In Which Attention is Given and Taylor Makes a Buddy

"Shit," said Director Emily Piggot of the PRT East North East as she summed up the situation.

Thomas Calvert, in his guise as one of the local branch's consultants, could only nod.

Strewn across a stainless steel table in one of the meeting rooms of the PRT ENE headquarters were a series of printouts that painted a grim picture.

Or, perhaps, an opportunity.

He looked up and took in the others in the room. A few more consultants, those that would usually, like him, be left on the wayside in such a delicate matter but who had been pulled in to make up for some of the lost manpower after the Endbringer attack. There were heroes too. The two members of the Protectorate that had been on the scene, as well as an injured Armsmaster and Miss Militia.

Deputy Director Rennick was out, taking care of the newly imprisoned members of the Empire Eighty Eight. And wasn't that a victory for the good guys?

Oh, sure, they had lost Rune during transportation, and someone was going to get a slap on the wrist for improperly restraining the girl, but taking in Stormtiger, Hookwolf, Fenja, Cricket and about two dozen unpower mooks was a unilateral victory. Kaiser's death only made the situation better as far as Coil was concerned. Add that to the deaths of Krieg and Menja the day before and it painted a grim picture for the neonazi gang.

It was like the world's worst game of good-news bad-news.

"We should arrest her," Armsmaster said.

"Sure!" Assault said with a cheerful, if somewhat forced grin. "Um, before that, Director, could I switch to a posting in Nevada? I hear it's dry over there."

"No one is switching to anywhere. If anything we need every last cape we can get our hands on," Piggot said. She pinched the bridge of her nose and took a deep breath. "Let's start from the top. Battery, Assault, are you certain that it wasn't some sort of projection?"

"If it was," Battery began before her husband could say something he would regret. "Then it was exceptionally realistic. It stopped a cement block in mid-flight, and then displayed very precise hydrokinesis."

The Director nodded, and Calvert shifted in his seat. "Director, I think it might be safest to assume that this is the real thing. If it isn't then we will lose face a little, but we can always claim that we were just being overly cautious. If it is the real thing and we don't react appropriately..."

"You're right, of course." Piggot said. "Battery, Assault, what can you tell me about the girl, this... Queen Administrator. God what a horrible name. If we ever convince her to join our side Glenn's going to have a field day with a name like that."

Battery leaned back into her chair and stared up at the ceiling for a moment. "She seemed shy. Almost reserved. Non-confrontational too, though she did jump into the middle of a cape fight to try and stop it."

"She also," Assault butted in. "Scared the ever-loving hell out of me. She acted like Leviathan was just a big dog or something, like a pet. And she apologised after Leviathan killed Kaiser, but it sounded... off. Like a kid who was caught with their hand in the cookie jar. Yeah, she was sorry, but it was like she didn't understand that what she did was wrong, or that it had consequences."

"We should arrest her," Armsmaster said, adding his two cents.

"Armsmaster, you are forbidden from interacting with this cape unless she has already opened hostilities or under my direct supervision. I won't have you bumbling your way into insulting the girl and have her drop her pet Endbringer on us." Piggot shifted in her seat, a grimace crossed her face for a moment before she schooled herself. "Now, options, the report already says that she's not interested in joining up. Could we change her mind?"

Battery shrugged. "I asked her if she wanted anything and tried to make it pretty clear that we could do a lot for her. She asked me if I had anything to eat. I... don't think she's very materialistic. It's just a hunch, but offering money or the like probably won't go far."

"Her costume was pretty much just normal clothes and a bandanna. She doesn't seem to care much for her image," Assault added. "And for all that she was creepy as hell, she wasn't trying to be intimidating. I mean, the Endbringer was doing plenty of intimidation just standing there completely still and staring at us, but she didn't seem to notice how that was freaking us all out."

"How did she direct it?" Armsmaster asked.

"I didn't see any gestures or the like. She just talked to it. Scolded it for turning Kaiser into a pancake, and it seemed to be listening to her." Battery grimaced at her own choice of words.

A few faces went green at that description.

"Brilliant. We have a horse whisperer, but for apocalyptic death monsters," Assault muttered just loud enough that they could all hear.

"Ignoring that for now," Piggot said while frowning at the irreverent cape. "Any weaknesses we could exploit?"

"She looked like a normal girl. She probably has the same problem all Masters do; she's baseline human," Battery said. "I'd like to add one thing, though. I mentioned it in the report but... well, she mentioned a range to her powers and said that she was afraid that Leviathan would... revert back to its previous behaviour. That, and Leviathan was acting very protectively. I think that if we knock her out we'll either have an angry Endbringer on our hands, or just a... normal one."

"And if we Master her?" the director asked.

There was some shifting in seats. The PRT frowned upon Masters, Heartbreaker and Glaistig Uaine having set a bad precedent. Still, there were some capes that joined that had unfortunate powers. The Protectorate wasn't about to refuse more firepower just because a power wasn't good for PR.

"That depends, would Leviathan see that as an attack on his master and retaliate?" Armsmaster asked.

The Director nodded and pulled one of the sheets closer to her. Thomas recognized it as a threat profile for a new cape. "I'm giving her the temporary threat rating of Master 12. I'm also adding a provision to recruit her at all costs. If she wants her own mansion we'll bloody well give her one. If she can control other Endbringers, or if one of our trumps can copy her powers, then she's worth her weight in gold."

"Especially if the thing with Leviathan's name is real," Assault added.

There was a long pause, quite a few looking his way. "What thing?" Piggot said, her brow scrunching up.

"Ah, I don't know if that was in the report. But she denied that Leviathan was called Leviathan, uh, though she did call it that by accident. It felt like she was trying to convince us that the Endbringer wasn't an Endbringer. You know, with the mask and all. I don't know who she thought she was fooling bu--"

"Get to the point, Assault.

"Right, right! So, she told us to call it Unit Two. That much makes sense. If they're created by someone, well, it was the second one to show up. Problem is, she called it Unit Two of Twenty, the first time around."

Piggot leaned back into her chair. "That... shit," she said. "The implication that there are seventeen more Endbringers is, in a word, horrifying. Still, this is an opportunity to learn more about them. I'm going to contact Costa-Brown. We need to be ready for her tomorrow."

If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

"And how will you treat her?" Miss Militia asked, talking for the first time since the meeting had started.

"With the kid gloves," Piggot said.

To Thomas Calvert, all problems were opportunities. When the meeting finished he had a long conversation with some of his subordinates.

***

In Which Taylor Makes a Buddy

"That's a dog shelter," Taylor stated.

{Affirmative.} Leviathan helpfully replied.

She looked at the bit of paper she had been given, then up at the building and to the address painted onto a bit of plywood and placed on a windowsill. They matched. If it wasn't for the chorus of barking dogs she might even have been fooled into thinking this was a shelter for people.

Pressing a hand against her rumbling stomach, Taylor decided to take her chance and walked into the shelter. It smelled faintly of dog, but also of lemony-cleaning stuff and doggie kibble. Within the dimly lit reception were a few people diligently at work, either carrying bags of dog food over their shoulders or talking while pointing at maps of the city.

"Um, hello?" Taylor said, her voice drowned out by the many dogs. Still, a younger woman by the reception desk looked up and took in her rather dishevelled appearance.

"Oh, hello honey, how can I help you?" she asked as she slipped a lock of coarse brown hair behind an ear.

"Ah, um, I was told that there was a shelter here, that I could stay in?" Taylor said.

The girl laughed, but it wasn't unkind. "We're more a shelter for the four-legged then pretty young girls, but we do have a few rooms some of us are staying in." She looked Taylor up and down, taking in how thin she was under the hoodie and the way she hunched over at the attention. "Tell you what, I'll bring you to the boss-lady, and you ask her if you can help out. We won't take anyone that's not willing to work, but it you're ready to give a bit of elbow grease we can keep you fed and warm, at least for a few days."

"That, that would be great!" Taylor said with stars in her eyes.

The young woman grinned. "Brilliant! Come on, I'll show you to the boss. Oh, and I'm Cassie, by the way."

"Please to meet you! I'm Taylor."

Cassie nodded, then picked up a clip-board on the way to the back of the room. "Well, come along Taylor. Oh, and be... patient with the boss. She can be a bit rough but she means well."

Taylor nodded and followed Cassie into the back room of the shelter. Dozens of cages lined the walls, these filled with excited dogs in every condition imaginable. Some looked to be in good health, but more than a few were gaunt or injured and obviously in need of some attention. To be fair, Taylor thought, the people in the shelter were trying their best. She hadn't thought about it, but with the attack many dogs had been displaced and had lost track of their families.

"Hey Rachel," Cassie said as she reached the far end of the room. There was a wide door that lead into a bit of a courtyard in the back, and a tall, butch girl wearing a rough leather coat with a furry neckline was on one knee there, apparently working with a trio of dogs. "I've got someone new. She's looking for work and a place to stay."

The girl, Rachel, looked up and took Taylor in with a glance, then turned to Cassie. "The fuck is this?"

Cassie rolled her eyes. "This is Taylor, she just needs a place to stay for a few days. She said she was willing to help."

Rachel's brows furrowed and she looked at Taylor again. Taylor, for her part, shied away from the girl's hard stare. "You good with dogs?"

"I, uh, I'm okay? I kinda adopted one yesterday. sorta, and we get along mostly well," she admitted.

"Where is it?" Rachel asked.

"Uh, I didn't want to bring him here. He might scare the other dogs and, um, he's not trained to be around people yet."

"You left him with food?"

Taylor opened her mouth to reply, then froze. "Oh god, no, I didn't. Oh gosh darn, what if he's hungry?"

Rachel's brow furrowed and she took a small step closer to Taylor. Her dogs walked up behind her, eyeing Taylor too. "You can't do that."

"I, I'm sorry?" Taylor said.

Then her stomach grumbled loud enough that everyone heard and she had to press a hand against her chest and tried to mask a grimace.

Almost instantly, Rachel calmed down. "You have anything to eat?" she asked.

"Not, not since yesterday morning, no," Taylor admitted. "They didn't have anything at the camps and I didn't find anything to eat on my own."

"Stupid," Rachel accused her before turning to Cassie. "Get her something to eat, then something for her dog. She can pick up shit in the back."

"Got it, boss," Cassie said. "I'll be right back."

"Thanks!" Taylor said, her face twisting into a watery smile. "Um, I can help today, but I have somewhere I need to be tomorrow afternoon, is that okay? I can come back right after!" she added the last in a hurry.

"Yeah, whatever. You still here in the morning? Then you can help then and when you come back."

"Thank you so much."

"Go get your dog and bring him here. We'll look at him and see if he's healthy."

Taylor froze, eyes going wide. "I, uh, don't think that's the best idea," she said in a squeak.

"Why not?"

She was saved from answering when Cassie returned with a tupperware box filled with lukewarm noodles mixed with canned meat-sauce. "Here you go, honey. It's not the best but it's what we've got left over from this afternoon. We'll be starting on a proper supper in a bit. Hope this tides you over."

Taylor took the container and a plastic fork that Cassie handed her, then, with speed born of hunger, began shovelling the noodles in her mouth. "Oh god, this is so good," she said through a mouthful.

Cassie laughed and shook her head. "Speaking of, I'll be in the kitchen boss. Food should be ready in an hour or so."

Rachel made a noise of assent and went back to training her dogs, though she kept an eye on Taylor as she did so. Between two bites of what must have been a master chef's magnum opus, Taylor whispered to the air. "So, do you eat?"

{Negative. Unit-20 does not require sustenance.}

Taylor's shoulders drooped in relief. "Oh, thank god."

"Who you talking to?" Rachel asked.

Fork halfway to her mouth, Taylor paused. "Um, I uh, wasn't talking to anyone?"

"Bullshit."

She winced. "Um, I, can talk to my... dog from here?"

Rachel took her in for a long few seconds. "You some sort of parahuman too?"

"I, no, I... too?"

"Yeah. I'm Bitch. I do dogs." She pointed at her dogs who were all sitting in a row, tails wagging behind them.

"That's so cool. I, um, have a sort of dog thing too. But it's not a dog, and I just asked, and he doesn't eat. So that's okay. His name's..." Taylor's mind ran headlong into a brick wall. She hadn't found a civilian identity for Leviathan yet. "Mr. Fish."

"Mr. Fish."

"Yes."

Rachel gave Taylor the blankest look. "Okay. Will he be trouble?"

"No, no, he's really quiet," Taylor assured her.

Rachel Lindt was a simple girl who wanted simple things: she wanted to spend time with her dogs and be left alone, and if this new girl who looked like a kicked puppy wasn't going to cause trouble then she wasn't going to make a fuss about it. "There's a shovel over there. Put the shit in the compost box," she said before walking away, her dogs trailing after her.