Work Text:
Despite what one may think, it turned out there was a surprising amount of breaking — or well, entering — supposedly abandoned and locked up buildings when it came to defending. Sometimes it was secret bases. Sometimes it was a cult’s lair.
Or sometimes it was what appeared to be a completely empty office following a the team leader’s insistence that she had spotted some faint movement that felt off. As if there was someone inside who was moving subtly so as to not be seen.
One of the benefit’s of Farsight’s abilities and experience was that they could be fairly certain it was most likely tied to a crime, like a strand of corporate thefts with a suspicious lack of clues or notion of what was stolen, rather than just a janitor staying for an extra late shift.
They had called it in, and seeing as it had been a mostly quiet evening they had been given the go to check it out.
As the fastest and most durable member of the team, North Star was on point.
Ever since last spring, North Star had officially joined the League of Metas as an auxiliary member. It meant she got training, a more flexible schedule, and a team to fight alongside with. This wasn’t something most new members got without working up to it. However it turned out most new capes also didn't catch the eye of a potential Armageddon class brawler to the point that they asked said cape for a duel.
Apparently in the world of metas such requests were taken as seriously as a marriage proposal. Or, considering how long cape marriages tended to last, even more seriously.
Either way, it meant nothing during the day-to-day in the field. Ever since their business with the Order of the Final Dawn had finished, North Star hadn’t run into the meta the media had named Fornax or anything connected to him.
Which was good. It would do her no good messing with known and wanted criminals far above her power’s ability to deal with. Even if she still missed the days she ran into his civilian identity as Ivan and his dog, Wendy.
As North Star waited for Farsight to give her the go ahead, Laser Faire informed them that she had gotten into place.
“Our target is still paying attention to the cameras while his device is working,” Farsight whispered through their comms. “You should still be in the blind spot for a bit now, but be prepared to move when I give the go ahead. Try to incapacitate him long enough for Zipper to catch him in one of his portals-”
“Pockets.”
“-thank you Zipper, his pockets until we can get a full team to take him down.”
This close North Star didn’t dare respond verbally. Instead she tapped the earpiece in her ear twice, a signal she had heard.
Farsight continued her explanation.
“Just for your information, the culprit appears to be a meta in some sort of robotic armor standing by a support pillar. The armoring seems to be thick enough to deflect blows strong enough to affect a mundane. I would recommend attempting to grapple them, though their meta suit appears to be filled with some sort of technical gadgetry so be on the lookout for tricks. Zipper, do you have a status update?”
“Laser and I are in position but we can’t spot either the target or North Star,” Zipper answered. “It seems you were right that the projector hiding them is disguising the room itself and not one that grants some level of invisibility. Any luck on your end?”
“I found one of the projectors. Based on their array it seems the image is being projected onto the glass. When its time, aim for the third window from the corner so gain access to sight.”
“Any visuals we can use for recognition?” Zipper asked.
“They appear to be dressed in fully silver with a few hints of blue. They do not appear to have any insignia or anything that I can recognize them with.”
North Star froze.
“Silver and hints of blue?” she whispered insistently. “Are you sure?”
She knew that color scheme.
“Affirmative.”
All thoughts of the plan went out of her head. She knew this meta.
She stepped out from behind her pole. Unless things changed drastically in the last few months, she should be fine.
“What exactly are you doing?”
She gestured toward whatever the strange contraption the meta had set up that appeared to be drilling into the support pillar.
The metal clad figure turned around.
“North Star? What a surprise! What are you doing here?”
“You were spotted by a patrol. I came by to see what you were up to.”
“I’m honored,” Doctor Mechaniacal replied. His voice distorted by his helmet to the point North Star wasn’t sure what sort of expression he was making.
He made no actions against her while North Star ignored her teammates voices yelling at her for messing with the plan.
“Is there any chance this is even slightly legal?”
Doctor Mechaniacal glanced behind him at his device before turning back towards her. “Would you believe me if I said it was?”
North Star sighed. “Any chance you’ll make a statement to help our tech team figure out what your plan was?”
“Well, normally no. But since you asked so nicely, I might be able to walk you through the basics. Besides, I could use your help adjusting this nozzle to remove it. It seems stuck. If you would just grab that part right there.”
In order to reach it, she would have to kneel on the floor with her back to Doctor Mechaniacal.
North Star didn’t move. “You just want to get me into a position you can knock me out and get away.”
“Oh, you saw through that? I’ll have to remove extreme gullibility from my notes.”
North Star started to protest but Doctor Mechaniacal raised a hand to hold her off.
She paused and suddenly she was flying backwards.
Owww.
She had flown through a cubicle wall and landed on a desk that miraculously hadn’t broken from the pressure. Whoever owned this business had definitely invested in good quality desks.
“Or maybe not.”
She missed her shield. Ever since that final run in with the Order of the Final Dawn, she hadn’t been able to summon it reliably. Whatever its new requirements might be, this fight didn't meet them.
“North Star,” Farsight crackled in her ear. “Are you alright?”
North Star grunted. “A distraction would be good right now.”
She pushed herself off the splintered cubicle wall that had landed on the desk with her and got back to her feet.
To her relief, the next sound was that of shattering glass as Laser Faire joined the fight.
That was the good part of this team. Even when she went and started improvising they were still willing to back her up.
“Oh, you brought friends. I did hear you were part of a team these days. Congratulations on your promotion.”
North Star charged. “You are so under arrest.”
She dodged as he raised a fist in her direction, presumably to fire some gadget or other. She heard a loud crack behind her.
“Missed.”
“Wasn’t aiming at you.”
She didn’t bother looking back. A perk of having Farsight on her team was North Star could rely on her for warnings of upcoming threats. Whatever it was wasn’t an imminent threat.
“So I guess we can add multiple counts of property damage to your charge.”
North Star’s trust in Farsight paid off as a warning rang out.
“North Star, jump now!”
She leapt.
Snapping wires leapt under her settling down before she landed.
“Well there goes that surprise.”
“That surprise?!”
“Well you know the saying. If you can’t kill them, trap them.”
“I’ve never heard that saying before.”
“Well,” Doctor Mechaniacal shrugged ducking behind a support pillar himself as another of Laser Faire’s beams nearly hit him. “That would explain a lot. Anyway, it looks like we're nearly out of time.”
His weird metal device by the wall beeped then promptly folded up into a small briefcase.
He raised a hand, and the now-briefcase flew into his grasp.
“Don’t be a stranger, North Star,” he waved as he dashed towards the large broken office windows.
North Star raced towards him.
“Watch-!” Farsight’s warning came too late.
North Star tripped over a small wire that sent her sprawling. When had Doctor Mechaniacal set that up?
His metal armor gave no signals related to emotions but North Star could have sworn he grinned as he stopped to right in front of his window exit to watch her stumble.
The hand not holding the briefcase pointed at her and the next instance she was encased in wires. They bound her limbs together though she continued sliding towards the windows.
She watched helplessly as Doctor Mechaniacal leapt out of the already broken window, landed far too lightly for a ten story fall, and then transformed all but his helmet into a motorcycle and zoomed off.
Doctor Mechaniacal, it seemed, had escaped to cause trouble on the city once again.
“Care to explain why you gave away the element of surprise to ask a meta thief who was clearly in the middle of a robbery, I quote, “what exactly he was doing” instead of following protocol and waiting to get into the proper position to incapacitate and arrest them?”
North Star swallowed. She sat in a red plush chair inside one of Professor Quantum’s offices. After returning from their patrol, one of his interns had summoned her to yet another lecture.
“We do things like this for a reason, and the reason is we want to minimize the risk for those on our side. Giving up the element of surprise to speak to a meta with obvious ill intent is counterproductive to that goal.”
“I didn’t think he would kill me or hurt me too badly. I wanted to give him the chance to come peacefully,” North Star admitted. Professor Quantum nodded.
“This run in was with this so-called Doctor Mechaniacal.”
North Star nodded. “That is the name he chose for the field.”
“This would be the same one you mentioned alongside the meta, Fornax, correct?”
North Star nodded. “It was him and Fornax who came to my rescue at the outpost of the Order of the Final Dawn.”
Besides those two metas, Professor Quantum was the only other person who knew what occurred at the end of last spring. His questions had left little room for North Star to leave anything out, including the fact she had been kidnapped because of Fornax’s fascination with her in the first place. In fact, the only things he didn’t know was their civilian identities. The one piece of information she felt her voice close up when asked about.
“It seems I need to remind you that a one time alliance against a mutual enemy does not mean they can be trusted in any other scenario. I have lost more experienced capes to that false notion than I should have. I do not care if this Fornax claims to want to fight you on fair ground in the future. His willingness to throw that away because he thought it would get him to his goal should have taught you otherwise.”
North Star knew he wasn’t wrong. Fornax hadn’t hesitated when she told him to sacrifice her to escape the flames the Order of the Final Dawn had trapped them in. But she still couldn’t get the grief in Fornax's eyes as he did so. His joy at the sight of her moving after he thought her downed. Logic and instinct dictated he was dangerous. Somehow the rest of her refused to get the memo. Not that it mattered, considering she hadn’t seen any sign of him for months. Outside of reports of the destruction he was causing, anyway.
“Fornax gave me his word that I won’t need to worry about his-” roommate died on her tongue “-compatriot attacking me in exchange for our deal.”
“The duel, you mentioned. You would be surprised how many of those so-called deals fall through in the heat of battle regardless of how close they claim to be as compatriots. You were fortunate this was not one such case. I knew far too many good people who put their trust in the hands of criminals.”
North Star didn't miss the usage of the word knew. The people he was referring to weren't around anymore.
“I wont make the same mistake again.”
“Make sure you don’t. Too many capes have been lost to the false friendships, already. Do not let yourself become one of them.”
North Star nodded.
“Your naivety aside, have you had any success with the matter I left you?”
North Star sighed and shook her head. “I’ve managed to summon the shield on a few desperate occasions but nothing for my spear.”
“Disappointing but unsurprising. Magic is a fickle tool with more obscure rules than logic. Perhaps your mentor may be able to figure out what exactly the Order of the Final Dawn did to cause a damper on your powers. We can only hide your weakness for so long, and it would be best for it to be resolved before then. For more than just yourself.”
North Star didn’t need any drawn out explanations. The spear and shield were the only items that had managed to both block and injure Fornax. Without them, she didn’t stand a chance against him.
Her best guess was that they had used some magic to bind that part of her away. Or that the League of Meta’s medical unit had missed some iron in the surgery to fix her crushed wrist. There was a solution to that.
The option that terrified her related to her split second decision when she thought the Order of the Final Dawn was going to overpower Ivan’s will. When she had traded temporary control for the power to make the Magister and his mental manipulations irrelevant. While North Star had struggled to hold on within the agony of hosting a being of pure destruction, she could have easily missed it taking more with it than just temporary control. Something like that… it would be much harder to find a solution. If any existed at all.
“Have you had any luck on your end?”
“I should by the end of this week. Based on your response I will assume your resolve hasn’t changed with this matter.”
“If it gives me the strength to become stronger and help more people, I will gladly take the chance.”
“Glad to hear. I have a file prepared for you on your potential mentor. I would look it over. You should be warned, should it go well, this trip will yield more than just training for yourself. I would pack your journalism tools as well. There are a few mysteries in the file I would like you to look into for me.”
North Star nodded. She just hoped this magic mentorship would wind up being more informative than exciting. She had plenty of excitement already. What she really needed was knowledge.