Mel looked over as the door to the side room opened to reveal Ianthe, followed by Newter, who was pulling his shirt on and looked somewhat befuddled. The lizard seemed thoughtful, walking over to the table and inspecting Gregor for a moment or two. "Your turn, if you don't mind," she said in the end. He glanced at Mel then stood with a nod. Both of them disappeared back into the other room, the door closing behind them.
"That was… weird," Newter said with an odd note to his voice as he retook his seat.
"Did it hurt?" Elle asked, sounding concerned. He smiled at the girl and shook his head.
"No, it was just weird. With a capital weird."
She giggled, making Mel smile behind her mask. Elle had seemed fascinated by the lizards from the moment they'd found out about them on the other side of the country and had been quite excited to come to BBFO. Even though she, as usual, wasn't saying much, Mel could tell from her overall attitude she was still very interested and more in the now than she often was. It was somewhat strange but welcome nonetheless.
"Did Ianthe find out anything useful?" she asked her friend and teammate, who turned his head to look at her, then at the other Family members.
"I'm not sure," he admitted with a shrug. "She seemed very interested and was muttering to herself in that bizarre language, but she didn't say much that I could understand."
"She will want to be sure before she talks about it," Metis commented.
"And I'm pretty sure she'll find some way to help you guys," Saurial added with a smile. "She really is at least as good as she says she is. Probably better."
"I'm interested to see what she comes up with," Mel said. Newter nodded firmly. She knew he wasn't all that fussed about his unusual body, since it had a lot of advantages over a more standard one, but she also knew that he found the instant knockout effect of touching his bare skin more than a little annoying at times since it limited a lot of his personal interactions with others. It was a useful power in their business but a pain in the ass in private, he'd said more than once.
And there were, as she'd said a while ago, a lot of Case 53s who would consider him, and for that matter Gregor, to have gotten off lightly from whatever had happened to them. Which based on their earlier discussion and information swap was very definitely a deliberate act, one that she personally considered a hostile one, and was determined to find the perpetrators of. Cauldron, whoever the fuck they really were, was responsible for a hell of a lot of very unpleasant things in her view. It left her feeling extremely angry and uncharitable towards the unknown people behind it.
Hopefully with the Family helping them, she could sooner or later point this out rather forcefully to those involved…
"A worrying idea occurs to me," Raptaur said moments later, making everyone look at her. Saurial seemed immediately thoughtful. "One that should have done so earlier. I think it is probably unwise to email any of the data we've deduced to you, since if we are indeed correct that Cauldron is somehow monitoring the internet via Thinker abilities, technology, or whatever mix they use, this might flag the fact that we know more than they would wish us to. While it's unlikely they could do very much to us, I'm not so sure that we can assume the same for you all."
"Shit." Metis looked annoyed with herself. "Why didn't I see that?"
"I missed it too," Saurial sighed. "We all did. But Raptaur is right, if they're as deeply embedded into the PRT as we suspect they are, they probably have all sorts of ways to scan for particular information on the net. And I wouldn't put it past them to be reading people's email. Especially people who might be known to have an interest in the subject, just in case they actually find something out..."
"Oh, for fuck's sake," Mel growled. They were right. "Yeah, I can see the problem. What do we do about it?"
"Easy enough, we just transfer any data between us on a USB stick or something like that," Metis replied. "Make sure you have a computer that isn't connected to the internet, no wifi or anything at all, and it should be secure enough. If you have access to high end encryption software, use that. I can probably get you something more effective than even that, thinking about it. Dragon is a friend." She smiled. "And she is very good with computers."
"I can easily set up an isolated machine," Mel nodded. "My office is also heavily shielded and I've got some pretty good and viciously expensive anti-spying precautions set up there. Hopefully that will do."
"Should do, I think." The black reptile seemed approving. "I can look it over if you want and see if I can spot any weaknesses. As a favor."
Considering the suggestion for a few seconds, Mel finally nodded again. It wasn't like if they actually wanted to go after her or her employees there was much she could do to stop them. That was pretty obvious. On the other hand, so far the Family seemed helpful and friendly so she didn't think it was likely they'd do that absent some pretty serious provocation. "Thank you, I think I'll take you up on that."
"No problem. I can come over tomorrow afternoon, around one or so?"
"Fine." She thought some more, then added, "I'll get all the data I was going to send you ready on a storage device and you can collect it at the same time."
"OK." Metis looked at Saurial who also nodded.
"I'll work out all the data in the tattoos and bring it over when I've done that," the smaller lizard said.
"All right. I really want to get to the bottom of all this," Mel remarked, scowling to herself. "It's something that's been bothering me for years, but you people have managed to find out more in a few hours than I have in all that time. Hopefully this will lead us to working out who's behind it and why."
"It may need more information we don't have yet," Raptaur cautioned, "but I agree we seem to be heading in the right direction." About to say more, she looked to the side, the door to what seemed to be Ianthe's private lab opening moments later. Again, the violet reptile came out, Gregor trailing behind her. He seemed somewhat thoughtful, glancing back at the small room with an odd expression, before going back to his chair and sitting down. Mel wondered why but didn't ask.
"Anything?" Metis asked her sister curiously as Ianthe stopped next to the table.
"I've got some ideas, yes," the other lizard replied. She examined Newter, then transferred her attention to Gregor, both of them looking back with interest. "I was right, I can't revert either of them to normal. Yet. Their power would fight the modification and undo it, just as Panacea told me she'd discovered. That said, I definitely could make it stick considerably longer than she can, I think… maybe a day or so, rather than a couple of hours?" She scratched under her chin thoughtfully, still looking at Newter with an evaluating expression. "Possibly two days. But longer than that is awkward. As long as the power is active the inevitable end result is undoing anything I can directly change, it seems to be part of how the power works in the first place."
"Did you find any differences to a more normal Parahuman?" Raptaur asked curiously. Ianthe sat on her tail next to her sister and turned to her cousin.
"Subtle ones, yes. The Corona and Gemma are… odd. The differences are tiny but they're definitely there. As far as I can see there are two types of difference from most of the Parahumans I've examined, but it's hard to explain what they are." She thought for a few seconds as everyone waited. "One of them is… I suppose a valid analogy is like seeing the same machine made from the same plans but by two different factories." The reptile seemed to be picking her words carefully, frowning a little as she spoke. "Almost all Parahumans I've examined have one 'version' if you can put it like that. A very small number, including both of these guys, have a slightly different variant. It's a distinct signature, in effect, but almost exactly the same. Like…"
She thought more, then appeared mildly surprised. "Like the powers came from… two different sources..."
Metis stared at her, then got an extremely thoughtful look, while Saurial and Raptaur looked at each other. Ianthe had fallen into an introspective silence, which made Mel glance at her colleagues.
"That is very interesting," Metis said quietly.
Ianthe nodded, still thinking, then shook her head. "I don't have an explanation for it yet. I need more samples and more data. But there's something there I'm going to have to think about for a while. Anyway, that's part of the difference. The other part is that there seems to be something… broken… with the Gemma. I can't explain it better than that in terms someone who isn't a Bioshaper could understand, but it's a real thing. Their Gemmas aren't quite right. Functional, nothing obviously wrong, but… not working exactly like they normally do. At least as far as my current understanding of that goes and I'll admit I'm still not entirely certain how they work. Again, it needs more research and a hell of a lot of careful thought."
"You think this second difference is what makes a Case 53 a Case 53?" Saurial asked.
Ianthe nodded slowly. "I suspect it is. I think that their power, when they Triggered, sort of got the wrong instructions or something of that nature, and more or less got confused. The non-standard body type is the result. The thing that worries me is that the difference is absolutely tiny." She looked carefully at Newter then Gregor, seeming reluctant to say the part that Mel suspected she was going to.
"What happens if the difference is a little larger?" Gregor said in a thoughtful tone.
Ianthe looked at him and sighed, nodding. "Exactly. I have a nasty feeling that if it's too far off what it should be, the end result is not viable. Quite possibly spectacularly so."
"Which could well explain at least some of what happened to the apparently missing Case 53s based on the ID number in the tattoos," Raptaur finished. Her cousin nodded once more, looking worried.
"I wouldn't be surprised at all. My guess is that if it's a little bit more damaged, you may end up with someone like that Ward Weld, who is from what Panacea said essentially completely physically non-human. More than that..." She spread her hands. "Almost certainly immediate and quite likely messy death. I'd be happy to be wrong but I have to admit my instincts are saying I'm not." She looked at their guests. "Newter and Gregor got lucky if I'm right. Without knowing how many Case 53s are actually alive, I can't say how lucky."
Mel noticed Newter shiver.
"Shit," he said faintly.
"Not good," Gregor commented.
"No," Ianthe agreed. "Not at all."
They were silent for a few seconds. Eventually Saurial asked, "What about the memory loss? Any ideas on that?"
Seeming to perk up, Ianthe looked at her. "Yes. I was right. Their memory engrams have definitely been deliberately altered, I am almost certain by a Parahuman power of some sort. It might be via some form of Tinker device, but I doubt it. It's not the result of a drug, that I'm sure of. It's highly targeted too, only affecting long term episodic memory and not procedural memory, which is impressively selective. Especially as it doesn't wipe declarative memory in general or they wouldn't be able to talk for a start."
Mel listened with anger, and when the lizard stopped talking, leaned forward and asked, "Can you fix it?"
Ianthe seemed apologetic. "No, not at the moment, and possibly never. The neural linkages that form memories are basically gone, not just unlinked and inaccessible. It's barely possible that with a lot of work and experimentation I might be able to design a method to recreate some memories based on traces left, since the human brain works on a somewhat holographic basis and a specific memory doesn't live in one particular place but is spread out throughout the relevant parts of the brain. But it wouldn't be easy, and it almost certainly wouldn't rebuild all the missing data."
She sighed faintly. "Whatever method they used is very thorough. It appears to have reverted the relevant neural structures to a state where the former relationships between neurons that encode memories are simply wiped. Much like low-level reformatting a hard drive so it goes back to all zeros, instead of a quick erase that just takes out the index which is more or less what happens with many types of amnesia. In that case it wouldn't be too hard to fix it, but in this case..."
"Fuck."
"Sorry." She looked apologetically at both the men.
"It's not your fault, Ianthe," Gregor said with a small smile. "You tried, and I wasn't expecting miracles. I can live with the situation. As I have been doing for years. I long ago accepted that I'd probably never know who I started as."
"I guess I did too," Newter sighed. "Thanks for trying anyway."
"I'll keep thinking about it, just in case I can come up with something that would help, but I can't promise anything." Ianthe shrugged. "If I have any luck I'll let you know."
After a second, she brightened up. "However, I do have some other ideas that may help. I can't fix the problem at the moment, but what I can do is go around it." She grinned. "I'm pretty good at working out loopholes in this sort of problem."
Gregor and Newter exchanged a glance. "What does that mean in practice?" the former asked carefully.
"Well, in Newter's case, I can give him the ability to turn his hallucinogenic secretions off at will," she smiled, as the orange boy looked shocked. "Or just turn it down, basically diluting it so it doesn't have so strong an effect. Gregor, you're more difficult, but I have some ideas I'm going to have to think about for a while, and discuss with my family. It might require some techniques that are not normally allowed to be seen by outsiders, but we may be able to make an exception for certain Case 53's." She looked at her relatives. "On compassionate grounds, I think."
"We'll talk about it and see what Big Brother says," Saurial replied after a moment. Mel wondered, somewhat worriedly, what that meant.
"OK." She turned back to Newter. "Are you interested in my upgrade?"
"Um..." He looked very indecisive. Mel couldn't blame him, the huge reptile seemed suddenly rather eager and it was somewhat disconcerting…
"You should do it," Elle said, putting her hand on his arm. "I want to hold your hand."
The boy looked at her for several seconds.
"They won't hurt you, they're nice," she added, sounding sure of herself.
"Well… I guess it wouldn't hurt," he finally said. Turning back to Ianthe he asked quite nervously, "It won't hurt, right?"
She chuckled. "Like I said the first time, no, it won't. Trust me, I know what I'm doing."
He bit his lip, then visibly worked up the courage. "OK."
"Great!" She looked very pleased. "I hardly ever get to modify humans, no one takes me up on it." Studying him, she grinned for a second. "And you even already have a proper tail, which is nice." Standing up again she motioned to him with a finger. "Come with me."
A little helplessly he followed her back into the side room. The door closed with a solid click, making Mel twitch. And hope this wasn't a terrible mistake…
"He'll be fine, don't worry, Faultline," Metis assured her, picking up on her unease.
Elle didn't seem worried, and Gregor was watching the door with a neutral expression. Mel decided that since they'd come this far she might as well just see what happened next.
If nothing else, she had a lot to think about out of all this. That alone was worth the visit.
Danny watched Zephron walk back and forth between his house and his office, a look of total incredulity on his face. After he'd calmed down when Danny first demonstrated the magic door, which had resulted in quite loud startlement, he'd gaped for a few seconds, then very tentatively put his hand through the opening. When nothing bit it off, he'd cautiously walked through, looked around, stuck his head into the kitchen and peered out the window there, then come back with a dazed expression on his face.
"Holy shit," he kept muttering.
"Impressive, isn't it?" Danny asked with a wide grin.
"Just a fucking little," his friend mumbled. "Jesus. Every time I think I've seen it all, they do something even weirder."
"That does seem to be a theme," he chuckled. "It's a useful thing, though. Although it'll take a while to become normal."
"Normal isn't something they can even spell," Zephron grumbled, although he was smiling. "This is unbelievable. I can't feel anything, it's just like I'm walking through an ordinary door."
"I know, it surprised me too and I saw Saurial do it," Danny replied. "But I think it's a nice present. It'll save a lot of time. And fuel, for that matter."
"Incredible." The other man shook his head in respect as he came back into the office. "And you can just turn it on and off?"
"Yeah. Look." Danny reached out and closed the door, then reopened it to show the outer office. Closing it again, it opened to show his hallway. "House. Office. House. Office. House..."
"Oh, stop showing off, Danny," Zephron grinned. "I get it. You have a magic door. Now I want a magic door too."
"Talk to Saurial," he snickered.
"I will. She could make a fortune offering this as a service." His friend looked highly amused now, and still impressed. "How long did it take to set up?"
"Only a few minutes, but don't ask me how they do it," Danny shrugged, closing the door for the final time then going to sit down at his desk. "It's a very impressive technique, I have to admit. I can see a lot of possibilities for it around here if they decided they wanted to use it more widely."
The other man sat in one of his chairs, shaking his head in wonder. "Those girls have some interesting abilities," he stated.
"So it would seem." Danny looked out the window for a second, then back to his friend. "Oh, while I remember, Saurial told me they were going to make a lot of protective clothing for the people here today. We'll need to distribute it to everyone. Knowing them it'll save lives in an accident, so I want to get it into use as fast as possible."
"OK. Like your coat?"
"Yes, same sort of protection, from what she said." Danny nodded. "Bullet proof is the least of it. I mean, if we do get some idiot shooting at us, that'll help, but the main idea is to stop people getting crushed if something falls on them. Hopefully it won't, but accidents happen no matter how careful people are. As we've seen in the past."
"Yeah. OK, I'll let people know. We can sort out what sizes are needed for everyone as they come on shift and hand the stuff out then."
"Thanks."
After a second, Zephron asked, "I didn't have a chance earlier but how did you get on with Antonio? Everything back to what it should be?"
Danny thought, then smiled a little. "I think so, yes. I apologized, he accepted, we talked a lot… I had some exceptionally good meals too. It was worth the effort. I'm just sorry I waited so long. And that I acted like that at the time, for that matter. It wasn't respectful."
Zephron shrugged slightly. "Everyone makes mistakes. God knows I have. I'm glad you got it sorted out."
"So am I. Dad would have been upset," Danny replied quietly. "And I want Taylor to know them, even if they aren't… well… you know."
The huge man grinned widely. "Oh, I know, yes indeed. Don't worry about Taylor," he said happily. "She and Antonio will get along just fine."
"That's what I'm worried about," Danny mumbled, to his friend's laughter.
Sitting up on the table, Newter reached back and rubbed his neck where Ianthe had been concentrating her attention for twenty minutes. He couldn't feel anything, but there was the sensation that something was different. It was peculiar and impossible to explain in normal words.
"What did you do?" he asked curiously.
She was watching him closely with a slight smile on her reptilian face. "I designed and added a small control node to your brain stem that should allow conscious control of that aspect of your power. It's a result of my investigation into powers in general, since the entire subject fascinates me. As I said right now I can't change you back to normal without risking all sorts of unpleasant effects, which I don't think either one of us would desire, but this small change is easy enough."
"I'm not in favor of unpleasant effects, no," he said vehemently, making her smile larger.
"Few people are, and if they say otherwise, there's probably something badly wrong with them that even I can't fix," she joked. He snickered at the comment. "Whatever it is that produces Parahuman powers seems to fight too much modification of them, from what I can see, like it's got a template it keeps pushing towards, but this sort of thing doesn't appear to cause problems. In a way I'm adding to the power, rather than taking something away, and whatever rules there are behind it seems fine with that. So we're basically using loopholes to our advantage."
"You guys must know more about powers than the PRT does," he said somewhat wonderingly.
She shrugged slightly. "I'm not really sure since we haven't talked to any of their research people who look into this sort of thing but I wouldn't be surprised. We have more effective methods than they do, and I suspect a different viewpoint as well due to our own nature. That probably helps. Anyway, the node is working fine and all you need to do is learn to activate it." The lizard put her hand on his bare shoulder, a few of those creepy tendrils diving through his skin again. "Feel this?"
There was a strange sensation at the base of his skull, something he'd have found very difficult to describe, but very real. He nodded. "Yeah. Sort of warm, only not?"
Ianthe smiled again. "Your brain is trying to assign a familiar sense to a completely new ability so you'll probably find it hard to understand for a while. Right, this here is the main control if you want to put it like that. Do this and you can turn down the production of your hallucinogen from the normal default level all the way to nothing. See?" The sensation changed, as he concentrated on it.
"I… think so?" Newter really wasn't certain, but she did it a few times. "I added the ability to produce a neutralizing agent too. This other part here activates it. With practice you should be able to localize the production of either to a specific body area, so you could have one hand knock people out and the other one wake them up. That might be useful."
His eyes widened. "Jesus, just a little. Unbelievable."
"Like I said, we're good at this sort of thing," she laughed. "If you turn off the production the residual agent is also neutralized on your skin and so on, which takes maybe a couple of seconds. After that you'll be able to touch people without any effect. You can keep it off as long as you want, your power doesn't seem to have an issues with that. I've left the default mode set to what you normally have but you can change that, it'll stay where you set it without any conscious input."
He practiced for a few minutes, with Ianthe monitoring the results and coaching him through it, until he was sure he'd learned how to use his modified ability. "Wow. That is just… incredible. Thank you, very much indeed."
"You're more than welcome, Newter," she smiled, handing him his shirt. "We like to help and this is easy enough. And a good repayment for what I've learned from examining you both."
"I hope you can figure out how to help other Case 53's," he sighed as he pulled the garment over his head.
"So do I," she agreed, looking mildly irritated. "I want to have words with Cauldron at some point. They are doing things that the Bioshaper's Guild has definite problems with and I'd like them to stop. We may have to insist."
He shivered a little at the tone in her voice, privately deciding that he really didn't want a pissed Ianthe looking for him. It seemed like the end result of that could be… nasty.
"Anyway," she said, brightening up. "You're done. I hope it helps."
"I think it will a lot," he nodded, hopping down from the table and following her to the door, feeling like this trip had been worth it even if the results hadn't been what he was expecting at all.
Taylor looked around from their discussion which had been going over more thoughts about Cauldron's motivation when she heard Amy walking towards the door of her workroom, which opened moments later. Her friend came out looking pleased, while Newter seemed very happy, somewhat puzzled, and quite thoughtful.
"Everything done?" she asked for appearance's sake.
"Yep. No problems encountered, it worked correctly," Amy smiled. "And it was an interesting exercise."
"Great."
Newter walked over to Labyrinth, looked at her for a moment, then held out his hand. She peered at his face, inspected his hand closely, smiled behind her mask and pulled off the gloves she'd been wearing, then grabbed the offered appendage even as Gregor got half-way through opening his mouth to say something.
"Hello, Newter," the girl said happily, shaking his hand vigorously.
"Hi, Labyrinth," he laughed, apparently find it funny.
Gregor and Faultline exchanged looks, then watched, the older woman's face under her welding mask showing an expression of impressed bemusement. Labyrinth was still shaking Newter's hand, giggling to herself.
"That is extraordinary," Gregor finally said. "I wouldn't have believed it was possible so quickly."
"It's easy enough, although I'll admit not something that most people could do," Amy replied, moving to her spot at the table. "We have more ability in the life arts than anyone else we're aware of. And I couldn't see any reason not to help Newter. As I said, I have some ideas to help you too but it's more complex so I'll have to think about it for a while."
"I will be fascinated to see what you come up with," the large man commented.
"Enough, my hand is getting tired," Newter finally said, extracting his hand from his friend's, who seemed mildly disappointed but on the whole happy.
"I can touch you and not go away," she said, still smiling. "I always wanted to do that." She jumped up and hugged him, making him pat her back and grin.
Faultline watched, appearing amazed at how much the girl was speaking since it was from what Taylor had been told by Lisa about her quite uncharacteristic. After a moment she turned to 'Ianthe' and said, "I'm impressed. Like Gregor said, I wasn't sure it would work, but that does seem to do exactly what you said it would."
Amy explained the same thing she'd told Newter in her workroom, making the mercenary leader nod thoughtfully. "That's certainly going to come in handy in our work," she remarked when the explanation was done. "And I guess it'll make Newter's life a lot easier."
"Damn right it will," the boy grinned. "This girl I know will..." He abruptly stopped and went an odd color, his normally orange skin darkening as everyone looked at him. "Too much information. Sorry."
Taylor snickered. "Don't worry about it. I hope it works out."
He got an evil little smirk for a moment, which amused her and the Varga both quite a lot.
"So do I."
The girl still hugging him released him and went back to sit down, seeming happy. He put his hand on her head affectionately then also sat. "I like it here," she commented, making them all look at her.
"So do we, Labyrinth," 'Raptaur' smiled. "Both the location and the people."
"The worlds don't bother me as much."
Faultline stared at the girl, while Taylor glanced at the demon. "I wonder what that means to her?" he said silently.
'I don't know… Doesn't her power do something strange with reality?' Taylor thought. 'We've modified the place so much that even here is pretty much not connected very strongly to the rest of the world. Maybe she's picking up on that?'
"Possibly. I would be interested to see what she thought of the big room, but I don't feel we know them well enough yet to expose that part." He sounded intrigued. "I suspect we can trust them quite a long way, though. Faultline is very committed to finding out about Cauldron, and I have to say I want to as well as I feel it's key to much of what we've been working out for some time. That alone will tend to keep her wanting to keep us happy. Newter and Gregor also have a motive to stay on our good side, even past the very obvious nervousness they have about us." Both of them could tell from the scent that their visitors, while much less worried than they'd been when they arrived, still had a considerable level of low level concern. That wasn't unusual when people met them for the first time, of course.
'Agreed. I don't think we can risk too much more until we know them better,' Taylor replied thoughtfully. 'But they're interesting people. Maybe they'll end up good friends, although it's early days at the moment. I don't have any reason yet to worry about them learning what they have done so far. We've learned at least as much.'
"Indeed. They had some key data we were missing. I will be fascinated to see where it leads us." She got a sensation of an invisible frown. "The entire Cauldron conspiracy, which I have little doubt now is a real thing, worries me. If the circumstantial evidence is in fact true, they've likely been working almost since the first Parahumans popped up decades ago, and we don't know what their long term goals are. I very much doubt creating Case 53 individuals, or for that matter selling powers to wealthy people, is their entire reason for existing. It seems… too simple for the amount of effort and time involved. And at the same time, entirely pointless in the greater scheme of things."
'Maybe they're actually researching powers like we are, but doing a lot more experimentation without really having any proper safety protocols?' she mused.
"Or any suitable ethics, from the available information," he muttered, sounding irritated. "If that is indeed the case their experimental techniques require serious modification. As do their security methods and overall working practices. There appear to be so many things wrong with it I hardly know where to start criticizing them."
'Hopefully we can point this out some time,' she said. 'Amy is very miffed for a start. I think she wants to find them and beat some sense into the idiots.'
"She'll have to get in line behind Faultline," he chuckled. "That woman is not happy about the current situation."
'No, she really isn't,' Taylor agreed with an inner smile.
Labyrinth was looking around the room, as she'd been doing on and off the entire time, seeming interested by the construction itself. With thermal vision they could see her lips were fixed in a small smile that appeared approving.
Faultline, who had been regarding her younger companion with an odd expression, looked away to pull out a phone and check the time. "We're going to have to get back," she said, "I have other work I need to contact someone about soon. Thank you all for the information and insights you've given us."
"It was our pleasure," Taylor smiled. "We're as interested as you are what the truth of this really is. As soon as Metis brings me your USB stick, I'll look at it. Hopefully we can figure out what's going on and with any luck at least get them to stop."
"That would be a start," the woman grumbled, sounding very annoyed. "Only a start, though."
"All we can do is see where it leads us, Faultline," Lisa said. Their guest nodded after a moment.
"Yes. I'll make sure I have everything ready for you."
"All right."
"Thanks for what you did to me, Ianthe," Newter put in, as he stood up, Gregor and Faultline doing the same followed a few seconds later by Labyrinth when she noticed. The girl had been staring at the ceiling for some reason. "It's going to help in all sorts of ways."
"You're welcome, Newter," 'Ianthe' smiled. "It was an interesting project. If you have any problems, which I don't think will be the case, let me know and I'll fix it."
"All BBFO work is fully warranted," Taylor snickered, making him laugh.
"As soon as I've worked out something for you as well, Gregor, I'll be in touch," Amy went on, transferring her gaze to the large man, who nodded.
"Thank you. Don't rush yourself, I've been like this for over five years and there's no hurry," he replied calmly. "It doesn't particularly bother me to be honest. But I will be intrigued to see what you come up with. You certainly appear to have helped my young friend here."
The violet reptile grinned with a nod. "I'm sure I can design something you'll find useful," she told him. "And it's all information that may be applicable for helping other people in your situation who may have it much worse."
"That would certainly be a good outcome," he agreed.
Labyrinth walked around the table to look directly at Taylor, who smiled down at the girl. "I had fun," she said. Then she turned around and went back to stand next to Newter, who looked at her, before glancing at the other two with a small shrug. Faultline inspected her youngest teammate with a slightly baffled expression before visibly dismissing it and turning back to them.
"This certainly didn't end up being anything I expected but I think it's been useful," she said.
"I believe it has, yes," Taylor nodded. "You have our number. If you need anything else, just call."
"Thanks."
"And make certain you keep this data off the internet," Lisa cautioned. "Raptaur is right, we have to assume that Cauldron has a method to trace information that could expose them based on everything we know, even if it's supposedly private. It's likely that any Thinker support they have is having issues with Brockton Bay in general, due to whatever it is about us that causes such things, but purely technological methods are at least as dangerous if they're embedded into the system as deeply as we suspect."
"Yeah, I understand that," the woman nodded, scowling. "And it makes me even more paranoid than I was to start with."
"Which was very paranoid indeed," Newter commented, causing Gregor to snort with laughter and Faultline to glare at him.
The Varga chuckled. "Paranoia in this specific case is probably merely common sense, Newter."
The boy nodded with a look of worry. "I'm trying not to think too hard about that."
They all walked towards the door, Taylor unlocking it and letting their guests out. "We'll see you around, I expect," she said.
"Probably," Faultline agreed as she unlocked their car. Newter and Labyrinth waved, then got in. Gregor gave them a respectful nod and did the same. Holding out her hand, Faultline shook Taylor's hand, then each of the others, before also entering the vehicle. Moments later it was turning out of the side yard towards the entrance to the DWU facility.
Taylor and her friends watched it go before returning to the office.
"Well." The demon looked at his companions. "A very edifying conversation."
"And fucking worrying," Amy said, frowning. "I don't know who these people are, but they absolutely have to be a long way up in the government, or at least have some sort of influence over people like that. I can't think how else they could have got away with all this for so long."
"It's like Coil all over again only worse," Lisa sighed. "Probably much worse."
"And he probably knows about it too, at least partially," Taylor pointed out, thinking hard. "Since he has that smell. He obviously bought his powers from them."
"Should we go and ask Director Piggot if we can have a word with her star prisoner?" the Varga asked. "I expect she'd be agreeable."
"Probably, but..." Taylor waved a hand. "I'm not sure we should risk it. If Cauldron really is mixed up there somewhere high in the federal government, wouldn't they probably be able to find out about that if we did talk to her? Sure, Armsmaster and Dragon replaced the entire PRT computer system, so it's probably about as clean as it gets, and Director Piggot obviously doesn't trust a lot of the rest of the PRT at the moment since Coil might still have assets there somewhere, but… it just seems like it could let them know we were onto them."
"Which could put Faultline and her people at risk," Amy pointed out, making Taylor nod.
"And us. I mean, not us directly, I think, but your family, Dad, the DWU… I don't want to risk that unless we don't have a choice."
"We're going to have to work out more of it ourselves, then," Lisa remarked. "I agree, actually, it's too dangerous. My power also agrees. It seems to be trying to tell me something about all this is very important but it's getting stuck again like it does with the Endbringers."
They all looked at each other, then her. "Is it now," the Varga rumbled, sounding very interested. "I wonder why. What connects Cauldron and Endbringers?"
"No idea. Yet. But I'm fucking well going to find out."
"We can always ask the Simurgh," Amy giggled. Lisa gave her a hard look.
"Forgive me if I think that's not the best idea in the world," she muttered.
"It may come to that sooner or later if we can't deduce the truth without more data," 'Raptaur' smiled. "But I agree it's a last resort for all the reasons you have mentioned in the past."
Walking back to the table Taylor dropped into a chair and reverted to her base form, her tail over her ankles which were propped on the table. "We learned a lot, though. We're certain that Cauldron is real, it's selling powers, and it's making Case 53s. Probably through the same method when it goes wrong or something like that. And it's spending a lot of time and effort cleaning up after itself having done stupid things, which tends to suggest it's not very good at what it's actually doing. That's kind of worrying but may also be helpful."
Her friends joined her, the Varga-driven aspect taking on the micro-dragon form and draping himself over her shoulder. Lisa went to the coffee maker and began filling her mug. "My power is sure everything we discussed is real," she said while she was working. "And it's very impressed you cracked that encryption method like that. So am I, and I have to say that your math ability is more bullshit that almost any of your other powers. If the government ever works out that you can stroll through something like that just by thinking hard about it for twenty minutes they'll fall over worse than I do." She returned with the huge mug and smirked at Taylor, who was giggling. "Seriously, that was just broken. Did you really work out a general attack method for elliptical encryption on the spot?"
"Yep. It was tricky, but we saw a few things that I don't think any normal mathematician would spot. I may have to write a paper on it one day."
"Try not to give every cryptographer on the planet simultaneous strokes," Amy laughed. Taylor shrugged, grinning.
"One of the things I am most interested in is what you discovered about Newter and Gregor's powers, Amy," the Varga said. "I can't help feeling that it may be key to much of what we currently don't understand about powers in general, and the processors which provide them."
Amy nodded, visibly thinking. "Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. Something very strange is going on there and I can't help thinking I'm missing something obvious. My own power is poking me, but it's like Lisa keeps saying, there seems to be some reason it can't tell me what it wants to tell me. I don't normally get that problem. Something about Case 53s is important. And I can't figure out quite why I've never felt like that before, since I've come across quite a few of them in the past."
She sat on her tail and put her elbows on the table, folding her hands together and resting her head on them. "Something really weird is going on."
"I would imagine that it's another example of how being in Ianthe and all the modifications you've made to yourself have enhanced your own abilities," he pointed out. "We already know that you're far more powerful now than you were before you met Taylor. That's most likely why you didn't notice in the past."
She nodded a little absently, still apparently conferring with her ability. Lisa was also looking like she was trying to work it out. "Are you sure of your thought that the differences you detected may indicate two sources of powers?" the demon asked.
Amy considered the question carefully, Lisa glancing at her too. "I think I probably am," she eventually replied. "It's weird, but it makes more sense than anything else I can come up with. Like I said, almost all the Parahumans I've examined have the same… pattern… maybe? in their Gemma and Corona Pollentia. Call that one Type 1. A few have a very subtly different one, or Type 2. I've kind of noticed it before, but only in passing since I don't do brains as you know. Not as Panacea, certainly. It didn't seem important at the time, both of those nodes can vary in size and position quite a bit, and they seem to change depending on power, Trigger circumstances, that sort of thing too. I just put it down to that if I even thought about it."
She shrugged without moving her head. "But examining those two, and deliberately looking for something odd, it stood out. That specific aspect is consistent between them to almost any level you care to name, but different from the vast majority of Parahumans, who are also internally consistent among themselves. And when I noticed that I realized that every other Case 53 I've examined has the same thing going on." Looking up at them, she went on, frowning slightly, "The thing that made me really think is that Legend, Battery, and Triumph also have the exact same variation. I've healed all of them at various points. Alexandria does too, even though I can't actually heal her because her own power stops it. I'd be very interested to know if Coil and Eidolon do as well, but I have a very strong feeling that the answer is yes."
"All people with that smell..." Taylor looked at the Varga, who nodded slowly. "That is… fascinating."
"Isn't it?" Amy smiled a little oddly. "Know who else has it?"
"Who?" Lisa asked curiously, then looked surprised even before their friend replied. "Kevin?!"
"Yeah. Weird, right? I'm certain he didn't buy his powers."
"And he definitely doesn't have that smell." Taylor thought hard, the Varga and her quickly discussing it. The demon found it extremely interesting as did she.
"So… what does this mean?" Lisa finally said, frowning in thought. "Almost all Parahumans have Type 1 powersets, if we want to use Amy's term. A very small number have Type 2, and all of those she and you both know about have that smell except for Kevin. Every Case 53 individual she's aware of have that variant. I strongly suspect that they'll also have the smell too, although we'd need to verify that to be certain. Cauldron is making Case 53s, we're sure of that, and the information I and Faultline found independently says they're selling powers, which implies that everyone with the scent who isn't a Case 53 bought their powers. Or had them supplied for other reasons, maybe."
"So we've got two independent methods to detect Cauldron capes now, us smelling it and you checking their brains. Both are verified against each other with the exception so far of Kevin only. So why doesn't he have the smell?" Taylor looked around at her friends. "If there really are two distinct sources of powers like Amy thinks, what makes him different from all the others?"
"I think that there are probably two different paths to getting powers from that source," Lisa said very slowly and thoughtfully. "The one that Cauldron are using, and some other way that is how Kevin Triggered. Which is more like how everyone else Triggers? Something like that. My power is nodding, the fucking thing." She scowled ferociously. "God, sometimes I want to punch it in the face it probably doesn't have. Anyway, perhaps Cauldron figured out a way to copy a Trigger event, or induce one, or some sort of artificial version of what normally happens, and however they do it sort of breaks it. If it's broken more than a certain amount you get a Case 53, less than that you get..."
"Legend."
They looked at the Varga, then each other.
"And Alexandria, and Eidolon. The Triumvirate are all Cauldron capes."
"Yeah." Taylor sighed. "Shit. What does that actually mean? I didn't want to say it, I like Legend a lot, and respect him too. Everyone does. Eidolon… he's a bit of a prick based on that time we met, and I don't really know about Alexandria, but she seemed OK. If they're all involved with Cauldron, though..."
Lisa ran a hand down her muzzle, looking annoyed. "Christ. And that could well explain the high level link to the government we suspected."
"Almost certainly considering what else we know about Alexandria," the demon said quietly. Lisa and Taylor nodded while Amy seemed puzzled.
Realizing she didn't know, Taylor turned to her and said, "Alexandria is actually Rebecca Costa-Brown."
The healer's eyes widened comically. "Holy shit! Really? The top person at the PRT is a Parahuman?!"
"Yep. Found that out when they visited, and then she and Director Piggot came here to talk to Dad. Lisa worked it out too, and gave me a scent sample."
Amy transferred her shocked look to the black lizard, who nodded soberly. "My power nearly wet itself when it noticed. It was very insistent that I keep quiet about it and only hint to Taylor. Now it doesn't care, but back then I think that whatever Thinker resource they have might have been able to track down people who find it out. These two have fucked up Thinkers so much around here these days we're safe from that problem at this point."
"Holy fucking hell," Amy breathed. "This is the sort of information that could bring down the fucking government. And certainly fuck up the PRT beyond belief. The Protectorate too. What the hell are those idiots doing?"
"I have no idea, but it all hangs together unpleasantly well," the Varga muttered, looking annoyed. "I also don't like to think that Legend is implicated, I consider the man a very sensible and genuinely heroic individual, but there is enough evidence to suggest he's connected in some manner. I could believe that Eidolon is involved on the other hand. He did not set a good example. And Alexandria..." He shrugged slightly. "She does have a reputation for ruthlessness which may well be accurate, so it's certainly possible."
"Maybe Legend doesn't really know about Cauldron and he just benefited from whatever it is that they do to give people powers?" Taylor suggested a little hopefully.
"He's one of the founding members of the Protectorate, and has been active for many years," Lisa pointed out. "From the same time period we're fairly sure Cauldron started. Same as Alexandria, Eidolon, and for that matter Hero. I have a feeling, and my power agrees, that he's involved somehow, more directly than I'd like. But I'm not sure how. He certainly comes across as a decent and generally honest person so I'd like to believe he's not one of the ones doing all that Case 53 shit but who knows?"
"Would he even have time to do anything hinky?" Amy asked. "I mean, he's the leader of the Protectorate for a start, he's a busy guy. If it wasn't for us he wouldn't even be hanging around Brockton in the first place, he'd be back in New York running around saving people like he normally does. I can't believe he's personally involved in Case 53 stuff." She shook her head. "Or I don't want to believe it, anyway."
"None of us do, Amy, but there is enough evidence to suggest he's connected at least peripherally to this group," the Varga remarked, not looking happy. "Which is definitely not something I'm pleased about. It also means we have another reason not to mention this to anyone in the PRT or Protectorate even locally, since he'd immediately find out. Depending on what his relationship to them actually is, that could be unhelpful."
"Shit." Amy rested her head on her hands again. "Legend. That's… fucked up."
"It's hardly ideal, certainly. I suspect the only one we could talk to about this without too much fear of unpleasant repercussions is actually Dragon. She is unlikely to be involved herself, I think, and would probably not like our conclusions any more than we do. However, it's a burden I wouldn't like to impose on her without more evidence and reason."
"So we just need to keep digging, I guess." Taylor looked around, the other three nodding. "Very discreetly and carefully, but we keep our eyes open, make note of anything we notice, and look for more evidence for any of this. We need more samples for Amy to look at, and I need to track down more people with that smell and see if the pattern holds true."
"I'm almost a hundred percent certain it will," Lisa replied. "I still don't know what it really means though. Kevin is the outlier and I have a feeling either the key to it all or a very large part of the puzzle if we can work out what makes him different to all the others. And every other Parahuman we know of. Why two sources of processors? Assuming that's actually right, but it holds together. And if there are two, are there more? Or only those two? And, above all else, what are they and what do they want?"
"It must be aliens. Or demons. Or alien demons." Taylor grinned at her friends, who laughed. "Or maybe demonic aliens."
"Void Cowboy must never hear of any of this," Amy groaned. "It would be even worse than if he heard about you lunatics."
"Well, we're pretty sure that the source really is alien," Taylor commented, still grinning. "And we know demons exist. So..."
"It isn't a demon, Brain," the actual demon chuckled. "That much I am certain of. Alien is definitely likely. Almost certain in fact, but then we already thought that as you say. And logically if there is one alien there are likely to be more, so two of them is plausible. Only two is a little odd, though. Rivals, perhaps?"
"Husband and wife team?" Amy suggested with a giggle. "One of them isn't really trying."
"Probably trouble at home," Lisa snickered, making them smile. "Shit. We're sitting on information that would freak people out like I can't believe and we can't tell anyone about it, except maybe your dad, Taylor. We can't let Faultline know about Legend and the others, that could only go really bad. Especially since we don't have proof. Somehow we need to..."
She stopped dead and looked totally shocked, then sat on her tail rather abruptly.
The other three exchanged glances. "Problem?" Taylor asked, feeling worried.
"My dear, helpful, wonderful troll of a power just mentioned something interesting," Lisa said faintly. "You know Amy said husband and wife?"
They all nodded.
"It's grinning at me and holding up a thumb it doesn't fucking have!" She put her head in her hands, shaking it slightly. "My power is more of a troll than the fucking demon is..."
"A breeding pair?" the Varga said, looking fascinated. "Oh, dear. That could be awkward."
They all sat in silence for a while, trying to work out what all this really meant.
Watching the DWU gate disappear behind them until they turned the corner, Newter sat straight again and smiled a little. "That was really fucking weird," he remarked.
"It was indeed," Gregor nodded. "Very interesting though. And yet more proof that the reputation of the Family is, if anything, under-rated."
"They're fucking dangerous," Mel muttered.
"I would agree. However they also seem friendly and approachable, not to mention highly skilled in a number of very esoteric fields," he replied with a look at her. "I suggest we want to stay on their good side, not only due to the insights they have about the Case 53 situation."
"I like them," Elle said quietly, still holding Newter's hand as she had been doing since they got in the car. He squeezed it, making her smile at him.
"So do I," he told her. Holding up his other hand he looked at it for a few seconds. "I can't believe what Ianthe did."
"She does seem to be exceptionally good at her specialty," the larger man smiled. "I wonder what she can do if she really tries?"
"I hate to think," Mel commented. "Probably make Nilbog look tame. And there are more like her out there somewhere, too, based on what she said. Jesus. It's enough to make anyone sane move as far away from the ocean as possible and never leave."
"There are few sane people in Brockton Bay, Mel," he chuckled.
"Don't I know it." She shook her head. "Whatever, with any luck we're going to get closer to the truth now. Where that leaves us, I'm not sure yet, but it's more than we've had before."
She looked in the mirror at Elle and Newter, shook her head again, and kept driving, not saying anything more. Newter put his head back on the seat and thought about the girl he knew who might be up for some fun...
Staring out at the slowly darkening sky as evening approached, Vicky pondered life, lizards, and everything. After her nap she'd felt less headachey but still mightily confused, and another quick search of those impossible jeans had led her no closer to working out what was going on. Giving it up at least for now as a bad job, and feeling the incipient onset of more stress pain, she shoved them under her bed and tried not to think about the damn things. There didn't seem to be any obvious answer to her questions, of which she had a lot. More data was needed, that was clear, and ultimately she suspected she was going to need to talk to Amy and see if she could tease out the information with subtle questioning.
Or possibly ask her straight out, of course, but that seemed like a last resort sort of approach. If she was imagining it all, that would only make her sister look at her like she was an idiot then get even more sarcastic than usual. If she wasn't… she didn't know what would happen.
'Life is very strange these days,' she thought with a small frown. Deciding it was best left for now and that she needed a break, she nodded to herself, stood up, and headed for the closet to retrieve her costume. She'd go and fly around for a while, possibly worry some muggers if she could find any, and just relax without thinking any more about tails and clothing that was being sneaky. It could wait.
Ten minutes later she pulled the outer door to her room closed from the outside, then rocketed upwards with a smile on her lips.
Flying really was the best thing ever.
"I've had enough of this subject for now," Amy announced firmly. "We could talk in circles for hours but I can't see any solution yet. We need more information, and that's going to take some time and care to gather. And probably some luck too. There isn't any particular urgency to it, right? It's been going on for possibly twenty or more years, another few days or weeks won't change anything."
"I would imagine you're correct, Amy," the demon nodded. "I agree, we don't have enough data for even Lisa to work out more of the puzzle, so we are wasting our time going over it again."
The healer sighed in relief. The entire problem was one that worried her a lot, both from what they knew and suspected and the implications of it all, but she doubted it was going to be amenable to a quick solution. It was something of a relief to let it go for now and move onto something they had more control over.
"I'm going to make more bioguns, I think," she announced, standing up. "We need them and I planned on doing it this weekend."
"OK. I'm going to go and fly around for a while to think this over," Taylor replied, getting out of the chair she'd been relaxing in and stretching. "At least one of me is. The other one will help you." She picked up the small dragon on her shoulder and looked at it sternly. "Be nice to Ianthe, me."
"Of course I will," the other aspect said with a wide grin. "We are always nice to our cousins. Most people, for that matter."
"True. Even people who might not really deserve it."
"Like Sophia?"
The more human aspect scowled. "No. She really doesn't deserve it."
"Agreed. Want me to bite her?"
"Hey, I want to bite her," the first Taylor said with a hard look at the other one.
"We can take turns. There's enough to go around."
"Fair enough."
"You are both very weird," Lisa laughed, watching them with amusement. The dragon looked at her and winked, then vanished, to reappear next to Amy as another copy of the base form.
"We are perfectly normal, you know," both aspects chorused.
"Sure you are."
Amy, who was giggling furiously, grabbed the nearest aspect and pushed her towards the workroom. "Come on, I need you to make things for me."
"Help, I'm being abducted by a giant lizard!" Taylor cried as she disappeared into the other room.
"She's a little strange, isn't she," the one left behind said quietly to Lisa, who burst out laughing. Then that one vanished with a wave.
Amy stuck her head out of the room, met Lisa's eyes, rolled her own, then went back inside to make things with their craziest friend, while Lisa wandered off to get a coffee refill.
High above the city, Taylor flapped her wings, soaring over the streets in her full size dragon form, while at the same time she was making biogun parts for Amy.
'You know, sometimes I still can't believe this,' she commented to the demon, who was relaxing and just watching through both sets of eyes. 'Then I think how lucky I am that we met, and how great it is that everything else has happened like it did.'
"I feel the same, Brain," he said in her head, sounding pleased. "I am extremely pleased that things have worked out as they have and couldn't imagine a better partner."
'Me too. Thanks for saving me. I don't say that enough.'
"Thanks are unnecessary but appreciated," he replied softly with a smile in his voice.
Feeling content, Taylor circled in a gentle bank under full cloak, wondering when would be the best time to show the dragon to the public. Soon, she felt, but it needed the right setting…
Hearing something odd, she looked down.
'Hey, that's Lucy,' she said, focusing on a familiar girl far below who seemed to be running down an alley at full speed in the increasing dimness as night drew in.
"She appears to be engaged in being chased," the Varga pointed out. Taylor looked at the extremely angry man who was obviously after her friend with ill intent and became rather irritated. "I believe we should intervene."
'I believe you're right, my friend,' she growled. 'I think it's time to introduce the latest Family member in a way he never forgets...'
Tilting into a dive, she aimed for an interception the man in question was going to have nightmares about for years with any luck.
No one fucked with her friends.
"Director?" Emily turned to see Miss Militia approaching from the other end of the corridor as she headed to her office from the cafeteria. Stopping to allow the woman to catch up, she raised an inquiring eyebrow as they both resumed walking. Hannah handed her one of the new tablets without another word. Puzzled, she took it, then studied the screen. Moments later she stopped dead again, staring at the tablet.
She scrolled back a few times and read the thread on PHO.
Then she closed her eyes for a couple of seconds, before sighing heavily.
"They have a dragon."
"Apparently so."
"And it lets people ride it."
"That does seem to be the case."
"A dragon."
"Yes."
"With a rider."
"Yes."
"Oh, for god's sake. What next?"
Hannah shrugged helplessly. "More dragons?"
Emily stared at her in horror. "Don't even joke about that. One is far more than enough!"
"Sorry. What do we do?"
"What can we do?" Emily sighed. "It's the Family. There are no rules for them. If they want to let their dragon fly around giving rides to random people, why not? It's not hurting anyone, and it'll undoubtedly reduce crime even more. Again. I give up, I'm not even going to try to work out where they're all coming from. As long as they are polite and respectful and help out, far be it from me to get involved. I have much more mundane problems to deal with."
"I suppose so."
Handing the tablet back, Emily started walking again. "Although I do hear a bottle of beer calling me. I think I deserve that much."
Hannah looked after her as she disappeared into her office grumbling under her breath, looked down at the tablet, shook her head, and went off to find something to do that didn't involve the fucking Family.
These days, that was increasingly difficult, she thought with mild irritation.
Still, it did seem to have a positive effect on tourism and crime, so it wasn't all bad. Just very, very strange.
When Vicky eventually got home she was still giggling intermittently.
She hadn't expected that, but then, who'd expected any of this?
Certainly not Max. She almost felt sorry for him.
But only almost.
Amy looked around as Taylor's aspect started snickering. "What did you do this time?" she asked suspiciously.
"Do?"
"Don't give me that, I can smell it. You've done something weird again. I know you."
"Let's say that I just introduced my dragon to the city," Taylor grinned. "It's possible that Max might be a little upset by it."
"Ah." Amy laughed. "Fair enough. I hope there's video."
"Yep."
"Great."
A moment later, Taylor looked thoughtful. "Hey," she said slowly. "I just had a really neat idea."
The Varga appeared on her shoulder in the smaller dragon form. "That is intriguing indeed, Brain. Well done."
Amy gazed at them, sighing a little. "Feel like explaining it?"
"OK." She did. Lisa appeared at the doorway and listened with as much interest as Amy had, then they all exchanged looks.
"Will it work?"
"I believe so."
"More importantly, can you include it in the bioconstructs?" Lisa asked Amy.
"Oh, that's not hard," Amy replied, already planning it out. "I can probably build it into our normal bodies too if you want, assuming it's as small as Taylor says."
"It's Family tech, it can be as small as you want," Taylor pointed out reasonably.
"That's true. OK, let's finish these off, then make a few and see how it works."
"All right."
They got back to work. Amy felt that while today had been long, it had also been very useful. And she was interested to see what PHO made of Taylor's latest debut.
Undoubtedly Void Cowboy would have at least three mutually exclusive and entirely wrong theories already, she decided, shaking her head with a small smile, then turned her attention to a particularly fiddly bit of design work.
"Did your meeting with Faultline and her people go well, dear?" Danny asked when Taylor appeared at the door to his study with her demon sitting on her shoulder.
"It did, yes, I think," she replied, looking thoughtful. "It was a little weird. Actually, a lot weird. We learned some strange things when we compared notes and it only got stranger when Amy started poking around."
"Strange odd or strange worrying?" he inquired as he saved the file he was working on and turned his chair around to face her.
"Both," she said, seeming puzzled. "It's… complicated is a polite way to put it. I'm going to need to get it straight in my head but when I do I'll tell you. You might see something we've missed."
"All right. But if you tell me that Leviathan is your pen pal or something, I may take it badly," he smiled. She giggled, shaking her head.
"Not quite that weird."
"Good. I'm relieved." He looked back to his computer and moved the mouse, clicking on another tab in the web browser. "On another note, there seem to be dragons in the sky from what PHO is saying."
She started giggling again.
"I bet Lucy is going to be in a good mood at school tomorrow," his daughter smirked, then recounted a story that had him laughing his ass off.
Lucy was still smiling when she finally fell asleep.
Today had, even with some unpleasant things happening, ended very well...
Note: The last part of this links back to chapter 200, 'The Lucy Adventures' :) It's now canon.