Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Stories should begin on dark and stormy nights. It’s literary tradition, after all. Unfortunately, real life doesn’t work out like that, and thus April 8th, 2011, was a relatively cool but overcast day in Brockton Bay. The day itself was uncharacteristic only in its relative peacefulness, and everyone gave a deep sigh as the Bay settled into night. 

That was, of course, when things began to coalesce into what would in coming weeks be a maelstrom of chaos.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. 

A flash of lightning and a rather noticeable “ZORMK!” noise are the first harbingers of this oncoming metaphorical storm. When something makes a “ZORMK” noise, it’s safe to assume that there’s tinkers about.

“I’VE DONE IT!” a voice cackles. “PREPARE TO WITNESS THE DAWN OF A NEW ERA, PITIFUL MAMMALIANS! AN ERA RULED BY THE KINGS OF THE ANCIENT WORLD! A WORLD RULED…” the voice says, before pausing for dramatic effect. “BY DR. DINOSAUR!”

Were this a comic book, the book would freeze on the frame of the source of this voice and show an image. And should that image be shown, it would be of a brownish-beige- one might say more copper, or tortilla, than anything- dromaeosaur, standing roughly five feet tall, eyes alight with mad genius.

Of course, this isn’t a comic book, and thus nothing of the sort was seen. By anyone present, actually, given that the “ZORMK” noise took place in a rather secluded portion of the docks. All this meant that it was several hours until someone in the Protectorate was called out to investigate the strange patterns etched into the concrete, and another several hours for anyone to get there.

Several hours too late to catch Dr. Dinosaur, much to the regret of pretty much everyone in the city in the coming days.

May God have mercy on them all.

“Anything?” Shawn, better known as Dauntless in costume, asks.

“Just this pattern,” Armsmaster responds, tracing over the pattern with an armored finger. “It has some odd residue,” he muses, almost to himself, before taking a cotton swab and sealing a sample into a ziplock bag. “Have the drone pictures come back in?”

“Yeah, see for yourself,” Shawn says, passing the pad over to his colleague. “Looks pretty random to me.”

Armsmaster takes the tablet and examines it. “I don’t see any discernible pattern either,” he says, after a moment’s thought, before he walks over to his motorcycle. “I want to examine this substance in my lab,” he states, climbing onto his ride.

Dauntless nods, getting onto his own motorcycle. “So, what are we thinking? Some kind of Shaker or Blaster?” he asks, switching to comms on his helmet.

Armsmaster gives a grim smile as his motorcycle powers down the highway. “Definitely not. Bizarre pattern? Odd residue? This was the work of a Tinker.”

“Tinker, huh,” Dauntless muses. “We’ve got quite a few of those in the Bay, right?”

Armsmaster scoffs. “Kid Win hasn’t yet discovered his specialty and Squealer’s an addict. No, this is the real deal,” he says, before pausing. “I wonder if my old plans are still workable…” he muses. “Does Dragon still have that thermonuclear warhead…?”

“Wait, what warhead?” Dauntless asks.

Armsmaster declines to respond, accelerating even further while mumbling something about tachyons.

“Armsmaster?”

The woman on the couch startles and sits up, eyes wide as she looks in front of her. “Skids, baby, are you seeing this?” Sherrel Bailey, better known as the parahuman Squealer, asks her paramour- a word that has almost never actually been uttered from her lips, aside from that one time a new strain of acid gave her perfect fluency in Victorian-era English for an hour then knocked her into a semi-comatose state for three days straight.

“Hrmflphgt,” Adam Mustain, better known as Skidmark, says, currently two days into his Victorian-English-Drug-Trip. 

“IGNORE ME I AM JUST A HALLUCINATION,” the nearly five foot tall dromaeosaur says, adjusting his bowler hat and bow tie.

“Yeah, yeah, that’s what they all say,” Squealer responds, sinking back into the couch. “Doc says that we’re not supposed to talk to our hallucinations.”

Of course, Doc wasn’t an actual doctor but the closest member of the Archer’s Bridge Merchants to go to medical school. 

Which, in the case of Doc, means he panhandled outside a college once.

“Hfefrempf,” Skidmark contributes.

“I AS A HALLUCINATION AM GOING TO BORROW YOUR CAR AND ALSO YOUR MACHINES SO I CAN RE-INSTILL DINOSAURS TO THEIR RIGHTFUL PLACE AS RULERS OF THE KNOWN WORLD,” the probable-hallucination says. 

“Yeah, yeah,” Squealer yawns, closing her eyes. “Just don’t… dent the paint…”

The hallucination waits for a moment longer before getting into the car, grinning a particularly wide, toothy grin. “LITTLE DOES SHE KNOW THAT I AM AN EXPERT DRIVER!”

Taylor is not having a good day. No days were a good day, after Emma began her torments, but days with Mr. Gladly were particularly not good days.

Like today. 

Lucky her.

As Taylor sits on the toilet, unwrapping her pita wrap, the sirens from somewhere outside serve as a faint backdrop to punctuate the shit fest her life had become. Just until summer, Taylor promises herself. Just a little longer.

There’s a faint giggling as the bathroom door swings open, and Taylor freezes. For a moment, the giggling and voices are obscured by the sound of water from the sinks, and Taylor allows herself to hope that it’s not the Trio. 

Then someone knocks on the door.

Holding her breath, Taylor prays they’ll go away.

The knock on the door is repeated. 

“Occupied,” Taylor calls out, hesitantly.

One of the girls on the other side of the door giggles.“Oh my god, it’s-”

The interior wall explodes. Debris flies across the bathroom, the door to Taylor’s stall ripped off by a chunk of brickwork that belongs on the outside of the school but is traveling much too fast for anyone to tell it that.

“Shit, what the hell-” Sophia Hess curses, getting up off the floor.

“YES, IT IS I, AN ORDINARY MOTORIST!” some sort of dinosaur-creature says, climbing out of the sunroof of the car. “THERE IS NO NEED FOR PANIC.”

Taylor begins gathering her swarm-

“THIS WAS A PERFECTLY EXECUTED DRIVING MANEUVER THAT WAS VERY LEGAL,” the dinosaur says, finishing extracting himself. 

-What?

Distracted, Taylor feels her swarm on the hold drop as she stares at the car crash and the car crash of a conversation currently taking place in front of her.

“What are you talking about?” Madison shrieks, skipping straight past shock and into hysteria. “You crashed a monster truck into our school!”

“A MINOR LAPSE OF JUDGMENT,” the dinosaur returns, examining himself in the mirror and straightening his bow tie. “IS WHAT I WOULD SAY IF IT WAS AN ACCIDENT! WHICH IT WASN’T!”

“You meant to crash your car?” Sophia asks. 

Emma appears to be curled in a ball on the ground.

“YES,” the dinosaur says. “I MEAN TO DO EVERYTHING I DO. UNLESS I DIDN’T MEAN TO DO IT. WHICH I NEVER DON’T DO. LIKE PARKING MY CAR HERE.”

Sophia scoffs. “You parked your car through the wall.”

“AN EASY FEAT FOR SOMEONE AS GREAT AS ME,” the dinosaur says, putting a bowler hat on his head.

“We’re on the THIRD FLOOR!” Madison says, her voice getting higher and higher. 

“Do you even have a license?” Sophia asks. 

Yes, Sophia, because that’s what’s most important right now.

The dinosaur pulls out a flip book of dinosaurs and turns to the page displaying a dromaeosaur.

Well, guess that answers that question.

“PRT!” a voice echoes from a loudspeaker outside. “UNKNOWN CASE 53, WE HAVE YOU SURROUNDED! COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS UP!”

The dromaeosaur looks around before his eyes alight on the bathroom door and he bolts for it, shoving Sophia aside in the process. The girl lets out a hiss as she hits the wall and grabs her shoulder as the dinosaur slips through the open door.

Taylor looks around the bathroom. Emma is still curled up in a ball, murmuring something about “weak” and “predator and prey”. Sophia’s clutching her shoulder, her eyes burning with anger. Madison seems to be staring at the wall, murmuring something about “Case 53s” and “not how she imagined.”

“I-I’m just going to go,” Taylor lamely says, pointing towards the door. 

Sophia glares at her.

“So, um,” Taylor says. “Bye?”

With that, Taylor walks out of the door and follows the dromaeosaur. She tagged the dinosaur with her bugs, after all. If she was going to be a hero? Today was a great day to start.

Director Emily Piggot looks down at the incident report in front of her and sighs.

Brockton Bay Protectorate Incident Report

Involved Parahumans: ASSAULT, Protectorate ENE. BATTERY, Protectorate ENE. ARMSMASTER, Protectorate ENE. DAUNTLESS, Protectorate ENE. VELOCITY, Protectorate ENE. MISS MILITIA, Protectorate ENE. AEGIS, Wards ENE. VISTA, Wards ENE. SHADOW STALKER, Wards ENE. Designation SKITTER, Independent. Designation DR. DINOSAUR, Villain. SQUEALER, Villain. HOOKWOLF, Villain. KREIG, Villain. GRUE, Villain. HELLHOUND, Villain.

[11:23 AM]: ARMSMASTER and DAUNTLESS dispatched to the harborside area of the city to investigate mysterious pattern.

[11:54 AM] ARMSMASTER and DAUNTLESS begin returning from harborside area to the Protectorate base.

[11:56 AM] ASSAULT and BATTERY stop attempted mugging and incapacitate perpetrator for police.

[11:58 AM] Erratic driving reported in vehicle noted to look like one of SQUEALER (see attached file)‘s vehicles.

[11:59 AM] VELOCITY dispatched to intercept vehicle.

[12:01 PM] VELOCITY reports to console that behind the wheel appears to be a new Case 53.

[12:02:03 PM] VELOCITY requests Case 53 to peacefully pull over.

[12:02:11 PM] The unidentified parahuman yells, “I DO NOT FOLLOW THE RULE OF THE MAN! ONLY THE RULE OF THE JUNGLE!”

[12:02:15 PM] The vehicle accelerates rapidly.

[12:02:16 PM] The vehicle’s sole occupant yells, “GUN IT!”

[12:03 PM] ARMSMASTER and DAUNTLESS set up tinker-tech barriers further down the road.

[12:04:32 PM] The vehicle rapidly approaches the cordon. 

[12:04:35 PM] The unidentified parahuman yells, “CHECK OUT THIS COOL TRICK!”

[12:04:37 PM] The vehicle enters an uncontrolled spin.

[12:04:40 PM] The airbags installed into the vehicle by SQUEALER trigger.

[12:04:50 PM] The vehicle is lodged into the third floor of Winslow High School.

Emily begins skimming the rest of the report, certain phrases jumping out at her.

“-suspect fled on foot-”

“-independent hero identified as SKITTER assisted-”

“-yelled, “REMEMBER THIS AS THE DAY YOU ALMOST CAUGHT DR. DINOSAUR-”

“-fell off a building-”

“-previously hidden Rocket-Propelled Grenade Launcher-”

“-“THIS IS THE SOUND OF BULLETS KILLING YOU,” before missing every shot-”

“-a cloud of insects-”

“-pulled out a flamethrower-”

“-fires spread to building, out of which came HOOKWOLF and KREIG-”

“-HELLHOUND and GRUE, who were nearby-”

Finally, when all was said and done, the damages totaled in the hundreds of thousands of dollars and the unknown parahuman escaped without a trace. In short, it was a mess; one that Emily would be blamed for, without any way to excuse herself.

Emily put down the report. “Goddamn tinkers.”

Across the city, a mysterious dromaeosaur sneezes. “SOMEONE MUST BE IN AWE AT MY GREATNESS,” the creature says. “BUT SOON… THEY WILL BE EVEN MORE IN AWE AT THE GREATNESS OF DR. DINOSAUR!” 

Chapter Text

Taylor Hebert lays flat on the lip of the roof, watching the ABB gangsters on the ground floor. After the disaster that was her first outing as a superhero- God alone knows where the fuck that dinosaur had found so many explosives- Taylor figured that honestly, a second outing would do a lot to wash the poor taste the first one left out of her metaphorical mouth.

Of course, that was before she came across Lung and his assembled group of goons talking about killing kids. 

“...the children, just shoot,” Lung was saying. “Doesn’t matter your aim-”

Taylor zones out, palming the tinker-tech communicator Armsmaster gave her earlier that day after the fires died down. If she can just call the heroes for help-

“Who the fuck are you?” Lung asks.

“JUST A NORMAL MAMMALIAN BYSTANDER, NO SUBTERFUGE HERE TO SPEAK OF!” a nearly five foot tall brownish-beige dromaeosaur says, casually adjusting the bowler hat on its head with one hand. The other hand seems to be holding a plastic bag, with a bag of what appears to be mulch and a different assortment of several types of chemicals strapped to his back.

Taylor fumbles the communicator in shock, watching helplessly as it drops to the ground two stories below.

Shit.

Luckily, Lung and his mooks don’t seem to have noticed, as focused as they are on the Case 53.

“You’re not a hero here to do something stupid?” Lung asks.

Taylor begins gathering a swarm of insects, using the distraction to start building numbers before she actually needs to fight.

The dinosaur gasps, somehow conveying an offended look. “OF COURSE NOT! IF I WERE HYPOTHETICALLY NOT A NORMAL BYSTANDER BUT IN FACT A RATHER HANDSOME AND SUPER-INTELLIGENT SCIENTIST I WOULD CURRENTLY BE SCHEMING TO INSTATE MYSELF UPON THE THRONE OF THIS EARTH.”

Everyone stares at the doctor for a second. 

“OF COURSE, AS I AM NOT A SUPER-INTELLIGENT SCIENTIST BUT IN FACT A FEEBLE MAMMALIAN, I INSTEAD AM OUT FOR…” the dinosaur trails off, thinking, before reaching into the plastic bag and holding up a bottle of hydrochloric acid. “...GROCERIES.”

Lung appears to think for a moment. “You’re a tinker, then?”

“I TINKER WITH THINGS. LIKE CRYSTALS. IF I WERE A VERY HANDSOME SCIENTIST NAMED DR. DINOSAUR, WHICH I AM NOT, BECAUSE I AM A NORMAL HUMAN.”

Lung nods, seemingly coming to a decision. “Join the Azn Bad Boys,” he says, “and I will not kill you right now.”

“I WON’T JOIN YOUR GANG BECAUSE I AM PART OF A BETTER ONE.”

Taylor, up on her roof, contemplates the inherent intelligence of anyone who would turn down an offer from a gang leader and insult said gang while within gunfire range. Lung just quirked an eyebrow. “Oh?” the dragon-man asks.

“BEHOLD, THE DRAMATIC REVEAL!” the dromaeosaur shouts, whipping off his bowler hat to reveal… Dr. Dinosaur, to the surprise of nobody present. “THE WHOLE TIME IT WAS ACTUALLY I! AND I AM THE LEADER OF THE DR. DINOSAUR GANG!”

Everyone stares at the dinosaur.

“IT’S BETTER THAN YOUR GANG BECAUSE I STARTED IT AND IT HAS MY NAME IN IT.”

“Shoot him,” Lung says, and Taylor takes that opportunity to gather her swarm and give it a single order. 

Attack.

From the skies descends hundreds of insects, each driven into a frenzy with Taylor’s power.

“ACK! DECEPTION! MAMMALIAN DECEPTION!” Dr. Dinosaur yells, whipping out a flamethrower and lighting it. 

With a wince, Taylor feels the bugs around the doctor die from heat, but more alarmingly she feels the same happen to the bugs she placed on Lung.

Of course the dragon man produces fire.

Making a decision, Taylor sends in the reserves; the poisonous bugs and the more venomous ones, the ones that she didn’t use on the normal humans.

With a blast of roiling fire, Lung detonates the fire around himself, sending out a wave that kills almost all of Taylor’s more dangerous bugs. A second explosion kills the rest.

Dammit, what’s it take to keep this guy down?

“HEY, NO FAIR!” Dr. Dinosaur yells. “GET YOUR OWN THING! I WAS SHOOTING FIRE FIRST.”

“KILL YOU NEXT!” Lung screams, getting a mouth full of bugs for the trouble.

If it had just been Taylor present, she likely would have been overwhelmed. Lung was a powerful Blaster in addition to his Brute rating; the worst combination to overwhelm Taylor. Unfortunately for Lung, and fortunately for Taylor, Dr. Dinosaur was there.

“SURPRISE!” the doctor yells. “I AM DOUBLE-CROSSING YOU BECAUSE YOU ARE TRYING TO KILL ME!”

“WE WERE NEVER ON THE SAME TEAM!” Lung yells, hacking more bugs out of his mouth.

“IRRELEVANT! DO YOU KNOW WHAT IS RELEVANT?”

“Huh?”

“ROCKET PROPELLED GRENADE LAUNCHER!”

That was when said grenade exploded in Lung’s face.

This, for some reason, only served to make Lung angrier.

Several hundred insect deaths, multiple venomous insect bites, and a whole lot of rockets later, Lung was unconscious on the ground; Taylor figured that the insects had finally slowed down his regeneration enough that the explosives had done the trick.

Minutes after Lung went down, Armsmaster had finally arrived and managed to pump the dragon cape full of tranquilizers. Taylor slid off the roof and walked over to the veteran hero, and that’s when things began going downhill.

“And how did you do stumble upon the scene of the crime?” Armsmaster asks, conducting a post-battle interview. “Skitter,” he says, addressing her by the name she finally decided on during the… incident earlier that day, “and…”

“NORMAL CIVILIAN!” the dromaeosaur responds, grinning a toothy grin. For some reason the insane Case 53 decided to stick around after all the action, though Taylor couldn’t tell why. She also wasn’t sure why Armsmaster didn’t just tranquilize the tinker, but she wasn’t the veteran hero.

“...I see,” Armsmaster says, his tone of voice making it obvious he doesn’t believe that. 

“I was going on a patrol to clear my mind after… earlier,” Taylor explains.

“I WAS JUST GETTING GROCERIES,” the dinosaur says. 

“At this hour?” Armsmaster asks. 

There’s a pause as they both stare at each other. Taylor edges away.

“...”

“...”

“...YES,” Dr. Dinosaur says hesitantly.

Armsmaster clicks his tongue. “Do you have a small omega shaped tattoo on your body?”

“ARE YOU COMING ON TO ME?”

“What?”

“WHAT?”

They stare at each other again.

“I’m going to need you to come in for questioning,” Armsmaster says, pointing his halberd at the Case 53.

“SMOKE BOMB!” Dr. Dinosaur yells, throwing a grenade on the ground, pin pulled.

When Armsmaster leaps backwards, covering his face with his arms, Dr. Dinosaur grabs Taylor’s arm and sprints in the opposite direction, dragging her with him. After a few minutes of tense dragging, Taylor manages to wrench the dinosaur’s claw off of her.

“What the hell!” she shouts, taking a few steps back to separate herself and the clearly insane cape. “Did you just kill Armsmaster?”

“I DID NOT!” the dinosaur says, crossing his arms. “I WOULDN’T BE USING MY GOOD GRENADES ON SOMETHING LIKE THAT,” he says. “IT WAS A RUSE!” 

“And why did you grab me?” Taylor says, rubbing her forehead. “Shit, now he’s going to think I’m a villain!”

"I GRABBED YOU TO 'DO YOU A SOLID', AS YOU MAMMALIANS SAY, BECAUSE YOUR DISGUSTING LIMBS ARE NOT AS FAST AS THE SUPERIOR BODY STRUCTURE OF A REPTILE," Dr. Dinosaur responded. "AND FOR YOUR INFORMATION IT WAS NOT BECAUSE YOU WERE A CONVENIENTLY NEARBY SQUISHY BULLET SHIELD THAT I ABSOLUTELY DID NOT GRAB JUST IN CASE THAT GUY HAD A GUN."

"What?"

"WHAT?"

"Alright, look, I'm glad you helped with Lung, but I'm going to have to arrest you now-" Taylor begins, before Dr. Dinosaur grabs something else out of his pack.

“GRENADE!” he yells, and by the time Taylor can see through the flashbang, Dr. Dinosaur is long gone.

Chapter Text

Taylor sighs, collapsing into her bed.

Luckily, she had her communicator and managed to clear things up with Armsmaster: no, she wasn’t suddenly a villain, and she still wasn’t a Tinker (he was very insistent on that last question).

Regardless, today had put a lot in perspective for Taylor. After Friday, and now this fight with Lung-

She was forced to confront that like it or not, she worked better with other Parahumans. With someone else to take the brunt of the fighting as she harassed foes with her bugs and directed them? She would be, was, more effective.

And the fact of the matter was that independents didn’t last long in the Bay; with the power that Lung could bring to bear? Taylor was screwed if she wasn’t more careful.

The Wards were still out for the moment- she didn’t have any accomplishments under her belt and she’d rather risk going solo than try and dive into a pool of teenage politics. But if she could catch Dr. Dinosaur?

Then she had a very real accomplishment under her belt- something to put her a step above the rest of the Wards, higher on the totem pole.

Catch Dr. Dinosaur, she decides. That was her plan. That was how she’d be a hero.

Dr. Dinosaur sneezes, putting down his blow torch as he flips up his welding mask and surveys his project. “ALMOST FINISHED!” he grins a toothy grin. “THEN WE WILL SEE WHO THE FOOLS ARE!”

The dromaeosaur cackled. “SPOILER: IT’S NOT ME!”

Still laughing, he picks back up the blowtorch, flipping back down his visor and reigniting the tool. Humming to himself a song- Atomic Robo’s Dying Tonight , an original composition by Dr. Dinosaur that has nothing to do with the hit song DJ’s Got Us Fallin’ In Love - he continues his work.

A calendar in the corner of the room has a single date circled: Thursday, April 14th.

Said date is also starred, double starred, circled twice more, and has a big drawing of Dr. Dinosaur's head giving a thumbs up next to it, but that's neither here nor there.

Groaning, Brian puts down his controller, letting Alec revel in another victory. “Don’t know why I even bother playing with you…”

The two sit inside the Undersider’s base, killing some time before their team meeting. Brian leans back on the couch- not the one he almost bled out on, the replacement- and sighs.

Alec smirks, leaning back as his avatar begins emoting over Brian’s dead body. “Yeah- I mean, you’d think by this point you’d have realized I’ll win every time.”

Brian raises an eyebrow. “I won our second match.”

“Because you had a smoke grenade and then waited me out,” Alec says, waving it off. “It’s a cheap tactic.”

“Still won.”

There’s a moment of silence between the two as Alec starts opening some loot box on the screen.

Brian pulls out his phone and sighs, scrolling through the Brockton Bay section of PHO. “Have you heard about the new Tinker in the Bay? Apparently they took down Lung with the help of a new bug cape last night- and then there was that whole thing at Winslow, too.”

Alec pauses the game, sets his controller down, and turns to Brian. “Brian. As my illustrious leader,” he says, his fingers templed in front of his mouth, “what makes you think I would ever willingly do research without you telling me to?”

Brian holds up a finger, opens his mouth, and then stops. And then he registers the words Alec just said. “Wait, you do research when I tell you to?”

“No,” Alec admits, picking back up his controller. “But I’d be more likely to do it. Probably.”

The door to Redmond Welding slams open, revealing Rachel and her dogs- Brutus, Judas, and Angelica, Brian thinks- as they bustle in.

“I’m here. Where’s Tattletale?” Rachel asks, jerking her chin towards Lisa’s usual spot on the couch.

“Tat’s calling with the boss, apparently,” Alec says, waving off the girl’s complaints. “She said she’ll be out soon.”

“Have you heard about the new Tinker in the Bay?” Brian asks, turning to Rachel as the girl unclips her dogs’ leashes.

“No? Why the fuck would I read about Tinkers?” Rachel asks, turning to Brian with a genuine look of confusion on her face.

Brian nods in resignation. “Right. Forgot that Lisa and I are the responsible ones on the team.”

Alec grins, fully re-invested in his game as he starts another round. “Yeah. Bet Tats is going to come bursting out of her room with some super safe plan for us. Like robbing an antique store or something small.”

Lisa bursts out of the back room, waving her phone. “Guys, we’re robbing a bank!”

Brian groans.

“And for our last item on the agenda,” Emily Piggot says, surveying the room- the contrast between the official, more drab wear of the PRT workers contrasting heavily with the bright costumes of the Protectorate members, the two groups evenly dispersed among the long conference table- “we have a new Tinker in the Bay, as of last Friday. Armsmaster?”

“Hm?” the Tinker asks, looking up from the desk. 

“Your report?”

“Yes, right,” Armsmaster says, standing up. “My report on…”

“...on the new cape?”

Armsmaster jerks his head around to stare at Director Piggot. “ Him. ”

There’s a tense staring contest between the two before Emily coughs. “Well, where is it?”

“Where is what?”

“Your report.”

“On who?”

“Are you feeling okay, Armsmaster?” Dauntless asks, his voice full of concern. “You’ve been a little bit out of it all day.”

Armsmaster shakes his head vehemently. “Out of it? No. In it. All the way in it. All the way.”

“Colin?” Miss Militia asks.

“Need to prepare!” Armsmaster declares, goose stepping to the front of the room. “I have a worthy opponent!” he declares, holding a fist aloft. “Our battle will be legendary!” 

There’s a pause.

“Good, need to write that one down,” Armsmaster mutters. A little compartment on his armor pops out, revealing a notepad and pen, and Armsmaster scribbles something down.

Emily sighs. “Armsmaster, do you have a report or not?”

“Report?” Armsmaster asks, peering at her owlishly as he sets his notepad and pen back in his compartment. “On who?”

“Dr. Dinosaur?”

“ Him. ”

The two stare at each other for a moment.

“The doctor is akin to Loki, the god of trickery,” Armsmaster suddenly says, spinning away. Walking along the table, he suddenly lunges forward and grabs Rennick’s cup of coffee.

“If the Bay is like this cup of coffee,” Armsmaster says, holding the cup aloft like a golden chalice with both hands. “Then he will drink us dry.”

Armsmaster chugs the entire cup of coffee, ignoring Rennick’s groan.

“Like that,” Armsmaster says, before slamming the cup onto the table. “LIKE THAT!” he shouts.

“Colin,” Miss Militia says, “when was the last time you slept?”

Armsmaster stares at the ceiling. 

“Colin?”

“CONSTANT VIGILANCE!” Armsmaster shouts, grabbing a syringe of something from a compartment in his calf and jabbing into his neck. “I’M AWAKE!”

“Colin, when did you last sleep?” Miss Militia stresses.

“What time is it?”

“3:00 PM.”

“Then… Friday.”

“Colin, it’s Wednesday.”

Miss Militia and Armsmaster stare at each other.

Armsmaster draws his halberd and brandishes it at his coworker. “No! I must prepare! A Tinker is the most dangerous game!”

He stops, lowering the halberd. “Gotta write that one down too.”

Miss Militia quick-draws a tranquilizer gun and shoots Armsmaster in the neck. Armsmaster collapses.

Emily raises an eyebrow.

“He was clearly mentally unwell and unfit for active duty,” Miss Militia says. “Section G3-8 of the Protectorate Handbook states that if such an occurrence is to happen, it is the duty of the second-in-command of the local branch to relieve their superior of their command.”

Emily considers it before nodding.

“Now, moving on,” she begins.

“still awake…” Armsmaster slurs, raising an arm sluggishly. 

Miss Militia shoots him again.

Chapter Text

There was a certain elegance to bank heists, Lisa thinks. Did she want to do this? No, absolutely not. And were she not nearly certain that she and her team were just flashy distractions, she may have protested the plan. And had Coil not had a gun to her head- well, she would’ve already been gone.

But, for all their flaws: bank heists had a certain elegance. They fit neatly into the “cops and robbers” paradigm that Lisa was planning on introducing the next Undersiders recruit to (if Bitch didn’t scare them off, that is), they were classic, and they were easy. Nobody expected anyone to actually rob a bank, after all, unless they were a humor villain of some kind.

And despite the wild cards that made up the Undersiders, the heist was actually going well. They managed to get in, cow the civilians into compliance (with some well timed power demonstrations from their temporary muscle, Circus) and get into the vault. Now Lisa was left to keep one eye on the hostages with Alec and Brian and one eye out for the inevitable plan derailing-

The front of the bank fucking exploded.

“BEHOLD, PITIFUL MAMMALS, YOUR NEW REPTILIAN OVERLORDS!” a voice shrieks, the bank wall exploding as a velociraptor rides in on some sort of triceratops-ankylosaurus creature, the latter dinosaur covered in pink crystals.

What.

Dinosaur- Case 53? New trigger?- riding bio-modified second dinosaur, her power offered.

Lisa gives the mental equivalent of annoyed stare to her power.

Lisa’s power gives back an apologetic shrug.

“COWER IN FEAR AT THE MAJESTY OF THE SECOND VERSION OF THE OMNISAUR! IT HAS SIGNIFICANTLY LOWER ODDS OF GOING INSANE AND TRYING TO MURDER ALL OF US BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY ME!” the velociraptor yells, before surveying the bank and taking in the sight of all the hostages. “OH, GOOD! YOU ARE ALL ALREADY GROVELING! THAT SIGNIFICANTLY LOWERS THE TIME I WILL HAVE TO SPEND EXPLAINING MY GENIUS TO YOU.”

Alec raises a hand. “What are you doing here?” he asks.

“I AM HERE TO ROB A BANK!” the dinosaur insists, holding up a bag with a cartoon $ sign on it as he slides off the larger triceratops.

“No, we’re robbing the bank,” Brian says.

Alec shrugs. “Come back next time?” 

“THEN I INVOKE THE SACRED RITE OF DIBS!” the dinosaur decides, crossing his arms.

“But we were here first?” Alec asks.

The dinosaur nods, rummaging in the makeshift cooler backpack slung over his back half. “YES, BUT YOU DIDN’T CALL DIBS. I DID. THAT MEANS YOU’RE JUST STEALING MY IDEA AND YOU HAVE TO LEAVE BEFORE I INVOKE THE RITE OF TOOTH AND CLAW.”

“And that’s…?”

“WHEN I COMMAND OMNISAUR TO KILL YOU,” the dinosaur explains, pulling out a submachine gun.

“HORNK!” Ominsaur agrees.

“Okay, but- you can’t do that,” Lisa says, trying to regain control of the situation as she massages her forehead. “If you kill us then the heroes come down on your head. How about this: we give you some of the take and we all go our merry ways?”

“BUT CONSIDER: I HAVE A GUN AND YOU DO NOT.”

Lisa holds up her handgun wordlessly.

“I WAS HOPING YOU WOULD FORGET ABOUT THAT.”

Victoria Dallon paces restlessly, lined up with the rest of the Wards. “And we can’t just go in?” she asks, slamming a fist into the wall of the Protectorate van the Wards (and she) rode to the bank.

Aegis shakes his head. “Not if we don’t want to risk hostages. The new Case 53 is a loose cannon-”

Shadow Stalker grumbles something unintelligible.

“-so we need to go in with a plan. We can’t just fly off half cocked.”

Clockblocker grins behind his mask. “So we’ll save the costume swap for next time?” he asks, leaning on the back of the van.

“Next time, Clock,” Aegis says. 

“If there even is a next time,” Vista adds, sitting cross legged on the bumper of the car. “Not like we get to see much action.”

“Hear hear,” Shadow Stalker says. “Never think I’d agree with her-”

“Hey!”

“-but it’s not like the pencil pushers are actually going to let us do anything helpful.”

Victoria’s eyes snap to the bank foyer, and- “That’s a gun. He has a gun,” she says, calculating force and distance, how fast she can fly…

“Vicky-” Dean starts.

Victoria shakes her head, crouching down and aiming herself at the doors. “He has a gun. I’m not letting Amy get hurt.”

With a burst of wind, she shoots forward, flying through the hole that the villain’s dramatic entrance left in the front edifice of the bank. “Hey! Put down the gun. Now!”

One of the Undersiders- Regent, given the scepter and frilly costume- takes a step back. “Shit, Glory Girl’s here!”

The dinosaur taps his chin with the barrel of his gun. “NO.”

Victoria arches an eyebrow. “You realize I’m invincible, right? The bullets won’t hurt me.”

“THESE ARE SPECIAL BULLETS!”

“They are?”

Shit, tinkertech?

“YES! THEY’RE FIRED BY ME! PREPARE TO FACE YOUR DOOM, GLORY GRILL! AND IT HAS THE FACE OF A DINOSAUR!”

Victoria cocks a fist back before registering the villain’s words and pausing. “Glory Grill?”

“THAT’S RIGHT, GLORY GRILL!” the dinosaur agrees with a toothy grin. “WITNESS HOW I HAVE DECONSTRUCTED YOUR NAME INTO AN INSULT!”

“That’s… not an insult?” Victoria says, tilting her head.

“YOUR PUNY MAMMALIAN INTELLECT JUST CANNOT WITHSTAND THE CONSIDERABLE GIRTH OF MY WIT!"

“Also, it’s girl ,” Regent adds. “ Girl. ”

“ Not helping! ” Tattletale hisses.

“FINE! PREPARE TO BE DAZZLED BY MY PRODIGIOUS INTELLIGENCE, GIRL GRILL!”

“...What?”

The dinosaur throws a gun at Glory Girl’s head.

“HAAAAAAANDS- TOUCHIN’ HANDS-” Ethan sings, horribly off-key. As usual.

Hana just grits her teeth and ignores it as best as possible. The PRT’s mobile van was invaluable when it came to day trips such as this- in this case, to meet with some of the Protectorate’s benefactors in Brockton Bay. Not all the team was going- Robin was staying back in case an emergency started and they had New Wave on standby.

But that still left Ethan singing an absolutely horrendous take on Sweet Caroline. Hana glances at Colin, ready to note the man’s usual response to this sort of time waster- and she double takes, because Colin was inexplicably still asleep.

“C’mon, puppy!” Ethan cheers, nudging Battery. “REACHIN’ OUT- TOUCHIN’ MEEEEE-”

Ethan glances around. Rory looks down at his lap and Shawn looks at the ceiling, avoiding eye contact best as possible lest Ethan begin needling them.

“Armsie! I know you’re not asleep- join me for the chorus!” Ethan cheers, nudging Armsmaster. “SWEEEET CAROLINE!” 

Armsmaster’s head falls off and Ethan yelps, scrambling away from the body and clinging onto Battery.

Hana reaches down and picks up the mannequin head. 

She blinks, her power cycling between a variety of knives. “Colin…”

Ethan scoots even farther into his wife's lap and away from Hana.

Something under the trunk of the Protectorate van hits the ground with a metallic clank.

Missy peers under the van. “Hey, what’s-”

Armsmaster pulls himself out, clutching a halberd. “Dr. Dinosaur? He’s in the building? Good. Good. I have plan. Many plans.”

“Armsmaster?” Aegis asks. “What are you-”

“I was waiting. Lying in wait. Did you know that Dromaeosaurus dinosaurs were scavengers?” Armsmaster asks, pulling a second halberd out from under the van.

Aegis shakes his head. “Sir, what were you doing underneath the van?”

“Sleeping. Studying. Need to know your enemy. Micronaps are more efficient than taking breaks,” Armsmaster says, pulling a third halberd out from under the van. “Did you know that you only need one hour of sleep to function properly?” 

“Sir?”

“Might be two. Anyways. Di doctorsaur?”

Aegis pinches his brow. “Sir, how much sleep do you have?”

“Ten.”

“Hours?”

“Minutes. Might be seconds.”

“...”

“I remember the number ten,” Armsmaster says.

“Sir, as active leader of the Wards, I’m going to need you to take a step back and calm down.”

Armsmaster hisses like a feral cat.

Aegis sighs, weighing his options. “Clockblocker, can you please subdue Armsmaster so we can remove him from this active crime scene?”

Clockblocker nods. “You got it, boss.”

Aegis then looks up at Shadow Stalker. “Stalker, can you please try not to enjoy this so much?”

Shadow Stalker stares back at him, clearly arching an eyebrow behind her mask.

Aegis sighs and prepares to grapple the Protectorate ENE leader. God, how did he get here?

As Glory Girl recovers from the cleverly thrown weapon, Dr. Dinosaur sprints into motion like a particularly fast prehistoric creature. With one arm, he reaches into his pack and pulls out a second gun. With his other hand he grabs the arm of a frizzy-haired teenage girl and pulls her close. “BEHOLD! I HAVE A HOSTAGE!” Dr. Dinosaur yells, touching the barrel of his gun to the girl’s head.

“Hey!” Glory Girl yells. “Hands off my sister!”

“YES I INTENTIONALLY CHOSE YOUR SISTER FOR THE EMOTIONAL IMPACT,” Dr. Dinosaur agrees. “THIS IS ALL ACCORDING TO PLANS LAID OUT BY VASTLY SUPERIOR INTELLECT.”

“Do you… not recognize her?” Glory Girl asks.

“OF COURSE I RECOGNIZE HER!” Dr. Dinosaur retorts. “BUT THE QUESTION IS: DO YOU?”

“...Yes?” Glory Girl says. “That’s my sister, Panacea.”

“YES I KNEW THAT I WAS JUST TESTING YOU.”

“I will give you all the cancer,” Amy Dallon, better known as Panacea, says.

“JOKES ON YOU! DINOSAURS CAN’T GET CANCER.”

“Yes, they can,” the parahuman healer responds. “Want to see?”

“BAH!” Dr. Dinosaur says, shoving her away. “YOU WERE A HORRIBLE HOSTAGE ANYWAYS.”

“So now I beat you up?” Glory Girl asks, cracking her knuckles.

“NOW PLAN O.”

“Plan O?”

“PLAN OMNISAUR!”

“HORMK!” Omnisaur grunts, charging up. Glory Girl shields her face as a beam of pink light slams into her face, hurling her upwards through the roof of the bank at a speed best described as “incredibly fast”.

“Now what? You rob the bank?” Panacea asks.

“HAHAHA, YES! AND THERE’S ONLY A TWENTY FIVE PERCENT CHANCE OF OMNISAUR GOING HOMICIDAL!”

A distinctive vmmmm sound begins reverberating throughout the bank.

“FUN FACT! OMNISAUR MAY HAVE BEAT THE ODDS!”

Armsmaster heroically crouches on top of the Protectorate van, surveying the terrain. Sooner or later, Dr. Dinosaur will make a cowardly run for it, and it will be up to Brockton Bay’s foremost tinker to stop him.

Clockblocker jumps to try and tag Armsmaster but misses. Armsmaster hisses, poking at the Ward with the blunt end of a halberd to force him to back off. 

With the sound of a laser and a flash of pink, Glory Girl is hurled out of the bank and Armsmaster leaps down, preparing for battle. With a roar, his enemy is made clear: Dr. Dinosaur has turned himself into a pink crystaled behemoth of a monster.

Aegis makes another grab for Armsmaster as the veteran jumps off the roof of the PRT van, nearly tripping and stumbling before pulling himself up and running at the dinosaur with a shout.

“PREPARE YOURSELF, FIEND!” Armsmaster shouts, his halberd crackling with lightning akin to Zeus’s mighty bolt itself. “FACE THE MIGHT OF A TRUE HERO!”

“Prepare yourself, fiend! Face the might of Armsmaster, Master of Arms!”

The Omnisaur roars, rearing up onto his hind legs, and Armsmaster deftly continues his assault. “Back! Back, I say!” he shouts, jabbing at the beast.

“Browbeat, Gallant, Kid Win, Shadow Stalker!” Aegis calls, pointing at the Omnisaur. “Keep it distracted! Clockblocker, Vista- get Clock to freeze it!”

The Wards nod and move like a well oiled machine, following their leader’s orders.

Then the front of the bank explodes in inky black darkness.

“The Undersiders!” Browbeat realizes.

“Dammit- Vista, Kid Win, Shadow Stalker, try and stop them from getting away! Gallant, Browbeat, you’re with me- we’ve got to try to subdue the dinosaur before it can cause more damage!”

Armsmaster nods as the leader of the Wards joins him. “Aegis. Let’s wrap this up quickly and stop the other villains.”

“Right!” the Ward leader responds.

“...It’s Aegis, not Arms-Squire, sir.”

Brian claps his hands together, watching Ominisaur bust out of the front edifice and begin rampaging around. “What the fuck?” he asks.

“THERE IS NONE OF THAT HAPPENING! OMNISAUR DOES NOT PROCREATE LIKE YOU GROSS MAMMALIANS!” Dr. Dinosaur says, brushing himself off as he extricates himself out of the Omnisaur-sized footprint that he was squished into. “MOSTLY BECAUSE THE OMNISAUR’S HOUR LONG LIFE CYCLE LEAVES NO TIME FOR SUCH ACTIVITIES.”

“What the fuck are you guys doing out here?” Bitch starts as she comes out of the vault, Circus trailing behind her.

She takes one look at the scene and looks at Brian, eyes sparkling.

Brian tries to pinch his brow through his helmet. “No, Bitch, you can’t adopt the ‘Omnisaur’,” he says, making air quotes.

“IT’S A VICIOUS KILLER DINOSAUR, SUBSERVIENT ONLY TO THE SUPER INTELLIGENCE OF MYSELF!”

“And we have a very distinct policy on tinker creations in the base,” Brian points out.

Bitch stares at Grue.

“No, Bitch.”

Bitch- she pouts ?

…

Not dealing with this , Brian decides.

“Everyone on!” Tattletale calls, motioning to Brutus, Angelica, and Judas.

Dr. Dinosaur moves to get onto one of the dogs.

“Not you!” Brian shouts.

Dr. Dinosaur crosses his arms. “FINE! I DID NOT WANT YOUR ASSISTANCE EITHER! I SHALL COME UP WITH A NEW ESCAPE ROUTE THAT IS BOTH BETTER AND MORE STEALTHY THAN YOURS.”

“...Right,” Tattletale says. “Grue?”

And Brian unleashes his darkness.

Aegis grunts, crouching down and shooting up to slam into the Ominsaur’s chin and throw it off balance. “Gallant!”

“I’m trying!” his friend shouts, blasting the dinosaur with a rainbow of beams. “All that I’m getting is rage and fear- my beams aren’t having any effect!”

Glory Girl flies into the side of the dinosaur, punching it once, twice, and almost tipping it. “Stay down, ugly!”

Clockblocker feints back and forth. “I can’t get in close!”

Browbeat roars, charging back in from the side of the building that the Omnisaur launched him into. 

As he slams a fist into the Omnisaur, the creature explodes into a cloud of pink dust.

Aegis blinks.

“What?”

Browbeat stares at his fist, grinning softly. I am a god among men, he thinks.

The Protectorate van begins accelerating away at maximum speed. “BEHOLD, A STEALTHY ESCAPE!” Dr. Dinosaur shouts out the window. “TREMBLE IN FEAR AS I ONCE AGAIN BEST YOU, THIS TIME WITH MY SUPERIOR AUTOMOTIVE SKILLS!”

Aegis watches as the van hits three streetlights, two cars, and a fire hydrant as it takes off into the distance.

How did he get into the driver’s seat?

“Ah, Ca-Aegis?” Kid Win calls. “We caught someone!”

Vista sits on top of an unconscious Circus, beaming proudly.

Aegis sighs. At least this wasn’t a complete loss.

…

…

…

In a dark lab, a shadowed figure mutters as they type on a keyboard. In front of them, a dozen monitors cast light throughout the room- each monitor displaying a different Case 53. 

The biggest monitor displays a recently discovered one: footage from a recent news report plays, showing a brownish-beige dromaeosaur bust through the front edifice of the Brockton Bay Central Bank atop a pink-crystal studded Omnisaur.

“What the-?” the figure mutters, clicking away at the keyboard and enlarging a still frame of the prehistoric creature. “The heck are you doing here?”

Chapter Text

“It was a dinosaur ,” Brian says, throwing his hands up and repeating the argument he’s already had twice times with Rachel in the past two days since the bank heist. “It wasn’t even a dog! You can’t use your power on it!”

Rachel just crosses her arms. “I might’ve been able to,” she says petulantly. “You don’t know that.”

Brian sighs, turning away. “Lisa, can you help me out?”

“Hm?” Lisa blinks around blearily, looking at the two with uncharacteristically messy hair. “Yeah, Brian’s right.”

Brian stares at his teammate. “Lisa, how long has it been since you last slept?”

Lisa laughs. “Oh, I’ll sleep when I’m dead. Or when I’ve figured this out. That too.”

“Figured what out?” Alec asks. “Wait, scratch that. I don’t actually care.”

“Dr. Dinosaur!” Lisa shouts, throwing up a finger. “He’s an idiot!”

Brian nods slowly. “Yes, we know that. He threw a gun at Glory Girl.”

“It was fucking hilarious!” Alec eloquently chimes in.

Lisa nods rapidly. “But then how did he make the ‘Omnisaur’?” she asks, putting air quotes around the name.

“...Tinker bullshit?” Brian suggests.

“That’s what you’d think!” Lisa shouts. “But then why did the ‘Omnisaur’ become homicidal?”

“More tinker bullshit?”

Lisa shakes her head. “No no no- there’s something else going on here. And I will figure out what.”

Brian sighs. “Lisa, is this about him ruining your bank heist?”

“No!” Lisa denies.

Brian levies her with a flat stare.

“It’s not!” she protests. “There’s something else going on- I know it!”

“Right…” Brian says. “Anyways, where was I?”

Rachel grunts, holding up a triceratops plushie.

“ No, Rachel. ”

Rachel rolls her eyes.

“...And this is the Wards common area,” Aegis says, leading Taylor up to a metal door, Assault and Battery trailing behind the two of them.

After the… fiasco that was Dr. Dinosaur, Taylor concluded that she really needed some teammates if that was the kind of villain that was present in the Bay. And, even despite her hatred of teenage drama… the Wards were her best option unless she wanted to unmask and put her father in danger by joining New Wave. If they even took non-family members.

So far, though, Taylor’s pleasantly surprised by how nice everyone was being. Assault and Battery were easy to get along with- even if Assault could stand to lay off the jokes- and Aegis, the Wards leader, seems very nice.

Emma seemed nice too, a small part of Taylor’s brain reminds her.

Aegis clicks a button next to the door and Taylor faintly hears an alarm go off inside.

“Just in case anyone is unmasked in the common areas,” Aegis explains at her curious look.

Taylor blinks. “Are we expected to unmask?”

“It’s not required or anything, but it tends to be easier than being masked all the time while on base,” Aegis starts as the door in front of him opens with a hiss. He opens his mouth to explain further but ends up being cut off by someone in front of him with a domino mask on and a shock of red hair.

“Carlos! We can’t find Missy anywhere!” the boy says, wide-eyed.

Aegis mimes a cutting motion across her throat. “Bug hasn’t officially joined,” Aegis explains, motioning to Taylor with her provisional name.

Heroic insect names were hard!

Regardless of that pang of embarrassment, Taylor steps forward, drawing on her swarm. She needs to make an impression now, to show everyone that she’s above their drama, to show them not to mess with her-

“Bug Girl, right,” red-haired kid says, looking over to her and taking the winds completely out of Taylor’s sails. “Saw you on the news. Nice job with the car chase.”

As Taylor deflates further, the teenager turns back towards Aegis. “Seriously, Mis- Vista’s been missing for two hours now.”

Aegis pinches his brow. “Clock. Did you guys play hide and seek again?”

Clockblocker- presumably- holds up his hands. “She told us she wouldn’t go overboard!”

“It’s been banned for years!” Aegis shouts. “It has literally been banned since before either of us became Wards because of Vista !”

Behind the two of them, Shadow Stalker- in full costume- runs down the hall, cocking a crossbow. A blonde teenager follows behind her, also wearing a cloth domino mask, and starts making placating gestures that Shadow Stalker just shrugs off before she storms down a hallway, the other teenager trailing behind her.

“Should we do something about that?” Battery whispers to Assault as she eyes Shadow Stalker’s crossbow. Assault shrugs.

Aegis turns to Clockblocker. “How did you get Shadow Stalker to agree to this?”

Clockblocker looks away guiltily. “I may have promised that she would get to shoot the hiders when it was her turn as seeker.”

“Clock!”

“We literally have Panacea on speed dial!”

Taylor clears her throat.

“Bug Girl!” Clockblocker says, a wild grin overtaking his face as he remembers her presence. “Can you find people with your bugs?”

Taylor blinks. “Uh…”

Clockblocker grins. “Great! You’re with me. We’re hunting Vista.”

“You’ll never find me!” Vista cackles, her voice echoing through strangely elongated space above their heads.

Battery sighs. “I’m going to get Triumph.”

“That won’t help!” a young girl’s voice taunts.

Assault shakes his fist at the ceiling. “Get down here right now, young lady!”

“You’re not my real dad!”

Clockblocker snaps his fingers impatiently. “Less talky! More seeky!”

“I am the greatest hider!” Vista cackles.

“Stop taunting me!” Shadow Stalker roars from somewhere down the hall.

“Never!”

“Captain’s Log, Stardate 26. My closest allies have abandoned me in my time of need. I am requesting back up. I repeat, I am requesting- my jailer is returning. I will return later.” 

“Colin, who are you calling?” a soft voice asks, a slight Canadian accent tinging their words.

Commander Wallis frantically stuffs his communicator under his pillow. “Nobody.”

The screen in his cell lights up, displaying his jailer’s digital avatar. “Colin. This is for your own good.”

“The federation needs me!”

Dragon looks away for a second (in exasperation?) before looking back to Commander Wallis. “...Are you convinced you’re a spaceship commander again?”

“I am a spaceship commander! You’ve had me trapped for twenty-six days!”

Dragon sighs. “Colin, it’s been an hour. You’ve already claimed to also be a pirate, a cyborg, and a cowboy twice.”

“Free me, woman!”

“I’ll come back later.”

Commander Wallis frowns as the screen goes black. After a moment, he lunges again for his communicator. “Captain’s Log, Stardate 27. My closest allies…”

He cuts himself off as one of the ceiling tiles move.

A girl’s head pokes down. She’s wearing a sleek green visor and has long blonde hair, Commander Wallis notes absently. From the Federation?

“Oh! Hey, Armsmaster.”

Commander Wallis stares back at her.

The girl’s eyes widens. “Are you still in detox?”

Wallis brandishes the communicator threateningly. “Who are you?!”

“VISTA!” a teenage girl’s voice roars through the facility.

The ceiling girl lets out a soft eep and retreats back into the ceiling.

Commander Wallis crosses his arms.

“Where was I? Oh, right. Captain’s Log, Stardate 28. My closest allies have abandoned me.”

George, better known in costume as Browbeat, takes a deep breath.

His powers, as far as the analysts and eggheads could figure out, was some form of short range telekinesis-ish forcefield and minor self biokinesis. But there wasn’t a clear understanding of what powered it.

George puts on his Browbeat mask and takes a deep breath.

Earlier that morning, he drove out of the forest to a secluded grove nearly an hour away.

He has to know.

In the face of his teammates, his power seems useless; barely an afterthought when it came to fighting the Undersiders. He isn’t able to do much.

But then he punched a dinosaur so hard it fucking exploded.

Browbeat takes another deep breath and hops in place, trying to recover that feeling, that rush of power that flew through him.

He could punch a dinosaur to death.

Browbeat steps into his punch in the present day, hurling it at the unscathed tree with all his might.

After a rush of wind, he opens his eyes.

The forest around him is leveled in every direction, trees snapped and broken like matchsticks.

He grins.

His ma was right: all he needed was a little self-confidence.

Bakuda gets back in her jeep with a snarl and waves at her lackey to start back to Brockton Bay. Just her luck: some living material got in the way of her explosion. 

Least she knew that bomb doesn’t work on people.

“Get everyone together when we get back,” Bakuda says to another flunky. “Time we went over the new rules now that I’m taking over.”

Lung was captured by a new tinker in town. Some other fucker got to the dragon first and Bakuda wasn’t stupid enough to assault the Protectorate’s base yet .

Well, that was fine by her. Tinkers were more interesting anyways. 

She’d prove to that little shit that she was the boss.

And then she’d kill them anyways for shits and giggles.

Ever since she was a girl, Bakuda knew she was special; her professors at Cornell couldn’t see it because they were stupid, but Bakuda knew. 

And now? 

Everyone else would.

The irony of killing everyone so they could see her greatness was lost on Bakuda.

She would create and tinker until every last person on Earth was a pile of ashes. She would prove her superiority, no matter how many people she had to kill to do it.

She would show them all.

And nobody would stand in her way.

Dr. Dinosaur lets out a horrific sneeze and rolls his eyes. “SOMEONE MUST BE TALKING ABOUT MY GREATNESS!” he brags, glancing over to his compatriot and rolling his eyes. “YES, YES, I KNOW THAT THIS IS SOMETHING I’VE DONE BEFORE. NOT EVERY INVENTION HAS TO BE NEW AND UNIQUE. BESIDES, IT’S HARD TO BE PERFECT EVERY TIME.”

His compatriot doesn’t respond.

“YOU GET IT. EVEN IF YOU’RE NOT ‘HIP WITH THE KIDS’ LIKE ME, ATOMIC HOBO.”

The dromaeosaurus is working inside the massive abandoned warehouse that had served as his base since his arrival in this world. Across the ground and the welding bench he stole from someone was a staggering array of chemicals, crystals, and bits and bobs. 

The dinosaur cackles as he fires up a welding torch. “AND BESIDES! THEY HAVEN’T SEEN YET THE FULL GENIUS OF DR. DINOSAUR! BEHOLD AS I CREATE TRUE GENIUS!”

The crystals sputter with smoke and sparks and Dr. Dinosaur turns to glare at his compatriot.

“FAT LOT OF HELP YOU ARE.”

The volleyball painted with Atomic Robo’s face, predictably, does not respond.