It was approaching dusk when the tarmac cracked. Maria stepped out onto a quiet road in the outskirts of Hove City. This was her first outing in the Mk 2 power armour she had been developing. The Mk 2 was an upgrade over the Mk 1 in every way though that wasn't saying much. The Mk 1 was a proof of concept more than a true attempt at a functioning combat suit, hell it hadn't even been equipped with real weapons or armour. Just weight plates and metal tubes to simulate the positions of where the armour plating and weapons systems would be placed so that she could calibrate the flight systems and movements.
Taking a couple of deep breaths, Maria tried to calm her nerves but it was hard. This was the culmination of years worth of hard work and the investment of thousands of Dollars. Considering most Tech Metas got their suits up and running day 1 they got their powers, well frankly it would be quite embarrassing if the suit failed before she even got to see any action in it.
Slowly, carefully she double checked the suits operating systems. She flared the weapons system online and cycled through the 4 weapons she had installed on the suit. Initiating the flying system, Maria lowered her own density inside the suit until she was more gaseous than solid. Lowered weight, meant tighter turns in aerial combat and quicker acceleration and deceleration.
Launching herself into the air with the thrusters on her feet, back, legs, hands and torso. Frankly everywhere she thought she could fit a thruster without comprising the armours integrity or removing a weapons system. Unsteadily she rose into the air, evidently the calibration tests she had ran had been imperfect but for now they would suffice. She could get off the ground and maneuver at least to a competent level. She wouldn't be cracking the sound barrier in this, or even be able to do really any aerial acrobatics if she didn't want to careen out of the sky, unlike the more advanced power suits that were used by some of the more famous inventor heroes.
As she glided back towards the city proper, Maria got far more comfortable with the additional weight. Tuning into the police radio channel, she looked to see if there were any appropriate crimes ongoing for her first outing. She didn't want anything with any particular heavyweights but fighting a crowd of mundane people was a good way to be painted as a villain before you built up name recognition. It also carried the risk of trigger an ignition.
An Ignition is when a person or creature unlocked their superpowers, and for a short time after the incident their powers burned brighter and more powerfully than they would until they neared the pinnacle of their potential, if they ever even approached the ignition in the first place. Of course even if they did ignite they wouldn't be a true threat to Maria but they could could destroy a lot of property and potentially kill civilians, or worse... damage her Armour to the point of irreparability.
Maria's own ignition was not particularly violent. She was merely studying for a physics test in college. High stress situations made ignitions more likely and frankly before igniting Maria was an absolute train wreck in exams. One moment she was studying about the expansion of the universe and the next the laws of physics became merely suggestions for her intellect.
When she realised she was a tech meta, she instantly focused on building a power source for her inevitable power armour. Maria had always loved astronomy, so her power decided that making a portable universe would be the way to go. And she even succeeded, she wasn't sure whether she actually created a universe out of nothing or had merely created a conduit with a universe outside the bands of her own.
There was one issue though. The portable universe when properly contained was about the size of a car engine. A pretty damn amazing size for an item that could access all the energy generation in an entire universe but it was far too large to be inserted into a power armour unless she wanted to build a Mech Suit the size of a truck. No, definitely not good enough.
She had needed another solution and needed one fast. So she had come to another thought, what if she contained the universe within herself instead of within a separate unit. She'd be in her suits anyway so she could just be the power source instead. In hindsight this was a terrible idea, hell even at the time it had been a terrible idea, but in her defence she had been up for 24 Hours straight and was in a bit of fugue state at the time.
And hell she even succeeded again. She turned herself into a godsdamned living universe. Of course there was another issue, it was a scientifically granted power rather than a natural born one. And they were almost impossible to control, it's why so few Tech Metas bothered with trying to grant themselves powers. Aside from the fact it likely required the Meta to still be igniting to grant any ability of any really power and almost as a monolith tech supers tended to build their first suits in that state instead.
So Maria was now a being that was constructed of star matter, and could increase her size, density and momentum near infinitely and with basically no control of her strength. Let's just say her first foray into the world of crime fighting hadn't left her with any potential nemesises -
Her Train of thought was interrupted as the police radio cut in.
*Krrrrttt*
"We've got a possible 132-B, at the Atom Bank on 1068 South 8th Street, be advised we suspect 4 suspects at least one of whom is a Strongman type Meta"
Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.
*Krrrrttt*
The scanner cut back out but it had given her the perfect crime to test her suit out on. She smiled, started accelerating and banked west towards 8th Street.
-------
Two minutes later Maria decelerated as she came in for a landing, slowing to a halt a a foot or two above the road before her thrusters cut and she resolidified her form within the suit. She drew on more density and got heavier. There was a strongman inside the doors, so she needed more mass to be able to resist the inertia a single blow would impart on her.
Initiating her weapons and defensive systems, valves on the back of her suit opened up as she released two dozen drones from inside the extradimensional space that was her and they flew out. Frankly they were mainly a couple of thrusters stuck together with either a claw to grab and hold or a flat metal plate to ram. Her Propulsion and Ram Drones respectively. Very clever naming system, but her power had granted her the ability to make technology not name it. She was Wozniak not Jobs.
In her Left Gauntlet, the larger of the 2 she had placed her Kinetic weapons system, in this case currently an enhanced Riot Gun that could even hurt Metas with enhanced resiliency, against more fragile humans it might break bones but as long as it didn't hit the eyes or the temple or they'd survive... Probably.
In her right she charged up a crackling shot of electricity and stormed through the door. Heh Stormed. In the far right corner of the room, there looked to be about a half dozen hostages, 4 employees
"Everybody Freeze!!!" She said, she didn't need to yell because her suits internal microphone and speakers did that for her.
A short man with crackling green energy glowing across his hands, spun quickly and released a beam of that same energy which missed wildly. The energy ate through the the concrete around the door frame and even melted a bit of the internal steel beams.
'OK don't want to get hit by that' Maria thought. Releasing her own bolt of energy, though hers pure electricity at the man, he convulsed as 50,000 volts pumped through him, about the same as a taser. She quickly fired a rubber bullet at his shin from her riot gun. Hearing a loud crack informed her he wouldn't be getting up for a while. Though his lack of screams implied that he likely wouldn't have without her striking him with the ball.
"Surrender now and I won't hurt the rest of you" She calmly stated, trying to project an aura of confidence though on the inside she was a bit nervous about an actual fight. She hadn't hit anyone since her outing without her Armour.
Of course the thieves didn't listen to her but instead 2 of them started gearing up for a fight. A third stayed by the exterior vault doors fiddling with his laptop. Probably trying to hack them open or something. She sent 4 of her Propulsion drones to go pin him to the ceiling. If he didn't have super strength or intangibility of some kind it would be very hard for him to contribute to the fight.
The largest of the thieves, clearly the strongman type the police scanner had identified before charged towards her. He was about 8 Feet Tall and his muscles had muscles. His balaclava obscured his facial features but his head was nearly square.
Ducking under his outstretched arms as he tried to grab her, she sent a punch to his kidney that deflected off him with no discernable harm. Admittedly she only used the standard strength blow she'd use on a non enhanced human but she'd expected him to react at least. This probably indicated he was somewhere above 10 times tougher than the average human.
Distracted as she was the blockhead she failed to be alert to the threat the other goon posed. He was tall and rake thin and he carried an assault rifle with a drum magazine. Not the kind with enough stopping power to even cause her to stumble. Which was why she had probably dismissed him initially. As the first bullets hit the back of her suit she realised she should have taken him more seriously. He seemed to be able to impart additional Kinetic energy to projectiles. Alone they weren't particularly threatening but there were dozens of them. That additional stopping power enough to stagger her slightly.
Only slightly but it was enough for blockhead to get back into the fight. His massive fist swung past her guard reactions to slow to put up a proper defence. Maria grunted as her Armour plate was dented and she was lifted of her feet slightly. She didn't feel any pain really but she was slightly winded and that was enough for her to retaliate without caring about the control or precision she needed to when interacting with humans, her power armour screaming in protest as it tried it's best to resist and dampen the blow for blockhead. Her fist was met by the Mr Blocks arm. And her swing continued as if it had met no resistance. The strongman was a bug before the windshield of her hand and as her blow struck he exploded into a fine spray of blood.
"Shit"
Quickly she turned around to incapacitate the other man but as she turned she saw he had dropped the gun and was laying down on the floor with his hands on his head. Some blood dripped down over the eye lenses and as she attempted to wipe the blood away from her eyes. She realised all the servos in her right arm were dead, burntout attempting resist the blow that carried the force of a small asteroids orbital inertia.
Quickly she sent the rest of her Propulsion Drones to restrain the tall and short man. They had done an admirable job pinning the man on the laptop to the ceiling. He was struggling to get free but there wasn't much hope for him.
Maria corralled the 3 remaining as she walked out of the bank and sat on the steps waiting for the police officers to arrive, pinning the criminals to the banks walls as she did so. She didn't have to wait long for arrive they did after about 30 seconds of waiting a police car screeched around the block and pulled up in front of the bank. And along with it a man floated down from the sky.
The man was wearing a thick ballistic armour, reminiscent of Riot gear but a bit sleeker and no doubt far more durable. He was a Hero she recognised. Nostrodamus was his name. He could see shortly into the future in combat but also had a whole suite of telekinetic powers. They weren't immensely powerful but when you knew exactly how and where to strike to maximise your effectiveness you'd didn't need overwhelming power. Though in fairness power was relative and compared to Maria there were very few who measured up on the power scale.
Nostrodamus floated down to her, quickly scanning the 3 criminals and then her. Glancing at the large fist print embedded in her suits outer casing, he simply asked "Where's the 4th?"
"I instinctively used excessive force when he gave me this," Maria intoned.
"The body's inside then?"
Maria shook her helmeted head and Nostrodamus quirked an eyebrow at that.
"There isn't a body anymore. I misted him." Misted was a fairly common parlance, it was rarely used by anyone in robotic suits though. Mostly they burned their enemies to ashes or turned them into Swiss cheese rather than completely annihilating them with blunt force. Though both those methods usually left some remains.
Shaking his head, Nostrodamus seemed to ponder what to do with her for a moment. Before handing her a card. Quietly observing the card, she attempted to grab it with her right hand before remembering it was out of commission before she repaired it. Instead Maria snatched the card from his hands. It was a sleek black thing, with inlaid gold writing. On it, it said his name and what was undoubtedly his lawyers number, as well as the address of the heroes association.
As she was looking at the card, Nostrodamus politely said "Come to that location tomorrow after lunch and ask for me. We'll need to debrief you for this incident and potentially arrest you if it is determined that you committed criminal negligence with the blow killed one of them with." Suddenly his tone changed to a quieter more threatening style of speech. "I do hope you show up tomorrow because we will be able to find you if you do not and we are a lot less polite to people who waste our time."
With that he rocketed off into the sky, no doubt to stop another crime in progress.