1.7

1.7

The trip from our hotel to the PRT building was uneventful. I assume it's a lot like traveling as royalty. Or an inmate. People guiding you where you need to go and driving you and no talking to the point that the most complex thought necessary was remembering to walk. I was bored. Normally that wouldn't be too bad because I could find something to take apart. Sadly I had no tools, they had been left at the house, several of them in the -walls- of the house. Thinking about that fiasco I'm almost hoping Sophia had shown up to threaten me. If she had shown up to apologize I'd feel... well not -bad- about it necessarily, but slightly less justified.

When we were seated to wait for whoever we were meeting to be ready and for our lawyer to show up. Apparently dad had done some major research and got some lady that apparently is experienced in dealing with parahumans and the PRT in general. While we were waiting I pulled out my notebook that had some numbers from earlier written in and I started drawing out some math figuring now is as good a time as any to come up with some way of gauging my power and charting growth. Besides, I -really- wanted to know how strong that Foxfire BOMB had been, wouldn't want to accidently turn someone into a fine mist on accident. It was actually pretty lucky Sophia had changed to a shadow - rather than calling the PRT we might be hiding a body right about now.... well what would be left of one anyway.

As I was doing some conversions from energy types and a bit of handwavium to estimate general power levels three people showed up, and all had their focus on me. I ignored them and kept writing. They'll go away eventually. When one of them coughed I flipped pages to the first to look at old notes and wondered if they would try sneezing next. I never really understood how coughing was meant to say 'It's my turn to speak'. All sorts of confusing when someone has a cold. They decided to ditch the subtle approach and Miss Militia attempted to get my attention. "Will, can we talk?"

"Go for it" and I kept writing. I considered flipping to the back of the book and sketching out a toaster just to screw with them. Maybe after I figure out if there's a correlation of size of aura to control.

"I was hoping we could speak to you privately. Shadow Stalker has something she needs to say.". Yep, that was indeed Sophia and some guy around our age standing there.

I flip to the back page, tear it out, produce my spare pen and set both on the seat next to me "If it has to be private she can write a note." and I flip back to continue with my numbers. Miss Militia seemed calm as ever, I kinda like that, just wish she understood that I just don't care what Sophia has to say - not in the mean way, just, it doesn't matter. The guy seemed annoyed though, based on the sounds he's making, so I decide the guessing game is fun and a good way of practicing splitting my focus, so let's go over clues. Sophia is here, probably for some sort of apology or a 'I know you're a cape, you screw me over I out you.', Miss Militia is acting as a buffer. Since he seems to be roughly our age and in costume (Hey fancy shoes), he's probably either a ward, an example or the leader of the wards. Then again they could think I'm gay and try to get me to make this easy on the PRT by offering me eye candy - it could be why he's upset I'm not looking up. As much as that one would be fun, I'm banking on him being the leader. I hear Sophia growl as she steps forward to grab the paper and pen, I can practically -feel- Miss Militia glare at her.

Sophia writes something and hands the paper back to me. All it says is "I'm here to apologize". I -almost- roll my eyes. "I'm sure that was hard for you to do Sophia, but not exactly something you need to say in private." I hear 'Tentatively Wards Leader' choke and hiss something to Miss Militia as I hand the paper back.

Miss Militia lowers her voice some saying "Will, you can't just say a cape's name like that, you'll make yourself a target of every cape in Brockton Bay."

I blink as my mind blanks from how silly that is. I cross out a mistake it caused and say "Okay, I can understand how that would be bad manners. Sitting there talking to some cape, say their first name and Lung hears it. Now he asks the almighty internet who that person is. How in the world does that situation end with Kaiser gunning for me?" Odd, I just noticed Sophia has been around me for five or ten minutes and she's only growled once. She's on really good behavior. Either I impressed her by blowing myself up or she's in MAJOR trouble.

My parents are watching the event by this point but haven't said anything yet. 'Tentatively Wards Leader' is kind enough to answer my question while I go back to writing. "It's the unwritten rules, you don't out a cape, even if you find out who they are." Okay, I have to know. I look up and straight into his face. Nope nothing. I turn to MM... still nothing. I finally look at Sophia in her Shadow Stalker getup. well facial expressions are hard to get with a helm in the way. I go the blunt route.

Incredulously I ask "Really? This isn't some giant gag, that's really a -thing-?" When Sophia confirms it I really wish I had a desk to slam my forehead down on. The stupidity might be contagious so I need to get it out asap. I just shake my head and turn back to my numbers and try to find my place. "I can't believe this. Capes have a -club-. It's like going out golfing with your group and there's the one or two guys that fudge their score a bit but no one says anything because everyone decided it was okay."

MM tries 'reason' "It's serious. If someone were to break the unwritten rules everyone would come down on them because they don't want their identity to be leaked. Following these rules keeps us from having all out war on our hands."

I cringe for a moment but then decide the argument is worthless. Even if I made my point nothing would change. It's still stupid and I'm pretty sure the gangs would only get up in arms about it if they had something to gain , and the PRT can't arrest you on rules that aren't fucking written down. I'm tempted to ask if they have a flying heroes club where they don't talk about the joys of flight to the ground bound cretins. Sophia hands me the paper again, this time it says "WE NEED TO TALK! - I know your secret!" I almost laugh. I -barely- manage to hold it in, we -just- got done talking about unwritten rules and not outing capes and she thinks this is important?

"I make awesome toasters. There, my secret is out."

'Tentatively Wards Leader' has apparently had enough. Personally I'm having fun now, this is better than that pesky math stuff. Mr. maybe leader says "What the hell is your problem!?"

I blink for a moment as I start to mentally list them, decide he said 'problem' singular and so need clarification. "Which one? Personal issues, social issues, current perceived problem, things I have problems with or the math I was working on?"

I think I heard Sophia laugh - not much of one, but I think it was there. Apparently she likes seeing Tentatively Wards Leader annoyed. Mister Wards Leader says "The third one, why are you being so difficult?"

I nod "Primarily that has to do with options one, two and four. The summarization is; 'I just don't care.'"

TWL looks a little dumbfounded, "What?"

I sigh "Alright, how do I explain this?... Okay, let's say she says she's sorry and makes a giant speech of an apology. I don't care. So let's say she threatens me. I -still- don't care. Let's say she tells me she found my long lost brother, still nothing. Hell, let's say she tells me she -is- my long lost brother. I'll be a little confused because let's be honest, she's kinda hot in that crazy 'I'm gonna chase you down and stab you in the face' sort of way - but overall, I still won't care."

TWL crosses his arms and accuses me "So you're just going to throw her under the bus."

I roll my eyes "Any bus throwing would have been done by Stalker herself. - Oh, Taylor could do some bus throwing." I turn to Sophia "You really did kinda fuck up there." I think she's glaring at me. MM is watching the back and forth, not adding anything in and doesn't seem to be acting too judgemental.

Around that time the Lawyer showed up and we were brought in to speak with the director. The trio followed us and my father was talking with the lawyer, I think he was a little disappointed I didn't just stick with 'can't talk without lawyer!'. I did however walk up next to mom "Did you know, the PRT, an agency designed to enforce the law, plays the -worst- game of cops and robbers ever? The robber normally wears a ski mask to be unidentifiable, so now he goes and robs a place and the 'police' chase him. When he gets home he takes off his mask and they just leave him alone until he puts it back on." She laughs and shakes her head saying she had heard the whole thing.

When we enter the office I'm very surprised at just how large Piggot is. She also seems to be rather angry at us, like it's our fault Sophia's a bitch. Then again I guess it -is- our fault Sophia got caught. I guess I should have just let her stab me. Yeah that's not gonna happen. As soon as the last person touches their seat Piggot starts in on us. "Based on the evidence, you severely injured, imprisoned and tortured a high school girl. What happened?" Huh, I guess you can make anything sound the way you want if you ignore context. Everyone looks pretty shocked, even Miss Militia. So, they aren't following a script. or at least not the one Piggot is.

My father looks to the lawyer then turns back to Piggot. "A young girl named Sophia Hess broke into our house in the middle of the night with the use of parahuman powers which allowed her to bypass all security measures by moving through the wall of my son's room. Upon entering his room she was disabled and shortly after, she was restrained so she could be held until law enforcement arrived to take care of the situation. Because of the power she possessed additional measures were necessary to ensure she did not cause injury to me or my family in our own home."

Piggot seems to deflate a little but still had some heat in her voice "How was Sophia disabled?"

When both my parents look at me to see if I wanted to say it. I deadpan "It was my experimental Emergency Infiltration Countermeasure Toaster. It had a warning sticky note, I don't think she read it."

It seems to almost pain Piggot to say the next words "And... what is this -toaster- designed to do?"

I look at her as if it's obvious "It supplies toast to infiltrators in the emergency that there is no toast currently available."

"And how -exactly- did this disable Ms. Hess?"

I smile "It gave her toast. She stopped to eat it."

Piggot growls "And it exploded?"

I shake my head "Oh no, Sophia exploded. I have no idea why."

My mother is just grinning, my father is just waiting for the wackiness to go away and the lawyer lady looks a little offput, probably due to lying to a law enforcement agency. Piggot follows up "And where is this toaster?"

I shrug "Probably in the kitchen."

"The only toaster in the kitchen was a standard model with an augment that contained a loaf of bread and some sort of self loading feature."

I nod "Yeah, that one. What? Did you think I kept a toaster infected with a malicious AI and explosives in the middle of my room? That's crazy."

The lawyer speaks up now Aggressively - I assume partially to interrupt my ramblings "Piggot, you know you don't have a leg to stand on here. Sophia has been physically abusing students at Winslow High School, particularly William Taylor and Taylor Hebert. There is a possibility that the kidnapping of William on Thursday was at least partially orchestrated by Sophia as an attempt at escalation. He was rescued with no injuries, then, the very next day, Sophia broke into his room, directly, at midnight. This shows he was the target, it was premeditated and research had been done to determine the room and possibly time. It was probably another attempt at escalation. Somehow he only received a minor concussion during the altercation. We all know if this were to be tried in civilian court she'd be shipped off to juvenile hall, no questions asked. If all of what Sophia did was leaked to the media, not even the PRT could stop the shitstorm coming her way. If her connection to the PRT were to be leaked somehow then the PRT would have a WAR on their hands. Media would be all over you and E88 would use it as a rallying point. Your options come down to 'do whatever we ask' or 'cut your losses and throw Sophia to the wolves'. One way, the Taylors get what they want and the PRT gets to keep a cape that stops a lot of crime, and who knows, maybe she can be turned into a human being one day. The other way, The Taylors get -half- of what they want and the minor satisfaction of you being ripped apart by the media and E88." Every word was like another brick dropping on Piggot

Dad spoke up "Lucky for you we feel that without the PRT Brockton Bay wouldn't exist anymore." Piggot regained a little life at this. "All we really want are for the costs of hotel, doctor and repairing the damages to the house to be paid on top of a small grievance fee to Will. I say small because I'm pretty sure he doesn't care much and would prefer to get this over with rather than debate a larger sum." Everyone looks shocked for a moment, not a single thing mentioned about a restraining order for Sophia or... anything. Well, other than me. I was getting bored again. "One last thing. You will agree to whatever Taylor Hebert demands." That explains why he didn't make any mention of Sophia, let Taylor deal with that nonsense.

Piggot grits her teeth then nods saying "Fine, we'll contact you after we speak with Ms. Hebert." She sighs then reaches under the table and pulls out some forms and passes them across the table. It looks like some sort of non-disclosure agreement. "We'll need you to sign those as part of the agreement."

All three of us at the same time slide it back across the table and dad gives her a hard look "We're not signing a damn thing until everything is set."

After that was just a little word sparring, nothing important, it seemed more like posturing between the lawyer and Piggot. The whole situation felt like they were used to bullying people to get what they needed, that just doesn't work when someone calls your bluff. Miss Militia pulled me to the side as we were leaving, but my parents stopped with me. Seeing how aggressive Piggot had attempted to be bothered them. MM handed me a card with a phone number and a website. I swear I keep getting these things. She then places a hand on my shoulder, leans forward and whispers concernedly "Unaffiliated capes have high mortality rates. Backup makes the difference out there."

I groan and roll my eyes, I would assume most capes get their powers in their teenage years, and teenagers are notorious for bad decisions. Of -course- new capes that have no ties to anyone die often. They don't wait until they're ready. Oh I get it, the talk with Sophia earlier was actually going to be a talk with MM about 'What do we need to do to get you to join?'. Honestly I should have known they'd find out. Sophia had to give a report after all. Heh, unwritten rules my ass.

Dad asks "What's wrong?"

I tilt my head towards MM who looks a little concerned "They think I can make bombs with my brain. First time someone thought I was parahuman I was kidnapped, we'll see what happens this time. I'm banking on a life threat to open a vault."

Mom laughs and dad shakes his head. MM still seems a little concerned. We get the 'royal' treatment all the way back to the hotel. So, I was introduced to the Tentatively Wards Leader and Director Piggot... not very great impressions. Glad I don't care to join them. My parents and I discussed the meeting and why Piggot seemed so aggressive on top of -why- TWL was even there. MM made sense to keep Sophia in line, and Sophia because it was about her. Her showing up in costume probably hurt their footing once dad went on attack and by the time the lawyer had started in it had all broken down.

We had room service bring us a meal and I showed my parents some of the things I could do, I even lifted my mother and started hovering around the room. I couldn't use infuse on her so carrying had to do. Once they settled in and turned on the TV I went to my room and did my typical practice then slipped into bed.