He took a deep breath, deep enough that he could feel the groan of the metal stretching to its limits inside his chest.

RRRRNGHHH

Then he stepped off the rooftop and through the elevator doors.  When the complex chrome doors shut, they cut off the noise of the helicopter entirely.

Welcome to the Brockton Bay Wards HQ, Weld.

It was utterly quiet, inside the box.  There was barely any sense of motion or movement from the elevator.  Tinker designed.  It had to be.

Ah yeah, I remember these elevators from Interlude 3.

He avoided touching the chrome walls or railing.  It was probably coated with something, but emerging with a piece of railing stuck to him would make for a terrible first impression.

Ahaha, yeah, that would be something alright.

Stepping out into a hallway, he walked up to a security terminal.  He swiped his identification card, spoke his name for the voice authentication, “Weld.”  There was a pause, and then the doors glided open.

His team was there, each with their masks off.

Time to meet the gang!

“Do you wish me to come down and introduce you?”

That earned a moment’s consideration.  Was this woman likable?  No.  Would the others like her?  Probably not.

Weld knows what’s up.

Which meant that having her introduce him might be detrimental, associate him with someone they might view negatively.

Can’t fault his logic there. I’m not sure this association would stick for very long, but first impressions are important.

“No, I don’t think it’s necessary, ma’am.”

“Your old keycards will let you in.  I’ll have replacement identification sent to you shortly.  In the meantime, I wish you luck.”

“Thank you, Director,” he handed her his headset and stepped through the door as PRT uniforms opened it.  As if welcoming him into the city proper, there was the sound of a woman screaming down on the street below, the noise turning into a manic laugh in the same breath.

…okay?

Half the block was without power, and searchlights on the corners of the rooftop scanned nearby streets.  PRT guards stood at the edge of the roof, armaments in hand.  He relaxed at the sight of the guards – if they weren’t acting on whatever was going on below, he didn’t need to worry about it.

Fair enough, I guess.

“Eat the paperwork?”

“I mean I’ll do it all, for the members of my team.

Ahaha, apparently Piggot wasn’t familiar with the phrase either. 😛

Or maybe she’s actually had someone literally eat the paperwork before. You never know with these parahumans.

Give you updates after any and all training sessions.  Notes on improvements, lessons learned, weak areas, strengths, resources that could fill any perceived gaps.”

The things he’s listing here are, in themselves, good arguments for why they should do this.

“So long as you’re prepared for me to put a stop to things at any time.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

That’s about as much concession as you’re going to get out of Director Piggot, I think.

“And,” the Director paused a moment as the Helicopter touched down on solid ground, “It cannot cut into the regular patrol schedule.  You and your team members would do this outside of the hours you’re on clock for the Wards.”

Sounds reasonable, though the other Wards might not like that.

“I’ll see if I can sell it to them.  Thank you, Director,” Weld stood.

Secretly, he was elated.  The training games he’d led his team through back in Boston had been some of the more fun moments of his career.

😀

I’m glad he’s had some fun times.

It had also allowed for a harmless but fun interaction with the New York group, giving them a chance to mingle, talk and share war stories.

Someone to socialize with and relate to that isn’t part of the usual team. That’s something people tend to need from time to time, I guess.

There was something about being able to mess with others on a level that you couldn’t with teammates you had to fight alongside.  If his new team liked the games half as much as he did, it would be a win in his book.

Hehe. 🙂

“Thank you.”

“Provided all goes according to plan, we intend for you to become a member of the core Protectorate team within the span of three to five years.  Making your face national, even international, if you are willing.”

Sounds like a decent plan.

“Wow.  Yeah, I’m definitely okay with that, ma’am,” he tried to feign surprise.  Armstrong had already covered much of this.

“Of course, this hinges on your ability to lead your team, in the here and now.”

‘course. It’s not enough to just be likable.

“Of course.”

“It seems we will land shortly.  Any questions before we do?”

“One.  I was hoping to arrange interstate training sessions with the New York and Boston Wards groups.  As far as I’m aware, the local team doesn’t do this.  They barely have regular situation training.”

Ooh, this sounds like a good idea. I mean, it doesn’t hurt that it would let him see his old friends once in a while, but yeah, it’s generally a good plan.

“I recall Triumph made a request for something like this, a few years ago.  I believe we refused him on the grounds that it was frivolous.”

But is it, though. Especially in the wake of an Endbringer situation, isn’t it pretty clear that it wouldn’t hurt to train the Ward teams in working together if the situation demands it?

Weld squared his shoulders.  He had to be assertive, here. “I’m firmly of the opinion that it would improve the local team’s ability to cooperate and respond to a greater variety of situations.  I’m totally prepared to eat any and all paperwork on our end.”

Okay so I’m sure “eat the paperwork” is just a figure of speech I haven’t encountered before, meaning to deal with the paperwork, but I can’t help but imagine Weld literally chomping down on a stack of paper like a damn goat. I love it.

And hey, little to no risk of the usual problems with eating paper when your throat is made of metal.

“The second half of this phase is getting the public more comfortable with the outliers.  The people with stranger powers, and stranger appearances.  You’re likable, Weld.  You have a clearly unnatural appearance, if you’ll forgive me saying so-”

Yes, a clearly “unnatural” appearance, but not a “monstrous” one like Gregor’s. Weld is more on Newter’s end of the axis.

Weld shrugged.  He stood out.  There were a hundred things that bothered him more than stares and comments on the subject.

“-but you have fans, and people are interested in you.  You get higher ratings for your interviews than even the average handsome hero gets.

Nice!

I like Weld so far, and this only helps reinforce that.

You’re second most popular for team leaders for number of youtube videos, possibly helped by a briefly lived internet meme featuring your face, 

Ahaha!

I wonder what exactly that meme was. 😛

…I also wonder if Wildbow took inspiration from the Worm fandom actually making a meme about Weld before this chapter.

and you have a blemish-free record, both academically and in your two years serving as a part of the Wards.”

In other words, an excellent good guy.

“This is a sensitive subject, slow to advance, as major corporations are particularly litigious when parahumans get involved.

I suppose there are a lot of things that need to go in the contracts to cover the companies’ asses, and when they don’t and it blows up, it’s time for a lawsuit.

In simple terms, the big businesses do not want people with powers affecting the status quo, and it is very easy for them to derail years of work with one bad media campaign targeting parahumans.”

Damn. It’s a wonder the government still seems to in favor of parahumans, then, enough to continue supporting the PRT. Although there’s still the issue of that anti-rogue judge Paige had to deal with.

(Yes, I’m absolutely implying corporations

in the U.S.

have way more power over the government than is healthy. At least that’s how it looks from over here.)

“I see,” Weld commented.  He didn’t like that in simple terms bit of what she’d said.  Too many people implied he was stupid because he was strong.

One of his reasons to dislike the term “Brute”, I’d imagine.

But could he really speak up about it, when he couldn’t be sure if her choice of words came from an offensive or judgemental perspective?  Or was he being overly sensitive?

Honestly, I think Piggot might just be trying to make sure she doesn’t talk over the head of a boy she doesn’t know all that well. Not so much assuming he’s stupid as not assuming the opposite.

“As the number of parahumans first became clear, a long-term plan was established.  In the early phases of the plan, much effort was dedicated to setting up the Protectorate and Wards, ensuring the public had heroes they could look up to, likable faces, likable personalities.  Merchandising, interviews, tv shows, music, movies and more were all encouraged and supported with the idea of building up this image.

“likable personalities”

*sideeyes Sophia*

Law, policy and rules for the official groups were all shaped with the idea of gradually building confidence in heroes.”

Weld nodded.

Makes sense. The PR-otectorate seems to be doing a good job on that front, for the most part.

“As we enter the next phase, our objective is to push the public a margin beyond their comfort zone.  We are encouraging and promoting the existence of rogues, which is an unfortunate term that heralds back to the early days.”

I’ve mentioned this before, but I love the idea of rogues finding their unique places in society, like Parian and Canary did.

“Right,” Weld responded.  The term ‘rogue’ applied to anyone with powers who wasn’t hero or villain, the negative connotations of the term tying back to an era when expectations had been rather different, much the same way the brute classification had been coined.

Back when you were either a hero or not a hero, I suppose.

“I see,” tiny frown lines appeared between her eyebrows.

“Sorry.”

Well, at least you’ve got that out in the open now.

A fire on a street below caught his attention.  A car had been set on fire, and people were crowding around it.

Hm? Villains afoot?

Or are these people using the car as a campfire of sorts?

Not noticing, Piggot pursed her lips, “Fine.  My apologies for putting you in that situation.  I won’t say anything further about Director Armstrong for the time being.  I was speaking of the need for public relations?”

“Yes ma’am,” he spoke, feeling somewhat relieved at her composure.

Composure is what she does best, I suppose, besides maybe PR.

He wouldn’t feel a hundred percent okay about it until he verified her as someone who wouldn’t find some other way to get back at him.

I don’t think she’s the type for that, though relations between the two of you may be a little strained.

But I mean, Piggot’s the kind of person whose relationships with the people she works with are strained by default, isn’t she.

Weld nodded.

“What Armstrong continually fails to grasp is that if we do not integrate parahumans into society, help society bend to accommodate your kind, there is no point in lab experiments or classifications.

She has a point.

As bad as things might be with the periodic arrival of Endbringers and parahuman criminals, matters could be ten times worse if panic or prejudice takes hold from the public.  You understand?”

Absolutely! Both of those things are bringers of chaos, maybe even more so than the Endbringers.

“One thing, ma’am,” Weld spoke.

“Yes?”

He took a deep breath.  Not that he really needed it, but he did anyways.  “Forgive me for saying so, but I get the impression you don’t like or respect Director Armstrong?”

It does sound like they have their differences, at least.

“Your point?”

“I just thought you should know he’s something like a father figure to me.  He’s the one who recruited me to the Wards, got me up to speed.  I’ve already made plans to go to his house for a bit this summer.  Maybe I’m putting myself on your sh… in your bad books by saying so, but I just thought I should let you know I’ll step up to defend him if you start putting him down.”

Ah, nice. Also, I like how Piggot’s just like “yeah, so what”. It… suits her.

Another thing I like is how Weld clearly caught himself almost saying “shitlist”.