Parking his bike outside the old fish smokehouse, Colin looked up to see Dragon descending with a flare from her thrusters, Legend dropping down beside her as she touched down. The thrusters whined to a halt then folded away into her armor. As always impressed with the sheer efficiency of her design, he dismounted and walked with the other two towards the door, which was standing open. The weld he'd made to replace the removed lock had been cleanly sliced through leaving a mirror finished surface, presumably the work of Raptaur and an EDM knife.

Inside, he found the three reptiles exploring the building, Ianthe in the roof clinging to the beams, Raptaur on the ground looking into the gaps under the floor with an evaluating expression on her scaly visage, while beside her the one he hadn't met yet, Metis, nearly vanished into the darkness even with his helmet lights on. Her scales were so black they were for all intents and purposes a cutout in the world, like a silhouette, only the deep scarlet effect when she moved relieving the absolute darkness.

She was watching them enter with her glowing green gaze, the look in her eyes showing a deep intelligence and a certain amount of amusement. It was the same effect he got from Raptaur and her siblings, with an added overlay of knowing which made him slightly uncomfortable. Her gaze ran over him, then Dragon and Legend, before she said something in a quiet voice to Raptaur, who currently had her head entirely into a hole in the floor.

The larger lizard pulled her head out again and looked over, smiling at them. Colin was internally slightly amused himself at how good he was getting at reading entirely inhuman expressions. "Hi, guys. This is Metis, another cousin, and you know Ianthe, of course."

"Hello, interesting human heroes," Ianthe called from above them, making Raptaur sigh slightly. The violet lizard sounded happy, as she normally seemed to be.

"Ignore her, she's impossible sometimes even as far as we're concerned," Raptaur added. "Metis, this is Armsmaster, Dragon, and Legend."

"I'm pleased to meet all of you," the black reptilian female said, coming over and shaking hands with them. "Cousin Raptaur is favorably impressed with you all and she has good judgment."

"It's nice to meet you as well, Metis," Dragon responded politely. "I understand you're a new arrival in Brockton Bay?"

"I am, I arrived over the weekend. I find this entire place fascinating." The reptilian woman looked around. "Although this particular part appears less well kept than most of it."

"It's a dump," Dragon chuckled. "Hopefully we can fix that."

"I assume that you require the space for Cousin Kaiju to deploy from with her new weapon," Metis went on. Colin looked at Raptaur, who shrugged.

"I didn't tell her anything, she worked it out. She's horribly good at that sort of thing, she's… call it a research expert. It's not quite right but it fits."

"I see," he replied, inspecting the new Family member. "Impressive. I suppose you'd be classified as a Thinker in our system."

"As I understand it, yes, to a certain degree," Metis replied. "I have other skills as well. I'm quite good at healing, although not as good as Ianthe is, and I can fight reasonably well." She held up a hand, thumb and forefinger an inch apart. Colin twitched when there was a loud vicious electrical discharge sound, a thick arc of electricity jumping the gap and casting a bright light around them. "Plus I have a few other talents that can be useful at times."

"I… see," he said again, much more slowly, glancing sideways at Dragon and Legend who were looking fixedly at the reptile. "That would seem to be a very significant amount of energy."

"It's enough for most purposes," she agreed.

Ianthe jumped off the creaking catwalk she had been prowling along, bouncing from one of the walls to land on an intact part of the floor. "Can you explain your requirements?" she asked as she came over.

"Certainly," Colin answered, tearing his gaze from Metis to look at her. He pulled out a roll of printed plans from his spare halberd holster, unrolling them and holding them up. "We need to remove the entire end of the building next to the water, having reinforced the interior with a thin skin of EDM. New sliding doors need to be fitted to allow Kaiju entrance. This end of the building needs to be walled off from the remainder to form a control room." He pointed at sections of the drawing while Dragon and Legend held it open. All three reptiles studied it closely. "We've designed a simple but hopefully effective transit method for the wormhole, using a telescopic EDM tunnel which should hopefully block the gamma radiation so it's safe for unshielded personnel."

"I have a redundant heavy-duty power generation system coming on the transport," Dragon said, "Which needs to be installed in a separate room over here." She tapped a place on the plan. "The computers go here, the wormhole generator itself in here. In the long run we can add facilities to allow vehicles through as well, but for now we need the basics in place as fast as possible."

"How large is the maximum wormhole size from that generator, did you work that out?" Raptaur asked.

"We can get it to just over sixty feet in diameter," Colin told her. "Any more risks burning it out. We're designing a larger version, but it will take time to recalculate everything for that. However, we can duplicate the existing unit easily enough. Dragon has a number of electronics sets on the way as well, if we have time I'd appreciate you manufacturing at least two more mechanical assemblies."

"Sure, that's not a problem," she said thoughtfully. "What about the one for the weapon?"

"That's finished, it's in my lab on the Rig. It's been reworked into a plug in module, it can be installed into the gun and entirely sealed up. Kaiju can activate and deactivate it by operating an internal switch in the same manner you triggered that scale model."

"Very impressive, guys, you do really good work. And damn fast as well." Raptaur looked very pleased. "OK. Let's get this internal sheathing done first. Metis, can you and Ianthe get rid of those doors, please?" She waved at the far end of the warehouse. Both her cousins nodded, turning and trotting off. Shortly there were a number of metallic crashes as the doors got physically torn away.

Raptaur moved to the wall, looking up. "I can do most of it from here, it's not quite as fast as Kaiju could do it, but it won't take long," she remarked as she put a hand on the wall. The familiar gray material started spreading out in all directions from there, soon covering the entire wall. "Do we want the catwalks?"

"No, they're just in the way." Dragon looked up at the hanging metalwork.

"I'll cut them down," Legend offered, taking off and heading up. Raptaur called to her cousins, who got into position underneath the first metal structure as a bright light flared above them from the cape's lasers, the severed catwalk plummeting to the ground. They caught it without trouble, moving it to the side, then dashed back to catch the next one.

Colin watched with his friend as the four people quickly reduced the building to a shell, then lined it with impenetrable EDM, including covering the floor. Checking the plans he called out instructions which were rapidly acted on. In under two hours the main structure was finished.

While the three lizards were working on the new doors, Metis and Ianthe holding one of them in place as Raptaur hung from the roof and made the fittings to allow it to slide, Dragon turned to him. "My transport is on final approach. I'll be outside landing it, the cladding in here is interfering with the signal."

"All right." She left, a few minutes passing before he heard a dull thunder of high-powered VTOL jets nearby.

By the time the second large sliding door was in place, she was back. "Everything's ready. At this rate we can have the infrastructure installed in under four hours. Wiring it up will take a little while. We need a lot of lights fitted, cables run, sanitary facilities put in, all that sort of thing."

"I can get some people from the DWU to help out if you want," Raptaur called over, descending to the floor. "We have all the expertise you'd ever need for that type of work."

Colin exchanged a glance with Dragon. "It sounds like a good idea to me," she pointed out. "It will certainly speed things up a lot and time is the main issue at this point. They can be trusted if Raptaur is willing to vouch for them."

"All right, but I want to keep the wormhole generator and the weapon a secret, even so."

"Sure, that's no problem," Raptaur smiled as she came to stand beside them. "Our guys know when not to ask questions. Let's unload your transport and get all the equipment in place, then I'll go and find some volunteers who want a little overtime."

"I can authorize payment through the Protectorate," Legend said as he landed beside her. "Being in charge of it has some perks. And a hell of a lot of paperwork." He grinned at her as she chuckled.

"Great, that's very helpful. Hey, you two, come and give us a hand," she called to her cousins, who had just pulled the new doors shut. The other two came over, following her and Dragon outside. Looking around in the light of his helmet lamps Colin nodded in satisfaction. Everything was proceeding to plan and with a modicum of luck they'd be ready for the inevitable.

Now if only the weapon actually had the desired effect… He was still very torn over the damn thing, but he couldn't see any better way to fight an Endbringer currently available, so they didn't have a lot of choice.

With one final glance around the modified warehouse, he followed Legend to help unload the aircraft.

"Do you know where Colin is?" Hannah asked Ethan, who was sitting in the break room with his mask off eating a snack while reading a newspaper. The other cape looked up, then shook his head.

"No, he and Dragon went off with Legend about two hours ago," the man said. "They looked like they were serious about something, but I have no idea what."

She sat at the table across from him, pulling her scarf off and scratching her nose, which was itching madly. Relieved, she sighed a little. Ethan grinned at her. "You should try a silk one, maybe it wouldn't itch so much."

"I might do that," she smiled. The smile faded after a moment. "I wonder what those three are up to. Don't you find it a little odd that Dragon has spent so much time here in the city in the last few weeks?"

"Not really," her companion shrugged. "She really likes Colin, although he doesn't seem to realize quite what that means. Even so, he obviously trusts her far more than anyone else. I've seen them at work, he lets his guard down around her more than he does at any other time. I'm pretty sure she's very gently trying to humanize him. Good luck to her, I'd say."

Hannah nodded, having noticed the same thing. The affection the Canadian cape had for her team-mate and friend was clear if you looked. She wasn't sure Colin ever had.

"I guess so. Still, it seems she's spent more time here than normal."

"They're working on something big, I suspect. He's got that look in his eyes again, the one that says 'Go away, I'm Tinkering!'" The man grinned a little. "You know what he's like when he really gets into the zone. Leviathan could come up and tap him on the shoulder and he'd just grunt and tell him to come back later."

With a small laugh Hannah agreed. That described the man pretty well. "He does tend to become somewhat oblivious to outside distractions," she agreed. "I'm curious about Legend being here as well. He's spending a lot of time with both of them. I wonder what project would keep him in Brockton Bay?"

"Maybe they're making something to fight the Family when they inevitably turn evil," Ethan snickered, popping a handful of chips into his mouth. "That's what always happens in the comics."

His companion stared at him, then shuddered a little. "Don't even joke about that."

"Or..." He looked intrigued. "Maybe they're designing something like a giant hamster wheel that Kaiju can run on! That could provide power for the entire city!"

"You are an idiot, Ethan," she snickered.

"At least I didn't suggest that they were making some superweapon Kaiju could use," he laughed. "A giant robot suit or something, scaled to her size. Imagine her in power armor..."

Hannah did, then paled a little. "Oh, hell, that is worse than the Evil Family idea," she muttered, reaching over the table and stealing his bag of chips, then digging in. "Please stop helping."

"It's what I do," he shrugged, stealing them back. "Have you met the new one yet? Metis?"

"No. Have you?"

"No." He frowned as she snagged the bag once again and emptied it into her mouth. "Get your own."

"I don't need to, I'm full now." Hannah grinned at him as he sighed, then went to the vending machine in the corner and paid a dollar for a new bag. "I hate to think how much of your salary you've dumped into that thing. I should invest in shares in the company."

Sitting down again he tore the bag open and put it between them. "I had an odd meeting this evening," he commented as they both helped themselves. "Raptaur was running around the place giving a ride to a friend of Panacea's. The girl seemed deliriously happy based on her tone of voice."

"She's giving rides to friends now? That's… different."

"When Dennis finds out the jokes will be terrible and frequent," Ethan noted wisely. She nodded, wincing a little.

"I find myself actually feeling sorry for the poor giant lizard," she quipped.

"Raptaur can probably take care of herself." He smiled, crunching up some more potato chips. "Girl has style if nothing else. And fast reflexes, incredible strength, terrifying powers, fanatical devotion to the Pope..."

"You are a very odd person, Ethan," Hannah remarked, staring at him. He nodded happily.

"I certainly try."

"You're certainly trying," she laughed. "I have no idea what your wife sees in you."

"All this," he smirked, waving a hand at himself.

"Exactly." She grinned as he looked thoughtful, then mildly insulted, before laughing.

"We'll have you making proper jokes sooner or later."

Shaking her head, she kept exchanging comments and observations with her colleague, idly wondering what Colin was up to. Presumably she'd find out sooner or later.

"That's all the wiring done, Raptaur," the lead electrician said, coming up to her and lifting his hard hat off his head, wiping sweat away with the back of the hand holding the thing. "It's all run back to the switchboard now. Dragon can connect her generator to the tails at the main breaker."

"Thanks very much," Taylor replied with a smile. "You guys did a really good job."

"For triple time, you bet we did," he grinned. "Mikhail's plumbing team is nearly finished as well." He looked up, then around. "What the hell is this place for, anyway?"

"Deep and terrible Family secrets mere humans are not meant to know," she intoned in a low voice.

He stared, then snickered. "I'll bet. Good luck with it."

"Thanks."

Looking over to his six man team, he whistled, then waved when they looked around from where they were talking to 'Metis'. "We're out of here, guys." One of them waved at him, then they said their goodbyes to her friend and headed over. "See you, Raptaur. Call if you need anything else done."

"Thanks, Francis," she smiled, watching the men and one woman leave the building. She looked around as Legend walked over. "That's that part done, the plumbing is nearly in as well, we should be ready to install everything in about twenty minutes or so."

"Great," the man said with a pleased expression. "You know some very competent workers."

"They're damn good at what they do," she agreed. "I'm happy I could give them some work."

"Have the paperwork delivered to the Rig and I'll sign off on it," he told her. "Gladly."

"OK."

Just under an hour and a half later she finished forming the protective enclosure of tissue-thin EDM around the wormhole generator, which would shield the residual radiation from anyone when it was off. Thick cables ran from it through the protective wall into the control area, to the side room where Dragon's power unit was. The Tinker was in the process of testing it. Eventually she called, "Powering up!"

There was a hum that rose to a steady faint background drone, followed by a loud clunk as the main breaker closed. A couple of dozen huge light fittings in the roof came on one by one with a series of clicks, until the entire area was brightly lit. Taylor looked around, pleased, then with Amy went around and turned off the work lights they'd borrowed from the DWU stores, along with a ten kilowatt diesel generator which was chugging away outside. While they coiled the cables up Lisa went outside and turned it off, the hum of the bigger power unit being the only real noise left.

"Very good," Legend said, looking around approvingly as he entered through the door in the partition wall, Armsmaster with him. "Amazingly good for about seven hours hard work."

"We had a lot of help," she pointed out. "How are the computers coming along?"

"Almost everything is in place," Armsmaster replied to her question. "Dragon is just running functional tests. If you can make some more changes to the main door and the side entrance, I can install the security system. At that point I think we're ready for a test."

"OK. Show me what you need done," she smiled agreeably. She and her friends were having fun, even though it was now nearly three in the morning.

Eventually, it was all finished. They clustered in the main room, inspecting it. Armsmaster was studying his plans, making small notes on them, but finally nodded in satisfaction. "There are a number of long-term changes I'd like to make, but as a prototype this is excellent. We have the weapon construction bench over there, the personnel transfer port over here, the wormhole generator checks out, all the computers are running and tested… I believe we are ready for a test."

"I've downloaded the targeting software from my suit into the main computer," Dragon said as she led the way into the much smaller control room through the double-doored airlock-like entrance that would serve to keep radiation in the wormhole room when the generator was active. Several enormous high resolution screens showed graphs and control interfaces, along with a number of very good images of the other room from radiation-hardened cameras mounted in the roof, covering the entire area. She moved to stand in front of the main console.

"I simplified the control interface and set up a user interface for it that should allow anyone to operate it presuming they're authorized," she explained. "Leet's original interface and software was very good for his immediate requirements but somewhat inflexible for ours. This is much better." The Tinker pointed at one monitor. "You can either enter an exact set of target coordinates here as latitude, longitude, and altitude, or simply pick a destination on the globe." She demonstrated with the mouse, spinning the rendered globe to put Northern Canada in the middle, then zooming in.

"Click a spot for the wormhole destination, then unlock the generator with the key here and press this button to spin it up, this one to turn the wormhole on. They're on separate physical controls to prevent accidental activation." She turned the key and pressed the first button.

The singularity screeched up to speed in the next room, making the entire building vibrate gently and Amy and Lisa look surprised. Pressing the other switch caused the by-now familiar blue-edged circle to appear on the camera views. Edge on it was completely invisible, having no actual thickness.

"Very impressive," 'Metis' said softly. "What is the range?"

"I'm not entirely certain yet," Dragon admitted. "Definitely anywhere on the planet. It will easily reach orbit, that's not very far away, but I haven't worked out what the ultimate limitations are. With the Simurgh floating around out there I didn't think it was wise to experiment too much in case she started investigating, and putting a wormhole in space would almost certainly draw her attention."

"I see," Lisa replied. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," Dragon nodded.

"I suppose I should test the thing now," Taylor said as she headed towards the radiation lock. "Back in a minute."

Cycling herself through into the other room, she looked around, seeing the entire place lit with gamma light. There really was rather a lot of it. 'I'll have to make Lisa and Amy some EDM armor,' she remarked to the Varga. 'I know Amy said her bioconstructs were pretty radiation resistant but better safe than sorry.'

"I'd agree with that, Brain," he replied. "There's no point in taking chances."

Walking over to the wormhole entrance she inspected it. The hole in space was nearly twelve feet across, much larger than the initial tests. Sticking her arm through she felt the other side was much colder, far below freezing. With a shrug she stepped through and found herself standing up to the hips in snow in pitch blackness, lit only with gamma light from the wormhole behind her and the light of the stars and the same sort of aurora she'd seen on the trip to Quebec the month before. Looking around, then up, she smiled at the sight. It was still beautiful.

'I love this sort of thing,' she said with satisfaction. 'I could watch that for hours.'

"It's still very impressive but I suppose we can't simply stand and stare at it," he chuckled. "Although I agree that it's worth more than a single look."

After a couple of minutes of watching the green and red curtains dance in the air, electrical currents on a vast scale moving slowly above them, she bent down and packed a large handful of snow into a ball, tossing it up and down. With one final look around at the low pine trees half-buried in snow that surrounded her, she turned around and went back.

"Works perfectly," she announced to the nearest camera, holding up the snowball. "Try somewhere else."

"All right," Dragon's voice sounded through the intercom system, echoing around the huge room. "Any preferences?"

"Somewhere warmer. Try the middle of the Sahara."

"Hold on a moment." The wormhole disappeared for a few seconds, then came back. "There you go."

Taylor waved before going through the blue-rimmed hole again, blinking a little at the sudden light change. This time it was late evening and still very hot, golden sand spread around her in a scene that went to the horizon. Dunes and exposed areas of gravel broke up an otherwise fairly bland desert scene.

Her snowball was rapidly melting, the temperature being higher than she had ever experienced in the summer back home. Tossing it to the ground she looked around, then picked up an interesting rock, before going back.

"Yep. Everything checks out."

"Wonderful."

"Want to test the transit tunnel next?"

"I think so. Please come back to this side."

"OK." Taylor went back through the radiation lock. The control console and power room were on one side of the control room, the other side having another similar lock system which covered the telescopic tunnel. This was simply three square sections of thin EDM set one inside the other with a very close tolerance, the ends curved around to block any gamma radiation bouncing down the gap. It had a basic electric motor to extend and retract it operating through two push-rods, one on either side. The virtually frictionless material moved smoothly with minimal effort, allowing the thing to be extended about ten feet.

"I'll put the wormhole just in front of the wall," Dragon announced. "It's a preset, like this." She clicked one of the on-screen controls, which was labeled 'Standard transit', everyone watching on the monitor as the wormhole enlarged slightly and snapped into position on the other side of the wall. Clicking another control made the tunnel motor whir into life. They watched as the square section extended, entering the wormhole without any visible issues. When it was fully extended, Dragon nodded in satisfaction.

"That seems to be working. The radiation sensors in the tunnel itself are reading zero and the far end is above background by a significant but not dangerous level assuming exposure is kept to a minimum. Or if the people using it are reasonably shielded."

"I'll have a look," Taylor smiled.

"Take the portable sensor with you," Dragon requested, handing her a small device. She took it, then went to the other door. Shortly she was standing in the desert again. The radiation monitor she was holding was complaining mildly but unlike the initial tests in her building, it hadn't died entirely from a massive overdose.

'I'd say they've cracked that problem pretty well,' she commented, pleased.

"It certainly looks like it. I'm very impressed how fast it all came together." The Varga sounded gratified. "Hopefully this will, in conjunction with 'Athena', allow us to deal with this next Endbringer. I am curious to see what happens."

'So am I. Terrified, too.'

With a last look around she headed back.

When all the tests were finished, they were satisfied they had a working transportation system. Everyone had tried it at least once, going to places all over the world in isolated spots to prevent witnesses, and any damage to them. Dragon explained the various controls as she went. There were a number of preset modes, including 'Kaiju transit' which produced an enormous wormhole nearly filling the other room from floor to ceiling. This one was entered from the water side, which would make it easier for her to pass through.

"A very good night's work," Armsmaster finally stated with a definite smile. "Thank you, everyone, for the hard work. I believe we're as ready as we can be for what happens next."

"And we have a backup method for transporting people other than the various teleporters," Legend noted with a pleased smile. "That alone makes it worthwhile. Even with the limitations caused by the radiation, but I'm happy with the workarounds you came up with. Once we get vehicle support added, it will be an excellent resource."

"I can resurface the lot outside in the morning," Taylor offered. "It's a mess at the moment."

"Thank you, that would be very helpful, Raptaur," he replied.

"Now all we have to do is wait, I assume," 'Ianthe' said thoughtfully. "Do you have any more specific idea when the Endbringer will attack, or where?"

"Not really," Armsmaster sighed. "Their schedule isn't entirely rigid, there can be a certain amount of variability, but it's three months plus or minus a week generally. We're into the three month period so in theory at any time now. I would expect it to most likely happen by the week end. As to where, if there is a pattern to it we haven't yet discerned it. Probably the Simurgh, but it could be anywhere on the planet."

"Annoying."

"Very." He shrugged. "However, there's nothing we can do except live with it. It will happen whether we like it or not."

"Hopefully the weapon will at least drive the thing off even if it doesn't kill it," Lisa said thoughtfully. "Although as far as I can see based on your description, there is going to be a significant amount of damage just from firing the thing."

"Less damage than letting the Simurgh run loose, and hopefully far less loss of life. Infrastructure can be replaced, people are harder to do that with," Legend put in soberly.

The black and red lizard nodded her understanding.

"There's nothing more we can do here tonight, I think," Dragon said, proceeding to shut down the computers and wormhole generator. The room went quiet in the aftermath. "I'll shuttle the gun generator over to BBFO in the morning. Will anyone be there to receive it?"

"I will," Lisa said.

"All right. In that case, I think we should all call it a night." The Tinker pulled out a spare key for the console and handed it to Taylor. "Just in case. You all know how to operate it, and the codes for the security system. There's an external link to my Endbringer tracking system through the antenna you put on the roof. If for whatever reason we can't get here fast enough, do what you need to do."

Taylor took the key and stared at it, then nodded slowly. "I will. I'll talk to Kaiju tonight and bring her up to speed as well. She'll probably come over tomorrow and check everything out."

"Good." Dragon handed Legend and Armsmaster identical keys. "A backup for each of you." They headed for the door, setting the security system and hearing the locks engage with a loud clunk. "I'll fly my transport to the Rig overnight. Armsmaster, you might as well load your bike on board, it'll be quicker."

Taylor watched as the Tinker rode his custom motorcycle up the loading ramp and parked it. He leaned out the rear door. "Thank you all for your very efficient help," he said gravely, before disappearing again. The ramp went up, the aircraft took off, and they watched as it headed for the force-field dome out in the bay.

"This has been very interesting, ladies," Legend said with a smile to them all. "I genuinely feel we may have the best chance we've ever had to properly deal with one of those monstrous things, mostly due to your efforts. I expect we'll find out all too soon."

"Unfortunately, you're probably right," Taylor replied. She held out her hand. "It was nice seeing you again, Legend."

"And you. And your cousins." He shook hands with Amy and Lisa, then stepped back, waved, and disappeared in a blue streak of light that flashed overhead. They watched as it vanished then Lisa sighed.

"What an odd day."

"Just wait until the fucking Endbringer attacks," Amy said quietly.

"Damn things."

"Yep." Taylor shrugged, looking at the key in her palm. "I'm putting this very carefully away, then going home."

"Sounds like a good idea to me," Amy yawned. "I could do with some sleep."

"Join the club," Lisa smiled. They headed back to the office, each of them wondering about what would happen when 'Athena' was finally fired.