Chapter 7-Interlude

"No, no, no, listen. These guys, they're fucking geniuses."

"Chris…"

"The container is just a gallium/mercury alloy encased in some sort of bioplastic. Easy to replicate, even with normal technology. Fed into the right kind of rifle, it can pretty much morph into any kind of projectile we need. Hell, you can even burn it in a reactor and power a laser with that thing. Dennis, do you get what this means?"

"Chris…"

"Standardized ammunition. That one ammo pack can feed guns of all shapes and sizes. Think about it: no more worrying about rifle calibers and other things. Easy logistics. Just one type of ammo pack that works on every gun ever. With a bit of modification, I could even… I could make arrows out of it. I could design a quiver that flash-forges arrows. I could even make it so that the arrowheads can be swapped out on the fly… You think Taylor will like it? I should…"

"CHRIS!"

Chris, also known as Kid Win, yelped. "What?!"

"Slow down. Geez, you're like a hamster on Red Bull."

"Sorry. Just have a lot of great ideas lately. You should have seen the lab Alad gave us, it's like Tinker Candyland."

Dennis couldn't help but sigh. He wasn't supposed to be the voice of reason. "Chris, Alad's the one who stuck a bomb in your head, remember?"

"It's still a nice lab…" The Tinker eventually replied.

"Well, at least you've got your priorities straight. Good to know."

Chris lowered his head. "Look, I've got to do something. Mom won't let me patrol anymore after…yesterday…but I can still help out. Build guns and gadgets and…"

"Chris…"

"I can still help." He said, in a tone that reminded Dennis of a kicked puppy. "I'm not going to sit around and be useless."

Dennis didn't have anything to say to that. He was there when Chris' parents barged in and started yelling at anyone responsible for their son's kidnapping, along with a bunch of people that weren't. Armsmaster got the worst of it. After all, the boss had promised them that Chris would be safe and that he was much better off in the Wards than anywhere else. It was the PRT's most common salespitch for new Tinkers.

Then Monday happened and everything went to hell. Chris being kidnapped reminded everyone that being a Ward wasn't a guarantee that you'd be safe. If someone wanted you badly enough, they could get to you. It was sobering, to say the least. Even Dennis didn't have something funny to say. Then the rescue happened, and things got worse. Dennis hadn't been on the front line, but he'd heard what had happened: how those crazy bastards just fought on, even when they couldn't have won. Taylor walked away with a fucking body count, Missy and John aren't talking to anyone, and Chris… whatever the Boxheads did, it changed him.

Dennis knew about the ADD and the other problems. It's the one thing he never teased the guy with. Ugly sweaters, crappy shooting, and shitty art projects were fine, but that? No, you don't make fun of a guy's disabilities. That's just not cool. In fact, it's better not to even mention it. You'll only screw up anyway. Now though… now Dennis felt like he had to do something, to keep that idiot from slipping away and spending the rest of his life in a lab until his brain melted. Chris was his friend. Not as good as Dean, but still a friend. The guy deserves better than to turn into Armsmaster 2.0.

"Shut up, you're not useless. Now, are you going to come quietly or am I going to have to drag you out of the lab? Carlos called a meeting, you don't want to be late."

Chris snorted. "Pot, meet kettle. You're always late."

"Yeah, but that's expected." Dennis replied, grinning. "You don't get that luxury. Can't have more than one team member slacking away."

"Who says we can't?"

"Chris, do you have any idea how hard it is to be me? Not giving a fuck takes a lot of effort. I can't possibly expect someone else to take that responsibility. No, you better leave the slacking to the professionals."

Chris laughed and finally came with him. Still, there was a sense of unease. Small talk just didn't seem to come naturally to the Tinker anymore and even when Chris did open his mouth, it's always about Tinker this, Thinker that. Dennis wondered what it would take to get his friend to talk about stupid things again.

Carlos had called a meeting in the conference room. Apparently, the rest of the Wards got there first. "Before you say anything," Dennis said while finding a seat. "two words: fashionably late."

"Like there's anything fashionable about you." Chris quipped back. "Where's Taylor, by the way? She's never late for this sort of thing."

The boss shifted uncomfortably. "Taylor…is the reason I called this meeting." He took a breath before continuing. "I'm worried about her behavior recently and I'm worried that…"

"Oh god, here we go again." Dean muttered.

"I'm getting a sense of déjà vu, and it's not even my fault." Dennis added.

John cleared his throat. "Umm, guys?"

It took a while before Dennis caught on. "Oh, right, you weren't with us back then. Well, you know how Shadow Stalker's a total psycho bitch? Back when she joined last fall, she wasn't so bad."

"Relatively speaking." Dean quickly added. "She's been a pain in the ass from day one, but at least we could work with her. Sort off."

"Then, we found out she's been taking solo patrols, which is a big no no for a probationary Ward. In fact, I'm pretty sure her contract said she couldn't."

"To be fair, she was really good at it." Chris chimed in. "Pretty much the only reason Piggy didn't come down on her like a ton of bricks. At the end of the day, she caught bad guys by the truckload. Highest capture rating on the whole team. Guess the big wigs thought that was more important."

"Then, last December, I think, our glorious leader had the brilliant idea of doing something about it." Dennis ignored the cold stare he got from said 'glorious leader'. "He called a meeting, just like this one, where we hatched a plan to turn Stalker away from the dark side."

Carlos frowned. "I was trying to help her, Dennis. The way she was going at it, it was only a matter of time 'till she got someone seriously injured or killed. I wanted to keep that from happening."

Dennis cheerfully continued. "And then it blew up in our faces. Stalker caught on within a week and confronted us. We told her the plan, and she… she didn't take it very well, to say the least. Started yelling at us, saying we were weak and we weren't worth the hassle. Basically, she dropped the whole act and we got to see what Shadow Stalker was really like. Turns out that she'd been holding back on the bitchiness all along."

"Needless to say, she stopped listening to us and started doing her own thing from then on. You know the rest." Carlos said, head lowered. "Look, I know it didn't work on her, but Taylor's different. She actually wants to be a part of this team, which is why we need to help her. She's become really violent lately and I don't want to lose her because she disembowels someone on camera."

"So, basically, you want to try the same thing, even though it completely failed the last time we did it. What's the definition of insanity again?"

"I have to do something, Dennis. She killed over thirty people in cold blood because she thought it was the most expedient way to complete the mission. I can't ignore that just because the people she killed deserved it." As annoying as the boss was, Dennis couldn't deny that he kind of had a point.

"And what exactly should she have done instead?" Lisa suddenly added. "Look, killing is bad, I get that, but it's not like she had a better option."

"There is always a better option, Lisa."

"No, there wasn't. Believe me, each and every single one of those men would have fought to the death. Diplomacy didn't work. Containment foam isn't effective when you're trying to contain that many people. Non-lethal takedowns just weren't feasible and if she hadn't killed them, that would have been another thirty people running around, trying to kill you. Like it or not, she probably saved your life. She definitely saved Chris' and Dean's."

Dennis was cursing inwardly. He knew how this was going to end. Lisa would just rip him and his argument apart like she always did when someone tried to fight her in a battle of words. It was like watching a train derail in slow-motion and there was nothing he could do without making everything worse.

Carlos sighed. "Okay, I'm willing to admit that it might have been the right call yesterday, but that's not the point. I'm worried that if we don't come down on her now, remind her that what she did was wrong… Look, if she gets into a situation like that again…"

"She'd start killing without hesitation." Lisa admitted.

"Exactly, so…"

"And that's not a bad thing. Carlos, you're so focused on the people she killed that you're forgotten the people she's left alive. If she were a Slaughterhouse 9 candidate in the making, why's Winslow still standing? Why's Sophia still alive? Guys, I know what a psychopath looks like. I used to work for one. Taylor Hebert is nothing like that."

"Then what would you call her?"

Then Lisa started grinning. Oh great, exposition time. The villainess was on a roll again. "Driven. Goal oriented. Focused. She feels emotions just like we do, but she doesn't let them affect her. When the bullets start flying, she doesn't panic or revert to instinct. She just never stops thinking. When there's a problem, she solves it in the best possible way. Not sure if it's because of her power or some mental issue, but that's beside the point."

"What does this have to do with killing people?" Carlos asked, impatiently.

"I was getting to that. Anyway, when threatened, Taylor's brain goes into a super-analytical mode, or something. Not entirely sure how it works, but the gist of it is that the stays calm, processes everything that goes on around her, then rationally work out a plan and follow through. If killing people is the only way to do what needs to be done, then she'll do that. If it isn't, she won't. Believe me, she'd never hurt someone if she didn't think it was necessary."

"So, basically, she turns into a high-functioning sociopath in combat."

Lisa rubbed her forehead. "No, she doesn't. Don't you get it? She only killed the Boxheads because that was the only way to keep thirty men with laserguns from slaughtering you. To save you.She never killed anyone else because she found a way to do without every time. She isn't a murderer, Carlos, and if you start treating her like one, all you'll do is push her away."

"What am I supposed to do then?"

"Nothing. Nothing at all. She saved your life back there. You do anything and you're punishing her for doing her damn job. You're the first friends she's had in years and if you turn on her now, it'll destroy her."

"I think she'll deal." Carlos said, confidently. "Taylor's tougher than she looks. She can take a little criticism."

Suddenly, Lisa's face turned cold. If this had been one of Dennis' jokes, this would be the point where he realized he'd gone too far and had to apologize. "That isn't 'a little criticism', and don't think you know what's going on in her head. Taylor spent years hiding her feelings and she's really good at it. Even I have trouble figuring her out. I do know this, though: she went after Lung on her first night out. Anyone who tries that is either stupid, on par with the Triumvirate, or suicidal, and we both know it's not one of the first two. Honestly, if I'd known about all her issues back then, I would have recruited the fuck out of her and probably succeeded too." The girl sighed. "Look, just…let this go. Don't praise her, don't hate her, just…let go and get on with your life. You wanna stop Taylor from killing people? Don't put her in situations where she has no other option. Do that, and she'll never kill anyone ever again."

Carlos started pacing, before turning to their youngest teammate. "Missy?"

"No." She immediately snapped back. "She isn't Shadow Stalker 2.0. End of story."

Missy had been quiet all day. Too quiet, in fact. Dennis had always assumed that that was because she was a kid just coming out of a warzone, but now, he wasn't so sure anymore. There was something to the tone of her voice that was off-putting.

"I hadn't even…"

"Taylor respects me, Carlos. She's the only one around here who doesn't treat me like a little kid. And she cares. She's not very good at showing it, but she tries and I can tell. I'm not giving you more ammunition against one of the only friends I have."

"She killed people, Missy."

She jumped out of her seat and yelled: "So did I!" Then, she realized what she'd just said and ran out of the room. A moment later, Lisa muttered something under her breath and followed.

Dennis didn't know what to think anymore. Judging by the boss' posture, neither did Carlos. "How the fuck am I supposed to fix this…" He asked no one in particular.

This. This is why Dennis didn't want to lead the Wards. Forget the paperwork and the responsibilities. Those sucked, but he could deal with them. A situation like this, though, when there was no right answer? He had no idea what to do.

"Well…maybe we should do what Lisa says." He chimed in.

"Do nothing and wait for it all to go away, huh?" Carlos chuckled mirthlessly.

"Can't go wrong with the classic Clockblocker plan: procrastinate, procrastinate, procrastinate. I'm serious, though. It's not like any of us has a better idea…"

"No, we don't." The boss sighed, looking thoroughly exhausted. "We just… I like Taylor, I really do, and I know she wants to be a hero, it's just… I don't want her to turn out like Sophia."

"She's scary." Dean admitted.

"Scary as fuck and I don't think she even realizes it."

Dennis nodded. Taylor was scary. Correction, Taylor was nice, if a little quiet, and Banshee was scary as fuck. It was the mask that really sealed the deal. To quote what the PR department had been ramming into his skull for months, when you're wearing a full-face mask, it's important to remember that you're going to have a lot less body language to work with. You need to be expressive, constantly moving and flailing your arms around or else people think you're too distant. Dennis never had a problem with that, but Taylor was just so still that he sometimes wondered if she wasn't a secret combat android designed by Armsmaster. Then, the mask would come off and she'd be a normal fifteen year-old again. A quiet, bookish, and determined fifteen year-old, but at least she was human. It was the disconnect between the two that had everyone on edge. Was she a fifteen year-old pretending to be a psycho supersoldier? Was she a psycho supersoldier pretending to be a fifteen year-old? Was it something else? Just what was going on inside that head of hers? How long would it take before she went on another rampage and became the living embodiment of the phrase 'beware the quiet ones'?

Dennis was so happy he wasn't the team captain. He couldn't hate Carlos. No, he pitied the guy. No one should have to deal with this kind of shit.

The boss rubbed his brow and said: "Fine, we'll go with Lisa's plan and hope she doesn't murder someone likable. Leave the rest up to the shrinks." With that, he walked away.

So, so happy he wasn't team captain.