With a yawn Amy opened her eyes, staring at the ceiling which was barely illuminated by the not-quite-dawn light of an early January morning. Blinking a few times, she reached up and rubbed her left eye for a moment, then yawned again.
"Bleurgh," she muttered. "Vicky is right. This is too fucking early."
Reaching out her other hand she fumbled for the alarm, finding it a moment later and slapping her hand down on the button, which made the annoying beeping sound stop. A moment later she felt her pillow slightly depress near her head and an inquisitive black-feathered head appeared in her field of view, peering down at her with interest.
"Morning, Edgar," she mumbled, scratching him under the beak. The raven closed his eyes in bliss, apparently feeling she'd hit the right spot, and complained mildly when she stopped a moment later. "Sorry, I have to get up," she said, sitting up as he hopped back, then flipping the covers out of the way and standing. Scratching her neck she wandered over to the window and pulled the curtains back, before turning around to head to the bathroom before Vicky got there.
Two steps later she stopped dead, one foot still in the air. It lowered to the carpet...
Then she turned back and approached the window, staring out and down with wide eyes.
"Oh, my god, it's full of ravens," she breathed in shock, seeing a whole flock of the creatures staring back at her from the fence between her yard and the neighbor's. The birds were lit by the downstairs windows in the living room, making them stand out just enough to be visible although mostly what she could see were lots of pairs of eyes. Every single one of them looking directly at her.
Edgar landed on her shoulder and leaned forward a little, staring back at his fellow ravens, before putting his head right next to her ear and making a tiny sound that for all the world sounded triumphant.
Very slowly she turned her head to fix him with her glare.
"This is your fault somehow, isn't it, you incredibly annoying bird?" she grated.
He lightly bit the end of her nose, then flapped out her door as she shouted in annoyance, giggling to himself as she pursued.
"Huh."
"Hmm?"
Jon Withers glanced at his colleague, pausing as he moved the garbage container from the curb to the truck. Larry was staring upwards, so he followed the direction the other man was looking.
There was a long pause, the sound of the truck's engine idling being the loudest thing heard.
"Huh."
"I just said that."
"I know."
"Don't see that every day."
"No. No, you do not."
"Weird, right?"
"Yeah."
"I heard they're calling her Dark Lady Amy now."
"Can see why, really."
"Yep. Impressive though."
"That's for damn sure."
"I pity the fool who fucks around with her."
"Her sister's bad enough. If she'd got ravens too, now, well…"
The pair watched as Glory Girl soared overhead with her sister in her arms, something that most people around here had seen many times. What turned the scene from more or less normal, at least by Brockton Bay standards, into something from a gothic fantasy novel was that the blonde girl was at the pole position of what looked like an impressively large flock of ravens, all flying in a neat V formation and nicely side lit by the rising sun. Something like three or four dozen of the birds went with the two superheros, clearly acting almost as an honor guard. Most odd of all was one last raven which was riding on top of Glory Girl's head, looking for all the world like a commander in charge of his troops.
Even from three hundred feet below they could hear the faint sounds of the two girls arguing. And the lead raven occasionally interjecting a loud "Kronk!"
The whole assembly vanished behind the buildings in the direction of Arcadia and after a few seconds both garbage men went back to work.
"Strange place, this city," Jon commented as he wrestled the next container into position.
"Yeah. Mind you, it could be worse. Heard rumors about one place that got lizards."
"Don't believe everything you see on the internet, Larry."
"Guess you're right."
Shortly they were following the truck to the next street, both of them wondering what the Dark Lady Amy would get up to.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Emily sipped her coffee while idly perusing PHO on her laptop at the kitchen table, something she would never admit was a guilty pleasure of hers on occasion. It was useful to keep an eye on the public's viewpoint of Parahuman activities, which is what she'd claim if anyone ever found out, and it had the benefit of being true as well. But it also gave her a certain amount of amusement which was the part she wasn't going to mention to anyone else.
Seeing a thread with an intriguing title, she clicked on it, then after a few seconds of reading with her eyebrows steadily rising, started the first video.
When it ended, she carefully closed the laptop's lid, placed both hands over her face, and moaned into them.
"I hate this city," she mumbled, "Why won't it make sense for once?"
Eventually she sighed heavily, very deliberately put the computer to one side, and finished her breakfast. She had a full day of real work ahead of her and if Dark Lady Amy wanted to fly around with a flock of ravens, as long as she kept them out of trouble Emily wasn't going to get involved.
Although she was going to glare at Dauntless the next time she saw him.
A lot.
"Ready for your tests, you two?" Danny inquired as he rummaged around in the fridge for some butter. Finding it, he closed the appliance and went over to the table, taking his seat and putting the dish in his hand on the surface before reaching for some toast.
"I think so," Lisa responded, doing likewise, while Taylor nodded agreement. "We went over all the documents again last night, but if we don't know it by now we won't learn anything useful before we take them. It looks simple enough though."
"I'm pretty sure it won't be a problem, Dad," Taylor added, waiting for Lisa to finish with the butter then push it in her direction. "I spent weeks catching up with where I was supposed to be and then just kind of kept going, so with any luck there won't be any surprises. And Lisa cheats anyway."
Her friend stuck out her tongue, making Taylor grin. Danny snorted with laughter while he poured some coffee into his mug. "So I understand," he said. "Well, good luck anyway. Not that you should need it. You want a ride or are you going in on the bus?"
Taylor glanced at the clock on the wall, then at Lisa, who shrugged. "May as well get a ride from you if that's all right. We'll be early, but better than late, right?"
"Fair enough." He nodded. "In that case we'll leave in about twenty minutes."
"OK."
The three of them finished breakfast, cleared up, added all the crockery and whatnot to the load currently in the dishwasher, beat it into submission, then shortly afterwards were driving towards Arcadia. Halfway there Lisa, who was looking out the window to the left, made an odd sound before she started giggling helplessly. Both Danny and his daughter looked at her with confusion, then followed her finger. Slowing in amazement, Danny leaned forward and peered upwards to the side as did Taylor.
"What on earth…?" he managed after a couple of seconds of disbelief.
"Edgar's been busy," Taylor laughed, shaking her head in awe.
"Who the hell is Edgar?" Danny queried, speeding up again once the overhead oddity had passed out of view. His daughter and Lisa took turns explaining, which had him chortling quite a lot by the time they arrived at Arcadia.
The two girls got out, as did Danny, who leaned on the roof looking at them. He peered past them at the school before saying wryly, "Hitchcock would be impressed."
Taylor nodded, still grinning, and Lisa was shaking her head in wonder. Walking around the vehicle he hugged Taylor, then after a moment, Lisa, who looked momentarily surprised before smiling. "Good luck, both of you. Let me know how it all works out, and I'll see you tonight."
"Yeah, Dad. Don't worry, it'll be fine," Taylor assured him. He watched as both girls headed towards the school. Raising his eyes to the roof line, which had enough ravens on it to make any Victorian author scream in horror, he shook his head in bewilderment before getting back into his truck and driving off to work.
"Dennis?"
"Yeah?"
"If you think one raven was trying to eat you the other day, I'd really suggest you don't piss off Amy now, because that is a fuck load more than one raven."
"Hail Dark Lady Amy."
"Apparently. And don't for the love of the Morrigan say that where she can hear you."
"Nice mythology reference."
"For some bizarre reason I've been reading up on this sort of thing the last couple of days…"
"I wonder why."
"I wonder."
Dennis and Chris exchanged glances, the latter warningly, as Vicky touched down, putting Amy on her feet in the process with a well-practiced move. Edgar hopped from the blonde's head to Amy's shoulder in the same motion, as if he'd been doing it for years.
The air was filled by the whispery sound of an unknown, but somewhat worryingly large, number of wings while every single student and staff member outside Arcadia watched with various expressions. The flock of large black birds that had accompanied the two Dallon sisters to school landed en masse on the roof of the school, several nearby trees, and a few on lamp posts overlooking the area. Every one of them was watching Amy and Edgar, and was eerily quiet, only a faint murmur sounding as they seemed to discuss something between themselves.
Amy looked around, looked up, sighed, and shook her head before walking towards the entrance. Vicky was grinning triumphantly but said nothing as she stopped next to Dean.
Dennis opened his mouth to comment then winced as Chris stepped very fucking hard on his foot, only a pained squeak leaving him. As Amy passed she reached out and closed his mouth. "Something might fly in, Dennis," she said with a dark little smile.
Edgar turned his head to fix Dennis with a beady-eyed stare as she moved away, and the boy would swear the bird winked at him…
He shivered despite himself.
Amy was scary sometimes.
Slowly, he began smiling a little though. He liked a good entrance, and this was the best one he'd ever seen.
Vicky pulled her boyfriend after Amy as the bell rang, and Dennis and the others trailed along, quite a few people looking up at the still silently-watching birds with confusion and mild unease.
Yeah. That was the key, he thought almost with almost unwilling admiration.
Presentation.
"Miss Dallon?"
"Oh, hello, Vice Principal."
"One raven. No more, please. Not inside the school. Do we have an understanding?"
"We do. Thank you."
"You're welcome. Now get to class."
"Yes, Ma'am."
"Kronk!"
"Quiet, Edgar. This is all your fault anyway."
Walking towards the school Lisa and Taylor looked around at the rather significant gathering of ravens, who watched them with interest. They exchanged a look. "Edgar really has been busy," Taylor's friend remarked with a grin. "I wonder what he told these guys?"
"Follow the Dark Lady Amy and ye shall be healed?" Taylor suggested, giggling.
"So sayeth the shepherd!" Lisa replied, her grin widening.
"So sayeth the flock!"
Both girls stopped and leaned on each other in fits of laughter for a moment, having flashbacks to a terrible but hilarious old movie they'd caught on late TV the other night, before straightening up and continuing. The ravens kept examining them, muttering among themselves, so Taylor waved to them as they went inside. Administrator was watching with great amusement too.
They'd heard the final bell ring as they'd got out of the truck, and were in time to see lots of students vanishing into classrooms. The corridors emptied out almost immediately. Looking around the now mostly quiet area, Taylor pointed at a sign on a stand to their right. It directed people who were going to take the assessment tests to the school gymnasium, an arrow pointing down the corridor next to it, so they headed in that direction. Another sign at a junction near the back of the large building, which was considerably bigger and much, much nicer than Winslow had been, told them to turn left. Fifty feet further on the pair encountered a set of double doors, one half of which was open to reveal a remarkably large gym. Entering, they looked around. Something on the order of a hundred or so desks were set up, filling a significant section of the place, and several adults were standing in a group talking quietly to each other at the far side.
A man in his late forties looked up from his conversation and spotted them standing just inside the door. Appearing slightly surprised, the sandy blonde guy waved them to come over, so they walked towards him.
"I assume you're here for the testing?" he queried as they approached. His eyes flicked to the folders of paperwork both were carrying, then back to their faces.
"Yes, sir," Taylor replied respectfully.
"You're quite early, the testing doesn't start for another… just over half an hour," he commented with a glance at his watch.
"We got a ride with my dad and he had to get to work," she explained. "We don't mind waiting."
"All right, that's fine," the man smiled. "I'm Mr Howlett, the math department head. Can I have your documentation?"
"Sure." Taylor pulled the papers in question out of her folder, Lisa doing the same, then both handed it over. He accepted it and quickly scanned the pages.
"Ah. Ms Hebert and Ms Wilborne," he said with a small smile, putting the documents down on the table he was standing next to and picking up a clipboard with a sheaf of paperwork on it. Flipping through this, he nodded as he found what he was looking for, pulled a pen out of his pocket, and checked off a couple of entries. "Excellent. Let's see… you presumably read the information packet we sent on the order of the day?"
"We did, yes," Lisa replied with a nod.
"Good. Just to summarize, the tests will take approximately four hours to complete. two hours, then an hour break, then the second two hours. After that you can leave. We'll be in contact over the weekend to give you your final placement schedule, and you'll start on Monday next week. I know it's annoying having your weekend interrupted but these are somewhat unusual circumstances for all of us, unfortunately." Mr Howlett shrugged with a small sigh. "No one has particularly enjoyed the upheaval but we'll survive. Your education is the important thing after all."
The pair exchanged a glance, then both nodded.
"Here's a map of the school for you, along with the basic information pack you'll need later anyway," he went on, handing each of them a large envelope. Picking up the documentation they'd given him he removed a sheet from each and put it into a folder of his own before returning the remainder. "Pick a desk, and you might as well sit down, since the cafeteria isn't open yet anyway," he added with a smile. "Feel free to talk to each other but please keep it down, sounds echo like crazy in here and it'll drive everyone mad if it gets too loud."
Lisa laughed, and Taylor nodded with a smile. "Thanks, Mr Howlett." He smiled back then returned to his conversation with the other staff members as they moved away. Ending up near the side of the gym, they sat at a pair of desks, Lisa in front, then she turned the chair around to face Taylor.
"Seems nice enough so far, for a school," her friend said in a low voice, looking around. "Clean, obviously lots of money spent on it… No signs of graffiti even!"
Taylor nodded, looking about her as well. "No bullet holes in the walls, someone cleaned all the blood off the floor so well it didn't even leave stains, and it doesn't smell like something died in a locker," she commented equally quietly, making Lisa's eyes widen slightly.
"I think they probably didn't have blood stains to clean up in the first place," the other girl remarked with a small grin. "At least I hope so. I also hope you're joking."
"Mostly. Although there was that one time two assholes had a knife fight in the second floor bathroom… That went really badly for both of them." Taylor shrugged as Lisa put her hand over her eyes. "Even for Winslow that was stupid. But you're right, this place looks pretty nice. Pity this amount of money doesn't get spent on all the schools."
"The more I hear about what you went through at that place the more I think I should burn it down," Lisa mumbled, before shaking her head as if to reject bad thoughts. Taylor patted her hand comfortingly. More loudly the other girl continued, "So, how many ravens do you think Amy will have following her around by next week?"
"All of them?" Taylor suggested slyly. "The word is out."
"The word is a bird."
"Everyone knows that."
They looked at each other trying not to break down laughing again, and just about succeeded. Moments later several more students Taylor recognized to one level or another came through the door, peering about with varying expressions. Quietly chatting, with Taylor commenting every now and then about particular students, they waited as the room started to fill up. By the time the clock hit half past eight all the desks were full and the staff members at the front of the room had finished checking off names.
She was rather amused to overhear various conversations around her about how weird it was that so many big black birds were hanging around outside, and Lisa, eyes sparkling, was clearly having difficultly restraining her giggling. Taylor was in much the same state.
Eventually, with a look at his watch, Mr Howlett moved to the front of the room, everyone watching him and quieting down. He waited until the gym was silent, then said, "Thank you. All right, everyone is…"
"Sorry, sorry, I got lost!" a voice said from the door making the entire assembly of students and staff look around. Taylor sighed, recognizing the voice instantly. Sure enough, turning her head to look showed her Greg Veder, someone she knew all too well from Winslow, rush through the door, trip over his own feet, and fall flat on his face. He slid to a halt half-under one desk, the occupant of which yelped as she was knocked out of her chair.
Mr Howlett looked skyward for guidance while most of the rest of the room started laughing.
"Oww…" Greg moaned, slowly picking himself up.
"Settle down, people, anyone can make mistakes," the teacher said as he stalked over to help Greg back to his feet.
Someone in the middle of the room said, rather too loudly, "Leave it to Greg to make one so dramatic." Mr Howlett turned to glare in the direction the comment had come from.
"I will thank you not to mock someone for tripping," he said in a forbidding voice. "At Arcadia we do not take pleasure in someone else's pain. Please remember that in future." The boy in question looked worried and nodded quickly, causing Mr Howlett to nod back, then pick Greg up. "Are you all right, son?"
"I'll live," Greg muttered, brushing himself down and flaming red from embarrassment. Taylor felt rather sorry for him despite how annoying he'd often been in the past. The guy wasn't a bad person, but he had enough irritating little habits that she'd found him difficult to deal with on top of all the other shit that happened at Winslow. When Lisa whispered a question about who he was, she quickly explained in a similar whisper, her friend's power filling in the gaps by the look of acknowledgment on her face.
The minor drama of Greg's arrival quickly got sorted out, and he was directed to one of the last empty desks, which he took while not looking at anyone else as far as possible. He was still rather pink and clearly embarrassed. Moving back to the front of the room, Mr Howlett looked around, then nodded. "As I was about to say, this time hopefully correctly, everyone is present." There was a ripple of laughter through the room, even Greg smiling a little ruefully. "You all know why you're here. We will be doing a total of eight tests, each one twenty five minutes in length, with a five minute break between them. Four in the morning session, then lunch, then four in the afternoon session. It will be a tiring procedure, I realize, but at the end of it we'll be able to be sure of exactly where you all are relative to Arcadia's own standards and can make sure that your class schedules are tailored to your own educational requirements as accurately as possible."
He scanned their faces, smiling slightly as everyone looked back. "The fact that you are here to begin with speaks well of your abilities, considering what has become known about Winslow's own system. We were not… hugely impressed… when we were informed how that institution was run. Managing to even reach our own standards in any meaningful manner while dealing with such a situation is impressive in its own right. So well done, and on behalf of the educational establishment as a whole, my sincere regret that you all had an experience of that nature. Hopefully you'll find your time at Arcadia far more rewarding and useful than you're used to. Having read the reports, I suspect that won't be hard to do."
Once more there was laughter, this time rather heartfelt. Taylor thought that the sensation of general relief from all around her showed just how much so many people at Winslow had hated the place, and felt dark anger towards those who had made it such a shithole. Lisa looked back at her and smiled very slightly, giving her a look that said she knew exactly what Taylor was thinking and why.
"So, with all that out of the way, let's get on with it." Other staff members were now distributing sealed envelopes, putting one on each desk as they walked around. When they'd finished only a minute or two later, he said, "Please open your envelopes and remove the contents." Taylor popped the flap of hers open and pulled out what it contained, which was three pages of questions, another half dozen blank pages, two pencils, a basic sharpener, an eraser, and a set of instructions. All around her the room was filled with the sound of paper being rustled. "This first one is a general knowledge test, as you can see. Read the instructions, answer the questions, and do not confer with anyone else in the process, please. Your time begins…" Mr Howlett paused, looking at his watch, then raised his eyes as everyone looked at him. "Now."
Feeling that things were going quite well for the moment and hoping that this would continue, Taylor bent over the desk and got to work. The sound of pencils scratching filled the gym as everyone else did likewise.
Walking to the front door, Sarah Pelham opened it to find her sister on the other side looking frazzled. "Carol?" she queried, somewhat confused. "What's wrong?"
The other woman pushed past her and shoved the door closed, cutting off the cold air from outside, then leaned on it with a look of suppressed irritation, which was normal for her, deep confusion, which wasn't, and… was that worry?
"Amy is what's wrong," Carol grumbled. "Amy is what's very wrong. Her and that… thing."
"Thing?" Sarah stared at her sister. "You mean Edgar?"
"Edgar the demonic raven, yes," Carol hissed. Straightening up she stomped into Sarah's living room, dropped into a chair, and put her head in her hands even as her sister followed her feeling somewhat confused herself. "He's out to get me, you realize," she added in a way that suggested a certain amount of mild madness.
"He's just a raven, Carol. I don't think he's out to get you." Sarah sat down as well and watched her sister, who seemed to be a touch off balance if she was honest. Carol laughed hollowly, raising her head and meeting Sarah's eyes.
"That thing isn't just a raven, Sarah. It's smart. It watches me. And it keeps… doing things."
"Ravens are very smart birds, Carol, that's well known. He seems perfectly friendly when Amy's brought him over here."
"That's what he wants you to think!" Carol almost shouted, making Sarah lean back in her chair.
Very carefully, she asked, "Are you… all right, Carol?"
Her sister took a couple of deep breaths, then sighed. "I don't know. Sarah, this is insane. That damned bird just moved in like he own the place, my own husband and daughter like him and keep encouraging him, he helps himself to anything he wants, nothing is safe from the fucking thing… And now he's invited all his friends over."
"What do you mean?" Sarah asked, mildly annoyed by how her sister had yet again managed not to include Amy in the comment about a daughter. She'd thought the other woman was getting better about that…
"Look!" Pulling her phone out of her pocket, Carol fiddled with it then thrust it towards Sarah, who looked at the photo on it. Her eyebrows went up.
"That is… quite a lot of ravens," she commented slowly.
"Too many ravens," Carol growled. "One is too many. Now there's hundreds of them! They all sit there looking at me like I'm starring in an Addams Family movie. It's creepy as fuck and the worst part is that Vicky thinks it's funny! Mark was laughing about it. And Edgar… He looked at me like he was warning me! I was being threatened by a bird. Or demon. I can't be sure right now. It might be both."
Sarah stared at her sister, sighed faintly, and got up to fetch a couple of glasses of wine. This was going to take a while, she could tell. Her sister had always had a flair for the dramatic and apparently her imagination was going slightly overboard...
Exiting the classroom along with the rest of the student body, Edgar on her shoulder looking around with the same interest he seemed to always have, Amy made sure her pack had all her books and notes in then slung it over her free shoulder. The crowded corridor full of people moving to the next class slowed her down a little but she kept walking, various other students nodding to her, calling greetings, or grinning at Edgar who basked in the attention. In general everyone seemed to find the raven entertaining, if only because of how he'd utterly stumped the administration. A call from behind her made her look back, then slow, as Vicky hurried towards her, students moving out of the way because everyone was well aware that the blonde Dallon wouldn't be much inconvenienced by anyone who didn't. And might indeed not even notice the obstruction if she was particularly eager to get somewhere…
It had happened. Vicky always apologized, but it still left an impression. So everyone got out her path.
Catching up, her sister walked alongside her. "Free period, right?" Vicky asked.
"Yeah. Same for you?"
"Yes, so I was going to go get something else to eat. Breakfast was a little… strained."
They grinned at each other, recalling just how their mother had been when she'd realized that there were enough ravens peering in through the windows to block out the light. She'd not reacted well, and they'd made a hasty exit while still eating. And Vicky giggling the entire way to school hadn't really helped Amy's deep confusion about the current state of affairs one little bit.
She was still trying to get to grips with the fact that Edgar apparently had a hell of a lot more friends than she'd thought possible, and the word was definitely spreading.
It was going to be a strange time at the Dallon house tonight, she suspected.
But for now, she only had Edgar himself to deal with, and she hadn't had enough breakfast either, so she nodded agreement and accompanied her sister to the cafeteria as the corridors emptied out again, only a few students on the loose after a minute or so. Some of those were also heading to the cafeteria as well while most of the rest seemed to be aiming for the library. As they entered the room, though, they found it rather full to their mild surprise. Looking around Amy didn't recognize most of the teenagers present, and after a moment Vicky, who had been peering about too with a quizzical expression said, "Oh, right. These are the Winslow people." She pointed a moment later. "Look, there's Taylor and Lisa over there."
Amy gazed in the indicated direction and nodded, spotting the two girls they'd met the previous night before the mild drama that it had turned into. "Looks like there are some spaces next to them," she noted. "Want to sit there?"
"Sure. You go tell them, I'll save a place in line."
"Got it." Amy headed towards the two girls, Taylor, who had been talking to Lisa while eating, looking around before she'd got halfway there and smiling.
"Hi, Amy," she said as the healer arrived next to them. "And Edgar, of course. We saw you brought backup." Lisa snorted, while Amy sighed heavily.
"Yeah, apparently he didn't stop with the ones at the hospital. You wouldn't believe the expression on Carol's face this morning," she replied, trying to look serious but failing miserably, because the memory was just too fucking funny despite her own confusion. "Mind if Vicky and I sit here?"
"Not at all. Lots of space free." Taylor waved at the chairs next to them. Amy took her pack off and dropped it on one of them.
"OK, I'll be back in a sec," she replied, smiling, then going over to where Vicky was in line. Her sister let her get in front of her and handed her one of the two trays she was holding. "Thanks."
"No problem." The other girl looked over at their new acquaintances, who were talking again, Taylor holding a book and apparently pointing something in it out while Lisa nodded, then around the room at the other students. "Must be at least eighty or ninety people here."
Amy looked around again and nodded. "Probably about that, yeah. I remember it was something like a hundred or so, so I guess they're either here or checking out the school. They said the testing was some in the morning and some after lunch, right?"
"Yep. Early lunch by the look of it."
"Or late breakfast." Having reached the end of the line they started selecting their food and putting it on their trays. Shortly they were walking back to where Taylor and Lisa were, both sliding into seats and putting their trays down.
"So, how's it going?" Vicky asked brightly, popping the top of her soda while looking between the other two.
Lisa exchanged a glance with Taylor, then shrugged. "Well, I think. The tests aren't hard, really, just lots of questions on them. We've done four so far, four more after twelve, then we're done."
"We'll hear over the weekend what the schedules are," Taylor added. "I think they'll probably call us or something and give us a brief rundown, then on Monday we'll get the actual paperwork. That would be the easiest way to do it."
"Sounds likely, yeah," Amy agreed. "What do you think of the school so far? Better than Winslow?" She was smirking a little, and Taylor gave her a dry look.
"It's not actually on fire and full of sewage, so yes. Having been there, you'd have to really try to not be better than Winslow."
Amy laughed, as did her sister. "I'd heard stories, and then last night you confirmed every one of them and topped the lot," she admitted. "Hopefully you'll have a better time here."
"It would be hard not to," Taylor muttered, shaking her head and looking like something she remembered annoyed her.
All four of them resumed eating, Amy feeding Edgar some of the grapes she'd got for dessert. He happily and neatly took them from her fingers, and in between grapes he was looking around the room at the other new students with every indication of curiosity. Many of them were returning the look with a similar one and there was a lot of whispering going on around them.
Taylor looked across at him, then at Amy. "He seems in a good mood," she noted.
"He's always in a good mood," Amy replied. "The more bizarre the situation the better the mood gets. He was extremely full of himself this morning." She sighed, shaking her head, while Edgar made a little comforting chirrup and rested his head on her ear. Taylor and Lisa watched and grinned at the display. "I have no fucking idea how I'm going to deal with every raven in the city following me around…"
"We saw your little aerial display on the way here this morning," Lisa commented with a sly smile. Amy put her head in her hands while Vicky started giggling. "It was incredibly impressive. All you need is little red white and blue smoke generators for them and you've got an entire display team…"
"Now that's an idea," Vicky put in brightly. Amy glared at her.
"Do not encourage the insane ravens!" she snarled.
Edgar produced a soft but somewhat unnerving little sound, and she fixed her glare on him too. "Yes, I include you in that," she grated. He put his head on one side and seemed to give off a sense of satisfaction, making her sigh again and the others to laugh.
"Have you healed up all your new followers yet?" Taylor asked cheerfully, making Amy moan and rest her forehead on the table. "You need a little badge with 'Amy, Queen of the Ravens' on it you can wear while fixing the birds. I can probably get one made at the DWA if that helps."
"...no, it really doesn't," Amy sighed into the table. "Vicky, stop giggling, and don't let her do that. I can feel you wanting to help."
Her sister's giggles broke out into full on guffaws and, reluctantly, Amy started laughing too. Lifting her head she looked at Taylor, who shrugged, and mouthed 'sorry' at her even though her eyes were sparkling. Shaking her head in amusement Amy resumed eating.
"Your sense of humor is worse than hers," she commented, pointing at Vicky with her fork. Her sister saluted her with her own fork, then grinned.
"High praise indeed," Taylor remarked, making both Lisa and Vicky giggle again. Sighing, but feeling that she'd met someone she could enjoy verbal sparring with, Amy just shrugged a little. "More seriously, what are you going to do?" Taylor picked up the apple on her tray and bit into it, watching Amy with interest as she chewed.
"I honestly don't really know," Amy replied after a moment. "I guess there's no harm in checking them out, it doesn't take long per raven, and there can't be that many of them, right? I like animals anyway, and Edgar, as annoying as the little fucker is, is also a friend if you want to think of it like that. So fixing his friends isn't really a problem. But I'm going to have to figure out how to get them to not follow him home or Carol's going to have a breakdown or something…"
"Mom is kind of high strung when it comes to Edgar," Vicky put in. "Which he's taking so much advantage of." She was smiling, but kept her voice low. "If she'd stop getting freaked out he'd probably stop trying to make her freak out, but she won't so he does."
"Too smart for his own good sounds about right," Lisa said, inspecting Edgar, who was examining her right back with at least as much interest. "I wonder how smart that really is?"
"I looked it up, and some reports claim a raven can be about as smart as a six or seven year old child," Amy replied, finishing her meal and putting her cutlery down. "Which would put them probably right at the very top of intelligence for anything that's not either human or something a Biotinker made." She poked a thumb in Edgar's direction. "This guy is probably pushing that limit. Because some of the things I've seen him do would take a kid that age more experimenting than he needed."
"Guess you get genius level outliers in ravens as well as people," Lisa said thoughtfully with a glance at Taylor, who looked back for a moment.
"Looks that way. Oh well. I'm stuck with him, and that appears to come along with a lot of friends, so whatever. I'll fix them all up, then they'll go away and bother someone else."
Vicky started laughing again causing Amy to glare at her. Soon afterwards the bell rang and everyone went their various ways, lessons or tests awaiting them.
"Danny?"
Looking up from the document he was reading and making notes on, Danny met the somewhat worried eyes of Kurt, who was leaning into his office. "Yeah?" he replied, putting the paperwork down. "Problem?"
"Might be, yeah. Got something you should probably see."
Puzzled, and somewhat concerned, Danny stood and followed his old friend out of the office and towards the back of the administration building. As they descended the stairs into the rest of the complex mass of buildings, Kurt explained, "We were clearing out one of the older warehouses over to the north side, because the old inventory we have said it should have some parts we need for repairing that old road roller. With all the pothole work we're doing the guys suggested we needed another one working, yeah?"
"Sounds sensible, sure," Danny nodded, realizing that they were approaching the DWA infirmary and getting worried.
"We found something else we weren't expecting," Kurt sighed, waving him into the room, where several of the other dock workers including Kate were watching as Janice Wells, the closest thing they had to an actual doctor, fussed over a figure lying on the table. Danny stopped dead, taking in the scene, before he walked closer.
"Who is she?" he asked, looking at the girl who was probably no more than at most seventeen, reddish-blonde hair topping a squared off face, somewhat on the masculine side for a girl but still definitely feminine under a lot more dirt than was ideal. She was extremely pale, with massive bags under her eyes, and he could tell at a glance was suffering from borderline malnutrition. It was open to question which side of the border she was on by the looks of it.
On top of the far too thin limbs, clothed in what were nearly rags, was a dark-stained bandage around her left thigh, which Janice was very carefully cutting away. He could tell just from the smell before she removed it that it was going to be bad. When the woman peeled the material back with a nasty sucking noise, several people went rather green.
Danny, who had seen worse over the years although he preferred not to recall those times, simply watched as Janice turned to the side where a stainless steel tray was covered in sterile instruments along with medical supplies. She grabbed some forceps in a gloved hand and turned back. "Hold her down, Matt," she ordered without looking away from what she was doing. Matt met Danny's eyes past Janice but moved to put his hands on the girl's shoulders, even though she was obviously far past the point she was really with them.
Janice carefully pulled open the wound that had been festering under the crude bandage, releasing another wave of horrible smells that made two of the people watching gag, and the rest cover their noses, then pushed the forceps into the girl's leg and probed around. The poor kid convulsed with a moan. Matt held her still, Kate quickly moving in to hold down her leg which made Janice nod in thanks without looking away from her task. "Where is… come on you little fucker… Ah! Got the bastard thing," the woman grunted under her breath, squeezing the forceps closed and slowly extracting them. Holding the tool up to the light, she shook her head, then dropped the remains of the bullet she was holding into a container by her elbow.
"5.56 jacketed round," Matt commented, watching. "AR-15 probably. Looks like it bounced off something first or it would have gone right through her leg. Smashed the bone to fragments in the process, likely."
"Her leg isn't broken but the tibia is chipped," Janice replied, moving to disinfect the wound with iodine solution, which made even Danny wince in sympathy as the girl writhed almost silently under the dark fluid. "Bone fragments here, see? Too old to be viable. This is… probably about a week or so old. She's lucky to be alive with this amount of infection. I'm going to have to clear out some of this dead flesh before I can close. And I have no fucking idea if she's allergic to antibiotics. If she is it'll probably kill her, if we don't give her something now she's going to end up with gangrene if we're lucky."
Even as she talked she was cutting obviously completely dead flesh away with a scalpel, fluids leaking down the exposed skin and gathering on the disposable paper table cover and staining it several horrible colors.
"Danny, this kid needs to be in a hospital right the fuck now," she added with a quick glance at him, before she got back to the job in hand. "I'm good, I know what I'm doing, but we're not set up for this sort of thing. Crush injuries, some asshole cutting his finger off, that I can handle. This kid has a massive systemic infection, she's on the verge of starving to death on top of that, and some bastard shot her. I can keep her alive for now but I sure as hell can't do that for long without equipment I just don't have."
Finishing up the wound cleaning, she looked at Kate. "Get me the vancomycin, second cabinet behind you, third shelf down. The yellow bottle." Kate nodded, quickly retrieving the drug required, as Janice changed her gloves, dropping the old ones into the biohazard bin next to the table, then pulled on new ones and took it from her. Everyone watched as she sprinkled a powdery substance into the wound, muttering to herself about how she hoped to hell the girl wasn't allergic to it. Shortly she was very carefully putting a dressing on the treated injury, not looking at all happy about things.
"The problem is, Danny, that I know who this girl is," Kurt said quietly from next to him. "And that's going to be an issue."
Danny looked at his old friend, then around at the others. Matt shrugged with a small nod. "OK, tell me what I'm missing," he said.
"I recognized her from something I read on line a few weeks ago," Kurt continued. "Her name is Rachel Lindt. She's a Parahuman. According to the article, she killed at least one person when she Triggered."
Sighing, Danny rubbed his eyes, then lowered his glasses again. "Of course she's a Parahuman. Wonderful."
"I don't care if she's a Parahuman, or if she killed someone, she's my patient," Janice snapped, taping the final layer down over the now-covered wound. "And I say she needs more medical help than we're equipped to give her."
"If we take her to the hospital the PRT will get involved, there's no way to prevent that as soon as someone works out who she is," Kurt replied. "And if what I read about her is accurate, when she recovers enough to realize what's going on there's gonna be trouble."
"What powers does she have?" Danny queried, peering hard at the girl's head and looking beneath for the structures that his daughter had shown him were part of the Parahuman brain. Sure enough, after some squinting, and a little imagination, he was pretty sure he could make out something that matched her description and what she'd shown him with Lisa. This girl was indeed a Parahuman by the looks of things, although he'd be the first to admit that he was nowhere nearly as good at figuring this sort of situation out as Taylor was, yet. He also checked the wound in her leg, something he chided himself for not doing first, to make sure nothing else was in there, but saw that Janice hadn't missed anything.
"Opinion is kind of divided on that," Matt put in. "The PRT claims a Master ability focused on dogs, along with a Shaker one that makes them grow into massive monsters. But there are quite a lot of people who think she only really has the Shaker thing, the rest is because she's really good at training dogs. And she apparently is a little…"
He paused, trying to think of the best way to put it. "Hard to get along with, maybe? Aggressive, not able to understand how people think, and several other things from what I read. She doesn't seem to care about a secret identity, and from what I can find out doesn't get involved in the usual Parahuman shenanigans. Seems as long as you left her alone she'd leave you alone and all she really cares about are her dogs. Which is fair enough to be honest. But she's more than capable of fucking you up if you give her cause to."
"And she apparently found someone who took exception to that," Kurt added with a nod. "I'm guessing probably the Merchants, considering where we found her. There was some commotion over in their general direction maybe ten days ago, before Christmas, but we didn't find out what was going on until it was over. She might have got caught up in that somehow, or started it, or god knows what. If it was the Empire, they wouldn't have let her escape I'd think, and Lung would just have killed her on the spot knowing that asshole. Not that he seems to be paying attention to much at the moment. So yeah, probably either the Merchants, or just some idiot with a gun. We've got way too many of those…"
Danny leaned on the wall and stared at the problem in front of him. Clearly this Lindt girl had been living rough for quite a while, years probably, and with much less in the way of resources than Lisa had managed to scrape up. Lisa was very smart and capable and not at all prone to violence, so without Coil getting involved would probably have managed to end up getting herself on her feet even without his daughter's involvement. This girl by the sound of it had a lot less in the way of good fortune. She was lucky that Kurt's people had stumbled across her, because even without Janice's medical knowledge, his own experience suggested she'd have lasted no more than a couple of days past this point.
The girl stirred with a small sound of pain and Janice quickly moved to check her. "She's waking up. That's not going to help, she'll freak out and something's going to get damaged. She needs sleep more than anything else right now, and time to heal. Fuck." She stomped over to the drug cabinet, opening it and scanning the shelves, before making a few selections. Moments later she was filling a syringe. "This is not the right way to do this sort of thing," she complained as she administered a shot into the girl's arm. Within ten seconds the motions of the Lindt girl stopped and she relaxed. Peeling one eyelid open, Janice checked her pupil, then her pulse, before putting her stethoscope over the patient's heart and listening.
"OK. That'll hold her for the moment, and she's not in immediate danger of dying on us, but seriously, Danny, this girl is in a bad way. I can't sedate her properly with what I have on hand. She needs IV antibiotics and a hell of a lot more, but all I can really do is saline to replenish fluids." She was already setting this up as she spoke. "We're not a hospital, this is just an industrial accident first response facility. I'm an ex-marine battlefield medic. I'll keep them alive long enough to get a real hospital involved, but that's my limit." Janice gave him a look then went back to work, grumbling under her breath.
Hearing a sound behind him, Danny looked around to see a small dog missing one eye being held by one of the other workers, who was scratching it under the ear. The dog looked at him, then at the girl on the table, and whined softly. "Yeah, the dog was with her," Kurt said when he glanced at him. "She'd been giving it most of her food by the looks of things. And there were two collars next to her, so I'm guessing she had two other dogs that didn't make it. That one has some minor wounds that make me think it got shot at too."
"Jesus Christ," Danny sighed, rubbing his brow. "So if we keep her here, she's dead, if we take her to hospital the PRT get involved and god knows what happens…"
"Best case is she ends up in the Wards and from what I've read about her she probably wouldn't like that," Kurt replied. "Worst case is she ends up in prison for murder. And the more I read about what the PRT claims the less sure I am that she's entirely to blame for that. There's something kind of weird about the initial reporting and it makes me wonder…"
"You think she's being set up?" Danny queried with a look at the other man.
Kurt rocked his hand from side to side. "Did someone die? That seems to be real. Did she actually kill that person? That part I'm really not sure about, and there are a lot of people on PHO who claim she's being railroaded because the PRT fucked up. And we know that the PRT isn't exactly perfect, so…" He shrugged as Danny sighed again. "I sure wouldn't want to take their word as gospel, not after some of the things we've seen over the years, never mind Calvert."
"It never gets easier, does it?" Danny growled rhetorically. "Damn it all. What time is it?" He looked at his watch as he spoke. "OK, Taylor and Lisa should be finished in about twenty minutes. I'm going to go pick them up, and we can have Taylor put this girl into storage for now. That'll keep her alive at least."
Janice looked annoyed, then worried, then finally nodded in resignation. "Yeah, that's at least a stop gap. Then what?" She checked the saline drip she'd set up, adjusted the flow rate a little, then stepped back and turned to him. "Taylor can't sit on her forever, and she'll need medical attention when you pull her back. It only delays the problem."
"True, but in the mean time we can do a little research on this whole mess," he replied, pulling out his phone and scrolling through the contacts. Finding the one he was after he hit dial and waited. A familiar voice answered after a few rings. "Hi, Erwin. Got a little job for you if you're up for possibly causing trouble for the PRT."
The laughter that came through his phone was loud enough that everyone else in the room heard it, and made both Matt and Kurt grin.
"Thank you, everyone. This concludes the annoying test part of your day." Mr Howlett smiled as the entire room relaxed and laughed. "Thank you all for attending, and I hope you'll find your time here at Arcadia rewarding. And, it has to be said, somewhat less stressful than at your… previous educational establishment." His voice conveyed a similar level of disgust to that which Taylor felt, presumably from professional expectations. More laughter filled the gym. "Feel free to keep the pencils and so on, they may come in handy. As I said this morning, you'll receive your results over the weekend by phone and more details will be waiting for you on Monday morning. I'll see you all then. You can go, and please try to keep the noise down in the corridors as we still have classes going on."
Taylor cleared her desk of the writing implements which she put into her backpack, everyone around her doing the same since free stuff was always worth grabbing, made sure she hadn't accidentally left anything behind, and stood up. The sound of nearly a hundred other people doing likewise made the gym echo. At the front of the room the school staff were sorting out piles of completed tests, looking satisfied with the outcome of several hours of work. Lisa, who'd packed her own things away, moved to stand next to her. "That was easy enough," her friend commented quietly.
"Yeah. I was a little surprised how easy it was," Taylor agreed as they turned to follow the crowd out of the gym, giving a wave to Mr Howlett as he looked in their direction. He nodded acknowledgment with a smile.
"Considering how much time you put in on studying and catching up that doesn't really shock me," Lisa chuckled. "And being about twice as smart as probably anyone else in the room likely helped."
Taylor felt a little embarrassed, but smiled back at her friend. They exited the gym and headed back to the entrance as she pulled her phone out and checked the message she'd felt it receive about five minutes ago. "Huh. Dad says there's a situation he needs some help with and he'll be picking us up in ten minutes," she reported, her eyebrows up, as she read the screen.
Lisa looked at her, then the phone when she held it up. "Odd. I wonder what that's about?"
"No idea. Guess we'll find out. I'd like to say bye to Amy and Vicky but I guess they'll still be in class anyway. We'll see them again next week."
With a nod Lisa accompanied her as both girls walked quickly to the exit. Outside there was a milling crowd of ex-Winslow students, with a few Arcadia ones mixed in, all in little groups talking, some of them slowly filtering off either into cars or towards the bus stop. The pair waved to a few people they'd struck up conversations with in the cafeteria, Taylor smiling at Greg who looked a little surprised then returned it. The boy had come over to her and apologized for not standing up to the bullies in Winslow before rushing off with a red face. Apparently during the period since Winslow closed he'd grown a little more backbone, or simply found that without the horrible miasma of the damn place poisoning his outlook he was just that much more confident.
She couldn't help feeling much the same. Winslow was enough to bring most people to their knees mentally and looking back now she wasn't sure how she'd kept it together without snapping all that time. And inherently she was a fuck sight more stubborn than many people her age, she knew that full well. It was a Hebert trait…
Poor Greg was not quite as resilient in many ways, although she realized that she'd possibly misjudged him even so. Arcadia would probably be good for him, because he certainly wasn't stupid, or he wouldn't be here in the first place. Obsessive about certain subjects, yes, but from what she'd seen around this place he'd find somewhere to fit in without any real problem.
"He's no worse than most nerds," Lisa commented quietly, making Taylor look at her with mild surprise. Her friend grinned. "You're easy to read right now. Even without help. Rethinking some former relationships, because the situation changed?"
"Yeah." Taylor nodded with a sigh. "I may have been a little unkind to Greg inside my head in the past."
"Don't worry about it, Taylor. No one's perfect and you had way too much on your mind with all that crap you were going through. And from what I've seen about Winslow it brought out the worst in everyone. I still think it needs to be torched…"
"Arson is bad, Lisa. Stay good." Taylor grinned back as her friend started laughing. "Even though I'll admit I've had similar ideas a few times."
"Anyway," Lisa said when she stopped giggling, "I'm sure most of the people from Winslow will become pretty different without that hellhole sapping their will to live. He seems a nice enough guy underneath the gamer-obsessed outside."
"He meant well, but he just didn't know how to talk to people. Not that I can really blame him. Or ignore the fact I wasn't exactly in a good state of mind myself." Taylor let out a frustrated sigh, angry at the memories thinking about Winslow brought to mind and angry at herself for being so easily dragged back into that mindset. Lisa put her arm around her shoulder and hugged her.
"Let it go, Taylor," she advised in a low voice, leaning on the taller girl. "It's done, leave it in the past where it belongs."
Taking a few deep breaths, the brunette nodded. "You're right. Sorry."
"No need to apologize." Lisa released her and smiled. Looking around, she added, "Amy's going to be busy when she comes out."
Taylor did the same and nodded. The entire area still had far more ravens quietly and patiently sitting in the trees and on the roof than seemed even slightly plausible. It was both impressive and a touch creepy, but in a very funny way. "Poor Amy. Edgar has a lot more friends than you'd believe."
"The Queen of Ravens has many subjects," Lisa intoned in a deep voice, causing both of them to crack up. By the time the laughter died down, Taylor's dad was pulling to a stop at the curb, so they hurried over and got in. He immediately flicked the indicator, pulled out again, and drove off.
"Everything go OK?" he queried with a glance at them.
"Yeah, Dad, it was fine. No problems, and we should get a phone call over the weekend sometime letting us know what the next step will be. Then we start on Monday."
"Sounds good. Well done, both of you."
Taylor nodded, then looked at him. "What's the emergency?"
He sighed faintly, shook his head, and started explaining. By the time he finished both girls were thinking hard, more than a little startled by current events.
"We could maybe ask Amy to heal her?" Lisa suggested.
"We don't know her well enough to impose, I suspect," Taylor replied. "And from what Dad says this girl is considered a murderer. As part of New Wave Amy might get upset about that, and even if she didn't from what she said her mom sure would. I like Carol Dallon as a lawyer, she really helped out, but I'm not sure we want her getting angry about having Amy help a 'villain.'" She made a little finger quote motion. "I think we'd need to be able to say she wasn't actually a murderer. If what Kurt thinks is right, that might be the case."
"If it is Erwin will get the truth one way or another," her dad put in, having been driving while keeping one ear on their conversation. He stopped at a junction, looked both ways, then turned left. "But that'll take days at least. She doesn't have that long. Janice says she's got hours at best before something goes bad to the point it could kill her. Sepsis, or something like that. She's amazed the poor kid isn't in a worse state as it is."
"So we put her in storage, at least until we can find out more about what really happened. If it turns out that she's actually innocent, and we can prove it, we can help her, and if she did kill people…?" Lisa shook her head. "If it was during a Trigger event the PRT usually goes easy on the Parahuman, because of lots of previous problems surrounding that sort of thing. The fact that apparently this time they're pushing that idea is weird to begin with. It makes me think Kurt's right, there's something hinky going on."
"Administrator seems sure that the situation isn't quite what it appears but she's having trouble explaining it properly," Taylor reported, after conferring with her invisible friend. "I'll see if I can work out what she means."
"That will help, but to prove things to the courts we'll need more solid evidence than the word of a power that's not a power," her dad laughed. "Erwin can dig up a paper trail if one exists. And a paper trail always exists if a government agency is involved."
"What was Erwin's actual job?" Lisa asked, looking mystified.
"Who the hell actually knows?" Taylor's dad sighed, shaking his head. "Anyone who asks gets a different story each time, and none of them make any sense at all. The man's completely nuts, but he's also ridiculously skilled, and knows where the bodies are buried. Probably buried half of them himself, knowing him…"
They pulled into the DWA compound having been waved at by the security guards on the gate, then he drove around the back of the Administration building right to the nearest door to the infirmary. All three got out and hurried inside. Within a minute they entered the infirmary itself, where several people were waiting for them.
"Hi, Janice," Taylor said.
"Hello, Taylor," the older woman replied, looking up for a moment from where she was checking the vitals of the far too pale girl lying unconscious on the table in front of her. "About time you got here. This girl is not in a good way." She didn't sound angry, at least at them, merely resigned. Removing the blood pressure cuff from the patient's arm she carefully lowered the limb to the table, then turned around. "We either do this now or we take her to Brockton General, Danny. I won't wait. She'll die if we leave it."
"Relax, Janice, she'll be fine one way or another," Kurt soothed, moving to pat her shoulder. Janice pushed his hand away irritably.
"Stop that."
"I'm just comforting you, woman."
"I'll tell Lacey then you'll be on the next table to Ms Lindt."
"...yeah. Fair point."
Shaking her head with amusement at the familiar byplay, because Kurt and Janice constantly sniped at each other at the best of times although it was always friendly, Taylor ignored them and inspected the girl in front of her. Lisa was examining her too.
"What about her power?" her friend commented quietly. "If she's beneath for a long time it's going to get very upset. And we still don't know for sure what happens to a Parahuman that has a fully active power that gets forcibly disconnected for too long…"
"Yeah, I know," Taylor agreed quietly. "But I know someone who can help." She communed with Administrator, who she could feel watching closely.
{We need her power to realize that she'll be back and isn't dead,} she said to the vast construct. {Can you tell it not to panic and just wait?}
[CONFIRMED] Administrator replied cheerfully. [CONTACTING]
A moment later she added, [ORDER SENT!]
{Thanks.}
A wordless sense of satisfaction came to her, making her smile. "Well, in theory that bit is sorted out," she said out loud. "So let's store our friend before she gets worse." A moment later the table was empty, the IV needle dropping to the surface with a faint tap, saline pooling around it. Janice jumped in shock, then stared, before turning to Taylor.
"You are a weird girl, Taylor Hebert."
"Yeah, I know," Taylor replied with a grin, which the medic shook her head at. Most of the others were laughing.
"This place gets stranger by the hour," Janice complained before she moved to turn off the drip and tidy up. "You're certain she won't degrade wherever it is you put the poor kid?"
"She's fine, Janice. Being beneath completely stops the flow of time. When I bring her back, no matter how long that is, it'll be like no time passed for her at all," Taylor reassured the woman.
"I wish I'd had you when I was serving," the medic muttered. "Several friends of mine would have made it…" She shook her head almost viciously and kept working.
Putting his hand on her shoulder, Taylor's father motioned with his head to the door. Both girls followed as he left the infirmary. Outside, Kurt was kneeling on the ground stroking the head of a small dog with one eye, which was staring at them closely. "Good work, kid," he said to Taylor.
"That's Rachel's dog?" Lisa asked, squatting down to hold out her hand for a sniff.
"Yeah. Angelica, according to her collar." The dog licked Lisa's fingers, then looked up at Taylor, who knelt to do the same. Both girls stroked her, which seemed to please the creature. "She got a bit banged up by whatever actually happened but it's all superficial stuff. Pretty sure that the other two collars we found means the girl had two more dogs that didn't make it though."
Taylor sighed. "That's sad," she said.
"Yeah, but nothing we can do about it." Kurt offered Angelica a dog biscuit he pulled from a bag of them in his hand, the dog quickly taking it and chewing loudly. "I'll look after her until we can get the kid sorted out. I like dogs, and she seems to have taken a shine to me."
"Because you've been stuffing her with food for the last hour," Matt commented from behind them, having come out of the infirmary. He sounded amused.
Kurt grinned. "That works with most animals."
"And most humans too," Taylor's father added, chuckling. "OK, looks like the panic is over for now. I'll go talk to Erwin and give him some cash before he starts complaining he's spent all his beer money on bribes or something, then we can get back to work."
"Hey, Taylor, as long as you're here, you can come help clear the warehouses," Matt put in. "We could probably use Lisa's help too."
"You only want me for my eldritch abilities," Taylor complained, standing up. Matt grinned.
"Of course. They're very useful eldritch abilities. And Agent Thinky is good at…" He rubbed his chin thoughtfully while Lisa stared at him with her arms folded, waiting. "...something. We'll figure it out," he finished, chuckling.
"Make sure they wear the right PPE, Matt," her dad commented, wearing a smile of amusement.
"Of course I will, Chief! That's U.N.I.O.N. protocol!" Matt saluted sharply. Her dad sighed, shook his head, turned, and walked off muttering under his breath. Everyone else laughed.
"Well, Agents, let's get to doing some useful work. We already found a spare Parahuman, who knows what else we'll find?" Matt remarked cheerfully. He waved them towards the door with a small bow. Taylor nodded regally and exited the room, trying not to laugh, with Lisa next to her.
It had been an interesting day so far and it wasn't even over yet…
Amy lifted her hand and nodded. "You're done. Next!"
The raven sitting on the patio table they'd moved into the back yard croaked at her, looked at Edgar, then flew off to sit on the fence. A moment later another one landed on the table and waited, examining her curiously. Amy shook her head and reached out. Behind her Vicky was holding her phone up to video the entire bizarre process. All around them, at least a couple of hundred ravens were perched on every available space, all watching the process and making very quiet raven noises to each other. Edgar was sitting on her shoulder supervising with the air of a bird who has done a very clever thing. In other words, giving off an aura of smugness thick enough the feel at twenty feet.
"How is this my life now?" she complained while fixing some minor damage, clearing out parasites, and basically giving the raven in her hands a ten thousand mile service. The bird just sat there as it if was completely used to being handled, apparently totally contented.
Mark laughed from the back porch where he was sitting in a chair with a mug of coffee in his hand, watching. "Word gets around, Amy."
"They're birds, Dad," she replied. "How does word get around?"
"No idea, but it definitely does." He sounded like he was trying not to laugh again. She sighed and finished her job. The bird made a sound of happiness as she let go, hopped in a circle experimentally, then flew to sit next to the last one. "Next raven please," she said, shaking her head and finding despite herself that this was actually kind of fun. Before she'd finished speaking yet another large black bird landed in front of her and eyed her with a beady glittering gaze full of far too much intelligence.
The sound of the back door opening was followed by Carol's voice saying, "Oh, for fuck's sake!", before it slammed closed again. Amy looked over her shoulder, shrugged, glanced at Edgar who made his little giggling sound, then went back to work.
"The Dark Lady Amy tends to her minions, who pledge their undying loyalty to their Queen of Unkindness," Vicky intoned from behind her in a voice full of knowing menace, like an evil nature documentary presenter.
"Vicky?"
"Yeah, Amy?"
"Shut the hell up, will you?"
Mark's laughter drowned out any response her sister made.