"Okay" Scott said. "Okay. We need to get everyone together. There are things you need to be brought up to speed on." Scott rose and headed for the door though whether he was trying to distance himself from what he had just learned or from his father's reaction at what he was about to be told, Scott wasn't sure.

"What things?" Jeff said his tone wary.

"It's not something I want to go through twice and our brothers need to know what we've found out here."

"Did you not hear the Admiral? I signed the confidentiality agreement-"

"Which you already breached by having me in the room" Scott pointed out. "We agreed to go forwards as a family, remember?" He was straining the truth here. Scott was fully aware that Jeff hadn't agreed to it so much as not openly opposed it. "Everyone has different pieces of this puzzle, dad. We need to put them all together."

It was the work of moments to round up the remaining members of the family, mostly because everyone was welcoming Kyrano and Kayo back from the main land.

Once again everyone assembled in the lounge, the only difference was that this time there were three holograms, one each for John, Virgil and Lady Penelope.

"Alan, would you please take Tenusha down to the beach?" Jeff asked before Scott could launch into things.

"What? Why? No!" Alan looked round the room in search of support, much to Jeff's surprise the support came from Kyrano.

"I assume, Sir, this is concerning the biomechanoid threat you informed me of some weeks ago?"

"It is Kyrano."

"My daughter is already fully aware. As should Master Alan be."

"Kyrano, they're children" Jeff said aghast.

"War does not care for one's age, Mr Tracy. It is better to be prepared."

"War? Jefferson, what is going on?" Grandma Tracy moved over to an equally alarmed Alan sliding one arm round his shoulder and the other round Kayo's. For her part Kayo tried to look annoyed at the gesture, but she didn't shrug it off.

"There's no war ma'" Jeff said shooting a glare at Kyrano. "But we have had a development and we, that is Scott and I, have decided that you all need to know about it."

Sparing no details Jeff explained to his family exactly what he had been doing. He told them how he'd tried to track down every and any lead that might give a location for the people trapped in cages. He'd sought the scientists that had supposedly worked on biomechanoid technology and followed cold money trail after cold money trail trying to put together who could have wanted to restart such a project. He'd come up empty. Eventually he'd bargained away Tracy Industries technology and his identity as the head of IR for the meeting with the Admiral.

He explained what the facility was and what the Transition Rebellion had hoped to achieve.

Finally, he told his family that the DGF had killed everyone in the video.

As it had when Scott had first heard the words silence fell, deep and heavy. In that moment even the waves seemed to roll in quieter as though paying respect to the innocent people slaughtered in the hopes of saving the world from worse ones. It was a bargain International Rescue would never have contemplated.

"My God, she'd have been perfect." Virgil's quiet voice cut though the silence. Scott looked up to the hovering image of his brother and his breath caught. Virgil looked sickened to his very core, his eyes resting on something Scott could see. He suspected his brother wasn't looking at anything at all.

"What do you mean by that, son?" Jeff asked gently.

Virgil didn't answer. It wasn't clear if he'd even heard.

"Virgil didn't go to France straight away" Scott said willing himself not to flinch as his father rounded on him. "After several long discussions I was persuaded that Virgil could make contact with Oracle safely. You weren't communicating. I took the decision to allow him to go to London."

"Which you did." Jeff turned back to Virgil but once again got no response.

"Do you boys have any idea at all of the danger you put your brother in?"

"We do" Gordon stood. "Minimal. Oracle never showed any signs of being dangerous. She helped us of her own free will. Something biomechanoids don't have. The series of events that led her to us is too random for someone to have planned it."

"We also had Virgil fully monitored for the initial meeting which was held in daylight in a crowded area" John added. From the corner of his eye Scott saw Kyrano nod appreciatively.

"Virgil" Scott said trying to get his distant brother's attention. His voice seemed to snap Virgil out from wherever he'd gone in his head. "Virgil, what did you mean when you said she'd have been perfect. Perfect for what?"

"Fodder" Virgil said, the word falling like an anvil. "She says the doctors think she has Congenital Insensitivity to Pain."

John looked up sharply.

"Can you confirm that?"

Virgil nodded.

"Hold on" Gordon threw up his hands to halt the conversation. "What does that mean?"

"Her nervous system is broken" John clarified. "She literally cannot feel pain."

"The second day I met her she was knocked down by a cyclist" Virgil explained. "It opened up what turned out to be a three-inch knife wound in her leg which she'd received in a fight the night before. She'd been walking round on it for hours and I had no idea."

Something about that comment niggled at Scott – something other than the knife wound - but he'd have to pick at it later.

"She could have been on some heavy-duty painkillers" Jeff pointed out.

"No dad" Virgil shook his head. "Anything that would have numbed a wound like that to that effect would have had noticeable side effects. I cleaned and redressed it myself, she never so much as twitched. When I flushed it, she was looking out the window, I don't think she was even aware I'd started cleaning it."

Again, something niggled at Scott but he couldn't put his finger on what it was.

"With a condition like that she could have been used day after day and, unless she was seriously hurt, she'd have been able to keep going." The utter disgust on Virgil's face was echoed round the room. Scott's own stomach turned at the thought.

"You mean she was made to fight biomechanoids every day and, because she can't feel it, no one would have stopped her if she got hurt?" Alan asked, eyes wide. "You can't do that to people!" He turned desperately to his father. "Are you sure she was there?"

"I'm sorry son, she was." Jeff looked uneasy but moved to his youngest son, no doubt looking to lend him some physical reassurance but Alan dodged out of the way.

"You said she was a threat! You said she was the person trying to hurt Virgil but all this time she's been hiding from the people who hurt her!"

Scott winced. Leave it to the youngest amongst them to put things so bluntly.

"We couldn't be sure, Alan" Jeff said patiently. "We still can't be, not until the results of the sample Virgil manged to get come through."

"I'm expecting them any moment, Jeff" Lady Penelope said.

"Did she say anything else, Virgil, about her time there?" John asked, ever the information gatherer.

"Yeah, I think Jasmine told me more than she meant to. She spoke about her two brothers – foster brothers – who were killed a couple of years ago. If what you say is true, dad, then the DGF killed them."

"My God, no wonder she had such a strong reaction when I told her I'd be passing everything on to them" John said.

Scott looked up at his two holographic brothers. John wore the look he got when he was about to dive into some serious research project. Given the recent developments Scott knew he would have to keep an eye on him. John was in enough trouble as it was but he looked as though he might try and hack into the GDF at the moment. Virgil on the other hand looked shattered and Scott wondered just how much time his middle brother has spent with Oracle in the past few days. Hang on, hadn't he called her-

"Jasmine?" Jeff queried.

"Yes." Scott blinked and wondered if he'd imagined the look his brother had worn only a moment ago. Now he looked as though he were reporting back after any rescue. "She showed me the messages Salvatore has sent her. In all of them he refers to her as Jasmine, not Oracle. She asked me to call her Jasmine to help her get used to it."

"Alright" Jeff said. "From now on we'll all refer to her as such."

It was a big moment as everyone in the room slowly took in the Tracy Patriarch. He hadn't said it in so many words, but it sounded like he was beginning to accept that Oracle was on their side.

"There is one thing that doesn't fit, however" Lady Penelope said. Scott didn't miss the way Virgil's eyes narrowed. "Oracle has a reputation for violence. One I have to confess I did not witness myself. Virgil, you have spent the most time with her now. Did she strike you as overly aggressive?"

"No" the answer was immediate and firm. "I would say she came across as anything but. In fact, when she told me about her condition, she was outright terrified. Her natural instinct seemed to be to run rather than confront."

"Why would she be scared to tell you?" Alan asked.

Oh Alan Scott thought wondering how he could explain this to his very-little brother.

"Think about it Al" Gordon said gently. "People have already taken advantage of her because of it. She didn't know that Virgil wouldn't try something similar."

"But Virgil would never!"

"But she didn't know that" Scott said before turning back to Lady Penelope. "This reputation she has could come from the fighting she still does. I imagine there are a lot of people out there who don't like being taken down by a woman half their size."

"But remember, I didn't know about the fighting" Lady Penelope said. "This information came from the burlesque club."

"Is it possible" Virgil said slowly. "That she could be covering for someone else?"

"What do you mean?" Jeff asked.

"Maybe the reputation isn't hers at all. Someone else has been causing the trouble and she's covering for them?"

"Why would she do that?" Scott asked.

"What would you do for one of us?" Virgil replied. "One thing I did learn was that she holds her own life in very little regard. I imagine now that's because of growing up in an environment where is was considered to be little more than a training aid."

"Okay, but you said her brothers had been killed and the GDF confirm they have um" words temporarily failed Scott as he didn't want to vocalise again what had happened there. "Who could she be covering for?"

"There's someone else who escaped with her. His name is Warren. John if you send me stills from the facility I'll see if I can identify him. Jasmine told me he's the little brother she never wanted. She also told me that he grew up separately from her and her brothers but in the same facility."

"What was your take on him, son?"

"He came across like a typical sulky teenager. He's angry, at everything. Loyal to Jasmine though. I only met him briefly at a small café Jasmine had asked me to meet her at. In that time, I saw him physically haul off two people. After the second I noticed he had blood on his clothes. It was clear that Warren didn't care about it and Jasmine stopped me from asking further."

Jeff let out a sound somewhere between a frustrated growl and a moan.

"So, we potentially have another biomechanoid out there?"

"Potentially father" Virgil agreed reluctantly.

The grim silence descended again as the thought that there could be two biomechanoids lose in the world fully settled with everyone present.

"And the only way to tell if they are or not is with a blood sample?" Alan asked clearly trying to get up to speed as fast as possible. Scott was oddly proud of him for it. He was then disgusted with himself for thinking that Alan should be involved at all.

"Speaking of" Lady Penelope said reading something on the desk in front of her. "The results of Jasmine's sample have just come through."