21

Chapter Text

"Now that everyone's here…" Miss Militia began with a pointed glance at a sheepish Kid Win.

Fashionably late, Clockblocker might claim.

Ten minutes too late, actually.

Still, they were kids, and this was half for their benefit, so they were mostly occupying the couches up front while the adult members of the Protectorate stood behind them, glancing at the screens arrayed behind her with presentations prepared by someone she didn't even know the name of, frankly.

Naturally, she was in the center of the room with a standing, wheeled podium… thingie next to her, a laptop on top of it with wires trailing to the wall.

She didn't know what this furniture piece was called.

"Let's begin the bi-weekly recap. Unfortunately, this is not going to be as short as usual, and since Armsmaster is technically still on medical leave from the Lung fight a month ago, despite Tinkering nonstop for the past three days-"

Several of the older Protectorate members shook their heads with wry smirks and knowing glances at each other.

Colin was truly milking that injury for all that it was worth, even if Panacea had fixed him.

She couldn't really begrudge him that. Having one's body nearly cut in half by plasma from the crotch down was a horrific injury. If not for New Wave, or specifically, Panacea, Colin would be dead. So he deserved his medical leave, even if he technically did not need it.

It was still humorously in character for him to spend all his medical leave Tinkering though.

"-I'll be doing this recap in his stead. Now..."

She pressed enter.

"Local news first, American news second, international news concerning America third."

"To start with, Brockton Bay. Several developments. New players…" She pressed enter, the screen moved to the next slide. An image of a giant, junk-looking power armor in the middle of a shootout with PRT troopers.

"There are apparently at least two new Tinkers around, and a tentative third new cape we do not know much about. First up, Trainwreck, who seems to have joined up with Faultline's crew, unfortunately. Low tech junkyard-themed Tinker with a strong specialization on simple and durable things that can be quickly built, expanded on, and repaired. Tentatively not a threat to us, so long as Faultline gets hired for outside jobs. Ratings pending, speculative Brute-Tinker 4+. Not weak." She said, and after some muted nods and a glance at the focused eyes of everyone, she pressed enter again.

"Second. Chariot. Speed based Tinker. One appearance, allegiance unknown, leaning towards a heroic disposition. Definitely young. With any luck, he might join the Wards once we can contact him. Ratings pending, speculative Tinker-Mover 3." She vaguely gestured at the blurry images of skates on the equally blurry photo, then pressed enter again.

The image this time was just a black question mark.

"Third, unknown parahuman that after extensive forensic investigation and a brief Think Tank inquiry, is believed to have executed Mush of the Merchants in the trainyards dump. There were no signs of struggle, no witnesses, and Mush was killed in one decisive strike from above before he could react, despite being fully armored and even covered in several rusted metal plates over the strike area. Mush's ratings were Brute two to six, depending on environment and time, and Changer four. Allegiance, gender, power, and current whereabouts of the cape who killed him, all unknown." She finished, and after a moment of concern that passed through all the capes in the room, she tapped the key again.

"Fourth. Forgetful. Speculative Stranger six plus. Not much is known about her, and she was only discovered because an employee of Medhall submitted this footage of her stealing painkillers and sanitation pads from a Medhall pharmacy in the middle of rush hours without being noticed despite wearing a scarf on her face. The police forwarded it to us. Female, young, dark skinned, currently just committing petty theft. Power is speculated to be about making people forget she was conversing with them or not noticing her existence. Unsure if there is some affiliation to Spitfire besides accidental mirroring in their actions."

Another clack of the key. A black question mark.

"Five. Unknown hacker, speculated to be a Parahuman. They tried to access BBPD records at the start of the week with an automated, adapting program that brute forced through the security systems. It succeeded, until a notice was sent to Dragon and she booted them. Backtracking the connection located it in downtown Brockton Bay before it was, for a lack of a better term, nuked, and precise location became impossible to track. Such a sudden wipe is highly unusual, further making us believe this might be some kind of technopath or code-based Tinker. Nothing concerning, but something to make note of."

"Six. Whirlygig. New Merchant cape, focused on wide area aerokinesis. Has shown the ability to ramp up a tornado over time, which she can direct at will. One of the most destructive capes in the Merchant's arsenal by far. Take her down quick before she can ramp up. Shaker three to five."

Another tap.

"Seven. Oni Lee. He is not technically a new player, but he is a likely returning one. Oni Lee escaped his transport to the Birdcage-"

"Wha- wait, when did we catch Oni Lee?" Assault interrupted, his voice incredulous. Murmurs of assent and confusion rose from the other Protectorate members, which also made the Wards confused.

"We were told that he was decisively out of the picture until further notice, if you remember." She reminded him, frowning a little.

"I mean, yeah, I thought that meant he lost a limb or something. I don't remember any of us reporting his capture or anything like that." Assault said, glancing aside at Battery with a strange shrug of confusion.

There was a reason for that, one that only she and Armsmaster knew about as the two most experienced and trusted, but she couldn't say such things. She could still say most of the truth.

"He was caught in Syracuse. For anyone who doesn't know, that is a day or so away from here. That is why. We do not know why he was there or what he was doing, but he has refused to talk or cooperate, so he was put in a high secrecy and high security transport to the Baumann Parahuman Containment Center. The person responsible for the leak has been fired." She lied, because she couldn't just outright say they had caught a mole in the PRT.

"This also segues nicely into the next section of the recap. Wider America news."

She clicked the button, and this time, the blurry picture had a play button on it.

"Oni Lee's transport was shared with Bad Canary's, and they were hit yesterday. At roughly six past eleven in the morning, the transport was intercepted by Faultline and her new recruit, presumably hired by Lung. They got up to the doors of the second van before the undercover PRT escort following the convoy tried to stop them and detain them. At this point, it devolved into the video you're about to watch." She bluntly said, and clicked the play button.

It was six minutes long, full of cuts and moving frantically from one trooper who had sight of the capes to another, trying to provide a full but short understanding of the field and situation.

To everyone's credit, they took it seriously. Even Clockblocker didn't try to crack a joke beyond snickering slightly when Icebreaker got punted out of the nightmarish structure taking up half the collapsed highway. Just focused silence.

Until it got to that part, where the chaos of the battlefield just winked out and everything became covered in that odd purple haze, and a giant black sphere parted the clouds.

"Well that's not fucking ominous." Assault sarcastically muttered, before Battery smacked the back of his head. "Ow! Hey, come on, look at this and tell me you don't wanna curse! What the fffheck is that deathball thing?"

"Yeah, what is that thing doing, actually? Some kind of kinetic energy freeze aura? Or is that a person?" Kid Win asked, leaning forward, and Hannah resisted the urge to sigh as she made a universal 'settle down' gesture, her eyes on the laptop screen.

The perspective quickly shifted to another frozen trooper's, and then the video swapped to one of the transport's guards to show the most concerning part of it all from up-close.

The four ton armored van being lifted up like it was a toy car, its reinforced armor getting torn in half like tinfoil, and the seats getting torn straight out of the transport to float back to the sphere, prisoners included.

Also, it showed quite clearly how the aura's grasp refused to let the foam expand, despite having contact with oxygen and its attempts to leave the nozzle only made the van's shredded insides covered in a thin layer of the stuff.

"Is that a telekinetic?" Dauntless asked, doing a decent job of hiding his concern.

The sphere swallowed Faultline's crew in spheres similar to itself, before doing the same to Oni Lee and Canary in a mere moment. Without any drama or delay, it exploded upwards like a rocket orbited by little mini-missiles, the air billowing around them as the sound barrier cracked with thunderous booms, a moment before the bizarre purple-black aura holding everyone in place faded, the van bursting into a giant ball of containment foam in the background.

The video was slowed down significantly to be able to showcase how quickly the unknown cape grabbed her cargo and shot up into the clouds again.

Then it ended.

"One Guild hero and a PRT hero were present, Icebreaker and Jackrabbit. Both claimed they heard Newter say 'Are you Sam's gal' to the sphere, and the sphere responded, so we can confirm only that the power's wielder is female, capable of speech, and associated with someone named Sam, and is likely not in Faultline's employ, especially considering the language and tone used."

Vista snorted with a slow grin, for some reason.

"This happened in Montreal, just outside the US-Canada border. Further research from Dragon has shown that neither this power nor its wielder have ever popped up anywhere, including vocal scans, and the only Parahumans with 'Sam' in their name are either in custody or too unrelated to be employing or deploying this woman. Dragon's surveillance satellites were only able to keep up with her and keep other important things in sight for about half of her trip, but by all accounts, it seemed she was heading to either New York, Boston, or here. Temporary PRT designation is Blackgrasp. Speculative power ratings are: Mover eight, Shaker twelve, Blaster four to six, Breaker one plus, Thinker one."

A hand shot up, and she nodded at Aegis to continue.

"Ma'am, I must admit I'm still not certain of how power ratings work, but isn't Shaker twelve a little excessive? I think Vista has ten on that, and her power is much more… Shaker-y."

"Yep." Vista said.

It was Battery that answered.

"It's complicated. It's not just about how strong an effect is, or how much it affects the area it's reaching, it's about how difficult it is to counter the effect, avoid it, how versatile it is, and some other details not even I know about. It also has mostly to do with how much of a threat the power itself is to civillians and PRT personnel. If anything, I think they're undershooting it. Instant, mass freeze. No way to counter, dodge, or prevent. And those transport vans are armored like tanks. Theoretically, she could drop onto a Protectorate base, hold everyone down, and kill them by bombarding them with rubble and cars." The woman said, her mouth twisting like she ate a sour grape.

She nodded in agreement.

"Additionally, she lifted that armored van, a four ton transport vehicle, and almost tore it in half with her telekinesis-aligned power effect, while displaying disturbing precision, and holding down seventy three PRT troopers and Icebreaker, who has a Brute three rating. Be wary of anything like this effect, and if you spot her, preliminary advice is to keep your distance or run the complete opposite direction unless engagement is necessary. We do not know her range limit and restrictions, and until we do, avoidance is best if possible. Moving on."

The image swapped to a map of Brockton Bay, color coded with gang territories and suspected spots of illicit activities.

"As for the gangs here… well, it's bad. After Lung's fight a month ago-"

She watched several winces cross faces, all over the room.

"-with the Undersiders and the Protectorate, there had been a period of wait while everyone was trying to figure out if the landscape had shifted any, and it seems they're all done prodding and waiting. Lung is down Oni Lee, though that might not be the case anymore, and he's acquired a Tinker. The Empire seems to think that letting Lung play for time with a Tinker on his side is a bad idea, so they've started slowly prodding and hounding him, trying to bleed him of resources. It's working to some extent."

She lifted a finger to the screen behind her.

"They poke at this end of his territory, and if he shows up, they retreat, take Rune, Krieg and Purity and go hit the opposite side of his turf, for example. Lung's section around the Trainyards is rapidly shrinking as he centralizes his resources to be able to defend them, and the Merchants are starting to get overly ambitious and have started nipping at the free new space as Lung pulls back. They won't hold it, but they're definitely making a nuisance of themselves. Lung doesn't take well to insults, as the Undersiders unfortunately learned. He is likely to go on a big offensive soon to get his territory back and maybe even push back, so it's looking like a full-blown gang war soon, at least until Lung gets revenge. Coil has been quiet, although there have been a few firefights between him and the ABB, who are for some reason poking at his territory. Expect adjusted patrol schedules as we try to contain this."

The image swapped to a similar map of Boston, with Accord's territory a yellow, Blasto's a green one, and the Teeth's a red one. Accord had settled in the center of the city, worryingly close to the PRT itself, while Blasto had a small chunk of territory on the left end of Boston and the teeth held a worryingly large section of the coastline, with the far right section being marked as contested with yellow-black lines crossing over it.

"Accord's Ambassadors are keeping things quiet, as usual, but there has been movement from them. Likely there's something he's been brewing that he's about to kick off into. Blasto hasn't done anything yet, but his latest creations are starting to get worryingly organic. Something to look out for."

They couldn't afford another Nilbog in Boston.

"The Teeth and the Butcher are getting antsy and violent, more than usual. It seems Blasto and Accord are just sitting it out and letting the Teeth trade punches with the local PRT, but it's not a very sustainable state for the city. Next."

Another clack of the key, and a girl wearing green and gold showed up, smiling for the cameras on her debut.

The sight made her heart clench.

Because while everyone could say they didn't know, they all had their suspicions about the incident, and hers made her feel sick. It wasn't the first time.

"A Ward by the name of Valiant has been attacked and kidnapped along the US-Mexico border. Investigation pending, but all activity among that line has been frozen, and the legality of having US capes barge into Mexico is starting unnecessary tensions. We aren't close, but this was a targeted strike, so we believe there may be someone trying to kidnap capes for some nefarious purpose or another. If anything like this moves up to here, we'll be including Protectorate members into your patrols, I'm afraid. Be careful and do not post anything about it on social media or PHO, Wards, obviously. Next."

Another clack. No picture, but a summarized version of observations, written in plain text.

"There is suspicion that Heartbreaker might have started another roundtrip. Nothing but suspicious movements and odd breadcrumbs that don't even lead in our direction, but multiple cities in Canada have deployed scouts and are preparing for lockdowns just in case, so in the off-chance he heads here, we might do something similar. Next."

A picture of Cranial with her PRT classifications.

"Cranial, a Tinker that started Toybox, a black market for Tinkertech years ago, left said black market about six months ago for unknown reasons. Since then, she has been the main suspect of dozens of disappearances that coincide with sightings of her, and in the past week, has been sighted with the Slaughterhouse Nine. Her specialty is about affecting the memory and the brain. Next, international news concerning America, which we actually have to show this time, unfortunately." She hurried forth, trying not to dwell on such topics too much, and clicked the enter key again.

A headline in Polish, showing the image of a man in costume, covered in Tinkertech weapons, his mask nothing but an ear-wide white grin etched on leather with black goggles for eyes.

"The Polish authorities over in Europe have warned us that their resident Kill Order recipient, or the equivalent of it, has decided to flee. They're suspecting he took an illegal transport and is heading to the American continent. His cape name, translated, is Stopper of Hearts, or Heartstopper when Americanized. I'm afraid his power does exactly what it sounds like."

Sighs, worried looks, the frowns etching deeper.

This bi-weekly recap was already shaping up to be longer than she'd like, so she couldn't help but agree. The less news, the better.

Because it was never good news.

"Its line of sight, seven to twelve second cooldown as far as observed, instant heart and brain death. His power works through scopes and binoculars, unfortunately, so by the time they found out who was doing it and how, Heartstopper had already killed twenty seven capes, and eleven more since. In a country as small as Poland, that's a huge number. Almost a fourth of all recorded parahumans in the entire country, in fact. His bounty is set to fifty million, so expect a huge influx of international bounty hunters to start flocking our way. If you see anyone like this, break line of sight immediately at all costs, and report it as soon as you can. His path seemed to be heading for Canada or even Greenland, but there is a chance that it was misdirection and he might be coming to the US coastal cities. Ratings pending, tentatively given Blaster seven. Next…"

And this would be the annoying bit. She wasn't sure how to break these kind of news, not really. At least it was somewhat positive.

"The team will be getting a new Ward soon." She said, not bothering with the key. There was no reason to show the video next in the folder.

And just like that, all the Wards straightened, eyes widening, their attention directed at her with abrupt intensity.

"She will come over on Monday for power testing, and after she completes the appropriate classes on required and excessive force, general protocol and public conduct, as well as getting a name and outfit assigned, she will be inducted into the team. Normally, this would be where this would end, but as per recommendation by experts, we were told to give you a bit of a… heads up." She said, trying to find a way to word this that wouldn't alienate the poor girl before she even came here.

"Do you all remember the Shrieker incident in Winslow high? I believe it was about three and something months ago."

The Wards reacted differently.

Vista just looked confused, like trying to remember some distant puzzle she forgot.

Gallant closed his eyes and sighed. Kid Win grimaced with a slow hiss, and Clockblocker let out a breath as he rubbed the back of his neck, leaning back to stare at the ceiling.

Aegis slumped.

"Oh boy." He muttered in defeat, seeing where this was going.

"For those of you who know what I'm talking about, yes, the new Ward was Shrieker. That was her trigger event, as far as we are aware. And since you will likely figure out who she is regardless, we were told to give you a bit of heads up to not mention that incident or anything surrounding it, and try to avoid discussions of it, and try to limit any mental health related jokes to a minimum." She noted with an obvious stare at Clockblocker, who raised his hands in mock-surrender.

"Yeah, I get it, no more 'I want to commit seppuku' jokes or whatnot. Won't be a problem." He said with an easy smile, likely concocting different jokes already.

She nodded, and turned her gaze back to the Wards.

"Additionally, do not mention Shadow Stalker or Sophia around her, at all. They knew each other and did not have a good relationship."

Clockblocker snorted.

"I doubt she was capable of having any of those." He sniped, and Aegis frowned at him, while the rest of the Wards either agreed or ignored the comment.

Hannah gave him a disapproving stare before turning back to roaming the occupants of the couches with her eyes.

"Also, I believe this is needless to say, but do not judge someone based on how they acted during their Trigger event." She started, but before she could continue, Vista raised a lazy hand.

She nodded to her.

"I'm out of the loop here, I don't follow the news or anything. What is this Shrieker incident? Did she kill someone at Winslow or something? Just… you know, this is starting to sound a little more delicate than I feel comfortable with." Vista explained, and it was a reasonable question.

Aegis saved her from trying to wiggle her way out of showing the video of the girl scraping her own flesh off of herself on the open courtyard of her school while wailing like she was in the worst agony Miss Militia could imagine. Not only was it just immensely disturbing and ear-grating, she would rather not violate the girl's dignity by showing such things without her consent.

"It's uhm… hm, how to put this." Aegis started, scratching his chin.

She was not a soulless leech like most journalists and news channels were.

She just really did not want to show them the video. If they wanted to, they could find short clips of it on recorded news channels that got released before the PRT used the identity protection act to smother them.

"Oh cut the suspense, come on. It was just that some girl in Winslow turned into a bus-sized monster and started rolling around in the courtyard, shrieking her lungs out and trying to bash her brains out on the open yard. Not pleasant, obviously, and it was a real spectacle so it got on the local news here, but nobody got hurt besides a couple guys that were too close and got burst eardrums." Clockblocker waived, trying to go for nonchalance.

She approved.

Vista grimaced.

"Oof. Yeah, that sounds rough. She'll be here by next week?" Vista asked, her eyes on Hannah.

She shook her head.

"She'll probably be cleared for patrols by next week. She'll be here by Monday. And with that, this bi-weekly recap and briefing is over, at least for the things we can say in front of Wards." She said, and without hesitation besides a disappointed sigh from Vista, they got the queue and got up to walk out of the room.

The adults in the room waited until the door clicked shut before turning back towards her.

She clicked on the enter key again.

The screen showed a small map of Brockton Bay.

"Now, a short briefing on the current plan of action to keep Brockton Bay from going down in flames for the next week." She said without a hint of actual sarcasm, and Assault let out a wistful chuckle as they all stepped forward to take the couches.

Notes:

inconsistencies in the timeline and general changes abound, but i dont care for accuracy that much and i dont think you guys do either considering the nature of this story already