"I'm sorry, but what?" Legend asked. "Can you repeat that?"

"As if Brockton Bay wasn't getting ridiculous enough, huh?" Chevalier asked. "Yeah, there's a dragon there now."

He shook his head. "Got to admit, I about had a heart attack when I saw the update that a cape that close was rated Master 8, but it turns out she's a projection Master, or… whatever you want to call it."

"Wouldn't a dragon be a Changer?" Legend asked, sitting down. "Really, I turn off my phone for the afternoon and this happens."

"No, the dragon's not the parahuman, or if they are then there's an enormous bluff running," Chevalier replied. "As far as the report goes, the parahuman is basically a normal human, but the dragon is her projection, or her creature, or something. Really big projection, mind you."

Legend picked up the report, and began scanning though it.

"That is a big dragon," he said. "Where does it go when it's not in use?"

"That's why everyone is suspecting it's a projection, but goodness knows how they can be sure," Chevalier answered. "What with the other things it can do."

"Like what?" Legend asked, flipping past the photos – there were a lot of them, because a twenty foot long white dragon had apparently been sufficiently photogenic that half the people in the city had taken film of it – and to the ratings section. "Mover… nine? I know it can clearly fly, but isn't that a bit much?"

He looked closer. "It can teleport?"

"Yep," Chevalier confirmed. "Takes a few seconds, so it's not something that has unlimited tactical use, but the rider claims that the dragon dropped off Alabaster on the moon. She didn't go along for the ride, mind you."

"Alabaster… that Nazi cape with the invulnerability power," Legend remembered.

He thought about what the snow-white white-supremacist would say about his husband.

"...I can't officially say it, but I'm not exactly weeping about that one," he admitted. "How did they get in a fight with Alabaster, anyway?"

"That's in the report," Chevalier told him. "Come on, Keith, keep up!"

"This report is eighty pages long, even if a significant fraction of that is the photo album," Legend complained, smiling. "Give me time… okay, so, fast, able to carry more weight than we'd expect, and able to teleport to the moon. That does explain the Mover rating… Shaker six?"

"Telekinesis," Chevalier told him. "Without much in the way of limits, either. Lung got picked up from ten feet away and thrown in the sea."

"Lung and Alabaster," Legend frowned. "Aren't they in different gangs?"

"Yes, and so is Squealer," Chevalier told him. "Incidentally, this dragon has a Brute 3 rating from all the gunfire it ignored from Squealer's latest creation, and if they can actually prove that it dropped Alabaster off on the moon then that's going to go up from being vacuum-rated."

Legend flipped through the whole dossier, then blinked.

"...okay, that has to be a joke," he said. "Stranger 4, because, quote, 'we can't find it'."

"I know," Chevalier agreed. "At the very least, you'd think they'd give that one or the Master rating."

Are you sure you're okay? Taylor asked. It feels wrong to have you all cooped up like that.

I am fine, her friend replied, placidly.

He did a lot of things placidly, unless she was in danger. Then he was a lot less placid.

She had to admit, it was a combination she appreciated. In anyone, let alone a large, intelligent dragon.

Your father's friends made sure I had blankets to use, and there is a light, he said. And I have eaten, and there is room for me to stretch. Really, my Rider, do not worry for me. This is not a prison, nor is it a cage, as I can leave whenever I want. It is simply a bedroom.

I guess, Taylor replied. If you're okay, then…

I will be fine, the dragon repeated. And if you need me, simply call me, and I will be at your side in seconds.

"Talking to him?" Danny asked, and Taylor looked up.

"Sorry," she replied.

"It's not a problem," her father said. "I know what it can be like when you've first met a friend, everything is new. And I don't know what it's like to have a parahuman power, but… that's one of the stranger ones I've heard about."

He smiled, a little. "Though I'm confused by his name. You're sure that's what he's called? And that he's a he?"

"He said so," Taylor replied. "When he first made contact with me – I'm, pretty sure he's why I got out of that locker with my mind in one piece."

She sighed. "Sorry. How's the investigation going?"

"It's… going," Danny answered. "There's something weird going on with the police, they say that there's jurisdictional issues."

He picked up a pen, twirling it. "Still. If they want you to go back to school after that, they can go fuck themselves."

Taylor tried to stifle a giggle. "Dad!"

"I'm serious," Danny replied. "While you were talking with your dragon friend – and talking to the police – I was making some phone calls to my contacts. The dockworkers might not have much work any more, but they've got friends."

He chuckled, and it wasn't a very nice sound. "You know, one of the old sweats made a comment once, not long after I was hired… he said that the best bosses were the ones who remembered that strikes were the alternative worked out over the last couple of hundred years that didn't involve actually burning things down… and a lot of union workers in this city have kids. They didn't take what happened very well, and I'm not sure what would happen if I called for a general strike in the city but I don't think anyone else is either. And they don't want to find out."

It is a shame when people aren't willing to be reasonable, Taylor's companion sent.

"It's good to have that as an option, I guess," Taylor said, out loud. "But… well, we're not going to be ruthless about this."

Danny snorted.

"How long have you been waiting to say that?" he asked.

"A while," Taylor admitted. "Though, what I was actually wondering was… should we join the Wards?"

"Hmm," Danny said. "I'm sure they'd love to have you, but let me think about that…"

At about the same time, in Houston, a rather ordinary-looking man stared at a report.

Then dove for his costume.

Bodysuit, mask and cloak went on in under a minute, and he checked himself over before visibly calming himself down.

"Door to Dragonhold-Underhill," he said.

A door appeared in the air in front of him.

Another door appeared next to him, and Contessa stepped out.

"This runs the risk of exposing Cauldron," she said.

"Yes," Eidolon replied. "I also don't care very much. I'm almost one hundred percent certain that Ruth is in Brockton Bay, so… I'm inviting the Dragonlady to visit him, one way or another."

He shrugged. "Besides. If anyone has an excuse to teleport across the world by unknown means on a whim, it's me…"

AN:

Pern, naturally. Anne McCaffrey is still around in early 2011.