[SLTS]—❈—12:: You're A Ward, Aiden

It’s Saturday, the 19th of March, and I’ll be meeting The Brockton Bay Wards for the first time today as an official member of their team.

“You don’t have to be nervous,” Mom says, watching me with some amusement as I fuss over my outfit in the mirror.

We’re still in the sweet hotel suite The PRT put us in after The Coil Incident.

Not for long though, as we’ll be leaving soon; tomorrow, in fact.

We will not be returning to our shitty apartment though… well, we will, but only to pack, since we’re moving to our new home.

That’s right. Part of the revised contract with The PRT was a good house in the nice part of town. And by ‘nice part of town’, I mean ‘the part of town where New Wave lives’.

It’s a beautiful house. Three rooms, two baths, a swimming pool, a garage, the works.

It’s even better than the house we lived in before Dad died.

The house isn’t the only new thing in our lives though; I’ll also be starting at Arcadia on Monday.

Mom (and I) had wondered if that wouldn’t be too soon. After all, everyone knew that Arcadia was the school The Wards attended; it would be hella sus for a new kid to show up mid-March, only for a new Ward to pop up a few days later.

Our worries had been assuaged though.

Apparently, they want me to start as soon as possible, because they don’t intend to announce me for at least the next month, because for the next month, I’ll be undergoing training.

Learning the Protectorate code of conduct, getting PR training, getting combat training, undergoing power testing, undergoing more power testing, and understanding even more power testing, seeing as The PRT only knows anything about two of my ten powers.

So, yeah, the docket is packed for the next month, and until I’m revealed to the world at large, I’ll essentially be The PRT’s dirty little secret, that will be called upon for healing and portaling every now and then.

Anyway, back to me being ‘nervous’ about meeting the rest of The Wards.

“I’m not nervous,” I say.

Mom gives me a look.

“Fine, I’m not that nervous,” I amend. “Besides, can you blame me?”

In the two weeks since I first met them, I’ve gotten one of them arrested and their agency investigated.

And yes, I’m aware that Shadow Psycho was insane, and the rest of the team is actually pretty thankful that I got rid of her, and yes, I’m also aware that they don’t hold the investigation against me, but even so…

That’s a lot of apple cart upsetting for someone who’s only just become a member of the agency.

How much longer until one of them sees me as a fussy diva throwing his weight around?

“I don’t blame you for being nervous, Aiden,” Mom says, coming to stand beside me in front of the mirror. “But you don’t have to be. It’ll be fine. Just meet them, be your usual charming self, and, by the end of the day, they’ll love you.”

Her brows furrow for a moment.

“Try not to smell them though,” she adds, “they might not like that, knowing what the power is.”

I roll my eyes.

Tell me something I don’t know.

During the investigation, almost everyone I’d helped interrogate, who knew (or even guessed) what my role was, had been wary of me.

Understanding, yes. But wary.

If I want to build actual bonds with my colleagues in The Wards (and The PRT entire), I absolutely cannot go around using my thinker power. Useful as it is.

Not on my teammates.

—❈—

“Hi, Musa,” Aegis says, shaking my hand. “Nice to meet you again.”

“Yeah,” Clockblocker adds, “welcome to The Wards, newly psycho free.”

Vista swats the boy’s arm from seven feet away.

“Didn’t hurt,” he says.

The introductions carry on for a minute, all of us sharing secret identities too, since I’m an official member now.

At the end of it, I say; “It really is nice to meet you guys again. I’m sorry about the whole interrogating you thing last time.”

“Nah, water under the bridge, man,” Clockblocker, or Dennis as I now know his name is, says. “Besides, that investigation got rid of Ms. Piggy, so as far as I’m concerned it’s a positive.”

“Dennis,” Aegis, or Carlos, warns.

“Oh, come on,” Dennis complains. “She’s retired and I still can’t call her that?”

“You shouldn’t call her that,” Dean says gently. I’ve quickly come to realize that that is how he does most things, gently.

“Ugh,” Dennis groans in exaggerated disgust, “you guys are so square. At least I have Aiden now, we can be anarchists together.”

“Great,” I say eagerly, “let’s blow up the building.”

My new teammates stop and stare at me.

I stare back calmly.

Chris cracks first, bursting into a snort, and like a wave, the mirth flows to reach everyone else.

“Oh, great,” Vista mutters with a put upon sigh that does nothing to mask her amusement, “there’s two of them now.”

“Maybe hold off on that until your second week,” Carlos says.

“Yeah, I can only imagine how pissed off Piggot would be if you—” Vista begins, then pauses right as everyone looks at her weirdly.

The girl’s eyes widen like she only now processed it. “Holy shit,” she says. “Piggy’s gone.”

“Yes, she is,” Dennis screams. “And it’s all thanks to the big bad wolf.”

He rushes to hug me, then lifts one of my arms into the air like I just won a championship belt.

“All hail the big bad wolf; he huffed and he puffed and he scared off the pig.”

“Hail!” Missy and Chris scream together. “Hail!”

You know, maybe Mom was right. I didn’t need to be nervous after all.

—❈——❈——❈—

Thanks for reading.

Sorry for the short chapter.