Interlude: Witness

"We call her Deck," Drummer answered her inquiry. "She's got a habit of using playing cards and Local PD has caught glimpses of her at more than one underground gambling house. But rumor on the street is that she goes by Gambit now. As well as a few other more colorful names depending on the source."

"That doesn't sound good," Hannah mumbled into the phone.

Drummer chuckled. "According to her file, she's been around for a couple of years. First sighting was back in '09. A local cop said he saw a young girl running out of an alley during his foot patrol. He noted, and I quote 'I wouldn't have thought nothing of it, but when she looked at me, I swore she had the devil in her eyes."

"That sounds suspicious. He didn't stop her? Why was she running?"

"That part of the city isn't the best, Miss Militia. Orphaned or unsupervised kids running around isn't really that out of the ordinary down there. You'd be astounded how many times we've found little bodies in that area. Dead from either starvation or exposure," Drummer sighed. "Anyway, according to this he did check the alley. That was when he found one of our local problem child's. Causeway Johnson. Gambler, drunk, and all around sleaze."

"Cape?"

"No, thank god," Drummer snorted. "Guys bad enough without powers. Just fancies himself as a player. Report says he was knocked unconscious. Nasty head wound, but nothing out of the ordinary aside from the girl. This was filed in our unresolved assault case files until rumors started circulating about a burning red eyed child cape running with the Street Rats. They called her White Devil but for some time that was all we had. This report and the rumors. We didn't get our first actual sighting of her until a few months later."

"So, she's a villain?" Hannah asked, looking across her desk at Samantha's frown.

"Well, that's kind of a matter of debate actually," Drummer hedged. "It depends on the incident and who you talk to. Also keep in mind that most of what we have is circumstantial."

"Oh," Hannah asked frowning herself. "How so?"

"Our first sighting of her as a cape was back in late '09 about Christmas time," he explained. "One of our Ward teams spotted her and called in a possible cape. She didn't have a costume really and was dressed like most of the Street Rats except that she was wearing a modified a balaclava that left her face exposed. Which was the weird part. Then again, with her eyes, I guess she figured it didn't matter."

Adding to her growing notes, Hannah asked, "What was she doing?"

"Believe it or not, handing out colorfully wrapped Christmas presents to the homeless in that district. Our people are not well liked in that area but a few of them let us see what they got. Food and blankets mostly. Thing is, a couple of days before a warehouse on the south side was robbed. Guess what was stolen?

"Blankets."

"That's right. A shipping container door was somehow blown open. Forensics couldn't make heads or tails of what was used or how it was done. Didn't match anything we had. Figured it was a cape, but cameras in the building were disabled and there were no witnesses. At the same time the Street Rats pulled off several walk outs in several big chain supermarkets all over the city. Food and clothes mostly though they got away with a bunch of other stuff."

"What happened when the Wards approached her?"

"About what you would expect from kids interacting with a chibi demon," Drummer sighed sadly. "Deck was friendly enough but they couldn't get over her eyes. Ended badly when Guppy said something rude to her and she fled crying, leaving behind her wagon of gifts. Baritone tried to stop her and she threw something at him that exploded with enough force to fling him through a brick wall. Thankfully he's a brute and could take it. Not all of us have the luxury of having access to a healer like Panacea. Console ordered them to back off. We didn't know enough about her to know if she was holding back or not."

Hannah nodded at that sensible outcome. It was what she would have done. The situation had escalated too far already.

"We were able to definitely link the contents of the gifts to the warehouse robbery and powers suggest Deck was involved. In house we labeled her a child villain and started preparing for our next run in with her. Things changed two weeks later. Something happened within the Street Rats. Informants said their leader who calls himself 'Rat King' got into an argument with Deck. Whatever it was about split the gang. Most stayed with Rat King but a few splintered off. Including Deck. There were several incidents later where Deck was seen fighting with various Street Rats. Well, knocking them around more than fighting. It was always over before we could get anyone on scene. The only thing we ever found when we did was unconscious kids. Deck's kind of well liked on the street and few were willing to even admit she was there."

"Director Simmons decided that if she kept low profile then we wouldn't force a confrontation with her, and we adopted a wait and see policy. Over the next few months there were a few incidents of theft that might have been her. A few explosions in abandoned warehouses and such. Booby traps we think, but we never did rule out a scuffle. Again, no proof. Kid seems to be made of smoke and mirrors. Then all that changed a little over a year ago."

"What happened?" Hannah asked interestedly.

"We have no idea," Drummer answered. "I'm sure you're aware of how the game goes. Lulls and spikes. When it comes to Deck, things just stopped until she reappeared again. This time dressed in a set of articulated light body armor and looking a lot older. We had her pegged between twelve and thirteen but when Deck resurfaced, she looked closer to eighteen. That isn't all that changed. Before we had incidence that we thought she was involved in but that all stopped after. All sightings after were just that, sightings as she moved through the city. Never another incident we could definitely link her to.

"She's been seen in places she shouldn't be but whatever she's been doing she's kept her head down and avoided all the local gangs and indies. Now and then we hear rumors of her on Frenchmen Street listening to the music, or eating at various restaurants in other areas. We've had reports that she's been involved in preventing muggings and calming drunken disputes on Bourbon St. Things like that. Not exactly hero stuff. We think she just doesn't like it when people are being ugly to each other. PD favorites her for a couple of big thefts in the area and two in Baton Rouge, but again, no proof, and it's not like we've ever been able to find her to ask questions."

"I see. Anything else you can think of that might explain her presence in Brockton Bay?"

"Sorry Miss Militia," Drummer apologized. "I wish I could help you out but I honestly have no idea why she's there. It's weird that she'd be in your city. By all accounts she practically a fixture in the nightlife around here."

"Deck likes the nightlife?" Hannah asked writing that tidbit down.

"Oh yeah," Drummer chuckled. "That's where most of our sightings of her appear. She's not shy about it. Nor is she shy about using her powers in public, though she's learned to be extremely careful about it."

"That would explain the incident Battery and I witnessed," Hannah said.

"Oh, just as an FYI," Drummer said. "And keep in mind I can't verify this at all but as a caution. Deck's hard to rile up, but don't do it."

"That sounds ominous."

"As I said, we don't know this for a fact," Drummer hedged. "But we think a couple of the local gangs have tried to recruit her a couple of times. We think she's done jobs for a few of them now and then, but we're not sure. We think that on one occasion she wasn't given the choice of saying no."

"What happened?"

"We don't know and no one's saying. Whatever it was ended with one of our local big shots beaten within an inch of his life and left in the middle of a street in his own territory. We think it was Deck because whoever did it left a playing card on his forehead. Queen of Hearts."

"That's...disturbing."

"Well, opinion is divided if she did it or not. Split house on if she did, or if it was a copy cat trying to frame her. Area was pretty tore up though. Two Mauls was pretty well known for being a tough son of a bitch and liked his collateral damage. Forensics couldn't figure out which of them did what. Just thought I'd mention it."

"How long ago was this?"

"Ah, six months ago maybe?"

"Alright," Hannah sighed, looking over her notes. "If you could send what you have on Deck, I'd appreciate it. And if you think of anything else, call me please."

"Not a problem, Miss Militia. I'll take care of it."

"Thank you, Drummer."

"So what's the verdict?" Samantha asked.

Hanging up, Hannah looked across to her teammate, "Nothing conclusive it seems. The only real concrete evidence appears to be from events over a year ago. Drummer's sending what they suspect and know about her."

"Well, at least we know she's good to girl scouts," Samantha joked offering a cookie from the carton they bought earlier from said girl scout.

"So it seems," Hannah laughed, taking the cookie. "Hopefully she's only visiting, which seems to be the case. While she's not an outright villain according to Drummer, she is suspected of being involved with a few in a nebulous manner."

Samantha sighed, "At least we know something. Half the time a new cape shows up things tend to get crazy around here. I like that it's been quiet lately. Hopefully this girl's just here to see the sights and will go back to being Drummer's problem."