Interlude - 2. Robin

January 3, 2011, The Rig - Brockton Bay, 10:01 AM

Most people thought of Robin as a weak-ass speedster, he resented that. The PRT's branding machine also focused on his breaker/mover aspects, they named him Velocity. He didn't dislike the name too much, but the aspect of his power that he personally felt most profoundly was the thinker aspect. He could think thousands of times faster than the average human when he wanted to! Though it meant not being able to move at all in that state, even air resistance was a huge issue at 1000X. It also meant he was a pretty lonely person, he often interacted with people only after subjective days of isolation at times. He didn't mind it much, he liked thinking.

Thankfully his team leader understood this aspect. Armsmaster had made him a reading tablet; ultra thin, ultra light, with an ultra sensitive touchscreen and the fastest downlink he could requisition, programmed to handle going into breaker state with him. Robin treasured it. It also made him the second best criminal profiler in the team, the best was Assault, no points for guessing why. Whoever was sitting at the console was always instructed to send him the full case files on any incident he was responding to. Quite a few times he's been specifically asked to work on a quick-response case which needed a lot of background knowledge. It was his niche, and he liked it.

This time the dispatch came directly from Dragon, skipping the console altogether, copy to PRT HQ. That meant pretty high priority, he started reading the files while waiting for the protectorate approval to come through, as Dragon was not in his chain of command, but an affiliate. It was not a novel scenario, Dragon would often send him the case files first and then ping Colin for approval, which he usually gave blindly. Still, for him, that could take a while.

The dispatch summary and goals were a bit sketchy. Probable M/S situation - severity 3 (Low chance of widespread damage, but ensure target containment). The location was Winslow High, targets were about 20 schoolchildren. 3 of them were recommended M/S screening Level 4 (Treat as potential hostile, full 2 days quarantine with observation, scans, heavy interrogation, secure all belongings for investigation), with special focus Sophia Hess, marked as a flight risk. Wait, that was the new kid, Shadow Stalker! Robin had gone on patrol with her a few times, she was a very unsavoury sort, would not last a week in military school before being court-martialled for insubordination. Hoo boy, she was in a deep pickle this time! 15 of them were to be held for M/S screening level 2 (Treat as low-potential hostile, 5 hours of local observation, in-depth interview, 100 question sanity check, secure suspicious belongings if any), and finally 2 of them were to be M/S screened level 1 only, (Treat as potential victim, basic interview, 15 question sanity check), that too for one girl only after proper medical aid was provided. The rest of the school staff were also slated for level 2 screening, and all other kids in the vicinity of the event for level 1 screening, but those were Severity 4 (low impact, containment not mandatory).

This warranted a bit more in-depth reading, he checked the network clock, it had only been 8 seconds, the tablet system clock showed he was running at 15X, fair enough, he had all the time in hand. He opened the case folder and saw the video. That looked really creepy. It was a really short snippet, was that a corpse? The body of the girl was right there and the schoolchildren were smirking and saying they saw nothing. It did look like a strange M/S scenario. He sent of a request to Dragon asking for more of the video if she had it.

The target dossiers were quite meaty, specially for the guy who reported it and for Sophia Hess. He skimmed through Hess' file, not much new there; but he noted that she was marked for therapy after her initial psych eval, but the PRT did not have any available slots for therapy, what nonsense! He sent a memo to Piggot asking her to find a therapist on high priority for all the wards.

He then read Dragon's analysis of the video clip, blah blah vocal stress patterns blah blah facial analysis blah blah sciency shit - conclusion, everyone is apparently quite stressed, even the creepy smiling master girl. And even the recording guy was stressed - asterisk there, he'd check later why. The video was recorded at eye level and nobody in the video is aware they're being recorded - another asterisk. Okay, that was very weird.

Ah, the approval arrived, he checked the network time, 38 seconds from when Dragon sent the dispatch, wow Colin was either being super attentive or super busy. Betting on the latter, he ran down to the equipment lockers, the world almost at a standstill against him, then dropped down to only 2X speed. Checking out a taser, some regular cuffs, one of the two Shadow Stalker rated electro-cuffs, put them in the pouch snug with his body, he stamped the requisition slips, then sped off.

Running over water was so much fun! It was like running on a soft beach. Jogging casually over the sea at 50X towards the nearest beach, he took out the reader again, at this speed it took some effort to extend his breaker effect to his reader while sticking it to his palm. He began to read the dossier on the sender of the video, the asterisks had gotten him curious.

Okay, the kid was the very definition of a badass nerd. Fresh immigrant, orphaned by Leviathan, lives with cousin, from a family of geniuses - was involved in India with a high profile school sexual assault incident where it was recorded using eyeglasses with embedded spycams. Regular visitor to the dark net (suspected hacker connections), cape geek. Was involved in a recent incident where he literally disarmed an E88 member while being shot at. He watched that video too. That explained both asterisks, the spycam-glasses for the second asterisk. For the first one - the kid who can maintain such composure in a gunfight, speaking with such apparent panic would be anomalous. Would that be more proof of master influence? That didn't make sense. Why would the master want him to panic so much that he reports online? Or was the panic faked? That would make more sense, if the kid was extremely devious, that faked panic was to elicit the right reactions to give more weight to the video. It was a farfetched idea, also, what would be the motive then?

He reached the beach and began running towards the location of the school, still going at 50X. He was still quite a bit away when he received the next update, his current mission parameters were basically to be the first responder and contain the situation till the police arrived and sealed off the school, then wait for the PRT-crowd control/interrogation team to arrive, after which Miss Militia will come and take over. That was good, Hannah was a much better people person, well suited for interrogation of minors. His goals also included getting the injured girl immediate medical care and shipping her off in the ambulance that will be arriving. The dispatch also had a note from Dragon saying that she'd already asked the kid to give the rest of the video (it was obvious by now that his camera was always on), and he was complying.

Robin took a moment to rest about a mile away from the school, even his breaker state was prone to fatigue. At least he could rest at 10X easily. He checked the time, 136 seconds after first dispatch, and more than an hour in his personal time. Two more video clips arrived, he hit play and started running towards the school again. He passed an ambulance, possibly heading to the school.

The first, shorter video, was him approaching the locker, Sophia and the two other girls clearly visible standing around the locker, other bystanders also present. The locker being opened, (either the kid had very dainty hands or this was someone else recording altogether), the view jerking, then turning to one side showing the redhead with a vicious grin and then Sophia's hand covering the camera, then the locker closes from the outside and all is dark, you can hear the girl screaming and asking for help. Okay, so he sent a video of the victim's POV? The timestamp was much earlier in the morning. She had spy glasses too? She'd been trapped in there for more than two hours?!

He quickly read Dragon's dissection of the video, the victim was the nerd's neighbour. That could explain her having spyglasses too, if this event or similar were anticipated... That spoke of prolonged and severe bullying! Shit! if Shadow Stalker remained in the wards after this he was going to quit.

He checked the second video, the nerd taking leave from the principal, approaching the locker, hearing noises, enquiring, wrenching the locker door open (strong for a nerd - badass!), rescuing the girl, Shadow Stalker clawing (presumably) at his phone, him stopping her with one word - okay, it was official. He'd read Shadow Stalker's psych eval, anybody who could stop her in her tracks was either a real badass or a cape themselves, he shot a memo recommending a physical for him (including brain scans) as a part of his M/S screening, it might be an underhanded move but the PRT was no stranger to those.

Robin sped past the police cars going the same way, and watched the rest of the video, the whole confrontation with the 3 girls, leading to the beginning of the first video sent. He pocketed the tablet, sped up to 100X, and continued on a very languid jog, the rushing air helped him think.

His original suspicion seemed more and more plausible. The first video was deliberately edited for maximum effect, and his panic was faked with that in mind. He delivered the first video via PM to Dragon, getting the attention of the Protectorate and the PRT. Once they were confirmed to have mobilized, he sent the rest of the video. This would be only plausible if he were aware of Sophia's ward status. Honestly it's quite difficult for anyone even with hacker connections and/or a sharp mind to get hold of a cape's civilian identity, but not so difficult to find out a civilian's cape identity after focused research. Which seemed to be quite possible here. In which case, the kid played everyone like a banjo! All the while remaining strictly within the unwritten rules! If he turns out to be not a cape, Robin would recommend he join the PRT starting as a strategist! Well played kid, well played.

His respect for Dragon also shot up a lot. She had possibly guessed all this just from the first video and her research itself! Hence her non-standard M/S screening recommendations, otherwise everyone involved with the video would have been recommended a uniform level 3 screening to begin with, instead of the mix of 4s, 2s, and 1s that she asked for. He thought he could think a lot in a short time, but these people were playing on a whole other league altogether!

He recieved one last update, this one from Armsmaster - "Keep a close eye on Sophia, tase her if she twitches wrong." Good, that guy at least had his priorities straight.

172 seconds after first dispatch. Robin entered the school and reached the location provided by the maps from Dragon's case file. the kid was standing there, surrounded by a small crowd including the 3 perps, cool as a cucumber, talking to the principal - the nurse was kneeling down tending to the victim. He dropped down to full normal 1X, letting go of his breaker state. Then clapped and spoke loudly in a booming voice:

"Not to worry kids, the heroes are here! I was passing by when I heard the police dispatch about this. Now, how about you all sit down wherever you're standing, and I'll keep you company till the authorities arrive and sort this mess out. I promise to take a photo with the first five who sit down and I'll post it on PHO!"