[07th April 2011]

[PRT ENE Headquarters, The Bay, Brockton Bay, United States of America, Earth-Bet]

'Another ridiculously late night after yet another crisis' Glenn Chambers thought drinking down the coffee to help with the tiredness, then moving to rejoin the table after the brief break 'I really need to ask for another raise'

So, all could do was ask the question in the hopes that he might get some sleep before they had to face the public in oh...five hours or so "So, has a decision been made?"

"I'm afraid not yet Glenn, we still tallying the damage from the fight, and dealing with the aftermath of said fight..." Director Costa-Brown replied calmly as ever, shaking her head on the other side of the screen from a city away "...such as half the ENE branch, and a number of others, are in Master-Stranger confinement at the worst possible time, and we've this fairly serious situation to explain come the morning to the general public"

"Yes Rebecca, which is why I'd like to chime in as Director of Public Relations, as PHO is already going insane, and we've merely been given a boon of a few hours as it's the middle of the night, and most people are in bed outside the cape fanatics. Something that comes to an end in the morning, when the morning shows come on and the current talking heads all demand answers" Glenn replied taking a sip of the piping hot coffee. It was actually quite nice coffee, someone must have gotten the good stuff for the meeting, and at least he wasn't alone in looking rather tired and slovenly right now.

"What can we say? This was an absolute fiasco!"

'Ah, Tagg, helpful as always' Glenn mused taking another sip, looking on concerned as Director Costa-Brown sighed "Director Tagg, please, Director Chambers if you want to offer your opinion, now is the time. The hour has grown late after all"

"Thank you Chief Director..." he replied with a tired smile "...now, as has been said the situation isn't particularly ideal with Earth-Gimel villain capes running about murdering people, bio-tinkering, trying to pull a Simurgh, and then dying horribly on national television. So, well, we run with a more positive narrative spin on that situation"

Piggot looked at him incredulously "And what is that...positive narrative?"

Glenn sighed "We sell this as a sign of inter-dimensional cooperation, bringing a very dangerous villain with a kill-order down with no cape losses at that. Yes several brave PRT troopers died in the line of duty, but compared to many, many, battles this one went down much better than could be expected Emily. So we play up the, frankly rather disturbing, power rating we've assigned this Cain, and then we state we currently having a joint review with our Gimel counterparts over the events, but overall we are all very happy with the outcome considering the alternatives. Oh, and avoid mentioning the whole M/S situation beyond it's been resolved, and we are currently investigating the 'magic' thing – call it exotic energy manipulation like their fellows used. Claim the credit, push any of the problems unto the villain capes but offer thanks, same old song and dance, save we've the advantage that the gangs in the city suffered as badly and aren't likely to cause trouble now of all times. Trot out Alexandria or Legend, and Wards such as Vista and Clockblocker, and we play up the cooperation and such...and we make sure the hospital videos never see the light of day"

Piggot rolled her eyes at that, with Rebecca Costa-Brown on the screen sighing, and then nodding her head after a few seconds delay "I suppose it is an option, at least as a stop-gap measure till we can give better answers, but I think a priority has to be a tapering down on this magic discussion now that we've been made aware certain aspect of energy manipulation and dimensional mechanics might be shielded behind the religious customs. The last thing we need is some Tinker or Thinker attempting to perform experiments based on what they saw"

Glenn frowned at that "It's going to be pretty hard to hide that, and we've already got a brewing religious problem with more Christian oriented cape groups, or heaven forbid the lunatics who worship the Endbringers, so I believe our strategy has to be to try focus on the fight itself, and try push the religious and philosophical implications to the side till our Thinkers and Tinkers can investigate the matter. We need to take the mistakes made after Scion and the first Triggers to heart here, and not jump into public announcements that we look like idiots down the line due to not understanding the situation. So they've different triggers, powers, and tech...fine, we listen to their PR side, and do a slow, steady, reveal where don't concede anything resembling ignorance – just investigating claims to prove or disprove facts"

In all honesty the biggest goal was going to be stamping down on the panic within certain circles in the government over the various powers shown by the other Earth, and more importantly stopping that spreading into the general public at large. Getting people focused on the Capes, on the Fight, rather than on the Bigger Picture, or odd specifics of the situation, was thus vital to both the PRT and Protectorate in his opinion, as otherwise it would invite chaos like had happened in Africa. Earth Gimel offered both dangers and possibilities, and Glenn for one was more interested in the possibilities...

'Well, what other choice is there really but that, or a slow, burn, into chaos as all the projections indicate?' he wondered as he fell silent yet again and watched the area Directors debate the various measures as he started to scroll through PHO threads. All as problematic as he'd expected sadly, but they could work with that over the next twenty-four hours to move it to a more favourable situation. They had to really, otherwise the likes of the Teeth or S9 or Fallen would be drawn to the area for a start, or act up elsewhere when reinforcing Brockton Bay meant they were weaker across other cities. He repressed a sigh. Hopefully he could get some rest in the next hour or two...

--

[07th April 2011]

[PRT ENE Headquarters, The Bay, Brockton Bay, United States of America, Earth-Bet]

"Tattletale is claiming she's what?" Emily Piggot asked rubbing at the ache at her temples "Just...repeat that please?"

Armsmaster, fully healed, but very much irritable as he had to return the 'guns that make no sense' back to SHIELD and had clearly not slept last night either "Tattletale has declared herself, I quote 'High Priestess of the Shrouded Lord of Nishrek on Earth Bet' and that has now further powers because of this, and requests power-testing. My systems indicate she truly believes what she is saying to an accuracy of 98.2 percent"

"Get me coffee. Now!" she commanded to Vice Director Rennick, who merely nodded and moved over to the machine as everything seemed to ache. Caffeine would not help with her injuries, but right now she very much needed them and the tablets to avoid indulging the sudden urge to start ranting at people as she glared back at Armsmaster and Miss Militia "High Priestess...Christ, she's gone into M/S I assume? Has she gone crazy?"

Miss Militia winced "Outside of outlandish claims, she seems herself, and well..."

"She has displayed energy manipulation abilities"

Emily sighed at Armsmaster's words, happily accepting the cup from Rennick "Thank you...then power testing for her immediately afterwards. Is this an aspect of her powers we were not aware of? A second trigger from the hospital?"

"She claims a religious experience based upon observations of Enchanter's powers, and a...ritual rune as it's referred to, that she pocketed without our knowledge"

"Just what we need now" Emily muttered unhappily "Monitor her, and for God's sake don't let her start talking to the other Wards, or heaven forbid the press. Ask Dragon for a favour if you have to Armsmaster, as I'm very, very, sure the other Directors, let along the Protectorate, Youth Guard, and a host of others will be if it turns out she's been Mastered and we didn't notice till now"

It was bad enough having an outsider whose response to the question of what Trump power he possessed appeared to Yes!, or a strange 'power of coincidence' other that could kill what they'd struggled to do with dozens of capes. She was only holding unto her position by the skin of her teeth right now, and there was no way in hell she was happy having to rely on Glenn Chambers to sell the public this crock of...

--

[07th April 2011]

[SHIELD Portal Security, Security Zone, Gotham, New Jersey, United States of America, Earth-16]

"Ugh, the paperwork!"

I nodded, giving a faint yawn and bringing my hand up to my mouth as I agreed with Jade's whining about having to first explain our actions, and then do the fun times of doing up the written report "Yes, the downside of being Lawful Good I'm afraid, and the whole working for authorities thing. Though I do believe your former bosses had written reports as well"

"There was, though less beatings this way I've found"

"Oh, yeah, better retirement package too I imagine" I replied as I was, yet again, back into quarantine after meeting with the PRT officials from 'Earth-Bet' under the watchful eye of SHIELD's lawyers "And look on the bright side, we don't have to do press interviews, and got, well most, of my gear back"

Enchanting a recall power took far much energy so I'd only done the most important item; my magical smartphone in this case. They'd returned the shotgun, and the discarded LAW, but one of the pistols and a few magazines for it had gone missing 'in the chaos' of the situation apparently. I, we, had suspicions that this wasn't the case, but it wasn't a major loss, and they were primarily anti-undead rounds that would have been used during the hospital crisis. It wasn't likely they'd be able to duplicate them, but considering their role I didn't have a major problem if they did.

Jade rolled her eyes as she slouched back on the couch "Yes, yes, fantastic. I'll tell sis how much more you cared about getting those things back and signing paperwork than talking to her"

I gave a glare at my bodyguard "It's called been stuck in quarantine Jade, and it's awkward to try carry out a romantic conversation over monitored lines, with limited time given if at all. Anyway, quit whining, we'll be another day or two"

"Too much like being back in the cell" she complained kicking at the side of the couch as set up my secure laptop to start working on some supplementary observations on Earth-Bet and a further expansion on the after-action report...

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