From the door of her kennel building, Rachel watched as Amy Dallon's bright blue truck pulled up outside the office the crazy lizards used, Saurial jumping out and unlocking the door. She disappeared inside, the main roller door rising with a rattle moments later. When it was open enough, the truck drove in and vanished, the door coming back down again.
She turned around and went back into her own building, checking on the dogs she walked past in their own enclosures as she went. The ones she was still training were wandering around in the kennels, some of them asleep, some eating, and others just bouncing around wanting to come out. Murmuring words to them the girl inspected each animal carefully, watching them for a few seconds before moving on to the next. All of them were currently in excellent condition, quite different from how many had been when she got here.
At her feet, Angelina trotted along, looking around alertly, and up at her every now and then to see what she was doing. The little dog was very bright and had quickly made the new arrivals aware of who was second in command here, after Rachel herself.
Reaching the rear of the building the young woman sat on a chair, beckoning to one of the other animals, a large alsatian she'd named Meg. The animal was one of the ones that the lizards next door had healed, something she was very grateful for. Dashing over from where she'd been sniffing one of the caged dogs, Meg stopped in front of her and sat, cocking her head with her ears up.
Rachel nodded in satisfaction. Her pack was coming along very well indeed. All healthy, most of them very obedient, the bulk of them taking to the training without problems. There were a couple that needed more work, and several that were so badly affected by their time in Hookwolf's dog fighting rings that they'd possibly never be particularly sociable, but on the whole things were great.
She considered her current situation one that was almost heaven-sent. The relationships were complex in this place, but broke down in ways she understood and liked. Her pack was respected and trusted, which was good. The people in the DWU generally liked dogs, often very much, and treated the ones they already had well. She approved of that, it meant she didn't have to take action. Already she'd helped train the security dogs a little better which had made everyone happy.
No one seemed to care about her past, only what she was like in the present. As long as she pulled her weight and didn't cause trouble they merely accepted her, unlike so many places before. She was on good terms with quite a few people and found almost for the first time in her life that she trusted others. And more impressively that they trusted her.
Her human pack also fitted in well. Lisa, the talky one, seemed to have found her niche and dived right in, now obviously having more fun than seemed reasonable. Brian, the strong one, also appeared to like being here. He was respected, had people he could in turn respect, and as much hard work as he cared to do, which was something she thought he'd been looking for. Even Alec, the annoying one, was obviously contented with the current situation.
While the opportunities for a good fight were fewer at the moment, likewise there was much less requirement for it. All her needs were met, her dogs were left alone in her care, they even got fixed if something was wrong. She couldn't ask for more.
The larger pack, the DWU, had a strong leader in Mr Hebert, someone she instinctively knew beyond doubt was a man who would do anything needed to protect everyone. He didn't look like much, Brian for example was much more strongly built and younger, but there was something about him that made her think that he could take care of himself. Brian had also picked up on it immediately, she'd seen, and looked up to the man. That was something she could understand.
Then you had the crazy lizards. The first time she'd seen Raptaur, when the huge creature was giving Hookwolf the kicking of a lifetime, she'd found herself utterly terrified. The sensation of being in the presence of the biggest predator ever was so strong she'd had a hard time not just collapsing and giving up on the spot. She was tough, she knew she was tough, and she'd go toe to toe with practically anyone, but she also knew her limits.
When Raptaur had apparently chased them she'd nearly crapped herself. It was only Brian taking charge and ordering a retreat that had kept her going. By the time the lizard caught up she was ready to drop, and afterward had nightmares for over a week.
The second time, when they'd been running from Lung and Oni Lee, she'd been so exhausted that she barely had the energy to be frightened and had just ended up going along with it. The fact that Raptaur had been there to save them rather than eat them had taken a while to sink in, but in the end had turned out to be true. Rachel didn't doubt that without the reptile having intervened they'd all either be in the hands of the PRT or dead. As a result, she was very grateful for the save.
Their actions since had only deepened that gratitude. She'd quickly overcome her deep-rooted fears and come to the conclusion that she'd joined a much more powerful pack than she could ever have imagined. There was no doubt that she was entirely outclassed by any of them, but that didn't bother her the way it might have done to some people. Just knowing her place in the hierarchy made life much better. The fact that the lizards seemed to understand this was interesting and good.
It was fascinating, actually. Saurial was clearly the alpha of her own group, but listened to and would follow Mr Hebert, who was just as clearly the alpha of the DWU. Even though there were others, like Zephron, who were physically much more powerful, they all looked up to him and did what he wanted. They were fine with Rachel leading her personal pack, and she still considered herself part of the group that Brian was the leader of, but Brian had put himself under the control of Mr Hebert also. Lisa was part of her pack too, but at the same time, part of Saurial's and Mr Heberts. Amy Dallon was part of New Wave, but also part of Saurial's group. It was a little confusing at times.
Sometimes she wondered how everyone kept track of everything.
In the end, though, it didn't matter all that much. Her dogs were safe and appreciated, which was the main thing. Everything else was a bonus.
Stroking Meg's head between the ears, Rachel mulled over her thoughts. Yes, she definitely had it made, and if necessary she'd fight to protect her new home and her new people. Life was pretty good these days and she wanted to keep it that way.
Knocking on the door to the BBFO office, then opening it, Danny walked in with Mark behind him. The blond man closed it behind them. Taylor, currently Saurial as she normally was when on site, smiled at them and waved them over to the table. Amy stuck her head out of the workroom doorway and grinned before disappearing back inside as they walked past her truck.
"Hi guys," Taylor said as they sat. "How are you today?"
"Fine, thank you, Saurial," Mark replied. Danny smiled a little at his reptilian daughter, finding as always the chirpy lizard-girl persona amusing. She seemed to have so much fun being Saurial…
"Coffee?"
"Yes, please," Danny said, Mark nodding beside him. She headed for the machine, quickly making some for each of them, then brought it over and handed them each a mug.
"I wanted to talk a little more about training," Mark said, after trying his coffee then putting the mug down to cool slightly. "You indicated you were happy to do some hand to hand work last time we talked."
"Sure, that's not a problem," Taylor said thoughtfully. "I haven't trained a group before, only one on one, but I don't think it would be too difficult. Obviously there are aspects of the Family style that a normal human can't do, but a lot of it is transferable. I've already tried with both Amy and Über, who haven't had too much trouble learning. Über picks it up amazingly fast, actually, but then he would. He also knows a lot of tricks that he's learned from other places."
Mark looked interested. "Think he'd be up for training people as well?"
"Quite possibly," she smiled. "I'll ask him. He's a nice guy."
The security chief grinned. "That's not exactly what a lot of people would say, considering his past and his friend."
She shrugged, looking amused. "People change. I think he's always been a nice guy, just a bit criminally minded. Not because he really wants to break laws, though, more because both he and Leet had poor impulse control and some pretty wild ideas of what fun is." Taylor glanced at Danny with a sly look in her glowing eyes. "People change as they grow up. Some faster than others."
"True," Mark mused. "Very true. OK, if you could find out if he'd be interested in training some of our people, that would help. We'll pay, obviously."
"All right, I'll check with him the next time I see him," she replied.
"We've got about half a dozen experts in different close quarters combat techniques lined up for training, and I have several more to talk to," the man continued, drinking some more coffee. "That gives us karate, boxing, stick fighting, tai chi, two different kung fu variants, krav maga, systema, and Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Plus Family style, and whatever Über could bring to the table. Should be enough to cover most requirements."
"Systema?" Taylor asked curiously. "Isn't that the Russian special forces one?"
"Yes, it's something the Spetsnaz used. Pretty effective. The American military have some specific martial arts as well, we have a couple of people who are very competent with them."
"Like you, you mean," Danny put in, listening with interest. Mark smirked at him.
"I may hold an instructor rating in LINE, that's true," he chuckled. "We'll be adding that to the mix."
"I'm more surprised that there's someone here who knows a Spetsnaz martial art," Amy commented as she joined them, having come out of the workroom and closed the door, then sitting down to listen.
"Two people, actually," Mark replied, "Ilia in the motor pool, and Grigory in the engineering department."
"Why do they know Russian special forces combat techniques?" she asked curiously.
"They were taught them when they were in the Russian special forces, of course," he said with a small grin.
She looked at him, then nodded slowly. "OK, that makes sense," she sighed. "As much as anything around here ever does."
"Some of our people have interesting backstories," Danny suggested.
"As far as I can tell, all of your people have interesting backstories," the girl snickered. "I'm constantly surprised by the talents available, although by now I shouldn't be."
"It's definitely a thing," Mark replied. "I suspect you could probably find someone with at least a decent working knowledge of almost anything you care to name here. Obviously it's tilted towards engineering and shipyard work, but there are a lot of people with skills in combat, field medicine, communications, you name it. Close to a third of the current roster is ex-military and half the rest have been in positions where they've picked up equivalent skills for various reasons."
"It's pretty impressive," Amy said with an interested look. "You could probably say your gang is one of the most powerful on the east coast, Danny."
"Not a gang, and not mine," he sighed heavily, as Taylor grinned and Mark looked like he was trying not to burst out laughing. "No matter what she says." He waved at his daughter, who winked at him. "Or Zephron. Don't listen to him, he's a menace."
"Of course I won't listen, Boss." The Dallon girl smirked at him. He rolled his eyes and put his face in his hands.
"Oh god, why me?" he moaned faintly. "All I wanted to do is get a ferry working and keep people in employment and now look at it."
Mark gripped his shoulder consolingly. "I feel for you, my friend, I really do."
"I'm sure you do," he muttered, looking sideways at the man, who was still obviously trying to keep his laughter bottled up. "But you don't look it. Stop grinning like that."
"Sorry," the blond man said, not looking at all sorry. He turned to regard Amy, who wasn't hiding her own sly grin. "I'm surprised you haven't officially joined the DWU yet, Amy, considering you spend most of your time here when you're not in school."
Amy shrugged, looking slightly surprised. "I can't say that it really crossed my mind, to be honest." She looked at Taylor, who looked back. "I've already sort of become an honorary Family member, that was enough to make Mom look oddly at me."
"And the Family are all DWU members as well," Mark pointed out. "So you're the odd one out."
"That's a good point, Amy," Taylor smiled. "You should make it official, everyone thinks of you as a DWU member already anyway, why not get the perks as well?"
"Not like I need the dental plan, is it?" Amy asked wryly. "With Metis and Ianthe around, I mean."
"But think of the ID card? You get a terrible photo you can show people, and..." Taylor scratched her muzzle, thinking. "…other things too," she finished, a little lamely.
Danny sighed again. "If you want to officially get DWU membership, Amy, you're more than welcome, but don't let these two idiots push you into it. And don't forget your mother might look a little upset at the idea, she's already worried about your friends."
"Mom worries about everything," Amy said with a dismissive wave. "But secretly I think she's coming around to liking the Family and she's quite respectful about the DWU. Even before all this happened and I met Saurial and the others, she'd said for some time that she thought you guys were some of the saner people around this damn city. Or something like that." She looked thoughtful while the others smiled. "Not that it's much of a compliment considering the place, though."
"See Lisa about it if you want to do it, then," he said, giving up. He wondered how many different groups one person could officially be part of before it started being a problem, then decided it wasn't something he needed to waste time on at the moment.
"Oh, while you're here," the girl said, "Ianthe came up with something that you both might be interested in. You especially, Mark."
Danny inspected her, then looked at his daughter, whose scaly face was expressing mild interest and nothing else. There was a look in her eyes, though, that made him think she was suppressing a smile. "Ianthe came up with something?" he echoed.
"She did. It's pretty cool." Amy grinned.
"And she's not here to tell us herself?"
The brunette shrugged. "You know those guys, probably off swimming in the bay hassling fish or running around catching muggers or something."
"Hmm." She was definitely finding this funny. Mark was listening with a look of amusement, making him wonder how much of the real truth the other man had worked out so far. "Well, if you think you can show us, by all means do so, Amy," he said with another look at Taylor.
"It really is very cool," 'Saurial' said with a smile. "You'll like it."
"Oh, god, that means it's something particularly weird, doesn't it?" he sighed.
With a smirk the Dallon girl hopped up and went into her workroom, returning a little later with a…
"What the hell is that?" he asked after staring at the thing in her hands for close to a minute. Mark was doing the same, his eyes wide.
"Family biotech, really advanced stuff," Amy said in satisfaction, holding the thing up for them to inspect.
"It's alive?" Mark said with a look of mixed mild horror and curiosity.
"Sort of. Depending on your definition." She looked at it herself. "More or less."
"And what does this… thing… do?"
"It's a personal self-defense device," she said. "Watch." Glancing at Taylor, she added, "Targets?"
"Sure, hold on." Taylor got up and went across the room, quickly making a number of targets on stands near the rear wall, then came back and sat again. "There you go."
Pushing up the sleeve of her shirt, Amy held the thing to her arm, the tendrils coming off the flat side suddenly moving to clamp it firmly in position in a blur of motion. Mark and Danny both jumped a little. "Look, it fits like this," she explained, holding her arm up and showing how the semi-living creature adhered so firmly to her skin you could barely see a join.
"Then, you just do this..." She turned and leveled the thing at the first target. As she did so, Danny suddenly worked out what the creature was, barely twitching when there was a familiar 'pop' and a hole appeared in the block of foam, centered on the bulls-eye. Mark gaped, then stared at her for several seconds.
"Holy shit, it's the same thing that Ianthe and Metis have in their arms, only as an external weapon, isn't it?"
"Pretty much, yes," Amy said with a pleased smile. "It interfaces to the human neural system and is controlled that way. You need a special treatment to authorize use of it, without that it won't do anything at all. But when you can use it, you can do all sorts of things."
She turned back to the target, quickly riddling them with appallingly accurate shots in a flurry of popping sounds, culminating in a loud bang that entirely removed one of the targets from existence in a shower of small pieces. "Several different drugs, paralytic, sedative, emetic, pain inducer, and the explosive darts for serious problems," she explained, turning around and holding her arm out, the business end of the bioweapon carefully pointed at the ceiling. "Variable muzzle velocity from about a hundred feet per second to about a thousand. Built-in target auto-tracking, semi-autonomous auto-fire, a few other things that are a little complicated to explain."
"Fuck me," Mark whispered, sounding completely awe-struck. "And she just made that for you?"
"Yep. This one is a prototype, there are some modifications that are going to be made before the next one is made, and there's some support equipment that's needed too to make it a viable system that doesn't need Family support, but she was thinking that it could be a useful tool for the DWU." Amy sat down, crossing her arms on the table and gently running the fingers of her left hand over the back of the weapon on her right arm. "I know you have those modified paintball guns, and the other stuff, but she said she thought it was best to have options. Just in case."
"I'd have to agree it's always a good idea to have backups in place, but this is… god, that's terrifying," the blond man said quietly, his eyes fixed on the thing on her arm. "What sort of 'treatment' are we talking about?"
Amy looked at Taylor, who gazed back at her. Danny was sure that a silent message went between the two girls. After a moment, Taylor turned to Mark. "We have quite a lot of Family biotech available, of course. Not all of it is anything that we want to talk about for various reasons. The PRT could get funny about some of it for a start. Amy has been looking at some of the stuff we're thinking of making available to check it's safe for humans, but Ianthe is sure it is. She's worried about how fragile humans are and came up with something to help."
Amy went back into the workroom, coming out a moment later with a couple of transparent containers that each were half full of suspension goo, a symbiote floating in each. Danny looked at them when she put them on the table, as did Mark. He could see that one of them looked just like the one that she'd given him, while the other was a pale blue color but otherwise similar. He wondered what the difference was.
"We haven't talked about these much outside the Family and certain trusted friends so far, while she worked the bugs out and tweaked them until she was happy, but they're ready now," Taylor went on. "I've been trying to work out the best way to go about using them, because it's a little sensitive. I'd be interested in your thoughts on the matter. Amy, you understand them better than anyone other than Ianthe, tell them about the symbiotes."
With a nod, Amy proceeded to explain what the healing symbiotes did to Mark, leaving out anything about the aging affects. She was, Danny noted, very careful to make it sound entirely like a Family project that she was only consulting on after the fact, something he thought was sensible even though he was at least half-certain that Mark was aware of the truth to some degree or other. When she finished, the security man picked up the jar with the Mark Seventeen in it and swilled it around, staring at it.
"Jesus Christ," he said in a low voice. "I thought I was getting to understand what you girls are capable of then you pull out something like this." He gave Taylor a look of respectful and impressed pleasure. "I can understand why you didn't want to go around shouting about it, though. The PRT is going to be very suspicious about these things until they can test the hell out of them."
He put the container down and continued to look at it. "It really works?"
"Yes. Amazingly well. It'll heal practically anything. Ianthe is fairly sure she can improve it too, but this is the first version she's happy is safe for anyone to use without special monitoring." Amy looked at it as well, smiling faintly. "I've checked it out very thoroughly, all the initial tests have backed that up completely. They're completely safe and extremely effective."
"They've already been tested in people?" Mark asked, looking up at her sharply.
"Volunteers, yes. People we trust implicitly," Taylor replied quietly. "They work, there are no side effects, and right now all we're unsure about is how to proceed next."
Mark glanced at her, then looked back to Amy, who nodded. Then he looked carefully at Danny. "Let me guess," he finally said. "Amy has one, and so do you."
"Guilty as charged," Danny admitted. "It was a gift. They really do work, exactly as she said."
"And you trusted their work?"
"Without question." He spoke firmly but without force. "I trust the Family completely, and Amy as well. With my life."
His security man was quiet for some time, picking up the container and looking at the contents again, then putting it down. He seemed stunned and thoughtful, but not worried.
Taylor made a small knife and handed it to her friend, who took it from her. "Mark?" Amy said. The man looked up. "Watch."
She pressed the insanely sharp blade to her left palm and drew it across quickly, barely wincing at the pain, then gave the knife back to Taylor. Mark was in the process of exclaiming something, shocked, when the brunette girl took the cloth Taylor handed her and wiped the blood from her palm to show the gash was already almost closed. They all watched as it healed without trace in seconds.
There was complete silence for a little while. Mark finally lifted his eyes from her hand to meet hers. "I can't believe it," he said faintly. "If I hadn't seen it… Jesus. That's unbelievable."
"It's basically a regenerator power that can be handed out like a band aid," Amy said in satisfaction. "It doesn't make you unkillable, of course, but it certainly improves your chances a hell of a lot. As long as you don't take a shotgun to the face, you stand a good chance of getting away with it. Little injuries like cuts and so on are basically irrelevant, as is disease, infection, that sort of thing."
"You realize this changes everything?" he said, looking shell-shocked. She nodded, as did Taylor.
"I do. They do. Which is why they're being really careful. We didn't want to let the secret out too soon, and we still don't want to let people outside a fairly small group know about it until we can figure out the best way to handle things. But Saurial and I both thought you should know. I'm really torn, actually." The girl sighed. "It's an ethics thing, you understand. We have a cure for almost anything sitting right there on the table. From the point of view of a healer, I want to give one to everyone and save lives. From the point of view of a Parahuman, I'm worried about the reaction, especially considering how Biotinkers are regarded these days. It's Family biotech, nothing to do with bastards like Nilbog, but..." She shrugged as Mark nodded slowly.
"I can see your point. Shit. This is going to take some careful thought, I think. I'd advise not letting the public know right now, you're certainly correct there. The PRT would get very suspicious and very upset so fast you wouldn't believe it." He leaned back, thinking. "They'd definitely want to test them to hell and gone. Then they'd probably want to restrict the supply to people they approve of."
"That's not happening," Taylor said. "We're happy to let them test them, but they don't get a say in what we do with our own technology. We're not going to let PRT politics dictate who we can help."
"If it was anyone else, I'd say you had a fight on your hands," Mark replied, "But considering how the Family is seen… if anyone can get away with telling them to fuck off it's you guys." He grinned as she looked amused.
"We don't want to fight, you know that, but we feel pretty strongly about some things." She poked one of the containers with a claw. "We want to make things better. These could do that."
"True." He glanced at Danny, who was listening quietly, curious to find out what the other man thought. "Complicated problem. I'm going to have to think about the implications before I can really advise you other than 'be cautious', I'm afraid."
"I'd certainly be interested in your thoughts when you have a chance to think it over, Mark," Taylor said. "But in the meantime, if you're interested..." She picked up the container with the standard symbiote in it and offered it to him. He looked startled and a little worried for a moment.
Eventually he reached out and took it from her, inspecting it again. "It really is safe," Amy said reassuringly.
"What's the difference between this one and that one other than color?" he asked suddenly, indicating the second symbiote.
"That other one is purely a security authorization and enabling key for the weapon," Taylor explained. "It doesn't have any other abilities, it only lets you use the biogun. Ianthe came up with it for cases where we might want to distribute weapon systems without giving away our full capabilities. Another just in case scenario. She's also working on a one-shot version of the symbiote which would heal someone then break down in the body rather than staying resident like these do. We thought that might be more acceptable to the public and the PRT and also a very useful thing to carry around in a field medic pack."
"Christ, you're not kidding there," he said, sounding somewhat shocked again. "She can do that?"
"Yes, so she says, but we haven't had time yet," Taylor replied. "I have no reason to doubt it at all."
"Well, if she can, I'd suggest opening with that and approaching the PRT with it." He weighed the container he was still holding in his hand in an absent sort of manner. "This thing is probably a little past their comfort threshold right now, by which I mean it will terrify them. A single shot version would still make them very suspicious until they'd tested it six ways from Sunday, but considering the dangers of the job, they'd probably go for it as soon as they thought it was safe. It would save a lot of lives."
"Which is what we thought, yes," Danny's daughter noted.
"I could also make inquiries with some old contacts in the military," he went on thoughtfully. "When I was in service we'd have sold our souls for something like that. Even now, or possibly especially now, there's a good chance that the government would be very interested in an instant fix medical device if it could be supplied in quantity. And it would soften them up for something more advanced like this." He looked at the symbiote in his hand.
"We'll be talking to the PRT soon about our latest hire," Danny commented. "That might be a good point to open talks if you have it ready by then."
"Good idea," Taylor remarked. "I'll poke Ianthe to finish some prototypes."
"You realize that they'll probably call Amy in to test them, among other people," Mark said with a grin. The brunette smirked at him.
"That crossed my mind," she admitted with a humorous look.
"Life really has gotten very weird recently," Mark said with a shake of his head. Hefting the container, he shrugged. "Fuck it, live dangerously," he added, removing the lid. "If you can't trust alien lizard biotech, what can you trust?"
"That's the spirit," Taylor snickered. "Don't worry, the agony doesn't last more than an hour or so."
"Oh, thanks," he muttered, peering into the container. "How do I use this?"
"Take it out, wipe it off, and put the concave side on some exposed skin, then press and hold," Amy told him, handing him a cloth that Taylor passed her. He took it from her and followed the instructions. The familiar faint squeak sounded, heralding the activation of the symbiote.
"It went numb," he reported.
"Good, that's activating properly," the healer said as she got up and put a finger on his neck. "Yep, all working fine."
"That's it?"
"Pretty much." She pointed at where he'd stuck the biodevice on his arm. It was already barely visible. "It's fully integrated now. Inside ten minutes you won't be able to tell you have one."
"And it can be removed if necessary?" he asked.
"Bit late to ask that, but yes," Taylor chuckled. "Ianthe can take it out if you need her to. I doubt you'll want that, though."
She slid a knife over the table to him. He looked at it, then her, before picking it up and carefully cutting the end of his left little finger. Moments later, after a small amount of bleeding, there was no trace of the incision. "Holy hell that's incredible," he breathed, repeating the process, then handing the knife back. "Just amazing."
"Don't take it as an invitation to get shot," Danny said, smiling a little.
"I don't intend to," his colleague said. "I've been shot before. I can't say I care for it, it hurts. But… I have to say, this is probably the most impressive thing I've seen out of you girls so far."
"I'm pretty pleased," Taylor smiled. "So is everyone else."
"Not surprised." He looked at both of them, then Danny. "Well, that didn't end the way I thought this conversation would."
The other three smiled. "It did drift slightly oddly," Danny agreed. "But I think we managed to cover the important things."
Mark pointed at the weapon on Amy's arm. "That thing… I'm very, very interested in it."
"I thought you would be," Taylor replied, pleased. "Amy needs to go shortly, and I have other things to do too, but when Ianthe has made the next version, I'll let you know. You can try it out, then we can work out how to integrate them into the DWU defenses. I'm half-tempted to say everyone should get issued one and a symbiote but right now that might be a little much. Even so, as something else for the security teams in addition to the other equipment it would hopefully help if trouble kicks off. Skidmark is still out there somewhere, after all."
"Annoyingly true," Mark muttered. "Not to mention the other gangs. I doubt we'll be lucky enough never to have trouble from them again. And of course, even if we are, as things improve around here and we get busier, there's always the chances of someone from outside the city coming in looking for trouble."
"If they want it, we can oblige," Taylor grinned, showing teeth. "Sooner or later they'll work out why it's a bad idea to fuck with the DWU."
"You won't hear any objections from me," the blond man smiled. "And having defensive methods that don't oblige the Family to stay around can only help in the long run. You guys have lives too."
"More or less, yes," she laughed. "Although they do seem to revolve around here right now. Which we like."
Danny glanced at his watch. "Considering that I have to get ready to go to the Mayor's house for dinner in an hour, I'd better leave. Amy, you shouldn't wait too long either."
"Good point, I need to get home and change," Amy replied. "Vicky is pretty hyper about it, she browbeat Dean into buying her two new outfits for it, even though she only needs one and can pay for it herself anyway." The girl smiled a little. "She's got him wrapped around her finger like you wouldn't believe."
"Poor guy," Mark put in with a smile. "Have fun, Amy. Thanks, Saurial, I'll get back to you when I have a better idea of exactly how and when I want to set up the tutorial sessions."
"No problem." Danny's daughter got up, as the others did too, and walked with them to the door. "I'll see you guys later."
When she'd unlocked the door and opened it, Mark stepped out. "Thanks for the new toy," he remarked, looking at his arm in wonder.
"You're welcome, Mark," she replied with a smile. He walked off, Danny waiting until he was fifty yards away before turning to the two girls.
"Good work, both of you," he said very quietly. "Don't forget to take that thing off before your mother sees it." He motioned to the weapon on Amy's arm. She grinned at him.
"That probably wouldn't be ideal at the moment," she admitted. Taylor chuckled quietly.
"No, she might get the wrong idea."
"Or the right one."
The two girls exchanged a look of amusement. "I'll see you at the Mayor's house, Danny," Amy added, heading for the workroom.
"OK, Amy," he replied. "Give my best to your parents."
"Will do." She vanished into the other room.
"I'll see you at home in about fifteen minutes, Dad," Taylor whispered as he turned away. He heard the door close behind him. Walking back to his office, he smiled to himself, pleased with the way things had gone.