Saturday, February 26, 2011
Blinking at the light, Amy yawned, then sat up, stretching widely. She felt rested and content, as she usually did these days, and was looking forward to a weekend of interesting things.
After the others had left Taylor's house the night before, she'd stayed for a while, talking to both Heberts about the events of the day. Danny had passed on the somewhat surprising news about the official status of the Family in the eyes of the authorities, something that made both girls chuckle, and the much less pleasing information that Lisa had derived from her sneaking around.
The fact that the blonde girl had taken the opportunity to heal Squealer didn't particularly surprise either of them. While Lisa hadn't gone into details of her past, they were both aware that it contained some form of tragedy, probably involving a close family member, from hints she'd dropped. Neither of them were interested in prying into a clearly private matter but it had definitely left their friend in a position where she wasn't going to just walk away from someone she could help in that situation.
They'd discussed the event for a while and decided in the end that there wasn't much they could do except wait and see what happened. The whole Skidmark problem was more troublesome, making both Amy and Taylor start thinking of ways to combat the issue and hopefully head it off before it happened. Danny had handed his daughter a printout of some high-tech semi-portable fencing which was used in high security applications, the girl studying it and immediately coming up with a number of modifications that could make it even better, not the least of which was constructing it from EDM.
They were planning on installing the stuff around the site over the weekend, as a matter of urgency. Taylor was working on a way to allow authorized users to remove sections when necessary but still preventing anyone else from doing likewise, saying she had a cunning plan. That probably meant people were going to stare a lot and scratch their heads.
Her friend was also giggling to herself about another idea she apparently wanted to try but wasn't prepared to talk about, saying only that it was going to be really cool. Knowing Taylor, that could mean almost anything.
Amy herself had started pondering an idea she'd had a while ago, when she was designing the first bioconstruct, and decided that she'd try a few experiments of her own now that she had two days without anything else urgent to deal with. She was going to go to Brockton General for a couple of hours just to help out with any serious cases, then spend the rest of the weekend on her own projects.
Getting out of bed, she looked out the window, seeing that it was a fine day, although pretty cold judging by the ice in the puddles on the road. Hopefully it would start properly warming up soon but all things considered it could be a lot worse bearing in mind the time of year.
Humming to herself, she headed towards the bathroom, managing to get inside just before her sister came zipping up, giving her an impish smile then closing the door firmly.
"Damn it, Amy, hurry up, I have a breakfast date with Dean!"
"Got here first, sis. Try again later."
"You're mean."
"I am. Don't you forget it." Amy snickered, then got into the shower, hearing her sister grumble her way back to her room.
Missy groaned a little, rolling over and sitting up, then wincing. She needed the toilet again.
Perhaps twenty-nine doughnuts with various fillings in five hours was a little too much? Not to mention several cans of Coke. She certainly wasn't hungry, the thought of food making her stomach roil right now.
Oh well. Live and learn. She'd got a lot of fun out of the previous day, a lot of practice with her Cloak powers, and stopped seven different albeit minor crimes. Not to mention getting some very amusing video. All in all a severe stomach-ache and the crash from a major sugar rush was a small price to pay.
Getting up, she dashed towards the facilities, feeling the urge to do something a little closer to home right now.
When she finally recovered, she thought she might go and say hello to Saurial and the others at the DWU, if they were around.
But no more doughnuts for now.
"Have you got anything specific planned for today other than what we were discussing last night?" Danny asked his daughter as he washed the breakfast dishes. Taylor was sorting out the fridge, moving things around into a more logical order, and putting away snacks left over from having her friends over the night before.
"I have a couple of ideas I want to experiment with this weekend," the girl said over her shoulder, looking like she was anticipating something good. "I've been studying the books in the school library quite a lot and I have a really neat idea I'm dying to try."
He regarded her closely, then sighed. "This is going to be one of those things that makes the tourists point and stare, isn't it?"
"Might be," she giggled. "Varga wants to try it as much as I do. If it works the way I hope it will it'll be fantastic."
"Just try not to do something that gets the PRT too upset, please. They're being remarkably sensible about everything and I don't want to ruin that. Director Piggot is having trouble with the whole Family thing, I think, and the way you've unleashed 'Cloak' on the world is… not going to make her less confused."
"Cloak isn't actually all my fault," Taylor protested, taking several bottles of soda out of the fridge and putting them back in on their sides to make space for the milk. "Only partly. And Amy, Lisa, Leet, and Über all helped as well. But most of it was Vista."
"Who came looking for the Family because she wanted someone who could do the sort of bizarre things to reality that you can do, which she knew about because of your little joke gift on my birthday, so..." He stared at her, the girl grinning suddenly.
"OK, yes, I did do that. But I still say it was her idea. Mostly. She had the cloak already. And beat up those two muggers on the way over to the DWU."
Danny sighed slightly. "Oddly enough I'm actually glad Über and Leet are friends of yours now. Too many girls running around doing weird things probably need the stabilizing influence of a man. Even those two."
She stuck her tongue out at him, making him snicker. "Sure we do. Don't forget Varga."
"Oh, I'm not forgetting him, trust me. He's as bad as, if not worse than, any of you. Massive troll demons are definitely a thing around here even if hardly anyone knows about it."
"He says you're welcome," she reported with another smile.
"I'm sure he did. Whatever, have fun, get those fences put in, and try not to break reality completely. I'll be in this afternoon, I need a break for a few hours. I also need to check with Roy, he's invited the both of us over to his house next week for dinner and we need to work out a time."
"I'm certainly up for that," Taylor noted, closing the fridge and standing up. "I'll just finish putting this away then I'm heading over to the yard."
"All right." He finished the last of the dishes and dried them, then started putting them away. "Your friends seemed happy last night."
"They were. I really like helping them with the math, I've found out recently how much I enjoy teaching people things. I think it's helping them. Vicky was certainly pleased with learning some new techniques and so was Mandy."
"Your mother would definitely have approved," he nodded, closing the plate cupboard. "Although she'd have been mildly disappointed that you didn't follow her into the literary and language fields. The hard sciences are a reasonable compromise though."
Taylor looked amused, finishing her own tidying up, then hugged him. "See you later, Dad."
"Have fun, dear. Be good." He smiled down the small distance between them.
"I'll try," she replied. Shortly he was alone, wondering what she was going to do. He'd probably see it on the news soon enough, he chuckled to himself.
Reading the report, Emily shook her head helplessly. As if lizards running around all over her city weren't enough, alien lizards at that, now there were animated items of clothing wandering around catching criminals? Without apparently trying very hard, either. Sighing heavily, she put the report down, then looked over her desk at Hannah, who looked a lot like she felt.
"So… What is Cloak?"
The other woman shrugged with a lost expression. "A cloak? I have no fucking idea, other than that. There's no head in the hood, Robin and I both agree on that, and so did several witnesses. As far as we could tell there wasn't anything in the rest of it either. When she, it, the thing, whatever, was standing on mid air above us, we couldn't see anything from underneath either."
"Perhaps the person inside is invisible?"
"Plenty of people have seen Cloak putting things into the hood and taking them out again. Ethan saw her take a magazine of 9mm rounds in the… face…? and not apparently even notice. It certainly gives the impression that there's nothing inside that damn thing. Which may well be the intent, true, considering that the Family are definitely involved somehow, but it might also be because there isn't anything in there..."
"Oh, for god's sake, this is just getting silly," Emily muttered, flicking through the report again. "I'm beginning to think that even a salary increase isn't enough to make staying here worth it."
"Are you getting one?" Hannah asked curiously.
"So the Chief Director said. Apparently because I have 'established a rapport' with the Family, the higher-ups think they want me as a liaison, for which you can read 'cut-out,' between the damn reptiles and the rest of the world. In other words, as long as I'm here dealing with them no one else has to. Or risk their sanity trying."
"Well, on the bright side, the crime level in the city is at historic low point right now. That's good, isn't it?"
Emily sighed again, nodding a little. "I suppose that's one way to look at it. I can't help wait for the other shoe to drop. And the constant arrival of steadily weirder… let's be generous and call them people… is starting to make me think I need a holiday. A very long one. In the mountains somewhere." Picking the report up and dropping it into her desk drawer she firmly closed it. "I can't deal with this right now. Keep an eye on Cloak, but otherwise we may as well just let her get on with whatever she's doing. If nothing else everyone says she's both polite and competent."
"That's true," Hannah agreed, still looking a little lost. "Whatever she is. She seems to have the right instincts even though I don't have enough information to really work out her powers. Some form of spacial warping based on advanced mathematical principles is my best guess. The R&D department is going over the videos we have to try to work out more, but it's apparently giving them headaches. Something I can fully understand."
"There's always the possibility that the Family and their associates are a ploy by the drugs companies to sell more migraine medications," Emily grumbled, making her companion look mildly amused. "I'd almost prefer that explanation, at least it would make some sort of sense I could understand." Looking up at Hannah, she asked, "On another, although slightly related, subject, do we have any more information on the whereabouts or activities of that damn pain in the ass Skidmark?"
"Not much, no," the woman replied, abruptly scowling. "The last place we have a confirmed sighting was in Baltimore about a week ago. As far as we can tell he's been wandering around with three or four of his less-incompetent lackeys, talking to a number of individuals with contacts in the underground arms sales areas, and also rogue Tinkers. The information I have at the moment is that most of them told him to get lost as soon as they worked out what he was thinking about. No one wants Kaiju on the warpath looking for them. No one sane, anyway."
"Pity he isn't, then," Emily noted.
"It would make life easier," Hannah agreed sourly. "With any luck he won't find anyone prepared to help and will give up, but I wouldn't want to bet on it. We did get one bit of interesting data, which is that he was told, in terms that even he couldn't misunderstand, that no one in the more traditional organized crime families was going to help him in any way at all."
"The Mafia told him to fuck off, you mean."
"Pretty much. The contact I talked to said he was actually quite lucky to make it out of Chicago alive. Something he said really offended someone very high up in one particular organization. Word is that if he ever goes back, he's a dead man. No idea why or who, though."
"Pity. They could have saved us a headache if they'd finished the bastard off."
"Unfortunately they restrained themselves. I'll keep putting out feelers and see what I can come up with. Apparently several other groups are doing the same, not all of them on our side of the fence. He's making people nervous. Stirring the hornet's nest is a bad idea for everyone in the area."
"Especially when one of those hornets is big enough to use Behemoth as a handball," Emily sighed. "Keep on it. I have a few contacts as well I'm in the process of looking up, some of them might know something useful. I really don't want that fuckwit starting a war we need to clean up after."
"I don't think anyone does," Hannah said. After a pause, she asked, "Is there any consensus on what happened with the Simurgh yet?"
"No." Emily shook her head. "No one seems to have anything other than wild supposition. The most likely one is that it was some form of distraction move, but for what purpose is currently anyone's guess. Considering it's the Simurgh, the entire plot might just be to make us think there's a plot. I don't think you can be too paranoid where that feathered bitch is concerned."
"All we can do is wait and see what horrible thing happens next," the other woman commented, making Emily nod.
"Exactly."
"I'd better get back to work," Hannah said, standing up.
"Keep me updated on the Skidmark situation. Thank you for the Cloak report."
"Of course, Director, and you're welcome." Hannah turned and left, closing the door quietly behind her. Leaning her chair back, Emily pondered the mysteries of life, the universe, and why alien lizards and their possessed laundry had picked her city to set up shop in.
She really needed a holiday...
"So we're a legitimate super hero team now?" Taylor, currently in the form of Saurial, grinned at her blonde friend, who was reading something on one of the computers. Lisa turned around and grinned back.
"Yep. Paperwork's on the table there. Director Piggot was sort of relieved, sort of worried, and sort of annoyed at the PRT in general about the entire thing. She's definitely finding us very strange."
"We are very strange," Taylor laughed, going over to the table and picking up the folder of paperwork, reading the contents carefully. "Even I can see that. But I wouldn't have it any other way."
"Me neither. It's way more fun than being a villain and getting threatened with death on a weekly basis."
"I can imagine that would get old pretty fast. This looks fine. Generous, even."
"It is. They're definitely trying to keep on the good side of the Family," Lisa confirmed. "Director Piggot more or less came right out and said as much. They know there isn't really anything they can do to stop us, or you at least, if you decided to do something they didn't like. They're being pragmatic, and also hoping that if they act nicely towards the Family we'll stay sensible and not go too far overboard."
"Would we do something like that?" Taylor asked, an amused expression on her face. "That might risk them trying to damage our ancient home deep under the sea, which by the way we should get started on soon. I've come up with all sorts of interesting artifacts to seed the area with, and some good ideas about where to put them."
Lisa snickered for a few seconds. "I've got a whole list of things to make and places to put them too," she replied. "We can do a pretty convincing job with a little work. Between the three of us I can't help thinking we could break archaeology completely."
"We'll try to cause the minimum disturbance to real things, but I want to make it clear than the Family has been around for a long time," the reptilian girl said as she put the folder back on the table. "It's our best protection right now, no one really knowing what we are or where we come from."
"My power agrees completely," her friend noted. "I think it thinks this is really funny as well. It likes you."
Taylor gave her an odd look. "Honest, I'm sure it does," Lisa added, looking mildly embarrassed. "It really likes you. Like, idolizes you. And Varga. And Amy, for that matter, but in a different way."
"I can't work out if you're nuts, or really on to something," Taylor commented after a moment.
"Neither can I sometimes," Lisa sighed. "All I can tell you is that it's the overwhelming impression I get."
"It'll be interesting to see what the result of the experiment on Kevin and Randall is. If they start reporting the same sort of thing, I think we're onto something that possibly no one else has a clue about. I've certainly never heard of this theory before."
"Neither have I, and I can't find anything online that matches either. It'll probably take at least a few days before they notice anything, though."
"So tell me about what happened yesterday," Taylor requested, coming over and sitting next to her friend, spinning the chair slowly around. "How did the whole Squealer thing come about? Dad told me what you told him, but I'm sure there's more to it."
"Not that much, but..." Lisa thought for a moment, before recounting the entire story, Taylor and the Varga both asking questions. Eventually she'd gone over the whole thing.
"Huh." Leaning her chair right back, Taylor considered what her friend had told her. "For what it's worth, I think you did the right thing. So does Varga. Better to convert an enemy into a friend, or at least a neutral bystander, than get into a fight if you don't have to. I wonder what she'll do?"
"I'm not sure. My power suggests a number of possibilities but it's dependent on other data I don't have yet. Skidmark coming back is the biggest variable. He's definitely out there somewhere looking for some sort of edge to take on the Family as the primary target and the DWU as the secondary. As far as I can work out, he's going from place to place in this general area of the country, looking up arms dealers, weapon Tinkers, organized crime bosses, that sort of thing, to find someone that can help him."
"Think he'll succeed?"
"In finding something he thinks can hurt Kaiju?" Lisa pondered the question. "Quite likely. This country is stuffed to bursting with weapons, and sooner or later he'll find someone who will sell him anything. Most of the more, I hesitate to use the word 'reputable' to describe black market arms dealers, but it's more or less accurate, people will probably want to stay out of it when they find out the target. I doubt anyone wants the Family to come knocking asking why they sold that fuckwit a big gun. On the other hand, there are a lot of crazies around who wouldn't care, or think hard enough."
Taylor sighed, propping her head on her elbow and the elbow on the computer bench. "That's what I thought."
"That said, I very much doubt that he actually can find anything that would seriously inconvenience you. You can tank a nuke like that, never mind as Kaiju. But, the collateral damage from an attempt on you would be… potentially very bad."
"And that's what I'm worried about," Taylor admitted soberly. "I couldn't live with myself if someone got hurt because of me. Especially if it was any of you guys or Dad. Maybe I should take some time out to hunt the little shit down and deal with him permanently before it goes to hell."
"I've got no doubt you could track him, but I'm not sure that you'd be able to kill him in cold blood," Lisa said doubtfully.
Taylor smiled very coldly indeed at her, with many, many teeth visible.
"On second thought… forget I said that. Stupid comment." The blonde had paled noticeably.
"Never forget, Lisa. I'm a demon. I'm a very peaceful and laid back demon, but I'm still a demon. Threaten my family and mean it, you die. I'd prefer not to do anything permanent, talking is almost always better, but some people can't be reasoned with. Varga has taught me than and shown me examples, and Dad has said the same thing." Taylor shrugged while Lisa stared at her. "I don't want to hurt anyone, believe me. I'll go out of my way not to. But if he's serious about trying to kill me, and the risk to other people is serious, I've got no trouble with dealing with him first. I wouldn't enjoy it but I'd do it without a second thought."
The other girl swallowed a little. "I believe you," she said softly. "Sometimes I do tend to forget quite how dangerous you really are."
"I never do," Taylor replied a little sadly. "I can't. I have to keep control. If I don't… I don't want to see what happens then."
Reaching out, Lisa held her friend's hand, squeezing it. "You won't lose control. I'm certain of that. You have someone with you all the time who will help you, and all the rest of us as well. But I'm worried that if you do have to deal with someone permanently, which I'm realistic enough to know is probably inevitable sooner or later, it will affect you more than you think. Killing isn't something you forget."
"No." Taylor looked at the floor, memories from previous hosts of the Varga going through her mind for a few seconds. "It isn't. But I can't let that stop me defending people who need it. If it happens, it happens, and I'll deal with it. We just need to try to make sure it doesn't happen if at all possible."
"I've had a few ideas along those lines, actually," Lisa said with one final squeeze of her hand, before she released it. "I made some notes. We need Amy, she's key to some of the projects. Danny authorized Mark to get some useful stuff too, it should be turning up this afternoon. We need to have a good look at it." She explained some of her thoughts, making Taylor smile happily.
"Great. That's easy, and fun. I know Amy was smirking about an idea she'd had a while ago that's sort of related to that as well. Between the two of you, we should be able to come up with something really cool. I'm happy to make anything we need."
"At this rate we'll need an armory building next."
"Dad was muttering about the same thing," Taylor grinned. "There's a disused shed on the other side of the yard that we can use. I'll go and fix it up this afternoon and get the guys to wire it up." Hopping to her feet she retrieved the paperwork on the fencing system that her father had given her last night, showing it to Lisa who followed her. "I also need to make a whole pile of this stuff, or something like it."
The blonde girl read the document with interest. "OK. Looks pretty impressive."
"It's designed to be quickly installed with bolt guns to make an area secure. The individual pieces stack on top of each other, so a low loader can bring enough for about a quarter of a mile of fencing. The stuff overlaps at the joints to make it difficult to break through. This version is rated to take a fully loaded semi at sixty miles an hour and stop it. My version will do a little better." She grinned at her friend. "EDM fence panels and some really long EDM bolts. Plus some fractional dimensional folding. I think we can finish it today between the three of us, although we might want some help from the guys in the yard."
"It's going to be something that makes people's heads ache, isn't it?" Lisa commented knowingly. Taylor merely looked pleased.
"Let's get a prototype made while we wait for Amy to turn up. I want to get this finished, so I can try the really cool thing I came up with."
"What's the really cool thing?"
"Really cool."
"Helpful."
"I know."
"Unlike you."
"I know." They shared a look, then got to work.
"That's everyone, Panacea," the doctor said, checking his clipboard, as she stood up from sitting next to the hospital bed. "All the serious cases and most of the unpleasant minor ones. Thank you very much."
"No problem, Doctor," Amy replied, faintly smiling and feeling satisfied. "Nothing else you want me to look at?"
"Not at the moment. Go and have a good weekend. If we need you we'll call."
"Thanks. It was nice to see you again."
He nodded, looking pleased. "And you. It's a little odd not having you around as much, but in a good way. You look a lot happier and less stressed, I'm glad to see."
Amy smiled at him more widely. "I feel it too. I'm much more relaxed these days. But I'm always ready to help if you need me."
Putting his hand on her costume-clad shoulder, he looked into her eyes. "We all know that, believe me. But no one wants to see someone as young as you stress themselves into an early grave. Like I've said before, you can't help everyone. You personally save more lives than most of the staff of this hospital put together, so never feel that you don't pull your weight. We owe you, in my mind." Dropping his hand, he made a little gesture to the door with it. "Go away, have fun, and give my best to your weird scaly friends."
Giggling, she nodded. "I will, Doctor. See you next time."
"Until then, Panacea," he smiled, watching her leave the room, then going back to his paperwork.
"That works," Taylor said with a satisfied nod. Lisa, next to her as Metis, looked impressed.
"Extremely well. That dimensional fuckery is incredible. I keep coming up with new ideas for it, but I didn't see this one."
"Make sure they go on the list." Walking down the length of the EDM construction that ran the entire distance from the front to the back of the office, Taylor inspected it closely, then smiled. "Perfect. You can hardly see the joints. Now all we need to do is install the ground anchors."
"How deep are you thinking of burying them?" Lisa asked.
"About fifty feet, I think, unless you have a different idea. The ground around here is pretty solid, once you go down a couple of feet you're into clay, then another ten feet or so is bedrock. Anchored into that these things aren't going anywhere."
"What about tunneling under them?"
"They'll extend fifteen feet down, that should stop anyone casually digging underneath. I could make them deeper but at that point it's sort of becoming a permanent installation. Let's see how this works. It'll certainly stop any vehicle dead, and no one is climbing over them, not with the top edge as sharp as it is."
"We'll have to put up warning signs," Lisa pointed out. "It's legal, but it needs the signs."
"Easily done, they'll be part of the fence."
"And some sort of warning alarm before they're deployed to stop anyone getting in the way."
Taylor nodded, coming back to her friend. "That part can be done by the electrical department. They've got all the equipment to put up klaxons and that sort of thing. We can add activation systems in the admin building, and around the yard. The sirens go off, there's a delay, then..." She made an expansive gesture with her hands. "Slice and dice."
Lisa's reptilian face gained an expression of mild revulsion. "You had to put it like that, didn't you?"
Taylor chuckled. "I did, yes. Don't worry, I'll put in interlocks so it won't go after any of our people. Varga knows how to make it personalized. Anyone else is fair game."
Reaching out she poked a point on the wall, smiling as there was a clacking sound, very similar to her friend's armor deploying but louder and faster. The fence section snapped back towards her in sections about ten feet wide, each one telescoping back into the nested fractal storage space of the next, until the final one ended up in the form of a twenty-foot pole about a foot across. The prototype was fused to the floor, but the final version would be sunk deep into the rock underlying the DWU facility.
"You realize that we could sell this to government installations for practically any price we wanted to name, right?" Lisa commented, watching with interest. "Like the armor, actually. Poor Armsmaster is going to poo a brick when he finally sees it, then come around and probably literally beg you to make him something like it."
Snickering, Taylor nodded, giving her friend a look of amusement. "I know, yes. The fence, I could see selling. I'm not sure about the armor, it's too powerful in the wrong hands. But I think we could make an exception for certain friends. I can think of a few people who would benefit from it."
"We need to think about making Endbringer shelters as well, a combination of some of these techniques will give us something way better than anything on the market. And much, much cheaper." Lisa smiled suddenly, in a very vicious manner. "Considering that I've heard the largest specialist company making them is having severe financial difficulties, there will be a hole in the market very soon."
Taylor looked at her, then laughed at her expression. "Let's deal with Mr Calvert first. But I agree. Another thing for the list."
"It's a pity you waste so much time at school, rather than making this stuff," Lisa joked.
"Hey, I like school," Taylor replied. "Now, anyway. I'm making up for lost time. I might get bored at some point, but right now I'm having fun. I like my friends as well."
"You sure ended up with a good bunch of them," Lisa agreed. "I thought they were all very interesting and decent people. The way Lucy is totally fangirling about you without actually realizing it is you is hilarious."
Getting rid of the prototype fence unit, Taylor nodded with a smirk. "I sometimes have trouble not laughing. I wish I could let her, and all of them, in on it. But..." She shrugged. "Not really an option right now, more for their safety than anything. I'm not risking someone like Skidmark going through them to get to me. Dad is bad enough. You and Amy can take care of yourselves, especially like that."
"Well, if we ever get to the point of selling biosculptured upgrades, I can guarantee that Lucy would be first in line for a Family tail," Lisa grinned. "It would make her day."
"If we get there, I'll make sure she gets a useful gift," the other girl laughed. "Come on, let's go round up the right people and work out where this thing is going to get installed. As soon as it's done, time for some fun."
"And you're not going to tell me what the fun is, are you?" Lisa complained as she followed her friend out the main entrance.
"Nope. You'll like it, though. I know I will. Assuming it works."
Grumbling good-naturedly about the way certain people kept things too close to their chest, Lisa went with Taylor in search of Zephron and Mark, who would be able to advise on where to install their new physical security system.