"Please tell me you two are just as unsettled as I am," Missy said.
"I keep thinking we're about to drop into something big around the next corner," Carlos admitted. "This area is way too calm."
"We picked this for the first patrol because of the expected calm," Weld said. "Accord isn't one to allow things like violence in his territory unless absolutely necessary, though rumor has it that's partially due to his own temper. He also does his best to keep the area free of drugs, as well as alcohol if he can help it, though rumor also has it that a properly paired glass of wine at dinner is an exception to the latter."
"I don't think it gets this calm anywhere in Brockton Bay unless Panacea is healing people," Taylor commented.
"Even then some of the unaffiliated thugs cause problems," Carlos countered. "If Brockton Bay is this calm then you're missing something big."
It was weird. And what was with that snark that she kept sensing? It was there yet it wasn't. Which was quite annoying and had her more on edge.
They were on the return leg of the patrol when the previous 'absolutely nothing but basic patrol interactions' pattern was broken by a pair of capes waiting on a street corner.
"Those poor snarks," Taylor said, shuddering.
"What are you talking about?" Weld asked.
"They've got what feel like mutilated snarks, somehow, in the case the guy is holding. Well, assuming that is a guy in the suit?"
"Those are Citrine and Othello," Reynard said. "Yes, Othello is, to the best of our knowledge, male. They're a couple of Accord's Ambassadors. We think they might be the only ones left, since most if not all of the other ones we knew about died fighting that unknown parahuman and its clones."
Taylor did her best to not think about that as she lightly poked the collection of snarks, deciding that Othello's was the one she kept feeling in the area. But more solidly there. And all eight snarks felt hungry?
Taylor: How is it that I can now tell that snarks feel hungry?
BA: Data
Amy: You're optimizing how you process some of the extra protocol pieces? So, what, you can tell energy levels or something like that but never bothered before?
BA: Agreement. Data
Taylor: Well, at least you're having fun figuring out the stuff you never cared about before. Let us know if you find anything interesting.
BA: Agreement
Well, that was interesting. As they got closer to the two, since neither Weld nor Reynard had stopped or even slowed down, Taylor took a closer look at them. Citrine was in a yellow evening gown, with a matching yellow sling holding her heavily-bandaged left arm. Her matching yellow mask was pristine, but her blond hair had been styled around a bandage wrapped around her head. Othello was in a black suit, like a high-end butler, with an expressionless black and white mask on his face. He appeared to be uninjured, but that could just be that his injuries were hidden by his costume.
"Greetings Weld and Reynard," Citrine said once Weld and Reynard were close enough. At that point the two local Wards stopped, which prompted the three visiting Wards to stop as well. A quick glance showed that Carlos and Missy, being further away from the 'Ambassadors', were paying attention to their surroundings in different directions. Which was what they were supposed to do.
"Good morning Citrine," Weld replied. "Are you waiting for us or have we just stumbled upon you waiting for another?"
Taylor turned and looked at where Othello's snark seemed to be not-quite-there in addition to where Othello himself was. She noticed him react slightly to that out of the corner of her eye, specifically when she'd stopped turning her head upon looking at the not-quite-there instance of the snark. She wondered what that was about, since she couldn't see anything to speak of where she was looking.
"Our apologies for interrupting your patrol," Citrine continued. "But we would like a few minutes of Maul's time, if at all possible."
"If you give me a moment I'll call in to ask if that's acceptable," Weld offered. Citrine merely nodded, so Weld reached up to use the radio.
While Weld was checking back with the console, Taylor was curious as to what Othello's snark was doing. It had circled around behind them, and Taylor was keeping an eye on it. The fact that her doing so seemed to be unnerving Othello himself was a bit of a bonus in her book, after it had been annoying her most of the patrol.
"Console to Maul," Hunch said. "You're cleared to talk with the Ambassadors, your call on whether or not to."
Taylor gave one last look at where Othello's snark was, before turning and lightly hopping off of her platform with her jump harness turned up all the way. For show she had the platform fold up and cloak right there in the air. Once she'd landed next to Reynard she turned to Citrine and Othello. "Good morning."
"Greetings Maul," Citrine said. "I'm sure that Weld and Reynard have informed you already, but I am Citrine and my companion is Othello. We are Accord's Ambassadors. We've been tasked with seeing what you could tell us about the contents of the case Othello is holding."
"May I ask why you think I could tell you anything?"
"Our sources indicate that you can communicate with 'snarks', as you put them. The source of parahuman powers. The case contains power-granting vials. Accord and the organization he purchased them from are curious as to what you make of them."
Taylor's raised eyebrow wasn't likely to be visible. Well, if they already had that much access to her files she might as well go for it. "I think they are, at a minimum, an abomination. The six main snarks look like they've been mashed together with bits from who knows how many others. Beyond that, they're also all hungry in some fashion, just like your own."
Citrine looked at Othello, who lightly shrugged, before turning back to Taylor. "The fact that you could tell that there are six in the first place is impressive. The other thing is that these vials do not always function properly, sometimes killing those who take them instead of granting powers. We're hoping that you could determine if any of these have that problem. If you can we'd ensure that payment is made in an appropriate manner."
"I can check with the snarks to see what they say about that, but I don't know what else I could do. Though I wonder what you mean by 'appropriate' in regards to payment."
"That would be acceptable. If you aren't willing to take a monetary or service payment directly then Accord would arrange for a donation to a cause of your choice in your name."
"He's good for it," Reynard said. "It comes up every so often, and as far as anyone can tell the money's all above-board."
"Alright. Give me a moment." Taylor reached out to all six snarks at the same time, cringing a little because the connection felt subtly wrong. Not enough to cause long-term problems, but weird when you weren't expecting it. Now, how to word the question. Well, killing someone was probably not knowing how to connect to a human, right?
Taylor: Hello there. I've been asked to check if any of you think you wouldn't be able to connect to a human properly right now.
[Data][Data][Data][Data][Data][Data]
BA: Data
S: Elaboration
BA: Agreement. Clarification
S: Data
[Acceptance][Acceptance][Data][Acceptance][Acceptance][Acceptance]
Huh. That was...barely understandable. Still, if she'd gotten that correctly... "The third one from the left, from this angle anyway, seems to be...much less knowledgeable, perhaps, about what a human is? The others were almost there, and may be better now."
Amy: What the hell are you doing, and where did you find nearly-robotic sounding snarks?
Taylor: They're mutilated little snarks, crammed into vials. Poor things.
Amy: Wait, really?
Taylor: Yep. I'm not even sure if it's safe to feed them right now.
While Taylor had been 'talking' with Amy, Othello had opened the case and extracted the vial with the less knowledgeable snark.
"That's the one," Taylor said before she could be asked.
Citrine took the vial from Othello in her good hand, then he closed the case again. She then turned to Taylor. "So, what do you think would happen if this vial were to be consumed?"
"I'm not sure. It isn't quite aware of what a human is, as far as I can tell, and the bits it was mashed up with aren't helping. The others I think had the right extra pieces mashed in to get the general idea? I barely understood some of what was communicated, I suspect somewhat intentionally. But I imagine that if someone survived then they wouldn't be recognizable at a minimum."
"I see," Citrine said, holding the vial out in front of her. "In that case, you may keep this one. It's useless to Accord if it can't be used properly, and it sounds like you might have a chance of 'teaching' it."
Taylor stepped forward and took the vial, but only after her snarks told her it was most likely safe. She then stepped back to stand next to Reynard again. "Is there anything else?"
"We need to know what you'd like for your payment."
Taylor looked down at the vial. She was making connections she wasn't entirely sure she was happy about. She was going to have to ask a couple of people some questions. "Are there organizations that work to help Case 53s?"
"Yes, several in fact."
"Then direct my 'payment' that way. I suspect that I'm going to discover that it would be inappropriate to do otherwise." As it was she was already deciding how to ask Weld's snark a few questions.
"Good morning," Director Armstrong said as the patrol group entered the conference room. "I'm told by the console operators that things went well."
"They did," Weld said. "Outside of the weirdest interaction I've had with the Ambassadors to date. It raised a lot of questions, most of which Maul tells me she doesn't have answers to yet."
"Speaking of that," Taylor said, pulling the vial out of the jacket pocket she'd placed it in. "What should I be doing with this?"
"I've checked already," Director Armstrong said, sliding a folder down the table. "It's yours to do with as you please. That folder contains your copy of the paperwork releasing it into your care. Not my preferred decision, but I was overruled at the highest levels. I'd appreciate it if you could let me know if it ever comes to anything of use, but both I and Director Piggot have been specifically told to not allow you to turn the vial itself, or any others like it, over to the PRT."
"I see." Taylor carefully placed the vial back into her jacket, and then picked up the folder. She flipped through the paperwork, and saw that it included the government releasing all claims to the vial as well. The fact that this apparently only took forty minutes to gather, at the most, told her that the approach had been known to be coming in advance.
They'd been debriefed on everything, including Taylor noting the second instance of Othello's snark even though nothing had shown up on the camera or Snitch footage, before being informed that the transport back to Brockton Bay would be available in a couple of hours. Until then they were encouraged to grab lunch.
"Is there a secure conference room I can borrow after I've eaten?" Taylor asked.
"There are several," Director Armstrong answered. "Feel free to grab any that the map doesn't tell you are reserved."
"Thank you."
Taylor had eaten, and then grabbed the most secure conference room she could find in the building. She'd then proceeded to lock it to the best of her ability, activated all of the privacy options she could, and then hooked her 'Maul' phone into the video conferencing system.
With all of that done, she sat in front of the camera and poked at the call button.
"Good afternoon Maul," Legend said as he answered, obviously holding his phone for the video function.
"Good afternoon," Taylor replied. "I hope I didn't catch you at a bad time."
"Not at all. I wasn't expecting a video call, though. What do you need?"
"I've come across a number of other hungry snarks. Eight of them, in fact."
"Really?"
"Yes." Taylor then held up the vial. "Citrine told me to keep this one, in fact, after I told her that it wasn't sure what a human is. Given that the other five like it did know I'm coming to some...unpleasant conclusions."
"I see. I don't believe I'm in a secure enough location for what I can tell you. Are you still in Boston?"
"I am."
"In that case give me ten minutes and I'll be there in person."
"Hello again," Legend said as Taylor let him into the conference room, before locking the door behind him. "May I ask why you called me about this?"
"Because I'm not currently a fan of David, I'm not sure it's a good idea for me to be around Rebecca after last weekend," Taylor answered. "That and for various reasons I trust you to be more honest with me."
"I...ok, yeah. I can see that."
"One of the only reasons I'm doing my best to not go into some very specific and explicit ranting is that every Case 53 snark I've talked enough to indicated that they had to go to the extra effort of keeping their human alive, and that the memory wipe was voluntary. Beyond that, though, I'll admit that I've also poked at psychiatric records since I was handed the vial."
"And you probably noticed that every 'hungry' snark has been tied to someone who doesn't appear to have had evidence of a normal trigger event mentioned in their summaries, even if you don't have full clearance to get at their records."
"Yep." Though she neglected to mention that a combination of her SL10 clearance and her master's certificate being recognized by the PRT seemed to have unlocked all of those records, not just the summaries. She'd limited herself to the summaries anyway.
Legend dropped into a chair. "I don't know what they were thinking, going this route to have you take a look at one of those vials. Perhaps they were hoping that if you couldn't tell anything then they could pretend they'd never bothered?" He paused. "You probably want to sit down. I'll tell you what I can."
Taylor dropped the vial back into her jacket pocket and sat back down, then waved at Legend to continue.
"Alright," he said. "To start with, as far as I know the group that makes those vials is responsible for all of the Case 53s. I'm technically a member, but I know I haven't been brought in on everything they do. I don't know the details on how the vials are produced, just that there's a lot of trial and error. Case 53s tend to be people approached on their deathbed, or occasionally the suicidal. They and when possible their families get informed of the risks and are given the option of an experimental vial. Sometimes they die anyway, other times they come out looking perfectly fine with powers."
"And sometimes they come out not quite human anymore," Taylor guessed. "Though alive, which might be an improvement in their eyes."
"Yep. I'm told that most of those that survived had no problems with the physical changes and stayed with their families or in their communities. But some have issues. Cultural, memories of what they did just after drinking the vial, rejection for other reasons. They are offered memory erasure and relocation, and for most of them Earth Bet is where they're dropped off due to our higher number of natural parahumans. Supposedly they need to be dropped off somewhere alone, and as a side effect their location is, for lack of a better term, 'masked' for a time. I don't know why, or if I was being lied to when I was told that. Or most of this, really. But I do know that I've been told that we can't be told where to go looking for them when they're dropped off, so we don't always find them before gangs do."
Taylor leaned back. That...made some sense. It at least lined up with what she'd learned from the snarks of Case 53s. That they weren't originally from this Earth, though? She wasn't sure what to think about that. And yelling at Legend didn't sound like it would help, given that he seemed to be implying that he didn't have most of the answers. Hell, it sounded like he was trying to do the best he could with what answers he did have. Still, there was one question he should be able to help with. "Why?"
"Why what?"
"Why are they doing this with snarks in the first place?"
"Ah." Legend leaned forward. "I can't go into details without breaking confidences of my own, but they feel it's necessary. They have what they feel is very reliable information pointing at a future threat to Earth, and want to see if they can find powers to help fight it. But for a number of reasons they can't just hand out vials at will. Supply and vetting are part of it. There are thinkers involved with some of that, but powers can't properly analyze a lot of this. They also still don't know why some 'snarks', as you call them, can be 'reused' while others seem to only work once, so every so often one of the formulas fails after the first time it's used."
BA: Data. Explanation. Data
Taylor blinked. Worrying, but that last bit...was incredibly simple. "Because some snarks are only allowed one host or controller at a time and automatically reject new ones. Apparently."
Amy: Who are you talking to and why? Because 'yes, the world may be in danger, no further details allowed' and 'some snarks only let one thing control them at a time' seem like very odd things to come up at random. The former being the more worrying part.
Taylor: Legend, and I'll fill you in later.
Amy: Oh. You'd better. And tell Legend hi from me.
Taylor blinked again. "Amy says hi, by the way."
"What," Legend started, before shaking his head. "Right. You two have that whole mental link thing going on." He then tapped his fingers on the table. "So, given how massively they screwed up with this, not to mention not giving me so much as a hint about it so that I might be able to prepare, I'm thinking I'm going to go behind their backs a bit myself. Because I honestly think you might be able to help a couple of people, who keep dropping hints that they'd like to meet you for some reason."
"Huh. Really?"
"Yep. Best part is that it shouldn't take long. Door us."
Taylor looked at Legend, wondering what that was supposed to mean, before snapping her head to the side. A sensation she'd associated with the box-moving snark appeared, and a tear in reality appeared. And this time she could feel the box-moving snark on the other side, connected to a second snark. "What the hell?"
"Come on," Legend said, getting up. "They'll keep that open until we come back through."
Taylor got up and carefully approached the tear in reality. It seemed stable enough for such a thing, so she stepped through onto the beach on the other side. The sudden shift in location was jarring enough that she stumbled.
Amy: What the fuck? Where the hell are you?
Taylor: Er, I don't think I'm on Bet for the moment. It's kinda weird.
Amy: You're telling me. There's a directional component to knowing where you are that makes no sense.
"You coming?" Legend asked, causing Taylor to shake herself.
"Yeah," Taylor replied. "But suddenly shifting in relation to Amy in a direction that I can't describe was disorienting for both of us."
"Ah, right, sorry about that. But come on, you don't want to miss your flight back to Brockton Bay after all, so we can't stand here all day."
Taylor followed Legend over the sand dune in front of them, to where two hospital beds were sitting on a concrete slab on the beach. Two men, one with the box-moving snark, were in the beds. For some reason each of them had one of their bare feet tied to one of the other's, and the one she didn't recognize the snark of had no eyes. The one closer to her had a tablet visible on the side of the bed, where they could reach down to touch it but not see it. In fact, he reached down and tapped a couple of things while she watched. A tally of some kind?
Beyond that, though, she noticed that the box-moving snark was hungry. Well, they both had hungry snarks, but the box-moving snark was worse. Like it was starving, nearing what she'd probably done to Emulator when David pissed her off.
"Due to power interactions they aren't that talkative," Legend said. "Don't know their real names, I just know them as Doormaker and the Clairvoyant. And whenever I come to visit them they're somewhere else. But they entertain themselves in various other ways too. I think their favorite two pastimes are confusing people with the mysterious moving of packages and fouling up snipers. At least they've grown out of stealing single socks out of dryers and moving people's keys around. Mostly."
"And when I noticed them moving packages around they found it that much more amusing to mess with me?" Taylor guessed. Both of the men lifted a hand up to give a thumbs-up. "Figures."
"I'm not sure why they kept dropping hints about wanting to meet you, though. Several of us keep them supplied with the various things they like, such as certain kinds of chocolate."
Doormaker reached down on his other side, through what felt like another tear in reality, and pulled out a hat box. He then beckoned Taylor over. She looked at Legend, who shrugged, before deciding it couldn't hurt. So she walked over and carefully took the box, which had a note on top. She opened that, and blinked a couple of times as she read it.
Taylor: We've got plenty of energy right now, right?
BA: Agreement. Query
Taylor: Yeah. Go ahead and feed them both, but focus on Doormaker's.
"They wanted to give you a gift?" Legend said as Taylor felt the energy transfers starting.
"They realized at some point that the constant goofing off by moving stuff around was draining Doormaker's snark, and wanted a fill-up. They knew I could do so after seeing me fill up Gallant's a while back, but had agreed to not open doors for just anyone? The box is a gift from someone named 'Fortuna', but these two have offered to keep moving my packages around with higher priority, including if I call out to ask them to when I'm at home or in a PRT building."
"That...huh." Legend apparently hadn't been expecting that.
Taylor looked at the two men in the hospital beds. "I don't suppose you'd like to make it more amusing if I ask you to move something?" She got a 'go on' gesture from the Clairvoyant. "Say, if I invoke Scotty instead of your chosen names?"
The two men snickered and gave Taylor thumbs up, while Legend chuckled a little. Taylor focused on the 'gift' in the meantime. The box wasn't heavy, so she opened it up. To find a very fancy fedora inside of it. Complete with the flame design like her maul had, but very well done in the felt of the hat.
"Oh wow," Legend said, looking over Taylor's shoulder. "I don't have a clue where she gets her fedoras, but they're incredible and seem to survive everything. Though how they stay on her head when the wind picks up I don't know."
Taylor picked the fedora up and looked it over. It was heavier than you'd probably expect, but seemed incredibly well made. She might have to adjust how she wore her pigtails when in costume. Looking down into the box she smirked, dropping the fedora back into it and hiding the clips that would allow the fedora to be anchored to her hair. No need to spoil that potential amusement, right?
Amy got her explanation once Taylor, Carlos, and Missy were on their way back to Brockton Bay. Neither of the two was entirely certain what to think about the whole bit with a group selling powers and being responsible for the Case 53s. They'd already determined, and Taylor had informed Legend, that once the snarks connect the opportunity to 'fix' the connection was lost. The connection's parameters was partially tied to 'what part of the snark remained in the host' and all. Case 53s had the wrong bits there and the snarks couldn't change that.
That revelation had Amy grumbling about 'hours spent trying to fix Case 53s' and 'wasted time to fix something without all the information'.
Because it had to be done before connection, Broadcast Administrator and Shaper were doing their best to 'educate' the vial-snark. They had occasional input from the two tinker snarks, but it was slow going. The vial-snark wasn't fully 'awake', its personality and drive were offline or something like that. Or wouldn't be fully determined or accessible until it connected to a host? Neither Taylor nor Amy had been able to understand everything around the redactions.
"I think I need a drink," Taylor said as they came in for landing.
"You talking in general or alcohol?" Missy asked.
"The latter."
"You have plenty of time to go somewhere," Carlos said. "Just don't overdo it, you do have school tomorrow."
"Yeah yeah, I know."
Taylor: Want to join me in hunting down a drink?
Amy: I...huh. I wonder if joining you is a reason I've got my own card now.
Taylor: Is that a yes?
Amy: Might as well. Hey, didn't you say you were welcome at the Palanquin?
Taylor: Yeah.
Amy: Think they'd let me join you? It'd let me one-up Vicky, getting in there before she could.
Taylor snickered at that. It was as good a reason as any, right?
Taylor: Worth a shot. I'll send Faultline a message asking, so we don't get all the way over there to be told no.
That message was composed and sent on the elevator. A couple minutes later the three Wards entered the common area, only to stop and stare at the two-drawer filing cabinet sitting there.
"What's with the filing cabinet?" Carlos asked.
"It was here when I got here," Lisa answered from the console. "It's locked, I can't open it, and there's no place for a key. As far as I can tell it's a larger version of those fancy paperwork boxes."
Taylor walked over and tapped the top drawer with her left hand, relay watch active. It clicked, and she opened it up. On top of file folders full of papers was a note, addressed to 'Maul and/or Panacea'. She grabbed it and flipped it open, her grin widening as she did. She then quickly popped open a shared text messaging session with Amy and Riley.
T: Great news. The 'tinker fugue' paperwork arrived, an entire two-drawer filing cabinet full of copies of the first stage NDA and permission slips.
A: Oooooh. Who should we offer copies to first?
T: Mycroft and Vista? Maybe Battery, Countdown, and Wrench Wraith? Hmmm. Possibly just drop a small pile off in the secure breakroom for the 'grunts'?
R: Yay! And I vote for Vista.
A: We probably shouldn't be stingy. You should let all the Wards take a copy if they want.
T: Good point, and possibly amusing if they're going through the hurdles.
"So," Taylor said, looking over the contents of the top drawer. It had the 'form with permission slip' sets, apparently. The bottom drawer probably had the 'form without permission slip' sets? Or maybe the permission slip was just included in general, even if you didn't need it. "These are the first stage of applying for the kind of tinker fugue that got me upgraded. Anyone want a set?"
"The same tinker fugue that gave you periods so light they've become legendary?" Missy asked. "In that you had to have Panacea tell you that you were on your period because you hadn't noticed?"
"Yep."
"GIMME!" Missy yelled, darting forward.
Taylor pulled a folder out and handed it to Missy. "There's a permission slip involved too."
Missy blinked, and opened the folder to check. "Damn. That might complicate things."
Lisa shuddered when Taylor looked towards her. "Not right now."
"My power messes with my body enough as it is," Carlos said when Taylor turned to him.
"Well, the thing's unlocked now," Taylor said. "So if anyone does want to take a crack at it they can grab a copy." She then checked the bottom drawer to find that they all had permission slips included, before grabbing a small stack. "I'm going to see about getting some of these delivered to some people. Be right back."
Ten minutes later she'd dropped copies off in the mailroom to be sent to Battery, Sherrel, and Vivian. For some reason she didn't think Miss Militia would be interested, but she sent her a copy too. She also left a small stack in the secure break room with a note. That done, she returned to the Wards area to get changed.
While she was changing Faultline replied to her message saying that Amy was welcome to join Taylor, so she sent a message to her father letting him know her plans. The request he sent back to get pictures 'if feasible' was amusing too.
She was preparing to leave when she realized that if she didn't bring the vial with her then her snarks couldn't continue working with it. But if she did bring it then she'd be running around with a likely-unsafe power-granting vial as a civilian.
Taylor: I'm torn. Do I bring the vial, or leave it here?
Amy: I...huh. It's probably better to let the education continue, slow-going as it seems to be. But you won't be in costume. Hmmm.
Taylor: Yeah.
Amy: Well, you can hide it in a pouch, right?
Taylor: Yes?
Amy: Do that and hope that nobody figures out that some of your pouches are expanded?
Taylor gave that some thought, deciding it was workable. So she grabbed the vial from the jacket pocket it had still been sitting in and dropped it into her civilian utility belt. She'd probably have to come up with a better solution later. Or hope that the vial-snark was deemed ready by her other snarks soon.
Chapter 92 Taylor and Amy arrived at the Palanquin around the same time. It was still early for the 'night' crowd, but they'd been advertising afternoon hours for quite a while. They were known to be most popular when Newter was around to get people high as they could ride it out overnight and be good in the morning. And Newter was around, as Taylor could tell that Elle, Gregor, and Newter were all inside, as were two other snarks.
"So why hasn't Vicky shown up here yet?" Taylor asked. "I mean, they let anyone in that's at least sixteen normally." Which would normally have kept Taylor away, without the invitation from Faultline.
"Oh she has," Amy said. "The showing her up part is getting into the alcohol bar."
"Oh. Do we need to ensure we get pictures?"
"Hell yes."
Taylor snickered as they walked up to the door. There was a normal bouncer there, carding the teenagers in the line and collecting entrance fees, but he waved the two over before they could consider joining the line themselves.
"Good afternoon," the bouncer said once they'd reached him. "Miss Hebert, Miss Dallon, welcome to the Palanquin. Miss Fitts would like to speak to you for a few minutes before you enjoy your evening here. The non-alcoholic bartender can direct you to her office."
"Thank you," Taylor said as they were waived in, to the annoyance of a few of the teenagers in the line. Then again, the two had just bypassed the line and gotten in without paying.
Once inside they made their way over to the dance area's bar, which had a large sign over it indicating that it was non-alcoholic drinks only. A sign off to the side of it included information on how to request being 'dosed' by Newter, as well as several medical conditions that his secretions could complicate.
"Hello ladies," the bartender said as they reached the bar. "How can I help you?"
"We were told that Miss Fitts would like to see us," Taylor answered.
"Ah, Miss Hebert and Miss Dallon, I apologize for not recognizing you. You can find Miss Fitts up the stairs in the back over there, first door on the left. Her name is on it."
"Thank you."
Taylor and Amy headed up the stairs in question and found that the door was labeled both 'Melanie Fitts' and 'Faultline'. Though Taylor had never considered it, she supposed it made sense that some capes wouldn't make a big deal about their identities even if they weren't as obvious about it as New Wave. She knocked on the door after carefully poking the snark inside, and they got a 'come in' in response.
As they entered they saw a twenty-something woman with sharp features and black hair sitting behind a desk piled with papers.
"Good afternoon Miss Hebert and Miss Dallon," the woman said. "I'm Melanie. I apologize for the mess, but some of our permits for parahumans using their powers for profit on the premises are up for renewal and I'm a bit swamped."
"Good afternoon," Taylor and Amy chorused.
"Please take a," Melanie said, then stopped. She stood up and looked, noting the lack of additional chairs. "Er, sorry. It seems that someone has, once again, removed the extra chairs from my office. Sorry, I'll try and be brief. Miss Hebert, I'd like to personally thank you for finding and helping Elle."
"You're welcome," Taylor said. "Though I didn't find her so much as all but run into her on accident."
"Yes, well, that's still more than a lot of people would've done. I am curious how a blaster and brute managed to shut down her powers."
"How would I know?"
Melanie stared at Taylor for a moment, then smirked. "I have to admit, your lack of tells is impressive. But even successfully hiding the strength you normally show as 'Maul' when you were helping with the bus isn't enough to fool me. Besides, thanks to a friend of mine I have a heavily-redacted copy of your PRT file. Though why your ratings are classified I don't know. I'm assuming because there's something bullshit in them."
Taylor and Amy shared a look. Amy shrugged, and Taylor turned back to Melanie. "So what do you want with me?" She also composed a quick message and sent it to Director Piggot, Armsmaster, and Miss Militia to let them know that a 'heavily-redacted copy' of her file that still connected her civilian and cape identities had been leaked.
"I want to know what you really did to Elle and if it can be reproduced. She claims it was scary, but strangely relaxing because she didn't have to focus on the real world to stay in the real world. That and it usually takes us a day or two to properly snap her out of things without hurting her when she gets that deep, but you seemingly did so in minutes."
"I'm not sure I should be discussing anything with you, given that you appear to have bypassed things like the unwritten rules. Not to mention that I believe PRT records are protected by several laws as well, since they are government records, so you having seen even a 'heavily-redacted' version of one is a problem."
"It merely confirmed what I already felt I knew. I'm more concerned with helping the child that's ended up in my care."
Taylor and Melanie glared at each other, both apparently feeling they were in the right. This was interrupted, on Taylor's part, by a message.
Amy: You're suddenly grinning. Why are you suddenly grinning?
Taylor: Because I get to pull one over on her with the help of new friends, complete with a list of points to hit if she doesn't want to play nice.
"Alright then," Taylor said as Amy backed off and slipped her phone out. "If you really want to know then we have some prepwork to take care of."
"Really now," Melanie said. "And what would that be?"
Taylor held her left hand out to the side and caught the paperwork tube that fell into it from the tear in reality that had opened up in the room's rafters, tripping her relay watch to unlock it in the process. "To start with, there's this paperwork for you agreeing to keep the identities of PRT and Protectorate affiliated capes secret when you know them."
Melanie looked shocked at the sudden appearance of the paperwork tube. "And if I don't agree?"
"Then Amy and I go downstairs, either to your bar or to leave for a different establishment, so that I can see about having the drink I wanted after learning some things about the origins of Case 53s earlier today."
Melanie's expression hardened. "If I sign that will you be willing to share any of that knowledge?"
"You sign it and get me the strongest drink you've got available and we can discuss it all."
"You win. Give me the paperwork."
Taylor: Huh. Didn't even have to mention that the PRT would make getting her permits renewed almost impossible if she hadn't signed.
Amy: That list of points to bring up included that?
Taylor: Yep. Though the last couple are both very private and concerning regarding what people know about pretty much anyone.
Taylor tossed the tube over to her, then waited as the paperwork was examined and the first couple of pages read. And then the rest flipped through. "There are enough copies here for everyone but Elle."
"I think they figured that you'd want to discuss things with your people as well, but they indicated that Elle doesn't need to sign."
Melanie grabbed a pad and wrote something down on it, then tore the top sheet off. "Take this down to either bar. It's on you to prove you're allowed alcoholic drinks. One free drink for each of you while I get everyone together. I'll send for you when we're done."
Taylor stepped forward and took the offered note, then she and Amy made their way back downstairs. A quick showing of their relevant IDs let them into the alcohol bar area.
"Afternoon ladies," the bartender said. "How can I help you?" Taylor handed him the note, which he took and read over. He then blinked a couple of times and read it again. "Ok. What do you two want?"
"What's the strongest thing you got?" Taylor asked.
"That would be the Parahuman Gargle Blaster, made with the most powerful tinker-produced alcohol we could find blended with distilled essence of Newter. Olive optional, as it tends to dissolve in the drink before you can consume it."
Taylor and Amy looked at each other, shrugged, and turned back to the bartender. "We'll take it!"
The bartender gave them a look, and pulled out two pieces of paper and a couple of pens. "You will need to sign a waiver each, and we're legally required to record you as you drink it. The waiver includes terms that we insist on that allow us to post the video on our website, thus letting you prove to your friends and family that you've had one. Your actions once you have are, of course, your own responsibility."
Each of the two took a waiver and read over it. Nothing unusual jumped out at either of them, so they both signed their copy and handed them back to the bartender. He then deposited them in a safe behind him, before collecting various bottles. A member of the club's security set up the camera that would be recording them while he prepared the drinks.
Once the recording was running the bartender placed one drink down in front of each girl, and they carefully took a sip each.
Taylor: Did a pile of the active things in this just get neutralized on contact?
Amy: Yeah. That's kinda disappointing. At least the majority of the alcohol survived that.
Taylor: I am so happy we didn't pay for this ourselves. Though the taste isn't bad.
Amy: True.
The two frowned at the drinks, shrugged, and downed the rest in one shot. Everyone else in the room looked at them, obviously waiting for something.
"It was a tad weaker than I thought it would be," Taylor finally said. "Tasty, but not enough kick."
"Yeah," Amy agreed. "Not quite what I was expecting after all the hype."
The bartender frowned and grabbed the bottle of 'distilled essence of Newter'. "Hey Jones, get over here."
"What is it?" a large man replied.
"I think the essence of Newter went bad and want to test a drop. You've got a waiver on file, so it's on the house."
The man apparently liked the idea of that, and all but rushed the bar with his drink. A single drop was added to it from the bottle, and the man stirred it in before taking a sip. He then fell off of his chair. "Duuuuuude, I can taste colors."
The bartender looked at the man, then at the two girls. "Ok, I give up. How? Because even the alcohol alone usually has a significant effect by now."
"I think most of the drink counted as a poison and I'm immune," Amy said. "Side effect of my powers."
"I'm fairly certain that a lot of it is related to why I was able to out-drink Lung," Taylor offered. "Means it's hard for me to care about casual drinking in the first place."
"Huh," the bartender said. "Well, congratulations. You two are the first teenagers to try the Gargle Blaster and not end up making a fool of yourselves before passing out."
"If we had done that what would've happened?"
"We'd have posted the recording of you making fools of yourselves, and then probably dumped you in a bed together and taken pictures to post online later in order to embarrass you further."
Both girls blinked a couple of times at that, unsure of what to think.
Taylor and Amy entered the small conference room they'd been brought to by Emily. The table in the room was horizontal to the door, with Melanie in the center of the opposite side. Gregor was sitting to her right and Newter was sitting to her left. Elle was sitting at the end of the table next to Gregor and Emily, likely Spitfire, quickly sat at the end next to Newter. Taylor and Amy sat in the two chairs on the near side of the table.
"Here's your collection of agreements," Melanie said, pushing the empty tube and stack of papers across the table to Taylor.
"Alright," Taylor said, flipping through them. They all appeared to be in order, so she slipped them into the tube and locked it. She was just considering what to do with it when she got another message. She blinked, and figured why not. So she casually tossed the tube into the corner of the room where a plant was sitting, only to feel a tear in reality open up long enough for the tube to fall through it.
Melanie glared at Taylor. "Emily, would you be so kind as to grab that for Miss Hebert? I don't want it getting forgotten."
The brown-haired girl got up and moved over to the plant and started rummaging around for the tube that wasn't there anymore.
"So did you enjoy your drinks?" Melanie asked while Emily was searching.
"The Gargle Blaster didn't quite live up to the hype," Taylor answered, both girls grinning.
"Bullshit," Newter said. "If either of you had even half of a Parahuman Gargle Blaster then you'd be out of it or passed out right now."
"I'm immune to a lot of toxins thanks to my power," Amy pointed out. "Your excretions apparently included." She then thumbed at Taylor. "And she can out-drink Lung."
Newter just blinked at that declaration, as though he couldn't wrap his head around anyone being immune to him or something like that.
"Boss," Emily said. "I can't find the tube. It isn't in the plant or the pot. It isn't behind the pot, and there are no holes in the floor or wall over here. And I'm not sure I heard it land."
Taylor grinned at Melanie's look of disbelief, even if it only lasted a moment before the woman got up to go look for herself. Looking at the others, Gregor seemed to be curious. Newter still had the look of confusion. And Elle was just sitting there with a look of concentration on her face.
Taylor: Think I should shut Elle's power down so she can relax?
Amy: Might as well.
BA: Establishing Additional Connections
Taylor shivered as the additional connections opened, forcing herself to not try and pull them back.
Amy: Calm down. It isn't like the clones.
Taylor: Yeah...yeah. And you can't fool me, your heart started pumping harder too.
A moment later Elle relaxed, and gave Taylor a nervous smile. Gregor seemed to notice that, and had probably noticed Taylor's shivering. He was switching between looking at Elle and the two visiting girls, a look of contemplation on his face.
"I give up," Melanie said, returning to where she'd been sitting. Emily did the same. "Similarly to when it showed up, I can't figure out how you just did that."
"I didn't do anything but throw the tube," Taylor answered. "They are, however, very tricky tubes. They don't like to be left just anywhere."
"I see." Melanie didn't sound convinced, but apparently wasn't going to push it. "So, what can you tell us?"
"Well, I suppose we can start with a correction or two. Contrary to popular belief, my powers don't grant me enhanced strength. That's a side effect of a tinker fugue."
"Her enhanced senses, healing, and durability come from the same," Amy added, even as several of them cringed. "Amongst other things."
"My trigger event granted me blaster and trump abilities."
Taylor blinked as Melanie, Gregor, and Newter pushed their chairs back and Emily moved her chair over, apparently to put more distance between them. Elle didn't seem to care. Taylor turned to Amy, who shrugged.
"Is that how you shut down Elle's powers?" Newter asked after a moment.
"Yep," Taylor answered. "Though that's technically a side-effect. The primary trick is communicating with snarks, the things that grant powers. Turns out that if I talk to them enough in the right way they stop functioning properly. Kind of a brute force power nullifier, in a way? But less reliable. Elle's snark is unusually cooperative in that regard."
"It would appear that you have done so now," Gregor said, gesturing to Elle. "Elle relaxed, but has that nervous look she had when we picked her up."
"That's right."
"Damn," Melanie said, frowning as she realized she'd apparently instinctively backed away. She moved her chair forward again, causing the other three to do the same. "I was hoping that there might have actually been tinkertech we could purchase." She paused, then looked at Taylor. "I don't suppose you do the whole teenage girl thing of watching kids for spending money?"
"Er, no, I can't say I do."
"Damn. Oh well, at least we know someone we can call to snap her out of her really bad days." Melanie's expression hardened. "Now then, you also told me that you've recently learned some things about Case 53s."
Taylor sighed as Gregor and Newter both started paying a lot more attention. "Yes. As I understand it, they were all generally people that were on death's doorstep in some fashion and were approached by a group with an offer. Drink a vial that might save their life while granting powers. Supposedly full disclosure on things such as 'might kill you faster' and 'might not leave you human' due to how experimental they were. Those that survived but, for one reason or another, wanted to break ties with their past had the option of having their memory wiped and being dropped on Earth Bet."
Taylor and Amy sat there as the others in the room tried to process that.
Taylor: Why did we come here again?
Amy: I wanted to one-up Vicky.
Taylor: Oh, right. I'm starting to think that wasn't a compelling enough reason.
Amy: Well duh, but we have hindsight now.
"So," Gregor said, having apparently processed things. "You claim you were told this. Do you have any proof?"
"I've talked to the snarks of several Case 53s," Taylor replied. "All of them generally agreed with the memory wipe being voluntary, though the specifics obviously varied, and not all of them were willing to provide details."
"Does that mean you could ask our powers?" Newter asked.
"I could. But I can't guarantee details, and if anything particularly personal comes up I'd want a private room to explain in. You'd have to decide whether or not to share it afterwards."
Gregor and Newter stared at Taylor, then leaned forward to look at each other. Gregor waved Newter on.
"Ok," Newter said. "I'll go for it. Is there anything special you need from me?"
"Nope," Taylor said. "Give me a minute."
Taylor: So, hello again.
[Greetings]
Taylor: Are you willing to talk about what you know of your human before he had his memory erased?
[Contemplation. Query]
Taylor: I might give him the opportunity to not learn certain details, but if he wants to know I'll tell him anything you tell me.
[Agreement. Data]
Taylor cringed, and was impressed that Amy had suppressed her attempted reaction. "Yeah, not fun. Very basics? You were missing a leg and half your arm when your snark connected to you. The memory wipe is for personal enough reasons that I'm not going to discuss it in here unless you insist."
"Use room six," Melanie said.
Newter nodded, and got up. Taylor followed him down the hall.
Fifteen minutes later Taylor entered the room again, Newter following a moment later.
"All I'm saying is that my irrational fear of airplanes flying over me?" Newter said as he sat down. "It apparently isn't irrational after all, and I don't think there's any way she knew of it, let alone well enough to spin a tale."
"Newter," Melanie said. "I didn't know that about you."
"It's why he doesn't like jobs near airports," Elle said. She seemed to be getting more used to the feeling of her power being suppressed.
"Well, that would explain that."
"Since you seem to have had success with my associate," Gregor said, getting Taylor's attention. "I would appreciate it if you would communicate with my, you called it a snark?"
"Yes, snark," Taylor replied. "Give me a moment."
Taylor: Hello again.
[Query]
Taylor blinked at that.
Amy: I think we can let him know that, yes.
Taylor: Right. We'll get to letting him know that in a minute. Are you willing to tell us about things from before his memory was erased?
[Negation. Correction. Data]
Well, that was easy enough. Taylor looked at Gregor. "Well, your snark thinks you need to eat more protein. Beyond that, your snark says you were heavily irradiated when it connected to you. It won't provide details as to why your memory was wiped for fear that you'll become suicidal again."
Melanie blinked as Gregor seemed to be processing that. She then turned to the man. "That's it Gregor. We're hiring a therapist, because some days you still seem suicidal. You've obviously got something deep in your psyche that you need to work out. Short of her being a damned good thinker I can't see how she'd have figured that out either."
"I...yes, I can see why you would insist now," Gregor said. "It would be illogical for you to not do so, after all." He then reached into a pocket and pulled out a roll of money. He went to pull off some of the bills, before pausing, and then sliding the entire roll over to Taylor. "This time, Miss Hebert, you have earned your payment, so I shall have to insist."
Taylor frowned, but took the roll of bills anyway. Based on how Melanie and Newter had both rolled their eyes she figured that he would, in fact, insist. What she'd do with spending money she had no use for was a different question, of course.
"Gregor's spending habits aside," Melanie said, turning back to Taylor. "Thank you for the information. Please let us know if we can ever be of assistance. And I shall apologize in advance, but we're very likely to let it be known that the ENE has a parahuman that can potentially reveal details of the pasts of Case 53s."
"At least that will hopefully encourage the more overtly villainous ones to clean up their acts a little," Amy offered. "After all, if they have to talk to the PRT to get answers they might want to have started to get on better terms with law enforcement in general."
"Ok, that sounds useful," Taylor admitted. "I just hope it doesn't become too much of a constant stream or something."
"I'm curious," Emily said. "You said that the vials were experimental. What's the goal of the experimenting?"
"I presume to get rid of the side effects before they sold or otherwise used the fully functional versions," Melanie answered before Taylor could say anything. "Really, that's somewhat obvious." She then sighed and turned to Taylor and Amy. "Thank you for your time, you two can go enjoy the club now if you wish. I'll even let the bouncers know that you two are both always welcome for the future."
Taylor turned to Amy. "So, you want to stick around? I really just wanted a drink, and I did get one."
"Please stay," Elle said, causing everyone to look at her. She blushed at the sudden attention.
Taylor: Can you just give her an off switch?
Amy: Oooh. Good idea.
[Query]
BA: Data
[Negation. Data]
Taylor: Well, it was worth a shot.
Amy: Yeah.
"Well," Taylor said. "I guess I can stay for a little bit. But I will have to go home eventually, I have school tomorrow."
"Thank you," Elle said, before darting out of the room. By the time Taylor and Amy had made it downstairs she'd returned, in costume with her mask on, apparently intent on enjoying the club without having to worry about her power flaring up.
Vicky stared at her phone. She'd signed up for the Palanquin's feed on a lark, mainly because the people who willingly exposed themselves to Newter's anything tended to be hilarious.
"Mom," Vicky said. "Amy went out and had alcohol."
"It's about time she used her card," Carol replied. "She needs to live a little. It isn't likely to affect her much either way anyway. Why do you care?"
"Because the Palanquin website says that she and Taylor tried the Parahuman Gargle Blaster and apparently found it lacking in kick. No hilarious antics or anything, even, despite the guy they used as a test subject just after getting the full effect of the hallucinogens."
Carol blinked a couple of times, and pulled her own phone out. A few minutes later she was frowning at it. "Ok, I knew that drinking enough to get intoxicated would be harder for them, but no-selling the Gargle Blaster is a bit much."
Taylor pulled into the garage at home after a few hours at the Palanquin. She and Amy hadn't quite enjoyed the experience, even if watching Elle run around had been amusing. The 'club' scene apparently wasn't their thing. Not that she'd expected it to be in her case, at least. She'd honestly just gone there for the alcohol and because Amy suggested it.
As the garage door closed she wondered if it was Kurt, Lacey, or both that were visiting. Well, she'd find out in the next couple of minutes.
"I'm home," she called out as she entered the house.
"YOU!" Lacey said, getting up from the couch. "What were you thinking, trying the Gargle Blaster?"
"I wanted a very strong drink after disturbing things I can't tell you about." Taylor paused as Lacey grabbed her in a hug. "Well, I could tell you some of it, but not all of it. And come to think of it, I never did get a decent drink."
"You had what is considered the strongest drink in New England," Kurt said from the couch. "I don't think you get to whine about a lack of 'decent' drinks."
"So what's the occasion?" Taylor asked once Lacey had let her go.
"I invited them over so we could monitor for your antics," Danny answered. "I originally thought we might be going to fetch you. But as far as we can tell you were responsible and limited yourself to a single glass of an unusually strong drink. You hungry?"
"Amy and I had a lot of stupidly expensive little snacks, so not really." She had the roll of money from Gregor anyway, so it hadn't exactly cut into her finances.
"Did you know that PHO has started a new thread about your little excursion to the Palanquin?" Lacey asked. "They're trying to decide if your little Gargle Blaster routine was a trick with a non-alcoholic beverage or if you're blessed with suck for being so resistant that it didn't do anything to you. The couple dozen pictures of Labyrinth hugging you when you left just added to the confusion."
"Was she really begging you to stay?" Kurt asked. "Because if so nobody could figure out why."
"She was having fun and didn't want to stop," Taylor said. "And no, I haven't been looking at PHO. They say anything else ridiculous?"
"There's a general disappointment that you were obviously there for business," Lacey said. "Since you showed up in normal day clothes, went straight to Faultline's office, spent time in the back, and then watched Labyrinth run around the club. The consensus is that Labyrinth had powers-related injuries, so Panacea healed her up physically and you helped her mentally in some way. They figure the Gargle Blaster thing was a publicity stunt even if it wasn't faked."
"At least they think that you two could make a good team," Danny added. "One able to heal any injuries the cape has sustained, and the other hopefully able to help keep them from injuring themselves again. Either that or you were there because Labyrinth and/or Faultline wanted to thank you for helping out when the girl ended up lost and Amy being there at the same time was coincidence."
"I just wanted a drink," Taylor moaned. "Why is it that going out to get a drink turns into a big production?"
"May I recommend a normal bar?" Kurt asked.
"Like the one I out-drank Lung in?"
"Oh. Right. Ummm..."
Taylor sighed as she dried her hair. Lacey had gone between claiming that Taylor had been irresponsible and praising her actions all night. Drinking the Gargle Blaster was irresponsible, but not leaving until the alcohol was likely processed was responsible. Having a friend there was responsible, right up until said friend drank a Gargle Blaster too.
Kurt, on the other hand, had been fairly laid back and had provided a list of bars, how he rated them, and whether or not any capes were known to frequent them. Her father had added to the list, both in notes and three additional locations. Though he claimed he couldn't give ratings of his own on two of them for some reason.
Amy: Did you get the third degree when you got home?
Taylor: Kinda? But I got a list of bars to consider for next time I want a drink.
Amy: You too? Carol had one printed up when I got home. Complete with 'if alone' and 'with Taylor' recommendations.
Taylor: Huh, I wonder if there's any overlap. We should compare the lists at some point.
Amy: We could both type them up and send them to each other?
Taylor: Not a bad idea.
Twenty minutes later they were comparing the lists.
Taylor: Huh. Carol recommended Friend's Harbor and Dorothy's Pub for the two of us together, and my father added both without an indication of quality.
Amy: Weird. Maybe he's heard of them, but hasn't visited them?
Taylor: Possibly. Everyone seems to agree that we should avoid the Golden Eagle, though.
Amy: Yeah. Not sure why, but I think it's in Empire territory. Maybe it's one of their fronts?
Taylor: That would make sense.
They spent another half hour combining the lists into a single one for ease of reference, interpreting the comments to get them down to a consistent language in the process. It was only when they had finished that they realized that they weren't even sure if they'd ever use the list, it had just seemed like it would be inefficient to have two lists to reference instead of one. Oh well, if they ever decided to use it they at least had it now, right?
Chapter 93 Monday morning Taylor woke up feeling like she hadn't slept well. That and she thought she knew a pile of things about how snarks interfaced with humans, but in an abstract and confusing way that she couldn't put into words? Well, there was this one bit that was incredibly clear, but while she might be able to figure out how to say it she wasn't actually sure what a K'Nectatuet was or why it shouldn't be left in a human.
Amy: What the fuck happened last night?
Taylor: I think they kept working with the vial-snark all night.
Amy: Oh. Right. But they're quiet now?
BA: Data
Taylor: Oh. Ok, we'll check back with it later once it's tried to reconfigure.
Well, that explained some of that. Hopefully the poor little snark would get it right. Not that she had any clue what to do with the vial once it had. She wasn't actually sure she agreed with the idea of selling powers, or forcing snarks to work with people, or both.
She'd decided not to bring the vial-snark to school, but didn't trust anywhere she had to keep it at home, so she swung by the PRT building to drop it in her gun safe there. Once she'd done that she made her way over to the gym. She was smirking as she entered the locker room.
"You suck," Vicky whined as she got changed. "Why did I let you get me up early for this?"
"Because you previously expressed interest in knowing if you could work out normally now," Taylor answered for Amy as she moved over to a locker. She'd worn her exercise clothing when she left the house and thus didn't need to change, just drop her change of clothing and utility belt in the locker.
"There's a good chance it won't fully work out for you anyway," Amy said. "But I figured you should at least try it."
"You got me up for something that you think won't even work?" Vicky said, staring at Amy with a look of horror on her face. "Why would you do that to me?"
"Because you obviously need the exercise after eating my pudding last night."
Taylor snickered while Vicky groaned.
"You both suck," Vicky moaned. It turned out that unlike Amy's experience with the force field belt, without her enhancements turned on Vicky could benefit fully from exercise. Of course, she'd then tried to keep up with the two younger girls, because why wouldn't she?
"It isn't like we forced you through a difficult workout," Taylor pointed out. "Not our fault you tried to match what we were doing instead of what we recommended."
"You're also the one insisting that you don't need any healing," Amy added. "So suck it up and shower. Or do you want to get in trouble for being late to school?"
Vicky merely grumbled as she floated into the shower area. She then floated back out, because showering fully clothed wasn't the goal.
Taylor and Amy hadn't considered the ramifications of their actions the previous day when it came to gossip at school. They had, after all, ended up with video evidence posted online showing that they'd been in the alcohol bar at the Palanquin. Whether or not they'd consumed a real Parahuman Gargle Blaster was being debated. After all, no matter what they or the Palanquin website said it might have been a publicity stunt.
To a lesser degree people wanted to know what had happened with Labyrinth. But that line of inquiry was tempered by the thought that it was likely 'doctor/patient' stuff in some way, shape, or form. As such they didn't expect to find anything out, so were doing their best to not focus on it. Too much.
"Did Labyrinth really spend an hour dancing with random people?" a guy asked as Taylor was swapping things out at her locker.
"Yes," Taylor answered, rolling her eyes. Really, like the pictures people had taken didn't show that already?
"But you didn't dance with her?"
Taylor blinked. "No, because amongst other things I don't think dancing is my thing."
Amy: Please tell me that you're getting stupid questions too?
Taylor: Yep. I'm starting to wonder about the general intelligence of people.
Amy: Maybe they just don't believe pictures because they're easily faked?
Taylor: One hell of a conspiracy in that case, given the sheer number of pictures and videos floating around on PHO from different people.
Luckily this was the kind of thing that wouldn't be discussed much in class. Even parahuman-focused classes wouldn't have anything to talk about, with no visible use of powers involved.
"BULLSHIT!" Dennis yelled as he sat down with his lunch. "There, I've said it. We can move on from the Palanquin now. What else do we have to talk about?"
"The upcoming long weekend?" Vicky offered.
"Boring," Dean retorted. "I want to know why you've been tired, limping, and favoring your off hand all morning."
Vicky glared at Dean for a moment, then reconsidered and switched to glaring at Amy instead.
"I dragged her to the gym this morning," Amy replied to their unasked questions, shrugging. "She went a little overboard, not being used to that kind of workout."
"And of course you and Taylor regularly work out these days," Dennis said. "So she wasn't ready to keep up with you, though I suppose if you give her a couple of weeks?"
"Possibly. I'll have to drag her in more often to find out."
Taylor had expected Vicky to glare at Dennis. Instead Vicky broke down crying?
Taylor: Are you being too hard on her?
Amy: I didn't think I was. I mean, she knows she pushed herself too hard today so it wouldn't be as bad later, right?
"I give," one of the girls at the next table said. "Why'd she break down crying at the idea of working out?"
"Because if I try and get out of it mom will probably make me go twice as often!" Vicky whined. "I need my beauty sleep!"
Taylor leaned over and mock-whispered to Amy. "Should we tell her that she could go after school instead of before?"
Amy snickered as Vicky dropped her head on the table.
Taylor sighed as she and Amy parked in the secure garage after school. They had a joint session with Jessica, and then planned on running around in the junkyard.
"I'm amazed that they actually bothered to label one of the spaces down here for me," Amy said. "It isn't like I'm actually a Ward."
"Until we hit ten locally it isn't exactly a hardship," Taylor countered. "Besides, you make for a whopping third person who uses this lot right now. Not exactly a lot of Wards with vehicles right now."
"I suppose. I wonder how common it is in general?"
"No clue. Not sure I really care nor how you'd even check."
The two made their way into the building and over to the corner stairwell, both foregoing getting into costume for the moment. Not that Amy normally would've worn a costume anyway.
Taylor sighed as she changed. Jessica had done her best to play them against each other today. Getting each of them to reveal little details about how the other was reacting and all. Damned effective, if annoying when you saw it coming and it worked anyway. Still, it had revealed some interesting details, and in the end she'd declared them both 'stable enough'. Which mainly meant that Amy didn't need an adult watching her at all times when healing now.
Taylor: I hadn't considered that keeping Elle's power shut down for that long was good for us.
Amy: It makes sense in hindsight, given that it was a safe use of the multiple connections trick. Since we were able to do it without hurting her or anyone else and all.
Taylor: Yeah. Just hadn't thought of it that way. I thought I was mainly being stubborn and refusing to acknowledge that it might be a bad idea.
Amy: Er...yeah. You probably were, but you were kinda right?
Taylor frowned at her jackets, and decided not to bother with them or the jump harness. She didn't need the heavy stuff in the junkyard, after all. She did make sure she grabbed the hard-light projector and her sword. She absently noted Aisha making her way upstairs towards Jessica, so perhaps she'd decided to join the Wards. Or maybe she was getting a free therapy session or two either way.
Lisa: Is this thing on?
Taylor: Oh, hello. What's up?
Lisa: I'm bored and was hoping you might be more amusing than hunting down obscure documentation?
Amy: Our plans are to go down to the junkyard for an urge-cleansing mood-booster session.
Lisa: But you'll still be in range.
Taylor: She has a point. No clue what we'll talk about though.
Taylor put her domino mask and visor on, then headed back out into the common area where Amy was waiting. They both waved to Lisa on the way by as they headed for the junkyard.
Taylor: What kind of obscure documentation were you looking for anyway?
Lisa: Er, I was looking for what happens with sibling Wards in unusual circumstances?
Amy: Oh, to see what's likely to happen with Brian and Aisha?
Lisa: Basically, yeah. Aisha's decided to go for the Wards, but their situation is odd.
"Think anything interesting will be available?" Amy asked as Inference Engine let them know that Lisa had to direct her attention to the console for a moment.
"Who knows," Taylor replied. "Once we've gotten stuff out of our system I think I want to try some swordplay though."
"What do you mean?"
"Some practice using swords. I figured you could use the hard-light projector while I use the real thing, on the basis that your shield will keep you safe if I screw up."
"And if I screw up?"
"The hard-light projector isn't dangerous enough to worry about."
Lisa: So, just got word that you should stick around until after patrols are done for Aisha's meet and greet, courtesy of them wanting to double-check when patrols should be finished. You should get a notice soon.
Taylor: Thanks for the heads up.
Taylor and Amy were both grinning as they returned to the Wards area. They'd destroyed some more apartment doors, played with swords, and then destroyed another couple of apartment doors with Taylor's sword.
"You two seem to have had fun," Lisa said as they entered. "The running commentary of number of doors destroyed was...ok, it was boring as hell, but not as boring as searching documentation."
"Come to think of it, do you ever not sit on the console these days?" Taylor asked, gesturing to the console Lisa was sitting at. "Because it seems like none of the rest of us do anymore."
"It's easier to keep the larger patrols going if you don't need to pull a field Ward to put them on the console, and I honestly don't have much better to do since they've, er, limited my time messing with people online. It's kinda relaxing, actually, after the online coursework I've been doing during the day anyway."
"How long are you guys going to be doing the three-plus patrols?" Amy asked.
"We were supposed to be done with them the day Skidmark attacked again," Taylor admitted. "Technically the Merchants aren't a threat anymore, but I think the administrative staff are reluctant to dial things back again for the time being. Or maybe we need to wait for Skidmark to be confirmed to not be in the area? Not sure what happened to him, actually."
"They think he's planning on starting up again somewhere else," Lisa said, shrugging. "He's apparently quite good at moving around without being noticed so they're not quite sure where he is right now. They've had me look over what they've got on his movements and I couldn't pick anything up either."
"Ok. I can tell that Aisha's done with Jessica and is apparently talking with Miss Militia down the hall. Or at least waiting with her. When's everyone else coming back?"
"Chris, Dennis, and Missy should be back in the next ten minutes. Brian, Carlos, and Dean probably more like fifteen."
"Think I should stay or leave?" Amy asked.
"Miss Militia's message to me said it was up to you," Taylor said. Then paused. "Oooh, want to mess with Aisha?"
"How?"
Taylor explained her idea over the next few minutes, after which it took Lisa several minutes to stop laughing. She'd let the patrol groups know as they entered the building, and just to be safe Taylor fired a message off to Miss Militia to warn her about it.
"Hello everyone," Miss Militia said as she entered with Aisha. "As you've likely figured out, we have a new Ward."
Taylor was a bit surprised that Aisha was in street clothes with a domino mask on, but supposed that it was fairly short notice and all so her costume might not be done yet. She'd only triggered a couple days ago, after all.
"Hi, I'm Hulder," Aisha said, looking around. She stopped when she saw Amy, holding Taylor's maul over her shoulder while wearing Taylor's visor and one of her jackets. "There's no...yeah. Nice try. Fake maul to trick me into thinking you're Maul?"
"There's nothing fake about the maul," Amy countered.
Aisha growled and stormed over to Amy, attempting to grab the maul. Only to fall over when Amy let it fall from her shoulder and Aisha couldn't even lift it. "What the fuck? But...Maul's guarded you! And patrols while you're at the hospital all the time! That isn't possible!"
There was a moment of silence before Dennis started snickering. That set off the rest of them, Miss Militia included.
"My only regret is that I missed the initial look on your face," Brian finally said. "I'm sure it was hilarious."
"I've got the Snitch running so we can catch it later," Taylor offered as she lowered down from where she'd been sitting on her platform above the door.
Aisha looked between Taylor and Amy. "Ok, I'm still very confused here, because Panacea isn't a brute?"
Amy picked the Maul up and awkwardly slid it into the jacket, obviously not used to doing so, then pulled the visor off and tossed it to Taylor.
"Do ensure that I get a copy of the footage," Miss Militia said, dropping a bag she'd been carrying next to the door. "We're pushing her through the system fairly quickly, somewhat at her own request, so we'll hopefully be introducing Hulder on Thursday afternoon even if she'll be running through her required and optional training sessions all weekend. Have fun for now, and remember that Hulder doesn't have her new phone yet so she'll need assistance getting around."
Taylor put the visor on over the domino mask she was wearing while Miss Militia was leaving, then hopped off of the flying platform. She then looked at it. "I'll have to bring that back up to the roof later. Though the gravitic gradient system could use a small amount of recalibration after the high-speed runs to and from Boston, so maybe I should take care of that before I do."
"Meet and greet now," Carlos said. "Tinker later."
Taylor sighed and packed the platform up, then grabbed the jacket from Amy.
"That thing's heavy," Amy said. "Doesn't sit well on the shoulders with the maul in it either."
"It ended up being surprisingly comfortable with the jump harness," Taylor said as she slipped the jacket on. "But yeah, the pressure points you get without the jump harness are annoying."
"So Hulder," Carlos said. "I take it you met with Glenn yesterday?"
"Yeah," Aisha said, sounding very confused. "I was impatient and spent most of Saturday night filling stuff out. They got me in to meet with Glenn yesterday afternoon." She then shook herself. "Ok, seriously, what the fuck is up with Panacea being strong enough to pretend to be Maul?"
"I think we'll get to that in a few minutes as part of the powers discussion. For now, care to introduce yourself properly?"
Aisha groaned, but removed her domino mask. "Ok, I'm Aisha, Brian's sister."
Brian removed his helmet at that point, pulling his sister into a one-armed hug. Aisha scowled for a moment, but switched to a grin as each of the other Wards unmasked and introduced themselves, confirming their identities. Then she looked at Taylor.
Taylor grinned back. "Are you sure you want to know? After all, I'm the only one you weren't already sure about." Aisha's grin turned into a glare, and Taylor snickered before taking her visor and domino mask off. "I'm Taylor, of course."
Aisha frowned at that. "But, how are you a brute and not a brute at the same time?"
"I suggest you sit down for this," Brian said, guiding Aisha to one of the couches.
Taylor ended up ignoring Carlos's admonishment and doing her work on the platform while Aisha gave a brief rundown of her own powers, followed by Brian and Carlos giving Aisha a rundown on everyone else's. This included some of the shared stuff with Taylor and Amy, but only covered snark-granted abilities. She'd finished up and ended up leaning on the back of the couch Amy was sitting on about halfway through that as the adjustments on the platform were fairly quick.
"I get most of that," Aisha said when everything was explained. She then gestured at Taylor and Amy, who merely grinned. "But even with the power linking thing you didn't say anything about those two being brutes?"
"Tinker fugue," Taylor said. "Artificial brute and enhanced senses even without the Bluetooth interface. Permission slips and other paperwork are in the filing cabinet over there if you want to see about trying to go through one yourself."
"Why the hell would anyone volunteer to be messed with like that?" Aisha exclaimed, sounding horrified with the general idea.
"Taylor didn't even notice that she'd started her period until I told her," Amy answered. "Oh, and she survived being punched by Vicky. The Bluetooth thing is weird and probably isn't for everyone."
"No," Brian said without even bothering to look in Aisha's direction. "I already checked and was told that I would need to sign your permission slip. I won't for at least six months."
"So what's with the name?" Taylor asked, figuring a change in topic would be good, if the look on Aisha's face was anything to go by.
"I wanted to be Eight Ball," Aisha said, pouting a little. "Because I'm black and hide in a pocket. But Glenn said it wouldn't fly for a hero and I didn't qualify for anti-hero. He rejected Antlion for similar reasons, and Trapdoor is in use by a shaker who literally creates trap doors in the area. He wanted Barricade, but it was in use, and there was no way I was going to be called Hatch. He finally suggested Hulder, and after a little consideration of the source I decided it would be like constantly giving the Empire the middle finger, so I went for it."
"Is your costume going to be full-body or showing skin?" Missy asked.
"Glenn insisted on full body for my own safety, so they can think I'm probably caucasian or something. He also insisted on a tree theme to call out to the forest nature of the mythological hulder or something like that. I insisted on air tanks, since it didn't take me long to figure out that while I can hear sounds and somewhat see out of my hidey hole there's no airflow. I'm not looking forward to the power testing people probably wanting to confirm that on Wednesday."
"They'll do their best to keep you safe in the process," Taylor said. "So that shouldn't be too bad. So, why did you ask for everything to be rushed through?"
"Because the sooner I'm publicly a Ward the safer I'll be," Aisha answered, rolling her eyes. "Plus it'll hopefully make it easier to keep an eye on Brian. At least it should require less paying attention in class, since the academic requirements the Youth Guard want are less than the PRT entry requirements."
"What position were you hoping for in the PRT?" Dean asked.
"Field agent, why?"
Taylor and Lisa both started snickering, and Brian groaned before answering. "Because I had them give you the high-level administrator requirements. These days field agents technically only need a high school diploma or GED, to pass the entrance tests for physical fitness and such, and to pass background and thinker trustworthiness checks. Granted, you need more if you ever want to progress to squad leader or higher, but for a normal field agent the requirements are minimal because they'd be training you up on things you'd never learn in school anyway."
Aisha looked horrified that her brother would do that to her, which just caused the rest of them to break out into laughter.
Taylor: It's really too bad most people will never be able to see this footage.
Taylor was sitting at her desk at home, going through all the downloaded footage from the Snitch and assembling a 'highlights reel'. She'd be sending a copy to pretty much all the Wards, plus Miss Militia and Amy.
Amy: The look on Aisha's face when she couldn't lift your maul was great. Too bad I can't even show the others in New Wave unless she reveals herself to them.
Taylor: Such is the annoyance of secrets and secure areas. I have similar problems with the prank I pulled on Assault too.
Now, should she stitch these together in 3D as well as in 2D form?
Tuesday morning had a light drizzle that had rolled in off the water, expected to clear up fairly quickly. Taylor had stopped by the PRT building to use the gym, but Amy was going to drag Vicky by after school. That didn't stop them from chatting while Taylor worked out.
Taylor: So, you've been using air raid siren sounds to wake Vicky up, right?
Amy: Yep. She still hasn't found the speaker. I'm not actually sure if she knows that there's a power outlet back there.
Taylor: Yeah, but surely the siren is getting predictable.
Amy: It's still working. Isn't that the important part?
Taylor: But eventually she'll probably start ignoring it. Have you considered animal noises, or perhaps some of those high-pitched tones that seem almost impossible to locate?
Amy: I think I love you, and now I need to search for some audio files.
Taylor wondered what Vicky was going to think of the change.
"What's wrong with you?" Taylor asked Vicky when the older girl arrived at school. Vicky didn't look happy, and not in a 'my sister is annoying' manner.
"Crickets," Vicky growled. "I think they escaped the room, or maybe they were in the vents the whole time?"
Taylor blinked.
Taylor: What did you do?
Amy: I woke her up a few minutes early with cricket sounds, then played the air raid siren on schedule. Then played crickets a few more times for good measure.
Taylor: Ok, that's more evil than I anticipated. Good job.
Amy: Thank you.
It was certainly an interesting extrapolation from her original suggestion. Though...
Taylor: So, do you have any of the point-projection speakers?
Amy: Yes. Why?
Taylor: Well, if you can hide them suitably you can make the noises move around by changing speakers.
Amy: I'm going to have to see what options I have for sneaky power in her room, because that sounds way too funny to not do. I think there's a plug she doesn't use behind her bookcase...
Though now Taylor was curious, would this count as corrupting Amy?
By lunchtime the general gossip had moved to a couple who'd been caught making out in an empty classroom. The problem was that there were conflicting reports, with some students thinking it was a couple of senior students and others thinking it had been freshmen. Since none of the four were at lunch it was harder to narrow things down.
"The back and forth arguments for who was caught are getting annoying," Dennis said. "And I'm having trouble keeping the details from both sides straight."
"I've been taking notes," Vicky said, holding up a small notebook. "And I think I've determined who's right." She'd said that loudly enough to get the attention of nearby tables, and the arguments settled down so they could hear her. After the noise level had dropped enough Vicky continued. "Everyone is probably right, since nobody's information is actually conflicting. The senior boys were caught by Mister Desmond shortly before the freshman couple were caught by Mister Richards. None of them are here because all four are in trouble."
Taylor was highly amused at people's reactions to Vicky's declaration. The idea that four students would be caught instead of two had apparently never crossed most of their minds.
"With that out of the way," Amy said, breaking the silence. "Anyone heard any interesting news lately?"
"They introduced a new member of the Protectorate in Florida this morning," a freshman named Justin said. "Their power has something to do with controlling metal discs. The article's a bit vague and the press release isn't up on the Protectorate website yet."
"I wonder if it's easier to use offensively or defensively," Taylor mused. "Small shields versus flying saw blades type deal."
"Ideally you could do both," Dean said thoughtfully. "But I imagine a flying saw blade is less useful if it isn't spinning. So a more knife-edge type disc might be better?"
They ended up spending the rest of lunch talking about hypothetical metal discs the new cape could use, and why they might pick each variant.
After school Taylor grinned a little as Vicky followed her and Amy in the general direction of the PRT building. She'd asked the older girl about the flying and had been told that she'd been given permission to fly along with those using things like bikes or mopeds. Based on how it had been worded she suspected that the permission was really intended to let the girl follow her and Amy around as an informal bodyguard.
Taylor split off to head to the secure garage. Amy and Vicky were going to use the gym and then leave, so Amy was just going to park in the gym's lot. All three of them had been surprised to find out that the gym was actually known, to some of their classmates at least, to have an exclusive area where those with access could exercise in peace. Though the belief was that it was a small back room restricted to those who had a reasonable expectation of being bothered during their workouts, such as Taylor and all of New Wave.
"So how's the 'exclusive access'?" Taylor asked once she'd met the other two in the gym.
"Surprisingly anticlimactic," Amy answered, rolling her eyes. She then turned to Vicky. "So, are you going to listen to us today?"
"Yes," Vicky said, sounding slightly dejected. "Even if it annoys the crap out of me to be so far behind you two."
Taylor and Amy shared a look, and then sighed. Amy waved for Taylor to say it. "Vicky, without your powers you're a normal teenage girl."
"Your point?"
"You stick us next to a power nullifier and we retain our entire brute package."
Vicky stared at Taylor, then looked at Amy, and then facepalmed. "I'm an idiot."
"I made that mistake with Taylor too," Amy said. "It's an easy one to make, as you aren't seeing the parahuman."
"Can we just get started now? Because I need a distraction from how stupid I was being."
Taylor smirked as the three cleaned up after their workout, though Taylor had spent most of it keeping an eye on Vicky to ensure she didn't go too far instead of working out herself. On that front, Vicky had actually listened when it came to her workout today, so hadn't done more harm than good. She was still exhausted, but claimed it was a 'good' exhausted and not an 'oh god why' exhausted.
"I'm going to be a little sluggish running around with Uncle Neil," Vicky said as she changed back into her street clothes.
"He'll be happy," Amy said. "After all, he likes to complain that you run off too much."
"Is it my fault that he can be so slow?"
"Unlike you he doesn't tend to take unexpected bullets to the face, so perhaps he's moving at the better speed."
"I'll see you two later," Taylor said as she grabbed her bag. "I've got to go get ready to patrol."
She made her way into the PRT building itself and to the Wards area to get changed, poking at the patrol schedule in the process. She was apparently supposed to patrol with Chris and Dennis today. Brian, Dean, and Missy were the second group, with Carlos having the day off. It even looked like Lisa wasn't going to be running the console today, so it was just the six of them with a PRT officer on console.
Though that didn't explain why Colin seemed to be on his way to the Wards area. She wondered what he wanted and/or needed. Then again, perhaps Chris had asked him for some tinkering help at some point, she wasn't entirely certain how often they normally worked with one another.
Oh well, she'd find out soon enough. Now then, did she want the primary or secondary loadout today?
[Query]
Taylor blinked.
BA: Data. Query
[Data]
S: Acceptance
BA: Agreement
And apparently the vial-snark finished reconfiguring, and had a good enough idea of what a human was now as far as Broadcast Administrator and Shaper were concerned.
Taylor: Well, nice to see that you've figured things out.
Amy: I'll agree. Even if I still don't know what a K'Nectatuet is.
BA: Data
Taylor: That...didn't help. I'm thinking we have no contextual reference, sorry.
BA: Acceptance
Taylor: So, do you want a host?
[Query]
S: Data
[Acceptance]
Apparently it was fine either way right now.
Taylor: Ok. So, what is it that you can do anyway?
[Query]
BA: Data
[Data]
Amy: I don't know about you, but I didn't understand a thing about that.
Taylor: I think there was something in there about chemical reactions?
BA: Elaboration
Well, so much for knowing what powers the snark would give someone. It was apparently a very broad crapshoot until it connected with someone. What did you do with a vial-snark?
Chapter 94 Taylor decided to leave the vial-snark in the gun safe for the time being as she headed into the common area. It wasn't like she had any plans to give it to someone right now after all, so having it with her on patrol seemed unwise. She found Colin waiting there, sitting at the console.
"Good afternoon Maul," Colin said.
"Good afternoon," Taylor replied. "Is something wrong with the console?"
"No, but I am installing additional software that Dragon and I put together. The Protectorate hasn't upgraded their headgear to the same level that the Wards have, so the Wards are a better choice for this test."
"What does it do?"
"It should use your camera feeds to provide better overall visibility, including highlighting things that one of you can see but is blocked for the others. In theory the more cameras that you tie into the system the better the information provided, but in practice we're running into CPU limitations beyond twelve or so."
"So we'd be able to 'see' people behind a wall if someone else with a camera could see them?"
"Yes, in addition to hopefully better tracking of targets. The real-time feed would help the person on console coordinate as well."
Taylor gave that some thought, and it sounded like a great idea. It was a lot like what the Snitch's design was intended for in many ways, really.
Amy: Why are you facepalming?
Taylor: I feel like a moron. I'll explain later.
"How difficult would it be to tie additional information sources into the system?" Taylor asked, reaching into her utility belt to pull the Snitch out.
"We've been working on some basic drone designs," Colin said, turning to see Taylor holding the Snitch. He paused, and then sighed. "Why do things always look obvious in hindsight? Give me a moment to talk to Dragon. She may be able to build an interface for us."
Taylor shrugged and grabbed a bottle of juice from the fridge. After a little more consideration she grabbed a granola bar and an apple as well. She was halfway through her snack when her phones pinged her with updates and new software. The Snitch control program had an update, and there was a new 'augmented patrol' app. Since both were signed by Dragon she let them install.
"You should be getting an update shortly," Colin said.
"Already installing," Taylor replied. "Won't take much longer." She had just enough time to finish the apple before the updates finished installing. "So, what do I need to do?"
"There should be a new option in the Snitch control application for allowing real-time data access. You'll need to grant that to the new augmented patrol app, then run both. The augmented patrol app will automatically grant the console app access through it."
Taylor went through the motions, then looked over the interface for the augmented patrol app. It was waiting for 'additional information', which Taylor suspected was because she was the only data source and the Snitch wasn't running yet. To test that theory she powered the Snitch on, even though she'd put it back in her utility belt.
"I hadn't realized how impressive the Snitch was," Colin said, apparently getting readings via the console. "If you'd please leave it running, we'll need a few minutes to figure out the data parsing."
Taylor shrugged and went back to her snack. Chris appeared to be tinkering, and Dennis had just arrived with Dean. Missy...was probably actually eating at the ice cream parlor, it seemed. The only patrolling Ward not in her range already was Brian.
Taylor: You know where Brian is?
[Data]
Taylor: Ah. Thanks.
Amy: Really? You couldn't just call him?
Taylor: I'm not that curious and Inference Engine likes answering questions like that.
[Agreement. Query]
Taylor: Armsmaster is probably running the console today because he wants to test out new augmented reality software.
She finished her snack and disposed of her trash as Dennis and Dean came in. Both looked at Colin oddly, but said nothing as they went to change.
Lisa: Did you tell my power about augmented reality being tested?
Amy: Yes, she did.
Lisa: Damn you. Now I'm too curious to not come look.
Taylor: Sorry, but it asked if anything interesting was going on. What did you want me to do, lie?
Lisa: No, not really.
Taylor: Please check on Missy when you pass by the ice cream parlor. I think she got lost in a sundae or something.
Taylor was distracted by her visor flashing a couple of times, then she got an update request for the augmented patrol app. "Should I install the update now or wait longer?"
"Go ahead and install it," Colin replied. "You'll need the additional interface elements."
Taylor shrugged before shutting everything down allowing the update to install. She started it back up once it had and found that she now had a 'layers' toggle list. It was empty, until she turned the Snitch back on. All of a sudden entries for 'people', 'animals', 'weapons', 'armor', 'terrain', and 'NC-17' appeared. She could choose to highlight and/or adjust transparency on each category except for the NC-17 one.
"What's with the NC-17 entry?" Taylor asked.
"Unless you turn it on censor bars will appear automatically in situations where they'd be appropriate," Colin answered. "Such as making armor transparent and then looking at someone who wasn't wearing anything under their armor. We'll see about locking it down further later."
"Oh." Well, that was probably a good thing overall. She set the 'terrain' transparency to a quarter and looked around, finding that there was a very slight delay but it did let her, in effect, see 'through' everything around her.
It took her about ten seconds to come to the conclusion that she was not going to have any of this running while she was changing. Maybe she'd even see about getting one of the privacy fields that stopped the Snitch installed in her room. Though she also changed in the locker room in the gym. Hmmm. Perhaps just never let anyone she didn't trust control the Snitch so long as Leet hadn't asked for it back? Or maybe just hope that Dragon would recognize the issue and lock that setting down hard when things came out of alpha?
A moment later her visor flashed again as the augmented patrol app crashed.
"Why did you close the app?" Colin asked.
"It crashed," Taylor answered. "The error message indicates a unique identifier conflict."
Colin made a noise of discontent, and Taylor shrugged. She turned the Snitch off for the time being.
"Hello," Lisa said as she and Missy came in a couple minutes later. She then went straight for the console.
"Hi," Missy said, shaking her head as she came in. "Lisa said that Brian isn't here yet?"
"He had a meeting with one of Aisha's teachers today," Taylor replied. "He shouldn't be much longer."
"Dang. We won't be able to leave until he gets here." She then headed to get changed herself anyway. Taylor still suspected that she felt more comfortable in costume than out of it.
"My apologies," Colin said a couple of minutes later. "But it appears that patching the Snitch in will take much more effort than anticipated, since it appears that the crash occurred because an extra ant entered its range."
"Seriously?" Taylor said, tilting her head to the side. "An extra ant?" She'd heard of bugs in the system, but really?
"The routine assigning unique identifiers for tracking purposes wasn't really intended for the amount of processed information the Snitch is providing. We'll probably need to rewrite that part from the ground up, so I'm switching the system back to relying solely on the cameras for now."
Taylor sighed and installed the next update that she was prompted for, then waited for Chris and Dennis. It wasn't long before they both emerged from the hallway.
"Hey Maul," Chris said. "Panacea sent a comment in about seeing if you could figure out the controls for my hoverboard."
"Ah, right," Taylor said. "She said something about that. Do you have a problem with me trying?"
"It makes too much sense to have you try, so go for it."
Taylor shrugged and focused on his hoverboard as he held it out. Some gravity manipulation, what amounted to a structural integrity field to hold it together when it was under load. "You aren't taking that out today."
"What? Why not?"
"Left side power linkage is damaged and it's created a small feedback loop in the rear gravity manipulator. You'll get a cascade failure and it'll fall apart when that overloads."
"Damn. Any idea on the controls?"
"It looks like it would be easy enough for others to learn, provided that they have your particular brand of dyscalculia. The controls seem to be designed around it?"
"Well that's one way to keep other people from using your stuff," Dennis remarked. "Probably a pretty good one too. Now since we know that it's unsafe and you don't have time to fix it I have to be a responsible patrol leader and tell you to put the hoverboard away."
Chris grumbled about hating patrolling on foot, but went and put the hoverboard away anyway.
"We'll want a different route with him ground-bound," Dennis mumbled as he pulled out his phone. "Maybe swing through the docks instead? Even if nothing's been happening out there."
Taylor hopped from one roof to the next. She had the Snitch running in her pouch instead of following them under its own power, which merely ensured that what it recorded would be centered on her. Amusingly, she'd found that it had no problem with being inside of, and representing the expanded space, but it would all but ignore it when outside of it. She also had her platform cloaked and shadowing them 'just in case'.
The 'use all of their cameras to build an augmented reality map' software was running for all of six of them, even if they were in two groups. Colin was playing console operator while he and Dragon worked out some of the current bugs. Most of which were related to object identification, as far as she could tell.
She paused as she landed on the next roof, the two boys stopping on the ground at the same time.
"Was that gunshots?" Dennis asked.
"I think so," Taylor replied. "Couple blocks over, maybe?"
While Dennis called that in Taylor pulled out the Snitch. The real-time output was delayed due to local rendering limits, but it would allow for a quick look without needing to get any of them near what was going on. She just needed to send it closer, in case some of the action was outside of its range. It took a minute, but she was able to get a semi-decent look. Frowning, she waited for a pause in the radio chatter. "Maul to console, it looks like the Empire is attacking a new business in the old Johnson factory building. No capes appear to be involved at this time."
It took a few minutes, but they were told to leave it to the police. They weren't authorized to enter the fray when both sides were using guns. Shrugging, they moved on, Taylor collecting the Snitch as they did so.
"Really?" Chris said, staring at the group of drugged-up idiots they'd stumbled upon. "They're all out in the open and so far out of it that we probably don't even need to restrain them?"
"I think they found one of the stashes left behind by the Merchants," Dennis said, looking over the cleverly hidden 'safe' that was sitting open. "Probably while suffering from withdrawal and all."
"They need to be brought to the hospital," Taylor said as she checked the last one of the group. "I think they all overdosed, but I think they're all lucky enough to have stayed below the fatal point." Of course, ten minutes earlier the story had been much different, but there was no reason to say that out loud.
"The map says there should be a building here," Taylor commented. "But there appears to be a hole."
"Thank you captain obvious," Dennis snarked. "What other words of wisdom do you have for us today?"
"I don't think there's enough rubble in the hole, so I'm not sure the lack of building was caused by the hole?"
Dennis moved over to the edge of the hole and peered in. "Ok, I'll give you that one. You mark it down on the map already?"
"Of course."
"Then get down here or start moving around the edge on the rooftops, your choice."
"What," Chris said. "No investigating to see if we can figure out what happened?"
"Nope. Not our job, nor have we been trained to examine this kind of thing. Worst case scenario is that someone wants people to think the building was taken out by a sinkhole. I don't want to be anywhere near it in case they're willing to violently disagree with anyone who thinks otherwise."
"When you put it that way..."
"Hello there," Chris said. He had his pistols out and was leaning against the wall at the end of the alley the group of thugs had turned down. Dennis had slipped through the building so he could get behind the group, and Taylor was waiting on the rooftop.
The latter being because if she wasn't waiting on the rooftop she might scare the thugs off, since the Empire had been so skittish around her lately.
"It's just one of the kids," the lead thug said after looking around. "Alone, at that."
Chris pushed off of the wall and turned to the group. "We'd appreciate it if you didn't smash all the street signs, unbroken windows, and other such things while you go on your walks."
"Like we're going to listen to a pissant like you," another thug said, brandishing the club he was carrying. "You really think you can take us all on alone?"
"Hey man," a third said. "He's a tinker. Gotta be careful, who knows what he could have cooked up."
Taylor thought that the augmented reality bit was working pretty well. She could keep tabs on where the thugs were because Chris and Dennis could see them. She could also monitor Dennis carefully attaching some very lightweight netting across the alley behind the thugs while Chris distracted them. And she was debating how to enter the fray once the thugs went from 'vandalism' to 'attacking outright'.
"He's got no backup," the first thug said. "He can't have trapped the alley, he's too close. So get him!"
"Hello there!" Dennis called from behind the thugs just after one threw a rock at Chris, stopping their attack.
"Why are you behind us?" one of the thugs in the back asked after they'd all turned around. Chris snorted lightly and started stunning them with his pistols.
"So that I can cut off your escape with this incredibly lightweight netting."
"Why would we be trying to escape?"
Taylor frowned. One of them might have answered, but Chris got them all before they'd realized what was happening. "I didn't even get to make my entrance."
It turned out that their return route passed by the earlier gunfight from the opposite side, and despite it being over two hours later the fight was still going. The police had set a cordon up, but it apparently wasn't helping. Dennis ended up talking with a couple of the officers when they hit the cordon while Taylor and Chris focused on their surroundings.
"Looks like capes are now involved," Dennis finally said. "Assault, Battery, and Miss Militia are on their way. Problem is, the fighting has spread enough that our route now crosses through the fight, so we either need to go around or proceed very carefully. Armsmaster doesn't want us engaging in the actual fight unless we're attacked directly."
"Why not go over?" Taylor asked, only for the other two Wards to look at her funny.
"Your jump harness can't handle it?" Chris offered. "I should know, I helped build it."
Taylor sighed and called the platform that had been following them down, having it uncloak next to her. Chris and Dennis both seemed to stare at it.
"You've been roof-hopping despite having that thing follow you?" Dennis finally said.
"I like roof-hopping sometimes," Taylor answered. "Besides, you picked a walking and roof-hopping route after Kid Win had to leave his hoverboard behind. Still, this should hold all three of us just fine until we're clear of the fighting."
"Maul's plan is approved," Armsmaster said over the radio. "In fact, at this point you can come straight back to the PRT building."
"I don't think I want all of us on that thing for that long unless necessary," Dennis said. "So I vote we pop up and over the fighting, then hit the ground again."
"Ok," Taylor said, dropping the platform onto the ground and hopping onto it. She then helped Chris and Dennis up onto it. They had to stand in a triangle, so she couldn't use the manual controls. That was alright, though, as it shouldn't be too long of a flight. A moment later they took off and started over the cordoned-off area.
The three were very confused when someone yelled below them. "Shit, it's Maul!" A quick check showed that the Empire members were vacating the area, to the utter confusion of their opponents.
"Clockblocker to console," Dennis finally said. "The Empire combatants spotted us and ran away, apparently out of fear of Maul."
"What did you do to them?" Chris asked off of the radio. "Because, well, seriously?"
"I don't think I've really done anything to anyone in the Empire," Taylor said. "I mean, yeah, I've beaten up some of their thugs a few times, but I didn't think I was that scary?"
A few minutes later they landed on the other side of the police cordon. Taylor let Chris and Dennis off at street level, then took the platform up to the roof before having it stow and cloak to follow her again.
"Thank you for the Snitch data," the PRT officer debriefing them said. "Hopefully it will help with figuring out what was going on, but we think someone new is moving into the docks area and the Empire didn't want to let them. Which is the last thing we need with the existing indications of someone else setting up somewhere around the financial district. Why do we even bother getting rid of gangs if new ones just waltz right back in?"
"Any idea why the Empire is afraid of me?" Taylor asked.
"We've, er, been having fun with passing information on you to the Empire's moles?"
"Why?"
"We did the same with Vista, though the gangs all caught on a lot faster. Then again, the small bits of truth we've been letting out about you, intentionally or otherwise, have been more, um, compelling?"
Taylor glared at the officer, not caring if the visor made it less effective. "So, how many other Wards get this kind of treatment?"
"It's a small part of 'marketing' parahumans to the gangs. It can be a balancing act, of course, because if we make you seem too powerful then you become enough of a threat to make you a target in a way you can't actually handle. You're more fun because you can legitimately handle more, and are honestly holding back. Well, that and you're an anti-hero, so we're allowed to make you sound more scary."
"Kid Win and I never really got that kind of thing," Dennis added, with Chris nodding. "The gangs already overestimate tinkers, expecting them to pull out who knows what, and 'freeze things in place' didn't lend itself to much in the way of scary rumors."
"We had dozens lined up," the PRT officer corrected. "Then you came up with 'Clockblocker' and ruined it."
Dennis raised his hand as though to argue that, and then slumped.
"Holy crap," Dennis said as Taylor was coming out in her civilian attire. "The Siberian broke someone out of prison!"
"More like abducted," Lisa said from where she was helping Colin crunch data. She was really into the augmented reality system for some reason.
"What do you mean?"
"She left a note stating that 'abuses during the truce shall not go unpunished' when she grabbed the guy. He tried to screw people over during the Endbringer battle or something like that."
Taylor was slightly lost, so she pulled out a phone to look things up. It didn't take long to find a half dozen articles detailing how 'The Siberian' had shown up with a sealed envelope, walked into the New York PRT building ignoring all attempts to stop her, and made her way down into the holding cells. From there she found the apparent thinker she was looking for and grabbed him, leaving the envelope behind before walking back out of the building. The thinker had been laughing the entire way out.
They'd somehow lost the duo in the subway system an hour later, and were hesitating to call this the start of the Nine attacking because it was the only thing that had happened. It also didn't fit their usual anything. Taylor did, however, suspect that the reason they couldn't find the duo was because 'The Siberian' had entered the subway system but Sarah had left it. That and she wouldn't bet against the PRT having 'secret passages' in the subway that hadn't been checked.
"It definitely seems odd," Taylor finally admitted. "But only time will tell what they're up to, right?"
"Villains are generally reluctant to explain their plans and motivations," Colin said. "Even when we have their contact information. We may never truly know what the Nine were thinking."
Taylor and Lisa shared a look. It might have conveyed 'did he really just say that?', but their snarks were doing a much better job there.
"That, of course," Colin continued. "Assumes that it wasn't an independent decision by The Siberian."
"So this says they aren't calling it the start of an attack," Taylor said. "But they're beefing everything up anyway?"
"Why wouldn't they?" Dennis said. "The Nine have been changing things up since they lost Crawler and Mannequin, after all. Who knows what they're trying out this time."
Amy: He really said that?
Taylor: Yep
Taylor tapped the desk as she stared at the assignment she was working on. It was more tedious than difficult. Which meant it wasn't quite as good of a distraction as she'd hoped it would be.
Amy: Wow. Have you asked Jacob or Riley where the real attack's going to be?
Taylor: Nope. Not going to. Don't want to know. Last I heard it was going to be on the west coast anyway, even if they've 'swung by' New York on the way.
Amy: Yeah, that'll dominate the news but otherwise won't be likely to change anything here.
Oooh, there's the bit she'd missed on her first pass over the assignment. She was wondering why that hadn't been specified.
Taylor: So, what're you up to?
Amy: Trying to shoehorn some implant ideas into working. Not much is panning out, power restrictions are problematic for most of the useful ones.
Taylor: What useful ones are you thinking about?
Amy: Er, I thought an actual phone could be good, even if just for emergency calling. The best I've come up with is basically a really simplified version of a Bluetooth interface to an external device, which kinda defeats the purpose.
Taylor: Huh. What about those medical alert buttons some people have? They're shorter range due to the base station, but being unable to lose it?
Amy: Ooooh. That could work. And a cordless phone for a landline could help the same kind of person that has the alert button. I wonder if I can combine both?
Well, at least Amy had something to distract herself with.
Jacob growled as they slowly made their way to Boston in the RV they were using. They had a few days for a relatively short trip, so they were taking it easy after their stop in New York. The stop he was now wishing they hadn't made.
"What's wrong?" Riley asked. "I thought you wanted to make him suffer, yet you just locked him in the bathroom for now?"
"We were played," Jacob answered. "The guy's already crazy. He's gone, needing to lean on his power for everything. He was a gibbering mess when Fred shut him down. The failure was in the protocols to detect that kind of thing, ones he was able to bullshit his way through because of his power. He'd probably not have made it through his next full screening, but Leviathan's attack came a week too soon for that. And I'm willing to bet that everyone that signed off on him being handed over to us knew that, and that our own issues would cause us to overlook asking why we were being handed him."
"Why would they sign off on it then?"
"We're scapegoats. No matter what we do, the public will assume that his time with us drove him insane. Hell, he admitted that he helped ensure the paperwork to get handed over to us would be approved."
None of them were happy with that reasoning. Those not in control of themselves were usually off-limits, at least when that condition wasn't caused by the Nine in the first place anyway. After all, they all knew that they walked fine lines of their own. But Jacob was concerned about a few glances at the bathroom.
It was another hour of sulking, not to mention trying to decide what to do with the guy now that they had him anyway, before something else happened.
"Sounds like there's a determined likely-cape up ahead," Cherie said. Good, she was starting to internalize that not everyone with unstable emotions was a parahuman. Now they'd need to find a few with stable emotions to get her to see the flipside. "If this road continues the way I think it does then they might be waiting for us."
Well, that was unusual. The Protectorate didn't tend to follow up on the 'tips' dropped into the area about their movements, on the official basis that most of the time they were false. Which was true, they dropped a lot of tips like that when they weren't out as the Nine at all. But one thing it was good for was attracting potential recruits. Or cannon fodder, of course. It depended on who they attracted. Assuming that whomever this was knew who was coming, anyway.
"I see them," William said from the driver's seat fifteen minutes later, slowing down in the process. "Looks like a glowing line in the road behind them too. Probably wouldn't have noticed it during the day. Oh, and he's waving us down."
"Think he's running a toll scam?" Mimi asked.
"If he is then he just volunteered to be stress relief," Jacob answered, getting up. He opened the RV's door as it came to a stop, stepping out onto the road. Riley and Sarah followed him, Riley riding on Sarah's shoulders. Fred would try and slip out unnoticed in a couple of minutes, once they'd pulled the guy's attention away from the RV.
"Hello there," the man called, though Jacob got the impression he was doing his best to be polite for some reason. Perhaps he'd recognized them and thought that he could apologize?
Jacob put his best 'disarming grin' on as he approached the man, switchblade already in his hand. "Howdy. You responsible for the glowing trick?"
"Yes," the man said as the glowing line flashed and vanished. "Though since you've stopped the fucking thing isn't needed anymore."
"I don't suppose you'd like to explain why you saw fit to stop us?"
"I want to join you." Well, at least this might not be a waste of time. "I figure I'm as good as dead after I screwed up otherwise."
"Why do you think we should let you join us? Do you even know who we are?"
"You're the fucking Slaughterhouse Nine, and hard to find at that. But I figured that since I'm basically on the run from accidentally telling my former men to kill a Ward that I might be a good enough fit."
Jacob blinked. There was no fucking way he was that lucky. "A Ward, you say?"
"Yeah, the fucking twunt Maul joined a Protectorate patrol that I was ambushing."
"So, would that make you Skidmark?"
The man, Skidmark, grinned. "Yep! Heard of me?"
Jacob blinked again. Holy crap, he was that fucking lucky. He might have to see what deity he'd pleased, see if he could do so more often. "Oh yes. I make a point of knowing the names of people who've nearly killed my niece, you see."
"Your niece?" He paled a little at that. "But how would I have...oh fuck, she's got a blunt version of his power. Er, I said it was an accident, right? I mean, it isn't like I could've known she was your family, and I didn't know she was going to be there anyway?"
"I suppose there is that," Jacob said as Fred dropped his hand onto Skidmark's shoulder from behind. He loved how sneaky that man could be when he put his mind to it. "Thing is, we've all been in a very bad mood today. Besides, you should have learned your lesson after the first time you ambushed a patrol she was on."
Hmmm. Perhaps they'd have Mimi burn his clothing. It'd be easier than cleaning them now that he'd messed them, after all. And he wasn't going to need them when they were done with him.
Chapter 95 Wednesday morning's news was mostly talking about the battle between the Empire and the unknown group in the docks the night before. The Empire was trying to wipe the group out with various tricks, and the unknown group was defending themselves and keeping the Empire from doing things like burning the entire place down. This meant that the unknown group wasn't being labeled as villains or a gang at this point. Time would tell if that would change, of course.
A quick check showed that New York was still in panic mode, but the general consensus for PRT security could be boiled down to 'what are you supposed to do about The Siberian?' in attitude. They'd rebuild the damaged stuff and move on. Taylor suspected that they'd sneak upgrades in while they were at it, because why wouldn't they? It would explain why Sarah seemed to intentionally destroy some things that weren't in her way on the little footage that'd been released, after all.
"Morning Taylor," Danny said as he came into the kitchen. He had his phone out and was obviously reading something on it. "You have any problem with spending the entire long weekend in Boston?"
"Er, no," Taylor said, raising an eyebrow. "Why?"
"The PRT asked me for permission for you to go down Friday after school and come back Monday evening instead of flying you out and back every day."
"Oh. I suppose the lack of a commute would be nice. At least I'd get more sleep that way."
"I'll give them my ok for it then. Have fun, though I don't know how many of the tourist-type things you'll be able to visit. Or are even open."
Taylor gave that some thought. "They'll probably want me to not be running around out of costume, since that might form a link between my two identities. But they might let me do touristy stuff in costume. Hmmm. I might have to ask. Assuming anything is open in the first place."
Amanda grinned as she opened the message she'd just received. She'd been accepted for the first stage of what most of them were calling the 'I want a tinker fugue, dammit!' paperwork. Let's see. Requirements to be yadda yadda, where's the list.
A minute later she'd flinched. That...was a long list. But she only had to complete just under three quarters of it, and she had a couple entries already done. A quick check showed that her decision to run around as a 'glorified stewardess' had actually helped her, as the required training had meant visiting every PRT facility. So she'd already cleared the 'pass through security at all numbered PRT departments' and 'pass through security at all PRT quarantine zones' entries.
Sadly, the entries weren't actually labeled, so she had to open them to find out what they were. She picked one of the ones she didn't have yet at random. And then stared at it. "What the hell is a cheese-oriented background check?"
Taylor wanted to growl as she made her way to lunch. Yes, she'd gotten points for being able to answer why any gangs coming into Brockton Bay would move into the financial district and/or the warehouses near the docks. The answer was simple. Both were places former gangs had been ousted from, and the other gangs hadn't really moved in yet.
The problem was that her 'partners' in the class hadn't listened to her trying to tell them that, and seemed to want to insist that any new gangs coming into town would try and set up in the worst places possible. The middle of an existing gang's territory, in the 'gang-free' area around the PRT building, or in Megan's case the area around Somer's Rock.
"What's wrong?" Vicky asked once Taylor sat down.
"Idiots in class," Taylor replied. "I got stuck with a horrible group."
"Ahhh. Yeah. Those days suck."
They settled into eating lunch, not really discussing anything of importance. Vicky and Dennis were both poking at their phones, the rest of them were more focused on actually eating. Though there was a bit of a discussion about what people might be doing over the summer, once school let out and all.
"What the hell?" Dennis said, getting everyone's attention even as he was taking a closer look at his phone. "Is that for real?"
"Is what for real?" Dean asked, leaning over to look at Dennis's screen. He then blinked a couple of times. "Seriously?"
"Are you two going to tell the rest of us anything?" Vicky asked.
"Er, right," Dennis said. "So I was checking on various charities..." He looked around at the disbelief people were showing. "What?"
"Why were you checking on charities in the first place?" Amy asked.
"It's a hobby. Sometimes you can tell what kind of thing companies screwed up with recently because they tend to give to related charities. But this morning the Lamia Foundation got an unexpected donation."
"The what?"
"Lamia Foundation. Not the best name, but it was named after the Case 53 that got torn apart by angry mobs in Kentucky. Stop interrupting."
"Enough backstory," Vicky said. "Get to the point."
Dennis glared at Vicky for a moment. "They got a fifteen million dollar donation from Maul."
Taylor blinked. They'd what?
Amy: I'm assuming that's your payment for the vial-snark bit. But could you even afford to do that?
Taylor: Er...yes, if I were allowed to pull from my trust fund. I think I only have a couple hundred thousand available split between my spending cash and store credit?
Amy: Only a...why don't you have literal piles of the really good tinker-made chocolate available like, all the time?
Taylor: I, er. Huh. I wonder if they offer bulk discounts?
"Where does a Ward get fifteen million dollars?" a girl named Regina asked from the next table over. "Hey Vicky, you said you were reading up on maybe joining the Wards, do they make that kind of money?"
Vicky snorted. "As if. And most of what they do make goes into a trust fund intended to help pay for college. So if Maul has fifteen mil to throw around she's either rich or has been making a lot of extra money somehow. Like billions lot unless she convinced the PRT to give some money to charity instead of putting it in her trust fund." Vicky paused. "Actually, I think there was something in there about caps too, so I'm not sure it's actually possible for a Ward to make that much spending money in five months or so."
The ensuing discussion over who could possibly afford to make a donation like that completely ignored the possibility that someone else had made the donation instead. Taylor wasn't entirely sure how deliberate that was, though.
"Ok Taylor," Vicky said in the gym locker room after school. "We're in a secure enough area. How did you donate fifteen million? Because I honestly can't figure out how you did it."
"A villain donated it in my name as payment for services rendered," Taylor answered. It took her a moment to realize that Vicky hadn't said anything, and a quick look showed that Vicky appeared stunned. "What?"
"What did you do that resulted in a villain spending that kind of cash?"
"She talked to some, er," Amy said. "I think she called them vial-snarks?"
"Yeah," Taylor said. "Six of them. Five of them were easy to correct minor misunderstandings about humans. The last one took a bit longer and is in my room here. Not sure what to do with it though."
"Vial-snarks?" Vicky asked. "What's a vial-snark?"
"To most people? Powers in a little vial. I think the idea is that you drink it and get forcibly connected to a snark. If you're lucky the snark lets you connect and knows humans well enough that you survive. If you're unlucky you die, either because the snark didn't let you connect or because it did something that killed you while connecting."
That seemed to stun Vicky into silence. She didn't say a thing throughout their entire workout. It was only as they were heading back into the locker room to clean up that she seemed to recover.
"So, er," Vicky said. "You said you have one of the vial-snarks?"
"Yep," Taylor said. "Though I'm not sure I'd trust it. We're reasonably confident it won't kill anyone now, less so that they'll be fully human when it's done. The latter because we're not actually certain that it has the connection pieces needed for humans, so it might be fudging things too much. But the only way to tell is for someone to drink it."
"Oh. Does anything identify people who got their powers that way?"
"I suspect that 'hungry' snarks all came from one of them, but I'm not positive. Nothing anyone else can likely detect, beyond serious physical changes like Case 53s have." Taylor paused, and grimaced. "Yeah, and I probably shouldn't have said even that much. Luckily very few people have access to my list of 'hungry' snarks, but you shouldn't spread that bit around either way. I can see people reacting badly to that, in various ways."
Vicky seemed to be lost in thought, but nodded her acceptance of that. Taylor shrugged and split off from the two, Amy having parked in the gym lot so she could be seen entering and exiting with Vicky.
Taylor had changed into her costume, including ensuring she had her sword and hard-light projector on her as requested, then sat down in the kitchen area with a bag of chips while she looked through the PRT store. It looked like some varieties of the tinker-made chocolate were available in bulk. Others weren't. She'd built a cart with some of the bulk options she already knew she liked, but was trying to decide which of the other kinds to get. Or in most of the kinds she'd looked at, how much to get.
"Hey Brian," Taylor said as the other Ward came into the common area.
"Hey," Brian replied. "I was told that you've been asked to help out with Aisha's testing?"
"Yeah. Apparently testing her style of stranger abilities is a pain, so having someone immune on hand is useful."
"Ah, right. That makes sense. Hopefully you can keep her in line."
"I've heard some of your horror stories and will do my best. No promises if what she tries amuses me though."
Brian stared at Taylor, then groaned and moved off to change.
It was another half hour before the patrol groups had all arrived and left. Brian was skipping Aisha's power testing, instead going on patrol with Missy and Chris. Carlos had taken Dean and Dennis. Lisa had the night off, and for a change wasn't in range of the PRT building so Taylor wasn't sure what she was up to. Shortly after the other Wards had left she got a message telling her where Aisha's power testing was being held, so she grabbed two sodas and headed in that general direction. On the way she finished placing her order.
"Good afternoon," Taylor called out as she entered the testing room. Miss Militia, Aisha, and a couple of technicians were already present. Aisha was even in her new costume. Light brown pants with a bark pattern and matching boots. Long-sleeved light green shirt with a leaf pattern and matching gloves. Basic light green helmet. Absolutely no exposed skin that Taylor could see, but her tinker snark informed her that the helmet apparently had a heads-up display, camera, and rebreather. It was also connected to air tanks at the small of the girl's back.
"Good afternoon," Miss Militia replied. "We're just waiting for the volunteers for the stranger tests. Local and remote."
"Ah. Beyond proving that I'm immune and keeping an eye on the little troublemaker, what am I supposed to be doing?"
Miss Militia grinned, and the knife she'd had on her hip flashed into her hand in the form of a sword. "We're going to see about improving your sword skills. Seems that 'can recall Hulder is there when paying attention' isn't good enough for the power testers, so they want to ensure we can do so while distracted too."
"You mean she gets to play with swords?" Aisha whined. "Why do I have to do the boring stuff?"
"Because sometimes they tell you things you didn't know," Taylor replied. "Also, do you really want to play with something that might be able to damage your air lines?" Aisha's flinch told her everything she needed to know on that one.
Taylor: So what kind of sword is that?
[Data]
Taylor: Neat. I don't suppose you have any tips for using mine?
[Query]
Taylor: Straight, single edge, handle designed so I can hold it with the blade 'up' or 'down'.
[Data]
Aisha's power testing had taken several hours. They'd started with having her try and 'hide' in the wall, then the floor. A little rigging was used to discover that she couldn't hide in the ceiling, or on any surface angled enough that she would be liable to 'fall' out of her hole. The memory erasure effect hadn't transmitted to remote sites, but did transmit through to people looking at live feeds within a hundred meters or so.
The test for 'how much air circulation is there?' had apparently been annoying for Aisha, though the answer wasn't 'none'. It was just too little to actually keep her alive. On the other hand, if she was knocked out while in her pocket it would open up and spit her out. They'd had to pause testing for twenty minutes so that Aisha could recover from that one. Miss Militia had spent most of it yelling at the testers, because they couldn't say what they'd have done if the girl hadn't been released from the pocket.
From there they'd gone into figuring out how much of a surface she needed. The answer was five millimeters thick and large enough to hold her when she was right up against it. The latter had resulted in them finding that she could slip into a smaller space by sliding in sideways. The testers had also come up with the idea of her moving around once hidden, which actually worked in a very slow manner. But that didn't include changing surfaces, so she could move around the floor or wall she'd entered, but not change to a different one. But that seemed to be tied to her perception, so a brick wall counted as a single surface.
They'd then tested her ability to bypass obstacles while moving around, finding that she needed even a slight gap to get past them. So if something was anchored to the surface, or sitting directly on it, or anything like that she couldn't move along it. But if she could perceive a gap she could move past.
They'd had a bit of a mild panic when it seemed like she'd gotten 'stuck' at one point. It had taken a few minutes to discover that when she moved past an obstacle she needed as much room available at her exit point as she'd needed to enter. How she'd entered or tried to exit didn't matter, the exit point needed the same area available. That also meant that she could be trapped if someone shoved something up against the surface she'd hidden in, not leaving any room for her to exit via. Thickness didn't matter as they'd been able to lock her in with a post-it note stuck to the wall.
One of the last things they tested was damaging where she'd hidden, finding that the surface she hid in was unusually durable anywhere she'd been in it since she entered. So if she moved along a wall the entire area she'd moved along was exceptionally durable. But if enough damage was done anyway she was forced out. The potentially bad thing there was that it didn't seem to matter if she had room to leave where she currently was. That had not been tested fully, but the girl had been forced through a paper screen that had been preventing her exit before then.
Throughout all of this Taylor and Miss Militia were practicing sword fighting. Every so often they'd volunteer information on Aisha's current location, in and out of hiding. They'd also had to stop for a few minutes when Aisha had gotten 'stuck' so that Taylor could help figure out what was wrong. Still, around halfway through Miss Militia also had Taylor switch to the real sword instead of the hard-light projector.
"How is it that you're picking this up so quickly?" Miss Militia asked at one point. "I wouldn't expect fighting with a sword to count for your 'understanding technology' power."
"I'm actually getting incredibly detailed yet impossible to explain 'lessons' from your snark," Taylor answered. "Including it chiding me on mistakes I'm making before I even finish making them."
"Is it helping you cheat some of the other training that's normally required?"
Taylor blinked as she deflected a cross swing. "You mean building up strength and endurance?"
Miss Militia paused for a moment, which gave Taylor an opportunity to try a thrust. The older cape recovered with plenty of time to parry. "In part, and I'm now feeling stupid for having considered that in the first place. My apologies for overlooking the obvious there. But you also seem to have a very good idea of where the edge of the blade is at all times, which normally takes training as well."
"Ah, that. I'll need to practice more without leaning on feeling the flat sides of the blade to orient things just in case I'm near a nullifier. But I'm already feeling better about it, to be honest. It's surprisingly easy to pick up when you have snarks dumping information directly into your head, even indirectly, and the handle on this sword seems perfectly designed to let me index it."
"I can see how that would speed up your learning. At this point I think you'd likely be able to handle most street thugs that use swords, since most of them have barely gotten to the point of being able to swing properly. Just don't underestimate people. I'll see if I can get someone else to test you soon as well."
"Excluding people is hard," Aisha whined as Taylor walked with her back to the Wards area. The younger girl had her phone now, and Taylor had been asked to show her various tricks before she took her classes over the weekend. Right now Aisha was using the map to navigate, and Taylor was pointing out how to open the various doors they were sent through.
"But that last test showed that you can do it," Taylor said. "That's important when you're on patrol. Don't want your backup to forget you were ever there."
"And until I get it down reliably enough I'm only allowed to patrol with you included. Or Miss Militia, but I'm told that just limits who I patrol with when I get my first 'joint' patrol."
"I was too busy being shown just how far I have to go with swords at the end there. What's the difficulty with excluding people? Oh, and if you look at the map you can see the door here has a left-side sensor from this direction."
Aisha took a moment to open the door for them. "The main problem with excluding is that I have to focus on each person I want to exclude, including where they are. One person is fairly simple if I can see them, but focusing on two or more at the same time or on someone I can't actually see right then is much harder. One of the testers thinks it'll get easier if I start thinking of people in groups, but that won't help with where they are in relation to me."
"I wonder if your snark can make it easier on you?"
"What do you mean?"
"I could talk to it for you, see if it can give you a list or something that just kinda sits there? Then you might not have to focus at all for those you're familiar with?"
Aisha gave that some thought, and made it through the second to last door without Taylor having to tell her where the sensor was. "Can we wait until we're in the Wards area?"
"No problem. You should be able to just sit down and have a snack while I chat with your snark."
A couple minutes later the two were sitting in the kitchen area with snacks. Aisha had a grin on her face as she ate the cookies she'd grabbed. She'd whined a little about the helmet not letting her eat, but showing her dark skin in public was currently being frowned upon anyway.
Taylor: So, Aisha's having trouble excluding people from forgetting about her.
[Query]
Taylor: Because when she's hiding she doesn't need her allies to forget about her too. That puts her in more danger, not less.
[Contemplation]
BA: Data
[Query]
S: Elaboration
"Your snark's thinking about things," Taylor said aloud. "It seems to know how to exclude without issues, and has no problem giving you a list now that mine has told it how to, but it seems like something else is missing. I'm not sure what though."
"How will I identify those who should go on the list?" Aisha asked. "I mean, can my power identify people by name or something?"
"Ah. Yea, that's probably what was missing."
Taylor: Are you trying to figure out how to identify who to exclude?
[Agreement. Data]
Taylor: Huh. You don't look deep enough to see who they are, which is why Aisha has to focus on where they are.
Amy: Can you see their snarks?
[Query]
BA: Data
[Agreement]
Taylor: So, can you exclude based on the snark for those that have them? That would let her exclude those she's patrolling with, and would let you stop trying to make Amy and I forget Aisha easily enough. I think that would be good enough for now.
BA: Query
[Acceptance]
BA: Data
Taylor blinked. Well, providing a list of 'trusted' snarks seemed like a good idea. Still...
Taylor: What about Vicky's?
BA: Reluctance. Data
"That's kinda cool," Aisha said, leaning back and looking at the ceiling. "Did you give my power the list?"
"Yep," Taylor replied, before drinking some of her water.
"Why can't I turn you or Panacea off? Or Miss Militia?"
"Probably because your snark knows it can't make us forget you anyway."
Taylor: You should add Brian to the list of ones she can't turn off.
Amy: Yeah, that's probably a good idea.
[Query]
Taylor: He's supposed to be responsible for her, so he kinda needs to know when she's around.
[Acceptance]
Aisha groaned a few minutes later. "They're going to make me test this, aren't they."
Taylor snickered at that. "Probably only with a couple of Protectorate members around for confirmation. Nowhere near what you had to go through today. Then you'll be able to patrol without me, right?"
"Can I pretend I can't exclude people easily yet so that I can ride with you?"
"That's up to you, but I think I have the highest frequency of being pulled off duty amongst the current Wards. They've even barred me from joining Protectorate patrols for the time being due to being ambushed multiple times, so if I'm not available you probably wouldn't be patrolling at all."
"And they'll want to run the tests anyway, so it's probably better to get them out of the way. Damn. Think Carlos will accept requests for patrolling with you?"
"You won't know until you ask."
As she pulled up to the house Taylor wondered why Kurt was visiting, with or without Lacey. Well, she'd probably find out soon enough. A minute later she was entering the house and called out. "Hello!"
"We're in the kitchen," Danny yelled back, so Taylor dropped her bag by the stairs and headed over. She found Kurt and Lacey sitting at the table and a couple of pizza boxes on the counter.
"Evening," Kurt said, waving with the hand not holding a slice of pizza. "Lacey insisted we come question you, so we brought pizza to be less rude."
"Why do I even bother trying to be subtle?" Lacey moaned.
"You can question me on whatever it is after I eat," Taylor said, grabbing a plate. She grabbed a slice of cheese and a slice of pineapple, and after a moment's thought she added some of the breadsticks that were also there.
Amy: Why is your heart rate slightly elevated?
Taylor: Damnit Shaper. Lacey wants to question me about something. No clue what, but I said I'm eating first either way. But I have no clue what to expect.
Amy: Ahhh. It can't be that bad, right?
Taylor: This is the same person who decided to find out if I was a cape by awkwardly hugging me with her hand up my shirt so she could get a cape detector ring against my skin.
Amy: Oh. Huh. Maybe I should make sure the guest room is ready in case you need to escape.
Taylor ate her two slices of pizza and the breadsticks, then went back for seconds. Lacey pouted at that, but was behaving well enough to not pester Taylor with questions yet. Kurt kicking her several times under the table probably helped, of course. Finally she finished, threw the paper plate from the pizza place in the trash, and grabbed a second soda.
"Are you finally done?" Lacey asked.
Taylor rolled her eyes. "I'm done enough. I should wait before deciding if I want dessert, after all."
"Good. Where the hell did you get fifteen million dollars to donate to charity?"
Taylor blinked a couple of times, and noted that her father and Kurt also appeared to be interested in the answer to that. "Er, I believe that the donation was a payment from a nominal villain in Boston for services rendered last weeked?"
"What kind of 'services rendered' are worth fifteen million?" Danny asked.
"Helping some vial snarks understand how to safely connect to humans better?"
The other three stared at her for a moment, before Kurt raised his hand. "What's a vial snark? Because until I know I have no context here."
"Oh. Er. Superpowers in a vial, kinda? But they don't always know how to connect to people. I think all Case 53s got their powers from ones that were at least a little off, and if the snark doesn't know humans well enough or has some other restriction it could kill you instead."
"And a villain in Boston had some of these vials?" Lacey asked.
"Yeah. He had six, but one of them was very off on humans. It took a couple of days, but I'm fairly certain it won't kill anyone now. Though I'm less certain on potential physical changes for whoever drinks the thing and have no clue what powers it would grant."
Lacey stared at Taylor. "That implies that said villain gave you one, or you somehow took it from them. Which means you have a vial, that if drunk is pretty much guaranteed to give someone superpowers of some kind?"
"Yes?"
Lacey's expression and attitude changed completely, going into pleading with puppy dog eyes. "May I have it? Please?"
Kurt and Danny both groaned as Taylor blinked. That was...unexpected? "I don't have it here, and did you miss the part about not knowing if it will change you physically?"
"You know that there are a pile of capes who have no private life to speak of because they can't hide who they are," Kurt added. "Do you really want to risk that happening to you?"
"But I've always wanted to have superpowers," Lacey whined. "I don't care if they change me a little! And she said it's unlikely to kill me."
"And who knows what those superpowers might be," Taylor said. "They could be completely useless, after all."
"Don't care. I'm willing to take the chance."
"Well it isn't like I can just hand it over either way, so you can't have it now. I left it at the PRT building for safe keeping after all."
Lacey crossed her arms across her chest and pouted at that. Apparently she really wanted the vial. Oh well, it wasn't like Taylor was about to go all the way to the PRT building just to fetch it. She wasn't sure she was willing to risk Lacey with the thing in the first place.
A moment later Taylor jerked as a tear in reality opened up and dropped the vial on Lacey's lap.
"OH COME ON!" Taylor yelled even as Lacey was blinking. "WHY?"
"This is the vial, isn't it?" Lacey said, a grin forming on her face as she grabbed it before Kurt could take it from her. Before anyone else could try and stop her she'd pulled the stopper out of it and downed it. "Ugh, that tasted horrible." She then chased it with the remnants of her beer, just before groaning and curling up into a ball in pain.
Lacey started glowing as Taylor suddenly found herself looking over a large number of snarks. Many of them were dormant, others were obviously active in various ways, but the one the vision was focused on was glowing slightly and reconfiguring. Oooh, so that's what a K'Nectatuet was. Good thing it was being held back, she didn't think it belonged in a mammal in general, let alone a human. Something seemed off with the Dimswhittle as it slotted into place, but she wasn't sure what it was, and she couldn't see a Nek'tra anywhere, but wasn't sure why that might be important.
"Woah," Taylor said as the vision vanished. "That was weird."
Amy: What the hell was that?
Taylor: Doormaker decided to steal the vial from me and give it to Lacey, and she drank it.
Amy: Oh. Weird. Was something wrong with the Dimswhittle?
Taylor: I think so, but I don't know what.
"Did someone get the number of the truck that hit me?" Lacey moaned from the floor. Taylor leaned over to look, finding that the woman had shrunk. That must be what was wrong with the Dimswhittle, the scale was off so Lacey ended up proportionally smaller.
"It's your fault for drinking that thing," Kurt said. "Though I don't know why you shrunk or why your skin is a bluish purple now. Any idea what you can do?"
Taylor: So, hello again now that you've connected to Lacey.
[Greetings]
Taylor: What did you end up giving her the ability to do?
[Data]
Taylor and Amy both blinked, before Taylor groaned. "You had to take the shot of beer afterwards, didn't you?"
"What are you talking about?" Danny asked.
"I think she'd be classified as a Thinker/Shaker combo with Tinker leanings. All of it focused on alcohol and things you can mix alcohol with."
Chapter 96 Taylor sighed as she walked around the table and grabbed Lacey, using Shaper to get a good look at her biology even as Broadcast Administrator pushed some energy into Lacey's new snark.
Amy: Ooooh, so that's what was wrong with the Dimswhittle. And huh, her skin's interesting.
Taylor: Yeah. The blueish purple isn't a pigment, and would be more blue than purple right now if she wasn't partially drunk still. The accuracy of things to ensure the refractive indexes are right is incredible.
Amy: The interaction between the collagen and ethanol in her skin is interesting too. I think she could use a finger to test if something had alcohol in it, just by the amount of ethanol absorbed through the skin. The refractive changes from the ethanol itself and the subtle rearrangement that looks to occur in the presence of ethanol are impressive.
"Well," Taylor said as she pulled Lacey up, adjusting the woman's shirt to sit a little better as she did so. "You're a little smaller, and your skin is fascinating, but otherwise you seem to have come out still being pretty much human."
"Damn," Lacey said, looking around. "What am I, around four feet tall?"
"Around a hundred and thirty centimeters barefoot. That's, er, around four foot three? But I think you're proportioned almost exactly like you were. Just, um, smaller. Little stronger for your size, a lot more flexible due to a near total rebuilding of your collagen across the board. Maybe a little more durable?"
"This is kinda cool." Lacey then frowned, and looked around the kitchen. "Dang, I think Danny was actually telling the truth when he said he didn't have anything stronger than beer in the house." She then paused. "Ok, apparently I have short-range alcohol-sense or something."
"So now what do you want to do?" Kurt asked. "Because dealing with alcohol doesn't sound like a power set that lends itself to joining the Protectorate."
"Er, um. I don't know?"
Taylor sighed and dug around in her utility belt, producing a set of pamphlets. "Here, have some of the standard pamphlets that get handed out to recent triggers. I can request some of the forms for you regarding updating your identity due to significant physical changes due to powers." She was interrupted by a tear opening in reality and a pile of papers dropping onto the table, complete with a PRT cup containing a couple of pens next to it. "Or apparently my friends that decided to steal the vial from my room can get those for you, so it seems."
"Who are these friends?" Danny asked. "And how do they keep making things appear? And why did they give Lacey the vial anyway?"
"They can open those holes in reality. I helped them out recently, shortly after getting the vial in the first place. But I don't know why they gave Lacey the vial." A moment later her phone received a message. "Nevermind. Apparently they decided that if they left it up to me I'd have never been willing to risk giving it to anyone, so they took the decision out of my hands."
Lacey frowned slightly as she dragged the papers to her and started looking over them. It was a couple minutes later when Danny groaned, causing the other three to look at him. "Please tell me you aren't going to stay working for the Dockworkers? We aren't cleared to knowingly employ any parahumans right now, and the paperwork for it is rumored to be horrible."
Taylor ended up helping Lacey with some of the paperwork and with getting her clothing into a state where she could get home safely, even if they'd be in Kurt's car. Despite Danny's offers to let her crash there for the night. Lacey also declined a domino mask, because if she couldn't hide her height or skin anyway there wasn't much of a point. She and Kurt would have to swing by the PRT the next day to do a proper turning in of the paperwork and all that for updating her official records for height and appearance, regardless of whether or not Lacey wanted to try and join the Protectorate.
After that Taylor had gotten ready for bed, for comfort reasons, and was working on homework while chatting with Amy.
Amy: So she declined the beer she'd been drinking before she took the vial?
Taylor: Yep. Apparently she has new standards now, and the cheap stuff doesn't meet them. She was talking about setting up something to make her own alcohol with when she left, but didn't think she had anything she'd need at home.
Amy: Any clue what she's going to do?
Taylor: Nope. She might be able to swing being an affiliate that makes things to sell in the PRT store easily enough. But she noted that the New Wave pamphlet indicated that abilities that can't be used in combat or cleanup are less likely to be accepted.
Amy: Yeah. Being an expert on alcohol is, er...
Taylor: Kinda useless during or after combat?
Amy: Sure. We can go with that.
The only other thing of note that Taylor had done after Kurt and Lacey left was to fill out the forms needed to indicate that property had been stolen from her room in the PRT building. Even if the two pranksters were probably right about her never really trusting the vial.
Thursday morning Taylor woke to find a response to her reporting the theft of the vial waiting for her. She blinked a couple of times as she processed it. Compensation had been delivered to her room? What in the world did that mean? A note that the two pranksters had been punished would've been expected, but 'compensation' of some kind? She'd have to check what was going on after school.
Beyond that there weren't any other notices relating to the night before, but there was a reminder that the Wards were all needed for the press conference to introduce Aisha that afternoon. There was also a reminder that she'd be departing for Boston the following day. The latter caused her to decide to be a little proactive this morning and throw some of the clothing she'd want available over the weekend into her bag. She could grab the rest of what she'd want the following morning so she didn't have to swing by the house after school.
"Dean didn't pick Vicky up today?" Taylor noted as Dean parked without Vicky in the car.
"They had a fight last night," Amy answered, shrugging. "No clue what it was about, I only found out that it happened at all this morning."
"Ah. She getting a ride or taking the bus?"
"She made it out of the house early enough to catch the bus. That's how I found out about the fight."
"So she should be here soon. Good to know. Think either of them will want to talk about what's going on?"
Amy snorted at that. "Good luck there."
Jared looked over the list of clearances needed to get a tinker fugue. He'd been goaded into applying by some of the others, several of whom had been rejected outright. Most of those trying were females looking for lighter periods, but a few of the guys were looking for potential strength and durability boosts. Jared didn't really care, but figured that if he'd made it further than the others he might as well continue.
Since he had none of the clearances already he had no real idea of a starting point, so he opened one up at random. Huh, volunteer with animal control squads at five different PRT departments without having a major incident? He had three already, so that wouldn't be too bad. Going back to the list he picked another at random.
"Punch Lung in the face on camera? Before getting enhanced by the fugue? I'm not Danny Hebert!"
Taylor had a grin on her face as she collected her lunch. Gossip had focused on the press conference that afternoon, and nobody was bothering her about it. Granted, when the repeaters came on she'd found a message waiting telling her that she had an appointment with Jessica after the press conference, but that was ok with her.
"Why are you so happy?" Amy asked as Taylor sat down next to her at the otherwise empty table.
"Nobody is bothering me about the press conference," Taylor replied. "Things are going on at the PRT that I have no reason to know about and people have actually left me alone."
"Ahhh. Come to think of it, I haven't been bothered much about it either. Kinda weird."
"So who's going to be playing guard for you tomorrow?"
"Crystal volunteered." Amy then looked around. "Huh, we appear to be alone over here today."
Taylor looked around as well. "Huh. Vicky and Dean appear to have decided to sit at opposite ends of the cafeteria today. Carlos and Chris sat with Dean over there, Jessica and her group of gossips appear to be trying to get information out of Vicky. Dennis doesn't appear to have made it here yet?"
"Oh well. I hadn't really thought about it, but I guess some of the split makes sense. I don't suppose it will happen again tomorrow?"
"I don't think I have afternoon classes tomorrow, so I'll probably skip out before lunch."
Amy gave that some thought, and then checked her phone. "Huh. I forgot that I don't have afternoon classes either. I should be able to get some time in the gym before I need to be at the hospital. You have time to join me?"
"I should."
"Why are you asking me?" Dennis asked the fifth person to approach him in the hall about the press conference. "When did I become the source of information for the PRT?"
"You keep an ear on the gossip," one of the group of girls said. "And we don't want to distract Taylor and Amy from one another."
"Why not?"
"Because Amy is going to be healing for the entire long weekend," another girl said. "They won't have any time to spend with each other, so we spread the word to leave them alone for a couple of days."
Dennis blinked. "Oh. That's actually a good idea. I'll make sure that filters through some of the other gossip channels."
"Now then, what's up with the press conference?"
Taylor had pulled her moped over a couple of blocks from the PRT building, trying to make sense of what she was sensing. Was that really what they meant by 'compensation'? Because if it was she wanted to talk to whomever was in charge of that.
"Earth to Taylor," Amy said, rapping her knuckles on Taylor's helmet. "Why'd you stop?"
"Unexpected surprise likely waiting for me," Taylor replied, frowning. "I might have to fill you in later."
"Let's get going then. We both have things to do."
"Right, right."
They'd skipped the gym for today, in part because Vicky had decided not to join them. Instead Taylor was going to tinker a bit, and hadn't even bothered getting into costume yet. As such she was wandering through the collection of damaged tinkertech with Amy, looking for anything of interest. She was hoping for something that Amy could use to defend herself if needed, but would settle for something useful in general instead.
"There's what looks like a baton of some kind over here," Amy said.
"Is that the one with the red handle and the green button on the end?" Taylor asked. "With what looks like very stylized orange arrows pointing towards the other end?"
"Yep."
"Yeah, that's actually intended to do the initial inflation of hot air balloons and needs replacement metals forged."
"Oh."
The problem with looking for something like that was the 'Wards-safe' designation of most of the stuff in here. The fish finder with a fifty kilometer range would be easily fixed, but wasn't all that useful. She didn't want to put the time into fixing the wide-spectrum camera right now, especially as it was inferior to the cameras in her phones. She wasn't sure why a ray gun that only removed raisins from baked goods even existed, and they'd devoted an entire row of shelves to broken radios of various kinds.
"Do you know what's up with the box full of eyeglasses over here?" Amy called.
"Most of them were X-Ray glasses when I checked," Taylor replied. "Intended to let you see X-Rays and all. Why you'd want to be able to see that you're being hit with X-Rays I don't know. I suspect the tinker that made them wanted to be able to see through clothing and didn't know what they were making."
"Oh. What about the belt next to them?"
"Manton-limited invisibility belt."
"What?"
"It makes anything you're carrying or wearing invisible to others, but not you."
"As in you can see them just fine?"
"Well, yes, that too."
Taylor stopped at a crate that hadn't been there the last time she'd looked through the room. She opened it up to find a collection of things, it looked like from a medical tinker? Dermal regenerator with a sixty percent or so chance of inducing skin cancer, a perfectly serviceable needleless injector that merely needed a replacement capacitor and recalibration, several monitoring probes that had probably been hit by electrical shocks.
"Hey Amy," Taylor called. "What do you think of a raygun that temporarily phases clothing out of the way?"
"Why would I want a gun that makes people temporarily naked?" Amy replied.
Taylor blinked. "Right, sorry, I explained that poorly. It doesn't have the range or spread to get someone all at once. Small patches, like the area you need to clear for surgery type deal. Or, for you, enough to get skin contact through clothing and armor?"
"Oooh. Very much yes. Hell, that could be useful other times. Breaking open costumes to heal the capes inside can be a pain."
Taylor grabbed the two pieces of the gun as well as the holster that had been left with it and headed for the door, Amy moving in that direction at the same time.
Amy was overjoyed with the repaired raygun. It was small enough to easily carry around, the holster attached to her belt well, and in their limited testing it did exactly what it was supposed to. Even better, it had been 'broken' along a seam. Most of the damage was a couple of broken wires, minor cracks in the circuit board, and repairing one of the itty bitty focusing rings. The latter was probably harder for most people, admittedly, but it was trivial for Taylor.
"So you ready to tell me what stopped you earlier?" Amy asked as they headed for the Wards area. The others had started to arrive, but they still had a few to go before the press conference was to start.
"I think I'll just show you," Taylor replied. "I'm not sure what to make of it."
Amy raised an eyebrow, despite Taylor not looking in her direction. Taylor ignored it and opened the Wards area. Currently it seemed that everyone who'd arrived was still changing, so Taylor brought Amy to her room.
"Is that a new cabinet?" Amy asked, obviously looking at the cabinet next to the desk in the room.
"Yes," Taylor replied, taking the note taped to the front of the cabinet. "And there are fifty vial-snarks in it. Well, I think there are forty seven unique ones, and I'm fairly certain that one of them is the same snark Lacey connected to last night."
Amy blinked a couple of times at that while Taylor opened and read the note.
Greetings Miss Hebert,
We're sure that you're surprised to find this cabinet has been delivered to you. The vials within are all that remain of a seventy-five vial batch, of which the vial you had previously obtained was a member. It became obvious that we'd done something wrong with the batch after the first few were tested. We attempted to fix several others, but eventually gave up as we had no wish to continue with unnecessary deaths. The remainder of the batch not provided to you were lost in other experiments.
Since you were somehow able to almost fully correct the vial from the batch that Accord allowed you to keep we're hoping that you can evaluate and correct the mistakes made with these. Should you be able to we only wish for you to provide them to those that you feel are worthy of them.
Should you wish to pass messages to us about specific vials you can send them along via Doormaker or get in touch with Legend. Further, we've included a set of pamphlets on the proper use of the vials in the slots on the door of the cabinet. We apologize for not ensuring that you had one previously, but we didn't expect you to be successful. In particular, please have future individuals note the warnings about taking them with alcohol.
Taylor scowled when she noted that there wasn't actually a signature of any kind.
"You don't like what it says?" Amy asked.
"These are a batch of mistakes that were killing people," Taylor answered. "The one Lacey took came from the batch, and they never expected me to be able to make it work. But since I did?"
"They gave you the rest. What do they want you to do with them?"
"If I can get any of them working they'd like me to give them to those 'worthy' of them. That's it."
Taylor: Well, might as well do a quick check of them. Brace yourself.
Amy: I'm ready.
Taylor: Hello there. Do you all understand what a human is, and do any of you have any other issues that would prevent you from connecting to one?
Taylor and Amy both tilted their heads as the flood of responses came back. Broadcast Administrator and Shaper started throwing corrections back at most of the snarks. The one Lacey had already connected to indicated that it had learned from the mistakes it made, the lessons of which were distributed as well. They'd hopefully not make the same mistake with the Dimswhittle now. That did, however, leave the snarks that had reported additional issues.
Unlocking and opening the cabinet, noting that it required SL9 and an access code she'd been granted, Taylor found that there were rows of metal canisters inside. A quick check showed that each contained a single vial. It was a reasonably easy task to collect all eighteen snarks that claimed issues and place them on her desk. She found it interesting that all of the duplicates bar the one tied to Lacey's snark were included.
"Scotty," Taylor said to hopefully get Doormaker's attention. Or Clairvoyant's? Whichever. "The eighteen canisters on my desk contain vials that link to snarks that only allow a single user at a time, and already have a user. There's nothing I can do about that, and I don't really want to be holding onto vials that are going to kill anyone who tries to use them."
Taylor watched as a tear in reality opened under the canisters and they all fell through it. She then turned to the cabinet.
"What do you do with thirty or so vials?" Amy asked.
"Step one is to wait to see how many of them can accept the lessons," Taylor answered. "Barring the one that we already know has, anyway. But I'm not bringing them home with me or to Boston, so that might take longer than the last one did." She then paused. "And Scotty, if you move them to my home or to Boston I'll be stubborn and not work on them anyway, so don't bother."
"So what now?"
"Now I need to get changed so that I can be ready for the press conference. Then I'll probably read one of the pamphlets."
"What're you reading?" Dean asked as he sat down on one of the other couches. Amy was looking at the pamphlet with Taylor, waiting for her 'during the press conference' meeting with Jessica.
"A pamphlet on the proper administration of potential powers," Amy said.
"Some of it would have been nice to know before my honorary aunt decided to take one drunk and with a beer chaser," Taylor added. "Apparently getting away with only minor, if noticable, changes to her body makes her incredibly lucky. Then again, I'm not sure the alcohol had anything to do with that, since the snark wasn't entirely sure about humans."
Dean sighed. "So you're the reason Vicky figured things out?" Taylor and Amy both blinked, then turned to look at Dean. "Right, she probably wasn't forthcoming on why we had our little tiff."
"I only knew you'd fought at first because you didn't pick her up before school," Amy admitted. "You willing to tell us anything?"
Dean looked around the room. Missy was sitting at the counter in the kitchen area with a snack, but was obviously paying attention. Dennis had stopped cleaning the inside of his helmet and was paying attention as well. Chris was in his tinker space, and Carlos had changed and left to help with some of the final setup for the press conference. The others weren't here yet.
Apparently deciding he might as well get it over with, Dean slumped as much as his power armor allowed. "Vicky was angry that I mislead her about how I got my powers. She disagreed with letting her think I'd had a horribly traumatic trigger event when my father had bought them for me instead."
"Was it at least expensive?" Dennis asked. Which was not the question any of them had been expecting.
"No clue. He claimed it was part of him being paid for favors he'd done for someone in Boston that wanted to settle debts. I know some money changed hands, but not how much. Though I'm curious as to why nobody here seems to think I cheated or something?"
Dennis grimaced. "I was unlucky enough to see the livestream of that dude who got his hands on a power-granting vial last year and decided that the whole world should be able to see him take it. He glowed and sprouted wings before literally coughing up a lung. At least with a normal trigger event 'got powers' isn't the cause of death."
That caused all of them to contemplate things for a few minutes.
"So your honorary aunt took the one you were given in Boston?" Missy finally asked.
"Yes," Taylor replied. "Last night, in fact."
"Why are you reading the pamphlet now, then?"
"So that I know what kinds of things to keep an eye on with the thirty-two others, assuming I can get them to a point where they won't kill people."
There were several moments of silence, before Dean spoke up. "You have enough powers in a vial for multiple teams of parahumans?"
"I currently have thirty-one instant death vials that need to learn how to not kill humans before they can be safely used. The last one connects to the snark my honorary aunt connected to, so it's probably the only safe one right now. And no clue who to give any of them to if I get them safe enough, since I didn't intend to hand the first one over last night."
"You could always go with trusted volunteers from the PRT field officers," Dennis offered.
"Perhaps. I should probably wait and see how many get to the point of hopefully not killing those who take them first."
There was a general agreement on that point.
Taylor sighed as she approached home. The press conference had gone well, they'd even opened it with showing the previously unreleased clip of the prank on the merchants with the duck speaker as an example of how the Wards can help prevent violence without resorting to it themselves. The entire thing was an attempt to imply that Aisha would be more of a prankster than a spy. Not that Taylor believed Aisha wouldn't go for pranks, so at least that was believable.
Her session with Jessica had included breaking down a bit over being saddled with the cabinet full of vials. She didn't really know why a mysterious organization that she had minimal contact with was handing her them, and it felt like too much of a major responsibility. Who was she to decide who should connect to a snark? She didn't have any special insight into people, after all. Jessica admitted that she wasn't sure how she'd handle it either, but at least Taylor wasn't likely to charge insane amounts of money for the mere possibility of getting superpowers.
Taylor was pulled out of her thoughts when she got close enough to home to tell that Lacey was there. She wasn't sure why, and the lack of her car or Kurt's car in the driveway didn't help.
"Hello," Taylor called as she entered the house itself. Lacey seemed to be in the living room, but she wasn't sure where her father was.
"We're in the living room," Danny called.
Taylor entered the living room to find that Lacey was bundled up in one of their blankets, apparently having been crying. "What happened?"
"Kurt and I had a fight," Lacey explained. "I was reckless last night, and never should have taken the vial while drunk, and I ruined my life and don't know if I'll be able to recover."
"I'm not going to argue the first two, but from what I know of your powers you should be able to easily make a living."
Lacey snorted. "The PRT admitted that they weren't sure what they'd do with me if I wanted to join the Protectorate, and the Palanquin won't hire me because they don't want the hassle of a parahuman making alcohol on top of their existing paperwork headaches. I don't have any skills New Wave wants, and there's no way I'm willingly joining the gangs to make alcohol for them."
Danny gave Taylor a mildly pleading look, and she sighed. He was obviously out of ideas himself. She pulled out a phone and started looking at laws, an idea gradually forming in her head as she did so. She switched to the PRT store after a few minutes to check a few things, then finally dropped onto the couch next to Lacey. "I don't suppose you considered starting your own business? Good tinker-derived alcohol apparently sells quite well, and it looks like most of the tinkers making alcohol do it as a side project."
"How well?" Taylor merely showed her phone with the PRT store open, causing Lacey's eyes to go wide. "Holy crap. And that's what they get for making it as a side project?"
"Seems it. This tinker actually makes distilling equipment and sells the byproducts of testing his creations to help fund his tinkering. Another makes brewing equipment and does the same, but she only tests new designs."
"But I also keep having urges to mix drinks too."
Danny looked thoughtful. "I wonder if Mike still has the deed to the old pub around the corner from the ferry terminal. I think it had a brewing area in the back? I'm sure we can find someone to loan you money to get started, though we might need to hire a lawyer to figure out the legalities of parahuman-created alcohol. And you'll probably need to find a good short-order cook."
Taylor smirked as the two started bouncing ideas back and forth, Lacey apparently having gotten into the idea. Though for some reason she suspected that she was the one her father was talking about loaning money.
"Taylor?" Lacey said, standing in Taylor's bedroom door a few hours later.
"You need something?" Taylor asked, leaning up from where she was laying on her bed with her clear visor on..
"How much have you been keeping from Kurt and I?"
Taylor blinked, wondering what Lacey was talking about. "What do you mean?"
"I didn't realize it until later, but last night you were able to tell that I was healthy. To the point that when the PRT heard that you'd checked on me they waived the normal medical exam requirements, something that I thought they only did with Panacea. I don't think being able to talk to powers would cause that."
Taylor groaned. She hadn't even thought about checking on Lacey's health, but she hadn't told Kurt or Lacey about certain things. "Right, you have to keep this quiet. Long story short, thanks to an accident I've got Panacea's powers and she's got most of mine. We both got a bit of tinker as well."
Lacey stared at Taylor for a couple of minutes. "You're serious, aren't you? What kind of accident causes that?"
"I, er, kinda mentally broke someone else's snark without meaning to?"
"Somehow, despite wanting to know, I suspect that you shouldn't be telling me much more than that."
"Anything more falls under doctor/patient style protections."
Lacey came in and sat in Taylor's desk chair. "Ok, yeah. I can see that." She then thought about things for a couple of minutes. "So, to change the subject, do you know if anyone's selling really good brewing equipment? Mike said the brewing area was inhabited by one of the gangs at some point, so if we can get the initial paperwork taken care of I'll probably need to buy new everything."
Taylor brought up the PRT store, figuring that tinkertech might be the best option for a parahuman brewery. "If I understood you guys, it'll probably be a few weeks before you can even consider getting started over there, right?"
"Of course."
"Well, how about I start you off with a micro brewery kit from a tinker in Kentucky and a micro distillery kit from the tinker I was showing you stuff from earlier? You'll be responsible for getting the appropriate licenses, but at least you'll have good equipment. We can look into the larger stuff I found earlier on the brewing side when you have somewhere to put it."
Ten minutes later Lacey was going over some of the options available, having dismissed the 'quick brewing' mods. Apparently her snark didn't think that things should be rushed that way.
Chapter 97 Taylor left Lacey to sleep in Friday morning, figuring that since her father had taken at least the morning off that she'd let him deal with the woman when she got up. When she arrived she found that the gossip at school was split between the press conference and the 'blue-skinned midget' that had been seen leaving the PRT the day before. Because of that she sent a message off to Lacey letting her know of the latter, as well as mentioning that people weren't sure if she was a child or a short adult.
Ten minutes later she'd sent an apology for waking Lacey up with the first message.
"I can't believe they did that with one of those stupid novelty bath speakers," a girl across the hall from Taylor's locker said, obviously having the prank video running on her phone. "Though I don't know how they kept it from being shot."
"I think Vista probably warped space," a second girl replied. "I mean, she apparently did something like that to keep herself safe from paintballs and nobody could tell, so why not keep bullets away from the duck?"
"Good point. But why did they have one of the ducks with them? They aren't small enough to fit in any of their pockets, are they? Did they get someone to tell them that they'd get use out of it?"
"Oh come on. We know that Maul keeps her giant hammer in her jacket. Is it really that surprising that she could keep a duck speaker in a pocket?"
Taylor grinned. At least some people used their brains, right?
Come lunchtime Taylor made a final pass by her locker before the weekend and then headed out to the parking lot. Amy was doing the same. Neither was entirely sure why people were taking pictures of them leaving, but put it down to being local celebrities.
Amy: There are days I wonder about people. We've been leaving school together on a regular basis, but today they care?
Taylor: Maybe they care more about 'before' pictures for your long weekend healing.
Amy: Well, that makes more sense than most of the other reasons I can think of.
The trip over to the PRT building didn't take long. They stopped in the Wards area so that Taylor could drop off her school bag before heading over to the gym.
Taylor: I think most of these vial-snarks might be getting things faster than the last one.
Amy: Probably because our snarks figured out what needed to be said already, and they keep getting help from the one that already learned.
Taylor: Good point. Still going to take a few days at this rate, since I'm not going to be carrying them around.
BA: Correction
Taylor and Amy both blinked.
Amy: Ok, they're taking these more slowly in hopes of not missing things this time.
Taylor: I can see that. So at least a week at this rate, given that I won't be around them all weekend.
A few minutes later they'd changed and started their workout.
Taylor sighed as she waited for the elevator. She'd packed everything she was bringing and gotten into costume for the trip as requested due to 'other passengers'. Her platform had been sent ahead, but Director Piggot wanted to speak with her before the trip to Boston. Amy was waiting back in the Wards area, wanting to see if Missy would expand a pile of pouches she'd finally gotten for her belt.
"Go right in Maul," the secretary said a couple minutes later as Taylor approached. Taylor nodded and entered Director Piggot's office.
"Good afternoon," the older woman said as the door shut behind Taylor. "Please take a seat. I'm hoping this won't take long."
"Good afternoon," Taylor replied, taking one of the seats. She'd grabbed a weaponless jacket so the non-reinforced seats were fine.
"Now then, I have several things to talk to you about today. First up I wanted to cover a few things regarding your trip to Boston. Generally you'll be operating under Director Armstrong's directives, so listen to them. Beyond that, I have a request. Regulations don't actually permit either of us to prohibit you from peaceful interactions with villains, especially if there's a chance of them defecting. I, however, can ask that you do your best to ensure that any defections go somewhere else."
"I thought most of my villain defections already had gone elsewhere?"
"They have been mostly going elsewhere. I'd still rather not deal with any more here right now. So if you do anything please try and get them to agree to go across the country."
Taylor shrugged. "I can try, but I don't think I've intentionally done anything with the others to get them to stick around."
"Yes, well. With that out of the way there's another formality I need to go through with you. Specifically, I'm supposed to check with you on any tinkertech you've provided to individuals outside of the PRT, originally created by you or repaired. I'm under the impression you gifted a repaired item to Panacea?"
"A short-range raygun that shifts a small patch of clothing out of phase with reality for a limited period of time."
Director Piggot blinked. "That...huh. Instant hole for skin contact?"
"That's what I was thinking, yes. Both from a utilitarian point of view and for in case someone grabs her in a full-body costume."
"I might have to get someone to check if that tinker is willing to part with more samples of that tech. Even if we aren't advertising why, having that kind of thing available for you could be beneficial as well. Now then, I'm told that you had something to do with the short blue-skinned woman that registered yesterday?"
"Er, kinda? I ended up mentioning the vial I'd left here, and a couple of pranksters decided to fetch it for her when she begged for it. I probably wouldn't have considered handing it over normally."
"Ah, right. You filed a theft report, though for some reason most of it was redacted before I could see it. Which means I'm not cleared to know how the 'pranksters' pulled off the theft. But I was told that you received compensation, but not what that compensation was. Are you willing to elaborate on that?"
Taylor sighed. "They dropped a cabinet into my room with fifty more vials in it, ostensibly to 'replace' the stolen one but more because they're hoping I can make them stop killing people. I already returned eighteen of them that I couldn't do anything with, in part because I didn't want guaranteed-death vials sitting around."
Director Piggot stared at Taylor. "You're telling me that you now have thirty some odd power-granting vials in your room here?"
"They're in a secure cabinet, and most of them are probably still 'guaranteed-death' right now, but yes."
The older woman sighed and made a note. "I'm going to see if I can get your room secured better anyway. One of those vials in the building was bad enough." She then paused. "I don't suppose you know what you're going to do with them once you've done whatever it is that makes them safe enough to use?"
"Nope. It was suggested that trusted PRT members be given a shot at them, but I want to hold off on that until I know they're safe either way. Or at least safe enough to not kill, I'm not sure if any of them will ever leave the person taking them looking the same as they did before they took it."
"I see. Though I still don't know why regulations exist that say we're supposed to leave them with you instead of confiscating them. I can instruct you to inform the immediate superior of anyone you're considering giving one of the vials to within the PRT, or if you don't know who their immediate supervisor is their regional director."
"That seems reasonable enough."
"We've gotten a little sidetracked, but technically I've covered everything I needed to. On a more personal curiosity note, I would like to know what's up with the tinker fugue approval process. I've heard some odd things about what's required in the second stage? None of it seems to make any sense for what I think they're working towards."
Taylor grinned and started to explain.
"Does anyone know what's up with Director Piggot?" Missy asked as she and Carlos sat down in the short-hop transport. "She kept snickering every so often when she met with the two of us."
"She probably found something out that amused her," Taylor replied, doing her best to keep her own grin off of her face. "She tell you two to listen to Director Armstrong?"
"We were asked to try and discourage anyone you pick up from working in Brockton Bay," Carlos said. "Beyond that she covered the plans for my early return Sunday morning with some of the patients being flown over. Family stuff Sunday night and all."
They went silent as the transport powered up and brought them over to the Rig.
Amy: I'm starting to wonder why I never had a utility belt before. This thing is awesome, even the unexpanded pouches.
Taylor: Heh. How's the hospital looking?
Amy: Amazingly calm, to be honest. I don't even think there was a line today. Current theory is that everyone assumed that I'd be focusing on serious cases today and that minor stuff could wait.
Taylor: And since most of that 'minor stuff' you shouldn't have to deal with anyway...
Amy: All in all I have no reason to complain on that front. But still, the pouches are going to be awesome over the weekend. I'll be able to have piles of snacks and such on hand.
"So why do you think we needed to be in costume?" Missy asked after they'd landed. "I thought they tried to avoid that for these trips?"
"We probably have people coming along that aren't cleared for our identities," Carlos answered. "It happens. I'll need to be in costume Sunday morning after all."
The three transferred over to the larger transport bringing them to Boston, finding they were the first ones in it. Dropping their suitcases into place was easy, and then they sat down.
"Oh!" Missy said, bouncing a little in her seat. "I almost forgot, I finally got my parents to sign the tinker fugue permission slip last night, and they actually brought me in to drop it all off this morning before school."
"Really?" Taylor said. "What worked?"
"I mentioned that you had much better control of your gun than me because of the strength boosts. Not only did they sign the permission slip, they looked into signing up themselves. Though they were warned that they weren't likely to be accepted."
"Well good luck with the next phase of things."
Missy stopped bouncing and stared at Taylor. "There's a next phase?"
"Yep."
Missy groaned at that.
Erika grinned as she read the entry on the tinker fugue list. She'd lucked out and been on a trip visiting family in Danbury when the Nine had attacked, and had arrived at the museum when the Nine were leaving. She'd thought she'd been clever, bluffing her way into not being killed by the Nine by complimenting their hat choices and asking for their autographs. But that meant she could easily clear this one. She only needed three autographs from the Nine, after all.
She took a moment to ponder why the list of requirements included 'submit copies of three autographs from members of the Slaughterhouse Nine' and all, but shrugged. She had them, so she was good on that front. It also wasn't all that weird compared to some of the other things on the list so far.
Making note to grab her autograph book from home, as well as writing down the identification number for that entry, she then moved on to the next one. Only to stop and blink. "Oh hell. Get a picture with Accord? I've heard of some of his crazy OCD requirements."
It turned out that Colin and several new PRT officers were traveling to Boston as well, and the PRT officers were new enough to not be cleared for parahuman identities. This also limited a lot of their discussion options, but they all found things to work on for the three quarters of an hour they were in the air. They actually landed near the Protectorate building, which allowed Colin to unload his motorcycle at ground level. A van then took the PRT officers and the Wards over to the PRT building.
"I know why they split up in Brockton Bay," Carlos said. "But why does the Protectorate have their own building here?"
"Mainly villains that are willing to attack the Protectorate headquarters," the driver of the van answered. "Having the PRT and Wards in their own building helps with that, though due to the active shipping facilities in the area we couldn't swing something like that oil rig that was modified for you guys. Unlike you guys we normally store parahuman prisoners in the Protectorate building, so even breakouts don't risk the Wards."
"That and they had to rebuild a few years ago after a larger attack and just didn't move the Protectorate out of the 'temporary' location," Missy said, causing everyone but the driver to look at her. "What? I can't study the history of the various PRT facilities?"
"You got it backwards. The Protectorate moved into the original building while the PRT and Wards stayed in the temporary one."
Missy raised her hand as if to argue, then slumped and pouted.
"Good afternoon Aegis, Maul, Vista," Director Armstrong said once the PRT officers had been sent off to be processed. "Nice to see you back."
"Good afternoon Director Armstrong," the three chorused.
"Now then, I want to cover a few things before you head down to the Wards area. First up, just so you know, half of the local Wards are still helping keep the peace in the various camps set up for those that can't return to their homes right now. Some of that is due to the majority of the T network being down, a few bridges being out, power being spotty at best right now, and pretty much the entire water and sewer system being damaged. We'd hoped some of it would be further along by now, but Leviathan seems to have pulled water directly out of pipes so almost all of them need to be replaced, and a lot of underground power lines were damaged in the process."
"Is the PRT building lucky enough to have a tinkertech solution to the water problem?" Carlos asked.
"Yes, and since you were here last we've set up a set of outdoor facilities for those in the area to use as a result, in addition to a similar situation at the Protectorate building. For basic bathing or filling up containers with fresh water. You might have seen them on your way in. A number of buildings in the area have similar technology in them for various reasons, but they don't have the same capacity. One thing we'll be asking you to do is make sure people out there know that the facilities are available."
The three nodded, and he paused to see if there were any questions, and when none came up he continued. "I know you saw the incredibly calm and clean territory Accord maintains the last time you were here. We won't be sending you that way this weekend. Instead we'd like to send you along the edge of areas being pressured by unpowered gangs with guns, something that's been fairly rare here in Boston and that until now we've been able to keep to the areas the Protectorate patrols."
"What kinds of guns?" Missy asked.
"Mostly easily concealed handguns. We're stretched thin and are hoping you can help get some of our Wards able to not freeze up when dealing with them. You deal with gang members with firearms on a regular basis, right?"
"In a good week one in three encounters results in someone pulling a handgun on us," Carlos answered. "Maybe one in five with a shotgun? Though we've seen more shotguns over time, and in bad weeks it seems like everyone has a gun. We've generally been told to only call in for permission to engage against armed individuals in areas with significant civilians around."
"I see I'm going to have to check a few things with Director Piggot. You should know by morning patrols what rules you'll be operating under here. Now then, would you like an escort down to the Wards area?"
"I think we're good," Missy said, pulling out her phone. "Unless something changed and we can't open the doors this week?"
"Nope, you should be good. Have fun. Oh, and Maul, I'd appreciate it if you'd let them know everything you can do, but that's up to you." Director Armstrong then waved them to the elevators, and the three made their way down to the Wards area with their luggage.
Taylor: Director Armstrong thinks I should tell the Wards here everything I can do.
Amy: But you don't want to tell them about healing unless I agree?
Taylor: Basically. Because I don't think I'd be able to explain it without revealing some of that to them.
"Looks like nine snarks are down here," Taylor said. "I recognize Hunch, Reynard, and Weld from last time. The other six not so much."
They set off the visitor alarm, though Taylor suspected it would be the last time they'd bother. It took nearly two minutes for the door to open, at which point they made their way in.
Amy: I can't really think of a good reason to not tell them about your ability to heal, since you're there to help them with patrolling more dangerous routes and all. So you might as well tell them.
Taylor: Alright, I can do that.
Amy: Oooh. I'm known as the world's greatest healer, right?
Taylor: Yes?
Amy: You're just as good as I am, so why not tell them that you don't know of anyone who can heal better than you can?
Taylor: That sounds like a wonderful way to the confuse the crap out of them. I like it.
So as to ensure she got a good recording of things, Taylor even flipped the Snitch on. She didn't trust her body or visor cameras to get a good enough view.
"Oh," Hunch said. "It's just you three. You didn't have to use the alarm."
"We haven't been properly introduced to the other six," Taylor said, shrugging. "Seemed like the right thing to do."
"Well then," Weld said, coming forward. "Good afternoon, and let's do introductions. I'll start with the easy one, since I don't think anyone here won't recognize Maul." All of the other Wards snorted at that one even as Taylor waved her hand. "Right. Next to her is Vista, and next to Vista is Aegis." They also waved in turn.
Weld then turned to the Boston group. "I've met all three of them multiple times, as has Hunch. Reynard patrolled with them last weekend." He then paused. "The rest of you might want to line up so they can see you?" The six Boston Wards they hadn't met yet shuffled into something approximating a line, two of them having had to get up out of chairs to do so. Once they were lined up Weld looked at the first in the line, who shrugged.
"I'm Eagle Eye," he said. He was wearing what looked like a brown armored costume with an eagle-styled mask. Looking closely Taylor could see a feather pattern in the brown of the costume. His mask didn't cover all of his brown hair. "I can fly and have incredible eyesight, so I usually play scout. Even better with the airport shut down for now, as I'm no longer forced to stay under flight paths."
Next in line was a younger blond caucasian girl, whose costume looked like it had been pieced together from the remnants of the Endbringer battle or something. Yet it all fit together quite nicely and Taylor could tell that it only looked pieced-together. The girl's visor even looked damaged, but Taylor could tell it wasn't. "Hi there! I'm Short Sara! I make explosions!"
"I go by Boombox," the next one in line said. By voice Taylor was thinking female. "I'm a sound tinker, the louder the better." She had a full-coverage well-armored costume with speakers built into it and was holding an actual boombox, complete with cassette players, on her shoulder. Taylor was momentarily distracted by her tinker snark telling her that there were some loose connections in the armor, as well as how the armor and boombox were linked wirelessly.
"Call me Fade," the fairly obvious girl next in line said. "I don't like being called 'glass' even if they call me that often on PHO due to my glass-like breaker state." Her costume was full-body and dark blue, with no real distinguishing features visible. She was also taller than Taylor.
"Rewind," the younger boy next to Fade said, nodding his head. His costume was primarily black and had a lot of circles made of counter-clockwise arrows. Some of them were obvious in white, others more subtle. His visor didn't prevent anyone from seeing his skin or hair, and Taylor guessed he was hispanic. "I reverse damage to myself and my equipment by traveling backwards."
The last girl in the line looked to be Taylor's age, but didn't look to be wearing a costume at all, though Taylor wasn't sure if that was normal or a side effect of timing. She was also wearing a basic domino mask currently. Her lightly tanned skin and coppery hair were plainly visible. "I'm Outfitter. Er, for now, anyway. I'm a tinker."
"She's on probation for something that nobody will explain," Fade said, shaking her head. "Something big a few weeks back." She then focused on Taylor. "So, Maul. We know what Vista can do, and we all read Aegis's file earlier. But most of your file was locked down. Hunch and Weld claim you're a trump, and we all know you're a blaster."
"Well," Taylor said. "I normally fight as a brute and blaster. My trump abilities are in the 'interact with powers' category. I'm also a mid-level tinker and I'm unaware of anyone who can heal better than I can."
It took a moment, but Carlos and Missy both started snickering at that, which caused some more obvious confusion.
"You're known to have interacted with Panacea," Eagle Eye noted. "And you don't think you're aware of anyone better than you at healing?"
"I think I have to agree with Maul," Carlos finally said. "I honestly don't know anyone better than her at healing."
"Are you saying she's a better healer than Panacea?" Outfitter asked.
"Of course not," Missy said. "We're not crazy."
"The only way that works is if Maul is on Panacea's level when it comes to healing," Hunch noted. "But I don't know how having two healing powers of that level in Brockton Bay would've been kept quiet?"
"Because there's only one healing power of that level?" Taylor offered. "No second power to keep secret and all?"
"Please put us out of our misery," Weld finally said. "Because we're obviously missing some important detail here."
"She's got Panacea's powers," Carlos said. "And Panacea has some of hers in return."
That resulted in needing quite a bit of explanation.
They'd ended up revealing identities after the three visiting Wards had claimed guest rooms. Reynard's name was Robert, Eagle Eye was Darren, Short Sara was Tina, Boombox was Huan, Fade was Nina, Rewind was Pablo, and Outfitter was Sora. On the Boston side of things they'd apparently figured out Taylor's identity, but had never heard of Carlos or Missy before to make connections with. They'd all changed into more comfortable clothing as well, as they were all staying the night and didn't need to be in costume.
"So what can you do with your trump tricks?" Huan asked. "Because 'interact with powers' seems kinda, well, vague?"
"Mostly locate and talk to snarks," Taylor answered. "If they cooperate I can find out quite a bit about people's powers, and what they could be doing differently. If they don't cooperate I can still keep track of them when they're near me."
"You should try and find out why Sora seems to have so much trouble making new things," Fade said. "Especially since they confiscated all her stuff when whatever it was happened."
Taylor looked over at Sora, who had a slightly-scared deer in the headlights look. "I don't think she likes that idea?"
"She can keep the details private," Weld offered. "Granted, she'll know, but she doesn't have to tell the rest of us."
"Um," Sora said. "I guess I'd like to know if there's anything I could be doing differently? But I don't want everything public."
"Go to one of the rooms and close the door," Hunch said, waving at the personal rooms area. "Decide what, if anything, to tell us afterwards."
Sora sighed and nodded, then led Taylor to one of the rooms.
"So what do I need to do?" Sora asked once the door was closed.
"Give me a moment to talk to your snark," Taylor replied.
Taylor: A proper hello to you.
[Greetings]
Taylor: So, your human said she's a tinker, but has some kind of trouble?
[Data]
Taylor blinked a couple of times.
Amy: That sounds...difficult to deal with as a Ward.
Taylor: I'll agree. Is there anything she could be doing differently? Or is there a way for her to make other things?
[Query]
Taylor: The others claim she has issues making things, so is she doing something wrong?
[Data. Elaboration]
Taylor sighed. "I don't suppose one of the things you've made is a small stick capable of causing pleasure or pain depending on the setting?"
Sora blinked, then her eyes went wide. "They brought one to your power testing!?"
"Yep. I refused to demonstrate it after my tinker snark told me it was intended for internal use."
Sora cringed at that. "I don't use them that way. I just can't seem to make anything that isn't usable in the bedroom."
"Your snark claims you've been creative in trying to bend that rule, though I wonder what causes that kind of manifestation."
Sora mumbled something that even Taylor couldn't pick up. Taylor merely raised her eyebrow in response, and Sora sighed before speaking up. "I triggered in mom's closet and panic room when someone tried to rob our house. She's a shield tinker, she worked on your wok and manhole cover shields as a side project."
"I'm not entirely sure that explains things."
"She, um, keeps all of her toys in there. I kinda took the robber out with a modified, er, shock kit."
"Well, your snark says it is what it is, but you..."
Sora interrupted Taylor by crying. "I just wanted to be a hero! Why did I have to get a useless power?"
Taylor sighed and, after a moment's thought, sat down on the bed in the room, pulling Sora down next to her. "You didn't get to choose your power, so that part isn't your fault. But I think you do have options."
"Like what? When they found out I'd lied about what I could make they put me on probation, and mom grounded me, and they're taking anything I do make and putting it in storage or something."
Taylor: I have no clue what might count as a sex toy that would be considered acceptable.
Amy: And you're telling me why?
Taylor: I'm hoping you do?
Amy: What makes you think I'd have a clue?
Taylor: You've been around hospitals a lot. Surely some of the patients got hurt from obvious things?
Amy: While not a bad argument, I'm not sure I've come across anything like that. Well, except for suspecting that the couple who nearly drowned had been having too much fun in the pool.
Taylor blinked at that.
"Have you tried making things that are indirectly useful?" Taylor asked.
"Like what?" Sora replied between sniffles. "Because everything I've made seems to be designed for use during sex and just happens to be able to be abused into being something else."
"Can you make it so that someone can breathe underwater?"
Sora paused at that. "So that...huh. No, but I think I can make it so that they don't have to breathe at all for a bit?" She then blushed. "Er, but I think it'd have to be something like a suppository, or maybe a butt plug?"
"I suspect that the people who could benefit from that wouldn't care. Hell, they might hand them out before or during Leviathan's next attack."
Sora ended up thoughtful, and Taylor ended up helping her clean up a little before they went back into the main area, right down to cheating a little with Shaper. No need to make it obvious to the others that the girl had been crying, after all.
"You figure anything out?" Tina asked.
"I think so," Sora said, grabbing her phone from where she'd left it. "I need to send a couple of questions off, but I don't think it will be anything you guys use."
"At least she seems less depressed now," Robert commented. "Do we get to learn anything about what's going on?"
"No," Sora replied, glaring at Robert for a moment. "So stop asking."
"But it's annoying," Nina said, reaching over and shoving Sora. "You won't tell anyone!"
"That's my choice and you know it."
Chapter 98 Saturday morning Taylor woke early, and a little confused about where she was. Once her brain had booted up out of sleep mode she recalled that she was in Boston. With that figured out she got up and headed for the bathroom. She'd read her messages afterwards.
She only realized that she didn't have a pressing need to go when she'd actually reached the toilet. Apparently Amy's habits were starting to rub off on her.
"Good morning Taylor," Weld said as he came into the common area.
"Morning," Taylor said between bites of pancake.
"Where'd you find pancakes? Tina frequently complains that they never have any."
"Made them myself."
"Not to sound disbelieving, but where?"
"Your tinker spaces are better than ours. They have a kitchen mode. I just had to pick a few ingredients up from the cafeteria stores, and they had no problem with that."
Weld looked over the multiple large stacks of pancakes sitting on the counter. "At least you made enough for everyone?"
"PANCAKES!" was yelled by a blond blur a moment later. Taylor snickered as Weld did a double-take upon realizing that it was Missy and not Tina.
"What are you doing up?" Taylor asked.
"I had to use the bathroom and realized what I was smelling on the way back."
"Ahhh. Of course. I wonder if you woke anyone else up with your yell?"
"The rooms should be fairly soundproofed," Weld said. "So probably not."
"So nobody else is up yet?" Missy asked.
"Not that we know of," Taylor answered. "Why?"
"Can we play the speaker prank?"
Taylor froze with her fork halfway to her mouth, then grinned. A moment later she looked down at her fork, shrugged, and continued eating.
"I think that means 'yes, but after breakfast'," Weld offered. "What's the speaker prank?"
The other Wards all got up around forty minutes later, after Taylor and Missy had changed into costume. Some minor reheating of pancakes was needed, but they were all happy with them. They'd probably have volunteered to help with the kitchen cleanup, but what Taylor hadn't already done had been taken care of by Missy by then. The dishes they were eating off of would be returned to the cafeteria for cleaning later, as if they'd picked breakfast up from there.
"What the hell is that sound?" Huan finally asked. She'd been looking around whenever the triple-tone sound clip was played. Not that Taylor had been playing it from just one speaker.
"I figured it was one of our visitors' phones low on battery or something," Robert answered. Only for six phones to be produced.
"We don't appear to be low," Carlos said after all six phones had been checked.
"Alrighty then," Huan said, having just finished her pancakes. "I'm going to hunt it down then."
Half an hour later most of the Wards were running around trying to figure out what was beeping. Carlos, Missy, and Taylor had been told that if it wasn't their phones then the others would figure it out, and Weld claimed he couldn't hear it. He was checking things on the console for morning patrols instead.
Carlos had gotten into costume during all of this, so the three visiting Wards were watching eight of the nine available local Wards hunt for what was beeping. None of them able to agree on where the sound was even coming from.
Taylor smirked as Weld sent the three of them a text message.
W: Do you have that duck with you?
T: Yep.
M: But how would we get it into position?
C: Space-warping? Get them all looking in one direction at the same time, then drop it behind them.
T: If we go grab drinks we can turn it on and put it in one of your pouches out of their sight, then you go grab one of the more comfortable chairs by the TV. Then we get their attention here and you drop it behind them by the...hmmm.
W: Perhaps in the plant by the support post?
M: I think I can handle that.
Carlos and Missy pocketed their phones again, then Taylor and Missy grinned as they got up and headed for the fridge. It only took a moment to pass the duck over once they were there. Taylor grabbed a juice and Missy grabbed a root beer before Taylor joined Weld at the console to look at a couple of things and Missy dropped into one of the comfortable chairs. Once they were in position Taylor focused on the speakers that would get the other Wards into position.
Eight minutes later everyone turned to look at Carlos, who'd fallen off of the stool he'd been sitting on. "Sorry, slipped."
"Yeah," Nina said. "The feet on those aren't always that secure."
Missy took the opportunity to drop the duck into the plant. Which Taylor thought was pretty impressive given that she was on the wrong side of the support to see the plant. Not what Taylor had expected, since she thought Carlos really had slipped on accident, but she'd work with it. "I don't suppose the duck is the one beeping?"
"What duck?" Tina asked, starting to look around.
Taylor answered by playing the evil laugh sound through the duck, causing all the searching Wards to jump and spin. Most of them landed alright, even.
"Holy..." Pablo said, clutching his chest. "Where did that come from?"
Hunch was a little more on the ball. "Well guys and gals, we've been played by our visitors. And probably by Weld, that looks like it's probably the same duck they used against those Merchants as seen in the press conference for Hulder. I just want to know how they got the beeping to move around."
Tina bounced over to the duck and picked it up, spinning it around a couple of times to look at it from different angles. "This is cool!"
Taylor snickered as she moved around the common area, collecting the various point-projection speakers.
"None of those are where we heard sounds coming from," Huan noted.
"Point projection," Carlos said. "Nifty trick, makes the sound pretty much come from another surface."
Taylor had collected the last speaker unit and turned around, only to find Huan in front of her trying to pull puppy-dog eyes on her. "Can I help you?"
"I don't have point projection speakers," Huan explained. "May I have one to examine? Please?"
Taylor looked at Huan, then dug a notepad and pen out of a pouch. A quick check and she had the PRT store number for the speakers she was using, which was quickly written down. She then tore that off and held it out to Huan. "You can order your own from the PRT store." A moment later Taylor was debating on whether or not Huan was a mover as well as a tinker, with how fast the other girl had made it to one of the computers.
"Sucks that we can't share the recording with everyone," Weld said. "But at least the other local Wards will get a kick out of it."
This caused most of the other eight to pause. Tina was still focused on the duck.
"What recording?" Robert finally asked.
Taylor grinned and pulled the Snitch out of a pouch, several of the other Wards groaning. "I do like that I can run this with the propulsion system off to keep it in my pouches. Much more subtle."
"Good morning," Director Armstrong said once everyone had gotten changed into their costumes. He'd called a pre-patrol meeting with all of them. "I've decided to take a more direct role in planning this weekend's patrols. Outfitter is still on probation, even if she did normally patrol. This morning I'd like Hunch on the console as normal. The rest of you will be in three teams, each led by one of the visiting Wards running their patrols on Brockton Bay's normal rules."
"At least that will be familiar," Taylor noted, Carlos and Missy nodding.
"I'd also like to have Aegis or Vista run the console for this afternoon, the other running the single afternoon patrol," Director Armstrong continued. "Those not patrolling would be asked to observe that from this end to see how they interact on the console. As for Maul, since I'm told that she has a way of bypassing all the normal patrol leader headaches that others can't learn I've granted a request to have her run through a training session with a few Protectorate members this afternoon."
"Do you have any specific teams you'd like us to run in?" Pablo asked.
"I'd like to see what the team leaders would like to do, actually."
Taylor shared a look with Carlos and Missy, at least as much as one could do when none of their eyes were actually visible.
"They're mostly ground-bound," Carlos started. "So perhaps you two should run on foot? I could take Eagle Eye and give him flying pointers."
"You should take the larger patrol group then," Missy said. "So that you still have two on the ground."
"I'll take Short Sara here in case something goes wrong," Taylor offered, thumbing at Tina despite not looking to see where the girl was sitting. "I'm generally more immediately durable than you two so if I don't get out of the way in time I'll be better off. But I think Vista should take Weld so that each group has someone that can likely take a bullet or two if needed."
"Good point," Carlos nodded, looking over the other Wards. "Why don't you take Boombox? You can understand her stuff better than the two of us can to start with. Besides, we already know Reynard's trick isn't as effective with you, and I suspect that Fade's bit is a bad mix with Short Sara. I think Rewind would be better off on a team without a healer available in case of emergencies as well."
"With some of that logic I should probably take Reynard," Missy said. "Since you'll be in the air and all, that would be a dead giveaway for who the real one is."
"No, you should take Fade," Carlos argued. "She should be able to act as a scout for you, and I don't want Rewind or Reynard to look like they're alone because Fade is in her breaker state while Eagle Eye and I are in the air."
"Oooh, good point, I hadn't thought of that. Yeah, I'll take Fade."
"I'm concerned here," Robert whispered to Nina. "Because they basically started by splitting people up based on who could take hits and extrapolated from there."
"Congratulations," Director Armstrong said. "You just split everyone up in one of the two ways the thinkers thought you should, and for reasons I personally agree with. They also ran a set with Maul giving Eagle Eye pointers."
"Aegis doesn't rely on tinkertech to fly so would be a better fit," Taylor countered. "That and I've barely done overwatch yet."
"Both of which are good points. Now then, Maul, I have two special requests for you. I'm sending your group the closest to Blasto's territory, so first off please do your best to leave his creations alone if possible. We entertained ideas of you blowing them away with your Barrage Blaster trick, but it turns out most of the really annoying ones are only annoying because he's been working on them for search and rescue ops. If you ignore their looks you can generally treat them like very odd, somewhat large puppies. But don't hold back if they start playing tug of war with someone."
"I think I can handle that."
"Second, that also happens to be where a particularly cocky group of gang members has been operating. They think that because they have guns they've got the upper hand in fights. I'd like you to demonstrate otherwise for them, preferably without actually harming anyone. Perhaps blow a hole in one of the already-ruined buildings? Show them what they're in for if they insist on escalating to a gunfight and all."
"I...ok. I think I can handle that too, if we run into them."
"That's all I ask on that front. Now then, I'll help Hunch get your patrol routes into the system while you get ready to depart."
Taylor signed into the console, noting Huan and Tina pulling their phones out and doing the same. The two local Wards then came over to Taylor.
"So what's first?" Huan asked.
"What've you two got for supplies?" Taylor asked.
"Supplies?" Tina questioned.
"Mainly basic first aid stuff and zip cuffs." Taylor pulled a couple of zip cuffs out of one pouch and a pack of bandages out of another to demonstrate.
"Does that mean my pockets aren't for snacks?" Tina whined. Huan did her best to facepalm at that despite wearing a helmet.
Taylor sighed. "What's next, you telling me that you don't normally hit the restroom before going out because you've always had places you could stop?"
The sudden silence from all of the local Wards was telling.
"Alright you two," Taylor said as they were leaving the PRT building. "In case you were unaware, in Brockton Bay we run into guns a lot on patrol. Unless we're surrounded by civilians or seriously outnumbered by individuals with guns we make our own judgements on engaging for handguns and shotguns. If we're feeling generous we might inform the console first. With rifles and machine guns we're highly encouraged to check with the console first, but it isn't required unless we can see more than two in the group."
"That sounds scary," Tina half-whispered.
"You'd be amazed at how quickly you can get used to it. Now then, if you know they have guns the best way to deal with things is to hopefully ensure that they can't, or won't, fire them. If you can get the drop on them and either take the gun or force them to point it into the ground that's usually ideal. Just watch that it isn't pointing at your feet. Avoid having them point into the air if you can. Barring that we usually see if we can convince them to fire until they're empty and grab them before they can reload."
"How often can you really get the drop on them?" Huan asked.
"Well, we've found it a lot easier with someone in the air or on rooftops able to literally drop down on them. I suppose you'll have issues with that part, given the lack of suitable movers you guys seem to have there. Getting them to be unwilling to shoot usually takes more time as the best method we've found so far is to build a reputation. That's still a work in progress for most of the Wards back home."
"Most?"
"Er, well, we're running low on gangs that will engage me at all? I have to let the others start the fight and then drop in if they're actual gang members these days. Otherwise they tend to run away due to rumors about me."
"If you have actual reasonable gangs then I'm starting to think I understand part of why Brockton Bay made it to the top ten safest cities list."
Taylor actually stopped at that, turning to Huan. "Brockton Bay is what?"
"Er, it's in the top ten safest cities in New England to live in list as of a couple days ago? The one maintained by that public perception evaluation group based in New York."
"How?"
"That gang that hurt you was wiped out, and they were apparently the worst operating there. If someone living there gets seriously injured Panacea is usually available on short notice, you guys have one of the safest public transportation systems in the country, and most importantly you live there and thus can warn people if an Endbringer is coming? Honestly I think the latter almost put Brockton Bay as number one. Boston's never even in the top fifty since the Teeth set up here."
"Ok. I'm going to assume most people they talk to about Brockton Bay are crazy and move on."
The two local Wards were in a state of mild shock, as they'd run into three different groups of thugs harassing people with guns already. The first one Taylor had hit the lone gun from a distance before it could be fired. That had knocked it out of the thug's hand and Taylor was on top of him before he could reach where the gun had landed. The second group Taylor had instructed Tina to cause an explosion in the middle of, which knocked them all down. Tina had then had fun making little explosions to push the guns further away from them.
The third group, however, was probably the biggest reason for the shock.
"He shot you with a shotgun," Huan said as Taylor applied zip cuffs to the last thug in the group.
"He shot my shield with a shotgun," Taylor corrected. "Which was why I had the shield in front of me when he fired in the first place." Taylor then pulled Tina away from the shotgun that was laying on the ground. "Don't touch that, he only fired one of the two barrels."
"But that was cool!" Tina whined. "All explodey and stuff!"
"I'm starting to think that nobody thought to have you guys take the firearms safety classes."
"The what?" Huan asked, which pretty much confirmed Taylor's suspicions there. Maybe they just hadn't had time? Or perhaps Director Armstrong was hoping they'd pay more attention after this set of patrols.
"Well looky here boys," a cocky thug said. "It looks like a group of little girls."
"You really shouldn't underestimate girls in general," Taylor retorted, stepping away from Huan and Tina. "Let alone parahuman girls."
"Bah," the thug said, waving his handgun. "Most parahumans are just as susceptible to lead as anyone else, and you appear to have shown up to a gunfight with fists."
"Really now?" Taylor said as the rest of the dozen or so thugs started pulling guns out of places on their bodies. Taylor pulled her own handgun out as well. "Are you sure you want to make this a gunfight?"
"Ooooh, you did bring a gun. Too bad you only have the one." The lead thug then shot Taylor in the leg. Taylor's only reaction was to frown slightly as she'd probably have to do some minor repairs on the jeans now.
Taylor thumbed the safety off of her handgun as she aimed at a nearby gas station. The pumps were long gone, but the building itself was still mostly there. She was able to use the Snitch feed to see that it was unoccupied and she suspected that the current condition of it meant that it would need to be demolished and rebuilt anyway. She double-checked to make sure things looked clear, then fired several shots into the building, carefully spacing them apart along the front of it. Each shot took a circle out of at least one wall, and when she was done the roof finished collapsing into the space where the near wall was no longer structurally sound.
"Now then," Taylor said as she flipped the safety back on, absently noting that Tina was sounding giddy. That girl liked explosions too much. "You can see what happens when I'm in a gunfight. Is that what this is?"
Several of the thugs had noticeable damp patches on their pants as they very carefully made sure that their guns had their safeties on, the magazines were removed, and the chambered rounds were ejected and carefully placed back into the magazines. The guns were then returned to their holsters without their magazines, which were mostly placed into pockets.
"Gunfight?" the original cocky thug said after he'd finished. "What gunfight? No gunfight here."
"I told you to not touch the guns that I hadn't checked yet," Taylor said as she bandaged Tina's arm. Before they'd left she'd ensured that the other two knew that any powers-assisted healing would be for emergencies or after they were back in the PRT building. In this case Taylor had fixed the most serious problems already, but was playing it up as having been relatively minor in the first place. It was a nice show for the three thugs they'd trussed up, at least.
"But I like the booms," Tina whined, tears streaming out from under her visor.
"Console to Maul," came over the radio. "A couple of police officers will be there shortly to take the three thugs into custody. Please abort the remainder of your patrol when they've arrived."
"Acknowledged," Taylor replied. She then looked at the map, frowning slightly when she saw that there wasn't really a good 'direct' ground route from here at all. A moment later she shrugged and summoned her platform. It should be able to hold the three of them just fine.
"Good idea with the platform," Director Armstrong said as the three entered the debrief room. "Now then, before we get into the main debrief, I'd like to know if Maul has any immediate observations?"
"They need the firearm safety classes before you send them anywhere near another gun," Taylor replied without hesitation.
"I'm inclined to agree. We've had scheduling issues, but I may need to force the issue. Now then, I'm told that you rarely need time to prepare your post-patrol reports?"
Taylor nodded, finishing submitting the complete patrol report with attached videos from her visor camera, body camera, and the Snitch data. A moment later Director Armstrong and the PRT officer with him were pulling the report up. Taylor grabbed Tina and healed her up fully in the meantime, handing the younger girl a granola bar when she was done.
Nearly an hour later, extended a bit by laughing, the two finished reviewing things.
"This is on par with most of our Protectorate tinker patrol leader reports that pass over my desk," Director Armstrong noted. "Then again, I'm under the impression that you cheat just as much as they do by actively writing them in the field. That said, I'm going to have to ask Director Piggot if we can post the footage of you scaring the large group. That might get people thinking before getting into a gunfight with capes in general, but I don't think your Barrage Blaster ability is officially public knowledge yet."
"I figure I'm at least showing it to the other Wards back home," Taylor admitted. "Since that group of thugs now has a general idea and all I think I'll leave that decision up to you and Director Piggot."
"Now then, Short Sara, you were told multiple times to not touch the guns. Maul and Boombox both pulled you away from loaded ones at least twice each. Why did you ignore them?"
"I like the explosions?" Tina answered, as if that was enough.
"I suspect you're going to have some problems in the safety classes," Huan said, shaking her head. "You like explosions way too much. I'm just glad you dislike hurting people."
"Explosions aren't any fun if they hurt someone," Tina replied, sounding offended.
Taylor stared at Tina. "Ok then, how about this. You know what happened when the gun fired and hit you, right?" Tina nodded. "That hurt, right?" Tina nodded harder. "When the explosions happen in a gun people are much more likely to be hurt, because that's what those explosions are for."
"Oooooh."
Taylor suspected they were all wondering how Tina's brain worked at that point.
There was a blurry shimmer as Taylor came in for a landing near the Protectorate building, her tinker snark identifying it as a one-way privacy field of some kind. She'd been told it was safe for her to pass through and directed to land inside of it, and her tinker snark agreed that it was safe, so she did so. From the inside there was no obvious sign of the field at all, which fit the one-way nature of it.
"Good afternoon Maul," Colin said as Taylor dismounted her platform next to the group of three Protectorate members that she'd apparently be training with that afternoon. She recognized Chevalier, but she wasn't sure who the woman in what appeared to be an armored dress with a polearm-style weapon on her back was. She wasn't sure if that was a failure to look up semi-local parahumans or if the woman was a visitor from elsewhere in the country though.
"Good afternoon Armsmaster," Taylor said, before a very familiar sound started up nearby. A moment later she'd jumped and had containment foam grenades in both hands, looking around wildly. "What the hell?"
BA: Annoyance
Things went quiet a moment later. "My apologies," Colin continued. "I'd forgotten that you might have issues with the turret tanks, given your last encounter with them. One was repaired and brought down here to be used in testing shields. Very good reflexes though."
"Ah, Thanks." Taylor did her best to calm down as she put the containment foam grenades away.
Amy: What happened?
Taylor: They apparently brought one of the turret tanks down here to test shields. I...wasn't expecting it.
Amy: Oh. Why was Broadcast Administrator annoyed?
BA: Data
Taylor and Amy blinked in unison, despite the distance between them.
Taylor: Well, that's a thing. And for some reason I'm thinking I'm getting another nightmare or two.
Amy: Sounds likely. Can I hope that it's only you?
It took a moment, but the female that Taylor didn't recognize in the group of Protectorate members spoke up. "You've got Wards with confoam?"
"Two so far," Colin said. "Though Maul here is the only one to have used any in the field."
"But how'd they get cleared?"
"They signed up for the classes, just like anyone else. You only need SL4 to get armory access, after all, and they only carry a few grenades. Still, I believe we've digressed." Colin turned back to Taylor. "Maul, allow me to introduce you to Glaive of the Boston Protectorate, and Chevalier, leader of the Philadelphia Protectorate."
"Hiya," the female, Glaive apparently, said with a little wave.
Taylor glanced at Chevalier, who seemed to be staring at her but hadn't said anything.
"The two of them would like a few minutes of your time for power consultation," Colin continued. "After which they've expressed interest in seeing how you've progressed with your sword, if you don't mind?"
"I think that would be ok," Taylor said. "Is there anything in particular you two want me to check with your snarks about?"
"We'd heard about you coming up with things out of nowhere and are curious what you'd get for us," Glaive said, shrugging. "I've got a short-range shaker field that coats blades in a dulling energy as they approach me, but I have to be using a blade to do so. It's why I learned the glaive when I was younger, lets me get the blade I'm using out of the shaker field."
"Ok. Let me check with your snark."
Taylor: Hello.
[Greetings]
Taylor: Your human would like to know if there's anything she isn't doing that you'd like her to do.
[Contemplation]
Taylor took another glance at Chevalier, wondering why he was just standing there apparently staring at her. Colin seemed to have noticed the same thing, but hadn't said anything yet.
[Data. Elaboration]
Taylor: Ok, I'll let her know.
"Well," Taylor said aloud. "Your snark would like you to use different length blades, or perhaps multiple blades?"
Glaive tilted her head. "I feel like I'm missing some context here. Why would that matter to it?"
"It's bored with the forty-seven centimeter shaker field your current weapon gives you, and never gets to run overlapping fields because you only use the one blade."
The older woman seemed stunned for a moment. "That makes way too much sense, and explains a lot of inconsistencies over the years. Thank you."
"You're welcome, and I'm sure your snark will be happier too." Taylor then gestured at Chevalier. "Is something wrong with him?"
Colin reached over and rapped on Chevalier's shoulder, causing the other man to shake himself. "Is something wrong?"
"Sorry," Chevalier said. "That was rude of me, but she's fascinating."
"I'm a bit lost here," Taylor admitted. "And, er, feeling a little creeped out?"
"It's not like that. But it's also classified information about my power."
Colin actually laughed at that. "Chevalier, there's a very good chance that once she speaks to your 'snark' that she could know more about your power than you do. She identified Kid Win's tinker specialty within minutes of meeting him. The one that none of us had been able to figure out with all of the testing we'd attempted."
"Oh." Chevalier looked between Taylor and Colin a few times, then shrugged. "I suppose that makes sense. In that case we may need to skip me today, I'm not comfortable letting anyone under SL7 know some of that right now, since that's what I lock things down to when I note them on people's files."
This time Glaive and Taylor both snickered as Colin shook his head. "We really need to get you using a 'need to know' lock instead of a generic security level lock. Especially with multiple Wards running around with high level generic clearance. We've got Mycroft with SL9 and Maul here with SL10 at a minimum, and that's just in Brockton Bay."
Chevalier seemed to slump. "Ok. You win." He then turned to Taylor. "Maul, this is high level secret stuff due to issues with the unwritten rules, so you have to keep it quiet. I can see representations of powers when I look at parahumans, both some of what they can do and in many cases details of trigger events."
"I can sense every parahuman within four hundred meters of me," Taylor retorted. "Including having a running list of names associated with snarks permanently available, and that's before we get into what I can learn by actually talking to their snarks."
Chevalier seemed stunned by that, but he recovered quickly enough. "I guess we're both walking violations of the unwritten rules. Good to know that I'm not alone, and I bet you're happy about that too."
"Well, it's nice to know that there are at least four of us, but it does raise the question about how many more are out there. So it's a mixed bag."
"At least...no, I'm not going to ask. Moving on, when I look at you I see multiple powers and echoes of trigger events, but the echoes are muddled together? A small, enclosed space that's somehow a store with an injured girl and a hospital room with a young man on the bed all at the same time? And two of your powers are constantly feeding you information, bringing them to the fore and almost hiding the third. It isn't nearly as migraine-inducing as Eidolon's constant shifts, but it's much more distracting trying to figure it all out."
"Ok...I don't think I want to talk about any of that."
"No problem. Do I need to do anything as you talk to my power?"
Taylor was about to tell him no, but had a thought first. "I'm now curious as to what it looks like to you when I do? But other than that just don't move more than four hundred meters away from me."
Chevalier nodded, so Taylor connected to his snark.
Taylor: Hello.
[Query]
Taylor: Er, yes. There are multiple snarks directly connected to me.
[Excitement. Query]
BA: Data
[Confusion]
S: Elaboration
UMR: Data
[Acceptance. Query]
BA: Elaboration
Taylor wasn't sure what to make of Chevalier's snark being so interested in how multiple snarks got connected to her. Though the little details she was picking up about how it shouldn't be possible for two direct connections, let alone three was interesting. Apparently secondary powers should require chaining through the primary normally?
Taylor: Not that this isn't all interesting, but I was hoping to ask you if there's anything your human should try doing that he isn't?
The sudden stop to the conversation between the snarks was almost jarring.
[Apologies. Data. Query]
UMR: Data
And there they went again.
Amy: Can you close that connection? I'm trying to heal here, and it's distracting.
Taylor: Sorry, didn't expect them to go nuts with the chatter.
She carefully disconnected from Chevalier's snark, before taking a breath. "Ok, your snark's main issue is that you're overlapping too many nearly identical things, and even if it's efficient it finds it boring?"
Chevalier shook himself. "Er, yeah. Ok, I can see that, but it helps me maintain focus on the shape too. Less likely to introduce issues with the identical copies and all."
"Have you tried having different materials in the same shape? Some stronger, others more flexible?"
Chevalier's posture indicated intrigue, or at least that was how Taylor was interpreting it. "That would make it easier to mix and match properties in other ways while keeping the shape constant. I'll have to see what we can come up with."
"So, did you see anything of interest when I connected to your snark?"
"Everything coalesced down into the one power, the others becoming too faint to see in comparison. Bursts of not quite light passing back and forth and into directions that don't exist but were there anyway as communication occurred? Though I have no clue why I got the impression of puzzles being hastily assembled in human brains."
Taylor sighed. "Our snarks dove off onto a tangent right away regarding how I have multiple snarks and all. I had to cut the chat short so that Panacea isn't too distracted back home."
"So that Panacea isn't..." Chevalier started, only to be interrupted by Colin.
"You can read her file later," Colin said. "I'm sure you'll find it fascinating."
"I think we'll both be doing that," Glaive said, pulling her weapon off of her back. "But since we've only allocated so much time to things today I vote we move to checking out how she handles her sword."
"Should I use the real one or the hard-light projector?" Taylor asked.
"I suppose it'll be less of a hassle to repair the hard-light one, so let's start with that."
Taylor looked at Colin, who was removing a sword from his motorcycle, apparently intending to test her with it instead of his halberd. "I didn't know you'd trained with other weapons."
"I learned polearm techniques from Glaive," Colin replied. "But I started with a bastard sword very similar to this one, if a bit smaller at the time."
"I still say your original sword was nothing more than a fancy two-handed sword," Glaive said. "Or hand and a half, maybe. Depends on who you asked."
"There are many kinds of such swords. Bastard swords tend to refer to a more specific style of European swords. Besides, it's more efficient to say and is still a wonderful way to be able to say 'bastard' without giving PR a legitimate excuse to censor me."
Chapter 99 Taylor groaned as she made her way into the Wards area. She now knew that Miss Militia had gone easy as hell on her. She was sore in ways she didn't know it was possible to be sore after working on sword techniques with the three Protectorate members. Followed by sword and shield techniques with the wok in her other hand, and then they'd gone for it and had her using her maul instead of the sword because that was how she'd normally fight. All without her powers, on the basis that she should be able to fight without them. After all, she didn't depend on her powers to be a brute and power nullifiers were a thing.
The most annoying part of the whole thing was that throughout all of it she wasn't actually certain that she'd gotten so much as a single solid hit in on any of the three. In fact, she wasn't even sure she'd gotten a decent glancing blow. It was blatantly obvious that they had a lot more experience than she did. Well, that and they were using their powers.
Then again, the only power that likely had any significant effect out of the three was Chevalier's, and that was needed to keep his weapon intact. She didn't think it really changed his fighting skills at all. Glaive's power didn't really change anything in a spar and Colin wasn't exactly tinkering at that point, so his power wasn't a factor either.
She still didn't know how to take their collective declaration that her skill level was 'passable' and that she should keep up the good work training. She supposed they were probably taking into account how little time she'd had to practice anything. It was still quite annoying to be so far behind them.
"Rough session?" Director Armstrong called. He was sitting with most of the local Wards, the console apparently having been set up to mirror to the large monitor normally used as a television. Well, sitting with them was one way to ensure that they did, in fact, watch things. And it left Vista without people hanging over her shoulder on the console itself.
"I've learned just how little skill I actually have with my weapons," Taylor replied. "Luckily or not I should be fine in the morning despite how sore I am now. How's the patrol going?"
"They're most of the way through," Robert answered. "Boombox and Weld work well with Aegis, and Vista's really good at handling the console."
"Thank you for telling that Snitch thing to follow them," Sora added. "Because I can't wait until you can pull the bit where a thug emptied his entire magazine into Weld and then threw the entire gun at him when the bullets did nothing. Hearing it described couldn't have done it justice."
"I don't think that's the recommended way to get lead into his diet," Taylor said as she headed for the personal rooms area. "But whatever works, right?"
"Holy...is your shield dented?"
"Yes? Why is that...oh, you said your mom helped make it, right? Yeah. I thought Armsmaster's bastard sword hit hard until Chevalier hit the wok with his cannon-blade. I'll switch to my alternate loadout for tomorrow's patrols and see how I feel after whatever we run into regarding tinkering on the wok."
"Hey," Robert said after a moment. "Watch the language."
"No Reynard," Director Armstrong said. "That is, as many of us have been repeatedly informed, the actual name of the type of sword Armsmaster uses when he's using a sword. We gave up arguing about it years ago. Instead Legend ended up convincing him to change to a longer polearm style weapon on the basis of it being easier to use non-lethally, having much greater reach, and having more space to put gadgets. And we still have to put up with the most commonly used sword portion of Chevalier's cannon-blade being the same type."
Taylor smirked as she went to change into clothing that hadn't taken damage. She suspected the only thing that had convinced Colin to change weapons was the additional space argument, especially as he still maintained at least one sword.
Colin looked over his sword, noting the repairs he'd likely need to make. It'd been a while since he'd used it as a sword instead of for a few of the gadgets inside of it and several things had apparently been shaken loose by the impacts. Oh well. He double-checked his list of things he knew he'd need to work on later, then ensured that the edge blunters were out of the way before putting the blade away. Better to have it ready for combat after all, even if he didn't normally use it these days.
"She's got good reflexes," Karen commented as she was checking her glaive for damage. She appeared to be frowning at a few points on the shaft. "Does 'caught my blade with her hand' count against her for hits? Because I don't think I got a good hit on her otherwise, and after that first time she kept catching or blocking on the shaft. A few glancing blows, but she was very good at dodging the blade."
"We were holding back quite a bit across the board," Gabriel said. "I'm fairly certain that if I hadn't lightened my blade that I'd have gone right through her equipment multiple times, even without using my normal set. I'll need to see about her idea for identical shapes in other materials, overlaying ten identical weapons with only a large chunk of steel for variety isn't all that flexible even if it helps me train my concentration. Still, I also got her in the leg at least twice before she learned to watch that side. She shrugged off a hit to her wrist as well, but I'm not sure if it was a solid hit or a glancing blow."
"Probably glancing, but I got her in the arms several times when she left openings," Colin added. "She also needs to learn how to capitalize on the openings she creates. But I suspect she didn't even realize she'd created a number of them with her blocks, since your average street thug doesn't carry anything worthwhile. With nobody to really practice against she wouldn't have a lot of experience on that front."
"You should direct her to the collection of our training videos," Karen said. "So that she can see what we do when we're not holding back as much. Don't need her getting cocky because she did so well with us holding back and all."
Colin nodded in agreement. "I'll do so when we're back in Brockton Bay."
After dinner Taylor joined Carlos and Missy in exploring some of the 'entertainment' available in the Boston PRT building while the local Wards were dragged off to an impromptu first firearms safety lesson. The latter primarily thanks to Tina's incident that morning, to everyone else's grumbling. Taylor and Missy had offered to come along to help with it, since they both had guns, but Director Armstrong had rightfully pointed out that they weren't actually cleared to teach the class. So exploring it was.
It didn't take long to discover that they didn't have a gym area to speak of in the building, a quick check of the map indicating that the Protectorate building was connected to one instead. The bowling alley with one cleaned and apparently-used lane was just as much of a mystery here as it was in Brockton Bay, but at least the arcade area was quite large. All in all though it was remarkably similar to what they were used to, which didn't surprise them at all.
It did, however, leave them bored with nothing new or interesting to do. So, of course, they'd ended up in the local version of Brockton Bay's 'junkyard'. Because wanton destruction was amusing even without powers that pushed you to hit things.
"PULL!" Carlos yelled.
Which is why Taylor was throwing a cheap plastic lawn chair into the air for Carlos to try and hit with a thrown handicapped parking sign while Missy hunted for more amusing things in the piles in the room. There was a lot of random stuff from the destroyed parts of town in here. Like the barrel full of damaged signs that Carlos was using for ammo.
Carlos successfully hit the lawn chair, knocking it back into one of the other piles with the signpost stuck in it. "Hah!"
"I found a car back here!" Missy yelled from the corner.
Taylor paused from grabbing the plastic table that was next in the 'toss' list, as she wasn't in the mood for throwing anything with real weight. "A toy car or an actual 'people can fit in it' car?"
"The latter."
It wasn't long before all three were in the corner looking at the car.
"I wonder why they dragged a car in here," Carlos mused as he looked at it. "No plates, flat tires, but it doesn't look bad."
Taylor reached into the driver's side of the car and pulled the hood release. "It's pretty bad off even if it looks nice. The wiring harness is shot, and if you look under the hood you'll notice a few, uh, important bits are missing."
Carlos and Missy moved to the front of the car and lifted the now-released hood. Missy tilted her head to the side. "I'm fairly certain that there's supposed to be something large in this hole."
The other two were distracted from the lack of an engine in the car by Taylor's groan. "I just realized something, so now I'm really hoping that Tina either already knows or never figures out that internal combustion engines are basically powered by explosions."
"If she doesn't it isn't any of our jobs to tell her," Carlos said. "On that front, I vote we pretend we didn't even have that thought and let the locals deal with the fallout if she doesn't know and finds out later."
"I'll second that," Missy added.
"Motion passed," Taylor said, grinning. "Now then, I'm suddenly curious about what happens if we cram this car with way too much stuff and then let space return to normal."
Carlos and Missy shared a look of their own, and a few minutes later they were loading anything and everything they could into the car.
Kevin sighed as he looked over his notes. The others would probably be done making a summary of their portions of the 'tinker fugue' list as well, but he suspected that theirs wouldn't make any more sense than his did. Still, with the weird restrictions some powers had you occasionally got insane stuff.
He grimaced as he recalled the one time Mike had taunted a cape by asking them to hit him out in Minnesota. The cape had spent the entire fight up until that point unable to hit the broad side of a barn, as the saying went. But apparently if you asked them to hit you they'd never miss.
Shaking himself free of the memory, Kevin looked over the list he'd compiled, stopping at the first relatively easy to accomplish entry. Annoying, but trivial in the grand scheme of things. But he did wonder what cape likely needed a picture of a person in a chicken suit to do their thing.
They'd somehow pulled off loading around half of the junkyard into the car, then closed it up and retreated to the door. The explosion of stuff when the spatial expansion collapsed was incredible, and they were very happy that Taylor had recorded it with the Snitch. Shortly after that they'd been called back to the Wards area.
Carlos had ended up hitching a ride out to the camps instead of staying the night in Boston, since it would be easier to 'escort' one of the transports from there back to Brockton Bay. This departure from the original plan had come about because Tina was being sent to spend a few days with her family, since her incident with shooting herself took her off of active duty. It was apparently easier than having someone bring Carlos over to the camp in the morning.
"Oooh, so that's how that works," Huan said, looking over some of the blueprints for point-projection speakers. "I think I can make that easily enough, but waiting for one to tear apart is probably better than messing with my equipment when I'm not sure."
"If these parts are adjusted you can get some interesting frequency ranges out of it," Sora added, leaving why they were interesting unsaid.
And somehow Taylor had ended up roped into a tinker discussion. Something Missy apparently found hilarious.
"I think you lose the ability to point-project if you do that," Taylor said. "You probably have to adjust the alloy used on this model to fix it, due to resonance issues."
"I can see that," Huan said. "Really, now that you mention it, it looks like this is designed entirely around the normal range of human hearing. You definitely lose the point projection if you make it go outside of that, but I'm not sure I can make it work. My specialty tends to stick to around human hearing, after all."
"I'm also not sure you can have these serve a dual purpose as microphones."
Huan looked over at Taylor. "I don't recall that coming up, how did you know I do that?"
"I'm one of the weirdest 'tinkers' you're likely to ever meet. I literally can't build new tinkertech, but I can understand how pretty much any tech, tinker or otherwise, can be used."
"How useful is that in the field?" Sora asked.
"I haven't been going up against tinkers all that much, or really anyone with tinkertech, so not very." Taylor tapped her chin. "Though I suppose it helped with picking locks without setting off the explosives tied to them once."
"Picking..." Huan started, before shaking her head. "I don't want to know. But please don't mention that around Tina."
"Please," Sora agreed. "She'll want explosive locks on her door, and would then set them off intentionally."
"Is she aware of dust explosions?" Taylor asked. "We recently had Clockblocker learn that flour could explode."
The silence that followed that was telling. All of the local Wards pulling out phones to either make notes or send messages had Taylor and Missy snickering though.
Sunday morning dawned with a light rain, a couple platters of pastries for breakfast, and a worried Amy.
Amy: There has to be a new gang in town.
Taylor: Why?
Amy: Because according to the morning news at least nine different people were forcibly removed from busses yesterday by members of the ABB and Empire working together. Apparently Kaiser and Lung both assigned guards to the busses to keep them safe from this new group of muggers.
So, on one hand they no longer had Merchants to worry about. On the other hand, Skidmark had apparently kept the Merchants from screwing with the busses and from causing trouble on Amy's weekends. Taylor wasn't sure what it said when you kinda wanted the druggies back, provided they weren't ambushing you anyway.
Taylor: Is there any indication of the gang's name or leadership or anything yet?
Amy: Nothing worth reporting. Just 'the likely new gang' right now.
Taylor: I don't know which I find worse. Them causing trouble on the busses or on your weekend.
Amy: They obviously don't know the rules for operating a gang in Brockton Bay. Hopefully they'll be kicked out or learn quickly?
Taylor: We can hope.
Taylor looked around from where she was sitting on her platform, playing the 'spotter' or 'overwatch' role from up high for her patrol group. They'd split into two groups of four, three locals in each group. Taylor was paired with Nina, Pablo, and Robert. Missy was with Darren, Huan, and Weld. One person in the air spotting for each group, three running along the ground.
They were running 'safer' routes this morning, partially because of Tina having been hurt the day before, and were also running on Boston's normal rules. Which Taylor and Missy both found to be highly restrictive, but they were apparently under review given the 'changing situation' in town.
"So when we run your safe routes things are incredibly boring," Taylor said over their channel. "Is that normal?"
"Normally we have a lot more civilians and the occasional pickpocket or purse snatcher," Robert answered. "But until they get running water and power back we're probably going to remain mostly deserted."
"Which is when the troublesome gangs move in," Pablo added. "We were told that they'll want to get entrenched before people fully realize where they are and all."
"And in the meantime they have you patrolling empty streets," Taylor commented. "Why?"
"We got a lot of answers for that one," Nina replied. "Most of them crap. The only one I liked was updating our maps to show where obstacles have come and gone, but we don't need to patrol these routes every couple of days to keep the maps up to date. I might have agreed with stopping looters, but the only looters around are the armed thugs with guns that we aren't supposed to engage."
"I miss the armed thugs with knives," Robert added. "We were allowed to engage them. Then again, I like that the Teeth have been fairly low-key since they lost most of their unpowered members to Leviathan."
Taylor blinked at that. "I thought there weren't any non-parahuman casualties?"
"I was curious about that and asked," Nina said. "No civilian, non-parahuman casualties. Some emergency responders were lost as well, but gang members weren't counted as civilians. It's probably a bit callous to classify them otherwise, but they're generally operating almost entirely outside of the law anyway."
"Oh." Taylor suspected that was a combination of PR and politics, with a dash of 'good luck getting the gangs to tell you how many members they have'.
"Two to four more patrols over the empty streets?" Missy said, looking over the afternoon to evening plans they'd been sent. "This is supposed to be a cross training thing. Nobody here will learn anything from those."
"Can Vista and I take a couple of you out on one of the more dangerous routes?" Taylor asked. "I can record the whole thing for review later. I think that would be a lot more likely to provide teaching moments at a minimum."
"Seeing them interact on the same patrol would help," Darren admitted.
"I'll go ask Director Armstrong," Weld said, getting up. He wasn't eating lunch anyway. "Any idea who would be going with you two?"
"You're a good choice due to being able to be shot if things go wrong," Missy said. "And I'm assuming that stabbing you isn't easy for the thugs either."
"We've had a couple of incidents with ceramic knives that got closer," Huan noted. "But he's hard to hurt."
"Right," Taylor said. "I'll vote for a flier as well. Dedicated spotters can be useful."
"Works for me," Darren said.
"I'll hopefully be back in a few minutes," Weld said as he headed into the hallway.
"GET 'EM!" a thug yelled, sending the others in his group at the three Wards on the ground.
"We've got a cape nearby," Taylor said as she caught the knife one of the thugs had tried to stab her with. He wasn't expecting that, which gave her time to punch him in retaliation. "Don't recognize them, so don't know if they're friend, foe, or neutral."
"I see them," Darren added a few moments later. "They look to be working on a building up ahead, doing something to the walls. Not sure what or why, and I don't recognize them either."
Taylor absently noted the ping of the map updating to highlight the building as suspect while she quickly zip-cuffed one thug. She then turned to where Missy had been fighting another, only to find that her thug was zip-cuffed by the ankle to a bicycle rack and he was cradling his apparently broken wrist while Missy was moving to help Weld. Shrugging, Taylor checked their surroundings again, spotting someone in a window pointing a gun down at them.
"Watch out for the guy with a gun across the street," Taylor said. "Third floor window." She'd grabbed the stop sign from her back and was moving into position for a better swing when space seemed to shimmer. A moment later the guy had dropped the gun and was twitching. Looking over at Missy showed that a taser had just been fired through the warped space.
"I got him," Missy said.
"Nice one."
While they'd been at this Weld had disarmed the thug that'd attacked him by virtue of the thug getting his knife into contact with Weld. That had apparently freaked the thug out enough to make him easily subdued.
"We're missing someone," Missy commented a minute later. "There were seven when we showed up, but we only got six of them. Missing two if the guy with the gun in the window wasn't the one who retreated towards the alleyway when we approached."
A careful check of the area showed nobody else, so they assumed that anyone missing had retreated. Perhaps playing scout on their own, or had only been a messenger that happened to be there at the start.
"So do we go anywhere near the building that the cape is messing with or do we bypass it?" Weld asked while they waited for a van to come pick up the thugs.
Taylor gave that some thought. "Eagle Eye, are they still actively using their powers?"
"They are," Darren replied.
Taylor nodded.
Taylor: Hello there. Are you willing to tell me what your human is up to?
[Query]
Taylor: Well, we're trying to decide if it's safe to go near the building they're messing with. Our route would normally take us right past it, you see.
[Data]
Well, that was a thing.
Taylor: Thanks.
"Apparently they're turning the building into a maze," Taylor said. "So passing by the building is fine, just don't go in it."
By the time they'd loaded the thugs into the van the unknown parahuman had moved into the building. Just to be safe the Wards passed a block over, no need to test if the snark had been fibbing after all. The Protectorate would send someone by to take a closer look later.
"A stop sign?" the apparent leader of this group of thugs said, sounding confused. "You're actually using a stop sign?"
"Yep," Taylor replied.
"What is a stop sign going to do to us?"
Taylor looked at the very damaged street. This was obviously an area that Leviathan had severely damaged the pipes in, given how torn up the street was. She knelt down and picked up a piece of pavement, lightly tossing and catching it as she stood up. She then threw it up into the air and used the stop sign like a baseball bat, launching the piece of pavement clear over the heads of the thugs.
"If you couldn't tell by now," Missy said. "That isn't a normal stop sign."
"Hey Sam," one of the other thugs spoke up. "I think I saw her use that to crush a desk in a video on PHO."
"You can't believe everything you see online."
"They're fucking capes. I'm believing every rumor until I see otherwise."
'Sam' turned to the other thug. "Seriously?"
"Capes are bullshit, man. Bullshit to the extreme."
Fifteen minutes later Taylor was sitting next to Sam, describing all the things she knew capes could do while they waited for a pickup for them. Catching his gun after not being hurt by the bullets was just one of them.
Taylor grinned as she sat there with the Snitch recording. They'd returned from their patrol and been debriefed, the footage from the Snitch was being looked at by multiple groups, and dinner wasn't for a bit. The fun part of it all was that Missy was going over several encounters on the monitor and explaining to Huan and Nina how she'd dealt with several thugs throughout the patrol.
"Now then," Missy continued, resuming the clip she'd paused. "Here you can see that I didn't have time to check if this guy was out after I got the gun out of his hand, mainly due to his buddy jumping on me too quickly. He had time to come up behind me while I was distracted. But by hitting his already-injured hand I gave myself enough time to grab his arm. Once I'd done that I was able to drop under him while I twisted the arm. I got lucky that he jerked to the side, otherwise my angle would've been wrong to dislocate his shoulder."
Taylor wasn't sure if the most amusing part was Missy calmly going through describing the violent things she'd done on the patrol, or the fact that the two local Wards were taking notes. Though there were a couple of flinches when 'this is how I broke this bone' segments came up, the most impressive reaction had probably been when Missy had redirected one thug's knife into another's shoulder. Followed by calmly apologizing to the thug as she zip-cuffed him since she's Manton-limited and thus would have problems with shrinking the blade to remove it safely.
Just after dinner Director Armstrong had collected all the footage they'd recorded so far to hand off to PR for a 'highlights' release. Evening patrols had been called off due to the investigation into the 'maze' cape, so Taylor opted to grab her wok and run some repairs. She also fetched her platform from the roof to deal with a couple of minor hits it had taken while she'd had it following them cloaked. Then again, probably better it than wherever the bullets might have landed otherwise.
"So you can tinker?" Huan asked as Taylor waited for the lab to change over to the 'forge' setting. She wanted the heavy tools for the wok, she'd probably change it over to the general configuration for the platform.
"I can repair and maintain," Taylor said. "But not build." The door opened a moment later and Taylor went in with the wok, leaving the platform outside.
"Can I watch?"
"Sure. I'd have you invite Sora to as well if she hadn't been brought over to the Protectorate building to tinker there."
Over the next couple of hours Taylor gradually worked the dents out of the wok, followed by touching up the coatings. Once that was done she re-mounted the handle that had come loose with the impact and dropped it on a cart outside of the lab to let some things dry.
"That was not what I expected," Huan admitted while they waited for the lab to switch to the more generic mode. "Though I'm curious as to why you were walking around in circles while fixing the coating."
"I'm not sure myself," Taylor admitted. "Just that I felt it was necessary for the coating repairs to set properly."
"Spoken like a true tinker."
Once the lab was in the generic form they entered, Taylor brought the platform in and landed it on the floor. She wasted no time in pulling the damaged outer panels off, revealing some of the inner workings. Huan focused on the latter while the bullet dings were worked out of the outer panels.
"How does this thing work?" Huan asked between panels.
"The important bits are the gravity manipulation drive and the inertial compensator field," Taylor answered as she picked the next dinged panel up. This one would need more than just working the ding out as the outer coating was cracked too.
Taylor had made it to the last damaged panel when she realized that Huan had left the lab. Giving it some thought, she figured the other girl had probably decided that sticking around watching Taylor repair panels was boring. Ten minutes later she'd decided that if she had things open anyway that she should clean up some of the internals. After all, even if it wouldn't be needed for a while the basic maintenance wasn't a bad idea in general.
It was nearing midnight when Taylor had finished up and headed back to the Wards area. She'd probably gone a bit overboard with the maintenance, having even made a better mounting bracket for the cloaking unit instead of the haphazard setup Sherrel had used after her snark decided that was a problem. Though the repairs on the cloaking unit itself bore that view out, so there was no point arguing it.
"Were you in a fugue too?" Weld asked as Taylor entered the Wards area.
"Um, no," Taylor answered. "I just went a little further on maintenance than I originally expected."
"Oh. Well, Huan came back in a daze, collected her tools, and started tinkering. Without even closing the door. No clue what she's building."
"If she's like other tinkers then I suspect she won't be patrolling in the morning. Well, I should get some sleep if I'm going to be ready in the morning, so goodnight."
"Night."
Taylor was curious, so she stopped by where Huan was on her way by. Her first impression of the girl's personal tinker space was 'lots of speakers', but that wasn't surprising. Chris had lots of reusable components in his these days, after all. Her second impression was that the girl was definitely in a fugue, and that when she was done it was going to be impressive.
Making her way to the room she was using, Taylor put the wok away and got changed for bed. She was hoping that Director Armstrong didn't have them run the 'safe' routes in the morning before they were ferried back to Brockton Bay. Or that if he did that she got to run the console instead of being out in the empty streets.
Interlude: Slaughterhouse Nine Riley giggled as she looked over one of the boxes of ducks she'd prepared. Despite everything else going on with broken and/or stupid parahumans she couldn't wait to deploy them. She picked one up to double-check it even as Jacob came into the room.
Jacob sighed as he dropped into a chair, Riley looking up from the duck as he did so.
"This is a mess," Jacob finally said. "Have you heard from William or Melissa?"
"William called and said they hit traffic," Riley said, shrugging. "Plenty of time to make the deliveries and be back by morning either way. You going to tell me why you suddenly decided that we could take the chance to send spider-bots to Taylor and Amy?"
"To get those two out of here for a bit. Several disturbing patterns have cropped up, all of them starting with the Endbringer battle."
Riley put the duck she'd been checking down. "Beyond the broken thinker?" She'd come to dislike the fact that they'd been tricked into taking someone that was already insane. You couldn't break someone who was insane, and she honestly couldn't blame them either. Even if they put him back together she wouldn't feel right torturing him this time.
"He's part of it, but not the only one. Every single cape with verified precog elements to their power sets is now considered potentially compromised and is being pulled out of the crisis chains."
Riley blinked. That sounded impressive, but with how spread out they were? She wasn't sure how you'd pull that off, and how had nobody noticed until now? "I...how did they figure that out?"
"It was only spotted while looking for what our thinker friend might have screwed up elsewhere. Whether or not they realized it they were all sabotaging attempts to keep Leviathan and Noelle away from each other, usually in creative ways that just happened to clash."
"Noelle?"
"Oh, right. She was the unknown parahuman with the cloning trick. Apparently they were able to get Accord to admit that he'd had the girl locked up, at her own request. He blamed a dead underling for screwing up one of his orders and causing her to get free. Whether it was him, the underling, or someone else nearby that sabotaged things is something we don't know, but either way the girl getting free was just another piece of things. Our thinker friend included, as he apparently pulled out a perfectly rational and thought out argument for Taylor making the killing blow ASAP, right down to pointing out that Leviathan might leave as soon as his likely target was dead."
"Oh." She was getting a little confused at this point, and thought she was missing something. Especially as she thought she was agreeing with some of the thought processes right now.
Jacob rubbed his forehead for a minute before continuing. "So, right, regardless of how, it seems that precogs may be hardwired to subtly help the Endbringers when they have specific goals like killing a specific target. No clue why either, but it's apparently a thing, and they can't be in the crisis chains because of it."
"Um," Riley interrupted. She'd gotten a chill when she realized one thing that might mean. "Could that be something the Simurgh is doing?"
"They don't think so, not that anyone's happy about that. The current theory is that some underlying aspect of precog powers is tied to the Endbringers in general."
Riley didn't even bother trying to hide her shiver at that. Though it would explain why nobody seemed to be able to predict the things properly.
"So," Jacob continued. "There's that. Then there's Taylor's little trick. People who're pushed into conflict in various ways seem to find the concept of her killing a power inordinately fascinating. Your reaction is a good example of that. Over in Nevada they've got a couple of people that think that so long as she only does that particular trick the once we'll all be perfectly happy with it, but we'll start getting angry with her if she does it again without really good reasons."
Riley blinked. "That particular trick as in killing a power?"
"That particular method of killing a power. I mean, you distracted yourself for hours wondering what other ways of killing powers she might come up with, but not once have you suggested getting her to demonstrate the one she already used. That's apparently been incredibly common across the board."
"Oh." Riley thought about that while Jacob leaned back and looked at the ceiling, and she couldn't refute that. In fact, she still wanted to know what other tricks Taylor might come up with. It took her a couple of minutes to realize that they'd strayed, though. "Er, none of that explains why you wanted to send William and Melissa away?"
"Ah, yes," Jacob said, leaning forward. "In a way that's the weirdest bit of them all, and was the hardest for me to find out. For some reason every single person that was empowered by William's friends, regardless of anything else, seems to want our thinker friend to suffer when they find out what he did. All of them. When I talked to Dragon about why we weren't going to have 'fun' with the guy she was understanding and offered to help with putting him back together. Eidolon, however, called in Legend to try and convince me to let him have a crack at him anyway. I sent our two away so that I'd have time to find a place to keep the guy so that I could get a decent night's sleep and not have to keep an eye out for Sarah trying to sneak in to torture him or watch for glass trying to cut him up."
Riley thought about that, but part of it didn't add up. "I didn't think Melissa got her powers that way?"
"Neither did I. Then again, she could just dislike the guy for personal reasons. Maybe his constant jumping between completely rational if utilitarian in outlook when in 'societal acceptance' mode and over the top cartoon villain when he flips into 'societal rejection' mode pisses her off?"
Mimi frowned while staring at the map they were using to plan their opening moves. Jacob had let them know that they'd be starting things up once William and Melissa were back from their deliveries, so they had to figure out what they were doing. That didn't mean she wouldn't have preferred to go with the two to see if she could sneak in a visit to Elle, though.
Even the planning itself wouldn't be so depressing if Jacob hadn't asked her to work with Cherie on an opening move in this 'Accord' guy's territory. What was she supposed to work with? The guy'd already had his people clean up all the easily-burnt stuff. Yes, Jacob had hinted that there was a perfect target for her in the area, but he'd also outright stated that he wanted the two of them to figure it out for themselves.
"Something's wrong with these pictures," Cherie said, looking over the collection of photographs from the scouting that'd been done.
"What?" Mimi said, looking up. "What do you mean wrong?"
"I think all of his buildings have power, but that part of town hasn't had power restored yet."
"Huh. Does that mean that he has a generator?"
"If we can find it then I can easily pump the panic up from the power suddenly going out."
Well, at least they knew what to look for now.
Melissa was annoyed with herself. She'd only realized that they'd been sent away to protect the asshat thinker after they'd been on the road for several hours. Why couldn't Jacob see that the guy needed to suffer? He was obviously the wrong kind of monster to join them, after all.
One of the only reasons she hadn't had William turn the van they were using around was that she'd have to admit that it took her that long to realize what the ruse was. That and she didn't want to admit that she wasn't willing to see through delivering a couple of packages when she'd come up with how to sneak out to Brockton Bay and back again in the first place. Even if she now realized that Jacob had tricked her there too. She had to admit that he was very good at manipulating her ego.
"Wanna bet he tries hiding the guy?" Sarah asked.
"No shit he's going to hide the guy," Melissa answered, rolling her eyes. "The question is whether or not he'll do a good enough job."
"I'll make a call when we get back," William said up front. "We should be able to find the guy no matter where Jacob puts him. The trick will be not revealing that we knew he was there when we 'accidentally' drive a fight into it. No need to antagonize Jacob over things, right?"
Fred grinned as he prepared his supply caches. They'd hopefully be getting started in the morning, and while he wasn't going to participate in the opening moves he wanted to be ready for when he did start up. But by then they'd be on high alert, so he needed his stuff in place now. Hopefully this would be as fun as he expected it to be.
Really, the broken thinker had been boring, because where's the fun in scaring the crap out of someone who's too broken to realize that they should be scared? The guy reacting like his power told him to wasn't nearly as satisfying. Then there was the former gang leader, but they'd kinda gone too far with him a little too quickly. Sad, really, his reactions had been wonderful, but they hadn't expected him to push himself so hard on that escape attempt.
Enough reminiscing. This was probably going to be his most involved run yet. He had so many plans! Hopefully his trip to all those attractions would pay off. So many fun ideas on how to get the drop on people. But he had to get everything in place to pull it all off.
Chapter 100 Early Monday morning Taylor was woken up by an alarm sounding. She blinked a couple of times as her phones and tablet connected. She mentally reviewed the alerts, considered the time, and rolled over to try and go back to sleep.
Three minutes later her brain caught up with her. "Wait, why are the Nine attacking here?"
Groaning, and deciding that unless she turned the alarm off she wouldn't be able to sleep anyway, she got up and made her way into the common area to see what was going on. Everyone else had beaten her, and looked at her as she arrived.
"You look oddly calm," Darren said after a minute of staring.
"Why wouldn't I be calm?" Taylor asked, yawning in the middle. "It's just the Nine."
She wasn't quite sure why that made everyone stare at her more. So instead of thinking about it she made her way to the kitchen to make some tea.
It turned out that Taylor was probably the only person in the building not in a panic over the Nine having launched simultaneous attacks on Accord's territory and the Teeth. In the former case the dedicated generator station Accord had powering the area had been set on fire and the resulting panic had been enhanced. In the latter case Shatterbird had done her usual thing.
To Taylor's credit, she realized that she should have at least acted like she was concerned. But by the time she'd woken up enough to realize that she figured it was too late to bother pretending. Besides, she wasn't sure she had the acting skills to fake it anyway.
"Damn," Taylor grumbled as she and Missy dragged their suitcases towards the elevator. "I'm not going to be able to see the subwoofer in action, am I?"
"What subwoofer?" the PRT officer who'd been sent to fetch them asked.
"The one Boombox made last night." Taylor then thought about it for a moment. "Though I suppose it would probably be best if it was tested elsewhere. There's a chance it'll register as an earthquake if it's close enough to the ground when turned on."
"It'll be loud enough to register as an earthquake?" Missy asked, awe breaking through her general worry about the Nine.
"Er, technically?" Taylor scratched the back of her head. "It works by pulsing gravity manipulations, so if it's close enough to the ground it might actually be affecting enough of the ground to register as an earthquake?"
"I'm going to have to call that one in," the PRT officer said, shaking his head. "Tinkers..."
A few minutes later they'd exited onto the roof. Which was otherwise empty.
"Why are we up here?" Taylor asked.
"You're to take Vista up to around six hundred feet and then head straight for Brockton Bay," the PRT officer replied. "Airways are clear for you and that altitude should keep you out of danger as based on previous observations Shatterbird won't be able to get high enough until you're out of range. Just don't forget to sign into the console for monitoring."
"No escort?"
"Waiting for an escort or transport has been deemed too much of a risk. You both have sidearms if needed. We've got enough trouble arranging to suddenly get the other Wards out of the danger zone, being able to send you two home this way outweighs the risks right now."
Taylor looked at Missy, who just shrugged. Five minutes later they'd signed into the console, gotten themselves and both suitcases onto the platform, and had been given the green light to get going. They quickly ascended to around a hundred and eighty five meters by Taylor's estimate.
"Which way is Brockton Bay?" Missy asked.
"That way," Taylor said, pointing. "Give or take a degree or two."
"Good." Missy then concentrated and the air in that direction started to waver a bit. "Ok, let's go."
Taylor raised an eyebrow, not that Missy could tell, and directed the platform forward. A hundred meters later they were past and off to the side of Brockton Bay, around five minutes travel time if she pushed the platform to full.
"You missed," Taylor said, spinning the platform and sending it towards Brockton Bay. "Too far and off-target. Neat trick otherwise."
"You try aiming without landmarks and following a pointed finger," Missy retorted.
"Console to Maul and Vista," came over the radio. "We're reading you as very far off of your expected course."
"Maul to Console," Taylor replied. "Vista crunched space to get us out of Boston faster, but her aim and distance were off."
It took a couple of minutes before a response came back. "Console to Vista. Good initiative, but next time you plan on doing that please warn us beforehand."
Taylor looked over at Missy to see that she was blushing slightly.
Taylor was working her way through a stack of waffles and poking around on PHO when Amy woke up.
Amy: Why aren't you in Boston?
Taylor: Apparently the Nine visiting caused the PRT to decide there were too many parahumans in Boston, so they decided to send the Wards elsewhere.
Amy: Ah. Ok.
Taylor made it through another waffle before Amy seemed to put things together.
Amy: Wait, they were in Boston?
Taylor: Yep. No clue why. I sent text messages asking, but got no responses. They might be a bit busy right now though.
Amy: Huh. I guess that explains my mail.
Taylor: What?
Amy: Oh, I'm sure you'll figure it out later.
Taylor sat there for at least a minute, fork halfway to her mouth, wondering what the hell Amy was talking about.
It turned out that Taylor and Missy were asked to go entertain the crowds in some way on the Boardwalk instead of patrolling or heading home. Brian, Chris, and Dean were going to be patrolling, and Carlos was doing family stuff, so Dennis had been called upon to join them. Taylor supposed the PRT hadn't had the largest lapse in judgement there, as they weren't including Aisha.
Missy and Dennis were all for pulling out the stops, so to speak. Not that they knew exactly what they would do just yet. To that end Taylor had collected all of her various speakers, including the duck and the few she'd left in her civilian utility belt, and ensured that everything was working with them. The Snitch was charged and ready to go, and she had her alternate loadout on. Lisa had then gotten into the mix and recommended a specific point along the Boardwalk to set up at and some places that the speakers could be hidden in.
This all led to Taylor and Missy sitting on a roof, using space-warping to put the speakers into place one by one. Dennis was down on the ground setting up the ropes and signs indicating that something would be happening, grumbling whenever someone asked what he was doing. That had been his idea to catch people off guard, because if he was annoyed then the 'fun' was probably taken out of it already.
"What do we do with the duck?" Missy asked as they were finishing up. In fact, it was the only one that hadn't been placed somewhere yet. They'd even gotten the ones that they were plugging into various outlets Lisa had let them know about near benches in the area.
"I'm not sure," Taylor answered, holding it up. She then hit their 'patrol' channel on the radio to get Dennis in on things. "Hey Clock, we've got everything in place except for the duck. We hadn't actually decided what to do with it. Any thoughts?"
It took a minute before Dennis responded. "Why not drop it in at the start as our 'announcer'? Do you have a text to speech app so it won't sound like any of us?"
Taylor poked around a little and found an app she could install for text to speech with multiple voices. She wasn't sure why it looked to be half off until she noted that it was made by Dragon, and the detail on the discount was for 'registered shareholders'. She figured she might as well grab it and took the couple of minutes needed to download and install it.
"I've got one installed now," Taylor said. "I should run through the voice options so that we can pick one we all like."
Over the next few minutes she played "Welcome one and all" over the radio with various voices. The first dozen were boring generic voices, split between male and female, all suitable for reading text to you but not what they were looking for. After that there were some of the more interesting ones. The first with any personality was 'Ashley', which sounded like a slightly bratty young girl. Another was labeled 'Buccal' and was a bit high-pitched and hard to understand but sounded right for a duck for reasons the three couldn't quite identify. 'Helium' hurt to listen to, and they weren't actually certain that 'T. Devil' was using the input text. 'Respirator' added a mechanical sound and heavy breathing to a male voice while 'Male Deity' was a deep soothing voice with some reverb tacked on.
"Huh," Taylor said. "This last one says it works best with multiple speakers, and the app lets me pick secondary output channels for them if available."
"What's it called?" Missy asked.
"Creepy little girl."
"Let's hear it," Dennis said.
A minute later Taylor was fairly certain that Dennis was grinning just as much as she and Missy were. If the secondary speakers were to enhance the creepy echo effect then this would be awesome.
The video panned over the crowds and the currently empty makeshift 'stage' before spinning to where Clockblocker had just knocked a trash can over. A moment later a creepy voice started up and the video spun back around to the stage, which now had a demonic duck in the center of it.
"Welcome one and all," the duck said in a childish voice, an out of sync echo in the background. Enough out of sync that sometimes bits of the 'echo' would start before the initial sounds from the duck. The duck's eyes flashed as it spoke, in sync with it but not the echoes. "Today we have a rare treat of several bored Wards with nothing better they are allowed to do, so they have opted to put on a show for you all. I am a fan of the alphabet, so we shall start with Clockblocker."
Clockblocker climbed up onto the stage from the rear. A few people visible on the edges of the video obviously turned to look at where he had been with the trash can, and muttering about how he hadn't been anywhere near the stage could be heard amongst general muttering about the echoes being wrong. The Ward waved once before looking around at the audience. "What, no applause?"
"You are not that impressive young man," the duck answered. "Your stopping power is second to none. Too bad it apparently works on crowd enthusiasm." Clockblocker looked like he was about to attack the duck, but it ignored him. "Moving on, fresh back from her visit to Boston, Maul."
Unlike Clockblocker, Maul dropped in from above to land next to the other Ward. There were several yelps as she did so, as people were obviously not expecting her. This time the added mutterings that could be heard were generally wondering where she came from. She also waved, and a few people clapped. Just enough to be heard, really.
"Maul is a bit more violent than most," the duck continued. "Willing and able to get into the thick of things, yet able to hit from afar as well." Maul had pulled two different swords out at this point, the one she'd already shown people from under her jacket and a slightly-off looking blade that had been on her back. "She has also been training in the use of the sword, in case she needs to make a point." Several bursts of laughing, giggling, and snickering could be heard at that. "Finally, however, we have the third and final Ward of the day. Vista."
An eye-searing warp in space appeared next to Clockblocker opposite Maul, somehow making the stage also the edge of a roof. A moment later the young Ward stepped off of the roof and onto the stage. An actual burst of applause followed, interspersed with hard to hear muttering about the warping giving headaches. Vista bowed to the crowd as the warp dispersed behind her.
"Apparently you already know Vista," the duck said. "One of the younger Wards in town, but do not think that makes her any less capable. Just ask Lung. After all, you never know if the stone she throws will land as a boulder. Just one of several potentially shocking surprises she could have in store for those who oppose her. Now then, our three Wards are all here and are willing to show off. Does anyone have a request?"
It took a moment, but a number of people yelled out various things. The details were lost in the jumble. Several people started arguing as well, which just added to the confusion. The three Wards looked at each other and shrugged.
"Alright everyone," the duck said, causing a sudden quieting. "Apparently I need to be more direct. I apologize for not pointing, but I lack that capability. We shall start with the young girl in the blue dress to my left, that would be to the right of me from your point of view, who has calmly raised her hand."
The camera spun around to said girl, also showing that there were people giving the duck very nervous looks. After all, it appeared to be aware of the surroundings enough to see the hand being raised. The girl herself put her hand down. "Can we see Maul's flying thing?"
Maul visibly looked around. "Well, I currently can't see it."
Clockblocker hit her in the back of the head. "Play nice."
Maul rubbed where she'd been hit as the platform dropped down behind her. "Spoilsport."
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Topic: Today's Boardwalk Show In: Boards â–º Places â–º America â–º Brockton Bay Maul (Original Poster) (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)
Posted On May 30th 2011:
Good afternoon everyone. This morning I joined Clockblocker and Vista out on the Boardwalk to put on a bit of a show. Special thanks to Miss Duck, who played announcer for us. We even arranged to record the show, so you can find a video here in case you weren't able to make it out to the Boardwalk today.
For those that think I probably shouldn't have made a new thread, I apologize. But I figured a new thread was better than picking one of the four others I spotted.
EDIT: NothingPong closed the other threads, so here are the videos people had posted.
Clockblocker setting up from ShipBoy in this post.
Cell Phone shot from the back from BrocktonBeliever in this post.
Another Cell Phone shot from the back from PinkerThanThou in this post.
Cell Phone from the side from bosombuddy in this post.
Security Camera on the bookstore from BrocktonBooks in this post.
(Showing page 1 of 17)
â–ºNothingPong (Moderator)
Replied On May 30th 2011:
I've gone and closed the other threads talking about this, as one of the participants posting makes for a better "official" discussion point. Maul, would you prefer to have the other video links added as a secondary post here or edit them into your main post?
â–ºShipBoy Replied On May 30th 2011:
As noted from the thread I made, I was there. The Duck was creepy and didn't echo right even if that area normally did echo. And I still don't know how Clockblocker got from behind us to on stage so quickly without anyone seeing him.
â–ºMaul (Original Poster) (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)
Replied On May 30th 2011:
Thanks NothingPong. I've grabbed the links I spotted and edited them into the original post.
â–ºXxVoid_CowboyxX Replied On May 30th 2011:
ShipBoy - Vista was there, so I'm guessing that any and all space-warping was her grabbing the fabric of spacetime by the metaphorical balls. I mean, you can see the distortion from her likely dropping the duck on stage in the footage BrocktonBooks provided.
Still, I've got one of those duck speakers. They aren't normally that creepy. What did they do to that one? And the echoes were...freaky. I was there and I checked where I thought some were coming from and couldn't find a speaker.
I'm going to have nightmares about the duck.
â–ºJumpMaster Replied On May 30th 2011:
Void made a good point, was on topic, and didn't do anything ban-worthy?
I tip my hat to the Wards who have made this possible. Who knew that you could get him to act like a human being by creeping him out? Either that or this is disturbing enough without added commentary.
That said, holy crap is that duck creepy. I've barely started watching the video and I've got the heebie-jeebies over the duck.
â–ºMundall Replied On May 30th 2011:
I'm very confused. I've looked over all of the videos and the only camera I can't spot is the one that recorded what Maul posted. And that camera also appears to have 5.1 surround sound microphones. If the footage was stitched together from multiple sources I can't find any sign of it either.
I mean, at this point there's a bit of an oddity in the background and the clouds here look slightly off, but in both cases it's easily explained by Vista being there and using her powers.
â–ºVista (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)
Replied On May 30th 2011:
ShipBoy, amazingly enough XxVoid_CowboyxX got it right. Though Clockblocker didn't like that I used a storm drain.
Thanks to everyone who stuck around and watched, or suggested things to try. Too bad we didn't have bungee cord for jumping off of Maul's platform with us, that sounded like fun.
â–ºClockblocker (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)
Replied On May 30th 2011:
Vista I didn't mind the storm drain once I was in it. I just didn't like the idea before then. Besides, you made it so short that I was barely down there before I was climbing back out behind the stage.
I'll agree that Miss Duck was creepy. The looks on everyone's faces made it worth it.
â–ºShower Singer Replied On May 30th 2011:
I'm confused. I mean, I know capes can be bullshit, but how much stuff is Maul carting around?
She had the stop sign and manhole cover today. Two swords. She bopped Clockblocker with a metal rod, a wooden bokken, a baseball bat, a frying pan, a tennis racket, and a golf club at varying points. She used a studded mace as a prop. She produced no less than seven cans of soda, three bottles of water, two juice boxes, and twelve granola bars. I think, but can't verify, that she also pulled out at least one bag of crackers.
I mean, seriously, is that a jacket of holding?
I'm blaming putting the duck away in her jacket on the duck, though. I refuse to believe something that creepy can't do something like that.
Speaking of the duck, I want one now. Even if it can't do the creepy voice. Anyone know where you can get them?
End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 15, 16, 17
(Showing page 2 of 17)
â–ºDug the Third Replied On May 30th 2011:
Fair warning: I'm pretending the duck doesn't exist.
We already know the back of the jacket can hold her maul and stop sign despite their size. It isn't much of a stretch to think that the jacket can do more than just that.
I'm more interested in who made the sword. The close-up showed that the calligraphy-grade 'Maul' in the metal is readable from the handle out without mirroring on both sides. As in you spin the sword 180 degrees and it's still there. And it doesn't look engraved. The floral patterns down the rest of the blade just make it more impressive.
How do you even do that?
â–ºArmorFox Replied On May 30th 2011:
I'm going to agree with Dug and pretend that the duck doesn't exist. In fact, what duck?
As for the sword? I think, but I'm not positive, that the pattern on the blade is actually an acid-etched damascus pattern. And I don't mean "mask everything but and apply acid" either. The skill and precision needed to pull that off to that degree, and without mirroring it on the other side, well, it boggles the mind. I pulled stills out of the video here and here and you can see that the floral pattern isn't even the same on both sides.
That the blade is sharp and strong, as evidenced by her cutting through that broom handle, just makes it more impressive.
From a personal and professional standpoint I want to meet the smith who made that blade.
On the other hand, I think the second sword was a cheap prop. Something just looked off about it.
â–ºXxVoid_CowboyxX Replied On May 30th 2011:
Just going to say, the stop sign and sword scare me more than the duck.
I'm not saying anything that will cause Maul to need to "make a point" or tell me to stop.
Sometimes I may be crazy, but I'm not stupid.
Usually.
â–ºShadowFox Replied On May 30th 2011:
omg the duck was creepy
seriously creepy
had to stop watching
â–ºBookLoverBB (Verified PRT Family) (Jacob's Niece)
Replied On May 30th 2011:
The duck was...different. Yes, that's a good way of putting it.
Did anyone know that Maul could do that jumping off of her platform just to land on it again trick? I think this is the first I've even heard of it, let alone seen it captured in action.
Clockblocker's bit with walking on nothing is pretty cool too, but it looks uncomfortable. Like he can't move his feet right? But I think that freezing the stream of water was more impressive looking overall.
Though if Vista can sneak people across a crowded street through the storm drains without anyone noticing then I've seriously underestimated her. How well does that work when it's raining?
â–ºBWalker (Moderator)
Replied On May 30th 2011:
I'm just as curious as Mundall regarding how this was recorded. Maul, Clockblocker, or Vista, can any of you shed light on that?
â–ºVista (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)
Replied On May 30th 2011:
Sorry BWalker and Mundall, but I wasn't in charge of the video.
â–ºClockblocker (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)
Replied On May 30th 2011:
I'm with Vista. Wasn't my thing.
â–ºAssault (Verified Cape) (Protectorate ENE)
Replied On May 30th 2011:
I am highly disappointed in our three Wards. All of that effort in setting up the creepy duck and not one invite sent to anyone in the Protectorate. Like me.
That said, damn that duck is creepy. The tricks were impressive. And the recording is bullshit.
â–ºMaul (Original Poster) (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)
Replied On May 30th 2011:
Mundall, BWalker, regarding how the recording was made, all I'm willing to reveal is that the recording device is on loan from a tinker and that tinkertech can be complete bullshit at times.
To say any more would be revealing things I'm not comfortable with revealing right now.
End of Page. 1, 2, 3, 4 ... 15, 16, 17 â–
Topic: Why are the Nine afraid of a Knitting Club?
In: Boards â–º Places â–º America â–º Boston NotBillNam (Original Poster)
Posted On May 30th 2011:
So as people probably know the Nine have shown up in Boston. They made opening moves this morning and all that. You can read more about that here and here.
I'm more concerned with the last few minutes of footage from a camera I'd set up. Technically I wasn't supposed to put it where I did, but it was in public and hooked up to a solar battery so I didn't think anyone would complain. Imagine my surprise when I double-checked on it and found it destroyed.
I pulled the last few minutes of footage and posted it here. You can clearly see most of the Nine meeting up, destroying the general area. Only for Jack Slash to stop the others and point at the sign on the building, causing them to very carefully avoid damaging it in any way. The buildings around it were still fair game.
Here is a picture of the building from a better angle, showing the sign. It's a knitting club. That the Nine were afraid to damage for some reason. Here's a gallery of photos of what they did to the rest of the area, including my poor camera as seen here.
I'm a bit lost and confused at this point.
(Showing page 1 of 19)
â–ºDiggerDude Replied On May 30th 2011:
I'm very confused about what I just watched.
â–ºShived Replied On May 30th 2011:
We know they blew our minds and actually obey the Endbringer Truce, right? Maybe there's something else going on with knitting? No clue what though...
â–ºVogonHaiku Replied On May 30th 2011:
what is this i dont even
â–ºClaymation Replied On May 30th 2011:
Is anyone close enough to check on this? Because I'm not sure I trust this.
Just, you know, be careful. The Nine have supposedly been spotted in that area, after all. And video evidence is pretty good on the "supposedly" side of things.
â–ºNegaKin Replied On May 30th 2011:
we live like two blocks away from there. so glad we're still in the camps and not back home.
damn i hope they skipped our apartment building too
â–ºDoubtfulDame Replied On May 30th 2011:
I can at least confirm that's in Boston. My mother's a member, and is happy that the place was left alone. She's just as confused as the rest of us about why the building was spared though.
â–ºDanceToIt Replied On May 30th 2011:
That's a multi-story building. Are we sure it was the knitting club that made them wary? What else is in there?
â–ºBagrat (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)
Replied On May 30th 2011:
So, I've checked with a few people, and they can confirm what NotBillNam posted. There's a swath of destruction passing through that area, that just skips the knitting club. The rest of the building is residential, but my sources say that they're all members of the club.
I can only assume that someone in the club is either very dangerous or is related to someone very dangerous. I can't think of any other reason they'd leave it alone.
â–ºDeadly Farts Replied On May 30th 2011:
Maybe the Siberian knits and it's a courtesy to other knitters thing?
End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 17, 18, 19 â–
Emily sighed as she closed PHO. She'd leave things alone for now, they had staff whose jobs were to look over sites like PHO and report anything that needed official attention. This, so far, didn't qualify, and she had more important things to be doing. She could consider looking over the threads more later when she was off the clock. Not that she'd be likely to admit to anyone that she followed a number of things on PHO with her personal account.
Thinking about the two 'shows' that had been put on today, Emily wasn't sure who was worse. On one hand Miss Hebert with able and willing helpers created potential headaches for her. On the other hand her uncle with able helpers created potential headaches for the entire region. From her own point of view it was hard to say which was worse. Probably Miss Hebert, as her uncle wasn't stationed in the region.
Sighing, she returned her attention to her paperwork. She'd gotten permission from Mister Hebert for his daughter to continue visiting Boston on weekends despite the Nine being there. He'd been more worried about the Butcher than the Nine, apparently. Something that'd confused the officer that had gone to see him earlier, and she was hoping to get a shocked look out of Patricia when the Youth Guard's copy of the paperwork was passed over. The other two she hadn't heard back from the parents of yet, but she suspected neither would be granted permission.
A quick note was made to perpetuate some poor assumptions regarding the 'cameraless recording'. She thought the dodge on the recording without a visible camera being 'loaned' tinkertech with no further details had been inspired. Fully accurate on paper, yet likely implied that it had been loaned for the show and not that it was on semi-permanent loan to a Ward.
Moving on to the untouched paperwork from the day she found that Ethan had requested a dozen duck speakers be purchased. Sighing, she rejected the request. If he wanted them he could spend his own money on them, Miss Hebert had after all.
Riley was crying as she watched some video, which was what had gotten Jacob's attention. Due to her whole Bluetooth organ thing he couldn't hear anything, so he wasn't sure what the video was of.
"What's got you upset?" Jacob asked, poking Riley.
"My ducks aren't creepy enough," Riley said, sniffling.
Jacob wasn't entirely sure how to take that. Why did Riley suddenly think that the sheer variety of things they'd done to the demonic duck speakers they'd collected wasn't creepy enough? Well, he had a surefire way of figuring it out. "Why do you think that?"
"Taylor's is creepier."
Jacob blinked a couple of times, and then pulled his phone out when it dinged to indicate a message. Riley had sent him a video. Ok, that might explain things. Though the thing was a couple of hours long.
It only took five minutes for him to be simultaneously elated that little Taylor could pull something like that off and dejected that she hadn't joined the Nine.
Chapter 101 Taylor was snickering as she headed home. They'd cleaned up after their show, then gone ahead and recorded the video. Posted that, then sat around in the common area to watch the thread for reactions for a bit. Amy was annoyed that she wouldn't be able to watch it for another hour or two though. They'd also caught the thread where the Nine's avoidance of a knitting club had come up. She was fairly certain that her and Lisa breaking into laughter over it confused the others. Though William could probably use a better 'discreet' PHO account.
Sticking around also had the side benefit of giving her snarks time to work on the vial snarks a bit more. She was getting the impression that a few of them just weren't going to be able to get it properly. They'd hopefully get to the point of not killing people, but she wasn't sure they'd be able to get to the point of not changing the body significantly. Lacey probably got off easy compared to what a couple of the others would do.
She was almost home when she stopped. Her house was just inside of her range, and there were two snarks in it. Lacey wasn't too much of a surprise, since as far as Taylor knew she and Kurt hadn't made up yet. But why was Skidmark in her house? And what should she do about it?
Taylor: I've got a problem and I don't know what to do.
Amy: What kind of problem?
Taylor: I think Skidmark is in my house, unless he shares a snark with someone else anyway. But Lacey is there at a minimum and if it is Skidmark I don't want to tip him off that I know he's there.
Amy: That...wow. Don't you have a security system to prevent that kind of thing?
Taylor: That may not have been armed.
Amy: Can anyone use the security system to check the house?
Taylor: Oh. Now I feel like an idiot.
It took her a moment to bring up the app for the security system, which had a handy emergency contact option. Selecting it jumped to the phone app.
"Hello Mother," Dragon answered almost immediately. "What's the emergency?"
"Er, hi Dragon," Taylor replied. She hadn't expected that. She wasn't sure why she hadn't, but she hadn't. "I'm just at my range from home and it appears that Skidmark's snark is in the house, but I know that Lacey is also there at a minimum."
"I need authorization from you or your father to remotely activate the system for a full sweep. Do I have that permission?"
"Yes."
Taylor noted that the security system app indicated a remote 'stealth activation' had been initiated and various sensor systems starting running additional sweeps. None of this could be triggered from the app, but the record that it had been done was available. The results of each sweep came up as they completed.
"There are exactly two humans currently in the house," Dragon finally said, concurring with what Taylor was seeing on the screen. "All indicators point to them being Lacey and your father. Both are in the kitchen at this time. Stranger detection protocols turned up no likely hidden parahumans. No likely explosives or unknown radiation sources were detected. Your water heater is running a tad hot though."
Taylor frowned at that. "So there's nobody on the second floor?"
"Not that the system can detect. Would you like me to maintain active monitoring while you approach the building?"
"I'd appreciate that. Thank you."
Taylor resumed her trip home at a slower pace. Outside of Skidmark's snark there didn't seem to be anything out of place. The garage opened as normal and she pulled in, but she pulled her taser out as a precaution. She was hoping to not need to use her gun in the house, if only to not have to deal with bullet holes.
"Hi Taylor," Danny said as he came out of the kitchen. "Lacey's cleaning up a mess she made. How was...what's wrong?"
"There's a snark upstairs," Taylor quietly answered, causing her father's expression to harden. "Dragon says the security system isn't finding anyone unexpected in the house, which means something odd is going on. I've not poked it yet just in case that tips it off that I know it's there. I figure I'll shut it down just before confronting them."
Danny nodded and grabbed the bat from near the door, obviously intending to join her. The two made their way upstairs, and Taylor finally realized that they were headed for her bedroom.
Taylor: Amy, I'm about to take down the snark.
Amy: Thanks for the warning.
Taylor prepared for an all-out communications blitz on the snark as she reached for the door.
Riley frowned as she looked over her ducks. She'd be using them soon, but she still felt they weren't creepy enough after what Taylor had pulled off. Maybe she should bite the proverbial bullet and just ask the other girl how she'd done it? At least that would probably be less annoying than getting any information out of Fred. They still didn't know what he was planning on doing in the morning. Kinda hard to plan around him if they didn't know what they should be on the lookout for.
She was interrupted from her thoughts by her phone ringing.
"Hello Taylor," Riley said as she answered the phone. She still loved having Bluetooth in her head.
"Hello Riley," Taylor replied, her voice sounding unusually calm. That set Riley on edge.
"Is something wrong?"
"I'm trying to figure a couple of things out, and I think you can help me."
"Ok..."
"See, I appear to have a large spider-bot. Wonderfully soft despite the mechanical innards."
Riley grinned. "Oh, you got my gift?"
"Yes. Yes I did. Came home after my weekend in Boston to find it waiting in my room. Bit of a panic because it has a villain's snark attached to it."
Oooooh. She'd forgotten that Taylor could sense powers like that. The irony of those bits of Skidmark's brain being in Taylor's new mechanical pet had been too great to ignore for Riley, but yeah...
"I'm sorry?" Riley offered. "I hadn't considered that you'd be able to tell, actually. I mean, I even made sure that only the corona pollentia and gemma were included." No way was she going to mention what the rest of the neural framework was made from. Or that Skidmark had contributed significant raw material to Amy's spider.
"I see. Do I want to know how you even had the opportunity?"
"He wanted to join the Nine, but didn't make it past rule zero of joining."
Taylor was obviously confused. "Rule zero?"
Riley smirked a little even if Taylor couldn't see it. "Don't piss off Jack. Though he made a good effort trying to pull himself off of the blades."
"Ahh."
Riley looked down at the ducks. "Oooh, I don't suppose you'd be willing to tell me how you did the creepy duck thing?"
There was a pause, concerning Riley. After a minute Taylor responded. "No, I don't think I am. In fact, as punishment for what you put me through I just asked that what I used be blocked from the entirety of the Nine for the time being so that you can't do what I did."
Riley blinked a couple of times. WHAT? How could Taylor be so cruel?
"It's cute," Lacey said, looking over the spider-bot. It was around three feet long and was almost pure white, except for the black eyes, fangs, and rubber pads at the end of the legs. "Not nearly as creepy as I expected a giant spider to be."
Taylor grumbled. The spider-bot had apparently been set up to attach itself to anyone with her personal Bluetooth MAC address before figuring out biometrics on its own for future identification. It also had a puppy-like attitude towards Taylor and had started following her around. Other details about how it would behave were harder for her tinker snark to figure out.
"It has a couple of features that make it creepier for Taylor," Danny said, grinning. He'd decided it was funny. In fact, his laughing had been what had gotten Lacey's attention.
"Has your tinker friend made any more?" Lacey asked as the spider-bot moved over to Taylor and settled down next to her.
"Amy has one too," Taylor admitted. "She said that instead of pure white like this hers has a red Rod of Asclepius design on the abdomen, top and bottom."
"Neat. Do they do anything special?"
"They can grab and bite people, but their fluid sacs for injecting something need to be filled from an outside source. No webbing. Really, beyond that they've got a hidden pocket and that's about it." There was no way she was mentioning that hers might be able to use Skidmark's powers. Even testing that was going to have to wait. Assuming she could come up with a way to test it, anyway.
"Does it need anything special for upkeep?"
"The care sheet I was given says that a potato puree with the skins included will handle most of its needs. I might need to include other things but it will let me know in various ways. It can't really handle solids."
Lacey seemed to be a little surprised at that. "Isn't it a robot?"
"Yes."
"But it actually eats?"
"It's tinkertech," Danny said. "Do you expect it to be normal?"
"But..." Lacey said, pointing at the spider-bot. After a moment she sighed. "Ok. Yeah. I get it. Does it have a name?"
"Er," Taylor said, looking down at the spider-bot. "I don't think so?"
The grin on Lacey's face was not reassuring.
Tuesday morning Taylor was confronted with how to get out of the house without the still-unnamed spider-bot following her. Amy was no help, having apparently taken advantage of Vicky's assistance there. The stupid thing didn't want to be far enough from Taylor to get the door closed with it on the inside and Taylor on the outside, and it could fit through a gap Taylor couldn't.
In the end the answer turned out to be dead simple. She picked it up, gently tossed it towards the bed, and closed the door as it was landing. Since it couldn't fly and couldn't open the door that left it trapped.
She was halfway to school when Amy finally decided to check with her on that.
Amy: Did you give up and actually decide to bring the thing to school?
Taylor: Of course not.
Amy: But you said Lacey was still asleep and your father had already left?
Taylor: Yep.
Amy: Then how did you escape without the spider-bot following you?
Taylor: It was easy when I figured out the trick.
Amy: And the trick is?
Taylor: Trade secret.
Amy: ...
Taylor: Consider this partial payback for not giving me any warning.
Amy: Ok, I can see that. Especially given how yours caused a mild freakout and all. How are you punishing Riley for not warning either of us?
Taylor: I asked Dragon to lock the Nine out of the program I used to do the creepy duck thing and I've refused to tell her what I've learned about the spider-bots for now.
It was nice being able to tell that Amy had grinned at that.
Jacob stood there on the roof with Riley watching a couple of Protectorate members running away from Fred on the street below. That wasn't all that unusual, technically. Even if it was probably a little earlier in the morning than usual and the lack of stealth tricks was odd for day two.
"Jack?" Riley said after rubbing her eyes.
"Yes Bonesaw?" Jacob replied.
"Did I just watch Hatchet Face go by in what looked like a kid-sized car, dressed as a clown, with a slightly-damaged fez pinned to his head to keep it from blowing off, waving a brightly-painted version of his normal axe?"
"I think you did, and there are days that I love that man."
"Do you think we can get him a whip and have him herd ducks? If I can't match creepy I think I want to go for absurd."
"We'll ask him later."
They stood there for a minute or so, before Jacob spoke up again. "I do wonder how he got the car to leave a blood trail. I suspect he won't be willing to tell us."
The primary gossip at school was the Boardwalk show. Mainly the duck and how in the world they pulled off the creepy echoes. Apparently a complete lack of speakers where some of the echoes were coming from had convinced people that the area hadn't been seeded with additional speakers. 'Bullshit tinkertech' was being considered as a primary cause, possibly linked to whatever system had allowed for the cameraless recording.
The opening moves of the Nine attacking Boston were seen as a lesser gossip concern. Yes, the Nine were close. No, they hadn't attacked Brockton Bay and likely wouldn't. Most of the student body seemed to be waiting to see what the Nine would be doing before forming opinions beyond that.
Of course, while not exactly gossip the fact that there were only three weeks of school left had become a topic of discussion, largely because notices had been posted over the weekend informing all students that the city had set the last day of school as June 17th. That meant that vacation plans could be discussed, final exam schedules would be provided in the next day or two, and a panic over all the last minute end of year things could properly begin.
"Ames!" Vicky yelled as she approached where Amy and Taylor had met in the hall. "You gotta see this!"
"What now?" Amy asked, rolling her eyes.
"It's a clip of Hatchet Face chasing a couple of capes."
Taylor wasn't sure if she should be worried or laughing her ass off when she saw what Fred was apparently up to.
After school Taylor, Amy, and Vicky all hit the gym, dragging Vicky through a workout. They then popped over to the junkyard for some fun there before cleaning up.
Amy: Ugh, I think that vial-snark is going to be trouble. I think that last burst implies that it thinks all hosts would have twelve limbs.
Taylor: Yeah. Seems like it'll probably be able to be non-lethal, but almost certainly not for someone who's afraid to change physically.
And of course since they were in range the vial-snarks were being worked on. Some more successfully than others.
"I think I'll skip out on the junkyard from now on," Vicky said as she brushed her hair. "It just doesn't work as much for me unless you're throwing stuff at me to not dodge."
"Yeah, I can see why that would be," Amy said, frowning at the indicator on her force field belt. "Apparently knocking that tower over onto me hit harder than I thought. I might have to discharge this thing."
"You should've been more careful," Taylor said. "I told you it didn't look stable after the top half of that door broke the crate at the bottom of it. And I bet bashing your way out instead of waiting for Vicky and I to clear things was the bigger issue."
Amy glared at Taylor, before sighing. "Ok, I should have let you clear the stuff instead of forcing my way out."
"So I'm joining one of the afternoon patrols," Vicky noted. "Any idea who else is going to be around?"
Taylor blinked, and pulled out her Maul phone to check. "Huh, I have a meeting soon. Wonder why I didn't get a notice?" She blinked again as the notice arrived. "Nevermind, apparently it was literally just requested. And it looks like everyone's around in some way, but patrol groups aren't defined yet, so maybe you'll get to voice your opinion about who to patrol with?"
"I'll make sure Ames here gets home alright and approach as normal then. See you in half an hour or so."
"Safe travels and all of that," Taylor said, grabbing her stuff. She'd want to get changed into her costume before her meeting, in case she didn't have time after it.
"Good afternoon Maul," Colin said as Taylor entered the conference room. "Thank you for meeting me on such short notice."
"Good afternoon," Taylor replied.
"I have it on good authority that you won't be patrolling today so we have plenty of time," Colin continued, pushing a tablet across the table. "I'd like to talk to you about two different things today. The first is the blueprint on the tablet there. Do you think you can produce the carbon nanotube structure it details?"
Taylor raised an eyebrow, not that Colin could see it, and picked the tablet up. Examining the information on it, zooming in to look at details at various points, she nodded. "I don't think it will be a problem, though I'll probably need to closely monitor the plant producing it the first time through. The braids of braids in particular might need a closer eye put on things." She looked at one section in particular. "Are there switching circuits built into this?"
"As well as a number of outright logic circuits, yes."
"Huh. You even want specific isotopes, twelve in some places and thirteen in others, if possible?"
"If at all possible. It isn't crucial, even if fourteen would eventually be detrimental in several places, somewhat randomly depending on location. Not a deal-breaker, but Dragon and I would prefer to not need to worry about it."
"Alright. I notice that there aren't any plants in here, so I'm assuming you'd like me to work on this later."
"Of course. If you can make one by the end of next week that would be ideal. Additional copies can be dealt with later. Turn them in the same way you turn in repaired tinkertech and you'll get your payments in the same way."
Taylor nodded again. "Should I copy this over to my own devices?"
"No, that tablet is for you to use for joint projects with other tinkers, I pulled rank to get you issued one. Please do your best to keep it intact. You only get a replacement once a year if you dismantle it to build something, as Kid Win has found multiple times already."
Taylor looked down at the tablet. It was less advanced than her personal one, but probably didn't need much if it was for joint tinkering stuff. She turned the screen off and put it in one of her larger jacket pockets. "What else did you want to talk about?"
"I've given you access to a collection of training videos." Taylor blinked as a message came in with a link. "You should have just received a message with a link. I think you should review them to see where you stand with some of your training."
"Ok. I'll take a look soon."
Colin stood up. "Then I will let you get back to the Wards. Have a nice day."
"You too," Taylor said as she got up.
"Good afternoon," Miss Militia said as she addressed the Wards. "I have multiple announcements. First up, while we're dropping out of high alert mode we've also officially given up on returning the Wards to patrolling in pairs and made normal patrol rules require at least three individuals. This is because at least one new group appears to have set up in town and we don't know how they're going to react to patrols. Be extra careful if you should decide to patrol near the territory the Merchants used to operate in."
"Excuse me," Taylor said, continuing when Miss Militia nodded in her direction. "Does that mean that the next time something happens to escalate things we're going to have to patrol in groups of four?"
Miss Militia blinked. "Huh. It may, depending on the wording of things as they change the official policies. I'll have to check that. Thank you for noticing that." Taylor nodded before Miss Militia continued. "Next up, the Wards are officially in 'light duty' mode until school lets out to ensure you have enough time to study for your end of year exams."
Dennis groaned at that. Taylor lightly punched him in the arm from across the room thanks to her glove plates. Missy whacked him in the back of the head with some space-crunching at the same time.
"Moving on," Miss Militia said. "We unfortunately have an unofficial tradition of every few years someone insists that everyone have 'dress' versions of their costumes."
Missy groaned. "Again?"
"Yes, again. Glenn will be meeting with several of you today to discuss options. He specifically requested to start with Maul, Mycroft, and Vista in the first group, having had enough warning to have already dealt with Hulder."
Taylor frowned and starting looking for documentation. If Missy's reaction was anything to go by this could get very annoying very quickly. Reviewing the anti-hero rules for costumes, dress or otherwise, would hopefully make things less annoying. For her, anyway.
Vicky, on the other hand, was off to the side mumbling about how all she ever got for a 'dress costume' was a version of her existing costume with a longer skirt made out of nicer, but less durable, materials.
"Good afternoon Maul," Glenn said as Taylor entered the conference room he'd decided to use instead of the office upstairs. The projector and stacks of papers, magazines, and what looked like fabric sample books probably had something to do with that decision.
"Hello Glenn," Taylor replied, closing the door behind her. She then took an exaggerated look around the room. "You look like you've got everything but Parian here. Or is she hiding in a closet?"
"Hah, good one. Dress versions of costumes can be problematic, and in some cases we end up making entirely new costumes. Power armor doesn't always work in more formal environments, for example."
"I've checked the rules and they seem to indicate that you just have to look 'nicer' than you normally do in the field. No requirements to be fancy, but 'more professional' is recommended."
Glenn grinned. "Yes, but generally that requires a new costume. The catch is making it call out to the field costume."
Taylor grinned back, which caused Glenn's grin to falter. "But that's the thing, nothing actually says it has to be a different costume. So I think I'm good with what I have."
Glenn gave Taylor a look, before leaning back in his chair. "Really now. Can you prove it?"
Taylor smirked, then pulled her pigtails out and re-did them much lower, flowing down onto her back. She then closed up the front of the jacket instead of leaving it open before pulling the fedora she'd been given out and placing it on her head, showing why she'd changed her pigtails. "There. Now I'm much more professional looking with barely any changes to my costume."
Glenn leaned forward, frowning, before getting up and walking around the table, then around Taylor herself. "I think you took all the fun out of it. We will need to get you a jacket without any weapon harness at all for occasions where reinforced chairs won't be an option, but otherwise you technically fit the rules. I'd tell you otherwise to try and dress you up more, but you've obviously read them."
"Of course I read them," Taylor said, offended at the thought of her not having done so. "Besides, this is better than many other options. If I keep the fedora available I can easily switch to the 'dress' costume anytime, even in the field."
"Please don't tell the others to read the rules," Glenn said, apparently giving up as he went back to his seat. "Half the fun in this is getting capes out of their comfort zone because they didn't and I get to push them further than they need to."
Taylor snickered at that. "Ok, I can see that. I won't tell them, but I also expect some of them to read the rules anyway even without me prompting them."
"You've corrupted them all," Glenn deadpanned. "Now fix your appearance back to the way it was before you go out there and send Mycroft in so that I can attempt to have my fun with her."
Taylor saluted, then took the fedora off. It went back in the pocket she'd slipped it out of before she opened the jacket up and fixed her pigtails. It was too bad that Carlos and Chris had already left with Vicky on patrol, otherwise she might have joined them.
Then again, she did have a blueprint and unexpected free time. Some makeshift fertilizer might be a good idea too, but she could probably deal with that by making a quick trip to one of the cafeterias.
"This has got to be a joke," Megan said as she looked at the screen.
"I know what you mean," Richard said as he scrolled through the list. He picked another entry at random and read what came up. "A maid uniform? Not even any accomodation for the guys by allowing for a butler?"
"I'm more concerned with finding a video rental place where you can pull off not having Aleph imports in the shot," Megan countered. "At least without convincing them to help you set the shot up, anyway."
"You might have a point there."
Taylor made her way home after several hours studying while keeping an eye on plants assemble carbon nanotubes. She wasn't sure how well she'd been able to push the snarks discussing things to the back of her mind, luckily they wouldn't be doing that during the tests themselves.
She did wonder what Colin would think of the fact that she'd made four of the requested structure. She'd had ideas about different ways to have the plants make them, so she'd tried them all. The overall speed test had ended up inconclusive, as the limiting factor seemed to be the carbon sorting. Splitting the carbon twelve and thirteen out without getting any fourteen had been harder than she'd thought. Sorting the two isotopes had been trivial after that, luckily she'd only needed a little carbon thirteen. There'd barely been any by comparison, after all.
An idea had formed as she was leaving, though, so she'd stopped by the florist to buy a couple of potted plants. Since getting the carbon was the hard part and all, why not do that ahead of time? She'd set the plants up in her room and have them build rods or cubes of carbon twelve, thirteen, and fourteen. She'd get a lot more twelve than the others, but that was ok with her. And that way she hopefully wouldn't have to partially cripple the plants due to extracting carbon from them in the process of building stuff with them.
Actually reaching home, she carefully carried the plants inside. The alarm had been armed so it was likely just her and the spider-bot for the time being. She'd call her father in a bit if he didn't come home soon, at least.
"Huh," Taylor said as she stopped outside of her room. She looked at the plants she was holding, and then at the closed door to the room. Making a decision, she carefully put the plants down to the side before opening the door. This proved to be a good idea as the spider bot did its best to tackle her as soon as it had a clear enough path to do so.
"So you've cleared some of the paperwork needed to open the bar?" Taylor said as they sat in the living room with the news on. The spider-bot had refused to leave her side all evening, but it was going to have to get used to her not being around all the time.
The three of them had watched the news for a bit, but were now mostly ignoring it. Fred running around in the clown getup was apparently the only thing of interest to the newscasters today, and it hadn't been that interesting after the first ten minutes.
"The pub, but yeah," Lacey said, grinning. "Still more to go, of course. I've even got leads on a business loan with a great rate instead of needing to rely on your apparent fortune. I figure that would look better if anyone digs into my finances, instead of wondering where you suddenly got enough of a fortune to get me started."
"Have you spoken with Kurt at all?" Danny asked.
"He's still too angry with me to reason with. I figure once the small-scale gear Taylor here ordered for me comes in I'll whip up a bottle of something decent and show up back home with it. Once he tries it he'll probably go into begging and pleading for forgiveness mode." Lacey paused to consider that. "Well, that or he'll go into swearing at me mode for making him realize how crappy all of the alcohol we used to drink actually is."
"I'm not sure if it's a good thing that you plan on getting him back on your good side by getting him drunk," Taylor noted.
"Bah," Lacey said, waving her hand in dismissal. "Mostly it's so I can show him that I can make a better drink."
"That and you two keep things from each other until you're drunk off your asses," Danny said, earning him a glare from Lacey. "Then you usually spend weeks moaning to everyone around you that your fights wouldn't have made sense at all had you just said something. There's a reason you two have traditionally dragged your friends to bars on a regular basis. We get to hear the whining and pass on what needs to be passed on, including what you've forgotten you heard."
Lacey glared at Danny a little longer, before sighing and dropping into a pout.
Chapter 102 Wednesday morning Taylor grumbled as she went through her morning routine. She'd stayed up way too late the night before watching the training videos Colin had pointed her at. And she'd thought Miss Militia had been holding back on her. She almost wanted to forget ever being good with her weapons now, but also knew that it wasn't a fair comparison. After all, they'd had years of training and she might charitably be able to say she'd had a couple of months. Kinda.
A quick check of her new plants showed that they were making progress. Slow progress, but progress, which was ok. Amy hadn't seen the point in getting carbon collected ahead of time, but Taylor figured it would help later. It also wasn't taking much effort, and she hadn't told Amy about some of her prank ideas for the stuff.
After a little thinking about things she moved the new plants by the window, which she cracked open to let air flow through. More airflow meant more carbon dioxide, which would hopefully let the plants work faster. Her tinkertech system for keeping the room comfortable wouldn't care about the open window, so all she had to worry about was the alarm. And since the window could be locked in the 'cracked open' position they'd installed a sensor for that, so she should be fine.
Though she did make note to pick up a grow lamp to speed things up further. Right under the note to get a pet carrier or similar to keep the spider-bot in when she wasn't home. Tossing it across the room whenever she was leaving was going to get old fast.
Today's gossip at school was tied to a single comment on PHO from early that morning. Apparently someone had asked the Boston Wards about their reactions to the Nine showing up, and Pablo's response had mentioned that Taylor, as Maul, had been in Boston at the time but didn't seem to care at all. Why was up in the air, initial thoughts that she was being cocky having been mostly replaced with the determination that she'd already been in enough life threatening situations this year to make the Nine not worth reacting to.
Amy: I can't believe that PHO has decided that you need a vacation.
Taylor: It does seem a bit odd. But I have a voucher for one, so it isn't that bad of an idea, technically.
Amy: Any idea who's going with you?
Taylor: Ummm...not sure. Hadn't given any of it much thought yet. Figuring out where and when might be more important to start with?
Amy: True. Can't figure out who can join you until you know some of that, I guess.
Taylor: Though I can start looking into some of that now that we know when the school year is ending.
Taylor sighed, her to-do list never seemed to be empty.
Jacob found himself staring at the scene in the street in disbelief, unsure how Fred and Riley had convinced the other two to join them. Cherie and Mimi were in a couple of those too-small cars, both fitting better than Fred had at least. Fred and Riley were on too-small motorcycles. Fred was still in the full clown getup, but all four had fezzes on as well.
Though he had to admit that watching them herd the hundred and one demonic ducks into Accord's territory was amusing as hell. Now if he only knew where Fred had hidden all his props...
Lunchtime brought the double news of a wave of demonic ducks being herded by the Nine and the Butcher's return to Boston. The ducks were deemed 'not creepy enough' by the news, with the full agreement of the student body. Scary, with the various means of potentially-hazardous locomotion and all, but not creepy. The method used to herd the collection of ducks across town had also made things more amusing and absurd than creepy.
Nobody was certain how much of that was intentional, though Taylor was sad that it was probably time to retire her duck.
The Butcher had announced her return with an all-out assault on where she thought the Nine were. Only to end up taking out an empty warehouse and falling into some kind of complicated chasing and being chased dance with Sarah for the past couple of hours, with no end in sight yet. Nobody was actually certain who they wanted to win that particular confrontation. Rooting for the Butcher seemed wrong, but the alternative was probably worse.
"Oh wow," Dean said, staring at his phone. "They've got a versus thread for the ducks!"
"Are you serious?" Taylor asked, staring at Dean.
"Yeah. They're arguing over whether or not Maul's duck is a true eldritch abomination and if so how that would stack up against the hundred or so false abominations the Nine have unleashed. 'For simplicity' they've decided that Maul's should be known as 'Justice Duck', since it worked with the Wards and all."
Taylor blinked a couple of times. Every time she thought she might possibly have an inkling of a chance of understanding of how the masses would react to things they did something like this. Why did she even bother trying?
Once school let out Taylor visited the gym with Amy and Vicky, before going and getting ready for her only scheduled patrol this week. Once she'd done that she headed off to pick up her multiple deliveries that weren't brought to the Wards area.
"Good afternoon Maul," the officer at the desk said. "Give me a moment to load your list and check out a pallet jack for you."
Taylor raised an impossible-to-see eyebrow at that, but looked over the list that came up for her to sign off on. She quickly determined that all of her chocolate and the brewing and distilling stuff had shown up, but would she really need a pallet jack?
"Here you go," the officer said, pulling the pallet jack, with pallet, behind him. "Ah, good, you signed off on everything. Please return the pallet jack and, if you don't need it, the pallet itself as soon as you can."
"Er," Taylor said, looking over the pallet. It appeared half full of chocolate, with several large boxes taking up the other half. "Thank you."
Ten minutes later she'd made it back to the Wards area, Lisa looking at the pallet oddly when Taylor passed by. Fifteen minutes after that and Taylor had the chocolate split into 'bring home' and 'leave here' piles, but she wasn't sure what to do with the brewing and distilling equipment. Why hadn't she had it delivered to her house instead of to the PRT building?
She'd made it halfway back to drop off the pallet jack and now-empty pallet when she had a thought. Since she had no better way to contact them she just spoke aloud. "Hey Scotty, when I get home later would you be willing to move the stuff I want to take home over for me?"
Halfway back to the Wards area she got an anonymous text message, asking her to indicate which pile of chocolate was the 'bring home' pile before she left.
She suspected that the PRT officer she was passing was confused when she suddenly spoke aloud. "Thanks guys."
Taylor looked over the various components of her sidearm. She'd decided to clean it off-schedule, mainly because her tinker snark had pinged on it having some dust buildup near the firing pin. Nothing that would have caused troubles right away, but not something to be left there. Missy had decided to join her while they waited for Dean, both of them using the specially-designed tabletop kits the PRT provided with all the little shields for flying solvent and such that made it safe enough to do in the common area, provided that the air circulating fans were in the right mode anyway.
"So how bad did Glenn get with you yesterday?" Missy asked, before frowning slightly at her little bottle of oil. "And damn, I didn't realize I'd gone through so much of this. I'll need to pick up another soon."
"I cut him off by being able to be more professional looking without any new stuff at all," Taylor answered as she started re-assembly. "Though he did say that I'd need a jacket without a weapon harness for events without reinforced chairs."
"Nice. I was able to get him to not dress me up like a child doing a horrible job of pretending to be an adult. Unlike the last time they insisted on dress costumes. Then again, I'd read the rules and guidelines for myself this time around, so Glenn couldn't pull tricks on me."
"He did seem to be disappointed that he couldn't lie about the rules to me." Taylor frowned as she double-checked her assembly. Her tinker snark felt that there were a couple of weak points in one of the springs. Nothing that had to be dealt with right away, but she should probably order a replacement anyway. She started on that while grabbing a rag to wipe things down with.
They dropped the discussion as Dennis came in. No need to volunteer hints about how to make his own appointment with Glenn easier, after all. If he hadn't figured things out on his own then it sucked to be him, as he hadn't asked either of them either.
"This is a very boring patrol," Dean commented as they made their way down the street. He was on the ground, Missy was on the rooftops, and Taylor was on her platform above both of them.
"I imagine it would be a lot less so if we were over where all the fires are," Taylor noted, contemplating pulling out one of the pieces of chocolate she had in her utility belt. But then she'd probably feel obligated to offer the other two some only to feel bad about Dean being pretty much forced to decline due to his helmet.
"You mean where it seems Lung decided to team up with Fenja to deliver a beatdown on someone?" Missy asked.
"Yep."
In contrast to the apparent battle going on across town, the area the three Wards were patrolling in was devoid of any activity. This led to them being incredibly bored.
"So how did you two fare with Glenn?" Dean asked a few minutes later. "He seemed unusually annoyed when I basically insisted on a standard business suit patterned to look like my armor with a basic partial-coverage mask to allow me to eat in it."
"Read the rules?" Taylor asked.
"Of course. Though I don't think Clock did."
They amused themselves with that discussion for the rest of the uneventful patrol.
Taylor pulled up to the house with her purchases strapped to her moped. Luckily the grow lamp had fit inside of the pet carrier, which made it trivial to strap both of them to the moped without attracting undue attention for parahuman tricks. It appeared that Lacey was around, but her father's car wasn't there.
"Hello," Taylor called as she entered the house itself.
"Welcome home," Lacey called from the living room. "Danny should be back with tacos soon."
"Cool." She made her way upstairs, putting things down before opening the bedroom door. As expected a decent attempt was made at tackling her. Once that was taken care of she brought her stuff inside. "Hey Scotty, the chocolate can come in here, in the corner if you don't mind?" There was a thud as the boxes dropped into the corner. "Thank you."
Ten minutes later the grow lamp was set up, the pet carrier had been prepared for the spider-bot, and she'd checked on the plants. Those needed a little watering, which she took care of before heading downstairs.
"Did you drop something?" Lacey asked as Taylor headed for the basement door.
"It was a delivery of sorts," Taylor replied, opening the basement door. "Come on down."
"Why?" Lacey asked, getting up anyway.
"You'll see." Taylor shook her head as she felt the tear in reality open up, apparently the duo had figured out what she was going to want before she'd asked for it. "Thank you again."
"Thank who again?"
Taylor ignored Lacey's question, instead leading her to the boxes containing the brewing and distilling equipment. "Here you are. Have fun."
Lacey looked at the boxes, a slightly-glazed look in her eyes, causing Taylor to suspect that she probably should have waited until after dinner. Oh well, too late now.
"I don't care if it's for my own good," Lacey whined between tacos. "You shouldn't slam my 'snark' like that!"
"You were trying to fugue over the fancy new equipment," Taylor retorted. "You can do that after you eat. Besides, even if you set it all up it doesn't come with anything to brew."
"But I've already collected what I need to start brewing. I'll need to order higher quality stuff for later but I've got enough to start already."
"Eat or I'll arrange for critical pieces of the equipment to be unavailable until tomorrow."
Lacey turned to Danny with puppy-dog eyes, only for him to give her a look that said 'nice try'. This caused Lacey to pout and take another bite of her taco.
Thursday morning Danny had Taylor carry Lacey upstairs from the basement and drop her on the couch to sleep off her fugue from the night before. Taylor then went back down and checked that nothing in the brewing equipment looked like it was going to be a problem before Lacey woke up. Her tinker snark seemed to think that everything was going alright, as did Lacey's snark when queried, so Taylor left things alone.
The spider-bot had surprised Taylor by claiming the pet carrier as its own, making it trivial to close it in. She suspected that was something Riley had trained and/or programmed it to do, possibly to make it easier to ship the thing. It wasn't something to complain about at any rate. She might have to tell Amy about that trick at some point. Maybe.
The last thing she did before leaving for school was to make sure her carbon-collecting plants were watered with the grow light on and had no other immediate issues. Luckily they seemed to be doing well.
Amy: Hey! What happened to warning each other before examining biology?
Taylor: You aren't eating and woke me up by making more rosebush bulbs.
Amy: Ok, point to you. The PRT claims they grow well enough to negate that lawsuit and they've asked for a set for a trial-run in the PRT store.
Taylor: Congrats.
Amy: Still don't know why you're collecting carbon like that though.
Taylor: I feel it could be useful later. I get the feeling I'm going to be asked to make a lot more nanotube constructions down the road.
Amy: I can see that, but I'd think it would be easier to just grab coal or something?
Taylor: That isn't a bad idea. It would probably be a lot faster than waiting for the plants to extract it from the air. I'd probably be able to get a lot more processed that way.
Amy: That...isn't quite what I meant.
Taylor ignored Amy while thinking about where to pick up some grilling charcoal that didn't have accelerants already mixed in later. If that idea panned out she might tell Amy about the pet carrier in thanks.
Gossip at school was tied up in the battle that had happened the day before. Apparently it was now believed that one of the more violent branches of the Elite was trying to set up in part of what had been the Merchant's territory. They also had no appreciation of the rules Brockton Bay's gangs operated under, and the locals were being quite vocal in disliking that. Kaiser and Lung had both told reporters that anyone unwilling to keep the agreed-upon safe zones safe and Amy's weekends calm had no place in the Bay.
Taylor found it most interesting that the entire battle had apparently started with an attack on an ABB member checking if there were any messages at Somer's Rock. Even the PRT and Protectorate left the neutral meeting points alone. Which probably helped to explain the odd groups seen working together the day before.
"I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing that I wasn't called on to heal anyone from yesterday," Amy wondered as she changed things out in her locker.
"Could go either way," Taylor said, shrugging. "There weren't injuries needing you and the gangs don't want to show up at the hospital are likely good things. Bad would be they didn't stop at injuries."
"My dad works in the morgue and last I knew they didn't have anyone brought in yesterday," a boy a couple lockers down noted.
"Now if only I didn't know that Lung doesn't always leave enough behind for the morgue," Amy muttered, frowning. Taylor slightly awkwardly attempted to comfort her with a one-armed hug. She figured she'd done ok when Amy smiled a little.
Taylor left school with a small pile of homework to do but not much else to worry about for the evening. With nothing to worry about as 'Maul' today she even met Amy and Vicky in the gym's parking lot. Dragging Vicky to the gym was getting Taylor and Amy into it more frequently, but they weren't complaining. It was a good reason to keep their own schedule.
"Looks like they want me at the hospital this afternoon," Amy noted as they were preparing for the swimming portion of their workout. "Couple of problematic gunshot wounds in kids they'd like me to help with."
"Ouch," Vicky said, flinching. "I wonder what the cause was. I hope they're not trying to do gang stuff already or anything like that."
"I probably won't be able to say either way, assuming I even find out."
"I can still hope."
Taylor shook her head as she headed for the pool itself. Even she probably wouldn't know, even if Amy did, unless Amy wanted someone to vent at later.
She'd run into a sale on 'grilling essentials' and lucked into nearly forty pounds of charcoal for fifteen dollars instead of the twenty-five it would've cost normally. If it didn't work out for her plans they could probably still grill with it, so it shouldn't be a problem either way. With that purchased she'd made her way home to find Lacey working in the basement and a mess in the kitchen.
"You alright down there?" Taylor called down the stairs, not sure she wanted to see what other horrors might exist down there after seeing what the kitchen looked like.
"Yeah," Lacey called back. "Sorry about the kitchen, I'll clean it up soon, but I had to whip up an adjustment packet to correct a couple of things."
"Just don't forget." Taylor sighed and headed upstairs with her charcoal. Might as well get started on things. Though she should probably do her homework before playing with the plants.
Of course, they say that no plan survives contact with the enemy. Which is why ten minutes later she was in the kitchen whipping up some food for the spider-bot. She figured that Lacey might not even notice the extra mess, only to find that she'd probably left things cleaner when she was done.
"I'm very happy that things are coming along with the pub," Danny noted over dinner. "If only so that you have your own place to make a mess of with your brewing."
"Sorry," Lacey muttered.
"Do you really think the only way to make up with Kurt is to brew something outstanding?" Taylor asked.
Lacey considered that while she ate. "I suppose I could try mixing drinks, but that would mean finding decent alcohol to start with. I checked most of the places around here and didn't find anything worth buying."
"I wonder if Taylor could get some of the tinker-made stuff?" Danny mused. "But I don't know if the PRT store recognizes her permission to purchase alcohol."
"I can check after dinner," Taylor replied. "If I seem to be able to order stuff I'll bring my tablet down so we can pick stuff out. I might want to try a few of them anyway, see if they have any more effect than the normal stuff."
"Given your antics at the Palanquin I'm not going to hold out for that, but you're welcome to try if you can purchase them. Just be responsible."
"The last time I was irresponsible drinking you were there, encouraged it, and made money betting on it."
Danny just shrugged at that, before dodging a tossed wad of crumpled-up napkin.
It had turned out that after punching in the ID number from her alcohol license Taylor could buy alcohol from the PRT store, and Lacey had wanted a bottle of pretty much everything to check out. So Taylor had ordered two bottles of pretty much everything so that she'd have her own set to try, because why not? Five minutes later she'd found out that the first purchase of alcohol by a Ward in the PRT store still had to be cleared by a parent or guardian, but that hadn't exactly been a difficult hurdle as her father had been expecting her to be purchasing some. He'd even just granted blanket permission so she could buy whatever in the future.
Once all that was taken care of she'd then gone on to playing with plants and charcoal.
Amy: I still don't know why you insist on doing this, but what you've come up with for sorting the isotopes is amazing.
Taylor: Thank you.
Amy: So what happens when you have your nicely sorted carbon?
Taylor: I carry it around in case it would come in handy for any number of purposes.
Amy: And that's where you have me confused. I don't see how it's worth going to the effort now instead of just using the available plants later, possibly with some coal as a carbon source. Especially as with this plan you still need plants to do the final processing.
Taylor: You'll see.
It was likely, at least in Taylor's opinion, that Amy would be kicking herself for missing at least one possibility in this little project. Only time would tell though. But a lot less time than previously, the charcoal idea was doing wonders for the speed of things. She spent a couple hours tweaking things, but got it to the point where she could actually drop several pieces of charcoal into a pitcher-plant inspired 'hopper' for the plants to work their way through.
"You should get a greenhouse of your own," Amy said as they met up on Friday morning.
Amy: Your room probably isn't a good place to be playing biotinker at this point.
"Perhaps," Taylor replied. "But we have less room in the yard, so I'd have to check with my father first."
Taylor: I have one little project so far, and you know as well as I do that to make it I've crippled those plants in many ways.
"They do make smaller ones than the one I have," Amy countered.
Amy: One little project that'll probably grow in scope.
"Still need his permission to install anything," Taylor replied. "I'll have to check with him."
Taylor: If this pans out I'll probably move it to the PRT building outright anyway.
Amy: Ok, I'll give you that one.
Having a conversation on two layers was interesting, especially in that nobody around had likely picked up on the second one. Lisa might have, had she been around, but then again they might have dragged her in at some point too.
"So do you have any plans for the weekend?" Amy asked, obviously changing the subject. "I've been asked to be available for something with the PRT tomorrow while the rest of New Wave is fighting with Lung."
"I'm not really sure," Taylor admitted. "I don't think I have anything to do on Sunday if you want to hang out then?"
Taylor: I have something on my calendar for tomorrow morning. Meeting with Colin, Sherrel, and unspecified other parties or something. Think your request has anything to do with that?
"That would probably be nice," Amy said, pulling her phone out. "I don't think I have anything, so I'll make note to check with the others."
Amy: Don't know, I guess we could ask. Or just wait and see?
Taylor: I'm ok with either, since I don't know how much they want to tell me about my meeting. Sometimes they have good reasons to keep things quiet until the last second.
Amy: There is that.
Colin frowned as he looked over the list of things needed to apply for the tinker fugue. He'd already visited every PRT department, quarantine zone or otherwise, at least twice. Animal control was something he'd done during that wandering and thus wasn't an issue. He'd personally punched Lung in the face a good dozen times on camera, and thanks to a couple of dares when he was a rookie he'd even had a picture of himself dressed as a chicken available.
He frowned when he realized that he'd only been able to collect suitable proof that he'd visited four locations attacked by the Nine, but he had fought with the Butcher before with his motorcycle close enough to have captured photographs with the two of them included.
He'd been looking through things for half an hour when he reached 'submit a previously unreleased picture of a self-proclaimed Nazi or Nazi sympathizer being kissed by a black man'. That picture he'd gotten of Kaiser being kissed by a black man last year would almost certainly qualify. He'd opted not to release it at Kaiser's request, given that the Empire cape had gone to the effort to save a group of kids including the black man's daughter a few minutes prior.
Colin did still wonder how the Empire cape had resisted skewering the man at the time.
After school Amy ended up going straight to the hospital to help out with the injuries from a multiple car accident. They weren't sure if it was caused by or was the trigger of a gang fight between the Elite and the Empire, but a number of people had been hurt in the accident itself and the gunfight that had occurred in the area at about the same time.
Taylor ended up swinging by the gym to work with Vicky without Amy. She'd parked in the Wards garage area instead of the gym because she planned on some tinkering afterwards to give some extra time for the vial-snarks to be worked on by her snarks.
"So Amy said something about trying to meet up with you Sunday," Vicky commented while they were setting up one of the resistance trainers. Without Amy around Vicky seemed to want to go too far too fast, so Taylor had to dial things back.
"We don't think either of us has plans," Taylor explained. "So why not? Barring emergencies and all, anyway."
"Any ideas what you'll be up to?"
"Not really. Maybe we'll catch a movie or something. We haven't gotten beyond the 'we might both be free' phase of planning. I think we've silently agreed on waiting until we know if we are both free before going any further."
"I'll probably be stuck cleaning up after our bout with Lung tomorrow," Vicky admitted, frowning when she saw that Taylor had locked the resistance level. "You two have fun if you end up being free. And how did you lock the settings?"
"I'd tell you but then you'd hurt yourself," Taylor answered, grinning. "Can't have Amy being pissed at either of us if you did that." Besides, all she'd done was toggle the trainer mode switch in the back, meaning you had to hold the button next to it to change settings. Much less useful if you let others know the trick.
She'd taken a few hours after finishing up at the gym and maintained all her equipment. She'd then fixed up a pile of radios from the tinkertech stores. Nothing she planned on using herself, but it was decent busywork. For now she'd arrived home to find Lacey sitting in the kitchen surrounded by stacks of books and forms.
"What's with all the dead trees?" Taylor asked while her father was finishing up cooking.
"I had a thought this morning and now I'm looking into what's needed to have you tweak my yeast," Lacey said, waving her hand at the piles. "But yeast pretty much has to be a reproducing organism, so the rules and regulations are insane before you get into involving it in the production of something consumable. And I don't want you to get in trouble for doing it off the books, so to speak."
"Is there anything I can do to help you go through all of this?"
"Most of it she has to pass tests on," Danny interjected. "So she has to go through it herself. I already checked and your side of it should be trivial, assuming that the PRT is allowed to run tests on the yeast before she uses it. So long as it's a custom project for her the majority of the paperwork headaches fall to her to resolve. You get to go through a lot of it if you offer to sell the yeast to anyone else."
"Who'd you check with to figure that out?" Taylor asked, honestly curious.
"Carol was happy to tell me how to have Lacey need to do most of the paperwork."
"Oh." Taylor thought about that for a moment. "I might have to thank her for that."
"Most of it I'd have to go through anyway," Lacey said. "Seems like the mild shaker tricks that help me keep things going well could count under some of the regulations anyway. I didn't know that before, but better to have things in order just in case. They'd likely have hit me with it when I got inspected the first time otherwise."
"Good thing you checked then?"
"Most likely."
Chapter 103 Saturday morning Taylor frowned as she looked over her little cubes of carbon. She had a handful of carbon twelve cubes but she hadn't gotten even a single complete carbon thirteen cube yet. She might have to combine the partial cubes from each plant to make a single full one, but she didn't have enough yet to do that either. Carbon fourteen was negligible, of course, but she'd expected that. She'd mainly wanted that split off to keep it out of the twelve and thirteen. Besides, what would she do with a radioactive carbon cube anyway?
Sighing, she moved a few of the carbon twelve cubes into one of her pouches, just in case they ended up being useful, before heading down to have breakfast. She had plenty of time to make her requested meeting time at the PRT building either way. Though she did find that unless she wanted to disturb Lacey's piles of documentation and paperwork she'd have to eat at the counter or in the living room.
She ended up eating at the counter while flipping through some of Lacey's forms, making notes on a spare piece of paper where possible mistakes had been made. Better to catch those early in the process and all. There weren't many, but every little bit would help, right? Once she was done eating she cleaned up and got ready to leave.
The last thing she'd noted before leaving was that she'd probably have to work with the spider-bot on possibly using its powers. It was getting restless in a way that she assumed was snark-induced, anyway. She still wasn't sure how to do that, or where for that matter. She wasn't sure if the spider-bot would be able to hold out until Lacey was out of the house.
Despite the early hour Taylor had been beaten to the PRT building by Missy. Who, according to the schedule, wasn't actually supposed to be doing anything Wards-related today? This caused Taylor to decide to swing through the Wards area instead of going straight to the gym like she'd originally intended.
"Morning," Taylor said as she entered the common area. Missy was sitting on one of the couches. Doing schoolwork, it looked like.
"Hi," Missy said, frowning at the laptop in front of her.
"What brings you in this early on a day you have off?"
"My father went to visit my grandmother yesterday and my mother got called into work for some emergency," Missy explained, likely rolling her eyes based on her tone. "I escaped hanging around with her at work by coming in to hang around here instead. But either way I still have an assignment that was given a couple days ago due next week."
"Ah. Ok then. Need any help? I'm early for my meeting."
"How much do you know about the current Hoover Dam project?"
"I know that a cape battle severely damaged the area but I haven't been following how they're trying to fix it."
"They're actually looking to replace the dam outright, and I'm supposed to explain the basics of how they plan on doing so."
"Oh. Sorry, I haven't been following that."
Missy sighed. "No problem. I should probably not have a tinker of any kind help me anyway, since I'm not supposed to know any. I think half the goal is supposed to be figuring out some of what the tinkertech explanations actually mean." The younger girl then glared at Taylor. "I think you helped to inspire that, actually."
"Er, oops?"
Taylor decided that it would be a good idea to get her workout in now. Depending on what Colin and Sherrel wanted she might even have time to hit the junkyard afterwards.
"Have fun in the gym?" Missy asked as Taylor came back through the Wards area.
"It was the gym," Taylor answered, shrugging. What did Missy expect? "Though I did think of something while I was exercising. I might have need to sneak something large-ish out of the house soonish. Any chance you can make the notebook pouch of my bag here a lot bigger?"
Missy gave Taylor a hard to decipher look. "Only if you answer a question for me about the tinker fugue paperwork."
Taylor raised an eyebrow. "I can agree to that, but only within reason."
Missy nodded. "Gimme the the bag quick." Taylor handed the bag over, pointing at the pouch in question. It didn't take long before it looked like it would be able to hold two to four spider-bots, depending on how they set themselves in it.
"Thank you," Taylor said, slinging the bag onto her back. "What's your question?"
"Is there an easy way to get through the list of clearances?" Missy asked.
Taylor grinned. "Yes."
Missy stared at Taylor with an eager look on her face, one that turned to confusion after a moment. She then groaned. "Dammit. I didn't ask what the easy way is, just if there is one."
"I don't think you can blame anyone but yourself for that one."
Taylor dodged a couple of thrown couch cushions as she went to get changed.
"Good morning Maul," Colin said as Taylor entered the small office he apparently had use of. It was down the hall from Miss Militia's, which seemed very obvious when she thought about it. She just hadn't been this far down the hall before to see it. "Panacea should be joining us shortly."
"Good morning," Taylor replied. "I thought Wrench Wraith was supposed to be part of things?"
"For a number of reasons we'll be heading over to the Rig for that portion of the day, provided we don't find we have problems preventing it beforehand. In particular, thinker support indicates that there may be a problem that we'd like to evaluate before it becomes an issue later, but I'd like to wait for Panacea before going into any more detail as it involves her."
Taylor nodded, though she knew Amy was still on the road. The other girl had decided to skip out on the early visit to the gym today in favor of extra sleep. "Did the nanotube constructions I made work ok?"
"They worked better than expected," Colin said, sounding pleased. "Having four so soon was an unexpected but not unwelcome bonus. I'd go into more detail now but I've been asked to not reveal everything to you for the time being."
She wasn't even sure what the admittedly complicated constructions were intended for, so she didn't know how to take that. "I hadn't actually tried to figure out what they were for. Should I be worried about unexpected surprises from that?"
"We anticipated you not being able to figure things out, but what they were for falls into things I've been asked to not reveal yet. I'm hopeful that by the end of the day you'll be fully informed, but certain things need to happen before I can explain."
Taylor figured that was a 'please stop asking', or as close as Colin was going to get to one, so she settled in to wait for Amy instead. It was ten minutes later when Amy finally showed up, entering and closing the door behind her before she spoke. "Good morning."
"Good morning Panacea," Colin said. "Thank you for joining us today. Now then, part of today's goals is to address and test a possible concern that came up regarding multiple-tinker fugues. Specifically, the question of whether or not it's possible to exclude Panacea from them has been brought up. While a testing plan was devised by several thinkers I feel it would be much more efficient to have you ask your snarks."
Taylor and Amy exchanged a look.
Taylor: So, if I start a multi-tinker fugue will Amy be dragged into it by force?
BA: Contemplation
S: Data
BA: Agreement. Concern. Data
S: Agreement
"That sounds annoying," Amy grumbled.
"To answer the question," Taylor said. "It seems that the options are likely to be including her in the fugue or giving her a massive thinker headache with all the information being passed around. The latter would be harmful to her after half an hour or so, but our snarks feel they'd be able to reverse the damage within a day. Maybe two, if the fugue lasts more than a few hours."
As far as Taylor could tell Colin was making notes with his visor before he continued. "I see. Thank you. Do either of you have scheduling conflicts or other objections to attempting a multiple-tinker fugue today?"
"Nothing planned and no objections here," Amy said, gesturing to Taylor. "So if Maul is game?"
"I'm ok with that if there's a clearly defined goal before we start," Taylor said. "I don't want to be trying to kickstart things with an incredibly vague goal."
"Wrench Wraith has repeatedly expressed her displeasure with the state of my motorcycle," Colin explained. "Since many of her claims can be backed up with minimal research I'd like to take her up on attempting to rebuild it, but she can't comprehend many of the additional systems I have in place. I've had similar issues trying to understand and implement the improvements she thinks should be made. We've come to the conclusion that a joint fugue may be the only way for us to work together on it. She's also expressed interest in doing a second round on your moped and is hoping to be able to duplicate what she did there to Panacea's if we have time and energy afterwards."
"Works for me," Taylor said. Multiple nicely defined goals was much better than she was expecting. "Though I'm curious about what she wants to do for a second round?"
"Being registered as a tinkertech vehicle means that the speed limiter isn't needed anymore and she feels that you can likely handle the altitude limiters being removed as well." Colin stood up at that. "That said, let's head up to the roof to take a transport over to the Rig. We'll have your mopeds brought up by a PRT mechanic given temporary permission to use them and if you have any other questions I can answer them on the way."
Taylor and Amy followed him.
Amy: So, just to keep you informed, Mark figured out what I was doing to Vicky with the speakers.
Taylor: Huh. He tell you to stop?
Amy: He had me help him and Carol pair their phones to all the speakers as well, actually. Carol said it was going to be an ongoing lesson in paying attention to her surroundings.
Taylor blinked at that entirely unexpected answer.
Taylor: What?
Amy: Mark figured things out after being in there once and was apparently annoyed that I've been doing this to her for so long without her figuring any of it out. As he explained it, they're tired of her ignoring obvious signs on patrol because she can just tank things with her force field. They figure if they get her paying enough attention at home, where she thinks she's safe, that she might pay more attention elsewhere.
Taylor: Wow.
Amy: I think they plan on ordering a pile of components to make more too, since they got all the PRT store numbers from me before I left this morning. I might want to spend some nights at your house if they go overboard.
Taylor: You might need to wait until Lacey makes up with Kurt if you want to use our guest room.
Amy: If they go overboard I think I'd be just as happy with the couch. Or maybe I'll pick up a folding cot and join you in your room.
Taylor: Well, it will take some time for the extra components to arrive, right? So we can figure things out then if needed.
It sounded like the Dallon household might be heading towards becoming very, very annoying to visit for a bit. Then again...
Taylor: Have you considered escaping to your greenhouse?
Amy: I don't have a toilet in there.
Taylor: Ah. Good point.
Jacob sighed as he looked over the rubble of the now-destroyed Endbringer shelter. Sarah and the Butcher had been at their little cat and mouse game for days, and apparently one of the larger battles had ended up inside the shelter. He suspected that was intentional, given that the broken thinker had been hidden in the maintenance rooms next to the main shelter area. Which he could tell had also been destroyed.
He'd been too distracted by Fred's antics to get back sooner, but he didn't think the man had been doing so intentionally. Really, that had been more his own desire to see what Fred was up to. The unicycle had been interesting, and the entire day of spreading exploding balloon animals had been hilarious. This morning he'd switched gears entirely and dressed up as though he were a dead animatronic character from one of those chains that catered to kids. He was off lying in the street along one of the Protectorate patrol routes, waiting for someone to come up to him to investigate and all.
Jacob had decided to take the break in constant action to bring more food and water to the broken thinker and maybe run him through another therapy session, only to find the destroyed shelter. Which meant he should probably see if he could come up with a suitable punishment for William. Though he should probably see if he could figure out how any of them knew where the thinker had been stashed in the first place.
Looking down at the duffel bag full of food and water, he decided to go see how Cherie and Mimi were doing with driving Accord nuts. He'd never gotten along with the prick, so having the two constantly ruin any semblance of order in his area was a nice perk of being in town. Besides, Riley had claimed that the ducks they'd herded into there had learned to work together, so he should really take a look to see what they were up to.
"Before we head down to the lab there's someone who'd like to speak to Maul," Colin said as they entered the elevator on the Rig. The PRT mechanic that had fetched their mopeds would be bringing them down to the lab as well, before joining the observers. "I don't think he'll complain about Panacea joining us."
Taylor considered who was in her range. Sherrel was expected. Vivian wasn't really a surprise. Neither were male. Terry was around, as was Leet. She wasn't sure why either of them would want to talk to her though. So she had no clue who to expect to be visiting.
A couple of minutes later they'd exited the elevator into a relatively low-security hallway with Leet in one of the rooms, so that pretty much narrowed things down. Of course, that led to Taylor being confused when Colin led them to the room across the hall from Leet, which appeared to be a small waiting area.
"I just need to check with him before you enter," Colin explained. "Ensure he's finished dressing and such. This should only take a minute or two."
Taylor and Amy looked around the small waiting area while Colin was across the hall. There were a few uncomfortable looking seats and a couple of side tables, and that was about it. None of it looked to be intended for significant use and they hadn't even left magazines or something like that in the room.
"I'm wishing that New Wave's visors had come in," Amy admitted a moment later. "Then I could be using mine in public."
"Why do you have to wait?" Taylor asked.
"Apparently the one I got originally isn't actually rated as protective equipment at all. Your clear one is likely the same. So I'm getting one that's rated for taking a handgun hit with the rest of New Wave. All of us will start wearing them at the same time after a press release about why we are."
"My clear one is just as strong as this one. I guess you didn't select the 'armored' option when you ordered yours?"
Amy blinked a couple of times, before sighing. "Ok, I remember that now. I think I decided the expense wasn't worth it for something I'd be using at home. Besides, despite my arguments about patient privacy and such they want me to have a camera available anyway. Neil thinks we can probably have you be given a non-functional or basic one as my friend so that you can get away with wearing your real one in public though."
"Why not just take my real one and give it back to me?"
"I think the idea is to have an actual non-functional or basic one so that anyone paying attention during the press conference won't pick up on anything unusual, assuming we do a press conference anyway. That's still being debated."
Taylor considered that and decided it made sense, but Colin opened the door before she could say anything.
"Ladies," Colin said from the door. "We're ready for you."
The two followed the Protectorate tinker across the hall into the much larger area. It looked somewhat like a studio apartment of sorts. Colin had stepped to the side after entering, obviously not intending to interfere unless needed. Taylor wasn't initially sure why, but Leet latching onto her a moment later explained some of that.
Kinda.
Ok, not really, but it distracted her from her musing on it. She needed the focus to not panic over the unexpected hug from an effective stranger.
"Thank you thank you thank you," Leet seemed to be mumbling as he hugged Taylor. Which was fine, except she wasn't sure what she was being thanked for.
"Excuse me," Amy said, prodding Leet in the shoulder. She sounded slightly annoyed. Maybe it was because she could tell how uncomfortable the sudden glomp was making Taylor? Either way there wasn't going to be a complaint.
The young man seemed to pause at that, before letting Taylor go and stepping back. "Sorry about that, but I didn't think that I'd ever see the Pensieve again, let alone the recordings stored in it." He then paused for a moment. "Oh, right. Introductions. I'm rebranding as Reknit, but you two can call me Trevor."
"Hello Trevor," Taylor said. "And you're welcome about the Pensieve, but I think anyone decent would've done the same." She paused, then decided to ask about what was bugging her. "Not to sound pushy or anything, but I'm slightly confused. Why Reknit?"
Trevor shrugged. "It works for being able to fix things and Dragon claimed that in many ways I seemed to tinker backwards for some reason."
"Oh." Taylor supposed that made some sense. "Speaking of tinkering, you look like you're doing better than the last time I saw you. Did you stop tinkering yourself unconscious?"
Trevor shrugged again at that. "I'm currently staying on the Rig in part because I'm more easily monitored here. They're forcing me to only tinker for a few hours at a time, but that's mainly because otherwise I forget to do things like stop to eat and sleep. My therapist says I'm making progress, but Countdown or Miss Militia have still needed to force me out of the lab every time I tinker." He then paused and looked at Taylor. "Hey, you've got the Snitch working, right?"
Taylor nodded, reaching to pull it out of the pouch it was sitting in. "Yeah, did you want it back?"
"No," Trevor said, tearing up a little and causing Taylor to stop before she'd gotten it out. "I wouldn't be using it anyway, so I already signed it over to you permanently after Armsmaster explained the loaning bit. Besides, I told you that you could keep it if you got it out of the cabinet, even if I thought you'd fail. You safely getting the Pensieve out and ensuring that it was put aside for me was more than I could have dreamed of. But I built a proper version of the drone I based the Snitch on. Three times the diameter, twice the scanning range with a little higher resolution, armored, and some more intelligent pathing routines. Downsides include requiring more computing power to process the output and needing a dedicated charging cradle. I want to loan you it with the same basic terms Armsmaster used for the Snitch."
Taylor blinked. "Why?"
"Because I didn't write the control software." Trevor sniffled a couple of times. "Erik did that, because I'm apparently incapable of writing the other end well enough to handle everything. But Dragon is having trouble rewriting it. Supposedly monitoring you using the drone will let her start mapping things out, and the software you're already using should be able to interface with the new one just fine."
"The software you're currently using looks fairly straightforward for inputs and outputs," Colin explained. "But the code itself is over-optimized to the point of likely relying on compiler and processor bugs. We're familiar with that due to my own code ending up doing similar things, but Dragon has been able to figure out my code by monitoring it while it's in action. We're hoping to do the same with this protocol through monitoring things while you use the drone."
"Oh." Taylor wasn't sure how to take that, but decided it made sense. "Couldn't you monitor what I do with the Snitch instead?"
"There's insufficient room in the Snitch to install the additional monitoring system we wish to use to record that end of things. And we'd just copy everything you have but Trevor here seems to think that the learning curve is a bit steep. Since you aren't having issues handling the Snitch we figured that you would be the best one to operate the new drone until we get things working."
"Ok. I can see how that would be the case." She'd have to adjust how she used the drone versus the Snitch, but whatever.
"Since I'm here anyway," Amy said after the silence had gone on long enough to indicate that they were done with that topic. "Would you like me to check your health?"
Trevor looked at Amy. "Sure. Actually, I keep having a pain in my left leg, if you can tell me what that is I'd appreciate it?"
Amy nodded and held her hand out, which Trevor took. Taylor tilted her head as Trevor's biology came into focus. It looked like the left leg was the least of his problems, but one of the only ones likely to cause pain. Amy was making quick work of everything anyway.
"Your leg pain was an improperly healed tendon," Amy explained. "I've also fixed the damage to your kidneys and the ulcer that would've caused problems soon. You need a lot more calcium in your diet, there's only so much I can do with your bones right now due to the lack of it. And you will need to see about increasing your vitamin D intake or getting more sun."
"Thank you," Trevor said as Amy released his hand. "I'll let you get going. I'd asked if I could join the fugue when I heard about it, but I was denied."
"You're not healthy enough to join," Taylor said. "These things can put a lot of stress on the body. The healing you just got will help a lot, but to enter a fugue would do too much harm right now."
"You should eat something and rest a bit," Amy added. "Don't push yourself too hard, but drink plenty of milk or see if you can get calcium supplements."
"Thank you again," Trevor said as Colin opened the door to lead them out. "And good luck with figuring out the drone."
Once they were back out in the hallway and the door had closed behind them Colin sighed. "Thank you for not outright objecting to the additional loan. He's attempted to be a little too generous with his tinkering. Since he was brought in he's tried to give the PRT everything he's built. Our policies don't actually allow that in the condition he's in. We haven't told him that his tinkering budget is coming in part from payouts for what we've learned from examining the teleportation units and what he's built here on camera."
"Yet someone let him sign the Snitch over to me?" Taylor questioned.
"That was seen as a genuine thanks on his part," Colin elaborated. "It was only after he found out that the holographic player had been recovered intact that he was able to accept that the PRT would be more willing to borrow his creations to attempt to reproduce them than to take them outright. We're waiting on this therapist to clear him for knowing that he's being paid for what we learn."
"In that case shouldn't you be figuring out how to build a new drone instead of having me bring the only one available into the field?"
Taylor was able to see Colin grin at that. "We lied to him about the loan agreement and have already put the original into storage for him. In part thanks to Dragon watching him build the original and him being able to answer questions during the process we were able to make most of the component parts with minimal issues, and you made several of the carbon nanotube harnesses needed. In fact, because you made extra harnesses you're getting your own personal drone assigned to you, painted to match the rest of your equipment. We'll be using the three additional duplicate units as we figure out how to make the new code work from the data we're collecting from yours."
Taylor thought about that for a moment. "Think I should reset the syncing on the original Snitch controller so that he can have that unit back to use with the original drone? Even if you and Dragon come up with something better he might appreciate having the original. It isn't like I'm using it, after all."
Colin noticeably paused at that. "I don't think that would be a bad idea. I'll ensure that the original and duplicate drones are brought over to the PRT building before your Monday patrol. I think we'd like to see you go through the whole process with both of them for documentation purposes anyway."
Chris grinned as he opened the list of clearances for getting a tinker fugue. His parents had been hard to convince, but pointing out that it appeared to be safe and would give him a defensive brute rating had been enough. Being able to move stuff around more easily when tinkering and hopefully being able to move around in his armor when it was dead were bonuses.
He'd carefully neglected to mention the benefits for females. He didn't want to think about that, and it didn't apply to him anyway.
Now then, the list...sheesh, that was a long one. He might need longer than he thought to get to the fugue itself. And why were none of them labeled?
Nearly an hour later he'd actually completed one of the many seemingly random entries. Shortly after he'd triggered he'd convinced his parents to take him on a tour of all of the memorials to Hero in the country, and he had multiple pictures at each. Selecting one with him and the memorial showing from each to submit had been trivial.
Now then, he should go check the home movies collection. He was fairly certain that there was already a clip of him singing the teapot song while doing the stupid little dance, no way was he going to do that again if he didn't have to.
"I didn't expect the lab we'd be working in to basically be a garage," Amy noted as they entered the tinker lab they'd be working in this morning.
Taylor had to agree, most of the space looked like what she remembered of the garage space at the docks where the dockworkers brought their cars. She hadn't been there in several years, but it still looked about right. The differences were still striking, even if the basics were all there. The space was much cleaner to start with, though that could just be that it hadn't gotten as much use or tinkertech cleaning drones being very good at their jobs. The lifts were larger and looked higher tech, which was honestly expected. The last major difference was that a third of the space was taken up with equipment that seemed to be designed for precision electronics work and similar, with a currently open folding wall that could partition it off.
"It was already somewhat a garage," Sherrel said from where she was apparently checking a toolbox. "They just beefed up that aspect and added more security features when I joined. Makes it easier to maintain things. Though I have to be careful to close the partition when I'm expecting a mess from an engine to keep the electronics stuff clean."
"No plants?" Taylor noted.
"We'll be bringing a selection in with my motorcycle and the two mopeds," Colin said. "Wrench Wraith's normal tinkering has accidentally killed the others that were in here previously in the process of keeping what would have otherwise been dangerous to humans gases safe enough to work around."
"So we know that the mechanic is going to be observing," Amy said. "Who else is doing so?"
Colin gestured to the upper corners of the room. "Just before we begin the retracted camera pods will open up to allow Dragon, Dauntless, the three local PRT mechanics cleared for parahuman identities, and anyone who opts to join Director Piggot back in the PRT building to observe. I'm told that the Think Tank was denied access to this session on the basis that they have too much of a backlog, but they may be permitted to watch the recordings later."
Taylor and Amy nodded at that, but were distracted from any more questions by the three garage doors opening. Colin's motorcycle and the two mopeds were brought in through one of them, a mobile food station came in through another, and a trailer full of raw materials and plants was brought in through the third. The PRT staff that had brought things in nodded to them before leaving, the doors closing behind them.
"I believe that's everything," Sherrel said, clapping her hands together. "Shall we get started?"
"Where are the restrooms?" Taylor asked, getting looks from everyone. "What? I'm thinking it would be a good idea to go now, and knowing before we start can't hurt either way. After that you should give us a tour to show us where everything is. We'll be much more efficient if we all have a general idea, after all."
"I find myself in full agreement with Maul," Colin said. "I can tell that you've moved quite a bit around since I last used this space. Knowing where things are can only benefit us all."
Sherrel sighed. "Ok already. I see the logic."
Chapter 104 They'd all used the restroom and Sherrel had given them a tour. The observers were ready, the cameras were active, and the motorcycle had been moved into the middle of the workspace they'd be using. As a side effect of how these fugues ended up working they no longer had any concerns about cannibalizing stuff they didn't intend to, so both Taylor and Amy had their phones ready for documentation purposes. All that was left was to actually start the fugue.
Taylor: What do you mean you don't want to work together?
Which was the problem.
[Data]{Objection. Data}[DATA!]
Amy: I'm starting to see why you wanted a defined goal. Even if it isn't helping.
Taylor: Yeah. Think they included alcohol on the food cart thing?
Amy: Somehow I doubt it.
Taylor: Dang. Not that it would help anyway. Any ideas on how to get these two to work together?
Amy: Not entirely. I mean, Efficiency just wants it to be efficient. Fairly straightforward.
Taylor: And Transportation seems to want it to be 'cool' first and 'efficient' second.
Amy: Right. But half the reason people think the thing is 'cool' is because it's efficient. So why is Transportation throwing a hissy fit?
{Data}
Amy: Oh, didn't realize they could hear this channel.
Taylor: Sorry, I thought you knew. But there you have it. It feels that an actual gas engine shouldn't even have an option to be silent, no matter how efficient stealth can be.
Amy: So why not replace it with a hover system? Wouldn't that be cool and efficient, allowing for more versatile movement options and such while allowing for easier stealth? Then emulate the gas engine sound or something like it with a speaker for when you want intimidation.
Taylor: I don't know. Maybe Colin and Sherrel have conflicting expectations that we aren't privy to that are screwing things up?
[Query]{Data. Query}[Data]BA: QueryUMR: Query{Elaboration}[Data]
Taylor: Huh. Neither snark had considered replacing the drivetrain at all.
BA: IntegrationS: IntegrationUMR: Integration[Integration]{Integration}|Integration|
Dragon noted the change in the four as the fugue started. She wasn't participating in this one to keep the numbers down, coupled with her carefully maintained story of only being present in person when it was inside of a building she controlled directly. It was common knowledge at this point that a remote drone couldn't directly participate in one of these fugues, but if she could be hidden elsewhere in the building within range of Mother then nobody would question it. But she wouldn't have that option in a building she didn't control.
Though she kept a proverbial eye on things most of her focus was on the rewriting of the augmented patrol system. The scout drones would provide too much of an advantage to ignore, but the interpretation of the data feed had been an issue. In particular, their data feeds wouldn't guarantee a unique identifier for everything, but the base they'd written for pulling data from cameras assumed there was. Though that was, in part, because they weren't tracking anything that they didn't care about with the camera output.
They'd decided it was easier to rewrite the base system to support non-unique identifiers of various kinds, but that was much easier said than done. Then again, once the rewrite was done they'd be able to take advantage of all of the extra information to do all kinds of useful things. They'd already tackled the identification of weapons, armor, and small animals. She wasn't sure if highlighting insects would ever be useful, but they could emulate a lot of the functionality of some of the shorter-range scanners they used for security. Like reading ID cards from people's pockets.
Now if only she could get the replayed test data to parse without failing in various ways. And this was just the Snitch data, everything they knew about the proper drones said that they'd have around eight times the data to deal with, and that was assuming that the data wasn't more detailed as well. She was trying not to think about how much trouble overlapping sensor ranges were likely to be.
Her work was interrupted a few minutes later by a message from Montréal. Apparently they felt they'd finished what they needed to with the three detection units that had been moving around the country and it was safe to deal with that particular nuisance now. Given that Mother was approaching the age range he tended to target, and some of what they now knew he'd been up to, she had no real problem with what she'd be doing in a few hours. She just had to find a suitably remote area to do it in.
Emily grinned as she sat down with a bowl of popcorn. It was a little petty, but she didn't care. After all, she was about to watch proof that Colin had admitted defeat on improving his own equipment and had asked for help from 'lesser' tinkers. It was one of the few things he took an unusual amount of pride in, only getting help from Dragon, the widely acknowledged 'greatest' tinker.
"I can't believe that Armsmaster is actually getting help from the tinker formerly known as Squealer," Ethan said as he dropped into a seat further down the row. Emily looked over and saw that he had two bowls of popcorn and a six pack of soda. "With how much she pissed him off over the past few years I'm still having trouble believing that they can work together. Maybe seeing it happen will help."
"I'm more impressed that people were willing to buy tickets to see the show," Hannah said as she sat down next to Emily. "Twenty-five seats for non-parahumans to get in here to watch, and there was actually a bidding war?"
"Should you really be talking about that in front of us grunts?" came from a couple rows back.
"You know what you did to get in here," Emily countered. "Or will be doing as the case may be. Easiest way I've come up with for getting volunteers for the VIP watch shifts in years."
"A couple days of mind-numbing boredom is a small price to pay to see history in the making," another voice came from behind them.
Emily grinned again, figuring that Hannah hadn't realized just what the currency had been for the bidding.
"I see you got my popcorn and drinks," Erin said as she sat down next to Ethan, taking the bowls of popcorn from him. "Where are yours?"
Danny sighed internally as he drove Lacey down to the pub and brewery. She'd already gotten her business loan at a very favorable rate. In fact, he'd had several people look into that as it seemed too good to be true. Nothing shady had come up, luckily. So today Lacey was going to look at the equipment that was already there to figure out if it should be kept or tossed, in the latter case it would be removed before the property changed hands and they'd likely convince Taylor to order some of the tinker-made stuff to replace it.
"I really need to see about trading in my car," Lacey grumbled from the passenger seat.
"You keep saying that," Danny pointed out. "But you won't say why."
"Er," Lacy said, before sighing. "I'm too short to drive it, ok?"
"Ah. You should call Jim about that."
"Why?"
Danny grinned. "His adopted daughter is tiny, but he found a kit that lets her drive his old truck."
Lacey sat there in silence for a few minutes. "That isn't a bad idea, but I think I still need to trade in the car. I think I'll want a pickup or box truck for picking up supplies and/or delivering stuff."
Well, at least she was thinking ahead.
Max resisted the urge to groan as he followed Brad to the new club. The man had been working on it for almost a year, even getting the deed to the place legally through one of the Empire's front organizations. Somehow he'd apparently finished getting the place decorated and ready for inspection ahead of his original schedule, and Max wanted to see what things looked like before official inspectors came in to take a look.
At least this would be a welcome change from the every few days skirmishes with the Elite. They'd nearly drained the supply caches they'd been carefully setting up in that area for when they claimed it. Thousands of rounds of ammo wasted in the stupid fighting. And he still had to make time to see if he could figure out what was going on in the financial district.
"Here we are," Brad said, producing his key. The building was in very nice condition on the outside, and the Black Sun symbol on the awning was a more subtle touch than Max had expected. Also technically more blatant than Brad had been given permission to use, but he might let it slide in this case.
"So you said something about different areas," Max said as Brad unlocked the door.
"Yep. Fancy high-class type stuff on the left for those that want to show that they're above the common people and all that jazz. A more normal bar type area on the right for the right kind of common people, and a side entrance to the rear area for those that can't even bother to put on respectable clothing. Each of the three areas has restrooms and the remaining corner down here has the kitchen."
Max nodded, that sounded somewhat reasonable. He stepped into the 'high-class' area as Brad had put it and had to admit that the decor was appropriate, with a respectable bar area off to one side. Devoid of the specific decorations that they'd add after inspection, of course. A quick look around even let him see that the ventilation should keep smoke from being an issue for those that liked to indulge. "So, what about the upper floors?"
"Second floor is accessible from the high-class area and contains the best soundproofed and most luxurious rooms. The elevator is just past the bar and the stairs are next to it. Third and fourth floors are accessible from the front and rear stairways, though those can also be used as emergency exits for the second in case of fire and such. The upper floors aren't soundproofed nearly as well and are much more basic."
"Looks good so far," Max admitted, waving Brad towards the door. He'd check upstairs afterwards. For now they moved across the hall to an area that looked more like a decent sports bar.
"I've got a couple of guys looking into getting into the state lottery system for in here," Brad noted, tapping an empty spot on the bar near the door. "But they aren't thinking we'll be able to pull that off anytime soon."
"Good initiative, but it certainly isn't high priority. Though now that I'm thinking about it, how is food coming and going from the kitchen?"
"Doors behind the bars," Brad said, walking over to the one in the room. "They lead into the middle of the connecting hallway, which will normally be staff-only. For code reasons the doors leading to the front and back of the building can always be opened from the inside, of course." Brad led Max into the hallway and through larger doors into what was obviously the kitchen. "We should be able to handle short order stuff and full party catering type stuff from in here, though for the latter we might have to restrict the short order stuff in the other areas."
Max walked around and checked the various things he knew the inspectors would care the most about for the kitchen area, mainly from other establishments they'd set up legally. As far as he could tell everything was actually set up to or beyond code. "I'm very impressed. You apparently learned to properly delegate. Now then, as much as I dislike entering the area for the unwashed grunts I should probably still see it."
Brad nodded and led Max back into the hallway, going through the door in the rear. There they were in what Max would describe as an unusually clean dump of a bar. Which was the point. No fancy electronics to speak of, an actual jukebox for music. Pool tables and dart boards off in one corner. It was, if he were being honest, nearly perfect for the intent. But there was a problem.
"What's with the bar stools?" Max asked. He wasn't expecting to like the answer.
"Took me a while to collect enough," Brad said proudly. "Replaced them with fakes that I petrified with that gun you got from Toybox since you can't weld to styrofoam."
Max took several deep breaths, before glaring at Brad. "You will be getting rid of those chairs before anyone from the city comes in here. I don't want there to be any sign that they ever existed."
"Yes sir," Brad said, nodding furiously. "But, um, why?"
"That gun only petrifies things for a few weeks at best," Max snapped. "I've had two rims damaged on my car because of the styrofoam fakes returning to being just styrofoam!"
Brad whimpered, which meant he likely knew he was in for some punishment. Max couldn't bring himself to care about his underling's discomfort.
Carol sighed as she looked over the paperwork that had arrived in the mail a few minutes prior. She honestly hadn't expected the answer to be different by now, but she'd gone through everything anyway. Interactions between the PRT's odd legal position, the legally protected portions of the 'Endbringer truce', the various protections on members of the Wards, and the President's involvement meant that they couldn't take direct legal action against anyone for what had happened to Taylor and Amy without going public with Taylor's dual identity. Mainly because Danny would have to sign several public documents to even start the process.
She threw the paperwork down on the table in front of her. She'd have to get in touch with Danny at some point, but she'd already told him to expect this. The Youth Guard was keeping the pressure on the PRT anyway, though they'd had to give up on trying to force the PRT to adopt a 'no underage parahumans involved with active Endbringer battles' policy. That wouldn't stop everyone from trying to ensure that the two girls would be kept away from Endbringer battles in general until they were both of age at a minimum, barring not having sufficient time to get them away from one when it started.
Sighing, she headed for her home office to distract herself with other plans. While they'd likely continue with the air raid siren for waking Vicky up, if only to keep her from getting suspicious, using crickets all the time for other sounds would be too predictable. She wasn't sure what else to use, though. Maybe she could find inspiration online? The girl needed to learn to be more observant and driving her nuts with phantom sounds was the only idea they had for the time being, other than asking Amy and Taylor to randomly try and slap her.
Half an hour later she wondered if they were going too far, or perhaps if they should scold Amy for the original prank. Then again, Vicky hadn't asked for Amy to stop or be punished in any way, and since Amy hadn't used it to do anything but wake Vicky up it wasn't really something to punish her for.
That and she did owe her daughter some payback for dropping her into the sewer on the last family patrol, accident or no. Though she should probably see about coming up with some ideas for messing with her own sister, their own prank war had been on hiatus for far too long.
Vivian very carefully manipulated the sample jars that she'd exposed to her latest prototype. That she was doing this manipulation from several miles away was just part of the safety and security precautions in this case. Even she wasn't crazy enough to mess with Nilbog samples in person. Medhall's incident showed that even seemingly sufficient protections could fail, after all.
Thinking about Medhall caused her to reconsider her stance. She'd be perfectly happy to mess with Nilbog samples in person provided that, say, Panacea was with her and they had a couple of full hotel room quality suites attached to the quarantine area for when the girl was done saving their asses. Otherwise she didn't want to be anywhere near the things.
All of this made it very difficult to come up with a way to neutralize Nilbog's creations. She was honestly starting to think that she might need to ask for assistance from others to figure it out. Or maybe it was beyond her skills, no matter how galling that might be to admit. It was hard to say, really.
"Oh come on," she groaned. The sample had, somehow, changed just enough that the prototype bomb hadn't gotten all of it. Again.
Maybe she should just dust off the plans for the giant matter to sand bomb and submit that as her solution for Ellisburg. After all, inert sand isn't going to be releasing any plagues, right? It wouldn't be nearly as elegant as shutting all of the creations down while leaving them available for study later but it would certainly be effective. Perhaps five deployed so that every point of Ellisburg was covered by at least two bombs just in case?
Nikos was livid, and had been for a couple of weeks. He still didn't know how the Guild had found him, nor how they'd gotten to him without his thralls in various government positions tipping him off about the plan in the first place. Why had he gone to all the effort of getting them into place if they weren't going to warn him? The only reason he wasn't screaming and ranting about how he was being treated was the knowledge that when news of his capture got out there'd be a lot of chaos they couldn't hope to contain.
"Good afternoon Mister Vasil," came from the suddenly-active videophone in the wall of the cell, even though a quick glance showed that there was no face visible on the screen today. Just the Guild's logo. "How are you today?" Nikos didn't bother to respond. "Well then, I suppose we can skip the pleasantries and get down to business. We've finished the evaluations of the various thralls of yours that we've been able to identify so far. Sadly, we were only able to truly help those you had the least amount of interaction with. Anyone who you kept around for more than a week or two had permanent damage done to them, with those that were around longer having proportionally more damage."
Nikos froze at that. How in the world had they identified enough of his thralls to figure that out? It wasn't like he grabbed everyone around him, after all. That would've been too obvious.
"On the other hand," the person on the other end of the connection continued. "We believe we've located all of your surviving children. Juliette and Nathan provided a wonderful contrast with those who'd triggered, showing how their own powers likely affected your control. We've got the others working with various therapists and are hopeful that they'll all eventually become productive members of society. Cherie and Jean-Paul have already started, in fact."
Nikos growled at that revelation. No way was he going to allow his children to work for others!
"But I digress," the so-far one-sided discussion continued. "Since we've finally gotten far enough to know precisely what orders you tended to put in your thralls, hidden or otherwise, we now know what you didn't do. Silly of you, really. Orders to cause trouble for the individual or organization that killed or captured you did make sense, but you appear to have neglected to ensure that you couldn't just disappear."
"You can try and keep me hidden away," Nikos finally said. "But all you're doing is telling me how to do things better when I escape. After all, you wouldn't dare send me to the Birdcage and Canada doesn't have a death penalty."
"And there is where you're mistaken," the voice said, a pleased tone coming through. "For you see, you aren't being held by the Canadian government. You're being held by the Guild. We're an international organization tasked with taking out international parahuman threats. Your children and thralls have been found in three different countries so far, most of them under your own orders, with thralls in the governments of all three countries. That makes you an international threat that we can deal with as needed. Right now you're in a transport over the southern Atlantic ocean. Unfortunately this particular transport missed the last few maintenance cycles it was supposed to go through, so it's going to suffer several catastrophic failures in a few minutes. Luckily it's unmanned and has no passengers and decided to go AWOL over an empty stretch of ocean."
"So you're going to leave me in a wrecked transport? What's to stop me from surviving long enough to be rescued?"
"I'm glad you asked. We're thinking the fifty fragmentation bombs hidden in the walls, ceiling, and floor of your cell should be enough. In case it somehow isn't we've been poisoning the air during this little chat, tinkers ensured that the room you're in should sink without letting you out or keeping the air in even after the explosions, and that shock collar you're wearing is seventy-five percent C4 by volume. Our only regret is that your bounties will go unclaimed, but since claiming several of them will trigger your thralls we'll have to live with it. We aren't without mercy though. We're almost positive that you won't live long enough to feel any pain."
Nikos wasn't given a chance to answer.
Lacey grumbled about horrible equipment as she poked through the PRT store on Danny's computer. Things had looked good at a quick glance the first time they'd looked at things when checking the property out, but a closer look had shown otherwise. Once she'd focused on the brewing equipment in particular she'd wanted to gag. She hoped that some of the problems had been from someone trying to modify the things to make drugs.
She really hoped that someone had been trying to make drugs, actually. She didn't want to contemplate why the equipment would be configured that way for brewing alcohol.
The dockworkers would be helping clear out the equipment before the official purchase of the property, but that was going to take a couple of weeks to do properly. Then again, she'd found a nice potential loophole in several laws that if any of them panned out probably needed to wait until after Taylor's birthday anyway, so it was probably for the best.
Taylor groaned as she woke up. Her phones connected and told her that it was around eight at night. She opened her eyes and looked around the unfamiliar room, spotting her jacket, utility belt, and visor on a table. It didn't take long to remember that they'd been trying to fugue to work on Colin's motorcycle. Since Trevor was in her range she assumed she and Amy, who was apparently in the next room over, were still on the Rig.
Five minutes later she'd found the documentation she'd apparently written, fifteen different documents of varying sizes. Maybe she'd look over them later. For now she should probably check with her father. Actually, she was only just realizing that she should have warned him beforehand that she was going to be attempting a fugue. Especially with how easily she could call or text him.
"Good evening sleepyhead," Danny answered once she'd initiated the call. "Did the fugue go well?"
"Evening," Taylor replied. "And I think so. Sorry about not letting you know about it in advance."
"They let me know about the possibility a few days ago. You going to be home tonight?"
"Not sure. I think we're still out on the Rig right now."
"I'll assume that you won't be making it home then. I'll let you go as I was about to hop into the shower, but say hi to Amy for me."
"Will do. Goodnight."
"Goodnight to you too."
Taylor yawned as the call disconnected and wondered if they'd be going back to the PRT building tonight or if the plan was to keep them in the Rig overnight. With any luck the fact that Miss Militia was approaching would provide an opportunity to get some answers.
She threw her visor on as she walked over to the door, opening it as Miss Militia paused outside of it. "Good evening Miss Militia."
"Good evening Maul," Miss Militia returned, entering the room when Taylor stepped aside to let her in. "How are you feeling?"
"Tired. I haven't checked the documentation I wrote, how far did we get?"
Miss Militia chuckled. "Halfway through rebuilding Armsmaster's motorcycle you and Panacea started taking apart the mopeds. We were originally concerned it was for parts, but it was apparently to be more efficient with your time while only one or two people could be working on the motorcycle itself. Dragon claims that the two mopeds are now equally functional tinkertech vehicles. You might have to teach Panacea how to use hers, though the limited tests we were able to do seem to show that you left the thirty mile per hour limiters in place. If you'd like assistance removing those we can arrange some time to attempt it."
Taylor shook her head. She suspected that they both probably had the horn button trick to disable the limiter now. Maybe they hadn't documented that bit. "I don't think that'll be needed."
"I suppose that if you didn't feel it was necessary then that might be why you didn't bother. Now, we'd like to get you and Panacea off of the Rig tonight, but before we do so we have a request for your assistance. Reknit's therapist would like to know if you can provide any insight into how he's taking things from his power's point of view."
"Possibly." Taylor thought about that for a moment. "Probably need to wake Amy up first so that she isn't woken up by the discussion. But I don't know if you are cleared for things?"
"I'm not, his therapist said there should be a document prepared for him in the system for you to add to."
Taylor nodded, figuring that made sense. She starting looking for that as she mentally poked Amy.
Taylor: Wake up over there.
She waited a moment. No reaction whatsoever. She flipped her striker switch a couple of times, causing all the stuff on her skin to appear and disappear to her senses. That got Amy moving.
Amy: What the hell?
Taylor: I've been asked to poke at Prototype to see if I can get insight on Trevor. I figured you wouldn't want to be woken up by that.
Amy: Oh.
Taylor: Then we'll probably be heading over to the PRT building, so you might want to get ready to head up to catch a transport.
Amy: Yeah yeah.
"Ok, she's up," Taylor said, confirming that she had found the right document and was in edit mode. "I'll poke Prototype now."
"Prototype?" Miss Militia asked.
"Reknit's snark."
Taylor: Hello Prototype.
[Greetings]
Taylor: How are you and Trevor?
[Data. Elaboration]
Amy: That sounds unhealthy.
Taylor: Yeah. Good for you that he's trying to make a lot of stuff, bad for him on the why.
[Query]
Taylor: Why is it bad for him? Hmm. How to put it...
BA: Data
S: Elaboration
BA: Agreement. Elaboration
[Query]
S: Data
BA: Correction
S: Agreement
[Data]
Taylor: No, no. Don't try and wipe his memories of Erik. That's a bad idea.
BA: AgreementS: Agreement
Amy: Just try and prod him towards accepting that while he made mistakes they aren't the only reason Erik died.
Taylor: Yeah. After all, there's no guarantee that the evacuation teleporter could have gotten him out in time, right?
[Agreement]
Taylor finished making notes in the document and submitted the changes. "That should do it for now."
"That didn't take long," Miss Militia noted. "Though I noticed you flinched a couple of times."
"Prototype had some...spectacularly bad ideas on how it could help Reknit recover. I made note of them in his file as a warning."
"Ahh. Well, thank you for that. You should get your payment for the assistance in the next three days or so. Can you handle getting yourself and Panacea up to the transport on your own?"
"That shouldn't be an issue."
Miss Militia nodded at that. "Please don't take too long. Have a nice night."
"You too," Taylor said, moving to collect her things as Miss Militia left. She changed gears a moment later, realizing that she should hit the restroom first.
Her next brainwave hit while she was on the toilet.
Taylor: Hey Prototype, can you give me details on how to control the Snitch and scout drones?
Amy: Oooh, that's a good idea.
[Query]
UMR: Data
[Understanding. Query]
Taylor quickly opened up a new document.
Taylor: Ok, I'm ready.
[Data. Elaboration. Data...]
Dragon paused as a message arrived. Mother had apparently figured out how to flag things as low priority, not urgent, ignore if you're even mildly occupied, and sorry this wasn't provided sooner. The last one was a new one to her, at least, and was enough for her to open the message despite the otherwise low priority.
Ten minutes later she'd discarded the entire set of in-progress code she'd been working on for controlling the scout drones and started over. Having actual documentation for the protocol was going to make everything a lot easier. It was probably the second greatest unexpected gift Mother had given her so far.
Chapter 105 Sunday morning Taylor woke up feeling like she hadn't gotten the best night's sleep.
Taylor: Did you have to work with the vial-snarks all night?
BA: Apologies
Amy: Am I allowed to go back to sleep?
Taylor: While I have spare clothing here I don't think you do, so you might want to swing by home before doing anything else today.
Amy: But that can happen later?
Taylor: And I might need to teach you how to use your moped before you can head home.
Amy: Which can also happen later?
Taylor: How about you see if you can get some more sleep while I make breakfast.
Amy: Damn you. Now I've realized that I'm starving. We didn't eat enough at dinner last night.
Taylor: I'll make a large breakfast.
"This is great," Amy said as she worked her way through the baked french toast Taylor had made. "Though I'm not sure we needed three pans full."
"There were three pans available and the oven could fit them," Taylor replied. "Any leftovers will probably be appreciated by the others. If we leave any leftovers, anyway." She'd even gone to the effort of adding the recipe for it to the cookbook one of the others had picked up, with markings for one, two, and three pans. Only time would tell if anyone else would successfully make it though.
Amy: Too hungry to take time to speak. Any idea what you might want to do today?
Taylor: Heh. Well, I figure we should start with going home and checking in, and in your case changing into a new outfit.
Amy: Duh. After that?
Taylor: I dunno. Maybe meet up to see a movie?
Amy: That could work. Maybe swing by the market afterwards? Oh! There's a new restaurant over there we could try out for lunch if we catch an early enough show at the movies. Crystal said it was good when she visited.
Taylor: Works for me.
They looked over movie listings while they ate, ending up with half a pan of leftovers in the end. Those were packaged up and thrown in the fridge before the two of them cleaned up together. That done they collected their stuff and made their way into the garage.
"This is a bit more complicated than before," Amy whined as Taylor explained things.
"If you don't need altitude you can just hit here," Taylor said, pointing at the control in question. "That will take it out of park, then treat it like you used to."
"Oh." Amy did so and ran a couple of test laps around the parking area. "Ok, that seems to work fine. I'll work on the rest later."
Taylor: Just be careful with the horn button. A ninety degree turn there will disable your thirty mile per hour limit.
Amy blinked a couple of times, then looked down at the button in question.
Amy: And you don't leave yours like that why?
Taylor: Because until I need it I'd rather keep it in reserve. I haven't even told the PRT yet, so it should be a complete shock to anyone chasing me.
Amy: That makes a lot of sense. And would explain why we aren't talking about it out loud.
Taylor, being more used to the hover moped, made it home well before Amy did. Though she suspected that some of that was Amy intentionally taking her time and a longer route to get used to things. She found Lacey going over books and paperwork in the kitchen. A larger pile of books and paperwork.
"Morning," Taylor said.
"Hi," Lacey said, distractedly waving a hand.
"Your pile looks to have grown?"
"I'm investigating laws. There are unusual interactions between some of the parahuman specific and general laws relating to food, alcohol, and overall business ownership. Though at least getting the PRT to sign off on the last bits of the business being created should be trivial, Carol said that they tend to only try to stonewall you if they really want you to join and they already told me I'd be a poor fit."
Taylor thought about that, then shrugged. "Ok. I think I should feed my spider-bot before I go out for the day." She was getting some potatoes out when she paused. "By the way, where's my father?"
Lacey sighed and put the book she was looking at down. "He decided to make another attempt to get Kurt to see reason. I doubt he'll be successful, Kurt can be as stubborn as I am. I honestly think he won't budge until he sees a direct benefit to him, which is probably going to be really good drinks or actual profit coming in."
"Which is why we're waiting on a bunch of stuff for making hopefully amazing mixed drinks?"
"Yep."
Discussion paused while Taylor prepared the potatoes, mainly because the blender was noisy. Midway through she added a banana and a chopped up apple as well, though she did mentally question why after she'd done it.
"So," Lacey said once Taylor started pouring the mix into a bowl to bring upstairs. "I don't suppose I can have some of that chocolate you've got upstairs for my drink mixing stash?"
Taylor gave Lacey a look, only to get puppy-dog eyes in return. "Four bars, and none of the caramel."
"I mainly want some of the ultra-dark," Lacey said as she bounced up to follow Taylor upstairs. "Though I do wonder how someone triggers as a chocolate tinker."
"The one who makes the dark stuff has that as a question on his PRT store profile. He blames it on his single mother's job at an all-girls high school."
"But he wouldn't have gone to said school?"
"He didn't go into details."
Lacey seemed to consider that while Taylor put the bowl down near the pet carrier. With it on the floor she opened the carrier to let the spider-bot out. Instead of starting on eating it right away it instead grabbed and carefully pulled the bowl into the carrier to eat in there. Taylor shrugged and moved over to the boxes of chocolate.
"The blue box on the left please," Lacey said, pointing.
Taylor shrugged and extracted that box, opening it up. Lacey then nabbed four individual bars seemingly at random, but likely because they had some nebulous quality that caused her snark to think they were higher quality than the others.
"Thank you," Lacey said, cradling her four bars of chocolate. "Though I might need to look this guy's profile up. I have so many ideas for using chocolate at the pub."
"Probably because you've been around my pile of high-quality chocolate," Taylor said as she closed up the box and adjusted the pile a bit. "I'm sure your snark will branch out when it has other things available."
"Or maybe I'm just mildly obsessed with chocolate," Lacey countered as she headed for the door. "Thanks again!"
"You're welcome," Taylor said, before sighing as the door closed. She should really take a shower before heading out to meet Amy to catch a movie.
Taylor was drying her hair after her shower as Amy was feeding her own spider-bot, and apparently talking to Vicky at the same time.
Amy: Vicky claims that new restaurant has a dress code.
Taylor: Do they post it on their website?
Amy: Hopefully.
Taylor: Do you know the name of the place?
Amy: Uh...
Taylor moved into her room and set her tablet up so she could use it while she worked on her hair.
Amy: Crystal says it's The Savory Lantern.
Taylor: I'll see if I can find anything while you're in the shower.
Amy: Thanks.
It didn't take long to find information on the place, and they had an easily found page with the dress code listed. Most of it was basic stuff. Things like not wearing sneakers or jeans. None of that bizarre 'intentionally worn to the point of falling apart' fashion, nor things like pants that were so loose you could easily see underwear. Basically a semi-formal environment, but not an excessively restrictive one. The most notable exception was that capes in costume didn't have to adhere to pretty much any of it.
Of course, even the exception had an exception. Power armor wasn't permitted unless you brought your own semi-formal chairs, and they didn't have accommodations for hiding part of your face while eating in costume. They recommended that capes skip going in costume if they didn't routinely expose the lower half of their face as a result.
Taylor: They don't do lunchtime reservations outside of parties, and it looks like if we dress semi-formal we'll be fine. Plus I don't see anything that would prevent us from wearing our utility belts since they're tasteful enough. If they looked like construction worker belts or something like that we'd have to leave them behind.
Amy: Ok. I'm curious, is there anything gender-specific in the rules?
Taylor: They state that males aren't excused from shaving properly if they opt to wear traditionally feminine attire, but that kilts don't require shaved legs even for females.
Amy: Really?
Taylor: Yep.
Looking over her options, Taylor decided to go with flats, dress pants, and a light green blouse that matched the Vista-style utility belt nicely. Though she did drop her sneakers into a plastic bag and hide them in one of her expanded utility belt pouches just in case she decided she wanted them in the market. With that decided she started on her hair, figuring that putting it into a braid wouldn't be a bad idea. Less likely to have obvious helmet hair that way when they got to the restaurant and all.
Once she was dressed she collected the now-empty bowl from the spider-bot and let it into the bathroom. She wasn't sure how Riley had done so but she'd actually toilet-trained the thing so that it could use the actual toilet, even if it didn't seem to know how to flush. With that taken care of she let it follow her downstairs while she rinsed the bowl, since Amy wasn't ready to leave yet anyway.
"Don't you look fancy," Lacey commented. "What's the occasion?"
"Amy wants to try The Savory Lantern after Crystal went there, but outside of capes in costume they've got a semi-formal dress code. Otherwise I'd be in my usual casual whatevers."
"Ah. I've heard of the place but haven't visited. It's supposed to be a bit pricey."
"I've got plenty of money to spend and Amy isn't doing badly at this point either, so that shouldn't be an issue."
Lacey gave Taylor a hug, which was odd for Taylor given how short the woman was now. "You have fun. More than I'll be having anyway, since I'm probably going to be spending all day working through this stuff."
Taylor looked at the pile. "Have you asked anyone for help?"
"Nope. I want to figure it out for myself first, that way I'll know things better later on anyway." Lacey dropped into the chair she'd been using before continuing. "After I think I've figured everything out I'll double-check with professionals, of course. Your father wouldn't let me do otherwise."
"Don't burn yourself out," Taylor said, shaking her head as she went to ensure the spider-bot was in its carrier. Once that was done she double-checked the movie listings and 'fed' her carbon-processing plants before leaving.
Amy had gone for clothing similar to Taylor's, though with a red blouse instead of a green one due to the red and white color scheme of her pouches. The purple/violet 'belt buckle' from the shield belt didn't look bad with the entire ensemble. Taylor thought it was mildly amusing, given that they hadn't actually tried to coordinate at all.
"Maybe you should grow your hair out a bit more so you can easily braid it," Taylor noted.
"No thanks," Amy replied. "It's hard enough to deal with relatively short due to how frizzy it tends to be."
Taylor: It sounds like that bothers you a little. How hard would it be for me to 'fix' that particular problem?
Amy: Oooh. Hadn't really thought of that. Might have to think about that one. Cosmetic changes like that seem kinda petty. Not to mention harder to explain.
Taylor: Suit yourself. Though I think Riley is going to want us to do some work on her in the nearish future.
Amy: Oh, most likely. She's discovering that people are treating her as a little kid all the time and all despite her technically being older.
They made their way to the ticket counter, then to the concession stand, before settling in to watch the movie. For the most part they only spoke when they had to talk to others, given the nature of their mental discussion.
"That's kinda cute," Linda said after the doors had closed behind Amy and Taylor.
"What's cute?" Nick asked from the other station at the concession stand.
"Amy Dallon and Taylor Hebert there," Linda said, rolling her eyes. "Didn't you notice how they're so in tune with one another that they didn't even need to talk to each other while ordering? Just a quick glance between each other was enough to convey everything they needed to."
"Whatever."
Taylor smirked as they pulled away from the theater. The film had been mediocre at best, but it had given Amy ideas. Ones she'd been going over since around halfway through the film itself.
Amy: Too bad I don't think I can get a suitable power system into a prosthetic fingernail, but I could almost certainly pull some of those things off with something similar to dentures.
Taylor: But what if you made an entire prosthetic finger? Would that be enough?
Amy: That could work. Ooooh, I could put the power system into replacement finger bones!
Taylor, of course, was encouraging the crap out of the other girl, because many of the ideas sounded hilarious. Useless, but hilarious. Why would you want fingernails that could remove lipstick with fancy tinkertech, or a tooth that could pull small amounts of ethanol out of your blood to make you smell more drunk than you were?
Though she would admit that the toenail lockpicks sounded useful for magicians.
Amy: Hmm. If I add a powerful enough capacitor I might be able to get the fingernails to be able to act as a one-shot taser too.
Now that, on the other hand, sounded much more useful. Probably not worth getting for herself though. But what else could they come up with?
"Good afternoon ladies," the host at The Savory Lantern said as the two walked up. "Table for two, or will you have others joining you today?"
"Just the two of us today," Amy said while Taylor was slightly distracted poking a couple of unfamiliar snarks already in the building.
"Very good, if you'll follow me?"
The two were quickly settled in a small booth and looking over their menus.
Taylor: I don't recognize any of the other capes in here. And a Duo of Chicken? Really?
Amy: Yeah, some of the menu items are a bit pretentious sounding. Are any of the capes obviously doing something we need to be concerned about?
Taylor: We'd know if any brain-targeting master or stranger effects were hitting us by now. Otherwise I don't think so. Unless you think I should ignore that nobody appears to be in costume and poke them further anyway?
Amy: No, don't bother unless they start doing something obvious. Huh, hand-chopped bespoke carrots? Why?
Taylor: No clue. I think I'll stick with the steak. Assuming I can decipher the wording to figure out which one I want. I mean, half of them are 'artisanal' but the other half are only 'bespoke'.
Amy: I wish Crystal had said something about this so that I knew to be ready with a dictionary. Or is it too rude to consult a dictionary while ordering?
Taylor snickered at that.
Taylor: Probably. And an implant to translate menus would probably require a full artificial intelligence.
Amy: Maybe bounce off of an online service for the actual translation? Then I'd only need minimal interaction with the optical nerve and a short-range transmitter to talk to a phone.
The two of them had moved onto actually browsing the market after the surprisingly delicious lunch. Pretentious as the menu seemed the food was quite good. Just barely worth the money, as far as they were concerned. Though they hadn't tried the recommended alcohol pairings, neither being interested in having wine today.
Taylor: I don't think that mask would work for Riley, but with what Fred's been up to it might work for him.
Amy: Possibly. I'm not sure the glittery rainbow fits him though?
Taylor: And the clown getup did?
Amy: Point.
Most of their browsing so far had turned into trying to decide if any given item that caught their attention would work well for the Nine. Which led to them moving from booth to booth giggling, snickering, and shaking their heads at various things.
Amy: Oooh. Check out this box.
Taylor: That's...actually quite clever, if fairly simple.
Amy: What?
Taylor: It's a puzzle box. If you open it the easy way you get one compartment from the top, if you open it the hard way you get a different compartment from the bottom.
Amy: Oh. That's even better.
Taylor: Bit obvious something's going on if you open it the easy way, because it isn't deep enough, but I bet Missy could fix that.
Though the grinning just before they actually bought things was somewhat unnerving to those watching them. Like the grins they were wearing when they bought a small pile of the fancy trick boxes.
Taylor: She'd probably hate it, but I bet Riley would look cute in this dress.
Amy: Add a couple of strategic cuts and some blood stains and it would fit just fine.
Taylor: Possibly. Too bad it would probably create problems if she suddenly had it after one of us bought it. A mass produced one is easy enough to explain her having one of, but handmade is a different story.
Amy: Yeah. Well, unless we handmade things for her, anyway.
Taylor: I'm good at mending, not creating from scratch.
Amy: Well, when she's on a run with the Nine that might be a better look anyway.
Taylor: ... No. Unless we come up with something too hilarious from our point of view and we send it to Jacob or possibly Amanda to get them to convince Riley to wear it at least once.
"Those two are so in-sync with one another they're almost creepy," Melinda said as she looked over the pictures she'd taken of Taylor and Amy.
"What do you mean?" Felicia asked as she poked through her bags looking for something.
"We were near them through five different booths, but they didn't talk to each other."
"That's odd, not creepy."
"But they were showing each other things. A single gesture and they'd go through various emotions, as though they were discussing whatever had caught one of their eyes. Without saying a word."
"Huh. Maybe they're practicing some super-secret nonverbal communication trick? Kinda like people who'll blink in morse code, but less obvious?" Felicia grinned as she found and pulled out her keys, which had somehow ended up in one of her shopping bags.
Melinda blinked a couple of times. "Wow. I don't know if that makes them paranoid or well prepared."
"What?"
"I mean, that's the kind of thing you learn in case you get abducted or something, right? So you can pass things on when they force you to show that you're unharmed on camera, or so you can plan escapes with others without your captors knowing."
Felicia rolled her eyes. "And you're surprised that someone taught Amy Dallon and Taylor Hebert, the world's greatest healer and Jacob's niece, something like that?"
"Well not when you put it that way."
"I have to admit that this is nice," Taylor said as they ate chocolate bars while looking out over the city from Captain's Hill. "But why did we come all the way out here?"
"To relax of course," Amy replied after she'd swallowed her most recent bite. "The gangs tend to leave out here alone because there's nothing worth fighting over. That and it's far enough out of the way that it doesn't tend to get excessively crowded ever, though I imagine that at lunchtime a number of people were out here having picnics today."
"I can see that," Taylor admitted. She felt it would certainly beat visiting the docks, if the smoke coming from several points was any indication. Which was itself an interesting contrast to the ships on the water being used to process wrecks and all. "But we didn't exactly bring anything to do out here. Or even a blanket to lay down on."
"Ok, yeah, it was a spur of the moment decision."
"That and the restroom building is very out of order right now."
Amy blinked, before groaning.
"These ones work nicely," Taylor said as she showed Amy the grow lamp model she'd picked up. "They're a bit better constructed than the rest for about the same cost."
"I don't know," Amy said, looking over the box. "My greenhouse doesn't exactly have electricity in it right now."
"But if you get a solar panel kit, a battery, and a light level sensing automatic switch you can probably get extra hours of 'light' using these once the sun has gone down."
"I should probably check with Carol and Mark before doing any of that, but it's definitely a nice idea. Anything else we should look at while we're here?"
"Well, we should probably pick up a pet carrier."
Amy blinked at that, before turning to look at Taylor with a 'wait, what?' expression. "Why?"
"I've learned that it's always a good idea to have a place to temporarily put a visiting pet and I don't think your house has one."
"There's something you aren't telling me," Amy accused. "What is it?"
Taylor answered that with a grin, and fifteen minutes later Amy left the store with a pet carrier she wasn't entirely sure of the true intended purpose of. A few minutes after that they'd successfully strapped it to Amy's moped, stuffing most of Amy's shopping into it in the process.
"So why this restaurant?" Amy asked as they looked over their menus.
"Because as tasty as the food was at The Savory Lantern and all this one isn't pretentious," Taylor replied. "That and it was close enough when we got the messages that basically told us we were both on our own for dinner."
"Oooh, they've got lobster."
"It's quite good too."
They spent the next ten minutes deciding what to order, eventually going for a single larger lobster, crab, and shrimp combo plate that they'd split between them.
"So what left you on your own for dinner?" Amy asked.
Taylor sighed. "Lacey took a cab home to take care of a few things while Kurt and my father were called in to deal with some cleanup after the fighting got a little too close to the dockworkers compound."
"Ah. I wonder if that's related to the stuff New Wave was asked to help with."
"Were they helping anywhere near the docks?"
"Possibly, they didn't say beyond telling me that they'd been asked to help with a couple of capes that the Protectorate was having trouble with. I'll probably get more details when Vicky starts whining about things later. Or gloating, I suppose."
Taylor thought about that for a minute. "With all the fighting I'm surprised they haven't asked you to swing by the hospital."
"That is a bit odd, now that you mention it. Then again, sometimes massive property damage happens without anyone actually getting hurt." Amy then snickered, before pulling out her phone. "In fact, I've got a clip of Vicky completely failing to hurt anyone in a fight she'd started with a cape passing through town last September. She took out three buildings in the process."
"Why were you there?"
"Turns out the girl wasn't causing trouble and just wanted my autograph. Carol was pissed."
"Where do the gangs find these people?" Eric wondered as he sat on the forcefield holding several gang members. They were all knocked out anyway, but better safe than sorry in case one of them woke up.
"No clue," Crystal answered as she looked over things on her phone. "PRT should be here in a few minutes to pick this group up."
"Good. Anything else of interest going on?"
"Amy's little outing with Taylor has generated some odd chatter."
Eric raised an eyebrow at that. "Odd in what way?"
"Well, this morning they showed up in fancier than usual clothing at the movies on their now matching mopeds. Said almost nothing, giving the impression of being so in-tune with one another that they didn't need to speak to communicate."
"Bah, we know how that works."
"Yeah yeah. Then they went to The Savory Lantern, which I guess explains dressing up since they weren't in costume. Still didn't say much of anything to each other there. Wandered the market for a bit buying various things. Given the way they were snickering and such at things some people think that they were communicating, but apparently nobody had any clue how."
Eric snorted at that. "Is someone going to have to talk to them about how to act in public?"
Crystal shrugged. "Who knows. Won't be me. They were seen spending time out on Captain's Hill, then they went shopping to look at grow lights and pick up a pet carrier? Don't know if I want to know. And then they were seen splitting a seafood plate of some kind for dinner."
"Do you think they enjoyed their Sunday date?"
Crystal slapped Eric on the back of the head. "No saying the D word. So long as everyone pretends they're just friends the Empire won't feel obligated to take offense. Hell, even PHO figured that out already."
"I was joking," Eric grumbled. "You know as well as I do that even we don't know if they're more than just friends."
"I'm home," Taylor called as she entered from the garage carrying her shopping bags.
"I'm in the living room," Danny called. "Lacey just went down to check on her brewing."
Taylor dropped her bags by the stairs and made her way into the living room. "How was the damage?"
"Not bad. The fighting stopped a couple blocks away and didn't impact the roads we use to get in and out, but someone blew up a building and pelted a large area with debris. It was mostly cleaning that up and dealing with windows that ended up broken. Luckily this happened on a Sunday when almost nobody was there. The few people that were had parked further in so their cars weren't damaged."
"Sounds annoying."
"It was. And you look nice, what was the occasion?"
"Amy wanted to try The Savory Lantern for lunch and they have a dress code. Semi-formal, basically."
Danny gave Taylor an odd look. "And you wore your utility belt?"
"Tasteful belts of any kind are allowed."
"Huh. Ok. Did you have fun?"
"Yeah. We got ideas for various things too, though I don't know if Amy will get around to actually making any of the implants or prosthetics she came up with."
Danny chuckled at that. "So, she make it home ok?"
"Yep. She's home alone right now, but she's started sorting through her purchases."
"Why don't you go do the same. I suspect Lacey is going to be a few anyway and I won't make you tell the full story of your day twice."
Taylor nodded. "That makes sense."
Amy had finished going through her purchases and started a load of laundry. She was halfway through pouring a glass of juice for herself when she realized that the spider-bot hadn't followed her downstairs. She carefully put the bottle of juice down and retraced her steps, just in case the spider-bot had stopped following her halfway through the house or something.
She wasn't sure if she was seeing things when she finally made it back to her room and found the spider-bot cleaning bits of leftover packaging out from inside of the pet carrier. And it had apparently dragged the little plush toy Vicky had given it into the thing.
Amy: Hey Taylor?
Taylor: Yeah?
Amy: I don't suppose you insisted that I get the pet carrier to make the spider-bot easier to deal with?
Taylor: Of course I did. Mine claimed the one I got pretty much right away. Easier than tossing the spider-bot across the room onto the bed before I leave and prevents being tackled when I get home.
Amy was fairly certain that she felt like an idiot for not thinking about just throwing the spider-bot into the room when leaving, but she wasn't sure what she should feel about not considering the pet carrier.
Amy: So, how did you figure out the pet carrier bit?
Taylor: I got one figuring I'd have to trick and/or fight the spider-bot into it. Given how quickly it took to it though I'm thinking Riley taught them to nest in the things for some reason. Or maybe she just 'raised' them inside of something similar?
Amy: So why did you make me wait before telling me any of this highly useful information?
Taylor: You made me wait to find out about the spider-bots in the first place.
Amy sighed. Well, that was probably fair, all things considered.
Chapter 106 Monday morning Taylor sighed as she opened her locker to put her jacket away. The light rain hadn't been a problem, but she'd been inundated with people asking questions about the day before since she got off of her moped. Though at least most of the questions were about The Savory Lantern, being a new restaurant and all.
Amy: Please tell me that you're getting asked lots of questions too?
Taylor: Yep. Mostly about The Savory Lantern.
Amy: I keep getting asked about what it's like to have a hovering moped.
Taylor: Heh. At some point I'm going to have to try riding up a building with mine.
Amy: What?
Taylor: That's one of the upgrades mine got. Yours got it as part of everything too.
Amy: I'm now thinking that I should have let you teach me more yesterday.
"Hey Taylor," came yet another student as Taylor was shutting her locker door.
"Yes?" Taylor replied, wondering what kind of question about the day before would be asked this time.
"Mindy and I can't recall which chapter we're supposed to review for physics, do you know if it was sixty-four or sixty-five?"
Taylor blinked. Huh, a school-related question in school. Amazing. "It was sixty-three for today, sixty-four for Wednesday and sixty-five for Friday." Which wasn't all that hard to remember, as those were the last three chapters of the book.
"Thanks!"
"They can't be that pretentious," Vicky argued at lunchtime. "No matter how good they are that would turn most people in town off from going there."
Taylor sighed and pulled out a phone. A minute later she'd found pictures of The Savory Lantern's menu, even though their website didn't list the menu. Yay for people wanting to put everything on the internet. "I dug the menu up, wasn't hard to find with a search. Now let's see...here we are. Hand-chopped bespoke carrots drizzled with a savory artisan glaze." She looked up at everyone other than Amy staring at her. "The food's tasty, but there are limits."
It didn't take long for the primary topic of discussion to become deciding which menu item was the most pretentious-sounding of them all. It even spread to the tables around them before the end of the lunch period, though they didn't come to a decent conclusion.
"Good afternoon," Taylor said as she entered the Wards area after working out with Amy and Vicky in the gym. Missy and Carlos were sitting there, and Lisa looked to have started on her way over as well. Colin and Miss Militia were also around, though she figured Colin was mainly here to come by with a scout drone or two.
"Afternoon," Carlos said with a half-wave. It took Taylor a moment to realize that Missy was out of costume, but wearing headphones and thus might not have heard anything.
Given that Colin and Miss Militia had started moving there had probably been an alert on the door for when she arrived, so she went to get changed. Lisa also looked to be on her way over, possibly from the cafeteria. Though now that she thought about it, Lisa wasn't supposed to be on console today when she'd checked earlier.
Taylor: So why is...
[Data]
Amy: I keep forgetting just how eager that one is to share.
Taylor: Yeah.
Apparently Lisa had spoken to Colin the day before and knew that a second round of augmented patrol testing was going to be happening. Good to know.
A couple minutes later she'd changed into her costume, happy that she'd been able to get the 'waves' out of her hair from the previous day's braid. Her pigtails looked better straight after all. That done she made sure she had chocolate bars in some of her pouches and grabbed the original Snitch controller. She also pulled a shopping bag out of the pocket in her backpack that Missy had expanded on Saturday before heading back out to the common area.
She dropped the bag onto the couch next to Missy, who finally pulled the headphones off.
"Oh," Missy said. "Hi. What's in the bag?"
"All the puzzle boxes we could get at the market yesterday," Taylor replied, pulling one out. "We're hoping you can make them even trickier by making it look like there isn't any missing space." She then demonstrated how to open them from the top and from the bottom.
"What's in it for me?" Missy asked after looking over the box, noting the pile in the bag.
"At a minimum you get to keep one, if you want to. Amy and I were thinking they'd make good gifts."
Missy looked into the bag, apparently counting the boxes. "I'm not that interested in that aspect this time."
"You angling for another hint on your list?" Taylor asked after a moment of consideration.
"I've decided to be stubborn and figure that out for myself," Missy admitted with a grin. "You turned a chore into an interesting puzzle."
Taylor tapped her finger on her chin, then reached into one of her pouches and pulled out a couple of the chocolate bars she'd stashed there. "Chocolate?"
Missy was suddenly all business. "Is that more tinker-made chocolate?"
"Why yes, it is."
Taylor blinked a moment later as Missy had grabbed the two chocolate bars. "Deal!"
A few minutes later Colin and Miss Militia entered the Wards area, Colin pushing a cart filled with boxes. They paused as they looked at Missy working on the puzzle boxes with a chocolate bar sticking out of her mouth, Carlos snickering, and Taylor moving over towards them.
"Good afternoon," Taylor said.
"Good afternoon Maul," Colin said.
"Good afternoon," Miss Militia echoed, shaking her head for a moment. "Do we want to know what's going on?"
Taylor grinned. "She's enhancing the puzzle boxes to make it less obvious that they have a secret compartment at all in exchange for a couple of bars of tinker-made chocolate."
"That's perfectly reasonable," Colin said. "Now then, we've got a couple of things to do today." He lifted one of the boxes off of the cart and placed it on the counter by the kitchen. "To start with, we'd like to observe you setting up your new drone." He then put a similar box next to it. "And you wanted to pair the old controller to the original?"
"Easy enough," Taylor said as she pulled out her phones and tablet. She also pulled out the original Snitch controller. "Did you want to pay attention as I wipe the keys from this?"
"No need. We expect to be using new software shortly. Dragon is more concerned with monitoring the pairing process on the new equipment."
Taylor nodded and quickly went through the key removal on the original controller. She followed that with generating a new key before pulling out a toolkit. It only took a moment to open the drone box up enough to trigger pairing with the drone inside, followed by double-checking that everything was working before powering it all down. The controller was put into the drone box, which was then put to the side. While she was doing that Colin had unboxed her new drone, which was painted with the same style of flame pattern as her maul.
"I should really make new keys," Taylor mumbled, poking through both phones and the tablet to load up the Snitch control software on each. She quickly generated brand-new keys for each device, then pulled the Snitch out so she could re-pair to it. Having different keys on each device would also, according to her understanding, allow her to run more than one of them at a time without conflicts. Well, only one could control it at a time, but they could all pull the feed that way.
As a side benefit, she was able to save backup copies of the new keys off to files instead of having to rely on the copied original key that was stuck in the dump file. Hopefully that would let her just import them into whatever new software Dragon came up with.
It didn't take long to get the Snitch working again, with the old keys purged from it as well, and then she went through the pairing process with the larger drone. Dragon monitored each device connecting via the additional monitoring device currently attached to a debug point in the drone, and asked for permission via Colin to monitor her 'Maul' phone directly while it connected as well.
"Thank you," Colin said once they were done with that, returning the box with the original drone to the cart. "Dragon appreciates it as well, in addition to the information you were able to provide on Saturday."
"Now then," Miss Militia said. "Miss Biron? We're going to be calling in some technicians to work on the personal areas. They're all cleared for civilian identities, but it's up to you if you want to stay here in civilian attire or not while they work."
Missy sighed. "Let me finish these up and then I'll head home. I mainly came in to get a replacement brush for my gun cleaning kit anyway."
"What happened to the one it came with?" Colin asked. "Barring manufacturing defects they should be good for several years of moderate use."
"I found a crack in the brush head causing some of the bristles to come loose. The guy at the counter said he thought it looked like an air bubble had gotten trapped when it was formed." She shrugged, then continued. "So what's happening to our rooms?"
"Security upgrades," Miss Militia answered. "The locker rooms took longer than expected or we'd have finished in here before you all got out of school. Then again, we started there in case we ran into issues so that we'd not have to stop halfway through in here to get alternate parts. It's been decided that Maul's Snitch and the new drones here are a significant privacy concern so privacy fields that can block them are being put in."
"In the event of an emergency all of the fields are being rigged so that they can be remotely disabled," Colin added. "But alarms will sound if that's the case, in addition to protocols already being put in place to provide a warning before they're disabled."
"No objections here," Taylor said. "Are all of the departments getting these upgrades?"
"Just here and Boston to start with," Miss Militia answered. "And Boston only because you may end up there with your drone. Once we have things worked out though everyone expects that you'll be asked to make at least a couple hundred of the harnesses needed so that several drones can be deployed to each active PRT or Protectorate facility."
"Not to mention the Guild already wanting a number of their own," Colin said. "Though they're large enough that once people realize what they are they'll become targets, so they might be kept in reserve for crisis situations."
"Just park them in vans," Carlos said. "The Snitch works fine in a pouch, I can't see these not working sitting in a holder inside of a van. Deploy them into the air only when needed?"
"That's a very good idea," Colin said, nodding at Carlos. "I wonder if we can adapt them to have no propulsion system at all?" He then turned to Taylor. "I don't suppose you'd be willing to let us examine the Snitch to see how it was scaled down? If we can get the scanning system independent of the propulsion system we might be able to create easily wearable versions as well, but the smaller size of the Snitch would be a better starting point for such a project."
"I don't have a problem with that so long as it isn't damaged," Taylor replied, looking at the Snitch and the scout drone sitting next to each other on the counter. "Though I think he just skipped the armor and put half of everything critical in it. The lowered mass means a less powerful variant of the propulsion system could be used, which generates less heat. That combined with the smaller volume means there's basically no need for the cooling system at all."
"That sounds easier than I was expecting," Colin admitted. "Dragon and I will need to look into it. It would be an incredible tactical advantage if we can get it working, but the sensor units apparently requiring those precision-crafted braided nanotube harnesses to function properly will hinder mass production."
"I suspect that someone in the chain of command will also decide to change the entire direction of the project at least once if it continues," Miss Militia said. "How are you coming along over there Miss Biron?"
"Just two more to go," Missy said. She didn't take long, and then jumped up and handed Taylor the bag now full of modified boxes. "Here you go."
"Thank you," Taylor said as Missy gathered her other items. Once she'd left with a wave Taylor smirked. "While I won't complain, if she hadn't grabbed the two bars of chocolate so fast I'd been about to offer her a bar per enhanced box instead of two bars for all of them."
Carlos broke into laughter at that one while Miss Militia went to get the PRT technicians.
"Should we be waiting for Hulder to change before they get started?" Taylor asked a minute later. "We are supposed to be patrolling with her, right?"
"She'll be changing in the PRT van picking her up near school," Colin answered as he started unloading the boxes on the cart into small piles. Most of the piles were the same size, but one was already larger with a couple of unique boxes.
"We'll be meeting her near the boardwalk," Carlos said. "We'll head out once we get the notice that she's in position."
"Hello everyone," Lisa said as she finally arrived. She was already in costume and had apparently obtained and almost finished an ice cream cone. "Oooh, that's one of the new drones, isn't it?"
"It is," Colin said. "We think we've gotten all of the issues out of the data parsing routines and are hopeful that they can handle the Snitch and a drone at the same time. With any luck we won't need to parse camera input within their ranges thanks to the already-processed data from them being superior."
"There are days that I wish I had some form of field-appropriate power so that I could be out there playing with this stuff." Lisa then chuckled. "Then again, there's a lot to be said for not being shot at too." With a shrug she went back to examining the drone.
Twenty minutes later Lisa pouted as Taylor and Carlos headed up to the roof with the drone following them. A quick deployment of the platform parked up there and they'd fly over to where Aisha was waiting for them near the Boardwalk.
"So that's where she's hiding," Carlos noted as he looked down at the edge of the boardwalk. The augmented patrol system was highlighting Aisha's location for them, but wasn't showing her outline. Probably because it couldn't properly see into her little hidey-hole.
"Are we landing softly or dropping in hard?" Taylor asked even as she noted where the PRT van was sitting waiting for the all-clear to depart. They obviously didn't want to leave Aisha out here alone.
"We shouldn't make too much of a scene for the moment, so we'll land softly before getting on with things."
A minute later they'd done just that, and several people looking their way yelled out in shock as Aisha came out of the wall behind them.
"About time you two got here," Aisha said. "And about time I get to actually go on patrol."
"Not my fault they took so long for that additional testing," Carlos replied. "Or insisted on all the extra paperwork. Now then, on the outbound leg of this route we'll be largely on foot so that you can interact with people. We'll switch that out when we reach our turnaround point."
"Besides," Taylor added. "If we aren't moving as fast it'll probably be easier for Armsmaster and Dragon to work out the bugs in the new system."
Aisha sighed, but didn't complain about that.
"So what extra paperwork did they throw at you anyway?" Taylor asked while the crowds were still too skittish to approach the three.
"I can tell when someone's a parahuman now," Aisha grumbled. "Because I can only add parahumans to my little exclusion list and all."
"Ouch. Sorry about that?"
"Still better than trying to learn how to exclude everyone the hard way."
Riley put the binoculars she'd been using down, blinking a couple of times. "Well, that might have backfired."
"What?" Melissa snapped.
Riley rolled her eyes. William and Melissa had both been pissed with themselves when Jacob had confronted them about the broken thinker. Neither liked the idea that they'd been influenced that much, at least once the guy was dead anyway. Or maybe it was that neither of them liked that the only reason Jacob wasn't punishing them was because the President had asked him not to? They didn't like getting away with things like that, probably because of how often they all spent hunting down people who thought they had gotten away with things.
Sighing, Riley gestured towards Accord's area. "Herding the ducks into Accord's area seemed like a wonderful way to create chaos. But in the past day or two he's somehow collected all of them and started to train them to keep the area clean."
"What?" Melissa repeated, though this time with a definite confused tone. A moment later she'd gotten the lenses she kept in her stash into position in front of her eyes. "Huh. That's a thing. What're you going to do about it?"
Riley snickered. "Well, I hadn't planned for this, exactly. But when he has them all trained and cleaning the area I'll activate their remote self destructs."
"And if he's removed or disabled that in all of them by then?"
"If he figures that out then he's gone through enough time and effort and deserves to keep them."
"I thought I had a handle on how stupid people around here were before," Aisha said as they made their way down an alley at the other end of the Boardwalk.
"Hey, some of the kids were fun," Taylor said, to which Aisha nodded. "Now then, you have a general idea of how we handle ground patrols."
"At least in calm areas," Carlos added. "Your next patrol will be through an area we usually hit at least some trouble in."
"Now let's get you some experience with mixed patrolling," Taylor continued, her platform appearing in front of them and opening up.
"FINALLY!" Aisha yelled, darting forward to climb onto the platform. "Up up up up up!"
Taylor and Carlos looked at each other before shaking their heads. Carlos then took to the air while Taylor bounced up to the rooftops, the platform lifting up to join Carlos with Aisha along for the ride.
"Maul is going to be hopping along the rooftops," Carlos explained. "But she's also going to remain in control of the platform for now. So, do you recall any of the differences in patrolling on rooftops versus in the air or being on the ground?"
"For the most part you're least able to be spotted moving along the rooftops," Aisha said. "Being in the air would make you more likely to be spotted if more people looked up. But moving along the rooftops is also the hardest to accomplish due to having to plan your route carefully due to differing building heights, property owners that don't allow parahumans to use their rooftops, and in areas where things aren't well maintained, unstable or heavily damaged roofs."
Carlos waited a moment, and when it was obvious that Aisha wasn't going to continue he nodded. "In the air you're more likely to be shot at as well, since guns are a ranged weapon and those looking to injure you will know they can't close to melee range. Assuming they notice you in the first place, of course. We also get a better view of the area from the air, but usually can be more discreet when checking out situations from the rooftops."
"Which is one reason we've started focusing more on mixed patrols," Taylor added. "For the violence-inclined it also makes it more likely that trouble will be started with us because they don't always see our backup."
"You'd think they could figure out that we pretty much don't patrol alone," Carlos said with a chuckle. "They never seem to though."
"Think I should take point for now while you give her tips on the art of aerial spotting?" Taylor asked.
"That would be appreciated," Carlos replied. Taylor saluted him before spinning and jumping off to the next rooftop.
"You're telling me that you hid grenade launchers all throughout the area," Jacob said as he sat across from Fred at dinner.
"Yep," Fred said between bites of his burger.
"And in those launchers you have cream pie grenades?"
"Yep."
Jacob sighed. "When are they going to go off?"
Fred grinned and pulled a small box out of a pocket. He opened the box and pushed the button inside. "They're all armed now. So whenever three or more people are in their targeting zone."
Next run he really needed to keep a closer eye on the man. "What if that's us?"
Fred just shrugged, apparently unconcerned.
"Anyone want another round?" Mimi called from the grill. Which had been an amazing idea on Cherie's part. Controlling the flame so that the food was cooked but not burned was an excellent control exercise. At least so long as they didn't have her cook anything phallic.
"I'll have some more chicken," Jacob replied, Mimi giving him a thumbs-up in response.
"I hope my next patrol isn't so boring," Aisha grumbled as they took the elevator down from the roof.
"We're not going to do any of the really exciting routes until after school lets out," Carlos apologized. "Light duty and all so we aren't distracted from our end of year studying."
"This was unusually calm," Taylor admitted. "We only ran into the one mugging and they pissed themselves when they saw Aegis. I didn't even have to show myself."
"I, uh," Carlos muttered. "Kinda broke his legs the last time I ran into him."
"Really?" Aisha asked, excitement in her voice.
"I underestimated the damage the metal bar I'd grabbed would do to him."
Taylor kinda wished she'd kept at least the Snitch recording at that point, if only to have decent footage of Aisha's excited questioning on hand for teasing later.
"Miss Hebert," Colin said as Taylor went to leave. "May I have a moment of your time?"
"Yes Armsmaster?" Taylor answered. "What do you need?"
"First I'd like to thank you for your assistance in testing things. Dragon thinks she'll have a fully functional control system ready in the next few days, and the second data feed from the Snitch was instrumental in debugging a couple of things in the augmented patrol system."
"No problem there," Taylor admitted. "I'll need to practice more with the larger drone though."
"I'm sure you'll get plenty of practice with it going forward. Now then, I'm not sure if you noticed but your room has had additional security measures installed on top of the new privacy field."
Taylor thought about that for a moment, since she hadn't actually focused on any of the new stuff enough to identify them. "Was that what the extra boxes were for?"
"Indeed." Colin waved Taylor over to the console to show her the screen, which was showing an overview of her room with a number of things highlighted. "In particular, your room now requires a 'need to know' style authorization code to open. Anyone not granted that code that forces their way in anyway will trigger an alarm and mounted containment foam bombs will be set off to capture them. Your privacy field is also higher grade, though that was a side effect of needing the secondary connectors that the variant installed for the others didn't include rather than a deliberate choice for the privacy improvements."
"Nice to know, but why the difference for me?"
"Director Piggot wanted your room's security upgraded since you have that cabinet containing power-granting vials. As a downside, going forward you'll likely need to put your own laundry away as the PRT staff that would normally do so for you won't be able to get into your room anymore."
"I guess that's good to know. Thank you."
Before she left she got curious and checked the map. Her room was showing as one of the most secure rooms in the building now. Outside of herself the only others that had access right now to open the door to her room were Miss Militia, Battery, and Director Piggot, though she suspected that others could easily grant themselves access if they felt it necessary.
It didn't take long to figure out that she had permission to grant that access to others. She did so for Amy for the time being, because the other girl knew just as much about the vials as Taylor did anyway. With that done she ensured she had everything she was taking home with her and left.
Andrea grinned as she left Legend's office. That was all three of the Triumvirate having signed off, so that was one less obstacle to hopefully getting to go into the fugue of wonders, as she'd started thinking of it. While she was here she'd head down to the lower levels to get rubbing five of nine. She figured that she was lucky there, as the next logical number would've been sixteen to keep it a square. She was lucky enough to have figured out how to get to all nine during her time off thanks to some clever use of layovers.
Now if only she knew why all three members of the Triumvirate had found her asking for their signatures on the form amusing.
Taylor sighed as she put more pieces of coal into her plants. If she was lucky she might get a full cube of carbon thirteen soon. Maybe. She wasn't holding out hope. But she was accumulating a small box of carbon twelve cubes.
Amy: Today was weird.
Taylor: I got that impression when you were working on that girl earlier. Are you allowed to tell me what was up with her?
Amy: She hurt herself, and then decided that since her arm was torn open anyway that she'd put a USB connector in it. Which did more damage, of course.
Taylor: I...wow. But you...um...
Amy: Her mother said that if she wanted a USB port she could have one. Signed off on it and everything. So I did it properly.
Taylor blinked a couple of times. What in the world had anyone been thinking?
Taylor: What does it do?
Amy: It's a mouse, basically, that she can likely figure out how to control without moving her hand or arm.
Taylor: Oh.
Well, there were several people running around with full Bluetooth capabilities in their heads, so a wired mouse port in the girl's arm wasn't that odd, all things considered.
Amy: How goes your quest to have the most little cubes of carbon?
Taylor: Still haven't gotten enough carbon thirteen. Plenty of twelve though.
She was distracted a moment later by the spider-bot thrashing around a little. Not accomplishing anything, but thrashing around. She rubbed the bridge of her nose while she thought.
Taylor: I don't suppose you want to join me in the junkyard tomorrow?
Amy: Maybe. Why?
Taylor: Because I can't think of anywhere better to bring my para-spider-bot to try and figure out how to get it to use its powers.
She could tell that Amy was blinking at that.
Amy: So, why does it need to use its powers?
Taylor: Because it's restless in a way that I think is related to lack of use of them.
Amy: Ahhh. Ok. Are you allowed to bring powered pets, mechanical or otherwise, in to play?
It was Taylor's turn to blink, because she honestly had no clue. She might have to ask someone.
Emily sighed as she sat down at home with a glass of wine. They'd actually started the process of reaching out to the Elite in New York this morning in an attempt to get a communication channel with the apparent branch setting up in town. That had an expected turnaround time of a week or so before they'd have an initial answer.
Halfway through the glass of wine she grabbed her new laptop, complete with SL9 circuitry, and booted it up. Unlike Miss Hebert and Miss Dallon who could use their built-in Bluetooth as a 'trusted peripheral' for fast and easy login on their own devices she had to go through a series of security steps to log in. They were mostly unobtrusive enough to be a minor annoyance overall, and a couple of them were entirely automatic in the background. Like the cameras that checked her retina prints so long as she was looking in the general direction of the screen during any portion of the login process. Or the fingerprint scanners built into the keyboard that checked multiple fingers as she typed her username and password.
She fumbled a bit when she went to get the one-time-code off of her watch, but then she was in. The first thing she did was check for high-priority issues. There shouldn't be any, or her phone would've been making a racket, but it was a habit for her to check. Upon finding that there weren't any she moved onto checking a couple of her personal orders. She smiled a little when she found that the new privacy field generators for her home were on the way. They'd probably be able to install them sometime the following week. Being a PRT director had some perks, even if she'd had to spend from her own savings for the equipment.
PHO beckoned, but she decided to check for lower-priority messages before checking the site for the latest amusements. There were several requests for purchases that had come in since she'd left the office that could wait until morning. A reminder to try and have Miss Hebert free this weekend, but she'd already cleared that and ensured that it wouldn't look out of place on the calendar. Huh, a submitted question from Miss Hebert. Curious, she opened it up.
Five minutes later she'd fetched her phone from across the room and was waiting for Hannah to pick up.
"Good evening Director," Hannah answered after several rings. "Is something wrong?"
"Good evening Miss Militia," Emily replied. "Maul has an...odd request. Ticket ENED20110611W0039. I'd like you to take a look." She'd offer to repeat the number, but Hannah never needed that. Not to mention anyone paying attention could usually figure out everything but the last few characters for anything submitted on a known date.
"Give me a moment to bring that up."
Emily waited for Hannah to bring the ticket up and process what it was asking.
"I'm not sure I'm reading this correctly," Hannah finally said. "Is she asking permission to bring a mechanical spider with a snark into the building to try and teach it how to use its powers?"
"That's my interpretation," Emily replied. "I'm wondering if this is a prank."
"I honestly don't know what to think about it."
Chapter 107 Tuesday morning Taylor woke to find a message from Miss Militia, asking that she bring the spider-bot in that afternoon and meet her in the garage with it instead of going further into the building to start with. Which implied letting her know before arriving.
Taylor: Hey Amy, Miss Militia apparently wants to look at my spider-bot before I get past the garage.
Amy: Really? Huh. I wonder if I should bring mine too.
Taylor hadn't considered that. Amy's wasn't a para-spider-bot or whatever you'd call it after all. Then again, it was tinkertech, so maybe?
Taylor: I have no clue, honestly. Up to you, but I got Missy to expand part of my backpack to hide mine in.
Amy: That...might be an issue, yes. Hmmm. I'll think about it.
Taylor blinked as snarks entered her range together while she was walking towards her locker.
Taylor: Did Dean and Vicky make up?
Amy: Oh, yeah. That happened over the weekend, but Dean's car ended up with a badly cracked windshield so they didn't ride together yesterday.
Taylor: Ah.
Well, at least that potential source of drama was temporarily out of the picture. They'd probably find another reason to fight later, but that was apparently just how their relationship worked. It probably wasn't the healthiest relationship, but it was what they had and Taylor wasn't going to tell them what to do on that front.
Besides, it wasn't like she had any decent experience in being in a healthy romantic relationship to use as a basis for advice, right? She felt she was lucky with the barely surviving having friends thing again, after all.
"Looks like Maul has a new toy," Dennis said as they were nearing the end of lunch. "Or at least the paint job implies that it's Maul's."
"What kind of new toy?" Vicky asked.
"People on PHO say it looks like a giant version of the Snitch. It was following her, Aegis, and Hulder around yesterday."
"Why would you want a giant version of the Snitch?" Dean asked. "Wouldn't the original size be more discreet?"
"Maybe it's someone's attempt at duplicating it," Amy offered. "And they couldn't get it down to the smaller size?"
"That would make sense," Cathy, who'd joined them in the hope that Amy could help her with biology, said. She was sitting next to Vicky, who'd given her the help instead after Amy's first explanation flew over most of their heads. "I've heard that sometimes tinkertech is only insanely efficient when built by the original tinker."
"So now everyone has to worry about flying cameras?" Taylor asked. No way was she going to leak that the Snitch and scout drones weren't actually cameras.
"If you're in public then it shouldn't be a problem," Vicky said. "Or if you do have a problem then tough luck. Though if it's flying then people might want to avoid being nude on their roofs more than they would if it were just flying capes?"
"It isn't like she doesn't already run around with a camera running," Dennis added. "And people know she has one on her platform too. A dedicated flying one isn't that big of a change, all things considered, and isn't illegal unless she's in any number of kinds of restricted airspace without permission. Though the thread seems to be claiming that unless she's building them herself it's about time for the other Wards to get some new toys too."
"Unless she's buying them for herself," Amy said. "After all, she was able to donate fifteen million to charity."
"I should remind people of that," Dennis mumbled as he started typing.
Amy: It's probably a good thing that pretty much nobody knows what those are actually capable of.
Taylor: Yeah. Though now I wonder if there are any legal issues I'm ignorant of with them.
Amy: I...don't know. Carol might be able to tell you, but then you'd have to tell her what they're capable of. She might not react well to their existence?
Taylor: I guess I should submit a question to the PRT, but I should wait until after school.
Richard sighed as he looked through the tinker fugue list. The entire thing seemed ridiculous. He was, in fact, positive that whomever came up with this was doing it for a lark of some kind. But he also knew enough to trust that it wouldn't have been approved if it wasn't legitimate. Or, as he'd explained to Kendra earlier, the tinker had to exist and agree to do the work, even if they were allowed to specify insane requirements before they did.
Well, that and some of these were probably legitimate. His sister had triggered as a thinker who could tell all kinds of useful things about someone from a picture of them with the original individual and at least one reflection of them showing in the shot. She was a lot better with the real deal, of course, but she could work from a picture.
He picked yet another entry at random, wishing that there weren't regulations against providing descriptions on things like this. He understood the reasoning, since sometimes specific things would be locked down with additional security requirements and all. It was still annoying.
Richard blinked as he read this one. "Pictures of me standing under city signs starting with each letter of the English alphabet?" As much as he was positive it was one of the fakes he didn't care. He and his roommate in college had spent half of summer break driving around and taking photos of themselves at a number of different groupings of signs, and the alphabet had been one of their themes. In fact, he had photos for cities, street signs, businesses, and schools starting with each letter of the alphabet.
It took him a few minutes to realize that the hard part was going to be finding the right box in the attic. He groaned at that and decided to look at another entry. He'd have to wait until he got home to look for the pictures anyway.
Two minutes later he was blinking, unsure if this one was serious or not. "Survive three combat incidents at the Ellisburg or Eagleton quarantine zones? THREE?"
After school, which had included an annoying pop quiz, Taylor made her way home to pick up the spider-bot. Amy had come up with an idea for bringing her own in a larger bag and was doing the same, just to see the look on what would be visible of Miss Militia's face when they had two of them.
She wasn't surprised to find her father not home, nor was she surprised that Lacey was in the basement. She dropped her bag by the door and headed down to see what Lacey was up to, given the banging noises she was hearing coming up the basement stairs.
"Hey Taylor," Lacey said as Taylor stepped off of the stairs.
"Hi Lacey," Taylor said, tilting her head slightly.
Lacey appeared to be using a hammer to hit specific points on the brewing equipment. Not hard enough to actually dent the equipment. But she was wandering around it and would, every few seconds, seemingly at random give the equipment thwacks of varying strength.
"Do you even know what you're doing?" Taylor finally asked.
"Speeding things up while correcting the mix ratios," Lacey said, delivering five hits in rapid succession. "I think I'd need less direct playing with things on larger batches, but this isn't one."
"Ok. I'll be heading out again soon."
"Have fun or good luck or whatever. This shouldn't take me much longer, then I'm going to try making your mother's lasagna recipe. I'll hopefully have time to let you know if you should grab takeout on your way home instead."
Taylor shook her head as she made her way upstairs, grabbing her bag on the way by. She threw her clear visor on while she unloaded the main compartment of her backpack of everything but the book and notebook she'd need for homework. While she was doing that she was submitting her question about what legal issues she should research regarding the scout drone, figuring that the Snitch was the same problem on a shorter range.
Once she'd completed both tasks she let the spider-bot out of the carrier, only for it to skitter out of the room towards the bathroom. She'd have to flush the toilet for it before she left. Shaking her head, she filled her plants with more charcoal pieces. A quick check showed that they needed to be watered, so a quick trip to the bathroom obtained water and flushed the toilet. On the way watering bulbs for the things were added to her list of things to look into getting.
Once all of that was taken care of she coaxed the spider-bot into the expanded pocket in the backpack. It didn't seem to want to enter at first, then got curious about the extra space. Taylor then surprised it by pushing it in, but it seemed to settle down ok when she picked the bag up. A quick closing of the zipper and she headed downstairs.
A minute later she was back upstairs, dropping the visor that she couldn't wear with her helmet back on her desk, having added looking into helmets that work with the visors to her list. She and Amy could probably both use one going forward if New Wave 'gifted' her one for show, after all.
Taylor and Amy pulled into the secure garage together, pulling into the spaces labeled for them. They'd been moved, probably by Miss Militia who was finishing putting the sign for 'Grue' up next to 'Hulder'. For added fun the two had met up on the street and Taylor had started the scout drone recording before they came in, having no better way to get a recording of the older cape's reactions.
"I wonder why you're bothering," Taylor noted after greetings had been exchanged. "Aren't we losing him to the Protectorate in the next month or so?"
"While Aegis and Grue will both be transitioning in early July we still normally group siblings in the Wards spaces," Miss Militia explained. "Though for various reasons the Protectorate has the leader and second in command in the first two spaces from the door, followed by the rest of the local team in alphabetical order. Now then, Miss Hebert, you have something to show me?"
Taylor nodded and swung the backpack off of her back. It didn't take long to get the spider-bot out of the expanded compartment. Amy had pulled her own out of the duffel bag she'd brought it in at the same time.
Miss Militia stared at the two spider-bots, looking between them several times, varying emotions playing over the upper half of her face as her weapon shifted forms. Finally she sighed, her weapon shifting to a small knife that was quickly put away. "Ok, I have to admit, they're somewhat cute once you get past the initial giant spider shock. I was unaware that there were two of them, though. Do they both need to learn how to use their apparent powers?"
"Nah," Taylor said. "Amy's doesn't have powers."
"I..." Miss Militia seemed confused. "Then how did yours get powers?"
"Riley couldn't resist putting Skidmark's corona pollentia and gemma into mine," Taylor admitted.
Miss Militia's weapon flashed back into her hand in the form of a machine gun. "WHAT?"
"Just the corona pollentia and gemma," Taylor emphasised. "The snark is still quite confused over the whole thing, and we aren't even certain that the spider-bot can use the snark's powers. The snark doesn't know, at least."
"Then how do you plan on testing it?" Miss Militia asked, visibly forcing herself to calm down again.
"By asking the snark to push as hard as it can and hope the spider-bot figures something out," Taylor admitted, shrugging. "I can't exactly teach it myself, not only do I not know how Skidmark's powers work or what he had to do to use them but, well, the spider-bot here runs more on instincts than intelligence."
"I see. And you presumably figured that a room full of things intended to be destroyed was a better place to do so than in public or in your home."
"Basically."
Miss Militia sighed, and then waved towards the stairwell door. "We might as well go and get this over with. I'm going to be observing this fiasco, at least for today. Future visits of your spider-bot will be discussed later."
Taylor and Amy shared a look, then shrugged. The spider-bots were coaxed back into the bags they'd come out of and the three made their way to the junkyard.
"She's been at it for an hour now," Amy noted as she and Miss Militia played 'fetch' with her spider-bot. It tended to bring everything back to Amy without fail, even if Miss Militia threw it.
"That she has," Miss Militia agreed. "She doesn't appear to have gotten anywhere."
"The spider-bot looks a lot less calm though."
"It does. I'm starting to wonder if it's..."
[Destination]
Amy stared at the two Jabberwocks, once again noting that each of the two existed across multiple dimensions. They circled each other and yet didn't.
{Agreement}
She was able to tell now that the communication she was 'hearing' wasn't synced up to the Jabberwocks. It was overlaid, like a newscaster talking about a clip playing on the screen.
[Trajectory]
It was also obvious that this was a different point in the 'shedding' process than they'd seen before.
{Agreement}
Like before, though, it was very obvious that one of the two Jabberwocks seemed distracted, unattentive. And upon closer examination, that Jabberwock was barely sending any snarks out compared to the other.
|Affirmation|
BA: DisagreementS: DisagreementIP: Disagreement[Disagreement]
Amy blinked as the world snapped back into focus, trying to figure out what just happened.
"At least that seemed to be a normal trigger event," Miss Militia commented, shaking her head. "But who triggered?"
"I think the spider-bot triggered," Taylor called, getting their attention. "No new snarks in the area anyway."
Amy looked over and was able to see a difference in how the snark was sitting in the spider-bot, like it was more in the entire bot now. Positioned identically, yet more there? It was hard to describe. More telling, the spider-bot was now in the process of 'weaving' a web of light on the floor. To what end was unknown.
A quick glance showed that Miss Militia was paying more attention to her phone, probably making a report in case others in the building had been affected.
Colin looked over the alert that had just come up. A trigger event of some kind had reportedly occurred inside the PRT building, which had tripped his monitoring flags. He powered down the soldering equipment he'd been using to repair some damage to his armor and spun to the computer terminal next to him, bringing the report up. It wouldn't do to rush over if there was nothing for him to do, after all.
He'd read the report three times before he decided that he needed a second opinion and called Dragon.
"Good afternoon Colin," Dragon said as her avatar popped up on a nearby monitor.
"Good afternoon Dragon," Colin replied. "There's a report of a trigger event in the PRT building, but I'm unsure of how valid it is. Or if perhaps the parahuman's abilities might have messed with the report to hide information about them."
Dragon's avatar frowned. "I'll take a look. One moment."
Colin nodded and took the time to look over the simplification attempts for the sensor drones. They thought they had things nearly covered, but adjusting the harness to not need the propulsion system was taking longer. A prototype could probably use the same harness and just not connect the propulsion system, of course, but it would be much better to design the new harness first.
"The report looks fine," Dragon said a moment later. "I've checked and it appears that Miss Hebert's tinker-made spider-bot has indeed triggered, though they haven't figured out what it can do yet. Miss Militia has been there observing and will likely file a more complete report when they're done."
Colin blinked. "Tinker-made spider-bot? Who made that for her?"
Dragon's avatar looked apologetic. "I'm sorry, but you aren't cleared for that. Your base security level isn't high enough and you don't have the need to know clearances required."
Colin frowned at that, but wasn't going to push. "Are they a trusted tinker, at least?"
"Of course. We wouldn't have allowed them to give Miss Hebert or Miss Dallon spider-bots if they weren't."
Colin considered that, and looked over at the nearly-completed repairs to his power armor. That should only take him five or so minutes to finish. "Would you ask Miss Militia if they can wait for my arrival? I'd like to see this spider-bot for myself, if only out of professional curiosity."
"I'll pass the message on," Dragon answered, and Colin suspected that really meant that she'd anticipated the request and already let the other cape know. He appreciated her efficiency on that front. "Do you expect to take long?"
"I should only be a few minutes finishing this repair before I depart. Thank you."
Taylor looked over the newly-completed faintly-glowing web that her spider-bot had 'woven' on the floor. The entire thing had glowed very brightly just after completion, and then the glow had dimmed to almost-invisible.
Taylor: So what exactly have you two created here?
[Data]
Amy: I don't know why I'm surprised that the web is a trap, but I am.
Taylor: I know what you mean. So, are traps the only thing the little guy can make?
[Negation. Data]
Well, that was...situationally useful, given the time required for things to be 'woven'. And assuming she could teach the spider-bot to construct the things on demand. Or wanted to bring it into the field, for that matter.
"So what exactly has it created in the past fifteen minutes?" Miss Militia asked as she approached the faintly-glowing web.
"A trap," Taylor answered, gesturing to it. "The next thing to enter that will spend around half an hour being 'pushed' into the center and into the ground. Apparently the larger the web the more force can be applied, but in the center things should be minimal."
"Interesting. How long will it last before being triggered?"
Taylor blinked, not having thought of that yet.
Taylor: So, when will this time out from not being used?
[Data]
Taylor: Thanks.
"Looks like it'll stick around until one of four conditions are met," Taylor answered. "Being activated is obviously one of them. Twelve hours or so passing or the spider-bot getting out of range, which should be a kilometer or so. Or the spider-bot dismissing it manually, assuming it can figure out how to." She paused for a moment. "Or I suppose until the spider-bot has a nullifier effect applied to it."
"Interesting," Miss Militia said. "I don't think we have anything suitable for testing it, unless one of us were to enter the effect."
"And by that you mean you or me," Amy said. "Apparently the thing's loyal enough to have Taylor here excluded from the effect, in addition to excluding itself. Or so its snark claims."
They paused to consider that, Taylor wondering if she could trust the snark on that one. She had mildly pissed it off by slamming it a couple of times in the past, after all. Then again, it seemed to be very happy that she'd been trying to help it work with the spider-bot, so maybe it'd forgiven her?
This musing was interrupted by the web flashing more brightly and Amy's spider-bot being pulled from where it had probed the edge of the web straight into the middle. It very obviously didn't like that and immediately tried to escape, only to get pushed back into the middle each time.
"I suppose that's another option," Taylor finally said. "It doesn't seem to like being trapped, though."
"You'd think it wouldn't mind it that much with how readily it climbs into the pet carrier," Amy noted. "Then again, it can feel the sides of the carrier, so maybe it doesn't like being trapped when it can't feel the thing holding it in?"
"So can it do anything other than traps like this one?" Miss MIlitia asked.
"It should be able to make webs that enhance acceleration or decelerate things in a non-directional fashion," Taylor answered. "Kinda like what Skidmark could originally do, but without being able to specify which direction. You'd either have your existing movement accelerated drastically or you'd decelerate very quickly."
The web timed out and released Amy's spider-bot a minute or so before Colin arrived. He entered the room to find Amy's spider-bot not wanting to move away from her and Taylor trying to get her spider-bot to make one of the other webs.
"Good afternoon Armsmaster," Amy said. "Did you need something?"
"Good afternoon Miss Dallon," Colin replied. "I was curious about a report about a spider-bot of some kind triggering with powers in the building and came to see things for myself."
"That would be the one Taylor is working with."
"It doesn't want to make another web," Taylor added, slightly prodding her spider-bot with her foot. "Or maybe I just don't know how to convince it to?"
"I'm thinking we should have recorded this," Miss Militia said. "But I honestly wasn't expecting anything of use."
"I should be able to grab the recording off of my scout drone," Taylor said, waving the concern off. "But I want to see one of the other webs first."
"What recording?" Miss Militia asked, sounding slightly confused.
"The one I've had going since shortly before we pulled into the garage in order to catch your reactions. I'll have to trim out some of the sensitive stuff before letting people not cleared for the information see any of it, of course." Taylor paused, and looked to Colin. "Sorry Armsmaster, but there are things you aren't cleared for yet mentioned, so I can't give you the raw data."
"That's fine," Colin replied, which caused Miss Militia to double-take. "Is the data from the trigger event safe?"
"That should be fine," Miss Militia said. "I don't believe anything sensitive was said from a few minutes before it on, in fact."
"I'll see about splitting that part out later," Taylor said. "Now if only I could get it to make another web."
"You might need to wait for that," Amy noted, causing the others to look at her. "Because I think it's hungry. Triggering might have taken a bit out of it?"
Taylor frowned and looked down at the spider-bot. Now that Amy mentioned it she could see the signs that it was hungry. "Dang. Guess I'll have to see if I can get it to do some of the other webs later."
"I thought they were mechanical," Colin noted. Miss Militia nodded in agreement.
"They're a combination of biological and mechanical," Taylor explained. "A potato-heavy paste is generally enough for them. Nothing really solid as they can't chew. I don't fully understand the conversion process they use to power the mechanics with the carbohydrates though."
"Perhaps we can get what you need from the cafeteria," Colin offered. "Er, my treat, I think it goes?"
Taylor looked at Colin, then at Amy and Miss Militia. The latter two shrugged. "Ok, I guess we can give it a try."
William wasn't sure what to make of the reactions to Sarah handing out t-shirts. On one hand, it was hilarious to see people panic as Sarah cornered them. On the other hand, they were treating the t-shirts themselves as though they were incredibly dangerous. Luckily they weren't high quality, having been made with some t-shirt markers they'd found in a heavily damaged craft store.
But really, why were people panicking over t-shirts that had shaky writing saying 'I met The Siberian and she let me get away with this lousy t-shirt'?
It turned out that most of what Colin wanted was time to get scans of the two spider-bots, presumably out of 'professional curiosity'. They'd ended up collecting food and bringing it back to the Wards area, where Taylor then collected the appropriate portion of the scout drone's data while Colin tried to be discreet in using various scanners to examine the two spider-bots.
Once the two spider-bots had both eaten their fill, Taylor's more than Amy's, they decided they wanted to do nothing more than just sit near the girls, only moving if the girls did. It took Taylor half an hour or so of that before she realized what was going on.
"I think they're trying to guard us," Taylor said. "Because they aren't familiar with Armsmaster, Miss Militia, or their surroundings."
Amy looked down at her spider-bot. "But why weren't they doing that when we met up with Miss Militia in the first place?"
"I think Miss Hebert is right," Miss Militia said. "Now that I think about it, yours was reluctant to go too far, and tended to put itself between the two of us when not bringing things back to us. Or, rather, back to you."
"And now that multiple unfamiliar people are around they're less willing to be away from us," Taylor said. "Though I'm a bit surprised that they don't have a problem with each other."
"Maybe they see each other as brood-mates or something like that?" Amy said, shrugging. "It might cause each of them to trust anyone the other seems to."
Taylor looked down at her spider-bot. "They act more like puppies, so maybe litter-mates?"
Colin got up at that. "In that case it's probably best for me to get back to work on other projects." He then paused, and turned to Taylor. "By the way, those of us working on getting the sensor drone down to the minimum for possible integration into costumes hope to have figured out the carbon nanotube harness soon. We may need some prototype versions made, if you're willing to make them I can let you know when the blueprints are ready."
"I'm ok with that," Taylor said, gesturing towards her room. Kinda. The hallway, anyway. "I've got the tablet in my room, just let me know when I should check it."
Colin nodded. "I'll do that. Thank you for the data, I'll look over it soon. Have a nice evening."
Miss Militia got up as Colin left. "Well, I have a report to write now. I don't think the Director will have an issue with you two bringing the spider-bots back in later, but please don't bring them back until you actually hear from one of us about them."
"I don't think that's a problem," Taylor said, Amy nodding in agreement.
"Thank you, and have a nice evening."
"You too," Taylor and Amy chorused, causing Miss Militia to shake her head as she left.
"So what now?" Amy asked.
"I almost want to take some of the vial-snarks home," Taylor admitted. "Most of them seem like they're probably ok by now, but those three really problematic ones seem to need more attention. And maybe the one linked to Lacey's snark so that I don't have to be around Lacey for it to try and help."
"What's stopping you?"
"I'm still not sure how much I want to be responsible for them at all," Taylor said, sighing. "That and I don't have a secure way to carry several of them. I'm starting to think that I got incredibly lucky with the first one, since I was carrying it without any real protections."
Amy considered that for a minute. "Well, what about storing them in the pocket on the spider-bot?"
Taylor laughed. "That's a good one. I'd have to take them out of the metal canisters to fit them, and then they'd be in the clutches of something Riley made."
Amy actually facepalmed at the latter revelation, before they both paused as a small briefcase-like container fell onto the floor from a tear in reality. Said container was pounced on by two spider-bots, neither of which appeared to appreciate the container appearing out of nowhere. At first it looked like they were fighting each other over it, but it soon became obvious that they were more disagreeing as to which direction was best to get it away from the two girls.
Taylor sighed and got up, grabbing the case from the two spider-bots. Her tinker snark had already informed her that it was a high-security case that she could lock with her personal access codes. But it wasn't locked now, so she opened it up to find that it could hold five vials in their metal canisters.
"I guess that covers secure transport?" Amy offered.
"It would indeed," Taylor admitted. "But I don't know why they sent me it."
Amy smirked as Taylor blinked. "So, I'm assuming they just told you?"
"Apparently they feel that I'll sleep better once the vials are no longer liable to kill people," Taylor said, shaking her head. "Since I told them not to move the entire cabinet they decided that a carrying case was the next best thing."
Amy nodded at that. "Are they right?"
"Probably." Taylor sighed and closed the case. "And we should probably get ready to head out, at least if we want to be home for dinner."
"Yeah, probably."
Taylor went to collect a few vials while Amy coerced her spider-bot back into the bag she'd brought it in. Once that was done Taylor put the container with four vials in it into the expanded pocket of her school bag, and her spider-bot climbed in after it. The fit was a bit tighter with both in there, but it was still workable for now. Besides, it wasn't like she was planning on carrying the spider-bot or the container with vials around on a long-term basis, let alone both of them.
Chapter 108 Taylor arrived home to find that Lacey had butchered the lasagna recipe in an initially non-obvious manner, coming up with something that looked fine until it had cooled off for five minutes. At that point it became a question of if it was worth the effort needed to get it out of the pan or if it would be easier to replace the pan.
Fifteen minutes of work later they'd given up and added a replacement pan to the list. Technically they'd gotten the lasagna out of the pan, but they'd done so by breaking the pan itself into multiple pieces. The lasagna itself was still a solid, decent-looking but obviously inedible, chunk of something.
"I don't get what went wrong," Lacey said while they waited for Danny to return with pizza. "I don't even know how you'd pull that kind of thing off!"
Taylor was poking at the solid block of what should have been lasagna. "I'm not entirely sure myself." But she had a thought.
Taylor: I don't suppose you were messing with things while Lacey was cooking?
[Query]
Taylor: This block of what should have been pasta here.
[Confusion]
Amy: That's likely to be a problem going forward.
Taylor: Yeah.
BA: Data
S: Agreement. Elaboration
[Confusion]
"So," Taylor said aloud while Broadcast Administrator and Shaper attempted to teach Lacey's snark about humans making food for themselves and not to use in the production of alcohol. "I just asked it, and your snark thought you were trying to make something to turn into alcohol and decided to help you. But you weren't doing that, so things have gone a little off."
"Oh," Lacey said. "I wonder if that's what went wrong with the soup on Saturday?"
"Given the way your snark is reacting you might be hopeless making anything that isn't tied to producing alcohol." Taylor then considered things for a moment.
Taylor: Hey, you're all about the alcohol right now, right?
[Agreement]
Taylor: But what about things that are served with, but don't contain, alcohol? After all, I'd assume that sometimes the alcohol is better because of the rest of the food it was served with.
Amy: Ooooh. I like that point.
Taylor: Thank you.
[Contemplation]
"I suppose I should be happy that I live in an era where not being able to cook food isn't a major problem," Lacey finally noted. "Though I suspect that's going to suck, only being able to make the most basic of things. Then again, I've been able to reheat stuff, and use the toaster, so it won't be exceptionally bad."
[Confusion. Query]
Taylor sighed.
Amy: It was a nice try.
Taylor finished re-packing her school bag after finishing the homework she hadn't gotten to trying to do at the PRT building. She'd left the locked case with the vial snarks in the expanded pouch for the time being, since there was plenty of room and keeping them near her seemed secure enough for now. Well, as long as she didn't tell anyone she didn't trust that they were there, anyway.
With that done she turned her attention to several messages that she'd gotten while working on her homework. None of them had been marked urgent, but better to check that there wasn't something important in them anyway. There was a notice that the spider-bot situation was 'under review', which was somewhat expected. She had tracking numbers for the alcohol delivery, apparently to show up Thursday.
Taylor blinked as she reached the next message.
Taylor: Have you been contacted about Friday?
Amy: Er, I don't think so. Why?
Taylor: Because I've been asked if I have any objections to trying to teach people, including you, how to operate my platform.
Amy: Oh. Huh. No complaints here if you're willing to go through with it.
Taylor: In public, on the Boardwalk.
Amy: Er...huh. That might be embarrassing, but I think I can handle it. They probably want it to be an example, letting the public see that it isn't always easy to use tinkertech.
Taylor: That hadn't occurred to me, but it makes sense.
It didn't take much more thought to determine that she didn't have anything against the idea, so she sent a message off to that effect and moved on. The only remaining message with anything of note in it was a notice that several people had filed official complaints about the second stage of the tinker fugue request process.
After a quick read-through, and much giggling, she took the time to forward the list of complaints to Amy and Riley.
Wednesday morning started with Taylor being woken up by a couple of loud crashes. Upon investigating she found that Lacey was preparing to do something brewing-related and left the woman to it. Instead she gathered her things and left early to hit the gym before school.
She was in the middle of swimming, while considering what to do about breakfast when she was done, when Amy woke up.
Amy: So, why do I apparently have the knowledge that putting a G'Nijjle in a human is as bad as putting a K'Nectatuet in one?
Taylor: The case with the vial snarks I brought home yesterday.
Amy: Oh, right. Forgot about that. Though, er, do you happen to know what a G'Nijjle actually is?
Taylor: Nope. But I think it has something to do with plants.
Amy: Plants? Hmmm...I suppose that might fit. Can any of our snarks clear that up?
BA: NegationS: NegationUMR: Negation[Negation]
Taylor: I'm thinking that's a definitive 'no' there.
Amy: Yes, I got that.
Eventually she'd finished her workout and grabbed breakfast from the PRT cafeteria. She also grabbed the Snitch, having realized that it might be able to tell her and her father if there was a hidden room behind the 'brick arch' in the basement. It was much more likely that it was the remains of where a chimney had sat on that side of the house, so nobody had bothered to try and poke a hole to see what was on the other side, but if the Snitch saw an empty space?
Jacob sighed as he checked over the location he'd be meeting with William in that afternoon. He was on the fourth location for mid-run therapy due to various issues that kept coming up. Like the Butcher appearing when he was working with Cherie, or needing to bail due to something finding the one after that. He still wasn't sure what, but he was fairly certain that someone had snuck in, somehow, and so he'd abandoned it until it could be looked at more closely later. He'd given up on the last one they'd used when the water leaks had become obvious.
This one was a little more out of the way, which was probably a good thing, and had two floors. That was definitely a good thing, as it meant he could get Fred onto the other floor to keep powers at bay without needing him in the room with William. That would make William easier to deal with, he'd be more more open without Fred in the room, even if he knew Fred couldn't hear him due to silencing fields. At least he understood why Fred needed to be around, the one time Jacob had tried to have a session with William without Fred keeping Sarah at bay the projection had gotten angry and decided to tear Jacob apart in the middle of the session.
He was very happy that had happened after they'd picked up Riley, as she'd been able to reattach his arm and his foot afterwards with minimal issue.
Thinking about Riley, he should really get back and check on her. She'd been talking about a couple of plans she wanted to implement, but he told her that she had to catch up on her schoolwork before he'd approve anything. The shorter runs she could generally get away with treating as time off from school, but not extended runs like this one where they'd intentionally built in a lot of downtime.
He'd readily admit that he was curious about the girl's idea for an infection that would change people's hair color. They hadn't released a 'plague' of any kind in the past year. The almost complete lack of civilians in the area was a boon in that regard, they pretty much only had the PRT, Protectorate, and gang members to worry about. Though it was a pity that they hadn't gotten enough Wards cleared for patrolling to have them call Taylor back.
Most of his trip back to the others was spent musing on the logistics of having each of the Nine make day trips to Brockton Bay so that Taylor could chat with their snarks in more detail. He wasn't sure if it would be better to just have them all swing by after they were done in Boston or not.
Taylor sighed as she headed to the library after school. The day had been boring, with even the gossip focusing on the tests everyone would be taking the following week. Hell, part of her homework focused on the tests, at least those the older students in town would be taking. She had until Friday to write a short essay covering the federally mandated tests that'd been implemented just over a decade ago in response to the increasing number of homeschooled students.
Amy: I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing that I was able to focus while they were working with the vials.
Taylor: I'd say it's a good thing. Being able to function while the other is doing stuff and all.
Amy: I suppose.
It wasn't long before Taylor was parking her moped outside of the public library. Luckily she knew where the books she needed were located.
Amy: Why are you going to the library anyway? Don't you have access to all the materials you need digitally?
Taylor: It's an excuse to avoid being dragged into doing who knows what for Lacey at home.
Amy: Oh. Right, you said she was getting ready for some significant work this morning, wasn't she?
Taylor: Yep. I figure I'll leave her to it and all.
Amy: I'm not sure what to think about that, but Vicky and I just reached the gym anyway.
Things were going well for Taylor, outside of one instance of one of her own classmates demanding that she give up the reference book she was actively using because they needed it. Said rude classmate made enough noise to get kicked out of the library, which let Taylor get back to work in peace. Well, once the giggling of several others around her died down. Twice, because the librarian had asked if any of them knew which teacher had given the assignment in the first place, apparently intending to pass on why that particular student might have issues completing things.
That particular reference book had already moved four tables down, being handed off from each table when they were done taking the notes they felt they needed. For that matter, Taylor had gotten it from someone else after finding that it wasn't on the shelf in the first place.
"Excuse me," Missy said, having walked up to the table Taylor was at. It happened to be one of the few with usable space in the area. "Do you mind if I sit here?"
"Not at all," Taylor answered, gesturing to the other side of the table. "Feel free."
Missy put the book she'd carried over down on the table, then swung her bag off of her back. "I'm Missy, by the way."
"Taylor." Missy snorted. "Yeah, ok, you recognized me. I'm still not sure if people finding out who my uncle is was a good thing. Anyway, what brings you to this section of the library? You're a little young to have the assignment we do."
"Extra credit. My teacher said that high schools used to do graduation ceremonies and offered extra credit for anyone who could write an essay on why they don't anymore. Since mom says there were actual laws passed about it I need to look them up."
Taylor looked at the book Missy had grabbed, then pulled the few she still had over to her. She'd found they hadn't actually contained anything she needed, but she hadn't put them back yet. A quick check and she handed one of them over. "I think this might be a better choice. I only grabbed it because I couldn't remember which years I needed, so I kinda grabbed the whole range."
"Oooh, I was looking for that one," Missy said, grabbing the book. "Thanks!"
Riley giggled as she read through some of the complaints Taylor had passed on. The thug she was operating on shivered at the sound, but she paid him no mind beyond tightening the straps a bit more. She did need to get this stabilized so he wouldn't die, then decide exactly which infection to make the implants distribute.
Once the thug was stabilized she'd check on the woman he'd been beating to a pulp. Hopefully her wounds would be healed enough so that Riley could start on a few enhancements for her. Little bit of a strength boost, some extra durability. The main thing was getting the bits that helped with healing in place, but she'd been injured badly enough that healing was needed first. She hadn't decided which ridiculous changes would be done to ensure that it didn't look like the Nine were going soft, but done right they would be obvious, disfiguring, and trivial to undo. If the initial healing wasn't far enough along then the knockout drug dosage would probably need to be checked instead.
Of course, the drugs the thug had gotten made the pain worse. Riley wasn't a fan of guys that acted like the thug had been, after all. When she was done with him it would take quite a bit for him to beat anyone up, and that was without the other 'gifts' she'd already given him. Making him distribute an infection that he'd be immune to was more for general panic than anything else.
Now if only she could get Jacob to let her visit Brockton Bay to consult with Amy or Taylor on some of the ideas she had. The hair color plague was one thing, but she couldn't figure out how to make a plague that caused erectile dysfunction for several months when you took certain kinds of drugs.
They'd sat there working for an hour or so before Taylor felt she'd written what she needed to. She could finish it up at home, where she didn't have to use the keyboard on her tablet. So she started packing up, which got Missy's attention.
"So," Missy said. "Did you find anything interesting on your topic?"
"Yep," Taylor answered, noting that most of the other tables in the area had gone silent. "Most of the annoying bits are the details. What about you?"
"Mine's fairly straightforward. Things started with several hundred attacks on graduations in the early to mid nineties, including over a hundred attacks on high school graduations. Mainly by students that hadn't graduated but had triggered as parahumans at some point. So the government put laws in place covering security for any graduation ceremony in the country. Most school districts don't want to bother, so only colleges tend to do the whole ceremony these days."
Taylor hadn't ever looked into it, but all of that made sense. "I can see how that would've happened. I was looking into the high school standardized testing, which was implemented in the late nineties. Behemoth's attack on New York scattered a lot of people, and parahumans were starting to homeschool their kids or parahuman kids were being homeschooled. I did see something about reduced opposition from schools no longer worrying about high school seniors finishing their tests early to be ready for graduation ceremonies, but I hadn't dug deeper."
"I hadn't realized that high schoolers had standardized tests," Missy said, sounding very curious. "What's up with that?"
"Ah. They explain it in more detail when you start high school, but yeah. It started with forty or so states coming together to build a unified curriculum set and testing for it, it took them around six years to figure it all out. The other states joined in one or two at a time after things seemed to be working. Alaska and Hawaii were the last holdouts, and they both adopted it back in 2002 when they realized that their school books would be far cheaper if they did, since the rest of the country already used it. It's all technically still state-level, complete with differences in how the tests are administered from state to state, despite effectively being a nationwide thing now."
"Don't forget that you can take the tests anytime after you turn thirteen," one of Taylor's classmates called from the next table over. She didn't catch who, exactly. It was probably one of the ones she hadn't had to work with much. "Taking them early can mean skipping a grade entirely if you get a good enough score."
"And if you fail you have to pay to take the right one," Taylor retorted. "Well, unless the school gave you the wrong one, anyway. Then it's on them. The other thing of note is that they generally rolled other tests like the SATs into the system to simplify things. So passing to graduate high school is only like four hundred out of five thousand something possible points, if those four hundred are in the right categories."
Missy went wide-eyed at that. "Five thousand possible?"
Taylor snorted. "Yeah, if you take the tests for every subject they cover. Like every language class offered anywhere. Then there are all the optional subjects, because some areas have fashion classes, others have farming, that kind of thing. Parahuman classes are usually only found in cities with a sizable parahuman presence, and some engineering courses are primarily in areas with certain kinds of factories. Overall the average passing grade is under a thousand points total." Taylor paused. "It seems crazy that they pulled it off and keep it working, but there are several references to thinkers having helped put it together. None of them named, but they're mentioned as a group."
"I still don't get why we have to do homework and stuff if the end of year test is the most important bit," Dave, who usually sat at the back of the class, whined. Taylor recognized him because for some reason she'd gotten paired with him very frequently. "I mean, does it really matter?"
"Of course it matters," Nadine replied. She was at least tolerable as a partner in class so long as Kara wasn't in the group too. "The schools are only obligated to test you in classes you're passing. Otherwise you have to pay to take any given part of the exam."
Taylor shook her head as she finished packing up.
The yelling in the basement concerned Taylor as she entered the house. Nothing else seemed out of place, so she decided to head down to investigate what was going on. Bringing the baseball bat with her was merely a sensible precaution.
Upon reaching the bottom of the stairs she ended up leaning on the bat instead of keeping it ready to swing at someone. From what she could tell her father and Lacey were arguing over the fact that Lacey had started a second batch of beer brewing after the first one was in the second fermenter, which would make moving the equipment out of the basement when the first batch was done harder.
"Why is this a problem?" Taylor finally asked, causing the other two to stop their arguing for a moment and realize that Taylor was there.
"Because the stuff is heavy enough without being full?" Danny said.
Taylor raised an eyebrow before leaning the bat against the wall and walking over to the second-stage fermenter. It was trivial for her to pick it up and walk it across the basement. One-handed at that.
"Oh," Danny said sheepishly. "Right. Forgot about that little detail." He then spun around and pointed at Lacey, more steel in his voice. "But no third batch here!"
Lacey just nodded, and then glared at Taylor. "Put that back where you found it! I put it there so that the rising sun would hit it just right as it reflects off of the primary fermenter!"
Taylor sighed and put the fermenting vessel back where she'd picked it up from, doing her best to put it back in the exact same position. Lacey then spent ten minutes tweaking the location, during which time Taylor brought the baseball bat back upstairs and brought her school bag up to her room. Some tending to her carbon-processing plants was taken care of before she made her way downstairs with the spider-bot following.
Daphne grinned as she checked off another item on the tinker fugue list. Luckily she had an in with Toybox, or getting a few pieces of tech from them would've been much more difficult. In the process she'd also gotten their help in doing an impromptu test of the PRT border security protocols by getting them to drop her off in Canada with her purchases instead of in Michigan where she'd found them.
She was a bit annoyed that they'd dropped her off in Québec though. She didn't speak French of any kind.
Still, all told that had been another two entries taken care of. Now then, she had an appointment to get her picture taken at the video rental store to take care of that one, but she hadn't figured out a good way to end up naked in a cape battle without getting screamed at and/or fired. Having it be on camera would be worse. Maybe she should skip that one and hope she didn't need it?
After dinner Taylor pulled the Snitch out and ran it for a second. With that completed she took the resulting file and started flying a camera around in it. She was disappointed to find that while it did see an opening behind the arch in the basement wall it only went to what was obviously the edge of where the chimney used to be.
With that bit of curiosity satisfied she started poking around the rest of the house. There were several spots in the walls that looked like they'd make great hiding spots if you could get at them, three of which had obviously been found and used as part of the security system. Five or six other places looked like they'd work if you rigged the floorboards to be removable, one of which was the one she knew of in her closet.
She was debating seeing how much detail the attic had when she was interrupted by an alert from the 'Master Console'. She flipped that app open and looked at the status of the three listed AIs. 'Ada' was offline, apparently partially through shifting between systems. Ash was in sleep mode due to a hardware fault, which might explain why Dragon was jumping systems, and Bert had a safeguard warning with an automatic resolution timer counting down.
Opening up Bert's console she let her tinker snark tell her what was going on. It didn't take long to determine that the AI had apparently triggered, intentionally or otherwise, a hardware bug of some kind that had changed the read-only portion of its memory. It was a moment's work to pause the safeguard timer to give her time to investigate further.
The first thing she had to do was fix the data fault in Bert's 'ROM' area, the changing of which had triggered the safeguard in the first place. Her tinker snark told her exactly what was wrong there, and though it took a moment to take effect it was easily fixed. She then had to correct for the mild corruption Bert had experienced, which took a few minutes longer. Luckily the AI hadn't been running very long with the code corruption, so the fix wasn't prohibitively involved.
With that done she had to determine what had happened to cause that. Since Bert should be functioning properly again she figured she'd start out by asking.
MC: What happened?
Bert: I don't know. I was optimizing a subroutine and then everything went crazy when I tested it.
Taylor stared at the screen for a moment and determined that Bert was likely telling the truth. In fact, her tinker snark was telling her where the AI had probably gone wrong. It really wasn't its fault that there was a gap in the processor's protections for writing into memory space that Bert's process wasn't supposed to be able to write to. Well, not when the use of that gap had almost certainly been accidental, anyway.
MC: I suggest being much more careful with your optimizations going forward, especially if you're going to be get clever with nested pointers.
Bert: But I wasn't nesting pointers?
Bert: Ooooh, I was! I've got an extra dereference character. Is that what they call a typo?
MC: Yes, it is.
Taylor took a moment to cancel the safeguard activation, ensuring that there was enough information for Dragon in the notes to see why she'd done so. She also detailed what she could of the gap in the processor code, which wasn't much at this stage. Luckily for Bert, even if the timer on the safeguard had hit zero all it would have done was force the AI offline until things could be reviewed.
During that Bert was fixing its code and testing the fix. She wasn't sure about it, and since it was incomplete code and all her tinker snark wasn't entirely sure either. Then again, Bert probably knew more about chess than she ever would, so perhaps the routine to check if moving a pawn to capture en passant should be done was more important than she thought it was.
Bert: Thank you. But who are you? You aren't Mama Dragon.
MC: You can probably call me your grandmother.
Bert: Ah. What's a grandmother?
Blinking, Taylor wasn't sure how to answer that one. After all, this wasn't exactly a biological context, and she wasn't sure how Dragon was putting that with the two AIs either.
MC: It might be best if you asked Mama Dragon. She'll know what she's already taught you better than I do right now, and how to best explain things.
Bert: That makes sense.
Thanks to her tinker snark she could tell Bert had stopped focusing on the socket, so she closed it. She wasn't entirely sure what to think about the entire concept of being able to specifically write parts of your own mind, but it was a thing the AIs could do.
It took a few minutes to determine that she wouldn't be able to figure out how to fix the gap in the memory protections without either looking at the source code or maybe being on a system suffering from the issue. It certainly wasn't part of the AI framework itself. So instead of worrying about that she went back to poking around with the Snitch data she'd recorded, poking around the attic area, figuring out what she could 'look into' and what had been simplified into basic models.
A little over an hour into that she got an email from Dragon, thanking her for looking after Bert and for what information she'd been able to provide on the gap in the processor code.
Dragon allowed herself to frown as she looked over the damage to Ash's hardware. A battle nearby had apparently resulted in a crack in the outside of the building, which had allowed water in. That water had found its way into the server room and damaged six different machines. Five of them had failed over to backups elsewhere and would be replaced, but Ash didn't have backup hardware yet. Luckily the machine probably just needed a new power supply.
It didn't take much to unslot Ash's box from the rack to bring it to the workshop room. Removing the power supply was a little more involved in this case but not difficult. Pouring water out of the power supply had been disconcerting, but a deeper check showed that nothing had made it into the rest of the machine. That was fitting as the water had flowed down the power cables in the first place. Despite no evidence that it was needed she decided to remove the redundant supply as well, then collected two new ones from the spare parts closet.
Once the new power supplies were installed she gave the hardware an extra check, then packed it up to ship it to a different data center. She'd have to give the young AI some extra time when it was powered back on at the other end.
Until then, she had to see about teaching Bert what a 'grandmother' was, then look into the processor code gap that Mother had found. She was thankful that Mother had been available to look after Bert's issues, even if it was slightly odd that Mother had access to Bert's debug console. Then again, Mother had known more about her own systems than she'd have ever predicted even before gaining Tinker abilities, so perhaps she shouldn't be surprised?
Chapter 109 Thursday morning Taylor woke to find several messages waiting for her. Colin was requesting her presence in the PRT building after school, though getting into costume wasn't required for whatever it was he wanted. An automated reminder that she'd have her pile of alcohol delivered at some point today had been sent out. And she had a chess-themed 'thank you grandma' ecard from Bert. Overall the ecard reminded her of a young child's drawing, but as though they were learning vector tools instead of using crayons. And had absolutely no issues with spelling or grammar.
On a whim she added more of her little carbon cubes to her utility belt pouches. Depending on what Colin wanted they might come in handy, after all. Though she was a bit annoyed that the first carbon thirteen cube was almost, but not quite, completed. It made sense, but getting a single cube out of every hundred-ish total was going to be annoying. Then again, the first cube was probably the most important for her prank plans, so it wasn't that big a deal overall.
Checking on the spider-bot, she realized that it had 'woven' a complicated web throughout the pet carrier at some point.
Taylor: So, what is that web for?
[Data]
Blinking, Taylor considered things. Apparently her spider-bot had rigged the pet carrier so that it could launch itself at high speed out of it. Maybe it had some trap-spider in it? Though now she really wanted to bring it back to the PRT building and see if she could get it to launch itself like that at Dennis or Ethan.
When she arrived at school Taylor found that they'd put up signs all over the place reminding everyone what to do with their school books. Options included 'return them in good condition' and 'pay for them to be replaced'. Fifteen classes were listed where returning the books wasn't required because they weren't being used again next year, but none of her classes were included. The signs also said that any student who hadn't returned their books yet would get daily reminders emailed to them the following week.
"They really don't want us forgetting to return our books," Amy noted. "They didn't have nearly this many signs last year."
"I wouldn't know," Taylor admitted. "I'd have thought the email last week would've been enough. Though now that I think about it, when do we get our testing schedule?"
Amy snickered. "Arcadia feels that last-minute cramming for the tests is to be discouraged, so you don't find out what test you're taking until they hand you the packet and any additional tools you're allowed to use like calculators. They feel that makes it more honest as to whether or not you know the material, and that policy is supposedly required for them to trust these exams taken at a different school for transfer purposes."
Taylor blinked. "Huh, Winslow told us what order we were taking things in and all two weeks in advance. Then again, they also only tested us on the minimum level for everything last year, and they didn't even bother to issue the test for my computer class."
"And Winslow probably needed the last minute 'cram and forget' that Arcadia thinks is detrimental in order to make their pass numbers at all. Though if you're 'lucky' here you sometimes get slipped tests for classes you aren't taking, assuming your teachers think you can handle them. You can always refuse to take the additional exam, but it looks better overall if you at least attempt them."
Taylor thought about that. "Maybe I should just drop my books off tomorrow, then, if I won't need them next week and all. Get it out of the way and stop needing to carry them and all."
"That's what Vicky and I will probably be doing, but some students like to hold onto them. After all, the further into the week you get the fewer subjects you have available to study."
"I think not having to deal with the last minute rush at the end of the week might outweigh that. Besides, I'll still have my notes."
Amy: I probably shouldn't have reminded people about the extra tests.
Taylor: I dunno. At least now I won't be shocked if they drop them on me.
Taylor shook her head slightly as she ate lunch. Amy had made the mistake of mentioning the possibility for extra exams to Dennis, who had paled a little before brightening and pulling out his phone to check what other subjects existed to be dropped on people.
"I really don't see why they'd drop seemingly random extra tests on Taylor here," Vicky said. "I mean, yeah, if they did I could see why they'd throw some of the psychology class stuff at her, but she transferred in. Shouldn't they stick with advanced versions of the classes she's taking?"
"So what if she transferred in," Dennis argued. "The classes are offered somewhere, and showing that she has a clue would be to her benefit. I could totally see the teachers doing that."
"How about the little detail that the classes being brought up are for junior and senior students normally?" Dean offered, gesturing with his phone. "She should be taking the sophomore tests and all, and maybe the second year tests for her electives."
Dennis blinked as he processed that, then looked back down at his own phone. He swiped his finger back and forth a little on the screen to scroll, and then slumped. "Dang, it does say that. And it looks like that also negates some of the biology stuff that they might have thrown at Amy."
Amy: I think I'll skip telling him that they threw some Biology at me last year, so they obviously don't care about the year the test is normally issued in.
Taylor: Really? How'd you do?
Amy: I failed. Big time. No clue about any of the terminology at the time.
Taylor: Oh. I suppose that could be a problem.
"Awwww," Vicky whined. "Why can't we have a course on clothing? I love fashion!"
Taylor and Amy blinked in unison, before Amy threw a french fry at Vicky. "That's likely making clothing."
Vicky looked down at her phone. "Oh. I guess that does kinda make more sense. Nevermind."
Amy led the way into the secure garage after school. They were hoping to have time to visit the junkyard together after Taylor met with Colin, skipping the gym due to Vicky going on a patrol with Carol. It didn't take long to park from that point.
"He appears to be waiting," Taylor noted. "Right outside the Wards area, in fact."
"Well at least you won't have to hunt him down," Amy said. "If he needs to talk to you in private I can wait in the Wards area for you. Is anyone else supposed to be around?"
"I don't think so. Nobody else is, and today was scheduled as a day off for the Wards in general since we're all supposed to be around tomorrow."
"Oh, right. Forgot about that."
The two made their way through the stairwell, finding Colin waiting in the hallway, a portable standing desk set up for him to work on and a couple of boxes next to him.
"Good afternoon Armsmaster," Taylor said as they approached him.
"Good afternoon Miss Hebert," Colin said, then looked over. "Oh, and good afternoon Miss Dallon. I didn't expect you to have joined Miss Hebert."
"Good afternoon," Amy said. "If things don't take long we were going to go destroy some things in the junkyard."
"I see," Colin said, gesturing to one of the boxes. "Well, I suppose this could save me a trip. I have New Wave's visors here, if you'd like to take them with you instead of me needing to deliver them."
"Let me send a message off to Sarah," Amy said, tilting her head slightly. "See if that's ok with her."
"While she's doing that," Colin said, picking the boxes up and putting them on the 'desk'. "Due to your inquiry about the scout drones the overall plans for them, and all derivative technology, have changed. There are some documents you'll need to read, and a few other things to take advantage of before they close some loopholes. To that..." Colin trailed off and looked at Amy, who raised her eyebrow. "Actually, Miss Dallon, how would you like to get an upgrade to your personal visor and help demonstrate a few flaws in the system?"
Amy blinked and looked back at Colin. "I'm curious where you're going with this."
"Miss Hebert's inquiry into the legal issues surrounding possible privacy violations with the scout drones has already resulted in the technology being put under much tighter, much less efficient rules," Colin explained, distaste evident in his tone. "While each PRT department will still likely get two to four drones they'll likely only be able to be deployed on the orders of the local Director, and even then only in certain circumstances. However, there are loopholes that haven't been closed yet. They can't close the one that applies to Reknit due to him being the original creator and not officially in the Protectorate. They're likely to close the ones that apply to Dragon, Miss Hebert, and myself due to having used our talents to make the duplicates, but we can abuse them before then. If you make even one nanotube harness I can ensure that you're in the loophole list as well."
"What kind of loophole are we talking about?" Taylor asked, honestly curious.
Colin grinned. "Any tinker who creates or could be considered critical to the successful duplication of non-harmful tinkertech is permitted to use personally owned instances even if it would otherwise be considered restricted. The definitions cover sensory devices like the scout drones as being non-harmful, even if they may violate privacy. The exceptions to that are technology on a restricted list, which the scout drones and derivatives are likely to be placed on in the coming weeks. In that case PRT or Protectorate owned equipment on the restricted list can't be transferred to the control of an individual, even if they helped make it. But anything already transferred to an eligible tinker is automatically grandfathered in, and the original creator can't be locked out that way."
"And you want to ensure that additional instances of the tech are deployed to stick it to the obstructive bureaucrats?" Amy asked.
"Precisely. Though you would need to look over some of the same paperwork Miss Hebert here would be looking over, some of which covers what you will get in trouble for if you release recordings from the technology that violate privacy laws."
Amy nodded. "I'm in. I don't get enough cool toys anyway."
"In that case I suggest we head to the tinker lab," Colin said, adjusting and spinning the desk to use it as a makeshift cart. "Get the plants going before you two start on the paperwork and all."
"Just let me grab my tinker tablet there," Taylor said. "Since I imagine it's easiest for you to send any new blueprints to it."
"Ah, yes," Colin said, nodding as he picked up one of the boxes. "Good thinking, and please grab your visor as well."
It turned out that Colin wasn't taking any chances and had gone off to get paper copies of some of the relevant forms after they'd gotten started making harnesses. The carbon cubes had helped speed things up considerably, Amy admitting that they were probably a good idea after all as a result, mainly since the plants were much less abused when they were done because of them.
Each of them had made six 'helmet or visor' harnesses and one full drone harness, though Amy wouldn't be getting a drone due to it being harder to explain. Once the first couple smaller harnesses were done Colin had taken them and started putting the visors together. He modified Taylor's original black visor as well as a spare he'd brought with him first, followed by three clear visors. Two of those he'd brought with him, having been ready for Taylor to end up with four visors total, with the last being Amy's visor from the box he'd had with him containing New Wave's order. All of these were then signed over as appropriate.
Taylor also had to go through the paperwork for taking ownership of the full scout drone she'd been given, as up until that point it was still PRT property and on 'indefinite assignment' to her. The system had accepted everything, even though Taylor didn't think that Colin could authorize any of the changes on his own. He'd likely cleared things with someone else, and she wouldn't be surprised if that someone else was Dragon.
The components that had been replaced from the visors were dropped into the spare parts bins in the tinker lab and Colin had promised that Dragon would have four of the smaller harnesses and both full harnesses by the end of the following day, with the intent of assembling and taking ownership of several completed products before things were added to the restricted list. He'd already taken ownership of one full size drone and would be using two of the smaller harnesses to upgrade his helmet and motorcycle.
After that was done Taylor had shown Amy how to install and use the control software while Colin went to get things shipped and return to the Rig. Amy picked things up quickly, though without a propulsion system there wasn't a whole lot to learn. Still, when they were done all of the visors had been tested. They were also all in need of charging, and everything had taken long enough that they didn't feel like visiting the junkyard anymore.
"Taylor?" Amy called from the door to Taylor's room in the Wards area.
"Yeah?" Taylor replied as she put away her laundry. She was realizing how annoying it was needing to do so herself, but that was a downside to an extra-secure room.
"Sarah would like you to come to dinner and help everyone get set up with their visors."
"Er," Taylor said. "Let me call home and see if there's any problem there."
"Alright."
After a moment's concentration she'd picked her father out of her contact list and started the call.
"Hey there," Danny answered.
"Hi Dad," Taylor greeted. "I've been invited to dinner with New Wave."
"Go for it," Danny replied with what sounded to Taylor like smug satisfaction.
"No other questions?"
"Nope."
"Why do you sound smug about it?"
Danny chuckled. "The longer it takes you to get home the longer Lacey has to wait before anyone opens the boxes of alcohol addressed to you, since I won't let her open them."
"Oh." She supposed that would be a wonderful way to try and instill patience in Lacey. Maybe. Possibly. Ok, it wouldn't work, but it would be funny. "Alright then. See you later then."
"Have fun with New Wave."
Taylor shook her head as the call disconnected, then turned to Amy. "I'm good for joining you guys for dinner."
Amy smiled at that. "Great, I'll let Sarah know."
Tom grumbled as he looked through the pictures he'd been sent. Getting two autographs from capes with registered clown faces sounded like it was a joke, but it turned out that there were multiple registries for clown faces. So far he'd found what was likely the original one in Britain and two in the USA that had copied the Brits at some point. All three of them painted the faces on eggs, of all things. At least the second one in the USA made some sense, since it sprung up when the first one had been thought to have been destroyed.
If that wasn't enough, so far he'd found nineteen capes across all three registries. He wasn't sure how many he'd be able to get to for autographs, but he'd made note of all of their details. Right now he was working his way through the last set, running each name through the PRT's system to see if they were a known cape.
Reaching the last page caused him to come to a halt, staring at the name. He looked up at the picture of the egg, then back down at the name. "Hatchet Face registered his face paint?"
Dinner ended up being at the Pelham residence, and when the two arrived they discovered that Neil had ordered a large amount of chinese to be delivered. Enough for everyone to survive the entire weekend on, most likely, at least once it showed up.
"Why so much food?" Taylor finally asked, once the list of things that had been ordered had been listed.
"I have coupons," Neil answered, picking a stack of coupons up off of the table to demonstrate. "Most of it reheats well too, so leftovers won't be an issue."
"Since we're waiting on the food anyway," Amy said, holding the box of visors up. "Why don't we distribute these and get people started?"
"Are they all the same?" Vicky asked, having darted over to look at the box.
"They're labeled as to who gets each." Amy demonstrated by opening the box and pulling one out that had been labeled 'Panacea'. She then put it on, but Vicky had the box away from her before she could continue.
"I'll hand them out," Vicky said, pulling visors out and darting around the room to give them to people. Like Amy had, she slipped her visor on when she got to it.
"Now what?" Eric asked once Vicky had handed everyone a visor.
"Now you pull out your phones," Taylor said. "And the visors need to be off of your heads to do the initial pairing as the power and pairing button is inside the right earpiece. And may I suggest one person try pairing at a time so that you don't pair to someone else's visor by mistake?"
Crystal, Eric, and Vicky all stopped and looked at each other. All three had been about to try and pair their visors at the same time.
"Maybe everyone should download the visor link app to their phones while you're all taking turns pairing your visors?" Amy suggested. The various notification sounds from all of their phones made Taylor suspect that Amy had just sent them all a link to do so.
Over the next twenty minutes all of New Wave other than Amy installed the app and paired their visors, followed by being given a quick lesson in how to use them. Most of them liked the idea of not needing to fight with the fiddly little earpieces they normally used when patrolling, and they all liked the map functions.
"Wait," Crystal said. "We can't map out where the others are?"
"It sucks," Vicky answered. "But they've tied that function to the console app, so you can only get it when patrolling under PRT supervision."
Carol sighed. "Maybe we should spend the money on getting an affiliate's console. Fewer features than the ones the Protectorate and PRT use, but it would allow us to do stuff like that. Not to mention that they can tie into the PRT system for coordination purposes."
"Why don't we have one already?" Eric asked.
"They're expensive," Sarah answered. "Though we could afford one and do qualify already. You also need someone sitting at the thing to use most of the features. My argument against it has been that I didn't want to relegate anyone to merely operating the thing."
"Um," Crystal said, pausing. "Just to say, I think some of us would've liked helping from behind the scenes every so often? I mean, the Wards tend to refer to console time as a good time to do homework, and the number of times Amy could have helped from safe at home?"
"But time on the console counts towards the Youth Guard's definition of 'active'," Carol said in rebuttal. "Every hour Amy sat on the console would've been one less hour she'd be allowed to heal. It's a lot more effective when you have an unpowered family member or someone with less overt powers, such as a pure thinker, manning it."
The members of New Wave considered that for a moment, before Amy sighed. "I suppose that makes sense. I think trying to balance helping through the console versus helping via healing people would've been even more stressful than not really being able to help with patrols in the..."
Amy was interrupted by the doorbell ringing, Neil going to answer it with Eric joining him to help bring things back to the dining room. A couple minutes later Eric led a flat shield covered in bags of takeout back through to the dining room. Neil followed a minute afterwards.
"What do you all want to drink?" Crystal asked, apparently having decided that the discussion was over now that it was time to eat.
Fred grinned as he slipped through the partially destroyed buildings. He'd gotten an idea a couple of days ago, and he couldn't let it go. No matter how risky it was. He'd had to be patient and clever, gathering information while keeping his other acts going. Collecting the various items he needed from his stashes without tipping anyone off had been time-consuming as well, and he still wasn't sure if Jacob had no clue or was playing along by pretending to have no clue.
Nearly half an hour later he was finally in position on a rooftop, and he stopped to consider what he'd do if this went wrong. Depending on how it went wrong he could end up having a very bad day, possibly starting in the next few minutes. If it went right, though, the bragging rights alone would be epic.
A minute or so later he decided that if he was going to do it then he shouldn't dilly-dally. He checked that the body camera he'd procured was on and recording, because if this worked there was no way that he wasn't posting the footage online somehow. Once he was happy with the camera he grabbed the coil of rope he'd be starting out with before silently jumped off of the roof.
"So I hear you have a lot of power-granting vials hidden in your Wards room," Sarah said after dinner. Vicky and Amy had both gotten drafted into helping with cleanup.
"I've got the most difficult ones with me," Taylor admitted. "Though with how much 'around in circles' is happening with them I'm not sure they'll ever be safe to use. They got a bad distribution of components for connecting to hosts. Well, human hosts, anyway." She paused, and thought for a moment. "Though..."
Taylor: Can we mix the troublesome vial-snarks together? I think they collectively have enough workable pieces for humans, after all.
BA: Data
Amy: Oh. That's how they made them in the first place?
BA: Agreement. Data
S: Elaboration
Taylor: All they need is to swap a few things that were mixed in with them, but you aren't sure how to handle that without help from a Jabberwock. But asking a Jabberwock would be a bad idea, so we shouldn't consider it. Thus if push comes to shove we'd pick which 'primary' we want to get working and pour the others into that one to ensure it has the needed pieces available?
S: Agreement
"Well that isn't ideal," Taylor said aloud. "Barring a better solution, I can probably get one working vial out of the troublesome set by mixing them together, apparently. Not sure if that would be worth it though."
"Where are you carrying them?" Carol asked.
"Secure case in my backpack," Taylor answered. "I think the only people who can safely open it are myself and Dragon right now, otherwise I'm not sure I'd have trusted bringing it with me anywhere."
"And you don't think people would find it odd that you've got such a thing in your backpack?" Mark asked.
Taylor snickered at that and grabbed her backpack. She then removed several books, notebooks, and other items that obviously filled the entire thing. This was followed by reaching further in than the backpack appeared to be deep and coming out with the case. "Let's just say that being friends with certain parahumans has perks."
Repacking the backpack took a minute, and then the backpack was put back near the door where Taylor had left it originally. Once she sat back down she thought about things. "So, why exactly was Armsmaster going to be delivering the visors personally?"
"Because they originally showed up here on Tuesday without any Bluetooth functionality installed," Sarah explained. "Armsmaster picked them up and installed the secure Bluetooth components when I inquired about the omission. Apparently there was a mistake made due to how I placed the order, even though I'd made the correct choices, and he volunteered to correct the mistake for us."
"I bet he thought it would've been inefficient to ship them to where they were supposed to put the stuff in when he could do so here," Taylor commented, getting a round of nods from the others.
"Good afternoon Armsmaster," Emily said as the man entered the room. "Everything go ok?"
"Good afternoon Director," Colin answered. "I think things went better than expected, though I apologize if you feel I abused your blanket permission." Emily raised an eyebrow at that, something that the cape didn't miss. Or his software didn't miss, more likely. "Amy Dallon was with Miss Hebert. By having her help make harnesses I was able to justify signing a single unit over to her as well, integrated into her new visor."
Emily mulled that over for a minute, before deciding that it wasn't a bad idea overall. "I approve, and good job taking the initiative on that. Have you finished your own work?"
"Yes, both my helmet and my motorcycle have the shorter range units installed and the documentation for them being in my personal possession on file. Dragon should have her work on that front completed by the end of the day tomorrow."
"Very good. I took the liberty of signing a second of the full drones over to you as well." Emily enjoyed the shifting of the man that she'd learned indicated surprise. "I've already requested that it be repainted with your personal theming like your first one. While I understand some of the privacy concerns I personally feel that the benefits of these sensors being deployed outweighs the risks, especially here. So long as you don't constantly use the full drones I don't think it will draw undue attention to the exploited loopholes."
"Thank you," Colin said, nodding. "I appreciate your trust in me. When do we expect the proverbial hammer to come down?"
"Monday, Tuesday at the latest. After they're on the restricted list I personally expect that it will be at most two hours before official directives come down the pipe restricting all of the units officially owned by the PRT or Protectorate to training and special authorization. Which as you know will generally mean quarantine zones and crisis situations only, no matter how useful they'd otherwise be day to day. Now we've got a handful of units available regardless, and so long as they aren't abused they won't be taken away from us."
"Is the loophole abuse going to create problems for you?" Colin asked, obviously concerned. "After all, while technically within regulations I know it's frowned upon to sign tinkertech likely to be restricted over to individuals unless they've been using it for more than a year."
Emily grinned. "It actually isn't within regulations for me to have done so on my own. What cleared things was that Chief Director Costa-Brown added her own authorization on top of mine after I made my case to her. I believe her additional argument was that it made getting additional copies produced for use in future crisis situations much more likely. After all, tinkers who are told they can't use the stuff they're making tend to be less likely to make more. Most of them would much rather work on the stuff they can use, after all."
"I fully agree," Colin said, nodding.
Pulling into the garage that evening should have been simple. And probably would have been simple, had Lacey not decided to dart over and try and drag Taylor into the house.
"Hello to you too," Taylor said, resisting being dragged. "Did you miss me?"
"Less talking more box opening," Lacey growled. "All that alcohol can't sit around like that much longer!"
"And why not?"
"Half of it's going to be the wrong temperature soon, and some of the bottles should be on their sides, and others that are on their sides shouldn't be!"
Taylor shook her head. She supposed it made sense that Lacey would have very strong opinions on alcohol now. Once they made it to the living room she found a box cutter put into her hand before Lacey pushed her at the pile of boxes.
Twenty minutes later all of the alcohol had been unboxed, blue or green ribbon had been tied to each bottle, and then the bottles had been distributed throughout the house based on Lacey's requirements for each. With that done they were dealing with the boxes themselves, breaking them down to take up less space before they could be disposed of.
"So why were you putting ribbons on all the bottles?" Taylor asked.
"Blue for my bottles and green for yours," Lacey answered. "That way we know whose bottle any given one is."
"Oh." Well, it made sense.
"I'm going to ensure Kurt comes over on Saturday," Danny said, coming into the room with a cheap beer. Lacey glared at the can, causing him to roll his eyes. "Yes, you think the cheap stuff is horrible. I haven't bought more, I'm just finishing what's left before you 'ruin all low quality alcohol' for me and all like you keep claiming you will. Now then, Taylor, the calendar on my phone seems to indicate that you've got Saturday free."
"Yeah, they didn't schedule me for Saturday." Taylor shrugged. "In fact, after tomorrow afternoon I should be free until Friday of next week at the earliest. No Wards stuff for anyone starting Sunday with the end of year tests and all. Maybe if we had enough Case 53s or similar in town that were known to not have tests they'd have them patrol once or twice, but probably not even then."
"I don't think I'd ever considered that there were times that the Wards were entirely absent," Lacey noted. "It makes sense, but I hadn't given it any thought until now."
"Neither had I until I joined up," Taylor admitted, pushing the now-collapsed pile of boxes towards Lacey. "You were so adamant that we unbox everything, so you can bring these into the garage."
Lacey rolled her eyes, but didn't argue the point.
Taylor sighed as she shifted things around. The case with the four vials in it was probably not something she needed to be carrying around, since she was fairly certain that progress had halted with them. Maybe she'd swap some of them out for less troublesome ones that her snarks thought could use some extra time later, but for now she'd leave the case at home. Hidden under the floor in her closet, granted, but at home. Maybe over the coming nights they'd find a way to make the snarks safe.
Moving on, she now had three clear armored visors that could display her phones. Two with sensor units and one with audio. Having a spare wasn't a bad idea, especially if she found a good excuse to wear one outside of the house. Three total was a little overkill.
Taylor: I don't know what to do with my original clear visor.
Amy: I'm having similar issues, honestly. Even if mine isn't armored like yours is.
Taylor: At least the old ones still have the audio components, so in theory someone else can use them. I just don't know who.
Amy: Someone with access to devices with secure Bluetooth, anyway.
Taylor: Oh. Right. Of course it wouldn't be that easy. Almost everyone I interact with uses secure Bluetooth. I think the only thing I've got kicking around that's normal Bluetooth is the demon duck speaker.
Amy: Well, I think you should sleep on it and figure things out over the weekend. By then you'll have everything you need to deal with.
Taylor blinked, and tried to parse that.
Taylor: What else am I going to have to deal with that I don't have?
Amy: Oh. Ooops. Can't tell you, it's a secret.
Taylor groaned. At least the implication was that the mystery would be resolved by Saturday morning. She then ensured that she had all of her school books in her bag, or at least those she hadn't left in her locker, and dropped her original clear visor into her bag to drop off at the PRT building the following afternoon. At least there she was more likely to find someone that could use it, as she couldn't see her father wanting to.
Chapter 110 Friday morning started with drizzle, but Taylor didn't mind. The forecast said it should be over by lunchtime anyway. On the other hand, the temperature was supposed to go up significantly as the warm front came in.
"So what exactly are you doing?" Taylor asked Lacey while eating her breakfast.
"Ensuring I have everything I need to mix drinks tomorrow," Lacey answered as she dug around in one of the kitchen cabinets. "Aha! There it is!" A moment later she emerged with a small strainer. A small dusty strainer. "Needs a bit of cleaning though."
"I suppose I'm not supposed to understand in this case," Taylor said, shaking her head. "Do try and keep the house from needing to be cleaned before Kurt comes over."
"I already told her that," Danny said as he entered the kitchen, Lacey nodding in agreement. He then looked at Lacey. "Oh, and Mike called. They think they'll have finished getting the old equipment out by next weekend. They had to fix the loading dock door to get things in and out. He claims you owe the guys helping him at least one round of beer when you're up and running."
"That shouldn't be a problem," Lacey said, waving it off. "But tell them thanks for me, would you? Though I still haven't figured out what to replace the crap with."
"I'm sure you'll figure something out once you see the space empty."
Taylor arrived at school about ten minutes after Amy had. Normally this wouldn't be a big deal as who arrived when varied and they'd meet at one of their lockers or something like that before class. Vicky having arrived before Taylor was unusual, but still not unheard of, and did usually accompany Amy having done so. Usually that meant that Carol had gotten up early and woken the others up. Eric, for some reason, was almost always there before Taylor arrived and thus him being there already wasn't unusual.
Crystal beating Taylor to the school that she didn't even attend anymore, on the other hand, was downright odd. Amy, Vicky, Crystal, and Eric apparently waiting for Taylor had her wondering what the hell was going on as she parked her moped.
Taylor: Do I get any warning about what's about to happen?
Amy: Nope.
Taylor: How much of this is payback for keeping things from you?
Amy: Surprisingly little. Carol and Sarah told me to keep quiet.
"Good morning," Taylor said as she approached the group. She noted that all four of them were wearing their new visors and Amy was holding a box. Though thanks to her tinker snark she knew that this apparently wasn't likely to be amusing enough for Amy to have her visor's sensors running. Or maybe the other girl had forgotten about them. Or perhaps she figured the couple dozen students in the area with recording devices out would be enough.
"Good morning Taylor," Crystal greeted for the group. "We've got a gift for you!"
"What's the occasion?" Taylor asked, honestly curious. "Because for some reason I don't think it has anything to do with my birthday."
"Oh," Eric said, looking confused. "When is your birthday?"
"I'm not really sure," Taylor admitted, to looks of shock from everyone. "We normally celebrate it on the Sunday that falls between the thirteenth and the nineteenth of June, that being the best they figured out at the time."
"Ok," Vicky said, giving Taylor a look. "How in the world do you have a seven day guess for when you were born?"
"I was born in the middle of the tinkertech-created time snarl that caught Brockton General," Taylor answered, shrugging. "Three weeks of chaos before everything snapped back into place. Mom was there for a checkup a week and a half or so before her due date and when things ended I'd already been born. The records department had sixteen different dates and times for my apparent births in the mess, spanning four apparent months, so there was some guesswork involved."
"So you generally use the middle of the three week period?" Crystal asked.
"Slightly later to center on the original due date," Taylor clarified.
"Right," Crystal said, shaking her head. "Would've been nice to know, but this is more of a 'thanks for the inspiration' gift, with a little bit of 'sorry Vicky punched you'."
Amy handed Taylor the wrapped box. Taylor looked at the group, then shrugged and opened the box. Inside was a clear visor and a helmet designed to use the visor as the eye shield, similar to what she'd used when on patrol with the Protectorate in costume.
"If you didn't figure it out already," Crystal continued. "The inspiration part was giving Amy here the idea for all of us in New Wave to get clear visors to protect our eyes."
"What we got you isn't quite as advanced as ours," Vicky added. "It'll help protect your eyes and function as a headset for music and calls, but it won't give you a heads-up display."
Taylor picked the helmet up to look it over. It was very similar to her current moped helmet in appearance, but without the built-in eye protection. She did note that it had a nametag on the inside with her name on it. She then put that down and picked up the visor, finding that it was a non-secure Bluetooth headset and not much else. For appearance sake she tried it on, finding that it fit pretty much like her other five, but was actually slightly easier to see through. Probably due to the lack of embedded screen. "Thank you."
"Couldn't have you being jealous of Amy's," Eric said. "Besides, now it should be easier for you two to talk on the phone while you're riding your mopeds. Well, once you get that home and charge it."
"Now that we're done," Crystal said, picking up the bag that she'd had sitting on the ground behind her. "I have to get going. Have a nice day and all." She then took off into the air, angling for what Taylor believed was the university campus.
Taylor: So now I have an excuse to wear my real visors in public.
Amy: Yep.
Taylor: And two visors I don't have a good use for.
Amy: Well, yes, there is that.
Tim wanted to pull his hair out in frustration over the stupid tinker fugue list. Some of it seemed reasonable. Some of it seemed ridiculous. And the rest would seem ridiculous if you didn't take into account powers with bullshit requirements. He'd met a thinker who could tell you incredible things about the health of anyone they could see with their own eyes wearing a brassiere. The girl had to be able to see the brassiere for some reason. No visible brassiere and you might as well not be there to the girl's powers.
Thinking back to that day, he was kinda happy that he'd accidentally discovered that 'on the head with the straps touching under the chin' counted as 'wearing' to her powers. The early cancer detection had been worth it, especially as he knew to see about visiting the hospital when Panacea was around once he'd been transferred to Brockton Bay.
Shaking that thought off, he looked back at the list. Some of these requirements had to be jokes. Easy enough in some cases, yes, but definitely jokes. Aleph import videos couldn't possibly have anything to do with things beyond making the picture harder to take, for example, so that entire entry had to be a joke. Others required a lack of common sense and/or sanity bordering on the suicidal. He didn't want to think about how Mouse Protector would take getting hit in the face with a pie, but the likely retaliation would either be painful or humiliating.
By lunchtime it appeared that New Wave adopting clear visors for protection purposes was the primary gossip, and had even hit the news sites. Taylor getting her own was seen as interesting, but wasn't the primary topic of discussion. That was actually dedicated to 'how is Flashbang going to wear his with his helmet?' in a rare case of people having good questions.
The lack of people asking Amy, Vicky, and/or Eric that question, on the other hand, returned the populace to their normal levels of competence.
"So Taylor," Dean called from down the table. "You seem to be one of the only ones not wondering how Flashbang will be wearing the new visor he apparently has."
"It seemed obvious to me," Taylor admitted. It hadn't come up the night before, but in hindsight it really did seem obvious to her.
"Then why hasn't anyone else figured it out?" Carlos asked.
"Maybe because I'm the only one that was just given a helmet modified to work with such a visor?" Taylor offered. "If they got moped helmets for Amy and I then I'd expect that they just got a modified helmet for him too."
Huh, it turned out that hearing a number of people facepalm was unusually amusing.
Pulling into the secure garage after school led to a mild surprise for Taylor and Amy. There was a car already there, parked in Brian's spot. And since Brian was in the building it was likely to actually be his.
"Ugh," Taylor groaned, shivering slightly.
"What's wrong?" Amy asked.
"I have a very strong urge to get a toolbox and start tearing that car apart," Taylor answered, pointing at what was likely Brian's car.
Amy blinked, then looked over at the car. "Why? It looks fine."
"It's got way too many problems. At least one dead cylinder in the engine, the brakes need a rebuild, the wiring harness has several points just waiting to short out, the chassis has several rust-created weak points and a bend from an impact. The radio doesn't work at all, the airbag sensor isn't even connected, the driver's side seatbelt looks to have been retrofitted with a pretensioner but it isn't installed correctly. I think the radiator has leaks that someone fixed with eggs!"
"I think I'm getting the idea," Amy said with a sigh. "But you don't have time to tear it apart to fix it."
"But I don't think it's safe for him to drive?"
"So report that and move on."
Fingers twitching a little, Taylor composed a message listing all the problems with the car, starting with a list of issues that she felt made it unsafe to be driven and moving into less significant issues as she continued. She thought about who to report it to, before deciding to send it to Director Piggot, Colin, Miss Militia, and Sherrel.
"Ok," Taylor said once the message was sent. "If we're going to play in the junkyard we should do so now before I decide I have to fix some of the biggest problems with that thing."
Amy shook her head as they entered the stairwell. "I think you need to find something to fix in the next couple of days, and I don't mean that car."
"Maybe."
Sherrel sighed as the computer terminal dinged. She'd run out of maintenance to do on PRT vehicles but hadn't gotten permission to upgrade them yet. Granted, she'd been permitted to build several fun things, and she was making steady progress on her own version of that flying platform, but having an entire fleet of pretty much stock vehicles that she couldn't do anything with was driving her nuts.
She put the soldering iron down and moved down to where the computer terminal itself was, seeing that she had a new email message. From Taylor? Huh. The girl didn't usually contact her. Curiosity piqued and all, she opened the message.
Five minutes later she was packing a mobile toolkit and some spare parts while waiting for Hannah to answer the phone.
"Hello Wrench Wraith," Hannah answered.
"Hello Miss Militia," Sherrel replied. "I'm going to need..."
"Yes yes," Hannah interrupted. "I've already asked a mechanic to tow the vehicle in question into the garage at this end. I'll be informing Grue of the situation when I meet with the Wards. Maul appears to have gone to bash things to pieces in the junkyard with Panacea, so I'm holding off on swinging by with the deliveries and such for now. Based on the list we were sent do you think you'll need any special equipment or supplies?"
Sherrel paused, and went back to the computer terminal. "Let's see. I think everything needed to deal with the major issues will be on hand tool-wise, though I'm bringing a toolkit over as well. I don't know what the pipe and sheet metal supply looks like over there, if she's right about some of the issues I'll need to cut out and patch several bits of frame. Oooh, I don't know if I have any suitable catalytic converters here, that might be a problem if I can't resurrect it. Well, unless I'm permitted to convert the whole thing to electric?"
"It'll need to stay as stock as possible while making it safe, at least for now."
"Then someone should check if we've got a replacement catalytic converter available, otherwise a trip to an auto parts store might be needed. I don't think we have the materials on hand for me to make one from scratch in less than a week."
"I'll have someone check."
Taylor and Amy entered the Wards area together after their time in the junkyard. Based on her moving shortly after the door had opened it was likely that Miss Militia had been waiting for that to happen. Inside the Wards area it was obvious that Chris was tinkering. Brian, Dean, and Lisa were probably in the cafeteria. Dennis was at the ice cream parlor. Aisha and Carlos weren't in her range, and Missy was sitting at the counter in the kitchen area.
"YOU!" Missy yelled, pointing accusingly at Taylor while glaring.
Taylor looked down at herself, twisted to get a look behind her, and patted herself down. "Yes, I do still seem to be myself."
Missy's eyes narrowed further. "I know you had something to do with the bullshit that's the tinker fugue second stage."
"What makes you think that?"
Missy glared for another second, before snickering. A minute later she was outright laughing. "Ok, yeah. I can't really stay angry, because thinking about everyone going through the bullshit is too amusing. The thing is titled 'Requirements to be provided with form whatever' and all, and I'm assuming that if I wasn't the first one to simply look up the form ID from the title that you could count those that have on one hand."
"Congrats," Amy said, grinning. "I do believe that means that you might be one of the first to reach stage three."
Missy looked at Amy, then groaned. "How many stages are there?"
Taylor and Amy shared a look, then both shrugged. Taylor looked back at Missy before answering. "No clue, I was barely allowed to influence the first. The second was where most of my efforts went in, and that was more of a group effort. Stage three is where all but the most basic PRT checks start for security clearance purposes. I'm led to believe that a few happened at stage one to weed out the worst potential candidates, plus Case 53s are excluded automatically due to how unlikely they are to be compatible with the procedure."
Their conversation stopped as the door opened and Miss Militia entered pulling a large box behind her. "Good afternoon Vista, Miss Dallon, and Miss Hebert."
"Good afternoon Miss Militia," the three chorused.
"I've got everyone's dress costumes here," Miss Militia continued, gesturing to the box she was pulling. "Plus some other things, including at least one thing for Miss Dallon." Amy's eyebrow rose at that. "But before I get into that I'd like to thank Miss Hebert for alerting us to the issues with Mister Laborn's car. Or, as Wrench Wraith referred to it when she got eyes on it, his alleged car. She seemed to think that it was actually a death trap waiting to happen, made worse by the relay circuit to let him use the secure garage having been installed wrong."
"You should've seen her twitching when she saw it," Amy noted, elbowing Taylor. "She almost got a toolkit to start fixing it right there in the parking area."
"Yes, well, thank you for reporting it instead of just starting to fix it." Miss Militia then opened the side of the box, revealing that half of the thing was actually a storage area for garment bags. She took one out to start with "Vista, here's your dress costume."
Missy had to have crunched space to suddenly be next to Miss Militia, taking the garment bag from the older cape. "Thank you!" She then darted off to her room, the other three staring at where she'd vanished to.
"I kinda expected her to be more curious about what else was happening," Taylor admitted.
"It's possible that she'd get along with Vicky better than I previously thought she would," Amy noted.
"Right," Miss Militia said, pulling another garment bag out. "Miss Hebert, here's your new jacket and a nicer pair of shoes. I'm told you weren't expecting the latter, but someone decided that combat boots wouldn't be appropriate in all situations."
"Hopefully they don't have heels," Taylor mumbled, taking the bag and draping it on the countertop.
Miss Militia snorted at that. "If Glenn picked them then there's almost zero chance there." She then took two boxes off of a shelf to the side of the garment bags. A quick double-check of the labels and she handed one to each of the two girls. "Two clothing-shifter ray guns for each of you, fresh from the tinker who made the one that ended up being repaired. Miss Hebert's are to be used as a last resort for hopefully obvious reasons."
"Thank you," the two chorused as they took the boxes. A quick check showed that the new ones looked just like the old one that had been repaired.
"Miss Hebert," Miss Militia continued. "I'll suggest you get into costume, but also that you prepare the full-sized scout drone to bring out today. We want to encourage the idea that it's merely a camera system by having it properly positioned to observe and taking footage from it at that point. To that end you shouldn't need to use the Snitch or your recently modified visors."
"Speaking of those," Taylor said, putting the box she was holding down before swinging her backpack around. A moment later she had her original clear visor out. "Do you know anyone that could use my original clear visor here? I got it as a clear version of my original Maul visor, right down to the armoring, but now it's a bit redundant."
"It's very similar to the ones New Wave just got," Amy added.
"I'll admit that I haven't tried using one of these before," Miss Militia said, taking the visor from Taylor to look it over. "What would the benefits be?"
"Stereo audio instead of mono for the radio," Taylor said. "Larger buttons for the radio too, for that matter. Being able to see your phone screen at all times, even if you can't interact with it directly, and some protection for your eyes. Downsides might include not being able to get a scope as close to your eye, at least in your case."
"Does it have a camera?"
"No, and I'm not sure how to add one. Sorry if you need one."
"Actually, I need to know since someone in the chain decided that non-tinker Protectorate members aren't going to be adding permanent cameras like was done with the Wards here. It was somewhat of a precursor to your inquiry about the scout drones, several groups are concerned about violating privacy. They will be getting cameras onto as many Wards as possible, nationwide, due to how it helps with their training and in proving what happened in their encounters. That means that getting more Protectorate members with cameras will need to wait for Wards to graduate into the Protectorate with them already in their equipment, at least for now."
"I'm starting to wonder if there are groups doing their best to ensure that things are kept inefficient," Taylor grumbled.
"Several of us think it's a combination of two things. Some groups don't want footage that would make it harder to pin things on parahumans they don't like, while others don't want footage that would make it easier to pin things on parahumans they do like. Coupled with a general fear of people being recorded, even if it's in public, and adding cameras to Protectorate members didn't pass."
"How did they get approval for the Wards?" Amy wondered.
"By getting the Youth Guard to sign off on it first," Miss Militia answered with smug tone. "It's actually down as part of the safety equipment, and as such is already required for new Wards. The convenient loophole about those Wards graduating into the Protectorate keeping their cameras doesn't factor into it as a result."
"Well if you think you can use the visor you're welcome to it," Taylor said, picking up the box and garment bag. "I need to get into costume and make sure my stuff is ready."
"I can help you set up the visor," Amy added. "Then if you decide it isn't workable Taylor can find someone else that might be able to use it."
"That seems like a good idea," Miss Militia answered. "I assume I'll need to set things up on my phone."
When she emerged again with the scout drone in tow Taylor noted that Amy had produced her Panacea robe and put it on, but wasn't sure if it had been hiding in her utility belt or if it had been in her bag. Miss Militia had the visor on, her earpiece sitting turned off on the counter.
"This isn't as annoying as I expected it to be," Miss Militia admitted as Taylor approached. "Then again, they were a lot less impressive even a few years ago. Dragon reverse-engineering an improved transparent armor helped improve a lot of things. But now I'm wondering why we haven't outfitted all of the Protectorate members with this kind of tech, there won't be any way to argue against it without cameras included. Just being able to see the map all the time will be wonderful when on patrol, especially when on my motorcycle."
"I imagine that Armsmaster's attempt to get everyone outfitted with the things stalled because he was including cameras," Taylor said. "After all, he thought it would be inefficient to add cameras and not include the see your phone trick, so the opposite was probably true too."
"And it probably didn't occur to him to outfit us all with the tech without the cameras instead," Miss Militia said, sighing. "I suppose I can't blame him. We all have our quirks, after all."
"So should I go up to the roof to look over my platform?" Taylor asked.
"Will you need more than a second to tell that it's in working order?" Miss Militia asked in return.
"Only if it isn't in working order."
"Then I suggest you wait, I'd like you to be present when I inform Mister Laborn about his car."
"Oh."
"Thank you for the visor, though. I'll be sure to mention to the other Protectorate members that they may want to look into similar upgrades, and since you purchased this one with your own funds I'll ensure that you get store credit back."
Taylor blinked, not having even thought about getting paid for the thing. "You're welcome. I hadn't actually considered getting paid for it, though."
Miss Militia shook her head. "Yes, you're a filthy rich bullshit tinker and trump. I get it. But I still feel I shouldn't take advantage of you for something that I probably should have gotten for myself by now."
Amy snickered at that, and conversation lapsed while Miss Militia played with the visor. Taylor grabbed a non-chocolate snack for the time being, and while she was eating it Missy returned to the common area. The younger girl was grinning like a loon but in her normal costume. Taylor suspected that she was happy with the dress costume, but didn't bother to ask.
Thinking about dress costumes, her only complaint about hers was that the shoes that'd been provided for her did, in fact, include heels. Six centimeter heels, so she'd probably want to pick some similar ones to practice with out of costume. The only other thing of note was that when she'd tried the jacket it didn't feel right without the jump harness, though it was a lot more comfortable than the ones with weapon harnesses in that case.
A few minutes later Brian, Dean, and Lisa started towards them. Aisha was approaching as well, on the edge of Taylor's range and probably angling to enter through the ice cream parlor. She'd hopefully get Dennis moving as well, if only because he saw her go by. Still no sign of Carlos, though.
"Will Aegis be participating today?" Taylor asked.
"No," Miss Militia answered. "He can fly under his own power, so learning how to operate your equipment was deemed a waste of time."
"Our equipment works even under the influence of a power nullifier," Taylor retorted.
Miss Militia paused, then sighed. "Some days I hate hindsight."
It turned out that Brian and Lisa were already in costume. After a quick greeting Dean headed to get changed himself.
"Grue," Miss Militia said, getting Brian's attention. Lisa looked on, curious. "I'm sorry, but we had to take your car in for service."
"I'd been hoping to see if they could look into the odd noise the engine was making," Brian admitted. "But I hadn't actually gotten that far."
"Maul here took one look at the car and reported it for safety issues," Miss Militia continued. At that point Lisa started giggling.
Taylor: I don't suppose you saw the car before he got it?
Lisa: Nope. After he got it. I told him it was a pile of junk.
Amy: Taylor claimed that it had wiring harness issues, brake issues, airbag issues, a dead cylinder in the engine. And a bunch of other things, I think it was a long list.
Taylor noted that Lisa had stopped giggling at that point.
Lisa: That...sounds like a death trap.
Taylor: I think that's what the vehicle tinker called it, yes.
"I'm going to assume that powers-assisted communication just happened," Miss Militia said, before turning back to Brian. "To make a long story short, your car wouldn't have passed any reasonable inspection on numerous counts. Further, the fact that you had the relay equipment installed without the technicians noticing several of the problems has raised a red flag there. Luckily Wrench Wraith needed a project, though it may be a day or two before she's done."
"Crap," Brian said. "How much is that going to cost me? I don't exactly have a lot of money."
Lisa and Miss Militia both laughed at that, before Miss Militia continued. "You're still a Ward, so safety-related repairs to vehicles are free 'within reason'. Normally this wouldn't be within reason, of course, but the way I've filled out the paperwork you're also providing a tinker in their probationary period with something safe to work on and it's an impromptu test of Maul's ability to report issues with equipment she's unfamiliar with. I think in the end you'll be paid for the trouble of not having your car for a couple of days. Just don't expect that payment to be more than what's needed to cover the cost of the new inspection sticker and a tank of gas."
Brian stood there for a moment, obviously trying to parse that. He finally shook himself and turned to Taylor. "I think I need to thank you for looking at my car."
"You're welcome for me looking at your death trap," Taylor replied. "Hopefully it'll qualify as a car when you get it back."
"I just don't see how it could possibly have been that bad. None of the warning lights were on?"
"Half the lights in the dashboard didn't work due to problems with the wiring harness," Taylor deadpanned. "Including the check engine light."
Brian slumped at that. "Oh."
"On that note," Miss Militia said. "I don't suppose you'd like to fill out the paperwork for filing an official complaint against Wolf's Paw Auto Body?"
"What kind of complaint?"
"The kind where they didn't tell you the car should've legally been considered scrap or salvage," Lisa interjected. "I'm assuming the title wasn't marked as such, anyway."
"It wasn't," Miss Militia agreed. "And based on the condition of things it really should've been. There's a good chance their business and dealership licenses will be revoked when we investigate too."
Brian seemed unsure of that. "Are we sure that it wasn't an honest mistake? Seems a tad extreme for a single car."
"I know they're not in Empire territory," Lisa said, throwing her arms up. "But is it really that hard to tell that they're almost certainly one of Hookwolf's fronts? They likely intentionally sold it to you, knowing it was in worthless condition, and then slapped a falsified inspection sticker on it in hopes that it would get you killed before you figured it out."
It took a moment before Brian walked over to the wall and started bashing his helmeted head against it. Apparently he felt that he'd been a tad stupid.
Chapter 111 Taylor headed up to the roof to check on her platform while Brian was filling out an official complaint with Miss Militia's aid. He was obviously feeling like an idiot, and Lisa's continued teasing wasn't helping.
Once she was on the roof she moved around to where her platform was parked. She gave it a once-over, deployed it and ran a couple of quick checks, and then packed it up again and had it land. The only problem she found was a small bit of trash that had gotten caught in the seams, but that had fallen out when she'd opened it up. With that done she looked at the sky. The scattered clouds didn't look like they'd cause any problems, and it would be a few hours yet before it got dark enough to be a problem.
A few minutes later she was taking the elevator back down, and wondering why Amy was laughing so hard. It didn't take long to find out that Brian had apparently missed several blatantly obvious Nazi symbols when getting his car, apparently that day had been a horrible day for him paying attention in general.
Shaking that off she thought about what they'd be up to shortly. That brought a couple of other thoughts, and since she had time and nothing better to do she decided to look up a few forms, and maybe print off some copies if she found the right ones. They couldn't hurt to have on hand, after all, even if she didn't end up using them today.
Once everyone was there and ready they'd loaded into a small bus to head over to the Boardwalk in a group, Lisa included, though Taylor wasn't sure why Miss Militia was coming after mentioning that Assault and Battery were already there waiting for them.
"This is interesting," Taylor said as she reviewed a code update for her jump harness. Or rather, for the control unit, the rest of the harness was fine. "It looks like it gives me a reverse option to make me effectively heavier?"
"It's supposed to," Miss Militia agreed, shrugging. "I'll admit that I've never taken programming classes. I'm surprised you can understand it at all."
"Understanding programming is part of understanding technology," Taylor pointed out, getting a nod out of Miss Militia. "Of course, in this case the comments are present and accurate so I'm betting that even Clockblocker could tell what it does."
"I took programming classes you know," Dennis retorted.
"Oh." Taylor reconsidered and decided that didn't change the validity of her statement. "And that changes things how?"
Dennis raised his hand, paused, and tilted his head. "Ok, yeah, it still works."
"I've been led to believe that when code is commented you should assume the comments are a lie," Miss Militia said.
"I imagine that most code wasn't modified by Dragon," Taylor retorted, reaching into the bag she'd dropped the jump harness into when Miss Militia had mentioned the software update. A moment later she had the control unit out and was reaching into her utility belt for a toolkit.
Five minutes later she'd opened up, updated, and closed the control unit for the jump harness. Her mental control now zeroed out in the middle of the gauge, but she couldn't play with it until they got off the bus and she could put the harness back on.
"So how are we doing this thing?" Amy asked while they were stuck at a light.
"We'd like everyone to make an attempt without instructions first," Miss Militia answered. "We know that both Kid Win and Maul can remotely pull their equipment back if needed, so that won't be a problem. But everyone will also need to wear provided safety equipment as well, just in case, at least with the hoverboard. Once you've all had a shot at both units without instruction we'll see how well you do with instruction."
"What are Maul and I doing while that happens?" Chris asked.
"You two will try each other's technology first," Miss Militia said, her power flashing into a short sword. "Then I'll be doing my best to distract Maul so that she hopefully can't use her demonstrated remote operation skills to aid those trying to use her platform."
"And he doesn't need a distraction?" Taylor asked, pointing at Chris.
"You've operated your platform without being able to see it in any way, shape, or form," Miss Militia said, before pointing at Chris. "His last attempt at remote piloting his hoverboard for something other than bringing it back to him was a disaster."
"I apologized for the damage to the building," Chris defended, then started half-muttering. "And the van, and the streetlights..."
"In other words we expect that if he tried to help it would be counterproductive," Miss Militia finished. "Besides, we figure that distracting you will be more likely to distract people from the hilarious failures of the others."
For some reason none of the others in the bus were happy with that statement.
"I'm not sure if I want to meet whomever it is that came up with this list," Doug grumbled. "I mean, yeah, there's something top-secret involved in things, but I think a pile of thinkers are having people on if they're claiming that any of this is an actual requirement of their powers."
"I honestly think some of it is supposed to show need and/or dedication," Melissa, Doug's girlfriend, said. "Wanting to be tougher in your case or have lighter periods in my case isn't exactly a strong case, and if that was all that was needed then the tinker in question would never have a free moment."
"I get it," Doug said, leaning back in his chair. "But turning in a completed 'frequently containment foamed' card? That sounds more like something that you get for being incompetent."
"True," Melissa said, tapping her phone's screen. "Or it means that you're grappling people frequently to hold them in place long enough for them to be foamed, so it might come down to needs there. This one here might be related to a drug test of some kind, since they want lengths of hair and nail clippings for some reason."
"I saw that one earlier," Doug retorted. "It specifically mentions hair and nail clippings from a villain. One that isn't in custody at that."
Melissa frowned and swiped her finger to scroll back up. "So it does. Huh. Ok then, maybe they're trying to do a study and someone thinks useful data will be there?"
It turned out that Ethan was bummed about the lack of use of the duck. He'd apparently insisted on being involved because of missing the duck the last time. Finding out that the area had to be prepared in advance for the duck caused him to pout, but at least it stopped him asking for them to use it. Once that was taken care of they finished setting up, which included deploying a large inflatable floating cushion on the water. The problem was that deploying it was followed by inflating it.
"I'm starting to wish I'd fixed the hot air balloon inflator," Taylor grumbled.
"The what?" Battery asked.
"There's a broken hot air balloon inflator in the pile of tinkertech I can repair stuff from," Taylor explained, waving in the general direction of the partially inflated cushion. "If I understand things correctly it would've been a lot faster than what's being used right now, even if it wouldn't have been able to get the thing up to operating pressure."
"We've probably got a good half hour before that's ready," Ethan said, coming up to them. "Though at least some of that is because one of the techs knocked one of the compressors into the bay. They'll have to get a crane to pull it back out later."
"So what do we do for half an hour?" Missy asked.
"Well," Miss Militia said, giving the impression that she was grinning behind her bandana. "Assault here recently claimed he was getting pretty good with a sword."
"I'm nowhere near good enough to go up against you yet," Ethan rapidly replied. "Even with powers."
"I was thinking about having you and Maul go all out with swords," Miss Militia said. "I've got your sword in the bus."
Ethan seemed to consider that, looking over Taylor a little, before nodding. "I think I can handle that. Is the sword in one of the storage compartments?"
"Compartment three," Miss Militia said, and Ethan darted off.
Five minutes later they'd cleared the stage of everyone but Ethan and Taylor. Miss Militia had instructed Taylor to use her real sword and go all out, powers and all, with the exception of not shutting Ethan down. Well, that and they were to try and avoid killing and/or maiming each other. Of course, Ethan's 'sword' looked more like a chunk of steel that someone had ground something that looked like an edge onto before slipping a handle onto it. Taylor wasn't sure it could cut anything.
The two stared each other down, and then Taylor went for a quick cross swing. Ethan parried it, and apparently pulled all the energy out of the swing as Taylor's sword just stopped. No impact shudder or anything. She then hopped back as Ethan tried to swing at her, frowning while she considered her options. Ethan, on the other hand, was grinning like a loon.
Taylor thought about how to go about dealing with the kinetic energy manipulation. If her sword hit his then he'd just stop it, or plow right through if she was blocking. It didn't matter that his 'sword' looked like it would break if it took a couple of good hits, since he was keeping that from happening with his powers. Absorbing the kinetic energy through his sword meant that a sword used against him was less useful. So she had to stop that from happening somehow.
A moment later Ethan's grin faltered a little when Taylor started to grin, as she'd remembered a very important detail. She spun her sword a bit in her hand as she adjusted her stance, then darted forward. She went for another cross-swing, and Ethan went to parry it again. This time, however, he stumbled when his sword was knocked out of the way. He still had enough time to get it up and into the path of Taylor's as she started bringing hers down in a two-handed overhead strike.
There was a moment of silence when Ethan's sword shuddered and then snapped in two, before Taylor's sword even reached it. He still reacted fast enough to dodge to the side, even if Taylor had pulled back as soon as his sword had snapped.
Amy: How in the world did you just do that?
Taylor: Well, his power doesn't see our projected force trick as imparting kinetic energy properly.
Amy: I know that. I was talking the apparent multiple strikes in one swing thing. I'm fairly certain that projecting doesn't work that way.
Taylor: I strobed the projection on and off. Took a bit of concentration to get right, but I think I did ok.
Amy was left to being thoughtful while Ethan looked down at his broken sword. Finally he looked at Taylor and pouted. "It took me three days to get that sword right!"
"Congratulations Maul," Miss Militia said as she came up to them, ignoring Ethan's whining. "He can't quite drain all of the energy out of my swords, but even Armsmaster and I working together couldn't damage Assault's weapons in a swordfight. Or at least not with an impact, I'm fairly certain that Armsmaster's lasers would've done the job as well."
"You were hoping I'd do something like that," Taylor accused.
"He's been relying on his powers instead of skill," Miss Militia explained. "But now he knows that there's at least one person that can no-sell his tricks, so maybe he'll actually train seriously." She paused for a moment before continuing. "Or perhaps he'll just give it up, it was mainly you getting a sword that got him into this kick in the first place."
Karen shivered as she took a sip of her tea. Which was, at least, well made. Hopefully it wasn't poisoned, but she supposed that if they'd wanted her dead she didn't have much hope of getting out of this alive. At least they hadn't made her dress up in something else.
Across the table from her was, as far as she could tell, the Butcher. Dressed up in what amounted to an adult-sized little girl's party dress, with a visible diaper, and a baby bonnet. A pacifier had been left hanging on a little ribbon for the time being, but the mittens probably didn't make doing things like drinking tea any easier. Of course, being apparently locked into a makeshift 'highchair' likely didn't help either. To the side of the Butcher was The Siberian, calmly 'drinking' her tea.
To Karen's left was Bonesaw, who was apparently running the whole thing. The girl had apologized for Karen being given a normal teacup, as she'd not been expected. The others were using cups that appeared to have started off as severed heads, similar to the teapot, sugar bowl, and other things on the table. Then again, Hatchet Face was playing 'butler', and she was fairly certain that one of the 'cups' had once been Animos. Specifically, the one that was in front of the Butcher and had been designed as a 'sippy' cup.
"Isn't it nice to take a break from it all?" Burnscar asked from Karen's right. "Granted, I'm going to have to burn quite a bit when we're done, but I'm sure you know how it is."
Karen shivered again, hoping that she wasn't going to be part of the burning. She already needed to get a new glaive out of storage after Burnscar had turned the one she'd brought with her into scrap metal and ashes.
Once the safety bag was inflated they had Taylor and Chris swap flying technology and give things a go. Taylor was a little unsteady at first, then flipped the controller Chris had handed her upside-down. That, for reasons the others were audibly wondering about, made things easier for her. Chris, on the other hand, was doing a wonderful job of not going in a straight line. The foot controls didn't seem to be working out for him.
After the two tinkers had gone at things for ten minutes or so they were called back.
"Now then," Battery said, dragging a cart over. "Anyone on Kid Win's hoverboard will also be wearing a copy of Maul's jump harness, set to ensure that their fall is less likely to hurt. Dragon claims that enough components are present to even fit over existing power-armor." She then pulled a control unit out of a bin set on the cart. "In this case the system is controlled by the panel on the side of the bin here. You'll hold this piece to your chest and push the green button on the panel and the system will auto-assemble on your body."
"To avoid arguments," Miss Militia said, pulling out a piece of paper. "We already drew names for ordering. You'll all get your turns, then these two will explain how to operate the controls instead of letting you all go via trial and error before your second attempts."
"Why aren't we using the jump harness on Maul's platform?" Aisha asked.
"Because as far as anyone can tell you can't accidentally fall off of hers," Battery answered. "Crash it, perhaps, but not fall off. Kid Win's hoverboard requires that you actually balance on the thing."
Taylor parked her platform to the side before turning to Miss Militia, who was already holding a sword. "So, since Assault was more of a lesson for him and all, what are our goals here?"
"I want to see how you handle being allowed to use your projections in a spar with me," Miss Militia replied while Battery got Dennis into the jump harness. Brian was apparently getting first run on her platform. "If what you did with Assault is any indication they'll probably factor heavily in the style you develop."
"Ah." Taylor got the feeling that despite being allowed to use new tricks she was still gonna get beaten down quite a bit.
Once everyone had a few minutes on each of the two tinkertech flying devices they'd reconvened for a lesson on how to use them. As far as Taylor could tell Lisa had done the best on both devices, followed by Missy. Taylor was going first on the group lesson.
"This pad here controls acceleration in relation to the surface of the platform," Taylor said, pointing at one of the foot pads on the currently-tilted platform. Amy had been kind enough to take care of most of the bruising from sparring with Miss Militia, so at least the pointing wasn't painful. "The one on the opposite side here covers up and down in relation to the platform's orientation when pushed forward and back but in relation to the local gravity well when pushed left and right."
"Which way is which on the latter?" Missy asked.
"Left is down," Taylor replied, and Missy nodded. It took Taylor a moment to realize that the girl was taking notes. Deciding to ignore that she tapped another pad. "Moving on, for when you don't have time to use the acceleration pads to slow down and stop we have the emergency brake here. If you're paying attention it's got a red ring around it to make it more obvious."
"It's the only pad with a colored ring," Dennis mumbled. "I think that's the only control we all figured out as a result."
"And the remaining pad covers rotation," Taylor continued, ignoring Dennis's comment. "It spins the platform when you spin it in the opposite direction, really just pushing itself back into the position by spinning the platform around it. But if you push it like the other pads it will rotate the platform on a relevant axis. Any questions?"
"How in the world do you keep all of that straight?" Dean asked. "Because I'm not actually certain that I've seen you paying significant attention to your feet while operating the thing."
"I thought it was fairly straightforward," Taylor said, turning and looking at the platform. "Or at least it seems straightforward to me?"
"She was doing tricks on it from the moment she got it," Amy said. "I don't think she paid much attention to her footing then, either, so for her it must actually just make sense."
"Sometimes I find it easier to use the remote controls even when I'm on it," Taylor admitted with a shrug. "But the physical feedback from the manual controls is actually better for precision piloting."
"What feedback?" Aisha muttered.
"Moving on," Battery said. "Kid Win, you're up."
"Gimme that," Taylor said, grabbing the controller from Chris. He just shrugged and waved her on. "You may have noticed me holding this thing upside-down," Taylor continued, getting nods from all of them. She then started pointing at controls. "That's because I found having acceleration backwards was preferable to having turning backwards. Since altitude is controlled by the spinner here it doesn't care about the orientation of the controller."
"But how do you control the angle?" Dennis asked.
Taylor and Chris both looked at him, then Taylor waved Chris on to answer. "The entire thing balances itself on the center point with a limited angle allowance from horizontal, so you adjust your weight to adjust the angle it sits at. It should have a tendency to self-right as well."
"How does Maul know your controls so well?" Assault asked.
"She knows some of my design issues that I don't even think about when I'm making things," Chris admitted. "Though in this case the issues stem from how I constructed the hoverboard and the way it interfaces with my armor, this controller is a barely-modified off the shelf unit."
Chris got a second run on Taylor's platform, doing much better than the first time, before Taylor ended up back with Miss Militia. She hadn't taken a second run on the hoverboard because it was obvious that she'd known what she was doing the first time.
"It was nice of you to agree to let some of the kids that were watching try your platform," Battery said as the Wards helped pack things up. "Though I'm not sure why you had waivers and permission slips on hand for parents to sign."
"I figured that even if it didn't come up today there was a good chance of it coming up sometime in the future," Taylor said. "Printing off a dozen copies of the forms to have on hand wasn't a big deal."
"Thinking ahead like that is appreciated," Miss Militia said. "Good job."
"Why does Panacea get to play with the platform?" Aisha asked as she and Missy helped drag some support legs over to the truck they were loading.
"Because she's an invited guest and not a Ward," Taylor replied, heading out to grab another couple of support legs herself. "Besides, this way if any of us get hurt packing up she's on hand to heal us, instead of heading off on her own."
The Wards and Amy had gathered in the Wards area to record and post a series of videos from the scout drone's recording. They'd covered each person's attempts with the tinkertech as a single video each, Taylor's sessions with Miss Militia, and then a couple of overall videos covering the entire time. Almost all of them from the POV of where the scout drone had been at the time, of course. Taylor had included a few shots from her body camera as well, since that was a known thing and nobody would question it.
Once they'd finished with that Brian had gone off with Aisha in tow to check on how the work on his car was going. He was hoping that there'd be something he could help with, while Aisha admitted that she was hoping he'd try and help but screw up in a funny way. Miss Militia, Ethan, and Battery had gone their own ways as well, though Ethan had asked for information on 'how to do the creepy duck thing' before he'd left. Taylor told him to look up the Bluetooth speaker prank she'd done but said nothing about the text to speech app.
That left the rest of them waiting for the initial responses on the thread that'd been posted to see what people thought before they left for home. This was, however, interrupted when Dennis choked on his soda. It took him a minute to notice everyone looking at him, at which point he held his phone up. "The Nine let Glaive go earlier today on the condition that she post some videos they gave her."
"Really?" Dean asked, moving over to look at Dennis's phone. "Huh. Five videos, and she refused to comment on them. Think we should take a look?"
There was a general agreement there, so they loaded the thread up on the monitor. They had to click through a content warning before the videos would load, and a few minutes later they were all glad they hadn't had anything like popcorn. The first video showed Fred getting the drop on the Butcher, killing a number of other members of the Teeth once he had. The other videos were different perspectives on a tea party of all things. A very disturbing one, with a disturbing 'tea set' and one shelf visible to two of the cameras having a collection of brains in jars. A collection that just happened to be the correct size to explain the tea set.
When all was said and done there was an unspoken agreement that watching the videos had probably been a mistake. At the same time, they thought that if she survived then the Butcher was going to be pissed.
On the other hand, what Fred had pulled off had the potential to make it into the history books.
Taylor frowned a little as she got off of her moped at home. Her father and Lacey were both there, but the garage door opener had sounded slightly wrong. A bit of focus revealed that it probably needed some maintenance soon, but she wasn't sure if her father would let her do it instead of having a professional handle it. Or maybe handling it himself, for that matter.
Amy: What are you frowning about this time?
Taylor: The garage door opener probably needs some maintenance, that's all.
Amy: Oh. Ok. Maybe you can point out what's wrong with it to me tomorrow.
Taylor: Tomorrow?
Amy: Your father invited me over, since I can hold my alcohol as well as you can.
Taylor: Oh, ok. Good to know.
She was curious as she made her way into the house, since the spider-bot appeared to be in the basement. She dropped her stuff by the stairs to bring up later, then headed down to see what was going on. She found her father watching Lacey doing various things to the brewing equipment, the spider-bot exploring the still-unused distilling equipment off to the side.
"Evening," Danny said as Taylor came up next to him. "I fed the spider already and it followed me down here."
"Thanks," Taylor replied, her voice apparently getting the spider-bot's attention. It quickly came over and circled her legs. "What's Lacey doing?"
"Probably something to improve and/or correct her brewing," Danny replied, shrugging. "Are you expecting anything else?"
"Not really, but I thought she might have said something more concrete."
"I'm getting things ready for the morning sun of course," Lacey said, as though it were obvious. "But I need to be careful not to disturb things too much otherwise, so I have to take it all a little at a time."
Danny sighed, shaking his head. "So, I haven't eaten yet, and I'm assuming that neither has Lacey. Anyone have preferences for dinner?"
Taylor gave things another look, then shrugged. "I'm not all that hungry right now, but I should probably do a load or two of laundry. Or is that forbidden today?"
Lacey stopped and looked at the washer and dryer. She then looked at the brewing equipment, and then at Taylor. "Sheets, then whites, then colors, and don't include your towel with the sheets."
Taylor blinked a couple of times, since she'd thought she was joking. If Lacey ever hired someone to help her with brewing she was going to be picky.
Jacob raised an eyebrow as he looked at Fred. "You actually got the drop on the Butcher?"
"Yep," Fred said, before he frowned slightly at a nick on his axe.
"How? Every previous time you've gone after the Butcher they got out of the area before you could get them in your range."
"Didn't mean her harm this time," Fred answered, as though it were obvious. And, in hindsight, it probably was. "Just wanted to scare the crap out of her. The humiliation was a bonus, and more apt than I originally thought after I literally scared the crap out of her."
Jacob thought about that. "How, exactly, did you scare her if you meant her no harm?"
"Got the drop on her," Fred said, putting his axe down. "Tied her up to keep her helpless. Turned out that that cape of theirs that can null out powers was with her, so I killed him and the normies. Then I explained that I had some theories about the whole Butcher thing. First that if she killed herself there might not be anyone to inherit the powers, which was enough to stop her from trying to bite her tongue off. Then I pointed out that I've killed a number of capes with powers that did stuff when they died, and none of that stuff happened in my field."
"Except for the three that did have their death-tricks work when you killed them," Jacob noted.
"She didn't need to know that," Fred retorted. "Not like I intended to test it anyway. Then I dressed her up and dragged her to a tea party with Riley. Sarah and Mimi joined us, and brought Glaive along when they ran into the woman on their way. Of course, I hadn't provided enough severed heads for Riley to make the proper number of teacups so we had to improvise, luckily we had a few regular cups available."
"I see," Jacob said. That would explain a few things. "Decided to take advantage of her presence to get the video out?"
"Videos, plural, but yes." Fred grinned at this point. "I included me getting the drop on her as well as the footage from all four cameras at the tea party. Of course, once Glaive was sent off Sarah bit off all of the Butcher's fingers to make it harder to use weapons, Mimi gave her serious burns on her feet to make walking harder, and when Riley's latest power suppression cocktail kicked in things were able to be patched up safely so that none of the injuries are likely to count as one of us having finished her off."
Well, Jacob had to admit that they'd at least been cautious enough. Assuming you ignored the Butcher likely wanting serious revenge. "And then you left her unconscious, tied up in a baby carriage, in the middle of a park?"
"Yep. Her fear when she realized that she might die and take the Butcher with her permanently was incredible. But it didn't really kick in properly until Sarah started biting off fingers. Hadn't planned for that, but it worked out better than I thought in the end. Getting to take out their power nullifier was icing on the cake, so to speak. Well, that and Riley's got a small pile of brains to play with now, so she shouldn't be bored for a couple of days."
"I don't suppose anyone got around to releasing any strains of the hair color changing infection Riley cooked up? We had planned that for today, after all."
Fred scoffed at that. "We laced Glaive's tea with one, I dropped water balloons filled with others in various traps of mine, and Cherie's been using her relative anonymity to slip into the relief stations to spread the stuff all day. The side effects that cause one in ten people to get violently ill are a bonus, right?"
Chapter 112 Saturday morning found Taylor being woken extra early by slightly distant gunshots, something that caused her to realize that there were still downsides to having the window cracked open. Then again, guns were a fact of life in Brockton Bay.
They just usually weren't this close to her house, even if they sounded like they were six to eight blocks away. She didn't want to think about why she was able to tell they were six to eight blocks away, though. It was probably a miracle that this was a rare occurrence.
Instead she took a few minutes to look into what might be going on, only to find that there'd been a running battle all over town for the past few hours. Four or five unknown capes had apparently caught the attention of the Empire on the outskirts of town. The news was spotty, and the PRT's alerts weren't much better. The most obvious indicators of cape involvement were reports of an intense ball of light, unknown creatures, and people suddenly teleporting. Though some of the teleporting they thought was more a shaker illusion trick, since individuals would be shot and then be a few steps back, completely uninjured without any sign that they'd been hit at all.
By the time she'd looked all of that up the battle had moved further away, but now she was awake and didn't think she'd be getting any more sleep. So instead she dropped some more charcoal into her plants and headed downstairs for an early breakfast, leaving the apparently sleeping spider-bot alone for now. She did remember to grab a toolkit, figuring that if she was up anyway she'd take care of the garage door opener maintenance.
In the end Taylor had done the maintenance on the garage door opener, given the hinges on the refrigerator a once-over, dealt with the water heater running too hot, and made note that they should get a new seal kit for the kitchen sink before it started leaking. Once she was done with all of that she'd made herself some breakfast, eaten it, and then prepared a small meal for the spider-bot before heading back upstairs.
"Oooh," Taylor said to herself, noticing something she hadn't before as she entered her room. She had a complete carbon thirteen cube. It was about time, with just over a hundred carbon twelve cubes created already. The bad thing was that she wasn't going to be on duty for a week. Though it did dawn on her that she wasn't even sure if the PRT had what she'd need for the last bit of the prank.
A few minutes later she'd submitted a question to that effect and started getting ready to take a shower. During that the spider-bot finally woke and grabbed its breakfast, meaning Taylor didn't have to worry about it following her for the time being.
Taylor spent a couple hours looking over vacation spots, figuring that she should figure out where to go with her voucher as well as when. Plus three or more alternate options in case something nixed the first one. Once she had those options she could figure out who might be going with her.
The first event she thought might work was actually back in Las Vegas at the end of the July 4th week, possibly doing a 'stay the whole week for the convention at the end'. She'd heard good things about TinkerTechCon, even if there were apparently very few actual tinkers officially in attendance. Just being able to see the various things on display could be neat, and there were the groups trying to reverse engineer stuff that set up booths as well.
The next one was starting right at the end of July, but that was cutting it close to the next projected Endbringer attack, likely sometime in August. Then again, timing aside, the festival at the group of amusement parks in California looked interesting. Projected to be more crowded than the convention, though, which is why it wasn't at the top of her list.
She could also visit any of the large amusement parks pretty much anytime, but there weren't any other interesting special events that she'd been able to spot. But she'd made a list of them as her additional options. Might as well pick places intended to be fun and all, right? So she'd compiled a list of parks and dates, a possible week and weekend per park. She wasn't feeling picky about any of them at that point, not having gone to any of them before.
The file she'd made the list in was saved for later before she printed out a copy. She'd check with her father first, then submit her list to the PRT if he approved. Maybe get Amy's opinion later too, possibly adjust some of the week choices around when the other girl would be available?
With that done she let the spider-bot use the bathroom before heading downstairs to do cleanup from breakfast prep and such.
"Morning Taylor," Danny said as he entered the kitchen. "Lacey up yet?"
"She went straight downstairs, without saying anything, about ten minutes ago," Taylor answered, shrugging. "I'm assuming her brewing needs her loving touch or whatever. Might have to do with the water heater no longer running hot, since I fixed that earlier. Along with the slightly misaligned hinges on the fridge and the garage door opener needing a little work."
"Oh." Danny seemed to ponder that, and then shrugged. "So, you have breakfast yet?"
"I had a little something hours ago, wouldn't mind more now."
Danny checked the cabinets. "Pancakes ok?"
"That'd be great," Taylor replied.
"Why have you been up for hours anyway?" Danny asked as he grabbed a griddle.
"The Empire and some unknown capes had a running battle that made it a few blocks away. The gunshots woke me up."
"I see," Danny said, before opening the fridge to collect a few things. "So, Kurt should be by around lunchtime. I'm going to press Lacey into helping clean up the house, meaning you don't need to stick around all morning."
Taylor thought about that for a moment before shrugging. "I don't think I have anything to do, really. Maybe visit the gym? Arcadia keeps your test schedule secret to supposedly get more honest results."
It didn't take long for Danny to get the pancake batter prepared, followed by heating up the griddle. He poured out the first run of pancakes, then grabbed some plates from the cabinet. He had a thoughtful look on his face as he put the plates down on the table. "What do you think about taking a quick look around the pub?"
Taylor blinked. "Why?"
"I can probably swing it to Mike as you being curious about what the place looks like before Lacey starts changing it. More people with ideas for how to set it up and all, maybe? Meanwhile you discreetly take notes on anything you see that needs significant work."
"I suppose that could work," Taylor replied, thinking about it. It probably wouldn't be difficult either way. "But will Mike want to head over at all today?"
"I think they were going to be removing some of the old brewing equipment this morning, actually. I can call and double-check easily enough."
"How active are the gangs between here and there?" Taylor asked.
"Not very, so long as you go by way of the dockworkers' compound," Danny answered. "Specifically, turn a couple blocks before the main entrance. Right now there's a large pothole on the corner so you can't miss it. If you go straight between here and there you're likely to run into the Elite."
"Ah. I suppose that wouldn't be ideal."
A few minutes later Lacey wandered upstairs, grumbling about temperature shifts.
It'd turned out that Mike was just about to leave to head over to the pub, so Taylor got the address and headed that way herself. Thanks to the new helmet and having an excuse to be able to wear one of her clear visors she was also able to use the map on one of her phones to help her find the place. Unfortunately the weather was less agreeable, the light rain making it occasionally harder to see as water droplets built up on the visor.
She took her father's advice and headed for the dockworkers' compound, turning at the large pothole. The light rain hadn't filled it yet, but she took a moment to examine it. Apparently the road having a hole in it wasn't something that her tinker snark considered 'broken technology' for her to repair. For that matter, the roads in general didn't seem to count as technology, so perhaps she shouldn't be surprised.
When she arrived she stopped out front, noting that there was still a hanger to put a sign on, but no sign hanging from it. The front also had roll-down security shutters over each of the two doors and three windows, all currently down, and of the five two of them had broken internal chains. Sighing, since she hadn't even met up with Mike yet, she opened a document on her personal phone and made note of the broken chains.
On a whim she recorded a couple seconds of sensor readings on her visor, figuring that she could use the file to make a high-quality 3D model of the pub for figuring out what to do with it. That would probably also be better than most floorplans, since it would reflect the actual state of the building. With that done she got moving again, heading through the parking lot in dire need of repaving and around back to the loading dock where she'd been told Mike would arrive. She found that he hadn't arrived yet, but she parked her moped under a still-intact section of overhang and took the helmet off before looking around anyway.
She made her way along the back of the building, noting the obvious issues with the outside lights having been damaged and/or destroyed, before coming to the loading dock itself. There were two roller doors, only one of which looked like it'd seen some actual use recently. Between the two was a small set of stairs leading up to a steel pedestrian door lacking a handle, just having a hole for one, and off to the side of the loading dock 'ramp' was a second pedestrian door at ground level that looked more like a proper back door.
A couple minutes later she was inside the pub, thanks to the pedestrian door between the roller doors lacking a lock for the missing handle to attach to, and thus just needing a little effort to pull open. Which she'd noted, of course. The loading dock area itself was currently empty, though she noted that only one of the automatic roller door openers worked before she moved a little further in. The larger of the doors leading from the loading dock area was already open, so she headed through it.
She found herself inside the brewery, which had a number of pieces of equipment that she was fairly certain her snark was disgusted with the condition of. She didn't bother to note that as she knew it was all being removed. Otherwise there were some minor issues with the lights and a dead wall outlet to worry about, though the wall outlet had tape over it so someone probably knew it was dead already.
Ten minutes later, after she'd looked over pretty much everything left in the loading dock and brewery areas, she heard a truck pulling up outside. She moved to the door she'd come in through and pushed it open, finding that someone was backing a truck up to the working roller door. Once they'd bumped the rubber stop they parked and cut the engine before climbing out of the cab.
The man paused, seeing that Taylor had the door open. Now that she could see his face she recognized him from a number of gatherings when she was younger. He was almost as bad as Kurt and Lacey when it came to giving her access to alcohol. "Taylor! I haven't seen you in years. How in the world did you get inside without a key?"
"Mike, right?" Taylor said, getting a nod. "This door has no lock, so pulling on the hole where the handle should be opens it right up."
"That would explain how the druggies kept getting in," Mike grumped before shaking his head. "Right, so I assume you've seen the loading dock at least, but that'll be boring. The real fun will be how Lacey wants to set up the bar area out front."
Mike brought Taylor over to the other door from the loading dock, which turned out to be locked and led to a small office area that was accessible from the other outside door. A short hallway with several offices led off of it towards the front of the building, all leading to a door behind the current bar. There wasn't really anything of note along the entire run with the exception of the fusebox. Taylor felt that might need to be replaced with something a little more up to date and made note of it. The sole restroom in the back did need to have everything replaced, but that didn't need to be noted as everything was missing from it. They skipped the kitchen for the moment in favor of the bar area.
The bar area itself had a few tables still bolted into place, as well as the bar itself, and everything was in reasonable condition. Structurally, anyway. This was probably explained by needing an additional key to get this far, coupled with the druggies that had been in the brewing area not caring about the bar area. New taps would be needed, and the sink behind the bar had some rust issues. The glass in the windows was intact, probably thanks to the shutters being closed, as was the glass in the two doors. Looking up at the ceiling she saw that the entire front area looked to have once been split down the middle, which helped explain why there would be two doors in the first place.
"The public restrooms are over on the other end of the kitchen," Mike said, gesturing towards the end of the building. "They're actually in pretty good condition, if in need of a good cleaning and some new paint. I sold off most of the booth hardware to a couple of places on the Boardwalk years ago, but that just makes it easier to lay the place out the way she wants to. Feel free to poke around, I'm going to head back to prep for when Bill and Jim get here."
With that Mike headed back down the hall, and Taylor moved around the bar area to examine things. She figured out that the locks on the front doors were seized up, so she couldn't open the doors right now. Not that she'd get very far with that in the first place, since they opened outwards and the security shutters were down. She then peeked into the bathrooms, finding that they were still outfitted with stainless steel sinks and toilets in good condition, if you ignored some of the seals having dried out. Using slide-locks on the inside of the door as a privacy lock was probably a bad idea though, since there wouldn't be a good way to open the doors from the outside in case of emergency.
Once she had all of that noted she moved into the kitchen. And cringed, some of the stuff in there was effectively scrap. Everything with a gas line had issues, assuming that the internal piping still existed. Some of it had likely rotted out, but as she was taking a closer look at things it was obvious that someone had taken a hacksaw or something to a lot of it at some point. She summarized the kitchen area as 'replace and/or repair everything' as a result, even though she'd listed all the problems in detail.
She then moved back into the hallway, pausing to look at the thermostat on the wall. Her tinker snark glady examined the entire heating and cooling system for her, and basically informed her that none of it was working. The wiring was amazingly solid, but the heating side was likely missing pipes, and the cooling side was missing the roof unit. So that also went onto the list.
All told she'd spent almost two hours poking around, most of it in the kitchen, and had several pages of notes on things that were broken or that she felt should be changed.
Making it back out into the brewing area, where she heard noises, she found Mike watching two others she didn't recognize, presumably Bill and Jim, cutting up some of the crap brewing equipment.
"Get a good look around?" Mike asked when he noticed that she'd entered.
"Yeah," Taylor replied. "Though I think someone got into the kitchen with a hacksaw at some point, so a general check of all the pipes might be a good idea before turning water or gas on."
Mike grimaced. "That shouldn't surprise me. In fact, that might be where some of the extra piping out here came from."
"I'm amazed how little water damage there is with how close we are to the water," Taylor said, looking around again. "I'd have thought that when the forcefield went down there'd be a lot more damage?"
"The dockworkers included this area in their last-minute sandbagging and other flood water diversion efforts," Mike explained. "Then there's the protection the bay itself provided, weakening a lot of the waves, plus Mush did an incredible job with the storm drains. In a way it was more like really heavy rain instead of intense flooding, helped by this building being built well to handle water outside of it. No basement and being raised up above most of the surroundings slightly helps, of course." He then gestured to the loading dock itself. "The worst I had to deal with here was the drain in the loading dock having gotten covered by some trash, and that was easily solved with a long pole."
Taylor decided not to question that explanation, since it was likely that Mike knew more than she did on that front. "Ok then. I think I've seen everything interesting, so I'll head out now."
"Don't forget to head back the way your father had you come in," Mike reminded her. "Don't want to run into the idiots and all."
"I'll be careful," Taylor replied, waving as she headed out to her moped.
Denise knew there was some trick to the tinker fugue process. There had to be. She just hadn't figured out what it was yet. There was, however, also a pattern of the items on the list having tricks of their own, and she was using and abusing as many as she could while she tried to figure out the overall trick. Because if she figured out enough of the little tricks she'd be able to move on anyway.
You'd think that, say, a non-faked photograph showing her and the Butcher at the same time would be dangerous, right? Nah, that was easy. One 'selfie' while the news was playing footage of the Butcher in that baby carriage had taken care of that. After all, nothing said that they both had to be in the same general place when the photo was taken, they just had to both be visible in the shot.
Then there was the photographs at city or town borders for each letter of the alphabet. That had been tedious, but unlike the Butcher thing that one didn't require non-faked photos. Her collection of obviously crappily assembled fakes, basically pasting the same cutout of her onto all the pictures, had been accepted without issue. The hardest part had been hunting for suitable source photos online.
It was too bad that the picture of her punching the limited-edition Lung plush in the face hadn't counted. She'd thought that one was a clever workaround, but apparently those validating the entries didn't agree.
For now she focused back on winning a few online auctions, because collecting autographs from the Slaughterhouse Nine was a lot safer if you let someone else do it for you.
Due to an apparent outbreak of violence Taylor had wandered further off of her original route than she'd originally intended. That this brought her into Lung's territory didn't matter as much as it probably would have even a year before. Even more so since the fighting was pushing into the area the Elite was trying to hold onto, so the ABB side of things was calmer than normal.
The end result was that it was almost time for lunch by the time she was approaching home. Amy had arrived a good twenty minutes prior, Kurt had arrived a couple minutes ago, and Lacey was apparently impatient. Apparently it might be Taylor's fault that her father wanted to wait for her to make it home before the alcohol was opened. Somehow. Despite it not being Taylor's idea.
Sighing to herself, she pulled into the garage. Someone had apparently opened it up to let Amy park inside as well, which was nice given the rain. She stretched lightly before making her way into the house, figuring that everyone was in the living room since that was where Amy seemed to be.
A moment later she'd stopped, staring at the birthday decorations that had apparently been put up while she was out. "I think I'm missing something here."
"We'd have jumped out yelling to surprise you," Kurt admitted. "But Amy claimed that doing so with parahumans that have any kind of offensive skills is a bad idea."
"But we shouldn't be celebrating my birthday until next weekend," Taylor clarified.
"You'd think so," Danny said. "But it turns out that a couple years back the PRT got access to a thinker that can tell the birthdate and some other details for anyone born since the 80s or so that they can get a good look at. Said thinker was in Las Vegas during your visit, though they normally work to help figure out how old Case 53s are."
Taylor supposed that made sense. "So I'm sixteen today?"
"Er," Danny said, rubbing the back of his head before pulling a piece of paper out of his pocket. He looked down at it as he continued. "Even with powers that time snarl caused some issues. Your mother went into labor on the eighteenth, you were born six hours later, and they cut your umbilical cord a few minutes later on the twelfth. The hard part was your birth. On the ninth at 0358, the eleventh at 1111, the eleventh again at 2359, and the seventeenth at 0429. Since two of the four dates were on the eleventh the government updated your records with that as your birthday."
"Apparently the thinker got a migraine and had to sit the rest of the conference out," Amy added. "It was their first experience with a thinker headache, and they didn't enjoy it."
Taylor sighed and dropped onto the couch. "I suppose this has been planned for a while, then?"
"Only in the most general sense," Danny admitted. "I had to improvise as circumstances changed. But really, I figured I'd get the one chance to throw you a surprise party because you honestly didn't know it was your birthday."
"He's just lucky you never checked that part of your PRT file," Lacey added.
"So what are we doing beyond having actual decorations?" Taylor asked.
"Well," Kurt said. "We skipped the jumping out and yelling loudly at you, so perhaps lunch? Too bad about the rain canceling any cookout plans."
"I picked up stuff for a couple of casseroles when I realized that it was likely to rain today," Danny said. "They should be done in a few minutes." He then grabbed Lacey and dragged her towards the kitchen. "You can mix drinks after the cake and ice cream."
Lacey pouted, but didn't complain.
After lunch they'd gathered back in the living room, and Danny had brought out a very small pile of gifts. Or, more accurately, a small pile of cards with one wrapped gift. Which was, if Taylor was being honest, one more wrapped gift than she'd gotten last year. She grabbed the first card and opened it up, finding that it was from Uncle Jacob. Generic birthday wishes, sorry work was keeping him away, and a voucher for an online intro to psychology course.
"I don't know if that's a thoughtful gift or not," Amy admitted, looking a the voucher. "At least you'll be able to get it out of the way?"
"True," Taylor said, picking up the next card, which ended up being from Kurt. Nothing special, but a note that he'd brought the cake and ice cream. "Thank you Kurt, bringing dessert was nice of you."
"I don't know any of your clothing sizes anyway," Kurt replied. "So getting you novelty shirts would've been a crapshoot." Lacey hit him with a pillow, causing the rest of them to snicker while he glared at her.
The next card was obviously from her father, given that she recognized his handwriting. Opening it up she found that it was a fairly standard father-to-daughter birthday card, but contained a handwritten permission slip. "Permission to go on vacation without parental oversight?"
"I figured you're responsible enough at this point," Danny replied with a shrug. "Having looked at the list you came up with I figure that I'd be bored out of my mind anyway, and I'd be more concerned if you brought Kurt or Lacey with you."
"I'm having a hard time coming up with a counter-argument for that one," Lacey admitted. "Besides, I'm hopefully going to be too busy for the next couple of months."
"I still haven't seen any evidence that you'll get anywhere in that venture," Kurt grumbled.
Taylor sighed, as it'd seemed like Kurt had been doing fairly well. Shaking her head, she grabbed the next card before an argument could start. Opening it up she found that it was from Vicky. General happy birthday stuff and an offer to take Taylor shopping. "Does she actually think that offering to take me shopping is a good thing?"
"From her point of view it is," Amy countered. "Though she might actually mean taking you shopping and paying for some of your purchases in this case."
"Still not a big fan of her shopping methods," Taylor said, putting the card to the side and picking up the next one. This one had obviously been mailed, which come to think of it made Uncle Jacob's odd for the lack of being mailed. Maybe it'd been dropped off with the spider-bot? Still, opening it up she found that it was from Dragon.
Amy leaned over and looked at the card and snickered. "That's from Dragon, isn't it?"
"Yeah," Taylor replied, looking at the voucher that had been in the card. It appeared to be for transportation via Dragon-craft for her vacation.
Kurt and Lacey both seemed shocked at that one, but Lacey recovered first. "You got a card from Dragon?"
"Of course she got a card from Dragon," Amy scoffed. "Dragon sends birthday cards to any underage cape she's met and knows the birthday of."
Taylor: Seriously?
Amy: Well, ok, they're usually only postcards, and usually delivered to their cape name via the PRT.
Taylor: Oh.
"What's that extra paper?" Kurt asked.
"Er, well," Taylor said, not sure how to explain it.
"It's a voucher for transportation when she goes on her vacation," Amy answered, surprising Taylor. "Since she was helpful during the Endbringer battle and all, and getting around without the airport open in Boston is going to be harder. I think it's likely Dragon abusing a loophole to prevent someone in an office somewhere from denying use of a transport."
"Oh," Kurt and Lacey said at the same time.
Taylor shrugged, and picked up the next card. Which was attached to the wrapped gift. She opened the card and found it was a simple 'Happy Birthday' card from Amy, so she moved to unwrap the gift itself.
"A tinker-made pen set?" Taylor asked, reading the label. A moment later she realized that there were actually two.
"They're supposed to be very comfortable even though they're rated for brutes and are supposed to work in all kinds of extreme conditions as well," Amy explained. "And those sets come with five ink refills each, so you should be set for a while. Well, so long as you don't use them on another paperwork marathon, anyway."
"I'm kinda hoping that I don't need to go through another one of those anytime soon."
"But if you do you have a really nice pen for it."
Taylor supposed she couldn't argue with that. "Thanks. And it even comes with a case that'll make it easier to keep in my utility belt so that I can have it available."
"That was factored into the decision-making process," Amy admitted. "One has your name engraved on it, the other has Maul engraved on it, so make sure you put them in the right places."
"Now I'm wondering if having both ordered at the same time is a clue to my ID," Taylor said.
Amy rolled her eyes. "As far as I know Dragon did the engraving, so I don't think that'll be an issue."
"Ah." Taylor supposed that would negate her concerns.
"Besides, I didn't just order for you. I got myself a set, everyone in New Wave paid me to add ones for them to the order. Vicky also had me get Dean one from her as well, and Carol had me get a set for Miss Militia for some reason. So if anyone does see my order it shouldn't be obvious anyway."
"I suppose that's one way to hide it," Danny said. "So, since we've run out of things for Taylor to open, shall we get the cake and ice cream out?"
There was a general agreement with that idea, so they made their way back into the kitchen.
"What're you going to wish for when you blow out your candles?" Amy asked.
Taylor blinked, and looked at Amy. "Unless something else has changed we don't put candles on birthday cakes in my family. As a side bonus that also keeps the horrible singing at bay."
Amy seemed to be trying to decide if the trade-off was worth it.