Part Sixteen

Unfortunately, the city decided that the best way to introduce Lady Green to the public was to have Vic not only present at the official welcoming ceremony, but to have her formally "hand over" protection of the city to the new hire. Vic and Drake both tried to get her out of this, but Brade reluctantly told them they had to participate.

"Aren't federal employees supposed to avoid endorsing local governments?" said Vic, on the conference call in Drake's office.

"Not for things like this," said Brade. "In fact, we're supposed to show support for local and state law enforcement. Partly because we depend on them more than most federal law enforcement agencies."

She went on to inform them that besides that obligation she, personally, and the agency as a whole were under political pressure to participate.

On the appointed day Vic rode with her boss to city hall, where Drake showed his invitation and was directed to a parking space. This part of the event seemed to be well organized. Trails of multiple signs directed participants to where they needed to go, with several live humans waiting to help. However, once Vic and Drake were in the auditorium Vic got the definite impression the whole affair was rushed. For a while there was even doubt Vic would be allowed on stage during the press conference.

"Who are you, again?" said the stage manager, scowling.

"Vic Peltior. I was invited - to put it politely - to give a short speech welcoming Lady Green."

"Well, you'll have to take off that armor."

"Uh, no. I didn't bring anything else to change into."

"Well, that was just very unprofessional on your part!"

"I wasn't given any instruction on how to dress," said Vic, defensively, "so I just wore my working clothes. Therefore, this is professional of me. This is how most police and members of the public know me, after all."

"Well, that is not my fault!" said the stage manager, haughtily. "If that's all you have to wear, you might as well not appear at all."

That actually suits me just fine, thought Vic.

This ultimatum was quickly escalated up the chain of command and then back down. Eventually, the head of the event confirmed over the radios those working it all carried that Vic was not to appear on stage. He actually seemed to take the information about how she was dressed as a personal insult, and made clear his opinion she had dressed that way specifically to spoil things and make him look bad.

"Well, looks like we might as well leave," said Vic, to Drake, as she came back stage. She managed not to smile.

"Lucky gal," said Drake, after Vic explained. "I still have to make a speech. You can go ahead and wait in my car, if you want to."

Vic had already left the auditorium when someone from the Mayor's office got involved.

"Agent Peltior's armor is how she is recognized!" said the Assistant for Public Relations.

"Exactly!" said the stage manager, taking this as approval of his decision. "Since that is inappropriate dress for this event, she might as well not appear!"

Soon the representative from the Mayor's office was joined by several others, including the actual Chief of Police. They started shouting at the stage manager, then the head manager of the press conference. Those worthies needed a while to realize what all the noise was about, since they had already made up their minds and thought the decision had been approved by the people who were now telling them they were wrong! By the time the event organizers were convinced that Vic had to appear and had to be in her armor - Helmet on! - Vic was almost out the door, prepared and even eager to leave.

She was headed off by one of the flunkies for the head of the conference.

"Where are you going?!" she cried, sounding panicked.

Vic had planned to just sit in Drake's car until he was ready to leave, since they had ridden here together. He had even given her the keys to it. Her helmet had plenty of entertainment potential, including books Vic hadn't read. She wasn't going to tell this gal that, though.

"The stage manager and the head of the conference both told me to leave."

"No, no, no!" the woman cried, becoming borderline hysterical. "You misunderstood! You have to be there, right now, to get your light and sound balanced!"

"Whatever that means," Vic muttered.

She reluctantly allowed herself to be hurried back to the stage by the aide. The TV crews and photographers were all waiting for Vic stand front and center at the podium so they could make certain their equipment was adjusted to handle her light-colored, pearly armor. They made it clear that it was entirely Vic's fault for that work not already being completed.

Helmet on, Vic was required to stand on one spot while the TV news crews and photographers frantically tried to get their illuminations and camera settings adjusted to create a useable image of Vic's iridescent outfit. Which she realized may have been the source of the original objection to her wearing it.

I'm really starting to envy the masks who maintain a secret identity, she thought, sourly, as she stood still, practicing her meditation breathing. They usually don't have to deal with all this nonsense!

"Do you have to wear that?" one of the TV cameramen finally asked, straightening momentarily from his equipment to glare at Vic, and speaking in a tone which strongly implied she had worn her armor specifically to make his job harder.

"Yes!" shouted several people from around the stage, before Vic could answer.

Eventually the camera operators were satisfied, if not happy. Then the sound crew asked Vic to speak into the microphone. That she was able to do this with her helmet on and faceplate closed confused and even angered them further. Eventually they figured out how to compensate for the effects of the PA system in the helmet. Vic was then finally free to wander backstage. Warned by previous experience with public events, she sought and found a women's restroom and made sure her bladder was empty. At the associated water fountain she ensured that she was also reasonably hydrated. Finally, the conference began.

Vic's part came early, right after Drake's. She waited for her cue, then stood, went smartly - almost marched - to the podium and gave her short speech. That done, she sat back down and zoned out. She did get a few bits and pieces of what the Mayor, Chief of Police and few others said, and actually paid attention to most of Lady Green's speech. That mostly due to a motivation of self defense. Vic couldn't help but notice that the woman's costume was considerably toned down from the one-piece, high-cut swimsuit sort of thing she usually wore, but was still all in shades of green. Including her mask and ballet-style slippers.

The ceremony went fairly well, despite the dichotomy between Vic's noncommittal speech politely welcoming Lady Green to Detroit and expressing (false) enthusiasm for her expected crime fighting efforts; and the speeches of those who followed, including Lady Green herself, about how she was here to "replace" Vic. As if the federal agent were actually some incompetent city employee being forced to resign.

After the ceremony was over, Vic and Drake headed for the latter's government issue car. Vic noted wryly that for supposedly important, invited guests they had been directed to a parking space well away from the event's location. However, the martial artist was intercepted by Detroit's new Metropolitan Hero in the parking lot. Lady Green flew ahead then dropped down into Vic's path, obviously blocking the way. She was smirking, which Vic figured was not a good thing, at least here and now.

"So, how does it feel to be out of a job?"

"I'm not out of a job. I'm still employed by the Bureau of Special Resources."

Vic had stopped to talk to Lady Green out of sheer politeness. She noticed that Drake was moving closer.

For some reason, Vic's answer seemed to infuriate the other woman.

"You can't just pretend you don't care!"

"About what?" said Vic, genuinely puzzled. "Look, I've never worked for the city of Detroit. I'm a federal employee, have been for a few years, now. Any benefit I've done for this city was a side effect of my job with the feds."

"Like they'd have someone like you on their payroll!"

"Now what are you screaming about?"

"I'm not screaming!" Lady Green yelled. "The current administration would not have a woman married to another woman on the payroll! Especially someone pretending to be a woman!"

"The federal hiring guidelines say otherwise," said Drake, startling her. "In fact, it's illegal to discriminate against someone due to sexual orientation or gender."

"She is not a woman!" Lady Green shouted, jerking her head back and forth between the two feds. She finally decided to concentrate on Vic. "That's my point! Doesn't matter what some federal bureaucrat says! You aren't!"

"What about what my gynecologist says?"

"It doesn't matter who you've fooled! You aren't fooling me!"

"I have breasts," said Vic, angrily. "I have a vagina, and a womb and two X chromosomes!"

"None of that matters! You weren't born a woman so you can't be one!"

"You weren't born a woman, either," Vic pointed out.

"How dare you!" Lady Green screamed. "You won't get away with such lies!"

Vic noted that the Mayor was hurrying towards the scene, complete with his security entourage. He looked irritated as he approached the two supers.

"I mean you were born a baby, then were a girl, then..."

"The fact that you resort to semantics and sophistry means you admit you have lost the debate!"

"I did no such thing!" said Vic, angrily. "For one thing, we're not having a debate. You're shouting and screaming and I'm just pointing out your errors."

This confrontation might have continued indefinitely, except that Special Agent in Charge Drake took Vic's arm and the Mayor took Lady Green's.

"The two of you are attracting the wrong kind of attention," Drake muttered, as he led Vic away. "You're not going to convince her of anything, and the press was starting to notice. Let's not have more of a scene than there already is."

"Yes, sir," said Vic, in a subdued tone.

* * *

The Detroit Bureau office's next Monday morning briefing was mostly about what wasn't happening. For example, getting the city to pursue warrants to have all the former members of the fetish club dosed with Psianninul against their wills was a non-starter. In fact, the city would not even release the names of the other club members to any of the federal law enforcement agencies. Multiple sets of attorneys were working for and against such a revelation. So far, the result was a stalemate.

"Even though Dare - well, one of them - killed several people?" said Vic, when Drake broke the news at the Monday morning briefing. "Including some cops?"

"They have no hard evidence of either of the women currently in custody on suspicion of being Dare was involved with that," said Drake, sourly. He sighed, and looked tired. "Or that any of the members of the fetish club who remain free were involved, either. Seriously, even if we right now stopped Dare from ever appearing again, straightening out who did what might take years. If it were ever straightened out."

"Especially since neither of those women has changed into Dare again," said Vic, nodding. "Their attorneys are saying that because Dare has made appearances since their arrests, those women aren't actually involved with her at all!"

"We may have to wait for Dare to appear again long enough for you to subdue her. Over and over," said Drake, with a scowl. "The city won't do anything proactive in this case, but they keep calling on us to solve the problem when Dare appears. Then they arrest the person who has appeared as Dare, and just hold them. The city refuses to dose these 'Dares' with Psianninul, because 'it's too dangerous.'"

Their boss rarely expressed his thoughts like this, at least in these meetings. The fact that he was doing so now was taken as by his staff as a measure of just how frustrated he was.

"On a more positive note, the Bureau has several powers experts on retainer, who have been consulted about this case. Several of them are coming to Detroit to examine the two captured Dares. They have also agreed to stay in the city for a few days in case another one is captured. We hope they'll be able to figure out what's going on."

"Since she's a super causing problems, don't we have priority?" said Cindy.

"Yes, actually," Drake, nodding. "Since the city government has openly complained to the Bureau about Dare and asked for our help, and provably rejected the best available methodology for dealing with her - or them - from now on when we - meaning Vic - catches a Dare she will be put into federal custody. I've been speaking with the local FBI office about that, and even about having the first two moved into federal custody. We'll use neutralizers to hold any Dare we catch. If the experts are right, we might not even have to dose all of them with the drug. Just most of them. Even putting most of them under neutralizers might be enough to break the connection.

"Now, I have a little more information on Lady Green," said Drake, after turning to another page of his notes. "Turns out she applied for a job with the Bureau, but that was right before the big budget cut after the war."

"Then I was hired a couple of years after that," said Vic, nodding. She winced. "After they paid for most of my college education. So there might be some job-related resentment involved. Even though the Bureau was grooming me before the war."

"She also seems to be a TERF," said Drake.

"That's not really a surprise," said Vic, with a sigh. "Well, it's a bit of a surprise that it's general, and not limited to me."

"Yeah, sorry, thought you knew," said Cal. "She's on record railing against people who 'pretend to be what they aren't.' Especially those who use powers to 'cheat.'"