Colin looked around as an alarm beeped at him, not one he instantly recognized. A moment's searching through his screens and he stiffened in shock.
"Which one is that?" Dragon asked from where she was checking the new portal generator parts.
"Dinah Alcott. Prospect. Her subdermal tracker just went offline."
"Oh. Fault, or deliberate?" His friend came over to watch as he brought up the tracker log and quickly scanned it.
"Not a fault, the diagnostics show it was fully functional with no reported errors moments ago..." He put the location up on the map, showing the girl's movements for the last half hour. Then he relaxed slightly.
"She's at the DWU, the last reading was immediately outside the BBFO office," he said, indicating the breadcrumb track overlaid on the map of the city. Zooming in, he could see that the girl had traveled down what he recognized as the accepted safest way in and out of the docks, at a speed consistent with a vehicle, paused at the gate, then stopped for a while outside the admin building. After that the speed dropped to a walking pace until she vanished from the log.
"The transmitting frequency of the beacon is outside the one that the repeater system I recommended handles, which would explain why it dropped off when she went into an EDM shielded space. But I'd better check, even so."
Picking up his PRT phone, he scrolled through the contacts to find the girl's mother's number, then called it. When she answered, he said, "Mrs Alcott, this is Armsmaster. I was just checking that nothing is amiss, since your daughter's tracking unit went offline approximately three minutes ago. You are at the BBFO office for some reason?"
"Oh, hello," the woman said, not saying his name as he'd drilled into her when they'd discussed the tracker. "Yes, everything is fine. I may have a cup of tea, in fact." He relaxed fully as she said the non-duress code phrase. "We're visiting the Family with my brother."
"Understood. I was momentarily concerned when the tracker vanished, but that's because the building you're in is heavily shielded. Thank you. Please enjoy your visit, the Family are very interesting."
"We've already noticed," she chuckled. "Thanks for your concern, I'm sorry to have worried you. We didn't think about that."
"There was no reason for you to do so, the matter is of technical interest but not the sort of thing most people would know about. In that case, I'll get back to work."
"Good-bye," she replied, hanging up. He put his phone down, then made a note in the log, before closing the window.
"False alarm, thankfully."
"Why are they at the DWU?" Dragon asked curiously.
"Apparently a social visit with the Mayor. Nothing to be concerned about." He looked at her. "I expect the Director might think otherwise, but Dinah is not yet an active Ward, and it's a matter for her parents in any case what she does in her off time. In my opinion, certainly, although I know Emily feels differently."
"She's less trusting of the Family than you are, Colin," his friend replied, sounding like she was trying not to laugh for some reason. "That does seem to be changing quite fast, though, she seems to be coming around to the point that she views them as definite friends. More so than her attitude to most Parahumans."
"Possibly because she knows they're not actually Parahumans," he commented. "Technically."
She shrugged. "Maybe. But I can tell she actively respects Raptaur and Metis at least, even if she's still a bit paranoid about them in some ways. With any luck that will help her overcome her suspicions of Parahumans in general."
"Such an outcome would certainly be helpful," he muttered. They shared a look, then got back to work.
Dinah looked at her mother, who was putting her phone away, then turned back to her task of inspecting the interior of the BBFO building. She looked at the computers a little enviously, those monitors were huge! Way bigger than her one at home. It would make playing games interesting.
The big table with a number of chairs around it on the other side of the room had a few papers scattered on it, half a dozen cans of drinks, and a couple of books. The chairs themselves looked really comfortable, and a lot more complicated than most chairs she was familiar with. Looking at Raptaur, then the nearest chair, she grinned, since it was blatantly obvious the huge creature couldn't really use it. They were presumably for friends and visitors.
Overall it looked like a fairly normal office as far as she could tell. Some posters on the walls were the only specifically Family-related things she could see, and that didn't prove anything. She'd like the one of Saurial in armor about to ruin someone's day in her own room, in fact. The hammer one was pretty cool too.
On the other hand, most normal offices didn't have four lizards standing in them, watching the visitors with interest. Dinah looked back at them. "Wow," she said quietly, making all of them smile.
"Thank you all for agreeing to this, ladies," Uncle Roy said. Dinah's mother was looking around as well, her gaze constantly returning to the reptilian forms with a slightly worried look, although that was diminishing with time.
"It's not a problem, Mayor," Saurial said earnestly. "Honestly, we like meeting people, and Danny explained that your niece was interested in us." She grinned for a moment and added, "And has good taste. Obviously, she's correct in who among us is the best."
Dinah giggled, then did it again when Saurial's sister and two cousins gave her identical dubious looks. "I'm still not convinced," Metis said darkly. Ianthe nudged her, making her turn to look, then roll her eyes.
"Let the little one have her moment of glory," Ianthe whispered, quite loudly. She winked at Dinah. "Being the runt of the family is hard."
Saurial waved a hand. "Ignore them, they're just jealous," she explained as Dinah snickered. "So, you know who we all are. Metis, the mouthy one, Ianthe, the sarcastic one, Raptaur, the scary one, and me, the cute one."
She posed, making Dinah and her mother both laugh. Uncle Roy was grinning and Mr Hebert simply shook his head then sat down at the table.
"Don't forget Kaiju, the quite big one," Metis put in.
"She isn't here, she can introduce herself if she turns up," Saurial replied.
"Fair enough."
"It's great to meet you all," Dinah exclaimed. She held out her hand, which Saurial took and carefully shook. "I've wanted to do that ever since you first arrived. You're really cool."
"See?" Saurial turned to her relatives. "Someone with common sense and observational abilities."
Raptaur reached out and patted her on the head. "Well done. I'm glad you're feeling validated."
"I am. Thank you." The pair shared a look, then turned back to Dinah who was laughing yet again. It was like some weird sort of stand up comedy routine with added teeth.
"So, what would you like to do, Dinah?" Saurial asked, waving them over to the table. "Here, have a seat and a drink. Anyone for coffee or tea? Or soup, for that matter, that thing makes quite a nice cup of it." She indicated the complicated coffee machine on the other side of the room with a thumb.
Dinah hopped into one of the chairs and leaned back, impressed at how comfortable it was. Bouncing up and down a couple of times she nodded in satisfaction. "Can I have some soup, please?" she asked politely.
"Sure. Chicken noodle or tomato?" the lizard-girl asked.
"Chicken noodle." Saurial nodded, looking around at the others, all of whom asked for coffee. She turned to her sister.
"Go do something useful," she said.
Raptaur inspected her, snorted, and wandered off, making Dinah snicker once more. Ianthe and Metis were grinning as they took up positions around the table. She watched how they used their tails as built in chairs and thought it was clever and useful. Tails were cool too.
"This is a really nice chair," she commented.
"Thanks," Saurial smiled. "I made them. And the table too. They're made mostly of EDM, so they're not going to break."
"EDM is that special material you coated the tanker with, isn't it?" Uncle Roy asked with interest.
"Yep. It's more or less indestructible under anything close to normal conditions," Saurial replied. "Useful stuff for all sorts of things. It's what we use for armor too, like in the New Wave costumes." She held out a hand in which a knife appeared, making Dinah stare. "Really good for cutting implements, or other tools too." The knife turned into a claw hammer, a crowbar, a wrench, and back into a knife, before turning into a ballpoint pen. The reptilian girl looked at it with her eyebrows raised, then handed it to Dinah. "Apparently I can make pens too."
The girl took it and looked closely at it, admiring the tiny gold logo on the top, then clicked it a couple of times. It felt heavy and slick in her grip. "Neat," she smiled.
"Keep it, there's an infinite number of those where that came from," Saurial chuckled. "The biggest problem with EDM is that it's almost frictionless, but we have a method to make the parts you want to hold onto grippy or otherwise you'd be dropping it all over the place." She looked at Mr Hebert, then back to Uncle Roy. "That would make the tools dangerous. We've made a few special things for the DWU so far, and we'll be making a lot more as time goes on."
"Actually, I'd like to talk to you about that at some point soon," Dinah's uncle said thoughtfully. "Body armor for the police and matters of that nature."
"We're happy to discuss it, Mayor," Raptaur said as she came back with a tray full of the requested drinks, handing them around. Dinah accepted her soup and tried it, finding it was really good. "Some time next week? We're a little busy right now."
"Sure, that would be fine," he smiled. "And call me Roy."
"Of course, Roy," she said, also propping herself up next to the table on her tail. "So, Dinah, what do you do when you're not in school?"
Dinah shrugged. "Play computer games, read a lot, go out with my friends sometimes," she answered. "Normal stuff." She didn't mention the Wards, of course. Raptaur looked closely at her, then nodded.
"I see. Do you like swimming?"
"Yes," she said, "But it's too cold now."
"Is it?" the lizard said. "I hadn't noticed."
She laughed, not surprised. "I'll have to wait until summer to swim in the sea, but I go to the pool sometimes."
"Haven't tried that yet," Raptaur replied with a thoughtful expression.
Uncle Roy looked at her, then Dinah's mother, who had started giggling. "Why do I suddenly have a feeling that things could become… awkward..." he muttered.
"No idea," the blue-black creature snickered.
"Yeah…" He sounded dubious, making the others laugh.
"We should probably leave the humans to swim in peace, cousin," Metis said. Raptaur looked mildly disappointed but eventually nodded.
"I guess so. Those pools aren't deep enough, anyway." She glanced at Uncle Roy. "Are they?"
"No more than twelve feet," he confirmed.
"Pity. That's pretty pathetic, actually."
"How deep do you go?" Dinah asked with interest.
They all exchanged a look. "Well, I guess it's not a secret," Saurial said. Raptaur nodded.
"All the way," she remarked. Uncle Roy gaped, then looked at Dinah's mother, then Mr Hebert, who didn't seem surprised.
"All… the way? To the bottom of the ocean?"
"Yes," Raptaur replied with a humorous look. "It's pretty dark down there, but mostly quite peaceful."
"The light isn't a problem, we can bring it with us," Ianthe added. They watched as spots and lines across her body lit up a pretty green color. Dinah clapped in wonder. "Not to mention our eyes are pretty good anyway."
"Good grief," Dinah's uncle mumbled. "So the bottom of the bay isn't a problem."
"No, that's only a few hundred feet at most," Metis said with a smile. "Nothing at all interesting, and it's a bit of a mess, frankly. Ships and other junk all over the place. When Kaiju gets done with it, though, it'll be pretty nice. She likes a tidy sea-bed."
"Who doesn't?" Saurial grinned. "We're pretty sure that will make the fish come back too. We've been thinking of setting up some sort of water cleaner to filter out the crud in the water, something like the system we made for the tanker draining job only bigger. The bay isn't too badly polluted compared to some places, but it's a lot worse than it should be."
"That would be good," Dinah said. All four reptiles nodded. Uncle Roy was looking very interested, she noticed.
"Could you make the beach better?" her mother asked. "Half the sand washed away in the last big storm." She looked like she was asking the question as a joke, but Saurial and Raptaur seemed to be thinking about it.
"Hmm. Interesting idea." They exchanged a glance, then the smaller lizard-person went on, "There's plenty of sand out in the bay. When we clear away the wrecks and other garbage, I bet Kaiju could push a lot of it back onto the beach and smooth it down."
"She should do it at night, then leave a long trail of footprints all down it," Dinah giggled, picturing the scene. "Without telling anyone."
Saurial laughed, her sister and cousins grinning widely. "Oh, I like you. Good sense of humor. That's not a bad idea at all."
"Director Piggot would sigh a lot," Uncle Roy said, looking like the thought didn't worry him.
"Probably," Raptaur nodded. "But I think she'd live with it."
"Not like there'd be a choice at that point," Metis snickered. "No one is going to complain about having a better beach."
"Believe me, you'll get people who complain about anything," Uncle Roy said ruefully. "I see it every day. But the city certainly wouldn't mind, anything to increase the tourist footfall is probably good, assuming no one gets hurt. And especially if it doesn't cost us anything."
"We'll have to see how things work out," Raptaur replied.
They sat and talked for a while, all of them finishing their drinks. Dinah asked a lot of questions, watched as Saurial and Raptaur had a mock battle with each other using swords, which was amazing, and learned all sorts of cool things about the Family.
Saurial made a weird little thing she called a hypercube, which made her eyes try to look around corners that weren't there. It also caused her mother to moan and look away, and Uncle Roy to suck in a breath, then close his eyes for a moment or two. Dinah found it weird beyond belief but thought their reactions were a bit over the top.
Eventually, after about an hour, Raptaur turned to her. "So, from what Danny said, you'd be open for a ride on my back?"
Dinah nodded rapidly. "Yes, please, I'd love it," she said, grinning wildly.
The large reptile looked at her mother and her uncle. "Are you both all right with that?"
"I certainly trust you to look after my niece, but it's Cheryl's call," Uncle Roy said, turning to his sister. "What do you think?"
Her mother looked at the huge lizard, then at Dinah. "I suppose it would be cruel to come all this way and not allow her to have some fun," she said with a mischievous look. Dinah rolled her eyes, her mother was definitely in a good mood if she was acting like this. "All right. Please try not to cause trouble."
"I'll be good," both Dinah and Raptaur said at the same time, making her laugh.
"All right, then. Come over here, Dinah," Raptaur said, getting up and moving to a clear spot. She dropped to all fours, then studied Dinah closely, before looking over her shoulder. She was suddenly wearing her armor, which appeared from nowhere just like the tools and things Saurial had been making, the part over her lower back forming into a saddle. She nodded in satisfaction as Dinah stared in wonder. "That should do it. Now, for safety's sake, we'll give you a helmet, and you'll probably want some gloves too. Here, try these on." She held out a pair of gloves that looked like they were made of leather and were just the right size.
Taking them from her, Dinah pulled one on, finding it fitted perfectly. She held her hand up and admired it, then put the other one on too. "These are really nice," she said. "Look, Mom!"
Her mother smiled at her enthusiasm. "They do suit you, Dinah."
"Try this helmet," Raptaur said, handing her something that looked a little like a motorcycle helmet, only with the visor permanently down. She accepted it, tapped the transparent face-plate curiously, then pulled it down over her head. Her mother came over and adjusted her hair under it. Eventually both were satisfied.
"Not bad," Metis commented. "You look the part. Take that safety jacket off, you won't need it, and zip your coat up, it's fairly cool today and it'll be a lot colder when she's going flat out." Dinah did so, handing the bright orange over-garment to Metis who folded it neatly and put it on the table.
"Great. You're all set." Raptaur looked pleased.
"Hold on, let me get a photo," Dinah's mother said quickly. "You don't mind, do you?"
"Of course not, help yourself," Ianthe replied. Pulling her camera out of her bag, Dinah's mom took a couple of shots of the pair standing next to each other. Dinah looked up at the vastly larger cape and grinned, those pictures would look ridiculous. Even when she was on four legs, Raptaur was nearly twice her height, and her hands were each large enough to use Dinah's head for a stress ball. She probably outweighed the girl by about twenty to one or more. Oddly enough, the thought didn't worry her at all, since she was certain they were all good people. Even her mother had lost her residual nervousness and seemed in a very good mood.
"Let's get you up there," Saurial said, coming over to them. She picked Dinah up and settled her on her sister's back, the older Alcott taking photos as she did this. Shortly the girl was firmly strapped in place in the saddle.
"This is so cool," she laughed, looking down on everyone else. There was no way she could have fallen off even if she'd tried, not that she was about to.
"Grab those handles there and lean forward," Saurial instructed, pointing. Dinah followed the directions. "Good. When she's climbing, or going fast, you'll probably want to do that, it'll be more comfortable. OK?"
"Yep," she chirped.
Mr Hebert walked over and hit the switch to open the main door. "We'll be back in a while," Raptaur said to Uncle Roy and his sister. "I'll take her around the docks, through the commercial district, down the boardwalk area, and back along the freeway. We might stop for a snack."
Both of them nodded, watching as she walked out of the building, Dinah feeling incredibly powerful muscles working under the armor and still with a grin fixed on her face. She wasn't certain it would go away any time soon.
The others followed to the edge of the larger open area. "Ready, Dinah?" Raptaur rumbled, the vibrations of her voice felt as well as heard. Dinah grabbed the handles and flattened herself across the lizard's back.
"Yes," she squeaked, suddenly nervous.
"Don't worry, I think you'll love this," her mount chuckled. She started walking, broke into a trot, then accelerated smoothly to a fast run. Dinah screamed with glee and held on.
"Wheeeee!"
Listening to the Doppler effect of her daughter's yell fading away across the vast yard, Cheryl watched, half amused and half worried. Raptaur was already moving faster than they'd been able to drive here, and speeding up. When she reached the fence she simply jumped it as if it hadn't been there, ran straight up the side of the nearest warehouse, and disappeared into the evening over the roof. A very faint cry of joy came back on the wind.
"She seems happy," Ianthe commented wryly from beside her.
Looking left and up at the large form, Cheryl nodded. "I'd say so. Thank you all for doing this, it's very good of you. I wasn't expecting you to put so much time and effort into it."
The violet reptile smiled. "Honestly, it's not a problem. We had some spare time, the girl is having fun, and it's nice to help out friends."
"I'm going to have to go and do some other stuff," Saurial put in from her other side, "But I'll be back in a while, probably before they come back. Danny, why don't you show them around some more." She turned to the DWU man. "Maybe Roy would like to meet Vectura."
"Vectura?" her brother asked curiously. "Who's that?"
Danny studied Saurial, who was smiling slightly, then shook his head. "A new hire that joined us a little while ago," he said. "Before all that trouble with the Merchants. She's been keeping her head down for now, until all the other problems were sorted out."
Roy looked even more curious.
"She's a Tinker," Danny explained. Both Roy and Cheryl nodded, understanding, and exchanging a glance. "We're going to introduce her to the PRT next week, officially, you see. She's interested in power testing and that sort of thing. But with the Merchant raid and so on we had our hands full."
"What's her specialty?" Roy asked. Cheryl was slightly confused, which he noticed. After a quick explanation about Tinkers, she nodded.
"Basically, more or less anything to do with transportation," Saurial said.
"What, cars, trucks, that sort of thing, like Squealer was?"
"Nothing so limited," Metis chuckled. "She's got bigger ideas." Looking at Danny, she added, "I have to go as well but I'll be back soon."
"OK. I'll see you both later."
They watched as both Family members headed off, Metis going towards the bay while Saurial waved to them, then ran towards the gate and disappeared around the corner. Cheryl heard a faint splash. "Did Metis just jump into the bay?" she asked in shock.
"She did," Danny replied. "They do that. Come on, I'll introduce you to Vectura. Ianthe, go and check if she's in her workshop, will you, please?"
"Sure, Danny," the remaining reptile smiled, turning and trotting off. They followed more slowly.
"How many Parahumans do you have, Danny?" Roy asked in a sort of bemused tone.
"You know I can't actually tell you that, Roy," the other man replied calmly. "The rules apply if they don't want to be known publicly."
"Of course. Sorry, I didn't mean to pry."
"Don't worry, I understand." Danny didn't seem upset. "Let's say we have one and leave it at that for the moment."
"What about the Family?" Cheryl asked him.
"They're a… special case," he said, glancing at her, then her brother, who nodded slowly. "In almost every category you can think of. They're DWU members but we can't lay claim to them, they're more associates than anything else. Very close ones, though."
"How odd."
He grinned. "That's a word that comes up a lot these days."
Giggling, she nodded, knowing how true that was. Wondering how her daughter was getting on, she followed as he led them to a meeting with yet another interesting new person.
Colin looked up as the alarm beeped again. Opening the relevant window he inspected the log.
"Now what?"
He glanced at Dragon. "She's moving at nearly sixty miles an hour in a dead straight line from the DWU facility towards the Boardwalk. Over the buildings, not around them."
His friend snickered. "So she's riding Raptaur?"
"Most likely," he agreed, closing the window again. What the girl did in her spare time was no business of his, and he was satisfied she was about as safe as anyone could be.
'This is the best thing I've ever done,' Dinah told herself, holding on like mad as Raptaur pounded along the tops of the buildings, clearing entire streets in one jump and making it look trivial. She had no idea how fast they were moving aside from it being at least as quick as most cars went, the sound of the wind moving past them almost a roar. Thankful for the helmet and gloves, she looked around with great interest, seeing the lights of the city shoot past. The sun had set a little while ago and it was now definitely getting a little dark, which didn't seem to impede her mount in the slightest.
They'd probably covered a couple of miles by now, since they were reaching the edge of the dock area and entering the commercial district, taller buildings popping up here and there and a lot more lights on. They flashed past a huge billboard advertising a car dealership in the blink of an eye, hurdled a two-lane street, and landed on the roof of the building on the other side. Slowing, Raptaur looked over her shoulder with a smile. "How is it so far?" she asked.
"Fantastic!" Dinah cackled, her face aching from the grin she had on. "So much fun! I wish I could do this."
"It's certainly fun, I have to admit," the lizard-woman nodded. "I'm going to head over that way," she went on, pointing, "And go up the side of the Medhall building. It's the tallest one in the city and you get a good view from the top."
"OK," Dinah replied, pleased and excited. Raptaur looked forward again and accelerated hard, sweeping in a turn to take her in the correct direction.
When they were just about to clear the main road, she called "Hold on tight," over her shoulder, then flung herself at the sheer face of the skyscraper. Dinah yipped a little as she contacted it, converting the horizontal movement into an upwards dash that left her feeling heavier than normal. Holding onto the grips like grim death the girl watched the top of the building get closer at a ridiculously high speed. Risking a look over her shoulder she swallowed as the ground went away equally quickly.
This made her close her eyes for a moment, then resolutely look forward again. She was in safe hands, she was completely sure of that.
98.77% sure, anyway.
Seconds later they topped the climb and landed on the flat roof, gravel crunching under Raptaur's clawed feet. She walked slowly to the edge nearest the water as her rider let go of the hand-grips and flexed her aching hands. "That's the DWU yard over there," the reptilian cape said, pointing to the side. Following her finger, Dinah nodded. It was brightly lit, an island of light in a largely dark area, only a few streetlights working. "Your uncle's house is over that way a few miles." Her mount indicated a different direction, across the bay. "And the Rig always looks pretty impressive at night, especially from high up."
They studied the glittering bluish dome over the well-lit spindly structure of the re-purposed oil rig for a moment. "It really does look nice," she responded.
"There's an aircraft coming in, look," Raptaur said, pointing up. Dinah looked and spotted a blinking light, red and green steady ones on either side, slowing down and curving towards the Protectorate base. As they watched it hovered over the dome, which blinked out for a moment to let it in, then came back. The aircraft settled down onto the top deck of the structure. Very faintly, Dinah could just make out a whine of turbines slowing down when she listened carefully.
Up here, the sounds of the city below were muted although still audible, thousands of people going about their business combining with vehicles and other things into a dull drone, broken by occasional louder and more recognizable sounds. The wind was nearly as loud, humming through the wires supporting the fifty foot antenna sticking above them. A faint bang made her look, and Raptaur as well, the cape she was sitting on tensing for a moment then relaxing again.
"Gunshot. Somewhere over next to the docks. Probably one of the left over Merchants." She cocked her head for a moment, listening carefully. Dinah did the same but couldn't hear anything. "Saurial got him."
"You have really good hearing," Dinah said admiringly.
Raptaur chuckled. "Yep."
"Thanks for doing this," she added, quietly. "It's really amazing and I love it."
"You're welcome, Dinah," the cape replied, also quietly. They just looked around for a few minutes. "OK, let's go back down and push on, shall we?" she said in the end. Dinah swallowed again, looking down. The return ride was going to be interesting...
Victor twitched, then looked out the window. The source of the scream he heard went past in a downwards direction very quickly, but he knew who it was.
"Fucking lizards," he grumbled, turning back to his computer. "Max had the right idea. I wish I was skiing."
Sometimes being a super villain was simply irritating, especially around these parts. At least no one was expecting him to go out and fight the damn reptiles, so if they wanted to give people rides around the place, that was their business. He just wished they'd pick a different building to run up and down. It was getting annoying.