Twitching a little at the cry of "Bullshit!", Amy sighed and raised her head from her pillow where she'd been happily reading a pretty good Niven SF book, idly wondering if her sister had been taking lessons from Dennis. Moments later Vicky charged in, holding the expensive tablet she'd talked Dean into buying her a couple of months ago, waving it around with a pale face. "There are two of them now!" her sister moaned.
"Two of who?" Amy, quite reasonably, asked calmly but with a certain amount of irritation in her voice. "Or two of what?"
"Two of… I don't know. Two fucking terrifying scaly things," Vicky gibbered, thrusting the tablet under her sister's nose. Amy took it from her, looking curiously at it, while Vicky sat on the end of her bed and stared out the window into the night, appearing worried and shivering slightly.
Finding the beginning of the PHO thread the brunette girl read it with growing interest and a certain amount of black humor. She had a pretty good idea of the actual truth behind this 'Raptaur', which she had to admit was a good name. Seeing the new reptilian cape deal with Hookwolf like he was a fairly minor irritant was eye-opening, and made it abundantly clear how unwise her impulsive confronting of Taylor Hebert at school really had been.
She was pretty sure this was Taylor, and she knew Saurial was. It opened the question of what else that girl could actually do. What she'd seen of her, and there was no way around the description, alien biology left her none the wiser, her power had no clue about it beyond telling her with a whimper that she was compatible with human biology, then going off and lying down in a dark room with a damp cloth over its eyes for a while to recover.
'I need to get to know her better,' she mused, not saying anything as she flicked through the various photos on PHO of Raptaur, a couple of which were startlingly clear. 'She's not boring, that's for sure.'
Although, that said, she was going to have to be a little more careful about how she approached the girl. It was apparent from the last video that she'd been very, very lucky not to have had something horrible happen to her. 'Be extremely careful not to threaten her family or friends,' Amy thought with a slight shudder as she watched Raptaur manifest a sword big enough to double as a street sign then cut several things in half with it with no visible effort or trouble. It was clear to her that the girl was being very cautious in her actions to avoid killing Hookwolf, which she could clearly manage without too much effort.
She wondered if the other cape realized how close he'd come to dying?
"What the hell is going on around here, Ames?" Vicky asked in a tone of helpless confusion. "Saurial was bad enough. This… this… Raptaur thing… it's a hell of a lot worse."
"I think you should refer to her as her, not a thing," Amy replied, still reading. "That's what got you in trouble last time."
"Sorry, yes, I know, but it's sort of a shock," Vicky replied after a moment. "But look at her! Saurial is terrifying. This one… I can't even think of a suitable word. And she might live in the Bay? I'll never be able to get on a boat again, without thinking about what might be coming up from underneath."
Snickering, Amy began humming the 'Jaws' theme to herself, making Vicky growl at her, scowling.
"Your sense of humor makes Dennis' look normal, Ames," she muttered darkly.
Amy just laughed. "Hey, did you see this bit about some old fisherman claiming there's bigger ones out there in the water?" she asked mischievously. "Much, much bigger, if his description of the Hand of Doom is accurate." She slowly lifted her right hand towards her sister, making a claw with it then moving it in little grabby motions. "Sooo big. Big enough to pick up a bus and crush it in its grip. So large it could..."
"Stop that, you idiot," Vicky snapped, paling a little. Amy giggled and retracted her hand, flipping through the pages and pages of thread on the new cape. "I'm serious, I'm not going near the water again. I'm not sure I'll even get into a swimming pool from now on."
"I doubt she's going to come up through the pipes, Vicky," Amy chuckled. Handing the tablet back to her sister, she added, "If you meet her, you should probably be more polite than last time. And if you want to pick a fight for stress relief, for god's sake find someone safer. I'd suggest Hookwolf, but he seems to have had a bad day."
"Why I came to you for sympathy I have no idea, sis," the blonde snapped, retrieving her tablet and flouncing out, making Amy laugh again. Shaking her head she lay back, folding her hands on her stomach and thinking about what she'd read with a sense of wonder and mild shock.
'You, Taylor Hebert, are sort of impressive,' she thought to herself, smiling slightly. 'I wonder what more you can do? Are you really swimming around in the bay the size of a blue whale?'
"As Vicky says, fuck me sideways," Dean whispered, watching the video with the rest of the Wards currently on duty, which were Dennis, Carlos, and Sophia. The latter was gaping in total shock, while Dennis was making little choking sounds deep in his chest. Carlos simply stared.
"That's… unbelievably horrifying," their leader finally said when the first video ended. Dean reached out with a shaking hand and moved the mouse, clicking on the next one.
"I think I prefer Saurial," Dennis quavered. "She's terrifying in a way but friendly and sort of cute when you get used to her. This one… I don't think cute is a word I'd ever use."
Sophia made a strange sound, causing them all to look at her curiously, but said nothing, her eyes wide and fixed on the large screen of the rec room TV which was playing the PHO videos.
"Not really, no," Carlos agreed after a moment, going back to the screen. "I hope to god this one is friendly too, because if not we've got some serious problems."
"Where are they all coming from?" Dennis asked in a low voice, before wincing despite himself at the impact the enormous metal warhammer made with Hookwolf, lifting him into the air with no effort at all.
Dean had a very good idea, but was damn sure not going to drop himself into it. Getting between Taylor Hebert/Saurial/Whatever the fuck this was and the PRT was something he desperately wanted to stay well away from. He wished to god his power had never let him work out the connection, he'd have slept a lot better.
Shaking his head, Dennis picked up his laptop and began reading the thread on the new cape, writing a couple of responses. "Piggot is going to go purple when she sees this," he snickered after a while, his shock fading a little. They all looked at him, then at each other. Even Sophia seemed amused by the thought.
Max Anders, known to the world as Kaiser, watched the video, then looked up at the man who had brought this to his attention. "What the FUCK did Brad think he was doing?" he exploded. "Why was he attacking the DWU?"
Victor shrugged. "I have no idea. I only just found out about it. I know he's been going around shouting about Saurial, she's jumped a couple of dozen of his people, but they're mainly idiots he's had running low level robberies and that type of thing. No one who we can't easily replace. Why he suddenly took over two dozen foot soldiers and attacked the DWU I haven't got a clue."
Max, furious, got up from his desk and paced back and forth in his office. "Stupid bastard! I ordered him to wait, we need more information on this Saurial cape before we do anything. She's much too dangerous, obviously, to just grab. We need to be careful. And now the fucker has apparently attacked people she has some sort of relationship with? Idiot."
"I wonder what that relationship is?" Victor asked curiously.
"No idea, but the DWU aren't people to mess around with. If we need to hit them, we go in hard, not pussy around with only two dozen street fighters and one cape, even if that cape is Hookwolf. There are over three hundred of them even now and they fight dirty. There's a good reason Allfather warned about taking them lightly. Marquis was wary of them as well. Back in their day there were over a thousand men and women in the DWU, true, but even now they have enough people to be… a difficult challenge. One I am not ready to take on. My plans don't include fighting on that front as well right now."
Max clenched his fists, breathing hard, as he ran out of steam.
"Brad has made things difficult for us. Get him out of the PRTs hands and bring him to me. We need to talk. A lot."
"Yes, Kaiser," Victor replied, picking the laptop off the E88 leader's desk and closing it. "It will probably be best to wait until they transfer him, I'd expect that security is very tight at the moment in the PRT building."
"Do what you need to, but I want to see that bastard standing where you are as soon as possible," Max growled, returning to his seat. "And find out who gave him his information that Saurial was at the DWU in the first place. It seems a little too much of a stretch that he came up with that idea himself."
His subordinate merely nodded, before leaving the office. Pouring himself a stiff drink, Max fumed. Some people needed the stupid beaten out of them more often, he thought, sipping the whiskey and scowling.
Hannah turned the tablet off and put it down on Emily's coffee table, both women staring at each other. The latter was a funny pale green color and looked sufficiently unhealthy that the former was somewhat worried even under the circumstances. Eventually she said, "That was posted to PHO about two hours ago. One of the DWU people videoed the start of the fight… no, the beating… that this new one handed out to Hookwolf, at least two other people caught parts of it, and another DWU member recorded the end when she turned up and handed him over to us. Someone else edited them all together into what you just saw."
Emily didn't respond for some seconds.
"They're calling her Raptaur on PHO at the moment. Sort of a play on words, combining Raptor and Centaur. It fits to a degree. She didn't give a name, but seemed to be on very good terms with Danny Hebert and the DWU, polite and friendly, and they reciprocated. Apparently Saurial sent her in her place when they called for help."
"There really are two of them?" Emily whispered in horror.
"It would appear so, yes. Admittedly we haven't seen both the new one and Saurial at the same time in the same place, but the Wards reported contact with Saurial only minutes later several miles away. We know she's fast, but it seems unlikely, especially since Raptaur seems to have exited the scene via the water. In a straight line between the two locations, she'd have had to swim at least two miles in under four minutes then run another three in even less time to make the time lines match, which is considerably outside the abilities we know she has. Not to mention there are no reports of any sightings of her outside the Downtown area. So if she was a sufficiently versatile Changer to be both Saurial and Raptaur, it would also require a huge update to her ratings. The simpler but much more worrying explanation is that there are two of them."
Hannah sighed slightly. "They might even play on the concept of making sure they never get seen together, just to mess with us. Saurial is known to have a somewhat… puckish… sense of humor, and it might strike her as funny to ensure that we can't be completely certain one way or the other. I'm sure Clockblocker would do the same thing under the circumstances and she reminds me a lot of a far more dangerous version of him in some ways."
"This… Raptaur… beat Hookwolf? That easily?"
"She absolutely destroyed him, and looking at the video it wasn't difficult. She was obviously holding back. I have no doubt having met her that she could have killed him without any real trouble. Just by drowning him if nothing else. It's highly likely that she can either breathe underwater, or hold her breath for a very long time, like many reptiles can. She also exhibited a considerably more ruthless outlook on life than Saurial, not showing any remorse at all at how she 'persuaded' Hookwolf to stay away in future. And believe me, she persuaded him. He was still shaking an hour later. I'm almost sorry for the bastard."
"What message did she give him to give to Kaiser?" Emily asked after absorbing all this, her color coming back slightly closer to normal. "You said she said something about that."
"I don't know, he refuses to say. I would imagine it was probably something along the lines of keep the E88 away from the DWU, though, based on what I heard. She seemed fairly serious about it. The last thing she told Hookwolf was that if she ever saw him there again, basically that would be the last time anyone saw him anywhere. I don't think she was joking." Hannah sighed. "She essentially told him that she'd kill him the next time, and he believed her. So did I."
The PRT director sighed heavily, leaning back in her chair with a wince. "It looks like your wild theory isn't quite as wild as either of us would like."
"That would seem to be the case, Director. Unfortunately."
"And she has the same Shaker ability as Saurial?"
"As far as I could see, yes. The restraints that Hookwolf still has on his wrists and neck are definitely the same material, this Saurialsteel that Armsmaster is so fascinated by. He's been studying the manacles ever since we got Hookwolf back, trying everything he can think of to determine what they are, so far without any luck."
"They haven't disappeared like they normally do?"
"Not so far. Saurial's restraints seem to generally have a lifetime of an hour or so, these have been present for more than three at the moment. Hopefully they're not permanent." Hannah shrugged. "We don't know, and without finding Raptaur, we probably can't find out. Or perhaps Saurial could tell us, I've left instructions for anyone who meets her to ask."
Blowing out a long breath, Emily sagged in her chair, looking tired and in pain. "Jesus. This could turn into an absolute nightmare." Lifting her eyes she looked at her guest. "What would you put this Raptaur's ratings at? Just to humor me."
Hannah sighed slightly. "Difficult. Basically the same as Saurial, but higher except in the possible Shaker rating and perhaps the Thinker rating as well. Brute 7 or 8, at least. That hammer she was waving around at the beginning, the one she knocked Hookwolf about two hundred yards with in one hit, based on the density of the material and the estimated size, it weighed a minimum of a couple of tons. She didn't show any signs of effort lifting it or wielding it. The sword she was shown using later would have weighed nearly a ton based on the same estimates and she was swinging it fast enough to create shock waves judging by the audio track of the recording. Even with the length increasing the effective velocity of the tip, that would take absolutely unbelievable strength. The lamp post and car she cut accidentally with it showed completely clean edges, like an energy weapon of some sort had been used, but with no melting. Colin has both of them back at the Rig as well now."
Emily had paled again although she didn't look quite so ill.
"The speed and acceleration she demonstrated when she left were also significantly higher than we've seen so far from Saurial. Probably Mover 5 plus. I'd estimate from that very brief showing that she accelerated from a standing start to close to eighty miles an hour in under a second then kept going. She probably made it a good hundred yards out into the bay in a dive. Other than that, we don't have any idea, only estimates and guesses."
"God. This could be bad." Emily rubbed her forehead between her eyes. "Can you think of anything else that could explain it?"
"Yes, but they rapidly get unlikely if not absurd." Hannah shrugged. "Something like the Butcher would possibly explain the two different but similar emotional patterns Gallant reported. But on the one hand we don't know yet if Raptaur has the same thing going on, and on the other it leaves the question of their origin open. I think it still probably requires a Biotinker. The original idea that Saurial is among other things a versatile, or based on tonight's events, very versatile Changer, is still possible. But that leaves the twin emotional outputs up in the air, with no obvious solution."
She took a drink from the glass of water sitting next to her elbow, then went on. "The idea that both Saurial and Raptaur are individuals created by a purported Biotinker/Master seems in many ways the simplest albeit most worrying solution to the conundrum. We known it can be and has been done, after all, in more than one case. It still leaves the matter creation power as a problem, but I think that's less difficult to explain than the emotional outputs in this case. A technological method that replicates the effect of a Shaker power, an artificially induced Shaker power, even a Shaker working with the Biotinker somehow. It's still confusing and messy but slightly less confusing and messy than most of the other options I can think of."
"I really wish I could say you're wrong but I have to agree it fits the observations unpleasantly well," Emily finally replied after thinking it over, her expression dark. "I'd certainly prefer the original concept of Saurial simply being a ridiculously overpowered grab bag cape. Far less to worry about from that point of view."
"That could still be the case," Hannah responded. "Or it might be something neither one of us has considered at all. Powers are both complicated and odd."
"True." Shifting uncomfortably in her chair, Emily sighed then winced a little, again. "The question is, what do we do about it?"
"I'm not sure. To be honest, both of them, or her if it really is only one of them, seem to be of a somewhat unusual type of heroic disposition rather than anything else, which is very lucky. I'd be extremely worried if anyone even close to Saurial's level was a villain, never mind Raptaur. Both would be an absolute nightmare to fight, the latter quite possibly not far off Lung in that respect. But so far they both seem to be basically law-abiding and polite, if rather… enthusiastic… in the latter case."
This made the director pale again. "You really think she's as dangerous as Lung?"
"I don't know for sure, but her obvious strength and speed put her at a very rarefied Brute level even based on the small amount of information we actually have so far," Hannah told her seriously. "It's entirely possible, and even likely, that she wasn't anywhere near her real limits in that fight. She didn't seem too worried about the outcome of it, after all, and Hookwolf is not exactly an easy opponent at the best of times."
"This just gets better and better the more you tell me," Emily griped.
"Sorry, Director, I don't mean to worry you but I thought you should be kept up to date." Hannah appeared a little embarrassed.
Emily motioned with a hand dismissively. "Don't worry about it, Hannah. You did the right thing researching this in the first place and bringing it to me. It's our job to be aware of new Capes and their abilities and motivation." She pondered the issue for a few seconds.
"So, independent heroes, more or less, but not like anything we're familiar with. Powerful enough to make it very dangerous for any gang to try to recruit them, I guess."
Hannah smiled. "Oh, I doubt very much indeed that an attempt by the E88 or ABB, or Merchants for that matter, to persuade either of them to join up with a gang would result in anything but total chaos and probably humiliating defeat. I'm sure that neither one is unbeatable, but at the same time I'm not sure at the moment just how you'd go about doing that. Raptaur especially gave me the feeling that she'd deal with a problem of that nature permanently, Rules or no Rules."
"That's… worrying," Emily replied slowly.
"I suspect it would take more than attacking them personally. Saurial has already shown remarkable restraint in the Merchant sniper case. That was as good a reason to use lethal force as anything I've seen before but she merely subdued him. But I also think that going after their families, or what they think are their families, or for that matter anyone they felt protective of, would be a terminally stupid move for someone like Kaiser to do." Hannah looked just a little amused. "Not that that actually means he won't try, of course."
"He's not going to take Hookwolf's loss lightly, certainly," the director agreed. "I hope he doesn't do something stupid."
Her guest shrugged. "We can only wait and see. I don't think that warning him off would help."
"No, probably not. Damn it all. I don't want a gang war, we have enough troubles already." Emily thought for a while. "OK. The other big question is, who the hell is the Biotinker, assuming we're right? And why are both Saurial and Raptaur apparently so tight with the DWU? What's the connection?"
Hannah looked a little uncertain for a second or two. "I did have one somewhat worrying thought, which was that the Biotinker might be Danny Hebert."
Emily stared, then got a thoughtful expression. "That's… not entirely ridiculous," she began slowly. "But… both of them, including programming all the fighting skills, in only about a month? Assuming he triggered during that mess with his daughter."
"That's why I don't think it's particularly likely although it's not completely impossible," Hannah said. "If it was him, and he'd triggered for example at the time of his wife's death, which would be the best other event I'm aware of, that would give more than enough time to build up to this point, but that also gives us the problem that it's too long ago. Why would there be no signs at all until only this last month?" She shook her head. "No, I don't really think it's him. It would neatly explain the DWU link, though. Unfortunately, I believe we'll have to look elsewhere. Someone who triggered probably about six to nine months ago, which from my research would seem to be the amount of time needed to construct life forms of the level of Saurial and this new one."
"Another DWU member, probably, then," Emily sighed. "Not that it does us much good at the moment. Those people aren't going to give up one of their own, not without a fight. They stick together like glue these days. They'd back Danny Hebert up without a second thought and I suspect he'd return the favor. If he really is somehow involved with or friends with Saurial and Raptaur, they even have cape support as well. Very serious cape support."
"The attack by the E88 on them will have reinforced that group strength as well," Hannah noted. "Combat against a shared enemy, especially successful combat, tends to boost loyalty and feelings of comradeship a lot."
"Also true," Emily replied. "And if it happens again with similar results, that all gets even stronger. Which could result in some very strange political changes around here."
She shook her head. "This is potentially a real mess." Hannah merely nodded.
"All right. Keep an eye on the situation, add it to the report, and we'll wait and see if anything else happens," Emily went on after a few seconds. "That's about all we can do right now anyway. Unless she, or they, go completely off the reservation we don't have much cause to do anything more than watch."
"What do you want to do if more of them turn up?" Hannah asked after another nod of understanding. Emily went somewhat pale again at the idea.
"Please don't say things like that, Hannah, my heart can't take it. I hope to god he or she stops at two. That's more than enough."
The other woman merely looked at her.
"Shit."
After some time, Emily shook her head tiredly. "I can't think any more about this tonight. I had enough trouble going to sleep the first time. I'm going to bed, and I hope I wake up in a Brockton Bay not overrun with reptilian superheroes. Or whatever the hell they are." She got up with a grunt of effort, heading towards the door, where she let Hannah out. "I'll see you tomorrow. Keep me updated."
"Good night, Director," the cape said politely, then headed for her motorcycle, while Emily closed the door and leaned on it for a moment or two, then slowly walked to her bedroom, trying not to remember things that happened years ago.
Armsmaster entered the PRT holding cell for the sixth time in the last hour, a PRT trooper turning off the force-field door, then reactivating it when he was inside. Two more troopers were observing alertly, each armed with containment foam sprayers. The heroic Tinker was holding yet another odd looking device, this one a sort of gun-like mechanism with a thick cable coming from the back end, which led to an obviously heavy secondary unit like a large toolbox which had a number of blinking lights on it. The muzzle end of the thing ended in a tapered point, the extreme end of which was glowing a faint purple color.
"What the hell is that?" Brad asked warily, staring at it.
"It's a valency cutter. It directly disassociates atomic bonds. In theory it will cut anything. Very short range but efficient," Armsmaster remarked absently, fiddling with the gun part of the device. He adjusted a control on the side of it, then looked thoughtfully at the restraints the E88 cape still had his hands attached to the back of his neck with. "Maximum output, I think," he muttered, rotating the control all the way around. The purple glow grew considerably stronger and there was now an ominous hum making the room vibrate a little.
Brad leaned away, as far as he could get in the cell while still sitting on the cot along one side. "Hey. Be careful with that thing!"
"Just hold still, please." Armsmaster seemed fairly uninterested in the objection, merely moving to a point he could aim the cutter at the flexible cable linking the left wrist cuff to the collar. "If you move, you'll lose your hand."
"Fuck," the other cape grumbled, but held very still indeed. Placing the glowing tip on the cable, Armsmaster pulled the large trigger, which made the hum wind up to a shriek. Brad flinched but manfully kept his hand still.
After nearly thirty seconds, the Tinker released the trigger, removed the device from the cable, then leaned closer to inspect the end result.
Which was, as Brad had more than half expected based on the last five attempts, absolutely nothing.
"Not even a mark," Armsmaster sighed. "Yet another failure and yet another impossibility." After a moment, rather pointlessly but just to be sure, he tried again in a different place, with exactly the same lack of effect.
"That implies there are either no atomic bonds at all, or they've somehow been enhanced to incredible levels," he mused, putting the device on the floor and rubbing his chin thoughtfully, staring at the cable from inches away. "Fascinating."
"It might be interesting to you but all I want to know is can you get these fucking things off or not?" the bound man demanded.
"No."
"Fuck."
"All we can do is either wait until they vanish, as Saurial's equivalents do, or locate the new cape and ask her to remove them. Or possibly Saurial could do it." Picking the cutter unit and its power supply up, Armsmaster stood, inspecting the restraints for a moment more, then turned and left without another word, the PRT trooper letting him out.
Watching him go Brad shook his head, muttered under his breath something about fucking Tinkers, then did his best to make himself as comfortable as he could with his arms attached to the back of his neck by less than a foot of cable.
He wasn't happy, but he was at least alive, and hopefully safe from insane reptiles that dropped you in the bay for fun.
And he was damn certain he was never going anywhere near the DWU again as long as he lived.