Chapter 4-6
The van was eerily silent on the way back. I could understand why: everyone was too tired or too wounded for small talk. Still, it was uncomfortable. I was waiting for someone to speak up and break the silence, but no one opened their mouths. Not even Clockblocker. He was too busy nursing the massive burn on his chest, wincing as he touched it. I could relate. Burns hurt like hell.
When we arrived back at headquarters, Director Piggot was already waiting for us, flanked by a pair of uniformed troopers. Her face was unreadable, as usual. Honestly, I didn't know how she'd take this. I'd like to think that we came out on top, but someone like her tends to judge this sort of thing by a different set of standards. Wordlessly, the director motioned us into a nearby conference room.
"Director, ma'm." Aegis wheezed. Christ, it sounded horrible. I really hope his healing fixes that soon. Preferably before one of us get sick.
"Punctured lung?" The director replied. If I didn't know better, I'd say that she'd grown slightly pale. Her men certainly did.
"Looks like it, ma'm." Aegis stuck a finger through his chest for emphasis. I blocked the sound coming out of it. I may not have a mouth, but I really didn't need to know what would happen if I threw up in my armored form.
"I'll take your word for it. You don't need to demonstrate."
Aegis grinned and removed his hand.
"I'm not sure you should be grinning right now." She continued, glaring at each of us. "The media considers this a win. I don't. You may have stopped the robbery but you also caused a lot of property damage in the process."
"Still better than nothing, ma'm. At least we managed to capture one of them." Gallant said.
"True, but that line of thinking doesn't sell well with the public. Thankfully, the people are too busy mulling over our captured villain and our newest recruit to worry about the mayhem your scuffle caused in the process. Which, incidentally was quite a lot."
Aegis apparently didn't agree. "With all due respect, director, we limited the damage wherever we could. Our first priority was the safety of the hostages and stop the robbery. We did all that while capturing a villain in the process…"
"Which is why I'm not reprimanding you for the torn-up road, the holes in the building, several streets worth of traffic disruptions when the villains escaped, oh, and letting Banshee, a rookie, or Glory Girl, an outsider, join in without my approval." The director interrupted, her voice unnervingly even. "The damage done was acceptable, but only just. The last thing we need is people thinking the Wards cause problems more than they solve. As for Banshee and Glory Girl, I'm sure they pull their weight, but there's the matter of PR that you've failed to consider. We have those protocols for a reason. Speaking of protocols, Kid Win…"
"Umm, yes, ma'm?" The hero said, probably feeling very worried about being singled out. I guess I would too.
"That tri-pod mounted weapon you used today…"
"My alteration cannon?"
"Yes. I do not remember seeing the paperwork for that thing." Suddenly, the room fell silent.
"Christ, Kid." Aegis said. This was bad for Kid Win, wasn't it?
"Why don't you come with us so we can sort this out?" The director's tone made sent a shiver down everyone's spine. Kid Win, though, his heart sounded like it was about to explode. "The rest of you are dismissed. There'll be a tour group coming through later today. Try to be presentable, especially you, Banshee." Wait, me? "You're a hot topic now. People will want to see you. Be sure to leave a good first impression." The director all but commanded.
This was going to suck, wasn't it?
Finally, Piggot left with Kid Win in tow.
"Looks like she's in a good mood after all." Aegis said to us. I had to do a double take to make sure he wasn't being sarcastic.
"Really?"
"She didn't even chew me out for bringing you and Glory Girl along or shoot Kid Win on the spot. Yeah, she's in a good mood, alright."
Well, Piggot never did strike me as a pleasant person. Guess that means I have to adjust my expectations. "So, what was that thing with Kid Win all about?" I asked.
"That big gun he brought along, it wasn't cleared yet." Gallant answered. "And before you ask, yes, that's bad. Everything a Tinker makes, especially a Ward, has to be cleared by an army of scientists to make sure that it doesn't explode and wipe out a city block by accident. If you bring untested Tinkertech along anyway…" The boy shook his head.
"She'll probably scare him a little, remind him that breaking rules have consequences." Aegis reassured. "I hope he doesn't have to take the gun apart. It really did a number on those dogs. Anyway, debriefing. Clockblocker, Gallant, one of you take point. I need to disentangle my ribs."
"Have fun, boss!" Clockblocker said.
Aegis just glared at him before walking away. "Fucking dogs."
"Just for the record, I hate clowns. I officially hate them with a burning passion."
"Burning passion." Browbeat deadpanned. "Very clever." Clockblocker shrugged in response.
"So, debriefing." Gallant said, getting us back on track. "Mind if I take charge?"
The boy shrugged. "Sure, go ahead. Never liked the whole second-in-command thing anyway. Being responsible is way too much work."
"That's gonna bite you in the ass when you're team captain."
"Eh, it's only going to be for a few months and I'll have you to pick up the slack. No biggie. I can handle it."
"Probably. Question is: can we?" Gallant answered in a way that made it clear he was only joking. "Vista, can you find us a whiteboard or two?" The girl ran off almost instantly. A little too fast in my opinion.
Vista wasn't really on my mind, though. I was more concerned with today's fallout. Hesitantly, I asked. "So, um, about what Piggot said, about me coming along being bad…"
"You didn't do anything wrong." Clockblocker quickly said. "Not really. Piggy's just obsessed with PR and if some over-excited rookie starts gutting villains on camera by accident, it's on her head." I should probably feel angry, but then I remembered what I did to Lung. "Point is, PRT wants all us superheroes to do their little song-and-dance routine and they get pissy when we don't do what they expect. It's not you specifically, it's just that she's afraid our next Ward might be nuttier than a Snickers bar, so we have to treat every new Ward like a time bomb until proven otherwise."
"That said, your face's gonna be all over the six o'clock news." Gallant added. "Congratulations, you've gotten your fifteen minutes of fame."
"Just what I always wanted…" I said, half-heartedly.
"Aww, it's not that bad." Clockblocker said. "Just wait for the Parahumans Online discussions. Then you'll understand."
"Endless Vs. debates." Browbeat said. "Banshee vs. Kaiser. Fight!"
"Possible sightings. 'Oh, I totally saw Banshee across the street yesterday, except I looked closer and it was only an ice cream van.'" Clockblocker added in his best 'teenage girl' voice.
"Oh, and pairings. Those are always fun."
A shiver went down my spine. I'm getting that a lot lately. "I'm going to regret asking this, but what do you mean by 'pairings'?"
The guys looked at each other before laughing. Okay, now I'm really scared. Gallant turned to me and said: "Well, let me just explain it this way: when Shadow Stalker joined the team, there was a betting pool on who she'd go out with. I think Aegis was the favorite, wasn't it?"
"It was. Needless to say, even Aegis isn't crazy enough to want to date Shadow Stalker." Clockblocker added. Knowing Sophia, I wholeheartedly agree.
"Anyway, this sort of thing is bound to happen. Too many people with nothing better to do than play matchmaker for people they'll probably never meet. Just ignore them. They're idiots with too much free time." Vista returned with a pair of whiteboards, thus ending the extremely awkward conversation. Thank God. "Okay, brainstorming time, people. We finally got some intel on the illusive Undersiders. Tell us anything you can remember, it might be useful later."
"The Undersiders are working for someone." I said. "Grue mentioned a boss. I think he hired Circus to beef up their numbers. She didn't seem happy with the whole situation, but that could also be because there were eight of us outside."
Gallant nodded. "So the Undersiders are mercs after all. Good to finally have some conformation. Did he say who specifically they're working for?"
"No. We'd probably have to interrogate Tattletale for that."
"Yeah, let's leave that up to Armsmaster. That's a little above our paygrade."
"Grue's power isn't just darkness." Browbeat added. "It blocks out sound too, and it's thick, like you're underwater. Banshee?"
"Just a void, as far as I can tell. Like a big field of nothing. Creepy as hell."
"Pot, meet kettle." Vista muttered. I still needed to get her some ice-cream, or maybe some puppies. "Hellhound doesn't control her dogs with her mind. They're trained with whistles and gestures."
"Good. Very good."
We kept going like this for about an hour. Aegis returned during that time and gave his own input, but he didn't see much, having been incapacitated for most of the fight. In the end, though, we managed to get a lot more intel on them then I thought we would. Whether we were going to get much use out of it, though…
If Tattletale and her power was the group's main source of information, her capture should make the Undersiders much less effective. 'Should' being the key word. Grue, the leader, was still at large, so there was no guarantee that the gang would just fall apart or leave the city. What worried me even more was their 'boss'. Who was sponsoring them? What was their long-term plan? Why have your pet parahuman gang rob a bank of all things? It didn't seem like it was worth it from my point of view. Either the boss liked taking stupid risks for small gains or he had a master plan I couldn't see yet. Neither option was particularly appealing.
That said, even without Tattletale, the Undersiders were far from harmless and they could always recruit new members or get their sponsor to hire some. To make matters worse, we didn't have the resources to hunt the Undersiders down, not when there were bigger fish to fry like Empire 88. The Undersiders would probably end up slipping the net. Would this make them even bolder? Even with Tattletale in custody, they weren't weak by any stretch of the imagination. To make matters worse, we'd only fought a single battle against them thus far. Not a lot of opportunity to get good intel that can help us put them away for good. There's no telling if the Undersiders had other tricks up their sleeves.
I also knew that I had to let it go. As irritating as it was to see villains get away with robbing a bank, trying to go after them myself would probably result in a one-way trip to the morgue. It made me a little sick, but I didn't have much of a choice. You win some, you lose some, I guess. No point obsessing over something you couldn't change.
I really hoped Tattletale felt like talking…
