As I had expected, I woke up a little after 3:30 am even without setting either my phone or internal alarm. Getting up, I got dressed in a pair of shorts and tee shirt and went downstairs to grab a quick bite to eat before starting my day. While eating my muffins and fruit I planned out my day, deciding to get my weaving work out of the way first and then start on doing the layout and cutting for some of the summer blouses that I hoped to sell at the Free Market.
Before getting started I stood and set my resistance to 25% and did a slow set of stretches and my Tai Chi routine. It wasn't hard, but I could feel that I was having to push myself just a little bit harder than normal. Just like we had hoped. Leaving it set at 25%, I headed downstairs.
In the basement it only took 15 minutes to shift fabric, cords and thread and set up the next set of spools. I did take a few minutes to carefully check my Widows and Recluses, especially the egg sacs because once they hatched I would be in a position to really pick up my production rate. I set my ants and beetles to building more sleeping chambers and storage rooms for the different types of food my swarm needed.
So far, the local insect population was enough to keep my swarm fed and healthy, but once the new generation of spiders hatched, I was going to need a lot more food. Fortunately, Spring was well underway and more and more insects were available every day. Next Fall and Winter was going to take some planning to make sure I could keep my working swarm well fed.
Taking a last look around to make sure everything was properly put away, I checked the freezer to see what we were running low on then turned off the lights and headed upstairs.
Going into the sewing room, I pulled out 3 different blouse patterns that I thought I would be able to successfully sell, laid out my cutting mat and started pinning the pattern to the fabric I had chosen. I was planning on doing each pattern at least four times, using different fabric only when I needed to so that each style and fabric combination would be available in different sizes. Hopefully the sizes I had chosen from my day at the Free Market and online research would sell well.
The whole process of laying out, marking and cutting out the fabric was time consuming, but kind of restful. I had to focus on what I was doing, but it wasn't actually hard to do it right. Once I had a blouse cut out, I carefully collected the pieces and put them into a clear plastic envelope, with a note specifying exactly which pattern and size was inside.
I finally finished up around 7:30, having layed out and cut an even dozen blouses, though I still had to pick out the buttons I would use for each blouse. I'd need to check mom's button tins and see what she had, but I was planning on buying at least some of them as the last time I had checked, mom's collection had a lot of 2 and 3 buttons, but very few larger sets and I needed at least 8 for each blouse. Cleaning up and putting everything away only took a few minutes as I had no plans to start sewing until either this evening or tomorrow. For now, it was breakfast time.
Checking on dad, I saw that he was still sound asleep, so I quietly went down to the kitchen and started to make breakfast. Since dad wanted to go grocery shopping today, I simply emptied the fridge and upstairs freezer of what remained of this weeks left-overs, put them into the oven to reheat while I started writing my grocery list. As usual, I used the Sunday paper to find the best sales and put together a good list, coupons included, for dad to use when he left to do the shopping.
By the time I finished writing my list, the food was ready to eat and I started dishing it up; chili, beef stew, roast pork, chicken and dumplings and the last bits of 4 different casseroles. None of the dishes were very big since dad had left-overs for lunch almost everyday, and I ended up throwing the casserole leftovers into a single large bowl, but between them I managed to get completely full. Rinsing out the dishes, I left them to soak while I took a shower and got dressed for the day.
Because it was overcast and looked like it might rain, I decided to dress casual but when I put on a pair of jeans I found a problem: they no longer fit me. The waist and hips were okay, a bit snug maybe, but they still fit; the length however was almost 2 inches too short. I knew that I had grown, but sweats and skirts had kept me from realizing just how much. Setting them aside, I started trying on all of my clothes, especially my jeans and slacks and found that I had out-grown them all. Even a few of my tops were too small … well they fit, just really snug and were short enough that they tended to show part of my tummy.
I finally settled on using the cargo pants from my running outfit, which still fit okay and one of the blouses I had made for myself. Clearly I needed to do some shopping because I really wanted some jeans, and my sewing machine wasn't strong enough to handle denim. Tops I could make for myself, though some tee shirts would be nice, and I would have to make some slacks as well.
Sighing sadly at all of the clothes that I could no longer wear, I carefully folded them up and set them in piles. I would ask dad to take them to the Association and see if anyone could use them, times were hard and I wasn't going to just throw them away; I would rather people that I knew used them instead of strangers.
Pulling my backpack out from under my bed, I emptied it of most of the school stuff, put $200 in my wallet, to add to the $60 left over from our date and took it downstairs to the kitchen. My pepper spray and ASP fit nicely in my cargo pockets without being obvious.
Double-checking the cupboards and fridge, it was obvious that I really didn't have a lot to work with if I wanted to pack a lunch, so I decided to eat out today. Cleaning the dishes and putting them in the dishwasher only took a few minutes so I did that and left dad a note telling him that I was heading out to the library and would see him later this afternoon, probably around 5 or 5:30.
As I waited for the bus, I decided that getting at least some new clothes was a priority and that the library could wait if necessary. Checking the routes again I decided that I could walk to a Wal-Mart easily if I got off the bus early.
I pulled out my phone and sent Amy a quick text, letting her know that I was going to do some shopping and after that would be at the Library all afternoon. A few minutes later she texted back and let me know that her 'family time' today meant she was stuck planting flowers in the front yard beds, instead of doing something fun like shopping or going to the library. A minute later she sent another text telling me that she was going to be at the Pelhams this afternoon and hoped that I had fun at the library because she was hoping for a cookout. If it didn't rain.
Boarding my bus when it arrived, I took a seat near the rear doors and watched closely as we got close to where I would need to get off. Eventually, the bus stopped at a busy intersection from which I could see the Wal-Mart about half a mile down the road. Pulling the stop cord, I exited as soon as the driver opened the doors and waited patiently at the crosswalk until I could start on my way to the store.
Even though it was Sunday, the store was fairly busy, and I had to be careful not to knock against people as I made my way to the women's clothing section and started looking for some jeans that would fit and allow me at least a reasonable amount of movement. After trying on a few pair, I found two that met my requirements; decent fit, wouldn't rip if I tried to kick or run and wouldn't cost an arm and a leg. Next I picked out some plain colored tee shirts to replace the ones I had outgrown as well as some socks.
Once I had all the clothes that I would need, I headed to the back corner where all of the sewing and craft stuff was. Finding a dozen sets of buttons and a few spools of thread that would match the fabric I was using was easy; besides, having some extra choices would be nice. I also looked at some of the fabric tags that they had, but decided to pass on that for the moment. Maybe I could use the sewing machine to make them or find a place to order them online.
Taking all of my shopping to the front, I found a short line and paid for my purchases and packed them all into my backpack before leaving the store and heading back to where I could catch a bus to the library. When I got to the bus stop, I checked the time and decided to eat before continuing on to the Library. Looking around I decided that the Wendy's would do, especially since they had a nice salad bar that you could refill from as often as you liked. Given how much I could eat, it was probably the most cost-effective lunch I would find.
Ordering a large combo and salad bar, I took a seat near the windows and proceeded to stuff myself, in the most lady-like fashion. The restaurant was fairly busy, with most of the customers being either families or people my age so I don't think that anyone noticed how much I actually ate. I took my time to eat, refilling my salad plate three times, although salad plate wasn't quite accurate since they had both chili and taco options in addition to the normal veggie choices.
After finishing my lunch, I cleared my trash and walked to the bus stop. Checking the schedule, I saw that the next bus to take me to the library would be by in just a few minutes so I just stood there, patiently ignoring the other people waiting to catch a bus.
When it arrived, I had to take a seat up front and share with an older woman, but we both minded our own business, neither speaking to the other. Shortly after I boarded the bus, it pulled up across from the Central Library and I was able to finally begin doing the research into communication systems that I had been looking forward to.
Signing on to one of the internet computers, I was able to find some general information, as well as a number of recommended books on each topic. After writing down the titles, I quickly read through the basic information on radios, cell phones and Quantum Entanglement.
Holy smokes! I know I'm not a math major, but I don't even know what some of these symbols mean! I'm going to definitely need a better background in math and physics, this stuff is wayover my head.
Shaking my head, I opened up the online Library Catalog and started looking for titles that would help me learn the background material. Picking out 3 math books and a physics textbook that looked useful only took a few minutes, although the selection available was huge.
Before I logged out and headed for the stacks, I took a moment to look online for anything related to Vigilante Support like Amy had suggested, and found it under the US Code. The Vigilante Support Act of 1995. The legalese was a bit confusing but it seemed to say that a hero could turn in all 'Weapons, vehicles, illegal substances, cash and miscellaneous hardware' and receive 15% of the assessed cash value. Another option seemed to be to take cash and leave everything else for the police. You couldn't take personal money, like their wallets, and you needed to tell the police how much you took, at least in general terms. You could also take specific pieces of equipment, which was clearly aimed to help Tinkers, if you gave the approximate value and listed what it was. Anytime you did that, you had to leave everything else and the police, or PRT I suppose, could challenge your choice and it would end up in arbitration, however it specifically stated that the assessed cash value was irrelevant.
After that, finding the books I wanted, including some of recommended readings, took me about 10 minutes and I was shortly seated at a table in one of the back corners of the library. Skimming through the Tables of Contents of each book gave me a good feel for which ones covered what, and which one I wanted to start with. Setting the math books aside for later, I started with the book on radio communication because I thought that we could put this type into use most easily.
An hour later I was almost half-way through the book and absolutely sure that I was going to check this one out. I might even look into buying a copy of it because it not only covered the theory in great detail, but also had actual schematics and circuit diagrams for a variety of radio building projects. Pausing a moment, I set that one aside and slid the book on Quantum Mechanics in front of me and opened it up and began reading.
"Um … Taylor? Taylor Hebert? Is that really you? Wow, it's great to see you again, where have you been? I missed you at school, did you transfer or something?"
Shocked at the interruption I looked up and saw someone I was not happy to see. Greg Veder, my very own creepy stalker. As I sat there surprised that I hadn't noticed his presence, he pulled out a chair and sat down across from me, not even bothering to ask if it was okay.
"So, its lunch-time, how about we go and get a bite to eat. There's a MacDonald's just down the street." He looked at my books and went on, "Don't worry about the books, the librarians will put them away."
I took a deep breath and slowly and carefully let it out. "Mr. Veder, I am quite busy and do not appreciate being interrupted …"
"No, problem. In fact, it's my treat, just for old times sake," he said, clearly ignoring me in favor of listening to his own voice.
I put a slip of paper in the book I was reading to mark my place and closed the book. "Mr. Veder … "
"Greg, we're old friends so just call me Greg," he interrupted me again to say.
I angrily hissed at him, "Be silent! We are not friends, at the most we are acquaintances. Distant acquaintances who will never be more than that. You are not welcome at this table and I would greatly appreciate it if you would leave … now!"
He actually had the gall to look hurt when I said that, "But Taylor, you know I've always liked you, and now that Sophia has moved away we can be together openly."
I stared at him in shock. "What? You want to be with me? Are you insane!? I wouldn't be with you if you were the last human on the planet! At what point did you ever do anything that might cause me to think of you like that? You never spoke up to Blackwell about what those bitches were doing, you couldn't even be bothered to call 911 anonymously when they left me in that lo, locker. For three days. Three. Fucking. Days. Before the janitor found me, because of the pool of blood on the floor. You, like every other person in that cesspool, saw nothing, heard nothing, knew nothing. Well fine, if nothing is what you like, nothing is what you will get."
I paused to breath, "Mr. Veder, you are dead to me. If you are hit by a car, I will walk on by, because nothing is happening. If Bonesaw is cutting you apart and giggling as she does so, I will turn away. Because nothing is happening. Get up from this table and walk away. Walk away and never approach me again."
When I finished speaking, I sat back and opened my book and began reading again. After a minute I heard him snivel and could actually smell what had to be tears.
Unbelievable. He's actually crying. Does he think that his worthless tears would magically make me change my mind, that they would miraculously make things okay? Moron.
Finally he pushed back his chair and walked away, still sniveling. When I finally looked up, he was gone, although I did see a couple of girls about my age a few tables away who were looking at me with a mix of shock and amusement. Clearly they had heard at least some of what I had said to Mr. Veder, and wanted to know more. I shook my head and went back to my book, though I did ramp my hearing in case they had anything interesting to say.
Eventually they packed up and left, either to find a more private spot for gossip or out of the library entirely I didn't know. Or care to be honest. Setting the book on Quantum Mechanics aside to be checked out, I chose the Particle Physics book to read next. Before I started, I thought about my high school math courses, even AP Calculus, and realized that I might not be able to really advance until I could take some college level math. Although I had every intention of doing my best by studying on my own.
As I read through the book, I decided that I was going to need a better foundation in general physics as well, so I set that one aside and went back to the 530 section to find one or two good intro to physics books. Even just a few minutes of browsing showed me half a dozen books that might be helpful, so I pulled them out and walked back to my table and started working through the Table of Contents to try and find the most useful books.
Choosing the best two, I collected all the books I wanted to check out into a single pile and moved the ones I wouldn't check out onto the reshelving cart and headed to the video section. Once there it didn't take me long to pick out two DVD's that I would enjoy watching with dad; Taken with Liam Neeson and Sherlock Holmes with Robert Downey Jr.; both of them looked good, and hopefully dad would enjoy them. Taking all of my selections to the checkout desk, I pulled out my Library Card and started using the self-checkout line to save the librarians some time. As I finished and started loading the books into my backpack, Mrs. Hendricks finished checking out the family next to me and said, "Hi Taylor, more science books today?"
I smiled back at her and replied, "Of course, and math too. I found a really good one on radio communication that even has schematics and projects so you can try and build a variety of radios, sort of like the one on basic electronics projects I checked out a while ago. It looks like a lot of fun, though some of them do look really hard. But I'm still going to try."
She laughed at me and said, "Of course you are. You're always willing to try, aren't you? Let me know how it turns out, alright?"
"You bet. I'll even bring my first successful radio in for you to see," I told her before taking my backpack and heading out to the bus stop to catch my bus home.
-Legion*** Danny***Legion-Since it was Sunday, I took my time getting ready for the day and heading downstairs to make myself some breakfast. In fact, by the time I got to the kitchen it was almost 11:00 and Taylor was long gone. She had left me yet another very comprehensive grocery list as well as a short note saying that she needed to do some shopping before heading to the library.
Making a bowl of oatmeal, I sat down at the table to eat and read the Sunday paper. By the time I finished my breakfast I had skimmed most of the national and local articles and was entertaining myself with the comics. Rinsing my dishes, I added them to the dishwasher and left it for later, since it wasn't even half full.
I picked up the grocery list and with a glance saw that Taylor had organized it so that each store had its own list with the coupons I could use in separate groups. I folded the list around the coupons and after getting my check book and wallet, left the house and drove off to Best Buy for my first stop.
Three hours later I returned with a car full of groceries, and no daughter to help put them away. Oh well, I knew where she kept most things so I expect that I could manage well enough.
After I finished putting away the groceries, I settled down in the living room to read while I waited for Taylor to get home. Just before 5 o'clock she returned, coming as usual through the back door.
"Hi dad, any problems while I was gone?" she asked as she came into the living room.
"Nope, picked up the groceries and even put them all away. Did you have a good time today?" I asked her.
She slipped her backpack off and sat down on the sofa, "Yes I did, although when I went to get dressed this morning, I found that I had a growth spurt and I only had one pair of pants that actually fit, the others were too short. Same for most of my old shirts, so I stopped at Wal-Mart and picked up two pairs of jeans and three tee-shirts. Nothing fancy, just something that looks okay and fits me."
She opened up the backpack and set the library books on the table so she could get to her purchases. Pulling out the bags, she showed me what she had bought, "See, just a few shirts and pants. Oh, and some socks too. On a related topic," she smiled at me as she used one of Annette's favorite catch phrases, bringing a pang of bittersweet memory to me, "Do you think that anyone at the Association could use my old clothes? They're are in decent shape, but since they don't fit me any more I thought it would be nice if someone we know could use them, rather than throwing them out or selling them to a thrift shop."
I sat forward and looked at Taylor more closely then thoughtfully said, "Probably. I'll take them in tomorrow and put the word out that you want them to go to someone who can use them, not just sit in someone's dresser. Just off the top of my head I can think of two or three people who would appreciate them."
After a moment's thought I frowned and asked, "How can you afford to buy clothes, I thought you needed your savings to pay for your tests?"
She nodded at me and said, "I do, but I've sold a few pieces of coral, and hope to start selling the jewelry and clothing that I've been making at the Free Market. I've got enough saved up to cover my tests and still have some for clothes. Not much more than that so far, but enough for now. Once I do my first sale day I'll have a better idea of how to set my budget, and may even be able to help out with at least the food bill." She giggled at me, which was nice to hear again, it had been so long since she had been happy like that, not since Annette died; and it was really only since Amy had showed up that Taylor had gotten better, and then she went on, "God knows I eat enough for two or three, you can't tell me that it wouldn't help if I could contribute towards the groceries."
I sighed at that and said, "Of course it would help, but it's not your responsibility, it's mine. Yes, money is a bit tight, but not so much as you seem to think. The house and car are paid for so we have no monthly payments, just taxes and utilities. Yes, you eat a lot, but all things considered I count that as a blessing, not a curse; besides, with you doing all of the cooking and baking from scratch our food bill is probably half what it would be if we bought the usual prepared meals. Not to mention the way you plan out the shopping to take advantage of sales and coupons saves us a lot of money too."
She blushed at my words, but I meant them, they weren't just empty compliments, and then she changed the subject, "Well in that case, should I order the pizzas so we can watch our movies, or would you rather I made them, it wouldn't take much longer than having them delivered?"
I chuckled at that and said, "Go ahead and order us some pizzas while I take a look at the movies you brought home," getting up from my chair, I took the two DVD's from her as she went into the kitchen to order our dinner.
While I read the back of the DVD's, I could hear her on the phone ordering the pizzas. It sounded like she was getting at least two large pizzas, though I couldn't hear exactly what she had ordered.
-Legion*** Taylor ***Legion-After I finished ordering the pizzas, I took two glasses out of the cupboard and filled them with ice, pulled a bottle of root beer from the fridge and brought them all out to the living room.
"Here dad," as I handed him a glass, "and take the root beer. I'll get some plates and napkins and then we can decide which movie we'll watch first." I set my glass down on the end table next to where I planned on sitting.
I brought two plates and a handful of napkins from the kitchen and gave dad his before setting mine down next to my glass, which dad had already filled and then left the bottle for me.
Dad looked over at me and said, "If it's all the same to you, I'd like to start with Taken, the writeup sounds good and I kind of sort of remember seeing the trailer a while back."
I shrugged, "Sure, that works for me, I haven't seen it and it does sound good. Anyway, I had a thought on the way home, do you think we could put in a garden in the backyard? It wouldn't be very big, but it would be nice to have some fresh tomatos and stuff. I don't want to go overboard in case I don't like gardening, but on the plus side it would stretch our food budget a bit and let us have fresh veggies."
"I've never put in a garden either, well other than some flowers for your grandmother, so we'll have to do some research into what we need and the best way to do it," dad admitted.
I laughed and said, "Hey I'm the research girl in this family! I bet I can find out a lot of that stuff online, and whatever else I need I should be able to get at the library. Say, have I ever told you how much I love having good public libraries? 'Cause I really, really do."
Dad shook his head and chuckled at me, "I'm glad you like the libraries, but are you ready to start watching or do you want to wait until the pizza gets here?"
"Lets start watching now, we can always pause it when they arrive." I replied.
With that dad started Taken, which he had already cued up for us.
The rest of the evening was nice; dad and I really hadn't done something like this in a long time, not since mom died to be honest and I had missed it. When we finished with Sherlock Holmes we cleaned up the living room, added our dishes to the dishwasher and ran it. I combined what little pizza was left into one box and put it into the fridge, figuring that dad could have some for lunch if he wanted and I would finish the rest off as snacks.
Because I planned on patrolling in a new direction, from the docks down to the Boat Graveyard, I went to bed as soon as I could, right around 10 o'clock so that I could get an early start.
-Legion*** ***Legion-When I woke up just a little before 2am, I checked to ensure that dad was sleeping deeply and then dressed in my Legion costume. I had made a few changes when I repaired the damage from my fight with Stormtiger and Cricket, adding 4 more throwing blades, a spool of Black Widow cord in a belt mounted dispenser as well as a holster for the tazer and a pouch that held 8 additional cartridges.
The changes I wanted for my gauntlets would have to wait until Amy and I had some free time for experimentation and testing. Any other changes were of a much lower priority and could wait as I continued my 'field testing' of my costume and weapons. I was keeping a notebook in shorthand down in my workroom of my ideas as well as how well things worked in the real world.
Carefully and quietly I left the house and headed towards the docks, beginning the process of gathering my swarm. I stayed out of sight as usual, but focused on finding and gathering a swarm of rodents and insects in the underground drains and tunnels as part of my mapping project. Though I had this area well-mapped, I used it as a starting point as I headed towards the Docks using a different route. I needed to keep my speed down from my normal pace so I had time to gather my swarm and map things out properly, but I was still moving along as fast as a good long distance runner, at about 14 or 15 miles an hour.
Once I was into the Docks, I paralleled my previous mapping course as I headed towards the Ship Graveyard. Even though I considered mapping to be a priority I still kept an eye out for any signs of criminal activity, with little success. I was beginning to think that I would need to patrol earlier to find most crimes, that I was simply missing a lot because I was active too late in the evening.
Even as I thought that, I sensed through my swarm a woman on a bike two streets over get pulled down by a couple of men and dragged into a nearby alley. She only cried out once before they silenced her and then held her down and pulled her coat off. I couldn't tell precisely what they were doing as they leaned over her, even with several birds overhead, but I changed direction and sprinted towards her anyway.
Easily jumping from building to building, I soon arrived at the edge of a roof overlooking the alley hiding the men and woman. Looking down I saw them remove a syringe from her arm and heard them talking.
"Good, this shit'll calm da bitch right the fuck down, an' it's real good at bringing 'em back for more, too," the man giggled obscenely and said, "now get 'dose jeans off'a her an' we can have a little fun to go wit' our bidness."
With that I realized what had happened. The two men were almost certainly Merchants and were attempting to addict the poor woman with one of their drugs, designer drugs according to some rumors I had heard while still at Winslow, that were supposed to be super addictive. And now they were going to rape her as their 'reward' for another successful 'recruitment'. Or so they thought.
Because this was only a second story roof, I didn't even bother to slow my descent and simply dropped straight down into the alley behind the men. Grabbing the first man by the nape of his neck and belt, I tossed him face first into the alley wall. The second looked up in shock just in time to take a baton strike across the jaw that knocked him away from the poor woman with a shattered jaw.
I spent the next few minutes administering a painful, but not permanently crippling beating to the two men. I made a point of breaking a number of bones as well as at least one groin kick each, but I avoided going to the extremes like I had last time. Although this time I ensured that I thoroughly broke both of their hands and legs, as I decided that I would do that anytime I caught someone drugging a victim.
After carefully checking the woman for any injuries, I checked the Merchants as well, removing everything from their pockets and piling it on top of their semi-conscious, but thoroughly broken, bodies. I pulled out my burner cell then changed my mind and used one of the cell phones I had found on the Merchants and called 911. Cheerfully ignoring the low moans of the beaten men I patiently waited for the call to go through.
"Emergency services, how may I help you?"
"Hi, this is Legion. I just stopped a couple of Merchants from raping a young woman after they injected her with some sort of drug; she's stable right now but she definitely needs to get to a hospital. Actually, so do both of the Merchants, they seemed to be suffering from multiple contusions and possible broken bones. Please send some police and an ambulance to this location. It's an alley off of 3rd Street near Smith Ave. Her bike is leaning up against the building next to the alley," I explained to the 911 operator.
"Yes sir, police and rescue have been notified and will be there shortly. Will you be there when they arrive?"
"That's the plan. I don't want to leave her unattended until help arrives, so I'll wait and give the police my statement when they get here."
"Very well, if there's anything else, please call at once."
"I will. Also, I'm going to leave this phone on so you can trace it if you need to," I said as I dropped the phone back on top of its owner, and waited until the police and rescue arrived to take over the scene. Looking around to make sure everyone was okay for the moment, I walked out into the street and picked up her bike and leaned it against the building where it was plainly visible.
Walking back to the woman, I tugged her pants up properly and put her coat back on so that she would stay warm until the rescue arrived. After that I just waited more or less patiently until either the police or the rescue arrived.
Somewhat to my surprise, the rescue actually beat the police by almost 5 minutes. As the EMT's came into the alley I pointed to the woman and explained what they had done to her, and then told them that the men were not bleeding out, were still mostly conscious and could probably wait for a second ambulance or even ride in with the police.
Both of them looked quite disturbed by my swarm voice, but the older of the two EMT's recovered quickly and gave me an odd look before he bent over and checked the two men while his partner finished prepping the woman for transport and then said, "Yeah you're right, they can wait for the next bus, she's a lot more critical," he stood and looked at me a moment then said, "I have to say, that was a professional beating; maximum pain and minimum permanent damage. Lots of practice?"
I shook my head, "Not really. I simply decided to make a point tonight; normally they'd just make bail and be right back on the streets doing the same shit in a few days. This way, it'll be months before they can do anything like this, and hopefully the memory of the pain will be a deterrent."
The EMT laughed and said, "Yeah, like my old man used to say 'pain is great motivator'; who knows, maybe it'll motivate them to stop using drugs and doing evil shit like this. At least we can hope so." He turned towards the street as a police car pulled up, then said, "Alright, we'll get her to the hospital and another rescue should be here soon. Be safe Legion, and keep up the good work."
"I will."
As he headed towards the Rescue, he stopped a moment to speak to the police that had just arrived before getting behind the wheel and driving off. A moment later the two police officers walked up to me and asked, "Hi, um do you mind if we ask you some questions?"
I shook my head and said, "Not at all, however it might be faster if I tell you what happened first, and then you can ask any questions you need for clarification."
The smaller cop nodded and pulled out a digital voice recorder and asked, "Is it okay if we record this?"
"That's fine," and with that I began my statement, first identifying myself and then giving the date and time, before explaining the entire sequence of events from first noticing them attacking the woman all the way up to when the police arrived. I did kind of gloss over exactly what I did during the fight, but made it clear that I tried to use minimal force to completely subdue them, but they continued to resist, possible due to whatever drugs they had been using. I knew that they had been using something just from the way they smelled and how fast their hearts were beating, though I wasn't going to mention that to the police.
About the time I finished with my statement, another, even larger Rescue arrived and the Merchants were prepped for transport. While that was happening the police asked me a few more questions and then restated the date and time and stopped recording.
"Thanks Legion, this will make our job a lot easier. Having your statement recorded means we can use it when they go to trial, which means getting a conviction will be a lot easier. Because honestly, most capes are too hard to get in touch with so we can't get them to testify, so a lot of perps get to walk," he explained as he put his recorder away.
"Glad I could help, but if you don't need anything else I've a patrol to get back to."
"That's fine, we have everything we need, so enjoy the rest of your night." With that all of the cops headed for their cars, taking the woman's bike with them, while I vaulted my way from wall to wall, using a couple of window sills to help me get up to the roof of one of the buildings.
Taking a moment to spread my swarm out to allow me a good view of my surroundings as well as to restart my mapping, I continued on my way towards the Boat Graveyard. Shifting closer to the shore line I settled down to a steady pace that let me map the underground while keeping a close eye out for any signs of trouble.
After about 20 minutes I came up to the only working section of docks in Brockton Bay, located right at the southern edge of the Trainyards, it handled what little shipping was still able to make it through the bay. This included about a dozen fishing boats, mostly family owned, and a few sailboats that were still in their cradles waiting for the weather to warm up enough for their owners to have them relaunched. The main reason this section of the docks was still active, other than a rather winding and narrow channel out to sea, was because of the Dockworker's Association.
It might be a fading union, but it's members had a serious reputation for dealing with the gangs harshly. Even the neo-nazis had learned that trying to muscle into this area only ended in pain. In fact, if I remembered some of mom and dad's conversations from when I was younger, the union had put a number of their thugs and capes into the hospital with crippling injuries on more than one occasion.
I guess it just went to show that even racist bigots could learn if you hurt them enough. I would have to keep that in mind the next time I found E88 being naughty, or doing something terminally stupid like shooting up a neighborhood. Or holding another one of their initiations, like that one I stopped that Stormtiger and Cricket had been at.
As I worked my way through the Dockworker's territory, I was pleased to see that there were no visible gang tags, the streets and sidewalks were in good repair and the buildings looked to be well cared for, even if they needed a fresh coat of paint. I hadn't actually been down here since before mom died and it was nice to see that it was in better shape than a lot of the areas that I patrolled through.
I stopped when I reached the river that divided the city and after checking the time, I paralleled the river for a couple of miles before turning back and heading for home. I planned on being home by 4:30, well before dawn.
As I ran, I kept my swarm spread as wide as I could, trying to push my range as I did every day. I had noticed that after my two cape fights that my range had jumped noticeably, especially after fighting Lung, while fighting normals did nothing of note, though I had no idea why. I had also noticed that along with the jump in range, I had a significant increase in the size of the animals I could pull into my swarm. Currently, my range was up to just over 600 feet, including the two big jumps in range and I could control animals up to about 100 pounds or so. Just practicing daily allowed a fairly steady, if slow, increase in my range so I made that a part of my everyday routine.
When I reached home, dad was still asleep so I quietly entered the kitchen and headed downstairs to change. I put my costume in the gym bag I kept under the stairs and put on a pair of shorts and a big tee shirt that I used to use as a nighty but that now actually fit me as a shirt, if a bit loosely.
Heading back upstairs, I booted up my computer and started both of my mapping programs and continued entering the data that I had gathered during my patrol. As I worked with the programs, I made mental notes about how it could be improved to work faster or at least easier. Both of them were under the Open Source License, so I could modify the programs if I downloaded the Software Developers Kit. One of them was free and the other was only $20, so I had a feeling that I might be doing that for one or the other eventually.
After I finished updating my maps I saved my work and closed the programs out. I then checked my mail and continued with the testing I had started on the database that I had written. I had finished basic functionality testing on about half of the Virtual Machines I was using and hoped to finish the rest of the VM's by lunch time. Even when that was done I still needed to really stress the program and see if I could break it by being stupid. It was tedious but necessary work, but it was the only way to be sure I had done my programming correctly and hadn't allowed any OS specific bugs to sneak in.
Around six o'clock I wrapped up work and sent Amy a quick email asking her if I could meet her after school, as I had some stuff I wanted to talk about. As usual, she sent me a reply almost immediately saying she was looking forward to seeing me and that we could walk to her shift at one of the other hospitals. Once we finished exchanging emails I logged out and shut everything down for a while since I had a busy morning ahead of me.
Walking into the kitchen I started a large batch of bread dough and set it aside to rise, then began making breakfast for dad and I. Once that was started I made his lunch; since I had no leftovers I made him a salad and two sandwiches. I could hear him getting ready for work so I knew that I had at least 20 minutes before he would be down to eat, which was plenty of time to fix and eat my own breakfast.
By the time I finished eating, dad still hadn't come down but I could tell he would in a few minutes so I made him a nice omelet with toast and sausages that was ready just before he sat down. Once he took his seat I headed back downstairs and pulled fairly large roast out of the freezer and set it aside to start thawing.
As I started prepping the veggies that would go in the crockpot with roast, I decided that I was in the mood for garlic mashed potatoes, so I prepped some extra carrots and onions to cook with the roast, and planned on making the potatoes after lunch, this afternoon. Dumping everything in the crockpot, I turned it on low and left it to do it's thing.
Once dad had left for work, I made a couple of pies and two large batches of cookies, oatmeal raison and chocolate chocolate chip. Once the pies were in the oven I started on my clean up, which let me finish loading the dishwasher and starting it. Boring, but a lot easier than doing them all by hand. The pots and pans were bad enough.
I did notice that by keeping my isometric mod active all night I was actually a bit tired and definitely still hungry. Looking through the fridge, I decided that I would just make another breakfast, this time extra-heavy on the calories. Hopefully that would be enough to tide me over until lunch-time.
Checking my pies, I slid the first batch of cookies in the oven, setting a kitchen timer to let me know when they were done before heading back out to the living room to start my school work. I double-checked my progress towards my GED and began studying while I also worked on testing my scheduling database. God, I loved multitasking and Thora was a big help with doing two completely different things at once.
Although it was a bit inconvenient, I kept a constant stream of cookies going in and out of the oven while the pies finished baking. Looking over my baking pans, I decided that I really needed to get some more baking sheets and bread pans, and maybe some cake pans too, since I didn't have any. I would keep my eyes open online and in the paper to see what was available.
For lunch I made a batch of tacos just because it was quick and easy. Filling too. I made sure that all of my baking, including a double batch of dinner rolls, and cooking was done by 2 o'clock so I had time to shower and change before heading out to meet Amy. I put the rolls in a large basket, well wrapped in towels, and the potatoes in the dutch oven, loosely covered. I then put a deep pan full of water in the bottom of the oven with a towel folded up to help wick the moisture into the oven when it was turned on.
I emptied out my backpack again, put in a thermos of juice, some cups and napkins, a box of my fresh-baked cookies and one of my library books before grabbing mom's compact umbrella and tucking it in the side pocket and then headed for the bus stop.
Riding the bus was uneventful, leaving me plenty of time to read and work with my swarm. When the bus pulled up outside Arcadia I debarked and headed for my usual seat inside the H. Taking out my book I settled back to read while scanning through Arcadia.
Because of the warmer weather I had a nice large selection of insects to work with so I carefully began landing at least one of the smaller insects, like gnats, on every person in the building. Although I really couldn't see anything, I was able to tell the difference in gender, and surprising enough, age, just from the pheromones that were given off. I did make a point of putting enough insects in each room so that, with concentration I was able to make out what was being said so I could figure out what was being taught in each classroom.
As soon as I landed a gnat on Amy, she took control of it away from me than gave it right back. As an experiment, I had the gnat tap her once with its foreleg and then wait. A few seconds later, the gnat used the same leg to tap twice. We spent the next few minutes playing around with the gnat, which gave me some ideas for undetectable comms between us that I really wanted to talk to Amy about. I also put learning Morse code at the top of my 'must learn' list.
I have to admit I was also impressed at the amount of control that Amy had over the insect; she could remove it from my control completely, let me have full control, or take just enough control to ensure I knew what she doing. It was amazing to feel someone else controlling the gnat at the same time as I was; it felt sort of odd, but mostly very intimate.
About 10 minutes later the dismissal bell rang and I felt the student body begin to migrate towards the exits. Amy paused by her locker and then headed towards where I was waiting. I smiled as I watched her slide around the other students on her way to the exit; it looked like she was almost dancing as she walked through the halls. I looked up from my book as a thought occurred to me, I might need to caution her about demonstrating just how quick and agile she was, because while I doubted that most of the student body would realize what was going on, the Wards might, especially if she made a habit of it.
A moment later Amy and Vicky exited Arcadia and headed towards me. Smiling, I marked my place with my bookmark and set my book aside. Standing up I let Amy wrap me in a warm hug, that I returned with interest. Sitting back down, Amy sat next to me and said, "Vicky, have a seat. Well, unless you're in a hurry?"
She sat down and said, "Nope, I'm good. I've got no plans today, well other than homework. How about you two?"
While Amy explained that we were going to head over to St. Joseph's for her shift there, I put my book away and brought out the box of cookies and the thermos of fruit juice. Opening the box I offered Amy the first choice, then leaned over and offered the box to Vicky.
"Cookies? Fresh baked this morning," I jiggled the box and went on, "guaranteed to be fattening or your money back."
That made her laugh while Amy leaned up against me and giggled. However she did take one of each so I pulled the box back and set it down on Amy's lap so I could pour a cup of fruit juice for each of us. When I offered Vicky a cup of juice she just shook her head and held up her bottle of water.
The three of us sat there for a few minutes, quietly eating cookies and enjoying the lovely Spring day. Eventually though, Vicky finished her cookies and stood up and stretched, I watched her for a moment, amazed at how flexible she was, then I looked around to see just how many people were watching her. A lot. In fact, it seemed that just about everyone who had a line of sight to Vicky had stopped and was watching.
I leaned down and whispered to Amy, "Is it always like this?"
She looked around and then said, "Yeah, pretty much. When she doesn't pay attention her aura can really get out of hand," she sat up straight and said, "Yo, Vicky! Turn it down, you're making a spectacle of yourself."
She jumped a little and looked around, "Crap, I did it again." Even as she spoke I could see people begin turning away, some blushing, but most just laughing.
"Oh well, thanks for cookies Taylor, I'm heading home now, Amy. Can I assume the two of you are walking to St. Joe's?"
Amy nodded and said, "Yes, that would no doubt be a safe assumption," trying very hard to project a serious and strait-laced image. Her giggles at the end kind of ruined that, though.
I started to repack my backpack as Vicky gave Amy a hug, and then to my surprise, gave me one too. Turning away, she headed to the student parking lot, calling back over her shoulder, "I'll see you tonight Amy, and you whenever Taylor. Have fun you two."
-Legion*** Amy ***Legion-After waving good bye to Vicky, I helped Taylor finish putting away the cookies and juice, sneaking a raisin oatmeal cookie first. Once everything was ready, I took her hand and started walking towards St. Joe's.
I didn't want to make any modifications while walking, so I concentrated on my multi-tasking … if that isn't a contradiction in terms. While Taylor and I talked about school, our date and things like that, I designed the sensory nodes I wanted to use for electro-location and mapped out where they would be placed on Taylor. As soon as I finished the placement map, I echoed and mapped out myself. All told it took me about 45 minutes of our walk to finish, though I suspect that it would have gone much faster if I had been making the actual changes instead of just simulating them.
I tried to access Taylor's swarm-sense at the same time, but really couldn't do it. After I was done with my mapping though, I found that I could use the echoes to sort of feel the entire swarm, I wasn't able to access their senses the way Taylor could but I was able to feel where the individual creatures of her swarm were located. I thought that I might be able to use that as a 'mapping' sense if Taylor and I practiced enough. I did find that if I focused on a single animal and a single sense, then I could 'piggy-back' on Taylor and actually see or hear remotely. Either sense would work, though I suspect that I would get more use out of sight then hearing, since it was my primary sense.
It was pretty clear that when I was linked with Taylor, my ability to multi-task was improved to the point that I could handle three separate tasks with my full attention, but trying to move up to four wasn't possible. Yet. Trying to remote sense through Taylor's swarm worked, but I could only handle one additional sensory input at a time, even if I dropped my other actions. Maybe with time and practice I would be able to improve my multi-tasking ability enough to use more senses at the same time, and maybe even be able to multi-task when I wasn't linked to Taylor.
I took a casual glance around the neighborhood we were passing through, a rather nice suburban area; the lack of any gang tags pretty much confirmed that it was probably unclaimed or neutral territory. I waited until Taylor finished telling me about the movies she and her dad had watched and then asked, "So, are we clear to talk about 'stuff'?"
She smiled at me and said, "Oh sure, unless someone has a really long-range parabolic mike or super-senses, no one is in range to listen to us neither is anyone paying obvious attention."
"Okay then, I'd like to pickup some food for dinner, and then eat at the park across from the hospital. I can install the electro-location mods there and we can cover some of our plans for Wednesday afterwards."
"Sounds good to me. Any preference for food? I'm sort of in the mood for burgers and fries, especially if they're well made."
"Oooh yeah, there's a hole-in-the-wall diner close to the hospital that's open both early and late, that makes really good food. They do a lot of takeout for the workers at the hospital and they always give big servings too. I'm pretty sure that they don't buy the patties, but make them right on site because they taste really good. It's not cheap, but I think it's worth the money."
"Cool. I've got a few things to let you know too. I've been studying physics and quantum entanglement and I'm seriously behind on math for what I'm reading now, so that's going to be one of my big areas of study. Aside from that, I've read up on a bunch of radio communication devices like short-wave, AM and FM radios. I suspect that those will be fairly easy to implement, but when it comes to cell-phones, I have to admit that I'm at a complete loss."
I frowned at that and asked her, "Why is that? I thought that cell-phones just used super high frequency radio to connect, right?"
She grimaced and explained, "Sort of. That part is easy'ish, the problem is that making the connection to the cell-phone network and then being able to call out and receive calls requires having an authorized connection to one of the phone companies. And that's completely trackable. Maybe using a prepaid phone as the source would work, but I have no idea of even where to start doing something like that. And it's just like figuring out how to backstop our new ID's; with all the Thinker and Tinker support that the government has it's incredibly tricky and dangerous to even look into it."
With that we just walked for a while in silence, thinking about the problems we faced to implement the mods we wanted. Finally I spoke up, "Taylor, would it help if you had someone who already knew this kind of stuff agree to teach you?"
She turned and looked at me quizzically and asked, "Sure it would, who did you have in mind?"
I took a deep breath and said, "Über and L337."
I could tell that I had shocked Taylor because she actually stumbled before she caught herself.
"Seriously!? They're villains. And a bad joke, why would you … wait a second, how do you even know them? And why do you think they could be trusted?"
I nodded at her and explained, "I'm very serious; I know that they're villains, but they aren't as bad as most people make out. I've known them for a couple of years now, in fact I met them right after that stupid GTA episode. In the hospital, where I treated them for a nearly fatal dose of poisoning from a hallucinogenic gas. They owe me, big-time."
She looked pensive then asked, "Gas poisoning? How in the world did that happen?"
I sighed and said, "Yeah, just … don't admit you know about it, okay? They aren't proud of what happened and would rather pretend that it was intentional then admit it was an accident caused by not understanding how L337's power worked. The car they used for GTA was powered by a tinker-tech engine and fuel combo, and the exhaust leaked into car before it could all be neutralized and released into the open air. It was a nasty hallucinogen and they both got a nearly lethal dose of it, before they realized what had happened. They got to the ER as quick as they could, and fortunately I was there."
I laughed and went on, "What most people wouldn't believe, even if they saw it with their own two eyes, is that they both have jobs, not your normal 9-5 jobs maybe, but still regular jobs. Their video exploits are a hobby, not a vocation. Über is a certified bio-medical equipment tech among other things, but as an independent contractor who is called in when the locals can't fix the problem. And believe me, they pay through the nose for his services. And you'll never guess what L337 does."
"Umm, if Über does the technical work, then maybe L337 … teaches martial arts? Ballroom dancing? Cordon Bleu cooking?"
I snickered and said, "Close but no cigar; he's a freelance writer. A good one too, he has articles all over the place on a bunch of different topics, under a few different names. They also talk to me every now and then, often to pass on important street gossip, which I then pass on to the Protectorate."
"Besides, if Über doesn't already have the skills needed, he can learn them to master level overnight and I know that L337 is damn good hacker, not even counting his Tinker abilities. And while I mostly trust them, I intend to make sure that you never see them as either Taylor or L. I think that the mods for PP will be the perfect disguise, a little known rogue with a totally different appearance learning to crack commercial and government systems should stay well under the radar. Especially since PP will have no obvious tech skills, just 'pest control'."
Taylor laughed at my last comment and asked, "So is that on our todo list for Wednesday?"
I smiled back at her and said, "Sort of. I hope to take care of some simple mods today, with the majority waiting 'til Wednesday afternoon. As for fingerprints …" I paused in thought for a moment, then asked, "What would you think of plain skin instead of prints, at least until we have our 'runaway' ID's?"
She blinked at that then said, "Actually, that's a good idea, though I plan on NOT letting anyone take my fingerprints, since they would get a sample of my DNA just from the skin oils. I think." She looked down at me and asked, "They can right?"
I shrugged and admitted that I didn't know. "I can do it, but I don't know what Tinker's can do with just that little bit, though hopefully the 'Unwritten Rules' will keep them from trying unless they're going to press serious charges, but, well who knows for sure?"
"I guess I'll have to put criminal forensics on my todo list for after my GED, along with finding a really good criminal lawyer, one who routinely pisses the feds and PRT off, just in case." She looked ahead and then said, "I think we're getting close to the hospital, so where's this diner of yours?"
I looked around then said, "About two more blocks. It's on the other side of the street and not well marked; you kind of have to know about it to spot it. I think they get most of their business from repeat customers, at least if the number of takeout bags I see around the hospital mean anything."
Not five minutes later I led Taylor through a plain door, with a small sign that said 'Mike's Grill, Open Daily 6AM to Midnight'. The windows were mostly covered with posters for different local sports teams and charities, all of them current and in good shape.
-Legion*** Taylor ***Legion-As I followed Amy into the diner, I did something that I did anytime I entered a restaurant these days; I checked for insects throughout the building and was quite pleased to see that they had significantly fewer than most restaurants; and since I wasn't smelling any excessive use of insecticides that meant that they worked hard to keep it clean. It also meant that I could smell the food properly, including the ingredients they used, most of which seemed to be fresh rather than frozen.
Taking a look at their menu, and considering what we had planned, I asked Amy, "Do you want to combine our orders into one large order or keep them separate?"
"Combined, definitely. I figure 6 burgers with everything, 4 fries and 2 large drinks should be enough. Especially with your cookies for dessert."
I laughed at that and pulled my wallet out of my pack. Taking another look at the menu I took out $40, which should cover most of the bill, and handed it to Amy. I kept my backpack open, since I figured that I could carry the bags in there easily.
Amy looked puzzled for a moment, then put the money in her wallet and pulled out her debit card before giving the boy behind the counter our order, paying for the whole thing with her card instead of cash.
While we waited for our order to be filled, I picked up copies of the local sale papers, curious to see what was available that I might find useful. A quick check of the short index on the front pages gave me hope that I would be able find a bunch of bicycles and hopefully another aquarium or two.
Loading the bags of food into my backpack only took a couple of minutes, and Amy and I left to finish our walk to the park she had told me about. When we got to the park, we found a relatively secluded picnic table and set our food out so we could eat while we worked on our mods and talked.
After a few bites of a very good burger, I sipped some of my coke and said, "So, have you got everything for the electro-location sense mapped out? And can I at least finish this burger first, cause the isometric mod really burns calories, even if it's only at 25%."
Amy nodded as she swallowed a bite of her burger and replied, "Oh sure, I'm pretty hungry too, though I've only got mine at 15% because of school. I wanted to be sure that I didn't over do it before I could get more food. That mod won't take long, 5 minutes or so is all. After that I want to start on some defensive mods, and that's going to take a bit longer, as well as more food. I'm also thinking about creating some very high-density fat reserves to help power the changes that the Changer mod will be making, although it won't actually be simple fat. That may take some trial and error to get the composition just right for maximum energy and balanced nutrition."
"Speaking of which, if you haven't boosted your digestion to the max, you should do it now, it'll help with the mods."
Nodding, I said, "Already done, I figured we'd need all we can get just to eat what we ordered before you have to head inside. I also dropped my iso mod back to zero so the new food doesn't go to waste while you're making the new mods."
"True, besides these are too good to let get cold, especially the fries," she said as she poured salt over one of the cups of fries and emptied several ketchup packets onto one corner of her burger wrapper. Laughing I did the same, though I just added some ketchup to her pile and shared it with her.
Taking a few minutes to finish off two of the burgers each and most of the fries, I wiped off my hands and offered her my left hand as I sipped some Coke. Amy began by creating the new sensory organs just under the surface of my skin, then splicing the connecting nerves in parallel with my existing skin nerves. Once they were all in place she installed the normal on/off and sensitivity controls that I had for all of my other senses.
"Alright, let's test this a bit and make sure it works the way I hoped it would," Amy said as she stood up from our picnic table.
I nodded and followed her as she stepped away into the open. "Okay, I can definitely feel something, almost like a gentle breeze on my skin, so let's test it a bit. I'll stand here while you walk away and then back towards me."
Amy smiled and slowly walked away from me, and when she was about 10 or 11 feet away the sensation on my skin finally faded to nothing. "Stop. Okay that seems to be as far as it reaches, even at maximum sensitivity. Turn around and slowly walk towards me until we're touching, okay?"
"Sure," she said as she turned and walked slowly towards me. At about 5 feet away I asked her, "Okay, can you raise your arms?"
When she did as I had asked I said, "Oh, that's cool. I can actually sense your arms moving. Try some slow punches, okay?" As she did so, I concentrated on the new sensations I was feeling and realized that I could not only sense her movements clearly, but as she got within about 3 feet I started to sense something new. Closing my eyes, I focused all of my attention on my new sense and tried to identify what the sensations meant. Eventually, Amy's hands touched my shoulders and I said, "Okay that's different. I think that when you're really close I'm able to feel when your muscles begin to fire. If I'm right, with our speed, we may be able to learn to actually anticipate our opponent's actions and we'll have a form of combat pre-cognition."
Amy laughed and said, "Well, not really pre-cog, but it would still be a nice edge. Let's sit down and do mine now, then I want to start on some of the defensive mods I've thought of." Leading the way back to the picnic table she sat down and took my hand as I sat. Echoing off of my swarm, it only took her about a minute and a half to install her electro-location mod and then run a basic set of tests using the squirrels I pulled down from the trees around us.
"That's definitely different, but cool. I think we'll need a lot of practice with this to be able to anticipate our opponent's actions, but it'll be a lot fun to do. Also, I have a question for you; all of the different controls for your mods, how do you perceive them? Because when I installed this mod? In addition to the individual controls for each mod, it got added into my control panel."
"A control panel?" I asked her, quite puzzled. "What kind of panel?"
She frowned and then tilting her head replied, "I noticed it for the first time this morning, it's sort of like an outline of my body, with pushbuttons and dials all around the body … Oh, that makes sense. The dials show the sensitivity or amount of usage, while the buttons are on and off switches. My brain is weird."
I smiled at that but concentrated on viewing my own mods. After a minute I shook my head and said, "All of my controls are there, and I'm completely aware of each setting, but they're not visible in any way. I still need to use the mnemonic switches we developed originally."
"Actually, I think that makes perfect sense, because I have quite a few more mods installed then you do, what with my finger and toe claws, the ketamine spikes, lockpicks and wrist blades. If I'm right, and I think I am, then once you reach a certain number or complexity of mods your brain will create some sort of interface for you, one that you're comfortable with," she explained.
"Really? Okay then, what's next?"
"How about I add the mods that you don't have yet; claws, spikes, the lockpicks and stuff like that. After that's done there's a couple of simple ones that we should both have; a set of filters in our sinus cavity and throat and then a nictating membrane for our eyes. It will add another layer of protection for both of us. I had been thinking about starting the Changer mods, but instead I want to do these mods instead."
I paused a moment in thought, then settled down next her and said, "Alright then, let's get started," I held out my hand to her and watched as she started adding the new mods. The first to be added was the lockpicks and knives that I could extrude at will, it only took a few minutes for the installation and testing, then she went on to modify my toe- and finger nails. It actually took longer to test those then to install them as I played with the different colors and designs that I could add to my nails.
The ketamine spikes were a bit different, because instead of forming when needed, they were permanently imbedded in the finger bone at the tips of my index fingers, with a tiny gland that could produce the ketamine compound on demand.
Amy nodded and said, "Alright, let's finish our fries and burgers before the next step because we're going to need it to grow the new structures I have in mind."
Pulling out the last two burgers, I handed one to Amy and unwrapped mine and began eating; it only took about five minutes to finish all of our food and clear our trash away. Taking a sip of soda, Amy then said, "The next mod is a set of clear nictating membranes for our eyes, these will be both strong and tough, so that they can protect our eyes from most environmental threats; not enough to handle a bullet maybe, but anything less than that should be stopped just fine. If I do it right then no one will be able to tell its there without a full eye exam."
Twisting in her seat to face me, she took my hands and began building the membranes. I could actually see as the new muscles and nerves were grown to control the membrane and then again as the membrane was grown. She also modified the eye socket to allow the membrane to lock into place with an air-tight seal. Once mine were complete and tested she echoed and installed her mods as well.
"For my next trick," she said with a grin, "I'll be modifying your sinuses and nasal passages to include a series of filters and screens to block out any noxious gases and particulate matter such as smoke or ash. Under normal conditions the filters will be bypassed to allow maximum air flow, but whenever a problem is detected or when you want to, the bypass will close and all airflow will have to go through the filters. It will require a little extra effort to breath through the filters, but your diaphragm and lungs should be able to handle it just fine, but I won't be installing the throat filters until we've tested this for a while, to make sure."
"So what's going to trigger them in automatic mode?" I asked her.
"Your sense of smell to start with, possibly some dedicated sensors later. That's why I included manual controls as well. If you're going to enter a smoke filled building, shift to the filtered mode first. Oh, and our extra eyelids will activate at the same time as the filters, since pretty much anything that would be a problem to breath would be a problem for our eyes."
I nodded my understanding and replied, "Alright, let's do it and then," I paused as I checked the time, "it'll be time for your shift."
Taking a breath, Amy started on the next set of mods. Again I could feel it as the changes started, and I watched in fascination as my sinus cavities and nasal passages were expanded slightly and rebuilt with a complex series of filters and airway bypasses, as well as several air tight valves that would direct the airflow where it needed to go. As soon as she finished I shifted to my filtered mode and watched as my nictating eyelid snapped across my eye and the valves opened and closed to force air through the filters. A couple of breaths showed that Amy was right as usual, it really was just a bit harder to breath through the filters but that my lungs could handle it easily.
"How does it look, is it very obvious?" I asked after activating and deactivating my filter mode several times in a row.
"Umm, just a bit; if you're watching really close you might see something as it snaps across. From a distance and if you're not expecting it, it's not really easy to see," Amy explained as she leaned in for a closer look, "and once it's in place you can't really tell that anything is different."
Sitting back, Amy started echoing to make her own mods, starting with the nictating membranes and then finishing up with the filters before she sighed and let go of my hands so that she could stretch to release the tension from installing and testing all of our mods.
"Damn, it's getting late; walk me to the hospital?" she asked me.
"Of course," standing I slung my backpack over my shoulders and held my hand out for her. We took our time walking to the hospital, not speaking and just enjoying the evening and the cool weather.
As we walked up to the main entrance, Amy pulled me to a stop and hugged me before kissing me good bye. "I'll probably be a bit late tonight, so I've asked Vicky to pick me up when I finish. I'll email you once I'm home, alright?"
"Certainly, I'll check around 10:30 before I head for bed."
"Are you going out tonight?" Amy asked as she reluctantly stepped out of our embrace.
"Nope, I'll be patrolling more towards downtown tomorrow night, I don't like to cover the same area too often; I don't want to become predictable and changing my patrol pattern helps with my mapping project too," I explained.
"Alright then, just be safe, okay?"
"I will if you will, promise."
With that we went our separate ways, her into the hospital and me to the bus stop to catch my ride home.
-Legion*** Danny ***Legion-It was just three o'clock when I got down to the Trainyard to see how the transfer to the local trucks was going. The groceries and frozen food had already left on the trucks for the local stores and warehouses, which for today left only the Wal-Mart containers and two cars of miscellaneous fishing supplies and equipment for the local lobsterman, fishing boats and ship's chandler shops.
It only took me 15 minutes to finish my walk-around, checking that the gates and fences around our section of the Trainyard were all secure, and that the guards were all alert and watching for any signs of trouble. Lately it had been the Merchants that caused the most problems, usually drugged out of their minds and looking for something they could steal easily or just destroy if they couldn't take it away.
Dave had been a god-send in training our members in proper security techniques and how to use the billy clubs that he had 'found' somewhere, not to mention providing State certified training with the shotguns. His time in the Navy had taught him a lot of skills, that he was more than willing to pass on to others in the Association.
Kurt had gotten city carry permits and range time at a State Police gun range so that our members could legally carry the shotguns while we unloaded and loaded the trains and trucks on Mondays and Thursdays when the goods came in. It wasn't much, but even a small contract like that helped, and soon the lobstering and fishing would be picking up as well, which was another source of income for the Dockworkers.
If the city government would ever get their heads out of their collective asses and put the ferry back in operation, that would help even more. And not just for the Dockworkers, but for everyone; being able to move across the bay without having to drive an extra thirty miles around the bay would be a big boost to employment and help improve the overall economy. But no, they had better things to spend money on, like the Country Club and different PR stunts to help with their re-election campaigns.
On my way back to the office, I swung down by the piers and saw that most of the fishing and lobster boats were tied up with the crews doing repairs and maintenance after the winter season, though two of the boats were coming back in after spending the weekend out on the fishing grounds. Seeing how low they were riding, it looked like they'd had a profitable trip.
I'd check with Mary to make sure the reefer trucks were on hand to move the catch over to the little processing plant, and that the captains had called ahead to make sure the plant was ready to handle their catches. The plant may have been collectively owned by the eight fishing boats that still sailed out of Brockton Bay, but the Union provided the manpower to actually run it for them and scheduling workers could be tricky at times, depending on the day of the week and how busy the little fleet was.
Once I was back in my office I called Mary in, "Mary, are the trucks and plant ready for the Congo Bongo and Cherie? They're about 30 minutes out and riding low."
"Yeah Danny, I called Phil about 20 minutes ago to bring his team in by four o'clock to process the catch. I let him know yesterday that we'd need them sometime today and that they were to wait for my call to come in, but that it would probably be late. Mark went over and made sure that freezers and such like were turned on and working properly right after lunch, so there should be no holdups."
"Excellent Mary, I've got a few calls to make before I'll be able to head out myself. The train cars should be empty by now, and once the trucks are gone those guys will be locking up and then coming back to clock out right on time. Unless something critical comes up I'll see you in the morning, alright?"
She looked at the wall clock and nodded and said, "Sounds good to me, I should be able to finish up everything and clock out shortly. You'll lockup the office on your way out, right?"
I waved her out of my office and said, "No problem," as I started shuffling through the papers on my desk to make sure that I hadn't missed anything that had to be finished today. Other than a few job orders that were still open and awaiting final approval and signing, and two purchase orders that I needed to verify in the morning; my day was mostly finished.
I might not hold any elected position in the Association, but as the head of HR and Accounting I did more to keep the members regularly employed than the President or Vice-President did. On the other hand, they had to deal with the local politicos and CEO's to negotiate new contracts for the Dockworker's Association, while Mary and I worked behind the scenes to make sure that they had all the information they needed to negotiate from a position of strength. That's actually why they kept getting re-elected; they were good at dealing with people like the Mayor and even the local gangs, while I wasn't; I was more likely to take a swing at them then to calmly deal with their stupidity.
One of the things that we did different down here on the docks was that our elected officials didn't get paid extra for their position; they clocked in and out just like everyone else did, and they had to work fewer hours just like everyone else when times were tough. The only benefit that they got was that when they had to act as an elected Union official, they got paid for their hours just as if they were unloading a ship or train car. It was the same for Mary and I, we were the only two actual 'white collar' workers in the Association since we handled all of the paperwork that needed to be done, but we weren't on salary, we still got paid by the hour and clocked in and out just like everyone else, and we worked fewer hours when cutbacks were needed.
Picking up my phone, I dialed a number from memory, a number that I had been calling for the last couple of months, at least once a week.
"Protectorate ENE, Miss Militiaspeaking, how may I help you?"
"Good afternoon Miss Militia, this is Danny Hebert. How are you doing this fine Monday afternoon?"
"Quite well, Danny. I do have some good news for you today; the Police Department and DA are planning to drop the hammer on Winslow next Monday morning."
I smiled as she told me that, "That's very good news indeed, Miss Militia. Is there anything that I should do, or not do as the case may be?"
She chuckled and replied, "Just continue to be patient, that's all. Everything is progressing quite nicely and all we need to do is wait while the final preparations are completed. All of the warrants are ready to be signed, though neither the judge nor any of his staff know anything except that sometime in the next two weeks a major case will be closed and that a large number of warrants will need to be signed at the last minute. Which is not uncommon these days, since keeping things well compartmentalized is the only way to prevent leaks that can destroy a case completely," she paused for a moment and then continued, "if you feel it necessary, you may tell Taylor what is going on, although I would prefer that you not give her any details until after the arrests have been made."
I nodded, even though she couldn't see me, "I will, and hopefully Taylor won't get impatient, though so far she's been really good about waiting for this to be dealt with by the authorities. Surprisingly so to be honest; I worry a bit that she isn't actually being patient, but simply doesn't think anything will be done and is just getting on with her life."
We talked for a few more minutes, during which Miss Militia described in more detail how the arrests were going to be made, and what was going to be done to try and keep the students safe and educated while a very comprehensive set of changes were put in place. Eventually the call was finished and I was able to lock up the office and head home to see Taylor and have dinner.
-Legion*** ***Legion-When I got home, I found that Taylor wasn't home yet, but she had left me a note on the refrigerator explaining that she was walking Amy to work and expected to be home by 6:30 pm. The note also directed me to turn the oven on at 5:30 at 175 degrees so that garlic mashed potatoes and dinner rolls would be properly warmed up by the time she got home and was ready to eat dinner.
Since it was almost 5:30, I went ahead and turned the oven on then went out to the living room to watch the news and finish reading the paper. Not a whole lot was going on locally, but apparently a bunch of child Capes in Las Vegas were causing a bit of chaos along the strip; nothing too dangerous but annoying and a bit humiliating for the cops and casino security forces. It seems that they were using their powers to raid the buffets and arcades, giving out the game tokens and meal coupons that they stole to homeless people and other kids that were living on the street.
It was just 6:30 when Taylor finally walked in the back door, calling out to me as she checked the slow-cooker and took the rolls and potatoes out of the oven. "Hey dad! Let me get washed up and then we can sit down to eat, alright?"
I turned off the TV and walked into the kitchen, "No problem, I'll set the table while to put your stuff away and get washed up."
-Legion*** Taylor ***Legion-After dinner, dad and I put away the left-overs, cleaned the kitchen and started the dishwasher. Dad went back out to the living room to finish reading the paper while I went upstairs to work on the blouses I had cut out and prepared.
Having everything prepped and organized let me start sewing right away and I finished 3 of the blouses by the time I was ready to quit for the night and go to bed. Because I didn't plan on patrolling tonight, I was able to work a bit later than normal, even taking a break to chat online with Amy for a while before going back to finish the third blouse. I wrapped up my work and sent Amy a final email around 11:30 before heading off to bed.
-Legion*** ***Legion-I slept in a bit, getting up around 4 a.m., and set my iso-mod to 50% to see how well I could do my normal work at this setting, as well as to see how much extra food I would end up needing. What was really interesting was that I now had an interface to control and monitor all of my mods, much like Amy had, although mine was quite a bit different from how she had described hers.
Mine seemed to be a set of interactive menus, menus that were controlled by my thoughts and intentions, but looked like a faintly glowing screen set off to the right and slightly above my normal visual range. In fact, it sort of reminded me of the Heads-Up-Displays I had seen in video games, like a mix of the best features from Halo, Mass Effect and Star Trek Online. It was always there, but if I wasn't using it for something it would shrink down into a tiny icon that didn't block my vision at all.
I could still control my mods with my mnemonic triggers but using the interface gave me much finer control and a digital display for sensitivity, power settings, and energy usage. I wasn't sure how accurate the digital readouts were, but I was definitely going to play around with this interface and see just what I could do with it, and work with Amy to test its accuracy. Maybe we could even figure out ways to monitor our normal biological and metabolic functions in addition to the installed mods. The possibilities seemed to be limitless, especially if we could figure out how to emulate other powers and abilities.
Because I had spent Sunday afternoon in the library and had plenty of books that I needed to read, I decided that I would spend some extra time today finishing up the blouses and then build up a stockpile of jewelry to sell. Today was going to be mostly a stay-at-home day, though I did intend to do a patrol tonight closer to downtown then I usually did. After all, the better I knew the streets and neighborhoods, the more effective I could be; and it would help with mapping the underground too.
Picking out the Physics book that I hoped would be a good introduction and foundation, I set it up in the book holder and brought Thora upstairs to start reading while I made myself some oatmeal for my first breakfast. I also put a couple of flies on top of dad's blanket so that I would know as soon as he got up so that I could make sure that Thora wasn't caught reading. Once I finished eating I sat down in the recliner and started reading the book on radios, taking notes on which projects I wanted to make, in which order and what I was going to need to complete them.
As I worked through the book, I could see that a lot of components were common between the projects and that I would end up needing to buy more than a few of them. Unlike when I made my bug detector, I wasn't going to be able to use salvaged parts to build the radios because I wanted to be able to document that I was building from existing plans. Just more deception for later, if I ended up needing it. I was also going to look into buying at least some of the things I needed online, both to save money and to create a paper trail.
Thora finished the book she was reading for me before dad woke up, so I put that book away and let her out to run around for a bit to get some exercise. After that I sat back down to finish my book, though I was more convinced than ever that this book was a definite keeper that I wanted to have as a reference.
When dad finally woke up and headed for the shower, I marked my place and put the book and my notes aside and started making breakfast (second breakfast, just like a hobbit!). Checking my new interface, I could see that even just sitting around reading was burning calories a lot faster. The actual effort involved was almost imperceptible when sitting around, and even when I was up and moving it didn't seem to be too bad. I guess I'd see what happened when I did my morning exercises.
Dad was a bit quieter than usual this morning, but it didn't seem like he was upset, just thoughtful, so I mostly left him alone except to ask if he had any preferences for his lunch.
After dad left for work, with a nice lunch made up of leftovers from last night, I finished my dinner preps before cleaning up the kitchen and then went up stairs to collect all of our laundry. Sorting and starting the first load only took about 10 minutes after which I started my morning exercises. I started off with my iso-mod set at 50% and slowly increased it up to 80% which made all of my exercises extremely difficult, but I just slowed down a bit and forced myself to carefully finish everything.
When I started lifting my weights though, I found that I had to drop my iso-mod back to 25% before I could continue with my normal routine, and I was able to lift my maximums with a bit of extra effort.
Once I had finished with that I transferred the laundry and started the next load. Dropping the resistance down to 50% I went back upstairs and stripped the beds and collected all the towels from the bathrooms and kitchen and brought them downstairs to be washed.
After a few minutes of thought, I started my Tai Chi katas, and slowly increased the resistance back up to 80% while maintaining my normal speed. One of the things that I noticed, and would be talking to Amy about tomorrow, was that I needed to breath a lot faster than I was used to. In fact, I was breathing almost as heavily as I did while running, not as much as when I was sprinting, but pretty close.
When I started on my Kenpo katas, I started off at 80% but monitored my vitals as closely as I could using my interface, especially when I started to increase my speed. I wasn't able to move nearly as fast as I normally could because of the extra resistance and I seemed to be very short of breath by the time I was moving at 8 times my normal kata speed.
My first impression from using my iso-mods was that for now I was going to keep it set at 50% for most situations, dropping down to about 25% for patrolling and weight lifting. As for my katas, I thought I would run through them twice, once at 80% and the second time at 25% so that I could both build strength and speed, yet still maintain proper control during an actual fight.
I paused several times to transfer and start laundry and managed to finish both my exercises and laundry at about the same time, so I dropped the clean laundry in the living room, set Thora up with the other Physics book, and then went upstairs to take my shower and clean up.
By the time I was cleaned up and the laundry was all folded, it was definitely time to eat again, even if it was only 11:00 am. I made a large batch of tuna sandwiches to go with the steak fries I had started earlier as well as a garden salad, and ate my early lunch while studying physics.
After lunch I took the folded laundry upstairs, made the beds and put all of the clean laundry away. Rather than going back into the basement to work on my jewelry or other projects, I went ahead and finished making the blouses that I had prepared earlier. My only break was to change out the book that Thora was reading as soon as she finished the first one.
The new book was actually the GED study guide put out by the state, and I had the reference materials that the state provided on my computer in ebook format so Thora could go back and forth as needed for me to study. I had found that I needed to change my display settings a bit so that she could read the ebooks properly, and I figured that I would set up a macro to change the settings easily when Thora was using the computer.
Once I finished working on the blouses, around 3 o'clock, I checked on dinner and then headed into the basement to work on making some jewelry to build up a stock pile. I also shifted spools for the different cords being made and adjusted the take up reel for the cloth that was being woven.
Working from the coral pieces that Amy had made up the last time she was here, I was able to make almost 2 dozen pairs of stud earrings and 8 long drop earrings out of fire coral. I also made 6 pendant necklaces, 4 of fire coral and 2 of a nice blue-green coral, and started laying out a necklace that would need four pieces of bright blue coral and a large oval piece of fire coral. That was going to have to wait until tomorrow when I could ask Amy to bud the pieces I wanted.
I put all the completed pieces into small ziplock bags and set them aside for later sale. As I was cleaning up and putting away my tools, I spotted dad driving up our street so I had Thora close out the e-reader and shut down the computer and monitor before she came down stairs.
Taking a quick look around the basement to make sure that I hadn't left anything suspicious out in plain view, I listened as dad came in the kitchen door and called out for me.
"Hey Taylor, you in the basement?" he called as he saw the open basement door.
I yelled back up at him, "Yeah dad, I'm just putting away my tools and stuff. I'll be up shortly."
Surprisingly enough, he actually came downstairs. As he got to the bottom of the stairs, he paused to look around, and then said, "Well, I see you've really changed things down here. I didn't realize that you'd settled in down here so well."
Puzzled, I looked around the basement, then asked him, "What do you mean, it's just the basement?"
He laughed at me then said, "Well, you've got your chemistry lab here, your jewelry workbench there," pointing at each as he spoke, then he turned to the other side of the basement and went on, "all of your coral tanks over there, with your exercise equipment and weight bench on the other side. About the only thing that's mine is the freezer and the washer and dryer; and we both know that those are really yours. So I'd have to say that you've pretty much taken over the basement and are putting it to good use; certainly a lot better use than before."
I blushed as I looked around and realized that I really had taken over the basement as my own, and dad didn't even know about the stuff that I had hidden away from view.
I really need to make some money and get a workshop of my own set upsomewhere; somewhere that was hidden and secure. Great, now I'mplanning my own secret lair, the next thing you know, Amy will be making mutant monkeys to provide security. Gah!
"Uh, sorry dad, I didn't realize that I had sort of taken over the whole basement," I apologized, "do you need me to move my stuff?"
He smiled as he walked over and gave me a hug, "No Tay-Tay, I've no use for the basement and you do. You cleaned it out, you're putting it all to good use now, whereas all I was doing was letting it get more and more cluttered. It's yours now, do with it as you please. If I need anything down here, I'll just ask you for it; I know that I'd never find what I was looking for anyway and I don't want to wreck anything you're doing."
Pulling me around towards the stairs, he went on, "For now, let's get cleaned up and have some dinner. I've some things that I want to talk to you about after we eat, and then you can tell me your plans for the selling the jewelry and clothes that you've been making."
-Legion*** ***Legion-After dinner, dad helped me clean up and do the dishes, before I served up some ice cream and apple pie that we took to the living room for our talk.
As we settled down to enjoy our dessert, dad spoke up, "Well Tay-Tay …"
"Daaad! You haven't called me that since I was six, why now!?" I asked, as I realized that he had called me by my old nickname downstairs as well.
"Not sure, but it seemed appropriate somehow. I suppose it's the contrast between how you were as a little girl compared to what it was like the last year or two, and how you are now that brought it back to me. I'll stop if you don't like it …"
I shook my head and said, "No, I don't mind. In fact it's kind of nice, brings back some good memories. But you seemed to have something serious to talk to me about, more than just my old nickname, so go ahead and talk."
He took a deep breath and said, "I talked to Miss Militia yesterday and she had some news for me, good news I think. Firstly, the Police Department and the DA will be executing a series of warrants at Winslow next week, probably on Monday morning. I don't know who they are going to be arresting, nor what the charges are going to be, but since one of the things that they needed to do first was to work with the School Board to arrange replacement teachers and staff, I expect that a lot of people are going to be arrested."
"Secondly, Sophia Hess is already under arrest and in PRT custody and will be charged as an adult. I wasn't told what charges she would be facing, but Miss Militia gave me the impression that they were dropping the hammer on her hard. Apparently they've found evidence of several suspicious deaths, in addition to everything she did to you, so she may end up in the Birdcage."
"Third, she said that you will definitely have to give depositions, and considering the number of people they are charging, you may have to give quite a few of them. Because of your age you probably won't need to testify in open court, but you may have to testify on video. That's all up to the lawyers, so we'll just have to wait and see."
"Lastly, and this is just for you, you need to make sure that you keep away from anyone from Winslow, especially Emma Barnes, Madison Clements and any faculty and staff. Once the warrants are served, the DA plans to hit each of them with a restraining order to keep them away from you and me, but if anyone approaches you about Winslow, just say 'No Comment' and leave. If someone tries to serve you with papers or claims to be a lawyer, say the same thing and then leave. You're a minor and, legally, they can't approach you without me or your lawyer present. But we both know that some people think that the law doesn't apply to them and they might try to approach you for some reason."
I sat there for a minute, stunned by what he said, "Wow, I had kind of given up on the police doing anything, it just seemed like it was taking forever and I thought that they had given up on it. It's good to see that I was wrong."
"So, is there anything else that I should be doing while we wait? I still have my notes, should I turn them over to the police?" I asked.
Dad shook his head and said, "No, actually the police have a notorized copy of all of your notes, so just leave it alone for now. You can put it in a big envelope if you want, but you shouldn't need it for anything now," he chuckled and went on "although if you have it available to show during your depositions or testimony, I suspect that it might influence any jury that sees how thick the stack is."
-Legion*** Danny***Legion-I watched my daughter carefully as I explained what to expect when the arrests were made, and was relieved that she smiled when I told her to show the jury how thick her stack of notes was.
I gave her a few minutes to think about my revelations before I changed the subject and asked her how things were going with her.
"So, I know you've been working on making clothes and jewelry, how are your plans for selling that coming along?"
"Pretty good actually, I've been working on making some clothes in a variety of styles and sizes, as well as building up a stockpile of simple coral jewelry. I plan on building enough of an inventory so that I can rent a table at the Lord's Street Free Market in about 3 weeks to see how well I can do. In addition to that, I've found a website that specializes in handcrafted art and other handmade items such as clothes, jewelry and similar items. It's free to set up your gallery and you only have to pay a small listing fee, and then a very small percentage of the sale price for any items that you actually sell through that website."
"That's one of the things I plan on talking to Amy about when she comes over tomorrow, since she's been helping me with the jewelry, I plan on splitting any profit that I make with her. Fair's fair after all."
"Amy's coming over tomorrow? I thought she had work on Wednesdays, that's why you normally meet her at school, right?" I asked, a bit puzzled because I couldn't remember anything about this.
Taylor had an odd look on her face when she said, "Normally, yeah, I meet her at Arcadia and walk with her to Brockton General. Tomorrow is a half day at Arcadia because their having a 'Professional Development Day' so I figured we could work on some of our jewelry and clothing projects together. I thought I told you about this last week when she told me about it, if I didn't then I'm really sorry."
I shook my head and said, "No, you probably told me and I let it slip my mind. It's not a problem either way, just don't burn down the house and I'll be happy. Do you have any other plans yet? Another date perhaps?"
"Not really, although we'll probably get together on either Saturday or Sunday, depending on her family's plans. I'll ask her tomorrow so we can do some brainstorming. Speaking of which, I've been looking at used bikes and if I can find a decent one cheap, I'll probably buy it so we can go bike riding together; is that okay?"
"Sure, especially since the weather's been getting nicer. In fact, if you'd like, I can ask around work if anyone has one that they're not using anymore and would like to sell."
"Sure, if it wouldn't be too much trouble. I mean, you got me that freezer and those weights already, so I don't want to take advantage of anyone."
"Don't worry about that, Tay-Tay, nobody's going to sell something they still need, but we all try to pass on the things we don't need to those who do. It's just one of the ways the Association works together to help each other," I explained to her.
"Sort of like with those clothes that I outgrew?"
"Exactly like that. You aren't the first to donate out-grown clothing, and I doubt that you'll be the last. We have a bulletin board in the office where people post for things they need or that they want to get rid of. If you'd like, I can bring you down one day so you can look at it, get an idea of what people post there. I do know that people trade babysitting and similar services sometimes; it's a way to let families do things together without having to spend too much money, it can also help getting some trustworthy chaperones so they take their kids to the beach or amusement parks. Plus, they can often ride-share or get bulk discounts on tickets to save money."
"That really sounds cool, dad," she turned to check the time and then said, "I'd like to get some more studying in tonight, since I've got my GED in a couple of weeks and I want to be ready for it," she stood up and picked up her plate and held out her hand for mine, "so after I start the dishwasher I'm going grab my book and read down here. If you want to watch TV it won't bother me, I promise."
I handed her my plate and fork, then turned the TV on to watch NCIS, with the sound turned down a bit so I wouldn't disturb her studying.
-Legion*** Taylor ***Legion-While dad watched his cop shows, NCIS and NCIS:LA tonight, I started studying my GED notes, then switched to my AP Psychology textbook, since I figured that dad wouldn't notice just how fast I was reading, so I could get a couple of hours of reading in before I went to bed.
Dad turned off the TV at 10 and headed upstairs while I collected all of my books and put them away properly before I emailed Amy to let her know that I was heading to bed, and that I was looking forward to seeing her at lunch time. In her reply she told me that she was going to ask Vicky for a ride to my house, and that she was planning on taking the bus to the hospital when we finished, and that she was looking forward to seeing me for most of the day.
Once I had closed up the downstairs and shut off all the lights, I headed to bed myself. I set my internal alarm for 2:00 am and dropped my iso-mod from 50% all the way down to 0%; I planned to start my patrol with my iso-mod set at 25% to see how much it slowed me down, though I hoped to bring it up to 50% if I could. I might end up leaving it completely shut off during my patrols for safety reasons and especially to save energy, since it would be a bit hard to bring a bunch of food along while I was on patrol.
-Legion*** ***Legion-
When I woke at 2:00 am, I checked on dad, and saw that he was deeply asleep so I quietly changed into my Legion costume, double-checked all of my equipment and weapons and quietly slipped out the kitchen door and headed towards Downtown while I gathered a decent swarm and began mapping as soon as I approached the limits of my previously mapped territory.
Because of the direction I was headed covered not only new territory, but was mostly residential neighborhoods, I ran along the fence tops as much as I could, since using the roof tops around here would disturb far too many people. The fences, on the other hand, were much quieter and provided good training for balance, stealth, and agility.
Because I wasn't finding much action this late at night, I focused primarily on my mapping, plotting my course more by where I needed to map than by the neighborhoods I was traveling through. I found, based on the gang tags that I was seeing, that I was actually running along the border between ABB and E88 territory, with the occasional Merchant tag that had been overwritten by one of the other gangs.
I stayed on the streets and sidewalks even when I could have used the roof tops, partly because of how quiet it was, but mostly because doing so let me use the shadows more effectively. Because of my swarm, I could keep a close eye, and a bunch of other senses too, out for any signs of trouble all around me, even though my personal senses were much keener than those of any of my creatures. If I felt I needed a better look, I would just move an owl closer or in some cases I would climb up a convenient building to reach a better vantage point.
Shortly after I reached the Downtown area, I spotted what could only be Purity flying overhead. At least I think it was Purity; Lady Photon's glow was supposed to be a bit bluer and not as bright, if PHO was accurate. At any rate, she was headed north towards the Trainyard while I was headed south-west for now, I'd probably turn around in another mile or so unless I found some action.
Although doing the mapping was a bit boring, each swath was almost a quarter of a mile wide, so I really was making pretty good progress each night. And I was getting quite a bit quicker using the mapping programs, having developed several very useful macros to speed up my work. I still hadn't chosen one over the other, as they both had useful features, but I was probably going to get one of the SDK's and see if I could if I could copy the features that I liked from one application to the other.
Oh wait, we weren't supposed to 'copy' features from one program to another, I would be 'developing a useful function, that was only coincidentally similar' to another program.
Eventually, I went as far south as I was going for the night, and headed west until I reached where the next swath was going to start. Because of the layout of the streets, I was going to have to occasionally make a jog to the east for a block or so to make sure I was still overlapping the previous swath.
It was around 3:20 as I was approaching a small park that was in a mixed business and residential neighborhood, that I spotted at least 30 people moving around the park.
I moved up to the roof of store that was across the street from the park and took a closer look while I moved my swarm closer in case of trouble. I had plenty of insects and birds, but only a few cats and dogs, as most of the pets were either inside or tied up. I had some strays that I had picked up along the way, but I was mostly using them to carry my spiders and to let my wasps and bees rest periodically.
Watching and listening carefully, I realized that it was a gang fight, a 'rumble' like in West Side Story, between the ABB and E88. It appeared that no capes were involved, and so far it was limited to a lot of verbal posturing and shoving. So far, there appeared to be no guns being waved around, just some clubs and a knife or two.
Well, as long as they keep it low-key and an even fight, I think that I'll just let them smack each other around. They're all big boys, and if they want to pound on each other that's just fine with me. As long as no one tries to kill someone while they're helpless … I'm just going to watch.
And that's just what I did, sitting on the edge of the roof, for the next ten minutes or so as they fought … sort of. Honestly, it was kind of pathetic, they seemed to almost take turns as they fought, 4 or 5 from each side would punch, kick and grapple with each other until they got tired, then someone fresher would step in and the tired ones would step back for a while. Even the ones with clubs or baseball bats always seemed to match up with someone from the other side who also had a club of some sort.
Eventually, someone on the E88 side got tired of it all, or maybe just pissed off, and he pulled out a gun. It was a big one, big and shiny, but when he fired it he completely missed his target and hit the apartment building across the street from the park. I've heard more than a few guns over the last few weeks and this one was loud, really loud, and it seemed to stun everyone in the park into immobility for a few seconds. Unfortunately, it also seemed to be the signal for everyone to take the fight much more seriously.
Even as I came to my feet, I sent some insects to check where the stray bullet went, and I saw four more pistols drawn, and it looked like everyone without either a club or a gun now pulled out a knife. I sent my swarm, at least the insect portion of it into the melee, targeting the hands of those with guns with my wasps and bees first. The rest of the fliers were concentrated into the faces of the gang members to distract them while I hopped down and began to methodically disable and subdue them. I had the few cats and dogs available retrieve the knives and guns that had been dropped and take them off to the side next to a large oak tree while I targeted those who were still armed first.
I didn't use any of my weapons, afraid that if I got rushed while in the melee, I might strike too hard and kill someone by accident. Instead I worked in a pattern; disarm my target, a hard strike with either a fist or a knee to the stomach to knock the breath out of them, followed by a measured palm strike to the temple to knock them out. Unfortunately, one of the gunmen was wearing leather gloves that protected his hands, so I went straight for him as soon as I noticed.
When I worked through the mob enough to see him directly, I was pissed to see that he was the one who had fired first. Though my wasps couldn't sting his hands, they did just fine stinging his face, especially around his eyes. As soon as I reached him I disarmed him with extreme violence, twisting his hand up and backwards until his wrist snapped and he let go of the gun. Catching it with my other hand, I used fast snap kicks to painfully drop him to his knees and then punched him quite hard in the side of the head.
I passed off the pistol, which was positively huge, to one of my dogs and went back to disabling the rest of the mob. A couple of them got kicked instead of punched as I worked, but I made sure that any strikes to the head were carefully controlled to prevent unintended damage. Once they were down and out, I had a small swarm of insects land on them just in case they recovered and began to move.
As I worked my way through the gang-bangers, I came to the realization that I was becoming very dependent upon my swarm during my fights; I was counting on them to blind, distract and confuse my opponents, as well as using them to track their movements and to determine where any weapons were located and aimed. I was going to need to work on fighting without my swarm, as well as with it to ensure that I didn't become helpless if someone used insecticides or an EMP Bug Zapper against me.
The only exception I made to how I took down the 'bangers was for those who possessed guns, and had fired them. Each of them also had their wrist broken, the wrist that had held a gun that was fired in addition to the 'normal' takedown. Interestingly enough, one of the E88 fighters had a Glock holstered at the small of his back that he had neither drawn nor fired, choosing to continue to use his club instead. In his case I simply removed the gun and tied him up.
My swarm made the whole process quick and easy and after the last one was down I began tying their hands together behind their backs. I started on one side of the downed group and planned on working my way around them, not really caring if they were ABB or E88, but just restraining them as quickly as I could because I wasn't sure when any of them would begin to recover.
By the time I had finished tying up the third man, I noticed a brightly shining cape slowly fly down and land about twenty feet away. Straightening up I addressed her, "Good evening Purity. What can I do for you?"
"Nothing really, I spotted you watching them fight until someone started shooting, and came over to see if you needed a hand," she looked down at the fallen gang members and then said, "would you like some help restraining them? I have some zip-cuffs that I'd be happy to use on them."
I looked straight at her for a moment, even though I couldn't make out any details through the glare of her powers, then nodded. "I'd be glad for the help, getting them all restrained before they recovered might be a bit tricky." With that I bent over and tied up yet another member of the ABB as she pulled out a set of zip-cuffs and quickly and efficiently cuffed one of the E88 members.
I kept an eye on her with a couple of cats that I had circling the group while I carried on with my work, not quite sure if I could trust her to handle the Neo-Nazi thugs, even though I had heard that she had left Empire and was now an independent vigilante. I was quite pleased to see that she was securing them properly, not leaving any slack that they could use to escape later.
As we worked our way around the group, I took a moment to give her a heads up, "You'll find that some of them have broken wrists; those are the ones who fired their guns. Being that stupid deserves at least some consequences, this one especially," I said as I yanked the arms of the one who had fired the first shot behind his back and tied him up quite firmly.
Purity looked at me as she finished using the last of her zip-cuffs and asked, "Why him especially?"
"Because he fired the first shot, and he completely missed his target. Unfortunately his wild shot hit the apartment building across the street," I pointed at the building that now had lights on in most of the windows, "and the bullet went through the wall, through the footboard and headboard of a crib, and only missed the sleeping baby by an inch or so. His other two shots went up into the air and I have no idea where they ended up. That's why I broke both of his wrists." Which I had done as soon as I found out how close he had come to killing the baby, going back to break his other arm.
She stared down at the unconscious man, her body language making it clear that she was seriously pissed off. Of course the extremely bright glow around her fists was a big clue, too.
"The baby's okay, though?" she asked me.
"The baby's fine, slept right through the whole thing; the parents are pretty hysterical though. Not that I can blame them for that, I'd be pretty upset too if some idiot shot up my baby's crib in the middle of the night.
She gave me an odd look when I said that, but didn't say anything more, just went back to work making sure that they were all secured and disarmed, so we finished up in less than ten minutes and I was ready to call the police to come arrest them.
Checking them over to make sure we hadn't missed anyone, I said, "I'm going to call the police to come pick them up now. You're welcome to go if you don't want to deal with the police tonight, but it might be a good opportunity to make your independence clear; it's your choice though."
I think she smiled at that before she said, "I'll stay and wait for them. I didn't get here in time to help with the takedown, but I did see it and I'll give them my statement to go with yours."
"Alright then," picking up one of the phones from the pile that I had collected when I searched the gang-bangers, I dialled 911.
"Emergency services, how may I help you?"
"This is Legion, I'd like to report 31 ABB and E88 gang members have been subdued and restrained. They are in the little park on Genesee near 13th street. You may have already received reports of shots fired, because the idiots started shooting around a couple of apartment buildings. As far as I know there are no injured bystanders, but you'll want to double check on that."
"31 perps? By yourself?" the operator asked me, sounding surprised.
"No, Purity flew in and lent me a hand, so please remind the responding units that she's present and not to get over excited, alright?"
"Aah, yes sir, I'll be sure to remind them to be careful and polite. Do you need PRT response to the scene?" she asked me.
"No, other than Purity and myself, there is no cape involvement."
"Alright sir, units are responding now, the first units should be there within 4 minutes."
"Excellent, I'll let you go then," I said before I disconnected the phone and returned it to the pile. Turning back to Purity, I let her know what to expect.
"The police should be here shortly, 4 minutes according to the 911 operator. I warned them that you were here so nobody should get too excited, but keep an eye out anyway. I'm not sure if they have anything for transporting this many suspects, but I suspect they'll come up with something, maybe grab a school bus or something if they don't have anything purpose-built to handle a large number of prisoners."
Purity laughed and said, "I know they have a couple of large panel vans that they use at riots or gang fights like this one, they can carry 10 or 12 prisoners at a time so I doubt they'll need to borrow a school bus … although that would be pretty funny to see."
"True … and two patrol cars are almost here, flashing lights, but no sirens so far," I pointed towards the other side of the park and said, "and they're coming from that direction."
A minute later the two cars came to a stop right next to the park and four officers got out of their cars and approached us. One of them stayed back a ways and kept a close eye on the restrained gang members as well as an occasional eye on Purity while the other three came up and introduced themselves to us. I was pleased to see that they treated Purity professionally, without referring to her past history as a member of the Empire Eighty-Eight.
After taking a long look at the prone gang-bangers, the oldest officer pulled out a digital voice recorder and asked, "Is it alright if we record your statements to be presented as evidence when these young men come to trial?"
I nodded and said, "That's fine with me; how about you Purity?"
She nodded and said, "I would be happy to let you record my statement; because I only arrived for the aftermath, I'd prefer to go after you finish yours, if that's alright with you?"
Both the cops and I nodded our agreement and Officer Blane turned his recorder on and began by listing who was present, the date and time and then I picked up from there.
-Legion*** ***Legion-Giving both of our statements took almost 20 minutes, what with the clarifying questions that the cops had as well as the need to go back and match up the guns with the gang members who had used them. The police pulled their wallets out and matched names to faces once I had matched the guns to the users, then we had to verbally state the user's name and the description of the gun so it was all recorded for posterity.
While this was going on, four more patrol cars showed up as well as two large panel vans, modern day 'Black Maria's', to take all of the prisoners to jail for processing and arraignment. As they started loading them up, the extra police officers headed over to the apartment building to check for injuries and damage, as well as to get their statements.
Purity left shortly after we finished giving our statements, while I stayed until the last of the prisoners had been transported away before leaving to finish my patrol and head home for the night.
-Legion*** ***Legion-I got home just a little before 5:00 so I quietly changed out of my costume into my pyjamas and went downstairs to start updating my maps and wait for dad to wake up.