Picking up his phone, Danny listened to the brief message, then hung up again. Closing the document he was reading, he stood up and walked to the door, grabbing his coat on the way and shrugging it on as he left his office. A couple of minutes of brisk walking later he was approaching the BBFO office. Just as he left the main building complex on the other side of the courtyard, Amy drove up and parked.

She got out, met his eyes, and sighed faintly with a resigned grin.

"Got you, didn't she," he chuckled.

"Over and fucking over, yes," the Dallon girl said. They turned to look at Taylor, currently Saurial, as she hopped out, a very pleased expression on her face. His daughter grinned at him.

"Roy, his sister, and his niece are coming over in about forty minutes," he said, "so you should probably do whatever it is that you're about to do before then."

She nodded, then made her face go back to something less manically pleased with herself. It obviously took some effort. Amy watched, then shook her head, putting on a more normal expression as well. Going over to the door she unlocked it and walked in, the Heberts following.

Internally Danny was smiling with anticipation.

"Hey, Lisa," Amy said once the new arrivals had locked the door again. Lisa looked over her shoulder, smiled at the three, then went back to the work she was doing on the computer. Typing rapidly for a moment, she checked the results, saved the file, then swiveled the chair around and leaned back.

After a moment, she frowned at Danny. His poker face was appallingly good, giving even her ability a bit of a problem, but she could tell he was in a funny mood. Turning to look at Amy she saw the other girl was also expressing unusual tells.

"What's going on?" she asked, while trying to work it out for herself. With most people it would be trivial but both of the others were somewhat more complicated, Amy due to her internal mods which confused the issue somewhat, and Danny because he was just that controlled when he wanted to be.

"Going on?" Taylor asked brightly, making Lisa look at her. She wasn't hiding her good mood at all. Her Saurial face was smiling and happy. Moving to a chair next to Lisa she draped herself across it, the end of her tail twitching around with amusement. "Nothing's going on. You're imagining it. Perfectly normal day, with a hint of showers."

Lisa regarded her friend suspiciously.

"You… are being weirder than normal," she said slowly.

Taylor shrugged.

"No, just the normal level of weird." She sat up a bit. "We're going to have some visitors later. The Mayor and some relatives. Pay attention to the girl, will you?"

"Why?" Lisa asked curiously.

"She's a Thinker, I think," Taylor explained, making Lisa stare, and Danny grunt in surprise. "Normally I wouldn't say anything but last night she worked out that there's something going on with me. I could tell from her face and her scent. As far as I could manage to determine she won't tell anyone, but we need to find out what she knows, how she found out, and what she'll do with it."

"You didn't mention this before, Taylor," Danny said, sounding worried.

Glancing over at him, the lizard-girl shrugged. "I didn't want to upset you. Like I said, if it wasn't for this, I wouldn't say anything, and neither would Amy. Even to friends I don't want to give away a Parahuman normally. But this could affect all of us and we need to be careful."

"Crap," Lisa muttered, forgetting about everything else while she thought it over. "This could be awkward. Thinker?"

"Pretty sure. Amy shook her hand, she's definitely a Parahuman." The healer nodded when Lisa looked at her. "Thinker makes the most sense, since she was on the other side of the room and suddenly just looked strangely at me, went through a whole series of expressions, then ended up looking like you do a lot of the time. Like she knew something no one else did, although she seemed pretty fucking surprised about it. Then she went as blank as a mannequin when her mother looked at her."

Taylor sighed faintly. "It's annoying, but I guess inevitable. Considering how Thinkers seem to go odd when they get pointed at me, or at least you sure do and from what you found out it's a thing the PRT are aware of, I guess it was inevitable that one of them would happen to try it on me as Taylor rather than a Family member."

"Huh." Lisa nodded slowly. "That's pretty much exactly how I worked it out. I wonder what exactly her power is?"

"No idea."

"Do you think her parents know?"

Taylor looked at her father and Amy, both of whom were looking thoughtful. "I… don't know. I guess she might be able to keep it secret, but at that age I sort of doubt it. So probably. But I don't think she'll tell them about me, at least not yet."

"Roy did mention that his niece had some sort of medical issue a few weeks ago," Danny commented. "It's possible that's related."

"Could be," Lisa muttered, turning back to the computer. "Triggering isn't something you get over just like that, and if she gets the sort of headaches I used to get… At that age, she'd have a hard time. OK. I don't recall anything on PHO about a new Thinker in the Bay, but they don't normally end up very visible. I very much doubt the Mayor's niece is connected to a gang, she might be independent, or even still a secret, but..." She made a few web searches, then nodded. "Aha. This is a possible hit. A rumor that a new Ward is about to start at the ENE PRT. Codename 'Prospect'. No other details so far."

She let her power go to work and guide her some more, while the others waited patiently. Eventually she sat back. "Pretty certain that's her. It fits everything I can deduce and track down. Starting official duty next week sometime, there should be a press conference announcing her around Wednesday if they stick to the usual pattern. Thinker, probably a high level one, most likely some form of precog or something similar."

"Not bad." Danny looked impressed. "You're terrifyingly good at that."

"It's my thing," she smiled.

Swiveling around again, she shrugged. "Whether any of it means she'll tell the PRT or not I can't tell you without meeting her."

"That should happen in under half an hour," Taylor said. "She's really into the Family and wants so much to meet us." She smirked. "Me especially, since Saurial is the best one."

Lisa gave her a narrow-eyed glare. "Best? I believe that her cousin would debate that."

"Of course Ianthe would, clearly she's the best," Amy snickered.

"Not quite what I meant and you well know it," Lisa sniffed, tossing her head dismissively.

There was a knock at the door. "Could you get that, please?" Amy said to Danny. He nodded and headed over. "But Ianthe is a talented Biosculptor, one of the most ancient arts of the Family," the healer went on, still looking amused. "Obviously that's more important than a mere Thinker."

"I believe Metis is more that just a Thinker." Lisa stared at Amy, while Taylor chuckled. "She can heal, and is a crack shot, not to mention pretty damn good with some esoteric mathematics."

"Ianthe can shoot really well too, and make new forms of life," Amy persisted.

"Do they do this a lot when I'm not here to supervise?"

"I'm afraid so, dear."

"How annoying. I'm sorry about that."

"You get used to it."

Lisa, very slowly, turned her head. She gaped at the very human form of Taylor Hebert who was standing next to her father, regarding them both and shaking her head sadly.

After a long moment, the blonde turned her head back to look at the other Taylor, this one in the form of Saurial, who was watching her with glee. "I try to keep them under control, but it's difficult sometimes," this one commented.

"I can understand that. Amy is pretty stubborn, and Lisa can turn smug up to eleven," the first one said sadly.

'Saurial' got off her chair and walked over to 'Taylor', sticking out her hand. "Glad you could make it. How's the catch-up work going?"

'Taylor' shook the offered hand with a bright smile. "Really well, I'm not that far off being current in everything. Which is a relief, I'll be glad to be able to get out of the house more."

"We'd like to see more of you, definitely," 'Saurial' laughed.

"Thanks." 'Taylor' looked around with interest. "I like how this came out. Very good work."

"We like it." Waving at the wall on the other side of the room, 'Saurial' added, "What do you think of the posters?"

"Very nice."

Lisa, her mind whirling, looked helplessly from one to the other. Her power was pointing and gibbering. After a moment it became too much.

"She hasn't done that for a while."

"Pick her up and stick her back in the chair."

"You are very hard on your friends, dear. Does this happen a lot?"

"Not that often these days, but at first she turned off and rebooted several times in a row. It got kind of annoying after a while."

"Here, strap her in, she keeps sliding out."

"OK, OK, there's no need to snap at me. Use this."

"That's got it."

"Poor Lisa. Although I admit this is rather amusing, if slightly tedious."

"Meh, you get used to it. Turn her back on, will you, Amy?"

"Fine. But you know she's probably going to go away again if you keep this up."

"What's the record so far?"

"Three times in five minutes I believe."

"I think so. Oh, here she comes."

Blinking, Lisa opened her eyes, then looked around. She could feel that for some reason there was something wrapped fairly tightly around her waist.

"What..." she said, then her voice hissed to silence as she stared.

"I think it needs a little adjustment at the back, my tail is wedging on the rear of the saddle." Saurial shook her head, looking over her shoulder.

"How about this?" The large, currently nameless, dragon she was sitting on peered back at her, and the Raptaur-like riding facilities mounted between and just in front of her wings, which were folded along her sides as she stood in the middle of the room.

"Much better." Saurial smiled. "Think we could make it a dual seat? We could take Dad for a ride then."

"I have to admit I quite like the idea of riding a dragon," Danny commented from where he was standing next to the pair, watching with interest. "This is a very impressive form."

"Thanks, Dad," both of them chorused in sync. "Hey, look at the lights," the dragon added, illuminating herself.

"Oh, very good." Danny looked impressed.

"I still can't quite work out how to do one of my own, but I'm getting closer," Amy said, putting her feet on the table and leaning back in the chair she was sitting in, popping the top of the can of soda open with a flick of a finger. "I really want to fly."

"It's a hell of a lot of fun."

Lisa and her power both sighed quietly and went away again.

"Whoops. I think we overdid it."

"That would appear to be the case."

"How many times do you plan on doing this to my assistant?"

"How long until the Mayor gets here?"

"Taylor, enough. Don't traumatize your friends, it's rude."

"Can we traumatize strangers?"

"Don't you start, Amy. Your mother is already worried about you."

"OH! We have to do something to mom with this. I need to think about it."

"Oh, Cthulhu save us from overpowered teenagers with demons in their heads..."

"Don't look so worried, Dad. We're only having fun."

"Sure, let's go with that. It's much better than 'perverting the natural order of reality,' I guess."

"Reality is largely what you make of it, Danny. It just happens that when a demon is involved, one can make more of it than otherwise."

"So it would appear."

"Better start her up again. Your dad is probably right, we've had our fun."

"Aww. I had a couple of really good ones I haven't used yet."

"Save them for the boys. Lisa will appreciate that."

"OK."

Blinking, Lisa opened her eyes, then looked around…

Remembering, she slammed them closed again.

"OK. Whatever it is that you're doing, stop doing it," she shouted.

"Spoilsport," Taylor's voice said, with a snicker in it.

"Next, explain, very clearly and slowly, what the fuck it is that you're actually doing!" Lisa was feeling very puzzled, somewhat nauseous, which was a good trick with her symbiote and Amy's upgrades, and as if she was the butt of some cosmic joke.

"Oh, all right. We worked out how to make the universe bend over again." Lisa heard Amy giggle. "I got to thinking about fractal space folds and had an idea..." the demonic girl began. Lisa listened with incredulity to the whole story. Half-way through, she felt her power had enough of a handle on it not to get overwhelmed again, and opened her eyes. Thankfully there was only one Taylor present, this one in her base form, sitting at the table and smiling.

When she stopped explaining, Lisa shook her head in awe.

"You are… fucking unbelievable. Do you have any idea how many so called laws of the universe you're breaking?"

"Um… most of them, one way or the other," Taylor grinned. "But to a demon they're more guidelines than actual laws."

"So you've said before," Lisa sighed. Looking down, she asked, "Can you get rid of this strap?"

"Will you promise not to error out on us again?" Amy asked, looking amused. Danny made a sound from next to her that sounded like a muffled snicker. Lisa glared at both of them.

"As much as I can. And thanks for the head's-up, you guys."

"She got both of us too, don't worry," Amy assured her. "You should have seen what she did at school. It was insane."

"So is she," Lisa muttered as the strap vanished. Standing up, she stomped over to Taylor and fixed her with a deathly glare. "Don't do that again."

"You'll be fine now, it's only that first overload," Taylor said without worry, shrugging. "But it was very funny."

"I'm sure it was, for you lot," Lisa grumbled. "Thanks. I needed the rest."

"That's the spirit."

Sighing, she sat down at the table. "Jesus. How many more powers can you come up with?"

"No idea," Taylor chuckled. "But we're both going to keep working out new tricks. It's fun. And useful."

"So you can just create a… new body, I guess, although from what you say that's not entirely right… anywhere you want?" Lisa asked, her curiosity overriding her righteous indignation in the end.

"Within range, pretty much, yes," Taylor nodded. "That range seems to be just over a mile and a half at the moment, which is what Varga thought it would end up being. We tried at school. Not as much as I'd like, but a hell of a lot more than the minimum that would be useful."

Lisa shook her head in wonder. "Just amazing. And the Varga can take full control of it?"

"We're both in here, and in the other one too," her friend explained. "It's a little difficult to explain the process accurately. Basically, it's just a matter of opinion which aspect either of us 'controls' at any time. I can do either, both, or neither, and so can he. Since it's my brain everything is going through I have to process all the data whatever happens and that seems to be the limiting factor. His brain is a lot bigger than mine, even though I'm 'The Brain' in the relationship." She made a gesture in front of herself. "It's more like I'm the guiding program, the front end I guess, and he provides the heavy lifting at the back end. But as time goes on, we're balancing more and more load between us. Mainly because I'm slowly learning new stuff."

She pointed to the side. Lisa looked, and saw an identical copy of Taylor appear from nowhere. "Until we gain practice, we're each taking control of one end, Lisa," the Varga continued for her, moving to stand next to the chair his other half was in. "As Taylor says, we can switch between them with no more effort than anything else to do with her body, but for a number of reasons this is currently easier. With time and practice I fully expect she can learn to drive both aspects simultaneously doing completely different tasks, since my own multitasking ability dwarfs anything a normal human can do. She'll gain the same facility eventually."

"I can already do it to a certain point but it's hard work," the same Taylor said in her normal voice.

"So we'll have to practice," the first one added, the Varga currently 'there' now.

"Holy shit," Lisa murmured. "That is just… unbelievable." She pondered what she'd learned, glancing at Amy and Danny who were listening with interest. Her power, chewing on the new data with all the eagerness of a starving dog with a joint of beef, suddenly dropped a number of data points into her mind. Her mouth slowly opened as she considered them.

"Oh, my god, that..." Lisa shook her head. Everyone was staring at her.

"I just had a really interesting idea," she said after a moment's reflection. Turning to the 'original' Taylor, or what she assumed was, she asked, "What happens if you make an… aspect… over there like that, then instead of making it go away when you're done with it, make that one go away?" She pointed at Taylor. "From what you said it's completely irrelevant which is which. They're both part of the same thing."

Taylor looked a little stunned. She shared a glance with her other body, the Varga looking back and raising an eyebrow. "An intriguing thought, Lisa," he said slowly and thoughtfully. "And one that shows this technique is more versatile than we originally contemplated."

After a moment, the Taylor in the chair vanished. There was a clatter and her phone, some coins, and her wallet dropped to the floor. Everyone looked at them, then over at the solitary version of the girl who was standing ten feet away.

"Fuck me," that one said wonderingly. "I can teleport."

There was complete silence in the room for thirty seconds. Danny and Amy were gaping again. Eventually Danny said, "Why did those things stay behind?"

"Because she's not actually teleporting," Lisa explained, rubbing her forehead in bemused, slightly envious, wonder. "She's making a… copy, aspect, whatever you call it, at some remote point, then turning off the one at the origin. Basically, she's indeterminate in space in some ways. Kind of like an electron. Although probably not. Higher dimensional, or fractal dimensional, magical bullshit."

She shook her head slowly. "This is just nuts. But it works, however the hell it actually does it. Since her clothes are a figment of her imagination, they go with her, but the phone and other stuff are physical objects and stay behind."

Taylor was still looking shocked. Very slowly a huge grin formed on her face. She looked around, then a copy of herself formed on top of the workroom, the first one vanishing moments later. "Wow," she cackled in glee. "Just fucking wow. Two new abilities for the price of one. Best… Technique… Ever."

They watched as she appeared and disappeared around the room, getting faster and faster, until she more or less simply blinked from one point to another. Most of the time she was laughing like an idiot. Eventually she stopped and spread her arms wide, grinning. "Take that, Universe," she yodeled in total joy.

"Oh, hell, this is going to make PHO explode," Amy muttered. "And if the PRT find out, they'll crap a boulder."

Lisa grinned at her. "Hey, I bet their threat assessment will run out of numbers at this rate," she said. "She's just raised her Mover rating about four places, if nothing else. I am seriously envious."

"Definitely trying to grab all the powers for herself," the healer sighed. "I have to up my game."

"Make me a dragon suit, then," Lisa snickered.

"Working on it." Amy watched Taylor, who was picking up her odds and ends. "Now you have to figure out how to take those with you."

"Actually, I have an idea about that, but it'll need some careful thought," their friend smiled. "Varga thinks it's possible, though, using a little lateral thinking. But I can live with it for now. This is so cool." She dropped into the chair, grinning like an idiot. "Thanks, Lisa, neither of us had seen that, although I guess we would have eventually. But all we were doing today was making and unmaking the new aspect remotely, so it never came up."

"If you ever figure out how to teach that demon magic, I want to learn," Lisa said firmly. "You're having way too much fun with it, I feel left out."

"It's reminiscent of Oni Lee's ability," Danny mused, still watching his daughter with an odd mix of pride and shock.

"Not that much," Lisa pointed out. "He made a copy of himself as he teleported somewhere else, and took everything with him. The copy was independent and very short lived." She thought, then shrugged. "Or possibly the copy teleported away and the original was left behind. There were differing theories. Anyway, whichever it was, the one left behind basically fell apart seconds later. He couldn't be in two places at once for any meaningful time, and had no real way to transfer data between the copies. Taylor's trick is vaguely similar on the face of it but completely different in the mechanics. And a lot less worrying. He was basically killing himself over and over again, which might explain why he was the way he was."

"Christ." Danny looked ill. "That's very unpleasant."

"So was he."

Checking his watch, Taylor's father said, "It's nearly four. You two had better become your larger and scalier selves. I'm going to go and meet them at the gate." He looked around at the three girls. "Be delicate and discreet with Dinah. Remember, she's twelve, and not your enemy. I understand you want to find out what she knows, but do it carefully, please."

"We will, Dad," Taylor assured him as she became Saurial. Moments later, Raptaur appeared next to her.

"Definitely," the much larger lizard rumbled.

He looked at both aspects of his daughter, then at Lisa, shook his head a little with a bemused expression, and left the building. "Better get your truck under cover as well," Lisa pointed out. Amy nodded and went to get it while 'Saurial' dashed off to open the roller door.

"This is going to take some getting used to," Lisa sighed.

"I'm sure you can rise to the occasion, Lisa," 'Raptaur' chuckled.

With a look sideways, the blonde smirked. "I can do that, sure. Just saying."

"Understood." They shared a grin, then she went to get ready.

Looking around with great interest, Dinah inspected the visibly deteriorated buildings they were going past. "This place is a wreck, Mom," she said.

"Unfortunately, that's true, Dinah," her mother replied with a look at her in the rear-view mirror. "Since the riots, years ago, this entire section of the city has been slowly falling apart. The gangs moved in and made it worse, of course, and all the problems with business and no one having money to spare didn't help."

"But the Family has made that better, hasn't it? And Uncle Roy's plan?"

"It's certainly making a big difference, yes." Her mother turned the corner, looking both ways, then moved off. "I expect it will take a long time before anyone has the money to fix all these problems even so. But the Family has definitely made a huge reduction in crime, like your Uncle was talking about last night. The people at the DWU are working really hard to improve things as well." She smiled at her daughter. "I feel very hopeful about the city. For the first time in a long time, in fact. And most of it is due to your uncle, his friend Danny, and some weird lizards."

Dinah giggled. "They may be weird but they're cool. I can't believe I get to meet them."

"Please be on your best behavior, we want to make a good impression," her mother cautioned. "Try not to get carried away."

Putting a serious expression on her face, Dinah nodded. "I'll be good, mom," she assured her mother.

The woman looked very slightly dubious but nodded back. They kept driving, shortly ending up going down a potholed road that ran straight towards the water. At the end of it Dinah could see a shiny fence, a gate with some sort of little hut on the other side of that fence near it, and beyond that a large complicated mass of buildings. There was a several-story block behind the shorter front building, then some two and three story ones spreading out around it for a considerable distance. The whole thing was huge, much larger than her school which was one of the largest buildings she knew. Even larger than the city hall and its associated buildings, in fact.

"Wow. They have a lot of room, don't they?" she said in wonder.

"A long time ago this whole area was very busy indeed," her mother pointed out. "I'm sure you've learned about it in school. It was one of the busiest ports in the country, and there were thousands of people working around here. The DWU there had well over a thousand people working just in that place, from what I know." They pulled up at the gate, two men already waiting for them, having spotted them coming some way down the road.

"Good afternoon," the one who walked over to them and circled the car once said when he was close enough, Dinah's mother rolling the window down as he approached. "Mr Hebert is expecting you, Mrs Alcott. He's on his way over. If you'll please drive over and park there next to the main building in one of the visitor spaces, he'll be here momentarily."

"Thank you," Dinah's mother smiled. He smiled back.

"No problem. Please enjoy your visit, but be sure not to wander off. It can be dangerous."

"Danny mentioned that. We'll be careful."

He nodded to her, then signaled his colleague, who waved back and did something that made the barrier rise out of the way. Dinah watched with interest as they drove through, the other man waving to her. She waved back. A minute later, her mother pulled into a space with a 'Visitor' sign at the end on the wall and turned the engine off.

She turned around to look at Dinah in the back seat. "Remember, best behavior."

Dinah sighed quietly. "I remember, mom, you only told me six times so far."

Her mother smiled. "And I'll keep telling you, it's my job."

"Oh, mom," she said, shaking her head. "That's still not funny."

"From here it is," her mother laughed. She looked up, then waved, opening the door and getting out. Dinah looked as well to see Mr Hebert walking towards them. She unfastened her seat belt and opened the door, sliding out of the back and brushing herself down.

"Hello, Danny," her mom said.

"Hi, Cheryl. Nice to see you again. And Dinah too. I hope you didn't have any trouble on the way here?" The man smiled at Dinah, who returned it.

"No, we hardly saw anyone on the way over. Roy emailed me the best route in, he said some of the other ways to get here were a little dodgy."

"That's putting it mildly, I'm afraid," Mr Hebert said apologetically. "With the demise of the Merchants most of the junkies have already cleared out, but some parts of the dock area are very dangerous for all sorts of reasons. Stick to that path, though, and it's safe enough." He looked somewhat annoyed. "We're going to have to do something sooner or later to sort out the problems but there are so many of them and even with the help of the Family it's a big job."

"I can imagine," she said. "I have to admit that until very recently I didn't think it was even possible."

"No one did," he shrugged. "Not even me. And I've been trying to get this place working better most of my working life. But things seem to have worked out pretty well, as it happens." Mr Hebert smiled. "We have some big reptiles to thank for that, of course."

Hearing a car engine, they all looked over to see Uncle Roy's car approaching. He stopped at the gate, talking to the guards, who nodded respectfully then opened the gate. Dinah thought that they seemed pretty familiar with her uncle, so presumably he'd been here quite a few times. That made sense.

Moments later he stopped beside them. Shutting the engine off, he got out and locked the vehicle. "Hi, everyone," he said. Patting Dinah on the head, he added, "Excited, Princess?"

"Yes, Uncle Roy," she grinned. "Very much. And my friends were really jealous."

"Well, that's good, I suppose," he chuckled.

"Let's head over to the BBFO office, then," Danny said. "They're expecting us. Most of them are there, you're in luck, Dinah." She hopped up and down for a moment with glee. "Before we go over, you'll each need to put one of these on, since we'll take the scenic route and there are machines moving around." He pulled three brilliantly orange vests out of his coat pocket, handing one to each of them.

Dinah unfolded the one she'd been given, looking at it with interest. On the back was the word 'Visitor,' like on the car park sign, in large black letters. After a moment's fumbling she worked out how to put it on and slipped her arms through the holes, adjusting it over her coat. It was ridiculously large on her, but had little risk of falling off.

"It suits you," Uncle Roy snickered. She gave him a look, which made the snicker louder.

Mr Hebert, who was also looking amused, said, "I'm sorry, Dinah, we don't get that many people your size through here and these are probably a little large."

"That's OK," she assured him.

"All right, please follow me. I'll explain what we're doing on the way." They started walking, going past the front of the large office building that was nearest the road, then turning the corner and heading toward the water. On the right was a long series of sheds and other buildings, and on the left an enormous flat area surrounded by the fence. Nearer the water, some weird little train was parked, small engines chuffing back and forth, while gangs of men and construction machinery moved around making showers of sparks and all sorts of loud noises. They looked very busy indeed.

A tall crane was somehow picking up huge chunks of misshapen metal from a pile on the ground and transferring it into a rail car, each load crashing down with a bang. As they approached, one of the little engines took that car away, since it was now full, and another one started moving down the track to take it's place.

"That's what's left of the old tanker that blocked the bay for so long," Mr Hebert explained. He pointed at several sections of ship that had dozens of people moving around them. "We've already cut up more than half of it and loaded it into the rail cars. When we hit fifty carloads, the main engine will be coupled to it and take that load off to the smelter upstate. Then we start all over again. In a week or so all that will be gone and Kaiju will start bringing more over from the graveyard."

He looked pleased, as did Uncle Roy. "Not bad, you're several days early on that, right?" her uncle asked.

"Yes, it's gone a little quicker than we expected initially," the other man confirmed. "It gives us a bit of a buffer in case of problems later. Eventually we'll have enough people that we can start moving barges in and out and transfer the wrecks ourselves, but for the time being Kaiju is happy to help out. When we hit that stage, she'll get to work retrieving the ones in the water, which would be very hard for us to get at."

"It's very impressive, Danny," Dinah's mother remarked as she looked around. "This place looks totally different from the pictures I can remember seeing."

"We removed six warehouses and expanded the yard a lot a while back, and resurfaced the entire area," Mr Hebert replied. "It's much larger than it was, and much better equipped. We're very pleased about it."

"You're not the only ones," Uncle Roy smiled. "I understand you're about to start hiring again?"

"We are. Something that I have to admit I never expected to see." Mr Hebert definitely seemed happy. Dinah could understand, she knew how long he'd been working on this place, just from listening to her uncle. "Nearly there, the BBFO office is just up ahead on the right."

Dinah looked in that direction, seeing where a side road went around the back of the main complex, apparently separating a final rank of buildings from the rest of it. As far as she could see from here, they backed onto the bay itself with only a narrow road running right along the shore. Shortly they reached the turning, going into what turned out to be a smaller, yet still quite large, sort of side yard. She could hear a number of dogs barking somewhere in one of the buildings, but ignored that in favor of staring at the sign she'd seen on the internet several times.

She grinned. This was going to be amazing.

That feeling was only reinforced when the door below the sign rattled into operation, lifting into the air, to reveal two figures studying her with disconcerting attention. She met the slit-pupiled yellow gaze of both Raptaur and Saurial evenly.

The reptilian sisters exchanged a glance, then Saurial stepped forward. She bowed. "A pleasure to make your acquaintance, Dinah Alcott," she said gravely, then straightened up. A toothy grin replaced the somber look. "I think you're going to enjoy this."

"So do I," she giggled. They went inside and the door rolled down again.