AN. New chapters today for Abbadon's Gift wohoo :)

Disclaimer. Still not owning anything here mentioned.

Chapter 3 Reactions: PRT and a pissed of Shadow Stalker

Director Emily Piggot looked at the document that lay on her desk. She was getting a headache from this whole mess that was reported. Armsmaster sat stone faced and read the report on his HUD, while Miss Militia looked resigned while reading the report. Behind them the number of PRT personal and capes, where getting steadily more.

Mere moments before the meeting, Assault chooses to come to the room
"Sorry, thought I wouldn't make it on time."

"Sit down" – Piggot silenced him. Seconds later, she pointed at another red clad hero in the room to indicate where he had to sit down.

"Good. Time is 5:15 PM, and I called you here to talk of the situation that was reported today at Winslow high school. Velocity begin your report please."

"On 9:42 AM this morning we got many reports from Winslow that reported a parahuman incident. In most of these cases, they reported that a cape used some form of electricity, to practically charge the whole corridor and locking them in their classrooms." Velocity continues with "Console called me about this, so I choose to investigate the incident immediately. But when I arrived at the scene the mentioned cape was already gone. The only one there was Shadow Stalker on the floor crying from the pain of her electrical burns on her hands and face unmasked. Her mask was lying next to her smouldering from heat of the electricity coursing through it."

Battery interjects

"Someone attacked Stalker in her civilian identity?"

"No" added Miss Militia with distaste "Something even worse happened"

Velocity grimaced

"So, I called the medics to help her and investigate what happened. The whole hallway was practically giving sparks from electricity, while some of the lockers where red from the heat. One of them however, had the door sliced clean of and was filled with filth."

Assault interjects

"Filth?"

Velocity grimaced again, but this time motioned to Armsmaster to continue

"The investigation of the locker showed that it was filled with, no less than 20-30 pounds of used sanitary products for females. Not only that but there were a lot of insects like cockroaches, flies and mosquitoes but they ended nearly burned from the electricity. But the investigation showed that they were dead for more than 2 weeks" while grimacing he continues "The worst thing is that there is evidence that someone was locked in the locker, like bloody handprints inside. Which suggests that someone was locked in there and was struggling to free themselves from it and while doing it hurt themselves."

Noone found words what was reported, some even puked from the mentioned things. Piggot chose to talk again

"Shadow Stalker was at the scene with a costume and weapons before we even got calls. She tried to let us believe that she took her costume and weapons because she thought someone triggers. But her whole story contradicts what evidence we got. Because the video surveillance shows that she took her weapons and costume before the event happened" – She growled – "She also had lethal bolts which, she was not allowed because she was on probation. She claimed that she saw someone in the corridor and wanted to help the defence less trigger from the locker. Stalker tried to use tranquilizer and after it allegedly didn't work, she tried to use lethal bolts.

"The worst of all is" interrupts Armsmaster "Stalker knew beforehand where the trigger happened. Because video shows how she took her equipment and ran to the exact location of the locker, where mysteriously the cameras where broken and only audio was working. Not mentioning that she didn't report the trigger itself"

"Are you telling us that Sophia was responsible for a trigger event?" Triumph interrupts "What the fuck is wrong with her to do something so sick and utterly reprehensive"

Piggot finally talks again after a silence descended in the room

"At the moment we are not certain about that, but all evidence suggests that she was responsible for it. Also, when Armsmaster tried to use his lie detector she was very silent the whole time."

She continues with disgust

"What ever happened today, Stalker did something that makes it impossible to silence the whole situation at Winslow. Even worse we got a new cape what rescued the victim of the trigger with no restrain and control. On PHO and in the media the cape is already called LightningStrike. We are already getting pressure from the mayor and the press to investigate what happened at Winslow. The picture that we got from the information doesn't look pretty."

Velocity begins again

"While the medics where with Stalker, I tried to find the culprit. But there were no one in sight. The whole corridor was sparking with electricity while Stalker lay there with her weapons. One broken, likely dropped, the second sparking with electricity. Besides Shadow Stalker there were no one else there, besides the fact that all doorknobs need to be changed because they melted."

Armasmaster continues

"I came to the scene to investigate what happened. First, we thought to be a simple electrical discharge, but further investigation showed that prove that it was controlled. The crossbow of Shadow Stalker was charged with up to 230 V, but I suspect that it was more before she dropped it from the pain." – He stopped talking for a second then continues "While I investigated Velocity was on crowd control duty."

The red clad cape grimaces and continues

"I kept the media from entering the building, but they are searching for proof of the rumours on PHO. I did the standard details to the media, that we were there to investigate a new cape with electric powers. I did make a mistake to let Blackwell the headmaster talk to the press. Because she claimed that the possible new trigger was a attention whore and wanted to get attention trough that action. She practically tried to throw mud at the reputation of the person."

Piggot was growling now

"You had nothing to do with this shit show, because the body cam showed that you acted in the limits of the protocol of such situations. The behaviour of the headmaster was inexcusable, because she called the press and tried to make the victim the villain in this situation."

Thinking for a moment she called again

"Renick, I want a fresh look at the situation. Where the words of the headmaster rehearsed or was, she controlled?"

Deputy Director Renick looking at his notes and reading the transcript with Blackwell continues

"They were not forced. More like targeted, trying to paint the victim as a villain. As if she did something like that to the victim."

Piggot growled

"That poor girl triggers on there watch. And besides the point that maybe Shadow Stalker triggered her, they are trying to shift the blame to the victim to take the attention off themselves."

"Also is it confirmed who the owner of the locker was?"

"Yes" Armsmaster talks "The owner of the locker vanished, after she was freed from the locker. She is most likely the new trigger"

Looking at the document Armsmaster sighed. "Taylor Hebert"

Miss Milita taking notes thinking

"Maybe we could have hidden the fact that it happened, but Blackwell did us no favour with talking to the media."

"Stalker is now in big trouble" – Armsmaster continues "She practically ripped her mask of the only thing that saved her from worse burns were her clothes. But the problem is that a lot of people saw that happened at the school. Dragon is trying to take all videos of the incident from PHO but the thread about LighningStrike is already full of other sources. Also, she can't take all the videos or audio recordings from the internet, that is impossible. There are also videos where Sophia she is taunting someone, and people saw the aftermath." He growled.

"And on the matter of the cape that saved Hebert, was she taken or kidnapped?"

"No one called in that Hebert vanished from class, also no one helped her out of the locker. If the new cape didn't help, then Hebert could have been locked in there more than an hour or maybe longer If no one found her. On the point of kidnapping, at the moment it looks like he tried to help her, where the Good Samaritan rule applies." – Armsmaster continues "Hebert and her father have no connections to known capes. So, the theory is that the person that helped her felt that she triggered and tried to help. The power he showed suggest Mover, Thinker too with how fast he located her and vanished afterward. We have no match of known hero or gang cape in town. "

"Do we have a description of the cape?" asks Renick in curiosity

"Stalker described him to me. That person who freed Hebert has short black hair, sunglasses, and a scar on his right eye. Also, he has something that looks like a tinkertech beam weapon. Medium height. For clothing, he was wearing a t-shirt and pants. Also, a short red jacket made of leather. With his looks he could easily blend in with the students and teachers at the school."

"This description fits Travis"

All looked shocked to Assault

"I wrote this on my own report. Did anybody read it? Also, this guy has a Changer form, because there are already posts of LighningStrike on PHO where sightings of Gundam like armour was seen. It was silver white with light blue accents, after I talked with him about it."

For a second Armsmaster pouts and then starts to talk gain

"Just read the report. Was it the non-urgent one at 10:27 AM?"

When Assault nods, Armsmaster continues

"You got reports of a peaceful cape at the hospital downtown and chosen to investigate what was happening. The pictures confirm what happened and describe him perfectly" – He was thinking – "The girl he brought to the hospital suffered from wounds on hands and legs, that were becoming septic. Also, she was unconscious from many bites from insects. We can assume from the report that is Taylor Hebert in the hospital."

Assault nod.

"I was sure they were the people from Winslow. I got to the hospital at 10:10 AM. There I found a guy named Travis waiting in front of the room of a girl. He came there to let the doctors help the girl. He said he got her out from a locker. He was not in the mood to have small talk. He was sitting there quietly, and he had the aura of someone who was in fights all the time." – Assault reminisced, then begins again – "When I asked him if he was a hero or a villain? He said that was not up to him, that was up to the girl."

"Her?" - Piggot asked.

"The girl he saved and was waiting for. Called her his handler whatever that meant. Rather better explanation - She saved me from a bad experiment in my home world. I'm her assassin, loyal to death, and not above. She needs me and I her. She is my handler, and I will not leave her. Said he will wait until she wakes up and will give her more information."

And for a second there was silence before Renick piped to add something

"The term handler is mostly used by government spies and agencies. It describes a person that was assigned to an agent or double agent. Handler normally takes care of information gathering on targets and the agent mostly acts on the given information."

Piggot begins talking again

"This indicates a powerful Master ability. One with Electric Shaker/Blaser combo, also fast and powerful Mover for the mere fact that he took her from Winslow to the downtown hospital in 10 minutes. The Projection was loyal to her master in the hospital not to mention the Gundam Changer form. Armsmaster do not think I will allow you to make a Tinkertech Gundam armour for you. No is no understood?"

Silencind the beginning of a disagreement from the Tinker. Piggot practically face palms.

"And Stalker triggered the girl."

Then there was silence.

"We have two options now. The first one is that a powerful cape found the girl and choose to give her his loyalty or we have a powerful and unrestricted Master with a projection with independent thought and the worst part is that one of our own was responsible for the clusterfuck" – She looked at Renick – "I know I have to call Rebeca after this meeting about this because of the possible involvement of ward in a trigger event. Now we need to control the damage of this situation. We need options NOW."

Triumph chooses to stand up. Piggot looks to him and asks, "Where are you going?"

"Damage control. Stalker – Sophia is not stupid. She knows she is on thin ice because of this whole situation. We left her unguarded in the Wards room. How do you all think she will react?"

Sophia Hess had a bad day. All had been okay. They choose to prank Hebert with the plan Emma has given her. The locker prank was intended to break her finally and end this stupid bullying campaign. Hebert was not breaking with their pranks; she always came back and ignored them. That pissed her of because she can only be prey.

And then happened the same thing when she got her Stranger/Breaker powers where she was in a wonderful place. She fell unconsciousness for short time. What that meant was that someone triggered. Fuck, Sophia thought, I didn't free Hebert. She thought someone else will do that and free her. But no one came and helped her because she was the one who locked her in the locker. That was a good feeling locking her in, but that meant that she only needed an hour and a half to fucking trigger.

She thought it was simple. Blackwell will frame Hebert a villain and Sophia will bring the new Trigger to the PRT and she would be lauded as a hero. But for that to happen she needed to use the tranquilizer on Hebert and clean up the locker and make sure Blackwell will brand Hebert the villain.

And then this shit happened.
The taste of electricity and the strange silver/gold light.
Pain.

Blue eyes behind sunglasses looking at her and scowling. He had a scar on his right eye and without showing emotions dismisses her bolt. Hebert was saved by someone. Some came unexpectedly while she was unconscious and helped her. Sophia didn't know why. He was not here earlier, but the next moment he is, and HE broke her free.

Sophia tried to shoot the man helping Hebert, but he sliced the bolt with a sword that looked like tinkertech. Who can move a freaking beam sword so fast? Thinking fast she took her second crossbow with a lethal bolt. This was a big mistake. Agony is the only thing she felt the next moment.

He chose to electrocute her, which melted her mask which would have stuck to her skin, but she got the mask of her face fast enough that it didn't stick. She tried to use her Stranger power, but this didn't work because she had a fucking weakness against electricity. Which stopped her doing something when the medic came. She knew other students took pictures of her without her mask, that guy made it easy for other students to take pictures. The PRT summoned Panacea to help her, so she can give a report.

Armsmaster questioned her about what happened, when halfway through when he understood. Hebert was anyway near her which meant that she was done. Her handler would try to hide what happened. Blackwell will try to make Hebert a villain and Emma will try to erase all the plans about bullying Hebert on her phone.

No one will help Hebert. The PRT will hide this because it would bite them in the ass.

The first videos from the media had been erased, but she was outed, and the media got the videos of the electrified locker. Her life as a ward was over, she will try to go solo again. Damn it all. Hebert was unworthy of her time. The whole situation was Emma's fault for agreeing to all this and Hebert's helper, that Travis guy.

She got the information because the report from Assault was not classified, which meant that she could read it on the information board of the PRT.

He is already on PHO too and damn his Gundam form was sick in her opinion maybe she would have called him cool if he was not helping that wimp, Herbert. PRT probably now has him under observation because he was not going anywhere and been seen in the hospital. They are thinking how to approach him.

She now knows where the bastard is. She needs her weapons to show him that she is a cape that should not be crossed.