The day before…
There is a special kind of hell here on earth. It's called the DMV.
Brian Labourn had no clue how in gods green earth there wasn't a parahuman hadn't burned, blown up, collapsed, or otherwise disintegrated one down in the 30 some odd years parahumans had been around.
He was fairly certain that if he wandered into London, or Ellisburg, or Newfoundland, or Kyushu, he would find a DMV building still standing. Taunting everyone that ever stepped foot in it that it was still *there*, still ready to make them all *miserable*, whenever they had to step in again.
God only knew that if he just had a lighter and enough paper he'd get started trying to burn this place down right now!
Seven bloody hours. Just to get his license.
He didn't have a car, but he planned to. In a city with no subways, a car was far too convenient. Especially if he was gonna demonstrate that he had the means to provide for Aisha if...when he got custody.
But still...
Seven. Hours!
He generally considered himself a good person. Sure, he was working for a shady character, with Lisa, Alec and Rachel; AKA: Blackmail Girl, Don't give a Fuck dude, and Sick my Dogs on you if the mood strikes tomboy in what was really shaping up to be a villain team.
But he followed and enforced his own set of rules. Played it smart: no killing, no maiming, no permanent damage. These were the rules and everyone continually walked away very happy...well...the Undersiders did. The other people were generally pissed and a couple of ten-thousand or hundred thousand dollars poorer.
But still. He considered himself a good person. A trip-n-fall that broke a guy's nose could easily be made to be one that broke his neck instead, a dog bite to the arm or the leg was a lot better than the throat, and so on.
So he couldn't understand, for the life of him, why on earth he was being punished like this. If he got to the end of this line and this guy told him he'd have to make another line to get another form he was leaping over the counter and murdering everyone here!
There was no way the day could possibly get any-
*Ring!*
He reached into his pocket seeing Aisha's smiling picture on his I-phone. He answered, "Hey sis what's up?"
(X)
"Cut through here!" He all but shouted at the cabbie. "It'll take you straight to seventh and you'll be on Main in front of the PRT building.
"Sir...this is Norse street."
But Brian wasn't listening, dialing his phone again to try and get a hold of Aisha.
Next time he thinks the day can't get worse he was finding a Brute to punch him in the face. Really. Fucking. Hard.
He looked up when the driver kept on going.
"Why didn't you turn!"
"Sir...that was Norse street."
"So wh-Does it look like I give a damn about the E-88 right now?"
"You might not but I do." The cab driver replied. "I've seen this movie the Black Guy dies first."
"I'm the Black Guy!" He shouted. Somewhere in his mind he recognized just how absurd this conversation was even as he dialed Aisha's number again
"Yes. Which makes me the guy that's either staring stupidly where he heard the scream before whatever got you gets me. Or the guy that's running for help when the Monster swoops in from behind. Either way I'd rather not cut through Norse street today sir. We'll cut through Lung's territory we'll be safer that way."
The *smack* that was his hand meeting his forehead would have left a bright, angry red mark if he wasn't black.
He decided to use the extra time to call his Lawyer…
No. Someone more useful.
…
"Lisa-"
(X)
"What did you do?"
"Brian?"
"What...did you do?" He asked, staring straight ahead as he sat with Aisha in the PRT waiting room.
"I'll tell ya if ya promise not to get mad!" She actually had the audacity to beam at him.
Brian replied with a forced smile of his own.
"Cross my heart." He said through clenched teeth. Aisha shrugged.
"Okay...I sort of found out the identity of a new cape and told it right to her face."
"Damnit Aisha!" He snapped, hands going to his face. Stealing? Sure, no problem. Maybe a bit of back talk or assault? Sure! He could have handled that. He wouldn't have been happy but the boss seemed to have enough connections to make it go away. Nothing major.
Literally telling a cape you know her identity?
Felony with a side of Twenty-five to life.
"Aaaannnnd...she's the new Ward."
Brian was contemplating banging his head against the wall of the waiting room. Maybe if he can get a concussion he can forget all of this, or maybe this is all some sort of dream, him napping in the cab. Perhaps with enough pain he can wake up.
Fuck it.
"Aisha." Knock. "Seriously." Knock. "Why?" Brian said between head-to-wall-thunks.
"Oh come on its no big deal! I mean, she sort of walked into it. She-"
"Not a big-...Just…" Sigh "You can explain it to me. When we get escorted to whoever's office okay?"
Deep down, he was panicking. A lot. What if the PRT has a Thinker who can tell whether or not he's lying? Or trace any DNA samples to his activities with the Undersiders? Not only will he be sent to jail, but also he won't be able to provide for her.
He did consider joining the Wards at one point. He really truly did. But when Tattletale told him of that him joining wouldn't give him the money needed to give Aisha a chance for school and college beyond, he dumped it.
The Wards provided for *Wards* and not necessarily their families. They had school paid for, equipment provided, training authorised, a roof over their heads and three square meals a day. Providing for a Ward was expensive.
Providing for a ward plus the wards family just wasn't possible unless the Ward was a Thinker that could be used to make money in dividends once he or she applied their skills.
That was his reason for villainy. Getting as much cash as possible to get out of the Bay, get custody for Aisha, then send her to a good school, and he can get a job as a martial arts/self defense teacher in the more safer parts of the country.
The only good thing, school wise, that had occurred was that Winslow burned down, and the second that happened he made sure to have the boss know that he had to keep her out of Immaculata. It was rumored the Nazi's recruited their capes there and considering the ages of Rune, Othala and such he was willing to believe it. The Boss man assured him he was pulling strings to keep her out.
He took in a deep breath. "Bro. You okay? You're seriously freaking out about this."
"Because I'm concerned for you Aisha. I don't know what they will do." The younger African-American girl let out a snort.
"Dude, you are tripping balls over nothing! You just have to sign papers and I sign and we're set. You don't have to get all twisted up about it!"
"You don't know that."
"I've been on PHO a lot bro. I know what I'm doing. Let me handle-"
"Oh nononono you're not doing the talking. I am." Brian said with a pointed finger at Aisha. His younger sister pouted and stuck out her tongue.
"Mr and Miss Labourn?" Someone asked as the door opened.
"That's us." He said unnecessarily. They were the only ones in the waiting room.
"This way please. Mr. Wallis is ready for you."
(X)
Mr. Wallis's office was clean. Absurdly so. Everything was immaculate with a stainless steel tempered glass desk and a desktop that was so thin Brian felt he could have made a half convincing effort of just hiding it under his shirt.
"My name is Colin Wallis." The man said curtly, not standing from his desk. He was dressed in a steel grey suit. A white shirt beneath it. "Quite frankly, this is not part of my job description and I have no time for pleasantries. Have a seat and lets get this over with."
Brian was fairly certain the guy was either overworked, or just a plain old asshole.
"Yeah." He said carefully. "Sorry about all this." He ventured, hoping the rarely used velvet glove would be enough to have this guy relax enough to not pass them through the ringer. He really just wanted to get out of here as fast as he possibly could.
Mr. Wallis looked to Aisha. "Ms. Labourn I take it."
"Names' Aish-ow!" An elbow and a glare from Brian cut her off.
The man pushed a thin manilla folder over his glass desk towards them. "Please read these, and then sign if you agree to the clauses and stipulations therein. If you do not, inform me."
Aisha moved to sit when Brian held her back, stiff as a board. "May we sit?"
The feeling of walking on eggshells was not a pleasant one, and it was not one he ever wanted to experience again.
Mr. Wallis blinked. "Oh...yes. Sorry. Forgot my manners…" He seemed genuine as he said that, clearing his throat awkwardly. "Would you care for some water?"
Considering how dry his mouth was, yes.
"No thanks." He said.
"Sure." Aisha chirped.
Wallis stood and made his way over to a small little water cooler in the corner of the office. Taking a tall, thin plastic cup from the side holster and pouring it before delivering it.
Aisha hummed some tune or other, leaning back in her seat as she waited and drank.
Brian meanwhile was hunched over the papers. Eyes panning every line as carefully as possible. He wished, not for the first time, that he had Lisa's power and could have determined if there was some legal loophole that would trap him in a messed up, roundabout way he simply wouldn't catch since he wasn't a lawyer.
It seemed pretty straightforward. A nondisclosure pact where Aisha would basically agree to A) Not say who this ward's ID was under any circumstances of course, and B) Grant the PRT access to her social security identification for monitoring purposes only.
Essentially they'd know every step she took for the rest of her life. Where she lived, where she worked, if she ever changed her name, her phone number. Everything.
It had plenty of assurances and clauses that stipulated that there would be no interference from the PRT to go against or alter anything through those means but that didn't change the fact that, Aisha, essentially just got a "Big Brother's watching you" target forever on her back to make sure she didn't spill anything to anyone, anywhere and that they'd be able to contain it quickly and efficiently if it ever got out.
Only time this monitoring would ever stop is if the cape in question died.
He knew that this *was* one of their standard contracts for situations like this; it had been challenged numerous times on the constitutionality and the violation of countless privacy laws of every state. But the Supreme Court had held it up in the various split decisions they'd given on the subject. Alot of people suspected backroom politics playing a hefty role in those decisions as well. The only thing the PRT couldn't do was tell potential employers they were monitoring you. It had been a huge scandal when it was discovered one of the monitoring guys had been doing such to make his ex' life (a former PRT trooper who'd quit and signed the contract to do so) extra-difficult.
The Ex-trooper had sued and gotten quite a hefty sum in damages. Couple of tens of millions or so.
Couple that with the claimants that had been crawling out of the woodwork in the immediate aftermath that they had to settle out with and he suspected the monitoring guy was fired.
So now; of course, these contracts were sealed tighter than Alexandria in a chastity belt.
He was out of his depth here and he knew it. He pulled out his phone. "Do you mind if I make a call?"
"Go ahead."
He pressed the speed dial.
The phone rang twice in his ear.
"Yes sir boss man! I'm ready to go!"
"Lisa." He said. "They handed us the non disclosure for-"
"Yes yes that's obvious. Put Aisha on for me."
He pursed his lips, irritated but passed the phone anyway.
He saw Aisha smile. "Hey Liz! Uhuh. Yeah? Seems kinda stuffy. Oh well I just asked if she was the cape on the picture on PHO and she kinda flipped out about it so at that point it was just obvious that she...Uhuh...okay. Bye Liz!" She held out the phone smiling innocently at Mr. Wallis. Brian could almost see the lying little angel halo on her head. "She wants to say hi!"
He reached across his desk, plucking the phone from her hands. "Colin Wallis speaking."
Brian saw his frown deepen.
Don't make this worse Lisa.
"Are you the Labourn's attorney?" He asked, and I could almost see Lisa's smile behind that phone.
His frown got deeper.
Now he was glaring at a spot on his desk.
Now Brian could see his jaw clench-
Now he's gripping the armrest.
Now Brian's fairly certain they're going to get mobbed in the parking lot or something.
Mr. Wallis handed back a phone he seemed to desperately want to throw into a wall.
Brian put the phone to his ear.
"Problem solved. Kay? Love you Bri. Kisses to Aisha. Buh-bye"
"Li-" The line went dead.
Somehow he was suddenly more afraid of how much he was going to owe her than signing this slip of paper right now.
The door behind him opened and Brian turned coming face to face with a gray, medieval knight-esque girl's head as she peeked in through the doorway.
"Hey Ta-OW!…" Brian's foot moved faster than his brain striking his little sister in the shin a split second before Aisha went and blurted out the capes name. He was fairly certain that he would count as part of the felony.
"Ashburn!" The armored girl snapped quickly before looking at Mr. Wallis.
"Uhh, can I come in."
"This concerns your identity." He said.
She took that as invitation enough.
Aisha waved, smiling again.
The ward looked down at the papers. "Soooo...what're they signing?"
"They were going to sign these non disclosure and monitoring consent agreements."
"Were?"
"Their lawyer kindly reminded me that Ms. Labourn here merely asked a question...that's not illegal, nor punishable. As such I would only ask Mr. and Ms. Labourn to sign the non disclosure pact."
He rummaged for a moment before he pulled out another form from a folder in a side drawer.
Handing it over Brian almost felt a palpable relief as he read over the much simpler clauses of the agreement.
A simple keep your mouth shut, heavy legal repercussions if she spoke to anyone about the capes ID to go on top of the twenty-five year sentence.
He owed Lisa. He owed Lisa big. Hopefully she'd just ask for a cut of his pay. He can live with that. He won't stand for being made a Chip'n'Dale dancer. Alec wouldn't let him live it down.
As far as he was concerned with this Ashburn girl, he didn't know her, he hadn't seen her, he hadn't even gotten up this morning, he didn't even know his own name or what he was doing here or who this bearded guy, who looked like he wanted to strangle a puppy across the desk, was.
If Aisha even breathed something that started with 'Ta' he was ramming his head into a wall until he forgot all about it.
"If Aisha and I sign this we can go?"
The man nodded, his jaw was evidently too tightly clenched for anything more.
He read it over one more time as Aisha started chatting up the Ward, who answered her somewhat awkwardly, he'd daresay almost shyly. But he doubted that. Anyone who looked like they could gouge your eyes out with the pointy ends of the gauntlets around her hands didn't seem like someone that would be shy.
Satisfied with his perusal he signed it and then passed the pen and paper to Aisha.
To his surprise she read it too before placing down her signature.
He'd be proud if she wasn't the cause of this whole thing in the first place.
He left with her in tow, vowing to forget this whole thing ever happened.
He got a ring on his phone. Lisa.
"Yeah?" He answered as they stepped out of the building.
"Just thought you should know! Boss man called! Aisha's school troubles are over! First class trip to Arcadia along with all those wonderful Wards. Oh and-" *Snap*
….
"Uhhh...bro?"
He blinked, emerging from the momentary daze as he felt the glass of his now cracked phone's screen digging into his palm. And in his shattered reflection, his twitching eye.
"Bro?" He turned, smiling as he looked at Aisha with a closed eye smile.
"Oh I'm just fine Aisha. Just…" He looked out, taking a deep breath. "Fine…"
(X)
A week later. Sunday
Grue sat in the back of the truck, the boss provided for transporting the money, arms crossed as he looked at the smug-looking girl sitting across from him.
"You seem stressed out Grue-man." Said Alec, also known as Regent, as he fiddled with his scepter. "Bug crawl up your ass and die or somethin'?"
"No. Not at all." He said sternly from his skull-mask. Lisa, or Tattletale, still sported the smirk as she sat across from him.
"You know, for someone who had to be saved from mismanagement on the part of the PRT, you're not being very grateful Grue." Tattletale commented, her eyes glowing with mischief. Grue's eyes looked to the side, seeing Rachel and her three dogs huddle together. Bitch remained quiet, but still had the permanent scowl on her face. He won't get any input from her, nor any help.
"Wait what." Regent asked.
"Tattles, please. I am very grateful, but can we-"
"You've been super anxious when I'm around Grue." Tattletale oiled. "Why is that~?"
He can tell Regent was eager to listen in, and he saw Bitch perk her head up. He let out a loud sigh.
"Thank you for bailing me and my sister out…"
"Did you beat up some thugs while you saved your sister from clubbin' and shit?" Regent was rewarded with a burning glare from Grue.
"No. My sister...was a complete and utter idiot in guessing a cape's ID in civie clothes. The new Ward."
"Y." Tattletale confirmed it. "And, I played the part of Miss Lawyer and made that guy over the phone make sure not to sign you and Aisha to anything."
"Okay, so Tattles saved your ass. What's got you so wound up?" Regent asked again.
"It's because, Grue owes me." Tattletale smirked. "For the most part, I know of...something of value he can give me."
"Can we please just focus on raiding this damn casino and I can be your dancer later!" He snapped. Lisa laughed, guffawing in sharp, loud barks of amusement. Regent was looking at him squarely and even Bitch was staring at him with a quirked eye. Angelica perked up with a whine.
Lisa grinned. "Oh naive leader of ours. If you think a little dance is what I've got lined up for you to pay me back you're not giving me nearly enough credit."
Maybe he would just get shot today...