Listening to Whips proposal Goo can’t help but think, Why does she not trust them.
He comments, “Whip it would be very e He stands up and starts pacing, “Right now I don’t think they would l
He considers his next words carefully, “I must admit that I don’t fully trust them but you and I do He shakes his head, “Why don’t we stick with them for a while a
He doesn’t wait for an answer and shrug before he continues, “Whip what do we gain by cutt
"What do we gain? Very little." Her face takes on a haunted look. "But for once in my life, I want to be on the right side."
She shakes her head and looks down for a moment, then looks up, her eyes hard. "No. I have to be on the right side."
Violet turns around from the counter, swirling honey into her tea.
"I don't know that they're the 'wrong' side," she says. "But they're cocky. Arrogant, even. Some of them. That's bad news waiting to happen. Agent Bryce always said 'never get cocky about your range scores. Someone's always a better shot'."
She sits back down. "I think they mean well. But their methods of showing us what we're getting in to are flawed. They could have found other ways to warn us off. Going for killshots wasn't necessary."
When she says this, she looks down at the floor. The concept clearly bothers her.
Whippoorwill sighs. "There's really only one way to do this, and that's to tell you all the truth. Violet, I give you full permission to read me, and let everyone know if there's even a hint of falsehood in what I say."
She takes a deep breath and orders her thoughts. "I was a mercenary since before Rocket's age. Soldier of fortune, corporate warrior, warfare for hire. Yes, I've killed people. I've taken part in engagements in which civilians have died. I have blood on my hands."
She pauses and looks at those hands before taking a breath, steeling herself, and continuing. "I'll spare you the details, but the last four years I worked my way into an elite force, very slick, very secret. Highly illegal stuff. I didn't realize it at the time, but we were being brainwashed somehow. I forgot mission details, or remembered them differently. Other units, not mine, were doing the really bad things. But it still gnawed on my conscience until I finally quit. Faked my death, and started over. I wanted to try to do right, to make up for what I'd done."
An involuntary shudder courses through her as she buries her face in her hands. She chokes back a couple sobs as she fights to stay composed. Violet, if she's touching her mind, gets hit with a tidal wave of guilt and remorse.
She slowly pulls herself back together. Her eyes are red rimmed and lined with tears when she lowers her hands. "They brainwashed me, but I chose that life. I know there's no making up for it, but I want to try to add some good to this world before I leave it."
She wipes the tears from her eyes. "I tell you that so you'll understand this: Somehow, this group learned who I was, and Sanction personally set out to capture, interrogate, and kill me. She herself brutally beat me, but promised not to kill me until she learned all I knew about my mercenary unit."
Her eyes, dry now, betray a look of fear. "The only reason I'm still alive is because of these," she sticks a thumb over her shoulder. "They burst out of my back when she was beating me. Only then, when I became a meta like her, did she decide to spare my life."
She lets that sink in for a moment. "Whatever side Sanction is on, I want to be on the one against it. And if that isn't the right side, well, I'll have to be my own side."
She smiles weakly. "But I would like some company."
Violet pulls a chair out next to Whip and hugs her tightly.
"You're my friend and I want you to be happy," she "says" to her. "Did you talk to Ace about this? What did he say? If you think it's best we split, I'll back your play."
Whippoorwill looks at Violet sadly. "Ace? He's the one who tortured the information out of me."
Violet looks at Whippoorwill, her eyes wide, mouth agape. Her face wrenches up in agony, and she runs to her room. A few moments after the door is slammed shut, the sound of her muffled screams can be heard. The pillow is not a good silencer.
Hotaru just sits quietly in her chair while all of this is going on. "None of that really makes much sense. You were mind controlled. They found you. Now you aren't... sure. You did bad things, not by choice, sure. They tracked you down and got information from you. Totally. But you're alive." she says calmly. "Also, don't say you're the bad one when you're the victim. It's one of the first things you learn in basically any class for that sort of thing. These people did bad things to you." she says simply. "But Ace and crew -saved- me. What they did to you, they did thinking you were a bad guy, right? And the bad guys they usually deal with go for the kill... so..." she shrugs slightly.
Whippoorwill turns to Pulse, shaking her head firmly. "No. I'm not innocent; I'm not a victim. I chose that path, and I did bad things because of that choice. They twisted me, but I let them."
She sits back in the chair, shoulders slumped and wings drooping.
"You're right about one thing. What Ace and crew did, it was because I was a bad guy."
"Maybe they were harsh on you for your past but now they've been protecting us even if they did study us as well they did it in a way that helps all of us. I'm fine with keeping our distance or the like but cutting off communication is too risky."
"Dont Get me wrong. It's not okay that they tortured anyone. Period." Hotaru adds, pulling her knees into the seat with her, "But they're my friend, too... so I think they kind of deserve a chance to defend themselves. Maybe 'excessive force' is just something they've grown into. I... don't really 'know the setting'. But... most of the people they deal with can take a lot of punishment. I don't know." She shakes her head, slowly. "I'd be perfectly happy with being a spokesperson between you and them, so you never have to deal with it again, though..." Hotaru offers.
Goo nods his head agreeing with pulses remarks, "I think the best course of action is to wait until we ha He continues, "I don't think we have enough information to draw a v
She rubs her temples. "I understand that. And maybe that's the smart move, staying in touch but at arm's length." She drops her hand from her face and grips the arm of her chair tight. "But I can't tell you how much it bothers me that they were fine with killing me until I became a meta before their eyes."
"Maybe it's possible the others didn't plan to, but not Sanction. She was..." She hugs herself after shuddering involuntarily.
Hotaru, who didn't really know enough about the situation the comment, was mostly at a loss. With Violet, it was easy; she'd been there. With Whip, she only had the choice to take her at her word... or not. Ugh.
"Sanction is one person. Just like Ace is one person. It's an organization of many, many people. We very likely won't have to work with anyone we don't want to... and short of mind control, I can guarantee I don't plan on doing anything that I think is wrong."
"Well she might have known you were meta before you did, Considering what they've been saying if Sanction wanted you dead you wouldn't be here."
Hotaru just sits quietly, once more... and fidgets. This was one of those times she'd rather have just tuned out and listened to the radio... but all she got from trying was the persistent buzzing of the world around her, as electricity arced through the old lines of the facility. She didn't really know what to say, or what to do. She knew that she wanted to talk to someone who could answer her questions... but Whip had conveniently sent all of those away.
"Well she might have known you were meta before you did, Considering what they've been saying if Sanction wanted you dead you wouldn't be here."
"You're right," she says soberly. "She has granted me a 'reprieve.' One chance to remain alive."
She shrugs. "I suppose I'm supposed to feel grateful, but I just can't seem to. It might be a character flaw. But I don't know that many people who enjoy having a proverbial gun to the head."
A few days later, Shimmer, Ace, and a new person in red & yellow suit arrive. The new arrival is a blonde woman introduced as Bolt. "Alright, this is Bolt. Has everyone decided whether they are going or staying?" Ace asks, once everyone is assembled in the commissary again.
"Sort of depends." Hotaru says, "Where's Cat?" she says, looking between the new person and Ace. "Also... Speed or Spark?" she says shifting her attention to Bolt. It's pretty clear from body language that Hotaru has something on her mind and is nervous... mostly due to the fact that Ace was the person most likely to be treated as a counselor by the girl. Unless he made it clear he wasn't one.
Bolt flickers for a second, and there's a rush of wind.
Three sodas sit on the table in front of Pulse. "Electrical. If it were speed, those things would have been shaken 487 times each and be certain to soak you if you opened one."
All three cans seem to be deforming slightly as the bottoms bulge outwards from internal pressure.
Ace gives Bolt a quelling glance. "She had some personal business to attend to.. a uh.. family matter."
Hotaru calmly changes seats, unwilling to touch the cans... or risk jostling the table.
Whippoorwill plants herself in the corner. She nods once in greeting to Bolt, never having seen her before but likely remembering Rocket saying a few things about her.
She busies herself with running a toothbrush along her feathers and in between them, a preening habit she's picked up that may be driven by a new instinct to keep them groomed.
"Okay... so... I'm stuck in between wanting to talk in private, and wanting everything that's said to be public... so let's try this. Whip told us her origin story after you guys left. Do you have anything to say about all of that? Or do you know what Sanction did to her?" she looks between the two, certain that their poker faces (especially on a speedster) would be pretty good... she'd thought about all this several times over the last few days. Practically obsessed.
"Good to see you again Bolt, nice costume."
Briana keeps her eyes focused on her wings as she slowly and steadily preens. She had hoped that if this conversation ever took place, they would be better trained to work together so that they had a chance to get away or even fight them off if it goes south. She hadn't really expected them to want to confront Ace right off.
She keeps her mind focused on her task, trying to quell stray thoughts and the surge of adrenaline. She ignores the eyes on her and waits for whatever will happen to happen.
Bolt nods at Aegis. "Thanks I've always been partial to red and yellow."
----------------------------------------------
When Pulse is done pushing things into the open, Ace sighs, and Bolt gives him a look. He shakes his head at Bolt.
He stands up, and looks at Whippoorwill. "I had intended to keep your secrets, however, since you have brought them into the light, shall I assume I am the bad guy and you are the angel?"
He nods. "Very well, Violet, you may read my surface thoughts, but no deeper, this involves other people's real names, and I am not going to put them in jeopardy."
He assumes an almost semi-military pose and begins speaking as if giving a report. "Briana McClaine, physically abused by her parents as a child. She won a regional MMA juvenile tournament at age 15. Hospitalized her abusive father shortly thereafter, and went on the run. By the time she was 18, she was working for a weapons dealer by the name of Carlilse Estovion, a man who sells weapons to terrorists groups, third world dictators, and autocratic regimes... oh, and drug dealers, let's not forget those. Shortly thereafter, she was working for a private security firm in the Ukraine and nearby hot spots." He makes sure he has everyone's full attention.
When he continues, his voice becomes harder. "Shortly thereafter, she became a member of a private mercenary group that calls itself CADRE. This group is known specifically for wet work, and having zero qualms about doing any job that is paid for, regardless of how much blood is involved. While working for this company, Briana became first a squad commander, then a field commander, rising rapidly through the ranks. In 2012, her command 'facilitated' getting a Russian pipeline put through to Europe. That facilitation included beating people, murdering people, threatening them, causing infrastructure damage to towns to intimidate the leaders, killing their families to make points, and on April 17th of 2012, it involved a squad of their heavy hitters erasing a small town that had refused to let the oil company buy out the needed land. One hundred and twenty seven adults between the ages of 18 and 94 were killed in less than 2 hours, as well as 26 children between the ages of 3 months and 17 years of age. There were two survivors, both Metas, and both members of our organization. Briana gave the orders to assault the town."
He pauses to let that sink in. "So, yes, when we found out she had faked her death last year, and we found out where she was, Sanction personally went after her, to find out exactly who was behind the attack on the village. And yes, she had every intention of extracting that information in any way necessary, including torturing her if needed. I'm not exactly thrilled with it, but I can't exactly argue against it either. At least, I couldn't at the time."
Again, he pauses to let that sink in, and continues. "While she was procuring Briana, Briana underwent a transformation. That complicated things. We have one rule, nobody kills another Meta without approval of at least three senior members of the group. Not even Sanction, who has final veto approval." He lets that sink in for a second. "Before I would give my approval, I insisted on doing a scan of her. What I found was, she had been subject to very strong mental conditioning, likely by a Meta." He looks at Violet. "You might want to lighten your touch, if you don't want some very bloody images." He turns back to the group. "To break that conditioning, I had to enter Briana's mind, and push her hard enough to make her break the wards. If I had just ripped them out, it would have triggered them and torn her mind apart. So, I did. I made her live out the last day of that village, over and over again, until she finally broke through. Given her personal belief she'd ordered the village evacuated, even though she hadn't, I argued we should not kill her. That is not to say she does not have innocent blood on her hands. This is, to our way of thinking, a second chance for her. I had not intended to bring any of this out, but it appears that was not to be."
Shimmer glowers in the corner at the end. "I said we should kill her, sorry, you have a lot of blood on your hands, and most of it wasn't while you were mind controlled. But Ace said no, so no it was." She shrugs. "Kodiak's a nice guy, he shouldn't have had to watch his daughter get shot like that. Even if you were mind controlled and didn't do it willingly, you willingly joined that group, and did a lot of other stuff."
Bolt looks back and forth between the two. "I see, that's what all the arguments have been about lately then. I've been wondering. I take it this should be kept on the down low?" She looks at the group. "Needless to say, not outside this room. Violet, mentalist right? You need to learn to put up some wards to hide all that."
Hotaru sits quietly, listening, she doesn't look away from Ace, overall, for the entire speech, though at times, she's focused more on a point past him, than him.
The opening speech lined up with what Hotaru had read the other day, despite Whip's protestations. Damaged. She had had a bad early life, and that had lead to a cascade of self-destructive decisions. Just like maybe running away from this group would have been.
As she listened, her face moved from expression to expression, as would be expected. Understanding turned to curiosity... turned quickly into a lack thereof, tension, and concern. She hadn't really expected bloodthirst from Shimmer, either. That was a surprise all on its own.
She sat quietly for a moment, just thinking about what she'd heard. She did her best to try to summarize mentally. Abused, but skilled girl runs away and joins an organization that puts her to work, she falls further down the rabbit hole, and winds up controlled by a meta. Trying to break the group that's using a meta to turn normals into war criminals, the group sought to pull information out of someone who no one would know was missing. The very same person that was here. And... now she was here.
"I... think I follow." Hotaru says, though her voice rings a little hollow. Definitely not the peppy that it had been the last time Ace had been around. "Did you find the Meta that was turning people into weapons?"
Ace shakes his head. "No, but prior to this, we had no idea they were using Metas at all, we thought they were only typical normal human low-lifes. The fact they are using Metas have put them squarely on our 'High Priority' list."
Violet will eventually calm down, and come out to the room where her friends are discussing their future. She's a mess, knuckles raw from where she's been futilely punching against random hard things in her room. Her vote, if she's asked, is that they should all stick together.
"We know we can trust each other," she says. "If we know nothing else."
The next day and in the days that follow before Ace and Bolt arrive, Violet approaches Whippoorwill and asks, in no uncertain terms and without hesitation, to be taught how to fight.
"I can't rely on my powers alone. I see that now. I need you to teach me."
Violet also spends a lot of time apologizing to the team for losing her cool. She's visibly frustrated by how easily it happened.
Violet is bitterly cold to Ace when he arrives. Any mental contact she makes with him is clinical, distant, unlike her previously friendly and warm approach to him.
She stands as near to Hotaru or Whippoorwill as she can throughout Ace's monologue. She know he's not lying as he speaks to her and so she spends a good deal of her time, as she listens weighing what she saw in Whippoorwill's head versus what she's seeing now.
At the suggestion that she "lighten her touch," she frowns. This isn't the first time someone's suggested that she's some kind of pondering clod with her powers. "Or you could stop treating me like a child," she sends to him. "This is my friend's heart we're talking about, here."
Just the same, she does detach from the scenes emotionally, bringing herself out to a more objective viewpoint.
"He's telling the truth," she says to her team. "They both are. I hate this Obi-Wan Kenobi 'certain point of view,' crap, but that's what it is."
She visibly deflates and turns an apologetic eye to Ace.
"I'm sorry for treating you like I was a queen B. I am. I should have asked you instead of just... assuming. But your methods are flawed. Your people treat us like we're inferior. They gloat at our failures. That's now how you build trust and respect. That's how people get hurt. You might think your means justify your end, but they don't. Nowhere in history has that ever been the case, and you know it."
To Whippoorwill: "We'll get through this, with or without them."
When this "Bolt" person suggests that Violet needs to "learn" how to hide things, she sighs.
"Right. Sure. Okay."
She casts a look at Hotaru that Hotaru has seen a lot, recently. It's the "I'm so tired of being treated like I don't know how to use my powers" look.
Violet pours herself a cup of tea, and sits quietly near Rocket or Aegis, whoever is closer.
In a lull in the conversation Rocket catches Violet's eye. "Hey Vi. I don't want Ace--or anyone--to be able to do...what he did to me again. Can you help me?
"I'm thinking each morning you blast my brain a bit, a bit more each day, to help toughen me up? Maybe eventually you start buzzing me at random times Cato-and-Inspector-Clouseau-style!...but for now just a bit of practice in the morning is probably as much as I can take without you clobbering me. Kestrel seemed to be saying I could get better at resisting mind stuff, if I work at it. Whaddaya say?"
-------
Rocket's jaw tightens as he sees Ace for the first time in several days, and he flinches back reflexively, setting the bowl of peanut noodles he'd been eating down on the counter a bit too hard. Then his eyes light on Bolt. ”Snailboy’s not fast enough to make it” eh? I wonder what she thinks now. I’m still getting faster, I know I am! I wonder if I could outrun her yet…?
His musings are interrupted when Stuff Gets Real. Rocket’s mouth hangs open when he hears Ace start to recite Whip’s history. He looks over at Whip--Briana, he's calling her--and sees in her eyes that she’s not denying it.
I mean...she’s older, she’s clearly tough, been in some fights, but I didn’t think….Whip said she’d done some Bad Things...but Holy Crow that’s crazy sh!t. Killing whole villages?!?
He tries to look at her again, and then looks away.
I still feel like Ace didn’t have any right to screw with my brain so bad in that Test...but Kestrel claims he’s trying to protect us from worse, from other psychics out there. Hearing this story… Rocket shakes his head. This is all so much more...complicated than I’d expected.
Looking more at Shimmer and Bolt than at Ace--and avoiding Whip's eyes entirely--Rocket says, "So if we stay, what then? I know that with Great Power comes Great Responsibility. It's my responsibility to do what I can for Good. But you haven't told us much about what you do. I mean, I helped Bolt stop Circe at the Museum of Ancient History that night--well, helped a bit, anyway--is that what you do? Are you looking for people to...track down this 'High Priority' mind-controlling meta?
"And where would we live? Here in this silo? And does staying mean taking orders? And--" Seeing that the instructors' mouths had tried to get in a word more than once, Rocket cuts himself off.
To Rocket, before the meltdown:
Violet smiles. There's an enormous bruise on her head and her eyes are shrouded in smeared shadow, but she seems genuinely happy about Rocket's inquiry.
"Of course we can do that, Zack. But I won't 'blast' you. I won't do anything to hurt you, if I don't have to, okay?" Her tone shifts to an unusually serious timbre.
"We'll find other ways. I think maybe I'll read you Pride and Prejudice every night until you learn to block it. Unless you find Mister Darcy utterly fascinating, in which case, we'll find you a book you hate."
"I'm sorry for treating you like I was a queen B. I am. I should have asked you instead of just... assuming. But your methods are flawed. Your people treat us like we're inferior. They gloat at our failures. That's now how you build trust and respect. That's how people get hurt. You might think your means justify your end, but they don't. Nowhere in history has that ever been the case, and you know it."
Rocket then comments on great power and great responsibility.
You see that? Do you know how many kids I've had to watch think they're going to be Spider Man end up being 'John Doe on slab 3' instead? There is a very tired portion of Ace's mind that feels a dread weight as an image of Rocket on a table similar to the one Ducky uses on NCIS flashes through his mind.
When this "Bolt" person suggests that Violet needs to "learn" how to hide things, she sighs."Right. Sure. Okay."
She casts a look at Hotaru that Hotaru has seen a lot, recently. It's the "I'm so tired of being treated like I don't know how to use my powers" look.
Looking more at Shimmer and Bolt than at Ace--and avoiding Whip's eyes entirely--Rocket says, "So if we stay, what then? I know that with Great Power comes Great Responsibility. It's my responsibility to do what I can for Good. But you haven't told us much about what you do. I mean, I helped Bolt stop Circe at the Museum of Ancient History that night--well, helped a bit, anyway--is that what you do? Are you looking for people to...track down this 'High Priority' mind-controlling meta?""And where would we live? Here in this silo? And does staying mean taking orders? And--" Seeing that the instructors' mouths had tried to get in a word more than once, Rocket cuts himself off.
Bolt responds instead. "I told you kid, this isn't a comic book, and you aren't some genetically modified raccoon that can fly starships, despite your taking on a code name. But yeah, we try to keep a lid on things, help those who have powers but can't control them... help the families of those hurt by Metas... one reason we don't have a lot of money. Hospital's are expensive, and there's a lot of people out there hurt by people like Circe. The two cops who survived are still in the hospital. They're covered financially, and their families... but the security guards at the museum weren't so lucky... We also try to help out where we can without getting caught, lost kids in the wilderness, runaways, violent criminals.. But we aren't the police, we don't declare war on drug dealers, or gangs, that's a good way to get innocent people in the crossfire. Mostly we try to watch out for new Metas, get them trained, try to talk them out of being superhero wannabes. As to where, if you insist on joining, we need a replacement team for St. Louis. The former team is too scattered now to be of use. Their base got hit and destroyed, nearly got someone killed in the process. St. Louis is centrally located, and a lot of Meta activity goes on through it for some reason."
Shimmer picks up. "Yeah, wasn't much of a base, but it totally got trashed. So you'll have to try to find something. Usually each team tries to do what they can. A lot of them just end up with a house in the suburbs. Usually rented."
Goo listens to ensuing encounter between Whip and Ace. As Whips secrets are revealed he can't help but feel torn between compassion for Whip and an increasing distrust too. Was she a terroist? He asks himself. To be fair she is trying to change and Ace would let her wander around if she was a threat. Would he? I'll keep an eye on her anyway.
When the conversation moves on Goo thinks, St. Louis sound good.
"I was there once for a chess cha he says to no one in particular.
Hotaru certainly wasn't much better than Rocket... the main difference was, Hotaru's powers were powers that stayed on the down-low, unless she went full-on sparky. She also wasn't able to do as much a a full-on sparky, as he was as a small-time speedster. Which meant her 'heroics' were going to be significantly blunted. Aside from stupidly trying to take hits for others.
"Okay." she nods, slowly. "I'm in, definitely, for now. As long as I don't wind up involved in some hinky plot to kill someone, I'm not too worried about it. I don't plan to kill, though, I'm not really set up to do so, anyway. Will they still be around for contact or are they just completely out? Also... are we really done with 'Boot Camp'? We... definitely didn't win. Had it been a real fight, I think Kestrel would be dead. Ditto Violet. Even if we'd won... it'd have been pyrrhic." Hotaru had indeed been thinking a lot over the last few days. "I'm not sure we're ready to deal with a threat like four metas that have worked together... not without unnacceptable losses." she says with a frown.
Whippoorwill fights the intense desire to leave the room as her story is told. She tries to resist her wings reflexively folding around her like a cocoon to deflect the stares. Tears stream and she hugs herself tightly as she hears Ace's version of her capture and deprogramming.
A... a meta did that to me? she thinks incredulously. How badly am I still affected, I wonder? She starts to question her opinions and attitudes these past few weeks during the training. The hate toward Ace that she fueled solely because it was most likely to be real and not implanted by him.
Feeling angry, but entirely unsure where to direct it, she stands up, facing Ace. "You didn't tell me any of that. Were you planning on letting me know that a meta had messed with my head before you did?"
She presses her hand to her temple and squeezes her eyes shut. "How do I know what I'm thinking are my thoughts?" she lets out a growl of frustration.
"How is this going to work? You don't trust me, I don't trust you, and I can't even trust myself."
"What If I play the medium? If we're all staying together and going to St. Louis it's not like you'll bump into him often and if we ever need to make contact for their help I'll be our face so you won't even have to see him."
Hotaru chews on her lip for a moment. "You don't know. And you never will. We all have to trust people in things we can't possibly know... or we go around worrying all the time."She turns back to Whip, "We either accept the things for what we believe them to be, or we question them. The latter takes a lot more energy. Where you can... verify. But there's no way of knowing, really. At the end of the day, you either choose to function... or not." She says, dangling her legs under her chair. "None of us can know for certain. For all I know, he just did a better job on me than you, so I don't remember it. I'm going with 'it doesn't matter, it doesn't affect my choices -now-'. That's the choice you have, too."
"I had hoped to let your psyche recover from the breaking of the conditioning, before putting it through the concept of not trusting itself. If it meant you hating me, I was willing to take that. You wouldn't be the first person to hate me. If I'd realized you were in a state to tell everyone your history, which I considered anathema to you, based on your history, I would have told you sooner."
Bolt snorts. "You messed up? I need to write it in my calendar."
Shimmer giggles. "Ace is human, who knew?"
You see that? Do you know how many kids I've had to watch think they're going to be Spider Man end up being 'John Doe on slab 3' instead? There is a very tired portion of Ace's mind that feels a dread weight as an image of Rocket on a table similar to the one Ducky uses on NCIS flashes through his mind.
"I believe you, I do, but... Have you ever considered that maybe... just maybe... Zack and everyone who thinks like him is right? Maybe that's the world we should be trying to make? We're supposed to be the good guys, aren't we? Shouldn't we act like them? The Justice League is more than just Batman. If every hero is Bruce Wayne, then every villain starts to look like The Joker, and at that point why do we even try?"
She waits a beat, then: "We don't have to be like the bad guys to beat them. That's all I'm saying."
When the conversation moves on Goo thinks, St. Louis sound good.
"I was there once for a chess cha he says to no one in particular.
"I've never been," Violet whispers to him. "Then again, I don't really know where I've been and where I haven't. Tell me about it, later? Over a game? You can have the white pieces."
Frustration, rage, hate and confusion clash in a storm inside Briana's head. It starts to throb in pain, and she sways on her feet. She grabs the back of a chair to steady herself.
She at again looks straight at Ace. Just, just tell me this. Truthfully, please. If I was still just human, would I still be alive?"
Ace looks at her evenly. "Based on what we knew at the time.. probably not. Which is probably why Sanction insists on doing any.. as you used to call it, wet work, personally." He sighs. "That way, if there's a mistake, it's her mistake... or at least she thinks so."
As Ace concludes his remarks, Unfortunately, in these days we need hard people to make hard decisions. I am grateful I don't have to do it though.
Whippoorwill nods silently, arms crossed tightly across her chest. She brings one hand up to wipe a tear from her cheek. She turns and leaves the room.
"So final plans, anyone staying together moves to St. Louis and anyone not goes back to their old life?"
Bolt nods. "Basically. If you object to moving, of course, then you go where you want. That's just where we're asking you to go because we need people."
Violet waits the mandatory two and a half minutes to see if any of her friends/teammates get up to follow Whippoorwill, and, not seeing it happen, gets up.
"Let's talk chess strategy later, Ty," she tells Goo softly.
She'll follow after Whippoorwill, and, assuming she finds her in a spot where there's room enough to sit, will (surprise) sit.
She sits quietly, within arm's reach, but otherwise doesn't say or do anything for several seconds. Eventually, she reaches into a pocket and pulls out clean white handkerchief, which she holds out in Whip's general direction.
"Does... Sanction just work alone?" Hotaru says, finally. "Or does she have people to act as a check and balance in her day to day..? She's not omniscient... and I'm sure she knows that. This being a case that highlights it. It's a little scary how many people might have been hurt without it having been their fault. A... lot fewer than I suspect the bad guys wind up with. But... do you not scan people like Whip or did it just not show up?"
"This is actually the first time we've gone after a non-Meta group. Only the slaughtering of an entire village got us to go after them." Ace states, and then nods. "We've agreed to some internal changes. For terminations, Sanction works alone. For other things, she works with whoever she wants. We've terminated less than a dozen Metas, the rest we imprisoned or stranded or scared into behaving. Thus far, the ones we've agreed must die have been responsible for something over a thousand deaths combined. I don't have the numbers in front of me."
Shimmer pipes up. "Not counting Whippoorwill, it's 11 Metas terminated in the last 8 years. I could give you the specific numbers per meta, but the least number of murders was 87, and the largest 397. Confirmed. Many more suspected. The sum total of confirmed across all 11 was 1483 confirmed murders. I could add in Whippoorwills' numbers, but I don't think it would be good for her teammates."
Bolt looks toward Shimmer, then back to Pulse. "Shimmer has perfect recall, it's why she can teleport everywhere so well. It also means she remembers every file she's read."
"And why you feel the way you do about Whip." Hotaru nods, understanding. She sighs softly, and mumbles an 'ano.' After a moment of thought, she continues. "Somehow, I'm glad to know the exact numbers. How 'big' is the organization? Are we aware of any other organizations like us?"
Shimmer starts to open her mouth, and Bolt's hand closes over it as she flickers and is by Shimmer. Shimmer looks up, and seems to be grinning behind the hand.
Ace gives Shimmer a quelling look, and shakes his head. "Sanction and Shimmer are the only two who know exactly how big we are. There's rumors of another group, but I have no information on them, beyond 'dangerous'. The government has a special group, called DART Response, we're not sure what DART stands for, but a DART team is bad news. We suspect every government has the equivalent. And now we have mercenary groups using powers, but doing it quietly."