//------------------------------// // Interlude 9 // Story: Shard of Magic [Worm crossover] // by blake0831 //------------------------------// Director Piggot grunted as she settled into her designated chair at the table in the conference room. The long conference table, this time, instead of other chairs, had teleconference rigs at each seating place, each of them linking to similar setups in other PRT branches in the region. The setup offers a real-time meeting between the PRT branch Directors and the Chief Director without having to be physically be in the same room. There's an additional setup as well for Dragon, serving as a representative of the Guild despite her status as a cape. That screen was blank now. Dragon was probably busy with the cleanup of the aftermath of the Guild's successful raid and takedown of HeartBreaker three days ago. A part of Piggot wished that she still had working kidneys. The past week had been stressful on her. An assassination attempt on a Ward. The attempted E88 breakout. The kidnapping of a twelve year old and the discovery that said child has powers. The discovery of an actual underground villain base complex under the city and the arrest of the main villain involved... Director Costa-Brown, Chief Director of the PRT cleared her throat, bringing Piggot out of her internal thoughts. "Now that we are all present, we will begin this meeting regarding the situation in Brockton Bay. Director Piggot?" Director Piggot nodded. "I'll start with the more pertinent issue. The Travelers." She shuffled the papers on her table. "All members of the villainous mercenary group The Travelers had been arrested, including two previously unknown members. Trickster, Sundancer, Genesis, Ballistic and Oliver are currently interned in secure containment cells that had been augmented with additional countermeasures to neutralize their powers." Piggot took a breath. "It's the last member that we have the most trouble with. A Noelle Meinhardt, no chosen cape name." She pressed a button to transmit photographs and summaries of the monstrous cape to the other directors. The pictures showed an upper body and torso of a normal woman atop a massive van-sized ball of flesh and random animal body parts. "Her powers are equally dangerous." Piggot continued. "A paralyzing touch-based cloning ability that could create even powered clones of capes; and said clones were reportedly insane and destructive." "Reportedly?" Director Wilkins of PRT Denver branch interrupted with a raised eyebrow. Piggot paused. "A few of the Travelers were somewhat cooperative after their arrest. They asserted that their primary goal for their activities thus far was to obtain a cure for Noelle's condition, as they said her power is uncontrollable and detrimental to her mental state. Fortunately, the physical hazard of Nolle's power does not extend to her upper body, and we've brought in Panacea of Brockton Bay's New Wave to assess Nolle's condition." Piggot shuffled her papers. "Panacea reported that that Noelle's Corona Pollentia and Gemma felt 'malformed' and 'incomplete'. We surmised this may be the root of Nolle's conditions." "Interesting." Director Armstrong of Boston PRT commented. "How are you keeping Noelle pacified?" "She was aggressive and hostile at first, but she soon calmed down by her teammate Oliver. Currently, she's in a reinforced isolated containment cell aboard the Protectorate ENE Rig HQ, and we had the willing aid of Paige McAbee, aka Canary to sing to Noelle to keep her calm and cooperative." Piggot elaborated. "We are currently searching for a method to cure Noelle, just to make her easier to contain, if nothing else." "Speaking of the Traveler's activities," Director Heathrow of Chicago PRT started. "What is the response to their latest task? A targeted and rather over the top assassination attempt on one of your Wards, carried out on the orders of Coil?" Piggot twitched at the mention of the villain. She had always known that Calvert was a snake, even back at Ellisburg. To her frustration, his conduct as a PRT sub-contractor were decent enough that she couldn't find an excuse to be rid of him. To discover what he really was and that he had gone this far... She took a deep breath and forced down her simmering anger. "We at Brockton Bay PRT are currently assessing the Travelers' culpability in the matter, as well as that of their then employer, Coil. Thankfully, we have managed to capture him as well last week. We fully intend to come down harshly on them. On that note, PRT Intelligence and forensics departments are currently combing through the villains base for additional information." She sighed. "Although he had scrubbed his electronic files, the physical self-destruct of the base complex had been neutralized, allowing our techs to recover the deleted files." She growled to herself. "The bloody bastard had his slimy hooks in our systems via hidden backdoors and implanted moles. We are cleaning house right now, as it is." Piggot idly wondered what they are going to do with a base complex like that. Maybe turn it into an emergency shelter or a secondary PRT holdout base... The sound of a hand slap on a table brought Piggot out of the random musings. "How did a villain compromised your branch so thoroughly?" a peeved Director Tagg of Madison PRT Simurgh Containment Zone inquired, his neatly cut mustache quivering. Director Piggot glared. "Said villain, whose actual name is Thomas Calvert, has a unique precog ability. As far as I could understand it, he could experience both results of a choice and choose which of them to keep. Combined with a keen mind, a ruthless attitude and deep pockets, Calvert managed to leverage such an ability immensely." Director Knox of New York PRT hummed thoughtfully. "I wonder what had caused him to commit to such a drastic action as an assassination of a Ward." Director Piggot took a moment to calm herself, before answering. "From what we can piece together from testimonies, the powers of the Ward Starburst somehow had interacted with Calvert's that caused it to be... unreliable. To remedy the situation, he sought to eliminate the primary obstacle." "Ah." Director Armstrong perked up at the mentioned of the Ward. "Starburst? Wasn't she one of the main contributors to thaumaturgical tech along with Dragon and Armsmaster? The same thaumaturgical tech that was presented last week in Boston?" Director Piggot nodded. "Yes. But I'd rather keep her contributions discrete for now. The more time we can buy avoiding attention from those like Mannequin of the Slaughterhouse 9, the better we can protect her and build up countermeasures." She sighed. "Concealing the actual nature of the thaumaturgical tech is difficult as it is, and letting Armsmaster and Dragon be publicly known as the primary contributors of the new tech is risky as it is, despite the necessity of it to reassure the public." Director Knox frowned. "The secret might be beginning to attract attention already. I have reports that the Elite and the Adepts are poking their noses into the matter. They've noticed the spike in demand in the markets for industrial artificial quartz and Dragon's sudden interest in companies that could make them. If the Adepts managed to figure out the actual nature of the new tech..." he trailed off. "Never the less, we will keep the involvement of Starburst under wraps for now." Director Costa Brown said firmly. "Dragon's and Armsmaster demonstrations at the Boston conference last week and the successful takedown of Heartbreaker and his children a few days later proved that the thaumaturgical tech has the potential to significantly turn the tide against the villains." "Speaking of thaumaturgical tech," Director Tagg spoke up. "There was mention of Anti-Master devices arising from that line of research. Were they effective?" The Texan Director's interest in the devices were obvious, considering his duties in guarding against the victims of the Simurgh's mind-manipulating screams in the Madison Containment Zone. Director Piggot looked through her papers. "Dragon has reported that the anti-Master 'Lockdown' restraints and the anti-Master Shielding 'Mind Shield' devices were used to great effect against Nikos Vasil and his brood on site. The curative Anti-Master 'Mind Cure' device was administered to any and all identified victims. Although the device had no effect on memories and said victim would require therapy, by all reports, the devices were effective." Piggot smirked. "As it turns out, the Travelers were Simurgh victims as well. Using the 'Mind Cure' helmet assembly on Noelle has significantly improved her mental state." Director Costa Brown nodded. "That's good to hear. Tagg, I'm authorizing limited usage of all three device types on the civilians in the Madison Containment Zone for further testing. If the results are promising, we will go full scale on treating the rest of the victims." As Director Tagg smiled in glee at the news, Director Wilkins interrupted. "I'm curious about something. Your reports mentioned having a minor teenage cape gang under proxy employment of Coil captured as well. These Undersiders. Any plans for them?" Director Piggot's brow furrowed. "I haven't thought about their situation very deeply at this point and I haven't decided on a course of action for them yet. I'm currently pre-occupied with matters regarding the E88 and ABB, especially concerning the E88's attempted breakout of their arrested compatriots and the news of the Cornell Bomb Tinker having been seen together with the ABB leader Lung." She leaned back in her chair. "Most of the Undersiders have minor misdemeanors at most. The exception is Hellhound, but further investigations into her crimes turned up some irregularities. Physiologist have noted some odd behavior patterns, possibly power induced. We might look into getting her help with her mental issues." She paused. "Regent turns out to be formerly Hijack, one of Vasil's many progenies that had escaped his clutches. He had agreed to testify and provide evidence against his father in exchange for a lesser sentence and, I'll paraphrase, 'Never want to see that bastard ever again.'." She shuffled her papers. "Grue requested assistance with his younger sister's homelife in exchange for his cooperation. I might have to coordinate with Child Services on that." She placed the papers down. "Those three are the easiest of the lot, possible candidates for re-branding, rehabilitation and relocation under the revised Probationary Wards procedures." She smirked. "They'll make a decent test run of the new measures." "And the last? The Thinker Tattletale?" Armstrong prodded in curiosity. Director Piggot sighed. "She's also a promising candidate for the revised program, especially given her forced recruitment into villainy by Coil. But she could be lying about it." She frowned. "I'm still debating about her situation, especially concerning her biological parent's exploitation of her, if she's being truthful about that aspect of her former life. Her 'augmented deduction' powers could be useful, especially when paired with Starburst's and Forecast's Thinker powers." "Forecast?" Heathrow asked. Director Piggot shook her head to get out of her musings. "A new young Ward we've signed up this week, after the Coil raid. A precog that uses percentages to express a yes/no probability of the general event occurring. Power testing showed it to be a rather potent ability. She seems quite cooperative and friendly, though she firmly requested to be stationed near Starburst." A part of Piggot was thankful that Wards introductions for Thinker capes were usually much more low-key affairs, lest the little girl does a Clockblocker and publicly announced one of her earlier suggestions of 'Bookie' instead. Director Knox raised as eyebrow. "Are you trying to establish a local version of the Protectorate ThinkTank?" the bespectacled man suggested. Director Piggot paused at the suggestion. "That would be a good idea actually." she admitted. "It would certainly help with our situation here in Brockton Bay. Considering that we're short on manpower here, in both capes and Troopers, to adequately deal with the local cape crimes." Director Costa Brown shook her head. "I apologize, but we and the other branches do not have any to spare at this time." she regretfully admitted. Director Piggot pursed her lips. She had heard that statement before. "Understood." she sighed. Director Costa Brown then continued. "Now that Director Piggot had sufficiently debrief us about the local situation, is there anything else anyone wants to ask?" A series of polite denials answered her. "Thank you for your time, Director Piggot." Director Costa Brown said. When the last screen winked off, Director Piggot let out a deep sigh and stood up from the table. Time for her to get back to her office. A part of her rather disliked these sometimes pointless meetings.