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Alexandra Simmons ran a hand through her hair as she logged off her computer, making a mess out of her bun. She reached for her coffee and already tipped it all the way before belatedly realizing that the cup was empty. Sighing, she put the cup down and leaned back against her (rather comfortable) swiveling chair, letting some of the tension she'd built up throughout most of the month.
It was by some fluke of fate that her foster daughter made the phrase "losing sleep over your growing girl" true in just one day; first, with the entire shitfest happening with the Shadow Stalker incident and second with her incredibly random encounter with a shootout between an up-and-coming gang called the Merchants and a few elite operatives that could possibly be a link to the elusive figure, Coil. Veronika, or rather, V had once joked with her that the reason she had to move so much was that Murphy had something like a crush on her. At the time, Alex had thought she was just half-kidding and that the statement was coming from a position of self-loathing. With how the girl had seemed to shrug off what should be a psychologically traumatizing event, it had dawned on Alex how little of that statement was a joke.
And so, in addition to updating the psychological profile they had of their (now formerly) edgiest Ward, she had tasked herself with a more analytical reading of her daughter's PRT record. It was just as well that the Director had burdened her with the additional task of making V's psychological profile as well; she now at least had express permission and excuse to look through the girl's more confidential history.
What she'd found had shaken her through her core.
Alex had thought that the girl was simply an orphan from a newly-immigrated family. What she'd found was that part of her history written on the document given to her by the CPS was misleading; her parents had died all the way back in her homeland and her arrival in North America was something she'd achieved all by her lonesome. What's more, she was a direct survivor of the Weeping Angel incident, an event that was on the level of an Endbringer attack, only without any time for any man, government, or cape to do anything about it.
It was a dreadful incident wherein the eponymous entity known as the Weeping Angel appeared in the sky shortly before Frankfurt descended into a scene out of hell. Countless spacetime anomalies appeared seemingly at random, hitting financial centers, warehouses, slums, and residential areas. As if that wasn't enough, waves upon waves of creatures that blurred the line between biotinker creations and projections appeared and targeted all human life, though these creatures also exhibited behavior that ignored civilians whenever capes were in the vicinity. Then, as if that wasn't enough, some sort of plague with no identifiable cause had been unleashed, putting regular people and parahumans alike into zombie-like states that sought out the populace with the same fervor as the monsters.
The Weeping Angel, whose more popular designation is Jophiel as opposed to its German moniker Gotterdammerung, was described as a figure made of pure light with three wings on its left side and was surrounded by what appeared to be rods or stakes with glowing cores that emitted black lighting and spatial anomalies. Witness accounts of the entity described it as weeping while the chaos unfolded. Reports from the few personnel and surviving parahumans, government-sponsored or otherwise, suggested that the entity had some way to redirect physical means of harm as any projectile or beam that had been directed her way had either found themselves rendered ineffective or redirected back at the caster. Additionally, parahumans with Mover powers that dealt with space and time like teleportation and temporal acceleration found themselves rendered impotent as their powers either performed unpredictably or refused to work at all.
The entire event only lasted for 30 minutes but it rendered the entire city uninhabitable thanks to many areas becoming zones of exotic phenomena such as suspended or accelerated time, unnatural geometry, or even straight-up one-way invisible portals into an inaccessible space. It effectively crashed the German economy, having occurred so soon after the attack on Cologne by Behemoth just five years prior. On the other hand, it also decimated the parahuman Nazi movement known as Gesellschaft as later investigations had shown that most of their financial and parahuman production centers had been located in Frankfurt. It explained the sudden arrival of a different Nazi cell in Richmond, one that was incredibly religious and somehow pacifistic in nature compared to the Empire.
The Weeping Angel then quickly disappeared without a trace during the height of the chaos. Further space-time distortions stopped and the production of the creatures slowly ground to a halt. 30 minutes later and the American PRT headquarters received a new S-class threat assessment dossier. Officially, it was classified as a new Endbringer, but everyone who had read an introduction to Parahuman Sciences could tell that it came across as more like an especially disastrous Trigger Event, especially as the Weeping Angel was never seen again afterward.
Ironically, it was almost fortunate that the Simurgh appeared over Lausanne a year later. All the resentment that would have been directed at Parahumans was instantly shifted over to the actual Endbringer and much of the damage that would have occurred in the attack had been averted.
Meanwhile, the Weeping Angel incident served as the political incentive to criminalize any and all attempts to intentionally induce Trigger Events. It was why Shadow Stalker's personnel transfer to the Madison containment facility was processed so quickly; the Wards, and by extension, the PRT, really didn't want that kind of heat. And just as well; it hadn't even taken a day for her to become persona non grata by the rest of the Brockton Bay Protectorate. Alex had even caught Armsmaster during a conversation with Miss Militia at lunch calling the Ward "no better than the Nazis."
It took Alex a week to go through the historical and legal ramifications of that one piece of her foster daughter's history alone. The more she learned about it, the more convinced she was that not persuading the girl into the Wards was the right decision. Vista, for example, was already being treated with a large amount of caution by both the personnel and the PR department for her power's resemblance to the Weeping Angel's alone. What more, then, for a girl who could do at least two of the entity's identifiable powers?
It was a cruel irony, then, that the worst that had happened to the girl afterward was her kidnapping at age 6. Apparently, the foster family she had been assigned to regularly participated in human trafficking and it was by a miracle of an escape that the girl had made it to the police and brought everyone involved to justice. Her case worker was fired and replaced by Arthur Vasily, who had done right by the girl for the rest of the decade, fighting for V's immediate transfer at the first sign of things like alcohol dependency and gambling habits.
Not even Alex had been spared from scrutiny. She just had a meeting with the man the other day and it felt like she was back in her thesis defense with Arthur as all three panelists, even if he spoke genially and acted understandingly the entire way.
At least she could comfort herself that V had this man in her corner growing up.
Alex checked her watch, an old digital watch her own mother had imported from Japan on her 18th birthday. 5:48 PM. She had a meeting with the Director at 6 PM, which was just after hours, and though her superior did not specify what it was about, Alex could hazard a guess easily enough. She looked at her empty takeout coffee wistfully before standing up, tucking the relevant documents under her arm while putting the rest back in their files. 10 minutes was barely enough to get there, especially in a facility built to confuse and hamper infiltrators like the PRT HQ.
She met very few people in the hallways. Fridays were slow days in the office and a number of workers would take an early leave on those days just to extend the weekend. One would think that the gangs would be especially active during this period wherein everyone along with law enforcement was taking it easy, but it turned out that they were lazier than corporate offices when it comes to Friday. She herself was excited for the weekend to get started, but she still nodded and smiled at the troopers she'd pass. It was the small things that make dirty work like theirs feel a little better.
Alex finally arrived at the Director's office. She knocked on the door, got a monotonous "enter," and entered the room to see the overweight woman standing by the window, staring at the city instead of sitting in her chair. Alex closed the door behind her and made herself comfortable on one of the two chairs the Director had by the table. Then, and only then did she call out.
"Director."
Piggot turned around and looked at Alex with a placid expression. She was a stoic woman on most days, only ever acting emotionally when the given situation allows or calls for it.
"Dr. Simmons," she said. "The psych profiles are done?"
"Yes ma'am." Alex held the folders up and placed them on the table. Piggot nodded.
"Hit me with the cliff notes."
Alex took a deep breath. "The Wards are handling the situation fairly well, all things considered. The most affected of them were Aegis, Gallant, and surprisingly, Clockblocker. It seemed that the former two think that they should have seen this coming while Clock expressed regretting not informing us of his suspicions."
"I see. And the others?"
"Vista appears to have preferred that Shadow Stalker underwent trial while Kid Win expressed relief at the transfer."
"That's for the best, then," Piggot half-muttered. "And what of Stalker herself?"
"Stalker is unfit for duty." Both of them shared a smile at that. "But otherwise, she exhibits a mental state that seemed hyperfocused on expressing the world in terms of predator and prey."
Piggot raised a brow. "Social Darwinism?" Alex nodded.
"When her attempts to deny her actions fell through, she switched to statements that claimed that we could not detain her because she was a 'predator.' Following that, we did a deeper examination of the mentality and found that they were largely consistent."
"You're telling me she caused a Trigger event because of teenage angst!"
"No," Alex said, her fingers tracing the buttons of her dress shirt. "I believe that her mentality was a result of a coping mechanism, perhaps stemming from her Trigger. I would suggest an investigation into her stepfather, but it would be useless for the girl at this point. It may be cruel to say this, but the incident was an extension of that."
"I'll have someone look into it. If anything, we can add a few more years on his rap sheet."
It was at that point that the woman took another breath. She closed her eyes for a moment before looking back at Alex. "Alright, tell me about the victim."
Alex looked down at the documents on the table and tried to find the right file. Unlike with the Wards, she didn't have what she'd dug up on the girl memorized.
"Taylor Hebert has been discharged from the psychiatric ward and is currently staying home with her father. The long stay indicates a possible Thinker ability. Unfortunately, her history and past interactions suggest a distrust of authority and antisocial tendencies when it comes to interacting with fellow teenagers."
"Chances of getting her into the Wards?"
"Low, unfortunately." Alex sighed. "You'd have to handle the recruitment carefully at every step of the way and avoid giving her ultimatums as it would possibly remind her of her bullying and cause her to react emotionally. Fortunately, we've already taken care of the first step and removed one of her tormentors."
"I see. I'll have someone look into dealing with the other ones. As always, lawyers have to be a pain in the ass. The Bay could honestly use a Thinker at this point. If she turns out to be one, that is."
It was clear from her expression that Piggot wasn't actually looking forward to investigating it, though one wouldn't be able to tell if they didn't know her well. The woman wiped the expression on her face and walked back to her seat. Taking yet another deep breath, she once more looked Alex in the eye, an almost hesitant look on her face.
"So now… your daughter?"
Alex felt herself rise up and grimaced as she had to suppress a scowl. She didn't speak for a while, though Piggot waited patiently in the meantime. Finally, she sighed.
"As a personal assessment… I don't want her to join the Wards," she began. "But speaking objectively, V… Veronika has a history of narrowly escaping danger and violence. Not to mention that she's a survivor of the Weeping Angel incident."
Piggot winced at that. Alex could understand; what happened in Ellisburg was quite similar to Frankfurt, the difference being that if the former was like walking into a trap, the latter was the monster just coming in and flipping the table.
"However," Alex continued. "Despite her experiences, V appears to be psychologically stable enough to socialize normally and has a tendency to do the right thing for things she sees right in front of her."
The Director locked her hands together. "You think that something she might see in this line of service would trigger a buried trauma."
She didn't so much ask as she stated. Alex nodded and watched as the other woman switched to drumming on the table with her fingers. Silence dominated the room as the scientist and foster mother waited for her superior to make a judgment on the PRT's stance on her daughter.
"I won't lie," Piggot said. "Having our very own Strider would be a blessing for the force."
She leaned back. "But if you can make sure that she doesn't jump into the game and avoid blowing the powder keg that is this city, then I'm not opposed to leaving her alone."
Alex released a breath she didn't realize she was holding. The Director was giving her a rueful smile and Alex felt her own lips curl to reciprocate.
"Thank you, ma'am," she said, bowing her head.
"Don't thank me just yet. The PRT might be fine leaving her alone for now, but it doesn't mean this city won't be trying anything. Take care of your daughter, Ms. Simmons. You're dismissed."
Alex nodded and got off her seat. She walked out of the Director's office with a renewed drive to do right by her boss, her daughter, and the city. It was a blessing that V didn't seem to be interested in the local cape scene, though that presented the problem of finding a way for her to get a good outlet for using her powers. Still, if the girl was ever going to decide that enough was enough, she was going to have to support her the whole way.
Alex fingered the rim of her watch, feeling its buttons. Yes, just like her own mother had supported her. And if there was anyone who would need a home to go to, it would be V.
Those were the thoughts that went through her head as she headed home in her SUV, stopping by a place to order takeout for dinner. V was already there when she arrived at her apartment, her daughter wearing a facemask and a sleeveless top with her hair tied in a ponytail. Alex could hear the sound of the TV with its volume turned up from inside.
"Ah, sorry, was cleaning the bathroom," she said. "Welcome back. Is that for dinner?"
Alex smiled at her and raised the paper bag she'd bought. "Nachos or tacos?"
"I'll try both," V said. "Don't think I've tasted Mexican food in a while."
---
Notes:
I wonder... the clock is ticking, but what's holding it back?
Edit: At the suggestion of a friend, I changed Sariel to Jophiel
Edit2: Someone pm'd me on SB that I misspelled Ellisburg lmao
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