Chapter Text
Emily Piggot looked at the reports on her desk and then frowned as she looked at the teenager across from her. “In a moment you can explain to me just what the hell you were thinking,” the Director for the PRT East-Northeast said with a deceptively calm voice. “However, let me explain to you what these reports tell me. To begin with,” she tapped one report, “this one tells me that three people were taken by ambulance, from your school to the hospital, one of whom had to be placed in the Intensive Care Isolation Unit due to her injuries. This one,” she tapped the second stack of paper, “informed me that three people were, as a result of the incident, taken to the county jail and held for arraignment without bail, and finally this one,” she tapped a single sheet of paper. “Your expulsion from Winslow High School.” Emily Piggot glared death at the teenager across the desk from her for a moment longer, getting no reaction from the standing teen who was staring fixedly six inches over the Director’s head.
Emily Piggot then did something her subordinates would have sworn was impossible, something her Wards “knew” couldn’t happen and would call anyone who claimed to have seen it a liar. In that next moment, Emily Piggot gave a rueful sigh and smiled while looking down and shaking her head, “All of that paperwork Akane, and I can’t even write you up. Hess is going to Juvie because of this, and what pisses her off more than anything else it that you someone beat her without using powers, good job.”
“Thanks Aunt Em,” I replied dropping my thousand-yard stare and smiling. “How’s your day been?”
The Director shrugged as she gestured at one of the guest chairs in her office, “Sit,” she said before answering my question as I did so. “It’s been alright I guess, but how in the world did you end up in this mess?” The question was finished by waving the reports that she had just scooped up before throwing them into a silenced paper shredder.
“Same way I always end up in the middle of something like this Aunt Em,” I said with a smile. “I walked in and the wrong thing was happening right in front of me.”
**
There were two things I noticed as I entered the school building by the main hallway. First was the stench, a smell like that of the dumpster behind some fish processors on a hot summer day. The second was a gaggle of teens surrounding a locker. As I slipped my body through the crowd I saw one of the group lean over to a particular locker and speak through the grating on the door. “You’re trash Hebert,” the girl said into the locker. She was my height, but long limbed and muscular like a greyhound. If I had been put on the spot to guess, I would have said she was a track team member. “Trash should know its place,” the girl continued and then I was close enough that I heard the muffled sobs and shouts from inside the locker.
The girl that had been talking to the locker screamed as the toe of my shoe, a penny loafer, hit the back of her left knee with all the force and speed I could put behind it causing the runner to go down. I never even gave her the chance to respond as I viciously slammed her head into the locker she was talking into before kicking her in the ribs while she was on all fours. The speedy triplicate of blows left her on the ground wheezing as she fought to breathe with her abused diaphragm.
“You damn…” I ducked blindly at the declaration and spun around planting a palm strike just under the attacking red-head’s ribs, shutting her up and putting her on the ground along with her friend.
“Anyone else!” I shouted, my hands becoming fists as they returned to my sides. Looking at the shocked crowd of onlookers. “Good, now who has a camera that has been recording this whole fiasco?” A half-dozen hands went up amongst the crowd. “You,” I snapped pointing at a white boy with dreadlocks, “and you,” I added pointing at a Hispanic girl that looked like she was a cheerleader. “The two of you keep recording this for evidence, the cops are going to want the footage. Now you and you,” I continued turning and pointing at two different students at the edge of the crowd. “I want you each to get a teacher over here right now.” They both nodded and took off in different directions. “You,” I said pointing to a small cutesy girl with twin pigtails, “Go get the principal or her vice, now.” The next person looked like a linebacker, so I assumed minimal intelligence, “You, this place has a metal-shop, right?” he nodded, “Either get the shop teacher or the janitor, but we need a big pair of bolt cutters now, so we can get her out.” He nodded and took off running and I turned to the red-head who attacked me.
“Phone,” I demanded of her and she glared death at me. “Listen you little bitch,” I snarled, “either you unlock and hand over your phone, and I say you helped once things finished, or you don’t, and I let them throw the book at you.” Her response was to flip me off, so I turned to the next girl, one who I suspected was at least an accomplice in this, but I wasn’t sure. “How about you sweetheart?” I asked, “you gonna let me use your phone to call the police?” The girl nodded slowly and pulled a decent looking smartphone out, unlocked it and handed it to me. “Thank you,” I said while red and runner glared daggers at the girl. I was going to have to protect her from some of the fallout from this, but one step at a time.
“Nine-One-One,” the voice on the other end answered almost as the first ring was sounding. “What is your emergency?”
“Yes ma’am,” I replied, “I need EMS, Police and a biohazard containment unit sent to Winslow High school immediately please.”
“Could you please describe the injuries needing attention miss,” the operator, a complete professional thank the gods, asked.
“We have one person with unknown injuries currently locked in an enclosed space with something that stinks like a skunk that has been dead on the side of a Texas highway for over a week,” I answered. “One subject with a probable concussion and likely a dislocated knee, and a third with a bruised diaphragm.”
“Thank you,” the operator replied calmly. “Do you need a rescue crew to free the entrapped subject, and is the situation contained, or do the police need to respond with some level of force or crowd control?”
“Contained,” I answered. “The person in the confined space is the victim it looks like, the other two the culprits. I have someone going to get either the janitor or the shop teacher and a large set of bolt cutters to remove the lock that has the victim trapped.”
The operator’s voice was drowned out by a shrill yell by a beastly woman in a severe suit yelling, “What the hell is going on here, you two stop recording, you get the hell off that phone, who were you calling?”
“One moment please ma’am, a supposed authority figure has arrived.” I told the operator before pulling the phone away from my ear. “You two keep recording,” I told the two shutterbugs who nodded. Good, they were more afraid of me than this harridan. “As to you madam, there is someone locked in this locker, someone that at least these two shoved in there with whatever is causing this unholy stench. Now who are you?”
The woman seethed at me and growled her reply, “I’m principal Blackwell,” she said to me, “and I’m sure you are mistaken about whatever has transpired here. Now why is Miss Hess unconscious and Miss Barnes clutching her ribs?”
I held up a finger to the principal and put the phone back to my ear. “Ma’am,” I told the operator. “It seems the principal has arrived; how long do you think the Police and EMS…”
I stopped as I heard the shouts of “Police,” “5-0” and “Make a hole people,” come from the entryway.
“Never mind, the police are here,” I told the operator. “Thank you for your service.”
“Thank you, have a nice day,” the operator replied and hung up. I calmly handed the phone back to the girl who I had borrowed it from. “Thank you,” I told her before turning back to the principal who was even more angry since I had started ignoring her. “Now madam, you were asking me something?”
A pair of teachers had since arrived and were standing behind the principal, one was female, younger than the principal, but not by much. The other was male with a hipster teacher appearance to him. Finally, the boy that I had sent running for the shop teacher or the janitor showed up about the same time the police made it through the crowd of students. He didn’t have either the janitor or the shop teacher with him, but he did have a large set of bolt cutters in hand and I nodded at him. “I asked you why these two girls are in the condition they are young lady?”
“This one,” I said pointing at the unconscious black girl on the floor, “was tormenting whoever it is that they have stuck inside that locker.” My finger shifted from the girl to the locker with a dent in it. “Officer, I have two people filming this so that there is evidence of what has happened here, may we open the locker and remove the victim?”
“By all means yes, why haven’t you done so yet?” one of the officers, an older one by appearance, asked.
I tapped the boy with the bolt cutters on the shoulder and pointed at the lock, “Pop the lock on that thing and open it up.” He nodded, and I turned to the two camera holders, “Film it.” They both nodded as well and shifted to opposite sides as the boy cut the lock and pulled it through the hasp before trying to open the door.
As the door opened, a brunette girl, tall, thin and gangly, fell out of it covered in the filth that had to be causing the stench because of how it suddenly got even worse. The entire group standing around the locker took an involuntary step back and several of us, myself included nearly puked. “We were,” I gulped and choked back the vomit that threatened to overwhelm me as I bent over and touched her throat to check for a pulse. She was unconscious and trembling, almost as if her body was having a seizure, but the muscles weren’t getting the entire message. “We had to wait on the bolt cutters,” I said answering the officer’s question. “They got here with this guy, where’s the paramedics and bio-containment team?” I finished standing back up.
“Right here,” a new voice said as a gurney pushed its way through the student mass. “Dear god in heaven, what the hell happened here?”
“These two bitches and their little cohort over there shoved her into the locker and locked her in.” a punk looking girl with green and pink striped blond hair said pointing at the three including the one that I had borrowed the phone from. “They were teasing her through the door when this girl,” she pointed at me, “came in and kicked the shit out of Hess and slammed her face into the locker. Funniest damn thing I’ve seen in all the time I’ve been here.”
I looked at the principal whose mouth was now hanging open, so I looked at the two shutterbugs, “I think you can stop filming now,” I told them, they nodded and then looked at the pair of police officers.
“We will need the footage off of them,” the younger of the pair said, “But if you’ll let me, I’ll just email them to myself, that way I can hand them to the lead detective later.” The pair nodded at the officer who smiled at them and started leading them away from the scene while continuing to talk. “I’ll also want you to save the footage to a SD card or something, that will make it less likely the District Attorney will want to take your phones as evidence.”
I turned my attention back to the principal who was trying to get control of the situation from everyone, up to and including arguing with the paramedics. “The most in danger first principal Blackwell,” one of the paramedics told her as they loaded the girl from inside the locker onto the gurney. “We already have a second ambulance on the way, they should be here any moment.”
“But she’s the important one,” Blackwell said pointing to the unconscious girl.
“She’s also the primary suspect and only has limited injuries,” The older police officer said. “I’m betting they call Panacea in to check on that one. I could relocate this one’s knee while she was unconscious, and she would likely never know the difference.”
“And she admitted to blatant assault, why aren’t you arresting her,” Blackwell snarled, finally losing her temper.
“Because she’s behaving,” the older officer replied. “Honestly I doubt the DA will even try to press charges. This looks to me like a clear-cut case of defense of others, and if he does she has a ready-made defense. Besides, it's not like she killed anyone.”
Blackwell spun and snarled at me, so I held up my hands placatingly. “I have a thing about bullies,” I said plainly. “In fact, it’s simple, I don’t put up with them at all.” Period, end of bloody sentence honestly.
“Who are you anyway,” Blackwell finally growled out, “I don’t recognize you.”
I smiled, “I just started today and was on my way to meet with you,” I said, causing the woman to start. “My name is Akane Takamachi. It’s nice to meet you, Principal Blackwell.” The principal blanched at my name and I heard mutters from some of the students in the crowd, so I had to ask, “What, what’s wrong with my name?”
“Wrong,” one of the mutterers, a boy of Asian descent, replied. “Nothing is wrong with that name per se but given it and the way you took those three down I would say life around here is about to get interesting.”
“Why?” I asked, I knew why, I just wanted things to be aired publicly so that everyone and their brother would know not to screw with me. There was a new sheriff in town so to speak, and it was time for everyone to know that.
“You’re kidding right,” the girl with the pink and green streaks said with audible surprise, “Your first name is the same as the queen of the Nerima Wrecking Crew. Miss pick up a car and beat you to a pulp with it herself, and that’s with her NOT being a parahuman brute?”
“It’s also a very common first name in Japan,” I answered. “My mother is from there.”
The Asian boy picked up where the blonde left off, “And with the last name Takamachi, I don’t want to be anywhere close to your target if you went all miss orbital bombardment on someone’s head. Uh-uh, no ma’am, not going to be anywhere within an astronomical unit of that amount of “befriending” if I can avoid it.”
“Dad took my mother’s family name when they married,” I said with a smile as I looked at the crowd. “I’m not a parahuman, and I’m definitely not an all-powerful blaster 10 like Nanoha-chan.” A collective sigh seemed to run through the crowd. “However,” I continued. “As I said to the principal, I have neither patience nor tolerance for bullies, and what that girl received was nothing more than a love tap compared to the level of hurt I can put out. I have trained in the martial arts since I could walk, and I am trained in four weaponless and three armed disciplines. If you are a bully I will drop kick you all the way to the police station from here, but if you need help with anything, feel free to ask. I can tutor in history, chemistry, physics and various levels of math if you need help. Other than that, I just want to finish school in peace. Now, we all have classes to get to yes?” The question was asked in an innocent tone but had the desired result of clearing the hallway in the course of about ten seconds leaving the shutterbugs, the police, EMS, the Principal, and myself.
“Young lady,” the principal seethed next to me, “I have some very pointed questions for you, and you will answer them right now.”
“Actually, Principal Blackwell,” a new voice said from behind us both. “I think it is you that is going to have some very tough questions to answer, and I want my answers now.” The voice had gone from fairly pleasant to a low growl as it had progressed causing both myself and the principal to turn and face it. Standing in the hallway behind her was a deeply tanned woman wearing a rather severe looking black pantsuit and a badge.
“Sergeant Lupo,” the principal almost hissed out, “what are you doing here?”
The sergeant smiled a grim and wolf-like smile. “I just happened to be in the area and caught the call out. Officer Danforth, Officer Melvis, any evidence?”
“Arguably a whole locker full, though it’s going to take a biohazard team to clean this properly,” the older officer answered. “That said we have recorded witness testimony already about who the perps are, and the victim is on her way to Bay General to be looked at.”
“The perps?” the sergeant asked.
“Two are on their way to the hospital with minor injuries and the third one is already on her way to county lockup to await bail.” The older officer said, answering again. “That said, I have a very bad feeling that this is going to go up in a political shit storm very quickly.”
“Noted,” Lupo replied and then sighed. “Alright then, if either of these officers has your name, then you can go on about your business miss. You on the other hand Blackwell. You got some splaining to do.” The sergeant threw on a thick Ricky Ricardo accent for the last causing me and the two officers to smile for a second.
“Actually sergeant,” the older officer said looking a little sheepish and pointing at me. “Since she assaulted the two perps that are going to the hospital, we have to take her to the precinct as well.”
“Very well then,” the sergeant said with a grimace about the same time I replied with “What the hell?”
The older officer shrugged as he started to lead me toward the door. “State law doesn’t let people do things like this without at least facing the District Attorney.” I nodded at that, my parents had instilled in me a respect for both the law and procedure. “That said,” the officer continued, “I seriously doubt he’ll push for charges, though the two girls might, in which case my suggestion is a good lawyer and sticking to the story that was shown today. You would likely be able to call that girl with the multi-colored hair as a witness as to what happened and use the video evidence you ensured was gathered in your defense.”
I nodded to this, “This means I’m going to have to call my aunt and get her to send someone to pick me up,” I grumbled as we reached the squad car and he put me in the back without handcuffing me. “She is not going to be happy.”
“Family seldom is happy when they are called down to the precinct to bail someone out,” the officer answered as he slid into the driver’s seat. “But be glad you have them, it could be worse.”
“Yeah,” I muttered as the car started to move. “They could be dead like my parents.”
The officer stopped for a moment as we reached the edge of the schoolyard and looked back at me through the rearview mirror. “Yeah kid,” he said with a knowing look in his eyes before pulling out of the school yard and into traffic.
**
Emily Piggot smiled as she looked at the ceiling, her niece was irrepressible as Assault, but at least she was responsible enough to take her medicine. “Alright,” Emily said bringing her face back down and putting on her “Director’s hat”. “You are on two weeks restriction and grounding for fighting in school, this of course won’t be difficult since you’ll be coming here with me every day until we find another school that will take you in. Maybe Immaculatta will take you,” Emily pondered out loud, “they have a history of taking “troubled” students.”
I shuddered and shook my head slightly, “I’ll be good,” I said mentally begging all that was holy that she did not send me to a catholic day school. My parents hadn’t been particularly religious, but my mother’s parents had been, if not particularly devout, then at least holiday Shintoists and that was the “religion” that I had been raised in until I started seeking my own path. I was still seeking, but I already knew Christianity was not for me. Aunt Emily smiled at me and I relaxed, of course she had been kidding me.
“Now, what to do with you for the rest of the day,” Director Piggot muttered looking at the schedule on her computer screen. “All the other Wards are in school and none are scheduled to come in until tomorrow, so I guess that I can have someone walk you through intake now instead of at three when we had planned too.”
“Actually ma’am,” I said getting her attention, “if you’ll allow me, I would like to go sit with the victim until she wakes up and I can explain what happened to her.” Emily Piggot’s eyebrows quirked at the suggestion and then her eyes flared wide and rage suffused her face. “Exactly,” I said before she could speak, “I tagged her before she left with the EMTs but that has a maximum effect of twelve hours, and I don’t want her to wake up and freak out.”
Emily Piggot mentally berated herself for not considering the possibility of the victim having triggered, even she would have probably triggered if stuffed into a locker with that kind of filth and the door locked. Picking up the phone on her desk she pushed a few buttons before speaking. “Hannah, I need you to take Akane to get her phone issue and ID’s, and then I need you to run her over to Bay General so that she can sit with the victim. If the girl’s father is there, either give Akane a domino and explain that we think his daughter may have triggered due to the incident or play it off as the savior coming to sit with the victim, your call. If she did trigger, don’t push the Wards but do mention it as a possibility, I don’t want to alienate the man at this juncture, and assure him that all the hospital bills will be covered.”
A moment later the director hung up the phone and stood, “Come with me Akane,” she said, leading the way out the door of her office and down the hall. We stopped in front of an office even as a PRT officer was coming out
**
Daniel Hebert turned his head from his daughter to look at the door to her hospital room as it calmly opened. Instead of a nurse or doctor though, a girl of about Taylor’s age and a uniformed woman walked in and quietly shut the door. “Can I help you?” he asked as the girl’s face became troubled.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t there earlier,” the girl said stepping over to Taylor’s other side. “If I had been on time I might have averted this whole thing.”
“Akane,” the uniformed woman started in a disapproving tone, the girl cut her off however, her voice dripping with cold hatred and self-contempt.
“I missed my intended bus,” the girl said with not quite a snarl. “If I hadn’t I would have been ten to fifteen minutes earlier, probably right behind her coming inside according to the video. If I had been, I would have been able to stop this immediately, and she wouldn’t have suffered she wouldn’t be here.”
“Akane,” the woman said, obviously straining to keep a civil tone. “If the Probation Officer and principal had done their jobs you wouldn’t have had to put that little psychopath in the hospital, if the principal or a teacher had reported a damn thing, this wouldn’t have happened either.” The woman, a PRT agent by the undress uniform she was wearing and the badge on her hip continued. “There was nothing more you could have done, and you went above and beyond in what you did, it’s why you’re not in trouble with the director.” Sighing, the PRT agent turned to Daniel and addressed him. “I’m sorry for our intrusion Mister Hebert, I’m Special Agent Hannah Washington, PRT, and this is the Director’s niece Akane.” She held her hand out and he took and shook it. “Akane wanted to come sit with your daughter until she woke up, and the director ok’d it while giving me some instructions on things to handle when we got here.”
“Alright, that explains why you’re here,” Daniel said, nodding. “Do those instructions have anything to do with this “situation”?”
“Unfortunately yes,” Agent Washington answered. “First let me inform you that the hospital bills from this are being covered by the PRT, we are at least partially at fault and intend to make all possible amends to that.” Daniel nodded so she continued. “Now while there are some papers you will need to sign, Non-Disclosure Agreements for identities, nothing saying you can’t sue after the fact, I also want to assure you we are using every bit of power to ensure that both the girls involved, and the school administration will get fully prosecuted under the law.”
“From that statement one of the girls was one of yours,” Daniel growled visibly suppressing his temper. “Explain to me what happened from your agency’s point of view considering everyone knows that the Wards, which is the only way this could be your fault, go to Arcadia.”
The agent sighed, “And that is a good chunk of why we left this new, probationary member, attending Winslow,” she said. “That she was already a student there with a passing, but not exemplary scholastic record who wanted to stay there also counted towards her staying there. What we didn’t know, because the school and her probation officer didn’t report it to us, was exactly what she had been up to while there. Her little clique apparently had picked out your daughter to torment and turn into their personal punching bag, and the school’s principal was either bribed or threatened into silence.”
“Silence my hide,” the girl, Akane, growled. “Back home she would have at least been charged as an accessory after the fact, if not a co-conspirator.”
“Akane’s mother was a police officer and her father a Marine,” Agent Washington said, shooting the girl a look. “She has some very black and white views on things.” Akane snorted in what Daniel took as amused contempt for the comment and Agent Washington continued. “Anyway, because of that, the girl’s actions were never reported to the PRT or Protectorate, maybe not even to her probation officer as her civilian identity was on probation for assault and she was never violated.”
Daniel nodded, objectively he could see how someone at least passively covering up the situation could keep another group from doing their job. “Alright, and I assume there are going to be further investigations into this and how it happened?”
“Oh absolutely,” Akane said, an almost feral smile crossing her face, “Aunt Em is not happy, and when she’s not happy…” she trailed off and Agent Washington shuddered slightly nodding before picking up the commentary.
“Yes, the director is almost a force of nature when she is on the warpath over something,” The agent said.
“I think she’s also been shown that a singular member cannot be left alone in a place like Winslow,” a new voice said from the doorway. “Not that she particularly liked Shadow Stalker anyway.” All attention turned to the speaker, a frizzy haired brunette in a white robe. Standing behind her was a blond girl, both of them maybe a year older than Taylor. “I suppose I have you to thank for the damage done to Shadow Stalker,” the brunette continued as she entered the room and addressed Akane.
“Hello Panacea, Glory Girl,” Agent Washington said. “Thank you for coming here so quickly.”
**
I looked at the two newcomers, so I could judge their mood before answering. The blonde was almost lounging, and maybe a little miffed that she had been needed to get here this fast, but the real power apparently lay in the brunette who was approaching the bed at a determined pace. “Yes,” I answered, “and even with the possibility of charges, I’d still beat the hell out of her if I felt I needed to.”
“You dislocated her knee, cracked two and bruised four ribs, and hit her head against something so hard she was unconscious for over an hour,” the healer said in an irritated tone as she started to read the chart. Suddenly she glared at it and snarled, “And you should have bounced her off the floor or walls a few more times while you were at it. Now I’m glad I came up here instead of going to the PRT Headquarters first.”
I smiled as I offered her my hand, “Akane Takamachi,” I said introducing myself. “Slayer of bullies through physical means for ten years running.”
The healer and the blonde both chuckled, and Mr. Hebert and Miss Militia both smiled, “It’s nice to meet you Akane,” the healer replied, taking my hand. “I’m Amy Dallon, and this is my sister Vicky,” she shook my hand like a professional and then as she mentioned her sister hooked a thumb over her shoulder at the blonde who waved.
“The gentleman here is Mister Daniel Hebert, head of hiring for the Dock Workers Union,” Miss Militia said gesturing at Mr. Hebert, “and the young lady is his daughter.”
“Yes,” Amy said, her face going into what I was taking as a professional mode. “Mr. Hebert, do I have your permission to heal your daughter?”
“Yes, please,” he said. Amy nodded and reached out for Taylor’s hand when I voiced a thought.
“Could you possibly fix her eyesight as well?” I asked.
“Why,” Amy asked turning her head to look at me, “I take it she wears glasses?” she asked Mr. Hebert who nodded.
“Her glasses were destroyed in the locker,” I answered. “If she wakes up without them, all she’ll see is blurs, not a face she’ll recognize.”
Amy nodded, “It is a reasonable request, do I have your permission for that as well Mr. Hebert?”
“Yes, of course,” Mr. Hebert replied. “I rushed here straight from work, so I didn’t have the opportunity to go home and find her spare pair.”
Panacea nodded at the response and took Taylor’s hand even as I moved over to where Vicky was standing. “So, bully buster huh,” the blonde said smiling. The rest of her comment and my response were cut off though by Panacea’s cursing snarl.
“That psychotic bitch,” Amy snarled, ripping the hospital bed’s sheet back to expose Taylor’s legs and the rows of feminine hygiene products laying around them. “I don’t know how she did it, but these were all fused inside her body and causing sepsis to set in already.”
“Taylor is going to be alright though right?” Mr. Hebert asked, and Panacea nodded in response as she gathered the materials and dumped them into the biohazard waste receptacle.
“This just went from assault to attempted murder,” Miss Militia said with a grimace. “Panacea, we are going to need you to add this to the report.”
“Gladly,” the healer snarled. “There were also a goodly number of healed and nearly healed micro-fractures. Tell me Mr. Hebert, is your daughter clumsy, prone to falls or accidents?”
“No,” the older man, now starting to show anger in his face instead of the sorrow that had been there. “It does however explain quite a few things, things I had noticed but couldn’t figure out how to bring up in conversation. Though not why she didn’t tell me.”
“Mister Hebert,” Miss Militia said as she laid a hand on his shoulder in her role as Special Agent Hannah Washington. “Over the years I’ve been an impromptu older sister for more than a few wards and they always have reasons,” she used her fingers to make air quotes when she said the word reasons, “to not tell or talk to their parents about things that are going on in their lives.” The other three of us looked slightly ashamed at that, knowing it was true, but the elder cape in her civilian persona continued even as I subtly touched my hand to Taylor’s foot. “Of course they are being teenagers, but we, as adults, have to remember how we were then, and then choose how we’re going to handle them.”
Amy coughed into her hand to get the attention back and everyone turned to face her. “She will wake up in a few minutes,” she said addressing Mr. Hebert, “and I’ll have the nurse bring in two trays of food for her so that she has enough to fill her up because she’s going to be ravenous with hunger. Over the next couple of weeks she’s going to need to eat more, and it’s going to need to contain a lot of leafy green vegetables, lean beef, beans, and dairy.”
“Thank you for this,” he said nodding, “I’ll tell Taylor and make sure those things and more are available.”
Amy nodded and then turned her attention to Miss Militia before she continued, “I’m going to go fill out my report for you on what we found, and I’m sure the Director will find it interesting reading.” Miss Militia nodded and then the healer turned her attention to me and smiled, “I hope to see you at Arcadia soon. I doubt you’ll find any bullies that need so energetic a busting, but you never know.” She shrugged at the end and smiled as she turned toward the door. I smiled and waved at the pair as they left.
“And that brings up another subject,” Miss Militia said to Mr. Hebert. “Barring your daughter completely dropping the ball on her placement exams, she will start attending Arcadia as soon as she is ready.”
Smiling Daniel Hebert looked at the ceiling for a minute before responding. “I don’t know if she’ll want to or not to be honest with you.” He said, a frown forming on his face, “She went to Winslow in the first place to stay with a friend of hers who didn’t make the cut for Arcadia, I don’t know if she’ll take this opportunity to get out of that hell hole without her friend or not.”
“Dad,” a voice that I had only heard once before, that had been sobbing and pleading to be released from its incarceration, answered from the bed. “Emma hasn’t been my friend since I started high school, in fact, she was one of the people who put me in that locker.”
**Amy**
“Amy?” Vicky said as we walked away from the Hebert girl’s hospital room. I looked over at her and saw her looking back at the room. “You were a bit more vicious than I remember ever seeing you in there.”
I nodded at the comment, “Yes,” I answered. “But you would have to have seen the pictures of what they pulled her out of to truly understand why. Hell, you saw what I pulled out of her, and I’m still trying to figure out how Sophia did that.” Suddenly I stopped, frozen almost mid-stride by the thought that percolated through my brain. “Oh hell, Piggot’s gonna love this one.” I muttered with a smile.
Turning my attention back to Vicky I said, “Sis, if you were to see what that psycho and her friends did to that girl, you would want to take all three of them out for flying lessons,” I told her in a calm and rational voice. “And then when you got to about ten-thousand feet, you would let them go.” Vicky quirked an eyebrow at me and I smiled before continuing on towards the hospital cafeteria for a cup of coffee and to write my report.
**Sophia**
I woke with a start, looking around at my surroundings. A curtain partitioned me from the rest of the world, making the bed I was in alone and isolated. The ceiling above was white acoustic tiles and there was a beeping coming from my right just above my head. I tried to reach my face, to wipe it with my hand only to find the limb handcuffed to the bed. It looked to be a plain hand-cuff, so I reached for my power to phase through it and found nothing. “What the hell?” I snarled jerking on the cuff and on my other arm to find it also restrained.
“Hey Puppy,” a voice I recognized said outside the curtain. “I think she’s awake.”
[i]Oh hell,[/i] I thought. [i]They sent Assault and Battery, is anyone concerned about my secret identity?[/i] Seconds later it was proven that they were not concerned as Assault, in full costume, pulled the curtain aside showing Battery and himself. “I was right,” he said and pointed at me.
“Yes dear, I see.” Battery deadpanned back at him. “Now, since you are awake and seem to at least understand what is going on, Sophia Hess, also known as Shadow Stalker, you are under arrest for assault with a parahuman power, attempted murder with a parahuman power, and biological terrorism. You have the right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be held against you in a court of law.”
“Wait a minute, hold the fucking phone,” I snarled interrupting the hero in her recitation of the Miranda warnings. “What the hell are you talking about with those charges, I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.”
Assault grinned, “We have you on camera stuffing one Taylor Hebert into a locker filled with all kinds of nasty things Sophia,” he answered. “That’s the assault right there, what those things were makes it bio-terrorism, and the fact that somehow you caused her to phase shift in and out inside that shit and end up with a good mass of it in her body causing sepsis to set in along with several other diseases is the attempted murder.”
“Bullshit,” I snarled at him. “I can think of a half dozen ways any camera footage could be faked, and it’s not like Hebert has any friends at that school, the question is who knocked me the hell out and left me there to be found?”
“Oh we have that on camera too,” he answered with a grin and I felt my stomach clench, “the footage is unbroken and Dragon says un-edited from start to finish. Quite frankly it was fun to watch you and your little red-headed friend get your comeuppance and funny that it was someone you could never have anticipated in a million years.”
I growled at the smug asshole as Battery stepped back in, “Are you done yet?” she asked, and Assault nodded. I tuned her out as she started to Mirandize me from the beginning. The question that bounced around my head though as she finished, and I demanded a lawyer absentmindedly so as to not have to answer any questions was how? [i]We had that school in the palm of our hands, even the administration was cowed between Emma’s father and my status as a Ward. Blackwell of course was watching out for me for whatever reasons, as was my probation officer. There shouldn’t have been anything…[/i]
Sophia’s eyes rolled into the back of her head and she passed out yet again. Assault snickered at that and smiled at Battery. “At least this time we were able to get through the Miranda warning before she blue screened,” he said. “Any idea when her lawyer is going to be here?”
“Well considering this Alan Barnes is the parent of the red-head in the video, probably a while since he’s trying to get her out on bail,” his wife answered. “But Sophia will keep, the doctor said it wasn’t that bad a concussion, and if we don’t shock her system this next time she’ll probably stay awake. In fact, why don’t you leave since you enjoy tormenting her with the explanation each and every time?”
“Because I enjoy tormenting her,” he answered. “The entire Wards team dislikes her for various reasons. Hell, if they were coming in today I would be letting them take a turn at it.” Battery found she could only shake her head at her husband’s vindictiveness, it wasn’t like she wasn’t enjoying the show or anything.
**Taylor**
“Emma hasn’t been my friend since I started high school,” I said as the three other people in the room turned and faced me. “In fact, she was one of the people who put me in that locker.” As I spoke, I looked around the room at the people in there with me. Dad was hovering like he always did when I was sick or something was wrong, his presence and how much he hovered had always been my metric of how bad I was hurt. The other two people were a PRT agent, she was dusky skinned with dark hair and something about her made me think I knew her from somewhere. The third was a girl that was maybe my own age, Asian, and had a concerned look on her face.
“Since the start of high school,” the girl said, her tone showing her shock over the matter. “Why didn’t anyone stop it?”
I shrugged, “Part of it I imagine is that it’s Winslow, the school is a dumping ground for those without the intelligence, money or connections to go to a better school. Which means it is prime gang grunt recruiting territory.” The adults both nodded and I waited as a nurse showed up with a pair of food trays and set them on the rolling table that went with the hospital room. “Second was the administration ignoring my complaints as being, and I quote, baseless and without merit or evidence.” I continued after the nurse left. Dad used the bed remote and raised the bed back while the girl moved the roller table over where I could position it and its trays while I continued. “As my freshman year came to a close, Blackwell actually threatened to suspend me up for lying to the staff and start punishing me in other ways for trying to get the three of them into trouble.”
“Did she now,” Dad commented with a deceptive calm. Looking at him I could see in his face that he was working the problem now, and I felt guilty for not telling him sooner.
“Why not try and change schools,” the PRT Agent asked. “I know Arcadia has a waiting list, but I also know the wait isn’t this bad. At the worst you would have been transferred as of the start of this school year.”
“I would have if the administration wasn’t shredding my transfer applications,” I said uncovering the first plate to find a burger and fries. It wasn’t a Challenger, but it wasn’t a dollar burger either. “Between that and the trio destroying my GPA I didn’t stand a chance of getting into Arcadia, which is the only school that I can reasonably reach by bus.” I could see my dad getting progressively angrier at this line of thought so I tried to change the subject, “What does the PRT have to do with any of this?” I asked, taking a bite out of the burger.
“Part of it is that we screwed up,” the agent answered bluntly. “One of your bullies was a Ward, not a well liked one, or really someone who was even willing to join the program except to get out of going to juvenile detention, but one none-the-less. Because of this, we feel we are at least partly responsible so in response we are at least going to pay for your hospital stay, and if you have triggered offer you a place on the team.
Her admission that one of my bullies had been a Ward caused me to stop eating mid-chew as my mind ran through what I knew. Figuring it out wasn’t hard although swallowing the bite of half-chewed burger was a little. “Shadow Stalker,” I growled, and the three of them nodded. Seeing the unsurprised look on his face I asked, “Dad?” and he chuckled.
“They never gave me her real name, but before you woke up Agent Washington and Akane filled me in on the Ward issue,” Dad answered and then Agent Washington picked up the response.
“We would appreciate it if you didn’t publicize that part of it,” she said with a grimace. “She’s going to be spending a lot of time in both juvenile and adult prison and might even get a ticket to the birdcage for all this, but I assure you one thing, she is going to be punished for this.”
I nodded at that, Sophia was screwed and justice would be served one way or another for all three of them. Yeah, I could accept this. “Alright,” I said, “but you think I might have triggered in the locker?”
“It’s likely that something like that would have caused what we call a trigger event.” Agent Washington answered. “Most capes refer to those event’s as the worst day of their life, and I can believe that what you’ve gone through classifies.”
“But I don’t feel different,” I replied ignoring the slight buzzing in the back of my head as I continued to eat.
“It could be something very subtle,” Agent Washington said. “At the PRT building we have a variety of testing methods that can figure out both if you have powers, and how extensive they might be.”
“Do you really think that I could have powers?” I asked.
“Oh, I'm almost certain of it,” the girl said beside me and I quirked an eyebrow at her. “But I have a suggestion, Mister Hebert, why don’t you take agent Washington with you and go get Taylor some clothes from your home. I’ll sit here with Taylor while she eats in case she wants some more food from the cafeteria and she and I can get to know one another.”
I looked at Dad who sighed and nodded, “I do need to get you some clothes kiddo,” he said with a sigh. “I came here straight from work, so I haven’t had a chance to get anything for you.”
I nodded at that, “Three boards into my closet there is a knothole in the board that will let you pull the board out,” I said, and he nodded with a questioning look on his face. “Inside the space is a pair of notebooks that record the things the trio have done since about this time last year on a day to day basis. I don’t know if they will count as evidence against them or not, but I figured there should be at least some documentation of what they were doing.”
“By themselves, no,” Agent Washington answered. “But in conjunction with the records we are pulling from their phones, it will definitely be another nail in the coffin as well as keeping two of them from simply blaming the third.” I nodded at that and Dad ruffled the hair on top of my head.
“Alright kiddo, I’ll be back shortly and then we’ll go see if you have super powers or not.” Dad said before opening the door for Agent Washington and following her out.
As the door closed I shifted the lids from the full tray to the empty one revealing a small steak and a salad. “So, Akane was it?” I asked, and the girl nodded. “Why are you so confident that I have powers?”
“Because I’m suppressing them,” she answered with a smile, “and boy is it not happy about that.”
**
Two hours later the four of us were standing in a gymnasium sized laboratory with various stations that were obviously meant to test different factors of powers. “Don’t worry T,” I said to Taylor as she eyeballed the equipment. I’m going through this the same as you since I haven’t been tested yet either.
She shifted her gaze to me from behind the domino mask she was wearing. “What do you mean you haven’t been tested?”
I shrugged as her father and Agent Washington stepped into an observation room so that the techs that were about to enter couldn’t leak who the new cape was by recognizing a family member. “I’ve been a cape for less than a month and literally just got here from Tokyo Saturday evening. Sunday was my aunt and I getting settled into her new apartment since she’d been living alone before now, and then today I went to school. I was supposed to be doing this tonight anyway, you’re just a not-so-happy coincidence. Taylor nodded, and we watched the techs come in and take their places at the machines.
After a moment one of the techs came forward to us and smiled, “Ladies,” he said, a slight accent tilting his English. “I am Doctor Stein, if you would follow me we can get started.” We both nodded and followed him toward the first machine as he continued to speak. “Do either of you have any ideas as to what your power sets entail?”
“I am a power manipulator,” I answered plainly as I looked at his name tag, “My power lets me adjust someone else’s abilities, either down to zero shutting them down, or up to fifteen, giving them fifty percent greater power than they normally would have for a defined period of time.”
“Můj Bůh v nebi” the doctor replied and then shaking his head asked, “What are your known limitations?”
“The boost only lasts about half an hour, but the drain lasts up to twelve hours,” I answered. “So far I don’t know if the strength of the cape’s powers effects those time limits or not.” The doctor nodded and then turned to Taylor.
“I have no knowledge of what my powers are other than the hint that there is a buzzing in the back of my head,” she answered. “A has been suppressing my powers probably since my trigger this morning.”
Doctor Stein nodded to this and then returned his gaze to me, “Miss A, if you would please stop suppressing Miss T’s powers, we can get started.”
I nodded to him and turned to Taylor, “Slowly alright,” I said taking her hand, “part of the reason I’ve been suppressing them is I don’t want you overwhelmed by them, I know I was the first time I touched a cape. With your’s buzzing in your head, I imagine it's not touch based.” Taylor nodded, and in my mind, I started turning a dial. Starting at zero I slowly took it to one, then to two, and at three she staggered backwards putting her hands to her head.
“So many,” she said clenching her eyes shut while gripping her temples. “So many little…” She trailed off and we watched as insects poured out of the walls in a shadow state before becoming normal and forming an artificial whirlwind around her.
**
Two hours later I was finished with my testing and the pillar of insects that had formed around Taylor was finally starting to disperse. “T?” I asked getting her attention as the insects went smoke-like and vanished into the floor.
“Shut me back down please.” She begged in a small voice. I nodded before touching a finger to her forehead and mentally turning the knob back to zero. “Thank you, she almost sobbed. There were just so many senses and minds, I couldn’t make sense of any of it, I couldn’t differentiate between myself and the insects. Was that my full power?”
I shook my head, “That was your power at about a third your normal strength. I imagine your range, sensory depth and fine control will increase with the power level.” I didn’t add that what she might be able to control might increase in complexity as her power increased as well. It wasn’t likely, but it was possible.
“Everyone but the girls and the people in the observation booth out of the room, now!” Aunt Emily’s voice barked even before the double doors to the testing area hit the walls. The response was as one would expect, a flurry of running feet as the techs cleared the room and the Director of the PRT East-Northeast branch walked over to the two of us. As the techs left Doctor Stein, whose full name I had found out was Franklin Nicholai Stein, closed the doors, locking them behind the group. Once that happened, the observation booth door opened, and Daniel Hebert ran over and hugged his daughter tightly.
“Mister Hebert, miss Hebert, you have my sincere apologies for what has happened,” Aunt Emily said as Taylor’s dad eased up on his hug. “The documentation you recorded young lady is going to be the final nail in that whole group’s coffin. The fact that you thought to document your interactions with Principal Blackwell as well meant that we were able to arrange for the BBPD to get a search warrant for both her electronic correspondence and her bank accounts. I can’t go into what has been found so far, but suffice it to say, all of them will be going to prison for one thing or another.”
Taylor smiled a bit at that, [i]vengeance might be a dish best served cold, but justice should be hot, fresh and free flowing,[/i] I thought.
“Now,” Aunt Emily said, continuing. “I don’t know if Agent Washington has floated the idea of you joining the Wards yet or not,” she looked at the mentioned agent who waggled a hand back and forth in a “sorta” gesture, “but we would love to have you and help you gain control of your powers which is what the Wards program is there for.”
“But all I do is control insects?” Taylor said in a small voice.
I smiled, “T, you sense through those insects, you can control their littlest function, maybe you wouldn’t be out on the front line punching someone like Hookwolf or Lung in the face, but standing back and flooding them with bugs until they cant move, wrapping them up in spider silk, being able to track them at your range which we still haven’t found out what that is yet. And as for punching people in the face, I can teach you that, heck I intend to anyway.” My smile was going a bit manic at the thought of Taylor and I working together.
“I would really feel better about you doing things this way Taylor,” her father said. “I think I know you well enough that I can say that you are not going to simply sit back and do nothing with this power once you have a handle on it and I don’t want you out there unsupported and alone, not with who this city has produced for villains.”
Taylor looked at the adults in the room and then at me causing me to shrug, “In or out T, I’ve got your back, and I’ll help you get used to your powers as well, but I would rather we be able to work together completely instead of during scheduling holes.”
After standing there a moment Taylor nodded, “Alright then,” she said, “Let’s do this.”
**
**Taylor**
By nine that evening I was beat, and after a long relaxing shower it was all I could do not to simply collapse into the bed that had come with the issued room in the Ward’s dorm area. Dad had run home for more clothes for me and Director Piggot had made arrangements so that I could access some of what would be my Ward’s paycheck immediately so that I could get clothes better than the Good Will stuff that I had been wearing. Dinner with her and Akane had been nice, if a bit tense, and I found out that the Director had her own issues just like anyone else. Still, it had been nice, and I had been able to work on my range and control the entire time simply by having it at a level that didn’t overwhelm me.
Laying down on the bed in the pajamas that Dad had brought I stretched while lying face first in the cheap thin pillow that was on my bed. They had asked after the power testing if I wanted to stay here near Akane as a safety precaution and I had said yes, because the last thing I wanted to have happen was for either of our powers deciding to go poof and something bad happen. “So how do you feel?” I heard Akane ask and I turned to see her standing in the doorway wearing an oversized AC/DC concert T-shirt, I groaned in response.
“Yeah, I understand,” she said coming in and sitting down on the edge of my bed. “Tomorrow we’ll get you to the point that you feel safe going home at your normal range and then we’ll start working on your skills.” As she spoke she started running her fist up and down my spine causing me to want to arch my back into it like a cat getting its back stroked.
Turning my head to the side so that I could speak unmuffled by the pillow I replied, “As long as my head doesn’t feel like a piece of pounded meat Wednesday night it’s all good.” She chuckled at that and I wanted to ask why, but I could feel sleep beckoning. The slow circles she had switched to rubbing on the small of my back was easing me towards slumber, “Whaso funny?” I asked muzzily.
“Well,” she answered, “your head won’t feel like pounded meat, but tomorrow your muscles will probably end the day more like overcooked pasta instead.”
“Das fine,” I mumbled as I drifted off, and then there was nothing but oblivion.
**
Once Taylor drifted off I covered her with the comforter that lay folded on the footlocker at the foot of the bed before shutting off the light and leaving the room, closing the door behind me. Taylor had filled us in over dinner on the things that had been going on in her life over the last few years, including the nearly two years of bullshit that those three little bitches had put her through. “She’s a better person than I am Aunt Emily,” I said as I found my aunt sitting quietly at the Ward’s kitchenette counter. “If it had been me I would have long since beat the hell out of at least one of them.
She chuckled mirthlessly at that, “You’re very much like your father in that Akane,” she said after a moment. “He was never one to suffer fools or bullies and I suppose that is one of the reasons he joined the Corps as opposed to the PRT like I did.” I nodded at that, he had written letters to me before I was even born and had sent them along with the ones that he had sent to mom. His stories of growing up, his time in Somalia, all of it was because he felt he could change things. “That said,” Aunt Emily said pulling my attention out of the depression spiral that I had started down, “You are also your own person Akane, and I expect you to chart your own path, though I figure you to be a bit more law abiding than your father was at your age.”
I chuckled at that, dark thoughts banished for the moment. “I make no promises Aunt Em,” I replied. “My friends, my team, you know I’m going to be there for them no matter what I have to do right?”
She smiled, “I expect nothing less than that,” she said getting off the barstool that she had been sitting on. “Goodnight Akane, I’ll see you in the morning.”
“Night Aunt Em,” I said as she slid from her seat and exited the Ward’s area and I turned to go to my own room. Today had been one of those days that didn’t go according to plan, but maybe that had been for the best. Spirits only knew what screwed up fate had been averted by me showing up when I did.
**