As Taylor, my sister and I walked down to the local convenience store to buy some drinks Taylor and I shared are reveal stories. We were out of the house so our parents could have a few words without us overhearing. It was an adults only conversation which for some reason included Aria. I didn't argue though I thought it amusing that Aria, who was literally less than a week old, was seen as more mature than the rest of us.

"Dad was awake and waiting for me when I got home. He'd known that I had been sneaking out though he thought… well he didn't realize it was because I had become a cape. He had been trying to give me space but after the explosions he freaked. He wasn't angry or anything, well not right then. Just really worried."

Taylor sighed, "I assured him that I was fine that there would be no more bombs and well, that kinda led on to my involvement and I kinda broke down then." She dropped her head for a moment. "I cried myself to sleep in his arms."

My sister put a hand on her shoulder and Taylor gave her a small smile and a little nod before continuing.

"Then in the morning I came clean about near everything except your identity. I told him Aria was a tinker that was helping me and had provided the armor and tools but was housebound and couldn't patrol. I also told him about my trigger events and that led to talking about the bullying and..." She trailed off and her eyes started watering.

My sister pulled her into a side hug and we walked in silence for a half a block.

Taylor mumbled a quiet, "Thanks Tracy", then turned and gave me a small smile, "Then you sent me the message about telling your parents and asking about sharing identities and now here we are."

Here being the situation rather than at the convenience store which by strange coincidence we had also just arrived at. We saved the rest of the conversation until we had drinks in our hands and were headed back.

"Are you going to join the Wards?" my sister asked Taylor.

Taylor shrugged, "I considered it before, but very much against it now. I did some research with Aria, and they are buried under poorly written rules and restrictions just ripe for abuse. Robert and I can help much more as independents. Also, like the PRT and Protectorate, they care more about public relations and maintaining the status quo. Dad's had to deal with this before and he's not been happy with PRT and Protectorate since…" she trailed off and she paused for a moment before continuing "I didn't know that the reason we never learned what really happened to mom was because the PRT has the case all locked up under an ongoing parahuman investigation." She spat the last out angrily.

There was a longer pause and it didn't look like Taylor wanted to say anything more.

I think my sister held Taylor a bit tighter.

"Robert?" my sister asked after few more steps looking past Taylor to me.

I wasn't positive but I guessed she was asking about the Wards, "I like how we have it now. Wards security is terrible, I wouldn't trust them, the PRT or even the Protectorate with our identity."

My sister's voice lightened, "Oh well. It would have been nice to meet them. Some of those boys have great figures."

I rolled my eyes and my attention drifted away as my sister started discussing Taylor's legs and her exercise routine.

When we got home mum intercepted us at the entrance and asked if I minded if they spoke to Taylor first. I had no issue with that, so I went and practiced my drums for a bit. I had a gig that night after all.

As it turned out, I didn't.

Mum came to talk to me before leading me out to join the others.

Seems if I was to be serious about this cape business and I wasn't willing to foist off rescuing Dinah to the PRT or Police then I needed to make that my primary focus. Being in a band wasn't off the table but it needed to take second place to savings lives and, though I understood the logic, it did feel like I had been punched in the stomach.

The picture of Dinah that Aria showed me took away some of the tightness and let me share some of Taylor's determination. I promised myself that I would have a full kit and would play the house down the following week. At least I didn't need to hide what I could to do to a drum kit from my family anymore. It was going to be epic.

"I'll better call Joshua and let him know that I can't make tonight." I said softly.

Mum stood.

"No, I'll do that. I'll tell them you are sick and that you'll be ready for a full day of practice next weekend." She gave me a quick smile. "You better start planning and preparing for this rescue," she continued, the smile now gone. She had been upset since Aria's presentation of how bad the crime rates truly were in Brockton Bay. She had taken the crime statistics relating to young females especially hard.

I nodded, "I can do some more enchantment practice. Get a boost to the enchantments I put on our armor before we go it."

My dad shook his head, "Leave that for the time being. The plan isn't to go toe to toe with these guys. Aria has shown us that Taylor is scarily good at scouting, and you should be able to get in and out without being seen but still, none of us are happy with just the two of you going it alone. We've gone over the arguments about bringing in the PRT, Protectorate or Police but Danny has another idea."

Mr. Hebert nodded and took over, "I know plenty of guys who would jump at an opportunity to achieve something meaningful against the gangs. Mostly ex-military but as is, they'd be badly matched against Coil's mercenaries. However, Aria has given us some idea of the capabilities of the armor you build. She also said that if we can get weapons, you can upgrade them to make them effective against armor. Weapons are easy enough to get. How do you feel about outfitting some guys with armor and weapons like what you have already built?"

I blinked and thought about that. It wasn't a bad idea. There was nothing saying I couldn't support more than one person and my technology didn't require the wearer to be a parahuman. We would have henchmen. Not that I could ever call them that, especially as they'd all have more experience than both me and Taylor. Would that mean that Taylor wouldn't be taking the lead anymore? I didn't quite like the idea of that.

Still, having more people meant we'd be stronger and the chances of a successfully rescue would go up dramatically. I sub vocalized an order to Aria to bring up a virtual workspace and I started putting together some ideas.

"It'd be struggle with the resources I have now but if I got the processor working straight away, I might be able to put together two usable suits by tonight if we can pick up some motorcycle armor and helmets as a base. They'd have only the most basic of shields but power assisted and armor for the critical parts. I have some parts automated but I need more time to set up assembly processes for the rest."

"By tonight?" Mr. Hebert's voice seemed surprised, "I was going to ask how many days per suit. Two a day is faster than I imagined. What resources do you need? If it's metal, spare parts or machinery we have workshops full of it in the Boatyard."

I smiled broadly, it sounded like my resource problem was going to be a thing of the past, "That sounds great. I'll need to move it into my workshop, that's where I can do my best work."

"How trustworthy are these guys, Danny?" my dad asked.

"I'd trust them with my life."

Taylor piped up with, "Can we ask Aria to do background checks on them?"

Everyone turned to face Aria, she was human sized and sitting on a holographic couch. I hadn't asked why she had changed from her previous doll sized Avatar but presumed it was to make the adults more comfortable.

"To do a full background check I will need to access various databases and networks that are not public. Robert, do you want me to access the relevant databases."

I frowned thinking about her last upgrade, "I'm all for giving you permission to hack any system." I turned to mostly face Taylor and my parents, mum having recently rejoined us, "I put some restrictions on access nonpublic systems as I was worried that someone might be able to trace it back. I now have learnt more about that power and it's like centuries more advanced than anything else out there. I'd put Aria up against the best tinker and bet that she wouldn't have an issue. If there was anyone able to be a problem for her, they'd already own the internet."

Aria spoke up, "I can safely assure you that Robert is correct about my capabilities though I would of course be careful to ensure that I make it as difficult to back track any communications and keep out a watch for any tinkers, AIs or any sort of virtual constructs as I work."

"You can hack Coil's computer as well. Maybe he'll have something in there that'll lead us to Dinah." Taylor added.

Dad looked at mum for this one and she nodded, "Fine by me. Whatever helps us find her."

"Go ahead son."

"Okay Aria, permission to connect to, hack and control any computer system that will help us. Try and keep from being.. ehh.. you already know."

"Danny, do you have the list of names you mentioned earlier?" Aria asked Mr. Hebert. That surprised me as I wasn't aware they were on first name terms. I recalled then that Mr. Hebert had asked me to call him Danny earlier, but I had forgotten. Maybe next time I met him I'd try that.

Mr. Hebert pulled out a notebook from his shirt pocket and flipped a few pages before presenting it to Aria.

"Thanks Danny. Six ex-military, one ex-policeman. Unfortunately, one of the men has on two occasions taken a large sum of money to provide information and access to a warehouse to one of the gangs. Whilst that money has all gone to pay hospital bills for his sick sister in Baltimore, I don't believe he is a suitable candidate. The others will all be suitable."

I noted Mr. Heberts knuckles go white before he turned got himself under control.

"Thank you, Aria." He turned to face the rest of the room, "I can arrange for those six to meet us at the workshop I have in mind. It's up to you if you want to keep your identities hidden from them. I could act as a spokesman for Quartermaster and everyone else could monitor remotely." He met Taylor's eyes here. I presumed it was to let her know that she could use this opportunity to separate her identity from his.

I turned to my dad, but he just shrugged, "It's your call son. If you want me to be there I will but at that point trying to hide your relationship to me is probably moot."

I met Taylor's eyes and she gave me a brief nod which I hoped meant she was okay with revealing our identities, "If both Danny and Aria say they are good then that's good enough for me."

"And me" Taylor added.

"Okay. I'll call them and arrange a meet. Do we want to see if they are available today meet up or try for tomorrow?" Mr. Hebert asked.

Aria interjected, "I recommend we arrange for it as soon as feasible. Coil has recently received confirmation that tinker drugs custom designed for Dinah are expected to be delivered tomorrow morning. He has also been purchasing large amounts of commercial fumigation systems, insecticide and pest proofing supplies since Wednesday."

There was a lot of shouting, swearing and questions at this point. I was thinking about, why Wednesday? Neither I nor Taylor went out that day. It was the day before Dinah was kidnapped. It was also the day after Taylor told the Undersiders that she wouldn't work with them. That was probably the trigger if Tattletale had told Coil that she wasn't joining. At that point he decided she was a threat.

It was quickly decided that we would be moving that night, or at least early the following morning. I was quite confident that I could prepare four or maybe even six suits by the end of the day if there was enough usable machinery and metal. He also suggested a couple of people that could assist me which would make it even faster if they were okay with Aria managing them. Biggest priority was now checking out the workshops.

A few other things were sorted out and then we got to work.

Mr. Hebert drove me and Taylor to a large boatshed. We had toyed with the idea of me running across in my suit whilst everyone waited in my base but decided against that in the end even though my sister was unhappy with the current plan that left her at home.

As we pulled up behind a well-maintained pickup parked beside the side door two figures got out.

"Danny. Taylor, too long girl." The man, Kurt, approached gave Mr. Hebert a nod and then wrapped Taylor up in his big arms. I already knew who he and his wife were from the background checks that Aria had ran. These weren't part of the ex-military group but people should be able to assist getting the armor prepared in time. They both were good and long-term friends of Mr. Hebert and knew their way around tools and heavy machinery.

"Hi Kurt." Taylor said with a smile. She was released only to be engulfed by an even larger hug by the Kurt's well-built wife "Oof.. Hi Lacey."

"Taylor. You have grown so much."

Kurt meanwhile had turned to me and stretched out a hand, "Kurt. Nice to meet you."

I shook his hand, "Robert."

He gave me a good look over before he turned to Mr. Hebert, "I got the keys. So, what is all this Danny?"

"Thanks. Let's get inside and we can talk."

The shed was massive and had five main sections. The two biggest sections had tall roofs and were obviously the boat building areas. Massive doors facing the water led out to the dock yard. There was a large boat sitting in one of the sections that looked like it needed a massive amount of work to get it seaworthy. The other section just had a scattering of scaffolding and rubbish.

In between those two were two levels of workshop. Heavier tools on the lower level and hand tools, smaller parts and a breakroom upstairs. That section didn't have side walls and just opened straight onto both boat building areas.

The last two sections were on the outside and looked to be mostly storage with a couple of small offices and a bathroom in the corners.

I immediately headed to examine the machinery whilst Mr. Hebert started talking with Kurt and Lacey. I was taking notes and pictures care of Aria when Mr. Herbert came over.

"Robert, can you open a door to I can show Kurt and Lacey."

We had already agreed to this but I had forgotten that was the plan in my excitement to see what new tools I had to play with, "Sure Mr. Hebert."

As he sighed and say, "Danny Robert. Please call me Danny." I used my key to open the doors to one of the small offices.

"Okay Mr.. Danny."

Lacey chuckled but it died away as I opened the door wide and let them see the inside of my base.

"Can we set up the miner and smelter in here?" Taylor asked me, looking around the boat shed.

I looked at the floor and the size of the room, "Yeah. They'll work in here. Won't take long to get through the floor. Have to rebuild the frame but that won't take long."

"We could pick up the frame from the other location?"

I considered it, "Probably not a good idea, might save a little time but people might notice."

Within half an hour Kurt and Lacey were on board, had met Aria and already assisting with the assembling of the frame for the smeltery. We were going with that first as I could use that to process the materials already onsite.

Taylor was using her powered armor to move the machinery into my lab. Mostly dragging it. Tonight I would be upgrading her suit to full powered armor.

I was splitting my attention between designing armor, machines to make the armor, running the automated tools I had already made and modifying and adding automation to my new tools. I was pleased to see that there was no issue fitting all the new tools into my workshop. It didn't feel any bigger, but it also didn't feel anymore crowded that before Taylor pulled in half a dozen rather large machines and a bunch of smaller ones. Even the large robotic arms I had built to move parts to and from machines and conveyors didn't seem to get in the way.

I was also unsure how but rather pleased to note that the beautiful parquet floor of the center hall of my base looked as pristine as it had prior to Taylor pulling the four-ton metal press across it.

A couple of hours later we had our motorcycle armor suits onsite. These were ordered and paid for by Aria and picked up by Hopkins, 'don't call me Lawrence', a self-proclaimed ex-ground pounder who looked like the poster Empire gang member. He let the ribbing associated with his look roll over him though I could hear in his words that there was some shared history with between that gang, Kurt, and himself.

Hopkins quickly joined the other four of the troop who were already in the simulator working with Taylor. One of them had started calling her Lieutenant as a bit of a joke when Aria set up the first scenario with Taylor in charge. But after seeing how well she coordinated everyone they had all taking to calling her that. When I had a break from the work, usually whilst waiting for something to complete, I would check up on her and I could see that she was taking to the position well. She looked just as focused but now more comfortable than I had seen her before. Despite spending most of her time in the simulator her army of spiders were still producing silk as fast as they could. I was finding more and more ways in which I could use it in my armor designs.

Kurt and Lacey had set up the miner as well as assembling constructors, belts, and robotic arms. These were busy producing components, armored plates, and frames for the suits.

Mr. Hebert was on his way back from picking up the weapons we would need for the raid with the last of the troop. Russell Washington, the ex-policeman, had arranged the not quite legal purchase of a significant number of weapons from a gunsmith and collector who tended to skirt the law but refused to do business with the gangs. He lived a bit outside of town, but they had taken a couple of drones and extra cameras, so I had already had a chance to see the weapons and work on plans.

These plans had been uploaded and the troops in the simulator were already practicing with them.

I was optimistic that we would be ready to move out by three in the morning. A little later than ideal. We had already planned that everyone would be getting some decent rest beforehand. I was pretty sure I would end up skipping some of the scheduled naps as the gear was critical to success.