Your name is Taylor Hebert, and you sit in the very back of your last class for the day - Your eyes have glazed over as you rest your chin on one palm, all the while watching the second hand of the clock over Mr. Rekka's head slowly ticks away.

There has to be a better way to handle this.

The words bounce back and forth across your mind like the DVD logo on a slumbering TV, to the point where you barely even recognize the idea as a thought. Part of that is because you've thought that about this class since right about the first time that Mr. Rekka first opened his mouth.

Because… Well, because this is English Literature.

You know that there are better ways to teach this class. It is the same topic that your mother taught at Bellpond University, after all. Before… She died… you'd had more than one chance to speak with some of her students, and they all talked about just how much they enjoyed her classes.

They enjoyed the ways that she managed to make the various books and topics tie together to current events, to the world at large, and to the lives of the people reading them.

And you remember your mother. You remember her energy, the joy and the excitement that she brought to everything that she did. You have to imagine that she had that same energy when teaching.

Mr. Rekka doesn't have that energy.

Instead, he stands up at the front of the room, one hand holding the book open to whatever page that we are reading from and he drones on.

On and on and on, his tone never shifting, his words flat and steady, like the small stream down that burbles out of the thicket across the street from the school. Even when the teacher isn't just reading out from the book and actually talks about the themes or the setting or any of the histories surrounding the books that he assigns, there is nothing more to him. No more interest or attention given to anything.

The worst part is that in a somewhat horrible way, this is something of a highlight of your day. This utter nothingness. Admittedly, the lack of things is why it is the best part of your day, but that really doesn't say much at all. The teacher seems to barely pay any attention to what is going on around him, so you are free to zone out and simply rest your mind.

You don't share the class with any of your bullies.

Not with Emma, or with any of the sycophants that follow her around, treating the school's queen bee like she has any kind of real authority.

Nor with Sophia, or any of her teammates on the track team that is Winslow's one real claim to fame - With the only other thing that the school has going for it being the rumor that one of the Wards goes here, which is just ridiculous.

Not even with Madison, or any of the braindead tagalongs that follow after the girl, giggling at everything she says like they think Madison is some kind of comedy genius.

What all of that means is that between Mr. Rekka's horrible teaching style, and the lack of bullies in class, you don't have to worry about pranks or spitballs or paper airplanes being thrown at you. You can sit there, and allow your guard to drop for a few short hours.

Something that you are very thankful for, because staying vigilant all day is mentally exhausting. Another thing that you are thankful for is that it is Friday - Once that bell rings in ten minutes, you are free for the weekend. No more having to look over your shoulder for Emma or Sophia, instead you can relax and unwind, refilling up those social batteries to rebuild that bastion of mental defense that you'll need for next week.

Admittedly, next week is midterms - which means half days of school, and teachers being unwilling to put up with shenanigans that they'd normally ignore. After that is the two weeks of thanksgiving break for the last week of October and the first week of November.

That is, all together, three weeks where Emma and her stupid friends won't be bothering you… and the only thing between you and that sweet freedom is the ticking of the clock.

Tick.

Tock.

Tick.

Tock.

Each second seems to stretch outwards, bloating thicker and heavier than they have any right to be. God.

You just want this class to be over.

One by one, the seconds click on, each passing moment matched with a staccato movement of the clock.

One seconds passes.

Then another.

And another.

And one more.

And one.

One.

One.

Around and around the little red line goes, and by this point you've all but stopped thinking all together, lost in a meditative haze. Then the bell rings. You start, face slipping out of your palm and nearly hitting your desk before you pull yourself back with a series of confused blinks. The rest of the class is gathering their own things and quickly abandoning the room, all but ignoring Mr. Rekka's droning declaration about the chapters that you are supposed to read over the weekend. And a mention of the test being on next thursday.

Your eyes sting a little from how long you sat there staring at the clock, but a few quick blinks is enough to dull the sensation. You hurry to gather up your binder, before heading out into the halls.

But almost as soon as you step through the door, something starts to itch at the back of your mind. Less than three steps and there is already tension in your shoulders. Five and you're starting to clench your jaw.

You aren't sure what the problem is - at least in the specific sense - But you have the feeling that your tormentors aren't planning on letting you go home without something to remember them by. The real question is what did they do?

And why is it making people stare at you?

Hurrying through the halls, you barely pay attention to anything happening around you. You want to grab your stuff and get out of here. You'd honestly prefer it if you could get on the bus without running into whatever it is that they've done.

But as you get closer to your locker, the number of people clearly staring at you increases. Most of them are at the very least on the move, not just standing there, but that only helps a little.

Especially when you can hear the laughter.

"Hey." A familiar, and unwelcome voice calls out. You have to resist the urge to scowl, carefully schooling your features as you glance over to Clara Schafer.


Clara is a senior, two years older than you, which would be enough to set off all the more paranoid parts of your mind even if you didn't know just who the girl is.

Not that she's trying all that hard to hide her affiliation, given that she's wearing nearly all red and black. The colors of Brockton Bay's Nazi population. The only thing she has on her that isn't one of those two colors is the blue shield shaped pin on her lapel - You vaguely recognize it as the symbol of that new church that opened up a few months back. You don't recall the name off the top of your head, but seeing its symbol on Clara's chest makes you all the less inclined to go and check it out.

"Schafer." You answer, watching the barely hidden nazi as she gives you a bright smile that doesn't quite reach her eyes.

"Taylor Hebert, right?" The girl asks, and you aren't sure if she actually doesn't know your name, or if she is just trying to ingratiate herself with you. "Look, I know that we're not in the same grade or anything, but I heard from a couple of friends of mine that it sounds like you've been having a bit of a hard time…"

The sound you make isn't really a committal answer one way or the other, but Clara takes it as her cue to continue whatever this pitch is.

"Particularly with a few particularly pushy girls. I get why you don't want to try and make a fuss here at school, but the new church that I've been going to has started up an outreach program, and I've been handing out cards to everyone who seems to have been having a hard time." She explains, searching through her coat for whatever this card is.

After a moment, she gives a little cheer, before she flourishes the card, twirling it around her fingers and holding it out to you. "We have services on Sundays and Youth Group on Wednesdays. The youth advisor is a great guy to talk to about any kinds of problems that you might have." Clara suggests, giving you a quick wink as you sigh and take the card. "Particularly problems with rats that like to scurry about underfoot. I'm sure that Mr. Swanson could give you some great advice on how to deal with people like them."

You don't answer her, one way or the other. Just giving a quick "Thanks," before you step around the girl, hurrying on towards your locker. You have no interest in this…

Church of the Messiah.

Even if the Empire aligned students here at Winslow hadn't ignored all the trouble that you've had with Sophia over the last year and a half, you still wouldn't want anything to do with them.

They're fucking Nazis.

What more needs to be said?

Turning the corner, you spot your locker. You don't see anything immediately out of the ordinary, but that actually only makes you more nervous. And for good reason.

You stalk forwards, ignoring the giggle that you hear somewhere off behind you, and with three quick twists of the knob, you wrench your locker open.

It's empty.

Your bag is nowhere inside of it.

The sad thing is that you aren't even all that surprised, now that you are standing here. Personally, you wish that you didn't have to use this damned thing, but none of your teachers allow bags in their rooms during class.

The thing is that this isn't the first time that one of your bullies has gotten into your locker.

Not the second, the third, or even the fifth time, honestly.

At this point you aren't sure if one of the trio has learned how to pick locks, or if they've managed to get their hands on one of the master keys for the school. Either option is just as likely in your opinion.

Not that it is really going to matter one way or the other if you can't find your bag.

And that's something else that is a little odd - Normally, Emma likes to leave behind some little clue to what she's done, and where she's taken it. She always leaves you the chance to get back what she's taken from you, but makes something of a spectacle out of it. She might make you grovel and beg on your knees, or climb into a dumpster while they mock you in order to get it all back.

You glance around, but you don't spot any of the usual groupies that follow your bullies around. More than that, however, most of the people who have been staring at you all glance away when you turn towards them.

It isn't much, but even that little bit of admittance towards their own wrongdoing is enough to send a flash of dark amusement across your mind. Now if they'd only be willing to really think about why they aren't willing to look you in the eye, then maybe they might stop being such terrible people.

You can't say that you really have that high of hopes for any of them, but for the time being you just need to keep looking around. Your bag, or a hint as to where it's gone, has to be around here somewhere.

Before you have a chance to really start to look however, you hear another familiar - and equally unwelcome - voice.

"Yo. You're that… Taylor… Sherbert girl, right?"

It takes everything that you have to keep from sighing. If there was one person that you never wanted to speak with, it would have been Clara.

If there was a second person that you never wanted to have a conversation with, it would have been her opposite.

Haoyu Wei is… Well, you think of him as Clara's opposite, and you mean that in a number of ways.

Clara is pretty much the top dog of Winslow's Empire aligned idiots. Haoyu is the boss of Winslow's ABB aligned idiots.

Clara wears the Empire's colors from head to toe, all but screaming her connections to anyone who has any idea of what is happening in the bay.

Haoyu wears a pair of bracelets on each wrist - One red, one green. The colors of the pan-asiatic gang. Clara's blonde hair and green eyes are all natural Aryan, while Haoyu bleaches his hair, and you're pretty sure that his red eyes are actually prescription corrective.

"It's Hebert." You mutter as you turn to face the boy, trying to keep the frustration out of your voice. You might not have a dog in the race between the two biggest gangs of the Greater Bay Area, but that doesn't mean that you are going to try and draw their ire.

You'd be happy if they just left you alone, personally.

"Sure it is," The boy says, barely seeming to pay any attention to what you said at all. "Look, I'm just here because that red haired bimbo that's always fucking with you tried to pin their newest little game on one of my boys. They took your bag and strung it up the flagpole in front of the school."

Ah. Yeah, that makes more sense. He's not here helping you, he's here fucking with Emma. You barely even exist to someone like him. But for all that you'd prefer that he never speaks to you again, you aren't going to look the gift horse he's offering in the mouth.

"Thanks."

"Whatev-" He starts to say, before he pauses. "Actually, you want to thank me?" He asks, and you take one step back away from him, eyes narrowing.

He snorts at that, shaking his head, before he pulls out a coin pouch out from his pocket.

There's a symbol that you've seen before on the side of the bag. A black ring with a single lick of flame coming off the side.

"Donation to the Ring of Gaea?" You don't know a lot about the Ring of Gaea, just that they are some kind of charity that has started operating in the bay. But now you have to wonder if they have some kind of connection with the ABB.

Not that you really cared before - You've never had the cash to donate to others, and even before this there was something about the group that you thought felt a little shady.

But none of that matters right now. You reach into a pocket, grabbing what's left over from your lunch money and drop it into the bag. Hopefully that will get Haoyu to leave you alone.

The boy snorts… You're not entirely sure why, but he steps back and you start to allow yourself to relax.

"Thanks for the donation, Horbert."

Whatever.

You aren't going to need any of the stuff in this binder over the weekend, so you lock it up in your locker, before hurrying to the front of the school. You slip through the crowds of moving students with a practiced ease, and as you step out into the courtyard, you can see your bag up there at the top of the flagpole, flapping in the wind.

Haoyu wasn't lying. You're not sure if you're surprised or not. Not that it matters.

Right now, the best you can do is hope that it won't take too long to pull your bag down - Because if you miss your bus, your only option for getting home is to walk.


You are Taylor Hebert, and your Peaceful Days are coming to an End.
Assign your Attributes
PLAN FORMAT PLEASE
You have 26 Stat Points to spend.
A stat, at the lowest must be at least 1
A stat, at the highest may be a max of 8
[ ][Plan] Plan Name
- [ ] Strength X
-- Shortened to ST. Influences the effectiveness of regular fighting, as well as the strength of Slash, Strike, and Havoc skills. Used for Physical Challenges such as carrying heavy loads, moving large objects, or breaking things.
- [ ] Intelligence X
– Shortened to IN. Influences resistance to Magic, how effective healing is, Spell Stamina, and Demon Negotiation. Half of IN is added to AG for Gun and Pierce Accuracy. Used for Smarts Challenges, such as solving riddles, learning new spells, figuring out what the hell is going on, and handling the politics of a city struggling to survive.
- [ ] Magic X
-- Shortened to MA. Influences the effectiveness of magic, and your Spell Stamina. Used for Mystic Challenges, such as identifying magical effects, creating cures for ailment effects, and developing counters for Parahuman abilities.
- [ ] Endurance X
– Shortened to EN. Influences physical resistances and how much punishment you can take. Half of EN is added to ST for physical fighting. Used for Vital Challenges, such as endurance running, keeping quiet when injured, staying conscious when pressed, and resisting the effects of poisons and ailments.
- [ ] Agility X
– Shortened to AG. Influences speed, evasiveness, and effectiveness and accuracy of Gun and Pierce. Used for Movement challenges like avoiding bullies, dodging demon attacks, hitting a bullseye from range, and outrunning your thoughts about cute girls.

---

The Office of the Director of the Parahuman Response Team East North East is quiet - Oppressively so. The Wards stand and wait, watching as Director Piggot sits with her back to them, the heavy set woman staring out the window towards the city below.

She stares for a long moment, waiting and allowing the tension to build.

This is going to be one of the most important meetings that she is going to ever have with the Wards, and she needs to make sure that they are paying her their full attention.

With a soft sigh, she turns. Immediately, the Wards (with the exception of Sophia Hess) all focus on her.

There are many who would say that Emily Piggot doesn't care about the Parahuman children under her purview - her command and responsibility - but that could not be further from the truth.

…Admittedly, it may be true that the woman has no great love for Parahumans, but the actions of the cowards that led to her injuries are not the actions of the men, women, and Wards under her command. The Wards are her responsibility - It is on her to protect them, to teach them, and to nurture them to become the best heroes that they can be. Better heroes than the ones that abandoned her in Ellisburg.

And better heroes than the government abandoning them now.

Piggot can be harsh with the Wards, but that is the best - the only - way that she knows how to handle people. And part of her responsibilities to the Wards is making sure that their lives are safe, and that they have the chance to grow up to become who they were meant to be. Which is what makes the conversation that she is about to have with them all the more bitter - and that is saying something because the missive that she has been given is already bitter beyond belief.

The Director reaches over, opening a drawer and grabbing hold of the orders given to her, and placing it on the table in front of the Wards.

"By order of the Office of the President of the United States of America:

On this date, October 22nd, 2010, the Greater Brockton Bay Area has designated as Quarantine Site Q8. The city has been evacuated and sealed after the [REDACTED] event, with all countermeasures in effect. Unfortunately, due to the suddenness and severity of the threat, it was impossible to evacuate all individuals from the interior of the Containment Zone. All civilians left within have been considered lost."

There is a long moment of quiet as the Wards stare at the papers on the desk, trying to take in and wrap their heads around what the Director just said.

Brockton Bay… Brockton, Bellpond, Colognia, New Amster… They're being considered… Lost?

That… That doesn't sound right.

The sentence sounds like madness. What in the world is this missive, is the director, is the president talking about?

The city is right there! The director was just looking out the window right at it!

Missy Biron, better known around the Bay as the heroine Vista is the first to gather up her wits enough to speak. "I… What?"

If Piggot were to ever be entirely honest with herself, she would have to admit that Missy is her favorite Ward. The girl has her flaws, but she's much smarter than everyone gives her credit for, she's tough as nails, and ever steadfast in her hard work to protect the city.

She puts in more hours training and studying than the rest of the Wards - Despite the fact that she's never been allowed to carry a weapon, the girl has finished her certifications for all the firearms that the PRT has. She's been trained on how to use the Containment foam cannons, on top of her first responder training.

Vista also has more hours than the rest of the Wards combined down in the base's gym, where she's been put through her paces by the troopers to the point where she's all but considered one of them by the grunts. Something that makes the Grunt in the director smile. On the one, it is a shame that the director isn't going to have the chance to see what a powerhouse Vista will become one day, but at the same time, she is glad that Vista is going to get out of the Bay before things get bad.

Because they are going to get very bad.

The Director sighs and shakes her head. "Apparently, the Precognitives in Watchdog have over the last several weeks been becoming increasingly worried about the situation here in the Greater Bay Area." It is clear from the Director's tone, and the brutal glare aimed at the missive that she had not been informed of any of this. "According to the information that I received along with this missive, they believe that a powerful threat - Potentially S-Class, is going to appear somewhere in the Greater Bay area."

That is enough to draw even Sophia's lagging attention to the Director. What she is saying sounds… Impossible. An S-class threat? Here in the bay? That just doesn't make any sense, which makes it clear to everyone in the room that there is something more going on. The most obvious sign that there is something wrong with all of this being the strange redacted situation mentioned on the missive.

"I… See…" Sophia Hess mutters quietly, the heroine known as Shadow Stalker crossing her arms defiantly with a smug smirk on her face. There is a fire in the girl's eyes, and it makes it clear to the Director that she was wrong - Not everyone in the room has realized that something is wrong with all of this.

Not that that surprises her entirely. Piggot has never liked Sophia. The girl is a loose cannon in the worst definition of the word, and Emily is all but certain that she's been violating her probation. Officially there's no proof of that, but there are a lot of things about Sophia that don't exactly match up, and the girl isn't smart enough to hide her crimes from the PRT, so there has to be someone who has been covering up for her.

Not that any of that is going to matter much after today - Because if there is one thing that Piggot has reason to be happy about, it is the fact that out of all the Wards, Sophia is the one most likely to abandon the city.

Admittedly, there is no good without bad, and while Sophia is the one most likely to flee the city, Vista is the one most likely to be taken from her.

"So… What does that mean for us?" Dennis Dynamite asks. The hero known as Clockblocker has an almost uncharacteristically serious look on his face.

The Director sighs, nodding. "That is the question, Dennis. The national Parahuman Response Teams, the Protectorate and the government are already in motion. Force Walls are being stationed outside of the city as we speak."

"Wait…" Dennis says again, something clicking in his head. "What about the evacuations? Are we just going to be sealed away in here? How is any of that right?"

Those questions are part of why Piggot's relationship with Dennis is the most complicated of the Wards. The young man is everything that she hates about how the PRT handles Parahumans. The young man is everything that she approves of how the PRT handles Parahumans.

Dennis can be infuriatingly immature, loud spoken and flighty at the best of times, but he is charming, handles crowds with ease, soothes fears and helps to make everyone around him better.

He annoys her on a personal level, but he has the skills of a leader, even if they are rough and unpolished. One day he will be a great leader, the only thing he needs is time to grow.

Something that he can only get if he accepts the offer that Piggot had to work long and hard to get.

"Not exactly." Piggot says, drawing the attention back to her. "As I said, the walls are being installed as we speak, and they will go online tomorrow morning at 0500. Once the walls are up no one goes in, and no one comes out. Not until the threat, if it should appear, is dealt with." Piggot explains, her eyes trailing from Ward to Ward as she speaks. "I was informed of this four hours ago, and I have spent the time until I called for you arguing with the President and the upper members of the Protectorate to get the opportunity that I am offering you."

"What opportunity?" Chris Daniels asks. Chris… Chris made the mistake of taking on the rather unfortunate moniker of Kid Win. The boy is a good kid. What he isn't however, is a good member of the Wards, and it isn't any fault of his. The young man needs a good mentor, someone who would have the time and the ability to work with people who weren't up to their level. A mentor who could push him to be the best that he could, and to grow alongside him.

There's a problem, however. Chris has dyscalculia, which means that the young man struggles with numbers and math of all kinds. Even that would have been something that could be worked around, if it weren't for the particular hero that was assigned to him as a mentor by the local Youth Guard.

Armsmaster.

A doomed pairing from the very start.

It isn't that Armsmaster doesn't have the potential to be a good mentor, but Colin is a man who lives for his numbers. He measures everything down to the most minor of minutia. More than just the potential, Emily honestly believes that had Armsmaster been given a student that he could work with, it would do a lot to help Colin out of the rut that he's long since found himself trapped in.

But Chris needs things from a Mentor that Colin just cannot give him. And Colin needs things from a student that Chris just can't give him.

And because of that, both of them suffer from the relationship, and if Piggot had a say in it something would have been done about it.

But it wasn't. And so they both continued to suffer for it.

"The opportunity to leave." The director says simply. "As of right now, you have a little more than fourteen hours to talk with your families, and make a decision - You can either stay here in Brockton Bay, sealed away from the rest of the world for who knows how long, or you can gather up the things that you care about most, and leave."

It's… interesting. If there were any other situation, Piggout would abhor the idea of so many heroes running away from her city.

But this isn't any other situation. During her days as a Trooper, Piggot had seen what has happened to the other Quarantined cities, and she knows how bad things are going to get before the city shifts into a new status quo, whatever that might be.

Parahuman or not - No. The fact that they are Parahuman, and they've already been broken in some way means that she has all the more reason to do whatever she can to get these children out of here so that they won't have to suffer through what is to come.

"You… You can't seriously be asking us to abandon the Bay?" Dean Stansfield asks, incredulous. It might not be a complete surprise that the richest member of the Wards doesn't want to leave all the things that his family owns behind. The loss of the Bay is going to put a real dent into the Stansfield family fortune, but he'll recover. Of course, there is the other reason why he might want to stay in the city.

His girlfriend. The Heroine Glory Girl.

But, it isn't entirely up to these children. In fact, it mostly isn't up to them at all.

"I can, and I am." Piggot confirms, drawing scowls from the young heroes. "More than that, I have a responsibility to do so, which is why I have already informed your parents about what is happening, and what they need to do if they are going to leave the city."

"You… You told our parents?" Carlos Samuels, the final member of the Wards - Aegis, the current team leader says in horror. "Why?"

"Why?" Piggot answers with a huff, shaking her head. "I am in charge of the Wards, Carlos. That means that I am responsible for you and your lives. By now, I expect that some of your parents will have arrived down in the lobby. Personally, I believe that you should leave, but it falls on your parents to make the final decision about that." Most of the Wards are looking at Piggot as if she somehow betrayed them, with Vista being the only one that seems to understand.

There is a moment of quiet as Emily rubs the bridge of her nose. "I know that you do not always agree with the decisions that I have made while in charge of the Wards, but did you really think that I was going to be informed that the city was being quarantined without warning, left to rot and devolve into chaos as food and supplies run out, and then I would simply decide not to inform you of what was happening, trapping you in here with me?"

"Well… Yeah." Sophia says, and Emily has to keep herself from sighing. That was a rhetorical question. Not least because the answer was so obviously 'No' that none of the Wards should have thought otherwise. The fact that Gallant and Sophia both seem to think that shows how little some of the Wards understand the role of the director. And what a shame it is that she's going to be losing some of them at the very least.

The Bay would be better off with them here, but it will be better for their futures to be somewhere, anywhere else.

"Then you thought wrong." The Director says, shaking her head. "Regardless, as per the standard contract that you have with the PRT, you are not allowed to tell anyone about what I have just told you. Not that I think you'll have time to post if you are leaving the city." And the fact of the matter is that Piggot herself didn't learn about the incoming quarantine until earlier today all but guarantees that at least one of the Wards isn't going to make it out.

And Emily is left wondering just who is going to get out.

[ ][GET OUT] Choose up to Five
- [ ] Aegis Out
– Aegis leaving the Bay increases the Bay's Chaos by 2
- [ ] Aegis In
– Aegis stays in the Bay
- [ ] Gallant Out
– Gallant leaving the Bay increases the Bay's Chaos by 1
- [ ] Gallant In
– Gallant stays in the Bay
- [ ] Kid Win Out
– Kid Win leaves the Bay
- [ ] Kid Win In
– Kid Win says in the Bay
- [ ] Clockblocker Out
– Clockblocker leaving the Bay increase the Bay's Order by 1
- [ ] Clockblocker In
– Clockblocker stays in the Bay
- [ ] Shadow Stalker Out
– Shadow Stalker leaving the Bay increases the Bay's Order by 2
- [ ] Shadow Stalker In
– Shadow Stalker stays in the Bay
- [ ] Vista
It seems that if nothing else, Vista's parents are for the first time in years in agreement that their daughter will not stay in Brockton Bay, even if they seem... confused about which parent is taking the girl.

COMP

		Your New Phone
		Make	Massachusetts Institute of Technology
		Model	ℵ0 H0 Binary No.
		Operating System	Babel Quantum Communications Ver. α0.1
Program	Demon Summoning Program V1.0 Release	Slots	--
Harmonizer	SoBal01.hrm	SCrack	--
Address Book
Dad	Dad's Phone Number

Stock

Demon 1 Demon 2 Demon 3 Demon 4 Demon 5 Demon 6 Demon 7 Demon 8 Demon 9 Demon 10 Demon 11 Demon 12

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