1.8

It was a dreary Thursday in Brockton Bay. While some might call the phenomenon of water descending from the sky rain, I called it god crying. It made me happy to imagine Scion up there floating with his angsty golden form shedding sadness everywhere. Or a lovecraftian abomination weeping. Either way it made the depressing weather all the more cheerful.

I had elected to stay in the confines of the city-shaped hellhole (though it had been improving recently), for my own personal enjoyment above all else. For while it was immensely gratifying to remove the tyrants from the face of the earth, you didn't really get more interesting reactions other than surprise, rage, or death. I also didn't generally stick around to get shot and murdered afterwards either, so a lot of the schadenfreude was speculative.

While no doubt bullying was a universal problem as long as there were schools, I personally held a healthy dose of distaste for such individuals. Staying through the horror that was a full Cauldron conference made me desperate enough to seek a more public venue to relieve my stress.

As far as I was concerned, the PRT and Protectorate needed to be exposed as corrupt, now that Scion's death was an actual workable goal, rather than a wall to throw Parahumans at until maybe it would collapse. During the meeting, I had pointed out the original method that had been used to kill him, angst. More specifically, I pointed out that one member of the Travelers, not so subtly told them to deal with Noelle. I also noted the use of Flechette as a Scion-killer. I hoped they hadn't gotten any ideas about me, Flechette's brand of cheating might just stick when it came to me.

So here I was, back in the hive of hormones and unreachable dreams that consisted High School. I brought up a taser in one hand and a camera in the other. Truly a good idea, it could only be improved if I had coated myself in water like how the rain had been readily attempting.

Bringing my taser hand down, I tasered the girl I had appeared behind. The sound of crackling filled the classroom, and I placed the stun gun in my pocket. There was a moment of silence as eyes turned to me, during which I pulled out the same red sharpie and wrote, "I am a Ward who bullies others and kills people with my power."

It's not like I didn't kill people, I mean that's basically the only thing I've done since arriving in these worlds, but I went for the actually terrible people. Not to say gang members aren't terrible people, but gang bosses and members of the Slaughterhouse Nine were just a bit worse than your average mook. If I was a hypocrite, so be it. I also didn't pretend to follow laws, but then again probably belonged in jail.

As if a switch was flipped, I swear three people began screaming at once. The phones came up, and I brought up the taser again to jab the redhead I materialized next to. I wrote, "I hide my insecurities by being a bitchy bully," on her back, before snapping a picture of both. Smiling, I waved and vanished from the room.

People on the internet had criticized my picture-taking skills enough for me to buy a camera with my funds. It had previously taken a new picture of the Simurgh before the bullies. I had brought it to the meeting as well, but ended up deleting the photos taken. Wouldn't be an opportune time to reveal Cauldron yet.

I marveled at the lockdown drill procedure, probably not being used for the first time considering the city and school I was in. It suited my purposes just fine, I thought while stacking several empty metal crates in front of one room last night. I filled the crates with bags of sand, and materialized in the darkened room.

"Vellcome class toVorld Issuesvith Schrodinger!" I announced, tasering the teacher next to the door and walking to the front of the room. I looked over the room, marveling at the heaps of bystanders unwilling to help a bullied girl. Their looks of fear were hilarious. Well, not from the kids with Empire 88 tattoos, but other than them.

"Can anyone tell me about bullying?" I asked, popping next to a brown-haired girl. "I have been doing my besht to remove zee issues from 'vorld issues' so far, but vhat do you zink about school issues?"

She flinched as I reached into my pocket. The obviously Empire 88 students seemed rather confused by my obvious swastika armband covered in duct tape to be a smiley.

"Jusht imagine vat zey'll say; Here lies Madison Clements,died jusht like Jack Slash, zee Sieberian, Shatterbird, Heartbreaker, oh and zee important people in zee Yangban," I said, purposely oblivious to the bugs slowly entering the room.

Everyone froze when I started listing the names, even the bugs. "Yes, all zose people you talk about in vorld issues vere razer quickly killed by me."

"But today our topic is bullying," I said, smiling towards the camera I placed in the back of the classroom that was currently filming. "Since you are so evidently an expert on zee subject I vould like youto tell us all about it."

"I-it's bad--" she began to stutter out before I interrupted her.

"Vell than vy did you do it? Vassocial acceptanceso important to you zat you vould consciously physically and mentally inflict harm on your peers?," I said, smile managing to still broaden.

She silently nodded, face frozen in a rictus of fear.

From the vent and floor, a horde of insects swarmed out. I turned toward the plain-looking girl in glasses, curly hair long down her back and smiled in the low lighting. Being engulfed in a wave of insects was a rather novel experience. Materializing inside an active furnace was also rather interesting, though it only really lasted a second.

I stood, insectless in the classroom once more. "Remember everyone, bullying wrong, notify your teacher, or PM me at Everynowhere on PHO."

"Auf Wiedersehen!"

I grabbed the camera and waved, taking one last glance at the bullied girl in question. We made eye contact. I vanished.

While spending the day not turning heads of state into just heads, or fraternizing with the Illuminati, I figured I might as well do something as productive as making a PSA on bullying. I figured most people would probably stop if faced with the threat of a teleporting killer Nazi cat boy. It also perhaps endeared me slightly with Taylor Hebert, that other back up I had informed Cauldron of.

School left in chaos, I popped into Director Piggot's office to upload the images and video. The PRT guest wireless was actually really fast! Turns out there were security cameras, as a squad of PRT officers was waiting instead of the obese woman. It had been a day or two since I was last here so they must have been waiting a long time. I laughed in their faces before disappearing again.

Unless the PRT were willing to blockade every free wifi access point in the world I don't think they could really stop me. I was satisfied though, inflicting excessive violence on a bunch of warped teenagers. Maybe they would actually come from the experience as better people. Maybe they would get worse. Well, my PHO was always open.

I had prepared a perfectly symmetrical violin as a gift for my next stop.

I called it an Accord-ian.