Picking up her phone when it warbled in her ear, Amy looked at the caller ID, smiled, and answered it. "Hi, Taylor," she said in a low voice, not wanting anyone else to listen in. "How are you? And Danny?"

"We're fine, Amy," her friend answered, sounding fairly happy. "Everything seems to be going well at the DWU, Dad says, and school was fine today. I'm glad you came to our table at lunch."

"So am I," she replied, remembering the conversations they'd had. "It was nice meeting new people like that. You know, I don't think I've ever sat at a different table than Vicky since… well, since I Triggered, at least. Probably before that as well."

"Make a habit of it," Taylor suggested, a smile in her voice. "At the least, come and sit with us. Mandy and Lucy enjoyed meeting you very much. Both of them admire you, you know."

"I sort of got that impression," she giggled. "It was sort of surprising but nice as well. And that Eric guy seems fun as well."

"He's a nice one, definitely," the other girl replied. They both fell silent for a moment, then Taylor asked, "How did it go at the hospital?"

With a slight sigh, Amy shrugged even though her friend couldn't see her, unable to stop herself. "It was a little weird. They were almost relieved, I think. There were a couple of people who seemed slightly annoyed but like you said, they can be ignored. Most of the doctors and nurses congratulated me which I didn't expect. We agreed I'd go in every second day for the next couple of months to see how it works out, unless there's an emergency, and all day every second Saturday. That seems to be a good mix of time for myself and time for helping other people. I'm not going in until Monday now unless they have a real problem so I have the weekend free and tomorrow as well."

"Good. I think that's the right solution. You're a very important person, but you need time for enjoying yourself. Have you told your family?"

"Yes," Amy sighed slightly. "Mark was supportive of my decision, and so was Vicky. Carol, though..."

She sighed a little more heavily. "Carol isn't happy about it, I think. She didn't come right out and say it but the way she was looking at me was… weird. Even compared to normal. I think she thinks that I'm planning on doing something odd."

"You are," Taylor snickered.

"I know, but that's no reason to jump to that conclusion," Amy laughed. She checked her bedroom door was shut for a second. "I don't really want to upset her, but at the same time I can't help but be a little insulted."

"That doesn't surprise me." Taylor paused, then added, "I've finished all my homework and talked to dad for a while, but it's only about half past seven. Want to go out for some fun?"

Amy could feel her eyes widen a little. "What sort of fun?" she asked slowly.

"The sort that makes Dennis crack bad jokes until you top him," Taylor laughed.

After a few seconds, during which Amy felt an almost overwhelming urge to yell in triumph, she calmly said, "I think that sounds like a lovely idea, Taylor. Thank you."

"You can't fool me, I can hear how your breathing changed," the other girl chuckled. "Expect someone to call at the door in about fifteen minutes."

"I'm looking forward to it," Amy grinned. "I'll get ready."

"I have a surprise for you when we have some privacy," her friend laughed. "It should amuse you. See you."

"Bye, Taylor," Amy said, before hanging up and lying back with a wide grin on her face. Lifting her wrist she inspected the barely perceptible bulge of her first generation healing symbiote, the grin becoming even wider. "This could be fun," she whispered to herself.

Hearing the doorbell, Carol glanced at her husband who didn't move from watching the news, sighed very faintly, then got up to answer it. She could hear music from upstairs, some new group that Vicky seemed to like, and her daughter singing along to it. She had quite a good voice but no real understanding of indoors versus outdoors volume levels. Shaking her head, she opened the door, then stared.

The wall of dark blue-black scales and metallic armor in front of her shifted, a very large head with two glowing eyes dropping down into her line of sight. She made a slight sound of shock, not knowing what else to do.

"Hello, Mrs Dallon," Raptaur rumbled politely, the corners of her inhumanly wide mouth rising in what she probably thought was a smile. Carol's hand was frozen on the doorknob. "Can Amy come out to play?"

There was a very long pause.

"I'm sorry?" she managed to say eventually.

"It's a joke," the huge reptile said with an amused tone. "She's expecting me."

"Amy?" Carol called, not turning away. "There's someone at the door for you."

"Thanks, Carol," the second daughter of the family said from behind her, sounding pleased. She twitched hard, not having heard the girl approach, then looked back. Amy was standing there in her costume, her scarf around her neck, a smile on her face. "Hi, Raptaur. How are you?"

"Very well, Amy," the creature smiled. "Ready to go?"

"Yep." Carol watched as her adopted daughter wound her scarf around her face leaving only her eyes exposed, then tied it in place. "I'll be back later, Carol. There's no need to wait up."

"I… see," the Dallon woman managed to say as the girl squeezed past and joined the enormous cape, who backed away and dropped to all fours, her middle arms acting as forelegs. Carol noticed that the back of her armor seemed to form a saddle. Amy casually walked over, grabbed a handhold, then swung herself on board, waving with a free hand.

"See you in a while," she called, before the reptilian cape wheeled around and charged off at a totally silly speed, the girl in white pressing herself low on her back. Carol stared after them until they vanished into the night, before slowly closing the door and leaning on it, sweating a little.

"Who was it, Mom?" Vicky peered over the upstairs banister, an inquisitive look on her face.

"A friend of Amy's," Carol sighed, going back into the living room and trying not to think about what had just happened.

Whatever the fuck that actually was.

Puzzled, Vicky watched her mother wander off, shrugged after a moment, then went back to singing along with her music, very loudly and just a little off key.

Several miles and only about half that number of minutes later, Taylor stopped on top of one of the taller buildings in the commercial district, sniffing carefully and looking around while listening. Satisfied they were alone, she turned her head around nearly a hundred and eighty degrees and smirked at Amy, who was giggling and shaking her head. The girl on her back released her hold on the hand-grips and as the straps over her thighs vanished, slid off her back to the roof of the building which Taylor thought was some sort of financial services company.

"That was fantastic," Amy laughed. "Poor Carol. You have to stop doing that to her, she looked really weird."

Taylor shrugged with a saurian grin, moving clear of the girl then lying on her side on the roof, which with her current body, was quite comfortable. "It seemed funny at the time."

"It was. Very. But you'll make her brain explode if you keep doing that."

Amy knelt, then turned around, leaning back and using Taylor as a backrest. "You're sort of lumpy, with all this armor," she commented. Taylor made the armor go away. "Ah, much better. Wow, your body temperature is pretty high like this."

"Really? I hadn't noticed."

"It's considerably higher than a human's, definitely. Odd for a big scaly reptile."

"You know I'm not a reptile," Taylor laughed.

"No, you're an alien demon. I know. But you look like a reptile, so you should be used to people calling you that."

Shrugging, Taylor accepted the point. "As long as they don't call me an overgrown newt," she smiled.

Amy cracked up. "Oh, god, Vicky's still embarrassed about that," she laughed, shaking her head. "Poor sis. You scared the shit out of her."

"That was sort of the point," Taylor replied, then at her inquisitive look explained her reputation plan.

"I think you managed to pull it off," her friend noted when she finished. "There can't be many people who would even consider attacking you or your friends after seeing what you did to Hookwolf. Especially considering how easy you made it look."

"Good. I don't want to have to really hurt anyone if I can avoid it," she said quietly. "I will if I have to but it's not something I'm looking forward to. If I can put some effort in now and avoid something bad happening later it's time well spent as far as I'm concerned."

"I'd have to agree," Amy replied thoughtfully. They sat in companionable silence for a while, until she looked at Taylor again, who was studying the skyline. "So what did you want to do tonight? And what's the surprise?"

"Oh, right, the surprise," Taylor grinned. "Get off me so I can get up."

Once Amy was standing, she rolled to her feet, then held out her hands. In them appeared a new set of clothing. Amy stared at it, before reaching out and picking up the helmet with a transparent faceplate and inspecting it closely in the light from the small exit sign on the fire exit door a few feet away.

"What's this for?" she asked curiously.

"You." Taylor smirked as her friend looked surprised. "Dad suggested it. If you're going to keep riding the big scary reptile you need proper clothes, ones that will keep your warm and protected and not get in the way as much as that robe does. He and Varga helped me come up with this."

She held up the rest of the clothing, which was an obviously armored bodysuit patterned on a motorcycle racing suit, white with a red cross on the right breast and 'Panacea' written across the shoulders on the back. "It's lined with Vargastuff again, but insulated as well with something he came up with that should make it pretty heatproof but allow you not to get too hot. We could put better armor on it in critical places because the whole thing doesn't need to be as flexible as the robes."

Taylor showed her friend a pair of gloves and matching boots, both of which were also armored. "With this on you should be completely bullet-proof. The weakest part is the faceplate, it's basically a big piece of pure aluminum oxide. The same stuff rubies are made of. There's a really thin mesh of Vargastuff on both the inside and outside to make it as strong as possible but to allow you to see through it the mesh isn't as tough as the rest of the suit. We're pretty sure it will handle a point-blank bullet impact without letting anything through but it might crack eventually. But if you manage to get shot in the face repeatedly we're doing it wrong anyway."

Amy looked somewhat overwhelmed, her mouth opening and closing wordlessly, but in the end she grinned and quickly hugged her friend. "Thank you, Taylor," she said in a low voice. "And thank you, too, Varga."

"He says you're welcome," Taylor smiled. "Try it on."

Amy pulled her hood off, then carefully put the helmet on. "A little tight," she reported.

Leaning over it, Taylor and the Varga made some adjustments. "How's that?"

"Much better." Rotating her head, then shaking it, the Dallon girl smiled at her through the faceplate. "It fits perfectly now."

"Great. If I could figure out how I'd add some sort of air supply to it, but neither of us is sure how to do that right now. We're going to have to read up on that sort of thing."

"Trying to become a Tinker as well?" Amy asked with a sly smile. "Leave some powers for the rest of us."

As Taylor laughed, Amy pulled her robe over her head, then sat down to remove her shoes. "Damn, it's cold," she mumbled.

"It's still only the beginning of February after all," Taylor smiled. Looking at the sky, which was clouding over again after a short period of clarity, she added, "We could still get snow for the next few weeks. It doesn't smell like it's going to do that any time soon though."

"Hopefully not tonight at least," Amy said in a slightly muffled tone of voice as she tried to pull the arms of the suit over her shirt, having stepped into the legs and got herself sorted out. It fastened down the middle with something like a zip. Taylor gave her a hand, the girl nodding her thanks, then doing the suit up. "A little tight here across the shoulders and up the legs," she remarked, indicating the problem areas. These were soon sorted out, leaving her looking pleased. "It's really warm," the girl reported, feeling the outside of her new costume. "So that works." Taking the boots from Taylor she sat again to pull them on, then put the gloves on last, before turning around on the spot.

"How does it look?" she asked.

"Pretty damn cool," Taylor grinned. "Not bad at all. You look like a proper superhero now."

Looking down at herself Amy smiled. "I kind of like this, but I don't think it fits the picture of a healer."

"Obviously you're a combat healer, not a normal one," Taylor snickered. "For jobs where simply healing is too easy. You can kick ass, then heal ass. Or something like that."

Her friend grinned at her. "Thank you both. This is amazing." She knelt and rummaged in a hidden pocket in her robes, retrieving the baton that Taylor had given her the night before standing up. Giving it a hard flick she looked satisfied when it snapped out and locked, then posed with it across her chest, her other hand held ready. Taylor nodded with a pleased look.

"Very hardcore. We need to teach you how to actually use it properly although what Dad showed you will work for now. Maybe work up to two of them. That would look cool as well."

Amy laughed, relaxing and closing the baton, then looking down at herself. "Where do I keep it, though?" she asked, patting her sides. "No pockets."

"Ah, damn, forgot about those. Hold on." Moments later the suit had pockets and a belt pouch specifically tailored for the baton, which Amy slipped into it, appearing pleased.

"Great. This is so cool."

Picking up her friend's normal costume and her shoes, Taylor made a backpack to put them in, then folded the cloth and stashed everything away, before reaching back and hooking the pack over her armor which she'd produced again. On all fours, she motioned to the saddle on the back of her lower body. "Get on and let's see what we can find to meddle in," she suggested.

Grinning even more widely, Amy did exactly that. "Now I feel I should have some sort of lance or something, while we charge down the street at Lung shouting 'For King and Country!'"

Taylor burst out laughing. "God, his face would be amazing to see. But that's probably not a good idea. I don't think he takes surprises well."

"No, probably not," Amy agreed. She pointed at the general direction of the docks. "Anyway, onward, noble steed! Great deeds await the team of Panacea and Raptaur. Plus I'm hungry."

Laughing, Taylor leaped forward, while Amy held on firmly, flattening herself over her friend's back as they headed straight down the side of the building, both of them having a wonderful time.

Max muttered obscenities under his breath as he read the latest report from Victor, who was working on getting Brad out of PRT custody. They had for some reason not transferred the cape to a more high-security facility, which was good, if somewhat puzzling, but they were apparently running a complete check of almost the entire PRT and all the security systems, which was bad. And again, somewhat puzzling. He wasn't sure why they'd suddenly decided to go to all that effort but thought something must have spooked them.

Shaking his head in disgust, once more wondering what the hell had possessed his subordinate to go off half-cocked and attack the DWU, not to mention promptly lose to the most horrifying creature he'd ever seen outside an Endbringer, he got up and went to his drinks cabinet, pouring himself a couple of fingers of a very expensive whiskey, then went back to the desk sipping it slowly. Picking up another report he read it while walking around his office, ending up next to the window.

When he looked up he was staring right into the eyes, from less than a yard away, of that self-same reptilian horror, which was for some ungodly reason hanging off the side of the twenty-fourth floor of the Medhall building right outside his fucking window! He had no idea how it was doing it, but the thing was stuck there like a gecko to a ceiling, grinning at him. "Jesus fucking Christ!" he yelped, unable to help himself, and dropped his glass, which shattered on the floor spilling about a hundred dollars worth of very good spirits over his shoes.

The thing waved at him, seeming amused. He stared in shock. It took a few seconds to notice that there was a black-clad female figure perched on the back of the thing peering around its head at him, a mirrored visor covering its entire face. The second figure waved as well. The body language seemed to suggest she was laughing.

After a moment, the pair rapidly climbed out of sight up the side of the building. He pressed himself to the glass in an attempt to see where they went, then when they vanished, the last thing he saw being a long tail disappearing over the roof, stepped back and simply stared out a the Brockton Bay skyline for nearly a minute trying to work out what had happened.

Looking down at his ruined shoes and wasted alcohol, he sighed heavily.

"Fucking Brockton Bay. Maybe I can move to Miami or something. Even if there are too many blacks and hispanics there, at least there aren't any fucking reptiles in armor."

Muttering under his breath he went back to the bar to pour himself another drink, this time deliberately not looking out the window.

The entire city seemed to be going peculiar these days.

On the next roof over, Taylor and Amy were convulsed with laughter. Amy's costume had reverted to the original white with a transparent faceplate when the Varga undid the modifications he'd suggested to prevent the Medhall CEO being able to positively identify the healer. "There you go, Amy, we made Max Anders drop his drink," Taylor giggled.

"That was fucking hysterical," Amy nearly cried, her eyes full of tears from laughing so hard. "I don't like that bastard at all. His face! I wish I had a camera."

"I do," Taylor pointed out, tapping her head between her eyes, making her friend stare at her then laugh even harder. "Want a copy of the video?"

"You bet your ass I do," Amy replied, grinning. She took her helmet off and wiped her eyes. "Thanks. That was one of the funniest things I've ever seen."

"No problem," Taylor said with an amused look back at the Medhall building. "He rubs me the wrong way as well for some reason. Varga doesn't like him either. Neither of us can work out exactly why yet."

"I'm sure there's a reason," the healer said, slowly calming down. "He's not a good person."

"Probably not. So, what should we do next? It's still early."

"Fugly Bobs?"

"That sounds like a plan," Taylor nodded. Amy remounted and they dived over the edge of the building again.

"Puppy?"

"Yes?"

Battery's voice was somewhat distracted.

"Do you see what I see?"

"If you see a horse sized reptilian centauroid creature with teeth six inches long, wearing armor, carrying a girl in a white suit with Panacea's name across her shoulders in large friendly letters on her back, then no, I don't," the woman said firmly, poking him in the ribs. "And neither do you."

Assault watched as the white-clad girl, who was certainly the right size and build to be Panacea even if the costume she was wearing was entirely new, slid from the back of the creature she'd been riding with a fair degree of apparent skill that suggested a certain amount of practice. She looked like she was having fun. So did Raptaur.

"Sorry, Puppy, I think I do. This I can't let go." He grinned at her, then headed towards the two females, who were looking in the windows of one of the fixtures of the Boardwalk, good old Fugly Bob's, the home of a heart attack in a bun.

Behind him he heard a loud sigh, a quietly mumbled imprecation, and footsteps. He chuckled, approaching the pair he was interested in, who turned to look at him. It seemed to him that the reptilian cape had probably been aware of him the entire time if any of what he'd heard about her abilities was even remotely true.

Up close the creature was even more impressive, the large head a couple of feet above his looking down on him with a curious expression as far as he could tell, slightly cocked to the side like a cat watching a bird. The mental comparison made him slow slightly, which in turn seemed to amuse the thing.

"Shit, you're a lot bigger than I thought," he mumbled under his breath, very quietly.

"Thanks," she replied casually, making him wince.

"Sorry. Didn't mean to be insulting."

She waved a hand dismissively, smiling in a somewhat unnerving manner. "Don't worry, you weren't," she chuckled. Relieved he nodded, then inspected the more human appearing girl who was smirking at him. He was slightly surprised to see it really was Amy Dallon wearing something totally out of character, looking much happier than he could recall seeing her before. The smile, as sardonic as ever, even so still seemed to convey genuine good will.

He smiled back. "Panacea. That's a new look for you."

"I know, it's not bad, is it?" she replied, looking down at herself. "It was a present from a friend. The robes are a little impractical for riding."

"I can imagine," he said slowly. The implications were slightly odd. "Is this a regular thing now?"

"It might be," she laughed. "It's a hell of a lot of fun if nothing else."

"I saw the videos on PHO so I can imagine," he replied, grinning. "You sounded like you were enjoying yourself. Clockblocker is still making jokes about it."

"Clock is an idiot," she snorted. "A nice one, but an idiot all the same."

Behind him he heard a mutter of agreement from his wife, making him snicker. "I can tell him you said that if you want," he offered helpfully.

"Don't bother, I do it all the time myself," the girl smiled, making him laugh.

"I can believe that. So, what are you two doing? Aside from drawing a crowd, that is," he asked, waving at the circle of tourists and locals who were standing around them staring and taking photos.

"We were going to get something to eat," Raptaur rumbled from the side, making him twitch. Her voice went right into his bones when she spoke. It was impressive and somewhat eerie. "I've been told this place is pretty good, they serve dead animals in large portions wrapped in bread." Her mouth formed into a type of toothy smile as she leaned a little closer, making him just the tiniest bit nervous. "I like dead animals in a bun. Eggs are better, but meat is nice."

He couldn't get the thought that she'd run her eyes over him as she said that out of his head. A muffled giggle from Panacea made him look around, but she was watching with a completely blank expression, no signs of any amusement.

"Um… OK, that sounds fine," he managed after a moment. "But I think you're a little big to go in there, the aisles are sort of narrow."

"I'm getting it to go," Panacea assured him. She turned to her companion. "Three Bob's Belly Busters?"

"Make it four, please, I'm a little hungry tonight," the reptile nodded. Assault stared. The requested burger was over two pounds of beef and grease, along with enough condiments to stock a small store, and a huge helping of fries. He wasn't sure he could manage one of them even if he starved himself for a week and he certainly wouldn't be getting up afterwards.

Behind him, Battery made a slight retching sound at the mere concept.

Panacea simply nodded, then disappeared into the establishment, pulling some cash out of her pocket as she went through the front door.

Left standing next to one of the most impressive capes he'd ever seen, Assault looked over his shoulder at his wife, who shrugged wordlessly, then back at Raptaur who was watching him with what he could swear was amusement. "So..." he began. "Your sister seems to have improved business at the Thai restaurant she and Panacea went to the other day."

"I heard. I must go there myself," Raptaur replied, nodding. He had a sudden mental picture of the enormous creature waiting patiently in the queue outside for a table and grinned to himself. "She said it was very nice."

"I thought your take down of Hookwolf was very well done," Battery said as she moved to stand beside him.

"Thank you. He was extremely annoying but not very good," the huge lizard said, smiling again. Both of them tried not to recoil at the sight of the massive teeth. She apparently didn't notice. "I still don't know why he attacked the DWU but we came to an agreement he wouldn't do it again." She seemed satisfied.

Assault laughed a little. "I heard. Went swimming with him or something?"

"Something like that. He didn't seem to enjoy it all that much for some weird reason," she replied calmly. "I don't know why, the water's really refreshing at this time of year. Really quite warm so near the surface. It's much colder deeper down."

Glancing at Battery, Assault could see in her eyes she was remembering the same image he was, of something that had a definite family resemblance to the creature in front of him, only on a vastly larger scale. "Do you go into deep water much?" he asked, not sure he was doing the right thing but very curious.

She shrugged. "Not so much myself, but my sisters do. The bigger they get, the deeper they go."

"Oh." That raised a lot of questions, none of which he was sure he wanted to know the answer to. "I see."

"Big brother goes the deepest, but he seldom comes to the surface," she carried on, making him wish he hadn't raised the subject. "Everything up here is too easily damaged. Even some of my sisters are worried about visiting although they want to. We don't want to break anything. You humans are mostly so fragile." She sniffed as he paled a little at the comment, then looked over her shoulder as Panacea came out of the fast food place. "But you make nice food and are fun to talk to, so it's all good."

"OK," he mumbled. Panacea reached them, handing over a large paper bag, which Raptaur took with a nod of thanks and a smile, then opened, looking into it. She reached in and pulled out a huge wrapped burger, which she sniffed curiously, then dropped into her mouth, wrapping and all. Everyone stared as she chewed contemplatively then swallowed.

"Not bad," she commented.

Panacea sighed. "Take the paper off you idiot," she instructed, shaking her head. The girl looked at Assault and Battery who were watching, bemused. "She's always doing this. They can eat absolutely anything and sometimes don't realize what parts are actually supposed to be edible."

"Hey, if you don't want it eaten, don't wrap it around food," Raptaur protested, delicately unwrapping the next burger with the tips of her sharp talons, then popping the thing into her mouth. She chewed again.

Once she'd swallowed she smiled. "That's actually better, thanks."

Looking at the ball of greasy paper in her other hand, she shrugged and ate it as well. "Although that's not bad either. I'm told fiber is important in a growing girl's diet."

"You're impossible," Panacea said, a long-suffering look on her face. She handed the great reptile her own bag. "Here, hold this. I got some cans of coke to go with it, the normal drinks are going to spill." Moving around the other cape, she grabbed a handhold and climbed back into the saddle. "Come on, I can't eat with half the boardwalk watching me do it. Let's find somewhere more private."

"OK," Raptaur agreed cheerily. "It was nice to meet you, Assault, Battery. We'll probably bump into each other again sometime."

Panacea waved from her position atop Raptaur, then the pair moved off, the reptilian creature carefully picking her way through the crowd, most of whom moved out of the way pretty fast. He watched as they reached a clear area then broke into a sprint, reaching the end of the street and going straight up the front of the building there, to vanish over the top.

After several seconds, he turned to Battery. "She seems nice," he said faintly. "I wonder how many sisters she actually has?"

"I really don't want to know," Battery sighed. "I really, really don't want to know. Come on, we're supposed to be on patrol."

She turned and walked off, while he cast another glance behind him at where the two had vanished, before following.

"Big brother?" he muttered quizzically. "How big?"

It didn't seem likely he'd get an answer, which was, on reflection, probably for the best.

Amy slid off Taylor's back and fell to the ground, which in this case was the roof of a warehouse on the edge of the Docks area, laughing so hard she couldn't stand up. "Oh, that was fantastic!" she crowed, shaking her head. "Did you see their faces? I've never seen Assault look shocked before, he's almost impossible to surprise. Normally he's just smiling at the world no matter what happens."

Lowering herself to the ground like some huge cat, Taylor grinned, handing her friend the bag with her burger and fries in. "It was pretty good," she agreed with a smirk. "He smelled very confused and just the tiniest bit scared."

Sitting up Amy accepted the bag, putting it beside her then reaching up and removing her helmet. Smiling broadly she shook her head then ran her fingers through her hair, before picking the bag up again and pulling out some fries which she ate. "These are good," she commented.

"You played your part well," Taylor said admiringly. "I didn't know you had it in you. But I'm glad you do."

"It just seemed the right thing to do at the time," Amy giggled. "I could get used to this. I see why you like making people look confused. It's a hell of a lot of fun."

"Better than fighting them," Taylor agreed. She ate some of her own fries. "Although if you combine the two it's pretty hysterical as well."

They sat next to each other and finished their meals, one or the other of them intermittently laughing, until they were done. Taylor looked at the pile of packaging debris, then crumpled it all up into a ball and ate it. Amy stared, before grinning with a shake of her head.

"You really can eat anything, can't you?"

"Basically, yes," Taylor smiled. "Some of it actually tastes interesting. Titanium is a bit bitter, aluminum is quite edible, weirdly enough. I don't know that I'd want to eat a lot of it but it makes an interesting garnish."

Satisfied with the way the evening was going, Amy leaned back, Taylor obligingly moving to provide a support. "Thank you for inviting me out, I've had fun," she said quietly. "More than I expected to."

"You're welcome, Amy," Taylor replied. "I'm more than happy to do this whenever you want. Once we train you up a bit, you can come and help me hit some criminals if you like."

Considering the suggestion, Amy smiled a little. "That might actually be interesting. Carol would go mental if I did, though."

"Another good reason to do it."

"You're not the one who has to live with her," Amy pointed out. "Your dad is fine with all of this and even helps. My parents are… not as supportive."

"That's a pity," Taylor sighed. "Hopefully that attitude will change eventually." They fell silent again, then she cheered up. "Hey, I forgot to say, Armsmaster came to visit the DWU today. He was looking for Raptaur."

Sitting up a little, Amy turned to stare at her friend. "Really? Why?"

"You remember I gave Leet a chunk of Vargastuff?" Amy nodded. "He apparently played with it for a while, then came up with an idea for some sort of anti-Endbringer weapon that could be made with it, and ended up contacting Armsmaster. Now Armsmaster wants to talk to me about actually building it."

"Holy shit! That's incredible!" Amy sat up fully. "An anti-Endbringer weapon? People are going to go nuts if it actually works."

"I know, it's a little overwhelming in some ways," Taylor shrugged. "But I'm interested to see what he has in mind. I'll call him tomorrow and arrange a time and place to meet and talk about it."

"Wow." Thinking over the ramifications, Amy leaned back again. "Just… Wow. Let me know what happens."

"I will," Taylor smiled. "On a completely different subject, how is your own project going?"

Amy held up her right arm and looked at it, then lowered it, smiling.

"I've had so many ideas since your Dad came up with that key breakthrough you wouldn't believe it. I'm still tweaking the design of this thing, though, before I try anything more adventurous. I've improved it quite a bit, it should deal with pretty much any disease now, including cancer and immune system problems. I can't think of any way to test some of them without a live trial on someone with the actual issue, which could be a problem. It's not something the PRT would be completely happy about. Not to mention I'm not wildly keen on letting them know what I can really do."

"Maybe we sell it as an invention of The Family?" Taylor suggested after some thought. "Or just something they get from an anonymous Biotinker. At least that way they wouldn't be looking at you."

"Possibly," Amy mused. "That might work. When I get this design just right, it could end up being a really important invention. It could in theory practically eliminate disease and a hell of a lot of injuries as well. I think I can make it work well enough that unless someone using it got killed on the spot they'd probably survive."

"That's… amazing." Taylor stared at her. "Really, absolutely amazing. You have to make that work."

"I'm sure going to try," she replied with a firm nod. "PRT or no PRT. I've redesigned this one about five times now, and fixed the initial pain when it integrates the first time. That was really uncomfortable. Now it turns the pain receptors off as the first action, while it merges with the host, until it's finished. It should be completely painless."

"Impressive."

"Thanks. It's also only the tip of the iceberg, though. I have some other more radical ideas that I'm not giving to anyone else, they're for me and my friends. I'm going to need your and Varga's help for some of them."

Taylor looked at her curiously. "Like what?"

With a small devious smile, Amy began explaining, her friend staring, then grinning widely after a while.

When Amy came home just after midnight, Carol was on her way to bed. The girl seemed weirdly cheerful, smiling at her with no signs of her normal sullen outlook. Carol inspected her closely, seeing she was carrying a large backpack that she hadn't had when she'd left. "What's that?" she asked slightly suspiciously.

"Just a present from a friend," the girl replied in an off-hand manner. "Some clothes."

"I hope you haven't got yourself involved in anything… unwise… Amy," she said.

"Of course I haven't, Carol! What do you think I am? A villain?" Amy grinned at her. "I'm a hero just like you and the rest of the family." After a moment, she added, "I'm tired so I'm off to bed now. Good night." With another smile, she went upstairs, the pack over her shoulder, radiating a sort of contented happiness which Carol found both out of character and somewhat worrying.

"Hmm," she muttered thoughtfully, watching the girl vanish at the top of the stairs, before going into the kitchen to get a glass of water.

And an aspirin. For some reason every time she thought about her second daughter these days, and the friends she seemed to be keeping, she got a headache.