[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 listened carefully, but politely tried to not show too much interest in Knight’s report. It had been an eventful morning indeed, apparently. Knight seemed quite earnest, she spoke with confidence while she presented, she knew how important that was, but after she stopped speaking that seemed to give way to insecurity. It was like someone who had been taught what to do, how to do it, and she executed those instruction to a T, but she lacked the real experience to know for herself that what she had done was right. In this case, she knew to speak with confidence, she didn’t back down from her stance that she had done the right thing, but that didn’t stop her from feeling insecure about it. She clearly cared about Praetor’s opinion a great deal, and he knew it.

	Praetor had a great deal of confidence, a crushing degree of self-expectation. He acted like he [i]knew[/i] how powerful he was, and he expected others to be as exceptional as he believed himself to be. Failure would be met with dismissal, loss of his [i]attention[/i], since he wouldn’t even trouble himself with something he saw as below him. To be honest, I didn’t like it. The pragmatic side of myself knew how valuable those traits were in a leader, how it could push a team to perform better, but I didn’t trust the sort of person it stemmed from. In a lot of ways I could see it in myself, because those sorts of traits stemmed from ambition, an expectation of the ability to shape reality a certain way. I had been raised on that concept, the idea that I could and should bend the future into submission and form it in my own image. In weak people, it was an annoying tendency, in the powerful… it was dangerous. 

	Turning to me, he gave a single, sharp nod. “Welcome Ifrit. I’ll keep this as brief as I can. With the sheer number of new capes in this city, I cannot guarantee the effectiveness of them all without first seeing them in action. Wonderland has asked us if we’d like to participate in their little sponsored parahuman cage fight.”

That is crazy, do they honestly expect that the PRT, let alone one of the most powerful branche…

“And I’ve said yes.”

Ummmm…. What? Why?

“I needed two members to enter as the official entries for the Protectorate. I have chosen the two of you. Also in attendance will be Gamble, another newcomer, and Vector who is entering out of a sense of injured pride after missing her shot this morning.”

So, this isn’t exactly exceptional, is it?

“My paperwork is stacking up horrifically after the incident earlier today, so this’ll about have to do in terms of briefings. You won’t win - I don’t expect you to - but I want to see how you cope under extreme circumstances to allow me to better plan deployment strategies for the future.”

	This didn’t make any sense. What would be the purpose of such a use of our thinly spread resources? Hell, that would put a huge chunk of the Boston protectorate on deployment, out of reach, why take the risk when the city was at war? 
I had, of course, heard of the circus, but primarily from rumors. Crazy stories usually told in conjunction with the worst of parahumanity. It was not something that I viewed as a good thing, Hell I didn’t see the point. Why should the PRT care about their perception? The saying in war was to always appear as you are not, appear strong when weak, appear weak when strong. I doubted Praetor actually cared about the cape worlds perception of the protectorate, their had to be a greater purpose to such a strange maneuver. Perhaps he was trying to signal the gangs that he was willing to work on their level to restore order, a truce of some sort. Either way, given the fact I was already feeling suspicious of Praetor this did not help at all. 

“I wish you both the best of luck. Is there any questions?”

	I also knew better then to openly voice such a sentiment. On the one hand, if there was a greater purpose to this and Praetor was trustworthy, there was a reason he had not told me and Knight. If it was as he said it was, then stating suspicions would only foster further suspicions within the team, and clearly Knight trusted the man. It would not put me in her good books if I showed a distrustful attitude in front of her. If he wasn’t trustworthy, then it would do no good to alert him to my suspicions. I made a slightly quizzical face, it would be suspicious not to, and said [color=green]“If that is what you deem necessary sir. How much time do we have?”[/color] I then turned to Knight, [color=green]“Also, does that helmet have a chemical filter built in? If we are going to be fighting in close quarters that would significantly expand my options…. If not, would you mind if I modified it for you? It would take me only a few minutes and might help you against other threats as well.”[/color] Hopefully the shift in conversation wouldn’t be too jarring. 
	
	I would be lying if I said that entering the circus didn't sound the least bit exciting... I had a strong desire to show what I was capable of in this new environment. A fight of this sort would be incredibly difficult no doubt, in reality the heroes were far from guaranteed, or even likely to win their fights. The thing about being a tinker though, is that it was all about cheating. Finding ways to change the equation, changing your approach and adapting to the situation.