As with chapter 86, this one had embedded music links. I've followed the same procedure here as I did there.
For reference, they are in order as follows (replace : with . to get a URL):
www:youtube:com/watch?v=Ubm2jxAHNh8
www:youtube:com/watch?v=q2lVGgoG3xQ&feature=youtu:be&t=2739
youtu:be/L-KQ2q9h2Rs?t=365
youtu:be/L-KQ2q9h2Rs?t=1528
www:youtube:com/watch?v=XAYhNHhxN0A
www:youtube:com/watch?v=9qvglWAHDak&list=RDP2K7D-uMH2g&index=3
www:youtube:com/watch?v=-bzWSJG93P8
I've bolded and underlined the point in the original where the links were.
Coming out onto the roof, Amy looked around, then headed over to where Lisa and her team were watching Taylor slowly approach from the bay entrance, Brian appearing somewhat shocked still at the size of her. Alec and Lisa were making bad jokes, trying to outdo each other, both of them laughing. They all seemed in a good mood, especially considering what they'd been through so recently.
"Hi, guys," she said with a smile. "It seems to be going well."
Lisa looked up at her, then grinned widely. "Oh, so well. I haven't laughed so hard for months. She's playing it up for all it's worth and the Mayor, Danny, and even Über and his friend are helping! It's fantastic."
Sitting beside them, warm in her costume, Amy nodded, then took her helmet off and ran her hands through her hair for a moment. "Everyone is taking it better than I thought they might. I could almost hear the sound of tens of thousands of jaws dropping from here, though, when she stood up." She smirked. "It's a wonderful noise."
"You're as bad as she is, aren't you," Brian asked, sighing a little but smiling as well. "All of them have horribly weird senses of humor and you fit right in. Are you sure you're not reptilian under that suit?"
"Far as I know," she giggled. "No tail or anything. But I have to admit that since I met them I've been having more fun than I ever have before." Inspecting the three teenagers, she added, "Hopefully you guys will as well. I'm pretty sure that between them, the Family and the DWU can get you all out of any trouble you're in, and I think it will work out pretty well for everyone." She was keeping her voice low so as not to give anything away to the other DWU members scattered around the roof area, all watching with interest the ongoing operation, but looking around for a second she could see that none of them seemed to care anyway.
"I hope so," Brian replied quietly. "I really do. I never wanted to end up doing what we did but I didn't have much choice. None of us did."
"You're safe here, Director Piggot is more or less on our side for the moment, and our underground friend's days are numbered." Amy snickered as Lisa looked pleased. "I bet he's watching the TV and sweating. A lot."
"I really fucking hope so," the blonde said with a vicious smile easily the equal of Taylor at her most worrying.
"I wonder why Über and Leet decided to help out like that?" Alec mused, glancing away from watching the swimming form of Taylor in her Kaiju form. "I'd have sort of expected them to try something stupid instead."
"Neither one of them actually is stupid," Lisa commented. "They're both very smart. But they both have weird senses of humor as well, and low boredom thresholds to boot. I think they can't help it, they want to make spectacular things happen and if they can't do it legitimately they'll do it anyway. Most of their crimes are pretty small scale and seem mainly to be committed to get the Heroes to react, so they can pull off some amazing escape. Like with your sister last month. She played right into Über's hands perfectly." She grinned at Amy, who sighed and nodded.
"Vicky knows that now. She's still pissed about it, but can also see the funny side. Kind of."
"I wonder where they are?" Brian remarked idly. "They must be somewhere they can get a good view of the bay and the downtown area, so up high I guess."
Lisa looked around for a few seconds, appearing to concentrate, then pointed. "That warehouse about a quarter of a mile away, second row in from the shore, see it?" All of them followed her finger. It was a somewhat run-down brick building four stories high. Amy nodded. "That one, almost certainly. On the roof."
"Ah. Interesting." The healer studied the indicated warehouse carefully for a few seconds, and the surrounding buildings. "You're sure?"
"Pretty much." Lisa glanced around. "That's what my… intuition… tell me, anyway," she smirked. Amy grinned at her.
"Fair enough." Standing up she put her helmet back on. "Well, I'd better get back downstairs. On call, you know how it is. I may need to rush off and heal someone at any moment. Hopefully not, but you can never tell." Waving to the trio, she added, "I'll see you guys later. When this is finished I'm going to need something to eat and I hear the cafeteria is doing a really good steak tonight to celebrate."
"Mmm, steak," Alec said in a very good Homer Simpson impression. "Excellent."
"Two different characters there, Alec," Amy giggled, then headed back downstairs.
Brian watched as the New Wave girl walked off, looking confident and happy in her new costume. She vanished into the roof access door. After a moment he went back to watching the slowly growing form of the tanker. "She's going to go and meet Über and Leet, isn't she?"
"Yep," Lisa replied, smiling a little.
"Is that safe?"
"Should be, they're not bad people, or violent. And trust me when I say that Miss Dallon is a damn sight tougher and more dangerous than she looks. She'll be fine."
He turned to look at her. "Dangerous, how?"
Lisa shrugged, frowning slightly now. "I'm still not sure. I've been trying to work it out since I met her the first time. All I can tell you is that healing is only the tip of her abilities, she's much more than she looks physically somehow, and meeting the Family has increased both of those things a hell of a lot. And done massive improvements to her mental state. She was very depressed and close to… well, not suicidal, but more not giving a fuck, before this happened. Now, though, she's having fun and is a lot more stable than the direction she was heading in would have left her."
"I wonder what would have happened in that case?" Alec asked curiously.
"I don't know. But it would have been, at least potentially, very, very bad. Endbringer level bad, possibly." Lisa's voice was sober. Both boys stared at her, then looked after the healer.
"Her?" Alec sounded shocked.
"Her. Don't underestimate her, Alec. Not even a little. She's friendly, pleasant, has a sense of humor far too close to yours for many people to handle, but she's off the scale dangerous if pushed hard enough. Trust me. I'm not sure exactly how yet, but..." Lisa shrugged. "Don't piss her off."
"Shit. Thanks for the advice," he replied in a low voice. "How did we end up surrounded with S-class threats, for fuck's sake?"
"Lucky, maybe?" She grinned as he rolled his eyes. "Hey, look at it like this: They may be S-class threats, or worse, but they like us and are more likely to rain doom on other people. We'll be fine as long as we stick to our promises. It's everyone else who has to watch out."
He grinned back. "I want to see some doom raining. Not enough of that recently."
Brian sighed as they went back to making bad jokes, trying to work out what villain most deserved to have either Kaiju step on them or Panacea do something ill defined but increasingly unlikely to them.
Or both.
With a last look at his daughter, who was slowly nearing the city hall vicinity, taking her time and obviously enjoying herself, Danny turned to look around the helipad. Director Piggot had left fifteen minutes or so earlier, looking pensive and thoughtful, having spoken at length to the Mayor. He hadn't heard what had been said but the woman clearly had a lot on her mind, both before and after.
He wasn't entirely pleased about his part in that. While he found her annoying at best, he didn't actually want to harm her or her people. Only tweak their noses a little. Smiling to himself, he thought that they'd definitely managed to do that if nothing else. On the other hand, their meeting with her had shown him that the woman was a lot more pragmatic and sensible than he'd realized before and it was possible some of his thoughts about her had been slightly unkind. He still didn't trust the PRT as a whole for a slew of reasons but it seemed more than likely that they could work with Director Piggot.
Wondering what the other high level people in that organization were like if you could actually talk to them, he slowly headed over to Roy, who he'd spotted talking to his friend Phil again, both of them seeming very interested in the conversation. The very attractive blonde woman who was Phil's companion was taking notes, writing quickly but by the look of it very carefully.
He smiled at Governor Scott as he passed, the older man nodding politely to him. He'd been quite impressed with the politician, who had asked some very astute questions and actually listened to the answers. It seemed that the man was genuinely competent, something he found pleasing if a little surprising. Arriving at Phil's table, he politely greeted everyone.
"I must say I was very impressed with how smoothly this entire event has gone, Mr Hebert," Phil said, a small smile coming and going. "Very efficient and most amusing. Did you arrange the musical accompaniment?"
"No, that was an… ad-hoc addition," Danny admitted with a wry smile. "I strongly suspect we have a pair of local minor villains with a liking for amusing public performances to thank for that. Luckily they seem to have put some genuine care and thought into it. I think it went a very long way towards defusing the possible over-reaction of the public."
"Ah. Very interesting." Phil nodded slowly. "I am generally not in favor of unplanned additions to a complex operation such as this but this once I feel you may well be correct. Perhaps we should arrange to meet these young men, Roy? I assume you are referring to the ones known as Über and Leet?"
"I am, sir," Danny replied.
Roy looked thoughtful. "It might be worth talking to them if we can work out a suitable way to do it without making it look like City Hall is somehow approving of their more… enthusiastic… shenanigans."
"I can arrange it, Roy," Danny said, making both men look at him, Phil somehow looking mildly approving without really changing his expression and Roy seeming slightly surprised. "We've had dealing with them in the past. The DWU hired them for some security operations, which to be honest they performed very effectively and at a reasonable cost."
"Even more interesting. Your organization, Mr Hebert, intrigues me more than I expected." Phil studied him closely. "I will have to ponder this matter. However, when you do meet these people, you might mention to them that the sound system they used is a very marketable invention. I would suggest that it would be in their interest to contact Dragon with a view towards seeing if her talents would allow it to be reverse-engineered and duplicated. I understand that Mr Leet has a regrettable inability to reproduce his work although his talents as a Tinker are otherwise very impressive."
"I'll make sure to bring it up," Danny smiled. He glanced at his watch again. "I'm afraid I have to leave, gentlemen, I will be needed at the Yard to help with the proceedings around the arrival of the ship. It was very nice to meet you, sir." He bowed a little to Roy's guest, who appeared to appreciate the gesture. "Roy, I'll be in touch soon."
"Thanks, Danny. Thank all your people on behalf of myself and the City, will you? I'll stop by tomorrow to talk, there are some things I want to go over about the plan and various timescales."
"Sure. Call first, I may be anywhere in the dock area, so if you give me a little notice I can make sure I'm in the office when you come."
"OK." Roy smiled at him, holding out his hand, which he shook. "Everything so far has gone spectacularly well. I'm very pleased."
"As am I," he replied, smiling back. Turning after a nod to the blonde woman, who was watching everything with interest, he headed for the elevator and thence the DWU facility, feeling that things were in fact going very well. So far, anyway.
"About fucking time!" The man in the chair growled his irritation as the cloth bag was pulled off his head. Looking around, ready to give his assailants another good swearing-at, he met the eyes of the confused second-shift leader, who was staring at him.
"What the hell is going on, Jason?" the other man asked as he pulled the bags off the other two staff and proceeded to untie them from the chairs, having yanked the cloth from under the rope. "Why were you all tied up and in a bag?"
"I have no fucking idea," Jason snarled. "But when I find out who did it I'm going to kick his ass. Did you see anyone when you came in?"
"Nope. Just you three idiots sitting here like that. Wearing bags." The other man was beginning to grin, making Jason look at him in a surly manner. "How long have you been like that?"
Glancing at the clock on the wall, he snapped, "Nearly an hour. What the hell is going on?"
"Got me. And what's that?" His colleague pointed at a box on the desk in the corner of the room which was tied shut with a shiny blue ribbon in a neat bow, a single sprig of a green plant sitting on top. He got up and walked over, staring at it, then picked up the little bit of greenery.
Sniffing it, he said bemusedly, "Basil?" He stared at his colleague, then his other two shift mates, a man and a woman, who were both looking as confused as he was. "The hell? Why are they leaving us herbs?"
"What's in the box?" someone asked, but he was already looking. Untying the ribbon he cautiously opened the thing, half-expecting something horrible. Inside he found three unopened bottles of very good whiskey, a chocolate cake, and a note.
Jason stared at the contents while the other three came over and peered in when nothing exploded. Reaching in his colleague pulled out one of the bottles, reading the label and whistling. "Wow. This stuff runs about ninety bucks a bottle. Nice."
Opening the note, Jason read it, then sighed. "I'm going to hurt those fuckers if I find them," he muttered grumpily. He handed the note to his friend, who read it out loud, grinning.
"No one expects the A.O.T. Sorry for the inconvenience. Please enjoy these tokens of our esteem."
There was no signature, the paper was entirely generic, and the printing was clearly done with a laser printer, probably the one in the corner. He could vaguely remember hearing it spool up shortly after he and his people were bagged and while they were still shouting.
"A.O.T? Who the hell is that?"
"No fucking idea," he muttered, picking up a bottle to look at it himself. "Bastards jumped us from behind."
As he held the bottle up to the light coming in through the window, which overlooked the bay from about a mile inland, he caught sight of something in the water. Putting the bottle down again he leaned forward and squinted, then reached for a pair of binoculars. Focusing them he stared, open-mouthed.
"Um." He turned to his rescuer. "What the fuck is that?" Waving his hand weakly at the window while staring at the manual over-ride for the Endbringer sirens on the console by the opposite wall he waited for an answer that made sense.
"Oh, that's Kaiju, she's the newest DWU employee or something," his colleague said, following his gaze. "Pretty spectacular. The Mayor introduced her, then she stood up out of the water like something out of a Godzilla movie. Everyone nearly shat themselves, it was like coming face to face with Leviathan in the shower, but she just explained she was there to move the tanker, then said hello to the mayor, before getting to work. It's on TV if you want to see, they keep repeating it."
Jason stared at his compatriot without speaking for some seconds, then looked around at his team, who were all appearing as shocked as he was feeling.
"Didn't you hear the music and them talking?" the other man continued.
"We were yelling pretty loudly earlier," one of the others commented.
"You must have been," he snickered. "I'd have thought practically everyone in the city heard it."
Shaking his head, Jason tore his eyes away from the over-ride switch and sat down in the chair he'd recently been liberated from. "Start at the beginning," he requested. Unscrewing the top of the bottle beside him he took a swig then shuddered a little before putting the top back on. "And find some plates and some forks."
"What should we play next?" Kevin asked, scrolling though his music selection. He'd been amusing himself by putting on every track he could think of on the subject of boats, having played the score from the old movie 'Raise the Titanic' while Kaiju was invisible, followed by one of the better parts of the soundtrack to the movie 'How to train your Dragon'. After that he'd played a couple of tracks from the second 'Pirates of the Caribbean' movie which seemed appropriate because of the track names, which had made him grin to himself. He'd then put on the 'Mission Impossible' theme as the tanker began floating. The cheer that rose from the watching crowd seemed to suggest that people enjoyed it. Following those he'd played a whole series of tracks from various games and movies covering the last hour and decades of creative output.
"Something suitable for a big ship being towed by a sea monster as she goes past. Come on, there must be something, she's nearly in front of the park..."
"I have a suggestion," a voice said from behind him. He nodded absently, then stopped dead, before looking at Randall, who was also frozen. Both of them exchanged a glance, then looked over their shoulders. The teenaged girl in the armored costume smiled at them.
"Hello, guys. I thought I'd drop by and say hi."
"Um. Hello, Panacea," he said nervously. There was something about her smile that made him think it was best to be polite. He quickly looked around to see if her sister was anywhere close by but he could see her floating over the park a mile away where she'd been the whole time, barely visible to the naked eye except as a bright spot in the lowering sunlight. "This is a surprise, meeting you here."
"Isn't it?" she replied brightly. "What are the odds?" She walked over, inspecting them both closely. "Vicky is still a little pissed at you two for that trick you got her with, Über," she added.
"Ah." His partner's voice was thoughtful. "And you?"
"Oh, I thought it was one of the funniest things I'd ever seen, to be honest," she laughed. "Although it was family, so if you do it again I may have to be firm with you both. OK?"
Though her voice was amused, there was a tone to it that suggested to Kevin she was serious. He nodded, as did Randall, neither one really wanting to find out what she meant.
"Fair enough. By the way, everyone is very impressed with your little addition to the event. The sound quality is fantastic and you picked some really good tracks."
Relaxing somewhat as it became clear that bloody vengeance for a family slight wasn't about to happen, he nodded, reaching up to adjust the half-mask he was wearing, like his friend. Other than that they were in street clothes.
"Thanks. I'm very pleased with the results myself."
"I think most people worked out it was you guys, so you're probably going to find out that Danny Hebert and the Mayor both want a word," she suggested. "If you play your cards right you might find out you can make some legitimate cash from this. You've certainly earned good will from a hell of a lot of people, including me. I think you may well have been part of the reason no one panicked."
"I'm just glad that Kaiju got it and played along," he grinned. "That part where she stood up was fucking fantastic, it couldn't have gone better."
Panacea giggled. "Oh, god, yes, that was amazing. Even from the Yard it looked and sounded incredible. I can't wait to see the replay on TV."
"I wonder if she was wearing that little camera?" Randall said slowly, giving her a look.
It was her turn to stop and inspect him with an evaluating expression. After ten seconds or so, she shifted position a little, her hand moving just a small amount closer to her belt, on which was a radio. There was also a pocket next to it with something cylindrical in it, which both young men kept a wary eye on. Her body language had changed to something rather dangerous, not what they expected from the world's most famous healer.
"She said you'd worked it out," the girl remarked after an uncomfortable pause, making them exchange glances again. "What do you intend to do with that information?"
"Nothing," Randall replied. "Or at least, nothing bad. We'd like to meet her and ask her if she'd be interested in some… extracurricular activities, so to speak, but I hadn't worked out the best approach. I have no intention whatsoever of getting on either her bad side or Danny Hebert's. Either of them would make a bad enemy." He studied her in turn. "I feel that I should add you to that category."
"That might be best," she agreed, relaxing imperceptibly. "I sort of like you two, despite myself, but threaten my friends and..." She trailed off meaningfully, shrugging her shoulders a little without moving her hand. "Let's not find out what happens next."
"I can agree to that," he said, looking at Kevin, who nodded without hesitation. He didn't know exactly what the girl was really capable of, which made him very nervous. It was the unknown that got you."
"Great." She relaxed more fully, lifting her empty hand and waving at Leet's laptop. "Do you mind?"
"Help yourself," he replied, also relaxing and feeling that disaster had been averted. She came over and picked it up, quickly locating and downloading a music file with the ease of someone more than familiar with computers.
"Play that one as she goes past."
He looked at her selection, raising an eyebrow. "You sure? It's not really a nautically themed one."
"Trust me. It was Danny Hebert's wife's favorite track from her favorite composer. He'd enjoy it, and so would Kaiju."
Kevin inspected her, shrugged, and transferred the file across to the audio controller, queuing it up. As Kaiju approached the far side of the general City Hall area, he tapped the control to play it. They listened to the opening strains of the piece, Randall nodding slowly. "I like it," he said after a little while. "Not the sort of thing I normally listen to but I can understand why Danny would."
"Thanks for doing that," she smiled. "OK, let's see what else you have on here." Panacea leaned over the tablet, Kevin running through the various tracks from different sources that he'd selected for appropriate moments, looking amused at some of them. Soon they were having a friendly three way argument about the best ones to play.
Stopping at the shoreline near the final resting point that the ship would eventually end its existence in, Danny peered into the distance, watching it grow slowly larger. His immense reptilian daughter was slowly preceding it down the bay, apparently enjoying herself and occasionally waving at people. He grinned, listening to the background music which Leet and his friend had somehow managed to broadcast over the entire shore-front with incredible clarity. It was omnipresent, at a perfect volume, and had made the entire event work even better than he'd hoped for.
About to raise the radio in his hand to his mouth to ask for a status update, he stopped when the sound track changed, immediately recognizing the music with a pang of regret and sadness, but also thanks and amusement. "I don't know how you knew, guys, but thank you," he whispered as he listened, his eyes glistening slightly, until the track ended. It was followed after a pause by the 'Imperial March' from the first 'Star Wars' movie, which nearly made him laugh out loud.
Taking a moment to recover, he shook his head slightly, then keyed up the radio and began checking with the various crews around the place as he headed back to his office.
Taylor smiled gently to herself as she heard the music, just as she and her payload were floating past the City Hall. Raising her head a little she searched the rooftops in the distance, spotting Amy standing next to two seated figures over a mile away, on the roof of the tallest warehouse in the area, one that gave a good view of the bay and the parks. The three of them were looking in her direction. She could, when she concentrated, make out her friend's voice talking to them in the distance.
Amused, and pleased, she decided she definitely needed to meet the pair soon. As the music played, she looked over at the park she was now passing, seeing Lucy, Mandy, and several other people she recognized from school, including Eric and Rich. In fact, as she studied the crowd who lined the shore staring at her and taking photos, she spotted dozens of familiar faces. It looked like most of Arcadia was there. Even a lot of the teachers.
Slightly puzzled but pleased, she waved, making sure to meet Lucy's eyes directly, the girl looking startled but very happy.
The music changed, to something she recognized instantly. Grinning, she thought for a moment, then had a quick discussion with the Varga. A shallower part of the bay was just in front, the water only about hip deep, or a little more than forty feet. The tanker would barely clear the mud, the still gently rising tide carrying it over, but she could walk at that point with a lot of her torso above the surface.
Smirking, she waited for a few seconds, then dropped her rear legs and stood upright. This should be amusing.
Lucy stared at Kaiju, who had looked right at her then waved. She breathed heavily, making Mandy pat her on the shoulder, grinning. "Calm, girl, breath slowly. She looked at you, that's all."
"She looked right at me, Mandy!" Lucy giggled nervously. "I'm sure she waved at me. Me! Why would she do that?"
"Maybe she can tell you're mad on lizards or something?" her friend snickered. Eric, behind her, laughed a little.
"Yeah, Lucy, you radiate lizard-liking or something. That's why Saurial saved you."
"She saved me because she's a good person, and so is Amy. Anyway, technically it was Amy who saved me. Saurial was just watching to make sure she did it right." Lucy took a deep breath, then another. "God. I can't believe how big she is. I wonder if there are any more of them that are even bigger?"
"Bigger than that?" Rich asked incredulously, pointing at the insanely vast reptile floating contentedly past a couple of hundred yards out in the water, looking as if she was enjoying the instrumental music playing at the moment. "I still can't believe how big she is. I don't know if I could handle a larger one."
The music changed, making them all exchange glances, then snicker. A wave of laughter went through the crowd surrounding them as thousands of people listened with amusement.
Kaiju looked around, then seemed to smile. A second later she stopped swimming and stood, the water coming up to the hips of her hind legs, taking a step while taking off her hard hat. It disappeared under the surface of the water, after which she felt around carefully, a look of concentration on her enormous inhuman features, which were oddly expressive even so. Moments later she retrieved about half an acre of black cloth which she shook out in a huge shower of water, then swung across her shoulders with a flamboyant gesture, revealing it to be an immense black cloak which covered her high visibility vest.
While the crowds stared and laughed, she felt around again, coming up this time with the worlds largest Darth Vader helmet, appropriately modified to fit her reptilian skull. She put it on and patted the top in satisfaction.
Everyone stared in amazement as she stepped forward to face them, then scanned the shore slowly and deliberately in a somewhat menacing manner. Holding out her hands she was suddenly holding a sword twice the size of a telephone pole.
The huge creature posed with it, then swung it slowly. The music volume dropped as whoever was behind it went along with the new act.
"Vooomm," she said calmly. "Bzzzt. Whuuumm." Everyone gaped, then almost the entire crowd fell over laughing as a nearly hundred foot tall lizard-like creature re-enacted a light-saber battle complete with sound effects, like a six year old enjoying itself. She kept slowly walking sideways, staying ahead of the tanker, but faced them as she played around.
After thirty seconds, she twirled the sword, before it disappeared. "Luke, I am your father," she rasped in a bass voice so deep that Lucy could feel her bones vibrate. "I know we don't look very much like each other, but I can explain."
Shrieking with laughter Lucy leaned on Mandy, who was giggling furiously. Kaiju lifted the visor of her huge movie prop, peering out from under it, her eyes glowing in the dim interior. "Not buying it?" she asked, grinning. "Sorry. Too many scales for a good Vader."
"She's utterly mad," Rich snickered. "And how the hell does something that size even watch 'Star Wars' in the first place?"
"No idea, but I bet if she wanted to do anything, she only has to ask," Eric gasped out, leaning on a street light, weak with laughter. "Who would say no?"
"Not me," Mandy giggled. "She sure has a weird sense of humor."
Kaiju removed her black cloak as the music stopped, spinning it around her head then tossing it into the air where it simply vanished. Everyone clapped. She bowed, lifting her helmet off and lowering it into the water, only to pull back the hard hat, which she put on again.
About to say something else, she suddenly looked to the south, which made Lucy and the others do the same. A bright streak of blue light shot towards them and stopped dead a few hundred feet from her, resolving into the figure of a man in a costume everyone recognized instantly.
"Oh, shit. What's Legend doing here?" Eric asked in a low voice.
"Hopefully, nothing too sudden," Lucy replied after a moment, watching the scene. Kaiju had stopped moving, the tanker slowly closing the distance to her, as she seemed to be evaluating the new arrival, who was apparently doing the same thing in the other direction.
After twenty seconds or so, Legend floated closer, crossing the boundary of the invisible line denoted by the marker buoys. Kaiju immediately held up a hand.
"Stop right there, please," she said in a firm voice which boomed around the bay.
Everyone stared, waiting to see what happened next, as one of the most famous heroes in the world stopped dead in the air.
Amy squinted at the distant figure, holding position a few hundred feet from Taylor and about her head level. The tanker was slowly drifting closer, only a minute or so from catching up with her. She tapped Leet on the shoulder urgently. "Whatever you were using to pick up the voices from the top of City Hall, can you move it?"
"Yes," he replied a little doubtfully, poking the screen of the device he used to control the audio system. "It's still active, but I turned the feed off when the main show was over, there were a lot of private conversations going on I didn't think it was a good idea to broadcast."
"Get it over to her," she said, pointing at the huge figure in the water. "I want to hear what's going on. Hurry. Put it on her head."
"Won't she notice?"
"Of course. Legend probably will as well, he's got incredibly good eyesight from what I know, but he won't do anything about it except maybe sigh a little."
Leet moved a couple of virtual controls, studying the screen intently. "What I mean is, if something small lands on her, she might swat it."
"That's not a problem." Amy raised her voice, yelling, "Don't break it!" with her hands cupped around her mouth, having removed her helmet a few minutes ago to wipe tears of laughter from her eyes after Taylor's impromptu performance.
"You think she'll hear that nearly a mile away?" Über asked with amazement.
"She can probably hear us talking like this right now," Amy replied. "I just wanted to make sure she got the message. You wouldn't believe how good her senses are."
Taylor glanced in their direction for a moment about then, the sound having reached her, then turned back to Legend, who was still in the same place. A few seconds after that, the audio output from Leet's device came alive. "It's on her head right between her eyes," he reported.
"Great," Amy said, listening intently. "Don't broadcast anything yet."
"All right," he told her, also listening. "But I really don't want Legend after us."
She waved a hand, quieting him.
"...cuse me?" the voice she remembered from several Endbringer battles was in the middle of saying. "Kaiju, I believe?"
They listened to the ensuing conversation with quiet intensity.