5.3 - Emily Piggot Interlude

Emily Piggot

The recording ended and Emily looked across her desk to the eternally stern visage of Armsmaster, who had listened just as attentively whilst the recording of his first meeting with the new vigilante had played through to the end.

"I've read your report, but tell me your impressions of Ghost Step."

Brockton Bay was a hellhole that was always only one bad day away from being an active warzone and all it would take was for one of the factions to push a little too far and set the whole thing off. It was a balancing act and one she was forced to wrestle with each and every day, keeping the peace being the greatest thing they could hope for with the deck so stacked against them as it was and wildcards like a new vigilante could be anything from a flash in the pan to a match waiting to be thrown that would start the conflagration to burn it all down.

The Azn Bad Boys under Lung had secured the East of the Docks, though laid claim to far more besides and their regular shows of force did little to deter many of the minor gangs from taking root in the cracks they could find. Yet beyond the occasional push to expand, or when Lung was given a reason to rampage the group could at least be relied upon for their inevitable predictability. They may have had the fewest capes, but the Protectorate had already tried to fight Lung and lost. Oh they'd certainly spun it as a victory, but it was a stalemate at best and the resources that would have been required to actually put the dragon down wouldn't have been worth the rubble and lives that would have been needed to succeed.

And that was to say nothing of how the other gangs would have taken advantage of the power vacuum that would have been left. It wouldn't have taken long at all before the Empire, Coil and all the other parasites emerged like vultures come to pick and squabble over the corpse of another. With Oni Lee as his right hand, Lung could project power across the city that only the Empire could truly match and so without luck or a considerable increase in resources that Emily had long learned she wasn't going to receive, the best she could hope for was their continued containment.

The Empire Eighty-Eight meanwhile centered themselves firmly in Downtown, or at least where they weren't still fighting Coil's men for control. All the while they ran their own string of operations in the Docks that were enforced and protected by the capes under their command, though what territory Kaiser had purported to have claimed in that area of the city was nebulous at best. They had the numbers, quantity and quality when it came to the amount of capes they could put on the field and the fact that their ideology infested a good third of the city, including the BBPD made ripping them out by the roots a pipe dream, even if they had been the only set of villains she had to deal with.

Coil's mercenaries were at least predictable up to a point. According to her people it was still even odds if the villain 'Coil' actually existed at all, or if he was yet another mercenary acting the figurehead of parahuman villain. It wouldn't have been the first time it had happened, though usually pretenders had a way of getting themselves killed in short order, which as far as they knew hadn't happened yet for better or for worse.

Regardless of the truth there was no escaping the fact that Coil's group had firmly established themselves as one of the major players in the city. They took territory and they held it and the times they gave ground was only so they could strike back at an unexpected angle at a later time as the Empire had quickly learned skirmishing over Downtown. The mercenaries were well equipped, better than her own people in some cases and Coil, or whoever was behind him was astute and well informed enough to not only hold his territory, but expand if he saw any weakness in the other factions he could exploit.

And then there were the Archer's Bridge Merchants. There had always been gangs in Brockton Bay no matter who the major players were, a dozen smaller groups at any one time headed by one upstart cape or another. All of them vying for dominance over their own little broken shard of what used to be the most prosperous part of the city. But over the past several months the Archer's Bridge Merchants had somehow risen to the top of the giant pile of festering shit and subsumed or destroyed a good quarter of all the other gangs in the Docks at one point in time, even if more groups had immediately sprung up to fill the void like the strangling weeds they were.

The Archer's Bridge Merchants had managed to accrue several capes of their own, a claim no other minor gang could match and somehow even had their own Tinker, which was something even the Empire with their own vast resources had yet to secure. The only saving grace of having yet another major faction to deal with was that unlike the other groups, the Archer's Bridge Merchants were aimless.

Oh they would assault other gangs, but then in the same stroke they would fail to exploit the new territory they'd gained for days or weeks if at all. They would ignore rival factions setting up on their doorstep and the areas they 'controlled' were largely little more than the drug addled whims of Skidmark. A leader who by all accounts was more interested in chasing his next high or pursuing petty revenge against his rivals than any true intentions towards becoming something more. The group as a whole were a potential threat when roused to action with the numbers they could bring to bear, but would undoubtedly be crushed in short order should they draw the attentions of any one of the other factions to a more permanent end.

No, if the ABB were a brushfire, the Empire an ever grasping fist and Coil the snake to his namesake, then the Merchants were little more than a lethargic doped up greyhound, content to peddle drugs and only occasionally tried to expand or aim for anything more than petty thefts and arson.

"She is overconfident and impulsive" Armsmaster replied evenly and she didn't bother to hide her grimace.

Just what she needed to hear.

Brockton Bay was always ripe for fresh triggers and she had been in the job long enough as the Director of PRT ENE to see all the ways it would play out. If the new parahuman was smart they got out and that was a net plus for her whether they were playing hero or villain, since it meant she at least had one less cape she needed to worry about. That or they joined the Wards or the Protectorate. She might trust the average cape as far as she could throw them, but with every request for more funding, more resources and more transfers being sat on or outright denied at every turn... Well she wasn't going to say no to any additional firepower she could get her hands on, no matter what package they came in.

And capes always came in a variety of stripes, some more trouble than others and the more trouble they were for her, the more valuable they were for everyone else. Thinkers were always at the top of the list, a smart Thinker could make anyone's life hell and project power in a way a standard brute package simply couldn't. Unfortunately they were also fairly useless to her since she knew Watchdog would try and snap up any she got her hands on. Whereas anyone they didn't want would either be too weak to be of any real use to her, or an outright liability she'd have to find a way to deal with otherwise, lack of resources be damned.

Tinkers were next on the list and it wasn't only the PRT that monitored the scrap yards and unusual purchases to try and spot when a new one popped up. Though Tinkers tended to disappear as quickly as they appeared, they couldn't usually hide themselves in the same way a half decent Thinker could for long and when they got noticed they either got recruited or 'recruited'.

Brutes, Strikers, Shakers, Blasters and Breakers were all a dime a dozen. There were exceptions to any rule of course, the fact that one of the strongest shakers on the East Coast was a twelve year old Ward that she was directly responsible for was only proof of that. But by and large they were the grab bag of manageable, or at least understandable elements of chaos and usually not worth nearly as much scrutiny as all the others.

Masters were always the more tangible threat and there was always the danger that one would appear with the power to suborn the men and women under her command, if not the entire organisation with enough power, time and resources on their side. But mercifully they were the rarer of the lot and the smart ones stayed off the radar entirely. But should one appear in her city, Emily was fairly confident she could sequester more resources to deal with it and cut straight through all the red tape that was currently hung in her way.

Strangers, Changers and Trumps meanwhile were the nightmare she hated having to deal with when they weren't under her direct authority and with Oni Lee already demonstrating how destructive a single antagonistic high level mover could be, the last thing she wanted was to deal with was more of them unless they reported directly to her.

So naturally her luck was such that by all accounts she now had one running around her city, picking fights with the gangs and just begging to be snatched up and turned against her people.

"And her abilities?" She asked, watching the man in front of her frown and she cut him off before he could begin. "Are we actually dealing with a high level Mover or is this some potential Breaker-Stranger combination you speculated in your report?"

"The pattern of her activities and the criminals she was recorded as transporting directly to Brockton Bay General Hospital indicates a high level Mover ability." He replied, the frown he wore only deepening as he continued and she knew it was a slight to his pride that he couldn't speak with the certainty he had grown accustomed to. "However, without further information I cannot definitively state that she doesn't have an as of yet unseen ability, tinker-tech or even an accomplice providing transportation. When she disappeared from my visual sight she remained invisible to my sensors and I did not detect any emissions that would be indicative of more common Mover abilities or tinker-tech equivalents."

"Do you now think she's a Stranger?" Emily knew he didn't, but Armsmaster had no doubt been giving the matter more thought since he'd submitted his initial report and she wanted to hear the confirmation from the man himself for her own peace of mind if nothing else. A new Stranger meant more paperwork and more mandatory refresher classes on Master-Stranger protocols for the Wards and she'd already been forced to go through that rigmarole with the appearance of Nightshade last month.

"The majority of Stranger effects render the individual immune to biological perception, however should still typically remain on both live and recorded camera feeds, yet there is no evidence of such in my own recordings."

That was enough to cross Stranger off the list to her own satisfaction, not that she would say as much to the man in front of her. Though whether the new vigilante was in fact a Mover or something else entirely they would find out one way or the other in short order. Either option was unpalatable, though both scenarios presented entirely different problems for her to deal with and she dropped the topic, moving onto the next point that had immediately stood out to her.

"You mentioned in your report that she was likely responsible for the alleged missing money at the crime scenes she's attended, do you think we can pressure her into the Wards that way?" New parahumans always made mistakes, sometimes not even slightly unintentionally. But a Ward contract tended to make those problems go away if they took the deal and it was a hammer she'd used more than once to ensure compliance.

"Unlikely" Armsmaster replied, killing the idea in its infancy. "It appears she wishes to gain the necessary funds for what she would consider an actual heroic costume, rather than risk our own branding should she join the Wards in her current state. However I should reiterate that this remains informed conjecture on my part."

Sometimes Emily wished she could simply ban the Wards from the internet. She knew that wouldn't solve the issue at large, but it would at least make her feel marginally better that there wouldn't be any further 'plausibly deniable' PR horror stories from her own people appearing on PHO if nothing else.

That she couldn't honestly say the PR department's reputation was entirely unearned was a regular headache in its own right. Especially when now she had all but been given tangible proof that the team's reputation was doing a better job of scaring off potential new Wards far more than any fear of death or recruitment by one of the gangs in the city.

"And if she doesn't stop?" Emily asked plainly. The girl had a taste now, easy smash and grabs against men and women too drugged up to aim straight and she wondered how long it would be before the girl tried to go for the bigger fish and bit off more than she could chew. Worse yet if she liked the idea of being able to set her own paycheck that would be more than anything the Wards could offer and decided to be smart about it too. It was easy to imagine the girl realising there were much easier places to hit and going after businesses or banks and then they would have another Circus or worse on their hands to deal with.

"She was made aware of the consequences and whilst her attitude bordered on disrespectful, I believe that she nonetheless took the warning to heart." He paused consideringly and Emily gave him the moment, knowing the man in front of her wouldn't purposely waste her time, even if his focus on minutia was a bad habit she was yet to entirely cull from him in her presence when it was unwarranted.

"With regard to practical considerations." He continued, "it's clear that she's confident there is no direct evidence linking her to any alleged thefts and upon reviewing my own footage I find it highly unlikely she had any funds on her person should I have successfully detained and searched her at the scene. Witness statements were contradictory at best and none saw her interact with funds at any point, despite multiple false statements to the contrary by some. It's my opinion that barring concrete evidence of a crime being committed, our most viable option at this time would be to hold her in temporary detention and attempt to induce a confession, though I don't believe she would be cooperative to such a course of action."

Emily wanted to respond with sarcasm but it wouldn't have been worth it, even assuming it registered with the man in front of her. "We'll play nice for now" she decided, letting a vigilante sweat in confinement could work in some cases, but against a potential Mover she would only be shooting herself in the foot and wouldn't know if she was firing blanks until she went through with it. At best she'd get a measure of the girl's patience, at least until she no longer felt like playing along with the charade and at worst they played the part of creating a new villain who could run straight to the Empire and be accepted with open arms.

"We need to know her power and the extent of her abilities regardless." Emily continued as she mulled it over, because what they were still lacking were concrete facts and she wouldn't have a chance to have Panacea debriefed until later that afternoon at the earliest, assuming Brandish didn't stonewall her again. "If she is a high level Mover we'll need to brief her on the Strategic Endbringer Asset initiative at some point, actually get a SEA form filled in with as much information as you currently have, we'll need to submit one sooner or later now that she's become active regardless."

High level Movers, those that could cross continents and especially those that could transport multiple people at once had a value far higher than the entirety of her operational budget. She'd be able to sit on Ghost Step's report for a while, but with the cape becoming more active, more and more people would start to take notice of her. Wishful thinking that the girl would just vanish back into obscurity wouldn't get her anywhere, capes used their powers like an addict needing their next hit and even if the girl did take a week or two to cool off, she'd be back out on the streets at some point to cause another mess her people would have to clean up.

It wouldn't be long before she started getting questions and unless she could firmly establish the girl wasn't a Mover, or at least wouldn't have any more use than a normal volunteer when it came to the Endbringer fights, then she'd need to start having answers before certain departments made it her problem. Strategic Endbringer Assets were rare enough as it was and the fact that she couldn't get the girl into the Wards immediately grated at her. But if she was smart about it, she might finally be able to drag some concessions out of New York she considered with a frown. There wouldn't be anything to lose as long as she didn't make a show of it and all it might take would be to wave the girl's potential in front of them and make a promise to at least 'try' and look out for the girl. Ensure that she didn't get herself killed in the first month, at least if it did turn out she had the potential to be more useful than any of the regular volunteers.

"Yes ma'am." Armsmaster replied and it was only having worked with the man for so long that she could spot the subtle movement of his head as he had no doubt started to bring up the relevant documents on his visor before being dismissed. "If she continues her current pattern of behaviour it would make sense to have either myself or Velocity take patrol routes that intersect with the known Merchant territories for the next two weeks, though I would imagine we'll see at least a few days of inactivity as she recovers from the previous fight."

Emily nodded, ignoring the man's multitasking. A PRT Director who didn't learn to deal with the eccentricities of the capes under their command didn't advance high enough to reach the position in the first place and typically wouldn't last long if simple bureaucratic inertia managed to carry them there regardless. "I'd prefer Miss Militia to be the one to make contact next if possible, but if it is a Mover power that may be more difficult to set up than I'd like. Very well, send me an updated patrol schedule this afternoon and I'll sign off on it."

"Ma'am." Armsmaster nodded, getting up without another word and swiftly leaving the room.

Emily allowed herself a sigh as the door closed behind him and checked her next meeting on the docket. Another day in Brockton Bay.