Plea

Chapter 1

** I ** II ** III ** IV **

Disclaimer: This story is based off of "Worm", an original web serial by Wildbow, all intellectual rights to and characters belong to Wildbow.

Special Thanks to Dakaath for his constructive criticism on this story.

** I ** II ** III ** IV **

People moved out of my way as I stormily walked towards one of PRT's low security interrogation rooms, my days were already busy enough balancing the fight against the ABB, the Empire Eighty Eight and other troublemakers without having the time to spare to deal with the occasional bout of teen drama courtesy of the Wards.

But when a teen girl came to the lobby of their headquarters claiming to know the identity of one of the most problematic Wards in recent memory, had photographic evidence, and her only demand was to talk with someone 'normal'? Then I have no choice but to make time.

I arrived to the back of the interrogation room, separated from the girl only by a one way mirror, and talked to the PRT agent in charge. "What do we have?"

The man didn't bother to look up from his tablet as he talked. "Taylor Hebert, 10th grade student at Winslow High. Mother's dead, father's Dockworkers Union spokesperson. No criminal record, no known parahuman relations, was hospitalized this January after having a panic attack. We issued her a visitor's badge and haven't yet called her father. Do we?"

I looked at the girl; she was scared, and not in the same way a Ward did when he or she discovered that they had done something stupid and that a long session with Glenn was on the line. No, this was the kind of resigned fear of those criminals I had sent to the Birdcage, those who didn't have an escape specialist waiting for them and knew that the end was coming. I mentally upgraded the seriousness of the situation a notch, this wasn't going away with a vague threat and a signed picture of Dauntless.

"No, she came here voluntarily and she's not under arrest yet. Let's hear her out without concerned parents or annoying lawyers first."

After saying that I went to the white room where the girl was quietly waiting and sat down in front of her without saying a word, only the sound of a single fly trapped in the room breaking the oppressing silence.

I keep my silence a full minute, letting her stew, daring her to say the first word but I understood that this wasn't going to make her any more nervous that she already was, so finally I introduced myself. "Miss Hebert, I'm Emily Piggot, Director of Brockton Bay's Parahuman Response Team. Can you tell me what you are doing here instead of being in school?"

"I just didn't want to run into her here." She whispered.

"Of Sophia Hess you mean. Shadow Stalker, but you know that already. Do you know of the many laws that protect the privacy of PRT affiliated parahumans?" A shy nod was her answer. "Now can you tell me how did you learn of this little piece of information?" The fly in the wall started a frantic and irritating flight in the room, but the girl didn't seem to notice.

"I was keeping track of them, of Sophia and Madison and Emma," I couldn't recognize two of the names of course, but I wasn't about to ask and cut her in the middle of her explanation, "didn't want to get ambushed the way home, not again. Then she ducked into an alley and I… saw her turn into a shadow."

'Shadow Stalker using her powers without checking her six first? I'm giving her six months of punishment duties.' I thought, and when the fly near me once more I had to resist the impulse of swatting it with my PRT issued Tablet while imagining it was Shadow Stalker.

"The next days I kept following her, until I found out about her being Shadow Stalker. Then I understood, why the school did nothing, why all the teachers turn a blind eye towards the bullying, why Emma…" She took a moment or two to visibly calm down. At least that damn fly stopped buzzing around.

"So you decided to get some blurry pictures of her in an old Polaroid, add a Facebook image and a picture from the school's yearbook for reference and came here with the only originals. Tell me Miss Herbert, what do you expect me to do? Because right now you have given me all I need to suppress this indefinitely."

"I know. I could have gone to the news with this, the E-Mails she sends to me, and the notebook with my notes, or I could just send a letter to anyone of Empire Eighty Eight, or the Azn Bad Boys or I don't know Über and Leet." I frowned at that, despite her words I couldn't hear any implicit threat, which was admirable considering the circumstances.

That damn fly that was becoming the bane of this particular meeting was now crashing against the one way mirror time after time, but luckily it suddenly calmed down just as the girl restarted her narrative, allowing me to pay full attention to it. "I could, but I understand that even if I wasn't caught there would be consequences, anyone could attack her as Sophia, or could attack her family, or could go against the school or something just as bad. I'm better than that, or at least I hope I am. I don't want revenge, I just want it to stop." The girl just looked weary, defeated as she said those words. Even then by this point she had already earned a measure of respect from me, something that most Wards didn't earn until long pass their graduation to the Protectorate.

I suppressed a groan, I really didn't like working all the time with children and teens, and this time even I could see that my next words could break this girl. "When a new Ward is introduced into the school system the principal receives an official letter, not directly from us but from the Department of Justice, telling the school that said Ward is cooperating in an ongoing investigation and that due to the nature of the investigation they will have to miss classes at irregular intervals and that detentions are not possible, also I those letters we ask for leniency in minor misconduct incidents mostly due to the stress a hero suffers in the line of duty…"

"… I see, sorry for wasting your time." The girl Taylor made a motion to rise from her seat and leave, but halted when I did a stopping gesture with my hand. "…however Miss Herbert, Taylor, they're supposed to report any and all incidents as soon as they occur, members of the Wards are supposed to be under constant mental evaluation to make sure they're coping with their responsibilities, and in the case it is necessary to impart discipline as needed. At Arcadia High those instances are always tagged and reported back to us, even if they're only suspicions, at Winslow it seems that we need to have a serious chat with the faculty about it. Have you done any official report at all about the situation?"

"It happened last month. I went to my locker, and well, they'd obviously raided the bins from the girl's bathrooms or something, because they'd piled used pads and tampons into my locker. Almost filled it." Her eyes were the same I had seen during my years in the PRT in the face of many soldiers and more than a few capes, simply haunted. "It was pretty obvious that they had done it before the school closed for Christmas, by the smell alone. I bent over to throw up, right there in a crowded hallway, everyone watching. Before I could recover or stop losing my breakfast, someone grabbed me by the hair, hard enough it hurt, and shoved me into the locker, and then they shut and locked it. I panicked, freaked out, cooped inside there with the rotten smell and my own puke…" She was crying, and it took a moment for her to start the narrative again, although I could see in her face that she was letting something out,

"I don't remember when they let me out, just that I had to be taken to the hospital, I know the school paid the bills so it should at least be in record, but there were no witnesses willing to talk. I never wound up telling my dad about the main group of bullies. Maybe I should have, I dunno."

"And Miss Hess is one of those bullies, right? Well, that is a problem, but is more than enough for me to start investigating these allegations," those would have been empty words with any other of the Wards, but Shadow Stalker's plea bargain meant that the Right of Privacy was rather a privilege, and an easily revoked one at that. "And I promise you that if any of them is true, then I will find out and she will be harshly deal with." If she was even an accessory to the assault then it was as much of a breach of her parole as if she had used lethal weapons again and in that case I was going to throw her straight to juvenile hall.

At least she looked as if she was reassured by the last part, maybe because she really wanted to believe that, maybe because for once I was telling the truth. It would be bad for morale to throw her out of the Wards, but rather contain the situation now than to wait until she did something worse in the field. Neither of them had anything more to say, and silence once more permeated the room, but this time was a little less oppressive, even with that fly still buzzing behind me…

With that a suspicion that had been growing on the back of my mind during the entire meeting consolidated into a theory. If I was wrong then I would need to do a lot of silly sounding explanations, and regardless of the outcome the officer behind the glass would probably make sure that it would be the topic of choice for the headquarters for the entire month.

I used my best command voice, the one from my times as a PRT Assault Commander, the one voice that didn't demand obedience as much as considered it an inevitable consequence. "Taylor, get that damn fly on the table and make it to stay put!" Just as her face was showing her shock at the order the fly obediently zoomed from the back of the room and landed right in front of my finger. I flicked at it, but the insect didn´t fly even when prodded.

A Master 1 at the very minimum, and now that the initial shock was fading I could see that she knew what she tensing in an obvious fight or flight reaction. I cut that as fast as I could out of professionalism and a measure of self-preservation. "Taylor, you're not in trouble, although it is highly encouraged to report a parahuman skill when entering the building is not obligatory for visitors to do so, and your identity is protected by law unless you commit a felony; so calm down."

She stopped looking as if she was about to run and the lack of alarms and armed PRT officers breaking the door meant that the man behind the glass cooler kept his cool as well.

Now I needed specifics to see how big the bullet I just dodged was. "I guess that's how you could get the information about Miss Hess. Is that lone fly the only thing you can do?"

"Umm, no; I used to think I could control anything with an exoskeleton or shell. But I can control earthworms too, among other things, and they don't have shells. I think all it takes is that they have to have very simple brains, I can see, smell and taste what they do but unless is tactile most of the time the information is jumbled and I can make sense of it, too different from us I think. And I can do it up to 400 yards give or take."

'So Master 1 or 2, and maybe Thinker 1' I did a rough calculation of her power, "How many can you control at the same time?"

"I don't know, last week I tried to gather as many as I could. I got to 53,269 before the swarm became too noticeable, but I didn't feel as I reached my limit even then." I revised my initial estimations by four or five levels and decided on a course of action.

"Miss Hebert, since I have knowledge of your identity in an official capacity I need to fill the appropriate reports, since you're a minor that means I'm forced by law to make your father aware of your abilities. Due to time constrains filling the paperwork is probably going to take a while, so if he doesn't know yet then you got until nightfall. I would recommend you to voluntarily register and accept an evaluation and classification of your parahuman skills, it is not obligatory but it carries many legal and economic advantages. You can call me at these numbers and I'll get an agent to carry the necessary information as well as a Non-Disclosure Agreement about Sophia Hess identity. And with regard of the original reason of your visit I assure you that Miss Hess is going to stop with her shameful behavior, one way or another."

With that I shook her hand and allow her to leave. I needed to carry on an investigation on a renegade Ward.

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