Taylor glanced at Amy, then both of them watched Lucy get mobbed by at least forty students, all of who seemed to be very interested in her activities the night before. Their friend hadn't put her name to any of the 'mystery dragon rider' threads on PHO but it didn't take a genius to work out who 'Iguana Girl' really was for those that knew her.
The coat she was wearing proudly was also something of a clue, she thought with a grin.
"She's going to be looking like that for a while, isn't she?" Amy said in a low voice. Taylor nodded, snickering to herself.
"I'm not sure we could actually stop her looking smug at this point. She's out-Lisa-ing Lisa, which is impressive," she replied similarly. Both of them laughed a little.
"I'm glad she's happy," Amy added.
"Me too. It seems to have cheered her up a lot considering what nearly happened to her."
"She's actually signing autographs now," the shorter brunette giggled. "And Mandy is starting to look a little irritated. No one is asking her for one."
They exchanged a glance again. "Maybe we should see if Breksta wants to bring a relative along to see if both of them want to go flying?" Taylor asked quietly, trying not to laugh too loudly. Amy thought about it, her expression devious.
"Oh, god, I can just imagine her parent's look if there's a knock at the door and they open it to see a dragon bending down and peering in, asking 'Can Lucy come out to play?'" she said with suppressed glee. "We need to make sure that happens..."
Both of them lost it completely and ended up leaning against the wall of the school laughing until the bell rang a few seconds later. The entire gaggle of students, with Lucy and Mandy in the middle, headed for the doors. Taylor and her friend slipped in just in front of them, being joined by 'Saurial' who was waiting inside. Vicky, who had been talking to Dean and Dennis while all three of them kept looking at Lucy as well, odd expressions on the two boy's and a grin on the blonde's respective faces, followed behind the group.
The trio stopped next to Taylor's aspects and Amy. "Lucy is in a mood so good it's probably illegal or something," Dennis quipped, shaking his head. "Why does everyone other than me get to ride giant lizards? Giant flying lizards now, too!"
Vicky patted him on the back. "Because you're an annoying little man, Dennis."
Dean, who had been watching Lucy with an extremely odd expression, his scent telling Taylor and Amy that he was about as confused as it was possible to be, broke down laughing, making his friend glare at him.
"She knows you too well," he chortled.
"I'm the one who's supposed to be making the jokes," he complained, although in a good humored way. "But it's nice to see Lucy feeling happy like that."
"And doing it in public, too," Taylor commented with a grin. "I wonder if it makes the other six dwarves jealous?"
Amy instantly collapsed in hilarity, her sister not far behind her. Dean leaned on the wall and heaved with laughter. Dennis looked at her, the rest of them, including her other aspect which smirked at him, shook his head, and wandered off complaining that everyone thought they were a comedian and should really leave it to the professionals.
"Nice one," Dean snickered, giving Taylor a look of amusement even though he still smelled confused and slightly worried. "It's not often someone beats him at his own game."
"It seemed appropriate," she giggled.
The second bell rang, so she waved to him and Vicky, heaved Amy who was still laughing to her feet and propped her on the corridor wall, then bid them goodbye and headed for home room with 'Saurial' following. She gave her other aspect a sidelong glance, both her and the demon grinning.
"I'm glad we can make Lucy so happy with such an easy thing to do," the Varga said. "She's a nice girl and I approve of her taste in companion animals."
'I do too,' she replied, amused. 'One day we really must figure out a way to get Ianthe to offer her a tail...'
He laughed. "I doubt you could find a more willing experimental subject for Family bio-modifications."
They exchanged another look, then went into the classroom, waving to Amy and the other two as they headed for their own rooms. "Later, guys," she called over her shoulder. Sliding into her seat, she looked at Mandy, who was watching her friend sign one last autograph with an expression of mild exasperation. When the teacher came in moments later the various students gathered around the Chinese girl quickly returned to their seats. Lucy turned to grin at them.
"Hi, Lucy," Taylor said mildly. "Did something happen? Nice coat, by the way. I like the style."
Mandy sighed, Lucy grinned even more widely, and Taylor chuckled.
"It was amazing!" their friend said with glee.
"Breksta said you liked it," 'Saurial' said from behind them where she was doing her bodyguard act, something that everyone was used to now to the point they treated her as entirely normal and expected. Several people had casually greeted her as they passed while heading to their own seats, something that still amused Taylor and the Varga equally.
"Liked it?" Lucy giggled, looking extremely pleased. "I loved it. So much fun. Like the best roller coaster ever."
"Weren't you worried you might fall?" Taylor asked.
"Fall?" Lucy shook her head. "No. I trusted her to keep me safe. That's what the Family do. Anyway, if somehow I had I bet she'd have caught me."
Mandy looked at her, then Taylor and her reptilian aspect, before all three of them started laughing. "She's got it bad for your family, Saurial," Mandy said behind her hand. "Do you adopt?"
Grinning as Lucy looked slightly miffed, the lizard girl reached out and stroked her hair. "I always wanted a mammal as a pet," she said.
"Hey! What about me?" Taylor demanded.
"Shush, you. You're far too annoying to make a good pet. Lucy is cute."
"I'm quiet and house trained too!" the other girl chirped, now smiling.
Mandy put her head on the desk and rolled it from side to side. "I'm surrounded by crazy people," she moaned.
"Fun, isn't it?" Taylor asked. Her friend tilted her head to give her a sidelong look.
"I have to admit it has its moments," she replied. "And I want a ride on a dragon too."
"That can be arranged," 'Saurial' assured her, which seemed to make her happy. "Oh, by the way, Breksta asked me to give you this, Lucy." She handed the girl a USB stick. "Her head-cam video."
"Ooooh," Lucy said with an eager look. "Thank you so much." Accepting the small device she looked gleefully at it, then carefully put it away in an inside pocket of her new coat.
The teacher cleared this throat, making everyone sit up and pay attention, then started taking roll. Feeling that she was more than pleased with how much Lucy had enjoyed her little adventure, Taylor leaned back in her chair and waited for her name to be called.
Brian knocked on the door to Mark's office then opened it. "Hey, Brian. Come in, have a seat," the security head said, turning around from his computer where he'd apparently been writing a report. "How's it going today?"
"Pretty well so far although it's still early," the young man replied. "Still plenty of time for things to go horribly wrong."
Mark grinned. "Always true. How did the reading go?"
"I've finished the chapters you wanted me to and the next three as well. It's more interesting than I expected although some of the rules and stuff are pretty dry," he said, holding up the manual Mark had given him.
"Yeah, I wouldn't read that for fun, I have to say," Mark told him. "OK, great, that's good. We've got half a dozen other people who are also in the program, so we're going to do the written part of the test in one of the meeting rooms in..." He glanced at the time on his desk clock. "About forty minutes. It'll take roughly two hours. We're a registered security agency under state law so we can certify people ourselves, although we haven't done much of that in recent years. The laws have changed so much in the last twenty years it's practically a full time job keeping up with them, but that's actually worked in our favor, since one of the things that changed was the age limit was lowered from twenty one to eighteen. And capes coming on the scene ended up making the firearm requirements simpler, strangely enough."
"Maybe because there are just too many people with guns, never mind powers, these days?" Brian suggested.
"Probably. It's like with the PRT affiliate thing, the good guys are so overwhelmed they'll take almost anyone as long as they help with the villains. And to stop them becoming villains in the first place, although that doesn't always work." Mark gave him a look of slightly knowing amusement, making him feel mildly embarrassed.
"So I've heard," he replied, smiling a little.
The man nodded. "Anyway, end result is that it's easier to get licensed to carry firearms now than it was, which is a mixed blessing. Word of warning, if the cops find someone who's a registered security guard committing crimes, they come down on them like a ton of hand grenades, so don't do that. No sense of humor at all about it. Understand?"
"I do, sir, yes." Brian nodded. He had absolutely zero intention of becoming a criminal again, knowing full well he and the others had been absurdly lucky to have met Raptaur and been given a way out of that lifestyle. He was also certain that Mark knew that.
"When the written test is done, assuming you pass, which you will, we'll do the firearms course. We've got a shooting range set up in one of the buildings and a small number of pistols we use for that. Generally we don't carry them on DWU property, unless we're very sure there's something bad coming, and Danny's not keen on it even then if it can be avoided. He's always wanted to try to prevent escalation, which tends to happen when the guns come out. Doesn't always work, of course, especially with fuckwits like the E88 who really seem to like shooting things, but I know where he's coming from."
"I'm not too keen in getting shot at myself," Brian replied honestly.
"It's exciting but not in a good way," Mark smiled. "Been there, done that, got the scars. That said, sometimes you have no choice, and I want everyone to know what to do in that case. And like Danny's said, if it comes down to us or them, it's going to be us if I have any say in it."
"OK." Brian couldn't disagree with that.
"We also have a couple of rifles, I'll train you on those myself. Those are reserved for end of the world scenarios. If we ever have to bring them out, there are going to be a lot of questions, so I don't want that to happen unless we have absolutely no choice. But shit does tend to hit the fan around here at times. You're up to speed on the paint guns, foam projectors and grenades, and so on, so that doesn't need to be gone over again. Metis said that Ianthe has some weird Family shit too that we're going to have fun with but that's not part of the course."
He picked up a sheaf of papers and quickly looked through it, pulling out one set and pushing it across the desk. "You'll need to fill this out, sign it in the marked places, then give it back when you're done. Once we've done the firearms training we go to the State Police, who will want to test you on both the verbal and practical parts of it to make sure we're not talking bullshit, then they stamp the forms. At that point you'll get issued with a carry license. We'll issue you the security guard license and register it with the state. Assuming nothing goes wrong you'll have both of them by the end of the month at the latest."
"That seems quick," he noted curiously, picking up the paperwork and looking through it.
"The standards for security guards are appallingly low in some ways," Mark grumbled. "Some of the people out there shouldn't be allowed to walk around without a keeper. I expect my people to be much better trained and disciplined, so don't slack on the work. In my view anyone who carries a weapon absolutely must know how to use it, when to use it, and most importantly, when not to use it. Once the guns come out, the situation always gets worse one way or another. Better to talk yourself out of things than shoot yourself out of them, movies be damned. Saurial and her relatives have that right."
He shook his head. "I was in the military for twenty years, I've been in more than my fair share of firefights, and they all suck. Trust me, that sort of shit looks cool on the big screen but it's way more terrifying in real life and you can lose a lot of friends no matter how it goes."
"Yeah," Brian said quietly, thinking back to that horrific escape from Lung that had so nearly ended in disaster. "Don't think I want to experience that."
"No, you do not. But, around here, we can't completely rule it out, so I'm going to make sure you're equipped to survive if it does go to hell. And having more people with all the right training and papers will allow us to do more work for the city, which pays well and helps people, so that part is also good." The older man studied him for a few seconds, then got up and went to the door, closing it and locking it. Returning to his desk, he regarded Brian, who was feeling nervous now, with interest.
"All right. I'm going to break one of our own rules here, which I wouldn't normally do, but we need to make sure we're all on the same page. It might be needed one day."
Brian raised his eyebrows a little.
"Show me your power," Mark requested.
"My power?" the boy responded, somewhat baffled and a little worried.
Smiling, Mark waved a hand. "Do that smoke thing. I want to see how well it works. Keep it in this room."
"You know about that?" Brian wasn't sure why he asked, since it was obvious that Mark did, and he was sure Zephron did too, along with likely most of his coworkers, but this was the first time anyone had ever said anything.
"Of course I do. And no, Danny and the Family didn't say anything. You know we don't talk about people's pasts here without a very good reason," Mark replied evenly. "I don't care what you used to do or who you did it for, you're out of that life now and both Danny and Saurial vouch for you. I like you too, you're a good kid with a decent head on his shoulders and a strong work ethic. But you're one of us now, which means we need to know what assets you can bring to the table in case something really bad does happen. We all have our special skills, yours is just more… obvious… than most."
Unable to help smiling, Brian shrugged. When he considered it, he decided that the man was right. Keeping his Parahuman status secret was reflex by now, and it was slightly weird to think about just casually showing it off, but the DWU were people he trusted more than he'd trusted almost anyone before and had done right by him and his friends. The Family too, the lizards had saved all their lives and not asked anything in return other than that they be decent people, which he was fine with. Lifting a hand he made his smoke pool in his palm then flow out of it to the floor, while Mark watched with interest.
"How large an area can you fill with it?" the man asked as it started to build up around the room, Brian keeping the rate slow.
"Pretty big. I'd guess about maybe two, three hundred feet or so diameter? Never really measured it properly, but that seems about right. It takes a while to get to that size. I can do a room this small in seconds if I push it, something the size of the cafeteria in under half a minute, that sort of thing. It lasts about twenty minutes or so when I stop making it although I can make it go away faster."
Mark nodded, looking curiously at the stuff which had reached the level of the desk top. Brian didn't actually see it the way other people did, he was aware of where it was, but to him it was basically transparent. Everyone else just saw thick black impenetrable smoke. "And it blocks visible light, radio, stuff like that from what I understand?"
"Yeah. I was told that it blocked the entire electromagnetic spectrum, it reduces sound to almost nothing, Rachel said her dogs can't smell through it either, and it does something weird to your sense of touch and position."
"Interesting." Mark ran his hand through the now static bank of smoke. "I can see some helpful tactical uses for this. You can make it selectively in specific areas?"
"Yes, within range I can do all sorts of things with it." Brian demonstrated by surrounding the two of them with walls of the stuff, more covering the ceiling, leaving the pair of them in a clear area in the center of the smoke. "And I can always see and hear through it fine."
"Very impressive. The more I think about it the more ways I can come up with to use that in a combat situation. Thanks, you can get rid of it." Brian made it rapidly dissipate, Mark watching curiously. "I'm going to have to think about that some more. Sorry to ask, I know it's a private thing and Parahumans usually want to keep their powers secret, which I can respect. But it might save our asses one day so I needed to see it."
"I understand," Brian nodded. "It's OK. Still takes some getting used to, you know? Probably most people here know about me and the guys, but that's the first time anyone has even mentioned it."
Mark smiled. "Don't worry about it, we've got people here who have done a hell of a lot worse in the past than minor robberies and that sort of crap. And you and your friends always got away, which is impressive. We appreciate skills like that even if the cops tend not to."
Laughing momentarily, Brian relaxed a little. "We worked together well as a team," he replied, knowing that the man obviously knew about Lisa and Alec too, and Rachel was obvious as she'd done absolutely nothing to even attempt to hide her identity. His friend just didn't give a shit, and was happier here than he'd ever seen her.
"Well, you have a much bigger team now, so remember that we look out for each other." Mark checked the time again. "Right, go and get that paperwork done, then meet me in room 207 at eleven, OK?"
Brian stood and nodded respectfully. "I'll be there." Shortly he was sitting in the cafeteria with a pen in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other, trying not to hear Alec slurping soup across the table from him.
Vicky watched her sister across the room during the English lesson, pondering various thoughts, while lightly nibbling on the end of her pencil. She'd nearly had a heart attack at breakfast when Amy had made it apparent she knew the blonde had been in her closet, but it seemed she didn't think anything of it and hadn't noticed those jeans, which were still under Vicky's bed, were missing. How the other girl had worked it out she wasn't sure but since Amy was very perceptive it shouldn't have surprised her the way it had.
It was only in conjunction with her more paranoid recent thoughts that an otherwise innocent mild complaint had momentarily taken on a more worrying feel, but thinking about it she was pretty sure her sister didn't mean anything by it. Certainly their little verbal sparring session that had followed was all in good spirits, and actually made her feel less worried because it was more like Amy used to be before she'd become so depressed over the last couple of years or so.
Things like that made Vicky pleased, she liked having the old snarky but happy Amy back, rather than the quiet and darkly bored one that had been more apparent for a while. Those lizards had managed something no one else had, which was impressive.
So what was the truth of it? When she'd got back from her relaxing and extremely funny outing that had resulted in meeting yet another Family member, which had been a shock, she'd spent another hour poking at the recalcitrant clothing trying to work out what it was hiding. To no avail no matter what she tried. Which had included at one point poking it with a broom handle in case there was some bizarre hidden trick to the tail sleeve, but that had only resulted in her getting even more of a headache and ending up feeling foolish. When she'd suddenly caught herself viciously prodding an inanimate item of clothing with a piece of wood and swearing at it because it wouldn't cooperate, she'd decided that maybe she was taking it a little too seriously…
Two ibuprofen and a glass of water later the jeans had ended up under the bed again, she'd been lying on top of it thinking with her arm over her eyes, and her mother had spent half an hour downstairs arguing with her father about why a literal dragon flying around over the city was ridiculous. She hadn't mentioned to them at that point that she'd ended up on first name terms with it.
That was something that could wait until a better time.
Right now, she was out of ideas. The mystery clothing was either a hallucination, or being deliberately irritating, possibly in fact being a relative of Cloak's. In either case it was probably a dead end as far as direct evidence went. So she was, once again, left very confused and somewhat worried. That worry was lessened by her surety that Amy was actually Amy and not a lizard, unless she'd been a lizard all along when she'd been adopted…
Amy looked around, wondering where the weird crunching sound had come from, then stared at her sister who was spitting little bits of yellow wood out of her mouth. "Did you miss breakfast, Miss Dallon?" the teacher inquired with a mildly confused and slightly amused look, causing most people to laugh. Vicky flushed a little while Dean was staring oddly at her.
"Sorry, Miss Cooper. Cramp, I accidentally bit down."
"It might be best not to put writing implements in your mouth in future."
Vicky appeared embarrassed and nodded while another ripple of laughter went around the room. Amy sighed. That girl was definitely in an odd mood at the moment. The scents coming from her were strange and baffling. She was clearly going to have to sit her down and find out what on earth was the problem. Last night and this morning she'd seemed more or less back to normal so Amy hadn't bothered to probe, but this was getting silly.
Picking little bits of pencil from between her teeth, which tasted horrible, Vicky tried to forget the latest stupid idea her idiot brain had come up with. It was ridiculous.
She glanced sideways at Amy, who was watching her with a slightly annoyed and curious expression, smiled weakly, then bent over her notebook with a new pencil.
'I'm going to have to figure out some way to just ask her,' she thought with irritation and resignation. 'This is starting to get stupid. Just do it, Vicky.' She sighed under her breath. 'After school. I need to find out what the fuck is going on before I go nuts.'
Feeling that she'd finally made a decision and hoping like hell it wasn't literally going to bite her in the ass, she resumed making notes and trying not to think of anything other than Hemingway.
It wasn't easy.
"Do we have any more on this fucking dragon?" Emily asked, looking around the table.
"Her name is Breksta, apparently, according to someone on PHO," Robin replied when no one else spoke. "I think it's probably the girl who was riding her. She posts a lot, often defending the Family if someone says something about them. She seems to like them."
"Another cape?" Lieutenant Pratchett seemed interested.
"I don't think so, just a friend of theirs. Maybe that girl who Assault and Battery met riding Raptaur? She looked about the same size."
Everyone looked at Ethan, who shrugged. "No idea, her helmet visor was opaqued, but the size and build is about right."
Emily sighed, nodding and making a note. "All right. At least we probably don't have yet another Family-related Parahuman, just some crazy teenager who likes riding giant lizards."
"Hey, she rode a dragon!" Ethan grinned. "Kudos to her, that's impressive no matter what."
Several people nodded, making Emily look around and shake her head. This entire city was slowly going more and more nuts, and it had started pretty nuts in the first place. "I just hope that's the only one they have," she grumbled. "The thing was enormous. And is probably hilariously lethal, knowing them. Saurial's side of the Family, or her cousin's?"
"I think Saurial's based on the eye color seen in this image," Colin said, bringing up a photo on the main screen, which made it clear just how large 'Breksta' was. "It appears to be a consistent marker for them. I am intrigued by how a creature clearly optimized for flight also has obvious aquatic adaptions. Based on her body form and these fins here and here, she can undoubtedly swim with great proficiency."
"The Family are as far as we know mostly aquatic so that's not too surprising," Legend commented, examining the image with interest. "And they do seem to come in a wide variety of sizes and shapes. Bearing in mind Ianthe's guild's abilities I wouldn't be surprised to know they modified themselves more or less at will too, so that might explain why there are so many variations."
"Plausible," Colin nodded. "We also have no idea about their life cycle at all. If we're correct that Saurial is the youngest, which seems likely, they may just grow steadily throughout life as we've considered before. It would explain the vast differences in size between her and her sisters. But how long it would take for someone the size and mass of Umihebi to reach that I have no way of knowing. It's also unknown if they could exceed that size given enough time, or for that matter how long they actually live in the first place."
Dragon made a slight sound, making him glance at her, but didn't speak.
"My suspicion is that they have a much longer lifespan than humans, probably by an order of magnitude or better, but I will admit that's not based on direct evidence. In time perhaps we'll find out if they wish to tell us, but I don't currently believe it really matters."
"Probably not," Emily nodded. "Hopefully they'll at least use a transponder for her if she's going to be flying around. Saurial is one thing, but that damn creature is the size of a light aircraft. I'd like to know where she was so we can avoid something hitting her if nothing else."
"I feel it unlikely that Breksta would come to harm," Colin said calmly, making her look suspiciously at him. That was almost a joke…
"It's not her I'm worried about," she said with a frown. "We already know those blasted reptiles are practically indestructible. But I don't want to have to explain why one of our aircraft is spread over half a block having bounced off a fucking dragon."
"I think they're responsible enough to make sure that won't happen, Emily," Legend smiled. "I'll talk to them again if we have any trouble, but I doubt we will."
"Dragons," she mumbled under her breath, making a few more notes. "What next?"
Turning the page, she moved on. "All right. Have we got any more of note from Coil's men?"
"Some names, which we're investigating," Hannah replied, turning to her own tablet. "A couple of people in the State police who are most likely compromised, one probable agent in the DEA, rumors of at least four more in the PRT in Boston, New York, and Chicago, and two more bank accounts. Someone beat us to it on those, they're almost empty. They covered their tracks well too, there's no data left on how much was actually in them, we can only guess at somewhere in the millions. Calvert also owned a number of companies that all seem to have been, as far as can be discovered, quite legitimately transferred to a holding company set up a week or so before we took him down, which in turn is owned by a different company that's roughly six weeks old."
"Did Calvert do it?" Emily asked curiously.
"No. I doubt he even knew about it. Someone basically cleaned him out, using his own codes and account numbers. All the paperwork is in order, there's no way to prove it wasn't above board aside from implication and it would be hellishly difficult to challenge in court. Whoever did it was very good and very thorough. Calvert is broke, and his mercs are owed a lot of money he doesn't have." Hannah looked down at her tablet again, then up. "Oddly enough whoever did this didn't go after their money although I suspect they could have done."
"Who is the ultimate benefactor of all that?" Legend asked.
She shrugged, almost smiling. "The Brockton Bay Dock Worker's Union."
Everyone stared at her, then Ethan started laughing like an idiot. "Oh, that's fucking glorious!" he giggled. "The Family stole his entire fortune and gave it to the DWU. Why doesn't that surprise me?"
"A significant amount of the funds we've been able to trace seem to have been paid to a number of different sources, including several charities, to the tune of nearly a hundred million dollars so far," Hannah went on, ignoring the man with dignity and some effort. "Our people looked into it and it seems likely that the money was stolen or embezzled from those sources in the first place. They seem to be returning it with interest, very quietly and carefully. The three construction companies are still solvent and no one has yet been told they're under new management. My best guess is that by the time they're done, the DWU will have a significant boost in assets and all the people Calvert fucked over will have been repaid."
"Who do you think is behind it?"
"Probably Metis. She's a very high grade Thinker in our terms and our analysts are certain she could easily arrange all this. We can't prove it, but that also fits. And I doubt we'd get anywhere even trying."
"I can't see there's reason to try for that matter," Legend remarked. "If it was her, she's doing the right thing, and if there's some money left at the end, using it to help the DWU is probably a sensible approach. In the end it'll benefit the city and everyone in it, which seems to be what they're going for in the first place."
Emily thought it over, sighed slightly, and nodded. The lizards once again were doing good by just being weird. He was right, they had no real way to prevent it, or any good reason to complain aside from it being a non-regulation activity. She had little doubt that all the paperwork would be in order and impossible to refute despite the peculiarities of the whole thing.
And, of course, it fucked over Calvert even more, so she couldn't really pretend she didn't enjoy that part…
"Fine. Monitor it, but don't do anything. Now, what's the current state of play regarding Skidmark and Shadow Stalker?"
She settled back to listen to the reports, hoping that both the people involved would just find a convenient hole to crawl into and never emerge from. It was, sadly, unlikely, but it would make life so much simpler.