2103:11:22:01:42:52

  Jauntiste took us to the Wardens base on Rennie Island.

  The building itself was… nice. It was a remote round tower-like structure surrounded by water, looking kind of like a lighthouse in that way. Its colors were bright, warm and welcoming – brick and wood being its primary building blocks – without steeping themselves in heroic reds, blues, greens and golds like I saw in pictures of the Guardians’ headquarters. Doing so removed the image-of-a-brighter-future look the latter heroic organization had going for it, but I suppose that’s the difference between a (relatively) local organization compared to an important branch of the Unified State’s government.

  Their interrogation rooms, however, were not so nice. There, it was all greys, blacks and whites with harsh, harsh light coming from a single rod-shaped lamp hanging from a bare, paneled ceiling.

  The conversation back at the bridge in Bayside had been short and smooth. The officers had cordoned off the area while Jauntiste had retrieved the corpse buried in the water with his teleporting abilities – though not without getting wet in the process. Pangolin Imperiale interrogated us on what had happened, with Crowsong taking the lead in explaining.

  An ambulance, the police and a few firemen had come as well to build a quick substitute bridge and assess the damage. We’d been given nice self-heating blankets by the paramedics along with some hot drinks to – tea in my case. Slurping it through a straw left a lot to be desired, but it did warm me up.

  I expected that to be the end of it, but alas, it wasn’t.

  Pangolin asked us to come down to their headquarters in Aberdeen for a more thorough report, which Crowsong firmly, vehemently rejected. When asked why not, my mentor had gone on a small tirade about a variety of laws and rights, with all of it essentially boiling down to ‘I don’t trust you to not try and pressure and/or arrest us’. She even parroted the Guardians’ own protocols back to them, which was funny to see, and Pangolin had gotten a bit embarrassed by the end of it.

  Her opinion on the Guardians and their anti-vigilante stance was known to me, but the level of her reaction did come as a bit of a surprise. When we had to talk to Looming Thread after the trainyard situation she hadn’t behave that way, but then again, Looming Thread didn’t ‘threaten’ to take us to the Guardians HQ.

  I figured it had something to do with her old mentor. He’d been an ex-Guardian, so for her to have such a strong opinion on going there while simultaneously holding their heroes in at least some esteem made sense… maybe.

  Either way, the situation became a bit awkward after that until Jauntiste offered his own solution: Rennie Island.

  He didn’t say anything about an interrogation room though, nor that they would split us up once we arrived there. Since Crowsong went along with without restarting a tirade about our rights, I went with the flow. But it was still annoying to deal with.

  At least they’d given me some clothes to wear while my original one was put in the dryer. It included some sort of weird, incredibly thin veil that supposedly ‘scrambled my facial features’, whatever that meant.

  It felt like I was wearing nothing on my face at all, and was so perfectly see through it might as well have been glass. Were their visors treated with the same stuff? It would explain how despite their tint the Wardens could see well in the dark.

  Maybe I could ask, if someone would finally come and talk to me. It had been a few minutes since I’d been dumped here with only a cup of tea to keep me company.

  And it wasn’t even good company. The tea was a weak and bland black, and-

  I took a sip.

  -well, at least it was warm, so it could be worse.

  When I was about halfway through the cup, the door to the room opened and in stepped two people, a man and a woman. Both carried a laptop with them.

  “Sorry for the wait,” the woman said. “We’d expected a slow night, you know. Wednesdays usually are, so we didn’t have many people on staff. But now with three separate incidents… oh well. Work’s work.”

  She moved to sit down opposite to me while the man took a seat between us at the short side of the table.

  That piqued my interest. “Three?”

  The woman nodded, opening her laptop. “Yep. The Sentinels hit another Jannacht operation – an ‘illicit car dealership’.” She snorted at her own terminology. “This time they managed to secure both it and the henchies in them, though Glover, Hatter and Endoida got away after Darkstar intervened. Nearly took out Rhennish too. Would’ve, if Strikemight and Needle Knight hadn’t arrived when they did.” She shook her head as she said it. “Then Acute Puncture and Snorkel somehow managed to get into a fight with Prince Enmon’s group- you know who Prince Enmon is?”

  I nodded. Prince Enmon was the leader of the Principate, a group of three junior masked. They were technically a villain organization due to their alleged ties with the South East Asian gang Rajaparang. But since they were all minors and basically never did anything but play mercenary bodyguard and things like that, they were treated as rogues.

  “Well, as I said, Puncture and Snorkel managed to get into a fight with them. No clue why or how, but Armamentarium and Antrustion didn’t hold back, to the point Soliloquy had to bail them out. Lots of property damage though. I mean, the city’s shield prevented the worst of it – thank God – but still. Well, no civilians were hurt in the process, so all’s fine in the end.”

  “…Good,” I said, not knowing how to respond.

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  She nodded nevertheless. “But anyway, let’s get to discussing your recent adventure. Pangolin and Jauntiste have-”

  The man who’d been quiet so far interrupted with a hesitant clearing of the throat.

  “Maybe we should introduce ourselves first, do the whole… you know?” the man said in a quiet voice. “For the record, if anything?”

  The woman stared, blinked once, then smiled and turned back to me. “Right, of course, how could I forget. Silly me,” she said, looking not-at-all sheepish at the admittance.

  Then she, too, cleared her throat. “This is the record of the inquiry into Guardians Incident Case GIC587121201, tentatively named the ‘Morlan Bridge Collapse’. Today’s date is the 22nd of November 2103. I, Alexina Ruiz, affiliated officer of the West Coast Wardens, will be the lead interrogator with David Kelly keeping track of the transcript. The vigilante Jester is the respondent.”

  What a remarkable shift in tone.

  “So, now that that’s out of the way,” she continued, returning to her cheerier self. “We know you and your mentor already told your story to Pangolin and Jauntiste, but for our sakes, could you tell it again?”

  I shrugged. It was annoying, but I said, “Okay,” and told the story. From arriving at the bridge to the ill-fortune of the stunting henchies, to the conversation with Motor Spirit and Chroming Hand and the bridge collapsing in the middle of it, the failed rescue attempts and the death of two of Motorgang’s members. Ending, of course, with the arrival of Pangolin Imperiale and Jauntiste.

  Officer Ruiz nodded all the while, with the occasional clarifying question leading into some minor tangent – some of which I had to review in my memcordings to answer, like the appearance of some of the henchies – but for the most part, she let me tell my record version of events in peace.

  Officer – at least, I assumed he was an officer as well – Kelly kept his eyes on his laptop, keeping track of the automatic transcript and occasionally doing… well, something to it. I couldn’t see it, what with the back of the laptop facing me.

  “Alright. Thank you, Jester, for helping us,” Officer Ruiz said. “Especially with the rescue effort. A bridge blowing up with ten people on top and only two deaths? With one of them resurrectable? Very thorough of you both. And a good memory as well.”

  I smiled weakly at the compliment. It didn’t feel like we’d been thorough enough.

  “Just let me check a couple of things before we…” she trailed off and shot a look at Officer Kelly. He turned his laptop to face her, her finger going up and down the screen as she scrolled through the transcript.

  I drained the last bit of now-cold tea as she did her thing.

  “Ah, right, that’s what it was.” She turned to face me again, smiling sheepishly. She slid the laptop back to Officer Kelly. “I wanted to ask you why you two were there in the first place.”

  Right. I’d started my story from after we set up the trap.

  “We’d gotten intel that Motorgang was about to strike against what they believed to be a Jannacht front, but was really a base for their masked to gather and move out from. Since things with Motorgang and Northside in general were already too tense, we went to stop it.” She stared at me in silence, so I elaborated. “You know, after the whole Gleamring and Leadhead thing?”

  “Ah.” She nodded twice in understanding, flashing me a smile and seeming… proud for some reason? “That’s very noble of you. Very heroic, one might say.” She raised her eyebrows twice in quick succession at the not-quite-a pun.

  Lame joke aside, I shrugged, feeling self-conscious at the compliment.

  “Did you or Crowsong find the Jannacht base yourselves?” she asked.

  I shook my head. “No. Nth-Sight called us and told us what to do.”

  “Nth-Sight?” she asked, intrigued. “I thought you were a two-person team?”

  I blinked. They didn’t know Nth-Sight? I’d assumed he was a known quantity in Northside and Charm in general, but apparently not.

  “He isn’t. Part of the team, I mean. Nth-Sight is a rogue augur living-” I stopped myself from saying his address just in time, “-operating around Northside. Though I think he also operates outside of it?” I shrugged. It was another assumption, but one I found myself more confident in giving due to the whole speech he gave about Charm.

  “So, he’s more an ally of convenience for the time being,” she offered.

  I nodded in agreement, saying, “He was upset about the Jannacht moving in. Something about disrupting the balance.”

  “Ah, now that makes sense. Charm’s gotten a bit of a reputation as a rogue’s paradise. Especially for augurs, since they can sell their information even quicker than makers can sell their stuff, let alone rogues with more direct powers. It’s why so many have turned to fighting against the Jannacht – even if some only do it through the local gangs.”

  That was more or less in line with what Nth-Sight told us, though I was surprised to hear many other augurs were helping.

  “Well, that’s it for the, ah, interview part, let’s say.” She looked at Officer Kelly, who tapped a key on his laptop, likely to shut off the recording. “Thank you for cooperating with us. It’s rare for vigilantes to be so open with us, so this was a pleasant surprise.”

  I raised my eyebrows – not that they could see it thanks to the veil obscuring everything.

  “They don’t?”

  She shook her head. “Unfortunately not – though I admit many have good reasons not to. The Guardians can get a bit… zealous against vigilantes. They think that everyone on the side of the angels should join them instead of trying to do things on their own. Something we – as in, the Wardens and most other independent heroes – don’t agree with.”

  So that’s why Crowsong conceded coming here instead of running off. Again though, “Looming Thread seemed nice.”

  Officer Ruiz shrugged. “Heroes are not their organization. Especially in the case of the Guardians. With the number of heroes they have under their wing, there’s bound to be some disagreements between personal morals and the ethics of the organization. Add to that the variations between department and things can get a bit… messy. Another reason why some prefer to join independent teams or go solo instead. At least then you get a clearer vision on what they and you are all about.”

  I nodded.

  “Speaking of… if it’s not too personal, why did you become a vigilante instead of joining up with one of the heroes? Or the Sentinels for that matter.”

  I blinked and leaned back in surprise. I hadn’t expected today to turn into this.

  “Again, you don’t have to answer,” Officer Ruiz pointed out. “Let’s just call it ‘professional curiosity’ on my part.”

  Well, the real answers were because (one) I feared that the heroes had android-detecting technology, (two) I hadn’t known how to contact the Sentinels and (three) I’d wanted to create my own team in the beginning. But there was no way I was telling the first, and the third was a bit too embarrassing to admit.

  So, I shrugged. “I wanted to try things on my own at first, but that, ah… didn’t go well,” I admitted, hoping my embarrassment would stop them from prying too deep. “Crowsong found me on the first night out and helped me through my first fight… and then I realized I couldn’t do it on my own. So I asked her to be my mentor, and she said yes.”

  Officer Ruiz looked genuinely touched at this. “Oh God, that’s so sweet, it makes my teeth ache!” She sighed wistfully. “Thank you for indulging an old woman’s curiosity.”

  She looked barely past thirty.

  “Now, just one more teensy, tiny thing and we’ll get you underway,” Officer Ruiz said. “As part of… some directive or policy or whatchamacallit,” she waved off the specifics, “we like to have our Prospectus interact with some of the other junior masked of Charm’s masquerade. Now normally this just means we send them to the Acolytes on occasion, but whenever the Sentinels have juniors we also try and reach out. Heck, we sometimes manage to get junior villains to come down and have a talk! Well, if we can agree on some boundaries, supervision and a truce at least. Hasn’t happened in a while now that I think about it…

  “But anyway, we’ve got someone here for you and Crowsong to meet!” She continued cheerfully, before reeling it in again. “Only if you want to, of course.”

  I thought it over, but not for long. “Sure,” I said. Why wouldn’t I? “Although I don’t know if Crowsong would want to…”

  “The others will ask her and she can decide for herself. We’ll send her here if she agrees,” she said, before growing excited again. “But great that you want to meet!” She stood up from her chair, Officer Kelly following. “Let me go fetch her for you, alright? And let’s get some extra tea and coffee for the both of ya…” She muttered the last part.

  They both left the room, Officer Kelly giving me a nod before leaving, which I returned. His job was probably done.

  A couple minutes later, the door was thrown open again with great enthusiasm.

  I recognized the culprit to be LieSpy of the Prospectus. She was a relative unknown in terms of power outside of her ability to detect lies and, allegedly, read minds. Her outfit was puffier than the standard heroic tights and seemed more like it would fit in with a theater troupe – a bit like mine, actually. Her face was hidden by a helmet with a large visor stretching and curving up from her eyes all the way to the top of her head, with a blonde ponytail falling out the back.

  “Hiya, newbie! Name’s LieSpy, but you can call meeeeee, LieSpy!” she said, striking a pose – legs apart and one fist raised into the air. Silence reigned after the declaration, mine one of disbelief and hers hoping for more of a reaction.

  But my disbelief wasn’t at the pose. It was because I recognized that voice. Which I shouldn’t; one of the first things Crowsong had bought me was a voice modifier for inside my mask. Which she’d told me was the norm, and taught me how to recognize.

  Officer Ruiz walked past LieSpy and sat down two cans on the table, along with one extra mug. “I’ll leave you two to it,” she said quietly before leaving, pulling the door closed behind her.

  LieSpy was still in her pose, staring at me as she waited for a reaction.

  “Millie?” I asked tentatively.

  She visibly flinched. Well, that confirmed it.

  “Wait, who-!” But I was already busy unveiling myself.

  “Oh. My. Gawd.” Where did that accent come from? “Sam?!”