Jogging into the yard as Saurial, Taylor waved to various people, heading towards the tanker. The filter towers and pumps were silent now, the ship having been fully drained, and there were several wide gangways linking the shore to the deck, along which a lot of people were moving back and forth transferring removed material in wheelbarrows. One in the middle was heavily reinforced and had a number of small diesel-powered dumpers moving across it to take the heavier scrap. On the shore it was being sorted into piles, then loaded into trucks to be moved to the relevant destination. Recyclable metals were heading for a warehouse until the railway was finished, which would be the end of the week.
There was one crew who were wearing protective suits, complete with breathing apparatus, which were the ones removing all the asbestos insulation from the engine room and the electrical systems. She went over to them, the lead worker pulling his transparent mask off and nodding to her. "Hi, Gary, how's it going?" she asked when she reached him.
"Hi, Saurial." The man looked around at his coworkers for a moment. "Not bad at all. We're ahead of schedule on the decontamination by about half a day. There's some asbestos pellets in the engine room we can't get at until the engines are out, but we've nearly finished removing it from everywhere else. All the tanks are dry, the remaining oil and fuel has been removed, and as far as I know the bulk of the wiring that the scavengers left is also gone now. Everything is on schedule to have Kaiju cut it up tomorrow afternoon."
"Is it ready for her to take the deck off and get the engines and propeller shafts out?" she asked.
"Just about. If Raptaur and you could give us a hand with some of the heavier stuff, cut holes in things so we can get at the insides for instance, we'll be at that point in one, maybe two hours. Otherwise it will be tomorrow morning."
"OK. I'm busy with some other stuff, but Metis will help Raptaur, she's interested in seeing what we're doing and wants to lend a hand," she smiled. "I'll go and tell them."
"Thanks. By the way, how many more of your cousins and sisters are we expecting to turn up?" Gary asked, grinning. "We seem to have a lot of lizards running around these days."
"Our family is quite large," she laughed, "but don't worry, they're not all going to turn up at once. We have lots of other things we need to do as well."
"I'm not saying I mind," he chuckled. "I like the giant lizards. The union would be in a much worse place without you guys. Visit as much as you want if this sort of thing happens." He looked around at his colleagues, who all nodded. "The Family is part of the Union, as far as we're concerned."
"Thanks very much," she replied, feeling pleased and touched. "I'll see you later. Raptaur and Metis should be here shortly."
He waved as she moved off, pulling his breathing mask back on and heading towards the ship with his team. Taylor ran the length of the ship studying everything going on, happy with the end result, then went towards the office. On the way she spotted Rachel with three dogs walking beside her, apparently just exercising them, so diverted towards the girl, who stopped and waited for her.
"Hi, Rachel," she said when she reached the girl, who was scratching one of the dogs, a huge bull mastiff, behind the ears.
"Saurial," Rachel said, nodding, her face pretty much blank but her scent not worried. If anything she smelled contented.
"How are things going with you and your dogs?" she asked, kneeling down and holding out her hand to the mastiff, which sniffed carefully and warily, then allowed her to stroke it. Rachel watched, a mildly approving look crossing her face for a moment. "Is everything you need set up?"
"Things are good," the girl replied after a moment. "The dogs are fine." She paused, then almost as an afterthought added, "Thank you."
Taylor smiled. "You're welcome, Rachel. I'm very glad it's working out. I know Lisa is happy, and Brian seemed in a good mood the last time I saw him. Alec is playing games but that seems to be keeping him occupied as well."
Rachel sniffed. "Games. Waste of time."
"Possibly, but he enjoys it." She stood up. "We're working on fixing things for you to get your legal problems sorted out. Hopefully we can make it so you can leave here soon."
"Like it here," Rachel muttered, stroking another dog. "But I'd also like to be able to leave sometimes."
Taylor grinned at her. "I'm glad you like it. I was worried you'd feel cooped up without being able to ride your dogs around."
The girl cracked a smile for a moment. "I like riding the dogs. They like it too. But we can wait." She looked around the yard. "Good people here, I think. No one looks down on me. Most of them like dogs too." The last point seemed to be the most important one.
"So I understand," Taylor smiled. "Great. If you have any problems, or need anything, just let any of us, or Danny, know. OK?"
Rachel nodded. "Thanks," she said again, sounding more natural this time. Taylor got the distinct impression she didn't say it very often. The girl was in some ways less human than the Varga was, or at least certainly had less understanding of how people worked, but Taylor could see she genuinely was happy with the way things were going. "Got two more dogs that need healing."
"That's not a problem. Bring them into the office when Metis or Ianthe, or Amy, are around and they'll fix them for you."
The girl looked pleased, smiled a very small amount without showing teeth, then walked off with her dogs following. Taylor watched her go, a little amused at the brusque manner, before resuming her jog to the BBFO office.
When she entered the building, she found Lisa fiddling with a stack of equipment, some of the stuff that had come on Monday that they hadn't set up yet. The blonde looked up at her and smiled. "Hi. I've just about got this working."
"That's the radio and cell phone relay gear Armsmaster recommended?"
"Yes. I need a hole here in the wall so we can run a cable through for the external antenna system. If we make an EDM box and mount this connector into it, you can just unplug it to isolate the inside of the room when you need it secure."
"OK, that's easy enough." Taylor knelt down next to the internet line, reaching out and making a hole in the sheathing covering the wall. After that she used a thin blade to cut a hole in the wall beyond that. Looking at the connector Lisa was holding, she replaced the sheathing with a six inch square shallow box and filled in around it. Lisa tested the fit of the connector, nodding when she found it went neatly into the hole left for it. Taylor made a lid for the box that could be dropped into place over the connector when the mating one on the internal cable was unplugged.
"Great. We need to feed this in from outside, then put the antenna system on the roof."
"Got it." Going back outside with the antenna, she scrambled up the front of the building to the roof. It was a matter of a few seconds to attach the pole, which had half a dozen antennae of various sorts already fitted to it, to the peak of the surface she was standing on. Cutting the strap holding the cable in a coil, she dropped it down to Lisa who was looking up at her, then jumped down. They soon had it bolted into the inside of the box and the wall repaired around it.
Inside again, she watched as Lisa connected the other cable to the connector, then started turning the equipment on, flipping switches and prodding buttons on a keypad. Eventually she nodded, satisfied.
"That should do it."
Closing the door, Taylor pulled out her phone and looked at the display. It was showing full signal strength, as opposed to the normal no signal. Lisa unplugged the cable from the antenna and shut the lid of the box, the signal on the phone immediately dying away completely. "That works," she smiled.
"Wonderful. OK, let's try the radio." The blonde girl went to the table and picked up one of the four DWU radios which were there in a gang charger, plugged into the wall. When she turned the volume up they could hear messages from a number of sources in the yard. Waiting for a clear spot, she pressed the transmit key. "Lisa, testing the new BBFO relay. Danny, can you hear me?" She released the key.
Seconds later, the radio spoke, "Loud and clear, Lisa. It works fine. Good work."
"Thanks, Danny. Lisa out." She put the device back in the charger, turning it down again.
"That should do it," the girl smiled. "We have landline, cell coverage, internet, and radio communications, but can go silent and secure just by disconnecting two cables."
"Fantastic. Thanks a lot for the help," Taylor grinned.
"Anything for my cousin," Lisa replied with a grin of her own. "Speaking of which, Metis needs to exercise."
"She can exercise by helping Raptaur cut stuff up in the ship if she wants," Taylor said, switching to her larger form.
"I'll just go ask her," Lisa smirked, disappearing into the workroom. A couple of minutes later, 'Metis' stepped out, carefully locking it behind her. "Yes, Cousin, I would be pleased to help you with this… salvage… thing the humans are doing. It sounds like fun." The black and red lizard smiled widely.
"Don't get carried away," Taylor laughed. "We're meant to be teaching the cousins about humans, remember. They need to learn to be a little less alien."
"I have to confess I don't understand your point, Cousin," Lisa giggled.
"Of course you don't. Watch and learn." They shared an amused look, then headed outside, grabbing a couple of radios first and locking up on the way.
Driving up to the gate, Amy smiled at Mike, who nodded to her and looked at the others in the vehicle. "Hello, Amy," he said pleasantly. "More friends?"
"People I know from school who wanted to come and meet some of the Family," she replied. "Guys, this is Mike."
Greetings from the four other teenagers made him smile. "OK. Raptaur and Metis are tearing holes in the ship, from what I heard. I think they're supposed to be done soon." He waved to his colleague who Amy still didn't know the name of, the other man opening the barrier. "Have fun. See you later."
"Thanks, Mike," she replied, letting the brake off and driving through.
"He seems nice," Mandy said from the back seat, where she was sitting between Rich and Eric.
"Mike is a decent guy," Amy noted, meeting her friend's eyes in the mirror. "They all are, pretty much. Or even if not, they're polite and hard working." She grinned slightly. "Some people here have interesting pasts, let's leave it at that."
"My dad has told me a few stories about DWU people," Eric chuckled. "Never get in a bar fight with them, was one thing he said. They're at least as bad as the crew of a ship, you go after one of them and all their friends join in."
"I will bear that in mind for my next bar fight," Mandy replied seriously. "You know how I like to get drunk then challenge the biggest guy in the place. I can't help it."
"So I'm told," he snickered, making her smile.
"Here we are," Amy announced, turning into the parking area and stopping. She was grinning at the comments from the rear. "Insane Asylum front entrance."
"That's not what the sign says," Lucy pointed out with a giggle.
"Ah. I'll have to get that changed," she replied, peering up at it through the windshield. The girl next to her shook her head, laughing.
Removing her seat belt and jumping out, she waited for her friends to also exit the truck, then locked it. Going to the main door she pulled her key out and opened it, waving them inside. "Come on in. We can wait for Raptaur, I'll give her a call on the radio to let her know we're here." She'd noticed that there was a new antenna on the roof and guessed it was the relay system Armsmaster had specced up for them, the parts having arrived on Monday. Lisa and Taylor had obviously been busy.
Walking over to the charger which was missing two radios, she picked up a third one and turned it on. Waiting for a clear spot, she transmitted, "Amy here. Raptaur, are you receiving?"
"I'm here, Amy. What's up?" came an almost immediate response, her friend's deep voice sounding cheerful.
"I'm at the office with some friends who wanted to meet you. Are you going to be free soon?"
"Yes, we're nearly done here. We need to jump in the bay to wash off the asbestos dust, I think we'll be about ten minutes. I have about an hour free then I have to go find Kaiju, she needs to do some cutting and lifting here when the other guys are done."
"OK. Amy out." She put the radio back, then turned to her friends, who were staring at her.
"Wow. You sound like you know what you're doing," Lucy commented with a smile.
"Shh, don't tell them I'm just faking it really well," she snickered. "Look around if you want, there's nothing here that's dangerous outside the storeroom over there."
The four others spread out, while she investigated a pile of boxes next to the bookshelves, opening one and finding it was full of the textbooks that Taylor had ordered. Soon she was pulling books out and shelving them, Mandy coming to help her after a quick look about the room. When they finished, the other girl looked at the three largest remaining boxes. Two were quite big and identical, the other somewhat smaller.
"What's in those?" she asked curiously.
Amy checked the labels. "These two are small fridges, this is a coffee machine," she announced. "The fridges need to go under the bench on the other side of the room, the coffee machine goes on top at that end."
"Give us some help, guys," Mandy called to the others. Lucy, who was closely inspecting the poster that showed Umihebi, looking impressed, turned and hurried over, the two boys coming from the other end of the workshop to join them. Between them they quickly had everything unboxed. Amy could easily have carried the two half-height refrigerators on her own, but it would have looked a little odd, so she let Rich and Eric move them, while she and Mandy carefully carried the complex coffee machine over to its new home. Lucy was reading the instructions during all this.
"It's a nice machine, it makes tea and soup as well as every form of coffee I've ever heard of," she remarked, watching as Amy plugged it in.
"There are some mugs in that other box down there, and the small one should be a lot of tea bags, coffee beans, that sort of thing." Amy pointed at the last two boxes.
By the time Taylor and Lisa came in, slightly damp, all four of them had mugs of hot drinks in front of them, as they sat at the table. Amy had tea, the other three had black coffee. She made a mental note to ask Lisa to order some milk and a few crates of soft drinks for the fridges, which were gently humming on the other side of the room.
Taylor looked around, then nodded in satisfaction. "Great, you unpacked everything. I was going to do that later but you beat me to it. Thanks."
"It was no problem," Amy replied, sipping her tea. "How did it go?"
"Fine," her friend replied, walking over to squat next to her, while Lisa stood a short distance away studying the others, who looked a little awed. "We made a lot of holes in the superstructure so the guys could get at the remaining asbestos and that sort of thing. There's some under the engines which will have to wait until that gets pulled out in an hour or so, but the rest is now out. Kaiju can cut the top off, take out the driveshafts and engines, and then tomorrow when the rest of the work is done, cut the ship itself into sections."
"That should be impressive to watch," she smiled.
"I expect so," Taylor grinned. Turning to the other four, she studied them. "Based on Ianthe's description, you are Mandy and you are Lucy," she said, pointing at the two girls, who both nodded quickly.
"I'm Eric, and he's Rich," Eric put in.
"Really? Then he's lucky, most people never become rich," Taylor said with a straight face. They all stared at her, then started laughing. She grinned for a moment. "Sorry, can't help it, I like word games. It's nice to meet you all." She turned to the side, waving at Lisa, who came forward. "This is my cousin Metis, Ianthe's sister. She only got here last night."
"I find your species endlessly fascinating," Lisa smiled. "You've done so many things even though you're mostly very fragile. It's impressive."
"Um… Thank you?" Mandy said after a slightly strange pause. "I think."
"Don't say it like that, Metis, it worries people," Taylor sighed, while inwardly Amy was laughing madly.
"And humans are also people." Lisa nodded thoughtfully. "I understand."
Taylor stared at her, then shook her head with a faint sigh. "Sorry, guys, she and Ianthe have a sense of humor that's more peculiar than mine is sometimes, which is saying a lot. They find playing up this whole human thing very funny. My fault, I started it with a comment that might have been badly thought out, knowing the people involved." She gave 'Metis' a hard look. The other lizard grinned, shrugging.
"At least I'm not talking about hunting and eating them. Much."
"And we thank you for it," Amy giggled. Lisa nodded to her, still grinning.
"Is Ianthe around today?" Lucy asked, apparently more amused than anything. Eric and Rich were looking a little nervous, while Mandy seemed unsure whether she should be laughing or hiding.
"Somewhere, I think, but I haven't seen her for a while," Taylor replied. "She comes and goes, like we all do, we have all sorts of things to be getting on with. I'm mainly doing construction and demolition at the moment, Saurial is the one out jumping muggers, and Kaiju turns up for the really heavy lifting." She looked around at her friends, only one of whom knew anything of the truth. "Did you guys watch the tanker recovery?"
"How could we miss it?" Lucy nearly shouted. "It was amazing! Kaiju is so huge! I couldn't believe my eyes at first but I'm really glad we went to see it. It was one of the best things I've ever seen." She stopped abruptly, looking around with an embarrassed expression, then flushed pink. "Sorry," she added in a much quieter voice while everyone looked at her. "I just like the Family."
"I get that idea," Taylor snickered. "Saurial has mentioned you, and Ianthe was favorably impressed as well. There's no need to be embarrassed."
"She's sort of into reptiles in general and lizards specifically," Mandy explained, giggling wildly. "Liking the family is an understatement, I think she wants to join it."
Amy grinned, as did Taylor and Lisa. "Hmm," the latter mumbled, looking at Taylor.
"Don't. They're not ready for that," her friend warned good-naturedly. Amy suppressed a smile at the comment. Lucy was looking puzzled now. "Hey, Lucy? How would you like to do something that hardly anyone has done up until now. Something I reserve for friends."
"What?" the girl asked eagerly. Taylor dropped to all fours, her armor reforming into the usual saddle that Amy abruptly wanted to have another go with, missing the exhilaration of a good fast Raptaur-ride around the city. She could do it herself as Ianthe, of course, but there was something about it being someone else doing the work that made it a real thrill. Like a fantastic roller-coaster.
Lucy stared, then a smile began to grow, reaching a level that was unnervingly close to the one Taylor could manage, although without any demonic abilities. "Really?" she breathed in shock.
"Sure! Why not? Here, put this on." Taylor produced a helmet like the one for Amy's costume. "Health and safety, of course. And it will keep the wind out of your eyes." She gave it to the Chinese girl who stared at it like it was made of solid awesome, then quickly stuffed it on her head. Her grin was still fixed in place.
Mandy looked at her and shuddered, then glanced around at her friends. "Is anyone else scared by that grin? I'm scared by that grin. It's unnatural."
"She does seem to be stuck," Lisa remarked, peering closely at the girl. "How interesting. Is this a human thing?"
"It's a Lucy thing," Eric laughed. "Don't worry, she'll probably go back to normal soon."
"Don't count on it," the girl herself said in tones of extreme happiness.
"OK, on you get," Taylor chuckled, looking highly amused. Lucy jumped off her chair and rushed over, Taylor twisting around at the waist to help her onto her back and into the saddle. She formed leg straps to hold her passenger on. "Is that comfortable?" she asked, reaching up to her head with her small camera in her hand, attaching it to her head pointing back at the girl, who didn't seem to notice. Amy smiled, thinking the footage was going to be pretty funny.
"It's fine, thanks," Lucy giggled, sounding like she couldn't believe what she was doing.
Amy got up and walked over. "Lean forward over her back and hold on to those handles when she's climbing or descending, it's much easier," she advised, pointing to the hand-holds that had also formed in the armor. "Don't worry, you can't possibly fall off."
"This is so cool!" Lucy squeaked, her voice so high-pitched Amy thought she could give an excited Vista a run for her money. Grinning, she went to the door and opened it, allowing Taylor to exit. Everyone else followed behind, all of them holding their phones up to record it.
"Ready, Lucy?" Taylor asked, looking back at the girl, who swallowed, quickly pressed herself flat on the huge reptile's back and gripped the handholds with white knuckles, then nodded swiftly. "Hold on." She started moving, smoothly accelerating to a fast run, a squeal of raw excitement coming back to them. Everyone moved to the entrance of the side yard, watching Taylor dash across the wide expanse of the yard at about forty miles an hour, then speed up and leap up the side of the nearest warehouse in the distance. A faint scream of joy could be heard as they vanished over the roof.
"Holy shit," Mandy muttered, shocked. "That's… pretty fucking amazing. And terrifying."
"Want a go?" Amy asked with a smile. "I'm sure she'd let you."
"Tell you when they come back," Mandy said slowly. "If she's still alive, possibly."
Laughing, Amy stood with her friends, waiting for the other two to return. Lisa was watching them with a wide grin, clearly enjoying the reactions.
Lucy stared at the enormous form of Raptaur, who had just offered something she'd wanted from the moment she'd seen Amy do in on a video she found on PHO. She'd been wondering if she could somehow ask if it was possible, and here it was, just offered out of the blue. She found she was grinning so hard it hurt, nodding wildly.
Very shortly after that, she was sitting on a moving Raptaur, pressed hard against her armor, which seemed to have shifted around in the process of forming the seat she was in to make it as comfortable as possible. The reptile-woman's gait was completely unlike the horses she'd sometimes ridden as a child, much smoother and more comfortable, making her feel like she was practically flying through the air.
Grateful for the helmet face-plate which blocked the wind of their passage, she looked sideways to see the scenery blurring as they sped up, covering the distance across the huge open area next to the DWU complex remarkably quickly. She yipped in shock as Raptaur jumped the fence at the end without slowing at all, then again when her steed increased her velocity, before jumping at least twenty feet into the air and landing vertically on the side of the warehouse they'd been approaching. Not slowing at all she ran up the side of it like it was level ground, reaching the roof in seconds, then bounded across it, hurdling the gap to the next one with ease.
Lucy let out a wild yell of pure joy, waving one hand in the air, then hastily grabbed for her hold as Raptaur jumped the next gap, looking down the sixty feet to the ground and seeing a few random people wandering around. As they landed on the next roof the pedestrians were only just looking up to see where the yell came from.
Sooner than she'd have believed possible they were charging across the roofs of buildings in the commercial district, having covered the three or so miles in a dead straight line regardless of obstructions. Raptaur reached the office buildings that ran next to the freeway that passed through the city, turning to parallel it until they reached a flyover that was about twenty feet lower. Matching her speed to the traffic, which was fairly light, she jumped out and sideways, landing on the road surface a moment later and speeding up. She glanced over her shoulder at Lucy, smiled, looked beyond her at the car behind, then smoothly merged into the fast lane and accelerated hard.
Lucy couldn't believe it. Raptaur was easily matching the speed of the cars at what must have been at least seventy miles an hour, still galloping far more smoothly than a horse could ever have managed even assuming it could have reached such a speed in the first place. "This is amazing!" she screamed joyfully.
"Glad you're enjoying it," Raptaur shouted back, her deep voice carried away by the wind, but Lucy able to feel it as vibrations through the enormous scaly body she was clinging to. "Let's take a pass through downtown."
"OK!" Lucy howled. They took the next off-ramp, Raptaur slowing to something closer to sane speeds, then headed back towards the bay down the main street. A couple of minutes later they were moving fairly slowly in evening traffic, Lucy sitting up straight now and looking around with a wide grin. People were taking photos and video of them, which made her wave. "I've opaqued your face-plate, by the way, so people can't work out who you are," Raptaur commented over her shoulder. "I thought that was best."
"Thanks." Lucy giggled. "I can't believe I'm doing this. Thank you so, so much."
"You're more than welcome, Lucy," Raptaur laughed. She looked right, then pointed. "Hey, there's Assault and Battery. Want to meet them?"
"Sure." Lucy grinned to herself. This was the best thing she'd ever done.
"Hi, guys," Raptaur said cheerily as she stopped next to the two capes, who had seen her coming and were watching her with what looked like mildly resigned caution. "How's life treating you both?"
"Not too bad, Raptaur," Battery replied politely. "Thanks for asking. And you?"
"Oh, fine, no problems at all."
"Who's your friend?" Assault queried, inspecting Lucy. "A new cape?"
"No, just a friend of Amy's who has good taste in pets and wanted a thrill," Raptaur laughed. "I had some spare time and I thought it was nice to run her around for a while. She seems to be having fun."
Lucy nodded vigorously. "This is great," she laughed. "Best ride I've ever had, it makes roller coasters look like a waste of time."
"Be careful, if Clockblocker finds out you're giving rides he's going to be making horrible jokes and asking for a go himself," the red-clad cape grinned. "You know what he's like."
"I do," Raptaur replied, sounding amused. "We like him, he's a lot like a human version of us in some ways. He likes a good pun."
"There's no such thing as a good pun," Battery muttered, making Lucy giggle.
"Oh, sure there is," Raptaur smiled. "You just have to put some thought into it. Mr Foot agrees."
Assault suddenly started laughing like an idiot, making the blonde woman next to him stare, then sigh. "Oh, grow up, you big idiot," she grumbled, grabbing him by the arm. "It was nice to see you both, Raptaur, Raptaur's mysterious friend. I need to take this fool somewhere and make him calm down."
"Sure. See you around, guys," Raptaur replied, both of them watching as the pair of Protectorate Parahumans walked off, Battery talking quickly to Assault, who was still snickering.
"They're funny," Lucy said, finding the entire thing amusing. "Like they're married or something."
"They do seem to have that vibe, don't they?" Raptaur chuckled. "OK, let's go back. I should have enough time to give your friends a go if they want, then I have to go and find Kaiju." She started heading back towards the docks, taking a few side streets then climbing up onto one of the buildings and heading across the rooftops again. She clearly knew the city like the back of her hand.
"If you don't mind me asking, where do you guys all go when you're not around?" Lucy hesitantly asked a minute or so later. Raptaur's huge head twisted around to look at her for a moment, then went back to looking ahead.
"We go deep," she said with a smile in her voice. "Very deep. But we like it up here as well. We've made some very good friends and we're having a lot of fun."
Not entirely certain she understood, Lucy nodded anyway, holding on as the giant reptile started moving faster. "I'm having fun as well," she finally replied. "More than I could have imagined. I'm very glad you are all here."
"I'm happy that you're happy," Raptaur chuckled, going headfirst down a six story building, crossing a car park, then climbing the next one. "I'll mention you to Kaiju. Stick around and she'll come and say hi."
"I'd like that very much indeed," Lucy replied with great satisfaction. The day had worked out pretty well so far and seemed likely to get even better. Meeting Taylor, and through her Amy, and through her the Family, that had been a good thing in her opinion.