29 Interlude: Noah Balvan

If you'd asked Noah what it was like to be a PRT director a month ago, he would have said how the work was tough but rewarding and that compared to the other directors, he has it easy.

That would have been the case one month ago.

Now however, is a completely different story.

It's the middle of the night on christmas day, and while Noah 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 be spending what little free time he has with his lovely wife Mary and his adorable little boy James.

Instead, he found himself the unhappy recipient of a phone call for an emergency meeting despite the fact that he was already in bed and ready for a good nights sleep.

Which is why he is now walking into one of the PRT buildings' many meeting rooms with still dishevelled hair and hastily put on clothes.

As he enters the room, he gives up on trying to tie his tie, and just lets it hang around his neck. Hopefully, it will help drive home the point that he would much rather be in bed right now.

But with his job being what it is, work takes priority over everything else. Inside the room he looks around to see who's present.

He first notices Tiamat's draconic head which is looking as vaguely dissatisfied as usual as well as Kitsune, or Yumiko since she hasn't bothered to wear her costume.

Because, in her words 'It's christmas. The villains will be busy killing each other today so it's not like we'll have anything to do anyway'. It is slightly annoying that no one could really refute her words, but considering this meeting, it's likely that she wasn't actually right for once.

Other than those two, there is another pair of Heroes present in the Arthurian duo, formally trio, of Excalibur and Avalon.

They are both as quite as usual, still having not moved on from their leader, Arthur's tragic death.

The other capes are all busy with either patrolling the busy streets or, in the case of the Wards, enjoying some time off with their families.

Other than the parahumans present, there is also the Deputy Director James, who just so happens to share the same name as Noah's son.

"Alright, I'm here. Now get to the point so I can get back to bed." Noah demands as he takes his seat at the head of the table.

Not batting an eye at his grumpy boss, Deputy Director James taps on his tablet a few times before the rooms projector blinks on and everyone's eyes move to the wall where images are now being displayed.

"This is CCTV footage that was captured approximately two hours ago, at 2200 hours." Deputy James says as the video starts playing.

In the grainy footage, it's hard to see what is happening properly.

One can barely make out some flashes of varying colours at the edge of the screen. All said, the video was rather uninformative, making everyone look at James in confusion.

"About two hours ago, a group of Red Branch members, including several capes, were assaulted and for the most part, killed. The only footage we have of the incident is this."

A wave of frowns spread across the room with the exception of Yumiko, who is still on her phone, and Tiamat, who looks like a dragon, so who really knows what face she's making.

"Do we know who killed them? For that matter, how do you even know how many capes were present?" Avalon asks.

However, James simply grimaces instead of properly responding, before tapping a few more times on his tablet and speaking again.

"Because that video 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 have been all the information we had. However that is not the case, and I am unsure if it is a good thing or not."

With that said, a new video shows up on the wall, showing a freeze frame of a close up shot of a mask.

The mask itself is obviously fashioned in the style of a clown, with the big red nose painted in the middle as well as a pair of upside down red hearts over the eyes, with a matching pair of thin black triangles pointing down from the eyes. Other than that, the mask is bare white, with nothing denoting a mouth.

James gestures to the projection as he speaks further.

"A little less than two hours ago, at 2210 this video was released on various sites online, most notably through a new PHO account that was created only minutes before the video was posted by a man calling himself the Fool."

With that, he hits play on his tablet, and the video starts rolling.

"He~llooo people of America! I am the fool, and today, I have quite the video for youuu. Take a look!"

The now named Fool shouts as the video cuts to show a familiar night street.

What follows, is one of the goriest fights that anyone at the table had ever seen, as the cities newest vigilante 𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 rips through a group of Red Branch members, including a pair of capes who didn't seem to even slow her down, never mind diminish the showmanship she was showing.

For a little longer than two minutes, the people present watched as Tear danced around the group of men, twirling, spinning and jumping, even bowing theatrically as she landed on Morrigan's bear like form.

The video ends with Tear standing in front of the lone Equaliser, and as she leans forward slightly and blows a kiss, the screen cuts back to Fool's face.

"By golly! What a scary video!", Fool gasps, putting a hand on his heart as he leans back, pretending to be afraid, only to suddenly stop the act and turn back to the camera.

"Isn't it funny that in the past two years, the PRT hasn't removed a single villain from this city, yet all it took was one vigilante a month and a half to get rid of five?~ What a laugh!" He ends with a shout, before laughing in a loud, fake laugh that sounds more like someone just saying the word 'Ha' repeatedly.

Then, without any preamble, the video simply ends, the screen turning to black.

Silence prevails in the room as everyone processes what they just saw.

It's bad enough that a video like that is now circulating online, but the worst parts are how it not only seems to be the debut of a new cape, but one who clearly isn't friends with the PRT.

Noah is the one to break the tense silence, bringing everyone's eyes to his own, even Yumiko understands that now isn't a time to be playing on her phone and pays attention.

"Do we have any leads on who this Fool is?" Comes Noah's terse voice.

Unfortunately his only response is James shaking his head.

"Not a clue." Naturally, a more detailed explanation as to how they know nothing will be given later, but the 'what' is more of a priority than the 'why'.

"And the vigilante, Tear? was it? I thought she disappeared. Do we have any ideas why she's back now?" Noah asks, continuing his interrogation.

"Nothing definitive, but it might not be a coincidence that her disappearance and reappearance happened to coincide with that of the Yamori family of Fallen."

This peaks Tiamat's interest enough that the typically taciturn dragon woman speaks out her own question. "Then, are you implying that the mess we found in the bunker those Fallen were living in was the result of this vigilante?"

She asks in a voice that is surprisingly human considering her face, which has no doubt been a great disappointment to many people.

It's understandable that she is focusing on that aspect of the information revealed, as Tiamat doesn't get to 'stretch her legs' so to speak, very often since her power requires a rather large amount of collateral damage.

But since the Fallen were both out of city limits and, well, 𝘍𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘯, she was given the green light to go all out and she was looking forward to it.

Only to be disappointed as all that was left behind was an empty abode and a whole lot of drying blood.

"That is our assumption, the main thing that is calling doubt is the fact that we had assumed that the eradication of the Yamori branch of Fallen was done by a group, as even if they aren't one of the notable Fallen branches, for one person to eliminate them all is certainly not possible for a cape with the ratings we had assigned to Tear."

James' response just gets a derisive snort out of Tiamat as she turns to glare at Yumiko, who only spares her a disinterested glance before pulling her phone back out and going back to ignoring everyone.

"Looks like you were wrong Yumi. I thought you 'had an eye for this sort of thing' hm?" Tiamat goads.

However, as with all verbal bouts, Yumiko remains unphased as her bored voice sounds out.

"Hmmm. Guess I was wrong then. If she was captured by the Yamori, and subsequently escaped via murdering them all, then her Changer and Brute ratings can probably be bumped up to a six each." She says with a shrug, not even looking up at Tiamat even as she glares in return.

"Indeed", Noah interrupts, forestalling the approaching one-sided argument, "put through a request for reassessment of Tear's threat rating, with a recommendation of Changer and Brute 6, Thinker 1 and we might as well bump her Mover rating up to 2 while we're at it."

With that said, Noah waits for his deputy to finish noting things down before continuing.

"Do we have any idea how Red Branch is planning on responding, or how many people have seen the video and their reactions?"

Coughing lightly to clear his throat, James looks back at his trust tablet and starts reading out reports.

"So far we don't know how Red Branch is going to respond, as the video is still new. We will likely have an answer tomorrow and it's assumed that with the same person taking away a third of their capes by themselves that Cu Chulainn is likely to make an example of her himself. It's also likely that Cath will come out so that they can show that they still have fangs, otherwise the other gangs would probably try something, thinking them weak."

Noah groans and palms his face at the thought of all the conflict that is about to break out, all because of a single cape doing what she wants.

"As for the video itself, it already has a decent amount of views, a number that is still growing. The response is widely split, with a number of people condemning the PRT for being ineffective and praising Tear for enacting 'justice' on the villains and that number would probably be higher if not for the simple fact that her... proclivities when it comes to violence have turned off a lot of people from supporting her."

Noah Grimaces behind his hand at the reminder of the very gruesome video he just watched.

"However the majority of responses seem to be a mix between condemning Tear and calling for us to bring her in, either for reformation or imprisonment is debated."

With a deep sigh, Noah resolves himself to do his job properly, no matter how much sleep he has to sacrifice.

"Tiamat", said dragon woman perks up slightly at Noah's address, "until I say otherwise, you are to patrol around Red Branches less populated territories. We need you ready to respond in case either of their big hitters decide to come out to play."

Now, Noah isn't someone who can cold read dragons, but he is fairly certain that it is a glint of satisfaction that flashes through her eyes at his words.

Or maybe she's just hungry, who knows really.

Sighing once more, Noah goes about giving orders and preparing is subordinates for the shitstorm that is likely on it's way.

𝘐𝘵 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘣𝘦 𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘺, 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘪𝘵?

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A/N: He~llo! Dear readers!

Just watched Riddick again for like the fifth time. I don't know why I like it so much since it's really not that good, prolly just a nostalgia thing.

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