Opening

Just because it's legal doesn't mean that its right.

Lunch

The last few months had been a trial in portraying what I no longer was. Cringing at being bullied and withdrawing further into myself but it had to be for just a bit longer, a few days at most. I'd even gone to the lengths of complaining about the bullying again and was rewarded with Emma's father showing up in full, legal, fury resulting in all complaints against his daughter and her accomplices being swept under the rug.

That tweaked my interest especially on Sophia Hess, Emma's new friend, who seemed to have some sort of handler that she reported to regularly which raised my suspicions enough to place a bug on her. From that I now knew that she was a ward of the Protectorate in the form of Shadow Stalker, a hero in training and that the Protectorate didn't seem to realise that they had an outright super-villain in their midst as her handler had been helping hide the abuse.

After the complaint I had ended up being beaten quite badly by the main three but mostly by the Hess girl. After school that day I'd gone home, told my father and then gone to the doctor's where all the injuries had been very carefully noted, examined, and treated. What had also been noted was that it had been a fight at school. I left bugs there and so I knew that the report had been passed on to the school as legally required, that it had been brought to the notice of the Headmaster and my bugs showed that she had done nothing with it. In fact, she had buried it and had the schools own recording deleted and a maintenance request filed for those cameras as they were obviously faulty.

All recorded.

Now I sat in Mr Gladly's class pretending to be nervous, glancing at the clock every few seconds. Lunch was going to be torture as hiding myself away and doing nothing but mental exercises could get quite boring. An hour was way, way too long to be doing nothing. I had considered simply going back to my world but figured that simply disappearing would raise suspicions of me being a Cape.

"Let me wrap up here," Mr. Gladly said, "Sorry, guys, but there is homework for the weekend. Think about capes and how they've impacted the world around you. Make a list if you want, but it's not mandatory. On Monday we'll break up into groups of four and see what group has the best list. I'll buy the winning group treats from the vending machine."

Ugh, group work with a bunch of barely educated children. I silently scolded myself, it really wasn't their fault as they actually were children.

The bell went off and I headed for the least used restroom, waited for it to be empty and then locked myself in a cubicle. The sounds in the room finally petered out and I started eating my lunch. When I was almost finished I heard the door open and some people enter. Quickly checking the feed through my glasses from the bugs that I kept around me I soon realised that it was my tormentors.

I watched as they checked every cubicle and wondered why they needed such privacy. When they knocked on my door I kept quiet hoping that they'd either assume that the cubicle was broken and continue on with whatever illegitimate stuff they were planning or that they'd leave.

They didn't.

There was another knock on the door and then the sound of someone climbing the cubicle walls. I looked up just in time to see Madison peering over before she dropped down again and said in a loud whisper "It's Taylor." Followed shortly after by a "Let's do it."

I quickly grabbed my bag and unlatched the door but couldn't open it as someone was holding it closed. Still trying to open it I soon found myself pelted by streams of fruit juice. I looked up to see Madison and Sofia grinning down at me like loons. I ducked down again as the liquid assault continued. After all, I couldn't let them see my grin as I considered just how fucked they were going to be as my bugs recorded everything.

Still, this patience was getting frustrating. Especially considering that the leader of my tormentors used to be my best friend. I figured that it was nearly time that I ended the charade and brought justice to their existence.

The downfall of Lung

On Sunday night, after I went to my bedroom, I decided that I needed to de-stress after another argument with my father who was getting worried about how long it was taking to bring down the abusers at school. I assured him that almost all the needed evidence was in and being collated by the lawyer that I had found and should be finished in the next few days.

That, inevitably, had brought up his fears about the lawyer. No lawyer did anything for free at which point I pointed out, yet again, the idea of pro-bono where the lawyer was paid out of any reparations they managed to get. I'd also started working there for the practical experience because, as I told him, I wanted to go into law myself. Dad was concerned that he had other objectives which I flatly denied. After all, AIs simply didn't have any sex drive and Jack did what I told him to but I couldn't tell my father that.

Not wanting to draw attention to myself I had dressed in dark clothing and, using a little bit of power, wrapped the darkness around me like a cloak of invisibility and then left for a fly across the city.

Yeah, best laid plans of mice and men.

I had come across the gathering of men by accident. I hadn't noticed them until a flicker of light gave away the position of a few. It wasn't the fact that a person was lighting a cigarette that drew my attention but that there were so many people milling about as if waiting.

Another flicker of light from a drawn cigarette allowed me to identify them as Asians wearing red and green. The ABB, the Azn Bad Boys. Bad spelling combined with a bad attitude meant that this gathering probably meant trouble so I started moving away from it as I wasn't really ready to make my debut to the world when mass movement near one of the buildings drew my attention. Something big was going down.

I swung closer, hoping to get close enough to hear what was said and to make out just who it was without being noticed. That came clear fairly shortly as the big guy moved further out of the building allowing the light from a single streetlight to highlight him. Big Asian guy covered in tattoos? Yeah, that was Lung, leader of the ABB which meant that this was likely a major raid. I settled in to listen and see what happened. If it was as bad as it looked I could call the authorities with an anonymous tip.

Lung wad been talking in a deep, commanding voice, sounding like he was giving instructions but it didn't come clear until I get close enough to make out what he was saying. Lung was snarling, "…the children, just shoot. Doesn't matter your aim, just shoot. You see one lying on the ground? Shoot the little bitch twice more to be sure. We give them no chances to be clever or lucky, understand?"

They were going to kill children? Yeah, not on my watch. The sound from my bugs was worse than the close confines of the school as wind and wings disrupted it but the vision was top notch and I had a good idea of where everyone was. They weren't expecting an attack and so the plan was simple: Start here, Shadow-step through the crowd incapacitating them as I went, and end up in Lung's face there. Estimate, 15 to 20 seconds to have all 26 henchmen down.

Easy. I morphed myself into my Elfin body ensuring that there was no way that I'd be recognised and drew my daggers.

Of course, justice demanded that I give them the opportunity to surrender first. I chose the roof of a building just across from me and cast a ventriloquism spell "You are surrounded, lay down you weapons and surrender. I am not going to let you kill any children tonight."

Lung's response was as predictable as the rising sun "Find those fuckers and kill them."

That actually made it easier as they all turned outward looking for people who weren't there and also meant that my actions were fully justified. I Shadow-stepped to the first group, quick slice of a dagger across each of their ribs causing minimal damage but injecting a high power anesthetic and then Shadow-step to the next group, repeat.

I ended up in front of Lung just as the last one dropped but still Hidden in Shadows so he couldn't see me "Eighteen seconds" I said and then dived to the left as Lung let out a great breath of fire in my general direction. I rolled and jumped on him, jammed a dagger in his shoulder and then leapt away. I landed with a slight scrape of gravel which I would have sworn he shouldn't have been able to hear but obviously did as he spun round and tried to fry me again. Bastard must have super-hearing as well as all that fire.

I leapt aside but made sure that I landed much more quietly. I noticed that Lung's rumoured transformation was well underway as he yelled "Oome, ooight ee."

He was now covered in steel scales which was going to be hard on my blades. "Why would I do that?" I called out from behind a tree. "I'm not out to prove how strong I am, just here to stop you."

Lung roared as he spun to the tree and roasted it. I promised myself that I'd heal the tree later as I leapt at Lung's back driving both daggers deep into his armpits and getting a heavy dose of anesthetic into him. I threw some gravel just before I landed which drew Lung's attention and he spun toward the noise but staggered as he let loose with another barrage of flame.

He staggered again and again, throwing out his fiery breath in random directions endangering his own downed men and the buildings surrounding us. I decided that I needed to stop him and moved toward him quickly and silently, making sure to remain behind him as he staggered around. Once I got close enough I slammed both daggers into the back of his knees to bring him down, then between his shoulder blades as he face planted, and then leapt away again as there was no point in tempting fate.

I stayed stationary an quiet but he didn't move again so I approached, still wary, drawing out my cuffs. When I got to him I quickly cuffed his hands behind him and connected them to his feet making sure he couldn't move. Once I had done that I then checked that he was still breathing and had a pulse. I sighed in relief and was going to sit down, feeling the effect of the fight now that the adrenaline wasn't pumping, when my bugs informed me that more people had arrived. I turned to face four people riding three massive dogs.

They stopped short and looked at the hog-tied Lung then climbed off of the dogs and walked over "You saved us a lot of trouble." Said the tall, darkness enshrouded one that I assumed was the leader. He extended his hand.

I took it and asked "I take it you're the children that he said he was going to kill?"

"Yeah, that would be us. Heard earlier that Lung was gunning for us and freaked. Spent most of the afternoon arguing about what to do and finally just came in, try to meet him half way. He didn't show and his flunky ran off." He looked down at Lung again "How did you manage to hog-tie the biggest, meanest, bastard in the city?"

"Sleeping potion, a damn effective one." Said the girl with long, dark blond hair before I could. "Many people would pay big for that and not just those on our side." She said as she looked me over.

The dark guy looked at her and then turned back to me "Introductions, that's Tattletale, I'm Grue. The girl with the dogs is Bitch, her preference, and the other guy is Regent."

I realised a mistake I'd made - I hadn't given myself a name. "I haven't… actually… given myself a name yet."

He nodded and then said "I do suggest that you get a better mask though as you're too easy to recognise with those ears and hair."

"Changer. The ears and hair are her mask." Said Tattletale smiling and then she looked up at the sky "We gotta scram, Protectorate incoming."

Bitch looked up and then whistled her dogs over which they quickly mounted. Grue turned to me "Hey, you want a ride?"

"No thanks, I'm good."

"Take my word for it." Said Tattletale "When the PRT find two bad guys duking it out, they jail both."

I snapped my fingers and disappeared back into the shadows "Really, I'm good." I said as Grue gave a low whistle.

"Well then, Elfin Shadow, you've done us a solid tonight so, thanks and maybe we'll see you around." Tattletale had a grin on her face and mischief twinkled in her eyes but, deeper, there was… something else.

"Sure." I said and they turned and vanished back into the night.

I walked over and sat down next to Lung. So much for a quiet, stress relieving fly over the city. Although, thinking about it, the stress levels were well down so not all bad. Taking down one of the biggest names in the city wasn't part of the plan and neither was being recognised as a villain…

No, wait.

Tattletale had skillfully insinuated to the rest of her team that I was a villain but, considering her accurate reading of the fight and that she recognised that my morph was my mask, there was no way that she hadn't recognised me as not a villain.

So… what was that hope in her eyes and why was it fixated on me?

I tapped my chin in thought as I looked at where the villains had disappeared. What was she up to and what did she want?

A few seconds later Armsmaster turned up on his souped-up motorbike and parked next to Lung. I'd had to scoot out of the way to prevent myself from being run over. He got off the bike and looked around and then started speaking into his mic what he saw. "We've got Lung down and hog-tied." He checked Lung's pulse "He's asleep which I'm going to assume is the same for the 20… 26 of his henchmen lying around the square." He'd been walking around and was now looking at the burnt tree "There's notable fire damage around so there must have been a fight but all I'm seeing is the ABB. Either the other people picked up their bodies before they left or there wasn't any. Wish I knew who could do this."

"Wish granted." I said as I stepped out of the shadows just out of reach of his halberd

"Christ!" he yelled as he jumped back, swinging his halberd around "Who the hell are you and do you plan to attack?"

"My name is Elfin Shadow and I don't plan to attack."

He looked at me wearily but his halberd moved back into a rest position "Do you know what happened here?"

I shrugged "I happened here."

"Uh, huh, and how did you do all this?"

I twirled my daggers "Quick blades and a sleeping potion. If you want, I can transmit the video footage I have of the fight… although the sounds not so great."

"That would be most appreciated, hang on." He turned from me for a few moments then turned back "You should see a guest folder that you can transmit to."

"I see it, transmitting now."

He was quiet for a bit then "Six streams? Oh, five individual cameras and then a 3D amalgam. I'm impressed."

"Thank you." I waved over the sleeping criminals "These people will wake up in about an hour so I hope you're pickup crew is on their way. Well, the normal humans will, don't know how long before Lung does as I had to use a lot of potion on him and he does regenerate."

"They're on their way but another thing we have to discuss is, ah, how to protect you. You haven't, ah, exactly hidden your identity. In fact, I'd say that there was no way that you could be misidentified. Once this gets out people will be trying to kill you. I could take the credit, which would clear you, and if you joined the wards we would be able to train and protect you."

"Well, if they find me I'm going to be really impressed." I grinned "Then I'll take them down and be somewhat less impressed." I eyed him "I neither need, nor want your protection and I will be taking credit for the capture which, if I recall, comes with quite a hefty cash payout." I waited until he nodded "And as for your training, well, it would be decades behind what I already have."

His eyes narrowed "I see… then I suppose all that I need now is an address where we can contact you about the payment."

"I included contact information in the transmission I sent you." He looked into the folder and nodded "Well, then, I really must be off, ciao." And vanished into the shadows. Then I reappeared "Oops, you're going to want this." As I handed him a key

"What's this?"

"Its the key to the cuffs on Lung." I vanished from sight again.

Dragon

Dragon was going through the evidence that had just been dumped into her inbox via the Brockton Bay PRHQ. It had been CC'd to the police and child welfare as well.

Hours of video footage from the internal security cameras and some extras at Winslow High of a single girl, a Taylor Hebert, being ruthlessly tortured and abused by girls and boys led by a few ring leaders.

Winslow High rang a bell… She searched her records and found that one of the Brockton Bay Wards, Shadow Stalker, went there. Facial recognition soon showed that Shadow Stalker, real name Sophia Hess, was one of the ring leaders. There was a single file in the download dedicated to Sophia Hess which she opened. That file showed that Shadow Stalker had been far more active than she should have been and had been breaking most of the rules as well as her probation. And that was on top of the abuse of the girl.

Back to the video evidence, recovered from backup as the primary storage had been deleted, she watched as Shadow Stalker shoved the poor girl into a locker which had resulted in the girl being catatonic for a week. She watched the recording of the deal that had brought about the school paying the girl's medical expenses and not punishing Shadow Stalker and the other abusers or bringing it to the PRT's attention as required for the extra financial assistance that the school got for having a Ward there. Which led to watching other, similar, recordings. The headmaster had been protecting the torturers with the help of the father of one the torturers and Shadow Stalker's handler. That led to another dedicated file on the father who was a high flying attorney employed by well paying clients. In most cases his methods were questionable at best and outright illegal in others.

She pinged Director Piggot about Shadow Stalker and then organised a coordinated raid on the school and attorney's offices with the police, child welfare and the PRT for that morning. Letting this continue any longer was just asking for trouble.

As the raid got underway she continued watching. Finding herself horrified by what the girl had gone through and the lengths that people, who should have been protecting her, went to protect themselves and the torturers. Considering the amount of abuse that the girl had gone through it was amazing that she hadn't triggered. She noted that the girl had been visited while in hospital by the PRT's James Tagg and she considered his report severely lacking and indicative of him just not doing his job.

There was just one question really. She was certain that the evidence presented was authentic but where was the girl's lawyer getting the videos and information from? Especially the evidence against Shadow Stalker and her illicit activities outside of both the school and the Wards program.

She sent a message to Armsmaster "It's likely that Director Piggot will want to speak to Miss Hebert."

Justice

I came out of Mr. Gladly's room pretty much seething. He'd actually had the gall to say that he didn't know who was giving her a hard time when her bug's recording clearly showed that he was… admiring Julia when Julia stole her work and gave it to Madison and had then quickly looked away when he realised what was happening. I was so pissed that I almost missed the group that was obviously there to continue the bullying by hemming me in and shouting insults about me. When I did realise I quickly put my harassed mask back in place and kept my face down while I allowed them to cage me against the wall.

So tempting to strike out against them but it wouldn't help and would probably out me as a Cape as I'd easily take Hess down.

Then my bugs informed me of action at the gate and I smiled. Several police vehicles and child welfare were arriving and there was Armsmaster climbing off of his motorcycle. I was fighting hard to keep the grin off of my face.

A couple of minutes went by. I tried to get through but they had pushed me back, keeping me there. Mr Gladly left his room, looked my way and then turned to leave. He wasn't going anywhere as the police had already sealed the school but he didn't know that so I decided it was time to stop the play.

I looked up "Mr Gladly." I called out, surprising both the students and the teacher.

"Yes, Taylor? And, please, call me Mr G."

"These people are abusing and bullying me."

His eyes went wide in surprise. It was definitely not what he, nor the group, had been expecting by the looks on their faces.

One of the girls was faster off of the mark "We were just standing here talking…" she trailed off as she looked at me and realised that I wasn't playing their game any more.

"Just standing here talking that included insulting me and pushing me back into the wall? Yeah, no. That's bullying which is an actual offence which will be going on your record. I will be making sure of that Alisa." She looked startled that I knew her name and I turned back to Mr. Gladly "So, I've informed you, what are you going to do about it?"

He hesitated a bit before stammering out "Girls, please let Taylor go and I don't want to hear about this sort of behaviour again." He then turned to leave.

"Is that all you're going to do?" I demanded

"It's all I can do." He said "As all I have is your word and theirs."

"Only my word? Really? So, all those cameras up in each hallway and classroom are, what, toys?" There were gasps from all involved as if they hadn't realised that the cameras were there.

"Well, they're unreliable…"

"Yeah, especially when I'm the one laying the complaints… and you turn them off so that you're not recorded in your, ah, intimate affairs. Is Mr. G short for G-spot perhaps?" His face went white "Tell me, Mr. G, just how many of your students are you fucking?"

One of the girls stumbled and I turned to find that Madison was trying to help a shaking Julia to stand. Apparently, Madison had a heart even if she didn't use it often. Julia, for her part, had a hand over her mouth and was as white as Mr G "Did you know, Julia and Madison, that stealing someone else's work and passing it off as your own, as you did to me this morning, is also illegal and will get you held back for a year at least?"

The hallway had gone silent before Emma spoke up, a grin on her face "It's Ok, my father will ensure that nobody believes her lies and…"

I turned to her "Oh, I doubt that. See, when I contacted all of the appropriate authorities I also sent them all of the evidence. Included in that is all the evidence that the headmaster has been deleting and the evidence of your father's… questionable practices." I couldn't help it, I grinned "I suspect that he's going to be too busy trying to keep himself out of jail to even help his daughter. Almost everything that he did to help you and your friends was illegal and, even worse, was immoral." She paled as she started shaking her head in denial.

The attention of the entire hall was on me so all of them were surprised when Armsmaster said from behind them "Ms Hebert, that's enough." I'd known he was there from my bugs but, man, for a big guy wrapped in armour he sure could move quietly when he chose.

I looked up at him then dipped my head "Of course, Armsmaster."

Sophia spun to face him in her shock and visibly started to phase out but Armsmaster was quicker and a pair of Taser darts impacted her causing her to crumple to the ground unconscious "Sophia Hess" he said to the unconscious girl "you are under arrest." Then he turned to the hall, amplifying his voice "Everyone, stay where you are. The police will be along shortly to question you."

I pulled out my phone and hit the speed dial. Armsmaster turned to me "What are you doing?"

"I'm contacting my father. If I'm going to be questioned by the police then I'm going to have my lawyer here."

He paused as if in thought then said "Of course. The PRT will also want to speak with you."

I nodded to him as I began speaking into the phone.