Within the Apple Chapter 8C

The Rig

Emily Piggot was fuming, what she’d learned about the issues at Winslow were beyond the pale… though, honestly, she was so inured to the depths of depravity people could sink to that it only just tipped the needle in her case. That, of course, was no small feat given how much it took to do just that these days. It wasn’t enough to infuriate her, however.

No, what was pushing her over the edge was the sheer level of incompetence that the Principle of the school had apparently showed over the last few years. Well, that and the fact that as best she could tell from all the available evidence, it wasn’t her jurisdiction.

She sighed and flipped the folder closed, looking up at Miss Militia who had sat in on the meeting with Principle Blackwell.

“As disgusting as this is, I’m not seeing any hint of a Parahuman involvement beyond Magus’ rescue last night,” She grumbled.

“I have to reluctantly agree,” Hannah replied wearily.

For a woman who didn’t sleep any longer, thanks to her power, the fact that Emily could see the weariness in her spoke volumes.

“As much as I would like to lead the charge to bring that… woman… down myself,” Emily sighed, “It’s not our jurisdiction. I’m going to have to flip it back over to the BBPD.”

Hannah nodded in agreement, “I believe we can be reasonably certain that they’ll give it its due attention.”

Emily snorted in somewhat dark amusement.

A young white girl abused to that degree, blown up now to the level of local news? It was unlikely it would be covered up, that was true. The Empire alone would likely ensure that, they didn’t even need to pin it on any given minority. As long as there was no evidence to the contrary, they would make up the story they wanted and run with it.

Well, it was now out of her hands, for better or worse. She flipped the folder open again, signed off on returning the case to the jurisdiction of the BBPD and then let it fall shut once more. With that action she dropped the file into the outbox and looked over to the second in command of the local Protectorate.

“What’s next?”

“Hellhound raided a dogfight last night,” Hannah said.

“Casualties?”

“Injuries among the audience were light, two men we believe to be dog trainers were hurt pretty badly.”

Piggot snorted.

Trainers. That was a polite way of saying abusive fucks.

She just nodded, though. “Deaths?”

“None we know of.”

“File it, forget it.” She ordered.

“Yes Ma’am.”

Hannah dropped that file into a pile without looking twice at it. It would be on Hellhounds record, if she were brought in, but they wouldn’t bother adding any priority to her capture over it.

“Anything else?”

“No, it was a quiet night,” Hannah said.

Emily laughed sharply, “Only for Brockton Bay. Two Parahuman events, albeit it one being a straightforward rescue, would be headline news in most cities.”

Hannah nodded, knowing that was true.

“I’ll order our Agents to a higher state of alert,” Emily decided. “The Empire will certainly be looking to save face if Hellhound blackened their eyes last night. The incident at Winslow may give them the excuse to distract people, we’ll have to be ready.”

“I’ll pass it along to the Protectorate,” Hannah said. “We’ll step up patrols, try to keep things quiet.”

“Except for the wards,” Emily warned, “Restrict them to secure patrols, well away from Empire territory.”

“Of course.”

Emily sighed, “Hopefully this won’t trigger the gang war we’ve been expecting.”

Hannah shrugged, “It doesn’t directly involve the ABB, so we can probably keep it from exploding into all out war in the streets. Hellhound may be a pain for the Empire, or Hookwolf at least, but she isn’t going to be a rallying point for the rest.”

Emily nodded, but was grim, “No, but Hebert might be if they really want to push it. Well, that side of things is up to the police now.”

This damn city.

*****

Xander flew easily over the city, eyes scanning the population below with both his eyeballs and his enhancement glasses. The city had seen better days, to be sure, enough of the damage he was seeing having clearly been the results of incidents years in the past. Around the docks was the worst, while it was almost respectable around the commercial core.

There was no sign of the big box stores that he’d come to be accustomed to back home and in both of the other universes he’d recently visited. The lack of global infrastructure would explain that, of course. No chance of running anything like S-Mart if you couldn’t count on a global logistics, that was for sure.

The local Parahumans with mover related powers might offset some of that, but there was no chance in hell that they’d be able to make up for the loss of millions of tons of daily shipping.

That wasn’t really his concern at the moment, though.

He dropped from the sky in front of the hospital, ignoring more of the looks aimed his way, and nodding politely to the officer who was eyeing him cautiously.

“Hello officer, just dropping in to check on the patient I brought in last night,” Xander said easily.

The officer relaxed marginally, his hand moving away from his pistol. “Magus, right?”

“That’s right, no issues with me visiting?”

“Just no powers in the hospital if you can,” The officer quirked a smile at him.

Xander snorted, “No worries. My powers don’t pay well with electronics if I’m not being very careful. Unless lives are at risk, I won’t do squat.”

“Thank you, Sir,” The Officer said, nodding slightly as he stepped back and Xander passed him.

He walked up to the front desk, smiling affably at the nurse who was barely paying any attention to him as she worked. He waited until she had a moment, then just asked whether Taylor Hebert was available for visitors. He got a confirmation and directions to the room, with a number to go with it this time.

That made things easier, since he wasn’t sure he could remember how to get there. The night before he’d moved in quite a rush, after all.

At the door he paused and knocked softly.

There was a pause before a soft, strained voice responded.

“Come in.”

*****