Ignition

I shook my head as I looked out over the crowd, steeling myself. I had to be careful about how I acted.

This was the first time I would be actively interacting with the press. Sure, I had dealt with advertising agencies before, but over the last month, I was just trying to get people to trust me as a healer without worrying too much about me as a person.

But now I actually had to win people over. I reviewed my notes for a moment before picking myself up. I smoothly slipped into a pose and floated over the crowd, subtly lighting myself up as I floated over to the podium.

I checked in on the Travellers who were still sitting back stage. They were quietly talking among themselves, Noelle even joining in via a video call.

The girl was definitely in far better shape than when I had initially healed her, and even though I could already detect signs of her power beginning to warp her body again. Despite our efforts, establishing a proper clean room to contain her in was too difficult to do without drawing attention to her. And we all knew how dangerous her power could be. It was only because of Sundancer that the Travellers managed to contain her last time.

I touched down and examined the crowd. "Hello everyone."

Almost immediately a deluge of voices watched over me. My face twitched, newarly twisting into a scowl before I turned my biokineisis onto myself in order to hide the reaction. "Questions will be answered later." I remarked, imitating dad's voice when I was a kid. "Calm down everyone."

I might have cheated a little making sure everyone heard my voice even if I didn't raise it.

"Last week, I worked in conjunction with several other parties in a planned effort to address the predicted aggression of the gang going by the name Empire 88 against my person. This operation was carried out successfully, resulting in the capture of all thirteen known parahuman members of the roster and twenty-seven unpowered associates that assisted them in the attack. The parahuman individuals were remanded to the custody of Bastion of the Boston Protectorate and Director Kamil Armstrong of the Boston Branch of the PRT.

The unpowered individuals were placed in the joint custody of the FBI and the BBPD. It is to our understanding that they are in the process of being moved to a secure location to await trial."

I looked out over the crowd and nodded, "All actions were carried out with respect to Good Samaritan law, New Hampshire Castle doctrine and the law surrounding citizen's arrest, as the attack took place in the easter part of the property that I have been redeveloping. However, we have received a special dispensation in this regard from both the PRT and the FBI in recognition of several attempts made on my life in the past few weeks.

It has not escaped our notice that there has been consequences as a result of the actions taken last week. While I cannot speak for the full coalition that acted at the time, I can state my own position. The unrest following the removal of a large number of parahuman criminals is expected, but I must inform all of those who wish to profit from this tumultuous time that I do live in this city, and while I have not hidden my actions as Halcyon or through Halcyon LPEC, I do have friends and family here."

The crown fell silent, the implication clear.

"Now, before I take questions, please let me introduce some of my associates from last week."

I signalled for the Travellers to start making their way out.

"As it may be known to some of you, I received some aid in the capture of Mush, during my efforts against the Archer's Bridge Merchants. I am happy to say that I have remained in contact with these people. Everyone, I present the Travellers."

I stepped back from the podium, floating up to get a better view of crowd as I listened to Trickster introduce himself and the others. I watched as they did a quick power demonstration to entertain the crowd a bit. But eventually I had to come back down.

"This is an announcement that I don't think I can make without Halcyon," Trickster announced as I floated down, "But we are both extremely happy to announce the incorporation of Nightwatch, a private security firm under the umbrella of Halcyon Industries. With the assistance of Halcyon, we have been able to make our home here in Brockton Bay."

I took over, "Following the attacks by the Empire and other gangs prior to the events of last week, I have been working to provide an acceptable level of security for my visitors. As the security team at Halcyon LPEC grew, it became increasingly apparent that I could not appropriately manage the way I had been doing so before.

This became much more problematic following the capture of the Empire, as the main threat driving the expansion of the security team had suddenly evaporated. In order to make best use of resources, it became clear that some reorganization needed to be carried out.

The security team was formally split off into their own company under the lead of Major Mark Stokes, a veteran of the war in Cambodia." I nodded, raising my hand to point out a greying man making his way up to the stage, dressed in dark blue fatigues and body armour.

"We were talking over the weekend when we found out about what would become Nightwatch." I let Trickster take over, "And since Halcyon was helping us move here, well, we decided to help him. It did slow some things down, which is why we had the meeting today, instead of Monday." He paused stepping away from the podium to let Mark take center stage, "I will allow Mark to give you a better idea of what Nightwatch is."

Mark took to the stage, "I will be clear with you. We are not a gang. We will not be entering your neighbourhoods uninvited, and we will not be patrolling the streets.

Now on to specifics. Nightwatch provides two main services,

The first is a retrieval service. Brockton Bay has an unfortunate history of missing persons cases, and given the resources available to us, we have discussed a partnership with the BBPD to provide additional support in the retrieval of missing persons and in rescue efforts in the case of illegal imprisonment.

The second, and more significant service is a watch-team service that stations individuals in an agreed upon area to deter attempts at trespass, breaking and entering, stalking, harassment, burglary and other such dangers against person and property.

He turned to me. The watch team services will not be available to private individuals outside of extreme cases, but we do understand the dangers facing many brocktonites in their homes. To this end, we will negotiate with groups such as HOAs, or other representatives that can represent the joint interests of an area without causing distress to others living in or near the protected area."

He turned to me, stepping back so I could take the stage, "Indeed, Nightwatch will be providing security services to all property developments carried out by Castle Keep Real Estate."

I looked around, "With those announcements out of the way, we will now be taking questions."

The deluge of questions rolled over us and for a moment, every lane in my mind had the same thought.

"Really."

The crowd went silent, and I realised that I had spoken out loud… into a hot mike. Quickly schooling myself to hid the slip, I randomly picked one of the reporters. I let them speak up.

The woman sheepishly stood up, "Umm.. right. There has been a great deal of speculation on your decision to place the Empire capes in the custody of the Boston PRT, do you have any comment."

"The Empire had a lot of power here in Brockton bay, but their influence in other parts of the country is extremely limited. While their association with the Herren clans, and several other groups throughout the state, it became clear that we needed to ensure that they were placed somewhere where the PRT could keep them locked up, and it had to be far enough away from Brockton Bay to make sure that the rest of the Empire couldn't just attack any transports the PRT sends through the city."

I picked out another reporter, "Can you tell us about the involvement of Faultline's crew in the events of last week?"

I paused, checking my email again, despite my powers. "I received permission to reveal this to you as of yesterday. One of my patients last night was none other than Uppercrust, a Tinker that provides energy shields and other such services to the PRT among others. When he heard news of the Empire's attacks against me, he reached out to Faultline's Crew in order to ensure that I would be able to discharge my part of the agreement I now have with him."

There was some discussion among the crowd, but my taps into the PRT systems were telling me the real story. I could see the flurry of messages as everyone suddenly started figuring out what impact this would have on the Elite.

Until a notification came of Bastard Son being left broken and bloodied on the doorstep of the Cleaveland PRT headquarters.

At which point the panic started.

Even with that distraction, the questions continued to flow. But even pawning off as many as I could to Trickster and Mark, I eventually had to call it a day