- Location
- Germany
I seriously love your writing Lithos, but goddamn it did you have to remind me why i dislike canon MM so much?
Ring-Maker [Worm/Lord of the Rings Alt-Power] [Complete]
- Thread starter Lithos Maitreya
- Start date
- Crossover Users' Choice!
Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
- Location
- Christchurch, NZ
So what is Regent? My whole point is that it's pretty hard to define "Master" such that it includes all the obvious Masters without also including "just talking" powers. (You may be able to, but I suspect it would be quite awkward)
It's not always easy to distinguish between the two. In this particular instance, Annatar could say that her power is knowing what a person wants, and it's still technically correct even if it was her power making them want it. All they have is Annatar's word against it. Miss Militia can either trust her or not. And given the persecution of master capes, not all of them would admit to having master powers, if they can explain them otherwise.
Though to be honest, all the basic classifications of powers are scary in their own ways.
BungieONI
Seven gremlins in a trench coat
- Location
- Lickwidget
- Pronouns
- She/Her
A Master. You fight him by going for him and not his minion body puppets if possible. If he's limiting himself to making people twitch and the like, then he's Blaster.
That's a thing to remember about the classifications, they describe how you fight the parahuman in question. To fight Annatar, in the mind of a random PRT ranker you treat her like a Tinker who's equipment has Trump effects and she has overall Brute ratings and a Striker rating when holding Iphannis, and you do not listen to what she says since she can get in people's heads like Tattletale as a Thinker. Of course when you look at the other Ring-Bearers questions as to her being a Master do crop up given her own words about their side effects and the observed behavior of the Wards post-Rings.
I mean another way to look at it is what would her knowing what they want power be classified as if that was all she had? It's a Social Thinker power, and those can walk a fine line. If she was in decent graces with the PRT then it would be a Thinker. If she isn't it's a Master power. It's sorta a similar situation to Glory Girl's aura, though most everyone in Canon didn't know it was addictive. On part because Carol didn't really know it was, and was covering part of it up from what I recall. Can't remember if she thought herself immune or not, or if that is fanon.
- Location
- Earth Prime
Skitter is given both Master and Shaker ratings for essentially the same power, really. Siberian is often termed a "master" power, but in practice she's also more a blaster power, like Sundancer.
Rune is as much a Master as Hellhound is. Heck, she's more of one: take down Rachel, and her dogs just start tearing into you in fury because you hurt their beloved trainer. Take down Rune, and her floating rocks and debris and such fall to the ground (or at least hang helplessly in the air), because she directs her items consciously.
The line between Shaker and Master is confusing when you realize that Rune is a Shaker, but a person who animated statues and made them fly around would be termed a "master" just because her telekinetic effect gave a semblance of creature-like motion.
Skitter, again, uses her Master effect in combat far more like a Blaster or Shaker with a combat Thinker application. She has a Stranger rating because of very CLEVER uses of her power. A Thinker whose power was to ride others' senses would also have a Stranger rating because of their ability to hop into people undetected.
Annatar's Master effect - if one wishes to term it such - is too much like the Simurgh's for treating it like a Master effect to work. (Well, M/S protocols on her minions, maybe; I'm still stunned the Wards were released with a bill of "not mastered" given how they were talking while in confinement.) Take out Annatar, and her loyal confederates (who might be said to be Mastered) remain loyal and will continue to strive to do things her way, and aren't likely to be grateful to be "freed."
Rune is as much a Master as Hellhound is. Heck, she's more of one: take down Rachel, and her dogs just start tearing into you in fury because you hurt their beloved trainer. Take down Rune, and her floating rocks and debris and such fall to the ground (or at least hang helplessly in the air), because she directs her items consciously.
The line between Shaker and Master is confusing when you realize that Rune is a Shaker, but a person who animated statues and made them fly around would be termed a "master" just because her telekinetic effect gave a semblance of creature-like motion.
Skitter, again, uses her Master effect in combat far more like a Blaster or Shaker with a combat Thinker application. She has a Stranger rating because of very CLEVER uses of her power. A Thinker whose power was to ride others' senses would also have a Stranger rating because of their ability to hop into people undetected.
Annatar's Master effect - if one wishes to term it such - is too much like the Simurgh's for treating it like a Master effect to work. (Well, M/S protocols on her minions, maybe; I'm still stunned the Wards were released with a bill of "not mastered" given how they were talking while in confinement.) Take out Annatar, and her loyal confederates (who might be said to be Mastered) remain loyal and will continue to strive to do things her way, and aren't likely to be grateful to be "freed."
BungieONI
Seven gremlins in a trench coat
- Location
- Lickwidget
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Yeah I agree. As a side note I think Heartbreaker works this way as well, though he is one of the most powerful Masters ever.
I'm not sure about Rune, but *shrug* not really interested in getting that deep.
- Location
- Earth Prime
My point with Rune was really to illustrate how thin the line between a Shaker and a Master can be if you aren't careful to keep in mind what it is you're actually trying to rate.Yeah I agree. As a side note I think Heartbreaker works this way as well, though he is one of the most powerful Masters ever.
I'm not sure about Rune, but *shrug* not really interested in getting that deep.
A fair number of Masters who have constructs, projections, or the like probably should be treated more as Shakers than as Masters, because their power is a lot more similar to Rune's in terms of how you fight it.
This came about from a line of thought that also led me to coming up with the Cape name that is most guaranteed to send the PRT into paroxysms of panic: "Greetings. You may call me... the Master Stranger."
- Location
- Estonia
I'm not so sure about that leap of logic. The nuances between Shaker, Master, Blaster are more complicated than that, IMO. Blaster powers are about direct-damage power projected by powers; it's why Rune is a Shaker, more than a Blaster. Meanwhile, Shaker powers are about territory and battlefield control, while being Manton-limited to not be able to directly affect humans/biology directly, which is why Rune *isn't* a Master. The first important qualifier of Master powers is how they allow the controlling cape to directly affect psychology and/or biology of other humans without faceplanting into their Manton Limit. Any cape that has this ability (Regent, Gallant, Glory Girl, Panacea, Bonesaw) qualify as Masters. The second important qualifier of a Master power is the ability to create, control or enhance minions; having these minions be strictly under the master's control is probably even secondary in this point; this is why Bitch, Skitter and Nilbog are/were all Masters, despite the former two not having power over humans. Minion autonomy is also a probable factor: animating a bunch of rocks or a statue to fight in human is a Shaker power if the statue collapses if the Shaker stops concentrating on moving it, but a Master power if the Master can just animate, order and forget (Master unconsciousness stopping the animated statues optional).
That said "official" in-story ratings of any kind have to be taken with a side serving of unreliable narrator. I'm pretty sure it's canon (or at least WoG from Wildbow) that the PRT deliberately inflates the Master ratings of villains and downplays or even completely glosses over those of heroic capes. And by inflates/downplays, I mean more than just the raw numbers. There's enough room for creative interpretation that they could put Panacea's power fully under Striker, for instance. In fact, thinking about the PR aspect of it, it would make complete sense for this vagueness and overlap between the categories to be deliberate, so the PRT can stay within the rules while manipulating the ratings to reinforce hero/villain biases within the population.
- Location
- Earth Prime
I get that, though I disagree that Shakers aren't about battlefield control. Vista is 100% battlefield control, and she's a high-rated Shaker. Rune's power is also good at battlefield control. That she uses it as mid-grade attack (i.e. Blaster) and to facilitate Mover abilities is more an indication of how uncreative she is with it.
Autonomy of Mastered minions is actually arguable, too, since the methods of dealing with a minion-Master tend to surround going for him rather than his minions. If their autonomy was of concern, then dealing with the minions directly would be higher priority.
As a useful "here's an idea how to deal with these guys," a lot of the "master" ratings are lousy. "Skitter is Master 7! We have to go in prepared to take out our own guys if they get Mastered!" is as useless as "Valefor is Master 6! We have to keep our eyes on him and ignore his minions to maximize our chance of taking him out!"
SaltyWaffles
I am dissapoint, son
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Regent is pretty clearly a Master power. I mean...it's a pretty classic Master power. It lets him control other people's bodies.
Skitter controls insects. It has a Thinker aspect because she has to have ludicrous multitasking capabilities to manage thousands of insects at once on an individual basis, which she does.
Tattletale is a Thinker. She can't control anyone or anything, she only has access to additional information/processing capabilities.
Being a Master doesn't mean you can't have Thinker capabilities as well. But there IS a pretty clear distinction between Thinker and Master--while a Thinker can be incredibly persuasive and manipulative, a Master doesn't have to be--a Master can influence or control you without any additional information, because its power is controlling others (where such Master powers apply; not all Masters control or influence other people; some just control things like insects).
- Location
- Earth Prime
The point is moot, though, given that the way you deal with a Thinker who can literally know you so well that he can push your buttons or bribe you perfectly to do what he wants/gain your loyalty/trick you into behaving as he wishes is the same as you deal with a Master who can implant irresistible suggestions into your mind.
Not entirely moot, since there are different ethical considerations regarding each of those powers.
Taylor exerts influence on a level that has some people worried that it's a Master effect, when she's actually just got an intuitive understanding of what people want. If she were stripping people of their free will in some way, it would be wrong for her to use her power on friendlies, civilians, etc. Instead, the biggest ethical consideration is whether it's okay to hire her to do your Christmas shopping for you.
- Location
- Earth Prime
Yes and no. If I can figure out how to push your buttons until you will react in a way that is malfeasant but serves my ends, even if it's totally your choice to do so (albeit an emotional one), it's still pretty unethical.
On the other hand, if you can actually change people's desires, and somebody with a horrible drug habit came to you and begged you to help them by making them want more strongly to get off drugs than they want to get their next fix, and you made that shift for them, you'd be perfectly ethical, because even if your mind-controlled them, it was a mind-control they both wanted before and after you instituted it, so it was a form of helping them be the person they wanted to be.
Ethics of social influence can be complicated. If Taylor were to use her ability to influence people via understanding them to convince them to help her overthrow the PRT, for instance, that would be rather rightfully treated as a Master effect. "Don't let Annatar talk to you; she'll sway you to her side!"
But not in a way that has anything at all to do with her powers. Bribing someone is wrong because it's a bribe, not because her power lets her pick a good one.
The fact that you have to come up with a scenario where the person has to specifically ask for the powers to be used in order for their use to be ethical is enough to show that it's ethically a different situation than just knowing what people want, which has no such moral stipulations.
Then the problem is that she's overthrowing the PRT, not that she's really persuasive. It would be just as wrong for her to attempt this even if her persuasive ability were basically nil.
Also, you're engaging in (for lack of a better term) tactical equivocation. Just because you would use the same tactics to deal with a persuasive person trying to overthrow the PRT that you would use against a mind-controlling person trying to overthrow the PRT does not make persuasion and mind-control morally equivalent.
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The biggest single problem with the PRT ratings is that they lump 'minions' and 'mind control' in under the same heading.
- Location
- Earth Prime
My point really isn't about ethics; it's about the PRT rating system being supposedly there to help prepare people to make proper tactical decisions. So my bad for being side-tracked on the ethical debate, but the point I was trying to make to begin with is precisely that "tactical equivocation" is the whole point of the rating system. It's about selecting the right tactics.
Maybe not the biggest, but it is certainly in the top 5.
PAGDTenno
Verified Warmind. Probably on fire.
- Location
- South Carolina
Well, that's because they're threat ratings. They're about how to take down a cape with that type of power, not how the power works.
Yes, but the threat from 'guy who has projections' is completely different from 'guy who can make your allies turn on you'.
- Location
- Christchurch, NZ
@Lithos Maitreya I'm so sorry I ruined this thread by starting another PRT rating discussion #CauldronDidNothingWrong #CoilMurdersBillionsEverySplit #DragonIsDangerous
Uh, quick... New topics: did we have any idea that Amy would get a ring? Who is next? If Armsmaster did get a ring and it screwed him up, would Annatar get 'caged? Is Panacea not healing as often going to be blamed on Annatar? Is Carol going to join the Undersiders?
#CauldronDidNothingWrong #CoilMurdersBillionsEverySplit #DragonIsDangerousUh, quick... New topics: did we have any idea that Amy would get a ring? Who is next? If Armsmaster did get a ring and it screwed him up, would Annatar get 'caged? Is Panacea not healing as often going to be blamed on Annatar? Is Carol going to join the Undersiders?
- Location
- Estonia
I think you're missing a good portion of the system's point. From what I've gathered of canon and fanon, the main point of the rating system is actually to enable quick cooperation between capes unfamiliar with each other (primarily in Endbringer fights), without a whole introduction session of everyone explaining their powers. I don't think the rating system is really about creating a shorthand list of appropriate tactical choices for bringing down a cape, even if it can be used as such in a pinch. When cape vs cape fights are concerned, the most utility that should be pulled solely out of the rating system (as opposed to prior experience and reported information beyond the raw ratings) is basic threat assessment, rather than specific tactical guidelines. Things like "Should we avoid those guys or fight them?" "Does our team cover all the bases against them or do they have a power we can't counter?"; at most "Which capes in that group are the priority targets for us?".
Basically, the rating system is handy for deciding if it's a good idea to scrap up with an opponent in the first place, but a competent fighting cape doesn't put so much faith in it as to make tactical decisions off it.
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Lithos Maitreya
Character Witness
- Location
- United States
I feel quite silly for not realizing this sooner, but I won't be at my PC on Friday. As such, the chapter that would have been released then will instead be released tomorrow. So sorry for the inconvenience of releasing a chapter early.
Now to see if I can finish Blaze before posting time. Be nice to have an entire arc of backlog, even for only a few hours...
Now to see if I can finish Blaze before posting time. Be nice to have an entire arc of backlog, even for only a few hours...
- Location
- Earth Prime
Didn't you just describe tactical equivocation in the manner I was saying it's used? I feel like I just read, "No, no, you're totally wrong; it's exactly what you said it is."
Making us wait an extra negative 24 hours? You monster!
Blaze 7.1
Lithos Maitreya
Character Witness
- Location
- United States
Many thanks to @Assembler, @themanwhowas, @fabledFreeboota, @Skyrunner, @BeaconHill, and ShadowStepper1300 for betareading.
Many thanks to @MugaSofer for fact checking.
The black helmet turned to face me as I entered the interview room. The deep pits of eye sockets in the stylized skull of a mask seemed to fix me with their gaze.
I closed the door behind me, shutting out the faint sounds of working PRT troopers, and stepped forward. I slipped into the chair across from Grue and folded my hands together.
Neither of us spoke for a time.
"Didn't expect you to be here," he admitted finally. "Thought it'd be Miss Militia, or a PRT officer."
"I'm here at Miss Militia's request," I said. "The PRT is understaffed at the moment. I'm sure you understand."
"Yeah. Endbringers will do that."
Silence fell again.
"You gonna say anything?" he finally asked.
"I'm trying to decide on my approach." I sighed. "All right. I won't ask you to reveal your face, even though it would make this easier."
"Yeah, I'll bet."
"You misunderstand. We have your identity. I don't need leverage, I need rapport. Without being able to see your face, it'll be a little harder. But I can manage."
"Glad to see you think I'll be that easy to manipulate."
I shook my head. "You're coming at this the wrong way, Grue. You came to us. This doesn't have to be a conflict."
Grue laughed hollowly. "I came back because I have nowhere else to go, and I'd rather not turn up dead in a ditch in a few weeks."
"But you came," I said. "And I think we can work together, if you'll allow it."
He didn't answer.
"So tell me, Grue." I leaned forward, resting my weight on my elbows. "What do you want? Tell me your plan, going forward."
"I don't have a plan," he said, and I heard his gritted teeth in every sound. "If I did, I sure as hell wouldn't be here."
I shook my head, sighing. "No, that's not what I mean. Grue, you must have had a reason to be a supervillain. Everyone does. Tell me how I can help you fulfill it, and I'll tell you how you can help me in return."
He was perfectly still. "A trade?"
I nodded. "If I can give you what you want, and you're willing to give me what I need, then yes. A trade. But we can't trade until we've talked."
Silence fell again. He was indecisive. I saw it in the drumming of his fingers on his pant leg.
"I knew I shouldn't have let Miss Militia send me in here without seeing your file," I said ruefully. "I'd probably be able to guess what it was, if I knew who you were. Look, you can talk to me now, or I can go, get permission to see your file, and we can have this talk again—only next time, I'll be holding all the cards."
"Fine." He sounded angry, but beneath that lay resignation. "You go first. What do you want from me?"
"I want allies," I said. "I want people who will help me protect this city and its people."
"You want me to join the Wards."
I blinked. "Wards? You're not eighteen?"
"Seventeen, for a bit longer."
"Mm. You hold yourself like an adult. My mistake."
"It's fine," he said, clearly on a reflex. "I'm not a hero. Not exactly hero material."
"Nor was Shadow Stalker," I said.
He chuckled at that, as if in amusement at a private joke. "You don't say? You know she shot me, right?"
I grimaced. "I'm not surprised. Shadow Stalker had—has—a pretty big chip on her shoulder. We're working on it."
"What are you, her therapist?"
"In a sense," I allowed. "I gave her a chance when she deserved none. And now I'm making sure she doesn't waste it."
"And you see yourself being that for me, too."
I shook my head. "Believe me, you're much more well-adjusted than she was when I first joined the Wards. No, Grue, all I want to do here is find a way for being a hero to give you what you want."
There was silence. I allowed it to stretch. He was thinking, and interrupting would only make him recoil.
At long last, he spoke. "Fine." He reached up, and took off the motorcycle helmet.
A dark-skinned face looked back at me. His black hair was done into tight cornrows, and his features were hard and masculine. And yet, in his eyes, I saw veiled fear, insecurity.
This was a man who hid behind his masculinity. I mentally adjusted my approach as I reached up myself.
Off came my own helmet, and I set it down on the table beside me. "Taylor Hebert," I said, holding out a hand.
He shook. "Brian Laborn."
"So," I said, folding my hands again. "Brian. Tell me what you want."
He considered me for a moment. "It's my sister," he said at last. "It's—" he shook his head. "I don't know how to start."
"At the beginning," I suggested. "Continue until the end. Then stop."
He smiled slightly. "Fine. My parents split up years ago. My dad tries, but he's—he's just not cut out for parenthood. Doesn't know how. Bonding with him meant sparring until I had a black eye—and he has no idea what to do with my little sister."
He hesitated a moment, in case I wanted to interrupt. I didn't, so he continued.
"My mother," he continued, and I could hear the faint, venomous undercurrent, "is worse. Drugs, alcoholism… everything short of open prostitution." His face twisted. "My sister's with my dad, but I want better for her."
I was beginning to understand, but a few key details still didn't add up.
"I became a supervillain so I could live on my own, at first," he said. "Then, after that, I started thinking about asking Aisha to move in with me. Thing is, I'd need to be able to demonstrate a stable job, and get my parents' support. My dad agreed, but my mom…" He trailed off.
"How did being a supervillain help you there, though?" I asked. "I doubt it would count for much in court."
His lips twitched into a small grin. "Tattletale's boss helped there," he said. "Never found out who he was, but he funneled money to us in exchange for us doing the jobs he wanted. In my case, he did it through a phony job that I could use in court. As soon as I turned eighteen, I was going to petition for custody of my sister."
I nodded slowly. "I understand."
"So when I was captured and unmasked," Grue said, "I knew it was over. Even if I escaped, and the PRT didn't release my identity publicly, I would still never be allowed custody over my sister. That's why I came back—figured my best option was to take my jail time, and then take my chances when I got out again. I haven't killed anyone, I'm still a minor, and I hoped helping with the Endbringer would give me a reduced sentence."
"Well, you were right," I said. "You will get a reduced sentence."
His eyes narrowed. "You and I mean different things when we say that."
I smiled. "I think we can help each other," I said. "I think we can get you a stable job, and help you get custody of your sister when you turn eighteen. And I think you can help us keep this city standing, in the next few months."
His eyes narrowed. "You really think the PRT will go along with this?"
"We'll have to see if I can convince them," I said, standing up and reaching for my helmet. "But you have my word that I'll try."
His lips twisted. "Wish I could say that was worth something."
I smiled. "It will be."
It was a familiar scene. I stood, hands clasped behind the small of my back, across from Director Piggot. Her desk was between us. She had dark circles under her eyes—marks of the ongoing stress of dealing with the aftermath of Leviathan's passage. Nonetheless, her eyes were as hard and bright as ever as they met mine.
"I doubt I can condone launching an investigation into a private household on the word of a captured supervillain," she said, but despite her words, her tone was absent of any derision.
"I know," I said. "That's why I propose a more moderate approach. Let's allow him to do exactly what he was originally planning."
"Acquire guardianship through the usual channels? He might have trouble finding the time to care for a child as a hero."
I nodded. "If we actually encourage him to take his vacation days, rather than working all the time, he should be able to manage. His income as a Protectorate hero, once he turns eighteen, will be more than enough to support him and his sister. And since he'll be a Protectorate hero, we can protect his identity in the courts, which gives us a little more leverage over his mother."
"Callous of you."
I smiled thinly. "Ma'am, I have an instinct for these things. Grue was telling me the truth, and I have very little sympathy for his mother on this one."
She nodded slowly. "I can understand that." She broke eye contact, and looked down at the computer monitor on her desk. "Give me a bit to think about it. It's not a bad idea."
"Thank you, Ma'am." I turned to go as she started typing.
"Hold on a moment."
I stopped and turned back. "Director?"
She finished whatever she was doing on her computer and looked back up at me. "We never caught up on that mess with Bakuda," she said. "Never had a chance."
I straightened slightly and nodded. "Of course."
"Miss Militia has expressed her concerns about your conduct. I believe she's talked about it with you, too?"
I nodded. "Yes, Ma'am."
"Good." She chewed her tongue for a moment, as though contemplating how to proceed. "Now, the PRT unofficially approved your actions with the Chief Director's back-dated kill order. As such, I won't be punishing you. That being said, I still want to talk about what happened. Just so we're on the same page."
So I talked. I told her about the timestop bomb, about the apparent loss of the other Wards. I told her about Sophia's warning, and about going out with Belthronding and Aeglos to stop Bakuda before she could do any more damage. I told her about how I'd disabled her bike with one well-placed arrow, and how, after the explosion of her EMP bomb, I'd disabled the tinker's deadman's switch and driven Aeglos into her chest.
"So you can confirm that Bakuda was not a hazard by the time you killed her?"
"No more than any other parahuman prisoner."
Piggot gave a faint, wolfish grin. "Good answer. No such thing as a safe parahuman. Any reason you couldn't have kept her permanently Mastered?"
I shrugged. "I might have managed it, but there's always a chance that, through an effort of will, someone might cast off Vilya's effect. With someone as potentially dangerous as Bakuda, I don't think that would have been a good risk to take."
Piggot nodded. "We couldn't have used her if she was permanently mastered anyway," she said. Her smiled widened into a bitter, sardonic thing. "We're the good guys, after all."
"Ma'am?"
She blinked, and seemed to come out of some reverie. "Sorry," she said. "Back to the topic. Why did you kill her? No excuses—just tell me why."
"I was avenging my friends."
She considered me for a moment, and then nodded once. "Nice to see you really are human under all the glitter," she said, and there was something odd in her voice.
"Excuse me?"
She ignored the question. "I respect what you did. If the PRT hadn't sanctioned it, I would have defended you from the worst of the punishment, if I could. I want you to know that."
I stared at her. "Really? Why?"
She gave a quiet, dry laugh—little more than a sigh. "Because I get it." She looked back down at her monitor. "I need to clear things with the Chief Director, but I'll probably hear back by the end of the day, tomorrow at the latest. Once I have, we'll open proper negotiations with Grue."
"So you'll…?"
"I think we can use Grue, same as you," she said. "Right and wrong don't enter into it as much as someone like Miss Militia would like. It's the same logic that made me offer Shadow Stalker a probationary position in the Wards, almost a year ago. It's what made me let you go in, when you first joined, and talk to her rather than kicking her out—even though I knew you might just try to master her. It was a risk worth taking."
"We can use heroes," I said.
She openly smiled—a crooked, slightly sour thing, cynical and old. "Exactly."
Please consider donating to my Patreon. Many thanks to those who have already donated.
Many thanks to @MugaSofer for fact checking.
-x-x-x-
The black helmet turned to face me as I entered the interview room. The deep pits of eye sockets in the stylized skull of a mask seemed to fix me with their gaze.
I closed the door behind me, shutting out the faint sounds of working PRT troopers, and stepped forward. I slipped into the chair across from Grue and folded my hands together.
Neither of us spoke for a time.
"Didn't expect you to be here," he admitted finally. "Thought it'd be Miss Militia, or a PRT officer."
"I'm here at Miss Militia's request," I said. "The PRT is understaffed at the moment. I'm sure you understand."
"Yeah. Endbringers will do that."
Silence fell again.
"You gonna say anything?" he finally asked.
"I'm trying to decide on my approach." I sighed. "All right. I won't ask you to reveal your face, even though it would make this easier."
"Yeah, I'll bet."
"You misunderstand. We have your identity. I don't need leverage, I need rapport. Without being able to see your face, it'll be a little harder. But I can manage."
"Glad to see you think I'll be that easy to manipulate."
I shook my head. "You're coming at this the wrong way, Grue. You came to us. This doesn't have to be a conflict."
Grue laughed hollowly. "I came back because I have nowhere else to go, and I'd rather not turn up dead in a ditch in a few weeks."
"But you came," I said. "And I think we can work together, if you'll allow it."
He didn't answer.
"So tell me, Grue." I leaned forward, resting my weight on my elbows. "What do you want? Tell me your plan, going forward."
"I don't have a plan," he said, and I heard his gritted teeth in every sound. "If I did, I sure as hell wouldn't be here."
I shook my head, sighing. "No, that's not what I mean. Grue, you must have had a reason to be a supervillain. Everyone does. Tell me how I can help you fulfill it, and I'll tell you how you can help me in return."
He was perfectly still. "A trade?"
I nodded. "If I can give you what you want, and you're willing to give me what I need, then yes. A trade. But we can't trade until we've talked."
Silence fell again. He was indecisive. I saw it in the drumming of his fingers on his pant leg.
"I knew I shouldn't have let Miss Militia send me in here without seeing your file," I said ruefully. "I'd probably be able to guess what it was, if I knew who you were. Look, you can talk to me now, or I can go, get permission to see your file, and we can have this talk again—only next time, I'll be holding all the cards."
"Fine." He sounded angry, but beneath that lay resignation. "You go first. What do you want from me?"
"I want allies," I said. "I want people who will help me protect this city and its people."
"You want me to join the Wards."
I blinked. "Wards? You're not eighteen?"
"Seventeen, for a bit longer."
"Mm. You hold yourself like an adult. My mistake."
"It's fine," he said, clearly on a reflex. "I'm not a hero. Not exactly hero material."
"Nor was Shadow Stalker," I said.
He chuckled at that, as if in amusement at a private joke. "You don't say? You know she shot me, right?"
I grimaced. "I'm not surprised. Shadow Stalker had—has—a pretty big chip on her shoulder. We're working on it."
"What are you, her therapist?"
"In a sense," I allowed. "I gave her a chance when she deserved none. And now I'm making sure she doesn't waste it."
"And you see yourself being that for me, too."
I shook my head. "Believe me, you're much more well-adjusted than she was when I first joined the Wards. No, Grue, all I want to do here is find a way for being a hero to give you what you want."
There was silence. I allowed it to stretch. He was thinking, and interrupting would only make him recoil.
At long last, he spoke. "Fine." He reached up, and took off the motorcycle helmet.
A dark-skinned face looked back at me. His black hair was done into tight cornrows, and his features were hard and masculine. And yet, in his eyes, I saw veiled fear, insecurity.
This was a man who hid behind his masculinity. I mentally adjusted my approach as I reached up myself.
Off came my own helmet, and I set it down on the table beside me. "Taylor Hebert," I said, holding out a hand.
He shook. "Brian Laborn."
"So," I said, folding my hands again. "Brian. Tell me what you want."
He considered me for a moment. "It's my sister," he said at last. "It's—" he shook his head. "I don't know how to start."
"At the beginning," I suggested. "Continue until the end. Then stop."
He smiled slightly. "Fine. My parents split up years ago. My dad tries, but he's—he's just not cut out for parenthood. Doesn't know how. Bonding with him meant sparring until I had a black eye—and he has no idea what to do with my little sister."
He hesitated a moment, in case I wanted to interrupt. I didn't, so he continued.
"My mother," he continued, and I could hear the faint, venomous undercurrent, "is worse. Drugs, alcoholism… everything short of open prostitution." His face twisted. "My sister's with my dad, but I want better for her."
I was beginning to understand, but a few key details still didn't add up.
"I became a supervillain so I could live on my own, at first," he said. "Then, after that, I started thinking about asking Aisha to move in with me. Thing is, I'd need to be able to demonstrate a stable job, and get my parents' support. My dad agreed, but my mom…" He trailed off.
"How did being a supervillain help you there, though?" I asked. "I doubt it would count for much in court."
His lips twitched into a small grin. "Tattletale's boss helped there," he said. "Never found out who he was, but he funneled money to us in exchange for us doing the jobs he wanted. In my case, he did it through a phony job that I could use in court. As soon as I turned eighteen, I was going to petition for custody of my sister."
I nodded slowly. "I understand."
"So when I was captured and unmasked," Grue said, "I knew it was over. Even if I escaped, and the PRT didn't release my identity publicly, I would still never be allowed custody over my sister. That's why I came back—figured my best option was to take my jail time, and then take my chances when I got out again. I haven't killed anyone, I'm still a minor, and I hoped helping with the Endbringer would give me a reduced sentence."
"Well, you were right," I said. "You will get a reduced sentence."
His eyes narrowed. "You and I mean different things when we say that."
I smiled. "I think we can help each other," I said. "I think we can get you a stable job, and help you get custody of your sister when you turn eighteen. And I think you can help us keep this city standing, in the next few months."
His eyes narrowed. "You really think the PRT will go along with this?"
"We'll have to see if I can convince them," I said, standing up and reaching for my helmet. "But you have my word that I'll try."
His lips twisted. "Wish I could say that was worth something."
I smiled. "It will be."
-x-x-x-
It was a familiar scene. I stood, hands clasped behind the small of my back, across from Director Piggot. Her desk was between us. She had dark circles under her eyes—marks of the ongoing stress of dealing with the aftermath of Leviathan's passage. Nonetheless, her eyes were as hard and bright as ever as they met mine.
"I doubt I can condone launching an investigation into a private household on the word of a captured supervillain," she said, but despite her words, her tone was absent of any derision.
"I know," I said. "That's why I propose a more moderate approach. Let's allow him to do exactly what he was originally planning."
"Acquire guardianship through the usual channels? He might have trouble finding the time to care for a child as a hero."
I nodded. "If we actually encourage him to take his vacation days, rather than working all the time, he should be able to manage. His income as a Protectorate hero, once he turns eighteen, will be more than enough to support him and his sister. And since he'll be a Protectorate hero, we can protect his identity in the courts, which gives us a little more leverage over his mother."
"Callous of you."
I smiled thinly. "Ma'am, I have an instinct for these things. Grue was telling me the truth, and I have very little sympathy for his mother on this one."
She nodded slowly. "I can understand that." She broke eye contact, and looked down at the computer monitor on her desk. "Give me a bit to think about it. It's not a bad idea."
"Thank you, Ma'am." I turned to go as she started typing.
"Hold on a moment."
I stopped and turned back. "Director?"
She finished whatever she was doing on her computer and looked back up at me. "We never caught up on that mess with Bakuda," she said. "Never had a chance."
I straightened slightly and nodded. "Of course."
"Miss Militia has expressed her concerns about your conduct. I believe she's talked about it with you, too?"
I nodded. "Yes, Ma'am."
"Good." She chewed her tongue for a moment, as though contemplating how to proceed. "Now, the PRT unofficially approved your actions with the Chief Director's back-dated kill order. As such, I won't be punishing you. That being said, I still want to talk about what happened. Just so we're on the same page."
So I talked. I told her about the timestop bomb, about the apparent loss of the other Wards. I told her about Sophia's warning, and about going out with Belthronding and Aeglos to stop Bakuda before she could do any more damage. I told her about how I'd disabled her bike with one well-placed arrow, and how, after the explosion of her EMP bomb, I'd disabled the tinker's deadman's switch and driven Aeglos into her chest.
"So you can confirm that Bakuda was not a hazard by the time you killed her?"
"No more than any other parahuman prisoner."
Piggot gave a faint, wolfish grin. "Good answer. No such thing as a safe parahuman. Any reason you couldn't have kept her permanently Mastered?"
I shrugged. "I might have managed it, but there's always a chance that, through an effort of will, someone might cast off Vilya's effect. With someone as potentially dangerous as Bakuda, I don't think that would have been a good risk to take."
Piggot nodded. "We couldn't have used her if she was permanently mastered anyway," she said. Her smiled widened into a bitter, sardonic thing. "We're the good guys, after all."
"Ma'am?"
She blinked, and seemed to come out of some reverie. "Sorry," she said. "Back to the topic. Why did you kill her? No excuses—just tell me why."
"I was avenging my friends."
She considered me for a moment, and then nodded once. "Nice to see you really are human under all the glitter," she said, and there was something odd in her voice.
"Excuse me?"
She ignored the question. "I respect what you did. If the PRT hadn't sanctioned it, I would have defended you from the worst of the punishment, if I could. I want you to know that."
I stared at her. "Really? Why?"
She gave a quiet, dry laugh—little more than a sigh. "Because I get it." She looked back down at her monitor. "I need to clear things with the Chief Director, but I'll probably hear back by the end of the day, tomorrow at the latest. Once I have, we'll open proper negotiations with Grue."
"So you'll…?"
"I think we can use Grue, same as you," she said. "Right and wrong don't enter into it as much as someone like Miss Militia would like. It's the same logic that made me offer Shadow Stalker a probationary position in the Wards, almost a year ago. It's what made me let you go in, when you first joined, and talk to her rather than kicking her out—even though I knew you might just try to master her. It was a risk worth taking."
"We can use heroes," I said.
She openly smiled—a crooked, slightly sour thing, cynical and old. "Exactly."
-x-x-x-
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