Chapter Text
Ethan could admit that he was somewhat on edge. The last Butcher had been killed two weeks ago, and they hadn’t seen hide nor hair of the new Butcher—Butcher XV—since then. Tensions were high throughout the whole of Brockton Bay. Some days, it felt like they were all just waiting for the other penny to drop, or maybe for a match to fall and ignite the powder keg of a city. The Teeth, in their leader’s unusual and continued absence, had been gradually ramping up in both desperation and violence. The ABB and the Empire were skirmishing again, each trying to take advantage of whatever shifts in power were about to come, and the Merchants were—well, not actually causing any new problems, but like opportunistic cockroaches they would survive and thrive when the tensions broke out into war.
It was, in short, a rather stressful week to be a hero in Brockton Bay. Arguably, that was true on most weeks, but now even more so. Ethan was, therefore, a little jumpy during his patrol—justifiably so, he thought. It had been quiet so far, which should have made him relax some, but if anything he felt like he was strung on tenterhooks, just waiting for the next penny to drop.
The transponder in his ear crackled to life. “Battery, Assault, we have a potential first contact with a heroic vigilante; the report said she stopped a mugging on 13th and Pine. One man with suspected Empire affiliation, one victim nonlethally wounded but in need of medical evac. You’re authorized to facilitate handover to police and to initiate Protectorate first contact protocols.”
“Roger that, Miss Militia,” Carly said from beside him.
“Roger that, M and M,” Ethan replied at the same time. He’d only gotten to do a few first contact meetings with new capes, and most of those had been on the less-heroic side of the law. For some reason, his superiors didn’t think he had the right level of maturity to greet aspiring heroes. “We got a name for our newbie?”
Miss Militia was silent for just a hair too long, and Ethan latched onto that with the focus of a bloodhound. “Oh? What’s wrong with the name?”
Hannah’s voice was strained. “The cape reported her name as Magical Girl Sparkling Butterfly.”
“You’re fucking with me,” he said reflexively.
“Language,” she said, equally reflexively. “And no, I am not.”
“Amazing,” he said softly, and then deftly avoided it when Carly tried to smack his head. “Is she, like, seven or something?”
“She sounded either late teens or an adult, but take that with a grain of salt,” Hannah said.
“Amazing,” he said again, because it bore repeating.
“Regardless of her name, this is still a first contact with an unknown parahuman. Be on your guard, use a soft sell, follow procedure.”
“We will, Militia,” Carly cut in, because one of them had to be professional here, and it sure as hell wasn’t going to be him. “We’re en route to the site, should be there in five.”
“Roger that, Battery.”
The two had been patrolling, which meant walking at a reasonable pace down the sidewalk, but Carly could accelerate to a decent clip with consecutive uses of her charge, and by smacking him with it first he could easily keep up. She turned to him, beginning to faintly glow through her circuit-lined costume as she powered up. He knew exactly how long it took for her to reach full charge, and then she slammed into him with all the force of a semi-truck barreling down the highway.
His power took over as soon as she made impact. Rather than feeling it like a force, Ethan experienced the kinetic energy like a wave of heat centered around the impact point. He easily distributed that energy throughout his body and then changed its direction. Then he was running down the road right next to Carly, and he let enough of his momentum bleed off to match her pace. He slowed with her as her charge ran out, waited for her to charge again, and then once more acted as a human backboard for her to launch herself forward. It was a strange, ping-ponging way to travel, but Carly and he had perfected it over the years, and by now it was second nature. It was late enough at night that they could run along the street without worrying too much about cars, and they both had good enough reflexes to avoid any unfortunate accidents.
They reached 13th and Pine in 3 minutes and 28 seconds, according to the HUD on his tinkertech visor. A small warning popped up in the side of his vision that he was currently in a region of the city claimed by the Empire and he winced, even as he slowed to a stop, bleeding off the remainder of his kinetic energy as sound and heat in the air. Carly stopped next to him a moment later, looking around for the new cape. A flicker of light caught Ethan’s eyes, and he turned to see a dense cluster of fireflies all blinking on, and then adjusting to form a tight arrow.
“Do you think those are projections, or are we dealing with an insect Master?” He kept his voice low, just loud enough for Carly to hear.
“Too soon to tell, but my gut says the latter,” she replied.
“An insect Master. Great, because I didn’t need to sleep tonight.” He took the light-hearted cuff across the head, automatically dispersing the kinetic energy into the air. “I guess we just follow the glowing bug arrow then.”
Cautiously, the two of them did just that. It dispersed as soon as they started to move in the indicated direction, and then reformed down the block in front of them with a new arrow pointing toward an alleyway. Ethan turned, curious, and then froze.
He noticed the victim first, a young Asian woman who was sitting on the ground, holding a pile of fabric up to her broken nose. The next thing he noticed was the man, white with blond hair and a terrified look in his eyes. His arms and legs were shackled to a dumpster, and it looked almost as if the metal of the dumpster had come alive and wrapped around his arms and legs in hundreds of thin bands, and his mouth looked was covered with a makeshift metal gag made of the same material. As Ethan watched, a bee fluttered around the man’s arm, trailing a thin strand of metal behind it and adding to the cuff. Part of the man’s shirt was missing, almost as if it had been eaten or had rotted away, revealing a broad chest with a large tattoo of a two-headed eagle holding a swastika. He looked physically unharmed, although there was something terrified and hollow in his eyes.
Then he saw the cape.
She was wearing a pink sleeveless dress with a big bow at the back that ended in a flared and pleated skirt. Her legs were covered with long white stockings and pink boots, while she had white gloves over her arms and was holding what looked like a metal wand topped with a delicately engraved butterfly in her hand. To add to the theme, a pair of translucent gossamer insect wings emerged from her back, and as he got closer he saw she had both a butterfly brooch and faint purple spiderweb embroidery on her skirt. On her head she had a white metal tiara that glimmered in the low light. The top half of her face was covered with a bone white masquerade mask that also looked to be made of metal, leaving her long dark hair exposed. Somewhat incongruously, a massive longbow was slung across her back, as well as a quiver with pink-fletched arrows. Moths were fluttering all around her, and for some reason they were pink as well—giant pink and yellow moths all flapping around her in a beautiful dance.
“Magical Girl Sparkling Butterfly?” Ethan asked as he stepped into the alleyway, and he was proud that he managed to not let any of his amusement show.
The cape turned, as though surprised at his arrival, even though the bugs’ behavior showed she was quite aware of his presence. “Yupperooni! That’s my name, and you can’t wear it out! Believe me, I’ve tried! Ooh, you’re Assault, right? My cuties were telling me all about you!” She gestured at the moths flying around her in a loose formation, and one of them fluttered close enough to let her gently pet it.
Wow, she was really committed to this role! He had to smile. A humor cape was always fun, and a heroic humor cape was a rare thing indeed—Mouse Protector was to some extent the exception that proved the rule. Still, he knew how to handle a humor cape, and he also knew that they almost always undersold their abilities.
“That’s me,” he said. “Think you can talk us through what happened here?”
Carly had already gone over to the victim, helping her staunch the blood and whispering comfort to her. She had always been better at that—Ethan had a tendency to fall back on humor when he was stressed, which wasn’t always ideal for dealing with trauma victims.
Princess Butterfly nodded. As giddy as her voice was, there was a certain weight to it nonetheless. “I was out on my first ever patrol, when I heard a bunch of screams coming from over here. I knew something wasn’t right so I got over here as fast as I could, and then I found that meanie over there punching the nice lady, and she was bleeding and her nose looked pretty hurt, so I knew that I had to stop him. Then he pulled out a knife, and I had to use a bit more power to tie him up, and then I called the police.” She spoke quickly, almost in one breath. It made her come off as something of a ditzy motormouth, which he had to assume was her intention.
Still, there was one part of the story he had to ask about. “You said he pulled a knife? Did he get you anywhere?”
She giggled. “No, silly! I got it away from him before he could hurt anybody—knives can be very dangerous, you know! And besides, a normal knife probably wouldn’t even cut me.” She looked down, then, seeming almost sheepish. “I… might have lost my temper a bit and given him a bit of a shock to make him drop the knife, but nobody got cut!”
“A small shock? Was that with your power?” Ethan asked, tilting his head. “And what is your power, exactly?”
Princess Butterfly waved her hand in a dismissive manner. “Oh, y’know, it’s a bit of this and a bit of that. I can control my bug friends, that’s my main power, and I’ve also learned some of the abilities from my friends.”
Ah, that made sense. “You’re a grab-bag cape, then? I mean, you have several weaker powers?”
She gave him a wide smile. “Something like that. Um, also, Miss Battery, I think she has internal bleeding near her liver—could you let the EMTs know that?”
He turned to look at Carly, who startled and then nodded. Mentally, Ethan jotted down that she likely had some form of enhanced hearing.
“Have you thought about joining the Protectorate? You did a good job here, disrupting a violent situation with nonlethal measures and staying with the victim until help arrived. That’s exactly the kind of heroic behavior we need.”
“That’s… not really possible for me.” She shrugged, and looked genuinely apologetic. “When I became a magical girl, I made a promise to help everyone I could, and that promise has to take precedence over rules and regulations. Trust me, I want to be a Ward, but it’s just not possible.”
Well, that answered the age question, or narrowed it down at least. “I get that, but it can be pretty dangerous as a solo cape, especially right now. The Bay’s like a powder keg stuffed with dynamite and a couple of nuclear warheads, and every side’s got their hands on the trigger.”
She actually giggled. “I promise, Mister Assault, I’ll stay safe. I don’t want to die, and I hope that nobody wants to kill me either. All I want to do is help people, you know? And I’ve got my friends to help me as well.”
“Your friends, huh? You’ve got a team to keep you safe?”
She shook her head, setting her expressive lips into a wide pout. “No, not anymore. My friends used to have a team, but sometimes they were meanie pants. It’s okay, though, because all my friends are in here!” She pointed at her head, giving him a wide grin.
That was… a little alarming, actually. He narrowed his eyes. “So, your friends are all in your head?”
“Mm-hm!” Butterfly gave him a big thumbs up. “Well, not all of my friends, silly—just the ones that help me with my powers! You know, the magical girls and boys who came before and guide me and all that.” She gave him a brilliant grin, then it fell into an overexaggerated frown. “I did make a bit of an oopsie a couple of weeks ago and now Magical Girl: Cupid’s Dream is still a little upset with me. I’m hoping she’ll get over it soon enough, though.”
He relaxed, somewhat. It wasn’t clear yet whether her power actually came with some kind of guiding voice, or if she was just taking the magical girl theme and running with it, but it didn’t seem too alarming. He was still a little worried about her—independent heroes were notoriously short lived—but there wasn’t much he could do about that. “That’s good to hear. Still, I hope you know that the Wards are always an option if things get dangerous.”
“Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind,” she said, unconvincingly. She began to shift back and forward on her feet, clearly anxious. “So, um, do you still need me here, or can I continue my patrol? Not that I don’t want to see this through! Just, you know, you two are already here, and there are more baddies out there that still need to be stopped.”
“I’ll need you to release the perp, first,” he said, pulling out a pair of zip-cuffs from his hidden pockets. “It’s good that you’re able to safely restrain people with your power, but I’d recommend carrying some of these around as well. It’s a bit harder for police to bring people in when they’re physically chained to a dumpster—even if it’s where trash belongs.”
She giggled again. “Wowie, yeah, I hadn’t thought of that! Um, sure, I’ll get right on it.” She made a sweeping gesture with her wand and a small swarm of flies took flight, each of them landing on one of the metal strands and carrying it off the man’s arms. It was fascinating to watch—everywhere the insects touched, the metal began to flow like it was water, and they dragged the bands back into the garbage bin and smoothed it over. After a few seconds, it would have been hard to tell that the bin had been effected at all if it weren’t for discolorations in the paint. He was more than a little impressed, even as he stepped over toward the man—fortunately, the perp seemed smart enough not to start shit in an alley with three heroes—and quickly slapped the zip-cuffs over his arms.
Ethan turned back to the new hero, giving her a PR smile. “I’ve already recorded your testimony, so if you want to continue your patrol, you can—Battery and I will make sure the perp gets his day in court and that the victim is taken care of. And, uh,” he hesitated, then sighed and pulled out a sheet of paper and a pen that he usually used for autographs. “I’m not exactly supposed to do this, but here’s my work number. Give me a text if you want some advice, or if you want to try patrolling with some of the Wards.”
“Really? Oh, thank you! I knew there was a reason you were my favorite hero!” She danced forward and threw her arms around him, wrapping him in a fierce hug—she was careful, but he could definitely tell she had brute strength. “Ok, toodles! And if you need my help with anything, just give me a ring!”
She flounced out of the alley, dancing moths fluttering behind her like a royal entourage. A moment later, there was a small flicker on his heads up display as a new text message came in.
Unknown Number: Thanks for the help! I hope the rest of your day is sparkle-tastic! ✨✨✨
Ethan looked at the message with a grin, then entered the number as Magical Girl✨🦋✨. Professional? No, not at all, but he thought that the other cape would appreciate it.
Assault: You too, Butterfly.
The rest of the incident was standard enough–the ambulance arriving with a wail of sirens for the victim, waiting for the BBPD to arrive with the paddy wagon for the mugger, passing on the report that Butterfly gave him to the officers on the scene. It would be a crapshoot if any charges stuck, but then again, that was a problem with vigilante justice in general. Even for unmasked capes like Brandish and Lady Photon, cape testimony was usually taken by judges with a grain of salt. The obvious victim and the hospital’s reports of her injuries might make it easier, but that was assuming the Empire didn’t want to expend some resources to put their finger on the metaphorical scale of justice. Still, even if the guy did end up back on the streets a few weeks later, Ethan was pretty sure that the victim was glad someone had stepped in when they did, and that was a few weeks where the city was marginally safer.
Sometimes, being a hero in Brockton Bay made Ethan envious of Sisyphus, because at least when the boulder rolled back down the hill it didn’t kill anybody on its way down. Sometimes, though, there were those small moments of hope, like when a new cape decided to try and be the kind of hero that put a smile on people’s face.