~*T*~

Hermione parked across the street and a few blocks down from the diner. Harry locked his door, held the handle, and closed it. The turbo timer killed the engine as they walked away.

"Bourbon and Canal," Harry read off the corner signs, "Named after the streets in New Orleans?"

"I don't think so," Hermione offered, "I'm pretty sure this area was plotted in the 1820s, so it would be parallel development, but," she shrugged.

The diner offered "New Orleans Style Cafe Au Lait," and beignet, so Hermione ordered for them.

~*i*~

"So," Hermione asked, "What is pretty?"

Cricket looked at herself in the mirror, downstairs in the Undersider's warehouse lair, the high-bay lights cast a bluish tint, washed out her skin tone, "What can you do?"

"Taller, shorter, curvier, flatter, hands, feet, face, ears, whatever."

Cricket just stared at herself, silent, then shrugged out of her jacket, "Same height, same proportions, longer, more slender hands and feet, face a little rounder, nose a little less prominent, both boobs the same size, finish removing the tattoos."

A moment later she nodded, "Perfect. Can you fix my nose to make girls smell sexy?"

"Maybe. Why?"

"Because they," she paused, "Because boys," she paused again, started pacing, agitated, "Because I suck! And maybe if girls were sexy I could find someone who'd put up with my suckiness, without feeling too put-upon, and," she let out a shrill, frustrated, noise.

"I'm sure there's plenty of boys who'd be happy to put up with you," Hermione said, "But I can fix your nose, too, if you want."

"Please. And I don't believe that there are that many boys who'd put up with me. I've dated plenty who couldn't."

"Maybe the problem was that they were Nazis rather than that they were boys."

"Eh, there were a few before the Empire, and they were just the same."

"You do know the poster, right?"

"Yes, I am the one person in all of my failed relationships. So therapy."

"And liking girls."

"I've always liked girls, they just weren't sexy."

~*i*~

Harry climbed out of Hermione's passenger seat, and pulled the lever to flip it forward. Cricket released her seatbelt herself and unfolded from the back seat, stretched a moment, "Thank you," she offered.

"You're welcome," Harry replied.

~*i*~

The Great and Powerful Turtle hovered to the left. This was version two, or maybe three, of her shell, sloped armor of mild steel ship-hull plate, three or four layers with air gaps between, periscopic vision blocks, and a pair of matching clawed grabbers on chains. Shadow Stalker sat on top, braced by a lifting-ring.

Yuubara, night rose, as she'd chosen, stood on the right, swirling the chain of her new kusarigama,

Hermione stood next to Harry, the Beast in her arms, and Luna stood beside her.

"Hello, Merchants!" Harry yelled, her voice booming over the apartment complex the gang had appropriated, "You should come out and surrender, before we come in there and pull you out."

"You wouldn't dare!" Someone yelled back, and fired an RPG out a window at The Great and Powerful Turtle.

She dropped, Shadow Stalker going incorporeal, and the RPG glanced off the top of her shell, flailing into the distance.

"You forgot the safety, assmung!" someone yelled inside.

"Sic 'em, Fluffy," Hermione told the Beast.

Another RPG roars from a ground-floor window, and hit The Great and Powerful Turtle's shell about two feet up from the front edge, in the center of her glacis, and detonated. The spear of copper plasma cut into the steel, burned instantly through the first layer, spread a bit on the first air gap, burned through the second layer almost as fast, spread again on the third air gap, and barely cut through the third layer of steel before it spread again, momentum dissipated.

"Shit," The Great and Powerful Turtle yelled, darted forward, claws snapping.

The Beast of Caerbannog bounded forward at her side.

~*i*~

Yuubara listened for survivors and The Great and Powerful Turtle dug them out, giant claws lifting chunks of rubble and setting them aside.

Glory Girl arrived before the PRT, and admired the mess, "They complain about me and collateral damage," she said.

"Yeah, they hit The Great and Powerful Turtle with an RPG, so she took the fight to them," Luna said, "And Amy sic'd the Beast on them."

"Any survivors?"

"Yuubara and Taylor are finding them, Amy's healing, could you help the Turtle," The Great and Powerful Turtle's shell turned in their direction, "Sorry, The Great and Powerful Turtle, dig them out?"

"No problem."

~*i*~

Hermione was cuddling the Beast, even as Brandish glared at the collapsed building, "How many civilians?"

"None," Harry answered, "They all left when the Merchants took the top floor."

"How many unarmed Merchants?"

"Maybe ten, but most of those had weapons nearby. A couple might have been capes, but we haven't checked."

"Amy? Why not?"

"They're too dead for my power to give me a useful read on them."

"OK. How many live capes?"

"We've got three, two male, one female," Luna said, "Mush, Chariot, and Squealer, probably."

"Skidmark? Whirlygig?"

"Skidmark tried to fight the Beast," a gesture to the rows of bodies with their severed heads on their chests.

Brandish nodded.

"Whirlygig might not have been here, or might be dead."

"Your team OK?"

Harry nodded, "The Great and Powerful Turtle took two RPGs to the shell. The first didn't go off, the second came within an inch of steel plate of killing her."

"I'm glad she's OK."

"We are too," Amy said, gave the Beast a bit of a squeeze. It cuddled into her, and licked more blood from its paws.

"Your team is rather rough on your opponents," Brandish noted.

"Proportional response. Words for words, lethal force for lethal force."

Brandish's shoulders slumped a bit, and she nodded grimly, "It's much more fun when it doesn't go that far."

~*T*~