Monday
12:31
Claremont SDN Offices,
Claremont, Los Angeles, California
The End of the Morning at SDN Claremont
Soundtrack: Swales - Higher (Call My Name)The morning shift went as well as it could have. The team had gone out and solved plenty of relatively low level crimes, Lightening Girl kept away from the other heroes for now, but finishing all of her dispatches successfully.
From peeling a cat out of a tree to stopping kids graffiting outside a big box store, it had been quiet, but all had worked out in the end. Service with a smile. Like home, but somehow, less....manic. Less gritty. All sunny, in the big, bright, 28C day. Eclipse and Payback seemed to be hitting the ground running once more, taking on a variety of dispatches successfully, killing the time to of course, the clock hitting 12:30.
Lunch time!
On that note, Lightning Girl made her way back to the office, right on time, her earpod in, even a flying hero wanting something to take her mind off the time it took to travel the distance about a quarter of the speed of sound. She needed to recharge, clearly. She wasn't as fast as she could go normally. Lately she hadn't taken a truly biblical charge on.
With a soft drop onto the smoking balcony, she was back inside and already throwing the kettle on, a device most Americans would likely be shocked by, And leaning by a countertop, the yawn came big, Eclipse and Payback making back in with time, the caped heroine forcing more tea down her gullet as the kettle went click.
"Anyone else for tea?" She asked, polite, but half hoping they'd say no. Her supply was low. It was just a English-like polite for the sake of it, almost. She had to get friendly with the team. And with things going well so far, best she made sure not to repeat what she had to others in hospital...
She'd still serve anyway. And with her fingers attached to a bare wire, she was slowly, surely, on "charge".
So far, so good.
Until Riley got up and for some reason, didn't return.
Not that she knew that.
It was a bit odd Riley had vanished. Nothing said. Something personal? Must have been. But as James finished up his brew, the buzz from his phone came through with a Slack message, not even aware that Riley had gone.
Just about the worst he wanted to imagine.
Overtime.
No sooner had James peeked over the cubicle, Kat was already there, filling the space where Riley might have sat by leaning against his chair.
"James, you seen my message?" The Director's words were driven in authority, her voice more anxious than ever before. She might have been former special forces, an extremely experienced hero, but with James, she was short on the leash. Especially when she wanted something.
"No?" James tried to make more words, as Kat beat him to it. She wasn't messing around. Even by her nature, she was keeping sentences short, which meant, something serious had gone down.
"I'm gonna need you for a few more hours. It's a mess....."
"What is going on?" James asked, finally interrupting, as Kat sighed.
"You really don't want to know. Other branches need rosters from our end, urgently. Nothing I can tell you about, but internally, it's crazy. Including dispatchers. Can you cover for Riley and hold the fort until we figure out what the hell is going on?" Kat asked, the request not an option, James realised. It was a long term, if Riley didn't come back. He hoped he did. Dispatching was a pain in the ass. And absolutely not what he had signed up to here.
But then again, a consultant did, what a consultant was told, when he was getting paid by the hour. And when someone was desperate? Oh, there was a very sweet paycheck then.
"If you need me to. I'll write a PO. What about the rest, logins, accounts, the rest? I don't have credentials to the Dispatch system, but I know what I'm doing, did some in Baltimore. You fine with that?" James was quick to cut to money. Remembering at least he could name a price. Unlike a normal staff member.
"We'll forgive the protocol for now. We'll pay you for now and sort that all later. I'll talk to IT and get you an account tomorrow. Just run it on Riley's credentials for now, for now, I need all hands on deck." Kat asked, as James shrugged, looking at his tablet in hand still as she moved away, turning.
"Got it." James's reaction was short, as even he wasn't sure what the fuck he had agreed to. Only that Kat wasn't gonna accept no for an answer, as she walked backwards, replying.
"Good. We need to talk to the team and get them in. You got an idea of who you're managing?" Kat asked, as James nodded, conformingly.
"Sure, Eclipse, Solaris, Payback, Lightning Girl...yeah, usual suspects."
"Best we have right now. Let them know we need to talk this out. I'll meet you in the Meeting Room when you get them." Kat with that note, left as fast as she could, already accosted by HR, and then by the Finance team, with James unsure if she'd shapeshift into something that could do all eight at once. Would an octopus be able to multi-manage that many plates? He wasn't sure.
So it had been a blur. Barely five minutes had passed and James set up his work laptop with a Do Not Disturb adjacent to the ancient Lenart machine, and he took the headset. He wasn't an octopus. But he had to play like one to spin the plates that were going on.
It felt probably too fast. The A Team barely had a chance to digest the sandwiches or ramen bowls they'd brought in before they digested the news, with James sending the update via Riley's terminal, headset on.
"A-Team, this is James, need you all in the meeting room, now. Got a bit of a situation, bit of a change in plans today." The voice was not one they were used to. But with Riley gone for a while, both right now for the last 40 minutes, and now, for potentially a lot longer, it looked like his cubicle neighbour was picking up the slack.
Monday
13:10
Meeting Room
Claremont SDN
"So, we've had a problem. Our afternoon shift has had to be redeployed to SDN Pasadena. And your dispatcher has been reallocated for another task. Too complicated to explain, but, in a nutshell, we need you to work late." Kat addressed the team, looking to James, introducing him. "This is James Speight. Some of you may have worked with him, but he'll be your interim dispatcher. He knows SDN well. Treat him with respect, and he'll get you through this afternoon."
Lightning Girl smirked, cracking her knuckles, internally howling with laughter with the fact her brother was dispatching her. Like old times.
What the hell had come to make this happen?
"Sure. We getting paid extra, Kat?" She asked, knowing James would gut her for asking, but then again, she was the more experienced one in this branch. And she had to ask. The others certainly did not know James as well as Sophie did, so she didn't go in for the juglar of the question of - where the fuck was our dispatcher?
Kat had a reply to her question, anyhow.
"Standard rates of overtime." Kat chirped as Lightening Girl shrugged.
"I do have a thing on later, so come on, can't you...."
"Standard. Rates. And per contract, we ask you to adjust your hours to the needs of the business. We'll be fair. But need some help. Now." Kat reinforced, the presence of the Director enough to make Lightning Girl, and maybe the rest of the team, reconsider.
"Oh.....kay." Lightening Girl sank back into her seat, glaring to James, as Kat stepped aside.
"It's not what we wanted. And I appreciate we don't ask you to go the extra mile often. But tonight, we'd appreciate it. We'll sort out all the formalities later. If you have PTO, we'll find a way to make it work. And if you're looking for good payroll reviews, now would be a really good time if any of you want to show you're demonstrating above and beyond performance. So yeah, it is what it is. But plus side, you don't have to wake up early tomorrow and sit in traffic. That sound good?" James commented, rather formal, detached, until right at the end, where something of a person who dealt with heroes was beginning to spire out of corporate speak.
It was gonna be a long day. The team had questions to ask, but in that dusty meeting room, they could formulate a plan.
"This is it. Best we can do..." James said to himself, muttering a curse, as he adjusted the headset. Sitting at Riley's desk was weird, the seat height, fit of everything was all wrong.
The numbers on his list were poor. Four. Turns out when you had an entire shift get lost, well, you'd have to make do with what you had. He slurped down the rest of the tea, and realised the rest of his shift, he was going without.
Nobody was bringing him one. So a Fisherman's Friend was getting sucked on instead. Two at a time.
He was clunky in getting himself online with Riley's credentials (until Kat could get IT to work out the backend), but James managed to navigate the 90s, nay, early 00s grade software this was?
And the map loaded.
It was incredible how bad investment was into technology that was mission crtical. Like weighbridges, or the back end of tills in retail, everything ran on an operating software. But the map of Claremont, with the fringes of Pomona, La Verne and Montclair, showed the field in play. Coverage area, flanked by SDN West Puente, SDN Ontario, SDN San Bernadino and just beyond, SDN Pasadena.
The call centre cut through, and immediately, James was picking up the calls from the others in the office that were answering subscriber phones, and he was listening in, and immediately getting to allocating them on map, and then, assigning them.
"Okay, A-Team, appreciate the change in plan is a bit different. Keep the comms clear, and I'll get you through this. Sending co-ordinates, first batch of calls are screened and allocated. I hate this from a compliance standpoint more than you do. But let's focus on the overtime pay and keeping the subscribers happy."
James sat there, clattering away, mouse clicking, moving, shifting items.
"This is bullshit. I was going to actually go to the DTLA ball, go see how..." Lightning Girl commented, as James interrupted her sister, knowing this was absolutely fucking insane. She had some nerve to speak up, but then again, maybe there was something else going on. Not expecting this for sure, but James being in charge, well, that was stranger.
"Yeah, well, let's focus on the here and now. We'll stop at 4pm for a breather. Then keep going till 7pm, like we discussed. You won't needed early in the morning because the shift pattern's moved." James added, trying to make some sort of speech, but he was equally as pissed about it. "Oh, and Solaris, if your.....companion decides she wants to rear her head, remind her, she needs to get a pass if she wants to get in the building at the end of the night. I'm not dealing with security." He had to make that comment for posterity.
Then again, he was on an hourly rate. And the team likely knew that.
The full system activated, as Lightning Girl finished her cup of tea, sliding it across to where the other mugs were, and put rubber gloved hand to her combined GPS and comms device, putting the earpiece in, and coming online.
----
The map James had was flashing red with plenty of amber-level warnings, which were much better than the red or black he was expecting to come into.
"Okay, Solaris, I have reports of a drug bust going wrong, officers in need of assistance, multiple assailants. Pin sent. Non-lethal if you can, let's talk them down." James went through in sequence, logically, as best as he could remember doing this.
"Uhhh, Payback, I've got reports of some trouble at the AMOCA, someone trying to break in and steal some art. Need you on that one. It's all ceramics, so mind your magnets, would you?" Onto the next.
"Eclipse, I've got a school that's asking for us to cover a speech that Meta-Man was gonna be at. Can you go there? The elephant in the room was left. He looked out the window, the final job needing allocation.
"Lightning Girl, I've got a series of break ins in some student blocks, perp on site. Need you on it." First group. But if any more hit, this was about to be a manic afternoon. And a later night.
Another name popped up. Princess. Okay, that one wasn't expected. But, he'd take anyone he can get. He wasn't sure what she had heard, but from the break room shenanigans, and the fact she was....well, a shapeshifter like the Director was, always made him a little antsy. Terrifying, in a word.
"Princess, we've got a weird call down at the Metro station, something about an altercation? Can you bring them apart....ideally without getting them killed?And suddenly, one more. Shit, this team as getting staffed up! Okay, he had to thank the IT guy for this. Maybe today wasn't so fucked after all? Asteroid was a gravity controller. But this job was not exactly....ideal.
"Asteroid, I've got a report of an abandoned trailer left in front of the Packing House that the City Council wants us to investigate. Not sure what it is, but can you find a way to identify who dumped it there? Find some clues, figure out if there's anything in the waste that gives it away, and report in when you come back."And lastly, if he could...bring himself to count him.
"Madcap, I've got a request from the Sandy Hills Nursing Home to help an old lady get to the local supermarket and back. Could you help her?"One more? Go on then.
"Hat Trick, the Botanical Gardens are asking if we have anyone who's able to help manage some escaped Canadian Goose? I'd send Matthieu but.....I will take the other Canadian we get. Please don't kill them. Or you're doing our PR."
Monday
13:21
Break Room
Claremont SDN
The white-haired hero put the mug down, finishing her own tea as James got the assignments out. They weren't officially hitting the beat, until the calls came in, and they left to go sort them out. From the quiet, cryptic Payback with her magnetism occasionally stuttering the electricity in her fingers, Princess just looking....*terrifying* in her dress and tiara, from an entirely different time altogether, and Eclipse, sitting in shadow, Sophie wondered quite how this had played out.
And Sophie had to admit, a breaking and entering, well, that was relatively simple, at least, in principle right?
"Crikey. When it rains it pours. Have fun." Her words seemed short to Eclipse, Solaris and Payback relative to earlier. She got a move on, heading out of the balcony, and with it, catching flight. She had a different direction to go than the others.
"So, have we got any idea why things went so badly wrong? Like, they fighting a wildfire in Pasadena again? Floods? Giant kaiju? On the plus side......our timesheets are gonna look good, right?" She asked in the comms in half confidence, half covering empty noise to the team, the earpiece remarkably cutting out the audible hurling of windnoise, wondering what her new team-mates opinion was.
Antlers
PrinceAlexus
RisingRobin
Half Pint
cosmiccowgirl
Tae
Nightwing95
Zenku
MaeB
