Crystalized Munchkinry - Act IV - Chapter 47 (Patreon)

The meeting room was awash with anticipation, all the participants restlessly sitting at the meeting table and waiting for the Director to show up.

The heroes were talking among themselves, with Assault entertaining Dauntless with a joke while Battery shook her head next to her husband. Miss Militia watched with a small smile, while Armsmaster stoically worked on something only he could see.

Several researchers were sitting at the other end of the table, excitedly poking at several tablets and ignoring everything around them.

The agents and workers of the PRT sat in their seats, silent and tense.

This was the scene that greeted Emily when she walked into the room, followed by Renick. Several people stood up to greet her, but she simply waved them off.

"At ease, people. We have a lot to talk about, so let's not waste time."

Several people nodded and sat back down.

She walked to her seat and sat down gingerly, aware of the sharp pain in her side. These meetings weren't doing anything good for her health. Renick simply sat next to her and immediately began arranging the papers he had brought with him.

She took a few seconds to look around the room before speaking.

"Very well. Let's begin the meeting. Armsmaster, I would like to hear your report about the intrusion."

Emily wanted to remain calm, but everyone noticed her thinly veiled anger at the topic. She was already receiving calls from other Directors about it, and of course, none of them had called to offer her help.

Armsmaster nodded and stood up. "Yes, Director. With Dragon's help, we traced the intrusion to a device that had been added to the server room and hidden behind several layers of equipment. Dating the device revealed that it was created several years ago, and the layer of dust showed that nobody had disturbed the scene in years."

Hearing that, everyone in the room sat up straighter. That didn't sound right to anyone.

"But the device only allowed someone hidden access to another device, and that device was connected to another, and so on. We traced this daisy chain of devices through the building and the city, and we ended up at Coil. Who, as you know, is currently locked inside his own base, guarded by Dragon."

Assault chortled to himself, and several other people wore malicious smiles. The Director's face, however, could have been carved from stone.

"Any other output from the devices?" she asked, her voice flat.

"No, Director. Everything terminated at Coil's base."

"Good."

That was the only thing Emily said, but everyone who heard it felt a tiny bit bad for Coil.

"Did you manage to remove them?"

"Yes, we did it yesterday. We had to remove several compromised pieces of equipment from the system, but they were already due for an upgrade, so it wasn't a problem. I'm happy to report that, thanks to Dragon's help, we are well within budget."

Emily let out a quiet sigh. At least that was something. With how much she had to fight for every cent in her budget, hearing that gave her a brief moment of happiness.

"Thank you. Please also convey my thanks to Dragon. I will personally talk with her when I have time."

"Yes, Director."

"Anything else?"

"No, Director. I added several routines to our firewalls that will watch for these kinds of attacks and patched several vulnerabilities. You can read about them in my report."

She nodded, and he sat down.

"That's done. Before anyone speaks up about it, I'm aware that it's not that simple, but I want everyone to be on the same page. We will have a detailed meeting about cybersecurity at a later date."

Emily was happy to note that several people relaxed and began furiously writing notes. She simply sighed at the prospect of more meetings. It seemed that nowadays she was only having meetings about what had already happened, always reacting, never acting.

Maybe with what happened, and after Coil was captured, she could finally plan some operations.

She wrote down a few things, then started speaking again. "Next, Oni Lee."

The silence that followed was rather telling.

Finally, one of the officers spoke up. "He is currently in one of the secure cells, blinded to prevent teleportation."

"And Lung?"

The man simply shrugged. "Nothing official, but word on the street is that he is angry."

"That's nothing new. He's always angry!" Assault interrupted.

"Thank you, Assault, for that," Emily said, giving him a glare, then turned back to the officer. "What about moving him?"

The officer grimaced, and Emily immediately had a bad feeling. "I'm afraid nobody really wants him. Or rather, nobody wants Lung's attention, and arranging transportation farther away would take more time."

Emily closed her eyes and contemplated how messed up the situation was. She stayed silent, and the room fell silent as well, filled with nervous energy.

After a brief contemplation, she finally broke the silence. "Fuck. Well, if that's how they want to play, then I will play." She turned to the officer. "Double the guards around him and double the observation on Lung. I want to know when he makes his move."

The officer nodded in understanding and wrote it down. "Understood. Anything else?"

"No. I will deal with transportation. You just deal with security, Thompson."

The man nodded again, thankful. She nodded back and was about to continue the meeting when Armsmaster interrupted.

"Director? I may have a solution for the Oni Lee situation..."

"Oh? What's it, Armsmaster?" she asked, curious and somewhat hopeful, though not expecting much.

"If we attribute the capture to Dragon, then the Guild would become responsible for Oni Lee. Dragon is ready to transport the man out of the city."

There was a surprised silence in the room after hearing that, and everybody turned to look at Emily.

Emily thought about it and compared the positive PR they would gain against the possibility of Lung trying to break out his lieutenant. It wasn't really a hard decision.

"Contact her." Armsmaster immediately began speaking into whatever device he had in his helmet. "Thompson, prepare Oni Lee for transportation."

Thompson stood up, saluted, and hurried out of the room.

"Director, Dragon is on her way," Armsmaster said rather smugly.

"Thank you," she replied, relieved. "Now let's take five..."

After the break, they returned to the room and continued the meeting.

The mood in the room was much better than at the beginning. Apparently, avoiding Lung's wrath was enough to lift everyone's spirits.

"Very well, gentlemen and ladies, let's continue," Emily said. "How about the Kingsway Street fight?"

This time, Triumph spoke up. "Not much to tell, Director. We showed up, observed, and watched as the Empire took out Trainwreck."

"Not much of a loss..." came from several people.

"What about what they were protecting?"

An analyst was the next to speak. "Several witnesses say they were packing chemical equipment into several trucks, so it was probably a lab of some kind."

"Any luck tracking them?"

"We traced them, but the trail ended at a construction site."

Emily gave the analyst the strongest glare she could manage. The man quailed under it and made a halfhearted attempt to brighten the situation. "At least we got some evidence of illegal activity..." He quickly fell silent as Emily's glare intensified.

The man sat down, shame written across his face.

She sighed for what felt like the millionth time today and made a few notes. "Okay. Let's shelve that until later, when I don't feel like strangling anyone."

The analyst ducked his head even lower.

She took a deep breath, preparing herself for the meat of the meeting. "Okay. Next... the Merchants and their fucking brilliant idea for a crime." This time, she actually smiled a little when Assault burst out laughing.

It was Miss Militia's turn to give her report. "Apparently their goal was to capture Panacea and trade her for Squealer and Skidmark. Or make her use her power to heal them and create super gang members. Or sell her. It depends on who you ask. As you would expect, they weren't exactly organized."

Emily snorted in derision. "What about the other parahuman with Mush?"

"Chariot. An independent mobility Tinker. Mush hired him to provide transportation for the operation."

"And he accepted?" Dauntless interjected.

"Yeah…"

"Wow, there are some stupid people out there..."

"What about the explosives?" Emily interrupted, hoping to steer the conversation back on track. "Because I saw the specifications, and I'm one hundred percent sure that no Merchant is capable of putting something like that together."

"Yes, Director. Dragon and I examined them. Standard Toybox fare. Dragon found several of the same devices in Coil's base."

"I see. So more than likely, Coil was behind the Merchants' operation."

"Yes, Director."

"But why?" Assault asked. "He must have known that if he abducted Panacea, everybody would be on him like a fat kid on cake."

"We, Dragon and I, along with the analyst team," Armsmaster said, nodding respectfully toward the analysts' side of the table, "believe that the purpose of these actions was to draw out the new parahuman. Watchdog agrees."

The room took a few seconds to digest the news.

"Any idea who the new cape is?" Emily asked slowly, almost afraid to hear the answer.

Armsmaster answered without missing a beat. "Watchdog estimates a sixty-seven percent chance that it's Serenity."

Just as she had expected, she didn't want to hear it. "I thought Serenity was a Tinker/Thinker combo."

"As you know, Director, we never verified that, so..."

"I see."

"Thank you for the heads-up. I'm sure I'll be getting a call about that."

Armsmaster gave her an awkward smile, and Assault gave her a supportive thumbs-up.

"What about the sisters? Are they alright?" she finally asked.

Miss Militia grimaced, and the stone in Emily's stomach sank.

"Actually, I got a call from Brandish this morning. They want to put Panacea through M/S screening."

"Why?"

Miss Militia took a deep breath, as if bracing herself before speaking. "She second triggered."

Another heavy silence filled the room.

"And... why does that necessitate M/S screening?" Emily asked slowly, barely believing what she was hearing.

"Her new power is too different from what she had. They just want to make sure nothing happened during the event."

"I see. How did Panacea react?"

"She agreed."

"Really?"

"Yes, Director."

"Fine, arrange it," she said tiredly. She didn't really care what they wanted, as long as they didn't create more work for her.

She made another note, quietly mourning her free time, then absentmindedly asked another question. "What's her new power?"

"Wide-area plant manipulation, super strength, self-healing..."

"Wonderful…"

They were going over some minutiae, the room filled with the voices of the people around the table. Emily was tired, but she refused to give in. So much hinged on these decisions that if she failed, the best thing that could happen to her was losing her job.

And she was rather attached to her life, so she wanted to make sure every t was crossed and every i dotted.

They had just received word that Dragon had picked up Oni Lee.

"Smith!"

"Yes, Sir?"

"Make sure the news of Dragon taking Oni Lee away is leaked to the appropriate people. I don't want Lung at my door."

"Yes, Sir." The agent saluted, then immediately left the room to carry out her orders.

She was about to return to the meeting when the door banged open, and a man rushed in, breathing heavily. He stopped, bent over with his hands on his knees, and tried to catch his breath.

"Agent, report!" she barked, inwardly worried about what new hell was about to rain down on her and her city.

"Director… Grey Boy… The bubbles…"

"...so both of you are okay?" Taylor asked as she spoke to Vicky over the phone while putting dinner together.

"Yes, Taylor. Nobody got hurt. Amy even managed to second trigger!"

She blinked at hearing that. "Were you supposed to tell me that?"

"Eh!" She could practically hear the other girl's shrug. "It's not like it'll stay secret for long. Besides, I trust you. She's got new plant powers! They're super cool!"

"Alright, thank you," Taylor replied with a smile. It was nice to hear that. "What are you guys going to do? My dad asked me to stay home for the week while they clean up."

"Yeah, we're staying low too. Amy is going to go in for testing, but otherwise, Mom wants us to be careful." Then her voice turned comically sad. "No patrols for at least a week."

"Poor Vicky... Can't beat up bad guys for a whole week!" Taylor replied cheekily. The only reply was laughter from the other end of the line.

"Listen, Taylor, it was nice talking to you, and I'm super happy you're alright, but I have to go! Mom wants something..."

"Okay, Vicky. Have fun, and say hello to Amy for me!"

"'Key! Bye Tay-Tay!" And with that, she was left with a silent headset. She smiled to herself, put the headset away, and continued cooking dinner.

Danny and Taylor were finishing dinner when the TV, left on in the background, suddenly blared. They both looked toward it, and Taylor couldn't help her mouth falling open in surprise.

"This is Channel 9 with Breaking News! Today, we are happy to report that thanks to the tireless work of the Guild, and the Guild Tinker Nero, they have managed to neutralize the time bubbles left behind by the infamous criminal Grey Boy."

The video showed a nondescript facility, with an annoyingly pretty reporter standing in front of it.

"The time bubbles were famously collected and brought to this facility in Montana. As is well known, several Tinkers have tried to break the bubbles in the past, but none of them succeeded. Well, people, that changed today!"

The video panned to one of Dragon's suits and several Guild personnel before the reporter continued.

"We don't yet know the condition of the victims, but Dragon has assured us that all of them are alive. Anyone related to them is advised to contact the facility using the following number..."

Taylor and Danny watched the entire report, including several repeated broadcasts, both of them entranced. She occasionally checked the internet, and it seemed everyone was celebrating.

She snuggled against her dad's side as they sat on the sofa, happy and content.

She didn't notice the smugly smiling Admin floating behind her.