This was provoked by a few comments on both SpaceBattles and Sufficient Velocity, the idea not allowing me to proceed until I wrote it down. It told me, right at the beginning, that it was a 2000 word Omake at best.
It lied.
It may become canon at some point, but we'll have to see how things work out.
Walking back to her house from the local shopping district, Lucy hummed a popular tune under her breath, enjoying the still slightly chilly but quite acceptable spring evening. It was heading towards darkness but still quite light, no wind disturbing the air and the temperature only requiring a light jacket. She looked around, seeing the roads were at a generally normal level of traffic for the area, which in this case meant only a few cars visible and half a dozen pedestrians.
Since the arrival of the Family just after Christmas, and the following effect they'd had on gang crime with both the ABB and the E88 pulling back very considerably, street dangers had dropped enormously. That alone had made the scaly superheros very popular when people worked out what was going on. The dramatic effect on the economy of the city following the Mayor's regeneration plan and Kaiju's involvement in that had only boosted their following, in which she was more than proud to call herself a major enthusiast.
Then, when they'd done what they did to the Merchants…
In some ways it had made people more worried, in most others it had mainly made them very satisfied. Worried, because it showed that the Family had a definite line that you did not cross without severe repercussions, although no one who thought about it considered that line unreasonable. And you could go right up to the line without any problem.
Satisfied, because no one liked the Merchants. She had it on good authority that even the E88, and the ABB, both considered them scum in general, which put it into perspective in an amusing way. Skidmark particularly had been universally despised by absolutely everyone.
One thing that had made her giggle had been that she'd been told by an acquaintance that Lung himself had smiled madly when he heard of their fate, and toasted the Family in a local tavern, to all appearances sincerely. Even after his alleged run in with Kaiju he was still pleased. Kaiser had apparently started laughing so hard he'd nearly required medical intervention, she'd also heard.
The girl reflected on the fact that she seemed to know more criminals than was probably normal in most cities, then shrugged. That was Brockton Bay for you…
Overall, she thought happily, she'd much rather have the lizards and their friends around than otherwise, not only because she really liked reptiles in general, and they were friends of hers. Friends she wanted to see again as often as possible.
When the summer holidays started, she was planning on finding out if she could somehow work some sort of internship at the DWU to let her hang around there more often. Partly because what they were doing did genuinely interest her, but mainly because she could see the big scaly reptiles more often…
'Even if I can't, I can visit them regularly,' she grinned to herself. 'Maybe Mandy would like to come as well, she seemed to enjoy her Raptaur-ride nearly as much as I did.'
Roll on, summer break, she decided firmly. It was going to be an interesting one.
Life was pretty good, in her view, right at the moment. Even when she'd been mugged, she'd been saved by Amy and Saurial, which was nice of them. Not that the experience was anything she wanted to repeat, of course, it had been horrible, but it had also led to interesting results and no real harm.
Not even to that idiot mugger. A kick in the balls was about the least he deserved. Amy had become even better in her eyes after that. She'd never realized the Dallon girl could be so… vicious.
She approved.
Switching to humming 'Greensleeves', a favorite of hers, she strolled along enjoying the late afternoon, in no real hurry to get back, swinging the bag of groceries she had in one hand. When she got home she was going to feed some of the eggs she'd bought to Newell, who was starting to look perkier after the winter, then phone Mandy and chat for a while, before finishing her homework.
The hand that grabbed her long hair just after she passed an alley that led to the rear of the four story apartment building next to it came as an unwelcome surprise. She yipped in pain and shock, stumbling backwards and nearly dropping her shopping back as whoever it was pulled her violently into the alley.
"Oh, hell, not again," she moaned as she was slammed against the wall, finding a desperate-looking man in his mid twenties pointing a knife at her, his eyes wild.
He looked mildly puzzled for a second at her comment, then demanded, "Give me your money and phone," in harsh tones. It sounded like he had a cold, she thought absently, wiping some spittle off her cheek with her free hand. He jabbed the knife at her when she moved, making her freeze.
"You're going to get in trouble," she told him in a wavering voice. "The Family doesn't like Merchants. I thought all you guys had left. Or… something else."
Lucy was pretty sure he was a Merchant, or ex-Merchant, based on the clothes and the stink.
"Fuck the Family, girl. I got away and they'll never get me. I need your money to get out of town." He glared at her from bloodshot eyes in the dimness of the alley, barely visible. The sun was setting behind the building and only a little deep orange light was seeping around the corner. She sighed heavily, slowly raising a hand to her coat.
"OK, OK, don't get all freaky, all right? I'll get my money, it's inside my coat."
"No tricks!" he stated, stepping back one pace, which put him in a position to lunge with the knife. Slipping her hand into her jacket, she reached into an interior pocket and grabbed what she was after, making sure she had a good grip, then pulled it out.
The hiss of the wild-animal-strength pepper spray as it went right in his eyes was very loud in the quiet of the alley.
The scream of agony was even louder. He stumbled back, rubbing his eyes, which only made it worse according to the instructions that had come with the spray, a gift from her father when he'd heard what had happened the first time she got mugged. She looked around, trying to work out the best route to escape down. Her plan had been simple, distract the idiot, then leg it. Exactly as her dad had told her.
Part one had worked a treat. Unfortunately, she'd distracted the mugger into writhing around in the entrance to the alley, which only left one route, which she took, running in the other direction. She had vague memories that the alley went down between this building and the wall around the other one next to it for a couple of hundred yards, then branched into a series of other access routes that led ultimately back to the road near her house. Long ago she'd used the alleys as a short-cut to primary school until the gang problems got so bad her parents forbade her doing anything other than using the main roads.
Moving as fast as she dared, she skirted potholes that she could barely see, hurdling a fallen garbage can athletically, then rounding a corner in the alley and ducking under a fire escape ladder that someone had left partly extended.
The screams behind her had turned into wild cursing and some crashing sounds, making it apparent that her mugger had decided to pursue her, rather than give up and wait for someone else. She swore under her breath, speeding up a little. On the flat she had no doubt she could run faster than a scabby drug addict who looked like he hadn't eaten anything other than pills for days, but in these conditions it was less certain.
She smiled to herself when she heard a louder crash, which sounded like the idiot had tripped over the garbage can. Moments later it was followed by a reverberant clang as the fire escape ladder vibrated under the impact of a head.
The swearing stopped, replaced by another scream of pain and rage, then started again, becoming more inventive.
He didn't sound happy.
Coming to a junction, Lucy looked around, trying to work out the quickest route back to the road, then turned left and ran. She squelched through a few puddles left from last night's rain, the muddy water going into her sneakers in an unpleasant way, but kept going at a steady fast jog. She could see better here as the setting sun was behind her, reflecting down the alley and illuminating it in tones of deep yellow and orange, making even the untidy access road look surprisingly pretty.
A flicker of shadow behind her made her look over her shoulder to see the Merchant mugger stagger out of the first alley into the one she was moving along and look wildly around. He spotted her and headed in her direction, waving the knife and a piece of wood he'd presumably picked up from somewhere on the way.
"I'm going to kill you, you little chink bitch!" he howled in rage, running after her, then tripping over a pothole with a yell. He went full length into the muddy alley, swearing hysterically, got up, and resumed the chase.
"This guy doesn't give up easily," she mumbled to herself, almost impressed.
And terrified. Let's not forget that.
Forcing herself to remain calm, since giving in to fear was a sure way to make a mistake, she kept moving as fast as she dared, listening to the mugger trip a couple more times. He was trying to run as fast as he could and was paying for it.
The pepper spray probably wasn't helping his eyesight very much, either.
'I wonder why he recovered so fast?' she thought with irritation. 'The instructions said it would take at least half an hour. I'm going to have to complain if I survive this. Maybe I should have just given him my wallet.'
She'd been extremely reluctant to merely give up, especially considering the last time, and had thought that the pepper spray would be enough to let her get away. If only the inconsiderate fool had had the decency to fall over six feet to the left, she'd have been home by now, and not covered in mud and less salubrious substances.
That said, he was having a much worse time of it than she was, by the sound of it. And she still, somehow, even had her shopping with her.
'I hope the eggs didn't break, Newell would be annoyed,' she thought half-hysterically, turning again into yet another alley, which she thought led through a loading yard into a footpath that ended up in the back of the cul-de-sac her house was on.
Sure enough, around the next corner she found herself charging across a pitted tarmac surface in a biggish open area, several large dumpsters on one side, and a broken down and rusty semi tractor parked on the other side. It had been there as long as she could remember, certainly at least a decade.
Unfortunately, she discovered rather abruptly, some asshole bastard had parked a large panel van across the entrance to the footpath, the rusty heap of junk half-embedded into the scraggy undergrowth that lined that end of the open area. She skidded to a halt, looking around desperately for another route of escape. There wasn't enough room to squeeze under it even for someone of her fairly slight build, she didn't have time to climb over it, and there was no way around the ends because of all the tangled bushes that were beginning to sprout buds.
The yard was dark enough now that she had to carefully pick her way past the obstructions, hardly able to see anything on the ground. The only good part was that her pursuer was having at least as hard a time as she was, judging by the crashes and swearing as he tripped over every single obstacle in his path.
It was a real pity he was so damn persistent. Most people would have given her up as a waste of time ages ago.
"I can see you, you little bitch!" he yelled, immediately running into something in the dark and falling over again, screaming in rage. "I'm going to fuck you up."
'That's what I'm afraid of,' she thought uneasily, wisely not saying anything out loud. 'Now what the hell do I do?' She was clutching her partly depleted pepper spray in a sweaty hand, and still stubbornly holding onto her shopping bag with the other. Luckily it was a solidly made hemp reusable one and had survived the trip so far.
'If I can get him again, maybe I can circle back and go the other way,' she thought, looking at the man who was heading in her direction, waving his stick and knife. She watched as he tripped again, raising an eyebrow. 'Unless he manages to stab himself doing that.'
He was now worryingly close, but not close enough to spray. On the other hand, he also wasn't close enough to either hit or stab her. Backing away, trying not to fall over the uneven surface, she wished desperately that it was lighter so she could see what the hell she was doing. The sun must be pretty much on the horizon, it was certainly below the buildings around the area, and things were really starting to get very dark.
She heard something above her, an odd noise like fabric in the wind, and risked a look upwards. Nothing was visible except a clear evening sky with a couple of small clouds barely apparent in it from reflected street light glow.
'Could do with a cape about now,' she mused. 'Where are you, Vicky? Or anyone who can fly in and rescue me.'
She wasn't picky, she'd even thank Rune or Purity if they happened to pass overhead. Unlikely, around here, especially these days, but not impossible.
Wondering if she could call for help, she decided again that pulling out her phone would probably get her killed long before she could really make use of it. Shouting most likely would achieve the same thing, as there was no sign of anyone around at the moment except for someone she really wished she'd never met.
The mugger moved closer, muttering imprecations under his breath, looking around for her. She'd managed to end up half-hidden beside the old semi tractor, squatting down by the trailer hitch, hoping he'd miss her.
There was another odd sound behind the mugger, a faint squelch mixed with a thump. Both of them looked this time, even the man himself apparently noticing, but neither could see anything.
The Merchant shrugged to himself, apparently putting it down to nerves, and resumed his search. Lucy readied her can of pepper spray, her finger on the trigger, and tightened her hold on her shopping bag stubbornly.
Newell was getting his eggs one way or another.
She watched him cast about for her, blinking wildly and intermittently wiping his eyes with his wrist. They were swollen and puffy as far as she could make out in the dim light, which was rapidly fading completely. A hope went through her that when it was completely dark she might be able to distract him somehow, then sneak past and go back the way she came. Slipping the can into her outer pocket she quietly felt around for something to throw, running cold damp rocks through her fingers until she settled on one about the size of a pool ball. Looking down at it for a moment, she picked it up and weighed it in her palm before wrapping her fingers firmly around it.
When she looked up she was alarmed to see that the damn mugger had disappeared.
'Where the hell is the bastard?' she wondered frantically, looking around. She could hear movement in the darkness somewhere in front of her but it was now so black nothing was immediately visible. That said, she could definitely still smell him.
Moving slightly she winced as her bag, and a bottle in it, clinked against the broken down vehicle next to her. Holding her breath she waited…
"There you are, you little cunt," said a voice in the darkness, much too fucking close for her liking. She yelped and flung the rock as hard in that direction as she could, hearing a thud and a burst of obscenities.
"You little Asian bitch, I'm going to enjoy doing this," he snarled, sounding half-crazed. "First I'm going to fuck you, then I'm going to cut you up into lit..."
His voice stopped abruptly, having gone oddly echoey in the last half word. There was a pregnant silence.
Lucy listened intently, her heart hammering in her chest. What had happened?
"Listen to me very carefully," a deep voice she'd never heard before, but one that still sounded somewhat familiar, said, the tones oddly muffled like it was speaking through a mouthful of something. "If you want to live, my friend, you will turn around and leave. The city, definitely, the state, ideally. Or I can just bite down. Your choice."
Not at all sure what was going on, Lucy tipped her head, trying to localize the voice. She could hear faint whimpering, and a splattering sound that she eventually worked out was someone pissing themselves. She wrinkled her nose as the smell of fresh urine wafted over it. After a momentary debate over the wisdom of the move, she reached into her other pocket and pulled out a small flashlight, flicking it on and pointing it towards where the new voice had sounded from. As she did so, two glowing yellow lights appeared some distance off the ground.
They looked awfully familiar, she thought absently, gaping at what the light showed her.
There was a very large, very black, very scary looking fucking dragon sitting in the middle of the loading yard, its huge head lowered so that it could carefully enclose the entire head of the mugger down to his shoulders in its mouth! She gaped in a weird mix of horror, excitement, and amusement, seeing the man was standing absolutely still, both his weapons lifted in frozen hands.
His jeans were much damper than the falls into the mud would have accounted for, and steaming gently, she noticed, a feeling of slightly detached humor knocking on the back of her mind.
"Do we have an agreement, my friend?" the dragon mumbled out of the side of its mouth, winking one glowing yellow-orange eye at Lucy. "Or do I get to eat an ape? The way you've seasoned yourself with that lovely peppery stuff was very thoughtful, by the way."
There was a muffled scream from inside her mouth.
"That tickles," the dragon snickered. "Stop it or I might bite accidentally."
Both the weapons he was holding dropped to the ground as he went limp, held up by his head.
"Huh." The dragon crossed its eyes and looked down its snout at the man. "That was rude. He seems to have lost interest in the conversation." Looking at Lucy, she added, "Should I eat him, or let him go?"
"He's probably got all sorts of things wrong with him," Lucy pointed out in a numbly amused manner, not sure how to react other than calmly.
"Good point. Sis said these Merchants were stale. Ianthe told me she caught some as well when she first got here." The creature opened its mouth, allowing the unconscious mugger to collapse to the ground, his head bouncing on the dirty tarmac. She licked her lips with a long forked tongue. "That spicy stuff is nice, though. What was it?" she added more clearly now that her mouth was unoccupied.
"Pepper spray," the girl replied, holding up the can.
"Can I have some more?"
"Sure." She walked forward, trying not to tremble too much, either with excitement, 'Jesus, a real dragon!' or total terror, 'Oh, my god, it's a fucking DRAGON,' as she did so. When the large mouth opened, exposing a hell of a lot of very sharp teeth, she sprayed the stuff right into it.
Closing its mouth the dragon swallowed, then appeared to smile. "Good stuff. Thanks. Now, are you all right?"
"I'm fine, thank you," Lucy said politely, returning the can to her pocket as calmly as she could.
"Great. If I'm correct, you're Lucy?"
She gaped. "How the hell did you know that?"
The huge creature smiled at her in a reptilian manner. "Raptaur told me about you. So did Saurial. They like you. We have ways of passing on scents to each other, and you match the one I was given. I was just in the area and noticed this..." She looked down and shook her head sadly, "person… pursuing you, so I thought I'd stop and lend a hand. We look out for our friends."
"You're Family, then?" she asked, before nearly slapping herself at the fatuousness of the question. Of course a friendly dragon was Family, where else would it come from? Aside from anything else the eyes were a dead giveaway.
"Yep. Just in the area to see what all the excitement was about. This place is the talk of back home, some of our people having fun and helping out you humans. I wanted to come a while ago but everyone thought that too many of us turning up at once might be a problem."
"OK," Lucy replied, not sure what else to say. After a few seconds of simply staring at the creature, which seemed to find this somewhat funny, she asked, "What should I call you?"
"Well, my name in our language is," the dragon said, followed by a weird hissing gurgle that made the hairs on the back of Lucy's neck stand on end, "but that's really difficult for you guys to pronounce. Something about your vocal chords not being right, Ianthe said. So… hmm..." It sat back on its haunches, tapping a long clawed digit on its snout as it thought. "Call me Breksta. Sort of applicable if I remember my human mythology right, but not entirely correct. It's been a while since I looked into what you people believed."
"Um, all right," Lucy replied a little uncertainly, not entirely sure what the creature was talking about. "Breksta it is. It's nice to meet you, Breksta. And thanks for saving me from that idiot. It seems to be a habit with me and Family members, being mugged then being saved."
"You should probably try not to get mugged," Breksta grinned. "It would save a lot of trouble."
"Tell me about it," she sighed. Moving the flashlight around, she tried to get a good idea of what her new acquaintance looked like. 'Dragon' was her instant first impression, and the more she looked the stronger that got. The creature was very reptilian, strongly built but slender and wiry, with scales as black as Metis' covering a frame that must have been a good twenty to twenty-five feet long nose to tail. The head was narrower, longer, and more streamlined than Raptaur's, but there was a definite family resemblance. It was on the end of several feet of neck that joined a body that was even more lizard-like than the other Family members, on four legs, although the front ones could clearly double as arms perfectly well.
The hands were obviously hands, big enough to hold a basketball like an egg, with long elegant fingers tipped in sharp talons. The rear feet were much more reptilian but still appeared capable of gripping pretty well. The tail was long and muscular, with horizontal fins on the end and a ridge running down the entire thing, small spikes sticking up at intervals supporting it. The fins could be folded in line with the tail as far as she could see.
At the shoulders, a complex joint supported both the front limbs, and a pair of enormous wings, which were currently folded back along the body in a way that left them almost seamlessly fitting. The effect was impressive. She wondered what Breksta's wingspan was when they were open, guessing more than thirty feet.
The head had a couple of backswept horns on the top, fitting the fantasy dragon effect perfectly. With an internal jolt she realized that overall the creature was remarkably similar to the co-star of a movie she'd seen recently, making her wonder…
"Would you like a better view, Lucy?" Breksta asked with a definite sound of amusement in her voice. Lucy flushed a little.
"Um, sorry for staring, but I've never met a dragon before," she said, embarrassed at being caught staring.
"Don't worry, I don't mind," Breksta replied, chuckling. "Here, this might help."
Lucy gasped as the entire creature suddenly lit up in shades of blue, some sort of bioluminescence outlining the body and wings like a wire-frame drawing. It was amazingly beautiful.
She took a step back as Breksta opened her wings, stretching them out to their full extent and filling half the service yard. Gaping, she looked at the result, which was astounding. "Holy shit that's amazing," she managed to say.
"Thanks very much," Breksta smiled. She folded her wings again. "So far I'm really enjoying this place. It's nice to have a chance to fly around without worrying too much about someone getting worried."
"I thought the Family lived underwater," Lucy said after a moment. "But you're obviously built for the air."
"I'm dual-use," Breksta replied, looking pleased. "I'm perfectly at home underwater, I swim really well. But above the water I can fly pretty well too. I haven't had a chance to do it for a while for various reasons."
She looked up, her long neck bending back, then returned her gaze to Lucy, appearing thoughtful. "I'm told you like reptiles, and are a fan of our people," she said slowly.
"Yes to both," Lucy grinned, her fear now completely gone. Hefting the bag, she went on, "I was worried about breaking my iguana's eggs in all this. He loves them."
"Ah, I thought I was smelling something nice," Breksta said, nodding. "OK. Would you like to go flying for a little while? If you're not in a rush. I can drop you off at home, no trouble."
Lucy stared, utterly shocked, at the flying reptile, for nearly a minute. Eventually, she said in a trembling voice, "Flying?" She was embarrassed at how squeakily it came out.
"Sure. I can carry your weight without any real trouble," Breksta grinned. "I just need to..." She looked over her shoulder, as a saddle of sorts formed on her back just behind the wings, then glanced in an evaluating manner at Lucy. The saddle changed slightly, until she nodded. "That should do it. Raptaur showed me what she came up with, this is a modified version. You won't fall, I promise."
"What about my shopping?" she asked faintly, even as she said it thinking it was a ridiculous comment.
"Hmm." Breksta studied her closely. "Try this." She held out one huge hand, a leather-like jacket forming on an outstretched talon. Lucy stared, then reached for it. "Put your shopping in the pocket," Breksta advised.
"In the…?"
"It's bigger than it looks." There was a definite smugness about the smile aimed at her. Puzzled, she held her bag between her knees to stop it getting muddy, shrugged the jacket on, incidentally finding it fitted perfectly, then felt in the outer pockets. She was more than a little startled to find that they were wildly larger on the inside than reality should have allowed.
"Holy crap," she mumbled, stunned. "Magic pockets."
"Pretty much."
Grabbing her bag, she carefully rolled it up as much as possible with the stuff in it, then introduced it to the pocket, finding the entire thing disappeared inside without leaving a bulge at all. "That's… impossible."
"That's Family," Breksta snickered. "We're pretty good at making space our bitch, as a friend of mine says."
Shaking her head in amazement, Lucy thought for a second, then took the new jacket off, then her normal one, before putting the dragon-created one back on. Her old jacket went into the other pocket, along with her flashlight. Zipping the leather coat up, she felt it, smiling. "Keep it whatever you decide," the huge reptile told her. "Everyone needs a jacket with magic pockets. So, want to give flying a try?"
"Fuck, yes, do I," Lucy exclaimed, suddenly very happy. If she kept meeting people like this after being mugged, it was almost worth it.
Lowering a wing, Breksta dropped back to all fours. "Climb on, then. I'll add the straps when you're comfortable."
Sooner than she expected, Lucy was sitting on a glowing black dragon, wondering when her life had taken a turn into the Twilight Zone. On reflection it was probably about the time she'd met Saurial the first time.
"Ready?" The big head craned around on the end of Breksta's long neck, slitted eyes meeting hers. She nodded, swallowing, then leaned forward and held tightly to the two hand grips the huge creature had thoughtfully added.
The vast wings extended, rose into the air until they were nearly vertical, then came down with a whistling thump that blew things around the loading area. She felt her mount shoot upwards. Repeated beats of the wings lifted them higher and higher with enough acceleration that she felt herself get noticeably heavier. When she risked a look over the side, she sucked in a breath at the way they were already at least a thousand feet up, streetlights twinkling under them.
On the horizon she could just see the last traces of sunset, the western sky glowing a faint deep red. The Rig sparkled in the bay, its glowing force-field lighting the waters around it, while other pools of light illuminated the Medhall building, the area around the PRT headquarters, and some distance past them in the center of a large almost entirely dark patch, a series of brilliant lights she worked out was the DWU facility.
As they went higher, she could see further and further afield, the distant lights of some of the smaller towns inland from Brockton Bay becoming visible. Far off to the south-west a faint patch of light was probably the outskirts of Boston. Above them the navigation lights of aircraft could be seen in half a dozen places.
Leveling out at what must have been over a mile up, Breksta extended her wings fully and stopped flapping, gliding smoothly through the air. Lucy blinked in the cold wind blowing in her face, turning her head away from their direction of movement.
"Ah, sorry, I didn't think of that," the deep voice rumbled, Lucy feeling it through her seat as well as hearing it. "Try that on." In front of her, a support in the shape of a human head had sprouted out of the saddle, a helmet like the one Raptaur had given her the time she had a ride on the other reptile on it. She carefully let go of the handles she was holding in a death grip, trusting in the straps over her thighs and calves to hold her in place, then grabbed the helmet and pulled it over her head. The transparent faceplate immediately cut the wind out entirely, her head suddenly feeling much warmer.
"Thanks," she said in a heartfelt manner.
"Some gloves as well," the creature she was sitting on said, the aforementioned accessories forming in front of her as the protrusion the helmet had been on disappeared. She grabbed them before they could blow away and slipped them on.
"OK now?" Breksta asked, looking back at her.
"Fine, thanks. This is..." Lucy looked around again, feeling like she must be dreaming. "...unbelievable. Thank you. For everything."
"It's no trouble, Lucy," her mount smiled, turning her head back to look forward. "Like I said, we look after our friends. Raptaur said you were a good person who really liked meeting us and this is easy for me. I don't mind at all."
"Why do you look like a dragon from a recent film?" she asked, not sure if she should. The creature glanced back again, then winked.
"Why not? Who's to say who came first? I heard about that film, it sounds like fun. Didn't the dragon in it do something like this?"
Lucy barely had time to widen her eyes, then dive forward and grab the handles, before Breksta pulled a perfect wing-over and dived vertically, then did a loop followed by a barrel roll. Screaming with laughter and fright, Lucy held on like mad as the crazy reptile looped again, then went into a power climb, followed by a series of axial rolls.
Breathless with laughter, she went limp across the saddle when her new friend leveled out once more, gliding along serenely at about the same altitude. "Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit," she gibbered, not sure whether she wanted to be sick, or ask for that to happen again. "That was intense."
"Like it?" Breksta asked.
"So much."
A glowing light to the side, approaching rapidly, made both of them look. Lucy squinted a little before announcing with surprise, "It's Glory Girl!"
"Oh, I've wanted to meet her," Breksta exclaimed brightly, swinging around to an intercept course. The flying blonde, wearing the new costume Raptaur had given her, matched speed and altitude, then rotated into an upright position, staring at them with astonishment.
"Hi, Vicky!" Lucy called, waving wildly. "Isn't this incredible?"
"Lucy!?" The other girl gaped. "How the hell did you get a fucking Dragon?"
"Breksta rescued me from a mugger," Lucy called.
Vicky put her hand over her faceplate for a moment. "You got mugged again?" she asked, shaking her head. "What are you doing, girl? Do you emit 'mug me' signals or something?"
Lucy shrugged with a grin. "No idea. But twice now it attracted Family members. I can live with it if I get to ride a dragon."
"I'm Breksta," Breksta put in. She made a motion with a forelimb. "I'd shake your hand, I think that's the human custom, but you're a bit small and it's awkward like this."
"That's OK," Vicky said, still staring wide-eyed. "Dragon?" she mumbled just loudly enough for Lucy to hear. "Where the hell did you come from?"
"Oh, around," Breksta laughed. "I wanted to see the place my sisters and cousins are always going on about. So far it's great. Nice view as well."
Rotating in mid air, the flying blonde looked about. "I suppose it is." She looked back to the other two. "Did you have any plans about where to go, or are you just flying around randomly?"
"Pretty much just random," Breksta replied.
Vicky got a mischievous expression. "Is your sense of humor as weird as your relatives' is?"
"Oh, at least. Why?" Now Breksta sounded intrigued.
"I have a cunning plan," Vicky snickered. "Want to go freak out a man who needs to be worried every now and then?"
Lucy looked at her, then at the dragon she was sitting on, who peered back at her. They turned to the girl floating beside them. "What did you have in mind?" Breksta asked in an intrigued tone.
"Follow me, I'll explain on the way," Vicky said, curving around to head towards the Medhall building. "Can you turn those blue lights off?"
"Certainly," Breksta said, going utterly dark. Lucy felt like she was gliding through nothing, unable to see anything other than shadows.
"Shit, you're really, really black, aren't you?" Vicky laughed. "Perfect. OK, this is the plan..."
Sitting down in his favorite chair, Max looked out at the lights of Brockton Bay, sighing in relief as he took the weight off his feet. Ever since he'd got back from his holiday he'd felt much more relaxed. Nothing had gone wrong so far, while he'd been away the Merchants had been removed as a source of irritation, Lung and his lot were being very polite and quiet, and there was no tiny Death staring at him.
Sipping his drink he relaxed, going over plans in his mind to take advantage of the current state of affairs in the city. They'd certainly suffered some setbacks, but on the whole much less than any of the other gangs. The Merchants were gone, the ABB was, for whatever reason, hardly apparent, and as far as his people went, if they were careful they could probably take advantage of the new status quo.
The Family was, for all intents and purposes, unbeatable. He was sure there probably was a way to defeat them, but he had no idea what it would take, and was certain that it would cause far more damage than just living with the situation. And if you tried and failed… He shivered. No, he didn't want to consider that.
However, at the same time, those crazy reptiles seemed entirely uninterested in doing anything other than confusing people and fixing things, which meant that as long as you left them alone, they left you alone. Sure, if you were stupid enough to cause any of their friends trouble, or commit a crime right in front of them, that would end badly, but otherwise they stayed out of it. And they clearly didn't have any real problem with villains in general, considering that from what he'd heard, Über and Leet were practically part of the whole group now.
All of which meant that if one was both smart and careful one could profit from the situation. The whole Nazi thing wasn't anything he was personally particularly invested in, although it was a remarkably useful tool, so with some careful work and a little rebranding…
'Should be possible,' he mused. 'It'll take some time to get some of the others to see the light, but I think I can do it. Krieg might be a problem, he's a true believer. Rune doesn't care, Victor will do what I tell him, I don't give a shit if Brad likes it or not, the twins can be talked around… The rest will fall into line.' Raising his glass he toasted his own brilliance.
One way or another, he'd come out at the top as he was destined to do. Lizards or no lizards.
'If nothing else, they do seem to be making this city more viable, and the more money there is in the economy, the better for me as much as anyone,' he smiled. 'In a couple of years I might even have to write them a letter of thanks.'
He wondered if it might even be possible to come to some official arrangement with them. He'd been hearing interesting rumors that the purple one, Ianthe, was a dab hand with creating intriguing new pharmaceuticals. Some of his genuine Medhall scientists were making noises about wanting some samples to test.
Getting up, he moved to the window and watched the cars in the street below. Overall, he couldn't complain too much. His holiday had left him feeling much more tolerant of the new neighbors in the docks.
Raising his eyes, he looked at the skyline. A couple of aircraft could be seen in the distance, the little red and green lights moving slowly across the horizon. Even over the streetlights, he could make out some of the brighter stars. It looked like it was probably going to be a very nice day tomorrow.
About to turn away, he stopped, then squinted. Some distance away, inland, something occluded some of the stars. He couldn't make out anything like a shape, but they'd definitely blinked.
"What the hell is that?" he wondered out loud, peering down the length of the street, which ran nearly dead straight for over a mile, the heart of the commercial and shopping district.
More stars flickered.
Whatever it was, it was moving.
And big.
And coming right at him.
Now there were gaps in the scene of buildings, as if something very big and very black had passed in front of them. It was, as far as he could make out, at the same level as his window, but he still had no idea what it was. The intermittent shadows were far too big to be a flying cape, or anything human.
Max took a step back, still looking suspiciously out the window. He was certain something was moving out there. Something not right.
Which meant…
"Oh, god, it's them, isn't it?" he sighed. "If it's not a tiny Death standing staring at me, or fucking Saurial scaring me out of year of life by shooting past the windows like a fucking rocket with scales, it'll be something else those insane reptiles have come up with. What is it this time? Raptaur on a flying fucking bicycle?"
He stared at the night scene, which was now feeling to him like something was looking back.
He waited.
And waited.
Then sighed. And waited some more.
Nothing happened. The distant shadowy flickering disappeared.
After a few more seconds, he sipped his drink again, before looking at it with great suspicion, then carefully putting it down on his coffee table. He even took his shoes off.
Just in case…
When he finished, he turned back to the window, walking over and spreading his arms. "Come on then, you scaly lunatics, hit me with your best shot. After Kaiju, I'm ready for anything."
It turned out, in fact, that he wasn't.
The huge flying reptile that appeared out of the dark, lighting up like a Pink Floyd concert with no warning in blue light, less than fifty yards away and heading right at his head with a mad grin on its fucking face, made him freeze and gape in horror. The thing shot towards him, someone on its back with a helmet on waving their arms around manically, then just before it would have ended up in the room with him, it folded its wings a little, curved sharply upwards, and zoomed up the glass front of the building closely enough that he heard its tail lightly scrape along the window.
Moments later it was gone, echoes of deep laughter the only thing left behind. He stared blankly out into the dark.
Glory Girl floated into view from the side, saluted him smartly, bowed in mid air, then flew away.
She also appeared to be laughing.
Eventually, he let out a deep sigh, turned around, slipped on the tiles in his socked feet, and managed to kick the coffee table, causing his remaining Scotch to tip neatly into his shoes, before the glass rolled off the thing and shattered on the floor.
He stared at it, then started weakly laughing, dropping into a chair and putting his head in his hands.
"I give up," he moaned. "You can't beat them. This fucking city will be the death of me."
Half a mile up and out over the bay, Lucy was giggling so hard that only the straps held her on Breksta's back. The flying reptile was also laughing like an idiot. Floating along on her back, her legs crossed, Victoria Dallon was screaming with hilarity as well.
"That was fucking incredible," the blonde cackled. "Did you see his face? I wish I had a camera, I'd love to see the video of that. Ames' one was good, this was way better."
"Saurial gave me a little camera," Breksta said, still snickering. "It's on my head. I can get you the video."
"You recorded it?" Lucy stared, then laughed even harder. "I want a copy too, please."
"I'll get that sorted out for both of you," Breksta promised. "Now, I should probably get you home, Lucy. It was nice to meet you, Glory Girl."
"Call me Vicky, all my friends do," the girl said with a broad smile.
"Gladly," the dragon grinned. "See you around."
Vicky waved, then flipped over, peeling off back towards the city, while Breksta turned in a long sweeping curve in the other direction towards Lucy's end of town. "You'll have to direct me to your house," the dragon rumbled.
"Over that way, to the left, I think," she said, pointing. "See those blue lights?"
"Yep."
"Aim for those, I think that's the Ford dealership on the main road. My house is about half a mile further."
"OK." They glided along smoothly, Breksta occasionally flapping her wings to maintain altitude. "I wonder if your mugger has woken up yet?" the creature under her asked a little later, sounding like she was trying not to laugh.
"If he has, he's probably still running," Lucy giggled. "That bastard."
"To be honest, he didn't taste very good," Breksta laughed. "That pepper spray made it tolerable, though. It's good."
"I'm pretty sure it's not meant as seasoning," she replied, shaking her head in wonder. "It's nearly pure capsaicin. The label says it's only for external use."
"Very spicy. I like spicy."
"You are probably not the target market, I think," she pointed out, looking around with wonder. "Thank you for this, it's been fantastic."
"You're more than welcome. We should do this again sometime."
"I'd love that," Lucy said with feeling. "And I owe you one for the save. I'm not sure I'd have got away otherwise."
"I think you stood a good chance, you seem pretty quick and smart, but I was glad to help. Right, now where?"
They'd arrived over the first waypoint which Lucy was pleased to see was indeed the car dealership she'd thought it was. "Um… That way, to the right, see that group of street lights around the little park?"
"I do."
"Right at the end there, next to that big tree."
"OK."
Breksta tipped her wings and headed down, gliding over the neighborhood Lucy knew well, although she'd never seen it from this angle before. "Hold on."
Moments later, the huge reptile backwinged, then dropped neatly on Lucy's front lawn, folding her wings as she did to avoid the cars parked in the driveway. "There you go."
"Thank you so much, Breksta. It's been a hell of a lot of fun."
"I enjoyed it as well." The long neck came around, Breksta looking at her from a few feet away. "Try to stay out of alleyways, they don't seem to agree with you."
Lucy slid down as the straps vanished, standing on the lawn and staring at the dragon, who looked smugly amused. Putting her hands on her hips, she sighed. "I didn't actually go into either of them of my own free will, you know," she grumbled in a good-natured way. "Fucking muggers."
Breksta grinned at her. "Even so. Good advice, I think."
"Lucy!?" a voice shouted, sounding more than a little startled. Both of them looked towards it, seeing Lucy's father standing on the front porch gaping at the huge glowing dragon standing on his lawn next to his daughter.
"Oops," she muttered. "This is going to take some explaining."
"Good luck," Breksta snickered, spreading her wings. "See you around."
"Bye," she said as she stepped back, watching the creature leap into the air and rapidly climb. A number of neighbors were now standing around pointing and taking photos, looking very surprised. She peered around, before sighing a little.
She was never going to hear the end of this little adventure. Bringing an iguana home had already made people think she was weird.
A dragon?
That would definitely be the talk of the area for a while.
With one last look up at the vanishing form of her newest friend, she shook her head in wonder, then went to explain to her parents what the hell was going on, taking the helmet off as she walked. It was only then that she realized she was still wearing it.
Feeling in the impossibly huge pockets of her new coat, she grinned to herself. She was going to have a lot to talk to Mandy about later.
Over five thousand feet up and still climbing, Taylor smiled to herself.
It was fun being her.
And she'd helped a friend, which was nice.