Paul landed gently in the courtyard outside the BBFO office, nodding politely to a couple of men who were coming out of one of the other buildings, both of them covered in sawdust and the larger one, a tall and strongly build young fellow with dark skin carrying a tool bag. They looked at him, nodded back without a word, and went past him and into another building.

He smiled a little. These people were oddly hard to surprise, he thought. Looking up at the BBFO sign, his smile widened for a moment.

Possibly not so surprising, considering who they saw every day…

Walking over to the closed pedestrian door, he knocked, then waited, shifting the canvas bag he was holding to his other hand. A short time later, he heard the door unlock, then it opened to reveal Ianthe, who smiled at him.

"Hi, Legend," she said in happy tones. "What brings you here?"

She stood aside and waved him in without waiting for an answer. Going inside, he waited politely for her to close the door.

"I wanted to drop off some items which it appears your cousin may have need of now," he replied, hefting the bag. "Considering she appears to have developed a somewhat impressive flight capacity."

"Ah. I see," the big lizard grinned. "Spotted that, did you?"

"It was… hard to miss," he chuckled. "Even at her size, the radar systems noticed. Something doing Mach six or better popping up out of nowhere tends to attract a certain amount of attention. Quite a few people were watching and wondering if she was about to chase the Simurgh down in orbit."

"I thought about it, but it didn't seem like the right time," Saurial's voice came from behind him, causing him to turn and smile at the shorter and more slender female reptile. She looked amused, and pleased to see him. "Maybe next time I'll try for an orbital injection, but this was only a proof of concept flight. Seems to work pretty well after that initial bouncing off buildings phase."

He grinned at her. "Yes, I heard about that. I'm glad you didn't hit anything important. Or living."

She appeared embarrassed, ducking her head and scratching the feathers on the back, while Ianthe snickered.

"No, that wasn't my smartest move," she admitted a little guiltily. "I got caught up in the excitement. Plus I ended up going the wrong way, I was planning on getting out over the water sooner but it all went a little weird early on and I kept going, rather than stopping for a think." She shrugged. "Won't happen again. Sorry. And I fixed everything I broke."

"That's good to hear," he said as he joined her at the table. "We all have a responsibility to use our abilities in a way that causes the minimum disruption to other people, after all, no matter what they are. Everyone has the right to live their lives without worrying about someone flying through their window and punching a hole in the wall."

She giggled at his dry tone. "Were you ever a little… um… overenthusiastic?"

It was Paul's turn to look mildly embarrassed. "Let's say that I also had a learning curve and leave it at that, shall we?" he replied after a moment of remembrance. "No one needs to dredge up decade old stories of who flew into who's office and out the other side, without the windows actually being open..."

She started laughing, shaking her head. Ianthe looked at them both, then snickered again. "The things we learn about respected people's past actions around here," she joked. "Would you like a cup of coffee or something?"

"Thank you, that would be nice. Black, two sugars, if possible."

"Sure," the violet reptile smiled, heading over to the other side of the room and the coffee machine. He watched her for a second or two then glanced at the other two occupants, those being Metis, and a small cloaked figure he recognized with interest. Both of them were studying a horrendously complex series of mathematical equations, or what he thought, after a confused look, were probably mathematical equations. They were written on a number of glass panels in frames that hadn't been there the last time he was in this room, each panel being about four feet tall and eight long.

Another look at them left him no less bewildered than before. He wasn't bad at math, although certainly not in Colin's class, but he could barely recognize much of the symbology used, and couldn't make heads or tails out of most of the rest. Some of it even looked weirdly three dimensional, giving him enough of a headache that he had to look away after a second or two.

"If I might ask, what on earth is that?" he said, motioning to the board. Saurial glanced at them, then looked back to him, seeming unconcerned.

"Just a math lesson. I'm teaching Cloak some of the theory behind a few of the more useful Family techniques in fractal-dimensional engineering, since it overlaps with her own abilities. That's the introductory primer on the subject. I've been doing quite a lot of work on it recently, trying to simplify the whole thing." She smiled at him. "My branch of the Family is very good at it, but some of the others find it a little hard going for some reason. I thought I might be able to work out a better way to teach it, and help a friend at the same time."

He stared at her, then at the neatly written but utterly incomprehensible equations covering several dozen square feet of glass. Those were the simpler versions of the mathematics?

"Good grief," he muttered. "I assume that you're fairly gifted in mathematics in our terms."

"It's a family trait," she said. "My sisters are just as good as I am. Metis is pretty good herself, but her branch of the Family concentrated on slightly different systems. She's interested in seeing how it all interrelates." Saurial looked pleased. "I like teaching it as well, but there aren't many people outside the Family who seem to be able to handle it."

"It's very interesting," an unnerving voice commented, making him twitch a little despite himself, then look to the side to see Cloak apparently sitting on thin air a few feet away, several feet off the floor. She'd approached so silently he hadn't noticed at all. "Her mathematics are… so elegant. It explains a lot to me, but I'm still having trouble with some of it. I expect I'll work it out eventually, with such a good teacher."

"You're a very good student," Saurial replied. "It's a pleasure to teach you."

"Thank you, oh Scaly One," the small figure said with a smile in its weird voice. The empty hood, which he could clearly see really was empty, turned to him, looking him up and down. "It's interesting to meet a man I've heard a lot about. Hello, Legend."

"Hello, Cloak," he said, somewhat amused himself now. She sounded very pleased with her current activities. "I've also heard quite a bit about you in the last couple of days."

"The people of this city do seem to like taking photographs and discussing them on the internet." Cloak shrugged. "I suppose it's one way to spend your time. Although some of the theories about myself and my friends are very strange."

"That does not surprise me at all," he remarked, knowing what she meant. PHO was full of some extremely odd people at the best of times, and adding giant lizards to the mix was only ever going to make that stranger.

He wondered for a moment what the various conspiracists on the forums would do if they ever discovered that some of the wilder theories about the Family technically being aliens were actually true. There were people already claiming that, of course.

'That Void Cowboy fellow would become insufferably smug,' he mentally chuckled. 'He must never find out...'

"Are you going to be around the city for long?" he asked curiously.

She looked at Saurial, then back to him. "I'll be here quite often, I expect," she replied. "I've been around for some time already, of course. Here and there. I'm sure we'll bump into each other again." With another glance at Saurial, who seemed to be trying not to laugh, she added, "I find this entire place a lot of fun. So many things to do and see."

"She should do an advertising spot for the Mayor," Metis chuckled, coming over to join them. "From what I understand the city is looking into new ideas to attract tourists. Cloak's seal of approval might help."

Paul looked at her, then studied the small form hanging in the air in a relaxed manner, radiating good humor and sheer creepiness in equal quantities. "Um… I suppose it's not impossible," he allowed a little doubtfully, which seemed to make all four of them smile. Although, of course, he couldn't see it in the case of Cloak.

He wasn't entirely certain there was anything in there to smile in the first place, which was a very odd thought. But around this place, practically anything seemed to be possible…

Firmly pushing the thought of haunted clothing to the side, he lifted the bag he had in his right hand and put it on the table. Unzipping it, he removed a number of items, while his audience watched with interest. "These are standard flight-capable Parahuman IFF transponders," he said, pointing at a set of half a dozen boxes, one of which Saurial picked up and opened curiously. The device inside was quite small, about the size of a large wristwatch minus the strap. While he was doing this, Ianthe came back with a mug of coffee that she put next to him.

"They're coded with unique IDs that show up on radar systems, using an international standard that's based on the systems military aircraft use. All of the codes are assigned to the Family as a group. If you want, you can add an individual to the code on the internal PRT database using the access codes in this manual and the authorization in the documents Director Piggot dropped off already."

He handed her a small booklet. A thicker one was on the table. "This is the standard flight rules document for Parahumans capable of high speed and/or high altitude flight, without assistance or with minimal hardware. The rules are different if you're, for example, a Tinker who builds an aircraft, or someone like Alexandria or me who flies without needing anything else. We're classifying you more in the latter than the former class, as although you made a machine for propulsion, it's a direct result of your powers and isn't really something that could be classified as an aircraft in the normal sense." Picking up the mug he tried the coffee, finding it was very good.

She leafed through the document he'd given her, while Metis reached out and retrieved the thicker one. "That other one is the complete set of documentation, along with the entire current flight regulation set from the FAA, including Parahuman exemptions, communication codes, nomenclature, and the like. Everything you'd need to know for any sort of flight over the continental US. Most of it is common to Canada as well, since it's largely again based on international standards. Where there are regional variations they're noted along with where to find out more."

"Does she have to learn all of that?" Cloak asked, looking at the book Metis was holding.

"No, that covers a huge number of things that don't generally apply to any one flight class, as well as standard rules of the air. You'd need to read that last part, of course, but it's summarized in the smaller one. It covers things like controlled airspace, how to file a flight plan, and where you need to do that, minimum separation to aircraft, communications frequencies and so on. The rules surrounding Parahumans who fly under their own power are very relaxed compared to general aviation rules, but even so there are things you need to know, mainly because of the risk to other people."

"I bounce. Other things don't," Saurial commented.

He nodded. "Basically, yes. To manage to survive just the sheer heat of mach six flight, you have to be extraordinarily tough, such as in the case of Alexandria, or Glory Girl, or have a Breaker state like I do. But if you hit an ordinary aircraft, you'll destroy it on the spot. Possibly without even noticing at that speed." He looked at her face, which was wearing an expression of careful thought. "I'm not for one minute suggesting that you would, but accidents can happen to the best of us. The rules are there to minimize the likelihood of that occurring, at least partly by making sure no one gets too close. At hypersonic speeds the shockwave alone could cause significant damage to another aircraft. Hence the minimum separation rules."

"Sounds like mostly common sense," Ianthe noted.

"Generally it is. You'll see that there are areas where flight operations need to be carefully controlled and monitored, the most important ones being where aircraft are taking off and landing. Lots of vehicles close to each other and the ground, which is a prime area for something going wrong. So, airports, helipads like on the roof of Brockton General for example, the Rig, all those places have strict rules covering flight close to them. The Rig airspace only extends out to a quarter mile in all directions, as does the hospital, because they're not heavily used and it's entirely vertical take off craft that use them, like helicopters, or PRT transports. Plus we have a lot of flying Parahumans coming and going so we're used to it on the Rig."

"Airports would need more space?" Cloak asked.

"Exactly. Something like a 747 doesn't turn or slow down nearly as fast as Saurial could. Controlled airspace around airports varies from a couple of miles to over fifteen miles radius, depending on size, type of aircraft, and amount of use. Boston Logan airport airspace control would get very annoyed if you, or I for that matter, flew closer than five miles without clearing it with them well in advance. If you're under five hundred feet the rules are different because you're below normal air traffic. That's the zone Kid Win operates in, for example, most of the time, at least partly due to it making his life easier from a regulatory viewpoint."

Paul watched as Saurial flipped through the entire booklet, wondering if she had an eidetic memory in the same manner Hannah did. He got the impression she was doing more than just skimming it. "Thanks for this," she said when she closed it. "I'll read it carefully and stick to it."

"Thank you." He smiled. "I don't want to be the cause of you not having fun flying, but I also want to make sure nothing untoward happens. No one wants to see what a hypersonic lizard-girl does to an airliner, except in the most theoretical of ways."

She started laughing, shaking her head with good humor. "No," she replied, "I can't see that helping the reputation of the Family at all. I won't fly through any aircraft."

"Probably for the best." He grinned at her, before sipping some more coffee.

"Anything specific about the transponders we need to know?" Metis asked, putting the thick manual down and picking up the one that Saurial had been looking at.

"Nothing particularly difficult. They take standard batteries and run for about six months of operation. You just need to work out the best place to attach them. Most Parahumans who use them wear them like a watch." He showed her the one on his wrist. "But it's not necessary, just convenient. You can turn them off, of course, for security reasons, but I'd suggest that in normal operation you don't. Certainly not when you're over land, around cities and the like, just so other people can tell you're there and get out of the way. When you're in international airspace they're not strictly required but they do make life easier if you run into someone's military."

Smiling, he added, "At the speeds you were going, people might jump to conclusions."

"I'm still curious to find out how fast I can go if I really pour on the power," Saurial chuckled.

He stared for a moment. "You weren't going flat out?"

"No… not really. I had a lot left in the tanks even with that first design," she remarked. "I wasn't joking about orbital insertion."

"Oh, god," he muttered. "He was right."

"Hmm?"

"Armsmaster," he said more loudly at her look of interest. "He was of the opinion that we hadn't seen you at maximum performance and that you could probably go orbital if you wanted to. Not everyone was convinced."

The girl shrugged. "I haven't tried it, obviously, but I can't see any reason for it not working. No fuel limitations, and for all intents and purposes no thrust limitations. Even with the water rocket, orbit should be easily possible."

"Amazing. What about air? And re-entry temperatures?"

"What about them?" she smirked.

Paul studied her, then shook his head slowly. "I should be past being surprised with you people by now," he sighed, "but somehow I'm not."

Saurial laughed a little, smiling less smugly at him. "We do tend to have that affect on humans for some odd reason. Sorry, I'll try not to worry you too much." She looked slyly at Ianthe. "Although Kaiju was wondering about how well it would scale up..."

He blanched at the thought.

"Please, I beg you, if you actually do that, do it somewhere a long way away?" he said quietly. "For me?"

"Sure, Legend," she said happily. "No problem. We all like you and don't want to worry you." The reptilian cape paused, then grinned evilly. "Too much..."

Cloak started giggling, a weird hissing sound like a happy tea kettle, which made him unconsciously step away. This in turn seemed to amuse her further.

"I see," he said dryly. "I will bear that in mind."

The end of Saurial's tail was twitching around, while she grinned. "I need to get some proper flight instrumentation as well," she said. "We worked out how high and fast I was after the fact from the camera recordings, but it would be useful to have a live feed. I think I need to talk to Dragon, she could probably point me in the right direction."

"That would be a good idea," he replied. "Dragon is an expert in flight systems. She designed these transponders, for one thing. I'll mention it to her."

"Thank you."

Finishing his coffee, he put the mug down. "I'll have to go, I have other people to see and quite a lot of work to do, but it was nice seeing you all. And meeting you, Cloak."

"Likewise," Cloak replied.

Turning to go, he paused, then turned back. "Out of interest, have you decided what you're going to do about the potential Merchant problem?" he asked slowly. They exchanged a look then Saurial sighed a little.

"We're still working on that," she said. "We've been keeping them under surveillance and taking preventative steps. You probably noticed the new fence?"

He nodded. "Yes, I noticed on the way in that it was different to last time."

"There's a nasty surprise between the two fences for any intruders," Metis commented. "Not impossible to get past but no one is likely to just come charging in. We were thinking of the various things that they've been known to use in the past, such as vehicles from Squealer, and attacks by a large number of them pouring over the boundary. This should stop that particular problem."

"We're working on other things as well," Ianthe added. "We're doing what we can to make it as non-lethal as possible, but..."

"You'll do whatever necessary to protect your people," he finished for her. "I understand. And agree, personally, even though I can't officially say that as Protectorate policy. My family is very important to me as well."

They shared an understanding look. "If it comes to it, try to keep the damage and casualties to a minimum," he requested quietly.

"We will. None of us want to hurt anyone," Saurial replied, in a subdued manner, sitting down in a chair. She studied him for a while. "You have to realize, the biggest problem is trying to work out how not to kill them all. We don't want to be like that, we rather resent being pushed into it in the first place. All of us would rather live our lives as peacefully as possible and try to help out. But some people apparently can't leave well enough alone."

Metis gave him a sober look. "There's a human saying along the lines of 'Don't poke a sleeping dragon...'"

He nodded, knowing what she was saying.

"Trust me, a sleeping dragon would be nothing compared to someone poking big brother," Saurial added. "Harming family or friends is a really big poke." There was something in her voice that made him shiver despite himself.

"It's best if that never happens." She shrugged. "If we have to wipe out some of the Merchants in a fairly dramatic fashion to make sure the lesson sticks, we will. Threatening dire consequences is futile if you're not prepared to carry those threats out."

Glowing eyes from three faces met his. "We are."

Swallowing a little, he replied, "I believe you. Although I also hope it doesn't come to that."

After a moment's thought, he continued, "I should not say this, and I hope you don't mention it to anyone else, but if I was in your position, I believe I would probably do unto the enemy before they did unto me, if you understand my position. It might allow for a less… bloody… outcome."

"We've considered the thought," Saurial replied, looking at him closely. "We even mentioned it to Director Piggot. But we need to think more about it. I'm somewhat surprised you of all people would say it, though."

He smiled at her mischievously. "I'm a good guy, I like to think, and I do my best to uphold the ideals I would like others to uphold. But I'm also not stupid. Sometimes, one needs to slightly alter one's outlook, to prevent something forcing a much bigger change on you."

All three reptiles laughed. "I understand," Saurial replied. "Let's see how it goes. We're still gathering information."

"All right. If you need help, you know where to get me."

"We'll bear that in mind," she smiled.

"With that, I must leave. I expect we'll see each other again soon." He headed to the door, Metis coming with him and letting him out.

Outside, he looked up at the sign and the slogan on it, shivered again, very slightly, and shot into the air, heading for his next appointment.

Sherrel…

'No. Linda. That's my name now, Sherrel is gone, whatever happens,' she thought.

Linda looked around the room Danny Hebert had shown her to, then wandered over to the nearest bed and dropped the clothes that Saurial had mysteriously pulled out of nowhere for her onto it, before flopping down next to them with a groan. She closed her eyes and tried to still her whirling thoughts, wondering what the hell was going to happen next, if she'd made the right decision, and if it wouldn't be quicker just to jump out the window.

After a little while, she decided that she hadn't come this far just to kill herself at this point, she'd definitely made the right and in fact only decision, and that the only way to find out what happened next was to wait and see. Rolling over, she stared at the ceiling for a moment, then sat up with another groan, pushing herself to her feet and staggering towards the shower. Seconds later she turned around, sighing, and retrieved a change of clothes and the towel that was on the bed next to the pillow before trying again. As she left the room, she wondered if she could borrow a lighter to burn her old clothes with.

When she came back a while later, she fell over onto the bed and was asleep before she stopped bouncing.

Later she'd realize it was the best and most untroubled sleep she'd had in years, and one of the longest.

"What are you doing with that?" Randall asked his friend, who was elbow-deep into one of his older inventions, a hologram projector they'd used on one memorable Halo-themed escapade a couple of years ago to produce a nice background setting in a mall downtown. "It smoked itself pretty effectively the last time you turned it on."

"I know," Kevin muttered, peering into the innards of the device with an evaluating expression. He mumbled to himself under his breath, then yelped when there was a sharp crackling noise, whipping his hand out from whatever he'd just touched and sticking his finger in his mouth. "Ow."

Randall snickered, making the other man glare at him over the abused digit. A different finger on the other hand made an appearance, which just caused him to laugh more. "Idiot."

"Why are you electrocuting yourself on a widget you can't fix in the first place?" Randall asked.

In answer Kevin poked a switch, grinning in a particularly evil manner when the room wavered and dissolved into a scene Randall recognized from innumerable runs through the video game in question. He gaped in astonishment. "Holy fuck. You fixed it!"

There was a sizzle and smoke drifted from the hologram unit, the projected image disappearing again. "Not quite. It keeps doing that," Kevin sighed, flipping the switch again. "I can't work out why yet."

"But… you've never been able to even do that much to one of your inventions when they fail. Normally if you try they just blow up, or melt, or disappear into the dungeon dimensions or something." Randall looked around in a slightly paranoid manner, just in case. He still remembered the last time…

"I've never seen you manage to get something working even that much before."

His friend shrugged, sitting on a stool next to the workbench. "True enough. But I had some really weird dreams all last night." He propped his head on his hand, idly spinning a screwdriver through his fingers and staring at the projector. "I mean, totally fucked up, like I was on a particularly good hallucinogenic or something. I can't remember most of it, and I can't work out if that's good or bad. Some of it was… unpleasant… I think. I spent a lot of time arguing with a computer, I seem to vaguely recall, which was in a fucking terrible mood and kept trying to kill me. Then something huge with a big grin wandered in and talked to both of us for ages, we sort of made up, and agreed to try to work together and see what happened."

Randall stared at his old friend.

Kevin looked back at him, a quirky grin on his face. "I know how it sounds. It was a very odd dream. I think there were some aliens involved somewhere, and a robot dragon, and something like a fox that was slowly turning into a lizard and kept giving me smug looks like it knew something I didn't. And that huge thing, which was fucking enormous, like, planet sized. Oh, and three possessed crystal balls that spent a lot of time in the corner trying to pretend they weren't there, even though everyone knew they were. One of them was writing a note to someone asking for help and kept asking me how you spelled 'involuntary' for some reason."

"Did you get into the good liquor again?" Randall asked suspiciously.

The other man sighed loudly. "No. But I almost wish I had. It was fucking weird. I woke up with a massive headache and some very strange emotions that I still can't work out. I thought Amy's symbiote was supposed to stop things like headaches and so on."

"I feel really good, myself," Randall said, still amazed at what they'd had done to them.

"So do I, now," Kevin replied. "Physically at least. But I'm very puzzled about what's going on. I'm wondering if this is what the girls were looking for, in their mystery experiment."

They exchanged a look, then both of them examined the still slightly smoking hologram unit. "You think they've somehow… fixed your power? Or something like that?"

Kevin shrugged, reaching out and poking the unit with a finger to check the temperature of the circuitry. "I… don't know. I just had this sudden urge out of nowhere to see if I could repair this damn thing. I was reluctant to even try because of what normally happens, but a little voice in the back of my head was whispering, 'try it…,' so in the end I did. The results weren't either what I wanted or what I expected, sort of partway between them."

He picked the now-cool device up and turned it over in his hands, studying it. "The little voice is sort of muttering to itself now, like it can't work out what to do next. Weirdest thing I've ever experienced."

"Could you make another one?"

Randall watched his friend think hard. "I… don't think so. Something tells me that's not possible, but I don't know why." Kevin glanced at him, then went back to playing with the damaged projector. "We've always known that seemed to be the limitation I have for whatever reason. That hasn't changed. But I've got this growing feeling that something else has changed, and is still changing." He put the unit back on his workbench and looked around the room, which was piled with stacks of mostly non-functional previous inventions. "I look at all those and now, instead of thinking, 'scrap I can only sell for parts', I think, 'hmm, that looks like it might be fixable, maybe.'

He turned back to his best friend, his expression a weird combination of worry, desperate hope, and wonder. "Can you imagine what it would mean if I could repair even a small fraction of all this stuff? Even if it was only to let Dragon see if she could duplicate it… Game changing, man."

Randall nodded slowly, thinking about all the cool toys the other man had come up with over the years. His mouth widened in a smile that could only be termed worrying to anyone who saw it.

"Just… Wow." He grinned at Kevin. "I need to see if I can figure out if anything has changed with me."

"No weird dreams and angry computers?"

"Nope. Slept like a baby."

"You mean, screamed all night and crapped yourself?" Kevin smirked.

Giving him a long-suffering look, Randall sighed. "You know what I meant. Get back to fixing your widget, I need to experiment. This is so cool."

They shared a grin, then both went back to seeing what, if anything, had changed as a result of Amy Dallon's interfering in the nature of things.

"This was fun," Missy giggled, her hood down and her 'Cloak' voice off. She was only wearing her backup domino mask, over street clothes, the cloak itself hung over a chair. "I'm glad I stopped by. Thanks for teaching me some more of that math."

"You're welcome," Saurial told her. "I enjoyed it as much as you did." The lizard-girl put her feet up on the table and reclined back in her chair, looking comfortable. "This has been a long but rewarding day. And I got to fly."

"I still can't believe you can go that high and that fast just using water!" the blonde girl said with admiration. She grinned after a moment. "I bet Kid Win is green with envy about now. He's fascinated by all the things you guys do, but he's not allowed to come and talk about them."

"Just like you aren't, right?" Metis chuckled, handing her a can of Sprite.

"Yep. Just like that." Missy looked around the room, then popped the tab. "Remember, I'm not really here." She smirked as the others laughed.

"Our mouths are zipped," Saurial smiled. "What happens in BBFO..."

"Stays in BBFO," Missy finished for her, getting a nod in return. "Fine by me. I'm having a hell of a lot of fun and learning more than I thought I could. And, what the Director doesn't know, won't come back and bite me in the ass."

Ianthe was sitting on her tail next to her, apparently thinking about something. After a moment, she turned to Saurial and Metis and had a conversation with them in their weird Family language, which Missy listened to with interest, wondering if she could learn it. They seemed to be having a mild argument, Metis nodding, while Saurial was looking somewhat dubious. Ianthe pointed at her, the other two looking at each other, then appearing intrigued.

More hissing alien words were exchanged. Saurial looked very thoughtful, nodding a little as Ianthe spoke. Eventually, they all looked back to Missy, who was now feeling slightly nervous and very curious.

"How would you like to meet Kaiju?" Saurial said in English, her voice sounding like she was trying not to chuckle.

Missy's eyes widened enormously.

"Really?" she gasped. "Where?"

"Right out there," the reptile smiled, waving at the back door. "I can get her here pretty fast. It will, however, mean that we have to show you a Family secret. One we don't want too many people learning about right now, because it might make them even more worried about us."

"'People' meaning the PRT," Metis put in.

Missy looked at them suspiciously. "What secret?"

"It's a secret. Will you keep it?"

"Will it hurt anyone?" she asked after some careful thought.

"No. It's just not something we want to give away. We have lots of secrets, we don't tell everyone everything, that's just silly. But… this one is very useful and we'll need it." Saurial smiled widely. "Ianthe came up with a neat idea that we could use your help for, and Kaiju. It would probably cause the Merchants some severe trouble without actually harming any of them."

"Although it's going to make Skidmark really annoyed," Ianthe giggled.

She thought some more, then grinned at her friends. "OK. I won't tell anyone. I promise. I owe you guys too much and you know all sorts of things about me I know you won't tell, so fair's fair. And I hate that smelly drug dealer anyway. I'm in."

"Excellent," Saurial hissed, rubbing her hands together. She hopped to her feet and headed to the back door.

"What's the secret?" Missy called, watching her. The lizard looked back over her shoulder, winked, and vanished.

The girl gaped in stunned amazement. She looked wildly around, then stared at Metis and Ianthe, who were snickering at her expression. "She can do it as well?" she asked in astonishment. "Stranger rating too? How many powers do you guys actually have?"

Metis leaned forward, looking sly. "All of them," she whispered in a deep voice.

Straightening up, she grinned. "Well, not all of them, really, but quite a few. We're very versatile."

"I can see why you don't want the Director finding out," Missy finally said with a shake of her head, her own grin forming. "Scary lizards all over the place are bad enough as far as she's concerned. Scary invisible lizards would make her head explode."

They all laughed at her comment. "Probably. We don't want that, so no talking, OK?"

Missy mimed zipping her lips.

"Good enough. OK, this is the plan," the black lizard said. "Listen very carefully..."

Lee grumbled to himself, wincing in pain as he moved his arm a little too fast as he used the other hand to swing the door of the large safe shut, then spin the wheel. He'd put the latest stack of cash away to await Skidmark's return, all the various dealers having ponied up their takings. The enormous steel safe, an eight foot cube, was firmly bolted to the floor in his leader's room, in the middle of the building. It had to have been a huge effort to get it in here, but it predated his own induction into the Merchants.

Aside from Skidmark and Mush, he was the only other person with the combination, and even that had come along with dire warnings about what would happen if anyone found out. His boss didn't actually trust him very much, but he trusted him slightly more than he trusted anyone else, even his girlfriend.

"Bitch," he mumbled, his arm throbbing. The gang had a couple of members who had some medical training, which had been sufficient to get his wrist splinted and bound, but they'd done a fairly ugly job.

At least they had copious access to some very powerful painkillers. Otherwise he'd have been in agony. As it was, he was merely in pain, and extremely pissed with Squealer. Wherever she'd run off to.

"Skids is going to find her and kill the bitch when he's finished with the Family and the DWU," he grumbled, stomping over to the other side of the room and sitting on a chair, awkwardly pulling out his drug kit with his one good hand. "I hope he lets me watch."

He'd just finished preparing his next hit when the doorway to the room underwent the most extraordinary transformation, warping and twisting in a way that made his eyes ache. Lee gaped as the partly open door turned into a hole in the world a dozen or more feet across, leading impossibly through the interior of the building and out into the night, the bay just visible at the end of the tunnel. He could see other doorways opening off the tunnel, ones he knew full well were not in any way in a straight line between where he was and the outside.

Not to mention that there weren't any openings to the outside on the water-facing part of the building anyway, all the windows having been blocked off years ago. At best there might be small gaps you could just about get a finger through, not something big enough to drive a fucking truck into.

Or, for that matter, the absolutely vast dark blue-black scaled arm that suddenly came into the room. He dived back off his chair with a choked scream of total terror, staring as the enormous taloned hand on the end of the arm wrapped around the safe like someone picking up a can of beer, then yanked.

A loud crunching sound heralded the safe ripping loose from the concrete without any apparent effort, the arm, hand, and safe all retreating down the tunnel through the building before he could do more than squeak in horrified shock. Seconds later the doorway was back to normal with no sign that anything had happened.

Struggling painfully to his feet, his eyes fixed on where the safe, and close to seven hundred grand in small bills, had been moments before, Lee staggered over and gaped at the hole in the floor. Shouts of alarm were coming from all through the building, but he ignored them completely.

The only thing he could think was, 'He's going to kill me too. Very slowly...'

Climbing into bed, Missy turned the light off, then rolled onto her side, smiling to herself.

Today had been a good day.

'I had fun, learned some cool new tricks, got to meet Kaiju, and screwed up the Merchants,' she thought happily. 'And made Legend look worried.'

The memory of standing on the shoulder of the biggest living thing that she'd ever seen was one that would stay with her for the rest of her life. The way that no one else could see either of them was amazing as well.

Warping all the walls and other obstructions out of the way so that Kaiju could simply reach into the building and steal the Merchant's safe was not only surprisingly easy now, but hysterically funny to see. She'd realized that the giant lizard had deliberately made her arm visible for just long enough to let the gang know who had done it, basically to make a point.

Missy doubted that most of them were smart enough or sober enough to understand that point, though.

'We can get you anywhere, any time,' she thought in amusement, her eyes closing. 'Next time it might not just be your money.'

That was Ianthe's plan, and she personally thought it was pretty cool. It might even work.

'Probably not. No one ever said Skidmark was the sort of guy to learn quickly,' she mused. 'Oh, well. Just have to see what happens next. But that was really funny.'

Still smiling, she fell asleep, visions of multi-dimensional equations going through her head and giving her new ideas to try.