AN: Hello one and all. Welcome to my first fanfic. First off, this fic is of course an altpower!Taylor and well, I enjoy Tinker!Taylor fics quite a lot so I decided to write my own. I hope you all enjoy it. Second, an update schedule, don't know if I can follow one, to be honest but I'll try. Right now I don't have one so I'll have to sit down and decide whether I want it to be weekly, monthly or every two months. I don't really know to be honest.

I've spent the last few days coming up with all sorts of fun things Taylor can do as a tinker and I think you guys will like it. Hint: It has to do with robots.

Disclaimer: Wildbow is the sole owner of Worm and Wards. I as the author of this fanfiction do not own anything, except this piece of fanfiction.

Hero

1.1

-
January 13th, 2011

Beep...Beep...Beep…

'That sound…?'

Beep...Beep...Beep…

I struggled to wake up.

Beep...Beep...Beep…

I felt a hand on my own. It was warm.

I opened my eyes slowly. I blinked as the light streamed in and nearly shed a tear it was so bright. I closed my eyes and waited before I opened them again.

I was in a hospital room. Bland white walls, the smell of antiseptic, and… I gasped.

Seated right at the head of the bed was a girl. I knew her, well everyone knew her.

Beside my hospital bed was Panacea, sitting in a chair with her hand on my own. Strangely, I didn't mind. I didn't mind it at all.

She was a mousy little thing, with freckles all over her face and frizzy brown hair. Her garb would have made her out to be a nun, had it not looked white and marked with red crosses. She was by far one the best healers in the world, if not the best. But her time was often spent at hospitals healing people. Honestly I could see the marks of stress even as she slept with drool dripping from the corner of her mouth. I don't think she realized that she drooled in her sleep. It made her look cute.

…

Did I? I blushed. I called her cute.

Since when am I into girls?!

I breathed. Then Panacea snorted. I couldn't help but laugh. It was quiet, but it served to wake the mousy girl from her sleep.

"Hello there." I said. Panacea blinked several times before her eyes widened. She had the most brilliant shade of brown eyes I'd ever seen.

"Uh, hi." She said. "You're awake, that's good."

I could tell she felt awkward. I knew this because I felt the same way. She looked away and then sighed. "So, you're vitals are fine but, you're arm..."

My arm? I looked and sure enough, part of my arm was gone. "Wha?"

"I'm sorry!" Panacea got up. "Hey wait a minute!"

I grabbed her arm jerking the IV. I grimaced. "Don't go. Tell me what happened."

The mousy brunette looked at my hand then at my eyes then back to my hand again. "You're arm was missing and the hospital didn't have anything I could use except blood to fix the problem."

She couldn't fix an arm with just blood it seems. Not enough biomass. It takes a lot of biomass to regrow an arm. But I wasn't concerned about that. I was more concerned with how I would go about my life with part of my arm gone. Then I saw it.

Blueprints, ideas on how to fix my arm. Not just prosthetic limbs but designs for machines and weapons.

I gasped and grabbed my head. Panacea grabbed my arm and just the feeling of it seemed to calm me down.

She took one look at my facial expression and said, "I know you're a cape. You have a corona pollentia and a gemma. You're secret is safe."

"I can fix it!" I blurted out. She blinked. I took a breath.

"I can fix my arm." I said softly.

"How?" She asked arms at her sides. She seemed curious.

"I've got ideas in my head for a prosthetic arm." I explained. I stopped. "I'm a fucking cape. I'm...what am I gonna tell mom?!"

"Tell me what?"

Both myself and Panacea jumped and looked at the woman standing in the doorway, a doctor right beside.

"Mom, I'm a cape."

It took some time for mom to get over that I was a cape, more specifically a tinker. When I told her of the things I could do, she made the joke of my cannibalizing a toaster. Needless to say, I laughed.

Tinkers were known for taking whatever was around them and turning it into something it wasn't. The joke fit really. I'll probably travel to the local junkyard near where mom and I live to salvage some parts. Maybe even talk to some of dad's old buddies and see if they things they'd not want anymore. He had quite a few friends before he died and mom was still struggling over his death. Frankly, so was I.

Junkyard first though. Plenty of scrap metal to go around. Old burned out radios I could get circuit boards from. Same with computers. Honestly, you'd be surprised how much is thrown into a junkyard. It's a tinker's wet dream when they start off.

But it was also a place where the PRT was on the lookout for said tinkers. They couldn't get there hands on enough of them it seems. I don't blame them. We're damned useful.

Once I was cleared to leave with a clean bill of health, mom helped me into the passenger seat and we drove off to our house.

Our house was near the docks, but it wouldn't be like that soon. Mom had gotten a job at Brockton Bay University as an english professor last month. We were planning to move into the nicer part of town once we had the funds to afford a house there. It was near Arcadia High School, and thankfully I had kept my grades up despite all the things those bitches at Winslow have tried. They didn't touch my schoolwork after I told mom.

She had gone to the board afterwards and complained. Next thing anyone knew, Principle Blackwell had a severe tongue lashing from the Superintendent and was forced to punish the trio or otherwise risk losing her job and receiving a mark on her record for negligence.

Mom went through all that because education was important to her, and frankly it was important to me to.

That didn't stop them from shoving me into my locker though. Mom must have been furious when she found out. I had been there for several hours screaming for someone to let me out and everyone just ignored me. I was stuck in my locker with used pads and tampons and dozens of bugs crawling all over me and eating away at my limbs. I guess that's how I lost my arm. Too infected to cure, so they had to amputate. Thankfully, I still had all my other limbs.

It was when the sun was going down that we pulled into the driveway. Mom helped me out of the car and we went inside, locking the door behind us.

I could smell the lasagna she had made.

"Dinner is in the oven little owl. Let me get it out." She worked on some oven mitts and pulled out the pan she had made the lasagna in. It looked so good and the smell was enough to get me at the table in seconds.

She fixed me a plate and sat down after getting herself some.

And the lasagna? Mm. So good! Mom always makes the best lasagna.

-
January 14th, 2011

When I woke up the next day, I found mom in the kitchen cooking up some breakfast. She must have taken the day off and called in a substitute for her to be here. She would have been BBU already for her first class of the day considering its 8:00am.

And apparently I wasn't going to Winslow today either. Or for the rest of the month for that matter. That was perfect for me since I planned to do some tinkering. I kept getting ideas to design a prosthetic limb and what I could only tell were very tiny robots. The more I examined the idea, the more I realized I could actually manufacture nanites.

I would have to be careful about not causing a grey goo scenario. Yeah, I didn't want that to happen. Self-replication though…

I had my notebook out and a pencil in hand as I sketched out a basic design for my new prosthetic arm. I would upgrade it to a better one later on, but for now it will do. Should be able to get the parts I need at the junkyard a few blocks down. And maybe some computers with 3ghz processors at one of the stores downtown. Mom made enough money for at least three of them, though if I could get her to buy me one with a 4ghz processor I'd be just as happy.

In the process of drawing several sketches for several robots I had somehow wound up cannibalizing the toaster and the microwave into a kit-bashed nano-lathe several hours later. It was midday when mom had gotten back from shopping at several different stores looking for things I might need. Needless to say, she wasn't happy about it no matter how much she understood. She was knowledgeable on capes and thus knew tinkers could get into fugues if someone didn't stop them.

Well, at least I can make nanites now, though I wouldn't dare putting them inside me, not after I've had several generations to work out kinks and bugs. The neural interface I was planning to create wouldn't work properly. I'll need a fabricator for my prosthetic though.

I don't know how I even took apart the toaster and the microwave with just one arm. Quirk of my power maybe?

It was around time for dinner when I finished the frame for my new arm. But without the core components it would be just that, a frame. I sighed. I really need those parts.

Still, I had made progress, I was happy with that. All that metal from the junkyard mom went to certainly helped. But she couldn't find any laptops that would suit my needs. I wonder if could get in contact with Dragon somehow. She would have what I need. But the problem is, I don't know how and I'm just some no name tinker.

That thought made me angry. I would make a name for myself. I would be a Hero!

Over the next several days I was on Parahumans Online or as it was commonly called PHO, researching capes and looking up tips. Also anything tinker related I was happy to have found. I had chosen an interesting handle for my name, Hero. Even though the man who was the first tinker was dead, the name hadn't been taken. I figured it was because nobody wanted to take the name of the man who died to the Siberian. I shivered. That was one scary woman and a person I did not want to meet. I would need sufficiently built power armor before I could even think of going against the woman who managed hurt Alexandria.

Of course then the problem becomes, can I build something that can withstand the Siberian?

…

No way.

…

What the fuck?! That is so broken! Ugh!

I sighed. The materials I would need for something like that would be really expensive. Besides, I would be Genesis level tech which I won't be at until I've got the necessary infrastructure set up, and I barely have a workshop up running. Actually it was more bare bones basics. Certainly not at all what I would need. I had a working nano-lathe at least and the fabricator was almost done.

Once I had the fabricator then things would start taking off. Like seriously take off.

-
January 19th, 2011

It was a particularly cold Wednesday morning. Last night the temperature got down to twelve degrees and I'd been shivering up a storm. Luckily mom and I will be moving out of this old beat up house to our new home in one of the nicer neighborhoods near Arcadia High. I was pretty excited to see our new home but the move wouldn't be until next week. Mom had managed to finagle Winslow into getting me a transfer to Arcadia even though it was in the middle of the year. She'd also gotten the funds purchase our new house after Winslow signed a plea deal to help pay for the damages against my person.

I never knew mom could be so damn vicious. I think dad may have know before he died.

In other news, I finished my new fabricator and I had my first batch nanites ready to be implanted for tonight. I had syringe on my nightstand with the all the metals my tiny robots would need to create my neural interface. They were already programmed so I'll needed to do was swallow them and then let them do there work. I had a feeling the interface will help me tremendously when I have multiple robots up and running.

Meanwhile I had been adding more designs to my notebook with little side notes on some of them. Mom had been on PHO all of last week and had gotten Dragon's attention. She came home friday afternoon with a box full of laptops with 4ghz processors. Needless to say, I was ecstatic cause now I could get a proper tinkertech prosthetic to replace this kit-bashed broken piece of crap I call an arm.

Ugh! Working with it has been a pain but that will end tonight after I finish building my arm and imbibe my nanites and inject the metals for them into my bloodstream. All of that stuff was toxic to humans and I needed to wake up after a certain amount of time, so I had my alarm set for 7:30 in the morning. I needed eight hours of sleep for the nanites to do there work and while they would give my blue eyes a purple glow, at least I would have an implant to help me tinker.

Sides, who doesn't like glowing blue and purple eyes.

Anyway, I could smell mom's cooking from my room. She always makes the best breakfast. Its how I got my tall and curvy figure. Oh, and my long hair. Which was black, and curly. Not to mention exercise and defense classes. A healthy body is important for being a hero you know. And a healthy mind I guess. Bah!

Later on, I'll inject some nanites into my bloodstream to help my red blood cells run more efficiently. Get more oxygen to parts of the body. And help with sealing any wounds I get while I'm out on patrol. Before I go patrolling I need some power armor. A tinker is just baseline human after all, despite the thinker power I seem to have gotten along with my tinker power.

It helps me understand my tech better and seems to have given me better reaction times. Man, powers are weird.

My first iteration of power armor won't be my best, but I'll certainly will be good. For a first iteration that is. Depending on how this one goes, I may keep some features for my next iterations. But the first iteration needs to be done.

I sat down at the table with mom setting a plate of bacon and eggs in front of me. She had made some biscuits to go along with it and boy were they good.

"Another vacation day mom?" I asked.

"My last one before I can have any more." was her reply. She still had her classes to teach and BBU could only be so lenient. At least the substitute was good from what she told me.

"At least the sub is good."

"And for that I'm glad."

Before long, we finished breakfast and I cleaned the dishes while mom went into the living room to turn on the still working television. The news was on at this hour of the morning with the report largely being about the crimes committed in the last week, with an incident between two of the Brockton Bay Wards and the Empire Eighty-Eight's Hookwolf and Rune. The altercation was over some warehouse full of contraband that Hookwolf and Rune were guarding. Vista and Aegis were okay once Miss Militia was on scene and helped drive the two Empire capes away so the PRT could come and claim the contraband as evidence of yet another part of the Empire's crimes in the Bay. The Youth Guard were kicking up a storm about it though.

I wouldn't need to worry about the Youth Guard for a while yet. At least I hoped I wouldn't. I looked through laws one has to deal with and let me tell you, legallese is a pain to understand.

Come nightfall I had my new arm built and hooked and boy was it painful. It would take a while to get used to, or until I could get a hold of Panacea to do something about the pain.

My new arm was the start of my heroine career and before long I would have tons of robots to with what I will.

Now I just had to imbibe these deadly toxic metals and then inject the nanites, and now I was ready to go to sleep.

-
January 20th, 2011

My alarm clock woke me up like I had planned the following morning. I was quite happy to see the neural implant had worked. I could see all of the machines I had built arranged neatly in a little window off to the right and I could see an icon the looked like microphone with a window below it off to the left. Now if this worked, all I had to do was think them away. They did just that. Awesome!

I could also bring them back the same way. Heh, gotta love neural implants via nanites.

I could do so many things now with my new implant, but I needed to continue working on putting together the rest of my workshop. So despite my excitement, no matter how deserved it was, I set to work on creating some tools to build my first robot. Luckily I thought to put a plasma cutter in my new arm before I attached it to the socket. It would certainly help with welding and cutting the different metals I plan to work with.

As I worked I found out I could access the internet with my implant. Nifty. I had logged into PHO under the username of Hero, the name I've decided to go with cause that's what I intend to be. Scrolling around the different threads, I stumbled across one thread detailing how to get the Verified Cape tag. It simply said to take a picture of your power in action and to post it below. I could take care of that when I had some power armor to play around in. For now I settled with the Unverified Cape tag.

Mom had already gone to work long before I came downstairs to grab something from the fridge. I had one function robot that looked like a spider. It had purple and blue plates to serve as some protection while it would work and had a built in plasma cutter and photon torch. It had other tools built into it such as a drill, a wrench, and wire cutters. The basics I know, but once I had better tools to work with all the basics I would replace with something more efficient.

The purple and blue plates wasn't limited just to the construction bot however, it was also the color of the metal on my prosthetic arm and the nano-lathe and my fabricator. I was starting to see a theme but I couldn't truly say for sure. I figured the more I built up my tech, it might change.

The gut feeling told me otherwise.

AN: And that's it for this chapter. If you enjoyed the reading feel free to leave a review. If you didn't, feel free to tell me why.

More to come after this little chappie. Not sure when I'll update next, maybe a month from now, or maybe a week. I'm not really sure. I guess what I'm saying is, it'll come when it comes.

Word count: 3,253 excluding author's notes.