XPOL Oversight Committee Office, March 5th
After listening to Ella's defence, one of the committee members responded by saying, "Witness statements and CCTV footage from the tattoo parlour suggest that you had already incapacitated the culprit. From what we can tell, the worst thing he did to you was push you over and say angry things, so you'll forgive us for not believing you when you claim he was endangering you. As for the tattooed people, they may have assaulted you, but we cannot be sure of this."
Another then stated, "Casualties could have been avoided through the use of non-lethal stun weaponry, like the weapon you used. This sort of equipment is issued to law enforcement officers like yourself, but the EDs had no such tools. So, you could have informed the police, or XPOL, of the lead pointing to the tattooist, and let others handle it. Instead, you went yourself, and brought EDs with you, and thus endangered the civilian populace by bringing potential unknown threats, and civilian EDs, into a volatile situation."
The first then continued, "We will take into consideration the input that the EDs had in the investigative process, however. It is true that without there help in the investigation, the situation could've ended much worse. But that doesn't change the recklessness and irresponsibility of you bringing them to that tattoo parlour."
After shuffling some files around, a third committee member said, "As for Dalahar, we simply doubt your ability to effectively deal with him. Four times now he has been involved in conflicts in this world, and each time he has been responsible for a large amount of collateral damage, not just from his 'demonic' form but from his weaponry. If you think you can handle his case, then keep him out of fights for... well, a single day would be an improvement. If you can do that, you can stay on his case."
