Sighing with relief, Hannah sat at the cafeteria table with her large coffee and a mid-afternoon snack, leaning back and sipping the drink happily. It had been a long day so far and she wasn't off duty yet.
The Coil problem was still an issue, they had the Family on high alert waiting for the fuckwit Skidmark to do whatever he was planning, assuming you could in fact call anything he did 'planning', her investigation into the various oddities surrounding the entire series of events that had occurred near the beginning of January had stalled for lack of information, and overall she wanted a holiday. Preferably one some way from the nearest body of water.
She'd heard Max Anders had recently gone on a skiing trip in the Canadian Rockies, having asked for the same restrictions. She sympathized.
Sure, the public at large seemed to accept the alien reptiles, even if they weren't aware they really were alien reptiles, but… She just couldn't quite bring herself to do the same. Something about them made every sense of danger she possessed go completely off-scale, even Saurial who was by far the most relatable-to of the entire set.
That wasn't even including the new arrival, Cloak, who put the wind up everyone. Something about not actually knowing what was inside that over-sized garment was even worse about being sure what it was. Especially when you considered that the available evidence suggested that it was possible nothing was inside it…
The voice was extremely worrying as well. Never mind the eerie power-set which so far defied easy description. Some of what people had seen her, assuming it was a her, do, was similar to what Vista could do, while some of it was entirely different. A Breaker talent, definitely, but in exactly what way was something open to question. She slightly dreaded the meeting of Vista and the other cape, the young girl was entirely too enthusiastic about wanting it, and far too quick to learn new tricks.
One Cloak was enough. Brockton Bay did not need two of them.
Shaking her head a little she sipped her coffee again, wondering if it was a good time to put in for some time off. Director Piggot would probably turn it down, the poor woman was feeling the strain of running the place, especially since her superiors in the PRT seemed to have washed their hands of the entire city with considerable relief. Aside from regular visits by Legend, who actively appeared to like the Family, the rest of the Protectorate was staying well away too.
She dreaded the thought that had woken her some nights ago that Mouse Protector might decide to turn up and join in the insanity. That woman, while an old friend, was insane. Most likely she'd fit in perfectly around here, but only at the price of what remained of Hannah's equanimity.
Putting her mug down, the woman picked up her duck and salad wrap, taking a bite out of it. She was in her civilian attire, plain old Hannah for once, and relished the lack of the scarf over her face.
It was a constant, albeit minor, irritation that she'd long ago learned to live with.
Watching the waves below sparkling in the lowering sunlight, she wished that the spring would finally get here. Even though for the time of year it was a nice day, the water was still extremely cold, the wind was chilly and damp, and overall it was far from the conditions of her childhood. That said, it was a lot better than being shot at or blown up, which was another part of her childhood she did not miss in the slightest.
Although, in Brockton Bay, such things were hardly unknown. At least until recently. One good thing you could say about the arrival of the Family, they had brought a level of stability with them which was unusual for this place, and for some reason, despite or perhaps because of the sheer weirdness of the damn lizards, it was sticking.
Hopefully Skidmark wouldn't do something to upset that. She didn't want to see what happened when the Family went to war.
Taking another bite of her sandwich, she watched the water below, not really thinking of anything, just enjoying the down time. A shadow in the distance caught her eye, making her track it for a few seconds. She couldn't work out what it was, and shortly is vanished again.
'Aircraft, maybe?' she thought idly, looking up and around through the window but not seeing anything. 'Or a cloud.' Shrugging she kept eating, opening a bag of chips and consuming a few. Turning her head at a minor disturbance, she saw Ethan and his wife having a good-natured argument over by the dessert section, the man childishly insisting he wanted two lime jellos, not one. The blonde woman was scowling, pointing at his tray with a severe expression, then the cold cabinet. Hannah grinned internally at the sight, it was pretty typical of the man. He never grew up in many ways.
Sighing with a visible lowering of his shoulders, he put the second dessert back. Battery nodded firmly, then pushed past him to get at the coffee machine. When her back was turned, he sneakily grabbed the plate again and put it back on his tray, meeting Hannah's eyes across the cafeteria with a smirk. She chuckled, nodded to him and saluted him with her coffee mug, then went back to looking out the window.
Noticing the shadow again, she peered more closely at it, then glanced at the sky once more. There were no clouds anywhere near that were the right shape, and still no aircraft. Standing a little she tried to get a better view. Whatever it was seemed to be at least a couple of hundred feet long and quite thin, the water in that area distinctly darker. Yet again, it disappeared after a few seconds.
'What the hell is that?' she wondered, now just a little concerned.
Putting her cup down on her table she got up, then walked over to the window, looking out and around. There was no sign of anything that could cause a shadow on the water, which meant the only real conclusion was that it was something under the water.
With a feeling of dread, she realized that could only mean… 'Oh, god, it's Family business, isn't it? Now what the hell are those crazy lizards up to?'
Watching steadily, not blinking, she spotted the shadow moving fast across the horizon, now able to see that the waves in the area were acting oddly. It darkened a little, the water bulging in the same sort of manner that tended to accompany Kaiju when she was swimming under the surface, but over a much larger area.
There was definitely something out there. Something… very big. And very fast. It covered a distance of a good mile in a short enough time that she could tell it was doing over ninety miles an hour.
Hearing Ethan defending himself from behind her, he and his wife sitting at the next table, she turned to the pair. "What do you think that is?" she asked, pointing.
The man followed her finger. "What what is?" he asked, sounding mildly confused.
Turning back to the window, she checked that the underwater object was still in view. It was, now having looped back and heading in the other direction. "That!" she said, jabbing her finger at it.
Ethan and Battery both came and stood beside her. "Ah… the sea?"
"That fishing boat?" the blonde said, also looking a little puzzled.
"The sky?" Ethan added, when he saw from her expression that Hannah wasn't referring to either the sea or the boat.
"No. Not the water, or the sky, or that boat," she said with irritation. "That. That shadow under the water."
"Shadow?" Ethan shaded his eyes with his hands and leaned on the window. "I can't see a shadow."
"Right there! About two o'clock, maybe a mile away. Big, two hundred, maybe two hundred and fifty feet long, and moving really fast." She tracked it with her finger. He stared for a moment more, then came and sighted down her arm. The shadow changed course again, turning through a large radius loop that left it heading right at the Rig, then sped up. "Now it's coming right at us," she said in alarm.
"Can't see anything, Hannah," he replied slowly with a worried glance at his wife, who shook her head. "Are you sure you're feeling all right?"
"I'm feeling fine, and there's something fucking huge right there!" She jabbed her finger at the bulge in the water that was growing closer at a worrying speed. Now only half a mile away, she could make out a wake as it came closer to the surface. "It's the damn Family again. What the hell are they up to?"
"Um..." He looked at her, then out the window again, that at his wife. "How many cups of coffee did you actually have?" he asked.
"I'm not seeing things, Ethan," she snarled, gazing at the now-foaming wake as whatever was under the water accelerated again. Taking a step back she braced herself, since it looked like there was going to be a collision any second now. "Fuck, it's going to hit us!" she yelped.
Ethan pressed his face against the glass, looking down with an expression of confusion. Battery was looking at Hannah with a similar expression. Hannah herself was gaping as the foaming, frothing water grew closer and closer, something immense and dark just under the surface, until…
It stopped dead, only about a hundred yards away, just as she was about to yell to everyone to brace for impact.
Her mouth open to shout, she just stared as the foaming water subsided, leaving only the shadow gently waving back and forth under the water. This close she could see it was roughly cylindrical, and absolutely enormous. "Tell me you can see that," she pleaded to her friends.
"I… can't see anything out of the ordinary," Battery replied after a couple of seconds of carefully looking. Her husband shook his head mutely when Hannah looked at him with raised eyebrows.
"Nope, sorry, nothing out there except water, Hannah," he said.
By now very confused indeed and wondering which of them was actually going mad, she moved back to the window and put her hands on it, looking down the hundred or so feet from her position to the water. The thing was definitely there.
"Long shape, moving around a little like a huge eel, perhaps two hundred and fifty feet long and maybe twenty across, three hundred feet away between us and the city," she recited slowly and deliberately.
"Can't see it," Ethan said after checking again.
"Oh, for god's sake. How are they doing this?" she sighed. "I know it's them. It's always them. This is some sort of… practical… fuck me."
The last words were in a squeak of shock as whatever it was slid backwards, presumably going deeper judging by the way it became smaller, then accelerated hard. She gaped in total shock as a vast reptilian head, much bigger and more streamlined than Kaiju's, came out of the water on an endless column of scaled flesh, rising higher and higher, the mouth open and revealing more teeth than she'd ever encountered even in her worst nightmares.
Glowing yellow eyes at least six feet across fixed on her as the thing curved over, reaching an apogee a good fifty feet higher than the cafeteria window. The immense eel-like creature, who could only be Umihebi, finally visiting Brockton Bay, arched over in a dive, the head coming back past the window and the eye on her side closing briefly in what was very definitely a wink. As the head reentered the water, the tail was on its way up.
Hannah watched the waterfall of scaly flesh move past, the splash spattering the windows with droplets even at this height. She heard the enormous roar of water moving out of the way then falling back, the entire Rig slightly shuddering like it was in a storm. Dumbly gaping, she saw Umihebi jump a couple more times as she headed towards the docks, on the last one turning her head to look directly at Hannah from half a mile away, one stubby forelimb moving in a cheery wave. The huge aquatic reptile vanished under the surface in another great splash and didn't reappear, the motion of the water showing she'd resumed her travels at speed.
"I suppose neither of you saw a fucking impossibly large swimming reptile go past the window just now?" she asked in a deliberately mild voice.
"Ah… No?" Ethan sounded quite concerned now.
She nodded firmly. "As I thought. And you didn't feel the Rig shake?"
"It did get pretty windy for a moment," Battery put in. Motioning to the water running down the windows, she added, "Look at the spray! Must be a storm moving in."
"I see." Hannah sighed deeply. "They're doing it on purpose. Somehow, they know I find them worrying, and this is their revenge."
Ethan patted her on the shoulder comfortingly as she mumbled to herself. "You might want to talk to someone, Hannah. That much paranoia isn't healthy in our line of work."
"Oh, go away, you pain in the ass," she snapped, brushing his hand off. "You're as bad as they are most of the time. Eat your two desserts and stop bothering me."
Peevishly she went and sat down with her back to the window, hunched over her sandwich and snacks, drinking her coffee which was going cold. The sound of Battery shouting at her husband made her grin maliciously.
But she didn't look out the window again.