Emily stared out the window into the bay, thinking strange thoughts. One particular word kept running through them, as it had done for hours.
'Aliens.'
She shook her head, but couldn't help it.
'Aliens. In Brockton Bay. Or the Atlantic somewhere. Fuck, this is insane.'
Peering out toward the exit of the bay and the rougher water barely visible there past the reef, she wondered what could be found if someone took a submersible and carefully explored the ocean floor. Thinking odd thoughts of ancient cities built by no human hand in ages past, she shivered and wished she'd never read any fucking Lovecraft or Derleth in her childhood.
Too late now, though.
'Aliens?!'
Eventually she went back to her desk and with a great effort of will managed to concentrate on more mundane things like the budget for the next month, grateful for some accountants to swear at and take her mind away from that word.
'Aliens...'
There were a number of small spheres some six inches across on the table, one of them in two pieces. Leet was turning a component over in his hands, comparing it to a drawing, while Raptaur waited. He nodded, handing it back. "Looks good. Three grams of hafnium isomer in that end should be more than enough to fire the fusion reaction."
"And this is ultimately fired by mechanically produced x-rays?" she said slightly quizzically. "That's very neat."
"Piezo-electric crystal stack to produce a high voltage pulse, which generates x-rays in the initiator source, which triggers the sensitized hafnium isomer, which produces a massive pulse of gamma rays, which compresses the fuel, which goes bang," he said in one breath. "All you have to do is hit it hard enough and fast enough to start the entire sequence."
"You are a very scary man, bro," Über said, patting his friend on the back.
"If it wasn't for the fact that making the hafnium isomer and sensitizing it properly is exceptionally difficult without the matter-creation power you have, this would be a horrendous weapon," Colin told her. "It still is, of course, but very few people could successfully make one. I would prefer that to be limited to us and your Family, to be honest. There are enough weapons of mass destruction scattered around the world already to make me somewhat uncomfortable."
The reptile-woman nodded agreeable. "No argument from me. OK, I suppose we should see if it actually works." She thought for a moment, then held out a hand, on which a small metal disk formed. In the middle of it was a tiny sparkling crystal of material a different color than the main thing. "This should be the isomer, on a disk of pure aluminum. Can you check it?"
Leet pulled out his tricorder, which Dragon looked at enviously, very much wanting to examine it properly. Having seen how clean and amenable to her understanding his designs were, that one was one she was itching to look at. He adjusted it then pointed it at the sample plate.
"That's it," he said. "Fifty milligrams of pure 178m2 hafnium isomer. It's got a usable energy output of about sixty-six and a half mega-joules."
"That's an awful lot from such a small amount," she said with respectful awe, studying the tiny quantity of metal in her hand. "OK, let's see what happens." The disk and sample disappeared, then she picked up the prototype initiator unit, carrying it over to the far end of the room. She made an EDM cylinder about half the size of an oil drum, fused to the floor, then put her hands inside it for a little while, withdrawing without the device. A few seconds later the container was completely sealed.
Moving closer she made a wall of Dragon's super-insulator, the same stuff the gun barrel was now clad in, and stepped back. "OK. I've made a very heavily spring-loaded firing pin to Armsmaster's design, with a retaining bolt holding it back. The initiator crystal is in place and the whole thing is armed and loaded with that amount of isomer. I can fire it by dissipating the bolt, which will allow the firing pin to hit the crystal. Everyone ready?"
They all nodded, bracing themselves fairly pointlessly. "The EDM should absorb most of the sound but I expect it will still be quite loud, so cover your ears," she warned. "Three… two… one..."
There was an incredibly loud THOOM! sound and the entire room shivered briefly, along with a wave of heat that rolled over them like they were close to a fire for a moment. The insulated wall absorbed most of it but a fair amount was put into the air, which was several degrees hotter immediately. Even the floor warmed instantly from the conducted heat.
"Holy shit!" Leet yelped, as Über ducked a little. Colin stood his ground, although he flinched slightly. Raptaur smiled.
"I'd say that sounded like it worked," she said happily, holding a hand out and feeling the heat coming from the test chamber. A moment later the entire thing, along with the wall, disappeared. "So that's everything. We have all the components of the weapon, we just need to put them together when needed."
"It would appear so," Colin nodded. "Well done to everyone, I think." He turned to look at the weapon on its table, visibly pensive. "I would ideally like to test it, but all the simulations show it will work to design and the piecemeal tests back them up. It's not the sort of device we can use lightly, which is the problem."
"It's not the sort of device you really want anyone to even know about unless necessary," Über commented, making him look at the young man, then nod.
"I would have to agree," Legend said as he stood up from his chair and walked over to the weapon, running his hand down it. "This thing is absolutely terrifying. I'm not even sure where we could test it without causing one or more governments to get very upset."
"I can make some discreet inquiries to the Canadian government," Dragon pointed out. "I have some contacts who can keep their mouths shut. If you're prepared to lend your support, it may be possible to arrange to take it up to the far north of the country for a test fire, which is far enough away from anyone that it's unlikely to cause too much trouble. The only problem is that we're running out of time, the next attack is likely anywhere from today to sometime in the next week if the Endbringers stick to the normal pattern."
"And it will most likely be the Simurgh," Colin added. "Probably the best target for this device, but also probably the worst of them."
"We'd better press ahead, then," Legend replied. "You two get to work on this wormhole device, if we can get that made as soon as possible it will allow us to deploy Kaiju anywhere in the world fast enough to be useful, and possibly other people as well with a suitably shielded carrier system, or costumes, or whatever we end up using. Dragon, if you can also make those inquiries and forward any necessary official questions to me, I'm happy to help push for a test fire. But we may have to face the fact that events will end up requiring it to be used for the first time in a real attack." He turned to Raptaur, who was listening quietly.
"Is your sister ready for that?"
"She is," the Family member said. "She's close enough that I can get word to her quickly, and she can be ready in a short time. I'll make sure all this data gets to her tonight and she'll be ready to make the weapon when needed."
"Good." He looked back at the preposterously large gun, then shook his head. "I don't know whether I want to see this fired, or never see it fired," he muttered.
"It'll be something to see," Leet chuckled. "But only from a significant distance."
"I've got a number of very heavily shielded drones that I'll deploy if we do use it," Dragon told him. "I'm as curious as you are to witness it but I have no intention of being anywhere near it at the time."
Über asked curiously, turning to Raptaur, "How fast could your sister reload it? Could she do something like automatic fire?"
"If we need more than one or two shots it's probably gone badly wrong," Legend suggested with a sigh.
"True enough, but I'm curious," the young man smiled. "Just out of interest."
"Probably roughly one a second with some practice," Raptaur replied after thinking it through. "Given the pattern of the round, which is fairly complicated but not wildly so, making a new one is quite quick." She looked at the gun, then grinned evilly. "In fact..."
"Oh, hell, why does that expression fill me with foreboding?" Colin sighed.
"Common sense?" Dragon quipped. He gave her a look of mild irritation, causing her to grin internally.
"Thank you," he said. She bowed slightly.
"Any time, my friend," she replied lightly. They turned to watch what Raptaur was doing, which turned out to be rapidly assembling a scale model of the enormous gun, ending up with merely a huge gun. She hefted it, holding it to her shoulder and panning it around.
"Not bad," she muttered to herself. The stock changed shape slightly once or twice, molding itself to her body. "Better."
"What are you going to do?" Legend asked, sounding and looking a little worried.
"See how fast I can reload it," she smiled.
"What's the load?" Leet asked. She held up a scaled down version of the massive round the full-size weapon took.
"Don't worry, this one isn't fusion powered, it's compressed air," she told them. "I'll form a tiny sphere of air in an EDM shell at a few thousand PSI then make the container go away, which should give a reasonable simulation of the shot. The projectiles are made of aluminum instead of EDM so are very light and won't go very far, too much drag. Plus they'll dissipate in about a second anyway. I just want to see what it's like to make the round in place."
Putting the gun on the table, Raptaur moved to the nearest phone and picked it up, dialing a short code, then waiting. "Hi, Danny, can you let everyone know that it's going to get pretty loud around the back of the BBFO building for a few minutes? We're just testing something, it won't take very long, but I don't want to make people think something blew up." She listened, then chuckled. "Sure. Ten minutes?"
Nodding, she put the phone down. "OK. He'll radio everyone to let them know."
Shortly the back roller door was open, all of them standing in the opening, watching Raptaur who had her scaled-down super-gun to her shoulder. "I'll fire one shot to see what happens," she said over her shoulder, then aimed upwards out over the uninhabited part of the bay. The nearest person was at least three miles away in that direction, which Dragon was satisfied was enough to be safe.
"Bang," the lizard said, a massive BOOM following her word, along with a large cloud of vapor expanding from the barrel. A visible shock wave spread out on the water in front of them even with the thing at a thirty degree angle upwards.
"Fuck me," Über yelled, his hands over his ears. "Warn a guy, will you? That was a lot louder than I expected."
"Sorry, the air pressure might be a little too high," Raptaur apologized, looking slightly embarrassed. He muttered to himself irritably, wiggling a finger in his right ear. "I'll get Amy to look at you later."
She raised the gun again, the next blast being much quieter, but still remarkably loud for what was basically an air-gun. Dragon tracked the projectiles come out the barrel as moving at nearly twice the speed of sound. She was impressed, the lizard-woman had casually made what could be a very dangerous weapon if it was loaded with a more serious projectile.
Raptaur fired again, then again, the pause between shots narrowing. After a dozen or so it sounded like a very loud diesel engine, expanding clouds of water vapor coming out at roughly one second intervals. She fired a few more, then lowered it. "That's not bad. I think the real thing would probably take about twice that time to reload, but one five kiloton shot every two seconds should deal with most things."
"I'd say so," Colin said with an expression of horror. "Please make sure your sister refrains from doing that. Killing an Endbringer is a good thing, stripping half the atmosphere off in the process is less so. Never mind the risk of the projectiles hitting something valuable before they dissipate. Such as a satellite."
Leet lowered his hands from his ears in time to hear this and started laughing. Colin glared at him. "Sorry, but you really sounded worried there, it was kind of funny," the other Tinker snickered. "Kaiju can point at the moon and shout 'Pull!'. We'd probably see the flash from here when the darts hit it."
"Oh, god, what have I done?" Colin sighed. Everyone else exchanged glances and smiled. Coming back into the building, Raptaur put her over the top air-gun on the table, then walked over to the real thing, looking at it thoughtfully. Leet closed the roller door and joined her.
"What are you thinking?" he asked curiously.
"It's a legendary weapon. They always have names."
"Fucking huge gun?" he suggested.
She smiled a little, but shook her head. "Too long." A few seconds passed, then she leaned forward and touched the weapon. "Human mythology and tradition," she said softly. "Slightly pretentious, but I think valid." Everyone watched as raised letters in a flowing script formed on the side of the barrel. Satisfied, she pulled back, walking over to the phone to call the Hebert man to tell him the loud noises were over.
Dragon read the inscription, then looked at Colin, meeting his eyes behind his visor. Even as a machine, she felt trepidation at the end result of their work.
Reaching out she ran her hand over the word on the barrel. She knew the mythology involved with the name.
Athena
It seemed rather appropriate.
Packing the last of the equipment into the truck, Colin closed the rear door, then set the security system. He turned to Raptaur who had loaded the currently functional wormhole generator into the vehicle for him, having made EDM cases for both units, the original parts still inside the shielded box he'd brought to the BBFO office. "Thank you for all the work you put in today, and for making your premises available to us," he said, holding out his hand. "I'll be in touch soon with the results of the next tests on the wormhole system. Hopefully there will be no significant problems and we can duplicate the unit fully. I'll be working on miniaturizing the device as well, and hardening it against shock. Can I rely on you to make new parts as needed, since you can do it much more rapidly than I can?"
"Of course. It was nice having all you guys working here, I learned a lot myself and found it all very interesting," she replied, smiling. "It was extremely educational and a lot of fun."
He looked past her at the weapon on the table. "I'll get rid of it to keep it confidential," she assured him. "There's no need for it at the moment, I can recreate it easily when I have to show Kaiju how. We'll presumably have to install the wormhole generator and power supply in it before deploying anyway, since those would need to be supplied by you."
"I suspect so. Hopefully we'll have time to test it before the next attack, but if not..." He shrugged. "A live test will still work. I have little doubt that the weapon will function as intended, although the effect on an Endbringer is still unknown."
"It'll probably slow them down a hell of a lot if nothing else," she commented, which he could only agree with. "Worth trying no matter what happens."
"It is, yes." Turning to Legend who had come over and was listening, he added, "I'm heading back to the Rig. Are you coming, sir?"
"I have to make a detour to talk to a couple of people but I'll see you there later," his superior assured him.
Colin looked over at Dragon, who was deep in conversation with Leet. Raptaur followed his eyes, then smiled. "They'll probably be talking for a while. Don't worry, I don't mind her staying if she wants to."
"All right. I'll speak to you later," he replied, heading for the door of the vehicle. She moved to the side and flipped the switch that made the roller door rise, allowing him to drive the truck out. With a wave, she lowered it again after Legend had also left, the door clunking to the ground a few seconds later. Carefully turning out of the exit he headed for the gate, both pleased with the end result of the last few hours work, and somewhat pensive for exactly the same reason.
He passed Amy Dallon's truck going the other way just as he reached the gate, the girl waving at him with a smile. A large head sticking out the side window grinned at him, making him look in the side mirror, sigh, shake his own head, then leave the insanity of this place behind.
Taylor walked back to the three people still at the table, or at least what she strongly suspected was the two human people and one quite likely not. It didn't bother her at all, but she was very curious. Even so, it wasn't her business so she wasn't going to raise the subject, certainly not in front of Randall and Kevin, as much as she liked them. Some things were private.
"You need a coffee machine in here, and some fridges as well for cold drinks," Kevin noted as he looked up. She nodded.
"True, I'm going to arrange to get that sort of thing over the next week. We're still setting up, of course." She looked around, satisfied. "It's coming along pretty well so far."
Moving over to the weapon she dismissed it, then the table. Soon the room was back to normal. Randall was experimentally hefting her smaller copy, grunting a little under the weight. It was in the area of some hundred pounds or so since it was mostly made of EDM, not that it needed to be quite so indestructible. "This thing is ridiculous," he puffed, trying to hold it to his shoulder. It didn't quite fit normal human anatomy but he persisted, finally seating it properly then attempting to hold it steady. She grinned as the barrel wove around in a way that ensured he'd never be able to hit anything even if he could fire it.
Dragon was watching, as was Kevin, both of them appearing amused. "It's bigger than you are, man," Kevin chuckled.
"Not quite, but not far off," Randall muttered, finally putting the thing down, leaning it against the wall. "Way too heavy."
Joining them, she lay down on the floor and put her arms on the table. "So," she said, looking at both the men, then Dragon. "You seem to have stayed behind for a reason."
"I have," the renowned Tinker replied. "I wanted to talk to Leet, and you."
"Am I right in suspecting that you might want to inspect his tricorder?" she asked with a grin. The power-armored reptilian themed figure couldn't really look surprised, but the effect she produced was pretty close.
"Yes, in fact you are," Dragon said.
"Good. We were wanting to talk about the same thing," Taylor smiled.
"You were, were you?" Now Dragon seemed slightly amused.
"We have a proposition for you, if you're interested." Reaching down to a case her father had given her the day before, she picked it off the floor and put it on the table, opening it and pulling out a folder which she opened. Removing three stapled-together sets of paper, she handed one to each of Kevin and Dragon, retaining the third for herself, then closed the case and put it back down.
Dragon picked up her copy and skimmed the first page, then looked at her. "A contract."
"A contract. Between BBFO, LLC, the Parahuman Tinker known as Leet, and the Parahuman Tinker known as Dragon, owner/operator of Draco-tech Industries in Vancouver, Canada," Taylor nodded. "Two contracts, actually. One between BBFO and Leet, one between BBFO and Dragon. Leet assigns the designs and manufacturing rights to the device known as the Tricorder and a currently unnamed device described as an audio field inducer to BBFO in return for a share of profits, a one off payment of one hundred thousand dollars, and a veto over further licensing if necessary. BBFO subsequently licenses Draco-tech to reverse-engineer and if possible mass produce said devices, sale price to be determined by further discussion, at a royalty also to be determined. Draco-tech undertakes not to sell the two devices to any party that would either cause harm to the reputation of BBFO, the Brockton Bay Dock Workers Union, the City of Brockton Bay, or Leet, or commit illegal acts with said technology."
She paused for breath, glad that her father had gone over the fine details of that little speech with her several times yesterday morning.
All three of them were staring at her, Kevin with a slightly open mouth. Randall seemed impressed, and Dragon was almost impossible to read for the moment.
Eventually the Canadian looked down at the paperwork again. She flipped through it, reading each page, stopping a couple of times and going back, before she nodded. "It looks very solid and well thought out."
"The DWU has a good legal team that specializes in contracts," Taylor smiled. "It's legal both in the US and Canada, and takes into account all our licenses, permits, and legal standing. Are you interested?"
The armored head studied her for ten seconds or so, then inspected Kevin. Dragon turned back to her after another short pause.
"Do you have a pen?"
Taylor handed her one with a grin. "Leet? You still in?"
"I am," he said, smiling. "One thing before I sign. I want that thing back whether or not you can figure it out, it's one of my best inventions and I'm very fond of it."
Dragon looked at him and held out a hand, which he shook. "I promise."
"Good enough."
Taylor handed him a pen as well, then watched as they both signed the papers and gave them to her. She signed her copies of the reciprocal agreements and distributed them.
Kevin got up and retrieved his own large toolbox from the floor, opening it and pulling out the tricorder, which he slightly reluctantly handed to Dragon. The woman took it carefully, studying it closely. "I have the audio inducer and the design notes for both in the van, I'll go get them," he said, before heading for the door. When he came back Amy and Lisa were with him.
"Did it go well?" Amy asked curiously, looking around.
"It did, thanks," she replied. Glancing at Lisa who had moved to lean against the wall next to the table, she smiled widely. "I happened to be looking at PHO earlier and I saw some very funny videos," she added. "Your poor sister looked like she couldn't work out what the hell was going on."
Both girls laughed. "That was hilarious," the healer said. "Poor Vicky. But she started it."
"I finished it," Lisa grinned. "They should look behind themselves more often when they're on a hunt."
Shaking her head in amusement, Taylor looked back to Dragon, who had just closed the padded case Leet had given her, which contained the audio inducer, and was now quickly looking over a pair of notebooks filled with his surprisingly neat writing. He'd also given her a USB stick full of data. "Is that enough to do it with?" she asked.
"I think it is, thank you," the Tinker replied, seeming very pleased. "Obviously I'll do the other project first as it's more urgent at the moment, but I'll start on this immediately afterward. I expect, based on our results today, that it will go well."
"I hope so. When you know whether you can do it, contact us and we can work out the rest of it." Taylor smiled again. "I have access to a very good contract negotiator, but I think we can come to a fair arrangement for everyone."
"Hopefully so," Dragon said. "This has been a very interesting and rewarding day, thank you all for everything you've done. I have a feeling that we're likely to repeat such things in the future."
"I have an awful lot of tech that used to do some very cool things," Kevin suggested with a grin. "If someone was prepared to look at it..." He rubbed his fingers together in a manner that suggested cash, making Dragon laugh.
"For a villain you're remarkably easy to deal with and a lot saner than your video channel would suggest," the woman snickered.
"We're not much into the actual villainy stuff," Randall explained. "It's more having fun and giving the public something interesting to watch. Unfortunately we have been a little… hmm… not entirely legal about how we did that?" He also grinned. "We're thinking of trying to change our approach a little."
She nodded thoughtfully. "That might not be a bad idea. You both have a lot of talent I can't help feeling is being wasted. However, it's not my place to tell you how to run your lives, although I'd certainly like to see you on the side of good. Or at least neutral like the Family." She glanced at Taylor, then Lisa. "I'm still not entirely sure whether they're neutral good, neutral evil, or just randomly weird."
"Chaotic neutral if you use that metaphor," Kevin laughed. "But with a good bias." He pointed at Lisa. "Mostly. That one is just peculiar."
"Hey, speak for yourself, puny mammal," Lisa snickered. "Cousin Saurial told me about you two. You're strange even for humans."
"Thanks very much," he grinned.
"See?"
Dragon looked around at them, then shook her head. "I should probably go before I get dragged into the insanity too much," she said with a laugh in her voice. Standing up she picked up the case. "It has been a genuine pleasure working with you all. I'll be in contact soon."
"Great. I've had a lot of fun as well," Taylor smiled, also rising. She led the way to the door, opening it then standing aside. Dragon nodded her thanks, got half-way through the entrance, then glanced at the poster of the warhammer and stopped. She gave the appearance of someone thinking hard, before slowly moving on. A couple of steps outside the building she looked back at it, then Taylor.
Taylor shrugged slightly, smiled at her, and closed the door, saying "See you later," as she did so. A few seconds later she heard Dragon's thrusters light off and the sound of the armored cape flying away.
Wondering how much she'd worked out with an inner grin, she turned around and went back to her friends, including the newest ones, reverting to her base form on the way. She wanted for find out what had happened with the two girls, who were looking far too pleased with themselves.
Dragon stared at the closed door behind which some of the oddest people she'd ever met were. She thought long and hard about the poster, the one she'd seen several times now, having suddenly had a very good idea what it actually was meant to convey. Running calculations in her head she lifted off, heading for the rig, wondering exactly how hard Kaiju could swing a proportionally sized warhammer.
The implications were extremely disturbing.
Half way to her destination, she'd decided it was probably best not to mention her insight right at the moment. It wasn't immediately relevant and it would only worry poor Colin and Director Piggot more than they already were, not to mention Hannah, who if she was any judge of human behavior found the Family completely terrifying.
She wasn't entirely sure the woman was wrong, in fact, but there was little point in stirring that particular pot as far as she could see.
That said, the next time she got Raptaur alone she wanted to ask a few delicate questions surrounding mysterious detonations off the coast of Quebec. She had a shrewd idea she might now know one possible cause.
"I stopped off on the way back and asked your father to order another ton of onions," Amy said, dropping into a chair with a faint sigh of relief. It was nice to be back with people who she could be completely open with, although she'd had a lot of fun so far. "He's going to do it tomorrow morning, so we should be ready to start on yours tomorrow evening," she added, looking at Lisa, who smiled.
"Excuse me?" Kevin, who had taken off his balaclava, asked, looking between all three girls. "Are you implying that," he pointed at the form of 'Ianthe', "was made from onions!?"
"Didn't I mention that?" Amy asked, grinning at him. "It started out as over half a ton of onions. They're cheap, easy to work with, and no one bats an eye around here if you order them by the truckload."
"Good grief. Your power is as bullshit as hers is," he sighed, waving at Taylor, who was also smiling. "Making lizard people out of onions and impossible metals. Just insane."
"I have to admit you don't look like an onion, Lisa," Randall chuckled. "I assume you two made absolutely sure that everyone in New England saw both of you together?"
"Pretty much," Lisa agreed. She pointed at Amy. "We went to her house, her aunt's house, Brockton General, all over the boardwalk, the mall, and downtown. There must be hundreds of photos of us floating around the net by now. I can't see how anyone is going to point at Ianthe in the street when Amy's in here and shout 'Panacea!'. It would be a hell of a leap even for me, and there's a lot of evidence out there now to disprove it." She grinned. "Even that idiot VoidCowboy would probably think it was impossible."
Both young men laughed like lunatics at her dry tone. "Oh, god, that fuckwit," Kevin chuckled. "I got him tempbanned in four messages once."
Lisa held up three fingers. He stared, then laughed again. "That was you?"
"I created a new account just to do it, he was annoying me," she giggled.
"Good one." Checking his watch, he glanced at his friend. "Half past four, we should go. I've got an online game in forty minutes I don't want to miss." Standing, he pulled his balaclava on again. "Taylor, it was more fun than I expected by a huge amount. I'll see you around soon, I hope."
"You will, I'm sure," she replied. "I'll get you your money during the week. I assume you want cash?"
"That would be easiest, yes," he said. "Wait until Dragon works out if she can actually do it, though, I don't feel right taking money from you if not, even if you can afford it."
"Fair enough. I'll let you know as soon as I hear anything."
"Great. Come on, Randall, time to shoot some bad guys. Virtually, of course."
"OK." His friend also rose, waving to them, then both men left. Amy followed them and locked the door behind them, before returning to her seat.
"What the hell is that for?" she asked curiously, pointing at the huge air-gun against the wall. Taylor looked at it, then back to her.
"An experiment. It's pretty loud."
"It looks like it probably is." Leaning back, Amy propped her feet on the table, then relaxed. "Been a good day."
"It has." Turning to Lisa, Taylor asked, "Decided on a color yet?"
"Black scales with a hint of deep red, I think," the girl replied, looking at her arm. "This is nice, but purple isn't really me. I thought of the color scheme from my costume but that's sort of obvious. Black and red is a classic and should look cool. And I want the healing ability as well."
"Fine by me," Amy smiled. "The more healers around the better and the less work I have to do, not to mention the less attention on me as Panacea. I'm very pleased how well it works. Your power seems to interface to it better than I expected."
"It's a little odd, my power is being more cooperative than I can ever remember since you did the mods to me," Lisa noted thoughtfully. "If I had to explain it, I'd say it was pleased. It's certainly working a damn sight better than it usually does, more smoothly if that makes any sense, and I haven't had a thinker headache since I got in here for the first time last night."
"Really?" Amy asked, looking surprised and pleased. "That's… somewhat unexpected." She thought hard. "Now that you mention it, since I upgraded myself my own power seems slightly more effective. I've been getting all sorts of ideas that seem to come together even more easily recently." Looking at Taylor, she put out a hand and touched her, then shook her head. "But it's had no effect at all on working you out. Still no clue, it just goes and hides after staring in horror."
Taylor grinned at the description. "Obviously demons and you human types work on entirely different principals."
"I'd say that's a massive understatement, demon girl," her friend giggled. "But it's an interesting effect. I wonder what's causing it?"
"Maybe adding the neural tissue and the external secondary brain has just given your abilities more to work with?" Taylor asked. "If it works through the brain, I'd guess that more brain equals more power, or better control or something like that. It makes a weird sort of sense."
"I guess." Amy tugged at her lower lip for a moment, thinking, then shrugged. "No point worrying about it right now, we don't have enough information. We should keep track of anything else like that, but it seems if anything to be beneficial, assuming we're not just imagining it." She got up, stretching widely, even her tail sticking straight out behind her, then relaxed. "Let's start on the new skeleton, we can do that even without enough onions to complete it."
"OK." All three of them went into her workroom, Taylor soon beginning the assembly of the next bioconstruct's mechanical parts while Amy directed her and Lisa watched with great interest, asking questions as they proceeded.