#Interlude Counsel

Chief Director Piggot had seen a lot of things, things most wouldn't have been able to survive, much less been able to deal with and continue in her chosen profession, not that she had, her body didn't allow her what her mind was craving so much. She had never been well suited for paperwork, her place was in the field, in the middle of the action, fighting with her life on the line for the American ideals she had spent her life to preserve. And now her city was burning, again, not that wasn't right, it wasn't anything new. Yes, Bakuda was a new player, but the real problems, her lack of forces, the number of villains, the support the Empire 88 had from Germany that she couldn't get from the rest of America. No the city had been burning to the ground for years and all her effort had only served to slow the spread if they had made an impact at all. Some days she felt like the Bay had only gotten worse since Marquis had been captured, not that the situation than had been anything resembling a hopeful one, but Brockton Bay had beaten back the Slaughterhouse 9 and that was something not many city could say about them. You didn't beat back the Slaughterhouse 9, you only survived and tried to rebuild in the ashes they had left behind. Brockton Bay had seen more first rated gangs and A+ class parahumans than any other city outside of Endbringer fights and it still stood. She just wished it had been her and the rest of the forces for good that had accomplished that, not the ever shifting, but constantly balanced power levels between the gangs. No single gang had ever managed to rule the Bay, every time it looked like one got close they had been set back by the other gangs. Most gangs didn't survive long in that environment, but there were always more parahumans in the bay that could take their place.

Of course, the Empire was the one exception to that rule, the Empire stood tall, had endured for over 20 years of shifting allegiance, violent gang wars that had destroyed bigger gangs and had grown from a tiny group to the behemoth it was today. But it wasn't the Empire that made her lose her sleep tonight, not even the Dragon, he was in custody and while she could blame him for bringing that disaster into her city, she knew not to waste her time on useless thoughts. Finding Bakuda wasn't just a priority anymore, it was their only mission until she had been found. The kill order had already been signed after the court had reviewed what evidence they could gather from the farm, but it hadn't been made public immediately. A mistake they were now paying for, Bakuda had used the time they had given her to find a way to turn the entire city in a warzone. The number of casualties of a single day of her campaign hadn't been counted yet, they would still find new cases weeks from now when the repair and rebuilding could get started.

Even the most conservative estimation was at least a thousand dead and 3 times the number of wounded, not to mention the tens of millions in property damage and further damages to the economy caused by the total destruction of entire parts of the infrastructure of the city. The was a reason she advocated for stricter oversight, made dame certain her tinkers only used triple tested tinkertech in the field and kept such a tight ship. This was the work of a single parahuman and while not every parahuman could get quite that bad even the weakest of powers could devastate entire neighborhoods if left unchecked. This was why she hated what she had to do now. The only reason that the day hadn't gotten any worse was a series of tinkertech that had found their way into the hands of the police and promptly served to defuse almost the entire situation. The suicide squads had still been there, the lack of information and vehicles had slowed every action they took, the Empire had still been wreaking havoc wherever they could, but 50 pieces of the same tinkertech had turned a hopeless battle into a win that was only a matter of time, because no matter how fast Bakuda could build and implant tinkertech bombs, she was still slower than the teams of parahumans, PRT troopers and policeman that had swarmed the city and turned certain death into mildly embarrassing cases of public exposure. That last one was guaranteed to be picked up by the press, she could already see the headlines.

----------POV Change

Police Chief Gabriel Thomson had seen a lot of things in his career and while he was old he wasn't yet to old to join his boys on the field, that is why he had seen the tinkertech arrows in action first hand, he had even thrown one himself and felt the how his arm curved in just the right way to get the throw just right to hit the target perfectly in the center. He had also handed one of the short cloaks that had been delivered with the arrows to the man he had just freed from certain death. He didn't mind doing the grunt work if the results were like this, in fact he would prefer it that way, if only the parahuman had been open about it, or even better had registered with the PRT and allowed them to test his tech beforehand. Now he had to deal with the paperwork of almost his entire department being possible victims of a master, because how else would you explain their supernatural ability to hit targets behind walls with perfect accuracy. Yes they had saved countless lives, yes there was nothing else they could have possibly done, and yes the leader in New York recognized that the alternative had been much worse, but the laws and regulations had been created for a reason and he and everyone who had touched, or been close to the tinkertech would be under inspection and forced to undergo master/stranger protocols as soon as the situation allowed it.

Which it didn't right now and probably wouldn't be for some time. At least the men who had been in the tunnel convoy had recovered and didn't show any signs of side effects, but for him that meant only more paperwork, because of course, that had been not only a tinker made substance but one made by a known associate of Toybox, which meant double the paperwork to inform other departments of the information they had gleamed. Not that he had any information at the moment, the PRT had been the ones to care for his people and while he was thankful for that, he already knew getting information would be harder than escaping an angered dragon. His scared left leg still reminded him of how that had gone last time and he had been one of the lucky ones, trough those more unlucky had been healed by Panacea, which might make him the unlucky one in the long run.

Now he just had to get that fool Raynor before the PRT got their hands on him, he needed to know where those tinker arrows had come from and how to phrase the paperwork in a way that didn't end with an enraged PRT or the firing of his best sargeant. Not that he would ever do that, he wanted to retire soon and he knew that the department would be in good hands with Raynor, he would take the fall if he had to, but he still felt like they could make more of a difference together. If only Raynor wasn't so stubborn. He knew his own hypocrisy, only the stubborn could do his job, only they could endure and soldier on, but he was stubborn as well so he could contradict himself as much as he wanted, he was the chief after all, only a fool, or Raynor, would dare to argue.

---------POV Change-----------

Sargeant Raynor cursed his past self for the hundredths time, he should never have been in this situation, even if there weren't any repercussions, he knew that mountains of paperwork were in his immediate future, that is if the chief didn't force him to do his as well, as he so often did these days. He knew what the Chief was preparing him for, but right now, being one of the stupid grunts sounded so appealing he couldn't stop himself from thinking back to the decisions that had lead him here. Maybe it was time for him to give up on the alcohol forever, he wouldn't have been in this situation if he hadn't tried to hide alcohol, not that he regretted the result of the series of actions he had taken, no for bad or worse he had played a very important role today, not just for the victims and conscripts, but also for his comrades. He had seen the despair in the eyes of PRT troopers and policeman alike, he had also seen the relief, the hope that had returned when the arrows had proven their potential. Most of all he had seen the faces of men, woman and children, after they had been saved and given a change of clothes, the cloakes had been a lifesaver as well, their ability to calm the wearer had been just as useful as the arrows. To bad they had only had access to so few of them and the PRT had confiscated them immediately after, just like the remaining tinkertech darts, they would probably never see the light of day again, which was one of the reason he still didn't regret not encouraging the kid to join the Wards.

A Ward would have never been allowed to field tinkertech without prior testing, not to mention giving away and hand out said tinkertech to normal humans, no matter how many lives could have been saved and while he understood why such policies were necessary he knew that the PRT was one of the most inflexible institutions ever created, he knew just how unfair and skewed some regulations were from his long talks with the chief. Speaking of the Chief, he wouldn't be in half as much trouble if he had informed the Chief before making contact with Desu, there were protocols to cooperate with Rogues, those that were designed to facilitate undercover work, thus didn't need to be reported in the short term, but the same reason he didn't still applied today. The PRT had their spies everywhere, just like the gangs and it wouldn't have taken long for them to find out, which wouldn't only have endangered his life, but would have made the entire police a target for the gangs. Police was normally ignored because they didn't employ or cooperate with parahumans directly. Safety in obscurity was very much a tactic practised in Brockton Bay.

He groaned when the PRT trooper that had escorted him into the room called for him to follow. This could only mean his Chief had arrived and he now had to content with him, Piggot and whatever representatives the Major office, the Protectorate and who knew who else had sent.

-----------POV Change----------

Protocol: 16:30 17.4.2011 Meeting PRT, Police, Mayor office, concerned parties to discuss resolution of situation R345174115561

Attendees: Chief Director PRT ENE Ms. Emily Piggot (EP), Brockton Bay Police Chief Mr. Gabriel Thomson (GT), Police Sergeant Mr. Jim Raynor(JR), Brockton Bay Mayor Office Secretary Ms. Elira Yung(EY), PRT Consultant Mr. Thomas Calvert (TC), Protectorate Hero Armsmaster (AM), Protectorate Hero Ms. Militia (MM)....

Location: PRT Headquarters, Conference Room B23

Meeting:

EP rises and starts the meating off.

EP: "Good evening gentlemen and ladies, as we all know, today had been one of the worst days in the history of Brockton Bay, many things have happened today, many decisions have been made and we will spent a lot of time in the next weeks to puzzle those out. But right now we are here to discuss the origin of the tinkertech devices that helped the PRT and Police to save a great number of lives. While all of us around this table are thankful and agree that it has been the right course of action to utilize these untested devices in today's emergency, there are a great many questions for us to discuss. Sargeant Raynor if you could please shed some light on some things."

JR stands before the gathered individual and nods.

JR: "Yes Ms. Piggot, I will try to answer as best I can. But please do keep in mind that I was acting in my capacity as Sargeant, and as such, according to A. 234 S23B (Federal law, Revised Police Code, Parahuman and Police, Undercover act, contact and supply with tinkertech) I am obligated to keep everything that could be used to identify the civilian persona of my contact within the police chain of command. If you feel certain information necessary you can send a formal request to the department."

AM: "Those regulations only apply if the parahuman in question is officially classified as a Rogue or Hero, which is it."

JR: "The person in question does not have an official designation, last I checked no designation had been filed. As I have never actually have meet the person face to face, even in costume I could be unaware of such, but as an unknown they are officially treated as a Rogue."

AM: "This is highly irregular, a tinker with the ability to provide multiple copies of such a useful piece of equipment would need access to high levels of resources and a lot of time and space. All of these devices are identical on a microscopic scale, while the material is something completely unknown."

GT: "Protectorate Hero Armsmaster, Sargeant Raynor, this argument can wait. Sargeant, please do enlighten us how you got in contact with the tinker without ever meeting them. Please be as concise as possible, there are many more meeting planned for after this."

JR: "Yes Sir, I learned their identity by accident and left behind a wireless contact methode and some advice. They themselves were the one to contact me and offer cooperation in exchange for information."

EP: "What kind of information?"

JR: "Telling that would give clues to their identity, all information was readily available and not classified. We have successfully cooperated twice before, I had seen the result of their tinkertech before, so I trusted them when they contacted me at 12.24 and said that they would send some devices to help the situation. The devices arrived at 12.25."

MM: "How where the devices delivered?"

JR: "Unknown, devices where placed outside my line of sight and in such a short time that I didn't missed it. The delivery included a sack, 50 arrows, 50 short cloaks and a short description of the arrows capabilities. To quote: 'Teleport a single person, without anything not themselves, up to 20 m towards the user, aimbot included', this description helped my to identify the arrow and I ordered one of my men to first test them on me, before they were used on others.

EY: "You tested an unknown tinkertech device, from an untrustworthy source you had never met on yourself?!"

AM: "Testing tinkertech in such a way has a high probability of failure and does not provide accurate data to judge if the device is ready for application in the field. The PRT tinker board was created..(Interruption GT)

GT: "I approved the usage in the field. Sargeant, continue your explanation."

EP: "What a moment, why wasn't the PRT informed immediately of this development. We are the experts on tinkertech devices and all such devices have to be approved by the regional PRT."

GT: "Incorrect, only devices planned to be added to the regular equipment or used in planned operations need to be approved and vetted by the PRT. The usage of these devices was spontaneous and not part of the regular deployment, therefore outside of your jurisdiction. Otherwise my man wouldn't have allowed your forces to confiscate them immediately after the worst combat died down. Sargent!"

JR: "Yes Sir, as I was saying, after testing the devices on myself I used them on a conscript who we would have had to kill otherwise. The results were promising and while I didn't know about the cloakes effects at the time, I took the risk to spread them through the forces, including the PRT and Protectorate."

EM: "So you want us to belief, that a parahuman, who is unknown to the PRT has managed to provide 50 copies of just the right equipment at a time of need and that you don't know anything about the person and which side they work for. Do you realize that you could have handed the entire response force into the hands of a villain?"

GT: "With respect, Ms. Piggot, Sargent Raynor has already stated that he has worked with the parahuman in previous cases, which meant he has been active for a while. If you and I haven't got wind of any of his or her actions, the chances are very high we are talking about a Rogue, not a villain."

EM: "What about the information exchanged, this sounds like a villain who plays the long game."

GT: "Wild speculations will not help us right now. Sargent, continue your story."

JR: "Yes sir. After handing out the devices I and my squad joined the operations searching for further victims and we managed to successfully disarm another 32 conscripts. No losses on our side, but a few conscripts were hurt during the aftermath of the explosions caused by the sudden removal of their implants. We only noticed the effects of the cloakes, calming down and stabilizing those that wore it, about halfway through the operation. By that time the information was already spreading through the ranks. After the successful operation I returned to the headquarters, only to be ordered to present myself here."

GT: "Thank you Sargent Raynor, you did exceptional work today."

EP: "Yes, truly fantastic. Tell us about the tinkertech devices in detail."

AM: "Director if I may, I myself with the support of Dragon have already tested the equipment. The sack is nothing special, very well made linen, high quality work, but no obvious signs of tinkertech. No unusual energy readings either. The arrows, have the form of darts used in pubs, but are made from a crystalline material that wasn't in any database. The edging all along the arrow is detailed and accurate to the millimeter. These etchings serve no discernable purpose, but the crystalline material gives of a very strange energy, we haven't managed to identify yes, but it isn't harmful to organic matter. The cloakes contain the same energy, but at a lesser scale and are made and feel like they have been made by a master tailor. It is a possibility that the parahuman in question is actually two tinkers working in concert. One specialized in the unidentifiable energy and the second is a fabric tinker of some kind. Further description of the materials and the functionality of the devices can be found in my full report."

EY: "The major office is concerned, these tinkertech devices saved the city today and he needs to know if there is a way to secure a supply to combat Bakudas further plans.

JR: "I am sorry, at this time I do not know if the cape is open for contact with others besides me. I will ask on your behalf and come back to you as soon as possible.

GT: "But first you are going to introduce me."

....the meeting continued for another half an hour but nothing more did really get done, before the next meetings started.