D.T.S.
Noemi's demeanor changed quite a bit when she double checked Ray's paperwork that was brought up from his van. Reading about an emancipated seventeen year old orphan really took the wind out of the sails of their back and forth, but she stuck true to her word and helped Ray cross every T and dot every lowercase j. As for his place in The Protectorate, he straddled a strange line, he was old enough to be a Ward but his legal status was that of an adult. Shadow Miser of the Youth Guard was still offering him legal services and was even managing his MIRIS stipend while he transitioned from Rogue to federal Hero work.
After some awkward photos for his personnel file were taken Ray bid Officer Innocenti goodbye as she had a weak spell and was ordered to return home to recuperate from her brush with hypothermia. On his own he was issued a laptop and given access to an external drive loaded with pre-recorded courses and lectures on PRT Protocols. He headed to the cafetorium and loaded up two trays with lunch and dinner. He found a lone long table and sat at the tail end of it, plugged in headphones and rolled the first lectures as he ate a tuna on a once hard roll with pickle spears and then alternating bites from a meatloaf and steamed veggies dinner.
"-eld, and I'm sorry to bother you but-"
Ray sputtered as a large shadow invaded his personal space and partially darkened the laptop screen.
"Do whatever you want to the laptop just don't touch the pickle spears", he jokingly pleaded as he pulled his gaiter back up and affixed the white mask in place.
A well built, metal skinned guy in a thick set of denim coveralls towered over Ray with a quizzical look, "Look I'm sorry I didn't mean to startle you. I just wanted to know if I could sit at the table or if you were holding it for your team?"
Ray half stood out of his seat and pulled a chair out next to himself "No, nah, it's all good, man. Sit as you like, free country and stuff. I'm just starting my PRT protocol videos. I'm sorry but I didn't catch your name? Mines Dogfight, Protectorate newbie."
"I'm Weld, the new leader of the local Wards team", Weld draped a towel he had slung around his neck and took the offered seat.
"Nice, I wasn't big about the heroes scene as a kid but I think I remember you on a drama show my grandmother watched a whiles back."
Weld rubbed the back of his head and half grinned "Yeah, I been making media rounds for a good bit. Back in Boston, Director Armstrong wanted me to be the face for letting the Public know Case 53s are people too."
"Ahh Boston, eh? Cool. I did my powers testing, ya know after they found me, over at that Department 24 building with the Youth Guard. "
Weld seemed to perk up at the mention of Boston, "How'd you like it over there, Arkady give you any trouble for anything?"
"The tech guy was cool, really. Just didn't like some of the tests themselves, ni modo. Dragon drone went ham on my only pair of shoes, and she's alright herself but as a hero nothing happens like we expect, huh?"
The metal skinned fellow tapped his forehead and asked, "Very true but, not to get sidetracked, so the horns - and you mentioned they found you. Are you a Case 53 or am I being really insensitive?"
Ray chuckled "Nah man, uhh, my crisis point made my powers kick into overdrive the first time and I really really got messed up when I finally stopped moving. I got this speed thing where I turn into dust when I'm molecularly vibrating, I don't know the specifics but there is the fact they said my horns are probably part of a second trigger adapting my body to let me use my face as an emergency brake."
Weld laughed hard, and the sounds his body made to make that laughter happen was closer to an overloaded washing machine. He cut his bout short then quieted down and looked around, "I'm sorry I don't mean to laugh at your condition, but that's good you're not letting things get you down."
"Ah no worries, Weld, but I'm pretty damn low about having a cold slice of pizza for a face. The masks hide the bulk of it but I don't think I'm going to be paid for kissing on tv stars anytime soon, eh?"
Weld's smile dropped from his face before he leaned back in the chair and stared up at the ceiling for a moment, a second later he was leaning in close to Ray and using a stray paper napkin to pull the laptop a bit closer to block things, "Hmm, nice try, Dogfight. Look I don't know if you're part of the people reviewing me for Piggot but I'm not one to kiss and tell and I will endeavor to keep my behavior on a professional level when I'm on the job."
Weld pushed his seat back, stood up and left without another word.
~~x
Shadow Stalker twirled a glass bolt between her fingers as they waited for their Protectorate patrol lead, "How do you even piss off, Weld? They groomed him for Cereal boxes and stupid mall meet n' greets, and you had him give the shortest fucking team meeting since he showed up."
Ray gave a noncommittal shrug, he honestly had no clue what set off her team leader but he wasn't going to add fuel to any fire there.
"And what is your deal anyway? You're getting Wards patrols but you're not with the Wards, are you some kind of remedial, special ed cape drop out?"
She'd been needling him for the past few minutes, it started with a critique of his weak wristed wave Hello and then continued on from there to his costume choice.
"And back to your mask, pick one, alright. The only people who care what the fuck you look like are PR, and you're no good as a double bagger so they'll cram your spam headed ass into a helmet and call it a day."
Still no sign of their Protectorate escort, so Ray made a show of cracking his knuckles and started in, "Look at this empty parking garage. It's filled with exactly as many vans as fucks I have to give about your Jr High insults, puta. And between us that's all you got on me chica so you keep on barking cuz we both know your bite is for shit."
Shadow Stalker chuckled, "Oh, you got me. Right, Assault?"
Ray diffused for a fraction of a second and was now turned 180 degrees facing Assault who was decked out in his classic red armored costume.
"I want to talk to you for a second - yeah, over here Dogfight."
Assault was the kinda cape who could launch a large desk just as far as any NFL kicker could punt a football. His very body could straight Kool Aid man through a brick wall without a moment's hesitation. The empty garage suddenly contained one more fuck of Ray's than previously counted.
"Sure thing, Boss", Dogfight casually walked over to Assault, hopefully out of Shadow Stalker's earshot.
Assault let out a lungful of air from his gritted teeth before speaking, "Look, I get that you are still essentially a kid, but she's a Ward, you are being trained for The Protectorate. She may be one of your teammates in several months time, but for right now Protectorate watches over The Wards. You coach, you connect, you may even cajole but you absolutely do not crap on The Wards, got it?"
Dogfight nodded, "Got it."
"This aside here is going in my report, if she decides to press this that'll go in the report, too."
"Do what you gotta, Boss."
Assault walked over and stood in the middle of Dogfight and Shadow Stalker, "Do you wish to elaborate on what was exchanged here or do you have any concerns you want addressed later, Shadow Stalker?"
"He's new and I'm bored, so no. I'm just peachy, Assault. I thought his reply was hilarious." Shadow Stalker's words were sarcastic, near playful, but the scathing look she shot at Dogfight was anything but playful.
Assault turned on his heels and kept walking backwards as the garage Bay door opened to the street behind him, "Alright, it's Dogfight's first patrol - we're running things light and tight, so Shadow you're scouting ahead keep within crossbow bolt range at all times and no higher than five stories above us. Dogfight, you're with me at ground level, at some point we will either be in pursuit of a suspect or we'll do a bit of racing between the three of us to clock you in an urban environment. The same rules go for you on proxemics, you will stay within 100 meters of me or Shadow nor breach a flight ceiling higher than five stories, understood?"
"Got it, Boss", Ray said as he jogged after their Protectorate escort.
Shadow Stalker nodded and sprinted ahead before leaping up and switching to her shadow form to gain height.
~~x
The night ended up being a blur of basic team exercises as they patrolled the PRT controlled area around downtown. Exercises involved Shadow Stalker or Dogfight using their intangible forms to investigate gang tag marked buildings, checking for signs of recent activity and contacting the MOD, Monitor on Duty, to have a team check it out during the day if so.
Another exercise was intermittent attacks by Assault, keeping the Ward and Trainee on their toes for sudden ambushes or opportunistic attackers. Mostly it amounted to Shadow Stalker wandering off and Dogfight and Assault chasing after her.
"Hey, Assault, I gotta apologize for going off on Shadow Stalker, words are words, ya know. And I'm serious about this hero thing."
"You should apologize to her, probably why she keeps ditching us tonight. The Protectorate isn't a boys club, I really am reporting what I heard tonight. Patrol is usually the punishment but since you're on accelerated training you're probably going to get combat drilled into oblivion by Miss Militia and there will be mandatory presentations on harassment and confrontation with the public. That's because you went off on another cape but what if it was a civilian? Not everyone loves capes let alone respect us unconditionally."
"Yeah, respect is earned. I got it, Boss. I'll make some time to try to square away Shadow Stalker."
For a personal exercise, Assault passed on a PRT testing suggestion that Dogfight turn just his feet into the dust form and see what effect that has. The first effect was silent footsteps, second his feet were no longer gathering mud and rocks from navigating some of the still neglected flooded streets, and third any impacts absorbed by or energy expended by his feet was no longer an issue. He hadn't been doing so for the first hour and there was some nagging in the small of his back from sprinting through the city and marching through mud and muck at length. Yet the past three hours had been a breeze and his back muscles relaxed.
After passing several blocks, Dogfight and Assault caught up to Shadow Stalker who was engaged with a mob of what looked like folks straight out of the Road Warrior and a trio of capes defending a military style cargo truck.
Shadow Stalker grabbed one of the mob trying to strike her with a wooden board and smashed her fist squarely in their face. Her boxing partner fell back into the crowd, some held him up as blood spurted, and she went intangible gliding over to her patrol unit.
"Shadow, sitrep?", Assault ordered.
"Merchants boobytrapped the street, a supply caravan of a few trucks with three capes hit the trap, Merchants jumped them as they tried to change tires on the truck that got hit... oh, and at least three Merchants need attention", she mentioned the last bit as she wiped blood off her gloves onto her cape.
Half the mob made a wall of bodies between the patrol and the other half menaced the truck. One cape looked like a humanoid figure sculpted out of pieces of glass soda bottles, huge green tinted shards stuck out of their body, the ends that connected to their flesh had a bloody tinge. That cape threw shards at the street in front of the mob, the shards shattered and pelted the mob with fragments drawing blood.
The second cape was a dark skinned woman with a black eye patch, both arms were either fancy prosthesis or cyberpunk style gloves up past her elbows. She wore a mechanic's coveralls with the sleeves removed, the front unbuttoned enough to show a white tank top beneath with a bandolier of bullets crossing her chest. She had an arsenal of revolvers holstered across her person and several smaller ones jammed into her belt, yet had a hi-tech recurve in her hands with a gnarly arrow notched and aimed at the crowd.
The third cape was familiar, the albino woman with cold powers who had flash frozen an entire PRT unit in minutes. She was changing the tire but it looked like she used water from the gutters to form an ice barrier to protect her as she worked the jack.
"Give us the fucking food, you bitch!" One of the bleeding mob members yelled up at the cape with the bow and arrow.
"This is private property, and we were hired to protect it! Back off or Silicate will flay your grungy asses!"
Silicate's body started to shift, their torso down to their legs thinned out and the shards growing out of their arms extended into thinner but sharp blades of green and red glass. This caused the mob to back up as the glass figure swept their arms in a menacing arc.
Assault looked to his patrol partners, "Alright, we're going to attempt to diffuse this, first. If they don't comply we-"
Shadow Stalker had launched herself into the crowd, using her intangible form to pass through the wall of bodies.
"I really hope that is going into the report too, Boss" Dogfight said before he diffused and followed the unhinged Ward inside the chaos.
~~x