"A Biotinker."

"That's our current most likely thought."

Paul looked at Emily Piggot for a long few seconds, considering the idea. It wasn't actually impossible, worryingly enough. Glancing at Hannah he saw that she seemed to believe what the other woman had explained, although in both cases they didn't seem completely convinced even after telling him all their evidence, working theories, and conclusions. That was good in his opinion as it seemed to suggest that they had open minds on the subject.

He was well aware of Director Piggot's bias towards Parahumans, especially Biotinkers, and knew that it was shared by quite a number of people in the organization. Not as openly as in her case, but there were good reasons for that. Nilbog had terrified a lot of people and still did.

Both their top two theories held water, the Biotinker one far more than the Changer one in his opinion. While Saurial could easily be explained by it, and Raptaur fairly easily, Kaiju seemed a huge stretch and Umihebi was just silly. One of the most powerful Changers known was Lung, who took a considerable amount of time and stress to become even as big, or at least as massive, as Raptaur. While there was no known true limit to his growth, he slowed down steadily as he grew and changed and even at the largest size on record was only perhaps as large as Leviathan at best. Which was much smaller than Kaiju. If she was a Changer she was far past anything on record by a very long way.

Thinking it over, he shook his head slightly. He thought it very unlikely in the extreme, although like both women obviously did, he'd prefer it to their other theory.

And much prefer it to his own private one.

They, of course, had no knowledge that true aliens existed, although he suspected that at this point in their respective careers they wouldn't take too much convincing. Unfortunately he couldn't give them the evidence that would be required for this, it was too sensitive.

And there was always the distinct possibility that they were right. Which was… less than entirely pleasing. Biotinkers had a poor reputation and far too many possible dangers, especially if they weren't idiots like Blasto. If it was indeed a Biotinker, he or she was definitely smart, cautious, and skilled, and probably one of an entire team of Parahumans. Which worried him the most since they had no idea who else was involved, where they were based, or most importantly of all, what they intended.

He could understand perfectly why Piggot had been very reluctant to bring this to the attention of her superiors until she had more information. He'd have done exactly the same thing.

"It's an interesting theory," he said, after the silence had dragged on a little too long.

"It's a damn worrying one," Emily sighed.

Nodding, he leaned back in his chair in the small conference room they'd ended up in, which Hannah had very carefully and thoroughly swept for bugs having disconnected the security system and locked the door. "I agree, and I have to admit I can't find any serious holes in your logic. There's no direct evidence but considerable circumstantial grounds for believing you're on a path that leads somewhere interesting. And you have no idea who it might be?"

"None, having rejected everyone we thought of who it might be because of problems with the timeline, lack of any evidence whatsoever, and lack of any place to actually do the work." Emily shrugged. "While it was Saurial and Raptaur it could have been in any warehouse or almost any other building in the city. Umihebi blew that idea away. She reduced it to only a few large buildings in the Docks near the water as being the only ones big enough, remote enough, and private enough to allow something her size to be constructed without half the city finding out. And even there it's a stretch."

"Kaiju is even worse, she's not as large in absolute terms but she's a lot taller." Hannah looked very puzzled and a little lost. "I was looking into warehouses around the DWU compound as possibilities for a secret base, but her turning up makes that unlikely, I think. I didn't find anything anyway. No unusual power drains, buildings that were abandoned that suddenly weren't, strange noises, that sort of thing. The usual signs. I checked with every contact I have in the area and they all came up dry."

"I see," he commented, leaning forward again and folding his arms on the table. "Very odd."

"We suspect that there is some connection with the Dock Worker's Union, which would explain the way that Raptaur and the others all seem to hold them in high regard," Emily said.

"That could just be out of mutual respect, you realize," he commented mildly. "From what I understand, the DWU has treated them well and politely and they reciprocate."

"Yes," she agreed unhappily. "That may be the case. But from practically the beginning with Saurial, that Hebert man has been somewhere in the background in one way or another. We considered the possibility that he might actually be the Biotinker, there are two good candidates for Trigger events in his past that we're aware of, but one of them is too long ago to be likely and one is too recent." She exchanged a glance with Hannah, who looked troubled. "Overall we feel it's pretty unlikely. If he did Trigger, it was years ago as a Parahuman with the ability to talk forever without losing his temper and an inhuman amount of patience."

"Although from background research those seem to have been defining traits of his throughout his career," Hannah added quietly. "He's in the position he's in for good reasons, from what I know."

Paul smiled a little. "I should meet this man, he sounds interesting. What were the events?"

"One was the death of his wife some years ago, which by all accounts caused him to sink into what was probably depression, although that seems to have been resolved over the last couple of months or so," the Director told him. She glanced at Hannah for a moment. "The other one was about seven weeks ago and involved his daughter. Serious trouble at school."

Studying them both, Paul thought for a few seconds. "What sort of trouble?" he asked slowly. They seemed reluctant to answer, but eventually Emily sighed heavily.

"The sort that if it got into the public domain it would cause a very severe problem for the PRT as a whole and the ENE branch specifically," she said heavily. Looking at him, she seemed a little confused. "Although I'm slightly surprised you don't know about it, I filed a report with the Chief Director more than two weeks ago."

He smiled a little sadly. "She doesn't tell me everything, Emily, believe me. I haven't heard about this. How does it involve the PRT?"

Scowling, she filled him in on the events of early January and everything that had led to that point, concerning Shadow Stalker and her friends and their campaign against the daughter of Danny Hebert, who seemed to have turned the entire situation around on them rather elegantly.

He frowned under his mask. "That is… very bad."

"You're not wrong there. We got incredibly lucky that the Heberts apparently decided to drop it after they got the payout from the school." Emily shook her head in disgust. "We're still investigating the entire thing, but Agent Hamilton is going to lose either her job or her freedom in the next month, while I can't yet say what will happen to Shadow Stalker. I'd like to stick her in juvie until she was old enough to go to jail properly, the little snot is one of the nastiest people I've ever had the displeasure of working with, Parahuman or not. But so far we can't quite make that leap, bearing in mind that the Chief Director feels that she's potentially too useful to lose. I can't see it myself. She's a loose cannon at best. Based on what I saw and heard, I'd trust her about as far as I could spit a rat."

Paul sighed faintly. "It doesn't sound good, I have to admit. I should probably look into it myself once we get the more important things out of the way. She's certainly not acted in a manner becoming a Ward, or for that matter a decent human being."

"The girl has serious issues with authority and a very predatory mindset," Hannah put in. "To her, you're either a tool she can use, an enemy you can beat, or an enemy you can't. There don't seem to be many other categories. As far as I could determine her only real friend was the Barnes girl, who is now under psychiatric care and pretty much house arrest. She was lucky not to end up having to account for her actions in a court, but again it looks like the Heberts decided it wasn't worth it in the end. And of course her father was Danny Hebert's best friend in college."

Wincing, Paul shook his head in disgust. "God, that must have made it worse."

"I'd expect so. But for whatever reason he has, Danny Hebert has let it go, and his daughter seems to be forging a new life at her new school with enviable ease. She's met all the Wards by now, although she doesn't know it, and they all think she's a very smart and nice girl. She's also apparently a good friend of Panacea's now and becoming a friend of Glory Girl, not to mention most of her class." Emily smiled for a moment. "I'm just glad that in the end it worked out for the poor kid. The shit one of our own people put her through was… well, if it had been me, Shadow Stalker would have ended up in a much worse place very quickly."

She smirked for a second or two. "I'm not a tolerant person in some ways despite my otherwise winning personality."

Studying her, Paul glanced at Hannah, who looked momentarily amused. "So I gather, Emily," he replied dryly. The smirk widened for a moment then vanished.

"But the problem is a real one. I have no doubt at all that the Hebert man retained copies of what would be an incredibly damaging recording. No matter what we do we can never guarantee that he's deleted it, and to be honest, in his place I would never do that just in case it was needed one day. He's not a man to push too hard if family is involved. That's been made clear to us from several sources. He never fucking gives up."

"Admirable, but awkward under the circumstances," Paul noted. She nodded with an angry jerk of her head. "I suspect that may well be why he gets along so well with the Family, they share some philosophical viewpoints. So, anyway, it most likely isn't him, I agree. An employee of the DWU, perhaps?"

"That's what we think, yes. But who, we have no idea. There's hundreds of them, they stick together, they don't talk about things they consider private business, and in any case we have no evidence of illegal activities in the first place. Not even any real evidence that Raptaur and her sisters are constructs, which of course, there is a possibility they aren't."

Emily shook her head in annoyance. "It's very irritating. The only bright spot is that from everything I've seen I'm forced to agree that on balance they're good for the city as a whole. Crime is down a very significant amount in under a month and a half, all the major gangs are keeping their heads down in a way I've never seen before, and one minor but very annoying one has basically been shut down without a fight. I can live with that as long as nothing worse comes along to fill the gaps."

"Hopefully that won't happen. All right, thank you for filling me in on this. I think we should probably bring Colin and Dragon in on it as they may well have insights we don't, but I'm prepared to let you do that. For the moment we have more important things to do. You'll need to let the Chief Director know soon, though."

"I know," she grumbled. "I was really hoping to have more to tell her than 'I don't know what the fuck is going on but it's scaly and snickers a lot' though. Never mind this entire damn Coil problem."

Laughing, he stood up. "She'll understand, I think. Rebecca is a reasonable woman and very smart. Let's get this report work done to head off those who are neither before someone jumps in and annoys something that could walk off with the Rig under it's arm, shall we?"

"Fucking Tagg," she muttered, very faintly. Despite himself he nodded a little.

"That's one of them, definitely," he sighed, as they left the room after Hannah had reconnected the camera.

Humming to herself, Taylor towed the tanker into position, finally reaching the end of her journey. The tide was on the way out at full speed now, although thanks to her work at the docks over the weekend, now even at low tide there was ample room for the ship. Stopping when it crunched against the crumbling concrete of the old dock, she quickly generated a couple of long spikes she rammed hard into the mud and rock of the seabed, then attached the harness cables to so they'd temporarily hold the thing in position.

Standing up, she stretched, then waded back down the length of the ship while several dozen dockworkers watched and clapped. Waving, she smiled, calling a greeting, then when she reached the stern of the vessel she attached one end of a thick steel cable to the most convenient point and generated a couple of hundred yards in a coil over her arm. Motioning to the shore crew to stand aside, she waited until they were clear, then tossed the coil onto the shore, where it was immediately set upon as they started winding in onto one of the refurbished winches on the dock.

Returning to the other end she did the same thing there. Shortly the ship was firmly moored to the shore and in no danger of getting away. Satisfied, she went back down the tanker removing the Vargastuff from it, revealing the rusty metal under the coating, but leaving the holes in the hull patched to prevent the polluted water inside getting away. With the floats gone, the shore crews were able to drag the ship another fifty or sixty feet closer with the winches, until a normal man could just about take a running jump from the dock to the deck. She removed the tow cables as well as dissipating her harness.

Another ten minutes work and she'd made a long wall down the length of the ship and deep into the mud, the top being well above normal high water level. She closed both ends, the shore and docks forming the last side of the temporary dry dock, although she left holes in the bottom of the wall to allow the water to drain as the tide went out. If she'd got the measurements right, by low tide the tanker would be resting on the bottom, at which point she could plug the holes and they could begin pumping. By the end of tomorrow the dry dock would be empty of anything but ship and mud and the work on decontaminating it could begin.

Stepping back, she looked over her work and nodded, pleased. 'I think that's it,' she commented to her companion.

"So it would seem, Brain," he agreed, sounding pleased. "A good day's work, an amusing introduction to the public, and a lot of fun overall."

'I sure enjoyed it,' she laughed. 'By the end everyone else seemed to as well, although there were some very odd expressions on the shore.'

"A certain amount of confusion and exposure to the unusual is probably good for the character," he replied calmly, making her laugh again.

Moving to the shore where no one was standing, she climbed out onto the concrete, careful not to step too hard in case she cracked it. Her feet in this form were large enough that if she moved slowly they spread the load enough not to leave permanent marks, but even so she avoided the areas where vehicles would need to go. Making a mental note to see about reinforcing the entire dock area properly at some point in the very near future, she lowered herself to the ground and laid her head and neck down on the concrete, in a position where she could see everyone. Her tail was still half-submerged in the bay behind her.

Her father, who with several other people including Zephron, who was looking impressed and pleased, Kurt, who was looking impressed and horrified, and Amy, who was grinning like an idiot, walked over to stand a few feet from her head. Vicky floated over as well, staying a respectful distance back and watching with wide eyes. On the roof of the main building she could see Lisa and her friends watching as well, along with a lot of other DWU people.

"I think that's that, Mr Hebert," she rumbled in a quiet voice, smiling slightly. "One wrecked tanker, delivered on time and in the correct position. Thanks for letting me help, it's been a lot of fun."

"Thank you, Kaiju," he replied with an easy smile. Beside him, Amy was clearly trying not to giggle. "Without your help this would have been impossibly expensive to arrange. I think this is the beginning of a very good relationship for all of us."

"We certainly hope so," she chuckled. "You know how to contact me when you need me again. I'll be around. Raptaur and Saurial can finish off the work on the dry dock at low tide. They're nearby, I think." Amy's shoulders twitched. "Once you've got the ship pumped out and want to start cutting it up let me know."

"I will do," he nodded, looking pleased. Zephron was definitely grinning now, while Kurt still seemed shocked. The dozens of other people around the place had all stopped what they were doing and were watching and listening. "Will you be able to help with the rest of the wrecks in the water?"

"Oh, sure, that's no problem," she laughed. "Let me know where you want them. Most of the ones I've seen are pretty smashed up, so unless you want them as is, I'll just crumple them up a little to make them easier to handle. I can cut them into chunks as well."

"Great. Once we get a couple of barges floated we can start moving some of the beached ships from the graveyard as well, but that's a medium-term project. Right now we need to get the ball rolling with that thing." He nodded towards the tanker behind her. "Is the shipping channel fully clear now?"

"Except for a little bit at the mouth of the bay, yes," she told him. "I'll go and remove the buoys and get that at the same time. I'll probably have a go at trimming it up at some point when I'm bored, it's sort of a mess, all different depths and widths. Untidy, really." He laughed at her dry comment. "If you hear weird noises that's probably what's going on, but I'll try to do it at high tide to keep it as quiet as possible."

"I'll pass that on to the Mayor for you."

"Thanks. Well, I'd better be getting on with it, I've got other things to do today." Lifting her head, she looked around. "It was nice meeting all of you and working with you. I hope we do this again soon."

Several people called back, making her smile. Waiting for everyone to move back, she carefully got to her feet, then backed into the water and submerged, heading towards the mouth of the bay and evaporating buoys as she went, giggling to herself.

Lisa watched with an open mouth as the full size of 'Kaiju' became apparent. Lying stretched out on the concrete and looking very comfortable, she absolutely dwarfed the men and machines on the dockside. She was genuinely impressed at how well they all took the presence of the enormous reptile in their midst, her power telling her they really did see her as one of their own. Already there was a remarkable amount of trust present.

Beside her, Brian and Alec were gaping in mild horror. "Jesus fucking Christ, that thing is huge," the latter breathed.

"Her, not it, Alec," she smiled. "Don't be rude. She might not like it."

His panicked gaze as he glanced at her made her grin. "Oh, shit, please tell me she didn't hear that."

"Oh, she heard it, but she doesn't care," Lisa assured him, certain of that. "But even so, be polite to something that could not only eat you but the building you're standing on."

He paled considerably, making her grin more of a smirk.

"Stop trying to terrify him, Lisa," Brian sighed.

"You're taking all the fun out of it," she snickered. Alec didn't seem to agree. "Come on, looks like the show's over. Let's get something to eat, and it's getting cold up here anyway."

"Good idea and very true," the shorter boy said, suddenly looking interested. "Food is a very good idea. I'm starving."

"I wonder if Panacea found Über and Leet?" Brian asked as they headed for the stairs, behind a crowd of other people who had also apparently decided that warmth and food was a good idea.

"Definitely," she replied. "She picked quite a few of the tracks they were playing. I think I want to talk to her, she's interesting."

Neither boy replied, but they exchanged slightly worried glances, making her smirk internally. They fell silent, heading downstairs and towards something edible.

Amy watched her friend disappear below the floodlit black and chilly surface, a bulge in the waves moving rapidly away betraying her presence. As she reached deeper water it gradually vanished. Grinning to herself, she turned to look up at her sister, who seemed to be in mild shock. Apparently being only thirty feet from Taylor's head was somewhat different from being a quarter of a mile from her when she was this size.

'I wonder what people would say if they saw her true size,' she snickered to herself. 'Close to five times the height… I really want to see that.' She thought it was fairly likely that most other people didn't.

"You OK, Vicky?" she called up to the blonde, who twitched and looked away from where Taylor had vanished, casting her eyes down. A vague nod was her answer, then her sister floated lower until she was standing next to Amy.

"That was… sort of terrifying," the other girl said soberly. After a moment, she smiled a little. "But really amazing. I can't believe that Danny just stood there and calmly talked to her like she was his next door neighbor."

"Well, in a way she is," Amy laughed as she glanced over to where the Hebert man was talking quietly to several other people as they watched several trucks with enormous pumps on rumble slowly over the worn concrete and position themselves for later use. "And he's pretty laid back all things considered. I haven't seen much get under his skin."

Taking her helmet off and shaking her hair out, Vicky brushed it out of her eyes with her free hand, then looked towards the bay again, before grinning. "This has been a very weird day. But a hell of a lot of fun."

"And someone paid you to do it as well," Amy smiled.

"That part I could get used to," her sister agreed happily. "I have expensive tastes."

"As poor Dean knows all too well," the brunette joked. "Come on, let's get something to eat. We should check in on everyone else as well, I haven't heard any reports of anything serious but you never know."

"No one would dare start anything today," Vicky giggled as they headed towards the cafeteria. "Especially now that Kaiju isn't towing a ship. If Raptaur messed up Hookwolf that easily, think what she'd do to him!"

"Pick him up and use him like a stress ball, probably." They exchanged a glance, then burst out laughing, Vicky putting an arm around her shorter sister and hugging her for a moment as they walked. Both felt very pleased with life in general at the moment.

"I'll be damned, his middle name really does start with F," Emily mumbled as she did a quick background check to refresh her memory for the section of the report she was currently writing for the Chief Director.

"I'm sorry?" Dragon, who was sitting near her working on another part, the threat assessment for Kaiju which she was checking over, asked. The cape looked over at her.

Emily shrugged, smiling a little. "Just a personal moment of humor. I didn't realize that Danny Hebert's full name was Daniel Francisci Hebert. I thought based on the last name his ancestry would be French or Dutch, but the middle one sounds more Italian."

"Ah, I see," Dragon nodded. "Yes, it does sound more southern European than northern. Not a common name either. His family obviously has a background that covers a considerable amount of Europe."

"Doesn't matter, but it just struck an amusing chord," the Director noted, amending her report with quick strokes on the keyboard. "All right, I think that section is done. I need to add the document references for the sub reports, and write at least two of them, but it's ready for proof-reading. Colin, Hannah, can you check it and make any notes on changes that you can think of?"

Both the other people looked up from their own work and nodded. "Place it in the group server directory, please, Director, and I'll look at it immediately. I've finished my own report amendments," Colin said, clicking a mouse button and leaning back for a moment. Emily did as requested, then pulled up the threat assessment section to see what the others had added or removed.

"You don't think Brute 12+ is over the top?" she asked Legend, who was across the table from her, engaged in reading one of the sub-reports with interest, the one documenting Assault and Battery's encounter with Raptaur and Panacea. He turned his attention to her, an expression very close to a smirk on his face. After a moment he seemed to register her question.

"No, I don't, in fact," he replied after thinking it over. "It's unprecedented but so is she. Hopefully it will make the point that she's far past the level where she could be overwhelmed with conventional force. We need to drive home the idea that threatening them is unlikely to result in anything but a disaster. I'd much prefer to get them to aid us when required out of friendship."

"You and me both," she mumbled under her breath. "I have a horrible picture in my head about what could happen." More loudly, she added, "You mentioned a Tinker rating for Raptaur, Colin?"

"I think it's warranted, although I won't insist on it, Director," the man replied without looking away from his work. "At the moment we should probably concentrate on the ratings that we are sure of or highly suspect. The Tinker rating needs some thought to come up with a suitable level, although I'd suggest one or two."

"Still an early revision, we can add that in later when we get some more information on them," she remarked, making some notes.

"I'm somewhat unsure about the point of a Changer rating if we have no idea whether it's even possible," Dragon said, reading her own copy of the documentation. "I agree that it could explain a lot in the case of Saurial, and is plausible if slightly unlikely in the case of Raptaur, but in the case of either Kaiju and Umihebi the likelihood would seem… very remote."

Emily glanced at her, then met Hannah's eyes. So far they hadn't mentioned the Biotinker theory to the other two. "I agree, but it's one of the less weird possibilities for how they manage to vanish so thoroughly when they go away. Let's leave it in with a note explaining it's unlikely, while we research whether it's even possible."

"All right," the Canadian cape agreed. "Although I think it may be much the same argument as Colin's Tinker one, but with less evidence behind it."

"To be honest, with the abilities we've seen from one or other member of the Family, we could probably realistically put them in almost every category we have," Hannah sighed. "Blaster, definitely, Breaker probably for the EDM creation, since it's not supposed to be stable, and so on. But again we can say the same about a lot of capes when they've learned how to leverage their powers. I think we should keep it as straightforward as possible for now. This is already worrying enough."

They all looked at each other for a moment, then got back to work.

Roy looked around at the much larger crowd of people, including reporters from several networks across the country who had arrived in a mad dash, dozens of representatives from newspapers and media websites, local government officials, and interested members of the public who had managed to talk their way past the security at the door. They were in the council chambers which was the largest available space in the City Hall.

Sitting next to him, Governor Scott was reading some notes he'd quickly scribbled down, while standing at the back of the hall he could see Phil and his blonde companion and their two security people, who were keeping the crowd at bay mainly by giving them evil looks whenever they came too close. His old friend looked rather amused in his own, somewhat muted, manner. He also seemed to be manfully suppressing the urge to arrange everything to his liking, in a much less chaotic manner. Roy knew what a strain that was for him and was grateful that the other man was putting the effort in.

Checking the time, Roy tapped the microphone, causing a loud thump to echo around the room. The background chatter instantly died, every person in the room staring at him and waiting. He looked around at them, inspected the cameras for a moment, then said, "Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. As you have undoubtedly noticed, today was the start of a revolution in civic improvement here in Brockton Bay. I hope that everyone enjoyed the event, and I understand that you probably have a lot of questions. I'll open the floor shortly, but before I do that, allow me to explain the background to what happened out there today..."

Rather enjoying himself, he began explaining the sequence of events, carefully sticking to the complete truth, but leaving out anything too controversial, such as precisely how many of the Family there actually were. It was something he was somewhat curious about himself, but now wasn't the time.

While the recorders ran and people held up cameras and phones, with others scribbling frantically, he talked for about ten minutes, then paused for a drink, looking around and assessing the mood in the room. Overall it seemed both generally positive and still somewhat stunned. Putting the glass down, he leaned over the lectern he was standing behind and smiled.

"Now. Who has the first question?"

There was a pregnant pause, before the room exploded into chatter.

Inwardly snickering, he began answering them, grateful for his notes and those of Phil who had suggested ways to direct the conversation.

On the whole, he was very pleased with today. It had gone better than he could have ever hoped for.

Slipping through the door, Taylor in the form of Saurial nodded to Lisa as she moved to stand beside her. They were in the same large empty building that everyone had been in that morning, hours ago. Amy was standing off to one side with her sister floating just off the ground next to her, the rest of her family near them and quietly talking while looking very pleased with themselves, while the rest of the room was full of Union people who seemed tired but very satisfied. Her father was moving towards the front of the room, stopping to talk to Mark and his people who looked like they'd enjoyed whatever it was they'd been up to.

Stepping up onto the low platform, her father looked around, smiling. Every person in the room went quiet. "Well done, to everyone. Today worked perfectly, and I'm very pleased and very proud to be associated with so many hard working people. Tomorrow we start working on the first day of a new era for the DWU and the city. Thanks to some luck, a lot of very hard work, and some unusual help, I suspect that we're going to be very busy for a long time."

There was a low cheer from the gathered crowd, which he waited out patiently.

"I should express my personal thanks to New Wave for their help." He nodded towards the Hero group, Vicky rising a little in the air and holding her clasped hands over her head with a broad grin. A lot of people laughed and clapped, making her bow in mid-air, which caused Taylor to snicker. "They undoubtedly stopped the surprisingly small number of problems we had from becoming much bigger ones. From what I've been told, there were no serious cape issues but there were a fair number of ordinary criminals and general idiots, like we always have around here." This caused a certain amount of laughter as everyone knew what he meant.

"We must also remember how much work the BBPD put in for this. We owe them thanks. Thank you to the crowd control teams as well, I've been asked to pass on the gratitude of both the city and the BBPD for your aid." Everyone who was wearing one of the crowd control vests cheered. "Now, I'm not going to go on any more, that should do it for now. We've got steak waiting in the cafeteria for everyone, and a lot more food as well, and as requested I managed to arrange a certain amount of beer to be delivered."

The cheer this time was immense, making her father grin. Taylor laughed under her breath.

"Don't get carried away, we don't need to start work in the morning with hangovers, but for now relax, enjoy yourselves, and thank you to everyone."

"Hail Hebert!" Zephron yelled. The entire room looked at him and burst out laughing. Her father sighed loudly, glaring at the huge man, while Lisa nearly collapsed in hilarity, leaning on Taylor who was giggling.

"No, I don't think so, Zephron," her father grumbled. His friend grinned.

"I'll keep working on it, Danny," he shouted.

"Please don't," her father called back, before he shook his head in despair and dropped off the platform, heading towards her. A lot of people stopped him en route, shaking his hand or clapping him on the back, all of them looking very happy. By the time he reached her he was chuckling.

"That went well," Lisa commented. He nodded, looking satisfied although tired.

"It did. Very well indeed. Did you enjoy the show?"

"More than I can believe," the blonde girl grinned. "It was amazing. You should see the reaction on PHO, it's going totally insane."

"I can imagine," he grinned back. "I'll have to have a look later. I want to go and see how Roy's press conference went first, though, he should be about half-way through it." Checking his watch he nodded slightly.

"I'm surprised he didn't want you there as well," Taylor smiled.

"He mentioned it but I'm not one for public speaking," her father replied.

"You did a pretty good job up there," Lisa said, indicating the other end of the room.

"This isn't the public," he responded with a small smile. "This is family." The girl looked thoughtfully at him for several seconds then nodded slowly.

"I think I understand."

"Where are your friends?" he asked, looking around.

"In the cafeteria," she told him. "Brian and Alec were hungry and don't particularly like crowds, and Rachel… is Rachel." She shrugged a little with a smile of her own.

"Fair enough." Looking over his shoulder as the various members of New Wave, who had been talking to quite a lot of the exiting Union members who seemed pleased with them, he added, "I need to talk to them, then get some food."

"OK," Lisa said. "I'll see you guys later, I could do with some steak before it all gets eaten by Alec." She grinned at them both then followed the last few dockworkers out of the room.

Taylor followed her father over to New Wave, who were now talking among themselves, still looking very pleased. As they reached the group they all turned to look at him and his currently reptilian daughter. "Thank you all very much," he said, smiling. "You helped an enormous amount, as I said. I doubt it would have gone so smoothly without your help."

"We enjoyed ourselves a lot, Danny," Lady Photon replied with a smile of her own. "And we got both some very good PR out of it and some exceptionally good costumes."

"Don't forget this," he laughed, pulling a stack of envelopes out of his pocket and distributing them. "We think that you deserve the bonus as everything went so well, even though there were no major incidents. Mayor Christner agreed and asked me to pass on the thanks of the city government and himself personally."

Vicky opened her envelope and looked curiously into it, before making a happy sound. Taylor grinned at her. "Thanks, Danny," she said. The rest of her family was similarly pleased. Amy, she noticed, put the envelope she received in her pocket without comment or looking at it, although she was faintly smiling.

"You're more than welcome, Vicky," he replied quietly. "You've all done very good work for which I thank you. If we have a similar requirement for Cape support are you open to the same arrangement in future?"

The adults of New Wave exchanged glances, while the younger members instantly nodded. Eventually, Brandish replied, "I think we would have no great problem with that under the circumstances." She paused, then added, "I was somewhat dubious about this at the beginning, Mr Hebert, but I have to admit I enjoyed myself. It was an interesting day. Not to mention a very confusing one."

He laughed. "I can understand that, Brandish, believe me. We expected that reaction, although I'm pleased it turned out the way it did." He glanced at Taylor, who smiled at him. "I need to track down a certain pair of low level villains who live locally and have a chat with them."

She frowned a little but said nothing. Her sister looked amused, as did Amy.

"Anyway, come and have a meal with us, if you want. The food here is very good as I'm sure Amy and Vicky can attest to." Both girls nodded.

"I could certainly do with something to eat," Amy's uncle noted with a certain amount of eagerness. Several more of the group expressed similar opinions. Shortly they were all heading towards the main building, talking and laughing, Lady Photon deep in conversation with Taylor's father.

She watched, amused, then looked at Amy who had hung back. Her friend handed her a card. "Über said you can get them on this number. They want to talk. And you were right, they know."

Taylor smirked a little as she looked at the card, then slipped it into a belt pouch. "Told you."

"You did."

Exchanging a grin, they followed the others, both feeling content.