Interlue: Mouse Protector
LD1449
To the last; Kill them all
- Location
- The other side of the labyrinth.
Interlude: Mouse Protector
"What a fluster cluck!"
Her words made Colin turn to look at her, and she could just picture that eyebrow hiked up to his forehead under that helmet.
"Excuse me?" He asked.
She looked to him. "What would you call it?"
He opened his mouth… then promptly closed it.
She nodded, smiling as much as she could given the circumstances.
Lung had started fires over a nearly ten square block area.
Oni Lee had all but collapsed three buildings, two others had enough structural damage that they couldn't be occupied until they were repaired or torn down.
There were sixty-seven dead and well over five times that in terms of injuries, including Brine, who had been hurt by falling debris trying to contain Lung's fires.
Panacea had healed her, but there were so many injured, and Panacea couldn't stabilize all of the worst in time..
So yes.
Her assessment of made-up words was relatively spot on.
"You know… when you said the coming weeks wouldn't be 'easy' I didn't think you were quite so good at understatement." she jokingly complained.
"The severity of Lungs attack was unforeseen, as was the location. We were expecting him to hit Empire holdings further north, not the Medhall building that's-"
"Colin," she interrupted. "The appropriate response is 'Tough luck' and move on."
She tried to smile, but even she failed at the sight of Colin's frown.
For once it wasn't because of irritation or frustration, but rather seemed to be born out of an emotion she could only liken to sadness, or even despondency.
"Sorry," he said.
She flinched.
Way to stick your foot in your mouth, she chastised herself.
There was a time for jokes, a time to lighten the mood.
For Colin, this clearly wasn't one of those times.
She decided to cut the jokes short. He didn't need that, her pressing down on the old issue of his social awkwardness.
He needed to be back in his comfort zone, get his head on straight.
He worked with facts, not jokes or people.
She stood up, circling the table towards the digital map of the area's damaged by the fighting on the touch screen.
"So…" She ventured. "Where do we go from here?"
Colin straightened where he stood, turning his head to look over the map.
With what must have been some kind of interface in his helmet, or hidden controls she wasn't seeing, the digital map zoomed out to show the whole city. Soon enough it was color coded for convenience in mostly red and blue swathes of territory, with smaller multicolor blocks spread out around the edges. Red for ABB and blue for Empire.
"Lung has caused a massive public outcry," he answered. "Frankly, I'd been hoping his retaliation towards the Empire 88 wouldn't have been quite so great in its scale or its collateral damage. With the way things are, we won't have the luxury of simply ignoring him and focusing our efforts on the Empire as I'd originally hoped."
"Why not just focus on him and then the Empire?" She asked, genuinely curious. "Sure, he's tough, but take him down fast enough, before he can amp up, that's One cape to bring down as opposed to… what does the Empire have left? Ten?
"With the deaths of Hookwolf, Krieg, and Stormtiger, along with our capture of Rune, Alabaster, and Crusader last night, that would leave them a total of eight major threats. Othala, Victor, Purity, Night, Fog, Fenja, Menja and Kaiser, along with any minor members or reinforcements they might try to call in."
She shook her head. "You know… it's kinda fucked up that they can take Five casualties and still say that they're a match for the Protectorate out here, number-wise. Even with our temporary reinforcements. What? Do they grow their capes on trees?"
"Now you see what we've been dealing with," Colin answered. "Regardless. We can't focus on Lung and ignore the Empire either. It will be difficult to capture him by any estimate and once the Empire notices we've committed ourselves to a full on fight with Lung, they will likely strike at us in order to free their captured members, who we can't ship to the regional prison for holding until trial for another week at minimum, due to the difficulty of holding Rune or Crusader except in our maximum security cells."
"So split up and focus on both sides?" She shook her head. "It's a shit move."
"It is…" He admitted. "Frankly, if it were up to me I would ignore the ABB and maintain our focus on the Empire now that the momentum is squarely against them and their morale is in tatters. But Piggot won't hear a word of it."
She winced. "I imagine Chevalier hasn't exactly made talking with her any easier?"
The Tinker's frown grew a little more severe.
Ever since Colin had told them that the Ward, Stalker had some kind of nervous breakdown from lack of sleep, Chevalier had been concerned.
And concern led to questions. Especially since Colin had been so fuzzy with details.
When those questions led to a hint that Stalker hadn't been ordered to see one of the Protectorate psychologists after her kidnapping, torture, and near murder, the man had gone from concerned to angry.
When he found out it was because they didn't have a Protectorate psychologist, Chevalier had gone from angry to marching on a bloody warpath.
And even with the Ward remanded to a psychologist who had been quickly flown down now, the man was still furious. And the dubious honor of bearing the brunt of his ire fell on Director Piggot.
Chevalier was a good guy, but he had his temper. He'd almost been given the name 'Relentless' after all. And this thing seemed to be pressing every single one of his hot button issues. To the point that you could swear he was half a second away from shooting Piggot in the face with that canon blade of his whenever they were in the room together.
He'd already reported her to Chief Director Brown.
Now, Mouse wasn't sure what that woman's opinion was on the whole thing but Lung's rampage last night must not have left Piggot feeling safe and secure in her posting, which probably explained why she wasn't exactly eager to take Armsmaster's recommendation of ignoring Lung and just focusing on the Nazi's.
Add in Chevalier butting heads with her over all the skeletons he was tripping over and Mouse would be surprised if you could convince the woman to take a cup of coffee she didn't ask for, let alone advise her on a strategy that could very well backfire horribly if Lung didn't decide to sit still until they were done dealing with his biggest competitor.
For her part, Mouse could understand her... sort of.
The Vegas branch had been tight on funds once, and one of the first things to go had been the on-site psychologists for the Wards until they'd been able to square the budget again and bring them back.
They were Wards, they didn't fight, and yes they underwent some levels of stress but so did everyone else in the world and in the vast majority of cases the psychologists simply weren't necessary for people to learn to deal with whatever problem it was on their own.
So she could understand.
But to have sat on it like they did with this Sophia girl after she'd been nearly burned alive was a whole different issue.
It was one thing to shave off something that seemed to be a luxury most of the time given the amount of combat Wards saw on a common basis.
It was quite another to ignore the need to seek out professional help when a Ward had clearly gone through a traumatizing, horrible experience that most Protectorate members didn't ever face or recover from alone when they did face it.
So while she didn't think the situation in regards to the other Wards was quite so 'world ending' as Chevalier seemed to view it, she did believe it warranted Piggot getting her coat pulled.
Still… time and a place, and Chevalier was making what seemed to be a tough job on its own, even tougher by causing a rift between the Protectorate and PRT leadership.
She wasn't gonna go anywhere near that issue though. Officially, they were here for a max total of six weeks. And getting into inter-office arguments in a Branch where they wouldn't have much say in after they were gone was a fantastic way to squander those weeks.
Chevalier could try to help out the Wards long term.
Far as she was concerned though, that was a symptom of the cancer, not the cause of it.
Best to just tear it out from the root, or at least tear out as much as they could before they had to leave rather than split their efforts in a bureaucratic nightmare.
Chase two hares and all that.
Still, she wasn't stupid enough to go tell him to back off.
"So," she said after a moment. "How do you wanna approach this?"
Colin looked at her. "I haven't figured it out yet."
She leaned back in her seat. "Need some help?"
Most people didn't think she had a mind for strategy.
Colin knew her well enough to know better.
He nodded. "Thank you."
She smiled. "It's what you called us here for right?"
(X)(X)(X)
My thanks, once more go out to my three Beta's for their help @Axel Fones, @nitewind and @DarkMagyk great work as usual.
Now we have a bit more insight into how the Protectorate has been forced to act and what the fallout has been from Lung's attack, as well as what is happening in response to Sophia's breakdown. Hope you all enjoyed
"What a fluster cluck!"
Her words made Colin turn to look at her, and she could just picture that eyebrow hiked up to his forehead under that helmet.
"Excuse me?" He asked.
She looked to him. "What would you call it?"
He opened his mouth… then promptly closed it.
She nodded, smiling as much as she could given the circumstances.
Lung had started fires over a nearly ten square block area.
Oni Lee had all but collapsed three buildings, two others had enough structural damage that they couldn't be occupied until they were repaired or torn down.
There were sixty-seven dead and well over five times that in terms of injuries, including Brine, who had been hurt by falling debris trying to contain Lung's fires.
Panacea had healed her, but there were so many injured, and Panacea couldn't stabilize all of the worst in time..
So yes.
Her assessment of made-up words was relatively spot on.
"You know… when you said the coming weeks wouldn't be 'easy' I didn't think you were quite so good at understatement." she jokingly complained.
"The severity of Lungs attack was unforeseen, as was the location. We were expecting him to hit Empire holdings further north, not the Medhall building that's-"
"Colin," she interrupted. "The appropriate response is 'Tough luck' and move on."
She tried to smile, but even she failed at the sight of Colin's frown.
For once it wasn't because of irritation or frustration, but rather seemed to be born out of an emotion she could only liken to sadness, or even despondency.
"Sorry," he said.
She flinched.
Way to stick your foot in your mouth, she chastised herself.
There was a time for jokes, a time to lighten the mood.
For Colin, this clearly wasn't one of those times.
She decided to cut the jokes short. He didn't need that, her pressing down on the old issue of his social awkwardness.
He needed to be back in his comfort zone, get his head on straight.
He worked with facts, not jokes or people.
She stood up, circling the table towards the digital map of the area's damaged by the fighting on the touch screen.
"So…" She ventured. "Where do we go from here?"
Colin straightened where he stood, turning his head to look over the map.
With what must have been some kind of interface in his helmet, or hidden controls she wasn't seeing, the digital map zoomed out to show the whole city. Soon enough it was color coded for convenience in mostly red and blue swathes of territory, with smaller multicolor blocks spread out around the edges. Red for ABB and blue for Empire.
"Lung has caused a massive public outcry," he answered. "Frankly, I'd been hoping his retaliation towards the Empire 88 wouldn't have been quite so great in its scale or its collateral damage. With the way things are, we won't have the luxury of simply ignoring him and focusing our efforts on the Empire as I'd originally hoped."
"Why not just focus on him and then the Empire?" She asked, genuinely curious. "Sure, he's tough, but take him down fast enough, before he can amp up, that's One cape to bring down as opposed to… what does the Empire have left? Ten?
"With the deaths of Hookwolf, Krieg, and Stormtiger, along with our capture of Rune, Alabaster, and Crusader last night, that would leave them a total of eight major threats. Othala, Victor, Purity, Night, Fog, Fenja, Menja and Kaiser, along with any minor members or reinforcements they might try to call in."
She shook her head. "You know… it's kinda fucked up that they can take Five casualties and still say that they're a match for the Protectorate out here, number-wise. Even with our temporary reinforcements. What? Do they grow their capes on trees?"
"Now you see what we've been dealing with," Colin answered. "Regardless. We can't focus on Lung and ignore the Empire either. It will be difficult to capture him by any estimate and once the Empire notices we've committed ourselves to a full on fight with Lung, they will likely strike at us in order to free their captured members, who we can't ship to the regional prison for holding until trial for another week at minimum, due to the difficulty of holding Rune or Crusader except in our maximum security cells."
"So split up and focus on both sides?" She shook her head. "It's a shit move."
"It is…" He admitted. "Frankly, if it were up to me I would ignore the ABB and maintain our focus on the Empire now that the momentum is squarely against them and their morale is in tatters. But Piggot won't hear a word of it."
She winced. "I imagine Chevalier hasn't exactly made talking with her any easier?"
The Tinker's frown grew a little more severe.
Ever since Colin had told them that the Ward, Stalker had some kind of nervous breakdown from lack of sleep, Chevalier had been concerned.
And concern led to questions. Especially since Colin had been so fuzzy with details.
When those questions led to a hint that Stalker hadn't been ordered to see one of the Protectorate psychologists after her kidnapping, torture, and near murder, the man had gone from concerned to angry.
When he found out it was because they didn't have a Protectorate psychologist, Chevalier had gone from angry to marching on a bloody warpath.
And even with the Ward remanded to a psychologist who had been quickly flown down now, the man was still furious. And the dubious honor of bearing the brunt of his ire fell on Director Piggot.
Chevalier was a good guy, but he had his temper. He'd almost been given the name 'Relentless' after all. And this thing seemed to be pressing every single one of his hot button issues. To the point that you could swear he was half a second away from shooting Piggot in the face with that canon blade of his whenever they were in the room together.
He'd already reported her to Chief Director Brown.
Now, Mouse wasn't sure what that woman's opinion was on the whole thing but Lung's rampage last night must not have left Piggot feeling safe and secure in her posting, which probably explained why she wasn't exactly eager to take Armsmaster's recommendation of ignoring Lung and just focusing on the Nazi's.
Add in Chevalier butting heads with her over all the skeletons he was tripping over and Mouse would be surprised if you could convince the woman to take a cup of coffee she didn't ask for, let alone advise her on a strategy that could very well backfire horribly if Lung didn't decide to sit still until they were done dealing with his biggest competitor.
For her part, Mouse could understand her... sort of.
The Vegas branch had been tight on funds once, and one of the first things to go had been the on-site psychologists for the Wards until they'd been able to square the budget again and bring them back.
They were Wards, they didn't fight, and yes they underwent some levels of stress but so did everyone else in the world and in the vast majority of cases the psychologists simply weren't necessary for people to learn to deal with whatever problem it was on their own.
So she could understand.
But to have sat on it like they did with this Sophia girl after she'd been nearly burned alive was a whole different issue.
It was one thing to shave off something that seemed to be a luxury most of the time given the amount of combat Wards saw on a common basis.
It was quite another to ignore the need to seek out professional help when a Ward had clearly gone through a traumatizing, horrible experience that most Protectorate members didn't ever face or recover from alone when they did face it.
So while she didn't think the situation in regards to the other Wards was quite so 'world ending' as Chevalier seemed to view it, she did believe it warranted Piggot getting her coat pulled.
Still… time and a place, and Chevalier was making what seemed to be a tough job on its own, even tougher by causing a rift between the Protectorate and PRT leadership.
She wasn't gonna go anywhere near that issue though. Officially, they were here for a max total of six weeks. And getting into inter-office arguments in a Branch where they wouldn't have much say in after they were gone was a fantastic way to squander those weeks.
Chevalier could try to help out the Wards long term.
Far as she was concerned though, that was a symptom of the cancer, not the cause of it.
Best to just tear it out from the root, or at least tear out as much as they could before they had to leave rather than split their efforts in a bureaucratic nightmare.
Chase two hares and all that.
Still, she wasn't stupid enough to go tell him to back off.
"So," she said after a moment. "How do you wanna approach this?"
Colin looked at her. "I haven't figured it out yet."
She leaned back in her seat. "Need some help?"
Most people didn't think she had a mind for strategy.
Colin knew her well enough to know better.
He nodded. "Thank you."
She smiled. "It's what you called us here for right?"
(X)(X)(X)
My thanks, once more go out to my three Beta's for their help @Axel Fones, @nitewind and @DarkMagyk great work as usual.
Now we have a bit more insight into how the Protectorate has been forced to act and what the fallout has been from Lung's attack, as well as what is happening in response to Sophia's breakdown. Hope you all enjoyed
