Hannah had been feeling troubled ever since her dinner with the Heberts. Her contact with Danny began under orders to recruit his daughter Taylor, but had since grown beyond that. For a union man, he was rather charming in his own way, and despite the order of recruitment being rescinded in favor of a softer sell, she still met up with him on what she had to admit were dates to discuss options. She didn’t know why Ethan kept muttering about honeypots when she brought Danny up in the breakroom.
Hannah hadn’t taken the time to date anyone since Clive had dumped her when the details surrounding Ravager came to light. Watching him go on to become leader of the Philadelphia Protectorate hurt almost as much as the right cross Kat had nailed her with, not even her goofy mouse ears had blunted that argument. She still didn’t get it, Lustrum had mutilated their friend, so why had they both taken Lustrum’s side?
Worse, she found out that Danny’s deceased wife was Lustrum’s butcher, which rated her only slightly lower in deserved disdain than the actual Butcher. The official reports were clear, Lustrum had a human Master that was brainwashing people, yet those two refused to believe it. Kat quit the Protectorate in solidarity with Ravager for God’s sake. Hannah ended up requesting Brockton Bay just so she could go after Lustrum personally, and with Armsmaster’s help, she was sentenced to the Birdcage where she belonged.
She didn’t understand why so many continued to defend that monster of a woman, which was why she was currently digging through the records. She would find the original records of Lustrum’s crimes and shove them back in Taylor’s pretentious face. It would be proof that her orders had been just and righteous.
Lustrum’s files were locked behind security level nine, which was normally reserved for the likes of Legend or Chief Director Costa-Brown, but she had been involved with the case itself, which meant she could access more than most thanks to an exception on her own credentials.
Even with that exception, some parts of the file remained sealed. All of the grisly details she couldn’t forget were still there, the recovered bodies, the dead law enforcement, the riots spread across six states. Lustrum’s so-called movement was every bit as deadly as they said it was, but then she looked at the dates on things and saw the discrepancies. Like one that listed Lustrum in two places on the same day, complete with footage of both events.
The Think Tank report on those incidents was sealed, with a need to know only restrictions. Anyone wanting access had to request it from Legend or the Chief Director which raised all kinds of red flags in her mind.
She frowned as she pulled up the details of Hirschfeld, then grimaced at how sparse they were. Whoever that person was, it was always assumed they were a team of normals that performed mutilations after the recipient had been ‘made willing’ by whatever Master Lustrum employed.
To think that not only was Hirschfeld a cape, but a biotinker on par with Bonesaw of all abominations against nature. Now, she had a name to connect to the record, and it made questions about Taylor’s powers all the more pressing. She called herself Cyber, worked with computers mostly from what little they had seen in person and some assistant devices were offered on Toybox’s catalog for mobility up to some basic replacement prosthetics.
That much made sense after the injuries Taylor suffered, the cause of which were still listed as unsolved even in her sealed file. Hannah had already dug into the accusation that Shadow Stalker was involved with her hospitalization, because for all the trust she had in Armsmaster, she wanted proof that Taylor was wrong.
She wanted to be able to look her in the eye and say as much without even a sliver of doubt in her mind. Sophia Hess was on probation only because it had been the easiest way to protect the poor girl. Pinning a rapist to the wall was a touch excessive, even if he was a Nazi, but he was caught in the act. Some level of emotional response would be expected of a veteran member of the Protectorate, let alone a vigilante teenager.
Yet, the Director confirmed all the accusations in a meeting just days ago.
After arguing with Taylor over it all, she was starting to have doubts again, especially with a Thinker the likes of Tattletale manipulating her. Hannah would confirm she was right, that it was all a Thinker’s plot with planted evidence, then update the records with what she had learned about Annette Hebert’s cape identity along with the confirmation that another member of Lustrum’s organization was confirmed deceased. Then she could rescue Taylor under Master Stranger protocols.
She pulled up the Winslow investigation file and found it locked under Security Level Seven, which was department directors, Protectorate leaders and above. As the second in command of the Protectorate ENE, she only ranked Security Level Six. Why was a potential trigger event, even one that might involve a Ward, flagged with such security? Only the Director or Colin could authorize that.
Frowning, she decided to approach it from another angle. She reopened the file for Lustrum and entered the system URL for the Hebert investigation into the secure browser and smiled when the workaround still functioned. She hadn’t made much use of it, but it was always nice to know the exploit still worked; she would have to thank Ethan for teaching it to her.
The investigation was indeed halted, and listed as closed which was as expected. What she hadn’t expected was a detailed write-up no doubt penned by Colin that showed not only was Sophia directly involved with the lead up to a known trigger event, but was the one to push Taylor into her locker and secure the lock behind her according to an eye witness. Hannah didn’t trust that nearly as much as Colin seemed to, it felt too convenient given the gang presence in the school. She wouldn’t put it past the Empire to make a play there.
She kept reading, the pit in her stomach only growing with each new line. Dozens of crimes were linked to Sophia in the report, all technically justified or heroic in her cape identity, but excessive for a hero. Everything was there and it became clear what she was seeing.
“One hero for another,” she muttered, repeating Taylor’s words.
Armsmaster had a report ready that would end Sophia for life, potentially even enough to get her sent to the Birdcage, but would only submit it if Taylor was secured as a Ward. Hannah wanted to throw up, because if that report was so blatant, was Taylor also right about Lustrum? She knew she wouldn’t forget a single detail of that report, a side effect of her own trigger was that she could never forget anything. It was useful for weapon designs, but less so for the blood spray of Crimson when the Nine had come through town.
She had no idea he was already the Butcher, and it was only the swift action of Winter ending his life that saved her from joining that insanity. Hannah shivered at the memory, she endured many close calls over the years, but that one always stuck out.
She returned to Lustrum’s page and checked through her capes, arriving back at Fester’s page. Another Butcher and Hannah couldn’t help but chuckle darkly, because she had come close to learning that truth all those years ago.
Kimberly ‘Kimmie’ Clayton, civilian identity of Fester, aka Butcher IV. Known associates, Annette ‘Anne’ Rose. It was right there under everyone’s noses, but nobody had put the pieces together, because she was just an unpowered follower. Oh, how wrong they had been. Lustrum must have had a Stranger to mask her in some way.
Looking into Fester’s file, her murder of Richard Anders was documented as her first known criminal act. Checking his file ran into the same snag, a level seven security lock. Backing up to the Lustrum page, the loophole worked again, and the pit in her stomach only grew.
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Richard Anders, aka Allfather.
The PRT knew, and they kept a lid on it. It was no secret that Kaiser was his son, Max Anders, CEO of Medhall was the leader of the Empire Eighty Eight. Taylor was right about that too. She backed out of the page to Lustrum’s once more and sat back in her chair, pinching her nose.
That spoke of a level of corruption she didn’t even want to consider. Who would she even report it to? The Director? No, she needed to go higher than that, but what if they were all complicit? What if this was all standard procedure? The thought of it sickened her to no end.
“Something interesting?”
Hannah jumped at the voice and her power shifted into a desert eagle aimed directly at the intruder in her office. She breathed out when she saw the tall yet slender form of the Director.
“Thomas, you startled me,” she said, shifting her power back into a knife.
The man had served as Piggot’s second for almost as long as she held the Director’s position. Hannah at one point assumed the two were married with how close they were. Then again, they were the sole survivors of Ellisburg before Hero and Legend arrived on the scene, the rest of their cape support having fled. It was something neither let the capes under their command forget.
Director Calvert smiled. “My apologies, you just seemed lost in thought and we do have a meeting to discuss what happened on your patrol. Your office was on the way so I thought I would poke my head in, so to speak.”
Hannah kept her face as pleasant as she was able, but she could feel the snake in the room and it was poised to strike. “Yes, just looking over an old case for relevant details to my present assignment.”
“You were attempting to recruit Cyber, I believe?” Director Calvert asked, gesturing to the door. “Armsmaster continues to be quite insistent on her value, as does Watchdog.”
Could she trust Calvert? That was the question that everything hinged upon. If she was wrong, there was a chance she might end up in Master Stranger quarantine, as Lustrum’s supposed Master was never identified, they could claim she had a run in with them. Hell, they might even insist that Danny was said Master. Calvert at least was honest with her about Armsmaster potentially being demoted, so perhaps a test was in order.
“I don’t believe she would be amenable to recruitment,” Hannah answered, stepping into the hall. Her power was on a hair trigger, ready to turn into a riot shield at a moment’s notice. “Her deceased mother was one of Lustrum’s unaccounted for lieutenants. She had information from the movement that has colored her view of our organization as a whole, and my involvement with Lustrum’s arrest has only soured her further.”
“A pity,” Director Calvert said. “I’ll allow you to continue to observe and reach out on your own time, but officially I’m dropping all recruitment attempts. Now come, we have a meeting and I think the future Protectorate leader for the region should be there for it.”
She hummed, but didn’t continue the conversation. A few minutes of silence later and she entered a meeting room where the entire Protectorate roster was seated along with Aegis and Shadow Stalker. Hannah did her best to not look upon her with suspicion or scorn.
“Good, that’s everyone,” Armsmaster said. “Director, would you like to spearhead this meeting or should I?”
“Given it involves Parahumans exclusively, by all means,” the Director answered, taking his designated seat.
Hannah moved to her own and looked to the flat screen that was currently paused on a video. The first frame already revealed the speaker’s identity. Kaiser. Hannah wasn’t sure what it was about, but it had to be important if an all hands meeting was called.
“Aegis, you are here as Wards leader and will be expected to brief your team following this meeting. Shadow Stalker, you are here as someone who participated in this incident and are one of the last people to see Crusader alive.”
“The bastard’s dead!?” Shadow Stalker yelled, jumping to her feet. “How?”
More than a few of the heroes sucked in breaths. Was Sophia responsible for his death? Crusader was a Nazi and deserved whatever had happened, but there were laws in place if it was the result of a hero’s actions.
Armsmaster remained stoic in the face of the outburst. “That is what this video will clarify. Kaiser released this recording less than twenty minutes ago and we expect it to have sweeping ramifications for the stability of the city.”
And with that proclamation, the video began to play.
“Good people of Brockton Bay, I bring troubling news. An outsider has come to our city, one who isn’t above slaughtering the good people of our home. Crusader, valiant defender of everything decent, was killed today by this outsider. She calls herself the Major, but her true name is Motoko Kusanagi, a disgraced soldier discharged for her violent and destructive behavior. She slaughtered our knight like the animal she has proven to be. As such, I am offering five million dollars to whoever brings me the beast’s head. The rest of her body is negotiable.”
The video ended and the room remained silent for several tense moments. She hadn’t expected what did end up breaking the silence. Laughter. Shadow Stalker was laughing about the death of a man, an incident that apparently happened right under their noses.
“Holy shit, I knew that bitch was hardcore, but this is a whole different level,” Shadow Stalker said. “Please tell me we’re going to pay for her services and point her at the Nazis.”
“Unlikely,” Armsmaster said before anyone else could speak. “She has listed herself as a mercenary in Miss Militia’s report, but that she was employed by villains at the time. In addition, Dragon has corroborated the history that Kaiser alluded to. As such, we do not believe she will be open to a recruitment offer and we will not be hiring her just to keep her from being a potential enemy, not with the Empire out for blood.”
“Quite right,” Director Calvert cut in. “This ‘Major’ is to be considered extremely dangerous. Any Wards that encounter her are to disengage immediately. Protectorate members are authorized to employ lethal force if she resists. Your lives are the priority, I expect all of you to come home alive, that is an order.”
Hannah blanched. Lethal force against another cape was rarely authorized so blatantly, yet here he was pushing for it. All because a Nazi had died. She looked at Calvert, truly looked at him, and began to wonder. He was a black man, there was no denying that, so why was he coming to the support of a Nazi call to arms, even if indirectly? It didn’t make sense even if the goal was to maintain stability within the city.
Cyber was good at finding answers, and had proven correct about enough things so far to consider. Showing her the proof of violence in Lustum’s movement would be too inflammatory, but she would bring it up in due time. Perhaps another visit to the Hebert household was in order, along with an apology to help things along. She needed support and knew better than to try it alone. Something was rotten in the local Protectorate and PRT, and Hannah was determined to find out exactly what it was.
Leaving the meeting, Sophia was tapping away on her civilian phone, a bit of a smile on her face. Hannah felt a bit sick at that, but given the Nazis killed her father when she was barely starting school… She’d let that slide, for now.
Still, there were other people Hannah could call, even if it meant swallowing her pride to do so. There were several people she owed an apology to, and even after sixteen years, she still trusted them to do the right thing. It hurt to consider that she had been wrong, but she knew deep down that this was the right thing to do.
She owed it to Ravager, whatever name h— she had chosen for herself, to Clive as well, but first? Leaving the PRT building, Hannah pulled out her civilian phone and dialed a number she hadn’t called in years, one that she refused to throw out.
It was answered on the first ring. “Fuck off Hannah, I—”
“Kat, before you hang up, I just wanted to say I’m sorry,” she rushed out. “You were right, she was right, and I want to do what I should have done all those years ago.”
There was a long stretch of silence and Hannah feared that the call had dropped, or worse, been intercepted. Then, after such agonizing tension, a heavy sigh broke through.
“Okay Hannah, what prompted this? I know better than to think you had a sudden change of heart for nothing, so spill.”
So she did.