As I wiggled my fingers free for the first time in the last several hours, I carefully considered how I should get revenge on Sam for this mess she had gotten me in. On top of me being stuck in custody after being interrogated for most of yesterday afternoon by the PRT and dad, I was currently waist deep in a pile of containment foam. For the last several minutes alone I've been considering the merits of having her wake up covered in spiders.
I had given up trying to figure out exactly what Sam was trying to accomplish, or even what her plan was in general, a while ago. One thing I've learned about Sam over the years is that her mind just works a bit differently, for better or for worse. One of my earliest memories in fact was overhearing Mom and Dad talking about if she had ADHD or whether she was on the spectrum after one of her accidents. Nothing ever came of it, since she never checked enough boxes for any definitive diagnosis when Mom took her to the doctor, but it was obvious early on she was different.
Not to say Sam wasn't smart. Her grades were decent and once you got Sam talking about something she was interested in she could recall ridiculously obscure trivia ("There's about seventeen films with Brockton Bay as the setting. Nine of them were made here on site."). But Sam isn't really a long term thinker. Any plans she made tended to ask for forgiveness rather than permission, which was why she never met a shortcut or trick she wasn't open to trying. That was probably why she got so good at lying in the past few years, it was easier.
When she had been alive, Mom had been the one who kept Sam accountable. There wasn't much Sam could get past her, so she learned not to try very often. But after the accident… well, neither me nor Dad were able to do what Mom did. We had enough problems just trying to cope with Moms death, and neither of us were equipped to deal with Sam after she triggered. When Sam joined the wards I guess it just ended up being the PRT's job to keep Sam in check.
Speaking of the PRT, I had occupied my time getting a feel for the PRT HQ. It was a big building, taking up almost the whole block and was several stories high. There were easily 200 people here, though being the weekend I'm sure there could be more. Sam was staying in the infirmary where she had gotten quite a few visitors, including the troopers that had restrained her after her visit to me.
However while I could sense where most stuff was around here, I couldn't see or hear inside the building. There wasn't anything I could use to listen in on Sam since the bugs I had in her room weren't very useful for eavesdropping. My birds were too conspicuous indoors and the rats that were in my range were all outside the building (Apparently the PRT hired some good pest control guys).
My first attempt to smuggle some rodents in was foiled when the ventilation system turned on and my tiny minions met an early end. My second attempt had to be abandoned after one of the rats had been spotted by a janitor. I chose not to tempt fate after that, for all the good that did me.
Now my attention was focused on the PRT agents that were tasked with getting me out of the big heap of containment foam I was trapped in. It had taken them an agonizingly long time for them to mix the solvent that dissolved it. But once they had it ready they could work pretty fast. As the mound of containment foam around my legs became squishy, the agents began giving me advice.
"Alright Zookeeper we're in the final stretch. Once you get home this solvent should wash out with most household detergents." The shorter agent said.
"Fair warning though. Don't use any baking soda to help wash it. If you do, it'll blow up your washing machine." The taller one cautioned.
"Wait, are you serious?" I was incredulous. After all, mixing baking soda with vinegar to make a model volcano erupt was one thing, but blowing up a washing machine!?
The shorter agent butted in "No, he isn't. Agent Hill here just thinks he's funny. You don't have to worry about anything blowing up."
"Has anyone ever told you that you can be a real killjoy, Davis?" Hill grumbled.
Davis rolled his eyes. "Ignore Hill please, he's just put his two weeks in and he's milking it."
"Hey, after almost getting frozen to death by some crazy tinker you'd want to switch careers too. And it's a good thing I didn't do it two weeks ago. If it had been my last day before retirement yesterday, I would've been a goner just from the irony of it all." Hill claimed.
Davis didn't seem so convinced. "I'm sure you would have been. Now Zookeeper, the real thing you need to worry about is making sure your costume is absolutely clean before you put it in a dryer. This solvent stuff stinks horribly if it gets hot."
Hill whispered in my ear "Ask him how he found that out."
"We agreed to never talk about that! Now shut up and help me pull her out okay?" Davis ordered.
Pausing their conversation, they each took one of my arms and pulled. With three tugs my legs were finally pulled free out of the containment foam. Putting me down back on the ground, Davis began giving me new instructions.
"Alright before we let you go there's a meeting you need to have with the deputy director. Another one of the agents will escort you to the bathrooms and get changed into some clean clothes we'll provide you." He explained.
"Wait, am I free to go or not?" I tried to clarify.
Davis gave a so-so gesture "Almost, you have to get the directors sign off before you leave holding. It's no big deal though. If the deputy director is taking the time to meet you they're probably not pressing charges. I'd guess you're going to be pitched on joining the wards or something before they turn you loose."
"I can hardly wait to tell them no." I said sarcastically.
Hill chuckled at me "That's the spirit. Feel free to keep the clothes if you want. Consider them a souvenir. You could even get something printed on the shirt. I'd go with 'I got confoamed and all I got was this stupid shirt' or something like that."
"I'll consider it." I said. If nothing else I needed something to wear when I went to retrieve my regular clothes from where I had hidden them yesterday.
Then the door opened, and a woman wearing a standard PRT uniform came in. She had dark bags under her eyes and was holding a bundle of clothing under her arm. Agent Hill recognized her immediately.
"Everett, it's been a while since I've seen you out of the office. Are the little munchkins still keeping you busy?" He called out.
She gave a little grin "Some more than others, but I'm managing. I take it you're ready to go Zookeeper?"
I nodded "Yeah just let me grab a few pieces of my costume I'd taken off and I'll be right with you."
Grabbing my regular mask and the pieces of armor I hadn't fully integrated into my costume, I left my cell. Agent Everett gave me a set of plain clothes and absentmindedly asked me to wait outside for a moment while she talked with Davis and Hill. She didn't seem that concerned that I was going to try and make a run for it, but I chose not to question it.
Waiting outside in the hallway was Julia. When I saw her it looked like she had been buried in containment foam as well. Her costume looked stained with the solvent and she definitely looked as displeased as I was with the situation. Holding her own bundle of clothes from the PRT she greeted me with a wave.
"Hey, I see you got foamed too." Glancing around she then got close to me and whispered. "Any clue why they thought we were trying to escape? Everyone was being really squirrelly about it when I asked them and my power isn't helping."
"You can blame m- Manes." I managed to catch myself before saying 'my sister' out loud. I really had to build that habit. "Her ghost went into my cell and that was all it really took."
"Really? That's why I'm going to have to spend a whole day washing this costume? It's not like I can take it to a laundromat without getting any weird looks." She lamented. "What was she even trying to do?"
"You'd have to ask her. Knowing her, this was her idea of trying to help." I guessed. Then I asked back "So what are we telling your parents? We've been gone for almost a day now."
"The PRT let me call them. I said I was staying at one of my brother's old girlfriend's house for the night. Sadie's an old family friend as well, and when I called her she agreed to cover for me no questions asked. Though now I owe her a shopping trip when I get out." Julia let out a sigh "So I'm going to be busy next Saturday."
Our conversation had to be cut short as Agent Everett came out of my cell. She was wearing a tired expression, like she hadn't had a chance to rest in ages.
She looked over to us. "Sorry about the wait, I had to hear Davis complain about having to stay overtime because of the incident. I wanted to apologize to you for Mane's behavior. I'm her handler and from what I've heard there was a big misunderstanding on her part. I hope you won't hold it against her."
She was Sam's handler? Now that I thought about it she had mentioned having one named Tina. I wasn't sure if that was the same person as Agent Everett, but it was likely they were. Like a lot of things about the wards Sam had been light on details about Tina. For example, how much of Sam's business was she kept in the loop about? I knew that the 'PRT' knew my identity but did that mean Tina would be told? She didn't seem like she recognized me but that wasn't really decisive evidence either way.
However, something she had said got me curious. "There was a misunderstanding? What do you mean by that?"
She shrugged her shoulders "They didn't tell me much either, but Manes is usually a lot better behaved. I don't know what's gotten into her the last few days."
"So we're supposed to just forgive and forget the whole 'getting buried in containment foam' thing?" Julia asked.
"I'm sorry, Agent Davis was just following standard procedure when he did that. For what it's worth the deputy director promised to explain it all to you during your meeting." Everett looked down at her watch "And speaking of that we better get going before we're late. If you could follow me, there's some bathrooms you can change in nearby."
Urging us to follow her, Agent Everett escorted us down the hall where the women's bathroom was. Changing into the sweatpants and T-shirt we had been provided, she also gave us each a pair of shoes and backpacks (which looked like they came out of the gift shop) to carry our costumes. Either they were being generous to make up for the containment foam incident or they were buttering us up for whatever offer they were about to make. Whatever the case we accepted the bags along with the clothes, if only out of practicality.
As we walked through the halls Julia decided to strike up a conversation. "So you work with the wards?"
Looking over her shoulder Agent Everett answered "Only Vista and Manes. If I had to watch them all I'd be demanding a pay raise right now."
"What would you say they're like?" I probed. If she did know I was Manes' sister that might get a reaction out of her.
She hummed "Well they really take being wards seriously, at least compared to the other wards. Vista likes to act a bit more grown up than she is, and Manes… has a lot of potential. But I think they're still teenage girls at heart. Probably not that different from you two."
"Uh yeah, probably not that different." I replied. I wasn't sure if that was evidence for or against being aware of Manes being my sister, though I was leaning towards against.
Before I could ask another question Mrs Everett we had reached a conference room. She opened the door and waved us in. Inside was a middle aged man sitting at the conference table. He didn't seem dressed all that differently than dad when he was at the Dockworkers office, suggesting he was mainly working in the office here. Besides him was Armsmaster, standing to his right.
The man rose from his seat. "Hello my I'm Deputy Director Renick. I'd like to thank you for coming. Director Piggot is still a bit busy with some other matters so I'll be answering your questions for today. Agent Everett I appreciate you bringing them here."
"It was no problem sir." She replied.
"We should be fine here by ourselves. By the way, I understand Vista stopped by even though she was off today?" He asked.
Everett nodded "Yes, she was visiting Manes in the infirmary, I offered to drive her home."
"Good, I'll let you take care of that. Dismissed." Renick said.
Everett nodded again "Thank you sir" and left the conference room to just the four of us. Me and Julia had sat in the chairs set up across from Renick and Armsmaster.
Sitting down Renick addressed us "In case it hasn't been said already, we apologize for the rough treatment you got in the holding cells. The PRT has had a lot of pressure from the public to crack down on escapes, so security has been on high alert ever since the ABB capes were taken into custody."
"Nice to know our tax dollars are hard at work" Julia snarked.
Deciding to get to my most pressing question I asked him. "Okay I get that you're on high alert, but why did Manes visit my cell? She didn't exactly tell me much on account of just being a ghost at the time."
"That was a misunderstanding on Manes' part. The director set her straight so I doubt it'll happen again." Renick answered vaguely.
"What exactly did she misunderstand? That visiting hours for holding are in the afternoon here?" Julia prodded.
Renick evaded again "Maybe that's something you could talk with her about later. It's not really relevant to what we wanted to discuss with you."
And give Sam the luxury of not having to worry about contradicting the PRT when I grilled her? Yeah no, I knew better than to let that happen.
"I think we'll decide if it's relevant or not. If you're not going to be transparent with us then there's nothing for us to discuss." I countered.
Renick looked like he wanted to push back for a moment. But then he paused and sighed. "Alright I'll tell you. She jumped to some… conclusions after hearing a few out of context details secondhand from another ward. She came under the impression that we were going to 'press gang' both of you into the wards. After that she took things into her own hands and decided to start an incident to frustrate us. You probably know what she did next from there."
That was why we got buried in containment foam? At least his story was plausible, because if nothing else that would be the exact kind of dumb mistake Sam would make. If that was the case it was nice to know that Sam was serious about supporting my decision not to join the wards. On the other hand, that meant Sam had just gotten herself into trouble on my account. Again.
"Ok, let's say I believe you. Is Manes going to be in trouble for this?" I asked
Armsmaster answered "She agreed that in lieu of other punishments, that she'd join the PRT's apprentice program. It ensures that she'll be receiving direct supervision from now on. There are a few other details about the arrangement that I'm not familiar with, but it would be best if you discussed it with her directly in any case. All you need to know now is that she won't have any criminal charges pressed against her."
That was a bit vague but I guess it doesn't take a genius to figure out Sam is in big trouble. The fact that he specified they weren't charging her meant she had probably broken at least a few laws with her stunt. I'd never heard of an apprentice program, but I suspected there was a reason it was considered a punishment.
"I'll be sure to ask her then," I said, choosing to let the issue drop.
"Okay if you're not trying to get us into the wards. Then why are we here?" Julia asked.
"That is a very good question. But before we get into your role, I should explain the case. I would say this all started as a result of the raid on the Merchants last New Years. I'm sure you're both familiar?"
Before I could make the connection myself Julia had stood up slightly enraged. "Familiar? It was the worst night of my life!"
This caught Renick off guard "I'm sorry, we didn't know."
"Sorry doesn't cut it. The whole reason I have my stupid power is because of that night! If you guys hadn't screwed everything up my life would've been normal. You think it's easy having a power that constantly gives you intrusive thoughts. It sucks." Julia raged.
I grabbed one of Julia's hands in support, and to help her calm down. She had told me often about how she wished she hadn't triggered. Having constant threat assessments and lethal advice in her thoughts was rough on her mental health. She had even confided to me that she felt most normal when we went out in costume, because at least she could put her power to good use.
Armsmaster made his own attempt to soothe her. "I understand that you're angry. We weren't happy with how things turned out either."
"Oh I'm sure you were all very disappointed that you had a bad press day." Julia growled.
Armsmaster shook his head. "No that's not it at all. What we were upset about was losing a ward."
Julia's rage gave way to confusion "Wait, I don't remember you losing any wards. You had seven wards before and after New Years."
Armsmaster tried to clarify. "He wasn't one of the local wards. We brought him in from across the country as a replacement after Manes had to sit out the operation. His name was Mesmerize."
Replacement? They went that far out of their way to replace Sam? Why would they do that?
I tried to follow up "Wait, hold on. I don't understand. Manes is just a ward. Why would she be so important that she needed a replacement from across the country?"
Armsmaster looked at me like I was missing something before realizing why I was confused. "Oh yes, that detail wasn't made public. Well part of the operation was that we wanted to extract a tinker named Squealer before the raid started. We were aiming to bring her along quietly with Manes' possession. After she became unavailable Mesmerize was tapped. His powers weren't as ideal but they should have been enough."
And the whole reason Sam was unavailable was that I had just been put in the hospital. She hadn't told me about this. Was Mesmerize dead because of me?
Renick however added a sour note to the explanation. "Unfortunately the whole raid was doomed from the beginning. Someone had fed info to the Empire 88 and the ABB about the Merchants New Year's party. So when they both showed up the extraction team was put in a nearly impossible position. They tried to get out but Mesmerize died before they could get away."
"You mean even if Manes hadn't dropped out it would have been a disaster?" I asked.
Armsmaster shook his head "It's hard to know for certain but likely yes. We actually checked with a thinker named Hindsight at Think Tank about some different scenarios. For example if Manes had gone instead he claimed that there was a seventy percent chance she would have died under similar circumstances."
I felt my blood run cold, and I could hardly believe my ears. Seventy percent? That meant that if I hadn't been attacked, then Sam would likely be dead now. Did that mean I should be grateful I was attacked? I couldn't decide which answer was the more fucked up one.
As I was wrapping my mind around this thought I noticed that Renick had shot a silent glare towards Armsmaster. Was he not supposed to tell me that part? Armsmaster seemed to realize that he had slipped up somehow and he tried to recover.
"Of course that was based on info from after the raid. If we had known it was that dangerous beforehand we wouldn't have asked her to go" he hastily added.
It was a weak excuse. However the fact I was only hearing this now raised another question.
"Did you tell Manes about this? Does she know?" I asked.
"No, it was part of an internal PRT investigation that was on a need to know basis. It wasn't our call to tell her or not." Renick said, sending another look towards Armsmaster for his slip up.
I sighed. I could hardly care about who was authorized to do what in the PRT. What I was concerned about was whether I should tell Sam about how close she had been to dying. I felt like she had a right to know something like this. But would it help her feel less guilty about dropping out or more conflicted like I was because of why she had to drop out?
Armsmaster chose then to move on to another topic "While a lot of details are classified, I can tell you the outline of what we found in our internal investigation. It became clear to us that whoever was behind the leak, they wanted to pit the gangs against us and one another. The ABB and Empire members we have arrested confirmed neither had known the other gang would attack the Merchant's party, or that we would be involved. The conclusion we came to was that someone wants to weaken the gangs of Brockton Bay. And not for heroic reasons, but to eliminate possible competition."
So there was some secret villain who orchestrated everything? I couldn't help but be skeptical. That seemed a bit bold for anyone to try and pull off.
"That all sounds a bit out there. I mean it's not like the gangs need much reason to fight each other." I said.
"Yeah it sounds really convenient that there's some shady puppet master out there you can pin the blame on." Julia added.
"Maybe, but that theory came directly from the folks over at Think Tank, not us. They're convinced that what happened on New Years was part of a wider plan."
"Why is Think Tank even looking into this? Don't they have more important things to focus on than explaining why you messed up?" Julia asked.
Renick shook his head "This isn't about that. Anytime a ward dies outside of an endbringer fight there's a very thorough investigation into the causes. While Stormtiger is the one who directly killed Mesmerize, whoever orchestrated this has indirect responsibility as well. And we believe that's not all they're responsible for."
Armsmaster nodded in agreement "We have reason to believe there's a connection between the leaker and whoever hired Dr Jurassic. If they aren't one in the same, they're working close together. Because essentially both were focused on getting rid of Lung."
"Huh, what makes you say that?" I asked.
"Of all the villainous parahumans in Brockton Bay, Lung is probably one of the strongest ones. If anyone was going to try and move in, he'd be the biggest obstacle. Now tell me, if someone were trying to get rid of Lung and they learned there was going to be a big PRT raid on a Merchants party, what would they do?" Armsmaster asked.
"They would tell Lung about the Merchant's party but not the PRT and Protectorate, and hope Lung would get overwhelmed. But to take down Lung that wouldn't be enough… which is why it was leaked to the Empire too." I realized.
Armsmaster nodded "That's correct. And when that plan failed they waited and bided their time for another opportunity. Except Lung made his own play."
Julia finished his thought "He recruited Bakuda..."
Armsmaster confirmed "That's right. She had the potential to make the ABB much more lethal and dangerous with her she was recruited suddenly every day would be more time for her to make bombs for the ABB. So before that could happen the mastermind had to resort to desperate measures and hired an expensive loose cannon mercenary tinker. Now the ABB has been gutted and their place in the underworld is up for grabs."
"Okay so I get that you think there's some mastermind behind all this. Do you even have any idea who it could be?" I asked
"We do, but I'm afraid that specific information is on a need to know basis as part of our investigation." Armsmaster said.
I felt like groaning but restrained myself. "Then why are we here?"
Renick answered me "Because we think this 'mastermind', as you refer to him, possibly has some allies. Tell me, do you know about the Undersiders?"
Julia shook her head and I said "Uh, not really. I've never seen them in the news."
"That's not surprising, they're mostly a smash and grab group that do some information brokering on the side. At first we didn't think much of them. They first got on our radar when they pulled several heists during the New Years Raid. We assumed at first they were also fed leaked info about the raid, but chose not to take the bait. They're not the same type of gang as the ABB or Empire, so it made sense at the time. But then they pulled a heist on the ABB yesterday." Renick explained and gestured to Armsmaster.
Taking his cue, Armsmaster went into the details of the heist. "Just an hour after the arrests were made on Bakuda and Lung, they raided a warehouse used by the ABB. Apparently it was where Bakuda had been storing a stash of her tinkertech bombs outside of her lab. They helped themselves and were out before anyone even called us."
"Okay that's not good but are you sure you guys aren't just connecting dots that have nothing to do with each other? Sounds to me like the Undersiders just took the opportunity to grab some bombs for themselves." Julia said.
Armsmaster disagreed "They were in and out too fast for that to be the case. To pull a theft like this off so smoothly required advanced knowledge about what was in the warehouse and its security. At the very least they'd need a day to plan how to move the bombs without killing themselves."
"So stealing some bombs means they're working with this mastermind?" I asked.
"Not necessarily, but it's enough to make them suspects. And why do you think they took those bombs?" Armsmaster asked in return.
It was a valid question. Tinkertech in general had a reputation for being a crapshoot. You'd have to be pretty crazy to try and use tinkertech bombs made by someone like Bakuda.
Not being sure I guessed "So the ABB couldn't use them?"
Armsmaster shook his head "They could have blown up the warehouse to do that. My theory is that they'll try and fence them off to outside villain groups to get access to more reliable tinkertech they couldn't normally afford. They probably need anything they can get because now that Lung is gone the Empire has a free hand to expand its territory. The Undersiders are good thieves but they're not well suited for a fight if the Empire targets them. But that creates an opportunity for us, and brings us to why you're here."
Renick gave his pitch "We need some way to spy on the Undersiders. They have no henchmen to flip to us, and we have no idea where their main base is. We think you have a chance of being able to get close to them."
"You mean going undercover?" Julia tried to clarify.
Renick made a so-so gesture "Yes and no. Going undercover successfully is hard to accomplish at the best of times. But you don't necessarily have to join them to learn about them. Instead what we're suggesting is that you offer them an alliance against a common enemy, the Empire."
I raised an eyebrow "Hold on, you want us to help them?"
I mean there was no love lost between me and the Empire. I could stomach working with some small-time villains like the Undersiders if I could get back at them. But something about spying on people I was working with made me worry.
Renick answered "Yes, they're clearly worried about not having enough firepower if they took the risk of stealing Bakuda's bombs. Even if they are suspicious of you, I think they'd have a hard time saying no to two capes offering to team up. Even if you are independent heroes."
"And we're supposed to spy on them at the same time?" I tried to clarify.
"Right now we're only looking to fill in the blanks about what we know about them and figure out what they're going to do with those bombs. We're not expecting you to learn everything." Renick said.
Julia seemed skeptical "And you think they're just going to be cool with us taking notes and sending them to you guys?"
Armsmaster answered this "I doubt the Undersiders would be that naive. They'll probably be aware that you'll be observing them as you work together. It's just one of the trade offs they'll be making if they accept your help."
"Oh, that makes it better. Anytime we're working with them we'll have to be on guard for a random backstabbing. Wonderful." Julia deadpanned.
"For what it's worth, what we know about their powers suggests that the two of you could hold your own against them if necessary. We have their files right here." Armsmaster said, pulling out a pair of folders.
Sliding each one over to us, we opened them to find what he had promised. Unfortunately three of them were basically just two pages long, each with a blurry picture clearly taken from a cheap security camera. The longest one, Hellhounds file, was six pages.
However as I read through the files I did see what he meant about being able to take them. Hellhound was probably the biggest threat, but if I was lucky my power could work on her dogs even when they were empowered. If not I could just play 'keep away' to deny her access to any dogs to transform.
As for the others, Grue's darkness was concerning but I suspected I could use my power to compensate for losing my senses. As for the wildcards Regent and Tattletale presented I doubted they had anything flashy or overwhelming in their back pocket. Julia could probably figure them out pretty quickly.
After we had been given a few minutes to read Julia looked up and asked a question.
"So if these guys are so elusive, how exactly are we supposed to find them? This whole plan kind of doesn't work if we can't talk to them." she said.
Armsmaster answered this as well "There's a few approaches we could suggest that have worked in the past. Online forums like PHO are a surprisingly popular way to get in touch with villains for example. Or if you don't mind paying her fee, Faultline could provide some leads. Being a mercenary means she interacts very often with different villain groups. But we can get into that later."
Renick pulled out another set of folders for us. "I understand that you might be skeptical about this offer. The PRT and Protectorate haven't always put their best foot forward. But everyone makes some mistakes when they're trying to do something for the first time. As a gesture of goodwill, we've asked the prosecutors office to refrain from pursuing these charges against you. Basically a clean slate regardless if you accept or not."
Sliding these new folders to us we each grabbed one and opened it. I could see the damages from last week's fight against the Empire listed. There were also several excessive force charges for Oni Lee alongside each of the Tigers. I suspected was just there to pad out the charges. But I couldn't really argue I had been gentle with them, so I held my tongue. Julia's list of "forgiven" crimes were much shorter, which made sense given she had debuted a week ago.
"So generous." I said evenly. I appreciated they were giving up a decent amount of negotiating leverage by doing this. But I couldn't help but wonder how seriously they would have pursued these charges if they didn't want our help.
"For the record we'll also be willing to give you two more latitude than most other independent heroes receive from the PRT while you work with the Undersiders. After all, independents tend to work in a legal gray zone to begin with, and it'll be even more so when you're working with villains. As long as you aren't breaking any laws in broad daylight we'll refrain from asking too many questions." Renick said.
That sounded convenient. At least if an empire grunt got bit by a dog they wouldn't immediately blame me for it. Of course I know better than to treat this as a blank check to commit crimes. But not being scrutinized every step I took would be nice.
Of course teaming up with villains would require us to overlook their crimes, past and present. According to Hellhound's profile she was a murderer. Would I be able to ignore that?
Renick added on "And to sweeten the deal we'll even arrange for you to receive some financial compensation for this. Given how independent hero work doesn't usually pay well, there are some college scholarships the PRT is able to give independents. If you accept, you could afford to go to any school you want with a full ride scholarship."
I raised my eyebrows, and Julia seemed to sit up straighter when she heard that. A full ride college scholarship? For both of us? I'd given up on anything better than community college, and Julia had only expected to go into catering at her family's business. Suddenly I had to seriously consider their offer, because they were offering something I doubted I'd get anywhere else.
I thought for a moment about asking if they could throw in a transfer out of Winslow, but I thought better of it. If I was getting out of Winslow I wanted to take Julia with me. But they would need to know her civilian identity to do that. If they didn't know her secret identity I didn't think I could ask her to tell them just because I didn't like Winslow. At least not without a long talk beforehand.
But I felt like the PRT wasn't the kind of organization I'd want to make a deal with. They and the Protectorate had fallen short of the image presented to the public in my view. On paper the offer looked as reasonable as you could expect something like this to be. All we were expected to do was get close to some teenage villains and take some notes for the PRT, with a strong chance of fighting some Nazis (which we were going to do anyway). Yet I had my doubts.
I leaned over to Julia "What do you think?"
Julia looked over to me and spoke in a low voice "I don't know about this. I'm all for getting the fucker who probably caused me to trigger. But what I'm not so sure about is if the Undersiders have anything to do with that. They could just be putting us on some wild goose chase, with a chance of backstabbing."
"True. But it's not like there's a lot of other leads." I pointed out. "If nothing else it might get the PRT off our backs if we do them a favor."
"A pretty big favor they're asking. But I don't think there's any immediate deal breakers for me at least." Julia replied.
Noticing we had started to ignore them Renick politely coughed and got our attention again. "If you need some time to think this over, that's alright. All we need to know now is if you're interested or not. You don't need to make a final decision until the end of the week."
I looked over to Julia and she gave a nod, and I looked back to Renick "We'll consider it."
He beamed at that small concession "Thank you. You can contact us through our regular number, though Armsmaster should have some codes you can use to help set up a meeting with him if you accept. Though I would like to emphasize this whole arrangement is very secret, so be discreet about who you talk to about this with. Immediate family members at most, and even then only if absolutely necessary." Renick said standing up. "If you could wait just a minute, we can have a van ready to drive you wherever you need to go. I'll go make the arrangements while Armsmaster answers any other questions you have."
Renick picked up some files and took out his phone. He was punching in a number as he left the room, leaving us with Armsmaster. Hesitating for a moment, he looked like he was trying to pick his words before he started speaking.
"Zookeeper, I wanted to make an apology to you." He said.
"Really? For what exactly?" I asked, not quite sure where he was taking this.
"I understand that Triumph had been working on a case for you that he let go cold. It's become clear recently that his investigative work… leaves a lot to be desired. So I've reopened the case myself to see what I can find." He said.
"What? You mean…" I stop short, not sure what to say. "Why do you care about that? Are you trying to butter me up some more?"
He shook his head "Not at all. I take my job seriously. I didn't join for the perks, I want to bring criminals to justice. If I hadn't been busy at the time I should have taken the case to start with. And even if we have our differences, every cape deserves some closure around their trigger event."
"You know?…" I almost whispered. I guess it made sense he would know my identity, being the head of the Protectorate branch and all. It just hadn't occurred to me he would have remembered my trigger event.
"You don't have to worry. Only a dozen people in the PRT and Protectorate are cleared to know, and they're all obligated to stay quiet about it. We take secrecy seriously here." He said.
"What about me, I don't suppose you know who I am?" Julia asked.
Huh. Maybe she was thinking along the same lines about transferring out of Winslow? That or maybe it just occurred to her to just check.
"No, I can't say I do." Armsmaster answered. "If anyone else does, they haven't told me. Any other questions?"
"Nothing right now." I said, and Julia seconded that with a nod of agreement.
"Good, I have some codeword sets we often give out to independents. I would suggest you memorize them." He said, right before pulling out a surprisingly thick stack of papers.
"Wait, how many codes are there?" Julia asked.
"About five hundred, but a hundred are junk codes to help disguise the real ones. So you'll only need to memorize four hundred to cover your bases. I assure you they're all necessary. They cover different locations, numbers, villains, times of day for meetings, kinds of emergencies, and so on. It's best to be ready for every contingency." Armsmaster explained.
I internally groaned that despite becoming a hero to help forget about Winslow, I was still getting homework.
A/N
-Once again I need to figure out how to write shorter chapters I can be satisfied with, because this was a beast to write.
-Hopefully the PRT's plan makes more sense than you might have assumed from the last chapter. Basically it's the PRT making the best of the situation. There's two independents who don't want to join and hate the empire with a passion? Why not bribe them with an unofficial mandate to go after the Empire and some college money for the 'small' price of getting close to some teenage villains and spying on them?
-Anyone reading this probably can guess who the "mastermind" is. As you can see, Sam's existence has caused a bit of a butterfly effect. Without her the PRT wouldn't have done the big raid on the merchants, which wouldn't have tempted a certain snake to sabotage it to help try and get Lung killed. However, a ward's death suddenly added a lot more scrutiny than he was expecting. And now the pressures on to accomplish his plan before the PRT puts the pieces together. All little ripples from one extra person existing.