Lisa stretched, pushing herself back from the computer with a sigh of relief. It was finally all done. She'd been working on and off the entire day on fucking Calvert over and was pretty certain she'd managed that so comprehensively that it probably required an entirely new word. Grinning to herself, she stood up, having first run the program she'd set up earlier which started the computer reformatting its hard drive and reinstalling a clean copy of the operating system.

After that she pulled the battery out of the disposable cell phone and dropped the device into her pocket, intending to ask Taylor to dispose of it permanently to leave no traces behind, then reached around to the rear of the computer and unplugged the USB cellular modem she'd been using to connect to the internet, which would go the same way. That way there were no trails that could lead back to her, or the DWU. Sooner or later someone was going to investigate what she'd done and she didn't want to drop her new friends in it.

She'd gone so far as to utilize the cellular modem as a connection point for the phone call, which was then handed off through a series of nested encrypted VPN services to a random city in the US for each call with spoofed caller ID on top of that. Tracing it back was essentially impossible, according to the contact she'd paid quite a lot of money to for the use of the custom software that allowed it. The data connection went through the same process to different locations as well, some international. The entire mess would stop even Dragon following the path to her.

Even she would probably not be able to make much of it without a hell of a lot of work and luck. Without physical access to the phone no one was ever going to be able to prove where the call originated and shortly that phone would be in the process of being digested by a large reptile...

Deciding it was time for something to eat since it was past six in the evening, she left the room and headed for the cafeteria. When she arrived she looked around for a moment, spotting Alec talking to Zephron on the other side of the room, but neither of her other team-mates. Shortly thereafter she was sitting down at their table with a tray of food. "Hi, guys," she smiled. "Alec, are you still going on about your damn games?"

The boy smirked at her. "I am. Thanks for asking. I was just arranging to get a nice big screen TV and some consoles delivered, Zephron here was willing to do it for only an extortionate bribe." The huge man grinned at her, raising his glass of water in salute, making her laugh. "I'll have to redo all my games again." Alec shook his head sadly. "All that work, lost because of your overenthusiastic plan with one tiny hole in it."

"Without that plan we wouldn't be here," she pointed out as she started cutting up a pork chop, stabbing a piece of meat with her fork.

"Exactly."

"And we'd still be in a position where sooner or later something even worse would probably have happened."

"Also true."

"And you wouldn't have the money to buy new toys in the first place."

"Good point."

They grinned at each other, then she got down to the serious business of filling her stomach.

Zephron chuckled at them both. "Kids. OK, Alec, I'll get your stuff tomorrow, some of the guys and I can pick it up and take it to your room. You may find that you get visitors who want to play as well, though, when word gets around."

Alec waved his fork around lackadaisically. "Let them come. They'll soon find out who the better video gamer is."

Looking amused the man stood, nodded to Lisa, then left. She watched him go with a small smile before turning to her friend, who seemed in a good mood. "Don't push it too much too fast, Alec," she advised. "He's a nice guy but he also has a lot of work to do."

"I know, Lisa," he said as he finished his fish. "Don't worry, I'm not going to piss on my own doorstep. I like the guy and he seems to like us. I asked him if he minded helping and he said it was OK. A couple of hundred bucks made it even more OK."

Grinning, she sighed. "I can see you somehow managing to burn through your entire share in months at this rate."

"Easy come, easy go," he quipped, popping open a second can of soda and leaning back contentedly. "Not that it was actually easy. Fucking hard work, more like."

"Don't remind me," she replied. Looking around again, she asked, "Any idea where Brian and Rachel are?"

"Brian's still working, that Jason guy is a real taskmaster, he runs his carpentry squad like a PRT hit team." Alec smirked as she chuckled. "Brian seems to enjoy it, you know how he's always wanted structure in his life. No spontaneity in our glorious leader. Rachel is with her dogs, of course. She came in for lunch, actually talked to several people without trying to beat them up, I even saw her almost smile at one point, then went back. She seems happy, at least in her terms. I doubt we'll see much of her until she's sure all her hairy friends are OK and safe."

"Thanks," Lisa said, nodding. "I'm glad they both have something to do that's keeping them busy. I've got things to keep me going as well, and you're an idle layabout, so it seems to have worked out pretty well all around."

"So far, I'd agree," he laughed, not offended. She'd noticed that he seemed weirdly happy the last couple of days, his normal almost apathetic attitude improving to the point he was only mildly disinterested in things other than his own pursuits. She hoped the trend continued. His emotional range had always been very muted compared to everyone else she'd ever met, for reasons she was still not entirely certain about other than it stemmed from some childhood trauma, but in the months that they'd been together as a team he'd gradually improved in that respect. Since the fight with the ABB that improvement had accelerated, which she was overall pleased about.

Despite his many irritating quirks, she liked him. And as far as she could see it went both ways.

"Later, Lisa. I have TV to watch in the common room." He hopped to his feet, shoveling everything he'd used onto his tray, then left, apparently in a good mood.

Watching him go she smiled again, then resumed eating.

Taylor pulled a chair out from the table and draped herself into it, arranging her tail over the side, then put her feet on the table itself. Comfortable, she grinned at the two minor villains. "By the way, that was amazing yesterday. I loved the music choices, especially at the beginning."

"I'm just glad you picked up on the cues," Leet laughed. "Thanks for playing along."

She shrugged. "It was fun, it helped the plan, and I enjoyed it a lot. So did everyone else from what I could see. Mayor Christner looked like a kid at Christmas."

Studying the two young men for a few seconds, she decided that they were probably around twenty or so, twenty-two at most. Über was tall and solidly built, a lot like Brian in overall build, while Leet was several inches shorter and much skinnier, in a similar manner to her father, with a wiry strength she thought looked good on him. Both of them seemed somewhat nervous, and had done even before she'd arrived. She'd heard enough of their conversation from the other side of the door to realize one good reason for it as she'd approached.

The wool balaclavas did nothing at all to keep their faces invisible from her point of view, her thermal vision showing all the details perfectly through the cloth, but she decided not to mention it. They didn't need to know that she knew what they looked like, and she had no intention of capitalizing on that information, any more than she did with the other Parahumans she'd worked out the identities of. It seemed unlikely that they'd do anything that would make them a threat, if anything both she and the Varga thought that it was the opposite. Amy agreed, and after some thought, her father had also said the same.

Their scents were slowly changing to less worried as the seconds ticked past. She waited until they smelled fairly calm, then asked, "Out of curiosity, how did you know about my tail?" She lifted the end of the appendage and waved it at them. "No one else so far has seen through it."

"You know the Snitch? The remote camera thing we record our missions with?" Leet asked. She nodded.

"I've read about it. You named it after that kid's book series, right?"

"PHO named it, actually, but yes," the Tinker replied. "It's one of my best projects, its worked flawlessly for years and is almost indestructible. The imaging system on it is very unusual, totally different to any other camera system I've ever heard of. Whatever you're using to hide that," he pointed at her tail, "it can see through it. Barely. I still had to fiddle around with the data files a lot to get a clear look at it but I managed to do it."

"When?" she asked, thinking back to possible times and places. Just before he spoke, she snapped her fingers. "The thing with Vicky, right?"

"Yes," he confirmed. "I only spotted it by accident. You and your father were in the crowd and we got you both in the background in a few shots. I showed it to Über, we talked it over, and we ended up cutting out anything with you in it. Didn't think it was polite to unmask another cape."

"Thanks for that," she smiled. "It would have been difficult. I'd only had my tail for a couple of days at that point and I don't know what I've have done if anyone found out about it then."

She looked at her tail, idly waving the end around in the air. "Now, I don't really care, aside from not wanting the attention and not wanting to have it cause problems for Dad."

"Is that why the elaborate charade with 'The Family'?" Leet asked, making little finger quotes. "Or is that just because you're a massive troll who likes confusing people?" He was grinning, as was his friend.

She rocked her hand from side to side in the air, making both men laugh. "Little of both, I think. It started as a way to keep Dad safe, then it was hilarious, and now it seems to have taken on a life of its own. Mostly because of PHO, of course, people there have come up with most of the whole theory. It's pretty useful, actually, but the funniest part of it to me is that the only people who have seen through it so far other than Amy, who was a special case, are villains. Your type must just be more suspicious than the heroes or the public." Smirking a little, she waited for them to stop giggling.

"I have to admit it's one of the best jokes I've ever heard of," Über chuckled. "It's going to be very embarrassing for the PRT when they finally work it out."

"If they do," she commented, which made him grin again.

"If they do. Fair enough." He and Leet seemed relaxed now as well, both of them studying her curiously. "How do you hide your tail, by the way? Some sort of Stranger power, on top of everything else?"

"No, it's just magic," she smirked. "Nothing exotic."

"Magic." He stared at her with a look of evaluation.

"Yep."

"I see." After a moment, he shrugged. "Whatever. Powers might as well be magic for all anyone understands them. Call it what you want."

Bowing from a seated position, she laughed. "Thank you, I will."

"If only he knew," the Varga chuckled inside her head, making her smile widen for a moment before she became more serious.

"So, what would you like to talk about first? I've got plenty of time right now."

Über glanced at Leet. The Tinker seemed slightly embarrassed, sticking a finger into the neck of his balaclava and scratching an itch.

Eventually, Über sighed slightly. "We were hoping you might be open to a possible prank on the city at some point. The sort of thing we do." As she opened her mouth to reply, slightly shocked, he held up a hand. "Nothing illegal, or particularly illegal at any rate. We don't want to get you in trouble. That seems to be…" he glanced at Leet for a second before finishing, "…not a wildly good idea."

Taylor looked at them for a long few seconds. She got the distinct impression there was a story behind that comment she wasn't privy to. Shaking her head a little, she sat up and leaned forward. "What sort of prank?" she asked curiously.

"We're not exactly sure yet," Über replied slowly. "It at least partly depends on you. What you can do. We want to come up with something we can theme around your abilities and leverage them to the best effect."

Leet added, "We were hoping that you might be open to creating a new persona, depending on whether your Changer ability was flexible enough for that. Speaking of which, we've both really curious about what you can really do. We already know you can go from this," he waved a hand at her, "all the way up to something that would give Leviathan nightmares. Can you do more?"

While the Varga chuckled silently, she suppressed a grin. Scratching the base of one of the several spikes she grew through her hair with a talon, she shrugged slightly, while watching them with glowing yellow eyes. She absently licked an eyebrow with a long forked tongue for a moment, which made the Tinker flinch. "I guess so," she replied through a mouthful of fangs that overlapped her lower lip. "A few tricks."

"Fuck," Über whispered, his face paling judging by the temperature she could see. "That's… disconcerting."

"What?" she asked innocently, putting all four arms behind her back and stretching, the elbow spikes on them sticking out to the sides.

He stared at her, then his friend, whose eyes were wide and round.

"I think she might be a good fit for us," he finally sighed. Leet nodded, not taking his eyes off her, while she removed all the non-standard parts and grinned at them. "Impressive."

"Pretty much anything that's more or less reptilian, and a few other things I've worked out as well," Taylor laughed. "Feathers, those are easy now. I'm working on tentacles. Scaly ones, of course. I like scales."

"Can you go bigger than Kaiju?" Leet seemed both curious and apprehensive. Meeting his eyes she smiled very slowly, making him pale as well.

"A bit. But that's probably going too far for a prank. We were lucky to get away with Kaiju without everyone screaming and running around in circles panicking," she replied.

"I suppose so," he nodded, now looking thoughtful. "But I'll have to think about it. That's too useful a talent not to use one day."

"Agreed," she giggled. "Do you have a list of ideas or something? We can work out the best form for each of them then pick a good one."

"You're up for it?" He looked very happy.

"Of course. It sounds like fun, as long as no one gets hurt and we don't cause too much trouble."

Standing, she made a few sheets of paper and some pencils, dropping them onto the table. Stepping back a few feet into the middle of the room, she said, "Here's one I was working on a while ago, but Dad said it was a little weird. What do you guys think?"

She changed.

"AAAAAAGGGHHH!"

Taylor shook her head sadly at the pair who were cowering under the table. "G'd, sh'me p'ple 're p'sshysh" she lisped through a huge mouthful of foot long teeth, "Thy're 'nly fn'gs, y'u kn'w."

It took her quite a long time to get them to come out and she was mildly irritated that they kept shivering when they looked at her for a good fifteen minutes after that.

For villains they were pretty highly strung, in her opinion.

The Varga, of course, was laughing for most of that time, adding to her exasperation.

Rebecca looked at the nervous young man sitting across the table from her. He was glancing around at her, Director Piggot who was at one end of the conference table with a neutral expression on her face, Paul, who was at the other end smiling encouragingly, and David who was next to her. She cleared her throat, making him twitch and fix his gaze on her face. "So, Clockblocker, could you give me your impressions of Saurial? I see here that you've reported meeting her fourteen times so far while on patrol. Usually in the company of Kid Win, although once was with Vista."

"Um…" He fidgeted a little, casting a hopeful look towards Director Piggot, who nodded once to him. His masked face went back to Rebecca. "She's… funny, helpful, terrifying, skilled, friendly, and horrifying," he finally said. "All at once. I like her, but I wouldn't want to piss her off. We seem to get on OK, I think. I'd say she probably regards us as friends if anything, although she's made it plain she has no interest in joining the Wards or the Protectorate, or coming in for powers testing."

"I see," she replied when he finished speaking. "How old would you say she is?"

He seemed to think for a moment. "I'd guess maybe sixteen or so? Perhaps a year older. No more than that, although there are times she seems… ancient. It's weird, actually, every now and then you get the impression she's seen it all before and isn't impressed. Normally when some criminals have done something particularly bone-headed." His body language expressed puzzlement. "And the number of different weapons she can use is ridiculous. She comes up with new ones all the time and days later it's like she's been using them half her life. I'm pretty jealous, to tell you the truth." He sounded a little amused now.

"Do you think she poses a threat to us?"

He was obviously staring at her behind his mask. After several seconds of silence, he shook his head slowly. "Not unless someone does something really stupid and provokes her. A lot. She may not be with us, but she's on our side, that much I'm sure of. She's a good person."

"Interesting." She made some quick notes on a pad, just for effect. She'd found out years ago how unnerved people got when she started writing things down as they talked. "What about Raptaur?"

"I haven't personally met her yet, ma'am," he responded politely.

"I know, I'm just curious about what you think of her. Saurial's sister, as we're told. Your feelings?"

"She's absolutely horrifying, but in a good way," he replied promptly. "She's a friend of Panacea, who is a friend of mine. Panacea trusts her totally, and I trust Panacea's judgment. Glory Girl likes her as well, so there's that as well."

"How old would you say she is, out of interest?"

He shrugged. "I don't really have any way to answer that, ma'am, aside from videos I've seen, but if I had to guess I'd think around early twenties, or maybe late teens. Older than Saurial."

"Miss Militia's report on the initial encounter of Saurial claims you thought she might be a Changer."

He leaned back in his chair a little, shrugging again. "It was a joke, mainly, because of stuff I'd seen on the internet. But it sort of made sense at the time. When Raptaur came along, though, it didn't make that much sense anymore. I guess it's possible that they both are, but there aren't a lot of Changers who can turn into something as big as Raptaur, right? She must weigh over a ton, she's huge!"

"It's not common, no," Paul commented, making the teen glance at him. "Lung is an obvious one, as is Hookwolf, and there are others but most Changers are normally around no more than two to three times the mass of their human form."

"OK," Clockblocker nodded. "That fits with what I thought I knew."

"So you don't think that either of them are walking around out there looking like normal humans anymore?" Rebecca asked, a slight smile on her face. "'Hiding among us waiting to take over when we least expect it' was I believe what you commented on PHO."

She thought that based on the reaction he was probably blushing furiously. "No, ma'am," he replied faintly. "That was a joke."

"I see," she said again, making another note, mainly because his reaction amused her. Paul gave her a look which made her smirk internally, but she relented. "All right. Probably best not to make jokes that might insult someone big enough to unscrew your head and use it for a football and who lives locally, but as long as you don't bring the PRT or the Wards into disrepute we don't mind what you do. Within limits."

"I understand, ma'am," he said in an abashed tone. She noted out of the corner of her eye that Emily was hiding a smile.

"Now, moving on. Your impressions of the rather memorable day yesterday."

He looked around at them all again. "That was… unbelievable," he started, sounding both worried and entertained. "I nearly had a heart attack when Kaiju stood up, even after seeing her swimming under the surface. My god, she's enormous! You have no idea, the TV doesn't really show it like staring at her live..."

She listened with interest as he spoke, the others doing the same. Thinking about the situation, she tried to work out what to do. How the DWU had made contact with the Family, where they actually came from, what they really wanted… There were a huge number of questions that she currently had no answers to. Not to mention how three, no, four, reptilian creatures could all Trigger practically simultaneously, two of them so vast as to defy all normal Parahuman rules, or what they'd thought might be rules. There was still so much they didn't know about the Entities and their Agents despite years of work.

Was it possible that Kaiju might be a way to stop the Endbringers? She was undoubtedly at least the second or third strongest Parahuman on the planet at the moment, not including the Endbringers themselves, if what they suspected their origin to be was in fact true. A thought she'd had several times, which always worried her, came to mind. If Endbringers were Triggers that had somehow ended up far outside the normal parameters, possibly Kaiju was another one? One that for whatever reason had ended up cooperative and non-hostile. Umihebi as well, for that matter. The enormous 'sea serpent' was so far an unknown quantity aside from the obvious fact that she didn't like being prodded and had a direct manner to register that disapproval.

So far she hadn't mentioned this idea to anyone, since she was herself very unsure of it, but it made a vague amount of sense if certain assumptions were true. And more sense than most other explanations. The concept of a Changer power being responsible for either Kaiju or Umihebi was, in her opinion, a very long way down the list of possibilities, as Emily's report had correctly also said. Too many things simply didn't fit based on past cases, and as far as she was concerned it was silly to fixate on the extremely unlikely when normally the simpler explanation was the correct one, or at least more correct one. And the idea of four Changers all ending up with near-identical powersets was getting silly. Not to mention that Kaiju had outright stated there were more of them somewhere around.

In Cauldron's experience powers tended to group into common types and sets, with rarer outliers. The combination of observed powers that all the Family members had was unusual to the point of unheard of. Duplication of that combination was something they'd never seen before.

A pair of Changers being the source of Raptaur and Saurial would have made a lot more sense, she could have easily accepted that if it was only them since they had examples of much the same thing happening before, but the other two pretty much ruined that idea, especially given their obvious and stated relationship to the larger creatures. Where they went when they weren't running around the place terrifying everyone she had no idea but she was very curious to find out.

Her pen stopped suddenly, as another rather worrying thought struck her, one she wished she hadn't had.

'Alien… Could it be? It would explain a lot.' There were a lot of problems with that idea, but simply based on her own life, she wasn't prepared to reject it entirely. She glanced at David, who was now asking Clockblocker some detailed questions about his observations of Kaiju, then Paul. The latter was listening with an expression which long knowledge of the man told her he was thinking hard, and was also probably not going to mention what it was he was thinking about until he was ready. And that he was somewhat worried although hiding it well.

'I wonder what he thinks they are and where they came from?' she mused. 'I'll have to talk to him later.'

Another, even more worrying thought suddenly made her freeze in mild shock.

'Is it possible that someone has worked out how to copy powers? Duplicate them? Maybe some other group is doing the same thing we are, but has been more successful.'

That thought was very worrying indeed, and also as far as she could see much more likely than an invasion of reptilian aliens who all had weird senses of humor and a current knowledge of American culture. Especially as they had no inkling that such a group existed. 'Cloning, maybe, or some artificial power inducing ability. It would imply a greater knowledge of the basis of powers than I like to consider someone else having.' She puzzled over the idea for a few seconds. 'Not enough data to go on. And where does the anti-thinker power come from? And that damn matter generation power? We've never seen that one before, and the anti-thinker ability is incredibly rare and apparently very complete.'

They'd checked after the disturbing session with Contessa and James, finding that no Thinker, precog, probability calculator, or similar power appeared to give anything useful at all if directed at any member of the Family. They could get some vague information about people and events surrounding them, with a lot of effort, but it was so far unreliable and the more involved they became the closer to guesswork the data became. No one had any idea why. Or why they often got what was close to a literal error message, something she'd never seen before. When that didn't happen, the Thinker in question got nothing at all, as if the subject they were probing for simply didn't exist.

It was beyond frustrating.

'Although I think I know why Calvert is having so much trouble with life recently,' she smiled internally. She didn't like the man, but he was a necessary part of the experiment. He'd succeed or fail, either way it was useful data.

'I wonder… I wonder what effect the anti-thinker ability would have on the Simurgh, if any.' The thought was… intriguing. It bore further consideration. She made a mental note to allow some time to work through possible ramifications of it when they were done here.

Blinking behind her visor, she reentered the conversation. "Thank you, Clockblocker. That's all very helpful. You may go, I think we've all asked everything we wanted to know."

"Thank you, ma'am," he replied respectfully, not radiating as much nervousness now after being with them for forty minutes or so. He stood up, Paul doing the same and walking over with his hand out.

"Thanks, young man, I'm sorry we pulled you away so suddenly like that." He smiled warmly at the youth, who shook his hand. "If you could make sure not to talk about what we've discussed here I'd be grateful. It's confidential for the moment, I'm sure you understand."

"Of course, sir," Clockblocker replied.

"Call me Legend, son," the older man smiled. "But please, not Mr Foot."

Laughing, Clockblocker shook his head. "OK, Legend. Thank you. Bye, everyone." He lifted a hand in a wave, nodding to Emily, who returned the gesture, then left the room, closing the door behind him with a faint click.

Paul sat down again, smiling a little. "He's a decent young man, I think," he noted, glancing at Emily.

The Director sighed a bit. "He is. Annoying as hell a lot of the time, with a very immature sense of humor, but he's surprisingly responsible despite all that." She seemed very slightly amused. "But I'll never tell him any of that. Aside from the annoying and immature part, of course."

Paul laughed for a moment, nodding. Rebecca watched them both, noting that they shared an ease with each other that was a little odd. Presumably being closeted together with Armsmaster, Miss Militia, and Dragon for hours writing those reports the day before had brought a sort of camaraderie to them all. It was interesting, but irrelevant aside from hopefully promoting closer cooperation.

She looked at David, who was staring at the table in a pose she knew meant he was mulling over what they'd heard, tapping one hand on the notebook he'd written a few things on during the course of the interview. "I think that went well. That's all the Wards. I think we should talk to Armsmaster next, he's had more contact with Raptaur than anyone other than Dragon."

"All right," her colleague agreed. They both turned to Emily, who pulled out her phone and unlocked it.

"He should be here by now," she announced, reading something on it. "I'll find him, he's probably closeted with Kid Win at the moment." Standing, she left the room as well.

Watching Rebecca, who was emoting deep thought mixed with a cautious curiosity, Paul wondered what was going through his old friend's mind. Eventually, he simply asked. "What are you intending to do when we finish talking to everyone?"

"I'm… not entirely certain," she admitted slowly. "This whole situation is very peculiar to put it mildly, and more than a little concerning. There are a hell of a lot of questions and very few answers. That worries me."

"I'd have to agree," David added quietly.

Paul nodded for a moment. "It's certainly unusual. However, set against that, it seems to be both stable and non-threatening. At least for the moment. The crime figures for the entire city have plummeted to levels lower than anyone can remember for over a decade. None of the major gangs are doing anything at the moment, and in fact my information is that Kaiser has issued a directive that the E88 is to leave the DWU strictly alone under any circumstances." The other two looked curiously at him. He smiled.

"I know some people and made discreet inquiries."

"Who?"

"Just… people." He couldn't help chuckling at her mildly exasperated expression. "It doesn't matter. The largest gang in Brockton is temporarily neutralized, even if they've mainly done it to themselves, the second largest one is still licking its wounds after a disastrous run-in with the Undersiders of all people, their leader was threatened with being eaten and no one has seen him since. The Undersiders are no longer a villain group, and the only ones making any trouble are the Merchants, who are largely idiots. Dangerous idiots, true enough, but idiots. Except for their capes the BBPD can deal with them and is doing a fine job since they don't have to chase after the E88 or the ABB right now."

He lifted his hands in a shrug of acceptance. "It probably won't last forever, and even with all this the city is still one of the most dangerous places on the east coast, but it's a massive improvement from three months ago. Personally I think we should keep an eye on it but wait to see what happens."

"Don't you want to know the truth behind everything going on?"

"Of course I do," he replied to David's question. "But, at the moment, not so much that I want to make the city go back to what it used to be. Interfering with things could do that. Or worse. I for one do not want to end up with Kaiju scowling at me and slapping a baseball bat the size of the Washington monument in her palm. Sure, she's never going to sneak up on anyone, unless you're in a boat perhaps, but fighting her is not one of the things I have planned for a long and happy life."

"So what do you suggest?" Rebecca asked.

"Keep investigating, but carefully and respectfully. Don't jump in and force, or try to force, anything. We don't need to push too hard, there's no indication at the moment that there's anything amiss."

"You don't call a half-scale Godzilla doing civic improvements being 'something amiss'?" the woman asked with a tone of incredulity.

"It's odd, I'll grant you that," he grinned, "but having talked to her, I think she's being truthful about wanting to help. Certainly city hall and the DWU think so, and probably half the city is on their side at the moment. We can't afford to mess this up. Against the background of our world, this is one of the few bright spots I've seen for years, even with all the questions surrounding everything. After all, there's no crime in what's going on and we have no legitimate reason to believe it's anything other than what the public have been told by Mayor Christner."

Rebecca folded her arms and tilted her chair back, staring at the ceiling. "You have some good points. I'm not convinced we can just pretend nothing is going on, though. Brockton Bay is one thing, but what happens when they start moving further afield? Umihebi could be in Miami in hours, for example. The panic that would occur… It wouldn't help things. Not to mention all the international interest there is in what's going on here at the moment. Practically every country on the planet is at this moment planning how to either stop Kaiju, or hire her, I guarantee it. It could get messy." She looked back at him. "Frankly I'm amazed that our own government hasn't freaked out more than they have. Governor Scott seems to have pulled some strings I didn't know he had."

Paul sighed. "I know, and like you just said, you have some good points. I can't answer most of them right now. I'm just advising caution."

"We need to find out what Kaiju is really capable of," David remarked after they'd been silent for a few seconds. Both the others looked at him, Rebecca curiously and Paul with a sinking sensation.

"I really don't think we do," he said quickly. "What we already know is bad enough. Don't push your luck just because you're curious if you could take her. Whether you could or not, and I sure wouldn't want to call it one way or the other, the end result would be… less than ideal."

"But what if it turns out she's easily provoked?" his friend asked mildly. "I mean, Kaiser might suddenly decide to call in some heavy artillery or something from his friends overseas. Or that fool Skidmark could try something. I've read the reports, the man is an idiot. If it turns out she has a hair trigger temper, we need to know to make plans on what to do about it."

"I really don't think that's either necessary, or a good idea," Paul replied, worry gathering. His friend was always looking to prove himself, he knew that, the man had a deeply buried sense of insecurity despite being one of the acknowledged three most powerful Parahumans in the world, but this was just silly. "Provoking a reaction deliberately just to see what happens isn't a smart thing to do with any Parahuman, never mind one that can literally eat cars like skittles. Trust me, leave it alone. Please."

There was a pause, then David nodded, not replying. Paul let out a silent sigh of relief. That could have been awkward.

"I still want to meet her, I think," Rebecca put in. "And the other two. I need to get a feel for them for myself, if nothing else just to settle my own curiosity."

"Raptaur and Saurial should be easy enough," he said. "You could probably bump into either one just wandering around the city, but going to BBFO would be the simplest solution. We should call ahead, though, from what I was told they're not always there. As far as Kaiju goes, who knows where she is? But I know that the DWU is working on the tanker at the moment and she's going to be around helping on and off for the next week. If you want to stay around Brockton Bay for a couple of days, we'll probably have a chance to meet her." He chuckled, adding, "All you have to do is stand on the roof and wait for an enormous lizard to wade out of the sea. You'd see her from here or the Rig easily enough."

Rebecca nodded with a small smile. "I may do that. Director Costa-Brown is scheduled to turn up tomorrow anyway, so I can stay around for her." They all shared a tiny grin at that.

"I suppose I should also stay for the moment," David remarked. He sounded amused. "The poor criminals in this city must not know what's happened. First a series of steadily larger and more horrific lizard-people turn up, then the three of us. Must make business difficult for the ones that aren't stupid."

Paul couldn't help laughing at the dry comment. He was still chuckling when the door opened again to admit Emily Piggot and Armsmaster.

Feeling her phone vibrate, Lisa pulled it out and looked at it.

'At BBFO, need some input, please. Bring your helmet. S.'

Wondering what Taylor needed her advice on, but extremely curious and looking forward to finding out, Lisa sat up on her bed, closing the book she'd been reading, then got up. Digging the small backpack that her new helmet was in out of one of the cupboards, she left the room, soon finding herself jogging through the darkened yard towards the Family offices. When she got there she inspected the unfamiliar van, letting her power loose on it.

Fifteen years old

Tinker vehicle, very dangerous

Belongs to Leet

Leet and Über talking to Taylor

Asking for help on project

She blinked. That was a little unexpected, but offered some intriguing possibilities. Smiling a little, she plopped her helmet on her head after quickly looking around, seeing no one about at the moment although she could hear Rachel's dogs making faint sounds in the warehouse that had been converted into kennels. Walking over to the door, she tried it and found it locked, then knocked.

A few seconds later, it was opened a crack, a balaclava-ed face peering out suspiciously. "Tattletale, right?"

"Yep. You're Über."

"I am. Come in." He swung the door open and admitted her, then quickly shut it again. She watched him lock it, then he held out a hand, which she shook. "Nice to meet you. Taylor tells us you know pretty much everything. About everything."

She grinned, as he laughed. "Not quite, despite appearances. But I try. So what do you need me for..."

Lisa turned around, seeing Über's companion standing in the middle of the room, next to…

"GAAAHHH!"

There was a deep sigh. "Yes, she does that sometimes for some reason. Sorry, guys. Stick her on that chair, she'll be back in the room soon enough."

"You have some odd friends."

"I know. Trust me, I know." The sigh repeated itself. "What do you think about the color?"

"It looks amazing. The horns aren't quite right yet, though, they need to be swept back more."

"Like this?"

A short pause was followed by a thoughtful mutter.

"Not bad, not bad at all. Now, wings. We need wings. Big ones."

"I'm probably too heavy to fly, you know." The voice sounded very disappointed.

"True, but it's the right look."

Another pause.

"That's pretty good. Make the neck about two feet longer and add some more spikes on the spine."

"How about this."

"Wow. It looks pretty damn close."

A different voice cut in, "This is going to be incredible!"

Three sets of laughter went on for a couple of seconds. "We need Amy for this as well, I think. That will have to wait until the weekend, but I'll talk to her tomorrow. I bet people look really confused."

"I sure hope so, or we're wasting our time. Now, the next thing is..."

The laughter and instructions continued for some while, during which Lisa slept, her mind yet again trying to deal with the insanity of the Heberts.

It was having something of a hard time over that.