Pulling up outside his house, next to Danny's car, Roy turned the engine off then sat staring out into the night for a moment or two, still feeling like it wasn't impossible that Rod Serling would suddenly step out of the darkness and explain the plot to him.

Turning to Danny, who was watching him with the same faint smile he'd been wearing the entire, mostly silent, trip back, Roy asked a little plaintively, "That did actually happen, right?"

"It did, Roy."

"You really have a nearly hundred foot tall sea monster that looks like a cut down version of Godzilla ready to help us clear up the bay?"

Danny's smile widened a little.

"I do."

"God." Roy let out a long breath of wonder. "I have to say this day did not end the way I expected it to when I got up this morning."

"I'm not surprised, it was a lot to throw at you all at once," the other man replied, looking somewhat sympathetic. "But if it's any consolation, you rallied really well. Better than I hoped. But you understand why I was being cautious about it."

"Oh, hell, yes, do I ever," Roy grinned. "If Kaiju popped up down at the docks without warning the Endbringer sirens would be going off before the splashing died down. We don't want the entire Protectorate to start attacking her."

"Not really. It wouldn't end well."

Roy studied his companion with a slightly suspicious look. The smile had turned, briefly, into more of a smirk.

"For her… or for them?" he asked slowly.

The smirk came back for a second or two. Danny shrugged a little. "I'm not sure, to be honest. But consider that she has all the abilities that Saurial and Raptaur have, it runs in the family. Then think of that hammer Raptaur used on Hookwolf, or the sword, and scale them up about ten times or so..." He shook his head and added in a mild tone, "Probably best not to have a situation where it comes up, all things being equal."

Roy had paled, he could feel it. The thought of a hammer with a head the size of his SUV being swung one-handed at multiple times the speed of sound at Alexandria… One part of him was very curious to know what would happen despite the rest of him shivering a little.

"No, probably not. How do we prevent that? I mean, basically the DWU has their own friendly Endbringer, from the point of view of the rest of the world. That's going to cause some interesting results."

"We don't actually own Kaiju, you know," Danny grinned. "But she seems keen to work with us for the good of the city. I've been thinking that perhaps one approach would be to set up a company specifically around her, as the talent basically, then subcontract its services to the city via the DWU. She could go on the books as a DWU member, we're perfectly happy to sign her up. Saurial and Raptaur as well, in fact. Some of the guys were asking me only just after the E88 attack if she was going to become part of the Union." He seemed amused. "They like both of them from what I can see."

Roy stared, then chuckled. "Are you actually trying to make Director Piggot's head explode?" he asked, laughing. "The DWU will have its own cape team at this rate. Most of them absolutely terrifying, except for the big one who is much worse than that." He thought for a second, then said, "You won't get attacked again, I bet. Not when our large friend out there turns up. Hopefully we can prevent the city actually being evacuated..."

Also laughing, Danny replied, "I don't think it will be too bad other than the initial surprise. Which I admit will probably be pretty impressive. I have a few ideas about how to minimize the shock value to the general public, and I expect that once everyone sees how things are going and what it means for the city, most of them will come around to our point of view. We'll have to take on quite a few new workers in the near future after all and that will make a big difference to a lot of people in several ways."

"Very true," Roy mused, thinking it over. "I can see how it could go very well indeed. I can also see how it could go very wrong instead. We'll need to work out the best way to handle it."

"So you think the project will go ahead?" Danny asked after a moment.

Roy looked at him again, then slowly nodded. "Yes, I do. Your proposal looks solid as far as I can see, although as I said I will need to run it past several experts for a complete feasibility check. With that in hand and your costings, I can take it to the city council and argue the case. I don't think, based on what I've seen, that there will be too much trouble persuading everyone to get on board with us. They all know we need to do something to revitalize the city or we'll just be watching it slowly fall apart, the gangs take over, or something worse."

He sighed slightly. "It's something that has kept me away more than one night, trust me. I still believe in this city, but we're right at the tipping point now. Everyone who thinks about it knows it but no one can see a way out. You've given us one."

Danny was silent for a while.

"I hope so."

"I'm pretty sure I'm right." After a couple more seconds of thought, Roy nodded firmly. "In fact, I'm certain. Look, this is what I want you to do. Leave this with me to get the relevant people to study it and give their opinions. I'll make sure it doesn't leak to anyone who might cause a problem right now, which could well include the PRT. I'm also going to authorize the release of enough funds for the preliminary dock work, to prepare the ground as it were. The Mayor's office has a discretionary budget of about one and a half million dollars for emergency or important work, which I think this comes under."

The DWU man looked somewhat shocked. "Are you sure?"

"Yes. I won't be able to swing new hires, not right now, but it will easily cover the work you listed as essential for the first scrapping operation of the tanker. Things like the demolition of the warehouses and so forth. From what your report says, a lot of the materials needed are available locally or in stock already, so the outgoing payments are mainly labor and some equipment. Find what you need, ideally used to keep the cost down for now, get your men to work, and do the initial dock repairs and upgrades. It's time that was done to stop the entire place falling into the bay anyway, I think."

"That's very generous of you, Roy." Danny still looked amazed, although also pleased now.

"I have an ulterior motive, of course," Roy smiled. "It will help next election cycle, being seen as decisive and forward looking is never bad for a politician. But I also think it's the right move. As you pointed out the first time we talked about this, more than half the gang problems are down to people with no hope, no work, and nothing to lose. This will start fixing that. And, starting this work now means that when we get the full vote for it we're ahead and can start immediately. Which in turn means the money for the scrap comes in that much faster. It all seems pretty straightforward to me."

Danny nodded thoughtfully. "I'd have to agree. I'm pleased that you feel the same way." He smiled a little. "We've known each other for a long time and I'd prefer to see you re-elected if I'm honest about it. I like you, I trust you, and I'd hate to have to spend the time breaking in another Mayor. You took long enough, after all."

Roy started laughing after a look of surprise. "Why am I not surprised?" he snickered. "Hopefully that means I can count on the DWU vote."

"If this goes ahead, I think that goes without saying," Danny grinned. "Anyway, that's quite a long way off yet. Let's see what we can do on a shorter timescale."

"Fine by me." Holding out his hand, Roy shook Danny's. "Draw up a list of the initial work, the really necessary stuff, and an estimated figure for it, and get it to me tomorrow. I'll release the funds. I know it's all in the report already but it will be easier if it's a smaller single document. Get started on it immediately while I get things in gear from this end. Even if, and I doubt this would happen, the plan gets rejected, we'll at least have a lot of important infrastructure work done. It might be possible to raise private finance under those circumstances, I know a couple of names I could talk to, but I'd much prefer it to be under the control of the city. It would be a lot easier to sell to the public if everyone can see how it benefits them rather than just a few already rich people. "

He smiled with a small resigned shrug. "I'd pay for a lot of this myself, I'm not super rich but I am pretty well off and could easily put a few hundred thousand dollars your way without any problems, but because of my position the political implications of that could be complicated and difficult to get around. I'd prefer to avoid anything like that. The discretionary budget will get us started, though, at least on the immediately important parts."

"I agree. OK, I'll get you that information sometime tomorrow morning." Danny looked very pleased. "Thank you very much, Roy."

"Thank you, Danny. For both scaring me out of a good five years of my life, and giving me the opportunity to see the same thing happen to a lot of other people pretty soon." He grinned evilly, as the other man snickered. "I'm looking forward to it."

"We'll have to make sure the sirens are disabled for a few minutes," Danny smirked. "Just in case. But it's going to be pretty funny. I bet that the PHO servers melt..."

They shared a look, then laughed like idiots.

Wiping tears of amusement from his eyes, Roy shook his head. "God, I never expected anything like this, Danny. I'm glad you came to me." He took the keys out of the ignition and opened the door, getting out, as his guest did the same. They looked at each other over the roof of the vehicle. "Give my best to Taylor. We'll have to arrange a time for you two to come over for dinner."

"I'd like that. I expect she would as well. Good night, Roy."

"Good night, Danny. I'll talk to you tomorrow."

He watched as the man unlocked his car, got in, then drove away, until the tail lights vanished around the corner. Shaking his head in wonder he headed for the house, thinking about the meeting on the dark rocky beach with a look of awe on his face.

"This is going to be… interesting," he mumbled as he went inside, wondering how Danny Hebert was going to arrange the introduction of Kaiju to Brockton Bay.

However it happened, the one thing he was certain of was that it would be somewhat memorable.

Danny looked up from his book as his daughter appeared in the doorway to the living room, a smile on her face. He matched it.

Both smiles grew, until they simultaneously started howling with laughter. She came into the room and sat next to him on the sofa, where he could feel her body shaking with hilarity. He put his arm over her shoulders and gave her a hug.

"I'm just glad we practiced that last night, dear," he chortled. "If I'd seen that for the first time I'd have crapped masonry. Poor Roy looked like he was about to."

"He did look and smell a bit worried," she giggled, grinning at him. "Poor Mayor Christner."

"The guy's resilient, he came to see the upside much faster than I expected," Danny replied, smiling again. "That was a lot of fun. I can see why you keep doing things like that."

"Varga hasn't stopped snickering for the last three hours," she reported, looking amused and pleased. Her voice changed pitch and intonation for the next words, to what he now knew was the demon linked to her. It sounded like it was having a wonderful time.

"That was exceptionally funny, Danny," her mouth said, in a way he still found weird. "I was very impressed how well you played your part. The wording was perfect."

Danny shrugged a little, grinning. "It just came to me, but it seemed to fit."

"Still, well done, both of you. The Heberts are clearly a force to be reckoned with, especially when working together." Taylor smiled in a way that was unlike her normal body language, although not so much that someone who didn't know her as well as he did would pick up on it.

"Thanks, Varga," she said in Taylor's voice, looking pleased now.

"That… is very disturbing, Taylor," Danny sighed, but he was also very amused.

"Why?" she replied with a quizzical expression, tipping her head to the side a little, making him look hard at her. He had trouble sometimes working out whether she was really not able to pick up on the somewhat unusual attitude she had to what she did these days, or was just trying to make it look like that. Her sense of humor had always been somewhat sardonic and deadpan, although the last few years since Annette died had suppressed that tendency a lot. The previous eighteen months or so he'd seen almost none of it, not that he was really in a fit state to notice most of the time.

Since the locker, though, she was pulling it out more and more, making him pleased that she was so obviously enjoying life these days. He was as well as a direct result. Yet another thing to thank whatever mysterious power had arranged for the Varga to arrive.

"I'm fairly sure you know why," he finally said, standing up. "Come on, let's go and find a pizza or something, we haven't been out for a while."

Happily bouncing to her feet, she looked eager, the end of her tail twitching in a way that betrayed her mood. "Suits me."

Soon they were in the car heading for an all-night pizza place, laughing about the Great Kaiju Prank of 2011.

Sipping a glass of wine, Roy turned the last page of the report, looking at the list of references, then closed it. He'd spent some time going over the entire thing yet again, trying to find any holes or mistakes in it, without success. Which made him very pleased.

Sipping the wine he stared into the fireplace in which a small log fire was burning, more for effect than the heat. Eventually he picked up the phone next to him on the side table and thought for a moment, then dialed a number from memory. He waited.

After a couple of rings, there was a pause, then a different ring tone. This happened twice, before the other end picked up.

"Hello, Roy. It's been a while. How is the clock?"

"Still keeping perfect time," he smiled. "As I was sure it would do. Your work is not only beautiful, it's very reliable."

"Thank you," the man on the other end said, sounding pleased. "What can I do for you?"

"I have something I would appreciate you looking at. A plan to revitalize the city. I think you'll appreciate it, the man who put it together is somewhat like you. Very careful of the details and thinks things through from end to end."

"Ah. Interesting."

"I thought you'd think that. I can't find any problems with it but if anyone can, it would be you. I'd be grateful if you could look at it and give me your opinion. There may well be some investment opportunities in a year or two as well that you would find worth looking into."

There was a pause, then his old friend chuckled slightly. "I'm willing to do it as a favor to you, Roy. Send me the documents. I'll email you a link to a secure server you can upload them to, it's untraceable. I assume that no one else is to know about this yet?"

"No. I need to run it by some of our advisers as well but I wanted to have your opinion first. I'm ninety percent sure that it will work to design. Your seal on it would bring that to a hundred percent."

"I'm flattered, Roy."

"I know how good you are, Phil. If you say it will work, it will work."

He got another small chuckle back. "If only previous acquaintances had shared that view. Ah, but that's in the past. I'm looking forward to the document. I suppose it's too much to ask that the PRT might be in some way put out by this plan?"

Roy snickered. "Oh, they're going to shit a brick. Trust me on that. You'll have to come and watch the main event, I think you'd find it amusing."

His old friend actually laughed at this, a somewhat unusual occurrence.

"I find myself growing increasingly intrigued."

"You'll like it, it's the sort of plan you'd come up with. I'll send it to you as soon as I get the link."

"I've already sent it so it should be waiting for you."

"Thanks. It was nice to talk. We should do it more often."

"Circumstances make that difficult, unfortunately. But I'm glad you called. Goodbye, Roy."

"Bye, Phil." He heard the other end disconnect with a click, put his own phone down, then got up to check his inbox, the USB stick Danny Hebert had given him in his hand.

In a very nicely, one might go so far as to say perfectly, designed office in Boston, a hand carefully placed the handset back on the elegant telephone, then delicately adjusted the position of both until they were exactly aligned. Turning to his computer screen he waited, smiling to himself when a couple of minutes later he got a notification from his secure server than he had an uploaded document.

Checking it carefully for any tracking codes or viruses, he opened it, then began reading, quickly but in detail. After the first minute he was smiling more widely, nodding on occasion.

When he'd finished, he went back and re-read the document, paying special attention to a few specific points, before he began typing into another window, pausing to think every now and then.

He was pleased and interested, deciding to himself that at some point he'd like to meet Danny Hebert of the Brockton Bay Dock Worker's Union. The man sounded… competent.

That was something he approved of.

Pity so many people were the exact opposite.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

"Dad, this is Amy Dallon. Amy, my father, Danny Hebert."

Taylor watched as Amy smiled at her father, who returned it. "It's nice to meet you, Mr Hebert," the other brunette said politely.

"Likewise," he replied. "I've heard quite a bit about you from Taylor, and of course I know your reputation. The car's over here." He led the way to their vehicle, opening the front passenger side door for Amy and waving her in with a small bow and a grin. "Guests get to sit in the good seat."

"Thanks, Mr Hebert," the brunette smiled, getting in.

"Yes, thanks, Dad," Taylor sighed loudly, making both the others exchange a glance then laugh. "I'll just get in the back, then?"

"Unless you want to ride home in the trunk, that's probably best, Taylor," he replied mildly, going around to his door and getting in. Giggling, she squeezed into the rear seat, not something she'd done since acquiring her tail. The appendage made it a little difficult as the car didn't have enormously generous rear seating, but she managed.

"I can hardly wait to get a new car," she mumbled, putting her seat-belt on after arranging herself. "Something nicer and a bit bigger."

"I'm planning to look at a few sometime next week," he said, looking over his shoulder as he started the vehicle, then indicating and pulling away. "You can come and give your opinion, if you want."

"I'll do that," she promised, wriggling around uncomfortable and trying to find a position that didn't cramp her tail quite so much.

"So, Amy, Taylor tells me you met after some sort of minor accident?" Her father looked at her in the rear view mirror, making her roll her eyes a little and grin. "How did that happen?"

"I'm not sure," Amy replied, a thoughtful look in her eyes. "It was really weird, actually, I was just walking pretty fast to get to class in time after lunch and tripped over something. I have no idea what, there was nothing there when I looked. But it really hurt when I bounced my face off the floor."

"How strange," he said, glancing briefly at her, then indicating for the next turn and slowing slightly. "Invisible trip hazards. Arcadia really does have all the most up to date facilities."

Amy stared at him for a moment, then at Taylor who was convulsed with laughter in the back seat. "I somehow sense I'm missing something," she said slowly, frowning a little.

"I'll tell you later, Amy," Taylor giggled. "Dad, stop it. Amy's a guest."

"Sorry, dear," he responded as he accelerated up the on ramp to the freeway. "I'll be good."

"First time for everything," she snickered.

Amy had a bemused look, but seemed to be enjoying herself, shaking her head a little. "It must run in the family," she mumbled, making the other two grin.

Changing the subject to something less silly, they spent the ride home talking, the Dallon girl becoming less reserved with the elder Hebert as time went on. Taylor listened to her father and her new friend talk, smiling to herself.

Watching the car disappear around the corner, Dean frowned very slightly. He couldn't work out whether Amy actually knew for sure that Saurial and Taylor were the same person, never mind Raptaur, but he suspected that she did. He also thought it was likely that she'd known this before going with the latter to that restaurant which was apparently experiencing a massive boost in business due to its name being splashed all over PHO.

'I wonder how that happened?', he thought, curious. 'Bearing in mind how much she seemed to want to avoid knowing anything about another cape's real identity. Weird. And how has she ended up apparently being a friend of Taylor and her various identities?'

Pondering the implications, he jumped a little when his girlfriend poked him in the ribs rather hard, turning his head to see her looking at him with a raised eyebrow and realizing that she'd called his name at least twice without him reacting.

"What's got you so thoughtful?" Vicky asked playfully.

"Just thinking how much your sister suddenly seems to have come out of her shell," he replied, smiling at her.

"I know! Isn't it strange? I mean, I love the fact that she seems to be making friends suddenly, even if two of them are a bit… terrifying… but it's a little weird." Vicky sighed slightly. "I've been trying to get her to go out more for a long time but she's always either here, in her room, or at the hospital. That girl needs to get a life."

"Perhaps she finally realized that," Dean said thoughtfully, looking back after the car. "Anyway, good luck to her, I guess."

"I hope it works out. That Taylor girl seems nice. Everyone says she's really smart, so Ames should at least be able to up her game in math if nothing else." Slipping his arm under hers, she leaned on him. "Come on, there's a sale on at the jewelry store in the mall. I'll let you buy me something if you want."

Sighing with a shake of his head, and noticing that Dennis who was a few feet away was grinning at him, he replied somewhat sarcastically, "Oh, goody. I live for these moments."

"I know you do, Dean," she smiled, pulling him towards his car. Looking back he saw the red-head laughing, waving to him. He shrugged and allowed himself to be towed away, not that he had a lot of choice in the matter, still puzzling over the Amy Dallon and Taylor Hebert friendship.

It sounded innocuous enough.

So why did he have a small cold chill running down his spine?

"Thanks for the ride, Dad," Taylor said to her father, leaning in his car window.

"It was no trouble, Taylor," he smiled. "I have to get back to work but I'll be back around six or so."

"OK. I'll start dinner so it's ready for half past, then." She extracted herself from the car and waved as he drove off, then turned to Amy who was waiting for her. "Come on in, I'll get us some snacks first."

The other girl followed as she led the way into the house, looking around with interest. "This place seems nice," she commented as they went into the kitchen. Taylor rummaged around in the cupboards, coming up with some microwave popcorn and a few bags of potato chips, as well as pouring them each a glass of apple juice. Putting the popcorn in the microwave and prodding a couple of buttons, she turned back to her guest as the machine began humming.

"It's not bad. We need to do some work around the place, for years we couldn't afford it, but recently there was some money that came in, so we're going to fix it up. We've both been so busy with various things for the last month, what with me transferring to Arcadia, a big project Dad is working on for the city, that sort of thing, that we haven't had time to do anything yet." Checking on the progress of the popcorn for a second, she went on, "I've lived here all my life and I couldn't bear to move right now. It's got a lot of happy memories."

She looked around the kitchen for a moment, as Amy watched her. "Some sad ones, of course, as well. I was standing more or less here when I learned Mom had died."

"How did it happen, if you don't mind me asking," Amy asked softly.

"Car accident," Taylor replied, staring at the floor as she remembered. "She died minutes later, we were told. Nothing anyone could do. She probably never even regained consciousness, which I guess is a good thing."

Sighing heavily, she shook her head, then turned to the microwave when it pinged. Pulling the bag out she tore it open and poured the steaming hot contents into the large glass bowl she'd pulled out of a lower cupboard. "I've got several bags of this if you want any more," she said, handing Amy the bowl then picking up the two glasses in one hand and the potato chips with the other, nodding towards the doorway to the hall. "Living room is just across the hallway."

Amy went in the indicated direction, Taylor behind her, then looked around the new room for a second before sitting on the sofa, putting the bowl next to her. Taylor handed her one of the glasses before sitting in her father's favorite chair, putting everything else on the small table beside it.

They looked at each other for a few seconds. Amy took a handful of popcorn and started eating it one kernel at a time, inspecting her closely. "OK. I'm here, at your mercy. What next?" she asked, then smiled a little.

Taylor grinned for a second. "That's one way to look at it I suppose. Not exactly the best way, but..." Opening a bag of snacks she idly grazed on it. "What do you want to know?"

"Everything, ideally, but I'm happy to start with what the hell you actually are. I still think you're an alien."

Amy looked expectantly at her, taking another handful of popcorn.

Laughing for a moment, Taylor straightened up a little, leaning forward in her chair. Her guest unconsciously mimicked the pose, looking very curious and a little apprehensive.

"I'm not really an alien, like I said."

"Then what are you?" the other brunette asked. "Certainly not a normal human, except for appearances you're not related to anything that has ever lived on this planet according to my power."

Taylor thought for a moment. Eventually she smiled widely, far more widely than a human mouth could allow. Not to mention the vast array of pointy teeth that glinted at the Dallon girl, who paled. Her eyes glowing and slitted, Taylor said in a low voice, "Technically, I think I'm actually a demon." She ate a potato chip, then licked her lips with a long forked tongue, causing the other girl to twitch.

There was a very long pause.

Amy, still pale, stared at her as if she was now thinking that she was sharing the room with a crazy person.

"A demon."

"Yep. Or more accurately, a half-demon. Or something like that. I'm not sure how it works."

"Riight." Amy drawled the word, shaking her head a little, while her color came back when it became apparent that she wasn't going to be immediately eaten. "You do realize how that sounds? More than a little… how do I put it… fucking crazy."

Taylor shrugged, still smiling with a completely inhuman mouth. "Hey, you're the one who was willing to believe I'm an alien."

Her guest looked thoughtfully at her. "Good point. Perhaps we're both crazy."

"Could be. Any idea how to check?"

"Nope."

"Damn."

They exchanged a glance, then laughed fairly hard for a little while.

"OK, Demon-girl, explain," Amy finally snickered. "How did you get like this, were you born like it, or what?"

"Well, it started just over a month ago, or more accurately, nearly two years ago. I had this friend called Emma..."