January,21 2011 Saturday Brockton Bay, Briefing room 6, PRT building. 11:11pm.
Emily Piggot looked through the contents of the folders that Mr. Hebert had brought with him. She glanced up to the man looking him over a moment, he was some where in his late thirties to mid forties slight bald spot on his head, glasses that looked like the sort you could put side shields on to make them functional safety glasses.
He had a thick mustache and about a week or two of stubble. His clothing was worn but functional, and he was still wearing a hi vis vest, likely called in from work, which should have said something about his home life, though he also looked like he hadn't slept at all and the odor about him let her know he probably hadn't showered. A credit to him were the multiple calls to the police and the school about Taylor not coming home Friday.
The police took notes and filed a missing persons report, though they didn't seem to act on it, and the school had pretty much ignored all his calls from what he said. He had gone out himself to try and find his daughter, getting a number of his friends and coworkers to help, it was only his lack of a cell phone that had kept him from being here sooner as he had to go home to hear any messages left. He had called back perhaps fifteen minutes after Taylor had called and had taken the time to get his people to stop the search for her saying she was found and alright.
That he could mobilize and de-mobilize what amounted to nearly every union in the city in less than an hour was a terrifying thought.
Emily also took note that despite him looking like a wreck of a office worker, his hands were calloused and there was a wiry muscle in the man.
She was going to need to make sure he was sated or there might be a situation in which they never found 'all' of the body of those who did this to his daughter.
As she read on the paperwork she was offered Taylor had also told her a story.
A story about a return from summer camp, an abandoned friendship and a bullying campaign that went on and on. Emily was not happy to find out that Hess was part of it, looking over the files it seemed she was mostly the muscle and after a time even Taylor took note that unless the other two girls were directing her she didn't care anything about Taylor.
Still when Sophia transferred Taylor thought she would get some breathing room for once. And it seemed that she had been correct, the entirety of December aside from some basic easily ignorable chatter from some of the other girls, no one bothered her.
She claimed she should have known it was setting up for something . When she opened her locker to put her books away on Friday afternoon, she found her locker had been splattered with filth, though she only had a moment to stare at it before she was shoved into the locker from behind by whom she assumed was Emma, Madison, and some other girls.
While she was inside there she heard her locker being taped up, and then the top of the locker was opened and some sort of foul sludge was dumped on her before another bucket was dropped on the half shelf to leak on her head. She screamed clawed and struggled only to be unable to move and the last clear thing she recalled was Emma telling her to enjoy her weekend before she and some others laughed and left.
That story had everyone in the room on edge. Aegis was tensed as if he wanted to go drag the girls to jail by their hair. Miss Militia's weapon shifted to what Emily was certain was some sort of flamethrower judging by the tank on it. Renick was tensed up and Emily herself wanted to hurt someone herself.
Alucard however made some sort of pity comment. Emily couldn't even recall what it was as a moment after he made it Mr. Hebert rose from his chair in a surprising display of speed, punched Alucard in the face hard enough to rock his head back and send his glasses flying.
In the silence that followed with even Alucard too shocked by the attack to say anything, Daniel Hebert went on a vitriol rage filled rant in a way that only dock workers and sailors knew how to do. Miss Militia had taken a moment in the rant to cover Aegis' ears while Taylor just hid her face in her hands and looked embarrassed.
When he finally calmed down Emily had simply nodded, told Alucard to shut the hell up and continued to read as if nothing had happened.
It wasn't as if the vamperic idiot hadn't deserved it after all. And she knew that sort of thing only made Alucard MORE likely to be an ass if his interest was up in something.
Surprisingly aside from smiling creepily at Mr. Hebert, he was silent.
The documents themselves were damming in more ways than one. Emails, phone transcripts, notes, actual filed police reports for stolen or damaged property. Emily was getting more and more pissed the more she read. Some things were just notes about what happened like diary entries, the official documents were much more damming as were the email print outs. Still a skilled lawyer could have most of this thrown out, if not for the end result of tonight.
One thing Emily was doing as she looked over everything was was keeping a tally.
How many times Hess did something got a mark, how many times Blackwell did nothing, or punished Taylor were marked, how often the teachers didn't do anything was marked, she was particularly interested in this Gladly fellow, what Taylor said about him hinted at a classic 'grades for sex' sort of thing.
In the end looking at her tally mark she was not happy with all the marks by Hess' name, though surprisingly it was far less than the other girls names and even some of the faculty.
Emily even asked about that as in the end of the folders notes there was very little about Hess and Taylor admitted that Hess had started to ignore her to the point that she almost counted their shared gym class as a safe area, unless it was dodge ball day, but no one was safe from Hess on dodge ball day.
Director Piggot set down the folder and rubbed her eyes, in the course of her life she had seen some shit, and aside from Ellisburg, this topped all of it.
The level of apathy and cruelty and simple disregard was the sort of bullshit that lead to an ending like a Steven King novel.
What sort of brain dead half wits let this sort of thing happen in a world where the worse day of some ones life could given them fucking super powers?
There had to be more to it than this, there had to be a reason, because a perfect storm of bull shit focused on one girl? Those were very very long odds, not impossible, and judging by Armsmaster and Dragon's findings Taylor was not likely the only victim, just the one who got it the worst due to the trio as Taylor called them.
Whelp time to fix that, or at least try, it was fairly clear the girl expected nothing to be done about this, or expected to be punished given how she was flinching and trying to hide in on herself. Emily had seen that before when Amy had misbehaved, though never to the extent she was seeing here.
"Alright Mister and Miss Hebert. Given the time and everything else I'm going to need both of you to sign this." Emily offered as Renick handed the pair a single sheet of paper each.
Daniel looked at the paper and frowned flipping it over. "This is it?"
"For the moment."
"This just says if anything discussed inside this room is discussed outside of it without the appropriate level of paperwork filed 'we will own you like a bubblegum trading card'." Daniel frowned.
"Yes. It's an official Mouse Protector NDA form. And despite the simplistic nature of it, it is shockingly legal and very binding." Renick stated as he offered both of them pens. "We use it for basic NDA purposes. It's mostly a basic protection for sensitive materials on the rare occasions when something like that needs to be discussed before a lawyer can be brought in."
"In this case a Wards invite. And a discussion of what will be happening." Emily continued.
"Wait you want me in the Wards? With Hess?" Taylor nearly snarled.
"SHADOW STALKER." Emily quickly corrected."... is not your concern at the moment Taylor, she is already on punishment detail and be assured she will not have a happy time because of her part in this. But I will point out that you and your father have attacked two Wards and a Protectorate member tonight."
"He deserved it." Daniel grumbled glaring at Alucard who made kissy face at him.
"I agree. As did Stalker, and I'm willing to forgive the attack on Aegis due to the situation and that there was no harm done. Right?" Emily asked the red clad boy who nodded.
"This seems to be entrapment." Daniel frowned.
"It's not. You are welcome to refuse the offer and go along with your lives, we even have a packet for surviving as a Case 13 that we will give you for free should you choose to do so. However, there are three things that you will be doing. And they are non negotiable." Emily stated.
"The first is that you will stay here the night and be monitored Taylor. Your father is welcome to stay, or run home and get a change of clothes and anything you need and stay as well.
We have a few unused rooms that are set up for overnight guests. NOT cells I will point out before you get worried. The second thing is that in the morning you are going to do power testing.
This is to find out what sort of Case 13 you are. I expect you're close to what Alucard is. It's documented that trigger events can and do draw something from nearby capes when they happen, you were close to Alucard and Aegis so we want to know what you can do. And finally if you are a Case 13 like Alucard you will need to have mandatory training with him in order to control your abilities, whether you become a Ward or not."
Aegis turned quickly to look at Emily then to Alucard, though he wisely kept his mouth shut.
"That is an awful lot that's mandatory." Taylor muttered.
"You are in a very interesting situation. Now would you like to hear the Wards pitch?" Emily smiled.
" Umm." Taylor looked at her dad who let out a sigh.
"We can at least hear it." Daniel offered.
"There are several Wards packages available. Though these are the ones we feel the most likely that will suit best in this situation." Renick offered handing another set of papers to the Heberts who started looking them over, Taylor was the first to notice one of the important parts.
"That is a lot of zeros." Taylor blinked.
"That is a yearly before taxes. It is also a STARTING Wards wage. Half of it will be put into an account that you can access fully once you turn 18 either for college or for anything else.
The account will also accrue interest as long as it is untouched, if you decide to go into the protectorate when you come of age , there is another signing bonus plus whatever increases you make as a Ward on top of being bumped up to base protectorate pay.
Also included are a full paid transfer to Arcadia, though you will need to keep your grades up.
A percentage of merchandise sales, talk show and interview fees full government medical dental and optical as well as retirement benefits that can be expanded to cover family as well as the Ward in question, a flat 20 hour work week barring emergencies a 401k as well as a slew of other benefits cover in the packages there." Renick rattled off.
"This sounds too good to be true, which likely means it is." Daniel offered making Emily smile.
"At no point did we say it was going to be easy or completely safe but depending on how Taylor tests tomorrow the pay scale may only go up and some food budget issues may need to be addressed." Emily explained.
"As for the other issues I would suggest you speak with Aegis and perhaps Druid about some of the downsides. Keep in mind that despite what the media likes to portray, only 1 in five hundred people even have the ability to trigger, and of those only one in ten actually trigger. So yes, we very much want to bring everyone in we can."
"Wow." Daniel whistled still looking at the papers.
"Now then there is one more down side that I want you to know before you continue to think this is too good to be true. If you do join you may still need to work with Shadow Stalker." Emily stated.
"WHAT!?" Taylor growled.
"All of the dates you have listed for things she has done happened before I arrived here and should have been addressed by my predecessor. Do not get me wrong, heads will roll and unless Stalker can convince me other wise hers will be one of them. But from my understanding since I informed her of her of her situation she has indeed toed the line."
"So what she's going to get off scott free after all this?" Taylor snapped only to trail off a Emily Piggot grinned, it was the sort of grin that often had small birds flitting between the teeth while the owner basked on a warm river bank.
"Oh no. she is not getting out of it. She and I are going to have a long talk and if I do not like what she has to say she's going to be someone elses problem, but even if she remains she will be punished . To start with a percentage of her saved pay will be removed and added to the training budget for you even if you do choose not to join the Wards.
Telling you that if you join that you will still need to deal with her is my way of simply letting you know in advance. There are other Wards that she does not get along with and we do our best to keep them apart on patrols and the like. It is hardly unprecedented given some power reactions, but the main thing is I want you to know now before you may join to avoid any issues later. "
Taylor glared at her, and Emily returned the look impassively, Taylor looked away first.
"Now then.." Emily stated having felt her phone vibrate while she was talking, she drew it out and tapped a response to the guard outside." There is one more benefit to Wards application that I think you may have quite the vested interest in."
"And what is that?" Daniel Hebert asked as the door opened behind them.
"A full legal team representing ours and your interests." Emily stated gesturing to the door.
Turning the Heberts were greeted to the sight of a tall blond woman, her green eyes swept the room the light glinting off them making them look like they burned with embers like on the end of a cigarette. She wore a long ash gray jacket paired with a short dress skirt and a pair of high heeled shoes that looked like they could be used as bladed weapons if need be.
She raised a hand adjusting the edge of her suit jacket as everyone looked to her, her finger nails catching the light and shining like that old cartoon about moon justice or whatever it was.
"My apologizes for only now arriving , I was working late on another case." The woman spoke, her voice dark like tinted glass. "My name is Jessica D'liss I am the head of the legal department for the PRT ENE. You must be the Herberts."
"Hebert." Taylor auto corrected before catching herself.
"Hebert then. I have gone over the information that was sent to me I have one question for both of you."
"What is it?" Daniel asked.
Jessica smiled. It was a very nice smile that worked well for her pretty face, though when coupled with the look in her eyes it made most of those in the room flinch and made Alucard start to drool.
"How many Caribbean islands were you looking to purchase with your settlement?"
[?]
"Well that was unexpected."
"Not terribly. After all it was why we picked such a place and it seemed like it is indeed possible to artificially create a cape. Honestly I thought it would be another who triggered, the Hebert girl had withstood a lot over the year and with the removal of the Ward I expected the other girl to snap."
"Still six trigger events since this experiment began. I would say that it is quite enough proof we can do something with it."
"I still find it odd they have to be natural crisis points for any powers to be gained. This would be so much easier in a lab."
"In either case we gained five of the six, the vampire being there complicated our collection of the last one. But with the PRT paying attention now, the order has come, this experiment is over."
"Pity there we so many more promising ones."
"I think we may be able to snag one or two more. The conditions might improve, but not swiftly and more may indeed trigger. Still we need to get to work."
"Indeed. Gladly knows to much, pity he will be involved in a mugging gone wrong."
"Yes, we should leave Blackwell and her assistant however, neither of them know enough to point at us and I expect Blackwell will sing when pressed and point out she was paid by a man she thought was a Nazi."
"That's what racism and bigotry will get you, not all Germans are Nazis. What of the agent?"
"Already dealt with. Suicide by PRT officer, he's been warned and is ready to try and run and defend himself. The armaments we provided should be enough that they will need to shoot to kill, or the idiot will blow himself up, either way the weapons trace back to the merchants and it's not our problem."
"So all is going as planned."
"As God intended."
"Amen."
[Space]
Despite being serene and motionless curled up in a ball of her wings, the Simurgh was busy.
Things had escalated quite interestingly and in a way she hadn't needed to nudge or shift at all. That there was a new abomination in the world was worrying, yet also somewhat hopeful. While she doubted this sort of thing would do much to free her or stop the cycle, it would keep Alucard busy. Hopefully too busy to keep sending her PHO account Dick picks.
What the hell was she going to do with 30 gigs of tiny antelope, and Richard Nixon jpegs any way?
