The Deputy Comes Knocking

The sun is falling behind the skyscrapers in the west, it won’t be long until the day is done, well, your day at least.

Soon the night shift will come, headed by your mysterious deputy that the mayor was so generous to have hired FOR you.

Your phone rings, this time not to inform you of a new call, holding the handset to your ear your greeted with the voice of Hannah.

“Ms Chen? You have a visitor, one Ellen Crawford, says the mayor has sent her”

“Alright… let her in..” you say, pinching the bridge of your nose with your thumb and fore finger, placing the phone down.

The door opens and in walks who you can only assume is your new deputy, the person you’re meant to trust with the station while you’re away.

She’s a meek thing; rail thin and standing a foot shorter than yourself, her emerald eyes are framed by a pair of thick horn-rimmed glasses. In her arms she clutches a file, presumably her resume as she slowly steps inside, heels clicking against the hard wood of your office.

She wears office wear; pencil skirt, blouse and blazer as though she expects to be seen in city hall by people she wants to impress.

Her posture is stiff and you can spot her hands shaking, despite her best efforts to keep them steady.

“Ms Chen.. m.. my name is Ellen Crawford, I will be your new deputy going forward… I.. I’ll do my best to keep up!” She says, gently folding her hands behind her back.

“Take a seat kid, let’s have a look at that file” you say hoping to ease the tension with some friendly words but she seems even more tense at the prospect.

She settles down into the chair across from yours, slowly sliding the file across the table to you before resting her hands into her lap.

Picking up the manilla folder, it feels light, not much to be said about her it seems, slowly you flip it open, inside is a single page detailing her INCREDIBLY recent career as a hero.

———————————————————————Name: Ellen Crawford AKA Athena

Age: 24

Height/Weight: 4’8” 95lbs

Abilities: IQ exceeding 250 on standard IQ tests putting her in the top 10 percentile.

History: Crawford started her career as a graduate of the Valor Institute; the premiere hero academy in Washington DC.

She passed all tests with flying colors which later secured her a leadership position in the Detroit metro area which ultimately ended in disaster when she failed to enforce her orders which led to frequent deaths within the staff and shortly afterwards her dismissal.

Sense then she’s moved from city to city attempting to find a precinct that would take her, her power largely useless in the field without access to proper materials.

The few precincts that took her in largely relegated her to desk duty, filing paper work, fixing old computers.

In conclusion: Crawford is best left off the battlefield or a leadership position.———————————————————————

You set the file down, your eyes slowly gliding up to meet with Ellen’s who stares at you intently, as though attempting to read your mind via your micro expressions.

“I see… and.. the mayor hired you… yes..? He ever say why…?” You ask, though it’s all formality, a part of you deep down knows exactly WHY she was chosen.

“Um.. w.. well he said that the station was in need of a team player.. you know… someone he could trust…”

Of course, he wants his own mole in the department, someone who’ll be his eyes and ears, first the mob and now the mayor, the eyes are everywhere.

“Very well… it says here that you have some experience in leading but it didn’t end so well… wanna tell me a bit more about that..?” She visibly sinks into her chair, as though knowing she’s bombing the interview.

“W.. well… I… I wasn’t quite ready for command back then.. I.. decided to rely on my subordinates experience and…” she’s not able to finish her sentence, the thought along too much for her to bear.

“I see.. well if your going to be leading the department in my stead, I expect you to pay attention, my people are experienced but in the heat of the moment they tend to make mistakes on their own, mistakes that might get themselves or others killed”

“I know the day is drawing to a close but I want you to be my shadow for the rest of the day, understood..? Watch what I do”

“Yes ma’m! Understood!” She says, jolting in her seat at the sound of you giving her a chance, in truth, you don’t have the luxury of turning her away, she’s the mayors spy and if you don’t play the game you’ll get kicked from the table.

She seems like a good kid, maybe one day she might make a good chief too, knowing the mayor, he’ll likely fast track her to your position once you’re out of the picture.

You proceed to go over paper work, telling her how to file reports on incidents both on and off the field, furthermore you make sure she’ll know everyone on night duty.

Once upon a time they answered to Resolute, as such each of them is on your list of potential rats.

You decide to keep that part to yourself, after all, for all you know, she’s a rat too, well, more of one then you thought anyway.

Finally, halfway through you quizzing her on the proper protocol when dealing with a psychic, a call comes in.

At an intersection near the center of the industrial district, an unknown group of 20 individuals coordinated a planned attack.

First a group of 10 stumbled into the street, gibbering and stumbling, dumping garbage cans into the streets and spreading refuse across the area, stopping commuters from progressing.

Just when they thought to back out the way they can, a second group arrived, driving in a fleet of presumably stollen garbage trucks, blocking the way out.

With nowhere else to turn the commuters are effectively held hostage as they cower in the perceived safety of their vehicles.

Be it your years of experience on the **** or an aspect of your precognition breaking through to your waking life, you know that one hero alone can’t get this job done, these calls are costly but with any luck they’ll be few and far between.

Certain members of the department have built up natural chemistry with others, and others may foster rivalries with each other and as such, refuse to work together.

Falchion/Kicks: The most obvious choice, they’ve by far the strongest relationship across the board but that strength also has its drawbacks, if one of them drops, the other may behave erratically.

Fortune/Kricket: It seems Kricket is the only one on staff that can stand Fortune, which you reckon can be chalked up to Krickets go getter attitude.

Falchion/Rook: They don’t have much in common, but they’re both warriors, they’ve both seen their share of calls gone wrong and know how to fight, don’t expect a peaceful outcome.