Emily Piggot

Reading another report on how things were going with this new situation I sighed as I turned to look out my window to the rest of the city. Around ten years and you'd think there would be at least a moment to breathe. Not even a week after the Simurgh attacked Canberra, Australia and of course capes had to be capes.I knew that when it came to parahumans they were at best bullies that struck at the worst possible moment, monsters who had enough power to make their own rules at their worst, or any other fucked up pile of misery and trouble in between. I could acknowledge that out there were some good ones or at least their end goal wasn't complete anarchy. But for the rest…

I glanced at the desk drawer that had a bottle of something that I couldn't drink. All thanks to fucking ca- I cut that thought off there before I could get too worked up. I knew what my team thought of me and didn't care all too much about it as long as it didn't get in the way of doing their damn jobs. I also knew my… flaws as well though I wouldn't necessarily call them that. So I knew not to let them get in the way. Closing my eyes I fought to not necessarily stay calm but instead hone that anger into a thing that had carried me throughout my time in Brockton Bay. Opening my eyes I look away from the liquid temptation to see that the meeting was set to begin soon.

Gathering up what materials would be needed for the meeting I look out at the city that at least in the limited view of my window looked alright. Not a shining jewel, but not a slum either. But I knew that looking closer or simply making my way too far from the PRT building would find a city decaying and limping along like a corpse infested by parasites that had no regard to the pain they inflicted to the whole body.

What a hellhole. She thought and sighed as she closed the door.

"Well seeing as we are all here let's not waste these last couple of minutes and get started," I say after coming into the meeting room and seeing that everyone who was supposed to be here was here. That being key members of her staff including Deputy Director Renick, the three Deputy Chiefs, and the Director of PR who sat alongside her. The Protectorate heroes; Armsmaster, Miss Militia, Dauntless, Velocity, Breakthrough, Assault, Battery, and Triumph were seated on the other side of the conference table. Seated to the side were the Wards; Aegis, Gallant, Clockblocker, Vista, Kid Win, and Shadow Stalker. Usually the Wards would be debriefed separately in this type of situation but they had been involved so here they were. Sitting down, "Armsmaster it has been around twenty four hours since this battle happened. What do you have for us?"

Without moving his hands, Armsmaster in his signature blue and silver power armor brings up several files and pictures on a screen while speaking in a clear, concise, but monotone voice, "By compiling phone calls, eye witness reports, and videos on PHO and other data, Dragon and I were able to come up with a most likely series of events of what happened on February 13th. Over the last week or two there have been reports about possible sightings of The Teeth and we thought that they were possibly thinking about trying to make a move into Brockton Bay, and we were right. Starting at 1:06 a number of calls reporting several disturbances and gunfire started coming in from towards the docks. Particularly the southern tip of what would be ABB-controlled territory. This seems to have been in fact a running fight between Lung and Oni Lee on one side with Spree, Hemorragia, Animus, and Vex on the other."

"Butcher I believe wasn't spotted anywhere?" Deputy Director Renick cuts in, "Has her corpse been found?" he says with an even more worried tone.

I watch as most of the capes in some way or another react to the implication behind that statement. No one wanted to be driven mad by the voices of a cluster of people you had killed. Or to have to deal with the person who was driven mad by those voices.

"No," Armsmaster quickly says, switching to a new set of reports showing a fight in New York and possibly what is most likely to be the 14th Butcher Quarrel, "I thought of that and according to the data, Butcher XIII was killed too recently in New York. Butcher XIV will most likely be making an appearance soon but not yet. No, most likely this was a bit of 'sport' according to reports about the Teeth's ideology and also some possible bid for establishment here in Brockton Bay since Boston recently has been very successful in running them out. However, now with everyone in the Bay being on the lookout for them they are most likely either going to join their cell in New York, move back into Boston and restart there, or start in a new place. However," he says at the looks of relief in the room, "we will need to stay vigilant because if they do decide to try to stay here then it's all the more likely that the Butcher will become involved as well."

Armsmaster looks at everyone to see if they understand the seriousness of that before continuing, "Dragon and me believe that in the fight between the ABB and The Teeth Lung did not have much choice and was forced to make a retreat because of Animus using his power nullifying scream on Lung. From deceased remains found at the location where we believe this may have started we believe that Oni Lee and several of his members protected Lung from being completely overwhelmed by a mix of their capes and normals and gave Lung a chance to escape, killing multiple Teeth members with his usual methods. Spree stayed back to help their own members against the ABB normals. We are unsure if at this point Oni Lee proceeded to harry the Teeth capes pursuing Lung until something made him back off, which would most likely be an injury or being hit by Animus's power since he wasn't seen at the sight of the main fight. Either that or he stayed at the initial battle to fight Spree. Nevertheless it is unclear whether he is dead since a corpse was not recovered with his outfit. We do think that unfortunately due to Oni Lee's help that regardless Lung was able to survive making it close to the Boardwalk and of course the next part of the fight."

Fucking capes at least leave civilians out of your shit.

"As we know the next part of the fight took place in the neighborhood located next to the Boardwalk. Lung's power began to ramp up due to either Animus not staying on him, his power wearing off, or Lungs' regeneration possibly being able to slowly counteract it. At this point he started ramping up and fighting back. Shadow Stalker and Clockblocker already being there in the area for a patrol began evacuating civilians," I notice movement from the white clad hero that seemed to indicate some kind of frustration though I did not know at what since the two from what I had read had performed adequately and did what they were supposed to actually do and not engage but focus on rescue.

Looking at the black clad hero, possibly Shadow Stalker is his problem since she was a common complaint, might have to follow up.

Annoying thing will be the Youth Guard raising a fuss since they were in the area and proceeded to do their jobs. I sarcastically think and muse as Armsmaster continues, "Glory Girl focused on civilians around the Boardwalk due to Panacea and Gallant's suggestion which was well done as it most likely would have made things more chaotic with her involvement," he gives a nod to the currently unarmored but domino mask wearing young man who nods back, "Dauntless soon arrived on scene and took care of civilians that were close to the fight while Clockblocker and Shadow Stalker shifted their efforts to civilians who were not as close. Miss Militia, Assault and Battery were on route. At this point the E88 consisting of Victor, Othala, and Hookwolf came in."

Assault whistles, "Quite the party we missed."

A soft thump follows shortly after from Battery most likely kicking him under the table as Armsmaster pointedly ignores the comment and continues, "Deputy Chief Garcia and Velocity believes they might have been tipped off." he nods at Deputy Chief Garcia to take it from there.

"Yes, information from spies and contacts we have in the Empire had noticed an increased push for arms shipments for the last week or so. This was forwarded to all relevant personnel. Unfortunately, they were just not able to get information as to their purpose. Now that this has happened we speculate that most likely this was the Empire getting ready for what would have happened if Lung had been successfully killed or captured." Garcia sighs and says the next part with bitter acceptance, "It's a good thing that Lung wasn't as it most likely would have resulted in a full on gang war between the ABB and E88. Since Lung is still around there may be at the most a possible increase in gun violence, but nothing more."

"Same," Velocity says after Garcia seems to have finished, "Guy I know says the Empire had been gearing up for something. Said that there had been an energy in the air so to speak. Reason why none of the normals were there was because they didn't know it would happen so fast. Kaiser also most likely thought that adding gunfire to the chaos would probably be a bit too damaging to their image as well. Especially if that gunfire had resulted in civilian deaths. Especially if that gunfire had resulted in the deaths of his kind of people. Which is why he sent just some of his capes. If he had sent his full roster he knows how quickly that would have devolved into an absolute mess."

"Yes, luckily normals were missing from both E88, ABB, and at this point the Teeth. Guns and whatever else would have made things a lot worse." Dauntless chimes in, his Greek styled helmet clutched in his hands.

Small miracles. I think as Armsmaster goes on, "Especially as it seems like at this time I believe that an unusual trigger event happened a little after the point the three sides began to clash."

Another possible problem to come out of this mess. "This was in the preliminary report, unusual how?" I ask.

He explains in that same monotone, "If a parahuman is close enough to the feedback that happens when a trigger event occurs it will incapacite them for a short time, however this is a short range effect. What is unusual in this case is that capes that were involved on the Boardwalk and in the actual fight which at this point was close to two blocks away from each other were also affected."

"Couldn't it be a cluster-trigger, or simply maybe two parahuman triggers?" Battery asks.

Armsmaster shakes his head, "From what I was able to gather it seems like everyone who was affected by the feedback was affected at around 1:38. While it is certainly possible that two people triggered at the same time in separate locations, the problem is that it would have taken more than two to affect all those that were affected. At an estimate it would have to be six to maybe even ten parahumans triggering at the same time to affect everyone." Please no. "Which is unlikely to say the least. From what we know of clusters that number would only grow larger."

Dauntless wearily sighs, "And considering the fact we're not running around fighting and doing damage control to a bunch of new triggers, that is probably not the case." Armsmaster nods in reply.

"Yeah I can't imagine in a situation like that four or more parahumans just walking away without using their power to get out or do something about it in some type of public way." Velocity says.

"Maybe a Stranger or Shaker to hide them?" Assault chimes in.

"Possibly." Velocity answers back.

There is a moment of silence before Miss Militia asks with readable concern past her star-spangled scarf, "Could the effect possibly be just a parahuman's power? Someone who triggered and then used their power. Or even a parahuman caught up in the neighborhood and has used their power publicly. Someone who hasn't shown themselves yet."

"Yes, but considering the similarity to the feedback effect it is not the most likely. It is just too similar to records of the event, from slight feelings of nausea to even how quickly everyone recovered."

"Excuse me, but is there a tangible reason to be actually worried about the range of this unknown parahumans' possible trigger event feedback? Would it say, affect their power in any way, give them more abilities, or anything like that?" Deputy Chief Brown questions.

Armsmaster answers, "It is possible and while there have been studies into different aspects of trigger events this is not one of them since the radius seems to stay consistent. This change is completely new, or at least not noticed and recorded. In terms of possible worry from a threat angle, since the radius size is new we just don't know. There have been some instances where a power may have been influenced by a close by parahuman but there is the barest chain linking them together and the circumstances, methods, and distances are inconsistent and make the idea more speculation than anything."

"So I'm guessing that all the speculation means who or where they are currently is unknown? And that there is only one new parahuman out of this situation?" ask the green and white clad Breakthrough.

"Correct. A new parahuman did not visibly join the fight and we weren't able to get any sightings or reports of parahumans seen leaving the area in a way that outed them as being one. Of course we are keeping an eye on any injured in the hospitals, and hopefully we find them before the E88 does since they will no doubt know by now as well. Of course, though I said it is unlikely, for as large and potentially terrifying an incident as this one was I wouldn't be surprised if we found more than one new cape in Brockton Bay before long. This feedback is simply noteworthy because of the possible aforementioned trigger feedback range and how it most likely changed the battle."

He brought up more videos of the battle that happened afterward, "Up until this point The Teeth were able to keep Lung diminished and somewhat on the backfoot, however the feedback or unknown power changed that. Upon waking up Lung was able to rapidly ramp up, but due to a mixture of the Empire capes and Spree coming into the battle the Teeth capes and Empire capes ultimately escaped. Lung gave chase and wrecked or damaged several pieces of property in his pursuit but soon was seen returning back to the docks. We believe the Teeth either are laying low or most likely they escaped west of the city out past Captain's Hill. Relevant agencies have been notified. There has also been no visible movement from the Empire, ABB, Teeth, and even the Merchants. That is the end."

So a high profile incident, but not one that made her capes look particularly bad. No cape deaths though it would've been nice if any of this had resulted in any deaths of the capes in the gangs, but of course she wasn't that lucky. PR was going to be a bit problematic since there weren't any captures and the fight got close to one of the city's relatively safe areas, but since the boardwalk wasn't actually hit it shouldn't be too bad. Nothing some concentrated patrols around the area shouldn't fix. "A mess, but not the worst. What are we going to do about it?"

Soon enough the meeting devolved into outreach efforts, damage report, contingency plans, and other minutiae.

—-

22 Hours 14 Minutes Earlier
A figure smelling of smoke and wrapped in flame-licked clothing stared at herself in the bathroom of her home. A home marked physically by what was sadly not there in spirit. Something that had died and was tragically taken away. Killed by circumstance, undone by fate, who is to say. But what there is for certain is the girl staring at herself through the window into her soul. New senses, new tastes, so unique and yet hauntingly familiar. Power in her fingertips that she can use to rip open new doors, or were those doors there all along? Simply waiting like they always have.

But those weren't what she focused on. She was looking at the mirror so she wasn't thinking about taste, wasn't thinking of what she sensed, wasn't thinking about the power in her hands. No, instead she looked at herself. At her appearance, and especially at her eyes.

And she laughed.

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AN: So we'll see how this goes. This came from a various hodgepodge of ideas and whatnot that steadily grew to something interesting to me. Hopefully it will be the same to you. Of course as there are many on here this is a Taylor ALT-power. It seems like some people are tired of her so this is to those people, just letting you know. Most annoying part about this was just lack of hard limits set in Worm canon. Such as how far does the trigger event feedback go. In canon you can possibly infer that it seems like it doesn't cover a whole school since Sophia doesn't at all doesn't seem to be affected from Taylor's trigger event. Though it could very well be that Sophia doesn't think that Taylor is the type of person to trigger so actually it COULD cover a school. Cluster trigger event are also another thing not given enough info I feel. How quickly do they have to happen next to each other, how far away can someone be, etc. There are of course examples, but no hard numbers such as if a person triggers ? seconds after a person within ? feet triggers then it will result in cluster.
Its annoying, though admittedly I'm playing with certain limits and conceit in regard to the kind of basic of this fic so...(shrug). Another thing is there is no full canon PRT structure. We know that pretty much about the top three levels (Rebecca, Piggot, then Renick's positions). But below them...nothing except for base troopers below them. Literally the type of stuff I tried to figure out for an hour before I just threw my hands up in the air.

Anyways feedback and criticism. I like this because of _. This sucks for this reason _. You know the drill.

And as always. Thank for reading regardless.