[PREVIEW] Great Sage Above Brockton Ch 15 - ARC END

If anyone asked Armsmaster if he was an emotional man, he would answer in the negative, and they’d agree. It served him well and kept him composed, and as a Tinker hero in the Protectorate, composure was key. He preferred to do his tinkering in the seclusion of his lab, where he could devote the entirety of his efforts to his creations. Improving his gear, crafting better weapons…emotions were unneeded for these acts. While others would despair at setbacks, he’d persevere, adapt, and continue his work. If you keep a cool head, you can solve any problem. A mantra he repeated to himself every day after his Trigger.

“The PR department is flooding my phone with calls and I have officials and news crews seconds away from breaking into the building and tearing out tongues. I’ve had to cancel three different meetings, and I’m this close to declaring a state of emergency. I’m going to ask this just this once. What. The. Hell. Is. Going. On?”

Times like these were solid proof of how useful this mindset was. Otherwise, he would have driven either his fist or his head through the nearest wall several times over by now.

“The short version? A disaster on almost every level.”

Director Piggot bit her lip as she pressed her fingers to her knuckles so tightly they looked ready to sink into her hand. The Protectorate heroes sitting around bore worried looks, glancing at either him or the director. Even Triumph was present, despite his transitional status between a Ward and a full Protectorate member. He would help deliver the news to the rest of the Wards after the meeting.

“I think we’d appreciate the long version,” said Miss Militia. “Maybe that will explain the growing riots outside our doors.”

At the director’s nod, Colin inhaled and typed a command into his gauntlet. “A little more than an hour ago, we received multiple calls from the BBPD and civilians about a cape attack at Winslow High School. I was closest to the scene, so I moved to intercept.”

Light filled the room as the main viewscreen flared to life with images of panicked students being directed out of the school by teachers, taken directly from his helmet camera. Despite the wave of teenagers gushing from the entrances, no signs of damage were present on the outside of the building beyond its dilapidated state.

“One of the teachers outside told me a cape had broken into the school and was attacking a student, so I called for PRT backup and headed inside. I went up to the floor of the attack and encountered the cape in question…along with this.”

The feed changed, and the breath of everyone in the room hitched. A few feet away, down on one knee, was none other than Sun Wukong. A name that was slowly becoming synonymous with ‘headache’. In front of him was a girl, likely a student, her face obscured by her long hair. Four golden wings were attached to her back and appeared jammed into the wall behind her. Through the high-quality audio processors, her faint breathing filled the room, tinged with the sound of crumbling. Yet it was neither the girl nor the monkey-faced cape that drew the majority of the heroes’ shock; rather, it was the strewn black teenage girl lying before Armsmaster’s feet.

“Is that…Stalker!?” Triumph stood up and stared with alarm at the now-paused feed.

The armored hero’s mouth pressed into a grave line. “I confess, I couldn’t formulate a clear picture of the situation at first, so I tried to defuse the tension by getting him away from the girls. This is what he had to say.”

He unpaused the video, and the ensuing conversation played out, each word causing the director’s jaw to clench tighter.

“You have some nerve, issuing demands from me when your disciple instigated this whole mess and attacked this poor girl.” 

“Disciple? Then you admit to attacking and unmasking a Ward in front of civilians?”

“Well, there was no mask to remove…”

“Holy fuck,” whispered Velocity with wide eyes as the video continued. “Did he just…?”

“I’m pretty sure he did,” Assault nodded, matching his expression. Piggot’s phone rang, but she slammed the mute button and kept staring intently at the screen. The other heroes followed suit, and their microexpressions and tense muscles betrayed their understanding of the gravity of Wukong’s act.