Parental Guidance [Worm Familial Armsmaster & Tattletale AU]

Synopsis: Long-form version of a previous one-shot, which can be found here. (Archive of Our Own)

Under normal circumstances, Lisa Wilbourn would have thought that being saved from a trio of mercenary thugs attempting to kidnap her on behalf of a sadistic supervillain mastermind would have been a mercy. When she instead gets hauled off to PRT HQ and pressed into service with the Wards, though, her appraisal of the situation quickly ends up a lot less favorable; Colin Wallis would have had to agree with Lisa's assessment, seeing as how the PRT ENE had managed to determine that the man known as Armsmaster would somehow be the best choice of foster parent for Lisa during her tenure as a probationary Ward. Thus begins the domestic bliss (?) of Armsmaster and Tattletale living together as father and daughter.

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The mercenary's fist swung in one fluid movement as he stepped forward, striking Lisa Wilbourn in the stomach, just below her ribcage and off to one side.

[ Striking solar plexus; trained in martial arts, striking to inflict maximum pain, disabling- ]

“Urggunnnh,” Lisa swore softly, as she crumpled to the ground in a heap.

"Hey!" A young man's voice called from the Boardwalk immediately outside the store; even as Lisa's face was pressed down against the wooden floor, she could still hear him marching through the door toward where the three thugs were trying to apprehend her. "What the hell do you think you're doing to her?!"

[ Unnaturally hard footsteps. Too much power and strength behind them. Parahuman, Brute. Teenager, but confident enough to stand up to a trio of adults abusing a young girl. Ward. Triumph or Aegis. ]

"None of your business, kid. This is for the Boardwalk to handle. Beat it." Lisa groaned quietly as she lifted her head up to get a visual on the situation; while the store's cashier was hiding underneath the checkout counter, the female mercenary was holding Lisa in place, and the two men were confronting the boy that had entered the shop. Dark skin, long black hair, civilian clothes, an angry but confident and determined look on his face. Aegis it was, then.

"Look, buddy." As Aegis spoke, the mercenary that was confronting him tensed up; Lisa doubted that he was willing to open fire on a kid right in the middle of a store just for getting in the mercenary trio's way, but she wasn't willing to discount the possibility, either, not if they were employed by who she thought they were employed by.

[ Coil. Definitely Coil. ]

She hoped that what she had heard about Aegis' powers were true, as she watched the mercenary woman holding her down reach cautiously for the gun in her purse. "I get it. You're here to keep kids like her from shoplifting. I know how the Boardwalk works. But I'm pretty sure that punching a little girl in the stomach like that is going a bit overboard." The Ward stepped forward, apparently confident enough in his supernatural durability to take on whatever the mercenaries were able to throw at him. "So how about we all calm down a little bit, I call the real cops, and we let them handle the situation?"

The three thugs all looked at each other, sharing a look that Lisa couldn't quite decipher-

[ They'll kill Aegis - or try to kill Aegis - to secure Lisa. That's how valuable she is to Coil. ]

-and moved their hands closer toward their guns. Aegis, apparently, noticed the mercenaries' movements, and his stance tensed up significantly as a result. "Kid." The man that was talking before spoke up again, shooting a dangerous, threatening look at Aegis. "Last warning. Get out of here, or you're going to get hurt." Lisa heard the woman on top of her cock her gun, and the girl braced herself for whatever battle was about to erupt.

"No." Aegis' word was solid, hard, far more authoritative than a teenage boy's voice should have been. "I don't think I will. I won't get out of here, nor am I going to get hurt."

The kid took another step forward, and the goons all drew their guns on him, prompting the cashier to scream loudly as she curled up tighter. "Kid." The mercenary man's tone was sharp and demanding. "Leave. Now." As Aegis and the thugs squared off, Lisa desperately looked around for the nearest source of cover, preparing herself for the ensuing fight.

"I said it before, and I'll say it again. No." Aegis took one more step toward Lisa and the mercenaries, and then the gunfire erupted; again, the cashier cried out in fear, while Lisa attempted in vain to scramble away as the woman on top of her kept the girl in place even in the midst of all of the chaos. Several seconds of nothing but the sound of shooting passed, before the noise of the soldiers' guns clicking empty could be barely heard above the tinnitus that Lisa's ears were experiencing; looking up to where Aegis was, Lisa practically grinned as she saw the teenage boy still standing, looking barely the worse for wear with dozens of bullets having passed into or through his body. Cracking his neck dramatically, Aegis stared at the mercenaries, before offering a simple, taunting: "You done?"

The look of panic on the face of the thugs who had otherwise been completely composed before that point was a delicious thing for Lisa to see. "Shit." Turning back to his compatriots, the mercenary in front scrambled for an extra magazine in his pocket. "Reload! Keep firing! Coil'll kill us anyway if we fuck this up!" In spite of the situation, Lisa couldn't have helped but to snort at how casually the man let the name of his employer slip, especially in front of what he had to know was some sort of hero or other; even so, none of the goons seemed to have the time to worry about that, as they all swiftly reloaded their weapons, opening fire on Aegis yet again.

The Ward, for his part, seemed mostly unconcerned with the hot lead being sent in his direction; sure, it was slowing him down a little bit, but he continued marching toward the mercenaries even so. "Alright, enough of that." With a hard, solid punch, Aegis practically broke the face of the thug up front, eliciting a yell of panic from the other man, who desperately continued pumping metal in the direction of the young boy; Aegis, for his part, simply continued slowly walking toward the other hired goon, delivering another blow to the other man that sent him sprawling down onto the floor, unconscious.

The woman on top of Lisa, apparently, wasn't about to test her luck, as well; throwing her pistol away somewhere into the depths of the shop, she climbed off of the girl and raised her hands into the air, her voice choppy and nervous. "Okay. Okay. I can admit defeat. Just... Do you guys have witness protection, or something?" The woman mercenary's eyes darted out the bullet-shattered glass of the store, out onto the Boardwalk - where, thankfully, there hadn't been any civilians caught in the crossfire or by any stray bullets - as if looking for some sort of potential danger. "I would really, really appreciate it if you did."

Aegis walked over toward where the woman was standing, pulling a zip-tie out of his backpocket; did he just carry those around?

[ All Wards and Protectorate members do, even in civilian clothes. Always potential criminals to secure. ]

Lisa supposed that she made sense, even though it was still a somewhat awkward sight to behold; pulling herself up into a sitting position and holding her injured abdomen, she watched as Aegis secured the mercenary woman. "That's up to the PRT, ma'am, not me." As Aegis sat the then-handcuffed woman onto the floor, he went to her two companions, zip-tying them, as well. "I'm sure that my superiors would be more than interested to hear what you have to say about Coil, though." So Aegis had been paying attention; yet more proof that "Brute" was often a misnomer for those the category applied to. Once all of the mercenaries had been properly secured, Aegis reached into his backpocket again and pulled out a simple domino mask, before plastering it to his face-

[ Everyone in the store has already seen what he looks like, but that doesn't mean that anybody else who arrives would need to. ]

-and pulling out a cellphone; a quick dial of a phone number later, and he spoke in a serious, businesslike tone to somebody on the other end. "Aegis here. I have reason to believe that I've captured three of Coil's mercenaries." His eyes - partially concealed behind his mask at that point - darted over toward Lisa. "There's also a girl here that I think they were trying to kidnap for Coil, or something. Requesting two vans." A few seconds of silence, followed by Aegis nodding and speaking up again. "Roger that. I'll sit tight. See you soon, Director." As the boy hung up his phone, he started making his way over toward Lisa, and-

[ Shouldn't even try to run. Even without his powers, he's more fit, more athletic, more everything. Not a chance in Hell. ]

-extended a helping hand down toward where she was sitting, a calm, polite smile on his face. "Hey. You okay?"

Lisa hadn't actually bothered to check since the shooting had stopped; doing a quick patdown to make sure that she hadn't been shot without realizing it, Lisa nodded, before accepting Aegis' hand and pulling herself up. "Yeah. Still kind of sore from earlier, and my ears are still ringing, but, I don't think it's anything serious." Looking around at the bullet-hole ridden store, the three bound mercenaries, and the sobbing cashier that was slowly pulling herself out from under her counter, Lisa smiled nervously and offered her most polite, pleading voice to Aegis. "I, ah, don't suppose there's any chance you'll just, y'know, let me go? Or something like that?"

The look on Aegis' face was halfway between amused and baffled, even as he looked toward the shop clerk to make sure that the other woman was - at the very least - physically fine; looking back toward Lisa, though, the Ward shook his head, speaking up in a bewildered tone. "No. Absolutely no way I'm letting you go after all this, especially since it seems like you're the reason those guys tried to turn me into Swiss cheese. Not blaming you or anything, of course, but..." With a stern expression, Aegis crossed his arms, looking down at Lisa with a meaningful look. "You can explain what this was all about to me right now, or at PRT HQ to the Director; either way, though, you are going to explain yourself. I don't want to make you feel pressured when you were clearly the victim here-" A slight tilt of Aegis' eyebrow, and the slightest trace of humor on his face. "-aside from the shoplifting, I suppose-" Lisa grimaced, but nodded in agreement. "-but we need to know why a supervillain was willing to send three mercenaries to kidnap a teenage girl. You understand that, right?"

Lisa clenched her jaw and looked away even as she nodded; with a heavy sigh and a defeated shrug - that caused her to wince slightly from the bruise forming on her abdomen - Lisa supposed that all she could do at that moment was settle in and wait for the PRT vans to arrive.

...at the very least, she supposed that she should have been grateful that it was the heroes that were the ones dragging her away, rather than Coil.

----------

"...but ma'am, it was a time-sensitive matter, and-" For the last several minutes, poor, battered Aegis had been attempting to stand up to the woman known as Director Emily Piggot.

"It wasn't that time-sensitive, Aegis!" The overweight blonde woman was red in the face, as Armsmaster stood as still as a statue next to her. "You could have ducked into an alley and put your mask on, and then entered the store to intervene! Instead, you let five people, including three mercenaries in the employ of a local supervillain and one otherwise criminal girl-" Piggot jabbed a finger in Lisa's direction, causing the girl to flinch backward reflexively. "-see your face, Aegis! You may as well have given them your civilian name, too!"

"...yes ma'am. I understand, ma'am. My apologies, ma'am." The boy sunk backward into his chair, deflating with defeat as Piggot fumed on the other side of the desk they were all sitting at.

With a huff, the Director brushed a few bangs out of her eyes, and looked over toward Lisa. "Now then. You, girl." Lisa jolted upright in her chair, nodding sharply; even without a gun, Piggot somehow managed to be far more intimidating than any of the three mercenaries had managed to be. "You said your name was Lisa Wilbourn. Is that correct?"

The girl gave another nod, eyes darting toward Armsmaster even as she responded. "Yes, my name is Lisa Wilbourn, and-"

"That's a lie." Armsmaster spoke with a sharp, curt tone, a second after Piggot look up at him for confirmation.

[ Lie detector built into his helmet. 99.976% accuracy. No way to get past it. ]

Piggot turned back to stare at Lisa for several seconds, allowing tension to build before speaking up. "I'm not surprised that a girl like you is using a pseudonym-" What the hell did the Director even mean by that? Rude. "-but it would be in everybody's best interests if you gave us your legal name."

Lisa's eyes darted between Armsmaster and Piggot several times, before she licked her lips, cleared her throat, and answered truthfully. "My legal, birth name is Sarah Livsey. But, uhm." An awkward, slightly pained expression crossed her face. "...can you still call me Lisa, please? I kind of hate my old name."

Piggot turned toward Armsmaster again, and the man continued to watch Lisa even as he responded. "Truth. On both accounts. What her legal name is, and the fact that she hates it." Armsmaster looked down at the Director, before adding: "She'll be more amenable if we call her by her preferred name, Director."

The woman frowned slightly, but nodded in agreement as she looked back at Lisa. "Very well, Miss Wilbourn. Now, if you will." Piggot folded her hands on top of the desk, and leaned forward slightly to stare at Lisa with a cutting look. "Please tell me why three of Coil's mercenaries were attempting to abduct you. Or at least to the best of your knowledge. I already have my suspicions, but it would be best to hear you confirm them, first."

Lisa supposed that the Director didn't need superpowers like the vagabond teenager had in order to be able to suss things like that out; with a sigh, Lisa nodded, tilting her head and looking away a bit as she answered. "I'm a parahuman. Thinker. Superhuman intuition. I'm guessing he wanted to 'recruit' me for some reason or another. That's all I know. I would tell you that I'm being honest, but..." Lisa looked up meaningfully toward where Armsmaster was staring down at her.

"True, on all accounts." Armsmaster nodded at Piggot, who nodded in return at Lisa.

"About what I expected, yes." Sitting back in her chair, Piggot casually smirked toward Lisa, an expression that made a bit of frustration well up inside of the girl. "Now then, Lisa Wilbourn. You have two options at this juncture. You can go on trial for all the crimes we have on record for you." Lisa opened up her mouth to protest, but Piggot extended a hand out, interrupting her "Most of the stores on the Boardwalk have security cameras, Miss Wilbourn. And I do hope you know that use of a parahuman ability to commit crimes carries far more severe punishment than doing so otherwise." The Director's smile twisted slightly as the woman shrugged disdainfully. "You won't be going to the Birdcage just for a few thefts, but you might end up in juvenile detention until you turn eighteen. Now, alternatively..." Damn, but was she good at that, setting up a bad option before-

[ Has in fact done this before, with Assault. Knows how to coerce villains and criminal parahumans into service quite well. ]

-slamming Lisa down with the only real alternative. "...you could join the Wards, as a probationary member. Would you say that Miss Wilbourn here would be a good addition to the Wards, Aegis?"

The boy in question had been intently following the proceedings, but being directly addressed caused him to jump in shock for a moment. "Wh-? Oh, uhm. Yes ma'am. In spite of her crimes, ma'am, she seems to have a generally well-off temperament. Ma'am."

[ Desperate to not get into any more shit with Piggot than he's already in. Willing to kiss her ass as much as she demands. ]

Lisa didn't need her power to tell her that, but she was still grateful for the information, either way. With another mocking smile, Piggot turned back to Lisa and continued along. "So, what do you say, Miss Wilbourn? Would you be interested in joining the Wards, instead of going to prison?" The Director waited for several seconds, allowing the silence to grow heavy. "Of course, we'd need to contact your parents, first, to make sure that they're on board; I doubt that they'd want their precious daughter going to jail, though, so-"

She knew it was inappropriate and that it might get her in trouble, but Lisa simply contain it any more; laughter burst out from her, causing a slight wince from her injury even as the girl's dark mirth overwhelmed her regardless. "Pffthaha, oh, oh God, that's a good one. Sorry, but, hah! I guess the PRT's files don't tell you everything, do they?" Piggot, Armsmaster, and Aegis all stared at her in equal parts concern and shock as Lisa wiped the tears from her eyes. "Alright. Go ahead, let's call my parents. Call the Livseys. Let's see what happens, yeah?" All of the intimidation that Lisa had felt up until that point vanished into thin air as she felt only bitterness and cynicism set in; motioning with her hand toward the phone at Piggot's desk, she smirked, and spoke up again. "Go ahead. Give them a call. I'm sure Armsmaster already has their number, so you don't need me to tell you, do you?"

The Director looked up at Armsmaster even as concern continued to spread across her face, and the Protectorate captain gave a short nod before offering up the Livseys' phone number; a short few button presses later, and Piggot had dialed Lisa's 'parents', the phone on speaker. "Hello? Who is this?" Fred's voice, as grating as always.

Clearing her throat, Piggot spoke as politely as she could. "Hello. Is this Frederick Livsey? I'm Director Emily Piggot, from the East-North-East Department of the Parahuman Response Team."

The confusion was clear in Fred's tone as he responded. "The... The PRT? I mean, yes, this is Frederick. What can I do for you, Director?" A brief moment of silence, but before Piggot could speak, Fred spoke up again, loudly. "Wait, is this about Sarah?! Did you find Sarah?! Hey, June, they found Sarah! The PRT did!"

Lisa's expression was something halfway between a scowl and a smirk as the three others in the room looked at her with worry. "Ah, yes, Mister Livsey. This is about Sarah. She's here in the room with me, actually." Even as Piggot's face showed concern, the Director managed to keep her tone assuagingly calm and soft.

Fred's voice, again, causing Lisa's ears to ring in annoyance. "Sarah?! Sarah! Are you really there, Sarah? Hey, June, Sarah's there!" Lisa heard her 'mother' call from the background, but only felt the dark feelings in her heart boil up further when she did. "Sarah! We've missed you so much! It's been so long!"

Looking up at Armsmaster, Lisa spoke without concern for what Fred was saying. "Hey. Armsmaster. Can your lie detector thing work just from voices?"

The hero looked down at Lisa, a slight frown on his face even as Fred and June prattled on over the speaker phone. "With a slightly lower accuracy. But it can, yes."

With that answer, Lisa smirked, and turned toward the phone receiver, calling out to her 'parents' in a sing-song, cheery voice. "Hey Fred, hey June! Let me ask you something, yeah?" The grin on Lisa's face turned upward even further, showing off her incisors in the process. "Do you love me? Do either of you love me? In any way, shape, or form?"

The rest of the room froze in shock as Lisa asked her question, and it took several seconds for Fred to respond on the other end of the line. "Wh... What? Of course we love you, Sarah!" Armsmaster's expression went stunned to pained in a single moment after he heard Fred speak. "We're your parents, Sarah! Why wouldn't we love you?"

Lisa smiled up to Armsmaster, motioning for the hero to speak; with a grimace and a growl, the man shook his head, and spoke up. "A lie. For reference, my lie detector only tells me if the person speaking believes it's true or not. So, Mister Livsey, you don't even believe what you just said." Aegis and Piggot's faces went white with horror, even as Lisa collapsed into another giggle fit.

"What?! That's bullshit!" Fred's voice was filled with anger, even as June's own shouts came from the background. "That lie detector of yours is busted, buddy! She's our daughter, and we know that we love her! We don't need some lie detector to tell us otherwise!"

Lisa composed herself enough to lean over the table, a devilish look in her eye. "Hey, hey! Answer this one next, Fred! Did you ever use my powers for your own personal gain?!"

For several seconds, the only sounds in the room were the ticking of a wall clock, the sound of static coming over the speaker phone, and Lisa's panting breaths; eventually, though, Fred spoke up, furiously. "Why are you asking me something like that, Sarah?! That's not a question I have to answer! You know that we never-"

"Lie." Armsmaster's voice was tight, his anger barely constrained underneath his veneer of stoicism.

With a giggle, Lisa practically half-climbed onto the desk so that she could speak directly into the phone's receiver. "Alright, next one, next one! If you got me back, would you treat me like a daughter, or like a money printing machine?! C'mon, answer it, answer it!" Tears streamed down her face even as she smiled madly; Lisa had hoped that she would never have had to interact with the Livseys ever again, and yet there she was...

Fred continued shouting, not even taking time to compose his answers before speaking. "Sarah! Don't you fucking talk to me like that! I am your father, and-"

"Hey, hey, come on, dad! Answer the question, already!" As Lisa practically screamed into the phone, Aegis had reached the point where he was pulling the girl off of Piggot's desk.

Fred yelled back over the line, annoyance and frustration hard in his voice. "No! I don't think of you like a money printing machine, I-!"

"Lie." Before anything else could be said, Armsmaster reached a hand out to the phone's terminal and ended the call.

As Lisa collapsed backward into her chair, curling up into a sobbing, laughing mess, everybody else in the room stared at the phone in silence for several long, arduous seconds; finally, the Director was the one to break the silence. "That was rude, Armsmaster. You shouldn't have done that. It looks bad for our public relations to hang up like that." Even as she spoke, Piggot's voice was weak, seeming to say the words just as a matter of course or propriety.

"Yes, Director." Armsmaster, for his part, sounded ready to break apart the entire office with the rage present in his tone. "You're right, Director. My apologies."

Aegis shifted uncomfortably in his chair, clearly wishing that he could have been anywhere else but Piggot's office at that given moment. After a few more moments of silence - broken up only by Lisa's sniffing and choked sobs - the Director spoke up again. "...very well. Armsmaster, would you agree that the Livseys do not possess the necessary temperament to raise a parahuman child?" The hero nodded, his hands balling up into fists even as Piggot continued. "Lisa, darling." The woman's voice was soft, gentle, a tone that she clearly wasn't accustomed to using, especially not in her office. "Lisa, darling, I know that you're upset right now, but this is important. Do you want to join the Wards? If you do, then we'll need to immediately start arranging alternative circumstances for you, away from the Livseys. Do you think you can answer me right now, Lisa?"

The girl in question just sort of scoffed as she looked toward Piggot, wiping away tears and snot with the sleeve of her hoodie. "Yeah, sure, what-fucking-ever. If my choices are to go to juvie, to go back out onto the streets and get killed by Coil, to go back to those two-" Lisa pointed at the phone terminal meaningfully "-or to go and join the Wards? Yeah, I suppose that joining the Wards is the least of all the shitty ass options I've got, isn't it?"

As Piggot and Armsmaster grimaced again at Lisa's words, Aegis reached cautiously over to the girl, placing a careful hand on her shoulder. "Hey, Lisa." The girl looked over toward Aegis, who was offering her a small, apprehensive smile. "I know it doesn't seem like it right now, but joining the Wards is actually really great. I honestly think it'll be really good for you to be with us. And I'm not just saying all that because I'm a part of the Wards, either."

[ He believes what he's saying. He's right, too. Being with the Wards is dangerous, but it comes with benefits. Benefits like therapy. Therapy would probably be good. ]

Lisa smiled weakly back at Aegis, nodding slowly even as Piggot continued. "Alright. So the Wards it is, then. Like Aegis said, I think joining them will be really great for you. I know that I might have come off as a bit coercive earlier." That was putting it lightly, wasn't it, Director? Even so, Piggot spoke with a genuinely sympathetic look on her face. "But the Wards can be a good place for young people like yourself, who..." The woman bit her lip, looking away for a moment as she carefully chose her words. "...might lack proper foundations in their life." The way that Lisa scoffed suggested that Piggot might have missed the mark slightly, but the Director continued regardless. "But, as I said earlier, we do need to arrange some alternative circumstances for you. Primarily, we need you to have a legal guardian that can agree to your membership in the Wards. Essentially, Lisa, you need to be adopted." The girl's eyebrows raised, her face contorting slightly in discomfiture as Piggot spoke; adopted?

"Director, uhm." Lisa pulled herself back into a proper sitting position in her chair, sniffing slightly before she continued speaking. "I... I appreciate all of this, I really do, but, uhm..." The girl fidgeted in her seat, twisting her face up in concern as she spoke. "Can't I just like... Emancipate myself, or something? Being adopted, especially after all of that-" Again, another motion toward the phone, before continuing. "-seems a bit... I was just hoping there was something simpler we could do?" Lisa grinned awkwardly as she rubbed the back of her head, eyes glimmering with faint, weak hope.

With a shake of her head, Piggot sighed before speaking up. "I'm sorry Lisa, but no. You're only fourteen, and the PRT still requires minors emancipated by normal law to have permission from a legal guardian." Lisa frowned, looking down toward the carpeted floor of Piggot's office; Christ almighty, nothing could ever just be easy, could it? "I know that legally cutting ties to your birth parents might be a difficult thing to do, even if they are indeed like that-" The Director replicated Lisa's hand gesture from before, attempting to show some degree of empathy to the girl's situation; in spite of everything, Lisa actually managed to feel comforted by Piggot's display. "-and that then being adopted will only be more stressful, but..." With an apologetic smile, the Director continued. "...it is the best of all of the bad options we have here, Lisa. I really truly wish I could give a young girl like you something better than this, but I promise you that I will do whatever I can to make this process as easy for you as possible."

The look of complete and utter shock that Aegis wore as he stared at Piggot suggested that the must have believed that the Director had been Mastered or Strangered in some way; suppressing a chuckle, Lisa looked toward the Director and nodded. "Yeah, uhm. Yeah... I guess you're, uhm. Yeah..." Ever since she had gained her powers, Lisa prided herself on never being at a loss for what to say, on always having some response, no matter the situation; it was with no small amount of annoyance, then, that the girl found herself stumbling and stuttering over her words. "But, uhm. Who... Who would I be adopted by? That seems like, uhm, a fairly major part of this all, yeah?"

With a gentle smile, Piggot nodded, folding her hands softly on top of her desk. "Ah, yes. Well, I've been thinking about that, even as we've been talking." Looking up at the hero standing next to her, the Director said his name with plain and simple intonation. "Armsmaster."

The man, in return, nodded, speaking in a level tone of voice, his anger from earlier having managed to fade since the end of the call with the Livseys. "Yes, ma'am. If we're operating off of the assumption that it should be somebody in the PRT, then there's a few good options. Assault and Battery are married, so they can provide a stable household. Dauntless has a son, so he's used to raising children, and-"

"Armsmaster, no." Piggot had a slightly derisive smile on her face as she raised an eyebrow up at the hero. "I wasn't asking for your opinion." As Lisa's eyes spread open wide in shock and fear, Armsmaster himself simply looked down at his Director in confusion, prompting further explanation from Piggot. "I'm saying, Armsmaster, that you are my choice for who should adopt Lisa."

Several long, dramatic seconds of silence passed, the ticking of the clock on the wall heavy as everyone else in the room stared at the Director; all at once, Armsmaster, Lisa, and even Aegis spoke a single-worded question in unison: "What?"

If Lisa thought that she could have had any chance of escaping the PRT building at that moment, she would have ran as fast as her legs could have carried her.