Director Tagg

I came in by boat, a risky gambit but one that was less likely to be attacked, held up or blown up or whatever would happen in this hell hole, and that's what Brockton Bay was, a hell hole. 3 time winner of the worst city in America, which considering how much of the country was doing was quite the accomplishment. But maybe that wasn't fair. The war had more or less revived the old Rust Belt, resources from Mars, money from the government, an educational system that had been upgraded to teach people the value of working with your own two hands. The country was going to get out of this stronger then when it got in. I flipped open a newspaper, President Stern had gotten caught with another woman.

Maybe you think I would get pissed off at all this, but I'm not. Stern's is a horndog, and he looks like a clown, but that gets people to underestimate him and for all of his numerous faults the man's smart as a whip and willing to listen to other people. I looked at his lambasted trade deals, and when you look at them, really look at them you see that the way they're worded favors us.

Whole world's fucked when we have to pay the piper, but we're going to be fucked the least.

"Another one?"

I shrugged.

"I don't get why people are surprised, Stern has always been an open womanizer. They voted for the man, don't be surprised that he acts like he always has. Ok down to brass tacks, who do we have?"

The aid opened a file, it was marked Wards.

"Recent casualties, Browbeat died during Zeus and Gallant and Aegis during during the Nine attack."

Crap.

"Survivors?"

"Clockblocker has the power to freeze things in time, Kid Win currently on an E-ticket ride after losing both arms and his eyes, tinker by the way speciality is modular design. Vista has the power to distort space, and Shadow Stalker has the power to phase through opjects."

I thought about it.

"Down to four then, anyone we can recruit?"

"Kid Win was going to recruit this tinker named Chariot but he died during Zeus. Right now the Wards are down to four kids."

I grabbed the file.

"Ok, who fucked with her medication."

I looked up.

"Um."

"Shadow Stalker, right here, her shard rating requires her to be on medication, and some asshole put her on red pills."

"Sir, the Youth Guard said it was immoral to put teenagers on the blue pills."

I frowned.

"That's a medical decision, that has to be made by an actual doctor, not by a fucking bureaucrat."

"Tagg, the side effects are um..."

I sighed.

"I know the damned side effects, you have a talk with the kid, tell them what's what and if there are fuck ups you take care of it discretely. Worst comes to worse I've dealt with Ward pregnancies before."

I frowned, a lot of requests for the blues.

"Let's talk about the adults, who's left?"

"Armsmaster, Miss Militia, Triumph, and Dauntless."

8 people fucking hell.

"Well so next question, reinforcements?"

There was some cringing.

"The request has been denied... for now at least."

I closed my eyes.

"Please explain why?"

He gave me some more paperwork.

"Zeus slaughtered a whole bunch of capes but most of the capes from the bay who got killed were villains, the Nine killed a bunch of our guys but they killed even more villains. The ABB are done for, the Empire lost most of their resources and people and are split in half. The largest villain group left is the Undersiders and it's just a bunch of kids."

He paused.

"New Wave has 8 people in it, the local team, the Protectorate has 8 people, that's 16, and that doesn't count independents, or hiring the local mercs for help. In other words the city's pretty much at parity right now when you're talking about the hero villain divide. Thinkers are not willing to waste resources on that."

I frowned.

"Then we need more people so we can make this town turn around, and if life has taught me anything it's that an unknown factor can show up and screw things for everyone."

I felt frustrated.

"At the very least put on a request for heavy muscle if everything goes wrong."

"Ok, typing in the email."

"No emails, those things get hacked, use a text, PRT line."

"Fine sir."

He typed and then his eyes widened up in horror.

"Oh."

"Oh what."

He leaned back, and handed me the phone.

"Goddamn."

"They're only going to approve it if an S-class threat appears, sir."

I shrugged.

"Consider my complaints recended, I will preform my task as director to the best of my ability."

I smiled as we landed in the dry dock, confident I could handle whatever this shit hole threw at me.