Bank On Knavery

—"Feeling better?"

—"Huh? Oh, that?"— I tilt my head slightly to my back. —"Yup, the doctor said I'll be fine in about 10 weeks."

—"Still, 10 weeks... that's a long time, you could also get injured in battle before you make a full recovery."

—"That's something I want to talk about in today's meeting."

—"Able to pay for shoulder rehabilitation, but not your rent share, I see."— said Sgt. jokingly.

—"I could only afford it through an emergency fund my parents set up."

—"I'm guessing they deposit a little extra every now and then."

—"Quite the opposite, they haven't touched it in years, not that I've had any need for it. I initially had it for a construction gig, but with my build, I was barely of any use."

—"I see. Then, why didn't you just fix up that shoulder of yours when we were in the van? Y'know, for saving purposes."

—"I mean, I could've, but I mostly did not because of... Py... Piepy?"

—"Piper."

—"Yeah, her. She would've noticed my powers."

—"You could've just pretended to have regeneration powers or something."

—"Like Deacon? She would have tried to confirm it by cutting me apart! Anyhow, you shouldn't reveal anything to the enemy or at least have them think you don't have an ace up your sleeve, that's my motto."— and if she saw me fully cured, she could've told everybody else I was hurt the day before yesterday.  —"By the way, what did she do to the vortex guy again?" —I turn my full body towards Sarge.

—"She sliced his head right then and there. That's what motivated Ten to break her fingers. Apparently, Piper did that so the guy wouldn't be telling on us... and to gain our trust."

—"Is that how she said it?" —I signal Sgt. to help me put my shirt on.

—"That's right. Quite the new member we picked u—"

—"OW!"

—"SORRY!! Are you alright?"

—"Yeah, just don't touch my shoulder, man...."

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—"Ahem hmph, Ah— I've forgotten the meeting number."

—"Who cares! Would you mind telling us what was this 'urgent' meeting about?"— said Wham in an sarcastic tone. —"Besides we haven't been keeping track in ages."

—"Where is Lou?"— asked Deacon.

—"Sadly, our friend Lou messaged us recently saying, quote, 'I've had it up to here, I'm tired of this superpower bullcrap, I officially resign my whatever-stupid-name membership, see you never', unquote."— said Sgt. in a monotone voice.

—"Let us respect our associate's decision, but let's rejoice..."— Of course not —"...PCU's newest member, Piper!"

As I point towards Piper from across the room while I stand at the makeshift lectern, a dead silence fills the garage. Clearly I'm no hypeman but even asking for a modicum of comraderie from these guys is asking too much. Only Deacon claps silently until he stops after seeing no one else join him.

—"Already? Is this the fastest you've gotten a new member to join?"— asked Wham.

—"Yes, but as Sarge and I have already briefed you before starting today's meeting, there's a big reason for it and it is..."— I signal Ten to speak up but she looks clearly distressed, she shouldn't had sat next to the katana-wielding maniac. —"...aghh, she's an example of a perfect combo. A 'perfect combo' means the capability of pairing up your power with a useful additive. For example, even though I know he doesn't like it when I say it, but Wham, your powers are incredible in and of themselves but can still be perfected by—"

—"Ooh! I know! MY BIG GUNS!!!"— he says while showing off his muscles.

—"Nope, protective armor of some kind. He can weaken anything he touches but can't survive a, let's say, point blank explosion."

—"Hell no, I would never wear that obtrusive shit!"

—"Which is why you don't have a perfect combo. Now back to Piper, she's capable of folding the planet."

—"What?"— said Deacon, confused.

—"I know it's a weird term but that's the best way to put it, it's almost like teleporting except as far as we know you can't visualize a clear path of movement while moving, Piper can keep up the momentum of her running while she crosses the distance between multiple points in mere seconds."— I turn to Piper. —"Is everything right so far?"

—"Affirmative."— huh? What's with the special ops response?

—"So now it's time for introductions but I think if we want to keep a good pace you guys should direct any and all questions directly at her."— I see Wham put up his hand. —"Yes, you, muscle-freak."

—"Are you ok... there?"— he says in an exagerrated shaky voice, as he points his finger to my shoulder.

—"Ahm... yeah. Let's keep the questions for Piper shall we?"— Deacon puts his hand up. —"Ok, you."

—"Where are you from?"

—"No idea."— answered Piper.

—"How old are you?"— asked Wham.

—"No clue."

—"Are you our enemy?"— asked an exasperated Sarge.

—"No, right now I'm your teammate."

—"'Right now'?! You mean you could turn on us?!"

—"Depends on the situation." —

This is going badly. I look at Ten, sitting left to the lectern, while nudging her arm. Come on say something!

—"Ah-g-guys! Can we tile it back a little, I spent the last day talking to her and I wasn't able to get any information out of her."

—"Did she have that training thingy where even if they torture her she won't budge and spill the beans?"— asked Wham.

—"No I don't... think so. It's like she genuinely doesn't know much about her origins, or the world to be precise."

—"So, is she like a robot?"— asked Wham while snickering.

—"I'm not a robot."— replied Piper, with no anger behind her voice.

—"See, so she knows a thing or two."

—"Eh... it's like... she's prepackaged to know the meaning of things b-but she doesn't know a whole lot of context for it, if that makes sense."— hurridly said Ten.

—"What is the name of the president?"— Deacon inquired.

—"From which country?"— asked Sarge.

—"Doesn't really matter does it? If she says one from a country outside of this one, we'll have a hint as to where she originated from and a bit from her intentions here."

Intentions? Like a spy?

—"The president is..."— Piper starts her sentence, with everyone awaiting her answer. —"...the president."

A collective groan could be heard in the garage.

—"Anyhow, she's a valuable asset for PUC! And that's all that matters, and for the days I'm out of comission she'll be key for our operations, so I want everybody to make her useful when tackling power-user incidents."

—"How can she be a 'key'?"— asked Deacon.

—"Easy question. She doesn't have any duties, so no job, no family, and no compromises. She's free all-day-long!"

—"Then why can't she handle it all on her own?"

—"Because Gyu needs you keeping and eye on her."— said Sgt.

—"So we have to babysit a killing machine?"— questioned Deacon.

—"Yes, I'm asking you to do that. Worry not, Ten here is living-proof she's on our side."— Frankly, I thought there would've been a problem but she's capable of overpowering Piper if push comes to shove, however with her not knowing the full extent of Ten's destructive power she's shown to be our ally, for the time being.

—"Piper."— I say. —"Can you keep up your word?"

—"Sure."— no 'affirmative' this time?

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During the 10 weeks leading up to Gyu's full recovery all he did was help around the house while Sgt. wasn't around, as well as writing some movie reviews for some digital magazines, of course the pay was abysmal. In the meantime he would have the news on and go back in time to warn the others, including Piper.

At the beginning, Wham was unsure of her powers but after seeing the first target of the week decapitated in the blink of an eye he changed his mind. Following Gyu's recommendations, Piper had been stationed to sit in buildings' roofs in the city during the day and if anything ever came up she'd receive a message through her disposable phone after which another member of PUC would stand by for any assistance, though their job was survellaince to be precise. In the first week she was able to take care of 3 power-users, which is a lot all things considered since power-user crimes are less widespread and generally don't receive much definitive coverage that let's you determine if the scene of a crime or disaster was caused by a power-user.

Wham wasn't the only one impressed with the efficiency, Deacon also helped by keeping and eye on Piper but it was just for a minute or less, as Piper cleanly took out all dangerous power-users before they committed a crime. Piper's schedule by this point would become freshly starting off the day at 7:00 am, staying vigilant all day and going back to Ten's by 9:00 pm. Ten introduced Piper to her family the day she broke her fingers, she made-up a backstory to cover for that fact as well as asking her parents if she could stay while she heals from a less-than-ideal household life, also fabricated. By week 5, not only had major power-user incidents stopped but street-level crime had considerably gone down. But fear had definitely increased in the mainstream.

A lot of news broke out about each and every one of Piper's victims which is when Gyu decided to implement plan B. Piper would use the back of her sword to knock out victims, and leave messages near them warning them not to commit a crime. Soon enough, blurry footage of a speedy blue-haired individual would circle the web and, soon enough, it had a name: "Blue Sentence".

This was the first time Gyu and co. had a name given to them by the public which made them go ecstatic except for Ten and Piper who didn't understand what superhero aliases were.

Then, on Tuesday night of the 7th week...

—"I'm back."

—"Hello there Piper, Ten's on her room right now, do you want anything for dinner?"— said Ten's mother.

—"No."

—"Oh, okay..."

Piper makes her way up the stairs and passes through Ten's father's home office and Rob's room who quickly closes his door as she walks by. He then opens Ten's door.

—"Wah! Knock first would you!!"

—"Copy that."

—"No, it's not 'copy that', you have been saying that since the first day you arrived here!"

Piper sits in the floor while taking off her katana strap.

—"I made sure to clean the sword on the park's drinking fountain on the way back home like you suggested."

—"I only mentioned it in passing!! You should NEVER do that!"— Ten was agitated by all these sudden developments but couldn't shake down the feeling that it was her fault. She had the excuse of 'just like you gave me a second opportunity, I gave one to her' ready were Gyu to argue against Piper's membership, but all that had turned upside down in Ten's mind, now she was the one with a problem with Piper's handling of power-users. —"Ughhhhhhhh! Everything is so effed up!"

—"What's the problem?"

—"What's the problem?! The way you handle things is a problem!"

—"Why, what's wrong?"

—"If it wasn't for Gyu's countermeasure to you being chased by the police to no end you would have kept on piling more and more bodies. Not like you are already target of multiple police investigations!"

—"I don't see the issue. I did what you guys ordered me to do."

—"Yeah, I know you see it that way, but you gotta be more critical of this. You're taking out people who haven't even committed crimes yet."

—"But they would do them, wouldn't them?"

—"No! Not of if you convince them it's bad. Surely with Gyu's 'forethought' you could give an accurate description of their next set of actions and scare them off."

—"You don't know that."

—"And neither do you, but you can't rain down as the righteous fist of justice to people who could be just as confused as you and me were."

—"I'm not confused, and who said anything about righteousness."— like always, said by Piper in a monotone voice. —"Who cares as long as the objective is achieved."

Ten sighed. —"There's no getting to you is it. Well at the very least what's Gyu is putting you through is not something a friend should do."

—"Friend?"— her droning tone finally broken by a bit of intrigue which Ten surely noticed.

—"Y-yes, friends? You know what a friend is right? Someone you trust and like as a person, who you share something with."

—"Gyu is my friend?"— said Piper in unfeigned disbelief.

—"He's supposed to be, but he just orders you around as if you were a robot, doesn't that make you mad?"

—"Hmm..."— Piper took a second to think. —"Kind of."

—"Then next time you see him I want you to tell him how bad friend he is."— said Ten without the slightless hint of conspiratorial intent, just genuine concern. —"I'll give you some notes on what you should ask."— well, maybe a smidge of muckracking.