Saturday, March 5th…
Amy trudged her way through Brockton General's hallways, shoulders slumped and eyes heavy as she felt the weight of her shift. She wasn't even supposed to be here today, but she couldn't stay in the house with Carol at home and Vicky spending all day on the phone with Dean.
A day of healing one gunshot wound, two workplace accidents, one STD, and a case of eczema was only marginally better than that. Sighing, Amy made her way to the nurse's station where she filled up on her 3rd coffee of the day. As she filled the paper cup with the liquid, caffeinated gold, a noise from reception drew her attention.
"Ma'am, I'm sorry, but like I've already said, I don't have any more information I can give you! Now please, you're disturbing the other patients!" Amy heard Cindy, the receptionist for this ward, cry out.
Amy sighed. It sounded like there was another rude and unruly patient that they'd need to call security on.
"And as I've already said, that answer is not satisfactory!" The static hiss of a familiar synthesized voice shouted back at Cindy. "I desire to speak to your superior!"
Amy almost dropped her coffee as she listened to the argument. Taylor!? What the fuck was she doing here and why was she harassing the hospital staff?
Rushing towards the reception area, Amy ignored the calls from nearby nurses who told her to slow down. When she got there, she saw exactly what she had been expecting. Taylor, in her blood-red robes and power armor, towering over the terrified receptionist Cindy, who looked to be on the verge of tears, alongside a crowd of onlookers who gawked and recorded the whole altercation.
"Tech-Priest!" Amy shouted, drawing all eyes to her. "What are you doing here?"
"Oh thank god, Panacea!" Cindy cried out as she rolled her chair to Amy as fast as she could. "Do you know this crazy fucking Cape?" she whispered.
Amy glared down at Cindy, causing the receptionist to run away from her as well. Where did this fucking bitch get the right to call Taylor crazy? "Yes, I do know her," Amy said as naturally as she possibly could, which was only as caustic as hydrochloric acid. "She's a friend." Amy then looked back to Taylor. "One that I would want to know what she's doing here."
Taylor huffed as she straightened out her robes. "Am- ahem, Panacea. It is good to see you." She gave a small bow to Amy. "I am only here because I wished to ascertain the reason why this medical facility rejected my offers of the sale of medical Tinkertech. Something that this… varlet, seemed intent on keeping me from."
"Varlet?" Cindy parroted, the question also on Amy's mind. "I wasn't keeping you from anything! I just don't know what to tell you, and you don't have any appointments with any of the hospital's board! You can't just barge in here and demand to see them!"
At Cindy's words, Taylor stepped forward and growled. "Listen here, you mewling meatbag. I-"
"Tech-Priest!" Amy shouted, cutting her friend off. When Taylor's head snapped to her, Amy sighed. "Look, why don't you stop harassing the staff, walk with me, and we can talk about whatever…" Amy waved her hand vaguely in Taylor's direction, "This problem is."
Taylor locked eyes with Amy, no doubt evaluating what to do, but Amy wasn't going to back down. The hospital was her turf Goddamnit, and she wasn't going to let Taylor cause any more of a scene here. "That is… agreeable, Panacea. Lead the way." Taylor shuffled past the reception desk and moved towards Amy.
"Wait! You can just let her wander the hospital!" Cindy cried out after Taylor.
Amy sighed. "We'll be going to the roof. Away from any patients and anyone else Tech-Priest might agitate. If anyone complains, tell them they can take it up with me after I'm done."
Without waiting for a response, Amy led Taylor deeper into the hospital. She took the cyborg into a nearby stairwell and brought her to the hospital roof, silently glad Taylor didn't make any more scenes on the way up. Once they reached the roof, Amy shut the door behind Taylor and sighed.
"Okay Taylor. What the Hell is going on here?" She asked, unable to keep the touch of irritation she felt out of her voice.
Taylor huffed, crossing her arms in front of her chest in vexation. "Very well. I shall start at the beginning. In an attempt to diversify my revenue streams, I reached out to Brockton General and several other local hospitals to see if they would be interested in purchasing some of my more analeptic inventions, such as my Auto-sanguination fluid or my Diagnostor. But these Board of Directors," Taylor spat the title out like a curse. "Say they cannot just purchase Tinkertech from any Cape off the street. That my technology needs to be 'peer-reviewed' and 'thoroughly tested' before they're fit for actual use. Bah! Fools wouldn't even understand the first thing about my technology if they had years to review it amongst their peers!"
Taylor threw her hands up into the air in frustration. To Amy's surprise, the robot arm that was connected to Taylor's backpack flailed into the air as well. Amy thought the reaction was cute.
Forcing a cough to clear her mind, Amy then crossed her own arms as she said, "I can see the problem. And it sounds like the same one you had when Vicky and I last talked to you about PR. I guess you haven't had much success on that front then?"
Taylor snorted derisively. "No, I have not. You were there when Armsmaster rejected my proposal for the ferry. I have not had much of an opportunity to make a name for myself since, and I have been forced to… alternative means to fund my research."
Amy pursed her lips. That sounded sketchy as Hell. She hoped Taylor wasn't doing anything too dumb to get her money. Like working with villains. But Amy knew Taylor was too smart to even consider that. "Yeah Armsmaster could be kinda a dick."
Rather than immediately responding, Taylor seemed to deflate at Amy's words, losing some of the fire in her. "No, Armsmaster is not to blame. He was merely the messenger for his foolish superiors. If anything, I actually find most interactions with Armsmaster to be rather positive. There are few in the city who can truly appreciate the efficiency of the machine like he can."
Frowning, Amy pushed aside a strange sense of jealousy she felt at Taylor's statement. Armsmaster was probably old enough to be either of their dads, and being jealous about a professional relationship between him and Taylor was fucking weird. Instead, Amy focused on trying to solve Taylor's problem. If she did that, maybe Taylor would see her as a more valuable friend than Halbeard.
"Oh uh… have you tried talking to Dragon?" She offered up the only advice she could think of.
"Dragon?" Taylor repeated, almost recoiling in disgust at the mention of her. "Why would I wish to speak to her?"
Amy's eyes narrowed on Taylor. "You know for, someone who has IQ of like, 300, you can be pretty fucking dumb sometimes."
Taylor returned the gesture towards Amy. "And what is that supposed to mean?"
Bringing her face to her palm, Amy sighed. "Okay, so your scheme with the ferry failed. Boo-fucking-hoo. And right now you still don't have any legs to stand on PR-wise, save for the fact that people know you can defend your territory well. But you know what Tinker has PR in spades? Dragon, you idiot.
"Dragon is famous and her Tinkertech is used everywhere. The Protectorate and the Guild use her computers, and she's the one who manufactures and maintains containment foam, amongst other things. Long story short, governments and people trust her nearly implicitly."
"And you think I should leverage her as a resource to spread my own technology." Taylor followed up.
Amy had to resist the urge to say, 'duh.'
"Yes, exactly." She opted to say instead. "Dragon is the world's greatest Tinker. No debate there. Hell, I even heard rumors that she can copy the Tinkertech of others. If that's how her powers work, giving her some of your tech to analyze and either approve or reverse-engineer would go a long way to establishing your reputation as a Tinker."
Taylor made some kind of unamused grunt. "Given enough resources, I'm sure I can create machines as wonderful as Dragon can," Taylor said, almost petulantly. "I can even reverse engineer Tinkertech as well. How come she has such free reign with her technology when I do not?"
Amy held back her own surprise at Taylor's admission that she could reverse engineer Tinkertech too, filing the information in the back of her mind. "What part of, world's greatest Tinker, do you not understand? It doesn't matter if Dragon is or is not the actual world's greatest, everyone thinks she is, IE PR! And you can't brute force your way through PR and politics, Taylor. Dragon's reputation has been built up over years, and I'm sure when she started out, no one trusted her either. It's just something you're going to have to deal with."
Amy could see the mental conflict within Taylor dance across her face. After a few seconds of internal agony, Taylor eventually sighed. "Perhaps you are right. I should speak to that naive fool of a woman again."
Again? Naive fool? What!?
"You've already met Dragon?" Amy breathed out.
Taylor waved her off. "Yes yes, during my registration with the PRT. Your mother was there too. The meeting did not go too well. Dragon and I did not see eye to eye on the issues of my cyberization," Taylor hissed out the words before she straightened out her robes to calm herself. "But, perhaps we can put that behind us for a better partnership in the future. Regardless, that is enough of my issues. How are you doing, Amy?"
The question froze Amy, who only gaped at Taylor. "What? You're actually asking me how I'm doing?" That was a first. Every other time they'd talked, Taylor was so single mindedly focused on her technology and Cape life that she never seemed interested in just, casual small talk.
Taylor tilted her head at Amy. "Yes? Is that not how conversations work? Reciprocal questions in order to foster deeper emotional bonds?"
"I…" Amy felt her brain short circuiting. "I guess you're right. And… I don't know. I guess I'm doing fine."
Taylor raised an incredulous eyebrow.
That sent a wave of annoyance through Amy. "What's with the look?"
Taylor gave a small shrug. "What is with the lie? My auspex can see obvious signs of sleep deprivation, high stress, and anxiety within you. Extremely high cortisol levels and a below average size hippocampus are not usually something you'd see within someone who is, 'doing fine.''"
Amy's jaw dropped open, scandalized. "Don't… You can't just scan me without my permission! That kind of stuff is private! That's unethical, if not outright illegal! And, and…" And completely fucking right. "And… I guess I'm just tired."
When Taylor didn't respond, Amy just continued. "It's just… I know helping people here at the hospital is the right thing to do, but… it's just so tiring. I'm tired of healing Mr. Johnson for the third fucking time this year because that old asshole keeps slipping and breaking some bone. I'm tired of treating hypertension and heart attacks for fat fucks who think eating at Fugly's and McDonalds every day is a good fucking idea. I'm tired of healing obvious gangbangers who the police can't arrest because they're the 'victim' or there's 'lack of evidence' I'm…" Amy sighed and let her head hang. "I'm just tired of having to do good here." I'm tired of having to be a hero. But if I'm not a hero, what the fuck am I?
"Right, do good." Taylor's words dripped with sarcasm, even through the static overlay.
Amy's eyes snapped up to Taylor, her gaze vicious. "Now what the fuck does that mean!?" She hissed through teeth grit so hard Amy thought she might crack a molar.
"What that means is that I think you are wasting your time here," Taylor retorted with absolute conviction. She continued before Amy could respond. "You think you are doing good here by returning people to their base, fleshy states? I say you are at best, torturing yourself and teaching them to embrace mediocrity. To embrace weakness."
Amy couldn't help but laugh at Taylor's statement. "And what do you think I should do then? Send every patient here to you to get robot arms and legs? Newsflash Taylor, but if you don't understand despite constantly getting rejected by the PRT, most people do not want to be cyborgs!"
Taylor glared at Amy. "Well most people are fools," she hissed back, her voice icy. "But we are focusing on you. Tell me Amy, realistically, how many people do you save every month? Even if you worked yourself to death, you would save a few hundred, perhaps a few thousand? What is that number but a small drop in the bucket of humanity? What is that compared to the millions that die around the world from warfare, starvation, and the Endbringers? Spending time saving the individual is pointless. Not when the whole of humanity is what must be saved."
Amy could feel the righteous anger at having her life's work be called pointless as she took in the sheer magnitude of what Taylor spoke about. "People aren't pointless…" She muttered, her voice lacking the conviction she knew it should've had. "And besides, if I wasn't healing, what would I be doing, huh?"
"Well that would depend on you, wouldn't it?" Taylor gave a shrug. "What else can your powers do?"
"Just heal." Amy's response was curt and her voice was hard.
Taylor raised an eyebrow. "Truly? That's it?"
"Yes." Amy's face was as hard as granite.
Taylor seemed to frown behind her mask. "Hmm. Well if that is the case, perhaps you could come work for me then. Your powers would accelerate the rate at which those who undergo cyberization adjust to their augmetics."
Now Amy raised a brow. "So you want me to stop healing at the hospital so I could go heal for you?" Her voice was incredulous."What happened to individuals being pointless?"
"You misunderstood my point. Every enhanced individual I make is one step closer to my eventual goal of saving humanity. A step forward. Meanwhile, every person you heal is simply a step in place."
Opening her mouth, Amy was about to tear into Taylor for her hypocrisy, when a flash of inspiration struck her mind. Amy couldn't help but find working for Taylor to be something she actually wanted to do, instead of something that was forced upon her. She could possibly do some minor gene editing on Taylor's patients. And if Taylor was okay with that, then maybe she'd let Amy perform some of the more extreme modifications she'd been having ideas for. Violently, Amy shook those thoughts out of her head.
"As… tempting, as that sounds. I'm sorry Taylor, but I can't just leave New Wave and all of my other responsibilities," Amy sighed, her voice now quiet.
Taylor huffed, seemingly annoyed but not insulted by her rejection. "Indeed. I suppose that is fine. Well if you do not wish to join me yet, would you be interested in coming over next Saturday? I have another set of enhancements I wish to implant in myself, and I would like you to aid me."
Despite the argument the two of them were just having, Amy couldn't help but perk up at Taylor's invitation. "Really? What are you looking to add on now?"
"I seek to replace my remaining organic arm with an augmetic." Taylor raised her right hand to show it off. "In addition I have a further set of cranial enhancements for my brain."
Amy nodded her head. "Right. Well, like I said before, I can't help with the brain surgery, but I can monitor and help with everything else."
"Very good. Now then, my business here is concluded. I shall see you next week." Taylor abruptly turned about face and made for the stairwell.
Amy gave a small wave to Taylor's back, and when the Tinker left she muttered, "Bitch didn't even say goodbye." She sighed. Well it's not like that really mattered. And she knew she didn't enjoy being with Taylor because she was pleasant company.
No, Amy liked Taylor because the girl was an outlet for her. A way for Amy to scratch that weird, hind part of her brain that screamed at her to do more with her powers. Meanwhile she knew that Taylor was just using her for quick access to easy healing so she could modify herself more and more.
Theirs was a strange relationship. She knew that there had to be some kind of psychological name for the fact that they were both parasitically taking advantage of each other, but she didn't know what it was called. But something niggled in the back of Amy's mind when she thought about this.
What if Taylor didn't need Amy's healing anymore? During their conversation, Taylor seemed decidedly unimpressed over the fact that Amy said she couldn't do more than heal. And eventually, Taylor had to reach a point where she either couldn't add any more augmetics to her body, or she wouldn't need Amy's help to do so.
Not to mention she was also building medical Tinkertech. What would happen if Taylor made a machine that could heal just as well as Amy could? Then Amy would become completely obsolete and Taylor would never call her again!
That couldn't happen! Amy wouldn't let it. But how would she stop it from happening? The only obvious thing that Amy could think of would be to Biotinker something for Taylor. Come up with something beyond the, "base, human flesh," as Taylor would describe. But… no Amy couldn't do that. She knew that as soon as she made one thing for Taylor, it would break the oh so very dubious dam of self control she maintained over herself. She knew she wouldn't be able to stop and that the PRT, Protectorate, and Carol would all be calling for her head.
But… What about blueprints? She could come up with some designs, or just ideas that she could try to pass off to Taylor, to see if the Cybernetics-Tinker could fabricate a mechanical version of her ideas. Maybe Taylor could even make some kind of Synthetic flesh or organs. It had to be possible! After all, cybernetics is adjacent to Bio or Wet Tinkering.
And while it repulsed her to make the comparison, both herself and Taylor's powers were uncomfortably close to Bonesaw's powers, and it wouldn't surprise her if Bonesaw could Tinker up super organs or brain enhancements similar to what she and Taylor could make.
Amy licked her lips. Okay, she could do that. Just some ideas and blueprints. That way, she could get these ideas out of her brain and make Taylor realize just how useful and important she could be. She grinned. One week. She had a week to come up with these designs, and excitedly realized that she probably wasn't going to spend much time at the hospital in the upcoming days.
While she maintained her belief that the work she did was good and heroic, she didn't have to spend all her time here. And now she had something perfect to do to fill the time when she wasn't here or at home. Her grin grew wider as more ideas for human modification came to her mind. Oh she was going to have some fun.
Tuesday, March 8th…
"Kill team Graia! Front and center!" Taylor shouted calling her newly ascended Skitarii squad to her.
Kill Team Graia walked forward and stood at attention. These ten Skitarii, converted from half the number of criminals Coil had given her, were of her latest design, the Skitarii Vanguard. Whereas the Ranger-pattern Skitarii were hooded hunters, moving in the shadows to pursue their prey, the Vanguard-pattern were just that, vanguards who would charge forward and meet the enemy directly in combat.
In comparison to their Ranger cousins in Kill Teams Ryza and Metallica, the Vanguards were more heavily armored, overlapping plates of Tinkertech-alloy covering their red robes, and instead of hoods and gas-masks, they wore specialized combat helmets which Taylor designed after the Renaissance-era sallet. These smooth, rounded helmets had a single, narrow slit for the eyes, which were actually connected to an advanced HUD, not blocking any of the Vanguard's sight, and were also sealed against all types of gasses and other airborne-toxins.
For now, Taylor armed these Skitarii with the same Arc Rifles she sold to Coil's mercenaries, as well as armed the Vanguard Alpha with an Arc Maul, a bludgeoning fusion of a morning star and the taser goad Enginseer had previously developed. Taylor had envisioned some other potential upgrades to make these Skitarii more effective in hand to hand combat, she was thinking perhaps sonic or even radiation based emissions. She put a pin in that latter idea however. She did not want to tempt a kill order just yet.
"Graia-01," Taylor called out, and the Alpha Vanguard stepped forward. His sallet helmet had a horizontal facing half cog above the helmet, not unlike a futuristic version of the crest seen upon Roman centurion helmets. "Take your squad and begin your patrol. Do not be seen."
"Understood, prophet," Graia-01 bowed his head, and led his squad out of the Manufactorum's back door.
With a nod, Taylor turned away from them and checked her internal cogitator for the time. It was about 10:30 AM. Her followers were going to be here at 11, so she needed to make sure all her ducks were in a row. After all, Kill Team Graia was only half of the criminals that Coil had gifted to her.
Moving down into her personal workshop, Taylor sealed the vault door behind her. For the last few days, she had let no one outside of her Skitarii enter here. Out of her Capes, she'd only trust Enginseer with what she was working on down here.
Taylor knew that her powers affected her mind somehow, giving her a sense of priorities and boundaries that others found abhorrent. But as it stood, Taylor didn't care. She liked the way she thought. The mind the Machine God gave her.
But after talking more with Amy, even Taylor had to admit that the perception of others played a greater role in her success than she'd like. Of course, she already knew this, that's why she kept the Skitarii hidden as best she could, but even the Skitarii could potentially pass off as soldiers willing to fight for her under employment. Her current project however? No one that wasn't data tethered to her would accept what she had done.
"Greetings servitors," Taylor said, her voice even more dispassionate than normal.
They couldn't understand her. She knew that. She stripped almost all brain functions that would relate to social interaction from their minds. In front of her, were the 10 other criminals that Coil had gifted. They were all placed in wheelchairs, their heads completely shaved as large amounts of cybernetics protruded out of the sides of their skulls. The first half of their number had their limbs replaced with various power tools, while the rest were given more advanced cranial circuitry with wires of many types extending out of the base of the neck.
Now, Taylor's sense of morals let her justify her own actions and atrocities to herself quite easily. But there were still crimes that Taylor found so reprehensible that she refused to ascend these criminals to the rank of Skitarii.
Taylor looked through the criminal records of these 10 men. Rapists. Pedophiles. Sex Traffickers. These men had a criminal history which disgusted Taylor and she would not give them a chance for redemption through service as Skitarii. Instead, Taylor lobotomized them, and turned them into servitors, a servant class of cyborgs dedicated to non-combat tasks. Taylor, her other Tinkers, and the Skitarii were becoming far too busy to waste time on maintenance, and thus made the first half of the servitors were maintenance servitors.
The maintenance servitors had their limbs replaced with multi-tool arms containing plasma torches, drills, claws, and other such devices necessary for the maintenance of Tinkertech. While they would have nowhere near enough intelligence to perform any meaningful maintenance on their own, Taylor could easily use her enhanced cogitation and multi-tasking ability to possess the servitors and perform whatever tasks were needed. These 5 would form the backbone of her assembly line to maintain the equipment of her Capes, her Skitarii, her Guardsmen, and Coil's mercenaries.
Meanwhile, the rest of the criminals were converted into cogitator servitors dedicated to cyber warfare. Taylor knew that other Tinkers had stronger software specializations than she did, Dragon most of all. Amy was right. As it stood now, Dragon was a better Tinker than Taylor was, which meant that if Taylor wanted any chance to survive any intrusion attempts from the Canadian, then she'd need the power of brute force computing. Each cogitator servitor was essentially a bionic supercomputer that was given enough intelligence and autonomy to follow Taylor's commands unsupervised. Not only could they perform security tasks such as hacking, DDoS attacks, and other such things, but also monitor and patrol the internet itself, primarily PHO, as web trawlers. Not only would they alert Taylor if anything important regarding her or the Manufactorum is flagged, they would also patrol the Dark Web and other questionable sites, looking for criminal activity which Taylor could act upon.
However, regardless of how useful both types of servitors were, Taylor knew that only a handful of each would not be enough. As Taylor continued to expand, she would need more servitors for these non-combative roles. But there were only so many heinous criminals for her to take. Would she have to resort to lowering her standards for servitorization? Or perhaps she could come up with an alternative. Such as vat-grown clones or something. Food for thought.
Over the next 15 minutes, Taylor finished connecting the cogitator servitors to the internet. They groaned as their minds were flooded with gigabytes of data and they began their pre programmed routines. Taylor had just begun the process of activating the maintenance servitors, when her communicator activated.
"Boss," One of the newer Guardsmen said. "Your 11 o'clock is approaching the base."
Taylor grunted in acknowledgement, dropping the power-clawed arm she was working on. "Understood. Thank you, Guardsman."
Standing, Taylor made her way towards the ground level of the Manufactorum, sealing her workshop behind her. When she arrived on the main floor, she saw her subordinates stride into the main room.
Leading the trio was her undoubtedly loyal Enginseer, the first and most trusted of her acolytes. While she still wore her own set of red robes, she now also donned her own set of power armor and a servo-harness on her back. Behind her trailed Artisan and Tempestus.
True to his new role as one of Taylor's Tinker's, Artisan wore a set of blood red robes with bone white cog trims, although the set that the former villain Leet chose to wear was slightly oversized for him. Unfortunately, Artisan refused to get any augmetic upgrades, so he was still completely flesh, although he wore a gas mask similar to the Skitarii, which gave him the same augmented reality HUD and enhanced vision that Taylor naturally had with her cyber-eye. Much to Taylor's annoyance, Artisan also wasn't wearing any armor, often complaining it was an annoyance to put on when they weren't going to fight.
Finally, next to his best friend, Tempestus rounded out the trio. Armored in the pseudo-knight plate of his carapace armor, Tempestus looked very much the role of a futuristic supersoldier that he and his best friend often played. In order to match the color scheme of Taylor and the other capes, the fatigues Tempestus wore under the armor were blood red, while the armor itself was a gunmetal gray with white trimming. His helmet was fully enclosed by a rebreather, and two, circular lenses that glowed a similarly intense crimson as Taylor's own eye.
"Tech-Priest," Enginseer said, first to greet as always, followed by mumbled pleasantries from the others. "You called for us?"
Taylor nodded. "Yes I did. I have two reasons for doing so. First, I wished to get a report on each of your projects. Tell me Enginseer, how is the Manufactorum's expansion progressing?"
Enginseer stood up taller now that she was called upon directly. "The city has finished their approval of your purchase of the old Johnson and Son's Paper Factory building. That place had been derelict for so long, the city practically gave it to us."
"Very good. I shall hire another group of Dockworkers to clear that building out immediately." Taylor grunted. "Have you procured what equipment you require?"
Taylor felt Enginseer mentally connect to the Manufactorum's network and check what files she needed. "The first purchase is complete. A hydro cutter, hydraulic press, three more mills and lathes, a plethora of welding equipment, as well as a forklift and an overhead crane."
"And will this be enough for you to complete your first prototype?" Taylor flatly said.
Enginseer shrugged. "This will be enough for the construction of my vehicles, yes. I'll have more than enough space and resources to make the prototype of my Chimera APC without running into any issues. But as it stands, I can only create it, and any further vehicles, by hand. For an assembly line factory production? We'll definitely need to expand even further."
Taylor felt a flash of annoyance run through her but she quickly squashed. "We don't have the funding for that yet, but this will be a good first step. If we can secure clients with your designs, then we can look into further expansion." Her head then snapped to the Artisan, who was hunched over and nervously twiddling his thumbs. "And what of you Artisan? Have you finished cataloging your equipment for replication?"
Jerking back, Artisan stumbled out of his mouth, tripping over his tongue. "Uh umm yeah Boss. I've been taking the time to look at what still works, and besides the plasma gun that you've already been working on, the most impressive inventions of mine I think are the solid hologram projector, my Mjolnir armor, and the combo cutter."
The boy then looked up at Taylor, waiting to see if she had any questions. Instead, Taylor simply nodded her head, gesturing for Artisan to continue.
Artisan cleared his throat. "Yeah, so the solid hologram projector is pretty self explanatory, it creates hard-light holograms that can interact with the world around. Not only can it create physical objects, like swords and shields, but it can even simulate physical effects, like concussive force from bombs or heat from fire. Pretty much like the Danger Room from X-Men."
The reference flew over Taylor's head, and she didn't feel like devoting any processing power to pulling up what he was talking about. Instead she said, "So, in order to compensate for your inability to create duplicate inventions, you created a device which could produce a plethora of similar, basic inventions en masse. Smart."
Artisan stood a little bit taller at Taylor's words. "Yes! I mean, yeah, it's pretty much been the most important invention of mine for months. Almost all of our shows, from Legend of Zelda, to Mario Kart, and even that one Bomberman stream we had planned, all use it to some degree."
Taylor hummed. "Yes well, sounds like a very promising start. I have yet to see any examples of hard-light technology from any other Tinker in the bay, so this projector will be invaluable. At the bare minimum, I can imagine I can create personal energy shielding with it, if not even creating holographic, digital weaponry as well." She then turned to Enginseer. "If I can reverse engineer this shielding technology we will also need to see about integrating it into both our vehicles, and the Manufactorums. Steel, brick, and concrete are only so strong, and I would want as much protection from potential assault as possible.
Enginseer bowed her head. "Power supply will be a concern with such a scale, but I can look into this."
Taylor grunted. "An issue we can deal with another time. And what of the other inventions you mentioned, Artisan?"
"Well the Mjolnir mark V armor is the main set of power armor Uber used during the Halo stream we did, as well as whenever we really need to have a big fight. It's only partially functional right now, the energy shielding is busted, and it's not as strong as the in-game version, but it's still tough. I know you have your own suits of power armor already, but didn't think it'd be a bad idea for you to get a look at another and draw some ideas." Artisan shrugged. "Meanwhile the Combo Cutter is a sword that actually gets stronger the more you swing it. Kinda like how getting repeated hits in hack-n-slashes builds up a combo meter makes your melee hits stronger."
Taylor looked at him strangely. "And how does that work?"
She could see Artisan smiling behind his mask. "Well, pretty much it's a High-Frequency blade which uses the kinetic energy from the momentum of swings and impact of hits to build up a reservoir of potential energy within the blade. That potential energy is then converted to hyper-fast sonic vibration which helps break down molecular bonds. The more potential energy there is, the faster the vibration, the more effective the blade is."
Bringing her right hand to her chin, Taylor took in the information. "Hmm, yes, high frequency, transonic technology would definitely be a worthwhile avenue to explore to enhance our melee weaponry." Taylor nodded her head, satisfied. " Very good, Artisan. With that done, I have another task for you. I wish for you to create more weapons."
Artisan cocked a brow behind his mask, crossing his arms incredulously, "More weapons? What are the plasma, laser, and lightning weapons not enough for you?"
"No, they're not," Taylor answered immediately. "While those weapons are indeed powerful, in terms of Tinkertech, they are rather conventional and would be expected. Your speciality however, lets you go beyond the predictable, if you just use your imagination. I wish for weapons the likes have never been created before by any Tinker. Exotic, archeotech that defies all logic and physics, that no one will ever see coming. Technology, that will truly carve you out as one of the greatest Tinkers in the world. Can you do this for me, Artisan?"
At her words Artisan's arms dropped in awe at her words, mouth agape behind his mask. "... Yeah. Yeah! Yes! I can do that! Definitely Boss, I'll get you something never seen before! I was already looking at some anti-gravity tech for jet boosters, but I could probably convert that into a kind of gravity gun!"
Taylor smirked behind her own mask, satisfied. She turned to Tempestus. "And what of you, Tempestus? How goes the training?"
Tempestus stood ramrod straight, not unlike the same stance that Merrick and the other Marines would take when they stood at attention. "Training goes well, Ma'am. Sergeant Major Merrick, has been putting me through the paces. He says I can move and shoot almost as good as any Marine, though he says my CQC still needs some work."
"You don't use your powers to strengthen your hand to hand skills?'
Tempestus shook his head almost violently. "No Ma'am. As you said, I'm focusing on developing my skills without the use of my powers. And Sgt. Merrick would have my hide if I tried to use my powers during training."
The amount of fear he showed told Taylor that Tempestus apparently tried, and failed, to do that with the Sgt. Major. "Very good. It would be pointless for you to use your powers through these lessons. Have you learned how to augment your new combat prowess with your powers yet?"
"Yes Ma'am. I can use my powers to build up on the base of fundamentals the Sergeant Major has been building for me. Right now, I can sharpshoot with the best snipers if I use my powers, and the Sergeant Major thinks once I learn the basics of each field, I'll be as good as any professional combat engineer, EOD tech, or combat medic if I focus my powers on anyone of those skills."
"As I anticipated," Taylor nodded. "Continue your studies. If you wish, I could install some cranial circuitry into your brain to accelerate the process of learning. The more basic skills you learn, the more advanced paths your powers will have access to."
While Taylor couldn't see Tempestus's face, she could see his body recoiling slightly at her suggestion. "With all due respect Ma'am, I think I'll stick to the old school way of learning for now."
Taylor made a noise in her throat that was half a grunt, half a growl. She still failed to understand what kept Tempestus and Artisan from accepting her gifts. But, at the end of the day, Taylor didn't wish to impose her will completely over the two former villains. Despite the despicableness of their past behavior, they were middling, minor villains at best. And while people were definitely hurt by their actions, in Taylor's opinion, they didn't deserve a forced mind wipe like Squealer and the other Merchants and various gang members did. She just wished that they would be more receptive to the blessings of the Machine God. Oh well, that would hopefully come with time.
"If that is all you wish for updates, Tech-Priest," Enginseer cut in now that Tempestus' update was over. "What is the next reason you wished us to come here?"
Taylor stood up and smoothed her robes, putting her annoyance out of her mind. "Yes, indeed. I wish all of you to take a look at this." Reaching into her robes, Taylor pulled out the latest issue of the Brockton Bay Gazette, and laid it on a table in front of the others.
"Really? A newspaper?" Artisan muttered under his breath.
On its front page, the headline read, "New Parahuman Threat?" The three leaned in closer, to inspect the article itself.
"At approximately 3:00 am on Sunday, March 6th, a warehouse owned at 121 Waterfront St. was attacked by an unknown Parahuman." Tempestus said out loud.
Artisan picked up where his friend stopped. "Follow up investigations by the police revealed that the warehouse was actually a front for the E88, Empire Eighty-Eight, gang, where they would store illegally imported firearms."
Enginseer finished off the paragraph. "4 employees alongside 8 suspected E88 members were killed in the attack, killed via electrocution, leaving their bodies charred to the bone. Additionally, PRT investigators have found what looks like electrical scorch marks at various locations in the building. They ask that if anyone has any information on a potential Electrokinetic cape, or if they notice any strange electrical fluctuations, to call the PRT hotline." Enginseer looked up from the paper and back at Taylor. "Electricity based deaths. I suppose it could be an Electrokinetic…" she trailed off.
"Or more likely," Tempestus said. "It's Coil, testing out the Arc weapons you gave him"
"Sheesh." Artisan exhaled, running his hands through his hair. "Coil must really put a lot of faith in your weapons if he's poking Kaiser." He then turned to Tempestus. "Isn't there a saying out there, about letting sleeping dogs lie or something? Or in this case, sleeping Nazis?"
"There is indeed," Taylor answered instead. "And I know for a fact that this was Coil. After all, he sent me this newspaper, alongside his compliments for how effective the weapons are. In addition to this, he wishes to meet again for more negotiations. Coil seems interested in making war against the other gangs. For this, he will need more arms and armor."
"Which means more money for us," Enginseer finished. "But should Coil come out of this battle on top, he will be more secure in his position within the Bay, giving credence to Lieutenant Mira's concerns of supporting Coil."
"True, but Coil is smart. There is no doubt in my mind that he understands that if he becomes the monodominant criminal power in the Bay, he will call down the wrath of the entire Protectorate and PRT, who would prefer to not see such a warlord rise in America," Taylor retorted. "No one wants a Moord Nag on this side of the ocean. I believe he will ensure that doesn't happen."
Artisan winced. "I suppose, but that's still a lot of trust to be giving this snake, Boss. If he gets caught, he could easily rat us out as his primary supplier, and there goes all your plans for saving the city."
"Or he could use our interactions as blackmail," Tempestus cut in. "Threatening to release them if you ever want to go public on the straight and narrow. Shady back room deals like this can ruin reputations. He'll have you by the balls." It took a moment after the words left Tempestus' mouth for him to realize what he said, "Uh, Ma'am."
Taylor waved him off. "You are not wrong. This is a dangerous game we are playing. We'll have to be smart, and make precautions and contingencies. But I would rather trust the snake I see, than the one hidden in the bushes." Taylor stood up straight, now commanding, rather than commenting. "We shall invite Coil back to our base, and with our right hand welcome him as a friend and partner. But with our left, we shall prepare for the inevitable conflict between our two parties. And when the time comes, our legions of steel shall rain upon him with the fury of the Machine God unfettered."
3/30/23 A/N: Been a while, huh? I'll see if I can't get back to a monthly upload schedule between this story and Taylor the Everchosen, but we'll see.