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Walk by BatRou-Dawg
Misc » Book X-overs Rated: M, English, Supernatural, Words: 110k+, Favs: 19, Follows: 24, Published: Aug 12, 2023 Updated: Aug 14, 2023
3Chapter 45
January,21 2011 Saturday Brockton Bay, Briefing room 6, PRT building. 11:11pm.
Emily Piggot looked through the contents of the folders that Mr. Hebert had brought with him. She glanced up to the man looking him over a moment, he was some where in his late thirties to mid forties slight bald spot on his head, glasses that looked like the sort you could put side shields on to make them functional safety glasses.
He had a thick mustache and about a week or two of stubble. His clothing was worn but functional, and he was still wearing a hi vis vest, likely called in from work, which should have said something about his home life, though he also looked like he hadn't slept at all and the odor about him let her know he probably hadn't showered. A credit to him were the multiple calls to the police and the school about Taylor not coming home Friday.
The police took notes and filed a missing persons report, though they didn't seem to act on it, and the school had pretty much ignored all his calls from what he said. He had gone out himself to try and find his daughter, getting a number of his friends and coworkers to help, it was only his lack of a cell phone that had kept him from being here sooner as he had to go home to hear any messages left. He had called back perhaps fifteen minutes after Taylor had called and had taken the time to get his people to stop the search for her saying she was found and alright.
That he could mobilize and de-mobilize what amounted to nearly every union in the city in less than an hour was a terrifying thought.
Emily also took note that despite him looking like a wreck of a office worker, his hands were calloused and there was a wiry muscle in the man.
She was going to need to make sure he was sated or there might be a situation in which they never found 'all' of the body of those who did this to his daughter.
As she read on the paperwork she was offered Taylor had also told her a story.
A story about a return from summer camp, an abandoned friendship and a bullying campaign that went on and on. Emily was not happy to find out that Hess was part of it, looking over the files it seemed she was mostly the muscle and after a time even Taylor took note that unless the other two girls were directing her she didn't care anything about Taylor.
Still when Sophia transferred Taylor thought she would get some breathing room for once. And it seemed that she had been correct, the entirety of December aside from some basic easily ignorable chatter from some of the other girls, no one bothered her.
She claimed she should have known it was setting up for something . When she opened her locker to put her books away on Friday afternoon, she found her locker had been splattered with filth, though she only had a moment to stare at it before she was shoved into the locker from behind by whom she assumed was Emma, Madison, and some other girls.
While she was inside there she heard her locker being taped up, and then the top of the locker was opened and some sort of foul sludge was dumped on her before another bucket was dropped on the half shelf to leak on her head. She screamed clawed and struggled only to be unable to move and the last clear thing she recalled was Emma telling her to enjoy her weekend before she and some others laughed and left.
That story had everyone in the room on edge. Aegis was tensed as if he wanted to go drag the girls to jail by their hair. Miss Militia's weapon shifted to what Emily was certain was some sort of flamethrower judging by the tank on it. Renick was tensed up and Emily herself wanted to hurt someone herself.
Alucard however made some sort of pity comment. Emily couldn't even recall what it was as a moment after he made it Mr. Hebert rose from his chair in a surprising display of speed, punched Alucard in the face hard enough to rock his head back and send his glasses flying.
In the silence that followed with even Alucard too shocked by the attack to say anything, Daniel Hebert went on a vitriol rage filled rant in a way that only dock workers and sailors knew how to do. Miss Militia had taken a moment in the rant to cover Aegis' ears while Taylor just hid her face in her hands and looked embarrassed.
When he finally calmed down Emily had simply nodded, told Alucard to shut the hell up and continued to read as if nothing had happened.
It wasn't as if the vamperic idiot hadn't deserved it after all. And she knew that sort of thing only made Alucard MORE likely to be an ass if his interest was up in something.
Surprisingly aside from smiling creepily at Mr. Hebert, he was silent.
The documents themselves were damming in more ways than one. Emails, phone transcripts, notes, actual filed police reports for stolen or damaged property. Emily was getting more and more pissed the more she read. Some things were just notes about what happened like diary entries, the official documents were much more damming as were the email print outs. Still a skilled lawyer could have most of this thrown out, if not for the end result of tonight.
One thing Emily was doing as she looked over everything was was keeping a tally.
How many times Hess did something got a mark, how many times Blackwell did nothing, or punished Taylor were marked, how often the teachers didn't do anything was marked, she was particularly interested in this Gladly fellow, what Taylor said about him hinted at a classic 'grades for sex' sort of thing.
In the end looking at her tally mark she was not happy with all the marks by Hess' name, though surprisingly it was far less than the other girls names and even some of the faculty.
Emily even asked about that as in the end of the folders notes there was very little about Hess and Taylor admitted that Hess had started to ignore her to the point that she almost counted their shared gym class as a safe area, unless it was dodge ball day, but no one was safe from Hess on dodge ball day.
Director Piggot set down the folder and rubbed her eyes, in the course of her life she had seen some shit, and aside from Ellisburg, this topped all of it.
The level of apathy and cruelty and simple disregard was the sort of bullshit that lead to an ending like a Steven King novel.
What sort of brain dead half wits let this sort of thing happen in a world where the worse day of some ones life could given them fucking super powers?
There had to be more to it than this, there had to be a reason, because a perfect storm of bull shit focused on one girl? Those were very very long odds, not impossible, and judging by Armsmaster and Dragon's findings Taylor was not likely the only victim, just the one who got it the worst due to the trio as Taylor called them.
Whelp time to fix that, or at least try, it was fairly clear the girl expected nothing to be done about this, or expected to be punished given how she was flinching and trying to hide in on herself. Emily had seen that before when Amy had misbehaved, though never to the extent she was seeing here.
"Alright Mister and Miss Hebert. Given the time and everything else I'm going to need both of you to sign this." Emily offered as Renick handed the pair a single sheet of paper each.
Daniel looked at the paper and frowned flipping it over. "This is it?"
"For the moment."
"This just says if anything discussed inside this room is discussed outside of it without the appropriate level of paperwork filed 'we will own you like a bubblegum trading card'." Daniel frowned.
"Yes. It's an official Mouse Protector NDA form. And despite the simplistic nature of it, it is shockingly legal and very binding." Renick stated as he offered both of them pens. "We use it for basic NDA purposes. It's mostly a basic protection for sensitive materials on the rare occasions when something like that needs to be discussed before a lawyer can be brought in."
"In this case a Wards invite. And a discussion of what will be happening." Emily continued.
"Wait you want me in the Wards? With Hess?" Taylor nearly snarled.
"SHADOW STALKER." Emily quickly corrected."... is not your concern at the moment Taylor, she is already on punishment detail and be assured she will not have a happy time because of her part in this. But I will point out that you and your father have attacked two Wards and a Protectorate member tonight."
"He deserved it." Daniel grumbled glaring at Alucard who made kissy face at him.
"I agree. As did Stalker, and I'm willing to forgive the attack on Aegis due to the situation and that there was no harm done. Right?" Emily asked the red clad boy who nodded.
"This seems to be entrapment." Daniel frowned.
"It's not. You are welcome to refuse the offer and go along with your lives, we even have a packet for surviving as a Case 13 that we will give you for free should you choose to do so. However, there are three things that you will be doing. And they are non negotiable." Emily stated.
"The first is that you will stay here the night and be monitored Taylor. Your father is welcome to stay, or run home and get a change of clothes and anything you need and stay as well.
We have a few unused rooms that are set up for overnight guests. NOT cells I will point out before you get worried. The second thing is that in the morning you are going to do power testing.
This is to find out what sort of Case 13 you are. I expect you're close to what Alucard is. It's documented that trigger events can and do draw something from nearby capes when they happen, you were close to Alucard and Aegis so we want to know what you can do. And finally if you are a Case 13 like Alucard you will need to have mandatory training with him in order to control your abilities, whether you become a Ward or not."
Aegis turned quickly to look at Emily then to Alucard, though he wisely kept his mouth shut.
"That is an awful lot that's mandatory." Taylor muttered.
"You are in a very interesting situation. Now would you like to hear the Wards pitch?" Emily smiled.
" Umm." Taylor looked at her dad who let out a sigh.
"We can at least hear it." Daniel offered.
"There are several Wards packages available. Though these are the ones we feel the most likely that will suit best in this situation." Renick offered handing another set of papers to the Heberts who started looking them over, Taylor was the first to notice one of the important parts.
"That is a lot of zeros." Taylor blinked.
"That is a yearly before taxes. It is also a STARTING Wards wage. Half of it will be put into an account that you can access fully once you turn 18 either for college or for anything else.
The account will also accrue interest as long as it is untouched, if you decide to go into the protectorate when you come of age , there is another signing bonus plus whatever increases you make as a Ward on top of being bumped up to base protectorate pay.
Also included are a full paid transfer to Arcadia, though you will need to keep your grades up.
A percentage of merchandise sales, talk show and interview fees full government medical dental and optical as well as retirement benefits that can be expanded to cover family as well as the Ward in question, a flat 20 hour work week barring emergencies a 401k as well as a slew of other benefits cover in the packages there." Renick rattled off.
"This sounds too good to be true, which likely means it is." Daniel offered making Emily smile.
"At no point did we say it was going to be easy or completely safe but depending on how Taylor tests tomorrow the pay scale may only go up and some food budget issues may need to be addressed." Emily explained.
"As for the other issues I would suggest you speak with Aegis and perhaps Druid about some of the downsides. Keep in mind that despite what the media likes to portray, only 1 in five hundred people even have the ability to trigger, and of those only one in ten actually trigger. So yes, we very much want to bring everyone in we can."
"Wow." Daniel whistled still looking at the papers.
"Now then there is one more down side that I want you to know before you continue to think this is too good to be true. If you do join you may still need to work with Shadow Stalker." Emily stated.
"WHAT!?" Taylor growled.
"All of the dates you have listed for things she has done happened before I arrived here and should have been addressed by my predecessor. Do not get me wrong, heads will roll and unless Stalker can convince me other wise hers will be one of them. But from my understanding since I informed her of her of her situation she has indeed toed the line."
"So what she's going to get off scott free after all this?" Taylor snapped only to trail off a Emily Piggot grinned, it was the sort of grin that often had small birds flitting between the teeth while the owner basked on a warm river bank.
"Oh no. she is not getting out of it. She and I are going to have a long talk and if I do not like what she has to say she's going to be someone elses problem, but even if she remains she will be punished . To start with a percentage of her saved pay will be removed and added to the training budget for you even if you do choose not to join the Wards.
Telling you that if you join that you will still need to deal with her is my way of simply letting you know in advance. There are other Wards that she does not get along with and we do our best to keep them apart on patrols and the like. It is hardly unprecedented given some power reactions, but the main thing is I want you to know now before you may join to avoid any issues later. "
Taylor glared at her, and Emily returned the look impassively, Taylor looked away first.
"Now then.." Emily stated having felt her phone vibrate while she was talking, she drew it out and tapped a response to the guard outside." There is one more benefit to Wards application that I think you may have quite the vested interest in."
"And what is that?" Daniel Hebert asked as the door opened behind them.
"A full legal team representing ours and your interests." Emily stated gesturing to the door.
Turning the Heberts were greeted to the sight of a tall blond woman, her green eyes swept the room the light glinting off them making them look like they burned with embers like on the end of a cigarette. She wore a long ash gray jacket paired with a short dress skirt and a pair of high heeled shoes that looked like they could be used as bladed weapons if need be.
She raised a hand adjusting the edge of her suit jacket as everyone looked to her, her finger nails catching the light and shining like that old cartoon about moon justice or whatever it was.
"My apologizes for only now arriving , I was working late on another case." The woman spoke, her voice dark like tinted glass. "My name is Jessica D'liss I am the head of the legal department for the PRT ENE. You must be the Herberts."
"Hebert." Taylor auto corrected before catching herself.
"Hebert then. I have gone over the information that was sent to me I have one question for both of you."
"What is it?" Daniel asked.
Jessica smiled. It was a very nice smile that worked well for her pretty face, though when coupled with the look in her eyes it made most of those in the room flinch and made Alucard start to drool.
"How many Caribbean islands were you looking to purchase with your settlement?"
[?]
"Well that was unexpected."
"Not terribly. After all it was why we picked such a place and it seemed like it is indeed possible to artificially create a cape. Honestly I thought it would be another who triggered, the Hebert girl had withstood a lot over the year and with the removal of the Ward I expected the other girl to snap."
"Still six trigger events since this experiment began. I would say that it is quite enough proof we can do something with it."
"I still find it odd they have to be natural crisis points for any powers to be gained. This would be so much easier in a lab."
"In either case we gained five of the six, the vampire being there complicated our collection of the last one. But with the PRT paying attention now, the order has come, this experiment is over."
"Pity there we so many more promising ones."
"I think we may be able to snag one or two more. The conditions might improve, but not swiftly and more may indeed trigger. Still we need to get to work."
"Indeed. Gladly knows to much, pity he will be involved in a mugging gone wrong."
"Yes, we should leave Blackwell and her assistant however, neither of them know enough to point at us and I expect Blackwell will sing when pressed and point out she was paid by a man she thought was a Nazi."
"That's what racism and bigotry will get you, not all Germans are Nazis. What of the agent?"
"Already dealt with. Suicide by PRT officer, he's been warned and is ready to try and run and defend himself. The armaments we provided should be enough that they will need to shoot to kill, or the idiot will blow himself up, either way the weapons trace back to the merchants and it's not our problem."
"So all is going as planned."
"As God intended."
"Amen."
[Space]
Despite being serene and motionless curled up in a ball of her wings, the Simurgh was busy.
Things had escalated quite interestingly and in a way she hadn't needed to nudge or shift at all. That there was a new abomination in the world was worrying, yet also somewhat hopeful. While she doubted this sort of thing would do much to free her or stop the cycle, it would keep Alucard busy. Hopefully too busy to keep sending her PHO account Dick picks.
What the hell was she going to do with 30 gigs of tiny antelope, and Richard Nixon jpegs any way?
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Walk by BatRou-Dawg
Misc » Book X-overs Rated: M, English, Supernatural, Words: 110k+, Favs: 19, Follows: 24, Published: Aug 12, 2023 Updated: Aug 14, 2023
3Chapter 46
January, 22nd 2011 Sunday Brockton Bay, PRT building. 2:53am.
To be Taylor, is to suffer.
This was a thought that ran through her mind as she lay in the surprisingly comfortable bed staring at the flat gray ceiling of the room she was in.
Director Piggot hadn't lied, this certainly wasn't a cell, it was more like a moderate priced hotel room with two beds, a small kitchen, and a full bath. Her dad had run back home gathered up a number of things she asked for and a change of clothing himself before coming back to the building. He had actually been driven there by the PRT as no one wanted someone as exhausted as he was to drive home on his own.
He was currently in the bed next to her snoring like a jet engine.
True suffering.
How had mom been able to stand it?
Taylor herself wasn't in the slightest bit tired, she was actually kinda jittery, it felt like the one time she had tried one of those energy drinks some people seemed to live on.
Running through her mind were a million things. She didn't trust Director Piggot, everything she said seemed far too much like the woman was used to being in control and felt like everyone else should just follow suit. She didn't think the woman was bad per-say, but she reminded Taylor of some of the teachers in Winslow the ones that thought students were there to shut up and do what they were told.
She wasn't sure if that was fair to the woman or not, their first encounter was a bit friendlier than the pitch meeting. The woman said she wasn't going to press charges for any of the attacks though Taylor wondered if that was a 'not pressing charges if she joined the Wards' or an actual 'not pressing charges'.
The rest of it seemed nice, and the fact Miss D'liss would offer advice to them if they wanted, and suggestions for other lawyers to try if she decided not to join the Wards. There were decidedly mixed signals here, and Taylor was still trying to unpack everything that had happened up to this point.
She was pretty sure she had died and some strange voice and noises kept bringing her back while she was in the locker. Then it went silent save for a voice she now recognized as Alucard's though she didn't know what he was saying. Then she woke up sitting in Aegis' lap with her teeth buried in his neck.
Shit escalated from there.
She was brought here checked over, cleaned up, then found out that Sophia fucking Hess was a Ward. A Ward she might well have to work with.
She was of two minds about that. On one hand she could test tomorrow and wind up being much more powerful than Hess and maybe use that to get the girl thrown in jail or something.
On the other hand she couldn't muster the hate for her like she had earlier. Oh she really wanted to punch the girl in the face, but that anger had burned off and now like with Emma she just wanted to know why. There was no closure with Emma no reason for why she turned on her. Madison she could kinda understand as she was a yes man or woman depending, who just did what the other two wanted. Sophia though, she wasn't sure why that girl did what she did, particularly if she was supposed to be a hero.
Heroes didn't beat up random people for no reason, they didn't make their lives hell for nothing.
Taylor sighed getting out of bed and making her way to the door. Maybe she could walk up and down the hall a little burn off some of this energy, she didn't think what ever guard was outside would have issues with that.
Opening the door she peered out into the hall, looking to the left there were about six more rooms before the hall ended in a wall. Stepping out to look to the right there were two more rooms and a L turn that led to the elevators. At the end of the hall she could see a chair propped up against the far side of the L with what looked like a teenager sitting in it.
Taylor blinked as she walked down the hall a little closer, pausing as she realized she looked under dressed in a pair of sweatpants and an old t-shirt of her dads that was several sizes too big. Though before she could slip back into the room the teen in the chair looked up to focus on her and looked down the hall he had black hair cut close to his head and a darker skin tone, he was also wearing a disposable domino mask like the one she had been given and a rust red and silver t-shirt with the front of it designed to look like the front of Aegis' armor.
"Hey Taylor, can't sleep?" He offered before waving her towards him and setting the laptop to the side.
She considered a moment, looking back into the room as another rumble of a chainsaw sounded from her dad before she winced and closed the door behind her walking barefoot down the hall with more than a little worry.
The teen was seated next to a small table with his laptop, some hand held game console thing and a small stack of energy drinks, most of which were empty.
He gestured to another chair on the other side of the table or the couch in front of the elevators nearby it as both were encompassed in the same gesture. He then took a sip out of one of the cans and picked the laptop back up and started typing away again.
"Surprised to see you up this late after everything you've gone through." The boy offered . "Hell of a day all around."
"You can say that.." Taylor glanced to the energy drinks, and the empty cans. "Those things will kill you..."
"Bah everyone says that, I'm fine."
"You're awake at three am."
"So are you. Besides it's the weekend, you're supposed to stay up late."
"Did you hear my dad?"
"They can probably hear your dad at the Boardwalk." he smirked. " I used to drink grape Nos, but turned out Vista liked the taste of them too and after a rather intense couple of days I switched to these, she hates the taste of these."
"Okay... so what, are you here to stop me from leaving?" Taylor frowned.
"Do I look like I'm geared to stop you from leaving?" he asked looking up over the top of his screen.
"Not really?" Taylor added hesitantly.
"If you leave I just call it in. Most that will be done is they'll have some one follow you or try to convince you leaving is a bad idea, no ones gonna flat out stop you unless you look like you're going to hurt yourself. The Director might have said the testing and staying here is mandatory, but I'm pretty sure if you wanted to leave they'd let you. I'm here cause I agreed to stick around and talk if you needed it. Druid is already pushing her hour limit for this week and Clockblocker should not be left alone to answer any questions for anyone ever. Took me a week to convince Spitfire half the things he said were bullshit."
"Okay... and you are?"
"Huh? Oh … I guess I do look different without my armor. I'm Aegis."
Taylor blinked at that and turned her head as she felt her face flush recalling how she had been in his lap earlier. All the shit that had happened to her today and that was what her brain focused on, stupid gray ball of salt and fat.
She moved to take a seat on the couch a bit further away from him, feeling far more self conscious now, despite the fact his attention was back on the screen. It didn't seem like he was ignoring her as when she spoke he looked to her to talk, but he also seemed focused on the screen when she wasn't talking allowing her to set the pace of the conversation if she wanted.
"So. Director Piggot suggested you might have some questions, so long as it's not classified stuff, I'm allowed to answer them." Aegis finally spoke for himself in the lull of conversation.
Taylor frowned thinking on it a moment of silence, Aegis simply continuing to tap away at his laptop before taking another sip of his drink. Taylor was starting to realize that if he drank that many of those things and she drank his blood it was no wonder she was so wide awake.
"Why is Sop... Shadow Stalker here?"
Aegis lifted his head and considered. "She was a vigilant who went too far one night and was caught. She was given the choice of joining the Wards or being sent off to Juvie, she chose the Wards. She's... difficult to say the least. Clock hates her, Vista isn't fond of her, Gallant tolerates her somehow and I have to being the Wards leader. The only one I know is on good terms with her is Druid, and Druid is on good terms, terrifies, or both, everyone."
"She seemed pretty nice to me."
"Oh she's a sweetheart. Until she isn't." Aegis smirked. " Her cat is a friendly thing too, especially if you have food."
"Cat?"
"You haven't met Apocalypse Meow?"
"That's a name?"
"Yup."
"I don't think I have..."
"Trust me if you meet her, you don't forget it. She usually follows Druid around everywhere."
"As to the why of her being here I can't tell you. Not that I can't can't but that I don't know. She's not a good team mate but she is a skilled Ward, she's also improved a bit in the last month or so but that's probably due to Druid's interactions with her, or the Director, trust me, don't listen to Alucard, Assault, Clock, or Mouse, you do not want the Director mad at you, if Stalker had anything to do with last night we won't be seeing her again. I know the director had a word with her earlier and I could hear the yelling from here."
Taylor was silent for a time and Aegis didn't press her, though he spared a few glances her way.
"So, what's it like being a Ward?" Taylor finally asked.
Aegis stopped typing again and stared at the screen a moment before looking her way. "I take you don't want the PR friendly answer?"
"Not... really?"
Aegis nodded. "It's a job. It's a fun job at times but in the end it is still a job. Simple as that, we get paid we get benefits and we have long boring meetings. We have coworkers we like and don't like. Like a really weird 9-5 job at a cubicle farm." Aegis offered, though he smiled. "We also get to be heroes and help people out. It's usually small stuff, to us Wards anyway. Stopping a mugger, a shoplifter, returning a stolen purse.
It often seems like a simple thing to you, probably just need to grab a guy and hold him before he runs off, give back what was stolen and that takes maybe ten minutes tops plus police statement.
But to the person who lost that wallet or purse, it could be their paycheck, their rent or car payment, their ids and credit cards, photos of their kids who might be moved or passed, heck the purse or wallet might an heirloom or a gift, something that would devastate them to lose.
You never know. What seems small to you is the world to them. So even the small things add up, and it's training for the Protectorate so you can go out and do more, help more people."
Taylor blinked.
"Sorry that might have seemed a bit preachy, but it is true. I've got to learn to be better to help more people." He lifted the laptop as if gesturing with it. "It's why I'm tracking down as many classes as I'm allowed to try and get EMT training. The half class of CPR didn't cut it today... well yesterday now." Aegis frowned. " I didn't know how to help and I don't plan on letting that happen again if I have any way to fix it."
Taylor curled her legs up against her chest as she sat back on the couch.
"Thanks for that..."
Aegis looked over to her and smiled. "You're welcome, I'm glad I could help you, it's what heroes are supposed to do."
Earlier in the night
"Wake her up."
"Did you leave your gun at your desk?"
"No."
"Give it here."
"What?"
"Your gun mom, gimmi it. I know how you get and I don't want the med bay shot up, or Stalker."
"I'm not going to shoot the girl, that's what the taser is for."
"Mooooooommmmmmmmm..."
"It will be fine, besides shooting her would just end it quicker, I need answers and right now Hess is the best way to get them. Honestly I would prefer you head out for the night too. You're at your hour limit for the week, and no you cannot just hang around until they reset in an hour or so. Go home get some sleep and feed the cat. Where is Pocky any way?"
"Probably hiding, she took off running the moment she saw Taylor." Druid sighed. " She's probably begging for scraps in the cafeteria right now though."
"How did she even get access to those floors she doesn't have thumbs to type in the required codes or a badge to scan."
"She's a cat."
"Fair enough. Wake her up and go home, I want you back here around ten for the power testing, you've got more experience with figuring out Alucard than any one else, I want you to watch over Hebert."
"Don't be too hard on her mom. She has improved."
"I know, I've seen the reports. But this is a pretty big thing."
"Yeah. Okay she'll be waking up in about five, goodnight mom. You should get some sleep too."
"Goodnight Amy, I'll try but no promises."
To be Sophia was to suffer.
It wasn't the first thought in her mind as she woke up but it was pretty high up there, her head hurt, her mouth tasted like shit and she was pretty sure she was developing a cramp.
This had been a rather shitty couple of months truth be told. Yanked from her school and her friends... well Emma was a friend any way, and dropped into a new school with a sword at her neck to take her out if she fucked up. But that was fine, she'd laid low before, bid her time and came back harder than ever once the threat cleared, like a stalking cat.
Except this time it was a little different. And she could place all of that on Druid, or Amy Piggot, whichever. The girl was like a freaking limpet staying close to her, talking, ignoring most of Sophia's usual attitude, and acting like they were friends, even if they were across the mat from one another, and no matter which of them wound up on it at the end.
Amy was a force of personality that was rather hard to ignore and after a month of this she found she was actually kind of enjoying it.
The girl had a strong interest in biology which actually meshed fairly well with Sophia's own interests. How the damn girl had gotten her desire to be a zoo keeper when she was younger out of her Sophia would never know, but it started down a long path of conversation that in the end had Sophia actually petting that freaking massive tiger of hers.
That cat was beautiful and Sophia wanted her own so bad she could taste it.
Still by the start of January she realized she was settling into her illusion of being normal. Amy wasn't like Emma. She didn't want anything from her, didn't ask her to do things or target people, it was... different. When she switched to Renik's rescue hero thing she expected to hate it, there was no hunting, no stopping bad guys it was just saving weak prey from stupid stuff, some of it they likely did on their own.
Then Amy had pointed out wombats helping other animals during the Australian wild fires.
Sophia had countered that with the information that many animals already used the wombats massive burrows as shelter and the wombats just didn't care, they didn't herd anything.
Amy then switched gears and brought up dogs and wolves raising other animals that were lost and abandoned.
She had countered that with a comment about material instincts and emergency rations.
Amy then pointed out that the most dangerous predator in the world was several tons and ate plants.
Sophia had no idea where Amy was going with bringing up hippos, so she let her rant.
In the end the girl had some how worked into Sophia's mind that some times a sheep dog was needed to take out the wolves and protect the flock.
And so Sophia was sent out to save people.
She couldn't say she actually enjoyed it as much as hunting, but there was a great deal more action than a normal patrol, lot more paperwork too.
Of course there was being side kicked to Mouse Protector, which was it's own version of hell.
Suffering indeed.
But oddly after the fire tonight, Sophia was in a pretty good mood, maybe there was something to this after all, school hadn't been that bad, she wasn't stupid she just didn't care in Winslow because she was on track and she would pass no matter if she did anything or not so long as she kept running and winning.
Now she actually had to learn things. She hated that, though Amy kinda made it tolerable.
Then Herbert had been in the Wards room. And everything went to shit again.
"Don't try to pretend to still be asleep, you're not a good enough actor."
Yup, this was gonna suck.
"Gimmi a minute my head hurts."
"Here. Water and a Aspirin. " Emily offered tapping a rolling tray next to the bed. "Take it and drink fast because I have questions and you are going to answer them."
"Actually gonna ask what happened instead of just taking Herbert's word and shipping me off?"
"She has full documentation and checking your phone, and school computer records was easy and proof that at least your part of those emails was true. "
"Figures that stupid would come back on my ass." Sophia muttered sitting up to take the pill and down the glass in a few gulps. She considered running, just dropping into her breaker and shooting through the wall, there was a window on the other side of the Director, no wall outlets, probably clear. She dropped that line of thought, she was good, but this was an angry mama Kodiak before her and she wasn't about to make any sudden movements.
"So first question is simply why."
"Why what? Why do all that shit to Herbert? No idea. Emma was so set in putting her in her place I didn't even bother asking why."
"Emma Barnes?"
"Yeah."
"And I expect you're going to try and point out how it was all Emma and you're sorry?"
"Nah."
"Excuse me?"
"Yeah well okay going after Herbert that was Emma's thing, but it ain't like I questioned it. At first I was all for it, wanted to see what she would do when she broke, I figured she'd beat the shit out of Emma and I'd see which one of them was the bigger predator, but she never did she just fucking turtled up and never did anything back. A total waste of time.
No idea how she got in here, but fuck that was something to see, those teeth, fucking great white right there... hmmm nah, she went after me, more a bull shark, great whites are just big and scary not nearly as bad as a bull and that girl wanted my head."
Emily raised an eyebrow, this was not how she expected this to go at all.
"You are rather forth coming on all this."
"What's the point of lying, I'm fucked. Ain't like Emma's dads gonna get me out of this one, hell I don't even know what she's doing, girl ain't called me since early December and didn't answer the one time I called her for Christmas. If Herberts here she's probably told you all the shit that went down and I was already up a shit creek with you ready to take me out back and cap me like Old Yeller why the fuck would I even try to lie or hide this shit?"
"On that you are correct. I would still love more than anything else to dump you some where to be some one elses problem, and I might get that wish too, but unfortunately for me, that is out of my hands." Emily grumbled.
"You see I promised you that if you screwed up from this point on I would end you. And from that point on while you have been far from an exemplary Ward, or even a decent human being, you have toed the line to the point that if I did anything it would be seen as breaking my word, and getting rid of you is not worth anything that would happen if I did that."
Sophia blinked at the phrasing, her eyes drawn to the wall behind Piggot again, and the dark shape with red eyes sitting outside the window, with a fanged Cheshire grin.
Sophia shook her head and looked to the window again seeing nothing.
"So here is how this is going to work you are going to tell me everything, you are going to tell the officer I assign to you everything, we are going to investigate the shit out of everything and if I find you so much as looked at that locker you are gone. " Emily snarled. " Now then even if you are scott free from this event it's all going to come down to one thing, what Taylor Hebert wants.
She's going in for testing Sunday morning and if she can do even half of what I fear she can I will fucking give her your severed head on a gold platter if she asks for it to get her in the Wards. So from this point on your fate is in the hands of the girl you bullied, you better hope she's the forgiving sort, because I don't think her father is, so you better make a very sincere apology and pray it's enough."
"Nah."
"Excuse me?"
"I'm not apologizing. No point, even if I was sorry, which I'm not, she wouldn't believe it. Emma was really big into psychological crap. " Sophia explained considering a few things, she was so fucking hosed.
"So you're giving up?"
"Nah, but words don't mean shit. I got something better, might keep her from killing me at least." Sophia frowned, She was not the Alpha here, that much was true there were far too many big predators in this building. She was starting to feel less like a wolf and more like a Raccoon or some shit, still dangerous but not in a way that anyone really cared about, and still prey for far too many things.
"So what are you planning?"
"So look, like I said Emma did the psychological crap, and Herbert had this flute, I dunno what the deal with it is, I know that shits expensive, but that's about it. Anyway Emma has me steal the thing from Herbert's locker and then phase it into a gap just behind her locker in the cinder block wall. Something about it being so close but Herbert would never get it back amused the hell out of her. I can get that out and give it back to her, might be enough of a bribe, might not be. Shit's prolly dusty, but it's still in the case."
"Emma Barnes knows you're a cape?"
"Yeah I saved her and her dad from some gangers before I got conscripted here. Made friends with her after that. Wasn't long after that I first me Herbert, Emma was ranting on how strong she was, then when the girl showed up Emma just kinda changed her mind or something. Fuck if I know why, never bothered to ask."
"I want the whole story on this. Everything."
"Can I at least get another drink?" Sophia sighed this was gonna be a long night.
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Walk by BatRou-Dawg
Misc » Book X-overs Rated: M, English, Supernatural, Words: 110k+, Favs: 19, Follows: 24, Published: Aug 12, 2023 Updated: Aug 14, 2023
3Chapter 47
Brockton bay, Sunday evening.
The front door is all but kicked open as Emily Piggot stepped inside the house. Her eyes bloodshot with so many bags under them the TSA took an hour to check them in.
She barely managed to kick the door closed as she stumbled into the living room dropping her laptop and empty lunch bag in the middle of the floor as she staggered towards the couch.
A couch that had a very large green cat on it.
Pocky looked up at Emily.
Emily stared at Pocky.
"Move."
Pocky growled lightly.
Emily snarled back.
Pocky wisely hauled ass off the couch.
Emily took two steps and fell face first onto the couch with a whump.
Amy who had been sitting in the easy chair across the room watching this blinked lightly.
"Are you okay?"
Emily raised her hand slightly from where it lay on the floor, not having managed to make it fully on the couch before she dropped it again.
"Danny Hebert is a menace." Emily managed.
Sunday Morning. PRT HQ
"So what do we have?"James asked as he sat back in his chair looking out the heavily armored windows into the testing field where a tall lanky girl in jeans, a hoody, and a temporary mask was talking to Moon Dog and Druid.
"Well either she's sandbagging or she's a mini Alucard." The man in the lab coat to his left offered.
"Here's hoping it's the former Steve." A woman off to the side typing away at a keyboard like mad, offered.
"Steve, Alice, I want data not any 'this is like that', give me something.
"Well she's obviously a minor brute with regeneration. We can probably add a couple ranks of mover on her as well once she gets coordinated enough to get used to the new muscle she has any way." Steve offered.
"I'd put a few ranks of thinker on her too. During the gun tests and a the tinker testing it showed she has a rather surprising ability to multi task, in fact it seems to make things easier for her if she's focused on more than one thing at once. Firing guns akimbo, and putting things together, sure it was just the basic puzzles and not the tinker tech ones, but she put together three puzzles at the same time from the one jumbled box of pieces." Alice explained.
" So Brute 5, Mover 3, Thinker 3or 4?" James questioned.
"I'd go 4 for that akimbo thing. Sure she didn't hit anything when it was live fire, but when it was just the laser targeting she easily kept the grouping of both guns tight." Alice offered.
"That could just be lack of training though. I'd say 3 and review it later." Steve explained." We need some more specialized tests before we can be sure."
"Fair enough." Alice shrugged.
"So Brute 5, Mover 3 with the possibility of going higher with training, and Thinker 3, again with the possibility of going higher."James offered. "If she follows Alucard we're going to have to put a rank of Stranger on her as well, but that doesn't seem to be the case yet any way."
"Thank whatever gods are watching for that." Alice sighed.
"Well we've also cleared the Case 13 info. She is definitely a Case 13. Though not a traditional. She has no issue with Garlic, Silver, or seemingly anything with any religious symbolism aside from being confused by the colander."
"To be fair Druid and Moon Dog were also confused by the Colander." Alice offered.
"Pastafaranism is a valid religion." Steve huffed
"Anyway." James continued."The grave dirt thing still needs testing,but at least the sunlight is a no go."
"I find it very interesting as that lowers her brute rating to at best a two and nearly stops the regeneration, but aside from complaining she's tired she had no clear harmful effects." Steve pointed out. " That's gonna make her life much easier, at least if it wasn't for the diet."
"Given she was told by Alucard and it was confirmed by Druid she would need to drink blood to survive, I expected a little resistance from a fifteen year old." Alice shuddered.
"That she popped the bag and drank it down like it was a soda should say something for the girls mental state." James commented. "Though that may be the fact that she viewed it as 'just one more thing to deal with' worries me quite a bit."
"Recommend therapy is circled in big red loops already." Steve pointed out " Still with this power set, an offer to join the Wards is a given."
"Normally yes. But..." James frowned.
"The Master 4 rank." Alice nodded.
"Yep, and it's bugs. Bugs that if she focuses on she can control a few perfectly, but if she lets her emotions go." Steve shuddered." Well we all saw the video of her spat with Shadow Stalker."
"Words like 'Biblical', 'Plague' and 'Oh My god where's my E-pen' come to mind." Alice offered." Though most of those seemed to vanish when she was time stopped. A projection perhaps?"
"I would like further testing on that and given her other grab bag of powers we can get her to play down the bugs.. or maybe play up it? Ehhh whatever, that's PRs problem."James shrugged." I just need to send this up to the director, after that our jobs over."
"So Chinese for lunch?" Alice asked.
"Sounds good."
Directors office PRT building.
Director Emily Piggot knocked back another cup of fairly bog standard coffee and stared at the reports in front of her.
Something smelled funny in this. Three of those she wanted questioned for the Winslow situation were dead. One from an apparent mugging gone wrong which showed signs of the Merchants being involved. One from an evident heart attack, possibly caused by the fear of being investigated, and one who got into a shoot out with a PRT recovery team and managed to blow part of his own head off when the gun he was firing at the Troopers misfired so bad that the gun exploded and took part of him with it.
Once was coincidence, twice was unlucky, three times was a plot. Everyone else in the school staff had been rounded up this morning. VERY early this morning. If Emily wasn't allowed to sleep neither were those she was having questioned.
Armsmaster's team had uncovered... well, it basicly amounted to absolute insanity. There were maybe four or five decent employees in the entire staff of of the school, and one of them was a fucking lunch lady.
The computer studies teacher, the Art teacher, the lunch lady, the woman's gym coach, and MAYBE the janitor were clean, everyone else was absolutely fucked. Three of them had restraining orders from various or former students, one of them wasn't allowed within 100 yards of a school, two had warrants for them, one was a registered sex offender, and the damn school nurse had a certificate from a well known and denounced scam operation that gave out nursing and Doctorates like candy for a hundred bucks a pop.
This wasn't a school this was six monkeys in a trench coat pretending to be a day care.
And Blackwell KNEW ALL OF IT. She had the hiring and background records of all of them, she was also undercutting all of the teachers pay and pocketing the bonuses herself. Her secretary was doing much the same, but with school fundraisers and scholarship awards for various sports achievements. And both of them were dumb enough to leave paper trails that even their own students could follow.
Emily had already been on the phone with the Mayor and the school board this morning and she was tempted to skip all of them and bring the FBI into this cluster fuck. For right now those since this was a trigger event everything about it was all in her jurisdiction and she was going to enjoy destroying each and every one of these fuckers.
The coffee was doing piss all to keep her awake, what was driving her was the burning rage that this could have happened to Amy.
The class action lawsuit that was building was going to bankrupt the mayors office, the city, or any one else involved in this, and Emily found she didn't give a shit. The full list of things that Armsmaster's team had noticed that was wrong with the school building itself showed that there were bribes aplenty to inspectors.
She was still seething in rage when she got the results of Taylor Hebert's power testing.
That calmed her down some, she was calmed down further when the report made note that Taylor was willing to join the Wards with some conditions.
As she read the rest of the note dread began creeping in. As soon as the test was over Daniel' Call me Danny' Hebert had made some calls.
There were now four DWU lawyers sitting in a meeting room with him going over his and Taylor's options.
That was a meeting she and D'liss would need to attend soon.
The one silver lining was that the girls who put Taylor in that locker, that Taylor could name and Hess fingered. She had them collected at piss o'clock in the morning and they were currently sitting in a couple of cells in their PJs. Barnes had tried to start shit, he was given the warrant she wrote up for them as well as the charges and was then ignored as his daughter was hauled off screaming.
Hess had sung like a song bird and told her every damn thing, including where all the little 'trophies' Emma kept of things done to Taylor. All of it collected by the team she sent.
The Madison girl was grabbed as well, though she didn't have any obvious evidence of things that Hess knew about, but it seems the girl collected her own information to try and get away blameless, she ratted out the three others involved and offered recordings she took as evidence that she only played a minor part in the collecting the stuff. Seems her uncle was the butcher they gathered the offal from.
Not like that was going to save her scrawny ass either.
Hess had done her part and Armsmaster was able to recover the flute, using it as an excuse to test the inside of the walls for asbestos, which they found.
The flute was given back to Hebert after it was cleaned up along with the full run of what happened with it.
She had also seen Aegis's report on the conversation he had with the girl last night. She asked a few questions Emily had been afraid she would ask and according to the report Aegis answered them better than PR probably could have. He was probably the only reason she was agreeing to this with Hess still in the building.
Seriously she needed to find a way to reward the Wards, they were far more clever than any one gave them credit for.
Meeting room 7 PRT offices.
Danny Hebert had fucked up.
He knew he had fucked up, and he had fucked up in a glorious spectacular fashion.
He fully expected Annet to punch him in the balls several times when they again met in whatever afterlife there was.
In his fugue after she died he had all but forgotten he even had a daughter.
It had taken some serious work by Kurt and Lacey to snap him out of that. But by that point there was a rift between him and Taylor. He hadn't known about Emma, he hadn't known that sending Taylor to summer camp that year would be the thing that started that chain of events, at the time he just wanted to try and get her some where else while he tried to clean himself up.
He had managed that, barely, but he couldn't talk to her, that divide between them only seemed to grow, she never told him anything, and he didn't ask any hard questions or press, he simply buried himself in his work.
And now it had all come to a head, something he should have seen, that Annette would have seen. He at least had noticed she wasn't home when she was supposed to be and had set out to find her. With the police and the school not being helpful he called in some favors, but could only get about a hundred people to help look for her, even that was mostly Kurt's doing.
He hadn't even been the one to save her, that had been a Ward and some vampire acting fucker.
He wanted to punch the smug bastard in the face again, but every time he glared at the man he mad kissy faces back. Something was decidedly wrong with that guy.
Taylor had died. Then, she got better.
That was a shock in a half. His little girl was a cape.. and not only that a vampire, all because of her former best friend.
What the hell had even happened to Emma?
It was not something he wanted to know, it was not something he thought he ever would know even if he wanted.
He felt completely helpless at this point after being read in on Case 13s, learning that vampires were real and fought in World War 2 just made him realize how far out of his depth he was here.
He couldn't do anything for his little girl.
Or so he thought.
After the power testing she had told him that despite Shadow Stalker, she wanted to join the Wards, she wanted to be a hero.
Danny had failed thus far as a father and a protector of his little girl. He didn't have the pull he might have had twenty years ago, that could shut down the city, he didn't have super powers, or money to buy anything close to political power.
However, Danny Hebert did have a particular set of skills, skills that made him an absolute nightmare in one field of battle above all others.
He watched as Director Piggot, her Deputy Director and a pair of PRT Lawyers including Miss D'liss came into the room and took a seat at the table across from him.
He had made some calls and they had been answered. To his left was Alice Kismit, the DWU's copyright lawyer. Next to her was Gregory Parkson, the DWU's legal rep. On his other side were Marcus Finch, and Mary Helenbrook, the DWU's contract lawyers.
They were only there to point out anything he might miss.
Usually they were just paid to sit there with an air of menace while he negotiated.
Danny Hebert met the gaze of Director Piggot.
He might have failed his daughter thus far, but this was a contract negotiation for her future.
The PRT had no idea what it was getting into.
Present
"So how bad was it?" Amy asked curiously.
"Let me put it this way, I thought I did good with your contract... " Emily groaned. "I didn't manage to do shit."
"Owch."
"I am hiring that man when it comes time to renegotiate the contract when you turn 18." Emily stated only to let out a pained grunt as Pocky hopped over the back of the couch and dropped down on Emily's back.
Emily flailed her free arm a moment before giving up with a grumble as the massive green cat got comfortable sitting on her and started to purr.
Amy at least had the decency to try and stop herself from giggling.
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Walk by BatRou-Dawg
Misc » Book X-overs Rated: M, English, Supernatural, Words: 110k+, Favs: 19, Follows: 24, Published: Aug 12, 2023 Updated: Aug 14, 2023
3Chapter 48
Brockton Bay Wednesday, Wards area.
Dean Stansfield, or as he was known in the mask, Gallant, closed his eyes and leaned back in the recliner as the other Wards chattered and moved around their common area.
The emotional turmoil he felt from everyone was giving him a headache. He actually longed for the time later that night when it was just going to be him and Vicky going out to dinner.
He could tune everything out if he focused on one person, and Vicky was an easy emotional state to get lost in. He was familiar with it, the low level stress from her family, the basic joy from the pair of them doing anything together.
She enjoyed the calm as well with the chance to get out of her house, her mother knew he was from a rich family and grudgingly approved their dating, something that would likely change if she found out he was a Ward. Carol didn't like the Protectorate or the PRT for some reason.
Honestly given as soon as she would let him he planned to rescue her from that woman and whisk her away like a proper prince probably never crossed Carol's mind.
He could live with that though, even when he and Vicky argued due to his 'job' she was still a solid comfort emotionally and he was more than willing to help her any way he could.
The Wards room however...
Clockblocker was almost normal, that feeling of dread that had been filling his emotions since they first met was lessened mostly gone even, though there was a great deal of nervousness.
It was an emotion that spiked whenever he looked to Spitfire. If it wouldn't embarrass Spitfire he would so openly tease Clock for that.
It also swung into barely constrained fury when Clockblocker looked to the newest Ward, she hadn't come up with a name yet, but Dean knew the anger wasn't directed at the girl , but what Shadow Stalker had done to her.
Between this and the noodle incident one of them was going to need to be transferred to another team soon, and he doubted it would be Clock no matter what the higher ups thought of him.
Stalker herself could be felt elsewhere in the building, her potent blend of rage, haughtiness, and ego was something he could probably sense if she was on another planet.
The new Ward was a bit of an enigma, though he could sense a good bit of anger, there was also depression, and the feeling of being overwhelmed. No surprise on the last. Still all of them were muted to a degree he hadn't felt before, save with Alucard.
That was odd for a trigger, but given Aegis said he and Alucard were nearby when she triggered maybe she picked up something more than just a brute rating. He would need to tell Mouse protector about that and pass it up the chain to the Director.
Vista was... well if she was here, she would likely be trying not to stare at him with little hearts floating around her head. She only had that, anger and frustration for as long as he had known her.
Spitfire was , amused. There was a lot of worry in her, but a fondness he was feeling that seemed to be ... directed at Clock? Well that was interesting. Maybe he should try to do like Vicky sometimes did with people and set the pair of them up.
Aegis was also amused and proud of something, every time he looked over at the new ward acting normal or opening up. Hmm, he recruit her after all so if she was a valuable assent that would be a feather in his cap.
Druid was... worrying. There was a great deal of amusement and cheer with the girl, but there was a darkness about her too a blend of anger, sadness, and annoyance, which while it wasn't much it was there below the bubbly cheerful personality she put forward.
Normally that was about average for a teenager, but Druid was the daughter of the Director and a very powerful cape. She might get away with far more than she should before she was stopped if she developed any issues or let her anger get the best of her.
She also swore a lot more than he expected the daughter of the director to do.
Granted the director swore a lot too.
Then there was Pocky or Apocalypse Meow when she was in costume.
That cat was a nightmare.
Not because she was a bad kitty or because of anything she did, but because Clockblocker had been right and now the world thought Pocky and Apocalypse Meow were two separate creatures.
It should not have worked like that, no one should have been that stupid and yet here it was a month later and everyone was eating up that the same giant green cat was two different ones.
How?
I mean sure it was amusing, Clockblocker had set up the account with the cat here, Verified her and then gave the Wards the password for the cat so that they could post things for her from different locations.
Meanwhile the non hero Pocky was seen a few times with Amy, and was even brought to the school one time and explained to everyone how she was a tinker's project they adopted from the shelter. All true, just leaving out Amy was the tinker.
There were already torrid love stories about Pocky and Apocalypse meow meeting. Almost as many as were about him and Gallant. Why some one would think the high profile rich kid and the Ward should hook up like that was beyond him.
He wasn't even gay! Everyone knew Dean was dating Victoria Dallon and yet that either wasn't addressed or she was made evil after she finally gained powers or something. Though he was pretty sure Vicky had written at least one of those, and he was certain Clockblocker had.
He worried about her in truth. Vicky was just a normal girl with a super powered family, sure she was the most popular girl in school, but due to her family being New Wave and her being the only member of the family without powers some people knew her as Bait Girl Barbie, given she had been kidnapped at least twice by some one New Wave pissed off.
The first time the Empire 88 destroyed the man much as they had done with the man who tried to kill her uncle. The second time was how he had met her, on one of his first Ward patrols at that.
It had amusingly gone from there. Still they had their off an on again moments. Vicky could be temperamental and the pair of them did argue and break it off sometimes, but they always got back together again.
Thankfully that hadn't happened for a while, and he was quiet willing to enjoy it as she spent more time with him after being stuck with the rest of her family for the holidays.
PRT Building.
" So what's the plan today kiddo?" Danny Hebert asked his daughter as the pair of them were guided by a PRT officer down the hall of the building.
"According to my paperwork, costume and name design with the PR department. We're going to be meeting some one named Glenn Chambers who is evidently the department head?" Taylor offered.
"Huh. This will be interesting. Given any thought to a name yet?" Danny asked still feeling well out of his depth here, but Taylor wanted him to come along , so he was.
"A little bit. I did have a two hour argument with Alucard about the names. He wanted me to be called Renfield because I had all the small life. " Taylor growled.
"That's the guy from Dracula right?"
"Yeah, the mind slave."
"Ahh. Alucard is... interesting." Danny trailed off as the officer with them snorted in amusement or disbelief at that statement.
The officer stopped suddenly and saluted.
"Ma'am." he stated.
"At ease. " Director Piggot offered weaving her hand, the other holding a black duffle bag. "Jones, take Taylor up to the break room before PR get a couple bottles of water and some snacks, their meeting will probably take a while. I need to speak with Mr. Hebert here a moment."
"Yes ma'am." The officer nodded and continued walking guiding Taylor along who looked back at them curiously before they rounded the corner.
"So what did you need?" Danny asked curiously wondering why the Director of all people was here to meet them. He felt the woman wanted to strangle him after the way their negotiations went despite her pleasantries.
"You know what this is?" She asked pulling open the duffle bag and pulling out a double barrel shotgun.
"A shotgun...what..." Danny began tensing before the Director popped open the breech and handed it to him. She then pulled out a box of shells offering those to him along with a small cleaning kit. "What is all this?"
"You are meeting Glenn Chambers today. All you need to know about Glenn is that on the wall behind his desk are posters of what he thinks are his greatest achievements since he became PR director. When you walk into his office and see them, you will know why I gave you the gun. Blue shells are rubber, red are buckshot. If you need to use them aim for the wall with the posters on it, that faces the bay and if a pellet gets through the inner armor it won't do any damage to anything outside."
"Ummm. Okay." Danny frowned putting the cleaning kit in his pocket. "Is this really necessary?"
"You'll find out, just leave that with Lieutenant Jones when you head home." Director Piggot nodded picking up the empty bag and walking off.
Danny watched her go before tucking the gun under one arm opening the box to look over the two types of shells before and putting the box in his other jacket pocket and moving forward at a brisk pace to meet up with Taylor again.
After gathering snacks and with a questioning look at the gun, something the officer with them chuckled at, the pair were lead into the office of Glenn Chambers.
It was quite a big room, possibly larger than the Directors, and it was wall to wall with Cape memorabilia. Action figures, lunchboxes, beach towels, what looked like a package of little girls underwear with Armsmaster's logo on them.
Pretty much every sort of cape paraphernalia he had ever seen PRT shill shelves and wall racks full of it, the ceiling even had dangling toys and posters spread over it.
The man himself was a corpulent individual seated behind the desk. He was dressed in a loud Hawaiian shirt that didn't button up all the way, what appeared to be cargo shorts, and as he came around the desk to greet them, black socks and crocks on his feet.
He had horn rim glasses that wouldn't have looked out of place on a 90 year old lady ,and his hair was done up in some sort of greasy version of liberty spikes with a ponytail that ran down his back.
The scent of fast food grease filled the office and Danny's nose wrinkled at the overpowering scent of that Hatchet body spray, the man had to have bathed in it.
The pale man looked like he was trying to blend hipster, beach bum, and IPA snob into one loathsome package.
Danny's eyes however drifted from the man to three large posters on the back wall.
The first was of a woman who looked like she was drawn by Tex Avery in one of the old Droopy Cartoons. No one living should have a body like that and still be able to breath. What she was wearing hardly counted as a costume either. Even a stripper might get embarrassed wearing that.
There was part of a name visible at the bottom of the poster but it was half hidden by some other merchendice on a shelf behind the desk.
The next poster was of a man in spandex. No wait. That wasn't spandex, that was latex so tight he could tell the guys religion. Hopefully this, Mr. Right, didn't come to the Bay, the Nazi's would have issues with his beliefs.
The last one was another girl, this one dressed like Tinkerbell, with a skirt short enough that he really hoped she was in a warm climate, showing off so much leg. There were wings and a low cut top though the girl couldn't be more than 16 at best how did... ahhh.
Danny drew his hand out of his pocket loaded two shells and snapped the breach closed on the shotgun with a click that echoed in the room.
Taylor glanced back at him and Glenn looked up from where he was looking Taylor over and frowned his eyes darting over the gun and then up to Danny's glare and the expression that could freeze a volcano solid.
"Ahh. I see you talked to Director Piggot." Glenn sighed.
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Walk by BatRou-Dawg
Misc » Book X-overs Rated: M, English, Supernatural, Words: 110k+, Favs: 19, Follows: 24, Published: Aug 12, 2023 Updated: Aug 14, 2023
3Chapter 49
"Mr. Hebert." Glenn Chambers stated as he sat back down in his chair. "Do you know which type of shells you loaded in that shot gun?"
"The blue ones."
"Good, you're not as crazy as that bitch Piggot then." Glenn nodded. "I can assure you that you won't need either color."
"Umm should you be talking about your boss that way?" Taylor questioned.
"She is not my boss. On your paperwork it should read that I am the head of the PR for the Protectorate and the PRT, that means ALL of it. I have six offices, one here, one in Florida, one in Texas, one in Chicago, one in Seattle and one in Vegas. I rotate between these six offices as need be.
Given in the last three months,Browbeat, Alucard, Druid, Baskerville, Spitfire, and now you, have all come to ENE, I am here. Once I set you up and get the department here rolling I will be on my way to Miami to deal with a re-brand and a Ward moving up to the Protectorate.
Now then to the meat of this. I assume she told you about the posters and upon seeing me looking like a white trash hipster with delusions of being a YouTube celebrity you reacted."
"Errr. Yes?" Danny offered.
"Good that is what I hope for. A knee jerk, gut reaction. Why? Because that proves to any would be heroes that first impressions matter. Your first impressions of me are that I'm a fat lazy slob, never mind the fact I've got awards for running in marathons, and can bench two thirty five."
"Uhhh." Danny continues eloquently. "She did mention the posters."
"Of course she did. And she is right I do consider them my greatest achievements up to this point. And that is only because some one else took over the Mouse Protector line and RUINED IT! Cheese flavored cereal? And what the hell was with the last two seasons of her show, they Scrappy Doo'd it fer fucks sake. Who thought it was a good idea to get her a pet Chinchilla that could talk?! MOUSE it's in the damn name, she's not Assorted Rodent Protector." Glenn ranted. "The only super heroes in this town that I did not design costumes for are Armsmaster, Moon Dog, Gallant, and Vista. Everyone else has my touch some where in their costume, even Alucard."
"Gallant said you designed Vista's costume and she hates it. It was something he warned me about." Taylor offered.
"I did design Vista's costume,THE FIRST ONE, there's nothing left of it. I had her set up in a full covering design with pockets and green tint, almost like a loud military BDU crossed with a Tron outfit.
She loved it. Her mother vetoed all of it and put her in a skirt and gogo boots because it pissed off her father, who vetoed half of that and then they went back and forth for WEEKS I just let them throw together what she's wearing now and washed my hands of it." Glenn snarled.
"Now then the posters. See this woman on the left looking like Jessica rabbit? Her name is Tex, as a nod to Tex Avery, I thought it was clever, she's a case 53 with stranger powers not unlike a classic bugs bunny cartoon, walking on air unless she looks down, the mega ton hammer, the body contortion, the works.
That image is the form she took for that poster shot and for every PR shot, other wise she looks like a cartoon rabbit. She's pretty much the Mouse Protector of the West Coast."
Glenn pointed to the middle picture.
"This is Mister Perfect. He is a devote and rabid Nudist. Yes the religion. That I got him to wear ANYTHING is a testament to my skill."
He pointed to the pixie girl. " And this? The 14 year old looking girl wearing what amounts to a Disney stripper costume? She's a seventy year old grandmother who gained powers that unaged her back to her teens.
Tinker Hell then went on a rampage of debauchery and chaos using master, mover, and stranger powers to relieve every internet fantasy she ever read in her long life, whether the recipient wanted it or not.
She was shaping up to be the next Heartbreaker and not a damn person could do anything about her as she tore across the south like a one woman frat party. She made every law enforcement agency out there including the PRT and Protectorate look like amateur hour for a year before she was finally stopped, not by the PRT or a Cape, but by a pissed off girlfriend of a guy she broke who'd been tracking her through six states!"
"I can't say I've ever heard of that." Danny admitted.
"Yes. You're welcome." Glenn threw his hands in the air. "I have been a PR man since the seventies Mr. Hebert, and I have been working with the Protectorate and the PRT almost since day one, I just missed being able to vote on those damn storm trooper outfits for the rank and file, but I will fix it one day."
"Umm. Why does the Director seem to hate you then?" Taylor asked.
"Because the first suggestion I had for Druid was to put the girl in a bikini." Glenn sated causing Danny to clutch the gun tighter. "Do you know why I suggested it?"
"No.." Danny offered.
"Because her powers work from SKIN CONTACT, she has to be able to TOUCH her target to do anything. The bikini was a base to build off and Piggot lost her shit and now she looks like a freaking Muslim in that outfit, full face mask, hood, everything but her hands and feet covered, sure there's Velcro and sashes all over it so she can open it up if need by and fucking sandals she can slip out of but for fucks sake."
Taylor and Danny looked at each other. "Okay so why don't you talk to the Director and clear this up?" Taylor asked.
"Ahh that. There is a very very good reason for that." Glenn offered steeping his fingers in front of his face in a way that a glint of light flashed across his glasses.
"And that is?" Danny asked.
"Because I'm an asshole." Glenn offered.
"Uhhh." the pair blinked at the statement.
"Look if I'm an asshole and it gets around that I'm an asshole, people leave me alone, if I'm left alone I can do my job without getting calls every thirty seconds asking if Bacon Man's left boot needs stitching across or with the lines. It's taken me years to prefect this to the point where people fuck off of their own accord, people do not fuck off if you just tell them to fuck off."Glenn explained. "However no one wants to work closely with a known asshole, my actual boss knows the score and knows what I've done everyone else only needs to listen or get out of my way."
"But what if some one comes in like we did and then says something to other people?" Taylor questioned.
"Simple my dear, no one will believe you, just like they haven't believed any one else I've told. Or they think you got lucky and caught me on a good day. There's people I've never met in the PRT who can't stand me, and I absolutely love it." Glenn grinned.
"Now then. I've taken a look at your power set and I have three designs here depending on what you want to work up. I've got the cool design, the functional design and the cute design.
Honestly I'm not sold on the cute, I mean a bumble bee motif might work if you played it up full ham like Mouse, but I don't think you're going for that. Now take a look at these and tell me if they are something you might be able to work with."
Glenn handed over a pair of sketch pads to the Heberts and started talking about the designs on them.
[Wards area. Hours later.
"So he shot down your name ideas?" Spitfire asked taking a sip of her soda. Out of all the people Taylor had met, she was oddly most comfortable with the other new Ward, not having met Vista yet however. Spitfire was another shy girl who was content not be the first to say anything, though she was also the only Ward here in the middle of the day. She was scheduled to start Arcadia next week, something pushed back so that Taylor, and some others normal students, could be transferred in as well.
"Yeah, though to be fair most of them were off the top of my head. With my power set he narrowed it down to Weaver, or Skitter. I vetoed Skitter as it was too close to what Alucard mentioned and it sounds like a villain name. I tossed out Weaver too as it makes me sound a bit too much like a cloth tinker or something, or a spider girl." Taylor sighed.
"So what did you pick?" Spitfire asked
"Well one of the outfits was heavily into vampire and the other was heavily in the bug control, and it gave me an idea even though I didn't like the bug outfit that much. I could have used a butterfly name , but with the whole vampire thing I didn't think that worked even though butterflies are known to drink blood."
"What?" Spitfire asked.
"Butterflies drink blood. Also sweat, tears, sometimes poop, and other fluid like things depending on the amino acid and sodium levels they need. But since a butterfly brings up images of flitting around flower petals, I actually went with a name from a goth butterfly." Taylor explained.
"Goth butterfly?"Spitfire asked.
"A moth. Saturnia Pavonia, the small emperor moth. They're mostly found in Europe and the northern parts of Asia. But given I control bugs like an emperor would control armies and I'm pretty much nocturnal now I figured this would fit." Taylor pointed out taking a sit from the non descript bag she was given, though Spitfire could see the deep red through the straw. "So my cape name is going to be Saturnia."
"That is a very long and convoluted naming process." Spitfire offered.
"Says the girl named after an airplane with a costume to match." Taylor pointed out. " Both our names also point out our powers, but you have to know bugs to understand mine, and aviation or history to get yours."
"Fair enough." Spitfire shrugged." So when will they have your costume ready? They're looking to debut me first of March."
"Same time really, They may be debuting us together along with another girl named Baskerville." Taylor offered.
"Not met her yet, but I've heard about her from Druid." Spitfire offered going on to tell Taylor about the other new cape while they waited for any one else to need them for something.
PRT building, Cafeteria
Assault, Battery, Alucard, and Baskerville were sitting around in the main cafeteria eating lunch around the same table, save Baskerville who was in a corner feeding part of her lunch to a trio of dogs with her, when Assault put down his sandwich and stared into the middle distance.
"You ever get the feeling that you're not showing up as often as you should? Like you're a main character that some how got put on the back burner to introduce some new characters?" Assault hummed.
Alucard paused sipping from his blood bag, then frowned. "Yeeeeaaaah, now that you mention it." He hummed taking another sip of the blood through a six loop crazy straw. "That's completely unacceptable since I'm the main character and all that."
"Pffft you? No way, I'm the handsome and charming one here." Assault huffed. " Look at this jawline."
"Bah, you're part of the background comic relief, even Mouse Protector has more stage presence and she's a tiny thing." Alucard offered.
"Big talk from the edge-lord." Assault grinned. "You're like a secret character in a video game that they didn't have time to write all the lines out for so they just threw together some dark edgy story."
"Listen you makeup-less clown, my dark edginess is trademarked, thank you very much, and cannot be used in a game without my consent, so no I'm not, though that does sound like an awesome idea for a game."
"Both of you are idiots." Battery stated flatly.
Baskerville ignored them all finishing her lunch with the help of her dogs.
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