Taylor sniffed, then turned to the right and leaped across the alleyway, landing silently on the next roof. Trotting across it under cloak she peered over the edge to the ground, spotting the person she'd been tracking for the last ten minutes.
Having gone to the address her father had given her, she'd climbed up the wall and looking in the fifth-floor apartment windows, seeing a man who was definitely the boy's father, based on scent. He was alone in the smallish two-bedroom apartment, watching the TV while drinking a single bottle of beer. Again, going on scent, he hadn't had any more of it, which at least suggested it was merely recreational rather than a problem. She'd detected the scent of a young female, related to Brian and the man, obviously Aisha, but the girl definitely wasn't present at the moment. The scent was a few hours old.
Climbing down, she sniffed around the main entrance, then the rear one, finding many traces of the girl she was hunting, the freshest one leaving the back door. She followed it, still cloaked, for some distance. Brian's sister had apparently visited a number of small shops, some closed where she'd stood for a while peering in the windows, then a couple of late-opening ones where she'd entered. The last of these had an owner who was being somewhat annoyed about what appeared to be a shortfall in stock, of recent origin. He was complaining loudly to a friend about how this seemed to happen more and more regularly these days, the friend nodding sympathetically.
Having a pretty good idea what had happened, she slipped inside without them noticing her, tucked sixty dollars under the corner of the till, then left again, knowing the girl wasn't far in front. It didn't take long to find her.
Aisha, a remarkably pretty dark-skinned girl of about thirteen or so, dressed somewhat and obviously deliberately shabbily, was sitting on a box behind a dumpster. She was invisible from the street she'd come down before ducking into the alley. Her shoulder-length straight hair was styled into a fairly amusing fashion that showed she'd spent a fair amount of time making it look like she hadn't spend any time on it, something that made Taylor grin to herself. An off center blonde highlight added a certain roguish effect, which matched the definite smirk the girl was wearing on her face as she pulled things out of her pockets and put them on another box, inspecting them. Things that looked suspiciously like the items the shop-keeper had been bemoaning the loss of.
"I wonder if Brian knows his sister is something of a thief," the Varga commented, sounding amused. "It would seem to be a family trait."
'He's a lot better at it, she's only lifted about twenty bucks worth of almost random crap,' she replied. 'But she's pretty good at the stealth thing not to get nabbed. I suspect she does this fairly often.'
"From what we're told the girl has a rebellious streak, and I'm not referring to the one in her hair."
'Apparently. Shall we say hello?'
"It would be rude to come all this way and not do so in my opinion," he chuckled.
With a grin she dropped off the building, landing behind the girl, then watched her for a moment before deciding on a strategy. With an internal snicker she got to work.
Aisha cataloged her loot, separating out the things she could sell at school from the ones she wanted to keep. 'Eight… nine… ten packs of gum,' she grinned, stacking them up. 'Not bad. Some chocolate, candy bars, a couple of lighters...' Satisfied, she popped the top on a can of Coke she'd snagged on the way out of the shop, the owner completely missing her presence. She'd taken shrewd advantage of his distraction due to a phone call to sneak in, quickly grab things on lower shelves and stuff her pockets, then dive out again without him seeing.
She knew the CCTV in the shop didn't work properly, he only had one good camera and it was covering the till area. If she hugged the left side of the doorway and kept low, it would miss her completely. Sipping her Coke, she looked around the alley, making sure none of the scum who lurked around here snuck up on her.
Seeing no one, she turned back to her ill-gotten gains, then frowned slightly. 'What… something's different,' she thought, cocking her head and doing a mental tally. 'Gum, candy, chocolate, lighters… Hey, I thought I had two of those.' She picked up the single lighter and stared suspiciously at it. 'Huh. Weird. Must have been imagining it.'
She put the lighter down next to the identical one on the box, sipped her Coke again, then nearly choked. "What the fuck?"
There were definitely two lighters. When she'd picked it up, there was one. She'd counted it.
Twice.
Now she was looking at two of them.
Putting the can down by her feet she leaned forward and inspected both lighters extremely closely. One was blue, the other one was green, both transparent plastic disposable butane ones. Nothing interesting about them at all.
Picking one up in each hand she stared at them, flicking one alight. It worked fine. After a long moment she put them down again, then gaped at the third lighter that was sitting innocently between them, this one red.
Very slowly, she reached out and picked it up, turning it over in her hands. She lit it. Perfectly normal lighter, except it hadn't been there when she'd picked up the two other…
Aisha stared in shock once again. She was back to two lighters, the red one still in her hand and a yellow one on the box. The blue and green ones were nowhere in sight.
Extremely puzzled and more than a little worried, she looked carefully at the ground, in case they'd fallen off the box, but could see nothing. Once again she looked around, just on the off chance that someone was messing with her. While she could hear cars going past on the road and distant footsteps, she was otherwise entirely alone sitting here on her box, dimly lit by a service light hanging on the wall to the side above the back entrance to the Chinese food place. Just her and her loot.
Which, when she looked back, no longer had any lighters at all. Even the one in her hand was missing.
"Holy shit!" she yelped, staring at her hand, then turning it over to inspect the back. "What the fuck?"
She wiggled her fingers, seeing nothing amiss. But she could have sworn, absolutely sworn, that she had been holding a lighter in it seconds earlier. A lighter exactly… like…
Aisha leaped to her feet with a yip of terror, gaping at the five lighters in a neat row on the box, one each of green, blue, red, yellow, and orange.
"What the fuck is going on?" she whispered. Staring fixedly at the five plastic fire-starters, she waited to see if anything happened, ready to run like hell. Nearly a minute passed with her poised and tense. Nothing at all happened.
She blinked, her eyes watering, then shouted, "Oh, come on!"
All five lighters were gone and had been replaced with a large box of matches, in the fraction of a second her eyes were shut.
Spinning on the spot, she exclaimed, "I don't know who's doing this, but it's not funny! Stop fucking around."
She turned back to glare at the box of matches, which was now a lit candle. Sighing heavily, she sat down again. "Someone is trying to make me think this is haunted loot," she grumbled, reaching down for her can of coke. Picking it up she took a sip, then gagged.
"What the hell is this?" she spluttered, holding the can up to the light. Instead of a can of coke, she was holding a can of… "Family Brand Generic Cola?"
On the label was the face of a grinning reptile girl, one she'd seen on the news and PHO. She stared at it in disbelief, turning it this way and that. The text on the back of the can was written in what looked like some sort of strange spiky symbols that vaguely reminded her of Chinese. When she turned the can around again, the picture of Saurial had changed to a picture of a candle.
Not sure whether she should laugh, cry, or just run away gibbering, Aisha slowly put the can down beside her, wondering if she was going nuts.
Absently she noticed the candle had turned into a small statue of her sitting on the box holding a can, perfect in every detail, and apparently made of dark green glass. The girl looked at it for several seconds.
"I'll take the stuff back," she sighed.
"Thanks," a voice said from next to her, where there definitely hadn't been anyone until that moment. "It's sort of wrong to steal, especially when you don't actually need to."
Somehow managing not to jump, she looked sideways to see a tall figure in a long trench-coat, a fedora pulled down over her head. The main problem with this disguise was that she could see a long scaled tail coming out from under the coat at the back, not to mention the very reptilian feet under it. And the muzzle with a pair of weird dark glasses that was visible between the brim of the hat and the pulled-up collar of the coat.
"Saurial, I guess?" she said somewhat sarcastically.
"What gave me away?" the oddly accented voice said with a distinctly amused tone to it. "My disguise is nearly perfect."
"Well, if you don't count the tail, and the feet, and the voice, and everything," Aisha pointed out in what she felt was a very reasonable tone under the circumstances. "Are you bored, or did you have some other reason for fucking around with me? How did you do that, anyway?"
"Do what?" Saurial asked, pushing her hat back with one hand, the other one popping the top on another can of Family Brand Generic Cola. Sipping from it, she made a weird face. "Yuck. This stuff is horrible. I can't see how you can drink it." She tossed it over her shoulder, the can vanishing mid-flight.
Aisha pinched the bridge of her nose and counted backwards from ten. When she finished, she said deliberately mildly, "I'm going to go home now."
"OK. I need to see your father anyway," Saurial snickered.
Standing, Aisha gathered up all her stolen merchandise, noticing that the original two lighters were back where they should be in the process. After a moment's consideration, she put the little statuette of herself, which was still there, into her pocket. "Go away, you freaky lizard," she muttered, heading towards the street.
"Honest, I have something for him," the cape said, walking next to her. Aisha stopped and looked up the close to eighteen inches height difference between them.
"What?"
"Something from your brother," Saurial said. She quickly clapped her hand over Aisha's mouth as the girl sucked in a breath to shout. "Shh. Don't tell everyone."
"You know where Brian is?" the girl whispered fiercely when Saurial slowly lifted her hand. The feeling of scales on her lips was odd.
"I've been in contact with him, yes. A friend asked me to come and check on you and your dad. We can't talk here, let's go back to your place."
Looking at her doubtfully, Aisha said, "Everyone is going to see you with me and it'll be all over PHO in minutes."
"Nope. Don't worry about it. I'll see you at your place. Don't forget to take the stuff back, OK?" The lizard girl grinned at her, then looked over her shoulder, reeling back in shock. "Oh my god, what's that?" she yelped, pointing.
Whirling around Aisha stared in the direction the crazy lizard had pointed, seeing nothing. "There's nothing there, you weirdo," she stated. A moment later she growled in annoyance, realizing the truth. "And you've disappeared again, haven't you?"
Sure enough when she looked around there was no trace of the reptile. Sighing heavily, she shook her head in disgust. "Really not funny, you scaly nutcase." She shoved her hands in her pockets and headed home via the store.
About twenty feet further on she found she was feeling a scrap of paper in her right pocket that shouldn't have been there. She pulled it out and looked at it in the light from a street lamp.
'It's extremely funny, Aisha. For me, anyway,' the note read, written in a neat hand.
Crumpling it up with a grunt of irritation, she tossed it to the side and kept walking, not noticing it disappear. About thirty seconds later she was reluctantly smiling.
John Laborn looked up from the news when he heard a key in the lock, watching as his daughter entered the apartment. She had a slightly bemused expression on her face, making him wonder why. "Hi, Dad," she said, looking around in an odd manner as if she expected to see someone else there. When she didn't she kicked the door shut behind her and took her denim jacket off, tossing it in the general direction of the coat hooks on the wall, all of which it missed.
Not stopping to pick it up, she headed for her room, opened the door and leaned in for a few seconds, then went and did the same to his bedroom. Puzzled, he watched, wondering what on earth she was doing.
When she'd checked the kitchen and bathroom, and was looking in the hall closet, he had to ask. "Aisha? Lost something?"
"A crazy lizard," she said in muffled tones, fighting off an attack from his heavy work coat that had dropped on her head. He smiled a little as she wrenched it free and kicked it back into the closet, swearing under her breath.
"Lizard?" he repeated.
"Lizard. About so tall, weird sense of humor, thinks she's fooling people with a trench-coat and hat like something out of an old movie," his daughter replied absently, indicating someone considerably taller than herself with a lifted hand. She moved to the middle of the living room and put her hands on her hips. "OK, I give up, where the hell are you?" she demanded.
"Who?" he asked, becoming a little concerned for her sanity, which was slightly suspect at the best of times.
"Me," an unfamiliar voice said from next to him on the sofa, completely unexpectedly. Aisha, who had been looking in the other direction as she turned on the spot, spun around and pointed accusingly, while he leaped off the sofa and half-way across the room in complete shock, his heart abruptly hammering.
"AHA!" his daughter shouted. "I knew it! How the fuck did you do that?"
"Trade secret," the lizard in the trench-coat replied. She looked both relaxed and like she was trying not to laugh. The fedora on her head was tipped at a rakish angle, under which was a toothy grin.
"Who… what…," he stuttered, staring in disbelief. "Who…?" There was a pause. "How?" he added weakly.
Aisha was now inspecting their unexpected guest, or the person who he certainly hadn't been expecting at least, very closely, a look of grudging respect on her face. He was simply gaping.
"You're Saurial," he finally said, still staring. The reptilian girl nodded happily.
"I am," she replied. "And you are John Laborn, and that is Aisha Laborn. Now that we all know who we are, let's talk."
"What the hell is one of the Family doing in my apartment?" he asked, stunned and somewhat worried.
"She told me she had news about Brian," Aisha put in. "And something to give you from him."
Suddenly very worried, John looked at her, then the lizard girl, who held up a hand. "It's nothing bad," she said quickly. "He managed to get himself into a situation that could have been a little awkward, but he's fine."
"Where is he?" he asked. "I haven't heard from him for nearly two weeks now. Normally he comes by at least once a week."
"He's safe, but he needs to stay under the radar for a while," Saurial explained, while he and Aisha listened intently. His daughter was worried, he could tell, although she didn't show it very much. She loved her brother even though they ended up arguing more often than not and had definitely been concerned when Brian hadn't come by. "He's got a decent job right now, he's earning money, and he's pretty happy, but he can't get in contact with anyone for… probably two or three weeks. Various things have to happen first. But I can get a message to him, and from him to you if either of you need it."
"Did he get mixed up in something illegal?" John asked, concerned. It was a constant risk in Brockton Bay, of course, considering the number of gangs around.
"Not exactly. But he and some friends managed to get into a situation that could get nasty if anyone finds out where he is." Saurial shrugged slightly. "I'm sorry to be so mysterious about it, but the less you know at the moment the better." She held out a folded piece of paper. Approaching her a little warily he took it, then looked at it, finding it had a phone number on it. "My cell number. If you need to get information to him, call me."
"How has the Family ended up involved with my son?" John asked after several seconds of silence. "Or maybe I should ask, how has he ended up involved with the Family?"
She smiled a little. "I can't say for sure, but it's a friend of a friend who asked for a favor. We're happy to help."
Looking at his daughter, who stared at the Parahuman on his sofa, he finally sighed slightly. "OK. I think I get it. Thank you for passing on the information."
"It's no trouble." She hopped to her feet, adjusting her hat. "Aisha and I had an amusing little meeting which was worth the trip on its own," she added, grinning at the girl, who put her hands on her hips again, looking annoyed.
"Says you."
"Says me." Saurial smirked. "You should have seen your face, it was hilarious."
"Oh, ha ha. Scaly crazy lady," Aisha grumbled, turning on her heel and heading for her bedroom. When the door closed, Saurial walked over.
"He wanted you to have this," she said softly, handing him a thick envelope. "He said he doesn't need it right now and that you might. Or she might." The lizard-girl indicated the closed bedroom door with a motion of her head.
Taking the envelope after a second or two, he felt it, then looked inside. His eyes widened at the sight of the cash. "Five grand."
"Fucking hell," John muttered. "How the hell did he get this much that he can give it to me?"
"He earned it the hard way, fair and square, believe me," she smiled. "Don't worry, he can afford it. He's not doing anything wrong, quite a few people are very pleased with his hard work. Brian is a decent guy."
"He's better than I am, I know that much," John mumbled, still staring at the money. With a shrug of acceptance, he closed the flap and put it in his pocket. "Please tell him thank you. And to stay out of trouble."
"I'll pass it on," Saurial smiled. Holding out her hand, she shook his when he did the same. "Don't worry, Mr Laborn, he's fine and as soon as he can do he'll be in touch."
"Thank you, Saurial," he said.
"No problem." Releasing his hand, she looked at Aisha's door, then after a moment, went over and knocked.
"What?" the girl said grumpily.
"Can I have a word?"
There was a long pause, then the door opened and she went inside. John watched as the door shut again, feeling the money in his pocket and wondering what the hell had just happened.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
"You OK?" the lizard in the trench-coat asked.
Aisha, who was sitting on her bed looking at her, shrugged. "Guess so." After a moment's thought, she added, "I took the stuff back."
"I know you did."
"Of course you do, you were probably right next to me the whole damn time."
"Not quite, but..." Saurial grinned. "I can be sneaky."
"And nuts."
"Oh, yes, definitely nuts," she chuckled. Aisha couldn't help but smile at the comment.
"Are all you lizards nuts like you?" she asked.
"Not exactly like me," Saurial told her, looking amused. "We all have our own methods. But we do tend to like a good joke. Sorry if I worried you, but I wanted to persuade you to do the right thing in a way that you'd remember." She smirked again. "I think I did that."
"You can say that again," Aisha sighed. "I was beginning to think I was going crazy."
"It really was very funny to watch," the reptile snickered. "Your face was amazing." She appeared to think for a moment, then handed Aisha a note. "My number, same as I gave your father. If you need to talk to your brother, let me know and I'll see what I can do."
Aisha slowly reached out and took it, looking at it then putting it on the bed next to her. "Tell him I was worried," she requested, not looking at Saurial.
"Sure." She moved closer, putting her hand on Aisha's shoulder. The girl looked up. "He's worried as well, about you. Try to keep out of trouble, OK? I've been told about your tendency to jump before you think. Do it the other way around if you can, it normally works better."
Staring up at the entirely alien yet obviously intelligent and concerned face, Aisha nodded. "I'll try. But if he doesn't pop up soon..." She tried to get across the idea that she'd be irritated.
Saurial laughed. "I get it. I'll tell him."
She moved to the window, looking out at the night. Glancing over her shoulder, she grinned. "You don't mind if I go out this way, do you?" she asked.
Aisha made a 'help yourself' gesture, watching with interest. The lizard-girl unlocked the window and lifted it as high as it would go, then stepped back. "See you around, Aisha," she smiled, before diving headfirst out the open window.
Open-mouthed, the girl stared, then jumped up and rushed over, sticking her head out and looking down. Fifty-some feet down, the sidewalk was empty. She looked to the sides, then up. No sign of Saurial at all.
"Fuck, that's cool," she muttered.
"Thanks," the voice came back from somewhere nearby, making her twitch, but she still couldn't see anything. With a shake of her head, she shut the window, deciding that she'd had enough of wandering around outside for now.
Going back into the living room, she found her father looking confused, something she understood. "Where is she?" he asked.
"Jumped out the window," she replied laconically, going over to her coat and picking it up, then rooting around in her pocket. She pulled out the small glass statuette, inspecting it carefully. It seemed undamaged.
Hanging her coat up, she turned back to her father. Holding up the little ornament, she grinned. "Look what I got," she said.
Sitting in her living room, Emily stared at the TV which was playing the news, not really seeing it. Her mind was still going over the somewhat extraordinary revelation Legend had made earlier that evening, about the joint project between a number of people she'd never had guessed would work together. And certainly not so effectively.
In less than three days they'd created a system that could transport people and cargo anywhere on the planet essentially instantly. While she wasn't sure exactly what Legend wanted for, she could see more and more uses herself. The more she thought about it, the more she realized it was one of the most game-changing inventions ever.
"Christ," she finally said quietly. "And it's yet another thing the Family is somehow responsible for. Our friendly local reptilian aliens." Shaking her head, she got up to find a bottle of beer. This was definitely at least a one-beer evening in her view.
If they'd managed to do all of this in two months, what would it be like in two years?
After some thought, she decided that it was definitely a two-beer evening.
"Hi, Brian."
He looked up from his dinner to find Saurial on the other side of the cafeteria table, holding a tray. "Mind if I sit here?"
"Help yourself," he said, waving at the seat with his fork, then going back to eating. He was very tired and somewhat dirty, but pleased with the day's work.
She put her plate of mac and cheese on the table, then stacked her tray on his, sitting down in the process. They ate in silence for a couple of minutes. "Your sister is fine, and so is your father," she said quietly. "They're worried about you but I told them you were OK and would contact them as soon as you could."
He stopped eating for a moment, then resumed, nodding his acknowledgment of her comment. "Thank you."
"I passed on your money as well. Aisha doesn't know."
"Probably for the best," he smiled slightly, picking up his glass of apple juice and sipping it. "She is… slightly acquisitive."
"Runs in the family," the reptilian woman grinned. He lifted the corner of his mouth, amused.
"It did. I'm hoping it doesn't any more."
"We had a short talk. Seems like a smart girl."
"She's very quick and not even slightly stupid, but her attention span isn't exactly ideal," he replied, sighing. "It gets her into trouble. She comes up with a bright idea and just goes for it. Several times that's come close to causing real problems. And she's got a thing about authority."
"I bet that doesn't help her in school."
"Not even slightly." Shrugging, he ate some more. "Sometimes I think she does these things just to get the attention, sometimes I think she really can't help it. It drives me nuts at times. And it's not made the entire thing with Child Services any easier. She has… a reputation."
"Earned, I assume."
"Oh, god, yes," he couldn't help laughing. "Over and over. Poor Dad really doesn't know how to deal with it sometimes. He tries, but he has no real idea how to relate to a teenaged girl. He was awkward enough with me."
"He seemed like a decent enough guy. When he stopped staring, anyway." She was smiling as if she was remembering something funny. "He was a little shocked at first."
"Don't get me wrong, I think he's a good man and I do love him. I just don't think he's a wildly good parent, especially for Aisha. Mom is much, much worse. The damn girl still has feelings for her, but Mom isn't the sort of person who should be left in charge of kids." He scowled, a flash of a memory he tried not to think about coming back to him. "And the people she hangs out with shouldn't be allowed to breed at all."
"So Lisa said," Saurial replied seriously. "I'm sorry to hear that. It must have been rough."
"It sure as fuck wasn't fun," he muttered into his plate, staring at it. They fell into silence again, until he finished. Looking up, he found her watching him. "I really am grateful, both for you checking up on them, and for everything everyone here has done for us all."
"Don't worry, we know that, and we're all glad to help out," she smiled. "We'll deal with your problem with your previous employer soon enough and you can get on with your life. At least, until that happens, you've got something to do and are learning useful skills."
"That's true," he admitted. "Not quite what I had in mind a few weeks ago but on the whole it could have been a whole lot worse."
She grinned at him. "It nearly was. I'm glad it worked out." Looking over at the clock on the wall, she finished the last few bites of her own meal. "Got to go. Stay cheerful, Brian, and if you need anything, just ask."
"Thanks, Saurial," he replied as she got up, retrieving her tray and putting her empty plate on it. The girl nodded to him, then turned and left, stopping to talk to a few other people on the way. He watched, before returning his own tray, plate, and utensils, heading upstairs for a long overdue shower and an early night.
"All done?"
"All done," Taylor replied, smiling at Lisa. "I've got a very funny video to show you guys as well."
"Sounds good," her friend smiled back. "Your father went home, by the way, he said to tell you he'd see you later and not to stay up too late."
"We've been practicing," Amy added. Switching to Famtalk, she went on, {We should speak this as much as possible to help learn it.}
{Fine by me,} Taylor said in the same language. {Let me transfer this to the computer and we can watch it. Aisha looked a little surprised.}
{What the hell did you do to the poor girl?} Lisa asked as Taylor plugged her camera into one of the computers with a USB cable.
{Persuaded her not to shoplift,} Taylor smirked. {And nearly died trying not to laugh in the process.}
Shortly, they were watching her little routine with wide grins and much laughter. She felt it had been time well spent.