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[b]PRT HQ Ward Quarters, 8:42AM
June 19, 2021[/b]
[hr]The lock body shifted slightly under the sudden change in weight, its core suddenly appearing next to it – shunted there in an instant as its former location was occupied by a small tungsten cylinder. A moment later with nothing to hold it in place, the cylinder too slid out of the lock body.

Ashley – the Ashley that had just used her power to dismantle a lock – gave a self-satisfied nod towards her handiwork, even as another instance of herself branched off from her, briefly popping into existence within arm’s reach of the lock parts to collect them and the conjured cylinder, before popping back out of reality as fast as she’d come. She’d been getting more accurate with that trick, faster too, which in Ashley's mind was as good a reason as any to get excited, even if she didn’t think it was likely this particular trick would ever come in handy – she already had plenty of ways to bypass locks after all, ways that were both quicker and easier, and the need to quickly dismantle a lock from range didn’t seem all that likely to come up. 

In any case, it could never hurt to have more tricks up her sleeve. Something being unlikely to happen was different from something being unable to happen, and for all she knew, something about this one trick could save her arse someday. Besides, it wasn’t like she wasn’t working on other things; annoying restrictions aside, if there was one advantage to having joined the Wards, it was the access to resources she now enjoyed. Ball bearings, caltrops, lubricants, ropes, collapsible spike strips, the list went on. 

It wasn’t perfect, they were dragging their feet on Ashley’s requests for containment foam, and they’d flat-out rejected her requests for cannonballs and explosives, even after she’d told them she didn’t plan to use them – were the heroes incapable of understanding the concept of preparedness? What if another threat like Confessor showed up, or there was an Endbringer attack, or Collateral returned to Bridgewater? 

The only reason Ashley wasn’t working on one of the more useful new possibilities that had opened up to her right now, was that the Protectorate got weird about it whenever she tried to use the training facilities without supervision or had to wake someone up to watch her, and they got really weird about it whenever she suggested she just go practice outside if the training facilities were off limits. Speaking of…

Across the room, another instance of Ashley glanced down to look at the mobile phone that had appeared in her hand. 12:59… that didn’t seem right. Pointlessly she shook the phone, and a moment later the display updated itself to read 8:44 as the phone managed to reconnect to the internet, and a coming through just a second later, apparently to remind her of the impending Wards meeting. Right, she wasn’t supposed to put this thing in her inventory, was she? Honestly, managing the device seemed like more of a pain than it was worth, even if access to the internet was nice. 

Whatever, the phone wasn't important right now. What was important was that she was cutting it really fine to make it to that meeting on time! Not that Ashley particularly cared about being punctual as a rule of thumb – at least not in cases where the circumstances weren't time-sensitive – but she really really really wanted to meet her fellow Wards! And now she might be late!

Familiar enough with the layout of the building after a month of exploring and living in the place, Ashley didn’t bother with the door, instead simply shunting the phone back into her inventory and creating another instance of herself on the other side of the wall. A moment later both the clones in the room were gone and second Ashley had appeared outside, immediately setting off with its twin towards the meeting room.