Looking around, Taylor smiled a toothy smile. The area was perfect for training, a large open concrete area some three hundred yards square next to the bay, several warehouses to the right side, more behind, and a long fifteen foot chain-link fence topped with razor wire around the two other sides. The main Dockworker's Union headquarters was in another part of the site, some distance from her, separated by another row of smaller warehouses, the entire area ultimately enclosed by the fence except for a few buildings on the waterfront, including the one she and her father had experimented in.
Without swimming some distance and climbing over extremely jagged and dangerous old concrete pilings festooned with barnacles and rusting pointy bits of old ironworks, there was no real way into the zone from the water. One long wharf protruded two hundred yards out into the deeper channel some way from shore, but the near end of it was closed off with very heavy gates. Overall it was fairly secure from casual passers-by who couldn't either fly, jump or climb over the fence, or simply rip it down. That did admittedly include a lot of capes but there wasn't much here for most of them with the ability to get in easily.
The security was mainly aimed at preventing casual theft, vandalism, and junkies looking for somewhere to shoot up, which according to her father it did fairly well. Someone managed to get in every now and then but they could normally be persuaded to go away again by a few burly stevedores with crowbars. Or one Zephron, who had a massive quality that made people turn around and walk the other way. Even most E88 members.
"Excellent, Brain," the Varga commented, viewing the area with her as she turned on the spot in the middle of the empty zone. "This will do nicely. You should call your father to let him know, and to produce the phone record he mentioned."
'Good idea,' she smiled, pulling out the burner phone and dialing her home number. When it was answered, her father's voice coming to her ear, she said, "I got here, it's great. Thanks. I'll make sure I clean up afterwards."
"OK, dear. How did you get in, by the way?"
"I jumped over the fence, it's only about fifteen feet high. No problem." She grinned at his faint exclamation of amusement.
"Most people seem to find it sufficient," he chuckled. "Enjoy yourself and I'll see you at home for dinner. Around six?"
"Sure, that sounds good. See you later."
Flipping the phone shut she put it back in her pouch then looked around again, before rubbing her hands together, the scales making a dry rasping sound. "Where to begin?"
"You need practice using two swords, I think. It's considerably more difficult than one, but can be very useful under the right circumstances. Once you are proficient with two blades, we can switch to batons and make the strikes less lethal."
'Sounds like a plan,' she agreed happily. The next ten minutes were occupied by wandering around and allowing the Varga to create practice dummies, mostly out of something like wood, a few out of steel for taking heavier strikes, and a few more out of stone for the same reason and because she was curious to see what happened. By the time they finished there were about forty of them dotted about the place, alone or in little clumps representing a gang group.
"OK," she muttered, letting the Varga manifest a three foot blade more like a saber than the sword she normally used in each hand and crouching down a little, leaning forward at the ready. She spun the swords once, not really thinking about it, then charged. Splinters flew as she dived into the middle of the first group of poor innocent dummies who had no idea what was heading at them, a grin stretched across her muzzle.
Mowing her way through them in seconds, she kept going, heading for the furthest group and taking long bounds that cleared the distance in seconds. Again, there was a cloud of wood and splinters, before she was heading for a lone stone warrior, laughing to herself.
"This is fun," she giggled, removing the head with a backswing, then spinning around in a low twirl using the inertia of her tail to control the spin, chopping the poor bastard off at the ankles.
The Varga was making approving sounds in her head as she massacred her army, then went around remaking them to try it again.
"Hello, Sarah." Carol stepped aside and let her sister in, her niece following her mother into the Dallon house. "And Crystal. What brings you here?"
"We were thinking of going out later for a meal and wanted to know if you guys wanted to come, so we thought we'd walk over and ask since it's a really nice day for the time of year," Crystal Pelham smiled as she took her coat off and hung it up. "Are Vicky and Amy here?"
"Amy's reading in her room, and Victoria is in the dining room," Carol replied, glancing at her sister, who was smiling at the way her own daughter hadn't let her answer or indeed get a word in yet.
"Thanks, Aunt Carol," the young woman replied, moving off towards the dining room, already talking to her cousin before she walked through the door. Carol watched, then turned to her sister.
"She's in a good mood."
"She got very good marks on a test and it seems to have made her feel extremely pleased," Sarah chuckled, briefly hugging her sister. "How are you, Carol, I haven't seen you for over a week"
"I'm fine, thanks, Sarah," Carol replied as she went back into the living room, her sister following, then sat down. Sarah sat opposite her in another chair. "Although I've been trying to work out how to make a somewhat… awkward… phone call."
Sarah appeared a little confused. "Awkward? Who are you calling?"
"Have you heard of a new cape called Saurial?"
Her sister nodded thoughtfully. "I have. There was some amusing video footage on PHO last night posted by Kid Win of a very impressive looking and to be honest, frankly scary cape by that name pulling an extremely funny practical joke on Clockblocker. It was hysterical, the poor boy looked like he nearly had a heart attack from the shock of it. Kid Win nearly laughed himself sick. There's a huge thread about it already, both Wards seem to find it very funny."
She pulled out her phone and poked around on it for a moment, then turned it around so her sister could see the screen. Carol watched with impressed worry tempered with amusement. The Ward had seemed extremely surprised, while the reptilian cape was obviously enjoying herself, as was Kid Win. The Tinker had posted edited together footage from a camera he had which showed the girl sneak up on his totally oblivious partner, cut with the scene from her point of view, apparently taken with the camera she could see mounted on the girl's head. He'd set then entire thing to music, appropriately chosen to maximize tension, which worked somewhat horrifyingly well.
"That's… very impressive," she finally said when the clip ended, smiling a little.
Sarah nodded, putting the phone away again. "She's been making a name for herself in the last week or so. Three outings as far as anyone knows, and she's so far managed to subdue and restrain eighteen E88 members, five ABB members, and six Merchants, with only two injuries, none serious. And recover a truly horrifying number of firearms. From what a couple of cops have posted, they're rather impressed and very pleased."
She grinned. "One called her terrifyingly cute and horrifyingly effective, or it might have been the other way around. He seemed to like her. But he also joked he didn't like going into dark places any more after seeing some footage she gave them. Like something out of a good horror movie, he said."
"I see." Carol was getting a little worried.
"She apparently records all her interactions with criminals with that camera she was wearing," her sister went on. "Not a bad idea, actually, it's a good way to show what happened if anyone claims excessive force. The cops seem to approve of her methods so far and also seem surprisingly respectful. I've heard she seems to respect them right back which I imagine improves relations a lot. The one posting on PHO added she was very polite, with the implication he wished more capes would follow her example, but not actually saying it outright."
Carol nodded, thinking. Hopefully the young woman would be reasonable. "So why are you trying to contact her?" Sarah asked curiously.
"Vicky had… a small disagreement with her downtown on Friday," Carol sighed. "It didn't give a good impression."
Raising an eyebrow, her sister mutely asked for details, so Carol obliged. Sarah winced. "Oh, dear. That's… not ideal, is it?"
"Not really. Having a recording of Glory Girl insulting, assaulting without provocation even in the fairly mild way she did, then threatening, a new cape, merely because she was in a foul mood and got carried away, released to the news would be more than a little damaging. I'm hoping desperately that we can persuade her to erase it."
"You did WHAT?!" The cry of shock came from the dining room, making both sisters look that way, then at each other. Crystal's voice dropped, apparently having something of an argument with her cousin.
"I think Vicky just told her," Sarah noted with a wry smile.
"It sounds like that." Carol took her own phone out of her pocket and looked at it, as she'd been doing intermittently for nearly an hour, trying to work out the best approach.
"How did you get her number?" Sarah asked.
"A contact in the BBPD passed it on. Apparently she gave it to several officers over the last few days and it's in their system now." Sighing, she selected the number, and hit dial, putting the phone on speaker then placing it on the small table between them. "Let's see what happens. I hope this works."
The other end rang a few times, then was answered.
"Saurial's training ground, how may I direct your call?" a surprisingly chirpy sounding female voice with a hint of a somewhat odd hissing accent came from the speaker. There was a background sound of something that sounded like an ax hitting wood. The sisters looked at each other for a moment.
"Is this Saurial?" Carol asked a little tentatively.
"Yes, who's this, please?" The voice was still cheerful but seemed slightly more serious now. The rather odd background noises stopped.
"I'm Carol Dallon, or Brandish if you prefer. Glory Girl's mother? I was wondering if we could talk about the somewhat unfortunate incident a couple of days ago between you two."
"Oh, right, I remember. Is she OK? She seemed kind of upset for some reason." The reptilian cape sounded genuinely a little concerned, confusing Carol a bit.
"She's all right, thank you, although she's very upset about what she did. I was hoping that you might like to meet us and discuss it."
"It's OK, but if you want, I can meet with you, yes," the girl said thoughtfully. "I'm a little busy now but if you want to swing by the DWU compound down at the docks in about twenty minutes I'll be ready to take a break."
Raising her eyebrows, Carol looked at her sister, who looked back, appearing slightly confused.
"If I may ask, what are you doing there on a Sunday afternoon?" she asked with sudden curiosity. Saurial laughed lightly.
"Just some training. I needed a large area I wouldn't be bothered in and asked around. This place is secure and empty on the weekend, and the guy who runs the place was OK with me using it as long as I didn't break anything. He's nice. Anyway, I'm practicing at the moment, but if you want to come down, I can make time. Or I could come over to your place later in the week if you want."
"No, I think the sooner the better," Carol replied after a moment's thought. "I'm happy to come to you. We'll be there within half an hour."
"Great. OK, see you in a while." The line went dead. Carol stared at her phone for a moment then raised her eyes to meet her sisters'.
"She sounds… happy," Sarah finally said.
"Almost too happy," Carol noted, frowning a little. "Although that may help." They both looked up as Vicky, looking somewhat irritated, and Crystal who was grinning, entered the room.
"Mom, did you hear what Vicky did?" Crystal seemed amused and appalled in equal measure.
"I'm afraid so, Crystal. Vicky, that wasn't really a good idea."
"I know," the blonde sighed, shaking her head. "So everyone keeps saying."
"You'll be pleased to know I've spoken to Saurial and she's willing to meet us to let you apologize. Hopefully we can ask her to erase that recording at the same time. We're meeting her down at the docks in the DWU facility."
The teenager didn't look as pleased as her mother might have wished. But she nodded.
"What's she doing there?" Crystal asked.
"Training, apparently. She seems to have managed to get permission to use the space there for some exercises." Sarah looked interested in the fact. "I have to say that's a novel approach to it. Just asking. Surprisingly few capes do that. Surprisingly few people in general do that, actually."
"Can we come and watch Vicky grovel?" Crystal grinned. Her cousin gave her a dark look. "I've seen photos of Saurial on PHO. I'd like to meet her, she looks interesting in a sort of scary way."
Sighing a little, Carol shrugged. "I suppose I can't easily stop you," she remarked, making the girl smirk. "All right. Everybody who's coming, get into costume, we may as well make it official. Victoria, you will go in first, be very polite, apologize, mean it, then call us in so we can ask if we can talk about the recording. In that order."
"Yes, Mom," the young woman sighed, on her way to get her costume on. Crystal went with her, needling her about her poor people skills, which made Sarah snicker.
"She's more than a little embarrassed about all this, isn't she?"
"As she should be," Carol growled, heading upstairs herself.
"Fuck me sideways." Glory Girl stared, appalled, as the four women stood on the roof of a warehouse overlooking the DWU facility below them, watching a six foot plus humanoid lizard woman absolutely wreck a couple of dozen dummies scattered around a few hundred yards of concrete, wielding a pair of huge war hammers, which she was swinging one handed with no apparent effort. Several of the dummies were made of stone, shattering into powder with one hit, while at least one was apparently solid steel, folding in half and being launched into the air and completely over the perimeter fence into the bay with the next hit.
Saurial didn't even slow down, pivoting on her tail and racing off at ninety degrees to her former path, moving at what must have been fifty or sixty miles an hour, only to make one hammer vanish somehow, hold the other one with both hands, then slam it vertically downwards onto another steel statue which instantly crumpled like an empty beer can under a foot. The only reason it didn't vanish into the concrete was that each figure was standing on a yard square plate of dull gray metal which seemed to be strong enough to take the abuse.
When she swapped the hammer for a sword as long as she was tall and started mowing the remaining dummies down like a particularly enthusiastic mulching machine on two legs, the blonde heroine had to sit down for a moment, just staring.
She was extremely strong herself and her force field was impenetrable to anything anyone had ever been able to work out, but that only applied to the first hit. A strong enough blow would make it reset, which took a couple of seconds. From what she could see, Saurial could probably hit her at least half a dozen times in that period, any one of the blows capable of shredding reinforced concrete with ease. She felt faint.
"I think you should pick the people you insult a little more carefully next time, Cuz," Laserdream said slowly, watching with enormous eyes. She nodded, not able to speak.
Finishing with the last dummy, the lizard girl twirled her sword dramatically around her body in a sort of complex salute to the fallen, bowed to the debris, then made the sword disappear. She turned around. "Hey, you guys coming down, or do you want me to come up?" she called loudly.
She'd apparently heard them, which was impressive. And worrying, they were two hundred yards away and talking quietly.
Brandish nudged her daughter in the ribs. "Go down there," she hissed.
"OK, Mom, I'm going," Glory Girl said reluctantly, lifting off and floating towards the reptile woman who calmly watched her approach. Settling to the ground six feet away, the heroine looked at the other cape, who looked back, the sunglasses she was wearing glinting in the clear afternoon light as she cocked her head a little to the side, seeming curious.
"I'm really sorry about what I said, the way I said it, and how I insulted you and threatened you the other day, Saurial," Glory Girl finally managed to say. "And for calling you an overgrown newt. There was no excuse for my behavior." There was a long pause, then she added, "And I'm sorry about being rude about the police to you, I know you respect them."
"Apology accepted," the girl replied, making a small yet rather heavily toothed smile. Glory Girl managed to suppress her instinctive flinch, although the other cape apparently noticed. The smile widened slightly. ""We're good. You had a bad day, your mouth got away from you. It happens. No harm done."
Sighing in relief, the blonde sagged a little. She looked up at her mother and waved.
Moments later Brandish, being carried by her sister, lifted off and headed for them, Laserdream flying beside them. All three women landed seconds later.
"Thank you for listening, Saurial," Brandish said with a grateful look. "I'm very sorry about any distress that my daughter might have caused you." She looked severely at Glory Girl, who lowered her eyes and poked the cracked concrete with her toe, feeling six years old again for a moment. Laserdream grinned at her from behind Lady Photon, making her feel worse.
Saurial laughed a little. "It's not a problem, honestly. Everyone has an off day every now and then. I've had lots of them. But I'm trying to reduce that, and not getting upset just because someone else is seems to be a big part of that."
"A very good attitude to take, Saurial." Brandish seemed pleased yet a little surprised.
There was a pause. "There's one other thing," Glory Girl's mother began carefully. The reptilian girl cocked her head again, her body language a little odd but understandable, looking like a curious cat. "Did you by any chance record that interaction?" They could all see the small camera attached firmly to the side of her head like a limpet, the lens pointing at them.
Saurial snickered. "Yep. It was hilarious, actually. But don't worry, I erased it after I watched it again. I was trying to work out if it was something I did, but couldn't figure it out. There was no point holding onto it."
Brandish let out a heartfelt sigh of relief at this, making Saurial laugh more openly. "Thank you. That would have been… more than slightly embarrassing, if it had become public."
"I wouldn't do that to you guys without a much better reason than Glory Girl having a bit of a snit," the cape grinned. All four New Wave members recoiled very slightly, which she didn't seem upset about.
A moment later, something hit the side of Saurial's head and bounced off. There was the distant report of a gunshot a second later. Glory Girl whipped around, scanning the horizon, letting out a yelp of shock, as did her family. She couldn't see anything, but someone had definitely fired a gun at the cape.
"He keeps doing that," Saurial sighed, bending over and picking up a flattened copper-jacketed rifle bullet that looked like it had hit a steel plate. "I mean, full marks for accuracy, he's a good shot considering he's about two hundred and fifty yards away, but it's getting irritating."
"You… keep getting shot?" Lady Photon asked very carefully as they all stared at the lizard girl who seemed remarkably unaffected by this. She nodded.
"Yep. Seven times in the last hour," she smiled, turning and pointing. "Same guy. He's up there, second window from the left, top floor. A merchant, I think, based on the stink." She sniffed the wind which was blowing from that direction as they exchanged glances. "Yes, definitely a merchant. That chemical smell and the vomit is sort of a giveaway."
"And you don't mind?" Laserdream asked in a dreamlike tone like she couldn't believe the conversation.
"Of course I mind, it's very rude, but I've been busy and there's no one else around to get hurt." Saurial shrugged. Another bullet whined past, going between the girl and the rest of them, then ricocheted off the concrete fifty yards away. Four of the five people present flinched violently while the fifth one looked to where the thing had gone, frowned, and said, "That's the first time he missed. Was he aiming at me or you guys?"
She turned and cupped her hands around her short muzzle, yelling, "Hey! You missed! Who were you shooting at?"
Glory Girl noticed that her three relatives had managed to maneuver so that she was between them and the shooter.
Yet another bullet smacked into the middle of the cape's chest, then dropped. "Oh. It was me again. I wonder how long he's going to keep doing this." Saurial sounded mildly annoyed now. "Damn, I'd better go and get him, I don't want to leave him here. He might start shooting at the dock workers tomorrow. Hang on, I'll be back in a minute."
Without waiting for a reply from any of them she sprinted towards the fence with appalling acceleration, her toe claws leaving gouges in the concrete, bounded over the fifteen foot fence with one leap, then made it to the brick warehouse and zipped straight up the outside of it with no more effort than she'd shown in running. Disappearing through the gaping empty window she'd pointed out she vanished from sight.
"Um..." Laserdream sounded stunned.
There was a distant scream.
"Please never insult this girl again, Vicky," Brandish said in a slow, horrified voice. Glory Girl nodded dumbly as they all watched the girl reappear, a screaming man over her shoulder and a hunting rifle slung over the other one, slipping back down the building with her captive struggling frantically in her grip, using only three limbs and her tail to cling on. Reaching the ground she ran back, hurdled the fence, and dropped the now gibbering man to the ground with more care than they expected.
She unslung the weapon from her shoulder and examined it, found the safety, and prodded it to the safe setting, then stared at the thing for a moment. "Do any of you know how to unload this?" she asked curiously, holding it up. "I don't know a lot about guns."
After a long pause, Brandish motioned for it, taking the weapon when it was handed to her, and removing the magazine. She worked the bolt to extract the last round, then handed it back, all without saying anything.
"Thanks," Saurial smiled. Pulling out a phone she dialed. "Hi. This is Saurial. I caught a merchant who was shooting at me, I've got him and his gun down at the DWU facility. He's OK but he seems a little worked up, you may need to look at him. OK. Fifteen minutes? Yes, I'll still be here. Thanks very much, sir." She hung up and put the phone away.
"Fucking hell," Laserdream whispered.
"I'll just move him over there so he's not in the way," Saurial stated, picking her prisoner up by the back of his coat and carrying him to the gate like a holdall. The man, whose hands were locked together by some manacles made of the same gray metal the training dummy stands were made from, whimpered a little but seemed to have stopped speaking in tongues.
"That was getting to be a pain," she said as she came back. "Anyway, I need to get back to training. You can watch if you want."
She turned around and walked a few yards away, a metal training dummy like the others, which they all suddenly noticed had quietly vanished during the gun interlude, forming out of nothing in front of her. Four pairs of eyes widened. She patted it on the head. "I think I'll call you Thag," she smiled. Stepping back, she flexed her tail, the appendage sprouting four terrifyingly sharp blades, two on either side, on a fitting attached securely around the end. The whole thing was that same gray metal. Crouching in front of the newly christened 'Thag' she stared at it, then leaped, passing it on the right and whipping her tail around hard.
The steel parted like silk over a razor, the top half of the construct dropping to the ground with a clang. Before the echoes died she'd spun and whipped her tail across the legs at the knee from the other side, then straightened up, watching with satisfaction as the remaining piece toppled onto its side. "Hey, it worked. I was wondering if it would." She looked very pleased.
Glory Girl opened her mouth, closed it, turned around, and lifted off.
"Bye! See you guys later, probably," Saurial called cheerfully behind her. Shortly she was joined by her relatives, the small formation heading home, while behind them there were more clanging sounds. None of them turned to see what caused them.
Halfway home, Lady Photon said quietly, "Vicky, if you ever do anything that stupid again I'll kill you myself, got it?"
"Got it," she told her aunt, shivering like she'd been dipped in ice water.
"Point made, I think, Brain," the Varga noted with amusement as they watched the quartet disappear past the buildings.
'I think so too,' Taylor snickered. Hearing distant sirens, she had the demon dissipate the remaining parts of training dummy and her tail-blades, walking over to the gate and hopping over it with her prisoner and his weapon as the police van came into view at the other end of the road. Soon she was heading home, pleased with the way the day had gone, and looking forward to showing her father the recordings.
Then an early night. Tomorrow was a school day, after all.