Wretched Joy 19 (Patreon)

Commissioned by southmonk

Wretched Joy

Chapter 19

-VB-

Interlude: Parahuman Response Team - Branch East-North-East

Vista was in a lot of trouble, and Miss Militia didn’t know how to fix the issue. 

It was clear to her and everyone else that the current PRT ENE’s policy, stated clearly and loudly, was non-interference with Everyday Joe’s actions, but that decision had been made prior to his increasingly escalating violence in public. 

His assassination of multiple Empire Eighty-Eight capes had … consequences. 

Namely, it couldn’t be glossed over because he engaged in highly visible and highly contentious murders with an extremely loud sniper rifle. He chased them down to lobbies where people filmed the fight. 

Everyday Joe, as he claimed himself, did not care about the Unwritten Rule nor the constitutional laws of the United States of America and the state of New Hampshire. 

All he cared about was killing “evildoers.” 

The public was obviously split. 

His detractors made it clear that Everyday Joe was obviously doing it for selfish reasons no different from that of other villains. Murder should never be condoned, after all, especially one that takes power away from the common consensus of the people. 

His supporters argued otherwise with the same points that Joe himself made. America was a dying institution that couldn’t even control its own territory. They allowed criminal organizations to set up shop and operate outside of the law. Too many cape villains entered and exited the criminal justice system without suffering the consequences of their actions. The common will of the people had already been defiled, and Everyday Joe was doing what should have been done in the first place: a purge of the criminals unwilling to change.

His supporters didn’t realize just how slippery of a slope that kind of vigilantism was.

And then there was the red flag that Vista brought to the PRT ENE after her latest encounter with Joe. 

Joe claimed … that he used to be a PRT member. Didn’t mention his name, his rank, or any identifying details, and Hannah would have dismissed it had it not been for a very significant detail. 

He knew the names of PRT agents and officers who all died specifically to the Empire Eighty-Eight, and thoroughly described what happened to one of the officers in detail that left no room for doubt that …

Joe was once one of them.

Hannah’s fists tightened at the thought of it. 

She didn’t blame Joe in that case. Despite the fact that she acted on the orders of her superiors at all times, it didn’t mean she agreed with them with each and every single order. 

“Did you get that list?” Director Emily Piggot asked Armsmaster, the blue power armored Tinkering hero seated across from both her and Piggot. 

“Yes,” he replied succinctly before motionlessly connecting his helmet to the wide computer screen in the front of the room. “So far, we have three suspects among those who are no longer with us and five from agents still working with PRT ENE. These are the only individuals that fit the body shape, height, and suspected weight as seen and estimated in the first few encounters we have had with Everyday Joe.”

Along with the rest of the Protectorate heroes, Wards, and PRT officers in the room, she looked over the list and… None of them looked right. She knew most of the faces on the list, and a few had alibis.

“The most suspicious?” the director asked. 

“... None among the living.”

“‘Among the living’?” Assault chuckled nervously. “You’re making it sound like we’re gonna start suspecting the dead or something!” 

Ah. 

Hannah remembered that Assault had a fear of ghosts. Something related to the Fairy Queen. 

“Indeed. Here are the three PRT officers who died in the field.”

She looked at the list again… and noticed a similarity with all three of them.

All three of them died during Empire Eighty-Eight attacks. 

“Statistically, Empire Eighty-Eight causes the highest number of deaths among the three major criminal parahuman gangs,” Armsmaster continued. “And the circumstances that causes the most number of deaths per occurrence is the prison transport, especially those that involved Hookwolf and his faction within the E88. Since he was taken care of by Joe and the need for transporting E88 capes have fallen, we have seen a sharp decrease in E88 related deaths.”

Hannah hummed. 

“So Joe took care of it.”

They turned to look at Vista.

“Vista, we can’t condone murder,” Armsmaster replied almost immediately. “Regardless of the outcome.”

“I’m sure you’ll say that if Hitler suddenly comes back to life,” she snarked.

“Vista!” Battery gasped.

“Vista, please-,” Carlos began.

“What?” she asked as she crossed her arms and leaned back into her chair. “Did I say anything wrong? If Hitler came back, then our current director and Protectorate would hem and haw. Cuz that’s what Kaiser is. He’s an American Hitler-”

“Vista, you will stop,” Piggot snapped but Vista didn’t.

“- who was in charge of a goddamn criminal gang and we did barely anything to put an end to it even though -”

“Vista-”

“- so many of us have been killed, never mind the regular people we’re supposed to be protecting.”

“VISTA!” 

“What, you indecisive and incompetent so-called leader?” Vista drawled.

“... You’ll be getting console time. Three months.”

“Nah.”

The room was spiraling. 

“What?”

“Nah.” 

“And what do you mean by that, Vista? Are you disobeying orders?”

“I wasn’t aware this was the military. I wasn’t aware you held a military rank, Piggot. I wasn’t aware I held a military rank, too.”

“Damn, she’s getting shots off,” Clockblocker muttered. 

“You-”

“Then fire me. Fire the longest serving Ward for speaking her mind about how ineffective this organization is.”

“Vista -,” Hannah began. “This isn’t how we do things.”

“...” Vista stared at her with the eyes of … just a blank stare. Just stared at her with a blank stare with none of her usual poorly-hidden enthusiasm. “I had to look it up, you know.”

“Look up what?” Dean asked. 

Hannah glanced at the empath. Was his decision to hang back perhaps a sign of how deeply disturbed Vista was?

“Casualty statistics. It’s in PRT’s own server, if you were curious.”

She felt her stomach drop.

“8 PRT officers, 4 police officers, and maybe one or two Protectorate heroes per permanent arrest of one villain. At that rate, it would have taken everyone in this room dying to just arrest the Empire,” Vista droned on as she stared at Piggot. “In fact, I should be arresting you for gross negligence, Piggot.”

“... V-”

Armsmaster held up his hand before Piggot could answer. 

“... Kaiser has been killed in Boston,” he reported after a moment. “By Everyday Joe.”

The meeting room descended into chaos, but in it, Piggot and Vista didn’t break eye contact. The news derailed the spiraling situation, thankfully, but Hannah knew that it wasn’t over.

And from the looks of some of the Wards in the room… 

The Wards were disillusioned.