Interlude 1.A – The Hero Armsmaster arrives!

"There are reports of a disturbance in the docks, Lung has been spotted fighting an unknown brute." I heard Dauntless say through the coms and I frowned momentarily.

'Unknowns are troublesome, you never know how they would react or if they have heroic inclinations or villainous ones.' I thought as I drove. 'But the unknown is likely to be a new Brute trigger, out to make a name for themselves by tackling Lung. How suicidal, a ramped up Lung is not someone a rookie could beat.'

"I'm close to the area reported, I'll be heading there shortly. " I stated and adjusted the path I was driving on accordingly. I revved my motorcycles engines and accelerated to the optimum speed to shorten my time of arrival. "ETA five minutes."

'This is the perfect opportunity to test out my tranquillizer.' I mused. 'Hopefully Lung hasn't ramped up too far fighting that Brute... if so, I would need to request assistance in prying open Lungs metal scales.'

I turned down a street, still following the optimum path to my destination.

'That is If the Brute is still alive when I get there.' I thought solemnly. 'While that possibility was slim, I hope he or she would last for awhile longer... as I haven't completed my Nanothorns just yet in order to do it myself.' I passed through a red light, not stopping as the street was empty and time was of the essence. 'If not, I would have to stall and corral Lung to the more abandoned parts of the docks to minimize the damage and wait for backup.'

The corners of my mouth curved. 'Yes, that will be doable.'

"Armsmaster, you should wait backup before engaging." I heard Dauntless say with a touch of concern layering his voice.

I frowned. I would have sighed if it wasn't a pointless waste of time.

"No time to wait, the fight could quickly move to the more populated areas of the docks so I'll be heading there to minimizing the amount of damage done by Lung." I state as I carefully maneuver through the streets.

"..." The other end of the com was silent for awhile until Dauntless finally broke it. "Be careful."

"Roger, Armsmaster out." I stated, not needing to waste any more words, I turned off my com and focused on my driving and thought about the possible fight I will be getting into.

When I arrived, I was not expecting to see such a gruesome scene. Blood and gore painted the streets red and pieces were everywhere. I kept my expression stoic as I dismounted my bike and move my halberd into a ready position.

I had anticipated that something like this would happen, but I did not anticipated that it would be Lung spread around all over the place.

Weary, and ready; I looked around for signs of the Brute that did this, and I noticed a female lying down on the ground, still. I advanced carefully and as I moved closer I noticed more details about the female; details that clearly show that she didn't look entirely human.

'A case 53?' I thought, moving close enough that I saw a large metallic silver scaled arm protruding from her stomach. One that was slowly growing smaller and more human. 'A Pyrrhic victory?' I asked myself and started to faster towards the body.

When I got there I could tell that her face was twisted in pain and there were leftover tears by her eyes. I imminently got to work checking for any sign of life.

'Not breathing and I cant see tattoo linking her to the case 53s, yet..' I thought and bent down to check for a pulse. There was a slim chance that she could still be alive, even if she isn't actually breathing. 'Deceased.' I sighed when my systems picked up no pulse and registered no brain activity. I reached down to close her eyes and then stood back up.

"Armsmaster to console; The situation is resolved. The unknown Brute and Lung are both dead." I reported curtly and looked down at the women again.

'She probably was lost and confused before she unfortunately ran into Lung.' I thought as I waited for the console to respond. 'What a waste, if Lung was as ramped up as reported, there is only a few people in the world that could hurt him as much as she did.'

"What?!" Dauntless yelled in surprise over the com after a long silence.

"Lung is dead." I repeated myself, a little annoyed. "The unknown Brute was a female case53, I have not seen the tattoo, but she shows signs of being one." I added.

"Then she... poor girl." Dauntless stated. I would have sighed at him being unprofessional, but I knew it would be a waste of time. Instead I decided to tell Dauntless to do his job.

"Dauntless, I am going to need transportation to help move the body..." I paused and looked around, the pieces of Lung now look mostly human. "And a clean up crew would be advisable. I will stay here and block off the scene from any bystander that may be curious enough to come and see what happened here."

I heard Dauntless shuffling about over the com before he said a quick roger and hastily cut off his end of the link.

With that out of the way, I turned to walk back to my bike in order to grab the equipment needed to close off the scene when I heard something shuffle behind me. I quickly spun around, and held my Halberd in a ready position. I saw a cape walk out of an alleyway, her costume was villainous to put it mildly: A black and grey body suit with what appeared to be black chitin armor plates, and a mask that looked like it had mandibles and dull yellow lenses; Her long hair flowed freely from the back of the mask though.

I estimated her height to be around 5' 6" to 5' 8" as she was slouching while taking hesitant steps. She stopped dead in her tracks when she seen the gory scene before her. She quickly covered the mouth of her mask with her hand before realizing that wouldn't stop her from puking, so she turned to the side and quickly pulled off her mask and emptied her stomach.

I could tell she wasn't here to fight me so I didn't bother to ask and I would find out whether she was a hero or villain when she finished puking.

'Probably the first time she saw a dead body in a combat zone.' I thought and started walking over to her carefully. 'Another unknown cape appears out from the woodwork... but she might be a potential witness to what happened here; I'll need to question her regardless.'

I stopped close enough to were we could have a conversation without yelling, but without actually being able to make out her face from this distance. A way to foster trust with an unknown, but I also kept my halberd at the ready just in-case. I also made sure that I would be the closest thing in her line of sight, other then the scene behind me.

"Do you require medical assistance?" I stated evenly when I noticed she was only dry heaving now and waited patiently for a response.

"N-no." She croaked out before another dry heave and then wiped her mouth with her glove. I could tell she looked at it in disgust before pulling her mask back on. Smart girl.

She slowly stood back up and turned towards me and nearly took a step back.

'High possibility that she's intimidated by me.' I thought and turned on my helmets built in lie detector. 'I'll have to get her to relax around me later...'

"Hero or Villain?" I questioned her and she seemed to look at me in shock for second.

"Hero!" She blurted out hastily. "I mean..." she paused and took a breath. "I'm a hero."

Truth

"I'm sorry, miss...?" I trailed off, waiting for her to give me a name and I relaxed my stance.

"Oh... I don't have a cape name yet... it's hard to find one that isn't villainous." She states quietly... I could tell she was still tense.

Despite myself, I smiled. "I was lucky enough to be early in the game where I didn't have that problem." She seemed to become more relieved with the idle small talk so I decided to ask my questions now.

"I'm afraid I am going to ask a couple of questions now." I said calmly, hoping that she would relax more. "As you saw earlier... this is a rather grisly scene to stumble upon."

"R-right... that's ok." She said, and tensed back up at the mention of what's behind me.

"Why are you in the area?" I asked and paused before adding. "This is your first night out right?"

"Yeah, this was the first time I went out." She said and took another deep breath. "I just didn't expect to run into Lung."

"So you witness the fight that happened here?" I probed gently.

"Yes... kinda." She said before pointing towards a rooftop. "I was on that rooftop over there most of the time." I looked over to the rooftop and then motioned her to continue. "I was patrolling, looking for a simple crime to stop to start out with... but I noticed people gathering with my power..."

"And what is your power?" I interrupted her, curious.

"Right... well." She hesitates before saying. "Don't freak out... it might be unsettling."

I nearly scoffed at that, but I had the presence of mind not to. Instead I reassured her that I would not freak out. That is when I heard the buzzing and I saw her moving around fireflies in a formation in front of her.

"Interesting." I accidentally state out loud. She turned her head to the side and scratched her cheek. "So you only control insects?"

She shook her head and said. "I think just anything that is sufficiently insect like, or anything that has a simple mind."

"What's your range?" I questioned, feeling rather curious.

"About two to three blocks..?" She stated with a tilt to her head.

'That would put her at least in the master five range... she would be a good addition to the Wards, especially if she could hear or see through the insects.' I mused. 'Later... I really shouldn't allow my curiosity to distract me like this.'

"I see, so you scouted out the area then?" I asked and she nodded her head in confirmation.

"Yeah... I wanted to see what was happening and it turned out to be a large gathering of ABB members... the ones that got knocked out should still be over there."

I made a note to myself to call in more vehicles for pick up and nodded my head. I motioned for her to continue.

"Then Lung came out and started speaking to them... I didn't understand all of what he was saying, but he said he was going to kill children!" She nearly yelled that last part, and she tightened both of her hands in a fist. I could tell she was getting angry thinking about what Lung was going to do.

'The Undersiders hit one of Lung's casinos last week and they are around the right age that they could be considered children...' I thought and started to discreetly check my surroundings while I asked. "Were you able to report what they were planning?"

"No..." She ducked her head and stated quietly. "I... I don't have a cellphone."

"I see." I said simply and thought. 'A rookie mistake, one that could have possibly turned fatal. At least she can learn from it now.'

"But... I needed to do something!" She exclaimed. "I couldn't allow them to kill children!"

"It's a good thing that you were willing to jump into danger for the sake of another..." I praised and she started to puff out her chest in pride. "But you were reckless." I finished bluntly and she deflated again. I decided not to share my theory about the Undersiders with her. "Deciding to engage Lung alone on your first night out..."

"I wasn't alone though!" The young heroine exclaimed and pointed towards the corpse that was a ways behind me. "She helped..." The bug master trailed off and her arm dropped back to her side. "She died..." She said, sounding rather shocked... like it truly hit her how much danger she really put herself in by coming out at night in a costume.

"If you are unable to continue, we could always schedule an appointment at a time you would be ready to give your statement." I said gently, deciding to allow her sometime to come to terms with what happened tonight.

"No..." The young heroine said quietly before she looked me straight in the eyes with determination. "I can continue."

Truth

"I see... now would you be able to tell me where our mysterious case53 came into the picture?" I asked.

She nodded her head."Well..." she took another calming breath. "It was right after Lung said he was going to kill kids... she appeared out of nowhere and got their attention."

"How?" I questioned, feeling curious again.

"She..." The heroine turn her head to and poked her mask's cheek with a finger. "She yelled at them."

"What did she say?" I asked, it might offer at least some insights to the victims personality.

"She called them... dickless assholes." She muttered.

'Well, that would catch their attention rather quickly.' I thought and then started to ask her questions about the fight and her role in it.

She told me how she distracted the thugs by swarming them when it seemed like the other girl was getting overrun and how quickly that turned the tides of the fight. I nodded my head at the appropriate times and even managed to not turn green when she explained on how she attacked Lung, and what the other girl did when it seemed like Lung was going to come after her, bringing Lungs attention back to her again.

"... and then I sent mosquitoes into Lungs eyes to distract him so she could escape as well, when I was making my way down the fire escape. But all of them died when Lung set himself on fire again so I didn't catch the end of the fight... but I heard her scream and then there was something like an explosion and then everything went silent." She finished describing the fight to me and her body started to shake near the end. I believed everything was just now catching up to her.

"I see..." I stated neutrally, and felt a little bit out of my depth. Not wanting to say anything that would make the girl in-front of me finally break down, I tried to reassure her. "It's not your fault."

The girl dropped to her knees and started to cry, finally unable to hold it in anymore.

I awkwardly shifted around before deciding to walk up to the girl in order to pat her on the back as I read that should help calm someone that is crying down. But then I heard something odd and saw my shadow grow because of a brilliant azure light that illuminated the surroundings. I noticed the girl had stopped crying and stared, completely focused at something behind me so I turned quickly to see the source of the blue light myself. But as quickly as it appeared, it faded away; revealing the corpse of the case53 that killed Lung.

I noticed two things immediately. Lung's arm is no longer sticking up from her stomach and that she's breathing. I quickly made my way towards the girl and checked her pulse.

"She's alive." I stated clearly so the girl behind me could hear. "But still unconscious." I muttered to myself as I stood back up.

There was only one thing to do.

"Armsmaster to console command."

"Armsmaster, what's wrong? The teams are almost there." Dauntless asked.

"I require a pick up for unconscious gang members and transportation to move the Case53 back to base in order to receive medical attention." I state and discretely look at the young heroine. She was still on her knees staring at the case53.

"But isn't she...?" Dauntless trailed off.

"She got better!" I snapped and turned off my com.

'Things just got even more complicated.' I thought, staring down at the catgirl that was sleeping peacefully. 'Self-Resurrecting capes aren't unheard of, but one that is also a Brute that could go toe to toe with a ramp up Lung?'

'At least she shown heroic tendencies.' I mused, and turned towards the other girl that seemed to be in shock.

"Armsmaster come in! Do you read me?!" I heard Dauntless try to establish communication with me again and sighed.

My work is never done.