She was good, I had to give it to her.

When my old friend and colleague, Technica, told me that she finally managed to find a worthy apprentice, I was ecstatic for her. Both of our specialities required some rather peculiar powers to make someone a good apprentice and eventual replacement, just as our teachers, some thirty years earlier, had carefully looked for someone that could replace them. I had found my apprentice years earlier, by sheer luck and trained the cheeky boy ever since, helping him to get a good education in the mundane world, while making sure he understood the nuances of the Powered world, hoping that he might be able to help whomever Technica would find, if necessary. It was the only right thing to do, after all, she had saved my life on more than one occasion, even using her body to shield me once.

But when I finally met her apprentice, I wasn’t sure if I should be joyous or afraid. The Guild had sent out teams into the Indian Ocean to help with Earthquake-recovery and one of the teams was shipped over by the Apprentice, Metis, using a newly designed and built airplane. I had a good idea how Technica’s Powers worked, we had even tried to combine our powers, only to realise that it was a bad idea, once the pain stopped.

Seeing the armoured, black form, I first thought Technica herself had come over, even while knowing that she was supposed to be in a different part of the world, gathering reinforcements before moving into a different area of the Indian Ocean. I managed to keep my body-language from showing any surprise, aided by my costume. Her voice made it clear that I wasn’t talking with my old friend, even if some mannerisms were similar, the voice was different, a cold and calculating tone, exact in her speech but utterly emotionless. It sent a shiver down my spine, that person was dangerous.

Our first meeting only lasted for a minute or two, as she calmly laid out what she had brought with her, already planning out how to best use the resources, as if she had done disaster-relief hundreds of times before. I had heard from Technica that her apprentice was one of the Accord University-Students, so in their late teens, maybe early twenties, yet, she sounded completely relaxed discussing gruesome matters such as the need to identify hundreds, maybe thousands of bodies, simply adding it to the to-do list, as if the sheer human suffering was nothing to her.

The fact that she had prepared equipment to deal with a disaster-situation was evidence of the training given by Technica, she’d have known that one of the biggest tasks she had to accomplish during crisis-situations was to provide technical expertise and support. What surprised me was that somehow, she also managed to set up a communications and control-system using her equipment, without using any outside personnel. At first, I doubted that it would work, thinking that nobody could coordinate over hundred groups of volunteers and Powered, directing them in an efficient and professional manner but again, I was surprised. When I asked around a little, especially the mundanes who had were working with us, all I heard were compliments, that the response-time on the control-system was minimal and it seemed as if the coordination was next to perfect.

When my own apprentice complained about the lack of current mapping-data for his scrying, I suggested that he could ask Metis if she had something like that, considering the way her command and control-system worked, she’d have to. I also suggested that he could invite her and the other Powered that had come over with her to a traditional Guild-Dinner, something that had been established to allow Guild-Powered, often from vastly different backgrounds, creeds and sides of the law, to come together on neutral ground, allowing them to forge connections and sometimes friendship. It was part of the Guild’s mission to accomplish such bonds, hopefully preventing future large-scale conflict with Powered fighting on both sides. Powered needed to be seen as ordinary parts of society, not something to be feared and hated.

In addition, such a Dinner allowed the locals to feel they were paying us back, that they were part of our efforts. While Powered needed to stay a little aloof from them, simply to protect the secret identities of those who wanted to do so, having such dinners helped.

Before dinner, I learned that Metis wasn’t as cold as I had thought before, that she seemed to have a temper. While that was a bit of a problem, she needed to remain professional, it was something I could understand and knew how to deal with. Especially as Hancock had offered to take a bit of a hit to his reputation, knowing that Metis needed to establish herself. Most of the time, he was understanding and professional, even if he had no patience for Powered who acted like the bull in the china-shop, using their Powers to try smashing any problem they saw. I even knew the history of that trigger of his, years earlier, another Atlas went ahead against his, Hancocks, advice, trying to break through a wall to rescue trapped victims, only to bring down the building on top of all of them, injuring and even killing some of the rescuees.

We had concocted a bit of a scheme, with him confronting her, before I stepped in and gave her the promotion she deserved. It was a bit of political showmanship but sometimes, that was just part of the job.

Meeting Metis without her armour was another revelation. I had to use all my training to keep my composure, sure, she had used some tricks to change the structure of her face and the colour of her hair, but I had met Andrea, Technica, in her University days and the two of them could have been twins. Or rather, mother and daughter. Andrea had told me about her family after her Teacher had died, cried on my shoulder about the fact that she wouldn’t see her daughter grow up. There were only two options, either Technica had managed to clone herself or her daughter had tracked her down and demonstrated her strength. No matter what, Technica would never make someone without the requisite power her Apprentice, not unless she wanted that person to die.

And there was another surprise for me. Metis had entered with another Powered, roughly the same age, and, from their stance, always close to each other, often soft touches to reassure themselves that the other was with them, it was quite obvious that they were partners in more than the Powered-sense. Somehow, the simple fact that Metis was in a relationship helped me a great deal, seeing her with Anath made her seem less alien and more human. That perception was reinforced when she took the praise graciously, simply accepting it as her due, apparently letting the earlier scolding from Hancock completely go. With my new certainty about her parentage, I was quite sure that she had the training to handle most social situations. Part of me wanted to ask her about the situation but somehow, I doubted it would be wise to put my nose there. I would ask Andrea when we met during the summer when the Guild-Council met on Accord Island.

Later, after dinner, I asked her to meet one-on-one, to put things right and remind her that she, in fact, messed up earlier and Hancock had used that to enhance her reputation. I was also interested how long it would take her to understand the political reality of her situation. Far too often, Powered, especially powerful Powered, thought that they could simply ignore the rest of the world, thinking that their Powers would see them through to the end. More often than not, those people died a swift and violent death, thanks to the corrupting influence of having Power.

Again, she pleasantly surprised me with her quick mind and, now that I was relatively certain about it, her good training.

Still, I would have to ask Mordred if he would mind to do some work for me on the Island, just to get to know Metis a little better. Hopefully, they would be able to work together well in the future.

The Guild’s teams stayed for another week, helping with recovery and the setting up of the governmental efforts, as most of the work would need different resources and more time than we could provide. All in all, things went very well, sure, there were small problems but there always were. At the end of the week, we were lauded as Heroes, the Guild got the publicity it needed and everyone went home, to get back into their own lives, until we were needed again.