The following morning Phoenix Talon had another session with the Blood Boards. After giving the matter much thought, he had decided not to kill Rick. He did take the youth aside.
    "Rick."
    "Yeah, what's up? I have to say, man, I'm really diggin' this kung fu thing, too." Phoenix Talon had put them on a steady diet of Bruce Lee movies in order for them to absorb the proper mindset.
    "Good, good. Glad you like it. I hear you called the headquarters the other day."
    "Yeah, I wanted to see how things were going on the whole getting new tech thing, I had some ideas I wanted to incorporate into the boards. Suction wheels... y'know, stuff." He shrugged and grinned.
    "While you were calling, you talked to Dawn."
    "Yeah, she's really nice! I didn't know she was part of the team."
    "She ain't. This is where it gets kinda complicated. Dawn's my daughter."
    The grin vanished as Rick went pale. "Oh shit, man, I didn't mean nothin'. I didn't mean nothin', I swear to God! I'll never talk to her again!"
    That was gratifying. "Hang on, hang on. Okay, it's like this. First of all, you might think it's kinda weird that Dawn, who's obviously not a kid, is my daughter."
    "She's what, like sixteen?"
    "Yeah. Remember the stuff, when we had our first meeting, that I said you guys wouldn't get involved in, cause it was for the costumes?"
    "Yeah, the Weird Shit." He nodded cautiously.
    "This is part of that. That doesn't mean you shouldn't go on a date with her," he added. "And trust me, it's hard for me to say that. But I'm just sayin' A, you get her back by midnight, you give her a peck on the cheek and that's it. And B, just keep your eyes out."
    "'Cause Weird Shit may happen?"
    "Weird Shit does happen. So go on, have a good time. Just wanted you to know that, so you know what you're gettin' into."
    "Okay. Uh, thanks?" He realized that he wasn't going to die. "Midnight huh? No problem."
    "Let's go do some katas."
    The group had grown to fourteen members, and the kids were doing pretty well. They'd given up their little protection rackets. Their parole officers had been happy to grant Phoenix Talon a share of the responsibility for what they got up to, and the cops weren't hassling them anymore since they figured he would do that. He'd made it clear to them that if they ran into any of the Alley Cats or anything like that, they should defend themselves but no more, and tell him about it. He was pleased by their progress in gaining real fighting skills (he made them call him sensei, of course), and he himself was improving his board-riding abilities by leaps and bounds.
    The main problem now was money. Most of the kids were under eighteen, and hence reluctantly returned to school (mostly vo-tech, but it was something). They needed jobs, though. Hm.

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