The Watchwomen

Chapter 13 (Intermission): Brains & Brawn

We last read Chapter 12, in which we checked in on Dr. Duncan Drevis, The Crawler, James Markovsky a.k.a. Powerhouse, and Herman as the four of them try to enjoy the last-minute vacation that Hailey a.k.a. The Viper sent them on while the female Paragons attempt to investigate the Diamond Legion and its assassins. Duncan, however, has been reduced to being isolated in his hotel room due to the false sexual assault allegation anonymously filed against him by Allie Bannister.....but after a meaningful phone call with fellow Paragon Cassie a.k.a. Coldsnap, the former manages to regain the latter's trust, and after a conversation with The Crawler in which the mutant lizard reaffirms his loyalty to his boss, Duncan starts preparing to go to bed with an improved and optimistic outlook on the situation.

Meanwhile, his older sister Monica Drevis a.k.a. Voltara contacts fellow Paragon Herman by FaceTime and questions him about the characteristics of the red dust vials that Hailey a.k.a. The Viper received from one of the Diamond Legion's assassins shortly before said assassin committed suicide. He complies, and arranges to send a drone over to Mercury Heights, New York to obtain a sample of said dust vials.....a sample which Monica is all too happy to give him. After loading one of the red dust vials into the drone and sending it back to Herman's location, she leaves the balcony—the place where it showed up—to go to bed as well.

This time, we witness Herman analyzing the red dust vial sample that Monica gave him via the drone, and also see what Carla Rosenblood a.k.a. Nightclaw has been up to since Monica allowed her to patrol Mercury Heights.....

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-Hilton Hawaiian Village & Waikiki Beach Resort, Honolulu, Hawaii, United States-

Herman was just about to climb into the bed next to James Markovsky a.k.a. Powerhouse's, but right when he was about to pull the covers up, he could hear a familiar whirring sound that gradually grew louder with time, though it never got loud enough to wake up James. Curious, the genius got back out of bed and approached the hotel room's balcony, at which point he saw his drone returning to him with the red dust vial nestled perfectly in the appropriate slot.

Dang.....you're fast, Monica, Herman thought to himself. Guess I'm pulling an all-nighter. Let's do this!

He retrieved the drone from the balcony and gently set it down on the hotel room's office desk before briefly leaving it, opening one of his suitcases, and pulling out a sleek black laptop to take back to said desk. He also grabbed a wireless USB-C computer mouse and some sort of trackpad-like device to affix to the side of the laptop's keyboard.

It took Herman a few minutes to set everything up, but once he had finished, his workspace consisted of the open sleek black laptop—which he had successfully logged into—the USB-C computer mouse connected to it via its drive, the trackpad-like device wired to one of the outlets on the laptop's right edge, and the drone, sitting to the laptop's left, with the red dust vial still in its slot.

Oh, darn it! Herman remembered internally. I forgot something!

He headed back to his backpack and took out a pair of purple, latex-free nitrile gloves to safely handle the red dust vial, just in case it was some kind of hazard that reacted negatively with skin.

Then, he got to work.

Before taking the dust out of the vial—which he decided he would only do if absolutely necessary—he opened Microsoft OneNote on his laptop to record any potential observations, then started his analysis by examining the vial in which the dust had come in. He noted the number below the barcode, typed down the serial number present on the glass, and lightly flicked the surface of said glass to see if the dust would react. Keeping the vial covered for the time being, he also shook it gently, and also overturned it a few times.