3.10 - Miss Militia
The director had wanted to pull me out of Winslow High after Canberra. My cover to Aedile was blown and Watchwoman was gone. There was no reason to keep me here. And yet, here I was. I had told Emily that it would be good for me, a way to cope with the stress of an Endbringer battle. That wasn't quite true, being here actually just reminded me that Hu Dai was dead. Grief was a familiar feeling by now; I included her in my prayers and tried to move on without letting go of her memories.
But I had also promised her to take care of Taylor. I had done the best I could, but she didn't let me do much. And now she was...well, there had been no confirmation from Concordia. But the incident four days ago had all the signs of a brute-rated cape's assassination, and there were rumors flying around that Aedile had been the target. She hadn't shown up to prove them wrong, though she might just be avoiding people right now. But if the rumors were true, then the least I could do was try to make sure that Concordia's projects didn't completely disintegrate.
The bell signaled the end of lunch break and I gathered the paperwork I had been filling out by rote and left for my class a bit too late. Absent-mindedness, a classic sign of stress. I hurried to my class, but my instincts made me stop as I heard shouting ahead.
"You think you're tough? Well that stops now!"
"Yeah? Well guess what, your precious leader isn't here to save your asses this time. You don't even belong in this school."
"Fuck you! You damn apes don't even know how to fucking read. We'll show you your place."
"Apes, huh? Boys, let's show those white asses what we can do. This is our turf now!"
This wasn't just an attempt at intimidation. The scene in front of me would not be out of place at the border of two gang's territories. It would escalate into violence any second now and even if I called the police they'd never get here on time. Why didn't a school like this have security guards? If I wanted to stop this, I'd have to do it myself.
They were gang members, so I'd risk my civilian identity if I stepped in. And they were students, teenagers. But they'd chosen this path, I wouldn't intervene to rescue them. But if they fought openly here innocents would get hurt. At the very least it would spread terror among the other students.
I pulled out my cellphone and rushed back to the teacher's lounge. I wouldn't be able to make the phone call here.
A calm male voice picked up after a short wait that seemed agonizingly long. "911, what is your emergency?"
"I'm at Winslow High School. There's a student with a gun. A gang member." I hoped the part about the gun was a lie, but even if we were that lucky it was the best way to get the police here fast.
"Ma'am, what is going on? Is anyone injured?"
I lied again. Until the police got here, someone would be injured anyway. "Yes. There's about twenty people fighting, I heard the gun go off."
The dispatcher shouted to someone before he went back on the phone. "Ma'am, we're on our way. Are you in a safe place? Is anyone else in danger?"
"Yes, I'm locked in. So is everyone else. Please just get here as fast as possible."
"We will ma'am. Just stay where you are if it's safe. We'll be there in a few minutes."
Now all I had to do was to buy time. I grabbed my jacket and a random scarf from the wardrobe. With a bit of luck, it would protect my identity.
I ran back. The fighting had started. Three people were down with stab wounds. Almost everyone was armed. Batons, knives and...damn, one pistol. Just a light model, body armor would easily stop it. But wasn't wearing any right now, nor was anyone else here.
"Protectorate! Stand down, now!" I shouted with all the force and authority I could put into it, hoping to be heard over the noise of the fighting.
The fighting paused. Two dozen teenage gang members now had a common target. They were all focused on me. Good.
"Drop your weapons. You're all under arrest. Drop them! Now!" I brandished my weapon at them, with my power it couldn't go off accidentally. Especially since it was a long, hooked sword instead of the heavy revolver I had expected. How had that happened? Manifesting my weapon was natural to me, I didn't get it wrong like that. And I couldn't even create melee weapons all that well.
The gangers took as much measure of each other as they did of me. If they all acted as a group, my only chance would be to run away. The seconds seemed to stretch as the standoff continued. Then the first gang member charged at me. A tall, bulky member of the Empire, armed with a knife. Instinctively, the hooked end of my sword pulled his arm aside and I brought him down with a swift kick to the gut. I could fight like this, there was time to figure out why later. "Anyone else?" Overwhelming force and taunting. I hoped it'd be enough, I'd be lucky enough to block more than two attack at once, never mind a dozen.
More charged. Whether it was my taunt or the groans of the guy on the floor, they didn't come all at once. I whirled around one enemy, letting his momentum carry him past me, and a quick pommel strike to the neck knocked him across the floor. At the same time, I moved inside the reach of another knife-wielder and grabbed him. Members of both gangs crashed into him and I let go as they toppled over.
That ended the wild rush. Five gangers down in barely twice as many seconds made them pause. But there were two gangs here, and there was no way either of them would back down in front of their enemies. Now two groups were advancing on me slowly, always with an eye on each other. Good. I slowly retreated, my sword held in front of me as menacingly as possible. It worked, they were following me. Not too quickly, if I could keep this going the police would arrive and it would be over. We turned a couple of corners and...damnit! Dead end. From the smirks on their faces, they had known. If it came to a brawl here, their numerical superiority would win the day.
I went on the offensive. The hook sword was very useful for disabling, but cornered like this I used its edge too. A swing at the arm of the first ganger unfortunate enough to stand in my way. I hit bone and pulled out the sword immediately. Four of his buddies attacked. Desperately, I ducked and swung at them. Somehow, I managed to escape the brawl and even topple one of them. No time to wonder how I had managed, I just rushed down the corridor.
If the asian gang members had intervened, this would have ended badly. But if they had gotten too close to the empire-members, they would have fought with each other. At least my intervention seemed to have stopped that. Now I just had to deal with them chasing after me and avoid another dead end.
One of the ABB members caught up with me, but I saw him coming and directed his charge into the nearest wall. It still slowed me down, and I was trying to avoid a fight until the police arrived. Taking out another gang member at least slowed down the others. But not enough. Three of them attacked me at once. I managed to block two strikes almost at the same time. A third came through and hit me in the elbow. I frantically tried to break away and knocked one of them into the other. A kick to my leg only glanced off, and I just swung my sword at it before he could correct that mistake. I couldn't keep this up, I wouldn't always be so lucky.
"Runter!" Damn. The E88-members dove for the ground, and I found a gun leveled at me. The first shot missed me, but he didn't seem to care whom he hit. I charged at him, the pain in my leg be damned. The second shot missed as well, he clearly had no experience with the weapon. I swung my hook sword, and thanks to its reach I managed to grab onto his arm before he expected. Stepping in and hitting the pressure points to make him drop it was easy after that, it came to me by instinct. Now I just had to deal with being surrounded, again. But they backed away, their morale gone, and started running as they heard the sirens. I tried to conceal my shaking muscles as the tension left my body.
Director Piggot calmly read over my report. "I'm sorry, but I have to pull you out of Winslow after this."
I had expected as much. The risk of exposure was way too high, I had known that when I went into the fight. "I understand ma'am. I'll take care of it right after the meeting."
"Thank you. Now would you care to explain why you fought in a school? And with a sword of all things?" She shook her head and frowned. "I would have expected that sort of thing from a Ward. Or maybe Assault. Really Hannah, what were you thinking?" I didn't know whether she expected an answer. "But at least you wrote a report. So I think you had a good reason."
I had put my official reasons into my report. It was all easily within the Protectorate mandate. So she clearly wanted to know what I had been thinking myself, what my personal reasons were. "If we let the gangs fight freely in Winslow, they'll regard it as their territory. They'd continue to fight over it and probably escalate. We've worked hard to keep as much infrastructure out of their hands as possible. Hospitals, schools, even malls. Any fight near those, we always responded to right away. I was trying to do the same thing here"
The way Emily was waiting made it clear she wanted me to go on. Fair enough, what I had just said was just a paraphrase of official policy after all. "I had personal reasons too. I took policy into full consideration, but I was motivated by my ties to Concordia."
"With Watchwoman deceased and the unclear status of Aedile, what are those ties now?" Her tone made it clear that she wasn't asking just as my superior.
"I promised her I'd take care of Aedile if she didn't make it. I couldn't do that, but at least I can try to make sure their projects don't fall apart. It doesn't conflict with my duties and it makes it easier."
"You knew what I thought of Concordia's actions and their consequences. That we would need to clean up their mess if their plans went wrong." I nodded. "Then you didn't promise anything that wouldn't be part of your duties anyway. I'm just not sure that's the healthiest way to deal with grief."
She pulled out a stack of forms and began to fill them out. "Sometimes I just hate being right. But it looks like the gangs are really pushing into the vacuum Concordia left. We'll need to assign official patrols to Winslow, and get permission to keep a squad nearby. We can't just keep a Ward there for singular incidents if the gangs are making their push".
"Is there any way for me to be part of those patrols?"
"No. I'm sorry Hannah, but you know the regulations just as well as I do. You had to fight without your costume, we're supposed to protect your identity. Which means we can't assign you there without a pressing need, and we have enough other options that we don't have one."
Which meant I just had to create one. Easy enough to do, I'd just have to ask my fellow capes to pick their own patrols in such a way that it some gaps for me to fill. There was plenty of room for personal concerns and projects, if Emily didn't block them. And if the gang situation got worse, we'd have to rotate just to keep things less predictable.
I should have been more careful with my wishes. Two weeks later the situation was much worse. So much that it was hard to even pull together a meeting with most Protectorate Heroes, we were just that busy. We had an all-out gang war on our hands, with another villain sucking up most of our resources. And Coil wasn't even fighting us with capes - he just threw mercenaries at us. But I could see how well-trained they were, and their tinker-gear and dangerously efficient coordination made them too much of a threat to ignore.
"Madam Director, we just have to act against the gangs inside their own territory."
Emily sighed. "Armsmaster, I know that. Everyone here knows that. But we're stuck dealing with Coil. You know what happens if we don't."
The frustrating thing was that we didn't know if his attacks would actually endanger people if we didn't stop them. So far, no civilians had been even seriously injured. And we knew that it wasn't good fortune, not after so long and with the opposition we faced. They had taken hostages, planted bombs, fought openly in the streets. But all that happened was a frightened populace that demanded we put a stop to this. That we patrol at all times and arrive right away if anything went down. Of course, only in the good parts of town. Nobody seemed to care about the gang territory, with its poverty and minorities and now its escalating open war.
I had rarely seen Colin so angry. "With all due respect, I think you care too much about public opinion here. The gang war has turned into a slaughter, we need to put a stop to it right now. Instead of caring how we look, we should just-"
She cut him off. "I know that civilians die there every day. Do you really think I don't want to help them?" She stared at him for a few moments. "But if we let even one of Coil's attacks go through because we divert resources, we won't have those resources anymore in a week!" She was getting louder, clearly short of breath and angry. A few deep breaths later, she went on at least a little bit calmer. "You want to help? Get Dragon to send a suit down there. New Wave and the remaining members of the Undersiders are already at their limits. We're already giving them money and equipment as much as we can without anyone noticing." She loathed it, but it had been her idea. Yet without support personnel, even the number of capes between those two groups were running into exhaustion by now.
"I already asked Dragon. She can't help. She's been having trouble compiling code for her suits for two weeks now." Everyone present looked surprised. That was the first we had heard of that. Dragon still talked to Colin, he had said so several times. And as far as I knew, she still interacted with the Director, and the rest of the Protectorate.
"Well, so much for that idea. Come on people, we need ideas. Any resources we can call in? If you know any capes outside of Brockton Bay personally, try to make them ask for a transfer here. You know I can't shake anything loose from the other Directors. Or we could use fundraisers. Optimize our patrol schedules. Or nail that bastard Coil, if you have a better idea than having a bunch of Thinkers look for him constantly."
I spoke up. "Or at the least, show people that there is actually a third party involved there. His mercenaries are always disguised as gang members. We have nothing to tie them to Coil other than their advanced weapons and modus operandi."
Colin seemed puzzled. "What good would that do? We'd still have to fight Coil if we did that."
Right, he just wasn't that good with the complexities of public opinion. "Don't you see? Right now, to the public, there's only two threats. The ABB and the Empire. Spilling out of the bad parts of the city and barely held at bay by the Protectorate. If we had more resources, we could spin it as taking out the threat at its source. But we can't do that because they ask for protection, right? Well, what if there's three threats?"
Emily finished the line of thought for me. "Then they'd ask us to stop what few patrols we can send into gang territory. We'd be stuck until we take out Coil. Right now, we can sell any act against the gangs as a retaliatory strike for the attacks that Coil is behind. What do we do if we can't do that? Maybe we get lucky and there's no backlash from us fighting three threats ineffectively. Maybe we don't and everything gets worse. At least now we can pretend to be effective with the resources we have".
Right. Stupid of me to hope for a simple solution. Colin didn't look surprised. "So we either get lucky and take out Coil, or we somehow get more manpower. Maybe I could get Dragon to ask for help from the Guild?"
Emily shook her head. "You know that the other directors wouldn't like that. It'd look too bad, this isn't an S-class threat after all. But do it anyway, I don't care how bad it makes me look. I won't let those parahuman thugs tear this city apart."
Colin seemed pleased. So was I, it was good to see that Emily cared.
"If we are stuck with what we have, there has to be a way to use it more effectively." Colin analyzed.
I shook my head. "We're already doing the best we can. And we're good at it too. Rapid intervention is pretty much what the PRT is there for after all."
Emily nodded in agreement. "So what about the parahumans then? Can you do better?"
"No Ma'am. Not unless you want us to stop playing by the rules." I knew she wouldn't, nobody here did.
"No. There's already enough trouble because of that. If it becomes known that the Undersiders decided to use lethal force…" She left the rest unsaid. The public always got nervous when a cape started killing. You might get away with it if it was a clear accident, or if you saved lives from a villain. But a former criminal incinerating a 'normal' human didn't look good, even if that person was a mercenary supplied with tinker-gear by a villain.
A thin smile stole onto the Director's face. "I think I just found a way to solve one problem with another. We use this as leverage to get the Undersiders to stop fighting Coil. Send them to fight the gangs more, as we wanted them from the start. We've been lenient so far, it's time to make that clear to them."
"So you are just throwing them to the wolves?" Colin recovered from his uncharacteristic outburst. "They have been remarkably effective against Coils forces so far. They even worked well with us, and their intel was quite valuable. I do not think they are a disposable asset." It was clearly upsetting him.
Emily must have noticed too, but right now she was staring him down. "We should use what we have better. You just said it yourself, didn't you? Fact is, we can handle Coil on our own. We don't need their assistance here. What we need is someone to take on the gangs." He didn't respond, and her stare lessened. "Look Armsmaster. We actually need them. As much as I hate to admit that. So no, I won't throw them to the gangs like that." Her voice got harsher again. "But if they want to prove that they are no longer villains, they can damn well do that in a useful manner. If I need to threaten them with legal consequences, so be it."
The director looked a bit sour when I suggested we hold the meeting somewhere other than the PRT-building. But she agreed - in the end, she was sending me because she knew antagonizing them was not in our best interest. Which didn't mean I wouldn't pressure the Undersiders if I had to.
Tattletale had delayed the meeting. Something about a raid on Coil's facilities. But on the next day, she arrived at the small room in town hall where we had arranged our meeting.
I stood up to greet her. "Tattletale. I'm glad you could make it. I take it yesterday went well?" She gave a short nod, clearly wanting me to set the tone for this conversation. "Good. I'm glad the Undersiders are doing so well." I sighed. "I'm here because we need you to start fighting the gangs. The situation in gang territory is getting really bad, and we can't handle it."
She didn't reply at first, taking a seat instead at the table in the centre of the room and waiting until I did the same.
"I see. Before we go any further however, I have a request." I cocked my head to one side. "Drop the cape name. Hu Dai trusted you with Taylor's identity, and I respect her judgement enough to grant you the right of mine. It's Lisa, by the way." She smiled slightly. "As far as Concordia goes, however," the faint stress on the name was quite clear, "I would be lying if I was to say that we're particularly inclined to do as you ask."
"So you're with Concordia now? And you're speaking for them?" I couldn't help but glare at her a bit. If she had taken over now that Hu Dai was gone and Taylor out of the picture...focus, I could look into that later. "Fine. Lisa, we need you and the rest of...Concordia to start hitting the gangs. The Protectorate is fully capable of acting against Coil. If you have personal reservations, please consider the strategic situation." I really hoped she could be reasonable here.
"We know what you've been doing, the actions you've been taking. But almost everything you've done has been passive. You've managed a few hits here and there, but you got lucky on the Central Bank. We, on the other hand," she reached into her jacket, withdrew a small folder and slid it across the table. I looked at her quizzically. She was clearly provocative, but I didn't take the bait.
"The results of the raid that I postponed this meeting for. Bitch is still not in the greatest of states after what Kaiser did to one of her dogs," the cool gaze faltered slightly as she mentioned that, "but even she agrees that it was worth it." She nodded at the folder. "We hit a router station. That folder has the hard drive from the computer that was in there. Most of the data was wiped before I was able to get to it, but it's an old drive, so there's still some data left."
"That's great. We barely have any intel on Coil, we can use everything we can get. But if you had shared that intel in the first place, we could have done that raid instead. But we can't hit the gangs effectively due to public perception. I don't like it either, but that's the reality we have to deal with. I'm sure you can see how everyone profits if you cooperate here?"
"No, you couldn't have." She leaned forward, and the provocative manner vanished completely into professionalism. "The PRT doesn't know Coil and his network the way I do. You don't have the same history. I know his methods, and I can judge his reaction patterns based off of that. With New Wave going after one of his more important and vulnerable facilities we were able to hit him relatively under the radar. That's the only thing that let us grab that," she tapped the folder with a finger, "with anything still on it."
"Yet the very fact that you're here saying we need to change our approach means we're going to have to." She sighed. "I don't like doing that. We came into this to fight for Coil, because of what he did to us, and we're uniquely suited to fight him due to my experience with his methods. If you want to stop him, taking us off of his back is the worst thing you could ever do."
Okay, I wasn't getting through to her by appealing to her reason. Well, I had leverage for a reason. "And letting you stay out there killing people would be worse, Lisa." I let it sink in for a moment. "You know why capes don't kill, why those laws exist. And we know that you, or someone in Concordia, has been killing Coil's mercenaries."
"So his assassination attempt on one of our own meant nothing?!" There was a sudden fire in her voice, flashing through the professional calm, and I unconsciously recoiled from its strength. "We've done everything in our power to keep things clean. But sometimes-"
"Lisa," I cut her off gently. "I understand. Sometimes you just don't have a choice. And we don't want to get you into trouble over this. But if it becomes public, there will be trouble regardless of how we spin it. Work with us by starting to fight the gangs and we'll squash it." Piggot would have asked for a lot more, had wanted a lot more, but I'd pointed out that even with leverage like this we needed to be careful. The last thing we wanted was to push them out of the conflict entirely, and there'd be precious little we could do if they withdrew all involvement.
Lisa pulled herself back from the table, straightening in her chair as she reasserted her demeanor. Then, finally, she spoke. "I have a condition." I motioned for her to continue. "We can switch our focus to the gangs, in the end Kaiser's attack on us was more than sufficient reason. But," she leaned forward again, her eyes hard, "we aren't going to stop hitting Coil. We'll operate with your own ops as the gang situation allows, and we'll be more open about things in terms of targets. But the PRT is compromised to Coil's network, so what I share with you will need to be kept close held if we want anything to work."
"You really are making this difficult. But work with us, and this should end well for everyone. We'll be keeping an eye on you and the rest of the former Undersiders. And I'll talk to Tu Yu to see how Concordia is doing now."
"You don't need to worry about me taking over Concordia." How the hell had she known? She shook her head and smiled slightly. "I'm a Thinker, knowing is what we do. Tu Yu isn't suited to running a campaign like this, and he doesn't have the advantages I have. But Concordia isn't mine, and it never will be."
"Excuse me if I don't trust you. You're a former villain, and I barely know you. But Concordia seems to trust you. Hu Dai didn't object to you, and neither did Taylor. How…how is she by the way? You said "attempted assassination" - is she still alive? If she is, can I talk to her?" I barely knew the girl, but I had promised to take care of her. And her motives seemed trustworthy.
"She's…" Lisa's pause was the longest I'd seen from her yet, and it spoke a great deal as to her emotional state regarding the entire situation that she brushed at her eyes for a moment. "She's very badly hurt. She almost didn't survive, despite her abilities, and healing is taking time. But," Lisa looked up across the table at me again, "I'm not going to betray her, or what she's tried to build. There's only one reason that I'd ever do what I've done in pursuing Coil, and you shouldn't have to be a Thinker to guess what that is."
The insult at the end really wasn't necessary, I had figured it out just fine. "But I don't think she'd want you to abandon the people in gang territory either. I think quite highly of her goal to help people to get out of the gangs, but in order to do that we must first protect them. And you can always get back at Coil later-"
"No." I recoiled again from the fire in her words. Or would have...except it wasn't even fire. It was something else much harder, and very sure of itself. "Compared to Coil, the gangs are a secondary threat. Don't you get that?" She gestured around us, and I blinked hard as I caught a flare of white fire at the edge of the motion. She didn't even seem to notice. "The gang war was a glorified cover-up for going after Taylor, and it's worked. This isn't about 'getting back' at Coil. This is about making sure that what happened to Taylor, and what almost happened to me, never happens again." She seemed to gather herself.
"The reason I know so much about Coil is because before Concordia took out the Undersiders, we - although not all of us knew it - worked for him. He was the one who put us together, who supplied us. I'm not sure what he intended for us in the end, but the most likely thought is as a distraction for quieter operations on his part. We'd have been very good at that given our powers." She glared at me across the desk, her eyes blazing, then took a deep breath and blew it out. And I abruptly noticed the temperature in the room drop several degrees.
"Look, I know that parts of my argument won't strike you as rational. And we will work with you as I've promised. But what I've said about relative threat levels stands. Yes, of course Lung could rip the entire Bay apart and there'd be precious little anyone could really do to stop him if he really got into it. But for all his viciousness, he doesn't come close to how ruthless Coil is. And if you want an example of that, I will point out that he went after Taylor in her civilian identity. With intent to kill."
Talking to her was starting to get aggravating. Especially the interruptions. "Lisa. We all agree that Coil is bad. Yes, if what you are saying is true, he is worse than we thought. But all that does not mean we should ignore all other problems. I think Taylor would agree. Hu Dai certainly would have. I can promise you we won't ignore Coil. We couldn't even if we wanted to. But we need you and the Undersiders - sorry, Concordia - to go after the gangs for us."
"We will." She was calmer now, or at least more controlled. That was good. "My condition stands, and I'm entirely confident that Taylor would support me in that. But we'll work with you like you've asked." She reached out, offering her hand. "Against the gangs at first, and then against Coil."
I shook her offered hand. "Okay then. I guess we can't ask for more. Please give my regards to Taylor. We'll contact you to coordinate operations."
