Gun Bunny 35

"OK, you can bite now." Brutus yipped around the enormous great white's head he had in his mouth and bit down, then shook it like it was a rabbit he caught when Amy backed off. Ziz conferred with Amy and Rachel watched the enormous dogs playing with the shark to make sure they didn't roll in it.

Taylor smiled watching the whole production on the gang plank. A football field sized gangplank with two one-way traffic lanes wide enough for standardized pallets and fork trucks as well as foot traffic, the rest was space for experiments and laying out. Oh and a sand volleyball court, pool, bar, all the amenities. They were a couple hours out of San Juan. She had not originally intended to go into San Juan, but apparently Brockton Bay was going to the Army Terminal there, while the cruise ships put in at the Cruise ship terminal. Why those still existed was anyone's guess but the Army Corps of engineers had been diligently working for years in Puerto Rico turning it into the most modern Island in the Caribbean. A poke in the eye for Cuba maybe. The Navy had been helping as they used the facilities to support Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and its Marine base. Politics who knew? So anyway, the docents had a selection of ships and boats going in, and tours were already arranged? Of the cruise ships too. How this wasn't going to be a disaster was beyond her.

Taylor smiled thinking of Cuba. The Marshal had arranged a stop for them, and she had gotten to spend the day naked on the beach. Rachel had loved it. Amy had too. Even with all the bitching about having to adjust them hourly to keep them from being burnt to a crisp. Even after oiling them both and Ziz putting up those cover things that looked like giant airplane wings and made electricity somehow, then connecting them to the Cuban grid.

Pretty serious all over tan now though. Plus some Cuban friends. Nice girls. Exhausted after hosting five thousand female guest but nice. Taylor had the torpedoes herd them some fish. Like Nuevitas Bay full. Ziz put up some nets to keep them in. And the predators separated from the...hmm, were fish that didn't eat fish herbivores? Whatever. Not physical nets but some kind of device. If they were careful they should never need to go hungry, at least for protein, ever again. Just feed the fish once in a while and don't over harvest the sections. They had left them a manual.

Vodka, even ice cold, was deadly in the heat. Relaxing, but deadly. Of course the Marshal drank all day laying out in the sun getting red as a lobster. Amy had fixed her though. She was funny as fuck too. 'One time in Stalingrad, in the tractor factory, I made this sniper hunter the Nazi's brought in show me his papers. He did not have the correct travel permit so, I shot him.' Somehow most of her stories ended with 'so, I shot him'. She and Taylor had spent some time plinking targets Ziz was moving around. The Marshal was an amazing shot even with a liter of vodka on board. Give her a three line Mosin Nagant and PU optic and watch her fly. She loved the one Taylor made for her, she got tears. Taylor made it permanent.

With Amy having her on the ten thousand horsepower boiler running fifty tons of Navy special a day, or the equivalent in consumed BTUs, they were well past calories as a measure, diet plan in the lead up to doing the refinery, well doing it from range now after a quick flyby for a look at the site, everybody had drank, eaten, played, and danced from like nine in the morning until deep in the night. Cuban girls partied hard! Then all the PT boats had nosed into the beach, all six dozen of them, and they waved goodbye. They would have to stop by on the way home. Those boats had been crowded, even just the ones running out to the destroyers' just offshore and back, need a few more for that, or a LCI, something. Oh! LCACs! Those were fucking cool and they could work on them, probably get three or four hundred knots out of them with some tweaks! Maybe the mini gun phalanxes too.

Amy's head snapped up and she shot Taylor and Ziz, who were now standing together with their foreheads nearly touching, looking at a computer, a suspicious glare. Then the interesting shark drug her tinker's attention away. Vicky watched and giggled. Crystal sighed "Laugh it up funny girl. They are both neck deep in different things, you know who has to do the work after they make some powers bullshit happen? We do."

Vicky grinned and pointed "Unless Ziz bats her eyes at Weld and gets the Ward boys to do it."

"Which is crazy, or obscene, or something. How does a nine year old talk a five year old into things, without talking?"

"I never figured it out either." Both girls jumped and Sarah chuckled "What are the mad scientist up to now?"

Crystal sighed "Mom! Well Amy is working on sharks trying to figure out if what Ryu told her is true, about the fertility thing, and Taylor and Ziz have just had a lightbulb moment about something. Some kind of boat from the hand motions. It will be cool. An offshore cigarette boat being too much to hope for, it will be insanely overpowered, have a shitload of guns, and go faster than is safe no doubt. And of course be measure forty five or whatever and only pretty in a guns are sexy kind of way. Bauhaus? Function is beauty?"

Vicky nodded "And be loud, don't forget the loud. It's like Taylor is a boy. Except hers go as fast as how much noise they make, not like those four banger Hondas with the fart cans."

"Except in the water where they have to have the torpedoes out running around to warn off the whales and dolphins because the boats are holes in the ocean apparently" Crystal added.

Sarah blinked "So that's why that started? Oh, I'm supposed to ask, those are practice right? They have those arms, and the nets, and things, so they aren't war shots right?"

Vicky blinked "Well they don't have to have fuel tanks or air bottles so that space was available, they got rings on the air, fuel and exhaust lines, plus Taylor, Sherrel, and now Ziz worked them over. Then Bakuda did the warheads so, uh, no. Real deal."

Sarah sighed "And when we are in port? Where do they go?"

"In the harbor near the PTs and DDs? Barley positive so they kind of barely float near their boats." Vicky shrugged "Ziz runs them when Taylor isn't. Something about supercavitating and mach speed underwater. Apparently they are just sort of playing when they are around the fleet. If they get serious we will know? Noise probably. She likes to keep a few swimming around Levis tank."

Sarah sighed "Siblings, why can you never get along when you're young?"

Crystal snorted and Vicky goggled at her "Like you and mom did?"

"Never mind. So no flights today? Just being lazy?"

"Yep, after your training watch, whatever crazy experiment somebody comes up with, PT, a little hand to hand with Ziz, or someone who can kick your ass. Whatever Lorraine has us doing for schoolwork. Doing your tour guarding the zombie that used to be Eidolon. Yep. Just lazing around watching ten thousand kids traipse back and forth and making sure Willy's crew of reprobates have them under control and is keeping them to the public spaces on the Bay. Some of those tinkers need leashes." Sarah looked at Crystal nodding along with Vicky and laughed.

Gun Bunny

Taylor looked at the factions arguing, shrugged and made the turret. Ziz got to work hooking it up to power. Amy looked at her "You don't even have to be here anymore do you?"

Taylor shrugged "Optics, blah blah blah. Justine would have a baby hippo if I didn't show."

Amy grinned "Baby hippos are so cute!"

Taylor doubling over laughing offended both sides of the crowd of dignitaries. The Secretary of State shook her head. Puerto Rican politics were a study all of their own. They had a desk just for this protectorate, as did the CIA. Place was even crazier than most. Politically. People were great, right up until they got elected they trundled along being great people. Then they dived in the corruption pool or something. Must be the weather that kept them from having capes running out their ass. Life's a beach right?

Bill Hoel looked at her and snorted "Better put on your work face."

She sighed "Yes, I had."

Gun Bunny

Kayden smiled at Theo sitting in the sand, the four inch deep, dry, sand, on the gangplank, the enormous gangplank connecting Brockton Bay to the Virgin Queens. Talking to one of Gun Bunny's girls. She grinned, who had walked right up and just taken him over. He hadn't even needed Aster for bait. She looked at Aster asleep in her buggy, her tinker tech, air conditioned, UV shielding, hover buggy. All in some kind of camouflage pattern and with BB 001 on the back side of it. Squealer wasn't having the old buggy. Then Bakuda had gotten in on it, they had Gun Bunny make it out of a pile of stuff they brought her. Asters buggy and umbrella stroller were in their stateroom. This one followed her around like a well trained dog. Bitch had been in on it too, apparently. That tiny little turret on it was worryingly alert.

Hmm, that might be a Ward rather than a member of Battery Lordsport. She didn't have an earpiece. Kayden had thought all those girls needing hearing aids with Panacea right there was odd. Justine had told her they were communicators when she asked. With Bluetooth somehow? So no wonder none of Battery Lordsport ever looked at their phones like normal teenage girls. They were getting the information from and to their phones all the time somehow.

She looked around. The girls at least were much more relaxed around each other. Passengers and crew of the Bay. Nothing like a few hours naked on a beach together? "Kayden?"

"Yes Theo?"

"Do you need my help with Aster? Chantel wants to do the tour of the Bay?"

Kayden looked at the girl "Hmm, uh, no. Go have fun, just not too much." She grinned as Theo stuttered, blushing, while being dragged away by the hand. Kayden watched them go thoughtfully. Good thing Max was head down in trying to survive. Theo bringing home a black girl was probably going to get him killed if he freaked over the 'look' of it. That was a Gun Bunny ladies special in that thigh holster Chantel was wearing. You could tell from the color of the metal.

Kayden watched Bitch bring a young dog over. She had the dog sniff Aster, then Kayden, then the spot where Theo had been sitting. Then she looked at the dog and it lay down next to the stroller. She nodded, looked at Ziz, who nodded, and they turned and led the pack away. "One of Battery Lordsport then, or a family member. Well, well, well."

Battery sat on the lounge next to her and handed her a cold beer "Let's see if you thinks it's so well after Piggot gets through interrogating you over it."

Gun Bunny

Taylor sighed "OK, one more day, and we will do a port call on the way back. Only one day though. It looks like the Cubans are going to sign the agreements. The ships can stay here and we can take Runes ride to wherever we are putting it."

Katherine made some notes and looked at the Chief. He nodded "Make them happy, Thought we were going to have a riot there for a while. Supposedly the cruise ships are the same way. That's Branson's problem though."

The Marshal nodded "Good we have staterooms. Apparently the chicken coops in the Virgin Islands are being rented out. Those Islands may sink."

Admiral Hoel nodded "Which brings up the next point. The Adjutant General of Puerto Rico has informed me it's going to be a national holiday when you leave port, apparently there is already a tradition of going to the Virgin Islands on holidays, it is only a few miles after all, so most of the people here who own boats are probably going to be somewhere in the islands."

Taylor sighed "We already agreed to put on bottoms for announced periods each day and let the boys on the beach so we can drop the screen during those times. Tops are up to the girls."

Madalyn nodded "Last but not least, there is a request from the Governor of the British Virgin Islands that we lease space on the destroyers, some of those chicken coops are, well, he doesn't want the already struggling tourist industry getting a black eye just when it looks like you might revive the whole thing. They will put anyone who rented a facility they determine to be below their somewhat low standards on a destroyer each night."

Taylor looked at a chart "In Road Town? Fat Hog, little shallow, PTs there maybe. One per family? Supposedly some of those bays on the eastern side are a little rolly. Cane Garden for sure. Destroyers are going to roll a lot if they are."

Madalyn nodded "I'll get some people working on which anchorages."

Taylor nodded "I'll get Yarrow working on a list of chiefs for the boats and we will figure out some kind of dinner service. It'll be pretty basic."

Danny shook his head "Probably don't need to go that far. Maybe a continental breakfast, but they will probably eat ashore. At least I bet the governor hopes they do."

Gun Bunny

Chantel rolled her eyes "Yes a white boy. Didn't you see him hanging near his foster mom and taking care of his baby sister?"

Her sister Ruby, one of the Lady Merchants sighed "That's Theo Anders, his dad, Max Anders is Kaiser."

Chantel grinned "Well I got him over that. Not hard really." Ruby arched a brow, Chantel grinned wider "Not hard unless it was supposed to be."

Ruby shook her head "I got to talk to Squealer, do fucking not get pregnant by Theo Anders until I get this sorted out."

"Panacea turned us off remember. You and Theo, both worry warts. It isn't supposed to be hard work getting a little, supposed to be boy, girl, bang. Plus I need to work on his conditioning."

Ruby snorted "At least somebody is worrying. I may like him."

Gun Bunny

Emily looked at the ENE chaperone group on the video link "Barracks theft, that's it? I expected Sodom and Gomora, so did everyone else."

"And Willy, along with some appointed temporary Chiefs, not always the ward leaders, handle it or take the perpetrators to Gun Bunny who runs a Captains Mast, they get put on some pretty nasty details, one got confinement for a couple of days and missed a liberty in the Bahamas. This ship has a brig Eidolon couldn't escape from." Miss Militia said.

Battery nodded "The cruise ships, well you might get invited to leave, or worst case they call Gun Bunny and she handles police type things. They seem to be preempting things fairly often. If something is headed toward criminal one of the Officers or Chiefs appear in the area and or we somehow find ourselves in the area, we the Protectorate and senior PRT leadership. It has to be the Simurgh and the Battery Lordsport thinkers doing it. It is pretty subtle though."

Deputy Director Sutherland, who was present because the whole thing originating from ENE she had a dotted line relationship with ENE nodded "We are looking at the CIC, they have a section running internal ops, and it has a liaison from all the ships. If someone doesn't magically find themselves in the area they direct the internal security forces onto the incidents, or emergent incidents. Plus people mostly seem to be on their best, if somewhat more adventurous, behavior."

Emily snorted and Meredith laughed outright, she being on the call as well, Emily nodded "A hundred incidents of people being caught in compromising positions a day. And that's without those boats having broom closets. And all of those are consensual. The thinkers think the boats themselves are ensuring it. Like Gun Bunny's weapons ensuring things around them are, well, above board, if not always strictly legal in their vicinity.

"Purity, your stepson is involved with a Lady Merchant Dependent suddenly."

Purity bristled a bit and then snorted "More like is being involved with her. He doesn't really, uh, well, he never dated before. Chantel is pretty aggressive. Ruby did come talk to me as Chantel had never dated before either. Then this. Chantel is running with it though. Poor Theo, he is a bit bewildered. We are watching."

"Kaiser will lose his mind." Emily pinched the bridge of her nose.

Purity shrugged "I doubt it, he was never a believer, and it was a way to get followers. Now he has discovered he doesn't need them and is trying pretty hard to stay off Gun Bunny's radar. He may go the opposite direction. I can see him now, giving Theo training in how to keep Chantel. That will drive Theo right over the edge.

"My concern is the rank and file of the Empire may react badly. The Lady Merchants and Battery Lordsport will not be pleased."

Emily nodded "I'll get in a trainload of depends, hedge against the local supply being exhausted when Ryu hits the ceiling and electrocutes the whole Empire at once."

Miss Militia smiled "OB unscented tampons too, great for plugging bullet and dinodog teeth holes. We could make next year's budget."

Meredith arched a brow "Something we need to discuss ENE? Black marketing medical supplies perhaps?"

Gun Bunny

Taylor sat on the towel on the beach wriggling her toes in the foot trench she had dug with her feet. The sky was completely clear, the sun was beaming, the rum, pain killers, number twos, were fabulous. Amy looked at her and smiled. Then she looked at Rachel who had connected her foot trench to Taylors and was just as happy. They had left Necker on the platform and gone to Anegada and Cow Wreck beach on the platform during boy time. With the parents, as the bartenders had gotten wise, or were wise already. And they still wouldn't sell you more than two before they went virgin on you. That meant Taylor and Rachel had to wear bikinis, which they did, of the thinnest material and as little as was comfortable, much to the chagrin of wives and girlfriends all over the beach. Amy preened a bit. Her girlfriends' slayed motherfuckers dead. Or the coconut trees and that embankment they tumbled down tried to.

They hadn't had to leave Necker really, all of them would happily sit around topless with the boys on the beach like some of the other girls but the boys seemed more comfortable. Amazing what four square inches of really thin, brightly colored cloth could accomplish. Taylor nodded, she got it. She really did. Boobs were hypnotizing. Even her own some times. It was tough not staring. Sunglasses were a blessing.

"Happy." Amy asked them both.

Rachel nodded and Taylor replied "Very. Even when we are working now."

Amy reached out and pulled them both closer "Me too."

The Bartender glared at the tourist who had whipped out a cell phone "Unless you are done drinking that better be a call."