Megan most definitely had not been expecting that she would be attacked by the girl. This was not out of arrogance but simply due to the fact that while she was usually relatively adept in reading other people but in this case she had made several serious misjudgments of the situation. In the short period between her turning and the skeletons being able to close rank behind her the bat had hit her.

Crumbling to her hands and knees Megan turned as her ears rang, she looked at the girl in surprise as she shifted so did the skeletons, with a barely audible creak all six were standing in formation around Megan as she slowly and awkwardly got up, still utterly baffled what on earth had aggravated the girl. Bringing her arm around to be able to turn on her earpiece at a moment's notice she said "W...what the hell was that all about?" she sighed, she knew that what she was prepared to do was going to make her feel terrible, but this was a cut-and-dry example of what the whole law was far "Assaulting a law enforcer is a rather serious crime miss, I really don't like pulling my authority like this but I think in this situation it's the right thing to do. Now how about you explain yourself?" of course she knew perfectly well that the girl was under absolutely no obligation to explain anything to her and in fact procedurally speaking was not at all her duty to perform, but Megan was certainly not going to pass on a chance to ask.

Megan couldn't help but beam energetically at Kenzi's wild enthusiasm for just about everything. She gave an apologetic look at the mention of her videos "I'd totally let you but they're currently all on flash drives in boxes a few hundred miles north of here" while there were probably better ways of storing your life's work, this was the first time Megan had encountered even the slightest issue with that strategy "I live in San Francisco, here on a bit of off time to play around with my powers some more" she said with a wink.

The wolf calmly stood letting Kenzi pet it, not quite still but certainly keeping more still than any living wolf in that situation would have. Megan chuckled "Let me tell you, a few years ago I had absolutely no clue, I just figured it would be rather a good idea to have the first clue what I was bringing up in the first place rather than just being like 'oh it's some sort of skeleton' and leaving it at that". As she put her phone away she replied "Well if you have hundreds of wolf skulls to display, why not do it with some style?" 

Megan continued her mesmerized looking through Kenzi's myriad artwork slowly nodding at the excited rambling. It wasn't that she wasn't listening- she was, very intently. It was just that each picture seemed to give her a new thing to think about, making it hard to devote enough brain space to any sort of response. Finally she handed the book back and said "Well honestly I don't exactly get it either I just can tell that there is something to be gotten. Same with the rectangles, I really can't fathom why they're such a big deal but I'm entirely sure there's some reason for " and she grinned.
 
"While I'm sure there are people who could, I'm hardly an expert in discerning gender in even human skeletons, much less wolf ones. Plus I'm not sure the concept remotely applies to a skeleton animated by metahuman powers" to her the skeletons had always been 'it'. Keeping track of every last one was simply an impossibility. But once the skeleton had a name 'it' felt rather wrong, and while names were not exactly something Megan was good at it seemed Kenzi was perfectly able to come up with reasonable names. The wolf tilted it's skull, trenching itself out. "Sammy it is then"

Menagerie nodded with a slight smile at Paladin's words "Yeah, the way I see it any Metahuman with a combat-usable ability has some sort of specialty based on how they can project force, and for me it's area control. My skeletons aren't nearly as strong or durable as a living thing but they mean I effectively can be in a great many places at once despite the individually weak attacks" she rolled her eyes at the metal-bodied brick behind her mask "Look, your last few dozen punches didn't do anything, just doing even more isn't going to change that" 

The pair of metas certainly were a tough fight, but only because they had effectively opposite strengths and weaknesses, meaning one of them likely was a good match against whoever they were fighting. Menagerie might not have been in peak condition but she was fit enough to pass the Hero Program physicals and had been practicing her power as long as every other metahuman had been (at least to her own knowledge), and as for Paladin well, what condition you would have been in without powers hardly mattered with her abilities. Seeing her lightly flex a giant metal object (albeit a living one) into concrete certainly helped her realize that, brick strength was simply on a level well beyond anybody else's. Giving Paladin a friendly nod Menagerie said "Alright, keep watch over the teleporter too but I doubt he'll be up any time soon." 

The explosion striker wasn't too hard to find being right near the center of the destruction. Her punk aesthetic was rather marred by the burn marks and smoke curling from her hair and clothing as she spotted Menagerie, backing away as much as she could while tied to a bar of metal "Who are you? I will get myself out if I need to you know!" she said in a panicked tone. "I'm Menagerie of the Hero Program" the woman let out a relived sigh "The men who were trying to recruit you have been neutralized and containment vehicles are on the way to take them in for the crimes they've committed today and probably more that will be found that they've done previously. You... did cause a large amount of property damage but I think given the situation you were more than justified. So is there anything else you can tell us about those men or the situation? Gangs with metahuman enforcers can be a serious issue, and I want to make sure the Program is aware of the threat so we can ensure this chaos doesn't happen to more people" Megan had two normal skills unrelated to her metahuman abilities she was taking use of now; she was good at reading peoples emotions and even their basic personality and adjusting herself to deal with it better, and she was a voice actor and knew how to sound ways she wasn't actually feeling, in this case calm and collected.

Megan pivoted to where the creak had come from, there was a building thickly covered in scaffolding, a mess of metal bars and planks put into rectangles and stacked up the building's side like blocks. She caught a vague movement between them, and Megan realized somebody was standing there shrouded in shadow. Nothing about them was especially clearly visible right now, so she took a few cautious steps closer as her skeletons turned to keep close. Oddly they seemed to get more intelligent the longer she practiced with her powers, though they were still completely and utterly under Megan's control.

Though nobody would have been able to tell due to both her mask covering most of her face and the low light, the girl's statement caused Megan to adopt an expression of puzzlement. What on earth was she talking about, saying she was there first? For all the worry over her image Megan had, the idea that somebody might mistake Menagerie for a villain never once crossed Megan's mind, not knowing who she is was one thing and assuming she was practically the opposite of what she actually is was another altogether. By the voice's pitch and height of the shadowy outline the speaker was a girl somewhere between twelve and fifteen, likely not a very well off one at that considering the time of night she was up and on the streets.

"I'm sorry, what? I'm not here to take this place over or anything if that's what you mean, I'm here looking for someone who's been causing some issues around here." She was being vague to attempt to reassure the girl, assuming the idea of a human puppeteer running around the area would pointlessly frighten her. Megan's voice was very sincere, but she certainly was cutting a very intimidating figure especially in the low light with all her body save her mouth, chin, and hair covered in armor and with a small legion of skeletons standing immediately behind her. Megan felt bad for the kid though if somebody coming to try and take what little she had was a real danger, but maybe it would turn out to be helpful "Hey, sorry to bother you about it but have you noticed anybody else around here recently?"

By Megan’s estimates the Hero Program seemed to go through a couple hundred cases of things that could potentially be considered signs of dangerous metahuman activity. For everyone who dramatically blew something up or such there were a few others who had some clue that subtlety might be a good idea. There had been an increasing amount of reports of a human-controlling Puppeteer in San Francisco, and frankly it was embarrassing that the nightly news programs had noticed the pattern before the Program did.

Menagerie was, unless one had come in without her noticing despite all the social media buzz it tended to make, the newest Hero in San Francisco, and thus it was quite rare that she was asked for specifically like this. Megan supposed it made sense though, her skeletons meant if a fight broke out she didn’t need to be all that close to the teenage girl- a particular fact of the case that definitely didn’t make her feel all that comfortable. But she couldn’t exactly refuse the assignment, both because it would be a truly terrible look and because she was genuinely safer than any other local Hero would have been and couldn’t exactly ask someone to go into a dangerous situation because she felt uncomfortable, hence why she was up and in costume before sunrise to respond to the latest sighting.

It was a cool and, at least by city standards, rather quiet morning in San Francisco as she dashed through the streets, albeit not very fast dashing considering her armored outfit. She was certainly trying to be stealthy but while she wasn’t making any noise it wasn’t hard for anybody actually paying attention to notice the woman in chalky bone-lined armor surrounded protectively by half a dozen skeletons of rats, dogs, and deer. Megan turned, jolted by a sound of wood creaking close by. “Alright, show yourself".


Kiran Wagner

"At the more damaged edge of the building" Menagerie had to admit for people who seemed to just be your basic thugs who had the luck of getting powers the two metahumans were experienced and hard to deal with, considering one was near-impossible to damage and the other teleported, even if only a few feet at a time. Fortunately for her the metal guy seemed to be rather heavy and didn't move all that fast, unfortunately for her she wasn't exactly dexterous in armor, and fortunately again it didn't matter if she was. Keep him from getting close enough to hit me, and avoid getting hit yourself if possible. 


Swarming together in a flash of bone white came tiny skeletons nimbly dashing around the brick's ankles and biting and scratching at them. Not a single mark was left on the metal, but with her running about over the area and the rats and squirrels he had dodging around his heels, ducking out of the way or kicks and punches, he wasn't exactly getting that much closer to her any time soon, neither of them were exactly agile here, the brick because he both had recently been catapulted into a wall by an explosion and because he must have weight at the very least 300 pound, and Menagerie because she had run three blocks straight into a firefight and was wearing somewhat constrictive armoring. He threw a punch that went absolutely nowhere near her or any skeletons "Hey Tin Man, you missed!" she said loudly enough to ensure Paladin could locate her.

Still despite the talk she knew she wouldn't keep this up for long if she simply couldn't do any damage to him. Her skeletons could cover a lot of ground at once and weren't bothered by weaker attacks, temperature, or poison. When she had chosen to come into the hero program she'd read up on what sorts of power existed and she had three major weak points; wildcards or power-cancelling ghosts who were a problem for any metahuman, flyers who she had no method of hitting while in the air, and the one currently vexing her- anyone tough enough to shrug off the skeleton's individually weak attacks. She thought it was wise to recognize that every hero had their weak points, that's why there were a lot of Heroes after all. Pairs of them often had totally different weaknesses and strengths, making countering them much harder.

Menagerie's earpiece was built into her mask, though a few of the standard ones were also hidden in a tiny storage space behind one of her suit's panels in case of emergency, she had in fact been so focused on the sounds of gunfire that the voice directly in her ear almost made her jump. "Got it, I'll keep a lookout. I've got twelve fairly small critters and three larger ones, but I can barely see through all the dust". As it turned out Menagerie had arrived on the opposite side of the rubble, which was much more intact, the fragments of walls still containing a standing doorframe with a wide open door.

Beyond the single remaining wall was a mangled mess of concrete, twisted metal, and broken glass all covered in a liberal sprinkling of plaster dust. Running around the edges of the ruin trying to make sure she wasn't going to be getting shot at. One of the horses had stayed at each corner of the remaining wall and two rats and a dog the door. She could see the armed men now, they couldn't see her yet but she was careful to keep the bear between herself and them at all times. While her suit was about as bullet-resistant as the bear was, unlike her it wouldn't feel pain and could continue to function if a bullet did manage to break a few ribs or something. 

A sharp crack directly behind her suddenly drew Menagerie's attention, she turned to see a gun being carried by a wiry man with short sandy hair, wearing a camouflage pattern jacket. Immediately she sent the remaining dog to jump at him since the bear was in the opposite direction, she started turning it around too though, the man seemed surprisingly unbothered by the skeletal dog running at him fangs bared, checking the rack of his pistol like nothing was happening. The reason for this quickly became clear when there was another crack right before the dog reached him and the gun's barrel was now pressing itself into the back of her neck, but by that time the bear skeleton had turned around and swiped at the man's legs, knocking him off his feet. 

By the time Menagerie had turned, another crack came and he was gone. The bears left-side claws had a slight bit of red staining their tips. Catching her breath she noticed he had only moved about eight feet away, to the edge of a nearly story-high bit of rubble, then another crack and she could hear him behind the rubble shouting at someone. Quickly Menagerie called "Found the traveler. Teleporter, but I think they have a fairly short range" he had after all gone back behind cover in two trips when it was only about 15 feet "Thin blond man, Camo Jacket, makes a loud snapping sound when teleporting. Leg is injured but he managed to get back to one of the other shooters". Now they all probably knew she was there. She scurried around the buildings edge with the remaining skeletons, save the bear which she left behind with a command to try and distract or disable anyone who came back to look for her.

Taking back the horses to run ahead of her, after all blocking off an exit was rather futile with teleportation in the mix, she continued around to the building's front. The idea was that while the bear distracted them she would bring more skeletons in from behind them, but before she could put this plan into action she felt a connection sever as a man looking like he had taken a swim in a vat of silvery paint slammed into one of the horses with enough force to send it flying apart. "Damn it, Brick's found me".