Edwin looked across the computer screen at all of the tinkerings he'd done over the last few months. His files were well categorized. The main trick was remembering the kinds of sciences used for each individual invention
Organizing was easy, recalling the kinds of sciences his old inventions was the hard part. Energy cells, for instance, could be used for the same purpose but with different sources of energy. He'd once made a tiny nuclear reactor in his home, and it was only a miracle that the reactor didn't kill him when it finally exploded. Except it wasn't run on nuclear energy, it was run on a different kind of energy he couldn't quite remember. It was unique, more natural. He needed to remember it so that he could remember
not to create it again.
Combat tinkerings were easier to remember. He'd burned through most of his mechanical tinkering copying robots from video games, so most of that tech tree was out of reach for him. Thank God Toy Box could take care of that. They're the reason he could get Clank back, as well as various other copycats of things he'd previously invented.
Some days Edwin worried he'd have nothing left to tinker. That his usefulness would finally go away. But at the same time, he was glad. He felt like he was finally reaching the true potential he'd always had inside of him. '
Like a candle light, finally burning away the way it was meant to.'
That was something Aryana had told him. That he needed to take greater risks, that it was worse never seeing the prime of his power than clinging onto his weakness forever afraid to lose it. She'd pulled him out of his comfort zone, and he loved her for that.
A part of him thought it was wrong to go through such great lengths over the infatuation of a cute girl. But what harm was there in him becoming a better person for the sake of someone else? At least something was gained. He was pathetic before she'd come into his life, and his desperation to impress her was what strived him to go further than he was used to.
A notification came up at the side of the monitor.
Dodge. He opened a window on his screen for video chat. "What's up Dodge. I'm kind of cataloguing right now, so I can't game, if that's what you're calling for."
Dodge twiddled his thumbs. He didn't have a mask because he never entered combat. Toy Box was his outlet for tinkering. Without a threat from danger at home, the twelve year old often called himself a 'self proclaimed internet lurker.'
Dodge was a slightly obese child from rural Texas. He had natural tan skin from his Native American heritage. His dark wavy hair was kept kept low, similar to how Vivan kept his hair low enough to cover his forehead.
"Leet," Dodge said nervously, "something really really really bad happened…"
Dodge's age was sometimes obvious, he often blew things out of proportion more than they needed to be. "What's the problem?" Leet asked.
"I went to get some money for some hot dogs, because I was gonna have my aunt and uncle come over and play video games with me. But when I went to the ATM to get my money, my card didn't work…"
Leet raised an eyebrow. "Wait, you mean our Toy Box cards? It didn't go through?"
Dodge nodded.
"First off," Leet opened up the a screen window for his bank account. "Those cards are for supplies, delivered via portal transport. Just because they can't get tracked, you shouldn't use them for small things like hot dogs."
"We were hungry. I wanted to be nice to them…"
"Second of all… Hold on a second, let me check this."
ACCOUNT BALANCE: 0000
"Wait… What the fuck…"
"Please don't curse," Dodge asked politely.
Leet raised his finger at the touch screen. He opened up the Toy Box contacts to call Cranial. Just as he was about to call, Cranial called him instead. His finger slipped onto the 'answer' button by mistake.
"Cranial, I was just about to call you. Did you cut us off?"
Cranial's costume was of a 'megamind' styled costume. She had a bald cap with the drawing of a brain on it. Her steampunk goggles were shaped as a visor that ran across her head. Even though she was from Florida, her pale skin complexion was still a result from her never leaving outside. But she did make sure to exercise regularly, giving her a more muscular build that made her go against the typical tinker stereotype.
"Leet," Cranial said rubbing at her eyebrows. Her voice came out like a snake's hiss, "what the hell did you do?"
"Me?" Leet scowled, "the fuck are you talking about."
"Please don't curse," Dodge pleaded. "I wanted to tell you before Cranial called…"
"Tell me what?"
Cranial gritted her teeth. Although there were no 'leaders' in Toy Box, there were coordinators. The responsibility of regulating and arranging meetings always befell on one. When a coordinator tinker would leave, that responsibility fell onto someone else. Cranial was the coordinator since Leet had first triggered.
A year ago, Leet was considered a failure in every way. Cranial worked actively to outcast him because she thought Leet's tinkering was broken. Leet remembered their worst conversation.
"You don't have a specialty." Cranial said over the monitor. Cranial's video footage was faceless, with only an oblique outline of her shadow.
"I have a lot of specialties." Leet said nervously, "I just have... limitations to them."
"They break if you make it twice."
"Not… Quite…"
"I asked you to recreate something. You failed at that. Are you seriously telling me you'll fail every time you have to recreate something for a customer?"
Leet didn't say anything. He didn't want to answer yes.
Cranial continued. "The invention you made blew up in the client's face. We're luck they're alive. You damaged Toy Box's reputation. Are you honestly telling me you can't make a single order twice? How the hell do you expect to do business?"
Leet didn't say anything, he didn't have an answer for that either.
Cranial made a decision. "You're brain dead Leet. You're better off not having powers. Hang up your things. We're cutting off your funding, you can't work for us anymore. And my personal advice, stop tinkering altogether. You're a fuck up, and you're better off being normal."
Aryana was relentless. She insisted he prove his worth. She pretended to be a client to get in contact with Dodge. His naivety allowed them both to work together separately from Toy Box. They developed a more accessible network of pocket dimensions, and Leet's expansive specialties allowed him to create biospheres for the dimension's environments. Biospheres which some tinkers found crucial in their research.
Toy Box owed them both big time. And although Cranial was bitter about it, she couldn't ignore Leet's skills anymore.
"It's not just you Leet. Everyone in Toy Box had their assets frozen, all because your teammate pissed off the wrong person."
Leet cocked his head back, "what the fuck are you talking about?"
Across Leet's monitors, more video windows popped up on their own. Various members from Toy Box glared down at Leet standing still in his laboratory.
They all yelled at him.
"What the fuck did you do?"
"You screwed us over!"
"I went broke in a day!"
"I have clients that are dead without me!"
"I'm dead if I can't get my supplies tonight!"
The other tinkers, some with blank screens or in masks, lashed out at Leet as though it would save them from their situations. Cranial muted their audio so everyone could hear her. "I got a phone call from Accord today. He said he wouldn't mind if you were dead too."
Leet swallowed, "Accord? That psycho thinker from Boston? Aren't you on good terms with him?"
Cranial continued, "that girl, Rush, he wants her dead. Typically he wouldn't give a damn about your stupid videos, but if anyone get in his way, the assassins wouldn't hesitate to kill you all either."
"Ary…. Rush has a hit from Accord?"
"Figures she didn't tell you," Cranial scoffed, "try vetting your members better next time, and try keeping the standard higher than nazi."
Leet growled, "fuck you. Toy Box owes me big time, I'm not selling her out because a psycho prick has a stick up his ass!"
"You don't have to," Cranial leaned back on her computer chair. "The deal was, we give Accord the coordinates to your dimension, and his assassins would take care of the rest. That's all he needs to give back our assets. As long as you stay out of the way, he gave his word he'd leave you and your team alone."
"Fuck you," Leet gave her the finger, "no way in hell are you getting my numbers from me."
Dimension coordinates were kept secret from each other. Every member of Toy Box had their own pocket dimension, and even the coordinator didn't have access them.
"Dodge gave us your coordinates."
Leet glared at the boy. Dodge winced in shame, "I'm sorry Leet. Toy Box helped me make my first portal, they even helped me get away from home. I have to help, and they promised not to hurt you or your friends...."
"Leet," Cranial spoke to him again in a hushed-like tone. "Some of us have clientele that are dead without us. Some of us can go to prison if we don't provide tinker tools regularly. Some of us have long term projects that require supply drops daily to be on life support. Do you understand the predicament I'm in?"
"I'm not walking out on her!" Leet yelled, "I don't give a shit if I get killed. If Accord hurts her, or anyone on my team, I'll make it my mission to fuck him over until there's nothing left in me!"
The other members, still muted over the monitors, exchanged glances between Cranial and Leet. Respect was something they had for Cranial. For Leet, there was camaraderie. Cranial earned admiration and loyalty through her recruitment and clientele networking, something that was the lifeblood of Toy Box. Leet earned companionship through his group experiments. His vast tinker specialties made him work with all the Toy Box members at least once, and his brutally honest attitude always made for an entertaining experience.
Cranial took a deep breathe. "Bring Uber on the line."
XXX
They were walking out of the city, taking an obscure road away from the main highway. Morning was entering. The rain drizzling caused steam to rise up from the roads behind them. A light mist obscured the city as they walked forward on the edge of the street.
"You're gonna get sick," Vivan said walking behind her with an umbrella.
Aryana had a red leather jacket that was sleeveless. She extended her arms outwards to make sure they remained wet. "Worth it," she caught rain water with her hair as she walked forward.
A portal opened behind them. "Well shit," Vivan said. He lit his arms up, but stopped when he saw Edwin and Robert stepping out from the portal.
"For guys running from Accord," Robert said, "you're both pretty bad at hiding."
"How'd you find us?" Aryana asked.
Edwin pointed to Vivan, "next time you're trying to run away from a Tinker, don't steal their tinker inventions."
Vivan looked down at his gloves, "shit, I thought these were gifts."
"Gifts are for teammates," Edwin corrected.
"Give him the gloves, Vivan," Aryana ordered.
Vivan pulled off the gloves and tossed them to Edwin. The Simurgh tattoo was now visible, but as far as Robert and Edwin knew, both their tattoos were from tattoo parlors.
Edwin tossed the gloves back to Vivan, "you're not leaving."
"Is this a kidnapping, or eloping?" Aryana asked casually.
"Yes." Vivan answered, not knowing what eloping meant.
"Both of you knock it off." Edwin growled. "Accord. Are you serious? What the hell did you guys do to piss him off?"
Aryana chuckled, "use your imagination."
Edwin squinted at her. "He froze Toy Box's assets. Every tinker there is on my ass because of you two."
"Figures," Aryana said, "if I were you two, I'd tell Accord where we are. Then you can get your money back, and he'd forgive you for being teammates with us."
"We're not selling you out," Robert said firmly. "What the hell Ary? I thought by now you could trust us. We shared our trigger events, that's supposed to mean something. We're not selling you out because some psycho wants you dead."
"I'd sell you both out." Her voice came out as a clear statement. "In a heartbeat. You both should do the same. I never cared about you two."
Robert scoffed, unfazed by her words, "hate to break it to you, but we could care less about what you'd do if the roles were switched. Right now, you need help, and we're not letting you leave that easy."
"This wasn't supposed to last forever," Vivan looked towards the misty city behind them. "At the end of each day, we were always ready to leave."
"You both can leave anytime," Robert said. "It just shouldn't be because a psycho thinker wants you dead."
The rain lightened to sprinkling water. Aryana couldn't help but feel wrong, in a little way. Robert and Edwin had grown attached to them, but she didn't feel any closeness to either of them. It wasn't fair. "I only liked you because of your tinkering," Aryana said to Edwin in a plain voice. "To be honest, I never even liked you as a person. Between everyone here, you're probably the most pathetic. I only pretended to be nice so you wouldn't be such a fuck up. Hanging out with you has been a waste of time."
Edwin swallowed. He really didn't want the statement to be true. Before Robert could defend him, a resolution boiled inside him. "You know what?" Edwin said clenching his fist, "I don't fucking care what you think! I'm done giving a shit what people want from me, and I don't give a damn whether you like me or not. Because you're the reason I became a great tinker, and I'm not letting you leave because a five foot psycho prick wants you dead."
Aryana sighed, disappointed she couldn't make him hate her. "Both of you need to give up. Relationships never last forever, which is why I only stick with family. You both were just tools to us, so don't make things personal."
"Is this is why you joined us?" Robert asked over the sound of dwindling rain. "To have us as shields against Accord? What kind of plan was that? We were nobodies before you came along."
Aryana nodded, "that was exactly the point. You guys were no-name villains so we thought we could stay low profile with you two. We figured if we stayed as joke-villains, we'd be a blip beneath Accord's radar. I knew we'd have been found eventually, I just didn't think it would be because we became popular enough to be noticed."
Robert shook his head, "I know how Accord works, running won't last forever."
"I know he'll get me eventually," she eyed at her own tattoo. "I don't mind that. It happens to everyone eventually. The longer you stick with us, the more likely Accord will want you dead too. We're not worth having around."
"You know," Edwin smiled, "I wish you told us that a few hours ago. Because from this point on, we're all on the same sinking ship."
Aryana raised an eyebrow, "what's that supposed to mean?"
XXX
Accord stared down at his computer screen. His hands were trembling at the sight of the words in front of him.
EnLArG3 UR PIn3s
10000 Horny Moms in YOUR AREA!
Cum to Cheating House Wives looking for desperate men
Desperate? Try viagra!
Dear sir: The prince of Nigeria humbly requests for your help.
Accord called down to the office, "have there been any technical difficulties with your computers?"
"Yes sir. A spam related virus has frozen most of our hardware. I've called the rest of staff, they're reporting the same issue all over the building."
Accord looked down at his computer. This was
his personal computer, not even connected to the internet.
Another message came up:
Welcome. To the Tinker Toy Box Cardboard chewing Flame Boards.
Sponsored by: Accord
In another universe, Toy Box tinkers typed away at their terminals. Connected through video footage as they spammed Accord.
"This is fun," Dodge said. "I might start doing this in my spare time."
"Damnit," Toy Soldier said, "I think we've just turned Dodge to a troll."
Big Rig laughed, "so it's true, trolling is a virus. I never thought I'd use my powers for spamming."
Glace tapped at her microphone, "oh my, Accord, it appears you've just gained a massive shipment of viagra. Tis a shame it won't help cure you of your tiny hands."
Big Rig raised an eyebrow, "Glace, why is all your spam viagra focused?'
"Because that limp dick mother fucker took my cash." Glace typed personal hate mail to him as she disrupted the communications within Accord's building.
Pyrotechnical said, "whoever photoshopped Accord's face in that porno, screenshot his reaction. I wanna send it to him later."
Cranial shook her head and took a deep breathe, "I can't believe we've all stooped to Leet's level."
At his office, Accord watched in fury as the spam became more and more grotesque. He tried turning off the screen, it didn't turn off. He unplugged it, it didn't turn off. He finally smashed the monitor with his bare hands.
An Ambassador entered his office with a written note. She gave a courteous nod, and handed him the piece of paper. It was an ultimatum:
Unfreeze our ass-sets. Or this will never stop.
XXX
"Toy Box international?" Aryana asked.
"It was all Robert's idea," Edwin said. "The idea was to start an overseas account and begin recruiting tinkers from all over the world. India, Africa, South America, you name it. The internet can go a long way to connecting tinkers who have been isolated for a long time."
"Accord made us fast track that," Robert explained. "We figure since he froze our assets in North America, starting an overseas account would be out of his reach. We got a jump start loan from a group in India, so Accord has no leverage on us anymore."
Robert's phone began vibrating. He looked over to Aryana and said, "it's Accord."
She took a step back, it was the first time Robert had even seen her worried. "Answer it," she said.
Robert answered, "sup Accord."
Accord's voice was calm, "Toy Box's assets have been returned. I hope this will put an end to their charade."
"Too bad that won't stop the shipment of viagra," Robert chuckled.
"Uber. When will my communications return?"
"As soon as you call off the hit on Rush."
There was a pause on the telephone. "She's Simurgh tainted."
Robert looked over to Aryana. He checked over at her hand, "she says she's Simurgh tainted on our videos all the time. Really, is that supposed to surprise me?"
"She's a ticking time bomb. She'll break everything she touches. You'll be left with ashes. That's not a warning, nor a threat, it's a premonition. She's better gone now before that happens."
"Funny, that's exactly how she described you, my OCD friend."
Accord's eye twitched. But he stayed calm solely to avoid feeding Uber's ego.
"Again," Robert insisted, "we're agents of chaos. So that actually works really well with us. So for your own sake, maybe you should just give up trying to kill the Simrugh chosen girl, and forget she was ever a part of your life."
Accord fell quiet. Nothing he could say would convince him. "I'd like to speak with her."
Robert looked over to Aryana. He mouthed that Accord wanted to talk with her. Aryana gave him a wide eyed stare, one riddled with fear and hollowness. It had been months since she'd spoken to him, she took the phone from Robert.
"Hi."
"I'm glad we could speak again," Accord said in a plain voice.
Unsure what to say, Aryana replied, "okay."
"What did you mean when you said, 'I lied to you?'"
Aryana swallowed, "I don't remember." She did remember, but she didn't want to tell him. Accord had a knack for kicking down ideologies that could prop up against his own. She didn't want him to know the truth about what she felt.
"I see," Accord said unsatisfied. "I watched your videos."
She knew he hated them. Half the reason she adopted that absurd personality was to make him angry. She still felt the need to ask, "do you like them?"
"I did." He lied. "You should keep making them."
Aryana's mouth twitched. In a single sentence he let her know that she had no control over him. All she wanted to do was exert a level of control over his emotions. It was just a game to them. They were tugging at each other's hate for the sake of earning each other's anger.
She asked, "Are you going to kill me?"
"No." He said calmly, "you're a walking time bomb. I'll wait for the world to collapse on you."
They both knew it was true. She wished she could say something smart or witty to piss him off, but Accord only invoked silence into her. She mustered a single word, "okay."
"Pass me to Uber," Accord said.
She handed the phone to Robert, to which he noticed her hands shaking. "Yo," Robert said.
"I'll call off the assassination. But it's only fair I warn you, anomalies of chaos don't necessarily work well together. There will come a day where she'll fail you, and you may regret defending her today."
"That's a risk I'm willing to take."
"Will falters, Uber."
"Still worth it. Her kind of crazy is better than your kind of crazy."
Accord hung up. Robert looked up at Aryana, "so… Still planning on leaving?'
Aryana shook her head, "I don't know. I've only been making up plans since I left Boston." She looked over to Vivan, "Vivan, you decide."
Vivan blinked, and fell back on a phrase he often repeated, "I just go where you tell me."
Aryana bit her lip, "Vivan, you're the only reason I left Accord in the first place. Quite being a tool and just pick for me."
Vivan smiled, "Brockton Bay needs a better class of villains. Not the villains they deserve, or even the ones they want, but the Losers are definitely the kind of villains they need."
Way to miss the point lol
