Landing outside the entrance to the BBFO office, Vicky waved politely to a couple of dock workers who were watching her, smiling, and was gratified to receive a smile back from each of them that seemed respectful rather than ingratiating. Both the men disappeared into another one of the buildings, from which a lot of hammering noises were coming, along with oddly enough the sounds of a number of dogs barking. She wondered what the hell dogs were doing in there, then shrugged a little. It wasn't really her problem. Knocking on the door, she waited.
Seconds later it opened to reveal Raptaur, who stepped aside. "Hi, Vicky," she said in her deep voice, waving the girl in. "Come in. We're expecting someone else in a bit under an hour so we'll have to be quick, we have to get ready."
"Someone important?" the blonde asked as she waited for the reptilian woman to close the door.
"Kind of. Director Piggot."
"Really?" She was quite surprised. "What's she coming here for? From what I know I sort of got the idea she was avoiding you guys and hoping you'd go away if she did."
Raptaur laughed. "I think that may have been the idea, yes. I have to admit I was thinking that we'd meet eventually but the PRT have definitely been keeping their distance. All good as far as I'm concerned but something came up that means she has to come here." Leading the way to the table, the scaled woman pointed at another teenager, roughly Vicky's age, who was wearing a mask that covered her entire face except for eye, nose, and mouth holes. "This is Tattletale from the Undersiders. Tattletale, Glory Girl. Or Victoria Dallon out of costume like this."
"Undersiders!? Aren't they, you know, villains?" Vicky felt somewhat surprised although not actually shocked, as it seemed like the sort of thing the other cape was likely to do. She clearly didn't put much stock in the whole hero/villain thing.
"Minor ones, and in the past tense," Tattletale said brightly, holding out her hand. "We're sort of retired from that now. We got into a certain amount of difficulty with Lung and the ABB yesterday and decided it was too much trouble to go on with that lifestyle. Raptaur and the DWU are helping us get back into the boring life of being a non-criminal."
She sounded amused and lively, making Vicky grin. Shaking the hand of the other blonde girl, she replied, "Welcome to the light side, then. Or whatever this is. Lung? Is that what all the explosions were about?"
"Yes, it got sort of loud for a while," Tattletale sighed. "He wasn't in a good mood."
"He never is," Vicky noted. "Or at least, if he is, no one else is having a good time. What the hell did you do to him?"
"Stole nearly a million dollars from his safe house," the girl said calmly.
"Holy fuck! How are you still alive?"
"A lot of luck, and our scaly friend here. She persuaded Lung to go away and leave us all alone."
"How the hell did you manage that?" Vicky asked in shock, turning to the huge reptile, who was listening with clear amusement.
"I arranged to have a relative talk to him," she said with a slight laugh. "He took the talk seriously and agreed to go away, so she agreed to let him live."
Vicky gaped a little.
"She's a bit bigger than I am," Raptaur added.
Tattletale snickered. "Just a little, yes."
"You'll meet her tomorrow, I expect," the lizard-like cape went on. "She's key to the entire event."
"The great event that no one will tell me about," Vicky sighed. "Taylor knows and won't say anything, my own sister knows and won't say anything… It's getting annoying."
"They both know how to keep a secret. It's a good habit to learn." Raptaur looked at her for a moment. "For instance, we'd prefer it if you not tell anyone about what we've just told you for the moment."
"I can do that," Vicky remarked.
"Great. OK, tomorrow, then. BBFO and the DWU are going to be working all day on a major project in the bay, like it said in the paper yesterday. I and my sisters will be out in the water most of the time, so you won't see us, and we won't be able to quickly intervene if anything goes peculiar. For various reasons, we, the DWU, and the city would prefer to keep the PRT at arm's length for now, although obviously if the shit really does hit the fan they're going to get involved anyway. We were wondering if New Wave would like to help out? Basically, be on standby for any trouble. We'll provide radios, you guys would get public credit for helping the city, and we'll even pay you for it."
"Pay?"
"Sure! Why not? If you do a job, you deserved to be recognized for it, and get paid. I know it's pretty uncommon in Parahuman circles because of all the annoying laws that get in the way, but we found a way around that. We can subcontract security services to New Wave completely legally. In turn, we're subcontracting to the city. We're not charging for the operation itself, it's a good will thing, but it's completely reasonable to expense certain things, you guys being one of those things. The Mayor is fine with it."
Vicky stared, feeling somewhat taken aback about the rapidity of the offer and the sheer enthusiasm of it. After a moment, she asked slowly, "How much?"
"A retainer of two and a half thousand dollars each for however many people you agree to supply, regardless of whether you are needed or not, and the same again as combat pay if you are required," Raptaur promptly replied. "In addition, we'll provide armored costumes like the ones I made for you and Amy, to your specifications and measurements, for everyone, which you can keep. I know you're basically bulletproof but your mother isn't, for example, unless she's ready for it. Our work is tough enough to take a major hit, nothing as simple as any normal firearm is going to penetrate it."
"Shit. You're serious."
"Yep. Interested?"
"I am, definitely, it sounds like fun. Aunt Sarah probably would be, I know Crystal would as well, Eric probably would be too..." She trailed off, thinking. "I can't speak for them, obviously, I'll have to talk to them."
"Fine, that's no problem. Ideally if you could let Danny know tonight sometime we can build it into the plan. To be honest we probably won't need you, that's what we're hoping, but it's one of those better to have you and not use you, than need you and not have you things." Raptaur shrugged. "This is Brockton Bay. Shit happens."
"That it does," Vicky sighed. "OK, I'll go home and ask everyone. Mom will probably want to talk to Mr Hebert about it, I think. No offense, but she's not sure about you. Or your sister."
"Fair enough." Raptaur looked satisfied. "That's all I can ask. Whatever happens, tomorrow should be interesting."
"And you're not going to say any more about it, are you?"
"No, I'm not," she grinned. "But if you're here tomorrow morning, you'll find out then."
Giving the reptile who she thought was probably a friend a hard look, Vicky said, "That's bribery."
"Yes. Did it work?"
Tattletale laughed. Giggling, Vicky shrugged. "I'll see what I can do."
"Great. Sorry to rush you, but Director Piggot should be here fairly soon and it's probably best if you're not, just to avoid confusing the issue any more than it already is."
"OK. I know what she's like. Good luck." Raptaur let her out, the door closing behind her. Taking to the air she headed rapidly home, trying to work out the best way to start off the conversation, which was probably going to get a little odd. Her mother had some fairly fixed ideas about how New Wave worked and this whole offer was probably violating some Carol Dallon propriety thing or other. Sighing a little, she started marshaling her arguments, then diverted her course a little. Aunt Sarah would listen more sensibly and could possibly help convince her sister.
Taylor closed the door, then considered Lisa, who took off her mask. "That was pretty funny," the girl said, smiling. "Her expression was very odd. I wonder if anyone has ever offered to pay New Wave before?"
"Probably not, the laws are really complicated," Taylor replied. "Luckily, the DWU has some very good legal people who worked out all the loopholes, or we couldn't do all this." She waved her hands around at the inside of the building.
Moving over to the table she crouched down beside Lisa, her head on the same level. "We've got half an hour. We should talk."
"We should. Taylor."
"Indeed. Lisa." She grinned, resuming her base form. The blonde looked startled even though she knew the truth.
"Wow. That's impressive. What limits do you have?"
"Well, there's an upper limit on size. It's quite large, though." Taylor grinned at the girl, who looked thoughtfully at her.
"Kaiju was fucking huge. But my power told me that wasn't the upper limit. You were what, about ninety to a hundred feet tall then?"
"About that, yes."
"How much bigger?"
"A bit."
"Fifty percent more?"
Taylor smiled smugly. Lisa's own smile faltered. "Crap. Bigger than that. Twice as large?"
One smile grew while another one shrank. "Two and a half times…?"
Lisa's voice was getting a little faint and she looked very worried. Taylor made a motion upwards.
"Oh, Christ. Three times as big?" The girl was as white as a sheet. Taylor finally relented.
"The upper limit, as far as I know, is pretty close to four hundred feet tall. A lot bulkier as well, Dad and I estimated about twenty-five, maybe thirty thousand tons, possibly more. It's difficult to be sure to be honest."
Taylor smiled widely, then sighed. "Oh, for god's sake." Reaching out she picked Lisa's comatose body from the floor and put it back in the chair, then gently slapped her cheeks. "Come on, girl, Amy didn't faint. I thought you were tougher than that."
The blonde girl mumbled something, then jolted awake. "What! Where!" She sat up, then stared at Taylor, who gave her a sort of smug grin. "Fuck. It wasn't a dream."
"No. Do you always faint like that when you find out something unusual?"
She received a glare in response. "I'm sorry if me being a little surprised by meeting a girl who can squish Endbringers by stepping on them shocks you, but it's not exactly normal, you know."
Shrugged a little, Taylor said, "It is to me."
"You're weird. I just didn't know how weird. What else can you do?" Lisa seemed to have recovered although she was still somewhat pale.
"Well, I can do this," Taylor said, licking her own ear with a long forked tongue. Lisa jolted back, staring in horror.
"Please don't," she said in a small voice. "That's just wrong."
Sitting down on one of the chairs, Taylor relented in her teasing of the girl, although she was enjoying it and the Varga was in fits of laughter. "Sorry. Sometimes I get carried away."
"So what actually are the limitations of your Changer ability?" Lisa asked after some seconds. "Do you even have any?"
"Oh, sure, but it's pretty flexible. I can do more or less anything reptilian, or reptilian-ish, I should say, because I'm not actually a reptile despite appearances." She smiled widely, her mouth going half-way around her head, full of needle-like teeth. "I'm a demon."
Moaning, Lisa closed her eyes tightly. "Oh, god, please stop doing things like that. It's horri… Hey, what do you mean, demon? There's no such thing." Her eyes popped open again as she looked abruptly curious.
"Bet you there is," Taylor laughed. "It's a long story, and we don't have time for it right now, but I'll fill you in later. Trust me when I say I know what I'm talking about. Amy can back me up. According to her I'm not a Parahuman."
"What?"
"No Corona Pollentia or Gemma," she smiled, tapping her head. "Not a Parahuman. I'm something different."
She leaned forward, fixing the blonde with glowing, slit-pupilled eyes, her mouth full of teeth again. "I'm Taylor Hebert, half-demon infinitely variable dinosaur, and if you betray me or my family, there's nowhere on this world you can go that I can't find you," she hissed, her voice taking on a totally inhuman tone. She was quite proud of that, she'd practiced in front of the mirror for over an hour.
"For fuck's sake," she sighed, rolling her eyes as the blonde slipped quietly to the floor again. "Am I really that scary?"
"Apparently, Brain. You may have overdone it somewhat."
"I was just trying to make the point that I'm trusting her with a lot and I would be very annoyed if she did anything bad with the information."
"I believe that she may have got the idea." The Varga was barely able to speak through his laughter, but his voice sounded approving. "That was very well done. I'd have had trouble bettering it myself."
"Thanks," she grinned as she picked Lisa up and put her back in her chair, then began patiently trying to wake her again. "I need to fit this with a seat belt if she's going to keep doing that, it's getting tedious."
When Lisa finally woke up this time she jumped to her feet and retreated, pale and sweating.
"IpromiseI'llneverbetrayyouoryourfamilypleasedon'teatmeI'llbegood," she babbled.
"Calm down, Lisa, I'm not going to eat you," Taylor sighed, not making any sudden moves. "Sit down. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you quite that much, only make you believe I'm serious."
"Oh, Jesus, I believe you, trust me," the other girl said after a long wide-eyed pause. She very slowly approached, pulling the chair out of reach, then sitting down carefully, poised to jump out of it. Taylor rolled her eyes.
"Look, I may have been a little excessive. Sorry. Let's start again. Hi, I'm Taylor Hebert. Please don't do anything that would cause harm to my father or my friends, I wouldn't like it," she said mildly, holding out her hand. Lisa stared at it for some time, then slowly reached out and shook it.
"I won't," she replied.
"Great. Hopefully, you're going to be one of those friends. Wow, you weren't this jumpy when I was Raptaur, except maybe that first time."
"Hey, you scared the shit out of us, chasing us like that," Lisa snapped, suddenly looking more annoyed than terrified.
"Sorry." Taylor grinned. "Sort of. It was kind of funny, looking back on it. But I was kind of confused at the time."
"Funny for you maybe," the blonde grumped, folding her arms and glaring. "None of us could sleep for nearly two days."
Giggling, Taylor shook her head with amusement. Eventually, Lisa started smiling, then laughed as well. "God damn it, why can't I stay annoyed with you?"
"I'm just a nice person, maybe?"
"You're the strangest person I've ever met and that's saying something." Lisa sighed gently. "OK, OK, it's kind of funny. In thirty or forty years I'll probably laugh about it as well. Now can we work out what we're going to tell Piggot?"
"Sure."
"I have some ideas about dear Mr Calvert and his operation I want to try, which your Dad is also interested in. It should work. But we can tell the Director everything else, I think." She explained the plan she'd worked out, making Taylor and the Varga both look at her with respect and laugh.
"Oh, god, he'll want to shoot himself if that works."
"I wish the bastard would, it would save us all a lot of trouble." Lisa sounded annoyed. "You wouldn't believe how much I hate that shit."
"I think I do, actually, I can see how angry you are. Don't worry, one way or the other he's not going to get away." Taylor smiled slowly. "We'll make sure of that..."
"Now I'm almost starting to feel sorry for the poor bastard," Lisa sighed, staring at her. "Stop making me feel like that."
"Sorry."
Sharing a grin, they began discussing specifics.
"OK, Hannah, we've got about fifteen minutes before we get to the DWU and the car is clean. Talk to me. What did you work out from meeting Raptaur? Changer or Biotinker construct?"
Emily looked at the woman driving the PRT urban assault vehicle they'd checked out from the main motor pool, having very carefully and discreetly swept it for bugs once they were a mile away from any observers.
Hannah was silent for a moment. Eventually, she sighed. "I'm still not sure. Changer is maybe possible, but… there are just too many things that don't fit. That cape is absolutely shit-your-pants terrifying even when she's trying to be friendly. There's something about her which is just… not human. At all. I can't explain it any better than that. It's like… I don't know, like something read about being human but hasn't quite understood the instructions, even though it's willing to give it a shot." She shrugged, glancing away from the road for a moment to meet Emily's eyes.
"I think she's basically friendly, in her own way, but I also think that it would be a huge mistake to assume she'd react the same way a normal person, or even a normal cape, would do to any specific scenario. She might well do something unexpected. I am certain that her reaction to a definite threat to someone she valued for whatever reason would be met with immediate lethal force with no hesitation at all. And I doubt very much that there would be much way to stop her short of the Triumvirate. She's that dangerous. Our threat ratings are way too low."
"Fuck. Are you sure?"
"Sure enough not to want to try pulling a weapon around her again. I think I got very lucky last night. I'm certain that she considers Panacea one of those she would protect without limit, looking back on the little hints, and I think if I'd actually pointed my gun at her, or in a way that could be considered threatening… Well, she actually acted with considerable restraint in those terms. We were warned, by Saurial, weeks ago what she'd do under such circumstances, and I doubt that Raptaur would do less."
"You're beginning to make me reconsider this meeting, Hannah."
"Oh, don't get me wrong, Ma'am. She's not on a hair trigger, or unstable. I'm sure of that as well. But she has a hard line in the sand and if you cross it, that's it. No more warnings, no second chances. You probably wouldn't even see it coming. The humor stops and the killing machine starts, instantly." Hannah shuddered. "Luckily, I think that threshold is very high, all things considered, except in very specific, clearly defined places. We were told what they were at the first encounter. DO NOT threaten her people and everyone gets along fine. She'd go out of her way to help someone in trouble, I suspect, even with what amounts to a declaration of neutrality from The Family. She's not interested in starting fights as far as I can tell, but by god she'd finish them."
Emily considered the words carefully. It matched what she'd picked up from the reports of other encounters. Both Saurial and Raptaur were extremely dangerous, but they were also apparently non-aggressive to a fairly silly level, unless certain conditions were exceeded.
"How is it that she's now considering Panacea one of her own to that level?" she asked.
"I don't know. Neither do her mother or aunt. She seems to have become a friend of both of them, and a confidante, I think. It goes both ways. Panacea is by all reports much happier recently and more confident. I'm taking that as a good sign. Gallant said that he was concerned about her mental state over the last few months although he refuses to go into details as to why, but it has rapidly improved since she met both Saurial and Raptaur." She hesitated for a moment. "And Taylor Hebert, who has apparently also become a firm friend."
Emily stared, then closed her eyes for a moment. "Oh, Christ. Another fucking Hebert. I was really hoping that we'd heard the last of that girl. Do you think she's told Panacea what happened with Sophia?"
"I have no idea. To the best of my knowledge both Danny and Taylor Hebert have stuck to the agreement that Winslow came to with them and not spread the story any further. I'm sure we'd have heard about it by now if they had. She may have told Panacea, I suppose, the girl is renowned for keeping her mouth shut and I don't think she'd pass it on if she knew, but by the same token we're unlikely to find out."
"Damn it. That whole event is going to come back to haunt us, I can feel it." Emily sighed heavily. "So, we're still working on there being an experienced Biotinker out there who seems stuck on 'terrifying reptile person', and is probably part of an organized group of capes we've never heard of and can't trace, even though they know way more about us than we do about them." A sudden horrible thought hit her. "Oh, hell, could Coil be involved in that too? It would explain all the inside knowledge pretty well."
"I don't think he is," Hannah replied. "If it was, for a start, why would they be handing him over to us like this? Plus the information we have on him, as sketchy as it is, doesn't even hint at any Biotinkers, Tinkers, or anything like that. Based on Tattletale's testimony he's actively looking to recruit other capes but she didn't think he had much more than the Undersiders yet."
"So there's yet another shadowy group out there somehow getting information from inside both the PRT and the Guild. Wonderful. I just hope it's in someone else's jurisdiction, I'm going to get enough shit from the Chief Director already about this. I won't be able to avoid having a very uncomfortable talk with her soon. Hopefully I can at least give her Coil and his people."
Emily shook her head in disgust. "I have to wonder what the next little surprise this fucking city will spring on us. And what the hell Roy is going to show off tomorrow. It could be almost anything if the Family are involved. And now the DWU seems to have acquired an entire cape team of its own, not including an unknown number of lizards. Just when I thought things had settled down a little."
They fell silent for the rest of the trip, still no closer to a true answer but with even more questions left unanswered.
Eventually arriving at the gate to the DWU facility, the guards looked them over, peered into the back of the vehicle with a flashlight and under it as well, in a display that made her just a little worried about the obvious competence they exhibited, then waved them through. "Please park in the usual spot near the Admin building, Miss Militia, Mr Hebert will be waiting for you and the Director," one of the guards said while the other one was talking into his radio. She nodded and moved off.
"Are they always this security conscious?" Emily asked, glancing back at the barrier as it lowered.
"Apparently. It's quite impressive."
"And a little odd for a decaying institution in a decaying city," she muttered, turning back to the front.
Arriving at the admin building thirty seconds later, Hannah parked the vehicle and turned off the ignition. They got out into the chill evening, locking the doors, then walked over to the tall thin balding man who was waiting for them in a pool of light outside the main entrance, watching with a calm expression. He held out his hand.
"An honor to finally meet you, Director Piggot."
She slightly reluctantly shook it. "I've heard a lot about you, Mr Hebert. And your Union. It seems to be coming to my attention more and more these days."
Rather than be either intimidated or upset, he just smiled. "I'm sorry if we caused you any trouble. However, hopefully we can make up for it with some useful information. Come with me, please."
He turned and walked off, around the building, and after a moment she fell into step beside him, Hannah bringing up the rear. When, after a fairly short walk, they turned into the side yard that had the BBFO sign up over the entrance, illuminated by the lights around the area, she stared up at it for several seconds, studying it carefully. Danny knocked on the door, which opened shortly after, and stepped through. Miss Militia followed him, then Emily, with a deep breath, went in as well.
The masked girl who had opened the door closed it again, before nodding to Danny without saying anything, inspecting Emily closely for ten seconds or so, nodding again, and walking over to the large table to one side of the big room. Danny joined her.
Emily looked around, her eyes passing over the posters on the wall, stopping on each one, then fixing on the immense reptilian figure who came out from behind the metallic block with a door in it and steps up to the top on the other side of the single large room. An atavistic thrill of terror went through her and she had to call on all her military discipline to not reach for her sidearm. The creature was much more imposing in real life, thirty feet away.
Raptaur smiled at her, her head cocked a little to the side. "Hello, Director Piggot. I've been wondering when we would meet. We have some interesting news for you."
Feeling slight dread on top of worry and a fear she couldn't entirely put down, even though everything seemed friendly, Emily stared for a moment, then when the huge lizard motioned politely, moved to sit in the indicated chair. She was somewhat regretting the entire idea once again.