"What are you doing?" Randall asked as he looked at what Kevin was fiddling with on the workbench. It appeared to be one of Taylor's flywheel units and one of Linda's power supplies, along with a mass of other hardware he couldn't quite work out the purpose of.

"I got so stuck trying to work out a good Family form I decided to forget about it for a while and go do something else," his friend said while peering through a stereo microscope at a section of the electronics. "So I finished fixing the hologram projector, took the shield generator apart and started to repair it, then got distracted thinking about the BFG. That gave me an idea..."

He prodded a section of circuitry with a small probe, producing a trace on the oscilloscope next to his right arm, which he studied closely, then nodded. Going back to the microscope he put his face in the hood again and made a few adjustments. "I figured out how to boost the power output and make the entire thing more stable and safer at the same time," he went on slightly absently, putting the probe down and fumbling around for a very small soldering iron. Randall moved it closer to where his hand was and he picked the thing up with a mutter of thanks.

"Boost the power? That fucking thing is already so overpowered it's hilarious. And terrifying."

"I know, but to make it stable, I need to do that." Kevin carefully soldered a couple of components in place, pushing them into the right orientation with a tiny pair of tweezers. Curls of smoke rose from the board he was modifying. "My original power supply works really well, it's got a massive output, but because it's something I've more or less used before this particular one is getting twitchy. It works but there's still a higher chance of catastrophic failure than I'm happy about. I think I can fix that, given time and effort, but this should be a safer alternative and I can use it now rather than waiting."

He spent another few minutes making changes to the circuit board, then sat back, seeming satisfied. "That should do it."

"What am I looking at?"

"OK, this is obviously one of the flywheel units Taylor made," Kevin said, tapping the EDM casing of the thing. "It's the high output version, and I've modified the drive electronics to handle extremely high pulse currents. This here is a super capacitor bank I pulled from that EMP generator we made for the Red Faction thing we never did. And this is one of Linda's latest power units, the ones she uses in the mechs. I borrowed it to see if this would work."

Examining the mass of hardware, Randall slowly nodded. "Right, so that charges the flywheel, which is running the capacitors, and the control section there… lets the whole thing dump a huge amount of power really fast?"

"Yeah. If I've done it right, the flywheel is basically a compulsator now."

"What the hell is that?"

"Compensating pulsed alternator. It's a power generator optimized for massive current pulses, really huge ones, and they've been used in military rail gun projects, EMP simulators, big lasers, that sort of thing. Sort of a mechanical capacitor in a way." Kevin tapped the flywheel again. "Normally this would give a steady output of about five hundred kilowatts. My mods should let it give pulses in the gigawatt range, for a hundred milliseconds or so each time, with a reasonably high repetition rate. The capacitor bank can accept that charge almost instantly and smooth it out so it can produce anything from an even higher output but much shorter pulse, to a steady output for several seconds of hundreds of megawatts. Linda's generator powers the whole thing."

He turned his chair to face Randall. "It'll need superconductor wiring to handle the power without simply explosively vaporizing, and an EDM shield to contain the insane magnetic field, but it should drop into the gun in place of the original power unit without too much work. The beam generator can easily handle that much power, it's massively over-specced for what its doing at the moment." He shrugged slightly, smiling. "The limitation was always the power supply. This should fix that, make it much more reliable, and as a bonus increase the output by ten or fifteen times."

"Holy shit." Randall stared at his friend. "That thing is already terrifying. Now it's a hand held anti-starship weapon."

"Pretty much. I think I can see ways to make it even more effective, but to be honest right now I don't want to, it's fucking scary enough."

"Just a little," Randall agreed rather faintly.

"The cool part is that aside from Linda's power unit, none of the rest of this is actually Tinker-tech. It's mostly Taylor's work, and off the shelf parts. I'm pretty sure she's going to be making the semiconductors soon too, so we'll be able to produce the entire thing in house." Kevin looked pleased. "I bet with some work we can make a lot of the gun parts too, although some of it will need Dragon to see if she can reverse engineer it. If she can figure out Linda's stuff too, we could use this system all over the place. Even as it is it'll probably be useful for the mechs and some of her other designs."

"If we need to arm them with weapons you could shoot holes in the moon with," Randall pointed out, still somewhat shocked.

"It's not quite that powerful," Kevin replied, although he looked a little dubiously at the power generator he'd built. "I think."

"Let's not test it anywhere until we can take it up north to that Canadian firing range," Randall suggested, feeling worried. "And make sure Taylor is a long way from us when she fires the damn thing."

"That was my thought, yes," Kevin chuckled. "I'm pretty sure it'll work and be safe, but I'm not going to be the first one to pull the trigger..."

He turned back to the workbench and started disconnecting wires from the device. "I'll talk to Taylor later and we can work out how to make this fit in the gun. She can come up with some sort of housing for it that's large enough on the inside to make everything go in, it should end up just dropping right in place of the existing power cell. But everything checks out without actually using it for real, so I'm pretty pleased."

"Good work, my man," Randall smiled, clapping him on the back. "I'm going to go get something to eat. You want anything?"

"Bring me some of that curry if there's any left, will you?"

"No sweat. Back soon." He headed to the door, pleased for his friend and his new ability to repair his old designs and even come up with modifications for them like this. It boded well for the future.

"Wait," Vicky said, feeling a sense of complete unreality. "Wait, wait, wait." She held up a hand as Taylor obligingly stopped, having described something that was the single most unbelievable thing the blonde had ever heard. Leaving aside the details of Sophia's attack, along with Taylor's former best friend and a hanger-on, which was absolutely disgusting in her view and deserving of some serious retribution, the rest of it was just insane.

"A demon?"

"A demon, yes."

"Really?"

"Yep."

"You're shitting me."

"Nope."

"A demon?"

"Yep. A demon. I don't know how else to put it."

"And it lives inside you."

"Well, sort of. It's complicated to explain."

"So you're possessed. By a demon."

"Ahh..." Taylor grinned. "Opinion is divided on that subject. Some might consider me to be possessing the demon."

Vicky stared at her, then closed her eyes and leaned back, massaging her eyelids with her thumbs and trying to get to grips with all this. Eventually she opened them again. "OK. You met an elder god and came out of it merged with a demon. That's seriously what you're telling me. Not Triggered or something sensible like that, an actual literal demon. In your head."

Taylor lifted one shoulder in a sort of a shrug. "More or less, yes."

"And this demon gives you powers?"

Her friend grinned. "Oh, a few, yes."

"Demonic powers," Amy helpfully added with a grin of her own.

"That does follow, yes," Vicky sighed, still trying to wrap her mind around all this. "OK, say I believe you, what powers do you have? And how can I be sure you're not just a very strange Parahuman with a weird sense of humor?"

"The sense of humor is entirely correct," Saurial smiled, looking at Taylor with amusement. "But I guarantee she's not a Parahuman at all."

Vicky turned to Amy, who nodded, reaching out to grab her coffee in the process. "I checked. She's definitely not a Parahuman. And for that matter, she's not a human either. Her biology is completely insane."

"I think I might be too," her sister sighed, switching her attention back to Taylor. "So now you're a demon?"

"Half-demon, in a way. We think." Taylor shrugged again. "As far as we can work out. My body sort of got… upgraded… in the process, so I'm entirely different from that viewpoint. My mind is the same, only… more."

"More what?"

"More me." The girl smiled. "I got some serious upgrades in the process, but Taylor Hebert is still in here, and having a hell of a good time too. He didn't take over or anything. It's more or less the other way around."

Vicky studied her closely for a few seconds, still trying to work out if all this was an elaborate joke. "OK, say I believe you. Where is this demon? Can you prove it?"

Saurial waved at her. "I believe we can easily prove it, Victoria Dallon," the lizard girl said in an entirely different manner although her voice didn't change at all in most respects. Her body language shifted though, to something that suddenly made Vicky feel a cold shiver go down her back. "Although we would need to move this discussion to another venue. This room isn't quite sufficient for a proper demonstration."

There was a silence for a few seconds, and when Vicky blinked, she realized she was shoved as far back in her chair as she could get, staring at Saurial, who was smiling at her in an amused yet somehow alien fashion. Taylor was snickering, as was Amy, while Metis was watching curiously.

"Holy Christ," Vicky said weakly, still fixated on Saurial. "What was that?"

"Only Varga," Taylor replied casually. "He's the demon. If you didn't guess. Sorry, sometimes it affects people like that. Not that we have many examples, it's only you, Amy, Dad, and a few other people who know the truth. The whole truth, that is."

"My apologies, I didn't mean to startle you," Saurial said. She smiled a little evilly. "That much, at least. Although it was rather amusing."

"Be nice," Taylor chided. "She's new to this."

"As you wish, Brain."

Looking from one to the other, Vicky finally relaxed a little. "I think I need more of the story," she finally said with deliberate calmness. "Clearly I'm missing some critical, need to know information."

"Annoying when that happens, isn't it?" Amy said brightly, getting a glare from her sister in response. "This is just the start, but it's a good story. Want a refill before we go on?"

Sighing, Vicky nodded and handed her sister her coffee mug, which was shortly full again. "OK," she said after drinking enough of it to settle her nerves. "You got powers. From a demon. Not a normal Parahuman powerset, but an actual, literal demon. From outside the universe. Is that right?"

"Got it in one," Taylor nodded, regarding her calmly.

"What powers did you get?"

"Pretty much all of them," the brunette giggled. "But the main ones are math and magic. Well, they're more or less the same thing at this level, but that's the important part. Everything else comes out of that."

"Magic?" Vicky hated the way her voice squeaked. "Like that loony Myrrdin?"

"No, I'm pretty sure he's not a mage," Taylor replied, shaking her head. "This is actual real magic. Demonic magic, of course, which is the best sort."

"Obviously," Vicky sighed. She was beginning to think she should have left well enough alone and just lived with the confusion. It would have been easier on her mind.

"Stuff like this," Taylor went on, holding up a hand and showing her a large block of shiny metal she instantly recognized as gold.

It definitely hadn't been in her hand a moment earlier.

"That's… what the Family matter creation power does," she said after a long moment.

Taylor tossed the gold brick to the side, Vicky following it with her eyes, to see it poof out of existence just before it would have hit the wall. When she looked back she screamed in shock and nearly jumped out of her chair.

"What's wrong?" Taylor said, although strictly speaking it was Taylor's body with the head of Raptaur on her shoulders. The bizarre creature looked around, raising an eye ridge. "Problem?"

Vicky pointed with a trembling hand.

The Taylor-thing pointed at itself enquiringly, then looked puzzled when Vicky nodded mutely. "Do I have something on my face?" she asked.

Amy, who was giggling, leaned over and indicated a spot just under her left eye. "Little smudge there on the scales."

"Oh, thanks." A mirror appeared from nowhere and the half-reptilian Taylor looked at it, tutted, and materialized a cloth with which she gently scrubbed at her scales. "There. OK, where were we?"

"We were explaining the powers you gained as part of the bargain," Saurial said, making Vicky look at her, then recoil again. Taylor's normal head looked back on top of the lizard-girl's body.

Swallowing, Vicky firmly closed her eyes and carefully counted to ten. When she opened them again, everything was back to normal. "What the fuck was that?" she demanded. "Some weird sort of Stranger ability?"

"I think you should probably explain more if you've got that out of your system," Metis said, her voice betraying laughter. "Poor Vicky looks like she's going to pass out again."

"Fair enough. Sorry, Vicky, it's sort of a rite of passage for people we tell," Taylor commented, smiling at the other girl. "I haven't had a chance to do something like that for a while." She held up a hand, Vicky watching as it turned into a reptilian appendage just like Saurial's right down to the scales and color. "It's not a Stranger ability. It's a Changer ability."

"You're a Changer?"

"She's not just a Changer, she's the Changer," Amy snickered.

"Dad calls me an infinitely variable dinosaur, which is more or less accurate in some ways," Taylor nodded as Vicky gaped. "I can do anything that's even vaguely related to reptiles, and that includes all sorts of weird stuff."

"You'd have a hard time believing just how weird," Amy added, sounding impressed. "I know I did."

"it's not strictly speaking accurate, but it's the easiest way to explain it," Taylor went on as Vicky looked back at her, her mouth open in amazement.

"But… She did the same thing, right?" Vicky pointed at Saurial. "How does that work? Did you end up with the same powers as the Family or something? And can they change into other things too? I mean, that would mean..." Trailing off as a truly bizarre idea came to her, she stared at each of them in turn.

"I think she might be beginning to see the truth," Metis remarked with an interested look.

"You are part of the Family, right?" Vicky shook her head in wonder. "And all that stuff about demons is a cover story in case anyone gets this close to working out what's really going on. So people don't know how powerful they really are." Another thought struck her suddenly. "And they can turn into people! So I was right, they're hiding in plain sight!" She didn't know whether to be pleased to have some of her weirder theories verified or terrified that they were actually true.

"...Or not," the black lizard sighed.

Taylor started laughing, as did Saurial and Amy. "You're not entirely wrong, as it happens, but you're also totally wrong," the girl snickered. "I'm not, really, part of the Family." She looked at Saurial, who grinned back. "The Family is part of me..."

Listening as Taylor explained the rest of the story as far as her personal part in it went, Lisa kept her power active reading Vicky's tells. She was somewhat concerned that if it all became too much the girl might let some of it spill to others, but her power was telling her that this wasn't even vaguely likely if only because she didn't want her own sister to have trouble.

That was a relief to her, as she really didn't want to find out what would happen if Vicky went and told anyone else. Carol Dallon would probably be the worst one to discover any part of this as it would play too well into her own prejudices, and could have a very unpleasant effect on Amy. That said, it was entirely possibly no one would actually believe her in the first place. The cloaking spell, while still not something her power really understood, was far too good for the most part to allow anyone else to see even this much through it.

Since it was on Metis and Ianthe in a modified variant to prevent them being associated with any of the others, which her ability told her quite firmly was working perfectly, that path to information leakage seemed secure. Vicky's discovery of Amy's jeans had been a one off set of circumstances that hopefully wouldn't repeat, now that the demon was aware of the possible issue, since she was sure he'd figure out a fix for it assuming he hadn't already done so. And it was only Vicky's innate persistence that had let her keep going in the first place. For most people, when the spell powered up again, they'd probably have ended up forgetting about it.

Overall, it seemed likely that there wasn't much more security risk to letting someone else in on the conspiracy, such that it was, than they already had with the number of people who knew the truth. It was almost certain that Mark and Zephron at least had some inkling of it, both her own native wit and her power agreed on that, but the pair were undoubtedly very discreet and they'd never mention it to anyone else. Other people in the DWU quite probably had worked out a connection between Taylor and Saurial at least, but again they weren't going to talk. And no one outside the DWU would really have any way to work it out in the first place, with the exception of Dean, who they were sooner or later going to have to come up with a better story for. And, possibly, Dinah, but then it was likely that she'd be satisfied with the limited explanation that Taylor had told her.

It wasn't perfect, obviously, but all in all the whole bizarre situation seemed to work far better than common sense would suggest. And the longer it went on, and the more 'Family' members they introduced, the less likely it was that anyone would ever believe it was really mostly one girl being at least five of the top ten scariest capes in the entire city if not the country. Along with a few of her friends being all the others…

The concept still made her grin inside. In some ways she wasn't quite sure how they'd ended up like this, but it was a hell of a lot of fun and seemed to genuinely help, so she was perfectly happy to go along with it.

The perks were pretty good too…

^She's taking it… fairly well,^ she commented to the Varga and Amy on a private channel, not wanting to distract Taylor, who was currently explaining about Umihebi to a blonde who was staring at her like she was insane.

^We're going to have to provide some proper demonstrations or she's never going to really accept some of it,^ the demon commented with an amused tone. ^Like the PRT, she can more or less believe Saurial and Raptaur, but I think Breksta, Kaiju and Umihebi are a stretch at the moment. We'll have to take her into the big room and show her, I think.^

^Probably. Are you going to induct her into the hall of crazy reptile people, Amy?^

^I'm working on that,^ the healer replied, not looking at either one of them as she listened to Taylor answering some incredulous questions from her sister. ^The big problem, aside from whether she actually wants to join in with the crazy people, is her aura. It's way too distinctive, even with the cloak, to stick her into a construct. People would start to get suspicious, I'm pretty sure of that, and it could fuck us all up. The flight thing is a little difficult too but a flying form would probably cover that up.^

^Although none of the dragons can just float there, so it would look a bit weird if one of them suddenly could. And it would be weirder still if we had a floating Metis or something.^ Lisa thought for a moment, before adding, ^But it would be seriously cool if you could figure out how the fuck that actually works...^

^If I could do that I can't help thinking we'd be a lot closer to working out exactly what powers really were,^ Amy chuckled. ^But I do have some ideas, and Miss Fixey is helping.^

^Oh, god, don't ever say that to Taylor, she'll be laughing for hours,^ Lisa sighed. The demon was snickering and she knew it was far too late.

^Do you think you can disable her abilities, at least temporarily, Amy? That would appear to be the most obvious solution to the problem should she wish to join in the fun,^ he asked when he stopped.

^That was the idea I was working on, yes,^ she replied thoughtfully. ^I know a lot more about powers now than I did even a week ago. Examining Newter and Gregor taught me some interesting things. I'll need to think hard about it and maybe experiment a little, but it might be feasible to shut most of her normal powers down with a special version of a neural amplifier. I've got some ideas about a sort of power regulator variant… I'm not sure if it'll work yet, but if it does it would allow selectively disabling parts of a power set. I think.^

^Hell.^ Lisa looked at Amy, who glanced at her. ^That would be… impressive. And possibly very controversial.^

^Yeah, well, I'm not sure it will work at all, and there's no way in hell I'm telling the PRT about it, or letting them have access to it,^ Amy replied quietly. ^But we know that powers can be shut down, there are power nullifiers that turn up from time to time. Hatchet Face from the S9 is an obvious one, but thankfully that fucker is toast along with all his friends. So, in theory, I might be able to duplicate some of that at least on an individual level, although it would almost certainly be via a totally different mechanism.^ She paused, then added, ^It would probably need tuning to the specific individual too.^

^Would it help Case 53s?^ Lisa asked curiously, thinking about their visitors the day before.

^I don't know. I don't think it would, since I'm pretty sure their powers are working on a slightly different… level, perhaps… to those of a 'normal' Parahuman. That's leaving aside the thing we think about their powers coming from a different source in the first place. It might be worth some experimentation but I'd be very cautious about trying anything until I have a better understanding of what's going on there. Some of them are almost certainly sufficiently divergent from normal biology that only their power is keeping them alive at all. And of course with someone like that guy Weld my powers won't affect them to begin with, I already know that much.^

^Still, it is something to bear in mind,^ the Varga commented, sounding intrigued. ^We know there are a number of such individuals who are much worse off than Newter, for example, and who would probably be ecstatic at gaining a more normal form even if it was at the expense of their Parahuman abilities.^

^I know,^ Amy sighed. ^Yet another thing with all sorts of ethical implications I'm going to have to examine very carefully. I seem to come up with a lot of those.^

^It speaks of your character that you even recognize such issues, and are reluctant to move forward until you're sure you can help someone, Amy,^ he reassured her, somehow getting across the impression of a smile. ^I'm sure you'll work it out in the end. But if you can, even as a one off, design a method to allow Vicky to participate in the eventuality that she wants to, that would be impressive.^

^I'll keep thinking about it but I'll need her cooperation,^ the girl replied. They fell silent, going back to listening as Taylor kept explaining.

When Taylor finally stopped recounting a tale of a tail, as Vicky was numbly thinking of it, having shown her the reptilian appendage she had half-way through the story, they all sat there in silence while she tried to get to grips with it. The entire thing was totally ludicrous, and far more bizarre than anything she'd come up with on her own. In a way, less worrying, but in another equally important way, far, far more worrying. If only due to all the implications.

"Holy shit," she finally said, feeling her head swimming. "That's actually all true?"

"Yep. Sorry, I know it's a lot to take in." Taylor appeared apologetic.

"And you're really Saurial, and Raptaur, and Breksta, and Kaiju, and even a sea serpent called Umihebi? All at the same time? And can be any two of them at once?" She was feeling a little mentally fragile right now and her voice showed it.

"I am, yes. And I'm also Taylor." It was Saurial who said this in Taylor's normal voice, making Vicky turn her head somewhat creakily to stare at her. The lizard-girl waved. "Although I normally go by Saurial like this, it's easier."

"Fuck me."

She stared at the reptilian version of Taylor, then looked back at the other one, who was relaxing in her chair with the end of her tail twitching around. After some time of gazing at them alternately, she leaned her head back and put her hands over her face. "I seem to be having a lot of trouble with today," she sighed faintly. "I never could get the hang of Mondays."

"Nice reference," Taylor, although she wasn't sure which one it was, snickered.

"What reference?" she asked, puzzled despite her headache.

"Never mind then." Her friend's voice sounded amused.

"OK. Let me get this straight." She dropped her hands and stared at the normal, except for the tail, Taylor. "You got stuffed in a locker full of crap."

"Yes."

"Instead of triggering like any normal person, you met a Greater Power from outside the universe, who asked you some stupid questions then gave you a personal demon who had been locked away for eons."

"Yes."

"Who is ancient beyond knowing, more powerful than a thousand burning suns, and knows magic that would destroy the souls of humanity."

"Well, more or less. Yes."

"Who was unlocked by this Greater Power, so he can access all his own power, and in turn gave you practically every ability anyone's ever heard of as well as a crap-load of shit no one's ever heard of."

"Yes."

"And you use all this cosmic power to… troll people and fix things?!"

"That's the idea, yep," Taylor giggled.

"You are entirely insane. And so am I, for believing any of it." Vicky sighed heavily. Unfortunately, she did believe it. All of it. "And somehow, despite it being totally nuts, you've managed to persuade the entire fucking world that there is a civilization of alien lizards from the depths of time living somewhere off the coast, who are sending some of their people ashore to do random building shit and fight crime. Even though none of that is in any way correct."

"Pretty much. Although it would be more accurate to say that none of that was correct." Taylor grinned widely, showing far more extremely sharp teeth than should have fitted into a human mouth and making Vicky pull back again. "We're working on it."

"Jesus."

The way the girl opposite her was, now that her secret was disclosed, casually changing her shape at a whim was extremely disconcerting. When Taylor reached out an arm that became a scaled tentacle to retrieve a can of coke that was just out of reach, then retracted it and turned it back into an arm at the same time, she simply stared in shock. Amy laughing next to her didn't help.

When, having done that, Taylor changed her head into the scaled down version of Raptaur's and promptly ate the entire can in one bite, she was forced to resort to gaping again as staring was no longer sufficient.

"It started on PHO, Vicky, as so many things appear to," Saurial, now using the voice of the alleged demon said calmly. "We didn't intend to do it at all, but when the concept started to gain momentum, it was both very useful camouflage and far easier to go along with than attempt to stop. And, of course, much funnier too." She smiled a little. "We do appreciate a good joke and this one is excellent."

She was beginning to realize that at least half of what 'The Family' did was due to them finding it funny…

"You're not joking about any of this, are you?" she finally said almost despairingly.

"No. Everything we've told you is the truth," Taylor replied somewhat sympathetically. "I know it's hard to believe. Laying it all out like that makes it sound pretty weird even to me, in all honesty. We've had months to get used to it and it sort of grew from something a lot simpler anyway. We never expected to have things change this much this fast, and it took us by surprise. But it's good, people are doing most of the work for us and we only have to nudge things here and there to keep it going."

"I fully expect that even if we did try to explain the truth of the matter, there would be a significant majority of people who would flatly refuse to believe it," Saurial added. "Humans are like that. Alien lizards from the sea is, oddly enough, easier to believe than a demon and a human being an entire family of reptilian superheroes." She smiled a little. "One only has to look at the internet for proof of how easily people will believe things that can be factually shown to be incorrect. Such as the flat earthers, and so on. Something as difficult to explain as a demon from another part of the multiverse is rather harder to prove to the majority."

"Yeah, I can see that, I guess," she admitted, thinking back to her own research. Saurial was entirely correct, people would believe the craziest things even in the face of proof and often the more you tried to show they were wrong the more they believed the opposite. "I'm still having trouble with the 'demon' part of all this, though. I mean, Taylor Hebert as a disguised part of the Family is actually less crazy. And a lot more believable when you show that Changer power." She stared as Taylor's hair was replaced by brilliantly colored feathers. "Yeah, that."

"Cool, isn't it?" the other girl grinned. She stood up. "Come on, we need to go into the big room if we're going to prove it once and for all."

"Big room?" Vicky looked around, puzzled. As far as she was aware, this was all there was to the BBFO office, aside from the washroom section inside the main entrance, a small storeroom next to it, and the separate block that was Ianthe's workroom.

"Through there," Taylor pointed, indicating the rear doors. She headed that way, Vicky getting up and following after a confused few seconds, with the rest of them behind her.

"That's the back door," the blonde protested.

"Yep. But it's also the way into the big room."

"Does this big room have a blue ceiling and a really bright light in it?" she asked suspiciously, making them all laugh.

"Not quite." Taylor reached the door and opened it. Vicky looked through, stared blankly for some time, then turned to the grinning brunette.

"You are total fucking bullshit."

"We try," her friend giggled. "Come on, and prepare yourself for something really cool." She went into the vast, enormous, impossible space that was on the other side of the door that should have exited outside the building, then waved Vicky to follow, which she slowly and hesitantly did. Looking around, then up, Vicky decided that the huge room had to be large enough to get the entire Rig into with room to spare, which was simply unbelievable, if it wasn't for the case of her being able to see it.

"This is nuts," she muttered, looking up at the distant ceiling. "How are you doing this?"

"Math," everyone chorused.

"Oh, for god's sake," she sighed. "You're serious about that too, aren't you?"

"Yep." Taylor turned to her with the same grin she'd had for the last hour. "Want to see something really cool?"

"Go on, then, surprise me," Vicky muttered.

Taylor vanished.

"Holy fuck!" Looking frantically around, Vicky spotted the girl now standing in the middle of the room. "You can teleport too?"

"It's not strictly speaking teleportation, Vicky," Metis remarked, her lips curled up in a smile. "She's misusing the two aspects of a single body trick, which in turn is misusing Family math and her shape-shifting. Taylor is very adept at loopholes."

"You're telling me," the blonde replied, shaking her head in wonder.

Taylor waved to her. "All right, watch this." Abruptly, Raptaur was standing there waving instead. Vicky's eyes widened, as it was startling even after having been told she could do that. "Hi, I'm Raptaur," the huge reptile called. "I'd like to introduce my sister who's visiting this fair city of yours."

Moments later there was a fucking enormous black dragon sitting where Raptaur had been, looking around with interest.

Vicky's mouth dropped open.

"I must say, this is a nice room, although it's somewhat bare," Breksta said with interest. "Oh, hello again, Glory Girl. I did enjoy our little joke on that Mr Anders man the other night. Have you seen Lucy today? She appeared to enjoy the experience too."

"Oh my god."

"Oh, hold on, I believe my other sister wants a word." The dragon winked, then was replaced by Kaiju, in such a sudden change Vicky took a step back. Even that far away the enormous reptile looked immense. She paled as glowing eyes nearly as large as she was fixed on her.

"Ah, it's Vicky Dallon. How are you today?" Kaiju's head tipped a little to the side. "Are you OK? You seem a slightly strange color for a human."

"Eep." The little squeak came out involuntarily. To her rear she could hear muffled laughter from her own sister, who was really looking for a smack about now.

"Nice room, it's good to have somewhere I can stand up inside," the vast creature went on, looking up at the roof, then back to her. "Just like home. The fractal dimensional work is very well done as well. Excellent work, Saurial."

"Thank you, sister," the much smaller lizard said from behind her.

"Well, I've got to go, but it was nice seeing you all again." Kaiju waved.

What happened next made Vicky leap backwards and shriek.

The stupidly large and honest to god sea serpent that appeared in the middle of the room, stretching far further across it than seemed reasonable, looked at her with an air of confusion and said something in that weird language, in a voice that was so deep Vicky felt it in her chest. "She asked if you were entirely well," Saurial said calmly from next to her, where she'd landed.

"I… I..."

"Quite." The lizard girl, who looked completely familiar and sensible next to this insane creature, smiled. "You may wish to brace yourself, Big Brother is about to visit. He's… somewhat large."

Turning her head, Vicky aimed a goggle-eyed gaze at Saurial, then looked back in time to see the single largest living thing she'd ever even dreamed of, times at least ten, appear lying on its side in a casual manner where 'Umihebi' had been.

It waved to her, with a hand large enough to probably pick up the former tanker with ease.

After about four seconds of horror, her eyes rolled back in her head and she dropped.

"Oh dear. I think we may have overdone it again."

Amy put her sister into the chair that Taylor produced, and connected the strap to keep her there, then turned it to face the door. "That was very funny but a little mean," she commented with a smile.

"Hey, we're just telling her the truth," Taylor, currently in her normal body, protested. "This is what she asked for."

"I have a slight feeling that she wasn't expecting most of this," Lisa grinned. "Poor girl."

"She'll get over it," Amy giggled. "It's just a little much all in one shot like this." Touching Vicky's neck, she nodded. "Any second now..."

"AHHH!" Her sister jolted awake and looked around manically. Amy had to hold the chair down so she didn't fly off with it still attached. "What the fuck was that thing!?" the other girl screamed.

"What thing?" Amy asked in a calm voice.

"That huge impossible lizard! It can't be real! It makes Kaiju look about the size of a big dog!"

Wondering if she was going to need to slightly medicate her sister to get her to be a little quieter, Amy replied, "That was Varga. The demon you're still not entirely sure is real. Or his full form, anyway, but it was Taylor driving the body at that point."

"How big is it? Nothing is that big!" Vicky yodeled in horror, her voice shrill.

"Apparently Greater Demons are fairly large," she shrugged, with a smile. "Calm down, he's a friend. And so is Taylor, you know that."

Her sister closed her eyes and breathed hard for about thirty seconds. Monitoring her with a finger on her neck, Amy watched as her heart rate slowed to something closer to normal. Eventually, the other girl reopened her eyes and looked at her. "Is it real?"

"It is, yes."

"And it's still there?"

"I'm afraid so."

"Behind me?"

"Yeah."

"Oh, fuck." Very reluctantly, Vicky looked over her shoulder then went stark white as the other aspect, still the full Varga size minus about a hundred and eighty pounds of Saurial, waved to her.

"Oh god, it's real." The whisper was full of a number of different emotions.

"Sorry, Vicky, I didn't mean to scare you like that," the vast creature said, smiling a little. "We're used to it and we didn't expect quite so… enthusiastic… a reaction."

It was still Taylor's voice, just much deeper than normal, and that seemed to help as Vicky slowly relaxed. "That really is you, isn't it?" she finally asked, her voice trembling.

"Yep. I'm in here..."

"...and in here too," the Saurial aspect finished, moving to stand next to her. "I really am sorry, I didn't think it would be so much of a shock for you. Are you all right?"

"I'm not sure," Vicky mumbled, looking up at the human scale aspect, then back at the ridiculously larger one. "How the fuck is that even possible? Nothing that large should be able to exist."

"Basically, it's magic. I know that doesn't really explain it but it's all I can tell you," Taylor replied, her Saurial aspect reverting to her normal human one. She produced another chair and sat in it. "The Varga isn't a normal biological creature, and neither am I now. The usual rules don't apply. Pretty much any of them, really."

"Magic is real. I can't believe it." She stared at the reclining Varga, who was now lying supine and smiling at the ceiling. The vast reptilian body, head to tail, covered over half the floor. "This is so far beyond crazy I don't know what..." She shook her head, still gaping. "Oh, god, the PRT would explode if they ever saw this!"

"Which is why we're not telling them, and why you must not say anything to anyone about it," Amy said firmly, moving to look her in the eyes. "That's more important than I can really say, sis. No one can find out."

"It's likely that no one would actually believe you in the first place, but if they did, it could cause a hell of a lot of trouble for all of us, the DWU, and possibly the city too. And everyone in it." Taylor looked seriously at her as she looked back. "Like I said earlier, one of the main reasons we initially went along with the whole PHO Family thing is because if we appear to be some group no one has ever heard of, but that's obviously powerful and well equipped, we can control how people act towards us. At least as far as the official response is. If they decided it was just a couple of teenagers, they'd almost certainly decide that we should be working for them." She sighed a little. "That's not happening. Not now, not ever. But you know as well as I do that there are people in the PRT, and the government, and the gangs, who would decide they knew better and 'insist.'"

"That wouldn't end well for them," Lisa suggested with a toothy grin.

"Not at all. But someone would end up threatening Dad, or people at the DWU, or even you guys or my other friends," Taylor nodded as Vicky listened. "Then I'd have to insist they go away and leave us alone, they'd get all official about it, or try something stupid, I'd have to eat them, and there would be trouble."

"You really could eat them, couldn't you?" Vicky said after a worried pause.

"Easily," the other girl grinned, showing again many more teeth than there should be, along with a forked tongue licking her lips. The blonde shuddered slightly. "Could and would. But I really don't want to. I'd much rather just get on with my life and let everyone else get on with theirs, while we do what we can to fix things around the place. But some people take a lot of convincing and always want to control how things happen." She shrugged. "They don't try that with the Family. They probably would with Taylor Hebert."

There was silence again as Vicky thought over what she'd been told and had seen. They left her to it. The full scale Varga silently evaporated, 'Saurial' reforming next to Taylor and patiently waiting with the others while the blonde Dallon worked through the new information. She still seemed more than a little numb but no longer quite so freaked out.

Eventually she sighed and nodded. "OK, I think I understand. That part anyway. The rest of it is so fucked up I'm not sure I'll ever understand it all. The main thing to take away is that you are the single most fucking terrifying person on the entire planet."

"She's a one woman post-scarcity civilization too," Lisa chuckled. "In fact, she's a lot of things. But most of all she's Family, and that counts for a lot."

"I hope I'm not terrifying to you, Vicky," Taylor said softly after a glance at Amy and Lisa. "I'm the same person you've known for a while now, who likes teaching her friends math, and bad puns, and word games. I just happen to also be an infinitely variable dinosaur half-demon with all the powers. I didn't mean for that to happen, it just did, but I'm doing the best I can with the help of my friends. One of whom is you. I'd like to keep it that way."

Vicky shook her head in wonder, staring at Taylor. Amy hoped her sister would see that Taylor meant every word.

"Shit." The girl almost laughed. "I guess I should be more careful what I ask for."

"That's often a wise idea," 'Saurial' smiled. "But what's done is done. Welcome to the conspiracy."

Taylor held out her hand to Vicky. "Still friends?"

Amy's sister looked at it, then nodded, taking it and shaking it. "Still friends. Sorry I overreacted."

"To be honest you took it better than a lot of people probably would," Taylor laughed, which made Vicky smile.

"OK. That explains a lot of what I was worrying about." Amy's sister took a breath. "One tiny problem."

"Which is?" Lisa asked, suppressing a grin which Amy could easily detect.

"Where the fuck did Metis and Ianthe come from?" Vicky demanded, pointing at the black lizard.

Everyone looked at Amy, who sighed a little, then put an innocent smile on her face as her sister slowly followed their gazes. "Funny story," she began...