Brockton Bay, December 13th, 2010, Monday

"So how are you settling in?"

"Mm."

"You are listing to your instructors?"

"Mm."

"Good. The faster you meet their standards the faster you don't have to deal with them and can focus on doing what you want."

"Mm."

Emily Piggot sighed. "How's Angelica's eye?"

"Fixed. Other pains too."

"Druid does good work."

"Mm."

Emily regards the girl and the three dogs clustered around her. The three are wary of her, but not threatened. She's been here a few times and the dogs know her scent, though she suspects they might only be held back from doing something because of the girl in the middle of them.

She's rather content with that as she does like dogs, and she would likely need to shoot them if they came after her, but Rachel has them well trained, even if she isn't the most social with people yet.

Emily stands a bit apart from them, not near the door, but not approaching further than the rooms chair, though she doesn't sit in it. Rachel hasn't looked at her directly, she probably won't, though the glances she makes when she thinks Emily is not looking speak volumes.

The girl is intimidated for the moment, and she's unsure if she is willing to try anything. Emily would prefer a mutual agreement from the girl but for the moment she will accept the grudging respect and intimidation that she has.

Emily is fine with that for now, though she'd like to get Lindt a little more socially adjusted. The doctors think she has some form of autism, which is quite possible, or it might just be possible she has wolf child syndrome or whatever the fuck the doctors call it. Society has not been kind to this girl.

"You've been cleared on criminal charges of the murder, though there are a few other charges we are working on. " Emily had come here a few times since she subdued the girl. She was taking a bit too active of a part in Rachel Lindt's care, hell, in everything going on in the PRT and Protectorate to be fair.

But unlike Meadows she didn't have health issues, and if she sat behind a desk all day filling out paper work she would go nuts. Besides Deputy Director Renick and all her other paper pushing underlings should be handling things like requisitions and pay raise requests.

Emily shouldn't have to deal with anything so basic and if that sort of paperwork crossed her desk she made sure to forward it to the relevant department along with a very angry comment or two.

The paperwork was clearing itself up as a result and she was getting to the point she only had to deal with the things she was supposed to according to her crash course in being a Director.

Still that gave her more free time, which lead her to talking with Wards, various troopers, and popping into departments at random times and seeing who was working and who was playing Galaga on company time.

If she was feeling particularly vicious, she'd use her training and sneak around to surprise people, or take photos of their goofing off and post them in an email that she would then send to that person as a warning.

HR was already screaming at her for that. She hardly cared as she had caught two of their members in a broom closet playing five minutes to heaven. So far the only ones she hadn't caught were the basic rank and file under Major Kaisur, mostly because her old DI did that to them any way and they swiftly learned to pay attention, and the janitors. Hell, Mike had managed to sneak up on her once, while pushing a cleaning cart.

No one ever noticed the janitors.

"Something wrong?" Emily asked watching Rachel who frowned a bit more." I was told you wanted to speak to me."

"Not been hunting in a while."

Emily raised an eyebrow.

"Hunting what?"

"Dog fights."

"Nazis?"

"Sometimes. Hookwolf."

Emily tilts her head slightly , she had seen the reports on Rachel's dogs. Many of them were injured and showed signs of being trained to fight. That wasn't something the girl did as the three in the room despite being her main attack dogs were hardly injured at all save Angelica, and those injuries were old according to Druid.

"You attacked the fights before."

"Saved the dogs."

Emily nodded. "How did you find them?"

"They see Brutus in the park and tell me where to go." Rachael shrugged.

Emily sighed looking at the Rottweiler, Nazi's were clearly idiots, still this gave her an idea.

"Can you find the next one for me?"

"Mm."

Emily smiled without showing teeth.

Brockton Bay, December 15th, 2010, Wednesday

" Fuck Fuck Fuck!!!"

The thin pale man simply sat there watching as the safe house main room was shredded by metal blades destroying furniture and the room alike, a number of them pierced him and the other occupant, the pale man just frowned as his clothing was shredded though his flesh regrew.

The larger man just snorted as his flesh healed over.

"You done boss man?" HookWolf asked looking at the carnage of the room.

Alabaster sighed as the couch he had been sitting on finally collapsed leaving him sitting on a pile of scrap on the floor.

"Yes." Kaiser offered reaching up to adjust his tie, his armor forming over it a moment later. "Explain to me what happened in this cluster fuck one more time."

Alabaster didn't bother to move from the partially collapsed couch. Sure he could take whatever was dished out, but he expected that if Kaiser really wanted to he could make pain and suffering last for a long time, so it was better if he didn't piss the man off.

Not that trying not to didn't piss him off sometimes any way. Kaisur was usually calm, but two things set him off more than anything else. Abject failure, and hitting on his ex wife. Alabaster had experienced that last one before too.

"We followed the plan and hit the PRT van we were told was holding Victor. The twins went off to distract Miss Militia, so I'm not sure what happened there, but i expect they went too far in holding her back and she upped her response to match theirs.

I got hit with a foam grenade and got stuck. Krieg killed the driver and the other trooper then opened the back to free Victor and deal with any other guards that would be there.

It was a trap, because Alucard grabbed Krieg and killed him. He then came after me, took a full magazine of rifle ammo to the face and then used me as a blood bag for three days before I was turned over to the PRT. The fucker is an ACTUAL vampire for fucks sake, if I was any one else I'd be drained like a can of beer at one of Hookwolf's fights, and even though I'm not, that was fucking unpleasant. It's probably something the PRT PR people keep covered up.

No stupid vampire fangs though, it's like fucking shark teeth in that assholes mouth."Alabaster continued with a shudder. "Anyway I go though processing and then get bailed out and now I'm here.

No idea what happened to the twins or Victor. Only reason I'm here is because I could plead I was just riding along with them as I didn't hurt anyone so at worst I got a unlawful weapons discharge fine. So your lawyers got me out easy.

Victor went after the director which is a straight to jail card, the twins doubled teamed a sand nigger Protectorate with intent to kill, destroyed her bike and injured her and went right to jail, and Krieg got eaten by a fuck mothering vampire."

Hookwolf stared at the pale man with a raised eyebrow.

"Meh i could take him." he huffed.

Alabaster turned his head and looked at Hookwolf a moment before shrugging and turning back to look at the pacing Kaiser."What kind of flowers do you want on your grave?"

Hookwolf snorted.

"We are down four fucking capes, including our contact with Germany." Kaiser grumbled.

"Still have Night and Fog." Alabaster shrugged. "Didn't Millennium send them over here?"

"Yes but only to watch us and make sure we kept up the way they want things Those two hardly even count as part of our group. We can't lose any one else even temporary. We need to deal with this issue. "

"So we just kill the bitch and blame it on the chinks." Hookwolf shrugged. "Simple, done it a hundred times with other problems."

"Politicians and wrong thinking judges are a bit less high profile than a PRT director. Particularly now that she has the attention of a number of important people for those arrests. If something happened to her now everyone would know it was us. And I do not want to wake up one morning and find out that Eidilon is in my kitchen with some questions."

"They killed one of ours we kill four of theirs. " Hookwolf shrugged. "I say the sand nigger, the fucking dog guy, the vamp, and that fucking mouse."

"No. Do nothing for the moment." Kaiser snapped. "We'll stay low until after Christmas. I'll have Night and Fog check with their contacts and we will see what happens from there. Alabaster stay put here you are on their radar for now, simply stay out of sight."

The pale Nazi looked around at the ruins of the safe house and sighed. " I will need a new couch at least."

Brockton Bay, December 17th, 2010, Friday

This was stupid. She knew it was stupid. They knew it was stupid , EVERYONE knew it was stupid.

And yet here they were, learning the basics on the Korean war, 2 hours before school would be closed for Christmas vacation.

The teacher droned on talking about the political issues of countries that didn't exist anymore like it was something they would need to know in order to exist in life, and that 99% of the class wouldn't forget in less than two hours.

Amy groaned and bounced her forehead on her desk, she wasn't the only one either.

Brockton Bay, December 18th, 2010, Saturday

"I do not appreciate this intrusion."

"I made an appointment."

"Which is the only reason you are still sitting here. I am not even sure how you made an appointment as I have no secretary."

To say things were tense in the opulent Japanese themed room would be an understatement. Priceless art, mahogany furniture, gold trimmed Everything, and crushed red velvet made everything look like it was a dragon's hoard with how excessive it was.

Fitting then that it WAS a dragons hoard.

Lung stared at the two across the desk from him. His steel dragon mask hiding his eyes as they darted over the pair.

Oni-lee stood nearby as silent and patient as always, but the pair before him showed no fear, no worry. He might believe it arrogance if not for who the pair were. And that was the only reason he allowed this.

"I have my ways." the woman spoke. She was a blonde, clearly American, fairly well endowed and wearing a modified PRT trooper outfit that accentuated how she looked.

Likely not by her choice as Slayer was oft noted to be more practical. It wasn't showing as much skin as many Protectorate capes showed, though come to think of it that was something of the norm in the Bay.

Mouse Protector was fully armored. Miss Militia wore combat clothing, and Battery was in a full body suit, ironically the most covered and most revealing of the lot.

"Fine then. I will humor you for a time. What is it you want?"

" For you to dissolve the ABB, go legit, turn over your bomber and Oni-Lee to the PRT, and help fight Endbringers." Slayer stated." Your joining the PRT would be nice too."

Lung's eyes narrow, though his attention shifted to the man in red standing behind the woman as he laughed.

"Asking for the moon isn't she?" Alucard grinned.

"You mock me?" Lung snarled.

"No. But you asked what I want. And I'm not naive enough to think i can get everything I want, so I'm going to try for some of it."Slayer stated. "First off I know you won't turn over Oni-Lee despite the number of kills he has, but your bomber blew up part of a school, a college, but letting her get away with that sets a bad president. Schools are off limits, that's by your own code too, even if this was in another state."

Lung says nothing and the woman continues.

"I'm not even going to bother with starting the paper work on the last, but I am quite firm on you dissolving or at least restructuring the ABB."

"And why should i bother. You bring nothing but wants of your own, this is hardly a way to deal." He very much wanted to twist this woman's head off, she couldn't be this stupid, there had to be something to it and thus he held his anger, for now.

"Simple. Money."

"Explain."

"I'm not a economist, but i know a few and i asked them about the ABB and how it could make money based on what we knew. You have casinos, you have brothels, you have protection and you have the drug trade. The rest of your time is spent fighting Nazis, drugged out idiots, and the local heroes. All of that costs money."

"That you fight the Nazis is a big feather in your cap.. or rice grain in your sushi, which ever works, i suck at anagrams." Alucard chimed in.

"Stop the drug trade, focus on the other aspects and turn the protection racket into an insurance racket, you make more money and it's legal. Immoral, but legal.""Slayer stated."I don't expect changes like this overnight of course."

"Cute, but i see no reason to alter anything with just the word of a mad woman who comes before me."Lung snapped. "You are hardly convincing."

"Really? Well if greed isn't a motivator even if you would have to pay taxes on what you own..."

"I already do." Lung stopped her.

"What?" Slayer blinked.

"The ABB pays all state and Federal taxes on all properties and such. W2's at the end of the year for all under my banner." Lung explained.

"I did not expect that." Alucard blinked.

"Please. I will fight any cape, surmount any obstacle, but mess with the IRS? No thank you. They will put you in a real jail if you fuck up, not a revolving door like the PRT has." Lung explained. "Even Skidmark pays his taxes."

"This makes way too much sense." Slayer sighed. "But any way. If you will not alter yourself for greed, then you should for your daughter."

The reaction was instant. The desk was destroyed in a blaze of fire and rage, scales formed on his bare arms and chest as he now loomed over the seated woman. Oddly neither she nor her companion had moved.

"You dare..."

"No. I do not. That was not a threat Kenta. It was a question." Slayer stated. "It was the start of an observation. You continue on this path you are on and sooner or later you are going to either die, or be arrested. You hold sway by fear right now. Do you expect your daughter to take over the ABB? Can she use the same tactics? Will she instill the same loyalty and fear as you do? Do you even WANT her to do so, or do you want her to be better than you are?"

Lung remained towering over the woman keeping his fire in check enough to not destroy them, though the gilding behind him and the remains of his desk ooze and sag as they melt. His eyes, already slitted widen as the woman reaches up and removes the goggles of her mask. He knew who she was already of course, her disguise was flimsy at best,but he respected the unwritten rules and for her to do this gave him pause.

Director Piggot stared back at the rage dragon.

"You're not the only one with a daughter, and your reaction shows you care for her greatly. You know you want better for her than what you had. I'm making the offer now for you to start that. Change and the PRT will focus on something else for a time. Change enough and we might find with have other things to do later as well. I have other problems I need to deal with in this city that are more pressing than the ABB and I'd rather focus on them than on you."

Lung frowned and exhaled a gout of fire to the side staring down at the woman before he glanced back at Oni-Lee. A moment later Oni-Lee dissolved into a puff of ash, he then appeared again wheeling in a new chair which Lung sat down in as Oni-Lee took his place again.

"I will think about this."

"All i can ask for. You know where to contact me." Director Piggot stood up.

"There is one requirement to my even considering it."

"Oh?" Slayer asked putting on her goggles again.

Lung pointed to Alucard. "We will fight."

"Oh my, Christmas has come early." Alucard gasped.

"Contact me and we'll set something up." Slayer sighed.