Busy. That's me. A busy thing as busy as a busy thing that's particularly busy. Due to business, you see.
Hence the lack of wording time recently. However, I have finally managed to extrude enough to make a chapter, so I will put it on this shelf and I expect it to be here when I return...
I'm watching you.
About a mile from Arcadia, Taylor noticed something interesting as she was idly looking around through
beneath. That being a face that was quite familiar from Calvert's documents, the ones Lisa had nearly fainted at seeing. She'd put them securely into storage, because her friend was right, the information in them was pretty explosive and very dangerous if it got out, and she'd
mostly resisted the urge to read it herself.
Mostly.
Not, though, where it concerned the E88… After having acquired Victor, she'd realized it was probably sensible to be able to recognize other Empire capes on sight, because grabbing
them would make everyone much safer. Even if she didn't yet have a good idea what to do with the idiots. So she'd spent a little while looking at the dossier Coil had made on the E88 and memorized the faces of everyone he had information on. Just in case. The Merchants were much lower priority as they tended to mostly lie around getting high, then annoy the E88 or the PRT, while everyone could recognize Lung on sight. Mask or not. It was a polite fiction at best, really. Few people would actually attempt to go after him because he was just that dangerous, even though he seemed to have dropped out of sight recently.
So, all that in mind, the woman she spotted walking down the street paralleling the one the bus was traveling on was someone she recognized immediately. "Huh," she said very quietly, causing Lisa, who had been reading one of the books she'd bought the other day, to look at her with an eyebrow up.
"What is… Oh. Are you sure?"
"Yeah."
"Where?" Taylor discreetly pointed and Lisa peered in the same direction.
"Just went into that bar on Gleason Street," Taylor said in a low voice.
"The one with all the Nazi shit on the walls?" Lisa replied, looking irritated.
"Yeah. I've heard about that place, it's… not exactly welcoming to minorities. Dad told me about it and said never to go anywhere within a couple of blocks of it."
"I wonder why?" her friend commented with a small smirk for a moment. Both of them watched the woman they knew was Cricket in her civilian guise walk through the low and smoke filled room, nodding to a few people as she passed and getting a couple of waves back, then open the door at the back of what could only be called a den of iniquity and pass through it. They ignored the bus slowing down to pick up someone else, keeping their attention fully on the villain they were observing from several hundred yards away.
Cricket entered what appeared to be an office, closing the door behind her, and went over to a large safe standing in the corner of the room. They had a look and both inhaled at the same moment, seeing it contained a fairly remarkable amount of cash in neat bundles. "Holy
shit, that's a lot of money," Lisa whispered.
"I wonder where they got it?" Taylor asked.
"Protection money," her friend replied after a moment, having clearly checked with her power and sounding confident. "That place is a cover for a protection racket the Empire is running in this area. She's the one who's in charge of it. I know I've heard that their top guy farms out a lot of this sort of thing to trusted subordinates." Neither one of them were going to use any names in public, even though they were at the back of the bus and it was loud enough no one was likely to hear them unless they were practically sitting in their laps.
Taylor glanced at Lisa, who met her eyes thoughtfully, then both turned as one to look back at the form of Cricket, who had opened the safe and pulled out a ledger of some sort and was carefully checking some entries in it. They watched as she checked off a few lines, made some notes on a pad, then nodded to herself and put the book back in the safe. Having done that she removed some of the bundles of cash and put them into a cloth bag she pulled out of her pocket. Once that was done she closed and locked the safe again.
They exchanged glances again. Lisa grinned evilly. Taylor nodded.
When they got off the bus as it pulled up to the front of Arcadia, the now-distant room had a noticeable absence of both Cricket
and the contents of the safe.
Taylor chuckled as they headed for the front door for their first day at Arcadia, waving at the ravens festooning the building and watching everyone with beady little eyes.
"Three.
Three Nazis," she commented in a very low voice.
"Ha, ha,
haa," Lisa responded just as quietly, with a grin splitting her face in half.
Several other arriving students peered dubiously at the pair as they leaned on each other giggling helplessly for a little while before entering the building.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Reading the notice that had come through the internal mail system from head office, Emily felt her eyebrows go up. When she reached the end of it, she massaged her temples and sighed heavily. "Fuck
me, some people are idiots," she muttered, shaking her head sadly. With a few quick actions she pulled up the PRT report dossier on Hellhound and began studying it with interest, since she was unfamiliar with the girl although she was aware of the name. The lack of good information stood out like a sore thumb before she was halfway through the first report, making her sigh again. Obviously no one had actually bothered to really
check the data before jumping to conclusions. And now look what the end result was; god knows how much damage caused by people with more enthusiasm than sense and by the looks of some of these after-action reports,
really bad trigger discipline… And a Parahuman who, if she wasn't hostile to the PRT to begin with, had a
very good reason to be so
now.
Not to mention a remarkably large number of civil actions for collateral issues, which looked like what would happen if Glory Girl actually lost
all her restraint. It was just
embarrassing.
Well, someone was going to find their career cut extremely and very abruptly short, that much was certain. Multiple someones in fact, across a fair number of organizations. She had little sympathy for them. If anyone deserved that, it was probably Lindt, and the other children who this entire scheme had victimized for years. Emily certainly didn't want children of her own, but she was also very much against people who abused them. Even if some of them were little bastards with warped senses of humor and a complete lack of respect for authority…
Making a mental note to glare at Clockblocker some more the next time she saw him, because he knew what he'd done, she read the rest of the documents, then moved onto the next item on her list. It was, as always, a list that never seemed to get any shorter.
Such
was the way life worked after all.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
"...opments over the weekend leading to the arrest late on Sunday of several PRT personnel, including a high ranking strike team supervisor in St Louis, Missouri. Also implicated in this case are a prominent state judge residing in West Plains, Missouri, as well as a number of other people from the same immediate area. Preliminary reports suggest a long running embezzlement scam resulting from an arrangement between local foster parents and the judge, with the aid of corrupt police, CPS and PRT staff. The FBI, who have taken full control of the ongoing investigation with the aid of PRT Internal Affairs, have not released details of their probe into the situation citing operational concerns and investigative security. We have been able to learn, however, through an anonymous witness who is not authorized to speak on the FBI's behalf, that the investigation has already uncovered serious irregularities in a number of PRT departments, as well as in at least one branch of the FBI itself."
"Listeners may be familiar with one name attached to this situation, that being of the Parahuman known as Hellhound, AKA Rachel Lindt. Nineteen months ago Lindt was involved in a fatal attack she was accused in absentia of carrying out via Parahuman powers. The PRT has attempted to apprehend her eleven times to date , failing every time amid massive collateral damage and considerable public and governmental ire, causing significant embarrassment to the organization due to their apparent inability to capture one sixteen year old girl. Their spokespeople have defended the PRT by claiming that Lindt is a powerful Master, highly skilled at evasion techniques, and extremely violent. However other sources have told us that the girl's powers are not in fact known for certain, that she is only violent if provoked, which appears to be borne out by the complete lack of any public interaction with her in the last six weeks since the PRT last tried to bring her in, and that most of, if not all of, the collateral damage was caused not by Lindt but by overenthusiastic actions of the PRT themselves."
"If true, this is yet another major embarrassment for the Parahuman Response Team, and we are told that questions are already being asked at both State and Federal level concerning the entire case. Our source revealed that the FBI has already decided that Lindt is likely innocent of the initial charges she stands accused of, exculpatory evidence from interrogation of the suspects along with other information acquired from a trustworthy source satisfying them that her involvement with the fatalities is circumstantial at best. The PRT apparently feels likewise and has circulated an internal memo that no branch attempt to apprehend Lindt if seen, although they would like to interview her as a witness rather than a suspect."
"The investigation is ongoing and by all accounts it is likely to take many weeks if not months to fully untangle the various aspects involved in what appears to be a breathtakingly broad case of corruption and abuse of power, with a significant cost in human lives attached. Our inquiries to both the FBI and the PRT to clarify the information revealed by our source have only received a brief note that neither organization is prepared to confirm or deny anything until the investigation was concluded, however long that takes. We can only hope that in the fullness of time those involved in such a betrayal of the public trust will be brought to justice, and all possible leads followed to root out any such actions wherever they may be found."
"It is our opinion that those entrusted with the powers granted by government, whether local, state, or federal, should be held to account whenever it is discovered they have misused them, no matter how highly placed they are. Events such as as these should not be allowed to slide under the radar for even days, never mind years as appears to be the case here."
"Next, in further national news this morning, chaos breaks out in Houston as Eidolon apparently accidentally blows up a taco restaurant during an argument. Over to our correspondent on scene…"
Danny turned the radio off with a small smile, shaking his head in respect. Erwin apparently worked fast…
He picked up his phone and composed a quick text message to his daughter, sent it, then stood up, placing the device in his pocket. He had a friend to thank, then a lot of work to get back to.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Lisa looked at Taylor when her phone beeped. Her friend pulled the thing out and tapped the screen a few times, reading the message there, before tilting it so Lisa could also read it. She did so at a glance, then nodded, smiling for a moment.
"Good news?" Vicky, who was standing watching them from the other side of the table, asked curiously.
"Yeah, my dad just told me something useful," Taylor replied as she put her phone away again. She didn't go into details. "Hi, you two. And Edgar." She smiled at Amy and Vicky, then nodded to the raven, who was staring at her with his head on one side in an inquisitive manner. The Dallon sisters pulled out a couple of chairs and put their trays on the table, before sitting. Edgar, who was on Amy's shoulder, slightly spread his wings as she moved, then settled down again. He looked at Lisa for a few seconds, then returned his attention to Taylor, who grinned at him.
"I heard there was an incident with you this morning," the brunette said, before picking up her knife and fork. Amy growled under her breath while her sister started giggling.
"Does
everyone in this damn school know about that now? You two have only been here for
three hours and you already know about it!" Stabbing her fork into her salad rather hard, Amy grumbled inaudibly, making the other girls look at her, then each other. Vicky leaned forward conspiratorially, which Lisa and Taylor matched.
"She's not a morning person," Amy's sister confided with a hand around her mouth. "Edgar… kinda is."
"I can still hear you," Amy muttered. Edgar made a little churring sound and prodded the side of her head with his beak. "And I still haven't forgiven
you, you annoying feather duster."
He prodded her head quite sharply, making her yelp. "Ow! Stop that!"
The raven did it again, then hopped down onto the table and stole a fry. He ducked as she grabbed for him, producing a triumphant sound, and hopped over to stand on the table next to Taylor who was now grinning. So were Vicky and Lisa.
"Little shit," Amy grumbled, glaring at the bird, who didn't seem even slightly offended. "Ice cubes in my ear… That was a horrible thing to do to someone who saved your life, you feathery bastard."
Edgar swallowed the fry and ducked his head a couple of times with a sort of bell-like noise, which made even Amy reluctantly smile. Lisa could tell even without her power's aid that she wasn't really angry and actually cared a lot for the raven. And her power was quite clear that the raven was extremely attached to
Amy. Why was a little harder to work out, but the bird was definitely not going anywhere. And apparently he was going to make sure every other raven he could find turned up sooner or later…
Her power seemed to find this hysterically funny, and to be honest so did Lisa. She was very curious just
why Edgar was doing whatever it was he was doing, and whether all ravens were that smart. Because he was clearly the avian equivalent of a genius by the looks of it.
"Where did he get an ice cube from?" she asked curiously. Amy sighed, glancing at Vicky for a moment.
"Vicky says he can use the icemaker on the fridge. Which is nuts, because how did he learn to do that?"
"He's a smart little dude and observant as hell," her sister replied with a shrug, making it apparent this was an argument they'd had a number of times. Which of course was why the whole school gossip network knew about it, because everyone who overheard the conversation wasted no time in passing it around…
"There's smart for a bird and then there's just
smart," Amy muttered, giving the raven a dark look. "He's much
too smart. And his sense of humor is broken."
"I thought it was hilarious," Vicky giggled.
The dark look was transferred to her. "Your sense of humor is also broken," her sister said with a deep sigh. "That much has been obvious for a long,
long time."
Vicky just giggled again and put her arm around her sister. "Come on, Ames, it was funny. Even mom was laughing."
"He should have done it to
her. Bet she wouldn't be laughing then…"
"Edgar is smart, not suicidal," Vicky chuckled. The bird was looking between them like a small feathered tennis spectator, apparently enjoying the byplay. "And mom wakes up a bit… stabby… if she's surprised. You're much safer."
"Yeah, you just keep thinking that," Amy said menacingly. Vicky patted her on the head comfortingly, making her irritably shove the other girl's hand away. "Stop it."
Edgar emitted a little trill and sidled closer to Taylor's tray, giving her lunch a side-eyed glance. She turned her head and fixed him with a look. "Don't," she said quietly. The raven looked back at her, his head cocked to the side, before darting his beak out and snagging a morsel from
Lisa's plate.
"Hey!" she exclaimed, surprised. He tossed his head back and swallowed, then peered at her triumphantly, raising the feathers on his head for a moment before lowering them. "Stop that. Amy, your bird is a thief."
"Tell me something I
don't know," Amy sighed, although she was smiling now, having apparently cheered up. Reaching out, Taylor stroked Edgar's head, then gently urged him towards the healer. The bird looked at her again before flapping a couple of times and landing back on Amy's shoulder. She reached up and stroked him. "Fine. I forgive you. This time. Don't do it again."
He put his beak in her ear and made a small high-pitched sound which caused her to flinch, before clacking it a couple of times and settling down to lean against her neck. Sighing faintly she shook her head fondly. "Honestly, it's like dealing with a small child at times," she said. "One that's
way too smart for his own good."
They got on with the serious business of eating for a few minutes. The cafeteria had filled up by now and almost every seat in the large room was occupied, the background noise rising to a dull roar as hundreds of students talked, laughed, and ate. Several people had briefly stopped to talk to Vicky, who obviously had a lot of friends, and a couple said a few words to Amy too. All of them looked curiously at Lisa and Taylor, clearly not recognizing them, but no one inquired as to who they were, presumably correctly realizing they were Winslow escapees.
Lisa spotted Greg Veder, the boy who'd been late to the testing session the week before, who Taylor had been talking about afterwards. He met her eyes, looked at Taylor, appeared slightly guilty for a moment, then hurried to a table some distance away where several other students seemed to be waiting for him. She followed him with her eyes, her power whispering various things about him that were interesting. When she looked to the side, Taylor was watching her. Her friend raised an eyebrow, making her smile slightly, then glanced at Greg too. She sighed very faintly.
"I hope he can make something of himself here," she said quietly. "He's not at all stupid, but at Winslow, well, he sure didn't have much of a chance to show that. No one did, really. With any luck it will work out for everyone."
"I think it will," Lisa replied. "But we'll find out."
"Yeah."
Vicky, who had been listening, glanced over her shoulder at the table Greg and the others were at. He was now gesticulating while apparently explaining something to his companions, as well as trying to eat a sandwich at the same time. "Friend of yours?" she asked curiously.
Taylor shrugged a little. "Friend? I… wouldn't call him
that, but I know him. He was at Winslow with me. He's kind of obsessive about computer games and science fiction, and some of the people he hung out with were… let's call them low achievers and leave it there. But he's not a bad person, I think. I had my own issues there and didn't talk to him as much as I probably should have." She sighed faintly. "Winslow had a way of either bringing out the worst in people, or just making you shut down emotionally. I kind of suspect I might have been a little unfair to him in the past. At least inside my head. Looking back now I'm out of that shit hole…" She shook her head.
"It wasn't a good place to be. For anyone. Greg got a lot of shit from the bullies, same as…" She stopped talking, staring at her plate for a few seconds. Lisa put her hand on her friend's arm and squeezed it lightly, then removed it, Taylor glancing sideways at her and smiling ruefully. "I don't want to go into details but I didn't much enjoy going there," she finished.
Amy and Vicky, and for that matter Edgar, were all watching her silently. The two girls seemed to have worked out a lot of what Taylor hadn't said based on there expressions. Even the raven was looking somehow like he was sorry. Lisa couldn't quite work out how he managed to pull that off, but it was certainly there.
"Good thing the place got closed down then," Amy said quietly.
"Yeah. Wish it had years ago, but you can't change the past, I guess," Taylor sighed. "Oh well. We'll never go back, so fuck Winslow."
"I think they did," Lisa commented with a grin, making Taylor suddenly laugh.
"Oh, yeah. Guess they did." She grinned back. The two Dallon sisters looked slightly perplexed but also amused, exchanging gazes for a moment before resuming eating. Edgar's bright little eyes were following everything, Lisa noticed.
They ate in companionable silence for a little while, before Taylor looked up at Vicky and asked, "Did you enjoy that book?" The blonde girl, who had apparently been thinking about something else, blinked a couple of times as her thoughts were brought back to the here and now, then smiled with a nod.
"Oh, yeah, Amy was right, that guy can write really well. It was funny
and serious all at the same time, which isn't easy to pull off. I'm not quite done yet, but I really like it. I'm going to have to read the rest of his stuff" She shook her head with a sort of bemused air as her sister and the other pair watched. "I'd never have thought that you could write a book about the anthropomorphization of
Death of all things and have it be that interesting. Or sympathetic."
Lisa was a touch impressed, as it became clear that Vicky Dallon was entirely sincere and obviously far more aware of quite a lot of literature than she'd expected from the reputation the other girl had in public. The meal the other day had shown her a lot of this, but as Amy, Taylor, and Vicky started discussing the literary merits of fantasy books with considerable enthusiasm, she realized that the blonde was very far from her popular image in some quite important ways. Listening to the conversation and occasionally adding her own two cents, she thoroughly enjoyed herself.
At the back of her mind she was also considering the implications of what Taylor's dad's message suggested and working out what their next step would be. A glance at Taylor, meeting her friend's eyes, at a pause in the conversation showed her that the other girl was also thinking about it.
By the time lunch ended and everyone was getting up to return their trays and head back for an afternoon of broadening their educational horizons, Lisa had got both Dallon's phone numbers, and she and Taylor had exchanged theirs as well.
She felt that they might be using those numbers quite soon, all things considered. And it was always good to be able to contact your friends, which by that point she rather thought the pair counted as.
Edgar had watched her and Taylor closely the whole time and when they headed out after a quick wave to the others, who went in a different direction, he turned his head to follow them with his eyes. She winked at him, amused, and couldn't help laughing when he ducked his head and gave her a look she could
swear was far more knowing than it should have been.
Yeah. That bird was
smart… She wondered what chaos he'd cause next with some anticipation, even as they walked through the corridor towards math class.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
James ducked as a very expensive hand-made antique clock flew past and shattered into tiny fragments on the far side of the office when it hit the wall with a crash. The tinkling sound died away leaving the room silent except for heavy breathing and a distinct noise of tooth enamel being ground away. He watched, ready to activate his power and leg it if Max completely lost the plot, but his superior seemed to dredge up reserves of will and slowly calm down. A little.
Judging by the bulging vein on the side of his forehead he was still in a state that could generously be referred to as '
somewhat peeved…'
"How much money is missing?" Max said after a long uncomfortable pause, his voice an icy whisper which promised an extremely slow and prolonged death for someone.
Swallowing in the face of a glare that he could almost swear was making his hair crisp, James replied very carefully, "We're not entirely certain because…"
"WHY ARE YOU NOT CERTAIN?" the other man bellowed in fury, half-standing and pointing at James' face.
Making a small calming gesture and instantly regretting it, James ducked again as another incredibly pricey antique met a sudden end on the wall. "I'm trying to
tell you, Max!" he yelped. "Stop throwing things!"
Putting both fists on the desk and leaning on them, his superior fixed burning eyes on him. "Go on," he invited in a dark voice.
"Ah… The
reason we don't know for sure is because Melody was the one keeping the master ledger, which was in the safe with the money. And it's
all missing. I've got a rough estimate, based on what the guys collecting everything could remember but there's no way to know how accurate it is…" He swallowed again at the look on his colleague's face.
"How… much…" Kaiser grated.
"…at least… twelve million?" James replied after some seconds, rather quietly. He winced at the cracking sound of Max crushing one of his desk decorations in his hand. That was another twenty grand gone.
"
Twelve million dollars. All the records. And Cricket." Max breathed heavily, looking like he wanted to find someone and dismember them with his bare hands, while James waited. Eventually the other man sat down and said, "Why the
fuck was that much cash stored there?"
Shrugging a little helplessly, James spread his hands. "Business expanded faster than we expected, and she didn't want to move large amounts of cash around all at once. Security, you know? Too much temptation, the slants might find out about it, one of our people might get a little greedy… It made some sort of sense at the time. And the bar was secure, it was staffed by some of our best and that safe is the best one on the market. Tinker-tech lock, ultra high security, fully alarmed, and six inches of armor plating. It would take half an hour for
Armsmaster to open the fucking thing without the combination."
"And it was completely useless, because there's nothing fucking
inside it!" Max clenched his fists again, then with a great effort of will relaxed a little. "Who else had the combination?"
"Melody. Me. Victor. Hans at the bar. That's it."
"And has Hans been interviewed?" Max queried pleasantly through his teeth. James nodded.
"Vigorously. He denies telling anyone, or seeing anyone other than Cricket go inside that room this morning. I'm pretty sure he was telling the truth."
Max nodded, visibly thinking over the situation. "That much cash is too much for one person to carry, right?"
"Yeah. It was mostly twenties, fifties, and hundreds, and at a guess there was close to eight hundred pounds or so of money there. It was a big safe and pretty much full. Melody's not a brute, so there's no way she could carry it all, leaving aside how bulky it would be."
"So either she did it and took several trips, or had help, or someone else did it and there were more than one of them." Now Max was tapping his finger on the desk as he mused out loud.
"You seriously think
Melody stole twelve million dollars and ran?" James asked with his eyebrows up. "I don't see it, if I'm honest."
"Only four people had the combination, as you just told me. If I assume
you didn't do it, and you're correct that our friend
Hans didn't do it, Melody is the obvious culprit. And we can't ask her because she's
also missing!" Max glared at him.
"Or someone took the money
and her," James couldn't help pointing out. "Or whoever it was that snatched Victor got the combination from him and came back to finish the job. Maybe that was
why he got snatched. There are a lot of possibilities other than Melody doing it. A Master, maybe? A Stranger? Who the fuck knows? We just don't have
any proof what happened! All I know is that the money is gone and so is she."
"Whoever took it was smart enough to take the ledger, so it wasn't some random burglar with a very large bag," Max pointed out acidly.
"Circus maybe?" James hazarded, which actually made the other man stop mid-word and think.
"...Huh," he finally said, looking slightly taken aback. "That's… not
impossible I suppose. Check where Circus was last seen. But it's not the usual sort of job for that crazy bitch. And it still leaves the question of how whoever is behind it even knew it was there in the first place. That's
supposed to be a secret."
Krieg couldn't help nodding, because his superior was right. There were so many problems with this that he was having trouble coming up with them all. A massive lapse in security was just about the least worrying scenario, even though it was unlikely based on how they'd set things up. But he still didn't think it was likely that the woman he'd known for quite a while would just up and walk off with all that money even if she
could. It was very much out of character to put it mildly.
At least Max had calmed down enough that James was no longer fearing for his own life. Which was something of a relief all things considered.
"If it wasn't an inside job, someone knows
far too much about us and we need to find out who that is and stop them," Max said after some time, swiveling his chair around to look out of his penthouse window. "First Victor, then Alabaster, now Cricket. The money is… not irrelevant, but much less of a problem than someone picking us off one by one if that's what's happening." He spun his chair back and stared at James. "We
have to find out who's doing this and deal with them."
"I know," James agreed with a shrug. "I'm open to ideas about how though."
"We double down on security, change all the passwords, combinations, you name it, move everything valuable to new locations, and put the word out that we want answers," Max said after mulling over the problem. "I don't care how much it costs,
find out who's attacking us." He steepled his fingertips together and smiled darkly over them at James. "And when we
do find out, we're going to make an
example…"
Even Krieg shivered a little at the look in his boss's eyes…
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
"So how do you want to do this, Danny?" Kurt asked, stroking Angelica's head as she sat next to his chair looking between them with a doggy grin. The animal seemed in a good mood as if she realized her human was going to be with her again soon.
Danny looked at him, then around his office at the others. "I'll pick Taylor and Lisa up from school and bring them here, in about…" He looked at his watch, "… half an hour. We can get Rachel out of storage any point after that. We seem to have two choices then. Either get her to the hospital, or do what Lisa suggested and see if she can ask Panacea to come here to heal her."
"Either way the PRT
will get involved as soon as they find out," Michelle pointed out.
"I know. Personally, I think it would probably be better if we don't take her to the hospital, because we lose control of things then. If we do it here, we can take precautions to keep the girl safe if they get difficult, although from what the news report said she's no longer on their wanted list," he replied. "But they sure want to ask her some questions."
"Not surprised," Erwin grunted from where he was propping up the wall with his arms crossed. "They're running around like idiots trying to find everyone involved in that clusterfuck down south and need all the help they can get. They'll want testimony from her. Probably not much else past that although I'll bet my beer money for this week they'll try to get her into the Wards."
"Which would probably end in disaster," Matt commented. "Based on what I've read about the girl, and considering the amount of shit they put her through, I doubt she's very well disposed towards the PRT right now. Can't say as I blame her either."
"No." Danny sighed heavily. "Fuck it. I'm not going to let them ride roughshod over a kid that age if I can help it. She's gone through enough." He looked around seeing everyone nod agreement. "Michelle? Can we protect her? Legally?"
The blonde woman thought, then nodded slowly. "I think so, yes. If we're careful. And assuming she agrees, of course."
"We need to get her sorted out medically before we do anything else," Janice, who'd been sitting listening against the wall, put in. "That takes priority over everything else."
"Agreed." Danny looked at his watch again, then stood. "All right. I'll get the girls, we can talk it over, then do whatever we do. I'll be back in about forty minutes." He headed for the door, grabbing his coat on the way out, and was soon driving towards Arcadia.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Flopping face first onto her bed, Amy groaned into her pillow. "Fucking surprise quiz," she griped in a muffled voice. "That was a mean trick."
Vicky watched her with a grin, giggling as Edgar landed on her back and settled down comfortably, looking like he was quite happy where he was. The raven started gently prodding his human with his beak, making her twitch and complain. "It wasn't that bad, Ames," she said, while Amy batted ineffectually at the bird with one hand twisted back over herself and used the other to pull her pillow over her head.
"Quit it, Edgar!" Amy grumbled, which only made the raven prod her more forcefully, obviously amused by her reaction. "Ow! Fucking bird…"
Taking pity on her sister Vicky picked Edgar up and cuddled him, smiling as the bird rolled over onto his back with his feet curled against his body and looked contented. "You are so
cute," she told him seriously. He peered at her in a manner that told her he was fully aware of this.
A moment or two later Amy pulled the pillow off her head and flipped herself onto her back, then glared at the ceiling. "I hate surprise tests, especially
history surprise tests," she complained, folding her arms and appearing peeved. Sitting next to her, still cuddling Edgar, Vicky patted her sister with one hand.
"Cheer up. You got seventy percent, that's not bad."
"
You got
eighty percent!" Amy snapped. "
You. I know for a fact you didn't read the fucking textbook! How did you get eighty percent?"
Vicky shrugged with a grin. "I'm just that good?"
The other girl looked at her with a flat gaze, causing her grin to widen. Edgar lifted his head and peered down at her, snapping his beak once.
"Shut up, featherbrain," Amy growled, making Vicky laugh. Edgar kronked cheerfully and went back to relaxing in Vicky's arms without a care in the world. Eventually, Amy sighed and shook her head, watching the raven. Her expression softened, as it usually did when the bird was around, as Vicky had noticed many times. He was good for her.
"Here," she said, pushing the nearly-comatose raven into Amy's arms, then lying down across her sister's legs which made her yelp.
"Hey!"
"Stop wriggling, it's uncomfortable."
"
I'm uncomfortable?
You're the one lying on my legs!"
"It's been a long day."
"I know! That's why I'm lying down! You have a bed, use it!"
"This one is closer. Only problem is it has bony legs all over it."
"You're going to get a bony leg right up your nose if you don't watch it," Amy shouted, making Vicky chuckle.
"Keep it down up there!" Carol's voice came to them faintly through the door.
"Sorry, Mom," both girls called back as one, then exchanged a glance and a grin.
As Vicky was about to keep teasing her sister, Amy's phone rang. Pulling it out of her pocket Amy looked at it, her expression somewhat surprised. "It's Lisa," she said, sounding puzzled. "I wonder what she wants?"
"There's an easy way to find out," Vicky suggested with a smirk. Sighing, Amy tapped the device, then again to put it on speaker.
"You're an idiot," she said as she did this.
"Excuse me?" Lisa's voice said, sounding slightly taken aback.
"Not you, Lisa," Amy hastily replied, even as Vicky clapped both hands over her mouth to muffle the laugh that threatened to erupt. "I was talking to my idiot sister."
"Oh. Fair enough," the other girl commented, sounding amused. Her next words were more serious in tone.
"Um… We've got a bit of a problem that's right in your special area of expertise," Lisa went on, making Amy exchange a look with Vicky. Edgar lifted his head and opened his eyes, looking at the phone Amy was holding.
"I know we don't know each other all that well yet but I was hoping you might be able to help."
"What is it?" Amy queried, sounding slightly suspicious and also intrigued.
"Nothing bad. Well… no, not bad. Just a bit weird," Lisa explained.
"You know Taylor's dad works for the DWA, right?" Amy nodded unconsciously.
"Yeah, I remember."
"Right. Well, some of the people here were working on a building nearby and found someone. Badly injured, but still alive. She was shot in the leg, probably days ago, and she's got a really bad infection. They don't have the resources to help her the way she needs."
"She should be at the hospital in that case," Amy immediately replied.
"That's where the problem is," Lisa said after a moment, making the sisters exchange a look.
"She's a parahuman." Amy's eyes widened slightly as did Vicky's.
"One who's been on the news recently, actually," Lisa continued.
"You might recognize the name. Rachel Lindt."
Vicky certainly recognized the name with a sense of startled shock, and she could see her sister did a moment later. "Hellhound?" she exclaimed rather loudly. "You found Hellhound and she's been shot?"
Lisa sighed faintly. "
Yeah, we did, and she has. The bullet's been removed and she's stable but she's going to go into septic shock soon according to the medic here. She won't survive that. We're not even sure we can get her to the hospital in time anyway, and if we do, well…"
"The PRT gets involved," Vicky said.
"Yeah."
"Hellhound is a villain, so that's not surprising," Amy pointed out, frowning.
"Well, actually, that's not exactly accurate," Taylor's voice said, apparently also being present. Presumably Lisa also had her phone on speaker.
"What do you mean?" Amy asked, sitting up and putting Edgar on the bed next to her.
"She got railroaded," Lisa remarked, making the two sisters look at each other in shock.
"It's all over the news right now. Guess you haven't heard yet. The FBI arrested a judge, some PRT people along with several cops, and even at least one FBI guy, and the PRT are going crazy with internal affairs too. She triggered during some sort of fuckup at a foster home that was part of a massive scam. Abusive treatment, god knows what. All the PRT charges were a setup, it was their fault right from the beginning from what the news is saying."
"And she somehow managed to get to Brockton Bay and ended up with a bullet in her leg and two of her dogs dead," Taylor added, sounding unhappy.
"If the DWA people had found her a day later she'd be dead. She'll be dead without help anyway."
Vicky had been working on her phone since Lisa first mentioned the news and now mutely read the article she'd found, before holding it out to Amy, who did the same. As soon as she'd finished, she met her sister's eyes, nodded, and stood up. "We're on the way," Amy said.
"Thanks. I owe you a big favor," Lisa replied gratefully.
"Head to the DWA building, they'll be expecting you."
"Ten minutes," Amy replied, tapping the icon and putting her phone away, even as she headed for the door. Vicky followed rapidly, Edgar quickly hopping onto her shoulder in a flurry of feathers. Within thirty seconds all of them were in the air and flying towards the docks, not even mentioning to their mother where they were going.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Blinking and feeling like a small furry thing had died in her mouth, Rachel stared at the unfamiliar ceiling, trying to remember what had happened. A few seconds passed then she felt the tears come. Brutus... Judas…
A whine from next to her head made her look in that direction, her gaze snapping to a familiar form. She sat up and grabbed Angelica's head in her arms, hugging the dog to her chest as her face was frantically licked. Sobs tore through her, the memory of pain and loss too strong to deny.
It was some time before she was able to notice that Angelica had two perfectly functional eyes now.
And not long after that she noticed the others in the room watching her. It was only the way Angelica was completely relaxed towards the strangers that stopped her reacting badly, but even so it took quite a while before she realized that things were getting better in ways she'd never expected.
The raven was weird though.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
{I think that went well,} Taylor remarked. Administrator agreed, and they spent a happy hour or so discussing various ideas before she fell asleep, feeling that the day had worked out pretty well all around.
Except for the Empire, but that was a bonus, really.
That would definitely grab Papa's attention.
