It took us a few days, but eventually everyone got settled into a sort of normal following the Gala Fiasco.
Sam, Alex, and Clover had reached out to their family to tell them to be careful and warn them about people that might come for them based on their relations. That wasn’t solved by any means, but they were all warned at least. And the girls didn’t seem worried about it at least so they were confident their relatives were safe from any casual harassment.
Carl and Gloria obviously didn’t have any family they cared about so they had spent most of the time fixing/replacing anything that had been damaged when the manor was attacked, and I suspected adding in even more hidden defences. Carl had lucked out that the main focus of the attack had been to kidnap Dinah and not to just cause damage, otherwise he would have been mostly defenseless.
I’d offered some sparring lessons to help him learn to fight better, but I got the sense he’d prefer to just add more gadgets and alarms around the house so even if we were attacked again he wouldn’t need to fight.
And of course Amy had been largely unaffected personally by the identity leaks since her info was public to begin with.
Having a free member to help Paige settle in and get more established would have been a blessing, but there were two issues with that. One, despite Amy being in a much better mental space after her reincarnation, she wasn’t exactly the most outgoing person in the world. She could be friendly and polite – or at least fake it for short periods – if the situation called for it, but she really preferred to have other people be the center of attention. Watching her trying to hold a conversation with someone new that didn’t have a common interest was almost comically painful.
The second issue was that Paige had taken to haunting some of the more open areas in the manor – almost always making sure a large window was nearby – but struggled to talk to any of us when we were around. I had a feeling she was having a hard time adjusting from her imprisonment and was slightly terrified of her power affecting us accidentally.
There really wasn’t much we could do about that except to give her time until she opened up.
Well, that and having Lily keep an eye on her.
The cat that had fused with Clover thanks to a Bakuda bomb had never really gone back to normal even after we separated the two of them. Amy did manage to get her looking like a normal cat at first, but to all of our surprise – Lily had changed back to a human form with a flash of magic. At least until she used up her energy and shifted back into a cat. Thankfully she didn’t look like Clover anymore, but that was how we got a magical transforming cat as a housepet and the Peerage’s first familiar.
Lily didn’t mind the job. All she had to do was curl up in Paige’s lap and get pets. It was a deal that worked out for both the cat and the singer.
I just hoped we could come up with something better soon.
But!
Just because things had been fine didn’t mean that I was just going to wait around doing nothing and hoping that people left us alone!
So with that in mind, I summoned everyone in my Peerage to our planning room in preparation to explain what we would be doing while we waited for the Empire to explode.
“Alright, we’re all here. So what’s the next emergency, Rias?” Amy asked once everyone sat down. Which kind of highlighted the main issue I wanted to address.
“There is no emergency. In fact, I called everyone here because there isn’t one.” I didn’t like the fact that we were getting used to only coming together as a group specifically because something was going on. Bakuda and the ABB had been an issue for weeks followed almost immediately by the Gala. That would be less of a problem if we were a group dedicated to stopping things like that, but that wasn’t what I wanted my Peerage to be. “We’re here to talk about our next public outing as a full group.”
“Wait, I thought we weren’t doing anything villainous because the PRT called and said the city couldn’t take it.” Alex spoke up.
“Yes,” I declared, pointing at her. “Which is why we aren’t going to be doing anything villainous. Instead, we’re going to go have fun as a group. Go out, have fun, and get people used to the idea that the Peerage doesn’t always show up when the city is exploding.”
“I’m in!” Gloria instantly volunteered only to get smacked upside the head by Carl.
“We don’t even know what she wants to do yet!”
““We’re up for fun.”” Sam and Clover jumped in.
I looked over at Amy to try and get an idea about how she felt about this. She caught me looking and just rolled her eyes.
So not on board yet, but not completely dismissive.
That was fine. I figured by the time I’d explained everything I’d be able to convince her.
“So what are we doing?”
“Well…!”
I told them…
And while there were a few concerns, eventually everyone was onboard! OPERATION CLEANUP was a GO!
-o-
“No masks?” I asked as everyone assembled in the main hallway.
“No point. With our faces on the internet it’s not like they would actually hide who we are.” Gloria shrugged. “Plus, no one really liked wearing them to begin with.”
“Besides, we did come up with a minor disguise spell to help mess with video and photographers. Any pictures of us should look slightly distorted enough that people might not immediately recognize us.” Sam volunteered. “It doesn’t work on actual people though, that takes too much magic to be worth it.”
Neat. I’d need to look at what they’d done later, but that could wait.
“Right, then all that’s left is our uniforms for this mission.” I said dramatically, handing out the packages to everyone.
Amy took one look at them and glared at me. “Is this really necessary?”
“Yes! Now let’s go!”
-o-
[Clockblocker POV]
“So do we have any idea what we’re walking into?” He asked his fellow heroes as they followed the Console’s directions away from their patrol route.
“Not much.” Battery replied. “Just a call about a possible group of Parahumans gathering at one of the nearby parks.”
“Geez, a group? That's all they can tell us? Not even who we’re dealing with? I mean usually I’m all for fighting thirty capes by myself, but lately I’ve been a bit tired. You think if we ask nicely they’ll come at us one person at a time and agree to a nice handshake before we get into it?” He tried joking but could immediately tell it fell flat.
“We’re all tired, Clock.” Battery said flatly. “But someone needs to investigate.”
She paused and turned to look at him and Vista. “Only investigate. We aren’t looking for a fight if we can help it. Let me talk to them if they seem open to it, otherwise fall back and call for reinforcements. We can’t afford injuries for stupid mistakes.”
Right, because Panacea had been outed as being part of a villain gang now. So now they couldn’t even pretend that there was nothing going on there.
And actually, thinking of Panacea…
“What if it’s the Peerage taking territory or something like that?” Vista asked, on the same mental wavelength as he was.
Battery paused again before finally saying, “If they aren’t harming anyone then we leave them alone.”
“If they are?”
“Then you two fall back, call for reinforcements, and keep going until you’re back at HQ. But that shouldn’t be the case.”
That cheery line of thought killed what little conversation they had going so they walked in silence until they got to the area the call came from.
And it wasn’t hard to tell something was going on since the street was absolutely packed with bystanders just standing around. Funnily enough, that made Clockblocker actually calm down about whatever they were walking into because no one seemed scared, angry, or horrified by what they were watching.
Battery seemed to agree because instead of just forcing her way to the front, she very calmly but gently began moving people out of the way, saying "Protectorate coming through, please move aside.” while she did so.
He and Vista silently followed behind, but when they got to the front, Clock was glad his mask completely covered his face. Because the sight he walked in on made his jaw drop open.
The park had obviously been targeted by the ABB during their bombing sprees because there were still several burnt out vehicles along the roads and blast craters in spots. Not too much of the exotic stuff at first glance, but enough damage that should have looked like a battlefield.
Instead there were a group of capes casually landscaping the whole place like something out of a videogame.
Trash and debris floated into bins, craters in the ground flowed and smoothed out, old and rusted gym equipment suddenly looked both repaired and clean, and even cracks in the pavement were magically shut like new.
Literal magic too if what Paladin had been saying was correct and considering the glowing circles hovering midair all over the place. Seeing seven different capes all use the same effect also made the magic claim a little more believable.
But the thing that really made him think he was hallucinating was the fact that every member of the Peerage was not only wearing hardhats and hi-viz vests as if they weren’t all suspected to have ratings of Brute 2-3 at least… They were also wearing fake mustaches for some reason and no masks at all.
“Huh, wasn’t expecting that.” He said to fill the silence. “What’s our move, bosslady?”
“I–”
“Hey! This is an active repair zone, all non-affiliated personnel have to stay behind the line!” A voice suddenly shouted at them. Clockblocked gulped when he realised that Lucifer, the leader of the Peerage, was the one to do it and was walking towards them.
Not even the stupid mustache/vest/hardhat combo could make him forget the fact that she was the one that vaporized most of the cargo ship out in the bay with one attack.
“What is going on here?” Props to Battery, she at least sounded calm and controlled despite the weird situation.
“Repair work like I said. We’re dealing with the damage left behind by the ABB.”
“Doesn’t that kind of stuff need a work permit?” Vista asked.
Lucifer just smiled at her. “Sure, we have a permit.” And then pulled out a piece of paper from somewhere behind her and handed it to the other Ward before Battery could stop it.
Curious, Clockblocker leaned over to see what was on it and snrked when he saw under what was official looking letterhead was a clearly handwritten note that said ‘We can do what we want.’
Lucifer might scare the absolute crap out of him, but she definitely had a sense of humor.
“You know that’s not valid, and that stunts like this go against the Director’s deal.” Battery said, grabbing the ‘permit’ from Vista.
Lucifer shrugged. “From what I recall, the deal was to leave the Empire to you, don’t destabilize the city, and generally stay out of the way and the PRT leaves us alone. Nothing we’re doing here goes against that.”
“If we don’t count this display as posturing for territory at the very least you’re ignoring the spirit of the agreement.” Battery scowled.
“Devil~” Lucifer singsonged. “Your director should have been more clear when she was making demands. Unless you want to tell all the lovely people behind you why their park isn’t going to be fixed anymore? Because some bureaucrat decided they don’t deserve it?”
Clockblocker winced.
That was a low blow. It wasn’t like the PRT didn’t want to help people out after the bombings, but there just wasn’t much they could do. Literally or legally. Threatening to turn it into a PR battle was the kind of thing that would get them crucified while the Peerage would at most get a slap on the wrist.
The older protectorate hero must have agreed, because she took a deep breath in the same way Clockblocker associated with people trying to calm down before they strangled the person in front of them.
“Fine, but if you are going to do this it will only be with proper oversight. Clock, Vista, you can either return to base or stay but I’ll be remaining here to make sure there is no improper use of powers that would put the public at risk.”
“I’m staying.” Vista said seriously, which meant Clockblocker had to stay. No way he could get shown up by the twelve-year-old.
“I’m in too.”
“Great!” Lucifer clapped and in a flash was suddenly holding several more vests, hardhats, and even fake mustaches. “In that case, please put on the proper safety gear and we’ll show you where you can help out.”
“Help out?” Vista asked, unconsciously taking the vest being offered to her.
“You didn’t think we were just going to let you stand around now, did you Missy?” Lucifer replied. “Get to work, hero.”
Clock chuckled at the offended sound his fellow Ward made and in a split second decision, stuck the fake mustache to his mask approximately where it would be on his face.
The devil cape and her group still freaked him out, but he would take them being weird and helpful over Lucifer and Paladin getting into a fight that leveled a city block any day of the week.