Vespa

[Kinsfire]

Giblets - California? I know a few people who complain about their power grid.

 

[FaerieKnight79]

But at least California no longer has Enron playing Rolling Blackout Bingo to try massaging their financial books into looking profitable?

 

[GreydonCreed]

Don't know if it is just me, but I'm still reading that as 'Not A Demon Hornet...

Click to shrink...

I was thinking this was Oni Lee, but he sounded too mentally competent considering his fanon portrayal.

Then again I live in a state where even now losing power for days at a time for little or no reason isn't that unusual because certain people in government with no concept of how the power grid works started making wide sweeping changes to it.

Click to shrink...

It could be worse. Puerto Rico had a 95% island wide blackout on this New Years Eve, and they haven't had full restoration yet. A lot of this is due to aging infrastructure, damage from force 4 Hurricane Maria in 2017 they haven't repaired yet, and everyone's favorite reason, fraud/corruption.

 

[mp3.1415player]

Staring out at a bay which was the oddest color he'd ever seen it, deep brown water far more full of silt than it normally had even during the spring melt which wasn't actually meant to really happen for several weeks yet, Roy shook his head in wonder. The muddy water was being whipped up into whitecaps from the wind, although that was dying away fairly quickly and by the evening it was forecast to only be a light breeze. A big change after the apocalyptic storm overnight, which had peaked far in excess of what the weather predictions had suggested likely. At one point he'd been genuinely wondering if Leviathan was paying a visit, but in the end it was just a storm. A nasty one, true, and the sheer amount of damage throughout the city was going to be a pain in the ass to clean up, but it could have been far worse.

Trees were down, power was out in many places, dozens of vehicles had been damaged or destroyed, he'd seen several reports of buildings missing roofs, windows, doors, and the like, and there were probably hundreds of people with minor injuries. But so far no one had turned up dead, or even missing, which was something of a miracle in his opinion, the fires that had been literally sparked by lightning in a number of places had all been extinguished by the torrential rain, and overall while it was something of a nuisance, it wasn't a disaster.

Merely something you had to deal with at times, especially on the coast. Winter Atlantic storms could be incredibly unpredictable and occasionally absolutely devastating, so from that aspect they'd got off lightly.

Luckily, in a rather ironic manner, the threat of the Endbringers had forced changes over the last couple of decades, in many parts of society. One thing he could give credit to for his predecessors was how during the last big infrastructure modernization some eighteen or nineteen years back, while the Endbringer shelters were being built at great haste and cost, they'd also made sure that the power and communications networks were made much more resilient than back in the earlier part of the twentieth century. Even in the eighties there had been a push to bury power cables and substations wherever possible, which wasn't always achievable of course, but Brockton Bay had been ahead of the curve there for a number of intersecting reasons. Partly due to exactly this sort of problem, major storms hardly being unknown, partly due the wave of industrial upgrades that had been occurring throughout the seventies, right up to the advent of Parahumans, partly for a number of other rather esoteric reasons to do with manufacturing, the shipping industry, and a number of unfortunate accidents over the years.

So when the Endbringer threat became clear, even as every city on the planet desperately hoped they wouldn't get a visit, they still tended to put a lot of effort into hardening critical aspects of modern life. The Endbringer shelters were the most well-known side of this to the public, but relatively few people really thought about the fact that in isolation they were of limited utility. Making sure your power grid was capable of surviving something catastrophic, or at least being rapidly repaired if it did get a chunk taken out of it, was a serious concern that in the US the federal government had dumped a vast amount of resources into. Same with the phone network, including landlines and cell-phones. Phone towers were designed to be capable of withstanding some remarkably significant damage with dual or even triply redundant systems, especially in areas near the coast which might present a big target to Leviathan. And important cities, which Brockton had once been, had got a lot more effort put into this sort of operation.

While most people never really appreciated the fact, the country, indeed the world, had essentially been on a war footing for nearly twenty years at this point. It was the only reason society was still going. The aftermath of Leviathan turning up was at best vast areas washed away and thousands to millions dead. The Simurgh visiting would make Leviathan the better choice. Behemoth did the same sort of damage as a small nuclear bomb, and there was an uneasy idea that he could do a lot more if he wanted to. New York had sustained the rough equivalent of a twenty kiloton warhead detonating, Roy recalled from one report he'd read years back, albeit with somewhat less in the way of actual blast damage. More fallout, though.

That had cost over a hundred billion dollars to repair, and work was still ongoing. Parts of the city were still too radioactive to live in, although luckily they were far from the current major population centers. Having been buried under a layer of concrete at the time, in lieu of any other method to handle them, they were very gradually being reclaimed and decontaminated. Most of the effort had been more immediately aimed at the important areas of the city, of course, so the contaminated zones were a fairly low priority. He'd seen estimates that it could be another fifty years before they could be fully recovered, and there was doubt people would ultimately bother, as the cost would be astronomical even compared to the rest of the job.

If Brockton Bay had sustained that sort of damage he had no doubt that the rebuilding would have been deemed pointless and the city abandoned. It was too small and these days too unimportant to put multiple billions into. The economy simply wouldn't sustain that sort of cost, especially in current times. Decades of decay and major disasters all over the country had not only reduced the population, both in absolute numbers and growth rate, to a substantially smaller level than it would have been, but as a side effect seriously drained the coffers of state and federal governments.

Much of the rest of the world had fared far worse, of course. Africa, with a few notable exceptions, was basically a hellhole with only about forty percent the population it had twenty years ago, Russia was a pale shadow of its former self, the Soviet Union having collapsed almost overnight back in eighty six, China was in many ways worse being run by the murderous CUI, large parts of the Middle East basically didn't exist any more… North America, Northern Europe, and parts of Southern Europe and South America were doing reasonably well by comparison but by the standards of the mid-last-century?

World War Three would have done more damage faster, yes, but he sometimes felt what they were going through was just a very slow version of the same thing. At times he was genuinely stunned that civilization was still running. It was certainly very different indeed from what it had been during his childhood. But humans were stubborn bastards and hung on like grim death when life tried to shit on them…

So in the end, as a result of all this sort of thing, somewhat oddly they were in a much better place to withstand natural disasters now than they would have been thirty years ago. Due to all the unnatural ones that kept rolling into town. People had learned what broke too easily and worked out ways to reduce that breakage, and the exact same precautions that might save people in an Endbringer attack or during some massive Parahuman disaster worked just as well if not better to fend off the worst of Mother Nature getting upset.

At least to a point. They still had power outages, there were still cell towers down, in some cases blown into the bay, quite a lot of the water and sewage system was going to need work, roads were blocked, trees were down… But on the whole they'd pulled through with surprisingly little real damage. The initial reports said most of the affected areas would have power back within a day or two, largely because since nearly all the power lines were buried these days, the damage was mainly resetting systems that had tripped out then locked themselves like that due to lightning strikes overloading things. Some transformers and switch gear would need to be replaced, but those were mostly items the city kept in stock for backup reasons, as everyone with a brain did. Most civilians had their own precautionary measures such as bottled water, portable gas stoves and fuel, often access to generators, food, and so on. The government had been running campaigns urging such things for half his life, and it was so common nowadays that no one really questioned it.

And the city also had a number of big mobile generators that could be moved on site and provide temporary power for entire neighborhoods, even if the damage to a substation or something of that nature required longer repair times. Despite the rather decrepit nature of the city in many ways, and Calvert's actions, that specific aspect of disaster recovery was still quite functional and regularly tested. No one, for their own reasons, really tried to block that funding. If only because they might end up requiring it at some point.

Enlightened self interest was a powerful force, he mused. Pity it was so hard to get across more generally. There were so many other parts of society that were desperately in need of the same sort of coordinated pulling together which simply didn't get it, and that was a major reason behind all manner of major issues there didn't seem to be a practical solution to. Hence the economic problems facing his city, and everywhere else really, the homeless situation which only ever seemed to get worse and was deeply linked to that, and on and on and on. It was depressing as fuck when you thought about it.

But at least the infrastructure problems were fairly straightforward to handle, although it was going to be annoying and time consuming to clean everything up completely. Nothing that couldn't be dealt with even if a lot of people were going to be complaining about the aftereffects for some time to come. They tended to do that anyway so he was used to it. Hopefully there wouldn't be another minor catastrophe before they got this one fixed. There were limits to their resources and it made him nervous to think what might happen with several serious incidents one after the other. One they could handle. Two would be pushing it without some respite time between them. Three would be… very bad.

Roy tried not to imagine what might happen then, only partially successfully. He returned to considering the big change the storm had wrought…

Picking up his binoculars he peered through the misty day, the sun still struggling to show itself through the clouds scudding across the sky but feeling like it was going to persist, at the mouth of the bay. An inlet that was roughly a quarter mile across, and until late last night, for the last nearly sixteen and a half years, had been almost entirely blocked by a wreck everyone in the city had wanted gone the whole time.

Now it was entirely clear, not a trace of that fucking ship left, and he could see clear out to the horizon, where much bigger ocean swells were rolling up the inlet, then breaking on the south shore where it curved into the bay. It was a sight he recalled from his childhood but not one he'd expected to see again. And was still having trouble believing after all this time.

Shaking his head in wonder and joy, he panned the binoculars around, studying the shoreline for damage. The far side of the bay, four or five miles away, was distant enough that he couldn't make out much of it, but the near side was easily observable. He could see the harbor patrol boats moving about checking on other vessels, some of which had ended up beached high above the waterline, having been driven there by the incredible wind and storm surge. At least one wharf had collapsed leaving only pilings sticking out of the water, which was annoying as that particular one was used a fair amount by pleasure-craft and a number of fishermen, not to mention the BBPD's two patrol boats, but replacing it wouldn't be all that hard. From what he recalled the last time the subject had come up the inspection of it a year ago had shown it was in dire need of attention as it was, and this not only proved it, but gave an excuse to spend the money.

There was a lot of debris all over the shoreline as far as the eye could see, and doubtless much more still in the water, ranging from fishing nets and buoys through small boats to massive chunks of driftwood and broken timbers. Some of the latter undoubtedly from the destroyed wharf, some washed into the bay by the swollen rivers to the west, and some possibly even dredged up from the bay floor itself by the swirling waters. Again, irritating, but removing it wouldn't be all that difficult. Just time consuming and somewhat expensive. Lowering the binoculars he looked for his notebook, then having found it on his desk, jotted down a few paragraphs about things that needed to be done and who to talk to about doing them. The DWA was probably the best place to start, as those crazy bastards knew the entire bay like the back of their collective hands, and had all the knowledge they'd need to do the work.

Which meant he was going to have to talk to Danny Hebert again, he thought with a wince. The man was a decent guy, he knew that full well, but he was also a massive pain in the ass when he was looking for work for his people and just would not give up. Not to mention had a memory that didn't forget anything, an encyclopedic knowledge of the history of the city and a lot of other things he'd pull any number of facts out of given half a chance, many of which tended to be inconvenient for the administration, and a calculating mind that belied his somewhat drab exterior. He was a worthy opponent in the game, Roy had always felt, despite usually being on the opposite side, and he respected the guy as much as he sometimes wished he'd never heard of him.

At least this time they'd both be notionally on the same side, though. The city needed the expertise, and the DWA needed the work. An accommodation could doubtless be reached far more easily than at times in the past.

Taking the notebook and pen back to the window he picked up his binoculars again and resumed studying what he could see of the city. A couple of places were still emitting some smoke from fires overnight, but the one he could see clearly was definitely a building no one lived in and was derelict, and also had two BBFD trucks parked outside it. They'd be making sure everything was properly extinguished, and he'd doubtless get a full report later today. Hopefully there wouldn't be any nasty discoveries of some homeless poor bastard who'd been rough sleeping in there…

He again winced a little at the thought. It was a scenario they'd seen far too often in the past and he'd much prefer it if it didn't happen again any time soon. As doubtless the poor bastards would.

Lowering the binoculars he made another note as an idea struck him, then stood staring at the page for a few seconds, his mind busy, before underlining the last few words and continuing his inspection.

He was going to have a lot of meetings in the near future about all the possibilities the unexpected removal of that damned ship abruptly brought to the fore, he was certain of that. His own administration had investigated the problem it presented shortly after he got elected, and he'd studied the previous administration's documentation on the thing too, having been puzzled just why it was still there. The cost of removing it would be high, yes, in the tens of millions to maybe a hundred or so, but while Brockton Bay these days wasn't the rich powerhouse it had been fifty years ago, that wasn't completely impossible. Their budget was tight but still a lot of money, and it wouldn't all come out of a single year's allotment anyway. Not to mention that getting funding from the state seemed entirely plausible too, as the shipping that went through the bay even after the economic downturn in the late nineties was a very big chunk of the total trade through that method. And while the legal situation was snarled up in all sorts of problems, none of them were intractable, merely tedious to deal with.

But for some reason the people in charge at the time, before he'd even become a city councilor, had apparently done a cursory study, come up with a figure that was clearly ridiculously low, then thrown their hands in the air and claimed even that was unaffordable. Which it hadn't been, and still wasn't. But he strongly suspected that whoever it was that had run the numbers hadn't had the vaguest idea about how to research this sort of salvage operation and had pretty much just guessed. If not simply faked it and pretended they'd done the work, then just told a convenient story that was uncritically believed by people who should have known better.

That did seem to be a thing that had happened far, far too much over the years, he sighed. And even if the initial figures had been suspect in the extreme and the people involved just not caring about doing the job anyway, it was odd that in the nearly two decades since, no one else had taken another serious look at it. But as far as the records showed, until he'd gotten to sit in the big chair, no one had actually done that.

He had a shrewd idea that Calvert had somehow been involved with the later issues, if only accidentally. The more the investigations dug into what that fucking madman had been up to the more things they could lay at his door, some from deliberate actions, but a really atrocious amount just because he put so much time into breaking everything. He'd single-handedly boosted corruption through the roof and the thing that irked Roy more than anything else was that he was fairly certain the bloody man hadn't even realized half the time what the fallout of his profligate bribing anyone who'd hold still long enough would be in the long term. Or, probably, cared. Whatever end goal he'd ultimately had in mind, he hadn't given a shit about the damage he caused on the way towards it.

And even when someone did push back, the fucker simply had them removed. Often permanently.

As far as Roy was concerned death was too good for that bastard, but at least he was gone. Leaving a real mess behind that was going to be throwing up surprises for years.

But with all that, it still left him wondering who had fucked things up well before Calvert ever came onto the scene. That ship should have been removed inside a year from when it went down, if not within months. It could probably have been refloated at one point before the damage of neglect and tides had made that impossible. It certainly could have been blown up or something, he was sure of that. It would probably have been possible to hire a Parahuman to get rid of the fucking thing somehow, despite all the complications the NEPEA laws introduced. Yet nothing had been done and it just sat there choking off the economy of the entire city for more than a decade and a half, all blamed on the riots back in ninety five with no one, at least no one in a position to, apparently wanting to do a damn thing about it.

The whole situation around the riots still bothered him; The official story being that it was the dockworkers who'd done it didn't, in his opinion, hold water when you really sat down and thought about it. And Danny Hebert would get very annoyed indeed if the subject came up and acidly point out that the dock workers having not enough jobs wasn't exactly a good reason for them to suddenly lose the plot entirely and ensure that they didn't have any jobs by wrecking dozens of ships and blocking the whole fucking bay to the point that the local economy collapsed.

They weren't actually stupid, he'd commented with considerable asperity the last time Roy had heard people talk about the riots in the man's presence. They'd been on strike protesting the way the ship owners and shipping companies had been drastically underpaying the workers and blaming the economy, while at the same time all the shareholders seemed to be getting record payouts. Mention was made quite strongly that these two things seemed in direct opposition to each other. Prices going through the roof and dividends doing likewise were not compatible with 'Oh, dear, the economic reality is that we can't afford to pay you guys a living wage. Sorry about that.'

Especially, he'd added venomously to the councilor who'd made the mistake of bringing the subject up as some sort of gotcha and had at that point clearly been wishing he'd kept his damn fool mouth shut, when those same shipping company CEOs were on record at the next shareholder meeting under a month later crowing about how the profits their companies were making were at record highs.

He hadn't seemed impressed by that, nor were any of his compatriots. For, in Roy's view, fairly good reasons…

The whole situation had stunk to high heaven and the rumors that had been swirling around ever since strongly implied, if not outright claimed, that the ship sinkings and indeed the turning of a spirited but reasonably peaceful strike into an actual riot had been orchestrated by a number of people closely connected to the very shipping companies the protesters were protesting against. It was more than a little suspicious that the container ship, the old Eastern Pride, had gone down so neatly directly across the shipping channel, as if that had been the entire end goal. And that the insurance claim on it had been paid almost before it finished settling to the bottom…

Yeah, something was definitely iffy about that event and he'd wondered what the truth about it was for years. Unfortunately it had so far proven impossible to dig that up. He made another note. Perhaps it was worth trying again, in light of all the new information they'd pulled out of Calvert's records. It was possible the man had managed to dig up something useful then sat on it for his own purposes, likely a lever to use against someone at some point.

It might also be worth asking Danny about it too. His knowledge of that sort of thing was second to none, after all, despite his obvious and understandable bias. The man wasn't a fan of quite a few companies. None of the DWA people were, or for that matter an awful lot of people in the docks as a whole. They had long memories and tended to remember who their enemies were. And their friends, of course.

It was also an explanation why people from that part of the city were often more than a little suspicious about the PRT. It was undeniable that the organization didn't put nearly as much effort into handling Parahuman problems in the docks and the poorer areas of the city as it did the well-off ones, and places the tourists congregated. He understood why some of this was the case, the PRT didn't have unlimited budgets or more critically manpower, so it couldn't handle everything, but at times he himself had wondered just why it sometimes seemed that they were rather more selective than they needed to be.

And, for that matter, why the PRT head office didn't assign more people here. Brockton Bay wasn't as big as Boston, true, and not all that far from it, but it had so many Parahumans per capita it had rated a PRT division of its own. Which was almost unique as far as he knew, as something as big as the ENE division would normally be much further away from another similarly sized one like Boston. Proof that at one point someone had thought that the Bay needed a local presence, which made it all the stranger that it was apparently so often left to fend for itself…

Considering they'd had among others the Butcher and the Teeth, Marquis, the Empire, the ABB, and in recent years the Merchants, all running around causing mayhem, in some cases since almost the point Parahumans came on the scene at all, he still found it weird that the city hadn't been utterly flooded with PRT and Protectorate people years back. But it had never happened. The local Protectorate group was handily outnumbered just by the E88, never mind all the others added to it. Lung on his own was more than capable of dealing with them all at the same time and had proven it. Yet if the Triumvirate had been called in ten years ago, he'd have been sorted out in hours. Even the Merchants, who were utter idiots for the most part, still existed and that was just ridiculous. He was fairly certain that the BBPD could, given decent resources, handle them without too much trouble, but the PRT jealously guarded its monopoly on dealing with Parahuman gangs.

Then largely fucked it up, which was just insulting to everyone.

At least the E88 was down three capes in the last couple of months, one permanently. Hopefully Piggot would get the other two idiots out of the city before their friends inevitably retrieved the bastards. Which is what normally happened.

If it was up to Roy he'd have arranged to have certain people like that shot while attempting to escape, but for some bizarre reason that hardly ever seemed to happen. The public weren't unaware of this either and a lot of them weren't entirely pleased about it. He'd had enough emails and letters over his career to be all too familiar with that but he didn't have much recourse to change things.

Oh well. That wasn't something he could do much about right now and he had more than enough things he could do something about, so he'd get on with those and leave the rest to Piggot. Who with some luck would manage to not lose a prisoner again any time soon.

Snorting with black humor, he turned his binoculars on the Rig, peering at the activity on the flight deck. It looked like one of Dragon's transports had just landed, the distinctive aircraft being one he was well familiar with. The Tinker often sent them to the Rig, and he was fully aware that she and Armsmaster seemed to have some peculiar sort of relationship going on. Most people were aware of that, for that matter.

Although he was also fairly sure Armsmaster wasn't. He'd met the man, more than a few times, and while he was undeniably very effective and highly intelligent, he was also in some ways one of the most oblivious people Roy had ever encountered. Which was backed up by some anecdotes his son had told him over the last few years. Probably not having been supposed to, but…

Grinning a little to himself, he looked back at the open mouth of the bay, silently whistled through his teeth, resisted the urge to dance a little jig at all the opportunities Mother Nature had handed them on a plate, then went back to his desk to work out how best to utilize those opportunities.

His work had just become quite a lot harder, but he was in no way displeased with this.

As he got on with it, the back of his mind was wondering where that damn ship had actually gone.

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

"High resolution sonar mapping indicates the remains of the wreck is located here, buried beneath sediment at depths of between fifteen and sixty four feet, along with approximately a quarter of a million tons of rock from the reef itself. Most of the latter is under the wreck, of course, but a substantial quantity followed it down before the wave of silt from the bay covered everything. Close to three million tons of sediment has so far flowed out of the bay over the reef and while the rate has dropped dramatically from what it most likely was during the collapse, it's still ongoing. The estimates from BBU's hydrology department are that it will take up to two months for everything to stabilize, resulting in much of the basin of the bay being affected to some extent."

Armsmaster moved a cursor around on the screen at the end of the room, which was displaying a massive high resolution false color image of the seabed outside the bay entrance, covering the reef base and the short curved channel leading to the ocean itself, where the water depth increased dramatically from the bay side of the reef. A series of angular formations could be seen through the background fog which represented the newly deposited silt, some imagination indicating that they were of artificial origin. The image colored everything by density and strength of reflection and the steel of the ship showed up brightly, with the rocks surrounding, under, and on top of it a duller shade but still clearly visible.

"Do we have actual images of any of this?" Renick queried, to which the Tinker shook his head.

"No. The water is currently so silted up that it's completely opaque to visible light, and will be for days to weeks at a minimum. The surface layers will clear fairly quickly, I'm told, but it will take a considerable amount of time for the fine particulates to settle out. Possibly several months, if not longer, depending on how the new current flow patterns behave. BBU is already setting up to investigate this but it will take some time to get any good data."

"How did it get buried so deeply?" Battery asked curiously. He glanced at her.

"The sheer mass of the reef sections that crumbled away during the event is remarkably large, and it slid down a very steep slope, nearly vertical in fact, reaching a high enough velocity that when it hit the sediment layer the mud… essentially splashed. It produced a large cavity in the sediment, which was nearly a hundred feet deep at the base of the reef, as it displaced the existing material. The ship landed in that cavity, with a substantial amount of further reef detritus then landing on top of it. The mud was beginning to flow back even as the wave of sediment from the bay started pouring over the reef as well." He shrugged. "The quantities involved are incredible and hard to visualize, but the end result is that the wreck is entirely submerged in silt. Even once everything finally settles out and compacts, I doubt much if any of it will be visible. And that will take years to reach a completely stable equilibrium."

"And there's no indications this was the result of deliberate action?" Emily was studying the sonar image intently, and the smaller views on the surface that were displayed down the side of the main picture.

Armsmaster paused, then shook his head. "No, Director. As far as can be determined this was entirely the result of the phenomenal storm overnight." He paused again, then added, "In fact I've been seeing some intriguing seismic disturbances for nearly a week, which I traced to the location of the reef four days ago. I wasn't entirely certain what was causing it but my working theory was that wave and tide action was moving the ship, grinding away at the places where it was holed and hung up, until something gave way. The BBU experts agree with my assessment. It's almost inevitable that something of this nature would happen eventually, I'm told, and there is an assessment dating from soon after the sinking that suggested a timescale of a decade or so might well result in the ship going over the edge. That it hung on as long as it did is more surprising than the fact that it eventually didn't. The storm certainly finished the job, but it started the moment it sank."

"And it took most of the reef with it," Assault commented.

He nodded. "The seismic traces suggest that the reef was gradually fracturing internally, probably due to the immense weight on top of it, and the leverage of the tide alternately pushing the ship in or out of the bay. The forces involved are astoundingly high and assuming the ship was solidly wedged in place, which must have been the case or it would have moved years ago, it was transmitting those forces directly into the rock. Granite and basalt are extremely tough materials but they're not tough enough to withstand that indefinitely, and it's unlikely that the reef was a monolithic block in the first place. So it steadily cracked over a large area, and finally the storm surge, near hurricane force winds, and force of the exceptionally high outgoing tide finished the job. Once the ship started to move the reef crumbled, or conversely the reef crumbling started the ship moving to begin with, but the end result was a chain reaction failure that couldn't be stopped." The Tinker shrugged again, just a little.

"It's entirely explainable by natural forces and time, and there is no evidence that anyone other than the environment had a hand in it. Certainly no explosives were involved at all, there are no seismic or sonic traces of anything of that nature, no Parahuman abilities appear to have left any evidence whatsoever, and all the evidence we do have shows that it was a natural, and inevitable, collapse. It was very fortunate that it occurred during a storm so severe as it made sure no one was anywhere close to the danger zone, either in the bay or on the coast outside it. They wouldn't have survived if they had been, I can be certain of that."

Nodding, Emily accepted the explanation. She always had a little suspicion at the back of her mind whenever something odd happened that a Parahuman Did It, but nature was more than capable of pulling off horrifyingly large-scale events too. Her own biases tended to make her look for the hidden sting in the tail, she knew that all too well, but in this case it really was just what it looked like.

"I expect the city administration is fairly pleased with the outcome," she remarked wryly. "Finally that blasted thing is gone and no one had to pay for it."

A small smile briefly came and went on Armsmaster's lips. "That is very likely, Director. There will be considerable relief in many parts of the city. It even makes our lives easier as access to the open water without the difficulties of navigating the narrow and hazardous channel past the wreck is undoubtedly going to be useful in future. Although the amount of floating and subsurface debris is going to present quite a navigation hazard for some time to come. Most of the material in the water will eventually either wash up on shore or leave the bay, I'm told, but again that may take some time. During which ship travel in the bay will have to proceed cautiously."

As he was about to say something else, he paused and appeared to listen, then looked mildly surprised. "Ah. Interesting. Apparently Dragon located some fascinating video…"

Everyone looked at each other. Emily leaned forward. "What sort of video?"

He tapped the tablet sitting in front of him, the image on the big screen vanishing and being replaced with the avatar of the Canadian Tinker, who smiled at them. "The rather impressive sort, Director Piggot," she replied for him. "I was digging around and I found on PHO a post saying that the harbor patrol had a webcam overlooking the bay from a position some distance up the hill to the south. Hardly anyone bothers to look at it these days, but it's been quietly recording the mouth of the bay and some of the ship's graveyard for about six years now. It was put in because they were having problems with tourists coming up from Boston and getting into difficulties with the tides around the wreck, but since word spread that trying that was a good way to end up drowning, hardly anyone is foolish enough to make the attempt these days. But it's still there, and the archived video is available."

Everyone looked at each other as she glanced down, then the screen split, her image shrinking to a small picture in the upper right while a still of the mouth of the bay filled the rest of the screen, barely visible in the dark but showing some distant streetlights on the shore. "Unfortunately the other camera that covers the same view from the other side appears to have failed at some point a year or so ago, but this one is in pretty good shape, and was a high quality one when it was installed. The image quality is surprisingly good. I've also cleaned it up as much as I can."

She started the video playing, and everyone watched with amazement. The video was somewhat blurred in part of the field of view, apparently from water running over the lens, but ignoring that the image was indeed quite usable. The flickering lightning illuminated the wide angle scene in an eerie manner, making Emily flinch a couple of times when it struck the ship itself with sudden fury. As they watched, the ship suddenly started leaning slightly, the stern moving first, then shuddered violently before moving faster. The tilt steadily increased, even as the ship slid towards the ocean side of the channel, water rising around it as it began to submerge. The huge waves battering it from both sides were throwing spray as high as the top of the bridge, over a hundred feet from the deck, and as it sank, the spray was covering more and more of it.

Within a handful of seconds most of the deck was under the waves, still tilting towards the Atlantic, and increasing in speed. She could see the water piling up against the side facing towards the bay, forcing it to move with millions of tons of pressure. Abruptly the vessel lurched, the bow lifting clear of the water before slamming down, the ship heeled over entirely, and completely disappeared from view within four or five seconds.

"Holy shit," she murmured, appalled at just how fast the water had claimed something that big.

Then they all stared in horror at the result of the bay suddenly having no restriction to the flow of the tide, as an almost incomprehensibly powerful flood of water poured out of the narrow entrance, a wall of brown foaming seawater roaring out towards the ocean at a speed that had to be well over a hundred miles an hour. It made a wave that was, at a minimum, nearly twenty feet high, which forced itself up the sides of the channel and scoured them as clear as if they'd been power-washed by God himself.

The wave nearly cleared the headland on the south shore before it subsided and she was profoundly glad that the weather was so bad no one in their right mind would have been out there. If they had been, they were gone. No one would ever find a trace.

"Jesus on a raft," Assault muttered as the next part started, taking them all by surprise. The twin whirlpools that formed over a period of twenty seconds, the water going from a linear foaming flow to a furious rotating boil of mud and debris, was so shockingly intense she could almost hear the roar. The memory of in fact actually hearing something very odd during the peak of the storm came back to her and she wondered if she really had heard these damn things spinning up.

"Jesus would need more than a raft to survive that," Dauntless commented, looking pale. Emily sympathized. She wasn't a boat person or had much interest in the sea at all, but the sight on screen, as distant and blurry and flickeringly lit as it was, was utterly terrifying.

No one would survive those waters. She was sure to her bones about the fact. Not even most Parahumans. It drove home like nothing she'd ever seen just how powerful nature really was when it decided to show off.

Billions of tons of water raged towards the sea, and on screen they could see the water level inside the bay entrance visibly dropping, like a bathtub emptying on a scale that defied imagination. It wasn't fast, the waves just kept going slightly less far up the shore with each flash of lightning, but considering the sheer scale of the vista shown, the amount of water that was moving was almost beyond comprehension. Especially considering how fast it was moving.

She was momentarily somewhat surprised that the Rig was still there, actually…

Luckily it was about five miles from the former wreck, because if it had been much closer she was fairly certain the Protectorate might well need a new base.

It was quite easy to see just when the silt started sliding after the wreck, as the foaming water suddenly went jet black between one strike and the next a couple of seconds later. Dragon stopped the video as the whirlpools began to subside, the water level having dropped sufficiently to stop driving them. There was dead silence in the room for some seconds afterwards.

Eventually Renick cleared his throat, a little unevenly. "That was… terrifying," he commented uneasily.

"Just a little," Triumph agreed, looking stunned. "I can't help feeling I don't want to get on a boat for a while…"

"Suddenly I don't have any questions about how that fucking ship disappeared so thoroughly," Assault remarked, his normal slight smile entirely missing. "Holy crap, that was the most horrifying thing I think I've ever seen in my life."

"It was definitely rather an impressive display," Armsmaster agreed with a nod, frowning slightly. "I am profoundly glad the reef and bay entrance is that far away. We would have had some severe trouble if it had been nearby."

"I was just thinking the same thing," Emily agreed, having a moment of complete understanding with the man as they shared a glance.

"It does explain the aerial photos which show a lot of the wrecks in the shallower water around the ship's graveyard have shifted position, though," Dragon put in after they'd been quiet for a few more seconds. "The currents during that outflow were far higher than normal tides are, and combined with a huge amount of silt leaving the bay, it's moved quite a few things. Several of them appear to be missing entirely, which probably means they've slid into deeper water. New charts of the entire bay are going to be required, I believe, as the old ones are undoubtedly now completely inaccurate."

"BBU mentioned they were going to arrange a new hydrological survey of the bay soon, pending a discussion with the Mayor," Armsmaster replied with a nod. "I believe I will discuss the matter with them, as we can probably aid them in the task. We need the data as much as anyone else does so it would make sense to combine forces."

"Sounds like a good idea," Emily agreed, since he was right and improving relations with the civilian authorities was probably a sensible use of time.

"I've uploaded a copy of the cleaned up video to Armsmaster's server," Dragon commented. "For the records."

"Thank you, Dragon," Emily replied with a nod to her. "I think we can move on from the former ship, now. It looks like it's not a problem for anyone any more, and we have a lot to get on with today. Starting with how we get Stormtiger and Alabaster out of the city before Kaiser does something even more stupid than normal."

"Why do we tend to use road transport for high value prisoners, anyway?" Triumph asked curiously. "Wouldn't it make more sense to fly them out?"

"There are regulations that cause issues with that approach, unfortunately, especially with certain Parahumans," Emily replied sourly. "Not ones I entirely agree with, although they have some merit to them."

"I believe I can help there, Director," Dragon remarked, smiling. "Would you like the loan of a Guild transport? We don't suffer from the same regulatory drawbacks, and considering the criminals in question, I'm sure I can get authorization to provide aid to our colleagues in the PRT…"

Emily slowly smiled, feeling that the day was looking up already. Costa-Brown would probably bitch about it, she was a massive pain in the ass about such things, but by then those two Nazi bastards would be someone else's problem. She could live with that.

"I believe I would be entirely pleased to have the aid of our colleagues in the Guild, Dragon, thank you for the offer," she replied with a vicious grin. "Send me the paperwork and I'll get it dealt with immediately."

"It would be my pleasure, Director Piggot." Dragon looked amused even as Emily's secure tablet pinged.

She'd read, signed, and returned the documentation within five minutes, and was feeling rather cheerful for most of the rest of the meeting. And quite grateful that this one didn't have Professor Brooks attending…

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

"LA, hey? Nice. I went there once with my parents but I was only about twelve," Lucy said with a grin as she handed Taylor one of the cans of soda she'd come back to their table with. Taylor took it with a murmur of thanks. "How long will you be there for?"

"We're going out on Thursday, coming back on Tuesday," Taylor replied, popping the tab on the can then taking a sip. "The convention is Friday to Sunday, and Dad got the ILA guy to agree to an extra day there to have a kind of short holiday. He's an old friend of Dad's and he was fine with it. Should be fun, I've never been to LA." She sipped some more, then grinned. "Never been much further than New York, actually. And that was… um… five years ago? About that. Went with Mom and Dad to see a play Mom wanted to watch, then to some bookstores, spent two days there, and came home again. It was fun."

"I went to New York about two years ago," Lucy nodded. "Went up the Empire State building, the World Trade Center, did the whole tourist thing. Even got shouted at by an angry hot dog seller!"

"Why?" Taylor queried, raising an eyebrow. "What did you do?"

"Nothing!" Lucy protested, grinning back. "He was just an angry man or something. Honest."

Taylor gave her a narrow look, getting a faint smirk back, but didn't press further. "Why were you in New York?" she asked.

"Kung Fu competition," her friend replied. "Came second, but it was a hell of a lot of fun. I'd love to do it again."

"Neat." Taylor chucked at the pleased expression her friend was wearing at the memories. "I'll have to come and watch you kick ass sometime."

"Sure, you're more than welcome to," the other girl said cheerfully. "You should take it up yourself. You'd like my teacher, he's incredibly good."

"I might have to think about that." Taylor smiled at her friend. "When I get all my other stuff out of the way."

"What are you doing about all the schoolwork assignments while you're away?" Lucy asked curiously, after finishing her soda and now balancing the can on one finger without really looking at it.

"We contacted the school board and they arranged to send three packs out for that week, so I'll take them with me and do them in the hotel, then send them off when we get back," Taylor replied. "I've got most of the textbooks on the laptop now, so that's not hard. It won't take long, and Dad will be at the conference so I'll have to find something to keep me busy."

"Not going to go and have fun listening to dry talk about shipping companies trying to fuck over the workers?" Lucy asked with a sly grin, making Taylor giggle.

"I can think of more interesting things to do," she replied evenly. Although she was going to be listening to all of it anyway…

"What about Impy and your other creepy crawlies?" her friend queried.

"They'll be fine, don't worry," Taylor assured her entirely truthfully. "It's only a few days." Vespa, riding on the back of her neck in the normal way, was an amusing proof of how fine her creatures were in general. And would be coming with her, but merged on the plane since she didn't want to risk her being discovered on the way through security.

They'd probably be absolutely horrified if they realized just how many creatures were accompanying her, she thought with amusement. Including several glowspiders, half a dozen drillipedes just in case, and quite a lot more...

"Make sure you take a swimsuit," her friend advised. "It's going to be pretty warm there and I bet the hotel has a big pool. They all do in LA, right? Can you even swim, actually?"

"Oh, yeah, I love swimming," Taylor replied, smiling. "And the hotel has two swimming pools. Dad checked. One indoor one for bad weather or cold days, an outdoor one for nice sunny days. The indoor one is open twenty four hours a day too. It should be a lot of fun. And I've looked up some exotic pet shops there too. There's two of them within a mile of the hotel and conference center. I can walk there easily."

Lucy gasped, her hand to her mouth. "You… you'd cheat on poor Mike like that?"

Grinning, Taylor nodded. "We agreed not to be exclusive. He's fine with it."

"He might just be saying that. Poor guy, leading him on like that, then going and seeing other shops." Lucy shook her head sadly. "I thought better of you, my esteemed colleague."

They grinned at each other, then Taylor looked towards the open bay. From where they were sitting outside a small cafe that Lucy had found, they had a good view down the hill towards the water. The day had turned very nice late in the afternoon and it was unseasonably warm, the wind from the south now and blowing warmer air up towards their latitude. While still somewhat breezy, compared to last night it was nearly flat calm.

"I still can't get over that," Lucy commented, following her eyes towards the bay entrance. "I've seen that ship there my entire life and not seeing it is weird."

"Yeah, I know what you mean," Taylor agreed quietly. She was still a little shocked at how successful her plan had been, and wondering how life for the city would change now that blockage was part of the past. The conversations she'd listened to and indeed was still listening to from all over the city and from all sides made her feel very warm inside, because she was noticing a level of hope among most of the inhabitants that had been missing for as long as she could remember. Her own father was walking around with a big grin on his face too, and looking much happier than he'd been in years, even after the recent months had improved both their moods enormously.

The ship had been a millstone around everyone's necks for a decade and a half and realizing it was finally gone was still sinking in, but even so people were looking and sounding far more cheerful than they'd been only a day or two ago. And a big chunk of that was, one way or another, her doing. Not all of it by any means, she couldn't take credit for the storm, but she'd definitely helped things along and was rather happy about it all.

Looking around she could see lots of people also peering at the water, most of them smiling, and conversations all around them were definitely positive. Lucy said, "Have you noticed how much happier everyone seems to be suddenly?" Echoing her own thoughts perfectly.

"It's amazing, isn't it?" Taylor replied, smiling. "One incredibly impressive storm and all sorts of changes are coming as a result."

"It really was one hell of a storm, wasn't it?" her friend asked with a reflective look. "I honestly thought the house was going to blow away at one point. I was holding Newell and shivering at the creaking sounds. It was fucking terrifying for a while. The power went out around eleven and luckily the generator Dad installed a few years ago came on, which at least kept all the important things running. There was no way to sleep so I ended up on PHO, and found that thread where people were discussing it. That guy taking photos with a long lens from up on the hill back there had some incredible images." She waved a hand to the north rather vaguely. "He'd been taking shots of the lightning, he said. Then that other guy found the camera on the other side of the bay and we were watching it on my phone with our mouths open. I still can't believe what it looked like. Or sounded like for that matter."

"I saw the photos, yeah," Taylor nodded. "Pretty good considering how dark it was. And raining like hell too. And that video was incredible. I even heard the whirlpools from my house and we're a lot further away than you are."

"I think the whole city heard it," Lucy laughed. "I swear I could feel the ground vibrating while that was happening. I guess it might have been my imagination but it was absolutely horrifying even on a little phone screen."

"Certainly left an impression, didn't it?" Taylor chuckled, her friend nodding emphatically.

"There's about a dozen trees down on the road near my house, and one place had a big wall fall over when the water filled a dip at the bottom of the hill," Lucy continued a moment later. "It's going to take weeks to clear it all up, but from what I heard no one really got too badly hurt by everything that happened. Which is kind of amazing really. Considering it sounded like the end of the world for a few hours."

"Dad and I were watching the lightning at two in the morning," Taylor remarked with a small smile. "Who could sleep through that?"

"Not me, that's for sure," the other girl replied fervently. "I've never heard thunder like that before."

"Storm of the century they're already calling it."

"I can see why. Hopefully there won't be another one that bad for another century…"

"I think we'd all prefer that, yeah." Both of them got up after a look at the time, then strolled off down the road, having just wanted a short break and a drink. "Is Arcadia opening tomorrow like normal?" she asked as they wandered generally in the direction of the shopping district, aimed very vaguely towards Mike's shop.

"As far as I know, yeah," Lucy replied, glancing at her. "That whole neighborhood had a power failure but Dad said the news was that it was fixed this morning before I got up, so aside from some blocked roads I don't think they've got any reason to close it. Some people probably won't be able to get in, but most will. I didn't hear of any damage to the school itself."

"I guess Vicky wouldn't care about a blocked road," Taylor laughed. "She'll just fly over it."

"That is what she does, yes," Lucy agreed, grinning. "I wish I could fly. It's one of the best powers."

"The super strength doesn't appeal to you?"

"I mean… given the choice, I'd take that too, but the flight is the neat bit." Lucy giggled as Taylor smiled. "In my opinion anyway."

"I think you're probably right," Taylor agreed, wondering if she could one day figure out how to help her friend…

Spotting a shop in the distance, she pointed. "I want to go in there, while we're in the area," she commented. Following her finger Lucy looked mildly puzzled.

"The used computer place?"

"Yeah."

"Why?"

"I want a used computer, of course."

Sighing faintly, while Taylor grinned at her, Lucy said, "You already have a used computer as I understand it."

"Indeed I do. I would like to purchase a second one."

"For what specific reason?"

"To have two of them."

"Are you being deliberately obtuse, or is this just a happy byproduct of your overall density?"

"Possibly both!"

They shared a laugh, then Taylor explained, "The laptop I've got is a nice one although it's second hand, and it's got all my work on it. I don't want to risk losing it or having the airline eat it or something, so I want to get another one that's cheap enough that if that does happen I don't feel like screaming."

"Ah. Fair enough, that sounds sensible." Lucy nodded her understanding. By now they'd arrived at the same shop Taylor had bought her first laptop from some weeks earlier, and went inside. She headed directly to the display of used machines at the back, while her friend was looking around with interest. She already knew the one she wanted, having been examining it even before she got out of bed that morning, and when the sales guy came over, she pointed. "I'd like to have a look at that one, please," she said.

He nodded, unlocking the cabinet and removing the laptop. "You bought one from us about a month ago, if I'm remembering right."

"Yeah, I did. It's working well, got no complaints about it at all. I just needed something cheap and simple for a trip. I didn't want to risk losing the other one."

He smiled as he handed her the laptop. "A sensible idea. The number of people who save all their photos and stuff like that on one computer, never back it up, then freak out when they drop it or something is ridiculous. We see that all the damn time." He shrugged. "You get some very upset people when you tell them that four years of their personal data are gone for good. Then they buy something to back it up on the next time, but it doesn't help that particular issue very much."

Taylor opened the laptop and looked at the keyboard, prodding a few of the keys to feel the action. Her spiders would have no trouble with this when she got back and for travel it would do nicely. She had no intention of risking all her notes, nor of losing them somewhere for who knew who to find and get curious about. Even if they were encrypted by software that was highly recommended as very secure…

Why take chances?

And it wasn't like she needed to be sitting in front of the 'work' laptop in person. Or more accurately, she could sit in front of it in person even while she was sitting somewhere else. Also in person. And many other places too.

Smiling internally and feeling that her power, especially now she'd formed it into the shape she wanted, was the best thing ever, Taylor looked at the salesman. "I'll take it, thanks. And…" She looked around, before retrieving a suitable carrying case from a rack of them near the cabinet. "One of these, please. And four of those sixteen gigabyte memory sticks as well."

"The Dracotech ones?"

"Yes please."

Moving behind the counter, he rummaged under it for a moment, then unlocked the cupboard on the wall behind it with the key he retrieved. Coming up with the box the computer went in, he locked the cupboard once more and got the USB sticks for her. As he was ringing up her purchases, Lucy joined her, holding a couple of cables and a phone case. "I needed a new case, and I lost the charging cable I keep in Mom's car," she explained, putting the items on the counter.

"That'll be two hundred and six dollars with the tax, miss," the sales guy told her. Taylor pushed the things Lucy had picked out towards him, as her friend looked surprised.

"These too, please."

"Taylor, you don't have to…"

"Hush. I want to. I can afford it and you're my friend." Taylor smiled at Lucy, who looked momentarily a little startled then smiled back. "It's only…"

"Twelve dollars," the sales guy provided helpfully.

"...twelve dollars. Friends do favors for each other, and twelve dollars isn't much."

Laughing, Lucy bowed her head in acceptance. The man added the purchase to her total, and Taylor handed him eleven twenties from her wallet. "Keep the change," she said grandly, getting a dry look from him.

"Ah, a big spender. Thank you, ma'am." He seemed amused, and Lucy was giggling.

"My pleasure. I'll be sure to recommend your shop to my friends," Taylor replied, grinning. Turning to Lucy, she added, "This place is very helpful. I can recommend it."

"That was quick," he commented as he handed her the receipt, looking like he was trying not to laugh.

"Best to deal with a promise as fast as possible," she assured him. He nodded, his own grin peeking through for a moment.

"Thanks," she added, picking up her purchases and handing the cables and case to Lucy, who was still giggling furiously. Pushing her gently towards the door, she waved to the sales guy who waved back before turning to his next customer, then the pair of them exited onto the street.

Once her friend calmed down, and Taylor had slipped the small laptop and the other things into her backpack, which she slung over one shoulder, the pair continued walking fairly aimlessly. Neither had any real goal in mind, they were just wandering around enjoying the calm after the storm and watching everyone else doing the same. She found it relaxing and fun, not having had much of a similar experience for far too long until she'd met Lucy.

Her dad was probably right, she thought. Having friends was important. She didn't need many, but she was quite happy to have at least one. Probably more, considering Amy and Vicky undoubtedly counted by now. Missy too although she didn't know the younger girl well yet, but Taylor was quite impressed by her. As Vista she was remarkably effective, the occasional lapse of judgment aside.

Even as they strolled along chatting about various things, Taylor was simultaneously interfering in multiple minor crimes, annoying Kaiser with a wasp he was utterly unable to swat which was making him exceedingly irritated, listening to the PRT briefing as was habit these days and also making notes at home on the laptop, checking the underground passages for blockages and damage from the huge amount of rain that had roared through them the night before, investigating the reef and making sure that she'd thoroughly disposed of any left over traces of her drillipedes, and making quite a lot of drug dealers feel extremely aggrieved over how many cockroaches there were that liked the taste of their stock in trade.

Along with many other things. Too many to easily describe to anyone else, really.

Having recalled the drillipedes overnight after the reef collapsed, she'd sent them into the subterranean network underlying the city, both to keep them away from any possibility of discovery and to help clear a few places where debris had blocked some of the storm drains. It was probably a good thing she'd done that, at her dad's suggestion in fact, because there were at least two places where the stoppages had started growing so fast that the end result would have been a lot of flooding on the surface as the storm water found itself with nowhere to go but up. The rockworms made extremely short work of things like branches and random items of plastic and metal, chewing them to shreds with minimal effort. And they were more than capable of swimming upstream against the full force of the water rushing through the drains, many of which had filled entirely to the ceiling.

She'd wondered if any of the homeless people might be taking shelter down there and had kept many, many eyes out for that sort of thing, but apparently from what she'd overheard, most of those living rough were all too well aware that a storm drain in a storm is not a survivable place, and had found shelter elsewhere. Quite a few of them in buildings where the doors seemed to no longer be blocked off, which several people had wondered at, but not spent all that much time thinking about.

Taylor made a mental note to repair those places later.

Sometimes she looked at herself and her actions from a sort of external viewpoint and marveled at how she was doing all this in the background without any effort at all even while she was enjoying a day out with her friend, giving her full attention to every task at the same time. It was utterly ridiculous and even from what she understood about Parahuman powers would probably be considered a little strange, but it worked, and the more she learned the more she figured out how to do. Whether her power wanted to or not.

Mind you, these days it pretty much just sighed and went along with it.

It was having fun, she was sure of that. It just seemed to have a need to register a protest out of a sense of duty or something. Big drama queen that it tended to be…

Being a mildly omnipresent force for good was, in her view, rather nice. And a lot of fun. She was learning all sorts of cool things.

She'd also been watching the underground lake to the north, wondering if the storm water would affect it. The inflow to it did rise slightly, but nowhere near as much as it would have done if the rain directly emptied into it, and the same was true of the big underground river. Their main source or sources was deep under the hills and not connected to the surface by more than a few small channels. Some of the storm drains would, via a network of other tunnels, overflow into them, but that was more of an accidental byproduct than a deliberate choice on the part of the builders who had put the oldest tunnels in centuries back.

And she was pleased to see that a lot of the other tunnels stayed pretty much completely dry even in such torrential rain. The storm water was routed around them through different paths, leaving a lot of the passages she'd mapped out and made regular use of essentially unaffected, which was very helpful. Even the one from near her house to her warehouse only got a few damp patches, showing places she'd missed when she'd sent a horde of spiders through it looking for holes. Those could be patched easily, which should leave them completely weathertight.

Taylor was thinking that one of the creatures she needed to get hold of was one of the various mud dauber wasps or something of that nature. Added to the right sort of termite, and with a little creative work, she could make a whole swarm of tunnel repair insects which could fix all these little cracks over the whole city. It would be fairly straightforward, forestall all sorts of later problems, and keep her tunnels nice and dry. Win win, really, the city and herself both coming out ahead…

It was rather impressive just how many problems could be sorted out by the creative application of arthropods, she mused, following as Lucy went into another shop to have a look at a coat.

"What do you think?" her friend asked a few minutes later, turning in front of the mirror and admiring the leather coat, which had a sort of subdued scale pattern on it. Taylor laughed as she knew exactly why the other girl had instantly wanted the garment the moment she'd seen it.

"It looks like reptile skin," she replied. Lucy grinned.

"I know. Neat, right?"

"It's very you."

"All we need to find is one made out of insects and you'll have something suitable too," her friend giggled, feeling the coat.

"I'm not entirely sure insect chitin makes very good clothing," Taylor replied dubiously. "Silk would work though."

"A silk coat is a bit high end for me," Lucy laughed. "This will do nicely, and it's on sale." She peered at the tag, winced slightly, then shrugged. "Meh. My allowance is pretty reasonable and all I mostly buy is stuff for Newell. And books."

"Books and lizards are important," Taylor nodded wisely, making the other girl laugh. "But you need to look after yourself."

"He'd agree too," Lucy noted, taking the coat off and folding it over her arm. "Well, not what I planned on buying, but I'm glad I saw it. I love the color too." Taylor admired the deep blue and agreed it was very attractive, with a slightly iridescent sheen to it.

"I wonder what animal got peeled to make it?" she asked with amusement.

"I have no idea. It claims it's leather but I bet it's some sort of synthetic," her friend replied cheerfully. "I don't care. It feels nice, it fits perfectly, and it looks really good. And it's not that expensive. Come on, I'm going to buy this, then I need a burger."

"I could eat," Taylor noted with a nod.

Shortly they were heading for the familiar burger place they'd been to several times. All in all Taylor was very much feeling that life was going quite well at the moment. Near enough everyone else around her seemed to agree, which certainly gave the day a welcome feeling.

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

Putting her bag on the floor, Taylor looked evaluatingly at it, then at her closet. "Six days," she muttered, reaching into the closet and selecting various clothes. "The hotel will have a laundry so I don't need to take too much, but I should have at least four days worth…" Pulling out several t-shirts she flipped through them, picking three as ones she liked, then put the rest back. A couple of button up shirts joined them, because she might need something nicer if they went out to dinner or something. Some comfortable stretch jeans, a nice pair of slacks, socks, underwear, and various other necessities joined the rest on the bed. Soon she was folding clothes and carefully packing them into the bag, along with a new toothbrush, toothpaste, and other hygienic supplies. It didn't take her long to get the bag fully packed. Once she'd finished she zipped it up and pushed it into the corner of her closet, before closing the door. As she did so her dad tapped on her door, which was half closed, and pushed it all the way open.

"Hi, Dad," she said cheerfully. "I just packed everything for the trip. No sense waiting until the last minute."

"Sensible," he nodded, smiling. "Did you remember your swimsuit?"

"Yeah, I put that in first, along with a towel. It's important to always know where your towel is, after all."

"So I understand," he replied, his lips twitching.

"I'm looking forward to this," she said as she hopped onto her bed and flopped back onto the covers, bouncing a couple of times, as he watched. "It's been so long since we went anywhere. And I've never flown before." With a grin, she added, "On a plane anyway…"

Chuckling, he moved to sit in her desk chair, spinning it around to rest his arms on the back. "I haven't flown for years either. Should be interesting."

"We're going to New York and flying from there, right?" He nodded.

"Yeah. Meeting up with Kyle and his people, and several other union reps from up and down the East Coast. We're flying out as a group. The ILA arranged everything. Several people are taking family members too, for various reasons. No one else your age though. So we'll get the train from here to New York via Boston, meet at the airport, and then it's a little over six hours flight to LA. We'll get there early enough we can go out and have a meal, look around, that sort of thing, then get a good night's sleep before it gets…" He sighed faintly. "Probably very acrimonious."

"I hope everything works out properly," she said, watching his face. Vespa was sitting on her head as usual also watching, Taylor so used to the dual viewpoint she didn't really notice. And her dad was so used to the enormous hornet he didn't seem to notice either.

He was frowning reflectively, but not in an upset manner, more like he was anticipating something that needed to be done regardless of whether he enjoyed it. "So do I, but knowing the people involved, or at least the type of people involved, I have a feeling that things will be more than a little heated. The business owners are… well, a hell of a lot of them are not really very good people. I mean, they're probably for the most part not actually evil, or at least they sure wouldn't think of it like that, but the way they work, the way they think, ends up being pretty much the same thing from the point of view of the actual workers. Way too many people at that level tend to think of the guy loading the ship as a cost of business that they need to minimize. Not as the only reason they have a business. If it wasn't for the workers, what would they be doing? Not a lot of point owning a container ship if you can't load containers, or sail the thing, or get it fueled, or maintained, or piloted in and out of port… The little guy is key to business, but some people think that just because they manage to siphon off a cut from everyone and end up richer than god they're somehow better than the people whose work they're profiting from."

He sighed again as she listened, then waved a hand at the window in the direction of the docks. "That place has had literally hundreds of billions of dollars worth of goods go through it over the decades. Every last one of them moved by people being paid, for most of the time, much too little. The DWA loaded and unloaded ships for over two centuries. We ran the port, we maintained the vessels, we built the ships a lot of the time… the railroad is here because of the port and the only reason it's still here is because our people have kept it working as much as anyone can. Half the city is, or was, the end result of tens of thousands of people working their asses off their entire lives for over two hundred years. And about two dozen people, none of them even living here, ended up with at least ninety percent of the profit that came from the port. And the moment things started getting a little less profitable for them, the moment people started saying, 'hold on, let's discuss just where all this money is going and who's actually earning it,' chaos breaks out and the entire port gets shut down after a riot. A riot started by people who certainly didn't live in Brockton, or belong to any union here. And the rest of us pay the price while the big bosses just move their income source somewhere else and keep on going with a smile on their faces. While an entire city slowly decays, not one of them giving it a moment's more thought."

When he stopped talking, her room was silent for some time as both of them thought over his words. She'd heard something like this from him more than once before, and could remember her mom and him discussing the same thing late into the night many times, but she was now old enough, and through her abilities and the things she was constantly learning, to actually understand it in a way she couldn't before. Eventually she got up and moved to stand next to him, putting her arms around his shoulders.

"Tell them that. Make them listen," she said quietly, as she hugged him. "Make them understand that they are rich because other people aren't. And that if they keep on trying to get richer and richer, sooner or later something is going to break. In a way that they won't enjoy."

He put his hand on hers and squeezed it gently, smiling a little. "That's the plan, Taylor. Hopefully I can do it without losing my temper."

"I believe in you, Dad. So does Vespa." The hornet waved her antennae cheerfully as he looked at it, then grinned.

"And you'll have a lot of friends on your side too, right? Strength though unity and all that. I can add a whole bunch of little helpers too if you want." She laughed as he looked worried. "They're all union too, of course."

"With you as the foreman, I assume?"

"Yeah. I got voted in and everything."

Giving her a long-suffering gaze, he sighed. "We both know that pretty much every arthropod in the entire city basically is you, all at the same time. You're voting for yourself."

"Hey, quite a few of them have minds of their own, you know," she protested, several glowspiders scuttling into the room and jumping onto the bed to watch them as she spoke. He looked at the things, then her.

"I am not entirely sure that is as comforting as you might fondly believe it to be," he commented wryly. "Some people might find it… a little unnerving." Two of the spiders waved at him and he shook his head even as she giggled. "Christ. Life is very weird these days."

"But better, right?" she asked.

"I suppose so, yes," he agreed, getting up as she stepped back. "Still weird though. Oh, one thing occurred to me. Are those guys and all your other little minions going to be OK while you're all the way on the other side of the country?" He motioned to the spiders, who watched him curiously.

"Pretty sure they'll be fine, yeah," she replied, sitting on the bed again and stroking one of the spiders which quivered in happiness under her fingers. "As far as I can tell the level two link doesn't have an upper range, but I can't be completely certain until I try. This will be a good test, really. But I can make sure that even if I do somehow go out of range, they'll stay well hidden and avoid people. I'll put the drillipedes into deep sleep before I go, they're fine like that for months at least, these guys will just hang out in the tunnels, and the crabspiders are fine where they are and can look after themselves. Everything else will be coming with me."

"Please don't infest LA with abominations of nature," he begged.

"I won't infest anywhere, Dad," she replied indignantly. "I do not infest. I improve."

His somewhat narrow-eyed look made her grin. "Yeaaah… Improve. I'm sure you think that. Many might disagree."

"Not people with sense and wit, I assure you, my dear chap," she giggled airily with a wave of one hand. "Those in the know feel I am doing a very acceptable job."

"Those in the know being restricted to the two of us."

"Of course."

He looked at her for a while, then shook his head and turned to leave. "I have no idea how this all happened," he sighed, going out the door and down the stairs.

"But it's fun, right?" she shouted after him, grinning.

"Right, Dad? Fun?"

Getting up she followed, because it was lunch time and she was hungry. And in two days it would be time to travel to interesting places and see what was there. Then bring some of it home for further study.

She had quite a list of creatures to look for and many ideas how they could be very useful...

 

[DunScaith]

Welp LA is definitely in for a surprise. Poor bastards have no idea of who's about to come to town.

 

[Corabough]

Welp LA is definitely in for a surprise. Poor bastards have no idea of who's about to come to town.

Click to shrink...

Alexandria is going to lose her mind and pull out all her hair if she notices QueenTaylor doing her thing… and it's gonna be glorious!

 

[AnubisUzumaki]

I can add a whole bunch of little helpers too if you want." She laughed as he looked worried. "They're all union too, of course.

Click to shrink...

Shouldn't be Legion instead of union by now?

 

[DunScaith]

Alexandria is going to lose her mind and pull out all her hair if she notices QueenTaylor doing her thing… and it's gonna be glorious!

Click to shrink...

I'm reminded of the fact that the Elite are also primarily West Coast based.

 

[ForwardRewind]

I wonder if who blocked the bay will actually come up while Taylor is in LA. If say, it was those shipping company CEOs. That'd certainly put a dent in their profits. Best case scenario? Them having to pay out retroactive raises for the people they screwed over because 'not enough money' (Hilariously, if it's because the record keeping said they did give the raises, and did some sort of tax write-off), fines for blocking trade, along with charges for the bribery that did to keep it blocked. Along with a quick change of leadership for those companies.

And maybe some other consequences because of it.

 

[Luminatira]

..Poor LA. Taylor is about to spread level 2 friends all over the town, to improve it xD

 

[Sandy River DL]

"Tell them that. Make them listen," she said quietly, as she hugged him. "Make them understand that they are rich because other people aren't. And that if they keep on trying to get richer and richer, sooner or later something is going to break. In a way that they won't enjoy."

Click to shrink...

"You okay Forgelight?"

"It was a sneeze, Gremlin. A sneeze. Not a sign I'm being attacked. At most someone was talking about me, and that's only if you believe that idea. Now be a good girl and cut the chatter, I've got five minutes to get into position before Kaiser starts his speech..."

(Taylor from a fic I've got a couple of chapters from in my Story Hold, who is what they wouldn't be enjoying)

 

[ReginaLancifur]

The Varga bleed is strong.

 

[ExaltedNekoKun]

Some level two bugs in Boston and New York and then LA. She'll then... improve the environs under the nose of at least Legend and Alexandria. Legend will probably be appreciative, though Becca might notice too many details and begin stressing. Good times.

 

[Ace Dreamer]

pull any number of facts out of given half a chance

Click to shrink...

missing word(s)?

---

Lucy gets a lizard-hide coat - probably made by Ianthe? Planted by Saurial?

Clear waters mean cheerful hearts...

LA - prepare to be bugged!

(So, three kobolds in a trenchcoat... How many glow-spiders and jumping spiders will be flying Economy to LA? )

((Taylor hasn't done the bugs that 'paint' the latex human face-masks, with 'Mission Impossible' realism yet, no? Nor the human-voice impersonating bugs, nor the ones that 'do' human hands... WIP, WIP...))

EDIT:

I may have done this in a previous comment, but Frank Herbert's the Green Brain (1966) might be... of interest. A future world where humans have dominated almost all life on Earth, particularly killing all insects in many areas...

 

[Kytheros]

Yeah, the blockage of the Bay is something the Dockworkers would not have been happy about, and the fact that it has stayed blocked for so long, especially with what's apparently a blatantly terrible and inaccurate assessment, that's not going to make anyone any happier. At all.

On the upside, the storm having unblocked the Bay, effectively partially dredged a lot of it, and quite possibly functionally improved the deep water shipping channel ... that's going to make a lot of locals happy.
And will quite possibly have an impact on the negotiations.


--

I think the greater question is not how many critters Taylor takes with and may or may not distribute and leave behind on her trip, but what critters Taylor will be able to acquire on said trip.
She's likely to want to keep an even lower profile on her trip, since if anybody were to notice anomalies ... there aren't going to be that many people who would overlap with her activities for her to be able to hide in.

 

[Yhalee]

Some level two bugs in Boston and New York and then LA.

Click to shrink...

And as someone else mentioned on SB we're likely to see Taylor slip a level 2 bug through a door to Caldron's base, resulting in her hearing the most interesting discussions. Also resulting in QA possibly having access to the Flesh Garden, which she might hijack. I do wonder if her power will work across dimensions like that, but since apparently it treats every level 2 link as another copy of Taylor, I can't see any reason it wouldn't work.

 

[QuietlyObserving]

That ship should have been removed inside a year from when it went down, if not within months. It could probably have been refloated at one point before the damage of neglect and tides had made that impossible. It certainly could have been blown up or something, he was sure of that. It would probably have been possible to hire a Parahuman to get rid of the fucking thing somehow, despite all the complications the NEPEA laws introduced. Yet nothing had been done and it just sat there choking off the economy of the entire city for more than a decade and a half, all blamed on the riots back in ninety five with no one, at least no one in a position to, apparently wanting to do a damn thing about it.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, the blockage of the Bay is something the Dockworkers would not have been happy about, and the fact that it has stayed blocked for so long, especially with what's apparently a blatantly terrible and inaccurate assessment, that's not going to make anyone any happier. At all.

Click to shrink...

Taylor might have accidentally set off a bomb here.

Because guess whose responsibility it is to maintain clear harbors and channels? It's not the city, or county, or state.

It's the Army Corps of Engineers, working with the Coast Guard for navigational safety and aids. So unless Bet is wildly different in laws that were passed well before Scion? There was fuckery going on at a federal level, and the ship moving might suddenly reignite interest and make someone ask "so what happened that neither the Coast Guard nor the Corps of Engineers did their jobs/had the funding/permission to do their jobs?" The US government does not take it kindly when a piece of national infrastructure like a deep draft harbor is rendered inoperable for even a few weeks.

Taylor, coming back from LA, and suddenly there's news of Congressional hearings and corruption investigations on a national level:
"If I had a nickel for every time my actions caused a political shitstorm, I'd have two nickels-"

 

[Epic Reader]

And as someone else mentioned on SB we're likely to see Taylor slip a level 2 bug through a door to Caldron's base, resulting in her hearing the most interesting discussions. Also resulting in QA possibly having access to the Flesh Garden, which she might hijack. I do wonder if her power will work across dimensions like that, but since apparently it treats every level 2 link as another copy of Taylor, I can't see any reason it wouldn't work.

Click to shrink...

Technically, it's all flowing through QA, so if any cape has powers in a place, Taylor's L2 critters will work exactly as well as QA lets them... and poor QA is pretty well under Taylor's thumb, so...

...yeah.

Good luck, Custodian.

 

[Daryl Froggy]

Alexandria is going to lose her mind and pull out all her hair if she notices QueenTaylor doing her thing… and it's gonna be glorious!

Click to shrink...

Some level two bugs in Boston and New York and then LA. She'll then... improve the environs under the nose of at least Legend and Alexandria. Legend will probably be appreciative, though Becca might notice too many details and begin stressing. Good times.

Click to shrink...

I think it would be far funnier if Alexandria only noticed the results, like those in Brockton Bay are, and feels it is good since it helps her concentrate on her big scary conspiracy. Not realizing that QueenTaylor now knows far more than anyone else.

 

[LostArchivist]

The Great Mattress Migration of 2019.

Click to shrink...

What the Fnord?!

(If you ask me, this is all about Taylor's shoggoh heritage showing itself. )

Click to shrink...

I've been insinuating that from before I knew she was descended from sorcerers on both sides of the Family...

Spider, Hideously Enormous, Lives On Bay.

SHELOB

Can't believe you passed this one up. And the next one should be the:

Unusually Noble, Giant, Oddly Loquacious, Incredible Anti-Nazi Tarantula?

UNGOLIANT

Click to shrink...

These are amazing, and I feel like at least the first one is going to get proposed quickly if the PRT's name ever gets out.

Lady Of Legs, Taylor Hebert?

Click to shrink...

Nice. Unfortunately, will only work among those who know her identity.

We've had one window near the top blow in already and we've had to clear out an office because it was like the sprinklers came on. Totally soaked in about thirty seconds. It's raining sideways at the moment, right at that side of the building, at about eighty miles an hour.

Click to shrink...

It's like someone upstairs had a special message for them.

Maybe you shouldn't be so punchable, then

Click to shrink...

Lol, ouch.

I also just saw one of those yachts that moor up near the end of the Boardwalk go whizzing off into the dark, backwards. Pretty sure someone's going to be filing an insurance claim tomorrow because I don't think they're going to get it back

Click to shrink...

That's a funny mental image. Well, except to the owner.

►Foxx_The_Fox (Verified Cute)
Replied On Mar 5th 2011:

It has its good points

►Laotsunn (Kyushu Survivor)
Replied On Mar 5th 2011:

Name one.

I'll wait.

Click to shrink...

Well, he'll get one shortly.

I've seen the Rig get hit at least a couple of dozen times so far. Got some amazing photos, the force-field seems to get supercharged or something when that happens and goes really bright for a few seconds. I wonder what it's like on board?

Click to shrink...

I bet the people on the rig are cursing him because it's probably a lot less fun there.

Incidentally, PlanWhatPlan, may we use those photos? Our PR department started giggling all at the same time when they saw them Which was... unnerving.

Click to shrink...

That's weirder than usual. Why would they want the footage that much?

►KeyboardCivilian (Terminally Online)
Replied On Mar 5th 2011:

Like an entire hive of HOUSs?

►Laotsunn (Kyushu Survivor)
Replied On Mar 5th 2011:

Don't push your luck. I am not so drunk yet I can't find you.

Click to shrink...

It's funnier knowing that they're actually poking the dragon. Even if he's mostly downgraded to merely grumpy thanks to the HOUSes and booze.

Only that one seems to be still working but it's got a reasonably good view of the ship and that part of the bay. Pity there's so much fucking rain, but you can still see the thing fairly well with all the lightning.

Click to shrink...

Nice. Someone is about to get a great view of the whirlpools from hell. I was hoping someone would get to see that for posterity.

►I.Like.Big.Bangs
Replied On Mar 5th 2011:

He's probably right. And I can't see any signs at all of explosives either.

Click to shrink...

Well, Bakuda would probably know.

It's going to be interesting to see what the bay looks like in daylight.

Probably very angry chocolate sauce with lumps in.

Click to shrink...

I was already thinking of the rather crass epithet 'the bay emptied like a constipated man who just ate Taco Bell' and this is not helping me avoid hysterical laughter.

At one point he'd been genuinely wondering if Leviathan was paying a visit, but in the end it was just a storm.

Click to shrink...

That's what THEY want you to think.

But for some reason the people in charge at the time, before he'd even become a city councilor, had apparently done a cursory study, come up with a figure that was clearly ridiculously low, then thrown their hands in the air and claimed even that was unaffordable. Which it hadn't been, and still wasn't.

Click to shrink...

Gee, it's like it might be an extension of the conspiracy that put the boat there.

And that the insurance claim on it had been paid almost before it finished settling to the bottom…

Click to shrink...

Nope. If I saw that I'd be crying fraud from the fluffing rooftops. I know a guy who's been dealing with insurance bullshit for four years now and he's only gotten escalating piles of shit, and more costs and damages than he started with due to their stringing him along. If they didn't manage to dodge paying for an intentional sinking, they're more crooked than the ship is now or utterly incompetent and deserve the investigation anyway.

Proof that at one point someone had thought that the Bay needed a local presence, which made it all the stranger that it was apparently so often left to fend for itself…

Click to shrink...

Ooo, he might just find out about the other conspiracy...
Wait, is it even a different one? If Coil was involved, it might actually have been part of their plan.

If it was up to Roy he'd have arranged to have certain people like that shot while attempting to escape, but for some bizarre reason that hardly ever seemed to happen. The public weren't unaware of this either and a lot of them weren't entirely pleased about it.

Click to shrink...

Well, capes do tend to ignore civvies, so perhaps some of the same applies to Contessa. That or she's not bothered to think about second order effects.

"Holy shit," she murmured, appalled at just how fast the water had claimed something that big.

Click to shrink...

Holey ship?

She was momentarily somewhat surprised that the Rig was still there, actually…

Luckily it was about five miles from the former wreck, because if it had been much closer she was fairly certain the Protectorate might well need a new base.

Click to shrink...

As it is, they may need new pants now.

"Suddenly I don't have any questions about how that fucking ship disappeared so thoroughly," Assault remarked, his normal slight smile entirely missing. "Holy crap, that was the most horrifying thing I think I've ever seen in my life."

Click to shrink...

It only takes a foot of moving water to disappear cars. I would be completely unsurprised, but I also can't argue with him.

Emily slowly smiled, feeling that the day was looking up already. Costa-Brown would probably bitch about it, she was a massive pain in the ass about such things, but by then those two Nazi bastards would be someone else's problem.

Click to shrink...

I'm surprised there's no commentary about how evil that smile must have looked. The Grinch would be proud.

was feeling rather cheerful for most of the rest of the meeting. And quite grateful that this one didn't have Professor Brooks attending…

Click to shrink...

Yeah, that probably did help, really. As nice as the man is, he's entirely too enthusiastic about very disturbing bugs.

And I've looked up some exotic pet shops there too.

Click to shrink...

As if she needs more help.

The memory of in fact actually hearing something very odd during the peak of the storm came back to her and she wondered if she really had heard these damn things spinning up.

Click to shrink...

Hell, I can hear them from here!

"Certainly left an impression, didn't it?" Taylor chuckled, her friend nodding emphatically.

Click to shrink...

Definitely in the water!

"Indeed I do. I would like to purchase a second one."

"For what specific reason?"

"To have two of them."

Click to shrink...

No joke, I resemble that remark.

annoying Kaiser with a wasp he was utterly unable to swat which was making him exceedingly irritated

Click to shrink...

She's an unending well of pettiness and we love her for it.

Taylor was thinking that one of the creatures she needed to get hold of was one of the various mud dauber wasps or something of that nature. Added to the right sort of termite, and with a little creative work, she could make a whole swarm of tunnel repair insects which could fix all these little cracks over the whole city.

Click to shrink...

But where is she going to find all the little yellow hard hats?

"What do you think?" her friend asked a few minutes later, turning in front of the mirror and admiring the leather coat, which had a sort of subdued scale pattern on it.

Click to shrink...

Saurial? My goodness, what happened to you?!

"I believe in you, Dad. So does Vespa." The hornet waved her antennae cheerfully as he looked at it, then grinned.

Click to shrink...

And if anyone causes problems, they are going to believe in Vespa.

"I won't infest anywhere, Dad," she replied indignantly. "I do not infest. I improve."

Click to shrink...

I dunno, even saying that seems a bit suspect...

 

[japh]

And the city also had a number of big mobile generators that could be moved on site and provide temporary power for entire neighborhoods, even if the damage to a substation or something of that nature required longer repair times.

Click to shrink...

in case

and a lot of other things he'd pull any number of facts out of given half a chance

Click to shrink...

up about

and a calculating mind that belied his somewhat drab exterior

Click to shrink...

was belied by

An accommodation could doubtless be reached far more easily than at times in the past.

Click to shrink...

Just "at times past".

 

[1stSlug]

I wonder what Taylor is going to do with her half of Coils money? Personally, I'd be tempted to buy some of the real-estate in the now open bay...

 

[FaerieKnight79]

Buy computers and help with the bills, it looks like.

 

[YuffieK]

But where is she going to find all the little yellow hard hats?

Click to shrink...

Yellow ladybugs. Normal sized, albeit damn near indestructible.

If you need bigger, you can go with scarab beetles.

 

[Bucios05]

Well, at least a third of the chapter is dedicated to Mayor Roy, and his point of view of the whole situation regarding the wrecked ship that blocked the entrance and is no longer there (in addition to other minor damages caused by the storm around the City); as well as seeing his opinion on Danny Hebert, whom he respects, for his dedication and skills, despite usually being on opposite sides, although this time they may work together (something Taylor will definitely appreciate, more work for her father and his people)

Aside from hehehe, seeing that even he is aware of the rumors among PRT Parahumans (with whom he also does not have the best of relationships, partly due to their great failures in containing the crminal Capes, something that may diminish, those constant failures, now that Calvert is no longer creating interference to screw Emily Piggot and make her look bad), such as a supposed relationship between Armsmaster and Dragon

Another significant part was dedicated to the PRT and their point of view and opinions of what happened, with everything working Machiavellianly for Taylor, even the improved video that Dragon found and fixed, shows how the relentless forces of nature were the "responsible" for what happened (and the little push of a certain Vespa has nothing to do with it, one with a lot of curiosity and free time, XD); to get Stormtiger and Alabaster out of the city, as I said in Roy's part, now without Calvert's interference (plus the great purge of spies and infiltrators that his information caused), they shouldn't have that much trouble doing it

And also seeing Taylor spending time with Lucy and having fun like she hasn't done for almost two years, plus seeing how thanks to the large amount of insects she handles, and her new multitasking ability, she is in several places at once, also planning accordingly for her trip (plus maybe having an idea of a future gift for Lucy, aside from the charger and the cell phone case that Taylor bought for her when paying for it along with her new laptop to travel with - that one's for Taylor -). the one she talks about, plus Lucy's previous experiences in NY (and of Taylor eventually finding a way to share her other world with Lucy, definitely sounds familiar, at least, after Lucy learns that Tay is Vespa/HOUS, with Taylor showing her - and Danny - her tunnels and secret lake - which apparently and surprisingly weren't damaged during the storm - )

On the last part, as for those Danny and others have to talk to, hmm, maybe, besides moral support, Taylor could actually help him with a fly (and/or other bugs) on the wall, secretly looking for or learning information that could be useful to him, plus seeing if LA would also have super bugs sightings that could make Piggot and the rest of the PRT directors more nervous; and not only them, but also the possible villains of the place, who will gain a healthy fear of insects, perhaps in LA a Super Scorpion will appear?

Good luck and keep it up