So you guys get this update first, as always comments are extremely welcome, even critique
**Amy**
“Amy?” Vicky said as we walked away from the Hebert girl’s hospital room. I looked over at her and saw her looking back at the room. “You were a bit more vicious than I remember ever seeing you in there.”
I nodded at the comment, “Yes,” I answered. “But you would have to have seen the pictures of what they pulled her out of to truly understand why. Hell, you saw what I pulled out of her, and I’m still trying to figure out how Sophia did that.” Suddenly I stopped, frozen almost mid-stride by the thought that percolated through my brain. “Oh hell, Piggot’s gonna love this one.” I muttered with a smile.
Turning my attention back to Vicky I said, “Sis, if you were to see what that psycho and her friends did to that girl, you would want to take all three of them out for flying lessons,” I told her in a calm and rational voice. “And then when you got to about ten-thousand feet, you would let them go.” Vicky quirked an eyebrow at me and I smiled before continuing on towards the hospital cafeteria for a cup of coffee and to write my report.
**Sophia**
I woke with a start, looking around at my surroundings. A curtain partitioned me from the rest of the world, making the bed I was in alone and isolated. The ceiling above was white acoustic tiles and there was a beeping coming from my right just above my head. I tried to reach my face, to wipe it with my hand only to find the limb handcuffed to the bed. It looked to be a plain hand-cuff, so I reached for my power to phase through it and found nothing. “What the hell?” I snarled jerking on the cuff and on my other arm to find it also restrained.
“Hey Puppy,” a voice I recognized said outside the curtain. “I think she’s awake.”
Oh hell, I thought. They sent Assault and Battery, is anyone concerned about my secret identity? Seconds later it was proven that they were not concerned as Assault, in full costume, pulled the curtain aside showing Battery and himself. “I was right,” he said and pointed at me.
“Yes dear, I see.” Battery deadpanned back at him. “Now, since you are awake and seem to at least understand what is going on, Sophia Hess, also known as Shadow Stalker, you are under arrest for assault with a parahuman power, attempted murder with a parahuman power, and biological terrorism. You have the right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be held against you in a court of law.”
“Wait a minute, hold the fucking phone,” I snarled interrupting the hero in her recitation of the Miranda warnings. “What the hell are you talking about with those charges, I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.”
Assault grinned, “We have you on camera stuffing one Taylor Hebert into a locker filled with all kinds of nasty things Sophia,” he answered. “That’s the assault right there, what those things were makes it bio-terrorism, and the fact that somehow you caused her to phase shift in and out inside that shit and end up with a good mass of it in her body causing sepsis to set in along with several other diseases is the attempted murder.”
“Bullshit,” I snarled at him. “I can think of a half dozen ways any camera footage could be faked, and it’s not like Hebert has any friends at that school, the question is who knocked me the hell out and left me there to be found?”
“Oh we have that on camera too,” he answered with a grin and I felt my stomach clench, “the footage is unbroken and Dragon says un-edited from start to finish. Quite frankly it was fun to watch you and your little red-headed friend get your comeuppance and funny that it was someone you could never have anticipated in a million years.”
I growled at the smug asshole as Battery stepped back in, “Are you done yet?” she asked, and Assault nodded. I tuned her out as she started to Mirandize me from the beginning. The question that bounced around my head though as she finished, and I demanded a lawyer absent mindedly so as to not have to answer any questions was how? We had that school in the palm of our hands, even the administration was cowed between Emma’s father and my status as a Ward. Blackwell of course was watching out for me for whatever reasons, as was my probation officer. There shouldn’t have been anything…
Sophia’s eyes rolled into the back of her head and she passed out yet again. Assault snickered at that and smiled at Battery. “At least this time we were able to get through the Miranda warning before she blue screened,” he said. “Any idea when her lawyer is going to be here?”
“Well considering this Alan Barnes is the parent of the red-head in the video, probably a while since he’s trying to get her out on bail,” his wife answered. “But Sophia will keep, the doctor said it wasn’t that bad a concussion, and if we don’t shock her system this next time she’ll probably stay awake. In fact, why don’t you leave since you enjoy tormenting her with the explanation each and every time?”
“Because I enjoy tormenting her,” he answered. “The entire Wards team dislike her for various reasons. Hell, if they were coming in today I would be letting them take a turn at it.” Battery found she could only shake her head at her husband’s vindictiveness, it wasn’t like she wasn’t enjoying the show or anything.
**Taylor**
“Emma hasn’t been my friend since I started high school,” I said as the three other people in the room turned and faced me. “In fact, she was one of the people who put me in that locker.” As I spoke, I looked around the room at the people in there with me. Dad was hovering like he always did when I was sick or something was wrong, his presence and how much he hovered had always been my metric of how bad I was hurt. The other two people were a PRT agent, she was dusky skinned with dark hair and something about her made me think I knew her from somewhere. The third was a girl that was maybe my own age, Asian, and had a concerned look on her face.
“Since the start of high school,” the girl said, her tone showing her shock over the matter. “Why didn’t anyone stop it?”
I shrugged, “Part of it I imagine is that it’s Winslow, the school is a dumping ground for those without the intelligence, money or connections to go to a better school. Which means it is prime gang grunt recruiting territory.” The adults both nodded and I waited as a nurse showed up with a pair of food trays and set them on the rolling table that went with the hospital room. “Second was the administration ignoring my complaints as being, and I quote, baseless and without merit or evidence.” I continued after the nurse left. Dad used the bed remote and raised the bed back while Akane moved the roller table over where I could position it and its trays while I continued. “As my freshman year came to a close, Blackwell actually threatened to suspend me up for lying to the staff and start punishing me in other ways for trying to get the three of them into trouble.”
“Did she now,” Dad commented with a deceptive calm. Looking at him I could see in his face that he was working the problem now, and I felt guilty for not telling him sooner.
“Why not try and change schools,” the PRT Agent asked. “I know Arcadia has a waiting list, but I also know the wait isn’t this bad. At the worst you would have been transferred as of the start of this school year.”
“I would have if the administration wasn’t shredding my transfer applications,” I said uncovering the first plate to find a burger and fries. It wasn’t a Challenger, but it wasn’t a dollar burger either. “Between that and the trio destroying my GPA I didn’t stand a chance of getting into Arcadia, which is the only school that I can reasonably reach by bus.” I could see my dad getting progressively angrier at this line of thought so I tried to change the subject, “What does the PRT have to do with any of this?” I asked taking a bite out of the burger.
“Part of it is that we screwed up,” the agent answered bluntly. “One of your bullies was a Ward, not a well liked one, or really someone who was even willing to join the program except to get out of going to juvenile detention, but one none-the-less. Because of this, we feel we are at least partly responsible so in response we are at least going to pay for your hospital stay, and if you have triggered offer you a place on the team.
Her admission that one of my bullies had been a Ward caused me to stop eating mid-chew as my mind ran through what I knew. Figuring it out wasn’t hard although swallowing the bite of half-chewed burger was a little. “Shadow Stalker,” I growled, and the three of them nodded. Seeing the unsurprised look on his face I asked, “Dad?” and he chuckled.
“They never gave me her real name, but before you woke up Agent Washington and Akane filled me in on the Ward issue,” Dad answered and then Agent Washington picked up the response.
“We would appreciate it if you didn’t publicize that part of it,” she said with a grimace. “She’s going to be spending a lot of time in both juvenile and adult prison and might even get a ticket to the birdcage for all this, but I assure you one thing, she is going to be punished for this.”
I nodded at that, Sophia was screwed and justice would be served one way or another for all three of them. Yeah, I could accept this. “Alright,” I said, “but you think I might have triggered in the locker?”
“It’s likely that something like that would have caused what we call a trigger event.” Agent Washington answered. “Most capes refer to those event’s as the worst day of their life, and I can believe that what you’ve gone through classifies.”
“But I don’t feel different,” I replied ignoring the slight buzzing in the back of my head as I continued to eat.
“It could be something very subtle,” Agent Washington said. “At the PRT building we have a variety of testing methods that can figure out both if you have powers, and how extensive they might be.”
“Do you really think that I could have powers?” I asked.
“Oh, I almost certain of it,” Akane said beside me and I quirked an eyebrow at her. “But I have a suggestion, Mister Hebert, why don’t you take agent Washington with you and go get Taylor some clothes from your home. I’ll sit here with Taylor while she eats in case she wants some more food from the cafeteria and she and I can get to know one another.”
I looked at Dad who sighed and nodded, “I do need to get you some clothes kiddo,” he said with a sigh. “I came here straight from work, so I haven’t had a chance to get anything for you.”
I nodded at that, “Three boards into my closet there is a knothole in the board that will let you pull the board out,” I said, and he nodded with a questioning look on his face. “Inside the space is a pair of notebooks that record the things the trio have done since about this time last year on a day to day basis. I don’t know if they will count as evidence against them or not, but I figured there should be at least some documentation of what they were doing.”
“By themselves, no,” Agent Washington answered. “But in conjunction with the records we are pulling from their phones, it will definitely be another nail in the coffin as well as keeping two of them from simply blaming the third.” I nodded at that and Dad ruffled the hair on top of my head.
“Alright kiddo, I’ll be back shortly and then we’ll go see if you have super powers or not.” Dad said before opening the door for Agent Washington and following her out.
As the door closed I shifted the lids from the full tray to the empty one revealing a small steak and a salad. “So, Akane was it?” I asked, and the girl nodded. “Why are you so confident that I have powers?”
“Because I’m suppressing them,” she answered with a smile, “and boy is it not happy about that.”
**
**Amy**
“Amy?” Vicky said as we walked away from the Hebert girl’s hospital room. I looked over at her and saw her looking back at the room. “You were a bit more vicious than I remember ever seeing you in there.”
I nodded at the comment, “Yes,” I answered. “But you would have to have seen the pictures of what they pulled her out of to truly understand why. Hell, you saw what I pulled out of her, and I’m still trying to figure out how Sophia did that.” Suddenly I stopped, frozen almost mid-stride by the thought that percolated through my brain. “Oh hell, Piggot’s gonna love this one.” I muttered with a smile.
Turning my attention back to Vicky I said, “Sis, if you were to see what that psycho and her friends did to that girl, you would want to take all three of them out for flying lessons,” I told her in a calm and rational voice. “And then when you got to about ten-thousand feet, you would let them go.” Vicky quirked an eyebrow at me and I smiled before continuing on towards the hospital cafeteria for a cup of coffee and to write my report.
**Sophia**
I woke with a start, looking around at my surroundings. A curtain partitioned me from the rest of the world, making the bed I was in alone and isolated. The ceiling above was white acoustic tiles and there was a beeping coming from my right just above my head. I tried to reach my face, to wipe it with my hand only to find the limb handcuffed to the bed. It looked to be a plain hand-cuff, so I reached for my power to phase through it and found nothing. “What the hell?” I snarled jerking on the cuff and on my other arm to find it also restrained.
“Hey Puppy,” a voice I recognized said outside the curtain. “I think she’s awake.”
Oh hell, I thought. They sent Assault and Battery, is anyone concerned about my secret identity? Seconds later it was proven that they were not concerned as Assault, in full costume, pulled the curtain aside showing Battery and himself. “I was right,” he said and pointed at me.
“Yes dear, I see.” Battery deadpanned back at him. “Now, since you are awake and seem to at least understand what is going on, Sophia Hess, also known as Shadow Stalker, you are under arrest for assault with a parahuman power, attempted murder with a parahuman power, and biological terrorism. You have the right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be held against you in a court of law.”
“Wait a minute, hold the fucking phone,” I snarled interrupting the hero in her recitation of the Miranda warnings. “What the hell are you talking about with those charges, I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.”
Assault grinned, “We have you on camera stuffing one Taylor Hebert into a locker filled with all kinds of nasty things Sophia,” he answered. “That’s the assault right there, what those things were makes it bio-terrorism, and the fact that somehow you caused her to phase shift in and out inside that shit and end up with a good mass of it in her body causing sepsis to set in along with several other diseases is the attempted murder.”
“Bullshit,” I snarled at him. “I can think of a half dozen ways any camera footage could be faked, and it’s not like Hebert has any friends at that school, the question is who knocked me the hell out and left me there to be found?”
“Oh we have that on camera too,” he answered with a grin and I felt my stomach clench, “the footage is unbroken and Dragon says un-edited from start to finish. Quite frankly it was fun to watch you and your little red-headed friend get your comeuppance and funny that it was someone you could never have anticipated in a million years.”
I growled at the smug asshole as Battery stepped back in, “Are you done yet?” she asked, and Assault nodded. I tuned her out as she started to Mirandize me from the beginning. The question that bounced around my head though as she finished, and I demanded a lawyer absent mindedly so as to not have to answer any questions was how? We had that school in the palm of our hands, even the administration was cowed between Emma’s father and my status as a Ward. Blackwell of course was watching out for me for whatever reasons, as was my probation officer. There shouldn’t have been anything…
Sophia’s eyes rolled into the back of her head and she passed out yet again. Assault snickered at that and smiled at Battery. “At least this time we were able to get through the Miranda warning before she blue screened,” he said. “Any idea when her lawyer is going to be here?”
“Well considering this Alan Barnes is the parent of the red-head in the video, probably a while since he’s trying to get her out on bail,” his wife answered. “But Sophia will keep, the doctor said it wasn’t that bad a concussion, and if we don’t shock her system this next time she’ll probably stay awake. In fact, why don’t you leave since you enjoy tormenting her with the explanation each and every time?”
“Because I enjoy tormenting her,” he answered. “The entire Wards team dislike her for various reasons. Hell, if they were coming in today I would be letting them take a turn at it.” Battery found she could only shake her head at her husband’s vindictiveness, it wasn’t like she wasn’t enjoying the show or anything.
**Taylor**
“Emma hasn’t been my friend since I started high school,” I said as the three other people in the room turned and faced me. “In fact, she was one of the people who put me in that locker.” As I spoke, I looked around the room at the people in there with me. Dad was hovering like he always did when I was sick or something was wrong, his presence and how much he hovered had always been my metric of how bad I was hurt. The other two people were a PRT agent, she was dusky skinned with dark hair and something about her made me think I knew her from somewhere. The third was a girl that was maybe my own age, Asian, and had a concerned look on her face.
“Since the start of high school,” the girl said, her tone showing her shock over the matter. “Why didn’t anyone stop it?”
I shrugged, “Part of it I imagine is that it’s Winslow, the school is a dumping ground for those without the intelligence, money or connections to go to a better school. Which means it is prime gang grunt recruiting territory.” The adults both nodded and I waited as a nurse showed up with a pair of food trays and set them on the rolling table that went with the hospital room. “Second was the administration ignoring my complaints as being, and I quote, baseless and without merit or evidence.” I continued after the nurse left. Dad used the bed remote and raised the bed back while Akane moved the roller table over where I could position it and its trays while I continued. “As my freshman year came to a close, Blackwell actually threatened to suspend me up for lying to the staff and start punishing me in other ways for trying to get the three of them into trouble.”
“Did she now,” Dad commented with a deceptive calm. Looking at him I could see in his face that he was working the problem now, and I felt guilty for not telling him sooner.
“Why not try and change schools,” the PRT Agent asked. “I know Arcadia has a waiting list, but I also know the wait isn’t this bad. At the worst you would have been transferred as of the start of this school year.”
“I would have if the administration wasn’t shredding my transfer applications,” I said uncovering the first plate to find a burger and fries. It wasn’t a Challenger, but it wasn’t a dollar burger either. “Between that and the trio destroying my GPA I didn’t stand a chance of getting into Arcadia, which is the only school that I can reasonably reach by bus.” I could see my dad getting progressively angrier at this line of thought so I tried to change the subject, “What does the PRT have to do with any of this?” I asked taking a bite out of the burger.
“Part of it is that we screwed up,” the agent answered bluntly. “One of your bullies was a Ward, not a well liked one, or really someone who was even willing to join the program except to get out of going to juvenile detention, but one none-the-less. Because of this, we feel we are at least partly responsible so in response we are at least going to pay for your hospital stay, and if you have triggered offer you a place on the team.
Her admission that one of my bullies had been a Ward caused me to stop eating mid-chew as my mind ran through what I knew. Figuring it out wasn’t hard although swallowing the bite of half-chewed burger was a little. “Shadow Stalker,” I growled, and the three of them nodded. Seeing the unsurprised look on his face I asked, “Dad?” and he chuckled.
“They never gave me her real name, but before you woke up Agent Washington and Akane filled me in on the Ward issue,” Dad answered and then Agent Washington picked up the response.
“We would appreciate it if you didn’t publicize that part of it,” she said with a grimace. “She’s going to be spending a lot of time in both juvenile and adult prison and might even get a ticket to the birdcage for all this, but I assure you one thing, she is going to be punished for this.”
I nodded at that, Sophia was screwed and justice would be served one way or another for all three of them. Yeah, I could accept this. “Alright,” I said, “but you think I might have triggered in the locker?”
“It’s likely that something like that would have caused what we call a trigger event.” Agent Washington answered. “Most capes refer to those event’s as the worst day of their life, and I can believe that what you’ve gone through classifies.”
“But I don’t feel different,” I replied ignoring the slight buzzing in the back of my head as I continued to eat.
“It could be something very subtle,” Agent Washington said. “At the PRT building we have a variety of testing methods that can figure out both if you have powers, and how extensive they might be.”
“Do you really think that I could have powers?” I asked.
“Oh, I almost certain of it,” Akane said beside me and I quirked an eyebrow at her. “But I have a suggestion, Mister Hebert, why don’t you take agent Washington with you and go get Taylor some clothes from your home. I’ll sit here with Taylor while she eats in case she wants some more food from the cafeteria and she and I can get to know one another.”
I looked at Dad who sighed and nodded, “I do need to get you some clothes kiddo,” he said with a sigh. “I came here straight from work, so I haven’t had a chance to get anything for you.”
I nodded at that, “Three boards into my closet there is a knothole in the board that will let you pull the board out,” I said, and he nodded with a questioning look on his face. “Inside the space is a pair of notebooks that record the things the trio have done since about this time last year on a day to day basis. I don’t know if they will count as evidence against them or not, but I figured there should be at least some documentation of what they were doing.”
“By themselves, no,” Agent Washington answered. “But in conjunction with the records we are pulling from their phones, it will definitely be another nail in the coffin as well as keeping two of them from simply blaming the third.” I nodded at that and Dad ruffled the hair on top of my head.
“Alright kiddo, I’ll be back shortly and then we’ll go see if you have super powers or not.” Dad said before opening the door for Agent Washington and following her out.
As the door closed I shifted the lids from the full tray to the empty one revealing a small steak and a salad. “So, Akane was it?” I asked, and the girl nodded. “Why are you so confident that I have powers?”
“Because I’m suppressing them,” she answered with a smile, “and boy is it not happy about that.”
**
Wolf wins every fight but the one where he dies, fangs locked around the throat of his opponent.
Currently writing BROBd
Currently writing BROBd