GamingPizza1998
(Verified Pizza) (Verified Cape) (Verified Case53)
- Location
- Earth
Man poor Amilia must be so scared getting moist eyes
Boom (Worm, Minor AU)
- Thread starter RavensDagger
- Start date
- Alt. History Superhero
- Location
- Amongst the ashes.
Nah, that would be the drooling. Not the most attractive reaction, though a natural one.
KaoticOverlord
(Verified Chaotic Overlord)
- Location
- Australia
"Not a crackfic"
Sure, I believe you.
Sure, I believe you.
Bang 1.3
RavensDagger
Officially Infracted Speceist since 2019!
- Location
- Someplace Cold, Canada
Chapter Three
Aegis wasn't having the best day. In fact, this was right up there on his list of shitty days. Getting the call that Brockton Central was being robbed was like having a bucket of ice-water dumped on his head. Trying to herd the rest of the Wards fast enough to actually get there before the bad guys got away was like dumping that same ice water on a hoard of cats then trying to wrangle them into shape.
He was counting down the days until he was no longer the leader of the Wards. It couldn't come soon enough.
The PRT van came to a wheel-screeching stop not a block away from the bank and the entire group jumped out. Gallant and Browbeat took up the rear while he and Kid Win took to the skies. Vista and Clockblocker ran out ahead, the youngest Ward twisting the world to cut their travel time down as much as possible.
"I say we just rush on in there and tag them all. There can't be more than four of them and they're not the sort to take hostages," Dennis said. He was looking at the front of the bank with the sort of eagerness that sent chills down Aegis back and made him imagine the piles of reports he'd have to write about collateral damage.
He was going to have to cut that one off at the base. "No," he said. "Our first priority is keeping the hostages safe, not--" He was cut off by an explosion from within the bank. "Dammit. Formation three. Vista, clear the path for us. Clock, Browbeat, you're in the lead. Gallant, Kid, pin them down."
They moved up the steps three at a time, Browbeat running out ahead to jam his shoulder against the door with enough force to small it aside and make room for Vista to wrap the door until it was wide enough for a semi-trailer to pass through with ease.
Aegis flew in and immediately scanned the bank floor.
Somewhere between thirty and forty people were on the ground, some looking up wide-eyed while others huddled into little balls. A surprising number of them were taking cover behind benches and pillars while sneaking glances at what was going on. He saw more than one cell-phone aimed at the comotion.
Amy Dallon was standing a few feet away from a woman dressed all in black and wearing a gas mask, while at the far end of the room a group of what looked like teenagers were running away. Had the Undersiders left someone behind to guard their backs as they made their escapes?
She looked towards the lot of them, then placed a hand on her hip. "Now you show up?"
He was about to reply when something clicked behind him-
***
Aegis flew in and immediately scanned the bank floor.
Somewhere between thirty and forty people were on the ground, some looking up wide-eyed while others huddled into little balls. A surprising number of them were taking cover behind benches and pillars while sneaking glances at what was going on. He saw more than one cell-phone aimed at the comotion.
Amy Dallon was standing a few feet away from a woman dressed all in black and wearing a gas mask, while at the far end of the room a group of what looked like teenagers were running away. Had the Undersiders left someone behind to guard their backs as they made their escapes?
She looked towards the lot of them, then placed a hand on her hip, then nodded once.
He was about to speak when something clicked behind him-
***
Aegis flew in and immediately scanned the bank floor.
Somewhere between thirty and forty people were on the ground, some looking up wide-eyed while others huddled into little balls. A surprising number of them were standing up from behind benches and pillars while sneaking glances at what was going on. He saw more than one cell-phone aimed at the comotion, a few even turned his way.
Amy Dallon was standing a few feet away from a woman dressed all in black and wearing a gas mask, while at the far end of the room a door was clicking shut. Had the Undersiders left someone behind to guard their backs as they made their escapes?
He was about to speak when something clicked behind him-
***
Aegis flew in and immediately scanned the bank floor.
Somewhere between thirty and forty people were milling around, some looking up wide-eyed while others were trying to get to their feet. A surprising number of them were moving out of cover behind benhechs and pillars while sneaking glances at what was going on. He saw more than one cell-phone aimed at the him and the other Wards.
Amy Dallon was standing a few feet away from a woman dressed all in black and wearing a gas mask, she was staring at them, eyes wide in horror.
Something clicked behind him-
***
The loft was doing a good job of imitating the solemnity of a crypt. The somber mood clashed with the decor and ambiance of a home designed to be every teenager's dream of what freedom would be like.
Regent was the least affected of the bunch. He flopped backwards on his couch, turned on the TV, and navigated over to reruns of My Little Pony, keeping the volume at just the right level to piss the others off without giving them the justification to scream at him to turn it down.
Rachel grabbed her dogs and retreated to one corner of the loft where she gently brushed Angelica's fur, an act done more to reassure herself that her friend was well than to actually do anything about the mangy dog's fur.
The other three Undersiders, those that considered themselves the mature ones but who would never say so out loud, were congregating in the kitchen. They all focused on the table like a group of fat kids staring down the last taco. None of them said anything, not until Lisa bent forwards and smacked her head on the table. "That sucked," she declared.
"Yeah," Taylor agreed. Her mind kept flashing back to the glint of madness in the eyes of the Tinker, to the casual ease with which her bugs had been taken away and the almost maniacal tone in which her biting comments came at them.
When she set out to rob that bank, it wasn't because she wanted to rob a bank, she did it to cement her place on the team. All the same, she couldn't help but be excited at the idea of action, or putting a plan into motion that she was participating in. It was a thrill to walk into that bank and hold everyone hostage, a guilty thrill, but a thrill all the same.
And then they got shut down, hard.
"Fuck," Brian said. He turned away from them, staring off into the distance before approaching the table again. "Our rep is going to take a huge hit from that. Five of us against a single unknown and we lost." He pinched the bridge of her nose. "Lisa, what do we have on her?"
"Tinker, not a member of any local group or the Protectorate. Definitely not the heroic sort, but I don't think she's an all out villain either. Vigilante or independent is my guess. And her specialty is something to do with single use items, or maybe grenades."
"Specialty?" Taylor asked.
"Every Tinker power can build stuff, but they can't all build the same sort of stuff. They're usually limited to things within a field or theme. Squealer can build vehicles, Armsmaster can mostly build things that already exist, but he can make them really small."
"And she could what, build anything that can only be used once?"
Lisa shrugged one shoulder. "It's probably more complicated than that, but that would be my guess, yeah. Did you see how she didn't care about her Tinkertech once she tossed it. No power armour or anything like that, though she might just have been out of costume."
"So she fought us off with the kind of things she carries while going to the bank," Brain said in a low growl. "Dammit."
Lisa sighed and pushed herself off the table. "At least we won't have to worry about her for long. If she is an independent then half the gangs in the city will be gunning for her, not to mention the PRT. Tinkers are worth their weight in gold, strong ones like her moreso. Though I did get the impression that she's far from a fresh trigger."
Taylor licked her lips. She was feeling a little better. Her swarm had grown a little as she picked up interesting bugs around the loft and she had to admit that having them around was a comfort. Not that they'd done much to help in the bank. Brian and Lisa started talking again, but the words were a muffled jumble in her head, her focus as sharp as a student during Monday morning math class.
"I, I think I'm going to head home," she said when there was a lull in the conversation. "I'll see you guys tomorrow?"
"Of course," Lisa said. "Pop on over after school. I have to call the boss. I might be able to wrangle something for information on this new Tinker. It won't be much, but it'll serve as a consolation prize, right?"
"Yeah," she agreed.
With that, Taylor walked out of the loft, waving her goodbyes and keeping her head down as she made her way to the streets that would lead her back home.
At least life at home would be the same old, calm doldrum.
***
Big thank you to ChaoticSky for the help, and all the fine folks on my Discord who popped over to help with this mess.
Aegis wasn't having the best day. In fact, this was right up there on his list of shitty days. Getting the call that Brockton Central was being robbed was like having a bucket of ice-water dumped on his head. Trying to herd the rest of the Wards fast enough to actually get there before the bad guys got away was like dumping that same ice water on a hoard of cats then trying to wrangle them into shape.
He was counting down the days until he was no longer the leader of the Wards. It couldn't come soon enough.
The PRT van came to a wheel-screeching stop not a block away from the bank and the entire group jumped out. Gallant and Browbeat took up the rear while he and Kid Win took to the skies. Vista and Clockblocker ran out ahead, the youngest Ward twisting the world to cut their travel time down as much as possible.
"I say we just rush on in there and tag them all. There can't be more than four of them and they're not the sort to take hostages," Dennis said. He was looking at the front of the bank with the sort of eagerness that sent chills down Aegis back and made him imagine the piles of reports he'd have to write about collateral damage.
He was going to have to cut that one off at the base. "No," he said. "Our first priority is keeping the hostages safe, not--" He was cut off by an explosion from within the bank. "Dammit. Formation three. Vista, clear the path for us. Clock, Browbeat, you're in the lead. Gallant, Kid, pin them down."
They moved up the steps three at a time, Browbeat running out ahead to jam his shoulder against the door with enough force to small it aside and make room for Vista to wrap the door until it was wide enough for a semi-trailer to pass through with ease.
Aegis flew in and immediately scanned the bank floor.
Somewhere between thirty and forty people were on the ground, some looking up wide-eyed while others huddled into little balls. A surprising number of them were taking cover behind benches and pillars while sneaking glances at what was going on. He saw more than one cell-phone aimed at the comotion.
Amy Dallon was standing a few feet away from a woman dressed all in black and wearing a gas mask, while at the far end of the room a group of what looked like teenagers were running away. Had the Undersiders left someone behind to guard their backs as they made their escapes?
She looked towards the lot of them, then placed a hand on her hip. "Now you show up?"
He was about to reply when something clicked behind him-
***
Aegis flew in and immediately scanned the bank floor.
Somewhere between thirty and forty people were on the ground, some looking up wide-eyed while others huddled into little balls. A surprising number of them were taking cover behind benches and pillars while sneaking glances at what was going on. He saw more than one cell-phone aimed at the comotion.
Amy Dallon was standing a few feet away from a woman dressed all in black and wearing a gas mask, while at the far end of the room a group of what looked like teenagers were running away. Had the Undersiders left someone behind to guard their backs as they made their escapes?
She looked towards the lot of them, then placed a hand on her hip, then nodded once.
He was about to speak when something clicked behind him-
***
Aegis flew in and immediately scanned the bank floor.
Somewhere between thirty and forty people were on the ground, some looking up wide-eyed while others huddled into little balls. A surprising number of them were standing up from behind benches and pillars while sneaking glances at what was going on. He saw more than one cell-phone aimed at the comotion, a few even turned his way.
Amy Dallon was standing a few feet away from a woman dressed all in black and wearing a gas mask, while at the far end of the room a door was clicking shut. Had the Undersiders left someone behind to guard their backs as they made their escapes?
He was about to speak when something clicked behind him-
***
Aegis flew in and immediately scanned the bank floor.
Somewhere between thirty and forty people were milling around, some looking up wide-eyed while others were trying to get to their feet. A surprising number of them were moving out of cover behind benhechs and pillars while sneaking glances at what was going on. He saw more than one cell-phone aimed at the him and the other Wards.
Amy Dallon was standing a few feet away from a woman dressed all in black and wearing a gas mask, she was staring at them, eyes wide in horror.
Something clicked behind him-
***
The loft was doing a good job of imitating the solemnity of a crypt. The somber mood clashed with the decor and ambiance of a home designed to be every teenager's dream of what freedom would be like.
Regent was the least affected of the bunch. He flopped backwards on his couch, turned on the TV, and navigated over to reruns of My Little Pony, keeping the volume at just the right level to piss the others off without giving them the justification to scream at him to turn it down.
Rachel grabbed her dogs and retreated to one corner of the loft where she gently brushed Angelica's fur, an act done more to reassure herself that her friend was well than to actually do anything about the mangy dog's fur.
The other three Undersiders, those that considered themselves the mature ones but who would never say so out loud, were congregating in the kitchen. They all focused on the table like a group of fat kids staring down the last taco. None of them said anything, not until Lisa bent forwards and smacked her head on the table. "That sucked," she declared.
"Yeah," Taylor agreed. Her mind kept flashing back to the glint of madness in the eyes of the Tinker, to the casual ease with which her bugs had been taken away and the almost maniacal tone in which her biting comments came at them.
When she set out to rob that bank, it wasn't because she wanted to rob a bank, she did it to cement her place on the team. All the same, she couldn't help but be excited at the idea of action, or putting a plan into motion that she was participating in. It was a thrill to walk into that bank and hold everyone hostage, a guilty thrill, but a thrill all the same.
And then they got shut down, hard.
"Fuck," Brian said. He turned away from them, staring off into the distance before approaching the table again. "Our rep is going to take a huge hit from that. Five of us against a single unknown and we lost." He pinched the bridge of her nose. "Lisa, what do we have on her?"
"Tinker, not a member of any local group or the Protectorate. Definitely not the heroic sort, but I don't think she's an all out villain either. Vigilante or independent is my guess. And her specialty is something to do with single use items, or maybe grenades."
"Specialty?" Taylor asked.
"Every Tinker power can build stuff, but they can't all build the same sort of stuff. They're usually limited to things within a field or theme. Squealer can build vehicles, Armsmaster can mostly build things that already exist, but he can make them really small."
"And she could what, build anything that can only be used once?"
Lisa shrugged one shoulder. "It's probably more complicated than that, but that would be my guess, yeah. Did you see how she didn't care about her Tinkertech once she tossed it. No power armour or anything like that, though she might just have been out of costume."
"So she fought us off with the kind of things she carries while going to the bank," Brain said in a low growl. "Dammit."
Lisa sighed and pushed herself off the table. "At least we won't have to worry about her for long. If she is an independent then half the gangs in the city will be gunning for her, not to mention the PRT. Tinkers are worth their weight in gold, strong ones like her moreso. Though I did get the impression that she's far from a fresh trigger."
Taylor licked her lips. She was feeling a little better. Her swarm had grown a little as she picked up interesting bugs around the loft and she had to admit that having them around was a comfort. Not that they'd done much to help in the bank. Brian and Lisa started talking again, but the words were a muffled jumble in her head, her focus as sharp as a student during Monday morning math class.
"I, I think I'm going to head home," she said when there was a lull in the conversation. "I'll see you guys tomorrow?"
"Of course," Lisa said. "Pop on over after school. I have to call the boss. I might be able to wrangle something for information on this new Tinker. It won't be much, but it'll serve as a consolation prize, right?"
"Yeah," she agreed.
With that, Taylor walked out of the loft, waving her goodbyes and keeping her head down as she made her way to the streets that would lead her back home.
At least life at home would be the same old, calm doldrum.
***
Big thank you to ChaoticSky for the help, and all the fine folks on my Discord who popped over to help with this mess.
GamingPizza1998
(Verified Pizza) (Verified Cape) (Verified Case53)
- Location
- Earth
Well.... fuck that fan just got hit by an entire fucking sewer
Edit: can she fix that?
Edit: can she fix that?
I can not think of anything to say to express how much I agree with you, so I'm just going to nod my head.
OverReactionGuy
Verified Sanity
Brockton Bay wards, always coming to bank near you!
GamingPizza1998
(Verified Pizza) (Verified Cape) (Verified Case53)
- Location
- Earth
That'll never get old... and neither will they
- Location
- The United States
- Pronouns
- He/They
It's much less cruel than Grey Boy's power.
Aegis doesn't seem to know he's in a time loop.
Aegis doesn't seem to know he's in a time loop.
Bang 1.4
RavensDagger
Officially Infracted Speceist since 2019!
- Location
- Someplace Cold, Canada
Chapter Four
"What did you do?" Amy asked.
She didn't truly want an answer. In fact, she felt like many of the worse patients she'd encountered in the hospital, those that were rushed in with a missing limb or who had lost someone close in an accident and just had to ask that one question, the question whose answer they knew but that would break them once spoken.
The Tinker turned to her, hands on her hips and chest pushed out like someone who was proud of what they had done. Behind her, five of Brockton Bay's six Wards ran forwards in loose formation, arms stretched out to use their power. They were spreading out, heads turning this way and that to scan the bank... and then they were back by the door and running in again.
"It's really simple, actually. There was once this super villain named Grey Boy. He had a power that allowed him to force people into these closed time-loops. Once I figured out the tachyonic frequency used I was able to build a model of his looping engine. The tricky part was the quantum and physical lock that prevents the looped target from staying in a fixed position relative to the universe instead of relative to the planet itself."
"Taytay, you're Tinker-babbling," the girl that had pulled Amy to cover said.
The Tinker looked away. "Oh, shut up."
"Oh no, don't be that way," she said while walking up to the Tinker and giving her a quick hug. "You know I love it when you get all excited. It's cute."
"Cute," the Tinker repeated the same way someone else might say 'nazi' or 'gonorrhea.' "Urh, you're like a happiness vampire, Amelia,"
"Are you saying that I'm full of fun?" the girl, Amelia said.
The Tinker shook her head, then glanced over to the people still milling around, some of them filming the entire exchange. "Alright you peasants, the show's over. Piss off. There's an emergency exit somewhere; this is an emergency, I want you to exit. It's not rocket science."
People started to shuffle out, some with alacrity, others with the slow, neck-twisted gait of those too curious for their own good, but they did move to leave.
Amy wanted to follow them, to run out of there and get as far away from the mad Tinker that thought that copying Grey Boy was a good idea and her equally crazy friend. But she was a hero, dammit, and the Wards stuck next to her were her friends. Well, some of them were friends. Well, they were acquaintances and it would be really inconvenient to have to change her schedule to attend so many funerals and Vicky might be somewhat upset that her boytoy was stuck in an endless time loop.
She was saved from having to broach the subject when a white blur zoomed into the room and came to a floating stop between Amy and the two strange capes. The wash of awe and longing that swept over Amy made her weak in the knees.
Vicky was here, things were going to be alright.
"What's going on here?" Vicky asked. She was looking between the Wards and the two capes before her, tension in every perfect line of her body. "What happened to the Wards."
Amelia waved at Vicky. "Hi! We can explain."
"Yeah, how about you start with what's happening to the Wards," Vicky demanded.
"Are you with the white hats?" the Tinker asked.
"What? No, we're New Wave, we're not Protectorate," Vicky said. She shifted a little in the air, fists coming up by her sides.
"Oh, brilliant," the Tinker said. She reached into her jacket and pulled out a device. It was a thin rectangle, the size and shape of a smaller TV remote. "See this green button?" she asked while pointing at the top of the remote. There were only a few buttons, and only one that was green. "If you press on it and toss this at those kids it'll undo the field."
"Why did you attack them?" Vicky asked. She still sounded aggressive, but some of her tension had bleed out.
"They charged at me," the Tinker said. She shook her head, as if she couldn't understand the question and handed the remote to Amelia. "I have to head out before the white hats show up. Will you be okay with your mini version?"
"Of course," Amelia said. "I'll see you later at your place?"
The Tinker pulled off her mask, folded it, then tucked it into her jacket.
Amy had to pause at that, the cape had just unmasked herself in front of them. Not that she'd been masked when it all started, but there was a certain etiquette with the heroes and villains that would prevent anyone from looking too deeply into that. But she'd taken off her mask before the situation was really resolved.
Or maybe she thought it was done with. The bad guys had fled, she'd chased them off. And if the Wards came back and were in good shape, then...
"I'll see you later," the Tinker said. She stared at her friend in the eye, then glanced away, her cheeks reddening suddenly.
"Taytay, are you waiting for me to kiss you goodbye?" Amelia asked with such a syrupy-sweet, ass-kissing tone that Amy felt sick.
"No."
The redness intensified and both Dallon sisters watched, mystified, as the shorter cape gave her (girl?) friend a very chaste peck on the cheek then a not so chaste slap on the ass. The Tinker was wearing a dopey grin as she started to walk away with a slight twitch in her step.
"See you later!"
"Wait, you can't just leave," Vicky said.
The Tinker paused. "Uh, yeah, I can." She pulled out a tiny device and before anyone had time to react she popped out of existence with a twist of space not unlike Vista's own power and an actual cartoony pop sound.
"Oh, I hate it when she does that," Amelia said. There was no heat in her voice though, she just shook her head, then turned back to Amy and Vicky. "So, Amelia, whose tall, blonde and sexy?" she asked with a wiggle of her eyebrows.
No one called her Amelia, but with all the strangeness going on, she could forgive the slip-up. "That's my sister, Victoria. Uh, Vicky, this is Amelia? She, well, she dragged me to cover while the villains were robbing the bank."
Vicky finally let her feet touch the ground and the rest of the tension left her body. The low thurm of her aura left the back of Amy's mind like water pouring down a gutter. "Uh, hey," Vicky said, proving once and for all that she was the most eloquent member of their family.
"Oh, right, I think proper introductions are in order, at least before I pop those Wards out of their bubbles," Amelia said. She bowed at the waist with a grand sweep of her arms, like a magician on a stage. "I'm Amelia Lavare. I'm you, but from the future."
***
She pressed the green button, then flung the Tinkertech remote thing underhand towards the centre of the Wards formation before taking to the air and flying back.
Vicky had seen some weird things in her career as a cape and a lot of far stranger things in her tenure as a high school student. Seeing the Wards wrap and twist like something out of an escher print was probably up there on her list of bizarre things. But then everything snapped together and, as suddenly as it had begun, the effect wore off.
The tiny remote gave off a beep and a puff of smoke escaped it at the same time as all five Wards fell to the ground like sacks of potatoes.
Vista vomited on the ground, Aegis kinda just floated there blank-eyed and Clockblocker rolled onto his back and pressed both hands against his temples. "What was that?" he asked the ceiling.
See as how architecture rarely replied, Vicky decided to do her part. "That was you guys running into a crazy Tinker and spending like, ten minutes in a Grey Boy loop."
Aegis snapped out of his daze and landed on wobbly legs. "W-where is the Tinker?" he asked.
Vicky shrugged. "Gone. She teleported away after giving us the thing to undo the loops."
He pressed a hand to the side of his head, eyes squinting shut. He reminded her of uncle neal that one time she'd caught him the morning after one of those boys nights outs. At least Aegis didn't smell like cheap beer. "Console? Console, this is Aegis, we need evacs at the bank. I think we'll need some medics too." he said.
Whatever the PRT console said in reply was lost to Victoria, but it didn't take long for him to turn back in her direction, then scan the rest of the bank. Other than Amy and... and that other girl that claimed to also be Amy, there wasn't a soul in the entire building. "The civvies ran out the back," she explained.
"Oh," he said. "And the Undersiders?"
"Ran off way before I got here." She reached up and placed a hand on the back of her neck. "Anyway, I have to run, Amy and I have, uh, something to take care of, I'll see you guys in a bit?"
"What's wrong?" the question didn't come from Aegis, but rather from Gallant. He was rather charming in his armoured costume, with its knight-like cut and the way tried to stand tall. The vomit down his front ruined the image a bit.
"Nothing's wrong," she lied. "Amy and I just have a tiny problem to take care of."
"What about your statements?" Aegis asked.
She rolled her eyes. "The PRT knows where I live. And there was, like, two dozen cell phones in the room. You can bet the whole thing will be on PHO within the hour."
Waving goodbye to the Wards who all seemed to be getting better, she flew over to her sister and her... other sister, grabbed both of them by one shoulder, and started pushing them towards the emergency exit at the back. She ignored their twin protests of 'hey,' ignored the way that they had said it in perfect stereo and kept pushing until all three of them were in the alleyway behind the bank.
"Okay, start talking," she said as she rounded on older Amy.
The girl looked at her with a small smile and a perked eyebrow. The sort of expressing her Amy only wore when she'd said something particularly sarcastic and biting. "Actually, I think I have a few questions of my own, you know?"
"We should move this elsewhere, real-Amy said. Vicky looked around and saw that a few of the people from the bank were still around and that there was a growing number of police officers and PRT troopers.
"Fine. There's a cafe just across the street," she declared.
It took all of a minute for them to walk past the police lines, across the street and into the cafe where they found an empty booth tucked into a quiet corner. A waitress came and took their orders with the bored efficiency of someone who had been working since six-AM, then left them to their own devices. Amy say next to Vicky, pressing close to her side. "Okay, talk," she ordered.
Older Amy leaned back into her seat and stared from Vicky to young Amy. It was uncanny just how much she looked like Amy, which kinda made sense if she was who she said she was, but it still boggled Vicky's mind. "Alright, so, Taylor, that's the hot Tinker girl you saw earlier, and I decided that we were a bit bored, so Taylor made a time machine, and now we're here."
They all waited for nearly a minute before Vicky reacted. "That's it?"
"Well, yeah. It's not complicated, it's just time travel."
"You don't sound like me," Amy accused.
"Ah," older Amy said, and she had the grace to look embarrassed. "Taylor's machine may have had an oopsie, because I'm pretty sure this isn't our past. For one, I never had a sister, not unless daddy was fooling around and didn't tell anyone."
Both Vicky and Amy blinked. "You seem really unconcerned about the whole thing," Vicky said.
She shrugged. "I have my Taylor. Why would I be worried?" She reached across the table and took hold of Amy's hand. "Don't worry, I can share her with you if you want. Though it would probably be better if you found your own Taylor."
There was a limit, in the average human brain, to just how much weirdness a single person could take. Sometimes, when that limit was hit, the mind started to compartmentalise, to toss aside the unimportant and to focus on the issues that seemed more pressing. This was an evolutionary trait that had saved countless lives from predatory ambushes and, at the moment, it allowed Vicky to set aside the things too bizarre and to focus on the things she could do something about. "You're gay?" Vicky said.
"I'm super gay," older Amy confirmed. "Though I'm sorry to say that I'm taken. Sorry."
Vicky felt her face warming up, and a glance to her side revealed that her sister's face was also beat red. "Wait, Ames, are you..."
Amy's face went from red to just a shade away from purple, her freckles showing off like tiny spots of across the bridge of her nose. Older Amy gasped and lunged across the table to hug her younger self. "Oh my god, I'm so sorry, I didn't know you were in the closet still."
"C-can we not talk about that?" Younger Amy said.
Taking pity on her sister, Vicky decided that she was going to shelve that discussion for later. Not much later, because every gossip-hungry bit of her soul wanted to pry into that can of worms, but later nonetheless.
They were given a bit more respite when the waitress returned with two coffees and a hot chocolate. Amy and Vicky grabbed their caffeine-heavy lifelines and older Amy licked the whipped cream off the top of her drink.
"Right, time travel," Vicky said once they were all settled.
Older Amy nodded. "It was really twisty, like a roller coaster, except instead of getting off at the bottom you wake up in a forest four years in the past." She paused to take a sip, and Vicky noticed that she held her mug the same way Amy did hers. "My only regret is leaving my babies behind."
They had to table the rest of the discussion as younger Amy chose that moment to breath in a lungfull of coffee.
There was a ringing that ended with Older Amy pulled out a phone and stared at its display. "Oh, shucks. I have to go. But I'll stop by your home later," she said before exiting the booth before either of the Dallon sisters had time to react.
***
So many jokes, so little time.
I'll save some more for a bit from now. Next chapter will focus back on younger Taylor.
Also, while I will start calling old Amy 'Amelia' and young Amy 'Amy' for the sake of avoiding confusion, I don't have anything like that for old/young Taylor. Any suggestions?
"What did you do?" Amy asked.
She didn't truly want an answer. In fact, she felt like many of the worse patients she'd encountered in the hospital, those that were rushed in with a missing limb or who had lost someone close in an accident and just had to ask that one question, the question whose answer they knew but that would break them once spoken.
The Tinker turned to her, hands on her hips and chest pushed out like someone who was proud of what they had done. Behind her, five of Brockton Bay's six Wards ran forwards in loose formation, arms stretched out to use their power. They were spreading out, heads turning this way and that to scan the bank... and then they were back by the door and running in again.
"It's really simple, actually. There was once this super villain named Grey Boy. He had a power that allowed him to force people into these closed time-loops. Once I figured out the tachyonic frequency used I was able to build a model of his looping engine. The tricky part was the quantum and physical lock that prevents the looped target from staying in a fixed position relative to the universe instead of relative to the planet itself."
"Taytay, you're Tinker-babbling," the girl that had pulled Amy to cover said.
The Tinker looked away. "Oh, shut up."
"Oh no, don't be that way," she said while walking up to the Tinker and giving her a quick hug. "You know I love it when you get all excited. It's cute."
"Cute," the Tinker repeated the same way someone else might say 'nazi' or 'gonorrhea.' "Urh, you're like a happiness vampire, Amelia,"
"Are you saying that I'm full of fun?" the girl, Amelia said.
The Tinker shook her head, then glanced over to the people still milling around, some of them filming the entire exchange. "Alright you peasants, the show's over. Piss off. There's an emergency exit somewhere; this is an emergency, I want you to exit. It's not rocket science."
People started to shuffle out, some with alacrity, others with the slow, neck-twisted gait of those too curious for their own good, but they did move to leave.
Amy wanted to follow them, to run out of there and get as far away from the mad Tinker that thought that copying Grey Boy was a good idea and her equally crazy friend. But she was a hero, dammit, and the Wards stuck next to her were her friends. Well, some of them were friends. Well, they were acquaintances and it would be really inconvenient to have to change her schedule to attend so many funerals and Vicky might be somewhat upset that her boytoy was stuck in an endless time loop.
She was saved from having to broach the subject when a white blur zoomed into the room and came to a floating stop between Amy and the two strange capes. The wash of awe and longing that swept over Amy made her weak in the knees.
Vicky was here, things were going to be alright.
"What's going on here?" Vicky asked. She was looking between the Wards and the two capes before her, tension in every perfect line of her body. "What happened to the Wards."
Amelia waved at Vicky. "Hi! We can explain."
"Yeah, how about you start with what's happening to the Wards," Vicky demanded.
"Are you with the white hats?" the Tinker asked.
"What? No, we're New Wave, we're not Protectorate," Vicky said. She shifted a little in the air, fists coming up by her sides.
"Oh, brilliant," the Tinker said. She reached into her jacket and pulled out a device. It was a thin rectangle, the size and shape of a smaller TV remote. "See this green button?" she asked while pointing at the top of the remote. There were only a few buttons, and only one that was green. "If you press on it and toss this at those kids it'll undo the field."
"Why did you attack them?" Vicky asked. She still sounded aggressive, but some of her tension had bleed out.
"They charged at me," the Tinker said. She shook her head, as if she couldn't understand the question and handed the remote to Amelia. "I have to head out before the white hats show up. Will you be okay with your mini version?"
"Of course," Amelia said. "I'll see you later at your place?"
The Tinker pulled off her mask, folded it, then tucked it into her jacket.
Amy had to pause at that, the cape had just unmasked herself in front of them. Not that she'd been masked when it all started, but there was a certain etiquette with the heroes and villains that would prevent anyone from looking too deeply into that. But she'd taken off her mask before the situation was really resolved.
Or maybe she thought it was done with. The bad guys had fled, she'd chased them off. And if the Wards came back and were in good shape, then...
"I'll see you later," the Tinker said. She stared at her friend in the eye, then glanced away, her cheeks reddening suddenly.
"Taytay, are you waiting for me to kiss you goodbye?" Amelia asked with such a syrupy-sweet, ass-kissing tone that Amy felt sick.
"No."
The redness intensified and both Dallon sisters watched, mystified, as the shorter cape gave her (girl?) friend a very chaste peck on the cheek then a not so chaste slap on the ass. The Tinker was wearing a dopey grin as she started to walk away with a slight twitch in her step.
"See you later!"
"Wait, you can't just leave," Vicky said.
The Tinker paused. "Uh, yeah, I can." She pulled out a tiny device and before anyone had time to react she popped out of existence with a twist of space not unlike Vista's own power and an actual cartoony pop sound.
"Oh, I hate it when she does that," Amelia said. There was no heat in her voice though, she just shook her head, then turned back to Amy and Vicky. "So, Amelia, whose tall, blonde and sexy?" she asked with a wiggle of her eyebrows.
No one called her Amelia, but with all the strangeness going on, she could forgive the slip-up. "That's my sister, Victoria. Uh, Vicky, this is Amelia? She, well, she dragged me to cover while the villains were robbing the bank."
Vicky finally let her feet touch the ground and the rest of the tension left her body. The low thurm of her aura left the back of Amy's mind like water pouring down a gutter. "Uh, hey," Vicky said, proving once and for all that she was the most eloquent member of their family.
"Oh, right, I think proper introductions are in order, at least before I pop those Wards out of their bubbles," Amelia said. She bowed at the waist with a grand sweep of her arms, like a magician on a stage. "I'm Amelia Lavare. I'm you, but from the future."
***
She pressed the green button, then flung the Tinkertech remote thing underhand towards the centre of the Wards formation before taking to the air and flying back.
Vicky had seen some weird things in her career as a cape and a lot of far stranger things in her tenure as a high school student. Seeing the Wards wrap and twist like something out of an escher print was probably up there on her list of bizarre things. But then everything snapped together and, as suddenly as it had begun, the effect wore off.
The tiny remote gave off a beep and a puff of smoke escaped it at the same time as all five Wards fell to the ground like sacks of potatoes.
Vista vomited on the ground, Aegis kinda just floated there blank-eyed and Clockblocker rolled onto his back and pressed both hands against his temples. "What was that?" he asked the ceiling.
See as how architecture rarely replied, Vicky decided to do her part. "That was you guys running into a crazy Tinker and spending like, ten minutes in a Grey Boy loop."
Aegis snapped out of his daze and landed on wobbly legs. "W-where is the Tinker?" he asked.
Vicky shrugged. "Gone. She teleported away after giving us the thing to undo the loops."
He pressed a hand to the side of his head, eyes squinting shut. He reminded her of uncle neal that one time she'd caught him the morning after one of those boys nights outs. At least Aegis didn't smell like cheap beer. "Console? Console, this is Aegis, we need evacs at the bank. I think we'll need some medics too." he said.
Whatever the PRT console said in reply was lost to Victoria, but it didn't take long for him to turn back in her direction, then scan the rest of the bank. Other than Amy and... and that other girl that claimed to also be Amy, there wasn't a soul in the entire building. "The civvies ran out the back," she explained.
"Oh," he said. "And the Undersiders?"
"Ran off way before I got here." She reached up and placed a hand on the back of her neck. "Anyway, I have to run, Amy and I have, uh, something to take care of, I'll see you guys in a bit?"
"What's wrong?" the question didn't come from Aegis, but rather from Gallant. He was rather charming in his armoured costume, with its knight-like cut and the way tried to stand tall. The vomit down his front ruined the image a bit.
"Nothing's wrong," she lied. "Amy and I just have a tiny problem to take care of."
"What about your statements?" Aegis asked.
She rolled her eyes. "The PRT knows where I live. And there was, like, two dozen cell phones in the room. You can bet the whole thing will be on PHO within the hour."
Waving goodbye to the Wards who all seemed to be getting better, she flew over to her sister and her... other sister, grabbed both of them by one shoulder, and started pushing them towards the emergency exit at the back. She ignored their twin protests of 'hey,' ignored the way that they had said it in perfect stereo and kept pushing until all three of them were in the alleyway behind the bank.
"Okay, start talking," she said as she rounded on older Amy.
The girl looked at her with a small smile and a perked eyebrow. The sort of expressing her Amy only wore when she'd said something particularly sarcastic and biting. "Actually, I think I have a few questions of my own, you know?"
"We should move this elsewhere, real-Amy said. Vicky looked around and saw that a few of the people from the bank were still around and that there was a growing number of police officers and PRT troopers.
"Fine. There's a cafe just across the street," she declared.
It took all of a minute for them to walk past the police lines, across the street and into the cafe where they found an empty booth tucked into a quiet corner. A waitress came and took their orders with the bored efficiency of someone who had been working since six-AM, then left them to their own devices. Amy say next to Vicky, pressing close to her side. "Okay, talk," she ordered.
Older Amy leaned back into her seat and stared from Vicky to young Amy. It was uncanny just how much she looked like Amy, which kinda made sense if she was who she said she was, but it still boggled Vicky's mind. "Alright, so, Taylor, that's the hot Tinker girl you saw earlier, and I decided that we were a bit bored, so Taylor made a time machine, and now we're here."
They all waited for nearly a minute before Vicky reacted. "That's it?"
"Well, yeah. It's not complicated, it's just time travel."
"You don't sound like me," Amy accused.
"Ah," older Amy said, and she had the grace to look embarrassed. "Taylor's machine may have had an oopsie, because I'm pretty sure this isn't our past. For one, I never had a sister, not unless daddy was fooling around and didn't tell anyone."
Both Vicky and Amy blinked. "You seem really unconcerned about the whole thing," Vicky said.
She shrugged. "I have my Taylor. Why would I be worried?" She reached across the table and took hold of Amy's hand. "Don't worry, I can share her with you if you want. Though it would probably be better if you found your own Taylor."
There was a limit, in the average human brain, to just how much weirdness a single person could take. Sometimes, when that limit was hit, the mind started to compartmentalise, to toss aside the unimportant and to focus on the issues that seemed more pressing. This was an evolutionary trait that had saved countless lives from predatory ambushes and, at the moment, it allowed Vicky to set aside the things too bizarre and to focus on the things she could do something about. "You're gay?" Vicky said.
"I'm super gay," older Amy confirmed. "Though I'm sorry to say that I'm taken. Sorry."
Vicky felt her face warming up, and a glance to her side revealed that her sister's face was also beat red. "Wait, Ames, are you..."
Amy's face went from red to just a shade away from purple, her freckles showing off like tiny spots of across the bridge of her nose. Older Amy gasped and lunged across the table to hug her younger self. "Oh my god, I'm so sorry, I didn't know you were in the closet still."
"C-can we not talk about that?" Younger Amy said.
Taking pity on her sister, Vicky decided that she was going to shelve that discussion for later. Not much later, because every gossip-hungry bit of her soul wanted to pry into that can of worms, but later nonetheless.
They were given a bit more respite when the waitress returned with two coffees and a hot chocolate. Amy and Vicky grabbed their caffeine-heavy lifelines and older Amy licked the whipped cream off the top of her drink.
"Right, time travel," Vicky said once they were all settled.
Older Amy nodded. "It was really twisty, like a roller coaster, except instead of getting off at the bottom you wake up in a forest four years in the past." She paused to take a sip, and Vicky noticed that she held her mug the same way Amy did hers. "My only regret is leaving my babies behind."
They had to table the rest of the discussion as younger Amy chose that moment to breath in a lungfull of coffee.
There was a ringing that ended with Older Amy pulled out a phone and stared at its display. "Oh, shucks. I have to go. But I'll stop by your home later," she said before exiting the booth before either of the Dallon sisters had time to react.
***
So many jokes, so little time.
I'll save some more for a bit from now. Next chapter will focus back on younger Taylor.
Also, while I will start calling old Amy 'Amelia' and young Amy 'Amy' for the sake of avoiding confusion, I don't have anything like that for old/young Taylor. Any suggestions?
OverReactionGuy
Verified Sanity
Adult Taylor is TAYLOR and little Taylor is Taylor?
Really, Nasuverse terms? Have some standards man. Kidding, I'm kidding, but seriously we can do better.
OverReactionGuy
Verified Sanity
Nope, nothing to do with nasuverse. I just thought that TAYLOR deserved to have the narrative yelling her name.
Like this.
HOLY CRAP IT'S TAYLOR!
- Location
- Canada
When Amelia talks to or about her Taylor, you could just have her use nicknames. You could have the PRT / Protectorate / Wards use her cape name (even after they find out her real name) as a 'courtesy' to the unwritten rules. Context plays a part too, so the Taylor playing with Tinkertech isn't going to be confused with the Taylor controlling bugs.
Part of it comes down to if Tinker Taylor and Amelia are okay with 'outing' her identity (and put a target on Master Taylor's back, though they wouldn't know she triggered for sure so they'd make that decision putting a normal human at risk). If so, then you can play off the confusion on purpose with them both using the same name and similar looks. The easy thing to do would be for Tinker Taylor to decide after realizing they're not in the past that using her name is too big a risk and decide to change it, but her character doesn't seem like that'd be something she'd think of.
Abao
Le Halpful One
- Location
- Theocracy of Derpism
I propose the Taylor referral table. Behold.
In Taylor Senior's POV: The more/less magnificent of the Taylors
In Taylor Junior's POV: Fake Taylor/me
In Amelia's POV: Taytay/Taydorable
In Amy's POV: Crazy Tinker Lady/Taylor
In GG's POV: Amy's future GF/(who's that again?)
In Taylor Senior's POV: The more/less magnificent of the Taylors
In Taylor Junior's POV: Fake Taylor/me
In Amelia's POV: Taytay/Taydorable
In Amy's POV: Crazy Tinker Lady/Taylor
In GG's POV: Amy's future GF/(who's that again?)
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- Location
- The United States
- Pronouns
- He/They
Amelia is going to be really confused when Marquis' house is a museum to the Brockton Bay Brigade.
- Location
- SoCal, USA
Enter shades of *krackathoom*.
I'd also accept "Oh god it's Her /whimper".
- Location
- Sufficient Velocity, at the moment
Given the lack of recognition of Vicky I think things may be more different than just that. She may be wondering who the hell the Brockton Bay Brigade even are.
- Location
- Weston super Mare
Amy's future girlfriend, and future Amy's girlfriend, obviously.
- Location
- Phoenix, AZ
Hmmm, so did Taylors thing to release wards turn off her device, or did it disrupt the field it generated? If its the second, would it work on actual grey boy bubbles? If it works on actual grey boy bubbles, what would the PRT be willing to do to get their hands on it or copies of it? What would dragon?
OverReactionGuy
Verified Sanity
What would they do to get their hands on a dimensional time machine if what you should really be asking.