over the details, trying to force her power to add more details, give her countermeasures, anything, truly anything that would help, but no. Her power felt as dead as she imagined her partners did with the nullification field on. It was frustrating, it made her feel... Not quite impotent, but something close.

Margrave's eyes narrowed. All of a sudden, the whole situation had turned very troublesome. Whatever was he going to do!? If Love Craft wasn't conscious, he couldn't throw up the desk chair, which meant that the Margrave had to stick around and do nothing for who knew how many hours. "Just when things were looking up." Rolling his eyes, the antihero pulled out his phone and got busy surfing the web.

---

Ruben was sitting in a meeting room for the Wards, simply ticking away on his laptop. He was working on a small job he had been hired by a local hero to do, with the job regarding a small bit of recon. He had to get out of the room for it though, as he wanted to show his german shepard pupster, Clancy, a bit of the building.

Lillian looked around, abundantly curious. It'd been about three days since she'd been officially put onto the Wards team, and she was having difficulty adjusting. Everything was too cold for her liking, but her teammates seemed alright at the very least.

At the moment she was walking the halls, hoping to clear her head out of one of her moods she'd been prone to falling into. Idly her fingers traced the flower in her hair as she wished she had thought to bring her teddy with her. Why did everything have to smell so clean? It stung her nose a little, and she just couldn't seem to get warm. Didn't these people know what indoor heating was?

Maybe that was why she liked Messiah so much. The girl was a heat source. And kinda cute. Not that Lillian truly noticed that, not really.

She tilted her head a little, sniffing. Was that a dog she smelled? It was hard to tell over the smell of disinfectant all over the building. But...Dogs were nice. And warm....

Ruben finished the job he was hired on for doing, sending a simple message to his employer for what they required and he left the presence. He set the Eye on autopilot mode as it whirred back to the PRT building.

As Ruben closed his laptop, he saw the shadowy figure of Evelyn rear around the corner and into the room, standing next to him quizically. Well, it was going to happen, so he didn't care a ton about what happened when she came in... unless it involved her harming him.

Wiping beads of sweat from her face with a cloth she'd brought with her to the gym where she'd been sparring with her projection. It was good to be able to sync up with it, control it and her body at once. It was hard, mentally and physically, but totally worth it she thought. Stretching a bit to cool down, she knew she totally needed to get in the shower, maybe change out of her purple yoga pants and tanktop and into something more appropriate.

Finishing her stretches, feeling good--if a bit tired--she made her way out of the gym and into the halls of PRT headquarters. Everything was pretty plain really, white walls, white floors, the occasional door or window.

Huh, windows, was that the meeting room. Was that Overlook?

Ruben traced the shadow's path backwards as he saw Evelyn standing outside of the window. The thinker sent a slight wave her direction as he picked up his laptop, placing it in his bag, and putting his bag on his back. After doing that, he picked up Clancy, who had been laying down on the ground taking a nap before, and he gently carried him in his arms as he left the meeting room.

Lillian followed her nose, trying to distinguish where exactly the dog smell was coming from. Further up the hallway? It was getting stronger, easier to tell apart from the rest of the smells assaulting her nose, but she didn't think she was exactly close just yet.

A puppy would be nice... she thought to herself, a slight skip to her step as she walked a little bit faster. But who has a dog in a place like this?

Waving back, Evelyn made a snap decision, deciding she could get a little sidetracked before she went to shower. She opened the door for Ruben, "What were you up to?" she asked, raising an eyebrow even as she reached out to pet the dog a little, should he allow it.

"A bit of work, not PRT related." Ruben wasn't going to tell her what that entailed, but he would at least give her that knowledge. He'd be happy to work with the PRT when he was needed, but until then, offering his work was a good way to pass the time. "Why do you ask?"

Clancy allowed for the petting, and he had a dumb little smile wash over his face as Evelyn petted the small doggo.

A small smile touched the corners of her lips and eyes as she gave the dog scritches behind his ears and along his neck, she glanced back up at Ruben, still smiling a bit, though it wasn't directed at him, "Oh, I was just curious," she said casually, "...where you off to now?" She asked, figuring she didn't have much to do after she took a shower, it might be nice to have some company.

"Probably my room. I think I'll do some stuff to my Eye once it returns from its quest," Ruben explained. "Also, you'll be meeting some applesauce in the future."

She nodded, then raised an eyebrow at the mention of applesauce. She felt her stomach shift a bit, she was hungry, "Come again?"

"You'll be meeting applesauce in the future. Not with your face, mind."

"Um, but...what do you mean exactly?" She seemed a bit more confused now, rather than bemused.

"You'll see in about 11 seconds. Maybe less, I'm still trying to figure it out."

An idea popped into her head through the confusion, as she recalled a bit more about Ruben, "Oh...you're a thinker aren't you. Um, do you know where the applesauce will be?" She started counting in her head.

"It's on the way to your room. I can't tell you exactly where." The two were both in line-of-sight of a pile of applesauce, resting on the ground. "Also, t-rex."

Lillian could hear voices now, and she recognized one of her teammate's smells with the stronger smell of a dog. She rounded a corner, coming up behind two people and a young puppy. " PUPPY!" she yelled, running forward to pet it. "Oh, who's a good boy? You are! Oooh, I love you Mr. Puppy. So soft and warm and adorable."

She looked up at the others. "Oh, hello."

"... seems like I was slightly wrong about the t-rex," Ruben muttered as Lillian petted Clancy, the small dog turning his head towards Lillian and giving her a lick directly on her forehead. "His name is Clancy."

"Well, hello there Clancy. You're a friendly one, aren't you?" Lillian crooned. "You didn't tell me we had a puppy around, Evelyn."

She looked at the owner. "Oh. Why were you talking about me?"

"I saw a t-rex. My power is weird."

"I wonder what applesauce is code for with your power," she muttered a bit, her attention pulled to Lillian. She smiled and chuckled a little as she watched Lillian absolutely freak out over Clancy. "Sorry Lillian, I'll make sure to inform you in the future," she said with a light laugh. "Alright you two, well if you're not busy maybe we can hang out a bit? I need to shower first though, so get back to me."

That said, Evelyn ran a hand over the dog once and then waved as she walked away, her mind already turning to other things, like what she'd wear when she didn't feel all sticky and gross after her shower. However, her preoccupied mind led to disaster, for not 11 seconds later, her foot slid on something on the floor and she fell, though her training did kick in resulting in her falling butt first in something sticky...with clumps in it. "Ah!" she exclaimed, then "Dammit," as she felt the gross sensation.

Ruben chuckled as he heard Evelyn land in the pile of applesauce. He didn't even know why it was there, but it was kind of funny to see someone not take his word and walk directly into that applesauce pile. "I told you."

Lillian looked up at the noise. " If you told her, why didn't you just point out where it was?" She asked curious. " I mean, that seems mean not to. And that's not nice." She scrunched up her nose a little.

"Clancy takes both of my arms to hold, and I thought she could see it. Guess not, though." Ruben felt a little guilty in not telling Evelyn where it was, but at the same time, she tried figuring out if applesauce was code when it literally meant applesauce.

Lillian pursed her lips. "Mhmm." She returned her attention to Clancy, effectively ignoring the other two temporarily.

Grumbling a bit as she tried to get up, she put her hand down...right in the puddle of applesauce, resulting in her recoiling and twitching a bit. "No one help me or anything," she muttered, kind of annoyed before she finally managed to rise to her feet, covered in applesauce below the waist, not to mention what was on her right hand and forearm.

She'd been in such a good mood too. She looked over at Ruben, unamused, "A predictive ability that doesn't tell you where things will happen is pretty shit." She said bluntly before turning to walk away, heading for her room to wash off.

"Why don't'cha come over here and tell me that? I was born this way. You got lucky." Ruben lowered Clancy down for Lillian to hold him as he raised his voice towards Evelyn.

"Hey, no yelling," Lillian muttered distractedly.

She didn't even bother turning around, clenching her jaw instead, Her voice came out sounding tense, restrained, "Not worth the effort, plus I need to wash off all this fucking applesauce." She kept walking, now paying attention to the ground to make sure she didn't slip on anything else.

"Hold Clancy for a minute." Overlook said as he walked towards Evelyn. "So now you pay attention to the ground."

"I got distracted okay, and your warning wasn't super helpful," this time she had stopped, turning around, her clean hand finding itself resting on her hip. She did not appear amused.

"I told you there was applesauce and you'd slip in it." Ruben told the truth, even if it was vague. He was also speaking with no inflections in his voice, making it sound slightly mocking if anything.

"Oh, Clancy, you're so adorable. So soft. So warm," Lillian muttered, barely paying attention to the argument.

Evelyn's eyebrow twitched slightly, she took a deep breath, painfully aware of the presence of her projection as she did, before responding. "Actually, you said I would 'meet' applesauce in the near future, and to be fair your power thought Lillian was a T-Rex, sooo."

"To be fair, I told you that your face wouldn't meet it, so what else but your foot. Guess you aren't as smart as this guy who lived his entire life in a bunker." Ruben's leg collapsed as he fell. The magnetic leg had failed him. "AH FUCK!"

Lillian looked up sharply. "I said no yelling," she said darkly. "And I am a T-Rex. I go RAWRRRR." Her attention was solely on the others now, irritated.

Clancy tried to escape from the arms of the teen, but he failed. Her grip on his warm little body was too great.

Evelyn opened her mouth to warn Ruben, and then he fell, swearing loudly and her anger almost immediately melted away. Even partially covered in applesauce she felt inclined to help. She approached Ruben, but rather than offering him a hand or to help him up she realized that getting him dirty as well--while a nice piece of revenge--was just...not necessary.

Ruben saw Evelyn's feet out of the corner of his eye, and as he fixed his leg back to it's magnetic spot, he had to say something to Evelyn. "... are you coming onto me?" He remembered reading something about 'playing hard to get' somewhere before, and she seemed like someone who would do that. "If you are, that's kinda gross, man."

She had just been about to use her projection to help him up, when he decided to hit her with something right from out of left field. It was like he'd smacked her in the face. She took a step back, kind of stunned for a moment, but it didn't last for long. She took another two steps back, feeling the roar of emotion start in her chest and move up through her body. She gritted her teeth and swallowed hard, closing her eyes a moment before looking down at him, her eyes narrowed.

"First of all, no. Second of all why in the hell would you think that?" There was a dangerous look in her eyes and her tone conveyed just how thin the ice Ruben was standing on really was.

"I've lived in a bunker my whole life, man. Hardly any actual conversations were had," Ruben explained as he stood up. "Sorry if I offended you."

Her stomach dropped and her features relaxed ever so slightly, but the anger wouldn't just go away, it never did. She almost opened her mouth, but instead decided to bite her lip to shut herself up. "Yeah..." she begun, and then turned around and walked away, "...we can talk later. Maybe," and then she disappeared around the corner.

""APPLESAUCE!"

She dodged it, swearing rather loudly from around the corner before calling back, "SHUT UP!"

"YOU'RE WELCOME!"

"QUIT FUCKING YELLING!" Lillian yelled herself, huffing. "At least the puppy was here. This wasn't any fun."

"Sorry Lillian... want my hoodie...? You seem cold." Ruben could see she was visibly shaking as he went back to go and retrieve Clancy. He planned on sending the Eye into doing some of his own recon later.

Lillian shook her head, cuddling Clancy. Inadvertently her mind brought up the image of Messiah. "I'll be alright," she murmured. "I suppose I have to let you take the puppy now," she pouted.

"Are you absolutely sure you do not want my hoodie?" Ruben asked again.

Lillian considered, deciding against the idea with a shake of her head. " I'll be fine."

"... I mean okay." Ruben calmly scooped Clancy out of Lillian's arms. As he picked his little buddy up, Clancy licked Lillian once again on her forehead before Ruben left the hallway, walking back to his room.

"If you ever wanna see Clancy, he'll be in my room with me."

Lillian beamed. " You can count on that one...uhhhh. I don't actually know you."

"Overlook, or Ruben if you'd prefer my first name. I live here now... so..."

She nodded. "Tiger Lily, or Lillian. I'mma dinosaur."

"That's dope."

Lillian giggled, waving as she followed Evelyn in direction. What else could she get into before bed time?

About a week had passed since the interrogation of Love Craft and its shocking end. Since then, the city had been surprisingly quiet, with seemingly little crime going around. Even so, Alessa had been engaging in patrols of various areas whenever she had the spare time, and right now was just soaking in the heat of the active fireplace in her room. Meditating, of course, as was standard for her, but in the midst of her trance, she felt at peace. Moreso than she had for a while, in fact. Not wanting to ruin that, she let her mind drift again, allowing her brain to move through the various states involved in it.

Further wandering through the Halls, Lillian found herself outside a door. Heat was coming from the other side, likely the instinct that had driven her here to begin with. Having already gotten to meet that guy Ruben, and the funky interaction him and Evelyn had shared, she didn't see the harm in one more before her bedtime came into effect. Raising a hand, she knocked gently on the door.

Aaaand there went her trance. Gah, Alessa really had needed the self-introspection. She hadn't been feeling quite herself... but, whoever this was, she assumed their needs would outweigh her own. Stepping out of the flames, she walked to the door and opened it up, revealing none other than the newest member of the Wards.

'Oh, hey there!' Alessa began, a tad more cheerily than she felt at that precise moment. 'Lillian, right? I don't think I've had a chance to chat with you alone yet, but... well, I'm the current leader of the Wards, Alessa, as you've been told. What can I help you with?'

Lillian visibly brightened as the door opened. "I'm sorry to bother you. I didn't even realize where I was going. I just...I guess I'm bored and it's so cold around here and.. Well, I suppose I was looking for company. I'm not interrupting anything, am I?" She rambled off, glowing a little red.

Alessa had meant to chastise the younger girl, since she had in fact interrupted something... but... she couldn't really, not when Lillian just wanted company.

'Of course not, Lily,' Alessa confirmed. 'Please, do come in. And mind the fire, okay?' Once Lily had come in and the door was closed, the heat-absorber asked 'So what's on your mind, then? Anything major, or do you just want to chat?'

Lillian twisted her hands a little. " Something is always on my mind... But I don't like thinking about it. The therapist says I should talk about it, but..." she looked nervously at Alessa. " I guess I'm just trying to not think about...it."

Without realizing it, Lillian was slowly gravitating towards the fire as she paced anxiously. " I want to be a good hero, like you."

'Mind the fire,' Alessa reminded her, putting a hand on her shoulder to keep her from moving any closer to it. Alessa was immune to heat; Lillian, she knew, was not, despite her affinity for it. But, if she wanted somebody to talk to about that event...

'Listen, Lily,' she soothed. 'You can definitely be a good hero. You're already halfway there just by being a good person, you know that? And that'd be true even if you didn't have your powers, so don't let that stop you. Besides, you're still with us, aren't you? If there's anything to be thankful for, it's that.'

Lillian nodded, letting herself be steered away from the fire. " Sorry... I don't realize it when I do that. I just get cold and the heat..." She let out a sigh. " I mean, I'm happy cause everything is better, but... It's still there. I'm still scared. And I'm not pretty like you, or confident half the time. I just, I'm great half the time and the rest I'm not. And you're amazing. I've heard about your patrols, and sure nothing is going on right now really, but you still do amazing. But how useful am I going to be? I just am normal except for when I go RAWRRRR."

She plopped down on the floor near the fire, almost arms reach away, with tears in her eyes. " I just want to be good enough for once. "

...huh. Does she really think I'm pretty...? Alessa asked herself. She wasn't one for vanity, and fully acknowledged her general plainness when asked... but the compliment was nice. Not such much the rest of Lily's speech, though. Especially not when she started crying.

'Lily...' Alessa sat down next to the girl, pulling her into a hug warmed by her power. 'You ARE good enough, Lily. Surely you know that, right? Otherwise, why would you be in the Wards? Everyone has to be good at being a hero, so that means you're definitely good at being heroic. You, uh...' For a moment, Alessa paused, not sure where to go next and fairly certain generic platitudes wouldn't actually suffice, but thought back to what Lillian had said for inspiration.

'Do you want to know something?' Alessa asked. 'Sometimes, I get scared and lose confidence too. Sometimes, I think I'm not good enough, that maybe what I'm doing isn't enough to help, even though I go out on patrols regularly. And you know what? It's okay to feel like that,' she explained, 'because once you get past it, you feel better for knowing that you were wrong about not being good enough. Besides, you can turn into a dinosaur! How is that not an AWESOME power to have?' And really, it was a pretty amazing ability, one that made things quite a bit better for the Wards considering. Since Dean had left, they'd needed a new member to handle up front combat.

Lillian practically curled into Alessa, the tears flowing a little more freely now that her face was hidden. She let out a stifled giggle at the mention of her powers being awesome, and she drew in a shaky breath. Holding Alessa Lillian sat there and let her emotions finally release after nearly a week. A week of struggling with these new powers, of fighting the dark thoughts inside of her mind.

She nuzzled a little closer, taking a shaky breath. " I know, I know. It's just... Hard. So hard. It's a big adjustment from all the darkness I've been in and I worry about everything. I'm a mess. I'm sorry..."

Alessa rubbed Lily's back as she cried, smiling just a little as the girl opened up to her. 'It's alright to open up sometimes,' she said softly. 'And I understand that what you're going through is hard. That's how it is with any Parahuman, I think, they've got to experience hard times, and that... it sucks, for a lot of them, but they come out the other side better for it, right?'

" You really think so? Lillian sniffed quietly, looking up with hopeful eyes. " I mean with all that. That I'm good enough and the dinosaur thing is awesome and that it gets better? "

'Yeah, for sure!' Alessa confirmed. 'I'll be honest, the event that gave me my powers was... awful. But it absolutely gets better. You just have to give it time. And really, your powers are great. I don't know a lot of other people who could turn into a T-Rex, after all, or many people who could handle fighting one. It's a great ability to have.'

Lillian smiled wide, wiping at the tears. " Thank you, Alessa. That really means a lot to me, " she said with a yawn. " It's warm in here..." she added, looking around idly before becoming fixated on the fire. "[color=] Can... Can we keep talking? It's really nice. But I don't know what to talk about and I don't want to be a burden. [/color]"

Noting her fixation on the fire, Alessa cuddled Lillian just a bit more tightly, increasing her heat output to what she hoped was around "cozy dryer-warmed blanket" levels to distract the younger girl. 'Well, I guess let's talk about what we're interested in. I usually meditate, or practice my martial arts, just in case I need them. What do you like to do in your free time?'

Lillian redirected her attention to Alessa as she started outputting more heat, unconsciously snuggling closer. " I like gymnastics. Stretching is kinda like meditation, I guess? And music is nice, usually. Not stuff like rap because that's violent sounding and rude and it's like yelling. I don't like yelling," she replied, making a face at the mention of her dislikes. " I don't really know much about fighting and meditation." she yawned again, growing quieter as she talked. " But I like you. You're nice. "

'Aw, thank you,' Alessa smiled. 'You know what? I like you very much too. I'm no expert in martial arts, but I'd say stretching and exercise is an important part of doing martial arts and gymnastics alike. So what music do you like, then? Classical, pop, jazz?'

" Classical is nice, but I really like rock. It's got soul to it. And..." she looked away briefly. "I like electronic stuff. Because it goes RAWR like I do. I didn't like that stuff until I got my powers, though... What about you, Alessa? " Lillian asked quietly.

'You mean what music I like? Well... if I had to pick,' she pondered, 'I guess I'd have to go with... I'm not sure exactly what it'd be called, but the sort of dramatic, orchestral music style you get at the end of some games, when you're fighting the final boss. Singing choirs and a tense atmosphere and stuff, you know what I mean?'

Lillian nodded. " I call it Epic Music, because it sounds Epic. I like... Oh, I can't remember the name. Skyhooks or Skyhold or something like that. I think you'd like them..." her voice drifted off towards the end. " Can... Can you tell me a story? " Lillian asked hesitantly.

'Hmm... I don't know many stories, so I might have to make one up on the fly,' Alessa confessed. 'Is there a particular type of story you wanted to hear about?'

" Not really. Just something nice. " Lillian replied softly.

'Well, okay.' Thinking for a moment, Alessa came up with the beginnings of a story in her mind, and began to speak:

'Once upon a time, there was a great pirate by the name of Roger... uh, Roger the Golden, so called because of the vast quantity of treasure he had accumulated throughout his life, from various... hang on, I need to restart. He was a space pirate, so the treasures he gathered were from a great number of planets, with lots of different shapes and...- uh.'

Apparently, she was worse at storytelling than she'd thought. Lillian was already asleep, gently snoozing against Alessa's shoulder. Or maybe she was just tired... either way, it'd hardly be fair of Alessa to leave her outside after she'd fallen asleep. Hoisting the girl up in her arms - a harder task than she'd expected, since at the end of the day, they were only separated by two years - Alessa carried Lily over to her bed, laying her on one side of the bed, and then laying down on the other side herself, hoisting the covers over both of them. She hoped that didn't look too awkward...

But, if she exuded just a bit of heat, she imagined most of it would get trapped under the covers for the majority of the night, keeping them both relatively warm whilst they were asleep. And she supposed she was starting to get a bit sleepy, herself... maybe she'd just snuggle up to Lillian, and close her eyes for a bit...

---

Okay, so it seemed like Shatterpoint got away safely, when Wisp pursued him and then watched him getting into that car and driving away. She stood invisible there, just watching. Alright, so today had been successful. She hadn’t needed to deliver the final blow on the enemy herself, and they had escaped a hero attack, she’d assume that was. Currently, Wisp had no pressing needs to go see heroes. So she turned and headed home.

In case nobody has any issues with her heading home

Viola wouldn’t mention that she had called the Minutemen on Sheila. She just saw her sister return, asked how it had gone and gotten ‘Fine. we won’t need to worry about the Rockers again.’ back in return. That carried some shilling implications, but checking the internet a bit later she could come to the conclusion that Sheila hadn’t murdered them all. So that’s a plus. Viola couldn’t possibly call the Minutemen again while Sheila was home, but they had her phone-number now.

Sheila, in the meantime, had to make a distinction between her two selves.

Wisp - Rogue, power controls light and makes illusions, blinds people with laser-pointers, speaks by making letters of lights, makes herself invisible by diverting light.

Creep - Villain, controls perception and stability, attacks with knives and by breaking a person’s balance, makes herself invisible by changing a person’s perception. Speaks by…

… A voice-changer, she needed a voice-changer. She couldn’t have both Wisp and Creep make letters in the air. Also, she’d have to change her weapon of preference when being Creep, Creep couldn’t use laser-pointers. Wisp has knives, not the same knives as Creep, but Creep’s a lot more liberal with using them. … Meaning Sheila had to personally get more used to using knives, to become a convincing Creep. That was fine.

She searched the internet and found a company that made voice-changers, and unless stopped by greater powers, she’ll find one for convenience. She’ll head there before the next meeting to steal one using her powers. She’ll also need to make sure to have a different costume for Creep. Wisp used laser-goggles, Creep would have to use… something else. Unfortunately, Sheila didn’t have access to any high-end things. … So she’d steal some black pants, jumper and coat, and a blindfold.

Since she could manipulate light anyways, a blindfold didn’t actually blind her. Slightest gap and she could see everything around her. That’d do for seeming mystic. And a tight, black hood to cover her white hair. It was way too recognizable. Anyways, that’d do. Then, assuming she had successfully stolen that voice-changer, it was just to wait until the time of the next meeting with the Rockers and see where she went from there.

Earl glanced up from his computer screen to survey the lobby that had changed, unsurprisingly, very little since the last five minutes. There was a large women without an appointment who had tried to talk to the Director. Earl'd told her that he'd tell her if there was an opening. There wouldn't be of course, not this late and not for someone like her. Not that she'd let him talk enough to communicate that. Too many overbearing people showed up here with plenty of posturing and yelling but that didn't change the rules. Another women was quite the opposite, sitting quietly and looking down at some papers in her lap and occasionally glancing up at him. Eh if she wanted something she could ask for it. The security guard was as stoic as ever his face impossible to see under his helmet, if not for the occasional movement of his head to change his field of view one might take the man for a statue. His job must be even worse than Earl's, nothing had ever happened in the whole time he'd worked here that would require any sort of security, though he could understand the reasons for it. Earl's gaze returned to his computer.

James waved away the business card, before moving his hand to his glass. He raised it in a mock toast, and said "I changed my mind actually. I appreciate the offer but I decided to go a different route." He downed the rest of his drink, and set the glass on the table. He focused on the PHQ, a corner of the room people he didn't normally see anyone standing in, and his power cautioned. It would leave him breathless, but he wasn't worried. James pushed past the warning, and the darkness surrounded him.

This was the first time in about a week he was gone from reality this long. Normally he was out for a fraction of a second, or a second at most. James didn't bother counting, but instead let the plan form. Something simple to get their attention, while also not leaving any stragglers to remember his face. He knew the mob and sometimes they didn't even play by those rules, though Lance was a different breed all together.

All at once the world reformed around him, the modern minimalistic style of PHQ laid out in front of him. To his right was a woman with a haircut that screamed she wanted to speak to the manager. A little ways away on his left was a security guard, and between James and the guard was a receptionist. The final person in the room was staring at some papers, though her eyes locked onto his once he appeared. It was a bit late, he had already queued the next set of teleports that would remove everyone from this room but the receptionists. fractions of a second would pass between each one, and this time do minimal damage. Darkness, the real world, darkness again and so on three times in total. 

He ended his teleports standing in front of the receptionist, his breathing labored. "If it's. . . Alright with. . . You, I'd like to. . . Turn myself in" He said between gasps for air. "They call me Jaunt" He said quickly, trying his best to get the word out before he needed more air. He could feel a bit of blood pressed against his pants in the ankle area, his legs burning. Sometimes his power damaged his body very directly, sometimes it was more abstract. 

Earl once again glanced up as the security guard actually moved his entire body for once, upon looking at the source of this newfound energy from the normally statue-esque guard Earl saw nothing, although perhaps that was the problem. The manager women had vanished, upon looking back at the guard in confusion he had vanished as well. With another bewildered glance the women who'd been staring at her papers was gone as well and Earl the sole person left in the lobby. Oh wait there was a tall, rather muscular, and frankly rather aggressively looking black man standing there. When had he gotten there? Earl's hand creeped its way towards a button under the counter to alert the entire building of an intruder but paused when the individual in front of him explained that he wanted to turn himself in. He appeared rather strained. Earl raised an eyebrow. "Very well sir but I'll need a little more to go on then that". He spent a few moments on his computer and several sheets of paper came out of a printer next to Early, which he placed on the counter in front of him along with a pen. "If you can just fill out the appropriate forms I'll get someone to help you as soon as possible." Well that wasn't as bad as he thought it would be. At least he had a cool work story now.  

A sigh escaped his lips, though it might've been hard to differentiate between that and his already his labored breathing. He took a couple deep breaths, calming himself a bit before responding. "The  entire point of me removing those people was to make sure none of my past employers found out my civilian identity. To that end, I'd rather  fill out this paperwork in an interrogation room. Do you have an open  one, or would you rather I use my power to find out?" His  voice was steady now, though he sounded a bit worried.  James had immediately picked the pen off the receptionist's desk and started  spinning it. It was a good way to pass the time and also helped calm his nerves.

"Hm I suppose I can check." Earl knew they had one open. In fact he was pretty dang positive that they were ALL open but that wasn't really important. A few more efficient clicks told him all he needed to know. "Yes looks like we have one open. Go down the hallways, take a left turn and enter the first door you see. I'll getting someone to see you and help you with anything else you need shortly. Do you have a preference for who comes to assist you?"

The moment Earl had said which room was open James had focused on the spot and disappeared. He appeared in the corner of the room, the various papers and pen in his hands. He hadn't heard the end of the sentence, and was too tense to stay long enough to stay. He set the papers and pen down as the guard returned to the lobby, his gun drawn, and a radio in hand. James sat down at the table, setting the papers and pen down, and rolling up his pant leg to inspect the damage.

It was a small cut, with extensive bruising, the wound looking as if it had opened underneath the skin before touching air. A cut that would be near impossible to make with a normal weapon. It was a superficial injury, nothing to be concentered about really, but it stung. James rolled his pant-leg back down, and began filling out the paperwork. 

Surprisingly Jaunt was not overwhelmed by angry looking guards spraying him with containment foam. Instead a rather friendly looking older man came opened the door and came in, adjusting his glasses as he sat down and beamed at Jaunt. "Hello Jaunt, I'm Jackson. I hear you're trying to turn yourself in. I'd ask for what but that's not really too important. You'll need to be contained while we sort you out. You seem to have some ability to teleport but we can arrange something for that. Given you've chosen to turn yourself in you'll get some leniency depending on what exactly we're talking about. Oh and we can get something for your leg if you wish as well."

A few seconds passed as Jaunt thought to himself, though he nodded at the comment about his leg. "I'm willing to offer information on all of my alleged (and some unalleged) criminal undertakings over the last few months. Which groups could've hired me, how I would've involved in each plan, and the end goal as would've understood it, I'll be able to corroborate any information I provide with details not provided to the public about each event.

"In truth my goal here is a sort of paradigm shift, and so what I expect in return is a spot on the local Protectorate, and no jail time for my crimes. I don't particularly mind community service or any not too exuberant fines to pay back what I 'stole.' I understand you'll have to talk to your superiors, but I'll be here until you have a response."

Jackson nodded along with Jaunt's explanation. "While I'm not qualified to assure you that your demands are met, from the sounds of things I believe we can work something out that should be reasonable to both parties. As long as cooperate as you've indicated... it's rather late. Tomorrow I could get some more important to talk with you and get things settled. Of course I'd ask you to stay here for the night as a show of good faith, we have reasonable enough accommodations. Is that acceptable to you?" 

Jaunt nodded before Jackson had finished talking, a smile lighting up his face. "Sounds wonderful. I'm probably going to need a change of clothes for the morning, but I'm sure that won't be an issue. My motorcycle is at a bar about four miles from here. If you could get that towed to my place of residence I would greatly appreciate it. Other than that, I'm happy to stay here overnight."

Jackson gave Jaunt a grin in return, "Good, good, then if you'll just follow me..."

It had been a little more than two weeks since that strange, terrible incident in the PRT interrogation room. Love Craft had survived the ordeal, even woke up without too much in the way of injury, but they were definitely not talking again. Whatever had happened to them, it had them utterly terrified. So the villainous teenager was being held in a temporary holding cell, under the watchful eye of their therapist Dr. Jackson. Ever since then though, things had been pretty quiet for the Wards. These mysterious Jacks hadn't struck again, and other than having to deal with all the PR insanity, they didn't have a great deal to do. Even their patrols were cut down, leaving more time for primary education.

Most of the Wards had been enrolled in Cherry Creek High School, the best that the city of Denver had to offer. It wasn't a bad setup, actually. The higher level staff worked directly with the PRT, so if an emergency arose and the Wards had to leave without warning, the school would always look the other way. That was the situation for most of the Wards, at any rate. The lone exception was Ira. The tinker of the group was given special permissions to be tutored directly by Decoy, on account of them both being Japanese immigrants, Ira's difficulty with English, and their shared tinker aptitude.

In any case, there was significantly less battles with the forces of evil and a great deal more battle of the books. Even their training sessions had been cut short, as the senior Protectorate members had been short staffed since Noble and Captain Morales were hospitalized. Sure, they had new backup in the form of Overlook and Hermes, but Overlook was strictly an observer, while Hermes was... Well, he wasn't allowed to go gallivanting without Inkscape personally watching over him. It was peculiar, but the Wards likely paid it no mind unless they had been particularly observant. Still, the fact that Denver was strapped for heroes and the Wards weren't being allowed out to do their duty? It could definitely stir up some cabin fever...

Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. 2:55 pm. The day was nearly done, and it was Friday! Maybe after this hiatus they'd actually be allowed to do some patrolling? Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. 2:57. This week was simply dragging oooooon, when would something interesting happen? Well it would all be worth it. It had to be. Decoy promised a special present for each of the Wards when they reported in after school. Almost there. Almost the-Hey is that kids wearing a licensed Messiah hoodie, and playing with the trademarked Margrave action figure? Cool! Better not get caught, or the staff would confiscate-

Riiiiiiiiiiiing! 3:00 pm. Finally! Escape!

Meanwhile Ira performed her studies in an empty room that currently was not very empty. The image of Decoy stood in front of a whiteboard, but instead of drawing and writing material on the whiteboard, the needed images and words simply appeared. That was the beauty of the room that Decoy had custom built: The entire thing was one big holographic projector. Currently they were going over calculus, when the image of Decoy stopped in his tracks, then checked a watch. It was a peculiar behavior, to say the least. Decoy had to be operating this room from the most advanced computer rig in this half of the country, so there was no way he didn't have a timeclock setup at his station. Unless the way his holograms worked was that they actually projected his actions, and he really was looking at a watch? Huh. Maybe that was something to ask about?

<"It would appear that schooling hours are over. Your fellow Wards should be arriving within the next several minutes."> he spoke to her in Japanese.

---

---

A little more than two weeks had gone by. The Jacks didn't have a job in all that time, but the Broker was a man of his word. Their next mission was indeed in the basement meeting room, exactly where he had said the details would be. Unlike their first outing, which they had barely a day to prepare for, this time they had had two weeks. Two gorgeous, beautiful weeks to enjoy the bountiful amounts of money that Broker had paid for Gamble's release. There was a lot that they could get done in that time. The weapons Headhunter could commission, the people Chatterbox could influence, the stuff Heartless could steal! Oh it was amazing to have preparation before a mission. Hopefully that would be the new normal.

In any case, the mission was nearly upon them. The details had been clear. On Friday, September 18th, the Community was supposed to receive a shipment of several large crates in a shipping container by railroad. The contents would be transferred from the freight train to a protective storehouse in the ghettos. The goal was to obtain one of these crates and abscond with it, by force if necessary. The instructions stated that the storehouse would be the best time to go for the goods, as it would have only a skeleton crew guarding it. There was supposed to be a major rally in the Community that night, something big that most of the members had to attend. Where did Broker get this information from? Well, as long as it was good, that's what mattered, right? The shipment should arrive at 7:00 pm sharp, and the Community rally was to be held at 8:30. Until then, the Jacks had all day to gather together, formulate the plan, and entertain themselves however they'd like.

---

---

G4M3R tweaked the finishing touches on a new device he had been working on. Anybody with an appreciation for the classics would instantly recognize it as Mario's winged cap, but for copyright purposes he tweaked the wings to have a slightly different shape, colored it purple instead of red, and gave it an extra "M" so that it stood for "Minutemen." Ever since they had laid the beat down on those Rocker thugs, they had a bit more recognition in the area. More people viewed G4M3R's let's plays, which brought in some ad revenue, and they had even hired two new members, almost instantly after Celia and Outsider! Things were pretty great, but... The apartment G4M3R had rented for use as an office just wasn't large enough to accommodate everyone. Hell, G4M3R's shop took up more than half the property by itself! With the living room converted to a lounge, there wasn't much room for the others to enjoy themselves or have their own space. As it happened, they were in a spot they could reasonably be comfortable with the donations they received, but didn't have enough to expand operations. If only they hadn't hired those new members, blast it!

Well, it's not like that Rockers mission was a total success. They'd been hired to find someone specific. Wisp. Yet they had found no trace of her. G4M3R... Didn't advertise that part. He felt bad enough as it was, making a profit off of a technically failed mission. As he wired the last bit of circuitry into the flight cap, G4M3R forced himself to concentrate on his work. Nothing was going to throw him off balance, nothing would rob his attention. Not the television playing in the background, not the conversations his team would be having, and definitely not that knock at the door. Wait, knock at the door?

The Minutemen founder dropped what he was doing and practically tripped over his work stool to get to the door. The young hero flung it open and began a well-rehearsed greeting. "Welcome to the Minutemen High Command Center. For just a dollar a day, we can guarantee your safety!"

"Why, aren't you the dashing spokesperson?" spoke the flirty voice of a woman. She stood about five foot eight inches, with shoulder length bright red hair. She wore a black spaghetti strap with blue jeans, and simple running shoes. A lilac purse hung from her shoulder. "I have need of some heroes, but I can't go to the Protectorate, and then I saw your ad online."

The cosplaying cape walked into the workshop, wearing a scarf over her face instead of her normal makeup. She... negotiated her being able to do this with G4M3R earlier. She had a less-combat-ready attire on too, still going with a jade shirt emblazoned with a custom Earth Kingdom-styled M symbol on it (she cleared up copyright issues in the week, so G4M3R could at least sell those on a website), but the shirt didn't do much justice when it was shown that her arms were heavily bandaged. Celia... well... she was quite a fan of metal, it would seem.

"... am I interrupting something...?" Kyoshi heard the commotion in G4M3R's room, which is why she left to check what was going on, but she was afraid that this lady was a bit more than a client, rather a possible... let's not assume much with that. "Oh what? Damn, nice wing cap." Kyoshi picked the gadget up and placed it back on G4M3R's desk, then she went to stand beside her leader with her arms behind her back, patiently awaiting to hear what this job was going to be.

---

The handicapped gentleman was a bit concerned with how the public reacted to his introduction, but he let that slide. He understood why the people were a bit at odds with having a cripple in the PRT as a cape, but he was willing to show that he can help out! Hell, he was ready to show that he can do shit and make a name for himself! Hell, maybe if he made a big enough name, he'd be able to sell toys of the Eye! That'd be awesome!

Alas, this didn't compare to the boredom he was experiencing. Ruben was busy looking for a job to get him some easy cash as he mulled over an idea for the PRT to hire him on for a certain task. He just hoped he didn't have to wait long, although every minute with Clancy was welcomed as the small puppy slept in the amputee's lap.

"... if I hadn't met a gooder boy..."

---

The last several days had been a living hell for Lillian. School. Why did it have to be school? The first day being put into classes had almost paralyzed her from panic and anxiety, and she almost didn't go at all if it hadn't been for Alessa coaxing her out of her room.

It hadn't gotten any easier since, either, Lillian decided. She was struggling in her classes, and none of her fellow Wards shared a class with her. The downside of being the youngest, she supposed.

But today was supposed to be special. Decoy had promised some kind of gift when they got back. That made her happier, as the last bit of waiting trickled down.

She'd done a lot of thinking these last few days, and as she walked at the back of the crowd leaving she was thinking more.

She wondered what was going to happen. What would the gift be? Would they get to train? What was going on with the senior members?

A thought startled her. Would there be toys of her soon? Like a transformer, but that turned into a T-Rex?

A slight skip entered her step at the thought as she hurried onward.

---

Not long later Lillian walked into the room with Decoy and Ira. Apparently she'd made it first. She moved to the side a little, smiling at the other two nervously.

"Umm. Hi," she said quietly.

---

---

Jason leaned against a wall in the basement of their hideout, itching for action. He had asked for nothing major, just a store of soda he could have access to. He couldn't imagine anything in particular he would need for the job anyways.

All in all, it had been an incredibly slow two weeks for Jason. Much too slow.

"Hey, guys... What's the plan?" Jason called up the stairs as he made his way up. "I imagine you'd rather avoid a direct fight, and I think a powwow would be of use."

It was time for action, he decided.

"What if we set up early? See if we can't set up another ambush like you'd done with the last mission. Unless y'all have better ideas?"

---

---

Rend looked up at the noise, between Kyoshi and G4M3R going to the door and the knock. He glanced up and down at the newcomer, before returning his attention to the bow on his lap. "Not to be rude, but let's cut to the chase. What do we need to do?"

He twirled an arrow in his left hand idly, cleaning the bow with his free hand. Briefly he considered making a quick clone to help him finish faster, but the place was already crowded enough without the extra temporary bodies.

Lethal Force. A group that had been the bane of many a criminal. Their investigation hadn't turned up much, Patriarch was a hard person to get information on. However, their efforts had gone far from un-noticed. The community was just that, a community and they had many eyes and ears. The group was in Farce's Apartment, meeting in the morning to discuss their plans. Hardly had they gotten ready to meet before a voice came from above them. "Naughty snoopers. But maybe you'll make good members of the community." The voice was raspy and it belonged to a bloody ghost like figure above them, parts of it rotting and looking like they about to fall off. It undoubtedly belonged to Limbo, a well known member of the Community. "Of course maybe you can succeed and help me where others have failed. If you want my help... follow me." The ghost flew out the door that lead out of the room, sticking her face back in see what they were doing.

Judah glanced up to hear the raspy voice above them. He was shocked and disgusted at its' bloody, ghostly appearance. He thought to himself as it flew out the door,"How did they find us?! We took the side streets and covered our tracks as well as I know how." He reached for his sidearm, but realized it would be ineffective against a phantom like Limbo. Perhaps it would lead them to her or another member of the community. More than likely it was a trap. But what choice did they have? They had spent the past two weeks searching for Patriarch and his Lieutenants to no avail. Judah got up and looked at her head phasing through the door. He replied,"You want us to help you? To join this gang of yours? And then you say you want to help us. I don't know if your schizophrenic or just stupid." Judah focused his ability to perceive if Limbo's phantom was giving off any tells in her emotional output. Judah was excellent as perceiving other people's intentions after all.

"DAAUGH-SHIT!" Dunn fell over onto the ground when he (and Gaia) was surprised by the sudden appearance of Limbo, scampering to get back up and stare at the cape in her face. As he stood back up, Dunn immediately took his gun out and raised it to the unwanted guest, but lowered it when he realized that you can't effectively... um... shoot a ghost. Limbo wanted help though, which was odd, as she was asking a group of... 'heroes' for help with gang-related violence. "... what're we gonna do?" "We're gonna ride this out and follow behind Judah." Dunn holstered his weapon as he looked at Judah for an answer to his next question. "Farce wants to know what we're going to do... and I also do..."

Ryan emerged from a random shadow on the wall, sipping a glass of root beer he had procured from the kitchen, just after Jason came upstairs. Half of his body still in the shadow, Ryan made a very loud sip as he pondered upon Jason's question. "I doubt we need that much of a plan. I go in, taze the guards silently, let you guys in, then you carry the loot out. Not much of a plan needed." Ryan shrugged and sipped his soda once again.

"Anyone have any better plans?" He asked out loud as he fully emerged from the shadow, sitting on a random stool nonchalantly.

In the days following her conversation with Lily, Alessa had learned that far from declining, the rate of criminal activity had all but skyrocketed despite her patrols, a fact that rather upset her. She could likely have resolved them if she'd been there at any point, and yet she'd somehow missed it all! Not least of the surge came from what appeared to be a new group of vigilantes, perhaps even the same group who had injured two of the Protectorate's heroes - to her mind, violent thugs working to destabilise anything resembling a firmament of society by almost explicitly breaking the Unspoken Rules.

This whole train of thought was broken by the sound of a bell ringing, signalling the end of the school day. Finally! She'd been itching to get back on patrol as soon as she could... but she and the other Wards needed to report back to the PRT first, ostensibly to receive a gift from Decoy, and that meant returning to HQ. It was practically time wasted in her mind, but it couldn't be helped; in that regard, Ira was lucky, not needing to walk a substantial distance to get to what was essentially a workplace. Not to mention getting one of the smartest people around practically to herself for hours... though Alessa did wonder if she got lonely in that time, not having anyone else her age around.

Alas, there wasn't much to be done about the situation. Minutes were spent on the walk, and eventually, Alessa made her way into the holographic room that was Ira's classroom. Already present were Ira herself, Decoy, and Lillian; she jovially greeted each individually, then leant gently against one of the walls of the room with her arms folded.

'So Decoy, is your gift for us that we finally have another big mission to handle?' the girl asked in a teasing manner. She was only half-joking - a new mission involving every Ward really would be swell, at least to her. Maybe she could make up for their last mission and Collin's subsequent forced retirement... the ending of Love Craft's interrogation too, to some extent.

Having money was fun. Sofia had a tried out all kinds of food, bought a TV and tried some video games, a luxury she'd never had before. She found them entertaining. She'd also picked up a music upgrade, getting an updated music player with tones of tunes on it. Most of her time was spent in her room split between Dance Dance and Sims. For her purposes, she basically had limitless money. Now however they were planning their new job. Which meant Sofia was sitting at the table sipping a glass of chocolate milk and moving her head back and forth to the beat of her music while waiting for people to figure things out. Sofia trusted that other people have the ability to plan things better than her. She could pull of whatever they wanted without much trouble and they all knew how her power worked. Heartloss and Thunderbird were already talking, which was out of order since they were the new people. Not that she minded much. Mhm, chocolate milk was good...

---

The last two weeks had really just dragged on, Evelyn thought. She was in class again, taking notes on some inane subject. She knew it was important and she always kept up with her studied, but man could it get tiresome. Thus she was more than happy to pack up her things and head off when the bell rung and they were dismissed. Heading out of the building, Evelyn met her parents at the gate, and they gave her a ride near PRT HQ. She gave them both a kiss on the cheek, smiling brightly, before she left the car to walk the rest of the way. Careful, Evelyn made sure to enter the building the back way so no one noticed her out of costume self. Once she was inside she walked to her room, changed into her costume—sans mask—and headed for where she knew Decoy and Ira waited.

She was in a pretty good mood, despite the mixed reception from the public and the state of the city. Sometimes a good day was just a good day. Humming to herself somewhat merrily as she entered the room, she noticed Lillian and Alessa had arrived before her, and smiled. Her projection was mostly compressed around her person, giving her a sort of...glow. While they hadn't come across anything really worthwhile during patrols, she'd had plenty of time to practice her power. As a result she had a bit more control over her projection—both manifested and inert. It was now pretty normal to see the silver shimmer directly around her person when she was in costume, one might say it had become a habit.

Admittedly, she'd started doing it because it made people look at her during patrols, and she kind of enjoyed the attention. To be fair, it was good for her self esteem.

“Hi guys. Decoy,” she gave his hologram a slight bow, smiling, “I miss anything?”

---

---

Leaning against the counter, a bottle of wine next to him, and a glass to his left, Drake—currently out of costume—listened to the rest of his teammates. He'd been thinking about a plan for awhile and had thrown away quite a few.

Glancing over to the two who had spoken up he frowned slightly. He didn't much like that they'd spoken first.

“Simple plans are often better, but I feel we need several back ups. Last time things got quite out of hand. I think we should learn from our mistakes.” He sighed a bit, remembering how Headhunter—who was likely the best acquainted with tactics—had abstained from leading or coordinating the group last time. It seemed he'd have to take it upon himself to do so instead.

Luckily he'd been preparing. In the last few weeks he had figured out which of his adoring fans would have free time and alibis when they were to carry out their mission. He'd found quite a few. This time he'd procured several drivers, to be set at different points some distance from the building. He had gotten them pagers, and one for himself, which he could easily use to get any one of them to make an approach, simply by tapping a button. He had two cars that he'd be filling with a few fans, armed with guns...with rubber bullets. Some would have tasers.

Beyond that he'd studied up on team coordination and battle tactics. Of course, there was no better teacher than the real world so it remained to be seen how things would go. More importantly, since he'd had the time, he had managed to figure out that a few of his fans would be attending the Community Rally. He'd bidden them to send updates if plans changed, he was not about to get blindsided by bad intel.

All this in mind he waited, deciding to let the others speak before he did. He wanted to see if there were other good ideas.

---

---

Just arriving at the base—in costume—Outsider entered the building to see some members of the team he'd begun to grow accustomed to, and a stranger, in the lobby as it were. Not really having anything to contribute, he took a backseat, moving away from the door and to a wall where he leaned. He wanted to see if she had something for them to do. It'd be nice. He'd love to get a chance to use his power properly.

Crossing his arms, he waited.

Calculus came a bit too naturally to Ira, through it was often in a confusing way. Her power helped a whole hell of a lot, giving her the formulas, the functions, and even sometimes answers. The problem was that it didn't come anywhere near textbook Calculus. Her passenger would tell her that if she switched the problem to base 64 this formula would work, but the why was constantly eluding her. Somehow the curves and wavelengths featured prominently in Calculus were an extension of her power, but it confused more then helped. These odd circumstances taught her to rely more on Decoy's teachings than what her power provided, though her power sometimes persisted in spite of her.

The last two weeks had been strange in the sense of a lack of anything high energy. Honestly, she felt like she was one of the few who enjoyed the new normal, boring lull. The young tinker had gotten more time to better explore her and her teammate's powers, though it was mostly Evelyn she had been talking to. Though Ira was often worried about reciprocaty in emotions. she definitely felt like they had become friends. Ira found her strange in certain ways, but the young Asian girl often agreed with the saying variety was the spice of life.

Exploring a new friendship wasn't the only type of exploration she had done; Ira had explored her power a bit more, applying it to trying to directly improve another parahuman's. She had interviewed Evelyn, half as a way to better get to know her and half to understand her very interesting power. The focus had been on the powers range, and the more Ira focused on it the stranger her own power's reaction. There had been countless ways to increase Evelyn's range, plenty more then what she had gone for. The idea behind her invention was a type of duality, the method focused on creating a link between two locations. The first part had to be within Evelyn's range, and the second on a destination. It had been quite difficult to make only the receiver draw energy, but it was a must for keeping the invention from being a burden on anyone but herself.

Honestly, in its inception she realized there could be a pretty obvious metaphorical implication in the type of direct linking and protection the device offered. She hoped, for her pride's sake, they would be ignored.

Decoy finished the lesson, noting that her teammates would arrive soon. Ira nodded, appreciating the time he took out of his day to teach her. How easily and how quickly they lapsed from Japanese to English, to even a hybrid of the two sometimes, greatly helped the young Tinker. The communication barrier that often impeded her learning was completely absent here. Ira stood up, stretching a bit, before moving to one side of the room. Out of the way, and hopefully not drawing too much attention, as she preferred.

The first to arrive was Lillian, the newest addition to the team. A young energetic girl that Ira found herself fond of, though they didn't talk enough for that to be obvious. She smiled at the girl, uttering a small greeting before refocusing on the nothing she had been focused on before. Alessa was next who greeted and was greeted in kind before Evelyn arrived. Ira tried to meet her eyes momentarily, before refocusing on what was turning out to be a very interesting ceiling.

The Adventures Of Wisp Creep

The Rockers were lacking many things. Territory. Reputation. Equipment. And of course, competent members to get all that. Unfortunately the Rocker's in Denver had a grand total, as of recently, of two of those. Shatterpoint was determined to put this, however temporary, 100% increase in competent members to good use. A bit of questions as to what Creep could help them with and he had given her several tasks. Likely the easiest of which was to sneak into the various store fronts and homes and place a calling card there, a small business card with crossed pick and "The Rockers" in bold font across it. Then he would have her steal something noticeable from it.

Reputation. Once or twice he had her scout around areas the Rockers wanted to claim to see who was there, and take any weapons she could find, before using his lackies to clear the area out. Territory. And now... it was time for another meeting. As was usually the case Shatterpoint appeared to be alone, they'd met in a part of town where the Rockers had some control, as much as the Rockers controlled anything. Creep had made it clear they weren't to meet at their old house. As far as she could tell he'd also kept to the bargain so far. No attempts to track her, nobody knew she existed. None of the little stunts he'd had her pull had been big enough to make anyone important think the Rockers had a new parahuman. Shatterpoint hadn't been drowning Creep in money but she was certainly getting well paid. More than enough to cover her move, her living expenses, and even whatever new thing her sister wanted, at least if she didn't steal them. Overall... Things were going well for the both of them.

It took a couple of days for the Broker to get back to Raymond with his new weapon. In that time, Raymond had been left to think to himself, and he'd realised that perhaps simply gathering guns wasn't the best plan of action. Not least because that would make five separate weapons for him to carry around on missions; but furthermore, and thinking back to his hit against the so-called Universe Warrior that rocketed him to notoriety, because even his strongest gun would do squat against another Endbringer. That would be something he'd have to resolve: now that he was stationed at least semi-permanently in one place, the chance that he'd encounter such a being increased fairly substantially.

However, he ultimately decided, it might be best to figure out one problem at a time. His current weapon setup had been more than sufficient for most hits, and the chances of an Endbringer attacking this specific city were very low, especially with years passing between any two sequential attacks. That said, as soon as his weapon had been handed over, he'd asked the Broker if he could link him to a Tinker with the right skills to, say... merge his weapons into one?

A few days after that, and Headhunter was given the opportunity to chat with a man going by the epitaph "Matrix", whose specialty supposedly lay in creating drones - specifically, autonomous drones with rudimentary intelligence, working either alone or in some sort of network that let them achieve more than just the one machine could. That was certainly an idea to look into later on; however, it was not why he was there. After some discussion, they had agreed upon a weapon that essentially shapeshifted to match whatever form was provided, specifically the five guns that served as a base for it. Matrix had assured Headhunter that he could do what he'd been asked to do, for the right payment of course, and a reminder that the weapon would need tuning up every couple of weeks; with that arranged, it was only a few days more before Raymond finally received his new weapon.

It was, to say the least, perfect for his present needs. He reminded himself when he received it that it was only a stepping stone to a superior weapon - there were a few types of parahuman who could resist even grievous bodily harm from mundane solid projectiles - but it would suffice for the time being.

That ultimately led up to today. Their mission, essentially, was to steal a crate from a minimum-security function, and immediately, the two newer members were discussing the matter of how to handle it. Thunderbolt had suggested setting up another ambush; Heartless had proposed that he sneak in and tase the guards unconscious beforehand. Both plans had their benefits, but whilst of the two, Heartless' made more sense, it was also unlikely to remain effective for long, which was why Chatterbox's suggestion of implementing several backup plans was so intelligent. Whatever they were. And... well, Sofia hadn't contributed, so that was that.

'I can't imagine ambushing the cargo as it reaches the storehouse will be very helpful, Jason,' Raymond posited quietly, 'since we'll have a period of low security to take advantage of after that anyway. Perhaps if we wait from then until the time of the rally, but even so. Nor will tasing the guards keep them down for long, Ryan, unless you also tie them up and gag them afterwards. It's surprisingly difficult to knock people out for more than a brief period of time, I've learned, not without causing permanent brain damage or worse.' He thought for a moment, then nodded to himself.

'That said, if you happen to have some rope and gags available, that'd be very helpful in handling the latter point. Or we can go out and buy some... James, don't you have minions who can buy things for you?' he asked, turning to the youthfully-attractive mind controller as he did. He still believed that was a false name, because why wouldn't it be, but it was the name he had provided, so why not call him by it? Just in case he slipped up...

---

Jason nodded slowly. "That would probably be for the best," nodding to Headhunter. "I'm not much good at that sneaking shit, but I can get us in and out easily enough. I know we only need one crate... But I can possibly carry two easily. Maybe more, depending on their exact size. Mhmm." Jason trailed off.

Tapping the wall, he thought for a moment. "Maybe I'm paranoid, but it all seems way too easy. I would much prefer to go with several backups and plan for complications, than to have a simple, singular plan. Whatever this stuff is, it's important enough for the boss to want. Who's to say others don't as well?"

He chuckled before continuing. "Not that we can't handle what might get in the way."