He nods. "Yeah, just—keep safe? Alright? Don't, don't try to take fights on your own, tinkers are bad at that without training or backup."

"Yeah. Not against other capes, anyway. I might break up a robbery if I see one and I've got all my stuff. My name on PHO is..." She gives it. Vertigo_The_Real_Tinker.

"Mine's magnet_master, with an underscore, lowercase," he says. "I'm not very creative."

"Well, this has been... Not fun... But probably for the best. I wanted to talk about tinkering but that can wait."

He sits up straighter. "Or we could talk now!" Being the only tinker other than Armsmaster in Brockton Bay probably contributed to his eagerness. But he slouches down a bit and sighs. "Or maybe not that good an idea I guess."

"If I know Dad he's only not asking you to leave so we can have a looong family chat because that'd be really rude. I'll look forward to another chat."

"...you're not, like. In danger from them, are you?"

"No. And even if I was..." She pulls back one coat sleeve to reveal something wrapped around her forearm, covered with wires. "Stuns on contact."

"I like you," he declares.

"Why, thank you kindly. And it's got three dozen charges! But this is going to turn into a brainstorming session unless I declare it over right now."

"Right, yes. Okay. I guess I'll—message you? Online, I mean."

"Yeah. I can check it every two or three days." She takes a deep breath. "Time to move on and deal with family things, I guess."

"Okay." He gets up. "It was nice meeting you. And, uh, sorry again."

"Can't honestly say the same, but if I couldn't forgive good intentions, I wouldn't be very heroic. Bye for now."

"See you."

Presumably he'll have to go through her living room and parents again. He's a bit nervous about that, now.

"Have a nice chat?" Her father asks archly. 

"Yes, he answered a big question I had. About being a parahuman."

"I see. Shame you didn't get any tea, Magnet Master, but perhaps you should be going?"

"Right, yeah. Um. Thank you for having me. Sorry about—yeah—" He scoots.

And Vertigo the mighty tinker is Waltana Hampson for a while, and has a rather strained discussion with her family.

The next evening she calls Glam.

"Heyo. 'Sup?"

"A fair bit. Uh, one of the heroes found me, talked to me."

"—uh, wow. So they have your ID?"

"I'm not actually sure whether Magnet Master told the others? But, probably, yes. We talked for a while, I almost had a meltdown, discussed joining up and I kind of overshared, fun times."

"Wow, how'd they find you?"

"I don't actually know. Probably should have asked."

"Well. Um. How're you feeling?"