Chapter 2-Interlude

When Triumph graduated to the Protectorate, he'd given his second-in-command advice on how to run the Wards. The most valuable lesson he'd taught was that a good leader always knows his subordinates. He should understand what motivates them, what makes them tick, and, ideally, what they're thinking. Carlos had done his best to take those lessons to heart. He had gone out of his way to befriend, or at least understand, the people he was now responsible for.

Yet, in spite of his best efforts, he'd never seen this coming.

Shadow Stalker had always been a problem. While Carlos didn't know exactly what she'd done, he knew that she wasn't in the Wards by choice. Rumor had it that she was a brutal vigilante and was arrested after pinning a gangster to a wall with her crossbows. The guy nearly died. Apparently, through some legal shenanigans, the girl managed to get off relatively light: a probationary membership in the Wards. Most people would have taken this as a sign and clean up their act. But then again, Sophia Hess was not most people. She was tolerable on her good days. On her bad ones…Clockblocker had called her a vicious psychopathic bitch with a murder complex more than once. Carlos never would, if only because he was supposed to set a good example to his subordinates. That didn't mean he wasn't thinking it.

In spite of his misgivings, he still tried to reach out to her, but with little success. Sophia remained vicious and antisocial, however badly he wanted to change her. It was hard to reach out to someone who looked down on anyone that wasn't as aggressive as she was. The only remotely positive interactions he had with the girl was during sparing, if only because Shadow Stalker didn't need to hold back against him. Those were the only times where she seemed in her element: two fighters in a contest of strength. It was a disturbing, but at least he was able to make some sort of contact.

Now, following Armsmaster, he couldn't help but wonder if he'd done enough. Should he have pushed harder? Should he have seen the signs sooner? Should he have been able to prevent this? Carlos knew that in the end, few would end up blaming him for what happened. After all, it was obvious to anyone with a remote understanding of human psychology that there was something fundamentally wrong with Shadow Stalker. Something that a seventeen-year-old should never have been expected to fix. Also, the bullying against Taylor happened at Winslow High, a place where Carlos never went to outside of publicity events. The Protectorate couldn't have expected him to visit the Wards' schools like some fussy mother, especially when Winslow High hadn't ringed any alarm bells yet. All in all, this mess probably wouldn't turn into a black mark on his record. It should have been handled by the Protectorate or the PRT, not him.

It didn't make him feel any better though.

He already liked Taylor, even though they've only just met. He liked her because she genuinely wanted to be a hero. Most aspiring Wards join because they think it's an adventure or because they want to be just like their childhood superhero. Taylor, on the other hand…if the reports were right, she went after Lung to save some children she never met. In Carlos' mind, that was more than enough to make her one of the good guys.

That said, she wasn't without her issues. Taylor was incredibly shy, socially awkward, and generally didn't speak unless someone directly asked her a question. It almost felt like communicating with people her age didn't come naturally to her. In retrospect, Carlos could understand why. After a while, though, she started to open up a little. The ice began to break. Then Shadow Stalker entered the room and ruined everything. Next he knew, she was walking away with a look on her face that could only be described as shock.

Carlos looked at Sophia and couldn't for the life of him figure out what she had been thinking. The bullying itself wasn't all that surprising; after all, she was a vicious psychopathic bitch with a murder complex. What did boggle his mind was that she'd even try while she was still on probation. If, or rather when, the truth came out, she'd go straight back to jail. Was taking out her frustrations on some random, innocent girl so important that she'd risk everything to do it? Was she really that crazy?

Part of him didn't want to know the answer.

Another part of him simply didn't care anymore. Carlos liked to think that he was a patient man, but that patience had its limits. Excessive violence against a gangster is one thing, willingly bullying an innocent classmate until they went through a trigger event was another altogether. Could he legitimately call himself a hero if he had someone like Shadow Stalker on his team? Would the Wards still be able to trust her at all when they find out what she did?

For what was probably the first time in his career, he was hoping that Piggot was in a bad mood and would come down hard on one of this teammates. As he followed Armsmaster and Sophia into the director's office, he realized that he wouldn't be disappointed: three PRT officers with tasers and containment foam, along with a very upset looking director. Carlos gulped. One should be careful in what they wish for.

For now, Piggot's glare was fixed on Sophia. While the director's expression was usually even enough to hide her emotions, Carlos knew better. The eyes were a dead giveaway, or rather the glowing, apocalyptic rage that flowed from them. The last time Piggot was this angry was when she heard that Lung had come into town and beaten the entire Protectorate team to a pulp. That had not been a nice evening.

"Did you know we like to do a thorough background check on aspiring Wards?" The director spoke. "Or at least we try to, anyway. Usually, we find signs of abuse of some kind and deal with it the best we can. People don't generally trigger unless something bad happens to you, so that's to be expected. What I didn't expect is finding out that the one causing the abuse is one of our own Wards!" Piggot raised her voice. She didn't quite shout, but it wasn't like she needed to. The authority she represented carried enough weight on its own. Even Sophia respected it to an extent. "Some of my officers had a little chat with the teachers of Winslow High. It took a little persuading, but eventually they spilled the beans. Turn out that they've been turning a blind eye to some of your…activities."

Sophia gritted her teeth. "I had nothing to do with…"

"I wasn't finished." The director calmly interrupted. "What the staff told us about you was…disquieting. General anti-social behavior to anyone outside your little circle of friends, an extensive and unprovoked bullying campaign, and don't even get me started on the so-called locker incident."

"That whiny little bitch is lying! She's…"

"Denying it is pointless, Sophia. My officers are trained to interrogate supervillains with Thinker and Master ratings. They can handle a few schoolteachers. That, and Armsmaster's lie-detector is rarely wrong." Piggot shook her head. "I'd have thought better of you if you had the common decency to come clean. This…This is just pathetic." Carlos saw the anger in Sophia's eyes. If there was anything Shadow Stalker really hated, it's someone saying that she's weak in any way. "I'm through protecting you, Sophia. I'm done pretending that you're strong enough to take care of yourself when you obviously aren't. Don't even think your little friend Emma or her father can save you either. I doubt either of them will want to be associated with someone like you if this comes out."

Sophia just sat there, stewing in rage. Carlos wasn't sure what to think. The director didn't so much as take a breath without a plan. She wouldn't push someone's buttons unless there was a reason. Was she hoping that Sophia would lash out? Trying to calm the situation down, he said: "If I may, director, what happens now?"

"That depends on the Heberts. If they decide to take pity on Sophia and let us handle this internally, maybe we can keep her out of jail. I'll pull some strings and have her reassigned to a Simurgh quarantine zone for the rest of her tenure in the Wards." In spite of the director's tone, being assigned to a quarantine zone was probably just as bad as a prison sentence. For the most part, it was guard duty, patrolling the walls surrounding the victims of the world's greatest telepath. To someone like Sophia, it would probably be a living hell: nothing to do and no one to shoot for months on end. It wasn't unheard of for particularly unruly capes to be sent there for some 'reeducation'. "If the Heberts don't…" Piggot left the implied threat hanging. Everyone else could fill in the blanks.

"So you're dumping me for some weak little shit!" The girl exclaimed.

The director didn't bat an eyelash. "If that's how you want to see it, then yes. Miss Hebert singlehandedly took out Lung on her first night out. I suppose that makes her significantly more powerful than you are. If removing you is the price I need to get her on board, I don't mind paying it. Don't kid yourself, though. No matter what Taylor decides, I'd have 'dumped' you for this anyway. Quite frankly, you've become more trouble than you're worth." Sophia was visibly fuming at this point. Carlos had no idea where she'd found the self-restraint not to attack Piggot. Strangely enough, the director seemed almost disappointed that she had. He now knew for sure that Piggot was deliberately pushing Sophia's buttons. But why? He noticed Armsmaster finicking with his halberd and the PRT officers clutching on their tasers. Then it hit Carlos: they were hoping Sophia would attack. If she had, the PRT would have a legitimate excuse to send her away with the pare minimum of political fallout. After all, the headline 'Shadow Stalker Goes to Prison After Attacking Director' sounds a lot better in the paper than 'Ward Bullies Innocent Girl for Two Years, PRT Does Nothing'.

Part of him wanted to be impressed by the director's cunning. Another wasn't so sure. Is it right to goad someone like this?

It was a moot point, however. Sophia didn't take the bait. She just glared at Piggot in silence. "Good call, girl." The director said, hiding her disappointment surprisingly well. "Massani, Williams, Faulks. Take miss Hess to the holding cells. For all our sakes, make sure she and Hebert don't cross paths."

Massani grabbed Sophia and force-marched out of the door while muttering something along the lines of 'please, just gimme a reason' to her. The door closed, and Carlos found himself at the center of attention.

"This is a disaster." The director finally said. "I knew Shadow Stalker would be a head-ache from the start, but this is about as close to a worst-case scenario as I feared."

Carlos nodded. "For what it's worth, as team leader of the Wards, I take full responsibility for Sophia's actions."

"No, you won't." Piggot said, shaking her head. "If you capes had the ability to police themselves, the PRT wouldn't need to exist. Sophia will be held responsible for her own mistakes. However, that is not my primary concern. The fact that this incident may cost us a powerful teenage hero is. Aegis, you've talked to her yourself. Will we be able to convince miss Hebert to stay?"

"With all due respect, director, I've only known her for a few hours. You can't possibly expect me to know that for sure."

"In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. Humor me."

Carlos sighed. "I think Taylor's already made up her mind and that nothing you say will change it. You're authority. She expects you to sit on the sidelines doing nothing while others make her life miserable and you've completely lived up to that expectation." When he realized just what he had said, Carlos respectfully added: "Ma'm."

Piggot narrowed her eyes. "That is a very…oversimplified interpretation of an extremely complex series of events."

"But not an entirely wrong one." Armsmaster added. "We should have kept a closer eye on Shadow Stalker. At the very least, we shouldn't have delegated that task to Winslow High. Clearly, they're either incompetent or simply don't care enough about their students' welfare to interfere. The fact that we hadn't looked into the matter sooner reflects badly on all of us."

"That doesn't bring us any closer in convincing her to stay." The director sighed. "Aside from the PR nightmare, we can't afford to have a high-powered cape like her operating around outside our control. She is a destabilizing element and things are tenuous enough as it is. So, Aegis, I ask you again: how, if possible, do we regain Taylor's trust, or at the very least make sure she doesn't shout this from the rooftops and drag our reputation through the mud?"

"You could always remind her that you can get her out of Winslow High…" Carlos said, shrugging. "If that doesn't work I think you should tell her the truth. All of it. Why Shadow Stalker was hired, why she was allowed to go to school, and why Taylor needs to keep her mouth shut. She's probably too smart and too paranoid to fall for anything else." He felt a little dirty talking about this; trying to manipulate a girl to cover up their own mistake. Heroes were supposed to be above this sort of thing, but Carlos knew the realities of cape life too well to be surprised. A story about a Ward misbehaving like Sophia did would cost the Protectorate a lot of public support, especially when the victim is an innocent schoolgirl. The superheroes simply couldn't afford to have this go public. "Can't believe we're actually trying to bribe someone."

"The only other solution is 'jump in and hope for the best'. This one has a higher chance of success." The director sighed. "We need to act now, or we might lose her forever. Is Hebert still on the base?"

"Kid Win went after her. If she wasn't, he'd have called me already."

"Very well. Get Taylor and her father here. Here's hoping we won't have another supervillain running around by the end of the day."