“This sucks,” I groaned, resting my chin on my palm. “What did I do to deserve this?”

“Disobeyed orders, assaulted a Ward, aaand you didn't make your bed this morning.” Dennis clapped his hand on my shoulder. I shrugged it off. “Don't worry, sure they'll have you back out there in... a month?”

“Oh piss off,” I griped, logging into the console that gave my new assignment its name. “And I didn't do any of that!”

“Well,” Gallant said, coming over to me. He'd just got back from a patrol. “You did disobey orders, unless you're telling me Assault is lying.” I blushed and stared at the keyboard.

“I had to,” I complained weakly. “If I hadn't, Shadow Stalker would have--”

“We don't know why she was there,” he interrupted. “There's a chance that Regent would have backed off, made his point, and let her go.” I raised my head and shot him a glare. I knew better.

“Fine,” I grumbled. “I'll...cope. Please tell me it's not going to be a month.” Gallant laughed and clapped me on the shoulder. I managed not to flinch.

“Probably not,” he admitted, earning a groan from Dennis. “Besides, you were already scheduled here today. It's only the next few that really changed.” Gallant pointed at Dennis as he removed his helmet. “Patrol in twenty.”

“I know, I know.” Dennis sighed and pulled his featureless, white mask over his head. “Good luck Amaranth.”

“Thanks,” I replied as he headed up the elevator. “So, twelve hours on my ass?” Dean chuckled and ran his fingers through his hair. It was a little greasy looking.

“Something like that.” He sounded tired. He looked tired. “Keep your headset on at all times, you're the brain of the whole Protectorate East-North-East.” I frowned.

“I'm it?”

“Well, you have backup,” Dean said with a shrug as he fiddled with his gauntlets. “I'll be here, sleeping mostly, and Vista will be back from her patrol in four hours. Oh, and Miss Militia is around your whole shift. Don't be afraid to reach out to any of us, okay?” I nodded and he smiled. “Cool. Good luck.” I nodded as he left, then turned back to the console.

It was, really, little more than a fancy PC built into a desk. There was some Tinker-tech nonsense in there for processing the sheer amount of data it did, but otherwise it was a computer like any other. My training on it had been...brief. There were half a dozen manuals stacked on the desk with labels like 'EO 11.3b: Acceptable Use of Protectorate Resources'. Boring, poor reading material for killing time. I guess that wasn't really my job here, but it sure felt like it right now. Besides that, my notepad for...notes, and a water bottle. I was as ready as I could be.

I sighed and pulled up the map of Brockton Bay. A scattering of blips showed where hero teams were patrolling across the city. Victoria was running a convoy with Brandish and Lady Photon. That seemed a little overkill, but maybe they were expecting something. It wouldn't be the first time.

Battery was down where the boardwalk had been with Weld. Their blips were still, maybe talking to locals or something. No calls over the radio, so they were probably fine. Vista and Flechette were down by the crater lake. I wasn't sure why they went down there all the time, probably Dolltown though I hadn't heard anything about it beyond not going over 'the line'. Easy for me, since I wouldn't go down there if someone put a gun to my head.

Clockblocker was getting ready to depart with Assault, as six in the morning struck: the official start of my shift. They would be policing the eastward part of downtown, where restoration crews were just moving in. It was slow going, securing block by ruined block from all sorts of looters, gangsters, and villains, but it was going.

“Assault to console, radio check.” I sat up rigidly as the call came in, my hand snapping to my headset and pressing the 'call' button.

“Console, five by five, over.” I replied, automatically falling back on a painfully familiar format.

“Chill Amaranth, it's not the army,” Clockblocker drawled. “Still, radio check.”

“Loud and clear,” I answered. “Sorry, I was...a cadet.”

“No kidding, what element?” Assault asked.

“Uh,” I stammered, taken aback. “Air. I...wanted to be a pilot.”

“Sounds pretty cool,” Assault said. “Okay, we're heading out now. Assault out.”

I leaned back in my seat and shut down the mic. I watched the screen, idly wondering what was going to happen today. Idly, like it wasn't the reason my stomach was churning enough to make me skip breakfast. I knew, after the raid, things happened fast but I was still fuzzy on numbers. That meant I got to have a lovely black cloud hanging over me, at least until the other shoe dropped.

Until then, I was left sitting here with nothing to do until someone talked to me. Well bully for me, a moment to myself. Relatively speaking, I was reminded as Dean walked by in his pyjamas. Outside the armour he was...a lot leaner than I expected. More of a runner than the football star I'd expected Vicky to be dating. He flashed a winning smile at me and I gave him an awkward wave before turning my attention back to the console.

No change, besides the slight movements of the heroes' individual dots. I sighed and looked over my shoulder. I knew it was allowed but...it felt awkward browsing the web on my first day doing this. But Dennis had literally been browsing Facebook when I came down, covering the last ten minutes of Kid Win's shift. It was normal. It was fine.

I took a deep breath and opened a new window, then shrunk it so I could still see most of the map. I wasn't about to slack off just because I wanted something to do while I waited for shit to hit the fan. The browser was...weird looking, but that was just Earth Bet Shit, like Star Wars, and BcDonalds. It still had a search bar at the top, so I clicked it and hovered my fingers over the keyboard.

What the fuck to search? Oh god I had an entire, sort-of alien internet at my fingertips and no idea where to start. Well, not entirely true, there was at least a single website I knew for sure. Cracking my knuckles and letting my fingers dance across the keys, I prepared myself for a refresher on early 2010s forum culture.

Parahumans Online was...surprisingly well laid out. I had been told I'd get my own, verified account should I desire it, at least when things like that weren't at the bottom of the list. That was fine for now, all I wanted to do was browse. And, like any depressed sixteen-thirty year old with a modicum of fame, the first thing I did was ego searching.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

The results were...pretty thin on the ground, if I was honest. I couldn't expect that much, it had been barely two days since I'd debuted. There was a pretty good video, a Go Pro or something, of me getting eaten by Hookwolf and subsequently punching through his muzzle. Huh, Gallant was right, I had gone all the way through. When he spat me out, I saw chunks of metal falling as he retreated. The video cut off there, before my face could be seen. Curious, I scrolled through the comments.

'Who the hell is the new Ward?!' one read, another 'That's quite the jawbreaker'. I let out a huff of humourless laughter. It was...weird, in a way, to see people speculating about my power. Most of it seemed to be pretty positive though, even if I technically wasn't a Ward at that point. At least most people seemed to be on board with beating up Nazis.

The comments on my debut speech were sort of disappointing. 'Boring', 'cute costume lame speech', and 'oh cool a shittier Glory Girl' stuck out to me. I sighed and turned my attention back to the map. I wasn't here to impress twits online, I was here to survive in the biggest shitshow this city had ever seen.

With no changes, alerts, or screams for back up echoing in my ears, I returned to browsing. I decided to head to the wiki section, see if they had anything for me yet. To my surprise, the answer was yes. It wasn't exactly a ton of info, but there wasn't much out there yet. It named me as the newest member Brockton Bay Wards, that my join date was June the third, and about my fights with Hookwolf and the Undersiders.

I glanced up at the header and narrowed my eyes. 'Facts in this article are under dispute, see the [DISCUSSION] section for more.' Hmmm, well if that wasn't an invitation. I almost burst out laughing when I started reading the comments on the facts in dispute. It was about me fighting Leviathan. Apparently there were a few grainy cell phone photos floating around that showed me taking a hit from Leviathan's tail. I wasn't sure what idiot was taking pictures during a fucking Endbringer attack, but the fact they'd published them was sort of impressive.

When I found the photos in question, even I had trouble telling if it was me or not. There were three of them, stills from a video maybe considering how dogshit the quality was. One showed a figure in grey, with a spot of blue, running. The next had the tail in the way, though it looked like there was maybe some blur behind it. In the last, the tail was gone but the figure still seemed to be moving.

It was probably me, I wasn't sure of anyone else looking like that who could take a hit from Leviathan. Still, I wasn't about to wade into a toxic debate where I technically didn't have anything to say. Even if I admitted to being Amaranth, I had my doubts I'd be believed without the 'verified cape' sticker next to my name. Well, no matter then.

I closed the tab and glance at the clock again. Six-thirty, not even half an hour into my shift and I was already done reading...about me at least. I could do some real research maybe, read the Protectorate's records on capes and villains in the area. That could even be productive, arguably, since I needed to know what I was going up against. It just...didn't sound fun.

I drummed my fingers on the desk, eyes drifting to the thick reference books. No, I wasn't quite that desperate yet. Dean passed me again, heading back to his quarters. The dots on the map moved slowly. No calls came through my headset. Damn, even in a city as fucked up as Brockton Bay, crime wasn't a 24/7 gig.

A thought came to mind, one I immediately discarded. That website probably didn't even exist here, divergences between Earths being what they were. Even if it somehow had got through that multiversal filter, surely it was blocked on a government computer. I stared at the search bar, temptation growing. It...couldn't hurt. My fingers flew across the keyboard as sweat began pricking at my back.

4chan.org.

A wretched hive of scum and villainy if ever there was one. To my shock, a familiar, reddish splash screen came up. I stopped for a moment, frozen by my own success. I hurriedly checked over my shoulder and found the room empty but for me. Well, okay then... I turned my attention back to the screen and began perusing the board list.

Mostly it was the same as back home: /news/, /b/, /k/, even /po/. Of course my first destination was /k/, how could it not be? It was...pretty similar to the board I was familiar with. A lot more discussion about gun laws, along with a whole sticky thread for finding state-specific restrictions. No one seemed too upset though, and I saw more than one comment on a thread openly wondering what use a concealed carry pistol would do to a Brute. Scrolling to the top and looking at the list, I did find one that wasn't there back home: /hvr/. Well, I had zero reference for what that could be, so I decided to find out.

'/hvr/ - Heroes, Villains, and Rogues' the header proclaimed. Holy shit, 4chan's version of PHO. I felt sweat beading on my forehead as I stared. Oh god, oh fuck this was almost too good to be true. Licking my lips, I clicked the 'catalog' button and began browsing.

My first question: how many threads debating the merits of Alexandria's ass did a board really need? My second: why three capefic threads? I ignored those posts and kept looking. There were actually a few interesting threads up right now. 'Endbringer Speculation General' was one I decided to avoid.; no need for me to speculate about something I had personal experience with. 'Wards General' though...

Fortunately, /hvr/ was a blue board so I didn't have to worry about being flashbanged by fucked up images...hopefully. There was a shocking amount of debate over who 'best Ward' was, whatever that entailed. People brought up time in, arrest records, Endbringer engagements, even debut speeches to try and make their point, only to be called slurs that even I hadn't seen before. Oh 4chan...

I searched my own name of course; I was having a morning of ego searching. I kind of earned it, between saving Gallant and stopping Regent from fucking up Shadow Stalker's life any further than he had. I needed to do more, of course, but if I was stuck on console with nothing to do? Well..

Only a few, scattered results. That made sense, I was still pretty new. I tabbed to the first one and grimace: a simple shot of me at my debut with the comment '>would'. Never change, 4chan. The reply immediately after called a slur that the government probably wanted filtered so I bounced to the next result.

> Oh SHIT didn't she get eaten by Hookwolf?

In response someone sent the same video I'd seen on PHO. That generated a fair bit of buzz, much to my swelling pride's delight.

> >Kruppstahl

>

> Not even once.

That got a snicker out of me. I kept going, finding people shitting on me, gassing me up, and sexualizing me. Yeah, that was...about what I expected. It all amounted to basically nothing. I sighed and clicked down to the last result, and my eyes widened.

> This is Amaranth right? No way anyone else takes a hit like that.

Attached was an embedded video that I clicked on. It was just two seconds long, and maybe 240p if you counted the static. Still, it was me. The blue of the scarf made it obvious and, well, no one would take a hit like that. The video made it clearer than the shitty stills from it had. Huh, why had PHO only had frames and not the whole thing? Weird.

Leviathan's tail lashed out at me as I was running alongside another cape. Assault? He was in red anyway. I suddenly froze and the tail struck and stopped for less than a blink before following the Endbringer. Damn, good reactions on that one. How the fuck had I even done that with inches of water underfoot and the rain pounding down on me? I looked down at my hand and flexed it. I guess, maybe, I'd been underestimating myself.

The video caused a bunch of debate that basically amounted to 'who the fuck knows, that ain't her costume'. A sensible enough conclusion if you hadn't been there. I sat back in my chair, just staring at the screen. Wild. I couldn't believe there was footage, shitty as it was, of me tanking Leviathan. Well, that was proof enough I didn't dream it at least.

“Battery to console.” I started in my seat and quickly alt-tabbed to the map.

“Battery, console, go ahead. Over.” I readied a notepad to copy.

“Skitter seems to be making a move, I'm going to check it out.” She sounded tense.

“Understood,” I replied, jotting down 'Sktr, moving'. I clicked a couple buttons on the console “QRF is on standby. ETA to you is four minutes, barring obstruction.”

“Don't think it's needed,” she replied. “I'll keep you posted. Out.” It suddenly dawned on me. Oh no. I tabbed back to 4chan, going back to /hvr/'s catalogue. There, right at the top, an image of a black cloud over a bunch of ruined buildings.

> What the FUCK is going on in BB?!?!?!

Shit.