Chapter Forty-Four: Laughter is the Best Medicine

April 17, 2011

Dennis clicked away from PHO as the office door opened to admit Jason. As the younger Ward took his seat, Dennis closed the browser entirely and pulled his notepad closer, glancing down it, even though he'd basically memorized the list already.

"Hey," Jason greeted casually.

Dennis smiled, still feeling exhausted. "Hey yourself. How have you been?"

"It's been a long week," Jason admitted. "I'm surprised they put us back on duty so quickly."

Dennis sighed, pushing the papers away again. They'd get to that in a minute. "Considering Fi's interview yesterday and the fact that all of Brockton Bay is still waiting for the Empire to abandon their politicking and react for real, it didn't make sense to keep us on official leave. We might be needed at a moment's notice. Plus the investigation is still clearing squads, so the PRT as a whole is short staffed." He hesitated, but added, "If it's an issue or you need more time, I can take a few of your shifts."

The one thing they didn't need, right now, was the Youth Guard causing problems. Not that they were a problem, necessarily. Dennis knew they had good intentions and a good purpose, it was just that he really didn't need another set of pushy adults trying to run his team. It was a small miracle that they hadn't been called in already, and that was mostly due to how entirely hushed-up the sting had been.

"No, it's fine," Jason insisted. "It's not like I'm on a sports team or anything, and my grades are fine. And I don't really have tons of friends here either to keep up a charade with. I don't mind the hours; I like working with you guys. I was just surprised because last Sunday I got the impression we might be benched for awhile. One week is pretty fast for a full investigation."

"Under other circumstances, we might have been. There's a lot of worry that Brockton Bay is going to go powder keg here very, very soon. The pressure has been building for a long time, everyone's sort of keeping their heads down more or less, but it can't last."

Dennis paused, but there really wasn't a subtle way to go about this. Better to be blunt. "Strictly speaking, you've been debriefed. I've read the preliminary report so I know the basic facts. But, if you wanted to talk it through, I'd appreciate it."

Jason's shoulders slumped. Dennis didn't wince with him, but he was sympathetic. Rehashing events over and over was never fun. "You have all the facts," Jason finally said.

Dennis nodded, but spread his hands. "Facts? Sure. But that's not the whole story. How are you handling everything?"

Jason shrugged, but a little energy came back into his posture. "I'm doing okay. Fi came by on Friday and we got to clear the air a little. That was good."

"Yeah?" Dennis encouraged. He wasn't satisfied yet that Jason was really okay with everything from the sting, but Jason offered a unique perspective on Fi, which could be important too. He wasn't entirely sure why they'd needed to "clear the air," but he was certainly glad that they had. He did not need hidden tension brewing amongst his team.

"She told me things she felt I needed to know, and needed to hear from her. She apologized. She promised to do better."

That all sounded very positive, but also very cryptic. Jason must have sensed Dennis' questions, because he elaborated. "She made a lot of assumptions when dealing with Coil, and it nearly cost us very badly. If she'd talked it through with us, maybe we would have caught it sooner. She swore that she's trying to change that, to trust us more."

"Heard that before," Dennis muttered, making a note on another page of the notepad to ask Fi about those assumptions during her debrief.

"I called her on that, too. She didn't deny that it's a weakness, and that it needs addressing." Jason sat up straighter, and Dennis waited for him to continue. "Which reminds me, we need to address another weakness of hers. She doesn't see capes as dangerous."

That ludicrous statement sat there for a moment, before Dennis finally asked, "What?"

"She understands intellectually that powers can be dangerous, but she doesn't see a cape and immediately assess them as a potential threat. They're more like… speed bumps."

Dennis didn't even know how to go about addressing that. It was inconceivable, as in, he literally hadn't been able to think of it, even when the evidence was available. Now that Jason had articulated it, he could see the underlying patterns in Fi's behavior. She hadn't shown fear in front of the Triumvirate, because she honestly wasn't afraid. She'd wanted to go after Coil with only a day's worth of preparation and a half-assed outline of a plan. She'd talked about cleaning up Brockton Bay like it was a simple task. Even her weird "capeless" movement seemed to be based on the idea that capes were nothing special.

Jason was elaborating on the theory, "She led a dangerous life before New York, but was never really exposed to capes one way or the other. And it's not like the last two months have really helped matters. First she killed Behemoth, and then everyone walked on eggshells around her. She hasn't had a lot of training with her powers, and the one big simulation we did run played entirely to her strengths and wasn't even close to real-world conditions. Then she faced down the Triumvirate."

Dennis could see how all of that would feed an existing sense of invulnerability. "We've got to fix this. Fast."

Jason nodded in agreement. "She doesn't disagree, but I'm not sure how to go about it."

"We start with better simulations. Maybe even blind simulations." Dennis was already thinking about Weld's roster, trying to figure out who would best blindside Fi.

"Okay, but nothing too intense or realistic."

Dennis couldn't believe Jason was back-tracking already. "It's got to get her attention."

"Without driving her to kill the unwitting opponent." Dennis waited, and Jason reluctantly explained. "She told us all that she killed the people who kidnapped her and Clarissa-"

"-Trigger stress-"

"-and she told me she would have killed Coil, if she hadn't been able to capture him."

The two Wards sat for a minute, facing each other across the desk, both struck by the gravity of that. It was Jason who spoke first. "Fi escalates. It's another one of those behavior patterns I didn't notice until this weekend. We saw it with Sophia, we saw it with the Triumvirate, and now we've seen it against Coil. Did the report you read include their contingency plans?"

Dennis nodded. "I assumed that was mostly Armsmaster."

"I don't know all the details, I didn't even want to know what the plans were, but Fi made it sound like the ideas came pretty equally from both of them."

"We know Armsmaster is socially inept. He takes Tinker awkwardness to its maximum. What's her excuse?" Dennis lamented.

"She thinks it's her power," Jason stated. Dennis blinked. He hadn't expected a serious answer to that. "I think her family let her escalate, before, and let her blame it on powers messing up her head. Maybe that's true and maybe it isn't, but she's got to learn where the lines are. I don't want to picture the alternatives."

Dennis breathed in deeply and sighed, forcing himself to think through the situation. This was less than ideal, of course, but it could be dealt with. Fi was already in daily therapy, which would hopefully help. He'd talk to Missy and Dean, and between the three of them and Jason they should be able to watch out for future problems. He'd bring in Miss Militia if necessary.

All of this information was good, and important, but it wasn't the real reason he'd scheduled time for Dennis and Jason to be on duty together without anyone else.

"How are you handling all of that?"

Jason took a breath as though to answer, but then had to think. Apparently, he hadn't expected the change of topic. "I pity her, you know? She's powerful, and she'd a good person, I think, but she's messed up, too. I want to help her, but I don't want us to be blind to the risks she poses to the team."

"You two have been pretty close since the beginning."

"She didn't have anyone else." Jason sighed again. "It's not just that. I genuinely like her. It's just that we're going along like two normal people and then suddenly she's told her secret identity to a total stranger, or she's blackmailing the Triumvirate. It's not that I'd change anything, it's just that I wish I had a little warning before we suddenly switch into 'life is crazy' mode."

"Well, you're not alone any more. It may have taken her awhile, but she's opening up. We can help try to keep her sanity intact. And your sanity too."

"And Taylor's," Jason muttered.

Dennis nodded, then gave Jason a sly glance. "We're talking about you. We can discuss Taylor later. Besides, I've got Missy working on that."

"Just one comment, before we leave the topic: Taylor's reaction to all of this." Dennis motioned for Jason to continue. "On Monday, we talked and Taylor seemed a little shaken about what had happened with Coil. But on Friday when I called to tell her the gag was lifted among the Wards and others who already knew, she sounded totally calm about the whole thing. Scary calm. Almost resolute. Also, it's less pronounced, but I did notice Taylor's tendency to escalate that afternoon we did simulations out on the rig. I only bring it up because she and Fi might feed off each other."

Dennis made a note on his page for things to talk about with Missy, then put the pen aside. "Thank you for bringing that to my attention. Now let's talk you."

Jason huffed. "Look, I've been a Ward for three years. This is not my first sting operation and not my first undercover assignment. Texas may have been less intense than Brockton Bay, but I'm not a rookie. You don't need to treat me like a landmine."

Dennis blinked at Jason's venom. For the most part, Jason was a pretty easy-going guy, an impression that was only increased by his Texan drawl. At the moment, however, he sounded almost pissed. "Sorry. It's just that you don't act like a long-time Ward."

Jason expected set hours, had invited the Wards over to his house, and been generally very laid back during briefings. He was quiet in larger gatherings, for the most part, and…

...and when he did speak up he always had solid things to contribute. He had insight, not just on Fi but in general. Jason had faced Behemoth. He'd proven to be a good field tactician during simulations and had had a pretty good read on Tattletale from the start. Okay, so Dennis might have been underestimating him. A bit.

Dennis raised a hand to cut off Jason's protest before it could fully form. "I mean that you don't act like a Brockton Bay Ward. We all seem to get pretty cynical, pretty fast."

"Big words from a guy name Clockblocker."

The jab broke the tension and they both laughed. When the humor died down, Dennis apologized more seriously. "I am sorry, man. I'll stop underestimating you."

"We have enough greenies on the team as it is," Jason said.

"No kidding." They'd lost Triumph and Aegis in exchange for Taylor and Fi. One way or another, the Wards definitely needed more training time, preferably in realistic simulations.

At least Fi had finally seen the light in regards to her branding, so that was one headache off the table, and just in time too with the media shit storm that had just hit…

Dennis stopped rubbing his forehead and looked at Jason. Really looked. The other Ward, creeped out by the shift in demeanor, warily asked, "What is it?"

"I'm trying to figure out how the hell you convinced Fi to let herself be branded." There really was no other explanation. Jason had already admitted that he and Fi had had a talk on Friday. It could not be coincidence that she'd walked into the base late on Friday afternoon and spent four hours in videochat with Glenn.

Jason shifted uncomfortably. "I implied that by not buying into the whole hero gig, she was refusing to be our teammate. Well, I came pretty close to saying it outright, actually."

"That's it?"

"There… might have been more comments along the same lines," he reluctantly admitted.

"You know what? I don't care. It worked. You're officially the Fi whisperer." As soon as he said it, Dennis realised the pun. "Not that she's a horse."

"You did just say she'd been branded," Jason reminded him.

"So not what I meant!"

"I just call them like I see them."

"You have terrible eyesight," Dennis mocked back.

They both laughed again. Dennis tried to remember the last time he'd screwed around in the Wards' base. It had been too long. The pressure of having Contract around, the uncertain leadership situation and his eventual promotion, and then the added weirdness of the shifting team roster had all taken their toll until the base didn't feel comfortable anymore. He'd been putting on his "press face" even for his own team, especially after his sudden promotion. Even when he had dropped the facade with Missy and Dean, there had always been serious shit that needed dealing with right away.

It felt good to relax a little. It was amazing how much of a weight had lifted from his shoulders when Dennis realized that Jason wasn't a newbie. He didn't have a team of three rookies and four Bay Wards, but of five experienced fighters, a new trigger, and Contract. Jason had even given him enough insight into Fi's thought patterns that Dennis felt more confident in his ability to address her problems, once he had time to generate solutions.

"Any advice on how to rein in this whole media circus?" Dennis asked.

Jason gave him a stink eye, and Dennis smothered his grin. It had been a bad pun, but still funny. "I'd just leave that in Glenn's hands," Jason said. "He's the expert."

Dennis sighed. "I'd feel better about that if his policy was a little more refined than just giving her her head and letting her run." Belatedly, he realized he'd made yet another horse analogy.

Jason glimpsed his consternation and grinned. "It's too late now. You'll beat this dead horse forever." Dennis gave that the answer it deserved: he bounced a balled up piece of paper off Jason's head.

Jason laughed and leaned back. "Honestly, I think it's a lot more coordinated than it looks. She called me at like one in the morning on Saturday and started picking my brain for lines about a cape's right to a secret identity. She was already reading through the relevant threads on PHO and the published literature, but she wanted my first-hand impressions. Glenn was in the background, along with some other voices too. We talked for at least an hour, and she didn't sound like she was headed to bed any time soon."

Dennis absorbed that. "You think when she told Glenn that she was willing to play ball, he turned around and purposefully roped her into this?"

Jason shrugged. "It makes sense. There's very few capes that could have made the arguments she made without this turning into a total disaster. There's been some backlash, but can you imagine if Armsmaster had tried to present this case?"

Dennis shuddered. Jason pointed a finger at him. "That, exactly that. The Triumvirate could have done it, but none of them are local to Brockton Bay, so the Empire might not have taken them seriously."

"The Empire aren't the only ones taking her seriously." A huge number of capes had stepped up to echo Contract's message. The full video file had gone viral, as had about ten or twenty specific quotes. There was some backlash and misquoting, of course, but largely the response was overwhelmingly positive from the cape community, and mostly quiet from the public, for the moment.

The harshest protests had been over the PRT's inaction on the list, which were met with the PRT's assurance that they were investigating. For now, it was enough. The real problem would come when and if they tried to act on the investigation. Assuming the Empire didn't get antsy first.

"We faced this issue in Texas once," Jason mused. Dennis raised his eyebrows. "A local villain was unmasked in the course of committing a crime. His bandana caught fire and he removed it himself. Once his face was exposed, one of the PRT agents recognized him."

"What happened?"

"Well, luckily we captured him and brought him in that same day, so we just gave him a domino mask and it wasn't a big deal. We kinda pretended it didn't happen. But the team talked a lot afterwards about what we would have done if he'd gotten away."

"And?"

"I don't know. It's a tough situation. The rules keep our families safe. On the other hand, villains are out there hurting other people's families. I'm more worried about what New Wave might do."

Dennis sighed. He'd thought of this too. "Because everyone in the family has powers to protect themselves with." Dean had told Dennis that Glory Girl's support of Contract had not been cleared with or well-received by her family. At the moment, the independent team wasn't rocking the boat but that could change at any time, since they didn't have identities to protect. "This whole thing is a house of cards just waiting for an earthquake. Knowing New Wave, I really don't think it will be them. But something is going to go, and then we'll be facing an avalanche."

"Or a stampede," Jason tacked on.

Dennis groaned. "That's the worst one yet."

"That's what she said."

April 18, 2011

On Monday, Dennis was finally able to coordinate with Fi for her to come over to his house for dinner. She showed up at 5 PM on the dot, and when he opened the door he hardly recognized her. Even having been warned, it wasn't easy to connect Fi to her new look.

She was wearing a red-brown wig of shoulder-length hair that looked entirely natural. Her translation glasses, which had been in simple black frames, had been spruced up by gluing blue and purple rhinestones to the edges. Either her eyes had always been very blue or she was wearing colored contacts. She was dressed in bright yellow pants and a pink top, with neon green wedge heels that added at least four inches to her height.

Dennis actually laughed out loud when he saw her. She twirled effortlessly on the step, showing off the entirety of her flashy ensemble. "I take it you approve?"

"Get in here," Dennis said. She waltzed into the entry way with a bouncy step that was entirely unlike her usual graceful prowl and handed him a rainbow-plaid purse that probably could have held a dead body, which he dutifully hung on the coatrack for her. Before he could decide what, exactly, he wanted to say, his mom came around the corner.

"Hello Mrs. Carter," Fi greeted, holding out her hand. His mom blinked as she accepted the shake, obviously taken aback. "I'm Fi."

"Ah, of course, come in," she scrambled to recover. "I apologize, I was expecting…"

"A blond?" Fi asked, following his mom onto the back porch where his dad was grilling the steaks. "It's amazing what you can hide with a wig."

Dennis noticed, as Fi shook his father's hand, that she hadn't actually lied to his mom, and yet she'd given a firm impression that she was a natural redhead who wore a blond wig.

"Hello Mr. Carter."

"Call me Robert, please. I owe you my life."

"I was happy to do it." She waved a hand as though to brush the sentiment away. "The steaks smell heavenly. What's your seasoning blend?" She leaned over the grill, inhaling deeply.

"Family secret," Dennis told her. "You have to marry into it, I'm afraid."

"Is that an offer?" she asked without missing a beat. She managed to make it pretty deadpan, too, matching his own tone, and held it just long enough that he started to wonder if maybe she was more socially awkward than he'd assumed. Just before his confusion could morph into panic, she laughed.

"Dennis, don't be rude," his mom chided. "All things considered, I think we could make an exception."

"Oh, don't worry about it, Mrs. Carter. I would never impinge on a family's secrets. I'll just have to try to figure it out from the taste. Or barring that, I'll have to get Dennis to invite me over again for further study."

"Call me Cathy, dear. You're welcome anytime."

"Thank you," she said sincerely.

In retaliation for Fi's earlier teasing, Dennis mouthed to her "anytime" with a well-practiced suggestive tilt of his eyebrows.

Without so much as blushing she silently answered back, "Offer?" looking eager.

Damn. He must be farther off his game than he realized. He'd have to step it up - he did have a reputation to live up to after all.

"Dennis, can you come help set the table?" his mom asked as she went back into the house. He followed her obediently, and as soon as the door was shut she said curtly, "Don't think I didn't see that, young man." Dennis shrugged. He'd grown immune to his mom's fussing very quickly after naming himself Clockblocker.

"She's a teammate, Mom. We're just having fun."

"You might have warned us about her disguise. I felt so ridiculous, standing there gaping." His mom handed him plates and silverware as she fretted.

"I wasn't sure which face she'd want to show you," Dennis hedged. "And it was fine. I don't even think she noticed." In reality, this was either the most relaxed Dennis had ever seen Fi, or else a very good act. Given her demonstrated proficiency against Coil eight days earlier, he was guessing the latter. But if fake bubbliness was what she wanted to portray, Dennis wasn't going to tell her no.

He went around the table, lightening his load at each seat. His mom flitted from the kitchen to the dining room and back, carting out broccoli casserole, dinner rolls, and salads. He'd warned his parents about his increased appetite and Fi's, though he hadn't explained why. For once, he'd gotten no argument when he told them it was classified information.

"I just don't want," his mom started again, but Dennis cut her off before she could work herself up.

"Mom. Listen to me. It's fine." He put a hand out to stop her going into the kitchen. "Fi's not judging you. She's just grateful for a meal she doesn't have to cook."

The back door opened and he released his mom to go get another load from the kitchen. His dad came in, with Fi trailing behind holding the meat platter.

"We keep a well-stocked soda fridge," his dad was saying. "Feel free to have whatever you want."

"Actually I need to be drinking water," Fi told him as she set the platter in the center of the table. "I get dehydrated easily." Dennis tried to recall if he'd seen Fi drink an excess of water, or if this was a detail of her fake persona. "Besides, I get hyper on caffeine."

She smiled winningly at his dad, and Dennis could almost see him thinking, "Get hyper?"

It was amazing how easily a bright outfit and a wide smile transformed Fi into a bubbly teenager. If he wasn't watching it with his own eyes, he wasn't sure he'd believe it. "One water for you," Dennis said, breaking himself out of his thoughts. "Dad, you want anything?"

"Ah, no. I'm good." Dennis shrugged and went out to the outside fridge to get himself a Sprite. When he came back they were all seated at the table. Fi was in his usual seat to his dad's left, across from his mom, so Dennis took the other setting next to Fi. There was an easy silence as dishes were passed and plates were filled.

When the procession stopped, his mom suddenly stood up from the table. "Oh, I forgot the wine." She bustled back to the kitchen to retrieve a bottle of red to go with the steak. Dennis shook his head at her typical forgetfulness, then suddenly remembered that Fi was Christian. Would she care that his parents drank? Some Christians frowned on that, didn't they?

He glanced at her, but she was calmly cutting her first bite of steak. Well, if she wasn't going to make an issue of it, he wouldn't either. "This is wonderful," Fi said as his mom returned. "Perfectly cooked."

"And the seasonings?" his dad asked.

"As good as they smelled. I'm guessing salt and pepper, garlic, and…" she took a second bite, chewing thoughtfully. "Some sort of herb. Thyme, maybe?"

"Nope," Dennis said, popping the 'p.' "Close but no banana."

Fi shot him a glance, and somehow he just knew she was thinking, "Banana?" It was in the tilt of her head, the teasing smirk as she sipped her water. Mentally, he cracked his knuckles. Challenge accepted.

"Do you cook?" his mom asked Fi.

"Whenever I can. I like trying new recipes and cuisines. I'm not great on a grill though. Passable, but not great."

"Well, we'll have to see if we can correct that," his dad promised her.

"I'd love to learn," she assured him.

"What do you say, Dennis?" his dad probed. Dennis shut his eyes but could still feel Fi's gaze come to rest on him. "Dennis is the real king of the grill," his dad continued. Dennis opened his eyes, feeling the blush on his face.

Fi's expression was interested, with no sign of the mischief he knew she was thinking. "Now you have to teach me!"

"Of course," he managed to say, sounding mostly normal. "Always happy to share my superior knowledge with an eager student." Now, finally, Fi blushed. She must not have been expecting it, this time. It was amazing how many innocent statements could be turned into flirting, once you got started.

She tipped her water cup to him, as his mom asked about Fi's classes, totally blind to the byplay between the two Wards.

After dinner, he and Fi went into the base to take the last shift, from 8 pm until 10. He expected her perky attitude to disappear with the purple eyeliner, but it didn't. She was more muted, once she'd changed, but still seemed genuinely happy. It wasn't an emotion he'd seen her wear frequently.

They sat in front of the bank of monitors that was the control console, watching city feeds go by on another relatively quiet night.

"I suppose this is your turn now, right?" Fi asked after awhile. "You get to tell me all the ways I screwed up with Coil?" Her smile was sort of teasing, but he couldn't tell if she meant it or was just using humor to lighten the mood.

Dennis shrugged. "You know that you made some bad calls?"

"Yes."

"And I imagine you've already detailed exactly what they were and what your alternatives should have been with both Armsmaster and Director Piggot."

"And Chief Director Costa-Brown. She was particularly thorough."

"And I understand you let Jason have a go at it too."

"I owed him. I dragged him in pretty deep, pretty fast and I didn't give him a way out. He deserved answers, and… well… he made some really good points."

"What I mean is that you don't need the third degree from me, too," Dennis admitted. Fi's surprise was almost palpable. "It's not like I'm particularly good at following the rules myself. The only difference is that you don't have the experience yet to know which protocols are useful and which aren't."

"You don't have any questions for me?" she asked cautiously.

"Sure I do. But anything I need to know will be in the eventual report."

Fi chewed her lip. "I'd rather you hear it from me, honestly." Dennis gave her a sidelong glance before he returned his gaze to the monitors, and she stumbled on. "Before everything, well, I mean, like right before I realized how serious everything was, I had a talk with Dr. Yamada. We were discussing the mission in broad strokes and I realized there was some stuff I wanted to say, before we went into the field. But then Armsmaster and I planned everything out and…"

She trailed off, but Dennis could guess what she was referring to. "You needed me to be able to believe betrayal was possible."

"Yes."

Dennis turned that over in his head for a moment. The most disturbing thing to him, personally, about the events of the sting was the fact that Armsmaster and Contract had both believed they could convince him of Fi's disloyalty so easily. Granted, Armsmaster's fake corpse probably would have helped in that regard, but it rankled him that they'd chosen him as the eventual unwitting pawn to run to the Triumvirate, who Contract hated.

"Why did you pick me?"

"It had to be someone smart enough to put together a lot of data very quickly. It had to be someone with strong enough convictions, someone willing to do the hard thing if they thought it was right, to take their conclusions to the Triumvirate. It had to be someone who would rather act than wait. It helped that you are known as a bit of a wiseass and a rule breaker, so that when you got serious they'd take it more seriously."

Dennis nodded. He could see where the qualifications brought it down to himself or Missy, and for all her experience Missy had her age working against her when it came to adults taking her seriously.

The monitor automatically rotated onto a view of Lord's Street, near St. James Avenue, and Dennis spotted a teenager coming out of an alley, head down, glancing around nervously, hands in his pockets. "Drugs?" he asked Fi, pointing.

She manipulated the some of the other screens to show cameras in the area, but there wasn't much to see. "I guess we watch and wait to see if anyone else shows up," she said. Dennis nodded, leaning back a little further in the chair. If there was a dealer in the area, he'd know to avoid the cameras but his customers might not.

They sat in silence for a little bit, before Dennis's curiosity got the better of him. "What were you going to say to me, before everything happened? Not knowing what was coming?"

"I didn't have it all planned out. Basically just that we're very much alike, and I know how much I would have hated having to stay back at the base. I was worried that a situation would come up where I'd have different information than you, and we'd make opposite judgement calls. I was worried that we're too much alike, really."

Dennis glanced at her, but he sensed that she wasn't done yet. After a long moment, she proved him right. "Ultimately, those were your people I had in the field with me. I wanted to tell you that I understood that, that I knew how seriously you'd take that. And tell you that they're my people too." Then she backpedaled, "I mean, don't get me wrong, you're the right one to lead the team, I didn't mean that, it's just that I see them as my people too, and I take that seriously, like you."

"You think I'm the right person to lead the team?" Dennis asked. He knew that she'd had some influence in the decision to skip over Aegis and promote him instead, but he'd assumed it was a compromise. Fi struck him as a leader, someone used to being in charge.

She tried to shrug casually, but he could see her blushing slightly. "You're experienced, you've got a handle on all this cape stuff, you have good judgment, you take your responsibilities seriously even if on the surface you joke about it, you genuinely care for your people, and you're willing to make the tough calls. You understand that not acting is acting, and you prefer to move forward rather than be paralyzed."

"I wouldn't have agreed to kidnap Alcott," he ventured, mostly just to get her perspective.

"You're better at understanding the idea of civilians than I am. I did have a couple ideas on how we could protect her. It was Armsmaster's idea to substitute Vista, which was better in so many ways."

"Dinah's a twelve year old girl," Dennis reminded her, trying to understand Contract's thought process.

"Vista's thirteen, and she's been a Ward how long?"

"She's done a lot of desk duty," Dennis hedged, but he could see her point. Put like that, it was harder to condemn Fi's willingness to risk Alcott, especially if she'd had contingencies they never got to hear. It was also worth remembering that if Coil had wanted Alcott, she was already in some degree of danger.

On the monitors, a pair of college girls stumbled out of a bar and down towards the alley they were watching. They went in, and a few minutes later came out again, still giggling to each other.

"Call it?" Fi asked.

"No. I don't want to cry wolf. The night is still young. Give it another twenty minutes, then we'll decide."

She nodded, acquiescing easily to his judgment call. Dennis considered picking up the conversation again, but there really wasn't a need. He knew the series of events from the preliminary report, he knew the measures she and Armsmaster had been prepared to take, and he knew the results of that planning.

Unlike most of the PRT, Dennis was actually in support of their extreme contingencies. He knew they wouldn't have been enacted unless it was necessary. You can't fire a gun you never load, but that doesn't mean that every police officer intends to discharge their firearm every day.

"How much longer, do you think?" Fi asked out of the blue. "Before the calm breaks, I mean."

Dennis sighed. "I honestly don't know. Coil kinda screwed us on that front. Don't get me wrong, your little speech helped, but sooner or later something is going to give."

"What do you think will give out first?"

"I think the Empire is going to do something stupid to try to back up Kaiser's posturing. Probably go after the ABB, rather than the Protectorate. If we're lucky." Dennis glanced over at Fi, who was nodding thoughtfully. "We need to get you and Beetle more field experience before that happens, if at all possible."

Fi shrugged. "Sure. Think New Wave would help out again?"

"I was actually thinking of the Boston Wards." She glanced at him, but then they both turned back to the camera feeds. "It's Weld's team," Dennis explained. "He reached out just before Coil and offered to do joint exercises."

"Okay." Fi sounded a bit confused, but a quick look didn't let him read anything under her new, wider visor.

"There's a couple details we should talk about, starting with what degree of masks we want to use."

"Ah," Fi sighed, understanding. "Did Armsmaster tell you about our ideas for Fiona and Sophie?"

Dennis shook his head. "No. I was busy debriefing Taylor for most of Saturday, and since the whole PR thing came from Piggy it was above my paygrade anyway."

Fi flashed him that stupid teasing grin at the same time he realized what he said. "Taylor's going to pick up that habit," she warned. "She already called the Director just Piggot in the hospital. Armsmaster was not amused."

Dennis let his head thump on the desk dramatically. "Don't remind me." He shot her a hard glance. "Although Armsy said you slipped up too."

"I was concussed at the time."

"You mean that you had a subdural hematoma. That's a bit more than a concussion."

"To-ma-to, to-mah-to. It's a head injury. I take no responsibility for what I said while under the influence."

"Rumor is that you made Eidolon heal an entire hospital while under the influence," he mused mockingly.

"Okay, that I do take credit for." Fi cracked first, giggling at the absurdity and Dennis joined her with a much more manly chuckle. After a bit, Fi tried to get herself under control and asked, "What were we talking about?"

"You were going to tell me about Sophie and Fiona."

"It's actually Dragon's idea, and it goes something like this: Contract is my hero identity, and the costume includes a blonde wig. Only I didn't trust anyone well enough to tell them that, back in New York. So when I quote unquote unmasked, I only took off the outer disguise and everyone assumed that was all there was. I refused to give up my name etc., so the PRT created Elizabeth Fiona Mason, and I got to keep my nickname 'Fi.' Now that I actually trust the PRT, I've completely unmasked, revealing my true hair and eye color as well my name: Sophie."

"Damn." It was a deep cover, but plausible. It accounted for the truth thus far, and let her use her deeper disguise going forward.

"It gets better," Fi said. "Dragon started working on this a week ago when we arrested Coil and he used the name Sophie. I guess it's been her hobby since then or something. That ginormous purse? It's got everything I need to change from Sophie to Fiona or vice versa, all completely hidden or camouflaged to seem normal. And all of it is regular stuff you can find on the internet without raising too many eyebrows. So far it takes me about 11 minutes to transform, but I'll get faster as I practice."

"Don't tell me Dragon picked out those clothes."

"No, that was my idea. I'm going to set up a meeting with Glenn at some point to put the finishing touches on the persona, but it's good enough for now." After a moment she asked, "How did we get on this topic?"

"Unmasking to Weld's team." She nodded, so he continued. "Which face do you want to use if we end up working with them?"

"As much as I would love to use Sophie or Fiona, the reality is that I should probably practice being Contract. If that won't stress everyone out."

"We can do a partial reveal. It means we don't freak out over faces, but we don't share names or identifying details. We stay in our cape mindset even if we're not masked."

"So a Fiona-Contract cross. Sure."

Dennis watched a man try to wander discretely down the street and noted the timestamp on a sticky note. Fi commandeered one of the monitors long enough to pull up the necessary paperwork, then started backtracking through the feeds to note the other relevant timestamps and camera numbers. There was still four minutes before he wanted to make any judgment call, but it wouldn't hurt to have their ducks in a row first.

While she filled in the basic details of who was on watch, the location in question, and why they were suspicious Dennis watched for any further movement.

"You know, this might not be drugs," Fi said as the man wandered past the alley entrance and into the bar instead. Dennis wadded up the sticky note.

"How so?"

"This is a pretty well trafficked area, and as we're proving the area is thick with cameras, even if there's none in the alley itself. What if it's something illicit but not actually illegal?"

"I'm pretty sure those are the same thing," he corrected.

"I mean, it could be someone re-selling cigarettes or something else stupid and easy. A criminal just starting out."

Dennis tipped his head this way and that in a "maybe" sort of motion. "You want to give it another fifteen minutes?"

"Unless you think whoever is in there is going to leave. Night's still young."

"That's what she said," Dennis said. Fi's elbow bumped him, but she was smiling. Dennis shrugged off the reprimand and went back to trying to remember what else Weld had asked him. "Weld offered to bring in some of the New York Wards too, if that's what we want, but I guess Jouster warned him they might not be welcome."

Fi actually blushed, so Dennis pressed teasingly, "What did you do?"

"I, ah, may have cursed Jouster in Latin."

"Really? Why? What did he do?" Fi blushed deeper and ducked her head. Dennis glanced at the cameras then returned his attention to Fi. "Come on, spill."

"I'm pretty sure I misread whatever he actually said. I was running on less than an hour of sleep, I was frustrated, I was feeling trapped, and I… sort of lashed out."

"What did you say?"

"I really don't want to repeat it, especially knowing that you have access to the surveillance in here."

"You caught me," Dennis admitted. "So, no actual hard feelings but still maybe not a great idea?"

"That's pretty close, yeah."

"One thing I don't get," Dennis began, pausing to read her mood. Fi looked up at him, which reminded Dennis they were supposed to be watching the city. He turned his attention back to Lord's street but there was nothing to see. "You're a masterful actor. What you did with Coil? And even tonight with my parents. So you could have been anyone you wanted to be in New York. Why did you… do what you did?"

"You mean be a petty, uncooperative teenager?" She sighed. "Two different issues here. There's why I acted like I did after New York, and there's the question of my acting. I'm actually not that great at subterfuge, exactly. It's just that I can submerge myself in any part of my personality to the exclusion of all else when the need arises. People are complicated.

"I'm sure you've had moments when you wanted to just throw your hands in the air and be an anti-hero. All I did was focus on those moments, remember what drove me and why, and then act on that as though I didn't have any reason not to. Sophie, Fiona, the anti-hero, they only work because they are all a part of me. Not all of me, but part."

Dennis nodded, and glanced at the clock. Thirteen more minutes. "Okay, sure, I get that. So what happened in New York?"

"There wasn't a lot of me left. I'd just betrayed everything I ever believed in. I didn't have my family, my name, my face, or my values. I was a shell. I was angry, I was lost, I was terrified every moment that I was going to slip up and release Behemoth, or let on to someone that I knew Legend's secret and get myself killed."

Dennis tried to picture that, but the best he could relate it to was his breakdown a few months ago. The stress of the holidays, and his dad's illness, and his mom's growing depression, and a stupid fight with Missy had culminated in Dennis going out on a reckless response to a hot call. But he hadn't felt empty. It was more like he was so full of so many things that he might burst apart at any moment.

The silence stretched, until Fi started talking again. Her words had the tone of a confession, or maybe she was just thinking aloud. "Moving out of New York was probably the best thing that could have happened to me. New faces, a chance for another fresh start, enough distance from Legend that I felt safer. I had finally started to piece myself back together in the days before I moved, but I don't think I'd be nearly as okay if I was still in NYC."

That's one point for Company, Dennis thought to himself but didn't say. He'd trust Yamada to tackle that hurdle. There was one thing he had to ask, though, before he put her back into a combat situation of any kind.

"Fi, I need an honest answer to this one. No repercussions," he added.

She glanced away from the feeds, checking his expression, then looked back. "Go for it."

"How many people have you killed?"

She paused, but he couldn't tell if she was just surprised or deciding whether to lie. "I already told you that I killed five men just after I triggered."

"Yes," Dennis confirmed, aware that she had dodged the question.

She continued before he had to prompt her. "Those are the only humans I've ever killed. But it wasn't my first exposure to violence. Not even close. I… I can't really explain it except to say that I really didn't think that crippling Coil was out of line. I judged it to be the appropriate escalation, given what we knew of him."

Dennis didn't disagree with that call specifically, but her words didn't quiet the uneasy feeling Jason had given him either. "Would you have killed him?"

"That's like asking how fast you have to throw a kitten."

The non-sequitur threw Dennis for a complete loop. "Come again?"

"It's the old physics joke, how many kittens does it take to kill an elephant? One, at sufficient velocity. The task changes, the answer doesn't."

"Come again?" Dennis repeated, still not understanding her point.

"Are there circumstances where I would have killed Coil? Absolutely. I value his life less than a number of other people's. How close was I to killing Coil? That's a lot harder to answer. He brought deadly force in the form of tinker-armed soldiers. He demonstrated himself to be a significantly powerful cape by knowing my name. He showed he was willing to play dirty by using my name.

"If he'd fought better, and I was worried about him getting away, and coming after our civilian identities? If I'd had an opening to go for his stomach before his calves? Would I have gutted him? Maybe. I can't predict that. I can only say that I was prepared to do what was necessary, and killing Coil isn't inconceivable to me."

"That's not what you told Intrepid."

"Jason needed to know how far I was willing to go. Both so that he could decide if he thought we could work together, and to understand how serious I am about protecting him and his family. He needed a black and white answer. You're asking for another reason, so you need a more nuanced answer."

"Partial truths like that will get you in trouble," he warned.

She sighed heavily. "Yeah, I know. That was one of the other ways I shot myself in the foot, back in the beginning of all of this. I didn't want to tell the truth, but I didn't really want to lie in case later I decided to go all in or needed the credibility. So I tried to give just enough of the truth, answer just enough of the question for the specific situation. Instead I looked like a pathological liar."

"Like how you kept changing what you paid for Behemoth."

"Okay, yes, that exactly!" she exclaimed, suddenly frustrated. "I flat told people they wouldn't understand. I told them it was so bad I couldn't even say it out loud. And that wasn't enough for them so I gave in and told them the effects and suddenly it's like I'm the bad guy!"

"Mostly I think they were just worried you'd decide you wanted to turn the city pink and they wouldn't be able to stop you," he deadpanned. The humor worked, and she chuckled and rolled her eyes. Dennis filed the explanation away for further thought later. He'd have to go back and reconsider some of his initial impression of Fi in this new light.

A trashy woman wandered into the alley and emerged a while later with her purse on the other shoulder, looking around her suspiciously. Fi added the incident to the paperwork and forwarded it to BBPD. Since there was no sign of cape activity, the dispatch desk would add the alley to their queue based on the priority of whatever else was happening in Brockton Bay and send a squad car around whenever they could.

Fi rewound and watched the footage of the woman again, focusing on her purse. "It might be pirated DVDs," she said after a moment.

Dennis shrugged. "The police will handle it."

"Yeah. Just thinking."

Dennis isolated the two cameras with the best view of the area and set the others back to random scrolling with the rest of the screens so they had a better chance of catching other trouble.

"Hello?"

"Hey Weld, this is Clockblocker."

"Oh. Hey. What's going on?"

"That offer from last week, is it still good?" Clockblocker could hear Weld's shock in the pause that followed.

"Ah, yeah. I figured you guys would be a little busy with all the PR stuff going on."

Clockblocker sighed. "We are. That's why I want to do this now. I want to run a blind simulation. Everyone knows what's going on, except for Contract and Beetle. I want to kidnap them both."

Now it was Weld's turn to sigh. "That's… that's intense. Can I ask why?"

"Well, Beetle needs the experience. She's a brand new cape and she could use the exposure. She's still figuring out all her power tricks, and she thinks best under pressure. Also, she's got some personal issues and Vista told me she's ready to face some fears." Clockblocker wasn't sure she was quite there yet, but Tattletale had told him that Beetle would recover faster if she could prove herself to herself. She said the best thing they could do for Beetle was to keep her busy and distracted in her cape life, and Vista had agreed.

"As for Contract…" Clockblocker continued, then realized he didn't know how to justify it to Weld without telling Weld much more than he wanted to. "It's a little hard to explain, but it's necessary. That's not just coming from me. A number of sources all brought it up in concert."

"Okay, sure, they're your team. This weekend work?"

"Friday night. But, well, there's some things you need to think through before you agree to this."

"Shoot."

"You're committing your team to a realistic kidnapping of Contract. The Ender." Clockblocker could almost hear when that clicked for Weld. "That's part of why I want everyone else to know what's going on. I'm also going to give your people a code word to use if she escalates too far too fast. It's not anything established, it's just that using it should get her attention extremely effectively."

"Sounds like we have a lot of details to work out," Weld said.

"You're still okay with this?"

"Yeah, of course. I told you, whatever we can do to help."

Clockblocker breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you. Can you talk now?"

"You want to do this over the phone?"

Clockblocker chuckled. "Contract has shown a distinct ability to ferret out electronic secrets. I don't think she'd poke around my computer, but we only get one shot at this. I'm not taking any chances."

"Alright. Let me grab some paper."