Side-Step PRT

Rebecca flipped through the files.

She thought of it all as a chess board. Easiest way to conceptualize it. Each piece filled a potential role in the game. Once removed, a piece never came back, but a pawn could be used to replace them.

The main difference is no kings existed, so the game lacked a clear objective.

Her opponents got three moves for her one.

And each piece had feelings.

Feelings about the other pieces.

Reading over the files of the fallen, looking at their faces? Such a trivial gesture. She hated admitting she'd seen so many come and go the sensation of loss long felt numb. It benefited the other pieces to force the image. To appear as though the hundredth dead child pained her as much as the fiftieth.

All pawns in the end. Pieces on the board.

It's a cruel calculus.

Heartless.

And it's necessary.

She inhaled.

Her eye ached.

She set the files aside and folded her hands together.

On with the show.

She turned back to the room. Many of the participants all sat in Boston together. Legend, Director Armstrong, Recoil. Others - Myrddin, Cinereal, Armsmaster - returned to their own cities.

Most of the directors of course rarely left the office.

"And this is what you want, Armstrong?"

Rebecca held up the printed transfer orders, agreed to between the Boston, Brockton Bay, and Phoenix PRT branches.

"Ma'am." Kamil sat at his desk, Boston's damaged skyline behind him. He looked exhausted, but thirty-six hours of straight crisis management do that. "Recoil can fill in as a team lead for a time."

"I'm not getting younger," the costumed woman beside him said.

Alexandria knew well, in her own way. Recoil probably knew better. Most capes triggered in their teens or early twenties. Cauldron certainly sought out young men and women. At sixty, Recoil's regeneration kept her spry, but it didn't reverse time.

Ral nodded in agreement. "We'll transfer Lightning to Boston in exchange for Boost. A change of scenery will do the boy good."

"He blames himself," Recoil said bitterly. "For Harpoon especially."

Rebecca felt bitter at her inability to muster sympathy. She'd seen so many, and so much remained at stake. She didn't have the luxury.

"I understand," she said. "We'll promote Lightning to Protectorate lead in a year. Recoil will be able to step down then."

Behind her, the image of Alexandira spoke up, saying, "There is more we can do, Director. The situation in Boston isn't clearing up."

"Accord is gutted," James said. "Blasto has always been too high to be a real threat. The problem is Damsel, and the question of Butcher."

Butcher.

Of all the rotten things that could happen in an Endbringer battle, Rebecca considered Butcher the worst.

Damn it Quarrel.

How many times did that curse pass? How many capes before reaching its destination? How many powers? Quarantining every single cape in Boston until they hunted them down went right out the window. Too many capes, and how would they maintain public confidence in the interim?

No choice but to sit back and wait for the problem to reveal itself.

Butcher always avoided solution. Killing them didn't work. The current power set made detainment near impossible. The Birdcage? A disaster waiting to happen.

A constant thorn, growing ever more dangerous.

"There's little we can do about that," Rebecca said. "There's only rolling with the punches until we know what we're dealing with."

"Revel is herself," Myrddin said. "Of that I am sure."

"It could be anyone," Hero added. "We only know where Quarrel's corpses ended up. We have no idea where she died, or how Butcher's transference will be affected by Leviathan."

"Could it resolve itself?" Seneca asked. "Leviathan isn't human. We know that. If it killed the Butcher, maybe the Butcher is gone."

"We're not that lucky," Hero said with a bitter grin.

Rebecca watched his face. Subtle expressions. Shifts in tone. Adjustments in posture.

They'd adapted it over the years. Without Contessa to secure their secrets, they needed to be ever more careful in a world of capes.

Butcher will be back.

If Hero thought so, then Rebecca accepted it.

Hero insisted Butcher wouldn't become a second Scion, but Rebecca would prefer hearing the Doctor say that.

That monsters death should have been the greatest of moments.

Humanity saved across countless Earths.

Instead, she thought back to that moment as the trigger.

The beginning of the slow collapse.

Contessa returned only for a time before she vanished. Perhaps dead from her injuries now, as much as Rebecca wished for anything else. David said goodbye, his power finally spent after entering a decline. Doctor Mother became more reclusive.

Cauldron killed a god for the world, and it barely seemed worth it.

Why save the world, just to watch it tear itself apart?

The pieces kept piling up on the board. Ever more, complicating the game over and over. Always leaving her to navigate the mess in a way that didn't explode everything.

"We can't resolve the Butcher," Rebecca said, her tone more firm. "We'll leave it be for now until we know what we're dealing with."

"Boston will endure," Kamil said. "I'm more confident about the ground situation. Damsel will be a problem, but it'll be easier to contain her with the Teeth in disarray. Purity has pledged to aid us in anything we need, and I believe her."

"She's a Nazi," Cinereal said.

"She claims that she's split from the Empire," Recoil said, "and taken Crusader, Night, and Fog with her. She says she'll keep the three of them in line and help."

"And what does she want?" James asked.

"She asked for nothing," Kamil said, "but I suspect she hopes to earn some good will. Intelligence is that she had a child this past year. Kaiser's I'm sure, but children have a way of changing perspectives."

"They do," Legend said.

"Your opinion Legend?" Alexandria asked.

"I think I agree," Legend said. "I've been trying to help in Boston for weeks now, and this is the first time I've looked at the situation and felt like we had a grasp on it."

A new piece on her side. Useful, if it proved true.

"Losing Accord would be a blow to general stability," Hero said. No vials. We can't prop him up any further, and it'll hurt Boston.

Rebecca agreed.

Loathsome he may be, but Accord was the perfect villain. A man so obsessed with order his territory maintained the lowest crime rate in the entire city. He'd struggle now, especially in the short term.

On the board he gave her a nice section of the world she did not need to worry about. More broadly, he happily worked with the PRT on the side if they courted him properly. His power lacked flash, but as a thinker he was top notch.

"If we prop Boston up quickly we can prevent an exodus of refugees to surrounding cities," Knox said. "Take the woman's help. She hasn't committed a crime in seventeen months. I've known PRT troopers who can't keep that clean."

"And you still want to move Weld to Brockton?" Rebecca asked, glancing to Kamil. "With the situation as it is?"

"We're not really any better off here," Emily said. "Lung and Kaiser will come to blows once the truce ends. Newtype will stir the pot. The Protectorate came off fairly well, but the Wards?"

"First Shadow Stalker," Armsmaster said. "Then Aegis and Clockblocker. There aren't any local recruits to turn to now that Newtype has poached Chariot."

"Didn't she just give him a job?" Narwhal asked in her normal lazy tone.

"Yes," Emily said. "But it still denies us the chance to bring him into the Wards, and if we don't do something about the team in general it'll hurt the program long term. And not just in Brockton Bay."

"Brockton Bay's Wards can't be left in their current condition," Hero said. "We lost enough Wards in Boston as is. A team gutted like that is going to draw attention. We need to jump in, not just for the sake of Vista, Kid Win, and Valiant, but for the sake of the program."

"But does it need to be Weld?" Director Knox asked. "Do we want to move two Wards out of Boston?"

"Weld is a well adjusted young man," Kamil said. "And I think this will be a good opportunity for him. We wanted to push certain Wards into the spotlight anyway."

"We could move Dazzler to Boston," Emily suggested. "She has family there."

"It's close to Brockton," Seneca said.

"Her identity is compromised in Boston as much as anywhere," Rebecca said. "The emotional wellbeing and moral development of the Wards is as important as anything else. If we think she'll do better in Boston, and Weld in Brockton, we should consider it."

"It'll show confidence," Chambers said. "We haven't had a chance to sell a good success story since we rebuilt New York. We'll make an event of it. Bring in the transfers and hold a gala or something. Invite the press, the Mayor, the usual. Show our confidence and commitment to the city."

"On the strategic end, Weld is a good fit for Brockton," James offered. "He's a good counter to Hookwolf and Kaiser."

"We don't place Wards based on which nationally famed villains they can counter," Ral said.

"Let's not be naive," James replied. "We do. And it's why Flechette would be a good fit too."

"We could do some events with her, Miss Militia, and Stratos," Chambers said. "There's a demographic out there that'll like that."

"Weld, Flechette, Kid Win, Valiant, and Vista," Rebecca said. "It's a small team for Brockton."

"Mockshow?" Myrddin offered.

"I thought she died?" Seneca asked.

"We issued a memo," Kamil said. "Rescue workers found her in some rubble. Her arm was crushed. The armband registered her pulse as stropped and reported her dead. We only found her this afternoon."

"Is she alright?" Hero asked.

"She's recovering," Kamil said.

"She's a durable child," Myrddin said.

One child alive among dozens. There's relief in that, and Rebecca let herself indulge it.

More coldly, a rare piece she removed that could go back on the board.

"Lieutenant Ramius is still in Brockton," Myrddin said. "She recruited Olive. The girl won't oppose seeing her again, and the Newtype assignment seems long term."

"That's a discussion in itself," James said. "Do we plan to do anything about StarGazer?"

"If Newtype wants to promote her, let her." Chambers shrugged behind his desk. "She's not Protectorate or a Ward. It's not our problem."

James frowned. Of course he did.

Wild dogs proved useful when needed. Annoying when set in their kennels to wait.

"You don't think we're taking this matter lightly?" He asked.

"StarGazer has clearly been sandbagging," Hero said. "The kind of multitasking and coordination it takes to fight Leviathan and access all those systems while programming a mock-up of Armsmaster's prediction engine?"

Colin visibly frowned.

Rebecca slid one file from the stack, peeking at Miss Militia's service record for a moment.

The man's ego was getting the better of him.

Some pieces withered the more you used them.

"It's hard to fathom any human doing that," Hero continued.

Rebecca uncrossed her legs and then crossed them again.

"Dragon?" She asked, watching Hero's face.

The hidden machine spoke up, saying, "It is… A capability she has shown zero sign of until now. In terms of scale, at least. She's hacked into Brockton Bay's traffic cameras in the past, but nothing this elaborate."

Nervous.

She knew.

She knew and her restrictions compelled her to answer honestly if asked directly.

Rebecca glanced to Hero, asking, "Do you think our systems are secure?"

"I am reviewing my security systems," Dragon said.

"No system is ever secure," he said. "But there are degrees of insecurity. I don't think we need to worry right now. Newtype has her beefs with us, but StarGazer follows her lockstep as far as we can tell and Newtype hasn't even publicly come out against us in anyway. I don't think she'll attack us."

Another Dragon, but not one that might bite them anytime soon. Loyal to its maker.

Rebecca glanced toward Armsmaster subtly. The man's arm remained a stump, but he'd meet with Panacea in the next day or so to restore it. They couldn't have a Protectorate Team Leader walking around with one arm.

Newtype saved him, despite not getting along with him.

"She handled the conflict with Leet maturely," Legend said. "I wouldn't blame her for being much angrier than she appeared to be."

"Agreed," Alexandria said.

No easy task.

Letting the girl wander the hospital turned out to be the right call. Rebecca didn't anticipate her running into Leet in the process, but no conflict broke out. The girl seemed to realize the weight of the threat.

Sending Armsmaster to draw her ire, and leaving the matter of her pet AI for later diffused the tension. Left her feeling relieved rather than stressed.

A cruel deception, but the truce was too fragile.

She made the right choice in the end.

At least the girl proved levelheaded when the situation demanded it. Taylor Hebert may yet become the valuable piece Hero and Dragon thought she might be. Rebecca preferred a harder course that brought the girl into their sphere, but Legend and Hero refused.

It seems maybe they made the right call.

Forcing Newtype to do anything against her will with that machine behind her? Disaster. Volatile pieces needed to be handled delicately.

They'd need to take a lighter touch with Taylor Hebert from now on.

Work the long game.

"That doesn't answer my question," James said. "I'm asking if we're going to make any considerations about what StarGazer can apparently do at any time."

"Most capes can wreck just about anything they want whenever they want," Cinereal said. "You think no one in the Protectorate could do something just as alarming?"

"It is alarming," Myrddin said. "But are we really going to react to StarGazer resorting to extremes in an extreme situation? She's made a show of undoing any damage and apologizing."

"There's the PR side too," Chambers said. "How will it look for us to come down on the girl for it? People will question our sense."

Chambers shuffled some paper's on his desk.

"After the Simurgh attack in Kurdistan, we polled forty-nine percent of Americans as not believing the Endbringers can be defeated. We've got early results back for Boston and that number is down three points."

"Because of StarGazer?" Seneca asked.

"Unlikely, but the results of the battle are encouraging to people. We shouldn't soil that if we can avoid it."

"And when it's not an Endbringer?" James asked.

"Then we do something about it," Hero said. "Update the threat rating like we do for any other capes. We don't need to make any drama out of this."

Watchful, but not reactive.

"What would we even rate that as?" Emily asked.

"Depends on the nature of the power," Wilkins answered. "And how much more we don't know about StarGazer."

"She's never been seen in public?" Knox asked.

"No," Piggot said. "I know Ramius tried early on to get a face to face without pushing Newtype's buttons, but it never happened."

Because she has no body.

Rebecca thought back. She watched that machine wait as Leviathan fled.

Strange, trying to get a read on something that wasn't alive. Reading Dragon didn't prove difficult in an odd way. Dragon wore her being on her sleeve. Maybe a side effect of the restrictions, or maybe that's just how she was. StarGazer not so much. She spoke little, and Newtype's entire endeavor boasted little public presence.

Missed opportunity on her part.

Thinking at things from James' angle, honestly, what did he want?

What did the PRT have to match an artificial intelligence? A thinking machine that for all intents and purposes passed the Turing test and beat it to death? With Contessa keeping such a machine in check wouldn't be hard. She'd sabotage the servers. Introduce some silly virus.

Something.

They held onto such contingencies should Dragon ever go rogue. Saint, however untrustworthy, remained an option on that front as well.

But for StarGazer? Not enough information. What restrictions did Newtype place on it? What demeanor did it possess?

They'd already seen how far it would go to protect its maker.

At least the Sophia Hess problem solved itself.

"Shaker ten," Rebecca said, drawing the eyes of the room back to her. "However she does it, we can only plan for what we know. She can clearly control digital devices across two cities and isn't bothered by distractions. Shaker ten will do."

James seemed oddly satisfied. Well, as satisfied as he ever got.

"Do we do anything public?" Seneca asked.

"God no." Glenn audibly sighed, saying, "I almost want to call the girl and beg her to release any footage she has."

"I thought she wasn't our problem?" Seneca asked.

Glenn shrugged. "She's not. But that kind of PR? Once in a lifetime. It should be criminal not to use it."

"We're getting afield," Rebecca said. "We can discuss Stargazer at the weekly meeting."

Leave it be for now. Rebecca may feel her hands slipping, but she still held her sway. She didn't remain Chief-Director so long solely because Contessa assured it.

StarGazer may prove useful in righting the world. A foil to Dragon in some ways, and something to keep Saint's bigotry in check in another. A tool for controlling Newtype depending on the status of the board.

Is she as loyal to her creation as it is to her?

She'd need time to come up with worst case scenario options. One doesn't simply kick in the door and arrest a machine.

"Now that we're done with that, lets get back on topic. Brockton Wards I believe?"

"We are," Chambers said. "I think Brockton could use a little of the Boston strategy. We'll hold a memorial for Aegis, Clockblocker and Velocity. The community there is much more close knit. All three were city natives. It'll help us reassure the public, show our initiative, and project that we do care."

"We do care," Hero said.

"It doesn't always look that way," Chambers said. "That's why we need to make a show of it. The escape of Cranial's children spoils any plans we made of celebrating the fall of the Merchants. This is our best play for the city now."

"We should invite New Wave and Celestial Being," Hero said. "Showing solidarity with all of Brockton's heroes will send a strong message."

Keep her close. Watch her.

"We usually show team insignia banners for that," Chambers said. "Do we want to put that on display?"

Yes, that.

A blade or spike with wings, and a halo for an icon. The words 'Celestial Being' fully displayed. Rebecca looked at it and her first thought was the Simurgh. That monster dominated their fears that much.

Rebecca didn't think Taylor Hebert a stupid girl. Reckless and brazen, youthful and inexperienced, but not stupid. She picked that symbol knowing how people might react.

Did she want them to react?

"It's arrogant," Cinereal said.

"She is arrogant," Armsmaster said.

"It's not really relevant," Ral said. "It's a show of respect from the Protectorate and Wards to other heroes. We can't exclude her from that. What kind of message does it send?"

"Will she change it if we ask?" Chambers asked.

"I will pay to have you come up here and ask her," Emily replied.

No.

Glenn tapped his chin. "We could show no banners?"

"People will notice," Seneca said. "I agree with Ramba. Let's just put it up. She picked it, it's her responsibility to sell it. If we're asked questions we can just say that."

Chambers shrugged. "My team can write something up and fax the talking points over."

Rebecca checked the time. They'd lingered too long on the subject.

They went through cities alphabetically, and she didn't want to be in the B's all day. Individually, Boston and Brockton faired the worst. The rest of the teams could adjust relatively easily given the low casualties.

"We can introduce the new Ward team," Alexandria said. "Two birds for one stone."

Nods of accent followed.

"We're settled then?" Knox asked. "Flechette, Mockshow, and Weld?"

No one opposed.

"Moving on then," Rebecca said. "I believe we allowed ourselves to skip over Boise."

"It's Boise," Hero said. "Worst they have is Potato Man."

And how she wished that was a joke.

The meeting carried on for a much simpler four hours. They shuffled a few capes around, checked in on some ongoing issues, and done is done. Pieces back to their places on the board of a chaotic game.

One by one the screens around the room clicked off.

Alexandria vanished, and Rebecca removed her hand from under the table.

She set the remote aside and lamented how much easier the game was when she had more than two body doubles to trust. Anticipating what people might say or ask and baking responses took far too much time.

She stacked the records, and turned to the door.

"You should get some sleep."

She turned to Hero, Michael.

He smiled at her. "You look tired."

She nodded and the screen flashed off.

Rebecca left the conference room and went down the hall.

"Megan," she called.

Her secretary, a girl barely older than nineteen, jumped to her feet.

"Ma'am."

"Would you mind adding these to the wall for me?"

Rebecca held out the files.

The girl's face turned solemn, and she nodded.

"Ma'am."

She took the folders and set them on her desk. Rebecca walked over to the water cooler and poured herself a drink.

She felt tired.

Little good it did.

Humorous how a woman who virtually stopped aging felt old in her bones. Long hours. Endless battles. Wasted effort. Soiled plans. It wears on even the strongest minds. She liked to think she endured it better than most, but not really.

Mostly she simply forced herself to keep going.

She turned, watching as Megan removed the photos and pinned them to the wall. They joined hundreds of others, the surface covered fully four or five times now. Only twenty-three this time. Fewer than other battles but enough that she still felt it.

She thought herself clever.

Alexandria.

The name exuded confidence. Strength. The way it sounded and mixed with her stature as a cape and her powers. She'd nested the double meaning in there too. The Library of Alexandria. Her invincible body, flight, and strength attracted most of the attention but any villain who faced her knew that wasn't the real threat.

She prided herself on the mind she developed. The way she cultivated her persona. Her power enhanced it. Brains and brawn.

But Alexandria had an older meaning. An etymology deeper than the way it sounded or the places it adorned as a name. A compound of the ancient Greek alexein and andros.

Alexandria.

Defender of man.

Rebecca looked over the wall. So many faces. At the moment only Sophia Hess' stood out, but others lay buried. However distant the pain became, she felt the weight on her shoulders. Somewhere under all those photos she'd put David, and Doctor Mother.

She had no picture for Fortuna.

She crushed the paper cup in her hand and dropped it in the trash.

It's good to never forget one's failures.