She'll work on the second option.

She'll want to cannibalize the microwave, dismantle the television, and probably raid the fridge.

Her hosts have no objection, she trusts?

Nothing worth arguing about when they're being held hostage.

Good. To work.

The opposition is all around the house and has evacuated the nearby ones by the time she's done. Surprising that the tinkering went that fast; probably because it's just a slight modification to something recent.

She adds the node and extricates herself from the net. Much better.

Now. What she wants to do next is leave the city. The heroes are blocking her from doing that, so she needs to create a hole. There are too many to fight efficiently, so she needs distractions. She has hostages, a few drones, and a variety of powers. So what she'll do is send drones to attack on one side, blow open a second with her shades, and go out the front door, with the hostages. Hopefully that will confuse them long enough for her to blink away and gain some distance.

From the heroes' point of view, there are more people than they expected, then a flash and it's the correct number. They don't have any way of cheating at finding out where she reappeared, but if it's close they might spot her the normal way.

She's on top of a roof at the other end of the block, and moving fast.

Then without Dragon, they'll have a much harder time tracing her.

Good. She needs to leave the city and lay low for a while, rebuild her drones, see if the new tinker has any useful concepts, figure out how Dragon traced her.

The hardest part was getting far enough away that she could be anywhere in the city. That done, actually being anywhere in (or out) of it is relatively easier. Any destination in particular?

Not really. Somewhere quiet, out of the way. No resident parahumans.

There are quiet out of the way places. After heading east and skipping some she'll end up pulling over at some place called Jacob's Bell.

And now she needs needs a place to sit and think, and optionally work.

It's early morning by now; coffee shops are open. Or she could break into a hotel room like before if she's worried about being recognized.

...Some coffee actually would be a good idea. It's been a long day.

Coffee, then. They haven't plastered her face across every television screen, so there aren't any surprise interruptions.

She wonders briefly if they ever will do such a thing. Convenient for as long as they don't though.

First question. Dragon. How did they find her, and can she do anything to stop it from being done again?

Most relevant face-plastering is the tinker's picture. The PRT is spinning it as "there was a hostage situation, no victims harmed, one hero tragically deceased" and letting people draw the obvious (false) conclusion. Then they talk a lot about the person now revealed to be Diana Thompson, partly because it plays well to the viewers and partly so the PRT can focus no more than necessary on the fact that the villain escaped.

There's really no way to find out how Dragon did it. Tracked the car she stole in North Carolina? Left a tracker under her skin in Kansas? Chicken entrails? It'd look the same from Ellie's side.

If Dragon would have just actually been in that suit she blew up, this would be a solved problem. The heroes weren't expecting it either, judging by their reaction. It seems like she ought to be able to exploit that somehow, but nothing immediately springs to mind. She might just have to wait and see if Dragon turns up again and if any new clues reveal themselves.

Other tinker things. She has a new one now, with a new specialty. What information did she get about what it can do?

It's less about specific devices than connections between them. It's not going to build anything complex or powerful but might get some complex piles of coordinated stuff. The last person with the power used it mostly to affect wide areas, like the security system or the net trap.

That could be interesting in combination with the Machine Army. She needs a workspace. Is this the sort of town to have one?

Not really. Not on the Machine Army scale, for certain.

Hmm... Actually, she has an idea for a project that wouldn't need much space. A room's worth. It'd only be person-sized at the end.