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Interlude 0.2: The Locker incident


This was a mess. Someone broke into a school building at night for unknown reasons, called nine one one to save a student, introduced himself as a new Cape, and left before anyone showed up without leaving any traces, except for the opened doors of the school and the locker.

"Armsmaster, please tell me that we learned at least something new about this cape."

Almost everything about him was a mystery so far, and Piggot didn't like mysteries. His alignment, his affiliation, his purpose for breaking into the school, his appearance, his powers... All they knew about him so far was that he is a young male and that he possibly stopped whatever he was doing to save someone. There was also a possibility that he wasn't even a cape, but it was their job to assume the worst-case scenario, that there was a new Villain in town, and to prepare for it.

"I'm sorry, ma'am, but neither the police nor PRT agents and I have found anything of importance about the new Cape after checking the school building this morning. None of the security cameras in Winslow High work, so there was no footage to examine. We will get the footage from street cameras near the school in a few hours. The police will be questioning the staff and check if anything is missing." - Armsmaster replied in his usual a-matter-of-fact manner.

"I want police reports on my desk as soon as they'te done. So, he broke the cameras?" - Piggot asked as she raised her left eyebrow.

"No, after a quick examination we determined that cameras and metal detectors stopped working a long time ago from old age and lack of proper maintenance."

"The school was supposed to receive extra funding for having a Ward among it's students. Did the school receive the money?" - Piggot frowned. The problem was getting bigger, and she didn't like it one bit.

"Yes, as far as we know." - he replied blandly.

The extra funding was specifically meant to make the school more secure for the students. Well, that, and to monitor the problematic children with too much power, like Shadow Stalker. Clearly something wasn't right here.

"Contact and inform the Youth Guard and the Department of Education. I want this investigated yesterday. Now, back to the Cape. Did you check the doors?"

This situation was getting more complex. Every time Armsmaster opened his mouth Piggot got more questions than answers.

"Yes, there were no signs of damage on both locks. Either the Cape has a power that somehow assists him in opening the locks, or he had a key to the front entrance and a combination for the locker. One of our agents also speculated that the front entrance wasn't locked for the night in the first place."

"Hmm... Both possibilities could be very troublesome for different reasons, and I don't know which one is worse. A power that could be used in a subtle and precise way, or a Thinker ability..."

After thinking it over for a few minutes, Piggot finally came to a decision.

"Alright, for now, we will give this unknown cape, codename: "Unlocker", a preliminary rating of Thinker two, and a one in every other power class, except for Trump, until we get more information on him. If in the near future you spot an unknown male cape that you suspect to be Unlocker then treat him as a neutral and try to get as much information about him as possible."

Armsmaster quickly made a short file with all the information they got on Unlocker by using the HUD in his helmet and nodded to Piggot.

*Sigh*"Moving on, the girl, any information about her and her situation?" - changing the topic, Piggot allowed herself to relax just a little bit in her chair.

"Her name is Taylor Anne Hebert, fifteen years old, a sophomore at Winslow High, shares most classes with Shadow Stalker. Daughter of Danny Hebert, head of hiring for DWU, and Annette Rose Hebert, formerly an English professor at the local college, deceased since 2008. She was trapped in her own locker for more than twelve hours, then she was released by an unknown cape, codename: "Unlocker", about half an hour before midnight. Later she was delivered to the Central Hospital, where she received Parahuman healing from Panacea with the permission from her father, who arrived at the hospital about half an hour past midnight. Panacea stated that Taylor had blood poisoning. If she wasn't rescued from the locker then she would've died. Currently, she is unconscious. After a thorough analysis, the contents of her locker were classified as a low-level biohazard. The classes were cancelled for two days, today and tomorrow. Today a team of experts will arrive to clean out the locker. They will also search the area for any other signs of this biohazardous concoction because we believe that what was in the locker wasn't all of it. We believe that before Taylor was shoved into the locker, it was almost completely full of this biohazardous mixture, some of it spilt to the floor and then was cleaned up later by the janitor."

"Mark this as a possible trigger event. Also, if she's Stalker's classmate then I doubt that Stalker was completely oblivious about this situation. For now, don't tell her or any of the other Wards about our involvement in the investigation. We will decide what to do next after more details get revealed. Dismissed."


Author's Note:

- PRT is not sure what the hell Odis was doing in the school building at night and if he is even a cape at all, so, for now, they made a file for a possible new cape.

- PRT and BB Police are "cooperating" in this investigation.

- Blackwell will be fucked for life after Youth Guard and Department of Education are done with her.

- Winslow was closed for two days.

- Piggot finds Sophia's apparent lack of involvement a bit suspicious.

- Piggot and Armsmaster missed something very obvious (maybe you people can guess what?)

Already started writing Chapter 1.1