Side-Step MM
Sitting up drew a low groan from her throat.
This is why I don't sleep.
She blinked the painful memory away and swung her legs over the side of the bed.
Hannah, or Miss Militia, only took part in the nightly activity once or twice a year, but mostly out of a sense of obligation rather than need. After straightening her costume she attended to her daily hygiene. It was easier to maintain a routine with at least laying down once a day.
She formed her power solidly into a simple Beretta and slipped it into the hip holster of her costume. Taking her scarf off the bedside stand when she finished, Hannah left her room and went down the hall.
Even for heroes who did sleep, six thirty in the morning was a fairly normal time to be awake. It didn't surprise her to find Prism and Triumph sitting in the coffee room.
Though they were sitting rather close.
"Morning."
Sam moved slightly, putting at least a foot between her and the muscular hero. "Evening ma'am." Rory for his part relied on his helmet to hide the red on his face.
The two got along well before, but since Rory's graduation into the Protectorate they no longer felt a need to keep things strictly impersonal.
Hannah smiled, thinking back to more pleasant times with Chris before their careers got in the way. One thing she found frustrating about heroism, so little time for personal affairs. She never managed to find the right balance. Ironic for someone who didn't need to sleep.
Fetching herself some coffee, the three made small talk before heading off to the morning meeting. Three times a week for only thirty minutes someone might find every member of the Protectorate ENE in one room, save for emergencies. Most other times they cycled in and out on patrols, public events, training, and paperwork. Always something to do.
The conference room resembled much of the interior. Clean walls and floors with smooth utilitarian furniture. Not necessarily the most comfortable, but it got the job done. The chairs in the conference room at least leaned back and supported the lumbar region well. Hero work can be killer on the back.
Shawn, in his mixed Greecian riot gear, was already seated inside talking to Robin. They all greeted one another, and Hannah glanced around the room. Velocity wasn't in costume at the moment; likely changed right after getting back from patrol.
Hannah checked for the missing faces and asked, "Armsmaster still hasn't left the lab?"
"Probably not," Robin said. "You know how he gets."
"I'll go get him. Before the Director calls and asks where he is."
Despite the Rig's size, most of the facilities and quarters were on the same floor in one corner of the structure. The Protectorate base stood for hope and security as much as anything, but that didn't change that most of the interior space went unused. The civilian staff consisted of only a few dozen employees, and since the Wards HQ moved to the PRT building in the Towers district, the heroes regularly using the facilities only numbered six.
Down the hall Hannah came to the closed door. She entered a code on the panel and waited the five seconds it took for the man on the other side to notice the buzzer before entering.
Armsmaster wore standard gray sweats, his armor mounted in an alcove against the wall while the helmet sat on the work table in front of him.
The lab was an impressive showing. Numerous projects in various states here and there, mechanical waldos working over some and computers scanning others. She didn't know how he found the time to get all the work done, even with the stimulants he kept giving himself on top of regular cups of black coffee.
"Militia," he said in greeting.
"It's morning," she said. "The Director will be conferencing in a few minutes."
He pulled up a clock on one of his monitors. "Right."
"Did you work all night again?"
"Yes, he did."
"Dragon." Hannah turned her head, seeing the smiling woman's face on another monitor to her left. The Canadian tinker never bothered with masks around other heroes. "I'm sorry I didn't notice you."
"It's fine, Hannah. I've been trying to get him to take a break for the past ten minutes anyway."
Colin grunted in response, rising from his seat and walking toward the bathroom area in one corner of the lab. Hannah looked over the workbench. She wasn't a tinker, but her memory, surprisingly, worked well for keeping track of this and that. She recognized the module on one side of the helmet that had been disassembled from weeks before.
"Working on the lie detector still?"
"Accuracy remains inadequate," he answered from the sink. He trimmed his beard quickly with practiced ease. "My results will never be admissible in court without improvement."
If then, Hannah thought.
She turned her attention to another device, a small, unfamiliar circuit with a block attached to it. "And what's this?"
"One of Leet's portable batteries," Dragon said. "We've been studying it for potential mass production."
Hannah wished for a moment she'd raised her scarf over her face to hide the slight frown. Not that it would help. Unfortunately, training herself to 'smile with her eyes' as people called it went both ways.
Her power flared momentarily, shifting from the handgun at her hip to a number of other forms before settling into a slightly larger handgun.
"Another prize from our anonymous tipster?"
It wasn't every day the Protectorate managed to raid a villainous tinker's workshop. It always led to something. New inventions, advancement, developments. Given the range of Leet's work, a great deal might come from the spoils.
"Not anonymous." Colin walked over to the table, cleaning up his tools and arranging them back into their places in the many drawers around his workbench. "StarGazer is obviously the tinker"—or thinker, Dragon suggested—"who hacked Uber and Leet's assets during the mall incident."
Or as the internet took to calling it, the Great Zombot Plague.
"Uber and Leet appear to have rubbed them the wrong way," Hannah murmured softly.
"Evidence suggests association with Saber Girl," Colin said. "When we arrived at Leet's workshop, several items were conspicuously missing."
"Or she is Saber Girl," Dragon hypothesized. "The day after the seizure, several men claiming to be Uber and Leet's henchmen posted on PHO. They reported that "Shirt Face" broke into the lab and stole numerous items before leaving. No mention was made of another individual being present, or in communication with her. They also described the experience as 'totally awesome, except for the part where she stole my van.'"
Hannah's brow rose. "She stole his van?"
"She reportedly returned it two days later," Dragon explained with a small smile.
Hannah still didn't like it. Henchmen or not, she couldn't go around commandeering private vehicles after stealing from a villain.
"Either way, Saber Girl has liberated Leet of his tools, and by informing us, all of his equipment. StarGazer may be responsible for wiping the computers of data, if they are a separate individual."
He obviously didn't believe that. Hannah remembered the day of the mall attack, watching with dismay as the willowy figure stormed off, oblivious to the crowds watching her. His lie detector came back with a half-truth on her statement that she didn't hack Uber and Leet's servers, but Colin was first to admit his invention didn't come close enough to accurate.
Rather, he seemed to believe the denial a lie based on his own experience.
"I read the report," Hannah said. "I almost want them to break out again just to see their reaction."
"They already have," Dragon stated solemnly.
Hannah's frown deepened. "When?"
"Late last night," Colin answered. "Boston sent word about an hour ago. We'll discuss it during the meeting."
"How did it happen this time?"
"We're not sure," Dragon said. "It's a low security facility, so there aren't as many cameras. From what I can tell, Uber forced his way through the guards and Leet built a scrambler that set all the security systems on a loop. They simply walked out, though how Leet got the materials to build a complex device so quickly isn't clear."
Hannah nodded. They'd only been in the cells for two days. "Outside assistance?"
"Possible," Colin admitted. "We'll know more when they resurface. Whether or not they return to Brockton Bay is debatable."
"I see little point," Dragon mused. "Leet's lab in the city is gone, and I doubt he has a backup. Without it, there's little reason to return."
"Never underestimate the recklessness of criminals," Colin said. "Saber Girl, and her partner if she has one, made it personal by going after his workshop. They might stay low for a time, but they also might go after her for causing them so much trouble."
Her power shifted again, taking the form of a shotgun slung over her back.
"You think they'd go so far?"
"She stole his tools."
"Tools are very special," Dragon replied, her tone half mocking.
"Twenty-nine percent of my efforts are spent building tools to build better tools. It's a lot of time and effort. I don't know any tinker who'd take having that effort disrupted well." He finished with his tools and stood up. "Let's go before the Director reprimands me."
Dragon smiled. "Again?"
"Again."
Colin didn't sneer or frown. Well, no more than his face naturally seemed to frown by default. Hannah learned early into their professional partnership that Armsmaster didn't do well with people, but not because of maliciousness. He simply didn't get anyone but other tinkers.
"Well. I'll leave you to that." The other tinker smiled and waved from behind the screen. "I need to prepare for the monthly check-in with the Directors. The Madison Containment Zone has been rather noisy of late."
Colin nodded. "Tomorrow, Dragon?"
"Tomorrow, Colin."
The screen went black and Hannah followed her leader from the room. When they returned to the conference table, the final member of the local Protectorate was seated on the far end.
"Militia. Armsmaster."
Hannah nodded in greeting before sitting down. "Stratos."
Neil waved as they entered, wavy brown hair framing a warm smile and sharp eyes. He still wore his costume, a military green bodysuit with padded armor. His visor sat on the table in front of him.
He chuckled to himself, pointing a thumb at Colin as he took his seat near the head of the table. "Found him buried in the workshop again, did you?"
Hannah smiled. He had that effect on people, enough that jokes flew back and forth about testing for a master effect.
Robin handled the phone when it started ringing, pressing the series of buttons that put Director Emily Piggot on speaker.
"Protectorate," she said in short greeting.
"Director," Colin answered. "You've been informed of Uber and Leet's escape?"
"Unfortunately. We don't know how it happened?"
"Boston is investigating, and Dragon."
"Yes, I'm sure they'll do as splendid a job as they did holding the pair."
The phone rang again, and Robin added the Deputy Director to the call. "Sorry for the late arrival. Paperwork never ceases."
Sam looked at the phone. "Up all night again, sir?"
"No, not this time. I did arrive to a rather large stack however. I hope no one minds if I divide my attention a bit."
"Carry on, Thomas," the Director said. "We'll start with the usual. Empire?"
"Victor and Othala were spotted last night," Sam reported. "Triumph and I ran into them during our patrol south of the Boardwalk. They fled the moment we crossed paths. No engagement."
"What were they doing so close to the Boardwalk? That isn't Empire territory."
"Might be scouting for a push," Rory answered. "The Merchants took a hit earlier this week when Squealer lost that tank thing."
Hannah remembered the wreckage—a giant slab of molten metal fused into the asphalt. What on earth possessed the Merchant tinker to try and pick a fight with Lung, no one knew. The gang was already held in the lowest esteem. They hardly needed to look worse.
Not that Hannah felt bad for them, she simply didn't understand their mentality. One of her weaknesses as a hero. She'd never been able to place herself into the criminal mindset.
Not like Shawn or Neil.
"Skidmark is getting ambitious," the latter suggested. "He thinks he deserves more than he has."
The Deputy Director apparently found the time to ask, "Is that another hunch, Stratos?"
"Of course."
"It fits," Shawn said. "Skidmark likes holding rallies. He's no Kaiser. Not by a long shot, but he seems to think he can be. Now that they've recruited Trainwreck to the cause, he has five parahumans rather than the three he had at the start of the year. It's a big increase in muscle. Pushing against Lung might seem foolish, but it also makes sense. The ABB only has two capes, and Lung can't be everywhere."
"Hmm." Director Piggot audibly tapped something against her desk. "You think that while Squealer was fighting Lung, the other Merchant capes pushed for something?"
"It's possible," Shawn replied. "Lung's not stupid, but he has a temper."
"Or a big ego," Sam whispered.
"Or that. Either way, he's been baited before by the Empire. Skidmark might be a drug-fueled dealer, but stupid isn't the right word. He wouldn't have lasted this long if he were a complete idiot."
"He's too big for his britches," Neil amended. "And just because he isn't stupid doesn't mean he won't act like he is. I'll bet he makes another move soon."
"And the Empire will see it as an opportunity," Robin said. "The ABB and the Merchants beating each other's skulls in is a chance to punish both sides."
"We'll increase patrols in the area," Piggot decided. "Dissuade the gangs from starting anything. Shift the Ward patrols toward the Boardwalk for the next week. That should further discourage them."
Hannah consciously reined her power back in. She lost sight of it at times. It felt too much a part of her, like breathing. Most of her teammates were accustomed to the way it moved, but after Neil's brow raised in her direction she noticed herself cycling through several rifles before she forced a simple knife into shape.
After regaining her composure she asked, "Is that necessary?"
"While I understand your concern Miss Militia, I agree with Emily." A small 'hrumpt' from the other line filled the room. "The gangs rely on détente with the Protectorate. Giving the Wards more injuries than they can take is a surefire way to break that. We'd bring in heroes from Boston, Providence, and New York and make their businesses miserable. Skidmark might not recognize that fact but Lung and Kaiser do."
"That's not the point." Stratos' grin was gone, and he eyed both phones fiercely.
Hannah nodded in agreement, though she said nothing.
Rory nodded to Neil. "Oni Lee and Hookwolf never make a habit of holding back. Vista barely got away from her little encounter, even if she likes to think she won."
"Thomas is right," Piggot said in a firm, this conversation is over, tone.
"I'm inclined to agree," Colin said.
"Lung and Kaiser will keep their men in line well enough," Piggot continued. "And if they don't they may well cut the offenders loose. The goal here is to prevent a gang war in the streets. The best way to do that at the moment is to remind the gangs that we won't tolerate it."
Hannah disliked these moments. The ones where they all faced the reality that the Protectorate at best only kept the peace in Brockton Bay. The gangs outnumbered the heroes, and the heroes couldn't afford to hit them too hard lest they be hit back, or another gang move to take advantage.
Past attempts to 'surge' the city with heroes simply ended in more bloodshed.
The Empire could call in reinforcements from across the United States, not to mention Europe, and Lung was Lung. Even with Stratos kept in place as a check on the Japanese cape, no one weighed the Protectorate's odds in a fight highly. Worse yet, the gangs knew it, and the public knew it.
Emily Piggot's outlook might sour heroic aspiration, but Hannah couldn't argue with reality.
The heroes needed all hands on deck, even if the Wards were in training. Brockton Bay was a powder keg. Blue Cosmos nearly blew it apart last year when they organized protests against Lung's 'parlor houses.' A gentle reminder from Stratos was the only thing that saved the lot from being incinerated on the spot.
It felt all too Pyrrhic.
"I assume there's nothing else on the big three?" Silence answered the question. "Then let's move on. Coil. Faultline. Undersiders. Independents. Blue Cosmos."
"Nothing on Circus in a few weeks," Robin said. "Nothing unusual there."
"He disappears frequently," Colin agreed.
"Or she," Sam added. "Never been clear which."
Colin nodded. "The Undersiders hit a series of ABB stash houses since the last meeting. Sovereign's threat rating may need to go up."
Piggot's voice stilled slightly. "How bad?"
"Her power has more range than initial intelligence suggested."
"And Valiant is staying tight-lipped about it?"
"I haven't asked. Per the terms of his agreement, he is under no obligation to reveal any information about his siblings so long as he cooperates in any action taken against his father."
The entire room stiffened slightly.
At the rate things went, the Brockton Bay Wards might garner a reputation for problem children. First Clockblocker's little stunt at his debut, which fortunately played fairly well in the end. Then Shadow Stalker's probationary status, and finally Valiant. Piggot did her damnedest to keep him out of the city after the initial roundups of Heartbreaker's children, but no one wanted too many of them in one place, and 'Alec' didn't want to be around his siblings anyway.
They all might have been put away if not for Hero and Legend's push for rehabilitation. Many might have preferred that option.
Hannah couldn't quite tell if he was salvageable yet. Half the time the boy didn't seem to know what he was supposed to do and the other half he didn't seem to care. The only members of the team he got on with were Clockblocker and Kid Win, and only because of a mutual appreciation for games. Like Hannah and sleep, he seemed to regard friendship as an obligation rather than a need.
"Ask anyway," Piggot said. "'Under no obligation' and 'unwilling to answer the question' are two different things."
The discussion wrapped up quickly from there.
Faultline's crew were hardly harmless, but they kept their noses to the ground in the city, and so long as they did so they weren't a priority. Coil's operation remained a mystery outside of his, or her, employment of tinker-tech armed mercenaries.
New Wave simply wasn't that active anymore. Lightstar and Fleur essentially vanished from cape life years ago, and the older members of the Pelham-Dallon clans as well. Glory Girl caused more collateral damage than anything, and Panacea kept up her regular healing schedule at the hospitals.
The other independents in the city mostly stuck to the fringes. Dazzler and Sere out in the suburbs far away from any real trouble, and Parian running her shop near the Boardwalk while disassociating herself from the battle of heroes and villains.
Blue Cosmos mostly got tacked on by necessity. While not a parahuman group, their actions inherently involved parahuman affairs. Regular law enforcement often resented having to deal with their protests and rallies, particularly the parahumans in the Protectorate and their support in the PRT for shoveling such matters their way. Hannah didn't understand it, but the police didn't want to keep track of what the terrorist group did.
And they were terrorists, no matter how many violent attacks their leaders disavowed. That they avoided harsh punishment owed to the politics of the time. Ever since the destruction of Manhattan, Parahumans were under more scrutiny than ever.
"I'm still working on the lie detector," Colin explained. His reports on tinkering projects generally came at the end of their meetings. "My progress with the Endbringer prediction program is slow but steady. Dragon's aid is invaluable. I'm also still reviewing the technology captured from Leet's workshop. Dragon's help has sped up the process."
"Ah. Speaking of that…" Calvert went silent for a few seconds, the shuffling of paper on the other side of the phone the only sign he was still there. "Here it is. Apparently our tipster has called in again. Three drug stashes used by the Merchants in Shanty Town, an Empire armory, and three of Lung's brothels."
"Another one?" Shawn rose up slightly. "That's the fifth one this week."
Robin shook his head. "For a girl who doesn't seem to like us much she sure likes shoveling work onto our plate."
"We only know that Saber Girl holds animosity toward us," Colin said. "We know little of StarGazer."
"We don't even know that StarGazer exists," Sam pointed out. "She could just be a handle used by Saber Girl, or her actual cape name."
They'd debated this before. Hannah struggled to maintain any objectivity on the subject, and with that she found silence the best option.
Even in her perfect memory she couldn't find the problem. Mask, for all her nervousness, seemed eager. Excited. Then a minute or two in Shadow Stalker's presence she became fearful, distrusting, and…disgusted. She tried to press but nothing came of it. The Deputy Director promised to look into the matter and said he found no issues.
Perhaps the rough teen simply triggered bad memories.
Trigger events were personal. Traumatic. Even in all the years since the war, Hannah still avoided thinking about her own as much as she could. She'd followed regulation to the letter, save for a rushed visit to the Wards HQ. Maybe if she hadn't let a good sense with the young girl color her judgement, Mask would have joined the Wards that day or the next.
I shouldn't have let her go, Hannah thought. I let her just walk off, twice.
Neil wore a mocking grin as he said, "And we're not going to do anything about it."
"Gang war," Piggot repeated. "It's good information. I'm not going to complain, but we can't take such a direct course without inviting open confrontation with their capes. Not right now. Too much risk of public perception viewing a string of stings as antagonizing the criminal element."
"If we managed to catch a few capes..." the Deputy Director suggested.
"Yes," the Director allowed. "Yes, then perhaps. For now, things are too volatile. It's not the time to be starting fires."
When the meeting closed, Armsmaster rose to return to his lab. Prism and Triumph got up for their morning patrol, and Robin and Shawn left to sleep off theirs. Hannah wandered up several floors until she came out to the smell of sea air and wind on her face. She pulled her scarf up instinctively.
The city spread out before her. Lord's Port lay far off from her sight of the Boardwalk, making it easy to see Brockton Bay as a less dreary place than it often was.
"Fresh air?"
She smiled. "America."
For all its flaws she loved it. A place so different from the one of her birth, and her nightmares.
Stratos leaned against the railing beside her, visor covering the upper half of his face.
"You could have fought a bit harder in there."
"For what?"
"They're kids, not UN peacekeepers."
Hannah felt her power again but forced it down quickly. "No, but they are heroes."
"You don't agree with the decision."
"It's not my decision to make. Or yours."
"I suppose not. Rubs me the wrong way though." His expression turned grim despite the smile. "Piggot might think herself a soldier, but Nilbog was a monster, not a war."
At times like this she cursed her memory, and Neil for using it against her. She didn't think he meant to drag it up, but they both knew a side of the world that America didn't suffer much of.
"Sorry," he said.
"You're not wrong." She turned to face his eyes, smiling as best she could. "I know it reminds you too much of what happened."
He nodded in turn. "I don't like dead kids."
They remained silent for a few minutes as the wind blew by. Standing side by side, the similarities in their costumes were striking. Military greens that hit in a way that showed off curves and muscles. Hannah bore the red, white, and blue of her adoptive country, while Stratos carried the green, white, and orange of the one he left behind.
"Still worried about our wayward tinker?"
Hannah nodded. "She can't be any older than sixteen."
"She seems to be doing pretty well so far."
"Most independent capes die in their first six months. Usually in the fourth or fifth. She's almost there."
"And the capes who survive those six months have a much higher rate of breathing," he said. "You did what you could. She walked away on her own. Twice. What else can you do but keep an eye out?"
He said it like a challenge, and worse, Hannah agreed with him. So many possibilities.
What if Shadow Stalker hadn't been there. What if she pushed harder to get the girl to stay. What if she approached her after the mall instead of letting Armsmaster do it. Especially that last one. She knew how he was, and even if he got on better with tinkers, he didn't do well with teenagers.
"What indeed."
She stepped away from the railing and went back inside. Regrets were regrets, and there was a present to worry about.
