Tutorial - 3.0

January 3, 2011, Winslow High - Brockton Bay, 10:00 AM

I stood up again as Blackwell and the nurse lady arrived, no need for the act now. Blackwell asked trying to put on her most authoritative air, "What's going on?" Her nervousness was palpable. All the students immediately started clamouring to vocalize their stories simultaneously, especially the bitches 3. That was good for me, I just wanted to stall the whole situation till either the police or the PRT arrived, I'd studied the darknet leaks of their M/S screening protocols, the master claim would not hold ground for a moment, the whole bullying thing would come to the forefront as the more plausible explanation immediately. Which was my goal.

Nurse Wainscott, a very honest and diligent woman as her Observe result told me, had immediately knelt down by Taylor and started checking her pulse, I knelt beside her and addressed her, "She's stable, she was lucid before she passed out possibly due to nerve shock and stress. Pulse normal, no obvious sign of concussions, best to wake her up in a more controlled environment. Would you mind checking her for cuts and scrapes and disinfect them if any?"

She gave me a sharp look, "Are you trained?"

"Basic paramedic training ma'am." More like basic first aid, but it was in my school transcript. And my current medical knowledge was that of med-school levels easily.

She nodded, opened her bag, pulled out a mild disinfectant bottle and a pack of gauze swabs, and set to cleaning her up methodically. My phone buzzed, PM in the PHO app. It was Dragon herself! Theory proven! Also, it'd been less than a minute, damn she was fast!

'Hello Mr. SenSharma, your message was forwarded to me by Tin_Mother. Your concerns have been noted and passed on to the Protectorate and PRT-ENE, they're immediately mobilizing. That being said, can you send me the rest of the video now so that we can try to find out what really is the matter? If this is a false alarm, half your school will not be happy to be detained for Master/Stranger screening.'

Ah, she got me. Well, I'd expect nothing less from the world's premiere tinker. But it also seemed she supported my ulterior motive by mobilizing the authorities, of course she'd be aware of Shadow Stalker's identity. I was cautiously hoping she was in my camp. I replied to the PM saying, 'At once ma'am.' Then made sure that my angle was concealing the phone screen and immediately started scrolling through Taylor's spyglass feeds, might as well send the whole evidence set.

I heard Blackwell saying my name, "...SenSharma could not have done any of that, Ms. Barnes, he was in my office since before first period. Mr. SenSharma?" I raised a finger and replied without looking, "One moment Madam Blackwell, I'm replying to the authorities, they're keeping in touch with me." I went back to checking the feed.

Scrubbing back through more than two hours' worth of her feed got me to the point she was pushed in, she had actually turned her head enough to catch Hess in the act, attagirl! I extracted that one, then extracted from my feed a clip of me leaving the principal's office till Clements' creepy act. I sent both the clips to her. Then attached all 3 clips to a mail and sent it with a quick summary to the BPPD too. I'd gotten their email id when I was sending dada's shooting video.

Dragon messaged me again, 'Thank you. This makes things clearer, still, everybody would be investigated just to be sure your local hero Velocity is already on his way, as is an ambulance, the police, and a PRT team. Please cooperate with them.'

Booyah! She was in my camp! That was a big gamble that paid off spectacularly. I sent a quick 'Of course. Thank you for all your help ', then stood back up and faced Blackwell. "Madam Principal, you were saying?"

She opened her mouth and closed it again, slightly annoyed but also impressed. "Not relevant. Yes, the precinct called me too. Have you requested an ambulance?"

"Its on its way I was told. Everybody here has been asked to wait and cooperate with the authorities, they'll be-" I noticed a red blur coming and stopping right outside the crowd, then a clapping noise. Velocity.

"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!"

Smart man, I realized he was actually the perfect guy for this job: Visible, jocund, perceptive (he got minutes of time to think and react in a millisecond) and excellent at crowd control. Guess the Garam capes are not totally useless here after all.

I made an impressed "Oh!" sound and made to sit down, I didn't even have to fake it, I was a cape geek after all. Several boys immediately sat down to beat me, and then each other, at being first. Good old crowd psychology, I finally sat down after I was sure more than 5 kids were already sitting. Everyone followed with a mix of reluctance, eagerness and trepidation. Barnes and Clements were very nervous, but they managed to maintained their composure, Sophia was last, she gave Velocity a rueful look, he nodded firmly, she slumped down. Ah, she figured she was had.

He took out a tablet and his fingers blurred on it. Wow, that was some serious hardware, and it also meant his fast thinking ability actually was capitalized upon. It also struck me that he might have a very good idea of exactly what's going on.

Velocity asked the nurse, "How's Miss Hebert doing?"

"She's stable. I've cleaned her up as much as possible. She still needs to be checked by a doctor though. She's physically mostly unharmed, but she'll need a lot of counselling after what she's gone through."

He nodded, "An ambulance is on the way." His head blurred once, then he turned to blackwell, "Principal, can you get the following students to be discreetly brought up here?" He rattled off 5 names, must be the additional witnesses from Taylor's video clip. I was impressed.

She nodded, asked the nurse for a piece of paper, then took out a pen and asked him to repeat the names. He did. Then she walked off, still quite nervous. He then proceeded to call out to the guys who sat down first and got another girl to take photos. Constantly talking and holding the attention of everybody. Kept them distracted for almost 10 minutes. I was very impressed.

I took the time to Observe him in more detail, ah, finally a parahuman with a low WIS debuff (only -3), his power debuffed his STR heavily in lieu of a massive DEX boost. He was a stand up guy too. Military training, extensive reading, my respect for him rose another notch. His threat level was only 27, I guess because he was more of an evasive cape than an offensive or defensive one.

I also got a text from dada, 'The police called me, you ok? Confirm.', I replied with our safe code 'All ok. I'm in bed with a famous actress. Don't bother.' Our code was simple, make a silly sentence involving indoors for safety, outdoors for being compromised, and in water for being in danger. The main rule was to never use the same sentence twice.

Blackwell soon returned trailing the 5 kids like a mother duck. They were asked to sit too. Velocity checked his tablet again, nodded, asked Nurse Wainscott if there would be any trouble moving Taylor on a stretcher - she replied in the negative, just that there should be a familiar face if she wakes up.

Velocity nodded and gave me a sharp glance, I nodded back at him and stood up. Yep, he knew the whole story. He said, "her father has been informed, he's been asked to go straight to Brockton General. Aveek, would you be willing to accompany us for the trip to the hospital? You've had contact with the biohazard material too, I guess you also need a quick checkup." The Nurse nodded approvingly.

I smiled and nodded again, "Of course sir." I could see where this was going. I picked up Taylor's glasses from where the nurse had put them and pocketed them. Her schoolbag had been cut from the shoulder straps by the nurse and set aside, it was incredibly filthy. I motioned at it.

Velocity smiled, "Good man. We'll get those." His fingers blurred on his tablet again.

A troop of uniformed PRT soldiers came up the stairs, some of them in hazmat gear, followed by Miss Militia. I Observed her, another respectable cape, Level 58! High base WIS compensating for the debuff, high CHA score, average INT and slightly above average physicals, an honest good-hearted person above all, that was rare to begin with.

Miss Militia gave Velocity a quick greeting, told everyone that their guardians had been informed and they had nothing to worry. Then turned to the bitches 3, "Miss Hess, Miss Clements, Miss Barnes, your guardians have been asked to go to the PRT HQ, I would like you to go there for some questioning and paperwork."

Clements seemed like she was going to protest, but Barnes and Hess both readily agreed. Strange... Ah, I got it! Barnes was possibly aware of Hess' cape identity, and neither knew about the M/S situation or the videos that have been submitted! They were thinking they were just getting preferential treatment, heh, they weren't wrong.

Two Hazmat guys put Taylor on a stretcher and were going out. I moved to follow, glancing at Velocity, he nodded, and asked the 3 bitches to follow him. We went down and got out, and wow! An ambulance, a police car, two PRT vans and a PRT squad car at the gate, It all looked very Hollywood! I was let into the ambulance with Taylor and the hazmat guys, Velocity told me he'd meet me at the hospital, then escorted the girls to the squad car.

The ambulance left for Brockton General, I called Danny. He sounded frantic, "Aveek! What happened? The police just called me! Is Taylor alright?!"

"Everything is fine sir. Taylor is okay right now, she just passed out from stress, where are you?"

"I'm on my way to the hospital! You're sure Taylor is fine?"

"Definite sir, I'm with her, we'll see you at the hospital, please hang up and drive safely."

"Yes, of course, yes, I pulled out of traffic before taking the call, I'm not that stupid you know!"

"You're a worried parent, sir."

"Touche, I will see you guys at the hospital."

Taylor was stirring, all the movement must have woken her up. Her status still showed Tired and Confused, with the added power aggression debuff now. The hazmat guys were minding their own business, but I'd have to take care that she didn't out herself again. At least gathering insects in a moving van would be tougher. She opened her eyes blearily and looked at me. "Aveek. Dad?"

I nodded, "We're taking you to the hospital, he'll meet us there."

She tried sitting up, mildly agitated, then seemed to be lost in thoughts, "So many!"

I grabbed her shoulder and stopped her, "Taylor! Relax, don't bug out on us!"

She stared at me, first with a frown of confusion, then understanding, then with surprised panic, eyes wide open, head shaking. Then her eyes narrowed with barely contained hostility. Ugh, dammit, I've got to find out how to get rid of that aggression debuff.

I exuded understanding and compassion the best I could, shook my head, made a zip-my-lips-and-lock-it gesture. Already checked, this was not a PRT ambulance, no obvious camera placements. The hazmat guys were looking at us though, hopefully they would remain clueless. At least Social Empathy didn't show any suspicion on them, only pity and professional indifference.

She relaxed a bit. I steered the topic, "Just try to be normal for now, don't try too hard to understand everything. I'll tell you in detail later. By the way, I saw the video, you got them."

That was simultaneously a relieved and vicious smirk on her face. "Did you show it to them?"

I shook my head, "I did you one better, I sent it to the police. They've already been taken in. You just relax and rest now."

She nodded, took a few deep breaths, then dozed off.