A/N: Warning, chapter contains a little torture and body horror.
Friday, Jan. 28th
The first thing Taylor did as soon as Mrs. Dallon dropped her and her father at home was lock herself in the basement with the tools Armsmaster gave her and claim her Father's old workbench for her own. Danny called out after her, throwing out empty concerns like the fact that she needed to rest or eat or bathe. Taylor waved him off, saying she would do all of those later. What she needed to do at that exact moment was Tinker and nothing else.
After about five minutes of ignored protests, Danny eventually gave up and moved to cleaning up the kitchen and living room as Taylor continued working. Taylor worked at a rapid pace, even by Tinker standards. Weeks of being trapped in the hospital with no opportunity to flex her powers was maddening, and Armsmaster giving her supplies was the equivalent of a recovering drug addict being given a box of heroin. There was nothing on Taylor's mind but creating more TinkerTech. She barely cared about what she was making, she just wanted to make.
But at the end of the day, Taylor did have some idea of what she wanted to create. She needed defenses, a way to protect herself. And while Armsmaster's gift was great, it wouldn't be enough for her to build defensive turrets that she only had a vague idea of how to make.
Instead, she focused on the small scale. Personal weapons she could carry on herself. First she started fabricating the basic shell of her weapon. Once Taylor had drawn out the basic design and plans, she used the plasma cutter to cut out a mixture of steel and aluminium plates and pieces. Once she attached them all together with the Arc-Welder, she then stuffed its insides with electrical a mess of electrical wiring that somehow made sense to her mind.
Next, the power source had to be cannibalized from the Arc-Welder Armsmaster gave her, as it was the only thing she had which could generate enough energy she needed. Meanwhile she wasn't even really sure how she made the focusing lens she put at the end of the weapon's barrel. But regardless, once all of the pieces were assembled, she finished creating her first weapon, a Laspistol.
It was a light weapon to her, no heavier than a flashlight. The comparison brought a small smile to Taylor's lips, since the weapon actually emitted a beam of highly-energized, focused photons that generated extreme heat on contact. Against anyone who wasn't either armored or carrying a Brute rating, the laser beam would hit with the strength to burn off entire limbs with a single shot. While it was still somewhat underpowered in comparison to what Taylor felt she could eventually create, it would suffice for now.
Once she held her completed project in her hands, Taylor felt a wave of fatigue finally hit her. Absent-mindedly rubbing her organic eye, Taylor decided to check the time on what she hoped was a working basement clock. It was 2 am. Taylor couldn't remember the last time she had stayed up this late. Perhaps at one of her middle school sleepovers with Emm-
"RAAGH!" Taylor's mechanical fist slammed into her workbench as she shoved the memories into the deepest, darkest pits of her mind. There was no point in thinking of such times anymore. Emma was gone, sent to juvie, and she was still alive.
Looking down, Taylor saw that she had dented the wooden top of her workbench in her anger. She sighed, and carefully inspected her augmetic to ensure it wasn't damaged. Once she was sure it was undamaged, Taylor decided that she was going to go get some water before turning in and sleeping in her bed for the first time in weeks. But when she took one step up her basement staircase, from the floor above she heard several thunderous bangs, followed by the crash of splintering wood and the stomping of boots.
Several minutes ago…
"This is Bravo team, ready to move in." the gruff, professional voice of Bravo-1 whispered into his comm unit as he slowly approached the Hebert household.
Bravo-1, aka Peter Towns, former US Marsoc Raider and current private military contractor, quietly stalked his way towards the residential home. Him and his partner, Bravo-2, had been surveilling the Hebert household for hours, setting up when the family had just gotten home and reported every sign of movement inside to their boss.
A quiet part of Peter Towns' mind lamented the fact that he was performing a night raid operation against a young, American, teenage girl, but those feelings of morality were quickly quashed. In his time in the service, Peter learned to detach himself from the mission, to remove his emotions from the equation in order to accomplish his objective. The only difference between now and his time in the Marines was that instead of fighting for honor or freedom, he was simply fighting for a paycheck. A very, very hefty paycheck.
And so the hardened military veteran slowly inched his way to the urban home as he waited for the final go signal from his Boss.
"Bravo team, this is Coil." Speak of the Devil and he shall appear. Coil called in over their communicator, his voice cold and all honesty sinister. "You have the green light."
"Roger that. Bravo moving in." Peter curtly replied as he and his partner nodded at each other.
Silently, two mercenaries approached the kitchen window of the home, their black fatigues and tactical gear providing effective camouflage in the urban environment. Peeking in, Peter saw the secondary target, Daniel Hebert, sitting on a sofa in his living room, fast asleep as the TV and kitchen light were still on. ROE on the father was simple, eliminate him. There were still no signs of the primary target, but they had watched her enter her home's basement from their surveillance van, and she had yet to leave, so it was easy to assume she was still down there.
Moving to the main entrance, Bravo-1 and 2 stacked up, Bravo-1 standing behind Bravo-2. Peter readied his M4 carbine, complete with a TinkerTech underbarrel laser, while his partner pulled out a Remington shotgun and aimed it at the top hinge of the door. This was a smash and grab, so once things kicked off, they would focus on speed, surprise, and violence rather than stealth.
"3… 2...1…" Peter whispered out, "And… breach!"
Immediately Bravo-2 fired his shotgun, destroying the door hinge. After a quick pump, the middle and bottom hinges were destroyed and Bravo-2 kicked the door the rest of the way down. Bravo-1 moved into the home, and immediately aimed his carbine towards where he knew the secondary target was.
The secondary target was on his feet, staring at his door wide eyed and in shock. By the time he realized what was happening, Bravo-1 had already pulled the trigger of his gun, and Daniel Hebert's brains painted his living room walls. Secondary objective complete, Bravo team moved to the basement entrance, stacking up once again on the right side of the basement door.
Unlike the secondary objective, the primary objective was to be taken in alive, so Bravo-1 switched from his carbine to a handheld taser he would use to subdue the target. Bravo-2 tested the door handle and found it locked. He looked to Bravo-1, who only nodded in response.
Aiming his shotgun, Bravo-2 blew the hinges off of this door, kicking it down as he did the main entrance. Immediately the two mercenaries rushed down the stairs, turning to look for the target as soon as they reached the bottom. They quickly found her, as the basement itself was not that large, only a single room. There, they saw Taylor Hebert staring back at them, snarling with rage, and a pistol in her hands.
"Drop-" That's as much as Bravo-2 was able to say before his head popped like a water balloon, sending superheated blood and gore everywhere.
Bravo-1 flinched as he was suddenly coated by chunks of his partner, covering his face as he tried to block the spray of blood. That was a mistake that he knew would be fatal, as it left him open to another attack. Fate seemed to be on his side however, as Taylor's laser pistol had exploded in her own hand, failing after the first shot.
Recovering his wits, Bravo-1 fired his taser at the target. Seeing the attack coming, Taylor raised her robot arm to protect her face. It just so happened that she raised her arm in a way that both prongs of the taser went into her prosthetic. And when the electrical current ran out of the taser, it went into Taylor's cybernetic to no apparent effect.
Both Taylor and Bravo-1 looked at the taser prongs, dumbfounded by what just happened. Then Taylor reacted first. No longer armed with her laser gun, Taylor dropped smoking slag and turned around, picking up the first thing she could use as a weapon. Fortunately for her, that turned out to be a diamond-tipped circular hand saw.
Pushing the trigger of the saw, the tool roared with an angry buzzzzzz whileTaylor screamed in harmony with it, charging at the mercenary. Cursing, Bravo-1 dropped the taser, and reached for his carbine, but he was too slow. Taylor made her way across the basement before Bravo-1 could raise his gun, and dug the buzz saw into his shoulder
The diamond-tipped blades easily chewed through the man's kevlar vest, then through his skin, and then his collarbone as he screamed in pain and horror. Peter Towns never knew such excruciating pain in his life as he collapsed backwards, falling to the ground.
When Peter landed he was still alive, hand saw embedded in his shoulder. But he felt the pool of blood rapidly forming around him. His breathing was fast and quickly becoming shallow, while he was losing all strength in his limbs. Looking up, he saw the face of his target, Taylor Hebert, looking back down on him with contempt and disgust. Then, her face changed to that of fear as she seemed to realize something.
"Dad!" she shouted as she bounded up the stairs, leaving Peter bleeding on her basement floor.
Taylor ran up the stairs as fast as she could, her augmetics straining under the pressure. So many questions were running through her mind right now. How!? How did these people find her already!? Was the PRT coming after her? Or was there a leak and this was the work of a villain? But most importantly, the biggest question on Taylor Hebert's mind was, where was her Father?
"Dad! Dad!" Taylor screamed, straining her vocalizer as she entered her kitchen.
When Taylor got to the living room, she saw him. She saw her Dad, unmoving, with a hole in his head and his blood splattered across the livingroom walls. Taylor's Dad was dead, and with him, so too did the last dregs of Taylor's humanity die.
Taylor did not shed any tears. No, they were something she no longer needed. Sadness was something she no longer needed. Leaving the corpse of Daniel Hebert where it was, Taylor slowly walked back down the stairs of her basement. This area was no longer safe, and she needed to leave. She needed to get out and find somewhere safe. She also needed some protection.
She sighed to herself. It was unfortunate her first iteration of the Laspistol failed, but it was a good learning experience. Perhaps she needed stronger resistors, or she needed to dial down the amount of power she was feeding it. Maybe the wiring she used needed to be replaced? All things she could figure out with further testing. As she reached the basement, she stepped over the corpse of the man she killed with the Laspistol and moved to gather her things. That's when the moan of the man she maimed with the circular saw stole her attention.
Turning her head, Taylor glanced at the criminal on the floor. He was losing a lot of blood, and would die soon. But… but that would be a waste of a good subject. She needed protection, and he owed her for killing Daniel Hebert and causing her to prematurely destroy her Laspistol.
Slowly, Taylor walked over to the home invader, and she kneeled down next to him. The man was crying, no doubt in excruciating pain, as his eyes were becoming glassly from blood loss.
"You… are a criminal." Taylor said to him, causing his weak gaze to slowly flick to her. "Because of your crimes, you owe me a debt. You owe… humanity a debt. This is a debt you will pay with your flesh." Taylor bent down and ripped the saw from his shoulder, eliciting a pained gasp from him. She then got some rags and pressed them to the wound, tying it down with duct tape.
Once she was done, she then went to the back and pulled out some rubber tubing, and wrapped it around his right arm, just above the bicep. Almost exactly where she lost her arm. The mercenary whimpered as she did so.
"Shhhhh." she whispered into his ear. "Do not worry. The pain… will be temporary. I am going to make you better! You wasted your life on crime, but now, I shall give you a higher purpose! One dedicated to humanity! Dedicated to the machine!"
Taylor paused to think. "No, not just the machine. But... something more. The… will of the machine? The spirit of the machine." Then Taylor's eyes went wide as she had an epiphany. "To the God of the Machine!" she shouted, raising her hands into the air.
As Taylor ranted, the subject tried to crawl away, weakly pushing himself with legs that wouldn't respond. Taylor looked down as he flailed and sighed. "I suppose you don't see it yet." Taylor stepped on the compress she placed on his shoulder and he screamed once more. "Don't worry. I will make you see."
Taylor then took the circular saw and placed it against his arm. She depressed the trigger, and began the process of ascension.
"Sir! Teams Alfa and Charlie are ready to move in!" Alfa-1 shouted over the comms, ready to rush into the Hebert household.
"You will hold your position!" Coil snapped at the mercenary captain. "Follow my orders and I promise, all of you will return home alive!"
There was too long a silence over the radio for Coil's liking.
"Roger sir." The Captain finally acknowledged.
Coil had to resist the urge to have the insubordinate team leader shot. He supposed he could understand why he wanted to go in so much. While it was unfortunate that Bravo team had failed in their acquisition of Taylor, there was a boon in their failure. Taylor did not notice that both members of Bravo team were wearing body cams on their vests with open mics. This gave Coil and his other mercenary teams a two camera view of Taylor practically vivisecting Bravo-1 and turning him into whatever cybernetic monstrosity she was turning him into.
Morbidly, Coil wondered if this was what watching Bonesaw work looked like. Even Coil, who had long since grown desensitized to horror after committing many atrocities himself, found himself somewhat disgusted by what he was seeing.
First, Taylor started with the arm, amputating it off with the circular saw. It wasn't a clean cut, Bravo-1's twisting and writhing caused Taylor to slip a bit, resulting in an awkward, angled amputation. Bravo-1 stopped moving, and Coil wondered if he finally bled out. But then Taylor went to her workbench and pulled out what looked to be some kind of pipe. Taylor shoved it into the stump where his arm once was, metal surrounding the bone, the shock waking Bravo-1 as he screamed again.
She quickly began using that pipe as a base to start crafting a cylindrical metal device. The device had a simple hinge joint, and Coil could guess it was some kind of attachment point or base plate for a prosthetic. He was proved right as Taylor fitted the attachment point over the metal pipe and atop the exposed meat of Bravo-1's arm.
Coil thought she was done, but Taylor still needed to secure the base plate to his flesh. Taylor's answer to that problem was a nail gun and duct tape. Bravo-1 screamed with each nail inserted into his bicep, pinning the metal to his flesh. The duct tape secured the rest of it, and kept blood from leaking out.
Next, Taylor began disassembling the stock of Bravo-1's M4 carbine. She quickly fabricated a hinge joint that she attached to its rear, and from there inserted it into Bravo-1's newest arm-slot. Coil almost snorted. Taylor had given Bravo-1 a gun-arm. A fucking gun-arm.
While working on the ballistic prosthetic, Taylor finally seemed to take note of the underbarrel laser attachment on the gun, one of Coil's purchases from Pyrotechnical. Because he didn't have his own Tinker who could create and maintain Tinkertech weapons for him, he was constantly forced to purchase the disposable, limited use attachments and weapons from Toybox, a significant expenditure of his personal wealth.
Taylor removed the attachment from the M4, and manhandled the potentially volatile equipment in a way that only a Tinker would be willing to do. She was immediately analyzing it, whispering to herself as her mind dove into a Tinker fugue.
"Interesting. Uses some kind of Ionized gas rather than photons? Plasma, rather than lasers? What kind of power source does this use for such a small device?" Taylor muttered to herself, staring intently at the item. A moan from Bravo-1 drew her back to reality. "Ah, apologies. I can examine this later. One must have priorities after all."
Taylor put the laser attachment on her workbench and went back to Bravo-1, looking him over, as if contemplating what to do next.
"Ah!" she gasped, as if remembering something. "Of course. The control unit! How could I forget?"
The teen then went to her workbench, grabbing her laptop, a handful of electronic parts, and a manual hand saw used for cutting metal. She placed all of the parts next to Bravo-1 as she moved behind him. She sat him up, and placed his back against the wall so he would remain upright.
"There we go." Taylor huffed as she finished dragging him. "Don't want anything important to fall out, do we?" Taylor patted his face with her robotic hand as she then pulled his balaclava off.
Bravo-1 barely showed any signs of life. Unresponsive with his eyelids half closed, his slow, shallow breathing being the only thing that indicated he was still alive. Taking the saw in her organic hand, Taylor placed the teeth of the saw against Bravo-1's temple. Then she began cutting.
It was a long, arduous process as Taylor continually moved her arm back and forth, back and forth, each push and pull tearing apart skin, hair, and bone as she cut deeper into Bravo-1's skull. Coil wondered why she didn't use the circular saw for this part. Perhaps she was afraid it was too uncontrollable and she'd damage the organ inside? Coil also lowered the volume of the video as the noise of metal grinding against bone soon became grating even to his ears.
Eventually after several minutes of labor, Taylor finished her task, and removed the top of Bravo-1's skull from his head, exposing his brain to the world.
"You know my friend." Taylor said to Bravo-1 as she began noodling around in his cerebrum, attaching wires and diodes to the wrinkled lobes. "I once read that the human brain has the processing power that puts supercomputers to shame. And I'm sure you'd like to ask me, how could I improve on such a marvelous design? The answer to that, is that I won't!" Taylor then stuck a diode into the rear of Bravo-1's brain, causing a muscle spasm.
Taylor nodded, satisfied. "Good reaction. See, your higher intelligence has sent you down a criminal path that has hurt others. So, best to just strip all of that away and start from scratch. You'll become a far more productive member of society this way!" Taylor then began looking across Bravo-1's body, rifling through his pockets until she eventually found what she was looking for, a cell phone. "I knew you'd have one of these!" she excitedly said.
Taking a hammer, Taylor smashed the side of the cell phone, cracking open the case and exposing the circuitry underneath. Carefully, she pulled out the phone's cpu and USB connector. She attached the CPU to the brain itself, and then attached the USB port to the rear of his skull, allowing her access to it from the outside. With that done, she quickly soldered wires between all of the previously placed circuits to the CPU. It was a meticulous process, but one Taylor performed with surprising dexterity.
Once she finished, Taylor replaced the skull cap back onto Bravo-1's head, and began looking for a way to secure it back on. Coil watched as she grabbed the nail gun she used to attach the M4 to Bravo-1's Arm, and looked back and forth between the tool and his head. After several seconds of deliberation, Taylor put the nail gun down, deeming it too likely to kill him if she used it. Instead, Taylor opted for duct tape once again. Coil was reminded of a joke he had once heard, where if something was moving when it shouldn't, just keep applying duct tape till it stopped. Taylor had apparently heard of the same joke, as she wound the tape around Bravo-1's head until his skull cap was once again securely in place.
"There we go." Taylor said, satisfied with herself. "Now then, what's next? Would you like me to replace your eyes with an enhanced targeting system? Or perhaps some armor integrated into your body?"
Taylor wouldn't get a chance to choose, as the distant sound of police sirens cut her train of thought. It was obvious that someone would call the police with how violent Bravo's entrance was, and it seemed that they were finally arriving.
"Fuck!" Taylor cursed as she ran to the laptop, immediately plugging it into the USB port in the back of Bravo-1's head.
Coil shared her sentiment. "Anyone who is still outside the AO pull back now! But I want cameras on the house!" Immediately his mercenaries complied, teams Alfa and Charlie pulling back before the police got any closer.
Meanwhile, Taylor was rapidly tapping away at her keyboard, most likely breaking some kind of record for words typed per minute. As she typed, Bravo-1 spasmed once more, eyes shooting open despite the excruciating pain and blood loss he no doubt must have been experiencing. Bravo-1 looked at Taylor, his face completely blank.
Practically out of breath, Taylor shouted at Bravo-1. "You are combat servitor designation Jovian Alpha-Alpha! You shall follow my every command and instruction, and protect me from any bodily harm!" The man that was once Bravo-1 dumbly groaned an acknowledgement. "Very good. Now, follow me. We cannot trust the police or the PRT, and we will have to strike out on our own."
Coil watched as his primary fear was confirmed, Taylor could Master cyborgs she worked on as Bravo-1 stood and meekly followed Taylor's orders. That was going to be a problem.
Without stopping, Taylor continued to move around her basement. She found an old gym bag and began throwing as many tools and raw materials as she could fit inside. She took a brief moment to pause as she looked over the body of Bravo-2, and made the snap decision to take his ballistic vest, his shotgun, pistol, and accompanying ammunition.
Now fully armed, Taylor ascended the stairs alongside her cyborg-companion, who continued to follow dumbly behind her. As she ascended the stairs, Taylor's face was illuminated by the red-blue lights of the police car outside of her home.
"You inside the house!" The policeman shouted, pistol pointed at the Hebert home. "Come out with your hands up!" It was a single policeman, no doubt a more veteran officer who most likely patrolled by himself.
Taylor clicked her teeth. "Jovian Alpha-Alpha, secure me a vehicle."
Groan, was the only response Bravo-1 gave. Coil watched from Charlie Team's position across the street as the combat servitor advanced out of the home.
"Ho-Holy fuck!" The police officer said as he aimed his pistol as the Bravo-1 and fired twice, both bullets impacting center mass.
Unfortunately for the officer, the rounds only impacted his ballistic vest. Even if they had gone through, Coil doubted Bravo-1 would've even felt any pain. Bravo-1 groaned at the officer and lifted his arm, aiming the M4 at him. The carbine sprayed wildly, using up the entire magazine. But there were enough bullets in the volley that one stray round hit the officer in the throat, sending him to the ground, choking on his own blood.
Taylor nodded at her mechanical servant's work. She walked up to the police car, its keys still in the ignition.
She paused before going in, turning to look at Bravo-1 and asked, "Do you know how to drive?"
Bravo-1 only groaned in response.
Taylor rolled her eyes. "Of course not." She moved over to the passenger side and opened the door, gesturing for Bravo-1 to get in. The cyborg complied. Taylor then walked back to the driver's side and sat in the chair, saying to herself, "Okay, I can drive a car. How hard can it be? I literally just performed brain surgery."
The police cruiser shot forward as she stepped on the gas, mounting the curb and almost running into a lamp post. Taylor jerked the wheel and narrowly avoided the collision, returning to the street and driving off into the night.
Coil ended the timeline there.
Thomas Calvert sat at his home's office desk as he finished writing his notes on what occurred on the now voided timeline. He never had any intention of keeping that timeline, as he wanted to use it as more of a test to see what the young Tinker was capable of. And who would've thought that a freshly Triggered Tinker could be so dangerous? The dropped timeline had proved even more fortuitous than he ever thought it would.
First, he learned Taylor could in fact create laser weaponry. That alone made it worth it to recruit her to his cause. Second, was that this confirmed the sheer, psychotic lethality of Taylor. She had maimed and modified Bravo-1 in a way that made it look like the Nine had visited her home. All focused on an intense hatred of criminals. Dangerous, but useful if she could be directed at the right target.
Thirdly, and most importantly, he learned that Taylor had the capability of Mastering her test subjects. This was the biggest wrench in his plan. It was too dangerous to just go to her and have her start enhancing his mercenaries. He'd need to figure out some kind of safeguards against Taylor. He had protocols set up based on the PRT's own Master/Stranger protocols, but he doubted it would be enough.
Meanwhile, the combination of the second and third points made the idea of forcibly recruiting her a tenuous one at best. A gun to the head worked on Tattletale because Lisa ultimately had no way of striking back at Calvert, and didn't have the will to do terrible things necessary in order to reach him. Taylor would have both. The last thing Calvert needed was an army of killer cyborgs coming after him.
No, he would have to play this diplomatically. Set the stage so that Taylor would want to work with him. He needed her to be loyal by choice, not by force so she would have no reason to betray him. It would take time and money to get everything into place, but Coil had the luxury of both.
A/N, 10/2/21: Flesh is Weak is back, just in time for spooky season. Some quick updates, in case you didn't notice, but I've changed the names of the first 4 chapters, alongside this one to have more Worm-esque naming. Arc 1 is now called Strife. Arc 2, Founding will begin with the next chapter.
One other note, while I'm choosing to adopt Worm-style arcs and chapters, I probably won't be having full interlude chapters. That's because since I prefer writing in limited 3rd person, and jump around narrators between and within chapters, interlude chapters are literally just regular chapters for me.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, stay safe out there, and I'll see you in the next one.