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The Shadows of a Worm (Worm X Shadowrun 3ed)

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Hi-Cierra said:
The problem is knowledge of the horrors makes you susceptible to said horrors…
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Everyone in the Fourth Age knew that the Horrors existed. Yes, an in-depth study of them was more likely to attract their attention, but not merely the knowledge of their existence, or no one would have survived the Fourth Age and the Earth would be a barren wasteland.

Right now, the inhabitants of the Sixth World are blind to a very dangerous enemy that wants to kill them all. And they can't fight an enemy if they don't even know that enemy exists. That is what I blame them for. Lofwyr's doing it on purpose, as he plans to shield his people from the next Scourge and let everyone else die, leaving him the sole ruler of Earth. Dunkelzahn at least was actively working against them, as is Harlequin, but neither of them ever told people about the incredible dangerous threat looming over them, preferring to keep them all in the dark instead. This is criminally irresponsible. When the next Scourge starts and everyone starts getting eaten, I suppose they'll be all "Yeah...maybe should have mentioned this sooner. Oh, well."
 
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Chapter 22
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    • Whats this, a wild story post appears?
    I'm sorry for the delay in this and my other stories, its the result of a combination of my muse getting distracted, (ooh shiny new story) and life being a pain. Hope you enjoy!

    Interrogation Room #4
    Brockton Bay Police Department (Downtown Precinct)
    #3 Central Plaza, Brockton Bay
    0900 January 10, 2011

    Janet Blackwell was not having a good day, No, she thought with a snort as she looked around the police interrogation room. Not a good day, and not a good week. Why does this have to happen while I was out of town? Her holidays had been fine other than her sister and mother pushing her to move down to Florida with them and take up teaching again. "Like hell," she had told them. "I'm not taking a demotion into obscurity just to get out of the cold. Besides, the bay isn't that bad, and I hate dealing with the little heathens more than I hate the cold." Her mother had at least been wanting to be able to spend more time with her, but her sister was likely angling to get more time away from their mother, who as she aged was needing more and more care and attention. Both of them had accepted that, but her sister had shown more irritation at the statement than their mother had. By the end of the week and a half that she had spent with them it had been a blessing to walk through the airport security checkpoint and leave them behind.

    There had been two easy transfers in her itinerary, and while the legs between Lauderdale to Atlanta and Atlanta to Albany had been easily done and pleasant, landing in Albany had been touchy as they had barely beat the blizzard that seemingly came out of nowhere in landing. They were in fact the last plane to land and none were being allowed to take off. The airline had covered her hotel room and had her on a plane as soon as the airport was able to operate, but that had meant being stuck in a hotel room for the entire week along with most of the other passengers and the airport staff. Five days of snow, two of snowplows clearing roads, and another of the plows clearing the airport's flightline itself and she was finally able to take the last leg of her journey home, only to find that things had somehow gone to hell while she had been gone.

    "What did those idiots do while I was gone?" she asked as the detective who stepped into the interrogation room sat down opposite her at the table. The question earned her a raised eyebrow.

    "So, you knew about the bullying?" the detective asked, causing her to snort in response.

    "What bullying?" she asked, her curiosity piqued. "The school has been a powder keg since before I took over being the principal there. Someone obviously did something to cause the authorities to come in and start investigating and I'm guessing, because the school is still shut down, that whatever it was caused the police to find where the school board has been fleecing the taxpayers for things that the school is supposed to have and doesn't."

    The detective stared at her for a moment before dropping a file folder on the desk. "Last Monday, Sophia Hess, Emma Barnes and Madison Clements shoved one Taylor Hebert into her locker," the detective stated coldly. "They had filled it at some point prior to the incident with the contents of several biohazard bins from throughout the school." It was at this point that Blackwell snorted and shook her head.

    "Taylor Hebert is a troublemaker that is constantly making claims about those three bullying her," Janet said not quite sneering. "That you bought her claims is ridiculous. What did you find in the school that still has it shut down?"

    "The claim didn't come from Miss Hebert," the detective stated in a flat tone that brought Janet up short. He wasn't looking at her but at the file in front of him, a file that she could see was the one on Taylor Hebert out of her office filing cabinet. "Madison Clements made the claim to Armsmaster and begged him to open the locker to let Taylor out. It seems that she believed that Taylor had been locked in the locker for over twenty-four hours and was afraid that she would die if she wasn't already dead. The fact that you yourself, as well as your secretary have seen fit to document in miss Hebert's file all the claims of bullying, including the evidence of cyber-bullying that was provided to you means that you thought at one point that there might have been some validity to her claims," At that point he looked up from the file and asked the question that she knew would damn her. "What happened to cause you to either not investigate or stop investigating the allegations if you had begun?"

    At that point Janet Blackwell froze, uncertain as to what she should do. It was well known that outing a Ward was illegal, a federal statute at that. That Sophia Hess's handler had all but told her to keep there from being anything that splashed back on the teen was immaterial though. The police had her in the interrogation room, and not Hess or her handler. The question was could she throw the lot of them under the bus and save her own skin without breaking another law. Maybe, she thought. Maybe I can say it in such a way that gets the message across without actually saying it. "Legally, I cannot say why I never investigated the accusations of Miss Hebert," Janet said carefully. "There are organizations involved in this matter," she continued. "Federal organizations that if I say much more, will put me in prison for a very long time for exposing one of their members. I was told by my contact with them to ensure that nothing splashed on one of those three girls. By proxy, the other two were covered."

    "That," the detective said looking at her and blinking, "is a very interesting way to get around the Vikare act Principal Blackwell. You are lucky that the PRT have taken their problem child and left us with the other two. The State Attorney is preparing attempted murder charges for the three of them, but of course the Ward in question will be quietly tried separately from the other two." At that Janet sighed internally in relief. "The problem of course, is that you knew about this and didn't report it around your contact, which could arguably make you an accessory." At that Janet paled and the detective continued. "But that said, I don't exactly see that happening." This time Janet visibly let out a sigh of relief.

    "Now," the detective said pulling out another file, this one arguably as big as Hebert's. "This is a list of all the code violations that were found in and around that building you call a school. Some of these are very obviously not your fault, but would you mind telling me how you thought that not having the fire suppression system, or the metal detectors at the entrances operational was allowable?"

    "I was always given a reasonable excuse from the school board in the matter of the metal detectors," Janet said with a shrug. "And it was my understanding that the fire suppression system was kept up and tested during the summer while everyone was gone so as to not disrupt classes."

    "I bet," the detective said in a tone that indicated that he didn't believe a word of it, but currently couldn't prove otherwise. Internally Janet smiled, figuring that they hadn't found the other bank account that she had put her bribes into. A pity that her sister had left an old driver's license behind when she went to live with their mother in Florida.

    **

    Meanwhile,
    Hookwolf's fighting ring

    "Explain to me," Bradley Meadows growled from behind his desk in the arena's office space as Stormtiger dangled an unfortunate grunt by the scruff of the man's neck. "What happened and how you were the only one to escape your stash house?" Off to one side Cricket silently watched as the man gasped out his answer.

    "I don't know what happened," the man said squirming in Stormtiger's grip, "I wasn't there. I was on my way back when I found cops swarming the damn place and the other house going up in flames."

    "And of course you didn't think to stop and try and find out what the hell happened did you," Stormtiger growled. "Useless sack of shit like you thinks more of their own skin than anything else." As he growled at the normal, Stormtiger started to squeeze the back of the man's neck, and while the Aero-kinetic didn't have super strength, he had packed on enough muscle that a sharp twitch with the man held like that and the grunt would be dead.

    "Stormtiger," Brad said calmly. "Let him go." This earned a raised eyebrow from the other super villain so the man explained, "It will be easy to check and see if his story lines up with what the others say when one of them is able to get out on bail. Meanwhile we have more important things to deal with."

    "Like who's dumb or ballsy enough to come after us," the villain muttered releasing the grunt who dropped to the floor and fled the room as fast as his legs could carry him.

    "Yes," Hookwolf replied. "That would be one of the things to do."

    "You do know the Merchants lost a stash house last weekend," Rune said coming back into the office from the bathroom. "Druggie trash lost their main stash house and somewhere around fifty thousand in cash and product to the cops. They even bagged Squealer and Mush."

    This caused Bradley to raise an eyebrow in question. "And they did this without PRT assistance?" he asked.

    Rune nodded. "Some Vigilante, or maybe fragilante joined in to clear a path and then let the cops come in and clean up the mooks while they made off with the money," the teen answered. "Honestly I'm surprised someone hasn't tried doing this before, with how pissed the cops seem to be at the PRT."

    Cricket laughed silently while Stormtiger and Hookwolf smiled. "They've tried from time to time," Hookwolf answered. "But then they run into someone like me and end up a fine pink mist. This one seems brighter than most and targeted the Merchants first, and then an Empire house while there wasn't a cape there. I'll talk to Kaiser and see how he wants to handle this, but my thoughts on the matter is to try and recruit them if we can, kill them if we can't at least dissuade them."

    Cricket and Stormtiger both nodded at this so Hookwolf asked his next question. "Any luck finding the chick that beat the shit out of those Merchants in the gook's store?"

    "I have an idea of who she could be," Rune answered. "But the problem is she hasn't returned to Winslow for me to verify it yet. And with the school being closed for the week so that they can properly clean up for what those bitches did to her, I don't know if I'll get the chance. If anything is trigger worthy, what they did to her was."

    "And you figure that if she did trigger the likelihood is that she'll go straight to the PRT," Bradley muttered unhappily as Rune nodded. "Figures that they would luck out in that regard. On that note, lets go look at the new product, see how we're going to do next week's fight." Their business done, the Empire Lieutenant stood from behind his desk and walked with his three subordinates out the door and down to the storage area for the arena where the dogs were kept.

    **

    8 hours earlier

    "What the hell happened?" Riggs snarled as soon as I was able to get her alone in the wake of the action against the Empire stash houses. "One minute you're going in the stash house, and the next it was exploding into a fireball and bringing the second stash house that we didn't know about down on our heads."

    "They were in the midst of cutting and processing the drugs," I answered in a hiss, "Fight caused the table to get upended sending all the powder into the air and, well have you ever seen video of those grain silo explosions?"

    Martina Riggs sucked in a breath and nodded her head. "I want every last move you made tonight in your report," she said letting her anger drop some. "Did you get the equipment that you need?"

    "Pretty much," I answered. "I will have to go out of town to zero them, but that won't be that big a problem. The only real problem is the revenue loss for me, I was planning on using the money I got from this raid to finish my bike."

    "Why didn't you grab some?" Riggs asked and then shook her head as if it hit her even as she asked the question. "You were too busy saving their dumb asses." She said answering her own question as I nodded in return.

    "Exactly," I replied. "I mean, its kinda like the author said," I continued before gesturing at the house. "The building was on fire, but it wasn't exactly my fault." Riggs chuckled at that as I started to explain what had happened.

    **

    "Cheating bastard!!!" I heard someone yell as I eased the door open, only to hear a crash that sounded like a table being flipped as I slipped through and closed the door as quietly as I could. The back entryway hall had three exits to it, one ahead of me that according to the house plans was supposed to lead to a half bathroom, a door to my left that led down to the house's basement, and an open entrance into the kitchen, and through that the rest of this end of the house. The meaty sounds of flesh hitting flesh came from the front room of the building signaling a fist fight had broken out, probably amongst the guards, so I used the distraction to take a quick peek down into the basement. Flipping through the lowlight and thermal optics on my glasses showed me that no one was down there, just crates, which allowed me to go ahead and ignore that area of the house and proceed to clear the rest of it.

    Peeking into the kitchen area, I could see four women wearing nothing but dust masks and string bikinis sitting around a folding table as they opened tape wrapped packages and blended the white powder that poured from them. Beyond them, two men were rolling, wresting and otherwise fighting on the floor while two others stood to the side egging on the two fighters, having apparently wagered money on which of the two would win. I darted past the opening to the kitchen before taking another look, and either the people here had mostly gutted the front rooms, or they had never finished the interior once they had the windows in. There were countertops, down the kitchen wall, and a sink, but no cabinets above or below, and while there was some tile around the sink for a backsplash, the rest of the walls were bare studs with insulation and open outlets.

    Suddenly there was a cry from the area where the fight was going on which was followed by a crash in the kitchen. Another peek showed that one of the fighters had been thrown off the other and had crashed into the folding table, sending the drugs on it flying all over. One of the girls that had been around the table had been shoved over towards the entryway and as she picked herself up looked around. "Cape!!" she screamed spotting me before starting to run away from me. I dropped a stunball in the middle of the group, directly on top of the fighter before hitting the pile of powder with a blast of wind. The results were predictable, as the room filled with flying powder and visibility dropped to nothing.

    "Johnny," a male voice barked out in the room. "Circle around the house and pin that fucker in place. Tommy, go through the bathroom and flush the fucker out." I heard the sound of a pistol's hammer being drawn back and smiled behind my ballistic mask and air filter as I listened to the front door open and slam shut. Softly, the door on the other side of the half-bathroom opened and closed, and then I heard the door on my side unlock. I prepared another stun spell before I jerked the door open, hitting the goon on the other side before catching him and lowering him onto the toilet.

    Stepping into the bathroom I eased the door almost closed and waited. It wasn't more than thirty seconds later that the back door flew open and the other goon stormed in. "Jimmy," a new voice called out. "I don't think…" It was at this point I tapped the door open enough to see my target and hit him with his own stun spell. Of course it was at this point that "Jimmy" decided to shoot randomly into the cloud of particulates. One minute there was a roar of gunfire as I hunkered down, letting it fly over my head. The next moment, something crashed and then must have sparked because the house exploded from the kitchen out. Of course, this and the gunfire is what informed the house next door that something had gone wrong.
    **

    The ceiling was the thing mostly on fire, "Jimmy," had been blown out the front windows, and a series of quick levitation spells allowed me to more easily drag the others out of the house one by one. Once everyone was clear of the fire though, I found myself looking down the barrels of a half dozen shotguns and rifles, all in the hands of a bunch of Empire thugs. "So, someone thought they could take out one of our stash houses did they?" a fat fireplug of an Empire grunt remarked snidely. "Any last words before you go to meet God?"

    I smiled behind the ballistic mask as I raised my hands, "Sure," I told him, "I have a little riddle for you in fact. What is death on the wind, and silent in the night?"

    The thug looked at the rest of the group in the firelight cast by the burning building. "I don't know," he said, "What is it?"

    "Owl," I answered as I drew heavily on my magic to cast the biggest stunball that I could. This one was going to be big, both in size and mana used, and I knew what they would be seeing, the overlay of a human sized owl standing before them even as the spell knocked them out. As the drain washed over me, I staggered, before dropping to one knee. "That hurt," I muttered as I tried to drag myself back to my feet, I failed and fell flat on my ass. "Ok then," I continued as I sat there, Guess it's time to call Riggs in. I thought as I fished my burner phone out of my interior jacket pocket and dialed the detective's number.

    **

    By the time the fire department arrived I had managed to drag myself away from the crowd and into the bushes in front of the building that the six goons had come out of. Apparently, the Empire kept a watch house along with their stash houses, and while there was hardly any money in the second house, there were some choice weapons and ammunition to be had, as well as some grenades.

    **
     
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    • Sounds like Overcasting there at the end. (I should note that Overcasting is banned in our table's house rules, as it's just too subject to abuse.)
     
    Wait, since when is Rune supposed to be a Winslow student? She Triggered in in prison, in full view of any number of people -no chance of a secret identity and certainly no way to attend school.
     
    Radek said:
    Wait, since when is Rune supposed to be a Winslow student? She Triggered in in prison, in full view of any number of people -no chance of a secret identity and certainly no way to attend school.
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    I've had Rune appear in another fic as a student under an assumed name, which could be the case here, i haven't decided yet. Another option would be that she's the direct contact for the Empires junior membership in that school as she is a cape
     
    Rajvik_wolfboy said:
    I've had Rune appear in another fic as a student under an assumed name, which could be the case here, i haven't decided yet. Another option would be that she's the direct contact for the Empires junior membership in that school as she is a cape
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    Fake name and pretending to be older, IIRC, would be needed. She's around the same age as Aisha. Or Aisha's also a high school freshman. However you wan to play it.
     
    It would be almost trivial for the Empire to crate a false identity for Rune and frankly I'd say there were more benefits than drawbacks for them to do so.
     
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    Hear Ye Hear Ye
  • Informational
    • Hear Ye Hear Ye let it all be known that the author of this story is not yet deceased, but simply distracted by his other stories and RL issues.
    Forthwith, notice is hereby given that there will be no further updates to this story before Christmas, (December 24,) 2023.
    It is with hope that the author commends to you and yours a happy holidays for the intervening time frame and will hopes to offer you a pleasant New Year with a chapter or two.
     
  • Informational
    • Chapter 23: Meetings
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    • {{Authors Note:
    Yes, I know, I'm REALLY late with this update. I blame my burgeoning World of Warships Addiction and way to many stories that I have been finding to read lately. That all of these have been causing a bit of writer's block is nobody's fault but my own. That said, here's the next chapter straight off the GDoc.))


    Conference Room 4
    1500 hours Jan. 11, 2011
    PRT Headquarters

    "Everyone be seated," Emily Piggot said as she walked to her seat and sat down. "We have a lot of material to cover and only so long to do so in." The capes and PRT staff that were there, including the entirety of the Wards team sat down and at least pretended to pay attention to her. "First and foremost, as some of you might not know, Shadow Stalker is being held in confinement for violations of her probation. She will not be rejoining the team and currently it is only a question of whether she goes to juvenile detention, or to Los Angeles where she will be Alexandria's problem." Half the room nodded to that while the other half started to whisper amongst themselves. "Furthermore," Emily continued, "there will be interviews with all the Wards to determine who, if anyone, is also to blame for what has happened."

    A hand raised itself from the Wards area of the conference table and Emily nodded. "Ma'am," Aegis said standing up. "If I may ask, what did Shadow Stalker do?"

    "She tortured a classmate into triggering," Emily said in a flat tone. "I won't get into the details of the multiple incidents that brought this about, however the fact of the matter is that one of the people we are about to discuss today was that young woman." At that point she looked over at Assault and Battery before continuing.

    "If she triggered," Gallant remarked, "should we even be discussing her?"

    "Arguably we cannot prove that she triggered," Armsmaster answered. "She is what we refer to as a Case-18, a person who demonstrably has powers, but does not have a Corona growth. Because of that definition, she is not considered a parahuman."

    "The fact of the matter is that you are going to run into her while you are on patrol," Emily said, picking up the discussion from the tinker. "You will need to know what her powers are like, and how to deal with her, both in friendly and antagonistic situations. How many of you have seen the video of the Merchant robbery of the Gas-N-Go from last week?" Almost everyone at the table's hands went up. "Good, because that is who and what we are dealing with. Assault, Battery, report on the young woman."

    The two capes whispered back and forth for a second before Assault tapped the controls in front of him and the screens on either end of the table sprang to life showing a pair of images. The first was of a teenage girl of about fourteen with dark hair and a wide, expressive face in a dour and depressed frown. The other image was of what that young girl could probably become, the familial resemblance strong between the teen and the twenty-something. "Meet Taylor Hebert, daughter of Daniel Hebert, head of the dockworker's union here in Brocton. Monday Shadow Stalker in her civilian identity along with two of her friends locked Miss Hebert into her locker at Winslow High School. I won't get into what they had filled the locker with first, but the cleanup is still ongoing." That caused the Wards and even some of the strike team leaders to wince and grimace. The fact that Assault was being as serious as Armsmaster was causing the whole group to pay attention. "Because of this Miss Hebert ended up transported to another dimension, and another timeline where she spent a subjective seven years learning to be a private security specialist." The table seemed to share a look and the joking cape continued, "Somehow," he said, "she found her way back home, emerging in the hallway outside her still locked locker fourteen hours after she had been locked inside before making her way home. We have been handed a new classification for her that probably all the case-18's qualify for, Blanket at a level five."

    "What is a Blanket classification," Clockblocker asked cautiously even as Emily and Battery were giving Assault dirty looks. It was Armsmaster that answered.

    "A Blanket classification means that they hit everything on the normal list," the Tinker answered in a no-nonsense tone causing the entire table to suck in a breath.

    "When did this classification come into being," Emily asked coldly.

    "When the first Case-18 appeared," Armsmaster answered. "I reached out to Legend to discuss the matter and he informed me that if Miss Hebert is truly a Case-18 that this would be her classification and to rate her appropriately. The fact that she is classified under every other classification at level four, she rates a Blanket level five classification due to internal power synergies."

    "Very well then," Emily said in a huff, "continue with the briefing."

    "An outside Protectorate agent was brought in and between him and I miss Hebert was tested," Assault continued with a nod. "And while she openly stated that she was sandbagging the test because she didn't trust our security or the government with her status, she showed all of the listed abilities, or a counter to them at a level two. Because of her stated intent to sandbag, her threat ratings have been raised to four, five with her Blanket rating."

    "But she's not going to be a villain," Vista asked, and Miss Militia shook her head.

    "Her stated intent is to go into business for herself as a private investigator," the heroine stated.

    "Your directions if you encounter her while on the job," Emily Piggot said calmly. "Is to be polite but stay out of her way. Her stubbornness is apparently something of note due to some of the things that she has both witnessed and participated in. If you are in danger and she is in the area she will likely help you, but otherwise don't pester her as she is likely to be on a hair trigger until she manages to decompress from that world that she was in and adjusts to the reality of having returned to our world."

    "Can we go back to the whole Case-18 issue for a moment?" Gallant said, looking up the table from his spot across from Aegis. "I thought that just having a power made you a parahuman?"

    "Not so," Armsmaster answered from his spot at Emily's left. "In fact, to legally qualify as a parahuman you specifically have to have both a power expression and Corona growth in your body. Case-53's are specifically exempted from this as the changes to their bodies have been recognized as an expression of their power, and the ones we have been able to test have shown to have Corona growths. Currently there are five Case-18's worldwide, and we know where four of them are."

    "Miss Hebert is obviously one, and the most recent," Commander Calvert, one of the strike team leaders remarked. "Who are the other four?"

    "Dragon," Emily said with a sigh, suspecting the Canadian parahuman was probably listening via Armsmaster's power armor. "If you are here, please show us the other four Case-18's, starting with Spirit."

    "Not a problem, Director," the Canadian Tinker replied. "Just one moment while I pull the files." Emily nodded and a moment later the screens switched from the images of Taylor Hebert to show four different individuals before focusing on one. "Spirit is a member of the Chicago Protectorate and refuses to be transferred out of the city and also refuses command of the city as well," Dragon said through the speaker, showing the image of the native American cape. "Currently he is ranked as the number three cape in that city's Protectorate team and is listed as a Blanket level seven with all his regular classifications listed as being a threat level six."

    The image of Spirit withdrew and the second of the four-pack came forward, "The Countess of Arran, Aina Sluage," Dragon continued, the image showing a woman with dark skin and long white hair. "Blanket level nine, with her other classifications fluctuating between threat levels seven and eight, she has mostly restricted herself to her earldom in Great Britain but acts as a neutral go between and peacekeeper between the republican and unionist factions in Ireland. She is the reason that the Union Jack and the Red Hand were able to arrest the cape known as the Dearg Dur and send them to Underhill Prison,"

    "Jesus," someone muttered as the images changed. Emily couldn't tell who it was, but she didn't disagree with the sentiment.

    "Lofwyr," the tinker continued, showing the picture of a rather nondescript man in front of a German flag next to the image of a large golden dragon walking down the streets of somewhere in Europe. The dragon filled the street, and his back reached the fifth-floor windows while he walked on all four limbs. "Civilian name unknown, he is currently the majority shareholder of both BMW and Krupp Steel and is slowly but surely welding the two into a force to be reckoned within the European Union. Recently the Gesellschaft attempted to assassinate him when he refused to join their forces and he destroyed four of their operation cells in Stuttgart before being convinced to break off the response to their attack with four masters and twelve brutes. Currently he is rated as a Blanket level ten with his regular classifications varying between threat level eights and nines except for his brute and changer level which are both at threat level ten."

    "I assume that like Lung that the image we have is not of him at his largest," one of the strike team leaders commented.

    "You would be correct," Dragon replied. "We don't have images of it, but from discussion we believe Lofwyr to be several hundred feet in length with an appropriate wingspan for his size."

    "It Flies!" Calvert blurted out and the entire table looked at him.

    "Yes commander," Dragon replied coolly, "the golden dragon can fly. He has however settled into the business world of Europe and appears to not have any interests in North America as of now."

    "Continuing on Dragon," Emily Piggot said dryly. "Please, who is the last of our Case-18's so that we can continue with the meeting. and get out of this side tracking derailment, was left unsaid.

    "Of course, Director," the tinker replied. "The final Case-18, well we do not have a civilian name for either, nor do we have a current location."

    "How do you mean?" one of the Wards asked.

    "Known only by the name Harlequin," Dragon answered, the image of a man in a full jester's motley appearing on the screen. "Like Lofwyr he is considered a Blanket level ten, but it is considered that it is likely that his respective classification abilities rank somewhere closer to nines than anything else. The last sighting of this person was when he was performing on the streets of Los Angeles and when confronted by Alexandria, hit her in the face with a pie that he pulled from nothing." The room was silent except for the near-silent snickering of Assault as a video replaced the image of the clown. "It is believed from comments made by Miss Hebert that she has at least met this particular person, and while not exactly on friendly terms with him, feels that he owes her a debt."

    "So he might show up at some point," Dauntless said in a deadpan tone. "That's good to know. Is Miss Hebert going to show up for Endbringer fights?"

    "Currently," Emily said, shaking her own head at the facts of the matter, "Miss Hebert intends to attend as either an immediate healer, or else search and rescue in the aftermath of the fight. She does not feel that she is of an ability to make a difference in a combat role during an Endbringer fight."

    "So she's going to be a P.I. in the city and probably end up mussing up the gangs from the bottom up," Vista commented. "We can work with that."

    "No," Emily snapped, causing the Ward to flinch. "Don't work with her, just be polite and get the hell out of her way." The scowl that Vista sent her way as the girl crossed her arms told Emily exactly how much she was likely to listen. "Velocity, what about the Vigilante you've been looking into?"

    "Dragon," the speedster said standing up. "Could you pull up my body camera video from Sunday night and Monday morning's patrol please?"

    "Of course," the tinker's voice replied, replacing the clown on the screen with a frozen image of a tall thin individual wearing a three-quarters mask and a pair of wrap-around shades. "Lists their name as Knightowl, is apparently a stranger and blaster or shaker with the ability to force other people to go to sleep. This was my interaction with them this morning."

    The video starts on the screen showing a suburban house on fire and a dozen people laying handcuffed and unconscious in the grass outside. "Velocity on site at the house fire in the Manassas community at the corner of Shiloh and Vicksburg," the hero's voice said from the screen. Panning the camera around the viewers could see four fire engines using their hoses to keep the fire from spreading as well as a blonde woman talking to someone in an obvious costume. As the camera approached the pair, the both of them turned to face the camera, with the officer's identity popping up on the screen after her face was highlighted.

    "Who called the PRT?" a modulated voice asked from the strange cape as the figure took a defensive stance.

    "I came to see if the fire department needed any help," Velocity's voice answered. "Might I ask what happened here?"

    "Pair of Empire stash houses," the cape remarked. "The one on fire was processing drugs when I went inside, and there was a dust explosion due to the fight. Only one with moderate injuries, and I've already seen to that one, and he was the one that caused the explosion."

    "A dozen men and women in one house processing drugs, and you took them all with only one set of injuries?" Velocity's voice asked and the figure shrugged.

    "About half of them came from the neighboring house," the figure answered. "Apparently the Empire puts a guard house with their stash houses for security."

    "You know this would be easier for you with a team to back you up," Velocity remarked. "That you have a non-lethal take down method is great, but everyone needs someone to watch their back, and with you being heroically inclined the Protectorate would be a good fit for you."

    The voice modulator let out a weird noise, probably a snort from the figure going off their body language, before the figure spoke again. "I'm not being dragooned into joining a group that can't even keep their criminals in line, or in holding long enough for them to see trial. I'm willing to help the police because they at least make the effort, and the group I'm working with are working to take care of their rodent problems as well as clean up the city's infestation. The PRT and the Protectorate don't seem to be doing either. Detective," the figure said, turning to the blonde. "I'll contact you through the usual method the next time I run something up and plan an intervention. Until then." The detective nodded and the figure in front of the camera just seemed to vanish. The camera flashed through several vision modes quickly only to stop back on simple light amplification as the detective came up to the hero.

    "Don't take it personally," the detective said, laying what could be supposed to be a comforting hand on the hero's shoulder, "Knightowl does that to everyone." At that point the video stopped, and attention returned to the hero in the conference room.

    "That was the limit to my interaction with the new cape," Velocity remarked, moving to some sheets of paper in front of him. "Interviews with the detective and her team shows that Knightowl is a young twenty-something female with the ability to vanish from sight and render opponents unconscious on command. This ability is able to be directed at single individuals or groups and by Panacea's report causes no harm to the individual, simply causing their sleep centers to activate in the subject's brain, causing the subject to fall into a natural sleep state."

    "Are we sure that this isn't the combined effects of a master power?" Dauntless asked from his seat.

    "Yes," Dragon answered. "The changes in camera view at the point that Knightowl disappears is where I ran the camera through various spectrums of light. The fact that she disappears to the camera means that she either has a teleportation-based mover power, or a stranger power that allows her to disappear to electronic surveillance."

    "So, we assume a stranger power until proven otherwise," Battery remarked. "What are our orders regarding this person?"

    "Try to convince them to join the Protectorate," Emily answered with a sigh. "Technically they are operating within the law and have only gone after gang operations so far. Impress upon them the risks of doing so outside of the law, and without backup while facing multiple opponents and how it is likely to lead to them possibly killing someone in the near future." The director glared down the table, "Inform them that we will not be using kid gloves on them if we have to arrest them, that if they kill someone, they will have to answer for it."

    "Understood, ma'am," the entire table rumbled.

    "Now," she asked. "What has been the reactions from the gangs to Knightowl's raids?"

    "Kind of a mixed bag ma'am," a lieutenant in PRT undress blacks responded, "The Empire is repositioning itself to try and cover its stash houses, which is exposing a lot of them to both us and the local police. The ABB seems to be sitting back in their current positions and laughing at the both them and the Merchants, while the Merchants are scrambling to find more product to sell. The raid on the Johnson's Hydraulics stash really wiped them out of both money and drugs."

    "Is there any chance that they might try to raid the other two for supplies?" Emily asked.

    "Chance, yes," the intelligence officer remarked. "But currently the chances seem to be small as we don't believe that Skidmark has even realized that two of his people are currently in lock-up."

    "Where are we on moving the two of them out of town?" the director asked.

    "This evening," Armsmaster answered. "Four trucks, two separate routes to the interstate. One of them will go up to Montpelier where it will transfer the occupant to FBI custody, the other will go to Boston where it will do the same. Once both parahumans are in FBI containment, they will be individually transported to Washington to stand trial."

    Emily nodded at that. "I want everyone to stay on their toes during the transfer and until things cool back down. Knightowl hasn't hit the ABB yet, and while that could mean that she has a modicum of self-preservation, it could be that she is still planning her operations there. She seems to want to keep things balanced to keep everyone guessing, including us. Strike team leaders are to go over contingency plans for dealing with any and all of the gangs if they start shooting at each other, parahumans or not. Any questions?" she asked and then seeing that there were none, nodded. "Alright then, let's get after it."

    **

    The Captain's Table
    1900 hours Jan. 14, 2011

    "Hey Jim, hey Morris," David McGovern said to the bartenders as he stepped up to the bar itself at "The Captain's Table." The bar was the local watering hole where the various union members would meet to discuss any off the books odd jobs that needed to be done around town. It was typical of most bars, bright an airy with a jovial atmosphere where people played pool, threw darts, listened to various types of music from an old jukebox that hadn't had its disks changed since the mid-90's and drank beer in bottles and pint glasses. "Mikey," he called out to the third bartender, "Would you get me a pint of my usual and tell me where Danny's holed up? He asked me to meet him here, but I don't see him."

    "He's in the back room," the large black bartender said as he grabbed a glass and went to the beer taps to pull the beer. Mikey was one of those people who looked like they carried kegs on five mile runs for the fun of it, full kegs, and David had seen him use the sap behind the bar to stop many a bar fight before it got out of hand. "Said to send you and Matilda back there when you showed up."

    "Well, that answers my question," a southern accent answered from beside David causing his head to snap around to look at the redhead next to him. Matilda "Matty" Martinez had made the mistake of marrying a local boy while they were both in the service and when she was cashiered for disobeying orders, he had finished his tour and they had come back to Brockton. A Florida native, the woman was a crane operator in the port, a far cry from the things she had been operating for the Air Force. "Get me one of those too, would you Mikey?"

    "Sure thing Matty," the bartender answered as he sat David's full beer in front of him. "You want a bowl of nuts to go with it?"

    "Might as well," she answered with a nod. "So, Danny pulled you in on this too David? I wonder what for?"

    "No telling," David replied as he thought. Matty and he were both former military, she had run drones over the northern part of South America while he had been infantry. He had been pushed out after not managing to get promoted far enough in his 16 years of service, while Matty had gotten a general discharge once everything concerning her actions, as well as those of her nominal superior had come to light. There were a few others that he almost expected to see once they went into the back room, assuming that Danny was putting a strike team together to take the fight to the gangs. "But I think it might be worth it to give a once over at least." Matty nodded to that as Mikey sat another pint glass of beer and a bowl of salted peanuts down in front of them. "Shall we go find out?"

    "Let's" the diminutive redhead answered with a grin before leading the way to the back room of the bar.

    **

    David wasn't surprised by the other two people in the back room besides Danny Hebert when he and Matty entered the room. John Argyle was a local who had joined the army because of a few to many stolen cars in his youth. Ten years of special operations had turned the ethnic Scot into a monster of muscle that would have made some of his ancestors step back in awe, and while the others would be grinning at the havoc he could have caused with a blade.

    Next to the living mountain was an almost average looking black man who was only known around the docks as 'Duncan' but that David knew had come out of the upper peninsula of Michigan through the Marine Corps Sniper program and been discharged after ten years when he capped a target that someone further up the chain had decided needed to stay in power where he was. The fact that the man was in the process of raping the daughter of a local village leader when it happened had put egg on the politician's face and earned Duncan a place in the DWU security forces. (The fact that he could put a .308 round through the center of a quarter at a quarter mile was superfluous.)

    "Matty, David," Danny said with a smile. "Come have a seat, I have some questions to ask and a possible job opening for you."

    "What's this all about Danny?" Matty asked as the two of them joined the other three. "Almost looks like you're picking out a team of door-kickers to go kick some ass." They all watched as Danny seemed to freeze at that statement.

    "Seriously Danny?" Duncan asked. "Why does the Union need a team of door-kickers?"

    "The Union doesn't," Danny answered with a sigh. "The first question is, are you willing to, as you put it, be door-kickers?"

    The four of them shared a look around the table, but it was John who answered, "Honestly Danny," he replied. "I don't think we are, and if we were willing to go that route, it would have to be for a damn good reason, and with someone we trust. Now why don't you explain why you are looking for an assault team?"

    Danny sighed again. "You remember when I called around the other week, looking for Taylor?" he asked and the entirety of their group nodded. "Something happened," he continued. "She didn't trigger, she didn't become a parahuman," he told them, looking them in the eyes. "But she did come back changed."

    "Changed how?" Matty asked softly.

    "Seven years older," Danny answered, getting wide-eyed looks from the group. "And with seven years of experience doing, as she put it, black operations work for the hire."

    "Jesus," Duncan breathed, even as John asked, "She was gone for less than twenty-four hours, how did that happen?"

    "She was stuck in a parallel world for seven subjective years," Danny said with a shrug. "Something similar to Aleph, but from what Taylor said, around fifty years into the future and with some fucked up shit."

    "It would have to be to have a fifteen-year-old beanpole doing merc work." Matty grumbled. "No offense," she continued, "I've seen Taylor out there both before and after, and now she looks like Annette spent her life living in the gym." Danny could only nod at that so David decided he would ask the next question.

    "I take it that its Taylor that wants an assault team," he said, getting a wobbly hand of "sorta" from Danny, so he asked, "What's the job?"

    "Backing her up," Danny answered. "She's hit somewhat of a wall hitting at the gangs, and needs backup."

    "What would we be looking at doing here?" John asked.

    "She said she needs a communications expert, another shooter or two to cover her directly, and overwatch," Danny answered. "Transportation would be a secondary skill, but needed as she wants to hit the ABB sooner rather than later."

    "She wants to raid one of their brothels for the girls as well as the money," Duncan said nodding. "Would want to talk to her, but I'm not against it."

    "She's the one that hit the hydraulics factory stash house, isn't she?" Matty asked, getting a nod out of Danny. "How much did she pull out of there?"

    "Fifteen thousand," Danny answered. "And while she didn't get much money from the Empire stash houses, she did get what she called some choice weaponry and ammunition from them last weekend. Currently she's either scouting a pair of ABB brothels, or the Empire's main fight ring."

    "She's not thinking small, is she?" David asked and Danny shook his head. "When do you need an answer?" he asked.

    "By Wednesday if you can," Danny answered, spreading his hands on the table. "That way I can give her your files and arrange a meeting, or else find someone else." The four of them nodded and Danny stood and left the room, leaving the four of them the ability to discuss it in private.

    "So who wants to start the discussion?" Matty asked once the door closed, earning a sigh from the rest of the group.

    **

    January 15, 2011
    Northern Docks
    2100 hours

    After two weeks of watching him, I knew that Internal Affairs Captain John Fischer was a man of habit. Every morning at six a.m. he exited his front door and ran two and a half miles around his neighborhood before returning home and showering. He would eat breakfast with his wife, and then on Monday through Saturday, he would drive to the main police precinct office in downtown Brockton Bay. This would have him there around eight-fifteen in the morning, allowing him enough time to check his emails before the mandatory nine-a.m. meeting after which he started the rest of his work. Then, with the exception of Friday and Saturday he would leave the office at half past five in the afternoon and head straight home.

    On Fridays, while his wife believed he was at work, he would visit either the Rising Moon Massage Parlor or the Gentle Waves Day Spa for the afternoon where he would spend his time either trading information with his ABB contact or making use of the hookers that they kept at the hidden brothels on the premises. I had photos of him with both his ABB contact and the hookers, the latter in various states of flagrante delicto. It was not, however, enough evidence to ensure a conviction.

    Saturdays he worked for the first half of the day like he did on Fridays, however, he would then go home and on most weekends, enjoy the time with his family. Tonight however, there was a discrepancy. Around 1900, he had received a phone call on his cell phone, after which he told his wife that he had to go back to the office. When he left though, he had not gone downtown, but to the northern industrial area to a large warehouse with about fifty other cars, trucks and other vehicles parked in the immediate area. As I watched more people arrive, I noted that some had various tattoos and piercings denoting their membership in the Empire. The problem was that the place was well guarded, four men at the outer gate, plus two more on each exit, and all the upper windows covered in plywood. It would have been near impossible if not for the grunt and grumble of an out of tune diesel engine that was dragging a large box truck towards the gate, and an invisibility spell.

    **
     
  • Threadmarks
    • Oh great it's gold snout and the clown, who thought inviting them to the dumpster fire was a good idea?
     
    F0lkL0re said:
    Yeah but that's one of the big problems about Harlequin isn't it, he thinks everything he does is a great idea.
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    Since I've never read the source material I'm gonna have to simply go by what's in this story but to hear people tell it this 'Harlequin' is stupidly powerful, highly narcissistic and has the attention span of an ADHD five year old. This screams to me that it's a bad idea to even be in the same city as him but he likely moves around that much that even a hint of a rumour that he's in the same STATE as you can have you looking over your shoulder on high alert.
     
    Forger1985 said:
    Since I've never read the source material I'm gonna have to simply go by what's in this story but to hear people tell it this 'Harlequin' is stupidly powerful, highly narcissistic and has the attention span of an ADHD five year old. This screams to me that it's a bad idea to even be in the same city as him but he likely moves around that much that even a hint of a rumour that he's in the same STATE as you can have you looking over your shoulder on high alert.
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    Meh, you have it about right
    Dealing with the LaughingMan is a test of both patience and self control, because everyone wants to kill the long eared a-hole
    the problem of course is two-fold. First, he is super powerful, like could likely give any fantasy dragon you could wish to name a challenge, if not a beat down, and thats before he starts cheating, because he truly believes that if you aren't cheating, you aren't trying.
    second, to go with that insane physical and magical strength is the willpower, experience, and imagination to make use of it.
    The upside is that, similar to Uber and Leet, he would rather joke around and have fun than cause most people problems, Ehran the scribe and Lofwyr being two of the rare exceptions, and he will even work with them if needs must.
     
    Forger1985 said:
    Since I've never read the source material I'm gonna have to simply go by what's in this story but to hear people tell it this 'Harlequin' is stupidly powerful, highly narcissistic and has the attention span of an ADHD five year old. This screams to me that it's a bad idea to even be in the same city as him but he likely moves around that much that even a hint of a rumour that he's in the same STATE as you can have you looking over your shoulder on high alert.
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    That Bloody clown is a grade a ass and god forbid your an enemy of his on the flip-side though he is a surviour from the Fourth World (basically when magic was still around before it got wiped out) as well as being the last of his Knightly order and will generally be on side if the Horrors, bugs or some other world ending threat shows up which is usually when he will go all out.

    Just expect to get pissed off at him and his antics infact if he took Alexandria as a serious threat to him I would GTFO the state he is in.
     
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