Emily Piggot Interlude
"...what the hell is going on in your Brockton Bay?" The image on the monitor jerked slightly, distorting Director Costa-Brown's facial features. Encrypted channel communications had their drawbacks—the image quality was noticeably worse than on open civilian networks, but at least it was secure. Emily Piggot didn't rely on simple encryption and closed, secret communications; she understood perfectly well that any cipher could be broken, and the most vulnerable element of any system had always been and remained the human factor. What good were secret codes or closed communication channels if an operative got drunk and told his girlfriend everything, or dropped something in conversation while bragging about his access to classified information?
But the secret communication channel wasn't designed for professionals—it was more for amateurs. Access to secrets should be at least somewhat difficult, so that not every script kiddie could get login credentials to PRT video conferences.
"And why should I be learning about this from the press and the internet?" continues Rebecca Costa-Brown, Deputy Chief Director of the Parahuman Response Teams.
"I was just about to send my report to headquarters," Emily says. She's not lying—the report really is sitting on version has been ready for two hours. But Costa-Brown, that pain in the ass, has a knack for choosing the worst possible moment. Five more minutes and she would have finished checking the final report, sent it to headquarters with two clicks, and could have reported with a clear conscience that the report had been sent. And enjoyed the confusion on the Deputy Chief Director's face. But this Costa-Brown... always at the wrong time.
"Send it. But for now—brief me on the situation verbally," orders the PRT Deputy Chief Director, and Emily mentally rolls her eyes, carefully ensuring nothing shows on her face. Years of playing poker help her maintain outward composure.
"Three days ago, Butcher Fourteen arrived in the city along with the Teeth, his supporting parahuman group. The Teeth's transport was spotted by Miss Militia, who called for backup and engaged superior enemy forces. Subsequently..."
"We don't have much time. Keep it brief, please."
"The Butcher was killed by one Taylor Hebert, a schoolgirl who had recently triggered. She was assigned the operational codename 'Poison Ivy' and threat rating eight."
"A schoolgirl? And threat rating eight? Did you have grounds for that?" Costa-Brown asks.
"This schoolgirl killed Lung. And thirty-seven of his gang members," Piggot responds. "Her power allows her to control swarms of insects. We don't know the limitations, but experts say hazmat suits won't protect against her most venomous specimens. The speed and ruthlessness, as well as the relative ease with which she committed this crime, served as grounds for assigning such a high rating."
"Continue," Costa-Brown nods. Emily nods and continues speaking. She knows absolutely certain that Costa-Brown knows about Lung's death and his minions—she has to know. Lung is famous throughout the country, no, even the whole world. Was famous. The parahuman who ended his earthly journey inherits his fame, to some degree. So Poison Ivy became known instantly as soon as the PRT press release went out. Costa-Brown definitely knew about this. Yet she still forces her to repeat known facts.
"...thus Miss Hebert became the Fifteenth in the Butcher line," she continues. "We took measures to contain the threat to the city and civil society. At my request, Sleepy Lily was sent from Arkansas, a research and isolation facility was set up far outside the city, all PRT, Protectorate and Wards personnel were briefed. As a result of coordinated work by heroes of the East Coast PRT branch, we managed to establish contact with Butcher Fifteen and..."
"Establish contact? Director Piggot, this is the Butcher, for God's sake! What contact?! And why are you taking it upon yourself to make agreements with the Butcher on behalf of the PRT? The Butcher is guilty of thousands of crimes—murder, assault, robbery and property destruction."
"The Butcher is guilty," Emily nods. "But the new Butcher host and the Butcher itself are not the same thing."
"Explain your reasoning," Costa-Brown says, and Emily begins to explain. Again, Costa-Brown knows everything about the Butcher and PRT research on the subject. She understands Emily's reasons and logic, but she needs to hear it all from her personally. With arguments and reasoning, all the pros and cons.
"...the host's personality undergoes deformation as a result of information attacks from previous hosts and the original Butcher. However, observations and research have shown that a new host can resist this influence for some time. The period during which the personality stops being their former self and becomes the Butcher in the full sense varies and depends on individual personality characteristics in each case. Taylor Hebert, the new bearer of the Butcher's legacy, showed herself very resistant to the Butcher's influence during negotiations."
"More details, please. What leads to such conclusions," Costa-Brown folds her hands in front of her. "Why did you decide that?"
"Butcher One is extremely violence-prone. He's aggressive, wants to dominate and destroy those who oppose him. He's authoritarian and considers himself right in any argument—he wouldn't let anyone teach him or give him orders. Meanwhile, Miss Hebert came to the PRT building with her lawyer, Henry McCallister."
"The Butcher came with a lawyer?"
"Moreover, during the conversation it was the lawyer who determined the topic and direction of discussion, and even commanded Miss Hebert a couple times. And she obeyed him unquestioningly. This completely contradicts the Butcher's psychological profile. He would never come to the PRT with a lawyer, much less obey him. Furthermore, the lie detector built into Armsmaster's visor showed no obvious lies from Miss Taylor—there were moments of omission or interpreting events favorably to herself, but no direct lies. If not for the circumstances, I would consider Miss Hebert a very mature and psychologically stable individual. Unfortunately, her behavior during Lung's attack and the murder of nearly forty people, or the subsequent murder of the Butcher host, don't give me that option. From this I can conclude that Miss Hebert is probably just being hypocritical, pretending to be a goody-two-shoes while actually being a pronounced psychopath. She steps over corpses without hesitation, can torture people without showing enough empathy, violence is natural to her and doesn't cause internal rejection. However, we believe this gives us some hope."
"How so?" Rebecca Costa-Brown leans forward for the first time since the conversation began, studying Piggot's face with interest. "Explain."
"Miss Hebert is clearly a psychopath, prone to violence no less than the Butcher himself," Emily Piggot explains. "However, she was already like that before becoming Fifteen. The incident with Lung shows her in all her glory. But despite this, or perhaps because of it, she's able to control her violent impulses. During our conversation I provoked her several times, but she stayed within bounds and didn't give me even a hint that she was ready to snap. If I didn't know who she was, I wouldn't suspect this girl was Fifteen. And the Butcher's behavior always gives him away. Maybe she's an even crazier psychopath than he is and their personalities simply don't conflict but complement each other? That's just speculation, of course. The facts show that Miss Hebert displays no signs of psychological crisis, depression, aggression or neurasthenia, no signs of sleep deprivation, and that's one of the first signs. The Butchers don't let the new host sleep, don't leave them in silence... but Miss Hebert appears physically and psychologically healthy and unharmed. Except for the fact that she's a psychopath and killer, but apparently she always was. The type—quiet maniac who thinks everyone's wronging her and is preparing her revenge."
"Miss Hebert is already a maniac?"
"She feels exaggerated hatred toward one of my Wards," Piggot says. "She's convinced herself that the Ward bullied her at school, imagined slights and insults, made it all up herself and took offense. Teenage maximalism and aggression."
"She goes to school with a Ward? Arcadia High?"
"Winslow High. Her classmate is Shadow Stalker. Civilian identity—Sophia Hess. Honor student, class activist, athlete. Quite popular among students. Meanwhile, Hebert herself is a quiet girl with dirty hair in torn jeans. You probably know the type. They hate everyone around them just because they're prettier and smarter, because they're popular. I assume they clashed a couple times at school and even had conflicts. The difference in social status caused such an attitude from Miss Hebert."
"This Ward—have you already taken measures to ensure her and her family's safety? Having the Butcher as a personal enemy is no joke."
"Miss Hess is currently in a specially guarded cell," Emily nods. "Her mother has been assigned protection. However, given that the Ward also committed... certain excesses, I deemed it necessary to initiate judicial review of her actions."
"That's correct. We can't show that we're covering for anyone or giving people indulgences regardless of their status..." says Costa-Brown. She knows this isn't true, and Piggot knows the same. Formally everyone's equal, but some are more equal than others. Take Alexandria—whatever methods she uses in dispensing justice and delivering good, no one would bat an eye. Emily Piggot knew this all too well. However, she showed no reaction to Costa-Brown's words.
Emily Piggot wasn't a crusader; she understood perfectly that when you chop wood, chips fly. Besides, her main task in this conversation was to properly frame things. So the Deputy Chief Director wouldn't ask "what the hell didn't this Piggot keep track of this idiot Sophia Hess, who drove a schoolgirl to trigger?" On the other hand, staying silent about it would be much worse. That would look not just like a fuck-up, but like consciously covering up her fuck-up. And while the first case might result in disciplinary action and internal investigation, the second was already a criminal offense.
Therefore Emily carefully framed things and was confident in her position. Indeed, there are facts. Shadow Stalker drove Taylor Hebert to trigger. But! The facts are—nobody beat up this Hebert, and Sophia could have crippled her. Yes, they bullied and insulted her, but that's all. This is normal school life—teenagers are naturally cruel and you can't watch them all. The only case of physical impact was when she was shoved into a locker and the door closed behind her. That, yes, that could be considered a crime. But there's no proof either, though Emily is simply certain Sophia Hess did it. It's in her character. Nevertheless, they're only talking about this now because Miss Hebert is Fifteen. Otherwise nobody would care. Yes, it's wrong, but such is life. Now the chips have fallen this way—Taylor Hebert is in a position to demand reparations, and if she requests revenge, Emily would have nothing to say in response to such a demand. Except perhaps change the word "revenge" to "justice."
Hebert herself shows remarkable good sense so far. Outwardly she shows no anger, even asked them not to punish either the school principal or Hess herself. But... Emily suspects Miss Hebert of being a psychopath, which means she's planning revenge far more sophisticated than ordinary justice. Really, so they'll put this Hess in juvenile detention... she doesn't give a damn about that. To start with, no such facilities exist for parahumans. And in a regular facility, Sophia would be the dominant alpha. Not to mention she could escape. No, that definitely wouldn't satisfy Miss Hebert. What does this mean? That Miss Hebert wants to punish Sophia Hess personally, and judging by how she dealt with that poor Asian boy from the ABB in front of Bakuda, Shadow Stalker can expect unpleasant times.
In turn, what does this mean for Director Emily Piggot? Nothing. She's not going to provide Sophia Hess with round-the-clock protection or spend department money ensuring her safety. In three days she'll be released from isolation and... they'll look the other way. Miss Hebert wants to take revenge with her own hands? Go ahead.
Emily Piggot doesn't feel sorry for this Hess in the slightest. She made her bed, let her try to sleep in it. And as department head and branch director, Emily Piggot did what she could—signed an agreement with the Butcher and didn't even punish Sophia too harshly. If Hebert does snap and destroys Sophia, Piggot will have another hook against her, and most importantly—she'll understand that Hebert can't be trusted. She doesn't control herself. If Shadow Stalker continues to darken the sky and pollute Brockton Bay's air with her very existence, that will show that Miss Hebert can be dealt with. That she somehow managed to subjugate the Butcher or at least didn't succumb to his influence. And the longer Sophia Hess lives and breathes, the stronger this certainty becomes. A kind of litmus test. Sophia Hess, human indicator.
But to hell with Hess. The main thing now is not to get caught in the crossfire. She let that idiot slip through her fingers, she did. Yes, not personally—there was also a young female handler who didn't bother to personally check reports. Covered up complaints about Sophia by having talks with the principal along the lines of "God forbid anyone hurt our Ward," completely forgetting that she could hurt anyone else.
Then there are the Wards themselves, who should immediately identify such warning signs within their team and inform command, not cover things up locally out of false solidarity.
Then there's Armsmaster, whose social skills are slightly worse than an old electric kettle's. For him, Hess is primarily an effective combat unit, and what she does in her personal life doesn't concern him.
Many factors. But she, Emily Piggot, is the director of this branch, which means she's responsible for everything that happens here. If this Hebert had demanded justice, Emily would have made every effort to lock Sophia Hess in prison, and actually that would be safer for Sophia herself. However, Miss Hebert demanded nothing of the sort—on the contrary, she petitioned not to punish her, saying "all kinds of things happen at school." Director of the East Coast PRT branch Emily Piggot knows how to read between the lines, and this isn't just "all kinds of things happen at school" but rather "all kinds of things can happen at school..." and most likely this "all kinds of things" will happen, by strange coincidence, precisely to Sophia Hess. However, Director Piggot won't bear any responsibility for that. Everyone's been warned, everyone has their own head on their shoulders, and the litmus test named Hess will play her role.
"The bottom line is that Butcher Fifteen turned out to be quite reasonable and most likely won't continue the behavioral pattern of previous Butchers," says Deputy Chief Director Rebecca Costa-Brown. "That's already a lot, even if it's just hope for now. Good work, Director Piggot."
"And that's not all," Emily says, knowing Costa-Brown hasn't had time to read her report, sent just moments ago with the click of a button. "The main achievement is this."
She holds up a sheet of paper to the camera.
"Attachment to report number two. Open the attached document scans," she says, and Costa-Brown on her end leans toward the screen, manipulating her laptop.
"What do we have here... an agreement?"
"An agreement that Fifteen has committed to participate in repelling Endbringer attacks, starting from the moment of signing," Piggot says. She doesn't need to look at Costa-Brown's face—she knows her pupils are dilating and her eyes are widening right now. Take that, you polished bitch, she thinks, you think only you people there know how to get things done?
"This... this changes things," the Deputy Chief Director shakes off her stupor. "Emily, you... this is good. Better than good. Excellent."
"Oh please, Madam Deputy Chief Director. The credit belongs to the entire department," Emily modestly lowers her eyes. Today, she had won.