Disclaimer: I do not own Worm, that belongs to Wildbow. I do not own Heroes of the Storm, that belongs to Activision-Blizzard and Blizzard Entertainment.

Chapter 8

The Hebert House

"Dad, the PRT are here!", Taylor said.

Danny got up from his chair and looked at Robert Cheatum. Taking his wallet out, Danny pulled out a twenty dollar bill and offered it to the lawyer. "Will this work?"

Robert Cheatum took the money from Danny and pocketed it. "I'm your lawyer, Danny."

Danny smiled while saying, "Be right back."

Danny walked over to the door where Taylor stepped back to be behind him. Danny looked at the two men and asked, "Yes?"

One of the men, the lawyer appearing one asked, "Daniel Hebert, may we come in?"

Danny looked at the two men then he inquired, "You've said to my daughter you're with the PRT, but you haven't given me your names."

The lawyer looking man was about Danny's height, skinny with blonde hair, blue eyes, and a blue suit. The other man was slightly shorter with brown hair, brown eyes and a dark blue suit. The lawyer spoke, "Gene Reid, I'm with the legal department and this is my associate Paul Sanford. We'd like to talk to you about possibly heading off any legal proceedings."

Danny stepped to the side and Taylor moved back to her spot on the sofa. The two men entered the house, wiping their feet on the floor mat. Danny closed the door and gestured for them towards the living room where Mister Cheatum was sitting in a chair and Taylor was sitting down on the sofa.

Danny said, "Just finished meeting with my lawyer gentlemen, this is Mister Cheatum and my daughter Taylor you just saw at the door.

The other man, Paul paused as he saw Robert Cheatum stand up and offer a hand for handshake. "Robert Cheatum of Dewey, Cheatum, and Howe."

Paul's face paled slightly, he covered it up quickly by shaking his head fast then saying, "Hello, Mister Cheatum. You work fast.", while shaking Mister Cheatum's hand and introduced himself, "Paul Stafford."

The PRT lawyer looked surprised as well, covering it up with a quick cough. He offered his hand as well, "Gene Reid."

Introductions done Danny guided them to sit on the sofa next to Taylor while Danny took his usual chair. Danny gestured towards the two men and said, "Well, you came over here, so why don't you go first?"

Gene rubbed his hands on the tops of his suit pants as he got ready to speak. Clearing his throat he said, "Well, Mister Hebert...Danny, can I call you Danny?"

Danny shook his head. "We're not there yet Mister Reid, Mister Hebert will be fine for now."

Nodding his head in acceptance while Robert Cheatum chuckled, Gene's face flashed annoyance very quickly before returning to a neutral expression. "Mister Hebert, given that you have an attorney, I think it would be fair to assume you plan on filing a lawsuit against the PRT?"

Danny nodded his head, "You assume correctly."

Mister Cheatum decided to chime in, "We'll be filing a lawsuit against the PRT first thing Monday morning."

Looking less than comfortable Gene said, "We'd like to talk to you about not filing. Surely we can reach a deal where both sides are satisfied?"

Mister Cheatum said, "We're open to that possibility, but your offer better be good." He paused for a moment waiting for the to speak then gestured towards then and said, "Well then, go ahead and make your offer."

Gene cleared his throat again. Clearly he was not expecting to be trying to put this fire out with a lawyer of Robert Cheatum's name and reputation sitting across from him. "Well, we are prepared to offer some money for reparations, for pain and suffering."

Robert gestured as if to say 'Get on with it', "How much money is the PRT willing to offer?"

Gene said, "Two million dollars."

Danny narrowed his eyes, Robert matched Danny's glare while Taylor folded her arms and gave a glare of her own. She quietly said, "Fuck that."

Gene looked over and said, "Young lady, let the adults talk."

Danny stood up with an angry expression. "You don't get to talk to my daughter like that, in fact you don't get to say one damn word to her." He looked at Taylor and softened his look saying, "Language."

Then he returned to looking angry at the two men. "Two million? You two must be from the bottom of the barrel over at PRT HQ. How dare you come here with such a low ball number. That isn't even close to being a fair offer. Get the fuck out of my house, right now. You clearly aren't here to negotiate a good faith offer. I understand negotiations, I know about making a good deal, but you must have gotten your degree out of a cracker jack box to come here with this kind of offer. I've been keeping the Dockworker's Association alive by being a hard and fair negotiator, you...you are clearly playing by a script. Well, I'm not having it. Get out. Now." Danny had one arm raised, his index finger pointing towards the door.

Gene was waving his hands in a placating gesture, "Mister Hebert, Mister Hebert, please just listen!"

Robert was smiling. "Well done, I'm going to look forward to seeing you on the other side of the court room. I'm going to rip you and your organization apart from the seams. The jury's going to award one of the largest punitive and compensatory damages in history with this case. Thank you."

The other man, Paul elbowed Gene in the side and said, "That's enough. I apologize Mister Hebert on behalf of my colleague. You're right, he's following a script. But I'm not. We really would like to avoid the lawsuit and I'm prepared to make you a fair offer. Ten million, right now."

Danny looked at both men, his face still angry. Sitting back down slowly Danny took a couple of breaths and looked at his lawyer.

Taking his cue, Robert stepped in, he had his hands steepled in front of him chest level before resting them on the armrests of the chair he was sitting in. "Ten million is a better opening offer, but you are going to have to do better."

Paul leaned forward, the dark haired man looking serious. "What number did you have in mind?"

Robert quickly replied, "One hundred million and the PRT has to admit in the press release that they made a serious error in making Miss Hess a Probationary Ward, that she was improperly supervised and managed, that they regret deeply what has happened and publicly apologize to Miss Hebert and her father."

Gene's eyes widened and was about to say something when Paul elbowed him in the side again. Paul shook his head saying, "No, the PRT will not admit to that ever. How about fifteen million?"

Mister Cheatum shook his head. "I'm afraid that the condition of the PRT admitting wrongdoing and apologizing is a sticking point for my clients, as for the number….I'm thinking one hundred million."

Paul leaned backwards to sit back on the sofa. "Mister Cheatum you know how this works. The PRT will not admit wrongdoing nor will it apologize and you haven't come down from your number. I'm going to offer…twenty million."

Robert looked directly at Paul. The gaze bore into the man for several seconds before he stated, "Paul, its clear you're the person that can make things happen or call the person that makes things happen. Gene there is from PR, I can tell. Whoever had the idea to have him speak first clearly is an idiot."

Robert steepled his hands in front of him at chest level again. "But let me clue you into something you've forgotten. We've got the PRT dead to rights. I'm giving you that opportunity to make a settlement offer but my clients will not bend over the issue where the PRT admits they were in the wrong over Miss Hess. You can accept it, open up your wallet and pay us what we ask and make a public apology and statement of wrongdoing. Or, you can reject the settlement talks and we go to trial where twelve men and women will tell you how wrong you are and award very large judgments against the PRT, amounts that will be much larger than you plan for."

Robert leaned forward and said, "Go ahead, go back to the office and talk about it. I'm sure you need to talk to the higher ups. Be sure to tell them the clock's ticking, I will be filing first thing Monday morning."

The two men stood up, Danny, Robert, and Taylor stood up as well. Robert offered his hand for a handshake and shook both men's hand again. As he did so, he said to both men, "You tell your bosses that if they want to settle after I file, the price goes up to one hundred fifty million, along with the apology and acknowledgment of wrongdoing." Robert was smiling, but it was the smile of a shark, a very large great white shark, impressing the seriousness of what was being talked about.

Paul cleared his throat, "I'll be sure to pass the message along."

Robert said, "You know how to reach me, I'll trust you to not contact my client without my presence going forward."

The men walked to the door with Danny escorting them to it. Danny said, "Good night, gentlemen. Any future contact, be sure to contact Mister Cheatum first."

Gene was looking a cross between upset and disappointed but he kept his mouth shut. Paul had a good poker face, not giving away anything and he just nodded his head and said, "Have a good night, Mister Hebert, Miss Hebert."

The men left and Danny closed the door then turned to look at his daughter and their lawyer. "Well, that was a bit of a surprise."

Taylor let out a breath as if she'd been holding it for a while. "Wow. I mean, you let them have it Dad and so did you Mister Cheatum. They're clearly not happy with my condition about admitting wrong doing and apologizing."

Robert gave a chortle. "It was easy for me to see who really was the one to talk to. Mister Reid was from PR, they dressed him up to look like the lawyer but it was clear to me that he wasn't. This was a test, they were no doubt sent by the someone high up, maybe the Chief Director is my thinking. Well, its time for me to leave, I've got a bunch of work to do."

Danny said, "Thank you Mister Cheatum. Thanks for coming over and thanks for everything today. Looks like you have a lot of work to do before Monday."

With another chuckle Mister Cheatum said, "We're already working on it, Danny. I wasn't going to walk away without you and I coming to a deal. I'll see you tomorrow when we can sign the contract. Oh, one more thing, you can call me Robert."

The lawyer shook Taylor's hand then picked up the notebooks she'd given him. "I'll have an Associate bring these back to you after we've made copies. Oh, one last thing. The media's going to find out your name Taylor, so when the media show up here at your house and believe me they will and want to ask questions, you say 'no comment.' Good night young lady." Then he shook Danny's hand. "Good night Danny."

The lawyer left the house, walking out to his car where a man exited from the driver's side, walked over to the rear passenger door and opened it for the man. The lawyer sat in the back seat, the driver closed the door moving back to the driver's door where he got in, started the car and the 2011 Audi pulled away.

Taylor looked at her dad and said, "I'm going to my room, okay dad?"

"Okay, Little Owl.", Danny said.

Taylor went up the stairs to her room, closing the door behind her.

She sat on her desk chair, turned on and spun the chair around quickly. She let out a loud breath. "Well, that was something."

Sarah chirped, "Yep."

Jaina was furious. She exclaimed, "That first offer was insulting! Are you sure there are no Goblins from the Steamwheedle Cartel here?"

Widowmaker was equally furious. "Avocates, salauds tous! I would have shot that man in the bal….um, in the foot for making such an insulting offer!"

Sarah chuckled. "We know what you really meant, Widow. I would have done the same."

Tyrande sighed and said, "They were clearly messengers, given their instructions and so they could only do what they were told."

Li-Ming sighed, "I would have preferred that they had made a better offer, agreed to your terms and that this was over."

Taylor said, "Thanks everyone."

With her old computer fully booted up now Taylor launched the web browser and started looking at the data on the Merchants.

"What are you doing?", asked Jaina.

Taylor replied, "Looking up some last bits of info, I'm thinking about that the Merchants should be dealt with first, but I want to doubl check some things. So, let's see what we see here."

The Voices seemed to agree as they took an interest in the information that they had accumulated and compared it with what was on the various web sites.

PRT HQ

Director Emily Piggot's Office

Downtown Brockton Bay

Director Emily Piggot walked into her office after finishing her press briefing announcing the capture of Shadow Stalker. She'd given credit to Armsmaster, Velocity, and Miss Militia as well as the PRT Troopers that took part in bringing her into custody. She then announced that the girl was now in Federal custody and would be facing Federal and State criminal charges in connection with the Winslow Locker Incident including bioterrorism.

During the conference she had to announce that several Wards had been infected because of Shadow Stalker's involvement in the Locker Incident. Arrangements were being made for Panacea to treat them and their families and tests were being taken to determine if anyone else was infected, both regular staff and Protectorate members.

Armsmaster had given his report to her of how the capture went down. Later, he got to stand in front of the cameras and make his statement discussing how he led the group that took Shadow Stalker into custody, getting his moment of glory and putting a positive note on the absolute disaster that the PRT was facing.

Sitting back down at her desk with a painful groan she barely had a chance to get comfortable when her intercom chirped. "Misters Chambers and Reid from PR and Mister Sanford from Legal are here to see you ma'am."

Emily growled, "They better have some good news." Then she tapped the intercom button and growled, "Send them in."

The three men entered her office seconds later and sat down. Glenn sat in a sofa that she never used while the other two sat in the chairs that were in front of her desk.

Emily looked at the three men who didn't look happy at all and she inwardly knew things didn't go well at the Hebert house.

"Well?", she growled. She looked at the two men in front of her with a hard glare. "What happened?"

Paul gave a sigh and glanced at the man next to him before looking at Emily. "Well, it went badly in the beginning thanks to Gene here sticking to the script. We almost got thrown out of the house once he offered two million dollars to them."

Emily switched her angry glare to the PR man Gene Reid for several seconds then switched over to glaring at Glenn Chambers as Paul continued speaking. Gene seemed to wilt in his chair.

"I had to step in at that point and made them the agreed upon ten million offer.", Paul said.

Emily kept her angry glare on Glenn Chambers who was not looking happy at all. "I told you to deal with him fairly from the beginning! Two million!? What the fuck, Glenn!?"

Glenn made a placating gesture with one hand. "I have my orders, I told you that as a person I agreed with you, as the Director of Image I have orders to follow, just like you."

Paul sighed and said, "They have a lawyer...they hired a lawyer and you're not going to like who he hired."

Emily switched back to glaring at Paul. "I don't like anything that's been going on today, so who did Mister Hebert hire?"

Paul hesitated then he sighed and replied, "Robert Cheatum was there."

Emily's eyes widened and she exclaimed, "Robert Cheatum!?

Paul and Gene both nodded their heads.

Emily exclaimed, "Fuck! You have to be kidding me! Robert Cheatum was at Danny Hebert's house!?"

Both nodded their heads while Paul answered, "Yes, he was there when we entered the house."

Glenn was muttering, "Cheatum, where have I heard that name before?" He brought out a tablet and started tapping on it. Then his face turned pale, more pale than his usual complexion and said, "Oh, that's not good."

Emily looked over at Glenn and yelled, "Not good?! It's a fucking nightmare! You think that's bad, if Dewey himself gets involved, that would be way worse." She looked over at the two men in front of her and harshly said, "So you offered ten million, what happened after that?"

Paul ran a hand through his hair and said, "Their lawyer countered with one hundred million."

Glenn sat up straight and exclaimed, "What!?"

At the same time, Emily leaned forward and exclaimed, "What the fuck!?"

After a moment when Glenn and Emily calmed down Emily said, "Of course you told him no, but what else happened?"

Paul nodded his head once, sighed then said, "In addition to the money, Mister Cheatum said that his clients want an apology and admission of wrongdoing from the PRT over how Sophia Hess was allowed to do what she has done."

Emily scowled and growled, "Shit." She let out an explosive sigh while leaning back into her office chair.

Paul said, "I told him that the PRT would never agree to making such a statement and I increased the amount to fifteen million." With a frown on his face, Paul paused then resumed, "He stayed at one hundred million and the demand for an apology and admission of wrongdoing. He went on to say that the statement and admission of wrongdoing were non-negotiable, his clients would not agree to a settlement without that apology and admission. I gave a final offer of twenty million but he rejected it."

Paul sighed then added, "He also went on to say that he's filing the lawsuit first thing Monday morning and that we have until then to agree to his terms, one hundred million with an apology and admission of wrongdoing. After he files, he says the amount goes up to one hundred fifty million."

"He finished by saying that agreeing to this would be far better than going to court where he says he'll get a jury of twelve men and women to tell us we're guilty and that the punitive and compensatory damages will be far greater than what he's asking for right now."

Glenn shook his head. "There's no way we can admit we did wrong and apologize. Costa-Brown will not sign off on that."

Emily glared at Glenn saying, "Cheatum has a point, in case you've missed it, Sophia's actions have fucked the PRT over, her actions have put the Probationary Ward program at risk, as has PRT Agent Jefferson and the man's got us by the proverbial shorts. Speaking of Agent Jefferson, she was supposed to be watching the little shit. We can bury Agent Jefferson in a deep dark hole right next to Miss Hess but we have to catch the corrupt bitch first."

She continued glaring at Glenn as she continued, "Back to the Hebert's lawyer, he's got a point Glenn. The jury could easily award punitive damages that will be eight digits, and compensatory could easily be nine. You need to talk to Costa-Brown about making that deal, one hundred million and an admission of wrongdoing with an apology will be a hard pill to swallow but it's survivable, especially with your skill at PR."

"Put all the blame on Agent Jefferson and Sophia Hess. Fight it, go to court, and a jury could award two to three hundred million dollars total or more depending on how vindictive they're feeling." She sighed then added, "I'm telling you right now that the jury is going to be very vindictive."

Glenn Chambers let out a sigh. He stood up and walked over to Emily's mini fridge and pulled out a bottle of water then opened it and took a long drink.

"This is not good.", Glenn said.

"No it is not.", Emily responded. She looked at the two men in front of her. "If you have nothing else to report, thank you, you may go."

Gene and Paul stood up, said their goodbyes and left the room. Glenn moved over and took one of the chairs in front of Emily's desk. After taking another drink of water he set the bottle down then said, "If and that's a big IF I can convince the Chief Director that we need to take Mister Cheatum's offer of one hundred million and a public apology and admission of wrongdoing...Emily, she's going to put your head on a pike."

Emily scowled, "Fuck her. This is actually her fucking fault for forcing that little piece of trouble making shit on to my department. She put me here, the only way I'm leaving is when this place finally kills me."

Glenn looked at Emily but didn't say anything for a moment. Then he nodded his head and said, "I'll be going back to the office I'm borrowing."

Emily said, "I'll be here."

Glenn walked out of Emily Piggot's office while Emily went back to her own work.

A few minutes later, her intercom chirped, "Lieutenant Willis is requesting a moment of your time, it's about the Case 53 that was at Brockton General."

Emily dropped her pen and rubbed her eyes with her hands while growling. Taking a breath and letting it out, she tapped her intercom and said, "Send her in."

A red haired woman in black fatigues walked in, stopping in front of her desk, gave Emily a salute and stood at attention.

Emily returned the salute while saying, "At ease."

The woman went to parade rest and said, "Lieutenant Kimberly Willis, I have the report on the Case 53 that performed a mass healing at Brockton General." She presented a USB drive and placed it on the desk.

The Lieutenant said, "My report is complete, it's on the drive ma'am."

Emily looked up, she ordered, "Give me a brief rundown."

Kimberly gave a quick synopsis of the Case 53 that walked into the lobby of the Emergency Room at Brockton Genera Hospital asking to be allowed to heal the sick and injured. As the Lieutenant was giving the report, Emily grabbed the USB drive and inserted it into her computer. The security on her computer checked the drive first before allowing Emily to access it to ensure it had no malware or anything harmful on the USB drive. Once that was done Emily saw several files on the drive including a couple video files. Emily loaded up one of the video files that was there, which was surveillance footage of the hospital lobby.

Emily looked at the footage and sighed that it was in black in white although the quality was decent. You could see the tall "elf" appearing woman walk in, speak to the person at the desk then watched as the screen flashed brightly when the "elf" used her powers to heal the entire lobby before walking out of the lobby.

"All the people are checking out as being completely healed. No Master/Stranger side effects. This mystery cape calling herself 'Tyrande Whisperwind' could be a massive game changer ma'am."

Looking at all the people that were healed at once Emily nodded her head. "I want a soft touch on any encounter with this Case 53. We need to get her in the Protectorate before the gangs get their hands on her."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Good work Lieutenant, I'll brief the Heroes in the morning. Tell Sergeant Rodriguez I'm still waiting on the report on the "Wizard Cape" that hit the coin and jewelry shop.", Emily said.

The Lieutenant saluted, "I'll see to it ma'am."

"Dismissed.", Emily said while returning the salute.

Lieutenant Kimberly Willis did a perfect about face and walked out of the Director's office. Emily leaned back into her chair and sighed. With this news, this meant there were two new Capes in her city. She needed them in the Protectorate, especially this Case 53 healer. Shaking her head, Emily returned to work. Part of that work was sending a few messages to people that she knew would have her back should she need it.

The Westin Chicago River North

Chicago, Illinois

Thomas Calvert was finally in his penthouse hotel suite after a very long day and evening. He'd spent the day using his power to keep from blowing the deal and he'd built up a lot of frustration and anger during the day as the man he was meeting with was so old fashioned that he'd used several timelines to kill the man over and over again. Each time he did that though, the man's security ended up killing him. Thomas was very impressed with the man's security, it was really good."

The only good thing out of this day was that the ink was finally dry on the contract and his company was going to be making eight hundred sixty million dollars over the life of the contract. A very good day for his company and for himself. He chuckled at the thought of the bonus money that would be coming at the end of the quarter. Now, he needed to get back to Brockton Bay. His flight back to New Hampshire was set, he'd be airborne by seven am Chicago time which meant he'd be back in Brockton Bay well before noon.

Now, Thomas was checking on the other side of his life, his criminal side, that of Coil the mastermind. He was sitting on his bed, back against the headboard, drinking a scotch from the bar in his penthouse suite that he was staying in and had his laptop open. The laptop finished its boot up sequence and he signed into his computer.

He was not prepared for the flood of alerts that were coming on his computer.

Texts from his pet Tattletale, news alerts, law enforcement alerts including BOLO's and APB's. There was so many that Thomas was in shock.

"What the hell?", he growled.

Thomas reached over to his briefcase that was also on the bed and pulled out his burner phone. He quickly dialed the number of his pet Thinker. The phone rang a few times before being answered by his pet.

The burner had a modification to it so that when he talked, it distorted his real voice. "Tattletale, what has been going on?"

The voice of his pet Thinker was very cheerful and chipper as she responded. "Nothing much, just the biggest scandal to hit Brockton Bay, boss! I tried to reach you, but you weren't answering my calls."

Silently, Thomas was cursing. He was looking at all the alerts on his laptop and his face was pale at the news that the FBI was in the city, specifically a team had been sent to the downtown PRT office to investigate a rogue PRT agent.

Thomas looked at the alert notifications and saw the name for the APB and BOLO and his expression was angry and he cursed silently again.

Growling, Thomas ordered, "Explain!"

So, Tattletale did as he ordered. She filled him in on what happened at Winslow High School, how the Ward Shadow Stalker in her civilian ID had taken part with two other friends in what the Feds were calling a case of domestic terrorism. Then she told him about the corruption scandal involving the principal and others including a PRT agent. It took several minutes for Tattletale to tell him everything where she informed him that Shadow Stalker had been captured and was in Federal custody.

"I want you to figure out where PRT Agent Jefferson is going.", he ordered.

Tattletale cheerfully replied, "Oh that's easy, she's going to Canada. She's going to cross probably at the Michigan/Canadian border crossing or...make her way to Washington and cross there."

Again Thomas cursed. The agent had a very good head start and was well out of his normal means of reach.

"How certain are you?"

"Pretty sure, based on what I was able to get into she's apparently planned her escape. She's got a lot of cash, she emptied her safe deposit boxes at Brockton Bay Central. However, if she thinks she can't get across through the border crossings she's prepared to cross the wilderness and walk across in Montana, North Dakota, or Idaho."

Inwardly Thomas cursed again. Agent Jefferson was too far ahead for him to send a squad of mercenaries after her. The only thing he could enjoy was the fact that he knew Emily Piggot was up to her neck in the controversy over what Shadow Stalker had been doing in her civilian identity as well as the rogue PRT agent getting away with a lot of PRT money.

"Track her down, Tattletale and…phone in that anonymous tip to the FBI when you find her."

"Uh, sure thing boss. I do have one more thing to report, two new Capes were spotted.", Tattletale replied.

Thomas was immediately interested. "Do tell."

The first one I have to report on is a Cape that hit a coin and jewelry shop, an Empire connected coin and jewelry shop. The other is a Case 53 went to Brockton General and performed an unauthorized mass healing. She healed everyone in the lobby with some kind of area effect power. Oh and this one looks like an elf. I'm sending you an image now, it's all over the internet."

Thomas's laptop chirped and he clicked the attachment that was sent. He could see a color photo, apparently from someone's cell phone at the hospital lobby. He noticed how the cape was in an elaborate dress. He zoomed in on the face, taking notice of her solid white eyes and tattoo markings around them. He zoomed he image out to take stock of the costume, noticing the gemstones on the dress, necklace, circlet and tiara.

"Master power?", Thomas asked.

"No sign of it, the people were taken to PRT HQ after she walked out and were checked for Master/Stranger effects and they all came out clean and perfectly healed."

Thomas rubbed his chin. A healer this powerful had to come into his control. "Find her and give her the soft sell and tell her that I'm prepared to pay very high for her services. I will use my resources to locate her as well. Keep me informed. Now tell me about this other cape."

Tattletale said, "Well, I've got a copy of the police report, no footage unfortunately. The Cape destroyed the security system. It happened at a coin and jewelry shop that has Empire ties. The Cape came in trying to sell a gold coin and then they tried to rob her but she claimed to be a new Empire Cape and they backed off but not before she froze the room and used energy bolts to blow up their surveillance system before taking the gold coin back and three thousand in cash and walking out."

"I did some checking, there's no new Empire Cape. Nothing on the boards, nothing that I can find but get this, she wasn't masked. They described her as between twenties and mid thirties, blonde with a white streak in her hair, wearing...uh wizard clothing and a large staff with a large blue gemstone at the top."

Thomas took that in then said, "Find out more. See if you can make contact and offer her a spot on the team. I'll do some digging of my own."

"Sure thing, boss.", Tattletale chirped.

"I'll contact you later.", Thomas replied then he hung up.

Thomas snarled as he looked over the news of the events that had hit Brockton Bay. He was extremely pissed off that the FBI were in the city and working in the PRT building. He needed them to get out of Brockton Bay quickly.

Then there was the fact there were two new capes in Brockton Bay, a Case 53 with healing power and a cape pretending to be a wizard like Myrddin. Very interesting that two new capes appear in Brockton Bay but he didn't like surprises like this.

Medhall Corporate Tower

Downtown Brockton Bay

At the top of the skyscraper that was the Medhall Corporate tower was the office of the CEO, Max Anders. Inside the office however was not a discussion about corporate business, but that of the criminal business of the Parahuman powered gang known as the Empire Eighty Eight.

Max was sitting behind his expensive desk with a rocks glass in his hand filled with a very old scotch as he contemplated what he was going to say. In the office with him in their civilian identities were his Lieutenant, James Fleischer known as Krieg, Brad Meadows, known as Hookwolf, Justin Christensen known as Crusader, and Jessica and Nessa Biermann known as Fenja and Menja. On the phone listening in was Victor and his wife Othala.

Max finally reached his decision and began, "My directive from this morning stands. All members are to lay low and do nothing that would bring Federal attention upon the organization. Any drug and weapons shipments incoming or outgoing will be paused. We don't need to do anything that would rouse Federal attention. The Feds will most likely be gone after a few days. Should they stay longer, we will meet and discuss it again."

No one said anything for a minute then Brad growled, "We can have our unpowered members form up for protests at the house of the Ward."

Jessica chimed in, "Her family's already in PRT protective custody. A moving van was spotted at the apartment complex. That family may already be out of the city."

Max looked at Jessica. "Are you sure?"

Jessica nodded. "One of our people reported that they saw the girl's mother, one toddler, and six year old boy being taken out of the PRT building."

Max made a hum sound then said, "A protest sounds like an excellent idea." A smile formed on his face and it was not a nice smile. "Here's what we'll have our normal members do."

Max proceeded to give orders on how the protest was to proceed. He stressed it would be a peaceful one, no acting out, no violence. He wanted to embarrass the PRT over their rogue Ward. The protest would happen on Sunday at the downtown PRT building.

Once that was taken care of Max looked around then said, "Now, what is the word on the search for the "Wizard Cape"?"

James answered, "We've got people looking but so far we've got nothing. No new sighting has been posted online yet. The PRT has a copy of the police report that includes a sketch of what she looks like and they sent a PRT investigator to talk to the store clerks. I've emailed everyone a copy of the sketch."

Max tilted his head inquisitively, "Just a sketch? The shop didn't have a video system? There were customers there weren't there? Surely someone took a picture."

James replied, "According to the report, she fired magic missiles from her hand to destroy the surveillance system. As for the customers in the store, they were ushered out by one of the staff, they weren't Empire members just customers and they all thought the Cape was Live Action Role Playing, not a Cape so the one customer we found, they deleted the pictures they took."

There were chuckles from everyone. Brad snorted in derision.

Max chuckled, "Well, get the word out. This so called wizard will no doubt make another appearance. Before we induct her into the Empire, we must express our displeasure for robbing one of our businesses. See to it she is not hurt too badly."

Everyone nodded their heads and gave verbal acknowledgments.

Max then asked, "Has there been any sign of the Case 53 that appeared at Brockton General?"

James replied, "No, no new reports of the Case 53 have come in. Nothing on the police or PRT radios."

Max looked around the room and ordered, "Keep an eye out, if this cape was able to heal an entire room full of people without touching them, that is a game changer. The PRT will do everything they can to get her into the Protectorate and then there's the ABB. We don't want them to get their hands on her either. I don't want this cape on the side of the Protectorate or anyone else, I want this cape for the Empire. Find her and bring her in...but be nice about it. We don't know what else she can do."

There were more head nods and verbal acknowledgments.

Somewhere in ABB Territory

Lung was sitting down to eat in a private room of one of the restaurants that was a legal business under his control. He ate at this restaurant at least once a week, but usually dined at this restaurant three times a week.

It was a higher class establishment, offering fine Japanese and Chinese cuisine. The chef was a rising star in the culinary arts and had recently been a James Beard nominee. Joining Lung at the dinner table were many of his Lieutenants. It was here in this private room where business was kept to a minimum. Here Lung held a different kind of court. To look at his men in the eye as they ate with him. Here he judged who was worthy and who wasn't based on how they acted at the dinner table.

Oni Lee stood guard to the right of Lung's position at the head of the table. The demon mask wearing cape not moving unless absolutely necessary.

The meal was almost done when a member entered the private room, bowed towards Lung deeply, and quietly said in Japanese, "Lung-sama, there was a new cape sighting."

Lung looked at the messenger. His voice rumbled with displeasure at having his meal interrupted as he replied, "You felt this was important to interrupt my meal? Is it the woman that attacked the Empire?"

The messenger trembled but composed himself. "No, Lung-sama, it is a new one, a Case 53."

Lung was displeased. He didn't care about Case 53 capes. "I do not care about the Case 53s unless they disrespect me or the ABB. Begone."

Before the man could be thrown out the man quickly spoke, "This cape is a healer! It healed an entire room full of people without touching them!"

Everyone turned to look at the messenger. He was holding his phone out, an image on the small screen. "It is all over PHO, this cape walked in to the ER at Brockton General and tried to offer healing but was rebuffed. On her way out, the cape healed the entire lobby full of people waiting to be seen. More than thirty people were healed. The PRT came to take them away for screening and those that were healed say they are perfectly fine."

Lung snapped his fingers and gestured towards the man. Oni Lee disappeared and reappeared next to the messenger and took the man's phone then disappeared and reappeared next to Lung and gave Lung the phone.

Lung looked at the image, it was of a female that looked like an elf but nothing like any of the books and movies he had seen before. The dress was extravagant as he took notice of the gemstones that the Case 53 was wearing in the garment and on her head.

Lung tossed the phone to another Lieutenant. "Send the word, I want this Case 53 for the ABB. A healer this powerful could be more powerful than Panacea herself. I want it and I will not be denied. Bring this Case 53 to me. Unharmed."

Everyone in the room bowed their heads and replied, "Yes, Lung-sama!"

Lung looked at the messenger and said, "You've done well, you may go." The messenger bowed deeply and backed out of the room quickly. Then Lung returned to his food with the rest of the Lieutenants. This Case 53 would be found and brought to him and he would make this Case 53 serve him and the ABB. The Dragon of Kyushu would not be denied.

January 22, 2011

The Law Firm of Ferguson, Pierson, and Dallon

Downtown Brockton Bay

Alan Barnes arrived at his place of work fifteen minutes early before he was supposed to have the meeting with the Partners and saw that many of the senior partners and partners were also here. He was feeling very nervous as he walked to his office. He turned on the light and sat down at his desk and checked his desk for anything that he'd missed yesterday since he had to leave work. He checked his work email and found only an email from the Senior Partner's assistant to be here at the office this morning.

Just before nine am, Carol Dallon also known as the New Wave Parahuman Brandish knocked on the side of the open door and said, "Alan, the Partners are ready for you. Come with me please." She was wearing a dark blue pantsuit.

Alan stood up and followed Carol who was very quiet, no small talk was exchanged between the two. Alan could feel the tension radiating off of Carol as they walked down the halls of the firm. Carol escorted Alan to the main conference room, opening the door for him and letting him walk in first. She closed the door behind her after entering and walked to her seat that was close to the far end of the conference table next to the head of it where the most senior partner and founder of the firm Chris Ferguson was sitting.

Around the table were the senior partners and the partners of the firm. Alan took a breath and tried to steady his nerves. He knew this wasn't going to be a good meeting.

The founder of the firm, a man in his mid fifties, Caucasian with graying hair on the temples of his dark hair, Chris Ferguson himself started the meeting. His voice was deep with gravitas. "Thank you for coming in today Alan. We need to talk about what happened yesterday."

Alan was about to say something but he stopped himself when he quickly realized that Mister Ferguson was not done talking. The founder continued while gesturing towards Alan, "This firm realizes what sort of family emergency you had to leave work yesterday. You had to leave work, right in the middle of meeting a prospective client, a very wealthy prospective client. Thankfully, the client stayed and Miss Rindell was able to close the meeting on the firm's behalf...on your behalf. You should thank Miss Rindell when you have an opportunity."

Alan simply nodded his head. Leia Rindell was like him, angling to be named a Partner and now because he had to leave to deal with his family emergency Leia was able to secure the client to sign with the firm for her divorce against her husband.

Mister Ferguson continued while fixing Alan with a glare. "Your daughter's actions have put our firm in a bad light. This firm has a zero tolerance policy with regards to its reputation. The actions of your daughter fall onto you, and as such on to the firm. While legally she enjoys the presumption of innocence, in the eyes of public opinion, your daughter and her accomplices are already considered guilty. That guilt by association falls onto your head which falls on the firm's head."

The man paused and the silence in the room was deafening. Alan could feel his heard beating fast and wondered if these men and women could hear it.

Mister Ferguson resumed after a five second pause. "Someone brought your name to the disciplinary committee and they met late yesterday evening and well into the night before reaching a decision."

Alan asked, "Don't I get a chance to defend myself?"

Carol took this moment to ask, "What can you say? Your child is accused of a most heinous crime."

Alan fired back, "Accused of, not convicted."

A different partner said, "She will be."

Alan didn't let that bother him as he said, "She didn't do this, I know my little girl and she's not the type of person to do something so horrible."

Carol leaned forward, placing her hands on the table. "Alan, I never said anything about this to you, in hindsight I should have. A couple of months ago, Victoria was at a photo shoot and she saw and heard your daughter with two of her friends, a girl Emma called Mads and another girl she called Sophia. It's clear to me now that those two girls are the same two girls that are accused of this crime with your daughter. At any rate, Victoria watched Emma and her friends verbally abuse a disabled girl that was nearby. Victoria had to go over there and tell them to stop and your daughter seemed to think that she didn't need to."

Carol was glaring at Alan. "It seems your daughter thinks she can do whatever she wants, as Victoria told me that your Emma threatened to have you get involved. So Alan, it seems to me that yes, Emma could indeed be involved in what happened at her high school."

Chris Ferguson cleared his throat and said, "After careful deliberation, the disciplinary committee gave us their recommendation and the partners have voted on it. You will be taking a leave of absence so that you can deal with this personal family crisis."

Alan asked, "A leave of absence? For how long? What am I going to do for an income? I need to feed my family, and keep a roof over our heads as well as fund my daughter's defense."

The founder replied, "Three months Alan, only ninety days. Just so you can focus on your family through this tough and trying time. If it becomes necessary, we can extend it another ninety days. As for money, HR will cash out your vacation and sick time. From what I understand, you've accrued a lot of it." After a few seconds he said, "Alright, that's it."

Everyone stood up and started walking out of the conference room except for the founder. Chris was looking at Alan and gestured for him to stay. Once everyone had left the conference room and the door was closed Chris said, "Alan, you have my sympathies. I can't imagine what you're going through right now. Have you hired a lawyer for Emma?"

Alan shook his head to return to the moment then said, "No, not yet. I'm going to defend her."

Chris shook his head saying, "Alan, you know better than that. You need to hire an attorney for Emma. Come with me." Chris stood up and walked to the door, opened it and led Alan out of the conference room.

Alan followed the founder of the firm through the halls, making the turn to "Executive Row" the area where the senior partners had their offices. Soon Alan was in Chris Ferguson's office.

The room was very large, a wall was filled with bookshelves filled with law books and others, another wall was filled with photos and framed art. The window view was the best in the building, a beautiful view out to sea.

Chris moved to his large oak desk and opened a drawer, pulling a book out of the drawer, opening it to a page. He took a notepad that was to the side of his desk and started writing on it. Very soon, Chris offered the sheet of paper to Alan who stepped forward to take the sheet.

Chris said, "Those are the names of some very good lawyers that you should look into hiring for Emma. Mention my name and they'll cut you a break on their rates."

Alan looked at the sheet of paper and there were three names on the paper along with their phone numbers. Alan looked up at Mister Ferguson and said, "Thank you, sir."

Chris said, "You're welcome, take care of your family, Alan." He looked at his computer that gave a notification beep. "Ah, your check is ready. Shannon will give it to you when you leave. Go ahead, get anything you need from your office before you go, your office will be here when you get back."

Alan nodded and recognized he was being dismissed he thanked the man and walked out. Right by the office door was the desk of Mister Ferguson's executive assistant. She was sitting at her desk working but she saw Alan walk out.

"This is for you.", the blonde woman said. She was holding an envelope towards him.

Alan took the envelope while saying, "Thanks." After putting it inside his suit jacket pocket he said, "I need to get a few things out of my office."

The young woman nodded while saying, "That's fine, go ahead."

Alan walked quickly out of "Executive Row" and returned to his office. Once there he grabbed some personal items that he didn't want to leave behind. He was there for less then ten minutes gathering what he needed then he walked out of the office.

Alan turned around to look at his office before leaving with a sigh. Thankfully he didn't run into anyone on the way out, he really didn't know what he was going to say if he had encountered a partner, let alone a senior partner of the firm.

Alan drove home in record time, entering the house with a "I'm back." as he entered the house from the garage.

Zoe was not in the kitchen, but he saw Anne sitting at the kitchen table with her laptop on. "Hey there, where's your mother?"

Anne looked up at her dad and said, "She's in the office, she's been freaking out all morning. How did it go at work? What happened?"

Alan made a face then schooled himself quickly. "I'll tell you later."

He went over and kissed her on the forehead followed by a quick ruffle of her hair. Anne squawked and exclaimed, "Dad! I'm not seven years old anymore!"

Alan walked away, heading for the office and he said, "I know, I miss those days. Especially now."

Alan walked through the house to the home office that he shared with his wife. As he walked to the office he could hear his wife speaking.

"...eg you to reconsider, there's no need-"

Alan walked in and saw his wife say, "Very well, If there's nothing I can say to make you reconsider then I wish you well. Have a good day." She hung up, placing her cell phone on the desk and while she looked at his she said, "Fuck you, you asshole, your business is going to fail in six months or less!"

Zoe looked up and saw her husband. She quickly changed her expression to a more calm and neutral one and said, "Alan, I didn't hear you get back."

Alan walked to his wife and placed a hand on her shoulder for reassurance. "I just got back, Zoe. What was that?"

Zoe looked at her phone again then back to her husband. She pursed her lips, she took a couple of breaths then shook her head, flipping her blonde hair back. "Just another client cutting ties. I've lost four already."

Alan looked shocked and surprised. "What? What the fuck!? Why?"

Zoe gave him a glare, tilting her head and replying in exasperation while waving an arm, "What do you think?! They've found out that Emma's involved with what happened at Winslow and they want nothing to do with the parents that obviously raised a domestic terrorist that bullies their former best friend!"

Alan was still expressing surprise so his face remained unchanged.

Zoe continued while waving one of her arms in exasperation, "Somehow these people have learned of Emma's involvement! Now they want to cut off all business with me! Nevermind that I've helped these people improve their business, nevermind that some of these people have become friends! These people are blaming me, they're blaming us for what Emma's done!"

Her glare at Alan could have peeled the skin off his bones. "Goddamn it Alan, you should have told me what happened to you and Emma, now look where we are!"

Alan tried to protest but Zoe's cell phone started to ring and she looked at it. "Oh no, not another one.", she expressed with some emotion. Composing herself quickly she answered, "This is Zoe."

There was a pause as Zoe listened to the caller. Then Zoe put the phone away from her, sighing then bringing it close to her again while saying, "There's nothing I can say to get you to reconsider?"

Pause.

"I see. Goodbye then, and good luck with your business." Zoe hung up the phone and glared at her husband. "That's five! Five of my clients have dropped me today! Three dropped me yesterday while I had my phone turned off, that's eight clients Alan!"

Alan tried to find the words to calm and reassure his wife but for the moment words were failing him. Zoe stood up and walked out of the room, "I can't look at you right now. I need a few minutes." Zoe was out of the room and moving through the halls to return to the kitchen where she opened the sliding glass door and walked out onto the patio, closing the door behind her.

Anne had her back to her mother as well as having headphones on while working on her laptop so she never saw her mother enter and go outside. She was busy deleting hurtful messages and cleaning up her social media sites from all the haters. Tears were falling down her face, the music she was listening to was the only comfort she had.

Back in the home office, Alan brought a hand to his face and said, "Fuck." He hadn't told his wife that the firm just put him on a leave of absence, he knew that conversation was not going to go well.

Coil

Thomas Calvert was walking out of the airport terminal to his waiting car. The driver had the door opened and he climbed in to the back seat. The door closed behind him and the driver entered the car. Soon the car was on its way to Brockton Bay, specifically to his home.

Thomas was dropped off at his house and the man walked in, to his office in the house. The phone in the office rang and Thomas answered the call.

The voice on the line spoke first, "Stand by for Chief Director Costa-Brown."

Thomas arched an eyebrow. This was unexpected.

There was an audible click and a new voice spoke.

"Mister Calvert.", the voice on the line was Rebecca Costa-Brown.

"Chief Director, I wasn't expecting your call.", Thomas said.

The Chief Director's voice was harsh, "This isn't a social call Mister Calvert. I have a lot on my plate, I just wanted to speak to you very quickly."

Thomas inquired, "Certainly, I am all ears."

Rebecca's voice calmly said, "You've thrown your hat into the ring for a Director position Mister Calvert, are you certain this is something you are interested in doing? You are a successful CEO at of a company you started. You would have to resign from your company should you be given a Director position. That would also mean a very large salary reduction. We could not pay you at your current salary Mister Calvert. So, I want to be sure that this is something you want."

Thomas replied, "Yes, Chief Director I understand and I'm perfectly willing to resign from my company. I've groomed a possible replacement should I be called to take a Director's position. Am I going to need to start making preparations for such a thing?"

Silence for a few seconds then, "Not at this time Mister Calvert. I simply wanted to inform you that you would have to make a serious lifestyle change. Your seven figure salary and all those nice bonuses you have been getting would be reduced to a low six figure salary. It would be a far cry from what you are accustomed to. If you are alright with that, I'll keep you in mind. Additionally, there will need to be a small change on your part immediately."

"What would that be, Chief Director?"

The Chief Director replied, "Your consulting contract with the PRT-ENE is now terminated. I need to be objective and if I'm considering you for a Director's position the only position that MIGHT be opening soon would be Brockton Bay, so I cannot just give you the job while you are a consultant to that particular department. There has to be an appearance of objectivity."

"So, think of this as me getting ready to make a change however, nothing is set in stone. I might select someone else or I might keep the current Director in her position. Nonetheless, I thank you for your service as a consultant. When I've made a decision, you will be contacted at once. But your office will be cleared and any personal items will be waiting for you at the front desk by fourteen hundred hours. Good day Mister Calvert."

The line clicked and all Thomas heard was a dial tone.

Thomas was upset at the loss of his consultant position but it seemed that he was on track to taking Emily's position or being very close to taking the Director's chair in Brockton Bay. He knew of no one that would willingly take the posting. Thomas smiled, he considered this a good thing. Time to get ready and head to his underground base and take stock of the whole situation.

Back in Los Angeles, Chief Director Rebecca Costa-Brown was smiling. After giving herself that moment of enjoyment the scowl returned to her face, the clusterfuck of what was happening in Brockton Bay was still needing to be resolved.

The Hebert House

Saturday morning was like any other morning mostly for Danny and Taylor Hebert. Taylor woke up at her "new" normal time, six thirty in the morning and started her exercise routine thanks to Widowmaker waking her up.

"Time to wake up and burn off that double cheeseburger and french fries you ate! Get dressed!", Widowmaker ordered.

Taylor quietly exclaimed, "I'm up! I'm awake!"

Taylor quickly and quietly dressed for exercise and moved downstairs to the basement to start working out with the weight machine.

Sarah and Widowmaker both gave Taylor her exercise regimen, which Taylor dutifully went to work without complaint. With Sarah and Widowmaker playing "drill sergeants", Jaina, Tyrande and Li-Ming offered words of encouragement and praise when she completed her workout with the weight machine. After quickly cleaning up the basement area where she worked out, Sarah directed Taylor to head outside for her morning run.

Taylor returned from her morning run drenched in sweat but feeling energized. Her dad was walking down the stairs as she came in and he stopped to talk to Taylor.

"Taylor, I didn't expect to see you up this early for a Saturday. Everything go alright with your run?"

Taylor replied, "Yeah, no problems." She held up the pepper spray to show she had it with her. "I had this with me, but there was barely anyone out and about. Guess people wanted to sleep in today."

Danny nodded then asked, "Hungry? I'll make us some breakfast."

Nodding enthusiastically Taylor replied, "Oh yeah. Very. I'm gonna take a shower."

Danny said, "Okay, I'll get started on that. Pancakes or waffles?"

Taylor chirped, "Pancakes! Feeling like pancakes today, dad."

Smiling, Danny said, "Alright, I'll get started on that." Danny walked to the kitchen while Taylor rushed up the stairs to her room to grab clothes for the day and zooming to the bathroom to take her shower and get ready for the day.

Breakfast was really good, her dad surprised her by making blueberry pancakes and they were really, really good. Several of the Voices were talking about it. Jaina, Tyrande and Li-Ming were enjoying the taste a great deal.

Sarah remarked, "I can't remember the last time I had fresh blueberries."

Jaina gave a very satisfying yum sound as Taylor was taking a bite from her pancake stack. "Wonderful. Reminds me of breakfast back when I was a young apprentice at Dalaran."

Taylor thought, "Dad hasn't made these pancakes in a long, long time. God, I missed this."

Widowmaker decided to take the conversation into another direction. "While this is fun, what are you going to do today, cherie?"

Taylor was chewing her food and answered, "Figured we should go do some more recon. I've decided that as much as I want the Nazis gone, we need an easier target. The Merchants need to go and they are an easier target than the Empire Eighty Eight or the ABB."

Sarah said, "Ah, well that's fine. We know where to go."

Taylor said, "We do. We'll scout for one of their drug stash houses, see how many guards there are and if it's easy, we will come back at night and take it out. No Killing, I mean it!"

Sarah chuckled, "Understood, boss lady. But, that just means their hospital stay is going to be a long one."

Breakfast finished, father and daughter went to the living room to watch some television while Danny read the newspaper.

Right away three of the Voices were calling for the third Star Wars movie, Jaina, Li-Ming, and Tyrande wanted to see Return of the Jedi because they had to know if Darth Vader really was Luke's father and they wanted to see how the story ended.

Unfortunately or fortunately depending on the point of view, Widowmaker and Sarah were saying that they needed to get out there and start looking for a stash house to hit.

Taylor told her dad she was going to go out for a bit but would return around three to four pm. Her Voices wanted to be out longer, but Taylor knew her dad was not going to want her to be out that long.

"We'll go out again tonight after dad's gone to sleep.", Taylor said.

Sarah said, "Before we go hunting, we're going to go shopping first."

Taylor said, "Shopping?"

Sarah said, "Yep.", popping the 'p'. There was a sense that she was smirking.

Taylor finished getting ready to leave, she threw on her favorite hooded sweatshirt, grabbed her backpack which was empty and slung it over one shoulder. Then she hugged her dad and left. She made her way to the bus stop and got on the bus that would take her to the Boardwalk per Sarah's instructions.

"Why am I going to the Boardwalk first?", Taylor asked.

Sarah said, "You're going to buy some clothes for me. That way I can blend in."

Taylor asked, "Um, why?"

Sarah replied, "My current attire is not exactly casual wear. I'll be identified as one of your "Capes" when they see me. Or maybe as a video game character, one of the two. You did bring some of the cash with you, right?"

Taylor said, "Yeah, I brought three hundred, you didn't say how much to bring."

Sarah said, "That's fine, we're not looking for new clothes. Taylor, where would the second hand stores be at in the Boardwalk?"

Taylor said, "The second hand stores would be at the end, near Lord's Market. That area would have what you're looking for."

Sarah said, "Then that's where you need to go."

After the bus ride, Taylor made her way down to the end of the Boardwalk. Taylor looked around and Sarah poked Taylor mentally, directing her to a second hand clothing store. The Voices were quiet but watching and listening with interest.

Once inside the store Taylor made her way to the women's clothing side of the store. Sarah told Taylor what size she was for pants and tops and very quickly Taylor found a pair of dark gray jeans and a dark blue shirt that Sarah said for her to take to the cashier. At the cashier, there was a New England Patriots baseball cap that Sarah had Taylor buy as well. Taylor paid with cash and the cashier gave her the change. Putting the change in her pocket, and grabbing the bag of clothes Taylor left the store.

As they left, Widowmaker said, "We will shop somewhere much nicer for me."

Jaina said, "There's nothing wrong with my attire."

Sarah said, "Jaina, you're lovely, but as I said, this is for recon, for blending in. Your clothes, blend in they do not...unless you go to a Renaissance faire. Speaking of blending in, I think we'll make another trip or two for each of you ladies. That way you have something else to wear should you get out a little more."

Jaina gave a hum in response.

Widowmaker snarked, "I will not wear such rags. I shop only at the best stores."

Taylor said, "We'll need to get more cash."

Sarah said, "Don't worry about that, we will get more cash, that is a guarantee. Alright Taylor, find a women's bathroom so you can bring me out."

Taylor knew there was a women's bathroom nearby and made her way to it. Walking in, she found it empty. Taking the last stall, she went in and closed the door behind her. Taylor set the bag and her backpack by the toilet so no one could reach under from the front and grab the items.

Taylor focused her thoughts and pulled, bringing Sarah Kerrigan back out. Taylor's body grew in size slightly. Her figure filling out, her hair changing color from raven black to brown, then to a darker hue of red. Taylor's clothes changing color and type. In seconds, it was over and Sarah Kerrigan was back in the world once more. (AN: Ghost uniform from The Betrayal Cinematic from Wings of Liberty)

Sarah broke her rifle into multiple pieces and put them into the empty backpack. Sarah quickly stripped out of her Ghost gear, taking off the armored greaves and vambraces, her boots, skin tight sneak suit, her goggles, and gloves. She removed the belt that was the key to her stealth system. Then she pulled out the jeans and dark colored top, she quickly dressed. She put her gloves and boots back on then folded up and carefully put the rest of her Ghost gear in the backpack. She checked the backpack's weight and made sure that the gear wouldn't make too much noise. Satisfied, she pulled her red hair into a high pony tail and put the ball cap on her head.

Sarah looked herself over and nodded to herself. Satisfied that she was ready, "Okay, lets go for a walk.", Sarah whispered.

Grabbing the backpack and putting it on, she picked up the bag, she walked out of the bathroom which was still empty. Striding out onto the Boardwalk Sarah looked around. After a moment, Sarah started walking back towards the bus stop. Once there, she boarded the bus, making a show of paying for the fare and using her psychic power to make the driver ignore the non-payment.

Taylor right away spoke up, "Hey! You didn't need to do that!"

Widowmaker was chortling.

Sarah replied, "I did actually, you forgot to leave the money out. What am I supposed to pay with?"

Widowmaker started laughing now, Li-Ming joined in the laughter. Tyrande and Jaina were radiating amusement.

There was this image of Taylor holding up a finger and about to retort when she realized that she did forget to leave the money in the bag for Sarah to take. Taylor huffed and there was a sense of her folding her arms while pouting.

Jaina said, "It's alright Taylor. Sarah, where are we going now?"

The bus was in motion now, pulling out of the Boardwalk bus loading zone and heading west into the city.

Sarah replied, "Going back to what the map said was Merchant territory. I'll scout out a stash house and if it looks good, I'll hit it so we get some more cash for our war against the gangs of this city."

Tyrande and Li-Ming both asked at the same time, "How are you going to find what you're looking for?" "How?"

Sarah replied with a chuckle, "Easy, I'm going to read minds."

Everyone was silent.

The Hebert House

Danny Hebert had the television on that was playing a college basketball game for background noise while he was reading the newspaper while sitting in his usual chair in the living room. Taylor had left to go out for the day, and while he was concerned she did take her pepper spray and he knew that she wouldn't go anyplace dangerous.

The newspaper was largely talking about the major scandal that broke yesterday and Danny got to enjoy himself as he read about everything. The newspaper was giving a lot of information from "anonymous source" that had broken the Winslow and PRT scandals wide open. He was still reading the paper but his coffee cup was empty so he got up to refill his coffee cup. As he walked into the kitchen the phone rang.

Danny picked up the phone and answered it, "Hebert residence, Danny speaking."

The voice on the other line was a woman's voice and she said, "Please hold for Mister Cheatum."

A second later there was a click and the sound of a phone being picked up off the hook. "Danny, Robert Cheatum. How are you?

"I'm good, Mister Cheatum. How are you?", Danny replied.

"Danny, we're on a first name basis now you can call me Robert. Listen the reason for my call is that I'm getting some news from sources that I cannot tell you about and I wanted to give you a heads up."

Danny started to feel concerned and sat down at the kitchen table. "What's going on?"

"It looks like Taylor's name is going public. One of my people has noticed a post on the Internet by a…", there was the sound of papers rustling then a triumphant, "Ah there it is...a Internet user calling himself Void Cowboy revealed her name. The user's been banned and the post's been taken down but her name is out there. I want you to be prepared in case the media shows up. If they do, I want you and make sure Taylor remembers this too, when they try to ask you any questions you tell them 'No comment.'. If they show up at your house or work, call my office."

Danny said, "I will, thanks for the heads up."

"No problem. Talk to you later Danny."

Robert hung up and Danny returned to the coffee pot to refill his coffee. That done, he decided that he needed to get the second half of his lawsuit started. He had to hire an attorney or two to sue the parents of Sophia Hess, Madison Clements, and Emma's parents. Danny felt sort of bad for Zoe, but any feelings he had for Alan were gone except for anger and hate.

Getting up with full coffee cup in hand, he went back upstairs to the home office he rarely used but that is where he left the phone numbers of lawyers to call. He had to hire another lawyer.

Brockton Bay School District Offices

Main Conference Room

It was a little after nine in the morning and Superintendent Brent Wilkenson was standing at the front of the room with a covered board to his right that was on an easel. The conference table had been removed and assembled in the room standing in front of him were the senior members of the Brockton Bay school district including the other Assistant Superintendent who was the only Assistant Superintendent now since the other one, Monica was under arrest sitting in a jail cell in Concord.

The last person walked in, Brent gave them a glare for being the last one then started. "Alright, everyone's here. Good morning everyone, thank you all for coming in this morning." He paused to take a breath then resumed, "Winslow High School is a complete and total clusterfuck. I apologize for the harsh language, but you're going to have to deal with it."

Brent removed the covering over the board that he had a set up. It was a whiteboard with a lot of writing. It was a 'To Do List'. Pointing at the first line, he said, "First, I want a full investigation into the office staff and faculty, and I mean FULL INVESTIGATION. I want any and all interviews with the staff and faculty to be video taped. I want the records of that school gone over with a fine tooth comb, you leave no stone unturned, and that means you better triple check those records on every staff and faculty member!"

Brent was looking at everyone in the eye as his gaze swept across the room. "I want scalps, I want heads on pikes, and if you can't give them to me, your asses are on the firing line. Danny Hebert filed an official complaint that Monica Shelby obviously did absolutely zero investigating and now we know why she didn't do any investigating! So, this is where you come in, give me names, give me those scalps,"

Brent kept an angry expression to show how furious he was. "Right now, every teacher and every staff member at Winslow High School is suspended while this investigation is underway. I intend to get rid of any staff member or any teacher that failed to do their job and I will do everything I can to get them blackballed from ever teaching anyone and anywhere ever again! If any of them are guilty of criminal wrongdoing, I'll see to it they spend as much time behind bars as possible!"

"Speaking of Monica Shelby, I've received information that soon to be formerAssistant Superintendent Monica Shelby is cooperating with law enforcement. Rest assured, her career as well as that of Carrie Blackwell and Blackwell's assistant are terminated when this is all over. So, if any of you have any knowledge of wrongdoing, you better step forward and talk. I can guarantee that I won't be showing any mercy if law enforcement shows up at your house or in this building to arrest one of you."

He pointed at the second line then said, "I want a full investigation into what the administration did and did not do with regards to the victim of that Locker assault, Taylor Hebert. According to her father, his daughter complained but the staff did nothing! I want you to look at the files of Sophia Hess, Emma Barnes, and Madison Clements! Yes, the FBI and BBPD have the files but we have our own copies, so find out why the staff and teachers failed in their duty as caregivers and first responders!"

Then he pointed at the third line. "Gangs. This school district has a zero tolerance policy with gang attire, gang symbols, anything connected to gangs but that school was a walking advertisement for the Empire, ABB, and the Merchants! Kids were wearing gang colors in open defiance of the district policy! The walls of the school were tagged with so much graffiti, it was disgusting! I watched a Merchant drug deal go down as I was walking to the school office and the teachers and staff let it happen! I'm canceling the security contract with the company that works Winslow High School, and I want you to find out why the gangs were allowed to run rampant at this campus!"

Brent's expression was completely furious as he was speaking. He scowled and growled out, "There will be no ass covering, no cover ups, none of that shit is going to fly. You find evidence of criminal wrongdoing, you will bring it to my attention immediately, and I will bring any and all criminal wrongdoing to law enforcement's attention, am I clear?!"

Silence.

Brent roared, "Am I Clear!?"

Everyone responded with, "Yes", "Okay", "Yeah, sir", or some other form of acknowledgment. Brent swept the room with his hardened gaze and was silent as he looked at everyone.

"We are going to clean the rot and filth out of Winslow High School, and we will not be stopped!", Brent roared.

Taking a breath to calm down Brent pointed at the next line of the to do list. "Next, we have close to three thousand students that need to be moved from Winslow to other high schools within the district. With Winslow shut down, I will be looking into a new asbestos removal contract and getting that school some serious upgrades."

"So, we need to start working on getting the word to those affected students and their families as to where these students will be going for the next few months. I want plans for bussing these kids to their new schools later today. We have to get all these kids in their new schools in time for Monday morning!"

Brent slapped the whiteboard with his hand multiple times next to him to stress his point. "That means we need to start finding which schools to move them to and we need to start making calls and emails to the parents and guardians of those kids as soon as possible!"

"We need to contact the Principals of the schools that are going to be getting these transfers that they're getting a massive influx of students! I know we don't have enough teachers, so I want calls made to get in some teachers, call whoever you need to, in state, out of state, get us some teachers! So, as you can see we have a lot to do, there will be no slacking so let's get started!"

Brent began to break the people up into different teams that would be handling the different tasks. It took another twenty minutes as he answered some questions and new arrangements were made but when it was over, everyone was filing out of the conference room to start on their tasks.

Brent returned to his office and made a call to a company that could do the asbestos removal and set up a meeting with the head of the company for later that afternoon. He wanted to get the asbestos removal started Monday morning but then he had to make sure that the school was released by the authorities.

Brent sighed. He slid both hands down his face then ran one hand through his hair while muttering obscenities and curses against Blackwell, Anderson, and Shelby. He couldn't believe what was happening.

24th Police Precinct

Brockton Bay

Detectives Kim Voight and John Wellington were back at work after a few hours of sleep putting in the final touches to their case. There were still some interviews to conduct. Reports that needed completion, paperwork was gone over more than once due to the increased scrutiny of the case. Calls from the District Attorney and US Attorney's office were returned to answer questions or to arrange interview times with the respective offices to go over the investigation.

There was a lot to do.

District Attorney's Office

Downtown Brockton Bay

Ordinarily, the District Attorney's office for the city of Brockton Bay would not be a flurry of activity on a Saturday morning but today was not an ordinary Saturday.

The conference room was occupied by the Assistant US Attorney, Assistant District Attorney, the young teenage girl Julia Maxwell, her family and their lawyer.

Julia's lawyer was looking over the immunity agreement and was making sure it was in order. All the points that Julia, her family, and the lawyer had brought up were addressed in the agreement so the lawyer was going over it with Julia and her family.

Michael Spector, the AUSA steepled his hands and waited patiently while Abbie Kincaid the ADA was looking over some papers of her own.

The teenager's lawyer finished going over everything with Julia and declared, "This looks good. My client is willing to sign this and give you everything you need."

Both Michael and Abbie simultaneously said, "Good." The two looked at each other awkwardly for a moment then Michael pointed at Abbie and said, "Jinx, you owe me a coffee."

Abbie looked surprised at Michael then grinned, "Just take a right at the door, go down the hall and the opening in the middle is the kitchenette. The coffee pot is on so just help yourself." She lifted her paper cup of the hot beverage and took a sip.

Michael smirked, "Not going to let you off that easy." Then with seriousness he looked at Julia's lawyer. "If it's all in order, go ahead and sign that Miss Maxwell."

Julia's lawyer gave her a pen and she signed and initialed where the yellow highlighted marks told her to. The lawyer signed it as well then slid the document over.

Abbie took it and looked at it then passed it to another person and instructed, "Make copies."

The person took the paper, walked out and made copies that they could see through the glass wall of the conference room. They quickly returned and handed the original first then the copies. A copy was quickly passed over to Julia's lawyer and to Julia's parents.

Everyone seemed to be satisfied then Michael spoke, "Your phone was downloaded last night Miss Maxwell. I know you can't remember everyone who was there, but we have printed the text messages that Miss Barnes sent to you that included everyone else. Many of these are nicknames." He slid a sheet across the table which Julia's lawyer took and was looking at it with Julia.

The sheet was a print out of the text messages from Emma and it listed the participants in the conversation. Michael said, "Your client can start by identifying these nicknames and giving us their real names."

Abbie pushed a button on a remote that was by her hand and on the wall, was a paused image of the video that Julia had turned over. "Tell us which of these people on the video are in that text message thread."

Julia took a moment then nodded her head. She answered, "Pretty much everyone who's on that message thread is there. I'll give you their names." With a sigh, Julia started writing names down, looking up at the paused image twice while she was writing names down. It took her several minutes but she finally nodded her head and said, "There you go."

Julia's lawyer was looking at it first and apparently satisfied he slid the sheet across back to the other lawyers. Abbie took it and looked it over first then passed it to Michael.

As Michael was looking at the sheet Abbie pointed at the screen. "Who is who that you can see?"

Julia took a breath then started naming names, starting with one of the people next to Emma then moved from right to left side of the screen. The video was played and stopped so that a couple more people could be identified and after about ten minutes it was over.

"Thank you Julia for your help.", Abbie said.

Michael echoed, "Yes, thank you. We'll be in touch, Counselor when we need to start preparing Julia for trial."

Julia, her family, and the lawyer stood up. Hands were shaken and goodbyes were made. Then the group left the conference room.

Once they were gone Michael said, "Let's get these people investigated, I want arrests either later today or tomorrow."

Abbie was nodding her head. "Yeah, I'm with you on that. We'll get started. What are you thinking of charging them with?"

Michael leaned back into his chair and said, "Conspiracy, Aiding and Abetting in a Terrorist Act, and Depraved Indifference. If I can think of anything else to add, I'll add the charge."

Abbie nodded her head while saying, "That sounds fine. I'm sure the District Attorney will be on board with that and filing State charges to that effect."

They stood up and left the conference room. While working together, they were using different parts of the building. Michael was using an unused office as his own and there were other people helping him here from the Concord office.

Charges for the three teenagers already in custody were being compiled and talked about. Charges for the adults involved were also being worked on. Everything was being fast tracked for everyone to be arraigned in Federal court on Monday. Their arraignments for State court would happen later in the week, most likely on Wednesday.

The one outstanding issue was the PRT Special Agent Sandra Jefferson was still on the run and hadn't been captured yet. There was a lot of pressure on State and Federal law agencies to find the woman and get her into custody.

Michael had to go back to Concord and meet with the family and the lawyer that was representing Madison Clements to work out her plea agreement. There was a lot to do and how much time he was going to shave off of Madison's sentence was based on how much she cooperated.

There was a lot of work to do for Michael and Abbie to work on.

Merchant Territory

Sarah Kerrigan was walking through a neighborhood tract. The houses were run down clearly needing better upkeep. There were several kids out in front of their houses, some parents keeping the kids close to home. Sarah kept walking by, her baseball cap pulled low so no one could get a good look at her face.

She finally stopped and took notice of a house on a corner. She looked it over and quickly noticed that there were surveillance cameras on the house.

Sarah smirked and thought, "Jackpot, ladies."

Widowmaker was the first to respond. "Ah, I see the cameras, but are you sure?"

Li-Ming responded, "What makes you think this is it?"

Tyrande asked, "How do you know?"

Taylor was quiet but she was clearly radiating curiosity.

Sarah replied, "Those drug dealers we passed by, I read their minds. This is the stash house where they pick up more of their drugs and drop off the cash. The cameras are a giveaway as well as the two thugs sitting on the porch are another indication."

Taylor seemed satisfied so she asked, "So, we're going to leave and come back later tonight to hit it?"

Sarah smiled and thought, "No Taylor, I'm going to take a closer look and if I like what I see, I'll hit it."

Taylor was shocked. "Like now? During daylight?"

Sarah was on the move now, walking toward the supposed stash house. "No time like the present.", Sarah said.

Widowmaker was chuckling. "I will enjoy watching you work."

Taylor asked, "Why don't you scout it out and come back at night?"

Sarah said, "We'll see, if the guards are on point, I'll give it some more thought."

Sarah approached the front of the house, her mind was doing a sweep, she could pick up the minds of multiple people inside the house.

Sarah thought, "Ten people total, these two out here, eight inside. Six on the first floor, two on the second. Looks good enough to me, I'm going in."

Taylor was nervous but she trusted in Sarah. "Be careful.", Taylor thought.

Sarah sent back a thought of reassurance as she kept walking to the house. Sarah turned and walked up the walkway towards the two men. Both men, each one looking tough stood up as she walked toward them. "Get the fuck outta here." One of them said.

Sarah looked at both men and applied her psychic power to both, freezing them in placed saying, "Hello there boys. Why don't one of you open the door and let me in?"

One of them, a man with dark hair turned and opened the door. Sarah looked at the other, a red haired man she patted him on the cheek, and said, "Go to sleep, you won't remember a thing when you wake up." That man's eyes rolled back and he dropped like a sack of potatoes.

Sarah patted the dark haired man on the shoulder. "Good night now, you won't remember anything when you wake up." The man's eyes rolled back and he too dropped to the ground.

Sarah walked inside the front of the house. She kept the backpack on one shoulder while dropping the bag with her Ghost gear next to her. Looking around she saw the men that were sitting in the front room were six people, two on chairs, two on the floor in front of the sofa, and two on the sofa. All were young men of various ethnicity. The two on the floor and two on the sofa were playing a video game, while the two on the chairs were watching.

They all saw Sarah as she entered and were clearly not expecting her, she looked at them, grabbed their minds with her psychic power and commanded them, "Stay where you are." Looking at the four playing the game, she commanded, "Keep playing, nothing's happening." Looking at the two on the chairs she commanded, "Stay, do not move, don't speak."

Everyone kept doing what they were doing and Sarah could see the fear in the two men that were sitting in the chair.

With a chuckle Sarah asked the dirty haired blonde man that was sitting on one of the chairs, "First time facing a psychic? Yeah, of course it is." She patted the man's face. "Sleep now, when you wake you won't remember anything."

The man slumped forward and fell to the floor after closing his eyes.

Sarah looked at the other man in the chair. "You look tired." The man's eyes closed and he too slid off the chair and was asleep.

Sarah started to walk up the stairs but not before reinforcing her command to the men playing the video game to keep playing and ignore anything else going on.

As Sarah was walking up the stairs Sarah could feel the shock from everyone in her head. Taylor was the first to react and say something.

Taylor exclaimed, "What the...Oh fu—Oh My God! You Mastered them!"

Widowmaker was actually shocked herself. "Comment est-ce possible? Sarah, you frighten me!"

Tyrande said, "This ability of yours is similar to a spell I can cast, but it's duration is much shorter and I can only affect one person at a time."

Li-Ming and Jaina were shocked into silence.

Sarah was at the top of the stairs now she simply replied, "Told you, I'm psychic. One of the strongest ever recorded. I'm a Ghost. This is child's play actually. I haven't even brought up the real nasty things I can do."

Widowmaker was stunned at watching Sarah display her psychic power. Jaina, Li-Ming, and Tyrande were all equally shocked at Sarah's display.

Sarah turned to the right and moved down the hall, then opening the door that was on the left. The room had two men, one behind a desk, the other in front sitting in the chair. The one in front stood up and had his gun out quickly. Sarah raised her hand and the gun flew out of the man's hand who gaped in shock right into Sarah's hand.

Without hesitation Sarah fired the gun once, hitting the man in the crotch and he went down while screaming in pain. Sarah pointed the gun at the man behind the desk.

"Don't fucking move.", she ordered to the man behind the desk. The man found himself unable to move and his face expressed panic.

To the man on the floor who was screaming in agony she said, "That's for the five women you've raped you fuck. Now lay there and bleed quietly."

Widowmaker chirped, "Beau coup!"

Sarah walked around the bleeding man and sat down on the other chair that was in front of the desk. She lowered the gun, placing it on the desk in front of her.

"You must be freaking out right now. I understand that completely, you're not the first person I've encountered that has this kind of reaction. Anyway, I'll be brief. All I want you to do right now is go over and open that safe.", Sarah said calmly. She was giving a serious expression.

The man got up slowly and moved to the safe that was behind the desk and started turning the dial. As he was doing it Sarah said, "I'd do it myself, but since you're here and used to doing the work, I figured I'd just let you do it."

The safe opened and Sarah used her telepathy once more and ordered, "Sit down, don't move, stay quiet." The man moved back to his chair and sat down.

Taylor was completely stunned at what Sarah was doing. She never thought that Sarah could do this, read minds, okay, talk into someone's head, okay. But to order them around like a puppet master, Taylor was stunned.

Sarah thought, "Taylor, I'm going to need you to calm down and just let me do what I must. You don't want me to kill them, I have to use other means."

Taylor was about to reply when Widowmaker cut in, "Taylor, don't interrupt. She's at work, and last thing you want is for her lose control over one of these...scumbags and one of them to grab their gun and let Sarah to get shot by one of these idiots."

Taylor quieted down but she was radiating nerves.

Looking at the man Sarah read the man's mind, pulling information she wanted right out of his head. The Voices were shocked at what information she was pulling. Other stash house locations, how much money was usually in each house, how often the money was picked up from the stash houses, where the money was taken. All that information was now known to Sarah and the others.

Once she had what she wanted, she smiled at the man. "Thanks for your help. You can sleep now and when you wake up, you'll remember nothing. When taken in to custody, you will confess to all your crimes, then plead guilty." The man's eyes rolled up and he fell forward, his head hitting the desk hard.

Sarah got up and pulled the backpack she had over her shoulder down and swung the safe door wide open.

Sarah smiled and said aloud, "Jackpot, ladies. Taylor, now you can pay for that fancy lawyer and anything else."

Stuffed in the safe were stacks and stacks of cash, all with banker's straps. On the top where multiple straps of hundred dollar and fifty dollar bills, but the second, third, and fourth shelves was jam packed with twenties and tens. She started loading the backpack with the cash until it was full. There was still a lot of cash in the safe so she got up and grabbed a duffel bag that was on the floor by the far wall and filled it with the rest. Once done she zipped both bags up.

Sarah looked at the bleeding man and kicked him in the ribs. Sarah projected into the bleeding man's head, "You will confess to all your rapes, you will plead guilty, you will accept whatever sentence the judge gives you and if by whatever fortune smiles on your sorry ass, if you ever get out of jail, you will be a better person."

As she was about to leave Sarah noticed the television and saw it was on the news and she stopped to look at the screen. It was a news reporter talking to the camera. The sound was off but behind the reporter was a view of part of Taylor's house. The large font caption on the screen was "Winslow Locker Incident Victim Identified".

Sarah said, "Uh, Taylor...looks like your name is out there now."

Taylor responded with one word. "Shit."

Sarah was nodding and she found the remote to turn on the sound. They caught the tail end of the reporter saying, "...this is Krista Winters back to you in the studio."

Sarah sighed, "Whelp, missed the report. But looks like the front of your house has a host of media in front based on that shot of the news vans."

Taylor said, "We can't use Jaina to teleport us to my room."

Jaina chimed in, "I can teleport to somewhere close to your house, Taylor. You just need to have a solid image of it in your mind."

Taylor said, "Okay, I know a spot. It's a place...it's a place Emma and I used to play at when we were younger, it's secluded."

Sarah said, "Sounds like a plan."

Satisfied, Sarah left the room with the backpack and duffel bag of money. She went down the stairs and went to a room that was in the back of the house where there was a locked door. Making a scoffing noise, Sarah used her telekinesis to open the door.

"How did you do that?", Taylor asked in surprise.

Sarah chuckled, "Telekinesis. Lots of uses for that one,"

Swinging the door open with her mind, Sarah walked in and saw a table with three large packages that were wrapped with various methods. Sarah quickly backpedaled out of the room while saying, "Found the drugs.".

"You're not going to destroy the drugs?", Taylor asked.

Sarah replied, "No, otherwise the cops have nothing to charge them with. Besides, that much weight, they're looking at a lot of years behind bars."

There was another room a short distance down the hall and that is where she found the room that had all the security camera footage being sent to. Sarah made a scoffing noise at the system. There was a computer and a single monitor that showed various camera angles around the house, inside and outside.

Sarah said, "Let's see, time to make myself disappear."

Sarah cracked her knuckles and started typing. Within a couple minutes she had erased the drives of her appearance on all the cameras then shut the cameras down. Once that was done Sarah walked over to the landline phone and tried it, it wasn't working. Sarah rolled her eyes then she walked back to the front room and bent down to search one of the men on he floor. She found a cell phone, a flip model. Sarah flipped it open and dialed the emergency number that Widowmaker had dialed the other day.

"911, what's the nature of your emergency?"

Sarah replied with the location she was calling from speaking with a high pitched voice, like a young adult. At the end she added, "There's a whole bunch of Merchants unconscious and someone's been shot. Oh my, there's a lot of drugs here. I mean a whole lot!"

Sarah hung up the phone, dropped it on the floor then picked up the bag with her Ghost gear and walked out to the backyard where she stood on a covered patio. She set the backpack, duffel bag and bag down.

"Alright Jaina, your turn. Time for us to make like a tree and get out of here.", Sarah chirped.

Taylor sighed, "That's make like a tree and leave, Sarah."

Sarah smiled as she felt herself changing. "I like my version better."

Sarah began to change, she was growing taller, her hair was changing color from red to brown then lightening to blonde. Sarah's clothes were changing as well. Shirt and pants turned into a half shirt with vest and a dress. A staff appeared in one hand, and the transformation was over. Sarah was gone, and now Jaina Proudmore was standing on the patio. (AN: Theramore Sorceress Jaina)

Jaina grabbed the items that Sarah had left behind and picked them up. With a wave of her hand the items vanished.

Everyone except for Tyrande asked, "Where did they go?"

Sarah said, "You better not have lost my stuff!"

Jaina chuckled, "Relax, it's in my...inventory shall we call it. Now, Taylor I need you to focus on that image of the place you mentioned."

The image appeared in Jaina's mind and she called upon her magic. Arcane symbols appeared on the floor and they rotated around her feet. Jaina raised her staff and she vanished.

Jaina reappeared in a secluded area surrounded by bushes that had grown wild. There was grass that had grown up to knee level. It was clear that the place had not been maintained by the city for years.

Tyrande immediately cried out, "Oh how wonderful! This is beautiful! Taylor, please! Please let me return here at night! I must have a chance to pray to Elune!"

Taylor quickly said, "Yeah, sure Tyrande we can do that."

Tyrande said, "Thank you Taylor."

Jaina said, "So, you want me to bring the stuff back out?"

Sarah and Taylor both answered, "Yeah."

With a wave of Jaina's hand the items reappeared, the duffel bag, the bag with Sarah's Ghost equipment, and Taylor's backpack were on the ground. Taylor used her power and changed back to herself.

Taylor picked up the bags and backpack and started walking. She'd be home soon. Once she got back, she was going to have another conversation with Sarah over using her power to Master people. She was not comfortable at all.

Author's Note: Felt it was getting too long so decided to cut the chapter here. I wanted to have some more of Heroes kicking ass so we have Sarah Kerrigan using her psychic powers on a few Merchants. She didn't use her real flashy ones but we'll see them eventually. I've decided that the Merchants are the first targets for Taylor's Heroes. Taylor will go out again before the weekend is over.

Looks like Coil may be getting that Director's chair. Or will he? Piggot did say she's not going to be going anywhere. Anyway, Coil has the news of two new Capes (Jaina) and (Tyrande), the ABB and Kaiser and co. know about them too and the PRT do know as well. Thankfully for Jaina and Taylor they don't exactly know what she looks like other than the descriptions the shopkeepers gave and are going off of a sketch. But Tyrande's image is online now in varying grades of quality from 244p to a 1080p full color picture by a DracoTech smartphone.

I can tell you right now that I'm not happy with how I wrote Coil/Thomas Calvert. I don't like him, writing him makes me feel like I need to scrub with steel wool. I'm torn between keeping him as a villain for Taylor and the Heroes to beat or having an anvil fall on his head. But I shall try to write him as villainous as I can. Might need some help.

So, a lot of stuff happening as you can see. So much stuff happening. I hope you liked it.

Bonus mini Q & A!

1. Are more Heroes going to appear?

A: Yes. I did say at the start, that the first five are a "starting pack". More Blizzard Heroes will appear, even ones that are not in the actual Heroes of the Storm game. I'll pull characters from Blizzard games into this story if I think they'll fit.

2. Will the Heroes have different outfits?

A: Yes. Jaina has appeared wearing her Battle for Azeroth look in chapter one and as Theramore Jaina in another chapter. Other heroes will have different looks too,

3: Does Sarah have her Zerg powers?

A: No. This is Ghost Sarah before she became the Queen of Blades. Her last memories are the betrayal at Tarsonis. Will the Queen appear? I do not have plans to bring her in right now. If she does, she'll be separate from Sarah so there will be Sarah and the Queen of Blades in Taylor's head if it happens. That will be a fun conversation, won't it?

4: Will Villains from Heroes of the Storm be appearing in the story?

A: I'm trying to keep it to Heroes and maybe Edgy Anti-Heroes like Widowmaker in this story. I don't plan on having the Lich King and other Evil characters appearing. At least for now. I might change my mind.

That's all for now!

Translations:

Avocates, salauds tous = Lawyers, bastards all of them.

Comment est-ce possible = How is this possible

Beau coup = Nice shot