Interlude: Taylor

Taylor watched the tinker vanish down the stairs as Lisa saw him out of the building. As they left Alec looked up from the game he'd been playing and gave her and Brian a conspiratorial look.

"So, the new guy. You think he's all there?"

Brain walked back from dumping the pizza boxes in the kitchen. "You mean that thing with Rachel? He did take it pretty well." Alec raised an eyebrow. "Ok, more than pretty well. Still, Lisa vouched for him."

The confidence they had in Tattletale's analysis didn't sit quite as well with Taylor. "Uh, should we get Rachel?" She looked at the girl's closed door.

Brian waved her off. "Leave her a bit longer to cool off. I think he spooked her."

"Yeah, 'he' spooked 'her'." Alec made exaggerated finger quotes. "Did anyone see it going down that way?"

Taylor cringed as she felt the stitches from her encounter the previous day. "I know you said he was tough, but I didn't know he could handle that."

Brian shrugged. "I guess if you're tough enough that kind of thing doesn't bother you."

Alec smirked "Mercy remains the privilege of the most powerful."

Taylor blinked. "Was that Nietzsche? You read Nietzsche?"

"Na, must have picked it up somewhere. But Brian has a point. You're strong enough and you can afford to let that stuff slide."

It sounded like he was giving a sideways compliment about the previous day, but the casual way they were talking about such a serious power had her on edge.

She had felt in over her head since they agreed to this plan. In her efforts to quietly nudge the group away from the bank job she had pointed out they weren't really equipped for something like that. Lisa had countered by mentioning a new tinker contact. The prospect of tinker tech equipment had been enough to bring Alec around and mitigated the fears the other members had with the heist. They'd had to plan the job without certainty over what, if any gear could be provided, but with the boss footing the bill everyone was willing to make an attempt.

Lisa had offered to manage the meeting without her but Taylor insisted on coming. She had a chance to gather information on a rogue tinker that was supplying weapons to villains. It would be more information she could turn over to the Protectorate at the end of this.

Only as she learned more the situation turned out to be a little different from that. This guy had jumped in and fought Oni Lee the same night she showed down against Lung. According to Alec he had gear that protected him from explosives and some weapon that let him outfight Oni Lee in the center of a mob of his clones. The assassin had apparently run off with a broken arm at the end of things.

The situation was a little too close to her own for comfort. Alec even suggested recruitment, though Rachel shot that down completely. Lisa didn't' seem too keen on it either, and was preparing everyone for the possibility that the deal wouldn't go through. Still, by lunch they had a solid enough plan for the bank job that there likely wouldn't be any objections even if they had to go without any high tech gadgets.

Which, Taylor realized, was probably Lisa's plan from the start.

When they met the tinker it turned out to be less of a situation where she could dig up information on an arms trafficker and more being an accessory to talking someone into what was at best a morally questionable arrangement. He had insisted on more concerns and conditions than she ever thought of asking for. Then again, he wasn't planning to betray everyone here to the Protectorate.

And even after the entire afternoon she still had only the vaguest idea of what he was capable of.

"How strong would you say he is?"

"The guy took like three dozen grenades at once on Sunday night and came out swinging."

Taylor froze. "He what?"

"Oh, yeah, didn't you see the crater?"

"You said he took an explosion. I didn't know you were talking about something like that."

"He used his formula thing for that. I don't think he's normally that tough." Brian qualified Alec's statement.

Alec just shrugged. "The guy was still at ground zero for that blast. We totally should have gone for recruitment."

Lisa returned from the stairs and shook her head. "He wouldn't have gone for it. We're lucky to get what we did."

Alec set down his controller and turned to face them. "How sure are you about that? Because I think we have someone who could have talked him around." He waggled his eyebrows at Taylor.

She frowned at the boy. "What do you mean?"

He looked around. "Seriously? Am I the only one who noticed? Brian? Lisa?"

"Alec, leave it alone." Lisa's voice was firm but had no effect on him.

"What are you getting at?" Brian sat down next to Taylor on the couch.

He pulled himself up as if making a formal declaration. "What I'm getting at is our new tinker friend has fallen for the bug girl."

Taylor swore she felt her heart stop. "What?"

"I'm serious. He was all disinterested until he saw you. Every time there was a hard choice or it seemed like he was going to bail on the whole deal he'd just look at Taylor and reassessed things. Face it, he's got it bad for you."

"No way." Taylor couldn't even process the idea. All her previous concerns were grinding to a halt as she tried to wrap her mind around this concept "It's just, there's no way that's what happened."

Alec mimed a tear and gave an exaggerated sniffle. "Little Taylor, only a villain for one day and already seducing innocent capes to the side of darkness. I'm so proud."

Lisa sighed and rubbed her forehead.

"Something wrong?"

"No, it's just, I saw this coming, or happening. Whatever."

She nearly went slack jawed at the thinker's words. "Wait, you mean Alec's right?"

"Alec is always right. The sooner the rest of you accept that the happier you'll be."

"Ass. No, that intuition power he mentioned? It kind of tells him how to feel about stuff. Sort of, it's complicated."

"So his power tells him he's in love with Taylor. Same result really." He glanced over. "Bit of a cradle robber though. The guy was what, twenty five?"

"Twenty one. College drop out. I think, there was a lot there to read."

"What does that mean?"

"That power gives him this kind of emotional reaction to things but it also makes him really easy to read." When Taylor gave her a questioning look she clarified. "I mean for me to read. Some of it is so obvious it's hard to ignore."

"The point is he's here because of you. You should totally use your feminine wiles to get him on the team."

Taylor glanced at Rachel's closed door. "I think Bitch might kill him if I tried that."

"Who cares? The guy's a tank." He turned to Lisa. "You sure he's not a brute? I didn't see any gear. He have a hidden force field or something?"

"No, it's not a power. Well, it is a power but not a power." The rest of the Undersiders stared at her blankly. "Ok, it's not based on technology, and it's something only he can do, and it's supernatural, but it's not part of his power."

"So he's easy to read, huh?" He leaned over and spoke in a stage whisper. "Hey Brian, I think the new guy broke Lisa."

"Look, I don't know how it works, or how he's doing it or how he got it, but he had something on his leg that was making his entire body tough."

"So it was like a personal force field? If he's got those we should totally buy one. Or get Taylor to seduce it from him." Alec suddenly choked as a fly flew directly down his throat.

"So that's how he did it?" Brian asked from beside her.

"Yeah, it makes his entire body tough. His clothes too for some reason."

"Sorry," Taylor interjected "This is fascinating and all, but can we go back to the thing where he might be in love with me?"

"I don't think it's exactly love."

Lisa ignored Alec as he leaned over and whispered "It's totally love."

"He does like you though. He likes all of us, but he'll probably work with us as long as you're on the team."

Taylor felt a pit grow in her stomach. That would be until she learned about the boss and got the info to Armsmaster. Could she get him out too? How bad was it to be supplying tinker tech to criminals? God, she couldn't believe that someone might have turned to a life of crime for her sake. For HER.

And this was based in a thinker power? How did that work?

"Is that thinker intuition thing something we should be concerned about?" She tried to keep the worry out of her voice as she asked.

"You know, what with you running off screaming the other night." Alec added with a smirk.

Lisa shot him a sour look before she replied. "No, I've got a handle on it now. His actual power or whatever it is works separate from him. He just gets feelings from it about things and people."

"How the hell is that supposed to be useful?"

"Because the power is actually really good at reading stuff. The emotion link is probably a limiter. A lot of thinkers have something like that to stop them from overstressing their powers."

"Is it like that for you?" Taylor hoped it didn't sound like she was fishing for weaknesses in her teammates.

"I can get headaches if I push myself too far. That's the most common one. Other thinkers have limits on how often they can use their powers, or they start getting less accurate results as time goes on, stuff like that."

"So he has a super thinker analysis power and we shouldn't be concerned why?" Alec was acting flippant but Taylor thought she heard a note of concern in his voice.

"Because most of what he's getting from it is a garbled mess. He's trying to figure things out by how the power feels about things. Honestly I'm probably picking up on it more clearly than he is."

"And you didn't see he was in love with Taylor."

"Because he isn't. Look, going into this I would have given maybe a fifty percent chance of landing the commission. Taylor pushed him over the top. I didn't account for how much of a boost that would be."

"Because he's in love with her." Lisa grabbed a cushion and threatened to throw it at Alec. The boy brought his hands up in surrender and let her continue.

"He leans too much on his power. It's a common problem with thinkers. His own emotions are kind of muted, so he follows what his powers tell him."

Taylor felt a pit in her stomach. That intuition power had seen something in her that convinced him to work with villains. She almost wished it was love, as impossible as that seemed. It would be better than her slapdash undercover work dragging someone else into villainy.

Brian didn't look completely placated yet. "You're sure about this? No chance you're missing anything?"

"Please, I'm reading him so clearly it's like his power wants to be heard. He was upfront about what he could build and he's going to follow through on it. Trust me, I've got this."

"And you finished the negotiations? What's the damage look like?" Everyone in the room turned towards Lisa.

"Not nearly as bad as it could have been and if those things work half as well as he advertised then this is an incredible deal." At Brian's prompting she elaborated. "About ten grand in materials and machinery. That's not counting the extra cost for the rush order. Five hundred per knife and another five hundred if they perform as advertised. Extra five hundred up front for Alec's Taser. The Boss is going to cover everything for this job."

"That's not exactly chicken scratch." Taylor couldn't help but agree. That was what, fifteen grand for a handful of knives. She couldn't imagine throwing around that kind of money. Then again a few days ago she couldn't imagine handing someone two grand in a lunchbox.

"The equipment is a one-time cost so that's a separate factor. As for the price of the knives, do you have any idea what tinker tech sells for?"

"Uh, no?"

"Exactly. No one does because there's no set price. Because there's almost none of it on the market. Everything is bespoke and basically a game of what a tinker is willing to make and what people are willing to pay. He could easily make ten times as much with any other clients, and that's lowballing it."

But he's working here. And trying to keep things contained. And doesn't want people to get hurt. Great job Taylor. Alec was right, you've dragged someone over to the dark side.

"We're getting our money's worth?"

"Look, even if the knives don't work like he claims, judging by what he's made so far five hundred for a knife of that quality is a bargain. If they do then we just lucked out to a ridiculous degree. The real killer will be the maintenance costs."

Taylor frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Tinker tech is stupidly complicated. No one knows how to mass produce it and generally only the tinker who made it can maintain it properly. You buy tinker tech without a support commitment and you're basically running down the clock."

"So we're going to have to keep paying him forever? And after this it's on us for the costs?"

"Unfortunately, but at least he was upfront about how it will last. Dropping performance is better than the catastrophic failure some of that stuff is known for."

"Hey, you think he was serious about power armor for everyone?"

"No Alec."

"Come on, It'll be awesome."

"Even if he keeps letting us rob him as badly as he did on this deal I don't want to think about what that will cost. The materials alone." Brian shuddered.

"But we're pulling bigger jobs now. That was the whole point of this? Work our way up. Well if were rising I want to do that assisted by a jetpack with like built in lasers or something."

Lisa just groaned and shook her head. "Enough about Joe. Everybody needs to rest up and get ready for the bank job. And someone let Rachel out before she goes stir-crazy."

"Joe." Alec over-pronounced the name. "We need to get a cape name for that guy fast. He's a tinker, not a fry cook. If I get a sword..."

"Knife."

"If I get a BLADE that can cut through anything I'm not going around talking about how it was made by the great tinker Joe. All the other sword capes would laugh at me."

"What other sword capes?"

"Well, there's Black Kaze."

"She's birdcaged."

"Dauntless"

"That's a spear."

"Close enough. What's his face from Philly."

"Chevalier. I'll give you that one."

"I'm pretty sure Miss Militia's made a sword before, like one of those marine honor guard things."

"Fine, there are sword capes. I think I can say with confidence that they'll still laugh at you regardless of the name of your tinker."

Alec gave an exaggerated huff and went back to his game.

And just like that everything went back to normal. Petty squabbles, snipes at each other, and lounging in the hideout. Eventually Rachel slipped out of her room and left the building and Alec put on a movie. It was settled. Everyone was still excited about their tinker tech, but there was no more concern. Alec still dropped the occasional joke about her being a heartbreaker, devil woman, man eater, seductress, and any other descriptor he could come up with until she got fed up and sent house flies into both of his eyes. He took it with better grace than she expected and laid off.

The following day she was in no state to handle school. She met Lisa and Brian in the morning to review the last details of the bank job. Lisa was still preparing things in case the knives didn't come through. As Taylor understood it the most they expected to get out of them was intimidation and maybe cracking a few locks. The thought of actually owning tinker tech was incredible, but it wasn't exactly something they were building the heist plan around.

Lisa had gotten her a collapsible baton and had a knife in reserve in case there were any delays from Joe, though she was still confident in things working. Later she and Brian helped Taylor clear out the storage room and moved in some loose furniture to give her a space in the hideout. She wasn't sure how she felt about that, not with her planning to leave the group as soon as she got her information.

That led to her sitting at her kitchen table that evening running down a conversation with her father as she prepared to call in the one favor she had in the hero community. She had already shared truncated details of her time with the Undersiders and done her best to cast things in a normal light.

"So what about that last guy?"

"Oh, Joe. He's not really part of the group. Just someone Brian and Lisa know. Good with machines, and, um..."

Taylor's stomach churned and she doubted it was the lemon and pepper pork chops she'd made for dinner. And of course her father caught on to that. It was one of the things she hated. He either seemed to be oblivious or watching her like a hawk and she could never tell which one it was.

"What is it?"

Uh, how could she explain this? "He's into this girl and she's part of a bad group. I'm kind of worried he's going to end up in a bad place because of her." It was a vague statement and in this city could mean anything from a party girl to potential gang recruitment. To her surprise instead of showing concern her father looked almost nostalgic.

"What?"

"Did I tell you about how your mother and I met?"

"You were both in college, right." Something occurred to Taylor. "You're talking about Lustrum?"

"Your mother was into that pretty heavily. It wasn't as bad at the start, and your mother got out before things got out of hand." He smiled slightly. "I'm sure your friend will be fine."

Taylor knew it was a borderline random anecdote, just something he happened upon. He probably didn't mean to say anything insightful, but it gave her a bit of hope. Get out before things get out of hand. That's what tonight was about.

She wrapped up dinner and her father gave her ten dollars for her 'coffee with Lisa'. She darted out of the house with her costume in her backpack heading to the Downtown ferry terminal. Heading to meet with Armsmaster.

The man's demeanor was completely different from the last time she had seen him. She barely made it through explaining why she was there before he threatened to drag her to the PHQ. The conversation was torture. Trying to dance around anything Tattletale would be able to pick up on or trace back to her while dealing with his obstinate attitude was infuriating.

She had to avoid his lie detector and he was still able to figure out Tattletale was spying on the Protectorate.

It was worse when she tried to call in her favor. No protection. No leniency. "A middle schooler with delusions of grandeur". That's what he called her. She didn't even have a chance to bring up Joe, to ask for some accommodation for the person she had dragged into this.

In frustration she tried to throw Lung's capture in his face, how she gave him the credit, let him take all the glory for that. Then she found out why he'd been at her throat all night.

Lung had almost died. The tinker had dosed him with tranquilizer and knocked out his healing factor. And then blamed her when it almost killed the man. Then he talked about having his equipment checked like it was the worst violation he could possibly imagine. Blaming her for everything.

She barely, just barely, got him to agree to not report the meeting. That was her favor. That was the reward she got for capturing one of the most notorious crime lords in the country. He was willing not to file a report that would get her killed.

She was fuming as she made her way back home. She'd been berated, insulted, and patronized before she could even ask for help. She would have to do this on her own. Get out before things get out of hand. Her mother had done it, so could she.

If Joe was really doing this because he was following his power, because of her, then maybe he'd follow her out. The gear was being delivered tomorrow and if it was good enough, well Lisa had said how valuable tinkers were. The Protectorate would probably take him even if his equipment had helped a bank robbery. After all, she couldn't imagine Armsmaster walking out of a crater like the one she had seen and still being ready to fight.

So she was going to rob the hell out of that bank. She was going to win the Undersider's trust, she was going to expose their boss. And she was going to get out. And when it was done she was definitely going to give all the info to Miss Militia, not Armsmaster.