Carlos sat down at the cafeteria table, three Wards and Vicky all looking expectantly at him. "Well?" Chris asked in a low voice. "Any more news?"
"No," the boy said, shaking his head. "I called my… Aunt," which was a thin code for the Director, "and she told me that nothing interesting was happening at the moment. We should just get on with life for now." In fact, the woman had been somewhat less pleasant than that, obviously worried and wondering when the other shoe would drop, but he hadn't pushed. As long as the Simurgh and the other Endbringers were staying away, he was happy, why didn't really matter.
"OK. Thanks." The other boy shrugged a little, going back to his lunch. "Still, it was a little weird."
"Weird? It was bizarre, that's never happened before," Dennis commented. "I bet PHO is going insane. The conspiracists will be having a field day, even more so than when the Family does something peculiar. Like, practically every day." He smirked a little, putting his fork down. "I can hardly wait until after school so I can help them."
Vicky grinned at him. "How many PHO accounts do you actually have now?"
"About eight," he chuckled. "Sometimes all of them end up arguing with each other. Which is really funny but a lot more work than you'd expect."
"You're a very strange person, Dennis," Dean laughed. "Most people wouldn't put that much effort in just to troll the world."
Dennis shrugged. "It's a hobby."
"More like an obsession at times," his friend smiled. "Don't get carried away."
"How would I know if I did or not?" Dennis asked in reasonable terms as he opened a can of Sprite. "Considering that Ianthe and Metis both post on PHO as well, along with that lunatic that thinks they and their cousins are demons here to take over the world, not to mention Void Cowboy, AllSeeingEye whoever the hell he or she is, and all the others. I'm possibly the least weird person there."
"Which worries me," Carlos grinned. "Quite a lot."
"The internet is a very silly place," Vicky remarked wisely. "We should never go there."
"Too late," Dennis snickered. "Way, way too late. I'm just waiting for Kaiju to start posting. That should be pretty amusing."
"How?" Chris asked, looking skeptical. "Where the hell would she find a keyboard big enough?"
"No idea. But I wouldn't want to say she couldn't," the red-head replied. "I think the one thing that we can all agree on is that you should never make assumptions about what the Family can or can't do."
Sipping his drink, he looked around at the others, being met with four thoughtful expressions and as many nods.
Listening to the conversation, Taylor smiled internally, looking over at Amy to see laughter in her friend's eyes as she did the same. It got her started on thinking about how to make a keyboard big enough, and a suitable mouse. She was going to have to look up how they worked…
Pushing the thought to the back of her mind to be looked up later, she pulled her book on aerodynamics out of her pack and started leafing through it with one hand, eating with the other. She had more immediate amusements to plan out and this one looked pretty simple, at least on the surface.
"Any idea what happened?" Danny asked when he'd shut the door, finding 'Metis' sitting at one of the computers and intently reading a page full of esoteric data, which when he looked more closely appeared to be some theoretical work on the origin of the Endbringers. Without looking away, she shrugged.
"A few vague thoughts, but nothing I can point to with any degree of certainty at the moment," she replied, scrolling the page down for a few more seconds. When she finished reading it, she turned away to look at him. "As far as I can see, the Simurgh was running scared. That's what my power tells me, and it fits the other data I can find."
"Scared?" Danny echoed incredulously. "Of what for Christ's sake? The entire planet is terrified of her!"
Lisa looked a little dubious, then sighed faintly. "I have a sneaking suspicion that the Endbringers are scared of either Taylor, or Varga. Or, possibly, simply that ridiculous gun of hers. But that last one seems less likely for a number of reasons."
Danny stared, then dropped into a free chair, gaping at her. "Scared of Taylor? My daughter Taylor? The Endbringers?!"
She shrugged again. "Or, as I said, the Varga. We still don't know exactly what he's capable of if he really tries, but just the stuff we do know is insane. I suppose that by any real measure, we can't separate them from one another, so I guess you could say they're scared of Taylor with as much accuracy as saying it was Varga. But… my power is fairly sure that they're at least very cautious about the pair of them, although it won't give me any details. Or more accurately, it can't give me any more details, although I have the weirdest feeling it really wants to."
"Wants to?" he asked curiously, still boggling over the concept that his daughter and her live-in demonic friend could actually be worrying the fucking Endbringers. "What does that mean?"
The reptilian form of his research assistant looked at him with an expression of confusion. "I can't put it any better that than. For whatever reason, I can't use my power to analyze my power, at least to any useful level. Believe me, I've tried, ever since I Triggered. Actually, since Amy made all the changes to me to let me use this," she tapped herself on the chest, indicating the Metis bioconstruct, "my power is far more effective and smoother, if that is the right word. But I still can't turn it on itself and make it come out with any sense."
She sighed slightly. "It's very annoying. There are so many things about powers we don't understand at all. My own ability lets me analyze all sorts of things about them, like I did with Brandish and her power's interaction with EDM, but I can't actually get any data on the source of the power itself, only the effects. The weird bit is that it's more like I've been told 'no access allowed' rather than 'no data available.' Like when Eidolon went weird out there. I get the impression, which I can't back up with anything at all, that my ability isn't allowed to let me learn more. But at the same time I think it's very annoyed about that and wants to help."
"You make it sound like it's somehow alive or something," he said after considering her words.
She looked at him, then back at the monitor. "I know. I can't explain it. But that's the impression I get. Since I got modded by Amy, my power is happy. Ecstatic, even, for the most part. It's being helpful wherever possible, it sometimes actually volunteers information I didn't even ask for, and I could almost swear it's made a couple of jokes. Very peculiar ones, but funny even so. I'm not convinced that whatever it is, it's in any way smart like the Varga is, but… it's almost like I'm linked into some strange and incredibly advanced computer or something, one running a weird data processing application and using me as the input/output part."
Turning to him again, he could see on her scaly face she was actually worried and a little scared. "Sometimes I think I might be going nuts, to tell the truth. No one I've ever heard of has suggested that powers are sort of alive. But… I kind of think they might be, for a sufficiently broad definition of alive. Which is more than a little worrying, if only because of the implications."
Danny stared at her for some time. Eventually, he said, "We know for a fact that there are aliens, other forms of intelligent life than humans, out there somewhere. Earth Aleph proves parallel universes exist. The Varga, and by extension whoever or whatever sent him to Taylor, that shows a hell of a lot more is also true. He says he's from somewhere completely different than a parallel world like Aleph and we have no reason to doubt him. Knowing that, I couldn't honestly say that I think you're crazy."
He grinned for a moment. "I mean, you are, but for entirely different reasons."
"Thanks, Danny, thanks a lot," she snickered.
"Maybe you're right. Maybe powers are the result of some weird alien life form, or supercomputer, or something like that. I've read SF stories that had that sort of idea behind them. Based on what we, our little group here, knows without any doubt is true, can we simply just discard your thoughts merely because we can't prove it right now?"
Lisa studied him, then sighed a little. "I guess not. I don't know if I'd be more or less worried if I turned out to be right in any way. I suppose the main question that would come to mind if it really is some weird alien thing giving abilities is why?"
He shrugged. "I have absolutely no idea. We know why Varga is here, he's told us, and I believe him and trust him. All these other things… if they're something like you think, there could be any number of reasons. Many of which we might never understand if they're really alien. I'm always a little surprised how easily understood Varga is, considering the sheer non-humanity of him. Possibly we just got lucky in his case."
She nodded thoughtfully, absorbing his words. "Just have to keep thinking about it, and trying to get more data, I suppose," the girl eventually sighed. "On the positive side, at least as far as whatever really is behind my own abilities, one of the things I think is true is that it's very invested in keeping me and everyone else going as long as possible. If I had to explain it, the damn thing is having enormous fun and wants to keep doing so. There's a definite impression of satisfaction under the frustration." She smiled again for a moment. "It feels like a loyal and very smart pet that will do anything needed to keep playing. I know how fucked up that sounds, but I can't shake that impression."
"Interesting," he mused, studying her in turn. "I wonder how much of that is due to Varga being around, how much is down to what Amy has done for you two, and how much is the original… programming, or whatever."
"Not a clue. I might just be imagining the whole thing and I'm on the verge of losing it entirely," Lisa replied. "I don't think I am, but it's a possibility."
"I don't think you're losing it, Lisa," he smiled. "Or, possibly you lost it years ago. Whatever, you seem pretty stable to me. You're a very smart and intuitive person, powers aside, so if you think this is a possibility, I can accept it. My daughter is a half-demon shape-shifting reptile monster, for god's sake! I've seen weirder than you, believe me."
She laughed, nodding, and also looking relieved. "Thanks. I was worried about mentioning it but I also had to tell someone."
"I wonder if Amy has any of the same thoughts?" he commented after a moment, making her look thoughtful. "If it's these neural modifications that have somehow altered the way your powers work, presumably she may well have noticed the same thing. I wouldn't be even slightly surprised to know that she's modded herself a lot more than you, she's testing things out on herself all the time."
"Oh, she's tweaked the hell out of herself in the last couple of weeks," Lisa nodded. "I can tell even without asking her. But… I'll have to talk to her about this. It would be an interesting extra data point. Pity we don't have any other people with powers that have had the same mods, it might help with the entire thing."
"I have no doubt that sooner or later you'll drag other people into the Family," Danny smiled. "Just make a lot of notes before and after. You may end up learning something very important. Although I don't know quite how you'd go about letting other people know, or even if you should. Some of the implications are a little scary."
"Some of the implications are fucking terrifying," she muttered, making him nod a little.
They sat in silence for a while, then he stood up. "OK, as interesting and worrying as all this is, I have to get back to work. When you've finished pondering the meaning of life, I could do with a hand going over the next section of the plan, looking for anything that's going to cause problems."
"Sure, I'll finish this, then change and be over in about twenty minutes," she smiled. "Just slip into something less comfortable."
He grinned, shaking his head. "You really find being like that perfectly normal now, don't you?"
"I do, weirdly enough. I did from about half an hour after I tried with Ianthe the first time," Lisa replied happily. "I can't really explain it properly, it's one of those things you have to experience to understand, but I feel as at home in here as I ever have in my normal body. And a lot safer. Amy does incredible work, especially with Taylor's help. And it's a hell of a lot of fun."
"You just like making people stare and wonder what's going on," he pointed out.
"Well, I'd be lying if I denied that's a big part of it," she giggled.
"How I ended up with reptilian girls all over the place I still can't work out." Danny smiled at her. "Can't say I really mind, but looked at from the outside, it's a bit strange." He turned and headed for the door. "I'll see you in a while."
"Later, Danny," she called, going back to the computer for a moment as he let himself out, shaking his head at the new information, none of which made an enormous amount of sense to him yet.
He was still having trouble with the idea that the Simurgh might have run away from his fifteen-year-old daughter. Even if she was merged with an ancient demon of unknown true potential, that seemed a little worrying to him.
Amy slowed down as she headed towards the BBFO office, both she and Taylor inspecting the hive of activity around the chunks of tanker. Crews of workers were steadily dismantling them, cutting torches and thermal lances spewing sparks everywhere. Several rail cars were already half-full of sorted metal.
"Coming along really well so far, isn't it?" she remarked. Taylor nodded her Saurial-form head, smiling at the sight.
"It is. I'm really happy about that. All those people are earning decent wages for doing jobs they enjoy and seem to be feeling a lot better about themselves as a result. Have you noticed how much happier everyone is around here since this all started?"
"I have," Amy replied as she moved the vehicle on. "It's a good thing, I think. You helped a lot of people with one fairly simple idea." She grinned slightly "Admittedly, it was an idea that was totally nuts, if you weren't you, but you are so it all seems to have worked out."
"A stupid idea that works isn't stupid," Taylor snickered. "I'm just glad it did work. I was pretty worried at various points that I'd screw it up somehow. It was a little scary to have so many people relying on me." She waved at the scene outside the truck window. "But with this as a start, even if I never did anything more, they could carry on without me. I like helping out, a lot, but I don't want them to end up relying on me. That wouldn't help anyone in the long term."
"Probably the right idea," Amy agreed. "Plus it leaves you more free time to troll the world."
"Another good point," her friend grinned. "One must find enjoyment where one can."
"One must, yes." They shared a look of amusement, before Amy parked the vehicle. "OK. Let's see what Lisa has to tell us about what the fuck the Simurgh was doing. That bit of today worries me."
"Me too," Taylor confessed, opening the door and jumping out. She massaged her tail. "We really need to fix that part of your truck, those seats are all wrong."
"Tell me about it," Amy muttered, doing much the same for the same reason. "Think you can make some replacement seats?"
"Should be easy enough," her friend replied, bending down to look under the passenger seat. "It seems to just bolt in place. Park it inside and we can pull this one out and have a look at it."
"OK." Waiting for the other girl to go inside and open the main door, Amy got back in and drove the truck inside, parking it and turning it off. Lisa, as herself for once, was watching from the computers. "Hi, Lisa," she called.
"Hi."
Taylor joined her at the computer desk, Amy following. They all looked at each other. "So. Simurgh. Any ideas? Or was she just fucking with everyone?" Taylor looked somewhat puzzled and also worried.
Lisa sighed slightly. "This is going to take a while. Let's sit down. I have a lot of information to share, and some questions to ask. Some of which are going to make you go 'Um, WTF?' I can pretty much guarantee it." Reaching down to one of the fridges under the bench, she opened it and pulled out several cans of soda. "Oh, yes, we had a delivery of supplies as well today. Some more onions, the fridges are full, and we have enough coffee, tea, and soup to make that thing run for weeks." She nodded at the elaborate drinks machine. Handing each of her friends a can, she went and dropped into a chair at the table.
"I've also asked some of the guys to come in tomorrow and completely refit the washroom, add a shower, and a few other things. No need to waste your time making the parts, it's all in stock. I'll keep an eye on it."
"Great." Taylor smiled as she also sat. "That should be about the last thing we need done in here to make it a proper office and workshop." She looked around, popping the tab on her can, appearing satisfied. "Very good indeed."
Amy sat down as well, opening her own drink. "OK. What's the story?" she asked, seeing and smelling that Lisa was worried. Taylor obviously knew as well, but was waiting patiently to find out why.
Lisa sipped her drink, inspecting them both, then put the can down. "The sirens went off and I got over to the WCC as fast as possible..." she began, sitting more upright and looking serious. Amy and Taylor both listened with increasing confusion and mild alarm to a very weird story, that went places they didn't expect.
Looking at her watch, Missy debated with herself about the wisdom of her plan. She wasn't on duty for the next two days, school was over for the day, and she was so curious! And very frustrated. No matter what she did, she couldn't quite make that last conceptual jump to a point where she could properly understand what it was she was seeing inside her head. Everyone she showed her work to acted really weirdly, usually refusing to look again, and sometimes even overreacting in a way that was frankly a little insulting.
The only group of people she was certain would not only understand what she was working on, but also be able to help, were covered in scales and had tails. Not that this made them any less interesting, if anything she found Saurial and her family absolutely fascinating. While they're been a shock at first, she'd come to think of the lizard-girl as a friend she met occasionally, having had a few email conversations with her as well. Since the tanker move, though, they all seemed to have been so busy none of them had time to do much patrolling.
Not that this really had much effect on the currently lower than normal crime rates, the criminals mostly seemed to have climbed into holes and pulled them in afterwards. Possibly they were thinking that the sudden lack of reptilian capes everywhere was just a trap to entice them out. Which, knowing the sense of humor involved, she couldn't entirely reject as a possibility.
The thought made her grin darkly to herself. It was exactly the sort of thing she could see Saurial doing.
About the only criminals still plying their trade were a few of the less intelligent and more enthusiastic E88 members, and the Merchants. The latter didn't surprise her at all, they were mostly idiots to start with, and the drugs sure didn't improve that aspect of their personalities. The ABB had gone totally to ground, ever since Lung had some sort of run in with the Family. She'd heard he'd had a talk with Kaiju which seemed to have impressed him. Missy didn't like him at all, but she'd learned enough over the years to have considerable respect for his intelligence. Just very little for his ethics.
With any luck that would stick, and if they got really lucky he might even move away. Kaiser, too, was someone she didn't like but also thought was no fool, and the word was definitely getting around that he'd issued orders to stay well away from anything the Family had an interest in.
All that meant that Brockton Bay was suddenly considerably less dangerous than normal, although it was never going to end up in the 'top ten safest cities of the US' no matter what happened. There were simply too many capes around the place for that to occur. Dozens of independents and minor gangs no one really heard about pretty much ensured it was an exciting place. But with the two big ones on best behavior, the third biggest one mainly run by stupid people, and the smarter normal and cape criminals taking the whole thing as a good reason to have an extended holiday, life had become much less randomly scary.
Even Über and Leet seemed to have gone quiet recently, which she was in two minds about. Sure, they were technically villains, but they were generally very entertaining ones, who seldom seemed to cause too much real trouble.
And she loved Über's speaking voice, especially when he was performing to camera.
The girl smiled at the memories of watching far more of the duo's channel than the Director would be entirely pleased about.
Sure, she was cynical and world-weary enough to realize that the current state of affairs probably wouldn't last, but for the moment she had fairly little to do. Which in turn meant that on her time off she didn't feel like sticking around the PRT building just in case, and with her family situation she generally didn't like being at home any more than she had to. Add to that her frustration with her new hobby, needing some… advice… from someone with the correct and apparently very rare mindset…
She needed to visit the Family. Which meant going to BBFO, or randomly wandering around hoping to bump into one of them. Of the two courses of action, the first one sounded more plausible, and also a lot more fun.
While it would have been better in some ways to arrange to do it without being in her cape identity, it would raise way too many questions. If she learned what she hoped to, it wouldn't take anyone as smart as she suspected Saurial and her family were to link Missy Biron, the girl with some odd mathematical questions, to Vista, the girl who was making use of the answers to those questions. Which she was pretty sure was going to be the result if she could understand the answers she was certain Saurial could give her.
So, what it all boiled down to was that she had to visit as Vista, but do it discreetly, as she wasn't entirely sure the Director would approve.
No. Scratch that. She was almost certain the Director would not approve. She seemed to tolerate the Family remarkably well, but she also had said more than once that she didn't want the Wards getting too close to them for unspecified reasons.
Probably something to do with Dennis. It usually was.
Which meant a stealth mission. Sneaky, off the books, the sort of thing Shadow Stalker would do.
Grinning again, she headed towards the bus stop, intending not to go home, but to swing by the shopping area and find something she could wear over her costume to disguise her as she infiltrated the DWU and the docks. Perhaps some sort of cloak? Something that wouldn't stand out in the dim light of early winter evening, anyway.
The young girl giggled under her breath as she jogged towards the bus stop, her costume in her backpack. This was going to be fun, whatever happened when she actually got there.
"Any idea what happened?" Randall asked as he stopped behind his friend, who was flipping through web pages, at least one of which wasn't supposed to be publicly available.
"Not really," Kevin said in a distracted manner, reading what seemed to be some sort of internal PRT report. "She headed directly for Canberra, much slower than normal, stopped suddenly while she was still way out of the atmosphere, then reversed course and scrammed at one hell of a high speed. None of it is anything I can remember happening before, and the PRT says the same. They're extremely confused and worried about it."
"Not surprising, any odd activity from the Endbringers is cause for concern," Randall noted.
"All too true. But at least this time didn't end up in mass death like it normally does," Kevin shrugged. A few minutes later he closed the last of the open windows and turned around. "I can't explain it. Neither can anyone else as far as I can find out."
"Weird." Randall looked around the workshop cum living space, then back to his friend. "Not much we can do about it, though. So, what do you want to do tonight? Same thing we always do?"
Kevin grinned. "We're never going to take over the world. But I know some people who probably could. I'm bored, let's go see the girls."
"Sounds like a plan, my man," Randall chuckled, slapping his friend on the back and nearly knocking him off his stool. "We should get Amy to fix you up with some actual muscles as well."
"I have plenty of muscles, you oaf," Kevin replied snarkily. "They're just, you know, wiry, not all sticking out like yours."
"Yeeeah… Not seeing it." Randall smirked as the smaller man, who to be fair was actually in reasonably fit condition, glared at him. "I'm sure she could improve it. Add a tail, maybe something else… Hooves, perhaps?"
"I need neither a tail nor hooves," Kevin sniffed haughtily. "I have more than enough ability to attract a girl without accessories."
"Really?" Randall looked amused and dubious.
"Really. I just choose not to waste my time with such pursuits in the same way you do, I have more intellectual activities to involve myself with."
They stared at each other, then fell about laughing. "We're both geeks and proud of it, idiot," Randall snickered. "Come on, let's see what our scaly neighbors are up to. And get some pizza on the way. I'm starving."
"Good idea," Kevin replied as he rummaged on the cluttered desk for his van keys. "I could eat."
Shortly the pair were heading towards the nearest pizza place, trying to work out what everyone would be likely to want.
'Nice,' Missy thought approvingly, looking down at herself. For once her rather diminutive stature was coming in handy. She'd managed to find in a used clothing store a cloak with a hood that was fairly similar to the one Sophia used, made of a very good quality cloth. It was pretty old, she suspected, and smelled of mothballs, but someone had obviously spent a lot of money on it at some point in the past. She'd got it for only five bucks, since that sort of thing wasn't very fashionable these days.
Since it was clearly intended for someone several inches taller than she was, it came down almost to the ground, and she could wrap it around herself close to two times. The thing was a dark charcoal gray in color, probably having been intended to be black when it was new, but had faded over the years. All in all it was perfect for blending into the dark with.
She'd been pleased to find there were a couple of internal pockets as well, which turned out to be large enough to stash her normal clothes in. The thing was also surprisingly warm. Having purchased it and left to find a discreet place to change into her costume, she was now standing on the roof of one of the financial buildings wrapped up in the cloak, the hood pulled down over her helmet. From the outside she fancied she looked dark and mysterious, and certainly nothing like Vista.
Smiling to herself, the girl looked around suspiciously, then quickly made the distance to the next building disappear before stepping across to it. In fits and starts, checking each time for observers, she headed towards the docks. Having a lot more fun than she'd expected to.
'I might keep this,' she giggled silently, stepping another hundred feet closer to her goal. 'Without Sophia around, we need a dark and mysterious girl on the team.'
Pleased with the idea, she kept moving, sticking to the shadows and very faintly humming the Mission Impossible theme to herself.