Here's one of the few chapters that don't have songs this early on. And yes, it'll be a while until the next chapter. I don't have too much written because I was working on the Control and Hollow Knight fanfics I've also written.

Musical Melodies
Minim 2.2

Colin Wallis rolled his neck, muscles popping a little as his stiff muscles loosened up. His hands groaned in agony as he set down the extremely fine tools he was working with. Even having years of experience Tinkering, working with making things smaller still took a lot of effort when it reached the scale he was currently attempting to put together.

He had been getting much less sleep in the last four to five days after Glory Girl was placed into M/S containment for the foreseeable future. Dealing with an irate New Wave was part of it, but that was dealt with when Miss Militia took over that situation. While she organized some therapists to take a look at the effect of the aura on New Wave, Colin had been set to invent some method of limiting Glory Girl's aura so people could actually interact with her without being Mastered. At first it had been a side project to work on after he completed his lie detector, but Dragon had pointed out that it could probably prevent other similar effects like Heartbreaker or the Simurgh.

The device itself, or at least this iteration of it, was designed to sit in his armor at the small of his back, hooked up to his suite of detectors that kept him aware how healthy he was at any given point in time. If made properly, it should apply a field that would counter a Master effect that directly affected the brain with an inverse effect, cancelling the aura. Dragon had been helpful on that front, confident she could make a device that could detect the changes caused by a Master, allowing him to work on the counter and minimize the space of her sensor. If that failed and detected his emotions changing, it would inject him with a calming solution that would hopefully restrict any negative feelings until he could escape the effect.

A notification popped up on the screen set in his work goggles, and he flicked his gaze to the side to play the message aloud.

"Armsmaster, be at my office in fifteen minutes. Assault had contact with Medley and I'd like you to be here to give your opinion on the events." the Director's voice sounded out in his ear. Colin grimaced, glancing at his work for a few moments before standing up with a sigh. If he started on the next piece of the device, he'd likely be unable to stop for a few hours due to the fragility of the next few components while installing them.

His armor locked into place with a hiss as he gathered his gear. He was due for a patrol soon, so he might as well get a head start if he was heading in that direction. This early in the morning wasn't his usual time, but he had been covering more ground in an effort to patrol the area New Wave usually would be at. He also made a note in his HUD to try to make some kind of healing device in the future so they could cover for Panacea. It would be at least a week until the primary diagnosis of the effects of Glory Girl's aura were discovered, and after that it could be months until any of them were cleared to be in the field again.

"Armsmaster, right on time." The Director greeted him with a small smile that vanished as quickly as it appeared. Despite her misgivings about capes, she appreciated his punctuality and dedication. Assault stood before the Director glancing over at Armsmaster with a smirk, and a... red balloon in his right hand? "Assault, I'd like you to tell your story to Armsmaster about what just happened. First, Armsmaster, I'd like you to take a look at the balloon."

"...The balloon, Director?" Armsmaster asked hesitantly as Assault smiled wider. This was going to give him a headache already, he could tell.

"Yes Armsmaster, the balloon. Not ten minutes ago this balloon lifted Assault's full weight, including his gear, an extremely high distance into the sky. At least a thousand feet off the ground if he had to guess. Seeing as Medley procured it with a power, and it hasn't vanished, either her power can make permanent objects, or she hasn't yet stopped using her power."

Armsmaster stepped forward eagerly, already inspecting it with his full suite of detection software. To all intents and purposes, this was a normal balloon, but more intensive scans revealed it was not actually the normal material for a balloon, but rather some kind of construct? It was some kind of projection designed to mimic a balloon, though there was no reason it was floating as calmly as it was. Something like this could allow for hard-light projections to be compressed by a degree of- no, focus on the balloon. He made a small note in his HUD about the hard-light tech though. That was actually a good idea to work on in a few weeks.

"You didn't feel any negative side affects from the altitude change?" Armsmaster muttered, poking it a little as he watched the shining red 'rubber' remain in it's shape, not stretching like a normal balloon. Assault shook his head, watching in amusement and fascination as the Tinker's full attention was taken by the simple sphere.

As Armsmaster went to poke it once more, it suddenly vanished without a trace. "Damn." Armsmaster muttered, standing up fully. "That was actually really interesting. It appeared to be made from her power, not a normal balloon. I'm not sure what the weight limit is, but at the rate Assault accelerated he wasn't anywhere near it. I can probably use part of how it was made to improve some of my tech, but I can't replicate the lift. That was all Medley."

He ignored his internal wince as he spoke the independent's name. He had been rather harsh to the new cape, but his Ward was injured and he wasn't in the greatest mood from his recent patrol and issues when Tinkering. He did admit that her powerset was well worth the effort the PRT was putting forward, which was evident in how quickly Shadow Stalker had been evicted from the Wards once her phone had been accessed. Her transfer to Juvenile Detention would take place in a few days, so hopefully he would never have to deal with her again. It was enough of a pain to keep her in line without her breaking probation and directly causing what may have been a trigger event.

All they knew was that she had been bullying someone, and there hadn't been enough time to investigate that line of thinking fully. Since there was the possibility the victim wasn't a parahuman, they had no jurisdiction for the time being and would wait for the police to come to a conclusion. If Medley hadn't mentioned it, they wouldn't have known for a few more weeks at least, the handler assigned to Winslow covering as well as she had.

"Hmm, so why does she have her own Tinkertech still around if she can make stuff like this? Shouldn't it vanish?" Assault asked.

"No, that was likely made with materials not produced with her power, so it remained usable. That's why the weapons she manifested against Glory Girl vanished. However, she will probably be getting extremely frustrated soon, since she can't fix her long lasting Tinkertech perfectly. Her power is random, so every Tinker power will be different than the last, preventing it from ever returning to the exact version. Eventually it's likely to be made of completely different materials than the first attempt, because each Tinker power has a unique specialty. I suppose if she got a normal Tinker to take a look at it and maintain it for her..." he trailed off, thinking.

Piggot interrupted his line of thought after a moment. "I would have Gallant here as well to compare his experience with her with yours, but he's still in M/S and counseling with New Wave. Assault, explain why you thought it was the best choice to allow an unknown power to be used on you? Medley has reason to hate the PRT if she thinks we've enabled Shadow Stalker."

Assault rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Well, I know how villain life can be, and seeing as how her debut went badly I wanted to work with her to judge how the event had her feeling. I felt comfortable that any power she came up with wouldn't be too bad. We haven't seen too much of her powers, but so far they're all mid-range grab bags that fit into a category of her choice. There hasn't been any powers I couldn't handle on my own, but obviously she could have something up her sleeve. What was her rating again?"

Armsmaster made a few motions with one hand, pulling up the information in his helmet. "She's been put at Trump 4, Breaker 6 for the ability to change into other forms with their own personalities and powers. We can presume thanks to some preliminary Thinker results that her default appearance between powers is also a breaker form, so it's fundamentally different from Eidolon's power. On the other hand, the music aspect of it is entirely unknown. It could be some kind of tinkertech that uses music that thematically match with her power for effect, or something that actually helps her control her power. Seeing as you confirmed that the power is random, it's likely the former. I haven't been able to identify any song she's used so far, so they're likely taken from somewhere else."

"Somewhere else?" Assault said. "Like what, another Earth?"

"Possibly." Armsmaster shrugged. "Like I said, we have no idea. The legal mess that would occur if she tries to sell the music after becoming affiliated with the PRT is something Glenn is looking into. She might just gain rights to the music produced during her power usage if nobody speaks up to claim it, and any song that already exists would be a case by case basis."

Assault nodded thoughtfully. "Anyway, I was confident I would be alright, and I wanted to make sure she didn't have hard feelings against us. I did mention what I could about the New Wave situation, and it seems like she was blaming herself pretty hard, and assumed we were looking to arrest her or something. I explained that New Wave wasn't her issue anymore, and that we don't have too much of an issue with her. She calmed down and was pretty friendly after that. She still doesn't want to join, but she is an independent so we might be able to hire her for something in the future. I mentioned registering with us as an independent officially so we can have her help and ease tensions with us."

He smiled at Armsmaster's expression. "Hey, I can be thoughtful and serious when I need to be. I agreed to let her use her power because she had been rather nice to me, she looked like a small child, and I wanted to see the power close up. My camera in my suit probably helped the techies downstairs get a good look at how her power works on the outside. Plus I got a balloon. Do you know how long it's been since I had one? I felt like a kid again but this time the dreams of floating away actually happened. Who wouldn't pass that up?!" Neither Piggot nor Armsmaster were impressed with his enthusiasm.

"It was still a risk." Piggot said.

Assault's smile thinned, losing his humor in an instant. "You know, it seems like sometimes I'm the only one actually gives a damn about her. No, don't give me an excuse. The Bay is getting worse year after year, and we want everyone we can on our side to make the gang war go smoother when it happens. If Medley had some two bit power that wasn't better than Shadow Stalker's, we'd have pressured her way harder for hurting a Ward. Thanks to her usefulness, we're getting rid of Shadow Stalker. Sure, there's other reasons, but that's the main reason. We could have totally kept Shadow Stalker if it meant more hands clearing the streets. The least we could have done was try to contact who we think her civilian identity is, and apologize for the actions of Shadow Stalker, but no, we just sent Shadow Stalker away and left it alone for longer than needed." he glared, realizing his voice had raised a bit as he was speaking. He sighed, "I just think everyone's too focused on the end result and not how we get there."

Silence.

Armsmaster nodded after a few moments, pulling off his helmet and meeting Ethan's eyes. "Well spoken. I would argue with the finer points that also influenced our decisions, but I have been focused a bit on the end result too much, as you said it. Dragon has mentioned it before when it came to my work, but I haven't put much thought into it."

"Well, that certainly puts things into perspective." Piggot said after a moment of quiet. "Assault. You'll be the one to deal with Medley whenever we need to interact with her since you have good rapport. A liaison of sorts, if you will. I'll be taking your opinion into consideration when we go over Medley's situation. For now, go get some rest." he nodded, leaving the room. "Armsmaster, if I'm correct, we don't know for sure if Medley's trigger event was connected to Shadow Stalker?"

"After investigation of Shadow Stalker's actions, we have confirmed she's been ruthlessly bullying a girl in her school who is presumed to be Medley, though evidence isn't certain due to her power possibly changing her appearance."

Piggot nodded. "Right. You're going to officially launch an investigation into that school. The fact is that we have enough info from her Wards phone and other sources that plenty of things could have caused a trigger event, including how long it was going on for. We're going to treat this like she did cause the victim to trigger, and go from there. What's the results from the investigation on the other participants?"

"We obtained evidence from Emma Barnes and Madison Clements, both of which were not willing to comply until legally required to. The proof they gave us was enough to get Shadow Stalker incriminated, but kept them out of true trouble thanks to Emma Barnes' father. He's only a divorce lawyer, but gave us the rest of the evidence in exchange of keeping his daughter out of any long lasting trouble." he explained with a grimace.

"Barnes? The one who recommended Shadow Stalker in the first place?" Piggot asked with an eyebrow raised.

"Yes. It seems Shadow Stalker saved his daughter from a traumatizing event when she was independent, and he owed her. Frankly, his daughter is unstable, never really recovered from whatever event she went through. She's not a cape, according to my tests I could do in person. Her mental stability was enough that we can't push charges. She's going to therapy already as part of the punishment assigned."

"Alright. I'd like you to get in contact with the Heberts to apologize as a representative of Shadow Stalker's civilian identity, since the protective services for the Wards qualify here. See if you think she triggered. We don't know for certain if she's Medley, and even if we did, we won't be pushing for the Wards too hard. Just check in on her to see how she's doing and offer restitution for the whole thing. After that we can get in contact with Medley when she registers as an independent and go from there." she said, expression hard to read.

"Yes ma'am." Armsmaster said, leaving the room.

Taylor blinked heavily as Gladly droned on about modern issues in some far away country due to Parahuman Warlords. Her attention was focused on what to do now that she was an independent cape that needed to get hired so she could get money and, you know, remain independent. After helping Assault with her power the night before, she had returned home when a cloud passed over the moon, and floated to her windowsill before dropping her power. It had been quite late, and she almost slept through her alarm, which would not have been good. 'I really need to space out the times when I go patrolling. If they all take as long as they did to find actual criminals as last night did, then I'm going to lose a lot of sleep. I think I'll go out every other day to get more sleep and also save my power in case I need it.'

She rubbed anxiously at her hair, mindful of the beanie covering it. The blue from her power was becoming more and more permanent, each time she used her power the more it seemed to spread. It wasn't at a noticeable pace and didn't go near her ears, but in a month or two it would be a serious pain to hide, eventually replacing her hair color completely. Something told her that dyeing it wouldn't help.

The bell startled her, tired as she was, and she waited for a moment for Mr. Gladly to finish speaking about homework before slipping from the classroom. Finally, she was able to go do what she had planned today. Since she didn't exactly know how to be an independent cape or run a business, she dialed up Lisa on her wristwatch through her disguised backpack, hooking it up to her headphones easily.

"Hey there Taylor!" Lisa answered on the second ring. "You need help being an independent? Good, I can give you some advice, at least to get you started. My power can help me run a business and manage paperwork, but I certainly don't plan to be an independent anytime soon, so maybe going to someone more professional would help. Nice job taking down Mush last night by the way."

Taylor blinked a few times. 'Right, her thinker power.' she reminded herself. "Yeah, I guess going to someone more professional would help. I also was recommended to get power tested at the PRT headquarters, but with my powers..."

Lisa must have nodded on the other in, filling in the gaps herself. "Right, since your powers are so unpredictable, getting them officially tested wouldn't be reliable. There's something else. A limit? Ah, they don't seem to be reusable. That makes sense. You wouldn't want to get something super powerful and not get it again. I mean, your power definitely has some method to choosing what song you get, it's not random, but it's close enough to not matter in this case. I don't know enough to help you on that end. You still need to register as an independent cape, but you can fill that out online later. It's not technically a law, but it helps stay on their good side if it's in the books, you see."

Taylor nodded, scratching the info onto a notebook page as she walked towards the front of the school. She still glanced around reflexively for any of the trio, but Madison was long gone and nobody else seemed to be paying any attention to her. "Sure. As for advice to be an independent, you got anything?"

"Well, there's the standard stuff. Follow the unwritten rules, like no unmasking or killing, or going after people out of costume. It's always a rule, but independents are usually working alone, so it's easier to slip up when there aren't other people you work with that would get in trouble as well. If you want more advice, go to Faultline at some point. You'll need to set an appointment, but she should be pretty lenient to talk to you. You haven't caused her any trouble, and you're relatively new." Lisa waited for Taylor to think it over before continuing. "There's other capes you can talk to, like Uber and Leet, Circus if they're in town, or one of the other capes that pass through now and then from other cities. They're usually in some kind of long term contract if they are working for another cape, so they're not as true neutral as Faultline, who only tends to take short contracts to avoid loyalty issues or loose ends."

Taylor hummed to herself. It would be wise to speak to Faultline about the process of getting hired, or at least how much to charge. The amount would likely be different due to her powerset and unreliability of her power, but it had to be better than hiring Leet when his tech was bound to fail.

"If you want a job before going completely public with it, I actually might have a job for you." Lisa mentioned, smugness clearly visible in her voice.

"Wait, what?" Taylor said, unsure if she heard her correctly. "You have a job for me? What about your team? You're-"

"Yes, we're villains, but that's the whole point of being independent. You can be hired by both sides. If you offer the PRT your info, you're likely to get hired for something, even as small as making something with a Tinker power or helping fight a threat if they need it. Don't judge yourself by who hires you, but by what you actually do." Lisa explained. "My team pays well, and we could use some assistance even if your power isn't guaranteed to be useful every time. Honestly just using a Brute power would be fine, anything to assist." The tone of voice made it clear Lisa thought her deal was something Taylor would be interested in.

"Well..." Taylor hesitated. She did owe Lisa for helping her, and she wasn't going to be indebted once she assisted. If it was something too bad then she could back out. Obviously they're villains, but she would need to do some things she wasn't 100% comfortable with as a cape. It couldn't be worse than beating up Glory Girl on her first outing. Her eyes wandered across the front of the school, watching the people leaving as she considered the options before her. "Well, I-

"Taylor?" a voice said from next to her. Taylor turned her head to see Emma standing a few feet behind her.

Taylor stared back at Emma for a few moments, completely taken by surprise. Thinking back, she hadn't seen Emma or Sophia at school in the last few days. "Lisa? I'm going to need to call you back in a bit."

"Something came up? Oh, did- I see. Yeah, just let me know by tomorrow night at the latest if you're in. Good luck with that."

Taylor pulled out her headphones and turned to Emma, leaving them dangling around her neck.

"We need to talk." Taylor said, meeting Emma's gaze.

Taking a second glance over the redhead, Taylor realized how much of a mess Emma was. From a distance it wasn't that noticeable, but up close the facade Emma put up around her obsession with strength had cracked wide open. Likely from Sophia's punishment and the mounting investigation into Winslow. Her normally immaculate appearance was in disarray. It didn't look bad by any means, but after seeing her day after day for the last year and a half at school with the same hairstyle, it was apparent. Her hair was put together in a rush, makeup missing in spots like mascara or blush, and her eyes were red rimmed with small bags under them.

"Yes, of course. I-" Emma began earnestly before being interrupted.

"No." Taylor said, thinking for a moment. "On Friday. I'm not ready to talk to you for a bit until I sort out a few things. I..." she sighed heavily. "Just meet me here after school on Friday and we'll talk somewhere. Not now."

Emma nodded in understanding, and a small amount of confusion. Taylor glanced to the side at the empty courtyard, and by the time she looked back, Emma was in the distance heading home.

Within an hour, after brief text session with Lisa and a small amount of research online, Taylor found herself activating her base breaker state outside of the Palanquin. Lisa had 'arranged' a meeting for her with Faultline for consultation without payment. Lisa hadn't bothered to explain exactly how, and told her not to ask.

Taking a breath, she knocked on a specific door behind the building, and smiled up at the large man who opened it. "Hi! Is Faultline in?"

Armsmaster may be a bit of a dick in canon, but he's also not a constant one. This far before canon start, he's a reasonable fellow who can realize his mistakes before they happen. Assault calling them out like that really is causing him to think more about what he's doing/plans to do and recognize errors before they happen. Hopefully.

It's weirdly difficult to write Emma. Or at least, I'm writing ahead and this chapter at the same time, so the personality and choices start overlapping in my head a bit.