Disclaimer: He pulls a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. That's the Chicago way. - Jim Malone
The Brockton Way
Note: Part two of the Omake: What Would You Think. Meh Chapter 14 (Information)
Vista Liked Taylor. The older girl was always willing to lend a friendly ear and a bit of help with her homework when she needed it. The fact that she was apparently badass enough to take on a cape without powers was pretty cool, too.
"What happened?" Taylor's voice was cold, her eyes dead. This, Missy realized, must have been the last thing Shadow Stalker saw before her beating.
"Um!" Missy froze. Taylor had gone from friendly to terrifying in an instant.
"Who did this to you?" Taylor's voice hardened and Missy felt a flood of relief that the look on the older girl's face wasn't directed at her.
"I was out on my own and I ran into Hookwolf," Missy babbled, spilling everything as fast as she could. "He said-"
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Emily Piggot did not like surprises; they got people killed. Emily Piggot did not like sudden changes in behavior; too much chance that there was a master involved. Emily Piggot hit her duress button twice to put herself on a five minute timer when she came in the next morning and saw all of her agents with wide grins on their faces.
"Morning, director," the desk sergeant, a man she'd never seen a smile on, said cheerfully.
"Smith." Her hand closed around the butt of her carry piece.
"You see the video yet?"
"What video?"
"Junior took Vista out for a drive last night," he explained. "I don't want to spoil it."
"Spoil it," she ordered. Her thumb hit her duress button again, resetting the timer.
"So apparently Vista's been doing off the books patrols and she ran into Hookwolf. Bastard tried to carve the poor kid up," he growled, looking more like himself.
"He did what?" Her mind reviewed the procedures for enacting a kill order. "Is she okay?"
"Managed to escape, but not without getting a couple cuts. So Junior comes in last night and sees there's something wrong and is not happy when she finds out what happened. Apocalyptically angry is the term going around."
Emily motioned for him to continue.
"Junior orders Vista to suit up and to meet her in the motor pool. Vista arrives and Junior loads her into one of the armored transports."
"Exactly how did she get the access code to the secure garage or the keys to a transport?"
"Kid gets everywhere, helps everyone out in her spare time."
"I see. What happened next?"
"I don't think anyone aside from Junior realized how scary the combination of Vista and a ten ton troop transport could be. Dashcam shows it all. First Hookwolf glares and all but dares them not to stop, then he realizes Junior had no intention of stopping. It was like something out of a cartoon, director. He's turning to run when suddenly the vehicle is right there and he's eating grill." The old man had tears coming out of his eyes he was laughing so hard. "So Junior stops the vehicle and pulls a tow chain out of the back. Orders Vista to dismount and then tells her the next time someone tries to kill her, she's to reduce the distance between the nearest power line and the bad guy to zero."
"Is that why the power went out earlier?"
"Got it in one, boss. Vista does as ordered and Hookwolf rides the lightning."
"Do I need to predate a kill order?"
"Didn't kill him, director."
"Go on." She thumbed the duress button in her pocket. "What happened next?"
"Junior hooks Hookwolf up with the tow chain and takes Vista on a tour of the city, taking the long way back, as she put it."
"He in the cells?"
"He is, director. Junior's in your office. She was quite apologetic after she calmed down."
"She's a good girl when her temper isn't up," Emily agreed. "Where's Vista?"
"Downstairs in medical. Junior's orders."
"Good. I'll have a talk with her about unauthorized patrols after I've spoken with Taylor about the importance of following procedure."
"Don't go too hard on the kid, director. Anyone would get angry after finding out what happened to Vista."
Emily motioned for the girl to stay silent when she entered her office. It took five phone calls to resolve the alert her use of the duress button in PRT headquarters had called and they were still going to have to suffer through an audit conducted by the Boston office. In short, Emily was feeling even more like herself than usual when she hung up the phone and fixed her cadet with her harshest glare.
"Well?"
"I'm sorry, Director Piggot," Taylor said, showing every evidence of remorse. "I'll work on my control so I don't lose my temper like that in the future."
"What have I told you about this sort of thing?" Emily asked sharply.
"That it's easier to ask forgiveness than to beg permission?" Taylor asked.
"No, the other thing."
"That if I'm going to lose my temper than I had better be damn sure it's worth it?"
"Yes," Emily agreed. "Was it?"
"I think so," Taylor replied. "I don't think anyone will misunderstand how we feel about our Wards getting attacked in the future."
"Nor do I," Emily snorted. "Some reason you didn't call me?"
"I, um." Taylor blushed a deep red. "I didn't think to. All I could think about was finding Hookwolf and making him pay."
Emily nodded. "They put one of ours in the hospital, we put one of theirs in the morgue."
"Yes, ma'am."
"Hold out your hands, palms up," Emily ordered.
Taylor nodded and complied with the order, expecting to soon feel the weight of handcuffs around her wrists.
"Taylor, having reviewed the matter I have decided to punish you with a light slap on each wrist." Emily used two fingers to carry out the sentence. "Now go forth and sin no more."
"Yes, ma'am. Thank you, ma'am."
"Next time something like this happens, you call me, understood?"
"Understood, ma'am."
"Good. You're not rated to drive the troop transports. We could have gotten in trouble if someone got hurt."
"Wouldn't want that, ma'am."
"Go pop some popcorn," Emily ordered.
"Ma'am?"
"I'm told there's dashcam footage?"
"Yes, ma'am, and backup cam and they also found some security camera footage."
"Tell them to have everything ready to play on the big-screen in conference room four and meet me there in half an hour. We're going to watch it and I am going to tell you exactly what areas you need to improve."
"Yes, ma'am," Taylor agreed happily.
"After that you are going to the motor pool to get rated on troop transports which you will not operate without another qualified driver while I am going to have a conversation with Vista that she is not going to enjoy. She come to you about what happened or did you have to sweat it out of her?"
"The latter, ma'am."
Emily nodded. "Good work. Biggest pain in the ass about having troops is that a lot of them will try to hide injuries. Don't ever let them."
"I won't, ma'am."
"Your father know you're skipping school?"
"Yes, ma'am. He's, uh, not happy with me right now, ma'am."
"I imagine not." Emily grinned nastily. "Remind me to invite him in later. I want to be present when he expresses his displeasure."
"Yes, ma'am," Taylor agreed glumly.
"Buck up," Emily ordered. "Unofficially, you did good. We can't not respond to something like this. First thing I'm going to do after you go off to get our popcorn is call Public Relations put out a press release and an edited video. PR is going to love you."
IIIIIIIIII
Page 01 of 324
PHO: Brockton Bay: PRT: Announcements
PRT-ENE-Official-Account (PRT)
As some of you may have heard, there was an incident involving Vista and Hookwolf. Vista was injured but is in good condition. As a result of this incident the Director of the PRT ENE has signed a conditional kill order on Hookwolf to be put into effect if he attempts or succeeds in escaping custody. The PRT would like to remind all concerned parties that we have a zero tolerance policy in regards to potentially lethal attacks on our Wards. We will be releasing a video of the arrest shortly.
66Hammer99 (Verified Carpenter)
Didn't think Hookwolf was stupid enough to attack a Ward.
Nakam
He's a Nazi, enough said.
TheFonz (He Knows a Guy)(Verified Icon)
Wait till they release the video of his arrest, I know a guy who knows a guy at the PRT. I'm told it's glorious.
YacketyZax (BBPD)
Can confirm, boys at the PRT shared the raw footage with us. All I'm going to say is that I wouldn't get on Junior's bad side.
AllInTheHips
Yacks-Junior?
YacketyZax (BBPD)
Hips-One of the Junior agents, old timers say she's just like the Piggot was when she was young.
XxVoid_CowboyxX
So she's Piggot's daughter? How much alcohol had to be involved for that to happen.
YacketyZax (BBPD)
Void-Were I you, I would hope desperately that neither lady chooses to take offense to what you just wrote. Remember, I've seen the video.
XxVoid_CowboyxX
What's the big deal? I'm just expressing my opinion like the constitution says I can. Stop trying to violate my civil rights.
Page 01 of 324
Page 02 of 324
YacketyZax (BBPD)
Void- Don't say I didn't warn you. Video's been posted, why don't you watch it and think about what you did.
66Hammer99 (Verified Carpenter)
Holy! I second what Yackety says.
Nakam
Thirded. That video was beautiful, it was everything I wanted it to be and more.
XxVoid_CowboyxX
For the record I would like to state that no insult was intended and that I would like everyone to know that I regret my earlier posts.
AN: If you're going to do it, you may as well go all the way.
Beta by Luan Mao
Typos by Shiv
Omake: That Time Danny Threatened to Burn Kaiser Alive
Kaiser's mind froze up as he tried to process exactly what had just happened. He'd gone down to the docks to explain to the dockworkers that they now worked for him, they'd refused, he'd ordered Hookwolf to make a couple examples, Hookwolf had stepped forward and a giant black ball came out of nowhere and knocked the Empire's most brutal cape into the bay. A small part of Max's brain noted that the man skipped across the surface of the water three times before sinking. The rest was shocked by the number of guns the Dockworkers were holding.
"That's a lotta guns," Stormtiger said unnecessary.
"Bob!" Max's head turned towards the sound to see a tall, balding man leaning out of the cab of the crane that had swung the wrecking ball that had knocked Brad into the bay. "Get the thermal lance! I wanna see if that cocksucker down there has a soft center."
"Uh, maybe we should put off taking over the Dockworkers for a little while," Stormtiger said nervously.
"Yes," Max agreed, edging towards his car. "Perhaps the Dockworkers aren't a high enough priority to merit our attention at this time."
"They're getting away!" one of the Dockworkers screamed. "Shoot the bastards before they can escape."
The Nazis broke into a panicked retreat as the Dockworkers opened fire. It was not a good day to be a Nazi in Brockton Bay.
AN: Beta by Luan Mao