Wishing again that she could have a beer or something, Emily listened to yet another report. She glanced up as Legend, who had slipped out half an hour earlier with the comment that he needed to check on something, quietly closed the door and retook his seat. Quirking an eyebrow enquiringly at him merely got a small smile in reply, so she went back to paying attention to the meeting.
"...and finally, a large number of roads in the Docks area have been mysteriously resurfaced, to a remarkably high standard and with all the correct road markings, drainage, and other requirements met," Lieutenant Gibson reported, flicking through text on his tablet. "None of the work has been done by city workers, and occurred overnight in almost every case. Oddly enough, the relevant unions appear to be perfectly happy with it. As does the Mayor as far as I can tell. New work is being done virtually every night, although so far it's restricted entirely to the nominal boundaries of the Docks and associated areas." He looked up at the rest of them, putting the tablet down in front of him and folding his hands over it. "That concludes my verbal Family situation update."
"The Family is seriously running around the docks fixing the roads?!" Rory's voice was somewhat incredulous. Gibson nodded and shrugged at the same time.
"As far as my information goes, yes. Saurial and Raptaur were seen a couple of times wandering around and doing whatever the hell it is that they do to make things appear out of nowhere. Guy I talked to said the new surface just followed them around like a dog or something, all the paint and what have you coming at the same time. I went and had a look at the work out of curiosity more than anything else and I'm very impressed. It's a better job than anything I've ever seen before." He seemed slightly amused by the reactions his reports had generated.
"And the city maintenance unions don't have a problem with that?" He glanced at Battery, who was looking intrigued.
"No, I checked and they're completely fine about it. If anything, they're grateful. A contact I have in the relevant department told me that the city budget has barely been able to keep up just with the work in the expensive areas for years, and the Docks were both way too dangerous and not considered important either, especially by the previous administration." The lieutenant grimaced a little. "Which doesn't surprise me. Mayor Christner is much more competent than the last guy, and seems to be good at his job. My contact also told me that since the Family are all DWU members, and the unions stick together around these parts for mutual benefit even more than usual, everyone was perfectly happy that everything was above board."
"Weird." The blonde shook her head. "For some reason that sort of thing is even more peculiar to me than most of the other things they do. I've never really heard of a cape who just wanders about fixing things for fun. And doesn't even bother to mention it to anyone."
"They don't seem to think it's unusual," Gibson nodded. "You remember how Saurial got a little over-enthusiastic with her bizarre flight board thing and left dents all over the place. She made quite a few friends when she went back afterwards, apologized sincerely, and fixed everything. And a few other problems she found too. That sort of behavior is unusual in a Parahuman, or to be honest in most people particularly in these parts, and it gets noticed. And she's told the city workers that if they need any help with anything to just call BBFO." He smiled a little. "I got the impression that not only the DWU can end up with some pretty heavy backup if necessary. It's weird, but it fits the pattern. They like helping and don't like fighting or breaking things unless they really have to."
"The Union of Lizard People gets everywhere," Ethan chuckled.
"Apparently so."
"I'm not sure if that should worry me or amuse me," the red-clad cape said, looking like the latter was more likely. "I wonder if, when they finish doing the Docks, they'll start expanding out into the rest of the city?"
Gibson shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine, although I was told that Saurial has fixed a few things she's run across here and there. We could always ask. But at the rate they're doing this, they're saving the city probably several million dollars worth of work a week and in the long run will add a hell of a lot more value than that to the infrastructure. When the renewal plan kicks in properly all that dockside land is going to be worth a fortune, and having high quality access to it is going to make that even more so. Or so I'm told by some people I talked to who know about that sort of thing."
Legend smiled. "The Family do seem to be very civic minded, I have to admit. It's a pleasant change from the more usual sort of problems we encounter. And it's also a very effective way to gain subtle influence, both politically and financially, not to mention tilting public opinion towards them and away from the gangs. I wonder how much of it is carefully planned out and how much is just them doing the right thing?"
"My opinion is that most of it is them doing the right thing," Dragon said, looking at him. "Although I have no doubt at all that Saurial and her family are also fully aware of the other implications of what they're doing. They're nothing if not very, very smart. But I don't think that politics in general are something they're particularly concerned about. They seem happy to leave that up to the mayor and Danny Hebert." She tilted her head a little in a thoughtful gesture. "Although even there, Danny doesn't appear too interested in the political capital the DWU is rapidly accruing. He seems more invested in getting his people new work."
"He does have an apparently well-deserved reputation for looking after the welfare of the people around him," Hannah commented. "I've heard quite a few stories about how much time he's put in over the years on keeping the Union going. From what I've been told about the only reason so many people were still working there was down to him."
"And now he's got crazy giant lizards on his side too," Ethan grinned. The military cape sighed and nodded, not looking entirely enthused about this.
"All right. Anyone else have new Family data?" Emily glared around the table, making it clear just from her expression that the answer should be 'No, Ma'am' if they knew what was good for them. Even Legend looked slightly cowed. When no one said anything, she nodded. "Thank god for that." Looking down at the five pages of notes she'd written, she flipped back through them, shaking her head slightly. "Christ. And this is just them being in a good mood and helping."
"I'm still curious about what Saurial and Lung said," Robin mused out loud, making everyone look towards him. "It's… very out of character, shall we say, for him to negotiate with anyone, but that would seem the most likely reason for them to meet."
"Whatever he had in the bag he left with seemed to make him satisfied," Rory commented with a shrug. "As far as my contact said. Understandably he wasn't very interested in trying to find out more. And no one really talks about what happens at Somer's Rock in the first place. Not even Lung is going to break the neutrality agreement of that place without a very good reason. Saurial seemed pleased when she left too, for what it's worth."
"That lizard is always pleased about something," Emily grumbled under her breath.
"You know you really quite like her, Emily," Legend smiled. She fixed him with a hard look, which didn't seem to affect him this time.
"I find them frustrating and confusing at best, and very worrying most of the time," she finally said. "However, I will admit that they are also competent, polite, and helpful. Whether one side of that outweighs the other I have yet to decide."
He looked amused but didn't push.
"I think, then, that we can move on to the threat assessment upgrade." She turned back to a previous set of notes, scanning them, then leaned back in her chair and rubbed her brow. "Assuming we don't want to officially just simplify the entire thing to Family: Yes, which I have to admit I'm tempted to do, we need to at least try to put some vaguely plausible facts in the report. After the Coil operation it's become blatantly clear we've been considerably underestimating their abilities. And, of course, we now have proof of Umihebi, plus Vectura, Cloak, and even Über and Leet added to the mix. Which is..." She paused, then shook her head.
"I have no fucking idea what it is. But it's there, so we need to consider it. Especially in light of the hardware that Miss Wilbourn demonstrated to us yesterday. And Vectura's testing the day before. So. Thoughts?" She looked around the table.
"Umihebi is the new Family member, right?" Craig asked. Emily nodded.
"Not precisely new, Dauntless," Colin explained. "She was, in fact, the third Family member to come to our attention, while you were out of town. But until Sunday we had only a very brief, and frankly very disturbing, encounter with her far out in the north Atlantic." He looked momentarily uncomfortable. Dragon glanced at him in a manner that suggested concern, and Emily could swear she saw him swallow slightly. "She is very… large."
"How big could she be?" Craig asked with a small smile. "I mean, Kaiju is about the largest thing I can even think of, and I didn't believe her… when… she..." He trailed off as he looked over at the large screen on the wall following Colin wordlessly tapping a control on the console in front of him. The resulting video from the camera on the transport vehicle that had recorded the entire interaction with Saurial and her vast sister made him stare in horrified shock.
Only a few people had so far seen that recording, mostly due to a combination of security reasons and simply being far too busy since that massive operation to go into the entire encounter. It was, after all, not as important as dealing with Calvert and his people, which had occupied them more or less continuously since Sunday. The man himself still twitched violently every now and then, apparently thinking he'd heard something he didn't want to think about. And when she had, purely due to a need to gather as much data as possible, arranged for the unnerving sound produced by the disturbing little stuffed toy Saurial had left behind to be played into his cell, she'd been interested to discover he immediately screamed and fainted.
Of course, in the spirit of scientific inquiry, she'd had this repeated a few times to make sure it wasn't a fluke…
Oddly enough he'd been strangely cooperative following these experiments. It was something that made her smile a tiny dark smile when she thought of it, and privately decide she owed the lizard-girl a small favor of some sort.
"Oh sweet Jebus," Craig mumbled after an appalled silence. Everyone who hadn't seen the recording yet was also gaping, and even those that had were watching with a disconcerted feeling. It really was more than a little disturbing. Colin paused the video at the point they were all heading back to the transport. Umihebi was no longer in frame, although Saurial was pictured heading away from them, smiling sightly as far as could be seen.
"I still can't believe that fucking huge thing was swimming around in the goddam bay and not one person other than you guys saw her," Ethan sighed. He was staring at the screen, looking confused and worried, which was atypical for the normally irrepressible and very irritating man.
"We have no idea how it's done, but it's very apparent that she possesses a formidable Stranger ability of some form," Dragon commented, sounding intrigued. "None of the instrumentation in the water detected her either arriving or leaving. She was simply suddenly there. And even the camera didn't help. It's one of the weirdest things I've ever seen." She gestured a little uncertainly with one hand. "It's not like she just blinked into existence, or disappeared like that, either. Everyone who's seen the recordings says the same thing, it's more like she was there all along but only became apparent when no one was looking at that exact spot. Which is ridiculous since you can mask off the entire image except for her and the same damn thing happens!"
"And she vanished in the same manner," Colin added soberly. "The closest simile I can come up with is that it's as if she was hiding in the blind spot in the eye, and being filtered out by our brains. Some known Stranger abilities work in a similar manner but none of them that we know about propagate through a camera or other remote sensing system."
"If they did, how would you even know about it?" Battery asked slowly and thoughtfully, looking at him. He paused, then started to reply, before stopping again.
Eventually, he sighed. "That is an unnerving concept I have never considered before, and am somewhat wishing I wasn't now," he replied quietly. The woman shrugged without saying anything, but she also appeared a little worried, as did everyone else.
There was a long, uncomfortable pause.
After thirty seconds or so, Ethan spun in his chair and grabbed out at the air behind him, then turned the other way and did the same. Everyone stared at him.
"What on earth are you doing?" Hannah asked curiously.
He looked at her with a serious expression. "Just checking there isn't an invisible lizard behind me," he replied, glancing suspiciously from side to side. She put her hand over her eyes as he leaped to his feet, knocking the chair over, and lunged at nothing. "Ha!" Then he shook his head. "Nope. No invisible lizards. I think. Maybe."
Emily glared at him, while his wife sighed loudly. "Sit down, Assault," she ordered sternly. "At least try to be professional for a few minutes. I realize it's a strain, but I'm sure with some effort you can manage."
He grinned at her and flipped his chair upright, dropping into it. Battery fixed him with a hard look which had no visible effect. "Everyone was getting too serious," he shrugged as he leaned back and looked pleased with himself. "And hey, for all we know we're completely surrounded by invisible lizards. If they're Strangers to that level, who could tell?" He waved at the monitor. As he did, his smile faded away, before he glanced around again then shivered.
Once again, there was a long silence, as everyone exchanged looks, then peered around the room. Rory even checked under the table.
"I really wish you hadn't said that, Assault," Lieutenant Gaiman said uneasily.
Ethan looked at him. "I kind of wish I hadn't said it too," he admitted in a quiet voice.
After some more slightly-more-nervous-than-they-really-enjoyed peering around, despite their best efforts, the group finally got back to the main task.
"All right. Umihebi definitely gets a check in the box labeled 'Terrifyingly effective Stranger ability,' Emily noted. "What do you all think? Stranger 8? More? Or is that too high?"
Legend tapped a finger on the tabletop, thinking, and stirred as her eyes landed on him. "My own opinion is that the demonstrated ability is worth at least a Stranger 9. Probably 10 or better in most respects. On the other hand, she's so enormous that practically speaking she's unlikely to be able to sneak up on a lot of targets, if only because she wouldn't fit into a building. So that tends to offset it downwards again if we're using the strict definitions of the ranking system."
Colin nodded slowly, glancing at Dragon who shrugged a small amount. "I would go along with that," he said. "The conflicting aspects of the situation balance out to a degree. Stranger 9 would seem valid. But with a note that in her own environment, that is likely a significant underestimate."
Making some notes as she listened, Emily produced a gesture of acceptance. "Fine. At that level it doesn't really matter for most purposes." She looked up again. "Anything else to add to that?"
Battery opened her mouth, then closed it once more. Emily looked at her. "If you have anything to say, go ahead," she invited.
"Well..." The other blonde appeared a little uncertain. "I was thinking… We know that several of their abilities run in the family. At least in Saurial's branch. So… I wonder if Assault was actually right and Saurial, Raptaur, and Kaiju have the same Stranger power?"
Everyone gaped at her, then looked at each other.
"You're suddenly very good at thinking of things man should not think of," her husband smirked. "Probably because you're not a man."
She thumped him on the shoulder but it didn't look like her heart was in it.
"That is another very unnerving concept," Colin said after mulling the suggestion over, while the rest of them were still thinking about it.
"Which one?" Dragon remarked with a slight laugh in her voice. "The Stranger ability, or the thought that Assault might have been right about something?"
The Tinker looked at her, then past her at the other man, who was grinning. "I cannot deny that the latter is worrying, but I was referring to the first point," he replied. Somehow she managed to give off the impression of trying not to snicker.
"I can't say that Battery's thought is impossible, but we don't so far have any evidence to suggest she is correct, like we do with Umihebi. However, bearing in mind how remarkably effective her ability is..." He stopped speaking with a small gesture of one hand.
"Would we actually know if the others could do it?" Dragon finished for him. He nodded.
"Precisely." He nodded. "That said, I have no doubt that the Family has a number of abilities we don't know about. They've more or less admitted to that, but they have no particular reason to tell us, of course. So I wouldn't want to go on record as saying that they're all high-level Strangers, or saying that it can't be true. We simply don't know."
"It would help explain how thoroughly they can vanish when they don't want to be seen," Rory put in. "And we still don't know how they got into Coil's bunker either, or how they managed to wander around for several hours and stop anyone seeing them unless they wanted to be noticed."
"The fractal dimensional methods they use could explain that quite efficiently," Colin responded, looking at the younger man. "I can think of several variants on that technique based only on the things I've see them do which could be used to stop people detecting them. And, for that matter, give access to a nominally sealed bunker, in ways similar to how Vista could probably manage the same thing. Although I suppose that still leaves them with a Stranger rating through a different mechanism."
"Oh, great," Emily sighed. "Invisible crazy alien lizards. Just perfect."
"Ones that can maybe walk through walls too," Ethan added helpfully. She glared at him while he smiled winningly at her.
"Thank you, Assault," she grated. "I wasn't worried enough up until you said that." Looking down at her notes, she shook her head. "This is just stupid. We're guessing randomly most of the time and when we're not it's even worse, since we know they can do bizarrely dangerous things. And if what we've been told recently is true, possibly even teach some of them to other people. Even non-Parahumans."
"How do you mean, Director?" Lieutenant Gibson looked intrigued.
She turned to him. "Kid Win has visited Taylor Hebert's house for mathematics lessons, as do a number of her friends on what we're told is a weekly basis. Both Dallon sisters, and most of the girls friends from school. Apparently it started with Amy Dallon and grew to include the others. When he visited, last weekend, Saurial was present as well." A frown crossed her face. "I didn't find out about this until later. Not that it matters now, though. Anyway, he reported that Saurial demonstrated something she described as a training aid for the Family form of mathematics. Kid Win found it more than a little disturbing."
"Having seen some of the artifacts that are of Family origin I can well believe that," Dragon noted. "For instance, that birthday present Ianthe gave Danny Hebert which got posted on PHO."
"Oh, god, that thing," Rory sighed, wincing. "Every time I look at one of the pictures of it I get a headache."
"Almost everyone does," the Canadian Tinker replied, sounding puzzled. "Except, a little worryingly, for Vista. Who seems to think it's completely fascinating, from what she told me last week."
They all looked at her, then each other. "I can't help feeling that's a tiny bit terrifying," Craig commented uneasily. "Cloak is bad enough. What happens if Vista learns something from her and Saurial? Or the rest of them?"
"We have our own little eldritch abomination, I guess," Ethan snickered. "A tiny blonde cute one who likes doughnuts way too much."
"Please don't say things like that, Assault," Hannah sighed, rubbing her forehead. "I don't know if I could handle it on top of everything else." Several people looked like they agreed with the sentiment but didn't say anything.
Emily felt she had a point, but it was going off track. "In any case, Kid Win reported that Taylor Hebert appeared both familiar with the artifact, and able to interact with it in the way it was intended to be used. Which implies a number of things..."
"The girl is supposed to be amazingly good at mathematics, right?" Gibson asked her. "I've read her dossier, because of the whole Shadow Stalker thing. Not much in there but everything points at her being a math prodigy of some sort."
"Which is quite likely because of, or at least heavily enhanced by, her tutoring in the subject by Saurial." Colin seemed intrigued and thoughtful. "Her scholastic records before Winslow show that she was in the upper ninety-fifth percentile in almost all subjects, and higher than that in both mathematics and English. The latter is quite likely due to her mother's talents and career, of course. While her marks subsequently dropped dramatically, for reasons we are all too well aware of, it's obvious she inherently has significant mathematical ability. Long term contact with the Family would improve that enormously if she was being taught by them."
Hannah regarded him for a few seconds as he stopped talking. Eventually, she said, "How fast, though? I'd have thought it would take years of study to learn anything about Family math, based on what you and Dragon have reported."
He nodded. "I would expect that to be the case, yes."
"But Saurial only appeared a little over two months ago," Robin commented after thinking it over.
With a slight sigh, Emily said, "It's pretty obvious that while we only became aware of the Family when Saurial made her public debut, the Heberts at least have been in contact with them for longer. Much longer, possibly for many years. How they met, where, why, and anything else of that nature we just don't have any information about. Or, for that matter, if there is anyone else who shares that experience."
Rory moved a little, attracting her attention. Fixing her eyes on him, she waited. "Um… I don't know if it helps, but Dad told me a little while ago that he sort of got the same impression. Mr Hebert is much too relaxed around all of the Family, he thinks, to not have known them for a long time." He looked around the table. "He also said he thought that the entire DWU is just a little too comfortable with them, but he wouldn't speculate any further on that. But it's interesting, I thought. On the other hand, Dad is very firmly of the opinion that the Family are good people and definitely friends of both his and the city. He likes them."
"A lot of people do," Dragon remarked with a smile in her voice. "I do. Your father is correct, they're good people."
"I concur," Colin added. "Despite their somewhat… unusual… sense of humor."
"You wouldn't know a sense of humor if it bit you," Ethan snickered as he glanced at the Tinker. "Which, considering who we're talking about, is distinctly possible."
"I think it unlikely that Saurial or Raptaur is likely to bite me," Colin replied stiffly. "I also consider them friends, and would prefer that we remain on good terms, which would seem to preclude any provocation required for such an act to take place." Ethan grinned but subsided, while Emily shook her head slightly, meeting Hannah's eyes. The man was… very Colin.
"All right, we're drifting off topic yet again," she said with a faint sigh. "As so often happens when we discuss the Family. Getting back to the original point and leaving speculation on the origins of our local reptilian associates for another time, it would appear that there is a distinct possibility that they can teach enough of their own brand of mathematics to someone to allow them to pull off something we'd normally consider a Parahuman ability. Correct?" She looked between Colin and Dragon, who exchanged a glance, then both nodded slowly.
"I wouldn't want to say you're wrong, Director," Dragon replied quietly. "I can't say you're completely right either, since we don't have enough real data to show it one way or the other. But based on what Kid Win reported, it seems likely that Saurial has indeed been in contact with the Hebert family for a considerable time. And has spent quite a lot of that time teaching Taylor Hebert both self defense skills and their mathematical knowledge. Whether that means the girl is able to perform any of the more interesting tricks that we know Saurial and her sisters can do, or might be able to one day, I have no idea. But if she's sufficiently knowledgeable about their system to interact with the Family version of a children's teaching aid, I wouldn't want to say it isn't possible."
"Are we sure that the Hebert girl isn't a Parahuman?" Lieutenant Gaiman asked musingly, looking at the others around the table. "I mean, that whole situation at Winslow was a prime Trigger event if I've ever heard of one..."
Colin shook his head even as the man trailed off. "I had the same thought when we first discovered the issue. Absent an MRI scan or something similar, we can't be one hundred percent sure, but I now think it very unlikely. Miss Hebert has shown none of the classic signs of someone who recently Triggered. The death of her mother some years ago was another possible Trigger event, but again, there is little evidence to show she gained powers then either. The same applies to her father. If it wasn't for the circumstances surrounding their relationship to the Family I doubt we'd ever have encountered them officially."
"So what you're saying is that it might be possible for the Family to effectively give normal people powers, just by teaching them math?" Robin shook his head in wonder. "Christ. If that turns out to be true, it's going to be… very weird. And potentially something of a game changer."
"We don't know for certain that it would ever go beyond an ability to interact with certain Family tech," Dragon shrugged. "I doubt even a Family children's toy is going to be particularly dangerous. They're weird, not stupid or irresponsible. And it's very likely that you'd need to already have a significant talent for mathematics before you could learn anything at all, which would preclude the bulk of people from managing it. Again, we don't really have enough data, so we're speculating. It's just something that should probably be made note of, not necessarily anything we need to be concerned about."
She chuckled slightly. "Although I suspect that by the time Taylor gets to university, she's going to find that she can teach most of the math courses there. Which will be amusing. It wouldn't completely surprise me to see her win a Fields medal or something sooner or later. Possibly by accident."
Emily could almost swear she saw a small smile flicker over Colin's mouth for a moment, but it was gone by the time she looked again.
"We'll have to keep an eye on young Miss Hebert," Legend commented, looking thoughtful. "Aside from the current situation, of course. She clearly has a very good mind, and we need as many people like that as we can get. Her friendship with the Family is also something we need to bear in mind for a number of reasons."
"Just shows that as and when Stalker does pop up again, she'd better hope we get to her before they do," Ethan said with a dark smirk. "Somehow I doubt that Saurial would see the funny side if the idiot girl managed to hurt her friends."
"I suspect that as far as the Family are concerned, the Heberts are Family," Colin responded calmly. "Not biologically, of course, but in all other ways that matter. One day I would be fascinated to discover how that came about, but absent asking them I can't think of a way to determine it. And considering how private they are, I for one have no intention of risking our good working relationship by poking too deeply into their business. There doesn't seem to be a reason to do so in any case."
"You're not curious about how some fairly random people met a bunch of alien lizards, and became close enough friends that they're probably considered part of the family?" Rory asked incredulously.
Colin fixed him with a look. "Of course I am. It's very strange, and the more I think about it the stranger it gets. However, they are certainly not hostile, they are good citizens and neighbors, people I consider friends as I said, and very powerful allies. We have no reason to provoke them merely to satisfy idle curiosity, and many very good reasons to accept the situation and move on." Everyone watched him, as he sounded more vehement about the matter, although in a subdued manner, than was common.
After a moment of silence, Legend put in, "The evidence we have, even though it's mostly circumstantial, suggests that the Family may have been here longer than we have. How, why, and where they've been until now, we don't know, but Armsmaster is right. We don't have a good reason to push too hard, and we may have to live with the fact we'll never find out some things about them. I would be worried about that if the circumstances were different, of course, but considering how well they are accepted and how important they've become to the city, I can accept the status quo." He shrugged a little. "Perhaps one day they'll tell us more. Until then, we live with it and do our jobs."
Smiling slightly, he added, "Which are easier in some ways specifically because of the Family, so we should probably thank them for that."
"And much harder in some other ways," Emily grumbled under her breath, sitting up from where she'd been leaning back, listening to the conversation. Everyone had raised some good points, but Colin was right. While PRT policy wanted as much information on potential threats as possible, the Family were in a class of their own and allowances had to be made.
That didn't mean she didn't want to work out what the hell they were and where the fuck they'd come from, but she wasn't going to waste any more time wondering about it when there were more important things to be getting on with. Mostly things that still had the Family mixed up squarely in the middle, of course, but that seemed to be her life these days…
At least very few people seemed to be shooting at each other right now, so she could take comfort in the fact that the crazy lizards confused everyone else at least as much as they did her.
"Getting back, again, to the main point..." She glared at everyone. "Hopefully without still another drift off topic, let's get this damn threat report update finished so I can go for lunch. And a drink."
She got a number of nods, while Legend seemed amused. Both Lieutenants visibly suppressed the urge to salute at the tone of her voice. "Armsmaster. You mentioned a while ago that you thought Taylor Hebert might deserve a low Thinker rating for her potential Family math knowledge. Do you still feel that's warranted?"
Colin thought for a moment, then nodded a little reluctantly. "I believe that even without being a Parahuman, a rating of Thinker 1 is probably reasonable. That might rise as she learns more of the subject. Or if we learn more about her as well, of course."
Emily made some notes, then turned the page to the first current threat assessment. "Good. Enough about the Heberts, they're not the main topic of discussion, whatever their relationship to the Family. Going back to Umihebi, then. Stranger 9, that clears up the query we had about the classification. I assume that everyone is agreed that the Changer rating, in light of the recent contact with her, is now not something we're considering?" She looked around.
"I honestly can't see it being likely," Legend replied, shaking his head. "Saurial and to a lesser level Raptaur, that was plausible. We know better now of course. But Kaiju and Umihebi?" He shook his head again. "Unless someone produces some extremely unusual new evidence I'd have to say it seems impossible."
"Agreed," Dragon added, with a glance at Colin who nodded. "Even Kaiju is at least an order of magnitude past the most extreme case of a Changer we have ever recorded. And Umihebi is at least twice her mass. Having seen her, I'd put it at more like three times. I can't said it's absolutely impossible, since very little seems to be when powers are involved, but it's one hell of a stretch to even consider it."
She put a smile in her voice. "On the other hand, we can probably be fairly sure that there's unlikely to be anything much larger than her out there."
Colin visibly shivered slightly, and Craig coughed. "That's one of those thoughts you don't want to think about," he said uneasily, glancing at the monitor which was still displaying the freeze-frame from the Umihebi interaction video. Colin reached out and tapped the button which made it go blank, both of them seeming to relax a tiny amount.
"OK," Emily commented, turning back to her paperwork. "Strike Changer from Umihebi and Kaiju." She looked up. "In that case, I think we can do the same with Saurial, Raptaur, and their cousins? In light of the information we do have about their origins, it doesn't seem likely that they're Changers either."
"Unless they do it the other way around," Ethan joked. "Turn into perfectly ordinary-looking humans and wander around with the rest of us. I'm sure I've seen a movie about that, so it must be true."
"Now you sound like Clockblocker," Emily muttered with an evil glare at him. "Admittedly, that would be a step up in mental age, but it's still not helpful." He merely snickered. His wife poked him, which didn't do much.
"I think it's safe to remove that category across the board, Emily," Legend said with an amused look at the now-quietly-bickering capes at the other end of the table. "I agree it's unlikely that any of them are Changers, all things considered."
"Good. That simplifies things a very small amount." She noted the corrections in her paperwork. "OK. With that out of the way, let's go back to Saurial. We've got Brute, Shaker, Mover, Thinker, and have deleted Changer. What do we add?"
"As I've said before, I think a decent Tinker rating is warranted for both her and Raptaur, although higher in the latter case," Colin said firmly. "Her hypersonic flight capability showed that very well. It also requires her Mover rating to have a considerable upgrade. Additionally, as I said at the time, the same mechanism could easily be leveraged to produce a very capable Blaster rating via a number of routes."
"Such as?" Legend looked intrigued. Dragon and Colin exchanged glances, then turned to him.
"Simple projectile weapons are obviously easy," Colin began. "We've seen that on several occasions. The water-powered flight board mechanism could easily be modified to produce a form of water-jet blaster, probably with a considerable range. Then we have the possibility of using something other than water in a similar mechanism, such as flammable or reactive liquids in the form of a flame thrower. Or toxic or explosive gases, as another example. She could also produce chemical explosives and simply throw them, since we know both of them have exceptionally good aim and are extremely strong."
"Then you start getting to the more exotic ideas," Dragon began as he stopped, while everyone else stared. Emily was getting a steadily sinking feeling in her stomach. "Radiological weapons would be quite straightforward. Not necessarily a nuclear explosive, merely something suitably radioactive that could be used for area denial. Although nuclear explosives would also be simple for them if they wanted to do that. I very much doubt they would, knowing them. Kinetic weapons are trivial, bearing in mind the density and strength of EDM and their own physical capabilities. Electrical attacks should also be possible."
Colin looked at his friend, his expression intrigued. "Electrical?"
Dragon nodded. "Yep. Think about it. Electrons are matter. They can make matter from nowhere. I can't see any reason they can't selectively produce elemental particles at will. Assuming that's the case, the simplest version of a directed energy attack would be to generate a very large number of electrons, thereby producing a huge negative charge. As long as a massive electrical charge wasn't harmful to them, and I think we probably have to accept that's the case considering that a heavy gamma flux didn't cause Raptaur any problems whatsoever, that means they could pretty much generate lightning on demand."
Everyone, including Colin, was gaping at her by this point. She looked around, appearing slightly puzzled. "What, seriously, no one else thought of that?"
"I wonder if Saurial has..." Emily felt faint. Every damn time she thought she'd worked out the limits of what those fucking reptiles could do, someone helpfully told her she was wrong.
Every damn time!
"Probably," Dragon shrugged. "Bearing in mind that if you have, as they appear to, complete control over matter generation ex nihilo, whatever the source of that really is, you also imply complete control over most aspects of energy too. E=MC2 after all. If they can materialize a kilo of steel, or EDM, or anything else as an example, I can't see any particular reason it wouldn't be possible to materialize the energy equivalent of a kilo of whatever. Basic particles are probably easy. Photons should be feasible. If so, that opens up the entire electromagnetic spectrum to them. And bearing in mind the exceptionally advanced knowledge they seem to have about the mathematics underpinning reality, I wouldn't want to say that they don't know how to manipulate gravity, or magnetism, or any other fundamental force."
When she stopped talking, there was a very long and rather appalled silence.
"God help us," Craig finally breathed. "You really think that's true?"
With a glance at him, the armored Tinker tilted her head a little, the overhead lights glinting from the metal of her suit. "Definitely true? I don't know, and don't have any real evidence for it. But within the realms of possibility, based on what we've seen them do so far and some logical thought?" She shrugged again, folding her arms on the table in front of her. "Yes."
Emily swallowed, then picked up her pen. "Blaster, yes, then."
"I think that's probably accurate, Director." Dragon sounded mildly amused. "Sorry if I've worried anyone but I thought we should at least discuss the concept. I've been thinking about it for quite a while, but up until now I wasn't sure it was a good idea to mention it. We seem to be on good terms with them these days, they're starting to show us more of what they're capable of, and sooner or later someone was going to work it out. Better to lay it out like that rather than have it come as a nasty shock at the worst possible moment."
"It's still a nasty shock, I think, Dragon," she sighed, writing a couple of lines in the margin of one of the pages. "And yet another reason, if we even needed one, that we make entirely sure that certain people are kept well away from the Family. I had no wish to see what an angry Saurial could really do already, and now I'd rather go and challenge Lung to a fist fight rather than see what would happen if she got pissed. I might live longer."
She looked at Legend, who was looking very thoughtful indeed, and just the slightest bit pale. It was clear he was thinking about how badly it could have gone when Eidolon decided to be a dick to Kaiju, and probably about some of the more hawkish PRT people.
Like Tagg.
Emily shivered. She really didn't want to see what would happen if that idiot took it into his head to get all authoritarian to the Family and make demands. If they were lucky the lizards would only laugh, then eat him.
"It's probably best not to put these speculations down in the report, Emily," the Protectorate leader said in introspective tones. "Dragon may, after all, be overstating the case." She was fairly certain he didn't believe that any more than she did, but said nothing. "We should stick to what we know or can reasonably deduce from experience. Anything more… terrifying… shouldn't be in the standard threat assessment, I think."
"The Chief Director would probably disagree."
"Perhaps. I'll write a report for her on the more disturbing aspects of Dragon's hypothesis. But for now, let's leave it out of the assessment."
With a small nod, not actually disagreeing but feeling mildly peeved that normal protocols were yet again being distorted by the mere presence of the Family, she tapped her pen on the page. "In that case, Blaster… 7?"
Everyone exchanged glances. "Reasonable to start with," Colin agreed. "If any of Dragon's ideas do end up becoming fact, we can always upgrade it. But that's high enough to convey the risk, while low enough not to unnecessarily panic certain parties."
"All right. Blaster 7. Tinker…?"
"3 for Saurial, 4 for Raptaur," he replied immediately. "Only based on what we've seen them do, and probably lower than they deserve."
"Sounds reasonable to me," Dragon nodded.
"Upgrade Mover to 8," Legend said. Emily made some changes. "That's also probably low, especially if she really can achieve orbit, but it fits the current state of our knowledge."
"I would also suggest an upgrade to Thinker 7 due to her ability with mathematical techniques that appear to have a real effect on the world," Colin put in. "The fractal dimensional system is, as far as I understand it, entirely math-based and unlike in the case of normal Parahuman powers, something she actually fully understands."
"So she's got Mover, Shaker, Brute, Tinker, Blaster, Thinker, and possibly Stranger too?" Ethan sounded both mildly outraged and like he thought the whole thing was funny. "You were right when you said they were trying to collect all the classifications. She only needs Master, Striker, Breaker, and Trump now." He grinned when Emily gave him a dark look. "Hey, look on the bright side, you took Changer away. She'll never get all twelve without that."
Both Emily and Battery sighed. Hannah was apparently deep in thought and didn't react.
"Unless you're right and she can turn into an ordinary human," Lieutenant Gaiman suggested with a small smile.
"Oh, don't you start," Emily groaned. "He's bad enough."
"Sorry, Ma'am," he apologized, a little unconvincingly. Ethan smirked at him.
"Good man. I knew there was a sense of humor in there somewhere." Then he yelped as his wife prodded him, quite hard, with a pencil and made a mouth-zipping motion.
"Ah, Director?" The other PRT officer, Gibson, raised a hand. Everyone looked at him. "If Saurial and her sisters can make any sort of chemical they want, doesn't that mean they could produce things like contact poisons and so on? I mean, Ianthe designed those instant knock-out darts and Raptaur used the same stuff on the Merchants, so what's stopping them doing the same with other chemicals?"
"Nothing," Dragon commented with an approving air. "Which means, as I think you're implying, that they also deserve a Striker rating. Which they should probably have already had, thinking about it."
With a put-upon sigh, Emily nodded tiredly. "Fine. Striker 5 to start with. Wonderful. Anyone else want to tell me they've spotted how Saurial can add even more classifications to her insane powerset?"
No one said anything, although Ethan started to open his mouth, until Battery clapped a hand over it. Giving her a grateful look, Emily finished writing, then turned the page. "Raptaur next. The same, only worse. Then we have Kaiju, Umihebi, Ianthe, Metis..." She sighed heavily with a glance at the clock on the wall. "This could go on for a while."
"And we also should probably add Vectura to the Family report too," Legend suggested. "Even though she's technically part of the DWU not the Family."
"I'm not sure there's much difference these days, other than the lack of tails," Robin smiled.
"Valid point," the other man chuckled. "And don't forget about Über and Leet, who probably need a reassessment too considering their new friends. And the Undersiders, who seem to have been absorbed wholesale by the Family. I'm sure that sooner or later they'll reappear, although one would hope that it won't be as villains."
"I think we have to believe that Raptaur and her relatives will keep that under control," Hannah said, apparently back from whatever train of thought had been occupying her for some time now. "She seemed fairly sure that they'd given up a life of crime when we first talked about it."
"Tattletale at least seems to have been more than eager to get out of that lifestyle," Colin nodded. "With Coil out of the picture, I don't see any reason she'd become a villain again. Many minor villains don't actually want to break the law after all. They just don't have a choice, or at least perceive themselves not to have a choice. The former Undersiders do, with the backing of the Family and the DWU behind them." He seemed pleased. "It would have been preferable to have them join the Wards and the Protectorate, of course, but anything that gets them off the street and out of a criminal mindset is a good thing."
"Is there any Parahuman in the entire city that those scaly menaces haven't affected somehow?" Emily grumbled.
"I don't think so, Director," Dragon laughed. "They do seem to have some effective techniques to make friends and influence people."
"Hey, a Master ability!" Ethan looked happy. "Only three left now."
His wife slumped back in her chair and put her hands over her face, muttering faintly to herself, while Emily stared at the incredibly annoying man.
It was going to be a long meeting.
"I doubt being genuinely decent people is a Master ability," Legend said with a smile.
"If it was, you'd be at least a Master 6," Ethan snickered. Legend looked amused, and Emily sighed.
A very long meeting.
"You coming to lunch, Vicky?" The blonde looked over at the speaker, a cheerleader called Sylvia, who was a tall beautiful black-haired girl and a good friend. They'd just finished PE, something she was mostly excused for obvious reasons, but she loved swimming and had spent the last hour in the pool. Although she wasn't allowed to compete on the swimming team, she did take every opportunity to dive in when it presented itself, finding the activity very relaxing.
"Sure, I'm just running a little slow today," she replied. "Coach wanted to talk to me after the lesson."
"Were you showing off your impossible slow dives again and I didn't notice?" Sylvia grinned as Vicky flushed slightly. It was just possible she'd pulled off a triple somersault in what, technically, wasn't enough space.
"I can neither confirm or deny that rumor," she said with dignity. Sylvia laughed, waved, and followed the others out of the locker room as Vicky finished toweling off, then turned to her locker to dig out her clothes.
Opening it she swore mildly as the overstuffed contents promptly overflowed onto the floor, some of them ending up in a wet patch. "Damn it," she grumbled, bending down to retrieve the clothing. Dumping it onto the bench that ran down between the rows of lockers, she quickly sorted through everything to find what she needed. "I really should take some of this home," the girl mumbled to herself, pulling her shirt on, then floating in mid-air to do the same to her skin-tight jeans. Her powers came in handy in more places than one might expect.
'I mean, where did all these come from?' she thought, dropping to the floor and picking through the remaining clothing, some of which was quite damp. 'You, you're supposed to be in my closet. And you, I was looking for you all last week!' She held up the top, examining it, then carefully folded it and put it into her backpack. 'And I don't even own this.' Vicky grabbed the next item, another pair of jeans in black stretchy fabric. 'Not even the right size… Oh, this belongs to Amy.' She frowned a little. 'Must have got it mixed up with my stuff weeks ago, this was right at the bottom of the pile.'
Shaking her head, she put it to one side and rapidly sorted the rest out, twitching a little when the bell rang since she was concentrating on the task. Quickly checking her watch, she piled everything she didn't want to take home back into the locker, slammed the door and spun the dial, then put her pack over one shoulder. Picking up Amy's misplaced jeans she started walking towards the door while folding them up, intending to give them to her sister at lunch and apologize for inadvertently stealing the clothing. Which would undoubtedly get a rather sarcastic response, knowing the brunette.
Almost at the door she stopped dead, staring at the item of clothing in her hands, then very slowly let it unfold and held it up.
There was a period of silent study, and a lot of confusion mixed with worry and disbelief.
Then she carefully folded the jeans up, making sure the tail sleeve was on the inside of the bundle, just as carefully put it into her backpack, and slowly left the room, her head full of a mass of whirling thoughts as many, many things jostled for attention...