A Public Service Announcement:
With a few clicks of the button a video took up the monitor and began playing.
Words began to fade onto the black screen. 'This is a public service and safety announcement' it read before fading into the back for another oiture to take its place.
This time it was the image of a well dressed and masked man standing in an empty classroom, leaning against the teacher's desk casually as he faced the camera. "Hello, my name for the follow presentation will be Freeman." He stood and took a grand bow towards the camera. "And today I am going to talk to you about the dangers of bullying, mugging and other harmful things that can be done to people. Now, while most of you may be thinking I'm talking about the damage that can be done the victim, I'm not. As horrible as it sounds I'm really not.
The danger I'm talking about is the possible damage to both the perp, the one instigating the confrontation, and anyone in the nearby area."
The man began to walk around the desk and pull down a projector screen, "To understand what I'm talking about I first have to explain to you what a Trigger Event is." The camera zooms in on the screen and a cartoon of a depressed man walking down the street began to play.
As the cartoon tripped and fell to the ground, where he began to be stepped on by the passing crowd, Freeman continued to speak "A Trigger Event is never something glorious, it is often described as the worst day of somebody's life. A day they wouldn't wish on their worst enemy." The cartoon character is seen to stand up and limp to his car only to find it with its windows smashed and tires missing, "It is the day they are brought to their lowest point." As the cartoon walked home in the sudden rain car sped by and splashed him with a growing puddle, "Where we think we can't take much more, and are proven right." As the shivering cartoon passed by an open alley way he was pulled in and held at knife point by the rough description of a thug. The thug made a give'me motion only for the first cartoon character shook his head and showed his empty pockets. The thug made a scowl on his face and traced the knife along the other cartoon's face.
"It is also the day people get their powers." The first cartoon, the one depicting beat down man, shifted. Turning into a blur of water that rushed passed the crook, stripping him of clothes and flesh as the wave of high speed water passed him by. Leaving nothing but a skeleton in its wake. "And that is not an exaggeration folks. Trigger Events are usually tramatizing and often violent. The new cape will often lash out at those that would or have harmed them."
"Take this scene from Austin Texas." The scene changed to show a demolished street. "An attempted rape that ended with three blocks of the city destroyed."
"Or we can take a look at at thus case where a teen triggered after finding his brother kidnapped." The scene changes once again to show a crime scene with numerous blood stains and outlines where bodies used to be.
"Or this case in Maine where a bullied girl brought the entire building crumpling down on the student body." The scene changed to show a picture of a building in rubble with a figure floating above it.
The screen fades back onto Freeman, "And this isn't even getting into the times criminals accidentally target capes in their civilian IDs, not pretty. But that's the moral I'm trying to impart onto all of you, that things aren't pretty. That to target or cause harm to another person is almost like priming a gun in today's day and age. For every wallet stolen, every stinging word given, you risk setting a bomb off. To put a gun to everyone around you's head. Are you really willing to risk that for such petty things?"
As the video ended Madison Clemmets wasn't so sure she wanted to bully Taylor any more.
