Chapter 1.4
**
After Armsmaster left I told Miss Militia about that morning and the incident at the Gas-N-Go while she jotted down notes on a pad of paper. "Alright then," she said as she stood up. "Now we can go down to medical and see if you have powers."
"Oh I have powers," I said with a smile before casting a light spell to hover over one of my hands. "It is just that they have a different source than the ones here do."
My father, Miss Militia and Mrs. Dallon blinked at my statement and casual display of power, all of them sitting back down slowly. "Miss Hebert," Miss Militia said very calmly. "We know what causes powers, a growth in the brain of the person with them. An MRI will show the growth and prove this."
"Five says I don't have one," I replied smiling even more and looking around, "any takers?"
"Nope," Dad said immediately while shaking his head. Mrs. Dallon looked at him questioningly, so he explained. "Her and her mother would both get that look whenever they were about to clean you out in a card game, even one so innocent as Uno." Both women blinked at that statement and looked at me again.
"If you don't have standard parahuman powers," Miss Militia asked calmly, "then where do your powers come from?"
"Magic," I answered. "And no, it is not an affection nor a psychosis, but a scientifically demonstratable phenomena from where I've been."
Miss Militia eyed me askance for a moment, "Very well then," she said finally. "Let's just go down to medical and see what the MRI has to say. Brandish, is there any way you would consent to Panacea coming over and checking her so that we have a second opinion?"
"I think that can be arranged," Mrs. Dallon replied before pulling out a cell phone and sending a message.
**
"Where the hell is your corona gemma or pollentia?" the scanning tech asked as I lay on the scanning bed in the exam room.
"Something removed it," I answered smugly. "I took a blow to the head that required an MRI in 2060, they saw the scarring, the tissue damage, but nothing else. They asked me if I had previously had a brain tumor removed."
"So that's how she knew," Miss Militia said just loud enough for the microphone to pick up.
"Yes," I replied, "I'm a cheating cheater who cheats, just like when dad is playing cards and thinks he has a winning hand, he tries to act like he has a losing one. What is it they say about asking questions in court Mrs. Dallon? Don't ask something you don't already know the answer to?"
"That's right," the lawyer said loud enough for the microphone to pick up.
Suddenly another voice came out clearly and asked "Do you remember anything from between the time you passed out and when you woke in that Janitor's closet?"
"A sense of falling," I answered, "a bottomless chasm that I saw myself not long before I returned. Someone was building a bridge across the chasm, though you couldn't see the builders, and on the far side I could sense evil, hate and darkness, while on the near side there was love, compassion and hope."
"Tell us about the chasm and the area around it," the voice that I did not recognize requested.
"It was a desolate plateau," I answered, somewhat lost in the memory of that place on the meta-planes. "I could see that when I was there before returning, my team and I had fought long and hard against things I really don't want to remember to get there, and our mission was simple, destroy as much of the bridge as we could." The warmth and compassion had come in waves, not dissimilar to a heartbeat even as we placed charge after charge around the bridgeworks. Going into some of the building materials for something to tamp some of the explosives though, I found why the bridge gave off a menacing aura. The bridge itself was cobbled with human skulls. "We did our job and as part of our payment the person who had hired us asked what we wanted most in the world. My answer was that I just wanted to go home."
"And you stepped out into the hallway of Winslow High School, just outside your locker, correct?" the new voice asked just as the tech said, "You can get up now."
"Yes," I said sitting up and turning toward the control room. Inside I could see my father and Mrs. Dallon along with the tech, Miss Militia and a woman who I assumed was the new voice. She was dour looking with a severe bob type haircut that framed a face that was seriously overweight.
"Miss Hebert," the new woman said into the microphone. "Once you are dressed, would you be willing to undergo powers testing?"
"I can do that," I answered. "But since I'm not planning on joining either the Wards or the Protectorate, I don't see what me sandbagging your tests is going to accomplish."
**
**Danny**
The comments and questions came rapid fire and from all corners after that. What did she mean she wasn't planning on joining them, if that was the case, why was she even there? Why would she sandbag their tests even if she wasn't joining? What did she plan to do with her powers? "What are you going to do about your daughter?" the director finally levelled her gaze on my and asked that question.
"Not a damn thing but support her decisions," I replied smiling. "She has had a reasonable answer for each of your questions while being extremely tolerant of your badgering her to join the Protectorate or the Wards."
"But Mister Hebert," the director said, her hands open and low, as if she were trying to calm and placate an angry animal. "Your daughter has powers, if she goes out there and the gangs find out, they are going to try and pressure her to join them, and they won't listen like we will. They may even drag you into the fight as a hostage to force her to capitulate to their demands. There are unwritten rules that keep that from happening, but mostly only if you are either individually powerful enough to make them back down, or else have the backing of another group."
"Such as the Protectorate and the PRT?" I asked rhetorically and earned a glare from the woman. "I've been looking at your documentation since I've been here, and during your pitch you stated that alone, most capes don't make it. But the numbers you talk about, you lay the losses as deaths by or being forced into a gang. Your literature points out that it is just as much if not more so as deaths in initial Endbringer engagements as well as joining the Protectorate or Wards. Now, do you consider your own formations gangs?" I asked.
"No I do not," the director answered grouchily. She was about to say something else when her cell phone rang with what I figured must have been a priority tone. "Yes Armsmaster?" she answered putting the thing on speaker.
"Miss Hebert was right," the man stated plainly. "Her locker is filled with the waste of several bio-hazard bins as well as having a signature disruption similar to Professor Haywire's tech. There was definitely a rift opened into the locker from elsewhere, and another into the hallway. Also, miss Clements was kind enough to turn herself in to me, begging, when she saw me in the office, to retrieve miss Hebert from the locker. The Crime Scene Techs are dealing with the locker and it's contents now."
"Very good Armsmaster," the director replied. "We will discuss this further once you return."
"Yes ma'am," he replied and then the line went dead.
**
**Madison Clements**
After Emma had gone home, I had turned around and gone back. It didn't matter what she thought, everyone had some importance, even Taylor. Getting back to the school however, I found a pair of PRT vans there along with a very large, custom built motorcycle sitting there in the front parking lot. Seeing those things caused me to break into a run for the principal's office where I found Armsmaster arguing with the principal's secretary. "The Principal is stuck in Albany due to a snowstorm," Ms. Halstrom said as I walked in without knocking. "And I am not authorized to allow anyone, law enforcement or not, to enter a student's locker without her express permission."
"That is a falsehood and you know it madam," he returned bluntly. "And I don't need your assistance to open it, I only need you to tell me which locker is the correct one so that I only open the right one."
"I have my instructions Mister Armsmaster," the secretary said crossing her arms even as I blurted out, "Please, you're a hero, you have to help me get her out!"
Both of them turned to look at me but it was Armsmaster that spoke first, "Get who out of where?" he asked.
"Taylor Hebert," I answered. "Sophia and Emma shoved her in her locker yesterday and were supposed to let her out, but Sophia said she sent the principal an anonymous e-mail instead and the lock was still on her locker today at lunch."
"Show me," Armsmaster said pointing out of the office so I led them to Taylors locker down the hall and around the corner.
"There," I said, pointing at the slab of grey metal with it's new, bright, golden lock on it. "I don't know where the key to the lock is, but maybe the shop has…" I stopped as Armsmaster gently slid his halberd blade just into the seam of the locker. First on the hinge side, and then on the lock side. Each time I could hear a slight whine and his before finally the door itself fell off and all the waste that we had shoved into the locker just before Christmas break came spilling out, without Taylor. "But I saw them shove her in there?" I said, questioning my own memory.
"You are sure this was Taylor Hebert's locker?" Armsmaster asked.
"Yes," I said as I found myself sitting in the hallway opposite Taylor's locker, the stench of the contents making me want to puke. "I helped fill it with this stuff, and from what the others said that was supposed to have been it, but then Sophia and Emma decided to shove her inside and leave her."
"That would be Sophia Hess and Emma Barnes," Armsmaster said. "Making you Madison Clements?"
"Yes," I answered.
"Then Miss Clements," he said, turning to face me. "It would be wise for you to call your parents and have them contact a lawyer as there will be charges regarding this."
I flinched at that. I had never been in real trouble before, and I had only done this to stay in Emma and Sophia's good graces. Still though, it was go all in, and possibly get burned, or not and be screwed over by the two of them when they set their sights on me as the weakest link. "I…I'll call them from the office as I think you are going to need this," I said, handing him my phone.
"As you wish," he said, placing the phone in a plastic baggie that he pulled from a compartment on his armor and labelled. As he did so I started for the office, and even though I was in serious trouble, my steps felt lighter than they had when I had re-entered the building this afternoon.
**
**Amy Dallon**
"You can set me down now Vicky," I said, not really wanting her to but knowing there were other things to be done this afternoon. Vicky had landed us on the landing pad that sat atop the PRT Headquarters' roof and I had to go down to medical to scan someone.
"Alright Amy," she said, letting my feet drop to the ground while holding my torso up. "I'm going to go pester Dean while you see what mom needs done, alright?"
"Yeah, yeah," I said waving as she walked toward the edge of the roof. "I'll let mom know where you are and we'll probably both see you afterwards."
"Thanks sis," she called back with a smile and a wave before stepping over the edge and dropping out of sight.
Shaking my head I walked over to the PRT Trooper on guard and showed him my PRT issued ID card, "Panacea here at the directors request for medical," I said and watched him nod before he opened the door to the interior.
Vista was waiting for me inside of course, scowling like someone had just told her that she wasn't allowed to patrol for the next six-weeks. "Hey Panacea," she said. "I see they pulled you into this."
"Yeah," I answered as we walked over to the elevators. "Something about confirming a lack of a Gemma?" I half asked.
"I can't say anything about that," she answered, frowning as she called the elevator. "What I do know is that as Shadow Stalker came into the Wards area this afternoon, she was met with a taser by the duty officer before being cuffed with an electric bracelet and thrown into a containment cell. And not one of the M/S cells we use for friendlies if you know what I mean."
I did, the Master/Stranger containment cells for friendly personnel that were being considered possible Master victims were small and spartan, but comfortable. The containment cells were for prisoners and decidedly NOT comfortable as they were four by eight cell with a molded concrete bench that doubled as the bed. "Any clue as to why she's down there?" I asked as the elevator doors opened.
"No," the Ward answered and stepped inside before pushing the button to take us to the appropriate floor. "But if I had to guess it probably has something to do with the person in medical driving the Director crazy with her story and unwillingness to join." I could only nod to that, as the director was well known for having a severe distrust of parahumans. "Of course," she continued, "the rumor is that it's the person who took apart a group of Merchants at the Gas-N-Go this morning bare handed, so at least its not likely they are going to be a villain."
I blinked at that. Vicky had shown me the footage at lunch of a young woman beating the hell out of five people in a gas station that they had tried to rob. Someone had leaked the video onto PHO and it had the local cape community, (and their groupies) wondering if she was a new parahuman in town. The fact that the woman had done it in less than a minute had most saying Cape. Others however, had pointed out that good training would have allowed a normal human to do the same. Personally, I thought she did look a bit too young for that aspect to pan out, but I could be wrong. "So, a possible parahuman with an abnormal Gemma?" I asked.
Vista just shrugged and the elevator dinged before opening the doors in front of us. "Don't know," she answered. "But she has your mother in there as personal counsel, so…" at that point the Ward shrugged again and opened the door into medical while staying in the hall.
"Thanks," I said walking into the subsector. Vista just nodded and I turned to face the small crowd that was here. "Mom, Director, you asked for me?"
"Yes Panacea," Director Piggot said, "There is a young woman here who we need you to confirm her physical age, and whether or not she has a Corona Gemma."
I nodded and turned to the strange young woman sitting in a chair to one side of the room, next to her was an older man, probably her father. "May I use my power on you to see if you are as old as you seem and if you have a Corona Gemma?" I asked.
"You may," she replied, giving me her hand.
I took her hand and blinked, "No Gemma, and she is, physically, two hundred and seventy months old." I told them. "Call it twenty-two and a half years old."
The young woman nodded and looked at the director before asking, "Do you think it would help if I used one of my powers. If I have a Gemma maybe she'll only see it when I'm using my powers."
I looked at the director and shrugged before nodding, It was possible, I thought. and is she baiting Piggot?
"Alright," the director grumped, "a small and simple demonstration." The young woman nodded at that and held out her other hand before a ball of light appeared above it.
Focusing on her again, I still had to admit, "No Gemma."
"See," the young woman said, dropping the ball of light and nodding to me before standing. "Not a parahuman." Was that what this was all about? I thought as I dropped into the seat next to the one she had just vacated opposite the older man. "And she has verified what age I physically am, so can we dispense with the bull and get to the ID cards and necessary paperwork?"
"Is there nothing we can do to convince you to join the Protectorate?" Director Piggot asked with a sigh.
"Ma'am," she said calmly. "As I've said before, I will participate in your power testing, but I will be holding back. It's not that I don't trust you or Miss Militia as people, but I don't particularly trust any government agency intended to manage and police a particular subset of the population. I have seen too much of how that can go wrong and be abused. That said, in a gesture of trust towards building a working relationship where we can trust one another to not stab the other in the back, I will tell you what my plans are."
"And what are your plans?" Director Piggot asked.
"I'm going to go into business for myself as a security and recovery agent," she said. "Perhaps dabble in the private eye side of things as well."
"NEPEA-5," Miss Militia started only to stop as Carol spoke up. "Does not apply because she is demonstrably not a parahuman. Taylor, do you intend to show up for Endbringer fights?" Carol asked.
"Only as an Emergency healer or post-fight recovery and search and rescue," she answered before the man in the room could sputter out a denial. "I'm not a heavy hitter by any stretch of the imagination and I doubt dad would feel comfortable with anything else."
"You can heal people?" Director Piggot asked and the young woman waggled her hand in a so-so gesture.
"It has to be within about ten to twenty minutes since the injury was taken," she answered. "Anything more than that and the spell won't work. Basically I can set them up for Panacea and ease her load some." Carol and the director both nodded. "Situations other than Endbringers though, I am going to charge for." Carol scowled at that but the director only grimaced and nodded.
"Very well then," the director said after a few minutes thought. "Miss Militia will take you to get a photo taken, and with your father's help I'm sure you will be able to finish the paperwork in a reasonable amount of time. Then we can schedule your power testing and give you your updated Identity papers."
"Thank you, director," Taylor said. Director Piggot only nodded and walked out of the room. "Could I talk to Panacea for just a moment, privately."
**
