Taylor Varga (Worm/Luna Varga)

"You sure she's around here?" Clockblocker sounded curious and slightly irritated.

"I think so," Kid Win replied, standing on his hoverboard and looking around carefully. "We got reports she was walking around in this area, and someone else said he saw her climb up here a few minutes ago."

"With the speed Vista says she moves, she could be miles away now. Why are you so keen on meeting her, anyway?" the clock themed cape asked, moving to look down the side of the office building to the ground, some four stories below them, shudder a little, then move back to a safe distance. His colleague was fine with heights, he could fly, although if he actually ever fell off that thing he was in trouble, but Dennis didn't like heights at all much.

"I'm just curious. She sounds interesting. You don't see a lot of non-human seeming capes that aren't Case 53's, who can never remember anything, which tends to make the ones I've met sort of, well, a bit weird." The other teen shrugged. "From what Vista and Gallant told us she's got a sense of humor and is interesting to talk to, so I thought it would be nice to meet her. We're sure to run into her sooner or later, why not now while there's nothing going on?"

"Point to you, I guess." Clockblocker turned in a circle. "But I can't see any signs of her, not even footprints in this stuff." He prodded the pea gravel covering the tar-sealed roof of the building, which was flat and festooned with tall air conditioning units. "Guess she moved on. We'll have to keep looking."

"I'm surprised you're not more interested in meeting her," Chris commented, smiling under his helmet. "From what we heard she has a sense of humor nearly as bad as yours. Surely you're planning on freezing her or something as an introduction? That's what you normally do. Practical jokes are sort of your thing."

"Miss Militia told me not to," his friend replied.

"Like that's ever stopped you."

"Plus she's apparently got huge teeth."

"And?" Chris' eyes suddenly widened as a shadow separated from the air conditioning tower immediately behind Clockblocker, slowly resolving into a tall, slender, reptilian woman who was soundlessly creeping forward, taking careful steps with her tail held up behind her clear of the gravel. About to say something, or possibly scream, he froze when she raised a long, taloned finger to her short muzzle. Debating the merits of the idea for a moment he finally decided to see what happened, trying not to give the game away. As an afterthought he gave the command with a specific flick of his eyes that turned on the camera mounted on his helmet above his visor, recording the whole thing. Just for review later, of course.

"And maybe her sense of humor doesn't apply to jokes aimed at her? I don't want to get chased and eaten by a six foot tall angry dinosaur woman or whatever she is!" Dennis replied with a little annoyance. "Sure, if I knew she'd take it OK I'd play a joke on her, but I think I need to find out more about her first."

Kid Win watched with wide eyes, luckily hidden by his visor and the dark, as the creeping lizard girl arrived directly behind an oblivious Clockblocker, moving impressively quietly and slowly. If he wasn't watching it he'd never had known she was there, which was just the smallest amount worrying in a number of ways. She paused, cocking her head to one side, then the other, as if deciding what to do. He watched with bated breath.

Eventually, while Clockblocker was expanding on his views about not pranking capes who could actually chew on you and probably enjoy it, she seemed to come to a decision, reaching into a pouch on her belt and removing a small bottle with a metallic green label that glinted in the dark. Kid Win recognized it with instant hilarity, working out immediately what her joke was, but managed to keep a straight face with enormous effort.

Gently unscrewing the lid, Saurial smirked, then held the tiny bottle of Tabasco sauce over Clockblocker's right arm and started shaking it.

"I mean, Gallant told us about that huge hammer she was waving around like it was nothing! One hit would probably pulverize me. Or you. What if she's like Rune was, did you think of that? Sure, she's a villain, but she didn't have to get so worked up about what I did. It was pretty funny, I thought, but girls can be strange about jokes."

Chris watched small, pungent drops of orange-colored liquid fall to his friend's sleeve and soak in. Dennis didn't notice.

"And you remember that time I froze Panacea? She threatened to give me tits the size of my head if I ever did it again and I don't think she was joking. She's really grumpy a lot of the time."

More Tabasco sauce fell. Chris was watching with wild inner amusement, wondering when his friend would notice. It took about another fifteen seconds. "Hey, what the hell is this?" Clockblocker suddenly said, lifting his arm in front of his mask and staring. He looked up, then around, as Saurial swayed lithely back and forth behind him to stay out of his field of vision. "There's some sort of liquid all over me."

"What is it?" Kid Win managed to choke out, suppressing wild laughter.

"I don't know, it's all sticky." Poking it with his other hand, Dennis looked at his finger, then quickly lifted his mask just a small amount and sniffed. "Hey, that's..."

He froze, then slowly turned to look behind him. Saurial leaned forward and grinned widely, licking scaly lips with a long forked tongue. "I love Tabasco sauce on my food," she hissed menacingly.

"AAAiiiieee!" Clockblocker screamed, jumping back in horror and tripping over himself in the process, landing on his back on the roof, then panting for breath. She stared, then almost collapsed laughing, while Chris nearly fell off his hoverboard, tears of amusement running down his face.

"I wish I could see your face," she giggled, in a much more normal voice than the extremely disturbing, barely human one she'd used before. "That was fantastic. Should I put it up on PHO?"

"Send it to me, I want to show the others," Kid Win gasped, still laughing, having spotted the camera she was wearing immediately. Dennis looked from one to the other of them, his head moving jerkily and his body language still showing he was very confused and extremely rattled.

"Oh, you bastards," he finally growled, working out that he'd been the butt of a prank. "How long did that take to set up?"

He glared at the other Ward, or at least Chris assumed he was glaring. "Was that why you dragged me up here saying you wanted to meet her?" Chris shook his head, giggling to himself.

"Spur of the moment thing, Clockblocker," she admitted. "I was just lying on top of that tower thing over there enjoying the quiet and having a snack when I heard you guys talking. You have a reputation online as a joker so I thought I'd see what happened." She waved at the air conditioning tower, then held up the bottle of sauce. "I like this on eggs, I bought it this afternoon."

"Eggs?" Chris queried. She pulled one of the hen fruit in question from another pouch and held it up.

"Eggs," she confirmed. "Last one." Sprinkling the thing with sauce she tossed it into her mouth, shell and all, then crunched down and swallowed. "Nice."

"Oh, my god," Clockblocker moaned, disgusted, while Chris felt his stomach roil. "That's revolting."

"They're great, actually," she retorted. "And high in nutrients, with no fat."

She studied the white-garbed cape and smiled again. "I'd offer you a hand up but I suspect there would be retaliation involved. I have no wish for a picture of me standing frozen like an idiot to pop up on the web so I think I'll just stay over here."

After a couple of seconds he shook his head, then stood up, brushing himself down. "OK. Right. The crazy lizard monster girl has a warped sense of humor. Note to self, look over shoulder more." He sounded amused by now, his sense of the absurd coming to the fore. "You got me. That was actually a good prank." Looking intently at her, he asked, "Please don't do it again, you scared the shit out of me."

Chris turned his camera off again, grinning.

Laughing, she nodded. "I'll never do it again to you. Can I do it to other people?"

He nodded back. "Oh, hell, yes. Just tell me first so I can watch. I want to see Assault jump three feet in the air and scream like a little girl."

They shared a look, then laughed like idiots again. "Sorry, Clockblocker, I couldn't resist," she apologized when they all calmed down. "I'm not used to meeting people I can actually joke around with like this, it's nice."

"Tough childhood?" Kid Win asked.

She shrugged. "Not really, but parts of it were hell. I seem to have met more friendly people, or at least people who aren't actively hostile, in the last month than in the last several years."

A crash from below made her cock her head again, listening, then walk over and peer down the side of the building to the street. Kid Win turned his board around so he could see as well. A large truck was half-embedded into the side of the building, with about a dozen people wearing E88 colors jumping out the back of it and kicking glass away, then going into the department store that comprised the lower floor, carrying hammers and large empty bags.

"Want to help round those idiots up?" she sighed, glancing over at them. Kid Win and Clockblocker exchanged a glance as she jumped off the building, falling to the street and landing on top of the truck with an enormous crunch while heavily distorting the roof, then lightly hopped off and disappeared inside the building after the ram-raiding robbers.

"Well, that happened," Chris noted. Clockblocker nodded, wincing at the distant screams rising from below. Tapping his earpiece, the Tinker said, "Console, attending a vehicular assisted break in at 1601 Atlantic Drive, independent hero Saurial already on site. Permission to assist?"

"Wait one, Kid Win," the surly but professional voice of Shadow Stalker who for some reason had been assigned permanent console duty came back. A moment later, she added, "Permission granted to assist."

"Thanks, Console," he replied then tapped the earpiece again. Glancing at Clockblocker who had been listening, he smiled. "Come on, lets see what she can do."

"She's probably already sprinkling Tabasco sauce on them," the other cape muttered, sounding both amused and a little worried, then started descending the fire escape to one side, Kid Win floating down on his hoverboard.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Martin frantically dived for cover, swearing and sweating, as some of his fellows ran past screaming, looking for the way out in the nearly pitch black room. Something was in there with them, he could hear it moving every now and then.

Pressing himself into an alcove next to a display of toasters or something, he could barely make it out in the dark, lit only by a couple of distant emergency exit signs, he listened carefully, looking around and trying to make out what the hell was going on. A flicker of motion twenty feet away made him whip his head around, then point his gun that way.

There was another scream from the other side of the store, horrifically cut off half-way, that ended in a gurgle. Two shots sounded, then two more. He sweated harder. A flashlight bobbed around as if someone was waving it about, then suddenly stopped. Yet another shot rang out, echoing in the large room, before there was a meaty smacking sound, following which something flew a considerable distance and crashed into what sounded like every last saucepan in the place. The flashlight dropped and rolled, the light swinging around casting crazy shadows across the room, then went out with a metallic crunch.

There was a long pause, during which he formed the opinion he was probably the only one left.

"What the hell is it?" he whispered.

"It's just me," a female voice said in his ear. He screamed like a five year old and spun around, knocking small appliances flying, then fired rapidly. The muzzle flashes gave him a stop motion view of something tall and thin, with what looked like a long tail, scuttling appallingly quickly across the floor and, most horrifyingly, up the wall to vanish towards the dimness of the ceiling, fifteen feet up and covered with air conditioning ducts.

Panting, he stared around wildly, trying to remember how many rounds he had left. By his best estimate, it was perhaps five.

Lifting his weapon in a trembling hand he panned it across the scene. There was no sound of any of his companions now, all of them having fallen silent.

"Nick!" he whispered urgently, wondering if his best friend, the one who had sponsored him to the E88, was still standing somewhere. There was no answer. He tried again.

"He's the short guy with the scar on his cheek, right?" the voice said again, from right above him. He looked up to barely make out what looked horribly like the glint of large, pointy teeth a few feet over his head, the owner of those teeth, which he was strongly beginning to believe came from hell, hanging head down attached to the wall. All that was visible in the dim light was a dark shadow on the wall, but it was obvious it wasn't human.

Raising the gun he fired again, the flash showing a mouth with too much dentition in a head like a huge lizards one, its eyes black and shiny. He blinked as his eyes readjusted after the short burst of flame, then saw it was gone again.

"Why don't you just stop this and we can all get out of here?" the voice said, sounding like it was trying to be reasonable, now in a completely different place. He didn't believe it. The thing was obviously trying to tempt him.

That's what they did.

After a few seconds, he slowly tried edging in the direction of the exit as shown by the signs. Nothing happened, so he kept working his way in that direction. His heart was going like mad, he felt faint, and he was deeply regretting his current career choice. No amount of getting to beat up blacks and chinks made up for being hunted by a demon. He'd leave that to crazy people like Hookwolf, who'd probably enjoy it and actually stand a chance.

Nearly at the exit, Martin stopped, knowing damn well from the movies that this was the most dangerous point. If it was going to jump him, it would do it… right... now.

He spun and fired three shots, then listened.

Nothing.

Allowing himself to relax a small amount, he turned around again, then opened his mouth, only a faint hiss coming out as his eyes bulged. The horrific thing standing there mere feet away tipped its head to the side inquisitively, looking weirdly puzzled. "Are you all right?" it asked, "only your heartbeat is really fast."

"DEMON!" he screamed in a shrill voice, firing the last of what turned out to be two shots into its face then throwing the gun at it, which it caught without any apparent effort, before throwing himself past it and out the door onto the street while it was distracted.

The half dozen police officers and the two young capes standing there staring at him came as a profound relief. He hid behind Clockblocker, shivering. "It was all around us. Nowhere to hide. It got Nick, and James, and Alicia, and Jason..." Trailing off he stopped gibbering, holding his hands out, wrists together. "Please arrest me and take me somewhere safe."

A couple of the cops looked at each other, then obliged. The click of the handcuffs locking around his wrists was the most beautiful sound he'd ever heard. "We should get out of here before it comes out," he added, twitching his head around in an attempt to look into every possibly hiding place. "They're sneaky. It could be anywhere."

Spotting a movement to the side, he spun wildly around. "There! Over there! Shoot it!!"

Almost everyone jumped wildly despite themselves and looked.

"What's he shouting about this time?" the voice said from his other side. Very slowly he looked around, to see the armored, scaly horror standing next to Kid Win, who seemed to be ignoring the fate he was risking. The Ward shrugged.

"No idea."

"Weird. He was all jumpy in the store too. Maybe he needs some sort of psychological help?"

"Maybe," Clockblocker replied, his shoulders twitching for some reason. His voice sounded strained. "You need to be a bit odd to join the E88 in my opinion anyway."

Both the monster and the other Ward nodded slowly, then all three turned around and walked away. "I want some more eggs." The voice floated back to him as he shivered, wishing he had dry underwear.

"Oh, god, it's breeding," he whispered.

The policeman who had put the cuffs on him put his hand on his shoulder, gently urging him towards the back of the nearest police car which was waiting with an invitingly open back door.

Martin got in gratefully and closed the door himself, settling back for a trip to the nice safe police station and resolving to join the priesthood when he got out. Maybe then he'd be safe.

Unless it bred.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Taylor sat on the low wall surrounding the small park a few blocks from the crime scene, the leafless limbs of the trees and the limp brown grass giving a rather depressed look to the place, watching Clockblocker roll around laughing himself sick. She popped another egg into her mouth, exchanging a glance and a raised eyebrow with Kid Win, who was sitting next to her with his hoverboard leaning on the wall next to him. Well, eye ridge in her case, but it was the same effect.

"Is he always like this?" she asked, removing the top from a bottle of water and taking a drink.

Kid Win shrugged a little. "He's got a strange sense of humor and sometimes it gets away from him," he admitted. "It wasn't that funny."

"You… him… eggs..." Clockblocker gasped for air. "All around..." He shook his head helplessly, lifting it to peer at the two others who were looking down at him, then roaring with laughter again.

"Ignore him, we normally do. Vista or Gallant will slap him, the rest of us just get on with other things," Kid Win advised with a sigh. He turned to Taylor. "That was impressive in a sort of horror movie way, I have to admit. Were you trying to terrify them?"

"Only a little," she said, eating her last egg and crumpling up the box. "They seemed to over-react a lot, though. It was a bit strange." It really was, she'd just gone after them one at a time, the remaining ones getting more and more worked up. Perhaps hunting them down in the dark was too much? It was pretty efficient, but if it had that much effect she needed to tone it down a little before someone fell over from a heart attack due to the excitement.

"I got five of them with a sleeper hold immediately before they knew I was there, then they started shooting. I had to go after the guns, then, before they hit each other. That last but one guy was firing all over the place, I had to smack him with my tail to put him down before he hit that friend of his."

Kid Win looked at the appendage that was curled across her feet. "Don't you get cold with bare feet and exposed skin like that? Or scales, I mean. It's only a little above freezing right now."

"Not really. I'm not cold blooded or really a reptile, I'm… something else." She didn't want to go into details but he seemed genuinely concerned and interested.

"It was cool to see, though," he replied after a thoughtful nod. "Have you had a lot of training in hand to hand combat?"

"Sort of, yes. Also sword use, single and dual, some war hammer sort of thing, and I'm experimenting with how those work when I substitute a baton for a sword. I don't want to kill anyone and I'm strong enough to cut a normal person in half with one swing of a bat never mind a blade." She glanced at him, then went back to watching Clockblocker, who was wheezing a little as he managed to pull himself together enough to sit near them on the wall.

"Gallant said you told them that you could lift a couple of tons, so I can believe that," the Tinker noted.

"I tested myself, I can dead lift nearly five thousand pounds, although that was the limit mainly because it was the biggest weight available at the time," she commented, sipping her drink as he gaped a little. She didn't mention that in her Saurial form the limit was noticeably higher than her base form, although she hadn't bothered to find out how much yet.

"Holy crap, that's impressive." He sounded amazed. "That's more than Glory Girl can lift as far as I know and she's way up there in Brute ratings." After a moment, he added, "Are you going to register with the PRT? Or come in for official power testing?"

"I haven't decided yet on the first one, and no, at the moment I have no plans for the second one." Finishing her drink Taylor put the cap on the bottle and tossed it towards a nearby public garbage receptacle, smiling when it actually went in, bouncing off the rim and falling inside.

"Fought any capes yet?" Clockblocker asked from her other side, having finally recovered, although his voice was hoarse. She shook her head.

"No, it hasn't come up. This is the third time I've grabbed some idiots with guns, though. Last night I got some ABB and merchants who were shooting up the docks, then of course there were those E88 guys in the warehouse the night that I met your friends. That was my first time."

"In this city you're bound to sooner or later," Kid Win commented. She shrugged.

"Probably but I'm not looking for trouble. Enough of it seems to find me to keep me busy. Every time I've gone out something has happened."

"Par for the course," he smiled. "Hey, can I have a copy of that footage? Both the prank and the store action."

"Sure." Looking at him for a moment, Taylor added, "You're a Tinker, do you have some sort of device to read the memory card right now?"

"I do," he told her, peering at the camera. "Standard USB port, right?"

"Yep." Reaching up she caught the camera as the Varga, who had been laughing nearly as much as Clockblocker but had finally stopped snickering, dissolved the straps. "Here you go. There's nothing on it but those two files."

Taking it from him he popped open a port on his left gauntlet, pulling a cable out, then plugged it into her camera. A few seconds later he unplugged it and handed it back. "Thanks, Saurial."

"No problem." She smiled at him as she reattached the device.

"Is that another use of your matter control power?" he asked curiously, watching the process with interest, as was Clockblocker. She nodded, as there was no harm in telling them.

"Yes, it's really useful, actually."

"I can believe that."

"I have to ask, why the sunglasses at night?" Clockblocker put in, making her turn her head and look at him. "Not that they don't look cool, mind. Are your eyes too sensitive to light or something like that?"

"No, it's mainly so that people don't freak out any more than they already do," she replied, reaching up and removing them. He stared at her glowing orangeish slit-pupiled eyes for several seconds, then nodded slowly.

"No offense, but I can understand why they might."

She smirked, putting them back on. "I can't see it myself, I think my eyes are pretty."

He froze, then tentatively nodded again when she looked quizzically at him. "Um, yes, so do I, I guess." Once more she smiled which seemed to make him relax, Taylor finding the whole thing sort of amusing.

Pulling out her phone she looked at the time display on it, then put it away and stood up. "Sorry, I need to go. It was interesting meeting you two. Only Aegis and Shadow Stalker left and I'll have the complete set."

She noticed the way Kid Win glanced at Clockblocker, who looked back. "Shadow Stalker isn't currently available, but I'm sure you'll see Aegis soon." Clockblocker was still sounding a little breathless.

"Fair enough. Anyway, see you guys around. Bye." She tossed the crumpled up egg carton away after the bottle, then headed for the building across the street, rapidly climbing up the front of it. At the top she waved down at them, receiving a wave back from Kid Win, then started running, heading towards the docks where she'd change.

"That was somewhat intriguing," the Varga commented slowly as she bounded from roof to roof.

'Wasn't it?' Her mental voice was flat. 'I'm guessing that Aegis is that Carlos guy.' She'd immediately recognized the scents of the red-headed Dennis and his friend Chris from Arcadia, who had been sitting at the table with Dean, who she knew was Gallant. And who knew what her human form looked like.

"It seems very likely. A group of people like that would in all likelihood spend time together off duty, and the chances of there being four male Wards, three of those being the ones we have identified so far, without the fourth one being the other person at that table, seem remote. Although not impossible." Her companion sounded thoughtful.

'True, but I'm nearly certain that both of them smelled faintly of Carlos. I didn't really get close enough to him at Arcadia to be sure, but I will sooner or later, assuming I don't meet him as Aegis.' She flung herself across a street, catching the taller building on the other side with all four limbs and rushing up and over it.

'Of course, the elephant in the room is that both those guys also had a very faint hint of eau de Hess, as well. That's four so far, all Wards. I'm beginning to get an idea of what's going on and I'm not sure I like it,' she continued after a minute or so.

There was no response from the demon, but she could feel he felt the same way. Deciding she needed more information, which would come along in due time, she kept moving, enjoying the action and the speed. Once again she'd enjoyed meeting these members of the Wards, and was impressed by Clockblocker's ability to take what was actually a slightly mean joke, something she felt a little guilty about even now. But she'd wanted to see what happened afterwards.

It had been screamingly funny, though, although she had no intention of posting the video online. That would be too much. If Kid Win did it, it was on him.

The Tinker had obviously been fishing for information, which she'd given him in full knowledge that it would almost certainly end up in the dossier that the PRT was undoubtedly building on her cape persona. It would be an obvious thing to do with any cape, so she assumed they probably had threat assessments for more or less all of them, which weren't made public. It's what she'd have done in the same place.

It was quite nice that they hadn't pushed the idea of the Wards again, and wondered it that was deliberate, or just due to those guys not being particularly interested in the subject. When she'd recognized Sophia's scent on them, although the back of her mind was half expecting it, she'd become quite irritated again, although not as angry as she had with Gallant and Vista. It proved much easier this time to keep it from affecting her, though, which was something she was pleased about. She didn't like being driven by anger, she had far too much of it buried deep inside after two years of torture to be happy about it, even with the intervention of the Varga.

He was slowly helping her come to terms with it and get rid of it, and one day she was sure she'd be over the whole thing, but right now she wasn't and didn't want to risk letting herself stew over the sorry events of the recent past. They were done and over and best left where they were in her opinion.

That said, she sort of owed the Three Bitches thanks in a strange, perverted manner. Without them, she'd never have reconnected with her father, she suspected, or at least not to the level she had, she'd never have ended up with the Varga, and she probably wouldn't have the self control she was learning. Or the ability to do… this!

The small number of people on the street fifty feet below looked up at the cry of "WheeeHooo!" that echoed around the place, wondering what caused it, and a couple of them were quick enough to see a form flip twice as it cleared the sixty foot gap, before disappearing over the rooftops, a long tail flying out behind it.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

When he was sure that Saurial was probably far enough away that she was out of any vaguely sensible auditory range, and adding a significant safety margin, Dennis relaxed slowly. "Jesus Christ," he muttered. "That girl is terrifying."

Kid Win nodded soberly. "I really don't think she means to be," he replied. "She has a… slightly different outlook than the rest of us in some ways. She seems nice, though. In a sort of 'don't for god's sake fuck with her' way, I mean." He glanced at his friend with a small smirk. "Going to try to get back at her for that prank? Which was fucking hysterical, by the way."

"Not a chance. She's probably laugh it off, true enough, but… I wouldn't want to risk it if she didn't, not until I know her a lot better. I can't help thinking that trying to push her would be… not good."

"That's what Gallant said," Kid Win noted. "He's usually right about that sort of thing."

Clockblocker shivered. "I noticed you didn't ask her about her supermetal that Armsie's so interested in."

The Tinker shook his head. "Like you said, and he did as well, I think it's best to wait until we know her better."

"True."

They sat in silence for a moment, then both stood up. "It was a damn good prank, though," the red head chuckled, not at all annoyed about it. He appreciated the work of a master when he saw it, even if it was at his expense, once the initial fright had passed. He really wanted to see her do it to Assault.

"You went higher pitched than Vista when she's excited," Chris snickered, gliding alongside him on his board.

"No, I didn't."

"Trust me, you did."

"Can't be true. We should test it. You record it, I'll show her something cute."

"Idiot."

They headed on the rest of their route, playfully griping at each other.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Miss Militia watched the playback of the store robbery that Saurial had so efficiently and unnervingly shut down with an intent look. Beside her, Armsmaster, his helmet off, was also watching. He seemed impressed, slightly.

"Shit," Aegis said with a twitch at the first person view of a movie monster hunting down humans in a dark room. The muzzle flashes periodically lit the place like camera strobes, showing screaming people fleeing in all directions, while the camera panned about, then shot towards one of them, rotating through a complete barrel roll as the cape made use of the shelves and floor to run across. "Über and Leet only wish they could pull something like this off."

A pair of scaled arms reached out, competently executing what she recognized as some form of martial arts sleeper hold, not one she was familiar with, but obviously effective, as the struggling man immediately slumped into unconsciousness. Saurial lowered him to the ground with surprising care, then put his hands behind his back, a set of the restraints she'd seen on Colin's monitor the other day forming with no fuss around his wrists, linking them immovably together. The Tinker leaned forward, clearly fascinated.

"That is… remarkable," he mumbled to himself.

They watched as Saurial plowed her way through a full dozen E88 gang members in minutes, without a single injury she could see, and no collateral damage directly caused. Quite a few things got knocked over but that was mainly due to the panicking men and women.

The second to last man was sent flying a remarkable distance by a flick of a strong tail, making her nod at the confirmation that she could weave that limb into what were definitely practiced hand to hand combat skills. She wondered where the cape had learned to fight like that, especially with her tail.

The last man was both very funny and rather horrifying, as he was apparently on the verge of a nervous breakdown. She couldn't find it in herself to have much sympathy, she recognized him as someone who had been responsible for more than his fair share of attacks on minorities, but she still found herself wincing as he fell apart.

When it was all over and the recording ended, the lizard girl having apparently stopped it as she exited the store behind the fleeing gang member, in no particular hurry, she turned in her chair and looked at the other Wards. Gallant had a sort of bemused, slightly stunned look on his face, mixed with a sort of worry that seemed odd to her, Vista was staring wide eyed, Clockblocker and Kid Win were exchanging glances, while Shadow Stalker, who had been allowed to view the video for informational purposes, was staring in what looked like horrified awe.

"Thoughts?" she asked.

"I'm never playing laser tag with her, that's for sure," Clockblocker immediately said, making her sigh just a little.

"Useful thoughts?"

"She's extremely mobile, especially in a confined space," Aegis replied slowly. "Containing her would be an absolute nightmare without significant force. She's amazingly quick to react as well. Combined with her strength she'd be hell to fight."

"Even without weapons," Gallant added. "She only used her hands, feet, and tail the entire time."

"Very tough, none of the guns slowed her in the slightest," Vista mused. "She didn't even notice, really, although she went after the ones shooting first."

"Saurial said that was to stop stray rounds hurting the other suspects," Kid Win noted. "She seemed honestly worried about that possibility."

"Significant skill in some form of hand to hand combat I don't recognize, optimized for someone with a tail," Armsmaster put in after some thought. "Efficient, quick, designed for maximum damage with minimum effort. Something like Krav Maga but not. She was seriously limiting herself to avoid causing injuries."

"Saurial didn't seem particularly fussed about which way up she was, which suggested to me she doesn't suffer from vertigo or other things caused by hanging head down in normal people." Aegis looked fascinated now. "Her body is internally as different as it is externally."

"Her senses are much better than we thought, at least her vision is. That camera she uses has exceptionally good low light performance, but even so she could obviously see much better in the dark than it could," Kid Win said thoughtfully. "Even with her sunglasses on. She didn't hesitate even once that I saw, and it was nearly completely dark in there. After she turned the lights out herself, of course."

"She capitalized on her abilities to tilt the situation as much in her favor as she could to make it as quick as possible to bring to an end," Armsmaster commented, nodding a little. "Again, efficient and ruthless. Even the psychological warfare part of the operation was nicely judged. And effective."

"To be honest, what I saw suggests a cape who has been fighting for years, rather than days," Miss Militia remarked, leaning back in the chair and staring at the blank screen for a moment. "Which is odd. True, powers normally come with instinctive knowledge of their use but the sort of thing we saw mostly comes from experience in fighting."

She noticed that Clockblocker was sitting quietly, apparently thinking. "You have something worrying you, Clockblocker?"

He shook his head. "Not worrying, actually. More curious. The thing I find odd is that she genuinely doesn't seem to want to look for fights, I got the impression she was just as happy to let people get on with their lives and would appreciate the favor being returned. But at the same time she didn't like things being shot up and would step in to prevent it."

The boy paused for a moment, then added, "She also seems to get on surprisingly well with the cops. She was polite and respectful and they all were the same back. It's a little strange, some capes and cops really don't get on at all."

"Would you say she sees the world in black and white?" Miss Militia asked curiously. "Like it's us and them?"

"No." Everybody turned to Gallant who looked back. "Unless by 'us' you mean her family and anyone she feels she owes something. Oddly enough, I'm not entirely certain that would necessarily exclude villains. I think she tends to assess each situation and person she meets on their own merits, rather than applying a generic good guys and bad guys template to it." He sighed slightly. "Vicky has a tendency to do that sometimes so I recognize it when I see it. I don't see it with Saurial from the brief contact I had with her or what Kid and Clock have reported."

Nodding a little, the military cape made some notes. The profile she was building for Saurial was a little peculiar in cape terms. Oddly enough, it was making her less worried in some ways and more in others.

"We'll have to raise her Mover and Thinker ratings by some amount," Armsmaster noted, making her nod as she wrote.

"Definitely. That was in no way Mover 1 and Thinker 1," she muttered, thinking, then writing some more. "Brute rating is probably low as well but without more information we have no idea how much. I wish we could test her."

"I asked and she's still not interested," Kid Win said.

"All right, you tried. Thank you." She wrote for a few more seconds, then put the pen down.

"It would be useful to get confirmation of the idea that she's a Changer of some sort, but I suppose that's unlikely." Turning to Shadow Stalker, who had been silent the entire time, she said, "Do you have any observations, Shadow Stalker?"

The girl looked back at her blankly for several seconds, her expression impossible to read, then stood, picked up her mask, put it on, and left, not saying a word.

"Guess not," she muttered as everyone watched, then exchanged glances and shrugs. There was an uncomfortable silence for a moment.

"Want to see Clock scream like a girl?" the young tinker suddenly asked. He was grinning. She looked at him, then the named cape, who had a long-suffering look on his unmasked face.

"Yes. Yes I do," she smiled. Even Armsmaster seemed to have a tiny smile.

When the video of the reptilian girl's impromptu prank, seen both from her camera and Kid Win's side by side on the monitor, was finished, that little smile was just a tiny amount larger.

It gave her hope for the future, and made her wonder how she could maneuver Assault into the same situation…

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Vicky sat up in bed, rubbing her eyes, and reached for her phone, which had just indicated somewhat rudely that it had a text she should read. Prodding the screen with an elegantly manicured finger, she opened the SMS application.

"Apologize to Saurial soon. Seriously. D."

Staring at it for a moment, she put it back on her bedside table and lay down again, trying to go back to sleep. This proved difficult for some time.

π

"Oh, for god's sake, Taylor, what the hell is that?"

Danny stared at his daughter, who grinned back. "Like it?" she asked, waving her tail around very carefully in the living room, the care required because it now was capped in a sort of metallic sheath with a two foot blade coming out the end. "I can hold a sword in each hand and use another one with my tail like this, kind of."

"You're going to cut your own damn head off waving that thing around," he grumbled. "Hey! Mind that chair, I like it."

She looked embarrassed, carefully pushing the cut fabric back into place. "Sorry, Dad."

"That's worse than the… what was it, Thagomizer," he muttered. She brightened, the metal fitting on the end of her tail vanishing and being replace with the mentioned upgrade. She looked over her shoulder, smiling a little as she moved the appendage around.

"I don't know, I still like it," she replied, looking back at him.

Turning, she caught the thing at the end of her tail under the sofa, promptly tripped over her own body, to finally end up almost upside down with her father in fits of laughter. She looked up at him, embarrassed. "But perhaps I should stick to using it outside," she added with a rueful grin.

Climbing to her feet she made all the accessories go away, then shook her head. "Hey, shut up, it wasn't that funny," she complained. Danny raised an eyebrow. "The voice in my head is laughing like an idiot," she explained in an aggrieved mutter, which promptly set him off again.

"I don't really think you need more weapons sticking out from strange places, dear," he said as she sat down across from him and draped her tail across her knees, fiddling with the end of it while watching him with a smile. "As Saurial you're already terrifying, as whatever you end up calling your combat form you're horrifying, and as whatever can push supertankers around I simply don't have the words. Even like this you can be somewhat scary." He waved a hand at her human base form, currently wearing nice pants and a blouse. "Although I do like the way you're wearing brighter colors these days. It suits you."

"Thanks, Dad," she smiled back, looking relaxed. "I'm… a lot more comfortable with myself these days," she explained, frowning slightly in concentration as she looked for the words. "Ever since the Varga turned up, I've been happier. Mostly a lot happier. Both about him and about you. You've changed as well, you're Dad, not the sort of sad man who seemed to be turning up more and more often." Looking at him with a hint of a tear in her eyes, she smiled. "I liked him even so, but I'm glad I have my Dad back."

He studied her, then moved across the room to side beside her, putting his arm over her shoulder and pulling her tight to his side. Her tail lay across both their laps, the warm finely scaled weight oddly comforting to him now. He was used to it to the point she'd look odd without it, he mused, with a smile and a shake of his head. Patting it comfortingly, he replied, "I'm glad to be back, and profoundly grateful to have my daughter back as well. She means everything to me. Tail and all."

Looking at the thing, she twitched the end. "You don't think it makes me look ugly?"

Turning her head with a finger to look at him, he shook his head, peering into her eyes. "You're my only daughter. I don't care what you look like, only what you are. Which, aside from terrifying, or horrifying, or indescribable, or just scary, is Taylor."

"Thanks, Dad," she replied in a small voice after some time, leaning against him.

"Your friend the Varga saved both of us," he added after a moment. "Thank you for that as well, whatever the hell you really are."

"He says you're welcome and also a good man who makes his enemies flee in terror before him, as a warrior should," she reported with a grin a moment later. He snickered.

"I think that's a good thing."

"Oh, it is, yes."

Falling into a pleasant silence, they sat beside each other for a while.

"I miss Mom," she finally said.

"I know, dear, so do I."

"Would she like my tail?"

"Of course she would. She'd probably want you to put a bow on the end on holidays, though."

Giggling, Taylor looked very amused. "I can do that."

"Don't feel pressured," he grinned.

"The funny thing is, now, that I wouldn't care if anyone saw it, except for two things," she continued thoughtfully, still inspecting her tail as if she'd never seen it before. Reaching out she ran her hand down it a few times. "One is that I'd never get any peace at home. I like being Saurial, she has confidence and people respect her. Or run away. Which is sort of funny. But I also like being Taylor, and I don't know if that could continue if everyone saw this thing."

"It might," he mused out loud. "Stranger things walk the streets."

"Yes, most of them are me," she giggled, making him grin again.

"I suppose that's true. Or ply the ocean waves, terrifying fishermen."

"Hey, he didn't even see me," she protested, smiling.

Danny shrugged, not replying for a moment. "What's the other thing?"

"I'm absolutely terrified what would happen to you," she said in a low voice. "Just by existing I'll make enemies. When people find out what I'm really capable of, they're going to go nuts. I'm scared to really push my limits because of that. I couldn't handle it if anything happened to you because of me. Mom was bad enough."

Holding her tighter, he shook his head. "That wasn't your fault. It was an accident."

"But what if someone tried something? Sure, I'd kill them and make sure no one ever forgot why, but it wouldn't bring you back. I'm not going to let that happen." She glared unseeingly at the coffee table as if she wanted to stab it, the last six inches of her tail lashing back and forth. He was amused by how like a cat's tail it was sometimes at showing her mood, at the same time he was worried about the direction the conversation had taken. Grabbing it he held it still, making her jump.

"I'll be fine, Taylor. Even so, I won't last forever. No one does." She was young to be pondering mortality, but sooner or later everyone had these thoughts. He remembered well the time in his youth, somewhat older than her, when he'd realized consciously for the first time that one day his mother and father would both be gone. Sixteen years after that had eventually happened due to cancer in one case and a heart attack in the other, it was still an ache in his soul that would never entirely heal.

"I know, I guess," she sighed sadly. "But I don't like to think about that and I don't want it to be because of me."

Gently stroking her tail, he calmed her. "We have to accept what comes, sooner or later, dear. Remember the old prayer. 'Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.' They were both silent for a while, reflecting on the words. "Good advice, I think, even for the non-religious. You have many more options for the middle part than most people. You need to work on the other two parts."

Patting her head, he lifted her tail out of the way and stood up. "I have no plans to go anywhere for some considerable time, dear, don't worry. I'm not even forty-five yet. And if anything does happen, I know who to call for backup." Smiling gently at her, he watched her nod. "I'm going to bed. Don't stay up too long, you need your sleep."

"OK, Dad," she replied, staring at the photo of the three of them in happier times which was sitting on the windowsill where she'd put it after digging it out of the attic a week earlier. He turned to leave.

"Thanks, Dad," she said quietly.

"You're more than welcome, dear. Trust me."

With that he headed upstairs, smiling to himself, remarkably at peace with the world.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

"He is in many ways a wise man, your father, Brain. We will protect him, trust me." The Varga spoke quietly, some minutes after her father had left the room.

'I do,' Taylor sighed, then headed up to bed herself, hearing her father breathing slowly and steadily in his room. 'There are only two people I really trust and I'll take advice from both of them any time. Thanks for all the help.'

"Thanks are unnecessary, Brain," the Varga rumbled contentedly as she got into bed. "Appreciated, of course, but unnecessary. I am merely doing what I do. The fact that I enjoy it so much is a bonus. You are a very good Brain and a lot of fun."

At the back of her mind she got the impression of a vast reptilian smile, echoed it with her own far smaller one, then fell asleep.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Stretching all five limbs as hard as she could, Taylor yawned, licked her lips sleepily, then climbed out of bed. Walking to the window, she peered out, seeing it was the beginnings of what looked like a very nice late winter day, the sun rising over the bay into a clear sky with no clouds. She could just make out the glint of light on waves through some gaps in the houses if she positioned herself correctly, the sea three or so miles away looking calm.

Wondering if she should go for another swim, she headed for the shower, her head slowly clearing of sleep. Not really paying any attention to the way her clothes vanished as she stepped into the cubicle, so used to it as she now was, she turned the water on. She didn't bother with fiddling with the temperature, whatever came out of the shower-head was fine these days, which was actually pretty convenient. It made showering a lot faster than waiting for the old boiler to decide that yes, it really was expected to provide hot water yet again. Some days it took quite a lot of convincing.

Deciding that was one of the upgrades that was required to the house, she soaped herself including her tail, running her hands down the scaly muscular thing leaving foam behind, then scrubbed. Over the sound of the shower she could hear her father moving around downstairs, the CD he'd bought a while ago playing again softly in the living room. They'd both decided for different reasons it was one of their favorite arrangements of music, her father because of the memories it brought back and she due to the effect it had on him.

Rinsing off she hopped out, toweled off, then brushed her teeth and hair. Walking to the door, clothing formed again, without any fuss. Soon she was entering the kitchen, smiling.

"You're in a good mood today," Danny noted, glancing at her, then going back to mixing pancake batter.

"I am," she nodded happily. "I feel a lot better than I did last night. Thanks for the talk. It just sort of hit me, and I didn't know how to handle it."

"I'm glad I helped," he replied, turning the stove on. "I had a very similar conversation with my own mother after Dad died years back. It was quite sudden, although we had some warning at least. Admittedly there were less demons involved but it wasn't entirely different as far as the feelings went." He looked at her again, smiling. "Life goes on."

"Apparently," she laughed.

"What are you planning to do today?" he asked, as he poured the first dollop of batter into the oiled, hot pan.

"I'm not sure, actually," she replied consideringly. "I could go out and find some more idiots with guns, we seem to have a lot of them, but..." She shrugged. "They're not much of a challenge."

"Based on that horrifying video you showed me last night when you came home, I can see why not," he chuckled. "I never thought I'd feel sorry for a Nazi."

"He was a gun-happy racist," Taylor protested mildly. "Who'd just wrecked a store by driving a huge truck into it. I'll bet the owners of that place would have laughed like lunatics to see him in that state."

"Probably," he admitted, flipping another pancake onto a pile of them on a plate. "I have to say it was better than most of what Über and Leet manage to do. It looked remarkably like a somewhat excessive video game."

Giggling, she accepted the first plate of pancakes, putting some lemon juice and maple syrup on it along with some butter, then diving hungrily in. Through a mouthful of sweet pancake, she commented, "Maybe I should see if they want a big lizard in one of their productions," then licked syrup off her lips. A dribble ran down her chin, so she lengthened her tongue into a forked reptilian one and chased it. Danny stared, his spatula in a raised hand, then shook his head wordlessly and went back to making his own breakfast.

"You probably shouldn't get involved in criminal enterprises, dear," he smiled. "Even Über and Leet. They're decent men for criminals, but they're still technically criminals."

Surprised, she stared at him. "Do you know them?"

Glancing back he smirked a little. "We've met, yes. Maybe two years ago. We had a merchant problem and hired them to deal with it. None of the heroes were interested. To be honest, they actually did a pretty good job, scared the junkies off without causing too much damage and didn't charge too much for it. Pity they didn't go into the security business rather than the video-game themed villainy business, but there you go."

Bringing his own pancakes to the table having turned off the stove, he sat and poured himself some apple juice from the pitcher on the table, topping up her glass at the same time.

She kept looking at him for a moment, then shook her head and went back to eating. "I thought I knew what you got up to at that dockworker place but obviously I was wrong," she grinned.

He shrugged. "Needs must, dear. We've learned to be fairly pragmatic, it's the only way to make ends meet sometimes." They ate in silence for a while, then he spoke again.

"I've made a list of people with whom I'm going to raise, carefully, the idea you had. A few people at the yard, a lawyer I know who's an expert on marine salvage, a couple of engineers, and the Mayor."

"The Mayor?" she asked, a little surprised.

He nodded. "Mayor Christner is actually a fairly sensible person, considering he's a politician. By and large I think he wants to do the right thing. Money is tight, so it's always difficult to persuade him to do anything at all that will cost, but in this case, the benefits probably hugely outweigh the downsides. He'll most likely go for it with a bit of persuasion and some sort of explanation that sounds… at least plausible. I think the complete truth is probably a little much at this point though."

Taylor listened, nodding to herself. It sounded like he know what to do, and she trusted him. "OK. If you need anything from me just let me know and I'll do it."

"Thank you, Taylor. It will take some time in all likelihood so don't get impatient, but I think it stands a chance of working out."

"What about the ferry?" she asked curiously. He put his fork down and took another sip before replying, looking thoughtfully at her.

"If the salvage operation can actually work, that would not only clear the ground for reopening the ferry, but probably provide the money to actually do it. That's one of the things I want to talk to him about. I'll call his office tomorrow and see if I can arrange a meeting soon."

"OK. That sounds great."

"Are you prepared for Arcadia tomorrow?"

She nodded. "I've got fresh pens, pencils, notebooks, and erasers. Also my calculator assuming I'm allowed to use it. I think they'll have a list of textbooks I need as well, I know they have a small shop you can buy them from although Mandy said they give you most of the ones you need."

"All right. That sounds like you have things in hand. Very good."

Since by this point they'd both finished, she took his plate and hers to the sink, then got everything else, quickly starting to wash it since it was her turn. "Do you think anyone would mind if I went down to the dockyards today to practice sword work?" she asked suddenly. He looked over at her from the notebook he was looking through, as she glanced over her shoulder, a surprised expression on his face.

"I… don't think that would be a problem. There's no one there today. What sort of thing did you have in mind?"

"I was going to have Varga make some dummies that I could attack, but I need space for it. If I go and find a place in the main dock area I'm pretty sure some twit will wander along and get in the way, the place is crawling with merchants and sometimes either the ABB or E88. They'd just be a nuisance. I thought that inside the DWU fence would be better."

He was nodding thoughtfully. "If anyone did ask, I could say I'd called the head of the DWU and asked permission, because he's a nice man or so I've heard on the street." She grinned at him.

Laughing a little, he replied, "I'm not actually the head of the DWU, Taylor. Michael is."

"No one ever sees him, you said. I know that all the people there think you're the guy to go to. Saurial is just a sensible cape who asked permission to use a large empty area and found out the person to ask."

"She does seem to have a reputation for sanity unusual in capes, from what I hear," he snickered. "Most of them seem to wander around just doing whatever the hell they feel like."

"Most capes are nuts," she sighed. "Even the nice ones."

"You may be right, dear. OK, you can use the yard, I'll write you a letter of permission. If anyone asks you called me at home. In fact, actually call here with your burner phone from somewhere else to make the records match. Hopefully that will keep people happy and in the dark."

"Best place," she quipped with a smirk.

Finishing with the dishes, Taylor put everything on the rack to dry for the moment, then turned around and leaned on the sink, watching him. After a moment, she slowly said, with some worry about the reaction, "Dad? Can I tell you something? But I need you to promise you won't get mad first."

Once again, he looked up from his notes, taking in her expression. "Is it bad?"

"It's… not good."

"Is it your fault?"

"No. At least..." She thought, then shook her head. "No, it's not."

"Hmm." Staring at her he took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. "Is it a one coffee or two coffee problem?"

"Probably three?" She smiled as he sighed.

"OK. Let me put the kettle on, and I'll meet you in the living room."

"Promise you won't get mad?"

"I promise I'll try not to. That's the best I can do until I hear it."

After a moment, she sighed and nodded a little. "That will do."

Shortly they were sitting in their places in the living room. Taylor had her laptop with her, which she put on the coffee table.

"I think I've worked out something… worrying," she said a little haltingly, still not sure this was a good idea. She and the Varga had talked it out extensively and they were both more or less certain she was right, but neither of them was entirely sure about the wisdom of telling her father. The Varga was actually more in favor of it than she was, having formed a high opinion of him over the last month. She was just nervous, and didn't want to upset him, but accepted that the demon had a point. Neither did she want to keep secrets from him any more, that had nearly been a disaster the last time for both of them.

Taking a drink of coffee, then another one to be safe, he put the cup down and waited.

She swallowed hard. Maybe it was best just to say it.

"I think Sophia Hess is a Ward."

No. No, that wasn't the best way, it turned out.

Taylor watched in some alarm the odd color sequence her father's face followed, ending up a faint puce shade before it faded to a more normal appearance.

"A Ward." His voice was completely expressionless, unlike his expression.

She nodded.

"Sophia Hess."

She nodded again.

"Your little friend. The extremely aggressive one who locked you in your locker for over half a day with enough hazardous waste to choke Behemoth. That Sophia Hess."

She nodded again.

There was a long, uncomfortable silence.

"I see. Do you have any proof?" He was breathing slowly and steadily through his nose with a faint whistling sound, making her wince. She could see the veins pulsing under his skin in thermal vision and normal, while there was a scent that she noted down as 'Extremely angry Danny Hebert' filling the room.

"Proof, no. A lot of pretty solid circumstantial evidence, yes, I think so."

"I see," he said again, his voice tight. She was wondering if she could get a do-over and try again, break it to him more slowly.

Eventually her father slowly and with obvious, enormous, deliberate effort somehow forced himself to relax, which greatly impressed her. Even the Varga, who had been watching with interest and concern, murmured a few words noting the same thing.

"All right. I can't say I'm particularly happy about that, but… all right. Show me what you have."

He took a couple of deep breaths, then leaned forward, looking at the laptop she opened and swiveled around on the table to face him. "OK. Thanks for not running out to scream at the PRT, by the way," she smiled.

"I'm not ruling it out just yet," he replied with a frown, staring at the screen.

She nodded a little. "This is a picture of the six current wards from off the PRT website," she explained after a moment, tapping the space bar to zoom it to full screen. He leaned closer, inspecting it. Reaching over the screen from behind, leaning sideways a little to see it, she tapped each figure with her finger in turn. "Gallant. Aegis, the leader at the moment. Clockblocker. Kid Win. Shadow Stalker. And at the end, Vista."

He nodded thoughtfully.

"I've met all of them but Aegis and Shadow Stalker so far. Gallant and Vista last week on my first night out, Kid Win and Clockblocker last night."

Once again he nodded, smiling momentarily as she mentioned the latter two, having laughed until he cried at her footage of the time stopping cape nearly jumping off the roof in shock.

"You remember how good my senses are now? In human form they're nowhere near as good as even the Saurial form, the combat one is better, and apparently the full Varga one is best of all, but even now I can see, hear, and smell wildly better than a normal person can. If I change my eyes I can do much better than that, even." She looked at him with orange-yellow reptilian eyes, which he simply looked at, showing no surprise.

"I understand. It's very impressive, dear. Go on."

"OK." She looked at the picture on the laptop again for a second or two. "I can easily recognize people by scent. I only need to meet them once, then I can pick them out again with no problem, even a long way away if they're upwind. Saurial or the combat form could track someone across the city better than a bloodhound. That's point one."

He responded with a thoughtful look and a nod.

"It's public knowledge that at least some of the Wards attend Arcadia," she added slowly. His eyes widened, narrowed, then widened again.

"Ah."

"Exactly. I met three of them there definitely, and I'm pretty sure of a fourth one." She sighed a little. "You remember what I told you about what they call the Unwritten Rules?"

Smiling for a moment, he replied, "Rules of engagement for capes, basically. On the face of it not a terrible idea."

"Yep. Most of them, I think, take them pretty seriously. It's a big deal to out a cape. I'm not going to say anything about who they are to anyone, even you, because..." She shrugged a little. "Well, because I really don't want anyone doing the same thing to me and they deserve the same respect."

"All right, I understand and approve. I won't ask. Go on." He leaned back in his chair, tapping one finger on the chair arm, listening intently, now seeming more curious than furious.

"When I met Gallant and Vista, I didn't know who they were, but I noticed a really faint and not totally fresh, but not old either, smell on both of them that was vaguely familiar. It took a while to place it, because it was so faint and also because it was so unexpected. When I did work it out I got really, really angry for a moment, but I managed to push that down so I didn't do or say anything stupid. Like you just did."

"Sophia," he said. She nodded, scowling.

"Yes. The scent was so faint it's probably something that's been transferred from something that she touched, or sat on, that they then did the same thing to. It could have been a coincidence, of course. Maybe they sat next to her on a bus, or in the same chair at the library..." She shrugged. "Lots of possible sources. It worried me a little and the reminder of that bitch was a shock, but it could easily have been a coincidence."

"I assume that Clockblocker and Kid Win share that scent, from your expression, though," he slowly said, the tapping finger slowing down.

Taylor nodded again, with a small sigh. "Yes. Exactly the same thing, and it's fresher than Gallant and Vista. It isn't that all four of them bumped into her on the street at the same time, there are at least two encounters a week apart. Which seems unlikely unless they know her somehow. One I could believe was a complete coincidence, two would be a stretch, but four?"

"It doesn't seem likely, dear, no," he agreed, staring at the screen.

"I'm almost certain that the fourth one I met at Arcadia is Aegis, I think I could smell traces of him on Clockblocker and Kid Win, but I'm not sure yet. But I'm pretty sure that when I see him again, he's going to smell like Sophia as well."

She sighed a little. "Add to that the fact that Clockblocker told me Shadow Stalker is currently unavailable, as he put it, and when I looked it up on PHO last night, no one has reported seeing her since about a week after you went to Winslow..." She spread her hands widely, the end of her tail flicking irritably. "I know it's nothing that would stand up in court, and I'm not sure myself, but I can't see a huge hole in the logic. I think Sophia Hess is Shadow Stalker and that she's… what's the word… confined to quarters, somewhere that the rest of the Wards go regularly. Probably the Rig, I'd guess."

Danny was silent, studying her with a look of slightly absent calculation.

"And look at this." She pointed at the picture again. "Six teenagers, but only two are female. Vista is blonde and much too short to be Sophia, not to mention probably about two or three years too young. The only one left is Shadow Stalker. She's the right height, right build, right age… You can't see her skin or hair color in her costume and no one seems to know if she's white, black, green even. But she's got a reputation as being arrogant, cocky, aggressive, pushy… Does that remind you of anyone?"

"It does," he noted, grinding his teeth together.

"I found a video clip of her stomping towards some poor guy she'd pinned to the wall with a crossbow bolt through his clothing, and..." Quickly bringing up the clip in question, she played it, Danny leaning forward again to watch. "…That walk is just like the one I remember. Like on the recording we made," she continued. "Again, not proof, but it's another point in favor of my theory."

Danny took his glasses off and rubbed his eyes, swearing under his breath. "It fits, unfortunately. I agree, you don't have any real proof, but I believe what you can do and it seems a reasonable interpretation of your evidence." He sighed angrily, then put his glasses back on and inspected her.

"What do you want to do about it?"

"Nothing."

He seemed somewhat startled.

"Nothing?"

"There's nothing I can do about it, without revealing that not only do I know who Sophia is, but I probably also know who all the Wards are, and could easily work out who any cape I meet is in real life." Taylor sighed, rubbing her own eyes for a moment. "That wouldn't go down very well. It's another potential reason for the PRT to get all flustered about me. They'll probably work it out sooner or later anyway but hopefully by the time they do they'll know me well enough to realize I'm not a threat."

She smirked a little for a moment, showing very pointy teeth in a display that shouldn't fit in a human mouth. "Unless they make me one, of course."

Danny grinned, his teeth nowhere near as sharp, but the feeling much the same.

"That's a mature attitude, Taylor, and I'm proud. Just a little surprised. I have to admit, at your age if I'd gone through what you did then found all this out I think I might have reacted, well, 'badly' is a mild word. Even today I'd probably do something I might regret later. I'm still tempted, to be honest."

Taylor closed the lid of the laptop, then leaned back on the sofa. "I nearly did. I could so easily have ended up hating them all for it. But it's like you said last night, basically I need to pick battles I can win." She smirked again. "That's probably a lot of them, actually, but you get the idea. There's no reason right now to go and pick the Rig up and drop-kick it into the Atlantic."

He laughed, shaking his head. "I wonder how far it would go?"

"Pretty far."

Sharing an amused look, they fell silent for a little while. "Of course, if they let her go without punishing her, and she comes after me, I'm going to hurt her. A lot." Taylor looked reflectively out the window while Danny watched. "If she goes after you, I'll kill her. Eventually."

She turned to him with a small vicious smile. "Varga has all sorts of ideas about that."

Shuddering a little despite himself, Danny moved to sit beside her as was becoming a habit, so she could lean on him. "I mean it, Dad. If she hurts you, she dies. No one will ever find the body."

"Hopefully it will never come to that, dear," he told her, impressed, very slightly amused, and believing every word.

A few minutes passed, then she stirred. "There's one other thing."

"Oh, god," he sighed. "Why am I not surprised?"

"You know me, Dad," she grinned. The grin slipped after a second or two. "I know who Gallant is. The problem is, he knows who I am too. Or rather, who Saurial is. I don't know if he knows about Taylor."

"How the hell did that happen?" Danny asked after a moment.

She sighed minutely, shrugging. "He can apparently read emotional output, an empathic sense. I think either mine is distinctive enough to remember, or it's like scents with me, he can just track them individually. Probably that, in fact. Anyway, as I was walking past, I smelled someone I knew, looked over, and he was staring at me like he'd seen a ghost. He actually paled. I sort of glared at him for a second then kept walking. But he knows, and I know, and he knows I know."

"Do you think he'll tell anyone?"

She shook her head. "Probably not. He looked really shocked and uncertain, but everyone says he's a stand-up guy. I think the Rules will keep him honest. If they don't, I can have a word with him." She reached out with a hand that changed to a large taloned scaly thing and slowly mimed wrapping it around someone's neck, making Danny stare, then wince. "He'd listen, I'm sure."

"I suspect he would, dear. You're very persuasive."

"Thanks," she giggled, reverting the hand to normal.

"I wonder if the other Wards know what she did?" he commented after a moment, making her look up at him. "It's not impossible that they weren't let in on the whole thing. I'm sure that Director Piggot is aware, it's her job to know things like that, and other people in the PRT must be in on it, there's no way Blackwell could have kept a secret however much she'd have liked to." He grinned for a moment. "I suspect she got a good ass-kicking about it if you're right about Sophia."

"Good," Taylor laughed. "She deserves it. Maybe it will make her do her damn job."

"Probably not, to be honest, that woman is… not very effective," he sighed.

"I don't know about the other Wards," Taylor mused, answering his original question. "I'd like to think that they'd not like Sophia. She's a horrible person in almost every way I can think of, but so far the ones I've met, I like. Clockblocker has a good sense of humor, Kid Win seems interesting, Vista is fun, and even Gallant seems to live up to his name. It will be interesting to meet Aegis."

"I assume you'll eventually meet all the Protectorate capes in the Bay as well, if you keep running around terrifying poor criminals and scaring them straight," he chuckled. She looked thoughtfully at him.

"I wonder if that works?" she asked.

"Assuming you don't give them coronaries in the process," he added.

"I can hear their heartbeats, I'll keep it light."

"Light horror?"

"Yep."

"OK, then." Shaking his head in amusement, he reached for his coffee, to find it was cold. "Damn. That was only a half cup problem. You overestimated it again."

Standing, he headed back into the kitchen to make some fresh coffee, while she fondly watched him go, then went back to looking out the window and thinking.

π

Have an omake!

<< 02/01/2011 - 03:14:59 >>

<< PRT Internal Threat Assessment Report - Security Level 4 access required >>

Protectorate ENE - Brockton Bay, New Hampshire
Reporting Officer - Lt Cmdr. Hannah Roberts / Miss Militia
Subject - Independent Hero Codename: Saurial

Appearance - Saurial resembles a teenaged female Human/Velociraptor hybrid: 6'5" tall, weighing approximately 175 pounds, with blue scales, a flexible tail and a crest of dark blue-black hair-feathers. Her costume is a dark blue Classical/Fantasy style armored cuirass and skirt with gold trim, composed of an unknown metal (see Shaker abilities).

Brute 6: Saurial stated she is capable of deadlifting over 5000 pounds. She has also been unaffected by handgun and light machinegun fire at pointblank range.

Shaker 4: Saurial has displayed a matter-generation power, which includes the creation of a hyperdense refractory metal designated 'SaurialSteel'. This metal has proven indestructible to conventional damage. Saurial's armor is presumably made of this material and she has been observed creating various simple weapons (swords, warhammers, bats) and bindings of it. Extensive testing of the metal proved impossible as it vanished without any trace after a short period.

Armsmaster has stated that should any Heroes encounter Saurial, they politely request to obtain a sample of this metal for further testing and possible anti-Endbringer applications.

Mover 3: Saurial has been recorded running at speeds in excess of 50 mph, and is capable of climbing walls and ceilings with little effort.

Thinker 3: Saurial possesses highly enhanced vision and is able to function normally in near-total darkness. Despite the sunglasses she wears, she has stated she is not hypersensitive to light, but wears them to conceal her very distinctive glowing orange eyes. It is suspected her other senses are similarly augmented.

Changer 6+?: It is unconfirmed that Saurial's powers are in fact the result of a Changer form, as she has declined formal power testing on two occasions.

Profile: Saurial has shown herself to be rather gregarious, even playful at times while on patrol, establishing a rapport with both law enforcement officers and the Wards she has encountered. Despite this, she is ruthlessly efficient at dealing with criminals. She is an expert in close-quarters combat, using an unknown martial arts style similar to Krav Maga, and she has stated this expertise extends to weapons she may create. She is also very talented at psychological warfare as this video demonstrates. This seems indicative of several years of experience, despite her apparent age.

One final note, while she does not seem to have an 'us vs. them' mentality. Saurial has stated that she would respond to threats against her family and friends with extreme prejudice. In light of this, it is my recommendation that she be allowed to consider Wards membership on her own terms, rather than attempting aggressive recruitment tactics.

<< END REPORT >>

Looking around, Taylor smiled a toothy smile. The area was perfect for training, a large open concrete area some three hundred yards square next to the bay, several warehouses to the right side, more behind, and a long fifteen foot chain-link fence topped with razor wire around the two other sides. The main Dockworker's Union headquarters was in another part of the site, some distance from her, separated by another row of smaller warehouses, the entire area ultimately enclosed by the fence except for a few buildings on the waterfront, including the one she and her father had experimented in.

Without swimming some distance and climbing over extremely jagged and dangerous old concrete pilings festooned with barnacles and rusting pointy bits of old ironworks, there was no real way into the zone from the water. One long wharf protruded two hundred yards out into the deeper channel some way from shore, but the near end of it was closed off with very heavy gates. Overall it was fairly secure from casual passers-by who couldn't either fly, jump or climb over the fence, or simply rip it down. That did admittedly include a lot of capes but there wasn't much here for most of them with the ability to get in easily.

The security was mainly aimed at preventing casual theft, vandalism, and junkies looking for somewhere to shoot up, which according to her father it did fairly well. Someone managed to get in every now and then but they could normally be persuaded to go away again by a few burly stevedores with crowbars. Or one Zephron, who had a massive quality that made people turn around and walk the other way. Even most E88 members.

"Excellent, Brain," the Varga commented, viewing the area with her as she turned on the spot in the middle of the empty zone. "This will do nicely. You should call your father to let him know, and to produce the phone record he mentioned."

'Good idea,' she smiled, pulling out the burner phone and dialing her home number. When it was answered, her father's voice coming to her ear, she said, "I got here, it's great. Thanks. I'll make sure I clean up afterwards."

"OK, dear. How did you get in, by the way?"

"I jumped over the fence, it's only about fifteen feet high. No problem." She grinned at his faint exclamation of amusement.

"Most people seem to find it sufficient," he chuckled. "Enjoy yourself and I'll see you at home for dinner. Around six?"

"Sure, that sounds good. See you later."

Flipping the phone shut she put it back in her pouch then looked around again, before rubbing her hands together, the scales making a dry rasping sound. "Where to begin?"

"You need practice using two swords, I think. It's considerably more difficult than one, but can be very useful under the right circumstances. Once you are proficient with two blades, we can switch to batons and make the strikes less lethal."

'Sounds like a plan,' she agreed happily. The next ten minutes were occupied by wandering around and allowing the Varga to create practice dummies, mostly out of something like wood, a few out of steel for taking heavier strikes, and a few more out of stone for the same reason and because she was curious to see what happened. By the time they finished there were about forty of them dotted about the place, alone or in little clumps representing a gang group.

"OK," she muttered, letting the Varga manifest a three foot blade more like a saber than the sword she normally used in each hand and crouching down a little, leaning forward at the ready. She spun the swords once, not really thinking about it, then charged. Splinters flew as she dived into the middle of the first group of poor innocent dummies who had no idea what was heading at them, a grin stretched across her muzzle.

Mowing her way through them in seconds, she kept going, heading for the furthest group and taking long bounds that cleared the distance in seconds. Again, there was a cloud of wood and splinters, before she was heading for a lone stone warrior, laughing to herself.

"This is fun," she giggled, removing the head with a backswing, then spinning around in a low twirl using the inertia of her tail to control the spin, chopping the poor bastard off at the ankles.

The Varga was making approving sounds in her head as she massacred her army, then went around remaking them to try it again.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

"Hello, Sarah." Carol stepped aside and let her sister in, her niece following her mother into the Dallon house. "And Crystal. What brings you here?"

"We were thinking of going out later for a meal and wanted to know if you guys wanted to come, so we thought we'd walk over and ask since it's a really nice day for the time of year," Crystal Pelham smiled as she took her coat off and hung it up. "Are Vicky and Amy here?"

"Amy's reading in her room, and Victoria is in the dining room," Carol replied, glancing at her sister, who was smiling at the way her own daughter hadn't let her answer or indeed get a word in yet.

"Thanks, Aunt Carol," the young woman replied, moving off towards the dining room, already talking to her cousin before she walked through the door. Carol watched, then turned to her sister.

"She's in a good mood."

"She got very good marks on a test and it seems to have made her feel extremely pleased," Sarah chuckled, briefly hugging her sister. "How are you, Carol, I haven't seen you for over a week?"

"I'm fine, thanks, Sarah," Carol replied as she went back into the living room, her sister following, then sat down. Sarah sat opposite her in another chair. "Although I've been trying to work out how to make a somewhat… awkward… phone call."

Sarah appeared a little confused. "Awkward? Who are you calling?"

"Have you heard of a new cape called Saurial?"

Her sister nodded thoughtfully. "I have. There was some amusing video footage on PHO last night posted by Kid Win of a very impressive looking and to be honest, frankly scary cape by that name pulling an extremely funny practical joke on Clockblocker. It was hysterical, the poor boy looked like he nearly had a heart attack from the shock of it. Kid Win nearly laughed himself sick. There's a huge thread about it already, both Wards seem to find it very funny."

She pulled out her phone and poked around on it for a moment, then turned it around so her sister could see the screen. Carol watched with impressed worry tempered with amusement. The Ward had seemed extremely surprised, while the reptilian cape was obviously enjoying herself, as was Kid Win. The Tinker had posted edited together footage from a camera he had which showed the girl sneak up on his totally oblivious partner, cut with the scene from her point of view, apparently taken with the camera she could see mounted on the girl's head. He'd set then entire thing to music, appropriately chosen to maximize tension, which worked somewhat horrifyingly well.

"That's… very impressive," she finally said when the clip ended, smiling a little.

Sarah nodded, putting the phone away again. "She's been making a name for herself in the last week or so. Three outings as far as anyone knows, and she's so far managed to subdue and restrain eighteen E88 members, five ABB members, and six Merchants, with only two injuries, none serious. And recover a truly horrifying number of firearms. From what a couple of cops have posted, they're rather impressed and very pleased."

She grinned. "One called her terrifyingly cute and horrifyingly effective, or it might have been the other way around. He seemed to like her. But he also joked he didn't like going into dark places any more after seeing some footage she gave them. Like something out of a good horror movie, he said."

"I see." Carol was getting a little worried.

"She apparently records all her interactions with criminals with that camera she was wearing," her sister went on. "Not a bad idea, actually, it's a good way to show what happened if anyone claims excessive force. The cops seem to approve of her methods so far and also seem surprisingly respectful. I've heard she seems to respect them right back which I imagine improves relations a lot. The one posting on PHO added she was very polite, with the implication he wished more capes would follow her example, but not actually saying it outright."

Carol nodded, thinking. Hopefully the young woman would be reasonable. "So why are you trying to contact her?" Sarah asked curiously.

"Vicky had… a small disagreement with her downtown on Friday," Carol sighed. "It didn't give a good impression."

Raising an eyebrow, her sister mutely asked for details, so Carol obliged. Sarah winced. "Oh, dear. That's… not ideal, is it?"

"Not really. Having a recording of Glory Girl insulting, assaulting without provocation even in the fairly mild way she did, then threatening, a new cape, merely because she was in a foul mood and got carried away, released to the news would be more than a little damaging. I'm hoping desperately that we can persuade her to erase it."

"You did WHAT?!" The cry of shock came from the dining room, making both sisters look that way, then at each other. Crystal's voice dropped, apparently having something of an argument with her cousin.

"I think Vicky just told her," Sarah noted with a wry smile.

"It sounds like that." Carol took her own phone out of her pocket and looked at it, as she'd been doing intermittently for nearly an hour, trying to work out the best approach.

"How did you get her number?" Sarah asked.

"A contact in the BBPD passed it on. Apparently she gave it to several officers over the last few days and it's in their system now." Sighing, she selected the number, and hit dial, putting the phone on speaker then placing it on the small table between them. "Let's see what happens. I hope this works."

The other end rang a few times, then was answered.

"Saurial's training ground, how may I direct your call?" a surprisingly chirpy sounding female voice with a hint of a somewhat odd hissing accent came from the speaker. There was a background sound of something that sounded like an ax hitting wood. The sisters looked at each other for a moment.

"Is this Saurial?" Carol asked a little tentatively.

"Yes, who's this, please?" The voice was still cheerful but seemed slightly more serious now. The rather odd background noises stopped.

"I'm Carol Dallon, or Brandish if you prefer. Glory Girl's mother? I was wondering if we could talk about the somewhat unfortunate incident a couple of days ago between you two."

"Oh, right, I remember. Is she OK? She seemed kind of upset for some reason." The reptilian cape sounded genuinely a little concerned, confusing Carol a bit.

"She's all right, thank you, although she's very upset about what she did. I was hoping that you might like to meet us and discuss it."

"It's OK, but if you want, I can meet with you, yes," the girl said thoughtfully. "I'm a little busy now but if you want to swing by the DWU compound down at the docks in about twenty minutes I'll be ready to take a break."

Raising her eyebrows, Carol looked at her sister, who looked back, appearing slightly confused.

"If I may ask, what are you doing there on a Sunday afternoon?" she asked with sudden curiosity. Saurial laughed lightly.

"Just some training. I needed a large area I wouldn't be bothered in and asked around. This place is secure and empty on the weekend, and the guy who runs the place was OK with me using it as long as I didn't break anything. He's nice. Anyway, I'm practicing at the moment, but if you want to come down, I can make time. Or I could come over to your place later in the week if you want."

"No, I think the sooner the better," Carol replied after a moment's thought. "I'm happy to come to you. We'll be there within half an hour."

"Great. OK, see you in a while." The line went dead. Carol stared at her phone for a moment then raised her eyes to meet her sister's.

"She sounds… happy," Sarah finally said.

"Almost too happy," Carol noted, frowning a little. "Although that may help." They both looked up as Vicky, looking somewhat irritated, and Crystal who was grinning, entered the room.

"Mom, did you hear what Vicky did?" Crystal seemed amused and appalled in equal measure.

"I'm afraid so, Crystal. Vicky, that wasn't really a good idea."

"I know," the blonde sighed, shaking her head. "So everyone keeps saying."

"You'll be pleased to know I've spoken to Saurial and she's willing to meet us to let you apologize. Hopefully we can ask her to erase that recording at the same time. We're meeting her down at the docks in the DWU facility."

The teenager didn't look as pleased as her mother might have wished. But she nodded.

"What's she doing there?" Crystal asked.

"Training, apparently. She seems to have managed to get permission to use the space there for some exercises." Sarah looked interested in the fact. "I have to say that's a novel approach to it. Just asking. Surprisingly few capes do that. Surprisingly few people in general do that, actually."

"Can we come and watch Vicky grovel?" Crystal grinned. Her cousin gave her a dark look. "I've seen photos of Saurial on PHO. I'd like to meet her, she looks interesting in a sort of scary way."

Sighing a little, Carol shrugged. "I suppose I can't easily stop you," she remarked, making the girl smirk. "All right. Everybody who's coming, get into costume, we may as well make it official. Victoria, you will go in first, be very polite, apologize, mean it, then call us in so we can ask if we can talk about the recording. In that order."

"Yes, Mom," the young woman sighed, on her way to get her costume on. Crystal went with her, needling her about her poor people skills, which made Sarah snicker.

"She's more than a little embarrassed about all this, isn't she?"

"As she should be," Carol growled, heading upstairs herself.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

"Fuck me sideways." Glory Girl stared, appalled, as the four women stood on the roof of a warehouse overlooking the DWU facility below them, watching a six foot plus humanoid lizard woman absolutely wreck a couple of dozen dummies scattered around a few hundred yards of concrete, wielding a pair of huge war hammers, which she was swinging one handed with no apparent effort. Several of the dummies were made of stone, shattering into powder with one hit, while at least one was apparently solid steel, folding in half and being launched into the air and completely over the perimeter fence into the bay with the next hit.

Saurial didn't even slow down, pivoting on her tail and racing off at ninety degrees to her former path, moving at what must have been fifty or sixty miles an hour, only to make one hammer vanish somehow, hold the other one with both hands, then slam it vertically downwards onto another steel statue which instantly crumpled like an empty beer can under a foot. The only reason it didn't vanish into the concrete was that each figure was standing on a yard square plate of dull gray metal which seemed to be strong enough to take the abuse.

When she swapped the hammer for a sword as long as she was tall and started mowing the remaining dummies down like a particularly enthusiastic mulching machine on two legs, the blonde heroine had to sit down for a moment, just staring.

She was extremely strong herself and her force field was impenetrable to anything anyone had ever been able to work out, but that only applied to the first hit. A strong enough blow would make it reset, which took a couple of seconds. From what she could see, Saurial could probably hit her at least half a dozen times in that period, any one of the blows capable of shredding reinforced concrete with ease. She felt faint.

"I think you should pick the people you insult a little more carefully next time, Cuz," Laserdream said slowly, watching with enormous eyes. She nodded, not able to speak.

Finishing with the last dummy, the lizard girl twirled her sword dramatically around her body in a sort of complex salute to the fallen, bowed to the debris, then made the sword disappear. She turned around. "Hey, you guys coming down, or do you want me to come up?" she called loudly.

She'd apparently heard them, which was impressive. And worrying, they were two hundred yards away and talking quietly.

Brandish nudged her daughter in the ribs. "Go down there," she hissed.

"OK, Mom, I'm going," Glory Girl said reluctantly, lifting off and floating towards the reptile woman who calmly watched her approach. Settling to the ground six feet away, the heroine looked at the other cape, who looked back, the sunglasses she was wearing glinting in the clear afternoon light as she cocked her head a little to the side, seeming curious.

"I'm really sorry about what I said, the way I said it, and how I insulted you and threatened you the other day, Saurial," Glory Girl finally managed to say. "And for calling you an overgrown newt. There was no excuse for my behavior." There was a long pause, then she added, "And I'm sorry about being rude about the police to you, I know you respect them."

"Apology accepted," the girl replied, making a small yet rather heavily toothed smile. Glory Girl managed to suppress her instinctive flinch, although the other cape apparently noticed. The smile widened slightly. "We're good. You had a bad day, your mouth got away from you. It happens. No harm done."

Sighing in relief, the blonde sagged a little. She looked up at her mother and waved.

Moments later Brandish, being carried by her sister, lifted off and headed for them, Laserdream flying beside them. All three women landed seconds later.

"Thank you for listening, Saurial," Brandish said with a grateful look. "I'm very sorry about any distress that my daughter might have caused you." She looked severely at Glory Girl, who lowered her eyes and poked the cracked concrete with her toe, feeling six years old again for a moment. Laserdream grinned at her from behind Lady Photon, making her feel worse.

Saurial laughed a little. "It's not a problem, honestly. Everyone has an off day every now and then. I've had lots of them. But I'm trying to reduce that, and not getting upset just because someone else is seems to be a big part of that."

"A very good attitude to take, Saurial." Brandish seemed pleased yet a little surprised.

There was a pause. "There's one other thing," Glory Girl's mother began carefully. The reptilian girl cocked her head again, her body language a little odd but understandable, looking like a curious cat. "Did you by any chance record that interaction?" They could all see the small camera attached firmly to the side of her head like a limpet, the lens pointing at them.

Saurial snickered. "Yep. It was hilarious, actually. But don't worry, I erased it after I watched it again. I was trying to work out if it was something I did, but couldn't figure it out. There was no point holding onto it."

Brandish let out a heartfelt sigh of relief at this, making Saurial laugh more openly. "Thank you. That would have been… more than slightly embarrassing, if it had become public."

"I wouldn't do that to you guys without a much better reason than Glory Girl having a bit of a snit," the cape grinned. All four New Wave members recoiled very slightly, which she didn't seem upset about.

A moment later, something hit the side of Saurial's head and bounced off. There was the distant report of a gunshot a second later. Glory Girl whipped around, scanning the horizon, letting out a yelp of shock, as did her family. She couldn't see anything, but someone had definitely fired a gun at the cape.

"He keeps doing that," Saurial sighed, bending over and picking up a flattened copper-jacketed rifle bullet that looked like it had hit a steel plate. "I mean, full marks for accuracy, he's a good shot considering he's about two hundred and fifty yards away, but it's getting irritating."

"You… keep getting shot?" Lady Photon asked very carefully as they all stared at the lizard girl who seemed remarkably unaffected by this. She nodded.

"Yep. Seven times in the last hour," she smiled, turning and pointing. "Same guy. He's up there, second window from the left, top floor. A merchant, I think, based on the stink." She sniffed the wind which was blowing from that direction as they exchanged glances. "Yes, definitely a merchant. That chemical smell and the vomit is sort of a giveaway."

"And you don't mind?" Laserdream asked in a dreamlike tone like she couldn't believe the conversation.

"Of course I mind, it's very rude, but I've been busy and there's no one else around to get hurt." Saurial shrugged. Another bullet whined past, going between the girl and the rest of them, then ricocheted off the concrete fifty yards away. Four of the five people present flinched violently while the fifth one looked to where the thing had gone, frowned, and said, "That's the first time he missed. Was he aiming at me or you guys?"

She turned and cupped her hands around her short muzzle, yelling, "Hey! You missed! Who were you shooting at?"

Glory Girl noticed that her three relatives had managed to maneuver so that she was between them and the shooter.

Yet another bullet smacked into the middle of the cape's chest, then dropped. "Oh. It was me again. I wonder how long he's going to keep doing this." Saurial sounded mildly annoyed now. "Damn, I'd better go and get him, I don't want to leave him here. He might start shooting at the dock workers tomorrow. Hang on, I'll be back in a minute."

Without waiting for a reply from any of them she sprinted towards the fence with appalling acceleration, her toe claws leaving gouges in the concrete, bounded over the fifteen foot fence with one leap, then made it to the brick warehouse and zipped straight up the outside of it with no more effort than she'd shown in running. Disappearing through the gaping empty window she'd pointed out she vanished from sight.

"Um..." Laserdream sounded stunned.

There was a distant scream.

"Please never insult this girl again, Vicky," Brandish said in a slow, horrified voice. Glory Girl nodded dumbly as they all watched the girl reappear, a screaming man over her shoulder and a hunting rifle slung over the other one, slipping back down the building with her captive struggling frantically in her grip, using only three limbs and her tail to cling on. Reaching the ground she ran back, hurdled the fence, and dropped the now gibbering man to the ground with more care than they expected.

She unslung the weapon from her shoulder and examined it, found the safety, and prodded it to the safe setting, then stared at the thing for a moment. "Do any of you know how to unload this?" she asked curiously, holding it up. "I don't know a lot about guns."

After a long pause, Brandish motioned for it, taking the weapon when it was handed to her, and removing the magazine. She worked the bolt to extract the last round, then handed it back, all without saying anything.

"Thanks," Saurial smiled. Pulling out a phone she dialed. "Hi. This is Saurial. I caught a merchant who was shooting at me, I've got him and his gun down at the DWU facility. He's OK but he seems a little worked up, you may need to look at him. OK. Fifteen minutes? Yes, I'll still be here. Thanks very much, sir." She hung up and put the phone away.

"Fucking hell," Laserdream whispered.

"I'll just move him over there so he's not in the way," Saurial stated, picking her prisoner up by the back of his coat and carrying him to the gate like a holdall. The man, whose hands were locked together by some manacles made of the same gray metal the training dummy stands were made from, whimpered a little but seemed to have stopped speaking in tongues.

"That was getting to be a pain," she said as she came back. "Anyway, I need to get back to training. You can watch if you want."

She turned around and walked a few yards away, a metal training dummy like the others, which they all suddenly noticed had quietly vanished during the gun interlude, forming out of nothing in front of her. Four pairs of eyes widened. She patted it on the head. "I think I'll call you Thag," she smiled. Stepping back, she flexed her tail, the appendage sprouting four terrifyingly sharp blades, two on either side, on a fitting attached securely around the end. The whole thing was that same gray metal. Crouching in front of the newly christened 'Thag' she stared at it, then leaped, passing it on the right and whipping her tail around hard.

The steel parted like silk over a razor, the top half of the construct dropping to the ground with a clang. Before the echoes died she'd spun and whipped her tail across the legs at the knee from the other side, then straightened up, watching with satisfaction as the remaining piece toppled onto its side. "Hey, it worked. I was wondering if it would." She looked very pleased.

Glory Girl opened her mouth, closed it, turned around, and lifted off.

"Bye! See you guys later, probably," Saurial called cheerfully behind her. Shortly she was joined by her relatives, the small formation heading home, while behind them there were more clanging sounds. None of them turned to see what caused them.

Halfway home, Lady Photon said quietly, "Vicky, if you ever do anything that stupid again I'll kill you myself, got it?"

"Got it," she told her aunt, shivering like she'd been dipped in ice water.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

"Point made, I think, Brain," the Varga noted with amusement as they watched the quartet disappear past the buildings.

'I think so too,' Taylor snickered. Hearing distant sirens, she had the demon dissipate the remaining parts of training dummy and her tail-blades, walking over to the gate and hopping over it with her prisoner and his weapon as the police van came into view at the other end of the road. Soon she was heading home, pleased with the way the day had gone, and looking forward to showing her father the recordings.

Then an early night. Tomorrow was a school day, after all.

π

Staring over the table at his daughter who was involved in cutting a piece of pork chop from the main part of her second one so far, Danny eventually shook his head in bemused wonder.

"Why would you let someone shoot you in the head nine times with a hunting rifle even if you can take it, Taylor?" he finally asked with careful interest. "It seems… hmm, how do I put this without sounding rude… less than optimally sane."

She put the piece of meat in her mouth and chewed, smiling a little at him, then took a drink of water.

"It seemed like a good idea at the time?" she ventured, experimentally.

Danny narrowed his eyes at her. He knew her too well. She looked a little guilty for a moment.

"Anyway, he missed once. And it was only in the head three times, it was in the chest or the back the other five. It stung a little when it missed my armor, but it wasn't much worse than those machine guns the first night I went out."

He kept looking hard at her.

"For a smelly guy nearly as old as you are who was obviously on something he was actually a really good shot," she kept going, glancing at him every now and then as she cut some more pork, apparently trying to judge how he was taking it.

"Old. I see. Thank you dear." He smiled a little, but didn't look away. "Come on, out with it. I know you're both smart and careful and your ancient friend in there with you is all those plus incredibly experienced. There was a reason you didn't stop him earlier. You could have done that at any time over nearly an hour. Why didn't you?"

She chewed thoughtfully, regarding him with an expression he recognized as her talking things over with the Varga. Danny waited, while he resumed eating his own dinner.

Eventually she nodded slightly to herself. "Several reasons. One was because I really was curious to see how many times he could pull it off before he either gave up or missed. I could hear and smell him up there all along, he watched for about ten minutes before he took the first shot, which did actually take me by surprise. I thought he was probably just a merchant scout but I'm sure there's more to it, now."

"OK. Somewhat worrying, but OK. Go on." He added some peas to his plate from the bowl on the table, offering it to her, then putting it down when she shook her head.

"Another reason is that Brandish called just after he took his sixth shot and I had reasons for wanting her and Glory Girl to see it. I'll go into that in a moment. Lady Photon and Laserdream were a bonus."

Danny felt a little startled, then sat back and thought. He was beginning to get a vague idea of where she was going with that comment, but waited.

"Yet another reason, and possibly the more important one, is that I wanted to see if the person who was watching with binoculars from another warehouse a little further away to the side would do anything interesting."

She smirked as he coughed a bit, spraying peas across his plate, then stared.

"Someone was watching?"

"Yep. I'm pretty sure that it was whoever got that idiot to shoot at me in the first place."

Clearing his throat, then drinking some more water to wash half-chewed peas and pork down, he inspected her. "I think you need to explain that, dear."

"When I was exercising, I was keeping an eye out for anything odd, the whole time. To be honest I was more than half expecting some merchants or maybe ABB to turn up sooner or later, I wasn't being quiet and those guys are all over the whole dock area like cockroaches. But it was oddly deserted the whole time. The ABB I can understand, I saw on the news just now that big fight they had with the E88 near the boardwalk this afternoon which probably distracted them, but the merchants were a little strange. Every time I've been through there in the last week or so I've seen half a dozen or so junkies, who are obviously watching and reporting back if anything interesting happens. I think someone scared them off."

"Which means… What?" Danny was worried and confused. He was aware of what she mentioned and she was right, there were almost always at least a couple of dirty and bedraggled homeless drug addicts hanging around the yard, although they seldom caused trouble these days. Über and Leet had left an impression, one that had been reinforced fairly vigorously on a couple of occasions since by some of the boys. They mostly seemed to give the entire facility a respectfully large clearance these days, but it was odd not to see at least one shambling past in the distance, a sign of the times.

"Varga thinks, and I think he's right, that someone was testing what I'd do in the face of provocation," she said slowly, putting her fork down and leaning her chin on her hands, looking at him. "We think they found that guy and paid him to shoot at me, gave him the gun which looked brand new and shiny, scared off the other junkies to keep the rest of the merchants away, then watched from a safe distance to see what happened. I spotted the light reflecting from the lens while I was running around, but I didn't spend any time staring because I didn't want to scare him off."

"Why would someone set something like that up?" None of the ideas he had were ones he was happy about.

She shrugged. "I don't know yet. I've got a couple of vague ideas and he's got more, but we don't have any proof of anything. Not even this for the most part. Although I do know for a fact that someone was watching, then left just after the New Wave ladies turned up. I checked where he was hiding on the way home and it was a man, probably white, not too old."

"How on earth do you know all that?" he wondered.

She tapped her nose with a finger, smiling. "This thing is pretty remarkable when I'm Saurial. Male or female, that's obvious, rough idea of race is not too hard, age is more difficult but I'm learning."

Nodding a little, he studied her, then smiled. "Pretty good, Taylor. Anything else?"

"I'll know him again if I smell him, definitely. I was half tempted to track him and see where he went but I wanted to get home and think about it. I can go back later, the scent will last for a couple of days. Unless it rains really hard, I think, which it's not supposed to do for a while." She resumed eating. "The guy with the gun was hysterical when I grabbed him, I think the last two or three shots were getting a little desperate which is why he missed that time, or maybe seeing half of New Wave turn up threw him, but he did have about two thousand dollars and a big bottle of Ritalin in his pocket. I think he was on that, and probably something else, but I don't know about drugs. I could smell it on his breath, though." She wrinkled her nose, making him grin.

"From about two hundred yards away. He was horrible, although in good condition physically from what I saw. He looked like someone who used to be pretty fit and went downhill. But he definitely had practice with guns, he knew how to use that thing." She glanced at him while sticking her fork into a roast potato. "Two hundred and fifty yards is a good long shot for a rifle, isn't it?"

"What sort of gun?" he asked curiously.

"It said Remington 750 on the side. Some sort of expensive looking hunting rifle with a telescopic sight. Brandish unloaded it and it had about five pretty big bullets in it, he'd just reloaded it when I came through the window and he screamed and threw it at me." She cocked her head, a mannerism he'd noticed with amusement that seemed to come from her reptilian side. "I wonder why people keep doing that when I turn up?"

"You know exactly why, dear," he chuckled, "don't try to make me think you've changed that much. You may not find it odd yourself anymore but you know full well the effect you have on people." She smirked and he laughed.

"Maybe. They overreact a lot of the time, but I guess I can see why. Saurial's not too bad, is she? We tried to make her look as safe as we could." Taylor seemed mildly worried for a moment, making him smile tenderly at her.

"She's… an acquired taste. But not bad, no. Just a shock the first time."

"OK." His daughter looked pleased.

"But yes, you're right, that range to hit a more or less man sized target seven or eight times in a row and only miss once is pretty decent work from what I remember. Not incredible, but considerably better than average even with some practice. And a telescopic sight."

"He was lying down on a pile of old pallets with a blanket over them, inside the room, bracing the gun on a broken chair," she added. "Just like in the movies. Maybe he was trained in the army or something?"

"Not impossible," he mused. "There are a lot of ex soldiers around these days, parahumans and the changes they brought to the world had a big effect on the military world-wide. I've heard a lot of them have fallen on hard times and tend towards drug abuse in some places, poor bastards. We've got a few that managed to avoid that in the DWU, they're good people. Disciplined and alert."

She nodded, looking thoughtful still. "He only took a shot when I was standing still for more than a minute or so, which was useful, I could more or less pick when he'd fire after I worked it out. Three shots in a row with New Wave there was a difference, he'd always waited about eight or nine minutes between shots up to that point."

"So why did you want New Wave, or as I suspect, specifically Glory Girl, to see you tanking a shot like that without flinching?"

"Reputation."

Her response was immediate, but he got the impression it was the result of some considerable thought.

"Explain, dear," he replied, resuming eating slowly and listening.

"I've been thinking about how to stop people coming after me, or through you to get to me," she sighed after a moment, leaning on one elbow and picking at the remains of her dinner. "I want to stop that before it starts. One way is the way Lung does it for example. Incredible violence, then the threat of more incredible violence, that keeps people from attacking him, pretty much. But he's killed a lot of people to get to the point he's basically safe from most capes. I don't want to do that."

She looked somewhat depressed. "If nothing else that's because I could make his body count look stupid without even trying. I could probably make Leviathan's body count look like he wasn't putting a lot of effort in." She looked up at Danny seriously. "But, I might be able to get the same effect without killing anyone, or even threatening to kill anyone, by looking so dangerous no one wants to find out what I can really do because they're already worried about what they know I can do. Looking just a little nuts helps."

Taylor grinned for a moment. "Plus, it's sort of fun, seeing the color people go when I do something unexpected." Her face became thoughtful while Danny tried not to laugh. "Although sometimes they go weird colors at odd moments anyway, which is a bit strange." After a couple of seconds, she shrugged. "It's probably nothing to worry about. I'm glad Glory Girl apologized, even though I didn't mind. It was nice of her. Her mother looked embarrassed about the whole thing."

"From what I've heard about Carol Dallon, and New Wave, I can see why they would be," he smiled. "That video didn't show the young woman in a very good light after all and I imagine it could have had fairly bad repercussions if it was on, for example, the evening news."

She nodded, picking up a piece of cooked carrot with her fingers and putting it in her mouth. Finally finished, his daughter got up, then started moving around the table clearing everything away, while he smiled his thanks, grabbed the last roast potato out of the bowl with his fork, then let her continue.

"No, having Glory Girl going red and shouting wouldn't help them. I didn't want to do that to them, they're good people, even though it was pretty funny to watch. At the time it was just peculiar, though." She giggled slightly, piling dishes in the sink. "That's what got me thinking about reputation, though. It's something that seems to be pretty important in the cape world."

"It's important everywhere, Taylor, like in business, or in the union work I do, or anything else, really," he acknowledged. "It goes with respect. Or fear. Lung has both, for example. People fear him, but to a certain level they also respect him, because while he's incredibly dangerous and violent, he holds back a lot of the time. Not that it makes him a nice person, because he isn't, but he could be a damn sight worse. Just look at the S9. Or any other one of several parahumans or groups of them I could point at."

As she put the plug in the sink and turned on the water, adding a squirt of soap, she nodded slightly. "That's kind of my point. I could go full Varga and wreck cities without any effort at all. I could probably literally pick the Rig up and carry it off, assuming it was strong enough not to fall apart. Even the combat form in a fairly small size is probably the sort of thing that would make people think there is a fourth Endbringer in town. But I don't want to do any of that! All I really want is a fairly quiet life with my Dad, one where I can help out around the place and use the abilities I was given for good, preferably having fun doing it. Killing people and making them terrified of me because of that isn't something I want. At all."

By the end of her rather impassioned speech she was looking at him almost with tears in her eyes. He studied her for a couple of seconds ago, then got up and held her.

"I understand, dear, and I agree. What I know you can do right now is impressive to a level that's somewhat worrying and I still haven't seen you more than forty feet high. Which now that I say it out loud is just silly." He grinned down from the four or so inches difference in height between them as she looked into his eyes.

When he let her go she appeared less upset, turning back to the sink and speaking over her shoulder. "I was reading PHO and there was a thread about this sort of thing. Someone called AllSeeingEye, who seems smart and has a lot of information about capes somehow, was arguing that reputation is the most important thing a cape can have. More so for villains than heroes in some ways but it's important in both cases. He, or she, was talking about small groups starting up having to pull off spectacular things, both to get people to take them seriously, and to leave them alone. They gave some examples and it seemed to make sense in a way."

He moved to stand beside her, drying the dishes as she washed them, still listening.

"I talked it over with Varga and he agreed. We decided that we didn't want to get a reputation as someone who was violent, but more someone who no one wanted see become violent. Both of what everyone knew they could do, and because of what they didn't. Fear of the unknown is pretty effective, after all. That's the whole point behind horror movies."

She grinned for a moment, her teeth lengthening into razor sharp points and her eyes glowing yellow. "Which I seem to remind people of for some reason. I can't see it myself, though."

"Obviously," he laughed. They shared a silence for a while, finishing the dishes and putting them away, while he pondered her words.

When they were sitting down in the living room some minutes later, he asked slowly, "So the entire thing with the sniper, and if I know you at all, putting on a show for New Wave when they turned up as if you didn't know they were there, that's to make them worried?"

Taylor nodded, sighing slightly as she relaxed on the sofa on her back. "More or less. I don't want to terrify or threaten them, but acting all casual when someone's shooting me in the head, then laughing about it, seemed to work at least as well. They were already looking worried after they saw me running around with the hammers. I'll show you the recordings in a moment. It was a lot of fun and very helpful, I seem to have all the knowledge for all sorts of martial techniques in here somewhere but I need to practice them before I can use them properly."

She smiled a little. "It's like the difference between memorizing a book on doing something, and learning the hard way. Once I've done it for a while it kind of comes back to me like I always knew how, but I make mistakes before that. Lots of them in some cases."

"And you assume that Glory Girl will tell her cape friends what happened, the New Wave adults will do the same, and people will decide not to push you just in case your good humor wears off?" Danny watched her nod.

"That's the idea."

"There's always the possibility that the PRT or someone else might decide you're potentially too dangerous. Or just want to try themselves against you anyway. Some of the capes are very aggressive."

The young woman sighed, the end of her tail slowly waving back and forth as she gazed at it. "I know. It's a calculated risk. I'll have to deal with that when it happens. But according to the statistics I read, new capes tend to get… recruited, I guess… whether they like it or not, mostly by villains, but sometimes by the PRT. That seems to be what happened to Shadow Stalker when they caught her. Hopefully I can look dangerous enough to make people think better about it, but not so dangerous they think they need to stop me."

"A fine line, I suspect."

"Hopefully not too fine." She rolled her head to the side to look at him. "I plan on sticking to dealing with low level idiots and helping with other problems like that, rather than being stupid and going after the big name capes. If they come after me I'll stop them, but I remember what you said about gang politics. Varga has helped me see how bad it could get, compared to how bad it is right now." She shivered a little. "I don't want to be the cause of a gang war."

"That would not be good, certainly," he agreed. "Please try not to do that if you can."

After a moment, he added more slowly and carefully, "I can't say I entirely disagree with your methods, as worrying to others as they might seem. Just be careful. On that note, though, I do have a criticism." She raised an eyebrow, waiting. "You potentially put several members of New Wave at risk from a sniper, dear. Did you think about that?"

Her face fell. "Yes. Afterward. I was only really expecting Glory Girl and Brandish, and Glory Girl is bulletproof anyway, everyone knows that. And I was ninety percent certain he was going after me specifically as well. But I should have thought harder about her mother, the other two as well. They can make force fields that would have stopped him but that only matters if they knew he was shooting in the first place. Varga pointed it out as well. I'm sorry, I'll think it through better next time."

"I'd still prefer there not to be a next time, Taylor. If someone starts shooting at you in future do your old Dad a favor and stop him, not just grin at him while the bullets bounce off your face? Please? Especially if there are other people in the area who aren't as ridiculously durable as you seem to be."

With downcast eyes she nodded, her face red. "I'll be smarter about it next time, Dad, promise."

"Varga, make sure she is," Danny added firmly.

She snickered at the internal response from her companion, but replied mildly, "He said he'll try, Dad."

"Good. Now, let's have a look at that video of yours. Is there any of my DWU still standing?"

"Dad! I was very careful." She smiled, then looked slightly ashamed again. "After the first time I punched a hole in the concrete with a dummy. We fixed it."

Shaking his head in amusement he waited as she got her laptop and downloaded the camera footage then watched with a mix of impressed awe, horrified awe, and amused awe, what she'd gotten up to that afternoon. The general theme was definitely awe, though.

"Have you thought about some form of ranged weapon?" he asked as he watched from the viewpoint of his daughter as her scaled arms wielded an enormous sword, cleaving wood, stone, and metal with equal ease. "I know you're fast enough to chase most people down on foot but perhaps something other than hand held weapons would be useful eventually."

She glanced up at him, then looked thoughtful. "Varga has mentioned the idea a couple times, yes, but I was concentrating on the close range stuff to start with. What do you think I should try?"

"Maybe some sort of thrown net or something? That Vargastuff as you call it seems basically unbreakable. The sheer weight of it might be a problem, you'd have to be careful not to crush someone, but if you made it it thin enough and flexible enough it would be fairly safe." He thought for a moment, as she nodded with an expression of interest, then got up and poked around on the bookcase. Eventually finding what he was looking for he pulled the dusty book from its place where it had probably rested since the death of Annette and flicked through it, finally smiling.

Handing it to her he pointed at the page. "Look, this is the sort of thing. The Romans used nets, tridents, javelins, things like that. Nice and simple, no moving parts, which you said was easier. Less to worry about than a gun and you can scale them up and down easily."

Taking the book from him Taylor looked at the page while he went back to watching the video, looking over occasionally as she turned pages and mumbled to herself, or her demonic partner. By the time the file had ended she was sitting up with an expression of concentration on her face.

"Any good?"

"He thinks so, yes," she replied slowly. "He's familiar with a lot of these in slightly different ways, the people of his old world had very similar things." She held out a hand in which a thing that looked not entirely unlike a lawn dart appeared. "They threw something like this with a catapult. Sometimes lots of them bundled together. I think I could throw it pretty accurately by hand with some practice."

Staring at the glinting needle-sharp point of the gray metal dart, Danny swallowed a little dryly. Perhaps this hadn't been the best idea to mention?

"It looks… extremely lethal," he commented carefully.

"Not as lethal as this is," she smirked, hopping to her feet and making the dart go away, to be replaced by a seven foot long javelin like something out of the Olympics

The metal throwing spear tapered gently to a fine point at both ends, with the central few inches recessed below the remainder of it and a different color where it was wrapped with something grippy. He remembered how slippery the strange metallic substance was and knew this was so it could actually be used, while wondering how heavy it was, aside from 'very'. "That's fairly horrific, dear. How far could you throw it?"

"Like this probably a few hundred yards at least," she smiled. "Saurial could do a lot better, and the combat form could most likely toss it well over the horizon if it was big enough." Hefting the thing, she looked at it thoughtfully. "I'll have to practice a lot, I don't have much in the way of premade skills with this. Princess Luna never used one although she'd seen them used."

"Please do it somewhere a long way from anything breakable," he smiled. "A very long way."

"I will. Maybe the ship graveyard?"

"Go up to the far north end, everything up there is completely wrecked," he advised. "It won't matter if you punch holes in things or something like that. Capes are always testing themselves there, as I understand it."

Taylor nodded, going back to reading the book on historical weapons, intermittently snickering to herself. Now just the tiniest bit worried, Danny left her to it to go back into his office, intending on starting a preliminary list of questions to ask the various people he had in mind who might be helpful with her plan for the bay.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

"Think she'd be up for a commission or two?" Randall looked over at his friend, who was watching a video on PHO, which was currently playing something with a techno version of the Jaws music attached to it. He went over and watched as Clockblocker was scared witless, chuckling at the results. The new cape was impressively good at sneaking up on people.

"What do you mean?" he asked. "And have you forgotten she's a hero?"

Leet shrugged. "No, but I have a couple of ideas based on that old Turok game series and we could use a dinosaur. She's the nearest thing to one I've ever seen. She looks a hell of a lot like some sort of Velociraptor that decided to get an opposable thumb, put clothes on, and run around the place terrifying idiots."

Mulling the idea over, Über laughed again. "I can see it, yes, but… still a hero."

They exchanged a grin then went back to what they'd been doing.

A few minutes later, they looked at each other, the same thought hitting them at the same time.

"Long tail, wasn't it?" Kevin mused in a considering voice.

"Yep."

They both thought more about this little fact as they resumed their activities, more slowly this time.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

"What do you think?" the figure behind the large expensive desk said, after pondering the words of his subordinate.

"I think I don't want to get anywhere within at least a hundred yards of that thing," the other man replied. "We knew she was tough, but she literally acted like being shot in the head with a 30-06 hollow-point round was funny. That's… not encouraging."

"I'm more interested in its reactions overall. No signs of anger, or wanting to hurt the sniper?"

"No. It was weird. She seemed surprised by the first shot, but worked out his pattern quickly and after that was basically playing with him, treating it like some extra training. I have a sneaking suspicion she detected him before he even fired although I don't know how. She certainly looked in that direction several times, even waved once, after he started shooting, but just kept on with what she was doing like it was nothing to worry about."

He thought for a moment, then shrugged. "Like I said, weird. Most capes would at least have got angry about it and done something sooner. Lung is at least as tough for example but he'd have killed the bastard after the first shot on general principles."

"Lung is an uncultured animal," the first man replied with disdain. "This one… Still an animal, but possibly trainable. With some care."

"I'd advise against any action towards her until we have more idea of what she's capable of. What I saw today was… disturbing."

"Why, specifically?" his superior queried, looking at him with calm interest.

"Generally, in my experience, most Brutes, which she definitely is, are brawlers. Lung is, he has no class or skill in fighting, he just keeps hitting and burning things until his opponent either escapes or dies. That's a common approach. When you're that strong and tough, and in his case regenerate that fast, you can just wade in without much thought. Not that he has any ability to think beyond a certain low cunning, you know his kind."

The other man nodded, this was so obvious as to not be worth mentioning.

"Capes with less physical powers usually either die quickly or manage to leverage that power to some extent, but still seldom branch out into other methods of fighting. It happens but it's rare. They're basically individual fighters, or in some cases, like our people, they learn to work together in small groups, their powers complementing each other."

"I understand," the first man said with a touch of impatience. "But I fail to see the point."

"The point is that what I saw today was someone who has significant skill in battlefield tactics and skills, not a brawler who simply hits things until they fall over. She was practicing attacking an army, not a gang. And she was winning. Admittedly her opponents were training dummies but she'd go through a normal human squad no matter how well armored like a threshing machine I suspect. The really disturbing thing is that she was doing it as if she had years of practice, not what's most likely only weeks at best."

Tapping his fingertips together, his superior thought for a while, during which he waited patiently. "I see. Very interesting. I wish you had thought to take a camera."

"So do I."

"Pity. Still, it can't be helped. Perhaps we can arrange that at some future date."

He thought some more, then nodded decisively. "We will watch for now, but not interfere. Perhaps some more interactions can be arranged with someone disposable to gauge its capabilities more precisely. We'd need some form of leverage, as well, I doubt it would comply easily. But it could be exactly what we need."

He stood, walking to the window and looking out over Brockton Bay, lights glimmering into the distance, with large sections partly dimmed where gang activities were causing damage. "We could finally take over, clean this city up, and make it safe once more for the right kind of people."

"Our kind."

"Well, obviously," the man smirked. Turning to his agent, he asked, "You're sure it had no idea you were watching?"

"As much as I can be, yes. I cleared up very carefully and left when I saw New Wave arrive for whatever reason they had, there was no point taking chances. But the sniper was clean, there's no way to trace him to us. The gun was recently stolen from a dealer in Chicago with no paper trail leading anywhere in particular either, as was the ammunition. As far as the man knows, he was just paid in drugs and cash to use his old marine training to shoot a troublesome cape, by a concerned citizen who was worried about a dangerous barely human animal beating up young men. The junkies were easily scared off as well so there should have been no witnesses. That idiot Skidmark had no idea anything was going on."

"Very good. Very good indeed. Well done."

Returning to his seat the man made a couple of cryptic notes, then pushed the paper to one side. "Now, onto other business..."

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Taylor inspected the building with a certain amount of introspective interest. She'd had trouble sleeping, pondering the mystery of the sniper, so had decided at about one AM to go back and follow the scent of the mystery observer. It had led right to the employee entrance of this rather large facility halfway across the city.

"Intriguing," the Varga commented slowly.

She nodded without replying, then turned around and silently headed home, thinking about it and what it might mean.

π

Monday, January 31, 2011

"Did you apologize?" Dean asked, as he walked up behind Vicky, who was standing on the steps of Arcadia waiting for him, looking the wrong way. Amy was off to one side casting her sister the occasional slightly curious look but as usual seemed somewhat withdrawn and uninvolved, although she did acknowledge him with a small nod. That was a bit unusual, normally she either more or less ignored him, or said something snarky and cutting, then ignored him.

He was used to it although he wished it was otherwise, he rather liked the girl. The feeling was apparently not mutual.

Turning around, his girlfriend stared at him, then hugged him, hard enough to make him grunt, while Amy seemed mildly amused now. "Ow. Vicky, relax a little before you break my arms, please."

Embarrassed she let him go but stayed close. "I did," she said in a low voice, casting a glance around, although no one was close enough to overhear her. "Mom, Aunt Sarah, and Crystal came with me. We met her down at the docks." She didn't go into more detail.

"And?"

"Let's say I'm glad I took your advice and leave it at that. And if I ever do anything like that again, I'm leaving the US and moving to Europe. Or Mars."

He inspected her curiously. "Did she take it OK?"

"That's not the part that was… worrying." The golden haired girl shivered a little. "I'll tell you later when I stop being scared."

Dean found the comment odd but instead of pressing for details, said nothing and simply smiled. He could feel his girlfriend was more than a little down at the moment, for a whole complex mess of reasons he didn't care to try to unpick.

"Hey, Dean, how's it hanging?" The cheerful voice from behind him made him turn to see Dennis, Carlos, and Chris approaching, having apparently come together.

"We need to get inside, the bell will go in about five minutes," Amy announced, putting the paperback she was reading into her bag and standing up from where she'd been sitting on the low wall next to the steps up the front entrance of the school. He checked his watch and noticed she was right. Following the fairly large number of students still arriving, he and his friends went into the building, separating after a minute as they headed off to their different home rooms. He, Dennis, Carlos, and Vicky shared one, while Amy and Chris were in a different one.

Heading to his home room he slowed for a moment as he noticed the slightly younger tall curly-haired brunette walking towards him on the other side of the corridor, checking locker numbers. He met her eyes, then quickly looked away. She said nothing, not apparently noticing, but he could feel mild satisfaction from her, knowing she'd noticed and knew, somehow, how he felt.

Turning into his room with the others, at the back of the pack, he looked at her again for just a moment, at which point she peered sideways at him through her hair and smiled very slightly.

Shivering, suddenly knowing what Vicky was feeling much more than he wanted to, he lost sight of her as he entered the room, heading for his desk while trying not to look worried.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Hiding a smirk at the faint waft of worry that came down the corridor towards her from the Stansfield boy, Taylor checked the number of the locker she was looking at with the piece of paper in her hand, then smiled. Reaching out she spun the combination dial built into the door back and forth to the numbers she'd memorized already, until it clicked and she could open the thing. The lockers here were much smaller than at Winslow, not to mention much newer and much cleaner. Arranged in two rows all the way down both sides of the corridor there were at least four hundred of them, with her assigned one being number 212 on the top row.

Looking inside she saw with satisfaction that there was no way to push anyone over two feet high into the space revealed, although it was rather deeper and wider than the hated cell she remembered so well in the middle of the night even now. The Varga had helped her several times so far, showing her things from his old world and the experiences of his previous Brains to distract her.

Sighing a little at the thought, she firmly pushed the memories down, which was getting easier by the day, then swung her backpack from her shoulder and put all the books she didn't need before lunch into the locker. Most of them were brand new, given to her when she went to the secretaries office to retrieve her introduction information from Meg, who seemed genuinely pleased to see her again.

Double checking she had everything she needed, she closed the locker and spun the dial, then tugged the handle to check it was locked properly. Satisfied, she looked at the map she had once again, nodded, and headed for her new home room, curious to see what the day would bring and actually happy about being in school for probably the first time in nearly two years.

She reached the relevant room just as the final bell rang, looking at the door with momentary trepidation, then taking a deep breath and slowly letting it out.

"It is easy, Brain. Go in, do well, and go home again," the Varga advised with calm amusement. "If anyone causes trouble like they did in your old school, we can eat them."

'It would probably be better to follow the guidelines,' she giggled inside. 'I don't think that eating bullies is one of them.'

"Perhaps. Perhaps not." Her demonic companion laughed for a moment. "We will see. But in all seriousness, you will be fine. Go inside and prove it to both of us."

Nodding once to herself and him, feeling much more confident, she opened the door and stepped inside. The teacher sitting at the desk, a man of about thirty, tanned and fit looking with a head of black hair, glanced over at her then down at his desk.

"Miss Hebert?" he asked in the tone of someone who already knew the answer.

"Yes, Sir," she replied calmly. "I'm sorry about nearly being late, I had to pick up my things from the school office."

"That's fine, Miss Hebert, just try to arrive a little sooner from now on, please. You can take any free desk."

She looked around the room, spotting to her pleasure Mandy and Lucy near the back of the room with two empty desks next to them. She raised her eyebrows inquiringly, making the first girl smile and wave to the seat next to her. About sixteen pairs of eyes followed her as she went over and sat down, slipping her backpack off her shoulder and under her chair with a quick motion, trying not to hit anything with her tail.

"Hi, guys," she said in a low tone. "Thanks."

"I'm glad you're in this room, Taylor," Mandy whispered back, looking quickly at her then back at the teacher, who was watching but said nothing. Taylor nodded and gave her attention to the front of the room, making him smile a small smile, then look down at the register.

"Anderson, Lily," he said in a not loud but easily audible smooth baritone voice, the result of much practice.

"Here."

"Arthurs, Jack."

"Here."

The roll call went on for a little while as he ticked each name off, nodding to himself. When he reached her name, he looked up at her. "Hebert, Taylor, also here," he remarked, ticking her name off. She smiled at him.

The teacher continued until the last voice had replied, then put the pen down.

"All right, people, as you have already gathered, we have a new student. One Miss Taylor Hebert, a new transfer from Winslow, so be sympathetic and also pleased that yet another human being has survived that place."

A ripple of laughter ran around the room as Taylor grinned. If nothing else the teacher had a sense of humor, not to mention a very pleasant voice. "If you wouldn't mind, Taylor, could you stand and tell us a little about yourself, please?"

"Of course, Sir," she replied, standing and moving to the side a little so she wouldn't hit her tail on the desk behind her. Everyone turned in their seats to see her clearly.

"Oh, by the way, my name is Mr Hanks. Like the actor. You may refer to me as such if you want, although I quite like Sir." He smiled at her in a friendly but not too friendly manner. Remembering Mr Gladly from Winslow, she was grateful. This man seemed to want to be professional and respectful, not every student's best friend, something that suited her perfectly.

"Thank you, Mr Hanks. Sir." She grinned as he chuckled. "Well, my name is Taylor Hebert, as you just heard. My father is the hiring manager at the Dock Workers Union, my mother was a professor of English literature at the University until she died a few years ago." She managed to get the words out without letting the pang of regret she felt color her voice with the calm reassurance of the demon linked to her, who had helped in so many ways. "My interests include reading, mathematics, computers, and running. Recently I've decided I want to learn first aid and self defense."

She looked around the room. "I didn't have much fun at Winslow, the place is crawling with bullies, and I don't like that sort of thing at all. But other than that I just want to get on with learning and live my life."

"Wise words, Miss Hebert. Thank you, you can sit down." She did as requested while beside her Mandy gave her a thumbs-up, smiling. "Brief and to the point. Good. Now, I know that you tested very highly in the evaluation exams on Friday, but I still suspect that you may run into minor difficulties with the practical differences between your last school and here. Please don't hesitate to approach any teacher to explain why and ask for help. I'd think you'll be up to speed very fast based on your test results."

She nodded, feeling pleased. He seemed genuine.

"All right, let's get on with it. Eyes front, people." The other students who had been inspecting her curiously all turned around again, and paid attention. Taylor did the same, smiling to herself and pleased with how simple that had all been. This might work out just fine.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Tapping her pen on the pad of paper in front of her, Hannah listened with interest. She made the occasional note, then sighed slightly. "Thank you for the information Lady Photon, it's appreciated. I understand why you're reluctant to get involved but I agree it could be important."

Listening again, she smiled. "Thank you. Give my best to your family. Bye."

Hanging up the desk phone, she kicked back in her chair, put her feet on the desk, and intently studied the notes she'd made for a while.

Eventually coming to a decision, she stood up and made sure her scarf was in place, before leaving her office and heading for the lower levels of the Rig and a boat to shore.

Not that long afterward, she was cautiously riding her motorcycle through the outskirts of the Docks, in the direction of the DWU facility, while keeping a wary eye open for trouble. This close it was unlikely, the dock workers had somehow come to an arrangement with the merchants and other junkies who infested the area, which she suspected was along the lines of 'stay away and we won't break your legs', a thought that made her smile for a moment.

Eventually arriving at her destination she slowed, looking around, then parked the bike somewhere it was inconspicuous but not so much someone might be tempted to interfere with it, although in that case the security system would make them regret it. Arming it, she looked over towards the large and fenced in DWU compound, seeing a number of men working on a large unidentifiable steel construction, the light of the welding arcs bright even in the sunlight. A couple of them were watching her with what looked like considerable alertness and readiness, but didn't move from where they were.

Feeling the eyes on her back she turned and looked up, then around at the mostly empty and in many cases long-abandoned warehouses surrounding the facility as grim reminders of better days. The only buildings that looked even vaguely maintained were on the other side of the fence.

Deciding on her target she headed for one particular building, finding a doorway with a smashed door hanging from the bottom hinge only and making her way inside, pulling a flashlight from her pocket in the process.

In the bright light she could see a dozen or more sets of footprints embedded into the crud on the floor, which seemed to be a mix of crumbling concrete, mold, and something much less salubrious. Suppressing a grimace of disgust she picked a path through it towards the metal staircase she spotted in the back of the building, rusty and damp with condensation.

When she got to the top, the heroine walked down a hallway that ran down the back of the old building, past broken windows looking across an alley into other broken windows of the next warehouse along, until she found what she was looking for.

A set of footprints, from what looked like worn but serviceable military-pattern boots, led into but not out of a side room. Cautiously looking in, then entering when she was sure it was safe, her power forming a pistol in her free hand even so, she looked around the room.

In the middle of it was a pile of six or seven moldy wooden pallets with a ratty wool blanket draped across them, while in front of this was an office chair that had seen much better days. Probably about the time of the moon landings. Curious, she moved to the back of the stack and looked across the chair, to see she had a perfect view of most of the open area of the DWU facility.

"Interesting," she mumbled to herself.

She also noticed that the two apparent guards were still watching her, or at least the window. From where she was, in the sunlight, she didn't think anyone outside could see in very well without a good pair of binoculars.

Looking around the floor, she spotted the glint of shiny metal to the side of the pallets, going over and squatting down. There was a fresh expended 30-06 cartridge lying against the wall. Glancing around she saw at least half a dozen more scattered about. Turning her pistol back into the large knife on her leg it was normally in the form of she picked the brass up and sniffed the open end.

"Definitely fired recently. OK," she muttered in a low voice.

She retrieved a couple of the other ones then put them in her pocket before standing up again and looking around some more.

In a line from the window to a set of marks on the floor that suggested a struggle she saw more footprints, but these ones weren't from anything that wore boots. They had three slender toes tipped with impressive claws, and no heel prints, although there was a mark in the dust that suggested a long tail. She studied them for a moment, then went to the window and looked out and down. It was at least sixty feet to the ground. Inspecting the windowsill she could see small divots in the stonework that looked like they were from claws as well, claws that were harder than the stone.

She pondered the scene for a moment, looking around, then squinted at the people working inside the fence. The two watchers were still there, watching, although one of them seemed to have a walky-talky at his mouth. Ignoring them she peered around at the other buildings, before spotting what she was looking for and memorizing the location.

Miss Militia pulled her head back into the room and looked around one last time, before leaving, thinking hard.

A little later the watchers in the union facility saw the motorcycle-riding female cape leave, heading back towards the good part of town.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

"Did she, now..."

Danny listened, then nodded thoughtfully. "Thanks, Mark."

"No sweat, Danny."

"Did you find the bullets?"

"Yep. Or at least, we found eight of them. No sign of the ninth, it probably bounced over the roof from what you said she told you. There's also a freshly patched hole in the yard about two feet across but the boys have no idea what it's patched with."

"Don't worry about that, it's not important." He accepted the small glass jar with eight badly flattened bullets in it, shaking it and watching them rattle around.

'Jesus, Taylor, this is horrifying,' he thought to himself, inspecting them. 'I don't like the thought of someone shooting at you. Although I'm amazed that you can take it like this.'

"So why was someone shooting at this cape, Boss?" the other man said, then grinned when Danny frowned.

"You've been hanging around Zephron too much, Mark."

The man, a tall slender blond with a wiry strength visible through his clothes, smirked slightly but didn't reply.

"I'm not sure," he added, answering the question.

"How did you meet her?" the blond asked curiously.

"She found out who was the person to call to ask about using the yard when no one is there and called me yesterday. I couldn't think of any good reason not to let her and we could use the goodwill, so I told her to go ahead. I've written a letter of permission for her as well in case anyone gets nosy, she's going to pick it up this afternoon around four or so."

"I'll make sure to be here, I'd like to see her," Mark grinned. "Hey, is the DWU getting a cape of its own, then? That would help if those asshole merchants come around again."

Danny sighed, smiling. "I don't think we're a gang or need a cape just yet, Mark. She's just a good natured independent looking for some empty space to train in." His colleague shrugged, still smiling a little.

"OK, thanks. Tell the guys to keep an eye out for anything odd, but hopefully this is a one off."

"You got it, Boss."

"Stop calling me Boss," Danny shouted after the man as he left, chuckling, but couldn't help a grin of his own.

Rattling the bullets around again he studied them for a moment, shook his head, then put the jar away in his desk, going back to his research.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

"So how's your first full half day at Arcadia, Taylor?" Taylor looked up at the cheery voice, to see Mandy and Lucy standing next to the table, trays in hand. She smiled, nodding to the chairs on the other side, both girls sitting.

"Full half day?" she queried. "Isn't that a bit redundant?"

"Of course it isn't," Mandy grinned. "You've been here for half a full day, or a full day of which you've only been here for half so far. Full half day." She picked up her burger and bit into it as both Taylor and Lucy smiled at her logic.

"Don't argue, or she'll keep talking for the entire lunch period," Lucy whispered loudly from behind her hand. Taylor got the feeling this was something of a running joke between them.

"Ah. In that case, my first full half day has been fine, and I expect the next full half day to be similar," she snickered, then took a bite of her mac and cheese, nodding appreciatively as she chewed. "This really is pretty good food for a school," she said after she swallowed. Her companions smiled back.

"I told you. Sometimes I like to bring something from home for variety, but it's more than edible," Mandy replied happily. Taylor was realizing that the girl was generally pretty cheerful most of the time. She glanced at Lucy, who was much less outgoing but still friendly. It had turned out that she shared two of the four hour-long slots in the morning with both of them, and one each of the others with each of them. In the afternoon she shared one class with both and the other two with neither.

"You're taking advanced mathematics and computer studies, aren't you, Taylor?" Lucy asked quietly. Taylor nodded.

"Yes. The administration thought that my marks were good enough to place me in the advanced classes in both. I may also end up there in English, but they wanted to see how it went after the first couple of weeks."

"Wow. An intelligent person, at last," the other girl giggled, shooting her friend a sly look, which caused her to splutter in indignation.

"Hey! I smart! Look, me eat with mouth now!" Both Taylor and Lucy collapsed laughing as Mandy shoved half the burger into her mouth in one go, completely ruining the classy teenager look she normally promoted.

Nearly choking as she chewed because she was also trying not to laugh, the girl went slightly blue before she managed to swallow enough to clear a path for air, then took deep breaths for a while. Several of the other tables of young people looked over at the laughter, most of them smiling.

"You're going to kill yourself doing that one day you idiot," Lucy giggled. Mandy shrugged.

"It's funny."

Shaking her head in amusement the Chinese girl looked back to Taylor who was now just enjoying the company of people her own age who were basically normal. Although in Mandy's case that was possibly not entirely correct, she mused, smiling internally.

"Have you thought about any after school clubs or extracurricular activities yet, Taylor?"

Taylor had a sudden moment of wondering what the other girl would say if she told her what she'd been doing in her evenings recently but tried not to let the amusement make her sound odd as she replied. "Not yet. What sorts of things are available here?"

Lucy thought for a moment as Mandy listened. "Well, there's the computer club, the chess club, a classic film club, the literature club, several sports groups like swimming, track, judo, that sort of thing..." She glanced at her friend who nodded.

"There's also the electronics club and an engineering one," Mandy added. "Not to mention a number of courses that aren't really clubs, but extra credit things like advanced first aid and basic paramedic training, car maintenance, basic household repair… A few others but I forget what they are now."

"Wow. That's a lot. We didn't have anything like that at Winslow." Taylor grinned for a moment. "There it was more along the lines of basic firearm cleaning, knife fighting, car theft… You know, practical skills to allow a young person to get ahead in life."

Both her table-mates started laughing again. "Honest, it really was nearly that bad. I'm sure you could have found someone to teach you all that, but you probably wouldn't actually have received school credit for it. I think."

"You must be so relieved to be out of that place," Mandy commented, picking up her can of coke and popping the tab, then taking a drink from it.

Taylor sighed heavily, nodding and wiping her forehead with a hand mockingly, making the other two grin again. "More than you'd believe. The mere fact that I can simply sit here, have lunch, and talk to people without..." She fell silent as they looked at each other. "I haven't done this in a long time."

"What happened?" Mandy asked quietly, looking concerned and leaning forward a little.

After a while, Taylor shook her head slightly. "I don't want to talk about it for a while, sorry. Just thinking about it depresses me, talking would be worse, and it would ruin the good day I'm having. Maybe one day." The other girl nodded, straightening up again. "Sorry."

"Don't worry, it's not really important, I'm just incurably nosy," Mandy smiled. "But I'm glad you made it out alive and sane."

"Alive..." Taylor quickly took her pulse with a finger to her neck and a look of concentration. "Yep. Sane… How do you check that?"

"I think you have to unscrew the little cap under your hair at the back and look at the dipstick," Lucy replied immediately with a straight face, making Taylor snort with laughter.

"I'm as sane as I need to be and no saner," she replied, going back to her lunch. The two girls who she decided were definitely becoming friends nodded wisely, doing the same.

While she ate, she listened to the chatter around her, separating out the individual voices into understandable conversations, then moving on after briefly listening to each on. She wasn't deliberately eavesdropping, she was simply practicing with her enhanced hearing, taking the opportunity the crowded lunch room provided her as she sat there.

Her own name being spoken quietly, in a female voice, made her listen more carefully, though. "...Hebert, I think. She's a sophomore who transferred in from Winslow, Maria said she heard there was some sort of trouble there with bullying. She's in Maria's home room with Mr Hanks, she introduced herself as the daughter of someone called Danny Hebert who's supposedly someone important with the dock workers union or something." The voice wasn't one that she recognized, but the one that spoke next was.

"Thanks, Alicia," the voice of Dean Stansfield replied.

"Why?" the girl asked curiously.

"Just curious, I saw her on Friday, then twice today, she was looking for a locker this morning. I wondered why since I don't remember seeing her before. Nothing important."

"OK, Dean. Say hi to Vicky, I need to get back to the girls now."

"Bye, Alicia," he replied. Taylor suppressed a momentary flare of indignation, realizing that it was a perfectly normal thing for someone to do and the scene had probably been replayed dozens of times today. Teenagers were curious. It was only the juxtaposition of the question with the questioner that concerned her. Looking in an apparently idle manner she spotted Dean staring at her from the other side of the cafeteria. As soon as their eyes met he flinched, then turned around and hurried over to his friends, who were all at one table with Victoria and Amy Dallon as well, the latter watching him the same as Taylor was.

The dark haired girl transferred her gaze to Taylor for a moment, then went back to reading her book.

"He's pretty good looking, isn't he?"

The sudden voice from feet away made her look, to see Mandy smirking at her. "Hey, it's not like that, I was just curious, that's all," she replied hastily.

"Suure you were," the girl smirked. Taylor sighed.

"And he's taken. You know, Vicky Dallon? Glory Girl? The Coleslaw Queen?"

Mandy howled with laughter while Lucy stared, then giggled furiously. "Oh, god, she'd go purple if you called her that. People are still poking her about that whole thing nearly a year later. She was really embarrassed."

They all looked at Vicky, who was now sitting very close to Dean, talking quietly. His friends were listening, huddled together, with Dennis popping up like a curious Meerkat now and then to check no one was close enough to hear. "It looks like our plan may be having an effect, Brain," the Varga commented as they watched. There was a certain degree of disbelief and nervousness coming from the six people now, as far as she could tell, but from this distance with this number of people in between them, she couldn't quite decipher the scents enough to be sure what they were feeling.

'Looks like it. With any luck they'll have the right amount of worry and pass it around. I don't want to really upset them, though, I kind of like them.'

"I think they are good people as well. It is a careful balance to strike between terror and cautious respect, but I believe you can manage it." He sounded amused as he so often was.

"I dare you to go and say that to her," Mandy added, making her look back at her new friend and raise an eyebrow as high as she could, which made the girl snicker. "Work it casually into conversation."

"No thanks. I like my liver where it is, and having it pulled out my nose would be annoying," Taylor replied calmly, finishing her food. Both girls looked amused and did the same.

"I might look into that first aid course," she went on when she'd put her knife and fork back on the plate and pushed it away. "Like I said in class, I'm interested in learning more about it. I know enough to put a bandage on someone gushing blood, Mom taught me that, but I'd like to know how to do it properly. Just in case. You never know when it would come in handy."

Lucy looked thoughtfully at her. "That's actually a really good idea," she mused. "I've been thinking about finding some extra credit work and that could be a good one to look at."

"It would be nice to have someone I knew there," Taylor smiled.

The bell rang a few minutes later as they were discussing the merits of knowing how to stop someone bleeding out, so they headed back to class, still talking.

Taylor was in a good mood and having fun, something that little more than a month ago she would never have thought she'd say, probably in general and definitely anywhere within a mile of a school. It was a nice change.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Dean cautiously watched the girl he now knew to be Taylor Hebert, as well as Saurial, leave the cafeteria in the company of the same two girls he'd seen her sitting with on Friday, all three of them seeming happy and talking to each other. She didn't turn at the door and give him a knowing look as he half-expected her to, something that relieved him more than he liked, especially after hearing the story Vicky had related. He didn't recognize the name, which didn't mean anything, but the fact that her father was someone with some local government pull was interesting.

Dennis was still protesting that the blonde must have dramatized it for effect, while Vicky was getting mildly upset, claiming every word was the absolute truth. He glanced at Amy, who looked back as she put her book away and stood up, but said nothing.

"Come on, guys, back to the grind," Carlos commented as he picked up his tray and headed off to return it.

Sighing to himself, still wondering what the hell to do about the whole thing, Dean followed, as did the others.

He wasn't in a particularly happy mood and was worried. It was not a nice change.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

"Danny?"

Danny looked up from his computer, to see Habib, one of the office workers in the DWU, leaning in the door with an odd expression on his face.

"Yes, Habib?"

"There's… someone… here to see you. Says her name is Saurial?"

He smiled. "Tall, sort of scaly?"

"That's her."

"OK, thanks." Danny opened a desk drawer and pulled out a sealed envelope, then got up and went to the door. Looking into the other, larger, administration office, he saw his daughter in her public persona signing an autograph for Mark, who looked pleased. The blond man glanced at him, grinned, then wandered off again, while she looked over then smiled.

Reaching her he held out his hand, which she took and shook, still smiling. "Hello Saurial. It's nice to meet in person. Here's the letter of permission to use the yard whenever it's empty. You're responsible for any damage of course, the DWU can't take responsibility for anything that happens to you while on our property either."

"That's fine, Mr Hebert," the lizard girl said, a look on her face that even through the non-human physiology he recognized as Taylor trying not to laugh. "It's very good of you and the DWU as well. I'll make sure not to break anything when I use the area."

"Did your session on Sunday go well?" he asked.

She nodded. "Very well. I was here for about four hours or so I suppose, it was a useful training exercise." She grinned, exposing enough teeth that two or three of the half-dozen office workers surrounding her, all of whom were staring and listening intently, gasped a little. She didn't seem to notice. "There was a minor problem with a merchant sniper but I grabbed him and handed him to the police before I left. I didn't want him shooting at any of your people. Other than that everything was great."

"Yes, you mentioned that. How annoying." Danny smirked internally as several of the odd glances shifted towards him. He was beginning to see what his daughter meant, acting casual while saying or doing something peculiar was quite funny.

"It was rude of him, yes," she laughed. "He was a good shot, though. Only missed once." Looking at the envelope in her other hand, she smiled, then folded it up and put it away in one of her pouches. "Thanks very much for this. If the DWU ever needs help, just call and I'll see what I can do."

"Thank you, Saurial, that's very good of you."

She nodded politely to him.

"Would you like a quick tour of the place, maybe?" He glanced at his watch. "I was just about to start packing up to go home, so it's not a problem."

"That would be very nice, thanks, Mr Hebert," she replied.

"Call me Danny," he told her, suppressing a grin. "Come with me and I'll show you around."

They left the admin rooms, talking quietly, while behind them the office workers looked at each other. It took them several minutes to get back to work.

The legend of Danny Hebert was growing…

π

Glancing up from her novel, Amy looked at her sister again, then sighed a little, put her bookmark into the page, closed the book, then put it down. "What the hell is wrong with you, Vicky?" she asked, more or less sympathetically. "You've been moping around ever since you insulted that new cape. You apologized, she accepted, why are you still looking like someone pissed in your cornflakes?"

Vicky, who was sitting in a chair beside her sister's bedroom window peering out at the skyline, shrugged. From her position on the bed Amy watched her curiously. The girl had drooped her way in after dinner, muttered something that might have been a hello, then slumped into the chair like a golden blonde pile of depression, which Amy found both odd and irritating. She had enough angst for the both of them herself, she didn't need her sister adding to it. Or, at least, doing it in her room.

Picking at some loose paint on the windowsill with one long fingernail, Vicky sighed. "I don't know, really. I'm… worried? Scared? Sad?" She shrugged again. "It's difficult to put into words."

"Surely Saurial can't be that terrifying," the healer remarked. "I know what you said at lunch and it's obvious that she's not only ridiculously strong and fast, but has some weird powers on top of that, but that sort of thing isn't all that unusual in capes. She's a grab bag with a very heavy dose of Brute, right?"

Vicky looked over at her for a moment, then went back to wrecking the paint job. Amy winced as her sister managed to peel quite a long strip of white gloss paint loose, looking guilty for a moment and hastily pressing it back down again. When she moved her finger it fell off onto the carpet. "Oops."

"Stop ruining my décor and tell me what the problem is, you idiot," Amy sighed, getting off her bed and moving to the other chair next to her sister, shuffling it around so she could look at her more directly.

It took a while for the other girl to nod, but she finally opened up a little. "Partly it's me, I guess. I did something really, really dumb, just because I was angry with Dean. It wasn't even his fault, I know that, and I'm sad about always flying off the handle so easily. Partly it's because she did accept."

"What on earth do you mean?" Amy asked, somewhat confused. "That's a good thing, right?"

"Yes, I guess," the blonde mumbled. "But I can't get over the fact that I blew up over a trivial little thing and went off looking for a fight just because of that, but she genuinely did get insulted and yelled at and just thought it was nothing serious. She actually asked Mom if I was OK! And Mom thinks she meant it. What does that say about me as a person? Never mind the fact that someone was trying to kill her for over a fucking hour and she just said it was rude. Every other cape I've ever met, assuming they didn't actually die, would have been ranting and raving about that sort of thing, not laughing about it."

She momentarily smiled, adding, "Can you imagine what would happen if someone started shooting at Lung like that? He'd burn down half the city just to avenge the insult even if he wasn't hurt."

"Lung isn't known for a sense of humor, no," Amy admitted with a wry smile. "Although as far as I know if you actually got him in the head with a large caliber rifle before he started to ramp up you'd stand a good chance of killing him. After that, you're toast." She thought, then continued, "Actually, now that I say it, I'm kind of surprised that no one has ever actually done that. He doesn't make a lot of friends."

"Maybe they tried and it didn't work," Vicky noted, going back to looking depressed. "I can guarantee from what I saw yesterday it wouldn't work on Saurial. Which is fucking terrifying in a way." She looked at her sister. "You didn't see it. Hearing about it is one thing, seeing someone charge about the place at freeway speeds with a sword six feet long cutting solid steel mannequins into little chunks and laughing about it is… not comforting. Sure, if she hit me with the thing it would only knock me flying. The first time. The problem is that she's so quick she could do it again before my force field reset and I'd be dead just like that."

"There are lots of capes that technically could kill you, though, and it's never stopped you before, or made you like this," Amy noted.

"True, I guess. It was just one more thing to add to all the weird shit. She doesn't act like any cape I've ever met. Not even Case 53s. She seems totally comfortable with herself even though she looks so different, which is… odd. If that had happened to me I'm sure that in only a couple of weeks or so which is what Dean says is how long she's been active as far as anyone can work out, I'd still be curled up in a ball crying about what I looked like."

"She does seem quite different to a normal human," Amy smiled, remembering the PHO videos she's seen. "But as far as I can see she's a decent person."

"I know. Everyone who's met her who wasn't a criminal seems to like her. In a weird way I like her. She's friendly, polite, obviously happy, and stupidly skilled. That's part of the problem, even people who think she's terrifying like her. It's strange. She looks so… dangerous, I guess, but she acts like she just wants to be your friend. When she's not acting like something out of Alien."

"Hmm." Amy thought for a moment. It was true enough, there were a surprisingly large number of people, often cops, who were quite complimentary about the reptilian cape on PHO, to a level that seemed a little odd for such a short active career. "Maybe she's a Master of some sort, and is influencing them to like her," she joked.

Vicky's eyes went wide as she lifted her head and stared at her sister. "Oh My God!" she breathed, sounding horrified. "You really think so?"

Laughing, Amy shook her head. "No, I don't. I think she's just a happy and polite person who is nice to people and so people are nice back. It happens." Looking at her sister for a moment, she added sarcastically, "Anyway, why would you of all people be worried about that, Aura Girl?"

Vicky flushed, looking embarrassed. "I try to keep it under control."

"Not very hard," Amy replied. The flush deepened. "You really should, you know."

"Dean told me the same thing before our last but one fight," Vicky said with a grin. "What do you think the fight was about?"

Sighing but amused, her sister shook her head. "You're a strange girl, Vicky."

"But you love me even so, right?"

Vicky looked a little confused by the expression Amy felt cross her face as she quickly turned it away, going red and not answering. Regaining her composure after a second or two and a deliberate act of will, she looked back. "You're my sister, of course I love you, idiot," she said in a snarky tone. "Stop moping around. Saurial isn't going to hurt you, even if she could, unless you do sometime a lot worse than calling her names, so don't keep thinking about it. I'm getting sick of hearing about her. Saurial this, Saurial that, all lunchtime, and after school as well. You'd think that Dean and his friends can't talk about anything else than her. It's irritating."

Vicky seemed surprised about the sudden diatribe, but also considerably less depressed. "OK, we can talk about something else."

"Thank you." Amy huffed a little, but was very relieved that she'd managed to change the subject from something that was getting a lot too close to home.

Although she really would like to have a look at how the lizard girl's body worked. It was intriguing and possibly less boring than the rest of her life.

With an inner sigh she listened to her sister chatter on about something silly one of her friends had managed to do to her Dad's car, which was admittedly quite funny, the blonde noticeably cheering up as she spoke and soon enough more or less back to normal.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Mayor Christner looked at the somewhat elaborate metal clock on his desk, a present from an old friend in Boston and some extremely fine work, noting the time. If his next appointment kept to schedule as accurately as usual, any moment now…

Less than fifteen seconds later the old fashioned intercom on his desk, which he kept because for some reason it amused him, made a discreet buzzing sound. "Yes, Maria?" he said.

"Mayor, your half past three appointment is here," his secretaries' voice came through the speaker.

"Send him in, please," he said, standing and moving out around his desk. Moments later the door opened, the familiar figure of Danny Hebert, head of hiring at the Dock Workers Union and the man everyone knew essentially ran the DWU whatever he said about it, strode in. "Hello, Danny," Roy said, holding out his hand, which was taken and shaken with a firm grip. "Nice to see you again. You're looking well."

This was true, the man before him was looking happier, calmer, and generally fitter than he'd been for years, the perpetual stoop of the downtrodden no longer in evidence. He looked confident and ready for anything the world threw at him.

Roy was pleased about that, he liked and respected the Union representative, although there were certainly times around a negotiating table that he deeply wished the other man would find a different career path, one that was less trouble to the city administration. Perhaps home explosives manufacture or something nice and inconspicuous like that.

Hiding a smile at the ridiculous thought, he motioned to a pair of chairs on the other side of the office, a small table between them, in a less formal layout than being on either side of a desk. "Sit, please. Can I get you anything?"

"Thank you, Mayor Christner," Danny replied, looking pleased. "Some water would be fine."

He moved to sit down, placing his briefcase, the one he'd been carrying around for as long as Roy had known him and which was a wedding gift from his wife, on the floor beside his chair. Going to the small refrigerator built into the other side of the room next to his desk, Roy retrieved a pair of bottles of water from it, then a couple of crystal glasses from the cupboard above it, taking both sets of items back and putting them on the table. "Help yourself. Are you sure you don't want anything else?"

"This is fine, thanks," Danny replied, removing the top of the glass bottle and pouring half of it into his glass, then taking a sip. Roy did the same, sitting in the other chair.

"How is your daughter?" Roy asked, inspecting the other man. "Taylor, isn't it?"

"She's very well indeed, thanks," Danny smiled broadly. "She's transferred to Arcadia after some… minor unpleasantness at Winslow made us both feel she was under-appreciated there. Her entrance tests on Friday went very well. She started on Monday and seems to be having fun so far, she's already made a couple of friends."

"That's good to hear," Roy nodded, taking another sip of water and listening. "I wish something could be done to improve Winslow, it's more run down than I like, but it would take a lot of money that simply isn't available to do more than maintain it." He sighed slightly, as Danny nodded understandingly. "We don't have the budget for massive rebuilding projects which is what I fear it would take."

"Arcadia seems to be doing well, though," Danny noted.

Roy sighed again. "That point has come up more often than you'd think. The problem is that Arcadia is partly privately funded by people with deep pockets, who of course send their children there as well. They generally have little interest in funding other schools. I've asked, but the answer so far is always no."

"I understand. It's annoying but I suppose life isn't perfect. I'm just glad Taylor is going there now." Danny shook his head a little, before topping up his glass. "She was unhappy at Winslow and not doing as well as she's capable of. You should see how she's changed and blossomed in the last little while since the transfer came through, though. Completely different girl in some ways." He grinned. "She looks so much like Annette now you wouldn't believe it and has inherited more than looks from her. Determined young lady."

Roy grinned back. "I remember Annette well, Danny. It was a tragedy losing her like that, so young."

"It was," his guest replied, a momentary distant look on his face. "However, I have things to remind me of her, one of them the best thing in my life, so there's that. Enough about me, how is your family?"

"Rory's doing well, thank you, as are Kyla and Deb. I'll mention to Deb that you asked after them, she'd like that."

"Good. Nice to hear it."

"My niece has been a little unwell recently, though. She keeps getting headaches from what I'm told. Hopefully there's nothing too serious wrong, she's only just twelve, so that's pretty young for most of the bad problems I can immediately think of." Roy sighed, shaking his head. "She's a nice girl but so serious a lot of the time. I'll have to visit my brother and take her a little get well present or something. Oh well, I'm sure she'll recover, the young are pretty resilient."

Danny nodded knowingly. "Oh, yes, they certainly are, trust me."

Pleasantries over, Roy leaned back in the comfortable chair, holding his glass of water, and studied his guest, who smiled a little under the inspection. "So, Danny, what can I do for the DWU today? I'm afraid that there aren't any large contracts available at the moment, although there may be one or two small short term projects available."

"I'd be interested in talking about those at some point, but at the moment, it's not so much looking for work as presenting a proposal." Danny's smile had gone somewhat mysterious.

Looking narrowly at him, knowing damn well the man always had some sort of angle, Roy slowly parroted, "A… proposal."

"A proposal, yes. One that could benefit the city considerably, and I'll admit my own men and women as well." Danny's smile grew. "But it's somewhat… unusual."

Putting his now-empty glass down on the inlaid tabletop with a click, Roy leaned forward again. "How unusual?" His voice was suspicious.

"Quite." Danny's was amused. After a moment, he put his own glass on the table and stood up, walking to the window overlooking the bay in a generally northern direction from the sixth floor of the building. "Come over here a minute, if you would, Mayor."

Curious now, Roy did as asked, moving to stand beside his guest, who pointed out the window. Roy looked in the direction indicated. "How would you like that removed," Danny said quietly.

Roy stared, then looked back to the other man's face. He seemed serious. "The tanker?"

"Yes."

Silence fell for a few seconds while the mayor thought hard. Danny wasn't known as a man who played jokes, although he certainly had a good sense of humor. And one hell of a temper if you managed to ignite it, which was never good. But at the moment he just looked like he was patiently waiting for an honest answer.

"I suppose it would be a good thing, but you probably know better than I do how incredibly expensive that would be. Marine salvage is pricey at the best of times, which these aren't. How would it even be done, anyway? That thing must weigh thousands of tons at least."

"Thirty one thousand six hundred," Danny nodded. "According to the records. Probably less now because some of the equipment was either removed or stolen over the years, but in that ballpark."

"That's a hell of a lot of steel to cut up and take away," the mayor commented, looking back at the vast old ship miles away on the horizon. "It would take years, surely. And what would you do with it? Refloating it would be nearly impossible, I know for a fact that there are at least a dozen large holes in the hull from where rocks went through when it sank."

"True. But, at the current price of approximately two hundred and thirty-five dollars a ton for good quality bulk scrap steel, that represents a little less than seven and a half million dollars, just rusting away. Just for the steel, there are other metals that are worth more in the engine room, the drive shafts, that sort of thing, so call it about eight to eight and a half million dollars. Owned by the city, as far as we can determine."

Roy was a little startled at the figure. It wasn't huge, but it was nothing to sneeze at, either. "OK," he replied, not sure quite what the other man was driving at. "But even so, I can see it costing that much at least to salvage it."

"But even if that was indeed the case, it would then unblock the harbor and allow much larger ships to come and go. The damn thing is completely blocking the deep water channel into the bay. Only fairly small trawlers or cargo ships can go around it, the water either side is too shallow for anything that has very much draft. Not to mention the wreckage in the area which makes it dangerous even then. That's why the port died, of course." Danny sighed in remembrance, as did the mayor.

"It wasn't that long ago that from here you'd have seen a couple of dozen ships and thousands of men working every day down there."

"Those days are gone, Danny," Roy replied sadly.

"Not necessarily."

They shared a look, then Danny went and sat again, pushing his glass and empty water bottle to the side and putting his briefcase where they'd been. The snapping sound of the latches unlocking was loud in the quiet office. The DWU representative pulled out a thick sheaf of papers in a folder and put it in front of Roy, who had just sat again as well.

"This is a very preliminary proposal and a lot of information is missing from it, but the basics are there," Danny told him as Roy looked at the document with raised eyebrows. "However, I've checked with a salvage expert, a ship dismantling yard on the west coast, a marine law expert, the records department, and even a marine biologist. It's possible. Even fairly easily doable with some care. And it would revitalize the port, create or maintain close to eight hundred jobs just in the first year, and possibly even allow for the ferry to reopen. You already know my views on that, of course."

"All too well, Danny," Roy chuckled, opening the report and reading the first page, a summary of the proposal. His eyebrows disappeared into his hairline within the first two paragraphs.

"You can't be serious."

"I am. Very." Danny looked it, when Roy glanced at him. Intrigued, he resumed reading, picking the document up and leaning back. Danny waited patiently.

The actual proposal was only about eight pages, the remainder of the thick stack of papers being made up of charts of the bay, proof of ownership of what looked like at least ninety percent of the junked ships in it, maps of the ships graveyard, a topological relief cross-section of the mouth of the bay, and many other things besides. Most of it had obviously been cobbled together in a hurry but as far as he could see, all hung together.

Feeling a little faint, he closed the report and dropped it to the table, resting his hand on it. "Is this possible? Really?"

"Yes, I think it is. I know how… bizarre… it looks on first sight, but I really think it could be done. The parahuman in question is happy to donate their time and effort to the city, they don't want to profit from it. That makes it much easier from a legal standpoint. The lawyers I spoke to thought it was eminently possible with the right wording in the contract."

He fell silent again, allowing Roy to think. Getting up and wandering back to the window, the mayor stared at the graveyard of dead ships, slowly going orange in the setting sun. "The entire graveyard, the bay, everything?"

"That's the plan." Danny smiled when he looked back for a moment. "Clear some space on the docks first, which would require demolishing several warehouses, which are derelict anyway and also belong to the city and would have enough steel in them to be worth salvaging as well. Repair the ground in that area, one of them has a cellar which would need filling with concrete, which is easy and not too expensive, resurface the whole area, add retaining walls and absorbent zones for any runoff, that sort of thing. It's not complicated or very expensive and it's a known process."

"Once the scrapping area is ready, which we think would take about two weeks, maybe less if I put enough men on the job, we start with the tanker. It would be towed to the docks and the bilges pumped out, because it will be full of all sorts of crap we don't want leaking into the bay. Then, it's sliced up and brought on shore. My men could easily reduce the slices to smaller pieces, sort out anything that wasn't steel, then load the stuff onto rail cars. We'd need to rebuild about half a mile of track that's too badly damaged to repair, to link the rail yard to the main line, but I'm told that would take about two weeks at most, which would be done at the same time as the ground prep work. We even have the track in stock, left over from the refurbishment in the late seventies."

Roy turned around and stood by the window, listening intently. "The scrap steel would be shipped out by rail. There are six smelters within two hundred miles alone that could handle that quantity of scrap at a price like the one I mentioned earlier, and from what I've been able to find out with some discreet questions, at least three of them are desperate for metal and would probably bid for a contract for as much of it as we could supply."

"Once the tanker was gone, which would take about three months with a team of perhaps a hundred working on it, the money from it could be used to dredge the harbor, although the parahuman whose idea this ultimately was could help as well and is willing to do it. That then lets larger cargo ships in, which in turn makes shipping out further scrap easier. We can work our way through the graveyard, at a quick minimum estimate there's over sixty-five million dollars worth of steel there that could be sold off, several supertankers worth of smaller ships. It could be considerably more, there are a lot of ships with very incomplete records on the bottom of the bay half-buried in silt, some of them are pretty big. Not to mention at least a dozen hulls that are sound and refloatable. They could either be sold intact or rebuilt."

He paused for breath, while Roy stared, almost shocked. "Once the graveyard is clear, that's nearly three square miles of prime industrial land right next to the water, all of it owned by the city, available once again. It clears the way for the ferry, as well, which is a bonus. Not to mention allowing for an influx of exactly the expertise we need to revive it, the funds to pay for it, and the jobs for people to run it. At a rough calculation we would clear more than ten million dollars a year over three years after transportation, labor, and material costs are taken into account. But the indirect payback could be as much as ten times that during the same period. Much more over a decade, it could attract a hell of a lot of business to the Bay."

"We'd need to bring in some equipment, we have most of it in stock from the old days, but some is too old, some is worn out, and some is just not in large enough quantities. Large quantities of oxygen and fuel for thermal lances and cutting torches, new rail cars and replacement parts for some of the old ones that are still lying around the rail yard, things like that. Nothing very exciting, just normal heavy industrial equipment. A lot of it could even be purchased used in this economy for a large cost saving. We could upgrade it as needed when the money starts coming in, and the repair work means yet more jobs."

Falling silent, he watched the Mayor, who was gaping.

"That's… certainly an ambitious plan, Danny," Roy finally managed to say. Danny acknowledged the comment with a nod but didn't say anything.

"Too ambitious?" Roy mused.

"I don't think so, sir. The tanker is the bottleneck. Even without the help of the parahuman involved, once that was gone and the harbor dredged we could do the rest the old fashioned way. It would take years longer but is still practical. The figures are in the report." He shrugged slightly. "I'm told that they are happy to help do the whole thing, or any subdivision you want. They don't want to put good people out of work but at the same time they don't want to see the city decay any more. And you know as well as I do that Brockton Bay is dying. If we don't do something fairly soon, it might be too late."

"Depressingly true," Roy nodded, thinking deeply. "The gangs are killing us, we're on the edge of a cliff the whole time. If we could pump more money into the economy and stop it instantly disappearing into Lung's or Kaiser's pockets, the effect would probably be profound. A lot of the drug problems which fuel the gangs are in the end the result of poor desperate people, after all. They have nothing to lose."

"But give them jobs, even fairly basic ones, they have," Danny pointed out. "Start at the bottom and build from there."

"What about security and the gangs?"

"Page five. The equipment is the only really expensive thing and most of it is both so heavy and so specialized it's hardly worth the effort of stealing in the first place except for by a few Tinkers. We could secure it well enough just by putting a large fence around the entire site except the waterfront and posting a few guards, as we do with the DWU facility. More jobs. The upfront cost is fairly high but not unreasonable and could be done in stages, easily. The scrap itself is only worth anything in quantities measured in tons, so unless someone steals an entire trainload it's not an issue. If they do, that's what insurance is for." Danny smiled, again stopping.

"Christ." Roy sighed, flipping the report open and looking at the summary, then leafing through it to a table of estimated costings and studying it closely. "This is… I'm not sure what this is."

"A good idea?"

"A completely insane idea. But it's so crazy it just might work." He grinned as Danny chuckled. "You're sure this parahuman of yours can do it?"

"I am, as mad as it sounds. Quite easily."

"There's a cape in Brockton Bay with that sort of power?" Roy was astounded. "A Tinker?"

"Oddly enough, no," his guest smiled. "That part is still a surprise. But they can do what's needed."

"You're absolutely certain of that?"

"I am. Some preliminary experiments have already been done." Danny snickered at the look on Roy's face. "Discreetly. But it's not too hard to arrange. The PRT will go mental when they see it, of course, so I'm half tempted not to tell them just to watch their expressions, but we should probably be more responsible than that."

Roy stared, then started laughing. "Oh, god, I can imagine Piggot's face if she looked out her window one day and that tanker was flying away or something. She'd pop an artery on the spot." Shaking his head, he snickered for a while. He found the PRT director, while he respected her, someone he preferred not to deal with too often. She was competent, but hard to like.

"Is this parahuman you found associated with the PRT?" he asked curiously.

Danny smiled. "The person in question respects the PRT to a degree but has no immediate wish to be directly associated with them," he said dryly. "I suspect that once they become known for what they can do, though, the PRT may be very interested in them. Not that it would do them much good if the parahuman decided they wanted nothing to do with them."

"A little difficult to deal with?"

"Not at all. Just dangerous if pushed too hard or threatened." Danny shrugged again. "Personally, though, I'd trust them with the lives of myself and my daughter any day of the week, which I have to say isn't quite the feelings I have for the PRT, sadly enough."

Shaking his head in wonder, Roy closed the folder. "I'm going to have to think very hard about this, Danny. It's a hell of a step to take and if it failed, it would fail spectacularly. Neither one of us would come out of that well."

"I know, but I have faith in the plan."

After a moment or two more, Roy sighed but nodded. "Look, you go ahead and work this up into something more concrete. Get all the facts and figures right. Bring it back when it's ready and I'll read it again. I'm going to think it over in the meantime, but..."

He trailed off. Danny nodded.

"All right, sir. Thank you for listening to my insane idea."

"Thank you for bringing it to me. I think." Roy smiled as he stood. "I really hope you're right about this, Danny. It could be… remarkable. But we need to be sure."

"I'll continue with working it out quietly," Danny replied. "We don't want to publicize any of it until we're ready, that would cause all sorts of problems, I think, but with some luck I can have a much more detailed report in about a week."

"Fine. I'll have to get it checked out, but I'll wait until you have the details ready." He held out his hand, feeling rather more positive about the day.

Danny Hebert might well be nuts, but he had both ambition and common sense, two abilities that seldom seemed to go together. The last one was so rare it was almost a super-power in its own right.

Shaking the outstretched hand, Danny put his paperwork back in his briefcase and left with a final smile.

Returning to the window, Roy stared at the dimming shape of the huge tanker. It had been part of the background for so long he had real trouble working out what the view would look like if it was gone, but he was suddenly feeling quite interested in finding out.

π

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Roy smiled as the door opened to reveal his sister. "Roy!" she said with delight. "I haven't seen you in weeks. Come in. What brings you here?"

Entering the house, he embraced her after she closed the door. "Hi, Sis," he smiled. "I was reminded of you guys yesterday by a visitor, and decided I should stop in. I've been so busy I haven't had time for anything much else for over a month so it's time I did something else. How are Jim and Dinah?"

His sister Cheryl smiled again. "Jim is fine, he's in the living room. Dinah is in bed, her headaches have been worse this week. Poor girl."

"Have the doctors found anything wrong?" Roy asked as he followed her deeper into the house having hung up his coat and taken his shoes off. She shook her head.

"Not yet, no. Overall she's very healthy and active. They think it's probably migraine, but they're not sure what the cause is. She's going in for some more tests on Monday."

They entered the living room, where his brother in law was looking at a pile of paperwork with a small thoughtful frown, but glanced up when he heard them. "Oh, Hi, Roy," he said with a grin as he put the paperwork down and stood. "How are you. How's the Mayoring business doing?"

"Pretty well, Jim, in both cases," Roy smiled, shaking his hand, then sitting in the chair he was waved to. "Money is tight, as always, the gangs are a nightmare, I wish Kaiser and Lung would kill each other and make life easier for everyone, but other than that..." He chuckled as Jim and Cheryl laughed. "Could be worse. In fact, I had a very interesting talk yesterday with Danny Hebert from the DWU that makes me think things could improve a lot soon with some luck."

They looked interested. "What do you mean, Roy?" his sister asked curiously.

"I can't go into the details yet, but it could clean up a lot of the problems around here, and make the city a lot of money, not to mention saving a lot of jobs." He shook his head wonderingly. "I still have trouble wrapping my head around it, but the man thinks big, I'll give him that. And he seems to know what he's talking about."

A sound at the doorway made all three of them look over, to see a petite twelve year old girl standing there looking a little fragile. Her eyes met his and widened a little, then she smiled. "Uncle Roy!" she said, coming over to him. "You haven't been here for ages."

"I know, dear, and I'm sorry," he smiled, moving over in his chair to leave a gap. "Come here." She hopped up beside him and leaned on him, looking happier.

"I'm glad you came, Uncle Roy. I was getting bored."

"How are you feeling, Dinah?" he asked. She shrugged.

"It hurts, but not as bad. Sometimes it's worse."

"How is your schoolwork going?"

"It's boring," she sighed. "Did you bring me anything?"

"I did," he grinned. "Go and look in my coat. Right hand pocket."

Sliding down with a smile, she left the room, while Jim and Cheryl laughed. "You spoil that girl," his sister said.

"Of course I do," he grinned, "She's the only niece I have."

Coming back into the room holding a small gift-wrapped box, Dinah retook her seat and studied it carefully. She shook it gently. "What is it?" she asked.

"Open it and find out."

With frowning concentration she carefully unpicked the tape holding the green wrapping paper in place, then removed it intact, making him grin again. His own daughter did exactly the same thing, while his son would just tear the paper away as fast as possible. Maybe it was a boy thing.

Revealed under the paper was a small box, with a picture on the front that made her smile. She lifted the lid to reveal a small, high-tech music player, made so precisely it was almost jewelry. "I hope you like it, Dinah. I know how young people are into their music."

Lifting it out of the foam she inspected it closely, turning it over in her hands until she found the power button, which she pressed. It gently beeped and the small display lit up. Touching it she played with the various icons for a moment, then found the manual in the box and started gravely reading it from cover to cover. "Thank you, Uncle Roy," she said in a distracted but grateful voice.

"You're welcome, Princess," he replied, stroking her hair for a moment.

"Thanks, Roy," his sister smiled. "That will mean a lot to her. She's been at home for days now. The school sends her work, and she's keeping up, but she's also bored out of her mind most of the time."

"I'm sorry to hear that, Cheryl," Roy told her honestly. "That must be very hard for all of you."

"It's not ideal," Jim agreed soberly. Standing up, he added, "Would you like a drink?"

"A small one, thanks. With ice." Shortly Roy found himself holding a small tumbled of amber liquid with a couple of ice cubes in it. Dinah looked at it, wrinkled her nose, then went back to reading the documentation for her new toy, making all three adults laugh.

"How is your family getting along?" Cheryl asked.

"Not too bad at all," he smiled. "Rory seems to be having fun, Kyla is apparently doing well in school, and Deb is keeping busy with various projects. Can't complain overall."

"Good. Things here are much the same, mostly, except for poor Dinah." The girl looked up at the sound of her name, smiled a little, then went back to her job. "So, what is this big secret project?"

"It's a big secret, so I can't say," Roy laughed, making Jim look amusingly sad. "Sorry. It's a little sensitive right now, but with some luck I can let you in on it in a few weeks. It's going to be spectacular if we can pull it off, though. We could revitalize the city to a level I can hardly believe if it works out the way Danny thinks."

"I've never met the man but I've heard quite a lot about him," his brother-in-law remarked thoughtfully. "Didn't his wife die a while back?"

"Yes, it was a car accident. Very sad. She was only about thirty-five and a really smart, funny woman. Her daughter apparently takes after her but I've never met the girl. She recently transferred to Arcadia, though, and Danny says she's doing well, which is nice. The poor guy was really depressed about his wife for a long time but seems to have recovered very well recently, if what I saw yesterday was any indication."

Roy smiled. "I think his daughter was a big part of that, whatever prompted the transfer from Winslow to Arcadia seems to have done them both good in the aftermath."

"God, Winslow." Cheryl looked appalled. "I visited that place once, it was awful. Why on earth can't you do something about that, Roy?"

"It would take too much money, Sis. Way too much. We simply don't have it without raising taxes, which would probably spark a local civil war on the spot. No one has the money to go for that, aside from a small number of people, who would simply not pay one way or the other." He shrugged a little fatalistically. "I may be the mayor but I know where the real power is in this city. I'm not stupid."

After a little thought, though, he grinned evilly. "If this plan works, that might well change."

"If that's the case you should definitely do it, Roy, whatever it is. Right, Jim?"

"Yes," her husband nodded, also smiling. "We need to make the city safer, so if you have a plan that will do that, go for it."

"A poll of local voters returned a unanimously positive result," he snickered. "Small sample size, but significant."

Beside him, Dinah put the manual back in the box, then looked up at him. "What does unanimously mean, Uncle Roy?"

"It means everyone agreed. What about you? Should I go ahead with the plan? Will it work, do you think?"

She winced. "84.3% chance of success if you proceed," she muttered. "Ow."

Roy stared at her, then at his sister, who smiled sadly. "She keeps saying things like that. No one seems to know why."

"How very strange," he mumbled, suddenly thinking very hard. Dinah went back to her music player, still wincing a little, fiddling with the device in a way that suggested she had remembered everything she'd read.

After a couple of minutes and a wildly odd thought, he asked, "Dinah?"

She looked at him.

"How many coins do I have in my pocket?"

She shrugged. "It doesn't work like that, Uncle Roy. Only percentages."

Nodding very slowly, he thought for a moment, then asked, "What are the chances I will take less than three coins from my pocket?"

"9.49%," she replied, rubbing her head with her free hand. "It hurts if you do that too much."

"OK, dear, last one. What are the chances I will take more than four coins out?"

"96.3%. Ow." She paled a little, looking like she was going to fall over. Stroking her hair with his other hand, he looked over at Cheryl and Jim, who had been watching with worried curiosity.

He put his hand in his pocket, rummaged around randomly, then pulled it out, opening it flat to reveal three dimes, one nickle, and two quarters. "I need to call someone about Dinah," he said quietly. "But I think I know why she gets headaches."

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Slowly rotating her office chair back and forth while she thought, Hannah puzzled over the whiteboard on the wall of her office. On it were written a number of observations from several sources about the new Cape Saurial. She'd been scribbling them down and adding to them in various colors of marker and no particular order since she'd started writing the preliminary PRT threat report a few days ago and had just finished adding in some more, squeezing them in wherever she could find space on the now full board.

Looking at the list she now suspected the report was quite likely a gross underestimate.

• Appears to be reptilian, although she told Clockblocker and Kid Win she was not
• Speech pattern and overall mannerisms, ignoring the physical variance due to different body type, are broadly consistent with female teenager, approximately fourteen to seventeen years old
• High Brute level strength, upper limit unknown, but claims to be able to dead lift over two and a half tons. New Wave observers note this figure likely underestimate. Brute rating possibly too low
• Significantly enhanced senses, sight and smell verified although level unknown, hearing suspected. Thinker rating possibly too low
• Extremely fast reaction time, far better than human scale, added to high speed motion ability. Can run at minimum 60mph, suspected true limits higher. Possibly significantly. Shows no preference for which way up she is in combat, scales walls like level surfaces and can run across ceilings. Uses claws for purchase. Mover rating too low
• Extremely durable. Showed no reaction to high velocity bullet impact to side of head except minor verbal annoyance. True durability unknown
• Can apparently create matter from nothing, in specific forms, maximum complexity unknown. Matter generation confirmed for several types of cloth and metal, including the material Armsmaster has designated SaurialSteel, although he is also insistent it is not any form of ferrous metal. Most qualities of this material unknown at present
• Gallant claims to detect two distinct although related emotional signatures from her, but has difficulty describing them except as very faint. Appears perturbed by it
• From Lady Photon's observations, has significant skills in weapons handling, such as sword work, and demonstrated capability to dual wield such weapons with ease
• Appears, again from the above observations, to have skill in battlefield tactics. This is confirmed by video recording given to Kid Win. Such abilities would be expected as the result of many years training and experience, but no such experience can be found and is inconsistent with estimated age range
• Is actively leveraging above skills and abilities to produce new techniques, such as tail mounted blade set, observed to be 'horrifyingly effective'
• Can move with extreme silence if required. Clockblocker completely missed her and Kid Win stated that if he hadn't been watching, he would never have known she was there. Possible minor Stranger ability?
• Non-aggressive, polite, and respectful to authority in the form of the BBPD, and generally friendly demeanor. Considered likable by almost everyone. Shows no worry about entering shops and purchasing snacks. Likes raw eggs with shell. Exhibits mischievous sense of humor
• Extremely effective in close quarters combat, using martial arts techniques unlike any on record except superficially, shows preference to work in dark, possibly for psychological impact on opponents
• Shows preference for minimum force take downs, no injuries reported from last several operations. Minimizes collateral damage when possible
• Has developed working relationship with DWU and Danny Hebert, seen at DWU facility on at least two occasions
• Suspected medium to medium-high level changer, no evidence so far available for this

Studying the list, she looked particularly at the notes about estimated age and her skill level which was in conflict with that estimate. There was something bothering her about the whole thing, something she couldn't quite put her finger on.

Leaving those aside, the list described a cape with a remarkable range of abilities, mostly revolving around the Brute rating. Her speed and reaction time were probably all part of the same thing, the very high strength giving her the ability to move very fast indeed. So that could lump Brute and Mover into one easily enough. The Thinker rating was a nicety, really, it just gave a convenient handle on the enhanced sensory package.

Even the possible minor Stranger rating she'd jotted down a few minutes ago was only a reflection of her extreme level of control over her movements. Move slowly and carefully enough and most people won't see or hear you.

She thought it all hung together much better if you considered her as more like the reptile she appeared as, despite her protestations to the contrary, than a human. Many lizards were very strong for their size, had remarkably fast reactions, could move extremely fast or ridiculously slowly at will, and had wildly better senses than humans as well. It was as if someone had taken a lizard and reworked it around a human frame more than anything else. Or possibly the other way around. Although a true reptile slowed to a crawl in low temperatures due to being cold blooded which she definitely wasn't, showing no problems walking around barefoot in near freezing temperatures.

The vaguest hint of another possibility came to her, making her try to bring it to the front of her mind. She couldn't for the moment and stopped straining, allowing her subconscious to work on it, while she looked the list over once more.

The mismatch between what she thought was fighting experience and the estimated age was odd. Either the cape was quite a few years older than she seemed and had racked up a lot of time fighting quite serious odds, without leaving a paper trail, or her Trigger had been nice enough to gift her with a lot of skills that most people would need to learn the hard way. Not impossible but very unusual.

The other very weird bit was that part about Gallant being convinced she had two different emotional patterns at the same time, almost like…

She froze, her chair stopping dead, then leaned forward and read the list again very carefully. A wild surmise came to her as her eyes widened.

"God. It fits, more or less." Hannah leaned back in her chair, her mind racing. It was a possibility that seemed fairly out there but there was precedence. Not that she liked to think about that.

"Oh, hell," she sighed. "The Director is going to have a fit."

Looking the list over again, she shook her head. A few things, specifically the matter creation ability if that's what it really was, stood out as not being quite aligned with her alarming hypothesis, but she could come up with various possibilities even they might be explained by, if you took the central precept of her idea as true. And it explained the lack of any evidence so far for the last point, making it unnecessary.

Copying her notes from the board into a notebook, she erased the original. If she was right, she didn't want anyone knowing before she had a chance to run it past Director Piggot. There were known to be a minimum of two moles reporting to people unknown in the PRT at the moment, although so far only one of them had been positively identified. The man in question was being carefully fed a diet of believable but misdirecting information in an attempt to see who he was working for without tipping that person or group off. So far it hadn't produced anything particularly useful.

Checking the time, she nodded to herself. It was still early enough that the director would be awake, although she'd gone home a couple of hours ago, neither having her own ability to not sleep, or as much physical stamina as might be wished due to her various ailments. After debating with herself for a moment, she decided not to call in advance, going down to the equipment room and checking out some gear she thought might be useful, before heading for the boat to the city.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Emily Piggot sighed slightly as the doorbell rang, looking at the clock on her bedside table and seeing it was just after half past nine. She normally went to bed early except on days where she had a late dialysis, which today she hadn't had, and had been looking forward to a quiet night reading for a little while then going to sleep.

The bell rang again, so she mumbled something rude under her breath, struggled to sit up on the edge of the bed, then as a precaution, reached under her pillow and removed her service pistol, checking it with the familiarity of long habit. Standing with a grunt she made her way to the door, checked the entry screen to the side, raised her eyebrows, then opened the door on the security chain with the pistol at her side.

Seeing it was in fact Hannah in her civilian guise, she sighed once more, closed the door, removed the chain, and opened it again waving the woman in. "I'm sorry to disturb you so late, Director, but I have information I don't trust to the PRT computers or the phone," Hannah said apologetically as soon as she was inside and the door was shut. She didn't even blink in surprise as Emily flicked the safety on the pistol on again and put it in her dressing robe pocket.

"Come into the living room and tell me, then," Emily yawned. "I need some tea if I'm going to have to think. Do you want some, Hannah?"

"Please. Thank you, Director."

The younger woman followed her superior into the other room, taking a seat when she was silently waved to it and waiting patiently as Emily boiled some water and made two cups of tea, bringing them back with her along with milk and sugar. Sitting down with a sigh of relief she added the latter to her own in a small amount, knowing it was bad for her diabetes but not at the moment caring, then took a sip. The other woman did much the same.

"All right, what brings you here at this time of night that couldn't wait until morning?" Emily asked.

"Saurial. Or, some thoughts I have had while going over various things about her." Hannah looked worried, which made Emily's heart sink a little. The other woman was one of the very few capes she genuinely respected and if she thought something might be amiss… It could be bad.

"Go on."

"You've read my initial threat report?"

"I have. Also the other reports from the Wards, and the BBPD interactions as well. So far this young woman, despite an unconventional appearance and methodology, appears to be doing good work. Much better work than most new capes and quite a lot of experienced ones." Emily smiled faintly. "I wish more heroes would try to minimize the damage to people and infrastructure the way she seems to."

"All that is true, yes. She's been impressively effective. Even though several people seem to be worried about going into dark places now having seen her recordings." Hannah smirked slightly. "Poor Clockblocker, despite seeming to rather like her, has said more than once that there's no way you could possibly pay him enough to go into a dark warehouse with her in there as well."

"Her prank on him was amusing, I thought. It was refreshing to have him the target for once. And if you say I said that, you're fired." Emily smiled a little more widely, making her guest grin briefly.

"Noted."

Hannah's smile disappeared after a moment. "I've been going over my notes and the various reports for days, thinking that there was something missing, something that I should have seen. On Monday, I was contacted by Lady Photon, who passed on some more information on Saurial, which was… intriguing."

"New Wave?" Emily was a little surprised. "What have they been doing with Saurial?"

"Apparently last week Glory Girl had a run in with her. Words were exchanged. She didn't go into detail, she seemed embarrassed, but apparently Glory Girl said some things that were quite rude, then stormed off. Not entirely surprising knowing the young woman, she can be quite hot headed."

"Yes," Emily nodded sourly. She was all too aware of that. It certainly wasn't the first time. "How did Saurial take it?"

"Oddly well, apparently. She didn't rise to the challenge at all, merely asked her to go away and stop being rude. When Brandish contacted her on Sunday, she asked if Glory Girl was all right and seemed genuinely to be concerned. Which is somewhat unusual, and rather nice."

"It's not normal cape behavior in many cases, certainly," Emily replied, frowning in thought.

Nodding, Hannah continued, "Apparently Saurial was at the time 'training' as she put it in the DWU facility at the docks. Brandish asked if they could meet so Glory Girl could apologize and she invited them to meet her there, which they did, 'they' being Brandish, Glory Girl, Lady Photon, and Laserdream, the latter two visiting at the time of the call and going along out of curiosity, I think."

"The DWU facility?" Emily frowned again, surprised. "What was she doing there?"

"She said she needed a large open place that didn't have anyone in it for training, looked around, spotted it, then tracked down the number of the person to ask if she could legitimately use it. Danny Hebert."

"Oh." That was a name she'd hoped not to hear again for quite a while. At least this time it wasn't accompanied with evidence of serious wrongdoing from her people. "And he said yes?"

"So she claimed. Since then, she has visited the facility at least once, she was spotted going inside on Monday late afternoon and apparently staying there for over an hour."

"Interesting. I wonder why?"

Hannah shrugged. "I have no idea, although I'm discreetly trying to find out. So far without any luck, the dock workers tend to stick together and not talk too much to other people. They're surprisingly loyal."

Emily thought more about it, nodded, then motioned to the other woman to continue. "Anyway, the New Wave women arrived in time to see Saurial engaged in what Lady Photon described as one of the most high speed and horrific series of hit and run attacks she'd ever encountered, on a large number of training dummies that Saurial had apparently manufactured. They witnessed her making more later. They were made of some sort of stone, metal, and something like wood. At the time they turned up she was using a pair of the large war hammers that Gallant and Vista reported seeing, apparently frighteningly competently."

"It worried her?"

"It did. Glory Girl was staring in shock, apparently. When Saurial switched to a huge two handed sword she nearly fell over. The girl can hit so fast that you'd get half a dozen strikes inside a second, which to be honest is probably complete overkill for most people outside Lung. Assuming the weapon is made of the hyperdense metal she seems to like using, it would both be remarkably heavy and probably implausibly sharp. Armsmaster is of the opinion that it would accept and maintain an edge he called molecule-scale. Later observations by New Wave would bear that out."

Hannah looked somewhat disturbed. "At the end of their meeting, she formed a set of four blades on a fitting on the end of her tail and used it to dissect a solid metal dummy with ease. I was told she seemed pleased by the effect."

"God. That's… unpleasant," Emily couldn't help but say, picturing the event. Hannah nodded a little.

"In close quarters, she would be appallingly hard to deal with if she went all out. Especially since she appears to raise the concept of bullet-proof to new heights." She explained how the girl had been sniped at nine times and laughed it off, then captured the sniper with minimal fuss and no real effort. Emily listened closely.

"I checked the scene and found expended 30-06 cartridges, which match the gun the police were given. The weapon was a brand new Remington 750 hunting rifle, quite high end, along with a very good scope. The serial number traces to a batch of weapons delivered to a gun dealer in Chicago. It was reported stolen recently, along with several other weapons and a large amount of ammunition. There are no leads as to who was behind the theft, but that isn't unusual in that area. Or here."

After a moment to allow her superior to absorb the information, she went on, "I had a thought when I was studying the scene and looked around for a while. The warehouse the shooter, an ex marine now associated with the merchants, was firing from was well picked, it gave a perfect view over the DWU yard where Saurial was. However, to the west and another two hundred yards away, I spotted a similarly good position from the first one. When I investigated, I found a room that had been recently and professionally cleaned. No traces left of whoever did it, aside from the fact that it been cleaned in the first place. From that point, an observer could watch the sniper and Saurial's reaction to him."

She broke off, waiting. It didn't take Emily long to connect the dots.

"You think it was a setup, not a random merchant sniper or something Skidmark ordered, and someone was watching the results. An experiment to see what she'd do."

"I do."

"Who and why?"

"I don't know, and I don't know. But it's… concerning. The other interesting thing is how did they know? I mean, either whoever was watching her, or they knew ahead of time that Saurial was going to be there. From what I've been able to find out she was probably only there for between three and four hours so they'd have had to move fairly quickly in any case."

Emily considered the idea, then slowly nodded. "What about the shooter? Does he know anything?"

"No, nothing useful. He's an ex marine, as I stated, dishonorably discharged for drug use some six years ago. It seems he ended up in Brockton Bay about a year back and fell in with the merchants, he's basically homeless but seems to somehow have managed to keep himself in fairly good condition. He can't remember very much of any use, he was approached by 'some guy' as he put it, two days ago, paid nearly two and a half thousand dollars in cash, and a quantity of various drugs he asked for to sweeten the deal, given a photo of the target, and a disposable phone. He got a call and did the job. He was pretty incoherent even the next day when I went to see him, so how he managed to pull off that series of shots I have no idea. A lot of Ritalin and ingrained experience, I think."

Hannah sighed a little. "It's basically a dead end. Neither the police or I have any idea who did it, who stole the weapons, or what the purpose was. Except for the thought I had, which is about all that makes sense. They must have known it wouldn't actually harm her, she's already well known to be pretty invulnerable, the information is all over PHO. So I think it was a test."

"I wonder why Skidmark and his crew didn't interfere?" Emily mused out loud.

"As far as I can tell the local junkies were scared off an hour or so later by some men in masks who went around and told them to leave, waving baseball bats. No actual violence but the threat was there. I found one of them when I left the warehouse, he said the guys meant it, so he and his friends left without any arguments. That's all he knew."

Sipping her tea, Emily leaned back and looked at the other woman, who was watching her patiently. Eventually she nodded a little. "OK, it all seems to hang together, although the point escapes me right now. Is that it?"

"No." Hannah looked troubled again. "I've been trying to rationalize all the oddities about her that we have noticed and had a wild idea I find… worrying. I may well be completely wrong but I think it needs to be considered, but it's so sensitive that I didn't want to risk it getting out. Nothing is on computer, only in a notebook I carry with me."

Surprised, Emily asked, "What's the idea?"

Leaning forward, Hannah pulled a small notebook from her pocket, opened it, then glanced at the page, but didn't show it to her yet. "We've got her down as Brute 6, Shaker 4, Mover and Thinker 3, and a possible Changer rating of 6 or above at the moment. The last one is purely speculative but would explain some of the peculiarities about the case."

"Yes, I know all that, Hannah. It's an unusually large number of different abilities but hardly unique. So?"

"I was thinking about it and you could easily roll the Brute, Mover, and Thinker abilities into one, really." She explained her reasoning, making Emily nod thoughtfully. "The Shaker power is in some ways the oddest, Armsmaster is very intrigued about it. A possible Changer ability would be one explanation as to how she vanishes so well from public view when she's not out doing things, but I realized there might be another possibility that explains a lot of what we've seen."

Impatiently, Emily replied, "Stop beating about the bush, Hannah, and tell me. What's your disturbing idea."

"She's a construct made by a Biotinker Master."

Emily dropped her teacup and paled. She felt her heart jump for a moment.

"What?" she finally whispered, horrific memories from years ago coming back, screams in the dark and terrible things chasing her and her squad…

"I'm not certain, Director, as I said," Hannah hastily added, looking a little worried. "It's just a hypothesis at the moment but it fits quite a lot of the observed facts."

Breathing heavily, Emily waited until her heart-rate settle down, then picked the cup off the carpet and put it on the table. "Explain, please."

"OK." Hannah looked at her notes, although she didn't need to due to her eidetic memory, as Emily knew. She tended to do that sort of thing to give herself time to think. "Saurial appears as far as we can tell to be between fourteen and seventeen. She's already said she's under eighteen. My best guess would be sixteen. She would also appear to be a recent trigger, probably no more than four to six weeks ago." Glancing up to see if her superior was following, she received a nod to continue, which she did.

"The problem is that she also exhibits skills and techniques that in my estimation are the result of several, possibly many, years practice in martial arts, combat techniques, weapons use, battle tactics… The list is quite long already. It's difficult to correlate with the age. Either she's a lot older than she looks and has somehow stayed out of the public eye for years, or somehow she's learned years worth of abilities in weeks."

"Powers are largely unknown, Hannah, that could be part of hers."

Hannah nodded agreement. "It could. Or it could be the result of an external agent essentially programming her with a large number of abilities and techniques. If, for example, a Biotinker had set out to design a warrior creature, he or she could quite possibly have based it around a reptile of some sort. It's a good choice assuming the metabolism could be redesigned to function in low temperatures, since reptiles are strong, fast, tough, have excellent senses, and often good regenerative abilities. I can only assume that a biotinkered version would be improved in all those things to one degree or another."

Pondering the suggestion Emily admitted to herself it was possible. "Why make it with the personality of a sixteen year old girl, though?" she asked.

"Perhaps to make her likable, which she definitely is. It throws people off, her appearance is fairly threatening, but she's also friendly and seems pleasant. It makes people underestimate her."

"A deliberate ploy, you think."

"Possibly, yes. The really disturbing thing is that the poor girl may not even realize the truth. In a way, like a Case 53, but worse. She may well be a completely artificial person, who thinks she's real."

Thinking, Emily fell silent, as did Hannah, while she went over the facts. After a minute or so the other woman looked at her notes once more for a moment. "It explains the appearance, all the abilities except the Shaker one, and several other incongruities. Where she vanishes to after she does her thing, for example. Some lair where she might perhaps just get more or less switched off and reprogrammed. It also explains the dual emotional signatures that Gallant reported, if the biotinker is a master as well, and connected to her in some manner. Possibly controlling her, possibly simply aware of what she is."

"It may also be that the sniper test was done by her maker to evaluate her performance without her knowledge. I can see that happening if I'm right about her." Hanna shrugged. "Which I may well not be, she might be exactly what she appears to be. But I thought you should know."

Absently Emily nodded, still thinking. A lot of it fitted unpleasantly well. Which was worrying. "What about her Shaker abilities, then? How do you explain that?"

"At the moment I can't," Hannah admitted. "One possibility is that the proposed Biotinker may have found a way to induce powers artificially in his or her creations." Emily paled at the thought again. "Or it might be something completely different that's just appearing to be a Shaker ability. Teleportation, perhaps? I don't know. But can you say it's impossible?"

"Unfortunately, no, I can't," the Director sighed. "Too little is known about powers and as Clockblocker is more than happy to say, they're bullshit at the best of times."

With a slight smile Hannah nodded.

"If I'm right about it, I think that at some point we're going to see other constructs along the same pattern, it's unlikely the Biotinker would stop at one. I would assume that the basic design could be modified in many ways, or they could come up with something entirely different. I think we should be on the alert for that. Hopefully whoever it is, they're not actively hostile, the actions of Saurial to date would support that, but we should remain observant. And continue to try to persuade her to come in for tests which might prove it one way or another."

The woman leaned back with a sigh. "As I said, Director, I may be going down the wrong path, but I think there's enough merit to the idea to consider it. The ramifications could be unpleasant."

"That's putting it mildly," Emily replied with a sour look. "Shit. Just what we needed. OK, thank you for telling me, and making certain I won't be able to sleep tonight." She sighed as Hannah smiled again.

"I think we need to be very careful about this. Any rumors that got out could cause absolute chaos. I'm classifying this to the top level, you mention it to no one. Not even Armsmaster at the moment, I want it kept to the absolute minimum number of people. Write up a report, by hand, and I'll look it over. We need to keep gathering evidence to confirm or deny it as well. I'm going to have to think about the next step. We'll have to notify the Chief Director sooner or later but I'd like to have something more than a theory and some rather circumstantial evidence, no matter how convincing, to show her."

"Yes, Director," Hannah agreed.

"And if any more reptilian capes turn up, we can start getting worried. All right, I'm going back to bed. You go and do whatever it is you do when everyone else is asleep." Emily struggled to her feet with a groan, her back killing her, as Hannah also stood, then let her out, before locking the door. Going back to bed she put the pistol under her pillow again and picked up the book she'd intended to read before going to sleep, but in the end found it impossible to concentrate on.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Danny smiled as Taylor leaned in the doorway to his home office, smiling back. "Are you going out tonight, dear?" he asked. She shook her head.

"No, I'm going to get an early night tonight. I've done my homework and I think it all went well."

"You're enjoying school, aren't you?" he asked. His daughter smiled again and nodded.

"Yes. It's a lot of fun right now. Mandy and Lucy are nice, I've met several other people who seem like they're friendly, the work is going well, and there aren't any bullies. I can't complain." She grinned for a moment. "And I've caught three more groups of criminals, helped the fire department get two people out of a wrecked car, and met Clockblocker and Vista again. Still haven't met Aegis yet or any of the other capes."

"Have you decided whether he's the one you thought he was?" Danny asked.

She nodded, her smile going away. "Pretty much, yes. I walked past him yesterday and his scent was definitely the one I smelled on Clockblocker and Kid Win, and it also had traces of Sophia mixed in. I think that probably confirms my idea but I won't be sure until I meet him in costume." Taylor shrugged a little. "Not that it really matters but I'd like to know for sure."

"I understand." Danny thought she was handling it in a very mature way and was proud of her for it. After a moment, he smiled again. "You really did make an impression at the DWU on Monday, dear," he laughed. "I've been bumping into people ever since who want to meet you and were disappointed that they missed your visit. Perhaps Saurial should stop by again."

"I'll check her schedule, Dad," she grinned. "She's busy but may be able to make time for the little people."

"The little people would be grateful," he snickered. "Most gracious of her."

She pushed off from the doorway and made an elaborate bow, her tail waving behind her, which cracked him up. "You're entirely welcome, sir," she giggled, straightening up again. "I may go back on Sunday for some more training, but I also need to go and try those javelins and darts. They're too dangerous for the DWU yard, I'll go up to the shipyard like I said."

"Have you used your combat form in public yet?" he asked curiously. "I know you use that form when you're running around but it's always cloaked, right?"

She nodded. "So far, yes. I haven't run into any problem that needed anything more powerful than Saurial yet but I guess I will sooner or later. I'm trying to think of a name for it. I'm not sure if I want to let people know Saurial can change shape or size at the moment, it's possible that could lead them back to me and you."

"Don't you think having two different reptilian capes running around in the same place is going to make people suspicious anyway?" he asked. "You are fairly distinctive after all. Not to mention all the other similarities, like the weapons and armor."

"The armor looks completely different, Dad," she protested. "No skirt, different color, everything. Anyway, what are people going to do? Just put it down to a weird coincidence, probably." She giggled as he nodded thoughtfully. "Or some great big conspiracy theory," she added. "There are some idiotic ones on PHO about me. I haven't posted yet but I should start soon. But it's fun reading about all the things people are saying, even though some of them are just creepy. That Void Cowboy is a freak."

"I can agree, I found some of the posts… unpleasant," Danny shuddered. "But the moderators seem to smack him down pretty fast."

"I might go for another swim as well," she mused after a nod and a smile. "I liked doing that. Maybe go up the coast for a while and find somewhere uninhabited to do some more experiments. I still haven't tried the full Varga form, it's too big for the city except in an emergency. People could see me from the other side of the bay. I want to try the blast voice as well, which is much too dangerous to do around here."

"Be very careful with that, if you do," he warned. "From what you've told me it's horrendously powerful. Don't blow holes in the landscape anywhere around people."

"I won't, Dad," she assured him. "I'll look up a map of the coast and find somewhere really remote. There are a few places further north that might be useful, or maybe one of the uninhabited small islands up there. I can swim pretty fast, I think I could get there and back in a couple of hours. Probably at night so no one saw anything."

"All right." He shook his head in wonder. "I really want to see this aquatic form of yours at some point, especially when it's that size, but I agree it's not a good idea in the bay."

"How's the proposal coming?" she asked after a moment, looking at his desk. He followed her eyes.

"Not bad, actually. I should have it done by probably Tuesday at this rate. I've got most of the costings nailed down pretty well at the moment, I'm going to be looking into the transportation and labor requirements in more detail tomorrow. I've also got some of the boys checking the state of the railway and the rail yard itself and inspecting the warehouses that would need to be torn down." Smiling at her, he added, "You could help with that as well, I think. It would only take you hours to do what my guys would take days over, and it would be safer."

"Let me know when you want some warehouses stepped on," she grinned. "But that's going to make people stop and stare, I think."

"We might reserve the actual Godzilla attack for later," he laughed. "But I'm sure you could rip down a building at a much smaller size."

"I'd love to find out," she snickered.

"The thing I'm trying to work out is how we're going to announce this to the public, though," he said after also laughing, looking thoughtfully at her. "I don't want someone panicking and hitting the Endbringer siren, but I also don't want the entire city on the docks watching. It will take some careful planning. The PRT are an issue as well, they may try to interfere."

"We can deal with that when it needs to be done," she assured him. "I can just tow the thing from underwater most of the way anyway, once it's off the rocks the water is deep enough for me to swim while pulling it for at least two thirds the distance. Varga thinks we should try lifting it with some sort of floats at high tide to get it off the rocks that are punched into the bottom, so we don't rip it to pieces, then pull it with a harness and cables. It sounds like a good idea. Then I can shove it right up against the dock in the deeper part and let it settle again. You said it would need to be pumped out?"

"Yes, there will be all sorts of nasty crap in the bottoms of the intact tanks, so we need to get that out of the way first. After that you can cut it up and put the bits on the dock. Hopefully that wouldn't take too long."

She smiled. "I think I can do it pretty fast. I was wondering if I could lift the entire thing onto the shore, but it would probably fall apart. It was looking a bit fragile. Although… maybe reinforce it with Vargastuff first?" She got a calculating look on her face which made him grin.

"Slices will be fine, dear. They're easier to handle. While the entire ship would be impressive I think it's overkill."

"OK, Dad," she said agreeably. "You guys are the experts, I'm just the muscle."

Laughing, he stood and hugged her. "You're far more than muscle to me, Taylor. Although that aspect is certainly going to be useful."

"Hey, I was wondering something," she said after he released her. "Once that land the graveyard is on is finally clear, isn't it going to be worth a lot of money?"

"Yes," he smiled. "A hell of a lot. Prime industrial land next to the city and the bay will be worth millions. Right now it's actually a net loss to the city, it costs money just sitting there."

"Could we buy some as an investment?" she suggested thoughtfully. "I don't mind using some of the settlement money for that. If we'd be allowed to, that is."

"I'm ahead of you there, dear, I've already looked into it. There's no law to stop us, although I'd have to do it in my name as you're underage at the moment. I'm going to talk to the Mayor about purchasing a parcel of land on that basis, and also see if we could have the DWU itself buy some. In a few years it would pay back enough to give us a very nice pension fund. I think it's possible. But there's going to be a complete feeding frenzy when the news gets out assuming that the project goes ahead, although I'm feeling pretty confident about that part."

Danny smiled as his daughter looked impressed. "Not the first time around the block for your old man, kid."

"You're not old old, Dad," she laughed. "Only old."

"Foolish girl. Go to your room," he chuckled.

"I intend to," she grinned. "A little time on the internet then bed. Night, Dad, see you in the morning." With a small wave she left, her footsteps on the stairs going up then into her room.

Smiling to himself, he turned back to the computer and the latest draft of the report, checking his figures carefully.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Lying on her bed in her quarters in the PRT building, Sophia spun a crossbow bolt through her fingers over and over, walking it back and forth and admiring the way the light glinted from the broadhead point on the end. "Fucking Hebert," she mumbled. "This is all her fault. Somehow, I'm going to make her pay. And her father too, the bastard."

Over and over the bolt spun as she thought dark thoughts.

When they were dead, she could find that new cape and ask her to teach her.

That video had been beautiful.

π

Friday, February 4, 2011

"What are you looking at now, Lucy?" Taylor asked curiously as she sat at her desk a few minutes before the bell rang, barely conscious of the way she carefully moved a little sideways to allow her tail to slip past the back of the chair and onto the floor behind her. It was somewhat inconvenient, she'd have preferred to remove the chair and sit on her tail like she did at home, but that was probably a little too much. Luckily they were at the back of the class and hardly anyone ever needed to walk behind her, although in other classes there had been some embarrassing and somewhat funny incidents with people tripping over it, stumbling, then wondering why. The cloak technique seemed to be holding up nicely so far.

She was running most of the way to school most days in either her combat form, which she still couldn't think of a name for that she liked, or as Saurial, under the cloak, then jogging the rest of the way as her human self, visible to the world. She'd taken the bus twice but preferred the physical effort. At the speeds she could reach, weaving in and out of the oblivious traffic, she was much faster than the bus anyway. Sometimes she wondered what the reaction would be if she let people see her, and stopped at traffic lights and the like just for fun. It amused her but again was probably a little excessive.

Her friend, as the girl had definitely become, along with Mandy, tilted her high end smartphone towards her, Mandy and another classmate, Rich, moving around to keep the screen in view. "Saurial and Vista talking on the boardwalk the day before yesterday. Clockblocker was there as well but this video doesn't show him."

"They're just standing there talking, why would anyone video that?" Taylor asked, inwardly amused. She remembered the encounter well, the young Ward had had some questions about her climbing and running abilities that she'd answered to the best of her abilities, propping herself on her tail and left leg so she could raise her right foot to her waist and show the girl her toe-claws. The inhuman jointing of the limb made it easy, but had made Clockblocker choke a little, then stare.

"People video anything to do with Capes, you know," Mandy put in, smiling. "Lucy is sort of obsessed with Saurial. Actually, she's into reptiles, did you know she has a pet iguana?"

"No, I didn't," Taylor laughed, looking at the Chinese girl who was keeping her eyes on the video but going slightly pink. "That's interesting. How big is it?"

"About four feet long," Lucy replied quietly, looking over at her for a moment. "He likes eggs. Like Saurial does, someone on PHO says she comes into his shop and buys them by the box full then walks away eating them in the shell, raw."

"Uurgh," Rich laughed from the other side of Mandy's desk. "That's horrible."

"She seems happy enough with eating them," Lucy giggled. The video ended, so she put her phone away, the bell ringing shortly thereafter. "And I was right that time. Her scales are definitely blue, a nice shade. I wish I could meet her, she looks interesting."

Smiling to herself, Taylor turned her attention to Mr Hanks as he took roll, thinking that she should one day let her friend meet her other persona. It would make her day.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Sitting on her bed, Lisa paged through the various PHO sightings of Saurial, wondering what it was about the cape that was bothering her. Her power was poking her something fierce but every time she tried to draw some conclusions, she got the mental equivalent of a blue-screen, then had to go and lie down for a while to recover. It was annoying, frustrating, and somewhat worrying.

Giving up on that train of thought for the moment she amused herself trolling PHO for a while, before reading some Alexandria fanfiction and giggling about it. She posted a few snarky comments about how out of character Legend was, waited to see the explosion of annoyance, then sighed with boredom and shut the laptop, lying down and staring at the ceiling.

She was no closer to working out Coil's power, which left her no closer to working out how to get out from under the bastard's thumb. This was also annoying, frustrating, and worrying.

The upside was that he'd gone surprisingly quiet the last couple of weeks, only calling her four times in that period for what on the face of it were fairly innocuous questions. He'd called her in to his base once, talked for about ten minutes, then threw her out again, giving off the impression of being nearly as annoyed as she was about the entire pointless activity.

She dearly wished she could simply take out her pistol and shoot the fucker between the eyes but she knew that wouldn't end well, until she could work out how to neutralize any advantage he had over her. Sooner or later she'd work it out, hopefully before he dropped them in so deep they couldn't get out. Send them to fight Lung or something like that.

Laughing for a moment at the absurd idea, she got up, wandered into the kitchen, and made some coffee, which she drank. Finally, deciding she was just running in circles, she left her apartment and headed towards the Undersider's base, just for the company.

On the way she went back to the odd conversation she'd hacked into between Piggot and her people and Shadow Stalker, the principal of Winslow, and some PRT agent, who by the sound of it would soon be an ex PRT agent. It had been both funny and disturbing by turns. Feeling a considerable sympathy for this Taylor Hebert girl, and a lot of respect for her father for the remarkably neat way he'd shut the entire thing down, she wondered how much they'd ended up with as a settlement. Hopefully it was a lot.

Idly trying to extract more information from the conversation, with her powers producing wilder and wilder ideas, she headed away from the fairly civilized areas of the city into the beginnings of the docks. Half a mile further on, she stopped to observe a group of men who seemed to be carefully checking the rail line that ran through the area from the direction of the main waterfront towards the rail yard. There were a dozen of them walking along both rails looking at them, and poking them with crowbars and other tools, while each group of six had one extra making notes. Surrounding them were half a dozen more men who were clearly guards, keeping a wary eye on the surroundings and carrying metal baseball bats.

"Hmm." Lisa found a good vantage point and aimed her power at the group.

Dockworkers, from the DWU facility

Checking rails for damage

Thinking of reopening rail line

Excited about possibility of new work

Big project possible in near future

Driven by DWU

They don't know the details but are still willing to do whatever is necessary

Loyal to their boss

She blinked a couple of times in surprise, kept watching for a little while, then went on her way. She noticed a number of Merchants were also watching and muttering to themselves but were obviously not keen on going over and asking what the men were up to.

Wary of dockworkers

Afraid of dockworkers

DWU has made them afraid

"Interesting," she mumbled, glancing back at the workmen. She noticed that one of the guards was watching her closely and sped up a little, feeling just a small amount of worry.

She was going to have to tell Brian and the others about this new development, they'd need to be careful. Her power was telling her change was on the horizon and it might be a good idea to stay clear.

She wasn't going to tell Coil, though. Fuck him, let him work it out himself.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Dinah looked up at her parents, and Uncle Roy, who had come with them to the PRT building. She'd met some interesting people including Miss Militia, who she thought she liked, and told them all about the numbers that she kept seeing when certain types of questions were asked. She had no control over the answers, not really, it hurt too much not to answer.

She'd discovered she could ask the questions herself and whatever was giving the answers would do the same for her, but she still got the headaches after half a dozen or so. But at least an adult was finally listening to what she had to say and not just telling her she had something wrong but they didn't know what.

It was a little annoying, she'd been trying to tell them that for nearly three weeks, but just because she was only twelve, no one seemed to take her seriously. They were now, though, thanks to Uncle Roy.

Smiling at him, which prompted a smile back, she went back to playing with the music device he'd given her. Her father had helped her put all the favorite music on it the night before and she'd discovered that listening to some of it at low volume with her eyes shut helped the pain her ability produced if it was overused. Yet another thing to thank Uncle Roy for.

Turning the music to a low level so she could hear past the earphones, she listened to the discussion between the three adults and Miss Militia, who was looking at a folder of paperwork in the private room they'd been shown to after a lot of tests elsewhere in the building. Miss Militia had, somewhat oddly, reached up and carefully unplugged the security camera mounted on the wall by the door as soon as they entered. Dinah wondered why.

"Testing has confirmed that Dinah has a very powerful precognitive ability. We're tentatively rating her at Thinker 8, although that might go up a little with further testing. Due to the power-induced migraine we're very limited in the number of questions we can ask her at any one time, she says it hurts too much after about six or seven. She needs several hours between sessions to recover. The scientists think that she risks injury if it's pushed so we want to avoid that at all costs."

"Are there any drugs that can help?" Her mother seemed worried. "We gave her ibuprofen at the doctor's suggestion but it didn't do anything worthwhile."

"Thinker headaches are notoriously difficult to treat with anything other than time to recover and not inducing them in the first place," the scarf-wearing woman replied with a smile in her voice even if it wasn't visible on her face. Dinah thought she had a nice voice. "There are a few Tinker drugs that can help a little, and stronger painkillers can take the edge off, but all in all it's best to simply limit the occurrence of it as much as possible by avoiding whatever provokes the power into action. In Dinah's case that's asking definite questions about the future which can be answered as a percentage."

"So we just don't ask her the chances of snow later or something like that?" her father asked.

"76.3%" Dinah grinned at them. The question hadn't been directly asked so it was just a wild guess, although looking at the sky outside the window was probably pretty close. Uncle Roy was the first one to get the joke, grinning back and ruffling her hair.

"Precisely." Miss Militia sounded amused. After a moment, though, she became more serious. "The real question now is, what do you want to do?"

All three of the other adults exchanged a glance. Uncle Roy looked at Dinah, who peered back, not entirely certain what the heroine meant.

"What do you mean?" her father asked, sounding worried, asking the question she wanted to but was a little scared to.

"What I mean is, Thinkers of any level, never mind ones as high level as Dinah is, are in very high demand. So high, in fact, that their services can be desired whether they want to give them or not." Miss Militia looked seriously at them, while Uncle Roy sat back with a thoughtful expression and nodded slowly. Her parents stared at the woman, then looked at each other, before turning to Dinah for a moment.

"She means, Jim, that we have to be careful. There are criminals who would probably love to have a precog as powerful as Dinah is, and would stop at nothing to get hold of her," Uncle Roy sighed. "I'm half-sorry I arranged this testing, perhaps you could have kept her abilities a secret."

"I doubt that would have worked, Mayor," Miss Militia replied with a shake of her head. "All the information is already out there, unfortunately. The hospital visits and the records of the tests done, not to mention the things Dinah has been saying, all of those are clues that would eventually attract the wrong sort of notice, if they haven't already done so. There may well be other Thinkers already putting the clues together for someone."

"You mean someone could try to kidnap her!" Her mother grabbed Dinah and held onto her like she thought someone would burst into the room right then and there. Dinah felt a little frightened and also slightly irritated about how tightly her mother was holding her.

With a sigh, Miss Militia nodded a little. "It's neither unknown or impossible, unfortunately. I suspect that if you hadn't noticed, Mayor, and worked it out, something like that might have happened sooner or later. Mrs Alcott, don't worry too much, we should be able to prevent that now, though. We know about Dinah now and we can keep her safe. Or as safe as anyone can be in this world."

"Assuming that the PRT itself doesn't end up being what causes someone unpleasant to find out about Dinah," Uncle Roy muttered. Miss Militia looked at him, making him talk louder. "I'm pretty sure, from what I've heard over the last couple of years, that you have more than one leak in this organization."

The heroine inspected him for several seconds, then sighed again. "You're probably not wrong, Mayor Christner, I'm afraid. We've had issues like that before. It's difficult to totally prevent in any organization this large, as you know."

He nodded silently.

"That said, I fully believe that Dinah is safer now than she would have been if she hadn't come to our attention so soon after triggering. Obviously, we would strongly advise that she joins the Wards program. It's up to you, Mr and Mrs Alcott, but it would be the safest thing for her."

"The Wards?" Her mother sounded worried, and was still clinging to her hard enough to make Dinah wriggle a little to escape. She loosened her grip a little but kept her hands on her shoulders. "Is that really necessary?"

"As I said, I personally believe it's the safest option," Miss Militia nodded. "We can set up a number of security protocols to protect her from most threats. If necessary, it would be possible to arrange to have you all relocate away from Brockton Bay, to a less… complicated… city."

Uncle Roy looked both amused and a little insulted. "Leave this fair city?" he commented, making the woman look like she was grinning under her scarf. "With all the vibrant night life? How could anyone do that?"

"It has it's good points, Mayor," she replied with a laugh in her voice. "But bad ones as well, as you know."

"You can say that again," he sighed. "But it's not boring." Both of them looked at Dinah's parents.

"What do you want to do, Cheryl? Jim? Miss Militia is probably right, although I wish she wasn't."

Once again her mother and father looked at each other, then at her. "Dinah? What do you want to do?," her father asked. "You know what we're talking about, don't you?"

She nodded. It was pretty obvious, she'd heard them talking only moments ago, and she wasn't stupid.

Thinking for a little while as everyone waited, she turned to Uncle Roy. "If I joined the Wards, could I still see you?"

"Of course you could, Princess," he assured her, smiling. "And possibly more often, City Hall is a lot closer to the PRT building than to your house. I'm sure I could see you regularly."

She nodded, then turned to Miss Militia. "Could I see my parents as well?"

The woman smiled again, her scarf moving slightly. "We're not suggesting locking you in the PRT building, Dinah. You would have a room here and could stay if you wanted, but normally you'd be living at home the same as you do right now, and go to school as well. It's just that you'd have us making sure nothing happened to you. You'd spend some time here most days, we'd want to test your powers more and find out what would be the most useful way you could use them. But no one will force you to use them, if you don't want to."

"Mom? What do you think?" she asked after another few seconds of thought.

Her mother held her again. "I don't want to lose you, Dinah. I don't like thinking of you being away from home like that, but if it will keep you safe..." She wiped her eye, trying to make it look like she wasn't about to cry. Dinah wasn't fooled.

She was feeling both slightly confused about how quickly everything suddenly seemed to be going, pleased that people were taking her seriously, excited about meeting other parahumans, and worried about not seeing her parents. Not to mention mildly terrified about the whole 'being kidnapped' thing that the adults had been talking about.

After a moment, having carefully decided on the wording, she said out loud, "Chances I get kidnapped or someone tries to kidnap me if I don't join the Wards?"

They all stared at her, somewhat shocked. The numbers came to her along with some mild pain. She'd mostly recovered from the testing session a couple of hours earlier, but it was still uncomfortable.

"79.45%" she announced. Her mother gasped, Miss Militia frowned, her father looked like he was going to shout, and Uncle Roy reached out and put a hand on her shoulder next to her mother's, squeezing gently.

She pondered the answer, then asked herself, "Chances I get kidnapped if I do join the Wards?" The answer popped into her head, as she winced slightly. "8.82%"

Miss Militia looked even more annoyed, but was writing the questions and answers down on a pad at the same time.

"Chances someone tries to kidnap me if I join the Wards?" A pause. "16.45%"

"Ow," she muttered after the last answer, rubbing her head between her eyes. Closing them she leaned back in her chair for a moment, trying to think. No one spoke.

"Chances that someone outside the PRT will find out what I can do in... the next two weeks, other than Uncle Roy or Mom and Dad?" Miss Militia was looking closely at her, she noticed when she opened her eyes. "85.21%"

"Fuck," the woman mumbled under her breath, obviously not meaning to be heard. Dinah giggled to herself, even through the pain that she was now feeling as her head throbbed. The heroine looked slightly embarrassed, her eyes showing it surprisingly well.

"I would assume that means that someone most likely has the information and can put it together but probably hasn't done so quite yet," Miss Militia said thoughtfully. "Otherwise the answer would, presumably, have been one hundred percent. So there's a possibility that they either won't, or it will take some time or at least more than two weeks, but I doubt we could rely on that. These figures would appear to support my case, Dinah would be safer in the Wards than out."

"Although it's still not a guarantee of safety," Uncle Roy replied, glancing at Dinah, then her parents, who seemed all right with him taking the lead.

"No. I wish I could promise you that there's no way that anyone could do anything to her now, but I'd be lying if I did." Miss Militia sighed faintly. "However, a chance of less than nine percent versus a chance of nearly eighty percent is a big change. Admittedly we don't know from the first question how it splits between attempts and successful attempts, but..." She shrugged slightly. "As I said it's up to her parents in the end although everything is pointing towards the Wards being the safer option. We would be pleased to have her."

The military cape leaned forward as apparently a thought struck her. "Hmm. I wonder..." She studied Dinah closely, then stood up. "Please wait here for a moment, I need to make a phone call. I'll be right back." She left the room, the door opening and closing quietly, leaving them all looking at each other.

There was silence for a little while, until her father spoke. "Roy, what do you think we should do?"

"I tend to agree with Miss Militia," her uncle said with a small frown. "I wish I didn't, as you both know I'm not entirely happy with the PRT for several reasons, but she's right. They have the resources, skills, and experience to keep Dinah safe. Or as safe as she can be." He smiled down at her. "I have to say it would be nice knowing she was both safe and sometimes close enough to see more often. We could have lunch together sometimes, if you'd like that, Dinah."

Smiling back at him as the pain from her self-questioning ebbed she nodded enthusiastically. "I'd like that, Uncle Roy."

"But the Wards? Being an official superhero? Isn't that dangerous?" Her mother didn't sound happy.

"Much less dangerous than being kidnapped by a gang, Cheryl," Uncle Roy replied, glancing at her. Her mother went white.

"Oh, god, don't even joke about that."

"I'm not, actually, but don't worry too much about it, sis. The PRT would take very good care of Dinah, like Miss Militia said, high level Thinkers are very rare and very valuable. Dinah would never be out on the street or anything like that, they'd probably give her a nice office and ask her to answer a few very carefully designed questions every now and then. Not to mention there's a fair amount of money involved, they'd set up a decent trust fund for her, which would certainly pay for college nicely, and a good allowance until she's eighteen. It would take a lot of stress off you both from that point of view."

"We're easily able to pay for what we need, Roy," her father noted, slight irritation in his voice.

"I know, I didn't mean to suggest that you couldn't provide for your family, Jim," Uncle Roy smiled, holding up a hand. "All I meant is that there would be some money that could be helpful in the future. I think she'd be safe here, more so than most places."

Looking back to Dinah, he smiled more widely. "I wish I could provide the security she needed at City Hall, I'd love to have a precog on staff. Even a cute twelve year old one."

Dinah giggled, smiling back. "You think I'm cute, Uncle Roy?"

"Everyone thinks you're cute, Princess," he chuckled.

"I'll always answer any questions you want to ask me." Dinah grinned, holding out her hand. "Promise."

Gravely he shook it. "Thank you, my dear. I may well take you up on that."

They all looked up as Miss Militia came back into the room. Closing the door behind her she retook her seat. "I've been talking to Armsmaster. He says that he can provide a subdermal tracking implant that Dinah can have put under her skin, which would allow him and no one else to track her position. If, by any chance, someone did actually kidnap her, we could get her back and hopefully catch them in the process."

They all looked at Dinah, who thought for a moment, then said, "Chances that I would be successfully kidnapped if we did what Miss Militia has said?" The numbers came, but so did the pain. "Ow ow ow. 2.34%" She held her head with both hands, closing her eyes again. "I can't do that again for a while," she whispered.

"OK, dear," her mother said, smoothing her hair gently. "We get the point."

"It's not perfect, but all things considered it's probably the best option at the moment," the heroine said after a few seconds. "If you want to go ahead with it I can have the implant here within half an hour."

Opening her eyes as the pain faded slightly, Dinah watched her parents exchange glances, then look at Uncle Roy who nodded slightly. They both sighed and turned to look at her with difficult to interpret expressions. "Oh, Dinah," her mother sighed, still holding her like she was afraid someone would take her if she let go.

"I think I'd like it, Mom," she said, mostly honestly. "I can meet Vista and the other Wards, that would be cool."

"She's about your age, actually," Miss Militia put in. "She'd love to meet another female Ward. You'd probably get on with most of them very well. They're good kids."

"Most of them?" Uncle Roy asked curiously.

She sighed very faintly. "Shadow Stalker is somewhat… abrasive… at times."

"Ah. Yes, so I've heard from other people," he chuckled. "Five out of six isn't too bad, though."

"There are mean girls at school as well," Dinah added. "I know how to ignore them."

With a laugh, Miss Militia nodded, then turned to her parents. "If you want to do this, I have all the paperwork with me for the Wards acceptance. You can read and sign it immediately or take it and look at it later."

"May I see it, please?" her father requested.

The woman picked up a folder from the table beside her and opened it, looking through the contents then removing a set of stapled-together pages and sliding them over the table to him. Picking them up he began reading them very carefully. Everyone waited quietly for him to finish. When he did, he looked thoughtfully at her, then handed the papers to Uncle Roy, who also read them. "They look fairly straightforward, Jim," her uncle said, when he finished a couple of minutes later.

"There seem to be a surprisingly large amount of marketing and public relations clauses in the document," her father noted, glancing at Miss Militia.

"The PRT feels it's important," she replied. "I understand the reasons, capes scare a lot of people, not surprisingly considering what many of them are capable of, and the PRT goes to significant effort to present their capes as responsible and safe. Part of that process is a careful public relations exercise, including acceptable naming, costuming, appearance, that sort of thing. It sounds silly but it does have a very large effect on public perception. So does the marketing aspect, although I have to admit that some of the things the Marketing people have come up with over the years are… somewhat dubious." Her face moved a little under her scarf, indicating another smile. Uncle Roy laughed a little. "A fair percentage of the profit generated by marketing a Ward's public persona is added to the trust fund, so it benefits everyone."

"I see," her father said, reading the document once more, then turned to her mother. "I have to admit that as much as I'd like to I can't find any reason not to go for this."

Her mother sighed heavily. "I hate it. But you're right. If it keeps her safe, we don't have a choice." She looked at Miss Militia, who was giving off an air of sympathy. "We agree, she can join the Wards."

"Great," the other woman replied. "If you'll both sign on page five at the bottom, both copies, please?"

Her parents took the pen she held out, then did as requested. She retrieved the papers and the pen and signed in two places as well, then separated the document and gave one half to Dinah's father, who carefully folded it and put it into his inside jacket pocket. "Wait here and I'll call Armsmaster, we can get the implant installed immediately. I'd feel safer if you didn't leave before that happened. Just in case."

Getting up she left again. They all looked at each other, then Dinah's mother began crying a little, holding her. Dinah, both excited and sad, held her back.

"It'll be OK, Mom," she said quietly. "I'm nearly certain. 97.66% certain at least."

Despite herself, her mother started laughing, setting them all off.

π

Taylor discreetly watched the table full of known and suspected Wards, along with Victoria and Amy Dallon, who were talking fairly quietly among themselves, with Dennis cracking jokes every now and then. Carlos sighed at most of them although she could see he was amused by more of them than he showed. His thermal output in her enhanced vision showed things on his face that most people could never pick up on.

She was using it more and more as part of her base form senses, getting used to it. As Saurial or any of the other modified forms it came much easier, she suspected due to her brain changing to handle it. There was obviously a change of a similar nature even in her human form, but it wasn't quite as instinctive to use yet. The boosted senses of smell and hearing had been much easier to get used to.

It seemed pretty likely that she could indeed become very good at detecting lies, by listening and watching all the tiny cues that a normal person wouldn't notice at all. She'd poked around in the school library, which was a very comprehensive one, finding a couple of books on voluntary and involuntary responses in the biology section, as part of a higher level neurology study, and borrowed them, puzzling her way through with the aid of the Varga. He turned out to know, not that surprisingly, much more about human bodies than she'd first expected, although his terminology was different.

They were both learning a common vocabulary for the various scientific fields that were apposite to the abilities he gave her, even though in quite a few cases the word 'scientific' needed to be more strictly replaced with 'magical', a thought that still made her smile. He'd told her that while in time he could certainly teach her more of his form of magic, one that most humans who had any ability in the field would never be able to learn due to the differences between demons and non-demons, it would be a slow process. She wasn't too worried, she had more than enough new abilities to keep her occupied for a long time even now.

The shape-shifting part of things was so easy after only a month that she sometimes had trouble remembering when she couldn't casually grow scales and claws. It took an act of will, it wouldn't happen accidentally, which was probably a good thing overall, but it didn't take much effort. The Varga still had to help with new variants on the forms but the existing ones they'd worked on were simple, in whole or part.

Looking forward to experimenting on the weekend, Taylor smiled internally, turned away from the Wards although she kept part of her attention on them even so, and raised an eyebrow at Mandy, who had said something she'd missed. "Sorry, miles away. What was that, Mandy?"

Her friend sighed theatrically. "I said, do you want to go and see a movie with us tomorrow night? There's that new Aleph animated one that looks pretty fun, 'How to Train Your Dragon.'" She glanced at Lucy while Taylor suppressed a snicker at the appropriateness of the title. "Lucy wants to see it. Reptiles, you know. She wants a dragon of her own."

Lucy went red while Mandy and Taylor both grinned. Rich and another boy, Eric, who were sitting at the next table having been talking to the Chinese girl, laughed. "She's got you, Lucy. Hey, maybe you could adopt Lung?" the latter commented with a smirk.

"I don't think that would work out very well," the girl said, sighing but smiling. "He's not very cuddly."

"No, that's certainly not a word anyone would associate with Lung," Eric snickered. "Dangerous, now that's a good word. Psychotic, another good one."

Giggling, Lucy tossed a french fry at him, then broke down in laughter when he neatly snapped it out of the air with his mouth, chewed, and grinned widely. "Idiot."

"Talented idiot, Lucy," he chuckled.

She started tossing more fries at him, most of which he caught in his mouth, until one of the teachers monitoring the cafeteria caught her eye and she went red again, stopping quickly.

"Busted!" Mandy laughed. Turning back to Taylor, who had been watching with amusement, she added, "So? You in? It's all of us here, including those two guys, and a couple more from home room. Downtown tomorrow night at seven thirty at the Plaza. We can get something to eat after."

"It sounds good, thanks, Mandy," Taylor smiled. "I'll check with my dad but I don't think there will be a problem."

"Great. Text me if you get lost or can't make it."

"OK."

Feeling eyes on her, Taylor casually looked around to see Dean staring at her, the boy quickly looking away when she turned her head and pretending he was looking at the chalk board on the wall near the hot food line which listed tomorrow's menu. Mildly amused she went back to her food. He seemed to be unable to completely ignore her, although to give him credit he was trying. She thought that she was probably, at least at the moment, safe from that quarter, which was a relief.

She had no real problem with the Wards but the near certainty that the PRT was sitting on Sophia Hess left her somewhat disinclined to get any closer to them, despite the new found equanimity she had towards other people. Glory Girl and her somewhat unfortunate interaction was one thing, she'd been certain even at the time it was abnormal, since the girl smelled very stressed, and was quite happy to make allowances.

But there were limits to how much she'd accept. As she'd told Alan Barnes, she had no intention of either forgiving or forgetting the months and months of deliberate torment the Triumvirate of Pain had put her through. She could live with it and move on, but she wasn't going to just pretend it never happened. The Varga was of the opinion that even letting people like that live was probably something of a mistake, as there was no guarantee that they would take the sensible approach of living with the fact they lost.

Taylor sighed faintly, finishing up her salad. Hopefully she'd never see any of them again, and if she did… Well, she'd see what happened. If Sophia wanted to have a fight, she could have one, but it would be very short and to the point. With any luck that would never happen, since she wasn't really all that interested in finding out what the girl's head tasted like. Probably rather stringy, she thought, amused again for a moment.

"Deep thoughts, hmm, Taylor?" Lucy asked from the side, apparently noticing the sigh. Taylor glanced sideways to see her friend looking a little concerned and smiled back at her.

"Sort of. Just thinking about a bad experience at Winslow. Something reminded me about it." She shrugged. "It's not important, that part of my life is over. I'm having a lot of fun with the new parts."

"It can be hard when you have something bad in your history," Lucy replied with a small nod, sounding sad. "I know. I..." She paused, swallowing for a moment. "I said something horrible to my grandmother when I was about twelve, because she didn't let me go out with my friends but wanted me to do my homework instead. I screamed at her, then went out anyway." She was staring at her plate, while Mandy and the others were looking at her sympathetically, apparently knowing the story. "While I was out, she had a heart attack. Mom and Dad were away on business, so I was the only other one in the house. No one found her for hours, a neighbor discovered her lying on the ground in the back yard. If I'd been there, I could have called 911 and she might have lived."

The girl sighed heavily, tears running down her cheeks. "I've always wondered if it was my fault she had the heart attack in the first place. I was so nasty to her, even though I loved her. I never even got to say goodbye." Everyone on both the tables in earshot was silent as she finished talking. "So I know what it's like to have something in your past you wish you could forget but at the same time you can't."

Wiping her eyes carefully with a paper napkin, she looked at the smudged makeup on it and sighed again, but smiled a little. "And now I have to go and fix my makeup as well."

Mandy patted her friend's hand, smiling. "I'll come and help you, Lucy." Both of them stood.

"It'll probably get better, Taylor, don't worry," Lucy added, smiling a little tearily at her. "See you in class."

Thoughtfully watching her two new friends walk off, Taylor nodded to herself, having learned something new. And feeling very sad for the Chinese girl, who obviously still felt very strongly about the whole thing nearly three years later. It reminded her of her mother, not surprisingly. A subject she was slowly becoming less affected by although she was certain she'd never get over it completely.

Making a deliberate effort to not let the rather sudden morose turn of conversation affect her, she picked up her glass of apple juice and sipped it slowly, looking around the cafeteria. Eric and Rich got up, nodded to her, then headed off to do something in the few minutes of lunch break left, while she waved briefly, then went back to looking around the room, cataloging all the scents of people who walked past on their way out. She was pretty sure now that she could probably identify by scent over a third of the school, at least as familiar even if she didn't know their names. The idea amused her, but it was a useful byproduct of the whole abilities deal.

A particularly familiar scent, one she'd made a special note of, wafted from behind her at the same time she heard rapid footsteps. A sudden impact on her tail made her twitch, then turn her head to see what had happened.

"AAGH!"

Amy Dallon sprawled full-length on the floor behind her seat, making her wince in sympathy, having obviously tripped over her invisible appendage which she'd accidentally left sticking out a little too far and promptly face-planted pretty solidly on the tiles. The girl rolled over and sat up, clutching her nose in her hand and swearing inventively.

"What the fuck was that?" Amy eventually snarled in a muffled voice, looking around wildly for whatever had tripped her, but obviously unable to see the cause. "Fucking hell, my nose!" There was blood running from under her hand.

Picking up some of the paper napkins that were stored in a dispenser on each table, Taylor got up and knelt next to the healer, who was pretty clearly not in a good mood, even before nearly breaking her nose. "Here, tip your head back and use these," she advised, handing the other girl the napkins, which were instantly snatched from her hand.

"I know how to handle a smashed nose, thanks," Amy grumbled loudly, sniffing hard and nearly choking on the blood, before slapping the wad of paper over her face and clamping down on it. "I don't think it's broken but it fucking hurts."

Looking around again, she scowled blackly. "What the hell tripped me? Was it you?"

"No," Taylor half-lied. "I didn't see anything, I just heard you scream and fall over."

"I didn't scream, I yelped. In surprise," Amy replied defiantly. Taylor shrugged, smiling a little but willing to allow the correction.

"OK."

"I need to get to the nurses office and get some proper bandages and a cold pack," the other brunette grumbled, struggling to stand up. Taylor stood and offered her a hand, at the same time glancing towards the table the Wards and Victoria had been at, seeing they'd gone, presumably headed back to class already.

"Here," she said. Amy sighed, annoyed, and grabbed her hand.

Gently heaving, she lifted the other girl to her feet easily, then looked at her.

Then looked more closely.

"Um..."

Amy was staring at her with her pupils so widely dilated it looked like her eyes were solid black. Taylor could see the blood vessels in her face dilating as well as blood rushed to her face, and her electrical sense was showing her neural activity was going nuts, based on what she'd learned so far about it. It wasn't something she'd experimented with much so far beyond using it to trace power cables.

"Are you all right?" Taylor stared, then waved a hand in front of the girl's face. Reaching out she carefully tapped Amy between the eyes with a forefinger. "Anyone in there? Hello? Amy?"

Several seconds passed with the healer just giving her that disconcerting stare, a little blood running down her face past the napkins, before Amy suddenly blinked wildly and shook her head, apparently back in the room.

"What… the fuck..." she whispered.

Worried, Taylor looked around, seeing that hardly any of the lunch crowd were present now, and that according to the wall clock it was only about two minutes to the bell. "Hey, we should get you to the nurse," she said as she returned her attention to the other girl. "You're acting a little weird. Maybe you hit your head harder than you thought."

Amy blinked again, then looked around, wincing as her right hand which was still clamped firmly on her nose pulled on it slightly. "Nurse. Right," she mumbled in a slightly dazed voice, before turning and walking off towards the exit, towing Taylor with her.

"Um, could you let go, please?" Taylor tried, not wanting to be rude but more than a little confused.

"No."

Staring at the Dallon girl, Taylor sighed. It was going to be one of those days.

And it had started so well.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

"She seems content to simply take down low level criminals so far." The man speaking looked mildly puzzled. "No signs of wanting to go after any capes at all. She turns up, wanders around more or less randomly for anywhere from an hour to four or so, inevitably finds some crime being committed, terrifies the people involved into catatonia, then disappears again. She's been seen in the company of the Wards several times and seems to be on friendly terms with them, and she's also popped up at the DWU at least once more so far. She spent over an hour there, talking to the various people still on site."

Behind his desk, his superior leaned his expensive chair back and gently stroked his chin with a finger, looking fascinated. "How very unusual," he finally said. "Although, it is an unusual creature in more than one way so I suppose its behavior is only another example of that. Do we know what it was doing at the DWU again?"

"No. The best I can work out, she was picking something up, but it's mostly guesswork. I don't have anyone in the DWU facility itself, although I'm working on it."

"Annoying." The man at the desk sighed slightly. "Oh well. All good things take time. Have you thought of any other methods to test its abilities?"

"Not as such," his agent commented. "We have a pretty good idea of what she can do from the reports we have from those of our men who were involved we've been able to contact. Assuming they're not curled up in a ball sobbing." He shook his head in disgust. "Fine, she's a scary monster when she's at work, but that's just pathetic. One of the guys is saying he's going to become a priest now."

His superior smirked, amused. "That suggests an impressive ability to scare the less intelligent among us. Normally it would take months or years to build a reputation like that, not weeks."

"She seems to be an old hand at psychological warfare," the other man agreed, frowning a little. "Yet another oddity that doesn't match the time line."

"I'd like to see how she handled a tougher fight than mere cannon fodder with small arms, though." The man at the desk thought for a while, then smiled a tiny, cruel smile. "I think it would be interesting to see what happened if Hookwolf became involved."

"How do you propose to arrange that?" the agent asked, appearing slightly surprised.

"It should be simple enough. Hookwolf is not particularly smart, of course, although he's certainly cunning and an excellent fighter. It has so far managed to capture over two dozen of his flunkies, from what you tell me. Perhaps we should arrange to point this out to him, and also suggest that an example should be made. It's not difficult to enrage the man to the point he attacks."

"Attacks where, though?" His subordinate looked at him. "Saurial is somewhat random in her movements, she doesn't seem to have a set patrol route like a lot of capes do, or any particular territorial claims so far. She turns up all over the city. It might be difficult to 'accidentally' have them encounter each other, and he could take some time to find her if he just goes running off in a rage."

"It has visited the DWU twice, though, and would appear to have some relationship with them. It may well be that pointing Hookwolf at them and urging him on his way would produce a reaction. If not, we lose nothing but a few dockworkers who aren't on the payroll, and a little effort."

"Ah." The first man nodded slowly. "I see your point. Yes, that might work."

"See to it. As soon as possible, please. And this time take a camera."

The first man nodded without a further word, standing and leaving the office, while his superior pulled a stack of paperwork in front of him and began reading it.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Her head spinning from more than the fairly solid impact with the floor of the cafeteria, Amy strode a little uncertainly towards the nurses office, towing the rather reluctant new girl she'd seen Dean eyeing up for over a week now behind her. The girl, who she remembered was called Taymar or Tayly or something like that, was sighing to herself but didn't seem too upset.

What the hell was going on? That was what Amy was wondering, and had been from the instant she'd grabbed the other girl's hand. A sudden overwhelming urge struck her as she approached a supply closet she happened to know from a story her sister had related was usually unlocked and, as they came abreast of it, she darted sideways, grabbed the door handle and yanked, opening the door, then shoved the other girl inside and followed her in, pulling the door shut behind her.

"What the hell?" Tayway or whatever her name was yelped. "What are you doing, you weirdo? I thought you wanted to go to the Nurse?"

"In a minute," Amy hissed, looking around in the near pitch darkness of the closet. She dropped the hand she'd been clamped onto like a vice for the last couple of minutes, then turned and ran her hands over the wall beside the door trying to find the light switch.

"Is this what you're looking for?" the other girl said mildly, immediately before there was a click and a fluorescent fitting in the ceiling hummed into life. Amy turned to see her captive just in the process of releasing a pull-cord at the side of the closet that went up to a switch above them

"Yes," she replied, staring hard at the girl, while wondering for a moment how she'd found the switch so easily.

"Was there a reason you dragged me in here, or are you just finding it difficult to meet new people?" Taytay or whatever seemed more amused now than surprised. "I have to tell you, your approach to making friends is a little… confrontational."

"What the hell are you?" Amy blurted, unable to stop herself. The girl abruptly stopped moving.

Completely.

She just stared at Amy, who suddenly became aware that she might have made a very bad mistake.

The eyes of the girl narrowed a little, giving her face a remarkably predatory look, while her entire body language changed slightly, in a way that was particularly eerie as she didn't actually move.

Amy swallowed hard.

"I mean..."

"You mean you somehow found out something I'd prefer you not to have found out," the girl, which Amy was beginning to think wasn't entirely accurate, said in a voice that was rather less human than she was wildly happy about. "I have to ask myself how, and more importantly, what you intend to do about it." She leaned closer, making the Dallon sister suddenly realize how remarkably tall she was for a teenaged girl.

Not to mention, the way that her slender body suddenly seemed to give off the impression of something far more dangerous and a hell of a lot bigger. And… were her eyes glowing a little?

"Oh, shit." Amy's voice was faint.

"Oh, shit, yes, Amy Dallon," the girl hissed. "Talk. Fast."

Her thoughts whirling, Amy tried to work out how to extricate herself from the situation she'd managed to get herself into with one stupid move, feeling a sudden understanding of what her sister had felt when she'd gone off on Saurial for no good reason.

The thought stuck with her...

Amy's eyes widened. "Saurial," she gasped.

She didn't even see the girl move. Before she knew what was happening, she was slammed against the door by a pair of hands that were covered in scales with talons an inch long tickling her skin, her feet a foot off the floor. A face that was far less human than seconds before was inches from her own, sharp teeth bared in a growl.

"You are dabbling in dangerous waters, Amy," the thing holding her stated softly. "Talk very quickly and very honestly or I may have to push you under the surface."

"My power lets me see an entire organism's biology if I touch it," Amy gabbled, trembling and not even trying to hold anything back. She had a good idea that the threat was a real one with a definite time-sensitive aspect. "I can modify anything organic right down to the DNA. My healing ability is a byproduct of that." Fright was making her open up far more than she had done to anyone before.

"So when I offered you my hand..." the girl, Saurial, said in a musing yet still not entirely human voice.

"I saw instantly that you were… different." Amy looked at her captor, who looked back. "Very different. I mean, totally different in some specific ways from anything I've ever seen or even heard of. Your DNA, or something that I think is the equivalent of it, is absolutely insane! It's a quad helix, not a double helix, with more redundancy than I can believe. My power can hardly make anything sensible of it at all. I can see that, somehow, don't ask me how, you're compatible with human DNA, but other than that and the appearance most of you is totally alien. Literally. Like nothing that's ever lived on this planet."

"Hmm." The creature seemed genuinely interested, but not surprised.

"You already know this, don't you?"

"Not those specific details, no, but the overall picture, yes, I know," she replied absently, almost looking as if she was holding another conversation at the same time. "What else?"

"I can't affect you at all. My power just goes 'nope' if I try."

"You tried to affect me?" Saurial's eyes were abruptly totally focused on her again.

"I'm still trying," Amy whimpered. "I've been trying to make you fall asleep since you grabbed me. All it's doing is giving me a headache."

"Ah. So that's what..." Saurial paused, cocking her head to the side, then nodded to herself. "Stop it."

"OK," Amy yipped in a high pitched voice, "OK, I'm stopping."

"All right. Thank you for the information, it's very useful. Now, what are we going to do about all this?" The girl cocked her head the other way, inspecting Amy closely. The healer swallowed again. "I take threats, or possible threats, against my family extremely seriously. I'm not particularly happy about you knowing. Your friend Dean is a big enough problem already although he at least had the sense not to confront me about it. I have to wonder why you did. It seems… somewhat incautious."

"I couldn't help it," Amy replied despite herself. "It was so… so… weird. Interesting. Amazing." She sighed heavily as the girl watched curiously. "You wouldn't believe how boring my life is. Work, sleep, school, over and over again until I want to scream. Always healing people, the same stupid problems again and again and again. It's… maddening."

"Why do it then?" Saurial asked quietly.

"Because everyone expects me to," Amy responded with a heavy sigh. "I have to heal people, have to use my power for good, or… Or I might just end up using it for something horrible. I could destroy the city with a breath, or possibly the entire planet without much more effort. You wouldn't believe how much having that sort of power terrifies me. Sometimes I wish so much that I'd never triggered."

"I don't know if the planet would be possible, but destroying the city is pretty easy," the girl replied after a few seconds, sounding less threatening despite the comment. "So I have some idea."

Amy stared at her, but decided that she'd already dropped herself in it deeply enough so didn't ask.

"So, all this is because you saw something interesting and wanted to learn more?" the girl asked, sighing when Amy nodded. "You really need to learn better impulse control, Amy, before it gets you killed. What happened to the Unwritten Rules?"

With a wince, Amy shrugged as much as she could in the unyielding grip. "I didn't think it through."

"That seems to run in the family," the other girl smirked. Amy couldn't help snickering a little, because it really was sort of funny. Assuming she actually lived through it.

"Look, I won't tell anyone. Promise. You terrify me to the depths of my soul and I really don't want to see what you can do if you get mad," Amy said slowly and honestly, trying to impress the truth of the statement on the girl, who was studying her closely. "I did a stupid thing, I know, and I'm really sorry. Can we just sort of… forget about it?"

Inspecting her face for several long seconds, Saurial finally sighed gently and carefully lowered her to her feet. "You Dallon girls really need to keep your urges under control," she sighed. "I don't want to have to kill and eat Panacea just because she can't keep her mouth closed."

Amy paled, not at all sure the other was joking. Those teeth… Shuddering, she shook her head violently. "I won't tell anyone. I mean, I already..." She snapped her mouth shut as the girl looked at her curiously, then smiled a little.

"You already know who half the capes you've healed are, if not all of them, right? Your power can identify them."

Feeling like a total idiot, again, Amy slowly nodded, rubbing her forehead in irritation at herself. The other girl was obviously much too sharp. As were her teeth. "Shit. Please don't tell anyone."

"I have absolutely no intention of giving away anyone else's secrets, Amy, believe me." The girl looked bemused for a moment. "I wonder how many other capes can do the same thing by one means or another?" She snickered slightly. "Wouldn't it be amazing if there were dozens of them wandering around all knowing who everyone really was, but all convinced they were the only ones who did?"

Amy stared, then started laughing. Saurial joined in for a few seconds. Bending down she retrieved the bloody pile of napkins from where Amy had dropped it, looked at it distastefully, then put it on a shelf next to her shoulder. Poking around for a moment she found a roll of paper towels for the bathroom dispensers, slit the plastic covering with a quick motion of a taloned finger, then pulled a few sheets free and handed them to Amy. "You're still bleeding a little," she pointed out.

While Amy dealt with that problem the other girl wrapped the bloody paper in some more toweling and picked it up, putting the roll away again. Holding out her other hand, which had shifted back to normal, as had her eyes and teeth, she said, "Taylor Hebert. Nice to meet you, Amy."

Somewhat startled, Amy looked at the offered hand, then carefully shook it while holding the paper towels to her nose. "Amy Dallon. Also known as Panacea, of course. Nice to meet you, and I'm sorry, really."

"It's all right. Just don't say anything. I meant it about being very upset if anyone threatens my family." She had a look in her eyes that promised instant dismemberment for anyone stupid enough to try something. Amy shivered a little.

"I believe you."

"Good. Now lets get you to the Nurse, then get a permission slip so I don't get detention. I've only been here a week or so and I don't want to have things go wrong this soon." Taylor smiled a little.

"Um, Taylor…?" Amy spoke carefully and cautiously as the other girl, now an ordinary if rather tall teenager as far as looking at her went, put her hand on the doorknob.

"Yes?"

"Would it be possible if I could talk to you at some point? About you, I mean? I still find your biology… amazingly weird."

Taylor studied her for a few seconds, looking thoughtful. "I might be open to that at some point," she replied in the end. "I'll have to think about it. I'll let you know."

"Thank you. And I'm sorry."

"Keep quiet about it and we don't have a problem," Taylor noted. Amy nodded.

"I will. Just one thing..." Taylor cocked her head a little, making Amy shiver. She suddenly saw it as the slightly alien mannerism it really was, coming from a part of the girl that wasn't human in the slightest. "Are you an alien?"

Taylor burst out laughing. "No, Amy, I'm not an alien. I was born in Brockton Bay to completely human parents, trust me. I'm just… a bit different now." Pulling the door open she peered both ways, then opened it further. "Come on, you need to get that nose looked at and I need to get to Chemistry class. I've missed half of it already."

She waited for Amy to come out of the closet then pulled the door shut. "Amy? Take a day off now and then. You're way too tightly wound."

Thinking the words over, the healer followed the other girl to the Nurses office and was soon explaining that she'd nearly broken her nose to a sympathetic yet mildly amused woman who seemed to find the idea of the world's paramount parahuman healer doing that somewhat funny.

π

Standing on the steps outside the school, Taylor watched Amy, who was in her normal position of waiting more or less behind Victoria, looking bored and a bit emo, reading a book. The other Dallon sister was back to her normal gregarious self, chatting with Dean and two of her girl friends at the same time, laughing and gesturing, while the boy himself listened with a smile. He turned to say something to Carlos who came up and tapped him on the shoulder, then nodded, going back to waiting for his girlfriend to stop talking so he could get a word in.

He noticed Taylor watching and flinched, so subtly that most people would have missed it, then deliberately looked away.

Taylor caught Amy's eye, the girl having apparently seen and decoded the very small exchange, and nodded slightly to her. Amy nodded back, a brief and small smile crossing her face, then returned to her book.

"That girl could be a problem, Brain," the Varga rumbled with concern in his voice. "Her abilities are extremely powerful, based on what we sensed and what she confessed to, and I am concerned about her mental state."

'So am I,' Taylor sighed in the privacy of her mind. 'If she really can modify any living thing that easily she could cause a plague that would be worse than anything ever. But what can we do? Tell someone at the PRT? Assuming they don't already know, it would be doing exactly what we were worried she was about to in the other direction. And I'm not happy about just up and killing her about something she might do.'

"I think all that can be done at present is to try to be a friend to her if she needs one," the demon said after a moment. "She is isolated and alone even in the middle of her sister's cohort. I don't think she's happy. You are more than familiar with that problem and could possibly help."

'Maybe. I'm not going to force myself on her. Maybe she just likes being alone? I like the friends I'm making here, but I like being on my own as much even so.' Taylor smiled a little. 'Not that I'm ever really alone any more. Which I'm grateful for.'

"As am I. I was very bored all those years, locked away with no one to talk to," the Varga laughed. "It has been a lot of fun these last few weeks." He fell silent, then slyly added, "Perhaps you could be more than a friend to young Miss Dallon. She did, after all, drag you into a closet. I believe that is part of the courtship display of the teenaged human?"

Taylor started giggling, making Mandy who was standing nearby talking to Eric and Lucy look at her with a puzzled smile. 'Sorry, not interested. She's not my type,' she snickered. The demon radiated amusement at her.

"Merely a suggestion."

'Not the most sensible one,' she replied. 'But I can be a friend if she wants one, I think. I'll let her make the first move. I'm feeling a little guilty now about coming on so strongly, but she really worried me for a few seconds there. I don't want to push and scare her any more.'

"What's so funny, Taylor?" Mandy asked, coming closer while looking curious.

"I was just thinking about a joke a friend made and it made me laugh," she replied, grinning. "It was sort of an inside joke, though." This almost made her laugh again, and did in fact cause the Varga to chuckle due to the backhanded honesty of the comment.

"OK, then," Mandy said slowly, looking her up and down. "Weird girl. Anyway, don't forget about tomorrow night, OK? I'll see you then, hopefully. Have a good weekend."

"I think I will," Taylor smiled. "See you."

With a wave to the other people she knew she turned and began jogging towards home, in an easy long-legged stride, soon falling into the routine of it.

When she was far enough away and there was no one watching, she veered into an alley, cloaked, changed into Saurial, came out again, and sped up massively, running down the middle of the road at nearly forty MPH, heading home. Smiling to herself at the sensations of running which she loved, especially at this sort of speed, she was soon close to her house.

When she arrived she went in through the back door, still cloaked, dropped her backpack off in the hallway, then went into the kitchen to find something to eat as she was a little hungry. Shortly she was half way through a carton of eggs, reverting to her base form except for her head, which made eating them easier, and lying on the sofa in the living room watching the mid-afternoon news.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

"Boss, we have a problem," Mark said as he stuck his head into Danny's office. Danny sighed slightly but looked up from his paperwork to the DWU security man. "A fucking big one."

"What is it, Mark?"

"Fucking Hookwolf and at least two dozen of his E88 friends are heading this way. They'll be here in about five minutes, they look pissed, and they're loaded for bear."

Danny paled. "What?! Why?"

"Not a clue, but one of the rail team guards just called it in. Hookwolf is in a shitty mood even for him. We need to evacuate, right now. We could probably take on the normals, but we don't stand a chance against a cape like him. He's fucking insane for a start, and damn near unkillable."

Thinking frantically, Danny got up and looked out the window of his second-floor office into the inner yard below, which had at least three dozen men working on various projects. "We can't get everyone out and away in that time," he muttered. "They'd catch up before we got half a mile even if we could, anyway."

"What do we do?" Mark looked very worried, but also willing to do whatever he was asked to.

"Call for backup," Danny finally said after a long moment. Rather reluctantly, he pulled out his cell phone and dialed.

"It's me. We have a very big problem headed our way and due to get here in only three or four minutes. We could use some help," he said.

"I'm on my way," his daughter immediately replied, not even asking what the problem was. The line went dead. Grateful and worried in equal measures, he put his phone back in his pocket, then turned to Mark.

"Lock the gates, park something big in front of them, then get everyone into cover, right now. Shut everything down. Anyone who is willing to hold them off, make sure they're armed, but no one is required to fight. We'll have help in less than ten minutes, we only need to keep them out for that long."

"Do we call the police or the PRT?" Mark asked.

"The police couldn't do anything more against him than we can. The PRT… Not yet."

"You sure, Boss?"

Danny sighed. "I think I am. Anyway, based on last time, it would take them at least twenty to thirty minutes to get around to turning up even if we called them now. It will probably be over by then one way or another."

"OK. You're the boss, Boss."

"Stop calling me that, Mark."

"You got it, Boss," the man grinned.

Sighing, Danny followed him out of the office. "I'll see if I can find out what Hookwolf wants. Maybe we can negotiate."

"Be careful, Danny," Mark warned him, suddenly serious again after the momentary levity. "He's a killer and not stable. Don't get too close."

"I'll stay away, trust me."

"Who did you call?" the other man asked as they walked. "Saurial?"

"Yes. She's a good kid, and I think Hookwolf is in for a bit of a surprise." Danny grinned maliciously. Mark snickered.

"I really hope so. I hate that bastard. He's hurt a lot of people I know one way or another. Fucking E88."

Danny nodded, then headed for the main entrance, Mark behind him carrying a baseball bat he'd accepted from Zephron, who joined them as they walked past the canteen. The huge man didn't say anything, but was bouncing his own bat in one palm with a calm expression of imminent violence.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Taylor, in the combat form, enlarged to about eight feet tall, ran as fast as she could through the darkening streets, leaving claw marks in the road surface behind her when she hurdled a truck that was blocking the way. It was nearly six and the streetlights were coming on as the sun set. She'd been out the back door and halfway down the street less than thirty seconds after her father's phone call, not even thinking about anything else. He'd sounded worried but not panicked, although there was a tone in his voice she knew damn well meant he was very nervous.

"Merchants, maybe?" she muttered as she ran, already nearly half-way there. "Why would they be attacking the DWU facility, though? Dad said they'd come to an arrangement. Painfully."

"There is no way to know except for either calling back and asking, or simply getting there and looking, Brain," the Varga calmly told her. "Don't worry too much, there are few threats likely that we cannot deal with. Permanently if necessary."

"I know," she mumbled, "I know. But I've never been in a real fight. It sounded like he was scared, and he wouldn't be scared about normal scum unless it was a hell of a lot of them. Which probably means capes."

"We will meet the threat with whatever level of violence is required," the Varga commented.

She couldn't help grinning to herself.

"Some people say you can't solve some problems with violence."

"That merely means you didn't use enough, Brain," the demon laughed. Snickering, she kept running.

Slowing as she neared the DWU facility, she listened, opening her senses widely. There was the stench of the docks as per normal, but on top of that were unfamiliar scents of a significant number of people she hadn't encountered before, scents of what she recognized as gun oil and burned propellant, which meant guns, and various other smells which all together suggested a lot of armed men had just passed through.

This was born out by the noise she could hear from up ahead, at least a couple of dozen people shouting and making nasty comments, many of them pretty horrific racist slurs. A calmer voice was talking back, urging them to calm down and tell him what the problem was.

"Dad," she said in a low voice. Stopping one street over, she listened, then looked up, before scrambling up the side of the warehouse facing her and sneaking over the roof on her belly, to look down at the main yard. There were some twenty to twenty five men wearing E88 colors milling around a central figure that she recognized instantly, from his bare chest even in the currently quite cold conditions to the metal wolf mask he was wearing. "Hookwolf? What the hell does he want?"

The answer became clear as she listened. "I know the scaly bitch is in there, you kike bastard," the cape roared. "I want her. Send her out, or we're coming in."

"You're working from bad information, Hookwolf," her father called back, his voice amazingly calm under the circumstances. "Saurial isn't here. It's just a lot of dock workers who want to go home to their families. Why don't you let them, then we can talk about whatever your problem is." He paused, then added mildly, "And I'm not Jewish, thanks."

"Do I look like I fucking care?" the cape shouted. He turned to some of his men. "Go around the back and wait. Don't let anyone escape," he added in a quieter voice.

Turning back he yelled, "You've got five minutes to send her out before we come and get her."

Sighing, and very annoyed indeed at the thought that all of this was somehow down to her, Taylor looked around, deciding on the best approach. She could simply drop on their heads and deal with them, of course. The cannon fodder would last seconds if she got serious, but she didn't really want to hurt anyone too much if she could avoid it. If she attacked in an all out manner, they'd start shooting manically, which could kill either their own people or people in the DWU with stray bullets before she could stop them. Her preferred hit and run techniques wouldn't work so well in the open with them all packed together like that. Not to mention she still wasn't sure about the cape. From what she'd read about him when researching the E88, the other Changer was close to unstoppable. Although, that did mean she didn't need to hold back too much.

"He will tire long before we will, Brain," the Varga advised. "We can take him. Or simply kill him."

'I'd prefer not to unless he hurts anyone,' she replied softly. 'But if dad gets hurt none of those bastards are going home.'

Deciding on an approach, she slid back down the roof and dropped to the street, then loped around three sides of the compound to reach the rear gate, which had six E88 members, all armed with assault rifles, covering it.

None of them even knew she was there before they were unconscious. Restraining them with manacles set for twenty-four hours, because she wasn't in a generous mood, she quickly and efficiently looted the bodies, taking everything but their wallets, and putting the weapons, spare ammunition, and anything else useful such as a couple of grenades of some sort, into a large bag the Varga produced for her. She stopped and considered her prisoners, then smiled a fanged smile and cut their shoes off with careful strokes of a claw, tossing the remains into the compound over the fence.

Satisfied, she hopped over the fence and slipped in through an open second-floor window, reverting to her Saurial form in the process.

"Jesus!" a man who was in the room yelped, spinning around suddenly, white-faced.

"No, just me," she said in a low voice. "Sorry about scaring you. I'm here to see Danny Hebert. Those six E88 guys out back aren't a problem any more."

The man, who she recognized as someone she'd been introduced to when she'd stopped in to get the letter a few days ago, nodded, calming down. He peered out the window and smiled maliciously. "Good work, Saurial. Thanks. Come on, I'll take you to Danny."

She followed as he led her through the large complex building toward the front, where the shouting was getting louder.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

"This idiot doesn't listen very well, does he?" Mark commented from beside Danny, who was looking out the main entrance to the admin building with a bullhorn in one hand.

"Not really, no. And he's convinced I'm Jewish for some reason," Danny sighed. "He doesn't seem to like Jews. Or Blacks. Or Hispanics. Or… well, anyone, really." He smiled as Mark chuckled.

"Danny, Saurial just came in the back way," Zephron said in a low voice, walking up to them. "She took out the E88 guys that were guarding the back and stole all their weapons as well. We could start getting people out the back if we're quick and quiet."

"Good." Danny felt relief. "Make sure anyone who wants to go gets out safely." He thought for a moment, then reluctantly added, "Distribute the weapons to anyone who knows how to use them properly. I don't want a firefight here, but if it comes to that, I want those bastards shot, not our guys."

"OK, Boss," the large man nodded, turning and leaving again.

"Keep an eye on these guys, please, Mark," Danny said, handing his colleague the bullhorn. "I'm going to talk to Saurial."

"You got it." The other man pressed himself against the wall, peering out the door, a walky-talky in his hand. Danny had one in his pocket, the volume turned down, intermittent messages crackling over it from dock workers both inside and outside the facility. The rail crews had been warned to stay clear until the matter was resolved.

He found his daughter waiting for him in the canteen, surrounded by half a dozen assault rifles of various types, a significant amount of ammunition, and several pistols, not to mention a few knives. Zephron and John were checking the weapons over along with a few other people he knew had military backgrounds or other experience with firearms.

"Hello, Saurial," he said, smiling. She smiled back. "Thanks for coming so quickly."

"It's not a problem, Mr Hebert," she said politely, a look on her face he recognized under the scales as one of amusement. It shifted slightly, to a more deadly one. "What the hell is going on?"

"I'm not sure, to be honest," he replied. "Hookwolf and his minions turned up just now, shouting about wanting you. I have no idea why they thought you were here, or what they want with you in the first place."

"They're probably after me because I've caught so many of their guys committing crimes over the last couple of weeks," she sighed. "I was almost expecting something like this sooner or later but I don't know why it's involved you all. I'm sorry about it."

"Don't worry, no one has been hurt yet," he told her. "But I don't think they're going to wait much longer. He gave us five minutes nearly five minutes ago and he looks furious."

"OK." She slid off the table she was half-sitting on. "Let's go and deal with the idiot."

"I think it might take something a little more excessive than your normal approach," he said slowly, looking at her. "The man is extremely tough and dangerous and will need convincing. A lot of it."

"Hmm." She studied him, then looked around at the half dozen people in the room aside from them, who were listening curiously but politely, staying silent. "Can your men keep a secret? For now, anyway?"

Danny glanced around at the his colleagues, who all nodded. "I believe so."

"In that case, I have something I've been keeping back for a special occasion," she grinned, showing her teeth.

She changed.

Despite himself, Danny took a step back at the sight of her combat form, eight feet tall and heavily armored, smirking at him. Zephron swore violently and nearly fell over while one of the other guys actually fainted. "Fuck me," John whispered in a low voice.

"Would you care to introduce me to your problem," the enlarged, vastly more dangerous reptilian form said in a totally different voice to Saurial's, one that sent shivers down the back of everyone in the room. Danny smiled to himself. She liked her theatrics.

Annette would have been proud.

Everyone whipped their heads around as a sudden burst of machine gun fire echoed around the building. "Fuck. I think he's lost his patience," Danny sighed.

Seconds later Mark charged into the room, skidding to a halt so suddenly he nearly fell over when he spotted Taylor grinning at him. "Holy shit on a cracker!" the man yipped, staring.

"She's with us, Mark. What's going on?"

"Hookwolf just changed and ripped the fence down, his men are shooting at anything that's moving," Mark reported after another nervous glance at the combat form, who listened quietly. "We've pulled everyone back to the main admin building. About half the men got out the back before the shooting started, they're meeting up with the rail crews."

"Take the weapons, find somewhere to take cover," Danny ordered, coming to a quick decision. "Shoot if you have to but try for disabling shots not kill shots."

"That's difficult at the best of times, Boss," Mark replied.

"Do your best. We're not murderers, we're protecting our property and our people." Danny shook his head in disgust. "Fuck this city, it's insane. Go, we can fight them inside better than outside, we know the place and they don't. Don't get killed."

The other men grabbed the weapons and distributed them, one of them kicking his friend who'd fainted until he finally got up and ran with them. Seconds later only Taylor and Danny were in the room. He turned to her, looking up at her reptilian head several feet above his. "I'm sorry that you had to get involved, dear," he said quietly.

"I think this is probably my fault, Dad, so the apology should go the other way." She shrugged, lowering her head to look into his eyes. "If anyone hurts you I'm going to kill them."

"Try not to if you can, dear. I understand, and I don't disagree with the sentiment, but you're too young to be killing people." After a moment, visibly slightly reluctantly, she nodded.

"I'll try. But Hookwolf is going to regret bothering us."

"That I'm fine with," Danny smirked. They looked around at yet another burst of shots, which were now going off all around them. "Come on, I have an idea. We need maximum impact, I think, or they'll never learn." He lead the towering form of his only daughter through the building, heading away from the shooting, as around them dockworkers fell back slowly. Every now and then there was a scream or a yell as a shot hit home. He hoped desperately that none of his people got seriously hurt or killed.

Reaching his destination, he pushed the door open and gestured. "This should do."

Taylor looked in, then grinned, before following him inside.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Hookwolf, or Brad to his friends, of which he had very few, roared defiance at whoever was shooting at him from the DWU building with considerable accuracy. The bullets bounced off his metallic form, pinging around the area. "Get those fuckers!" he screamed in fury, his men shouting and shooting in equal quantities.

The return fire from the building in front of him was much less in volume and a damn sight more accurate. One, then another, of the E88 members went down with a hole in his leg, rolling around in agony and clutching the wound. Infuriated, not liking being shown up by a bunch of people who would employ the sort of subhuman scum that made Brockton Bay the hellhole it was, he roared again and charged, smashing through the front door of the facility and hearing his remaining men follow.

A few more shots rang out from the defenders, then it went eerily quiet. He looked around quickly, deciding that the main hallway leading back to the rear of this building into what he thought was the inner work area was the best approach. Motioning to his men, he sent small groups of them off in different directions to cover the other approaches, then headed down the corridor.

Thirty seconds later the lights went out.

One of the E88 member behind him whimpered. "Oh, god. She's here." Without looking Brad slammed him into the wall with a kick.

"Shut the fuck up. Flashlights." Several beams of white light speared through the dark, letting him and the half dozen people with him see where they were going.

A scream in the distance made them all freeze, exchange glances, then resume walking. Another minute of slow advancement, two more screams, and half a dozen bursts of shooting later and his men were beginning to look like they wanted to be somewhere else. Not deterred, Hookwolf clattered through the corridors of the DWU buildings, not caring who heard and determined to find that scaly lizard girl who had caused so much trouble to the E88 recently.

Hell, she probably wasn't even white under those scales. She was just a big animal that walked around on its hind legs and needed to be put down.

Reaching a large door which seemed to lead into a workshop of some sort, he kicked it open and went in, his men fanning out behind him. Standing in the middle of it under the only light on in the windowless room, a dim emergency lamp, was a tall skinny man with glasses who seemed to be waiting for them.

"Hookwolf," the man said politely. "What do you want?"

He recognized the voice of the man who had been trying to talk him into going away. The Hebert kike. "Saurial. I want Saurial. She's cost me a lot of money and people. I think I want a nice pair of lizard-skin shoes."

"I've told you, Saurial isn't here," Hebert replied mildly.

"I don't believe you. I know she is."

"Who told you that?"

Hookwolf stepped closer, his blades making a metal on metal skittery sound. "None of your business. Where is she?"

Hebert sighed. "I'm sorry, but Saurial isn't here." After a moment, he smiled thinly. "But she sent a friend. Would you like to meet her?"

About to reply, Brad stared as a shadow behind the man, which he'd put down as some sort of industrial machinery, stirred and unfolded. Something moved, coming closer, over Hebert's left shoulder. It opened glowing orange-yellow eyes with pupils like a cat's and looked at him, then the mouth formed into a smile that made him twitch.

It was a smile full of gleaming white teeth, several inches long, and with an air of imminent mayhem about it.

Behind him, several of his men swore faintly, one of them starting to pray. He glanced back and noticed that there seemed to be less of his people there than there had been seconds ago.

Looking back to the massive blue-black scaled reptilian head which was hanging in the darkness a foot over Hebert's shoulder he tried to think what to do. This wasn't Saurial, it looked nothing like the cape he'd seen video of, except for the reptilian aspect.

It looked very dangerous, very annoyed, and very hungry. This last aspect was enhanced when it sniffed loudly a couple of times, licked its lips with a long forked tongue, and said in a deep female voice, "I smell meat inside all that metal. Yummy."

"Fuck this!" a voice from behind him screamed, followed by the sound of running feet. He glanced back again to see he was now without backup.

"You seem to have run out of followers, Hookwolf," the Hebert man said calmly. "If you walk away now and don't come back, we can forget about it. We don't have any particular ax to grind with the E88 as long as you people stay away. The Merchants seem to have learned that, so I suppose you can."

"Merchants," he snarled. "They're all useless fucking street scum led by a druggie fool. We're the E88. We rule this town."

"Lung might have different ideas," Hebert remarked. "Or the PRT."

"Fuck them all, we can take them. We're just waiting for the best moment, then this city will be under the control of the right people. Not undesirables like you."

The thing behind Hebert growled in a low resonant tone, making the room shiver a little. "That's very rude," it said quietly but with menace in its voice.

"Fuck you too you ugly bitch," he growled back, without the undertones that made her utterance so impressive. Growing larger as he took on his full bladed wolf-like form rather than the half-way version he'd been using, he lowered his head and glared at her. "Come on, then, if you think you can take me."

"Mr Hebert?" the huge reptile asked, tipping its head to fix the Union leader with one eye.

The man made a motion, stepping to the side out of her way. "Go ahead. If you could avoid causing too much damage in here it would be appreciated."

"Of course," she replied, moving into the light from the emergency lamp above them. For the first time Hookwolf could see just how massive the thing was. She was nearly the size of a horse, with forelegs that looked half-way between paws and hands, in addition to the heavy muscular hind legs, and the more slender but still extremely powerful looking arms above. Dropping to all fours, the reptilian creature grinned slowly at him. "Well?" she invited, making a gesture with one hand. "Go for it."

He did. With a scream of mixed joy at combat and rage at the thing, he charged. She met him head-on, rearing up and grabbing him with all four hands, then pivoting sharply on her long tail and heaving him across the entire length of the workshop to impact the large vehicle doors at the far end, which he smashed through without even slowing down. Rolling across the cracked concrete outside with his blades raising sparks, he managed to dig some in and stop, raising his head in time to see the creature step through the remains of the doors. Its eyes glowed in the twilight as it narrowed them at him.

"That was pathetic," she commented with a toothful smile. Raising the absolutely immense war hammer that appeared in her hands, the shaft nearly as long as she was tall, she began walking towards him. "Let me show you how it's done."

He barely had time to brace himself before one of the most powerful blows he'd ever experienced sent him flying over the perimeter fence, screaming and howling obscenities.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Danny stood in the remains of the rear door to the vehicle workshop, watching as his daughter gave a good impression of someone playing croquet with Hookwolf as the ball. The other cape managed to get in a few hits that made her stagger once or twice, but was clearly on the defensive. Smirking a little he watched as they moved off through the warehouses towards the ones that were completely derelict, Taylor being careful to minimize damage as usual. "Have fun, dear," he murmured. "Make sure he learns not to come back."

Hearing a sound behind him he looked over his shoulders to see Mark and Zephron walking towards him, both holding guns. The pair stopped beside him and peered into the dark, just in time to see Hookwolf go flying once more, blades falling like leaves. "That was pretty impressive, Boss," Zephron rumbled. "You should give her a job. We could use security like that."

"I think we'll see her around quite a lot in the future," Danny smiled.

"Good. I like her."

Looking around as the lights came back on, Danny grinned. "That was a good idea, turning out the lights."

"Saurial seems to have all sorts of ideas to terrify people," Mark snickered. "She got a few then we used the same method to get more. We've got twelve E88 guys tied up in storeroom 23, there are six more outside the back gate that she got on the way in, and the rest ran. Half a dozen of the prisoners have holes in which we're seeing to at the moment. None of our guys were seriously hurt, we have one broken leg, a broken jaw, and three bullet grazes, nothing big. The others are on the way back with the rail crews and I've called the cops."

"Good work, to everyone," Danny replied, satisfied. "Let's go and see what the damage is." The three men headed back inside, feeling fairly pleased under the circumstances.

In the distance there was another metallic crash that echoed faintly across the Docks.

π

Brian stared open-mouthed at the sight of what was happening below them, then after a very long moment, turned to Lisa. She was looking at the scene with an expression that mixed amazement, horror, and a certain amount of pain. Behind her Rachel was watching with mute worry and Alec seemed frozen. "Tattletale?"

There was a pause of several seconds before she glanced at him, one eye twitching in a way he knew meant that her power was giving her a migraine.

He pointed.

"What. The Hell. Is that?"

They all kept watching as the huge reptilian creature wielding a sword nearly eight feet long took Hookwolf to pieces. Literally. It was moving so fast it was almost impossible to track or even get a good view of, but every now and then it paused long enough for him to see it properly. He estimated it would probably stand at least eight feet high if erect, with close to that much tail behind it. It looked, more than anything else, like some sort of mutant six-legged velociraptor right out of an Aleph movie, although he could see that the front-most legs were actually arms with hands that were amazingly human-like, albeit with several inches of obviously razor-sharp talons tipping each digit.

Those hands were wrapped around the hilt of the sword it was swinging fast enough to create a distinct whip-crack noise each time whether it hit anything or not. The blade was apparently incredibly sharp, not to mention tough, since anything it hit got cleanly separated into two pieces without obviously slowing it at all.

When it stopped moving for a moment he noticed that it was standing with the rear legs and tail holding it leaning forward, the middle ones which had less hand-like appendages poised ready to strike, and the fore-body above those limbs held upright, giving it a slightly centaur-like appearance. If one took the classical Greek concept of a centaur and replaced all the parts of it with some sort of alien killer lizard, at least.

The upper torso, in those terms, was less solidly built than the rest of it and if you looked at it right might almost be a scaly version of a human female, but the head was right back into dinosaur from hell territory. A reptilian muzzle with a lot of extremely sharp teeth could be seen, two glowing, literally glowing slit-pupiled yellow-orange eyes above it set widely enough that it probably had exceptionally good peripheral vision but still forward enough to allow for binocular vision as well.

While large it was slender and sinewy, giving the impression of something made for speed rather than pure strength. Even so, it didn't lack that either, the thing was definitely appallingly strong, high Brute level at least from what he could see. Its scales were a dark blue-black color, fading into the night and making it hard to see properly even leaving the sheer velocity of its movements out of it. The armor over the scales was almost exactly the same color and difficult to make out.

He watched in horror as it swung that huge blade again, heedless of the lamp-post that was between it and the target, the sword passing through the thick metal post as if it was made of cotton candy, aimed squarely at the metallic wolf-like form of Hookwolf, who only barely managed to move far enough out of range to avoid bisection. There were chunks of his own blades scattered all over the street as far as they could see, while the cape himself was visibly slowing down and looked very much the worse for wear. Even the normally extremely aggressive Nazi was giving off an air of becoming aware that he was in a losing battle. The top three quarters of the pole tipped over and landed with a clang on the ground.

"I have no idea," Lisa finally replied in a faint voice. The other three stared at her instead of the somewhat one-sided battle in the street below, surprised. She looked embarrassed under the pain.

"Really?" Alec turned to her. "The know it all doesn't know it all for once?"

Glaring at him she muttered something under her breath, before going back to watching the creature beat the shit out of one of the most dangerous capes in the city while giving off a distinct impression of enjoying itself. Which was, frankly, kind of worrying.

"No," she finally admitted more loudly. A particularly loud crash from below as Hookwolf got sideswiped by a heavy tail right through a rusty old abandoned truck made them all jump a little. "All I can tell you right now is that it's female, very smart, and incredibly quick. Not to mention dangerous. It's playing with him. It could kill him easily, but it's holding back for some reason."

"Is it a construct of some sort? Or a projection?" Grue asked curiously. She shook her head after staring at the thing some more when it briefly paused again.

"No..." She trailed off, then said more firmly, "No, I don't think so. I think it's a cape. And I think it's what left those footprints in the snow."

Raising an eyebrow under his helmet, Brian stared at her, then the creature, which was now slowly stalking Hookwolf who was backing away, using other old cars as cover. "A cape? You mean like Saurial?" He thought for a moment. "It's reptilian like her, true, and seems to be using similar weapons, but it's a hell of a lot bigger and looks completely different."

The thing suddenly moved like lightning, almost flowing over the obstacles in its way, darting at Hookwolf who screamed an obscenity and ran for his life, obviously having decided that he needed to urgently regroup somewhere a long way away. Brian watched with amazement as the sword that had been making such a mess of the other cape abruptly was a club instead, still wildly outsized. The lizard-thing hopped onto a car roof and swung like it was playing golf, with the result that the Nazi bounced down the street, ending up embedded into the wall of a warehouse a hundred feet away. His transformation ebbed away, leaving an unconscious man lying in an untidy heap.

The observers watched as the lizard-creature somehow made its sword turned club disappear, then sauntered over with no real urgency, lifting the Nazi by one ankle and holding him up for inspection, its head cocked curiously to one side. Apparently satisfied it put him down again surprisingly carefully then produced a set of heavy metal restraints with which it happily proceeded to hog-tie him. Grue was almost sorry for the other cape.

Almost.

When it was finished securing its captive, it producing a phone from somewhere, which looked absurdly small in its massive taloned hands, and carefully prodded the device for a few seconds, apparently sending a text. Putting it away again, it then slowly and deliberately turned its head on its long flexible neck to stare straight at them in a casual manner that made it pretty clear it had known they were watching from the beginning.

"Oh, shit..." Brian froze for a long couple of seconds.

The creature started walking in their direction.

"Um… I think we should go," Tattletale said in a small voice. The others didn't argue, all of them hastily climbing aboard two of Bitch's outsize mutant dogs, the woman herself whistling a quiet command that had all three of the creatures turning and leaving the area rapidly. Grue looked over his shoulder, his eyes widening when he spotted the reptilian cape now standing on the roof right where they'd been, watching them flee. It had made it six stories from the ground to the roof in seconds.

A moment passed then it started following them, leaping as easily over the rooftops as the dogs were, if not more so. "Oh, crap," he yelled. "It's chasing us!"

Regent and Tattletale quickly looked back, the blonde's face paling visibly. Bitch urged her dogs to a higher speed, which they seemed more than happy about, all three of them apparently well aware of what was following them and not liking it. The animals bounded over the roofs of the warehouses and tenement buildings, sending shingles and slates flying, while Brian kept looking back whenever they were in a position to allow it, frantically flooding their path with his darkness.

Half a mile further on, he turned around again, then sighed in relief. "I can't see it any more. I think we lost it."

Turning back to look forwards he was just in time to see the damn thing appear a hundred feet in front of them, popping up out of an alley having apparently scaled the wall of the building. "FUCK!" Bitch screamed in shocked anger, leaning over and prodding the dog she was riding at the head of the little pack to violently turn. Grue nearly lost his seat as the one he was on followed the lead instantly, grabbing for Lisa as she hung on frantically and helped him keep his place.

As they flashed past the thing he saw it was merely watching them, making no attempt to attack. Once they were clear he looked back to see it following again. A few seconds passed then it vanished, dropping into another alley. This time he didn't sigh in relief, having the distinct impression it was toying with them for some reason.

Sweating, he exchanged a look with Tattletale, then both of them went back to scanning the area. "Any idea where it is?" he asked her, leaning forward. She looked around, wincing in pain again.

"It's… somewhere over to the right. I think." Both of them looked in that direction but couldn't spot anything.

"Why the hell is it chasing us?" Regent called. She turned to stare at him.

Eventually she shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe it doesn't want witnesses?"

"Oh, thank you very fucking much for that thought," the dark-haired young man snapped after a horrified second or two following her words. "I have no wish to get killed and eaten by a mutant dinosaur, thanks."

"I still can't see it," Grue stated, scanning around for any trace of the thing. Tattletale followed his gaze then shook her head.

"Neither can I."

"Maybe we really did lose it this time?"

"I… I think if anything it got bored," she finally replied after considering the question, rubbing her forehead with a shaking hand. He looked at her closely, concerned, seeing she was clearly about at the end of her endurance. Her power was obviously causing her more pain than usual. "From what I could make out it would easily be able to track us if it wanted to. I'm pretty sure its senses are wildly better than ours are. The damn thing can probably hear us half a mile away."

"Oh, great," he muttered.

"Do we go back to base, then?" Regent asked as they slowed down, the dogs also close to exhaustion. "Or run around for a while longer so we don't lead it there?"

It was a good point. Grue had no wish to allow whatever it was to work out where they lived. After a moment or two he signaled a stop. Bitch issued the command to the dogs, which slowed to a walk, then finally halted on a flat roof nearly three miles from where the lizard creature had so comprehensively stomped Hookwolf flat.

Relieved, as riding the dogs wasn't exactly the most comfortable thing in the world at the best of times, never mind when they were running for their lives, Brian slid off his mount, dropping to the roof and rubbing his ass. The others did pretty much the same thing.

Eventually they gathered in a group, the dogs to one side, in the shadow of the machine house on the top of the building they were on. Grue looked carefully around, both checking for the thing and trying to work out where they were. Spotting the lights of the Medhall building in the distance he realized they'd ended up half-way between the Docks and the Boardwalk, technically on the edge of Merchants territory but a safe distance from their main haunts.

"What the hell, Lisa?" he finally said, turning to the blonde, who was standing with her eyes shut and one hand pressed to her forehead. "What just happened? Who or what was that?"

"I told you, Brian, I don't know," she sighed, not opening her eyes. "When I looked directly at it, my power just… gave me static." She shrugged. "I could get bits and pieces but not much useful information. It's really strange. And hellishly painful."

Regent, looking even in his costume rather nervous, leaned against the side of the machine house and stared at her. Beside her, Bitch was checking one of her dogs, while Grue was thinking. "How often does that happen, Tats?" the smaller man asked, sounding worried.

She sighed, opening her eyes to look at him and wincing at the same time. Reluctantly, she admitted, "That's only the second time it's ever happened..." The blonde suddenly got a faraway look on her face, apparently realizing something.

"Oh, wonderful," he groaned. "Right at the point it would be really fucking useful to know what the hell was chasing us!"

"It's not like I'm doing it on purpose, you know," she snapped back in an aggrieved manner, coming back from wherever she'd been moments before.

"Did you see what it did to Hookwolf?" he asked, leaning forward and resting the end of his scepter on his shoulder. "It fucking destroyed him! And you think it was just playing with him? That's not someone I want to tangle with, or lead home. So pardon me if I'm a little annoyed that our all-knowing fountain of information picks that exact moment to run dry."

His voice was heavy with sarcasm, but Brian couldn't exactly fault his reasoning. Neither could Lisa, judging by her expression, although she wasn't happy about it even so.

"I mean, you were actually watching the same thing I was, right?" he went on. "It was nine or ten feet tall and swinging the biggest fucking sword I've ever seen around like it weighed nothing! It cut a car in half with one swing, one-handed. That's just bullshit. Never mind it was so fast I could barely follow it. I don't know what beef it had with Hookwolf but I do not want to meet anything that could do that to him. It was the most terrifying thing I've ever seen outside an Endbringer. Please tell me you know if it's going to follow us home? I don't want to wake up tomorrow to see a killer alien dinosaur grinning at me while holding the sword of plus ten destruction to my throat!"

Regent finished his rant, then stared at his three companions, who were all staring back from fifteen feet away, completely silent and not moving a muscle. The eyes of the two girls, the only ones visible, were so wide he could see the whites all around even in the dark.

He swallowed hard, closing his own eyes for a moment in terrified realization.

"It's behind me, isn't it?" he asked faintly.

All three of them nodded dumbly.

"Oh hell."

Very slowly, he lifted his head to look directly upwards.

A couple of feet above him, an unpleasantly familiar pair of glowing yellowish eyes set in a massive reptilian head were peering down at them all from the roof of the machine house. The rest of the creature was out of sight on the roof. It looked at them, totally motionless, while they all stared back, so frozen that no-one even considered using their powers to escape.

The tableau held for a few seconds, no one saying anything, then it slowly moved, the head staying almost still in a very disturbing manner while the rest of it eased over the roof and descended the side of the building, its claws easily holding it against the wall. Regent didn't move, worried that doing so would instantly precipitate an attack. Which, based on what he'd seen, would be something that none of them would survive. He was under no misconceptions about the mismatch in abilities present.

When it was standing on the roof, looking at them, it slowly turned its head to inspect each one of them in turn. It audibly sniffed, scenting them. A whine from one of the dogs, which were pressed against the roof in a submissive posture making it abundantly clear they knew damn well a much more dangerous predator was present caused it to snap its head around so fast it blurred to stare at the animal. Half a second later it looked back at them, equally quickly. The contrast between the horrifyingly slow and deliberate movements as it climbed down the wall and the practically instantaneous reflexes was deeply disturbing.

Grue watched as the creature studied them, glancing at Lisa without moving his head, seeing that she was looking terrified and at a complete loss. Briefly considering flooding the area with his darkness then trying to escape, he dismissed the plan when he realized that the thing could probably react much too fast to give that idea much hope of success.

Suddenly, the thing spoke, in a fairly deep female voice that sounded remarkably normal although with weird undertones, making them all twitch violently.

"You dropped this," it said, tossing Tattletale a phone. The device bounced off her chest as she entirely failed to even attempt to catch it. After a long incredulous moment, all of them looked down at the phone.

When they looked up, it was gone.

"What… the… absolute... fuck..."

Regent's disbelieving voice broke the silence nearly a minute later. Bending down very slowly, Tattletale picked up the phone and stared at it, before sagging a little and putting it back into the pouch in her utility belt it had apparently fallen out of at some point.

She turned to them, her mouth working silently. Eventually, she managed to speak.

"I..." Her voice was unnaturally high. She tried again after swallowing. "I have no idea what the hell just happened."

Shaking his head in defeated tiredness, Grue sighed. "Fuck it all, let's just go home."

It took Bitch nearly five minutes to get the dogs to stop shivering and let them get on. The ride home was slow, quiet, and thoughtful.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

"We are being watched, Brain," the Varga said, as Taylor swung her sword with both hands, wincing a little internally as the lamp post that had jumped in front of her blade toppled over, but still concentrating on not actually dicing the idiot Nazi in front of her. She carefully missed hitting him square on, only removing yet another piece of his outer layers which clattered to the road and burst into fragments. The cape yelped in shock and dived out of the way, while she followed.

'I know, I heard them,' she replied absently. 'Tattletale? She's with the Undersiders, right?' She remembered what their research had shown up.

"Yes, with her teammates Grue, Regent, and Hellhound or Bitch. There wasn't much information available on them so far. Villainous alignment although they have been surprisingly inactive recently." The Varga sounded intrigued. "I believe that she is probably a Thinker of some sort."

'OK. Well, they're not a problem right now, so they can watch if they want.' She ducked a return strike by Hookwolf then pivoted on one foot, her tail smacking into him and flinging him into and through a rusty box truck at the side of the road. 'Oops. Dad is going to be very sarcastic about all the damage.' Taylor cast a quick glance back at the trail of destruction their running fight had left behind, embarrassed. While a good deal of it was due to her opponent a considerable amount was, if she was honest, her fault.

Shifting her grip on the sword, she swung it one-handed at the other cape, who let out an unmanly screech as it barely missed him, cutting an old junker of a car neatly into two halves with a crunch. She bared her teeth at him in a savage grin. 'This is fun, though. He's not as tough as he made himself out to be.'

"Please restrain yourself from killing him, although I agree that is what would be the rational approach. Your father was very clear that lethal force should be reserved for extreme situations, which this isn't." Her head partner sounded mildly annoyed about that little fact. He'd made it quite clear that leaving dangerous enemies alive was in the long term a bad idea. She had a sneaking suspicion he was right, but couldn't find it in herself to go against her father's wishes or her own ethical sense.

'Don't worry, I'll just wear him out and knock him around a little,' she assured the Varga. 'Teach him what it's like to be on the other end of a smackdown for once.'

Hookwolf feinted right, then dived left, apparently trying to get to cover behind some more cars, all of which looked like they should have been junked years ago. This area was very run down, not surprising in the current economic climate and considering that it was mainly Merchants who wandered around the place. Anyone with a brain had cleared out as soon as they heard the fight coming, though, meaning the area was almost empty. She could hear a few heartbeats, very rapid ones, in the surrounding buildings, so a few people had braved it out even so.

Quickly looking around Taylor could also see the heat signatures of half a dozen people, not including the four on the roof to one side, which also had three much larger blobs behind them. Idly wondering what they were she returned her attention to her opponent, who was watching her carefully in between glances about him for an escape route.

Smiling to herself, which in her current form probably looked a little worrying, she raised the sword again then dropped to all fours, skittering over the ground and the cars fast enough to make him yell out wildly, swear a lot, then make a break for it. Jumping ahead and to one side she swapped the sword for a club like a giant baseball bat with a quick mental flick, then aimed carefully and swung, pulling the blow enough at the last instant that Hookwolf only bounced, rather than splashed. Watching him hit the warehouse wall at the end of the street she grinned.

'Fore!'

"Ah. A golf metaphor," the Varga replied dryly, making her giggle.

Wandering over having dismissed the bat she reached down and picked Hookwolf up now that he had reverted to human form, checking him for damage. He was out like a light but his heartbeat was strong and she couldn't see any real damage to him other than sheer exhaustion. Satisfied, she put him down again then applied the restraints her partner produced on request. 'Let's set them for a few days, just to make a point' she smirked. After another look at the unconscious cape, she had the Varga add a neck collar and attach the restraints to the back of it, ensuring that Hookwolf was going nowhere until the bonds evaporated.

Having finished, she plucked her phone from the belt around her waist above her forelegs, flipping it open with one talon. Quickly tapping out a message to her father, she put it away again.

'OK, that's that done,' she said with an internal smile. 'Hopefully it should stop those Nazi bastards from messing with us for a while.' Turning her head she looked up curiously to where the Undersiders were still watching. 'Think I should go and say Hi? I mean, I know they're villains, but they're still neighbors.'

"They don't present much threat as far as I can sense."

With a small shrug she headed towards the building she could see four faces peering over the edge of from the roof. These immediately vanished and she could hear a certain amount of worried whispering. 'Oops,' she muttered again. 'I think they might have the wrong idea.' Quickly climbing up the front of the building Taylor hopped lightly onto the roof, in time to see the three huge thermal sources, which turned out to be enormous lizard-dog creatures, bound away into the distance, two of them carrying a pair of people each on their backs.

'Wow. That looks… uncomfortable,' she commented. Glancing down she noticed that there was an expensive looking smart phone lying on the roof. Picking it up she sniffed it. The scent of a female and a distinctive perfume, which she could also smell in the air around her, led her to believe that it belonged to one of the Undersiders. After a brief internal debate she sighed softly, looking up at the disappearing quartet, before beginning to follow them. 'This looks expensive. She'll probably miss it, so I should give it back, I guess,' she remarked. There was no immediate reply.

Strangely enough, the Undersiders sped up when they noticed she was behind them. She heard one of them yell about being chased, briefly wondering if she should shout back, but decided just to follow. Eventually they'd stop and she could return the phone. A cloud of oddly opaque darkness billowed behind them, which blocked normal vision completely and even the thermal vision as well, not to mention muffling the sounds in a weird way. It had no effect on their scents, which was useful, so it barely slowed her.

It took some time for them to come to a halt, though. At one point she hopped down to the street and ran ahead of the direction she thought they were going in, to get in front of them, which actually worked. But as soon as she climbed up to the rooftops again the girl on the front dog-thing screamed in shock, then wheeled her mount around, almost dislodging the large young man on the second animal as it did the same thing, and pelted off in a different direction. Sighing, she watched them go once more, before muttering to herself and following, this time keeping out of sight off to one side. Perhaps if they didn't see her they'd stop?

A few more minutes passed while she tracked them by ear and scent. Eventually they halted, dismounting their animals and arguing with each other for a while. She gleaned quite a lot of information listening as she carefully approached, clambering up the side of the building away from them and lurking on the other side of the machine room on top of it. Tattletales real name appeared to be Lisa, and the larger of the two boys was Brian. Taylor thought he was probably the cape known as Grue. That made the dog handler Hellhound, which made sense, leaving Regent as the remaining boy. Wondering what their powers were she carefully and quietly slipped up to the top of the machine house, peeping over the edge to see what they looked like.

Tattletale was a blonde, very attractive, in a skin-tight body suit in black and purple. Grue was tall, well built, and wearing a modified motorcycle helmet and leathers. Bitch or Hellhound, whichever it was, looked pretty normal by comparison, just a solidly built young woman in normal clothes with a cheap dog mask sitting pretty much on top of her head. Wondering whether she should ask what name the girl wanted people to use, she pondered the matter for a second or two, before deciding it wasn't the time right at that moment.

Regent, the last of them, was directly below her, ranting wildly about something and seeming pretty wound up. His costume was interesting, looking like he was trying to pull off the effect of being a flamenco dancer but missed. She cocked her head, wondering what the idea behind it was.

When he stopped talking he stared at his companions, who were all oddly silent. She glanced at them and realized that they were all staring fixedly at her! It was embarrassing. She knew her current form was a bit unusual but the intensity of the stares was somewhat off-putting.

Not wanting to upset them any more she carefully and slowly descended their side of the machine house, trying not to make any sudden moves. Sniffing she cataloged the various scents, localizing the smell on the phone to Tattletale. It must be hers.

Staring at them and wondering why they all looked so scared, she snapped her head around at a sound from one of the huge dog-like things, almost jumping in shock, then looked back when it was obvious the animal was only tired. All three of them were lying on their sides panting. Briefly thinking that Bitch should take more care of her pets, she retrieved Tattletales phone from her belt pouch and gently tossed it to her, saying at the same time, "You dropped this."

The girl didn't move to catch it, not even when it bounced off her chest and clattered to the roof. Taylor managed to avoid sighing, even though she felt like it. Assuming they were a little embarrassed themselves about losing what was probably an expensive phone, although you wouldn't guess it from the way she'd dropped it again, she waved to them and jumped over the side of the building, grabbing the stonework on the way down then lowering herself to the ground to avoid her weight, which at this size was significant, damaging the street.

She wasn't even sure they'd noticed her wave, since by then they were all looking at the phone with peculiar expressions, at least in the case of the two girls. Speeding up she ran back towards the Docks and her captive, satisfied about her good deed. It had only taken an extra twenty minutes or so anyway.

'They seemed a bit confused,' she said to the Varga, which for some reason seemed to be sniggering to itself. 'I'm not sure they really know what they're doing.'

The great creature laughed inside her head and refused to explain why for quite a long time.

π

As she reached the area where she'd left the form of Hookwolf lying in the street, Taylor slowed, a familiar scent reaching her nose from somewhere up ahead. Stopping in the shadows, she sniffed carefully, looking around intently, then slipped into a side alley and climbed quickly up the side of the building to the roof, cloaking as she went. Reverting to her normal size to allow her smaller form to be more stealthy she very quietly crept over the next two roofs, until she made it to her target area, a building overlooking the point where the fight had stopped but some distance downwind of where the Undersiders had watched from.

Checking again she could make out a dim glowing blob beneath her in the top floor room, near the window. It seemed to be pointing something out the window and lying on the floor.

The scent was definitely the same as the one she'd detected in the room in the other warehouse during the sniping incident, the one she'd followed half-way across the city. Her mysterious observer was back. 'Now isn't that interesting,' she commented silently to the Varga, who was also watching intently.

"Yes, it is, Brain. I think we might have found the reason Hookwolf and his friends decided to visit the DWU."

'I think it's time we had a talk. Going after me is one thing, but setting that lunatic on Dad and his people is too much.' Taylor was feeling very irritated. Creeping soundlessly across the roof she eased headfirst over the edge, seeing there was indeed a man lying on the floor with a camera, pointing it at Hookwolf a couple of hundred yards away up the road. Presumably waiting for her to return. He must have been following discreetly all the way from the DWU facility, which spoke volumes about his own training.

Smiling in a vicious way, she slipped further down the wall, then flipped through the window above him, decloaking when she was standing behind him again and back up to the larger size.

"Good view?" she asked casually.

"Holy fucking cunt!" the man screamed in shock, nearly jumping out the window as he spun around on the floor, rising into a crouch with a knife in his hand in an impressive display of reflexes.

She laughed gently, which made him pale even further than the impressive shade he reached when he saw who it was.

"Oh, Christ," he moaned.

"Still only me." She stepped closer. "I'm very curious as to who you are, and why you paid that Merchant to snipe at Saurial."

He went completely white.

"Oh, yes," she purred softly, "I know it was you. I know where you went afterwards. And I know it was you who set a crazy homicidal cape on friends of mine. What I don't know is why, and who you work for, so I think we need to talk."

"You… You can't make me talk," he stuttered, obviously attempting to convince himself more than her.

"I think you may be mistaken," she corrected him politely, smiling widely. This time his color ebbed to pale green. "And trust me, there are so many things I can do that won't actually kill you. Some of them might even allow you to walk again one day."

He screamed loudly and in a remarkably unmanly way as she reached for him.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Brad groaned, shaking his head a little and finding it difficult. There was something heavy around his neck and his arms and legs were bent oddly. It took him several seconds to remember what had happened. Struggling, he tried to escape his bonds, whatever they were, but found it impossible. Whatever was tying his legs and arms behind his back didn't even flex.

An attempt to shift forms and escape like that caused instant pain, as once again the bonds didn't cooperate and slide off his blades, instead tangling with them and interfering with the process. He'd never encountered anything like it.

A sudden scream from behind him made him try to look, then swear violently and wriggle around on his belly on the cold concrete until he could see the source. The huge reptilian horror that had been chasing him was holding a man at arm's length by the ankle on the roof of a building a hundred yards away, dangling him over a sixty foot drop, while apparently talking calmly to him. Brad stared, wondering what the hell she was doing. It was a remarkably brutal bit of intimidation, one he actually found rather impressive, even under the circumstances

Her captive shrieked again as she jiggled him up and down encouragingly, then started talking. Very very quickly. She listened carefully, looking like she was asking questions, but it was too far away for Brad to make out what was being said. When the man swiveled in his direction, though, he recognized him. It was the informant who had approached him with information on Saurial and where she might turn up.

Feeling suddenly like he was the butt of a joke he was going to kill someone over, Hookwolf watched, unable to do anything else. Eventually she reeled her prisoner in, apparently satisfied, slung him over her shoulder, and dropped off the building, accompanied by a descending wail of terror. Braking by grabbing the wall in a few places she landed lightly, then put the man down.

The lizard thing reached out and put her hand around his neck, before talking seriously to him for a moment. He nodded frantically, then rabbited as soon as she let go, disappearing into the darkness in seconds. She watched for a moment, then turned to Brad, walking over and squatting next to him.

"Hello, Hookwolf," she said politely. "You're awake. I was wondering when you'd manage that." She reached out and poked him with the end of her tail. "Looking a little rough around the edges there. Now, what am I going to do with you?"

"Let me go, you bitch, or Kaiser will have your head on his wall," he snarled.

"Oh, I don't think it will come to that," she smiled. "I doubt he could do it anyway."

"The E88 is going to crush you, bitch," he blustered, knowing damn well she had him at her mercy.

She got down on all four legs and put her head very close to his, close enough that he could see her teeth very clearly indeed. He swallowed a little drily.

"No, they aren't. And if they try, they will all die." There was a note of total certainty in her voice that despite himself he tended to believe. "You have no idea at all what I'm capable of if you push hard enough. I would strongly advise you don't try to find out." Her voice was a silky hiss, making a shiver go down his back. "I have a message for Kaiser and you are going to deliver it when you see him next. Leave the DWU alone. If I have to go through the entire E88 to keep them safe I'm perfectly happy to do it and believe me, I can. What I did you was fun, but not actually very hard. Don't make me do it again and put some effort in."

"You're bluffing," he said, not entirely certain she was. The reptilian female studied him for a few seconds.

"OK. If that's the way you want to play it." Standing up she grabbed whatever it was that she had tied him up with and lifted him off the ground with no effort, carrying him like a suitcase. He yelled and struggled, totally pointlessly. "You should be quiet," she advised, "you're going to need your breath. How long can you hold it, anyway?"

"What the fuck are you talking about?" he asked, suddenly worried. There was something about the calm and almost serene manner she was talking in that was very disconcerting.

"This," she replied, stopping. He looked around to find to his horror they'd reached the waterfront and she was standing on the remains of one of the old wharves that had collapsed years ago, right at the edge, dark frigid water lapping at the timbers ten feet below them. "See you."

She held him out, then let go.

His scream didn't last long, nor did the echoes of the splash.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

David looked around the scene, lit brightly by floodlights on the walls of the DWU buildings, and more on poles in the yard. Bullet casings were everywhere, there were a hell of a lot of holes in some of the walls, and a huge part of the fence was shredded, but overall the damage was minimal. Strobing blue and red illumination cast odd shadows about the place, the half dozen police cruisers, three large prisoner vans, and two ambulances all with their roof lights running scattered about the yard. They'd had to wait for some of the men to tow the huge trailer that had blocked the main gate out of the way with a massive forklift when they'd arrived, before they could get in.

"My God, Danny, what the hell? It looks like a war zone." He turned back to the DWU representative who was standing with several of his men, all armed with various guns, the latter looking around alertly for the most part. They were clearly guarding the Hebert man.

Danny sighed, looking around himself. "It's a mess, yes. But it won't take long to fix. The fence is the biggest nuisance, I'm not sure we have enough chain-link material in stock."

"Why the hell did Hookwolf of all people attack here?" David asked, glancing over at the surprisingly large number of prisoners the DWU people seemed to have acquired, mostly without any injuries. Or at least, to them. Several of the E88 members were looking somewhat tattered.

Shrugging, Danny replied, "Apparently someone told him Saurial was here, which was wrong. He seems to have a bone to pick with her. I called her and told her and she sent someone else over to lend a hand, she was unable to attend."

"Who did she send?" David asked curiously.

"Me," a deep female voice said from behind him, making him yelp and spin around, then nearly faint. He stared, as did the other cops, at the enormous and much more reptilian creature than Saurial that was standing fifteen feet away holding a dripping wet and deliriously mumbling Hookwolf under her arm like a handbag.

"Fuck me," he breathed. "Who the hell are you?"

"A friend," she replied, the corners of her mouth going up in what he realized was a smile. Her face was nowhere near as human-like as Saurial's was, not really allowing for a real smile. The effect was more than a little chilling, as were her eyes, as she looked around with rapid motions of her head, displaying incredibly quick reactions.

"That's nice," he managed to say. "I wouldn't want you as an enemy."

She laughed, then poked Hookwolf, who coughed a little, rather weakly. "He decided to cooperate in the end," she announced, "although he took some… convincing. Do you want him or do I return him to sender? I don't really need a pet."

The police officer could see that the cape was securely and slightly ridiculously restrained by the same sort of weird unbreakable metal manacles that Saurial produced, except much thicker and on both legs and arms. Not to mention his neck. It was blatantly obvious that he wasn't going anywhere.

"I think… I think it would probably be best to let the PRT take him off your hands," he managed to say after a few seconds. The other cops were still staring in shock, while the union guys seemed very amused. Danny was shaking his head, a look of mild disapproval colored with hilarity on it.

"They haven't turned up yet, have they?" she asked.

"No. We passed the message on when these guys called us and said Hookwolf was involved, but they don't seem in much of a hurry." David sighed slightly. "Not entirely surprising. If it was the Boardwalk or Downtown areas, they'd be all over the place in minutes."

"If I go and give him to them do you think they can manage to hold onto the bastard this time?" she asked curiously. "Based on past results he and his friends seem to walk out of the place in days, if not hours. I'm sure he's been arrested by the PRT at least twice in the last three years."

David shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine. I know we can't hold him, as much as I'd like to take him off your hands. But we'll take these other idiots."

A siren in the distance made them all turn and look, to see a PRT van following Armsmaster's motorcycle come around the corner of the road that led directly to the facility, heading rapidly in their direction. "Hah. Speak of the devil. About time."

Everyone waited as the Tinker and his escort entered the yard, both vehicles stopping a few yards away, then Armsmaster dismounted, staring at the scene. What they could see of his face under his helmet looked somewhat surprised. Eventually, as he was joined by three PRT troopers carrying containment foam sprayers and Miss Militia, who climbed out of the van with them, the five people cautiously walking closer. David noticed that the female hero was staring fixedly at the large reptilian cape with a look of shock in her eyes.

Armsmaster seemed more interested in the captive under her arm, or more specifically the manacles he was bound with. "That amount of restraint seems excessive," he said, "bearing in mind the impossible strength of that material."

"I needed the weight," the reptilian woman replied evenly. "So he'd sink quickly."

Everyone stared at her. "Sink quickly?" Miss Militia echoed, a look of mild horror in her eyes.

"We practiced some breath control exercises while I was explaining that the DWU was off limits to him and his friends," the other cape replied, sounding amused. "Deep water helps a lot in that case. He agreed with me after a while."

"You… you dropped him in the bay?" Miss Militia managed to say, her voice faint.

The huge creature nodded, doing its smile thing again, which made the PRT troopers flinch. "Repeatedly. I pulled him out again, though. After a while." Holding Hookwolf out at arm's length she shook him gently, watching water drip from him. "He's surprisingly stubborn."

"That's torture," the heroine snapped.

The lizard-like cape shook her head. "No, it's an enhanced interrogation, perfectly legal according to our own government, as stated more than once over the last twenty years or so. You're a government agent, surely you know about that?" Her glowing eyes fixed on Miss Militia's own, making the latter visibly swallow. "Admittedly my version is a little more enhanced but it's also a lot faster. He's fine. Just a bit damp and a lot cleaner. Now, do you want him, or do I go and throw him back through Kaiser's window? I don't much care one way or the other."

She held the cape up to her face, staring into his eyes. He seemed unable to blink. "Although if I ever see him again around here, no one else ever will. Got me, Hookwolf?"

The cape nodded so fast his mask nearly fell off.

"Good. Remember my message when you see your boss." She put him down, the manacles around his legs vanishing in the process. Giving him a gentle push she urged him towards the PRT troopers who were, like everyone else, staring in horrified awe. "Run along, Hooky. Don't come back."

Staggering towards the PRT people, the broken cape looked almost grateful when they grabbed him and loaded him into the van.

"I think that's that problem solved, Mr Hebert," the lizard-like female said with satisfaction, turning to the DWU representative. "I'm glad I could help. It was fun. Thanks for letting me give a hand."

"You're welcome, and thank you as well," Danny said calmly, walking over and holding out his hand, which was engulfed in the one the thing put out. He showed no signs at all of fear or worry which deeply impressed David, and he suspected, pretty much everyone else watching in silence. "Give my best wishes to Saurial. Can we call you again if we need help?"

"Any time." She nodded politely to him, waved to the other union men who waved back, seeming relaxed and pleased, then turned and sprinted at a horrifying speed across the yard towards the bay.

"Hey!" Miss Militia, apparently taken by surprise, shouted after her. "Come back! I want to talk to you."

The cape disappeared into the darkness without a reply then a second later there was a faint splash.

"Did she just jump into the bay?" Armsmaster asked the assembled multitude, more or less rhetorically. His voice sounded odd.

"I think so, yes," Danny replied, turning back from watching her go with a smile. "Now, was there anything else I can do for the PRT tonight? Or can we get on with making the area secure and going home. Some of us have families to get back to."

Neither of the capes seemed to be able to come up with an instant answer, merely exchanging bemused glances, so he turned to David. "Hopefully you have everything you need. If you want to interview any of the men, let me know and I can arrange to have them come down town."

"OK, Danny. Thanks." David shook his head, looking around as the other cops and EMTs got back to work now the drama was over. "Amazing. Well done, though. I'm impressed you had no real injuries."

"We knew the area a lot better than those idiots did," Danny sighed. "Plus we have some very good shots in the Union. Ex military guys, you know the type."

"I do."

"Hey, can we keep the guns?" one of the union men, the excessively large black guy, put in, stroking the expensive looking AR-15 he was holding. "I like this one."

"We should probably hand them over, Zephron," Danny sighed. "The DWU doesn't really need an armory."

"Are you sure, Boss?" the man asked, grinning. "Never know when it might come in handy."

"Give the police the guns, guys," the DWU man laughed. "All of them. Including that pistol I saw you hide in your desk, Mark."

Another man looked disappointed, making David grin.

He noticed that a couple of minutes later, the PRT people and the two capes quietly left, not seeming to know quite what to do. That made him snicker for some time.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Swimming underwater for a couple of miles, Taylor exited the bay, shook the water off, and retook her Saurial form, cloaking and running towards the Downtown area. She wanted to be seen wandering around for a while, to give plausible deniability to her combat form. It was inevitable that sooner or later someone would put it all together but the longer she could put it off, most likely the safer they'd be.

Not to mention she thought it was really funny.

Reaching the brightly lit area full of restaurants and bars she looked over the roof edge of the building she was on, then around. In the distance she could make out Kid Win gliding along the sidewalk with Clockblocker beside him, the two Wards patrolling the area. Deciding she'd go and say hello, she decloaked and ran along the rooftops until she was above them, then descended to the ground, smiling as they stopped, then came over.

"Hi, guys. How's it going?" she asked brightly. "I've been wandering around for a while and haven't seen anything interesting yet."

"Hi, Saurial. Nothing much going on, the E88 seems quiet tonight and no one else is around," Kid Win smiled. "But I'm sure something will kick off sooner or later. It normally does."

"Then you can go and season the criminals while we watch and laugh," Clockblocker snickered. "Hey, I had an idea about how you could get Assault. What you do is, you get some salad, some dressing, a big knife and fork, a pepper grinder, one of those huge ones they use in restaurants, and some salt, then..."

They walked off, laughing about his idea. It seemed plausible, so she put it on the list of things to look into.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Hearing the back door open then close, Danny got up from the sofa to meet his daughter in the hallway. She smiled at him and hugged him. "I'm so glad you're safe, Dad," she whispered. "I was so angry when I saw what was happening. I wanted to drop on his head and rip him to pieces, but I didn't want to risk other people getting hurt. Sorry about your guys getting injured."

"It's fine, dear, no one was badly injured, not even the E88 idiots. All our people are fine, the worst injury was a broken leg and it's not a bad break. But if you hadn't been there it would have been very bad. Thanks for saving us all."

"Any time, Dad, you know that. I'm happy to help. And it was kind of fun, actually. You should have seen Hookwolf's face when I let go and dropped him in the water the first time. He couldn't believe what I was going to do."

She giggled, as Danny laughed, picturing the scene. "Couldn't have happened to a more deserving bastard. Hopefully he won't be back."

"I doubt it," she replied with a grin. "He seemed sincere when he promised to keep out of the Docks. If he does come back, well, I know some very deep water not that far away."

"That's only marginally better than threatening to eat him, dear," Danny protested mildly, both of them going back into the living room. "Your friend is a bad influence in some ways."

"No, he isn't," she smiled, "and you don't really think so."

"Not really, no," he agreed. "So, tell me about it. What happened?"

She went over the whole thing, making him grin for most of it and laugh out loud during parts. When she came to the mysterious observer, though, she frowned.

"I'm not sure yet what to do about it. That guy won't be back. I told him to run and keep running, and if I ever saw, heard, or smelled him anywhere near Brockton Bay I'd do something to him that would make Jack Slash throw up. I think he believed me, his heart nearly stopped. But the man he worked for is still out there."

"I'm surprised about who it is," Danny mused. "Not quite the name I expected."

"No. I think I can probably drop him in it with a little work, but I'm going to have to think about it," she commented. "One way or the other, though, I'm going to make sure he stops poking around." Taylor held up a memory card. "I took this out of that guys camera, then destroyed the thing and threw it in the bay. I got his phone as well and pulled out the battery and sim card. It might come in handy."

"You're becoming very devious, dear," he smiled. "I wonder how much is you and how much is your large friend?"

"Fifty fifty, I think." Taylor grinned. "We take turns."

"Fair enough. OK, I need a late dinner then bed. Do you want something as well?"

"Sure. We have some frozen pizzas in the fridge, that should do it."

Nodding, he got up and went with her into the kitchen, both of them soon eating and talking. Overall, he was pretty pleased with the day.

"A hell of a dramatic intro for your combat form," he said as they finished. "So are you going to use it in public more now?"

"Probably, yes," she replied with a nod. "There's only one problem with that."

"Which is?"

"I still can't think of a good name, damn it!"

He was still laughing as he went up to bed.

Welcome to the Parahumans Online message boards.
You are currently logged in, AllSeeingEye
You are viewing:
• Threads you have replied to
• AND Threads that have new replies
• OR private message conversations with new replies
• Thread OP is displayed.
• Ten posts per page
• Last ten messages in private message history.
• Threads and private messages are ordered chronologically.
You have five infractions and four warnings.

♦ Topic: New Cape in BB
In: Boards ► Places ► America ► Brockton Bay
Bagrat (Original Poster) (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)
Posted On Jan 25th 2011:

Last night, a new cape debuted here in Brockton Bay. Nothing new there, I hear you shout, it happens way more often here than you'd think was likely, although admittedly it's normally a villain.

This time, though, it's a hero, and she's a lizard.

You read that right.

A lizard.

Six and a half feet tall, bipedal, long tail, sharp teeth, scales...

She sounds like a Case 53, but according to people who have talked to her, claims not to be. BBPD officers were the first to meet her, she intervened in a firefight between four of the city's finest and six E88 who were robbing a warehouse. Apparently, she shut it down in seconds.

Just walked in, turned the lights out, and did... something. Cue lots of shooting and screaming, then ominous silence. Only about two minutes later she was coming out carrying an unconscious gang member.

She brought all of them out more or less undamaged, as well as a huge bag of guns and even a grenade launcher of all things, then stayed to talk to the cops for a while, gave her report, and wandered off.

We're told by eye witnesses that she completely tanked both hand gun and AK-47 rounds, without even apparently noticing! High level Brute for sure, at the least. She also somehow produced, or had with her, handcuffs or manacles which she used on all the suspects. Sources at the BBPD lockup say that they were totally unable to remove these, even Armsmaster couldn't do it, but an hour later they disappeared! After the fact, the cops who talked to her reported she'd told them that would happen but apparently no one at the station got the memo.

So, what does everyone think?

I'm looking for video and photos of the new Cape, and a name. Anyone?

Edit: I've just heard that she gave her name as Saurial. Apparently she was seen shortly afterwards talking to Vista and Gallant on the roof of the Atlantic Street Bank of America branch for a while, then left, running across the rooftops faster than most people can drive around the city. Jumping over the streets as well, not to mention climbing walls like she was out for a stroll.

Looks like a decent Mover rating as well.

Any Wards want to chime in?

Edit 2: In the last few days, Saurial has been seen just walking around in the Downtown area, mainly, although she's also been spotted in a few other places, with no apparent set route. She likes eggs.

Raw.

Several people have seen her go into various shops, buy eggs by the carton, then wander off eating them shells and all. She's polite if anyone talks to her, apparently not at all self conscious, and very helpful. One report I heard was that she helped an old woman change a car tire, by unscrewing the lug nuts with her fingers!

That takes a lot of strength. Glory Girl or better at least.

Still hoping for input from other people who have had interactions with her.

Edit 3:

Some pictures and video of Saurial in action here, here, and here.

More here.


(Showing page 12 of 48)


End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 ... 46, 47, 48

(Showing page 13 of 48)


End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 ... 46, 47, 48

(Showing page 14 of 48)


End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 ... 46, 47, 48

(Showing page 15 of 48)


End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 ... 46, 47, 48



♦ Topic: There's another one!!
In: Boards ► Places ► America ► Brockton Bay
Bladeworksfan (Original Poster) (Kyushu Survivor)
Posted On Feb 4th 2011:

Oh. My. God!

You thought Saurial, our new lizard girl hero, was a little scary?

Watch this.

What the fuck??

I mean… WHAT THE FUCK?

I saw this thing come down the street chasing HOOKWOLF of all people, and man he looked SCARED! I mean, he was running for his life. He got it a few times but it didn't do anything but make it laugh at him.

Look at the size of that fucking hammer! It was at least eight feet long, the head must have been about two feet across. God knows how much it weighed. But look what happens when that thing hit him with it! He went about a hundred feet!

She, and I'm pretty sure it's female, was at least eight feet tall, and on four legs was probably nearly twelve to fifteen feet long to the end of her tail. A reptile, like Saurial, but Saurial is sort of cool looking in a slightly weird way.

This thing is just fucking terrifying…

I can't believe how fast it is either, nothing that big should be that quick. And strong?

Watch at 1:05 in the video, she slapped him completely through that old truck with her tail like it was made of cardboard.

I was hiding in a building holding my phone above the windowsill so she didn't see me, so sorry for the quality of the video, but I didn't want to draw her attention.

What's going on around here? Two reptilian capes in two weeks? What next? Where did this one come from, what did it want (aside from Hookwolf's nads on a stick) and where did it go?

Hero?

Villain?

Something else?


(Showing page 2 of 30)


End of Page. 1, 2, 3, 4 ... 28, 29, 30

(Showing page 3 of 30)


End of Page. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ... 28, 29, 30

(Showing page 4 of 30)


End of Page. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 ... 28, 29, 30

(Showing page 5 of 30)


End of Page. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 ... 28, 29, 30

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Lisa turned her laptop off and lay back in bed, shivering.

It took her a long time to manage to get to sleep.

π

Twitching a little at the cry of "Bullshit!", Amy sighed and raised her head from her pillow where she'd been happily reading a pretty good Niven SF book, idly wondering if her sister had been taking lessons from Dennis. Moments later Vicky charged in, holding the expensive tablet she'd talked Dean into buying her a couple of months ago, waving it around with a pale face. "There are two of them now!" her sister moaned.

"Two of who?" Amy, quite reasonably, asked calmly but with a certain amount of irritation in her voice. "Or two of what?"

"Two of… I don't know. Two fucking terrifying scaly things," Vicky gibbered, thrusting the tablet under her sister's nose. Amy took it from her, looking curiously at it, while Vicky sat on the end of her bed and stared out the window into the night, appearing worried and shivering slightly.

Finding the beginning of the PHO thread the brunette girl read it with growing interest and a certain amount of black humor. She had a pretty good idea of the actual truth behind this 'Raptaur', which she had to admit was a good name. Seeing the new reptilian cape deal with Hookwolf like he was a fairly minor irritant was eye-opening, and made it abundantly clear how unwise her impulsive confronting of Taylor Hebert at school really had been.

She was pretty sure this was Taylor, and she knew Saurial was. It opened the question of what else that girl could actually do. What she'd seen of her, and there was no way around the description, alien biology left her none the wiser, her power had no clue about it beyond telling her with a whimper that she was compatible with human biology, then going off and lying down in a dark room with a damp cloth over its eyes for a while to recover.

'I need to get to know her better,' she mused, not saying anything as she flicked through the various photos on PHO of Raptaur, a couple of which were startlingly clear. 'She's not boring, that's for sure.'

Although, that said, she was going to have to be a little more careful about how she approached the girl. It was apparent from the last video that she'd been very, very lucky not to have had something horrible happen to her. 'Be extremely careful not to threaten her family or friends,' Amy thought with a slight shudder as she watched Raptaur manifest a sword big enough to double as a street sign then cut several things in half with it with no visible effort or trouble. It was clear to her that the girl was being very cautious in her actions to avoid killing Hookwolf, which she could clearly manage without too much effort.

She wondered if the other cape realized how close he'd come to dying?

"What the hell is going on around here, Ames?" Vicky asked in a tone of helpless confusion. "Saurial was bad enough. This… this… Raptaur thing… it's a hell of a lot worse."

"I think you should refer to her as her, not a thing," Amy replied, still reading. "That's what got you in trouble last time."

"Sorry, yes, I know, but it's sort of a shock," Vicky replied after a moment. "But look at her! Saurial is terrifying. This one… I can't even think of a suitable word. And she might live in the Bay? I'll never be able to get on a boat again, without thinking about what might be coming up from underneath."

Snickering, Amy began humming the 'Jaws' theme to herself, making Vicky growl at her, scowling.

"Your sense of humor makes Dennis' look normal, Ames," she muttered darkly.

Amy just laughed. "Hey, did you see this bit about some old fisherman claiming there's bigger ones out there in the water?" she asked mischievously. "Much, much bigger, if his description of the Hand of Doom is accurate." She slowly lifted her right hand towards her sister, making a claw with it then moving it in little grabby motions. "Sooo big. Big enough to pick up a bus and crush it in its grip. So large it could..."

"Stop that, you idiot," Vicky snapped, paling a little. Amy giggled and retracted her hand, flipping through the pages and pages of thread on the new cape. "I'm serious, I'm not going near the water again. I'm not sure I'll even get into a swimming pool from now on."

"I doubt she's going to come up through the pipes, Vicky," Amy chuckled. Handing the tablet back to her sister, she added, "If you meet her, you should probably be more polite than last time. And if you want to pick a fight for stress relief, for god's sake find someone safer. I'd suggest Hookwolf, but he seems to have had a bad day."

"Why I came to you for sympathy I have no idea, sis," the blonde snapped, retrieving her tablet and flouncing out, making Amy laugh again. Shaking her head she lay back, folding her hands on her stomach and thinking about what she'd read with a sense of wonder and mild shock.

'You, Taylor Hebert, are sort of impressive,' she thought to herself, smiling slightly. 'I wonder what more you can do? Are you really swimming around in the bay the size of a blue whale?'

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

"As Vicky says, fuck me sideways," Dean whispered, watching the video with the rest of the Wards currently on duty, which were Dennis, Carlos, and Sophia. The latter was gaping in total shock, while Dennis was making little choking sounds deep in his chest. Carlos simply stared.

"That's… unbelievably horrifying," their leader finally said when the first video ended. Dean reached out with a shaking hand and moved the mouse, clicking on the next one.

"I think I prefer Saurial," Dennis quavered. "She's terrifying in a way but friendly and sort of cute when you get used to her. This one… I don't think cute is a word I'd ever use."

Sophia made a strange sound, causing them all to look at her curiously, but said nothing, her eyes wide and fixed on the large screen of the rec room TV which was playing the PHO videos.

"Not really, no," Carlos agreed after a moment, going back to the screen. "I hope to god this one is friendly too, because if not we've got some serious problems."

"Where are they all coming from?" Dennis asked in a low voice, before wincing despite himself at the impact the enormous metal warhammer made with Hookwolf, lifting him into the air with no effort at all.

Dean had a very good idea, but was damn sure not going to drop himself into it. Getting between Taylor Hebert/Saurial/Whatever the fuck this was and the PRT was something he desperately wanted to stay well away from. He wished to god his power had never let him work out the connection, he'd have slept a lot better.

Shaking his head, Dennis picked up his laptop and began reading the thread on the new cape, writing a couple of responses. "Piggot is going to go purple when she sees this," he snickered after a while, his shock fading a little. They all looked at him, then at each other. Even Sophia seemed amused by the thought.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Max Anders, known to the world as Kaiser, watched the video, then looked up at the man who had brought this to his attention. "What the FUCK did Brad think he was doing?" he exploded. "Why was he attacking the DWU?"

Victor shrugged. "I have no idea. I only just found out about it. I know he's been going around shouting about Saurial, she's jumped a couple of dozen of his people, but they're mainly idiots he's had running low level robberies and that type of thing. No one who we can't easily replace. Why he suddenly took over two dozen foot soldiers and attacked the DWU I haven't got a clue."

Max, furious, got up from his desk and paced back and forth in his office. "Stupid bastard! I ordered him to wait, we need more information on this Saurial cape before we do anything. She's much too dangerous, obviously, to just grab. We need to be careful. And now the fucker has apparently attacked people she has some sort of relationship with? Idiot."

"I wonder what that relationship is?" Victor asked curiously.

"No idea, but the DWU aren't people to mess around with. If we need to hit them, we go in hard, not pussy around with only two dozen street fighters and one cape, even if that cape is Hookwolf. There are over three hundred of them even now and they fight dirty. There's a good reason Allfather warned about taking them lightly. Marquis was wary of them as well. Back in their day there were over a thousand men and women in the DWU, true, but even now they have enough people to be… a difficult challenge. One I am not ready to take on. My plans don't include fighting on that front as well right now."

Max clenched his fists, breathing hard, as he ran out of steam.

"Brad has made things difficult for us. Get him out of the PRTs hands and bring him to me. We need to talk. A lot."

"Yes, Kaiser," Victor replied, picking the laptop off the E88 leader's desk and closing it. "It will probably be best to wait until they transfer him, I'd expect that security is very tight at the moment in the PRT building."

"Do what you need to, but I want to see that bastard standing where you are as soon as possible," Max growled, returning to his seat. "And find out who gave him his information that Saurial was at the DWU in the first place. It seems a little too much of a stretch that he came up with that idea himself."

His subordinate merely nodded, before leaving the office. Pouring himself a stiff drink, Max fumed. Some people needed the stupid beaten out of them more often, he thought, sipping the whiskey and scowling.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Hannah turned the tablet off and put it down on Emily's coffee table, both women staring at each other. The latter was a funny pale green color and looked sufficiently unhealthy that the former was somewhat worried even under the circumstances. Eventually she said, "That was posted to PHO about two hours ago. One of the DWU people videoed the start of the fight… no, the beating… that this new one handed out to Hookwolf, at least two other people caught parts of it, and another DWU member recorded the end when she turned up and handed him over to us. Someone else edited them all together into what you just saw."

Emily didn't respond for some seconds.

"They're calling her Raptaur on PHO at the moment. Sort of a play on words, combining Raptor and Centaur. It fits to a degree. She didn't give a name, but seemed to be on very good terms with Danny Hebert and the DWU, polite and friendly, and they reciprocated. Apparently Saurial sent her in her place when they called for help."

"There really are two of them?" Emily whispered in horror.

"It would appear so, yes. Admittedly we haven't seen both the new one and Saurial at the same time in the same place, but the Wards reported contact with Saurial only minutes later several miles away. We know she's fast, but it seems unlikely, especially since Raptaur seems to have exited the scene via the water. In a straight line between the two locations, she'd have had to swim at least two miles in under four minutes then run another three in even less time to make the time lines match, which is considerably outside the abilities we know she has. Not to mention there are no reports of any sightings of her outside the Downtown area. So if she was a sufficiently versatile Changer to be both Saurial and Raptaur, it would also require a huge update to her ratings. The simpler but much more worrying explanation is that there are two of them."

Hannah sighed slightly. "They might even play on the concept of making sure they never get seen together, just to mess with us. Saurial is known to have a somewhat… puckish… sense of humor, and it might strike her as funny to ensure that we can't be completely certain one way or the other. I'm sure Clockblocker would do the same thing under the circumstances and she reminds me a lot of a far more dangerous version of him in some ways."

"This… Raptaur… beat Hookwolf? That easily?"

"She absolutely destroyed him, and looking at the video it wasn't difficult. She was obviously holding back. I have no doubt having met her that she could have killed him without any real trouble. Just by drowning him if nothing else. It's highly likely that she can either breathe underwater, or hold her breath for a very long time, like many reptiles can. She also exhibited a considerably more ruthless outlook on life than Saurial, not showing any remorse at all at how she 'persuaded' Hookwolf to stay away in future. And believe me, she persuaded him. He was still shaking an hour later. I'm almost sorry for the bastard."

"What message did she give him to give to Kaiser?" Emily asked after absorbing all this, her color coming back slightly closer to normal. "You said she said something about that."

"I don't know, he refuses to say. I would imagine it was probably something along the lines of keep the E88 away from the DWU, though, based on what I heard. She seemed fairly serious about it. The last thing she told Hookwolf was that if she ever saw him there again, basically that would be the last time anyone saw him anywhere. I don't think she was joking." Hannah sighed. "She essentially told him that she'd kill him the next time, and he believed her. So did I."

The PRT director sighed heavily, leaning back in her chair with a wince. "It looks like your wild theory isn't quite as wild as either of us would like."

"That would seem to be the case, Director. Unfortunately."

"And she has the same Shaker ability as Saurial?"

"As far as I could see, yes. The restraints that Hookwolf still has on his wrists and neck are definitely the same material, this Saurialsteel that Armsmaster is so fascinated by. He's been studying the manacles ever since we got Hookwolf back, trying everything he can think of to determine what they are, so far without any luck."

"They haven't disappeared like they normally do?"

"Not so far. Saurial's restraints seem to generally have a lifetime of an hour or so, these have been present for more than three at the moment. Hopefully they're not permanent." Hannah shrugged. "We don't know, and without finding Raptaur, we probably can't find out. Or perhaps Saurial could tell us, I've left instructions for anyone who meets her to ask."

Blowing out a long breath, Emily sagged in her chair, looking tired and in pain. "Jesus. This could turn into an absolute nightmare." Lifting her eyes she looked at her guest. "What would you put this Raptaur's ratings at? Just to humor me."

Hannah sighed slightly. "Difficult. Basically the same as Saurial, but higher except in the possible Shaker rating and perhaps the Thinker rating as well. Brute 7 or 8, at least. That hammer she was waving around at the beginning, the one she knocked Hookwolf about two hundred yards with in one hit, based on the density of the material and the estimated size, it weighed a minimum of a couple of tons. She didn't show any signs of effort lifting it or wielding it. The sword she was shown using later would have weighed nearly a ton based on the same estimates and she was swinging it fast enough to create shock waves judging by the audio track of the recording. Even with the length increasing the effective velocity of the tip, that would take absolutely unbelievable strength. The lamp post and car she cut accidentally with it showed completely clean edges, like an energy weapon of some sort had been used, but with no melting. Colin has both of them back at the Rig as well now."

Emily had paled again although she didn't look quite so ill.

"The speed and acceleration she demonstrated when she left were also significantly higher than we've seen so far from Saurial. Probably Mover 5 plus. I'd estimate from that very brief showing that she accelerated from a standing start to close to eighty miles an hour in under a second then kept going. She probably made it a good hundred yards out into the bay in a dive. Other than that, we don't have any idea, only estimates and guesses."

"God. This could be bad." Emily rubbed her forehead between her eyes. "Can you think of anything else that could explain it?"

"Yes, but they rapidly get unlikely if not absurd." Hannah shrugged. "Something like the Butcher would possibly explain the two different but similar emotional patterns Gallant reported. But on the one hand we don't know yet if Raptaur has the same thing going on, and on the other it leaves the question of their origin open. I think it still probably requires a Biotinker. The original idea that Saurial is among other things a versatile, or based on tonight's events, very versatile Changer, is still possible. But that leaves the twin emotional outputs up in the air, with no obvious solution."

She took a drink from the glass of water sitting next to her elbow, then went on. "The idea that both Saurial and Raptaur are individuals created by a purported Biotinker/Master seems in many ways the simplest albeit most worrying solution to the conundrum. We known it can be and has been done, after all, in more than one case. It still leaves the matter creation power as a problem, but I think that's less difficult to explain than the emotional outputs in this case. A technological method that replicates the effect of a Shaker power, an artificially induced Shaker power, even a Shaker working with the Biotinker somehow. It's still confusing and messy but slightly less confusing and messy than most of the other options I can think of."

"I really wish I could say you're wrong but I have to agree it fits the observations unpleasantly well," Emily finally replied after thinking it over, her expression dark. "I'd certainly prefer the original concept of Saurial simply being a ridiculously overpowered grab bag cape. Far less to worry about from that point of view."

"That could still be the case," Hannah responded. "Or it might be something neither one of us has considered at all. Powers are both complicated and odd."

"True." Shifting uncomfortably in her chair, Emily sighed then winced a little, again. "The question is, what do we do about it?"

"I'm not sure. To be honest, both of them, or her if it really is only one of them, seem to be of a somewhat unusual type of heroic disposition rather than anything else, which is very lucky. I'd be extremely worried if anyone even close to Saurial's level was a villain, never mind Raptaur. Both would be an absolute nightmare to fight, the latter quite possibly not far off Lung in that respect. But so far they both seem to be basically law-abiding and polite, if rather… enthusiastic… in the latter case."

This made the director pale again. "You really think she's as dangerous as Lung?"

"I don't know for sure, but her obvious strength and speed put her at a very rarefied Brute level even based on the small amount of information we actually have so far," Hannah told her seriously. "It's entirely possible, and even likely, that she wasn't anywhere near her real limits in that fight. She didn't seem too worried about the outcome of it, after all, and Hookwolf is not exactly an easy opponent at the best of times."

"This just gets better and better the more you tell me," Emily griped.

"Sorry, Director, I don't mean to worry you but I thought you should be kept up to date." Hannah appeared a little embarrassed.

Emily motioned with a hand dismissively. "Don't worry about it, Hannah. You did the right thing researching this in the first place and bringing it to me. It's our job to be aware of new Capes and their abilities and motivation." She pondered the issue for a few seconds.

"So, independent heroes, more or less, but not like anything we're familiar with. Powerful enough to make it very dangerous for any gang to try to recruit them, I guess."

Hannah smiled. "Oh, I doubt very much indeed that an attempt by the E88 or ABB, or Merchants for that matter, to persuade either of them to join up with a gang would result in anything but total chaos and probably humiliating defeat. I'm sure that neither one is unbeatable, but at the same time I'm not sure at the moment just how you'd go about doing that. Raptaur especially gave me the feeling that she'd deal with a problem of that nature permanently, Rules or no Rules."

"That's… worrying," Emily replied slowly.

"I suspect it would take more than attacking them personally. Saurial has already shown remarkable restraint in the Merchant sniper case. That was as good a reason to use lethal force as anything I've seen before but she merely subdued him. But I also think that going after their families, or what they think are their families, or for that matter anyone they felt protective of, would be a terminally stupid move for someone like Kaiser to do." Hannah looked just a little amused. "Not that that actually means he won't try, of course."

"He's not going to take Hookwolf's loss lightly, certainly," the director agreed. "I hope he doesn't do something stupid."

Her guest shrugged. "We can only wait and see. I don't think that warning him off would help."

"No, probably not. Damn it all. I don't want a gang war, we have enough troubles already." Emily thought for a while. "OK. The other big question is, who the hell is the Biotinker, assuming we're right? And why are both Saurial and Raptaur apparently so tight with the DWU? What's the connection?"

Hannah looked a little uncertain for a second or two. "I did have one somewhat worrying thought, which was that the Biotinker might be Danny Hebert."

Emily stared, then got a thoughtful expression. "That's… not entirely ridiculous," she began slowly. "But… both of them, including programming all the fighting skills, in only about a month? Assuming he triggered during that mess with his daughter."

"That's why I don't think it's particularly likely although it's not completely impossible," Hannah said. "If it was him, and he'd triggered for example at the time of his wife's death, which would be the best other event I'm aware of, that would give more than enough time to build up to this point, but that also gives us the problem that it's too long ago. Why would there be no signs at all until only this last month?" She shook her head. "No, I don't really think it's him. It would neatly explain the DWU link, though. Unfortunately, I believe we'll have to look elsewhere. Someone who triggered probably about six to nine months ago, which from my research would seem to be the amount of time needed to construct life forms of the level of Saurial and this new one."

"Another DWU member, probably, then," Emily sighed. "Not that it does us much good at the moment. Those people aren't going to give up one of their own, not without a fight. They stick together like glue these days. They'd back Danny Hebert up without a second thought and I suspect he'd return the favor. If he really is somehow involved with or friends with Saurial and Raptaur, they even have cape support as well. Very serious cape support."

"The attack by the E88 on them will have reinforced that group strength as well," Hannah noted. "Combat against a shared enemy, especially successful combat, tends to boost loyalty and feelings of comradeship a lot."

"Also true," Emily replied. "And if it happens again with similar results, that all gets even stronger. Which could result in some very strange political changes around here."

She shook her head. "This is potentially a real mess." Hannah merely nodded.

"All right. Keep an eye on the situation, add it to the report, and we'll wait and see if anything else happens," Emily went on after a few seconds. "That's about all we can do right now anyway. Unless she, or they, go completely off the reservation we don't have much cause to do anything more than watch."

"What do you want to do if more of them turn up?" Hannah asked after another nod of understanding. Emily went somewhat pale again at the idea.

"Please don't say things like that, Hannah, my heart can't take it. I hope to god he or she stops at two. That's more than enough."

The other woman merely looked at her.

"Shit."

After some time, Emily shook her head tiredly. "I can't think any more about this tonight. I had enough trouble going to sleep the first time. I'm going to bed, and I hope I wake up in a Brockton Bay not overrun with reptilian superheroes. Or whatever the hell they are." She got up with a grunt of effort, heading towards the door, where she let Hannah out. "I'll see you tomorrow. Keep me updated."

"Good night, Director," the cape said politely, then headed for her motorcycle, while Emily closed the door and leaned on it for a moment or two, then slowly walked to her bedroom, trying not to remember things that happened years ago.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Armsmaster entered the PRT holding cell for the sixth time in the last hour, a PRT trooper turning off the force-field door, then reactivating it when he was inside. Two more troopers were observing alertly, each armed with containment foam sprayers. The heroic Tinker was holding yet another odd looking device, this one a sort of gun-like mechanism with a thick cable coming from the back end, which led to an obviously heavy secondary unit like a large toolbox which had a number of blinking lights on it. The muzzle end of the thing ended in a tapered point, the extreme end of which was glowing a faint purple color.

"What the hell is that?" Brad asked warily, staring at it.

"It's a valency cutter. It directly disassociates atomic bonds. In theory it will cut anything. Very short range but efficient," Armsmaster remarked absently, fiddling with the gun part of the device. He adjusted a control on the side of it, then looked thoughtfully at the restraints the E88 cape still had his hands attached to the back of his neck with. "Maximum output, I think," he muttered, rotating the control all the way around. The purple glow grew considerably stronger and there was now an ominous hum making the room vibrate a little.

Brad leaned away, as far as he could get in the cell while still sitting on the cot along one side. "Hey. Be careful with that thing!"

"Just hold still, please." Armsmaster seemed fairly uninterested in the objection, merely moving to a point he could aim the cutter at the flexible cable linking the left wrist cuff to the collar. "If you move, you'll lose your hand."

"Fuck," the other cape grumbled, but held very still indeed. Placing the glowing tip on the cable, Armsmaster pulled the large trigger, which made the hum wind up to a shriek. Brad flinched but manfully kept his hand still.

After nearly thirty seconds, the Tinker released the trigger, removed the device from the cable, then leaned closer to inspect the end result.

Which was, as Brad had more than half expected based on the last five attempts, absolutely nothing.

"Not even a mark," Armsmaster sighed. "Yet another failure and yet another impossibility." After a moment, rather pointlessly but just to be sure, he tried again in a different place, with exactly the same lack of effect.

"That implies there are either no atomic bonds at all, or they've somehow been enhanced to incredible levels," he mused, putting the device on the floor and rubbing his chin thoughtfully, staring at the cable from inches away. "Fascinating."

"It might be interesting to you but all I want to know is can you get these fucking things off or not?" the bound man demanded.

"No."

"Fuck."

"All we can do is either wait until they vanish, as Saurial's equivalents do, or locate the new cape and ask her to remove them. Or possibly Saurial could do it." Picking the cutter unit and its power supply up, Armsmaster stood, inspecting the restraints for a moment more, then turned and left without another word, the PRT trooper letting him out.

Watching him go Brad shook his head, muttered under his breath something about fucking Tinkers, then did his best to make himself as comfortable as he could with his arms attached to the back of his neck by less than a foot of cable.

He wasn't happy, but he was at least alive, and hopefully safe from insane reptiles that dropped you in the bay for fun.

And he was damn certain he was never going anywhere near the DWU again as long as he lived.

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Giggling to herself Taylor read the thread on PHO, shaking her head a little. "Raptaur's not bad, actually," she commented out loud.

"It would seem somewhat appropriate," the Varga snickered. "Although it would also seem that we were actually seen when you were experimenting with the tanker. Some of these rumors are… very amusing."

"I'm going to have to keep referring to my big sister now, though," she laughed. "And hinting at the rest of the family wanting to come on shore to play, but everything being too small and fragile. I wonder how long I could keep that going for?"

"Probably some time, although I expect that about the point that your father's plan begins, people may well start to wonder." The Varga thought for a moment then mentally shrugged. "Or perhaps not. It's been my experience that once humans get an idea into their heads they tend to stick with it until real proof of it being wrong is presented to them. Sometimes not even that works."

Grinning, she shook her head, clicking through to the next page. "It'll be some work but it could be really funny." When they'd caught up with the storm of peculiar comments that had built up overnight, she closed the laptop and put it back in her bedside table, yawning widely, before getting up. It was only about half past six in the morning but she wanted to get an early start with practicing distance weapon work in the ships graveyard, then go shopping for a few things.

She wanted to get a good waterproof GPS unit with world maps at decent resolution, for navigation when she went on her little expedition, which she was planning on doing late that night with an eye towards coming back on Sunday some time. Both of them were curious to find out how fast they could actually travel underwater in the larger aquatic combat form variant.

It would be easy to protect her equipment underwater, and keep it dry, with appropriate Varga-provided containers, no matter how deep she went. But she'd still have to surface to use it and it would probably get wet then, so it needed to be waterproof. And have a good battery life.

Hopping out of bed she quickly showered and brushed her teeth, before heading downstairs, to find her father sitting at the kitchen table with some papers and a cup of coffee, drinking the latter while studying the former, a look of concentration on his face. He looked up at her as she came in and smiled.

"You're up early, dear," he noted. "You do know it's the weekend, don't you? No school today." He grinned as she rolled her eyes, sitting down across from him.

"Yes, I know it's Saturday, Dad. Thanks." Picking an apple out of the bowl of them on the table, she bit into it with a crunch, then chewed and swallowed. "I'm going up to the Graveyard for some practice for a couple of hours, then shopping, then I'm not sure what else. Maybe wander around downtown for a while."

"As Saurial or Raptaur?" he asked, an amused look on his face.

"Oh. You saw it," she replied, snickering.

"Yes. You seem to have caused a certain amount of consternation to the good people of PHO, dear," he laughed. "Some of them seemed a bit worked up for some reason."

"They're going to lose it completely when they see me pull that ship," she giggled, making him shake his head, smiling.

"Do you have a name for the really big one yet?" he asked.

She nodded. "That one was easy. Kaiju. The big sister, but not as big as the really big sister."

Laughing, he listened to her thoughts on going along with the PHO theories and gently pushing the idea of a whole family of steadily larger reptilian creatures living in the bay. "And what do you call the ultimate version, then?"

"Varga, of course," she snickered. Looking around carefully, she leaned in. "He's the one the others are worried about. He's dangerous."

"Whereas the others are safe?"

She rocked her hand from side to side. "More or less. Comparatively, at least."

Her mischievous expression made him roar with laughter. "You do realize, of course, that you won't be able to keep it up forever?" he asked when he calmed down. "After all, you can only be in one place at a time. Sooner or later that alone will make people wonder."

Taylor shrugged, still smiling. "They just say that the family doesn't like more than one going out at a time, in case of trouble at home."

Snickering, he watched her with an affectionate look. "Don't overdo it, dear, but I have to admit that's pretty funny." Putting the papers down he stood, moving to start breakfast for both of them.

"Do you think the E88 will cause any more problems for you now?" she asked after a moment or two, while he started mixing some pancake batter. Her father looked at her for a couple of seconds, then sighed with a small shrug.

"I'd love to say I didn't think so, but I can't," he admitted. "Oh, I'm fairly sure we won't see Hookwolf again, he seemed extremely intimidated. Not surprisingly. But we can't guarantee that Kaiser and the rest of his people will listen to your message. I'd expect it will certainly slow them down if they had anything planned, but..." He shrugged again. "Difficult to know for sure."

"Just call me if it happens again," she told him after thinking it over. "I meant what I said. I'll do anything I need to to protect you, and to be honest the rest of the DWU as well. I know how much they mean to you, I like them as well. Everyone I've met there seemed nice and I don't want to see them hurt. E88, ABB, Merchants… I don't care, I'll deal with it."

"We have some very good people in the Union," he agreed with a smile, adjusting the stove and putting the pan on it, then adding oil carefully. "I have to say I was both impressed and pleased how much they seem to like you already. Surprised, definitely, but they seem to enjoy having a friendly cape. Even one who looks as terrifying as Raptaur." He grinned over his shoulder at her, while she laughed slightly.

"Mind you, I expect that if the plan goes ahead there may be a certain amount of confusion when… Kaiju… shows up."

"Do you think they'll keep the secret that Saurial and Raptaur are the same person?" she asked curiously.

He nodded, pouring some batter into the pan. "Actually, yes, I do. It's something that I suspect everyone in the Union who knows about it will think is Union business and not something for outsiders to be concerned with. We have our own little secrets like any largeish organization and we tend to keep them. People will find out eventually but I doubt it will come from inside the DWU."

"Good. I'm glad you can trust them." Taylor smiled, accepting the first pancakes he handed her. Soon they were both eating and talking about various things to do over the next week or so.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Moaning a little to herself, Lisa decided that it was already a horrible day and it had only just started. She'd been reading the rest of the unsettling PHO thread about the thing they'd encountered, which the online community was now referring to as Raptaur, while lying on her bed at the Undersider's base. Trying to use her power to extract more information had been a bad mistake. Again.

She waited for the probably unsafe number of ibuprofen tablets she'd just swallowed to do something useful, her eyes shut and her hands massaging her temples. 'What the hell is going on?' she wondered. 'Why does my power have such trouble with Saurial, and this new one, and for that matter that girl I saw in the mall?' The sensation she'd had observing the huge reptile as it smashed Hookwolf around like a golf ball in a blender was the same as the girl had engendered, only worse.

There had been the same mental static, like her power was gaping with an open mouth and possibly dribbling a little, accompanied by a definite feeling of something wildly larger than herself watching with amusement and some disapproval. That last part was the worst thing about it. She'd felt like a bug under a microscope for a moment and had absolutely no idea why.

The obvious conclusion was that the girl she'd seen was somehow connected to the giant lizard in some way. A wild idea crossed her mind, causing her to sit up, then wince. 'A Changer? It… might fit. But why all the interference? And where does Saurial come into the picture?'

She hadn't yet encountered the other reptilian cape but was suddenly wondering if she'd get the same effect. The way that she seemed unable to derive any inferences about the lizard-girl directly tended to point that way, although she was able to get some useful information by thinking around the subject, not right at it. The conclusions she'd come to had made her decide it would be unwise to get involved, the girl was nothing if not very dangerous.

The new one was much, much worse, based on what she and the others had seen.

Her thoughts kept worrying over the concept of that girl in the mall actually being the new reptilian creature, which the more she thought about it the more she thought could possibly be the case. It would explain the more or less identical problems she was encountering.

If Saurial produced the same effect as well… That could show something interesting. Or terrifying. Or both.

A Changer that could go from apparently completely normal human girl through Saurial to end up as that eight foot tall monstrosity, that was bad enough. But she suddenly wondered, paling a little, 'If she can do that… What are her real limits?'

That thought made her shiver again.

She lay back down and draped her arm across her eyes, trying vainly to turn her brain off for a while.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Taylor looked around as she prowled through the far north section of the ship graveyard, inspecting the wrecks surrounding her on the foreshore and extending quite a distance into the shallow water. The sun was beginning to rise and it looked like it would be a nice day, albeit fairly cold since it was still early February.

Lifting one foot she shook mud from her talons, looking down with a frown. This particular area was very sticky and wet, more marshland than beach, with scrubby plants growing up through the scrap metal which was slowly sinking into it. Water gurgled around her other foot, filling in the depression she'd left quite fast. Looking over her shoulder she could see a line of small puddles where she'd walked that were slowly slumping back into the mud.

Deciding that it was too mucky here, she headed off to the right, fastidiously keeping her tail well out of the mud. The eight-foot tall combat form was pretty heavy after all and she was sinking in over a foot, whereas in her base form she'd probably have only left light footprints.

When she arrived on harder, sandy ground near the waterline, she flicked as much mud off her feet as she could, then waded in the shallow water for a few minutes while she looked for a good target. Eventually she decided on the remains of some sort of small cargo ship, probably only about eighty feet long or so, which had sunk stern down into the sea a few hundred feet from shore.

She'd remembered to ask her father what the ends of a ship were called, making him laugh when she told him what she thought of them as.

Grinning at the memory, she inspected the old ship from under the water, seeing it was entirely wrecked. A significant part of the engine room was missing, looking like it was the result of a large explosion, judging by the way the steel hull was peeled open and out like something inside had pushed through it. Tapping it she found the remaining metal was fairly sound, although very rusty.

'This should do nicely,' she commented, peering up through the somewhat cloudy water. It was a falling tide and there was about twenty feet of bow sticking out of the sea.

"Yes, I think so too, Brain. Assuming you can actually hit it, of course." The Varga snickered at her mental snort.

'I'll hit it. Eventually.' Smiling, Taylor swam back to shallow water and waded out onto the beach, shaking herself dry like a dog. She hadn't bothered with the armor at this point, only having a belt with a couple of waterproof pouches containing her Taylor phone, her Saurial one, and a spare burner phone she was going to use for her Raptaur identity.

She'd decided she quite liked that name and was going to use it.

Studying the ship in the distance, she idly juggled the throwing dart that formed in her right hand, then aimed. With a hard heave she released the thing, then watched with embarrassment as it whistled off into the distance, clearing the target by a substantial margin and vanishing into the slight mist rising from the water which eventually became opaque even to her enhanced senses.

"Oops," she mumbled under her breath. "Shut up, you," she added to the Varga, who was laughing like an idiot. "I just need to get my eye in."

"Assuming you don't take someone else's out," he snickered. "We should probably make these with a very short lifetime, Brain, or some poor fisherman will have a nasty surprise. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that went at least a mile."

Shaking her head with a grin, she agreed, then hefted the next one. This shot also missed, but by much less.

It took a dozen more before she finally connected, the scrap hull vibrating madly from the hit, as the dart vanished into it. "I think it went all the way through," she commented, squinting at the ship while moving her head around. "I can see light coming through the hole."

"Not surprising, the darts are very heavy and extremely sharp, not to mention almost frictionless. It will take much more than a couple of inches of rusty steel to slow them very much. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that you can throw them faster than sound even at this size as well."

"Let's see," she laughed, drawing her arm back with the next one in it. Leaning far back on her tail she put her entire spine into the next throw, grunting a little with the effort. There was a loud crack sound and a small shockwave made the water in front of her ripple as the dart vanished on a completely flat trajectory. She missed the wreck, which didn't surprise her, she hadn't been aiming very hard, it was only to see how fast she could throw the thing.

"Wow. I wonder how far that went?"

"We should probably not do that too much, Brain," the Varga cautioned, although he sounded interested. "Without being able to see where they go it's somewhat irresponsible. There are other users of the waters around here, after all."

"True," she mused. "OK. It was an experiment anyway. Let's practice actually hitting what I'm aiming at first, I can work on high speed throws later."

Shortly thereafter, she was amusing herself making gonging sounds from the old hull, which was quickly sprouting a lot of holes and beginning to look somewhat sorry for itself. Her aim improved steadily, although slowly, which pleased both of them.

Eventually, she reached the point she was hitting a small aim point repeatedly, so she switched to the javelin, scaled appropriately, which was much more difficult to use as it turned out. After a while, she began to hear sounds indicative of other people, so armored up for appearance's sake and waited, still practicing.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Spunggg!

Über looked up at the weird sound that echoed throughout the far north end of the Ship Graveyard, where he and his friend and partner were setting up to run a discreet test of a new game-themed weapons system among the old scrap ships that were lying around the foreshore. It was a not uncommon activity and the local Capes tended to mostly ignore each other when they ran across others doing the same. Practically every new cape had come out here at one point or another to see what they or their inventions could do, if they needed a target that no one cared about.

It was an odd, near-truce situation, but it seemed to work. Even Lung had once walked past, nodded politely to them, then continued on his way. For some reason it was only really the Heroes who tended to be trouble, which deeply amused him on some level.

"What the hell was that?" he said out loud. Leet looked over from where he was poking around on his newly created Shrink Ray straight out of Duke Nukem. Or molecular compressor projector, as he tended to call it. As far as Über was concerned it was a shrink ray and he was very interested to see if it worked properly. The effects were only temporary but he could see it being extremely amusing to use in their next operation.

"What?"

Spunggg!

"That."

Leet listened as the echoes died away again, a puzzled expression on his face. "I have no idea."

Spunggg!

Intrigued, the duo exchanged glances, then Über came over and helped his colleague put the tripod-mounted weapon back in the non-descript van they were using to transport Leet's equipment. Locking it and arming the extremely unfriendly security system the Tinker had bought in from Toybox in a trade for some of his older inventions, since they were of no use to him when they failed but they were of interest to other Tinkers, they looked around trying to localize the source of the sound.

Spunggg!

They could make out a distinct whistling noise immediately before the odd sound, now that they were listening for it.

"That way," Über said, pointing towards the shore, several rows of beached trawlers away. Carefully, staying in the shadows, they headed towards the sound. Eventually, after several more Spunggg's, they found it. Both of them stared for some time, then looked at each other.

"What the hell is that and what's it doing?" Über said in a very low voice in his friend's ear. The shorter, skinnier man shrugged.

"I have no idea," he said back, equally quietly.

"I'm practicing my aim," the reptilian horror standing on the shore said casually, rearing back and lifting a hand in a throwing gesture, a gray metallic javelin that tapered to a fine, glinting point at each end appearing in it. They both jumped violently. "Yes, I can hear you," she, for it was apparently female, said calmly. "I could hear your heartbeats coming for the last two minutes."

She leaned back even further, bracing herself with her long sinuous tail, then threw, putting her entire body into it. The source of the whistle they'd heard was now obvious, it was the eight foot long javelin disappearing from view at what must have been close to the speed of sound. Uber's eyes widened in shock. It was one hell of an impressive throw.

Whistle-Spunggg!

The weird sound was the thing punching a hole entirely through the cargo ship resting on the bottom of the bay three hundred feet or so away, about thirty feet of hull visible above the waves. He could barely make out several dozen two inch holes letting light through from the dawn sun. It looked like she was trying, successfully, to turn it into a colander.

"Fucking hell," Leet muttered. "That thing was really moving. It didn't even slow down when it hit that ship and it went through at least a couple of inches of steel. What the hell are they made of?"

"Good stuff," the female reptilian cape noted, rearing back again.

Whistle-Spunggg!

Once more the old ship rang like a bell. She nodded in satisfaction. "Getting better. That one was only about six inches off the mark."

Three more whistles and Spunggg sounds occurred, then, apparently satisfied for the moment, she turned around. Both of them flinched.

They stared into the glowing orange reptilian eyes with slitted pupils that expanded with interest when she looked at them, then after a frozen moment took in the rest of the six, or seven depending on how you counted, limbed form covered in blue-black scales. She was wearing some form of formfitting armor, Über noticed, which blended so well with her scales he had trouble seeing where it stopped and her body started.

The large wedge-shaped head tipped quizzically to one side. "Hey, you're Über and Leet, right?" They both nodded spastically. The corners of the mouth moved, exposing some extremely worrying dentition, in what he finally realized was meant to be a smile.

It wasn't particularly successful at putting them at ease. Leet stepped back while Über couldn't help flinching a little again.

"Hi. I'm Raptaur. I guess you didn't see the thread about me on PHO last night. I like your show. Sometimes it sucks but a lot of the time it's really funny. That thing with Glory Girl last month was amazing although she didn't look too pleased." Her head tipped to the other side. "You should figure out how to do it without breaking the law, though, but I guess it's a bit late now."

Being studied by those glowing eyes was peculiarly unnerving. Über had gone up against most of the heroes in Brockton Bay at one time or another, often with more success than he should have had, and a few of the villains as well, but none of them had ever made him feel quite as nervous as this one did. Lung, ramped up, was scarier, true enough, but he wasn't standing thirty feet from them right now.

It was only the fact that on the one hand she seemed to be friendly or at least non-hostile, and on the other that based on what he could see he was damn sure he couldn't outrun her, that kept him standing there. Oh, and the fact that he didn't want to leave his best friend.

He glanced at Leet for a moment. Mind you, he probably didn't have to outrun her, he only had to outrun him…

Leet was looking back at him with narrowed eyes and he suddenly became certain that his best friend was making exactly the same calculation. They stared at each other for a moment then smiled slightly, going back to the lizard-thing, which was watching with an amused air. He became pretty sure she had a good idea what they were thinking somehow.

"Where do you get those spears from?" Leet asked suddenly. His tone of voice was the one he got when his Tinker senses were tingling. "And what are they made of?"

"I do this," she said, holding out a hand, which suddenly had a javelin in it, one end in the sand at her feet and the other pointed skywards. Über twitched, as did his colleague. It was a little startling. "As far as what they're made of..." She shrugged slightly. "Some sort of very tough metal."

Walking a little closer Leet stared at the thing, obviously very curious. She held it out to him. "It's heavy," she warned. Nodding absently he touched it, then took it from her. She let go and he immediately toppled over, landing full length on the sand with a muffled and very rude exclamation of surprise, which made her giggle.

Hearing something that looked like that giggle like a teenaged girl for some reason provoked an almost irresistible urge in Über to break down laughing. The sight of his old friend getting to his knees then struggling to lift the javelin, which looked like it couldn't weigh more than ten pounds or so but obviously did, from the sand, his face going mildly red, completed the job. He leaned back against the scrap hull behind him and roared with hilarity.

Leet gave him an unfriendly look and stood up, kicking the length of metal on the ground, then hopping up and down on one foot swearing when it passively resisted with great success. Über stared wide-eyed, then collapsed in laughter.

"Thanks, friend," Leet snarled in irritation.

Über weakly waved a hand at him, the javelin, and the reptilian cape, who was standing watching with what had to be a grin on her muzzle. "You… She… too heavy..." he gasped out, snickering. She laughed a little herself, then bent down and picked the thing up like it was a toothpick. Leet gaped.

"Good grief," he mumbled. "How the hell strong are you?"

"Strong enough," she chuckled. "Here you go." The girl, since Über was now convinced she was a teenager, stabbed it into the sand with an extraordinarily quick motion, leaving six feet of it protruding. "That should let you look at it without falling over."

Muttering to himself and casting annoyed glances at his still giggling friend, the Tinker prodded the metal, then ran his fingers over it, his eyebrows going up. The dark green balaclava he, like Über, was wearing, covered his expression but the bits visible conveyed surprise.

"It's practically friction free," he noted with interest. "Weird. I don't know of anything like that." Bending down a little he studied the hand grip which seemed to be molded into the metal, with a textile-like finish. "And this is actually part of it." Feeling it he nodded. "This has normal friction. Very strange."

"How much does it weigh?" Über asked, finally over his amusement and rather interested. She motioned to it and stepped aside. Accepting the wordless invitation he walked over, not without a somewhat nervous look at her, then put his hands on the foot-long grip area in the middle of the thing. He lifted.

Nothing happened.

Frowning, he lifted harder.

Still nothing.

"It must be stuck in the sand," he said, grunting with effort. He and Leet looked down, the Tinker brushing the sand around the end of the javelin buried in the ground away with his foot, to reveal the little fact it was only three inches or so deep at that point. Under that was the granite that the local geology was based on.

The javelin was embedded more than eighteen inches into the solid rock. She'd made it look trivially easy. They exchanged a glance.

"Oops. Sorry." The girl reached out and yanked, popping the spear-like thing free with no effort at all. Gently she let it slide back into the hole. "That should be easier," she added.

Rather more intimidated than he really enjoyed being, Über tried again, grunting with effort. This time he managed to lift it but it was like lifting a stack of concrete blocks. "Jesus, this thing must weigh about a hundred and seventy, hundred and eighty pounds," he said with disbelief.

The fact that she could throw one of these on a hundred yard flat trajectory was horrifying. Never mind the fact she could actually hit a six inch target at that range, repeatedly, as she'd shown with her last couple of throws.

Letting go with relief he let the thing thud back into the hole it had come from, stepping back and flexing his hands. "I've never come across anything that heavy before," he noted. "What the hell is it, depleted uranium or something?"

Leet was staring at the javelin with a calculating look, apparently now completely ignoring the reptile-girl. He shook his head very slowly, not taking his eyes off the javelin. "No. That's much too low density. This stuff must be about..." He thought hard, his lips moving silently, "Around sixty nine, maybe seventy grams per cc. Nothing has a density that high."

After a long moment, he whirled to face the lizard-girl, who twitched a little. "Can you make other things out of it?" he asked.

She nodded. "Sure." Holding out her right hand she gently waved the long two-handed sword that appeared in it. Her other hand was suddenly holding a huge metal hammer that looked like it was for smacking telephone poles flush with the ground. With one hit.

"Holy crap," Über said in a low voice. Leet ignored him, inspecting the blade which she held out obligingly when he stared at it.

"Careful, it's really sharp," she warned him seriously.

The Tinker studied the blade from inches away, then stepped back and looked around. Finding what he was looking for, he picked up a piece of driftwood that was lying on the beach a few feet away, came back, took careful aim, and slammed it into the edge of the blade.

He nearly fell over again as there was no resistance at all, the top part of the piece of wood flying away, and nearly impaled himself on the damn thing. The girl, the sword not moving a fraction of an inch in her grip, whipped her tail around and caught him with it just in time.

"Hey, be more careful," she complained mildly. "I told you it was sharp."

"Thanks," Leet mumbled, more or less ignoring how close he'd come to a serious injury, instead looking closely at the cleanly cut end of the chunk of old wood still in his hand. His eyebrows went up again.

"That… is impressive," he finally said quietly, dropping it to the sand. He stared at her in a sort of bemused way, then said, "Stay here." Turning around he ran off.

Über and the girl exchanged glances. "Sorry," he said. "He gets like this when he's in a Tinker mood."

She shrugged. "I'm told Tinkers are strange at the best of times," she replied mildly, apparently not finding it particularly worrisome. The comment, considering the source, made him grin.

A couple of minutes later his friend was back, puffing like he'd run the entire way to the van and then back here. It was obvious where he'd been as he was lugging his bag full of custom test equipment, most of it his own design but with a few other things he'd acquired from other sources. Unzipping the bag he rooted around in it for a moment, discarding half a dozen odd looking devices, while the girl and Über watched, puzzled. Eventually he said triumphantly, "Aha! There you are."

Pulling out what Über recognized as the working Star Trek Tricorder, TNG series, one of his more successful inventions, he stood up. The thing was mainly successful because it both actually worked to design and hadn't blown up yet.

It probably would sooner or later, but so far it was still intact.

Flipping it open, producing the characteristic sound right out of the Aleph version of the TV series, he fiddled with it for a moment, then ran it down the blade she was still holding and looked at the results.

He blanched, and did it again.

Taking a deep breath, he turned to the javelin and repeated the process. Über was very puzzled now, while the girl, even through the totally non-human appearance and body language, seemed to be the same.

"That's impossible," the Tinker muttered. He repeated the process once more.

Shaking his head, he turned to the hammer and did the same thing again. Twice. Finally he snapped the tricorder shut and stared at the sand for several seconds.

"This is the most bullshit thing I've ever seen!" he finally said, quite loudly, as he looked up. "How the hell is it stable? The energy input required is completely..." Leet shook his head violently, looking very confused and somewhat annoyed as a result. Taking a deep breath, he visibly tried to calm down.

"Do you have any idea what this stuff actually is?" he asked, clearly trying to be as reasonable as possible.

"Not really," she replied, cocking her head and looking at him curiously. "Do you?"

"Yes."

That was all he said for several seconds. Über stared at him, then the girl, who shrugged scaled shoulders.

"So, what is it?" he finally asked.

"Basically impossible," Leet sighed heavily. "But I'm looking at it. The only thing I can say is 'powers don't make any sense at all'. Even in those terms this is ridiculous."

"Could you perhaps explain a little better?" his friend asked with a certain amount of sarcasm.

Leet opened his mouth to reply, then stared in shock as the javelin which was still resting in the hole suddenly vanished. He went pale again for a moment. "Oh, sorry, do you still need it?" the girl asked. "These ones don't last long, I don't want to leave them lying around all over the place."

"How the hell..." Leet shook his head again. "Never mind. I don't care. Look, what you have there is something that shouldn't exist outside the core of a large star. It's basically electron-degenerate matter." Über exchanged a glance with the girl again, seeing she was probably as blank as he was. Her orange eyes had a look of puzzlement, somehow.

"What's that?" she asked.

"Matter that has been compressed to the point the electron orbits collapse, but not quite to the point that the mutual repulsion between the electrons and the protons is overcome. If that happens you get neutron-degenerate matter. Sometimes called neutronium. Assuming you could produce it outside a neutron star, that is. Which you can't."

He seemed a little incensed about the fact that she was standing there breaking the laws of physics and apparently not even realizing it.

"It should be both either a liquid or gas, and completely unstable at anything even vaguely approaching normal pressures," he went on after a moment. "The fucking stuff should basically explode on the spot. But somehow it's not only a solid metallic material, it's stable. Leaving aside spontaneously disappearing, of course."

"I can make it permanent," she offered, causing him to stare again, "But it takes more work. Normally it's more useful to have it temporary though. Good for things like handcuffs."

"You make degenerate matter handcuffs," Leet said in a completely flat tone. "Right. Of course you do. Why not?"

There was a slightly uncomfortable pause. Über thought for a moment, then said, "So that's why it's so heavy?"

"The problem isn't that it's too heavy, it's that it's too light. Wildly too light. Unbelievably too light." Leet looked very confused now. "It should have a density of somewhere in the region of ten thousand or so kilograms per cubic centimeter, not only seventy grams. It's off by more than six orders of magnitude."

He pointed at the hole in the rock at their feet.

"That javelin had a mass of about twelve million tons, but for some insane reason had a weight of less than two hundred pounds and inertia to match. It should have vanished into the rock the instant it was formed, even if it was by some magic actually stable in the first place." He glared at the hole as if it had eaten his favorite kitten. "Like I said it's impossible."

The reptilian girl was silent for a time, looking weirdly like she was having an internal conversation. Eventually she nodded slightly, then made both the hammer and sword, which she was still holding, disappear. Holding out her hand she formed another javelin, carefully inserting it into the hole the first one had made, then let go. "Let's see what happens," she said with interest. Leet and Über exchanged a glance, then looked back at the javelin, which abruptly vanished downwards so fast they blinked in shock. There was a long drawn out rumbling sound and the ground shook under them. "Wow! That was amazing!"

She looked pleased.

Leet stared in stunned disbelief, then asked slowly, "What the hell did you do?"

"Turned off the thing that was making its mass and weight different," she replied, causing him to take a step back and go pale again. "Don't worry, it won't fall far, I made it only last for a minute. But it's pretty cool. I didn't know I could do that. Thanks for the information."

"Jesus," the Tinker muttered.

"I can't think what use it is at the moment, but it's something else I've learned about what my abilities are," she added, pleased by the sound of it. "You learn something new every day, right?"

They nodded slowly. Leet was still looking shell-shocked.

She looked up at the rising sun. "I'm going to have to go, I have other things to get on with today, but it was nice meeting you guys."

"Likewise, I think," Über replied. Leet was staring at the girl with a peculiar expression, but jumped when his friend poked him in the ribs.

"Oh. Right. Yes, it was… interesting." He paused for a moment, then asked carefully, "Could I have a sample of that stuff, please?"

She inspected him closely for a moment. "You're not going to do anything illegal with it? Or at least, not too illegal? I like you guys but I don't want my stuff being used to commit serious crimes."

Leet shook his head vigorously. "No, I'm just really curious about it, that's all. I can think of… some interesting possibilities for that material, and I'd like to study it some more."

After a second or two she shrugged. "OK. How big a piece do you want? And what sort of shape?"

"A cube about two inches across, maybe?" Leet suggested. She nodded, then held out her hand, the requested cube forming in it with no fuss. Reaching out Leet tried to pick it up, muttering when his fingers slipped off with no other result. "Damn. Frictionless, right."

Laughing, she did whatever she did to make it and the cube reformed to have a loop at the top with a rope of some sort attached. "Here you go. It's permanent."

"Thank you," Leet said with sincerity in his voice, carefully picking the thing up by the supplied rope with some effort. Über did a quick mental calculation, coming to the figure of over twenty pounds for that small amount.

"OK, see you guys around, probably. Try not to do anything too bad." Raptaur smiled at them, making them both flinch slightly. "Oh, if you need to talk to me, you can leave a message with the DWU. They're friends." Nodding politely to them she turned and headed for the water, to their shock quickly disappearing under the surface. Both of them stared in disbelief for a minute or two but she didn't reappear.

"That was… different," Über finally said in a slow voice. Leet nodded.

"I'd have to agree," he replied, before lifting his sample of impossible metal and staring at it.

"Back to testing the shrink ray?"

"May as well." His friend sounded like he was a long way away. "I'm going to have to think about this."

They headed back to the van in silence, each going over the odd encounter in their minds.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

'Is Vargastuff safe?' Taylor asked, worried by what she'd learned. 'It's not going to explode or something, is it?'

"No, Brain, the process I produce it with makes it unconditionally stable as far as that point is concerned," the demon reassured her. "I didn't have the terminology to describe it to you, but what Leet said sounds plausible. We should look into the relevant branch of science. Altering the mass is obviously possible, as you saw, but it's an all or nothing thing and takes considerable effort once the material is formed. It can either be the density you know at the moment, or the natural density, which is much, much higher. It won't spontaneously switch from one to the other and I can't change more than a fairly small amount once made. Perhaps twice the volume of that javelin and only when it's not permanent."

'I wonder what use it would actually be in the higher mass version?' Taylor mused. 'Unless I need a really, really, really heavy thing.'

"I'm not certain, but we may come up with a use at some point," her companion chuckled, also sounding thoughtful. "Time will tell, I expect."

'Probably,' she laughed as she swam towards the docks and downtown. 'But that was really cool, seeing it literally fall like the rock was air. Leet looked a bit surprised. I wonder what he wants that sample for?'

"As a Tinker he may well not even know yet himself," the Varga commented wryly, making her laugh again.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Armsmaster looked at the email he'd received from a heavily encrypted and impossible to track source, his eyebrows up. Dragon, her face on a monitor on his desk, also looked intrigued.


"This is... somewhat unexpected," he finally said. Dragon nodded slowly.

"That's a good way to put it. Are you going to reply?"

He glanced at her for a moment, thinking, then eventually nodded. Reaching for his keyboard, he started typing. "I have no choice. If there's even the slightest chance that anyone, even Leet, has an idea that could stop one of those things, we need to look into it."

As she nodded, he composed a suitable reply, then sent it, leaning back and waiting for a response.