And they fly a bit farther away, making another tinker-looking gun.

She clambers up the side of a building! How is something that heavy climbing a wall that fast while looking that unbalanced? Tinker nonsense, that's how.

Tinker nonsense indeed. They wait for her to be ready.

And the engine revs louder and she turns on a megaphone. "Three! Two! One! GO!"

The three-legged contraption accelerates her to about twenty miles an hour over the first roof's width.

They can fly faster than that.

They can't fly faster than that while carrying this much mass in armor and gear along with them, she takes some consolation in that idea.

She makes the leap to the neighboring roof casually enough, at least.

Flying is fun!!!

"Powers are weird."

Let's see just how far she can leap at once. She slows down as the capacitors, tanks, and springs all store it up...

...And then makes a huge, wild looking jump, moving hundreds of feet before touching down again. "Wooooooooh!"

"Awesome!"

She just laughs and laughs.

But that jump was pretty loud and possibly attention-getting...

Yes it was. So it must be very anticlimactic when absolutely nothing happens because of that.

"So what are your plans, now?"

"I'm thinking fire rescue, general evacuation stuff. I think mobility is going to be a big advantage for me."

"I meant now as in, for the next short while. D'you think you'll want to look into joining a team or try to be an independent or...?"

"Ugh. I don't know. The Wards... I might talk to the Protectorate about it. I really don't think it's a good idea though. And other than New Wave, which is also very iffy, I don't know enough about the other hero groups. But going independent is... Daunting."

"Hear hear. I haven't joined the Wards for a reason."

"Wards might be an option for me. It's a rock and hard place thing. I'm thinking about selling stun grenades if I'm forced to give something to unsavory types. Same thing the lance does, shock then numb and hopefully a safe knockout. One time use, is the idea. They won't have it forever."

"Yeah, that sounds like a pretty good idea actually."

"Mm-hmm... Anything else we ought to talk about or do right now, you think? I'm running a bit low on gas. Can't wait until I'm done with my supercaps, using gas is annoying."

"Don't think so. Supercaps?"

"Tinker batteries big enough to power all my stuff instead of just some. More portable than an engine. I think I'll say bye for now, in that case."

"Yeah, 'bye, and good luck with that!"

And she heads back to her dubiously-secure lab.

And she makes a phone call to the Protectorate general line.

"East-North-East Protectorate Office, how can I help you?"

"Hello. I'm a new parahuman and I'd like to schedule time with... Someone, to talk about some things. I can show up at the Brockton Bay PRT or Protectorate offices with proof if necessary. I don't want to get attacked for doing so, is why I'm calling ahead."

"—I see. Is tomorrow good for you?"