The beginning of the New Year had been very eventful for me and my family. Taylor waking up from her coma and starting the final stretch of her recovery was one thing. Then there was also the whole matter of nailing the bastards who tried to kill Taylor. An officer from the PRT named Officer Steele had come by the day Taylor had woken up as promised by Triumph. He was there to take down Taylor's testimony so they could confirm who exactly was involved.
When Taylor recounted her side of the story, and what those bastards from the Empire 88 had done to her, I had slowly kept getting angrier from what I had learned. Dad was pretty peeved too but he held it together better than I did. I actually had to leave right after she finished to calm down somewhere else. Those sadists had gone way out of their way just to target my sister, just because she decided to call them out on their bullshit. I had actually walked out of the hospital to kick some of the trees until a hospital employee stopped me since I was so mad ("Ma'am I don't know what you have against those trees but please stop, you're making a scene.").
Once I had calmed down and returned, we went over our options and decided that it was unlikely they knew Taylor was related to a ward. The PRT could still be involved since the Empire 88 was a parahuman gang and thus in its jurisdiction. While it was unusual, the PRT could investigate crimes that had no direct parahuman involvement if one of the perpetrators was in a parahuman gang. The key was making it look like they were pursuing violent gang members to members of the public rather than being related to the wards.
Most non-parahuman crimes got handed off to the police, but we had enough plausible deniability to avoid anyone from the general public from confirming that Taylor was related to a ward. Her attackers might figure it out once they got charged with assaulting a ward family member, but they wouldn't have any good way to spread that info if they wanted.
After that Taylor was discharged the next day and came home early in the morning. I didn't have an excuse to stay home so I had to head back to school right before Taylor returned. I actually kind of appreciated the normality of school a bit, all the highs and lows of the last few had been very stressful. It was actually my first shift back at the Wards that I was concerned about. There was probably a lot of blame being passed around for the New Years disaster and I wasn't sure how much would be coming my way as the one who backed out.
When me and Missy arrived at the Principal's office to get picked up by our handler Tina she seemed like she was a bit sleep deprived but cheery. We exchanged our pleasantries and we made our way into the van. It was there we got into the real conversation.
"Hey so what can you tell me about what's been going on with the PRT and Protectorate? I haven't entirely been in the loop after what happened to my sister."
"Oh. A lot of things have been happening. But most of it shouldn't be relevant to you. You mostly just need to worry about the shakeup to the schedule that's being worked out now."
"Wait, nobody is angry that I had to back out of the operation?"
"Most people I know were pretty understanding about your situation. It's hard to fault someone for prioritizing family. The only one I know who's made a big deal about it is some consultant guy. I think he's just trying to cover his butt though since that New Year's fiasco was his plan."
To me it sounded like that Calvert guy wasn't going to be getting hired full time like he had wanted. Then Tina slipped in a small bombshell.
"The director seemed to be disappointed in you, but only mildly. However she is much more angry about the fact that a leak might have caused it."
"They think there's a leak?"
"That's what Think Tank suggested after we got their input on why the operation failed. The director had to pull some strings to get such a quick turnaround on the request. But yeah someone gave the ABB and Empire the time and location of the Merchants party. No clue who, just that the whole branch is getting turned upside down to find them. But that's not something you need to worry about, we have it handled. Just let us know if you see anything though."
"Sure, can do"
Missy then decided to ask Tina a followup question. "You said there was a shakeup in the schedule. Is that why the monthly patrol schedule is late?"
"Yeah, Armsmaster and the deputy-director have been reworking the schedule since the status quo in the city got pretty disturbed a bit, and they're worried cape encounters will increase. The Empire got a bloody nose so they're going to be more active to save face. That means patrols are going to be more frequent for wards since the Protectorate needs its capes ready to respond."
That got my attention. "Wait, so do you think I might actually get more patrols?"
"I won't promise anything, but from what I know it would be pretty hard for them to not do that without making the other ward's schedules look ridiculous."
"So there is a chance."
"I would say so. You can go by Armsmaster's workshop to pick up the schedules after you get suited up. He should be done by now.
That got me excited, even though I knew better than to get my hopes up. As we rolled into the PRT HQ building I made an effort not to let my thoughts focus too much on the schedule. I went to suit up my costume, and calmly made my way to the Armsmaster's workshop with Vista. When we got there Armsmaster was there reviewing some papers.
"Hello Manes, Vista. I've finished revising the schedules to reflect our new priorities going forward. Here you go."
He handed over my schedule and when I looked at it I could hardly believe my eyes. I had 15 patrols this month and 5 console shifts, with my first patrol happening today. Just like that it was like I had never been benched or sidelined.
"I don't know what to say."
"Don't think too much of it. Like I said in a previous discussion, those public relations concerns we had are no longer relevant."
Right, he had mentioned that the anti-master bill would die once the new congress was sworn in. I guess they didn't need much pretense with the shakeup to let me back into the fold completely. Then Vista decided to ask a question.
"Wait if Manes is on more patrols, how did her console shifts get distributed? I only see 1-2 more than usual on my schedule."
"Well we decided that Shadow Stalker has been getting somewhat too aggressive on the patrols so around half were allocated to her, with the rest distributed evenly amongst the other wards."
Funny, that sounds like the same decision I would have made. I wonder what exactly Stalker did to get on Armsmaster's bad side. Probably being her charming self would be enough I assume. I decided to say my goodbyes.
"Well thanks again, I'll see you at the weekly briefing in a few hours."
My first patrol was in the daytime slot, which meant me and my partner of the day, Kid Win, got to patrol the boardwalk in the chilly January sun. I was getting some looks because I made so few public appearances. I even overheard some people wondering if I was a new ward ("I don't don't recognize that one." "Wasn't the ward who had Roman armor on the roster a guy?"). I might actually start spreading that rumor myself online, the 'Manes is actually dead' meme was getting old anyways.
Talking helped to pass the time during the long patrol walks. However, there wasn't a very big overlap in Kid Win's and my interests, with him being a techie and my interests mostly being in movies and food trends. I have strong opinions on the best flavors of bubble-tea, sue me. As far as my conversations with Kid Win went, we tended to focus on fairly generic topics.
We shared some cape gossip, like about the heroes who recently transferred branches ("I heard Torrential transferred out of Houston to Miami. He's apparently been feeling overshadowed by Eidolon" "Him and everyone else in Houston."). There's almost always a little drama in the stories behind those transfers if you dig deep enough. But other than that we avoided personal details while in costume in public since that was one of the things they drilled in during our training period.
With the patrol proving to be uneventful we got our files for the weekly briefing. I skimmed over the announcements and notices as usual until something caught my eye. There was a report about several heists of high end retailers done during the Merchants operation. Once I read that file more thoroughly my mood turned very displeased at the news we were getting. When it came up in the briefing I was very pointed with the briefing officer.
"What's this about the Undersiders? We literally just got done dealing with the Merchants, and now they're causing trouble?"
"I'm sorry Manes. I'm only telling you what we learned over the last few days. We only found out after the Merchants operation that the Undersiders performed three heists in quick succession during the same time frame. It's not certain if they knew about our operation ahead of time but the probability is uncomfortably high."
Which means whoever the leak came from either leaked info to the Undersiders, or they got the info themselves somehow and gave it to the other gangs to create a distraction for their heists. Either possibility was infuriating. Even more frustrating was the lack of information on their members. This reflected in my tone of voice as I continued.
"I read the briefing files on them and that cannot be all the information we have on them. Hellhound and Grue were both working independently up until half a year ago and the other two only have a short paragraph on their physical descriptions with no pictures or description on their powers. Even if they've only been doing small-time stuff we should know more. We don't even have an idea of how exactly they formed their group."
"Manes I know it's frustrating but they only just got on the PRT's radar as a major concern with this stunt. Their Modus-Operandi has made it difficult to gather information the way we do for the other gangs. They're a small group, Grue's darkness power helps them with stealth, and they are very good at avoiding confrontation. We'll learn more information as they continue operating."
"Alright then."
I forced myself to let it go so that we could finish the briefing. I highly suspected they were only going to be relegated to the back burner since they only seemed to be pulling some smash & grab thefts. Despite my disappointment I just comforted myself with the thought that they would be dealt with eventually since they didn't look too formidable on paper, at least compared to the Empire and ABB.
After that the rest of the week ticked over in what seemed to be in a routine fashion. I went to school & wards, I assume Taylor did her exercises to recover her strength, and dad overworked himself to catch up on all the days off he took. I even got to do a ride along with one of the armored cars going to the Brockton Bay Central Bank since the big battle got them spooked. The PRT likes having us protect high value targets from time to time to build goodwill and there was no shortage of requests coming in.
It was at the end of the week however that we received two unpleasant developments. First, Stormtiger and Crickets' prison transports were hit and they were freed. It was while I was doing one of the few console shifts I was still assigned and I had to bite my tongue as somehow every precaution we took failed during the breakout. After my shift I had to employ the time honored strategy of going into a closet and screaming my head off and kicking the wall to vent my anger. There wasn't anything I could have done differently but that didn't make it any less frustrating.
The second one involved the investigation into Taylor's assault. It was Triumph who came over in his civilian clothes to our house to give us the news since he was the hero taking the most interest in the case. He had only graduated early last month and he was still trying to prove himself, especially after his last mission. After inviting him in we sat at the kitchen table to hear what he had to say.
"I'm sorry to say we hit a setback in your case. This past week the 12 gang members you described to us stopped showing up to Winslow this week before we could get the warrants for their arrest finalized. They must have found out you survived and decided to lay low."
"What? How could they have known?" Taylor said in a tone of disbelief. I was also curious how they'd figure that out as well. Her assault and recovery hadn't exactly made the front page, not in Brockton Bay where getting mugged was almost a rite of passage.
"They likely caught wind of your survival from an Empire informant at the hospital. We tried following up at their homes but we only nabbed two of them. So the remaining ten have basically gone to ground into the Empire's criminal network."
Taylor looked immensely disappointed at the news, gripping her pants legs to keep her cool. "So what are you going to do now?"
"The case remains open. We got confessions from the two we arrested but they didn't have much useful information on empire operations. So basically we're going to keep an eye out for your attackers during our regular policing against the empire. If they get arrested for anything else the charges they earned from assaulting you will be included in their prosecution."
Dad decided to ask a question here "What if they decide to attack again?"
"I doubt they'll retaliate further, most of them have probably realized by now they hit a ward family member since it was mentioned in the paperwork of the charges we brought against the two we have detained. The charge didn't name Taylor but the empire can put two and two together. Even if they wanted to, the ones hiding with the empire are already on thin ice. The first attack had plausible deniability, but a second would be a clear escalation that would get the empire way more heat from the wider PRT. So unless they want to be made an example of, they'll stay away. I'd only recommend not going out into public alone outside of school, especially late at night."
"So there's nothing else you can do?"
"I wish there was, but we can only put so much focus on dealing with the empire without neglecting other things." He then tried to take a reassuring tone."For what it's worth, their normal lives are effectively over. The two we nabbed are being tried as adults and even with the plea deals they'll be serving around ten years. The ten that are still at large are either stuck working as Empire grunts or living on the run by themselves. Pretty bleak if you ask me."
"It still feels like they got away with it." Taylor said quietly.
"I'm sorry we can't do more. Sometimes justice takes a while to happen. If you need any more help then you know how to contact us."
When Rory finished dad escorted him to the door and got engaged in a conversation with him about his recent graduation. I looked at Taylor. She seemed deep in thought sitting at the kitchen table. I recognized the look she had. It was the expression she wore when she was trying to figure out a difficult problem and wasn't coming up with an answer she was satisfied with. I tried to talk with her.
"Taylor I know that probably wasn't what you wanted to hear but they're at least doing something. It's better than when you were dealing with the bullying at the school at least."
"That's a pretty low bar to clear. I just thought with the PRT involved they could handle it."
"Yeah it was disappointing for me when I figured out how limited they were as well. There's so much stuff for a few dozen heroes to stay on top of in a city like Brockton Bay. We got to focus so much on the gang's and keeping up appearances with the public that all the little stuff falls by the wayside."
"So that's how they're going to get away with it? They just hide out and wait for the heat to die down? Because they're not a big enough deal for anyone to care about?"
"Come on Taylor, don't think like that. The empire isn't going to be around forever. Gangs come and go around here. Once they're gone those bastards will get nailed soon enough."
"Yeah, once the empire's gone. I'm sure that'll happen soon."
"A little patience is all you need sometimes. I waited long enough and now I'm back to patrolling full time."
"Yeah I guess so."
I could tell she wasn't interested in the topic anymore so I changed tact, and tried to talk her into spending some sister-bonding time clothes shopping this weekend. It would be a good way to take her mind off recent events, and we were probably due for a trip anyways. Me and Taylor had some money saved up so we could afford to spend some of it.
She was using an old pair of glasses with an outdated prescription now so the ones that had been broken still needed to be replaced. Plus in my humble opinion she needed to update her wardrobe. I inherited a lot of her old clothes so I had a vested interest that she didn't always default to her preferred look of a frumpy young librarian. I was rarely successful but I took my wins where I could get them.
It took a little convincing but she agreed, which was good because my new schedule was even fuller than usual and so my days off were pretty scarce. After setting the time we got to work on the last chores of the day. As much as I liked being a cape it was nice to do regular stuff with my sister. It was one of the few times I could feel like a normal person, being able to not think about cape problems. So that was why I was looking forward to a nice quiet afternoon with my sister sniping with each other about our fashion senses.
A/N
-If it seems like Sam got an easy break with her patrol schedule, trust me it's going to be one of the very few she gets. As you can guess there's lots of moving parts in the background I covered in this chapter and Sam has her work cut out for her.
-I figured Undersiders were about due to be mentioned, since they were active for a decent while before canon. I figured this would be a good way to get them on the Protectorates radar. It would definitely be suspicious that they likely had foreknowledge of the disaster, which is partially how Piggot's request to Think Tank got fast tracked.
-If it seems like Triumph can't catch a real break, keep in mind he's still 18. I'm sure most people who have been that age have a decent number of mistakes under their belt. I'm also trying to walk the line between how you would prosecute someone who attacked a ward family. I figured you wouldn't say it outright in the criminal charges but it would be mentioned somewhere in the legal paperwork. Just a subtle way to get it across to attackers they crossed a line without being too public about it.
-I'm sure Taylor will not do anything at all to act on the thought that getting rid of the empire will bring her attackers to justice. Nope, the Empire certainly won't have any problems from her going forward. I'm also sure Sam won't regret putting that thought in Taylor's head, not at all.
-BTW please leave reviews and feedback, always looking for improvement.