Fics I Read 2.0

The "Sea Queen" was about fifty yards into the beach and had four smaller ships surrounding it- two large fishing boats and two tugboats. They weren't arranged in a nice box formation on purpose, as whoever set this whole shit-show up obviously didn't count on the vessels being used by druggies to hole up their cash, but it perfectly framed the small cargo container in such a fashion that it allowed for the protection of the ship itself and plenty of vantage points for sentries and non-powered defenders.

Immediately one of the men sitting on the deck of the closest fishing boat stood up to his feet and started to yammering away into a walkie-talkie. I tapped into the unsecured band, "-Shit, Rico! Rico! We got Capes!"

Another voice responded, decidedly less panicked and certainly annoyed, "Didn't I tell you not to use my damn name on the fuck'n radio, idiot!? And so what if there are Capes? Probably some dumb kids coming out to test their new powers. Remember to stay low and pretend you didn't see them."

"I don't know Ri- uh, Boss, these two don't look like kids. Pretty sure one is like seven-foot or something. They are also wearing some pretty hefty power armor."

I waved at him and I heard M16A1's husky chuckle fill my ears.

"He also just waved at me."

"Fffuuuuucccccckkkkkkkkk, well if they start moving closer you start shooting; I'll get on the line with Skidmark."

Yeah, how about no?

"Nugget, deploy the Electronic Warfare suite," I spoke, and the dozen surveillance drones hovering overhead began to hum inaudibly. Just like that, everything within three hundred yards that wasn't on a Forerunner band lost its ability to receive or transmit.

"Let's go, 16. Just like we planned," Though it wasn't much of a plan, just go in and put all the bad guys to sleep before taking all of their cash.

"Simple plans are always the best ones," She grinned as she snatched her rifle off of her back and snapped a quick shot at the Merchant that was trying to figure out why his radio didn't work; I could see the dart sail across the intervening 150 feet in three-tenths of a second before sinking into his bicep.

Not one to be outdone I grabbed my Battle Rifle and popped a 10mm tranquilizer off at a Merchant on the ship opposite of hers, the round punching into his armpit as his buddy was handing him what looked to be an Uzi; he flinched at the impact but toppled over soon enough. He tried to get back up on his feet, but his legs failed him as he drifted off to sleep.

"Nugget, play me some music; M16A1 too if she wants."

I didn't have a shotgun, but this felt appropriate enough.

A small smirk crossed my lips as I took up at a sprint, crossing the distance between me and the tugboat in the blink of an eye, and I leaped twenty-five feet into the air, sighting in two Merchants and putting a round into each of them as I hit the apex. I hit the deck hard enough to rock the vessel, which caused three men who were running from the prow of the boat to trip and slide across the decking; three pulls of the trigger, and three darts into the targets and I was moving on, letting the 3-D layout of the ship guide me to my targets. I tore open a bulkhead with a horrific shriek, and a Merchant stuck the barrel of his weapon in my face, but I snatched it from his hand before he could pull the trigger and I gave him a gentle push with the buttstock of the AK while I fired off a round into his thigh from the hip.

I moved across the two floors of the small vessel and put down the three remaining Merchants before I pinged M16A1's location- the cheeky girl had already cleared her ship and was moving onto the two ships on the opposite side of the "Sea Queen". India pinged me and a video feed popped up showing two men hauling ass from the deck of the cargo container and were heading towards a pair of trucks parked nearby.

They probably figured out they were being jammed and the Boss dispatched these two to be runners.

I leaped up the vertical staircase to get back onto the surface of the tugboat before I hopped the railing over the side; the moment my feet touched the sand I was off sprinting, peeling around the side of the ship so fast I looked like a cheetah cornering on the Savanna. Sand was kicked up but it had little bearing on my traction; the BR55-NL came up to my shoulder and I had all the time in the world to line up my shots- the targeting program indicated that the guy on the left would try to juke the moment he saw me, but considering he was running right next to his buddy the only place he could go was left. I shifted my aim just a hair to left and fired off a 10mm tranquilizer before I shifted back to his friend before the bolt had even finished riding back to chamber the fresh round.

With a hiss of CO2, the second dart left the barrel, and I got to watch as they sailed through the air- guy number one did indeed try to juke, a quick sideways turn around juke that he probably had some muscle memory left from his days on the Winslow High School football team before he got kicked off for failing the drug test; huh, Nugget, I don't need that much information on the perp, alright? Thank you.

Instead of dodging the shot, he caught it in the back while his partner caught the round in the shoulder; the kid was wearing a thick coat, so I was going to put another one in him, but the sensor on the tranquilizer indicated that he'd been dosed successfully, and a few seconds later his motor control started failing him before he slumped onto his side.

I sprinted again, this time when I kicked off the sand I started running along the angled side of the ship, the Titanfall/Halo armor thrusters kicking in to keep my bulk at the optimal angle while the magnetic treads of my boots powered on and off with microsecond precision; I snapped off a few rounds, and while the rounds were mid-flight I flicked a mental switch to turn the hit-markers on. I had thought them annoying when I first designed them, but knowing when I get a solid hit with payload injection was really handy; the Green hit markers in my hud indicated 'hit with payload injection', and Blue indicated 'hit but no payload delivery'.

My body shifted as I reached the apex of the prow of the ship and I engaged my legs once more to soar into the air, my thrusters firing to get me up the last few feet of that seventy-foot leap onto the deck of the "Sea Queen". I touched down in the middle of a group of eight Merchants, their weapons all coming around and training on me.

"So, how do you want to do this?" I asked firmly, and much to my surprise, the Merchants didn't immediately start shooting at me, the three behind me darted to the left and right out of their buddy's immediate firing lines, and then they started letting off. Bullets pinged off of my shield, and I eyed their weapons; two AK-47s in poor condition, an old hunting model of a Remington 870, and a Tec-9 that looked like it was about to fall apart. When their weapons clicked dry I eyed my shield bar, noting that it had barely dipped at all.

Four yellow hit markers landed on the men who'd emptied their weapons on me- that was M16A1's colors. I felt her soaring through the air before I saw her out of the corner of my eye- it was a touch strange, having an idea of where she was at all times; every since we crafted our lightsabers I felt a strong connection to her, unlike anything I've ever felt. I wasn't an idiot, I knew it was the Force, but knowing it and experiencing it are two different things. If anything it meant that this was now something I was going to have to dedicate time to, and while I was all for super Force powers and stuff I felt like I was constantly playing catch-up with the tech I already had.

M16A1 landed about thirty feet away from me, on the opposite side of some large wooden crates, and we smoothly moved around to where each Merchant was taking cover; I pricked them with the glove needle, but M16A1 had no problems dumping one in the at point-blank. I could feel her giddiness- I guess her usual battles were a lot more intense than this.

The T-Doll flashed me a cutesy emoji as she grabbed a fresh magazine and slapped it into place; seeing that I was almost down to halfway I did the same, grabbing a mag from my pouch between my thumb and forefinger while my middle and ring ringers caught the partially depleted magazine. I slipped the old mag into slot one on my rig with the rounds facing up, not that I didn't have all the time in the world to physically eyeball my magazines, but it was always best to stick to an established system. It was how I did it in the Army- putting it back in my mag pouch instead of my dump pouch if I had the breathing room to do so was old hat.

The Forge glowed hot and I tried to ignore the sensation of my skull splitting open as it pulled a large, six-charge star into my orbit.

[Attempted Re-Forge: 20.0370 - Mad Science! - 600CP - A Miracle of Science - Knowledge Future Tech]

[Re-Forge Successful]

[Purchased: 50 CP Remaining]

I activated the Strategy Trance on reflex as a way to slow down my perception of time while I was flooded with a deluge of scientific and mathematical knowledge. Thankfully a lot of what I'd been downloading into my brain mathematics and physics-wise was something that I'd at least touched upon, but most of those things had been theoretical and the knowledge that was pumped into me either proved or disproved a lot of those. Shielding tech, FTL, Weapons, Communications, Robotics, and so much, much more.

I would have been ecstatic at the possibility of actually being able to contribute more to the planning and creation of schematics and stuff with my 'Goks if it wasn't for the immense amount of strain I was under. Without the new Superbrain and implant, I probably would have been knocked unconscious for this.

I was dragged out of my Trance when India 4 pinged myself and M16A1, a video springing up in the corner of my visor while a map opened up simultaneous within our implants; the small video displayed the highly detailed wire-frame of the boat, with four Merchants carrying four large jerry cans and heading towards the containers.

Were they going to light everything up?

I don't know how Skidmark would feel about having his cash and drugs seized, but he was quite good and having Squealer drive one of her vehicles through the wall of the local precinct to steal his drugs back. He would probably lose his shit if it all burned, but whoever was running this operation was probably freaking the fuck out.

"Secured the containers, 16, I'll clear the ship," I hissed out as I stood up.

"Are you okay, Commander?" She asked, probably catching my hiss; hell, she probably could have sensed my discomfort through the Force for all I know.

"Yeah, new Perk. Big one. Carry out your assignment, 16. I'm going to be fine; the discomfort is already fading," I raised my weapon and moved forward at her nod.

Behind me I heard the snap-hiss of her lightsaber; I didn't need to turn my head to see what she was doing as I rushed toward the first flight staircase leading into the ship.

The T-Doll saw that we were right over the target- so why not just cut her way through? M16A1 had leaped over the guard railing and strode to the center of the two metal doors that opened up to allow shipping containers to be lowered into the cargo bays, and once she got over the shipping containers that held the cash, weapons, and drugs, she stabbed her black blade into six-inch thick steel panel and spun clockwise.

The moment she completed her cut the bottom dropped out and she fell into the bay.

Deciding that I was getting a touch sloppy with my reliance on my drones providing me a clear picture of every person on the ship, I started clearing properly, dredging up some of my old Army training on hallway and room clearing; I wasn't like my brother who served in the Marines and had experience running ship clearing drills, but it was enough.

Maybe one of my T-Dolls had experience on ships and could show me how it was done?

Regardless, I swept every hallway and room using every ounce of concentration I had, moving my body and rifle in perfect unison, poking around and checking my corners at every junction as I made my way towards the trio of targets that was closest. Considering they were holed up in a room with their rifles pointed at the doors I reached down to my belt and grasped a paralytic grenade; with a small grunt, I punched through the bulkhead before flicking the grenade into the center of the room. I'd already pulled my arm back out well before the bullets started firing at the hole, and the moment the grenade impacted the floor it burst and filled the room with a thin cloud of gas.

"Gas! Cover your mouths!" One of the Merchants cried out, and I saw him cover his mouth and nose with a thick cloth. That wasn't going to work, my guy; it is contact-based- if it touches your skin you're going down regardless. Breathing it in just makes it work faster.

"WHAT!? I CAN'T HEAR YOU!" The second yelled as he reloaded his AK-47; the third was already coughing before he went still.

Within twenty seconds the other two fell victim, the weapons falling from their limp fingers as they slumped behind whatever cover they had. I stuffed my hand into the steel bulkhead and shoved it open with my shoulder before I walked around the room, gathering up their bodies and carrying them outside to rest in the hallway; I gave them each a prick as I put them down and out of the way so they wouldn't be trampled if someone came running or caught a stray round if someone started shooting.

The last thing I did before moving on was collect the housing for the grenade and tuck it into my dump pouch before I moved on towards the next location. There were fourteen Merchants left active on the ship, and for some reason, M16A1 decided to make this a race, and I watched her race from cover to cover, returning fire with her rifle.

Rather than get caught up in her pace I stuck to my metaphorical guns and kept up my methodical clearing; there was a time and a place to rush, and this wasn't it.

I cleared out one more room in the same fashion as the last one, this one contained two Merchants, but unlike the previous room they'd left the bulkhead door open, so all I had to do was toss the grenade in and weight.

With the Merchants pricked and secured I moved on towards the final room that was occupied on my floor; it had what looked to be three full-grown men and one teen all crouched behind overturned filing cabinets and the bed it looked like they weren't going to go down without a fight. Considering this room had a placard on it that read "Captain's Quarters" I figured that this was where 'The Boss' stayed. Not seeing any reason to tempt the fatal funnel and chance some tinker tech, I kept my modus operandi the same; I still had plenty of grenades, so why not use them?

I punched through the bulkhead and tossed in two grenades to account for the fact that this room was a fair bit larger than the others.

A shrill whine filled the air and I leaped to the side, bowling over some wooden crates in the process, and not a moment too soon because a green beam of jagged, zig-zagging light pierced through the steel wall and sent vaporized molten metal in all directions. "What the fuck, Boss!? You really using that shit!?"

Whatever else he was going to say was drowned out by a great deal of hacking and coughing, and a few seconds after the Boss collapsed I felt comfortable peeling the bulkhead door back and clearing the room.

I stepped close to the weapon laying away from the man's hands and saw that it was chrome with glowing orange lines. It was pretty small, but considering the damage, it packed quite a punch.

I felt Hoarder's Eyes kick in.

"Disintegration Ray: A weapon created by the Tinker known as Leet that can fire plasma hot enough to disintegrate human bodies on contact. Modeled after the Aleph video game 'Destroy All Humans!'"

A hum escaped my throat- I probably would have been fine with my ring protecting me from 97% of the heat damage this thing put out, but if this had been anyone else but myself of M16A1 this guy could have killed someone. I winced at the train of thought- with the number of people and weapons the Merchants had here if the BBPD had tried to take this place there was no doubt it would have turned into a charnel house. Not that I doubt the abilities of the BBPD SWAT, but with all of the tight corridors acting as natural fatal funnels someone from the Blue would have died.

It made me wonder how 'the Boss' stole this from Leet in the first place. I pulled the man's head back and got a good look at his face, and Nugget started running through the BBPD databases; ah, he used to be a henchman for Uber & Leet but after a few arrests working for them it looked like he dipped and moved over to the Merchants- probably stole this weapon and a few other goodies on the way out. "Nugget, search Uber & Leet's public Youtube Channel and find anything related to a show with 'Destroy All Humans!' I want to know if they ever used this in their live streams, and if they did, how many times they fired it."

From what I know of the Tinker he had a Prototype specialty, where he could create all sorts of different technologies, but they came with some pretty heavy drawbacks- he could only utilize a type of technology once, and each time he tried to create tech it had a percentage chance of failing spectacularly. I was a little fuzzy on the details, but if I remember correctly he didn't figure out his limitations until after he'd burned out access to some of his more versatile tech trees. The fanfictions I'd seen had him crossreferencing detailed spreadsheets that he used to keep track of the things he built; I know for certain that this thing had been fired at least once, and considering the surprise of his companion that they knew the origin behind the Tinkertech as well.

The Forge spun up and tried to reach out for another star, but it was by far one of the largest I'd seen to date; I didn't even get to scratch the surface of what it was- it had to be at least 8 charges.

[Remaining: 150 CP]

I had just finished securing the unconscious Merchants when M16A1 popped into the room, "The containers are secure and all known hostiles have been neutralized, Commander."

She gave me a salute that I felt compelled to return, "Anything else?"

The T-Doll looked away, "Yes, sir. One of the mundanes down there freaked and... Triggered? He went stiff, looking like he passed out behind some barrels; then he stood up and started throwing all sorts of objects at me- wrenches, weapons, and he even started tearing out chunks of the ship and throwing them before the Tranquilizer put him down."

I blew out a sigh and nodded, "Alright, that means we need to get the PRT involved now too. Nugget, power down the EW suite and patch me through to the Parahuman Response Team, please."

As we waited for the dial tone M16A1 and I moved through the ship towards the container that was containing the cash; we vaulted over the side of the guard railing in the storage area and our boots hit the deck the moment the phone was picked up. "Parahuman Response Team, this is the non-emergency line, how can I assist you?"

"This is the Independent Hero Horizon, I'm calling in the aftermath of a raid on a Merchant storage area in the Boat Graveyard; I'm certain you're aware of the other locations we took out earlier in the evening?"

"Yes, the BBPD has kept us appraised of the clean-up operations that are still ongoing, Horizon. If you're calling us then that means the situation has changed and there is now Parahuman involvement?"

"Indeed, it appears that one of the Merchants triggered during the gunfighting that occurred within the Cargo Container Ship the "Sea Queen". Powers displayed as a Striker, possible ferrokinetic; was able to manipulate objects he touched and could swing them around or fire them off like projectiles. Reminiscent of the E88 Cape, Rune. He only threw around metal objects, but that doesn't mean he can't manipulate anything else." I spoke as we weaved in between numerous cargo containers on our way to our destination.

Some of the containers looked like someone had tried to turn them into swiss cheese with the number of bullet holes in them.

"Understood, Horizon. How many un-powered members?"

"38 un-powered Merchants, 1 freshly Triggered Cape."

"Noted. I have Armsmaster, Velocity, and Miss Militia en route to your location, and PRT teams are already on their way. E.T.A. for Armsmaster is 5 minutes, Miss Militia 8 minutes, Velocity 5 minutes, and 20 minutes for the PRT Tactical Team. If you can get to a location where you can be spotted from the road that would be greatly appreciated, Horizon." Her smooth voice spoke out.

"Reading you Five-by-Five, Miss. One of us will be standing by the road and waiting. Horizon, out."

M16A1 cracked the door open to the shipping container we were after and I was greeted with the sight of twenty duffle bags that were filled to the brim with cash; the bags themselves were wrapped with clear plastic bags- likely to keep the money from being affected by the moisture this close to the water.

I looked at the Warehouse key in my hand before I consulted the map of the ship.

There wasn't a normal door on this mother fucker- everything was either a bulkhead door or a standard door without a lock that met the requirements. I sighed and started grabbing the bags of cash; both M16A1 and I had six wrapped around our bodies while each of our hands held two.

We left the ship quickly and sprinted across the street to the nearest door that had a lock that qualified; I made sure to spread the drones out a little further to give us some coverage to keep any peeping eyes away. Enbee pinged me, informing me that the Door-Jam had been moved out of the way, and I found the side entrance to an empty warehouse and slotted my key in. Once the door was open we tossed the bags of cash inside and shut the door. "16, start gathering the Merchants that are down in the belly of the ship and bring them out here to the roadside, line them up nice and neat for the PRT."

"Yes, sir," The T-Doll spoke, a small smile emoji flashing across her visor before she took off at a good clip back towards the "Sea Queen".

I moved to do the same, starting with the fishing vessel and tugboat behind the container ship that M16A1 had cleared. With a Merchant under each arm and carrying one in each hand by the waistband of their pants, I began dropping them off at the roadside, making sure to secure the hands behind their backs and their ankles with zip-ties. I moved from ship to ship, dropping off every person while M16A1 made a collection point at the base of the staircase that he led up to the "Sea Queen"s deck.

The fifteen members on the outer ships were lined up in a neat row, and then I started grabbing the Merchants from M16A1's collection point. I'd grabbed another twelve by the time I heard Armsmaster's Armscycle off in the distance, but before he arrived the red blur moving in a fast walk was the first to show up. Velocity dropped out of his Breaker state with a small wave, "Good evening, Horizon."

He looked at the twenty-seven men we'd lined up already, "Busy night tonight? Heard you were taking out every known safehouse in Merchant territory."

I gave him a nod before I slowly walked forward and offered him an open handshake, "Evening, Velocity, and yeah, we decided to step things up just a touch; put some pressure on Skidmark and see how he reacts."

That was when Armsmaster rolled up, parking his next to ours. I had to admit that while it wasn't as cool as the motorcycles I made- okay, no, it was actually cooler; my bikes were sort of last minute. It did irk me a touch when a scanner popped out of the side of his bike, no bigger than a pencil eraser, and started to take readings on my motorcycles. "Hello, Armsmaster, glad to see you here, though, if you would, please refrain from scanning my bikes and technology."

He stiffened minutely, and he looked like he was having a conversation; I could see his throat move, along with minute movements of his jaw and lips. Subvocalization? Was he speaking with Dragon right now? A small breath of air left his lungs, but he pressed a button on his bike's handlebar and the scanner retracted. "Apologies, Horizon. I haven't seen a design like this before, and while it has a tailpipe there isn't a visible combustion engine; is it electric?"

I let a smile emoji play out across my visor and gave him a thumbs-up, "No worries, Armsmaster, I can appreciate a man who likes bikes as much as I do; and to answer your question its electric- hydrogen separator, it runs off water, no matter how dirty or brackish."

His head nod was exaggerated, likely part of his PR training when dealing with new Capes. I extended an olive branch, "If you'd like then we could probably schedule a time to trade some notes, maybe Tinker a little if we're not too busy. Maybe you could invite Dragon? I'm certain there are all sorts of fun things the three of us to get up to."

Velocity snorted, but Armsmaster nodded again. "That sounds like it would be an interesting endeavor, however, we can talk shop once these arrests are concluded. I see that you are consolidating the un-powered members; have they been searched?"

I shook my head, "Other than a cursory pat-down to check for weapons I haven't gone through their pockets, no. My companion is busy retrieving the last un-powered members, but if you'd like to get started with that before the Tactical Team arrives?"

"Yeah, sure, we can do that since the excitement's already over," Velocity chuckled and moved towards the first sleeping gang member.

"Would you show me how you're searching them? I'd like to have a reference from the Protectorate and PRT so that I can show my other team members." I spoke, hoping to get some time to watch and observe while the Forge spun up. I was only a charge and a half off from grabbing this particular star from the "Skills Alchemy" constellation, and seeing what it was I was truthfully quite bummed.

[Attempted Re-Forge: 21.0250 - Alchemical Tome - 400CP - My Little Pony - Friendship Is Magic - Skills Alchemy]

[NOT Purchased: Insufficient Balance: 250 CP]

Say what you want to about My Little Pony, but in terms of craziness, versatility, and unpredictability, the home universe of Princess Luna and Princess Celestia has quite a selection to choose from; no doubt the Alchemy book would have been chock-full of powerful potions and stuff that could have given me an edge this early in the game. Considering it came with automatic mastery of the craft that I wouldn't have to train as well as all of the materials I would ever need the Perk could have been a game-changer.

Armsmaster looked at me before giving me a nod, "Admirable, using the PRT's Searching protocols will ensure that you and your team will be able to secure suspects properly. The men and women we catch are often quite clever, please, turn your attention to me and make note of what I'm doing."

Velocity chuckled and moved towards the last member in the line, but I focused on Armsmaster as he started rifling through his pockets and placing everything in them in a pile at the base of the Merchant's feet. The sleeves were scrunched down, the pants were scrunched much the same, and the waistband of the pants and underwear was next. The shoes were pulled off and the feet checked; the man had a small wad of cash tucked into his right sock, but unfortunately for them, they were Protectorate and unable to take part in any of the spoils.

M16A1 strode up carrying a few gang members just as Miss Militia arrived, the camouflage bedecked hero wore her stars-and-stripes bandana with pride, and I'll be damned if she didn't fill her uniform out nicely. My T-Doll noticed my eyes and she decided to take an exaggerated gander herself after dropping (read: gently placed down) the Merchants she was carrying and arranging them in a second row since Velocity had started on the opposite end, "Hello, Miss Militia."

The beautiful olive skin around her bottle-green eyes crinkled as the Protectorate Cape walked over, "You must be M16A1, a pleasure to meet you."

She turned to her side and the Desert Eagle on her hip fluttered into black and green energy before it slithered up her torso and reformed on her back, a complete M16A1 devoid of any attachments, "I'm a huge fan of your namesake myself."

The T-Doll turned her head to face me, a laughing emoji flickering across her faceplate, "Oh, I know who the team's favorite Protectorate Cape is going to be, Horizon."

I replied with an eye-roll emoji, "I'm well aware of that, 16. Just bring the last of them over, will you?"

She nodded before turning around, "I'll get it done, no problem."

Having seen Armsmaster roll through a couple of searches I squatted down in the center and began going through the motions, pulling out spare change, dollar bills, some baggies of weed and what looked to be crystal meth, a cellphone, a wallet, and a few other bits and bobs. I made it through four searches before Armsmaster engaged me, "Your fine motor control with your suit is very fine, Horizon; I'd almost suspect that you weren't a new Cape with how well you're moving in your power armor."

"That's because I'm not a new cape," I spoke, patting down some pockets and pulling out... a used condom that was tucked into the wrapper. Oh, fuck, gross. There aren't any women here, who the hell did he bang? It was still moist so... I scanned my helmet over the other unconscious gangers, and Velocity started laughing out loud, "New to Brockton Bay, but not new. My team and I just preferred to stay under the radar; handle things quietly. However, there comes a time when you need to stand out into the light and start tackling problems head-on."

Miss Militia squatted down next to me and started working on another perp, "So what made you and... your team step into Brockton Bay?"

"Well, that's a simple question to answer, really," I paused and looked up at the container ship, "We looked at all of the various cities in our fair nation and asked ourselves 'where could we do the most good?' We looked at every major city- their populations, crime statistics - both powered and non-powered- Protectorate and PRT presence, local Police presence, infrastructure, educational systems, among a variety of other economic and sociological factors."

I went back to searching my Merchant, "With the size of my team and our capabilities we knew we could be effective in helping Local Law Enforcement in not just stemming the tide of crime, but reversing it. We have the personnel, we have the training, we have the equipment, and more importantly, we have the will and drive to make things happen. California has Alexandria on speed dial, Houston has Eidolon, New York has Legend, and even Chicago- the once crime capital of America- has Myrrdin and lower crime rates per capita than Brockton Bay."

"We've been doing our information gathering and so far we've uncovered a variety of heinous crimes being committed here- human smuggling, sex trafficking, vast drug rings that target the richest of the rich and the poorest of the poor. Merchants, the low-grade pushers who don't care if their product kills their customers. The ABB work actively with foreign entities to get them their opium and cocaine. The E88, actual, factual nazis who sell their designer drugs to the wealthy and well connected," I shook my head as I finished my search and moved onto the new row that M16A1 had set up, "And that's just the narcotics side of the house, and we haven't even touched on the racketeering, counterfeiting, property destruction, assaults, rapes, murders, and everything else."

I turned my helmet to look back at them, "There is no doubt in my mind that you all work incredibly hard, and are highly competent, but for one reason or another, this city hasn't been getting the funding or personnel needed to truly make you effective. Your PRT branch should be twice its current size with three times the budget just based on the PRT's annual funding charter with Congress. The Protectorate team should have at least four more members as well, but whoever is calling the shots is trying to balance your shortcomings out with a large Wards team that you cannot reasonably be expected to deploy."

I returned to my newest perp, pulling a wallet out of his back pocket and setting it by his shoes, "You are one bad turf war from being up-shit-creek and without a paddle, and the worst part is that you'll be hamstrung by some yahoo who isn't on the ground who doesn't know the city or its gangs. I don't know Director Piggot, but if she's as hardnosed as I've heard, then there is probably a time penciled into her schedule so that she can pound her face against the brick wall that is Rebecca Costa-Brown trying to make things happen."

"You guys need help, but nope, it's Boston that gets the newest Tinker to enter into the Protectorate, and San Antonio gets the new earth-manipulating Shaker that would be a Godsend here in Brockton to fix the streets up after whatever flare-up occurred this week." I pulled out a small wad of bills from the Merchant's waistband and set it down on the ground next to everything else.

"So, to answer your question, Miss Militia, you guys need help, and we're going to give it to you," M16A1 spoke as she dropped the last Merchant in the second row, though she kept the teen segregated from the others, "This is the kid who Triggered. Don't know how you want to handle this so I'll just step out of the way."

Armsmaster stood up and moved to take over for my T-Doll, the Protectorate Cape speaking lowly out loud as he moved around the pale-skinned young man, "Suspected New Trigger appears to be a teenager, estimated 16 years of age. White Caucasian Male, five foot five inches tall, estimated 145 pounds. Brown hair, blue eyes, no noticeable scarring or tattoos, track marks on the inside of his left elbow indicate injected narcotics use-"

I tuned out his droning as I took the time to write up a complete report for all of the safehouses we took down, and once those were completed I had M16A1 write up the report for the assault on the "Sea Queen"; I wasn't about to do everything- I had smoking hot T-Dolls to help now. While we were finishing up the gang members I verbally laid out the foundation for what we did here, what we accomplished, and what we found in the cargo ship, "-on top of the weapons we found an estimated 300 pounds of Crystal Meth; its a pink and purple mix I haven't seen before."

"Yeah, it's a new twist the Skidmark has been pushing; pretty potent stuff- we've had more than fifty ODs in the hospital this week alone," Velocity chimed in, "Dunno what they've added to it, Armsmaster hasn't had a chance to run a toxicology report on it, and the lab is swamped as it is."

"Velocity," Miss Militia chided, no doubt about the small slip about the lab workflows.

"What? It's no secret that everyone is understaffed and overworked, hell, Horizon succinctly pointed out all of the problems we're having in the bay," He grumbled as he started packing up each pile of belongings into plastic baggies he pulled from Armsmaster's Armscycle, "Just frustrating to deal with."

"No worries, I get it," I shook my head as I finished my last guy and stood up, "So, now that all of that is done, would you like a more formal report?"

Without looking over at us Armsmaster pressed a button on his gauntlet and a small cylinder poked out of the top, "If you would please, Miss Militia, I'm currently utilizing my armor recorder for this new Cape."

Without another word, the star-spangled Cape grabbed the recorder and flicked it on, and from there I gave a report of the events on my end before M16A1 gave her end. I popped out two SD cards and handed them over, "Here is an itemized list of everything we found including weapons, numbers, serial numbers if they had any, drugs, type, and quantity, among other things. The second card has my helmet camera footage, though it has been sanitized of all graphics and display data."

My T-Doll handed over her own SD card as well, "That and we're claiming the 1.1 Million dollars that were found on the scene as Spoils per the Vigilante act, just so you don't think we're forgetting."

Velocity whistled, "Quite the payday for what, 30 minutes worth of work?"

"From start to finish the engagement lasted just under seven minutes, at least on my end," I flickered a smirking emoji over my faceplate, "Not to humblebrag or anything, but we're pretty efficient."

The red-clothed cape chuckled underneath his breath while Miss Militia's eyes crinkled, "Well, thank you very much for your assistance in taking out these Merchants, no doubt with them having been so entrenched it would have been a slog otherwise."

I nodded to them as M16A1 and I watched four PRT vans arrive and disgorge dozens of armored troopers while eight more vans pulled up to collect the Merchants and the evidence, and boy it was a lot of evidence. "Well, as fun as this has been, I'm afraid we still need to make a stop by Precinct 4 to meet with Lieutenant Hansen; we still have to hand over our reports for the other raids earlier in the evening."

"Well, it has indeed been eventful, I'm sure you're ready to go home and get some rest," Miss Militia nodded to us as the Troopers began grabbing the Merchants and hauling them into the vans.

"Before I forget, there was a Tinker weapon that the 'Boss' for this group used; it was a disintegration ray gun. Considering I'd seen its like in an Aleph video game I'm pretty certain it's probably some of Leet's tech. I'd only seen it fired once, but not wanting to chance carrying around un-tested Tinker Tech I left it on the ship for you guys to handle."

"Sensible," Armsmaster stood up from where he'd been kneeling, a scanner on his halberd clicking shut, "Technology from Uber and Leet is notoriously unstable at the best of times. We have the facilities at the ENE Headquarters to safely dispose of it if it proves to be too dangerous to study or store."

"Well, that's good to know, I'll let you guys know if we come across any more of Leet's tech," I nodded and felt the Forge spin up and it reached out and grasped onto a star and tugged it in close before reaching out for another one in a different constellation.

Not gonna lie, my dick got a little hard in my suit. It was very uncomfortable.

[Attempted Re-Forge: 4.0070 - Titan Engineering - 100CP - Titanfall - Vehicles]

[Re-Forge Successful]

[Purchased: 250 CP Remaining]

[Attempted Re-Forge: 7.0010 - Advance Processor Fabricator - 100CP - Battle Action Harem - Highschool Side Character Quest - Facilities Mundane]

[Re-Forge Successful]

[Purchased: 150 CP Remaining]