Assault on the Dragon
Summary: When a fight involving Lung is reported, Armsmaster is not the closest Protectorate responder. Instead, it's Assault.
Lung collapsed.
I couldn't believe it. On my very first night out, I'd taken down the most dangerous villain in the Bay. Sure, those other teens had helped a bit, but most of the work had been mine.
I tentatively approached the others, but paused when my bugs noticed someone approaching at high speed – faster than a car on a highway. He – I could now define his gender – slowed down as he approached us.
"Stand down!"
The four teenagers didn't seem interested in doing so, instead climbing on those lizard monsters of theirs and bounding out.
Which left me alone with an incapacitated Lung and the red-clad parahuman that I identified as Assault after a few seconds.
He looked after the lizard monsters, clearly weighing whether he should chase them or confront me, but then decided on the latter.
"What happened here?" He glanced at the downed body. "You killed Lung?"
"He's still alive," I said defensively. I had a bug on his pulse.
Assault knelt next to him to confirm it, then shackled him. "I'm going to have to call in Armsmaster," he said. "I don't know if I have the equipment required to keep Lung down if he wakes up. No sudden moves."
I waited in silence. Assault was clearly speaking over the radio, but not loud enough for me to hear what he was saying.
"Alright, he's on his way," Assault said. "Now, who are you? A new villain? I don't remember anyone who fits your description. Or are you from out of town?"
I muttered something.
"What was that?" Assault asked. It wasn't condescending, but rather it sounded like he genuinely hadn't heard what I said.
"I want to be a hero."
Assault snorted. "Bit of a misleading costume you have, then."
"I didn't realize it was going to look like this until it was already too late to change it," I admitted.
"So, who are you?" he asked, more gently now.
"I uh… I don't have a cape name yet. This was my first night out."
"You're kidding me," he said flatly. "Your first night out, and you take down Lung. Did you know that when Lung first entered this city, he fought the entire Protectorate to a stand-still? Your power has to be seriously strong. If you don't mind me asking, what can you do?"
"Bug control," I replied.
"Bug. Control. You took down Lung with bugs?" He whistled. "Color me impressed, girl. I'll admit, I probably wouldn't have believed you if I hadn't seen the results myself. I'm dying to ask more questions, but I should probably start by asking you what happened tonight."
I started talking, and Assault listened, occasionally nodding along or asking a question. He provided that the teens that had helped out were the Undersiders, a minor villain group with a penchant for escape, and halfway through the story Armsmaster arrived on his motorcycle to make sure Lung would remain properly detained. He and Assault exchanged a few words, but I didn't talk to him directly. Instead, once Armsmaster left, Assault asked me to continue my story.
Afterwards, Assault gave me a look of approval. "If you had asked me yesterday, I would've said that bug control is a useless, or perhaps marginally useful power. But you make it scarier than any other power I've come across here in the Bay."
I hung my head. "I don't want to be scary. I just want to help people."
"Do you want to join the Wards?" he asked.
"I… I don't know," I said hesitatingly.
Assault sighed and, after a brief look around, walked over to a waist-high stone wall, gesturing for me to follow along. He sat down, and after a moment I went to sit next to him.
"I'm going to make a bit of a guess," he said. "I could be completely wrong here, but you probably have bad experiences with authority figures, don't you? Maybe they didn't listen to you, maybe they took advantage of you, or something like that."
I hesitated, but nodded.
"I'm not going to ask you anything about what happened to you, so don't worry about that, but you know that triggering and getting superpowers is something that happens on what is often said to be 'the worst day of your life', right?"
I felt myself clam up just thinking of the locker, but I nodded again.
"I don't know whether these two things are related, and I won't ask," Assault said, "but I want you to realize something that's obvious once you think about it, yet very easily missed otherwise. You, me and everyone else who has superpowers, we've all gone through something terrible. We all know what it's like to have lost all hope, or to be in a life-threatening situation, to be abandoned or to have everything taken away from us.
"One way or another, every parahuman is a bit screwed up. Irrational fears, resentment, violent tendencies, control issues, you could keep going. Most people might not understand you, but most parahumans will. If you join the Wards, you get a group of friends who have all gone through something similar, people you'll spend a lot of time with, and you'll have us Protectorate members to look out for you or take care of you; we've also gone through horrible things ourselves. We know what it's like, and we know how important it is to give you the space you need."
Once more, I felt hesitant. "I… guess I should probably join," I said. "I just… don't know how I'm supposed to go about it."
"I'll help you out, then," Assault said. "Got your phone with you? I'll give you my number."
"I don't have a mobile phone," I admitted.
"…oh." He thought for a few seconds. "I could visit you tomorrow at home, after school, if you're okay with that, and then we can talk about it then?"
I shrank in on myself. "I'd rather not."
"Of course," Assault backtracked immediately. "I wouldn't demand you tell me your civilian identity if you don't want to. We could-"
"It's not that," I said, cutting him off. "I uh… haven't told my father yet. That I have powers."
"Oh," Assault said once again. "You'll have to tell him at some point, though, because he'll need to sign off on it if you want to join the Wards. Well, unless he's part of the problem. Is he?"
I shook my head vehemently. "He tries his best!" I defended him. "It's just… well, things have been difficult since mom died a few years back."
"I'm sorry," Assault said, sounding like he genuinely was. "What if I swung by tomorrow, then helped you tell him? Again, if you're fine with telling me your civilian identity. You can become a Ward without ever telling us anything about your civilian identity, we even have ways to confirm that your guardian signed off on it without actually knowing who he is."
"No, that's fine," I said, feeling immensely thankful that Assault was taking this much time to speak to me and assuage my fears and worries. I gave him my home address and civilian name, as well as my dad's name and job. I also warned him that dad had a tendency to work late, but Assault said that worst case, he'd just call him after arriving at our home.
"Well, I'm glad I got to talk to you, bug girl. I think you should go home and get some rest now, it's been a late and eventful evening after all, and there's more ahead of us. I'll also see if I can think of a good cape name for you. And maybe we can talk about that tomorrow."
"Bye," I replied as I stood up and made for home. "And thanks. For talking to me."
"Any day, kid."
Dad had been a bit worried when a superhero suddenly showed up on the doorstep, but Assault had calmed him down immediately and then brought up the relevant points with more tact than I'd have expected from a guy known as a jokester – in fact, I hadn't seen him joke that much in general, though he showed more tendencies in that direction when visiting at home than he did on our first meeting.
Of course, there was no way to say 'I fought Lung' without dad freaking out a little, but Assault managed to smooth that over better than I'd ever have been able to.
So now I was at the PRT building, about to be introduced as the new Ward Weaver. There'd be changes to my costume on behalf of PR, but it would take a while to actually finish that, as the spider silk from my black widows was a stronger material than anything that was available for a Ward from the PRT, and people agreed I shouldn't handicap myself just because it took a few weeks more. Until then, it would be made clear that my current costume was temporary, and the PR department was actually going to spin it as the new Ward being very eager to use her powers to create high quality materials, which showed how dedicated she was to get started.
Which, again, was a smoother way to handle things than I'd ever been able to. The entire 'I didn't realize how it'd look' was masterfully pushed to the background as a silly and inconsequential rookie mistake. When PR explained things to me, it sounded almost like they were creating a fictional character for me to play – though keeping as close to who I was as possible – and the character was portrayed as overexcited, rather than someone who didn't think things through.
"Weaver, are you okay with revealing your civilian identity to us?" Aegis asked. "Of course, that also means all of us will show you our civilian identities, and in fact we'll reveal ourselves first, with you going last. If you don't want to, that's fine too. You can also unmask to us one by one over the coming weeks if you prefer that."
"It's fine," I replied. They were new people, and they wouldn't be prejudiced against me from Winslow – everyone knew almost all Wards went to Arcadia. Even if one of them would go to Winslow, then I was sure they'd wait and see, and quickly learn that everything Emma always said about me was lies. That was what heroes did, right? Give people a second chance, allow themselves to be proven wrong. And besides, Assault was here as well – he'd said he wanted to make sure I'd be settling in alright.
Aegis unmasked first, revealing his civilian name was Carlos. Next was Clockblocker, then Gallant. One by one, they revealed their faces. The last one, who so far hadn't spoken at all, was Shadow Stalker.
"My name—" she started, but I didn't hear the rest of it when I recognized her face, my blood turning to ice, nothing but a buzzing in my ears – and not one caused by my swarm.
I stood there frozen in place for what seemed like an eternity as a maelstrom of thoughts went through my head, too fast, too many to count.
It was probably not all that long, as no one had yet tried to talk to me when I took two big steps forward, punched Sophia in her face, then fled into the corridor.
I had to get out, I knew, incredulity making way for panic. Not only did Sophia have the PRT's protection – that was why they always got away with everything! – I'd also attacked her. I'd attacked a Ward. There was no way they would ever let me in now. In fact, I'd probably be a wanted person. And, I realized, they knew where I lived, or at least Assault did. I had to leave, I wouldn't be able to stay home, and dad—
I heard footsteps behind me and glanced back to find Assault chasing me. I pushed harder, running as fast as I could, yet he easily caught up to me and grabbed my shoulder.
I struggled, trying to get free, hitting him wherever I could, but there was no way I could physically match him. I considered bringing out a swarm when I realized he was talking to me.
In fact, I realized, he didn't sound angry.
I stopped struggling.
"Finally," he breathed. "Listen, Weaver, I don't know what just happened, but we're going to have to talk about it. I'm sure you had a reason for what you did, the only question is whether it was a good reason."
I froze up. There was no way they would… I tried to get free again.
"Calm down!" Assault barked in a harsher voice than I'd heard from him before. Even still, it felt like an order from a superior, not a demand from an enemy, and I obeyed immediately. "Weaver," he continued more gently, "even if you immediately earn an infraction on your record – which is not a certainty at this point, to clarify – it won't be the end of your time with the Wards. In fact, I can tell you that most of the Wards have at least one infraction. Come, we'll find ourselves a place to sit and we'll talk about it."
He kept his hand on my shoulder, as if to stop me from running off, and though I walked along with him, I carefully gathered a swarm, in case I suddenly needed to escape. I did keep them hidden completely in the walls, however – no need to make Assault distrust me even more.
He led me into what seemed to be a meeting room and sat down at the head of the rectangular table, inviting me to sit in the next seat over.
"I'm assuming you know Sophia Hess?" Assault asked calmly.
I glared at him. Did he know? All the crap she pulled? That she'd been making my life hell for almost two years now? That she turned my best friend against me?
"You could say so," I finally ground out in a mixture of loathing and hate.
Assault had the decency to wince.
I wondered whether he expected me to say anything more, but then he spoke up again. "Please give me a moment to think about how to approach this conversation."
That… did not fill me with confidence. I tensed up slightly, mentally checking on the bugs available that could pour into this room at a moment's notice.
Finally, Assault started talking again.
"I'd love to tell myself otherwise, but the truth is, I can absolutely believe that you've had bad experiences with Sophia. But if we want to address it, and whether or not your reaction was justified, I'm going to need to know what they are."
"You don't know?" I asked, unsure if I could believe him on that.
He put his head in his hands. "This is bad, isn't it?" he sighed. "No, I do not know. While I am familiar with some incidents in Sophia's past, those have all been resolved by the PRT. Whatever is going on here does not sound like it's been resolved."
"That doesn't tell me anything." Was the PRT involved with the locker incident? I didn't know. They could have been, behind the scenes.
"If you've never talked to the PRT before, then I'm not aware of what's going on here."
I hadn't. To my knowledge, at least. It wasn't a certainty, but perhaps I had to take a small leap of faith here. Assault had helped me out a ton, after all.
"She's made my life hell," I spat out. "For almost two years now. Bullying me every single day. She and that backstabbing cunt Emma and that dumb hanger-on Madison."
Assault stilled. "Oh, crap." He held up his hand to stop my oncoming rant. "You don't need to answer if you don't want to, but I have to ask. Is Sophia responsible for your trigger event?"
I drew in a shuddered breath. Fuck, this was not the moment to panic about that. I calmed myself, then nodded.
Assault cursed. "I'm going to have to make a quick call," he said. However, he remained sitting as he fished his phone out of his costume, and allowed me to overhear his side of the conversation.
"Yes, I'm investigating," were the first words he said. "That's what I'm calling you about."
Silence as the person on the other side of the line spoke.
"I need you to detain Shadow Stalker."
I could hear the surprised exclamation on the other side, presumably followed by a request for clarification.
"Reasonable suspicion of bullying severe enough to cause a trigger event," Assault responded. Again, the person on the other side spoke, then Assault replied one last time. "Thank you, I have to get back to Weaver."
"That's really happening?" I asked in disbelief.
"Do you remember what I told you that first night?" Assault asked. "Every parahuman has had a trigger event. Every parahuman has gone through something terrible. Knowing what you've gone through yourself, would you joke about someone else's trigger event? Would you ever go 'oh, it can't have been that bad'?" He didn't wait for my answer. "No. No parahuman ever would. Not even the worst villains."
I scoffed. "I bet she would. At least for me." It was a knee-jerk reaction, but when I thought about it, I definitely believed it true.
Assault winced. "That bad? No, don't answer. I believe you." He sighed and visibly gathered himself.
"If we want to get anywhere with this, I'm going to have to ask you a few questions, some of which may be uncomfortable – feel free to tell me you're not willing to talk about something. And before we get started on that, I want to clarify that with the way it's looking right now, I would be very surprised if your reaction at the unmasking got you an infraction. In fact, if everything you've told me so far is the whole truth, without omissions, there is no way Sophia will remain as a Ward. And whatever else happens, you certainly won't have to deal with her while the investigation is ongoing."
The first question was the hardest, as Assault asked me about my trigger event and everything around it. The hospital stay. The bullying; both the school's reaction to it, and how long it had been going on. Mr Barnes threatening lawsuits. The settlement over the hospital costs. The lack of involvement from the PRT and police at any point. In every single one of those areas, Assault saw inconsistencies. Things that didn't line up.
And, blessedly, he believed me. He trusted me, and didn't blame the inconsistencies on me making things up. And by the time we were done talking, he was shaking with anger. "I think at least five people across three different organizations will be losing their jobs over this clusterfuck," he seethed.
He calmed himself and scribbled a few more things on his notepad. "I should have everything important written down. At the bottom are my phone number, Armsmaster's phone number, Battery's phone number and Director Piggot's phone number. Right now, we're going back to the Wards room, where all Wards except Shadow Stalker are still waiting. I'll give them a brief explanation of everything that's going on. Then, I'm taking you with me as I copy all the notes I made here, and you can take the copy home as evidence that you talked to me. If, for some reason, you feel like you're being stonewalled, feel free to call any of the phone numbers I wrote down. Or the media, for that matter."
Part of me wanted to thank him once again for listening to me, but I'd already done so several times during our conversation, so I held back as we stood and made our way back to the Wards common room.
"Is Shadow Stalker not with you?" Aegis asked when we entered and the door closed behind us again.
Assault responded before I even had the time to parse the statement. "No. We haven't spoken to her at all."
"I thought Armsmaster came to fetch her so you could talk things out," Aegis said.
"I can see why you might think that, but no," Assault said. "Shadow Stalker is currently in detainment based on what I learned while talking to Weaver. In fact, I doubt she will ever return as a Ward."
"Why?" Vista asked. "I mean, I can't say I'm sad to hear that, but…"
Assault glanced at me before turning back to the Wards. "What I'm about to tell you will stay in this room. Got that?" He got a nod from each of them in turn. "Weaver says Shadow Stalker, in her civilian identity, caused her trigger event. I believe her."
Several of the Wards gasped in shock.
"I wish I could say I was surprised," Vista said acidly. Huh, she really didn't like Sophia, did she? Well, points in her favor as far as I was concerned.
"There will likely be a rather big investigation," Assault continued. "There are several instances where things should have come to light, some of them more than a year ago already, as far back as Shadow Stalker first joining the Wards. Expect to be questioned on what you knew of and about her at some point."
"What happens now?" Kid Win asked.
Assault turned to me. "Do you want to finish the unmasking, or would you prefer to wait?"
I hesitated, but realized that I'd already seen the faces and learned the names of the other Wards, and I'd never met any of them.
I nodded. "We can do it now." I took off my helmet. "My name is Taylor Hebert."
Vista smiled. "Nice to finally have a girl on the team who isn't a complete bitch."
"Uh… thanks?" I stammered.
"So, what's with the costume?" Clockblocker asked, distracting me from the awkward silence that was about to form. "Were you planning to go villain at first? I mean, not that I can blame you if Shadow Stalker is your experience with the heroes…"
I blushed, but told him the same thing I'd previously told Assault, and we got into a rather more amicable conversation from that point onward, until Assault dragged me along to get the copy of his notes.
"What did you want to see me for?" I asked as I entered the meeting room where Assault was already seated. It'd been a month since my induction into the Wards, and to my surprise I actually got along well with almost everyone. And the biggest exception – Armsmaster – was more because he didn't have time for pleasantries than anything else. I wasn't worried he was going to screw me over, or anything.
"They've concluded the investigation into the Shadow Stalker situation," Assault said as I sat down across from him.
"And?" I asked hesitantly. She hadn't been at Winslow anymore, and Emma and Madison had both stayed away from me – as had their hanger-ons – which was a big improvement, but I didn't dare hope.
"Long story short, they haven't found anything to make them doubt your story, and they've found quite a few things backing it up. Yesterday, the PRT contacted the state about prosecution, which is only a formality at this point. The actual court case is not going to be a simple formality, of course, but all three of Sophia Hess, Emma Barnes and Madison Clements are likely looking at juvie until they turn eighteen, and potential restrictions after. Emma or Madison may be able to get out of that if they go for a plea deal, which would mean they'd have to back the investigation and, basically, rat the others out and testify on your behalf. Sophia does not have that option because she was already on probation as a Ward, and has broken that probation many times over."
"So… it's actually happening?"
"Yes, it is," Assault said. "And you might be interested in the other findings as well. I actually wrote them out in a list, here." He gestured to a paper in front of him. "If you're curious why I'm the one telling you all this, rather than the investigating PRT officer, it's because they figured you'd appreciate having someone familiar to tell you all this. Not my idea, I'm not exactly the paperwork guy around."
"So what do you have there?" I asked.
"Ah, yes. Let's see. We're going through this in chronological order. When Sophia first joined the Wards, her bullying campaign against you had been going on for four months. The PRT employee who investigated her social situation at the time, both at home and at school, has been fined for not doing his due diligence and uncovering the bullying. He has not been fired, which frankly makes him the lucky one in this list.
"Sophia's handler, the woman who was supposed to ensure she did not break her probation, will be prosecuted for embezzlement, as it appears she and Principal Blackwell were both putting part of the PRT's allowance to Winslow in their own pockets. She has also been fired.
"Speaking of Blackwell, she will almost certainly be fired in the very near future, and is similarly to be put on trial for embezzlement. Thanks to the settlement you and your father made with the school over your hospital bills, there is also hard proof that she was aware of the bullying situation, which means she is additionally going to be prosecuted for criminal negligence across the four months that passed afterwards.
"Then, onto your trigger event and the hospital stay afterwards. Hoo boy, is that a clusterfuck."
"Why?" I asked.
"Let's see. First of all, the hospital is probably the only innocent party here. You were healed by Panacea, and based on her description of your situation, as well as what they heard from responders, they notified the PRT that someone had gone through a traumatic and potentially trigger-inducing experience." Assault grinned at me. "Are you ready for the list of people who are going to be or have been fired?"
I couldn't help but grin back, though I sobered up after a few seconds. "Weren't we going through that list already?"
"Ah, but see, this is a list inside the list," Assault said, as if he was making some grand revelation. "Let's see, first of all. The PRT actually sent someone to visit you and determine whether or not you had triggered. However, you were catatonic at the time, now suspected to be because you were still adjusting to the sense of your bugs. They left, and did not plan another visit, counter to all regulations. He's out on the street starting today.
"Second, the police got involved with the locker. The officer who should have handled your case, however, waved it away as 'just a high school prank'. While they haven't been fired, they have been fined and suspended without pay.
"Third, we're back to Blackwell and her abysmal handling of the situation. The settlement you and your father agreed to was questionable to the extreme, and you will almost certainly be seeing more money while that's being resolved properly.
"Fourth, while it's not a crime to threaten someone with financial ruin through lawsuits, the primary investigator in this situation was feeling vindictive by this point. He informed Carol Dallon, also known as Brandish, of everything that had happened, including Alan Barnes' behavior over a situation that included a trigger event. She has enough pull in the law firm they both work for that he's out on his ass and she's digging into his past to see if she can find anything to sue him with."
He glanced down at his notes. "Oh, right, before I forget, more Blackwell: she's also receiving heat over ignoring that bullying notebook you showed. After all, direct testimony is considered rather important by anyone who isn't covering up for bullies. Certainly, such a notebook should warrant an internal investigation at the very least."
He checked all his notes.
"I think that's everything, so let me summarize for you. Barring major surprises in the courtroom, we're looking at the following. Sophia Hess to juvie. Emma Barnes and Madison Clements joining her unless they rat their friends out completely. Four people fired, two more fined, suspended without pay or otherwise punished. Oh, right, and most of the people I mentioned previously are being prosecuted for failing to act on the situation in one way or another, which usually means they're being sued for damages. And that's in addition to Blackwell and the handler being prosecuted for other crimes."
He grinned at me again. "Feel like justice is being served yet?"
I nodded, a little numb from the revelations. "I can hardly believe it."
Assault gave me a genuine smile. "It's good to remember. Individual people may suck, they may try to ruin your life or care about some dollar bills more than your happiness, but that's no reason to give up on everyone. There's still justice. There's still people who'll fight for you. And as heroes, we fight for them. I'm very glad to have you on our side, Weaver. With this clusterfuck, I know I surely couldn't have blamed you if the constant failing of authorities around you had driven you into the hands of one villain or another."
"I always wanted to be a hero," I admitted. "But… yeah, I was losing faith, bit by bit. That first evening, when you found me after I'd fought Lung, I was about to talk to the Undersiders." I snorted. "Imagine Armsmaster had arrived first. That'd probably have convinced me to join them straight up. And when I found out that Sophia was a Ward… yeah, that was almost enough to make me go villain right there." I smiled back at Assault. "But I'm glad I didn't, because after that rough start, things have been great."
"Then, one last thing," Assault said. "We've spoken to Arcadia, including mentioning some of the academic sabotage you talked about, and based on that and your status as a Ward, they're willing to make an exception to their normal rules of admittance. You can transfer whenever you're ready."
I lit up at that news. Arcadia, here I come!
Today was a great day to be Taylor Hebert.
AN: Join my discord server here: /xKJKNjY
