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A Mage's Guide to the Multiverse (Celestial Grimoire SI, Worm Start) by Throwaway1971
Books » Private Rated: M, English, Romance, Words: 202k+, Favs: 160, Follows: 196, Published: Jan 17, 2024 Updated: Mar 20, 2024
24Chapter 6: Interlude 1 - PRT
PRT Director Emily Piggot stapled her pudgy fingers together beneath her flagging chin, eyes as sharp as any sword practically piercing the short distance between her and the small stack of reports that were recently faxed over to her from the Brockton Bay PD. Homicide cases in the Bay wasn't at all irregular, what with gangs like the Azn Bad Boys and the Empire-88 braying over blood and territory like starving hounds, but most of the cases didn't find themselves making their way to her desk in particular unless one very specific element was involved.
What element was that? Well, one of the few things that the regular justice system treated like an ugly, unwanted ginger stepson and threw away at the first sign of trouble.
Parahuman activity.
Oh, it wasn't as if she was the one who handled all the Parahuman cases in Brockton Bay. The chain of leadership didn't work like that, and she delegated a lot of the workflow through to those trained to handle and monitor Cape activities, but somehow life had a funny way of wrapping it all back 'round to her desk. Not that she could, or would, ever openly complain about her duties as Director. Better her than some other weak schmuck not able to handle the stress and responsibility that came from keeping the peace relatively stable amongst one of the highest Cape-populated cities in America. It was easy to underestimate the job when your eyes were still blinded to the danger and turmoil those with powers threatened humanity with.
She had shed those rose-tinted glasses long ago. Too long ago.
Now, if only she could get a more concrete report from the coroner's office, just so she knew more about what sort of rogue cape they were dealing with.
"Director? Not trying to rush your thoughts, but I assume you called us here for a reason?" Armsmaster's voice, carefully stoic and respectful, brought the blonde woman out of her darkening thoughts.
Emily had called for him and a couple other select Protectorate members that weren't currently on duty. In front of her desk, sitting in fairly uncomfortable metal folding chairs, Armsmaster, Miss Militia, Assault, and Battery waited patiently - or, in Assault's case, patiently while smacking his lips on a pack of Cool Ranch chips. When she gave him a reproachful glare, the laidback Cape raised his hands peacefully and smiled. "What? You kinda called us outta nowhere, boss lady. I gotta keep my calories up."
Battery let out an almost silent sigh, leaning back in the uncomfortable chair and crossing her arms over her chest. She seemed content to completely ignore her obnoxious partner.
"Put the chips away and pay attention, Assault. I don't like bugs in my office any more than I like watching you chew with your mouth open." Emily's voice was like steel - commanding and tough, in spite of her lessening health. She punctuated the seriousness of the demand by holding out her hand expectantly.
Assault blanched. "Awww, come on Director! I'm not a naughty kid sneaking cookies out the-"
"I'm not going to say it again."
"But-"
"Just give her the chips so we can move on with the briefing," Battery sighed, giving her husband a tired glare.
Seeing that he was getting no support there, Assault, still chewing, glanced helplessly over to Armsmaster.
The bearded man stared sullenly ahead.
He looked to Miss Militia for any sort of backup, probably trusting in the mature woman's genteel nature.
The gun-toting hero studiously checked her fingernails, looking away from the obvious SOS. The shape of her eyebrows betrayed her amusement, however.
"Man…" Pouting - like a real life man child - Assault sighed and placed the half-empty bag of chips in Emily's meaty palm. She immediately dropped the junk food in the wastebin beside her desk, easily ignoring the Cape's stuttered gasp of horror at the wasteful display.
"Great. Now, if we're done playing reindeer games, I want each of you to look over the reports placed in front of you on the desk. It has all consolidated information we have on our most recent rampant Cape, unofficially named 'Shiv'."
That seemed to grab all of their attention. For a few seconds the room was overtaken by the sound of shifting fabric, kevlar, and metal as all four heroes leaned forward to grab and study their own copies of the report. It took Miss Militia only a brief, cursory glance over the page before her voice spoke up in subdued interest and caution.
"'Showcases the ability to generate and shoot golden energy constructs in the shape of small blades'? Sounds rather familiar, doesn't it? Pretty limited, though." A wry tone skirted along the edge of her low, feminine voice.
"Limited or not, I'd watch my back if I were you Missy! Kid showed up outta nowhere jacking your style while stabbing a bunch of racists. Talk about ballsy." Assault chuckled in amusement, his own eyes roaming over the report in his hands. "Name's pretty accurate too. His power sounds a lot closer to Brandish's, though."
Miss Militia's only reply was a noncommittal hum, her eyes still focused on the Shiv report.
Armsmaster rubbed his gloved hand over his beard, a frown pulling at his lips. "This isn't a laughing matter. Underage or not, killing four unpowered people while using the full force of your abilities isn't acceptable. Do we have footage of the fight?"
"And do we even know if he's underage or not? These photos don't show much." Battery added.
Emily leaned back in her office chair, ignoring the familiar sound of plastic and leather creaking with the movement. She nodded her head towards the large monitor on the wall to the right of her desk, placed in the perfect area for on the spot briefings. A click of a button later and familiar camera footage - footage that she'd played over at least three times so far in the past hour - flashed onto the screen.
Clearing her throat, the Director addressed the heroes once again. "According to the reports, there had been four cooling bodies on the scene when the policemen first arrived, and only one of them had actual physical stab wounds that matched the size and shape of a small blade - more than likely a switchblade or pocket knife. The other corpses lacked any matching wounds."
"Then how-"
A raised hand interrupted Armsmaster's expected question. Without any further words, Emily unpaused the footage.
Though grainy and relatively poor quality, the footage managed to capture a good portion of the fight - if it could even be considered that. Two figures, one relatively average in height and the other quite short, were seen walking down the sidewalk in what appeared to be a fairly normal neighborhood. The shorter figure was a girl, seemingly Asian and fair-skinned, while much couldn't be seen about the taller one. Brown skin and what seemed like locks of black hair poked out of a tightly cinched hood, but nothing else could be seen from the camera's positions.
"Hold on." Miss Militia said quickly, and Emily inwardly sighed as she pressed the pause button on the remote.
She had already come to terms with the amount of prodding and hold-ups the briefing would have - just like any other meeting about rogue or dangerous capes - so she couldn't find it in her to be annoyed with the interruption. Additionally, information gathering and distribution is why she called for the meeting in the first place.
"Go ahead," she replied.
"Thank you, Director," Miss Militia inclined her head. "But who is the girl beside 'Shiv'? You gave us files on him, but nothing on his companion. Is she not being investigated as well?"
Emily's thin lips pulled down into an ugly frown. "Finding out more about the girl should be easy, since she had nothing to hide her identity. No mask, hood, nothing. However, first attempts with the city's facial recognition system brought nothing up. No identification, public records, birth certificate, Hell - not even a damn shoe size." Her voice, always so cold and controlled, lowered in frustration. "Further diving into her identity, not being a major point of interest yet, was reluctantly put on hold."
Why the elderly man who reported the crime deigned to call the police department instead of the PRT Emergency Hotline transcended her knowledge, but he successfully wasted time for both departments that could have been used in pursuing Shiv and the mystery girl. She hadn't actively committed any crime, but she was an accessory, and thusly involved.
Armsmaster's brow furrowed at the new information. "A possible data wipe? I'm not familiar with the PD's digital security, but we should be able to recover something. Dragon and I-"
"Lack the authority to go deep-diving into private city records without probable cause. For now. Shiv is the primary target here, Armsmaster. Stay on task." The clear lack of 'try' was loud. Armsmaster frowned, but nodded compliantly.
"If there's no more interruptions," Emily offered, and when no one responded, she unpaused the video.
The cameras should've been able to pick up audio, but it was tinny and the sound of wind and ambience drowned out the obvious whispering the duo was trying to be subtle about. The street was practically empty, save for the two making their way down the sidewalk, but that changed very quickly.
White men, all of them bald and clearly up to no good, seemed to practically melt out of the alleyways. One, a man in a red bomber jacket and sunglasses, was the only one to not come from some hole in the wall. He instead stepped out of an expensive looking, wine red Dodge Charger, and proceeded to lean against it arrogantly. It was clear what was happening, and judging by their sudden halt, the two kids seemed to realize it as well.
After that, things seemed to escalate quickly - as they tended to do when parahumans were involved. Two goons, one being the presently comatose and detained Mac, confronted the duo. The confrontation happened on the sidewalk close to a streetlight, and though the audio wasn't perfect, the room was able to hear the majority of the conversation due to the raised voices.
Cringes were found across the board, sans Armsmaster and Emily, at the very clear hate crime in process happening on the screen. If the violent shoulder-check by the swastika-tatted goon didn't make it clear who the aggressors were, the spat-out 'chink' and overuse of the word 'boy' was like nails in the coffin. Emily had seen many things in her long career in the PRT, and racism was just one of the many disgusting pitfalls of humanity that she'd learned to keep calm in the face of. Nazis ran rampant through the streets of Brockton, so it wasn't as if the heroes gathered were shocked by the scene, but…
It didn't mean that they were unaffected. As soon as Assault opened his mouth, Emily paused the footage once again. Frozen on the screen was the view of 'Mac' decking Shiv clear across the face with a fist that was almost the same size as the kid's head.
"Bull fucking shit, Piggot" the ginger man chuckled, though no humor or levity could be heard in his voice, "A black kid, 'cause I'm pretty sure the guy's like sixteen or seventeen, gets his ass beat by a bunch of grown nazis and we're, what…supposed to send his ass to the Birdcage for killing them? Bullshit."
Armsmaster, for once, said nothing in response to the coarse and unprofessional statement.
"I never mentioned the Birdcage." Emily replied evenly, meeting Assault's smoldering glare with her own frosty one. "And you'd do well to rein in your temper, Assault. It's Director Piggot." The strength in her voice brokered no arguments, practically daring him to challenge it.
Battery laid her hand on her husband's arm before the man could dig himself into a hole. Her gaze, however, was no less intense than his when she looked at the Director. "No one should kill as the first, second, or even third option…but this is starting to look like a clear case of teenage fear and anger aimed at, to be blunt, horrible people."
Miss Militia spoke up then, her voice somehow calm, angry, and curious all at once. "Then let's see what happens after. I think it's clear where this is going to end up."
Assault perked up, brows raising in interest at the obvious meaning.
"Focus now. Shiv uses his powers here." Emily cut her eyes back to the monitor and unpaused the video.
The meaty 'thunk' of fist against cheek resumed midway through, and all eyes watched as the girl screamed in fear and anger. She lashed out with words, body shaking, but her legs seemed unable to move - whether to run or defend her fallen friend. Her venomous hiss of 'not doing anything wrong' only solidified the heroes' understanding of the situation.
"Stupid cunt, it's one thing to be on our turf. We can hardly stop alla' yous. But it's another to be interbreedin' your nastiness here too."
"No fuckin' way he said that…" Assault sounded nauseated. "Maybe Shiv's onto someth-"
"Shut. Up." Battery hissed, elbowing him in the side. He didn't even seem like he noticed it, too busy staring forlornly at the monitor.
Emily pretended not to hear them. The main event was coming up, and though she'd watched the footage multiple times already, she was still hoping that there was some subtle effect she missed that would explain the three healthy dead bodies and the comatose one.
The asian girl pulling out a switchblade was met with winces from the peanut gallery - not because she was deciding to defend herself, but because, by doing so with a weapon, she was escalating the stakes considerably. Before, it was two thugs assaulting them with fists and mean words while their friends watched from the sidelines. Nothing good could ever come from such a situation, but at least no real blood had been drawn.
Things could only get worse from there.
Apparently Shiv - or 'Jay', according to the scared girl - thought the same, as he yelled for the girl to toss him the knife. His voice in that moment was louder than it had ever been before, being picked up clearly on the camera. Deep, angry - it surprised everyone in the fight, and it surprised the heroes watching.
"Kid has pipes," Assault whistled lowly, leaning forward with wide-eyes as the girl tossed Shiv the switchblade. The kid clumsily caught it by the blade, wincing as he gripped it tightly in his fist.
"Commanding, too." Miss Militia acquiesced, eyeing Emily from the corner of her eye. Her eyebrow was raised in silent question, but the Director steadfastly ignored the blatant fishing.
SNAP.
"But- oof." Assault winced as Mac tossed all of his considerable bulk and muscle into the skinny little girl, twisting her ankle violently to the side. She screamed as she went down, toppled over by nazi flesh.
Shiv wasn't just lying there like a wet noodle, however.
From the top-down view of the streetlight camera his face wasn't able to be seen, but his iron-like grip on the switchblade was evident as he grunted and lurched weakly on the concrete. Golden energy, almost like a radiant miasma, floated up from his body like tendrils of viscous smoke, settling in the air above his body and immediately solidifying as a half dozen copies of the very same switchblade he was holding in his hand.
Miss Militia's eyes narrowed, and she leaned forward in her chair.
"Go." The boy's harsh whisper was picked up by the camera as he rotated the switchblade in his hand and viciously jabbed it towards Mac.
In a blur of motion, the golden switchblade copies hovering over his prone body launched forward at breakneck speeds, clearing the short distance between them and the fat nazi nigh on instantly. The blades left behind a trail of energy, almost like a mono-colored rainbow, and they seemed to glimmer in the air right before they pierced handle-deep in Mac's side.
There was no sound of sharp metal - or energy - piercing flesh, only the woosh of energy, the 'thump' of impact, and the nazi's pained swears as the momentum sent him flopping over and across the sidewalk like a floundering fish.
Silence reigned in the meeting room as the heroes watched the ensuing chaos. Shiv lived up to his namesake, desperately lunging to his feet and charging the skinny nazi and plugging three holes in his chest with the switchblade in his hand.
The sight of the violence and blood was unsurprising, considering what was already written on his file, and when the boy yelled for his friend to 'get down' and tackled her to the sidewalk in order to save her from a sudden burst of gunfire…
Emily could see the gears churning in the heroes' heads.
Moments later, she paused the footage in the midst of the energy knife and gun fight between Shiv and the leader. The screen proudly displayed the frantic moment where the kid twisted into cover behind a large truck, and his hastily launched constructs sent the last gangster flying back into the street, dead.
The kid's hand was stretched out of cover, as if checking to see if any bullets would be sent down range again.
Armsmaster, who'd been silent for practically the entirety of the footage review, was the first one to break the silence that had fallen between the heroes and Director.
"I assume," he spoke tersely, looking straight at Emily, "That we are offering him probationary Wards membership?"
Emily turned away from the monitor and faced them all, a thin smile forming on her face. It wasn't a pleasant one. "Shiv's capture is high priority. Use the carrot, the stick, and the very real threat of juvenile detention. His ability is cautiously rated as Blaster 6. It is nothing too overwhelming on first look, but the effects of his 'energy weapons' are still unknown and considered extremely dangerous and lethal. They seem to ignore skin, muscle, and bone completely, as you could see from the autopsy photos, but kill as easily as any blade. 'Mac', one of the men who attacked him, still hasn't woken up. No matter what, we need to get him in - for his sake as well as others."
Miss Militia nodded intently. It was clear to everyone involved that she was personally interested in the case. "Understood. Do we have any idea where he and his friend ran off to?" Her brow furrowed. "I doubt they'd want to stick around the Downtown area after…all of that."
Emily glanced back down to the reports on her desk. Her brow twitched, but the smile on her face didn't change. "A vehicle was found charred and burning beside a bunch of burning trash and a gas drum in the Upper Docks. The same vehicle that Shiv later took from the now dead Empire goon."
Assault snorted loudly, and Battery side-eyed him with a frown.
"What? Kid has spunk, like I said before!"
"Yes, well, you've all been briefed on the situation. Stay vigilant, do not start a fight with Shiv unless absolutely forced into it, and get him here. Dismissed."
Amongst the screeches of metal folding chairs and the scuffing of boots, Emily turned away and began rifling through yet another stack of reports.
She resisted the urge to sigh.
'Truly no rest for the wicked.' The Director mused wryly.
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