Ravensdagger_Headpats

Chapter Forty-Eight

Hannah rushed down the flight of stairs, jumped past a few staff members who stared at her wide-eyed, then stopped before the doors that would lead her to the lobby. She panted, heart racing for a few long moments as it went from beating humming-bird fast to a slower, more natural cadence.It just wouldn’t do to appear frazzled to a bunch of kids.She made sure her weapon was no bigger than a knife tucked in a back pocket of her costume and that sure her scarf was on just right. It was the reason why all the side entrances to the main lobby had mirrors. It wouldn’t do for the public to see dishevelled heroes.She pushed the door open and walked into a scene of quiet tension.PRT Troopers, some in their bulky armour, some in a more civilian appropriate police-like garb, were stationed all around the room, some standing closer to the doors, others trying to be inconspicuous as they guided tourists away from the lobby and to exits out the back.And in the centre of the room, right where everybody would see them, six young parahumans.“Um, we come in peace?” the tallest of the lot said.There was a slight lessening of tensions at that. Miss Militia decided that it was as good a time as any to step up. “Calm down everyone, I’m sure the Brigade aren’t here to harm anyone,” she said.The tall girl, Big Sis according to what she had read after briefing the Wards, blinked at her. “Ah, that’s right. But, the Brigade?”“It’s what the internet has taken to calling you.” Really it was the Brat Brigade, but bringing that up while tourists were filming was a bad idea. Miss Militia smiled and hoped that it looked disarming. “Can the PRT help you this afternoon?” she asked.Big Sis nodded. “I, yes, yes you can. I wanted to, um, talk about the bank incident? I was told that it would be for the best if I came here and made it clear that we, uh, didn’t have any ill will toward the PRT. Maybe, maybe look into the Wards program?”Miss Milita’s next smile was far, far easier. “Of course. I happen to know that the director is here already. Did you want to follow me into the building? We could see if she’s available to talk, and if not I’m certain we can find a place for you to sit and relax.”“Ah, that’s not a good idea,” Big Sis said. “My siste— my partners here are not the sitting and relaxing sort. Maybe if it was just me and Tattletail?”Miss Militia looked between her and the five other girls gathered around her. The little ones were already fretting and bouncing on the spot or glaring at the nearest Troopers while fondling knives.“Do they want to stay here?” Miss Militia asked. “Someone could keep an eye on them?”Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.“That might be for the best,’ a familiar voice said from behind her. She turned to find Colin, Armsmaster as he was suited up, moving over to her. “So many parahumans visiting the Director all at once would be inadvisable.”“Great!” Big Sis said. “Thank you so much for agreeing to babysit, Miss Militia.”“Indeed,” Armsmaster answered for her while her mind was still reeling. “Come with me.”The dour Tinker spun on a heel and walked away, Big Sis and Tattletail following after him.Miss Militia turned to the other girls. Crochet and Remedy were smiling at her. The other two were missing. “Where are-?" she began in a panic before Crochet pointed off towards the gift shop. Cheshire was currently comparing the crossbow she reportedly stole from Shadow Stalker to one of the plastic replicas displayed in the shop. “Oh, well, did you want to join her?”The girls were off like missiles.She had to admit, it was cute seeing how enthusiastic they were about hero things. She loved working with kids! They were always so full of energy.Her enthusiasm died a sad, pitiful death when she saw that Crochet was animating all of the plushies at once and giggling as they fought in a mock battle. Remedy, fortunately, was merely trying on all of the fake hero masks one at a time until she gasped and ran to the affiliates’ corner and found a Glory Girl mask which she immediately put on.Pop was... “Where’s Pop?” Miss Militia asked.“Who the fuck cares?” Cheshire said before firing a bolt, a live bolt across the room and pinning one of Crochet’s Vista plushies though the head.“Dearest sister,” Crochet said in a sickly sweet voice. “You are aware that this means war.”An army of plushies ambled across the room like some sort of nightmarish superheroic version of Winnie the Pooh, all intent on getting to Cheshire who began firing plastic bolts at them, bolts that that the same physics bending properties as Shadow Stalker’s and which more often than not pinned themselves through the floor.Miss Militia rushed over to them, then ducked when a bolt went flying her way. She had to stop this, she had to stop this now.“Hey, don’t get in the way of my bullets!” Cheshire shouted before kicking the head off a plush Gallant.Miss Militia turned, only to pause in horror as Remedy, still wearing a plastic mold of Victoria Dallon’s face, was holding up a potted plant that had been decorating one corner of the room. The flowers had been replaced by small, mewling puppies. “These would sell way better.”Hannah had, at one time, wanted to have kids. Now her ovaries were shrivelling up in terror.

Chapter Forty-Nine

Armsmaster led Taylor and Tattletail into an elevator, then up two floors, the digital display above them dinging twice before the doors opened again onto a long, wide corridor with stations on either side. There was an obvious metal detector being manned by a bored looking PRT employee and two guards standing nearby with containment foam launchers and what she suspected was a perfectly usable shotgun.Armsmaster waved a card to the man behind the metal detector and moved through it without so much as a beep. “Please place any weapons you have in that bin,” Armsmaster instructed as he gestured to a plastic bin off to the side. “Then proceed through the machine.”Taylor, who had no weapons on her, started to move, then noticed with mounting horror that Tattletail was moving towards the bin. She began to reach into her coat, then paused and looked at Armsmaster. “If we have weapons they’ll be returned, right?” she asked.The Tinker nodded once. “Yes. They are merely being kept to ensure the safety of PRT personnel. This is part of our standard operating procedures.”“And if we have Tinkertech it will be given back, right?”Now Armsmaster looked interested. He leaned forwards a little. “Does your group have a Tinker?” he asked.“I’m afraid not,” Taylor said. “Crochet’s the only one that makes stuff, and that’s mostly reserved for costumes and clothing and sometimes plushies. No Tinkertech.”He leaned back. “I see. In any case, yes, your Tinkertech will be returned promptly.”“And you won’t scan it and look at it too hard and try to pry it apart?” Tattletail asked as if to make really sure.“We wouldn’t do that, no. It would go against regulations and some Tinkers have been known to employ dangerous anti-tampering measures in their equipment. Unless the Tinkertech you have presents an imminent danger to everyone in the vicinity it will be treated as a normal weapon.”“Good, good,” Tattletail said. Then she pulled out a blaster pistol from her jacket, a big, bulbous gun that looked like it had been designed in the height of the 50s art-deco era. It was also, Taylor recognized, obviously Kid Win’s gun.“That,” Armsmaster said, “is not yours.”“Yes it is,” Tattletail said.He stared off to the side and then scowled. “You might believe it is yours, but it is not.”Tattletail huffed and crossed her arms. “It is mine. I obtained it fair and square.”“Oh no,” Taylor whispered.Armsmaster stood taller. “That belongs to Kid Win and, by association, to the Protectorate.”“It belongs to me,” Tattletail said.“A cursory inspection would prove otherwise.”“You just said you wouldn’t do that. And anyway, it’s obviously mine. Kid Win’s laser pistol things don’t have glitter on them.” She reached into the bin and pulled out the gun by the barrel and waved it around, her free hand pointing at all the sparkly bits on it. “And this one has a unicorn sticker on the handle.”The Protectorate Tinker made a noise, then shut his mouth with a clack and worked his jaw. “Theft is a crime,” he said slowly, as if explaining something to a child, which to be fair, he sort of was.Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.“Crimes are only crimes if you get caught and the crime can be proved in a court of law. Unicorn stickers, ergo not theft, ergo not a crime,” Tattletail said with the same slow pace. She grinned up at Armsmaster, her tail wagging behind her with self-satisfied glee.“Nonetheless, that is property of the Protectorate East North East,” Armsmaster said with mounting anger.“You wanna take it from me?” Tattletail asked. Her grin grew sharper. “Fine, then come and take it. I won’t even resist.” She hugged the gun close to her chest, then bit into a knuckle until her eyes filled with tears.“What are you doing?” Armsmaster asked.Then a group of tourists rounded the corner, two dozen people with cameras who were taking in the ever dull-grey corridor of the base and flashing pictures at every poster and plaque on the walls as if they were art pieces. The whole group gasped as they saw Taylor and Tattletail.“Y-you wanna take my toy?” Tattletail blubbered. The first tear came sliding down her cheek.“What? It’s not yours!” Armsmaster said. Then he noticed the cameras pointed his way. “What are you doing here? This area should be secured.”The tour guide started to sweat. “We’re on schedule. It’s supposed to be cleared here. We’ll move things along. Come on everyone, this is important Protectorate work, we shouldn’t interrupt.”“You, you big meanie!” Tattletail yelled. “You’re just taking my things because you’re a big doo-doo head.”“I’m not. It’s not yours,” Armsmaster said as he turned back to her.“Yes it is! You’re not Armsmaster, you’re... Buttmaster! ‘Cause you’re a big butt.” Tattletail’s entire face was screwed up in a mix of anger and sadness, her ears were drooping down and her tail was dragging on the ground behind her.There was muffled giggling from the tourists, most of whom were ignoring the demands to move along from the guide in favour of filming the confrontation. Stil, with some pushing and shoving they got moving.The moment the last of them turned around the corner Tattletail stood taller and wiped her face clean with a palm. Her tail began to wag again. “Try taking my gun now, Buttmaster.”Taylor sighed, yoinked the gun out of her hands and passed it to Armsmaster. “I’m terribly sorry, but we accidentally found this weapon and have no idea how or where we found it. Could you dispose of it for us, please?” she asked as she held the pistol out between them.“Big Sis! I earned that gun fair and square,” Tattletail screeched.Taylor shook her head and as soon as Armsmaster had taken the gun she turned towards Tattletail. “We have a ‘no weapons in the house’ rule for a reason,” she said. Tattletail looked up to her, eyes filled with unshed tears. “And wipe that look off your face, missy, no one will believe you now.”“You’re no fun,” she grumbled as she looked away. “Fine. Can we keep moving now? If I can’t get to keep my gun at least we should move things along to get home faster.”Taylor sighed, but she couldn’t help but agree. It was best to get things done before all of her bridges were burned. “Let’s just meet the director.”

Chapter Fifty

Director Piggot was one of the strangest women Taylor had ever seen. She was short, and what some polite people would have called stout. But Taylor spent too much time around preteens to call her anything but fat, at least in the privacy of her own head.“Please sit,” the woman demanded, the ‘please’ a formality as she gestured to a chair across from hers.The conference room was fairly small. Just a rectangular room with a windowed door and a long rectangular table with chairs on either side. There was a jug with icy water sitting in the middle next to a tray of social cookies.Tattletail pounced onto one of the chairs and made herself comfortable while Taylor took her time and sat next to her. She was ready to grab Tattletail’s hand the moment she reached for the cookies. The little fox-girl had definitely not earned any snacks.“Uh, hi, I’m Big Sister. This is Tattletail.”“Hi fat lady,” Tattletail said.Piggot didn’t so much as twitch. “Are you a Master?” she asked as she moved some papers across the surface of the table. Her thumb clicked on the back of a pen and she looked up, meeting Taylor’s eyes dead on.“What? No, no I’m not,” Taylor said.Piggot looked past her to Armsmaster, then nodded. “I see. Good. We will still have our work cut out for us once you join the Wards,” she said.“Ah, okay?” Taylor said. So it was straight to business then. She wasn’t expecting that, but maybe that was the whole purpose of it. Not messing around meant less time for Taylor to find her footing.“I’m assuming you’re aware of the benefits of joining the Wards?” Piggot said. “Oversight, protection both in and out of your heroic identities and a fixed salary for the work you would be doing for us.”“Actually-”“You do understand how much danger you and your group are in?” Piggot said. “You may have made fools of the Wards, and we will be discussing your behaviour during that fiasco in a moment, but those same Wards are protected at home and even during their work. Can you say the same?”“I don’t think that’s-”“And what of the parents of these girls, are they aware of how much danger you’re dragging-”Taylor’s hand slammed into the table, cutting off Piggot’s diatribe. “Stop, or I will join the Wards.”Piggot took a moment to digest that. “Not the most straight forward threat I have ever received,” she said. “Care to explain yourself?”“I’ve looked at the things the Wards offer and unfortunately it’s not enough to meet our needs. In the best of circumstances it would work out, barely, but I’ve done my research and Tattletail helped me predict some things.” Taylot shook her head. “Joining the Wards would cause a lot more trouble for us than it would solve things. It would only make our family’s situation worse.”Piggot leaned back into her seat and seemed to judge her for some time. “You’re surprisingly level-headed.”“Did you expect me to be a raving lunatic?” Taylor asked. “I spend my day wrangling my sisters, all of whom have superpowers and next to no restraint. I think I do as much to keep this city from burning down as you do.”“You’re no longer inspiring confidence,” Piggot said.Taylor took a deep breath to recentre herself, but the scent of antibacterials and printer paper that permeated the office only reminded her that she wasn’t home. “Look, Miss... Director Piggot, we came here to say sorry for the thing with the Wards. It shouldn’t have gotten out of hand, and I wanted to say sorry, at least in private. But we can’t join your team for a bunch of reasons. And we also wanted to tell you that we’re going to become rogues in Brockton Bay.”Shaking her head, Piggot scooted around on her chair with a wince and then wiggled a fat finger towards Taylor. “I can’t force you to join the Wards willingly, but it’s my responsibility to keep this city safe from any harm caused by Parahumans, including your little team.”“You haven’t been doing you job very well, then,” Taylor said.There was a moment of tense silence as both sides digested that.Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.Taylor sat up a little straighter. A week ago, she wouldn’t have dared face the Director of the PRT like this. A month ago she would have been crippled by some weird mixture of shyness and fear. Now, after weeks of getting her superpowered little sisters to behave, she was a new woman. Or maybe that was too much. It was probably safer to say that she felt the weight of the responsibility she had for her sisters pressing down on her at the same time as the love they had for her made her feel more... everything. Confident, capable, able to bully a mean adult into submission.“Look, Director. We want to help, but we’re not ready to. Not now, and probably not for years. My sisters need to grow up a whole lot more before they can help. And that means that they need to learn how to do the things that will allow them to help now. We’re forming a team and we’re going to be rogues. Crochet wants to sell dresses, Cheshire and Pop want to protect the city, Remedy agreed to help Panacea on her tours for some money, and Tattletail will put those cookies back right now or so help me god.”Her sister ‘eeped’ and shoved the plate back so hard it almost slid off the table before Piggot caught it.“And none of that could be done from within the Wards?”“Not the way the Wards work, no,” Taylor said. “You could try to force some of us to join. But then I’d make sure that all of us joined too.”One of Piggot’s eyebrows shot up. “I fail to see how that’s a threat.”“Imagine a dozen really aggravating Wards that fight you over every single order and decision and who are constantly questioning you and your inability to act publicly.” Taylor shook her head again. “You either let us do our own thing, play and have fun and maybe we’ll bag a few villains for you to allow to escape later. Or we join you and make your life a nightmare.”“We’ve dealt with belligerent Wards before,” Piggot said. There was a slight twitch as she said it, and if Taylor was one to judge, and she was, the woman was merely probing to see if Taylor was bluffing.Typical little sister tactic. She wondered if Piggot had any older siblings.“Tattletail can’t keep secrets,” Taylor said.“Armsmaster has a lie detector in his hat,” Tattletail chimed in. She had been fidgeting more and more on her seat, like a kettle shaking before it blew up. “Piggot doesn’t like Parahumans. She’s fat because of some sickness. She really doesn’t like one of our sisters... I think it’s Remedy and that’s why she’s being extra mean. She doesn’t care about the Wards but wants them under her thumb because not having control over them scares her. She’s embarrassed about the Wards losing more than about them fighting us.” Tattletail took in a deep gulp of air. “She wants a drink but the kind that Big Sis won’t let us have at home and she thinks Big Sis is very level headed but is planning on letting us get into a bunch of trouble before nailing us like when Big Sis watches one of us do something wrong so that she can catch us red-handed. She was super insulted that Big Sis pointed out how bad she is at her job but didn’t say anything because she knows it’s true. She doesn’t know how Big Sis’ power works and that’s making her nervous and can I have those cookies now?”Taylor reached up and patted Tattletail on the head a few times. “Good job,” she said, upon which her sister beamed. “Now, that’s one sister. Crochet hates violence, she would probably avoid every training session if she can. Cheshire and Pop think that shooting or stabbing things is the best solution to everything. Remedy just does not understand how scary her creations look to others and gets extremely upset when she’s told she can’t make them because it makes her feel worthless. And don’t forget, none of them have hit puberty yet.”Piggot swallowed, just a small thing, but a sign of nervousness that Taylor latched onto.Taylor leaned forwards until her elbows were on the table. “Now, if we joined the Wards you’d need to deal with all of that. And, in the not-so-impossible scenario where one of my sisters got hurt because of your incompetence, you would have to deal with me.”