The Protagonist System

202 The Day After

I did not appreciate being bent over my mother's lap, having my pyjama bottoms pulled down, and spanked for being a bad boy... even if I totally had been. She did not appreciate how I had gallivanted around the world to handle as many of the existential threats that I could or how much danger I had put myself in.

What she did like was that I had gotten away with almost all of it and no one knew it had been me that did it all. It was only the last two events that I had let be known, just because Dragon was a benefit for the entire world and Heartbreaker was a detriment, which was why I had saved him for last. I needed that last good act of saving all of his victims to make the whole thing worth it.

My mother gave my sore bottom a caress, as if apologizing for giving me a just punishment, then she pulled my pyjama pants up and turned me around to cuddle me. She cooed at me about how proud she was of me, how scared she would have been if I hadn't forced her to sleep through it all, and how happy she was that I made it back home to her, safe and sound.

I had to admit that I kind of wallowed in the feeling, even after being disciplined. It was kind of fitting, considering the situation. Who else but my mother could keep me from doing something else as stupid as what I did last night?

I had the thought to call someone important and I reached for it, making me chuckle. I kissed her cheek and hopped up off of her lap and went to the wall phone. “Hello! I didn't think I could get a hold of you so quickly.” “Uh huh, I told her.” “What happened?” “I'm sorry to hear that.” “No, that's not a problem. We're not busy right now.” “Sure, we can meet you there.” “All right, see you soon.”

“Who was that?” My mom asked.

“Miss Militia. She said they set some time aside for you to be assessed for volunteer work with Panacea.” I said.

“Oh! That's great!” My mother said and stood. “I'll grab my keys and we can be at the PRT building in about half an hour.”

I shook my head at her. “There was a cape fight at the HQ and they've moved their testing facilities to the Rig.”

My mother's eyes widened. “We're going to visit the Rig? The Protectorate Headquarters?”

“Yes, we are.” I said.

“I need to change!” My mom squealed and ran off and up the stairs.

I stood there and waited for her to remember we were going there as capes and not civilians. A minute later, my mother slowly tromped back down the stairs with her arms crossed under her chest and a huge pout on her face.

“What have we learned?” I asked in as authoritative voice as I could.

“Don't be condescending to your mother or you'll get another spanking.” Mom grumpily said.

I opened my mouth to try and argue against that, and I had nothing.

“Just make my costume and we can go.” Mom said.

I walked over to her and put a hand on her shoulder and transfigured her t-shirt and jogging pants into a copy of my own costume, with a little skirt added for modesty, a mix of gold and red accents, and the symbol on her chest was a caduceus medical symbol, which was a winged staff with two coiled snakes wrapped around it, down through the center of a golden crown.

I took a full length mirror out of inventory and my mother gasped and stared at herself, then she did a little twirl and giggled like Vicky. A second later, I had an armful of happy mom and she babbled about how much she loved it and I needed to change and she let me go. She watched as I equipped my costume and she nodded and took my hand.

We left the house and locked the door, then we flew up into the sky. My mother whooped and did a barrel roll while still holding onto my hand, and she laughed and laughed as I pretended to flail around like a deflated balloon and was dragged along as she flew.

We flew over to the Rig and mom landed with grace and poise. I dropped to the helipad and pretended to kiss it and thanked god for being back on solid ground. Miss Militia barked a laugh before she could stop herself, which was why I did it, and I stood up like nothing had happened.

My mom slapped my arm and kept laughing as we entered the Rig and went down a few floors to the power testing area. My mother's eyes lit up when she saw the elaborate setup waiting for her to test herself and she was almost vibrating as she waited for the scientists to give her permission to start.

The word was barely started and she was off like a flash and pounded her fist into the first apparatus to test that, then she was doing 50 arm curls with two weights instead of one, then used the double arm bar and easily bench-pressed the 2 ton weights attached to the thing.

She jumped onto the treadmill next and after a minute, it started to smoke and she hopped off, then she ran over to the obstacle course and went through it like an expert, even though she had never seen it before and wasn't sure how to do a few of the things. She was also constantly asking questions and the group of scientists were having a very difficult time keeping up with her.

“She really is a combination of Panacea and Glory Girl.” Miss Militia whispered and I nodded.

My mom skidded to a stop in front of a makeshift field hospital area where a bunch of PRT troopers with various ailments were on stretchers. “GREG! What was it Amy said to ask before touching people?”

I tried to not sigh at her forgetting that. “I'm Atlas when in costume, Nostrum.” I said and she shrugged. “She said to ask them for permission to heal them. If they refuse, step back and move on to the next person. If they try to grab you at any point, punch them hard enough to knock them out and you can fix up the damage later.”

That made everyone's eyes widen and one of the troopers looked nervous.

“Why would you tell her that?” Miss Militia asked as her hand went to the radio on her hip and she tapped the attention signal twice.

“Unlike Amy, who has a lot of experience dealing with angry and belligerent patients, my mom is an adorable office worker that's never interacted with the public, besides shopping.” I explained and Miss Militia looked like she understood the reasoning. She probably wouldn't agree with the practice, though.

My mom handled everyone easily, even the ones with missing limbs, and she reached the nervous guy. Thankfully, he didn't try anything and mom moved on and did the last three patients. She was kind of vibrating as she waited for the doctors and technicians to check over her patients. In fact, she looked a little jacked up on something while she anticipated the results.

“Atlas, you should go give your mother a hug or something.” Miss Militia whispered to me.

I nodded and quickly strode over to her where she was waiting and she grabbed onto me and held on for dear life. It was then I realized she was suffering from a mix of anticipation and dread, so I held her and whispered that no matter what they said, she would always be her little man's hero. That was a bit too much for her fragile heart and she burst out crying.

Thankfully, I was between her and the examiners and patients, so none of them saw her breaking down and it wouldn't be added to her assessment. I managed to calm her down and cleaned her up before the official determination was reached, so she looked mostly normal as I stepped out of the way and they gave her the good news.

Nostrum had been officially approved for volunteer healing work and the PRT and Protectorate wanted her to be an emergency contact like Panacea was, with the local branches as the main priority. Miss Militia looked happy as my mother agreed to go to the temporary PRT HQ to sign the paperwork for her volunteer license and as an emergency contact.

My mother gushed about how fun it was to do all of that and then smacked me a few times to get me to do it, too. I rolled my eyes at her and agreed, so they had to reset everything. I had to warn them to triple everything if they wanted an accurate gauge of my abilities and they agreed.

Unlike my mother, I calmly went to each station and performed the set action and they recorded everything without any trouble while trying to keep up with me. I did the arm curls with single fingers, the bench press with a single hand, the treadmill broke after ten seconds, and the obstacle course was laughably simple after watching my mother go through it.

My mother had 5s across her threat ratings and I had 9s. The thing is, I really downplayed everything and didn't show off. If they knew what I could really do, I'd have been sentenced to the Birdcage... not that they could do that anymore. I made sure of that.

We climbed into the SUV I helped repair and drove off of the Rig towards Brockton Bay to the temporary PRT HQ for mom to sign the paperwork, including the form for her cape name. I had a huge smile on my face and my mother chatted happily with Miss Militia, then she remembered the little get-together Miss Militia and I had after the name registration.

It was Miss Militia's turn to be interrogated about every little detail and she looked both embarrassed and amused by how relentless my mother was to find out everything. A few jokes about bringing her in for reluctant suspects had them both laughing and sharing stories about other times they had to interrogate bad little boys.

It was almost a relief when we reached the temporary PRT HQ and we had to do official things again. My mom took it all in as if it was an adventure and she had a great time taking the 50 cent tour and talked Miss Militia's ear off the entire time. Surprisingly, Miss Militia seemed to enjoy it and kept the conversation going, even as mom filled out the forms.

The three of us had just agreed to have a meal together when an alarm went off. It wasn't one I recognized and Miss Militia said it was an all PRT capes respond signal. Since we had nothing else to do, we followed her at a jog to where the meeting was taking place in a large conference room.

It was practically filled with other capes and I could have named them all if I wanted to, both officially and their civilian identities. Now wasn't the time to show off, though. The door opened again and a slightly overweight woman in a PRT uniform entered the room with a tall and thin man beside her.

They both walked to the front of the room and the tall man stood at her side as the woman sat at the table with a small grunt of pain. My mother gave me a pointed look and I shook my head, because I knew the director of the PRT would refuse her offer. The television screen on the wall turned on and showed a split screen with Armsmaster and Dragon.

“For those of you that don't know who we are, I am Director Piggot and this is Deputy Director Renick. We've received dozens of calls of the Empire Eighty Eight flooding the streets and rioting. No reason has been given; but, we fully expect their capes to make an appearance at the larger gatherings on the west side in their main territory and at the border between there and the ABB.”

The two faces on the screen shrunk and behind them was a map of the city that highlighted the worst areas.

“We brought Dragon in to help coordinate and you'll be split up into three teams. One for offense, one for defense, and one for a quick response reserve to help either team when necessary and for patrols to clean up the outer areas, here, here, and here.” Emily Piggot said and those spots highlighted as well. “Any questions?”

I put up my hand and a few of the other capes softly laughed.

“This isn't a school Atlas, speak up.” Emily said, her lips twitching as if to smile.

“I'm good for both offense and defense, so assign me wherever you need a heavy hitter or heavy defender. My mother has only just passed her certification for healing, so she would be best served to be assigned to the mobile reserve and she can handle any injuries on an as-needed basis, cape or civilian.”

More than a few people looked surprised, Emily included.

“She's a support cape and a morale booster, rather than a frontline attacker.” I clarified and my mother nodded. “Just in case it wasn't clear, we're volunteering to help.”

“We appreciate any help we can get.” Emily said and looked at Miss Militia. “I assume you have her assessment with you?”

Miss Militia walked over to her and handed her a single sheet. “I sent it electronically as well.”

Emily nodded and read it quickly, then held it up to the television. The map on the screen was replaced by my mother's assessment sheet and a few of the capes whistled, with one guy commenting on how great it was to have access to a combat healer during emergencies.

My mother blushed and looked embarrassed at the attention and proud to be able to help.

“Then Nostrum will be assigned with Group C and Atlas will be assigned with Group B.” Emily said and the sheet was replaced with three lists. The main attackers were Miss Militia, Armsmaster, Assault, and Battery, or Group A. Group B was Dauntless, Triumph, Aegis, Kid Win, Clockblocker, and myself. Group C was Velocity, my mother, Vista, Gallant, and Hebert.

That last name surprised me and I decided to not ask about it and I turned my head to look at everyone's faces. I couldn't see Taylor's telltale hair anywhere and wondered where she was if she was on the list, then we were dismissed and told to report to the team captains, or to the first names on those lists.

My mother walked over to Velocity and he welcomed her with a handshake and introduced her to Vista and Gallant. There was no one else there, so I had to assume Taylor was either hiding or hadn't arrived yet.

I walked over to Dauntless and he greeted me in the same manner as Velocity and introduced me around. I avoided touching Clockblocker and he looked disappointed. It was tempting to fix his power, except I didn't want to lose the large amount of Karma Points I had. Rescuing all those people that had been subverted by Heartbreaker had been a huge Karma boost and I needed to keep those points.

We were assigned a transport vehicle and were sent out to where the defenses had been set up to stop any overflow of the riots into the other areas of the city. I figured it was going to be a bit boring, with the attacking force taking up the most attention, and I settled in to relax and talked with the Wards about their experiences.

My prediction was right and we didn't see a lot of action. A few stragglers and one fire was all we had to deal with. In fact, my mother had to deal with more incidents than I had, even though she was only supposed to heal. She was all excited about it when our teams met up, so I didn't let her see how concerned I was about her being out there and fighting with no experience.

Just as the order came from HQ to pack up and head back, Glory Girl flew into view and looked angry. Before I could do more than say I didn't get to fight at all, she had tackled me and kissed me right there in front of her ex-boyfriend.

“Why didn't you call me and tell me there was an all capes alert about E88 rioters?” Vicky asked me. “You know how much I love punching Nazis!”

I sighed and looked at my mother, whom was pointedly not looking at us. “We just happened to be in the PRT's temporary HQ signing mom's certification when it came in. We volunteered to help and I was assigned as backup, which you would have chaffed under.”

Vicky glared at me for a moment and then softly laughed. “That's true. Being here and still not being able to punch Nazis would suck so bad.”

“I also wasn't sure I was allowed to call in anyone else without the director's approval.” I said and Dauntless nodded as he waved us into the transport.

Vicky climbed in as well, sat on my lap, and her claim of there not being enough room for her otherwise, was not believed at all. She didn't care and made me tell her all about what happened on my first deployment with other capes and it didn't take long.

We arrived at the PRT HQ and we all filed back into the conference room and gave verbal reports on what we experienced and what we did. I saw a few surprised faces as both myself and my mother gave comprehensive and exact information and we didn't exaggerate our roles. Unlike a normal cape, we didn't have to try and make ourselves seem more important.

That wasn't the point of being a hero anyway. We where there to help people and that was all, which was why I managed to slip a healing potion into Emily Piggot's coffee. Just like with All Might, it was slow acting and wouldn't heal her immediately, just so she couldn't point at anyone and accuse them of healing her without her permission. She was just as finicky as All Might about accepting help.