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Most of the time, patrolling is a dull, uneventful affair, somewhat akin to the Ankh-Morpork City Guard ringing their bells and calling "All's well!" at night.
Sometimes, it's not.
Dauntless was not expecting to run into two unpowered Asian gangs (Japanese and Korean? that's what it looks like at a distance) duking it out in the middle of the street. Granted, it's the evening, and it's not quite the most well-frequented of streets, but still.
He decides to call for backup, not because he wouldn't be able to take them on, but because he's supposed to do that whenever confronting another parahuman or a large number of non-capes, at least until he graduates. He turns the comm on and describes the situation—a bit over a dozen people on each side, arguing and brandishing blunt weapons and in some cases guns—then waits and watches.
"A conversation. Right. Well, I'm my own supplier," they say, and oop, now they're holding a copy of their bodysuit, minus face glass pane. "Soooo yeah, I'm cool, we can have a conversation, it'll just end in me wearing what I want to wear anyway."
"They get on your case about it if you go out in unapproved costume."
"Of course they do. But frankly, my costume is made of white." Extra costume being held is now gone. "It's about as unobjectionable as it can get. I don't even have a cape that could get stuck in a turbine or something."
"You might be fine, but they might think you're too boring-looking to merchandise or that you were too or not enough matchy with whoever you seemed most likely to be paired with in the field."
"They sort of have a point. Imagine if the Triumvirate looked stupid or overbalanced together. Blue purple orange."
"Do y'all have patrol schedules or do you, like, throw dice to decide it—wait, this is probably one of those too-invasive-and-suspicious questions. Nevermind."
Conjure little rubber ball and start playing with it and throwing it at rooftops to watch it bounce.
"Oh." They ponder that for a bit. "Similar-ish, yeah. From what I heard she has this energy thing that becomes a weapon but always a single weapon that only she can use, yeah?"
"For that matter, are there any duplicate powers on record? I've never heard of it but I've never actually looked for it and someone with the Protectorate might know better."
"Second-gens, sometimes very similar indeed, but no outright dupes that I know about."
"Oh, and you're second-gen, right? It's interesting that you and your dad have such different powers."
"How rare are you? ...I mean, second-gen capes that haven't powers very close to their parents'."