Armsmaster sat at his desk and rewound the footage once again. The PRT had grown suspicious of some of Shadow Stalker's activities, especially how she seemed to find ways to go solo on her patrols. There was no evidence of her breaking her parole, but people were suspicious none-the-less, so he had installed a hidden camera in the forehead of her mask. The result had shown that she had lied during her official debriefing and had intentionally started a fight with a new trigger who no longer presented a threat. Hell, she hadn't actually done anything particularly threatening or even anything criminal up until that point. It was enough to kick anyone out of the Wards, especially someone with as spotty a record as Shadow Stalker and, of course, dismissal from the Wards was a breach of her parole. She would go to juvenile detention and everyone would know that the Protectorate East-Northeast's most prominent attempt at reforming a young cape had failed.
He had lost count of the number of times he had gone over it. As the video of Shadow Stalker goading a new trigger into a fight finished again, he put his face in his hand. This was the last thing that he needed right now. It was a goddamn PR nightmare. He was brought out of his thoughts by the door to his workshop opening. He closed the video and turned to see Miss Militia entering.
"Hannah, how can I help you?" he asked, turning his chair to fully face her.
"I heard that the Board of Directors reviewed your performance yesterday. I wanted to check and see how it had gone? Any good news?" she asked. Armsmaster's only response was to frown.
Hannah winced. "Shit. I'm sorry, Colin," she said in sympathy.
Armsmaster just nodded. The review was the other reason for his bad mood. While the Brockton Bay Protectorate had made good progress on fighting the gangs and crime that plagued the city the PR aspect of the operation had been less than stellar. As the head of his portion of the PRT, Armsmaster was the one seen most often in interviews and public statements. Unfortunately, dealing with people was not his strong suit. The result was that the Board was not at all happy with the PRT's dip in popularity in and around Brockton Bay. A Ward being arrested would be the cherry on top of the shit-sandwich.
Armsmaster sighed. "I really don't get this whole public relations thing. You'd think that crime being at the lowest point it's reached in over a decade would win people over."
"It isn't that you've made so much progress that people notice. It's how you do it that wins them over," Miss Militia explained, "Especially when we the only criminals we've actually put behind bars are unpowered thugs. They see you as judgmental, quick to jump to conclusions. You seem almost dismissive of people just asking questions. Not to mention that the real backbone behind the gangs, their capes, are almost untouched."
"I just don't get people," Armsmaster said. "You make it seem so easy."
"That's because it is," Miss Militia said as she put her hands on her hips.
"For you," Armsmaster emphasized. "I know I probably come across as gruff and an asshole but I have only ever told things as I see them."
There was an awkward silence as they both considered that. Armsmaster thought he saw grudging acknowledgement of that fact cross her face. He merely considered why. Why did the niceties of human interaction escape him so frequently? Not for the first time did Armsmaster wonder if it had to do with his power. He had definitely been awkward before his trigger but he almost seemed to get worse after becoming a Tinker. He couldn't help but wonder if his penchant for miniaturization and efficiency hadn't bled over into his social interactions. He wondered if he unconsciously sought every little unnecessary thing he could take out of a statement to get the most information into the fewest words possible. If so, his powers had found things like tact to be wholly lacking in importance. After several seconds of awkward silence Miss Militia walked up and put a hand on his shoulder. He found the gesture comforting.
"How bad is it?" she asked.
"They haven't said it outright, but I think they're planning on transferring me if we don't end up with more public support by the next review," Armsmaster said with a sigh. That was the absolute last thing that he wanted to have happen.
He knew that Hannah would most likely be the one chosen to succeed him in such an event, which would be good. However, whoever was chosen to replace him, if they bothered at all, would be ineffective until they had a better grasp of the city and its operations. Or they'd just be ineffective. If he wasn't replaced, well that was even worse. Either way, the Protectorate East-Northeast would have less tangible presence on the streets which meant more leeway for the gangs to get their footing back. He feared, more than anything, that they'd be set back to square one and his years of work cleaning up the city would be wasted. He would not let that happen.
"I know putting on a friendly face for the media is important. I know that this whole thing doesn't work unless the public trusts us and wants us around but I just…can't get into it with all of the other bullshit going on!" Armsmaster found himself raising his voice moment by moment. By the end of his sentence he found himself standing.
"The damn Board expects us to work miracles!" Armsmaster had started pacing and was yelling by this point.
"We're more outnumbered than any other department in the PRT! And, on top of that, we're the most underfunded!" Armsmaster spouted. Miss Militia just let him continue his rant. She could tell he needed to get this off of his chest. "I've worked too hard to make some kind of progress in this city to let it backslide while my replacement is learning the lay of the land. If they even bother replacing me."
"Why wouldn't they?" Miss Militia asked.
"We can't afford to keep even half the staff we'd need to actually operate in a city as big as the Bay! Hell, we can't even afford to keep more than a handful of capes in our branch of the Protectorate or the Wards. Whenever we do manage to recruit someone else half the time they get transferred somewhere that actually has money!" Armsmaster's pacing had brought him back to his chair and he sat down heavily in it with a sigh, "Like Chicago. And that's before you throw in the absurd number of villains."
Armsmaster put his head in his hands. "And whenever I try to bring it up with Piggot or any of the other Directors they just tell me that their resources are being used on more important cities."
With a deep breath, Armsmaster sat up again. "It's clear that the Board has all but given up on this city. The only reason that they haven't just pulled out of it completely is because they'd lose face if they did."
"Colin, they haven't given up on the Bay," Miss Militia said consolingly. "Why would they?"
Armsmaster's reply was quick. "Because, Hannah, there's nothing they see worth saving. The economy tanked when sea trade dried up and the cape-led gangs scare off any company that could bring more jobs to the city. It's a vicious cycle that they don't seem to want to break."
Armsmaster just breathed in and out for a bit as he let the frustration leave his body. Miss Militia just let the silence draw out for a time. Eventually she said, "There is an upside to all of this."
"And what would that be?" Armsmaster asked. He sounded half curious and half disbelieving.
"After saving a school from a rampaging cape, Shadow Stalker is starting to gather a lot of goodwill," she explained happily. "People like a success story like hers. She's gone from being barely better than the villains to acting like a true hero," she emphasized. "That's the kind of thing that's going to get you a lot of breathing room from the Board."
Armsmaster was about to tell her what had really happened with the school incident when a thought occurred to him. Shadow Stalker's actual performance and her lying during her debriefing would only turn the public against her if they knew. As of right now the only copy of that video was on his personal computer.
"You're right," he said. "I suppose I forgot with everything else stressing me out." He worked a smile onto his face and then his head perked up. "And if we can find and recruit this new parahuman, Taylor Hebert, so soon after her own success story then that'll be even better."
"And we can keep one more person out of the gangs," Miss Militia added.
Armsmaster nodded. "Yes. Now we just have to track her down."
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Armsmaster looked at the assembled Protectorate members in front of him with pride. Miss Militia, Dauntless, and Velocity were present for the morning briefing. Assault and Battery had the day off. The morning briefing had been fairly normal. It mostly consisted on updates on the movements of the major gangs that the intelligence division had picked up on with some theories on likely actions they'd take in the future thrown into the mix.
There had actually been good news today. "For those of you who haven't heard yet, last night we made significant headway in our struggle against the gangs of the city. The ABB and the E88, the two biggest criminal organizations in the city, have been dealt quite a blow. Assault and Battery responded to reports of a battle between parahumans and discovered what seemed to be an altercation between the Empire and the ABB. They requested back up, provided by Miss Milita, and proceeded to enter the battle.
"Eventually Hookwolf, Othala, and Oni Lee were subdued and taken into custody. There was one other Empire parahuman on site, believed to be Victor, who managed to escape as well as a handful of the ABB's footsoldiers."
Armsmaster's speech was followed by applause. After a moment, Armsmaster spoke again in a somber voice. "This is a success, but it isn't a victory, not yet. If we become complacent, we still risk losing. While the loss of Oni Lee is a much more serious blow to the ABB's strength than the loss of two parahumans is to the Empire, the ABB has supposedly recruited a new parahuman of unknown ability. On top of that both the Empire and Lung are both bound to try and free such high-value parahumans. We won't have won this particular battle until these three have been sentenced and incarcerated. Until then we have to be even more vigilant than normal.
"We do not yet know what the conflict was about but, as it occurred near the border between the gangs' territories, the current working theory is that, despite the unusual amount of parahuman activity, it was merely a dispute over land. PRT intelligence will let us know if and when they discover anything else about the incident."
Armsmaster took a moment to allow everything to sink in. "Now, onto the next order of business, this new parahuman, Fenris." At the mention of the name he saw some looks of annoyance cross everyone's face.
"It's been five days since she triggered and we've had nine confirmed sightings of her. They have all been at grocery stores or convenience stores, they've all been at night, and they have all resulted in her evading capture by fleeing into the storm drains. So," he said as he pulled a whiteboard into view. After uncapping a marker he continued, "Intelligence wants a composite report on what we've all learned about this new parahuman. I'll be getting Assault and Battery's reports later."
Armsmaster wrote 'Fenris' at the top of the whiteboard. He turned back to the assembled heroes. "So, what do we know?" he asked the assembled crowd.
Dauntless was the first to speak up. "She has incredible amounts of regeneration. I saw bullet holes disappear in moments." Armsmaster proceeded to write that down. He then looked for another volunteer.
Velocity spoke up next. "She seems to possess enhanced hearing and scent, enough to make it extremely difficult to sneak up on her. I'd be comfortable giving her a minor Thinker rating."
"That doesn't make sense, though," Miss Militia interrupted. "She didn't notice me when I confronted her and I was standing in plain sight."
Armsmaster frowned. "What were the circumstances surrounding the event?"
"I was approaching the Lord Street Grocery Store in response to a call. I had anticipated Fenris being near the back as she had been reported to be raiding the deli. As I rounded the corner I found myself in front of a series of large windows. I was surprised to find that she was actually near the front of the store. I thought for sure she would have noticed me since I wasn't more than forty feet away and she had a clear line of sight. However, I still managed to get to the entrance without being noticed," she explained.
Everyone was quiet for a moment as they contemplated that bit of information. Eventually Dauntless spoke up. "Maybe she's relying on hearing and scent? Because it sounds like she has poor vision."
"We'll put that down as a maybe. Until we can gather more information assume she can see unimpaired." Armsmaster then wrote down 'enhanced senses' and then wrote 'poor vision' below it with a question mark.
Armsmaster then added to the list. "Based on what Shadow Stalker told us in her report, Fenris would also have a high Brute rating," he said as he wrote 'increased strength' and 'high regeneration' as two more bullet points. "Normally, her strength and durability probably wouldn't rate more than a rating of Brute 4, but various reports suggest an extraordinarily fast regenerative ability, meaning we should treat the rating as likely being Brute 7."
After a moment where no one offered more information, Armsmaster felt comfortable that they had gone over all the known information, Armsmaster brought up the next bit of information. "Now, according to the police reports, the only things that have been reported as being stolen have been food stuffs, especially meats. The odd part is the quantity. Each of the nine times that Fenris has appeared she has been reported as devouring vast quantities of food as quickly as possible. The leading theory for this is that she has a severely ramped up metabolism."
"She's also been shown to ignore everyone else," Miss Militia added. "During one of the altercations I responded to, the cashier had reported firing upon Fenris with a small revolver she had hidden under the counter. Despite Fenris clearly reacting to the bullets she simply weathered it until the revolver was empty and then proceeded to go about her business."
Armsmaster nodded. "So she seems to show restraint. That's encouraging to know. I want to see Fenris apprehended soon, before she can be recruited by one of the gangs or worse. I'd hate to lose another new parahuman to the gangs."
Miss Militia spoke again. "According to the initial report provided by Shadow Stalker, this new parahuman triggered in the middle of her school. I would imagine that someone would have connected the disappearance of a student coinciding with the appearance of this new parahuman by now but, as far as I can tell, her identity is still a secret."
"It turns out that at some point in the recent past Fenris, Taylor Hebert; according to Shadow Stalker; had her locker vandalized with Empire tags. According to Shadow Stalker, Ms. Hebert was also known to be an outcast from every social group in the school and was noted to be quite timid. It seems that everyone interviewed believes this young woman's disappearance is most likely due to actions by the ABB in response to the Empire tags, especially since the school is known to be a hotspot for gang recruiting."
Armsmaster took a moment to see if there would be any further questions. When none were forthcoming he decided to wrap up the meeting. "Also, for the next few weeks I will have at least one extra member of the team assigned to base at all times. We will be at elevated risk while we have three of the parahuman gang members in the city under lock and key. I expect us to prevent this headway from being lost." For the first time since his last review by the Board, Armsmaster felt that things were actually going well.