"OK, I can do that," Taylor said, nodding to the older man who had just finished suggesting a modification to the plan she'd had for the first warehouse demolition. Andy and his colleague Jakub, the latter man somewhat younger that Andy's mid fifties and possessing a noticeable Polish accent, were the two people with heavy demolitions experience her father had wanted her to talk to. Andy had been a military engineer while Jakub had explosives handling experience, having worked for years for a company in the Mid-West specializing in removing tall buildings from cities what were redeveloping land. When the company he worked for had folded a decade ago he'd ended up in Brockton Bay working as a maintenance engineer.
"There will be a lot less chance of shrapnel with you doing this than with blasting, Raptaur, but even so when the roof comes down it will probably blow rubble for some distance," Andy said, closing the notebook he'd been making quick sketches in. "Putting netting around the outside of the building at ground level will reduce that."
"I can make enough of it for all the buildings easily," she told him. "If you guys start at the far end, I can do this one, then try taking it down and see how it goes, without putting anyone at risk but not wasting any time."
"Sounds good," he smiled. "We've already cleared the first warehouse and there are guards to stop any of the homeless people sneaking in. We had to kick three of them out, they'd been squatting on the top floor for a few days."
"What did you do with them?" she asked curiously, sad about the fact that she was in some ways destroying someone's home, primitive as it was.
"Danny told us to give them each a hundred dollars and ask them to go away for their own safety," Jakub put in. He shrugged slightly. "It's not much but it's about all we can do at the moment. Most of these people are so fucked up on that Merchant crap they hardly know what day of the week it is."
"I understand," she said, hoping that in some way people like that could be helped with this whole plan. "OK, is this the sort of thing you want?" She had the Varga produce a swatch of the debris containment fabric mesh that Andy had described in detail. He took the yard square piece from her hands and studied it, trying to tear it unsuccessfully, then nodded with a smile.
"Damn close to the commercial stuff, if anything it's even stronger," he said approvingly. "The velocity of the pieces will be a lot lower without explosives being used so this should work fine. If you can make about two dozen rolls fifteen feet by about three hundred feet that will be enough to start with and light enough for us to handle."
"Sure." She turned to an empty part of the yard and started fabricating the requested supplies. Shortly there was a large pile of dark blue stiff fabric in rolls lying there. "Is that enough? It'll time out in about six hours so we don't have to go around picking it up again."
"Perfect," he told her, looking very happy. "I wish we'd had you on the jobs I used to do, they've have gone a lot smoother." Turning, he stuck his fingers in his mouth and let out a piercing whistle, then waved, which had the effect that a group of about thirty-five dockworkers who had been standing around drinking coffee near a number of construction vehicles all looked over at the trio. One of the men waved back, then they all started moving with purpose, machines rumbling into life.
"We'll get started on building six, then, and when that's done building five. You start preparing building one but wait until until we give the go-ahead before you bring it down, OK?"
She nodded. "I have the radio, if you need me call me," she said, holding up the large walky-talky which looked small in her hands. It was a heavy duty waterproof military specification one, which all the men were carrying duplicates of. "I'm just going to talk to Danny for a few minutes then I'll start."
"Good enough. We'll make sure no one sneaks in until you've got the building netted. When you're ready to start removing the supporting walls call so we can make sure the guards are clear, then do them in the order we decided, and the whole thing should come down cleanly." He rubbed his hands together, looking interested, with a glance at his colleague. "I'm curious to see how well it works. Demolition by cape isn't something I've ever seen before, at least not on purpose and under control."
Taylor laughed, knowing what he meant, then nodded to both of them and headed for her father who was talking to Kurt and Zephron, over near one of the entrances to the admin building, all three men wearing thick work coats and looking somewhat chilly. She passed a stream of machines and workers, most of the latter waving or calling greetings as they fanned out into the surrounding area through the place the fence had been carefully removed to allow access.
Waving back with an inner feeling of satisfaction of being involved in something useful that so many people clearly appreciated also being a part of, she stopped next to her father, who looked up at her. She dropped to all fours to get her head a little closer to human level. Kurt was staring with wide eyes, as it was the first time he'd actually met her in either incarnation since he'd returned from Philadelphia, although she'd heard from her father that his old friend had spent some time watching videos on the internet and making muffled sounds of astonishment, something that had amused him a lot.
"Hi, guys," she said happily. "I'm all ready to start. Andy and Jakub told me some really useful things and we came up with a plan that sounds good."
"Great," her father smiled. He indicated Kurt. "This is an old friend of mine, Kurt. I don't think you two have met before?"
"No, we haven't," she replied politely. "Hello, Kurt, nice to meet you." Holding out a hand she waited until he put his own much smaller one in with a slightly worried look on his face, then carefully shook it. "I'm Raptaur. Danny mentioned you. Something about your wife's mother being ill?"
"Yes… Yes, something like that," the man replied with a slight quaver to his voice, reclaiming his hand with relief.
Zephron stuck out his own hand, which she also shook, the very large man grinning at her with no signs at all of worry or trepidation. "Nice to see you again, Raptaur," he said jovially. "This should be interesting to watch. What are you going to do, just hit it until it gives up and falls over?"
"Not quite," she snickered. "I did think about doing that but Andy pointed out that there would be bricks flying everywhere. He recommended going inside, taking out all the support columns except for a few critical ones, then cutting holes in the walls. When it's right on the verge of collapsing, I'm going to run a cable around all the remaining columns and pull hard from outside. That should make it fall mostly in on itself, like it would with a controlled explosion." She shrugged a little, smiling. "That's the plan, anyway. None of us have ever done this before so I'm curious to see what happens. I can always use a hammer if it doesn't work."
He laughed. "I've seen your hammer. That would do it."
"Probably," she replied. Turning to her father who was listening with amusement, she went on, "With any luck this should only take about half an hour for the first one, but I'm sort of making this up as I go so it might take longer. Assuming it works, the rest will be faster. I'll help search them when this one is finished if you want."
"Thank you," he said. "We've checked the next one along already so we know it's clear, but the other three are still being searched. No one is working on the steel-framed one today either."
"OK." Looking up as she felt a spatter of rain, she sighed. "Oh. I was hoping it wasn't going to rain again today."
"It won't last long according to the forecast, should be gone by early afternoon."
The day had been misty and overcast since they'd got up that morning and the bay was mostly obscured under a layer of fog that was gently blowing around in the light breeze, reducing visibility near the shore and over the water to nearly nothing. It was also much colder than it had been for the last few days, a cold front having rolled in overnight. None of this really mattered to her, the temperature was basically irrelevant these days, but it would make life more difficult for everyone else.
She turned her head to look at the first warehouse looming out of the mist as the rain became somewhat harder, all three men pulling up the collars of their coats. Water was now running off her scales and dripping from her armor. "Nice day for it anyway," she commented, making them smile. "I'll get to it, then. Call me if you need anything." Tapping the radio which was attached to her armor belt with a fabric pouch, she lifted a hand as he nodded, then jogged back towards the buildings, to begin wrapping a huge roll of blast-resistant fabric around the lowest floor. The pile of rolls of the stuff she'd made was already half gone, several forklifts transporting it away quickly and efficiently as the union workers swung into action, calls echoing throughout the maze of buildings.
Half-way there a thought struck her, making her snicker, then ask the Varga for a quick favor.
"I can hardly see where I'm going," Vicky mumbled, the mist surrounding them as they headed towards the docks. "Are you sure either of them will be here on a Saturday?"
"Yes, Raptaur mentioned she was going to be spending a lot of the day helping the DWU people demolish some old warehouses on the waterfront," Amy truthfully said. Remembering the unholy light of glee in Taylor's eyes from the previous night, she smiled to herself. Her friend was a responsible person but was clearly looking forward to smashing her way through a load of buildings with the full approval of the city.
"Oh. Weird, that's not something you hear about people actually wanting, Capes tearing the place up," Vicky snorted, amusement in her voice. "If I do something like that everyone shouts at me."
"That's because you do it to perfectly good buildings, Vicky," Amy snickered. "Not old ones that the city wants removed. If you ask nicely maybe they'll let you help."
"Dressed like this?" the blonde laughed. "My tiara would fall off." She shivered a little. "Damn, I should have worn normal clothes, it's fucking freezing up here." A couple of minutes later she sighed heavily. "And now it's raining. Wonderful."
Reaching the area surrounding the DWU facility they dropped lower, seeing that there were a lot of people and bright yellow machines moving around with definite purpose while a large part of the fence had been removed and neatly rolled up out of the way. Dozens of workers in high visibility jackets over their coats were doing something to a pair of warehouses some distance from the yard, while a few more were stationed around the one nearest the facility, which seemed to have the lower ten or fifteen feet enclosed in some sort of fabric. They could hear crashing sounds coming from that direction, occasional drawn-out rumbles being accompanied by clouds of dust that billowed from openings in the old building and quickly spread out, the rain making them fall to the ground fairly fast. All the puddles near the building were slowly turning red and muddy.
"She's probably in there." Amy pointed at the warehouse as they approached from a hundred feet up. "Set us down near those guys next to that building, that's Taylor's dad."
"Is she here too?" Vicky asked as she altered course towards the men who had spotted her, looking up at her while she descended.
"I don't know," Amy lied easily, "She did say last night she had something to do that would take up most of the day. I might go around and see her tonight, though."
Settling to the ground, Vicky let her sister down, then stared in irritation at the way the rain was running off her costume without soaking in at all. "It's waterproof as well. Shit. I wish this was," she mumbled, swiping rain off her dress, then pushing her now very wet hair back over her head.
Amy grinned, feeling slightly sympathetic but, more importantly, warm and dry.
"Want me to ask Raptaur to make you one like this as well?" she asked with a smirk. "She'd probably do it. If only to see Carol's face."
"Mom would go nuts if I came home dressed like that," her sister laughed. "But I'm pissed enough with her to do it anyway."
Both of them laughing, they walked over to the three men, who were all holding large umbrellas. "Hi, Danny," she said.
"Hi, Amy, it's nice to see you. And your sister." He smiled at them both. "We've never met, Glory Girl, but I'm familiar with your work."
She looked pleased.
"We've been asked to repair quite a lot of it over the years," he went on.
She looked less pleased and more embarrassed now. Danny grinned mischievously. "Thanks for the business, it's kept some of my guys in food and power for a while. Here, you look soaked." He handed her his umbrella which she took gratefully, although it was a little pointless by this point.
"Thanks, Mr Hebert," she said.
"Call me Danny. This isn't good weather for a costume like that, I think."
Vicky shrugged, smiling a little in a somewhat forced manner. "It's more suited to warm sunny days I have to admit."
The enormous black man standing next to Danny, dwarfing him, snorted with laughter. "I'll say. Girl, you look freezing. Here, take this." He removed his coat and swung it around her shoulders. "I have to go inside now anyway so I don't need it."
She smiled up at him. "Thanks, Mr…?"
"Zephron. Just call me Zephron." With a smile to her, he handed his umbrella to Danny and added, "I'll be inside if you need me, Boss."
"OK, Zephron," the Hebert man said.
They watched as he sprinted the fifty feet to the nearest door through the puddles, disappearing into the building, then Danny turned to the two girls. "What brings you here, Amy? You look a little upset."
She exchanged a glance with her sister. Diplomatically she replied, "I had a little argument with Mom. Nothing too serious I think. But I wanted to get out for a while and Sis came with me. Do you mind if we watch?"
"Not at all, you're always welcome here. Raptaur is currently ripping the insides of that building to pieces, she should be out in a few minutes." He pointed at the warehouse which was still emitting puffs of dust and crashing sounds. Raising the radio he was holding in his other hand to his mouth he waited for it to stop talking, then pressed the talk key. "Raptaur, Amy Dallon and her sister are here."
The crashing sounds stopped, the echoes dying away across the docks, then a moment later a familiar deep voice replied, "OK, thanks, Danny. I'm nearly done in here anyway. I'll be out in about three or four minutes."
"Alright," he responded, pressing the key again having released it to hear her reply. He put the radio back in his pocket, the device intermittently crackling with other messages from various people around the site.
They waited, Vicky's shivering quickly abating as she warmed up in the enormous coat that was wrapped around her, until a little later the huge reptilian figure of Taylor's alter-ego appeared out of the building trailing a length of metallic cable behind her. Amy stared, then started giggling.
"Is she wearing... a... safety vest?" Vicky asked slowly.
"Yep," Amy nodded, peering at her friend in the distance. Sure enough there was a large, somewhat unusually shaped high visibility jacket over the armored torso of the other girl, writing on the back. She strained her eyes to make out what it said, then laughed louder.
Raptaur
Deconstruction Operative
BB Dock Workers Union
member #1832
… was written on the back of the blindingly orange reflective vest in large black letters. Under that, in somewhat smaller words, was:
BBFO, LLC
"A Family Business"
Proudly associated with
the City of Brockton Bay since 2011
Below those words was a phone number she recognized as Taylor's burner one for that identity.
Danny was making muffled sounds of laughter, the other man beside him was grinning and shaking his head, while Amy was nearly in hysterics. Vicky stared for several seconds, then grinned as well.
"She's utterly insane, isn't she?" the blonde asked the air.
"Oh, definitely, but in a good way," Danny smiled.
"Is she really a member of the DWU?" Amy's sister asked.
"Yep. Card carrying member, fully paid up," he told her with a look of contented pleasure. "So is Saurial."
"What's BBFO, LLC?" Vicky asked curiously.
Amy told her, making her stare again, before snickering. "Oh, god, she doesn't do anything the normal cape way. That's going to make quite a few people wonder what the hell is going on." She thought for a moment, then her grin widened. "I bet Director Piggot will blue-screen when she hears about it."
"Probably," Amy replied, still giggling. They watched as the large figure came closer, several other workers calling out to her as she passed, apparently finding the jacket and the writing something worth mentioning. Amy could tell even fifty yards away that her friend was having fun.
When she reached a safe distance, the cable still paying out behind her, Taylor stopped, then turned around to watch the building. They saw her raise her radio to her mouth. "I'm ready to bring it down," the deep voice said through the one in Danny's pocket, which he pulled again out so they could hear it better.
"OK, stand by," an unfamiliar voice immediately said. There was a set of three sharp blasts from an air horn somewhere nearby, the other side of the warehouse by the sound of it, each blast sounding for a couple of seconds then dying away, the echoes carrying across the entire dock area. A pause of thirty seconds followed with a number of messages on the radio that seemed to suggest people hastily taking cover. Eventually there was another, much longer blast, which went on for ten or fifteen seconds. When it stopped the voice came back.
"We're clear. Go ahead."
"OK. Let's see if this works right." Taylor put her radio away, grabbed the cable with both upper hands, dropped to all fours, turned around, and ran. The cable snapped tight after twenty feet and they heard a distinct twang like a huge guitar string, followed by a massive series of closely spaced crunching sounds. Seconds later the roof of the warehouse shuddered before slowly and gracefully collapsing in on itself, the walls tipping in as well as it went, then folding. The huge rumbling noise went on for much longer than Amy expected, a vast cloud of dust rising and mixing with the mist, then slowly clearing away.
"That worked really well," Danny said with satisfaction when they could see the remains of the structure, which was now a long low pile of bricks, concrete, and cast iron, with a few still intact girders sticking out here and there. "As neat as doing it with explosives but a damn sight quicker and cheaper."
"We can clear all that away pretty quick, Danny," the other man said, nodding and smiling. "Great. If the others go as well as this we'll be ready to resurface by Thursday morning."
"All right then, Kurt. I'll leave the next part with you, I'm going to take these girls into the cafeteria and get some hot chocolate into them." They watched Taylor's lizard-like figure brush a little dust off, clap her hands together for a moment while the cable she had used disappeared, then turn and wander over, smiling.
"That worked perfectly," she said happily, picking a few bits of brick from her head. "Hi, Amy." Now that she was closer, they could see a small badge on her chest that said brightly, 'Hi! My name is:' in small letters, then under that in rather larger text and a different font, 'Raptaur'.
Everyone looked at it, then each other.
"Hi," Amy replied with a grin, shaking her head. Taylor was milking the joke for everything she could squeeze out of it. She could see the amusement in the glowing slit-pupiled eyes. "This is my sister. Glory Girl, or Victoria Dallon."
Vicky was looking up at the shape of Raptaur with a slightly awed expression. "Fucking hell you're huge," she mumbled in amazement.
"Biggest newt ever, right?" Raptaur chuckled. Amy almost fell over at the horribly embarrassed look on her sister's face while Danny grinned widely.
"Shit. She told you."
"Yep. Don't worry, it was more funny than anything." Taylor smiled, deliberately not exposing any teeth, as much as her current face would allow. Vicky relaxed a little, still looking embarrassed.
"I'm sorry, though," she said quietly. "I'd had a bad day and went off on someone for no good reason."
"No harm done, forget it," the large reptile cheerfully replied. "She doesn't care and neither do I." Glancing at her father, she added, "I could do with something to drink, it's really dusty in there."
"Come on inside and we'll find something," Danny told them all, leading the way into the building, his transformed daughter bringing up the rear with Amy and Vicky walking side by side between them.
Her hands around the warm mug, Vicky finally felt mostly dry again, the coat that guy Zephron had loaned her having absorbed most of the rain that had soaked through her costume. February rain was cold. At least it wasn't snowing. She once again regretted not checking the weather forecast a little more carefully before deciding to wear it when they went over to their Aunt's house, but she'd been sufficiently annoyed with their mother she'd just wanted to get out of the place before she said something everyone would regret. Glancing at Amy, who had taken off her helmet and was talking to both Danny and Raptaur, all three of them sharing an easy familiarity that she found pleasing if a little puzzling, she smiled to herself.
Their mother had not handled the whole thing well at all. Not entirely surprising, the blonde girl was well aware of things that had been said over the years, having comforted a crying Amy more than once in that time. She loved Carol Dallon but sometimes she really wanted to scream at her to think more carefully before she said anything. And people said she was too quick off the mark?
The girl snorted quietly. She knew where she got it from in that case.
Looking around the large cafeteria she studied the posters on the walls, the various people eating what was either a late breakfast or an early lunch, most of them looking like they were grabbing a few minutes while they had the time, and the overall décor of the place. It was somewhat industrial and visibly a little run down, but clean and neat even so, looking like what it was, which was a room a lot of people used regularly in an institution that was short of cash but proud of what it stood for.
Almost none of the people coming and going did more than glance at them, most of them nodding respectfully to both Danny and Raptaur, a few of them coming over for a quick conversation then leaving again. One or two of them looked curiously at her, clearly recognizing her which wasn't surprising, but somewhat unusually no one seemed either over-impressed or worried. She was briefly tempted to see what happened if she let her aura flare up, having been practicing suppressing it since her run in with Saurial, but quickly decided that would be a phenomenally bad idea.
Dean had talked to her quite a lot about the problems she had with it, and recent events had made her start to take him more seriously. He seemed both surprised and pleased.
Putting the cup down she reached up and took her tiara off, placing it on the table, then ran her fingers through her matted hair. The rain hadn't helped at all.
"Here," a voice rumbled, making her look to see Raptaur holding out a comb with what looked like a smile on her very non-human features. "I don't have much use for it myself but you obviously could do with it."
Smiling a little, she accepted the thing, running it through her hair and quickly setting it to rights, just straight and not in her normal style. It was still too damp for that. When she'd finished she handed the comb back, watching with some amazement the way it evaporated in the other cape's hand. "Cool. Thanks."
"You're welcome," the big lizard-woman replied in calm tones. "You really aren't dressed for the rain, though."
"I know," she sighed, "I hadn't planned to be out in it."
She shrugged out of the huge coat, placing it on the end of the table. "I'll have to thank Zephron for that, I was freezing."
"He's a decent guy," Raptaur nodded.
"What was on the other end of that cable?" she asked curiously. "The entire place fell down as soon as you pulled it."
"It was wrapped around all the remaining columns and load bearing walls," Raptaur replied. "I cut the rest of them out with a sword and only left enough to stop it all falling over until I was outside."
"Would it hurt you if you made a mistake and were in there when it caved in?" Vicky was sure the cape was tough but she didn't know how tough. Raptaur chuckled.
"No, although it would be a pain digging myself out."
Ah. That tough. She shook her head in respect.
"It sure went quickly when you took out the last walls."
"Gravity does that," Danny said from the other end of the table, smiling. "I was impressed how neatly it fell on the same spot, though. Well done."
"Thanks," Raptaur replied, looking at him. "That was mainly Andy and Jakub. Their plan worked perfectly. I'll use the same method for the rest of them, no sense experimenting when we have a working solution."
"OK." His cellphone rang at that point, causing him to pull it out and look at the display. "Sorry, I need to take this, it's Roy."
They watched as he left the cafeteria. "Who's Roy?" Vicky asked in a low voice.
"Mayor Christner," Amy replied in the same tone. "He's behind a lot of this, there's a big city project that just got voted through. It was mostly Danny's idea but the Mayor backed it and managed to push the vote through the council yesterday. It's going to be announced sometime during the week, but don't go round talking about it until then, OK?"
"OK," she replied, wondering how her sister knew so much about it. Amy grinned, apparently realizing this.
"They let me in on it the other day when I was at the Hebert's house. Danny was talking to Taylor about it and I asked. It's pretty impressive."
"It will make a big difference to the city," Raptaur put in. "Not to mention to the DWU. Most of these people will be in work for years as a result and there's going to be a lot more hiring soon as well. The local economy is going to pick up a lot."
"What about BBFO, LLC?" Vicky asked with a smile. "Is that particular company involved in other things or do you just break buildings?"
"We… have a stake in it, yes," Raptaur snickered. "Quite a big one." She glanced at Amy, who muffled a laugh.
"A huge one, actually," her sister giggled.
Vicky looked at them both suspiciously, which made them look even more amused, exchanging a glance that seemed to convey quite a lot. "You're hiding something, Sis," she said slowly.
"I am. Don't worry, you'll find out on Tuesday. It should be interesting to watch." Amy smirked at her in a particularly infuriating way that showed she had no intention of saying anything else. Vicky sighed after a moment.
"Fine. Be like that."
"I will."
"Great."
They stared at each other for a few seconds, hard, then began laughing.
"Idiot," Vicky giggled, reaching out and knocking her fist gently on the other Dallon sister's head.
"Hey, can you make a costume for Vicky like this?" Amy suddenly asked Raptaur, who looked a little startled as far as the blonde could make out, staring first at the other girl, then Vicky herself. Glowing eyes examined her closely for a moment.
"If she wants, sure, I guess, since it's your sister," the reptile replied after a few seconds.
"She's going to freeze to death out there otherwise," Amy explained with a look at her sister that contained a certain amount of sly humor. "She's more or less invulnerable but not immune to the weather, only impact."
"She did have a sort of drowned rat theme going on," Raptaur grinned. "OK. What color scheme do you want?"
Somewhat taken aback at the suddenness of the offer, Vicky looked at them, then said, "Um… White and Gold, I guess. Like this one." She indicated her dress and cape, then the tiara.
"So, nothing showy, then," Raptaur noted, making Amy grin. "All right. Stand up a moment and turn around. It'll take a couple of tries to get the size exactly right."
Following instructions, Vicky did as requested, then watched as the reptilian woman thought for a moment. She held out her hands, which were abruptly full of costume, gleaming white with gold accents around the joints and waist. On the chest was a detailed golden image of Vicky's tiara, which made the Dallon girl raise her eyebrows and smile. Putting it down on the table she handed over the helmet, which Vicky took with a certain amount of impressed amazement. "Try this on first." Raptaur watched as she pulled the thing over her head having removed the tiara. "How is it?"
"Pretty good, actually," she reported. "Just a little tight."
"OK." Coming around to her side of the table, the cape felt the helmet carefully, then did something. Vicky felt the tightness go away until the helmet fitted perfectly. "How about now?"
"Perfect."
"Good. OK, try the gloves and the boots." The gloves were an ideal fit immediately, the boots needed slight adjustment, but in the end she was satisfied with both.
"These are really comfortable," she smiled.
"Great," Raptaur replied with an air of satisfaction. "Go and try the suit on, then. There's a women's locker room two doors down on the right, turn left out of the cafeteria."
Gathering up the suit Vicky went off to do exactly that. She found that once she'd taken her dress off, leaving her in her shorts and bra, the suit actually fitted almost exactly, only being a little short in the sleeves. Carrying her still damp normal costume she went back to find her sister and the other cape talking quietly together. Both looked up at her as she came in. "It's not bad. The sleeves are too short though."
"OK." The changes were made quickly. "There you go."
Looking down at herself Vicky grinned, then pulled the helmet which she'd left on the table over her head, noticing that it had developed a photo realistic image of her tiara around the top of it while she was gone. It was a little detail that she liked. Holding her arms out to the sides she turned around. "How does it look?"
"Pretty damn good, actually," Amy replied, smiling widely. "We match at least. And you won't freeze or get soaked on the way home."
"Mom is going to shout a lot, you realize," Vicky remarked.
Amy sighed, with a small shrug, while Raptaur looked between them but didn't say anything. "Probably. But right now I don't actually care."
"Neither do I, I guess." Vicky sighed as well. "But I like being nice and warm for the first time in an hour."
Glancing at the large clock over the door to the cafeteria, Raptaur announced, "I need to get back to work, I have four more warehouses to take down in the next few hours. You guys can stay as long as you want but I won't have much time to talk for a while."
"We'll come and watch for a bit," Amy replied after looking at Vicky, who nodded. "It's interesting."
"If you want some exercise, Glory Girl, you can give me a hand," the huge lizard said after apparently considering the idea for a few seconds, giving her an evaluating look. "You're fairly strong, right?"
"I can lift over a ton," she said proudly. Amy snickered while Raptaur reached out and patted the top of her head comfortingly.
"That's nice, but do some honest work and we'll soon have you up to a decent strength level," she smiled. "A ton's not bad to start with, though. You can do the easy stuff while I take care of the heavy lifting."
Laughing, she left the room, Amy watching her go with a wide grin, then turning back to Vicky, who was wondering if she'd been insulted or not.
"How much can she lift?" she wondered out loud.
"She said something like thirty tons or so before it gets awkward," Amy smiled. Vicky gasped.
"Fuck. I don't think I'm going to challenge her to arm-wrestle," she mumbled, stunned. That was incredibly high even for a major Brute.
"Probably best not to," her sister giggled. "Come on." She hopped to her feet and followed her friend, Vicky trailing behind them with her normal costume in a bag that the reptilian woman had given her over her shoulder, wondering what their mother was doing and how she was going to react to seeing the suit her biological daughter now owned.
After a moment, she grinned a little. She thought it would be amusing to see, and a small revenge for the way the older Dallon had treated the youngest one. Only by a month, but even so.
There was no excuse for that sort of behavior to family in her opinion. Amy deserved respect.
Hopefully Aunt Sarah was talking sense into her. Or beating it.