[b][h3][center][color=ec100c]Ifrit (Bryson Green)[/color][/center][/h3][/b][center]The Zenith - Protectorate HQ[/center][center]21st January, 2011[/center][hr]

	[i]Note,[/i] I thought to myself with a sigh, [i]Li-Po batteries are not temperature tolerant enough to power turbofans in subzero weather.[/i] It was clearly going to be quite an adjustment to the relative cold of Boston, after serving the Phoenix wards for so long. [i]Second note.[/i] I thought as I felt something cold beginning to pool at feet. [i]Cockpit version 0.3 is not, in fact, waterproof.[/i] Aaaaand neither was the battery compartment, judging by the fact that the prototype craft was clearly sinking.

	The ugly part of tinker development, was of course the prototyping, the dozens of failed attempts, the disastrous screw ups. I had been testing a basic chassis for my new “hovercraft,” the vehicle I had been working on to improve my long-distance mobility. Unfortunately, in my hurry to test the engines I had cut corners so I could test my thruster placement. One of those corners had been using batteries I could produce quickly and easily, which turned out to be kind of important when they were the sole power source for the thing holding you up in the sky. 

	The cockpit was really starting to fill with water now, and my sense of claustrophobia was finally overwhelming my apathetic disdain for failure. I turned off my power-suit’s sensory simulator so I wouldn’t have to feel the cold water, the suit was actually a near perfect thermal insulator, a plus when it came to comfort, a negative when it came to actually displacing the heat during design. I steeled my nerves and reached between my legs for the ejection handle. Fortunately, I had the wisdom not to make [i]that[/i] battery powered. 

	All at once, the canopy for the cockpit literally [i]exploded[/i] forward, and in the same moment I too was exploded, except  [i]backward[/i]. Water simultaneously rushed into the vacant space in a cacophony of noise. A loud [b][i]FWOOSH[/i][/b] blasted my ear drums as me, and the seat, were sent literally flying in a majestic spray of water, just narrowly avoiding the bay’s Icy clutches. Immediately, the auditory sensors in my suit automatically adjusted and suddenly everything was deafeningly quiet.

	The craft had been sinking in Boston Bay, still within the shadow of the almighty Zenith. Sadly, it had only made it a few hundred meters from the Zenith hangar before beginning to drop like a dying butterfly. The Zenith was still barely visible, even through the light snow drifting between the sea and the sky. It’s features obscured, it looked like a ginormous diamond overshadowing me. It would certainly be intimidating, but unfortunately, I had no time to appreciate its intimidating image as my stupid hovercraft had been sinking at [i]an angle.[/i] This resulted in the ejection not launching me into the sky, but instead almost parallel to the surface. 

	I had a second, as the water glided swiftly behind my head in a grey blur, to think how much this was about to hurt. [b][u]WHAM![/u] THUMP! Thump! Thud.[/b] It turned out my strong, but light power armor made for an excellent skipping stone with me inside it. The back of my head hit the water first, resulting in my body doing a flip, hitting again with my legs, spinning me faster, doing a couple more flips, (not that I could tell what was flipping or hitting at this point) before finally coming to a not-so-majestic rest, my chest and mask facing up. [color=green]“Ungh….”[/color] I moaned to absolutely nobody. 

	I was fortunate my suit was air/water tight, otherwise I would have hypothermia from freezing water to deal with on top of getting my bell rung. Nothing was damaged, the suit was quite durable, and while I got knocked around I didn’t feel damaged in any way. I still did not feel like moving, so I lay there since my suit was just slightly buoyant, bobbing with the waves. Fortunately, I didn’t have to. I used my HUD built into my helmet to take control of my drone Griffin, and flew out of the hangar of the Zenith to look for my bobbing body. Griffin was designed with proper graphene capacitors for its power source, which would actually be made more efficient from the cold. 

	The drone swooped down upon me, looking to me like a shadowy,  giant 4 point snowflake as it descended through the snow above me. Griffin was large and strong enough to carry at least one normal sized person, on top of a standard compliment of supplies. At this point more out of stubbornness and principal then anything, I still didn’t move. As Griffin came in close, I took control of a robot arm on the side of the drone, and used the arm to grab my own hand and attach it to the bottom of the drone, which locked in place. I then gingerly lifted myself, carrying my body, via the drone, out of and above the water looking like a stubborn child being lifted by his parent. 

	I surveyed the sea below me, watching as the craft sunk below the waves. The name of the final product would be [i]Thunderbird[/i], but I would be calling that one [i]penguin[/i]. It would have to be recovered later, not because I needed the parts, but because everyone was too afraid of tinker tech to live with the fact that some unknown, broken tinker device was lurking in the water below. Even if it was a piece of junk. The loss wouldn’t hurt me really, it honestly only cost me maybe 2 hours of work, since most everything I did was automated I only did the design and final touches with the construction. I had the information however, and that was what mattered to me. It had actually been a pretty successful test on the whole, I thought as I began moving my legs to break the ice which was forming there.

	As I approached the Zenith, I radioed the Zenith Air traffic control, [color=green]“Zenith-Alpha, this is Ifrit approaching from south-east, permission to enter bay three requested, over.”[/color] I could tell straight away from her voice, that the controller was 100% aware who I was, as I had left only 2 minutes before, and she had watched as I fell, ejected, became a human frisbee, and dragged myself back like a sack of potatoes. Despite the distance being obscured by snow, I was sure that a fortress as advanced as the Zenith had a thousand ways of watching me from that distance, it wouldn’t matter if there was a brick wall in the way. She couldn’t quite hide her amusement as she answered, “Ifrit, you are granted permission provided you can submit to standard entrance protocol. We warn you we are short on hangar space for flying dog toys. Over.” At that I smiled, but was still too wobbly to come up with something clever in response. I gave the standard passwords which were dependent on the current time, date, my condition, and the exit from which I left the Zenith last. 

	Once I was safely landed, I took a moment to steady myself and literally defrost my limbs. Once I felt fully operational I finally used my helmets HUD to check the notification that had blipped up on my way in. It was from Praetor’s secretary, it read [i]Praetor requests you in his office immediately. No media prep necessary.[/i] The last part referred to not needing to worry about looking particularly heroic for any cameras. Some how-do-you-do, but I knew the situation in Boston was getting as serious as it was complicated. There would be time for team building later, now was apparently time to get down to business. I headed straight for the office.

[hr]

	It was really quite astonishing that Boston managed to have so many tinkers, most teams were desperate to have at least one tinker to help them better equip themselves and deal with villain tinker threats, they were a valuable resource for the PRT. I had heard the usual explanations, Boston had a history of Tinker’s, the population was inclined to favor them, etc. but it didn’t seem to explain how exceptional the situation was. There were rumors among the Wards of Praetor and Director Underwood using less than ethical means to ensure their team had so many tinkers, but I had heard similar rumors about many PRT leaders ranging from collaboration with city war-lords to conspiracies about the Triumvirate, ridiculous, I know. They couldn’t [i]all[/i] be true, so I dismissed these as mere conspiracy theorist BS like the rest.

	I made my way into Praetor’s office, I was still in my power-suit from testing my hovercraft as I had come directly there. The polymer armor was thick but wasn’t too bulky, making it look like glorified body-armor rather than a mobility-enhancing, extremely durable power suit. Today I had the outside colored shades of deep red, with blue light shining from the chinks in the armor. It was dimmed to be polite, and the smoke that usually would be emanating from the same orifices was non-existent at the moment. Still, it made me about an entire foot taller when you included the armor of the helmet/mask, and it could be imposing to have a faceless, 7 foot, armored demon walk into the room. As I walked in I carefully removed the helmet portion of my armor and placed it under my arm, revealing a plain but young face, brown hair, and blue eyes. I was clean shaven, and my hair left longer then a crew cut, but not so long that I couldn’t put it up and sweep it back as I liked to. Unfortunately, my helmet didn’t accommodate said tastes and at the moment it was complete chaos.

	Praetor looked stern, angry even.  He had been having a conversation with Knight, the other young member of the Protectorate. Knight was a bit older than I was, and she looked like it too. Right now, she had her helmet off, and she looked quite stunning with vibrant red hair streaming down about her shoulders and armor. Her armor looked like it had been used recently, she had likely been on assignment this morning and by the look of Praetor it hadn’t gone well. Her father had been a character in the stories I was told as a child, and from what I had heard of her abilities, at least from a power perspective, she was no less impressive. I had no doubt that she would become one of the pillars of the PRT given time, her only struggle now seemed to be her inexperience. Even though she was older than me, I had been a cape for much longer. Still, I looked forward to working with her, our abilities would complement each other nicely. 

	I offered a smile as I walked in, and gave a brief nod to both Praetor and Knight. I offered my hand as well, but sensing the tension in the room I got to the point [color=green]“It is an honor to meet and work with both of you, Praetor, Knight. I was told to report here immediately, what can I do to help?”[/color] 
	
[i]Immediately concerned:[/i][@Sickle-cell][@PlatinumSkink]