2.2 Val
The meeting with Miss Militia had honestly been a pleasure, but the one with Piggot is less so.
Piggot asks harder questions.
The first is, how long has she had her powers, something Miss Militia had obviously been skirting around.
She answers four days, though she of course cant remember prior to the day she woke up here. This is the second direct lie of the day and Val thinks those are probably going to start stacking up.
The next is on the nature of the cloth around her eyes.
She tells the truth and says that removing it makes her uncomfortable. The director thinks it odd but asks for her to describe the practicals, so Val gives a brief overview on how she senses her surroundings. Miss Militia seems interested but Piggot chooses to press forward rather than listen to a more detailed explanation.
The third question is why she had forced a fight with Stormtiger and then dragged him into the PRT HQ.
This is a good question and she doesn't wanted to lie completely, so she says she thought it would be wise to prove her worth somehow. Fortunately, they accept it. She supposes it holds up well enough as an answer. Telling them she did it to reduce suspicion is obviously not a great idea. They don't ask for details on how she had managed to provoke him into a fight, and Val thinks they probably don't want to deal with the legality issues. She wonders if it will come up later.
For the fourth question the director asks, what else should we know before we look into officially processing you?
Val hesitates but knows it should be said. She tells them that she has no heartbeat, because she suspects it will be discovered in the following days.
Their doubt is obvious, though they don't say it. They tell her to hold out her wrist so they can feel for her pulse, but nothing is there. They try her neck next, and still there is nothing.
Piggot instructs her not to disclose this to anyone. It is too unusual to be shared widely, apparently. The reaction is surprisingly blasé, overall, but she supposes an organization that has a stack of 'unexplained parahuman event' case files aren't likely to be overly phased by something as comparatively straightforward as heart issues.
She also shares that she doesn't need to sleep, but this is far from an unheard-of trait among parahumans, and so it is accepted with a nod. Miss Militia shares that she is the same way.
Val had talked with Taylor about how much to tell the PRT and together they had figured that minimal disclosure would be the best option. Val does her best throughout the interrogation to stick to her amnesia backstory and she thinks that these people don't know her well enough to see through the lies. They spend some time questioning how she's managed in the days following her developed amnesia and she does her best to give answers that suffice but still hide the truth.
Val can sense that they know she isn't fully disclosing everything, but they seem to be willing to press forward regardless. Taylor's claim that the Protectorate is willing to accept help wherever it can be found must be true or perhaps something else is influencing their actions. Val knows she will need to remain on high alert as to not accidentally give anything away.
After the interview, she's told her official meeting with the Wards will be at 17:00. They offer her some food from the twenty-four-seven cafeteria and she accepts despite not needing to eat. She's handed off to one of the PRT agents to be escorted around, but after breakfast she's sidelined into a bland room and told to wait for further instructions. The PRT agent doesn't stick around.
She spends some time on the internet learning more about the new world, which is something she usually does in downtime, and also browses PHO a bit which she's found doubles as both entertainment and research. But she can only do that for so long before her brain is fried. It's around 8 in the morning by now, so she pulls up Taylor's contact and shoots her a text.
[Val]: Going well. No major problems.
[Taylor]: awesome, keep me updated. good luck.
Val stares at the screen for a few moments.
[Val]: whatcha doin
[Taylor]: im at school, you know this. I cant talk
[Val]: you say as you talk to me
She doesn't get a response back.
Ugh. She's been sitting in this room for hours with nothing to do besides mess around on her phone and stare at the impressively boring beige walls. Honestly, she can't help but think that the PRT isn't being a very good host. There's not even a TV in here.
They had told her to stay in this room until someone came and got her, but maybe it was more of a suggestion. There can't be any harm in taking a look around, right?
She rolls off the couch and stalks her way to the only door.
The handle rattles as she wiggles it and she realizes it's been locked from the other side.
Probably not a suggestion, then.
Or was it?
That air vent seems awfully human-sized and conveniently placed for her to not think that it should be used as a means of egress.
She's seriously considering escaping through the air vents when the door makes a loud clicking noise.
The man that walks into the room is plated in blue and silver tinker armor and his helmet leaves only his mouth visible. He's staring at Val and she can't even begin to guess at what he's thinking. After a few seconds of awkward eye contact that doesn't actually include any visible eyes, she says,
"Hello?"
"Good morning. You know who I am, right?"
A real people's person, here. Val kind of wants to poke fun at his too serious attitude, but that's probably not the best choice of action to take when dealing with the leader of this city's hero team. She's tempted, though.
"Armsmaster, right?"
"Indeed. Follow me, there's some things we need to get sorted out for your entrance into the Wards." He spins around and walks out the door without waiting for a response. Val follows him out and down some twisting hallways. Arriving at their destination, he opens a door and gestures for her to walk in.
Inside, Director Piggot is sitting at her desk and a man in a black button-up shirt is standing to the side. Piggot has bags under her eyes and somehow looks even less pleased to see Val than she had in the first meeting. Val makes sure to give a beaming smile and the director's scowl twists further.
"Good morning again, Ms. Val." Val admires her for the way she makes it sound like an insult.
"Good morning, director."
Val also gives a nod to the man in the black shirt and it is returned.
Armsmaster has followed her in and has closed the door behind him.
"Alright. Lets get to it. First off, this is James." Piggot gestures to the man in the button up. "You'll be working with him to get your legal identity created. Answers his questions to the best of your ability He's who we work with for the Case 53s, so he'll have you sorted out quickly. That's not what you're here for right now, though."
"Because this is an amnesia case, we need to sort out a legal identity, schooling plans, set up a medical examination, comb through missing persons reports, schedule an appointment with a psychiatrist, and on and on. It's going to take a while, and there's a lot of overhead involved. However, these are all things that can be handled over the course of the next several weeks. It has been determined that you are genuine in your attempt to join the Wards and contribute meaningfully" Piggot says this next part with a sour look, "so your application has been officially cleared. This process would usually take much longer, but you don't exactly have anywhere to go in the meantime, so we've had it expedited appropriately."
"You'll be issued a temporary badge to move through the headquarters with a slightly lower access level than the rest of the Wards. We would typically have you meet with the other Wards before this to give them the illusion that they have some kind of say in the matter," Val thinks this woman must really be having a bad morning if she's dropping the pretense like that, "but these are special circumstances and my signature is needed. I'm not staying in this building until six in the evening waiting for you to have your little get together, so I've signed you off early. James will help you get your badge."
"The second thing that needs to be taken care of right now. Your temporary living arrangements. For now, you'll be staying in one of the Ward rooms, but we need to figure something out for the long term. There are a lot of different ways that we could handle your specific situation. Depending on the age you are determined to be and the results of your psychiatric examination, you may end up in either a foster home or living at the headquarters. Or one of many other special accommodations."
"Last, our decisions on dealing with the Stormtiger arrest. For now, we don't plan on officially announcing his capture to the public. Upon your reveal, credit will be assigned to you, though we think it wise for you to claim combined credit with an established hero so that you have less of a target painted on your back so early in your career. Retaliation by the E88 upon a Ward is highly unlikely, but stranger things have happened. This is ultimately your choice. We'll be discussing this more later, so make sure to give it some thought."
A pause.
"That should be it for now, I think." Piggot spends a moment looking through the papers on her desk. "Yes, that's it. James will be taking care of you now. Have a nice day, Ms. Val. Armsmaster, stay back for a moment."
Recognizing her dismissal, she thanks the director and opens the door to take her leave. James follows her out and she slows down to let him lead her through the hallways. He says,
"Don't worry about the director, she's not normally this bad. She was working late last night, so she's really not happy she needed to be called in at three in the morning."
"What? I think she's been lovely so far."
James laughs at that.
/* - */
The day starts to pass faster once she has something to do.
James takes her to his office and hands over some forms for her to start filling out. It's mostly basic information like height, age, weight, hair color, and so on. He mentions that she should fill out information according to what she wants her civilian identity to be, since her hair is too distinctive to try to play off as normal. She's already a step ahead of him, there.
She's bounced between countless different offices in the PRT HQ as she goes about completing her in-processing and Val notices that there's a wide variety in how people react to her strange physical appearance. This isn't anything new to her and it's even a bit less exaggerated than in previous worlds.
The hours pass without too much complaint and eventually Val once again finds herself at Miss Militia's side. They're waiting in front of the entrance to the Ward's common room and Val finds herself excited. Miss Militia wrongly interprets this as nervousness and sympathetically pats her on her shoulder.
"You'll be fine. The Wards are all great people."
Val shrugs, not actually concerned.
The door clicks loudly and slides down with a hiss. She's led into the room.
The assortment of heroes standing there obviously come off as no surprise and Val has read most of the public information available on each of them. There's something different about seeing them in person, though, and she finds herself fascinated. She wonders what each of their personalities and motivations will be and is excited to find out.
She notices that while all of the Wards are in their costumes, the ones that she knows wear full helmets that obscure their features have opted to instead wear domino masks. She thinks it's likely to make the meeting feel less awkward. The only person who hasn't chosen to reveal their face in this minor way is Shadow Stalker. She seems bored with the whole situation and is leaning on a wall, separate from the group.
Nobody seems surprised at Val's odd clothing choices, so she expects that the team has been at least somewhat briefed on her.
Val had planned on initiating the conversation but Miss Militia beats her to the punch.
"Good evening, everybody. I'd like to introduce you to your new teammate, Val, cape name still pending. She's an amnesia case and is under a few restrictions as to what she can speak about when it comes to the circumstances of her arrival. I'll go ahead and let her say some things about herself."
Vista seems to latch onto something. "Teammate? You mean potential, right?"
Miss Militia looks vaguely uncomfortable. "There were some extenuating circumstances that meant she needed to be pushed through the system a bit faster than usual. I'm sorry that you all weren't given the chance to meet her beforehand."
Knowing that these 'extenuating circumstances' were just that the director had wanted to go home, Val fights back amusement. Nobody outwardly expresses annoyance at the announcement, but she suspects they can't be entirely happy about it.
She figures she should probably introduce herself now. She hadn't minded coming off irreverent to the heroes she's met so far but thinks it wise to take a slightly more moderate approach when it comes to the people she'll be spending so much of the foreseeable future teaming with. Still, she refuses to come off as totally self-serious.
"Hey. Name's Val. You've probably been given the general details around me, but I'll go over them anyways. My abilities include improved speed, strength, senses, and reflexes, and I can make my daggers cut things they shouldn't be able to. Feel free to ask me anything you want."
The one called Clockblocker is the first to say something. "Why aren't you wearing any shoes?"
Why are people so fixated on that? "They're annoying and get in the way."
He nods his head solemnly as if he's just been given some sage advice. "What about the eye thing?"
"Something I've grown used to. It's not meant as a mask, I'll probably cover my eyes as a civilian too."
"Wouldn't that be kind of… obvious?"
"I mean with sunglasses."
"Ah." He pauses for a second, not having a follow up. Shadow Stalker cuts in, showing some interest for the first time.
"You good in a fight?"
Val thinks for a moment on how to answer this and chooses to answer simply.
"Yes."
Shadow Stalker seems to take her at her word and is likely just satisfied that she isn't going to be dead weight. Val knows she has a certain confidence when she speaks and this had probably helped her case. Shadow Stalker crosses her arm and returns to radiating disinterest and Val sees Aegis frown slightly at the interaction.
Vista is the next to talk. "Well, it'll be great to have you. It's always nice to see someone choosing to fight for the right side."
Aegis follows up after some more silence, "Definitely. We're all excited to work with you. I know this whole formal introduction thing can be a bit awkward, so why don't I show you around the Wards base and we can talk for a bit? It'll be easier for everyone to get to know you through interacting one-on-one. You'll have plenty of opportunity, most of us hang out here after school for at least a few hours each day."
She notices that Gallant hasn't said anything, but this is probably simply due to a lack of opportunity. He had smiled and nodded along where appropriate and seems friendly enough.
Val shrugs in response to Aegis' suggestion and says, "Sure."