On screen, a group of thugs were attempting to rob a store in ABB territory. Almost without looking a blonde girl in a school uniform gestured and a nearby dumpster glowed and emptied itself over them, then scooped them up and settled down upside down. The demon-masked man appeared at the end of the street. There wasn't even a pause as the girl continued on her foot-dragging way, head low and he fell to ash, appearing by the dumpster a flicker later. There was a muffled bang.
"Flashbang grenade inside the dumpster. It has a rust hole near the top - bottom - which must be how he saw in. No fatalities. The police took the culprits to Brockton General." Piggot listened as Armsmaster finished his report. If Oni Lee was allowing Rune to walk unmolested through ABB territories what did that mean for the gangs?
"Patrols." Armsmaster handed out the schedule. Piggot swept her glare round, ready to tactically quell any objections before they could be made. There were none. Crime was virtually non-existent. With most capes outed, the status quo in tatters, no one wanted to make the first move. Out-of-town villains might be planning to move in, but the smart ones would be letting someone else nudge the house of cards. Whoever did would be hit from all sides. Hero, villain, rogue or unpowered, there was something broken in the eyes of Crash's victims, something injured and numb. Piggot had seen that look in the mirror every morning since Ellisburg, but she'd never wanted to see it on children. The city was hurting, and it wanted a target.
"Velocity is not listed on this." Ms. Militia wasn't challenging the orders, just stating fact as she ran her eyes over the display repeatedly.
"Following recent events, Velocity is off duty until medically cleared to return to work," Armsmaster said. Piggot noted he did not mention what they had learned during debrief. 'Hero kills ten-year-old' was bad. "Insane hero murders child" was worse. Stepping in, she took the opportunity to bring up the next issue she expected pushback on, before any questions could arise.
"We have Doctor Yamada on site for the next month. You all have time booked with her, and you will be attending." It wasn't just for the heroes. Piggot had rarely seen anyone as broken as Coil, if Calvert had in fact been Coil before Crash intervened. Just to complicate matters, Panacea could not tell how long he had had powers. If Crash had caused his trigger, his defense attorney could play everything off as a combination of bad trigger and the cruel manipulation of a human master. It might even be true. His power, if it was what Crash had claimed, was too useful to let him rot in the Birdcage. If there was any excuse at all, he was WEDG-bound; when he started talking and stopped waking up screaming.
In the immediate present she needed the Protectorate to get back up, to show some sign of fight, but there was no argument. She didn't show her dismay at this passivity, moving on to the elephant in the room. "Do we have any leads on Crash's identity?" Better to tackle the matter head-on than give the Protectorate time to think, or excuse themselves from the meeting.
"None," Armsmaster confirmed. A ten-year-old who triggered might not even have much of an official one. It was possible no one was even looking for him, but she had to ask.
"Nothing? No missing children cases?"
"Plenty, but nothing matching his age or appearance in the Bay," Armsmaster reported. Piggot would have trusted Dragon's feedback more, but she wasn't going into that mess now. She needed her main Tinker functional.
"Can we narrow the search? Dates, locations? He could have come from anywhere." Ms. Militia asked, sitting quite calmly. Her weapon, in her hand, was cycling from knife to assault rifle.
"His first public appearance was on 1st January," Assault said, still pale and thin from the jail. Battery sat by him protectively, her hand locked on his.
"A very precise date to make an entrance," Armsmaster said, and Assault nodded.
"An actor prepares the set before he goes on stage," the former villain said, from experience.
"So how long was he pulling strings before?" Piggot asked.
"Given his age, not more than five years. Most likely one, maybe two." Piggot snorted out loud at the reply.
"If a jury hears that, the Court of Appeal will have a field day. We're already going to have every criminal he caught claiming he mastered them into crime." Assault coughed, and Battery held the water glass up for him. "Some correctly." Piggot added grudgingly.
"And what about me?" Canary said, quietly. "I only got probation because he spoke up for me, but if he mastered the jury-" She broke off with a sob. It didn't take much to see what the outcome of a retrial would be. Once news of what happened here got out, they'd be placing kill orders on Masters just for existing. Piggot took some pleasure in the fact that Heartbreaker and Nilbog would be top of the enforcement list.
"It could also be claimed," Battery said decisively, "that he mastered you into committing the crime so he could control you: mastering a Master to stop you countering him."
"Was he purely a Master or a Shaker?" Ms. Militia said. "His area of effect would have been wide, but he could have been creating a zone where he controlled all events."
"Master," Armsmaster said. "Canary's trial was across the country and the course of events there only changed when he got directly involved."
"And he was taken down in hand-to-hand. A zone effect would make that impossible," Battery added.
"Which raises the question of how Velocity and Browbeat killed him." Ms. Milita's weapon cycled again, for a moment taking a form like Armsmaster's halbard. Piggot wasn't sure the heroine had noticed.
"Browbeat didn't kill Crash," Armsmaster said, voice near-monotone, and Piggot scowled as she answered.
"The fact remains, if Velocity had killed him outright we wouldn't be facing a situation where a fifteen-year-old Ward stabbed a ten-year-old hero live on camera."