3

Trump Card

Part 3

"Hell no."

The reaction was immediate. Everyone began talking at once. Everyone, that is, except myself, Dad ... and Shadow Stalker.

Huh.

She was now sitting bolt upright in her seat, staring at me. I couldn't make out her expression behind the scowling-woman mask she wore, but I could tell that her dark eyes were fixed on mine.

" – for your own good –" That was Director Piggot.

Experimentally, I concentrated and moved the spot of light to Sophia. It wasn't hard; the more I did it, the easier it was. Immediately, I began getting the familiar data-stream explaining to me what I could do with her powers.

" – need more heroes in the city –" Velocity's input.

I already knew most of it, so I shifted the focus of my power to Triumph, beside her.

This time, it wasn't really a data-stream, like the others. It was more like I was reading it off of a manual.

Triumph's main power was his sonic shout; it could pulverise concrete if he wished, or blast people across the room without hurting them too much. If one didn't count ruptured eardrums, that is. Apart from that, he was at the absolute peak of physical fitness and durability for a normal human; this was also an effect of his power.

There was nothing else there for me; I shifted the spot again, to Miss Militia.

" – really help round out the Wards –" Even Triumph had something to say.

I had been there before, tapped into Miss Militia's powers. Under the table, a knife formed in my hand. Then it was a gun, then a knuckleduster. With these powers, I knew, I could kill Sophia before the others could even react.

I shuddered and moved the spot of light along before temptation could go farther than speculation.

" – be interested in knowing your reasons –" Miss Militia was also talking, but not trying to out-shout the others.

The light spot settled on Velocity, and I activated the power. The world seemed to slow for me, and I had all the time in the world to think. Not that I needed that long.

I stood up. They all quieted, looking at me.

"Before we go any farther with this," I said quietly, "there's something we need to address."

"Which is?" asked Director Piggot.

"What is going to happen to Sophia?"

She coughed, and glanced down the table at Shadow Stalker. So. I was right.

"You're not sending her to juvey, are you?" I stated, before she could speak.

"We –" she began.

"You're not even kicking her out of the Wards, are you?" I went on, my voice rising.

Silence fell, the more damning the longer it rolled on.

It was Miss Militia who spoke up. "We can't."

I turned to face her, still standing. "Why? Why the hell not? You saw what she did! You know what she did!" I slammed both fists on the table, making them all jump. "For fuck's sake, she shut me in my fucking locker!"

"We're dealing with that." Piggot's voice was calm. "Shadow Stalker will be disciplined to be extent that we are able. She is a probationary Ward; proceedings will be started to send her to juvenile detention. But it will not be a short process." She raised her voice slightly. "Now, kindly sit down."

I sat. My hands were shaking; Dad took hold of one and squeezed it comfortingly.

"So why can't you shove Sophia Hess into the deepest, darkest hole you have and throw away the key?" I asked bitterly.

Miss Militia sighed. "We'd dearly love to. But ... we can't do it. Not right away."

"Why not?" asked Dad. "What's the holdup?"

"Removing a Ward from the position is tricky when the Ward is not willing to go," explained the Director. "There are procedures that need to be followed."

"And ...?" I demanded.

"And sending her to juvenile detention requires a court date," Miss Militia explained. "While we have her phone, your written record, these are just raw evidence. Allegations. They need to be cross-referenced, checked for inconsistencies, entered into the record, and so on. She gets legal counsel, who also gets to go over the evidence, and a court date is set. But until she goes to court, she's still a Ward, for PR purposes. Just yanking her from the lineup, throwing her in jail ... we can't do that, any more than the ordinary courts can."

"So ... this means that she gets to stay in the Wards?" I demanded, incredulous.

Triumph let out a humourless laugh. "More or less. For appearances' sake. Until she goes through court, the paperwork is all filed, and it's all made official. Then she officially retires from the Wards, and Sophia Hess ends up in juvenile detention."

Everyone looked at him.

"What?" he asked. "I read the guidelines too. I like to know what's going on."

Looking back to me, Miss Militia nodded. "He's essentially correct. Wards can quit at any time. But to be fired, there's a whole book of procedures that has to be followed."

She muttered something under her breath, something about "youth guard" that I didn't catch.

I frowned. "So is this what's been happening to date? Sophia bullying me and getting away with it?"

Director Piggot shook her head. "No, but it seems that the person we've had overseeing Shadow Stalker's tenure at Winslow has been taking less care than she should have been." She frowned. "I'm going to be addressing that during her exit interview."

Well, at least one person's going to be fired over this. But I drew cold comfort from the fact.

"So here and now," I pressed. "Shadow Stalker's not going to be fired? Not going to juvenile detention?"

"Not immediately, no," the Director admitted. "We will be pushing forward the court appearances, but such things follow their own pace, I'm afraid. And if Shadow Stalker decides not to make it easy on us ..."

She gave Sophia a distasteful look.

Sophia sneered back at her. "Yeah, I'll go quietly. Like hell."

"Shadow Stalker, shut up," Triumph advised her quietly but urgently. She shot him a poisonous glance, but closed her mouth.

"Seriously, what the hell?" I blurted, not caring that I was swearing in a room full of adults. "You're going to leave her in a team full of impressionable kids, until she finally goes through court and gets sent to juvey, and expect that to turn out well?"

Director Piggot shook her head. "Oh – no, no, you have the wrong impression altogether."

I stopped, halfway to my feet again. "How do you mean?"

"I mean," she told me, "that she will not be partaking in any regular public activities. Publicity shots, yes. Endbringer truce, yes. Regular patrols, no. In fact, she will effectively be confined to base when on duty, or under house arrest when not."

"Which means that we'll be down one Ward when it comes to going out on patrol," commented Triumph.

"We could do with a talented and flexible power like yours to round out the Wards," suggested the Director.

I snorted. "With Sophia there? Not a hope in hell." I stood up. "Come on, Dad, we're getting out of here."

My father stood up beside me. "What she said, in spades," he told them all. "Come on, kiddo, let's go home."

I was almost at the door, when I heard the mocking voice. "Go on, run away. Like a little bitch."

I turned, fast, using Velocity's speed. Once the turn was complete, I put the light spot on to Miss Militia. She could already do paired weapons; I decided to try a variation. In my left hand, I held a taser. In my right, a heavy caliber pistol. The taser jerked as I fired it, the compressed-air cartridge propelling the prongs straight and true. They hit Shadow Stalker, nailed her through her clothing. Current flowed. She jolted, convulsed, slumped in her chair.

The huge revolver in my right hand was aimed dead-centre at her chest, the hammer all the way back. I could have fired. But I didn't.

Velocity was out of his chair and almost all the way over to me by the time I let the weapons dissolve; I held my hands up to show that they were empty.

"Keep her away from me," I gritted.

Turning, I stalked from the room.

"She tried to fucking kill me!" shouted Shadow Stalker. She glared at Miss Militia. "With your fucking power!"

"No," Miss Militia replied. "She did not."

"I don't think so either," agreed Velocity. "She could have shot you, easily, before I got to her."

"Well, it was assault, anyway!" stormed the teenager. She rubbed the spot on her breastbone where the prongs had impacted; it was still very sore.

"Provoked assault," Miss Militia corrected her. "We all heard what you said. I'm not saying she was justified in doing what she did, but I'm certainly not blaming her for doing it."

"So she just walks? After what she did to me?"

"I would be very careful, Shadow Stalker," cautioned Director Piggot, "about throwing out comments about someone getting away with their misdeeds."

Sophia fired her last shot. "What if I went and told Youth Guard about this shit? About how you're letting her get away with attacking a Ward? Twice, even?"

Piggot's voice was as grim as her expression. "I will be sitting down with them tomorrow, and going over how best to approach your case. You've already used up your welcome, Miss Hess. You're damaged goods. You have no grounds for appeal, not any more.

"We're going to be lucky not to take a huge PR hit. I very nearly had to accept a Youth Guard watchdog into the building to oversee all of our Wards' operations, to ensure that nothing like this happens again. And if you keep up your whining, I will push for incarceration before your court date. So don't push me."

Eyes wide behind her mask, Shadow Stalker subsided back into her chair.

"Make no mistake," continued Piggot implacably. "You will be under heavy scrutiny from now on. You will only go on patrol when there is absolutely no other option, you will not be going on solo patrols, and the school will be directed to report any more misdemeanours directly to Deputy Director Renick. And if anything even vaguely suspicious happens to Taylor Hebert, at any time of night or day, we will be looking at you. Do you understand?"

Shadow Stalker sat silent.

"I said, do you understand?"

Finally, the cloaked teen nodded reluctantly. "Yeah, I got it," she acknowledged. "Can I go now?"

Piggot nodded sharply. "Get out of my sight."

Shadow Stalker went meekly enough, but there was rage building in her heart.

They can't do this to me.

This is all Hebert's fault.

She's going to fuckingpay.

As we drove away from the PRT building, Dad turned to me.

"You all right, kiddo?" he asked.

I nodded. "Yeah, I think so."

"So you've got powers. What are you going to do with them?"

I hunched down in my seat. "I have no idea. But I'm going to find out."

End of Part 3