Current Energy: 10
Current Training: Onmyodo (7/10)
Thursday, January 20th, 2011
PRT Headquarters, Brockton Bay
You laugh at your Master all the way back to the PRT building, much to her rising irritation. She asks you numerous times why you are laughing, which only sends you into greater and greater fits of laughter. By the time you have calmed down enough to consider actually explaining the misunderstanding to you Master, she has already taken to ignoring you and has shifted to a more contemplative mien as she focuses on what she is going to tell Piggot at her meeting that night.
Frowning, she travels through the halls of the PRT building, occasionally pausing to think over something, working herself up more and more as she moves about.
The air in the building has become somewhat strained as of late. Your Oathbound aren't particularly well versed nor inclined in any of the government organizations many procedures and rules, and as such, tend to inadvertently break them a lot as they go about their downtime. This would usually not be a problem - you shouldn't honestly have access to most of the building in a normal situation.
However, right now is different. When there was no one else to turn to, New Wave and your Oathbound came to help. New Wave maintained the peace as best they could, and Amy spent more time at the Hospital than was strictly healthy for a teenage girl, thanks to the lack of open schools during the crisis. And your team, well, what you've done cannot be understated. You've almost singlehandedly decimated the ranks of the Empire, and despite your Master's continued obliviousness on the topic, her mere presence in the Downtown area seems to have been enough to enforce a suitable return to something approaching normal. More important than any of that, you successfully saved many of the PRT's squadmates and Hero's, especially since several of them wouldn't have survived much longer without access to Panacea.
And so, despite the fact that much their manpower has been returned to them, the PRT finds themselves in an uncomfortable situation. They cannot truly punish you and yours, because you have done them a great service. They cannot eject you, as they were the ones who offered their hospitality. The security breach must be maddening to the stuffy men and women that command this building, but they are forced to bite their tongues due to services rendered.
Also possibly fear. You presume some of it is due to fear.
Regardless, that sensation of not belonging has greatly intensified since the return of the Protectorate. Enough so that even the usually belligerent Trainwreck has taken notice and chosen to stay out of sight. It isn't hostility from the troopers per se. Merely lingering discomfort. An insular, tribal need to rally to their own and repel invaders that your Emulation has seen time and time again from the species. And unfortunately, your team very much does not count as 'their own' in some intangible way that only grows more apparent with each regulation they accidentally breach.
With great trepidation and a sense of acceptance, your Master eventually makes her way to the office of the Director - a room the woman almost literally never leaves when not actively meeting with you or giving orders to her men. You suspect there might be something wrong with her in fact, as her skin has begun to yellow appreciably since the beginning of this entire fiasco. Not enough that you are worried for her life yet but certainly enough that you suspect she might be forgoing some important treatment in order to continue her work.
Not that it shows in her work ethic.
With a quick knock to alert the woman inside to her presence, your Master patiently waits outside the door, entering at the sound of a muffled 'come in' from the other side.
The Director is sitting at her desk, much as you would expect, positively surrounded by paperwork. Maps. Requisition forms. Offers of employment. It seems to you as though the woman might somehow be doing all the administrative work of the entire building in here, which strikes you as odd until you realize that she had probably allowed any of the normal office workers to retreat out of the city at the first sign of trouble. You'll give the woman this. She's a menace to her enemies but seems to at least to try to protect her allies.
"Nexus. Are you ready to give me your report?" The woman says perfunctorily, not bothering to cease her slow methodical typing on the computer infront of her, nor looking up to acknowledge your Master's entrance into the room.
"I... yes. I fought Purity yesterday using a power Emmy-" she begins only to be cut off by the Director.
"That's the projection correct?" She clarifies, almost offhandedly.
"Yes." Your Master answers through grit teeth. "She provided me with a power that allowed me to ensure I wouldn't destroy any buildings or kill anyone. I engaged Purity with it, beat her, then assisted my team in subduing Night, Fog, and Krieg right afterward."
Here she pauses for a moment, frowning as the Director listens, seemingly content to let her continue.
"I... used a new... power... on Night that sent her to another dimension." She slowly said, almost seeming as though she had to force herself to wrench the words from her mouth. Then she stopped, obviously waiting for a reprimand.
"I'll make a note of it. Is there anything else?" Piggot said, sending your Master's tenuous mental state of balance at the sheer lack of interest.
"I - is that all? You don't have anything else to say to that? I can bring her back you know! She's not- I didn't kill her!" Your Master blurts out, then rushes to explain when the Director merely raises an eyebrow at her outburst.
"Miss Hebert, you don't particularly like or trust me do you?" The woman said finally, pausing in her typing to actually look up and into the eyes of your Master, her stare cold and unforgiving.
"...No. No I don't." Your Master admits after a second of consideration.
"That is surprisingly straight forward of you to admit. And do you know why I disturb you so Miss Hebert?" The Director asks rhetorically.
You can feel a thousand reasons flitting across your Master's mind, some petty, some not so much, most only so much straw that together was enough to ignite hatred in your Master. There was, however, one particular thing she could point to with certainty.
"You let Sophia Hess make me a Parahuman." Your Master says with such absolute bile in her tone that even the Director seems temporarily taken aback. Not for very long though.
"True. And that is a failing I admit to freely. I assume you know then." The Director says conversationally, her tone neutral but her expression somehow growing even more weary.
"That your Ward is a murderous psychopath who spent over a year torturing me? Yes, I did manage to puzzle that one out after she shot me." Your Master spits, almost triumphantly.
"Shadow Stalker wasn't my choice. I pushed to have her sent away the minute her file landed on my desk. Look at the city Miss Hebert. Tell me honestly, do you see why some people might find that necessary?" The Director says pointedly.
"So because you needed Parahumans, you get to say the costs were worth the benefits? What she did to me was sick Director. So much so, that I'm surprised I'm even a hero at all. If I had seen her in those first waking moments, I don't think I could have stopped myself from attacking her. Emmy's first form was a walking engine of destruction Director. I've barely inherited a fraction of what he could do and you've seen what I can manage if I put my mind to it. And the more I think about it, the more I realize, I don't think that was a coincidence. My powers always give me the friend I need Director." Your Master says heatedly, anger and depression warring within her as she is forced to contemplate the her of a few weeks ago.
"Which is why you are in my office, completely unaccompanied by anyone loyal to me Miss Hebert. Believe me, I understand the havoc you could perpetrate if you so chose. But as I said, the order to keep Shadow Stalker aboard was from above me. There was nothing I can do about it. So. Why do you, Taylor Annette Hebert, dislike me specifically." The woman says bluntly, turning to consider her computer screen for a moment and then sighing, before turning fully away from it to face your Master head on.
"I - " Your Master bites out, obviously not agreeing with the woman's interpretation of her responsibilities.
"It's because I am a consequence Miss Hebert. There is no such thing as a Parahuman who has nothing wrong with them. You are, all of you, broken people. Some of you can be helpful. Many of you try your best. But the truth of the matter is, I think you get your powers on the worst day of your life, and then spend the rest of that life spreading that misery about like a pig smearing shit. Parahuman's, you all tend to think you are beyond the law. Beyond the means of mortals. Take Jack Slash. His power is nothing in the face of some threats. If one were to sum it up, he is a man who can stab you from a distance. Something anyone can achieve using a gun if they so wanted. And yet, normal people do not become prolific murderers the way Jack has. They don't leave towns depopulated, and people living in constant fear of their presence. Monsters do that Miss Hebert." The Director says firmly and with a sneer, making sure to hold your Master's gaze the entire time she is talking.
"I understand you, girl. Really, I do. You want to make the world better. You want to save your city. You want to protect your family. But so did the men who built the atomic bomb. Look where that got them. I'm sure you've thought it at least once. 'If you could just get rid of the problem, then everything would be better.' That's what the PRT is for Miss Hebert. The bureaucracy, the redundancy, the limiting rules and regulations. I am here to make sure that you are all swaddled in so much cloth that should you decide to run into a wall, the people on the other side of it won't be instantly executed." The Director states bluntly.
"That doesn't make any sense! If you were actually controlling us Parahumans then the city wouldn't be so bad! You let Lung run around for years, selling women and children like nothing!" Your Master retorts.
"And yet, if you were to see the aftermath of even attempting to stop that Monster by us mere mortals, you would gag at the death toll. Don't claim the moral high ground girl. I was at Ellisburg I know what happens when one of you decides to play god." The Director responds instantly.
"So... that's it? I'm useful and too much trouble to try to stop, so you won't even look in to what I do anymore? I can just do whatever I want because you can't stop me? You won't even try?" Your Master contends, seemingly disturbed by the implications of that question.
"You are being surprisingly adamant that I punish you for someone who hates me." Piggot states blandly.
"Because you're supposed to be better! Because we're supposed to be better!" You Master yells back a the woman instantly.
"It strikes me, that you are being much more open and blunt than someone of your station would normally be Director. Why is that exactly?" You ask curiously, appearing at your Master's back in a servile position your Emulation can recall her own servants taking occasionally when she was trying to seem intimidating.
The Director eyes you suspiciously for a second before answering, apparently noticing that your Master is content to allow you to speak - or perhaps assuming your Master is puppeting you to mimic speech.
"Miss Hebert, you may not like me, and you may never agree with me. But ultimately, it is my goal to see as many normal people saved from Parahumans as possible. Most Parahumans don't like being told they need to be limited. To be controlled. You all prance about like tiny godlings regardless of your actual strength. But I probably won't have this position when this is all over. And you seem like the type of Parahuman who could be better. Like Miss Militia was." The Director pauses, eyes going briefly distant before returning to herself.
"So I wanted you to understand. This is the PRT. This is its purpose. It's not to produce heroes. It's not to make legends. It's a zoo, where we keep the Lion's so they don't take up residence in the park, hunting children. The ultimate goal, behind the PR, behind the pandering, is to save as many lives as possible, in any way possible. Sometimes that requires turning a blind eye to things. Sometimes it requires we negotiate with people we wouldn't otherwise want to," The Director pauses at this to turn a pointed look on your Master, "and sometimes, yes, it's to fight villains. But fighting villains in fancy costumes was never the point Miss Hebert. It was a means."
The Director holds your Master in place, pinned to her chair by the weight of her implacable stare. The sheer weight of her experience and force of will is nearly overbearing enough that you might have suspected she had a power of her own, and your Master is sufficiently cowed not to speak out at the womans brutal tirade.
"So yes. I will appease the most dangerous person in the city by overlooking how she might have handled the dangerous homicidal nazi that would otherwise be terrorizing people without her. Occasionally at least. And yes, I will tell her to her face why I am doing it. Because it seems to me, Miss Hebert, that straightforward explanations work best for you. You take to them better than most, and you hue towards a sort of self-inflicted honour I wouldn't have otherwise expected in a person with your abilities. If this is what I have to do to make sure you keep protecting my people once I'm out of this office, then so be it. And for what it's worth, when this entire thing calms down, I do intend to have Shadow Stalker declared a villain. Even though it will likely be the last thing I do in my career. Now. Is there anything else or can I go about my business?" The Director states, her expression and demeanour simmering back down to being merely 'imposing' instead of overbearing.
"...No." Your Master states shortly, her emotions and mind a roil of conflicting opinions and feelings.
You can see why. Your Master, bless her heart, has been powerful enough that she could choose to see the world as merely black and white. Good and Evil. A comic book, where defeating the man with the silly mask would end the conflict. In the real world, things simply didn't work like that. A lesson that most people didn't learn until much later in life, unless it was beaten into them at an early age by circumstances outside of their control.
Truthfully, your Master has clung to her sense of right and wrong for so long despite such outside circumstances that you are frankly amazed her first act as a Parahuman wasn't to slaughter her way across the city to find her attackers.
Regardless, she gets up from her seat, and you vanish from the air for a moment, watching her screw her face up in concentration and contained rage as she walks out of the room. You give it a few moments, and then reappear, causing the beleaguered woman at the desk to sigh audibly as she turns towards you.
"Did you forget something, Miss Hebert?" The woman asks you, obviously assuming you a mere proxy for your Master.
"My Master is likely too busy to notice me staying behind Director." You state blandly, gliding around to sit in the chair your Master just vacated, and smoothing a few creases in your skirt out as you come to a rest.
"I find that doubtful." The woman says dourly, clearly impatient. You'll give her this. She seems like a good judge of character, having likely determined long ago that it was unlikely for your Master to openly attack her after all she has since done to assist the local PRT.
Even if that understanding probably gals the woman to no end.
"Director, would I be remiss in pointing out that you seem to be quite ill?" You say gently, ignoring her gruff exterior to really examine her. Above even the yellowish tint to her skin, the women just looks so... run down. As though she hasn't slept in days, and has no intention of sleeping tonight either.
"If I were, it wouldn't be your business to ask. What do you want." The woman says bluntly.
"My Master recently acquired a healing power-" You begin, but are cut off.
"I refuse." The woman answers, turning back to her computer screen.
"In ancient times, Director, allies maintained their relationships by hosting 'guests' for each other. Usually, people of some import. That way, should the other party ever betray them, they would already have a hostage present to negotiate with. A built in weak point, as it were. A relationship not built on trust, but merely the cold hard fact, that to break trust would be to lose something tangible. Do you suppose that the person who replaces you will be as accomodating to my Master as you are? Or were you planning on dying so that it wouldn't be your problem anymore?" You ask rhetorically.
This is all academic of course. The woman clearly hates Parahumans enough that she would obviously rather die than being assisted by one. Still, it amuses you to needle her, and so you do. There is no deeper meaning to it than that.
"This isn't the dark ages, and I'm not marrying into the girl's family. If you have nothing else to add then leave." The Director states crisply, returning to her work as though aren't present.
You suppose you could let it go... but do you want to?
Friday, January 21st, 2011
PRT Headquarters, Brockton Bay
Your Master has apparently decided that if the world isn't as pleasant and straightforward as she might like, that she will merely drag it kicking and screaming back into the daylight using overwhelming force. It is simultaneously both very characteristic of your Master, and yet still surprisingly ruthless in its simplicity. By your Masters reckoning, if Heroism - true Heroism - is unappealing and unwieldy to other Parahumans, she will simply have to enforce a paradigm where the opposite is true.
In her own words, 'Be so dangerous that no one will dare escalate in my presence'. Well, not in quite so many words really, but deciding to train her team to be an unstoppable force that everyone has to either accede to or be crushed by certainly says something about her intentions.
You love your Master dearly, and have seen this coming for some time now, but you can't help but snicker at her when she explains her - very simple - plan to you. You realize that her intention is to be an icon of heroism akin to the Triumvirate, in an attempt to inspire others to join her cause ideologically if not physically, but you also wonder if she's noticed how similar her plan is to merely flipping the table to avoid losing the game is.
Regardless, you are now watching idly - half awake because your Master doesn't understand the benefits of sleep properly and woke up at some ungodly hour - as your Master gets into a huddle with her two teammates and begins to speak quietly to them, explaining her plans. Despite the sheer of absurdity of her goals, Trainwreck and Aspirant don't seem very surprised by her declaration. Trainwreck certainly seems mildly skeptical, and Aspirant seems contemplative, but neither seems surprised.
"So, I wanted to make sure we have a general plan for engaging villains." Your Master is explaining, gesturing in the air at her two teammates.
"What like, formations or some shit? We soldiers now boss?" Trainwreck asks sarcastically. Your Master frowns at his comment.
"No, like... a priority list? Rules?" Your Master offers hesitantly, seemingly unsure of how to explain her thoughts.
"Rules of Engagement." Aspirant puts forth, drawing all eyes towards him. He is still in his gorilla esque form, having apparently tweaked it some but like it well enough to keep it up. He has made a point of never 'unmasking' in the PRT building, though you aren't sure why.
"Soldiers have them. It's the difference between an organized force and a mob of raiders." He explains, whisking one hand in the air while he speaks, seemingly as a nervous tick.
"Then - yeah. That. Rules of Engagement. Wreck, besides me, your the most mobile in a cluttered battlefield. You can bust through walls and people like they aren't even there. So... even though I want everyone to remember this, I want you to make it your first priority. When we arrive - no one dies. I don't care who you have to punch. I don't care what you have to break. Suplex a car for all I care. But you get to the bystanders and you protect them. Got it?" Your Master says firmly, pointing at Trainwreck who is blinking at her like she might have just lost her natural mind.
"Boss. I love yah. Your like a dinky cousin and all. Always in my business, in a cute kinda way. But." Trainwreck says, waving a hand at himself as if presenting himself for inspection.
"I'm a fucking Wreck. Ain't nobody gonna see my rusty ass and think 'ah, the hero who will save us all!'. I bust heads. Not as good as you, cus you're a freak or some shit. But pretty fucking good." Trainwreck explains.
'He thinks less of himself than anyone else.' You point out to your Master, curious to see what she'll do with the information. You aren't particularly worried about how this will turn out. You won't like it but if you have to you can quite easily change the minds of anyone going against her wishes. Still, some experience leading men should be helpful for your Master, so you withhold your mystical assistance until you find it absolutely necessary.
Even if you think Trainwreck would make an excellent Youkai. An Oni perhaps. A red one.
"Wreck. You know I trust you right?" Your Master says, looking the older man in the eye with that determination she sometimes shows when she decides things will go her way.
"Yeah, so? Maybe you shouldn't." He says easily, challenging her.
"No, I know it. You're with me now. I can trust you like f-family." She explains, stuttering slightly at the end.
"What, like a drunken uncle?" He chuckles darkly.
"Wreck." Your Master says warningly. "Wreck you were the first person to join me. I know it was just because I'm strong and all, but you stayed. Even when all I did was put you in a garage and let you sit for days. You stayed. And your not a mess. You're more like a... disenfranchised knight. A good heart, in a bad situation. You know if you needed anything, I'd get it for you, right? No matter what." Your Master states once more, firmly holding the man's gaze until he turns away, embarrassed.
"You're a little fucking menace you know that? All that charisma and faith and shit." Trainwreck mumbles, scratching his head with one giant metal finger.
"I'm a fifteen year old girl Wreck. I don't have either of those things." Your Master replies primly. You can't tell if she's making a joke or actually believes it, but either way, it's funny.
"Anyway, the point is, we have to be better. People have to know when we show up that we aren't going to destroy their homes for no reason. That we aren't just fighting for the sake of fighting. When we show up people have to know that they are the most important thing. Their lives. Their livelihoods. I want to make it clear that those things are sacrosanct in Brockton Bay." Your Master continues on. She is much more confident when it is just her and her teammates. As though certain she does not need to defend herself from them, for all that she hardly has to defend herself from anyone anymore given her power.
"That runs somewhat counter to your orders to suplex a car though..." Aspirant points out. It takes you a second to realize he just made a joke. He's usually so straightforward and serious that it took you a couple of seconds to understand the intent behind the statement. Taylor at least, seems to get it immediately, and blushes slightly while chuckling at the point.
"People before stuff. Stuff before bad guys." Taylor explains, and the two men nod slowly as they internalize the statement.
The group chats for a bit longer after that - mostly about various ways they can work together, or more specifically, around your Master's prodigious powers. The strategy they prepare seems to be mostly predicated around assuming your Master will seek out and pin down any obvious threats while the rest assist any civilians and handle secondary threats - a good strategy for a team of Brutes. The conversation however, is cut short by the loud, audible sound of something exploding outside the building.
The entire group freezes. Then the shutters on the entrance to the garage you are in slam shut, and a loud wailing noises fills the area, along with the dull red illumination of emergency lights.
"What-" Your Master blurts out in confusion.
"Probably the Nazi's. We got half their guys downstairs - if they can get em out this whole thing is going to restart. Back to zero." Trainwreck explains, quickly rising to his feet.
"Where to boss?" He asks almost eagerly, eyeing the doorway that leads into the building proper, which has also been covered by a heavy metal looking bulkhead.