In which there is an adult in the room, and she is not amused.
It's like the world's gone mad, and I'm the only sane person left.
Emily Piggot measured the scale of her duties in paperwork. On a good day, there were only a few stacks of paper on her desk, less than a foot high. On the bad days, the paperwork could sprawl across her entire workstation.
Between the ABB bombings, the aftermath of Leviathan, and the next best thing to another S-Class threat taking up residence in her city, the paper was starting to overflow onto any available surface. The floor, the coffee machine, her computers.
Things could have been much worse. After all, she still had her computers. Small mercies.
She sighed, downed the last of her coffee, and turned back to the latest complication.
The screen showed a modest room, brightly lit and with plain but comfortable furnishings. At the center of it, a black teenager sat across the table from a woman in a suit. The resolution was just enough to make out some of the strain in the boy's features, the hint of empathy on the woman's face.
The video recording didn't reveal much. The boy was stiff and awkward, barely moving except for his face and lips. If she looked closely, she could see some of the tremors he couldn't hide, but those didn't tell her anything she didn't already know.
Audio, on the other hand… there were reasons to prefer transcripts, sometimes. Quicker to digest, easier to reproduce. But a voice carried far more information than just the words.
"It's about my sister, Aisha. She's always been flighty, but… she disappeared, the other day. And when she came back, she was… like this."
"She was Monument?"
the interviewer filled in, and he nodded.
Emily pushed the video forward.
"...she was with the Devils. And she was acting different. She yelled at me for being worried about her. She's been angry before, but she was never like-"
And again.
"-don't think what's happened to her is natural. She'd been worrying me for a while, and then she went off and…"
"Became a cape."
"I don't think she's a cape. They have that girl, the Biotinker. I think they did something to Aisha."
"What makes you think that?"
And again.
"Have you seen anyone else that might have been affected?"
"...no, not that I can think of."
"And yourself, have you felt anything out of the ordinary? Had gaps in your memory? Strange emotions, perhaps?"
"No, I've been fine-"
She clicked the video off.
Emily was respectably adept at reading people, but she was no master of it, and Brian Laborn was a decent enough actor. And the fear in his voice was real enough.
But she didn't need a lie detector to know that something was wrong with his story.
She did have Gallant, who she'd set up in the adjoining room, behind the one-way mirror. He'd spent the length of the interview transcribing what he saw and occasionally radioing the interviewer to press one area or another for more information.
Not for the first time, she wished she had his power in an adult, someone trained. Someone she could comfortably trust to interpret and act on the information, rather than simply passing it on. It wasn't Gallant's fault he was a teenager, and as far as she could tell he sincerely tried his best, but if trying one's best was enough, well, her kidneys would still be working right now.
Emily snorted.
Either way, his power supported her initial conclusion. Fear, whenever Laborn mentioned the Devils specifically. There was love around the subject of Aisha, even if it was apparently mixed with anxiety and worry and more fear. It supported the outline of his story, but the details? The long pauses were filled with swirling emotions, ones which Gallant thought were associated with thinking out a lie. He didn't think Laborn was lying about everything, but he was lying about something big, maybe multiple things.
It was another thing she'd have to interrogate the Devils about.
To interrogate Eden about? As a name of a group, it didn't really roll off the tongue. Perhaps as a family name? Interrogate the Edens?
Maybe. It wasn't up to her to tell them what to call themselves. Although naming themselves after the Garden of Eden struck her as a bit… arrogant.
At least they hadn't gone with that suggestion on PHO that someone had mentioned.
Emily checked the time. They were due ten minutes ago.
The Director sighed again, and busied herself while she waited.
Fortunately, she didn't have to wait much longer.
A few minutes later, Battery's voice crackled in her ear. "Jupiter and Venus have arrived, ma'am. Gallant is in position with me."
She lifted her hand to her head and pressed a button. "Proceed, Battery."
"Yes, ma'am."
Slowly, Emily lifted herself out of her chair, to drag herself to a meeting with a pair of dangerous parahumans - but she repeated herself - about the even more dangerous parahuman they'd seemingly adopted as a daughter.
In a way, she fought the same battles that she had back when she'd been a field officer. They were just a little less direct, a little less gruesome- but all the more important for it.
Gallant was speaking to her almost from the second they all keyed in to the proper channel.
"I don't think you even need me to deal with Jupiter. I'm not sure she could hide her emotions if she tried. You just have to watch the hands, she's emoting with them pretty much constantly. She's got a lot of anxiety, but she's curious, eager even, and I think being near Venus is doing a lot for her mood. Honestly, she's a bit disorienting for me, it's like she's somehow externalized her emotions into those hands instead of her actual body-"
"Gallant," Piggot warned. "Focus."
"...yes, ma'am. Uh, Venus. Venus is… she seems to have a lot of little emotions in her, if that makes sense? I think it's because of how many things she must be seeing and reacting to. Seems pretty safe to say her Thinker power has to do with her vision. Otherwise, she's… more thoughtful than Jupiter. A little distant, maybe. I think she's not super happy to be with the crowds, but determined to do it anyways? Wait, hold on, she just got really excited about something aaand she's going for the cameras. Hold on."
The microphone cut out.
Emily glanced up at the screen in the corner of the conference room, only to find the view largely crowded out with wings and eyes. She raised a bemused eyebrow, keying her earpiece into the camera's attached microphone feed only to be greeted with Venus's Tinker ramblings and little else over the sound of fluttering feathers shifting against each other.
"-sensation is the inverse of transmission, reception the inverse of broadcast. Invert the lenses? But it'd need a power source, a spark to transmit-"
...was Venus thinking about turning the security camera into a laser?
Emily was saved from that frankly bizarre possibility as hands appeared in the camera feed, dragging Venus away and back down towards the ground. Now that the feathers weren't muffling everything, she could easily hear Jupiter's anxious voice. "C'mon, Ve, we're already late. Haven't you seen cameras before?"
"Not video cameras,"
Venus whined. "This is new to me, continuous rather than pulsed-"
"I
know you worked on Neptune's phone, and I'm pretty sure that has a camera."
The winged-girl reddened. "Only the power supply! I wasn't really sure what I was doing, and I didn't want to break it-"
Battery cleared her throat. "Ladies. The Director is waiting for you."
"Okay, okay! Going, going!"
Emily allowed herself one more sigh as they finally moved on through the parting crowd.
Children.
At least they tended to be straightforward. It'd make the talk she was about to have with them that much easier.
She adjusted her laptop, checked the folders neatly arrayed on her side of the table, and waited.
"Jupiter and Venus here for their meeting, ma'am."
She clicked the screens off, arranged her papers on the table, and keyed into her earpiece one last time.
"Send them in."
Battery pulled open the heavy meeting room door, sliding out of the way and letting Jupiter and Venus file in before her. Again Gallant brought up the rear, pulling the door shut behind them, cutting them off from the sounds of the outside world.
Emily had seen plenty of pictures and videos, but they couldn't capture half of what it felt to be there with them. The way that Jupiter and Venus contorted to squeeze through a doorway before almost exploding into the room beyond. The way they filled the space, hands and wings spreading out from floor to ceiling, intermingling across half the room and leaving Battery and Gallant awkwardly crowded against the door. The subtle heat that radiated off of Venus's body. The fingers and hands that fluttered like ethereal, grasping butterflies, that were always in the corner of her eye, hands that she swore she could feel brushing against her skin.
She wondered how hard it would be for those hands to snap her neck.
It made her feel so very small.
It was a feeling Emily was more than used to.
Her eyes tracked over the four of them.
If Battery was anxious, she hid it well enough under the everpresent, universal mask of professionalism.
Gallant's helmet revealed nothing, and his armor concealed most of his body language.
Venus, on the other hand, had bright, clear eyes, including the ones that lined her wings. Something sobered in them as Emily met her gaze.
Jupiter hid her eyes, but Piggot saw her fidget with a bracelet around her wrist.
"Director," Venus murmured, inclining her head.
Emily returned the gesture. "Jupiter. Venus. Have a seat."
They shared a glance. Well, Venus glanced at Jupiter. Jupiter touched Venus's shoulder in a way that seemed vaguely questioning.
After a moment, they pushed the stacking chairs on their side together, armrest to armrest, and sat. Or at least, did something sitting-adjacent. It confined the storm and wings enough for Battery and Gallant to spread out a little, moving to flank the seated devils.
Gallant's voice was quiet in her ear. "Jupiter is still anxious. Venus is pretty calm right now, though. I think the crowds were stressing her out a little."
"Thank you for coming. Now, we have a lot to talk about, so let's get started."
She passed them a folder without breaking her gaze. Hands flipped it open without Jupiter even seeming to think about it, revealing the piles of photographs within.
Emily felt the hands tense against her skin. She didn't flinch.
"Why is Bonesaw in my city?"
The hands slowly relaxed. Jupiter fidgeted with her bracelet, shared a look with Venus.
"I think they expected you to say something worse. They were anxious, but not really surprised. Still a little anxious." Gallant filled the pause before Venus spoke.
"Riley, not Bonesaw," she corrected.
Emily scowled. "Call her what you want, she's still a mass murderer with an active kill order. What, exactly, do you think you're doing with her?"
"Taking care of her," the cape responded, as if explaining to a child. "Being her mother."
"And what," Emily ground out, "would possess you to adopt a member of the Slaughterhouse Nine?"
Venus closed dozens of eyes, slowly opening them one by one. "We found the Nine in the countryside. I… heard who Riley was, I guess?" She scratched her head. "It's something I can do with my tech. Listening to people's hearts on the radio. It's hard to get anything useful if there's too many people around, but if it's not too crowded, I can tease out some information. I mean, it was pretty tough to separate the Nine out, all the signals were kind of tuned to one signal already which I think was Jack's signal? And I'm wondering now if he had some kind of power for that or if he was just good at leading them or-"
"Wait. If you found the Nine, then… you're saying you killed Jack Slash?"
Battery's eyes widened as Emily spoke, and she could hardly blame the woman. The most recent analysis was that Jack had been killed in the wilderness by one of his teammates, and she had assumed that Bonesaw split off after that, but-
Venus blinked, then laughed, shaking her head. "No, no no! I-i mean, yes, he's dead, ding dong, but Riley did most of the work. Hell, we barely made it out with her the first time…"
"Thank you," Battery whispered, so quiet Emily nearly couldn't hear.
Venus awkwardly scratched her head. "Don't thank me, thank her. We're not exactly cut out for this whole S-class thing."
Battery shifted, suddenly looking distinctly uncomfortable. Jupiter, meanwhile, let out a quiet giggle, pressing teasing hands into Venus's side. "Don't let Neptune hear you say that."
"Do you have proof of this?" Emily asked.
Venus schooled her smile. "I can tell you more or less where we fought, but I have no idea if there's anything to look at by now. And Riley took care of the body. I don't know what she did with it, actually? It felt like a personal thing, so I didn't ask. I know Neptune helped somehow, and that's about it; she didn't bring the body with her or anything like that…"
Gallant spoke to Emily again as Venus trailed off. "I think she's telling the truth. It looks like it's a somewhat stressful memory to bring up, but I'm not seeing guilt or anything like that. As far as I can tell, Bonesaw killed Jack Slash."
The director looked the girls over for a moment. "Were you anyone else, we'd be able to work on the kill order bounty. But Bonesaw's order still stands. If she were truly reformed, and able to prove her goodwill, then that might change..."
Venus's eyes narrowed. "Are you saying she hasn't? She's done nothing but good since we've come here. Since she's been with us."
"So it seems," Emily half-agreed. "But you know who she is. What she's done. And," the two tensed as she trailed off, " I've already received reports that claim that she's mutilated someone."
She passed another folder over the table, watched shaking hands flip it open.
Venus blinked.
Jupiter blinked.
A moment of stunned silence passed.
Then Venus burst into high-pitched, airy laughter, giggling uncontrollably even as Jupiter groaned and buried her face in at least four different hands.
Emily blinked, nonplussed.
"Uh. Their reactions are genuine, for what it's worth. They definitely recognized Monument in the pictures. And then… well, yeah."
After a few more awkward seconds, Jupiter finally lifted her head out of her hands.
"Did… did her brother put you up to this?" she pronounced in utter exasperation.
"I'm not at liberty to discuss the identity of our informants," Emily automatically replied.
"T-that's a yes," Venus breathed out, finally getting herself under control. "I know he wasn't happy with how she was acting, and I figured he'd blame us, but to go this far… I mean, come on, she's a statue now, how is Riley supposed to biotinker her into that?"
"So Riley didn't do it," Emily ventured. "But you know how it happened, don't you? Were you there for Ms. Laborn's trigger event?"
"Of course not," the girl murmured, a small, reverent smile rising to her face. "She's the Devil. Like we are."
Emily stilled.
"...explain."
"What, did you think Riley biotinkered herself into being made of clay, too?"
"A Trump power, then."
Jupiter smacked the table with a hand. "The Devil isn't a fucking power-"
Venus shook her head. "You know, if you want to think of it that way, who am I to say no? But it's not really our Trump power. The Devil is her own… thing."
They wouldn't be the first capes to attribute their powers to some outside supernatural force. Though Venus might be the first to do that and still be reasonable about it.
"You understand, of course, that if you used this power on Aisha Laborn against her will…"
"It doesn't work like that. It's not something we 'use' on someone. People have to choose to let the Devil in. Aisha wasn't even with us when she did it!"
Gallant spoke again in the silence.
"They're still telling the truth, I think. At least as they see it."
Emily allowed herself a sigh, even though she was in front of two strange parahumans. "We need more details. How does this Devil… spread, for lack of a better word? Can it empower just anyone? Do you have some sort of connection with the people it touches?"
Venus hummed. "The Devil is a metaphor, of sorts. A metaphor about escaping oppressive systems, of being yourself in the face of a society or power that denies you, suppresses the truth of you. If you resonate with the metaphor, you might meet the Devil. Where we were from, the Devil was everywhere. We grew up on stories warning us of falling from God's grace, and we could always feel the Devil just around the corner. But maybe it was because we tried so hard that the Devil was always there?"
She was glad she was recording this conversation. She'd have to go through this later. For now, Emily let Venus ramble, and ramble she did.
"Here, we seem to… awaken the Devil in people who fit the metaphor. It manifests in little ways, little things that happen under stress. If they can come to terms with the things being suppressed and speak to the Devil, choose to let her in entirely, they can cast off their form and assume a new one."
"Like Riley's clay and Aisha's stone," Jupiter added.
Gallant filled the silent air. "They're… still telling the truth. There's awe there, gratitude. It makes sense, if they were empowered this way as well. This Devil might be a Master, but I have no idea how we'd go about proving or disproving that; their emotions seem natural enough."
Emily had an idea. "When you say they resonate, does that mean that the Devil changes them to fit, or…?"
Venus shook her head. "You have to already fit, I think. That's why Riley and Aisha could find the devil, but I don't think you would find her, even if you looked. No offense, Ma'am."
"None taken." If anything, she was relieved. That wasn't a choice she wanted to have, if it was even a real choice at all. "I'd ask you not to 'awaken' people recklessly, but-"
"It's not our choice, it's theirs. We simply ask the question; it's up to them how to answer. As far as I can tell, we don't even do anything in particular to get things started, we just have to interact with them."
"I figured you'd say something like that." Emily reviewed the conversation in her head. What else needed to be asked? Ah. "Is this transformation permanent?"
Jupiter dug furrows into the table. "Does everyone have to ask us-"
"You can suppress it, if you need to. Crawl back into your old skin," Venus interrupted, looking more exasperated than anything. "But it never really goes away."
"I see."
Emily did see, and she wasn't sure she liked what she saw. Oh, it could be helpful, if the people who ended up empowered were as helpful and peacefully inclined (for cape standards) as Eden seemed to be. But given the alleged personality requirements, she somehow doubted most of them would be. And that was assuming they didn't become villains outright. And that was after the idea of a contagious Trump power spread simply through interactions and the right ideas. Her superiors would probably want her to quarantine the city, and she had half a mind to do just that.
Still, what could she really do? A quarantine would be at best a temporary measure, assuming it could even be enforced- and there was nothing worse for figures of authority than making demands that they were then unable to enforce. And it wasn't like she could lock Eden up somewhere. That'd be both distasteful and spectacularly idiotic.
"I don't think they've lied once yet. Although there might be more to some of the things Venus was rambling about? She was definitely keeping it simple for the audience."
Hmm.
She could deal with those details later.
"Let's go back to the issue of Bonesaw in my city. Assuming we can verify that she didn't do anything untowards to Aisha Laborn," Emily didn't miss how Jupiter's hands scratched the table, but she continued speaking, "the next step would be an examination of Riley's body. Bonesaw claimed to have a number of plagues that would be released upon her death. Obviously, the PRT would rather she not have any biological weapons."
Venus snorted, but nodded. "Who would be performing this examination?"
"Panacea, if she's agreeable. Otherwise, Dragon is available if we need her." If only because she was overseeing Armsmaster, and wasn't that a fucking mess.
Venus hummed, before breaking out into a smile. "I think Riley would be happy with that."
Emily nodded. "Good. We'll also need to oversee her work more generally. My colleagues will want to sign off on everything she does-"
"Well, if they want to drag themselves over here so they can fill out the paperwork for every breath Riley takes, be my guest," Jupiter snapped.
Emily waited for her to finish speaking before she continued. "But I, personally, am willing to settle for simply having someone around her to check her work and report the results. Again, Panacea or Dragon would be the most likely candidate. However, I would want to be informed before she does anything… particularly large scale."
"Like making the streets out of living clay?" Venus mused.
The Director blinked. "...that would definitely qualify. Was… was that in your plans?"
"We were talking about it, at least," she confirmed. "Riley and I just figured out how to make something out of her clay that could stay alive on its own, and I suggested that she might be able to make a road that'd repair itself, maybe run electricity and water and communications lines through it…"
"I see." She did. Sometimes, parahumans could be useful. Indispensable, even, which in some ways was worse than when they were terrifying villains.
At least they seemed like good kids. Recklessly naive, overpowered, independent-minded kids, but they probably wouldn't tear apart a bank in the name of showing off, or throw their allies under the bus for the sake of a shot at an Endbringer that didn't even work.
"As I said, I want you to talk to us before doing anything on that scale." Emily passed over a card, which Jupiter swept up into her hands, holding in front of Venus. "This number is a priority number for the PRT. Feel free to call it at any time. Normally, we'd give you a PRT-issue phone to keep in touch, but we don't have any available at this time. I assume you'll want us to contact Neptune's cell phone?"
Jupiter scowled. "What makes you think we don't have cell phones?"
Emily continued, unfazed. "You've never been seen with cell phones, whereas Neptune is on her phone in basically every public appearance?"
"W-well, even so! We don't give out her number to just anyone!"
Venus interrupted with a smile. "Let's be fair here. Neptune would hate having her phone used for serious 'work' stuff like this. That's as good a reason as any to give the PRT her number, isn't it?"
Jupiter blinked, then let out a short, sharp laugh. "Okay, okay, that's fair enough. Give me another card or something?"
Emily dutifully passed over a blank card, along with a pen. Jupiter plucked the items out of the air and scribbled out a phone number, along with a little doodle of a wave, onto it before she passed it back to the Director.
666-666-6666? Seriously?
She pocketed the card regardless. "If everything else is settled, I think it's time for the most important part of this meeting."
Emily passed over another set of folders, this one opening to reveal a cavalcade of forms and bureaucracy.
Jupiter and Venus both groaned. Emily managed not to smile as she clicked her laptop awake.
Children. This was nothing compared to what was on her desk even now.
They didn't notice when she sent a message to Gallant's heads-up display. Emily didn't wait for him to confirm he'd read it before she went on.
"Now, then," she said, expertly masking her satisfaction at the looks on their faces. "If you'll take a look at the red form to your right…"
A/N: Jupiter and Venus had cell phones at one point, but then they got lost.
