Interlude: Legend
The remains reached out to him. It was charred, mouth open in a quiet, eternal scream. The glass of the helmet had shattered along one side, allowing him to see the hollow hole where an eye had been burned away.
It had been a while since he'd heard of a Parahuman doing this much damage to the Protectorate, or the PRT.
The ash was fine beneath his hands. Rough, coarse. But so very fine it could slip easily through his closed fist.
He took a breath, panning his eyes over the destruction. Men and women moved about with stretchers and gurneys, collecting the remains of over a hundred corpses. And that was just the PRT agents and Police Force...
He shook his head. Such a tragedy… as if they didn't have enough problems.
He took to the air again, soaring across the city.
In minutes, he found himself slowly descending on the PRT HQ, making himself as visible and obvious as possible. They didn't need to be further alarmed. Not after last night.
When he touched his boots to the ground, he peered through the shattered sliding doors at the entrance, the building bore its own wounds from conventional and tinker-tech weaponry now.
When the guards caught sight of him they straightened.
"S-sir?"
"I came as fast as I could. There's a jet coming in from La Guardia not far behind with supplies and reinforcements." It felt too small, too much of a pittance, but it was all he had had the time to gather.
The guards stood there, their armor scuffed, scratched, and pitted with damage.
He was pristine by comparison, and it made him feel ashamed.
Alexandria would call him foolish considering all the times he charged into dangers while others, agents included, ran in the opposite direction.
The Butcher. The Slaughterhouse Nine. The Endbringers.
Perhaps it was foolish, but there it was.
"Where is the Director?"
"In the main conference room sir, outside her office. She's meeting with-"
"I know, don't worry." He answered and brushed past them towards the stairs. He reached the stark white, spiral stair corridor and flew up through the small space available between the stairs, reaching the fifth floor in two seconds.
When he opened the door, it was to the sound of raised voices. They were clear enough to rip through the damaged walls. He couldn't really make out the words but he recognized Miss Militia's voice and Piggot's. The younger ones had to be Wards.
He heard Rebecca's voice there too. Her voice calm with the weight of a thunderstorm.
He didn't hear Armsmaster.
He reached the door, took a breath, and pushed it open.
"What is-" Piggot and the rest of the room went quiet.
Predictably, the first to recover was Rebecca.
"Legend." She said, the mild surprise on her features was not fake. "When did you leave New York?"
"As soon as I heard." He answered truthfully. He panned his eyes across the room, Piggot, Miss Militia, Dauntless, Aegis, Gallant, Vista, Clockblocker, Triumph, and Browbeat. "Behind me I have a plane loaded with troops and supplies to help. I can bring more if you need it."
Rebecca's lips thinned, he ignored it.
He shifted, then walked towards the table, sat down, and laced his hands in front of him. "I'm sorry to make you repeat yourself, but outside of an attempted jail break, over one hundred casualties, and the entire Protectorate and Wards team pushed into a retreat by a single Parahuman… I'm rather scarce on the finer details."
Rebecca spoke, curt and to the point. "The Parahuman in question is a now former Ward. Her name is Ashburn. You'll recall that around three months ago Winslow school burned down, correct?"
"News reached us in New York. Yes. I-"
"That was her Trigger event." She spoke over him. "Her abilities have her rated as a Brute Five, Master two , Blaster Four, and a Shaker Four. She has the ability to heal herself and others through the use of mediums that have been designated as 'Idols.' Those ratings will be revised given the events of last night."
Miss Militia slid a file to him and he began to read it.
"She doesn't seem particularly unstable in these pictures." He commented and jumped to the end. "I'm not finding any complaint slips either. What caused the kind of violence from last night?"
Piggot began to speak."We're currently under the impression that there is Master influence at work he-"
"Bullshit!"
The voice was a sharp, angry bark of anger and it made Legend lookup to find Gallant glaring at the director.
"Galla-"
"Stop trying to cover up your goddamn-"
"There is no cover up. You're assumption is just that. An assu-"
"Quiet!"
Rebecca rarely raised her voice. It was a tactic, like most things were with her. When it happened, people listened. There was no desensitization to it.
He brought his eyes to Gallant he took a breath. "Young man. Is there something you'd like to say?"
"Yeah. There's a whole lot I'd like to say!" He pointed at Piggot. "She's been covering this whole thing up!"
"Covering what up son?"
"Everything! Shadow Stalker, Sophia- is the one that made Taylor trigger in the first place. Last night Taylor's whole rampage was her trying to get to Shadow Stalker! The director here- covered it up. She protected Sophia so that she wouldn't get any bad press. Taylor must have found out last night and just lost it!"
Piggot glared, boring a hole into Gallant. If looks could kill...
The others kept their heads bowed.
Legend turned to look at her, face carefully neutral. With the reaction of the others he didn't need to ask. But he'd give her the courtesy. "Is this true?"
She turned to face him. He noticed then the bandages peeking out beneath her blouse, covering her shoulder. She'd been shot last night too.
"Unlike Gallant's assessment I did not cover this up to avoid bad press as he says. My motives were purely pragmatic."
He leaned back in the appropriated chair. Somehow he felt this was going to take a while. "Just to make certain…" He ventured. "You were aware at the time you undertook this action that Shadow Stalker was responsible for Miss Hebert's trigger event?"
"Yes I was." She answered.
He had to work to loosen his jaw a bit. "And… you are aware of the full implications of what a Trigger event is… what it means for Parahumans?"
She looked him dead in the eye. "Of course I was."
He leaned back in his chair. "This better be good." It was a warning, not a joke.
"Miss Hess." Piggot all but bit out. "Had been engaging in a rather vicious bullying campaign against Miss Hebert for the better part of two years."
Evidently, that drew some surprise from the other Wards, Vista, Clockblocker, and Browbeat had snapped their heads around to look at her, glaring or blinking with dumbstruck surprise. They didn't know. Chances are Aegis didn't either but was just better at hiding it judging by how he tensed up.
"In that time she managed to turn a once close friend of Taylor's against her, enough to make her an active participant in the abuse. As you know in the interim of these two years Shadow Stalker became a probationary Ward. Her activities were monitored by us."
He blinked. It takes a hell of a poker face just say that last part like she was being completely honest.
She moved quickly to continue, no doubt sensing his incredulity. "Unfortunately, we trusted the Winslow school faculty with reporting her activities in school. They quickly decided that the grant and Sophia's presence in deterring the neophytes and teenagers of this city's gangs were worth more than one girl's discomfort and gave us no report on the bullying campaign Sophia was actively pursuing against Hebert."
"And some four months ago she triggered because of her." He ventured, deciding to make a long story short.
"That's right." Piggot nodded. "Her Trigger, as you know, ended up burning Winslow down. Our investigation led us to believe that Miss Hess had stuffed Miss Hebert in a locker full of biohazards."
"Biohazards!?" He flipped through the file.
"Its in the file. I'd rather not be explicit." She leaned forward, over the desk as she waited for him to find Miss Militia's report.
He did. His lip curled with anger.
"After this, it was my assessment that if Miss Hebert became aware of Sophia's true identity, she would not join the Wards willingly. Which meant that she would go rogue, or worse, be recruited by the villain gangs."
He shook his head. He wanted to say that that wasn't how they did things, that this was not how it was supposed to work. Sophia should have been held accountable. They should have dealt with Hebert, with the situation honestly.
But he'd be something of a hypocrite then.
God knows he'd done worse. They had done worse.
Piggot continued speaking. "I contacted Alexandria in Los Angeles. Explained the situation, and she agreed to take on Sophia's transfer."
It was lucky his mask covered his eyes. Elsewise the others would have seen him flatly glaring at the Chief Director's image streaming across the monitor on the wall.
She glared right back. Daring him to argue.
"After Sophia would have been transferred out, I would have spoken to Hebert and revealed all the circumstances regarding Miss Hess."
"After Sophia was safely out of reach?" He snapped. "After you'd made it all but impossible to take action against her?" His words were in response to Piggot, but he was still glaring at Rebecca.
Piggot's lips pursed. "After she had time to see the rest of the Wards. After she had time to get past the horrid impression Sophia's immediate revelation would have left on her. Yes, Legend. After." The woman all but spat. Truly she must be high strung to let herself speak to him like this. Very few ever did even at the worst of times. "I was not going to lose another fresh Trigger to the Empire! We get so few heroes up here that allowing one to slip through the cracks was unacceptable."
"And helping Sophia avoid punishment falls into that? Unacceptable!" He accused.
The woman's face turned red. Sheer rage burning behind her eyes, it was enough to catch him off guard. She seemed to look around the room. "I would like everyone to leave please. Wait outside."
"I'm not-"
"That wasn't a request. Mr. Stansfield. Get. Out."
One by one the Wards stood with Gallant giving the Director a glare, Dauntless and Militia marched out too after a look from Piggot.
Piggot barely even waited for the click of the door to close before she started speaking. "Do you know the reason we even took Sophia in the first place, Legend? Why we kept her on. Despite every non-heroic act she did beforehand or after her recruitment?"
He didn't. So he didn't answer.
"No? I'm not surprised." She looked at Rebecca and Legend both. "The two of you know so very little about the situation here."
"We know of your-"
"Five years. Five years and seven months." She spat out, her voice rising to carry over Rebecca's. "That's how long we were espectively requesting more capes after Lung and Hookwolf made their appearances here in the Bay. We were asking for any capes. From any state. I have twelve parahumans I can field at any given time. Half of those are Wards who shouldn't be fighting. Would you like to know how many can be fielded by the Empire?"
"Piggot-"
"Fifteen!" She snapped cutting him off. "Fifteen capes. With twice our number of unpowered people. The ABB has Lung, Bakuda, and Oni-Lee. Add to that Faultline, the Undersiders, and Coil. I am outnumbered out here by at least double the number of parahumans and five times the number of unpowered criminals."
She turned her eyes to Legend. "I request reinforcement after reinforcement. More troops, more supplies, more funding, more Parahumans, more anything that can be spared. Would you like to know what happened, Legend? Nothing. I get nothing! I get it. The Bay is a shit hole, an economic disaster sinking into its own filth. This place isn't a priority for any of you. I can manage. I roll with the punches. I keep my relationships amicable with New Wave. Get a working relationship with Parian for the capes who need costumes from her. I take the help where I can find it. I muscled Sophia into the Wards out of necessity, Legend. She was my only hard counter to Lung, my only hard counter to Hookwolf, to Kaiser, perhaps even Krieg as well. She was a cape that dropped into my lap out of sheer happenstance. I take what I can get, Legend. And I try to get the damn job done with the table scraps you and the Director here deign to spare me from wherever the hell you are. And I can deal with that."
She paused, and leaned forward on the table for emphasis. "But don't you sit there, coming on down from your Ivory Tower to see the disaster zone and judge me when all you've done is leave us out here to drown in a sinking city. After you've been sitting here with us for a year. Or after you've wiped out the ABB, cleaned up the Boat Graveyard, and shoved Kaiser into a dark hole. Then you can tell me how you'd have done things. How things should have been done. You don't get to act surprised, Hero. That corners have been cut and our procedures and actions aren't up to the standards you're used to. You're a lot farther from the luxury resort in New York than you think." Legend could feel the venom in Piggot's voice as she glared at the two.
"Are you quite done?" Rebecca drawled. Legend gave her a look while Piggot's head whipped to the screen so fast her neck would break and he could tell that the threat of being fired was the only thing holding her back from cursing out the both of them. Yet Piggot did have a point. They neglected Brockton Bay due to a great many factors, lack of economic contribution to the country, and population. Places like New York, Philadelphia, Savannah, and Miami warranted more attention on the Eastern Seaboard, whereas Cleveland, Detroit, New Orleans, and Nashville warranted attention in the Midwest.
And those would just be the… ethical reasons...
"I will remain here until this situation has been resolved." Legend said, arms crossed. "I'll also see about bringing over two Wards and another parahuman on my team to help with the situation. How are the injured?" Piggot was still glaring a hole into the two as she leaned back in her chair..
"Kid Win suffered burns to much of his body. The superheated air also burned his trachea, windpipe, and lungs. That is what nearly killed him more than anything else. That has been repaired. He and Hess are more or less in the same boat. Both are in a chemically induced coma. Kid Win is expected to be healed by tomorrow. He didn't lose any limbs or significant portions of his blood. For Hess, on the other hand, the damage was simply too extensive for Panacea to repair with what fat reserves Sophia had available. She prioritized everything life threatening . If we were to wake her up now she'd be in an unbelievable amount of pain so we're keeping her under. As for Armsmaster…" She paused. "He won't be waking up from his coma."
His features turned sad. Colin. A good ward. A better Hero. Another lost..."What were his injuries?"
"His skull was cracked." Rebecca answered, her tone betraying nothing. "The trauma forced his brain to swell. The swelling put too much pressure on the brainstem. There was internal bleeding and hemorrhaging of the brain tissue as well."
"And Panacea doesn't heal brains." He sighed, one hand rising to rub his forehead.
"Dragon has taken it on herself to look after Wallis and heal him." Piggot seemed to share his sigh. "We also suffered… one parahuman casualty on base."
"Who?"
"Assault." She shrugged. "While most of our forces were busy at the prison, Coil attacked the PRT Headquarters. Preliminary analysis indicates upwards of seventy mercenaries. He had access to our safety codes, used multiple entrances, scrambled communications. The works. He and Battery tried to hold them off. They were holding. Until Assault was shot by a Tinker tech heat weapon." She looked worn in that moment, the lines of her face growing long and dark. The bags under her eyes standing out more than normal. "I can't believe he could have infiltrated our systems and protocols to this degree…"
"Have their families been informed?" He asked.
"I have agents doing so as we speak for Sophia and Chris. Ethan Battle has family across the country and they will be informed tomorrow morning, this morning to be precise. Colin has no surviving family."
"And Ashburn?" He asked.
"She has a father…" She paused. "He was found… injured last night."
"She attacked her own father?"
"No no." She was quick to shake her head. "The situation is complicated. But evidence suggests that both Sophia and Taylor were picked up last night by Coil's men, not ours. One of his men attacked Mr. Hebert. He fought off Coil's agent until our agents arrive and killed the man after he tried shooting back. Mr. Hebert is being treated in the hospital as we speak."
His features tightened. "He targeted their civilian identities and families… "
"He did. Used it to his advantage. The helmets and comm pieces both had were isolated frequencies. He could say anything to them. Pretend it was one of our agents."
"Could that mean there was Master influence on Miss Hebert? Something like Valefor perhaps? This kind of violence is…" He shook his head. "Its rather extreme."
"Perhaps. While we haven't found any evidence to prove it neither have we had the time to disprove it."
"We should send this information to our thinkers in New York and Los Angeles." He suggested. "They'll determine if there was some mental influence at work here."
Piggot rubbed her eyes and looked at the clock. "Who are the capes you're bringing? I doubt they'll do much."
"He could always keep them in New York." Rebecca drawled. Piggot gave her a glare and bared some teeth. Her loss of composure could easily be blamed on stress and exhaustion. She must have been up for twenty-four hours straight at the very least.
"I'm planning on sending Flechette from my division, New York, and I'll get in touch with Director Kuhn in Boston about possibly sending Weld. Two Wards, both exemplar in their track record. I myself will stay here until this is resolved." Legend spoke.
"You're needed in New York." Rebecca shot.
"New York will be fine in Maestro's hands for a few months" He answered.
"The Teeth-"
"Will be cracked down as they have been. And if the situation gets out of hand I can be there in less than an hour. I'm staying here, Chief Director."
"We'll discuss this later." It was a promise as much as it was a threat.
"You can open the discussion after I'm done here."
"You sound highly optimistic…" Piggot snipped.
"Someone has to be." The energy based hero retorted. "Before we go further, might I see the footage from last night?"
The woman nodded.
Before long, he was staring at a black clad giant tearing through the prison courtyard, agents, prisoners, police, heroes, and Wards. It was like dust motes struggling against a storm.
"We've yet to give the combat form she used with a proper designation." She admitted. "We'll have to think of one soon. If we can play this off as an entirely different cape it will do well to mitigate the Public relations damage."
"We might be beyond that." Rebecca said. "Legend, we will speak again very soon. I need to put our holding facilities on alert."
She closed off the link.
He looked to Piggot. "Where is Ashburn now?"
The grimace was plain as day. "We don't know."
(X)
It was night, pitch black in the city. He was miles above in the sky, where he waited and the moon was so close he felt he could just reach out and touch it.
Alexandria finally came to him.
"What do you think you're doing?" She asked, arms crossed.
"Putting a stop to this." Legend answered. "People are dead, Alexandria."
"Don't be naieve. The experiment was always going to call for some deaths."
"One-hundred and sixty-seven, Alexandria. The majority of those deaths happened because of a Ward. Good men and women that never would have been there, in a situation that never would have occurred without-"
"You know the predictions, Legend. All the calculations, all the scenarios. They all demonstrate that society will collapse before the end. The Bay is a template we can use to chart a more effective course in the future."
"In my eyes your experiment has failed. You've practically let Coil have free-reign to do what he wants here, he's now turned a good young woman into a fugitive, killed Assault during the raid, and eviscerated the local Protectorate. Good men and women that wanted to do nothing more than their jobs, and we have widows and orphans to deal with now. You don't get to just call this an experiment anymore. Hell, if its done anything its just proven that Parahumans with too much power go too damn far!" Her mouth twitched i what was almost a sneer. "I'm pulling the plug, with or without your help."
Her mouth was a grim line. He met her glare with his own, willing her to see that he was not going to back down again. Not this time. He'd abided by many decisions Cauldron had made in the name of the greater good. Ones that made him feel monstrous inside. Made it hard to sleep.
"Where exactly do you draw the line, Alexandria? When is it just too far?"
"Where do you?" She cut in. Her words always did when she wished them to. "You've been complicit in your fair share. You like to pretend you don't know. Even convince yourself really that what you do, what you help us do. Doesn't really cross a line. That it isn't really that bad. If you can just shove it all on us. That just makes it so much easier for you doesn't it? I'll repeat Piggot's little sentiment. Don't come on down from your Ivory Tower and pretend that you have the right to act surprised, Legend. You made your bed with us, and you will lie in it with us when all is said and done."
"You're right." He finally nodded. "You're right. I don't get to act surprised. Not after so long of having known you. You can be a monster with the best of them when you want to be."
Her mouth twitched in a quickly controlled grimace.
His words could bite too when he wanted them to...
He took a breath. They both did.
"We have hung these people out on a limb here and it is going to break."
"It was always intended to break! If your concern is Coil I can assure you he won't be doing anything like this again."
"More doublespeak." He all but growled. "I know you well enough to recognize that too. What'd you do? Send Contessa to give him a warning? Hmm? A post card? Pop a door by his bedside table? He's kidnapped a twelve year old girl, and by all accounts, forced another to have a psychotic breakdown and potentially a second Trigger if her transforming into that giant is of any indication. He is responsible for no less than four Heroes in the hospital, one of which is in the morgue along with a whole cemeteries worth of agents and prisoners. He has ruined people's lives!" Alexandria bared her teeth in a snarl.
"And you haven't?"
"I have I will admit that, and it's time to stop! And its sickening that you can't see that!"
"One city versus the future of humanity, Legend. Who would you pick? Save one pathetic city, and sacrifice our template to save the future, or let this run its course and our chance of surviving might be increased by just an infinitesimal amount. Like every other effort we've pushed, everything else we've done. Its all for that extra drop of water in the bucket." Legend could tell she was glaring at him.
"What do you want, Legend…"
"What do I want Dria?" He asked, using her nickname from years past. "I want to save the world… and I want to save this city. To make things right."
Alexandria growled and shook her head. "You can't have your cake and eat it too. The world doesn't work that way. Not anymore."
"Try to stop me. I can... I will set this right. I'm tired of throwing people to the wolves for utilitarianism. Just once…" His mouth opened then closed, fishing for the words, he smiled, almost pleading. "Lets do things the right way Alexandria. Lets not just settle for… good enough, like we always do." He sighed. "
She, at the very least, seemed genuine in her sadness.
After a long moment she sighed too, looking away. "It doesn't work that way Legend. Not anymore… You're a good man. And in this world good men die young."
He took a breath "You either die a hero...or live long enough to see yourself become a villain." He felt bad pulling Hero's old phrase like that, but Alexandria was close to Hero. Possibly the closest of them all…
She shook her head, frowning. At what exactly, he couldn't discern. The situation, him, the memories.
"You know Coil's identity." He finally breathed. "Will you give it to me?"
"Even if I wanted to, I wouldn't. Legend shows up in town, two days later Coil's captured. Too conspicuous. You know his power. That's more than most."
He nodded, eyes downcast. "Well. You can help me or get out of my way but I'm asking you not to fight me."
He didn't wait to hear her response, with a thought he was soon soaring down, back towards the lights of the bay.
(X)
Minutes later when the doorway collapsed behind her she was face to face with Eidolon, the Number Man, Doctor Mother, and Contessa.
She shook her head. "He's determined to continue."
Doctor Mother looked to Contessa with a quirked eyebrow.
The woman obligingly thought for a moment. "Two-hundred and thirty-seven steps to turn Legend's attention away from the Bay."
"Is this experiment really that important?" David asked, the strongest hero crossing his arms. "We've given Coil enough rope to hang himself with. I say we let the noose snap shut and let it happen. He's given us enough trouble with this latest stunt. I say we leave him out to dry."
"We do have other sites that are far more stable, truth be told." The Number Man added.
"That's part of the problem." Doctor Mother contested. "The Bay is one of the areas closest to economic collapse in the modern world and dealing with a high number of capes. Its landscape is somewhat unique for the experiment's projected intent."
"There's no guarantee Coil won't continue to escalate after this if we let him get away with it. Give him an inch, he may very well think he can take a mile." Alexandria added, crossing her arms. "Not to mention that the girl he captured can be far more useful and malleable than we previously thought. She's a powerful pre-cog. He also turned what seems to be a very powerful young Ward, one that can make up for at least ten capes against us." She shrugged. "I say we let Legend clean things up. It will help with mitigating the PR damage and show that these kind of attacks are taken seriously. It may also give him a chance to cool off.."
Doctor Mother looked at her with a quirked eyebrow. "You were against Legend involving himself before. What changed?"
She shrugged. "I reassessed my opinion." She sighed. Honestly she didn't get headaches. But if she could, she suspected she'd be suffering one right now.
"If there is nothing further I'll be leaving. There's far too much to organize." Just thinking about tomorrow morning was a nightmare.
"You're gonna have a little more on your plate I'm afraid." The Number Man spoke.
She glared through her mask. "What?"
"You asked me to watch things while you went to talk to Legend. Well, a file just hit the Chief Director's desk. One filed by a certain Miss Jessica Yamada… It involves the Bay." His shrug was somewhat apologetic. "You might want to consider a blend of your favorite tea before reading."
She thanked the gods that she didn't get headaches…