The day started off on a bad note. At really early in the morning – in Taylor's opinion as early as you could possibly be in the morning in Brockton Bay – the Endbringer sirens had gone off in the "It's somewhere else, come help" signal for most of the world. For Canberra, Australia, it meant that the city would most likely be a complete loss, and everyone who didn't manage to evacuate in time would be sealed inside and left to eventually die. Or worse.
And, of course, that meant that Taylor had to be in early for an all-hands meeting at the PRT building.
"Do you need a ride in?" her father asked as he poured a cup of coffee.
"There's been nothing about the courtesy van not picking me up, so not yet," Taylor answered, having already gotten herself some juice and cereal and was lifting her spoon to eat. "I'll catch the bus from there to school afterwards."
"I'll probably head into work early, then, and be home early," Danny stated. "I think it's gonna be a bad day for Australia, though."
"Yeah," Taylor agreed. "Whenever the Endbringers attack, it's always a bad day." She had a brief but dizzying image of herself in full costume, standing in an apocalyptic wasteland, the sky red with fire and smoke, and the bodies of the Endbringers in a pile before her. And somewhere in her mind she heard a voice cry out "And it would be
glorious!" before the rather incongruous sound of a large pan striking someone over the head. "I wonder if I would make a difference?"
"You're just a brute, Taylor. Not every problem can be solved with, ahem, brute force," Danny stated.
"In that case, you're simply not using enough," Taylor shot back as she finished her cereal. "Lemme get my books and jacket, because the courtesy van just showed up."
"See you later today, then," Danny said as his amazonian daughter carefully closed the door behind her. He watched from the front window for a bit as Taylor stopped, looked shocked, shook her head, and then made her way to the van.
- - - - - - - - - -
While she was walking down to the curb to get into the van, she idly wondered what, if anything, she could do if she set her goal to stopping the Endbringers. At her next step forward, she knew where her goal was located, and what she had to do:
Punch Eidolon, as hard as you can. Her jaw dropped in shock and she froze before she shook her head to clear it, and continued walking to her ride as the sky to the east began to lighten with the false dawn.
That was not something she wanted to continue thinking about.
"'Morning," the driver said. "I won't say it's good, though. Hang on, I've got a couple more pickups before we get to the PRT building."
"I'm in," Taylor answered as she buckled her safety belt.
And with that, they were off.
= = = = = = = =
Director Piggot looked less happy to be up and in the PRT Headquarters at oh-dark-thirty in the morning than everyone else, Taylor noted as she stood behind the seated Wards. Her courtesy van had stopped to pick up Chris and Carlos before making its way to the building, and they'd all costumed up for the briefing.
"As of now, the fight is over, and the Simurgh has returned to orbit," the Director said as she read off the tablet in front of her. "Of the Brockton Bay contingent, everyone is still alive, but Dauntless and Velocity were injured early on. They'll be fine, but only because Lady Photon and Manpower brought a very snarky and sarcastic Panacea with them. They're into the search and rescue phase now, and despite whatever the Simurgh was building getting wrecked before it activated, it looks like the city will become another quarantine zone."
She stopped for a moment and took a long drink from her lukewarm coffee. "For those of us who are new, we are now in a truce period until midnight tomorrow, forty-eight hours after the attack began," she lectured. "That means while we're not expecting any trouble out of our local parahuman groups or independent villains, normal crime is still a possibility, though most will not bother to poke law enforcement immediately after an Endbringer attack. Crimes of opportunity, muggings, and nonviolent offences remain likely.
"That means a few 'show the flag patrols' during the day and afternoon," she continued. "It also means that Juggernaut will be making her first official patrol later today." She looked up at the oversize Ward from across the room. "Aegis will have the patrol schedule for you when you come in this afternoon."
Taylor nodded as she had expected as much.
"Wards, you're dismissed. You've got school to attend, and I don't want the Youth Guard on my case," Director Piggot ordered.
They all filed out of the room, and the meeting continued for the Protectorate.
- - - - - - - - - -
They'd all retired to the Wards area and changed back into street clothes. "We should probably decide who takes which buses," Carlos suggested. "Chris and I usually are on the same bus, Dean usually drives in with Vicky and Amy, and Dennis usually comes in last, living the furthest out. Dean has his car here, Dennis can take a later bus, and Taylor could probably join me and Chris, since we all live in roughly the same area."
Taylor nodded. "Yeah, that sounds about right. I've been getting a ride in from my dad, but I finally got my 'disability' card from the City, so I can sit up front in the disability seating."
"What, being nearly seven foot tall is a disability?" Dennis asked, incredulous.
"Sorta kinda. I don't fit in the normal seats," Taylor answered. "The one time a driver asked me to sit in a normal seat… I bent the frame of the seats in front of me. And the arms on both sides." She shrugged. "It turned out OK; I offered to pay to replace the seats, and the driver gave me the phone number of someone to talk to. Now, when I get on, I'm supposed to show them my card and sit in one of the disability access seats. As to why I don't just stand? Average ceiling height on Brockton Bay's buses are just a little over six feet, six inches. On a bad bump, my head's going into the ceiling. Possibly through it."
Carlos shook his head. "And even though your secret identity is tissue paper thin, since you're not officially an open cape, we have to try and maintain it."
"Even though I suspect most of the country can guess who I am," Taylor snarked.
Dean nodded. "I know a couple of guys in Boston who play basketball. They have a problem with city buses, too," he stated.
"I stand corrected," Dennis admitted, dramatically.
"I stand as a backup plan," riposted Taylor.
After a beat and the suppressed laughter of the other Wards, Dennis continued. "I'm gonna have to up my game, aren't I? Anyway, I never realized being very tall could be such a problem."
"Any word from Amy?" Carlos asked, changing the subject before Dennis got going.
"Yeah, she'll be back no later than tomorrow morning," Dean said. "Got a message from Vicky while we were in the meeting. She said it wasn't as bad as some..."
"But any Endbringer attack is bad," Carlos finished.
"So what can I expect this afternoon?" Taylor asked.
"A lot of quiet," Missy answered. "While they don't have to, normal gangs and even solo perps kinda keep their heads down during Endbringer truces. The ABB and the Empire definitely honor them, and the Merchants? Mush is currently out there laying low, Skidmark is in the lockup here and Squealer's down at Brockton General's secure ward, undergoing detox."
"And according to rumor, actually being pleasant to everybody," added Dennis.
"Uber and Leet just stick to rather tame demonstrations," Chris added. "They're known to donate their revenue from the day of and after an Endbringer attack to various charities. A lot of rogues and almost-villains do that."
"Since when did villains, even nominal ones, begin to act responsibly?" Taylor asked as the promised breakfast cart showed up, albeit with just donuts, coffee, and juice.
"Since violation of the Endbringer truce usually invites retribution from everyone else," Dennis shot back. "Last time something happened, the
Slaughterhouse 9 paid the villain a visit. It went as well as you could imagine."
"So everyone toes the line," Taylor murmured.
Carlos nodded. "Yeah. The only ones who don't are the Yangban, but they don't come to international Endbringer fights, nor do they allow international assistance for fights on their home soil. So far, Behemoth has demolished and irradiated one major city, and Leviathan has effectively rendered the port of Tianjin useless. And those are the ones we know about.
"Next city bus heading to Arcadia is in twenty minutes," he continued. "We'd better get things picked up so we don't get dinged for leaving a mess."
At Taylor's questioning look, Dean explained. "They sometimes do unannounced inspections of the Wards area," he said. "Usually we keep things pretty tidy in here, but once they decided to inspect after Dennis attempted something in the kitchen and had just gone down to the stores people to get more cleaning supplies. We didn't get dinged because he'd explained why he left the mess he did, and he'd come back to finish cleaning."
"What were you trying to make?" Taylor asked out of morbid curiosity.
"Mac and cheese," Dennis admitted. "Not the baked kind, but the kind you make on the stove top. It somehow exploded on me, butter and pasta and burnt cheese powder
everywhere."
"Except him," Chris added.
"Yeah," Dennis continued. "Based on past performance, I treated things like I was working with dangerous, flammable chemicals, so a heavy apron, face shield and gloves.
Those were ruined, but
I was fine."
Taylor shared a chuckle with her teammates as they cleaned up before heading to school.
- - - - - - - - - -
The day passed slowly, most classes choosing the day to review information in preparation for midterm exams, coming up in a couple of weeks, instead of starting any new material. Parahuman studies covered previous Simurgh attacks, and how they all subtly differed.
Lunch was also subdued, where the only bit of news was that New Wave's contingent of Manpower, Lady Photon, and Panacea were all home and dead tired. A quick perusal of PHO had shown very little in the way of actual facts about the attack, only that what was left of Canberra would have to be walled up into yet another quarantine zone.
The rest of the day passed in a kind of fog, nothing really clear happening, just vague things in the distance doing vague things. And then Taylor found herself using one of the alternate entrances to the PRT building and heading down to the Wards area to change into her costume. Not that she couldn't change elsewhere, but it was procedure.
"We'll be running two patrols through high visibility areas. Vista and Kid Win, you'll be with Juggernaut on the Boardwalk. Gallant, Clockblocker and I will be in the financial district," Aegis stated once everyone had gotten together. "Juggernaut, if you have any questions, ask Vista or Kid.
Please try not to hurt someone too badly if you have to hit them."
"Understood," Juggernaut acknowledged. "Hopefully, all I'll have to do is answer questions and maybe provide assistance."
"Excellent," Aegis continued. "Protectorate Console will be handling communications."
And with that, they were on their way to the mean streets of Brockton Bay.
= = = = = = = = = =
"Hey, bitch!"
Juggernaut sighed as the skinhead punk took an overhead swing at her with an iron pipe. With a dull thunk, it bent over her shoulder and stuck there. She looked at the skinhead, then the pipe and sighed again. "Are you going to surrender peacefully, or am I going to have to convince you?"
"You can't make me do anything!" the man yelled back, trying to work the pipe loose instead of running, not that he would get far.
"Convince you it is," Juggernaut growled, and poked the man in the shoulder.
The skinhead began howling in pain as the gentle poke had dislocated his shoulder, causing him to let go of the pipe and fall to the ground.
Kid Win sighed as well. "Console, Wards Patrol One. We've got another one, tried to club Juggernaut."
"Police and paramedics are on their way, Kid Win. How bad is it?"
"Looks like a dislocated shoulder," he answered. "Didn't hear anything snap. Most of his buddies backed off when he took the swing, they're keeping out of it. She poked him in the shoulder, gently."
"She appears to be doing pretty good for someone who can tear one of Squealer's monstrosities in two: One broken fist from when the perp punched her, and one unconscious from when she snapped her fingers after they took a bat to her knees."
"That sums it up," Kid Win stated. "Police are here now."
"Console out, don't have too much fun."
Juggernaut grumbled and proceeded to hand off the evidence (the pipe) and give her statement to the police officers, who were trying very hard not to laugh at the idiots who were throwing themselves at the young hero for whatever reason.
The Wards overheard one of the other skinheads telling one of the cops that the perp was "an idiot four ways: Public attack during an Endbringer truce, attacking a cape, attacking a
Ward, and attacking her (Juggernaut) specifically." Apparently they'd only intended to ask her for a demonstration by doing something to the pipe, but "someone" was inspired to do more…
Vista looked thoughtful for a moment. "You know, we should make sure that the Empire hasn't brought in Idiotenball."
"Who's that?" Juggernaut asked.
"Gesellschaft cape," Vista answered. "He's a blaster whose projected balls make you temporarily lose intelligence."
"Truly a power to be feared," Kid Win intoned.
"Seriously?" Juggernaut queried.
"Seriously."
The young heroes shared a chuckle and continued on their patrol.
