12.

Taylor was still rather peeved at me whilst we ate lunch even after my apology. You would have thought that two working cell phones and the whole bunch of drugs that I'd given her earlier in the day would have given me a bit more leeway.

I did manage to distract her afterwards by giving her a demo of my new stranger power on the way to the music room and by promising to show her something even better.

"Is this really the best place to reveal a power?" Taylor asked as I closed the music room door.

I shrugged and gave her a little smile, "Well, I guess I could go around to your place and see if you dad minds us locking him out of your bedroom door whilst I visit or vice versa, we see how my parents react to me doing the same in my bedroom. My sister would be unbearable for months."

Taylor blushed, "Right… well, no one is nearby and the teachers don't look like they'll be moving anytime soon." She stepped back from me. "I'm ready."

Chuckling a little I inserted my key into one of the locked cupboards for instruments, as always it turned easy even though the key shouldn't have actually fit that type of lock. I had given it a quick test earlier just to be sure.

I pulled the door open and gestured in, "Ta da. My personal pocket dimension with fully outfitted workshops and lab."

Taylor stared at doorway for a moment before doing the expected side to side sway to test the perspective.

"Test one," I stated. "Can you send some insects in and see if you can still control them."

A few flies flew in through the door and started flying figure eights in the hall.

"I can feel them in a space that is and isn't the same as those insects I can feel behind this room. Weird."

"Interesting. Okay, now I'm going to close the door on them, tell me what happens." I closed the door ready to quickly open it again if things went weird.

Taylor frowned, "I can feel them but now I'm having issues working out where they are."

I pulled the key out of the lock.

Taylor rested a hand on the wall, "Okay, that's a little disorientating. They were moving in space in two different ways at the same time."

"Like if they were flying in a moving car?"

She shook her head, "No. That's fine, I can deal with that. This is, I don't know how to explain it, just weird. Okay, that's better. I had them land. The movement isn't bad when they are in contact with a surface."

I put the key in the second cupboard and opened it.

"Anything different when I open it in another location?"

She shook her head, "No, I already had a sense where the entrance was going to be as you moved the key."

I frowned at that. Well, it could be very convenient to be able to transport Taylor's bugs for her, I already had visions of a mobile extra dimensional silk manufacturing factory. On the other hand, that she or a similarly powered parahuman could track my key was very concerning. I closed the door again and wondered if there was a way to block the connection.

"I've lost contact. Can't feel those flies anymore. Like they have gone out of range."

"Interesting. How about now?" I asked as I mentally willed the key to give Taylor access.

"Yep, back in range now. You worked out a way to lock the connection down?"

I nodded very pleased that it wasn't as big an issue as I thought. I would have to do some testing and be very aware of who I allowed access to. I guessed because I opened the door to show Taylor, I had subconsciously given her access to the pocket dimension no matter if it was in key or door form.

"Well, I have some ideas about setting up your silk manufacturing in a room so you can produce silk whilst we are both at school. But, more important, I have a room you must see. Let me give you the tour."

I led the way in and paused once she had crossed the threshold, "You can still feel the bugs around the school and in the teacher's lounge, right?"

Taylor nodded.

Smiling I led her around, "This is the Chemistry lab where I created the drugs in your injectors. My carpentry workshop, I really haven't used this room much yet. Here is the forge, I have lots of ideas but not enough in way of raw materials to do anything useful yet. Here is my electronics room in which I rebuilt and programmed your phones. That door leads to the bathroom. I know you are wondering about the look and decorations, and yes, they came pretty much as you see them. My explanation at the moment is 'powers are weird.'"

I knew I was rushing through the tour but I was very aware that we could be interrupted at any time and I wanted to get to the finale.

"The library, containing all the books that I have read or that I have easy access to. Including those that were only released online strangely enough. The study, which I haven't spent much time in yet. A room for leatherworking and tailoring, I want to see if I can work in some of the protection provided by a helmet into your suit." I showed Taylor the helmet I had bought before dropping off the spider silk thread and samples. I indicated the side of the room that was fairly empty, "Was thinking maybe you could set up your silk production over there. Just let me know what you need in the way of spider homes, looms and the like and I'll set it up."

With a flourish I opened the fourth door, "Tada, the simulation room." My eyes opened slightly as I noted that there were now two of the chairs, each with the full helmet ready to be lowered, but I didn't say anything about the change.

"It's nice?"

"Ah ha. Much more than nice. In here you can simulate battles against any parahuman or any enemy that we have encountered without risk to yourself or your opponent. With this I can prepare you to be the best possible superhero you could imagine and rather than harp on about how wonderful it is, let me show you. Hop on."

Taylor looked at me as I made an encouraging gesture towards the second chair and I hopped up onto mine. Both chairs looked identical but I could see the minor adjustments I had made to the nearest to suit me.

"Flick the switch," and I put action to words.

Once again, I was appeared with the virtual white room. To my right appeared a generic body which rapidly reformed into Taylor. It was a fairly close representation though it was obviously not real.

Ignoring the screens that were appearing I asked, "Can you still feel the school bugs?"

"Yep. No movement towards us."

"Cool. Okay so what we have here is a way to scroll through our memories and create a profile for any parahuman we have encountered. Then we can generate a scenario which we can either view or participate in. Scroll that to when you encountered Armsmaster, Lung and the Undersiders I'll create profiles for them. Then I can set up a quick simulation to show you how it works." I brought the time and date screen to the main monitor and watched as Taylor moved the selectors. However, no summary of sources showed up as she selected Sunday night.

"Nothing showing up."

I frowned, "I guess it only creates profiles from those that I personally encounter. That's a pretty big limitation. Well, I've already ran a few simulations. Do you want to see one of those or come up with a new one?"

"What have you run?"

"The first one was putting you up against Clockblocker, because I currently have profiles only for him, Gallant and you. Then I put you up against Gallant. Then both of them onto you and then paired you with each on a two on one."

Taylor looked at me questioningly, "Don't you have a profile for yourself?"

I shrugged, "Yeah, but I build things. Not like I could do much in a fight."

"You could build armor and you have your stranger power."

"Unless I could find plans for armor it'd take me months to design it and a lot longer to gather the materials and build it by hand. I guess I could build myself a taser or a sap and use the SEP bracelet to assist. Don't know if that's really my thing though." Did I want to fight super villains? No not really. Sure, I'd be happier with them behind bars but I'd much prefer to provide support to the people doing that. Taylor for the time being and maybe the authorities when I was old enough for them to take me seriously. That seemed to be what my powers were best at anyhow. Did that make me a coward or practical? Didn't feel very heroic.

"Humm… show me the first simulation then." Taylor interrupted by downward thoughts.

Happy again, I started the replay.

As the simulated Taylor was being chased by Clockblocker the virtual Taylor reached out and tapped the pause symbol, "I can feel the insects."

"Well sure, I mean it wouldn't be a useful simulation if it couldn't simulate your powers." I wasn't sure exactly what the problem was.

"How is it doing that? I could feel the swarms gathering. They didn't respond to my control but I could and still can feel them even though they are paused."

I thought about it for a moment, "Well, it's a simulation. It'll just be representing what you would normally feel in the situation. They're not really insects and you don't really have control over them through your power. You just feel that way the same as how you feel that you are in this room in front of these computers."

She thought about it for a moment before nodding and she resumed the simulation and watched through the rest of the fight without comment.

I was about to ask her what she wanted to try next when she ended the connection.

"Something wrong?" I asked as the helmet lifted from my head.

"No. This is incredible. We just need a way to have you see the other villains and then we need to schedule some real training. Not whilst we're at school."

I could feel another room ready to show itself but I wasn't too sure this was going down quite the right path so I pushed it back.

"Didn't you tell me you almost died when you encountered Lung? I've already shown that you can train against the heroes and they are a lot easier to meet, let's start there. Work out a way for me to meet a few more members of the Wards and some of the protectorate heroes. They do meet and greets and public patrols. I just need to see them to be able to create a profile. As for after school, sure but how do we arrange that? I have a reputation for spending every night in my room practicing with my drums. My weekends are pretty solid till Sunday afternoon." I felt I rushed that a little, or a lot.

Taylor took her time before replying, "We can start with the heroes. They have tours of PRT headquarters that includes the ward headquarters . Not likely to see any of the Protectorate there though. Best bet would be patrols, though they don't publish schedules. Might be able to find some records and work out the most likely places to see them."

I nodded thankful that Taylor had moved away from looking for villains right off the bat, "Let me introduce you to another power that may help there."

'Aria, can you make yourself heard by Taylor?'

'I'm sorry Robert, not from here. If you were to move to the programming lab, I could interface via a computer there.'

I was about to head down when I had a different thought. I summoned the Null-Space computer and Taylor took a step backwards.

"What's that?" she demanded, "How did you do that?"

"Sorry, that's my Null-Space computer but that's not what I am trying to show you."

'Aria, can you access that?'

'If you open up a port for external control, I will be able to.'

Under Taylor's watchful gaze it only took me a moment to work out how to open up a holographic interface to the computer and a few minutes more to open up access for Aria. Aria assisted me as she watched through my eyes and, once she had the basic connection open, she put in place a much more robust channel between her bracelet and the computer.

There was a faint pop as the speakers switched on, "Hello Robert, Hello Taylor. I am Aria, I am an Artificial Intelligence purposed to assist Robert and I will be happy to also offer your assistance. I have already collated all public mentions of Protectorate patrols and appearances over the past six years which shows a constant pattern since November 2007. The schedule has some purposefully randomness built into but I can create a schedule outside school hours that will give you a 96% chance of seeing each member currently doing patrols within eight days."

"You programmed an AI?"

I shook my head deciding no point in beating around the bush, "My power doesn't work like that. Sometimes I get some knowledge or an ability, other times I get a base or a room." I wave my hand around indicating first the base and then the simulation room, "and sometimes it gives me an object. This bracelet came with Aria already installed and ready to assist me. Every now and again, and the frequency seems to vary, I seem to get something new. I can feel another power waiting for me now."

I let go of the rooms that I had been holding back. The first room flickered past so fast I only caught a glimpse of a science lab with a pedestal in the middle on which sat some sort of sword hilt before the room was replaced. The second location was a large colorful futuristic outdoor factory with miles of conveyors connecting a vast number of machines. In front of me was a small workbench on which lay a stack of blueprints for the machinery.

"There, now I can…"

"We need to get back to the room." Taylor interrupted and she was already moving.

I sprinted after her and quickly closed the cabinet and took my place at my drums picking up a large pad and pencil and pretending to be writing down music.

We heard footsteps, but they passed by without opening the door.

"Oh well, not that we have a lot more time left of our break anyhow." I said as I swapped the pad for my drumsticks and started a soft beat.

"Did you get a new power?"

I nodded, "Might help sort out my resources issues. I know how to create an automated miner that can extract resources from underground and a smelter to process them. The materials I need to make it don't really match what it'll end up like so I guess it's a tinker power. Just need concrete, and a bunch of iron sheets, rods and wire."

I thought about it for a bit, "Though I have no idea where to set it up."

"How big are they?"

"Eighty four square meters for the miner, fifty four for the smelter."

"Square meters?" Taylor asked with a half laugh.

"Oh... eh, yeah weird. Power knowledge thing. Need roughly an eighty by twenty foot area. Also, the miner stands about sixty foot tall. They are not designed for indoor use."

"Your power 'is' weird."

I nodded and then neither of us said anything for a while and it was quite peaceful with only my light drumming for some background music.

Taylor broke the silence, "Can you set that simulator up for me to train if I come around tonight?"

"Well yes, but when. What do I tell my parents?" I had been all excited about setting up Taylor to be a superhero I hadn't really spent any time on the logistics. Stupid really. I was so used to my parents and band friends handling all that kind of stuff for me. All my boosted intelligence was helping with at the moment was helping me think of all the possible things that could go wrong.

"How about I come around nine. I'll scout out the area and work something out. Where do you live?"

I rattled of my address without really thinking about it and she nodded, "That's not far. It'll only take me ten minutes to get there."

Maybe I should have felt all excited about this but I just felt nervous. I had powers, surely this was nothing.

"I'll bring my costume, and a bunch of spiders for making silk. You can have a look at it and we'll see if we can set up some silk manufacturing in your base like you suggested."

At least I had that to look forward. Sadly, the rest of the day passed with me thinking about being outed as a cape, being forced into the wards whilst my family was taken away into witness protection. It didn't make a lot of logical sense but that failed to stop me thinking about it.

I spent the afternoon break playing the drums whilst Taylor sat nearby and scribbled things down in a stained notebook.