Sleepytime Stories (Worm x Deadlock (Valve)) (Patreon)

“Armsmaster, disturbance on the corner of 54th and 32nd. Possible Empire involvement.”

“Copy that, console.”

This was the norm for most days in Brockton Bay. They get a call, vet it for any parahuman involvement, and if there was even a hint of it, the Protectorate would respond. Every single day, with no rest in between. Or maybe that was just him. Certainly, the others took more than a few days off, much to the Director’s irritation.

Rationally, Armsmaster knew that he should be doing the same. Too much work and not enough rest would cause even him to succumb to exhaustion. However, Brockton Bay was just too much of a powder keg to leave unattended, and it was his job as the head of the local Protectorate to see that through.

“Belay engagement, Armsmaster. We’ve got more reports coming in, Hookwolf and Stormtiger possibly on site. Velocity is en route to your location.”

The hero frowned even as he confirmed the call. He turned his bike to slip through an alleyway, kicking out with one foot to prevent collision with a dumpster. At the same time, he had his on-board computer pull up records, because he was almost certain that there shouldn’t be anything near there that should have any Empire presence at all, considering its proximity to the Boardwalk, much less Empire capes.

His search turned up nothing.

Shit. He could feel his mouth curl into a frown. This was bad. If the Empire was expanding their territory again, that close to the ‘neutral’ part of the city…

“Console, patch me through to Director Piggot.”

…

He quickly relayed his concerns to the Director, who just as quickly agreed with him. While it was possible that the calls were just cases of mistaken identity for one Empire cape, the chances for that were significantly lower when it was for two of them. Within minutes, a PRT quick response unit had been deployed, and would arrive soon after Armsmaster. The rest of the Protectorate heroes were put on standby, even the off-duty Assault and Battery.

The Wards were, by some small miracle, still at school. Had whatever this was happened just an hour later, he would have had to deal with Shadow Stalker ignoring his orders to stay back for the nth time. Should this escalate further, however, they would be called in, mostly for the relief efforts than any real fighting.

Or at least, that’s what Armsmaster hoped.

Contrary to popular belief, he did not enjoy the feeling of putting underage capes into the line of fire, and neither did Director Piggot. Unfortunately, the sheer amount of criminal capes in the Bay made it almost impossible for the Wards to not get into a cape fight every other week.

Thankfully, none of the villains wanted the escalation that harming a Ward would bring. Unfortunately, this was Brockton Bay, and luck was very much not on the side of the heroes. Armsmaster had already crunched the numbers, and it as time went on, the chance of a Ward suffering a debilitating injury only went up exponentially.

“This is Velocity,” There was a tense note in the other hero’s voice, “I can confirm the presence of Hookwolf and Stormtiger, as well as about a dozen or so unpowered Empire goons.”

“Confirming, ETA is less than two minutes.” Armsmaster called in, making another detour to avoid the main road, which still had repairs going on after last month’s attack by Oni Lee.

“Uh yeah, about that,” Velocity continued after a moment of silence, “They’re already confoamed, just need transport-”

“Come again, Velocity?” He couldn’t keep the incredulity out of his voice this time around, “Both Hookwolf and Stormtiger have been neutralized?”

He could already hear Dragon’s berates at insulting his co-worker like that, even though he hadn’t actually meant anything by it. For all of Velocity’s abilities, punching through Hookwolf’s armor was not one of them. Of all the Brockton Bay Protectorate, only Armsmaster himself and Miss Militia had the firepower to do just that.

“Not by me, but yes.” The tension was still there, even as he said that, “It looks like they were taken down by a possible new trigger, who I’m talking to right now. It’s just…look, just get here and you’ll understand.”

If Armsmaster broke any laws as he sped even more, the only witness was himself.

…

“-and ice cream and hats and my pillow and WOAH that’s a REALLY cool bike!”

“Armsmaster!” Velocity sounded more than a bit relieved as he approached. More than that, he could see why the red-clad hero was tense over the comms.

In front of him, first off, were two blobs of confoam, which Armsmaster assumed and confirmed were the two Empire capes. Another scan from his helmet confirmed that the two were knocked out, their vitals reading as if they were doing nothing more than sleeping.

The second thing he noticed was the more prevalent part. A small figure covered in feathers, wide pupiless eyes, and wearing a set of pajamas was staring at him and his bike. Whoever it was, this was likely the fresh trigger that Velocity mentioned.

And that’s where things went downhill. Armsmaster had heard the voice that came out of the parahuman’s mouth, and what he heard was that they were just a damn kid. Younger than any other Ward out there, be it in Brockton Bay or any other part of the United States.

And the kid just fucking triggered.

Not even just a normal one, either. From the looks of it, it might’ve been a Case 53.

Armsmaster - Colin - wasn’t one to let himself fall to his emotions. He couldn’t afford it, not when emotions could lead to more lives being lost down the line. But this one time? He could feel the damn anger roil its way through his veins.

‘This fucking city…’

Calming himself, he crouched down to the kid’s eye level. He noted the pillow he was carrying, but dismissed it for now, “Hello there, my name’s Armsmaster, head of the local Protectorate.” He tried to project just a bit more warmth than he usually had. He didn’t know if he was successful or not.

Regardless, the kid beamed up at him, waving with his free hand, “And I’m Rem!”

“It’s nice to meet you, Rem.” He gave a small nod at the enthusiastic cape, “Can you tell me what happened here?”

Rem nodded wildly, his nightcap flopping along with it, “Uh-huh. I was telling Mr. Ve-lo-city that these mean guys were being bullies to a bunch of doggies and mom always told me that bullies are bad so I told them that being bullies are bad but then they started yelling at me too and I got angry but mom said being angry is bad so I stopped being angry.”

Rem took a deep breath.

“Then I put the mean guys to sleep and I petted the doggies and they were nice and a nice dog lady came and said the doggies were her pets and they were going to leave and I got sad but the nice dog lady said I can play with the doggies next time and then Mr. Ve-lo-city showed up!”

Armsmaster took a moment to digest the word salad that was served to him. Admittedly, he was still splitting his focus between the captured capes and the small parahuman, so he gave himself some credit that he followed along regardless.

It didn’t take long, thankfully, for the response team to arrive. They quickly moved to secure the two capes - still asleep inside the containment foam - into a specially outfitted transport carrier.

He coughed politely, bringing his focus back onto Rem, “That’s certainly an interesting story. Do you mind telling me what you were doing before that happened?”

“Yeah! I was playing tag with Ms. Paige!”

“Ms. Paige?” He noted the name down as a priority interest, as it already sounded familiar. Might be something, might be nothing. Maybe Dragon would know more?

“Okay, then after that?” He was being far more patient than he usually was. Already, Velocity had excused himself, displaying signs of anger and frustration. Not towards Rem, it seemed, but at the circumstances at hand. It was also for the best, Armsmaster mused, since this would ensure that the kid’s testimony was heard by two different sources without risk of cross contamination.

“I took a nap!”

“...Okay.” Clearly, the kid didn’t remember anything in regards to how he got here. Since if it was a trigger, then chances are that Rem was inadvertently suppressing the memories as a standard traumatic response, “Do you mind if you come with us to the PRT Headquarters? It’ll be safer than talking outside like this.”

“Mmmmmm.” Rem looked around while shuffling his feet, “But mom said I shouldn’t go with strangers…”

“We’re not strangers,” Armsmaster defaulted to the tone he usually used for public speaking, hoping that it would work, “We’re the heroes.”

“Heroes?” Large, owl-like eyes that lacked irises widened, “Like, like in the comic books?”

Smiling, Armsmaster nodded, “Just like the comic books.”

“Wow…” Rem took another look around, before nodding enthusiastically, “Okay! I’ll go with you guys so I can find mom and tell her I met real life superheroes!”

“I appreciate that, Rem. Now, shall we?” He gestured to one of the vans, the driver seeing the signal for what it was giving him an affirmative.

“Yep! Oh, just give me a second to call my buddies!”

“I’m sorry?”

…

“I’ll take care of him.”

As Hannah saw the PRT van empty its occupants, she just as quickly approached the incoming Armsmaster. While hidden behind his visor, she could see the microexpressions that the normally stoic Protectorate head would never allow through. This time around, the cause was very much obvious.

And audible.

“-iiiiiggggg bubble thing in the water! Do you see that Mr. Arms-master? It looks so cool! Hey, can we go there next? Oh, but I think mom would also wanna go to that place so-”

“Rem,” Speaking slightly louder over Rem’s excitement, “I’m going to have to excuse myself for a while to start looking for your mother, so why don’t you join Miss Militia here in the cafeteria for a meal? I’m sure you’re hungry.”

Barely concealed, to her at least, was the desperation for Hannah to take the kid away, much to her amusement.

“Ooooohhh! Do you guys have pancakes?”

“I’m sure we can go ask.” Hannah curled her eyes in an approximation of a smile, even as her mouth only had a bitter one.

When she had heard Armsmaster’s provisional report over comms, she had immediately rushed to the PRT Headquarters. Rem was obviously not her, not the child that would one day be Miss Militia, yet the idea that a child had triggered this young…it was the same reason why she had pushed for mentoring Vista personally. No child deserved to have the same life as she did, to be used by whatever higher power held their strings.

Somehow, it hit even harder the moment she had heard the sheer innocence in Rem as he spoke.

Hannah knew that being a parahuman made it a guarantee that that innocence would be broken, if it hadn’t already. But she’d be damned if she didn’t try to keep Rem’s childhood intact.

Armsmaster quickly vacated the area, heading to talk to the Director, no doubt. Which gave her ample enough time to observe the new parahuman as they walked to the cafeteria, Rem asking a multitude of questions on the way, and Hannah doing her best to answer them.

(‘Why do you guys wear masks?’ ‘It’s to hide our secret identities.’ ‘Wow…I sure wish I had a secret identity!’)

He really did look like a small owl in pajamas. Except, the addition of four of these smaller bird-like balls made things a bit more complicated. His ‘little buddies’ as he had called them, complete with their own pajama hats.

“Rem, do you mind telling me what your friends here are?” She cut into a lull before Rem could continue with his questions. It was hard to visualize iris-less eyes lighting up, but Rem had somehow shown her it was possible.

“They do all sorts of things!” He picked one up, and regardless of what they really were, Hannah had to admit they were absolutely adorable, “They can buy stuff, they can see things I can’t see, they can carry stuff, aannnd they can make people stronger!”

Her eyebrows lifted upward at the last bit, “What do you mean ‘stronger’?”

“Here, I’ll show you!”

Before she could protest, one of the ‘buddies’ bounced its way over to her, small, jovial chirping sounds all the while. And instantly, she could tell something was different. Had it been other people, maybe they wouldn’t have noticed until someone pointed it out. To someone who had eidetic memory, she could tell just from how things looked that she was moving faster than she usually was. Stronger too, as she felt a tile beneath her foot shatter as she took a step.

Just from that alone, she knew that Rem was already a Master and Trump. And her heart fell as she understood that the more people that found out about him, the more they would try to use him.

…

Hannah quickly got Rem to promise not to do that again, not unless someone asked for it. He had given her a look of honest confusion (‘But why? Don’t people want to be strong?’) yet had quickly said yes when she mentioned that the cafeteria had ice cream (they didn’t, Hannah had quickly called Velocity to grab some as he made his way back).

After that though, Rem had yawned so much that even Hannah couldn’t help but mimic it, Noctis cape that she was be damned. So, when he asked if he could take a nap, she had a small spare room on the base prepared, just in time for the Director to call a meeting.

It was in this meeting where most of the Protectorate heroes were called in, with Aegis and Triumph of the Wards included. Understandable, since things were gearing up for Aegis to take over the Wards leadership once Triumph graduated, and Rem was more than likely going to be a new member.

That begged the question of why the rest of the Protectorate needed to be here, nor did it explain the severe expression on the already normally severe Director Piggot.

“I assume that all of you have read the briefs sent out by Armsmaster?” A round of nods. The message had been sent with a small overview of Rem - referred to now as Sandman - quickly compiled by Armsmaster, including the circumstances of how Hookwolf and Stormtiger had been incapacitated. Needless to say, a lot of the nods were approving, and a lot were also worried.

“Then I’ll get straight to the point; this is a clusterfuck of the highest proportion.” The Director was rubbing the bridge of her nose, which already wasn’t a good start, “While initially, this looked just like a case of a young trigger - shitty, but understandable in this godforsaken city - Armsmaster has drawn a number of conclusions that I can’t help but agree with.”

Taking over, Armsmaster continued, “During the ride here, I had asked Sandman a number of pertinent questions, chief of which were if he knew where he was and the identity of his mother.” Hannah had to frown behind her bandana. Had Armsmaster seriously interrogated a minor without a guardian? There would be hell to pay if the Youth Guard heard about this case, which they likely will in the coming days, unfortunately.

“The answers he gave were…worrying.” The head of the Protectorate pulled out a recorder, which immediately started playing.

“Do you know where you were before you arrived here?”

“Yeah! I was at Ms. Paige’s house!”

“And do you know where Ms. Paige’s house is?”

“New York! Mom took me there after we played in Central Park.”

“Can you tell me who your mother is?”

“I don’t know…I’m not supposed to say…”

“Do you know why?”

“Ms. Paige says that it’s because mom is a ‘fe-de-ral agent’ and that she’d get in trouble if other people knew who she was.”

Armsmaster cut it off there as the implications of the short conversation dripped all over them.

“Best case scenario, the child of a low-level federal clerk in New York stowed away and somehow arrived in Brockton Bay, triggered, and dealt with some Nazis.” The Director steepled her fingers as Hannah could almost see her veins bulge in anger, “Worst case scenario, and the more likely one: the child of a federal spook was kidnapped by Nazis under Legend’s nose and brought to Brockton Bay. He escapes, Hookwolf and Stormtiger go after him, he triggers.”

“The involvement of the Empire is still up in the air, until we manage to interrogate the prisoners.” Armsmaster clarified, but at that point, it was moot. No matter the scenario, the Empire had gotten involved against the US government. While its teeth had been dulled after the emergence of capes and powers, no criminal organization would want the attention on a federal level.

“I’m ordering a full gag-order until such a time that we can coordinate with New York. Triumph, Aegis, that goes without saying that none of the other Wards are to know about this, but you will be accommodating Sandman-” Piggot was cut off as something came onto her screen. Whatever it was, it made the woman’s tenuous grip on her rage snap.

“Sandman’s been reported missing, find him!”

Hannah was already out the door before Piggot finished.

…

“Rem, did you have a nice nap?”“Uh-huh! I met a bunch of nice people!”

“Don’t tell me you dreamwalked again?”

“I can’t help it! I got it from you, mom!”

“You know I’m not your mom.” Sigh. “Fine. So long as you keep yourself safe, alright?”

“I’m always safe!”

Chuckle. “Whatever you say.”

Giggle. Hug. “I love you, Haze.”

“I love you too, Rem.”

…

A/N: The brain worms got to me.