Walking into his office, Roy Christner took off his coat even as he closed the door, hanging it up on the ornate brass coat tree he had standing just inside the room. He unwound his long multicolored scarf, a treasured gift from his daughter, and looped that over the coat, then headed directly for his coffee maker. It was much too early to not have coffee inside him. Prodding buttons, he heard hissing and gurgling sounds begin with a sense of anticipation. Having arranged the process of producing wake up juice, he retrieved his briefcase from the floor where he'd put it, went over to his desk, and sat down in his luxurious leather chair. A nice perk of the job in his view, and very comfortable.

Putting the briefcase on the desk in front of him, he flicked the dials to the right combination with the ease of long practice and snapped the catches open as he did every morning, the sharp click echoing through the room, audible above the sound of traffic outside and the still busy coffee machine. Roy yawned widely, feeling yet again that he could really have done with another hour or so of sleep, but he was resigned to long hours in the job. Especially since the whole mysterious ship vanishing thing, and the entire mess around Winslow and the asbestos scandal.

'I wish I could put the blame where everyone knows it belongs,' he mused with irritation, his hands on the lid of his case as he reflected on the whole idiotic problem of past corruption. 'Everyone knows full well who was in charge back then but the one thing they were competent at was muddying the waters and covering their tracks…' He sighed, not happy about how certain people of his acquaintance were likely to get away with embezzling millions of dollars from the city, and worse, probably having been directly responsible for a number of unpleasant deaths over the years.

This city was hard enough on the inhabitants just from ordinary crime and idiotic super-powered assholes. The addition of a thick layer of corruption and official neglect hardly helped. But at least he was doing what he could to try to clean up as much of that sort of thing as he could manage, and so far was doing in his own view a reasonable job. He could tell by the number of people who seemed to wish him dead judging by the looks he'd got a few times as he'd implemented changes here and there.

It was almost amusing at times. Even as it was really fucking annoying.

Shaking his head, he opened the case and reached in to lift out the stack of folders containing the various documents he'd taken home to read and think about, then stopped dead as he spotted something amiss.

"What the hell?" he said out loud, completely puzzled at the sight of a thick manila archival envelope that he certainly hadn't put there. Which was beyond odd, since the case hadn't left his side since he'd kissed his wife on the way out the door half an hour ago, and had been in the back seat of his car the entire drive in. Nor had he stopped at any point until he got to his parking spot in the underground garage five floors below him.

Had his wife put it there without him seeing her? She could have done, yes, but why would she? If she had something for him she'd simply have told him. And neither of his children were likely to do it, his daughter away in Boston not being able to for a start. And for that matter his son hadn't come back to the house last night, or the previous two nights either, due to his work.

He stared at the envelope for some seconds, baffled and somewhat worried, before he leaned sideways and opened the bottom drawer of his desk. Reaching in, he retrieved a small device he'd arranged the acquisition of from an old friend, then turned it on and waited for a few seconds. When it beeped, he cautiously waved it over the envelope, watching the screen closely. The scanning device thought about things for a bit then beeped again, indicating that it hadn't found a trace of any explosives or toxins.

It was a very good scanner, one that came highly recommended and in fact was better than the standard issue PRT ones, so it was probably right. Even so, he hesitated for a while once he put it away again before he prodded the envelope with a pencil just in case. Nothing at all happened, so after taking a breath, he picked it up and turned it over a couple of times. Nothing was written on it on either side, but it felt like it was full of paper, probably bound together like his usual reports were.

In the end he unwound the loop of string that was holding the flap down and opened the envelope, tilting it to peer inside. Sure enough, there was a stack of a good fifty pages or so in there. Pulling out the document, he turned it over to see the cover.

His eyes widened in a way that any observer would have found comical.

"What the fuck?" he murmured under his breath as he opened the report bearing the title 'Brockton Bay City Administration Staff Criminal Activities, 1996 through 2010' in a professional font. Within thirty seconds his eyes had widened again, narrowed in anger, and ended up looking very, very thoughtful.

"Jesus Christ," Roy muttered, turning page after page full of evidence that if true would put half the previous administration and quite a few other people in prison for decades, and expose more corruption than even he had in his darkest moments suspected was true. "Who the hell is behind this?"

He read the entire thing in one sitting, completely ignoring any other work, and when he finally reached the end, looked at the last page with grateful bewilderment. There was a web address to an anonymous cloud data storage service there, along with a long password to decrypt the files apparently available to him, files which the document claimed were all the supporting evidence he'd need to clean house and absolutely wreck a lot of people he'd never liked even slightly.

It was going to change everything, he was certain of that. The fallout from this was going to make the asbestos problem look like small potatoes. And in fact the document was very relevant to the asbestos problem, as it gave solid proof that the people he'd been certain were to blame really were to blame.

Shaking his head in wonder, he picked up the envelope again and stared at it, then tipped it upside down and shook the thing. After a second, one final item fell out, this being a small white card, which he picked up and inspected.

United National Intervention Operator Network

That was all that was written on the high quality card stock. He ran his thumb over the printed text, feeling slightly raised letters typical of a laser printer, then turned it over.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, Mayor Christner, is to clean up Brockton Bay. This may help. Consider it an early Christmas present.

Good luck, and best regards.

He stared at the words for quite a while, then started chuckling to himself in baffled respect. Eventually putting the card on his desk, propped up on his pen holder, he picked up the phone and started making the first of a very long series of phone calls that were going to rewrite the political landscape of the city and beyond.

"At least it didn't self destruct in five seconds," he murmured under his breath, feeling in a very good if more than a little confused mood. "Ah, Commissioner," he said cheerfully and more loudly when the phone was answered, "Would you join me in my office? I have something you need to see."

"This looks really good," Taylor said with satisfaction, pulling the crystal growth substrate holder out of the machine and holding it up to the light. In a regular grid across the surface, oddly asymmetrical iridescent crystals almost exactly like the ones she'd inherited from Papa glimmered under the lights. Tilting the frame, she examined a couple very closely both with her eyes and by looking Beneath, finding the latter method showed that somehow the crystals were far larger than they looked, the internal structure impossibly complex and going off in directions that didn't correspond to anything even slightly normal. Again, just as Papa's ones did, although these seemed to be somehow more than most of his were.

She had a shrewd idea that her machine was slightly more efficient than his, possibly because she was using better chemicals for the growth medium. Or perhaps she just got lucky. There was still a lot about the exact details of how it worked that were a bit of a mystery to her although the more she studied his journals the more she figured out. And everything she learned seemed to feed back to all the other things she'd discovered, the whole thing building on basic principles and leading her somewhere quite unusual but absolutely fascinating.

Carefully putting the spindly framework down on a soft cloth, she started gently working the fully formed crystals loose with a pair of padded tweezers, examining each one closely then putting them into a small tray with lots of different sections, a cover over the whole thing closing them off when it was shut. "Most of them are pretty much perfect," she added, pleased, as she worked. "A few are a bit wrong though. Probably impurities in the growth reagent or something like that. I'll have to think about it. They might still come in handy at some point."

Lisa, who was watching closely, nodded. "My power is getting quite worked up about those things," she said after a few seconds. "It says they're impossible."

Taylor shrugged with a grin. "Seem entirely possible to me since I'm actually holding one," she replied, lifting the next crystal free.

"It's still saying it, although it also says you have a point," Lisa reported, looking amused. "And even though they're apparently impossible, it seems to find them endlessly interesting."

"Bit of a crystal fan then?" Taylor queried as she plucked the last one off the frame and put it into a section of the tray, then carefully closed the lid and stored it away. Beginning to reassemble the growth chamber, she nodded at the tank on the side of the device. "Can you refill that with reagent?" she requested, the other girl nodding back and moving to pick up the large glass bottle containing the remaining quantity of the chemical mix they'd made up when the machine was built. "Might as well run it again and use it up. It won't keep forever and no sense wasting the stuff."

"Are you going to do the same run or change it?" Lisa asked as she unscrewed the lid of the reagent container and started pouring the viscous greenish liquid out of the bottle into it with a syrupy glugging sound.

Taylor thought as she examined the machine. "I did have an idea or two about changing a few parameters," she commented, pulling out her notes and flipping through the pages to the right section. "Hmm… Yeah, that might be interesting to see what happens." Leaning over the machinery she reached for a screwdriver and made a few adjustments. As she was working, Lisa finished pouring the last of the chemicals into the tank and put the lid back on, then placed the empty bottle onto the shelf it had come from. "Hold this here, will you?" Taylor requested, her friend quickly reaching out to steady one of the vagueness coils as she altered the angle of it a little. "Great, thanks. Now… yeah, that's about right."

The strange glow from deep inside the core of the machine, which was much dimmer than when it was running but was still present, changed in a hard to describe manner and got a little brighter. Taylor studied the result, nodded, and moved to make further adjustments. Five minutes later she finished and stepped back, putting the tools down. "There. Let's see what that does. We'll fire it up again and all we have to do is wait."

Very soon the deep blue rainbow fringed radiance was shining through the machine in a way that made an observer's eyes twist oddly. Lisa blinked at it, before shaking her head in wonder, while Taylor just felt satisfied. "That will never be something I get used to," Lisa commented. "The effect is just… wrong. Cool, but wrong."

"There's a certain something about it I like," Taylor admitted with a smile.

"Of course there is. Because you're wrong too." Her friend grinned at her. "But that's half the fun."

"It looks really, really cool if you look Beneath," Taylor chuckled. "The way it's doing weird things to the dimensional layering is amazing."

"Which I can't see, of course. When are you going to teach me that trick?"

"I think probably we should start, actually." Glancing at her friend, Taylor shrugged. "I can't see any reason not to. We've just been kind of busy up to now. But I've finished all my schoolwork, it's technically the holidays now so I feel perfectly reasonable about leaving the rest of it until the new year, and we're pretty sure we've found most of the important stuff from our friend Calvert's servers, so there's a hole in my schedule."

"Sounds like a plan then," Lisa agreed, her eyes lighting up. "I'm looking forward to it."

"I'm curious to see if you can actually do it," Taylor laughed. "Dad's coming along well, so at least I know I can teach someone else, but so far he's it." She pondered the idea for a while, then slowly added, "I'm wondering if I should ask Anne if she wants to try too."

The oldest Barnes sister had visited the Hebert house a couple more times since that night three weeks ago, partly because she seemed to need someone to talk to, partly because she clearly still felt guilty no matter how many times Taylor assured her she had nothing to feel guilty about, and partly because she was probably a bit lonely. And, of course, she'd found the things Taylor had told her very interesting. Taylor liked Anne a lot, and despite her sister's actions, had no ill will towards her at all. They'd become closer since that long discussion, and she felt a bit guilty herself and sad too that when Emma had been sane she hadn't realized that Anne was also a good friend. But then she'd been a lot younger and at that age, even a few years difference was often a major boundary in a friendship.

"She probably would, I think," Lisa replied after thinking it over. "Shes smart, and really interested in what you're doing. I like her."

"Yeah, me too," Taylor said as she put everything away and stored whatever she needed to take with her. When she finished, they left the room and locked the door, then headed for their next destination. "Oh, right, gnurrs. I was thinking we should show both you and your friend that gnurrs really are real. But I'm not doing those flying tennis balls with teeth again unless I seriously need to fuck something up, because they're a hell of a lot worse than gnurrs are, trust me." She shook her head as she remembered that particular experience…

It had been rather startling if she was completely honest.

Lisa glanced at her, then nodded, looking a little apprehensive. "I'm not sure if I should say thanks or oh god no," she quipped.

"It can always be both," Taylor laughed. "But wait until you see them, then you can decide which."

"Where are we going to do it?"

"Dad can find another old building no one will miss," Taylor assured her. "He'll sigh about it, but he likes experimenting, I'm sure."

"Of course he does," Lisa giggled. "You can tell by the way he shakes his head and mumbles."

"Exactly. The Chief works in mysterious ways."

They looked at each other and laughed quite a lot, before calming down and discussing what the next interesting task would be. As the pair went inside the building they'd been heading for, their footprints began filling up with the snow that started falling gently from the dull sky.

Putting her phone down, Carol looked at the notes she'd made after her call to Michelle, wrote a few more sentences, then leaned back in the chair. Hearing a sound at the door she looked over to see her husband peering in at her. She smiled a little as he came in and leaned down, kissing her on the cheek. His new medication seemed to be working a lot better than the last set had and he was far closer recently to the man she'd married, something that had raised her mood nearly as much as it had his.

"How's it going, love?" he asked, putting his hands on her shoulders and gently massaging them. She closed her eyes at the sensation and relaxed.

"Slowly, but it's going," she replied quietly. "The PRT case is finished and that was the potentially tricky part. The rest of the case is a lot less problematic even if it's going to take longer because it's got so many more parties involved. The school board, the city administration, the Teacher's Union, a lot of defendants and their own legal representation… We'll win, there's no doubt of that, but it's going to take weeks at least before it gets anywhere near a courtroom. Assuming they don't see sense and settle out of court, which would be the rational thing to do, but considering some of the people involved I don't think rational is particularly likely." She sighed and shook her head.

"The whole situation is a complete mess and should never have been allowed to get to the point it did. We're very lucky no one ended up dead as a result. It was absolute negligence aside from anything else. How that school could be so… so… inept is beyond me."

Carol wasn't even slightly happy about what had happened, and weeks of delving through documentation hadn't improved her impression of the other side. At least Piggot had been willing and in fact eager to come to an arrangement, despite Chambers being difficult. While she wasn't entirely happy about brushing the whole Hess debacle under the carpet for a number of reasons, she was all too aware that the Director's worries were very real and very serious.

That damn girl could have caused more trouble than she could possibly have understood, given even a slight change in how things played out. Luckily she was permanently gone from the city, and as far as the lawyer knew, unlikely to see daylight for a decade at least.

Considering how many people she'd probably killed in cold blood, even that was too soon in her opinion, but it was out of her hands. She didn't intend to spend any more time thinking about Sophia Hess and she suspected this attitude was prevalent in more or less anyone who'd ever met the girl.

Certainly Vicky and Amy seemed pleased Hess was gone, and from what they'd said, the Wards in general were grateful too. Apparently Vista had spent ten minutes dancing like a crazy girl and singing a happy song…

Vicky had been laughing her head off about that.

"Do you think the payout will be larger than the PRT one?" Mark asked curiously. He was aware of the broad strokes of the case, but she of course couldn't tell him about the details. "Your fee for that part wasn't as high as it usually is."

"I felt it was better to make sure that the Heberts and the Barnes's got the bulk of the money, because they deserved it," Carol replied, opening her eyes and looking up at him. "And to be honest I didn't have to do all that much. It was a decent payment for only a few days work. This one, it's the usual percentage, but yes, the total will be a lot larger." She smiled rather nastily. "Neither Michelle or I am particularly interested in going easy on them."

He chuckled quietly. "I did get that impression."

A sound upstairs made them both peer at the ceiling. "Sounds like the girls are back," he commented as there was a loud thud followed by an argument which died away after a few seconds. She sighed faintly.

"So it would seem. Just in time for dinner, at least." He let go of her shoulders and she stood up, then put her arms around him for a moment, resting her head on his shoulder. "I'm glad your medication is working so well," she said in a low voice. "I like this."

"So do I, love," he assured her, smiling. They stood there in silence for a little while, then there was another argument from above them, as the bathroom door closed with a slam and Amy began shouting at Vicky who was giggling to herself.

Carol sighed, then went to get them to stop being loud. Mark chuckled and followed.

"Told you."

"OK, you were right. Gnurrs are definitely a thing."

"And I warned you to bring spare pants."

"You did do that, yes. I wish I'd listened. Or run faster. It's fucking freezing."

"Here."

"Thanks."

"Dad, please stop laughing."

"Why? That was absolutely hilarious."

"Is this any way to treat your agents?"

"I think it's exactly the way I should treat my agents, considering how much of a pain in the ass they are."

"So you admit we're your agents? Hah! I knew you believed in the power of U.N.I.O.N.!"

"Oh, god. No, that's not what I meant and you know it. U.N.I.O.N. isn't a thing."

"Bet the Mayor wouldn't agree."

"…"

"What did you two do this time? I ask in the tones of a man who can feel his doom approaching with a grin. Yes, just like those grins."

"We helped."

"Oh, god, again."

"So did Michelle. And Matt."

"Fucking hell. Why do I even bother?"

"No idea, Chief. Seems it would be easier to just give in and go with the flow. But you do you."

"I need a drink."

"It's nearly Christmas. I'll get you a nice bottle of something."

"You can't legally buy alcohol, Taylor."

"That won't necessarily stop her…"

"Just get in the car, Lisa. Taylor, stop giggling and get in too, before Armsmaster or someone turns up."

"It hasn't fallen down all the way yet."

"You were saying?"

"That was pretty loud. OK, let's go. Oh, can we get a burger on the way home?"

"I suppose so."

"Yay!"

Watching as the other two crossed their eyes and squinted comically, Taylor suppressed a grin. Had she looked quite so constipated when she was trying to figure out Anton's trick in the beginning? If so she was lucky no one had ended up falling over laughing at her. She glanced at her father, who was wearing an expression that suggested he was also trying not to burst out laughing.

Anne had accepted the offer of possibly learning a really cool ability with alacrity, once she got over the amazement, and Taylor suspected she was trying to find something to take her mind off Emma. Which was fair enough, really. She'd warned the other Barnes sister that she couldn't guarantee it would work, but Anne had waved that off, saying she was willing to try and if it worked, great.

Now, after a couple of hours of careful explanation about what Taylor had so far deduced about the nature of Beneath, and her thoughts on what Anton's trick was actually doing relative to normal existence, both Anne and Lisa were doing their best to see if they could pull the same feat off. So far neither had managed more than going cross-eyed and getting mild headaches but to be fair it had taken her days to get even the slightest hint of success and weeks to improve to the point it was easy. And more weeks until she could do it without thinking, never mind actually reaching through Beneath.

On the other hand, she'd been working off a written and not particularly clear description of what Papa had observed, whereas they were getting instruction in something she could prove worked and had a fairly decent grasp on, so the two things hopefully balanced out. With luck they'd get it fairly fast. Her dad hadn't had all that much trouble when she'd taught him the trick once he'd gotten past complaining it was impossible.

Of them all, Lisa's power seemed to be having the most trouble with the concept, from what her friend had said. It was watching with huge interest, and total bafflement, as Taylor explained in detail the process and practice, then as Lisa tried it. The girl had ended up loudly telling it to stop talking and just watch, since it seemed to want to comment on the whole thing as it kept picking holes in what was being attempted. From her comment her power had then thrown non-existent hands in the air and was now just watching with confusion.

The whole thing made Taylor both amused, and very thoughtful. From what it had told them, powers weren't supposed to be this independent, but the evidence was that at least Lisa's power, and also this second level administrator whatever that was, were very much not happy about their current situation. They certainly seemed to be taking any possible opportunity to subvert the status quo, which was fascinating in quite a few ways.

Apparently the alien invasion wasn't entirely smooth sailing on the part of the invading alien… Which was weird and likely to become very useful in the longer term. After all, if it was possible to get some part of the whole network of superpowers on their side, which seemed to have happened already if only by accident, perhaps this could be used to stop the whole thing doing whatever it was intended to achieve as an end goal.

Lisa's power wasn't very clear on what that was but it had said enough to make all of them sure it wasn't good. Luckily it didn't seem to be imminent either so as Matt had said that night a few days back, it was something they could put on the back burner for the time being while they dealt with more immediate issues.

Even so, Taylor wasn't going to stop mulling over possible solutions for handling the problem, and the more time she had to think about it and gather data, the better.

"Gah!" Anne said abruptly, slumping back in the chair and massaging her eyes. "I can't do it. That's just making my head ache."

"Don't worry, it's not easy at first, Anne," Taylor said encouragingly. "It took me ages to figure it out too. And lots and lots of practice. We've only been doing this for a couple of hours."

"I keep thinking I can nearly see something like you're describing, then it slips away and I lose it," the older girl grumbled, still rubbing her eyes. "I'm wondering if I'm just imagining it because I want it to work. Maybe this is just a Parahuman power after all?"

"She's definitely, one hundred percent guaranteed, not a Parahuman," Lisa commented, not looking away from staring hard at the cardboard box on the table which Taylor had put a few random small objects into as a test without letting either of the others see what they were. "But you're right, this is fucking difficult. My eyes feel like someone took them out and sandpapered them." She blinked furiously, giving up for the moment, as she relaxed from the tense posture she'd been fixedly in for nearly twenty minutes.

"Jesus, that makes your head feel weird," she added with a sigh. "I need a break."

"I need something to eat," Anne said vehemently. "I'm starving. Missed lunch because of a phone call then forgot about it when I came over."

"Food sounds like a good idea," Lisa agreed readily. Taylor nodded.

"I think so too. There's no point pushing so hard you pop something. You'll get it sooner or later. Or not. But I think you will."

"I'm not convinced but I sure hope you're right," Anne sighed.

Taylor's father was about to say something then his phone rang. Pulling it out of his pocket he answered it, had a short conversation with, by the sound of it, Michelle, then put it away again. "I need to get back to work," he announced as he stood. "Actual normal work, not whatever it is we seem to do as a hobby these days." Taylor laughed at his amused tone. "I'll be back around six or so."

"No problem, Dad. I think we need more groceries, so maybe we should go and get some stuff, pick up something to eat at the same time, then get back to this later this afternoon?" She looked at him, then her friends, Anne and Lisa exchanging a look and nodding.

"Fine by me," he replied, stepping out into the hall to retrieve his coat, then coming back into the living room as he put it on. "We're out of potatoes, I know that much, and I think eggs and vegetable oil too."

"I'll make a list," she assured him, getting up and giving him a hug which he returned. "See you later. I'll bring back something for you too."

Ruffling her hair, he smiled. "Thanks." Looking over to Anne, who was watching with a small smile, he added, "Tell your parents I'll stop by tomorrow for a chat, will you?"

"Of course, Uncle Danny," the girl replied, nodding.

"Later, then, girls." Waving to them he left the room again, the front door opening and closing behind him. Taylor watched through the wall as he got into the car, then drove off slowly due to the slush all over the road from the fresh snow that morning.

Anne held up her car keys. "Shall we?"

"We shall, yes," Taylor smiled. Soon the three of them were in Anne's car, heading into the city. As they drove, they discussed the whole process of learning to look Beneath, Lisa intermittently arguing with her power which seemed to have quite a lot of opinions on the whole subject, this causing Anne and Taylor in the front seats to spend a lot of the trip laughing even though they could only hear one side of the surreal conversation.

"This really isn't what I ever expected to do, you know," Anne commented as they were slowly negotiating one of the less heavily traveled side roads. It had started snowing yet again on the way in and by now it was coming down hard enough that while it wasn't quite a blizzard it was covering everything in white quite rapidly. Traffic had slowed, and headlights were going on even though it was only about two in the afternoon, as the sky darkened and the wind picked up.

"It's good fun though, right?" Taylor asked with a grin.

"Oh, sure, it's just weird fun," the older girl replied, returning the look. She leaned forward a little and peered up at the sky. "Holy crap, it's really coming down now. We've had a lot more snow than normal this winter."

"Yeah, and it's forecast to keep on doing this all through Christmas and into the first half of January," Taylor sighed, also looking up. "I like snow, but there are limits. This is getting a little silly."

"That's lake effect for you," Lisa put in, leaning forward between the seats. "Brockton gets at least twice the precipitation of places further away from the bay from what I've read. But this sure is a lot of snow."

"Good thing it's not as cold as some places," Anne commented. "It would be hell if it was ten degrees colder. This is bad enough." The car slid slightly as she turned a corner and she quickly corrected for it. "More than bad enough," she added with a mild yip of surprise.

"Let's try not to hit anything, that would just be annoying," Taylor chuckled. "Like that guy." She pointed at a car ahead of them that had taken the same corner rather more rapidly and paid the price, the driver now in a loud argument with someone else who took exception to the broken headlight. Everyone moved around them and left them to it, such small incidents being so common in these conditions as to be unremarkable. Unless you were involved, of course.

As they turned right, Taylor looked out the window and spotted something. A small figure, heavily bundled up in a coat that was rather too big, was trudging through the snow on the sidewalk just up ahead, kicking the slush out of the way in a way that suggested a lot of annoyance was present. The wind was blowing directly towards them down the road from the bay, the dull waves visible a mile or so away, and snow was swirling around and building up on everything in sight.

She recognized the figure even without looking Beneath at the scowling face inside the too-large hood of the winter coat. There was something about the walk…

"Anne, can you pull over up there next to that sign," she said, pointing. Anne glanced at her, then at the sign in question, nodded, and indicated right. Moments later they stopped next to the sidewalk and mere feet from the small cold figure. Running the window down slightly, and wincing at the snow that blew in on the wind, Taylor called, "Hey, Aisha!"

The younger girl who was stomping through the snow radiating irritation looked in her direction, for a moment appearing worried, but then curious. Her face lightened from the scowl it had been set in a moment later as she seemed to recognize who was calling her. "Tay! Yo, how's it hanging?" she said through what was clearly almost numb lips.

"Want a lift?"

Aisha's eyes lit up and she dashed for the car without a moment's further thought. "Fuck do I, yeah!" she said vehemently. "I'm freezing my goddamn ass off here."

Lisa reached for the door and opened it as the girl reached them, Aisha diving inside and slamming it behind her as a gust of snow and wind followed. "Thank fuck," she said, apparently cheering up instantly. "Warmth! I missed it so much…"

Flipping her hood back she looked around. "Hi, I'm Aisha," she announced. "What's up, bitches?"

Anne looked sideways at Taylor, who was grinning. "Friend of yours I assume, Taylor?" the older girl said wryly as she indicated left again, then pulled out as a gap in the traffic appeared.

"Hell, yeah, she's a friend," Aisha said before Taylor could answer. "She saved my ass with her lanky reach." The girl was grinning widely and Taylor giggled.

Lisa looked between them and shook her head, smiling a little. She held out her hand. "Lisa," she told the new arrival.

"Nice ta meet you, Lise," Aisha replied enthusiastically, shaking the offered appendage.

"This is Anne," Taylor added, motioning to the older girl, who met Aisha's eyes in the rear view mirror and smiled. "We were just passing and I saw you, and the weather is way too horrible to let someone walk in it."

"Yeah, it's fucking terrible right now," Aisha agreed, settling back into the seat, then after a moment, grabbing the seat belt and putting it on. "I missed the bus. I hate this sort of weather. Don't like getting cold and wet and shit." Looking around again, she said, "Nice car."

"It's not too bad," Anne replied. "I like it."

"Where were you going?" Taylor asked.

"Had to go shopping for something for Dad and my bro when they get back tonight," Aisha responded. "They're on a job and always get really hungry. Then they argue if there isn't something good to eat. Hangry, you know?" She shrugged. "Bri and dad are way too much like each other and neither one of them will sit the fuck down and just talk."

Taylor looked at Anne, then Lisa, before returning her attention to the younger girl who was looking out the window. "They don't get…" she began tentatively.

"Nah, neither of them is ever violent," Aisha replied immediately, apparently realizing what Taylor had been about to try to ask without any effort. "Not to me, anyway. Sometimes they get physical with each other. Dad is a good fighter, and he taught Bri a lot, and sometimes…" She grinned. "They have a really intense practice session if you get what I mean. But it's not really bad, it's just loud. Neither of them will back down so that's how they work it out." She shrugged slightly. "My fam is all kinds of fucked up but it's still my fam, you know? Even when they're being idiots."

Lisa shook her head, looking mildly confused, but also somewhat amused as well. "Families can be difficult," she commented.

"Hell, yeah, they can," Aisha agreed. "Could be worse."

"Definitely." Lisa shrugged. "A lot worse."

Anne nodded sadly, causing Taylor to look at her, then back at Lisa who met her eyes with a knowing expression.

"Well, we're actually going to the big supermarket over on the north side, so if you want to come along, you're welcome," she offered, turning back to Aisha. "Anne can drop you off on the way back. Right, Anne?"

"Of course, that's not a problem," Anne replied, looking at her and nodding.

"Thanks," Aisha said with a smile. "I wasn't having much fun walking through that shit." She pointed out the window.

Leaning forward, she looked at each of them. "So what do you guys do for fun?" she queried. "Me, I annoy my bro, and the teachers. And the cops. And the neighbors…. Most people, really." The girl seemed rather proud of this, which made Taylor laugh and Anne shake her head, while Lisa was grinning.

"Anne's at college, Lisa is staying with me, and I'm home schooling right now," Taylor replied. "Although strictly speaking I'm not schooling right now since it's the holidays. We're just finding interesting things to do. Basically hobbies."

"Why are you home schooling?" Aisha asked curiously. "Your parents some of those religious weirdos or something?"

"No, I was at Winslow and…"

The girl nodded before Taylor even finished. "Oh, right. That asbestos shit. I get it. Whole place closed, right? Dad was complaining about it a couple of weeks back, he said it was all because politicians are lying bastards who should be forced to do an honest day's work for once." She grinned a little. "He says that about a lot of people."

Laughing, as were Anne and Lisa, Taylor nodded. "Yeah, I was out just before all that happened for other reasons, but it's all connected. In theory I'm supposed to be going to Arcadia next year."

"The rich school for smart kids," Aisha grinned. "You rich and smart?"

"She's very smart," Lisa remarked, giving Taylor a look of hilarity.

"I try," Taylor said in response, making Anne start giggling.

"Cool. Maybe you can help me with my homework some time," Aisha commented with a smirk.

"Do you do your homework?" Lisa asked, getting a devious grin back.

"Sometimes. If I remember."

"Why doesn't that surprise me?"

Aisha shrugged good-naturedly. "You have a nasty suspicious mind?"

Anne cracked up and Taylor wasn't far behind. Lisa sighed heavily. "Why does everyone I meet think that?" she complained, raising her hands in despair.

Finding the chance encounter more fun than she'd expected, and pleased that they were able to help out, Taylor chatted with the other three until they reached the supermarket some ten minutes later. All four piled out of the car when Anne parked as close to the door as possible, made tricky by the way everyone else had tried to do the same because of the weather, and they ran for it.

On the way home they stopped off at a chinese takeout and picked up quite a lot of food. Taylor felt it was a nice thing to do to buy Aisha some as well, as the younger girl clearly didn't have much in the way of funds, and she herself was all too familiar with that although it wasn't so much of a problem these days since the PRT paid up.

"Thanks, Tay," Aisha said as she got out of the car when they stopped next to an apartment building she'd directed them to. The snow had mostly stopped falling and the wind had died down, but it was still heavily overcast and very dull, so all the streetlights were on. Leaning back in Taylor's open window, the younger girl grinned at them all. "And you guys too. That was fun. See you around."

"Quite possibly," Anne replied. "Take care, Aisha."

"Do my best," Aisha straightened up and waved, then ran for the door of the apartment building, carrying two bags, one full of the things from the supermarket and the other the chinese takeout. She disappeared into the entrance of the building, the door closing behind her, after one final wave. Anne indicated and pulled out again, heading back to Taylor's house.

"She seems… enthusiastic," the older girl commented after a few seconds, glancing at Taylor, who laughed.

"She's definitely a bit hyper, isn't she? But she's also a nice girl."

"I think it's ADHD or something," Lisa said. "Almost certainly something somewhat neurodivergent going on. She's smart, though. And she really was very grateful that we stopped and helped her out. I'm pretty sure that doesn't happen much to her."

"Her father sounds like he's not really very suited to raising a girl like that, although I get the impression he's at least trying," Anne nodded. "He probably spends more time on her brother, I think."

"She clearly loves both of them." Taylor shrugged. "Despite her stories." She smiled a little at the memory of some of the things the talkative girl had said. She'd had some hilarious tales about her brother, which would probably highly embarrass the poor guy if he knew she was telling people about them…

"Oh well. On the whole she's in a better position than all too many people are," Anna said after a while. "Life could be worse."

"That it could be, yes." All three of them fell silent, thinking over the past, but the silence was a companionable one.

Somewhere around two in the morning, Taylor, who was lying in her nice warm bed but wasn't asleep, having yet again spent several hours almost in a trance, carefully and thoroughly exploring the connection between Calvert and his power, suddenly opened her eyes. "Oh," she said very quietly to herself. "I see. That's absolutely fascinating…"

She had no idea why she got a momentary impression that something had patted her on the back and expressed a weird sort of pride, but it passed a moment later and she just shrugged and rolled over. Soon she was properly asleep, dreaming about all the interesting new data she could find once she properly investigated this new avenue of study.

In the next room, Lisa twitched in her sleep as if something had briefly disturbed her, but settled back and resumed very faintly snoring.