In the end, all four of Taylor's friends decided on a ride. The two boys most likely due to not wanting to be shown up by a couple of girls, considering she had to stop halfway to allow Eric to dismount and have a quiet vomit on the corner of a roof. "You OK, Eric?" she asked when he finished, handing him a glass of water and a cloth.
"I'll live," he said, not questioning the items until he'd drunk the water. He looked oddly at the glass, then twitched a little when it abruptly went away. "Lucy has a very strong stomach if she can handle that sort of thing and come out the other end grinning like an idiot," he added, handing her the cloth, which she took delicately with one talon, then vanished. The small bits of detritus he'd wiped off his mouth dropped to the ground.
"Sorry, I may have been a little over-enthusiastic," she apologized, helping him remount her lower body. "I'll go slower on the way back."
"I'd appreciate it," he replied thankfully.
"Not a fan of roller-coasters?"
"Not really, no," the boy sighed. "And trust me you're a hell of a lot faster than any coaster I've ever been on."
"I've never been on one," she told him truthfully. She'd always wanted to try, but for one reason or another never had the opportunity. Heading back towards the DWU, more slowly, she tried not to make him get sick again.
He'd only barely dismounted fast enough the first time…
Amy laughed like a lunatic at the video they were watching, everyone else doing much the same. Taylor had downloaded the data from her camera, so they were playing the recordings of her rider's faces during the rides. Lucy had worn that same creepy grin the entire time, Mandy had looked terrified at first then joyful, Rich had been alternately paling and laughing, while poor Eric had just looked worried.
"Can I have a copy of those?" Lucy asked when they finished.
"Sure, let me find a memory stick," Taylor replied, rummaging in a box of miscellaneous odds and ends Lisa had thoughtfully ordered, coming up with a box of USB memory sticks after a short search. She handed it to Amy. "I need to go and get Kaiju. I'll see you guys some other time, but it was very nice meeting you all." She shook hands with each of their visitors.
"Thank you so much for offering the rides, Raptaur," Lucy said with a broad smile. "It was fantastic."
"I'm glad you enjoyed it. We can probably do it again some time." Taylor nodded to them then trotted off to the rear door, leaving through it. They heard a splash as it closed.
"This has been so much fun, Amy," the Chinese girl grinned, turning to the healer. "They're so nice."
"I like them, even if they do have a tendency to make strange jokes," Amy replied, glancing at Lisa who was listening to them while tapping away on one of the computers, sitting on her tail and looking amused. "What are you doing this time?"
"Apparently, causing this Clockblocker person to get worried, according to his friend Vista." She smirked at them. "All I did was answer a couple of his questions. Now he's saying he wishes he hadn't asked."
"Stop trolling PHO before you freak those people out too much," Amy snickered.
"There's a very strange one called Void Cowboy who was asking some extremely rude questions," Lisa added, looking back at the screen. "I told him he was being unpleasant and he got very worked up. After two answers he got banned by this BrocktonBayMod person. Is that normal?"
"It is with that idiot, yes," Eric laughed. "Two? I think that's a new record. Well done."
"Thanks, Eric," she smiled. "Still, an odd person. He seems… somewhat immature."
"He's a total fuckwit with a complete lack of understanding about what's appropriate and what isn't," Mandy sighed. "I've read some of his posts. They're a weird mix of insightful and entirely insane, mixed with an unhealthy dose of smut and a lack of humor when he gets criticized. Which happens a lot."
"How odd. Oh, well, humans, right?" Lisa turned away from the computer with a laugh, then cocked her head. "Someone's at the door."
Amy looked over, just as a knock came. She went to open it, finding Rachel there with two dogs, a german shepherd at her feet looking up at her, and some sort of spaniel crossbreed in her arms. "Hello, Rachel," she smiled. "What's the problem?"
"These two are sick," the girl said, not meeting her eyes. "Can you fix them?" She seemed a little reluctant to ask, but also worried about the dogs.
"Of course. Come on in." She stood aside, the girl entering with the shepherd following, limping badly on a hind leg. It was a very handsome dog but had clearly been badly mistreated for some time. The one in her arms looked on the surface in good condition, but it was also obviously lethargic with slightly glazed eyes.
"This is Rachel, a friend of ours," she said as she led the girl over to the others. "Her dogs are a bit sick. Metis, why don't you take the german shepherd, I'll have a look at this guy." She gently lifted the dog out of Rachel's arms and lowered him to the floor. Kneeling down, she put her hands on him. "Oh. I see, he's got failing kidneys. I think he was badly dehydrated for some time," she said, looking at the solidly-built girl who was kneeling on the other side of the dog looking both worried and somewhat angry.
"Can you fix him?" she asked.
"Yes, it's not difficult. He'll be very hungry after, you'll need to feed him about three times as much as normal for a couple of days."
"OK."
Checking the other dog, which Lisa was squatting down next to, she saw that it was looking at the large reptile with a curious and wary expression, its ears alert. Lisa held out a hand, the dog sniffing it carefully, then licking it. She smiled and stroked it's head. Lucy came over and watched closely. "She's beautiful, I always liked german shepherds," the girl said, also offering a hand to the animal.
"Got a bad hip," Rachel commented. "She was torn up in a fight."
"Poor thing." Lucy turned to Lisa. "Can you help her?"
"Sure. Help me get her to lie down." Between them they carefully repositioned the dog, which seemed agreeable to the operation. Amy watched as Lisa put her hand on the animal's back, the healing tendrils diving through the fur and the dog immediately yawning. It seemed to fall asleep while Lucy watched with wide eyes, the rest of their friends staring from a safe distance.
Satisfied it was under control, Amy went to work on her own patient. A couple of minutes later she removed her hands, smiling in triumph. "There you go, Rachel, he's fine now. Several good meals and you'll never know he was sick."
The girl looked pleased, nodding her thanks, then turned to watch as 'Metis' removed her hand from the other dog, which blinked and shook its head, then rolled to its feet. It looked around then trotted over to Rachel showing no signs at all of injury. "That was simple enough," Lisa reported. "A badly set hip and some nasty scarring."
Looking unusually happy, Rachel stood up and gave both of them a nod of thanks, smiling a little, then whistled for the shepherd, which had wandered off to explore the room. She dashed back, jumping a little, then at a motion from the girl, settled down. Rachel looked around at everyone, before heading to the door. "If you have any other problems, bring them around," Amy called.
"Will do that," the girl replied, pulling the door open and looking back at them. "Thanks."
"You're welcome," Lisa smiled. Rachel left, the door closing behind her.
"She sure doesn't say much, does she?" Eric commented.
"No. She's… economical with her words," Amy smiled. "I think she had a hard childhood and prefers dogs to people. But she's still a decent person."
"She looks vaguely familiar for some reason," Mandy said thoughtfully. After a moment she shrugged. "No idea why. The dogs were nice."
They all looked around at a knock on the back door. Lisa went over to open it, the other people trailing along behind out of curiosity. Opening the door, even Amy was somewhat taken aback when a glowing yellow eye over a yard across peered at them from just on the other side. Lucy let out a squeak of shock, Rich and Eric both muttered obscenities and jumped back, while Mandy went very pale and froze. Lisa was grinning at their reactions.
"Don't do that, you enormous pain in the ass," Amy shouted, her heart hammering. It had been quite a shock, like something from a movie.
A very deep chuckle shook the room. "Sorry, Amy, I couldn't resist. How are you today?"
"Having to deal with giant crazy lizards, that's how I am," she replied with asperity. "Why are you scaring people here when you're supposed to be working on the ship?"
Her friends were looking at her like she was insane, which caused a mild giggle to have to be firmly suppressed. The eye withdrew, Amy going outside and looking at Taylor's current form, her hands on her hips. 'Kaiju' rested her chin on the sea wall and grinned at her. "Raptaur mentioned she'd been having fun with some friends of yours, and that there was a girl called Lucy who was very interested in us. I wanted to meet her."
"Lucy, you have a fan," Amy called over her shoulder. The Chinese girl peered around the door and stared, her eyes wide, then smiled a little uncertainly.
"Um, hello, Kaiju," she said nervously.
"Don't worry, I don't bite," Taylor replied with another deep chuckle. "Hey, I remember you. You were in the park when I was towing the ship. You seemed to think it was fun."
"It was," Lucy replied, coming fully outside and looking much less worried. "You actually remember me?"
"I have a very good memory for faces. Even weird non-scaly ones."
Lucy giggled at the comment. "I certainly wouldn't have any trouble picking you out of a crowd."
"It's the eyes, isn't it?" Taylor asked. Lucy stared, then laughed.
"Yes, mostly. Oh, and the eighty foot tall lizard thing as well."
"Fair enough." Looking back to Amy, she added, "I'm off to do this cutting operation. If your friends want to watch they can do it from the yard, but don't get too close just in case, OK?"
"All right." She looked back at the doorway, all the others now crowded into it. "You guys want to watch?"
"Yes, please," Mandy said, not moving her eyes from Taylor. Amy met Lisa's gaze over their heads, her other friend looking like she was trying not to laugh either.
"In that case, I must get to work," Taylor announced, sliding backwards into the deeper water, then submerging. They watched the bulge in the water move swiftly off to the left in the twilight, vanishing almost immediately.
Turning around, Amy looked at the people staring at her now. "What?" she asked.
"You called Kaiju a giant crazy lizard to her face," Rich said slowly.
"So?"
"So you have bigger balls than I do by a massive amount," he grinned. "Fuck, that was terrifying. She's… a bit bigger up close than I expected."
"You get used to it," Amy laughed, coming back into the building. "At heart she's just another friend. A big one, true, but still a friend. Come on, guys, let's go and watch her wreck a supertanker."
"Sounds good," he replied, following with the others as she headed towards the front of the building. "This is certainly an unusual after-school activity you have, though."
"But it's sure not boring," Amy snickered, making all of them laugh quite a lot.
Rising out of the water next to the tanker, Taylor waved to the crews who had turned to watch the bubbles she'd sent up to alert everyone. "Hi, guys," she rumbled, adjusting her hard hat. "Ready for me?"
"We're all set," Gary called from the dockside. "Can you put the engines over there on the yellow marked area, and the driveshafts on the green area, please?"
"Of course. What about the deck parts?" she asked.
"Somewhere to the left of the shafts would be fine. We can do the rest. The ship itself can be moved to the shore right here tomorrow."
She nodded, carefully climbing over the dry-dock wall and standing next to the large ship on the now nearly dry mud. She was tall enough on her hind legs to be looking down on the deck of the vessel. "About here, right?" she asked, pointing to a position near the stern of the ship, having removed the EDM sheathing around that part of it.
"That's about right," Gary called. He and the other work crews moved back as she manifested an enormous but almost invisibly thin blade, a modified version of a sword.
"Absolutely certain no one's still on board?" she asked, just to be safe.
"We triple-checked, the ship is empty," the man replied.
"OK." Pushing the blade through the side of the ship until it came out the other side, she ran it back to the stern, then moved to the start of the cut and carefully sliced down until she met the first point. Dissipating the blade she experimentally poked the rear superstructure, seeing it moved easily, completely disconnected from the remainder of the vessel. Walking around to the back, squeezing in between the wall and the stern, she dug her claws into the bridge and lifted, several hundred tons of metal coming up like she was moving a chair.
The entire yard went dead silent as she rotated at the waist, moving the structure to the shore. It grounded with a loud crunch, the sound carrying across the whole area. She heard a few muttered exclamations of shock but ignored them, moving back to peer into the exposed innards of the tanker.
It took some careful whittling with a smaller blade but eventually she had the entire engine room exposed to the air. Leaning over the side of the ship she studied the huge engines, then grabbed one and wiggled it a little. Satisfied she knew where all the mounting points were she cut them, then lifted the first engine out and put it on the dockside. The second one followed a minute or so later.
"What should I do about the propellers?" she asked Gary who had been watching with an open mouth. "I can cut them off the shafts then take them out separately, or cut the entire back end up and remove them as a single piece. And the right one is bent at the back anyway."
He closed his mouth, then thought, before shrugging. "Cut the props off, I think."
"OK."
This took another ten minutes of careful work, but she eventually had both propellers stacked neatly on the shore and was pulling the straight shaft out from inside the ship, having cut away all the massive bearing assemblies. The bent one took a little more work, she had to gently straighten it before it would come out, but it joined its fellow on the dock. "I think that's it. Anything else you want pulled out right now?"
"No, I think we're good," he replied. "We'll get a crew in there to finish the decontamination, then you can cut it up. Tomorrow afternoon?"
"Sure. I'll come back around four or so, if that's OK."
"Perfect. Thanks very much." He smiled at her, as did several dozen other DWU members.
"It was no problem. See you tomorrow." She waved, then climbed over the wall into the water again, slowly swimming towards the BBFO building. Amy and the others had been watching the entire time, all four of her schoolmates recording her in action with their phones, as had much of the workforce. It seemed likely that she was already on PHO being discussed, something she still found somewhat funny.
"That was easy enough," she said when she was close enough to rest her forearms and chin on the side, Amy and Lisa leading the way over to her. "I'll finish it up tomorrow and remove the dry dock structure." She looked them all over. "It was nice to meet you all. I've heard about you from my sisters, it's good to see they were right." She smiled at them. "I've met some very interesting people as a result of this job, and it's fun as well."
"That was amazing to watch, Kaiju," Lucy said in awe. Mandy nodded vigorously. "How much did that bit of ship weigh?"
Taylor looked over and did a mental calculation. "Probably around… perhaps six hundred and fifty tons or so? It's not a particularly large piece. The slices of ship will be about four thousand tons each."
"You can lift that much?"
"Sure, it's not hard," she grinned. Lucy and the others looked impressed. If not appalled. "I have to go, but I may well see you again sometime." Slipping back into the water she went under, then did her routine of heading for the shipping channel to give the PRT sonar something to see, disappearing into it and swimming out past the reef, then cloaking and coming back as the smaller marine version of Raptaur. Fifteen minutes later she was climbing out behind the BBFO building, smiling to herself at a job well done.
Mandy looked over her shoulder at Lucy, who was peering backwards towards the DWU facility they'd just left out the back of Amy's truck. She and her friend had swapped positions for the drive home as her house was first on the list. Lucy still looked like she'd had about six birthdays come at once and had loved every second of it. "Thanks for doing this, Amy," she said quietly to the Dallon girl, who glanced at her. "It meant a lot to Lucy. Me too, of course, but she's the reptile-mad one." The radio was on, the music loud enough that the people in the back couldn't hear her very well if she kept her voice down.
"It was no trouble, Mandy, I enjoyed it as much as you guys did. I like having my friends meet each other." Amy glanced at her again, then went back to watching the traffic. "I'm really glad Lucy had so much fun."
"I think she had more fun tonight than she's had in the last three years," Mandy smiled. "She'll be walking around with that grin on her face for a week."
"What about you? Did you enjoy your ride around the city?"
"I did, actually, although not quite as much as Lucy did." Mandy leaned back in the seat and rested her head on the back, closing her eyes. "But I can certainly see why you enjoy it. Capes have all the best toys and friends."
"I think I have some very good friends who aren't reptiles as well," Amy snickered. "Meeting you guys was a good thing as far as I'm concerned."
"Me too," she replied, laughing slightly. "And like you said, it's not boring."
They fell quiet, listening to the music as Amy drove. A few minutes later, the healer pulled up outside Mandy's house. "Here you go."
"Thanks, Amy. I'll see you guys in school tomorrow," Mandy said, taking the backpack that Eric handed her from the rear. "Thanks, Eric."
"See you, Mandy," Lucy called as she got out. Waving, she watched the truck drive off, smiled to herself, then headed inside to terrify her parents with some very strange videos.
"They seemed pleased," Lisa remarked mildly once the sound of Amy's truck had died away. "Nice people."
"I like them," Taylor replied with a grin, which slowly faded. "I found something interesting while I was out with Lucy the first time."
Lisa looked at her, her expression curious. "What?" she asked.
"Battery." Her friend raised a quizzical eye-ridge. "That strange smell I noticed? It was definitely her. Very faint, but there. Assault doesn't have it."
"Nothing at all?"
"No. It's a little odd, I'd have expected some transference, considering they spend a lot of time together, but there wasn't a trace of it on him."
"Which tends to imply it's not a normal scent," Lisa thought out loud. Taylor nodded slowly.
"I'd have to agree. I still have no idea what it is, though."
"I wonder if either Amy or I could detect it?" The black and red reptile looked curious. "It will be interesting to find out."
"I'm more curious about what it actually means," Taylor replied. "It just sort of makes me itch inside in a way that's hard to describe. It's… not quite right, somehow."
"Says the half demon."
"Exactly. If I think it's weird, it's weird," she grinned.
After pondering the mystery for a moment, Lisa shrugged. "Still not enough to go on. We need more samples. Stay alert for other Parahumans with the same scent, perhaps we can work out a common cause. It's probably nothing important, but I'm curious."
"So am I." Taylor looked at the folder on the table that she hadn't investigated yet. "What's this?"
Flipping the folder open with the tip of a claw, Lisa pointed at the paperwork inside. "The latest BBFO acquisition. Your new building. Danny gave me the paperwork."
"My new building?" Taylor asked, very puzzled. "What do I need a new building for?" She picked up the top page and scanned it.
"Your project with Armsmaster, the one that you're not telling us about, where you're building a giant gun with a nuclear bomb in it." Lisa smirked at her when she looked hard at her friend. "You really think I wouldn't work it out? I can't read you, true, but I can read them."
Taylor shook her head, grinning. "I'm not actually that surprised. Your upgrades made a big difference, didn't they?"
"Oh, god, like you wouldn't believe," Lisa laughed. "Sometimes when I'm in the zone I can practically read someone's mind. Sure, if I start from a bad assumption I end up with crap, but it's a lot easier now to realize that and start again than it was. If nothing else, the lack of headaches would make all this entirely worth it. All the other things are a bonus."
"I'm pleased for you. Try not to get too carried away, I know I've had to stop and think a few times and I have the world's best adviser in my head watching me." Taylor giggled at the comment the Varga made. "And he has a weirder sense of humor than I do."
"I'll do my best not to overdo it, and I also have people I trust to keep me honest," Lisa replied. "You, Amy, Danny, Varga… I listen to you."
"I'm glad about that." Looking down at the paper in her hand, she tried to work out the location of the building. "This is… about six hundred and fifty yards that way? A couple of streets over from this edge of the yard."
"So I gather. Some old fish processing factory. It's been abandoned for decades but Danny said it was structurally in good condition, even though it smells like rotten fish."
"That's where that's coming from!" Taylor exclaimed. "I was wondering what smelled of smoke and fish over that way, I was going to investigate at some point, but it wasn't very important. The smells are very old." She shrugged. "I've explored quite a lot of the docks by now, but this area is huge. There is still lots of it I haven't been to yet."
"You'll probably get a phone call from Armsmaster soon, my power told me that he and Dragon were really worried about the time until the next Endbringer attack. They think it will happen before next Monday." Lisa frowned a little. "Although there's also something else about the Endbringers that's worrying them. I haven't worked it out yet."
"I wonder what?" she mused, looking at her friend. "They're bad enough already, I don't like to think there could be something worse."
"No. That wouldn't be good."
Having read the paperwork, Taylor put it down again. "Oh well, I guess we wait for the call. I've finished my work for today. Amy should be back soon, we can start some language lessons then, Varga's very interested in it now, but until she comes back, I'll beat you up some more. I mean, teach you some more of the style." She grinned widely as Lisa snickered. "Come on, let me just cover the equipment so it doesn't get damaged when I throw you across the room."
Lisa made a crackling arc run between her fingers, looking at her friend with an evil grin. "Bring it on."
"You know that won't work on me. Looks cool, though." Taylor giggled as she headed off to make a temporary wall around the computer equipment.
Entering the office, Amy stared at the way Lisa was flying through the air upside down, then shrugged. The large lizard smacked into the wall about ten feet off the floor and slid down it, rolling to her feet. "Hey! You cheated. I don't know that move yet."
"It's a good one, right?" Taylor sounded and looked like she was having fun. "Hi, Amy." Lisa pounced on her as she spoke, the even larger lizard ducking, doing something in a blur, then giggling as her friend spun twice on her way back to the same spot on the wall. "So is that one."
"You're horrible," Lisa muttered, standing up again. "Beating up a poor defenseless cousin like that."
Laughing, Amy sat down at the table. "You've obviously been having fun."
"She has. Me, not so much," Lisa grumped.
"You're learning much faster than you have any right to as you well know," Taylor remarked agreeably. She came over to join Amy, who was curiously looking through the folder on the table. "New building. Dad scammed it from the Mayor."
"He just asked for it, the Mayor was happy to give it to the DWU," Lisa chuckled as she joined them. "Not a scam as such, just a favor." She grinned. "The Boss is good at favors."
Amy and Taylor laughed, then the healer went back to looking at the paperwork. "Why does BBFO need another building? One this big? Looking at this drawing it's about twice this size."
"I'm not totally sure yet, it's more a favor for Armsmaster and his friends than us," Taylor explained. "We're expecting..."
The phone rang, cutting her off.
"...That, probably," she finished, taking the cordless phone Amy handed her without comment. "Hello, BBFO, Raptaur speaking."
She listened for a moment. Amy did as well, her improved hearing easily able to make out Armsmaster's voice. "Hello, Raptaur. I was hoping that you would be free for some more consultation on the project tonight. Danny Hebert has arranged a suitable location as the site for the wormhole generator."
Amy looked at Lisa, her eyebrows going up. Lisa was frowning thoughtfully, also listening to the conversation.
"I have the paperwork in front of me," Taylor replied, looking at her friends. "You and Dragon managed to duplicate the generator, I assume?"
"Yes." He sounded pleased. "It all went together much more easily than we expected. Leet's documentation is first rate, I have to admit. We asked Mr Hebert for advice on a building sufficiently large that your sister could enter and which could be made secure. We've designed the structural modifications required and Dragon's equipment will be here around nine tonight. Since we're working on an unknown but likely short time-frame, we're very interested in arranging to get the work done as quickly as possible."
Taylor nodded absently. "Sure, I have no problem with that. I had plans for tonight but they can easily be put off, and we've finished the work we were doing for the DWU for today. When do you want to start?"
"Immediately. We can be there in twenty minutes, is that acceptable?"
"Of course. Ianthe and Metis are here as well, they can help if you want."
Armsmaster was quiet for a moment, although all three of them could hear unintelligible talking in the background. His voice came back shortly. "That sounds like a good idea. Thank you. I'll be accompanied by Dragon and Legend. We'll meet you at the new location. When Dragon's transport gets here she'll land it near the building, there is a large empty area next to it. With any luck we can get the bulk of the work done tonight."
"Great. OK, we'll be waiting for you."
"Excellent. Goodbye." The line went dead, Taylor handing the phone back to Amy, who put it into the charger.
"Interesting. So we get to find out what's going on?" Amy asked curiously.
"Looks like it. She's already worked out more of it than seems plausible, of course," Taylor smiled with a thumb pointing at Lisa, the other girl looking smugly amused. "You definitely boosted her powers, and she was way too good at this sort of thing already. We'll probably regret it sooner or later."
Amy snickered, then stood up. "I'd better move my truck," she said.
"Put it in the vehicle depot around the corner," Taylor said, indicating a ring of keys on the table. "I asked Dad about it this morning, he gave me those. The one with the yellow tag on it unlocks the door."
Amy picked up the ring and examined it. "There must be keys for practically every building on the site here," she remarked.
"Pretty much, it's a spare master set. Don't lose it or he'll be very annoyed," her friend replied.
"OK. Back in a minute." Amy went and moved her truck, opening the roller door from the inside with the switch on the wall, then parking the vehicle behind a large excavator on tracks. Satisfied it wasn't obvious, she locked it, then left the depot, soon back in the office. Two minutes later 'Ianthe' locked the workroom and joined the other two. They exchanged a look then headed outside, jumping into the bay and swimming towards the new building to wait for Armsmaster and the others.