When Vicky entered the lunch room, it was like a goddess arriving, her glory spilling out, silencing conver—

"Vicky!" Amy poked her sister.

"Right, um sorry, but this is a wonderful day!" Vicky said as she walked on air.

Granted, walking on air wasn't much of a problem for her, but she was really strutting on air, at this point.

Jim glanced at Claire, who glanced at Ann and then they all chorused. "So, who did you bust?"

Vicky bent down and then whispered so that nobody else could hear. "Squealer…" Vicky said. Then she paused. "Well, okay, I and Miss Militia and Armsmaster busted her. Mostly Armsmaster, but I stopped her truck!"

"Oh, and nobody is supposed to know until the conference at lunch, which is why we're leaving early," Amy said.

"Um, yeah," Vicky said. "So don't tell anyone, but you can watch the news conference."

"How'd you get her?" Claire asked, keeping her voice low. "I thought she was hiding out."

"I guess it was too much for her," Vicky said. "She kicked the door in of an all night store and was just grabbing stuff to make a ride to leave town in." The blond shrugged. "Why she didn't just take a bus…"

"Merchant," everyone chorused.

"Yeah. She had this like Volkswagen with a jet on it, but it wasn't good enough to leave town, so I saw and punched it, and then she blasted me with this gun, but that was enough to alert Armsmaster and Miss Militia."

"And that's it for the Merchants," Claire said, raising her hand. Vicky carefully gave her a high five then gave Jim a harder one.

"Yep." Vicky said. "They think there may be another cape or two, but so far it looks like this incarnation of the Merchants is heading for the ash heap of history."

"Wow," Ann said. "Just going part-time to college and you're getting so eloquent."

Vicky put her hands on her hips and mock-glared at Ann. "Just wait until I'm part of the Triumvirate, and you're telling people how you once ate lunch with me."

"Does that include telling stories about how you were late and ate like a starving…" Jim tilted his head. "Half-troll?"

"Yes. I will permit it," Vicky said. "So, any new juicy gossip from Wards HQ?"

"Other than the fact that Gallant and Aegis are both closeted with Kyle for some PR discussions?" Claire nodded. "We may have a new cape in town."

"Who?" Amy asked. Normally Vicky's sister was quiet, but she perked up at the thought of a new cape.

"Dunno. Oh, it's not classified," Jim said, dipping one of his bars into a sauce made up of blended fiber from socks with some aged mustard. "But they're being pretty quiet. Code name is Exterminator."

"That's ominous," Vicky said.

"No, it's actually pretty accurate," Claire replied. "A bunch of shops have been getting letters saying that someone is going to solve their pest problem…and all the bugs and rats are gone the next day."

"Publicity stunt?" Vicky asked. "Extortion?"

"Advertising," Claire replied. "The letters just ask that when "the service" goes public, that they mention whether or not they were happy with it."

"That's not the only thing. There were three muggings and a rape that were interrupted by 'clouds of bugs' over the weekend." Jim shrugged. "So Armsmaster thinks it's probably a really low-level tinker or master. He was out on Saturday, examining some of the buildings and there was no sign of chemicals or pesticides. They act friendly and are really sticking close to the rules, as far as we know, so if we run into them, we're to see if they want to come in before any of the gangs grab them."

"Close to the…Oh, they're not going into medical or food facilities." Amy nodded. "Yeah, I guess they have read the rules."

"Why wouldn't they?" Ann asked.

Vicky snorted. "If you're using any kind of tinkertech or powers around food or hospitals, you need a boatload of certifications and testing. A lot of tinkers really get into trouble for that. Even if it's not directly acting on the patients, it could affect them." She paused. "But enough about that, and back to my achievement."

"She's going to be talking about this for a while," Jim mock-whispered.

"How did you find her?" Claire asked.

Suddenly there was silence from Vicky, then she coughed. "Well, I was… On an unofficial patrol and I got hungry, so I was trying to decide whether I wanted the double-stuffed cookies or the pastries, you know the ones… Anyway, that's when Squealer kicked the door in and started grabbing stuff."

Jim stared. Then. "Wow, they were really bad at this villain thing, weren't they?"

Later, Jim and Claire emerged through a portal into the front of the PRT HQ. After one unscheduled portal, and a highly embarrassing incident involving confoam, a M/S Alert and a meeting with a no-nonsense Piggot, Claire had a designated portal point outside the base.

"Time for homework," Claire said. "No patrols for us today and I have some books here to work on."

Technically, they were at a vocational class, which meant that they had to be at the PRT, not home. Dennis had bemoaned the lack of trust in the Wards ability to go home if not on patrol and do their work, rather than playing the newest video games.

Nobody had dignified that with a comment.

"Well, I'm for…" Jim flexed his four-fingered hand. "Writing practice and vocational therapy."

"Didn't Director Piggot say you're getting better?"

"With the same tone Senor Uhl used to say I was comprehensible…" Jim paused. "You know, since our alternate universe is evidently really different, maybe Piggot and Uhl are actually gender-flipped—"

"Nope!" Claire put her hand up. "Not going there. Not going there at all."

Jim grinned. "So what books?"

"A basic syllabus of the True Enochian language, as penned by Merlin Ambrosious, which will allow me to start to learn High Draconic, which is the language from which most mystical incantations are descended from." She paused. "Also, I'm not to look at anything about John Dee because he was a hack and charlatan."

"Sounds neat," Jim said.

"It's… Oh, that man!" Claire said. "He left sticky notes on it,and he's so…" She paused, and then mimicked Merlin's voice. "My dear, despite your atrocious pronunciation, and shaky grasp of both gender and tense in trollish, you are at least comprehensible. So I expect that you may be able to learn this language to the level of a toddler…" Claire was clenching her fists. "And it's all like that, implying that I probably won't—I'm going to show him! When he gets back, I'll have every book read, my staff prepared and ask him why was he was wasting my time…"

Jim laughed and kissed Claire on the forehead. "Okay, be easy. He's just an old wizard remember, and I don't think the PRT would like you beating him with a book."

"No…" Claire said. She put his hand up to her cheek. "I wouldn't beat him up with a book for something like that." She giggled. "But he did recommend I not read any of complete paragraphs aloud. Something about 'calling up what I haven't learned to put down…' So, I'm off. Dinner at Five?"

"Sure. Here or the Boardwalk?"

"We'll decide. It depends on whether or not we're having to clean up a demon incursion," Claire said airily, as she left. Jim smiled.

"And now," he said. "Writing practice. My nemesis…"