Emily Piggot arrived to the PRT Headquarters in a foul mood. That was not to say that she was not typically in a mood one could describe as foul, only that her current mood was even worse than usual. The source of this particular mood, as it typically was, was Parahumans. More specifically, one particular parahuman who was currently sitting just outside her office, who had managed to single handedly serve her a steaming hot plate of bullshit by killing Hookwolf of all people.
Oh sure, it couldn't have happened to a better asshole; she certainly wouldn't be shedding any tears over his grave. The problem was how the Empire would inevitably react: Hookwolf was one of their heavy hitters, not to mention relatively high up in the gang's hierarchy. His death was going to cause chaos across the city, and it fell to Piggot to once again pick up the pieces of yet another short-sighted hero too preoccupied with personal glory to see the consequences of their actions.
That wasn't even counting the other major issue Armsmaster had presented her with. An honest-to-god dimensional refugee. Or possibly an ambassador, depending on how one looked at it. Either way, it was entirely unprecedented, which raised the question of how to proceed. The first logical step was to convince him to join up with the Protectorate, possibly under a similar program as the one they used for Case 53s, modified appropriately. Take away the amnesia and the monstrous appearance, and Courier Six may as well have been one. Failing that, however, Piggot still could not lose Six here, only for him to join up with any of the gangs. He had shown both a capability and a willingness to kill, and the last thing she needed was to trade Hookwolf for someone just as homicidal and even more deadly.
"Let me make sure I have everything straight," She grunted, "This cape, Courier Six, is from an alternate dimension similar to Earth Aleph where the entire planet devolved into nuclear warfare?" When Colin made no move to interrupt, she continued. "Courier Six himself comes from a city-state formed out of the remains of Las Vegas, and thus represents not only his entire Earth, but this New Vegas as well, not to mention a third organization, made up of rogue tinkers going by the name 'The Big Empty', who possess specializations including, but not limited to mass producible directed energy weapons, advanced levels of genetic engineering, and the ability to remove and replace vital organs, the brain included. Did I miss anything?"
"No ma'am," He replied, "That covers the important aspects of Six's nature as best I know."
"Very well then." Piggot sighed, taking a long gulp of her coffee. "Send him in. Let's see if we can salvage anything of this mess."
Colin nodded, stepping outside. For a moment, her office was quiet, until the Cape of the evening himself entered. The man wasn't much, now that she had chance to look at him properly. A little on the shorter side, scruffy; he didn't strike her as a killer in and of himself. His costume, on the other hand, certainly fit the bill.
"Courier Six," She grunted, "How… nice to finally meet you."
"Good to meet you too? I guess?" Six shrugged. "I'll be honest, I'm not entirely sure I like how you guys are so interested in me. Last time someone took this kind of interest in me personally, I ended up walking through the Divide. Not a fun place to be, let me tell you."
Emily raised one eyebrow, curious, but set her questions to the side for now.
"Courier Six, let me ask you; do you know what my job is?"
Six cocked his head, thinking.
"Well, if you want to get all serious about it, I'm guessing you're the boss here. Underequipped and outnumbered, too, given what I've seen, but you seem like a pretty decent person trying to do what you can anyway."
"That's… Rather astute of you, flattery notwithstanding," She muttered, "Tell me, how did you come to that conclusion?"
"Well, you're obviously the one in charge here, since Armsmaster asked me to come meet you, and he seems pretty in charge, so if you're in charge of him, you must be pretty high up on the food chain. That said, considering what I've seen, you obviously command more than a bit of respect, probably more than General Oliver ever did, at least. Not so sure about the tactics though; looks like old 'Wait-and-see' could learn a thing or two from you, seeing how many jackasses I've had to put down in the past month or two. Even the worst parts of the NCR didn't have this many raiders."
Piggot scowled.
"Then how would you suggest we deal with the gangs?"
"Shoot 'em." Six said matter-of-factly. "I mean, obviously not all of these guys deserve to die, but there has to be a point where you just say 'fuck it' and shoot these guys on sight. Even the NCR's not afraid to shoot a criminal in the head if he's more trouble than he's worth. Any good lawman will tell you the same thing; good faith only goes so far."
"And then, once we've killed every criminal who can be killed, what do we do with the ones who can't?"
"No such thing. Just means that you need a bigger gun. You guys act like it was a big thing that I killed that Vulpes-wannabe guy," Six tapped the wolf mask strapped to his helmet, "But all I did was find the right weapon. Took me a few tries, but he was still a man under all that metal."
"...Ignoring the fact that your capabilities are vastly different to those of the standard trooper," Piggot finally said after a lengthy silence, "How do you propose we deal with the inevitable fallout? You do realize that your killing of Hookwolf will have repercussions, correct?"
"You act like there wasn't going to be any action from these guys anyway." Six shot back. "Raiders don't stop raiding just because people pretend they aren't there. At least if you kill them, you don't have to worry about them coming back to bite you in the ass."
"And what about when those 'raiders' get too strong to defeat in a head on confrontation? As you so perceptively put it earlier, the PRT is outnumbered and outgunned, and while I am willing to concede you that point, the question remains; do you understand the consequences of your actions tonight?"
"Course I do. One more asshole in the dirt. If the rest of them want to come after me, then so be it."
"Not to mention the inevitable civilian casualties as a result of growing tensions between the gangs. Believe me, Courier Six, If the only consequence of this were that you became a prime target for the gangs, I would wish you the best of luck and offer whatever support I could afford to. That said, you misunderstand just where we are; this is not a total war scenario, as much as some of my colleagues might wish it were. Every decision we make has repercussions, and my job is to minimize the effect of those repercussions on the public. Make no mistake, Courier Six, people will be hurt and most likely killed as a result of your actions."
"So it's a slow death over a quick one? Sounds like the NCR alright." Six reclined slowly in his seat, leaving Emily fuming. "But anyway, you're the one who called me up here, so I assume you wanted to talk about something besides why I'm wrong and you're right about how to deal with raiders and thugs."
Piggot was silent, glaring daggers at the cape before her. He could very well have been everything she disliked about the average cape; reckless, impulsive, and with no thought for the effects his actions had on others. She sighed, grabbing a stack of papers from a drawer.
"You would be correct in that assumption. As we have established, the PRT being overworked and undersupplied means that I have to take advantage of any opportunity to equalize the difference that I can find, regardless of how distasteful I find it. To that end, I'm obligated to extend an offer for you to join the Protectorate. Given your particular situation, I'm sure we could establish a civilian identity for you; precedent already exists for situations similar to yours with the Case 53s, where capes appear with no background, no memory, and no way to trace their true identity. Given your lack of amnesia, that makes parts of the process much easier. However,you understand, of course, that I can only extend this offer to a fully fledged member of the Protectorate."
Six stared at the papers, then back at Piggot. She got the impression that his expression was one of mild bemusement.
"You're offering all this, despite the fact that we just had an argument over the best way to deal with the criminals in this city?"
"Despite my own reservations, this city is in too much trouble to turn away any potential assistance, regardless of the source," Piggot admitted, "My duty always comes before my personal feelings, Courier Six; I'd appreciate you not insult me by assuming any less again."
Six snorted.
"Fair enough; and I'd appreciate it if you didn't assume I've never had to deal with the consequences of my actions. I've already had one guy hunt me down to try and make me 'answer' for the suffering my actions caused others. I know a thing or two more about consequences than you assume."
"Very well, Courier Six. So will you join us?"
"Nah."
Emily blinked.
"No?"
"Yeah."
"And why, exactly, not?"
"You said it yourself. You're underequipped and overextended. Why would I jump on a sinking ship?"
"So you intend to simply allow the city to fall into chaos, rather than work to fix it?"
"No. I'm just not tying myself down with you guys. I'm a merc, first and foremost; if you pay, I'll do what you guys ask me to, but that doesn't mean I won't work for anyone else willing to pay. Getting in good with your enemy is the first step to driving a knife into their back, after all."
Emily stared Courier Six down for a moment, waiting for him to break character or change his mind, but no such change was forthcoming. She understood the plan he was outlining, absolutely. It wasn't even particularly inspired; gain the enemy's trust, then disable them with a decisive strike and steamroll over the rest before they can retaliate. Quite possibly the actual oldest trick in the book. Pinching the bridge of her nose and sighing, she took the stack of papers for joining the Protectorate from her desk, replacing them with a different stack.
"What're these?"
"These," She gestured to the stack of papers, "Are the requisite forms for the registration of an independent cape with the PRT, officially classifying you as Protectorate-affiliated Rogue. If you want to be able to claim any bounties you're entitled to, or even formally interact with the PRT on a professional level, I would suggest you fill these out. Otherwise, I will be unable to legally compensate you for services rendered."
Six leaned forward, grabbing the weighty stack of papers. After a moment of flipping through them, he looked back to Piggot.
"Alright, fair enough. What was that you were saying about bounties, though?"
"As you might imagine, the most wanted criminal capes tend to accrue a significant bounty to be rewarded upon their successful capture. In Brockton Bay especially, there are several capes that have historically proven particularly difficult to capture. As I recall, your assistance in apprehending Crusader a few weeks ago entitles you to a share of his bounty, which, while small compared to some of the others in the city, will be deposited into an account for you to access as soon as this paperwork goes through."
"Oh. Nice. What about this other guy, though?" Six tapped Hookwolf's mask. "I can't believe there wasn't a bounty out for this guy, then."
"While there was a bounty for the capture of Hookwolf, with emphasis on capture," Piggot muttered, "I am not legally allowed to authorize the dispensation of bounties for dead parahumans without a kill order."
"What? Lame." Six's tone was largely indifferent.
"Indeed," Emily agreed drily, "Laws were set in place to discourage bounty hunters from killing their targets extralegally, so while you won't face any legal issues, considering you were presumably acting in self-defence when you killed Hookwolf," She paused, giving Six a chance to dispute the claim, which he naturally didn't, "You also won't be awarded the bounty for his capture."
"Booo." Six groaned.
"That said, any live criminals you bring into custody in the future will give you a chance to collect their bounties, as well as any third party bounties they may have acquired from other sources."
"Alright then." Six sat forward, grabbing a pen out of his jacket and scribbling away in the signature boxes. "So I sign these, and then you guys pay me whenever I bring you criminals, so long as they're alive?"
"So long as they're a parahuman, and have existing bounties out for their capture, then yes. The PRT has neither the jurisdiction nor the manpower to deal with unpowered criminals."
"Fair enough. So I just sign these papers?"
"Yes."
"Alright… And done."
Six slid the stack of paperwork back to Piggot, and she quickly leafed through them for errors. Satisfied, she set the papers to the side.
"Very well then, Courier Six. Welcome to Brockton Bay. I'll be interested in seeing whether you succeed where the PRT has so far failed." As they shook hands, she held up a hand to stop Six. "I should also mention, since I doubt you paid the paperwork much attention; being a Protectorate associated cape also means that you have certain rules that you must follow. It does not provide you with a get-out-of-jail-free card to commit crimes without penalty in the name of stopping criminals, and extralegal killing is highly frowned upon by the PRT and Protectorate, except in very rare circumstances. The next time I or any of the Protectorate have to tell you, there will be penalties. Am I understood?"
"Got it." Six gave her a thumbs-up. "Don't kill people, bring the live supervillains to you and then you'll pay me per head. I think I got the gist of it."
Emily resisted the desire to massage her temples.
"Very well then, Six. Unless you've decided to change your mind regarding Protectorate membership, then I believe that was all we had to discuss. See Armsmaster on your way out, and he'll ensure you're equipped with the standard issue PRT phone, for contacting us to arrange for pickup of any criminals, as well as allowing us to contact you in the event we need you for any reason."
"Alright. I guess that's all then." Six gave her a lazy salute as he stood up. "If I may say, Missus Director, I admire what you're trying to do, but the last time I saw a situation like yours, it turned out to be intentional sabotage. Just saying."
With that, he was out the door, leaving Emily to stew in his final words.
Whaaaat? Two chapters in one week? I must have committed some ancient eldritch ritual in order to write this chapter so quickly!
Nah, I just had a lot of free time today, and typed about 70% of the chapter up in one sitting. It all just sort of flowed together well enough that I didn't have any reason to stop writing, and next thing I knew, BAM! Another 2500 words ready for publishing.
I hope.
Honestly, I'm not actually too confident with how I portrayed Piggot here. Do you guys think I should have made her go a little more hardline on Six, or stick with the whole "People are going to die and it's your fault" approach? I dunno. I tried to edit it as best I could to at least portray both sides as sympathetic without going into the excessive grimness problem I had in the first draft of the first few chapters and which I personally don't have much taste for in the stuff I read.
Anyway, I was also going to originally include Piggot's debriefing of Six's existence to RCB and the rest of the PRT top brass, but this seemed like a good stopping point, so now you guys get two interludes to look forward to, instead of one.