"Alec," Brian said, "You're going to have to exercise." The leader of the Undersiders shook his head. "She didn't give you a self-maintaining body."

"Yeah, but Bro!"

"I am not your brother," Brian said.

"Sure you are, I even got the DNA to prove it!" Alec said. "And fingers that while clumsy and over-muscled, can now play Crash Carts 17, with the secret Bikini Alexandria Level, all night long!"

Brian sighed. But it was time to talk to Lisa. He went up to the loft where Lisa was working on her laptop. She was glaring at it.

"I helped put the plan together," she said, "and Faultline got twenty million dollars."

"Less than what they anticipated," Brian said. "The PRT wasn't exactly willing to let us liquidate everything, and Faultline did let us collect six million, which is a lot more than 10 percent."

"Yeah." Lisa shook her head. "Can't blame the PRT…"

Brian nodded. Even Lisa had been a little taken aback by how deep Calvert's coils ran into the Bay. Just liquidating everything would have plunged the place into a depression, so the PRT had exercised their right of (a confidential) seizure, and were now busy trying to unscrew everything, from payments to corrupt cops to an unofficial subsidy to a pizza place, of all things.

But even so… Six million… Brian looked over at Lisa and opened his mouth.

"You're thinking of leaving," Lisa said, still staring at her laptop.

"Yeah." Brian nodded. "Look, Lisa… I got into this…" He sighed. "The PRT pushed my emancipation through, as part of their thank you for helping with Coil. I took twenty K of my share and dropped it on a family attorney and he says that I can have custody of Aisha by the end of the month, especially…" His fingers clenched into fists, "Because our boss isn't fucking with the paperwork."

"Yeah," Lisa said. "Sorry about that, but I didn't want to see what Coil might do if he figured you were going to slip the chain."

"Still should have told me, Tats," Brian shook his head. And what then? He tortures her in a throwaway timeline and suddenly Aisha gets killed by some E88 thugs so Coil can offer me revenge. After all, while they didn't know everything about Calvert's operations, the PRT had confirmed that they all had been… interrogated by him in his throwaway timelines.

"So no Undersiders?"

"I…" Brian looked around the loft. "I joined up, got into the business to get Aisha away from Mom. Away from her boyfriends. Away… Yeah. And now she is, and I have more money than I've ever seen. Lisa, I don't have to work!" Brian shook his head. "I don't… Hell, the only thing I know about having more than a million is how fast I could blow it, if I'm not careful, but… I'd always figured I could get Aisha, go to another town, maybe get a job as a bouncer or something. But now…" he shook his head. "But this town is still a shithole where you run into Nazis, and Aisha can't control her mouth to save her life. Dad won't leave, but he agrees with me and who gives a shit what Mom says."

Lisa grinned. "Wait, aren't you going to be the strong older brother who helps her control her mouth?"

"I'm not Scion," Brian muttered. "But…"

"But yeah. And then there's Rachel." Lisa frowned. "The PRT wouldn't give her a pass on that, but they're offering reduced punishment after a mental evaluation. I'm… Working on her, but it's contingent on her…"

"Not trying to murder Hookwolf or raiding his rings."

"Yeah. I've been working on convincing the PRT to let her work with their disaster dogs as her 'punishment'…"

Brian nodded. "That'd be good. She'd like that."

"And lastly, Alec. He's good anywhere, but…" Lisa shrugged. "I think he needs someone to keep him moving, or he'll turn into this vaguely Alec-shaped blob. Well, Brian—sha—"

"Don't even think of continuing that sentence, Tats."

"I won't. So, now that we're agreed, let's start packing."

"Wait, what?"

"You want to leave, none of us have deep connections around here, some of us have good reasons to leave, and the PRT is willing play ball right now." She paused. "And I might have rented a property just outside of LA. Interested in doing something or do you want to just lay back on a recliner by a pool, experiencing the retired life at 17."

"Fuck, no?" Grue said. "Who should we tell?"

"Nobody, until we're gone." Lisa shook her head. "Especially Trollhunter. He'll try to get us to stay, to save the city, and stand up for it."

"I'd figure you'd want to poke holes in him."

"Hell no. I'm worried he'd convince me." Lisa grinned. "We can call him after we're on the road."

"Road trip?" Regent asked. "In the van?"

"It's a stretched van," Lisa said. "And it's not like we're taking any of this stuff. Leave it for someone else."

Brian looked around. There was stuff here he'd miss. Eating pizza, talking to the others…

But equally… Aisha is out of this shithole. The social worker, when he'd dropped his plans, had agreed.

"Let's do it."

It took a few days. Some paperwork, one last talk with the lawyer and Aisha's social worker.

Things went faster after Mom decided to tell the social worker that she'd be happy to sign Aisha over in return for about 10K.

Turned out, the courts frowned on trying to sell your own daughter.

So now…

"I love LA!" Aisha sang in a badly off key voice.

"Are you going to keep singing that all the way to LA?" Lisa asked.

"Sure! Let'em know I'm coming!" Aisha called out.

"Told you that's why I needed the good earphones," Regent said as he sat and played his game.

Brian shook his head. Anyone else would be motion sick from trying to do that, but not Regent. Bitch had her core dogs, working with them in the back. They'd been informed that they would be stopping every few hours, likely more, so the dogs could be walked and watered.

The shelter dogs were okay. Bitch had dumped a cool million on the Humane Society, with a warning that she'd be "fucking checking." That had been her share and price for leaving.

Yeah, you were right, Lisa. She'd actually convinced them to put more money up in a fund for Bitch, so that Rachel would never run out of money—or more properly, wouldn't be able to spend the principle.

Brian let Lisa figure that stuff out. Just like she was working on the Consulting Detective business and PI's license.

But everyone fell silent as he pulled the van over to the side of the road, as they hit the hill. Soon, the highway would curve around the hill and the Bay would be lost behind them, but now…

The sun gleamed on the water, and the rig was sending the light back in a spray of rainbow colors. Even the Boat Graveyard looked nice, water lapping at the ships. Down on the waterfront, you could see the tiny cars and people wandering around, shopping.

Most of them couldn't care less about the Undersiders leaving, if they knew who they were in the first place.

Brian tried to feel some regret about it, but…

The Bay eats its children. Something one of Dad's friends had told him. Mom was down there, finding another boyfriend to get high with. The Nazis were down there, looking for people to beat up, and he wasn't a crusader. His duty was to Aisha.

No, he wasn't going to miss the Bay, not at all. Brian looked at the others, most of them lost in their own thoughts, then pulled back out into traffic, looking forward as they merged onto the Interstate. He didn't look back.

And before long, the only thing to mark their presence was the fading sound of a young voice, once again belting out "I Love LA".