Harness has a lot going on beneath that huge armored appearance. She uses an energy tether as a whip or leash, and her A.I.M. battlesuit gives her enhanced strength, protection,…

Harness has a lot going on beneath that huge armored appearance. She uses an energy tether as a whip or leash, and her A.I.M. battlesuit gives her enhanced strength, protection, weapons, and teleportation equipment. The tether is important to how she controls Gilbert, while the armor lets her fight off people trying to interfere. The armor gives her enough firepower to occupy several heroes while Gilbert is doing the actual collecting. It also makes the relationship look even more uneven. She's protected inside this heavily armed suit while the child beside her is physically swelling with energy he can barely hold. Harness is involved in an operation organized by people who want to reconstruct Proteus. She has support, technology, and hired muscle around her. Gilbert gets very little say in any of it. When he struggles, she punishes him. When the process hurts, she pushes him onward. Then the story makes it clear that she is his mother. That changes how the earlier scenes read. This is somebody who already has authority over him before you even get to the weapon she uses to enforce it. He is dependent on the same person who is treating his suffering as an inconvenience. You can defeat her armor and stop her from shooting at everyone, but that doesn't automatically undo what she's already done to Gilbert. By the time the heroes get that opportunity, his condition has become a separate emergency.