"You can't come," Amy sighed, glaring at Edgar, who looked back with his head on one side from where he was perched on the back of her chair. The raven had made himself thoroughly at home in the last ten days or so, and clearly had absolutely zero inclination to leave. She still found it weird but there was no doubt he was growing on her. The bird was a damn sight smarter than she'd ever have given credit for before encountering him, and seemed to have decided that this was where he lived now, and she was the one he was most attached to. Saving his life had certainly had an effect on him.

Vicky loved him too, the pair often sitting watching TV together, which Amy found kind of bizarre as well as hilarious. Edgar would perch on the arm of the sofa next to Vicky, settle down, and happily allow her to stroke him while giving every sign of enjoying the experience. And it was funny that he didn't like reality TV at all, which they'd discovered when he'd been left alone while Vicky went to get a snack, and came back to find him watching the news. It had happened twice more until she'd found out how this was occurring, having been wondering if her memory was going before she caught the bird poking the remote with his beak.

Which still amazed Amy and Vicky. He'd apparently watched them using the remote and within days associated the action of pressing a button with the TV changing channels, and not only done that but also remembered which button was the one he needed. Carol hadn't believed it until they'd demonstrated, then she'd stared for a while, shook her head, and gone off muttering under her breath.

It was fair to say that Carol wasn't entirely fond of Edgar. Edgar, in turn, seemed to delight in playing tricks on their mother, something he was much better at than seemed plausible. She kept finding things she'd put down vanishing when she took her eyes off them, and Amy was then finding those small items hidden around her room in places she'd almost swear the damn bird couldn't get to. Apparently she'd significantly underestimated just how good a tool-user a raven was capable of being when sufficiently determined…

And just how much of a sense of humor they could have. Because he obviously found it funny.

Carol, of course, had rather the opposite feeling, and made that clear quite loudly when it got too much. Edgar also ducked a lot quicker than you'd expect and so far had escaped every time.

He got on fine with Mark, too, and in fact having him around seemed to have significantly improved their father's depression for some reason. She'd seen Edgar lying on his back on Mark's leg and apparently completely relaxed while her father absently stroked his belly, often reading a book at the same time. It wasn't a form of therapy she'd come across before, but apparently Tactile Raven Interaction was a valid method.

She was tempted to see if she could write a paper on it and give it to the hospital, if only to see what they made of TRI…

Snorting with laughter, she kept putting books in her backpack, while Edgar watched closely. When she turned around to get something off her bed, she heard a flap and turned back to see the bird fly over and drop a pen into the thing. "Oh, that's where it got to! Thanks, Edgar."

"Kronk!"

"A valid viewpoint, I suppose." She grinned as the raven flew across the room and landed on her shoulder. Reaching up she tickled him under the beak, the bird closing his eyes and leaning into the scratching with an expression of avian bliss. "You are so weird."

He gurgled at her, then began playing with her hair again, something he did a lot. Oddly enough she didn't mind as he was very careful and it was almost soothing in a strange way.

A sound at the door made both of them look to see Vicky come in. "Having to go to school sucks," her sister grumbled, flopping down onto Amy's bed and staring at the ceiling in disgust. "It's too fucking early to be up." She waved at the window. "Still dark outside! People should be sleeping, not getting knowledge stuffed into them."

Amy bounced a balled up sock off her forehead with a laugh. "You know you miss seeing your friends."

"I can see them outside school! I saw Dean yesterday!" the other girl protested, throwing the sock back. Amy ducked and Edgar darted his beak out, catching the sock in it with apparent ease. Both girls looked at him, then each other. The raven launched himself off her shoulder and flew out the open door. A few seconds later there was a startled cry from downstairs.

"AMY! YOUR DAMN RAVEN JUST DROPPED A SOCK IN MY BREAKFAST!"

Sighing, but also smirking, Amy sat on the bed next to her sister who was silently folded over laughing like an idiot. Edgar made a reappearance moments later, a strip of bacon in his beak. Landing back on her shoulder he tossed his head back, swallowed his prize, then emitted a satisfied sound that had both of them giggling.

"I hope the house is still here when we get home," Vicky managed to say when she recovered. "If we leave him here alone god knows what he'll get up to."

"He's a wild animal, he can go outside like all the other ones do," Amy replied, giving the bird a sidelong look. He returned it with one beady eye.

"Dad will let him back in."

"Probably. But as long as I take him out Carol can't blame me for when he pawns her jewelry or something," Amy muttered. Vicky snickered again.

"Hey, did you hear anything more about all the students from Winslow yet?" her sister asked as Amy finished putting all her school supplies in her backpack and zipped it up. Glancing at her, Amy shook her head.

"Not much, no. I mean, yeah, Arcadia is taking a bunch of them, so are the other two high schools, which is why we're starting the semester late because they were still sorting things out, but that's all I know."

"Yeah, I don't know much more either. I guess we'll find out later." Hopping to her feet Vicky followed Amy downstairs, diverting to her room to retrieve her own backpack, before they went into the kitchen for breakfast. Their mother gave Edgar an annoyed look then transferred that to Amy.

"That thing can't stay in the house all day," she snapped.

"I know," Amy replied calmly. "I'll take him outside when we leave."

Edgar turned his head almost upside down and produced a sound that was unnervingly like a giggle, which made Carol twitch. She was far too familiar with the noise which seemed to precede something odd happening, and Amy found it funny how she was starting to look a touch paranoid every time Edgar did it. Which she was pretty sure was the point…

He had a really strange sense of humor. She felt it was possibly a little concerning that she both recognized it as what it was, and shared it slightly more than perhaps she should have.

The raven hopped off her shoulder as she sat down, landing on the back of the chair, then eyed her breakfast with interest. "This is mine, you've already stolen yours," she told him as she picked up her knife and fork. Even so she slipped him little bits of bacon and toast, which caused Carol to look annoyed but not quite enough to tell them to knock it off.

By the time they finished it was half past seven and getting lighter outside. The last few days had been considerably improved from the point of the weather than it had been over Christmas, and it looked like it was going to be another chilly but sunny day. Putting her coat on and winding her scarf around her neck, Amy slipped the backpack on over the whole ensemble then turned to her sister. "Ready to learn all the things?"

"As ready as I'll ever be I guess," Vicky replied, before yawning widely. "Still too fucking early. I was getting used to sleeping in…"

"Poor you." Amy grinned as Vicky gave her a look. "Come on or we'll be late."

"Fine. Have it your way." Vicky shook her head in disgust, although she was smiling. "Bye Mom, Dad!" she called. "See you later."

"Have a good day at school, Vicky," Carol called back. Amy rolled her eyes.

"You too, Amy," their dad added, making her smile and Vicky look amused. Grabbing Edgar who had been sitting on the coat stand just inside the door watching them, and ignoring his squawk of protest, Amy nodded to her sister who opened the door. Making sure it was shut behind them, Amy held the raven up and stared at him. "You go and do raven things and don't bother Dad too much, OK?"

He kronked at her and lightly bit the end of her nose, causing her to release him and grab the injured appendage in pain. "Fucking bird," she growled through her hands in a somewhat muffled manner even as Vicky started laughing again. Edgar cackled, flying over to sit on the mailbox and watch them. Glaring at him she massaged her nose, then turned to her sister. "He's such a pain in the ass," she complained.

"You know you love him, Ames," the blonde replied, grinning. Making sure her pack was properly fitted, she zipped her coat up a little more against the early morning chill, then picked Amy up with no effort at all, lifting off in the process. Amy just relaxed in the familiar hold, watching the world fall away, then start moving as they headed directly to Arcadia at about two hundred feet.

Two minutes later she shrieked as Vicky yelped and nearly dropped her, due to a very familiar large black feathered shape that had landed on her head.

"Kronk!"

"EDGAR!" two voices yelled as one.

Edgar hunched down against the wind, slightly spread his wings, and dug his talons into Vicky's hair, apparently quite happy to get a free ride and if anything enjoying it. Amy met her sister's eyes, then both girls started giggling again.

"Yeah, today's gonna be strange," Vicky commented wisely. Amy just shook her head in bemusement.

Reading the letter her father handed her over breakfast, Taylor thoughtfully nodded. She gave it to Lisa who was looking curious, then turned her attention to her dad. "What do you think?" she asked, cutting a piece of egg on toast and sticking it in her mouth.

"To be honest while I do understand why you're not keen on dealing with a lot of teenagers again," he said, leaning back with his coffee mug in his hands, "I also think social interaction is important. Especially at your age. I know you, Lisa, and Anne have plenty of interaction, and you're spending a lot of time at the Yard too, but… School is at least half about learning how to get along with people that aren't necessarily your friends."

"I tried that," Taylor grumbled. "Look what happened."

He reached across the table and put his hand on hers. "That was not normal, Taylor. Not even slightly normal. Yeah, school, especially high school, tends to come along with a certain amount of mild trauma, but so does life in general. What happened to you is the exception not the rule, believe me." He sighed, squeezing her hand then releasing it while Lisa looked between them. "Even with that in mind, I think it would do you good to make more friends your own age, or just meet other people. I enjoy having you around at the Yard and so does everyone else, even though it gets a lot weirder than I'm used to, and I know full well you can certainly thrive with the home school approach if all else fails, but… I think you should at least try it. But I won't insist if you don't want to. You've more than earned that in lots of ways."

"Thanks, Dad," she replied in a low voice, staring at her nearly empty plate for a moment, then raising her head to meet his eyes. "I appreciate the trust."

"Never doubt that I trust you, despite the problems we've had," he assured her, smiling a little guiltily. "Things got bad, but they're on the mend, and I never lost faith in your capabilities even at my worst. I may have lost faith in mine but that's not on you."

It was her turn to squeeze his hand. "Shit happens, Dad. I don't blame you either. Neither one of us was in the right place for a long time, and neither one of us tried to fix things. It's a hell of a lot better now and improving all the time, so I'm not going to dwell on the past and things we can't change."

He looked grateful as she smiled at him. "Good to know," he replied.

Glancing at the letter from Arcadia that Lisa had put between their plates when she'd finished it, Taylor sighed. "You did a fantastic job with your schoolwork in the last few weeks," her dad added encouragingly. "You caught up to where you'd have been without that blasted girl's influence and way past that too. Your placement tests prove it. They're happy to have you attend. What do you think?"

"I think I may regret it, but for you, and for Mom, I guess I need to try," Taylor finally replied, looking at him again with a smile. His pleased expression made her feel warm inside.

"Thank you. And if things do get bad, which I don't think will happen but I'm not going to guarantee can't happen, you can tell me 'I told you so' and I'll take it like a man," he chuckled.

"I'll hold you to that," she assured him with a grin.

He nodded, then turned his attention to Lisa, who blinked a couple of times before getting a worried expression. "Oh. Oh, no. No. I'm not going back to High School!" The other girl waved her hands frantically as Taylor's father's evil grin grew.

"Why not?" he queried placidly. "You're only a year older than Taylor and clearly can't be left on your own all day. That would be cruel, aside from anything else. Like I said to Taylor, young people need a peer group. Friends. Someone their own age who can relate to their experiences as they learn how to navigate through life…" He was definitely smirking now and Lisa's worried expression was more obvious.

"Laying it on a bit thick there, Dad," Taylor commented, enjoying the show as she finished her breakfast. Lisa gave her a pleading look, to which she simply smiled. "If I have to go and deal with teenagers I need someone I can trust by my side," she explained happily to her friend, who glared now.

"Oh, thanks a fucking bunch, friend," Lisa growled. "High school is hell."

"You don't need to tell me that, trust me," Taylor replied with a shrug, making Lisa wince momentarily then look annoyed again. "But Dad may have a point in his old person's way."

Her father looked comically hurt, before chuckling when she grinned at him. "Neither one of us had fun at school, but Arcadia does have a reputation of being both very good and a place that takes no shit. The exact opposite of Winslow, basically. I'm willing to give it a try, and it will please the Chief if his best agents have a well rounded education."

Despite herself Lisa snickered. "Stop making sense," she grumbled a moment later. "I don't need to go to school. I have a power for that."

"But a high school diploma will help even with a power, and you never know, you might enjoy it," Taylor's dad pointed out, appearing amused.

"And we can have fun working out who all the Wards are," Taylor put in brightly, causing both her dad and her friend to look worried. "Bet it takes about an hour."

"Probably less, but we really don't want to get found out doing that," Lisa sighed. "Damn it." After a moment her countenance became more cheerful. "Aha! I can't go to Arcadia because I don't have any educational records and I'm not registered in this school…"

She trailed off as Taylor's father dropped a thick envelope on the table in front of her. Staring at it, she seemed taken aback, even as he grinned again. "I know a few people," he explained as she slowly reached out and picked it up in a somewhat reluctant manner. "Let's just say that in this city getting documentation for almost anything you want is merely a matter of paying the right people. Corruption is a way of life in far too many places. I don't like it, but as long as it's there, might as well use it for good."

"The reach of U.N.I.O.N. is incredible," Taylor said in an awestruck way, causing her dad to sigh although he was still smiling. "Is there nothing beyond the ability of the Chief?"

Her father finished his coffee then got up to wash the mug out in the sink. "That should be everything you need," he said over his shoulder to Lisa, who had opened the envelope and pulled out a sheaf of papers which she was now looking through with raised eyebrows and a definite impressed air. "We went for Boston as the previous schooling experience, which was easier to arrange for a number of reasons. Plus it matches your accent."

"Home address…" Lisa stared at the document in her hand. "This address." She raised her eyes to gaze at him.

"I told you, you've got a place here as long as you need it, Lisa," he smiled, making her blink again, then smile back. "Everyone needs a home."

She was silent for some time, then nodded slowly. "You have no idea how much that means to me," the girl said in a very quiet voice. On his way past to put the mug he'd been drying back in the cupboard, he patted her shoulder.

"I suspect I do. And you're welcome." He started collecting the rest of the crockery now both Taylor and Lisa had finished breakfast. "Your school records show you're a smart girl, which is obviously true, and have a decent background of B's and A's. Not sure how accurate that is to your actual record, but it's more than good enough for Arcadia, although you'll need to take a placement exam same as Taylor and the rest of the Winslow students who are going there. Which only about ten percent of them. The rest simply don't have the marks for Arcadia and they're getting spread around the other schools."

"I doubt either of us will have trouble with that," Taylor put in. "I checked when Dad talked about this before Christmas and it doesn't look too hard. Although my Winslow record isn't exactly going to help me there."

"You more than made up for the last year or so of falling marks with your home study, Taylor," her dad assured her, as he filled the dishwasher. "Without those girls pulling you down, you're back to where you should be. I'm confident you'll have no problems with Arcadia. Scholastically, at any rate."

"Yeah, I guess so," she muttered. "Still not convinced that I need to be around all those teenagers, but… I'll do it for you."

"Fuck it. What the hell. I'll do it too, it's not like I have a lot of other things planned now Coil's toast," Lisa sighed, dropping the papers on the table and stretching. "And someone needs to keep an eye on you before you steal the entire school."

"Me?" Taylor put her hand on her chest and gave her friend a wide-eyed innocent look. "Steal something? You're thinking of someone else, surely."

Both her dad and Lisa gave her a hard look, making her grin, and she even felt a familiar sensation of alien humor come from somewhere. "Yeah, sure. You just keep telling yourself that, Agent Gimme," Lisa snarked, smiling. She shook her head in wonder. "I can't believe I'm doing this. I must be nuts."

"You're a Parahuman, by definition you're nuts," Taylor giggled, making the other girl laugh.

"There's more truth to that than I like, but whatever. So now what? That's not until…" She peered at the papers for a moment. "Thursday. What do we do until then?"

"Same thing we do every day, Agent Thinky! Plot to take over the world!" Taylor cried, thrusting a fist skyward and making her dad duck.

"Please don't do that, the world's in enough trouble as it is," he begged.

"Hey, we couldn't do much worse than the people who are running it now," Lisa chortled.

"I can't help feeling that's tempting fate a little too directly," Taylor's dad grumbled. He looked at his watch, then nodded. "In any case, I need to get to work. You two want to come to the yard or did you have something else you wanted to make very strange?"

Taylor and Lisa exchanged a glance. "Might as well, I need to find some more parts for a modification to the crystal machine I came up with if nothing else," Taylor said. "I got some neat ideas after seeing what the last run did. I think I can improve on it quite a bit with some fairly simple changes."

"Do you even know what you're going to use those crystals for yet?" Lisa queried.

Taylor grinned slyly. "I've got some ideas, yeah… If it works it'll be cool."

"Have you thought about what we're going to do with Victor?" her father asked as the two girls got up and helped him load the dishwasher, which didn't take long.

"I'm still working on the best method to deal with that bastard," she told him, closing the machine and putting the detergent into the little flap. "Calvert was a good proof of concept, but his power and Victor's are different enough I want to think about it some more. And as and when we do let the guy out, we're going to take a lot of precautions just in case I don't get it right the first time."

He nodded thoughtfully, heading out of the kitchen to get his briefcase and coat. "Understandable," he replied, coming back a moment later. "That man is far too dangerous if what I've read about him is accurate. Losing him probably crimped the E88's plans a lot too. He was likely one of their critically important Parahumans."

"Oh, he was very important to the Empire," Lisa said confidently as she put her own coat on and zipped it up. "It's going to fuck up a lot of their operations not having him available. My power is sure of that, and finds it funny. Combined with the PRT getting Rune and Othala like that they're going to find themselves being a bit screwed for now."

"My heart bleeds for poor Kaiser," Taylor's father replied sarcastically. The two girls grinned. Soon they were driving towards the DWA yard, her father talking to Lisa while Taylor thought about various plans she was working on. Several of which promised to have intriguing possibilities.

"Hi, guys," a familiar voice greeted the two Dallon sisters as Vicky touched gently down and put Amy on her feet. Edgar immediately hopped onto her shoulder and leaned against her head, causing Chris, who'd turned to look at them, to stare. Then nudge Dennis, the other boy who'd been talking to Dean turning to glance at his friend, before following Chris's finger.

"What the hell?" the red-head said in amazement. "Where did you get a crow, Amy? It's a hell of a Christmas present…"

Amy grinned at him, while Edgar leaned forward to inspect the new people with interest. "He's a raven, not a crow."

"That… adds even more questions," Dennis commented after a few seconds of bemused thought.

"Kronk!"

Edgar seemed amused when both Chris and Dennis jumped at his exclamation, and quite a few students looked around, then started to drift towards the sisters. Vicky was watching with her arms folded and a smile on her face. "I found him in the back yard over the holidays, kind of fucked up actually, and healed him," Amy explained, reaching up to stroke Edgar's back with one finger. The raven stretched out his neck and fluffed up his feathers under the touch, clearly enjoying it. "We let him go, but he came back."

"And knocked on the window," Vicky put in, laughing. "When she opened it he was inside her bedroom like a shot. We can't get rid of him now."

Amy nodded with a mild sigh. "He's definitely decided to stay," she agreed. Edgar made a churring noise and poked the side of her head with his beak very gently. "Dad likes him too, although Carol's a bit on the fence about it."

"Edgar plays tricks on her like you wouldn't believe," Vicky giggled. "I can sort of see Mom's point, but it's hilarious even with that."

"Edgar?" Dean questioned, sounding confused.

"Edgar Dallon-Poe, if you're being formal about it," Vicky replied, looking highly amused even as Amy flushed slightly in embarrassment. Dean stared, then his mouth twitched. Dennis simply fell against Chris in fits of laughter after only a second or two, and quite a few other people were chuckling. Edgar himself preened under the attention, looking like he was entirely pleased with people admiring his beauty.

"Oh my god, that's incredible," Dennis chortled. "Dallon-Poe… Holy shit."

Shrugging slightly Amy smiled. "It seemed appropriate somehow."

"And he's just… sitting there?" Chris asked, leaning forward slightly warily to inspect the bird, who cocked his head curiously and mirrored the motion before loudly clacking his beak, which made Chris twitch in shock. That seemed to amuse Edgar who made his giggling sound. "Why doesn't he fly away or something? He's not tame, right?"

"He knows what side his bread is buttered on," Vicky commented wisely. "Amy tried to make him fly away. He just comes back. Smart bird, he worked out that being inside with free food and a warm place to sleep was better than outside in about five seconds flat."

"He's way too smart for his own good," Amy added resignedly. "You wouldn't believe it. I knew corvids were supposed to be intelligent but this guy is ridiculous. And he's here because I put him outside when we left for school and he just followed us." The bell rang, making Edgar look around with interest and most of the students start to head inside.

"What are you going to do with him now?" Dennis asked, having been studying the raven with great interest.

Amy reached up and picked Edgar up, then held him in front of her. The bird peered back at her with much too intelligent black eyes, appearing quizzical. "You stay outside, you hear me?" she ordered, wondering if this was doing any good at all. "I'll be back in a few hours. Don't cause trouble, just… find something to do." Walking over to the railing near the path to the front door, she firmly placed the raven on it, then let go as he wrapped his talons around the metal tube. "Stay!" Wagging a finger at him, she quickly pulled it out of reach when he lunged for it, then laughed. "Hah. Outsmarted you that time, you little bastard."

He clattered his beak at her in a somewhat chiding manner, cocking his head and peering back. "No. Stay here. Don't cause trouble." She pointed firmly at him while backing away. When he didn't move, she nodded, then turned to her sister and the others who were watching and grinning. "Come on, let's get inside before we're late."

All of them headed inside. Three minutes later as Amy was just closing her locker having dug out the textbooks she needed for the morning, there was a loud commotion down the hall, making everyone in the hallway turn to look.

"Holy shit!"

"What the hell?"

"How did that thing get inside?"

"Call the PRT!"

"No, call the cops!"

"It's a fucking huge bird, call Animal Control, you idiots!"

Amy put her hand over her eyes while next to her Vicky started helplessly giggling. A moment later Edgar landed on her shoulder, chirruping happily, and poked her in the forehead with what turned out to be a pencil. She took it from him and sighed heavily. "Thank you, you incredibly annoying feathered menace," she grumbled, even as Edgar looked pleased with himself and rather a lot of people stared at them both.

The sound of someone clearing their throat in the doorway of the adjacent classroom made her look, feeling worried. "Miss Dallon?" Mr Jeffries the geography teacher said in a calm but meaningful voice. "A word, please?"

With another sigh, and an annoyed glance at her sister who was still giggling, she walked over, Edgar flaring his wings a little to keep his balance. Mr Jeffries inspected the bird, then raised his eyebrows at Amy, who shrugged helplessly. "He followed me?" she tried.

The teacher nodded, his lips twitching a little, but his voice still calm. "I think some ground rules may need to be established," he began. The girl sagged a little. This was going to be… awkward.

Edgar put his beak in her ear and made a comforting little squeak, which didn't actually help. Although it did set Vicky off again.