The Power Manipulator - Worm SI OC

Carlos (Aegis)

Carlos walked towards the Director's office, his posture straight but not tense.

"So... what do you think the Director called us to her office for?" Dennis, Clockblocker, asked as he accompanied him. They were both summoned immediately after their patrol. When asked for the reason, they were told by the Agent that the Director would inform them.

It wasn't ideal, and it made Carlos curious, but this wasn't the first time something like this had happened. He reckoned it was best to just go and find out.

"I don't know," Carlos shook his head. "We'll have to ask the Director. Or she'll tell us herself."

"Hmm. You think we're going to be chewed out or something?"

The question was asked casually, but Carlos knew Dennis was only half-feigning nonchalance. Nobody liked being chewed out by Director Piggot, not even Armsmaster. She had a way of mashing your very soul with her glare, and it was an open secret that she didn't like capes much.

Still, Carlos didn't think that was the reason they were called to her office. Even with her reputation as a hardass, Director Piggot didn't just lash out randomly. She usually had reasons for her aggression, even if some of them weren't as severe as she made them out to be. Furthermore, he couldn't think of any mistakes either he or Dennis had made.

Their patrol today was on the Boardwalk, a 'safe area,' and they hadn't encountered any trouble. Most of their time was spent signing autographs, taking selfies, and shaking hands with tourists and children. Carlos knew half the reason for these patrols was exactly that: PR. And they did fairly well today. Even Dennis behaved, mostly.

Before long, they reached their destination and Carlos knocked on the door.

"Come in."

Director Piggot's curt, no-nonsense voice came from within. He opened the door and entered, finding Armsmaster and Miss Militia already inside with the director. He noticed the pensive look on Miss Militia's face and the small downward curl of Armsmaster's lips, indicating his unamused mood. Finally, there was the Director herself, a severe frown marring her face. For as long as he'd known her, he had rarely seen her without a frown.

"Good evening, ma'am. Armsmaster, Miss Militia," he greeted them. "Is there something wrong?"

"Aegis. You and Clockblocker were assigned to patrol the Boardwalk today," the Director stated.

"Yes, ma'am," he nodded.

"Can you give us a brief summary of your patrol?"

He blinked, confused. It had been a seemingly normal patrol. But he did as asked.

"Yes, ma'am. Clockblocker and I were assigned to patrol the Boardwalk from 5 PM to 7 PM, with Agent Sanchez as our console support. During our time, we made three rounds across the Boardwalk, encountering no ongoing crimes or trouble. We also stopped multiple times during our patrol to sign autographs and take selfies with tourists and children. Once our patrol ended, we returned to HQ."

He paused, trying to think if he missed something. There hadn't been any incidents to report. The Boardwalk was just that way, thanks to active patrols from both heroes and local security.

"Hm," the Director hummed, then turned to Dennis. "And do you have something to add, Clockblocker?"

She sounded slightly annoyed when she said Dennis' hero name. She was probably still irked that he was allowed to keep it. Honestly, Carlos was still somewhat impressed with Dennis for pulling that off. Given the PR department's tendency to make Protectorate capes and Wards (especially the Wards) as safe, family-friendly, and approachable as possible, it amazed him that Dennis got to keep his name.

"No, ma'am. Nothing to add. It was pretty much what Aegis said," Dennis replied, his tone professional.

Good. Dennis understood now wasn't the time to get on the Director's nerves.

"I see," Director Piggot said, before turning to Armsmaster. "Show them the footage."

Armsmaster nodded and used a remote to play footage on one of the screens. A very familiar footage.

"As you can see," he began, pointing to the screen. "This is footage from your body cam during today's patrol. The timestamp is 5:47 PM."

Carlos saw the timestamp displayed on the screen's bottom right.

"Now, I want you two to carefully observe the video and tell us what you see."

Carlos frowned, concentrating on the 14-second video. He and Dennis were on their second round and they had noticed a small crowd gathering a bit further away likely asking for autographs and pictures. Naturally, they complied, seeing the patrol was part PR, part actual patrol. For the rest of the short video, they proceeded to do just that. He tried to look all around the screen, taking in as much as he could.

"Um, can you replay it?" He requested once the video ended. Armsmaster nodded and did so.

He watched the footage again, catching the anomaly this time as Armsmaster subtly zoomed in on a certain section of the video.

"Wha– How did we miss that? Wait, how did anyone not notice that?!" Dennis exclaimed, alarmed. Carlos shared his teammate's sentiment.

It was true they were in a place crowded by people and got distracted from them, but it shouldn't have been possible to miss a man wearing a black cloth mask a block away.

"That's... I didn't see that man there. I remember the time and place but completely missed his presence," Carlos admitted, feeling unsettled. It was strange. The man was wearing a black cloth mask in public and yet standing around casually on the Boardwalk. Nobody around him seemed to notice either. It was almost as if he was...

"He's a cape. Stranger?" He turned to Armsmaster for confirmation.

Armsmaster nodded. "From what we've gathered, he might be a new trigger, judging by his 'outfit' and the casual, carefree attitude he's displaying here. Some new triggers tend to flaunt their powers."

He switched to another video from Dennis' body cam. The slightly different angle caught the item the mysterious cape was holding—A cola? It looked like a plastic cup from a popular pizza chain. Once Carlos had been to quite a few times.

"The Stranger cape, name pending, seems to have a perception-blocking ability that prevents anyone from noticing him," Armsmaster continued. "We know with certainty now that it doesn't work on electrical instruments like body cams. The effect doesn't seem long-lasting or prevent those affected from perceiving him entirely in the future, as we just demonstrated." Ah, so that's why they were called in. "There might be a time element involved or it might just be a range-limited ability that works on either everyone or just unsuspecting individuals. We don't have enough data yet to give conclusive answers. However, from the video, it's clear he has a large range in which his power affects others."

Director Piggot nodded, her face severe. "Very well. For now, I want you two to go through the M-S screening. Level 1 only. No isolation protocols needed. If we don't find anything wrong, it's fine. If we do..."

She left it hanging, but the implications were clear. Carlos knew how severe and intrusive the higher levels of M-S contingencies were, involving long-term isolation. He had no desire to go through them, but he wouldn't have much of a choice if it came to that. Still, one could hope.

"Yes, ma'am." He saluted, ready to leave. The sooner they were done, the sooner they could get out.

"Aw, man. There goes all my free time today."

And of course, Clockblocker had to open his mouth.

"Do you have a problem with my order, Clockblocker?" Director Piggot asked, her tone even, but anyone who'd known her knew the truth. Carlos looked at Dennis in worry. That was a sign. A sign that the Director was getting irritated and might just make the protocol longer, just to punish Clockblocker. And he'd be dragged into it too.

Damn it, Dennis.

"Uh, no ma'am! Not at all! What I meant was we're leaving immediately to the screening room!" Clockblocker quickly spluttered, likely realizing the possible consequences. At least he knew when to back down.

"Hm. Leave."

With those words, they left the office posthaste and headed to their destination. As they walked down the hall, far enough from the office that nobody could hear them, Carlos spoke in a wry tone.

"You just had to open your mouth, huh?"

"Hah. Almost got into trouble there." Clockblocker chuckled, abashed. "But man, Director Piggot is too much of a hardass. And this sucks. It'll take away all of my free time today. I wanted to chill and play some video games."

"Hm, true. But nothing we can do about it. Protocols."

"Yeah..." Dennis nodded, resigned, before perking up. "So, what do you think about the new Stranger cape?"

"Don't know, to be honest. He didn't seem to be doing anything except standing in the crowd wearing a cloth mask and drinking cola, but Strangers are kinda a pain to deal with."

"Yeah. Think he'll join the Protectorate? He doesn't seem to be Wards age, I think."

Carlos shrugged. He hoped so, but he knew how hard it was to convince new triggers to join the PRT. It was a battle against gangs too.

The walk to their destination didn't take long, and soon they were there.

"Welp, let's get this over with." Clockblocker sighed and entered, Carlos following suit.

-x-

Emily Piggot

After the two Wards left, she focused her attention on the two adult heroes.

"So, what do you think about the new cape? Do we have any more reports of his actions or was this his first foray?"

Armsmaster rubbed his beard in contemplation, taking his time to form his thoughts. That, or he was combing through his in-armor computer to check for the aforementioned reports. Miss Militia was the first to reply.

"He's definitely a new trigger. We don't know much about him, but I think it'd be best to get in contact before he gets himself into trouble or one of the gangs' capes finds him."

She could very much agree with that. New triggers were a pain to deal with most of the time. They got in over their heads more often than not, and most of them died during their first few months—or were inducted into one of the gangs. It was simply a fact of life, especially in Brockton Bay, where the villains outnumbered the heroes.

"Yes, letting him roam free would be inadvisable. I've looked through the PRT and BBPD databases and we don't have any fresh reports of a crime that might have involved a possible Stranger." Armsmaster added.

"As for catching him, we know his powers don't work on technology, so it wouldn't be hard to develop a counter. I can make a program that will track, log, and report suspicious behavior around whoever is wearing it. If we feed it what little visual data we've got of him and keep track of eye movements on the wearer, it can, with a little margin of error, detect the Stranger's effect in the area and let the wearer know. It would be easy to integrate it with my helmet's visor and bypass his power's effect completely, thus rendering his power useless on me."

Armsmaster was generally quick at coming up with effective and efficient solutions. Though she didn't miss how he took the job of finding the new cape for himself.

"Good. Work on it. But make it also work with others' equipment. I want some of the field Agents to have such a device as well. At least one per squad. Not everyone's costumes have your helmet's features."

Armsmaster nodded, not betraying any disappointment, though Emily sensed he wasn't entirely pleased with her orders. He had a reputation for seeking recognition, but in this case, he'd have to step back and let others also take the lead. As the leader of the Protectorate, maintaining that balance was part of his role.

"If I may?" Miss Militia asked.

Emily nodded, allowing her to speak.

"I understand that Aegis and Clockblocker had to be put through the M-S protocol. But what about Agent Sanchez? He was supposed to be their eyes and ears on the patrol and didn't immediately warn them or report this. Seeing as this new cape's powers don't work over technology, surely he would have noticed the oddity? I admit it's hard to miss at first glance given how far the parahuman in question was, but PRT agents are trained to notice such oddities, especially during console duty. Also, if it wasn't him who reported this, how did we find out about this?"

Emily could see a hint of indignation barely visible in Miss Militia's otherwise polite tone when talking about the potential breach in the Wards' safety. For all that Armsmaster was officially responsible for managing the Wards, he only did the bare minimum that was needed.

Most of the time, it was Miss Militia who coached and spent time with the Wards in off-duty hours. In fact, it was common knowledge that she was the 'Mother Hen' of the Wards, and most of them adored her. At least, that's what the gossip that reached her often told. Not that she was in the mood to care most of the time. She had bigger and more important things to deal with every day than some mere gossip. It was not easy keeping Brockton Bay in at least a semblance of order.

Still, she could accept and tolerate the woman's nature. Miss Militia was one of the most disciplined and upright capes under her, and she quite liked her over others, mostly due to her military background, which was the cause of that discipline. Not that she'd ever say that out loud. And she did raise a valid point.

Emily gave the heroine a terse nod.

"He's also going through the screening and will be asked the same. If he didn't have a good reason, he'd be given appropriate punishment. We do not tolerate laxity in PRT ENE. And it was Dragon who informed Armsmaster, who then brought it to my attention."

"Ah," Miss Militia nodded in understanding. "Good thing she did. We managed to learn of this incident early. It'll give us more time to plan and act."

Armsmaster nodded, looking far more enthused at the new topic. "One of the projects Dragon and I have been working on is automating part of the console work via surveillance programs. Given the mishap just now, I have even more reasons to believe it'll be a useful addition rather than just a redundant add-on."

Emily hummed. Even if she didn't trust Capes in general, she could at least have some faith in Armsmaster and Dragon's new program. Both tinkers were known for their reliability and precision.

"Sounds useful. Especially if it helps us find Strangers who we or the Agents miss on-field." Miss Militia commented.

"On that note, I'd like to have this new cape with us before he does something stupid or one of the gangs gets him." She prompted, getting back to the main topic at hand. "God only knows how much more of a mess they'll create if they get their hands on a potent Stranger. His power may not be perfect, but to anyone unsuspecting, it'll be a massive problem. He's a cogni-hazard and cannot be allowed to roam free on the streets without checks."

She didn't like dealing with new triggers. And Strangers were especially a pain in the ass to find. She could only hope the PRT would catch him before the gangs.

Not that she had high hopes. She'd been the Director of PRT ENE for a long enough time to know that hoping for anything positive or good in this god-forsaken city was a fruitless wish.

There was only a veritable mess. One that she had been assigned to deal with.

-x-