Dinah looked around the table at the other people there as she ate her dinner. As she cut another piece of beef, she thought that her aunt made the best roast she'd ever tasted. It was one of the reasons she liked coming over to their house to eat. Her mother was a good cook, but Aunt Deb's beef was better, although she'd never say it.

She was fairly certain her parents knew this too, as they never turned down the opportunity to eat here either.

Watching and listening to the older people talk, she moved from face to face, both familiar and new. Uncle Roy was discussing something complicated about the work the DWU people were doing with Mr Hebert and her father, which interested her since it was obviously important to the city, but was also well outside her level of knowledge. After a while she turned her attention away from that conversation to the other end of the table, where her mother and aunt were talking to Amy Dallon, the healer Panacea, about some sort of gang problem a few months back where the girl had put quite a lot of people back together again.

Glory Girl, or Vicky out of costume as she'd quickly told everyone to call her, was listening as well, occasionally putting in a word but otherwise quiet. Dinah thought this didn't quite fit what she'd heard about the normally quite talkative heroine and guessed that she was being very careful to look grown up and sensible. It amused her a little.

She also thought that the blonde girl was the prettiest girl she'd ever seen, and that she looked very good in that dress.

Next to Dinah, her cousin Rory was chatting to Taylor Hebert, who was a very tall person for a girl, especially one that was only fifteen, she mused. She was at least an inch taller than uncle Roy, who while he wasn't the tallest man around, wasn't exactly short. Dinah knew she herself would never be likely to end up eye to eye with the brunette. That said, neither would most girls. She was also rather envious of the long dark hair Taylor had, which was in a very complicated-looking braid unlike anything she'd seen before, with shiny silver bands holding it in place every few inches.

Her mother had complimented the girl on her hairstyle, and her dress, which was a very pretty shade of blue. Taylor had told the older woman that the hair was in a style that an old friend of the family had recommended for semi-formal events, which had led to a short discussion of hair care which Vicky had joined in enthusiastically with.

Amy had listened with mild interest, but didn't seem all that concerned, and Dinah thought that Taylor herself wasn't wildly into the subject, but was being polite even so.

Still, it looked very nice.

Slowly eating, she kept looking around, jumping from conversation to conversation. Finally, when there was a break in Taylor's and Rory's talk, she asked a question that she'd been very curious about for some time now.

"Do you know Saurial, Taylor?" she asked.

The older girl looked at her, then Amy, who had glanced at her when Dinah spoke, an expression on her face that to Dinah seemed to suggest a sort of faint sly amusement. Taylor returned her attention to her and nodded, putting a forkful of peas in her mouth and chewing. Having swallowed, she replied, "Yes, Saurial is quite close to me, actually."

Dinah noticed that Vicky gave her a look which seemed just a little weird for a moment but said nothing. She briefly wondered why, then forgot about it as she asked the next, more important question.

"Is she nice?"

Taylor smiled broadly, making Dinah smile back. It was a very nice smile, she thought. "I think so, yes," she said. "As far as I know most people do."

"She's one of my best friends," Amy added, turning to Dinah as well. "Smart, funny, and very skilled in all sorts of things."

"Good," Dinah said firmly. "That matches what I've heard." Several of the others seemed to find this statement a little funny for some reason. "I really want to meet her at some point. I think she's awesome."

"She'd probably like to hear that," Amy grinned, glancing at Taylor again, who nodded.

"I'm sure we could arrange to have you meet her, Dinah," the other brunette said. "She's often around the DWU yard, as well as around the city." Looking curious, she asked, "What about the rest of the Family? Which one is your favorite?"

Dinah considered the question seriously for a while, eating some more beef, then a potato. Eventually she replied, "Raptaur is cool, she looks really dangerous and she did make Hookwolf go away and cry from what PHO said." This caused Vicky to giggle and Taylor and Amy to both look very amused. "Kaiju is just amazing, she's so big! And has a weird sense of humor, all those impressions she was doing were really funny."

Taylor nodded thoughtfully. "She did seem to be enjoying herself during the tanker move, I noticed."

"I did too," Dinah told her seriously, before smiling again. She went back to thinking about the Family members she knew about. "Metis is neat, the way she can just disappear into the dark like that. I saw what she did to the Merchants, they were terrified by her. That's good."

"And she doesn't scare you?" Amy asked.

Dinah shook her head firmly. "No. She's a good guy, she only goes after the bad people who deserve it, I think. I know she looks a little scary, like they all do, but it's in a good way."

"I see," the healer said, nodding. "I'll make sure to tell her the next time I see her."

Smiling, Dinah also nodded. "Then there's Ianthe. She's funny, that thing she did when those kids were sneaking up on you and she snuck up on them instead was hilarious. I was laughing for about five minutes when I saw that. And she can heal too, which is amazing."

"Metis can as well," Amy pointed out.

"True," Dinah mused. "Also amazing."

"It's certainly useful."

"But I guess my favorite is probably Saurial. I mean I really like all of them, but for some reason I like her a little more than the rest. Maybe because she was first. And she's so good with all those different weapons and things, that's pretty cool. I like her style as well."

"You mean you like her choice of hats, don't you?" Uncle Roy asked with a grin, having stopped talking to Mr Hebert to listen. She shrugged, then smiled back at him.

"She has good taste," she replied.

Taylor snickered while her father looked like he thought that was funny. "She'd like that."

"Do you see her often?" Dinah asked.

"We see each other all the time," Taylor responded, "Although Amy probably spends more time with her. Because I changed school recently I'm still catching up which takes up a lot of my time."

"Oh." Dinah thought about it. "That's a shame."

"It won't be forever," Taylor assured her. "I'm doing quite well so far."

"Good," the girl said. "If I knew someone like that I'd want to meet her more often too."

Taylor smiled, then sipped her drink. "What do your friends think of them?" she asked after she put the glass down.

"Most people are really pleased they're here," Dinah told her honestly. "Even some of the people who are scared of them are still happy that they keep stopping the gangs doing bad things. Most of my friends like them, we all have different favorites." She scowled a little. "Andrea was at the PRT with her mom a few days ago, they were there to report that a villain wearing nothing but a smile hit her mom with a fish." She looked a little confused, then shrugged, as the others exchanged glances. "This is a weird city. Anyway, Metis was there for some reason and Andrea got to meet her. I wish I'd been there."

"I… see," Taylor said after a moment, looking like she was trying not to laugh. "A fish?"

"That's what Andrea said."

"Odd."

"I thought it was strange."

"Huh."

Everyone pondered the oddities of life in Brockton Bay for a moment.

"Anyway, I'd really like to meet any of them," Dinah went on, "but particularly Saurial."

"It wouldn't be any problem to take Dinah to the DWU some time after school, would it, Danny?" Uncle Roy said, looking at Mr Hebert.

"Not at all," Taylor's father said with a look at his daughter. "We had some of Taylor's friends come by a while ago to meet some of the Family. That was when Kaiju was cutting the tanker up, which was an impressive sight. They even got to have a ride on Raptaur around the city, which most of them seemed to enjoy."

Dinah felt her eyes go round and huge, gazing at the man, then turning to her mother, who snorted with a muffled laugh. "Oh dear, Jim, she's doing that thing again."

"Wow, that's one of the best ones yet," her father laughed when she turned her expression on him. "You'd like to ride the huge scary cape, then?"

Dinah nodded. "Yes, please," she said quietly.

Taylor grinned at her. "I'm sure she wouldn't mind. If your parents or uncle want to take you to the DWU, we can ask them if they'd like to meet you. I can't see it being a problem, they're all very friendly." She turned to her father. "You can arrange it, can't you, Dad?"

"Of course. You're most likely to see them after around four PM at the moment, since they tend to be working or away before that, but that fits in nicely with school hours." He looked at her parents. "Assuming neither of you minds. It's a working facility and can be dangerous if you just wander around, but it's quite safe with a guide. You're both welcome to come as well if you'd like."

Her parents exchanged a glance, then her mother nodded. "I can't see a real problem with that. When would be a good time?"

"Any day, really. Weekends tend to be busy, so it's probably best on a week day at the moment, but either the rest of this week or next would be fine." Reaching into his pocket, Mr Hebert withdrew a wallet, then pulled a card out of it. He handed it to Dinah's mother. "That has my cell phone number on it, call me and let me know when you'd like to come. I'll check and make sure they're going to be around." He looked at Uncle Roy. "Or you can arrange it, Roy. I don't mind either way."

"I'd quite like to see how things are going at the moment so I might come anyway," her uncle said.

"You're always welcome there," Mr Hebert smiled.

Very pleased, Dinah smiled brilliantly. Things were working out well so far. It looked like her percentages were right again.

"So, Taylor, what's the story about the handbag?" Uncle Roy asked the girl, looking at Dinah's mother for a moment. Taylor also looked at her, then grinned.

"Just a matter of being in the right place at the right time," she said. "All I did was catch it when he tripped."

Dinah was soon laughing as Taylor and her own mom competed to see who could tell the story in the most over the top manner.

Listening to the talk around him, Roy felt very satisfied. The Heberts were enjoying themselves, as were his family, and the two Dallon sisters seemed to be also having a very good time. Victoria Dallon, from what he'd known, had historically tended to be rather more ebulliently extroverted than was always appropriate, but he'd also been told by several people that in the last month or so she seemed to have been making a deliberate effort to tone that down. From what he could see here, that was accurate.

She was definitely the more talkative and demonstrative of the two, laughing and joking with everyone whereas Amy tended to listen then make appropriate, well reasoned comments that often contained a significant amount of sometimes dark humor. He found he liked both approaches. Both girls were clearly intelligent, although he had formed the impression that Amy was probably ahead of her sister in that respect. Some of the things she'd said made it apparent there was a very keen mind in there.

The brunette sister was also noticeably different to the descriptions he'd had in the past. He'd noticed it before, at the DWU, but not thought too much about it at the time. People had told him that while she was an exceptionally good healer, she was also visibly depressed and had few real friends, if any. But based on what she said, and how she acted, now she was very happy with life and seemed to have quite a few people she counted as more than simply acquaintances.

His eyes moved to the third of the visiting teenagers. Taylor Hebert presented him with someone who was in many ways the spitting image of her sadly deceased mother, albeit considerably taller. The face was remarkably similar, the hair was identical if longer, and he suspected that she was rapidly growing out of the gangly over-tall teenager phase into the willowy slender adult that would make most men look twice, or more. She certainly pulled off an elegant appearance in that dress and hairstyle, again very reminiscent of Annette Hebert.

Roy had a shrewd suspicion that the changes he noticed in both Dallons was ultimately something that could be laid at the feet of the young woman in blue, who in turn seemed to have blossomed in her new environment. Hearing her talking to his son about her school experiences at Arcadia, it was very obvious that she was thriving there and loved it. He watched Danny when she talked about the subject and saw a quiet pride there that he well understood. The man had a reputation for thinking family matters above all else, and he could easily see that he was happy for his daughter, and also that he was very fond of the Dallon girls.

'That whole sorry affair seems to have worked out very well in certain quarters,' he mused as he took a drink of wine. 'Although not for Blackwell, and some of the school board, who are going to find themselves virtually unemployable after things settle out.' Making a mental note to follow up on the subject and see if there was any mileage in trying to set up some sort of investigative committee into ways to improve Winslow after some of the more problematic elements were out of the way, he put his glass down and picked up his fork again.

"Taylor, rumor has it that you're something of a mathematical prodigy," he said when there was a break in conversation. The girl looked at him, appearing mildly embarrassed. He smiled a little. "Word gets around if you listen in the right places. Apparently you're tutoring some of your friends on the subject?"

"Yes, sir," she replied, glancing at Amy and Vicky. "I'm quite good at it and wanted to help out. We've started a sort of regular group get together at my house with a few friends, although so far we've only had two sessions. It's a lot of fun and seems to help them."

"You're not kidding," Vicky put in enthusiastically. "Only a few hours of help and my test average is up by nearly half! She's amazingly good at math, Mr Mayor. And really good at teaching it."

"I'm not that exceptional," Taylor said modestly, "I just seem to have a knack for it."

"What's the cube root of one hundred and seventy six thousand, three hundred and five?" Vicky asked, looking hard at her friend.

"Fifty six point zero seven three," the other girl replied immediately, "but that doesn't prove anything. It's simple enough to work out."

"In your head, in under a second?!" Vicky laughed. "No, you have a gift, don't deny it."

Roy looked at her, somewhat astounded. That was definitely a damn sight quicker than anyone he knew, with very few exceptions, could work the problem. Most impressive.

"What's one million two hundred and sixty thousand, seven hundred times eighty three thousand one hundred and nine?" Rory asked curiously.

"One hundred and four billion, seven hundred and seventy five million, five hundred and sixteen thousand, three hundred," Taylor told him with a smile. He gaped a little, then pulled his phone out and checked.

"Shit. You're right," he muttered, shocked.

Dinah was grinning widely. "Do something harder," she urged her cousin. Taylor glanced at Amy, both of them looking amused.

"Um..." Rory poked around on the phone for a moment. "Fourth root of Pi to twelve places taken as a whole number?"

She paused for a short time, which Roy suspected was actually for effect, then replied, "Seven hundred and forty eight point six six four eight nine. Approximately."

Amy and Vicky grinned, Dinah clapped in glee, and Rory looked very impressed indeed after checking her answer. "You should see her solve third order differentials while making sandwiches, Mr Mayor," Vicky snickered. "It's terrifying."

"Call me Roy, Vicky, I've told you all that, and I can see where it would be a little worrying," he laughed. "I am extremely impressed, Taylor. That's a very unusual skill."

"Yeah, normally people who can do that shuffle around in slippers and fixate on models of pre-war German cars or something," Amy added, smirking at her friend, who looked at her then rolled her eyes. "Rain Girl." That made the Hebert girl grin, and Vicky laugh once more.

The healer looked at Roy. "She really is just that good."

Now Taylor was looking embarrassed again. "It's nothing special, it's just math."

"It's a talent I feel will stand you in good stead, Taylor," he told her sincerely. "If nothing else, teaching your friends how to improve their own abilities is a worthy goal."

"Thank you… Roy," she said.

"OK, here's a hard one," Rory put in, looking up from his phone. "I don't even know what half these symbols mean." He showed her the screen of his phone over the table. Taylor looked at it, then him, sighed very faintly but in an amused manner, then thought for a few seconds before giving him a long answer. It was, of course, correct, something that made him whistle in amazement. He and Dinah spent the next ten minutes coming up with more and more esoteric equations for the teenager to solve, until Cheryl finally stepped in.

"She's not a toy, you two," his sister said a little chidingly. Taylor seemed somewhat relieved although her father and her two friends were definitely finding the entire thing very funny. "Leave her alone, please."

"Thank you," Taylor said, wiping her brow theatrically. "I didn't know I was going to have to work for my dinner or I'd have worn different clothes." She grinned when Cheryl giggled.

"Seriously, I am more than impressed, Taylor," the older woman said, "but these two are definitely starting to impose." She cast a significant look at the two cousins, who subsided, Rory slipping his phone back into his pocket with a smile and a shrug. Dinah looked slightly disappointed but accepted it too, although Roy could tell she was completely fascinated by the older girl's ability. Considering her own talent, he wasn't surprised.

"Sorry, Taylor, I might have got a little carried away," Rory apologized. "It's not every day you meet someone who can do mental mathematics some calculators would have trouble with."

She turned back to him, smiling. "No problem. I don't mind that much, it's actually sort of fun, but your Aunt is probably right this isn't the best place for it." She finished off her meal, nearly putting the fork and knife on the edge of the plate. "Although it's good practice, some of those I really had to think about."

"I couldn't even understand most of the questions," Vicky said, shaking her head. "Math Girl, I'm telling you."

Amy and Taylor laughed while the others looked at the blonde quizzically. "We were working out her cape name for if she ever Triggered and that seemed appropriate," Vicky explained with a smile. "The Tallest seemed silly."

Rory started snickering wildly, leaning back in his chair. Roy looked at him for a moment. "Apparently so."

"Time for dessert, I think," Deb said brightly, giving her son a long-suffering look at this point, then standing up. Everyone was either finished or nearly so, Dinah quickly shoving the last potato on her plate into her mouth. "It's trifle and baked alaska, and I have an apple pie too if anyone wants some."

"Yes, please," several people said, Dinah and Vicky both quite loudly. The two girls exchanged a look and grinned at each other. Roy watched with approval, feeling that the entire dinner invitation had worked out very nicely so far.

Not to mention he was looking forward to baked alaska, which he really liked.

'Nice place, the Mayor's house,' Taylor commented to her head-friend as she looked around the large living room. The house wasn't extraordinarily huge, but it was pretty big, with a decent sized garden surrounding it, walls around that in turn separating it from the neighbors. The gravel driveway they'd come down stretched from the road around to the side of the house, and another path went around to the back and a big garage she could see through the window. The room faced south towards the bay, giving a nice view of the city and the water a few miles away. She could see the Rig glittering like a jewel in the middle of the bay.

'I think I can see our house from here,' she added with an internal smile, peering out the window. It was over on the other side of the bay, so technically that was probably true, but even Varga vision in human form would have trouble resolving something that small at this distance.

"It's certainly a fairly impressive place," the Varga agreed. "Someone has good taste in art and furnishings as well, I see." She turned away from the view towards the wall on which were a number of framed prints depicting scenes of New England life, including some very nice ones of mid-Eighteenth century sailing vessels. Taylor had the thought she vaguely recognized the artist, probably from a book of her mother's, although she couldn't instantly identify who had done it.

Hearing the others coming in from the dining room, she selected a chair and sat down. Dinah was showing Amy something on the other side of the room, the young girl having definitely shed her earlier reserve with a vengeance. Now she was very chatty and friendly, and full of apparently boundless energy. Taylor grinned for a moment, she thought the Mayor's niece was a very cute kid and smart as well. The look on her face when she'd been playing the math savant had been hilarious.

Roy and his wife entered the room, both carrying trays, which they put on the low antique table that stretched for several feet down the middle of the room, three sofas and five smaller chairs surrounding it. There were more chairs positioned around the edges of the room, along with a roll-top desk near one of the windows, and a number of fairly impressive potted plants in the corners. All in all it gave the impression of a room people spent a lot of time in and liked.

"Here we go, we've got coffee, tea, cheese and crackers, some fruit, and water as well," Roy said, picking up a carafe that was steaming gently. He looked around. "Who wants coffee?"

Jim, his brother-in-law, and her father both indicated they would, as did Amy. Taylor ended up with a cup of Oolong tea, which is also what Dinah picked, slightly to her surprise. Shortly they were all sitting down, each with a small plate of various cheeses and crackers, along with some sort of chutney that turned out to be delicious on the cheese.

"It's certainly been a very entertaining evening, Roy," her father said when he'd tried his coffee. "Thank you for the invitation."

"It was our pleasure to have you all over, Danny," the mayor replied, looking pleased. "It's been a long time since we had any form of social interaction. Not since before… well, Annette passed on." He sighed faintly, as Taylor glanced at her father, seeing he looked regretful but not upset. "I do miss that woman of yours, she was… interesting." He looked at Taylor while both she and her father smiled. "You really do remind me very strongly of her, Taylor. I suspect the similarity will get more apparent as you get older, of course."

"It's a lot more than skin deep, believe me," her father said knowingly. "But aside from the height, you're right."

"Got that from you, I guess," Jim put in. "I'm sorry I never met your wife, she sounds like she was fun to know."

Taylor's father laughed, spreading a little chutney on a slice of cheese. He nodded slowly. "You could put it that way, definitely. At university she had something of a reputation, you know." He ate the cracker, still smiling. "One that was well deserved. She liked practical jokes on occasion, but was subtle enough that people often didn't notice for quite a while that she'd done anything, and usually couldn't figure out who did it. Or how for that matter, there were a couple that I still have no idea at all how she pulled off."

Jim snickered. "Oh, I definitely would have liked to meet her in that case." He looked at Taylor. "Does that run in the family too?"

She put a completely innocent look on her face. "I couldn't possibly say, I'm sure. I am merely a hard-working high school student, I don't really have time for practical jokes."

Everyone looked around at Amy when they heard a muffled coughing sound, making the other girl wave a hand weakly as she drank some coffee. "Sorry, cracker went down wrong, nothing serious," she gasped when she finished the cup.

"I feel that Amy might have seen through that statement, Brain," the Varga chuckled inside Taylor's head. She kept the smirk bottled up. Meeting her friend's eyes she shared a look of glee.

"Hmm," Roy muttered, looking between the two girls. Dinah was doing the same, a small grin peeking out. "I see."

Taylor shrugged innocently and picked up a cracker of her own. "Perhaps when the summer vacation comes around I could think about having fun, but until then I need to concentrate on my work."

Her father was looking at her in a way that made her fairly sure he was trying not to end up howling with laughter. She was also certain that Amy was extremely close to doing the same judging by the small changes in expression.

"Changing the subject, I was impressed by your interaction with that Merchant idiot yesterday," Deb said. "Someone showed me the video when they recognized the name. How long did it take to learn to do that? From what I gather Saurial taught you."

Taylor nodded. "It's her training, yes," she agreed truthfully. "A while. I had to practice a lot but I think I've picked up some useful tricks. I got the baton from her as well."

"It was very smoothly done," Rory commented admiringly. "Really professional. I know he was a dick but he was at least twice your size. You didn't look too worried."

"After sparring with Family members, one half-stoned Merchant isn't all that scary. The only risk was the gun and he was waving it around so wildly it wasn't even pointing at me half the time," she told him with a roll of her eyes. "Amy could have taken him as well, even without her powers." She looked at Dinah. "Dinah probably could, just kick him in the balls and jump out of the way."

Most of the males present winced. She grinned. "It works." Amy nodded with a grin of her own.

"Damn right it does."

"I could do that," Dinah suggested thoughtfully. "I'm just the right height to punch there as well."

"You are not to go around punching men in the groin, dear," Cheryl quickly said, fixing her daughter with a hard look. The girl sighed silently but nodded.

"OK, Mom," she replied, looking mildly disappointed. Rory, who was sitting beside her, ruffled her hair.

"If you need to do that, you should run away instead," he advised her. "You're awful young to be fighting anyone."

"Probably the best idea, true," Taylor nodded, grinning. The look on the girl's face had amused both her and the Varga, it was momentarily very thoughtful and just a little predatory. She wondered if there was possibly some male bully in Dinah's past that had come to mind…

"Vista is only a little older than me and she takes out gangers all the time," Dinah pointed out.

"But she is also a trained cape and doesn't generally directly engage anyone," her cousin immediately replied. "She's smart and scary powerful, so she doesn't need to."

"I would assume that the Wards are trained in hand to hand combat even so," Danny commented.

"I believe they are," Roy nodded. "It would make sense. But I know policy is that they're not supposed to get involved in combat in the first place. It's only the fact that this is Brockton Bay that ever puts them into that situation. And since the Family turned up, I suspect that sort of thing has become considerably less common as well, just based on the pretty dramatic drop in crime figures."

"It's really been that big?" her father asked curiously. "I'd heard it was quite significant but haven't seen any actual numbers."

"Street crime is down by nearly fifty percent in the last eight or nine weeks," the mayor replied. "Certain categories, such as armed robberies in shops, are down even more than that. Saurial seems to take a particular pleasure in jumping robbers in the dark and I think word has got around."

"Raptaur tends to scare them too," Rory added. "Not to mention Ianthe and Metis, both of them have done some pretty impressive roundups of troublemakers. And now we have Cloak as well, who in some ways is even scarier, so people who have met her say."

"And after those three took out the entire Merchant's base and made it look like a video game, I think the criminals have mostly decided to either find something else to do or have a long vacation," his father chuckled. "That was something I'd have paid to watch. It was absolutely amazing to see."

"They looked like they were having fun," Deb noted. "The Family, I mean. I don't think the Merchants enjoyed it at all."

Roy grinned. "I can't honestly say that part worries me."

"What sort of award is the city going to give them?" Taylor's father asked.

Roy looked at him thoughtfully. "That hasn't been decided yet. We've had several suggestions from the public, and from people in the police and the PRT too, but it's still being discussed. We're not going to settle on anything just now but I think it'll be something they'd enjoy." He turned to Amy and Vicky, who were listening with interest. "We're also going to be doing something similar about New Wave and the help your family gave the city during the tanker move. It was much appreciated, believe me. You got a lot of brownie points for that."

They both looked pleased. "Thank you, Roy," Vicky replied. "Mom will be very happy to hear that. She worries about our public image and it took quite a lot of convincing to get her to go along with that at the time." She grinned a little. "The money definitely helped, as did the new costumes."

He chuckled, nodding. "I could see how that might be the case. I've had several inquiries from some of the senior members of the BBPD about asking the Family if they'd be open to providing similar equipment for our tactical squads at a minimum. I know they've made some body armor for the DWU security people that the police are somewhat envious of."

Taylor smiled, as did her father. "Saurial has mentioned that as a possibility," he said. "They're sitting on dozens of ideas for commercially viable products from all sorts of fields, but up until recently the entire DWU refit and scrapping project has taken up their time almost entirely. I know that Metis has registered several trademarks, and made a number of lists of which products to start investigating for commercial manufacture. It would probably start with small volume high value things, which would certainly cover body armor and the like. I'll mention it to her the next time I see her, and find out what their time scale is like, if you want."

"That would be very helpful, Danny," the mayor replied gratefully. "I don't want to get in the way of the current work but it would make a number of people very pleased if they could upgrade some of the equipment they have. There hasn't been all that much money in the city coffers for that sort of thing in recent years and the BBPD has ended up being pretty heavily outgunned by the gangs. I think they want to take the current low activity period to gear up for the next time something stupid happens."

"Which is practically inevitable around here, Family or no Family," Jim grumbled. "Knowing Brockton."

There was a round of nodding, everyone in the room feeling that he had a point.

"Anyway, that aside, please pass on to your family that the city is grateful for your work, both during the move and over the previous years, and we hope you'll see fit to continue to do the same in future," Roy finally said, turning back to the two Dallon girls.

Amy smiled at him. "Thank you, Roy. That means a lot." She looked at her sister who nodded vigorously. "We do it even when we don't get thanked, because we all feel we have to put the effort in, but it's nice to have that effort recognized."

"Of course it is, Amy, and you deserve that," he remarked, reaching out to refill his coffee cup. "It doesn't get said enough, though. It's the PRT's and Protectorate's job to protect the rest of us from people like Kaiser, but the independents could easily decide not to. I've always been impressed that they're willing to step up and help out."

"Especially considering some of the tragedies of the past," his wife sighed. "It can be a very dangerous activity."

They all knew what she was referring to. Amy and her sister looked glum for a moment or two, Vicky sighing quietly. "That was bad," she said softly. "I miss her."

Amy put her hand on her sister's, squeezing it gently. Taylor watched with sympathy.

After a couple of silent seconds, Deb handed around some more crackers. "I'm sorry Kyla has missed this," she said, deliberately changing the subject. "She won't be back from her boarding school until Easter, unfortunately. Her last letter said she was watching the videos on the internet with amazement and asking what on earth was going on back home." She smiled. "She wants to know where all the giant lizards have come from."

"So do the rest of us," Vicky murmured under her breath, making Taylor and Amy look at her, then exchange glances. No one else heard her and she didn't notice they had. After a second her expression cleared from the slightly worried frown it had developed and she looked up. "How old is your daughter, Mrs Christner?"

"Sixteen last January," the woman replied. "She's at a school on the other side of Boston. It's far enough away that she doesn't come home all that often, I'm afraid. But she seems to enjoy it and has made a lot of friends there."

"And when she comes back she puts on this upper-crust Boston accent that drives us all mad," Rory chuckled. "For about two days until Dad tells her to knock it off."

Taylor laughed, getting a humorous look in return. The ex-Ward seemed to be quite a personable young man, in her view.

"Anyone up for a game of Monopoly?" Cheryl asked. "It's a family tradition when we get together like this."

"I'll play," Amy replied.

"Me too," Dinah said eagerly. "I love Monopoly."

"Because you cheat like a total cheater and usually win," her cousin laughed. She didn't deny the accusation, merely stuck her tongue out at him.

Very soon Dinah, her mother and cousin, Amy, Vicky, and Taylor were engaged in a game, while the others watched and made helpful comments. Or not.

On the whole, Taylor thought that this had been an excellent way to spend an evening. She'd met some interesting new people, had a really nice meal, and listening to the Varga make jokes about the game was very funny.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Carefully moving some houses around on the board, Dinah inserted the new one, then smirked at her cousin. He sighed and handed over the rest of the cash she was due. "I have no idea how you always do that," he muttered. She heard a muted laugh from beside her and saw that Taylor was looking very amused by the way she'd bankrupted Rory.

The entire evening had been a hell of a lot of fun, the girl thought to herself. The Heberts and the Dallons were really cool, and she could tell her friends now that she knew both Panacea and Glory Girl. And that she'd been to dinner with both of them! That was certainly something to be pleased about in her opinion.

Plus it looked like she was very close to her goal of meeting not just one member of the Family, but possibly all of them, except maybe Kaiju. Taylor had told her a lot about the others, as had Amy, both the older girls very knowledgeable on the subject and obviously fond of their scaly friends. Dinah was still a little puzzled about the odd expression that she'd seen more than once on Vicky's face when the subject of Saurial came up, but she was no nearer working out what it meant, or even if she was simply imagining it.

With an internal shrug she decided it didn't matter. Rolling the dice, she made her move, then sat back to watch the game, having managed to miss anything critical on her way around the board.

She looked over at her parents, who were talking to Taylor's father about how the city had changed in the last twenty years. The man seemed to be a mine of historical information, knowing all sorts of interesting things about the city and industries of the past. She'd learned more just casually listening to them talk than in a dozen history classes, which somehow amused her.

Not above misusing her powers for personal gain, she'd asked herself a couple of questions at critical points in the game, which had paid off handsomely. She wasn't sure if Rory knew what she was doing but she'd caught him giving her the side-eye once or twice, causing her to hide a smirk.

Her head was just starting to ache, so she decided that she'd reserve any more uses of her power for something important. As it worked out, she didn't need to, the game eventually coming down to her versus Taylor. The older girl evaluated the board for a while on her last move, then shook her head.

"We'll be beating each other up for hours without a clear winner looking at how this worked out, so I concede," she smiled. "Let's say whoever has the most money at the moment wins."

"OK." Dinah grinned at her.

"In that case, including the IOUs we wrote, you've got twenty-three thousand and forty dollars in cash and assets, and I've got twenty-two thousand four hundred and ten dollars. You win." Taylor leaned back, as Dinah looked at all the money and bits of paper they'd used to add cash to the bank.

"Wow. You kept track of all of it?" she asked, somewhat awed. The older girl nodded.

"It's not that difficult if you pay attention."

"Have you ever thought of going to Atlantic City or Vegas and playing blackjack, Taylor?" Dinah's father asked with a slightly stunned look. "I have the weirdest feeling that you'd find card counting much easier than most people would."

"Please don't suggest to my daughter that she become a professional gambler and annoy the casinos, Jim," Mr Hebert said with a grin. "She has, I hope, better goals in life."

Taylor giggled, helping Dinah and her mother pack the game away. "It might be something to keep in reserve. In case I want a holiday."

"If you go, let me know, I'd love to watch," Dinah's father told her. "It would be very funny and I've still got a bone to pick with a casino in Vegas." He flushed when his wife gave him a look. "You know they were cheating, love. That table was rigged."

"So you said at the time, Jim. Quite loudly. Which is why they asked us to leave." Dinah's mother sounded exasperated. Dinah exchanged a look with Taylor, who was wearing that little amused smirk she seemed good at.

"They do this every now and then," the younger girl confided in a whisper. "I think someone made Dad mad once."

"Apparently so," Taylor whispered back.

Feeling satisfied with the last few hours, Dinah finished off the remaining crackers and drank some more water. She was very tired, but it had been worth it, definitely. Soon enough everyone was starting to talk about going home. Uncle Roy seemed very happy, shaking hands with all the visitors as they put their coats on.

Dinah sat curled up in a sofa, watching. Her mother was talking to Vicky, the blonde girl nodding to whatever she was saying. Looking around at the people, Dinah felt she'd like to do this again sometime.

'Chances that we'll have another dinner like this in the next three months?' she asked herself, idly curious. The answer she got was 76.34%, which made her smile tiredly.

Watching Taylor shake hands with her mother, she asked another question just for the hell of it. 'Chances that Taylor and her friends will come back?'

Her eyes slowly widened as she got a completely unexpected result.

Scenting a sudden change in the myriad smells in the room, Taylor casually looked around. Dinah was staring at her like she'd seen a ghost. Confused, she cocked her head, watching as the girl's expression, which no one else in the room was watching, went through a wild series of changes, terminating in a sort of awed wonder. This instantly flicked back to an impressively neutral expression that gave nothing away when her mother turned to her.

'Crap.'

"The young lady would appear to have worked something out," the Varga said in musing tones. "I wonder how?"

'I wonder if she's going to tell anyone,' Taylor sighed internally. Waiting until Dinah's mother had stopped helping her daughter with her coat, she raised her eyebrow meaningfully, flicking her eyes at the others in the room. Dinah seemed to think very carefully, then equally carefully shook her head just the tiniest amount.

Taylor made an equally small nod, which was responded to in the same manner.

"I believe she understands," her companion said softly. "That is good. It still remains to be determined how she knows, and for that matter what she knows."

'I think we'll have to see if we can have a private word with Dinah when she comes to the yard,' Taylor replied. 'I'm really curious as well. I wonder if she's a Parahuman?'

"That would seem the most reasonable explanation," the Varga commented. "I would suggest some form of Thinker. Although as we know that Thinker abilities seem to have difficulty with us, that still leaves a number of questions."

'Definitely,' Taylor muttered. 'And there's whatever the hell is going on with her cousin as well. Damn, this is getting awkward and a little worrying. What the hell is that smell?'

"I don't know, but I want to find out," he rumbled. "I have a very strong suspicion it's important."

'Me too.'

They'd puzzled over the odd but familiar scent most of the meal, neither of them able to come up with a good reason or explanation for it. It wasn't a normal scent, that was certain. When she'd quietly checked with Amy, her friend's enhanced senses couldn't detect anything out of the ordinary at all. So it would appear to be something that Varga senses specifically could pick up, but what that was, they had no idea.

Moving over to Amy, she spoke very quietly to her, almost sub-vocalizing, without looking at her. "Dinah knows something. She suddenly got a very weird look on her face when she was looking at me, and her scent turned into a strange mix of worried, extremely curious, and happy."

Amy glanced at her as she zipped up her coat. "Is that what that was? It was a complex scent, I'm still learning what all the little differences mean," she responded in a similar manner. There was enough noise from everyone getting ready to leave that no one could have heard them even if they'd been talking more loudly, but they were being very discreet even so.

"Yep. Could be a problem, but she seemed to understand that it was important to keep it under her hat." Taylor watched as Dinah hopped off the sofa and stood next to her mother, looking back curiously at them both but still with a surprisingly blank expression. Even so, she could tell from the younger girl's eyes that she was thinking very hard. "You shook her hand earlier." Amy glanced up at her once more.

"Yes, she's a Parahuman," the healer eventually replied, somewhat reluctantly, to the unasked question. Even with her best friend, she didn't tend to talk about things like that without a very good reason, something Taylor generally approved of. Nodding to herself, Taylor let out a very faint sigh.

"I thought so. I wonder what her powers are?"

Amy shrugged minutely, then turned to smile at the mayor, who had come over to them.

"Thank you for a very nice evening, Roy," the Dallon girl said with a smile of gratitude. "The food and company were both excellent."

"I'm glad you enjoyed it, Amy," he replied. "It's been a positive joy having you all here like this. We'll have to do it again some time."

"I'd like that," she told him. Taylor nodded, as did Vicky who had approached them as well.

"Definitely," the blonde grinned.

"Danny, we'll get in touch very soon to arrange a visit to the DWU for Dinah," he went on, turning to Taylor's father. "Quite likely tomorrow, but I need to check my schedule."

"Sure, Roy, just call me whenever you're ready," her father said. "It's no trouble." Pulling his keys from his pocket, he tossed them up and caught them again, in a very good mood by the looks of it. "With that, we need to leave, I'm afraid. Deb, the food was fantastic, thanks for all the effort you put in."

Deb smiled at him, her arm around her husband. "It was my pleasure, Danny. And it was very nice to finally meet you, Taylor."

"Thanks, Mrs Christner," she replied. "See you two at school tomorrow," she added to Vicky and Amy, who both nodded.

"Come on dear, it's late and I need some sleep," her father smiled, heading towards the door. Waving to the others, with one last look at Dinah, who was studying her like a new shiny thing, she followed him out. Shortly they were driving home while she discussed the situation regarding both cousins with her live-in friend, both of them curious and a little concerned.

Lying in bed, staring at the ceiling in the dark with her stuffed dragon cuddled to her side, Dinah pondered her latest data.

She was going to have to be very discreet, and definitely not tell anyone at the PRT about any of the wild thoughts going through her mind, but she had a distinct feeling that something had abruptly changed in her life.

The visit to the DWU was looking like it was going to be even better than she'd first thought, if nothing else.

It took her a long time to finally fall asleep, and when she did, her dreams were most peculiar.