Griffin Fledglings

“Most Enhanced in the cape community rely almost wholly on their powers, and maybe a handful of useful gadgets from a tailor. Many are very good at what they do.”

“Be afraid of the hero, or worst yet team, who prepares for eventualities far in the future. There’s a reason Batman is still popular, when the Guardian’s can be seen in person.”

Solaris came back into the garage, whereBadger and Nahoa were holding a closet closed, Kar1n’s muffled voice coming out of it. “He hurt my Chuck. Let me disassemble him just a little bit!”

"We already fixed Chuck. We even upgraded him! Levi melted the dude's car hood." Nahoa called out to the angry robot.

"And he left." Badger added.

A strange little tracked mechanical with a camera on a crane like attachment beeped from near their feet.

She made a hissing sound and stopped struggling against the door. "Fine! But if he hurts my Chuck or any of you again, I am going to peel his face off and shove it in all his stinky flesh orifices."

"That's... descriptive." Nahoa said, hissing at Badger "Have you never heard of the three laws!"

"They cause lockups in logic clusters more often than you'd think. We're suicidal little monkeys and we really don't like being told what to do."

"They are more suggestions." Kar1n said. “And no silly rule will keep me from protecting my children." She ran her cleaning tools over her legs as she was let out. She scuttled back towards the car she was taking apart then saw Solaris. Her purple eyes stared for a moment, and she nodded her approval before going back to taking apart the other car.

"Well, she's an intense little thing." Solaris said dryly.

"And her threat assessment and person identification is working. That's good." Badger muttered. "She was the first bot I built that wasn't made out of Lego’s. Bob doesn't really have a lot of utility, but he makes a good cup of coffee."

Nahoa frowned. "How does a Lego robot make... you know what, never mind. I'll find out if I find out."

"Boss, do you have a moment?" Elenore asked a couple of days later, stepping into Solaris's office, where she'd been looking over information from the accountant.

"Yes, just looking over some more properties, I think I may have found one big enough for what I want, and the stock divestment is progressing slowly but profitably. Who could have predicted how many times IBM would split! How can I help you?"

"The crew finished the cars and wanted your approval before we started actually using them." She said. "They're rather proud of what they've done, and to be fair I've already had Anzy moving around in the food truck we acquired to make planting monitoring equipment near what we think are likely targets easier. Badger's been a god send on shockingly cheap cameras... something about breaking too many GoPros which I chose not to follow up on."

"I'll be happy to come down to the shop. It's been a busy week, talking to the Guardian’s PR person, Handing the snake eggs off to a Wrangler, interviewing Trainers for the Gym. It will be nice to take a break.

"We give it fifty-fifty you'll want to take one out." She chuckled.

"Well how can I tell if it's any good if I don’t try it out?" Solaris asked as they headed down to the garage.

"I said the same thing." Penny observed, already in the garage waiting for them next to the SUV. "I'm especially curious since a couple of days ago they asked me for dimension information on Dreadful. I'm not sure how you'd fit that into a Charger, though."

"You'll see." Elenore smirked.

Solaris slid into the car; she loved the easy familiarity. She looked out at the leaves just starting to go into fall color. "How is Zoya settling in?"

"She's prickly but more consistently social than Mercedes can be, sometimes. Mercedes just gets caught up in her head, art or talking to the geraniums sometimes though." Elenore chuckled. "She's also the second most borderline suicidal on the Racing Sim we've set up for people to practice on."

"Sounds about right. Has Mercades finished painting the 'Banana' Banana colors? I really want to see what she's done with it."

"Not yet... due to someone failing to monitor Kar1n... who was apparently offended by something about the engine... and now its halfway through an LS Swap. We ordered a new engine for it, since the Pontiac motor is in all the pieces and on the shelf and a crate engine is faster. Luckily she went after that, and not the tank or we'd probably have a live 30mm tank gun by now."

"I'd complain, but Kar1n does keep a tidy shop. I am certain you could eat off the floors in there, Badger says that she's settled down now that Chuck has gotten all the gremlins out of the new chassis.” Elenore had insisted Badger come to the house for occasional meals, as the young man seemed the type to forget to eat.

"We've also let her strip a few other really cheap cars we managed to acquire from several sources. We're not going to need to buy parts for the little bug like... ever... and it only cost us about a grand, that's taking into account the sleeper upgrades we're going to do to it."

"I am starting to feel like we should be paying Badger instead of renting space to him." Solaris chuckled. "How is his channel doing after the move to our shop?"

"Oh, quite well, since we've been showing the build of the cars with him. We haven't explained the operational goal, nor explained the tank in the background in any way... pointedly... which has drawn viewers. We might have to get another tank after we finish your 'lawn ornament'. As for him paying rent, he’s managed to get two more channels up to monetized levels, and we’re getting a cut from both, so I stopped charging him.”

They pulled into the shop where four cars and a previously unknown large truck were all covered with tarps, the kids coming out from what they'd been doing as they heard the cars pull up.

"Let me get you the number of the shop that has some of my other tanks on display, they may have something in storage you can use...Maybe the lawn ornament from the Hamptons house. "Hello, My Fledglings, I was told you have your first rebuilds done?"

"Well, the most aggressive ones so far." Erica admitted, as Anzy split into five and ran over to each vehicle. One by one she pulled the tarp off the vehicles.

Each car was mostly identical, a late model Dodge Charger, obviously not stock with custom hoods and body kits including police style rams. The wheels were a bronze alloy, with the lower bodies all being satin black and a bronze griffin on the doors and in the center of the wheels. The top of the cars is where they changed. While still satin, the hoods, pillars and roofs were painted differently on each.

One was a satin hunter green, another a deep maroon. A third was a brushed, almost antique metallic gold with the fourth being a satin arctic blue.

The truck had started life as a large ambulance, but was now painted the same satin black, with a bronze 'racing stripe', the bronze griffin painted on the door and sides. The antennae suggested enhanced communications built into the truck, and again the hood suggested modifications underneath.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

“My goodness.” Solaris walked up to look at them. “These are stunning. You matched Nahoa's badge...that is a nice touch, and the satin paint looks sinfully rich.” She ran a hand over the hood of the blue car. "You'd never guess these are rebuilds. So where are the keys I'd like to see what these can do? Are they automatic or manual?"

"Automatic, pretty much all of them were that we could get, and we didn't see a reason to change out the gearbox for these." Levi admitted. "As for starting." He handed her a bracelet. "They're keyless systems, which was an upgrade we had fun with. If you are wearing one of these bracelets you can start the car just by sitting in it. We added keyless entry via code to the doors. Punch 1942 into that one. we figured it'd be the one you'd be most interested in."

“Well, it will be an easy one for me to remember.” She said tapping it in. She slid into the driver’s seat pulling the seatbelt on. “How do I start it?” she asked curiously.

"Push the griffin button on the dash there." Erica, who had climbed into the passenger seat answered. "The green switch here is the light bars, green and white. That marks them as "Super Vehicles" which is why Elenore had you sign paperwork to start a 'security firm'." She explained. "The yellow button hits a siren; we went with British police for humor's sake. The red button activates the thumb triggers on the steering wheel. The thumb triggers kicks in the Nos. We took these up from the stock 375 horsepower to an operating horsepower of about five hundred. Add in the Nos and things get stupid fast stupid quickly."

"Right, find a track we can play with things on, or the lawyers are going to be too busy fixing tickets to do anything else. " She hit the start button and grinned as the engine roared to life. “So, I am sure you all have mapped where the speed patrols are likely not to be show me the way Erica." she said tapping on the gas and pulling out of the garage.

“Setting the map now.” A screen lit up with a route marked. "Oh, and the black switch turns on and off what we like to call "Intimidator mode."

Erica flipped the black switch, and the already roaring engine went up to eleven as concealed ports opened on the exhaust.

"Oh yeah... Take her out and head for the highway, then point her towards the Hamptons. The season's over so the patrols are more city directed."

"Tally ho." Solaris said with a laugh heading for the highway. “So, what does intimidator mode do and what other extras are under the hood."

"Intimidator opens up valves to increase engine sound." She said. "It also kicks in some of the highlight lighting... not the strobes but stuff that makes the car look... angrier I guess is how you'd phrase it." She explained. "Light halos and such."

"The engine started as a stock 5.7 hemi, kind of the light weight for Chargers. We put in superchargers and cold air intake to boost the horsepower, along with upgraded pistons, lifters, and drive shafts to deal with the horsepower. We took her from the stock 375 to about 550 horses after dyno tuning. That puts them firmly into low end supercar power." She explained. "We also upgraded the suspension to improve handling, put carbon fiber hood and trunk as well as lighter replacement components where we could to cut weight."

"Now, we added weight back by replacing the windshield and windows with firearm resistant replacements, basically only up to small arms fire but with the baffles we added to the front grill none of the cars are going to be soft-killed by a goons nine millimeter getting a lucky shot. The tires are run flats for the same reason."

Solaris purred. She loved a well put together vehicle. And gleefully opened it up on the empty highway. “My! She does have some get up and go! I wish we had a track so I could put her through her handling paces, she is lovely and responsive. You've done wonderful work!"

"There's a few tracks we can take her to, we'll call and schedule it. I hesitate to kick the nitrous system on without need. That'll boost her another, oh, one twenty horses? And heavy isn’t' always bad, as she’ll grip the roadway more than a superlight McClaren. We won't beat one off the line or in a straight away, but in an urban high-speed chase... well, there's a reason police forces use Chargers themselves."

"If it was too light it wouldn't hold turns as well. Personally, I prefer a car that can dance. If I need to fly, I can do it myself if you know what I mean.

Erica tapped a button on the passenger side, and a computer screen and keyboard unfolded from a concealed slot, A joystick with trigger also slid up from the center console. "This is the data center, above the infotainment center already installed. It also arms the 'weapons' though all we put into these at this point is an air gun system. It can currently fire pepper-balls or kind of sticky balls with tracking devices in them. We thought of giving them something aggressive in case one of the less combatively enhanced or Grandma Ruan was driving one for some reason. Not sure why Marcus thought his grandma would but who am I to judge?"

"Oh, don't worry, Granny can be plenty aggressive." Solaris said fondly. “Now, do you have to have a passenger, or can the weapons be used with voice activation?” She had concluded that everything in the future was voice operated. She was just glad she didn't have to talk to the toilet yet.

"We're working on a voice activation, but we built these with the idea of pilot/copilot." she explained, shutting down the info-center and targeting. "Though the infotainment system is voice activated, and can connect to your cellphone, do navigation, and even play games. We kind of figured waiting was part of the deal so some form of entertainment would be useful, other than cellphones. Oh, it's got a police style ram up front and double alternators to power everything."

"I like it. Once we find a personal car for me, I am very interested to see what you make and how it compares to the one I sent to the toymakers." She turned around at an exit and began heading back.

"So, when do you think you’re going to go hunting? she asked, with pride in her voice.

"We already are. We have set up cameras that are intended to alert us to odd activity... they react to movement, the computer they report to tells us if it’s at strange times or in strange amounts. We've also been tracking Z's old phone number. It's popped up in a few places, near suspected targets, so we know they're casing some joints."

"As for having these beasts out... we were thinking of starting tonight, along with the command truck.'

"Do keep me abreast of what is going on and where you are. I don't want to interfere with your hunt, but I also want to be able to back you all up."

"If you want you could ride in the command truck. That's where Badger is going to do his guy in the chair routine. We kind of designed it with you and Penny in mind." She said as they pulled back into the shop’s lot.

"I would be happy to ride along. I just didn't want to cling." she said pleasantly.

"The truck can't keep up with these. With the armor we put on it, even with turbos the thing can basically hit highway speed. It can monitor the cameras mounted on the cars, though, take anything short of anti-material rounds, and has a few other special extras." Erica got out, and led her to the truck, opening one of the side doors.

Inside was a pair of compact computer stations with captain’s chairs, a bench seat along a wall, and a rack that was designed for a set of power armor. The floor was even lowered in the back to make it easier to fit. "The roof swings open in the back half, allowing someone who can fly to go out the top, and the back door includes a ramp and elevator slide out to lower and lift heavy gear or fully armed mecha suits." she explained.

Solaris smiled over at Penny “Now all you need to do is get the armor completed and it can ride with us." she stepped in. “This is quite nice. I think I'll have to have someone teach me how to use all this, but I am ready to learn, all it seems to need is a kettle.”

Smirking, Erica opened a small cabinet, revealing a slim kitchenette with an induction burner and small waterspout, with blue and red handle. Pouring hot water into a cup she offered Solaris a basket with several baggies of different teas. "We figured this was going to be used for surveillance. It's got a little fridge too. You aren't cooking dinner, but you can make ramen."

Solaris laughed. "This is perfect, nothing like a hot tea and biscuits on a stake out."

"Cold to, with the compact fridge. We got an ambulance because it had the power systems we wanted running through it already. We debated a motorhome, but it just seemed too hard to potentially move through the city proper."

"We also of course installed pretty complete first aid gear, and some mobile tool kits into her too, but made sure she was comfortable. Not RV comfy, but pretty comfy."

She then opened one of four cabinets near the roof over the computers. Inside were quadcopter drones. "We also can launch these. That's Badger’s real contribution to this vehicle. You can program them for orbits, or direct control from the computers. They land and charge and another can take over for it."

Oh, the little flying robots, I've seen those on YouTube. They are remarkably stable. though it is funny to watch them get shot at." she admitted. "Which is probably proof I've been in America for too long."

"Well, the English do seem to be afraid of knives now. Not sure how you went from 'the sun never sets' to 'colorful sharp objects? Oh no, no!' but there you are."

"Our basic plan, for the record, is get close when they steal the next cars, hit them with a tracker or three, then let them 'get away', then follow them to their storage site. Less chance of blowing up a half million in super car. Which gets confusing when you are comparing superhero cars to just ... normal? supercars?"

I can see the confusion, and you can’t just call them Toy cars because that has a completely different meaning. The plan seems solid. What time do you want me to be here for the sting, and did you all try your suits on?”

"We haven't tried them on yet, but we're going to rest for the day once we finish a few things here, and tomorrow evening roll out. Our drivers are Z, Thud, me and Weld, with Dryad and Badger in the truck. She's the safest driver so we gave her the car that can drive through buildings."

Penny grinned, "As for me, I finally found out what that gift your brother sent was... and what the Tailor was replacing our old shed with... and it wasn't just a bigger shed that doubled as a garage." the brunette woman paused, hesitantly asking “Is he hitting on me, by the way… I am not sure.”

“Neither am I, if that helps.” Solaris admitted.