How to Beat Fried Worms
Disclaimer: Worm is owned by Wildbow, and he can keep it.
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Chapter 48: Insidious
Interlude: Alexandria
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The headache the last few weeks had turned into was the stuff of legends, especially for someone that was the head of two heavily impacted organizations.
Rebecca Costa Brown had been struggling to handle the Parahuman Response Team side of things as the PRT was forced to deal with Case 53s that were suddenly much less cooperative.
Alexandria, on the other side of the mirror, was looking at an organization-wide manpower shortage in the Protectorate as Case 53s resigned en masse. They'd never made up a majority of the capes in their employment, probably about ten percent overall, but when ninety percent of them left?
There were some Protectorate branches that were down to two or three capes without their support and the crunch was getting worrisome. Nobody had died, yet, but it was only a matter of time until something snapped.
Thankfully? One region that was rich in capes had just experienced a massive decline in parahuman crime.
"Due to the current state of flux in Brockton Bay, Director, I'm afraid I simply cannot justify your request to transfer a number of my most critical personnel to other regions," the director of the PRT ENE, Piggot, was being obstinate, however.
"The largest major gang in your region has just lost, if not the totality, then at least the majority of their cape support," Rebecca gritted out. "I'm sure you can spare at least a few of your people."
"...One of my Wards," Piggot agreed after a moment of grumbling.
"Shadow Stalker is new enough to the team that she could be released. Everyone else is, as I've already said, critical to maintaining peace as the remaining gangs try and expand. Due to the lack of external support, my teams have had to develop a more cohesive sense of teamwork to keep up with-"
"We'll take her," Jenson, the director of the PRT in Texas, interrupted with a tired sigh.
"We just lost Verbose, Gentle Giant and Hardly at the same time."
"She's on probation," Piggot warned.
"Unless she's pinning people to wall, Emily, I don't care. I need the manpower."
Rebecca leaned back in her chair as the numerous directors argued. The exhausted woman reached up and rubbed at the skin around one of her eyes.
"...She's not pinning people to walls, is she?" Jenson asked after several seconds of Emily Piggot remaining suspiciously silent.
"Christ, Emily. What kind of psychopaths are you training over there!"
"She... not pinning people to walls. Anymore," Piggot haltingly explained.
"That's what got her arrested. And why we have her now."
"...You know what? I don't care," Jenson admitted with a shake of her head.
"Once she's here, she'll be Eidolon's responsibility. We're big on training, maybe we can train the attack dog out of her."
Trying to pry -any- capes out of the East-North-East had been like trying to pull teeth. Rebecca had every expectation that Shadow Stalker would be a significant issue, regardless of where she ended up.
And, yes, Rebecca did remember the file she'd read on the girl.
Shadow Stalker, real name Sophia Hess. Brought in on manslaughter charges, Emily had wanted to push the prosecution to go for murder but Rebecca had forced the woman to stay her hand. Shadow Stalker's capabilities could have proven useful in Endbringer battles and that was a resource the world desperately needed.
Rebecca sighed and leaned forward.
Well, she supposed it didn't really matter which branch was handling the girl. Just so long as they made her useful, it would all work out.
A buzzing at Rebecca's wrist drew the woman's attention. The slid her sleeve up and read the text on her wristwatch-
-Heartbreaker dead. Dragon calling all Protectorate heads.-
Rebecca froze for a full second as she processed that message.
Someone had killed the Frenchman? Someone had actually gotten through the small army of converted politicians, cronies, policemen and Mounties that Nikos outright controlled, not to mention the countless unwitting servants that had been claimed through his thralls and children?
That was unexpected. Extremely unexpected.
"If you'll excuse me for a moment," Rebecca said as she stood up. "I'll be right back."
Stepping away from her computer as Tagg got around to saying something utterly foolish, Rebecca stepped out of the room and sent a text to her body double before glancing around the washroom, confirming that no new bugs had found their way in and saying-
"Door, wardrobe," Rebecca demands from the empty room. For a moment, nothing happens. Then, in the next, a glowing hole appears in the air in front of the woman. She stepped through it-
And began to move at a pace that was, to put it simply, humanly impossible!
It was not, however, parahumanly impossible. Within literally two seconds, Rebecca Costa Brown had thrown off her clothing and replaced them with a dark, caped outfit with a heavy visor on top. Across her chest, a tower stood prominent.
"Door, office," Alexandria demanded, stepping through the doorway a moment later to a very different office to the one she'd left. The office of Costa Brown had numerous plaques, awards, certificates and photos littering the walls.
The office of Alexandria, head of the Los Angeles Protectorate, was almost hostile in its spartan intensity. The only object of note, aside from her desk and chair, was the laptop atop said desk. Which was open with a prompt for her to accept a group call from Dragon. Wasting no time, Alexandria took her seat and hit 'Accept'.
"-children alone- Alexandria! Welcome!" Dragon greeted, interrupting whatever explanation she'd been offering to the numerous other heads.
Legend and Eidolon were present, a rarity given the very different time zones and hour of the call. So too was Armsmaster, of the East-North-East branch. Then there was Spire, Myrddin, Chevalier and several others though, notably, Bastion of Boston was absent.
"Dragon, Legend, Eidolon," Alexandria greeted with a short nod. "Everyone, I understand we have some good news?"
"Mixed, I'm afraid," Dragon answered her.
"Heartbreaker is dead, which is the good news. The troubling news is that he had a large number of children, some of whom have expressed powers of their own."
That was... troubling, Alexandria supposed. Nothing she wasn't already aware of, true, but it was just another fact that left a coil of unease in her bowels.
"Who killed him?" someone asked.
"Initial reports-"
"Apollyon," Legend cut in. Alexandria's eye slid over to his box on the screen, her brow furrowing.
"My own informant got in contact with me, likely minutes before the man acted and gave me a heads up."
"Apollyon?" Armsmaster asked.
"As in, the same parahuman that killed Lung?"
That killed-
Lung was dead?!
A parahuman that could fight an Endbringer one on one was rare enough. One that could fight an Endbringer to a standstill was virtually unheard of! She'd pulled Lung from the waters of Kyushu herself, she'd made numerous offers to try and recruit the man!
Why hadn't Emily told her?!
The only visible sign of Alexandria's frustration was a slightly harsher than intended exhale. Emily probably had included that in a report that Alexandria just hadn't been able to read, yet. She was still struggling to deal with the personnel shortage from the Case 53 exodus...
"This isn't the first time that we've had a parahuman take the law into their own hands," Myrddin muttered.
"Though, I can't say that I've heard of one that would take on such a brute -and- a master without succumbing to one or the other. How was the Heartbreaker slain?"
"Via a 9mm pistol round through his left eye," Dragon explained as she uploaded a photo to the group chat. It was the very recognizable face of Nikos Vasil, with one ruined eye as Dragon had said, lying in a pool of blood that had come from the back of his skull.
"Death was instant, so far as I could determine. After this, his murderer stepped into the home that Heartbreaker had Mastered the owner into letting him use and the numerous children and other victims were threatened at gunpoint to remain where they were until authorities arrived on scene. Considering the nature of Heartbreaker, I considered it to be the wisest course of action for me to send a- send a- send a- send a-"
Dragon's window, and the unassuming brunette inside of it, disappeared off-screen.
"...Connection issues?" Chevalier asked, the first person to speak up.
"Unlikely," Armsmaster said.
"Dragon has numerous redundancies in place. I can't imagine she would be-"
The man was cut off by a new window appearing. It had Dragon's name on it, though now it simply showed a pair of gloved hands lit by the glow of a computer monitor.
"Who are you?" Alexandria demanded. "What have you done with Dragon?!"
"Who is but a function of what, Alexandria," the person answered in a surprisingly deep voice.
"And what I am is beyond the context of your comprehension. Dragon is safe. You and your flock do not need to know anything else."
"
If you've hurt her-" Armsmaster started to say, the few visible parts of his face turning red between his beard and helmet.
"Mister Wallace, let me assure you. I have no intention of leaving our darling damsel in distress."
The various people online that had been muttering in confusion or otherwise looking for answers froze.
It was taboo to use someone's civilian name whilst dealing with them in costume. Doubly so if it might reveal the identity of a member of the Protectorate, whose identities were -meant- to be legally protected.
"Who. Are. You," Alexandria repeated through gritted teeth.
The man chuckled darkly as the hands on-screen unclasped, spreading wide before the camera in a grandiose manner that was clearly practiced.
"Very well. If you simply cannot contain your curiosity. Though, Becca, you'll find that knowing Who I Am will not avail you of an opportunity to find me. Unlike Upsilon, I take my security very seriously."
"The leak?" Myrddin muttered, leaning towards his computer camera.
"What is- Who are-"
"*TING*"
Alexandria's head felt like it split open in pain! She reached up with both hands, grasping at her temples in some futile bid to try and dull the agony that fired from her brain and down into every nerve!
An action that most of her Protectorate was mirroring, some screaming whilst others cried or collapsed at their desks. The screen glitched, some of the boxes freezing while others simply turned black and still others disconnected entirely.
For a moment, Alexandria's world went white. The pain was blinding and-
...Alexandria's eye blinked, underneath of her helmet. Her skull was pounding with a headache worse than any she'd felt since 1986. Looking around as she sat up, she saw that she'd only lost about five minutes of time.
Her computer was frozen and the little light left of the day hurt to look at.
Sitting up, the perpetual teenager felt sick to her stomach and her head felt... light. Trying to stand up left her feeling even worse, so she just collapsed back into her seat and looked down-
Why was there blood on her uniform?
Staring at it dumbly for a bit, Alexandria brought a hand up to rub at her nose which came back with even more dried blood.
That was... quite a few different kinds of bad.
"Alexandria?!" her second in command shouted through her door. "Alexandria, are you alright?! I just got a call- Every Protectorate leader has been sent to medical!"
"I'm up!" Alexandria shouted. "I... I... should go to medical."
Pressing one hand against her helmet, Alexandria desperately wished she could take some aspirin.
Whoever
Defender was, she...
...
Defender?
How did she know that name?
Alexandria leaned forward to grab a wastebasket, mostly full of papers, and began to vomit.
She didn't know what was going on.
She didn't know what had happened.
But, Alexandria swore between half-digested chunks of ham sandwich, she would be finding out!
AN/
@Clear Heart That's beautiful. I've threadmarked it with a
name I hope folks recognize. Would you mind if I used that?
DISAPPOINTMENT!!!
