AN: This is the second Interlude I was talking about in the last post. Well, kind of. It refused to be short like I planned, for example. 'Worldbuilding' or however you want to call this always eats up more pages than expected...
Also, this is a bit of an experiment: Instead of uploading 3 separate, smaller parts, I combined things into this mixed bag and titled it the 'Earth Bet' Interlude.
Do you guys want me to do this in the future too? Meaning, when I have multiple small parts, to combine them into one? Or do you want them separate? Or do you not care either way and just want me to get on with it? :P

Well, here it goes ~

Interlude 5 – Earth Bet

Danny Hebert

Danny had not considered himself to be perfect father of course.

He doubted any parent ever saw themselves like that.

Claiming perfection meant claiming arrogance or blindness to ones faults, at the very least.

His wife would have been more suited to fill that role of being good, not perfect, but better than him at least.

He had not realized how much better than him though.

Danny had thought himself a decent father, maybe a good one.

He was honest and hardworking and he always put his family first.

So he had thought.

But as he finished the last page of damning evidence, he had to bitterly admit that he was wrong.

How could someone claim to love their child, and then not notice the systematic abuse brought upon her?

It had taken him hours to finish reading her diaries.

Not only because he felt horrible doing so – both for the invasion of privacy and the content inside – but also because his temper threatened to run away with him.

Multiple times.

The worst thing was that Emma, sweet little Emma, was one of the perpetrators, maybe even the ringleader!

The daughter of his best friend responsible for the torment of Danny's own child.

He doubted Alan knew what was happening, but he also knew that his friend would put his family before their friendship if push came to shove.

Danny would do the same, after all.

He did not blame him.

He had hoped for a lead on Taylor's whereabouts, but he had not expected the nature of said lead.

So with anger, guilt and fear still swirling through him, he called Tom, to share his findings.

Tom did not blame him for what had happened to Taylor, about his failure as a parent.

Or at least he did not comment on it.

Danny was not sure if he should feel grateful about that or not.

Because he was responsible, in his opinion.

But would getting called out about it help finding his daughter?

No, it would not.

It would be an excuse to fight, a way to change his focus from the actual important thing, which was finding his daughter

So he just took in the new information and tried to formulate a plan going forward.

"Blackwell was quite unhelpful. She showed me the locker, but they have already started bleaching the remains. For health reasons."

A short pause.

"She is not wrong, even what was left when I arrived seemed like a bio-hazard still. If I had been there faster there may have been enough evidence to close down the school until the mess has been cleaned up."

The school had already started with heavy-duty bleaching? After a single day?

Danny could remember his daughter complaining about how long even fixing a single lock took in Winslow High. (But he could not remember her talking about Emma. At all. That should have been hint enough that something was going on. How much more had he missed?)

"They did this because I called the Principal.", said Danny.

It wasn't a question.

"Yes. They know something at least, but they are trying to sweep it under the rug. I questioned some of her classmates, but none of them gave even a single hint.", the officer continued.

"They had been warned."

Another statement, one that Tom did not have to confirm either.

"How can they silence an entire school? One of their classmates is missing?! And they are not concerned at all?"

"I'm not sure that the school administration had a hand in that, to be perfectly honest. When authority tries to silence a group of teenagers like that there is always someone willing to screw them over."

So he did not know either how they managed that particular feat.

"So what now?"

"The diaries you found, combined with Taylor going missing during school hours is enough evidence to land them in hot water, but I have no idea how successful suing the school would be in the end. They could try to wait you out, stall until your cannot afford to keep going."

Danny truly wanted to somehow punish the school, it was so very tempting.

But it would not help them right now.

"We can do this after we found my daughter. I doubt Blackwell of all people knows where she is. A lawsuit does not help us in our search."

"True, but the longer we wait with that, the slimmer the chance of successfully suing the school becomes. Why not ask Alan for his opinion? He is your friend and a lawyer, so he knows more about this than we do."

Right, he had not told Tom who exactly had bullied Taylor, only that it had happened.

And that he did not notice it happening.

"He is a divorce lawyer. No, we will not involve Alan, not yet.", or ever, he added in the safety of his own mind.

"Instead I will talk to Blackwell, in person."

"You have a plan that you are not sharing?"

"Yes."

He didn't elaborate.

Tom was a friend, but he was also bound by his current profession.

Danny trusted him, and he knew Tom would be willing to go very far indeed for his old friend, but the less he was directly involved, the more effective it would be.

Tom was not stupid of course.

The refusal to both ask Alan for aid and to explain the idea Danny already told him a lot about things.

"I will have your back, you know that, right?"

"I know Tom, I know. And I will need your help soon enough. I still do, in fact. There is proof that Taylor's locker was vandalized, correct?"

"Yes, both me and my buddy Frank can attest to that."

"Blackwell of course knows that we know." Danny gestured to the diaries, forgetting for a moment that his friend could in fact not see him through the phone.

"But she does not know about these."

"The diaries you mean?"

"Yes."

"That will not be enough evidence though, at least not enough to stop the school from stalling for ages. It will be word against word, and the school is making Taylor out to be some sort of troublemaker."

"True", Danny agreed. "But that is fine."

A short pause, but he did not elaborate.

"Be careful my friend. You know how to reach me."

"Yes, I do. Thank you for helping. I intend to call you back soon."

The line went dead with a click.

He did not call Blackwell beforehand. The less time she had to prepare herself, the better.

He was not an imposing man, but the rage that now made his blood boil again helped to bridge the gap.

He simply walked inside the school.

Nobody had a reason to stop him.

Yet.

That changed as he came to a halt in front of the secretary blocking him from seeing the person he had come to visit.

She was not a young woman anymore, but she was not yet old either. She had no outstanding features in any way. A face that seemed to rest in a permanent frown was focused on her desk.

She did not react to his arrival, until he gave a deliberate cough.

Without looking up she drawled a seemingly much used sentence.

"No visits without a previous appointment. Call beforehand. Now go."

He had not come here for her, but she was good at pressing his buttons, unintentionally or not.

His control was frayed already, his temper rising, and now this, so close to his destination?

Instead of coughing, he knocked on her desk.

Hard.

Annoyed, she finally looked at him.

"Did you misunderstand what I said the first time?", she snapped.

"No. Visits. Without. An appointment."

She said it slow, mocking, like she was talking to a child.

What a disrespectful little-

He took a deep breath.

He could scare her, threaten her, but doing so would hinder him more than help him.

"Noted."

Ignoring the satisfaction that started to glimmer in her eyes, he gave her a curt nod.

And then walked through the door next to her.

Not bothering to listen to her sputtering, he closed it in her face and instead turned to the person he had come to see.

Principal Blackwell.

She had noticed his entrance immediately of course, slowly straightening in her opulent chair.

"Mister Hebert. I can already imagine to what I owe the pleasure of your visit."

There was none of the false cheer and friendliness that she usually projected.

Maybe the immediate visit of the police after their phone call had rattled her a little.

He doubted it though.

He had only showed her that he had the potential to be a threat.

So she just didn't bother with pointless flattery.

"If you mean my still missing daughter, then yes, you are on the right track."

One eyebrow lifted slowly.

"And what new stories do you think I can tell now? I already gave a statement to you and the police. I think it's time you accept Taylor's misbehavior."

She was trying to make him lose his temper.

Seeing and probing what worked.

He was not new to power plays, both the Major and the gangs were people he had regular contact with in one way or another.

So it was with great experience that he suppressed his first, instinctual reaction.

Which had included him walking up and slapping her, at the very least.

Instead he sat down in the chair in front of the principals desk.

It was of course less grant, and far less comfortable. A transparent attempt to make the party coming into this room aware of their status.

Blackwell was the one receiving the visitors, she was the one in power here.

Not that this message worked on him.

He knew what she was doing, and she was not as untouchable as she thought.

"Her misbehavior? Don't try to turn me away with useless lies. We both know that is not what happened here."

A smile hushed over her face, gone as soon as it had appeared.

She was not happy about the subject matter, but seemed to take enjoyment in his bluntness.

"Oh? Then what do we know? Refresh my memory."

Danny could do that of course, tell her exactly how she had fucked up in her duty to protect her students. Threaten her with a lawsuit.

He did none of those things.

She was not only prepared for those eventualities, she felt secure enough to mock him about them.

So reacting how she wanted him to react was, as a best case scenario, worthless.

"There is no point in doing so. We both know that too."

"So why did you make your way here then? Just to tell me that?"

"I wanted to understand why, to put it simple."

She was about to open her mouth in reply, but he interrupted her.

"Don't try to give me that bullshit about 'why Taylor did' anything. I am not talking about my daughter. No, I want to know why you are doing this."

She seemed slightly amused.

"I'm afraid I do not quite follow your though process? Doing what?"

He rolled his eyes – she was being difficult simply for the sake of being so – but he obliged anyways.

"Why would you risk your position, even your freedom for this? For some common bullies?"

He was truly confused about that part.

She had the impulse to make Taylor the bully in question, but she did not act on it.

Doing so was pointless, Danny would never doubt his daughter.

On the phone he had been a lot less sure about the situation.

Something had changed, and she was trying to find out what.

Of course, the most she could do here was deny.

"I'm afraid I do not know what you are talking about."

The man was obviously furious, but his temper was neither still rising nor falling. He was used to situations like these, she would wager.

He did not look surprised about her denial either. At most a bit disappointed, but not shocked.

"You hold to your side of the story even here. But why? We both know the actual events. I cannot prove them, but still. So why hold to the lie even in private?"

He had a point of course, but giving even a hint in this particular matter would be quite dangerous for her.

So she looked back at him with cool indifference and denied once again.

She was obviously hiding something. A woman like her liked power and prestige above all, and this incident threatened both. She was enjoying their brief verbal sparring, but that could not be the main motivation here.

For a moment Danny considered mentioning the diaries, but showing his hand too early was not something he could afford.

So what was the reason for her silence?

Being unable to stop the bullying was one thing, but she could have simply gotten the perpetrators expelled.

If that did not or could not work for some reason – perhaps they were in one of the gangs – then giving them hidden assistance in return for them to not going too far? That was a strategy she would act on without hesitation, of that he was sure.

And when the bullies went to far anyways, she could call for outside assistance, maybe even make herself look like the good guy in the end.

But he doubted three teenage girls had enough pull in one of the gangs to allow them special treatment.

He doubted they were in any of the gangs at all, if he was perfectly honest.

This Sophia girl, maybe, but he doubted it. The diaries had mentioned her being an asshole to pretty much everybody, no matter who. If she was in a gang she would at least not target them.

So why would the principal allow it to go this far and then still defend them afterwards?

That was the real mystery.

A person like Blackwell? Danny would expect her to immediately sell out the guilty party in some way, to both protect herself and improve her standing.

That she did not do either of those things spoke volumes.

He was missing something.

Who or what could have this amount of power?

He knew he would not get much further without knowing what he was missing.

They mustered each other for a long, quiet moment.

Then he gave her a nod, and left without any further words.

Right by the (now even more) scowling secretary.

Neither of them called out to him as he walked away.

This was not over yet.

This annoyance was not over yet.

She was not happy with the state of affairs.

Danny Hebert was more dangerous than she had expected, the iron control he had even when his own child was missing was astounding.

And a warning.

This situation was quite the mess. She gave a heavy sigh.

Time to make sure there were no loose ends. The girls had obviously kept their side of the bargain, because she was not already locked up in some holding cell.

If this blew over she would not make this sort of mistake again.

These stupid teenagers would be the end of her, she had always known it.

She hated her fucking job.

Sophia Hess

Where the fuck did Hebert go?

At first she had thought that somebody had let her out of the mess, out of the locker.

And that was still an option of course.

But it seemed more and more unlikely.

If that was the case, the police officers would be asking a lot more pointed questions. And it would not be about a missing person case either.

But it was a missing person case.

So Hebert had disappeared into thin air.

Somehow.

The solution close at hand for that particular mystery was of course that she had triggered.

But pathetic, weak, worthless little Hebert triggering?

That boggled her mind, admittedly.

They had done a lot of fun stuff to her before the locker, so her not triggering before was either impressive.

Or it made the idea of her triggering even more ridiculous.

The problem was, that there were no other answers that were less silly.

If someone let Hebert out, then that someone had lied to Sophia Hess with a straight face afterwards.

And she was pretty good at finding out about such stuff sooner or later.

And then Hebert is suddenly gone?

Kidnapped by a gang?

Nah.

She was not pretty enough for that, in Sophia's humble opinion.

Killed by a thug or something?

More plausible, but who would mug someone so disgustingly filthy?

Maybe they had shot her from a distance, because they thought she was some new sort of disgusting Case 53 Parahuman or something? A monster-cape?

The black girl snickered.

That would be actually quite fitting.

Taylor Hebert, so filthy that gang members thought it was self-defense when they shot her.

Such victims took a while to show up too.

All in all more plausible than Taylor triggering.

But that also meant that someone had lied to Sophia about opening the fucking locker.

She would question their classmates once again, this time together with Emma.

Instead of sharing the job like they did before, when they made sure nobody snitched, now or in the future.

Maybe the traitor would make a mistake the second time around?

If she had missed them the first time.

Maybe Emma had missed the signs, after all.

Yeah, that made more sense.

Kaiser

"I am hoping for your sake that you are not wasting my time."

The man swallowed, but stood his ground.

So something actually interesting then.

"I have a message from Victor for you, Sir."

He waved his hand exasperatedly when his underling paused after that statement.

"Well? Go on with it then, I am a busy man."

"Right, right! He told me that he maybe has found an 'in' into the docks!"

Truly? If Brad had been the sender of said message, that probably meant he had found another poorly hidden excuse for violence.

But Victor?

He had more sense.

So this could be actually worth it.

"What 'in' exactly? My orders considering our approach still stand. If we push too strongly, they may ask the fucking dragon for help directly. Overtly pushing them would be a mistake."

"The daughter of the head of hiring is missing. From the union, I mean."

Kaiser stilled.

"Did someone of us take her, without my permission?"

If so, heads would roll. Open aggression that did not further the cause directly was always a last resort.

If the man went to the Asians because of this, they would have lost a lot of time and investment for nothing.

"No Sir! But this Herbert fellow is running himself ragged trying to find her. This could be an opportunity!"

A moment of hesitation.

"I mean, those were Victors words! Not mine!", the thug added hastily.

This could be an opportunity, true. But they had to play this carefully.

"Where is Victor right now?"

"Shadowing Herbert and waiting for orders."

"It's 'Hebert' not Herbert", corrected the leader of the Empire Eighty-Eight absently, already thinking about the best way to approach this.

"Get someone else on watch-duty, maybe Rune, and bring me Victor. And Krieg. We have things to discuss."

Ignoring the babbling agreement of a man that was trying too hard to please, Kaiser slowly considered his options.

He wasn't sure how to play this one yet.

"As you probably have realized, we have three options."

Victor nodded, while Krieg barely moved.

"Yes. But not doing anything at all feels less like an option and more like a waste.", commented the skill-stealing villain.

"We are in agreement about that. But it still is an option.", pointed Krieg out.

"So both of you think that we have to act on this?", Kaiser asked.

"You disagree, Boss?"

"No, not really. The question we are here to discuss is not should we act, but rather about the tone of said action. Do we try to be reliable, the saviors, or do we use this situation for blackmail."

"Blackmail is appealing", Krieg, his lieutenant, said slowly. "Simple and effective."

"But since we do not actually have the girl, this could backfire quite harshly", finished Victor the train of thought.

"Do we know if she has been killed or kidnapped by someone else?"

What Kaiser was really asking was of course: "How likely is it, for her dead body to appear before we have no need of Hebert anymore?"

"We were not on the lookout for her, and this is Brockton Bay. It's hard to say. Impossible to be sure, actually. Betting on something like that would be... unwise."

Not very surprising, but good confirmation to have none the less. If Victor made such a statement, after draining the skills of at least a dozen detectives or officers, then the idea was unlikely to be worth pursuing.

"The problem with being the savior is, that Hebert already does not like our organization in the least."

"He would feel resentful", Kaiser agreed, "but I doubt he would be willing to give up on any help searching for his daughter. He is a family man. She will have to come first, before the Dockworker Union and his own morals."

At least he was pretty sure about that. He himself would throw everyone under the bus for his own gains, of course.

"So we go to him and offer our help?", Victor asked for clarification. "What if he refuses?"

"We will look for his daughter anyways. She will be a useful bargaining chip either way. But do make clear that we are not responsible for her disappearance."

Usually it was better to not be clear about things like this. Threats and extortion worked better when the other party could fill in the blanks themselves, not knowing all the details.

But it was important to show that the Empire did not go after the families of annoyances. That they were honest and good, in comparison with the subhuman filth that was Lung and his gang.

All lies of course – hell, Kaiser himself did not even believe one of the Nazi paroles he was spouting to his followers – but public opinion was a powerful weapon.

And it was important to be at least seen following the unspoken rules.

What happened behind closed doors was something different of course.

As his soldiers left the room with their new orders, Kaiser leaned back into his chair.

It was not necessary to take over the Union, of course.

He had accepted their stubbornness long ago, and had let them slowly bleed out over the years instead of a hostile invasion.

But this was a gift, that at the very least would speed up things a little.

For his benefit of course.

After all, it was not necessary to live in luxury either, for example.

But it felt a lot better than poverty.

So why would he complain?

AN: Aaaand done! Next Chapter is also in the work of course. To the people wanting Taylor to finally get back to Bet, I hear ya I hear ya. But I will not rush things anyway. :P (I can say that either Chapter 9 or 10 will have her return though. Depends on my muse and the length of said Chapters.)

Have a nice day/evening/night!