Brockton Bay Wednesday, Wards area.

Dean Stansfield, or as he was known in the mask, Gallant, closed his eyes and leaned back in the recliner as the other Wards chattered and moved around their common area.

The emotional turmoil he felt from everyone was giving him a headache. He actually longed for the time later that night when it was just going to be him and Vicky going out to dinner.

He could tune everything out if he focused on one person, and Vicky was an easy emotional state to get lost in. He was familiar with it, the low level stress from her family, the basic joy from the pair of them doing anything together.

She enjoyed the calm as well with the chance to get out of her house, her mother knew he was from a rich family and grudgingly approved their dating, something that would likely change if she found out he was a Ward. Carol didn't like the Protectorate or the PRT for some reason.

Honestly given as soon as she would let him he planned to rescue her from that woman and whisk her away like a proper prince probably never crossed Carol's mind.

He could live with that though, even when he and Vicky argued due to his 'job' she was still a solid comfort emotionally and he was more than willing to help her any way he could.

The Wards room however...

Clockblocker was almost normal, that feeling of dread that had been filling his emotions since they first met was lessened mostly gone even, though there was a great deal of nervousness.

It was an emotion that spiked whenever he looked to Spitfire. If it wouldn't embarrass Spitfire he would so openly tease Clock for that.

It also swung into barely constrained fury when Clockblocker looked to the newest Ward, she hadn't come up with a name yet, but Dean knew the anger wasn't directed at the girl , but what Shadow Stalker had done to her.

Between this and the noodle incident one of them was going to need to be transferred to another team soon, and he doubted it would be Clock no matter what the higher ups thought of him.

Stalker herself could be felt elsewhere in the building, her potent blend of rage, haughtiness, and ego was something he could probably sense if she was on another planet.

The new Ward was a bit of an enigma, though he could sense a good bit of anger, there was also depression, and the feeling of being overwhelmed. No surprise on the last. Still all of them were muted to a degree he hadn't felt before, save with Alucard.

That was odd for a trigger, but given Aegis said he and Alucard were nearby when she triggered maybe she picked up something more than just a brute rating. He would need to tell Mouse protector about that and pass it up the chain to the Director.

Vista was... well if she was here, she would likely be trying not to stare at him with little hearts floating around her head. She only had that, anger and frustration for as long as he had known her.

Spitfire was , amused. There was a lot of worry in her, but a fondness he was feeling that seemed to be ... directed at Clock? Well that was interesting. Maybe he should try to do like Vicky sometimes did with people and set the pair of them up.

Aegis was also amused and proud of something, every time he looked over at the new ward acting normal or opening up. Hmm, he recruit her after all so if she was a valuable assent that would be a feather in his cap.

Druid was... worrying. There was a great deal of amusement and cheer with the girl, but there was a darkness about her too a blend of anger, sadness, and annoyance, which while it wasn't much it was there below the bubbly cheerful personality she put forward.

Normally that was about average for a teenager, but Druid was the daughter of the Director and a very powerful cape. She might get away with far more than she should before she was stopped if she developed any issues or let her anger get the best of her.

She also swore a lot more than he expected the daughter of the director to do.

Granted the director swore a lot too.

Then there was Pocky or Apocalypse Meow when she was in costume.

That cat was a nightmare.

Not because she was a bad kitty or because of anything she did, but because Clockblocker had been right and now the world thought Pocky and Apocalypse Meow were two separate creatures.

It should not have worked like that, no one should have been that stupid and yet here it was a month later and everyone was eating up that the same giant green cat was two different ones.

How?

I mean sure it was amusing, Clockblocker had set up the account with the cat here, Verified her and then gave the Wards the password for the cat so that they could post things for her from different locations.

Meanwhile the non hero Pocky was seen a few times with Amy, and was even brought to the school one time and explained to everyone how she was a tinker's project they adopted from the shelter. All true, just leaving out Amy was the tinker.

There were already torrid love stories about Pocky and Apocalypse meow meeting. Almost as many as were about him and Gallant. Why some one would think the high profile rich kid and the Ward should hook up like that was beyond him.

He wasn't even gay! Everyone knew Dean was dating Victoria Dallon and yet that either wasn't addressed or she was made evil after she finally gained powers or something. Though he was pretty sure Vicky had written at least one of those, and he was certain Clockblocker had.

He worried about her in truth. Vicky was just a normal girl with a super powered family, sure she was the most popular girl in school, but due to her family being New Wave and her being the only member of the family without powers some people knew her as Bait Girl Barbie, given she had been kidnapped at least twice by some one New Wave pissed off.

The first time the Empire 88 destroyed the man much as they had done with the man who tried to kill her uncle. The second time was how he had met her, on one of his first Ward patrols at that.

It had amusingly gone from there. Still they had their off an on again moments. Vicky could be temperamental and the pair of them did argue and break it off sometimes, but they always got back together again.

Thankfully that hadn't happened for a while, and he was quiet willing to enjoy it as she spent more time with him after being stuck with the rest of her family for the holidays.

PRT Building.

" So what's the plan today kiddo?" Danny Hebert asked his daughter as the pair of them were guided by a PRT officer down the hall of the building.

"According to my paperwork, costume and name design with the PR department. We're going to be meeting some one named Glenn Chambers who is evidently the department head?" Taylor offered.

"Huh. This will be interesting. Given any thought to a name yet?" Danny asked still feeling well out of his depth here, but Taylor wanted him to come along , so he was.

"A little bit. I did have a two hour argument with Alucard about the names. He wanted me to be called Renfield because I had all the small life. " Taylor growled.

"That's the guy from Dracula right?"

"Yeah, the mind slave."

"Ahh. Alucard is... interesting." Danny trailed off as the officer with them snorted in amusement or disbelief at that statement.

The officer stopped suddenly and saluted.

"Ma'am." he stated.

"At ease. " Director Piggot offered weaving her hand, the other holding a black duffle bag. "Jones, take Taylor up to the break room before PR get a couple bottles of water and some snacks, their meeting will probably take a while. I need to speak with Mr. Hebert here a moment."

"Yes ma'am." The officer nodded and continued walking guiding Taylor along who looked back at them curiously before they rounded the corner.

"So what did you need?" Danny asked curiously wondering why the Director of all people was here to meet them. He felt the woman wanted to strangle him after the way their negotiations went despite her pleasantries.

"You know what this is?" She asked pulling open the duffle bag and pulling out a double barrel shotgun.

"A shotgun...what..." Danny began tensing before the Director popped open the breech and handed it to him. She then pulled out a box of shells offering those to him along with a small cleaning kit. "What is all this?"

"You are meeting Glenn Chambers today. All you need to know about Glenn is that on the wall behind his desk are posters of what he thinks are his greatest achievements since he became PR director. When you walk into his office and see them, you will know why I gave you the gun. Blue shells are rubber, red are buckshot. If you need to use them aim for the wall with the posters on it, that faces the bay and if a pellet gets through the inner armor it won't do any damage to anything outside."

"Ummm. Okay." Danny frowned putting the cleaning kit in his pocket. "Is this really necessary?"

"You'll find out, just leave that with Lieutenant Jones when you head home." Director Piggot nodded picking up the empty bag and walking off.

Danny watched her go before tucking the gun under one arm opening the box to look over the two types of shells before and putting the box in his other jacket pocket and moving forward at a brisk pace to meet up with Taylor again.

After gathering snacks and with a questioning look at the gun, something the officer with them chuckled at, the pair were lead into the office of Glenn Chambers.

It was quite a big room, possibly larger than the Directors, and it was wall to wall with Cape memorabilia. Action figures, lunchboxes, beach towels, what looked like a package of little girls underwear with Armsmaster's logo on them.

Pretty much every sort of cape paraphernalia he had ever seen PRT shill shelves and wall racks full of it, the ceiling even had dangling toys and posters spread over it.

The man himself was a corpulent individual seated behind the desk. He was dressed in a loud Hawaiian shirt that didn't button up all the way, what appeared to be cargo shorts, and as he came around the desk to greet them, black socks and crocks on his feet.

He had horn rim glasses that wouldn't have looked out of place on a 90 year old lady ,and his hair was done up in some sort of greasy version of liberty spikes with a ponytail that ran down his back.

The scent of fast food grease filled the office and Danny's nose wrinkled at the overpowering scent of that Hatchet body spray, the man had to have bathed in it.

The pale man looked like he was trying to blend hipster, beach bum, and IPA snob into one loathsome package.

Danny's eyes however drifted from the man to three large posters on the back wall.

The first was of a woman who looked like she was drawn by Tex Avery in one of the old Droopy Cartoons. No one living should have a body like that and still be able to breath. What she was wearing hardly counted as a costume either. Even a stripper might get embarrassed wearing that.

There was part of a name visible at the bottom of the poster but it was half hidden by some other merchendice on a shelf behind the desk.

The next poster was of a man in spandex. No wait. That wasn't spandex, that was latex so tight he could tell the guys religion. Hopefully this, Mr. Right, didn't come to the Bay, the Nazi's would have issues with his beliefs.

The last one was another girl, this one dressed like Tinkerbell, with a skirt short enough that he really hoped she was in a warm climate, showing off so much leg. There were wings and a low cut top though the girl couldn't be more than 16 at best how did... ahhh.

Danny drew his hand out of his pocket loaded two shells and snapped the breach closed on the shotgun with a click that echoed in the room.

Taylor glanced back at him and Glenn looked up from where he was looking Taylor over and frowned his eyes darting over the gun and then up to Danny's glare and the expression that could freeze a volcano solid.

"Ahh. I see you talked to Director Piggot." Glenn sighed.