Vista's Interlude
Missy Biron wasn't like the other kids her age. She liked school, she liked listening in class, and she liked learning new things. She also liked staying after hours helping her teachers whenever she could, even if that was mostly an excuse to not go home. She kept doing that even after her parents broke up and the shouts diminished.
Missy Biron was also the Ward known as Vista, but that was something that few people knew about.
Her teachers loved her due to her constant good marks and better behavior, and that was something she was proud of.
Even if that existence was a bit lonely at times.
Her schoolmates were morons that she didn't want to get herself involved with and, as smart as she was, her teachers still treated her as a child. And so did her fellow Wards. Sometimes Vista felt as if they saw her as a baby who barely knew how to walk. It was frustrating! She had been a Ward longer than any of them! Why didn't they listen to her?
Clockblocker was a jester who couldn't take anything seriously.
Kid Win was an indecisive mess who would forget something right after being told it.
Shadow Stalker was a bitch.
And she barely knew the new guy.
At least Aegis and Gallant were polite. They were her favorites. Gallant in particular, even if he saw Missy as nothing more than a little sister. And he'd never see her as anything else as long as that bimbo Glory Girl kept him wrapped around her finger.
All that Missy desired was someone that she could talk to and who would listen to her. Someone who respected her intelligence and was a little bit like her.
Her wish was granted in a way.
When she was called by her teachers to help with a 'problematic case' she thought she knew what to expect. Then she got told that the kid in question had recently suffered the tragic loss of his parents and the implications were clear: they thought he was a cape.
Well, Vista had been trained for that! All Wards knew how to talk to potential new triggers. So, she'd go to him, check how he was doing, and maybe put him down the right path while she was at it.
Things hadn't gone as expected.
Peter Brown was an annoying, antisocial, and confrontational boy who refused to pay attention in class. And when he did bother to pay attention, he did so to argue with the teacher. Normally, nothing of that would have been Vista's concern. There were always one or two kids like him each year that got corrected down the line. But Peter was different. He was brilliant! If they asked him a question he always had the answer, and when they gave him extra homework he finished it as if it wasn't a big deal.
The worst insult had been when he had given his math book to Aisha only to reveal that he had solved the entire fucking thing! Even the parts that hadn't been explained yet!
How the hell had he done that?
Missy had always prided herself as being the smartest kid in her year. That was a position she had managed to maintain with hard work and dedication. And now this guy came in and seemingly took over without even trying!
She wouldn't allow it.
She kept observing, she kept trying to unravel his secrets.
The way he was always tired as if he had been up all night. The way he muttered to himself, and how he liked to draw when he thought that no one was watching. Those were all little things that reminded her of Kid Win. She had gone to her superiors with that information but, as always, she was ignored. 'We already contacted his guardians' they told her. 'There's no clear evidence'. 'Stay back and observe'.
Well, fuck them!
Their refusal to listen only made Missy's determination burn brighter!
Because a plan had started formulating in her brain.
If Peter Brown was indeed a cape, and if Missy recruited him for the Wards, not only would she get some respect for a job well done. Not only would she prove that she was right to her superiors. But she'd also be adding someone younger than her to the team! That way Vista would stop being the 'baby' of the group, while also becoming the superior of someone else. It was perfect! She'd finally get the recognition she deserved!
Tech-Priest's debut at Ladybug's side, and the theory that they had been involved in Winslow's fire, had only strengthened her conviction.
When she discovered that his sister had gone to that school, she could almost feel the trap closing around in him.
And then everything went to shit.
Bakuda did something that left half the city without electricity, classes got suspended, and Peter suddenly vanished.
All of Missy's plans disappeared in a puff of smoke.
And to make matters worse, the Wards weren't even allowed to act. 'Too dangerous, too volatile' they said. But that didn't stop Tech-Priest from going into that mess and battling motherfucking Lung. From
defeating motherfucking Lung! Then he proceeded to take over the Asian territory which he started ruling like a little Napoleon.
It had been a great disappointment to find out he ended up being a villain. Maybe she should have seen that one coming, but she had thought he was better than that.
Yes, the PRT insisted on calling him and his team vigilantes, but vigilantes didn't demand tribute.
Missy had sulked for days thinking about what to do, her frustration growing hotter as the situation deteriorated.
And then something changed.
The scarce few days that Thomas Calver had been in charge of the PRT had been the best days of Vista's life! Suddenly the Wards were no longer left back at the base while the adults did all the work. Kid Win started working closely with Dragon and Armsmaster, helping them rebuild the bay. Aegis, Gallant, Clock, and Stalker started patrolling more dangerous zones. And Vista became the personal transport of the PRT riot teams! How cool was that? She got a lot of experience trapping the villains in loops they couldn't escape from, and got to see with her very two eyes how the officers worked. How they brought doors and walls down to get to the villains on the other side. And they thanked her! Vista became an integral part of the fight against the gangs.
She had been happy.
She had been useful.
She had also been an utter moron!
Of course it was all too good to be true.
It had all been a lie.
Thomas Calvert may have been active and decisive, but he had also been a fucking villain!
All those supposed victories that Vista achieved together with the PRT officers? A stage show. The locations they had attacked had been safehouses that Coil had already abandoned, and the officers she had worked with were in reality traitors working for him. They had just mounted a light show to make gullible idiots think that they were actually achieving something.
That revelation felt like being stabbed by Hookwolf again.
The one who received it the worst, by far, had been Triumph. He looked sick after finding out that he had been working for the same man who had tried to kidnap his cousin. He had even been put on leave out of fear that he'd just walk up to Calvert and rip him apart limb by limb.
Vista would have offered to help.
And to make matters worse, the Nazis used the chance to turn the city against them. Then the rest of the country turned Brockton Bay into a laughing stock, with the video of the Wards' defeat becoming infuriatingly popular. Even French newspapers were drawing caricatures of them!
Missy could deal with the laughter. She could just ignore it and endure. But the comments suggesting that the Wards had known about Coil and had been willingly working for him had been too much.
She was a hero, not a villain!
The night after the reveal she hadn't been able to sleep. Not only because of the burning shame but also because of the infernal way that Hoowkwolf's scar was itching. It had been months since the last time it had itched so badly.
It was a sleep-deprived and very grumpy Vista who entered the base the following day. Once again the Wards had been ordered to stay back while the rest of the heroes did their best to fix the mess.
In that pit of boredom, anger, and frustration, the only thing she had to do was to browse PHO.
Why were people claiming that Heavy Gear were heroes?! They were villains! Didn't people know that gangs fought against each other all the time? This hadn't been them being noble, it had been them knocking one of their main competitors down. Nothing more!
At least that night she managed to sleep, even if it had been crying tears of shame.
Sunday brought her the news that Bakuda had escaped. People were, once again, blaming the PRT for it but she clenched her heart. She wasn't going to let that affect her. She had wasted more than enough time in sadness. She was going to make things right, one way or the other.
She started by calling one of her teachers and asking for Peter Brown's address.
"Hello, is Peter home?" She hadn't been sure what to expect when she arrived at his house, but a middle-aged and balding man hadn't been one of them. He looked like a kind of doofus with the way he smiled at her.
He let her in and led her to the kitchen where the rest of the family had assembled for lunch.
And look at that! Not only was Peter there, looking as if he had just seen a ghost, but also Aisha, the girl who Missy was convinced was Tech-Priest's partner in crime. Behind them was an older girl, maybe around 15, who Missy was sure was Taylor Hebert.
Taylor rose to her feet and-oh-wow was she tall. She was even taller than some boys she knew, and just the right size to be Ladybug. That was what Missy needed.
With Peter still making his best impression of a fish out of the water, Aisha was the one to speak for him. "So, miss cop, what do you want?" As crass as ever.
"Can't a friend come to check how Peter is doing?"
"Well, there he is! He's fine, so you can leave now."
Somewhere at her back, Missy heard the father suppressing a laugh.
Ignoring both of them, she set her backpack on the table, and from it, she pulled out a folder. "I'm here bringing Peter's homework. School may be closed but that's not an excuse to abandon his studies."
The father -Danny Hebert if she wasn't wrong- walked to Peter's back with his chest bloated with what may have been pride. "The two of them had been working hard to keep up with school. They even started a study group with Taylor and Aisha's sister."
Missy raised an eyebrow. "A study group?" Okay, that had to be one of the stupidest and fattest lies she had ever heard. "Why didn't you invite me?
"Sorry," Aisha cut in. "I already took the last spot."
Of course she did. "What a pity," Missy said, not really believing it. "But you should know that Clarendon is reopening this Wednesday."
Peter recoiled as if he had been told that his puppy had been run over. "I-it is?" Finally, he found the words to speak with!
"Yes. They are making the official announcement tomorrow but I wanted to give you an early warning." Knowing stuff like that before the rest was one of the many advantages of being the teachers' favorite student.
Once again Aisha felt the need to step in where she wasn't wanted. "You delivered it, we thank you. Now leave."
"Don't be like that, Aisha." Danny laughed. "Don't you want to stay for lunch, Missy?"
The hell she was staying in the viper nest! Could this Danny Hebert have been the mysterious Belisarius Cawl? Something to consider.
"Thank you, mister Hebert, but I also need to go prepare for school. See you there, Peter!"
"Okay, Peter Brown is Tech-Priest. I'm sure of it." Missy -now dressed in her Vista costume- announced as she stepped into Armsmaster's workshop. If the man had heard her enter, he gave no evidence of it as he continued working on whatever new device he had created.
"I don't know who you are talking about, Vista," he said without even lifting his eyes from his workbench.
He was grumpier than usual. Not like Vista could blame him, though. As the leader of the Protectorate, many were suspecting him of being Coil's accomplice. Vista laughed at that idea. Of course, Armsmaster wasn't a traitor! But if he wanted to clear his name, couldn't he start by listening to Vista's evidence?
"Peter Brown," she repeated. "He's a schoolmate I've been trying to recruit for the Wards. I gave you one of his drawings for you to analyze."
Maybe accepting that Vista wasn't leaving, Armsmaster straightened up and searched through his papers. He pulled one out that had a complicated series of equations written by him on one side, and Peter's drawing of a power armor on the other. It also had the ugly stain of a coffee mug cutting right through the armor's chest piece.
"Ah, yes." He tossed the paper aside. "I labeled it inconclusive and the PRT put his case on ice." Then he returned to his work.
"Well, they shouldn't have! Because I have new evidence you should listen to."
"Evidence that you found, how?"
"I went to his home."
Armsmaster's hands stopped. He put his tools aside, and then he turned around to look her directly in the eyes. Yeah, he looked angry, but at least now he was paying attention. "Vista, are you telling me that you went to the civilian residency of a potentially hostile cape, alone, with no support, and without telling anyone about it?"
"It's fine!" She argued back. "I went there as his concerned classmate. I even went with his homework so he'd believe me! And the important part is that I'm sure that his sister, Taylor Hebert, is Ladybug! She also went to Winslow so you have a connection there."
With a shake of his head, Armsmaster returned to his workbench. "Vista, there's no Taylor Hebert in Winslow's registries."
What?
No, that was impossible.
"That's bulshit!"
"Vista! Mind your language."
"Look, Taylor Hebert went to Winslow and got involved in some 'locker incident'. Even Aisha knew about it!"
Could she have been tricked? No, she couldn't have fallen now for one of Peter's traps! He wasn't intelligent enough for that!
"Vista, I appreciate your enthusiasm, but you took an immense risk and worked with incomplete information. Maybe you just misremembered this girl's previous school."
She kicked the ground. "No! I'm sure it was Winslow."
It had to be. Peter had to be Tech-Priest. If he wasn't, then Vista had nothing.
"And yet the evidence points against it. I have other obligations right now so I'll have to ask you-"
A screen next to him blinked into existence showing a woman. "Excuse me, Armsmaster?"
"Dragon, what's the problem?"
Vista would have called the way he acted around the female tinker as 'cute' if she wasn't feeling so angry at him right now.
"I apologize for getting involved but I overheard what Vista was saying and I got a hunch. I found something on one Taylor Hebert that you should see."
If there wasn't a screen in the middle, Vista would have kissed the woman as what Dragon found justified everything that Missy had gone through.
Half an hour later, Armsmaster had put all his projects on pause and had called Deputy Director Renick to his lab. Or just 'Director' Vista assumed, as there wasn't anyone else to fill that post at the time.
Thankfully Vista had been allowed to stay. After all, she had been the one to bring all this to the heroes' attention.
The documents that Dragon had found detailed Peter's arrival to Brockton Bay and they painted an interesting picture. One week after meeting with the Heberts, the Wards had their first encounter with Ladybug, then called Sting. One week after that, Winslow burnt to the ground.
That couldn't be a coincidence!
And yet that wasn't anywhere near the most interesting piece of evidence.
Renick tapped his finger against the table. The muscles of his neck trembled as he licked his lips. "Why weren't we informed about any of this?"
What he was talking about was the report of a paramedic team who detailed the movement of one Taylor Hebert from Winslow High to a local hospital. From the description, Taylor had been rescued from a locker that had been filled with used tampons.
The 'locker incident' as Aisha had put it.
It made Vista feel sick just thinking about it. Who in their right mind would do something like that? It made sense for Taylor Hebert to have gone through something awful to gain powers, but it was worse than she had been expecting. And the worst part was that no one had told the PRT about Taylor's case despite it being prime trigger material! Wards were trained to recognize events like those and alert their superiors. So were teachers, policemen, and medics. But they all remained quiet.
"Taylor Hebert was put into a psychiatric ward," Armsmaster argued back. "Psychiatric wards aren't forced to-"
"She was listening to voices, Armsmaster! Tell me if that doesn't scream 'thinker'. Or master, if we accept she's Ladybug." Renick breathed in sonorously through his teeth. "But this is bigger than that. Why didn't the school inform us? Why didn't Shadow Stalker?"
That was a good question. Even Aisha knew about it, so why hadn't Stalker said anything? Keeping her ear to the ground for stuff like that was one of the main reasons why she used to go to Winslow.
"Do you want me to bring her here?" Armsmaster offered but Renick stopped him.
"No. Not yet, at least." He pressed his palms against the table and then turned to look at Vista. "Tell me again, why didn't Tech-Priest attack you with his sword?"
Vista rolled her eyes. "Told me that I didn't deserve it." She snickered. "The dick thought that he could take me without his fancy weapon but I proved him wrong." Now that was a funny memory. Even with his power armor and all of his crazy gadgets, Vista still showed him who was the best.
"What if that wasn't what he meant? We still don't know the full power of their sensor network, but let's say that they figured out Shadow Stalker's identity. What if he wanted to hurt Shadow Stalker, but didn't want to hurt you?"
Vista narrowed her eyes. What was he getting at?
Even Armsmaster looked mildly panicked. "Acting Director, you can't be saying that one of our Wards was involved in this."
Wait, was that it? Were they suggesting that Stalker had done that?
No, no.
Sophia was a bitch, yes, but there was being angry and mean, and then there was causing a trigger event. She couldn't have done that, right? Sophia was a Ward, and Missy's partner! Wards were supposed to be better than that!
They were the good guys!
"I am saying nothing," Renick stated. "For now, we have nothing but conjecture. This information doesn't leave this room, understood?" He allowed his eyes to fall first on Armsmaster and then on Vista. "Armsmaster, I want you to get in contact with Shadow Stalker's teachers. Find out if Taylor Hebert truly went to Winslow and if she had any relationship with Sophia Hess."
The hero nodded. "And if Vista's information is verified? What do we do then with Heavy Gear?"
That…
That was a good question. If Shadow Stalker had indeed caused Taylor Hebert's trigger event, there would be a lot of things to reconsider.
Not like that justified what Heavy Gear had been doing, of course.
Renick massaged the side of his head. "We can't act hastily, so we won't make any decisions until we get a full picture of this. But I'll tell you this: the last thing we need now is for the public to hear that one of our Wards was involved in criminal activities." He straightened up, fixed his tie, and patted Armsmaster's back. "Now get to work, people. I still believe that this flaming whorehouse can be saved."
Truth be told, Vista was starting to warm up to Renick. He wasn't as great as Calvert had pretended to be, but he wasn't as grumpy as Piggot either. He also had no problem cursing around the Wards.
He left, leaving Vista and Armsmaster alone.
"Vista," the hero said, very slowly and deliberately. "I need you to answer an important question. Do you truly believe that Peter Brown would be capable of arson and theft?"
It took Vista fifteen minutes to stop laughing.
...
