Crystalized Munchkinry - Act III - Chapter 23 (Patreon)

The unfortunate fact of being the Director of the PRT North-East was that weekends were a luxury. Ever since she became Director, she has worked more and more on Saturdays, and even sometimes on Sundays.

Unfortunately, because Brockton Bay was Brockton Bay, she couldn't spend the weekend catching up on her paperwork. She had to put out just as many fires as on a normal weekday.

And this Saturday was no different. She was sitting behind her enormous desk, working through paperwork. Currently, she was reviewing the final paperwork for the witness protection of the Hess family. Despite the date, she was rather happy to do it. It got rid of her as a major irritant, and they even managed to keep everybody silent about it.

And it looked bad for the Chief Director, who had been the biggest advocate for keeping Hess on the force instead of putting her in a deep, dark hole. And anything that hurt that woman made her happy. She really hated the Chief Director.

Though, knowing Murphy, it would come back to bite her and the PRT in the ass at the most unfortunate moment. She could swear that the entire city was cursed.

Hearing a chime, she looked up from the documents she was reviewing on one of her monitors, noticing a message marked with elevated priority. It wasn't marked urgent enough to make her worry, but it still made her sigh.

She clicked on it, only to be surprised. It was a request from Dragon for a meeting later in the day with her and Armsmaster.

Now she was worried.

Dragon was famous and busy enough, and meetings with her were rare enough at a Director's level that she couldn't help but worry. The message said little, just that it was easier to explain in person and that it wasn't anything dangerous or major.

Despite very much wishing not to accept the meeting request and just go back to putting out the usual fires, she reluctantly clicked the accept button.

She wasn't expecting much, but she was a little curious about what Dragon wanted.

It was exactly five minutes before four when there was a knock on her door. She called out without looking up. "Come in, Armsmaster."

Say what you want about the man, but he was punctuality incarnate. And just as she expected, he strolled into the room in his armor, shining to perfection. He nodded at her but said nothing, just stood to the side, waiting for the proper beginning of the meeting.

She was rather thankful. Earlier that day, a small skirmish had broken out around the border of the ABB's territory, and she was still dealing with the paperwork.

Exactly at four on the dot, the big monitor on the wall of her office turned on automatically, with a sign saying that Dragon was calling. She took a quick glance at Armsmaster, wanting to see if he reacted to his friend calling.

She didn't really have time for hobbies or simply to rest, but indulging in gossip never hurt anybody. She even placed a bet on them through a proxy. Maybe she would get lucky with that because she could use something that wasn't death and destruction.

She clicked the accept button once again, for some reason feeling as if fate was watching. She decidedly did not like this feeling.

Just as Dragon's face came up on the screen, the door opened again, and the tired and panting figure of the Deputy Director entered the room.

"Apologies, everyone, I was just dealing with the last of the Winslow case," he explained while nodding in greeting to the others, including Dragon.

"Hello, Deputy Director Renick, Director, and Colin. No problem, I just joined," came Dragon's reply.

Armsmaster just nodded, but she had questions. "Yes, hello everyone. I'm sorry, Dragon, but I need to deal with this first."

"No problem, Director. I'm in no rush," she replied with a small smirk.

"Right. Well, Renick, what can you tell me?"

"As you saw from the paperwork, Director, the family is in witness protection. Miss Hess is on the way to a correctional facility in Texas. I believe it is near Houston."

That was good news. The farther that stupid little girl was, the better she would feel.

"What about the other girls and the school?"

"The Clements girl got probation due to her actions and mandated therapy. I believe the family is considering moving from the city."

She wished she could move from the city.

"The Barnes girl is tougher. They deemed her non compos mentis, and she is currently at a facility dealing with such cases." Even Dragon grimaced on the screen after hearing that. "This family is also planning to move, ostensibly to be closer to the girl."

"And the victim?"

"Their lawyer got them to agree to the settlement really fast, and they signed everything. We didn't even hear a peep from them."

"At least that's good news. The school?"

"The police started a quiet investigation with the support of the CDC. The only reason they are keeping it quiet is because everybody agreed that making this public would only cause unnecessary panic. And hinder the investigation."

"Good. Get the documents to me by Tuesday," she told him, then turned back to Dragon. "Again, I apologize, Dragon. How can we help you today?"

Dragon smiled at her, which almost immediately had her senses flaring. The woman was planning something. She would bet her remaining kidney on it.

"I'm informing you that I recently bought a property in your city and am planning to set up a recycling facility."

"What?"

"Your fair city contains a rather extensive amount of metal. Granted, much of it is low grade, but some of it is pre-World War Two."

She was about to ask why that was important when Armsmaster let out a small sound. "Anything to say, Armsmaster?"

"Yes, Director," he replied, then turned to Dragon. "For sensors?"

"Yes, Colin."

He nodded and turned back to her. "Director, due to radioactive contamination, pre-World War Two metal is a must for very delicate sensor systems. Most of it is 'mined' from sunken ships."

"I see. And you think it's worth setting up a facility just for that, Dragon?"

"Yes, though I will make use of the other metals too. And just to cheer you up, I will also station a few suits there. On paper, they'll be for simple protection from the gangs. But if they were to run into villains during routine flight exercises…" she finished with a rather suggestive smirk.

She was not happy. This would only lead to bad things. "How long would it take you to set it up?"

"A few days. Maybe four. Depends on what local workforce I can find."

"So short?"

"This would be the initial setup to start the recycling process. I would continue to build up the facility, increasing its production. I also had some recent breakthroughs and will be sharing them soon."

"With whom?"

"The world, Director."

That just sounded like more paperwork for her.

On Sunday morning, they dressed up nicely, took a detour to a florist, and went to visit Annette at the graveyard. Both of them spent time in front of the grave, telling her what happened, or simply sharing things.

It was a somber affair, but both agreed that they felt lighter afterward.

After leaving the graveyard, they went to Annette's favorite café for breakfast. Not much talking happened there. Taylor didn't know whether it was because of the need for secrecy or because both of them preferred to stay silent and contemplate things.

At least she felt like thinking about stuff.

So much has changed over such a short amount of time. Half the time she didn't know what was happening. And the surreal scenarios that Admin was dreaming up for her to train in also didn't really help.

Sometimes she just wanted to yell, sometimes she wanted to lock herself in her room and cry. From relief or sadness, she didn't know.

This small talk with her mother really helped her out. She let out several things she didn't or couldn't tell anyone. She also vowed to get some help with her emotions. She needed help, and as her father's handling of the school proved, asking for help actually worked.

She would try with Admin, and if that didn't work, with Tess. She didn't really want to ask her father about it. Because, on one hand, he wasn't the most emotionally intelligent person. On the other hand, he himself was in the middle of therapy.

She spent the rest of the day tinkering. Mostly upgrading her new phone with better security, a better processor, programming, and everything else she could think of. She also began to put down a plan for a gynoid body for Tess.

She wanted to hang out with her friend.

The afternoon was, however, spent with her father, watching movies and playing some simple board games.

Monopoly was much more interesting when you could use your power to remember what you'd read on the internet about the game.

On a totally unrelated note, her father swore vengeance upon her.

The night was spent in the virtual space. Tess joined her again. Apparently, she created a fork just for this. That made Taylor feel warm and fuzzy.

The first thing she did was tell both Admin and Tess about her realization. Tess recommended a therapist. She agreed, but also mentioned that she couldn't really be truthful without mentioning Admin. And everything she had read told her that honesty was needed.

Tess sadly agreed with her that therapists would immediately cry Master if she mentioned him.

Admin, however, told her he had some training programs for that. It seemed he was prepared for everything. Dressed in Japanese clothing and sporting a white goatee, he began to instruct her in the fine art of meditation and yoga.

At least this time, she could practice them freely in the actual world.

She kind of wanted to have her dad join her. Watching him try to twist himself into a pretzel would be hilarious.

While that went on, Admin took Tess to a separate instance of the virtual space to experiment with Tinkertech. She could try out ideas there that she couldn't in real life without wasting any precious material or endangering herself or her environment.

After Admin declared her finished with her first lesson, they started up the power practice again. This time, however, they had Tess observe the practice and give advice about fighting, procedures, and techniques.

It was a rather fruitful training session. She felt calmer and even felt herself becoming better at it.

As a final exercise, she decided to try Leviathan again.

Although Tess was against it initially, not wanting to pit her against something so monstrous, she and Admin convinced her to allow it. Though she insisted on joining as a coordinator, providing tactical information just as she did at every Endbringer fight.

For some reason, now that Tess was there and helping with the fight, it felt much more real than before. Her experience and knowledge added a layer of realism to the exercise that it hadn't had previously.

She still got her butt handed to her rather fast, but at least she held out for half a minute. She wasn't really satisfied with it, but according to Tess, that was a tremendous accomplishment, seeing as most capes couldn't hold out for more than a few seconds before inevitably dying.

That somehow didn't make her feel better.

He saved the recording from the interrogations into a secure folder. It would be useful later in the game.

The fact that the PRT was hiding this was only a bonus for him. The real question was how to use it to maximum effect…

Perhaps an opening salvo, highlighting the PRT’s and Protectorate’s inability to handle the Wards and protect the children of the city. People were always vehement when it came to children.

He forwarded several files to Tattletale for further analysis. Her work might give him a useful angle he was missing.

Dragon moving into the city was an interesting development, at least partially, but he didn’t have enough information yet to act on it. He would need to wait and see how things unfolded.

For now, he focused back on the Empire–ABB skirmish. No capes had been sighted, which made the cause unclear. He instructed a few people to dig deeper. He couldn’t allow gang movements to happen without either causing them or understanding them.

He was so close he could almost taste the victory.

Chief Director Rebecca Costa-Brown put down the phone with a heavy sigh. Apparently, the gods hated her. It seemed Dragon had made her first move, and it was relocating to Brockton Bay.

She couldn’t decide whether to laugh or cry at the absurdity. The AI had, apparently by coincidence, chosen the one city where Cauldron did not – could not – interfere.

Hopefully, it wasn’t because she somehow became aware of that fact.

Still, her arrival would likely accelerate whatever was already building in the city. She would need to consult Contessa about their options.

She wanted to trust Dragon. The AI had always been a net positive, even a pleasant presence to work with, but there was still something about letting her go free that set off every instinct she had.

It didn’t help that for the past few days Thinkers, and most importantly, precogs, had been in an uproar across the world. None of them could pinpoint the cause, but all agreed on one thing: something significant had changed.

Even Contessa was struggling to see it clearly.

Their current working theory was a new blind spot, Serenity, the mystery cape who had helped the Guild arrest the Dragonslayers and, possibly, freed Dragon… before vanishing without a trace.

And that made her worry. Capes only did that when they were planning something big. Though now that she thought about it, Dragon deciding to move to Brockton Bay could also indicate that Serenity lived there.

She sent a message to Contessa to investigate, then sighed and turned back to the endless paperwork.