~*T*~

E88 members dropped throughout the open-air market, and Anne gathered them up. She picked them up with a great metal claw that may have been some sort of logging equipment. The claw was attached with a chain to what obviously had been a VW Beetle before someone covered the windows and removed the wheels.

Lisa smiled at the sight.

The Nazis were piled like cord wood, then Harry turned to the Merchants. They dropped, and were collected, in a similar manner.

Once the market was free of gangs, Hermione called to get them picked up, "Yes, I have a pile of E88 thugs and a pile of Merchants, could you come pick them up, please? I'm sure most of them have concealed handguns, or knives over 4 inches. The merchants mostly have illicit drugs on them. If they don't have anything, you can keep them for three days, and they'll probably incriminate themselves in that time."

~*i*~

"Who's your new team member?" Director Piggot, who'd come out with the troops again, asked.

"I am The Great and Powerful Turtle," she waved her claw.

"It is nice to meet you, Turtle."

She shook her shell back and forth, "People won't understand where I got the name if you don't use it all."

"All?"

"The Great and Powerful Turtle," Anne said, "Five words, one name."

"Oh," Piggot visibly stopped herself from shaking her head, "It is nice to meet you, The Great and Powerful Turtle."

"Thank you, Director."

"Director?" Hermione held out her hand.

"Yes?"

"You need to eat less sugar. I want to fix your kidney damage. May I?"

Piggot crossed her arms over her chest, the fingers of one hand twitching, then finally nodded. She reached out and took Hermione's hand.

"Kidneys, sugar damage, more sugar damage, may I turn some of this fat into muscle? It'll make the insulin resistance easier to fix."

"If you want."

"Thank you," Hermione let go of Piggot's hand, "Stay off the sugar, eat veggies, meat, and animal fats as much as you want."

"I'll do my best."

"I mean it. Get them to remove the flavored sugar water from the vending machines, cut back on the candies available, crisps. I don't know if they have vending-machine sized jerky available, but nuts are better than candy."

"And you know this because?"

Hermione held up a hand, "I heal people. A lot."

~*i*~

"What's this?" Harry asked. This was a dark metallic blue-green, much more blue than green, so not, Harry noted to himself, teal, small for a car, rounded like a well-used bar of soap. The engine is running quietly, and the tan vinyl top is up in the mid-March drizzle.

"You'll be 16 in a few months," Luna said, "So I got you something."

"It's a car," Harry turned to Luna, cocking his head to the side, "Does it drink lots of premium?"

"Perfectly happy on regular, should drink about three gallons per hundred miles, lighter than Hermione's 86, less power, but you don't want to fiddle with a turbo, and a supercharger would still drop your milage a bit," Luna answered.

"So you're going to teach me?"

"If you'd like," Luna turned her head a bit, looking away.

"Please."

Luna opened the driver's door for Harry. Harry admired the door handles. The interior is tan as well, with a wooden shift knob and handle on the parking brake. Luna climbed it the passenger side, and talked him through adjusting the seat.

"OK, left foot off the dead pedal, and put in the clutch," Luna said, "Now shift it into first, and just slowly back out the clutch until you feel it begin to engage."

The tach dropped precipitously, and Harry jerked his foot the rest of the way off the clutch. The car jerked, and the engine died.

"When the RPMs drop like that, put the clutch back in. Start it up again."

~*i*~

"You can heal me," Cricket said in her buzzy voice, "Some conditions."

'Yes?" Hermione asked.

"Therapy. You find, you pay," she shook her head, "Fighting my problems away," she shrugged.

Luna nodded, "We can do that."

"Pretty Japanese girl, eyes your color."

Hermione nodded.

"Money."

"How's 60 thou to start?" Luna asked.

"Fine," she held out her hand.

Hermione reached out, and they shook.

Cricket's scars smoothed out, her hair darkened, her eyes shifted from blue to a pale amber brown, eyelids changing shape just a bit.

"We'll need a full-length mirror for pretty, OK?"

"That's," the word came out very odd, so she paused, worked her lips, tried again, "That's fine. When?" Her voice was still a bit garbled, but improved.

"This evening after my hospital shift work for you?, about 10?"

She nodded, "Where?"

"Diner at the corner of Bourbon and Desire?"

"I know it. Fine."

"I'll see you then," Hermione said.

"Thank you," Cricket sounded, and looked, awkward, like she had not thanked anyone for years.

~*i*~

"Yeah, so," Hermione said, "I'm really thinking I'll weaponize this," she indicated her patient with her chin, face hidden behind his chart.

Luna cocked her head, "Sugar aversion?"

"Yep, our appetites are great for wild humans, we can't get enough carbs to mess us up, but zoo humans?" Hermione sighed, "So I've adjusted the threshold at which carbs start tasting bad, and linked it to metabolic disruption and body fat. I need to try it on a few thousand people to check for problems."

"Mosquitos," Harry said.

"You are the best girlfriend ever," Hermione said, and wrapped him in a hug.

"Um, boy."

"Are you sure?"

"Maybe?"

~*i*~

Harry watched Hermione as she drove, brake, clutch, dab of gas, downshift, repeat, car in neutral, foot off the clutch, tiny bit of brake as they coasted up to the stoplight. It turned green before they got there, clutch in, second gear, clutch slowly out as she fed in gas, third before they've entered the crossing, fourth in the middle, 45 MPH. Hermione looked at her gages a moment, let off on the gas, almost coasting.

~*T*~