Chapter 4-1

Ah, the joys of going to school.

Or rather, the joys of being tutored on the Rig because the paperwork to Arcadia isn't done yet. The regs say that all Wards have to at least finish high school and, naturally, that includes yours truly. It makes sense, I guess. Not everyone in the Wards wants to become a superhero full time and going to school means that we have at least some semblance of a normal life. I can understand the reasoning behind it. It's just so unfortunate that they couldn't find a proper tutor in time. Instead, the PRT simply ordered one of their guys to play tutor for the coming week. Unfortunately, officer Faulks didn't know a thing about teaching, so he gave me a book and an assignment and started doing his paperwork.

Still better than Winslow.

All of this was temporary, of course. The PRT was deliberately waiting a few weeks to throw anyone trying to guess Banshee's secret identity off my trail. As far as the world knows, Taylor Hebert simply couldn't take Winslow anymore and will now spend a few weeks at home until the paperwork from Arcadia was cleared. The cover story left a bad taste in my mouth. Basically, Emma had won, at least from her perspective. She'd bully me so much that I'd snapped (a second time, if you counted the locker) and had to be taken away. Emma herself would, as always, escape punishment. Sure, she'd lost her 'best friend' Sophia, but I seriously doubted that the bitch cared at all. If Emma felt the same way about her as she did about me…Nah, she wouldn't care.

The funny thing is that if Emma knew the truth, I think she'd probably hang herself. I got into a better school and will end up spending my life doing something far more meaningful than anything she'll ever accomplish in her modeling career. Weak, little Taylor Hebert became a superhero because she caused me to trigger. How's that for a punch-line.

Part of me wanted to go over to Emma's house and just rub it in. Show her that I'm beyond her reach now, that I did beat her in the end. I wouldn't because I'm better than that, but part of me still wished I could. At least then, maybe Emma would realize what she'd done. She might even feel an emotion.

I pushed the thought out of my head. The bitch couldn't hurt me here. She wasn't a part of my life anymore and I shouldn't waste time thinking about it. The same for Sophia, or Madison, and all the other bullies. Now, if I did run into a bully, I can legally make their eardrums explode. Hurray for me.

I focused on my schoolwork. Daydreaming wouldn't do, after all. Funnily enough, I wasn't actually that far behind with my work as I thought I'd be. I never did manage to do all that well in Winslow. It wasn't so bad that I didn't pass last year (though I was in danger of failing this one), but still well below what I should be capable off. The bullying had absorbed most of my energy and I'd found it very hard to focus on my studies. On top of that, Sophia made it a sport to steal or ruin my homework whenever she could. Still, the only subject I was really behind in was Parahuman Studies, something Winslow didn't teach at all. Not that surprising, considering that it was technically a college level course. Unfortunately, it did mean that I had a lot of catching up to do if I wanted to pass my exams this summer. But hey, I could manage. Without the bullies to worry about, I can actually spend my time and mental resources working it out.

The course itself was…strange, in a way. It wasn't like geography of science where a teacher clearly understood what they were talking about. The powers had been, and still were, the subject of much debate. In spite of the fact that parahumans affected almost everything in the world on some level, people knew so little about them. No one knew exactly how powers worked or where they came from (or if they did, they weren't sharing), which irked me a little. I mean, powers are kind of a big deal, aren't they? Can't you just hire a few geniuses or Thinkers and have them figure it out? Okay, it's probably very complicated, but still… Thirty years and no one has a single clue how it all worked. That's just…Either we're all idiots or there's some huge cover-up at work.

Probably the former. Never attribute to malice what can just as easily be attributed to stupidity, as the saying goes. Then again, looking at the last two years…

Anyway, the course was little more than a collection of theories and vague annotations of why they might or might not be true. This alone made me wonder what the point of the course was. I'm sure that this Dr. Manton was brilliant and knew a lot more about this sort of thing than I did but that didn't shake the feeling that if the book had been written by another man, it'd be completely different and still be just as correct as this one. There's just too much ambiguity for a course that's supposed to be 'scientific'. I thought science was supposed to be all about hard data and facts. Shows you what I know.

"Penny for your thoughts?" Faulks asked. Crap, I must have been daydreaming.

"Just thinking how little we know about powers. It's the cause and solution of just about every problem on the planet. Shouldn't there be more research on it?"

The officer chuckled. "It's hard to do research on something that bends physics over a snooker table and makes it it's bitch on a daily basis."

"We're not that bad. It's not magic, or anything"

"Isn't it? Let's take you, for instance. That silence field you've got going on. How does that even work? Sounds waves are just vibrating air molecules. Does the air stop moving when you use your power? If so, how can we still breathe through it? How can you still hear while using your power? How can you do all that without any visible devices? A whole area of physics pretty much blow out of the water, and that's just you."

"Still, it's not magic." I replied. "I'm sure there's an explanation and when we find it, we'll all look like idiots for not thinking of it sooner."

"Probably. A laptop isn't magic, but try explaining how it works to a caveman. You just can't. It's not that the caveman's stupid, it's just that he doesn't have the context to understand what you're talking about. Us, we've got the same problem when it comes to those fancy powers of yours." Clarke's Third Law. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

"Makes sense. Still, if people with laptops were pretty much taking over the world, wouldn't the cavemen gang up and try to understand what makes them work? Or at least figure out where all the laptops are coming from?"

Faulks suddenly looked very sad. "My son's a grad student who spent the last two years doing just that. Says his professor's driven himself mad trying to figure powers out, and sometimes it looks like my kid's going down the same road. My advice: Don't think too much about it. Leave it up to the eggheads. In the mean time, people like you and me, we worry about practical things. Like how to use powers or stop the bad guys from burning down the city with them."

"Still a crap answer." It was an interesting topic. I was kind of hoping for more.

"Yep." He chuckled. "It's the only one I got."

"Guess so. Makes me wonder why I need to read these books on Parahuman theory if they're not helpful anyway." I mean, if even the PRT grunts thought it was pointless, who was I to differ?

"Same reason we don't give you guns or combat training: a bunch of schmucks down in Washington think they know better and make you jump through hoops instead of catching bad guys. That, and we don't have anything better for you. We got to teach you something about powers and this is all we've got."

I nodded. Though he probably didn't mean it that way, I understood the implication. He didn't understand powers either. No one did. Still, he had to fight them armed with a gun and some basic armor that might as well be made of toilet paper for all the good it does against someone like me. In a way, I pitied him. "Guess it must be even worse for you guys. You're the ones who have to deal the fallout from capes without having powers yourself. I think I understand why a lot of people see all of us as the bad guys."

Faulks laughed in response. "Sarge mentioned you were precious. Look, kid, the way I see it, having powers means that there's a gun strapped to your hand for the rest of your life. Sure, that's scary in a way, always having the power to kill in arm's reach, but it doesn't automatically make you a villain. I always carry a gun, but that doesn't make me a murderer, right? It's what you do with it that matters. Yeah, some people disagree with that. Some people think a cape is just a bomb waiting to go off. I think they're wrong. Human beings have butchered each other long before anyone got powers. Parahumans are people and some people are just jerks. That's the most important thing you need to know."

"Dr. Manton mentioned something that getting powers can mess with your head…"

"So does eating a bar of chocolate. Brains are funny like that. Sure, sometimes your power changes you, but ultimately the decisions you make are your own and you'll have to own up to them." Faulks had a point, I think. Of my tormentors, only one had been a parahuman and I'm not even sure if Sophia was the instigator of it all. Even if she was, all Emma had to do was to decide not to be a bitch, and she didn't.

On the flip side, being responsible for your actions also meant that my decision to be a hero was my own. That was a surprisingly comforting thought.

Our conversation was ended by the new PRT-issue cell phone that I got this morning. Faulks' rang moments later. Well, I guess this must be important.

"Hello?"

"Banshee, it's me." Carlos. Or probably Aegis, since he called me by my cape name.

"What's going on?"

"Undersiders gang just hit Brockton Bay Central. Protectorate is busy with some event out of town so we're the closest by to stop them. Get your gear and get someone to drive you there."

I was stunned for a moment. Brockton Bay Central was the biggest bank in the city. Anyone who'd even think about robbing the place had to be nuts, and they want me to stop them? "I…But…Am I even cleared yet? Are we even allowed to?"

"Yes and yes. Technically, I'm authorized to call on any member of the Wards, so long as your parent or guardian signed the paperwork. Your dad did that, right?"

"Yeah, he did." My initial surprise faded quickly. In fact, I found myself looking forward to this. Weird. Shouldn't I be nervous, or something?

"Good. Look, the Undersiders are smart and we don't know a lot about them. I'm calling all hands on deck for this one, just to be sure. If it makes you feel any better, it's Browbeat's first time too."

"Good to know. Don't worry, I'm coming." It's my job, after all. I'm not sitting this out, even if I did join two days ago.

"Perfect. I'll call you when we have more intel. Get going." With that, Aegis hung up.

I was going to stop a bank robbery. I was going to fight a gang of supervillains. Holy fucking shit.

"Guess class's been canceled." Faulks said. "Go get your things, we leave ASAP."

Right. Have to get my things. I got a locker and a utility belt along with my phone, so I'll go there first. I still had to put on my armor too, but I could do that in the car. It's a few minutes to get to downtown. I'll manage.

So, I guess this is going to be my first time stopping criminals. Well, second time, if you're counting Lung. Funny how I'm still keeping everything together. Then again, I'm a superhero. It's what we do, right?