章 52: Undersided

Fucking server room is too protected sneaking inside was like trying to unlock a nun's chastity belt with your tongue, with cameras along the walls, some hidden more than others, almost constant patrols, and even more security that I'd not noticed during my strolls past. If that wasn't bad enough, Armsmaster's workshop was so close you could practically smell his beard oils!

Any attempt to break in and find out where they're keeping Tieu would end in abject failure, much like my attempts to simply inquire about her situation. 'There are still many threats to her life' and 'You will see her soon' were all too common phrases when I broached the subject. She was leverage, more so than that some cunt had leaked her information to the public.

If it wasn't already well known my relation to her, it was now. Someone had used multiple puppet accounts to post information relating to me all over the internet. Not just PHO but Wikipedia articles about myself, message boards... Whether or not this was an attempt to make true the PRT's statements about keeping Tieu safe didn't matter. Someone was scheming, if the attempt to poison me in the cafeteria wasn't already obvious enough.

I was getting antsy, being kept on the Rig all day and night, with people that either hated me or were scared of me. My attempts to be amiable with my therapist were slow going, Benny saw straight through my facade and it was pissing me off.

Ducking my head, I walk past the server room once more, hoping my circuitous route to the lunch hall wouldn't be noticed. As I turned the corner however I spotted a man headed directly toward me. Stick thin and in a suit that appeared like it'd slide off, with equally thin lips and trimmed eyebrows the same colour as his short-cut black hair.

His inconspicuous brown eyes stared straight at me and to my surprise he was calm, not a hitch in his breath at my sudden appearance, nor did the gate of his stride alter even minutely, as if he knew I was here.

I watched in confusion as he entered a blind spot of the cameras that I'd noticed previously and dropped a folder from within his suit jacket, continuing masterfully as if nothing had happened.

As he passes me however, he speaks lowely, barely a whisper but I could make it out clear as day.

"It's not right, what they're doing."

I sigh and force my feet to move as he turns the corner, aware that any reaction would be noticed on the feeds. Swiping the folder, I hurry to my room's bathroom which thankfully wasn't being monitored.

"Now let's see what you wanted..." I mutter, opening it to reveal a dozen or so documents, all with a big fat 'confidential' stamped in the corner of the pages in dire red. Most with information about POI's, or 'Persons of Interest' from what I could infer.

Each page detailed holding facilities the PRT operated, some under the control of different groups, likely puppets, while others were private prisons. Their population numbers varied greatly, with some holding barely twenty, and others housing over a thousand prisoners.

"Tieu's in one of these..." I grouse. I hoped they were housing her in one of the smaller, more habitable locations with a higher quality of life, but I wouldn't ignore the chance of them dumping her in some shit hole and calling it a day. While unlikely due to my 'importance', I just didn't know what to expect from them.

Sometimes they're the ideal organisation for the world, and others they act like evil corporate overlords! The only consistent thing about the PRT is their inconsistency!

Just ignoring the files momentarily, I've apparently got some big-shot benefactor who thinks it's 'Not right'. One with high levels of access to PRT internal operations, along with the means to operate freely in the Rig, enough that he could figure out the patterns of my movements.

Following T.V troupes, the odds of this 'benefactor' being the big bad evil guy is like, a hundred percent?

Regardless, I quickly memorise the files before tearing them up, burning them, and flushing the ashes. My eidetic memory's good for something, finally.

---------------------

Downtown 6:42 PM

"Another day another dollar." Clockblocker folds his arms behind his head as he, Vista, and Aegis patrol the street. It was a relatively relaxed and low-priority role protecting a famous musician who'd decided to perform live in Downtown, some guy calling himself Malone Postal who apparently did this a lot. As a solo guitarist, this was both where he'd come from and where he was most popular.

"For those of us getting paid." Vista sighed.

Clock shakes his head, "Don't worry, I used to be nervous about my folks handling my money too. It all worked out in the end though."

"Whatever."

"I'm not in it for the cash, helping people is enough." Aegis stated.

"Riiight, buddy we all like to be heroes but we still gotta live somehow. It's the paycheck that separates us from vigilantes." Clock shrugged.

"Maybe we'd be better off concentrating on the heroics instead of the other stuff that comes with it then." Vista quietly remarked, the conversation going dead as they stood back behind the gathered crowd and listened to the music for a moment.

"Guy's good, but not worth sending capes to protect him..." Clock can't help but say.

"We're here for the public, not for him." Aegis chided.

"We're here because the higher-ups think nothing'll happen. That it'll be an easy job for the kids to do." Vista drawled almost contemptuously.

"H-hey!" a young boy of eight quietly approaches and holds out a small booklet to Aegis, "C-could you sign my book!?"

"Sure." the Ward smiled, writing his signature with a pen he always had on hand before handing it off to the other two. He ruffles the kid's hair and sends him on his way. "See? We're doing some good here."

"Well, you enjoy being a glorified hall monitor, I'm gonna try be useful." Vista throws her hands up and starts stomping down the road.

Only to be alerted by screams from the crowd behind her.

"T-the hell!?" she exclaims, seeing some sort of black smog expanding outwards from an alleyway near the crowd. It flowed quickly yet acted like heavy smoke, quickly covering the ankles of those nearest to the alley. Vista ran back to her teammates who'd already alerted HQ of the situation.

"Either of you have a clue what this is?"

"Nada..." Clock answered, uncharacteristically subdued.

"No capes I know of, a new tech by Uber and Leet, maybe?"

*Thud!*

The impact of something heavy and the scrape of something sharp yet not metallic sounds out on either side of the street. Two huge demonic-looking dogs cut both ends of the street off, with a third exiting the smoke-filled alleyway.

"Those two idiots wish they could be on our level!" a young woman's voice declared, stepping out from the smoke, a black and purple bodysuit with a domino mask covering her face, upper back-length blonde hair and vibrant green eyes being the most noticeable identifiers.

"Our?" Aegis quickly latched onto.

"Our, as in us, the Undersiders, the team on the block!" she holds her arms out, allowing a large man wearing black armoured suit and a skull mask to step out, smoke pouring off of him.

Another large figure steps out, though this was one apparently female despite the man-like physique, the small pec-like breasts barely visible under the leather jacket. She wore a scary-looking dog mask to complete the ensemble, appearing like a roided-out psycho biker.

Last to step out was a boy wearing a loose Renaissance-era shirt and a Venetian mask over curly black hair, a peculiar-looking sceptre held lightly in one hand.

The blonde girl jabs a thumb at them, "Grue, Bitch, and Regent. Oh, and you can call me Tattletale. No need to introduce yourselves, I know who you are. Cock-blocker, Kid Vista, and Aegis."

"You've got the bravado of a villain down..." Aegis slowly spoke, mildly thrown off by the theatrics.

"Why's he get his proper name!?" Clock loudly complained.

"It's Vista." the smallest of the capes growled.

"Ah, my bad, mixed you up with that new Tinker, Kid Win was it? You're both the same, in that you've done nothing to note so it's hard to remember." Tattletale lightly remarked with an exaggerated shrug.

"You-!" Aegis held Vista back before she could start fighting them, they'd been ordered to keep them talking for as long as possible for backup to arrive. "So, this your debut or something?"

"Not exactly an impressive venue." Clock snidely says, holding his arms out at the street, trying to ignore the cowering crowd and the car-sized demon dogs sniffing and grunting on both ends of the street.

"Well, not everyone wants to destroy half the city. Bitch here wanted to but I vetoed it, wouldn't want to get recruited by the PRT now, would we?" Tattletale grinned a smug grin at them.

"It wasn't Kaibyo that did that!" Vista angrily shot her retort.

"Oh? You barely know him and you're already crushing? Geez, some girls are so easy." she turns to Bitch, get the loot."

The girl in a dog mask nods and stomps to the crowd, people parting like the dead sea as she reaches Malone Postal.

"Get away from them!" Vista shouts, unable to intervene due to the large number of people present, her power becomes exponentially more difficult to use with each lifeform present.

A loud bark from one of the huge hellhounds stops Aegis and Clock in their tracks.

"W-what do you want?" Malone Postal quivered under Bitch's glare, but she said nothing and wrenched his guitar from his grasp.

"That's it!" Clock exclaimed, running to the nearest dog to slap it, intending to freeze it in time. Only, as he ran his foot spasmed and made him fall to the floor, a second later Regent jabbed him in the neck with his sceptre, activating an inbuilt taser.

"Night night."

*ZIIP!*

"Clock!" Aegis shouted.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you. He's already under Grue's affect." Tattletale warned, gesturing at the thick smoke now covering Clockblocker's face. "I won't tell you what it does, but if you get in the way we'll have to make it hurt. So, stay put like a good soldier and no one gets hurt." she turns to her teammates, "I think that'll do it for a debut, do barely anything and easily defeat the Wards." she chuckled.

"We're not done!" Vista growled.

"Oh? So you'll sacrifice your friend for what? Pride? Hmph, they don't make heroes like they used to! At least it's easier for us I suppose, dealing with some real heroes would be annoying." she shrugs and steps back into the alley, disappearing behind the wall of smoke. The others follow, prompting the huge dogs to depart as well.

By the time the PRT arrived, the Undersiders were already gone.