“Listen up!” I shouted.  I used my swarm to give me more volume, and to stand out against the noise of the crowd.  People went silent, and every set of eyes turned towards me.  I stepped up onto the truck, hiding myself briefly in the swarm as I hopped up.

Hey! Listen!

(I know that’s my second Navi joke tonight. Sue me. Besides, it’s only fitting for them to be annoyingly frequent, is it not?)

I addressed them, “Not everyone will get a box today.  That is not an excuse to take what others have already claimed.  As I said, I will not tolerate stealing or theft among you.  

This is a good announcement to make. I think you’ll be a pretty decent queen.

If you try it, I’ll treat you the same as I treated him.”

And we’ve got a touch of intimidation, pulling in the example-making to full effect. Excellent.

“I wouldn’t expect any less,” I answered her.

With that, she disappeared in a blur, the water parting in her wake.

Byyye!

That was a fun interaction.

With her gone, the rest of the crowd swooped down on the remaining supplies.  People maintained a respectful distance, but oddly enough, they weren’t acting as scared of me as they’d been before I attacked the Merchant and before I’d talked to Battery.

Might have to do with the facts that you just protected them from the Big Man, that a Protectorate member seems to accept what you’re doing, and that the same Protectorate member says they’ll step in if Queen Skitter’s reign goes too far.

Had her leaving me alone given me a measure of legitimacy?  More importantly, had it been intended to give me legitimacy as ruler of the area?  She hadn’t needed to step in right then.  Probably.

Hm. I suppose it’s possible.

If that’s the case, it was probably on orders from console, considering she personally didn’t approve.

I had to admit I wasn’t sure if I would’ve gone through with stabbing the guy.

Who knows. Maybe Dinah, but I doubt she can go back and then sideways.

I sighed.  “Don’t know what to tell you.  No agenda.”

She frowned, “When we first set post-Endbringer measures in place, your team was listed as low priority, and we were instructed to ignore you.  Too costly in time and resources.  I suspect someone intended to change that after your little stunt the other night, but the memo hasn’t gone out yet.  You hear me?”

You saying you can pull some strings?

I tilted my head in a small nod.

“So I’m going by the book, and I’m walking away.  But I’ll be keeping an eye on you, on this, and the moment you go too far, we’re coming after you, no holds barred.”

Ahh, so that’s her excuse for letting this go for now. I like this.

Battery surveyed the crowd again.  “What’s your agenda?”

Y’know, I really like this sort of upfront conversation between hero and villain-with-good-intentions.

“Do I have to have one?”

“Yes.  Your kind always has an agenda.”

That’s a bit alignmentist, but not unjustified.

“Maybe I’m unique.”

“No, knowing what you tried to pull with pretending to be a villain?  Or pretending to be a hero that’s pretending to be a villain?

Heh, yeah, figures there’d be a bit of uncertainty around that. She either tricked the Undersiders into thinking she was a villain or she tricked Armsmaster into thinking she was trying to be a hero. Either way, she had a facade and a plan.

You’re more likely to have some scheme at play than anyone else.”

That might be a bit of an exaggeration, but I see what you mean.

As if noting what I was looking at, she glanced at the crowd encircling around us.  “I don’t agree with this.”

That’s a very interesting way of putting it. She seems to be implying that she doesn’t think she has any right or duty to stop it, even if she doesn’t think it’s right, even if it’s being done by a known villain (with a heroic side if Armmaster is to be believed, admittedly) using quite possibly stolen supplies.

“But you’re not going to stop me, and you’re not going to try and arrest me, despite what happened the other night,” I answered her, “Because I’m the lesser of a whole lot of evils that are in the city right now.”

Sure seems that way.

“Mm.  For now.”

Yeah, that’s fair.

“For now.  Until then, I’ve got supplies from an outside agent, I’m not stealing them from the same sources you guys use, and I’m getting them out to these people at my own expense.

Hm, yeah, it’s a good idea to be upfront about this. Essentially going “I’m not stealing this from you” probably helps tip the PRT perception of this further away from “problem”.

I’m policing this area until the police can get back to doing it themselves, and I’m dealing with people who need to be dealt with.  You’re not about to get in my way, are you?”

The big question is to what extent Battery is speaking for the entire Protectorate here. She did talk with console before doing anything, but how much of this is just her?

She spent the accumulated charge of her power and caught the knife out of the air by the handle. “How does this tie into the stunt you helped pull at the HQ?”

That’s a pretty good question, considering what the PRT knows about Skitter and the Undersiders. Namely not that they’ve got Coil.

“The Wards’ building?  The intel we got from there was valuable, and that kind of money buys a lot of things.”

Right, that’s a pretty decent – and mostly true – answer. Dragon will be interested and horrified to know this.

I looked at the remaining pile of supplies.  The majority of the crowd had stopped collecting their boxes to watch the fight with the Merchant and my exchange with Battery.

I wonder what they all think of the way Battery doesn’t seem to be doing anything to stop Skitter, other than stop her from going too far against the Merchant.

The volume of his screams increased.  As I lifted my foot, he moved his hand, rolling onto his back to clutch at it, dropping the knife in the process.

This guy is turning out to be pretty good for setting an example.

I bent down to pick up the blade, and when I stood up again, Battery was ten feet in front of me, one pace closer to me than any of the rest of the crowd that ringed me and the Merchant.

Oh, right. ‘Course, the heroes don’t like that.

Then again, she might want to take this guy in too. He did threaten the crowd with a weapon and attempt (provokedly) to seriously maim or murder Skitter.

“I can’t let you use that,” she gestured towards the knife.  There was a faint glow from her costume.  I gathered she was charging up her power.

Ah, is she worried about Skitter turning the guy’s knife on him?

“Wasn’t planning on it,” I lied, swarm buzzing in sync with my words.

I was expecting her to say this honestly, but fair enough.

I’d considered stabbing the guy in the hand or somewhere where it wouldn’t be terminal, but hadn’t been certain on the route I would go.  I reversed the knife and gently lobbed it towards her.

Fair. I don’t think it’s necessary at this point – in fact, using a weapon other than your bugs might undermine what you’re doing here, example-wise – but fair.

I extended my arm and let the bugs flow from beneath my costume in one swift movement, like water poured from a cup, covering him.  The crowd backed away as the man began screaming incoherently.

“My turn.”

He threw himself backward into the inch-deep water and rolled around like he was trying to put out a fire.  Maybe he was – the bugs I’d set on him were laced with capsaicin.

Heh, nice.

As his thrashing continued, I waited patiently, watching.  As he used one hand to prop himself up in a crawl, I stepped forward onto his knife hand.

Yeah, might as well disable that for the time being.

My heel settled on his knuckles, and after I’d readjusted my footing, I ground it down, letting most of my body weight rest on that heel.

Ow.