Ass covering 101
Barring emergencies every third Friday of the month the director of the PRT, his second, the Protectorate Team leader and their liaisons to the local PD had a meeting where they would consider their strategy to deal with crime and emergency response, it was a tradition as old as the PRT Office in Boston and one Director Armstrong was planning to continue for his entire tenure.
Also traditional was the fact that a few days before the meeting the Deputy Director of the PRT Phil Sears would commandeer a secure meeting room, call for takeout and meet with department heads, squad leaders and the occasional cape to avoid being blindsided by external threats and internal screw-ups during the meeting. This was also a longstanding tradition no one wanted to get rid of.
"So gentlemen, what fires we need to put off this week?"
Lieutenant Erik Chase, a former Tactical Response Team member before an encounter with Butcher III cost him a leg took the floor. "External threats, we got the usual players. Blasto is sniffling for material for his tinkering but considering how easily he gave up when we arrived is our opinion that he was just filling his pantry and not actually searching materials for a specific creature. There are whispers from our CI's that the Teeth are going to have a Tea Party, we're coordinating with the Port Authority in case…" During the next forty minutes or so they discussed the parahuman situation in Boston at large, mercifully concluding that none of the known actors had anything particularly obvious on the works.
"So that's all for external problems. What's next on the List?"
"Right now? Phase."
PR and Image department head Bobby O'Hannon interjected before he could tell why the newest Ward in Boston was a problem "Good. My guys at image are chomping at the bit for branding the girl. So far, they are thinking of going all out with the Casper friendly ghost thematic and they want the testing results to know what fabrics and patterns work best with her powers. On the other hand, both Branson and I are really concerned about some of the rumor's mill whispers we have been hearing and I would really appreciate it if you could tell me they are all blown out of proportion, or even better lies and slander."
Gauss didn't bother to contain a snort at the man's plea. "If anything, the fact that you're not panicking about scandals and Branson isn't swearing like a sailor while complaining about fire and brimstone tells me that the mill is slow on the uptake this week. Must be that Taylor won't talk to anyone unless she has no option, but oh boy, when she does she really lays it down!" She continued in a much lower voice. "Not that I blame her."
"Phase came to Boston after two Brockton Wards, one of them being in probation for aggravated assault and battery, in their civilian identities allegedly bullied her into triggering, bullies whose identity she discovered less than thirty minutes after signing during team introductions in the middle of the Wards common room. Less than two hours after that the PRT recruiter sold her father the idea of giving the Protectorate custody of his daughter and expediting a transfer to Boston, close enough to visit, far enough from nazis or killer dragons."
"And just far enough for Miss Hebert to read the Wards rulebook, find the one actionable loophole in the entire glorified pamphlet, confirm it with the unabridged rules and regulations that she received with her signing package and then on arrival claim her constitutional right not to be tested for parahuman powers without her personal and direct consent. A constitutional right no judge will override without clear evidence of her committing at least a Class-B felony." Megumi Miyako was the lawyer in charge of reviewing all aspects of Phase's case, and so far she wasn't seeing an end to the headaches anywhere close.
"And of course, she believes that the entire PRT, Protectorate and Wards are her enemies and does her best to avoid all of us in and out of uniform no matter how uninvolved with her case we are. I just had a very uncomfortable chat with Principal Williams from St. George, after he had an even more uncomfortable one with Taylor so I'm holding my breath about her accepting us for a long time." Gauss added, to the lawyer's explanation.
"So everyone in the labs and testing grounds we can all say goodbye to any kind of tests for the foreseeable future. Great!" Doctor Jeremiah Smith was Boston's PRT R&D chief, and thanks to Armstrong's patronage he had written multiple articles and books on parahuman development, but he was always hoping for one more guinea pig.
"Gauss, I know that triggers are incredibly horrible for those who experience them and nothing that should ever be taken lightly and I'm sorry, but I need to ask. How bad was the bullying in reality, roughhousing that went out of control or something more serious?" Bobby awkwardy asked, Triggers were always a taboo topic for obvious and not so obvious reasons.
"Apparently the bullying started almost two years ago, long before Shadow Stalker and Ampere entered the Wards they were already friends and apparently they bonded over torturing Taylor Hebert, Ampere's family friend from early childhood. Starting more than a year ago the girl started a detailed chronicle of her situation, and as much evidence she could gather, filling multiple notebooks with relentless bullying every day of the week that went from classic bumps in the hallways and stealing homework to Ampere destroying mementos of Taylor's dead mother in front of her."
Lieutenant Chase continued the narrative, far more controlled but still sounding more pissed than his usual surly self. "Meanwhile Shadow Stalker was playing vigilante and was caught by the ENE Protectorate after impaling an E88 skinhead, she was inducted to the Wards under a fairly tame probatory agreement after Ampere's father gave his support as a character witness, allowing her to stay in Winslow High School due to logistical and social reasons. In an astounding case of incompetence, the pre-entry investigation on Shadow Stalker managed to miss both the collusion between her and Ampere, which would have nullified the testimony in her favor, as well as their mutual 'hobby' despite hundreds of messages in their cell phones and their school's social media parading their 'pranks'. Note that it took me less than an hour to find the later." It was obvious that his professional pride was particularly offended by that. "This sad state of affairs continued during Stalker's time in probation and even when Ampere voluntarily entered the Wards herself, with neither their school nor their shared PRT handler noticing anything."
"After a cooldown period in which Miss Hebert hoped that they were finally getting bored of tormenting her, they filled her locker with used tampons from the women's bathroom and let it fester for at least a weekend, and when Monday came, they shoved the girl inside and keep her there for hours until she gained the ability to go through the door to escape. So yeah, a little too extreme for roughhousing gone wrong."
"Shit. I wouldn't want to be the ENE PR department if this leaks, there is no positive or neutral interpretation of their actions, the optics on the local PRT/Protectorate overseers is of incompetence -at best- and the whole story sounds like one of Stephen King books, sensationalist and nasty enough to make page three in the local news even if Kaiser and Lung fight it out in the streets that day and for reporters to make the effort of giving regular updates on the case on slow days. No freaking way of spinning it without outright lying." O'Hannon took a drink from his coffee mug dramatically enough for everyone to wonder if it was spiked with vodka before continuing. "Did the morons at Brockton managed to contain the story?"
"Yes and no. No one noticed that the culprits were Wards nor the involvement of the PRT and the bullying itself hasn't leaked to the media yet but its all there in the student's social media and the locals decided that trying to erase that would do little more than draw unwanted attention." Phil answered, catsup in one hand and a slice in the other.
"Which can change with the smallest leak from either the school side or from the Wards, and Phase is so far no shy about complaining about it. Other than a worse case unmasking we're relatively well isolated from the fallout but we can still coordinate with Brockton for some after the fact follow up articles detailing the vague but pretty strict punishments the school's faculty and the non-disclosed minors suffered in order to defuse the story, maybe talking about a settlement… Phil, I know that face, you know that I know that face! What the fuck the idiots up north did?"
"There's no official punishments to the girls involved or the school's faculty nor a payout on the works for Miss Hebert. Brockton PR strategy is to close their eyes and wish everything away. That means that the police investigation is stalled, no recommendations for punishments can be passed to the appropriate school district and Legal won't authorize a settlement or any form of compensation until the investigation is over, and their intention is for it to take years."
"Are they for real? Meg can they even do that?" Bobby questioned her, already dreading his colleage response.
"So far the people at ENE are obeying the letter of the law. They already introduced the collected evidence and relevant testimonies into the system, doing otherwise would be obstruction of justice, particularly since we know, but the investigators' notes are shining by their absence. If I was a betting woman, I would assume that the game they're all playing is to delay and pray. The lead investigator will run out all the normally allotted investigation time and ask to his section leader for as many time extensions as possible, before that time runs out and the section leader has to ask the director to authorize even more time."
"So… they are waiting until everyone is 18? Can they delay that much?"
"Not really, regs indicate that sooner or later the status of the investigation must be changed to Cold Case, but for that is mandatory for they to analyze whatever evidence they have at hand and give a mandatory report to the DA office, and what they already introduced to the system is enough to fill charges for multiple Class A misdemeanors and at least one Class D felony even before taking into account the probation of one of the culprits. If they try to obfuscate that then it and every delay beforehand will be considered as obstructing justice."
"But then again, they don't need to delay that much, wait a year or so until either or both of the girls involved can get some accomplishments under their names and present the evidence to a DA in a good mood so they can negotiate an extended parole agreement."
"Oh, that's how you'll do it in their place, I guess."
"Fuck no. That house of cards sounds nice and clean in theory, but it has too many moving parts and ways it can go wrong. And when it does go down in flames then everyone in the chain of command even tangentially involved by rubberstamping a delay will be facing conspiracy charges themselves. For it to blow up they just need the girls committing one additional crime, one wrong look from IA for unrelated reasons, that the DA asks for a parole report on SS as part of the background check after she makes an arrest… there are too many ways the delay circle can come to an end even before considering the fact that the victim is going to actively try to kick down the house of cards on everyone's head!"
"And when that happens ENE region will have a disproportionally large percentage of their chain of command paralyzed by an Internal Affairs investigation, with the entire Wards rooster benched, and the Protectorate leadership in charge of the Wards forced to step down. Depending on how it happens and who discovers the smoking gun then they might get rebranded or retired, or it bad comes to worse arrested as accessories after the fact."
"And experience tells us that when shit goes down hard enough in BB it always, always ends up with Boston eventually dealing with the fallout."
"And what if we trip the wire early? I've always said that the best way of dealing with a bomb is by poking it with a pointy stick, a very long one."
"And that's why you're missing a leg."
"What can I say? I didn't have a long enough one with me that day."
"Tempting, but frankly I don't fancy getting myself relocated to Eerie, Indiana. Disaster in the making or not if we intentionally sabotage another regional office all of the directors will pounce on us."
"Eerie, Indiana? Not to a Quarantine Zone?"
"Do you think that The Powers That Be would like a whistleblower in those places?"
"Touche."
"And talking about Miss Hebert, how likely is that she gets to blow the whistle?"
"She signed a standard NDA regarding the Wards and Protectorate secret identities, confidentiality for actions related to law enforcement and regarding protocol and procedures as part of her acceptance into the program. That her attackers are minors themselves add another small layer of safety regarding her spreading their names beyond the judicial system but other than that the ENE region was so desperate to move her out of the state that they didn't force her or her father to sign anything more specific."
"And if the ENE office sends a more comprehensive NDA for her to sign?"
"Then we politely return it to the sender and, if they insist, we call their bluff and even more politely ask for an update on the case, implying that we might formally ask for it on writing. That will make them back-down ASAP."
"Now the girls committed their crimes in their civilian identities when off-duty and their actions are definitely not covered under good samaritan laws so they don't get any kind of immunity to lawsuits, so she can freely sue their civilian identities as well as her former school even if the NDA makes difficult -but not impossible- to sue the Protectorate and the PRT as well. Even if the PRT won't release any of the evidence of the locker 'prank' during this last year she collected plenty of independent evidence of harassment, enough to build a viable case even if part of it is circumstantial. Once the lawsuit is on the docket then is game over, during discovery the fact that the PRT claimed jurisdiction will have to be revealed and since the nature of their crime can't by its nature be directly or indirectly part of Wards activities then there will be no legal recurse to keep said fact, the evidence or the legal status of Shadow Stalker and Ampere secret without perjuring themselves."
"But you said we hold her legal custody, can we block her from suing?"
"We have 'Pater Familias' custody. We can choose to sign her for swim classes at the school, authorize her dentist to get her brackets, and ground her if she misses her homework, but the one person that has the legal right to sue those little shits in her behalf is still her father. And even if we had full custody, if she really wanted, she could request an 'ad litem' guardian, and since there is an obvious conflict of interests between her and the PRT it would be a no-brainer for a judge to assign her one."
"Lucky we that she seems to hate her father almost as much as she hates us. When he tried to give her a good bye hug she phased through him and her parting words probably hurt a lot more than the last time I was punched in the gut."
"Now that's a depressing silver lightning if I ever heard of one. What if we pay a settlement ourselves?"
"On one hand it would trigger the chain reaction we already agreed not to poke with a stick, on the other enough funds to equal a settlement of this magnitude will never be authorized when everything happened well outside our jurisdiction and we have no official reason to justify the expense. Worse case it might accidentally trigger a corruption and embezzlement case against us." Phil answered.
"The other thing she can do, at least legally, is to fill a complaint with some of our watchdogs. I know for a fact that she is talking with Reed from Youth Guard, and while they cannot mess with an ongoing investigation, they're already issuing every fine and punishment they can levy on the Wards handlers, while reinforcing their monitoring of the Wards. As it is they will delay Stalker or Ampere getting back in the field for at least six months so any hope of doing a good enough work to earn brownie points with the DA office is already facing trouble. And God save them if she can get into contact with an IA officer, or a politician read in the Parahuman's Affairs Committee."
"Less legally, but one that no judge would give her more than a slap on the hand, is for her to gather her evidence, which you are telling me she got entire notebooks filled to the brim and talk to the media. No matter how much she decides to disclosure, anything short of revealing other Wards identities will have the ENE region and us tarred and feathered, a noble tradition of this city."
"At least that we can stop without getting into a legal mess. Well, at least as long as someone knows how to stop someone intangible from going anywhere."
"Good question. So, in case we need to stop her from running away to join the circus, to give a personal interview in WBZ News Radio, from going vigilante on the streets or even becoming a villain what options do we have?"
"You can forget Wards support of any kind other than self-defense or her clearly and openly going villain, for any containment action I'm giving Weld standing orders to retreat and stay out of it. No way I'm letting the kids get involved in this shit, even if no one gets hurt and Taylor moves away afterwards Team cohesion and morale would be destroyed for this generation of Wards." Gauss was obviously distracted of even thinking the local Wards would need to put down one of their own, even if that person was keeping them at arm's length.
"Agreed, the last thing the public needs to see is a civil war in the middle of the Wards team. Almost certain it would leak, and that plus the mess of Brockton and we would be seeing the Wards Charter revoked for both regions. Fuck damn it, I wish I had a bottle of bourbon."
"Me too. I agree that the Wards can't be used unless as a last resort, his whole affair is going to be hard on the them already, no need to make it harder. Even then I'm going to request an action plan in case they do need to defend themselves or are caught in the crossfire. As for Protectorate support, Nebula told me the Protectorate own's action plan is on the works. Chase, what can the strike teams can do in case there's no parahuman support available?"
"First, no way to passively bar her way in or out the building, not even by having troopers physically block her path so to enforce any kind of lock-down we are going to need to perform an active take-down even if she doesn't take aggressive actions first, and for that I'm going to need a special authorization."
"I'll have one written by tomorrow."
"Non-lethal we can say goodbye to barriers and hand-to-hand maneuvers of any kind, containment foam, tasers and rubber bullets, flashbangs probably work on her and maybe tear gas if she even needs to breathe in her Breaker state, other than that I need to brainstorm with the rank and file. Also, other than keeping her sedated, we have no way of containing her after capture."
"If I may, tasers might not be out of question. When her Trigger Event occurred, she was in close proximity to two other parahumans, Shadow Stalker and Ampere, Trigger Events in similar circumstances have a tendency to share characteristics of the parahumans inside a certain radius. Shadow Stalker's tests indicate that her Breaker state is vulnerable to electricity so there is a chance Phase herself is vulnerable as well."
"If she is vulnerable to electricity then we can use tasers to subdue and shock handcuffs for containment… If. I would love something a little more concrete than that for my contingency plans Doc."
"Without comprehensive testing or Thinker support we are limited by our passive observations of Phase and our knowledge is likewise very limited. We know for certain that she can enter her Breaker state with her clothing and the objects she is carrying, so far the greatest amount observed is a medium sized school backpack mostly filled with books. We have seen her phasing through a human being without apparent physical damage, his father showed signs of emotional distress but afterwards he didn't have a physical examination performed on him nor did he filled a questionnaire to evaluate if his psychological status was affected beyond the nature of his farewell to Phase, so we have yet to discover if she can intentionally harm someone by interacting with them in her Breaker state or the exact restrictions of her Manton Limit. She asked to switch rooms due to her powers so we are assuming that she got a passive ability that affects her when in proximity to either other people or specifically parahumans, considering her proximity to Ampere before and during her Trigger we consider that this may be a secondary Thinker ability. One of my analysts noted that in the mess hall surveillance recordings she never seems surprised of people coming from blind angles even while distracted, however that same analyst added that it could be hypervigilance due to bullying instead of signs of a Thinker ability."
"Joy, so Thinker four countermeasures at the very least. If she's uncomfortable in a room then we need to consider a twelve feet awareness perimeter." Chase complained.
"And of course, there is very intriguing fact that, every Thinker that has tried to evaluate her has been unable to direct their power towards her. "Watchdog's Thinkers are already offering their help to find how encompassing her abilities are, they have yet to find out how high her Stranger rating is, but its at least a six and raising."
"And with their curiosity an uncomfortable amount of attention from other jurisdictions is coming, particularly since she won't take her power tests in one of the best labs in the country."
"All in all, my preliminary recommendation is that the use of force to contain her should be a last resource, morale tends to take a nose dive when a parahuman either casually ignore every action against her or when the troops are forced to beat the shit out of a teen girl."
"Good, I don't want the ENE to drag us even deeper in this hole they're digging. We accepted Phase in good faith before realizing the shit we were getting into and we will do our best to integrate her into the Wards and if she tries to spread classified information, we stop her as we would with any other Ward or Protectorate cape trying the same but that's where I'm drawing the line. No further interaction between Miss Hebert and the ENE Wards, Protectorate or PRT personnel from any media nor any actions that can be seen as tampering with a witness even if they can be seem as legal out of context, they wanted to make her our problem let them choke on that."
"Aye to that. But it doesn't help her situation at all."
"We keep director Armstrong's strategy and hope she makes friends within the Wards and they mellow her anger enough we can start to mend things."
AN: I have been thinking how Piggot and Armsmaster can keep this PR nightmare completely In-House while people from Boston, YG and WEDGE are actively watching without breaking any laws in the process and this is the answer I reached. In RL crime investigations can take years of research even with clear evidence of culpability and laws and regulations reflect that. So she is acting as if this open and shut case is far more complex and running the time so that she can make the reveal at the local District Attorney when she gets enough political capital to negotiate some agreement that doesn't involve jail or relocation from the girls, for example increasing the probation inside BB well into their twenties instead of them moving to a different city when they graduate to the Protectorate.
