"Interview and testing of new parahuman, session is being recorded per M/S protocol 1991-25-R. Please state your cape name for the record."
"Libromancer."
"We are in the PRT ENE building, Testing Room Five-R. You made some requests for your testing that are a little unusual for a Tinker."
"I'm not a Tinker."
"What about the motorcycle?" Armsmaster brought up a picture of the large motorcycle parked outside the facility.
"I can't drive. I'm fifteen. Zephron drove it here and he's in the lobby," said the testee. "You brought the books I requested?"
Miss Militia exchanged a look with Armsmaster and Dragon. "We... found some."
The girl dressed in what was mostly civilian clothing held out a hand. "Hard science fiction?"
Dragon handed her a well-used paperback.
"'Leviathan Wakes' by James S.A. Corey? Hmmmm," said Libromancer, thumbing through the book. "Ah. Here's a good spot."
The book fell to the floor, there being no sign of Libromancer.
"Mover? Did she teleport?" asked Miss Militia. "Or turn invisible?"
Dragon made a noise that sounded like a DVD skipping. "I just analyzed the video. She went into the book."
"What do you mean she 'went into the book'? It's a paperback," protested Miss Militia.
"Little hand here?" asked Libromancer's voice, a hand extending out about halfway through the book.
Armsmaster hesitated a moment before kneeling and taking ahold of the hand, then helping Libromancer out of her spot.
Libromancer dusted off the flightsuit-sort-of that she was now wearing and held out a USB stick. "Here."
"What's this?" asked Dragon, taking it, plugging it into an appropriate port, and running a suite of security scans on it. "Safe. Simple file compression. It's... oh dear sweet Maker."
"What is it?" asked Miss Militia, ready to draw and shoot if Dragon were being attacked.
"Colin. LOOK at this," said Dragon. "It's all here. Fully documented. Schematics. The research that leads to the breakthroughs and the steps needed along the way."
"What is it?" asked Miss Militia, not completely sure this wasn't an attack.
"It isn't Tinkertech," said Armsmaster, his voice showing an emotion. Wonder. "The math. Sustainable fusion. Details on both the first and second generation reactors. Not everything is there, but enough that the rest could be reconstructed. The Epstein Drive?!"
All three PRT capes looked at Libromancer.
"Books are portals to other worlds, other times," said Libromancer. "I can enter them. I can come back with things. In this case, come back with a thumbdrive full of information taken from an engineering library aboard a spaceship. Zephron's motorcycle was from a manga called 'Akira' and my lightsaber is from a Star Wars novel. If it's real tech, like from hard science fiction, anyone can use it. If it's fantasy or something like Star Wars then it will only work for me as long as I'm touching it."
Armsmaster looked at Dragon, who looked back at him - occasionally making the same DVD-skipping noise she had earlier.
"So... this is a useful power?" asked Miss Militia.
"I'm not interested in joining the Protectorate or the Wards or whatever," said Libromancer. She pointed at the thumbdrive. "That sort of thing though - it requires resources I don't have access to in order to use it. So I came in to make a deal with people who have the resources to actually work on stuff like that. Deal?"
* PRT HQ *
"She has no Corona Pollentia or Gamma. Yet she has powers."
"Path to getting Libromancer on our side," said Contessa, closing her eyes. "Huh. She's already more or less on our side. As long as we treat her fairly."
"She pulled out an X-Wing, she got a freaking X-Wing," said Numbers Man. "Can we make more? Can I get an X-Wing?"
"It apparently knocked her out for almost two days," said Alexandria. "Though admittedly, being able to field a squadron of X-Wings DOES have a nice ring to it next time the Simurgh does something."
"Dragon is looking into what can actually be duplicated using real-world physics and available resources. The funds from the fusion patents and licenses will help in that regard." Legend looked quite amused. "It's an interesting power with some interesting possibilities."
Doctor Mother looked up from where she had been scribbling things down on paper. "I'm compiling a list. What are the limits of her ability?"
Alexandria looked up from the report. "She can only go to places and times that are listed in a book. It has to be a book that has had wide circulation. The wider the circulation, the more likely she can form the connection. She has stated flat out she is not going into any Twilight novels."
"Can't blame her at all for that," said Legend, with several sounds of agreement from around the room.
"Likewise any novels pertaining to zombie apocalypses or pandemics should be kept away from her," said Doctor Mother, turning her attention back to the list she was making.
"She can enter novels, including 'light novels' and 'graphic novels', and interact with things in the story. The more massive the object, the more difficult and draining it is for her to return with it." Alexandria tapped the screen of her tablet. "The agreement with Dragontech and the PRT allows for a three-way split of funds acquired from this little arrangement."
"I... Coil," said Contessa.
"What about Coil?" asked Alexandria.
"If he tries to acquire Libromancer, that could throw everything straight into the crapper," said Contessa.
"Ah, perhaps it would be best to let Mister Calvert know not to endanger our resources?" asked Alexandria.
"That might be best, otherwise we need to keep Libromancer's abilities as secret as possible," said Contessa.
"She has an X-Wing," pointed out the Numbers Man.
"Yes - that she doesn't know how to fly yet," pointed out Contessa.
"Just pointing out that pulling tech out of a Star Wars novel is not going to be low profile," countered Numbers Man. "Awesome, but hardly low profile."
"There are Tinkers, she can just be passed off as a Tinker who gets inspiration from various sources. That's what everyone in Brockton Bay originally thought after all," said Contessa. "Is that a list of things for her to pull from?"
"This is," said Doctor Mother, tapping one sheet that was to the side. "This is a list of books she should NOT try to pull from. At all."
The Numbers Man looked over and nodded. "Yeah. Bram Stoker's Dracula would definitely be a bad choice. On the other hand, Lord of the Rings?"
"Chance of getting the One Ring or Sauron's attention, we have enough trouble," said Doctor Mother as she continued writing.
"Harry Potter world would be out then," mused Legend. "Pity. Having access to the Reparo spell would be very nice."
"Not necessarily, if we could go to a place where the main enemies are not - it would reduce the odds considerably," said Alexandria. "Drop Libromancer in Rivendell for that setting. Or the epilogue in either."
The discussion turned in full to where in which books would provide the best risk/reward ratio.
* Taylor *
"Pulling a small object described in a text is easiest," explained Taylor, reaching into a Batman novel and pulling out a Batarang.
"Neat," said Danny Hebert as he was handed the weapon. "What happens if you try to pull someone in with you?"
"Haven't tried, since I don't know if it will work and I don't know if I'd be able to pull them back out again," confessed Taylor.
"That WOULD be a problem," admitted Danny Hebert.
"At least you were able to throw a tarp over that X-Wing," noted Taylor. "I'm sure the neighbors would have commented on that being in the backyard."
* Tenet Residence *
"They've still got that X-Wing under the tarp," complained David after a brief glance out the window.
"Shame about that," said Rose, making a little disapproving noise. "They had such lovely roses but they're not going to get any sun with that there."
"Pity she couldn't build a TARDIS or something more practical," said David, checking the bacon situation. Very important that.
"Don't know that's even possible for a Tinker, though I wouldn't rule it out," admitted Rose. "Powers making no sense are a trope after all."
"Heard about some bloke down in Philly. Can generate and control fire. Power doesn't make him fireproof. Sad, really."
Rose nodded. "Heard about that. Gave himself pretty severe burns just turning his power on. Ready yet?"
"Just putting them on the plate now," David assured his wife as he suited action to words. "Anything on today?"
"Got a bit of a singing contest at two, before and after I'll be at the college," said Rose. "You?"
"Same old, same old. Bit of this, bit of that," answered David.
* Dragon *
"It will take time for the patents and equipment to go through, and space may be out of reach for a time due to the Simurgh," said Dragon. "So I was rather hoping we could try this."
"I've never read any 'David Weber'," Taylor admitted. "Any good?"
"There are a large number of fans of the Honor Harrington series," said Dragon. "'On Basilisk Station' is the first novel in that series, and the most likely to have a data port that's not secured. What you want is the historical database, ancient technology section."
"Right," said Taylor, preparing to go in.
Dragon was also kind of hoping she'd be able to get an autograph, but certainly wasn't going to hold her breath (metaphorically speaking of course).
When Taylor reappeared, it was with a large portable device. "They were just throwing this away in a recycle bin!"
Dragon took the device, quickly determining it was some sort of old-battered personal notebook/computer. Of course, it was an old battered computer from a technology two thousand plus years in the future. It might have been wiped. It might have been inoperable. It might be that the technology was just too far advanced to even derive the basics of its functions.
Then again, maybe not.
* Winslow High School *
"What do you mean 'she transferred'?" demanded Sophia Hess.
"She's not here, she's at Arcadia now," said Madison with a half-shrug. "I offered to take her her homework assignments. That's how I found out."
"Seriously?" asked Sophia.
"That I would lose on the way," said Madison.
"Better," said Sophia. "Huh. Who would make a good target if she's not around?"
"What about Greg Veder," suggested Madison. "He's so annoying."
"That works," said Sophia.
* Arcadia High School *
"That's her," said Vicky Dallon.
"Who's her?" asked Amy Dallon.
"The new girl," said Lucy Nguyen, putting her book aside. "Really smart. Librovore."
"That's not a real word," complained Vicky.
"Bibliovore then," said Lucy.
"So she's new, big deal," grumped Amy.
"Budge over, I wanna meet the new gal, and you KNOW she's going to want to meet ME," declared Vicky.
"Laying it on a bit thick, aren't you?" asked Mandy as she nonetheless inched over a bit to make room.
"Watch it, you spilled some of your drink," pointed out Lucy as she also budged over a bit.
"Over here! You need a seat?" asked Vicky as the new girl went past.
"Yeah, I... oh is that the new Pern book?" asked the new girl.
Lucy immediately brightened. "Yeah. It just made its way from Aleph."
"What's it-" the new girl slipped and caught herself, but everyone at that table stared as the girl's hand went through the page and vanished.
At which point Taylor felt the slick surface on the other side, and unthinkingly drew it across.
"Uhm," said more than one person at the table as the new girl's hand emerged from the book, holding a large egg.
Amy got partially up, reached out and tapped one finger against the shell. "It's alive. Needs to be kept warm. It's a..."
"Fire lizard," said Lucy, her eyes so wide it looked like it hurt. "Fire lizard egg."
"Ahm, had it up my sleeve?" tried the new girl.
"Sit down, eat your lunch, and we'll talk about this later," suggested Vicky.
"I'll keep it warm, I've got a terrarium at home," said Lucy, holding out her hands for the egg.
"Why do you have a terrarium?" asked Mandy.
"I tried to convince my parents to let me have a pet iguana years ago," said Lucy. "By the time I convinced them, the guy had already sold the one I wanted off."
* Dragon *
"You what?" asked Dragon.
"I accidently got ahold of a Pern fire lizard egg," said Libromancer. "A girl from school has been taking care of it. She apparently likes lizards."
"You do understand the whole purpose of a secret identity, don't you?" asked Dragon.
"Accident," repeated Libromancer.
"You're going to have to work on that," pointed out Dragon.
"So, back to the reason for me to ask for the meeting," said Libromancer. "Apparently some living things can make the trip, though it was only an egg and directly carried by me."
Dragon appeared to think for a moment, the power armor adopting a pose of deep consideration. "I wonder..."
* February 12, 2011 *
Lucy Nguyen coming to school with a pet would have been frowned on. Having several individuals point out that keeping the pet away from Lucy would have required special Tinkertech devices to be installed - that gave pause to the automatic denial. Having determined the creature was actually slightly smarter than the average dog and was empathic, not to mention a baby who'd imprinted on its "mother" was something that saw a few exceptions added to that rule.
It would be reviewed of course. Any disruption of school would be seen as cause for forbidding the creature access and remote-schooling Lucy.
After a week though - it appeared such measures would not be necessary. The little bronze fire lizard teleported away to do various necessary tasks and then reappeared and was mostly quiet.
That the young girl in question had a dragon, however small, frequently atop her shoulder DID end up with a number of rumors and speculation and attention aimed her way.
The speculation and rumors part was mainly about HOW the girl had gotten a pet dragon. Most of which involved her friendship with Glory Girl and Panacea. There was also, as frequently there was, talk of a mysterious organization which could give powers (and now apparently pets). There were a few who thought it one of those Shops That Wasn't There Yesterday, which a friend of a friend swore they'd seen.
The reactions on ParaHumans Online forum ran from Secret Dragon Illuminati (Void Cowboy) to Awww Cute (a much greater number) to those who recognized it as a Pernese fire lizard and discussed the whole multiverse/string theory concept and got into surprisingly heated arguments that the mods ended up running around applying the ban-hammer to.
* March 3, 2011 *
"You went to Diagon Alley in a Harry Potter novel?" asked Dragon.
"I stepped in at the epilogue to find out what happens at the end of a story," said Libromancer. "Apparently being able to access other worlds counts as magic so the anti-muggle stuff didn't affect me."
"BLEHHHHHHHH!" said Glory Girl, spitting up an Every-Flavor Bean with enough force it arced out across the bay.
Panacea looked over at that and shrugged a little. She'd wait and tell her "I told you so" at a later point.
After a few moments, when Glory Girl had finally stopped hacking, Dragon felt she had to ask. "What flavor was that?"
"I'm not sure," said Glory Girl finally. "I think it might have been 'vomit' but there was a side taste. I need to get something to get the taste out."
"Uhm," said Panacea, uncertainly.
Glory Girl popped the top of a can, took a big swig, then dropped the can as she started breathing a cone of ice crystals.
"You should always read the label on wizard candies," offered Panacea.
"These came from Honeyduke's?" asked Dragon.
"No, that's this bag," Libromancer indicated one of the three bags. "This other is from Weasley's shop. The third is Flourish & Blott's."
"I see," said Dragon. "The bags are bigger on the inside?"
"Thought you'd get more research done on them," said Libromancer.
"I thought only you could operate things that require 'magic' or otherworldly resources," commented Dragon as Glory Girl sneezed ice cubes.
"I thought so too," admitted Libromancer. "Up until Glory Girl started pulling things out of the bags."
"How did you pay for it?" asked Dragon.
"Had to go to Gringott's first. Exchanged a couple of gold bars I got from a spy novel for some wizard coin," said Libromancer. "Seemed like the simplest way to get things for people to research... What's that noise?"
"Gunshot nearby. Sounded like a sniper round. Fifty-cal." Dragon monitored transmissions briefly.
Hearing an engine gunning and approaching, Libromancer grabbed the two nearest her and dived into the nearest book.
Dragon picked up the book and turned her thrusters on. It wasn't until she reached 50,000 feet before she glanced at the title.
This could be... bad. Or interesting.
Telescopic feeds brought an image of the car, now disgorging its passengers. A program identified Heartbreaker.
Unlike the earlier sniper, Dragon didn't miss.
* In the book *
Glory Girl looked around. "The things. The people."
Panacea snorted. "The things that are also people."
"Yeah," said Glory Girl. "Them too."
Panacea startled. "I just realized where we are."
"The book was titled 'A Stitch In Time'," said Libromancer.
"This is Deep Space Nine," said Panacea. "We're in Star Trek."
"I don't remember bipedal insect-people in Star Trek," said Glory Girl, watching one walk down the Promenade. "Though I admit I didn't watch a lot of that stuff."
"I would expect that their budget wouldn't cover some of the more exotic species walking around here," said Panacea, fighting the impulse to touch a lot of these beings so she could see how they were put together.
* Nearby *
Odo watched from his monitor. The three had just appeared without the usual transporter effect. All three looked disoriented at first but now two of them were openly gawking and one was trying to examine their surroundings without looking like she was doing it. So, three intruders but it looked to his experienced eye like they hadn't expected to end up where they were.
Humans. Earth humans. According to the computer's analysis, they were speaking an archaic human language. Transporter accident? Time travelers?
He hoped it wasn't that. Time travel was a pain.
* Promenade *
"That's a Kzinti, isn't it? So at least some of Larry Niven's aliens are around," said Libromancer.
"The big cat guy who looks like he's spoiling for a fight? Wonder how they get along with the Klingons," remarked Glory Girl.
"I thought money didn't exist in the Federation, so why are there prices in credits on this menu?" asked Libromancer.
"Human nature," noted Panacea. "Something without a given value is seen as valueless. I speak from experience. You know how often I go without even a thank you?"
"Maybe it's because there's nonhumans around and it's their fault?" offered Glory Girl, sensing that her sister was about to get snippy.
Panacea just let out a noise that indicated she didn't agree but wasn't going to waste time arguing.
Something walked by with a lot more limbs than a human did, blinked at them with five of its eyes, and mumbled something in a language that thrummed in the air like music.
"I'm pretty sure THAT species wasn't in ANY of the books," said Libromancer.
"Are you lost?" came a voice.
The three blinked and then looked down to the lower deck where a Bajorran woman was looking back up at them.
"Just people watching," said Libromancer, having had time to come up with a cover story that she hoped would pass muster. "We're from a rural colony and this is our first time out among the stars."
"And you came here?" asked the Bajorran, raising an eyeridge. "This is hardly the most cosmopolitan of stations."
"This particular stop wasn't where we planned on going, just kind of where we ended up," offered Panacea. "Accidently."
The look turned a bit more sympathetic. "Oh. I can see that. The computer fault on Faraway Station?"
"That's it," said Libromancer, seizing on the excuse.
"Yeah, you're not the only ones to end up in way too far off their course. Where were you heading?" asked the Bajorran.
Libromancer thought for a moment but only one location came to mind. "Risa. I'm pretty sure that's where our luggage ended up."
The Bajorran winced. "Good luck."
Watching the Bajorran go off on her business, apparently satisfied, Glory Girl waited a moment. "Risa?"
"Pleasure planet, mentioned in Next Generation, if anyone asks it's because Amy passed her certification in native healing techniques. Our planet is not part of the Federation yet, and we're scoping it out for our elder council or something." Libromancer shrugged. "As good an explanation as I could come up with. We weren't planning on coming here after all. It was just an emergency plan put in place in case someone like Valefor or the Slaughterhouse Nine came after me."
"Duck into a book and get away?" asked Glory Girl. "Why bring us? How did you know you could?"
"Yes, the plan included getting anyone near me to safety, and I didn't," said Libromancer. "We hadn't gotten around to testing that part yet."
"Oh," said Panacea.
"Come on, let's see if we can find medical facilities," said Libromancer.
"Why?" asked Panacea, though she WAS a bit curious about what those would look like without TV budget constraints.
"The explanation for us going around can be that you're Healer caste and we're looking around at what the Federation has to offer," said Libromancer. "Unless you have a better idea for generating us a few credits?"
"Amy doesn't charge for her services," said Glory Girl.
"That's back home," said Panacea/Amy. "I'm here now. We just won't tell Mom."
* Dragon *
The book Libromancer had used had been one of a few paperbacks she'd been carrying around at apparent random.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine had been an Aleph TV series years ago, and it hadn't been something she herself had been interested in. It had depicted some sort of utopian future and she'd had serious doubts that any intelligent species could attain or keep something of that nature going.
Except that Libromancer had gone into the novel, and if Libromancer's powers worked as stated - somewhere in a vast multiverse there was a reality which closely (but not exactly) matched what was depicted in that series.
The "not matched exactly" part was one thing that her examinations of technology brought back by Libromancer kept coming across. At least, that was the case with the technology that didn't act like Tinker-tech. Unlike the "magic wand" that just made vases explode.
Dragon would be the first to admit she didn't know much about the Star Trek franchise, and what she was able to access on various websites seemed frequently contradictory with a timeline that didn't make much sense. Some of the technology, transporters and replicators first among those, seemed to be more advanced than the rest of the technology. Even the gravity control technology should have been something that could have been exploited more than it was.
It made sense with these "replicators" that any material-based currency would be straight out the window, but that still left the whole perception-of-value standard open. And if it was all that easy to make matter to specification - why did they construct spaceships the old fashioned way instead of scaling up that technology and just ordering a big replicator to make spaceships using some advanced CAD program?
One look at a planet-killer-asteroid sized spacedock in low Earth orbit had her shuddering just at all the things that could go wrong with that.
So, Dragon was not particularly a fan of the franchise as her ability to suspend disbelief was not all that developed. It might not be as bad as Star Wars in that regard, but it was fairly bad as far as she was concerned.
Hopefully, if Libromancer could get ahold of some datafiles from that setting - they'd make a bit more sense than some of the TV episodes.
* Libromancer *
"Seriously? An exercise room with variable gravity? That could be SO handy," said Glory Girl.
"I'll bet a lot of the private quarters have settings for things like that," offered Libromancer. "After all, not all of the races around here grew up in Earth-standard gravity."
Panacea nodded. "The ones I healed in the medbay so that Doctor Bashir could monitor my abilities? Some of them use different atmospheric balances and pressures so they carry around little inhalers as a necessity. Bajorans, Cardassians, and a few other races are really close though. I wonder if there are space stations where humans have to wear special gear to get around in."
"Probably," offered Libromancer. "You know, you look a lot less stressed for some reason."
"Working with completely alien biologies is fascinating," admitted Panacea. "I'll be thinking over aspects of that for some time."
"I wonder if it's safe to go back yet," wondered Libromancer.
"Oooh, a clothing store!" said Glory Girl. "Alien fashions! We need to check that out!"
"But..." said Libromancer to Glory Girl's back as she made a beeline towards the merchant.
"Sometimes you just need to get out of her way, trust me on that," said Panacea.
* Dragon *
"You went into a Star Trek universe. And you came back with... clothes?" asked Dragon, wondering if a logic circuit had a fault in it. Or an audio sensor.
"Yes?" said Libromancer.
"It's made from some bio-engineered algae from the 24th century!" exclaimed Glory Girl as she held up a blouse.
"Ah, right," said Dragon.
"And this one is made from spider-silk from giant spiders on a moon!" declared Glory Girl.
"No phasers? Tricorders? Maybe a 24th Century cellphone?" asked Dragon.
"And this skirt is made from a grass that only grows on Terra Prime!" enthused Glory Girl.
"Isn't 'Terra Prime'..." Dragon looked towards the other two, hoping for more sanity. Both Libromancer and Panacea nodded. "Oh."
"Hey, can I suggest the next one to try?" asked Glory Girl.
"We're NOT going into Twilight," stated Libromancer.
"What? No," said Glory Girl. "What I was going to suggest was..."
* The Next Day *
"You KNOCK IT OFF!" said Glory Girl as she punched the tyrannosaurus.
It staggered, took two steps to the side, and went down hard enough the ground seemed to tremble.
"This is not how the movies went," said Panacea. She personally felt this was better.
"Well, the book version of everyone - they're all idiots," noted Libromancer. "If the sole motive was getting rich, there's a literal ton of easier ways to get that when you've got a ton of money to begin with. Not even mentioning all the safety violations here. John Hammond in the movie was short-sighted but not so much of an asshole."
Panacea patted the triceratops she was riding. "You have no idea how botched the genetic work on these were." She'd immediately started fixing them of course. It was fascinating work.
"Shouldn't this guy have feathers or something?" asked Glory Girl as she floated overhead. "I think I read something about that."
"Yeah," said Panacea. "Some do, some don't. Triceratops don't. Steggy over there doesn't."
"Amy. You don't get to name things. 'Steggy?' Seriously?" said Glory Girl.
"Cronk!" said Panacea's triceratops.
"What is it, Trikey?" asked Panacea.
Glory Girl shook her head and started mumbling something about how her sister should be banned from naming anything ever.
"Then there's the aging acceleration that didn't get addressed," complained Libromancer. "Seriously, they're hatching eggs and then you have adult t-rexes when it should be taking decades for them to grow to full size."
"Oh, there's some velociraptors. I guess they didn't get the message the first time," said Glory Girl, grinning a grin that promised violence if they got closer.
Two of them darted out of the treeline, one glanced up, saw her, and immediately swerved back for the treeline.
"Clever girl," noted Victoria Dallon as the other one suddenly realized it was alone.
That one decided to continue attacking anyway. Until someone backhanded it hard enough that it spun around three times before ending in an untidy heap.
Then Ami's triceratops stepped on it.
* Control Area Alpha-1 *
John Hammond blinked as systems came online and video feeds started displaying. "Superheroes? Is this more of your Chaos Theory at work?"
"Hey, you're the one who built Dinosaur Island. If anything was going to draw superheroes or aliens out, that would do it." Ian Malcolm wasn't sure he believed what was being shown on the monitor, but he certainly wasn't going to accept any blame.
"Everything just booted up, did you fix something?" asked Ray Arnold as he checked security settings. "Did Nedry's little surprise disable itself?"
"Actually," said a woman's voice over the intercom. "I did that. I also put in a list of safety recommendations and put in a few suggestions for fixing your DNA sequencing to produce more accurate dinosaurs. Though, honestly, this is not a particularly lucrative business. Upkeep and maintenance are going to put your overhead way beyond profitability. Have you considered just normal amusement parks?"
"Who is this?" asked John Hammond.
Computer screens switched to an image of someone wearing a robot-suit of some kind. "My name is unimportant. That you fix these problems is."
* Outside *
"Why did you grab a dinosaur egg?" asked Dragon after they'd all left the "Jurassic Park" novel. "Glory Girl - I would expect that."
Panacea shrugged. "I found it fascinating. So many things to fix. They really did barely know what they were doing."
"Where would you even PUT a dinosaur?" asked Dragon.
"Boston Zoo," said Panacea. "Think they'd turn down a chance to have a live parasaurolophus?"
"Why did you want to go into 'Jurassic Park' anyway?" asked Dragon of Glory Girl. Not that she hadn't gotten a lot of data off their servers. Wasting the opportunity would have been inefficient after all.
"Duh. I got to punch a t-rex," said Glory Girl. "How many people get to say that? You got a picture, right Amy?"
"Uhm," said Panacea.
"Right, Amy?" asked Glory Girl.
"Well..."
* Two days later *
"Vicky? Are you still sulking?" Panacea was getting ready for another afternoon at the hospital. Her sister, on the other hand, was still dressed in civilian attire.
Vicky grumbled a little bit.
Panacea sighed. "Look. Maybe we can get Taylor to send us somewhere interesting now that we know it can be done. It just exhausts her to try hauling all of us. And Dragon would really need to come up with a smaller power armor. I think Libromancer is still drained from the double-leap."
Victoria Dallon grumbled for a bit still but finally sighed. "I think I know the next one."
"Really? It's not Jane Austen or Charles Dickens is it?" asked Panacea.
"What's wrong with either of those?" asked Victoria.
"Standards of hygiene," replied Panacea.
"What about 'Peter Pan'? We could fight pirates!" said Victoria.
"You already had a choice," pointed out Panacea. "Shouldn't it be my turn if Libromancer is up for another 'day trip'?"
"Well, where would you want to go? Not some hospital or something boring, is it?" asked Victoria, back to sulking just a bit.
Panacea gave her sister a look, then slowly pulled a book out of the messenger bag she had slung over her costume.
"'Grog Strongjaw and the Ale of the Gods'?" asked Vicky.
"I haven't read it," answered Panacea. "One of the orderlies let me borrow it. Read the description."
"Let's see," said Vicky, turning the book over to check the back. "'Sequel to the long-running Vox Machina series of novels by Matt Mercer. Experienced adventurer Grog gets to wondering what the gods drink. His friend Scanlan needs to hide from debtors. Together they seek to sneak into the halls of the gods themselves in order to... raid their pantry. Will Grog get to sample truly divine spirits, or will they face divine punishments?' What the hell?"
"The orderly who was reading it was practically ready to fall over laughing at the section dealing with the Caramel Ooze and the Ninja Squirrels."
"'Ninja Squirrels'? So, it's comedy?" asked Vicky. That made a little more sense than Amy reading fantasy novels all of a sudden.
"His regular books were High Fantasy with some comic and magicpunk elements, this one is his first that was mainly Fantasy-Comedy according to that orderly," said Panacea.
"Why this book though?" asked Vicky.
"The bookmarked page. While they were looking for someplace to hide from the Gingerbread Soldiers they end up in the Chamber Of A Thousand Eyes." Panacea took the book and opened the section before turning it to where her sister could read.
Glory Girl read the room's description, her eyes widening as she did. "It does what? That's..."
"Exactly," said Panacea. "Of course, it might not work. Or Taylor might nix it. Or Dragon could say no."
* One Day Later, in 'Ale of the Gods' *
The Knight of a Thousand Eyes stood. "Halt, intruders. This Chamber be not for those of mortal capacity. The vision will drive lesser minds mad... What be this?"
"Drones," said Dragon. "Allowing me to see through a thousand eyes at once."
The Knight cocked his head. "Thou art not from Exandria, are thee?"
"Nay, good Knight, for we be adventurers from a land most distant," said Glory Girl. "Prithee let us ask the Questions Three and leave unmolested."
"Thou know the rules then," said the Knight, sitting back down on his stool. "I don't suppose... is that a pillow?"
"For your chair," said Panacea.
"Aye, a stone chair sends the cold straight through mine chainmail," said the Knight, gratefully taking the pillow and sitting it on the stone seat. "Ask questions and be thou gone, lest my Dark Mistress find thee here."
Dragon nodded. "Not sure this will work, being from outside your book after all, but here is my first question. My world is doomed by the Endbringers. What exactly ARE they?"
Images began to form.
"'Dark Mistress'?" asked Panacea. "I thought your Mistress was Melora?"
"She's a nature goddess," said the Knight with a shrug. "Even an ill wind can bring some good, and a good wind do ill."
** Boston Zoo **
"We have a dinosaur. A real dinosaur."
"Yes, we have a parasaurolophus, a crested herbivore from the Late Cretaceous Period who was gifted to us by the Brockton Bay team New Wave," said Delores Simmons, the aged Director, who was looking far more pleased than she usually did.
"Is it some biotinker thing?" asked the PR head, Tiffany McFee. She was worried about it sprouting tentacles, or extra teeth, or tentacles with teeth if it WAS some biotinker experiment.
"No. It came from a hero team up there who apparently had a bit of an adventure," said Delores. "Their healer looked it over and declared it to be a perfectly normal member of its species. Interesting that it has some feathers and that shade of Norwegian Blue."
"Beautiful plumage," agreed Tiffany. "Just worried it will turn up stone dead in a moment."
"It's a baby, apparently it will get to being eleven meters long when it grows to adulthood," said Delores.
Tiffany watched the little creature crawling along with the two handlers in the enclosure. "Not dangerous?"
"It's going to top out, according to the paleontologist we consulted, at eleven meters long and about 3500 kilograms," pointed out Delores. "There's some danger involved with any animal that size. If it is used to being around humans it won't be likely to attack though, and it IS purely a herbivore."
Tiffany was silent for a moment. "No chance of things going like that Aleph film?"
"From one herbivorous dinosaur? When we actually have parahumans and guns?" asked Delores. "Not so much."
Tiffany was quiet for a full minute. "I may have an angle or two we can use to make the most of it."
"That's why you're in Marketing," pointed out Delores.
** Boston **
"A dinosaur. A herbivorous dinosaur known as a parasaurolophus?" asked Accord. "What does it do?"
A sound file played, sounding like a saxophone.
"Not unpleasant," noted Accord. "How did they acquire it?"
"New Wave in Brockton Bay, apparently some sort of summoning device by the Tinker known as Summoner."
"Who is actually codenamed Libromancer in other communiques," noted another of Accord's special workers.
Accord didn't make any outward sign as he put together pieces in his mind.
* A/N *
Decided this was too close to some other things i've written, and would duplicate them a bit too much.
With me deciding on a hard limit on The Worm Turns, this was one of the ideas cut.