Taylor Varga

by mp3.1415player

Taylor has a bad day that ends in a locker. Everyone has heard that one. It goes somewhat differently after that, as her call for help is answered by something from a lot further away than one might expect... A story in which Taylor makes a very large friend, the world gets confused, and Danny comes into his own.

370. Incident and Flight

Back on the road, feeling well fed, Danny got back up to speed and kept driving. The break had done him good as had the steak, which was as good as the one he'd had when going in the other direction. Tuning the radio around the stations he finally settled on one that was playing the music from the Blues Brothers movie, listening to Aretha Franklin belting out Think. 'Hell of a voice that woman has,' he thought, remembering when he'd first seen the movie with a small smile. He needed to go and see something with Taylor soon, they hadn't done that for a long time. Now that money wasn't a problem, he wanted to catch up on several of the activities he'd neglected during the bad times.

It was still something he felt guilty about and probably always would, but life was full of that sort of thing. She'd forgiven him, which was the important point, and he was never going to let her down again.

'Pity about Emma, but I can easily understand her thoughts on that,' he sighed, glancing at the mirror, then overtaking the very slow truck that was trundling along in front of him. He spotted the sign showing that the junction he wanted was coming up in a mile and pulled back into the outside lane. 'What that girl did, and the damn Hess girl too… She's a better person than I am because if it had happened to me, they'd never have found them again.'

He shook his head. That was the old man speaking. He knew that deep down he was better than that, although at times his blood screamed for settling certain debts the way it used to be done. He knew all too well where that path could lead and had long ago made the decision he'd never walk it, although at times it was very hard.

Times like when he thought about what had been done to his daughter, and his complicity in it, albeit circumstantial.

Growling to himself, he turned the music up and indicated as his turn came up, wondering where the black mood had suddenly swept in from. Dwelling on the past was pointless, it was done, and Taylor as the injured party had far more right than him to decide to let it go. He still felt angry about it, but he knew she was right, and much more mature about it than most would be. Her demon had helped that immensely but he was only building on what was already present.

Slowing for the long sweeping turn, he finally joined the 495 north, heading towards Brockton Bay. This was the finishing stretch, he'd be home in just over an hour at this rate. Looking at the dashboard clock he saw that meant he'd be in time for lunch. A brief stop at home to shower, change clothes, and eat something, then he could go to the yard and see if it was still there…

Snickering at the thought that it wasn't completely impossible that Taylor and her live-in guest could have somehow spirited the entire facility away if it seemed like a good idea, his mood lifted after the brief bout of annoyance. It was far too nice a day to get upset about things that were only memories, he decided, especially with how well the trip had gone.

Ten minutes later he was forced to slow sharply as he passed another junction due to a fairly new and very shiny sports car cutting in front of him as it entered the flow of traffic. Muttering to himself at the excessively close maneuver and how some people should both learn to drive and to be patient, he increased speed again as the car wove in and out of the half dozen vehicles ahead of him, obviously in a hurry to get somewhere.

Only about a mile and a half further on he saw the car, which was now some way ahead, find itself stuck behind two large trucks, both of them the same transportation line that he'd noticed at the diner. There were quite a few of them around the place, so it wasn't that much of a coincidence. One was, very slowly, overtaking the other, apparently being slightly less loaded.

As he closed the gap, he frowned at the way the idiot got far, far too close to the one in the outside lane, flashing his headlights, then sharply darted into the other lane and repeated the process with the other truck. Neither reacted, which wasn't surprising, as there was no reason they should in the first place, and nothing much they could do in any case. The overtaking vehicle was already committed to the maneuver and the impatient driver would just have to wait.

Apparently, he wasn't too pleased about that, based on the way he was leaning on his horn. Danny was now only two cars behind the guy, and could clearly hear it, as well as see him gesticulating through the rear window, making obscene gestures.

"Jesus, man, calm down before you have a stroke," he muttered, watching with amazement. The way some people went a little crazy when driving had always surprised him. His own father had impressed on him from a very early age never to drive angry, or bad things were much more likely to happen. Over the years he'd seen enough accidents to know that was good advice.

Turning the radio down again, he kept back a safe distance, as the other three cars in the immediate vicinity were also doing, since it seemed best not to get too close to someone driving like that. The guy braked sharply, pulling back and in behind the outside truck again, tried to pass on the outside and nearly came to grief when he discovered there simply wasn't any room, dived in the other direction and almost hit the barrier, then started honking manically again.

"Wow."

He'd seen some fairly impressive cases of road rage on the highway before, and truly frightening ones on YouTube, but this was just bizarre.

The overtaking truck finally managed to pass and pulled back in front of the other one. Danny, who was in the fast lane behind the driver who was completely losing it by now, saw an arm come out of the window of the lead truck and wave the impatient idiot past. With a roar of engine the guy floored it, shot past, then swerved in front of the lead semi and did something that made Danny gape in shock, which was slamming his brakes on hard.

"You really think that brake checking a forty ton truck is a good idea?" he exclaimed incredulously.

The truck slowed, the air horn sounding, and the one behind also jamming its brakes on with a loud hammering sound. The high performance vehicle sped up, as did the trucks, while Danny was passing them both. Moments later the idiot repeated the action while looking back over his shoulder, shouting something.

This time, unfortunately, he was just that little bit too close.

Danny swore and moved over as far as he could as the lead truck, which he was just coming abreast of, nearly ran him off the road as the driver tried to avoid the inevitable. It was pointless since there was far too much inertia involved.

With a surprisingly quiet crunch, the front of the truck slammed into the rear of the car, making the driver of the smaller vehicle lose control and nearly spin out. It ended up at ninety degrees to the direction of travel being pushed down the freeway by the vastly heavier truck in an enormous cloud of blue smoke as the tires rapidly ablated. The truck driver managed to steer to the side of the road without jackknifing the thing, a minor miracle in Danny's opinion, while his work colleague was able to slow fast enough not to go straight into the rear of the other truck. Both semis pulled over, the now badly crushed and completely totaled car fairly solidly attached to the front of the lead one.

Checking the mirror Danny saw that another car coming up behind had pulled over as well behind the rear truck, and he indicated and did the same in front of them all, wishing he'd had a dash camera, since words wouldn't do justice to what he'd witnessed when it came to describe it to someone else. Making sure he was fully off the road and thanking providence that it was one of the places where there actually was somewhere to pull off to he turned on his hazard indicators, grabbed his coat, and slid over to the passenger side to exit.

Making sure that his first aid kit was in the relevant pocket, he put the coat on while walking back down the shoulder towards the accident. By the time he got there both truck drivers were out of their vehicles and standing next to the mangled car, looking at it and the very, very pale man sitting inside still holding the wheel in a death grip. He was staring fixedly straight ahead and muttering to himself. The wrecked vehicle was leaking oil although by the smell of it not much fuel, and there was a large puddle of steaming coolant gathering under it. Steam was also billowing from where the radiator had been crushed.

"You guys OK?" he asked as he arrived. The two men, one heavily built and with a beard, the other one somewhat taller and looking a lot like a stereotypical cowboy, complete with stetson, both nodded.

"We're fine, takes a lot to hurt you up in one of these things," the cowboy said with a strong mid-western accent. "This stupid prick, on the other hand..." He looked back at the car driver, who had a small trickle of blood coming out of his nose from where he'd apparently slammed it into the steering wheel. "He's lucky to be alive."

"Yeah, I saw the whole thing. Nice driving, I'm surprised you kept it under control."

"Got an awful lot of miles under my belt, I know what I'm doing," the man chuckled. Despite his words he looked a little pale himself. Danny sympathized, it must have been quite a shock.

"Anyone called the cops yet?" he asked.

"I just did," a voice from behind them said, as a solidly built red-headed woman walked up. "Dispatcher said the state police will be here in about ten minutes." She looked into the car as well. "They're sending an ambulance as well."

"He looks reasonably intact," the other truck driver pointed out, bending down and looking more closely. "Door's fucked though, it won't open."

"The entire frame is twisted," the woman said. "What an idiot. That's a hundred and forty thousand bucks he just wrecked."

They all looked at her. "I'm a mechanic, I know cars," she added with a smile. "This was a nice one before he killed it."

"My camera caught the whole thing so he's shit out of luck on insurance," the cowboy commented. He grabbed the door handle and pulled, without any luck. "We should probably get the fucker out and make sure he's not bleeding out or something."

The sound of the door handle being moved made the occupant of the car jerk, then look around frantically. He stared at the steam that was still leaking from under the warped hood, then at the people looking at him. Grabbing the inside handle he heaved on it, swearing viciously when it didn't do anything helpful. He tugged on his seat belt but apparently it was now jammed solid, which didn't make him any happier.

"Can't open the other side, it's half way under my fucking truck," the behatted driver grumbled. "Break the window maybe?"

"I'm surprised it's still in one piece," Danny remarked. He reached into his pocket and pulled out one of his Taylor-made batons, extending it with a flick of his wrist. The other three people looked at him with some surprise. Knocking on the window, he tried to attract the attention of the car driver who was now screaming obscenities and still fruitlessly attempting to open his door. "Hey!" he shouted. "Lean away from the window and cover your face!"

He had to rap the glass several times before the idiot paid any attention, but eventually he seemed to notice. Covering his face with his arm he leaned as far into the passenger side as he could, being restricted by his seat belt.

Danny aimed carefully, and gave the corner of the window a sharp smack with the button on the tip of the baton. The glass promptly disintegrated into small glittering fragments, a lot of it falling both inside and outside the car. He used the tool to clear the rest of it out of the way then folded the baton up and put it back in his pocket.

"You've done that before," the bearded driver noted, looking mildly impressed. Danny grinned for a moment.

"Misspent youth," he replied. Both the truckers laughed.

"I know what you mean, man," the shorter one chuckled. "Hey, you OK in there? Anything else bleeding other than your nose?"

The car driver looked rather dazedly at them all, then down at himself, raising a hand to his face. He wiped some of the blood off his lip, stared at it, and passed out.

"Oh for Christ's sake," the woman sighed. "What a pussy." She leaned into the car and checked him over. "Can't see anything obvious wrong, just a busted nose."

The sound of a siren made them all turn to see a state police vehicle drive past, pull over behind Danny's car, then reverse back towards them. Stopping, it disgorged two troopers, who inspected the scene, exchanged a look, and headed for them, one of them popping the trunk and pulling out a large first aid kit en route. The lead trooper, with a tag on his uniform reading 'Webb', studied the scene, then leaned in the window and felt the pulse on the neck of the unconscious driver.

"He was conscious until he saw the blood," the woman told the trooper, looking mildly disgusted. "Fainted when he realized."

"That happens a lot," the man replied, nodding, then turned to his partner as he joined them. "No obvious damage, but check on that ambulance, he's going to need to get checked out."

The other trooper pulled out his radio and walked a few feet away, talking into the microphone, while the first one turned back to the various people. "OK, dispatch gave us the basic information. What the hell happened here?" He looked at the two truckers, then Danny, and finally the currently unnamed redhead. "You two saw it?"

"I'm the one that called it in," the woman replied. She jerked a thumb at Danny. "He nearly got run into the barrier when it happened."

"I did get a rather close view of the whole thing," Danny nodded, smiling slightly. "Closer than I wanted."

"All right. Which one of you was driving this thing?" the cop asked, turning back to the drivers. Cowboy raised a hand.

"Me. This idiot brake-checked me twice, and was too close the second time." He looked at the man who was now stirring with enormous irritation. "Fucked himself up, fucked up my truck, and he's going to make me late with this delivery. My boss is going to be pissed."

"We'll deal with that in a minute," the officer nodded, making some notes. "Got a camera in that rig?"

"Yeah. It recorded the whole thing. I can get you a copy if you've got a USB stick, but I'd have to check with head office if you want the original."

"A copy will be fine for now." Reaching into his pocket, the cop produced a memory stick and handed it to the man, who took it, then climbed back into his vehicle. A minute later he came back and returned it. "Thanks. OK, tell me exactly what happened."

The driver explained the entire event as he had experienced it, while the other cop returned and also took notes. After that, Danny gave his account, as did the woman, who turned out to be named Lauren Vinson, from a town a few miles south. "Either of you have cameras?" Trooper Webb asked.

They both shook their heads. "I'll probably get one after seeing that," Danny told the man.

"They're useful evidence," the cop replied. He looked up as an ambulance pulled over a few yards ahead of them and the paramedics climbed out. His partner was making sure that traffic didn't slow too much due to rubberneckers, of which there were a fair number. The paramedics, after a quick description of the accident, got to work checking the man who was now swearing quite loudly to himself and trying to unbuckle his seat belt, which proved impossible due to the seats being squashed together and trapping the buckle.

"Hey, hold still, you might have some internal injuries," the female paramedic said sternly, holding him in place while her colleague checked his pupils.

The various other people watched for a moment, then Trooper Webb turned back to them. "All right, I've got your statements, so you can go," he said to Danny and Lauren. "I need to get some more information from you, though," he added to the cowboy, who was actually called Luke Bates.

The man sighed but nodded, looking peeved. "My boss is going to be real pissed," he muttered. "That's about ten grand worth of damage to my rig."

"Is your cargo perishable?" Danny asked.

"No, Mr Hebert," the man replied respectfully. He and his colleague, who was mostly silent during all this, were very polite, Danny thought to himself. "It's mostly industrial equipment, it'll be fine. But the company paid a premium for delivery and now they're going to have to send out another rig to connect the trailer to, which will take hours. That's going to cause problems."

"Hopefully not for you, from what I saw it wasn't your fault." Danny looked at the driver of the car. The second cop had brought a crowbar and between them he and the male paramedic had levered the door open, allowing the still dazed occupant to get out, the other paramedic having cut the belt with a knife. "And despite his best efforts, he's basically fine too. At least no one was badly injured or killed, so it could have been worse."

"Yeah," the man agreed, although his heart clearly wasn't in it. "Damn it."

"Man's right, could have been a lot worse," his colleague said, slapping him on the shoulder. "I called the office, they've already got someone coming up from Hartford to take the load on, and the wrecker is on its way too."

Danny put his hand out. The cowboy looked at it, then took it. "I'm sure it will work out," he said. "Good luck."

They shook hands, then he turned to Lauren and thanked her as well. "I'd better be on my way, I've still got some distance to go."

"Brockton Bay, right?" the woman asked.

"Yes."

"Thought so, I've heard of the DWU and those weird lizards of yours."

He smiled. "They're not that weird." She raised an eyebrow. "You get used to them."

She didn't seem too convinced, but nodded all the same. Looking at the truckers, she said, "Hope it works out, guys. Glad I could help a little."

With that she turned and walked back to her car, which passed them a minute later.

"If we need more information we'll be in contact," the second trooper, a man with 'Morgan' on his uniform identity tag. Flipping through his notes, he added, "Probably won't need anything, though, this is pretty clear."

"In that case, I'll be on my way," he said. With a last nod to the truckers, he headed back to his car, relieved that only property damage had occurred and no real injuries.

He definitely had an interesting story out of it as well.

---

"Subject showed no obvious suspicious activity, sir, although he was armed with a collapsible baton and clearly knows how to use it. The truck drivers obviously knew who he was, or at least recognized his name."

"You're sure?"

"Yes, sir. I'm sure, they're aware of who he is at least in part. I doubt they know the full truth, since no one appears to, but they know someone higher up the food chain when they see him."

"Interesting. That would match some of our other data. Good work, Agent."

"Thank you, sir. Do you want me to resume following him?"

"No, hand off to Agent Karloff, we can't risk him recognizing you. Return to base and make your report."

"Sir."

---

Brian rapped on the door frame, then stepped into the security office. "You left a message you wanted to see me, Mark?"

The blond security chief looked up at him from his desk. "Yes. Thanks for stopping by. I need your signature on a few forms." He handed Brian a clipboard.

Taking it with a curious look, the young man read the top page, then turned his gaze to his companion. "Application for a private security guard license?"

Mark nodded, smiling. "Yeah. You're old enough to get it, and you meet all the requirements. I'll countersign. It will allow you to work security without any problems from the cops or the city. Inside the DWU grounds, you're covered anyway, but this will make things all legal if we need you to work outside this place. The next one is an application for a concealed weapons permit. I'll train you for that myself. Not that I'm suggesting you should carry a gun, but if you need to, which let's face it in this city isn't impossible, there's no sense in risking getting arrested for it."

Brian flipped through all the documents, seeing that they added up to the sort of thing that would let him work practically anywhere in the security field. It was more or less a do it yourself mercenary kit. "Shit. You think this is a good idea?"

"I do, actually, and so does Danny." Mark leaned back and regarded him. "You've got a good head on your shoulders, you're calm and sensible, have decent self-defense skills, look after yourself and others… everything I'd personally look for in a candidate for a job in security here, for example. And you learn fast and listen to your trainer, which is a bonus. Even the PRT guys the other day were impressed. Your friend Alec is, possibly, someone else to watch despite his… shall we say personality quirks? But he's too young at the moment, so we'll keep him as an internal reserve. You on the other hand, I want you available in case we need another hand for anything serious."

"That's..." Brian shook his head. It was an unexpected compliment and rather a lot to take onboard. "Thanks."

"No sweat. So, you in?"

He thought about it for a few seconds, then signed the forms and handed the clipboard back. "I'm in."

"Great. I'll get these filed and the fees paid. We'll start training you on some things you'll need on Monday. You won't have any problems, you already know a lot of it, but we need to cover rules and regulations, things like that. It's not too hard but it's a bit tedious." The security man put the clipboard on his desk and picked up a thick manual from next to it, handing it over. "Study this, it's got everything you'll need. Read chapter one, then six through eleven by Monday. Those cover the important points. Read the rest later."

"OK." Brian flipped through the first part of the book, then closed it. "Thanks."

"You're welcome." Mark nodded to him. Brian turned and left, feeling a little overwhelmed, but on the whole, quite happy.

---

"Fuck me, Ross, that was Boss Hebert himself!"

"Yeah, I know, Luke. What are the odds of the Brockton Bay Boss stopping to help?"

There was a pause. "And I nearly fucking hit him with my truck… Christ, that was too close."

"Good thing you didn't, you'd probably have found a lizard in your bedroom the next day."

"Oh, thanks a fucking bunch for that, you bastard. You want me to have nightmares?"

"Nah, just wanted to see your face."

"Prick."

"Hey, it could be worse. Old Antonio could be waiting for you."

"Oh, Jesus."

"With a lizard."

"Fuck off and finish your beer, you asshole. I want to get home. And shut the hell up."

---

"Hebert. Wonder what he was doing getting involved so blatantly?"

"No idea. Maybe it really was just a random accident."

"Nothing around that man is random, trust me."

"You are way too paranoid, sometimes."

"I've been a cop for sixteen years. There's no such thing as too paranoid."

"Which is what someone who's too paranoid would say..."

"… You'll be singing a different song one day. We need to report this, and I don't trust the radio or phones."

"Fine, we'll report it. Still think it was just an accident."

"Not with Hebert involved."

"Christ, you're a pain in the ass sometimes, you do know that, right?"

"I just go with the facts."

"So you keep saying. It's very irritating."

---

Lisa looked up from her computer as the door to her office opened following a tap on it. "Hi, Danny," she smiled. "How was the trip?"

"Very productive," the man at the door replied, looking pleased and in a good mood. "I cleared up some past misunderstandings, caught up on nearly fifteen years worth of talk, and had some exceptionally good meals into the bargain. Well worth the effort, and it makes me a little sad I didn't have the balls to do it years ago."

"You weren't in the right place to do it years ago," she told him, knowing it was true. "Circumstances have changed for all of us. Now you are." She smiled again. "I'm really pleased you enjoyed yourself."

"Thanks, Lisa. You are wise for a young one." He grinned at her as she laughed. "I see the buildings are still here. That's good."

"Everything is fine, and running to plan. Kevin and Randall moved in, that went off without any trouble, and they're exceptionally pleased about it. I spent an afternoon talking to both the city and the PRT about FamTech products and I expect a lot of orders out of that, which will lead into all sorts of interesting opportunities. And the train is almost full, two days ahead of schedule. Kurt thinks it will be ready to leave tomorrow afternoon."

"Excellent," he replied, looking impressed. "I'll let the smelter know."

"Kurt did that this morning."

"Even better," he chuckled. "Maybe I should go away more often, things seem to get done when I'm not here."

"You know as well as I do that's only because you got things moving," she told him seriously. "You're the glue that's held this place together for years, and everyone knows that."

He looked at her, then rather reluctantly nodded. "I just did what I could."

"And did it really well." Lisa glanced at her computer as the email program pinged, noticed it wasn't important, and returned her attention to him. "We all know it, and we all have your back if you need it."

"Nice to hear," he replied. "Actually, I was told something I didn't know about this place while I was away..."

The blonde looked at him, then slowly grinned. "Ah. I was wondering when you'd find out."

"And of course you've known for weeks."

"Of course."

"And didn't tell me, because…?"

"Because it's hilarious, obviously." Her grin widened to near-Taylor level as he sighed.

"I see. Why would I expect anything else around here? And particularly from you."

"Hey, we all find our entertainment where we can, Danny," she giggled. "This is gold. I wasn't going to ruin it."

"One day, young woman, there will be a reckoning," he warned her with a hard look. She met it head on.

"Bring it on, old man."

"I will, never fear."

"I fear no man."

They shared a smirk, then he glanced at his watch. "Not right now, though, I need to find Kurt and talk to him, then see a few other people."

"He's down in the metalwork shop, I think," she said, checking the clock on her computer screen. "He said he'd be there for an hour or so from two."

"OK, thanks. I'll see you later."

"Later, Danny." She waved as he left, closing the door, then returned to her computer and her work on carefully checking all the former assets of Thomas Calvert, which he had been careless enough to misplace. It was work she very much enjoyed.

---

Taylor got into Amy's truck and closed the door, then leaned back and relaxed. "Glad that's over. I'm looking forward to the weekend and today school seemed to drag on forever."

"I know what you mean," Amy sighed. "Geography was a nightmare. So fucking boring! Anyway, it's done for the week and we have plenty of time to have fun now." She started the vehicle and pulled away, indicating as she reached the road, then turning left. Taylor waved to Chris who was standing near the road talking to Dennis, the boy waving back as they drove past.

"Supermarket?" Amy asked. Taylor nodded.

"Yep, I can get supplies for later. I've got some new snack recipes I want to try, plus the usual stuff."

"Ooh, new Varga food?" Amy looked intrigued.

"He gave me a few ideas, yes," Taylor smiled. They drove on in companionable silence for a few miles, the demon appearing in Taylor's lap as the tiny dragon, causing her to stroke him. "Any idea what's up with Vicky?" she asked a while later when they were forced to slow to a crawl because of traffic. Amy glanced at her as she spoke. "She's been acting weird for days now, and it's got something to do with me, I think. Or Saurial, or both of us."

"I don't know what the hell is wrong with her," Amy sighed. "I've tried discreetly prodding her, but sometimes she wouldn't get a hint if you wrapped it around a baseball bat and smacked her upside the head with it. I may have to just come out and ask her."

"Why haven't you done that already?" the small demon asked curiously.

"Mainly because she's got a habit of getting moody and uncommunicative at times," the healer replied with a small frown. "Worse than I do, or used to, sometimes. And if you poke her too hard, she just clams up, flies away, and sits on top of a building sulking for a while. Normally that's because of a fight with Dean but recently that seems to have settled down. What it is this time, god only knows. Usually she'll eventually open up and rant for a while, we talk it out, I point out where she's being an idiot, and things go back to normal."

She shrugged. "This time it's gone on for a lot longer and I don't know why."

"We could get Lisa to look at her, I bet she could work it out in seconds," Taylor suggested.

"And how exactly would we work that casually into conversation?" Amy asked with a raised eyebrow. "'Hey, Vicky, my friend Lisa wants to stare at you.' Or maybe, 'Vicky, Metis is here to give you a meaningful look...'"

Both aspects of Taylor snickered. "No, when you put it like that, it might not be too subtle. Maybe we should get her down to the yard somehow and just let things happen naturally."

"That might work. If we can think of a good reason. Or, you know, I could just ask."

"Will she tell you though?"

Amy sighed. "God knows. She might, if she's nearly at the ranty stage. She might not."

"Awkward."

"Yeah. It's starting to worry me. She smells weird, like she's worried and scared all at the same time, but not like you'd expect if there was something normal wrong. I'm going to have to find out soon, if she doesn't open up."

Taylor stroked her demon for a while, thinking. Neither one of them could come up with any particularly good reason for the blonde girl to be acting like she was. "Perhaps she suspects something about you, Brain?" the Varga mused.

"What? And how? The cloak should stop that, right?"

"Yes. It was just a thought. Vicky is not stupid, perhaps she's noticed something we missed. Or merely guessed. Or I am simply mistaken and it's another fight with her boyfriend. Dean has also been looking rather oddly at us of late."

"That part is easy enough to explain," Amy noted, looking mildly amused. "He's confused as hell about Ianthe and Metis."

"That does seem likely," the demon replied with a grin. "We need to come up with a plausible story to cover that very soon, I think, I have no wish for the lad to end up in a state of perpetual confusion." He chuckled. "As amusing as it is, it's also somewhat cruel considering he's a person of good character."

"What the hell do we tell him, though?" Taylor looked at him, then Amy. "About the only thing that would properly explain it is the truth, and I'm not at all sure that would really help."

"It is a problem, I agree," her demon nodded. "I will consider it further, and see if I can come up with anything."

"Still doesn't help with Vicky, either," Amy put in. The traffic started moving again and she accelerated. "Damn it. If she doesn't tell me by Sunday I'll just risk asking her."

"That's probably best," Taylor agreed. "It's getting concerning."

They fell silent again, busy with their own thoughts, until Amy turned into the car park of the supermarket Taylor preferred. Shortly they were accumulating fairly large amounts of food for later.

---

"Those smell amazing," Lucy said, sniffing, as she came into the kitchen. Mandy followed her with a look of interest on her face, both girls heading for the table where Taylor had put a pan of small baked creations to cool. Amy came in behind them, having let the pair in.

"Something I'm experimenting with," Taylor smiled. "Inspired by a friend. They're sort of a savory cookie. Those ones are shrimp, these are bacon, and those are chicken. Try one."

Each of them took one of the things. Mandy just stuck hers into her mouth and chewed, then yelped. "Ow!" she said through a mouthful of pastry. "Hot."

"They did just come out of the oven," Taylor pointed out, amused. Her friend sucked air over the mouthful, then cautiously tried again. Lucy had more carefully nibbled hers. Both girls looked impressed, and quickly finished them. Mandy was already reaching for another.

"These are great," she said eagerly. "What are they called?"

"They don't have a name yet," Taylor replied. She watched a few more disappear, Amy joining in. "Hmm. I think I'll call them… ceteras."

"Um..." The other three exchanged a look of puzzlement.

"What?" Amy stared at her. "What does that mean?"

Taylor took one, chewing it thoughtfully. It had worked out very well, she thought. "Seems like a perfectly good name. People can ask you what you did, and you can reply, 'Et cetera, et cetera..." She took another one and popped it into her mouth, then gave them a wide grin.

Amy sighed, putting her hand over her eyes. "Oh, god. You're worse than Danny."

"Hey, it's funny!"

"For a given value of the word, sure." Amy shook her head sadly, turning to Mandy and Lucy, only to find them leaning on each other chortling. "Hell. Am I the only one with a proper sense of humor in here?"

"Probably," 'Saurial' said as her other aspect walked into the kitchen from the living room. She took a few of the treats. "Nice ceteras."

"Thanks."

"You're both a pain in the ass," Amy grumbled, but she took some more as well. Snickering, Taylor started making more.

When there was another knock on the door, Taylor used her more reptilian aspect to answer it, letting Rich and Eric in. "Hi, guys," she said.

"Hi, Saurial," Eric replied. She stood to the side as they passed, closed the door, then opened it again when she heard a familiar car approaching. Her father soon came into view, pulling into the driveway and parking. She waited as he got out, then locked the vehicle, before ascending the porch stairs.

"Hi, Danny," she greeted him, inwardly amused as always about the deception. He smelled as amused about the same thing. "Good trip?"

"Yes, thank you, Saurial, it worked out very well," he said as he came inside. She closed the door again. "I assume from the smell that the others are in the kitchen?"

"Yep. Just waiting on Chris and Vicky now," she said as she followed him in.

"Hi, Dad, have a cetera," Taylor's base form aspect said over her shoulder. Eric, who had two in his mouth already, held out the pan. Danny took one and looked at it, then tried it.

"Cetera?" he asked, then sighed. "I just et cetera."

Amy groaned and banged her head on the fridge. "Of course you got it," she muttered. "You would. If she didn't come up with it, you would have done."

Father and daughter exchanged a look before laughing. "Are you annoying Amy again, dear?" he asked, helping himself to some more. "These are very nice."

"Amy is sometimes easily annoyed," Taylor said calmly. "I have no idea why. I've got some poppers in the oven, I made extra since you like them. How was your trip?"

"It went well, but I'm glad to be home," he said, taking his coat off and disappearing into the hall to hang it up, then returning. "Antonio and Serafina both said to tell you they'd love to see you at some point, and I've got some presents in the car from them. I'll bring them in later." He looked around as the doorbell rang.

"I'll get it," her reptilian aspect said, going to open it. She could see through the door from the thermal signature it was Chris before she let him in. He seemed in a good mood and greeted her happily with none of the confusion of the first time. Having this aspect roaming the school so much had led to practically everyone there apparently thinking of her lizard alter-ego as just one of the locals, which she thought was interesting as well as useful.

People seemed to be very adaptable if given a chance, she thought.

A familiar scent came to her as she was about to close the door and made her look up to the side, to see Vicky flying towards the house. The blonde was dressed casually and still smelled odd, as if there was something bothering her, but she seemed cheerful enough when she landed. "Hello," the other Dallon sister said, coming in as she held the door open. "Is everyone else already here? I see Danny is back."

"Yep, we're all just eating snacks," 'Saurial' replied, closing the door for the last time. "Danny just arrived. He seems to have had a good time."

"Great," Vicky said, smiling. The undercurrent of worry was definitely present but it seemed muted compared to earlier during the day. Taylor puzzled over it as she trailed after the blonde girl, hoping it wasn't because something was seriously wrong.

Ten minutes later they were all gathered in the living room, with the exception of her father, who had gone to take a nap having felt tired after all the driving, or so he'd claimed.

"I've got some cool games on my laptop, I thought we could try them later on your TV," Chris said. "And my math teacher wants to talk to you about abacuses, Taylor. Abaci? Whatever the plural of abacus is, anyway. He seemed pretty amazed about this thing." The younger boy held up the soroban she'd given him, grinning broadly. "I'm amazed too, I got ninety five percent on a test today. I've never got anything above forty percent before and only did that once."

He appeared fairly enthusiastic about it. Taylor smiled back, very pleased that her idea had actually helped. "I'm really happy to hear that, Chris."

"You wouldn't believe how happy my mom is," he said. "She wants to make you a cake. Probably lots of them."

"I like cake," her other aspect chirped.

"Almost everyone likes cake," Mandy giggled. Lucy nodded seriously.

"That's no lie."

"I'll accept a cake, of course, but it was my pleasure to help you, Chris," Taylor assured him completely truthfully.

"What games do you have?" Eric asked curiously.

"A couple of shooters, a strategy one, and this cool thing that just came out, it's a sort of space simulator," the other boy explained, holding up his laptop. "You have to help little rodents build rockets and fly them."

"Oh, cool, you've got a copy of Gerbil Space Explorer?" Rich exclaimed. "I was thinking about getting that, the demos looked pretty good."

"It's a lot of fun," Chris agreed. "Still a little buggy, but not bad. The idea is good, it just needs some more work."

"We can try that one, it sounds interesting," Taylor smiled. "Let's watch a movie first, though, to get us in the right mood, then do some nice easy calculus, before we play games."

Mandy, Lucy, and Vicky all looked at each other and simultaneously rolled their eyes, while both aspects grinned. The three boys laughed, and Amy just shook her head, then reached for the stack of DVDs next to the TV.

"How you can put the words easy and calculus in the same sentence baffles me," the brunette muttered. She held up a DVD case. "Ghostbusters?"

"Sounds good to me," Eric nodded. Everyone else agreed, and they were quickly immersed in one of the comedy classics of the last century.

---

Vicky was mightily puzzled, having spent nearly an hour very closely inspecting those damn jeans looking for any trace of the non-standard addition she was still certain she'd seen. But no matter how carefully she examined the clothing it only appeared to be perfectly normal black stretch jeans, in Amy's size. Eventually, totally baffled, she'd put them into her sister's closet, tucked under a pile of other clothing to allay suspicion that they might have been lost for a while. If Amy hadn't noticed them missing by now, she probably wouldn't at all.

Going back into her room, she lay down on the bed and waited for the headache that had developed during her studying of the paradoxical clothing to fade, trying to work out what on earth was actually going on.

She was completely convinced something was, but just couldn't put her finger on exactly what. It was amazingly frustrating.

After a long period of careful thought, she was no closer to a solution than she'd been at lunch in school. Again, she'd found herself at times holding two almost diametrically opposed viewpoints, one insisting that there was a serious case of lizard-based weirdness in progress, the other one telling her that she was imagining the entire thing. Either one seemed plausible depending on how you looked at the admittedly very circumstantial evidence. The only solid proof of oddity she'd run across had either spontaneously turned into something totally normal or had never existed in the first place, and she wasn't sure which possibility was more disturbing.

Eventually she sighed, sitting up and staring at her reflection in the mirror on the back of her door. 'I have to work on the basis it's Amy, and just figure it out from there,' she decided. 'There's no good reason for the Family to replace her, and I can't see how they could anyway. It's Amy, I'm sure of it. I know my own sister. Maybe I imagined it…' She was fairly sure she hadn't, but since she couldn't prove it, she might just be wrong. 'I'll watch them and see if I can see anything weird. And, I guess I can just ask her. Somehow. Yeah, like that's not going to make me look like an idiot. Hey, sis, I accidentally borrowed your jeans. The tail sleeve is a little drafty, though, so you can have them back. Oh, by the way, when did you get a tail? How's it working out for you?'

She smiled a little at the absurdity of it all. Resolving that if she couldn't work it out she'd try to figure out how to talk to her sister about her rampant imagination sometime over the weekend, she got up, changed her clothes, brushed her hair and teeth, then opened the patio doors on the outside wall of her room and stepped out. Moments later she was flying towards the Hebert household.

She spent the next few hours closely but discreetly watching Amy, Taylor, and Saurial, but learned nothing new. Although she did find her worry diminishing, since she could see no evidence at all that her sister was anyone other than her sister. While it wasn't absolute proof, it made her feel better, even though it didn't reduce her puzzlement one iota.

Even so, she found herself enjoying the company and the activities, so eventually pushed her more bizarre thoughts to the back of her mind and just went with the flow. It was about all she could do at the moment in any case.

---

"Thanks for the new lessons, Taylor." Chris looked pleased as he stood on the porch, his mother's car parked at the side of the road. "It really helps."

"I'm very glad of that, Chris," she told him. "It was a lot of fun. And that game is hilarious. I might get it."

"I can't believe how quickly you could calculate those trajectories in your head," he said admiringly, hefting his laptop. "It was amazing. Saurial was the only one better at it."

"That's because I'm just that good," her other aspect said over her shoulder, making him grin.

"I can believe that." He looked back at the waiting car. "Got to go. Thanks again, and the food was great."

"See you at school," Taylor smiled, watching as he dashed across the lawn and got into the vehicle, waving as it drove off.

Going back inside she closed the door, then looked at her other aspect, the demon running it looking back. "He seems happy," she said.

"Indeed he does," the Varga replied. "I'm very pleased your idea was so successful. It worked far more effectively than I expected."

"Me too," she nodded, going back into the living room where Amy was sitting on the sofa finishing off the last of the jalapeno poppers. "Hey, I wanted some of those."

"You shouldn't have left me alone with them, then, should you?" her friend snickered, eating the final one.

"Apparently not."

Her father came into the room, carrying a box. "Everyone gone, Taylor?"

"Yep." She and her other aspect began picking the debris up. Amy got up to help. "It was a lot of fun. I like teaching people math, and it's nice to have friends over."

"I'm very glad you do, dear," he replied, sitting down and putting the box on the coffee table. He waited until they'd collected the various snack packages, her Saurial aspect wadding the whole thing up and eating it. Shaking his head, he went on, "That is still a little disturbing to watch, but I can't deny it's a quick method of cleaning up."

Both aspects smirked at him. Amy giggled. "Here, I got you something," he said, opening the box and removing two smaller ones, which he handed to her base form aspect and Amy. They exchanged a glance, then accepted them, the Varga peering over her shoulder as she opened hers.

"Oh, wow, that's incredible," she gasped, taking the delicately carved wooden figurine out of the soft material lining the box and holding it up to examine it. While she could easily manifest something as complicated and beautiful from nothing, someone had done this the hard way, which was very impressive.

"It's extremely well made," her demon remarked, also impressed. "And rather apposite."

"I thought it was suitable," her father smiled.

"I love mine, Danny," Amy said softly, looking at the little carved tree with appreciation. "Thank you very much."

"You're very welcome, Amy," he assured her. "I got one for Lisa, too, and several other people. She seemed pleased as well. The man who carved those is a true artist, and a lot older than you'd believe to still be able to do that. Some of the things in his shop were just incredible."

He watched them for a moment. The Varga took the little dragon and inspected it, smiled, then handed it back. She returned it to the box it had come in and carefully put it on the mantelpiece next to the photo of her mother. Going over to her father, she hugged him. "I'm really glad you worked things out with Uncle Antonio and Aunt Serafina."

"So am I, Taylor," he said a little sadly. "It's something I should have done a long time ago. I seem to have been slow to do a lot of things."

"Nothing where it really made too much difference," she smiled. "Things seem to have worked out OK."

"They do, I agree, although mostly not because of me." He sighed regretfully. "I'm sorry about that."

"Don't worry about it, we're all fine now." She released him and straightened up. Amy and 'Saurial' were sitting next to each other watching them. "We're going to go finish something of Amy's now. I'll probably be back pretty late."

"All right, Taylor. I'll probably have an early night anyway. I've got a lot to think about, and sleeping on it will help." He smiled up at her. "Have fun, try not to terrify anyone too much, and don't break the universe."

"We could fix it," she grinned, making him snicker. "But we'll be good."

"Goodish," Amy clarified with a grin.

"Close enough. Enjoy yourselves."

"We will." Taylor waved to him, then followed Amy out of the house and to her truck, the other aspect disappearing in the process. When they were on the road, she pulled out her phone and dialed.

"Hey, Lisa. Go find Metis, we've got work to do," she said when it was answered. "See you soon."

Beside her, Amy was smiling gleefully in anticipation.

---

Smiling as he watched the tail lights of the Dallon girl's truck disappear up the street, Danny shook his head, then went to get a glass of water before he headed upstairs. Five minutes later he was lying in bed, reading a book and pondering the last few days. All in all, he felt everything had worked out about as well as it could possibly done.

When he finished the last chapter, he put the book on his bedside table, turned out the light, and was asleep in seconds, an expression of satisfaction still on his face.

---

"OK," Amy said, flexing her taloned hands a couple of times, then leaning forward over her creation. "Let's get this finished, then go for a full systems test."

Taylor smiled, watching her friend start work. "This is going to be great," she chuckled.

"I suspect you are entirely correct, Brain," The Varga commented, also watching closely. "I am constantly impressed by how well you do this sort of thing, Amy," he added with respect. "You and your ability do the most extraordinary things, and appear to be learning new tricks at a significant speed as well."

The violet lizard form of the healer smiled to herself as she leaned further into the half-completed project. "Thanks, we're both pleased that you think so," she replied as she worked. "Coming from you that's a significant compliment." She glanced back at the Raptaur aspect, which was looking amused, then resumed inspecting her latest toy.

"One that is well deserved. I am intrigued to know what you'll be doing after a few years of practice, considering how far you've come in mere months."

"We have a lot of new Family members to make if nothing else," Taylor giggled. "We'll be everywhere by then."

"Let's not get too carried away just yet," Lisa remarked as she came into the workroom and watched closely. "We need to build up to that. And we really need to start making some of the little presents you've been talking about gifting to the archaeological sciences too." She grinned when Taylor nodded thoughtfully with a smirk. "I've been looking for the right places to put them for a while now and I have a decent length list. It'll take some sneaking around but I bet we can get people completely convinced they've found Family artifacts from millennia ago without too much effort."

"A lot of people are already convinced we've been around since before the last ice age at least," Amy said over her shoulder, still making delicate changes to the structure in front of her. "The one I'm waiting for is our Eldritch City Under The Sea, Sleeping The Eons Away..." Her voice went deep and resonant for the final words, making Taylor and the demon both laugh and Lisa smile widely. "Sounds like a fun place. And I've got dozens of nice weird life forms to populate it with too."

"Yep, we definitely need to start work on that soon," Taylor nodded. "We'll do the artifacts first, though, that won't take too long and should be cool."

"Bearing in mind that you guys can be tracked by looking at the results of Dragon's Endbringer system, you're going to have to do it all under cloak," Lisa pointed out. "We know that it seems to confuse them, although I'm still not sure if they can't detect you at all through it, or whether it just causes them to be unsure where you are exactly." She though for a moment. "That said, the way Leviathan reacted while you were out flying around as a dragon a while ago, I'd be willing to bet they lose you entirely. My power is sort of suggesting I'm right as well, which is another data point for that theory."

"We were planning on being cloaked anyway, since we don't want anyone to notice anything at all," Taylor assured her.

"Right, I've got this where I want it, so we need some more superconductor nerves, then the next part of skeleton," Amy announced, straightening up from her project and turning to her friends. "Lisa, can you get half a ton of onions in here too? And we'll need the goo maker as well."

The black and scarlet form nodded, going back out into the main room, while the Saurial aspect of her friend began making the network of fine superconductor strands she described. At the same time the Varga-piloted aspect quickly recreated the familiar machine they'd used several times before. Lisa came back carrying a stack of large crates full of fifty pound bags of root vegetable which she put next to the machine, before grabbing a bag, slitting it open with the flick of a claw, and pouring the contents into the input hopper.

When she'd filled the thing, she said, "This is ready when you are."

"Thanks," Amy replied absently, carefully weaving the delicate tracery of superconductor into the structure while concentrating hard. "OK, make some more spine, but leave the back open for a moment," she instructed. While Taylor did that, she turned and moved the protoplasm applicator machine into the right place, putting her right hand into the input hopper, the onions almost instantly collapsing into a gel. The Varga switched to a twin of Saurial and grabbed the output hose, filling the structure with biomass while Amy used her other hand to form it around the EDM foam bones. Lisa kept tipping in more feed stock until the healer nodded. "That'll do for right now, Lisa," she said. Removing her hand from the machine she put it on the new project as well and got to work.

---

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Completing the project took close to another four hours, but finally Amy smiled, stepped back, and folded her arms. "Done."

"Absolutely fascinating." The demon inspected the result, shaking his head in respect. "Quite remarkable. You've outdone yourself again, my young friend."

"Thanks," the girl said, pleased. "I like it, I have to admit."

"Looks amazing," Taylor commented, walking around the new construct that was in the middle of the workroom. She ran a hand over it, feeling the scales with interest. "Really nice job, Amy. You're getting good at this sort of thing."

"Lots of practice," her friend laughed. "And a hell of a lot of thinking. Not to mention learning from these." She tapped herself on the chest. "I came up with a few things for this one I'll retrofit to Ianthe and Metis, just to keep them up to date."

All four of them studied the new creation. "We'll need a new name, of course," Lisa mused out loud.

"That's always the hardest part," Taylor sighed.

"Because both of you are horrible at naming things," Lisa retorted with a smirk.

Taylor and Amy looked at each other, shrugged, and turned to her. "True enough," Taylor grinned. "Got any suggestions?"

"A few, but I want to think about it for a while," Lisa told her. "By the time you guys have worked out the bugs I'll have a list for you."

"Are we going to show it to the boys yet?" Taylor asked after a moment's reflection.

Amy thought, then shook her head. "Let's make sure everything works properly first," she replied. "It's going to take practice too, I want to be sure I don't make too big a fool of myself in front of them. We're going to need somewhere a good long way away from people for the initial tests."

"That's easy enough," the demon commented. "There are plenty of locations on the coast where no one goes very often, especially at this time of night."

"Sounds good," Amy nodded. She glanced at Lisa. "You coming to watch?"

"Damn right I am," the other lizard laughed. "I want to watch you make an idiot of yourself. That never gets old."

"Oh, thanks very much," Amy replied with a glare, although her voice was full of laughter.

"You need to make some tiny ones too at some point soon," Taylor said with a small chuckle. Both Lisa and Amy looked at her, then each other. "I have a couple of ideas that I think would be fun, but we'll need several of them."

"I… am now worried," Lisa slowly replied, staring fixedly at her.

"Don't be, it's something neat, not something weird." Taylor grinned, then thought. "Well, neat and weird, if I'm being completely honest. But I still want to do it. Anyway, that's for later. Let's see about testing our latest project right now."

Her friends gave her a quizzical glance again, before both shrugging. "Fine, be all secretive," Amy giggled. "You're right, this is more important at the moment." She stepped back and gazed proudly at her newest work. "She's beautiful."

"She is that, yes, Amy," the Varga nodded. "I feel sure this should add something to the Family we will all enjoy."

"And the public will go 'Um… What?' at," Lisa added with a smirk.

"That is indeed one of the important parts of any Family project," he nodded soberly, before meeting her grin with one of his own. "We have a reputation to uphold after all."

"Turn her on and let's see what happens," Taylor urged.

Amy moved forward again, putting a hand on the head of the latest construct and concentrating for a few seconds. "All the internal systems are working to spec, flywheel is outputting rated power, internal power storage now fully charged, superconducting power transfer systems functioning properly, consumable reserves full, no errors at all," she muttered to herself, obviously running through an internal checklist. A twitch of motion ran through the large scaled form. "Neural processing systems online… sensorium fully functional… consciousness centers activating… Everything checks out and she's awake."

She stepped back once more and watched proudly, along with her friends, as the large dragon twitched again and lifted its head, looking around apparently curiously at them, before nuzzling her.

Grinning widely, Amy hugged the head that was more than twice the size of her Ianthe one, then said, "Welcome to the Family."

Looking between Amy's new draconic construct and the door into the main workshop, Taylor commented, "We're going to need a bigger doorway."

"I didn't think about that until I was half-way through," Amy admitted. "Good thing you embiggened this place already, at this rate we're going to run out of room in here and we already would have otherwise."

Taylor nodded, looking around. "May as well make it even larger now and add some more storage space too, so we can move all the onions in and have places to keep your constructs when they're not being used." She and the duplicate aspect being driven by the Varga moved to the edge of the main workroom and started doing the math, which didn't take long after all the practice they'd had recently. The Coil operation had let her experiment and come up with a lot of interesting techniques she wanted to use more.

Idly wondering how her father would like a basement large enough to park an aircraft carrier in, complete with subterranean lake and eerie lighting, she grinned at her demon, who was chuckling, then got to work.

"Perhaps later," he suggested, although she could feel his amusement at the idea and approval for it. "We could always arrange a tunnel connecting your house to here as well, we learned enough from Vista to do that easily and make it stable."

"Not a bad idea," she nodded. Satisfied that they had the design down, they got to work, Amy and Lisa watching with interest as the walls moved apart. The ceiling also rose somewhat, to around twenty feet, which seemed about right. "Say when," she added to Amy.

"Little more, I think," the healer replied. The walls moved further apart. "And… right there should do for now. Wow. That's damned impressive. How large could you actually make it?"

"Do you have any planets you need somewhere to store?" the demon inquired with a smile.

Lisa gaped at him, while Amy looked intrigued. "Really? Surely there's a limit eventually."

"For practical purposes, not as such," he replied, shrugging. "Certainly it becomes more complex to arrange as the size increases, but the basic math is the same. We could easily produce something where the internal volume was measurable in thousands of cubic miles with some work. At present I see no real need for it but it's possible. Larger than that would start to become slightly awkward to work on for purely practical reasons, but that's really only a minor problem."

"What about the ratio between inner volume and outer volume?" Lisa asked, sounding both shocked and extremely interested.

"There's no direct linkage required, so you could make it the size of a shoe-box as far as the rest of the universe was concerned," Taylor told her. "Or smaller if you really wanted, of course. Or larger. It's pretty versatile."

"It's utterly ridiculous is what it is," the black lizard retorted. "I'm going to have to think about this. I thought I had a fairly good grasp of the pockets of holding idea, but now you're telling me you can put an entire city into one of those pockets." She shook her head in amazement. "I can see some interesting uses for that."

"It's slightly different than the technique I used on Dad's coat," Taylor replied. "More complex math, of course, which makes it a little harder, and we hadn't worked out all the ramifications at that point either. We're still refining it and I think there's a lot to do yet that we haven't even touched on."

"Taylor's ideas and my knowledge of magic reinforced each other in somewhat unexpected ways," the Varga added. "The mathematics are fascinating."

"Ancient Family techniques are very complex and layered," Amy nodded with a smirk. "The Engineer branch keeps much of its knowledge locked away in case less flexible minds are overwhelmed. The Lifeshaper's Guild does the same, of course, for similar reasons. But we'll share small, safe amounts of it with the humans, because we like them."

They all looked at each other and laughed.

"We're all completely crazy, you guys do realize that, right?" Lisa giggled.

"Oh, undoubtedly," the Varga nodded, looking satisfied and content. "It is as it should be." He glanced at Taylor. "We should also expand the main room and you were thinking about a direct connection to the water as well. Perhaps now is a good time for that, it would make getting our latest cousin in and out of the building easier."

"Yep, that's a good idea. We'll need to make sure it's secure from the other direction, of course, in some way that lets our poor demon-deprived cousins access it." Taylor looked mischievously at Lisa and Amy, who exchanged rolled eyes. "Not everyone enjoys all the benefits I do."

"Perhaps in time they can gain a modicum of insight into the workings of the Universe also, Brain," her other aspect smiled. "Let's finish in here, do the work outside, then proceed to the really interesting part of the night."

With a nod Taylor resumed working alongside her other half, between them quickly adding a dozen new storage rooms down the far side of the expanded workshop. After a little thought she put some lights in as well, using one of the flywheel units to provide power to a number of banks of high brightness LEDs in the ceiling. It was something she'd learned about while studying the electronics for the power converters they were making for the flywheels, and she'd been rather surprised how simple LEDs actually were. "We could get the electricians in to do this," she said as they worked, looking over her shoulder to her friends. "I feel a little guilty about taking work away from them. But on the other hand the union actually has a lot to do right now and there are some things in here we probably don't want even the DWU seeing right now."

Glancing at Amy's biogun recharger tree, which was making contented little gurgling sounds to itself, she smiled. "Although they'll find out sooner or later."

"I need to spend time over the weekend making more of those," Amy said thoughtfully. "And I think I've got a good design for an instant fixer maker too. I'll build a couple of them to test. By the time the PRT and the hospital have finished testing them, I should be able to turn the things out in any quantity we'd ever need."

"Sounds good," Taylor nodded. "And in many ways the most important thing any of us is likely to do." She smiled at her friend, Lisa and the Varga doing the same. "You really are incredible, Amy. Don't ever forget how many people you've helped, and how many more you will help."

"Indeed," the Varga put in with a nod of his own.

"Thanks, guys." Amy looked mildly embarrassed, scratching a non-existent itch on her muzzle and turning her head away for a moment to apparently inspect her new construct, which was watching them all with with looked an awful lot like curiosity.

"She looks… a lot more aware than Ianthe and Metis did the first time they woke up," Lisa noted curiously, also watching the creature. "I mean, they practically look like they're about to talk to you now, but that first… power up, or whatever you'd call it, they didn't give the same impressions she does right now."

Amy smiled as Taylor and her demon each came out of the last two rooms, having completed the work, and joined their friends. "She's got an even larger and more advanced brain than the other constructs, and I used a lot of new ideas that I came up with after watching how they were developing. It's more or less jump-started her to about the same level they are now, perhaps a little less. Basically she's a mark two prototype, these are the mark one."

"Can you retrofit any of the new upgrades to them without harming them?" Lisa asked slowly.

"I can, they were designed right from the start to be quite, um, modular, I guess would be one way to put it. The brain is the important thing like in a human or anything else," Amy replied, turning around to look at the others. Her construct seemed to almost be listening, after a moment resting its head on top of hers with a sort of satisfied look in her eyes. "But it's also vastly more resilient than a normal brain from anything evolved on Earth would be. Almost self contained in some ways. If the body was damaged beyond repair, and I have to admit I'm not sure how that could easily be done at this point, the brain would quite likely survive and could be salvaged. I'm not taking any chances with my creations." She looked upwards at the creature resting on her. "I'm giving them every advantage I can think of because I don't want them hurt."

"Very cool." Taylor was impressed all over again. Amy grinned at her.

"I think so. The PRT might have a different idea, but who cares? They don't know and it's none of their business in the first place."

"True enough," Taylor laughed.

"So, yeah, I can add almost all the upgrades I've come up with for her to Ianthe and Metis without any problems," Amy continued, turning back to Lisa who was listening intently. "The brain upgrades are a little more difficult because there's no way I want to risk damaging the existing engrams and personalities, or what may become a personality. But all that means is that I don't want to fiddle with what's already there, it doesn't mean I can't add to it. Same deal as with our human bodies, and everyone else I've upgraded. Basically a neural amplifier, only more complex. The end result would be the same but through a slightly different path."

"No user serviceable parts inside just isn't a concept that you pay attention to, is it?" Lisa snickered, making the healer laugh.

"Not really," she admitted happily. "Come on, you, get off me and let's go outside," she said to the draconic construct, who lifted her head and watched her closely.

"She understands you..." Lisa noted with a look of surprise.

"Pretty much," Amy replied as she made a few hand signals they all recognized, backing towards the door which the Varga opened for her. He quickly made it expand to a double door system, stepping out in the other Saurial aspect to make way. "Not quite to the point of a young child, but enough for now."

Lisa and Taylor followed as Amy led the new construct out into the main workshop and into the middle of the room, where she signaled it to stop, lie down, then roll onto its side. A quick further signal made it apparently go to sleep. "So far, so good," the girl said quietly, sounding pleased.

After examining the comatose creature very carefully, she straightened up and smiled. "Everything's perfect. Time to slip into something… a little larger."

Taylor popped over to the coffee machine, reappearing in her base form, while the Varga switched to the mini dragon form and draped himself over her shoulders. Making a cup of coffee for herself she walked back to where 'Ianthe' had also lain down, the human body of Amy sliding out of the chest opening moments later, with Lisa assisting her to her feet. "That's still pretty weird even now," the healer commented, looking down at her first construct with a smile, then bending down and reactivating it with a touch. 'Ianthe' rolled smoothly to her feet and nuzzled her hair, then turned her head to inspect her new sister. "My upgraded human senses are amazingly good, but compared to hers..."

"I know what you mean," Lisa nodded. "It's definitely better in here for a lot of purposes. Makes getting into small spaces a little tricky, though."

Amy grinned, stroking 'Ianthe's' neck. "Yep, I made you a relative," she said to the construct, which looked at her, then back to the much larger one on the floor. "Don't be jealous, I love you both equally."

Taylor giggled making both healer and artificial life form look at her. The glowing green eyes of the violet lizard seemed almost to have a spark of amusement in them. "You know, if one day she starts making jokes, I really wouldn't be that surprised," she remarked, walking over and patting the large reptilian form on the shoulder. 'Ianthe' nudged her with her tail, making her return the gesture. "She's getting more like a real person every day."

"I've noticed," Amy nodded. "It's amazing, I really didn't expect this much improvement. Whether she'll ever be as smart as a human, or smarter, I couldn't say for sure at this point, but it's a lot more likely now than I ever thought it would be. I didn't deliberately set out to make a fully sapient life form, after all. But..." She met her creation's eyes. "I wouldn't completely rule it out. Randall was right, really."

"We're definitely a real Family in most ways, now," Lisa chuckled.

"Yep." Taylor felt she was entirely correct and had no problem at all with it.

"Well, Amy, I believe the next move is yours," the Varga suggested. The Dallon girl looked at the small dragon for a moment, nodded, and walked over to the enormous creature that was slowly and evenly breathing on the floor. Kneeling down next to its chest, she opened the access slit, grinned at them all, and slid inside. It sealed up behind her without a trace.

Thirty seconds passed, then sixty. Lisa and Taylor exchanged a glance. "My power says everything is working perfectly," the black reptile said quietly. "It's fascinated by this as much as the rest of us, but not worried."

"I was just making sure all systems were working properly," the dragon said in a deep voice without opening her eyes. Moments later she lifted her head, scaled lids opening to reveal a familiar glowing green set of eyes, much larger than the ones 'Ianthe' or 'Metis' possessed. "Wow. You guys all look so small from here," she added with a reptilian grin. Licking the end of her snout, she shook her head, blinked a few times, then carefully rolled onto her stomach before standing on all fours.

"So fucking cool," she whispered almost to herself. Looking around to make sure she was a safe distance from the walls or anything breakable, she very cautiously spread her wings to their full forty foot span, curling her neck around to study them. "This feels pretty strange," she noted, flexing them slowly. "It'll take a while to get used to."

"Wings are a little odd but I didn't find them too hard to deal with," Taylor said. The tiny dragon around her neck made a coughing sound, causing her to grin and add, "After some initial teething problems..."

"Yes, but we all know you're both very weird and have unfair advantages," Lisa pointed out quite accurately. Taylor merely shrugged and drank some coffee.

Sitting on her haunches, Amy lifted her front limbs and inspected the huge hands, while the others studied her latest form. It was patterned on Taylor's dragon form, since that was known to be a viable flyer, with a number of changes to differentiate them and because Amy thought they looked good. Overall she was a very deep blue-green, although as she moved her scales showed the same iridescent effect 'Ianthe' produced, like an oil film on water seen in bright sunlight. Nose to tail she was about twenty five feet long, with a forty-plus foot wingspan. Her tail was long and slender, vanes on the end like the ones Taylor had derived through experimentation and Lisa's input allowing control in the air.

There were also the same sorts of extendable vertical fins that both Ianthe and Metis had for underwater use, and the wings could furl tightly around the body to reduce drag. Her head was more pointed than that of her first construct, with a mouth that could open nearly to ninety degrees, as she was currently proving, feeling her fangs with one finger.

There were an awful lot of fangs. Taylor and the Varga both approved. You couldn't really go wrong with sharp teeth.

"Looks really, really nice, Amy," Lisa said, walking around her friend with great interest. "How does it feel?"

"Comfortable," the healer rumbled. "God, I can't believe how deep my voice sounds like this!" She started singing 'Oh Yeah' by Yello, making things rattle around the room and the others laugh. Stopping, she grinned at them. "This is fantastic."

"OK, since I can tell you want to even without my power, tell us about yourself," Lisa suggested, rejoining Taylor and the demon then leaning back on her tail.

"Well, you know most of it," Amy began. "It's based on Taylor's dragon form, obviously, with cosmetic differences to differentiate us. I didn't want to modify that part too much since I wasn't sure what might happen as far as flying goes. When I've got some experience in here, I may be able to change more things for yours. Anyway, it's basically a ramped up version of Ianthe or Metis in most respects. Even better senses, and much stronger, if only because of the size increase, although the biobatteries and the flywheel storage system add a huge amount of extra energy. I'll need that for flying aside from anything else, but I can use it all the time if I want. I've got my modified super-efficient electrocytes all through my body, and they'll pump power back into the flywheel when they're producing more electrical energy than the body is requiring, which will be most of the time I'm not flying."

"That's a neat idea," Taylor said approvingly.

"I thought so. The superconductor makes a huge boost in power output too, which made the entire thing viable. I can see all sorts of interesting uses for it. I laced the nerves with it too, so the neural conduction speed is just insane. It should be pretty much as fast as electricity through a cable, which is so much faster than a human nervous system it's not even in the same category. My upgraded neural cells that I used in Ianthe, for example, were a hell of a big improvement, but this stuff opens up so many new possibilities even my power was surprised." The dragon-form healer smiled widely at the thought.

"Anyway, energy isn't a problem. Combining the biological batteries, the organic capacitors, and the flywheel, even this version can produce pulses of megawatts of power, and continuously output hundreds of kilowatts." She held up her hands about six feet apart and made everyone twitch in shock when a huge blue-white arc jumped between them with a deafening bang. A strong smell of ozone filled the room.

"Holy shit!" Lisa yelped, having apparently been taken unaware despite her power. "I didn't think you had that much voltage available!"

"Got it up to about two million volts or so," Amy said with satisfaction. "I can't add that much power to a human scale body without making so many changes it's really obvious, and it could be a problem with the smaller constructs simply because they are smaller, because it'll arc over too soon as the voltage goes up. But I'll retrofit the improved electrocytes to all of us, which will make the whole system more efficient."

"Armsmaster would say that shows the correct attitude," the Varga chuckled.

"He probably would once he stopped screaming in terror," Lisa sighed. The demon looked amused as the other two laughed. "Poor guy."

"He likes us, and we like him," Taylor commented. "We're not going to deliberately terrify him."

"Only accidentally," their friend said wryly, making both aspects shrug. "Go on, Amy."

"Until I test it, I don't know about the flight characteristics," the dragon continued, looking back at herself and folding and unfolding her wings. Folded, they furled so tightly against her body they almost vanished, to make swimming easier. "But since Taylor proved this design functions well, it should be fine. Underwater it'll work nicely, it's an improved version of the original system. Taylor used her bigger on the inside trick pretty liberally and the consumables storage facilities are ludicrously large. I've got enough oxygen, water, and metabolic supplies that in conjunction with the incredibly high level of internal recycling this biology can support, it will keep it active at full functionality for literally years. Even in a vacuum, in theory. And I can eat more or less anything, even more than the original constructs can handle."

Lisa nodded, looking thoughtful and impressed, as well as a little envious. Noticing, Amy grinned again, adding, "Yes, I'll retrofit all that into you and Ianthe too, don't worry. Almost all my work is backward compatible."

"Good. I don't like feeling like last week's model," Lisa said firmly, before snickering.

"I could have made the reserves even larger, but there's a point where it seemed a little ridiculous," Taylor put in, finishing her coffee then teleporting back to put it next to the machine, before hopping back to her original position. It took less than a second and she barely moved, only blinking from one place to the other and back. Amy and Lisa exchanged a glance, then both shook their heads.

"That ability I'd absolutely love to be able to duplicate," Amy sighed. "I have no idea at all how to do it, though. Or force fields like Vicky's, or most other Parahuman abilities. There's something really weird going on with those, which I want to get to the bottom of one day."

"We all do, I think," the Varga replied. "I suspect the answer will be most interesting. However, we won't derive it tonight, so let's stick with our current project."

"Fine by me," the dragon nodded. "The bit I'm really proud of is this, though." She posed in the middle of the room on all fours, with her wings half-extended, then gently faded out of sight. Not completely, there was still a sort of outline visible under the bright lights, but if she stayed completely still and someone wasn't paying attention it was barely noticeable.

"Wow, that works even better than I thought it would," Taylor said admiringly, tipping her head from side to side and squinting. "Hardly anything showing up." Walking around her friend, she noted how the effect seemed just as functional from every angle, although the closer she got the more visible the dragon was. "That's damn good work, Amy."

"Thanks," the nearly invisible reptilian form said with a note of satisfaction in the deep voice. "Make a mirror for me will you? I want to see it from the outside."

"Sure." Taylor formed a large mirrored surface forty feet away. The barely visible form of her friend's head moved to look at it.

"Holy shit, that works fucking amazingly well!" Amy said with delight. "I thought it would be a lot more obvious."

"It's nearly as good as Cloak's trick," Lisa put in, studying the draconic form with enormous interest and respect. "For a biological system that's just nuts. It even works for thermal vision."

"Should be good in UV too," Amy nodded. "There are some limits, parallax means that it's not as effective at close range, and I can't really push it as far as Taylor's senses can handle, of course, but I tuned it to work on normal human vision, thermal cameras, and the sort of standard security cameras the PRT uses. I looked up the data on them a few days ago." She faded back into view. "Nano-scale chromatophores combined with ultra-efficient bioluminescence, linked to a vast network of modified retinal cells over the entire body. I read an article on quantum dot technology a while back and it started me thinking that I could make a biological system using the same idea. It seems to work pretty damn well and lets me precisely tune the wavelength emitted by each chromatophore. An octopus has nothing on me."

She thought for a moment, then appeared to concentrate. Unfolding one wing, she tilted it towards them, all three of her friends laughing when they saw it had 'Body by The Amy,' scrolling slowly across it in bright green letters and a nice font. "Neat, isn't it?"

"Very good work indeed, my young friend," the demon nodded, sounding very pleased. "Functional invisibility combined with any color scheme you want."

"Yep. Anything from white..." The dragon went entirely snow white as she said the word, aside from her eyes. "To black..." This time she turned into a cutout in the world, like Metis when she deactivated her scarlet highlights. "Through an entire rainbow."

Bands of every color of the spectrum started rippling along her body from nose to tail, going faster and faster until they merged into an overall glow, which brightened to the point the entire room was lit as brightly as daylight. Amy flickered it on and off a few times, made a brilliant flash of blue light occur, then her light effects settled back into the same color her new form had started with. She was grinning manically. "I love it."

Lisa raised a finger. Amy looked at her with an eye ridge up quizzically. "But, and this is the most important question, can you breathe fire?" The black lizard grinned. "That's the most critical thing for a dragon, you realize."

"Oh, that part's easy," Amy nodded. "Although I'm not going to do it in here. But I can produce a number of flammable compounds like acetylene or a sort of gasoline variant, with or without gelling agent, and ignite it while ejecting it. There's enough raw materials stashed away inside me to let me torch the entire city twice over."

"You made a napalm-spitting invisible electric dragon," Lisa said after a moment's silence, putting her hand over her eyes. Amy nodded happily.

Taylor laughed.

"Oh, god. Let's not mention that part to the PRT unless we really have no choice, OK?" the other girl finally said. "I can't see Director Piggot being completely pleased about it. Were you trying to out-Lung Lung?"

"Like you said, it's traditional, and it was easy." Amy jerked a huge taloned thumb at Taylor. "I can't just make nano-scale magnesium powder and fluorine like she can, so I went with something simpler. When I've worked the bugs out of the biological laser I may add that too, but..." She shrugged as Lisa sighed again.

"We seem to keep making more and more dangerous things," the other girl remarked.

"So you don't want fire-breath for your dragon, then?" Amy asked shrewdly.

Lisa looked shocked. "Of course I want it," she retorted hastily. "I'm just saying that we seem to keep making more and more dangerous things. I didn't say it was bad, did I?"

Amy smirked at her, making the much smaller reptile look mildly embarrassed. One very large hand came out and patted the black lizard on the head comfortingly.

"Don't worry, little one, we'll bring you over to our side completely in the end."

"That's what I'm worried about," Lisa grumbled, brushing the hand off her head. "Stop that."

Disappearing from around Taylor's shoulders, the Varga reappeared as Raptaur, then said, "Let's enlarge this room and add the sea tunnel now, then we can all go for a swim to somewhere for Amy to properly test her new toy." He turned to Taylor, continuing, "We can use the same sort of biosignature lock we put on the DWU fence and key it to these two, which will stop any unwanted guests."

Taylor nodded as he showed her the equations forming the magic needed. "Yep, that should do it. This won't take long." Looking at her friends, she said, "How large do you think we should make it? Big enough to fly around in, or something a little smaller for now?"

"Let's leave the artificial world for later," Amy suggested. "I'd actually like to try that at some point, thinking about it. We could set up a completely self contained biosphere in here with some work." She looked around, then up. "Although we'd need a hell of a lot more light to do it properly."

"We've got some ideas on that front," Taylor replied mysteriously, thinking about some of the research documentation she'd been studying for a while now. There were some definite possibilities present if you looked at the data in the right way… But that was for later.

She noticed that both her friends were staring at her. They exchanged a look. "You got that really disturbing glint in your eyes you tend to get just before you tear the universe a new one," Lisa slowly said, stepping back. "Warn me if you're going to do that again, will you? I don't know if I can fall over while I'm in Metis, but I'd prefer not to. That's getting old."

Taylor gazed at her, then very deliberately smiled widely and slowly, putting all the demonic glee she could muster into the expression. Her friend shuddered slightly and closed her eyes for a second. "Don't do that," Lisa groaned. "It's enough to give a psychopath nightmares."

Laughing, Taylor went to help her demon finish the work he had just started. He was also snickering to himself. Amy watched them for a moment, looked at Lisa with a grin, then began experimenting with her new body to familiarize herself with it. The black lizard shook her head in despair and walked over to get a large cup of coffee, feeling that she deserved it having been dealing with the three crazy people for the last few hours.

---

Just under an hour later they all looked around with satisfaction. "Not bad at all," Lisa remarked. "This should be enough space for a while. You could build airliners in here now." The main room was at this point nearly four hundred yards square. The original workshop space was at the front of the building, with the new vastly enlarged section where the rear wall had once been. It was also nearly a hundred feet high to the roof. She looked up. "I like those lights, they give a very good impression of daylight."

"And with the flywheel unit powering them it's not costing us a dime," Taylor replied, feeling pleased. "I can charge it up if it ever runs down, but just doing the lights and the computers it'll run for decades. Possibly centuries." Walking over to the fuse box she examined it for a moment. "I'll get the electrical guys in to double-check my work and sign off on it but I think I got it right. It all works, anyway, and we're isolated from the incoming main power cable so we won't accidentally electrocute anyone outside."

"Are you going to do the same thing to Linda's place and the boy's workshop too?" Amy asked.

"Might as well. It's easy and those places are going to end up pulling a lot of power sooner or later. This will reduce the load on the DWU supply." Taylor rubbed her chin, turning back to them and into Saurial in the process. "I should probably work out the best way to power the entire site, actually. I've got a few ideas for that. The flywheel storage system would work, but of course it's only storing power, not generating it. I'm cheating by making the things already running at a silly speed, but they'll run down sooner or later. I want to make sure that as much of our tech as possible can be maintained without needing me to do it. Otherwise we're just handing people white elephants in the long run and we won't make any real changes to life."

"It's a slight problem, I agree," Lisa nodded. "I've got some ideas of my own we should look at soon."

"Sounds good," Taylor replied. "We'll make the gear for the city first, then we can work on improving it for general sale. Between us, Kevin, Randall, Linda, and Dad, I bet we can figure out how to really make a difference." She turned to Amy, who was listening with interest. "Not as much difference as the Lifeshaper's Guild has already done, though."

Amy looked amused, and replied, "I'm sure you'll come up with something helpful for the humans, little cousin, if you try hard enough."

Giggling, Taylor trotted over to the far end of the building and stopped on a section of floor that had a large round symbol on it, nearly a hundred feet in diameter and only visible in UV. All of them could easily see it but normal human vision wouldn't notice at all. "OK, this is the sea exit. It's keyed to both of you, in either your human forms, Ianthe or Metis, or our new friend here. We can add more signatures to it as we need them." Turning on the spot she waved a hand at the area. "Just touch it anywhere in the marked part with the intent for it to open. If we did it right, that should stop you falling through if you just walk over it."

"Neat." Lisa walked over and stopped outside the circle, studying it, then put a foot on it. Nothing happened. She glanced at Taylor, grinned, and concentrated.

The entire circle snapped open like a giant camera iris, revealing a huge pool of seawater a couple of feet below. Taylor grinned back from her new position on the other side of the pool, where she'd teleported the moment the floor had moved. "Nice try, but you'll need to be sneakier than that, my dear cousin," she taunted.

"I'll get you yet, you scaly menace," Lisa threatened with a shake of a fist, before they both started laughing again. "That's really cool. I assume it stays full of water all the time, not just collapses or something when you close it? Considering the water is barely moving, I mean."

Amy came over and peered down into the depths beside her, the empty Ianthe construct following. It seemed interested in the sight too, having been watching them all with apparent attention the entire time. There were several places where steps went down into the pool of water, and a ramp to one side as well.

"It's a little more complicated than that, actually," the Varga remarked as he popped into existence next to his host. "The entire tunnel is shunted into a form of fractal storage space when it's closed, and put back when it's opened. It remains filled during that, and there's a mechanism to make sure it follows the tidal rise and fall so it doesn't splash everywhere if you close it at low tide and open it at high tide, but this end will always be that distance down. The outside end is half a mile away in the deep channel so it's a good hundred feet down even at low tide."

"You put lights in it as well," Amy noted, indicating the water in which one could indeed see glowing spots on the walls disappearing into the depths, which curved seawards about sixty feet down.

"Might as well," Taylor replied. "It looks nice too, so why not?"

"Why not indeed." Amy nodded. "I like it. We should have done this some time ago. Now we can come and go without anyone noticing."

"We put the cloaking spell on the far end too, so they really won't notice," Taylor told her. "I'm half tempted to extend it all the way to the ocean at some point but this will do for now." She gazed at the tunnel. "It's big enough for Umihebi, which might come in handy at some point."

"I have no idea when, but whatever." Amy looked at them all one after another. "I'm going for a swim, then a fly. Anyone coming?" She looked at the other construct which was watching her closely. "You stay here." Then she dove into the water with barely a splash. They watched as the huge scaled form lithely swam downwards, disappearing around the bend in the vast pipe. Exchanging a glance, Lisa and Taylor grinned, then dove in after her, the second aspect vanishing at that point to save on the effort of maintaining it since they'd had it active for close to four hours solid at this point.

"What happens if the tunnel closes if we're inside it?" Lisa asked, halfway along it, sounding suddenly a little worried. Taylor, in her aquatic Raptaur variant, smiled at her.

"It can't, not with one of the people keyed to it inside. If someone not keyed to it was inside without one of us along, which in theory shouldn't be possible in the first place, they'd be trapped until we opened it again, but not directly hurt." She shrugged a little. "If they run out of air or something, that's basically their problem. We'll install some sort of alarm to let us know if that happens, I guess, since it's a good point, but I really can't see how it would happen. This is much too deep for a scuba diver without some serious equipment and training, and who would take a submarine into it?"

"I suppose." Lisa swam a little quicker to catch up with Amy, who was in front of them moving at a fairly impressive pace, clearly enjoying herself. "Even so, it's probably best to plan even for the unlikely things. Around here, they seem to happen more often than they should for some reason. Probably due to all the demons, they have a weird effect on reality."

Taylor giggled, and nodded agreement. It was only the truth after all.

Behind them, 'Ianthe' cocked her head, peering down into the water, then lay down next to the pool and waited patiently for them to return.

---

Climbing out of the sea onto the dark rocky shoreline many miles from anyone, Amy shook herself a couple of times to get the water off then looked around with interest. {This is where you did all your flight testing?} she asked in Famtalk, which they were using as a precaution and had switched to once they'd exited the new tunnel. Taylor had closed the exit as they left to prevent any chance of anyone finding it even though it was cloaked, just wanting to be completely sure.

{Yep. And where Roy met Kaiju for the first time,} Taylor replied as she climbed out next to her, Lisa following moments later. They all looked around again, sniffed, and relaxed. {No one around for miles,} Taylor added. {Good. I didn't think there would be, since the tsunami most of the entire coastal area around here is completely abandoned, but you never know.}

{I was thinking about it on the way here and I'm wondering if you can add a tunnel right into my workroom too?} Amy asked. {It could be useful being able to come and go without letting any visitors see anything.}

{That's easy enough, yes,} her friend nodded thoughtfully. {We should have thought of that at the time. Sorry. We'll do that when we get back, it won't take long. The easiest method is to branch off the main tunnel and bring another one up in the expanded section of your area, with its own security. That can be restricted to a smaller group if you want, although for now I guess both groups are the same anyway.}

{I doubt I'll need to keep secrets from Family,} she laughed. {They're Family. But that sounds good. Thank you.}

{No problem.} Taylor smiled at her. {We cloaked all three of us too when we came out of the tunnel, just in case we get spotted once you're in the air. We'll reserve your own invisibility for when you publicly show off the new form.}

{When are you going to show your dragon to the public?} Lisa asked curiously.

{Soon, I think,} Taylor replied with a glance in her direction. {Not just yet, though. I'm waiting for a good moment.}

{One where the maximum number of people will gape in horror, I assume?}

{Pretty much.} They shared a grin at the comment. {You can't just casually drop a dragon into the conversation, after all. It needs to be something impressive, or no one will take us seriously.}

{That's one way to look at it,} Lisa agreed a little dubiously, making Taylor snicker.

{Well, I guess I need to test things properly, then,} Amy announced. {Underwater this body works really well, even better than Ianthe does. I want to find out how fast it is later, but I think I'll be a lot quicker if only because of less drag and more power. The electrosense works incredibly well too, I could feel things for what must have been a couple of miles.}

{Good work,} Lisa commented. {I want that upgrade too.}

{Of course you do. Who wouldn't?}

{Valid point,} the black lizard nodded.

{Right, let's check the various other systems work, then we can move on to flight testing. First, these.} She sat back on her rear legs and raised a hand in a familiar gesture. {Same dart launchers, but scaled up,} she said, aiming out to sea. {I've got the self-destructing dart enzymes working too.} There was a loud pop and they all watched a considerably larger than normal bioceramic dart disappear into the dark. Taylor squinted after it once it had disappeared from the visual acuity of the other two.

{Went about a mile, I think,} she reported. {Bit large and heavy for a human, though, you'll punch right through them even at low speed.}

{I can make them smaller, that's just the default,} Amy told her. {OK, I'll wind it up all the way.} She fired another one, which exited the scene with an enormous crack! sound, and vanished over the horizon instantly.

{Wow. That was really moving. At least twice as fast as the smaller ones go.} Taylor looked impressed. {Longer barrel length makes a difference.}

{So does the amount of propellant,} Lisa said. {My power says it was doing about six thousand feet per second, or better than mach five. You don't need explosives, that's a fucking anti-tank round right there just from the kinetic energy. Those larger darts are pretty heavy after all.} She was staring after the long-vanished organic projectile, shaking her head.

{Seems to work to design, then,} Amy smiled. Turning around she fired another one into the cliff a couple of hundred feet away, all of them watching as it left a two inch hole in the rock. {Good penetration, definitely.} Arming an explosive one, she repeated the exercise, which resulted in a crater ten feet across and two deep in the cliff face, quickly followed by a small landslide. {Whoops.}

{Yeah, maybe don't use those unless you really hate the person you're using them on,} Lisa sighed.

With a snicker, Amy said, {Watch this one!} The next shot made a large quantity of rock hiss and foam, then slump into a bubbling mess.

{Shit,} Lisa muttered, watching wide-eyed. {What was… Fluorosulphuric acid! Are you insane?!}

The draconic healer laughed. {I worked out a variant on it, and how to make it as a binary compound. It mixes on impact. Should be good for dissolving anything that gets in the way.}

{Do you have any idea how toxic that stuff is?} Lisa demanded, pointing at the mess.

{Relax, it neutralized itself in the process of dissolving the rock, it's all harmless fluoride minerals now,} Amy assured her. {It dissolves almost everything, but there isn't anything particularly worrying left. I just wanted to see if I could do it.}

{I'd say the answer to that is a vehement 'Yes,' quickly followed by the words 'Please don't,'} their friend said grimly. {God, you're nearly as bad as she is for stupidly dangerous chemicals,} she added, indicating Taylor who was watching with a wide smile. {Try to remember that generally your little gifts to the world don't obligingly go away after a few seconds.}

{So you don't want me to test the nerve gas rounds, then?} Amy asked innocently, before laughing at the expression the other girl got. {Joking. I could, but I won't. I'm not entirely crazy.}

{Not totally convinced,} Lisa grumbled.

Amy and Taylor shared a grin, then she dropped back to all fours. {Dart launcher seems fine, so that's another successful test. By the way, walking around as a quadruped feels very weird.} She moved a little distance away from them, then stopped, craning her long neck back over her shoulder. {Definitely no one around? This test might be impressive.}

{We're fine, go ahead,} Taylor assured her, watching interestedly. {Flame breath?}

{Flame breath,} Amy nodded. Aiming along the beach at a barren section of rock, she armed the internal mechanism, opened her mouth widely, and exhaled hard while turning on the flame fluid ejectors and the ignition system. The result was a short-lived cloud of dark vapor which lit a moment later with a vast whooshing sound, a brilliant orange-white light illuminating the entire beach and cliff. A good hundred foot long flame roared out of her mouth, a cloud of black smoke rising from it above them.

She stopped it after a few seconds and examined the results. There was a scorched patch on the rocks where the small amount of seaweed present was either completely missing or smoking merrily while burning.

{Now, that was impressive,} Lisa said after a long pause. {And loud. And hot.}

{We'd better clean this away afterwards,} Taylor remarked, looking at the burn pattern. {It's a little obvious.}

{That was the blowtorch mode,} Amy noted, licking her lips with a long forked tongue. {Tastes a little weird but not bad. Nicely hydrocarbony. Let's try the napalm mode.} She went through the same process again, this time switching in the gelled liquid fuel, and fired once more. The flame on this attempt was narrower, burning with a different roar, and went much further, nearly two hundred feet, although it was at least as hot. Liquid fire splashed everywhere, burning fiercely. A flaming trail of fuel was left leading right back to her when she stopped, smoke rising from it as it slowly guttered out. {Perfect. I don't know when or if I'll need it, but you can't have a dragon without some fire involved,} she said with a satisfied feeling, turning back to them and padding over.

{Really good work, Amy,} Taylor congratulated her. {Ready to do the flying thing?}

She nodded happily. {More than ready.} With a look into the intermittently cloudy sky from which a few stars were shining, she went on, {I've wanted to be able to fly all my life. It was the thing I was most envious of Vicky for when she got her powers.}

{Yours are more impressive, Amy,} Lisa assured her. The black reptile glanced at Taylor. {So how did you learn to do it?}

{Pretty much just jump and flap,} Taylor replied with a smile. {You'll probably do a lot of swimming until you get the hang of it, though. I know I did. But at least we know the form is set up right this time, Varga and I had to tweak it a lot the first time.}

{Huh. OK, I guess we go with that to start with. How hard can it be?} Amy felt rather confident and moved to the edge over the deep water, unfolding her wings and raising them all the way. {Here we go…}

Engaging all the available power in her various internal systems, she flapped hard while jumping…

Swimming back to the rocks, she climbed out, shaking the water off. Then she gave Lisa and Taylor, who were draped over each other laughing like crazy people, a filthy look.

{How… How hard can… it be…,} Taylor gasped, watching her fume. {Oh, my god that was hilarious. Varga, was it that funny when I did it?}

Her other aspect appeared as her own draconic form, which was also laughing. {At least,} he replied.{The truly funny part is how many times you did it. Full marks for persistence, but even so…} He grinned at Amy who was glaring. {Don't worry, Amy, you'll get it. You're not mentally wired for flying yet, but I'm sure you'll pick it up fast.}

{Do it again!} Lisa called, giggling. {Do it again! That was amazing, the expression on your face as you went upside down was incredible.}

{I hate you all,} Amy replied in a dignified manner, turning around with her snout in the air, which only made the three of them laugh harder. {I will get this. I am the finest Bioshaper above the water, and this is a trivial matter of aerodynamics.} A smile was threatening to break out but she brutally repressed it, not wanting to give her friends the satisfaction.

{Now, let's see. Crouch…} She did so. {Wings up…} Easily done as well. {Jump, and at the right point, flap…} The relevant actions were enacted.

Swimming back to the rocks, she climbed out, shaking the water off.

Scowling at the three friends draped over each other in fits of hilarity, she decided to ignore them entirely and started experimenting. A little thing like learning to fly in a body she'd designed from scratch certainly wasn't going to stop her enjoying herself, she was certain of that much at least.

---

{I think she's finally got it,} Taylor commented, peering upwards. Lisa, beside her, nodded.

{Yeah. Took her long enough. I wish I had a camera, that was the funniest forty minutes I've had for years.} They shared a look of great amusement. {But I'm impressed and very, very envious right now. She does good work.}

{That she does, Lisa,} the Varga said from her other side, also watching. {I am very pleased for Amy. She should be justifiably proud of a remarkable achievement.}

{She looks pretty happy,} Taylor chuckled. Glancing at Lisa, she added, {You going to be OK here on your own for a little while? I'd like to join her.}

{Go ahead, you people with wings just leave those of us without here on the ground,} Lisa sighed, but then she smiled a little. {I can wait. And I've learned an awful lot of things not to do when I get mine.}

Snickering, Taylor moved away, changed to her own dragon form, and took off, her demon following moments later. A glance back showed Lisa relaxing against a pile of rocks and watching them. As Metis the cold wind and dark damp shore was utterly irrelevant and she seemed comfortable.

Taylor and the Varga flew after their other friend, who was now circling some three thousand feet up with an expression of bliss on her scaly face. Falling into formation on either side, they looked at her, then each other. {She seems very pleased with herself, Brain,} the demon said. {Perhaps we are intruding on a private moment.}

{We could come back later when she's done,} Taylor replied with a grin.

{You're both idiots,} Amy replied, shaking her head and opening her eyes more widely, having been gliding with them half shut looking like all her christmasses had come at once. {Why didn't you tell me this was so much fun?}

{We didn't want to upset you?} Taylor tried, making her friend look narrowly at her.

{Yeah, of course you didn't,} the other girl said slowly. {It would be entirely unlike either of you to gloat about something you could do.}

{Exactly correct,} the demon chuckled. {None of us would ever do such a thing.}

The dragon between them looked at each of them in turn, then grinned. {Fair enough. This is fucking amazing. Feeling the air moving over your wings is a lot better than I expected.}

{You sure seem to be flying well now,} Taylor told her. {You've definitely got the hang of it.}

{I'll need more practice but so far so good,} Amy replied. Peering down at Lisa far below them, she looked a little guilty. {Now I'm sort of sorry I didn't make one for her at the same time.}

{You needed to test and validate the design, which Lisa is well aware of,} the Varga said. {I think we can say that part is done. Making more is only a matter of some time and effort, and a large quantity of onions. All of which we possess in abundance.}

{Very true. I'll do that over the weekend.}

{How's the power holding up?} Taylor asked curiously.

{Fine, in fact it's using less energy than I expected.} Amy looked very pleased. {I've made a couple of tweaks to get the efficiency as high as possible. Sort of channeling Armsmaster. Powered flight isn't too hard, I could keep it up for days, and gliding like this is trivial. I'm generating much more power in this flight mode than I'm using.} She looked back at herself, then at them again. {I could easily carry a passenger too, I think. That could be really cool if we find the right people.}

{I'll design some dragon saddles,} Taylor told her seriously, making all three grin. {Hey, now we know it works, let's see what altitude you can reach. Since you don't need to breathe it should be pretty impressive.}

{We're off the main flight paths here, right? I don't want to run into anyone else,} her friend asked.

Taylor nodded. {Yep, I made sure to double check that after Legend dropped off all the flight documentation that time. We're at least twenty miles from any scheduled flights, and twice that from the nearest military base. No one will notice anything and there's no danger. Even if some little plane comes by we'll see it in plenty of time.}

{Great.} Amy started flapping strongly, climbing fast, with both the others pacing her. Taylor kept an eye on her friend, just in case, and watched as her body warmed up from the exertion. Nothing seemed out of place and they kept going.

A couple of minutes later they went through the last of the overcast layers into a completely clear sky, visibility to her eyes extending all the way to the horizon. Amy leveled off for a moment, looking around. {Neat,} she said. {I wonder how high we actually are now?}

{I would judge it to be approximately twenty thousand feet,} the Varga replied. {Do you feel you can better that?}

{Easily,} their companion smiled. {I'm only getting started.} They resumed climbing.

Eventually, Amy leveled off again, rolling and pitching a little until she got into a stable glide. {That's it, I've got plenty of energy but the air's just too thin to let my wings get any grip on it this far up.} Her voice was faint and reedy, forcing her to nearly shout.

{Impressive nonetheless,} the demon responded, smiling. {We're at least forty thousand feet above sea level. Taylor and I could manage higher, but it would take a modification to the form to better that by much more than perhaps two or three thousand feet.}

{It's sort of twitchy flying this high,} the healer noted, flexing one wing tip and nearly stalling. {Right on the limit of control.}

{That certainly fits what I've read about high altitude aircraft,} Taylor agreed. {You get used to it, but it's a lot of work.}

{We need to work out some sort of communications system at some point,} Amy pointed out. {Something secure, with decent range. Underwater is one thing, way up in the air, it's getting annoying, even this close.}

{We should talk to Kevin, I think. Or perhaps Linda. Between them I expect they can come up with a solution.}

{Sounds like a plan. We'd better get back, though, or Lisa will get bored and go home, then be all annoyed tomorrow about how we abandoned her to have fun,} Taylor replied, snickering.

The flight of dragons exchanged glances, then the Varga did a wing-over and dropped like a stone. Amy grinned and duplicated the maneuver, Taylor following moments after. All three of them plummeted towards the ground at ever increasing speed, wings only open enough to guide them.

Screaming down through the thickening air, Taylor felt very pleased with the way things had gone so far. It had been an exceptionally productive day.

---

Lisa cocked her head, listening. There was a distant whistling sound that was growing in intensity and rising in pitch. Looking up, she was in time to see three large winged forms appear through the clouds that had rolled in a little while back, shooting downwards one after another. She watched with impressed amazement as each of them disappeared into the sea a quarter of a mile off shore in plumes of foam, which damped out rapidly. Shaking her head, she got up from where she'd been half-lying across a conveniently chair-shaped pile of rocks waiting and thinking, stretched, flexed her tail, and wandered towards the water's edge. Seconds later, a head broke the surface and smirked at her.

{It's nice up there,} Amy said as she climbed out of the water. Taylor and the Varga followed, both taking the smaller aquatic form.

{I wouldn't know,} Lisa grumped. {Someone is bogarting the dragon.}

Laughing, Amy assured her, {I promise I'll make you one over the weekend. We should see if the boys have worked out what they want too.}

Smiling widely, Lisa nodded eagerly. {I really want one,} she said. {Hey, Taylor's right, you need to make some small ones too. With all this fractal screwing around, that should be simple enough.}

{It's not difficult now we have a good grasp on the mathematics,} the Varga nodded. {It seems very compatible with Amy's abilities. We've got a few ideas of our own that we're nearly ready to try as well.}

{Which should be fun,} Taylor added.

{It's nearly five in the morning, so we should probably head back,} Lisa pointed out. {I still need some sleep even with all the Amy-mods.}

{OK. Let's clean up after ourselves, then we can go,} Taylor agreed. She and her demon went over to the scorched area and manifested a couple of pistol-like devices, which started emitting high pressure water. They quickly scrubbed the entire area free of any traces of fire.

{That leaves nearly as large a sign that something happened here,} Lisa said, watching.

{I can fix that,} Amy told her, scooping up a huge handful of seaweed. Concentrating for a moment, she walked over on three legs and started spreading the stuff around. When she'd finished she stepped back. A minute later there was a sort of rustling sound and the seaweed began growing at an insane speed, quickly covering the entire area. Ten minutes later there was no trace of the damage.

{That was… disturbing.} Lisa looked at it, letting her power work. {But very clever. Massively boosted replication rate but with a time limit?}

{Yeah, it grew about a hundred times as fast for a while, which seems to have done the trick. Now it'll revert to normal seaweed and all the changes will self-destruct. Nothing to show we did anything.} Amy appeared satisfied.

{Nice trick.}

{Well, I can't see anything else particularly suspicious,} Taylor remarked, looking around, then sniffing. {A slight trace of explosives and some melted rocks.} Walking over to where the rather horrifyingly dramatic dart had landed, she quickly made some new rock that she covered the results with. {Once the tide's gone in and out a few times there won't be any traces at all. The hole in the cliff just looks like normal erosion.}

{Great. Let's go, then.} Lisa checked with her power, which was also satisfied that there was nothing incriminating left behind, then dove into the sea, followed by the others. They were soon moving fast, deep under the surface, heading back towards Brockton Bay.

{Oh, by the way, I thought of a really good name for you like this,} she said after a couple of minutes. Amy slowed slightly to match her friend's speed and glanced at her.

{Go on.}

{Nike. If we're sticking with our side of the Family being into Greek names. It fits better than most other ones I could come up with.}

{Goddess of speed, strength, and victory, if I remember my mythology right,} Taylor commented approvingly. {I like it.}

{There's another part to the myth which fits well too,} Lisa went on. {Nike was believed to be able to make people immortal and could grant them sufficient strength and speed to ensure success in any task…}

Amy started giggling in a deep voice. {Oh, I like that. Yes. Nike.} She smiled. {We'll use that. Still need to come up with one for you, though.}

{I'll work it out. You make me a dragon first and leave the naming to me.}

{I believe we can arrange that,} the newly christened form of 'Nike,' the latest Family member, said, before she flicked her tail and did a barrel roll for the hell of it.

---

Half-way down the tunnel to the BBFO office, Taylor paused. "I'll make a side tunnel here," she said. The Varga disappeared, leaving just the three of them floating in the illuminated seawater filling the space. "He'll do the anchoring at the other end. This won't take long."

She and her head companion ran the complex equations for a few minutes, until they had the final answer, then applied it carefully and wove it into the structure of the demon magic sustaining everything else. "It appears stable," he said inside her head. "Everything linked correctly. I'll tie it off now."

'Thanks,' she replied silently. Turning to her friends, she added out loud, "All done."

"That's really cool," Amy said, studying the large circular mark, again only visible in UV, which had appeared on the side of the tunnel wall. Reaching out she prodded it, smiling when it irised open almost too fast to see. "You guys are getting good at this fractal manipulation bullshit."

"We're learning a lot every time we do it," Taylor nodded. "I can see some very neat new projects in the future."

"I'm going to check it out, meet you upstairs," Amy told the other pair, then swam into the new tunnel. It closed behind the end of her tail. Taylor and Lisa looked at each other, smiled, and resumed swimming towards the other exit. Shortly they emerged into air at the office end, finding 'Ianthe' watching them closely.

"Hi, Ianthe," Taylor said, climbing out. When Lisa was also on the dry floor the tunnel closed again. Patting the construct, she added, "Amy will be out in a minute."

She was amused by the way it looked at her with its head on one side, rather quizzically, then turned to look at the workshop, before trotting over and waiting. "She really is getting pretty smart," Lisa said, also watching with slightly wide eyes. "My power is very interested in that. And doesn't seem to know if it will continue or not, but seems eager to find out."

They followed the construct, arriving as the new double door opened and a human Amy stepped out, doing up her shirt. The Varga as Saurial followed her.

"Hello, girl," Amy said softly, stroking her first alter-ego. "Don't be jealous, I still love you too." The large reptilian form pressed against her like a cat and looked contented, making all of them smile. "Nike is your new sister, so be nice to her," the brunette continued. "But it's time for you to sleep now." She went back into the workshop and the creature followed her obediently.

"If Ianthe said hello at some point, I would be entirely unsurprised," the Varga said with a thoughtful look after them. He glanced at Taylor and Lisa. "Amy is far better at this than I think even she realizes..."

They nodded a little, thinking much the same. Lisa went after the other girl. When both of them came out again, Lisa fully dressed and completely human once more, Amy turned the lights off and closed the door, locking it. "Thanks for all the help tonight, you guys," she said with a yawn, the end of her tail twitching a little. "It was a hell of a lot of fun."

"I think we all enjoyed ourselves," Taylor replied, smiling. Glancing at the clock, she winced a little. "Nearly six. I'd better get back, Dad will be wondering where I am."

"A very long day but a constructive one, I feel," the Varga said. The others all nodded. "I look forward to seeing what happens when Nike is introduced," he went on with a small grin.

"I think we all do," Lisa chuckled. "I bet poor Director Piggot goes a funny color and starts mumbling to herself again..."

"It'll be interesting to see what Miss Militia does," Taylor said. "Considering how weird she is with all of us."

"We'll just have to wait and see," Amy remarked, putting her coat on. "At the moment I'm more interested in why Vicky is acting so weird. She was… really strange… at your house today, Taylor."

"It was like at school today," Taylor nodded. "She smelled almost scared at times. Of us, I think, but I have no idea why. Then she was more or less normal again at other times."

"The girl is peculiar sometimes," Amy sighed. "If she doesn't tell me by Sunday, I'll definitely ask her what the hell is up. It's getting ridiculous. Maybe she has had another fight with Dean, but I hope not, they haven't done that for months. I thought they were over it." She shrugged. "It'll keep. I'll see you guys tomorrow."

"Bye, Amy," both the other girls chorused, watching as their friend left, closing the door behind her. Moments later they could hear the truck start, then drive off.

"I'm off to bed, since I'm tired and need my beauty sleep," Lisa said, turning to Taylor. "See you around."

"Later, Lisa," Taylor replied. The blonde girl also left. Taylor looked at her demon, then around at the room. "I like this," she said. "We should have enlarged it ages ago."

"We didn't fully grasp the technique at that point," the Varga replied reasonably. "Now we do, we can improve on a lot of ideas we've had. But I think that can wait."

"Yep. Home and bed, I think." Taylor walked over to the light switches, turn them off, made sure the door was locked, then both she and the demon vanished.

---

Yawning, Sophia unfolded the old paper map she'd lifted in her most recent scavenging efforts, along with some food and water, and traced a finger along the gravel road she'd driven down earlier. She tapped the location that was, as best she could tell, her current position. It put her about six miles to the north of Eminence, Missouri. Pondering the map she ate some of the acquired food and washed it down with a bottle of water. 'Go south for a while, cut across down here towards Jacksonville, then back up North on the 65. I haven't seen that fucker in the truck for a while, but I can practically feel him around out there.' The girl sipped more water, scowling. 'No idea how the hell he's doing that, but I know he's there somewhere. Must be a Parahuman, although why he's just following me, I don't have a clue. It's weird.' And very disturbing, not to mention creepy.

The last time she'd spotted the vehicle, it had been a couple of miles behind her on a long straight uphill grade. Pushing her current car to the red line, she'd blasted up the road and taken the first side road that headed into the wooded land to the side, bumping and cursing her way along a mess of logging trails for over two hours. Her spine was killing her, her wrist was hurting again, she had barely slept, and she was in a murderous mood even for her.

'Fucking Hebert. This is all your fault,' she thought with inward fury. 'I'm going to make it last when I get you. And I'll make you watch as I deal with your Dad first.' Her face in a wordless snarl, she screwed the map up and tossed it into the rear seat, having memorized the next part of the route, something she had a lot of practice at recently. Peeling the bandage off her burned wrist, she looked at the damage with a wince. It wasn't healing right, probably because of the expedient nature of her first aid. Although she'd been trained on treating quite a few injuries, that really only covered fixing things up enough to keep until she got to proper medical care. Not to mention that stealing the supplies got her a somewhat haphazard mix of stuff.

Making a mental note to find a pharmacy next time she went foraging, and to stock up on some good burn treatments and better bandages, she reached down to the passenger foot well and retrieved the old toolbox she'd filled with everything useful she'd stolen, opening it on the other seat. Rummaging in it she dug out some antiseptic spray, a topical anesthetic/antibiotic gel, and bandages, along with a pair of scissors. Intermittently swearing under her breath, she did what she could to rebandage the wound, wrapping it as neatly as she could, then pinned the outer covering in place.

"Fucking ow," she grumbled, flexing her hand. It still hurt but was less painful at the moment. She took a couple of ibuprofen tablets, wishing she could risk something more potent, but knowing that it was too dangerous. She needed all the wits she could summon up and the residual pain at least kept her alert and on edge.

Dumping all the supplies back into the box she closed and latched it, making sure first that the two handguns she'd put there along with some ammo were definitely in it. It went back onto the floor, close enough that she could grab it if she had to bail out. Her backpack, also full of food and some more weapons, went back onto the passenger seat from the back where she'd put it while she rested. There was another pistol loaded and ready in the center console pocket, covered with some paper towels so no one would notice it if they looked into the car. The last thing she needed was some busybody calling the cops because there was a weapon on plain display.

Checking the time she saw it was just after five AM. Mulling things over for a moment, she decided she could risk another thirty minutes of rest, before she had to press on, so as to make as much use as possible of the darkness. By the time traffic picked up she wanted to be far away and hidden again. She could sleep until evening then, if things went well, then drive all night.

Sophia still didn't know exactly what she was going to do once she finally lost that bastard green semi, but one of the things was definitely going to be about twenty four solid hours of sleep. She was absolutely exhausted and so fucking angry that the first person to even look cross-eyed at her was going to regret it. The only reason she hadn't ambushed the fucker was the thought that there might be more than one person in the truck and if she didn't get all of them in time, they could call for backup. That would be as good as emailing the PRT her itinerary.

Eventually she'd have to risk it if she couldn't lose the damn thing, but she wasn't quite there yet. It was just one more indignity to lay at the feet of Taylor Hebert, who was going to seriously regret the day she interfered with Sophia's life, if the girl had any say in the matter…

Along with a fairly extensive list of other people, which had grown to include all the Hebert girl's relatives, her friends, their relatives, their pets, and every single PRT member in Brockton Bay.

It was fair to say that Sophia didn't lack ambition, and was not in a good mood.

She set the alarm clock she'd stolen for half an hour and reclined the seat after checking all around very carefully, lying back with one hand on her pistol, then closed her eyes. Another half hour and she'd be ready to press on, bringing her revenge that much closer.

That day would be a good day, she thought as she fell into an uneasy doze, an expression of mixed anger, tiredness, and eagerness on her face.