Chapter Six: Dragon's Eye View
March 4, 2011
Dragon liked Friday nights. They were busy, giving her lots of new data to look at and sort through. By Rebecca's request, she was devoting significant resources to the data surrounding Contract. She was to do her own analysis, and then compile sample videos to be given to Company so that he could advise Rebecca on the best way to help her integrate into the Wards and later, the Protectorate.
Unfortunately, there wasn't much to work with. Although Contract had spent just under two weeks living in the Ward bases in New York and Brockton Bay, constantly under surveillance, she had been distant from nearly everyone. She was especially hostile to the Triumvirate, although slightly less so to the charismatic Legend, and was either distant or cold to nearly everyone else. Dragon nearly profiled her as disliking authority, especially after her reaction to Triumph and Costa-Brown, but she was friendly with Weld, Armsmaster and Miss Militia and was respectful of the PRT Directors of each city, although she wasn't particularly helpful.
Then Intrepid arrived in Brockton Bay, and Contract offered up the first personal detail they knew: the nickname Fi. Like Intrepid would later tell Triumph, and Triumph would report to Renick, Dragon didn't believe it was derived from the full name "Fiona". A census search gave the possibilities of Felicity, Phoebe, and Sophie. Dragon marked the last name, which had the nickname derived from the end, as most probable due to the ironic smile Contract showed in the video.
There was no video available of Contract at Winslow High, but the 'incident' from last Friday, immediately after school hours was available in full. All participants had been asked to fill out reports except for Contract and Intrepid, because Triumph judged that both were both too new to the Brockton Bay system to understand that everything was routinely documented. He felt it would cause them to feel more uncomfortable and delay their ability to settle in.
As she watched, Dragon felt sympathy for Contract. It was obvious that she hadn't mean to start an argument with Shadow Stalker. She likely didn't know that allegations such as the ones she was repeating could mean the end of a hero career for her teammate, she was simply concerned over the situation. Dragon made a note for herself to look into the issue with Taylor Hebert and give a few anonymous tips to the police. If the real culprits were caught, the two girls could put the rumors to rest and learn to trust each other.
For the next week, Contract kept her head down as she had promised Triumph she would. She submitted a program she called "He said, she said" to be reviewed by the PRT board. It was now nearing the end of the beta-testing stage, and Dragon found herself impressed with it. She wondered if it was something Contract had created in the four weeks since Behemoth, or if she had created it before and simply re-typed it from memory. Either way, it was impressive work. She added a notation to Company's dossier, encouraging him to have the program approved and implemented in Brockton Bay so that Contract could feel she was contributing.
Which brought Dragon to the events of earlier that day. Contract and Intrepid marched into Blackwell's office with a list of 23 gang members who had been participating in or watching a knife fight. Contract had used her powers to disperse the fight, and for the first time she also offered an explanation of her powers.
If Dragon knew anything, it was that capes were almost never truthful about their powers. For one, powers had tricks and short cuts that grew more powerful the more they were used, so that what was true today was understatement tomorrow. For another, being underestimated was an enormous advantage that very few people, hero or villain, were willing to give up entirely. It seemed difficult to imagine that anyone could underestimate a teenager who had erased an Endbringer, but as Dragon reviewed the video of her de-briefing, she saw it happening.
By using a translator that she (probably) didn't need, Contract had made herself seem harmless. She'd told them that she'd played her one big card, and that that was the end of the line. They had all believed her. Dragon ran Armsmaster's most recent lie detector over the video, but it read Contract as "Likely lying due to extreme fidgeting" which Dragon realized was actually interference from the ASL. That would have to be accounted for. She sent a quick email to Colin, though he probably already knew about it.
It wasn't that Dragon didn't believe Contract. She seemed like a good kid and honestly, Dragon liked her. It was just that a power that acted on the scale they knew she was capable of was inherently dangerous. And it was obvious that Contract didn't trust them. Not yet anyway, except for Intrepid. She made a note to herself to return to that line of thought.
She knew it would be a top priority to find another "sacrifice" for the next Endbringer. Contract had indicated that she had given up her family, her whole life, to defeat Behemoth. Would an actual loss of life be more or less powerful? Would it matter if the sacrifices were cape or normal? Contract obviously hated the PRT and yet she was cooperating with them, or at least not actively defying them. Was that part of her cost? She had spent two weeks after the fight with Behemoth deaf, though she had seemed normal and well-adjusted to the disability. What had she gained for that time? What other prices might she still be carrying? Without knowing who Contract had been before the fight, it was nearly impossible to guess how she had changed.
Dragon had also run into roadblocks when she attempted to track Contract's past. It was like she had simply appeared on the battle field. No movers remembered bringing her to the site, no team claimed her, and there was no surveillance video available that showed her entering the building where she was found. She had introduced herself to the wristband as "Contract, I'll be able to shield stationary targets." She had certainly shielded her building during the fight: although it had taken cosmetic damage it had remained stable after taking a direct.
And then she had destroyed Behemoth.
Retracing these older searches was providing no new epiphanies, so Dragon backtracked to her idea about Intrepid, and pulled all the video of the two of them together. She added it to Company's dossier, then decided to watch it again herself. Intrepid was open and friendly. He asked questions, but he didn't push. He accepted Contracts boundaries. He stayed near her within each room, although he respected her personal space to a radius of about 3 feet. She added a final note to Company about keeping the two of them together to foster good will, then sent the dossier.
Then she went back to last night's video. Contract and Intrepid were alone in the Wards' base, both in civilian dress, leaned over a computer which was facing away from the cameras. They seemed to spend most of the time listening and watching the computer screen, which made Dragon suspect a movie, but at one point they did speak.
"So Emma knows."
"Obviously. But that's not inherently illegal, and it doesn't help Taylor."
"I saw her on the bus home after 6th period, so that's another class she skipped. She was covered in mud."
"We'll help her."
"I hate that we put hope in front of her and now I can't even ask her how she's doing."
"You heard Renick." Based on Contract's body posture, she was extremely irritated over the issue, and was not reminding Intrepid about the order because she wanted to, but because it was upsetting to them both.
"I know. I know. Why isn't Sophia listening?"
"I'm sure if either of us tell him that Sophia was talking to Taylor she'd tell him that she was just keeping an eye on the potentially psychotic threat. God, I can't believe he gave her that excuse. It just makes me so…" Contract reached out and shut the laptop lid hard, using the physical motion to demonstrate her frustration. "You should go home, Jason. We won't find anything else today."
"See you at school?"
"Until tomorrow."
Dragon shut the video and turned her attention to the issue of Taylor Hebert. It was obviously an issue in which Intrepid and Contract were united, and against Shadow Stalker. The situation was poisonous, and allowing it to fester couldn't be good. First, she found the hospital record for Taylor's visit in early January. There was sufficient harm done to justify charges of assault and battery, reckless endangerment, deprivation of liberty, emotional battery, and a few counts of conspiracy if she could find who was responsible. Then she turned to the police report. There was an initial interview when Taylor had been admitted, but the girl was incoherent. She was rambling about her mother, the stars, and a few names. The officer had noted the repeated names of Emma, Sophia, and Madison. Taylor's father had identified Emma Barnes as Taylor's best friend, so it was unclear if the other names were friends or enemies. A week later, when Taylor was released from the hospital, the school paid the bill and Taylor and Danny Hebert formally dropped all charges.
Dragon put a few more programs on hold to free up a bit more processing power. Something about this didn't seem right, and she wanted to focus to find out exactly what it was. She started with what she knew of Taylor, trying to build a picture of the victim. Taylor's grades had declined sharply in high school, and were inconsistent in classes. She had "A" level papers and projects one day, and then had entire weeks when she turned in no work, or work so trashed it was illegible. Taylor had bought each class text book at least twice. She had used nearly 20 different email accounts issued by the school over the course of her 18 months in Winslow. Some accounts were wiped and re-assigned to other students, but others were still available. 7 accounts had been completely flooded with hate mail from throw-away accounts.
Dragon diverted processing power away from studying traffic patterns in New York to measure differences after Contract's remodel and instead sent that part of herself chasing down the one-use accounts to try to find concrete names.
Dragon turned her attention to Emma Barnes, daughter of Alan Barnes. Emma had been rescued by Shadow Stalker two summers ago, and her father had represented Shadow Stalker at her probation hearing. Social media showed Emma Barnes and Sophia Hess regularly attended the same events, and Emma had several posts indicating she had "run into" Shadow Stalker at one time or another. Social media also turned up a mutual friend, Madison Clements, who was often around but who had actually missed the first day back to school after the winter break. She could not have participated in the end-stages of the prank on Taylor Hebert.
Dragon knew that it was possible that Emma, Sophia, Madison, and Taylor were friends. Taylor could have been calling out for her friends. Danny Hebert had identified Emma Barnes as "nearly a sister" to his daughter. This even seemed to be the obvious explanation. Except that Sophia had not wanted Contract to eat lunch with Taylor Hebert. She had started an incident with a teammate in front of her social worker over it.
Dragon diverted the main body of her attention to the mess of files she had access to and searched everything tagged with "Brockton Bay" for the words "Taylor" and "Hebert" used in the same file, but not necessarily directly together. She found news articles, an anti-bullying statement, and several press releases about the Dockworkers' Union. She added the parameter "Sophia" and limited the search to files generated after January 1.
The top result was a beta-file from "He said, she said" created Friday, around lunch time, while Contract and Intrepid had been talking to the PRT. Dragon opened the transcript. The speakers didn't seem to know that they had called a hotline. Instead, it was like being a spectator to a conversation with an unclear beginning.
"I just want to use the restroom." - Female 1
"Use a different one, rat. You're not welcome here." - Female 2
"Please, just let me through." - Female 1
"Not gonna happen, Taylor. Why don't you use the ones next door? I'm sure no one will notice the difference." - Female 3
[Laughter] [Footsteps]
"Of course, you could always just use your locker instead." - Female 4
[Footsteps stop]
"Why do you do it? Why did you lock me in there? Why did you choose me? How can you be so, so…" - Female 1
"So strong? Because we are, Hebert. We are strong, and you are weak. That's why we put you in that locker, and that's why you couldn't get out of it. You're worthless, and we are going to keep proving it to you over and over until you get it." - Female 2
[Footsteps]
"JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!" - Female 1
"Who are you to tell me what to do?" - Female 2
[Many running footsteps]
[Slam] [Cry of pain] [Running footsteps stop]
"You can't run from a track star, idiot." - Female 2
[Slam] [Muffled]
[More footsteps approach and stop]
"An idiot like you doesn't need textbooks." - Female 2
[School Buzzer]
[Footsteps]
[Multiple Indistinct Voices]
"Sophia…phone… butt dial." - noise prevents match
"Stupid Peg…" - noise prevents match
[end of call]
From the context, Female 1 was certainly Taylor Hebert. Females 2, 3, and 4 could be Sophia, Emma, and Madison, but there was no clear evidence, beside the brief mention of "Sophia" near the garbled end of the recording. Female 2 did claim to be a track star, which Sophia was, but it wasn't conclusive. Still, Dragon tracked the number, which turned out to be pre-paid. The same number seemed to be making semi-regular calls to the PRT report line. Dragon opened the rest of the files, scanned through them quickly, then flagged them and dropped them on Piggot's desk, along with video from the Wards' base a week previously and the hospital records. As a courtesy, she copied Colin and Renick on the information.
Satisfied that justice would be handled locally, Dragon was nonetheless aware that she had been played. She didn't believe for a moment that Contract's program accidentally recorded incriminating evidence from Shadow Stalker's own private, prepaid line. She spent an hour digging into the PRT hotline, Sophia's phone, and the coding of "He said, she said". What she found was that Sophia's phone had made a number of odd calls at odd times, apparently due to high screen sensitivity. When the PRT hotline received calls which were mostly static, these calls were automatically sorted to the back of the answering list. "He said, she said" had trolled these garbled conversations to test the limits of the coding. It all appeared logical, in order, and unrelated.
Dragon was still pretty sure she'd been set up, but refocused her attention on trying to predict the next Endbringer. Contract could be someone else's problem for a few days.
At 2:13:43 on Saturday morning, Dragon got an email from Company, which he had marked 'RE: Urgent, Time Sensitive, Contract situation'. She diverted the part of her attention that was successfully back-tracking one-use email address sent to Taylor Hebert to investigate this email instead.
To: Dragon
From: Company
RE: Urgent, Time Sensitive, Contract situation
Dragon,
Contract is setting firm boundaries around herself as to who she will and will not trust. Most capes seem to automatically fall into the 'not trust' category, likely because she sees them as belonging to the 'third class' of cape which she did not specify to Triumph. Until we can pin exactly what does and does not cause this prejudice, we must capitalize on the capes who have been labeled trustworthy or potentially trustworthy. This includes yourself, Weld, Miss Militia, and Armsmaster. Her body language with her teammates is unclear, with the obvious exception of Intrepid. Please make contact with her soon and continue this contact regularly. It doesn't matter what you say, so long as you establish a connection. I have already sent this preliminary report to Costa-Brown, who is dismayed but forwarding orders appropriately. More to follow soon.
Company
Dragon turned her main attention away from the prediction software and focused on the email. By all accounts, Contract ought to be asleep at the moment. But from the way it was written, Company seemed to expect that some immediate action was required. He'd given enough background to let her make an informed decision, but clearly he believed something needed to be done tonight. After thinking over what she'd seen between Contract and Intrepid, and Company's note that the content was less important than the contact, Dragon decided on her strategy.
She opened a chat program which would target Contract's computer. It was the same one most Ward teams used in place of text messaging, since the messages weren't saved afterwards. She hesitated over her username, then decided to follow the Ward tradition of using a variation on her cape name which exaggerated its "coolness".
WingedDeath: Impressive work.
The comment was purposefully ambiguous, so that Contract would be able to talk about anything she wanted to. Dragon didn't expect an immediate answer, and instead set about tapping on the firewalls around the computer, curious at the unfamiliar programming. Contract answered less than a minute later.
Law-and-Order: sorry for delay. AFK. Would you quick poking my security? It's sorta rude.
Law-and-Order: Oh, Hi Dragon, it's you. I wondered how long before you found it all.
WingedDeath: What did I find?
Law-and-Order: um… I didn't cover my tracks all that well.
There was a pause while the chat box showed Law-and-Order was temporarily off-line. Dragon watched a connection leave Contract's computer and hack into Sophia's phone, then immediately withdraw.
Law-and-Order: that's hilarious. Sorry. Clean-up job was totally not me. Looks like my coding had a little help from an old friend.
WingedDeath: I thought you cut your friends off?
Law-and-Order: I cut off contact with them, but it's not like the PRT is really hiding me anymore. Ash wouldn't have needed more than a few hints to find me, track my keystrokes, get the big picture, and upgrade my coding to hide my tracks.
WingedDeath: I have never heard of any tinker named "Ash".
Law-and-Order: he's not a cape, but I trust him with my life. Taught me everything I know about computers, weed, and D&D.
WingedDeath: You play?
Law-and-Order: when I can find time, usually when I'm recovering from a broken leg. Do you?
WingedDeath: Yes. When I can find a game. I find many online-based games to be unreliable, and I prefer text-based games to graphics.
Law-and-Order: [laughter] I bet. I do too.
WingedDeath: why [laughter] not lol?
Law-and-Order: I'm currently using He said she said to transcribe while I walk around.
WingedDeath: You're not tired?
Law-and-Order: Can't sleep.
WingedDeath: Can I ask a question?
Law-and-Order: can't promise I'll answer. Shoot.
WingedDeath: why do you care about Hebert?
Law-and-Order: I saw her on the news when I was researching my new home. She reminds me of someone I once knew. No one was willing to help her. She was fighting this enormous battle against something she didn't even know was out there, but she just kept getting up. It was so horrible, she broke under the pressure. Then she picked up the pieces, remade herself, and kept fighting. Taylor was fighting the whole PRT without even realizing it. Blackwell did nothing because Sophia was a Ward, and I don't know why the PRT didn't handle it but they didn't. Taylor has been struggling against betrayal and indifference for 18 months. That's long enough.
WingedDeath: I think the PRT wanted to give Sophia a chance.
Law-and-Order: sure. I get it. Second chances, mercy, grace, I hear you. But not at the cost of innocent victims. Sophia didn't want to be reformed. She was strong-armed into accepting certain limitations and she resented them. She lashed out at Taylor. I couldn't be a part of that, and I knew I'd never trust Sophia in the field.
WingedDeath: Do you think trust is important in a team?
Law-and-Order: Don't analyze me. I'm perfectly capable of trust. It's the Protectorate, the PRT, that can't carry that torch.
WingedDeath: I'm just trying to understand. You gave up everything, for capes that you seem to hate.
Law-and-Order: I gave up everything because it was the right thing to do. I had the ability to save all of Behemoth's future victims, so I did. Saving capes was a tiny, tiny part of that.
WingedDeath: well, we appreciate it anyway.
Law-and-Order: [muffled. Closest matches: laughter, crying]
Law-and-Order: Sorry about that. Typing now.
WingedDeath: You don't have to be sorry. I know I asked some tough questions.
Law-and-Order: Yeah. I guess. I don't mind. I know I have to answer this stuff eventually. It's just… it's still really raw. It's hard, staying on the wagon.
WingedDeath: I'm not sure I follow.
Law-and-Order: The thing is… I didn't just sacrifice my family. I am sacrificing them. The decisions I made, I have to keep making them. If I ever change my mind, Behemoth comes back. I have to stay away from my friends, start my new life, submit to the Protectorate, wake up every morning in this gang-ridden city and live my life. I knew it would be hard. I mean, that's the whole point of a sacrifice, but… it's hard to grieve for something when it's right within your reach, and you can smell it but you aren't allowed to touch it.
Law-and-Order: Ash can follow me, and buff my code and cover my tracks and tell the others I'm still alive, but I can't steal his phone and hard-wire it to reboot every sixty seconds to drive him around the bend. I…
Law-and-Order: It's worse than I thought it would be.
Dragon tried to think of anything to say to that, but after a short pause, Contract sent another message.
Law-and-Order: I'm really glad you poked me, actually. I was just pacing this room, forcing myself to stay, to go to bed, to not bolt. Having to remember the people I saved… the people I am saving… you helped save them. You're getting me through tonight.
WingedDeath: I'm here for you, Fi. Any hour of any day or night. Especially the night, when you're alone. I may not understand everything, but I understand loneliness.
Law-and-Order: Thanks. Can you just talk for a while? Tell me about your most recent D&D. Tell me anything.
For two hours, Dragon told Contract about a dungeon crawl she'd done almost a year before. Contract replied or asked questions only occasionally, but Dragon didn't mind. If she could help this young hero, she would. Even just by talking. She could have turned her main attention elsewhere, but she somehow felt that Contract deserved a fuller presence than that. Later, she would analyze the transcript and copy it to Company so that he could know how close of a call they had had tonight and incorporate this information into his briefing. Later, she would strongly recommend to everyone in Contract's chain of command that the teen not be pushed or stressed, and that she be watched for signs of suicide. As the dawn was starting to come up, Dragon found it impossible to sign off without asking the question that had plagued her.
WingedDeath: What will happen when you die?
Law-and-Order: Don't worry. When I said that he was gone completely, permanently, I meant it. He's never coming back.
Dragon was nearly certain she was being truthful, but somehow that unease didn't leave her, even as she closed the chat box, saving the text elsewhere for later.