Kayden sat nervously in the PRT interrogation room.
Sure, they called it an interview room, but what difference was there when it came down to it?
"Purity, we are grateful that you proved so willing to come in-"
"After the way you threatened me-"
A glare from the interviewer shut her down.
"The message was not intended as a threat. You must admit that the damage the Butcher could inflict is severe, so when we have reason to believe that someone known to have a power as dangerous as yours has Inherited-"
"I didn't know he was the Butcher!"
Kayden retreated into her chair after her outburst, recalling what was at stake here.
"You can confirm that Aztec was male? Do you hear his voice?"
Kayden hesitated to answer the first question, but had no reason to delay with the second.
"I still haven't heard the voices. The only reason I know Aztec was the Butcher is that your broadcast said so. Aztecs gender… you know how some people are, that you can't say one way or the other without them telling you themselves, regardless of-"
"We have your history with the Empire 88 on record, there is no need to remind us."
"That's not-" Kayden took a deep breath to calm down. Remember why she was here. "I do not know anything about Aztec beyond them forcing me to kill them, that they apparently killed the previous Butcher and that, as far as I could tell, they were male. Is that fine?"
The PRT representatives ignored her sarcastic tone.
"We would like to know exactly what happened, from the start. Such as why you left Brockton Bay."
"Ma- Kaiser showed his true colours," she spat, remembering at the last moment to use his Cape name.
"Once we tracked you down it wasn't that hard to identify Max Anders as the leader of the Empire 88," the interviewer commented, as though it was of no interest.
Kayden froze.
"Please, you can't go after him, my children-"
"Watchdog already determined that moving to arrest mister Anders, director of Medhall, would result in total collapse of order in Brockton Bay, requiring containment. Given that moves to remove Kaiser, and so the gang he leads, would be with the interests of protecting the good people of the city, this would be counterproductive."
Kayden tried to calm herself down.
"He… he had always acted so… so reasonable, convincing me that what we did was for the best. And then…"
The interviewer flipped through the papers on the table.
"It is presumed that at least one initiation occurred between your last appearance with Empire 88 backup and first without."
Kayden nodded.
"He had always maintained that they took criminals, that the number of victims available for initiations proved they were 'lesser races'."
"What do you mean by-"
"Johnson."
The tone of the interviewers voice was enough to silence the agent even as he continued to glare at her.
"I had only wanted to make the world a better place, keep the good people of the world safe. It felt that, as long as we made things safer, our actions were justified. That as long as I went after criminals, it was all fine. Then I learned that they didn't."
"It took you a while to cut ties with the Empire 88."
Kayden shook her head
"I left immediately but Max… he has leverage. If I went against the Empire he would take my children, raise them in that hatred."
"You must have realized that the only difference between being in the Empire 88 and outside, under those conditions, is that of backup."
"Which is why I came here, to Boston."
"Explaining the reports of seeing you flying around for three nights. Interestingly the reports don't indicate any fights until Aztec…"
"I couldn't recognise the gangs, and without that I needed to catch them in the act to be sure. I… I needed to be better."
"How did the fight begin?"
Kayden took a deep breath.
"I spotted a group of Teeth…"
{}
The Teeth were one of the more easily recognisable of gangs, aided in only a small way by their roving nature.
Not that they'd always been the 'bone covered Mad Max impersonators' they were known as nowadays.
Each Butcher to lead them had influenced their manner of dress in some manner or other.
The original had favoured red, while the second had seen them wear black as well, while the fourth had cemented the individualism of their choice of clothes.
So a bunch of people in red, black and bone in a city known to have a Teeth presence could only be members of the gang (or a group of suicidally stupid civilians going to a costume party), letting Purity mark her first opportunity to start cleaning up her new city.
Doing her best to ignore Max's voice in her head, telling her not to target anyone with white skin until she knew they were a traitor, she fired a warning shot at them.
Early on a member of the team had commented on buildings being only line of sight cover against her at full power, something she always bore in mind, keeping her power down so as not to cause needless collateral damage.
Rather than causing them to scatter or surrender as she'd hoped, letting her deal with them more easily, they grouped together, readying weapons she was almost certain were illegal, preparing to shoot.
Before they could, a thin figure in grey slammed into Purity from the side, sending them hurtling from the sky.
{}
"Definitely grey?"
Kayden frowned, not sure what point he was trying to make.
"Definitely. I mean, the way I light up with my powers active… why does it matter?"
"If Aztec was going back to the Teeth they would have worn black and red at the least. Raising the question why they would have acted to save the Teeth members you were fighting."
Kayden shrugged. "I just assumed he saw me shoot at something and acted before he could see they were Teeth. Or maybe was angling to join and didn't want to presume about getting to wear the uniform."
"Possibly. Continue."
{}
Her Breaker state wasn't actually dangerous, beyond the whole 'intense source of light' thing, but the similarity to her Blaster powers meant that few people would risk making contact.
And without people teaching her to expect it, she was completely unprepared for such an attack.
They crashed into the roof next to the alley she had found the members of the Teeth in, Purity landing hard while the stranger rolled further before reaching their feet-
{}
"Stranger? Are you-"
"Not as in the power, as in someone you don't know the identity of."
{}
With their mask and jumpers hood not covering the lower half of their face Purity could see the Cape smirking as they approached her.
The idea of just being a trophy for some newbie Cape lit a fire in her heart, and she charged and shot off a handful of attacks as swiftly as she could.
Almost as soon as she'd launched them she realised that they could be a Brute, and that was why they didn't hesitate to jump her.
Not that it mattered as the figure simply leant to the side mid-step, letting the blast pass by them.
Purity turned and fled, ensuring she would make enough distance to charge a proper attack.
A moment later she changed direction to a nearby park she'd spotted on an earlier patrol, to reduce collateral damage.
Another moment later she checked that the unknown was following her.
They were indeed, running across the last rooftop she had passed.
Purity released a low power attack, to keep them focused on her, and kept flying.
{}
"It is curious the way you were so careful about collateral damage given your approach back in Brockton Bay."
"I was always told that everyone who lived in that area was a criminal," Kayden defended herself.
"And you trusted him."
"If you can't trust your loved ones, who can you trust? And Kaiser always made it clear that he was trustworthy, following the Cape rules of engagement."
"And yet the apparent casualty rates of non-Empire 88 aligned Capes in their civilian lives are curiously high, often their disappearance around the time a separate clash dealt high collateral damage to the area they had been observed in."
Kayden flinched, hearing the unspoken accusation in his words.
"He wouldn't have," she tried defending her ex-husband.
"If you say so. There is certainly nothing that can be proven. Kindly continue your explanation."
Kayden swallowed. "Right. I kept drawing them towards the park, using low powered attacks to keep their attention…"
{}
Purity spun in the air as she reached the center of the park, observing the Cape that had been following her jump from the rooftop and roll to their feet in the open space.
"Stand down," Purity called out, charging a more powerful attack. "I have no further need to hold back."
The figure appeared to ignore her words, instead pulling a tree out of the ground from next to them, and throwing it at her.
Definitely a Brute then, Purity determined, shifting herself sideways to avoid the makeshift projectile.
Only for it to curve in the air, hitting her in the side and causing her to release the blast she was charging prematurely.
The Cape didn't move to dodge, apparently confident in their powers ability to protect them.
The energy of her attack consumed them, and when it died away all that was left was the trench her power had carved into the ground.
{}
"An unintended attack of considerable power. It is possible that the lack of any sign of you Inheriting comes down to the lack of intention. Equally possible are the factors of instant destruction or an outside influence being considered responsible."
"I've told you everything. Can I see my children now?"
"You expressed a desire to be a hero," the interviewer responded instead of answering.
"So?"
"It may be possible to bring you into the Protectorate on a provisional basis. Not locally of course, somewhere Kaiser has no influence."
"And my children?"
"Would go with you. At first, until we were certain you are not going to Inherit, all of you would live on base with whichever PRT department you were assigned to."
"Hostages to keep me in line-"
"Would you trust the Butcher with their lives?"
The question caught Kayden cold.
"We would also keep an eye on them in case Kaiser tried using them to take control of you once more. And once we were certain that you were able to be a hero and weren't about to Inherit all observation would be reduced to the same level as any other hero who took this deal."
Kayden hesitated.
"A natural part of this deal would be our lawyers ensuring Kaiser had no hold on Theo and Aster Anders."
There wasn't any real choice was there?
"Where do I sign?"
{}
"You need to learn not to stumble when Danger Sense goes off unexpectedly."
"Hey, I wasn't expecting her to just attack. Who does that anyway?"
"Pretty much every villain Cape. Like VII did all the time."
"It was a good recovery though."
"Judging by the whole 'turn tail and flee' response I think it looked like a badass 'I don't need to do more than turn my body to dodge' response."
"It feels like you're making fun of me."
It had taken a couple of nights patrolling as Aztec (in the same basic outfit as when she'd run into Quarrel as there was no point in updating a costume she was planning to abandon anyway).
With minimal experimentation it had become clear that combining her powers with Detonators resulted in a teleport 'jump' without the characteristic explosion.
With that proven, all they'd needed was an opponent who could believably destroy the entire body, and her rebranding would get to go ahead.
Running into Purity so soon after getting ready was a stroke of luck, running into her fighting a group of Teeth even more so.
There was nothing suspicious about Butcher protecting her gang after all.
Purity running away hadn't been a part of the plan.
Of course, going by Quarrels actions in their fight it wasn't suspicious for her to give chase, at which point it turned out Purity had been leading them somewhere free from people.
Something unusually public-spirited from a villain, if convenient.
Her clear intention of a threat display or warning shot had been slightly more concerning for her plan, and then her immediate full power retaliation from being winged with a bit of wood had nearly taken her by surprise enough to turn 'faking her death' into 'dying for real', but her powers combined came through.
And now the heroes were after Purity for being Butcher.
She couldn't help but smile as she stepped into the common area, putting away the phone she'd been using as cover for her conversation with the voices.
"You've heard the good news already?"
The upbeat, if surprised, voice took Taylor by surprise.
"Sorry, what good news?"
"It seems Purity managed to perma-kill the Butcher and is joining the Protectorate. We'll finally have the resources for your power testing and training. Isn't it great!"
Well, fuck
AN: The chapter may feel a bit short, but that line was too perfect to end on. Consider this the first interlude if you must.
As a sidenote, the way the censored swearing has been removed by the site means I will no longer be using this source of comedy with the peanut gallery. It seems Taylors predecessors have learned not to swear.