Sophia hit play again, then watched the video carefully, her eyebrows so high they merged with her fringe. 'Where the fuck did that come from?' she thought as she pondered the implications of Taylor Hebert laying out a Merchant with ease and an elegant economy of motion. And a baton, of course, although to her practiced eye she suspected that the other girl probably didn't actually need it to do what she'd done. 'That's a hell of a lot of training in a couple of months.'
She put the tablet down next to her and stared out the window, thinking.
'That's too much training for a couple of months. No way she went from the pathetic gangly prey to that since she left Winslow. Those moves, that's the result of a lot of training. She was fucking quick, too, and she knew how to use that baton.'
As far as she could see, there was no way that Hebert could have learned that amount of self-defense in the time between Winslow and now. Not to mention the entire attitude change. The girl she'd watched smash a man twice her weight to the ground like it was easy acted nothing like the quivering prey she'd hunted with glee for so long. But it was clearly the same girl.
For a moment a vague idea that perhaps her time in the locker had caused a Trigger event crossed her mind, but it faded before even fully forming. Hebert's actions weren't the results of powers, but training and skill, she was sure of that. It was nothing Sophia herself couldn't have done, and she was well aware of how long it had taken to learn how to do it.
No, Hebert wasn't a Parahuman. She was pretty sure of that. But she was someone who had been trained fairly extensively by someone else who was a real expert. From what PHO said, that someone was most likely Saurial.
Sophia had no doubt that the lizard-like cape had insane hand to hand combat skills. She'd seen as much right from that first video Chris had brought back to base. Even then, she'd been incredibly impressed by the abilities shown off so well, the results of which were downright amazing.
Summed up, it suggested that the Heberts had been in contact with Saurial at least for quite a while. Taylor's father had probably asked the reptilian woman to train his daughter, which must have taken over a year, she thought. Which in turn meant the Family had been somewhere in the background for at least that amount of time, even though no one knew about them until much more recently.
It also meant, she mused with a scowl, that most, possibly all, of the time Sophia and her friends had been dealing with the fucking girl their opponent could have successfully fought back. Quite possibly to a point that even Sophia couldn't easily handle.
The big question was why hadn't she?
Why had Hebert simply taken everything they dished out, up to and including allowing herself to be locked into that festering mess? No one would have got Sophia into the fucking locker without a fight they'd remember the rest of their lives, yet she'd had little problem stuffing the taller girl into it. But on the evidence available, Hebert could probably have fought back at least as well as Sophia herself could.
No, she'd let herself get locked inside. That had to be the case.
Why?
Her eyes widening, she realized the truth. Piggot had been right. Goddam Taylor had played them all, from much further back than she'd initially thought. It wasn't just that last day with the hidden camera, it was months and months of preparation, allowing herself to be humiliated every day, all to end up in a position where she could get the proof needed to shut all three of them down completely and permanently.
It would have taken over a year's work, possibly as much as two years worth, to eventually get her revenge, and in a way that left her utterly clean and even rewarded with a transfer to Arcadia.
Christ. Sophia rested her head back on the chair, closing her eyes and looking back at the previous year and a half with new eyes. The sort of mind that could come up with that level of deviousness… It was almost awe-inspiring.
Was it Hebert herself? Her father? Or one of the Family advising them? Probably a combination.
Talk about a deep cover operation. The bitch probably started planning it sometime in the first month or so when it became apparent that Sophia and her friends weren't going to stop. Taking direct action, which she was now sure the other girl could have arranged even then, would have had repercussions that Taylor didn't want. So she'd played a long game, manipulating all three of them, and the entire school, into a place where she could bring the hammer down and get everyone in one shot. And even more impressively come out of it smelling of roses and with no one the wiser.
End result? Emma was going to be in the care of the shrinks for years, Sophia was trapped in the damn PRT building and sooner or later would get transferred somewhere she probably wasn't going to enjoy in the slightest, Madison was pretty much abandoned, and if the latest rumor was to be believed, Blackwell and several other staff members were on the way out. Probably without their pensions and with almost no job prospects.
And all because they'd decided that Hebert was a good target.
Sophia realized she either shouldn't have gone along with Emma, or found a different target instead. Now it was far too late.
'Fucking Heberts' she thought blackly. She'd heard more than once that the father was someone you didn't want pissed at you, not that she'd ever really cared about that. Now, way past the point it would have helped, she knew that the daughter was as bad, if not worse. A lot of rumors she'd discounted about the history of the family started to look unpleasantly possible.
Deciding that at this point all it really meant was that when she finally went after the girl, she both had to finish it quickly, and make sure to get the father as well, she fumed about how neatly she'd been trapped for a little longer, then headed back to the console room for her shift. Sooner or later she'd figure out how to get out of here, and then everyone would see who else could make long term plans for revenge.
Vicky made some more notes, none of which were relevant to the lesson she was supposed to be paying attention to. It was only English Lit, which she was fairly good at anyway, and the book under discussion was one she'd read several times, so she could easily answer any questions if called on. Right now she was more interested in her ongoing puzzling over the Taylor/Saurial issue than the common romantic archetypes displayed by a two hundred year old book.
The blonde girl was very bewildered by almost everything surrounding the entire situation. Taylor herself was bad enough, but some of the other things she'd found documented on the web cast her original wild thought that the entire DWU was actually made of disguised Family members into a less-unlikely light than she was entirely happy with. It sounded absurd on the face of it, and pretty silly even when you sat down and thought hard about it, yet she couldn't get over the sheer number of odd correlations between what she could see and deduce and what she could find in books and on the web.
The horrifying parallels between the works of that weird Lovecraft guy and the current Brockton Bay situation were bad enough. She'd made the mistake of, when she'd calmed down a little, looking up some of his contemporaries like Derleth, who had also written quite a few stories that were uncomfortably close to some of the things she'd heard about and seen speculated about on PHO. That had left her staring at the ceiling and trying to forget what she'd read all over again.
Not to mention all the weird conspiracy theories on the web about lizards running the world behind the scenes. A couple of weeks ago she'd have laughed about them, since the swivel-eyed loonies promulgating such theories were obviously nuts.
Now…?
She shivered slightly. No matter how much she tried to talk herself into believing it was all just a bizarre series of coincidences, the little voice at the back of her mind kept whispering 'what if it isn't?'
So she kept finding herself making cryptic notes, trying to sort out fact from fiction and fiction from insanity, something that was a damn sight harder than it should have been. Brockton Bay was bad enough on a normal day, but since the Family turned up, it had become downright surreal. Things that one could normally simply put down as rumor tended to have a worrying tendency to turn up out of the blue and catch criminals.
Shaking her head, she sighed slightly, scratched out the dozen or so lines of near-gibberish she'd written, then turned the page, deciding to pay more attention to Victorian literature rather than the inside of her head for a while.
Perhaps if she ignored it the problem would go away. If nothing else, she needed to step back from the paranoia, keep her eyes open for any new evidence one way or the other, and think on it. They were friends, but the thoughts she kept having were worrying her, so she needed a break from them.
And there was the Mayor's dinner to look forward to as well, which was going to be interesting and fun.
At least there wouldn't be any lizards there.
"The published plans for the original shelter may well not be accurate now, since we can assume that Calvert has probably made changes for his own purposes, but the basic structure should be fairly similar," Colin said as he unrolled a large piece of paper on the table in his lab, several other people putting things on the corners to hold it down. Even though a lot of people who knew him would be surprised about it, probably thinking he had a device for every possible option, he liked sketching things out on paper like this. It was surprisingly quick and efficient for certain tasks. Picking up a pen, he leaned over the table and circled one particular point.
"This is what would have been, in the original design, the generator room. Raptaur's information is that the shelter power supply is tapped into the public utilities here and here." He made notations on the relevant places. "I assume that during Calvert's undercover construction work, they surreptitiously diverted a number of power feeds from nearby underground conduits. We've checked and found that a number of buildings in the area have larger than expected power usage, but they were careful and spread it around so there wasn't a glaring discrepancy."
"Presumably much the same thing was done with the water and sewage connections?" Hannah asked while studying the drawings.
"Yes. Analysis of the outflow of this sewer main downstream from the shelter shows more biological waste byproducts than can be accounted for by the known connections to it, but it matches Raptaur's estimate of the personnel count in the bunker quite well."
Colin made some more notes on the paper. "Additionally there have been a number of water companies looking for leaks in this general area for some years, without much luck, since their monitoring equipment has shown water flows don't match known users. Again, the missing water is accounted for if you assume a medium scale industrial facility at this location, and also matches the excess outflow. All the signs point to the shelter being in use and staffed with approximately forty people on a full time basis. The total number could fluctuate about that level, of course."
"Which yet again matches our information from Raptaur. She seems to be very accurate, however she derived the data," Legend commented approvingly.
With a small nod, Colin agreed with the summation. "She is more than competent. We must assume that the original generators, water tanks, fuel tanks, air filtration, and other life support and power management equipment is most likely installed as well. Although the shelter construction was officially abandoned before any of it was brought in, it would be the most likely thing for a man as paranoid as Calvert to do, if only as a backup. I suspect that there is almost certainly monitoring equipment checking the water and air for toxins and other agents, so it's very unlikely that feeding sedatives into the shelter via water or air routes would work."
"You think they'd just switch to internal supplies at the first hint of trouble, then?" Emily asked knowingly.
"Of course. It's what I'd do, and I suspect you as well, Ma'am," he replied. She nodded absently, looking at the drawings from the other side of the table.
"Definitely. And it would give the game away on the spot too, so that's out."
"Indeed. We can't take the shelter by the normal stealth routes we'd use on a buried Tinker bunker. Aside from anything else, Calvert was heavily involved in constructing those protocols so I have no doubt he would have take precautions against them." Colin sighed faintly. "He knows almost all our procedures better than some of us do. It's highly irritating."
"Luckily we have a number of alternatives available," Legend smiled. "I have a feeling that he didn't plan for the Family."
"No one did," Hannah muttered under her breath, making him glance at her.
"No," the man agreed quietly. Looking back to the drawing, then over at the large scale map of downtown Brockton Bay lying next to it, he went on, "So we can't drug them and take our time carefully infiltrating the place, and we can't simply smash the front door in and take them by surprise without risking their explosives detonating."
"It would be unwise to do either," Colin nodded. "The amount of explosives and the type is unknown with certainty, but I did add some highly sensitive sensors to my bike when Raptaur passed on the initial information. On my patrols through the area since, I have detected various chemical explosive byproducts consistent with large quantities of C4 across this entire area here." He sketched out a several block zone on the map. "Taking into account temperature, humidity, and wind speed and direction at the time, it points to between four and eight tons of demolition explosives inside the shelter and under the foundations of this building."
Tapping a large financial services building that housed several insurance and stock management companies, he continued, "The estimated positioning of the charges would be consistent with a layout designed to collapse the shelter and drop the entire building into the crater on top of it, presumably to increase the destruction and make digging it out more difficult. I would assume that Calvert wouldn't want to do that if he was inside, so he probably has at least one escape route other than the main entrance. The original shelter design only had the main doors, as is the standard method, to make the place as hardened against Endbringer attack as possible."
The director leaned over the drawings. "You could make an exit tunnel here and connect through to this storm drain over here," she noted, picking up a pen and drawing a line on the paper. "It's fairly close and there's nothing between them."
"Yes, I agree," Colin said approvingly. "I also suspect that on the other side over here, a similar arrangement would have been made to this sewer. It's the main one servicing the entire downtown area and is nearly twenty feet in diameter, more than enough to allow a vehicle to get in and out. Dragon has send some disguised surveillance drones through it and the storm drain, and we've found some anomalous fittings that aren't on the documentation, but we were unsure what sensors might be installed so we were limited to passive scans. As a result we don't have positive proof of modifications yet."
"Let's assume that both are compromised to be safe," the woman said. "We'll need to put people at both ends of both tunnels in case an escape attempt is made." He nodded and made some notes on a pad.
"OK. If those charges go off, the result will be this entire damn building goes as well," Hannah said, glancing at him. He made an affirmative gesture. "Do we have any way to make sure the explosives are neutralized from outside?"
"Not at the moment, no," the Tinker scowled. "I could easily detonate them from outside, but preventing detonation is more difficult. Both Dragon and I are working on coming up with a usable technique, but so far we can't do it. The number of different methods to ensure the charges go off are almost impossible to defend against. It could be electrical, mechanical, chemical, anywhere from a computer controlled detonator to something as simple as a fuse and a lighter. I would certainly assume that there are multiple backup systems in place, and they are booby trapped as well. It's a major disarming exercise even without mercenaries actively fighting back. My hope is that the Family can suggest something we haven't thought of."
"Add that to the list of things to ask," Emily instructed. He did so.
"Assuming we can deal with the explosives, we should be able to blast our way in," the director mused. "I know how tough an Endbringer shelter is, but with the abilities we can bring to the table, it should be possible fairly quickly. If we can cover all the possible escape routes, we can get the bastard."
"We have no information on how well his mercenaries are armed, though," Legend cautioned. "We do know that they have Tinker tech weapons, laser rifles for example, and are highly trained and experienced as well as ruthless. Tattletale's information is helpful as are her deductions but we have to assume that there are weapons she didn't know about."
"And we don't know how hard they'll fight for him, either," Hannah added.
"That almost certainly depends on how well he pays them," Emily pointed out. "And since he's been holed up in there for over a month, it's not impossible that they're losing patience. We might be able to work with that. I doubt that most mercenaries would want to die for their employer if there was no chance of success. We need to convince them they don't have any way out."
"Psychological warfare could well be very effective," Colin replied, smiling slightly. "Although we can only try it after we begin the attack, or yet again we risk alerting Calvert. We don't have any idea what he'll do if he feels trapped with no exit."
"All right." Legend rubbed his forehead. "We're at risk of ending up arguing in circles, since everything is dependent on everything else at this point. I think we all agree on the difficulties of extracting Calvert from his hole, and I admit the explosives are a problem without a quick solution at this point. Let's put that to one side, assume we can't easily deal with them, and work out how we proceed if we have to leave them in place. Evacuation of the affected area and a suitable containment zone is essential if that ends up being the case. How do we do that without alerting Calvert and risking him doing something stupid?"
Everyone looked at each other. While they were thinking, the door opened and Dragon came in, her power armored head ducking slightly to clear the frame. She closed the portal behind herself and walked over to stand beside Colin, inspecting the table's contents for a moment, then picking up his notebook and scanning it. "I'm sorry I was late, I was coordinating the factory at home on a job that I couldn't delay," she said apologetically, putting the notebook back on the table.
"That's fine, Dragon," Director Piggot said, looking at her for a second then going back to staring at the blueprints. "We were just trying to work out how to clear out half the center of the city in a way that didn't spread panic or give the game away."
"That's easy enough, if you don't mind causing a deliberate incident," the Canadian woman said after a moment's thought, sounding mildly amused. Everyone stared at her.
"What sort of incident?" Emily asked suspiciously.
"A minor but very unpleasant chemical spill would seem to be the most effective," Dragon replied. "There are a number of non toxic but extremely unpopular chemicals that would make a large part of the district practically uninhabitable for some time due to an unbearable stench, as an example. Thioacetone is the one that immediately comes to mind."
Colin winced, making Emily, Hannah, and Legend look at him curiously. "I have no idea what the hell that is, but I take it from that look that you do?" the director asked him.
"Yes. It's an organosulphur compound with a fairly simple structure. The thing that stands out about it is that it has what may be possibly the worst smell of anything known to man. Oddly enough, the stench gets worse as the concentration in air drops. It's been known to cause over a square mile of affected area to become virtually uninhabitable for some time during attempts to make it, from remarkably small quantities. I would agree that it would definitely clear out the downtown area, and probably most of the rest of the city if we weren't careful."
"That sounds… not entirely ideal," Hannah commented, looking worried. "We're trying to avoid panic, not create it wholesale."
"Yes, I understand that," Dragon said patiently. "I'm not suggesting that we release it in quantities large enough to cause serious problems. What I am suggesting is that a very, very small amount in the right place could be used as an excuse to evacuate the commercial district of the city without making anyone suspect that we were actually hunting Coil. Look." She pointed at the map, indicating a number of buildings about a quarter of a mile further towards the bay on the same road the shelter was buried under.
"That's part of the Brockton Bay University chemistry and biology facilities, a lab complex that's part funded by Medhall for post-grad research. If we pick the time correctly, for example very early on Sunday morning when the area is mostly empty anyway, and let a very small controlled quantity of something suitably noxious escape, we could spread the story that an experiment at the lab went wrong. This entire area could then be cordoned off while the 'incident' was dealt with. We could ask the DWU to supply some crowd control people like they did for the tanker move, and tell everyone it was a low security but unpleasant problem that was well in hand."
Director Piggot and Legend were nodding slowly, almost perfectly synchronized, while Hannah was leaning on her hands over the map, tracing out streets with her eyes.
"We could use the DWU people to establish an outer cordon," Dragon continued, running an armored finger over the roads surrounding the buried bunker. "Set it up with the shelter not in the exact middle, but well off to one side, so Calvert doesn't instantly realize something's wrong. Inside that, well away from cameras and the public, we set up another cordon, very discreetly, of trusted people. With care he won't work it out until too late. That gets anyone not involved out of the way in case things go wrong."
"It's plausible, Emily," Legend said after a moment. "We won't be popular, closing so much of the city, but she's right, Sunday morning would be a good time to do it. Just as it's getting light so we can see what we're doing, but early enough that even the small number of businesses that are open wouldn't be doing anything. There aren't many things that would attract people to that general area on a Sunday, so it's the best chance we'll probably get."
The blonde studied the map, then nodded again. "I can see it. Good idea, Dragon, thank you."
"We'll probably have to inform the Mayor, though," the reptilian-themed Tinker remarked. "It's going to cause a significant although hopefully short-term effect to the city and the man strikes me as someone who will be annoyed about it if we spring it on him without telling him why. A lot of people will be complaining and most of them will complain to or through city hall."
Emily sighed heavily. "Damn it. Unfortunately, you're right. He's the sort of person who won't let that type of operation go, even if I tell him he's not cleared for the knowledge. And I have to work with him, so I can't afford to make him any more irritated with the PRT than he already is." She looked up at them. "Recently he's been quite clear about how many problems we've caused the city over the years, and having looked into it I can't deny he has a point. I would rather avoid causing any more friction, especially considering the people he considers friends."
"Bearing in mind how closely the Family and the DWU work with the city administration at the moment, you're probably right," Legend agreed. "You have the authority to tell him nothing, but politically it's probably best to keep him happy."
She snorted. "Happy may be stretching it, but I'd live with 'not furious' to be honest. The man is annoyingly serious about doing his job correctly and well." After a little thought, she shrugged. "We probably don't have a choice, we'll need to read him in on the operation. But we don't need to tell him everything, just enough to let him know how serious it is and that we don't have a choice."
"Invite him to the meeting with the Family, then," the Protectorate leader suggested. "He gets on with them from what I understand, which might help. We can plan the details with them first, then bring him in and let him know enough to keep him from becoming a problem."
With a slightly disgruntled nod, the director wrote a few words on her own pad, them put the pen down. "Fine. I don't like it, but everything we do these days seems to fly in the face of standard procedure."
"We need some new standards," Legend grinned. She fixed him with an unfriendly look but nodded slowly.
"So it would seem. Damn Family. They confuse the issue with everything." Shaking her head, she sighed faintly, then looked back to Colin and Dragon. "How are the new computers coming along?"
"On schedule, Director," Dragon replied. "I'm sorry I can't do it faster, but I don't have a lot of spare capacity suitable for this specific job and I'm using all of it on your equipment. I'm adding more production lines right now but it won't speed things up very much this time, I'm afraid."
"Can't be helped. Let's work out some contingency plans, try to figure out some way around those fucking explosives, then get everyone else in to go over everything and hash out the details. As soon as we're sure we have a solid list of requirements, questions, and solutions, we can contact the Family and bring them in on it. I want to have this ready to go by the time the new systems are in place, we'll probably only get one chance and I do not want that bastard getting away."
Colin nodded, glancing at Dragon, who did the same. Director Piggot's voice had dropped to a predatory growl on the last few words. He felt that she was looking forward to talking to Thomas Calvert, in a way that the man himself wasn't going to enjoy.
Looking up from his desk Danny called out, "Come in," watching the door open to reveal Lisa grinning at him with a slightly smugger than normal look. He smiled back, amused as ever at the way the girl seemed to enjoy life so much. Taylor and Amy were quite similar these days, which made a change he liked very much from before the Varga turned up.
Admittedly he hadn't known the Dallon girl before that point, but he'd heard things. She had a reputation as frighteningly dedicated but definitely depressed and quiet, aside from being surprisingly snarky with a level of sarcasm that could peel paint at fifty feet if you annoyed her. The snark and sarcasm were definitely still present, but the depression and quietness had disappeared entirely, leaving a young woman who seemed to be determined to extract as much amusement value from life as she could, while helping anyone who would hold still long enough. He liked that young woman very much.
Lisa seemed to have changed as well, although it was less obvious in her case. The slightly defensive need to be known as the smartest person in the room had changed to something he thought was a quiet confidence that she usually was the smartest person in the room, but was fine if that wasn't the case. Not quite so in your face as before. It suited her, she was supremely competent at doing practically any task she set her mind to, but no longer seemed to need to prove it to everyone. Surrounding herself with like-minded people had been good for her, as had getting out from under Coil's thumb and whatever incident in her past had left her distrustful of a lot of people.
He didn't know what that was, precisely, although he suspected some issues with her family. She never mentioned them and he'd never inquired, feeling it was a private matter. But it was probably irrelevant in any case, as she'd quite happily found a new family, one she was clearly very pleased indeed to have joined. 'Metis' was good for her, he thought. And she, in both her incarnations, was good for Taylor, Amy, and the others in their small but steadily growing group.
For a moment, he wondered what life would be like given a few years of this sort of thing, considering what less than three months had done, but decided he'd never work it out and could only wait and see. If nothing else it would be interesting…
"Hello, Lisa," he said out loud, dismissing his thoughts for now. "Is there something I can help you with?"
"I was hoping you had a little time to come and meet our newest hire, Danny," she said happily.
"Ah, you mean the young lady we hired last week is finally ready for visitors?" he asked, loudly enough for people in the outer office to overhear. He was pretty sure he wasn't fooling anyone but appearances needed to be maintained.
"Exactly," Lisa replied, visibly trying not to laugh. "She decided on a name, Vectura, if you hadn't heard, but is still thinking about a costume. A mask will have to do for now but I'm sure Saurial and the others can come up with something more interesting soon."
"I'd be pleased to officially welcome her to the organization," he said, putting his pen down and standing up. Following her out of the office, he closed the door, then looked around the larger admin office, meeting the eyes of a number of people who seemed almost universally amused and mostly looking at him with knowing gazes.
"Back to work, people," he called, smiling. "Nothing to see here, merely someone going to talk to someone else."
"Yes, Boss," several voices chorused.
"And don't call me..." He trailed off with a put-upon sigh while Lisa snickered next to him. "God, why do I even bother?" he grumbled in a good-natured manner, leaving the room with as much dignity as he could summon up.
"Take it as a sign of respect," Lisa advised as she walked beside him. "Boss."
"Watch it, girl, remember who you're talking to," he growled.
"The Boss. I know." She gave him a sideways look that almost made him laugh, it was very pleased with itself.
Shaking his head in mild resignation, he headed for Linda's new workshop. When they arrived, Lisa pulled the pedestrian door open and grandly waved him through with a bow, grinning at his sigh. "After you, sir," she said with a slight chuckle.
Going inside, he heard the door close, then the latch snick closed. Ignoring that, he looked around, nodding approvingly. "Wow. Very impressive change, considering it was a room full of rusty crap and grease two days ago," he commented, strolling over to inspect one of the hydraulic lifts. It had been carefully cleaned and there was a can of paint next to it with a brush lying across it, ready for use.
"Thanks, Danny," a voice said from the side, making him turn to see someone coming out of a side room. He studied the figure, who stopped about ten feet away, then turned on the spot. "Like it? I do."
"It's damn good," he said with an approving nod. The 'Vectura' form that Linda was wearing looked nothing like her normal form, or, crucially, even slightly like the former Squealer. He doubted that even her closest friends would have recognized her, before sighing a little internally and thinking that her closest friends were probably all inside the DWU. Poor girl.
That said, she looked pretty pleased with the whole situation now, nothing like the bedraggled and terrified young woman he'd met that first time. While he suspected that she still needed several very long talks with someone suitably qualified in psychological therapy techniques, the new state of affairs clearly suited her.
She flicked her tail, then moved her ears around on top of her head, grinning at him and showing off small fangs. "That really is remarkably effective," he added. "You look entirely different. Are you actually taller?"
"About two inches, yes," she replied. Lisa came over and leaned against one of the pillars of the lift, watching quietly. Looking down at herself, Linda smoothed her overalls down, then met his eyes again. She was wearing a clean, slightly modified pair of normal DWU issued overalls with a hole for her tail to exit, a couple of tools sticking out of one pocket. There was a basic black domino mask over her face, wide green cat's eyes meeting his gaze through the apertures in it. Under the mask the shape of her face was distinctly different from her normal one. Danny wondered anew at the sheer scale and ability of Amy, whose work was yet again truly remarkable.
"The tail was weird at first, but it's not wrong, just strange," the young woman laughed. "The more I'm like this the less strange it gets. I think in a couple of weeks I won't even notice. The better senses are amazing as well. It's incredible the things I can see, hear, and smell."
"I'm very pleased it's working out for you," he smiled. "You look really good, too. Any ideas on a costume yet?"
"A few, but nothing serious so far," she replied. "Saurial had a few suggestions, and Lisa has come up with some more. I've made a couple of sketches of some things I've thought up. There's no hurry, though, so I'd prefer to get it right than do it too quick. Doing things too fast fucked up a lot of them in the past, so I'm trying to learn a lesson."
"Fair enough," he nodded. "That's a sensible approach." Looking around the workshop, he went on, "I do like the results here. I'll have to ask the girls to refurbish some of the other buildings soon, I think. We have a lot of half-decrepit workshops around the place that could do with this treatment."
"I'll make some notes on it, Danny," Lisa put in, making him look over at her then nod appreciatively.
"Thanks."
Turning back to the Tinker, he asked, "Have you decided what you're going to make here first?"
She grinned widely. "Yes. Come and have a look at this, I think it'll be pretty useful around here." The woman lead the way to where there were some whiteboards built into the walls on the other side of the side room she'd been in when he entered. "What do you think?" she asked, as he looked at the very neat drawings done in different color markers.
There was a long pause.
"I think..." he began, studying them closely. "I think you're going to be very, very popular really fucking quickly," he finally finished, making her look pleased. "Can you really make these?"
"Oh, yes," she replied with confidence. "Still transportation." Tapping the side of her head with a clawed finger, she continued, "You wouldn't believe all the things I have up here. Never thought I'd get a chance to make any of them until recently. But with the DWU and the Family on my side… Let's say that there are some really fucking cool toys on the horizon."
"We'll need to have Saurial and the others make a lot of the parts, but Linda thinks she can describe them closely enough that shouldn't be too hard," Lisa said. "Might take a few tries, but I don't doubt it's possible. And some of Leet's designs are also usable. They were here last night, giving Linda ideas."
He looked at the Tinker woman, who appeared very, very happy. "So many ideas," she said in a low voice, her tail flicking around contentedly.
Shaking his head in mild wonder, he went back to looking at the drawings, watching as she picked up a green marker and made some changes.
Years, hell.
Things were going to get weird much faster than that.