Day 3, After Dragons.
Thursday. A school day. A school day where, due to suspension, she wasn't wanted at school.
Taylor glanced at her father, who seemed more fit and together but otherwise looked the same as he had the previous morning.
They'd just keep it all secret for now. No reason to panic anyone.
She didn't have a lot of plans, so maybe a quick trip to the PRT - they'd wanted more power testing after all.
The Hebert household had a landline, which might have been odd for people who relied on their smartphones but it was what it was.
"Hello, PRT? This is Aurum. Can I leave a message for Armsmaster? Oh, good. Available for power testing due to an unexpected opening in my schedule. Hmmm? Oh, apparently the school had difficulties with how I bruised a couple of bullies fists with my chin and stomach area. Yeah, I know but nobody said you had to be particularly bright to be a bully. Kind of the opposite, isn't it? Yeah. I don't have a cellphone actually. Probably should address that but I don't know where I'd put it when I change. Yes, I understand the Unwritten Rules but I'm kind of unclear on how much weight to put on them. Uh huh. Well, it's not like I can change to look exactly how I used to - I'm not that kind of shapechanger. Yeah. Three O' Clock tentative. Got it. Have a good one."
That out of the way, Taylor decided that an early morning patrol/flight sounded like it would be a good thing.
* Isao Yamaguchi *
Honestly, if given his preferences, he wouldn't have joined the ABB. It wasn't a career choice that lent itself well to long-term plans. The retirement plan sucked, no medical benefits, you had zero vacation days, and you certainly couldn't contact HR and get any sort of issue resolved. Heck, even the rate-of-pay was substandard.
He'd ended up here for the sole reason that every choice he'd faced since fleeing Kyushu had sucked more than the one that had ended up leading him here to this "job" if you could call it that.
He was an accountant damn it! Working at the Ruby Dreams casino had been the least crappy choice in a life that had slid downhill since Leviathan had decided to sink one of the islands of Japan.
Now he was given the assignment of contacting a dragon who wasn't Lung about having a meet-up. He'd been given the job by Oni Lee directly - someone who had a reputation of not being entirely there. And being extremely prone to violence. With very little restraint even for a Yakuza enforcer type.
There were better, younger, healthier, persons who could have been the messenger. Why use a balding 45year old accountant? Because he was seen as fairly expendable was the only reasoning he could see.
Still, it hadn't been too difficult to find a building in the likely flight plan. Set up on the roof of that building, get his portable stove from the bug-out bag that a lot of Kyushu survivors kept handy and wished they'd had earlier, and sip cup ramen while waiting for the sight of leather wings.
Then, when spotting said dragon, use a hand mirror to try and attract the attention of a size huge carnivore in order to hopefully parlay with them.
There were times that Isao Yamaguchi truly cursed the chain of events that led him here and whatever kami had it out for him.
Ah, the dragon saw his signal and was circling now. Damn she was a big one. Thirteen meters or so. At that size he didn't even want to try calculating weight, and he just hoped she didn't collapse the damn roof if she landed.
Except she stalled out over the roof and took a human form. Except it was a fantasy elf in one of those games he would deny playing back when such games were out. And if his research into her probable identity was correct she was severely underage anyway.
"Excuse me, dragon-sama, if this one may humbly request that you speak with my Master. I have a phone to allow communication."
"How do I know there's no tracker on there?"
"Ah, dragon-sama, I know of no tracker on this phone. I would suggest that if you are concerned to contact the tinker known as Dragon to check it if you are concerned. Lung, as I understand it, simply wants your assurance that his territory is not overlapping your own."
"You smell frightened. I have no intention of eating the messenger."
"That is quite a relief," admitted Isao. "My genuine and sincere thanks for your reassurance. I am quite aware of the old saying about dealing with dragons."
"Which is?"
"'Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and good with ketchup.' Though I may have the phrasing not quite accurate." Isao bowed again, placed the phone halfway between his starting position and the dragon-elf and then retreated again without showing his back. It was important not to turn your back on a carnivore, he remembered that much.
The elf picked up the flip-phone, flicked it open like one of those Star Trek communicators, and then pressed the preset call button. "I seem to be spending more than the usual amount of time on the phone today. Weird."
Isao nodded politely and briefly wondered what part of life as a dragon wouldn't strike him as being weird. The phone didn't blow up, which was a relief and had been a secret fear of his since his vigil had begun. Mainly because he didn't think it would do more than annoy the dragon and then leaving him facing said dragon.
"Hello? This is Aurum. Yes, I'm the dragon. Hmmm? Oh yes. Arrange to meet? Is tomorrow okay, I have power testing later today. Yes. No, I have no territory claiming ambitions. Except the area with the Dockworkers Union, I have an arrangement with them. Hmmm. Very well. Tomorrow at noon? Okay. No, he's right here. No, he's been quite polite actually. I see. I'll tell him. Actually I have a few questions myself, just rumors that I've heard that I'd like to put to rest. Tomorrow then."
Isao watched the dragon-elf put the phone down and then obviously think of something. "Aurum-sama?"
"How did you know that I would pass this point?" asked Aurum, her head cocking a bit to the side.
"Ah. Your identity is on at least two websites, and you passed this point twice yesterday," answered Isao. "It seemed the best choice for getting your attention without doing something so rude as to show up at your residence."
"That makes sense," admitted Aurum, before she jumped off the roof and turned back into a dragon.
Isao sighed and went to pick up the phone. Perhaps the dragon could use some sort of belt to hold equipment as a gift? He was pretty sure that giving gifts to a dragon was one of the ways to keep them from deciding you were a snack.
Though where to get such a thing was something he'd have to ponder while returning to work.
* Medhall *
The dragon was making lazy patrols of the city, mostly going around 25mph and around two thousand feet. Sometimes lower, such as when it passed by the penthouse of his very own Medhall building, met his eye as it did so, and gave a little nod. Max Anders raised his coffee cup in a quiet show of polite acknowledgement and then the dragon was gone again as it continued past.
Max Anders wondered what that meant. It COULD have been simply a nod such as one did to anyone who happened to meet your eyes on the street. He was inclined to think so. It COULD have been the new power in Brockton Bay acknowledging the E88, leaving aside the question as to how the dragon knew such a thing as it was most assuredly not public knowledge. It COULD have been an "I'm keeping an eye on you" message with the same question as to how much the dragon knew. It COULD have been simply a show of power, that here was something that was unconcerned with power politics and that it could reach him without difficulty. It COULD have been a no-hard-feelings about Stormtiger's assault. Which reminded him, he had to arrange for his escape.
"Well, that was concerning," said Krieg from his position behind Max.
"Why? She was patrolling yesterday and hardly did a thing besides be visible," said Max. "Mind you - that was enough to cause a number of crimes-in-progress to suddenly break off and scramble for shelter. Which was the intent no doubt."
"One of our moles in the PRT says she's going to be power testing later today," said Krieg. "Should be able to get a copy by Saturday."
"She's a fire-breathing flying dragon who can shapeshift," noted Max. "I suspect she'll have everything but Tinker and maybe Breaker."
"Thinker?" asked Krieg.
"Eyesight, she's obviously scanning the streets even when at high altitude," explained Max. "Thinker-2 perhaps."
"Striker?" asked Krieg, who then shook his head. "Nevermind. Teeth. Claws. That tail too."
"She most likely is vulnerable to anti-tank weaponry, if it comes to it we can deal with her," said Max. "If it doesn't, then she's simply a new player at the table and not a big concern."
* Taylor *
She remembered the Voice and didn't know what it actually was, but what the Voice had said was that this world didn't have much/any magic and that having dragons meant that magic could return/flow into the world.
So she circled the PRT building briefly, her attention mainly on something as else, as she figured out how to do... THIS.
A circle of rotating runes and sigils appeared before her and she flew through it. There was a moment of feeling as if she was falling in a strange direction but she compensated almost instantly. Keen eyes took in the details of the scrubland below her. Success.
She was now zornward of her previous universe, in an entirely different of Earth, and there below her was lunch.
The moose had a startled moment of not being the biggest thing around, but fortunately the fear and panic didn't last long.
After her quick meal, Taylor/Aurum decided to explore further. This was a world where humans had never risen, so it should have some very nice hunting. Best to scope it out anyway before she showed her father.
He'd probably get a kick out of it. Maybe some of the others among the Dockworkers as well. Fishing was probably great here.
She just needed to make sure there weren't dinosaurs or something that could make it less desirable as a vacation destination.
Or would dinosaurs make it a more desirable vacay-spot? Something to consider.
Oh, and she could practice shifting her breath weapon from the 30ft cone of flames. She had a couple ideas about that.
* PRT ENE HQ *
"From looking over a frame-by-frame recording and sensor readings, I now know what Aurum did," declared Armsmaster. "She performed a dimensional shift and went to another world - likely a different version of Earth."
"Like Aleph?" asked Director Piggot, watching the skies for a reappearance of leathern wings and a ridiculous number of grab-bag abilities.
"Most likely not Aleph," said Armsmaster. "There were enough differences from Professor Haywire's gap to indicate it was probably a different location, while remaining similar enough in the readings to indicate a similar result."
Director Piggot sighed. "You realize that this means she can't actually be contained."
"Possibly," said Armsmaster. "On the other hand, folded space such as the Baumann Containment Facility may provide a barrier even to such abilities."h
Piggot shook her head. A pink-purple spark of light appeared in the sky, which quickly became a disc which spat out a dragon. "Dragons are bullshit."
* Protectorate *
"I cans see a dragon? A real ones?"
Alexandria smiled down at the child. In some ways she was perfect. Little girl who was sick and had a number of tubes stuck in her. Parents deceased so long ago that the child had barely any memories of them. Metastatic cancer that had started in her liver and spread everywhere. No family, no loved ones, no ties to her to complicate things. She'd been a newborn when Leviathan had sunk the island of Kyushu in 1999 and her parents had been natives of the city of Kurume.
Perfect for their purposes.
If Taylor Hebert could dragonify (dragonize? wyrm-ification? dracogenesis?) the girl she'd be cured of her ills. If not, she was still on the waiting list for Panacea visits.
Yes, for their purposes, Kanna Kamui would be perfect.