Haze Gray 22
"You all do realize I'm a private citizen correct. As are the others? We are starting what people would call a hero team, that's because of the laws as written, and the ways our lawyers have found to work inside of them? I believe we would all prefer to be left to our legal pursuits and not bothered, as is our right. I appreciate the information and I can speak for the other members of the team; we want to help; we will help where we are able. We are not however going to wait forever. Especially in the case of super villains in our home port, erh, town. If they present a danger to us or others we can, and will, act.
"I get the concern about collateral damage. I even agree with those concerns, notice I have not engaged Lung or Kaiser to this point though I easily could. That should not be construed to mean I won't.
Tess nodded "We won't."
Taylor conceded her point with a nod, then continued "I'm fifteen. I have things I want to do, which don't involve super villains. They should really leave me alone. Now, couldn't all this force be applied to say, the Slaughterhouse Nine? Wouldn't that be a more productive use of your time? I'm not going anywhere; the Governor has all his people lined up. Lung knows what I want, as does Kaiser. They can work on it and fight off the Governor in the courts if they are able, or they cannot. In which case, they can't live in those buildings forever.
"We've got twenty-four, sixty-one ton dogs who can deal with any others, and perhaps those two, push comes to shove. I can, Tess can, Amy can."
"Do not mention my weight."
"She does after all have over forty-seven thousand horsepower available. As well as pretty decent self-defense capability." Amy smiled, pleased.
Chaos looked around at everyone smiling. Emily snorted. Barack chuckled "OK, now that that's out of the way can anyone tell me what we are going to do about the crab head princess? Isn't she supposed to be finding a place to make herself a pain about now?"
Lisa nodded "I want to hear this."
Rebecca Costa Brown nodded rising, and walking to the podium "The short answer? We don't know what the Simurgh is doing. Obviously, it has somehow discovered the game, anime, and this rudimentary online game, and is making itself into what should be the Jellyfish Princess given its location if we go by the game. Though the Jellyfish Princes was an amorphous blob. Obviously, it has eschewed that part of the lore in favor of a more blatant display of its assets for unknown reasons.
"At least as far as the researchers can tell me. The problem is the game is a tabletop card game, or it was, that started in Japan. With Japan being in the condition it's in, it has been expanded outside of Japan by sometimes unscrupulous persons.
"There is a core 'lore' if you will, that is accepted by most people familiar with the subject. Then there are fanfictions, internet movies, Utube channels, several abortive attempts at online games and other types of outlets.
"It's one entertainment item that seems to be going the opposite direction, What I mean is that normally Aleph entertainment items get imported to here. This one seems to be going from here to Aleph and they have much better control of it. One company has the 'rights'. An artefact of how we agreed to use the gateway.
"Finally, there are now actual, real, live Shipgirls. Whose every action immediately becomes 'canon'. We can however talk to the Shipgirls.
"We cannot talk to the Endbringers. They are so 'other' as to make it impossible to communicate with two of them and the third, well we know what its communication does to people.
"As it is also an enormously powerful precog, we can't really know what it is doing.
"We continue to watch and will help anyone who requires our assistance in defending themselves in the case of an attack.
"It does localize that one of them for us, in a place where it isn't hurting anyone, where it is easier to observe it.
The President got up and walked to the podium "Thanks everyone, Taylor I think you are on the right track. I told the cabinet secretaries that this is how we get hope rising and you have been a big part of that, all we can ask of you is that you keep doing what you have been.
"Governor, we will be happy to help you and your folks going forward and I think the Justice department has some issues they also want to press with Lung and Kaiser.
"The military will continue to operate in the area as we study what we did right here and try to get ready to move on to some other areas that could use some hope.
"As for the Simurgh being an it, I think that's pretty obviously mistaken. I'm going to go with female pronouns. No progress on getting her to wear more clothes? Maybe look into whether or not she gets a cut of the merchandise and you will unravel some of those unknown reasons." He smiled at the chuckles.
"Now, the girls are having a sleepover on your berthing barge Taylor, so I need to go tuck them in. Tomorrow we are going to figure out what to do about that and how we are going to clean that mess up.
"Immigration and naturalization have your ducks in a row please Janet. Kathleen Health and human services as well.
"Then there are some people on the west coast I want to look at."
Haze Gray
"You don't have to stay dad."
"Who would the little rascals warm their cold little feet on then?"
Taylor laughed and shook her head, "OK, yell if you need anything. We got rooms. See you in the morning."
Taylor walked past the room the president was in, his daughters' room next door to it, and entered the one in the row of four they had. Amy was already sitting on one of the berths. Taylor got ready and lay down closing her eyes and meeting all the girls in her Battle Two. The alternate ship command post in her fire control tower. "So?"
Lisa shrugged "Legit. They would prefer we not start a campaign here in town, I think we all agree with that. They are going to try damn hard to put Lung and Kaiser away, it's going to cost those two a fortune in legal fees and 'philanthropy' to buy their way out of it, if they can. Some smart prosecutor or tax lawyer may eat their lawyers' lunch yet.
"At that point it's going to get iffy again when they try to arrest those two.
"The PRT has no idea what the Simurgh is doing, I'm not sure she does either. I think she was bored? I'm not getting the vibe that she is going to attack at all. Something is wildly different there. And it isn't her lack of modesty. Costa Brown is right about that, the clothes really don't matter to her, it's like grass growing on a planet, the planet doesn't notice right?
"The President knows about another trafficking ring they have been working on. He wants to pick this up, or the leaders of it, and move them out there and break that up. That's his number one with a bullet.
"The girls are in such good shape now, and in a good place mentally, that they shouldn't be in by the way, what did you two do? Any way you can expect to get a bunch more if they do break that up. Not as many will stay as they are American kids, but some will as their parents are shit and either sold them or gave them away. Some state agencies out there are about to be in serious trouble because some of the ones out there were in the system and the First Lady is going to hit the fucking ceiling.
Tess nodded "Saltykovkoya Bratva, Parahuman gang just getting to be a real pain in the north west."
"Wouldn't that be pain in the south west? Spring break? I always wanted to cruise the Straights of Juan de Fuca and Georgia." Taylor said. The other girls looked at her and broke up laughing. They were pretty sure she had to look that up.
Lisa hesitated "Something is off about Costa Brown, it's like its two different people. On TV she is different than she is in person.
Haze Gray
"And Tattletale never had a clue?" Alexandria asked her double.
Carmen, the double, shrugged "Like everyone I expect, not enough to ask the question out loud. It can be passed off with the camera adding ten pounds legend."
Alexandria nodded "Door to Cauldron."
Carmen watched her leave and the portal close "And you are welcome as always Rebecca. Good thing you pay so well."
Haze Gray
Rebecca walked into the conference room. She looked at Kurt who was grinning wildly "Are you drinking again?"
"Mmm? No better. Goddamn Tattletale is a genius, at least in the markets. Anything to do with money really. Her power must have been designed for it. And she does it all without destabilizing the markets and tripping the watchdogs. Little bites here and there, but hundreds at first, then thousands, now millions of them now she has this program set up taking advantage of the electronic trading in all the markets. I wonder if it has anything to do with her being a Kanmusu and having a serious computer on board?
"She did take some risk today though. she got out of all of her energy positions and hedges except the shorts. She must have gotten, or rather they must have gotten, the oil thing Dragon was working on running, and it proved out obviously.
"Hmmm, all of her resource positions really, except agriculture? But she is buying farm land like a carpet bagger in reconstruction? Oh, that land wasn't in crops already. OK, I see."
Rebecca thought about it for a moment and nodded "And the Simurgh?"
"The numbers are changing around her constantly. Leviathan too. It looks to reach an apogee in the next twenty-four hours then that will head into a decline again reaching entropy in six weeks, then heading back toward apogee. So still the normal cycle just a different look. Oh, well, a different end state as well. This is going to take some data and modeling."
"Maybe work on that instead of playing with your girlfriend?"
"Don't be catty, playing with my girlfriend is where most of our money comes from remember? Selling powers got us the nest egg, but me working in the markets keeps us running." Kurt stated plainly.
Haze Gray
Barack got up in the morning thinking he might need a boat. These bunks were nice. He looked around and stepped to the window. He blinked at his wife, sitting with other women, all in bathing suits and wraps, watching a dock full of girls swimming. He shuddered with a chill. He was going to have to go down there and get in that thing and not scream like a girl. You know, they never told you about crap like this before you were a father. The bastards just sat around smiling, suckering you into it. OK, time to man up.
He was proud of himself and treading water after that dive in and the shout, not scream, under water, right until Danny Hebert walked up dry as a bone "How is it, I was waiting for summer myself."
Michelle grinned at him as he kept playing with the girls and their friends in the freezing dock. He got out, after a respectable time, either he was getting used to it or going numb, and glared at the hopeful look in the researcher's eyes and the frown on his doctor's face as the man stood there holding a sample container of every description. Damn vampire. "Where is your daughter Danny?"
Danny looked at the tablet in his hand "About Casco Bay, clear of all the islands and in open water heading east, they left early. Something out there Taylor says, she had a 'feeling'. Leslie has a drone that has like a week endurance? Runs on diesel fuel, craziest thing. Little slow though, hundred miles an hour. Crazy range on the sensors. Huge wing span and turbo charged, it can get to like fifteen thousand feet carrying a hundred pounds of sensors. Which Tess and the shops worked on of course. They can probably see England in this weather. Well, Ireland. Plus, their first open ocean run."
Haze Gray
"Taylor?"
"Yeah I see it. Konig class, I think, little tough to tell with all that marine growth, but it's in pieces? How the hell is that floating even. Uh, Amy, you and Rachel better turn south. Rachel, you got the pups right? Coordinate them on an attack, half their torpedoes at most, I got a bad feeling."
Amy, who had been looking for Konig class on the internet snorted "It's a ghost ship, there were three of the class in Scapa Flow that were 'salvaged', mainly had chunks blown off and the coal taken out of them. This looks like someone put it together out of the three with a hammer, so this is naked hussy or one of her siblings. One guess which one."
Lisa came up on the net "I'll look for the salamander. You going to get some gunnery practice Tay? Then we can do some torpedoes, then the bird farms can get some practice."
Taylor nodded "OK, but if we are going to do that let's close to say ten kilometers, then Tess can get some gunnery work in with that SAP stuff. Rachel ranges to like twenty-four thousand meters but Tess doesn't with SAP. If the lizard shows up we haul ass and dump everything we got on him."
Noelle nodded "Especially if she is wearing a giant crab for a hat and a string bikini."
"Yeah, what is with the crab hats? I mean string bikini I got, boys, but who is that crab hat supposed to appeal to, Van De Camp? Or the British tabloids like its Ascot stupid hat and shoe day?
"Dwight, Brocton Bay. We found something. Sending you the data, we're going to do a sink ex."
Leslie asked "Shoes?"
Taylor nodded "Heels on grass? Bitches must have calves of iridium. Probably bounce a super heavy. The guys? Top hats and tail coats, how hard is that?"
Haze Gray
Barack started herding girls as soon as he heard the siren. It was the away pattern but no sense take chances. His chief of staff and the head of his detail ran up "Where?"
"In the Atlantic. Brockton and her battle group are closing to engage an SMS Konig class battleship. It could hardly be anything else but Leviathan."
Barack looked up at a skylight and through it into a clear, bright blue, sky. "OK, so new behavior then. All right, let's get some eyes on. What are Dwight and her group doing?"
Chaos stepped up "Opening the range running south sir, Brockton's group are straight out from Casco bay, Portland Maine. Brockton was just about to turn her task group south to come back to port when her air search assets found the Konig."
"Somebody get David on the phone and let's find out if he knows he is missing some war booty. Make it a conference call, get Stephen on the line too. Nova Scotia is right there. We don't want to lose any more of Canada. Send Hue to Brockton's task force, Damn, we can't, if it's like the 'lore' she will be the only one in Dwight's group able to see the damn things. Get some Women volunteers assigned up here and in this dock, today!" Barack took the towel the steward brought him then the robe and stepped into the slippers. "Get the PRT on too, where are they sending the response? Here or Portland?"
He was shown to a set of screens "Ah, catch you at a bad time Barack?" David, the Prime Minister of the UK asked.
"No David, any idea why my Kanmusu are closing the range on a Konig class battleship?"
"So that's why the sirens, where?"
Barack looked at a map "Just about a hundred miles dead east of Portland Maine."
"Damn, not again."
"Not yet Stephen. Kanmusu Seawolf is looking for Leviathan."
"Bastard could be anywhere Barack. If he can sink a glacier carved island that was basically solid rock, he could be doing this from the Milwaukie deep." the prime minister of Canada, Stephen said.
"Sorry Barack, the people at Flotta tell me there has been some disturbance in Scapa flow for a week. Sediment kicked up, that sort of thing. They thought the wrecks had finally collapsed."
Barack nodded at the screen and Gary Roughhead appeared in a thumbnail "Gary?"
"Konig class, twelve inch guns, nothing on the mark eights. Brockton ranges him, has better penetration, hell Brockton has better explosive fill, OK I got the data feed. Hmm she is closing the range hard, Panacea is turned south, but has her ASROCs oriented. Are those self defense? OK, Dwight has a group covering Panacea. Looks like they are going to let the Tender and Tribal engage, Not bad as long as those breech blocks haven't been replaced. Plus, how fouled must those bores be? Drone video coming up now."
Barack rubbed his hand down his face "Those things were still armed?"
David Cameron sighed "Sorry yes, the breech blocks were removed, and we still have those, or they were melted down for scrap, but then they were scuttled, and we never got the shells out, too deep to be salvaged. Coal fired as well, so no concerns about oil, and quite hazardous as well, explosives weren't anywhere near as stable in those days, so they were left I'm afraid."
Barack watched Tess get straddled and glared at the screen. Stephen said "Merde."
"Eight thousand meters. Wide group but that will get better with his bores cleared. Well crap. How is he doing that?" Barack oriented his glare on Gary "Doesn't matter really, she's in evasive, so is the tender, picking up speed both, and answering. Good hits. Wow the tender has a hard on for that BB. The PTs are circling, That will be a pack attack on both flanks. He'll never stay afloat through it. Or he wouldn't. What the hell is that thing made of? All three of them I guess. And the capitol ships are pulling back to max range, split up, still mutually supporting and Brocktons five inch are in range.
"Air coming in, five hunder pounders, pretty good, the Marines too. Holy crap are those super Harriers or something? Nice.
"Wow, we are getting this recorded right? How to beat a BB to pieces 101 right here. OK, Brockton turn awa- good girl and a broadside, point blank. Wow we need more of those ships. He straddled her, she needs to, good girl. Another volley of main gun. Damn she is fast on the guns. Accurate too, she mauled him. First salvo on three of his turrets, second at the turrets or magazines on the water line. Torpedoes in the water!
"Holy crap how many airplanes did America put up? Did those helicopters just put torpedoes in the water over there? Look at that roster tail, how much horsepower does Brockton have installed? Somebody get me the, thank you, thirty seven knots and climbing, must be on war emergency. Not sure he will get another volley with her in range. His gun service is slow.
Gary chuckled "Whoever that tender is don't piss her off, all that white phosphorus. Never seen marine growth burn like that. Good hits from the torpedoes. Breaking up on the surface. It'll be hard for him to fight now. I think Brocton took out his A turret and jammed the Y, he looks like he is trying to turn to bear with B,C, and X, even as he is falling apart.
"SOSUS reports multiple torpedoes in the water here." He highlighted an area on the map. "The sub must have found Levitan. Or suspects where he is. Those torpedoes can apparently run for quite a way. Brockton's group is withdrawing. Still shooting, wow that's good gunnery, the wreck ate all of those super heavies. Tender, Athabasca and the carriers are all HE, Marines, what else, some napalm apparently."
"The ASW helos are prosecuting a contact. Did we have any subs in the area?"
They all watched the tremendous explosion "Broke him up, compromised his magazines with that second ap volley point blank, and those torpedoes from Athabasca. Wille Pete lit his magazines up. That last AP salvo couldn't have helped him. All that HE and the napalm either. That one will never fight again."
After looking at the whooping girls and four inch tall people, as well as the regular sized folks, Barack sighed "They are so grounded." Danny laughed. "Sorry."
"No problem sir, and at least one of them is grounded. Closing the range. What the hell was that?"
David Cameron nodded "Made an assumption I think. Didn't know the Konigs were still loaded."
Haze Gray
Taylor looked around "Anyone need to change panties before we get back?"
Amy joined and blushed "Sorry. They took the breech blocks out; they didn't take the shells off."
Taylor slid over and gave her a one armed hug "How the hell did he shoot them then? Lisa what are you doing? Launching torpedoes at fish?"
"No! Haul ass, and swerve, have the dogs dump their fish, there are a shit load of U boats out here. Dump yours too everyone. I'll catch them and keep them from all gang banging one target. Make that a metric shit ton. Holy crap how many of the things did we sink in the war?"
Amy asked "Are they first or second world war?"
"How am I supposed to know?"
"Well two hundred and two sunk in the Atlantic first world war. Seven hundred and fifty or so second. Plus a couple of Japanese subs. Some others too if he used those."
"Lisa, Tess, see what you can get and give us vectors for ASROC. Feed Rachel vectors for the dogs too. Leslie, Noelle-"
"We're on its boss, Dwight's groups ASW assets are coming in too I have them." Leslie replied.
"OK, best speed zigzagging to Brockton Bay and let me see if we got nets and net tenders. Fucking Japanese subs? Was the Atlantic the party ocean or something?"