"Holy crap, this is amazing," Kevin muttered to himself, lifting the set of weights Taylor had produced. She'd said it was one and a half tons and he had no reason to disbelieve her in the slightest. A quick mental calculation showed him she was correct, from the volume of the EDM masses on the ends of the pole.
Randall had managed a little more, around one point seven tons, but even the lower amount was ridiculous. He was doing the equivalent of lifting a mid-size car over his head, with admittedly considerable strain, but the mere fact he could do it at all seemed crazy. Amy's modifications were impressive to put it mildly.
Carefully lowering the weights to the ground with a thump, he straightened up and wiped his hands on his jeans. Turning to Taylor, who was in her base form a few feet away and watching with an approving look, he grinned. "That is simply astounding," he said in mild shock.
"I'm very satisfied with the results," she replied, walking over and grabbing the middle of the bar with one hand. She picked it up like it weighed about as much as a heavy bag of shopping and held it vertically for a moment, leaning back quite a long way to avoid tipping over, then made it go away.
He shook his head, still grinning. "I get it. You're the strongest of them all. You don't need to rub it in."
Giggling, the girl went back and sat on her tail at the table. Looking at the empty pizza boxes with mild disappointment, she picked up Amy's knife and absently balanced it on her finger, tip down. "Everything seems to work exactly as designed," she commented, looking at the healer, who was next to Randall, his friend in a chair with his feet up on the table and a reflective smile on his face. Lisa was studying the math the other girl had written out with an expression of concentration.
"I'm happy," Amy replied. "We should test the healing though."
"OK," Taylor grinned, flipping the knife in her hand to catch it by the blade, then flicking it over her shoulder without looking. Kevin swore and yelped in pain as it whipped past his arm, the edge catching him just above the wrist and leaving a long shallow cut. The thing was horrendously sharp.
"Fuck me!" he cried in outrage, hearing the knife bounce off the workroom door behind him as he darted out of range, his speed boost coming into play without even thinking about it. "What was that for, you crazy girl?"
"Testing the healing like Amy said," Taylor remarked in an even voice, looking slightly puzzled. Randall was heaving with silent laughter, Amy was smirking, and Lisa looked over, shook her head, then went back to studying the equations.
"That hurt," he complained, looking at his arm. She tossed him a cloth, which he used to wipe the fairly small amount of blood away, showing that the cut had disappeared completely in only seconds. "Although, I have to admit, that works freakishly well. Your experimental procedure sucks ass though."
"Sorry. It was the quickest way to be sure," she grinned at him in a slightly evil manner. He sighed, then went and sat down out of reach.
"You are a very strange person, Taylor," he mumbled.
"And you don't have any idea just how strange she is," Amy giggled.
"Strange?" Taylor looked shocked. "I'm not strange. I'm totally normal." She produced a large balloon from nowhere, then blew into it steadily for far longer than should have been possible. Tying it off she let go, everyone watching as it floated up to the ceiling. "See? I play with balloons and everything."
"You just inflated a balloon with helium, didn't you?" Randall said slowly.
"Yep."
"Just by blowing into it."
"Yep."
"And that's what you call normal?"
The brunette smirked at him. "For me that's entirely normal."
"Exhaling helium…?"
"I could do hydrogen if you want, but it's a fire hazard."
Kevin's friend looked at him, then at the girl, who was clearly very amused at her little party trick. Amy was giggling quietly to herself.
"We're looking forward to finding out what you consider… less than normal," Randall remarked eventually. "I think. And I'm definitely going to have to rework our pranks to include some of the less believable things from Looney Tunes cartoons if you're going to go around doing things like that."
"That'll have to wait until after the experiment," Taylor replied, still grinning.
"When will you know if you're seeing any of the things you're looking for?"
She inspected him, then Kevin, a little doubtfully, before glancing at Lisa. "I'm not honestly sure. Sorry. All we can do is wait. Keep in touch and we'll see what happens."
Kevin looked at his friend, who looked back, then both of them shrugged. "OK, I guess. I'm curious but I can live with it. For now."
"Hey, want to see something cool?" she asked after a moment's smiling. A little uncertainly, he nodded.
"Assuming it's not going to get me stabbed or something."
"Come with me," she said, getting up and switching to her Raptaur form, then heading for the back door via a key box mounted on the wall next to the workroom, opening it and removing a ring of keys. "I'll be back in a while, I'm just going to show them the WCC," she commented to Lisa, who was half-way down the line of boards, her head cocked to the side and an expression of deep thought on her face. The other girl nodded without looking away. Amy got up and followed them. Curious, Kevin and Randall went out the rear door and walked with them down the access road, finding that the dark night was no longer much of an issue.
"What's the WCC?" Randall asked as they walked. Taylor looked back over her shoulder, grinning.
"Pretty cool."
"Very helpful."
"You'll like it, trust me," she laughed. It was clear she wasn't going to say anything more specific so they just followed, wondering what she was going to show them.
Having decided on the way home to pick up some more coffee, milk, and a few bottles of beer, Danny made the familiar short detour to the nearest shop that would be open, a small all-night convenience store on the edge of the docks area. Some more eggs were probably a good idea, seeing as how Taylor had eaten them all again. He still found that a little weird but she seemed to enjoy it, so why not?
The shop was one that the dock-workers frequented for various small items and everyone knew the owner, whose family had run the place for at least forty years. He nodded to the young man behind the till, the owner's son, as he entered. "Hi, Emil," he said over the sound of the bell over the door tinkling.
"Hello, Mr Hebert," Emil replied, looking up from his magazine. "You're up late tonight."
"I could say the same thing," Danny smiled, grabbing one of the battered wire baskets from inside the door.
"It's my turn for nights," Emil explained. "Next week it's Dad's."
"Fair enough. Just heading home and needed a few things. Been a long day."
"The guys were saying things are going well at the DWU these days," Emil commented.
"Very well. Everyone is pleased, so far. But it's kept everyone hellishly busy for weeks now."
"Better busy than otherwise, I guess." The young man grinned for a moment. Danny chuckled, heading for the rear of the shop.
"Definitely," he called over his shoulder. "Hey, you got any fresh eggs?"
"In the cabinet on the right, Mr Hebert," Emil called.
"Thanks." Danny retrieved a couple of cartons of a dozen eggs each and put them in his basket, then poked around for another ten minutes, assembling a small collection of items. Half-way through he heard the bell go again as more customers entered, looking up briefly to see a pair of men in their late twenties come in, then went back to debating which beer to get. Having decided, he put a loaf of bread in the basket as well then headed back to the front.
He was half way to the entrance when he heard a shout, then a crash. "Empty the till, you fucker!" an unfamiliar voice screamed.
"OK, man, put that away," Emil's voice, very nervous but steady, said. Danny stopped dead, in a position where he wasn't visible from the front, thought rapidly, then put his basket on the floor. Moving in a crouch he walked down the aisle to the end, which put him slightly to one side of and behind the two men who seemed to be robbing the place. Peeking around the end of the shelving unit, he assessed the situation.
Both men were very sketchy and rough looking, clearly Merchants. He could smell some pretty rank personal odors as well as what was clearly some form of narcotic. The tall skin-headed one pointing an old pistol at Emil was twitching slightly, while his friend who was shorter and hairier seemed to be leaning a little to the right, his right hand jerking randomly.
'Oh, for fuck's sake,' Danny thought wearily. 'They're so strung out on something they can barely stand up.' Which didn't make them any less dangerous, as the gun was real.
And loaded, it turned out, when the idiot brandishing it raised it and fired a shot into the ceiling, screaming, "Hurry up!" Even his friend jumped at the sound, while Emil, who was already rather pale, went considerably more so.
Deciding that the risk of the gunman putting a round into the owner's son, now that he was pointing the slightly smoking gun back at the middle of Emil's chest, was higher than he thought ideal, Danny took a deep breath. Retrieving one of the batons Taylor had given him, he palmed it up his sleeve, then stepped out from behind the shelf.
"Skidmark know you guys are out robbing shops in the Docks?" he asked calmly. "I thought we had an arrangement. You guys stay away from our people, we don't come after you."
Both men spun around as he spoke, their eyes wide. Pretty obviously neither one of them had thought there was anyone else in the place.
"Who the fuck are you?" the one with the pistol demanded, pointing it at him. He could see it was a small caliber gun, probably a .25 or so. Deliberately ignoring it, while hoping that the combination of Taylor's coat and Amy's symbiote would deal with things if the guy actually fired, he smiled as nastily as he could.
"Me? I'm Danny Hebert. More to the point, who are you? And why are you breaking the truce?"
The shorter man looked worried, while the other one seemed confused. Or, more accurately, more confused, as he was the sort of person who appeared fairly confused most of the time even before he took whatever it was he'd taken. "Truce? What you talking about?"
"I'm talking about the way the DWU leaves you guys alone, unless you do something stupid. This counts as stupid. If I were you, I'd just step outside that door, then keep walking."
"Andy, that's the DWU boss. We don't fuck with the DWU." Andy's friend seemed even more worried now. He started backing towards the door, his hands carefully visible.
"DWU? Bunch of has-beens, those losers," Andy scoffed.
"They have the Family, you idiot," Andy's companion hissed, then smiled lopsidedly at Danny. "Come on."
"I don't see any lizards around," Andy snarled, raising the gun a little more, aiming it at Danny's chest, then taking a couple of unsteady steps forward. Danny couldn't believe it, since this put the man right at arm's length. He clearly didn't have any idea how to fight.
"No, they may well be doing something else," Danny smiled. "Although you never know. Saurial could be right outside and you'd probably never hear her."
Andy twitched, looking involuntarily out the window. Letting the baton in his right sleeve slip into his hand, Danny flicked it out to full length, then snapped it out, the button on the end hitting the wrist of the other man's gun hand. His hand opened and the gun dropped to the floor with a clatter, while the man himself howled in agony.
Taking a quick step forward, Danny kicked the revolver under the nearest shelf. "I'm not fond of violence, but you shot at a friend of mine. Please leave, and don't come back."
"Fucking cunt mother-fucker!" Andy yelled, putting his undamaged hand into his pocket and pulling out a switchblade, which he flicked open and waved around. Danny looked at it for a moment. He raised an eyebrow.
"Really? You think that's going to help when the gun didn't?"
"I'll cut you, cunt," Andy howled, diving at his opponent. Taking a step to the side Danny whacked him on the back of the neck with the baton, then tripped him into the cold drinks freezer next to the front door as he went past. The Merchant's head slammed into the metal with a loud and painful sounding thud, before he slid limply down to lie on the floor in a groaning heap.
Andy's friend stared, then bolted. Emil and Danny watched him go, looked down at the semi-conscious man on the floor who was mumbling to himself in a puddle of urine, his bladder having apparently decided it had had enough, then looked at each other.
"Does that happen a lot?" Danny asked as he flicked the knife away from the man with the end of his baton.
"Not really, no," the young man sighed unsteadily. "He must be new around here. Some of your guys made it very clear the last time it happened that they didn't like the Merchants interrupting the beer supply. They even made the Merchants in question apologize. This is the first time any of them have come back in quite a while."
"Huh." Danny poked the man with his baton, evoking a slight twitch. Collapsing it, he put it away, then carefully felt the guy's pulse. It was steady enough, considering he was probably juiced to the eyeballs. "Annoying."
"Just a little," Emil muttered, in the process of dialing 911. Danny retrieved his basket of purchases and put it on the counter, keeping an eye on the junkie on the corner. When the man had finished calling in the attempted robbery, he rang up the purchases. "You can have everything at cost, Mr Hebert," he said, still sounding shaky. "Thank you for stepping in."
"Don't be silly, Emil, I don't need a discount, I know how small a margin you guys work on. And I was hardly going to stand by and risk you getting shot. I've been buying things here for twenty years, where would I go if you went out of business?" Danny smiled at the man.
Emil smiled back, looking less pale. "Are you sure? Dad won't mind."
"It's fine, I just did what any of us would do," Danny assured him. He could hear sirens approaching, a police car with its lights on coming to a rapid halt just outside moments later. Two officers jumped out and drew their weapons, one coming in while the other one covered him from outside the door.
"Over there," Emil pointed, making sure to keep his hands visible, as Danny was doing. The cop looked at the Merchant, then the two upright people.
"Hi, Danny," he said, holstering his weapon with a slight grin. "Your work? Or did he just pass out?"
"I… may have helped a little," Danny replied. "Hello, Officer Bailey."
"I hope he didn't threaten your daughter. We know what happens if someone does that."
The cop looked mildly amused and slightly impressed. Danny looked rather embarrassed. "Not my finest hour," he muttered.
"Not the way the boys at the station remember it," Bailey snickered. His partner had come in and was bending over the man on the floor with an expression of distaste, pulling on a pair of disposable gloves, then handcuffing the Merchant, who was beginning to come around. "The bastard had it coming."
"Still, I slightly overreacted that time," Danny shrugged. "His gun is under the shelf over here. About there." He pointed. The officer knelt down and felt around, retrieving the pistol in a gloved hand, inspecting it for a moment, then putting the safety on. He patted the junkie down, finding and removing another knife, then retrieving the first one. Putting all three weapons into a set of evidence bags, he stood up.
Opening the notebook he pulled from his pocket, Bailey started asking questions about what had happened. Emil finished bagging Danny's purchases while he gave his side of the story. When he'd finished, Danny explained what had happened. In the end, Officer Bailey closed the notebook again, nodding. "Sounds like you used the minimum amount of force required. You even gave them a chance to withdraw."
"This one didn't seem to want to do that," he replied, motioning to the now conscious and sullen man who Bailey's partner had heaved to his feet and propped on the wall. The man was even more odoriferous than he had been before. "His friend left in a hurry."
"I'm going to get you, you son of a bitch," the Merchant snarled. Bailey's partner poked him, hard.
"None of that, you're already in enough trouble."
"Skidmark has something heavy planned for all you cunts," the man added, not listening. "We're going to fuck you up good."
"Are you?" Danny asked after a glance at Officer Bailey. "How?"
"You'll see. When Skidmark gets back, he's..."
The junkie suddenly stopped talking, looking around as if he'd only just realized he was being less than discreet. Now seeming worried, he clammed up completely. Bailey studied him for a few seconds, then jerked his head towards the door. "Put him in the car," he said to his colleague. "Put a plastic sheet down first, I don't want him stinking the thing up any more than he has to."
"OK," the other cop said as he frog-marched the still shaky man out to the squad car. Bailey turned back to Danny.
"That's not the first time I've heard something like that recently, Danny," he said in a serious, low voice. "Word on the street is that Skidmark is talking himself up and mouthing off about taking on the Family, and the DWU. He thinks you're bad for business. With the ABB and the E88 lying low at the moment, he's the biggest pain in the ass around and we think he wants to expand. You guys are in the way."
"I'm not entirely surprised," Danny sighed. "My guys have heard a few things, but nothing that specific. Any idea of when or how?"
"No. The guy is pretty random at the best of times, and he's obviously nuttier than I thought if he thinks he stands a chance if the Family gets pissed off. But he could cause a lot of damage first. The bastards not bright, not by a long shot, but he's cunning. Don't underestimate the threat." Bailey looked around, seeing only Emil, who was listening silently without making it obvious. His own partner was still dealing with the Merchant who was now complaining loudly about something no one else cared about.
"We've known each other for a long time, Danny," he went on in an even lower voice. "I can't officially advise that you arm yourselves, it's against BBPD policy. But… if I was in your position I'd take precautions. I know you guys have good security, but it might be worth thinking of something a little more… dangerous. If we get called out I'd rather find Merchants with holes in them than dockworkers. And I didn't say that."
"I understand. Thanks," Danny replied after a moment. He wasn't pleased about the idea, but he could see the other man's point. He felt much the same, even though he wasn't at all keen on turning the DWU into an army. It was a difficult thing to row back from once it happened. "I'll discuss it with my people."
"You do that. And keep your eyes open. If we hear any specific threat against you guys, you'll hear about it, the BBPD and the Dockworkers Union go back a long way. But we might not hear anything in time. So..." He shrugged a little. "Just be careful."
"We will. Thank you, Officer Bailey."
"No sweat. Thanks for the help. See you around." He nodded to Danny, then waved to Emil. "Later, Emil."
"See you, George," the young man said. Both of them watched as the officer went outside, talked to his partner for a moment, then drove off. Emil turned back to Danny. "You think that idiot was telling the truth about his junkie boss?"
"No idea, Emil," Danny sighed. "Difficult to tell with Merchants. They're normally so high they barely know what day it is. But it wouldn't surprise me."
The man handed over the bag of groceries, Danny taking it and handing him the relevant cash. "Thanks."
"See you next time, Mr Hebert," Emil replied. With a wave Danny went back to his car and got in, starting it and heading home, thinking hard.
He was going to have to talk to Mark again, to see what he thought. His contacts in the military and… other places… might get some more work.
And Taylor was going to have to be told. He wasn't entirely happy about that, mainly because he didn't want to think what she might do if she decided that the threat was real. Between her, the Varga, Amy, and Lisa, a preemptive strike on the Merchants was entirely possible, and it would without doubt be a total rout. He wasn't certain that was a good idea from the public relations standpoint at this particular time.
On the other hand, if it came down to his family, and his friends, or Skidmark's crew…?
They were totally fucked.
He wondered if the crazy drug lord had any idea of the shitstorm he was apparently talking himself into.
Kevin looked up at the sign, glanced at Randall, then began laughing. "WCC? Let me guess. Wormhole Central Command?"
"Of course," Taylor chuckled.
"A fan of Stargate, are we?" Randall asked wisely. She grinned and nodded.
"I might find it quite amusing, yes," she replied. "You have no idea how tempted I was to make a great big ring with lots of movable bits around the edges and tell Dragon to put the portal in the middle of it." She moved to unlock the door as Kevin and Randall started giggling like kids.
"Oh, god, I'd pay to see that," Randall snickered, wiping tears of laughter from his eyes. "And, you know the really funny bit?" He looked at the others with a grin on his face. "I have the definite impression that she'd actually go for it, and probably find it as funny as we would."
"The woman does strike me as someone with an interesting sense of humor," Kevin agreed, following Taylor inside. The other two came in behind him, Amy closing and locking the door when everyone was inside. Taylor flicked a few switches beside the door, the lights coming on, then moved to the main console and activated another one labeled 'Main Power.' A low hum started in a side room, some form of generator starting up.
"I like her a lot," Taylor admitted. She waved her arms around. "What do you think?"
"It's fucking amazing," Randall said after a long slow look around. Kevin nodded wordlessly, impressed. "How long did all this take to do?"
"About seven or eight hours, but we pulled in a lot of guys from the DWU to help," Amy said. "It was probably about three hundred and fifty man-hours in total. Plus Family hours, which lets us do a lot of things that would take you human-types much longer." She grinned at him as he laughed. "Legend, Armsmaster, and Dragon did a hell of a lot of work as well. I'm delighted with how well it came together."
"We worked very well together," Taylor nodded. "I had a lot of fun. Come and have a look in the other side."
Half an hour later they'd had a tour of the entire place. Kevin was very impressed. "Damn good," he said as they returned to the control room. "It sure looks the part."
"It works well, too. Where do you want to go?" Taylor put a key into the control console and turned it, then pressed a button. The screech of the wormhole singularity coming up to speed made the entire building howl for a moment. Amy was working on the targeting computer, apparently checking the current Endbringer positions for some reason.
"Huh. OK, I'm game. How about… Hawaii?"
"Kilauea volcano? That should look pretty good in the dark," Amy suggested, zooming in on the relevant spot on the map. She dropped a marker close to the active lava fields that Kevin knew were draining the caldera into the ocean, and had been doing since the volcano started erupting back in the eighties sometime.
Kevin watched closely as she set the target coordinates, memorizing the procedure. She nodded to Taylor, who activated the wormhole having selected standard transport. They watched on the monitor as the wormhole formed over the other side of the transportation tunnel.
"That is… really cool," Randall smiled broadly. "Not as many special effects as on TV, but really cool even so."
"Especially since it's real," Kevin snickered. He dashed over to the tunnel entrance and pressed the activation button, then pulled the door open when it finished extending. Going to the other end, he opened that door as well, staring out into the dark of five time zones away, the orange-yellow lava steadily pouring from the cone in the middle distance instantly catching his attention. A wave of heat and a smell of burning rock and sulfur came through the door.
"Holy crap, that's incredible," he breathed, impressed even though it was his invention at the heart of the entire facility. "I can still hardly believe that we managed to copy that thing."
"It's an impressive piece of work, my friend," Randall said softly, as he came to stand beside his friend. "Really fucking impressive."
"Thanks. But… the rest of this place is amazing as well." Kevin knelt and prodded the very hot dark ground, finding it solid and gritty. Fifty feet away, a runnel of glowing hot rock was swiftly moving past, the six foot wide river of lava glowing brightly and looking almost unreal in the dark. Rock wasn't meant to move like that, in his mind.
"I've never actually seen lava before," he commented.
Taylor joined them, looking out with interest. Amy was behind her, also seeming fascinated. "Neither have I," she said brightly. "I wonder if it tastes as good as it looks?"
She went past them, trotting over the steaming rock towards the lava stream. Kevin and Randall looked at each other incredulously, then simultaneously stared at Amy, who was massaging her muzzle between her eyes with a slightly pained expression. "Um… did she say she wondered what molten lava tasted like?" Kevin asked hesitantly.
"You know, she seems so normal most of the time," Amy sighed faintly, "then she goes and does something like this and you realize she works on a totally different level than most people."
"You have a very different understanding of the word 'normal' than I do," Randall said after a moment.
All three of them watched as their friend stopped beside the brightly glowing liquid rock, looking at it for a moment, then bending down and sticking her hand into it. Kevin gaped a little, knowing just how fucking hot it actually was. Somewhere in the vicinity of a thousand degrees in that form, probably twice that when it came out of the volcano.
Pulling her hand back, covered in a thick glowing crust of rock, Taylor rolled some of it into a large ball like it was toffee, then put it in her mouth and chewed. "Hey, it's not bad," she called back happily. "Lots of aluminum and silicon compounds. Nice and chewy." Scooping some more out of the stream, she headed back, playing with the stuff in her hands, which was dropping small lumps as it cooled.
"Want some?" she asked, reaching the doorway. Kevin looked at her with narrow eyes, then shook his head. She grinned, snickering, and ate the new ball of lava. Flexing her hands she brushed them together to removed the now-cool coating of rock, which flaked off onto the ground.
"I have difficulty working out sometimes if you're trying to come off as weird, or just don't realize you are," he commented, which made her grin again.
"Little of both. It really is quite tasty," she giggled, coming into the tunnel.
Pulling the door shut, they headed back into the control room. "So what do you think of the WCC?" she asked when they'd shut the wormhole generator down once again.
"I think I want one," Kevin chuckled. "I love it. Fucking good job all around."
"I'm pleased, and even Armsmaster seemed to think it came out well." Taylor smiled at him. "I've asked for another set of contracts to be drawn up covering your wormhole generator. I'm pretty sure Dragon will be calling again fairly soon, no matter what happens with the Endbringers. I'll let you know when she does. I doubt she'll have any trouble with signing them."
"That sounds good," he nodded. He noticed Amy was checking the Endbringer tracking log again, but she shut the system down before he saw what it was saying. Her expression was thoughtful, though. "I wonder if she's had any luck with the audio inducer and tricorder?"
"No idea, I haven't heard anything yet, but it's only been a few days so far," Taylor replied. They headed towards the door having finished shutting things down. Shortly they were on the way back to the DWU.
In her room on the Rig, Dragon noted the activation of the WCC facility and the destination, a moment's thought letting her decide it was most likely an experiment or test by the Family. Someone had checked the Endbringer tracking system immediately before and immediately after the wormhole had been activated, then shut down again after a few minutes of operation. Leviathan had acted as expected from his past activity, heading away at speed from the new midpoint of the wormhole destination and Brockton Bay.
She wondered who was testing what idea, and what conclusions they'd drawn.
It seemed likely to her that she was going to have to go and talk to Raptaur and the others soon, about a number of things.
Back in the BBFO building, Taylor reverted to her base form. 'Ianthe' went into the workroom, Amy coming out a minute or so later running her fingers through her hair. "Let's have a look at my truck," she said. Taylor got rid of the enclosure she'd boxed the vehicle in with when Vista had unexpectedly turned up, then the two girls opened the doors and started poking around the front seats.
"What are you doing?" Kevin asked curiously, coming over to watch.
"These seats are very tail-unfriendly," Amy explained, her head in the driver's side foot-well as she peered underneath the seat. "Taylor thinks we should replace them with something a little more useful."
"How will you explain the driver's seat having a tail hole?" he asked after a moment's thought. She pulled her head out of the truck and looked at him, then Taylor.
Shrugging, she said, "I upgraded the passenger seat with a custom one for Saurial, and we thought 'might as well do both in case she needs to drive it?' That should be acceptable."
"Fair enough." It seemed reasonable. Having a look, he said, "There aren't any airbags in the seats, but there are seat-belt pretensioners. You'll want to move those across, they're part of the safety system. Other than that, it's only four security bolts holding them in."
"Looks simple enough," Taylor agreed. Studying the bolts for a moment, she produced a tool specifically designed for them, trying it out on her side. Finding it worked, she made another one and handed it across. Kevin took it and was shortly involved in removing the other seat.
Half an hour later they'd taken the seats out and removed the explosive pretensioners. Taylor took a while to carefully inspect the old seats, making a number of duplicates with slots in the back and base of differing size and shape, before both she and Amy declared the final result tail-friendly and comfortable. The slot could be filled with a removable cushion for normally-arranged humans.
Once they'd refitted the custom seats, Amy tried out her one, then smiled. "Feels a little weird, but a lot more comfortable," she remarked.
"Mind you, the person behind you is going to find their own foot space filled with tail," Randall laughed when he looked behind her in the rear of the truck.
"My truck, my tail, my rules," she giggled. "They can get used to it. Anyway, no one will actually notice."
"Because of magic?" Kevin was still somewhat skeptical, but he was definitely aware that something very odd was going on, and that Taylor was the source of it.
This was pretty predictable, in fact.
"Exactly." Amy got out again. "Thanks for the help."
"You're welcome. Thanks for the amazing upgrades."
"And you're welcome. Have fun with them."
"What do we do if we notice anything weird?" Randall asked.
Amy and Taylor exchanged a glance, they looked over to where Lisa was sitting at the table watching, while apparently also pondering something that was keeping her silent and thoughtful. The sole still-reptilian girl shrugged.
"Take notes on exactly what you notice and when, I think," Amy finally said. "Keep in touch. I don't want to say anything else in case we screw up the experiment, it's already pretty sketchy, but hopefully we can get some good data."
"OK." Randall looked at his watch, then Kevin. "It's two AM and I'm ready for bed."
"Me too. Ladies, it's been a very interesting night. Thanks."
Taylor smiled at them. "I've sure had fun, and the pizza was a nice thought. I hope that… Cloak… got home safely."
"I'm sure she did," Kevin replied. "That girl has some serious skills. I like her."
"Me too. I bet she's back pretty soon."
"Sooner than you think," Lisa laughed. They all looked at her. She pointed at the computers. "Let's say that there are some very interesting threads on PHO about 'Cloak' already. She apparently had an eventful walk home."
"Why am I not surprised?" Kevin quipped.
"Brockton Bay, man, Brockton Bay." Randall clapped him on the back. "Come on, let's get home. See you all some other time."
"Night, guys," Lisa called. Taylor and Amy nodded to the two men, who headed for the door. Soon they were being let out of the DWU entrance, the gate guards waving to them.
"I think that was a good idea," Randall said half-way home.
"It was better than sitting around doing the usual," Kevin laughed. "Christ. Those girls are nuts."
"But a hell of a lot of fun."
"True, that," he grinned, shaking his head a little. It had been a very good night from his point of view.
"As soon as the wormhole came on line, Leviathan booked it at top speed," Amy said as she sat down next to Lisa. "More evidence you're right."
"His course? Towards the antipode of where the wormhole destination was?" Lisa asked slowly.
"No. Not quite. As far as I can tell he was aiming exactly between here and that point. Splitting the difference."
They all looked at each other. "That's… weird," Lisa finally said, looking somewhat confused. "I could understand it if he was trying to stay on the exact opposite side of the planet from Taylor, but it sounds like he's got two places he's trying to stay away from. Wherever Taylor is, and here."
"We need to run some more tests," Taylor suggested after some though. "I'm very curious to know if it's me specifically, or any of us."
"Why would it be me or Amy?" Lisa asked.
Taylor shrugged. "I don't know. The only thing I could think would be that he's scared of the Family in general."
"You are the Family," Amy protested.
"I was the Family," the taller girl replied quietly. "Now, we are. I'm just wondering if the Endbringers worked that out before anyone else did, including us."
They looked at each other for some time. Eventually, Lisa shook her head tiredly. "I need some sleep before I can make any more sense of this. It's been a long day." She glanced at Amy. "Am I done?"
Reaching out, Amy touched her, then nodded. "Sure. You can come out. All the upgrades are finished." She'd set the Metis bioconstruct to do the in-depth sensory modifications to her friend earlier and Lisa had been 'cooking' ever since.
"OK. I'll see you guys tomorrow, I guess," Lisa replied. She got up and headed towards the workroom. By the time she came out, Amy had reversed her truck outside and Taylor as Saurial was standing next to it. With a quick hug, the blonde headed towards the dormitory block, looking exhausted.
"Want a lift?" Amy asked as she got into her vehicle.
"I'll run," Taylor smiled. "See you later."
"OK. Thanks for the help on the seats."
They parted ways, Taylor disappearing into the darkness, while Amy drove off, yawning, and wondering what revelations their little experiment with Über and Leet would show.