Chapter 11 – Consequential Aftermath
"Recite again one last time the events as they happened." Armsmaster sighed loudly as he massaged his temple, clearly wanting to get back to his Laboratory to continue his work rather than debrief three young Wards on their patrol which ended in a rather high profile fight.
"Yes, sir, Armsmaster, sir" I quipped, my eyes fixed upon on the old dried coffee stain on the floor beneath Armsmaster's workdesk.
"Ok, Boss.", "Roger, sir" Kid Win and Gallant piped in after me respectively.
"Shadow Dancer, Kid Win and I were on patrol along Route Alpha-Epilson when, at 2037 hours, we heard several gun shots coming from the warehouses along Maynard St. I sent Shadow Dancer ahead to scout as she was the best equipped power-wise for recon and surveillance." Gallant started, not showing any irritation at the fact this was the fourth time we were repeating the story.
At least the retelling was now more organised and structured as compared to the first time we were reporting the incident, that one had us tripping all over each other's words, each of us talking over each other, adding suddenly remembered details and correcting facts.
"Shadow Dancer reported back that she sighted ABB and E88 elements in combat with several civilian females captive and in clear duress in warehouse 15. Shadow Dancer further noted that there were five ABB armed members and two E88 members who she recognised as Stormtiger and Hookwolf." Gallant continued.
"Good. Clear and simple without too much extraneous details. Continue." Armsmaster intoned and turned to Chris and waved for him to continue.
"Console verified Shadow Dancer's identification over body cam and advised us to observe and not engage." Chris added without any hesitation. "We maintained our position and did not interfere until the ABB initiated offensive action, which caused the E88 to retaliate."
Armsmaster snapped his fingers, indicating for Kid Win to stop and pointed to me.
"We immediately proceeded to attempt to extricate..." I started.
"No, just 'proceeded to extricate', 'attempt to' adds ambiguity and doubt to the possible success of the action. You rescued them in the end, don't call your own success into question by adding a hint of hesitancy." Armsmasters cut me off.
"We immediately proceeded to extricate the captive women by creating an exit through a side wall and led them away from the area while the ABB and E88 fought inside the warehouse. The E88 had subdued the ABB in this time and Stormtiger moved to prevented the escape of a captive, forcing me to engage him to free the captive."
"'forcing Shadow Dancer' , not 'forcing me'. The report is the group's not only your own, but good work. Next." Armsmaster snaps his fingers again.
"As Shadow Dancer fought Stormtiger, Kid Win strafed Hookwolf with non-lethal rounds from his hover board and Gallant threw a cargo container to land between Hookwolf and Stormtiger to prevent Hookwolf from assisting Stormtiger and to box him away from the fleeing captives." Dean continued.
*Snap*
"Shadow Dancer then inca… incapac…" Kid Win tries to hold back laughter and continue the narrative, almost fails, but in the end regains control, "incapacitated Stormtiger and retrieved the captive from him. Hookwolf is kept distracted by the cargo containers that Gallant continually tosses in front of him and Kid Win moved to lay covering fire over the injured Storm Tiger for Shadow Dancer to move to assist the captives in their egress of the facility."
*Snap*
"Shadow Dancer led the female captives 2 blocks clear from the warehouse and called Console for transport before signalling Kid Win and Gallant to disengage and meet up at her location. Gallant and Kid Win successfully leave the confrontation by collapsing cargo containers on Hookwolf and Storm Tiger and exiting via a skylight. Two PRT trooper teams arrived to the area with the transport for the captives and verified that 8 ABB armed personnel were found dead on scene, no E88 personnel were found in the warehouse and 23 young adult women aged between 17 to 23 of Vietnamese descent were rescued." I heaved a sigh of relief as I ended the verbal report.
"Your report is satisfactory should you be questioned by any auditor or Youth Guard investigator if you recite what you just did. The fact that the three of you were involved in any form of fighting is not something that should have happened and will surely be questioned by concerned parents and even law enforcement. No one wants Wards to become involved in violence and death like child soldiers, least of all the Protectorate. But this is Brockton Bay, one of the cities with the highest gang violence in America, and I believe you made the right call to ensure that lives were saved and I will stand with you if need be. It is now past midnight so go home and have a rest, I will properly inform your parents as to what happened to you come morning, so don't try to hide this from them." Armsmaster dismissed us with a curt nod and walked out of the meeting room.
As I went to get out of my costume and begin to head home, I had no idea how I could sleep after all that just happened tonight. And from the looks of it, both Dean and Chris felt the same.
And then there's facing Dad tomorrow morning…. Oh joy…
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Badges Earned: (Verified Cape), (Wards ENE)
Topic: Big Commotion at Maynard St
In: Boards ► News ► Events ►America► Brockton Bay
Brocktonite03 (Original Poster)
Posted on September 22nd, 2009, 2056 hrs:
Hey guys, I think something's going on over at the warehouses on Maynard. I'm hearing gunfire and lots of metallic crashing sounds. Either a gangfight is starting or some new cape is testing out powers or shitz.
Anyone have a visual of this?
EDIT:
There is confirmation that this is a fight. Everyone near that area or heading there, change your plans now! I mean it. I just heard a terrible howling roar of pain that has shook me to the bones.
EDIT2:
There are several black vans heading towards there now and most of the noise has stopped. I think it's over.
EDIT3:
This is a consolidation of all the vids posted on this thread:
Vid1
WarehouseBoom
ScreamThatMadeMeClench
VansAndGirls
(Showing page 12 of 14)
► AielWalkerOfSkys
Replied on September 23rd, 2009, 0823 hrs:
Did you guys watch the morning news just now?
Seemingly the hullabaloo was a PRT operation to rescue some human trafficking victims.
Empire and ABB shooting it out and get this… WARDS went in to rescue them.
I'm not advocating that teens go out and fight and all but they seemingly did good. No injuries on their part, no civilian injuries and the only people injured were the gang members shooting it out. Kudos to them, I'll say. Medals for all!
► MiraculousMaverick
Replied on September 23rd, 2009, 0823 hrs:
Darn, you beat me to it, Aiel.
I gotta learn to type faster.
I don't think many people like having teens within 5 miles of any gunfights, let alone in the middle of one. I don't know what to think. It may have gone well this time for the Wards, but this creates a bad precedence.
What if the next time the Wards decide to get involved, they aren't o lucky? What if this inspires normal teens to get involved in pulling people out of trouble and getting into trouble themselves?
EDIT:
Typos… and the fact I got scuppered. Had to delete stuff.
► CrabManBoy
Replied on September 23rd, 2009, 0824 hrs:
MiraculousMaverick: Ok, I get your point, but based on the news report the Wards didn't go in wanting to get involved in the fight and only took action because many lives were in danger and left as soon as the innocents were saved. It's like getting Eagle Scouts involved in Search and Rescue work during a disaster or getting Junior Firefighters helping to hose water into a building fire to help, I feel.
I mean, the Wards are trained to handle situations and they are better equipped than most to do it due to powers. If you don't let people do what they are trained and equipped to do, you're just denying them experience and I prefer an experienced youth over an inexperienced adult when push comes to shove in any emergency.
What's to stop normal teens from doing the same? Education. And parents that do parenting. Not mollycoddling. That raises wimps.
► ThousandLightBulbs
Replied on September 23rd, 2009, 0825 hrs:
CrabManBoy: Preach it brother (I assuming since you're a crab and a man and a boy, you're male).
We need to teach your kids that saving others is a good thing and something you should risk your own safety for, if necessary. Just don't be reckless and proceed without consulting your own brain cells. And if the news report is accurate and not covering up anything, the Wards did just that.
If everyone just took effort and not care only for their own hiney, maybe Brockton Bat wouldn't be in such a gang-dominated state.
► Love_Me_A_Cape
Replied on September 23rd, 2009, 0825 hrs:
Did you guys, like, watch the footage of, like, the Wards, like, escort the girls, like, into the vans?
That Gallant looked so, like, hot.
And that Dancer girl, like, is so, like edgy…
I wonder if, like, they are, like open for a, like [REDACTED]
[Tin_Mother – Please do not solicit other people or even suggest things like that.]
[Tin_Mother has assigned you a temp-ban till September 23rd, 2009, 1225 hrs]
► BurntToast
Replied on September 23rd, 2009, 0826 hrs:
Love_Me_A_Cape: My eyes!… you don't have to type exactly the way you speak.
Should we adjourn the serious stuff about whether Wards should fight or not in the appropriate section of the boards? This thread is getting rather heavy.
► TheChallengee
Replied on September 23rd, 2009, 0826 hrs:
Ok, back to topic then.
The Wards saw people in danger.
The Wards got people out of danger.
E88 vs ABB happened. Gangers got ganked.
Brockton Bay goes yay.
Anyone want to add anything else?
► WeisIstRichtig
Replied on September 23rd, 2009, 0826 hrs:
[REDACTED]
[Tin_Mother – Please do not use hate speech or threaten anyone]
[Tin_Mother has assigned you a ban till September 23rd, 2010, 0826 hrs]
► ReichteousTiger (Verified Cape)
Replied on September 23rd, 2009, 0827 hrs:
How dare you! How dare you hit below the belt!
That is underhanded and unbecoming. And you dare condemn us for what we stand for and our methods?!
You better hope my tail is not permanently damaged or there will be no mercy! You cannot dance away from what I have planned for you, you shadowy wench!
No quarter!
[Tin_Mother – I give you that you tried to be vague, but it does clearly sound like violence is threatened.]
[Tin_Mother has assigned you a temp-ban till September 23rd, 2009, 1626 hrs]
► KidWin (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)
Replied on September 23rd, 2009, 0828 hrs:
Calm down, tiger. I'm a guy too, I know what you are feeling.
But then you did take hostages and tried to kill them in front of us. We had to rescue them the best we can.
I really do hope it isn't permanent. Hope you have a good doctor. I wouldn't want to be in your situation.
► I-Ack (Winner of PHO's NaNoWriMo Best Online Novel 2008)
Replied on September 23rd, 2009, 0830 hrs:
Wait….
Did I just read that right?
There's so much between the lines there. And I think I just crossed my legs real tight just now reading that.
This is gold….
► MPiPlayer
Replied on September 23rd, 2009, 0832 hrs:
I'm sure that most of us understood what you understood and held on tight to our precious gems.
Guess there was some dirty dancing, huh? If so, I think I am going to attend some aggressive ballet classes soon. Sounds fun.
► CheckerOfMurphysLaw
Replied on September 23rd, 2009, 0833 hrs:
I'm shocked!
The things that happen behind the scenes these days are so juicy.
Sounds like just desserts for trying to kidnap women.
► Reave (Verified PRT Agent)
Replied on September 23rd, 2009, 0834 hrs:
I cannot confirm nor deny any injury that was sustained by any one involved in the incident last night.
I can say that no Ward was harmed and that officially the Wards successfully subdued any combatants in a non-lethal manner during the incident to ensure the rescue went smoothly.
No permanent damage should have occurred to any appendage.
I slammed shut my laptop lid.
Facing Dad at the breakfast table in 5 minutes…. Oh joy…