Heroes Legion: "Year One": Episode 15: The Return of the Made-Men

Chapter 5: Hardcastle's Folly

HMS Damocles, currently in the skies above Rikers Island: February 25th, 2014: 11:18 AM

From the Command Operations room of the HMS Damocles, Acting Commander Martha Hardcastle was busy overseeing the capture of the Heroes Legion via the Damocles video feed link into the "Special Cases" wings recently restored security camera System.

She watched as on the screen the "Vigilantes of New York" were caught like rats in a trap by the prison's security system that was designed to prevent any unauthorised metahuman excursions within the prison.

A system she had had activated to use on them, and it appeared that it had worked successfully.

She was now more than glad that the TechNet boys had managed to fix the prison security within such a short time after it had been taken down, it would deal with these rogue Metahumans swiftly.

Once the gas had rendered them unconscious, she would send down a squadron of her best men to place each and every one of them in a cell for violating her orders.

She had told them that she didn't want them anywhere near the investigation into what happened at the prison or the hunt for the escaped prisoners roaming the city.

This was not their business, it was hers...it was S.L.E.E.T's business, they had no right to interfere in it with their freakish powers and their dangerous vigilantism.

Marcus Masters...or whatever it was he called himself now, may have gotten used to getting everything he wanted and doing whatever he wanted while under General Arcane.

But as long as she was acting commander, that all stopped her.

He had in her opinion already caused enough damage by being given such freedom foolishly by Arcane.

No one else was going to be injured or killed by his folly or his actions now that she was in charge.

She wasn't the only one who thought this way, she thought back to the meeting she had had in Washington, with Senator Ennis regarding the responsibility she had been charged with.

She couldn't really say she liked the man, he made her skin crawl more than any politician ever did. But they both had one thing in common, they two of them had no love for Marcus Masters and what his mad science had unleashed onto an unprepared world two years ago. So she gave the man some slack.

He had greeted her warmly, "Ah, Sgt Hardcastle. Welcome. Please, have a seat."

"The secretary of defense told me that you wished to see me about something sir" Sgt. Hardcastle said as she sat down on a chair in front of his desk, "He said it had something to do with my being elected to take temporary command of S.L.E.E.T operations in New York until Arcane awakens."

"Well mostly I just wanted to congratulate you miss Hardcastle" Senator Ennis, "Your top end in your teams, loyal to a fault and don't question authority. In other words, you're a level headed world weary bad-ass woman. The perfect choice to replace Arcane while he is...ahem, indisposed."

"That's what I want to know. You were the largest advocate and voice in the discussion on the push to make me acting commander of S.L.E.E.T as quickly as possible before the organization began to descend into discord. What I want to know is why you wanted me, there were other eligible S.L.E.E.T personal who could have taken this post."

"Those people are what we call "Arcane loyalists". They respect him more than Uncle Sam. They would try and run S.L.E.E.T the way they would figure Arcane would have run things. We don't need that kind of thinking. We need level heads at this particular time of our history as a race. We need to work on the issues that are at hand. The threats to our livelihoods."