Hope Through Overwhelming Firepower Undersiders/Piggot 1

Sometime late Arc 3

Emily Piggot absentmindedly shuffled the papers on her desk. Not reading anything on them, just calming herself in preparation for todays... task.

The Undersiders, and what to do about them. If it were up to her, she would have packed them all away within the hour of their entering PRT custody. As is, that had in fact been her plan.

Then she had gotten a phone call.

She still wasn't quite sure how she should have reacted when the Chief Director turned out to be the one in the other end of the line.

The Chief Director hadn't spoken much, just enough to issue an order to 'get Tattletale by any means necessary' offer a short farewell, and hang up. It's not like orders like that were unprecedented, the Chief Director had quite the reputation for giving out the oddest commands for no adequately explained reason, but it was something new to Piggot herself.

And so there she was. It wasn't like she necessarily objected to the reformation of villains, quite the opposite in fact. But always, it was done from a position of power, where the villain had to make concessions. With the Chief Directors orders, that position of power was very shaky indeed, especially with the implications that, if necessary, the PRT would be the ones making concessions in this scenario.

It left a poor taste in Piggot's mouth.

The obvious answer to this dilemma was to simply not let the villain know they had any power at all in the arrangement, but with both a Thinker rating and a name like 'Tattletale', Piggot had a sinking feeling that wasn't going to work out all that well.

With an internal sigh of resignation, Piggot pushed a button on her desk.

The door to her office opened. "You called, ma'am?" A female PRT officer asked of her.

Piggot nodded. "Retrieve the villain known as 'Tattletale' from the cells, and bring her to my office."

With a nod of her own, the officer closed the door as she left the room.

"You, girl!" A female voice barked into the Undersiders cell block. "You Tattletale?" The newly entered PRT officer said, while pointing at the named figure.

"Yep." Tattletale replied.

The officer sharply shook her head to the right. "Come with me, the Director wants to see you – and no funny business, you hear me?" She pointed her containment foam gun.

"Hey, hey. Watch where you're pointing that!" Tattletale complained as her cell was opened. "Besides, I'm a Thinker. What am I going to do, talk you to death?"

"Arguments could be made..." Regent spoke up from his cell.

Tattletale mock scowled. "Well screw you too."

"Hey, all of you quiet!" The officer barked.

"Right, right." Tattletale sighed, and began walking out of the prison block behind the officer.

A moment passed, and Tattletale left the cell block.

Piggot looked at the teenage girl before her. "You're Tattletale?"

"Mhm." Tattletale made an affirmative sound. "So... what am I here for?"

"You're here..." Piggot shuffled her papers again.

"Habits like that are going to dry out your fingers, ya know?" Tattletale interjected.

Piggot paused, and took a deep breath. "... Because I want to make you an offer."

"An offer, why?" Tattletale quirked her head.

"Because you seem the most... salvageable member of your team, and I prefer to have as many heroes working for me as possible." Piggot answered. "And so, I will make you an offer of proba-"

"You're being pressured by a higher up to get me in!" Tattletale interrupted.

"What-" Piggot mentally stumbled slightly.

"I'm right, aren't I?" Tattletale began to grin. "It makes sense, despite your words, there was something about this arrangement you were dissatisfied with, and Shadow Stalker proves you're not opposed to the concept... So there must be something more. Meaning: You're being pressured into making me join, and your irritation means that there's some sort of 'any means necessary' clause involved." Tattletale leaned back in her newly gained chair with the smug look of someone who knows they're in the position of power here.

Piggot's already sour mood downright curdled right there.

"So then... Well, the first thing I want is my team." Tattletale began counting off on her fingers.

"You're team?" Piggot questioned.

"My team." Tattletale confirmed. "They all get pardons and I only join if you can manage to convince them to join up too. And just between you and me." She leaned in closer. "Good luck with Regent." She finished in a faux whisper.

"I-"

"Second thing-"

"Tattletale." A calm, but powerful voice interrupted Tattletale's speech.

"Hmm." Tattletale turned to look at the door. "Who is-Wahh!" She fell out of her chair in a heap.

If Piggot were any less composed, she would have done the same. As is, she managed for 'merely' a heavy widening of the eyes.

Clothed in black and gray, the intimidating form of Alexandria filled the doorway.

"Wh-who what?" Tattletale stuttered. "Erm..." She picked herself off the floor, and sat back down in her chair. "...Hi?"

"Tattletale." Alexandria repeated. "You get it."

"What?" Tattletale blinked in confusion.

"You get your position of power in this conversation, and you get your team. You possess one of the extremely few powers that work on Buster in any capacity at all, and we have reason to believe that she may have some stability problems." Alexandria spoke. "Stability problems enough, that anything that may mitigate them is valuable. But that's all you get."

"Buster? Uh, she's powerful and all, but I really don't think soloing the ABB is worth Alexandria showing up for my conversion to herodom. What's the catch? And don't tell me there isn't one, there's clearly something-"

"That's enough." Alexandria interrupted Tattletale. "We, and by that I mean the Chief Director and I, have reason to believe Buster's importance extends significantly beyond merely 'soloing' the ABB. Your power is extensive, we wouldn't be pushing for you so hard if it wasn't, so you may very well be able to figure something out." Alexandria paused. "I imagine your power can fill you in from there."

Tattletale gulped slightly. "Uh, yeah. I can... take a hint."

Alexandria nodded. "Good, the officer will take you back to your team, now. You will be notified if anything further is required of you."

Tattletale left with the same PRT officer who brought her in.

"You know, I am the director of this base." Piggot scowled slightly. "I would have liked to have some notice of your showing up, and I would appreciate you not directing my own officers in the future."

"My apologies." Alexandria inclined her head. "But you needed someone with a powerful reputation to break the stride of that girl, unless you wanted the entire PRT building converted into the Undersiders hot tub before you got anything vaguely resembling an agreement out of her."

"True." Piggot admitted. "And that's the only reason I'm not calling up Legend and the Chief Director to file a complaint."

Alexandria nodded. "Good day then, Director Piggot."

Alexandria left the room, and Piggot let out a long suffering sigh.

"So how'd things go, Tatts?" Regent questioned.

"Well, I got to experience what it was like to have Alexandria all but threaten to kill you." Tattletale replied. "Not fun, let me tell you that."