Entering the house via the back door as she normally did, Taylor dropped her backpack off in her room, then woke up her laptop, bringing up the PHO forum and looking at the most recent posts. Her eyes widened a little, seeing that the thread about Raptaur, Saurial, and Panacea was now closing in on eighteen hundred pages. "Holy crap that's nuts," she giggled, going to the first page where the thread originator had helpfully linked to all the video and pictures from last night. Shortly she was laughing at the sight of her and Amy tearing down the street passing car after car, with the girl on her back yelling in glee.
"She really enjoyed the hell out of that," she commented.
"I think you did as well," the Varga replied, sounding pleased.
"I did. I really like exerting myself and running as well, it's nearly as much fun as swimming. Having a rider like that was a little weird, leaving aside the way the balance changes, and I had to be careful not to hurt her, but it was really a lot of fun."
"I expect she'd happily take you up on it again."
"Probably. I'm quite happy to do it as well." Grinning to herself she paged through the various images, seeing some very good ones had been captured, including at the restaurant.
Another thread was given over to speculation on how many of her there were, although they were actually referring to 'The Family', which made her gasp with laughter every time it came up. "Oh, god, I wish we could somehow pull off being in more than one place at a time," she giggled furiously, "it would make people lose it completely. We really need to come up with some other identities and let them be randomly seen around the place."
"We should probably not go overboard, but I expect we could come up with some good ones," the demon chortled, nearly as amused as she was. "Nothing too large, we don't want to detract from Kaiju, it would lessen the impact."
"Don't want that," she smirked. "I wonder if anyone has found my letter yet?"
"Signing it like that was a very good idea," he told her, a mental grin present. "I expect someone from the PRT will see it sooner or later. I think we managed to sweep away all the footprints in the mud so hopefully that's all they'll have to go on. It should give them something to puzzle over..."
They both laughed. It had seemed like a good idea at the time, and now it seemed even better.
Closing the laptop she moved to her bed and lay on it, folding her hands over her stomach and smiling to herself. "I'm so glad I met you, even if I had to go through hell to do it," she said softly. "This last month has been the best one of my life."
"I'm very pleased we came together as well, Brain," he replied, sounding totally honest. "I've learned a lot about your world and your people and had more fun that I ever expected to have again. I suspect that we'll have a lot more, we're going to be together for a very long time one way or another."
"Suits me," she smiled happily. After a little while, she remembered a previous conversation. "I think we should see if you can take control like we talked about. You deserve more freedom."
He was silent for a moment, then replied, "If you wish. I don't feel that I'm having the bad end of the deal at all, but believe me, I do appreciate the sentiment. It's very generous of you."
"You're my best friend and the only other one than Dad I trust totally and completely," she told the great demonic creature with utter honesty. "Hopefully I'm going to end up with new friends in Lisa and Amy, as well as Mandy, Lucy, and the others, but you and I share something I never will with anyone else. Aside from the obvious."
"Thank you, Brain," he responded quietly. "It means more to me than you might imagine."
After a moment, she asked in a somewhat puzzled tone, "But how do we do it?"
"I'm not sure," he said, sounding thoughtful. "No previous brain has ever even suggested it. As far as I can tell it's not strictly against the bargain but it's certainly pushing the edges out a lot. Hmm."
After a moment, he showed her a mental image like he'd done with his early lessons in Varga magic. "I think this is the key. If you can sort of move your consciousness over here, it's a little like when we're in full Varga form, but not quite. I certainly can't do it without your permission and if you actively fight it I'll be pushed out."
Taylor studied what he was showing her carefully, then tried it. "Weird."
"Not quite. More over there."
'Like this?'
"I think… yes, I think that's it. Let's see. Stay relaxed and don't fight back." Her left hand rose without her command, haltingly at first, then more confidently. It made a fist, opened out, and rotated at the wrist. "Seems to work. How fascinating." He sounded very interested and rather excited. "Do you mind if I try standing up?"
'Go for it,' she said, watching curiously from the back of her mind. She could feel everything but it was very odd having her own body move without her willing it. It had been odd when she was Varga sized up in Canada, but there was something much weirder about being in her own bedroom and in her base form.
He carefully sat them up, then lifted both hands and held them in front of their face, looking at them with interest, before moving to the edge of the bed and standing, their tail moving around to keep their balance. "I have no idea how you could manage without a tail, Brain," he said out loud.
She laughed silently. 'Oddly enough I made it fifteen and a half years or so without one. Although, that said, I'd really miss it now, I'm more than used to it and it's pretty useful. Except around chairs.'
Chuckling a little, the Varga moved her body slowly around her bedroom, gaining experience, until a few minutes later he was operating it with confidence. "It's very odd, actually, assuming direct control like this," he commented musingly, stopping in front of her dresser mirror and peering at them in it, feeling her nose with her hands. "I've never done it before, or even thought about doing it. It's quite different from the normal arrangement, oddly enough. Everything looks so big."
'I'd have thought you were used to that, looking out of human eyes for so long.'
He shrugged. "You'd think so, yes, but somehow it's very different in some indefinable way. I have no idea why, and can't really explain it any better than that. I'm sorry."
'Don't be, just have fun,' she laughed. 'This is sort of relaxing, actually. I think I could probably fall asleep with you doing the driving.'
"It's probably best not to just yet," he remarked, curiously feeling her hair. "How odd."
'Do you want to go downstairs?' she asked. He nodded, turning and heading for the door. His descent of the stairs was a little uncertain as he was still getting used to her body but by the time he'd reached the lower floor he was walking around with confidence. She could feel that her body was being held differently in some difficult to describe manner, the body language not the same, but he was operating it without difficulty now.
They wandered around the house for a while, the Varga picking things up and examining them as if he'd never seen them before, before moving on to the next one. "Do you mind if I try eating something?" he asked as they entered the kitchen.
"No, of course not,' she assured him, pleased at how much he was obviously enjoying the experience. Opening the fridge he looked at the contents, then picked an apple off one of the shelves, closing the appliance and turning the fruit over in his hands. Experimentally biting into it, he chewed, then made an approving sound.
"They taste… slightly different like this. I like it."
Snickering at his excitement she watched as he tried some orange juice, then spent a little time looking out the window into the back yard. He seemed to be having fun, from what she could feel, which made her very happy.
'You know what this means, Varga?' she asked suddenly.
"What, Brain?"
'I've been possessed by a demon! Help, it has me and has stolen my body!'
After a moment, he started laughing. She joined in. "You are one of the most interesting people I've ever encountered, Brain. I am very glad indeed that I ended up with you."
'The feeling is mutual,' she giggled.
The sound of the front door opening attracted their attention. Turning from where he was standing at the back door, the Varga and Taylor both watched as her father came in and closed the door again, taking his coat off and hanging it up, before noticing them standing there. "Hi, dear. I really must fix that step. Today went well, the Mayor is quite excited about the proposal. I'm going to see him tomorrow at one." Her father smiled at her, the smile suddenly freezing, before fading.
"You're not Taylor," he said in a low, dangerous voice. Taylor herself was somewhat surprised and taken aback.
'How the hell did he know?' she asked her companion.
"Your father is a perceptive man, Brain," the Varga said, making her father look shocked for a moment or two.
"Varga?" he asked faintly.
"Yes, Mr Hebert. Your daughter has been extremely generous and insisted we find a way to allow me to, as she put it, 'drive' her body. She felt it was unkind to keep me trapped inside, in her words. I don't feel the same way but even so I am very grateful for the experience. It is… interesting."
Staring at his daughter and the slightly different sounding voice with quite different speech pattern, her father gaped for a moment. After a few seconds, he smiled and held out his hand. The Varga looked at it, then carefully took it and shook it.
"It's very nice to finally meet the one who saved my daughter," her father said with a broad smile.
"It's very pleasing to finally be able to talk to such an honorable man and great warrior as you, Danny Hebert," the Varga laughed. "You should be very proud of your daughter. She is… somewhat remarkable."
"I am extremely proud of her," he said, grinning.
"Thanks, Dad," she said, momentarily taking control of their mouth. He stared again, then shook his head.
"God, this is weird. Which one of you is technically possessing the other?"
"She already made that joke," the Varga snickered. "I have to confess I'm not sure of the answer."
Studying the form of his daughter currently mostly under the control of an ancient demon of indeterminate origin, her father eventually shook his head again. "I seem to have ended up living a very odd life that I never expected, but I have to say I'm not at all sorry about it. I'm going to make dinner. Which one of you will be doing the eating?"
"He will," Taylor chirped, retreating back inside her own head after her words. Both the Varga and her father looked slightly surprised, then exchanged a glance.
"Why not?" With a shrug, he turned and went into the kitchen, the Varga following. "I'm very curious to talk to you anyway, if you're up for it."
"It would be an honor, Mr Hebert."
"Call me Danny, please." Shaking his head as he glanced at them again, he added softly, "Annette would never have believed this, but I wish she was here to see it."
"I would also like to have met your wife, Danny, if only to express my appreciation of a woman who could produce a person like your daughter. You both have much to be pleased about." The Varga smiled carefully, making him laugh for a moment.
"This is getting surreal."
Poking around in the freezer, the elder Hebert soon had a meal in preparation. He looked over at them, where the Varga had sat in a chair, her tail over the edge, apparently curious to see how it worked. "So. Tell me about yourself, if you would. I've been burning with questions for the last month and there is a limit to how many I can relay through Taylor."
Chuckling, the Varga began speaking, answering question after question. Taylor listened from her position inside her own head, occasionally putting in a few words, but mostly just enjoying the unique experience and the companionship of the two people in the world she thought the most of.
It was…
She pondered the concept for a while, finally coming to a conclusion.
It was nice.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Glancing at the clock on his desk, Roy smiled when the intercom buzzed exactly on time. "Send him in, Maria," he said before his secretary could speak.
"Yes, Mayor," she replied, sounding like she was suppressing a laugh. The intercom clicked off. Precisely at one PM, Danny Hebert entered the office, looking fit and healthy.
"It's good to see you again, Danny," Roy smiled, walking over and shaking hands, then as he had done last time, heading towards the drinks cabinet and fridge while indicating the table and chairs he liked having meetings at. "Please, sit. Water again?"
"Thank you, Mayor Christner," Danny replied, sitting and putting his briefcase down. He accepted the bottle and glass Roy handed him on his return, opening it and pouring some out. Sitting down Roy did the same.
"How's Taylor doing?" Roy asked. "Still enjoying Arcadia?"
"Very much, thanks," Danny smiled, seeming pleased about it. "She's doing very well, getting good marks in everything especially anything with mathematics involved. She has something of a gift for it. She's made a number of new friends and seems very happy, which I'm extremely relieved about."
"I can imagine," Roy replied, sipping his water then putting the glass down once more. "Your children are the most important thing to you, I know."
"And your family? And your niece, I remember you said she was ill last time we met. Did that get resolved?"
"The family is fine, Deb sent her best wishes and said we should have you and Taylor over for dinner sometime. Dinah is well, we found out what was wrong and it's all sorted out now." Roy smiled. "It was nothing serious in the end. Just difficult to diagnose."
"I'm glad about that."
Looking at the briefcase, Roy couldn't resist. "So, what do you have for me?" He knew it was bad form to seem so eager, especially in front of a negotiator as experienced as Danny Hebert, but he'd spent a lot of time thinking what this plan could mean for the city and was getting excited about it. Danny smiled, his expression indicated he understood more or less all of that without needing it to be explained.
Picking up his briefcase he put it on the table, then opened it, removing two neatly bound and remarkably thick documents, which he placed in front of Roy. "Parts one and two. Part one is the proposal with supporting documentation, part two is mostly backup information, charts, statistics, ownership documents, and everything else needed as a reference for the first part. The summary is at the front of part one, of course."
Roy stared at what must have been close to a decent length novel's worth of paperwork, then shook his head in respect. "Impressive considering how short a time you've taken." He opened the first document to the summary. "Do you mind?"
"No, go ahead. I've got the rest of the afternoon and I expect you'll have questions."
Nodding, Roy started reading, while Danny got up after a moment and walked to the window with his glass of water, looking at the view while he waited.
Some time later, Roy put the first document down, picking up the second one and leafing through it for a little while, stopping every now and then to examine a page more closely. Finally he put that one down as well. "Damn, Danny, that's… amazing. You can back all this up?"
Returning to his seat, the Hebert man nodded. "Yes. There's a list of references at the back of the second document, with page number, paragraph number, the usual. Or a web address. I've also got a list of experts I consulted who gave various opinions on the subjects involved in there, along with any other sources needed, such as the smelting companies, the transportation companies, and so on. It's fully documented, verifiable, and traceable."
"Good work. Really, really good work." Roy studied the other man. "You're wasted where you are with that sort of ability."
Danny smiled slightly. "I'm exactly where I both want and need to be," he replied quietly.
After a moment, Roy nodded a little. "I suppose you are. Well. I'm impressed, and from what I can see, it looks entirely plausible, if not in fact something we actually have to do. The benefits based on this are immense and there aren't really any downsides, are there?"
"Not as such, no," Danny agreed. "There is an unavoidable up front cost, which is broken down on page fifteen, but based on a reasonable projection of timescales versus income we could expect to repay that within two months from the point the main salvage work started. After that, assuming we keep to the schedule, we stay in profit for the next five years minimum. The variable is mostly exactly how much scrap is in the graveyard and the bay, as the records are patchy at best. Even at the low end of the scale it's going to create a significant number of jobs almost immediately and a very significant number in the medium term. Several hundred at least."
"And that's just directly involved," Roy mused, standing up himself and going to the window to look at the tanker that had been a blight on the view for so long. "Indirectly, once the graveyard is cleared and the docks rebuilt, the amount of new business we could reasonably expect would double or triple that."
"Easily," Danny agreed. "The timescale is somewhat indeterminate, because it relies on a number of assumptions about the future of the economy, but I am pretty sure it would revitalize the city quite significantly and fairly fast."
"Those figures for shipping imports and exports from the city seem quite large," Roy pointed out, turning around to watch his visitor. "Can we really take ships as big as the one the report suggests? From what I remember about the last time this sort of thing was looked at a decade ago the deep water channel was already so badly silted the maximum size of ship that could access the harbor was already down to a smallish cargo vessel or large trawler. It must be a lot worse by now. I didn't see any figures in there about how much it would cost to dredge the channel. Surely we'd need to do that?"
Danny grinned widely. "That's been taken care of already."
"What?" Roy stared in some shock. The DWU man seemed very amused by his reaction.
"The parahuman in question was at a loose end and felt like putting in some advance work for practice. The channel is now clear from the docks to the tanker and I'm assured the last part can be done very simply and easily once the thing is out of the way."
"Holy crap." Roy stared some more. "How?"
"You probably wouldn't believe me if I just told you," Danny chuckled.
After several wordless seconds, Roy shook his head a little and returned to his seat. "No, I probably wouldn't," he sighed, feeling both excited and somewhat shaken. Opening the proposal again he reread parts of it, looking for anything that jumped out as infeasible or problematic. Nothing seemed obvious. The plan was basically the same as the one Danny had originally put in front of him a few days ago, but fleshed out with all the missing details and figures added and the joins filled in.
He was actually somewhat stunned by how complete it was. He'd always known the DWU rep was a very sharp man, but this was almost a work of art.
"Incredible, Danny. Simply incredible."
"Thank you, Mayor Christner," Danny smiled. "It was a lot of work but I think I preempted any questions or problems."
"I think you did," Roy agreed, closing the cover and stacking both documents on top of each other. "Do you have the electronic copy of this handy?"
His guest handed him a USB stick almost before he finished speaking. "Of course you do," the mayor grinned. Danny returned it.
"I thought you'd want it."
Putting it on the top of the stack of documents, Roy looked at them all for a moment, then raised his eyes to meet those of his guest, who was waiting patiently. "I think I personally am convinced. I'm going to need to get this checked out, obviously, and all the figures looked over, but unless some show-stopping problem turns up I think we can probably come to an arrangement very soon. However..."
"You need to meet the parahuman, to assure yourself and your advisors that they're real and can do what I'm claiming," Danny finished for him. Roy nodded.
"It's not that I don't trust you. We've had our differences over the years," a comment that made them both smile wryly, "But the one thing I'll tell anyone who asks is that you're a man of your word, no matter what. Even so, I think I need to see this for myself. It's a pretty extraordinary thing to claim, after all."
"I understand, believe me," Danny chuckled. "It took me a while to believe it myself. I can take you to meet them, that's not a problem. When would you like to do it? For various reasons, at night is best for the moment and it would involve about an hour's drive."
Considering the matter, Roy then got up and checked his appointment book. "Would tonight work? I have a dinner engagement tomorrow and there's a function at Medhall I'm attending on Thursday. If not tonight, it would have to be Friday."
"Tonight is fine. I've already spoken to them and they're happy to meet your schedule. In fact they're quite eager to get started on the project." Danny smiled a little at his own words.
"Great. Where and when?" Roy pulled out a small personal notebook and rooted around on his desk for a pen.
"Do you want to meet me there, or drive with me?" Danny asked.
"Hmm. We could go together if that's easier."
"Fine. It's about an hour north-east of here. I can meet you here or at your house at, say, half past seven? That should give us plenty of time to get there, meet the parahuman, talk it over, then get back not too late."
"I assume you probably want me to come alone?" Roy asked with a small smile.
"If you don't mind, that would be preferable. If you insist you can bring a trusted, and I mean, absolutely trusted, security person or aide, but the parahuman in question isn't going to harm you. They are completely trustworthy."
"Safe?"
"Oh, no, not at all," Danny laughed, "not to someone with hostile intentions. But you'll be safe, believe me. Under any circumstances I can imagine."
Studying him for a moment, Roy came to a decision informed by his long association with the man. Closing the notebook unused he put it down. "I'll come alone. But there will be hell to pay with Deb if anything goes wrong." He grinned as Danny snickered.
"I can imagine, I remember what she's like. OK, I'll meet you…?"
At my house."
"...at your house, at half past seven tonight. Wear a good coat and boots. There's a bit of a walk at the end. You should probably bring a decent flashlight as well."
Intrigued, Roy nodded. "Quite the mystery trip, Danny."
"You'll think it was worth it, Mayor," his visitor assured him. "Trust me."
"I'm going to have to," he replied, amused. "Thank you for all the work, Danny."
"Thanks for listening. I'm very hopeful about this project."
"So am I," Roy sighed. "So am I. We need something like this or we're just going to keep going down until we fade away."
The other man stood up, closing his briefcase. "We'll stop that happening, if we all work together. Wait until tonight. I think what you'll see will convince you that last critical bit."
Hope growing inside him, a feeling that he was on the verge of something truly remarkable, Roy smiled. He held out his hand, which Danny shook. "Thanks, Danny. I'll see you tonight."
"Until then, Mayor," the DWU man said politely but with a look of amusement, then turned and left. Roy watched the door shut, wondering what he was going to find at this mystery location and also wondering if he was nuts for going along with it.
Deciding the answer to both questions was about an hour by car away, he went back behind his desk, collecting both reports and the USB stick en route, sat down, and started reading the entire thing all over again very carefully while making notes.
Stopping next to Mandy on the school steps under the short extension to the roof that covered them, Taylor smiled at her. "I'll see you tomorrow," she said, glancing at Lucy who was a couple of yards away. "And you."
"Later, Taylor," Mandy smiled back. Lucy waved, then both girls headed towards the car that had pulled up at the curb and was waiting for them. Watching as the ran through the light rain that had started around two in the afternoon, Taylor then looked up at the gray sky and sighed a little. A familiar scent reached her, making her turn to see Amy walking up, her sister and the four Wards some distance away down the corridor inside the school talking to each other.
"Hi," Amy said quietly when she reached the other girl, standing a few feet away and not looking at her, instead peering out into the rain. "I talked to Carol last night and told her I was going for a meal at a friend's house and some math tutoring. She looked more surprised about the friend part than the math part."
Taylor grinned, also looking out at the road, watching other students get into cars, or walk or cycle away looking very wet. "Interesting family you have, Amy," she replied with a small grin.
"Says you," Amy snickered. They exchanged a look of amusement. "I also told Vicky, so she wouldn't start getting worried. I'm good until pretty late. I called the hospital and told them I wouldn't be in unless there was an emergency as well."
"What did they say?"
"That I should do that more often," the healer sighed with a wry look.
Taylor laughed a little. "Told you."
"You did. Anyway, I'm free from when school gets out until probably midnight or so tomorrow, barring medical emergencies."
"Sounds good. I'll get Dad to pick us up from school, that'll be easiest." She grinned at the other girl for a second. "Unless you want to be taken to enormous heights again."
Amy gave her a look. "I'm up for that, but probably not tomorrow. It might be difficult to explain."
Smiling, Taylor shrugged. "Fair enough. I'll see you tomorrow, then." She looked up again. "Hopefully it will stop raining soon." With a wave she stepped out into the wet weather, heading to a point far enough away from people she could change and speed up.
Behind her, Amy watched her go, then rejoined the others, a thoughtful look on her face.
The doorbell ringing made Roy look up, then turn to his wife Deborah, who seemed slightly worried. "Are you sure this is safe, Roy?" she asked. "I mean, going out in the dark to somewhere you need a flashlight to meet some weird cape!"
"I agree it's unusual, dear, but I also think it's fine. Danny Hebert is a good man, he wouldn't put anyone in danger. And the DWU seems to know some strange capes already, if the news is anything to go by." He smiled reassuringly as he went to answer the door, opening it to reveal the man he was waiting for. "Hello, Danny, come on in. Would you like a cup of coffee before we go, I've just put some on."
"Thank you, Mayor Christner, that would be nice," the other man replied, coming in and carefully wiping his feet on the mat just inside the door before he followed Roy into the main living room.
"Call me Roy, Danny, we've know each other for long enough that I think I can handle it," the mayor laughed. Danny smiled, nodding, then turned to Deb who had just entered carrying a tray with a pot of coffee, some cups, and the rest of the fixings needed.
"Hello, Mrs Christner," he said politely.
"Deb, please, Danny," she smiled. "Sugar? Milk?" She poured a cup for him.
"Black, one sugar," he replied, accepting the cup, then sitting down when Roy waved to a chair. Soon they were all sitting with coffee in hand. "Thank you, this is very nice," he said after trying it.
"It's a nice blend," Roy agreed. "Place downtown stocks it. I'll give you the name."
"Thank you," Danny repeated with a small smile.
"So, where is this mystery destination?" Roy asked after a few sips of coffee.
"It's on the coast, near the Pemaquid Point lighthouse. It's a conveniently deep water area close to shore," he replied.
Roy was puzzled. "Is this Parahuman coming by water?" he asked curiously.
"More or less, yes," Danny grinned. "You'll see when we get there." Glancing at his watch, he added, "We should go soon if we're going to be on time."
Finishing his coffee, Roy stood. "All right, I'm ready, in that case. Let me get the flashlight and my good boots." He was soon back with the relevant items, testing the huge LED flashlight to make sure the batteries were charged. The light from it was blindingly bright, he discovered the hard way when he accidentally got himself in the face with the beam.
"Ow," he mumbled, blinking wildly. Deb giggled.
"You do that every time, Roy. Why can't you learn to point it away from your face? I'm glad it's not a gun."
Danny chuckled. "That could be embarrassing. Do you want to take my car, or yours, Roy?"
"We can go in mine if you like. I don't mind driving, I don't get to do it much. My driver does it most of the time."
Nodding, his guest followed as he left the room after kissing his wife goodbye, stopping to put his boots on and tie the laces, then pick a thick coat from the stand in the hall and find his car keys. Moments later they were in his vehicle, a small but sturdy SUV crossover, which he rather enjoyed driving. Danny had stopped at his own car to retrieve another flashlight and a map.
"We're going here, so get on the freeway and head north out of the city," the DWU man told him, showing him the route. Roy studied it, before nodding and starting the car. Ten minutes later they were on the freeway.
"So what was all that confusion with Hookwolf and the E88 attacking the DWU last week about, Danny?" Roy asked after they'd been driving for a while, the other man apparently content to sit in silence. Danny looked at him in the dim interior of the car, then sighed slightly.
"Mostly a misunderstanding, I think. He was after Saurial, someone gave him bad information that led him to believe she was there. She's visited a couple of times and gets on with pretty much everyone, a lot of the guys really like her, but she was nowhere near the place at the time. We evacuated everyone we could, but they came in too fast to get everyone out in time. I called her, she was busy, but she sent a friend."
"This new one, Raptaur?" Danny nodded. "I hear she's Saurial's sister or something like that."
"So the word is," Danny agreed mildly.
"I also heard there are more of her family living in the bay worrying fishermen," Roy snickered. "The PHO forums seem to be going nuts about that idea. They say there are huge ones out there somewhere."
"I'm not sure about that myself," his companion smiled. "It sounds a little far fetched."
"That's what I thought," Roy laughed. Reaching out he turned on the radio, scanning through the presets until he found some music that sounded listenable to, glancing at the other man to see if he had any objections. None forthcoming he turned the volume to a comfortable level, leaning back and relaxing for the drive.
Half an hour later they'd chatted about a number of topics of mutual interest. Danny had brought up the idea of the DWU buying up a parcel of land in the graveyard as an investment and pension fund, which Roy thought about and came to the conclusion it was a pretty smart idea. The man also said his daughter wanted to buy some land as well, having some money set aside. He couldn't see any problems with that, it was completely legal for the Heberts to invest in the project, and decided he'd probably do the same before word got out. Once it did, there would be people falling over themselves to invest in land there and the value would skyrocket.
It was another thing to think about. Danny had put some estimates for the value of the land in his proposal and the figures were eye-watering. He seemed to have thought of everything.
Eventually, they turned onto a smaller road that led east, towards the coast. Another fifteen minutes of driving and they were on a rather rough road a mile from the shore, which they could see every now and then as the surrounding land rose and fell, leaving gaps in the trees. There were a few houses in the area, the odd light on here and there, but a lot of the formerly quite heavily developed area hadn't recovered yet from the small but still rather destructive remnants of the tsunami resulting from Leviathan's attack on Newfoundland six years earlier.
Brockton Bay had been protected by being in a fairly shielded natural harbor, most of the waves going past, and even being deflected by the old tanker, ironically enough, but this area had not benefited from that sort of protection and as a result bore scars where the waves had over topped the cliffs and washed entire housing developments off their foundations. Most of them had been abandoned after that, with few people coming back.
"Next left, I think," Danny commented, studying the map closely under the interior light. He pointed. "Just there."
"OK." Roy indicated and made the turn, heading down the road that was more accurately termed a track, the surface untended and decaying. In the distance to the right he could see the beam of the automated lighthouse on the end of the little peninsula they were driving across sweeping over the dark water, which looked choppy and cold in the light.
Reaching a point where the road simply stopped, he did as well. "Now what?" he asked.
"We walk the next bit," Danny replied. "It's about three hundred yards and down the track to the beach." Opening the door as Roy turned the engine off, he got out, then waited for the other man to do the same.
"Beach? Hah. I remember this area, we came here on holiday years ago before Newfoundland," Roy scoffed. "What they called beaches around here are just slabs of rock at sea level. Hardly any sand to be seen." Danny laughed a little, shrugging.
"Well, down the track to the slab of rock, then." Pulling out his flashlight he flicked it on. Locking the vehicle Roy did the same, their beams stabbing out into the night. Following the other man he walked for a few minutes until they arrived at the top of a thirty foot cliff, the track going down it fairly steeply but not impassably so.
"This is the ass end of nowhere, Danny," he complained a little as they slid down the steep path. "Did your parahuman have to meet us here?"
A slight chuckle came back to him. "You'll understand soon, Roy. Sorry for all the cloak and dagger stuff but trust me, if we did this any closer to Brockton Bay people would be… very confused."
"I'm expecting something spectacular now," Roy laughed. Reaching the rocks of what passed for a beach, they looked around. It was a couple of miles of jagged stone, some parts more or less flat down to the water fifty yards away, the tide coming in, with waves breaking on the rock in a constant ebb and flow of white noise. Danny pointed his flashlight out to sea and turned it on and off a few times in a specific pattern.
When he'd done that, he proceeded to walk closer to the water, on a flat part, Roy following curiously. They stopped at the point the rock suddenly dropped away, waves breaking a couple of feet down. Pointing his light down into the water Roy shivered. It looked very deep and very cold. He could just make out the bottom forty or fifty feet below through the nearly transparent winter sea.
After looking around for a moment, Danny turned to face him.
"Spectacular, Roy?" he asked in an odd tone of voice.
Behind him, a hundred feet out in much deeper water, bubbles were rising. The water foamed slightly, then started rising. Roy pointed his light towards the disturbance, seeing something dark and slick moving there. It came slowly closer, then began to rise up out of the water in near silence.
The Mayor of Brockton Bay stared in horrified shock at the reptilian head the size of a medium duty truck that rose from the sea, glowing orange-yellow eyes big enough to double as beach balls fixed on him and Danny. Two absolutely massive hands, sufficiently large to pick up his SUV and crush it like a beer can, came out of the water and placed themselves on the rocks to either side of the DWU man, talons several feet long clicking on the stone and leaving deep gouges.
The head rose higher on a long neck, the torso and shoulders of the thing, which must have been at least eighty feet tall, gradually being revealed as it approached more closely until he was gaping up at the eyes looking down at him from forty feet above his head, an expression of alien amusement and interest in them. His flashlight was still pointed up at it without conscious direction, letting him see the full extent of the monstrous creature in merciless detail.
Meeting those huge eyes he stared in a mix of terror and shock. Danny clearing his throat made him jump violently, then lower his head to gape at the man, who was standing with his back towards the vast creature, looking at him, only feet from the scaled chest.
Danny smiled darkly.
"I can do... spectacular."
Roy shivered as he stared at the man he'd known for ten or more years, then looked up at the immense head peering down at him, hanging in the dark above them.
"Mayor Christner, allow me to introduce Kaiju. She's interested in applying for the position of official Brockton Bay underwater salvage expert." Danny sounded very amused.
The thing standing half out of the deep water lowered its head until it was looking at him from about ten feet away.
"Hello," it said in an incredibly deep female voice that made him quake a little in his boots. "I'm pleased to meet you, Mr Mayor. I'm looking forward to this job, it sounds fun. I cleared out the channel already, but I think moving your tanker will be more interesting."
It smiled, or at least produced what he thought was meant as a smile, the enormous mouth moving to expose fangs as large as he was.
"Um," he said faintly.
"My sisters seem to like your city, so I thought I'd come and see what the attraction was," Kaiju added thoughtfully. "You sure have a lot of old ships littering the place. It's very untidy. Don't worry, though, I can move them no trouble. Look."
Reaching out with a huge hand she grabbed a boulder the size of his garage and lifted, the dozens of tons of rock ripping free with a crunch. He flinched a little. Tossing the vast piece of shoreline up and down, as if she was weighing it, she turned at the waist and leaned back, throwing the thing towards open water. He simply watched with disbelief as it nearly vanished over the horizon, a faint boom of displaced water reaching his ears nearly twenty seconds later as it splashed down somewhere out there.
"I'm quite strong," she continued, honestly and totally unnecessarily.
He nodded spastically, then urgently motioned to Danny, who came over to him. Jerking his head to the side he slowly backed in that direction, keeping his eyes on the impossibly large reptile, who seemed politely curious, if you could apply those words to something that could eat Leviathan in two bites by the look of it.
When he and the DWU man were a few dozen yards away, which he had a horrible feeling was nowhere near enough if the thing decided to get annoyed, he turned to Danny, who seemed to be smiling a little. "What… the… fuck…?"
"Sorry, Roy. I know it was far fetched." Danny shrugged, a slow grin crossing his face. "What do you know, though? It turns out to be true."
Roy stared fixedly at him for some time, then turned to look at the eighty-foot-tall sea monster which was patiently waiting, now humming some sort of vaguely recognizable tune at a pitch which made his bones vibrate.
Very slowly, he began to grin himself.
"Piggot is going to need the brown pants, isn't she?" he ended up giggling almost hysterically. Danny smirked a bit as they exchanged a look.
Walking back, suddenly feeling very happy, Roy stopped in front of Kaiju, who politely lowered her head to rest her chin on the rocks in front of him, putting her eyes only about three or four feet above his head instead of thirty plus.
"For some reason I think you're going to be just what we need, Kaiju," he told the great creature. "Welcome to Brockton Bay."
She smiled again. Reaching over with one enormous hand she held it next to him. After a moment he gingerly took the very tip of her index finger claw in his hand and shook it.
"I'm hoping that we can have a lot of fun here," she told him.
They talked for a while, then Danny and Roy headed back up the cliff. Roy stopped at the top to watch as the huge reptile sank under the surface with one last wave up at them. His head was spinning and he couldn't work out if he wanted to run in circles yelling in excitement or just faint.
Heading back to the car, now completely convinced that the project could succeed, he simply smiled.
The only thing that worried him was the last words Kaiju had said to them.
"If we ever get stuck we can always call my big brother. He's really big and strong."