- Location
- Australia
It would be pretty cool. But this Taylor doesn't have QA, sorry.
For a site where you have to, you know - read - the story, comprehension is a little spotty.
Another one for the watched list.
- Location
- Not quite sure
Well, this is an interesting dilemma.
On the one hand, we have an author getting Ideas! so there's a potential for even more stories.
On the other hand, we have an author getting Ideas! so the existing stories may be delayed even further.
Sophia has her natural shard until demonstrated otherwise, which is kinda middling if you don't have Wildbow coming up with bullshit application after bullshit application for a pet protagonist, but Emma and Madison have Cauldron shards. Shadow Stalker is gonna need to use her power if she wants to keep up with Emma's power, but for making sure Emma has the basics it might be best to go to a gym and bribe the friendly beefcake teenager to let them use some punching bags after hours. Hell, they need to figure out just how close Emma comes to being an Alexandria package, because we already have compelling evidence that she's got toughness, strength, speed, and is a combat Thinker.
Anyway, looks like rather high-end Cauldron vials. Did Hero come up with tinkertech that refined the mixing process to produce more consistently high-end frankenshards? (Or at least it seemed to be implied that he's still alive. Is Doctor Manton working for Cauldron instead of voyeuring around with the murder-hobos? Not having the Siberian to tank and dps helps explain how Jack Slash fell to a normie with a shotgun.)
If they go through with giving Taylor a vial while she's freaking out, the daughter of Annette was always more creative than the Trio, and the daughter of Danny can hold a grudge. Even if Taylor is pushed into going Carrie during her seeming-trigger (not a real one, since QA didn't detach from Danny this time, but it'll sure look like a trigger event) and gets labeled a villain, while we have no idea what her frankenshard will give her I fully expect her to leverage her powers to hit the Trio where they're weakest, once she has time to figure out what she can do.
That said, since Taylor doesn't have QA, does Danny have it? Will hearing that someone tried to murder his daughter (wounded, locked up, covered with rotting toxic waste; sepsis is absolutely a life-threatening issue if Taylor doesn't get out soon enough) be his trigger event? The Heberts repairing their family via shard-driven conflict would be a satisfying way to see the Trio get beaten down.
Anyway, looks like rather high-end Cauldron vials. Did Hero come up with tinkertech that refined the mixing process to produce more consistently high-end frankenshards? (Or at least it seemed to be implied that he's still alive. Is Doctor Manton working for Cauldron instead of voyeuring around with the murder-hobos? Not having the Siberian to tank and dps helps explain how Jack Slash fell to a normie with a shotgun.)
If they go through with giving Taylor a vial while she's freaking out, the daughter of Annette was always more creative than the Trio, and the daughter of Danny can hold a grudge. Even if Taylor is pushed into going Carrie during her seeming-trigger (not a real one, since QA didn't detach from Danny this time, but it'll sure look like a trigger event) and gets labeled a villain, while we have no idea what her frankenshard will give her I fully expect her to leverage her powers to hit the Trio where they're weakest, once she has time to figure out what she can do.
That said, since Taylor doesn't have QA, does Danny have it? Will hearing that someone tried to murder his daughter (wounded, locked up, covered with rotting toxic waste; sepsis is absolutely a life-threatening issue if Taylor doesn't get out soon enough) be his trigger event? The Heberts repairing their family via shard-driven conflict would be a satisfying way to see the Trio get beaten down.
- Location
- Australia
Not in this one.
There will be a bit more Trio-centric action before we get to Taylor. Just saying.
- Location
- Virginia
It's cool, like I said watching them get what's coming to them is great; especially since at the moment it's not Taylor doing it, but their own flaws. After all I don't see Sophia remaining friends with people who make her look bad, and Emma and Madison don't have the shared experiences that keep Emma and Sophia as friends, so that team will be a lovely garbage fire. Especially if Madison turns on the others so she can become a Ward for more resources to build stuff.
- Location
- California
Was I ever this dumb as a teen?... no wait I shouldn't answer that one. Was never this malicious, but yes teenage plans of dubious thought, unfortunately. And yeah bullies with access to superpowers, very much in character.
Definitely an interesting variant on the locker incident ahead. I almost wish Taylor would get a power sense/nullified/teleport combo; senses every power in a radius and could teleport to a power instantly with a touch based nullifier. That would mess with there plans...
Great...and now I have an idea for a teleporting power amplifier as an alt!Taylor or OC/SI for Worm or other superhero universe.
keep up the amazing work @Ack!
Definitely an interesting variant on the locker incident ahead. I almost wish Taylor would get a power sense/nullified/teleport combo; senses every power in a radius and could teleport to a power instantly with a touch based nullifier. That would mess with there plans...
Great...and now I have an idea for a teleporting power amplifier as an alt!Taylor or OC/SI for Worm or other superhero universe.
keep up the amazing work @Ack!
YuffieK
(Verified Ninja Princess)
The locker is not going to be the same. The Trio is planning to force-feed Taylor the vial, then shove her in the (presumably empty) locker and let it run it's course. Let Taylor freak out, do some Trigger trauma related collateral damage then show up
Filling the locker with biohazardous waste beforehand would be overkill.
Then again, Taylor's thoughts after triggering: "There is no overkill..." Taylor's going to think they poisoned her with the vial.
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Timerider
That guy who really should get out more.
- Location
- The End of the World.
Cross posting my comment from SB:
One very satisfying element here is just how much the Terrible Trio clash with each other. Their entire dynamic only worked because they had a shared target, and were in a high school setting. Now the status quo is completely upended and they are not adjusting well.
Interestingly the biggest weak point is Sophia. Her psychosis requires her to be an apex predator in her own mind, but now she's being shown up by two people she at least partially looked down on.
Emma and Madison on the other hand, are relatively sane and normal. It's possible they might dump Sophia once they discover how much trouble she is. (Although given Emma's dependence, that might take some doing) One thing is almost certain, there will be a breaking of the fellowship.
As for Taylor's power, signs are currently pointing towards a Siberian-like power. A full-body force field with the Siberian's properties would certainly work nicely.
The forced trigger fallout will be a sight to behold. A hopeful but unlikely outcome would be some idiot (read: genius) catches at least part of the assault on camera and either hands it to the PRT or spreads it online.
Another possibility is the event being more lethal than anticipated, resulting in someone (most probably Madison) panicking and confessing to the whole scheme.
Something else to consider is how the PRT/Protectorate will react to the whole mess. Honestly until we see the event we have no way of predicting their actions. It really depends on what happens and who gets the first word in.
It should be noted that if the Trio get arrested, Madison of all people will likely get the best (or least horrible) treatment given her tinker status. Her theoretical equipment sounds like it would be very much wanted for Endbringer fights.
One very satisfying element here is just how much the Terrible Trio clash with each other. Their entire dynamic only worked because they had a shared target, and were in a high school setting. Now the status quo is completely upended and they are not adjusting well.
Interestingly the biggest weak point is Sophia. Her psychosis requires her to be an apex predator in her own mind, but now she's being shown up by two people she at least partially looked down on.
Emma and Madison on the other hand, are relatively sane and normal. It's possible they might dump Sophia once they discover how much trouble she is. (Although given Emma's dependence, that might take some doing) One thing is almost certain, there will be a breaking of the fellowship.
As for Taylor's power, signs are currently pointing towards a Siberian-like power. A full-body force field with the Siberian's properties would certainly work nicely.
The forced trigger fallout will be a sight to behold. A hopeful but unlikely outcome would be some idiot (read: genius) catches at least part of the assault on camera and either hands it to the PRT or spreads it online.
Another possibility is the event being more lethal than anticipated, resulting in someone (most probably Madison) panicking and confessing to the whole scheme.
Something else to consider is how the PRT/Protectorate will react to the whole mess. Honestly until we see the event we have no way of predicting their actions. It really depends on what happens and who gets the first word in.
It should be noted that if the Trio get arrested, Madison of all people will likely get the best (or least horrible) treatment given her tinker status. Her theoretical equipment sounds like it would be very much wanted for Endbringer fights.
hillo315
Intact but Tactless
- Location
- Somewhere. Somewhere else.
The better to give us maximum catharsis, right?
There are so many ways this could backfire, but my personal favorite involves Taylor anticlimactically vanishing before the trio can "heroically" fight her.
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hillo315
Intact but Tactless
- Location
- Somewhere. Somewhere else.
*glances at title* Well...
Aurora Moon
Verfied Insomniac with too much time on her hands
- Location
- USA, Earth
- Pronouns
- She/Her
So, WAG time. Each vial seems to be one third of a super-soldier kit: super-physique for Emma, and Madison got the tech base... which leaves the leadership/mental/social aspects for Taylor. Sophia is going to be regretting this for a long time indeed...
I kinda wish Ack hadn't said there is no QA for Taylor here...
Because the thought of Taylor having a nice round number of Siberian Tiger projections as her power is funny as hell.
*Long, hard battle in which all three of the idiots are battered and worn out.*
"We killed it, Shadow Stalker."
*Taylor looking on, amused*
"That you did, but what about the rest of them?"
*The three of them turn around to see 99 more staring at them.*
Because the thought of Taylor having a nice round number of Siberian Tiger projections as her power is funny as hell.
*Long, hard battle in which all three of the idiots are battered and worn out.*
"We killed it, Shadow Stalker."
*Taylor looking on, amused*
"That you did, but what about the rest of them?"
*The three of them turn around to see 99 more staring at them.*
- Location
- Australia
So HERO is still around who in canon got killed by Siberian.
Jack Slash got one shotted by a shotty while doing a home invasion so no Slaughterhouse 9 for Siberian.
And the title.
Bigger question is whether or not Taylor only gets Siberian-esque abilities or has some cosmetic changes as well due to the fact it is a cauldron vial.
Rajvik_wolfboy
Wolf amongst the stars.
- Location
- Florida
Am I the only person thinking that this was Jack going for Riley?
Jonn Wolfe
(Verified Sarcastic) (Not a Wolf)
- Location
- Beyond Sanity Since 1971
Wouldn't it be absolutely hilarious if the Cosmetic (leadership) Option goes in reverse of the C53 standard, and gives Taylor an equivalent "Comic Book Pretty" upgrade? No glasses, more pretty than her mother (according to Danny); this on top of her new physics breaking invulnerability.
We all know the trio is fucked, but having their punching bag end up more pretty than they are would be adding insult to injury to these three petty girls.
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- Location
- Australia
Admittedly, she'd just been doing pushups and was thirsty, and the sparring was starting to get a little boring.
Also, she's getting more chill, and isn't so emotionally dependent on Sophia's approval as she used to be.
Part Four: Preparations
- Location
- Australia
Earning Her Stripes
Part Four: Preparations
[A/N: This chapter beta-read by Lady Columbine of Mystal.]
Three Days Later
An Abandoned Warehouse
Emma Barnes
Madison lowered her goggles and hefted the device she called the Cutter. "Cutting! Stand clear!"
Emma wasn't quite sure what principle the thing worked on, except that it ran off of regular building power. About the size and shape of a dust buster, though a lot heavier, it narrowed to a point at the business end. Holding it to metal and pressing the trigger caused a neat cut in the metal. Apart from that, there was no outward sign anything was happening; no sparks, no noise, no heat, nothing. The main reason Emma was careful to stand clear was that there was no way to tell if it was cutting until the cut actually happened.
"Standing clear," she replied, ready to assist Madison with wrestling slices of metal bound for the ever-hungry mouth of her furnace. As her friend touched the Cutter to the engine block of the third derelict car they'd found, Emma glanced over toward the furnace, making sure it was still doing what it was supposed to. Raw heat emanated from its open mouth, from the bubbling metal inside. She wasn't certain how the bits and pieces of the car Madison had constructed the furnace from were able to contain the molten metal, but there it was.
Getting hold of the cars themselves had been simultaneously the easiest and most strenuous job. Sophia had been able to locate cars that had been stolen and dumped, broken down or just abandoned on the side of the road. Madison's Tinker abilities let her get them running (or at least rolling) long enough to deliver them to an empty building on the edge of Merchants territory, where they were ready for the next stage.
After exerting herself all night (and in some cases, pushing cars for several blocks at a time), Emma had crashed for two hours then woken up fresh and ready to go again. Madison had been out for the entire day, and Sophia hadn't woken up until late afternoon.
On the second night, Madison had constructed the Cutter, then demolished one car to make the furnace. This night, they were feeding bits of the other two cars into it. Sophia hadn't shown up at all, which made Emma wonder if she was starting to get bored with the whole project. She'd spent the previous evening lecturing Madison on how the Tinkers she'd heard of did stuff, until Madison snapped and yelled at her. Then she'd gone off in a huff, saying that there were muggers out there who hadn't been beaten up yet.
I hope she's still on board with everything. My powers are so awesome; I can't wait to kick the shit out of Taylor with them.
Another slice of the engine block dropped free, leaving a smooth mirrored surface, and Madison moved the Cutter away. "Cutter off."
"Cool." Emma moved in and dragged the chunk of steel and whatever else off to the side, to join the other pieces. They were due to go into the furnace to make ready for the second pour, after the first one had been completed.
"Okay, that's enough for now." Madison wiped her forehead with the back of her heavily gloved arm, and carefully set the Cutter down. As an added precaution, she unplugged it from the extension cord. "Time for the first pour."
"And this will be the second furnace, right?" Emma thought this was the case, but she wanted to be sure.
"Yup. This one'll be made of good steel, and I'll be able to make more good steel stuff from it without ruining it."
"Ruining it?" Emma frowned. "So what we're doing now is ruining this furnace?"
"Oh, yeah." Madison leaned up and tapped a gauge. "One more good pour after this one, and it'll be ready for retirement. Well, recycling."
"So what's 'good steel', anyway?" asked Emma as she followed Madison on an inspection tour of the moulds that had already been laid out.
"It's my name for it. Dunno what it's really called. You've got to put just the right materials in at the right moment, and let it stay at a certain heat for a certain time. If you pour just at the right moment, it'll come out a whole lot stronger and more durable than ordinary steel." Madison shrugged. "Otherwise, what's the point?"
"Makes total sense to me," Emma agreed, mentally adjusting her definition of the phrase 'total sense'. "So, what do you want me to do?"
"Make sure nobody comes in at the wrong time and disrupts the pour," Madison said, heading back to the furnace. "And stay well back. It's gonna get real hot in here."
"Okay." Emma ran toward a shipping container that sat nearby in the warehouse. Jumping lightly into the air, she kicked off from one of the door hinges and vaulted on top with an ease that she never would've come close to equalling before. As far as she could tell, her eyesight was a bit better than it had been before, but not superhuman; just smoothed out to maximum human capacity. She'd asked Madison about the chances of having night-sight goggles made, and her friend had sketched out a helmet that would've weighed about twenty pounds. The design contained built-in goggles capable of emitting a microwave beam capable of frying bugs at ten paces, but Emma decided the weight would be too much. From her sketches, Madison could build a lot of stuff. Unfortunately, 'miniaturised' didn't exist as a descriptor for any of it.
Another question she'd asked was why Madison hadn't just used the shipping containers themselves for the furnace. Madison had looked at her as if she'd asked why the sky wasn't green and explained that shipping containers didn't have the materials that she needed.
Moving with a level of precision that Emma had never seen in her friend before she'd gotten her powers, Madison went to the side of the furnace and pulled a lever. As liquid metal spilled white-hot down a channel into the first of the moulds, Emma felt the wave of heat hit her from across the room. What it must be like for Madison, she had no idea. Keeping one eye on the entrances, she watched with a level of fascination as the petite brunette managed the pour, moving levers and adjusting dials as though she'd been training for this all her life. One after another, the moulds filled exactly to the brim with molten 'good steel', whatever that really was.
"What the hell's going on here?"
The harsh voice cut into her musings, and she snapped her attention around to the side door about ten yards from the end of the shipping container. They'd closed the door, but there had been no way to lock it; or rather, Madison hadn't felt like constructing a lock for it right then. Besides, the metal wall beside the door was so rusty and full of holes that a moderately determined kick would smash it in.
Pulling the bandanna she was wearing up to cover the lower part of her face, Emma moved to get a view of the door. It was now open, and people were now entering. She could tell that there were five of them and, while the lighting in the warehouse was uncertain to say the best, they looked a lot like Merchants to her. Well, crap.
"The fuck?" The leader of this group, or maybe the least stoned, pointed at where Madison was still working on getting the pour just right. "Someone Tinkering here and not fuckin' working for us? How the shit is that fair?"
Emma sighed and jumped down from the shipping container, absorbing the impact with a casual flexing of her knees. "Walk away, boys," she advised them, doing her best to pitch her voice for maximum intimidation. That was something she was still learning from Sophia, though the black girl had given up on teaching her anything about fighting. "Nothing to see here. Move along."
"Shit!" The lead Merchant stopped and pulled a pistol from his waistband. The others brandished pipes or knives. "Cape!"
"She's not a fuckin' cape," jeered another Merchant. "She's just a wannabe. If she had powers, we woulda seen 'em by now."
"Oh, yeah." The gang member brought up the pistol but before he could point it at Emma, she was in motion. Dashing forward with a level of explosive acceleration that not even Sophia would've been able to match in her best day at track, she closed with the guy before he was properly aware that she was in his face.
All five began to move, but with a sluggish inevitability that let her plot out her moves more than a second into the future. Her reactions were already fast; with the chance to plan her actions in advance, she was even faster. Lunging forward into a jump just before the pistol would have come into line, she grabbed his wrist with one hand and his pistol with the other. A twist in midair let her wrap one leg around his neck, the unexpected weight sending him stumbling backward as he flailed for balance.
Digging her thumb into the correct pressure point released the pistol into her hand. As the Merchant began to collapse backward, she threw her newly acquired weapon at the head of gang member number two, who was carrying a pipe. Landing on her feet as gang member number one fell heavily on to his back, she drove her elbow into the jaw of number three. Then she caught the pistol as it rebounded off the head of number two and kicked the falling pipe (also from number two) so that it smacked hard into the jaw of number four; one of the knife guys.
The second knife guy (and fifth gang member) stood staring, right up until the pistol (Emma really liked its throwing balance) smacked him between the eyes and dropped him to the ground. As part of the throwing motion, Emma spun around and delivered a back kick to the jaw of the first guy, who was just starting to sit up and look around. He promptly slumped to the ground again. With a satisfied hm, she reached up and back, just in time to catch the firearm as it bounced back off the fifth gang member's skull and into her hand.
"What's going on over there?" called out Madison. "Is there a problem?"
"No, no problem." Emma sighed in irritation as she looked down at the feebly twitching gang members. "Just a pest control issue. Do we have any zip-ties?"
A shadowy form came through the wall, then reformed as Sophia in her Shadow Stalker costume, performing a dramatic diving roll. She came to her feet, crossbow out and pointed at the downed gang members. "Don't move!" she shouted. "I've got you … oh." Walking closer, she stared at the five guys. "Holy shit, uh, girl. Was this all you?"
"I guess?" Emma said with a shrug. "It wasn't really challenging. More like solving a kid's math puzzle, you know? I knew all the answers, I just had to figure out how to make it happen in the shortest possible time." She frowned as she looked Sophia over. "I have to say, it's amazingly coincidental, you bursting in just after some Merchants show up here."
"I was tracking them," Sophia said, almost defensively. "I didn't want to bust them if they weren't doing anything wrong. Soon as I knew they'd gone in, I came in after them."
Really. Emma wondered how much of that was truth, and how much was Sophia trying to grandstand a little within their burgeoning team. Since getting powers of her own, she'd become a lot more cynical about superheroes in general. But it probably wasn't worth calling Sophia on her bullshit, so she changed the subject by hefting the pistol in her hand. "I've never even used one of these things. Should I start? I mean, I don't want to get crossbows and step all over your shtick." She remembered the abortive attempt by Sophia to tutor her in using a crossbow. After six bullseyes in a row, including the one where she'd bounced the arrow off the wall to get it into the target just to see if she could, Sophia had declared the whole thing bullshit and refused her access to the crossbow again.
"No, you shouldn't." From the sour tone of Sophia's voice, she was remembering the same thing. "Heroes carrying guns sends the wrong message, unless you're Miss Militia, and the PRT gets really antsy. Maybe get one of those big-ass compound bows that look like someone's construction project. I figure you could do stuff with arrows that would make 'em all swear blind you were carrying around Tinkertech."
"Yeah, but then I'd be lumbered with a big fragile bit of gear, or I'd have to get an actual Tinker to make me one that could collapse into a small space." Madison, she already knew, was not the right person to ask about something like that. A bow capable of taking out a Mack truck with one arrow; sure. One that could also collapse to hang off her hip? Not so much.
"Pfft, yeah, nope." Sophia shook her head as she bent over the gang members, zip-tying their limbs together. "I still can't see why she can't build one like that for you, though. I mean, if Armsmaster can …"
"Because she's not Armsmaster." Emma wondered if her friend would ever get it. "Her Tinker stuff is always bulky, because it's too tough to … waiiiit a minute." The epiphany that broke across her mind almost blinded her. "Hey, M, could you build a bow that I could also use as a melee weapon?"
Madison looked around at the shouted query. "A bow? I guess. But it wouldn't be a very good one. Not if you also wanted to hit people with it. Why?"
Emma waved the pistol. "Because ranged weapons would be a good idea? I'm currently limited to what I can punch and what I can throw."
"Huh." Madison seemed to think about that. "Can you throw stuff that can bounce back to you? If I made it so it wouldn't break?"
"Sure." Emma tossed up the pistol and caught it again. "Why?"
Madison's grin gleamed in the dying glow of molten metal. "Let me get back to you on that."
End of Part Four
Part Four: Preparations
[A/N: This chapter beta-read by Lady Columbine of Mystal.]
Three Days Later
An Abandoned Warehouse
Emma Barnes
Madison lowered her goggles and hefted the device she called the Cutter. "Cutting! Stand clear!"
Emma wasn't quite sure what principle the thing worked on, except that it ran off of regular building power. About the size and shape of a dust buster, though a lot heavier, it narrowed to a point at the business end. Holding it to metal and pressing the trigger caused a neat cut in the metal. Apart from that, there was no outward sign anything was happening; no sparks, no noise, no heat, nothing. The main reason Emma was careful to stand clear was that there was no way to tell if it was cutting until the cut actually happened.
"Standing clear," she replied, ready to assist Madison with wrestling slices of metal bound for the ever-hungry mouth of her furnace. As her friend touched the Cutter to the engine block of the third derelict car they'd found, Emma glanced over toward the furnace, making sure it was still doing what it was supposed to. Raw heat emanated from its open mouth, from the bubbling metal inside. She wasn't certain how the bits and pieces of the car Madison had constructed the furnace from were able to contain the molten metal, but there it was.
Getting hold of the cars themselves had been simultaneously the easiest and most strenuous job. Sophia had been able to locate cars that had been stolen and dumped, broken down or just abandoned on the side of the road. Madison's Tinker abilities let her get them running (or at least rolling) long enough to deliver them to an empty building on the edge of Merchants territory, where they were ready for the next stage.
After exerting herself all night (and in some cases, pushing cars for several blocks at a time), Emma had crashed for two hours then woken up fresh and ready to go again. Madison had been out for the entire day, and Sophia hadn't woken up until late afternoon.
On the second night, Madison had constructed the Cutter, then demolished one car to make the furnace. This night, they were feeding bits of the other two cars into it. Sophia hadn't shown up at all, which made Emma wonder if she was starting to get bored with the whole project. She'd spent the previous evening lecturing Madison on how the Tinkers she'd heard of did stuff, until Madison snapped and yelled at her. Then she'd gone off in a huff, saying that there were muggers out there who hadn't been beaten up yet.
I hope she's still on board with everything. My powers are so awesome; I can't wait to kick the shit out of Taylor with them.
Another slice of the engine block dropped free, leaving a smooth mirrored surface, and Madison moved the Cutter away. "Cutter off."
"Cool." Emma moved in and dragged the chunk of steel and whatever else off to the side, to join the other pieces. They were due to go into the furnace to make ready for the second pour, after the first one had been completed.
"Okay, that's enough for now." Madison wiped her forehead with the back of her heavily gloved arm, and carefully set the Cutter down. As an added precaution, she unplugged it from the extension cord. "Time for the first pour."
"And this will be the second furnace, right?" Emma thought this was the case, but she wanted to be sure.
"Yup. This one'll be made of good steel, and I'll be able to make more good steel stuff from it without ruining it."
"Ruining it?" Emma frowned. "So what we're doing now is ruining this furnace?"
"Oh, yeah." Madison leaned up and tapped a gauge. "One more good pour after this one, and it'll be ready for retirement. Well, recycling."
"So what's 'good steel', anyway?" asked Emma as she followed Madison on an inspection tour of the moulds that had already been laid out.
"It's my name for it. Dunno what it's really called. You've got to put just the right materials in at the right moment, and let it stay at a certain heat for a certain time. If you pour just at the right moment, it'll come out a whole lot stronger and more durable than ordinary steel." Madison shrugged. "Otherwise, what's the point?"
"Makes total sense to me," Emma agreed, mentally adjusting her definition of the phrase 'total sense'. "So, what do you want me to do?"
"Make sure nobody comes in at the wrong time and disrupts the pour," Madison said, heading back to the furnace. "And stay well back. It's gonna get real hot in here."
"Okay." Emma ran toward a shipping container that sat nearby in the warehouse. Jumping lightly into the air, she kicked off from one of the door hinges and vaulted on top with an ease that she never would've come close to equalling before. As far as she could tell, her eyesight was a bit better than it had been before, but not superhuman; just smoothed out to maximum human capacity. She'd asked Madison about the chances of having night-sight goggles made, and her friend had sketched out a helmet that would've weighed about twenty pounds. The design contained built-in goggles capable of emitting a microwave beam capable of frying bugs at ten paces, but Emma decided the weight would be too much. From her sketches, Madison could build a lot of stuff. Unfortunately, 'miniaturised' didn't exist as a descriptor for any of it.
Another question she'd asked was why Madison hadn't just used the shipping containers themselves for the furnace. Madison had looked at her as if she'd asked why the sky wasn't green and explained that shipping containers didn't have the materials that she needed.
Moving with a level of precision that Emma had never seen in her friend before she'd gotten her powers, Madison went to the side of the furnace and pulled a lever. As liquid metal spilled white-hot down a channel into the first of the moulds, Emma felt the wave of heat hit her from across the room. What it must be like for Madison, she had no idea. Keeping one eye on the entrances, she watched with a level of fascination as the petite brunette managed the pour, moving levers and adjusting dials as though she'd been training for this all her life. One after another, the moulds filled exactly to the brim with molten 'good steel', whatever that really was.
"What the hell's going on here?"
The harsh voice cut into her musings, and she snapped her attention around to the side door about ten yards from the end of the shipping container. They'd closed the door, but there had been no way to lock it; or rather, Madison hadn't felt like constructing a lock for it right then. Besides, the metal wall beside the door was so rusty and full of holes that a moderately determined kick would smash it in.
Pulling the bandanna she was wearing up to cover the lower part of her face, Emma moved to get a view of the door. It was now open, and people were now entering. She could tell that there were five of them and, while the lighting in the warehouse was uncertain to say the best, they looked a lot like Merchants to her. Well, crap.
"The fuck?" The leader of this group, or maybe the least stoned, pointed at where Madison was still working on getting the pour just right. "Someone Tinkering here and not fuckin' working for us? How the shit is that fair?"
Emma sighed and jumped down from the shipping container, absorbing the impact with a casual flexing of her knees. "Walk away, boys," she advised them, doing her best to pitch her voice for maximum intimidation. That was something she was still learning from Sophia, though the black girl had given up on teaching her anything about fighting. "Nothing to see here. Move along."
"Shit!" The lead Merchant stopped and pulled a pistol from his waistband. The others brandished pipes or knives. "Cape!"
"She's not a fuckin' cape," jeered another Merchant. "She's just a wannabe. If she had powers, we woulda seen 'em by now."
"Oh, yeah." The gang member brought up the pistol but before he could point it at Emma, she was in motion. Dashing forward with a level of explosive acceleration that not even Sophia would've been able to match in her best day at track, she closed with the guy before he was properly aware that she was in his face.
All five began to move, but with a sluggish inevitability that let her plot out her moves more than a second into the future. Her reactions were already fast; with the chance to plan her actions in advance, she was even faster. Lunging forward into a jump just before the pistol would have come into line, she grabbed his wrist with one hand and his pistol with the other. A twist in midair let her wrap one leg around his neck, the unexpected weight sending him stumbling backward as he flailed for balance.
Digging her thumb into the correct pressure point released the pistol into her hand. As the Merchant began to collapse backward, she threw her newly acquired weapon at the head of gang member number two, who was carrying a pipe. Landing on her feet as gang member number one fell heavily on to his back, she drove her elbow into the jaw of number three. Then she caught the pistol as it rebounded off the head of number two and kicked the falling pipe (also from number two) so that it smacked hard into the jaw of number four; one of the knife guys.
The second knife guy (and fifth gang member) stood staring, right up until the pistol (Emma really liked its throwing balance) smacked him between the eyes and dropped him to the ground. As part of the throwing motion, Emma spun around and delivered a back kick to the jaw of the first guy, who was just starting to sit up and look around. He promptly slumped to the ground again. With a satisfied hm, she reached up and back, just in time to catch the firearm as it bounced back off the fifth gang member's skull and into her hand.
"What's going on over there?" called out Madison. "Is there a problem?"
"No, no problem." Emma sighed in irritation as she looked down at the feebly twitching gang members. "Just a pest control issue. Do we have any zip-ties?"
A shadowy form came through the wall, then reformed as Sophia in her Shadow Stalker costume, performing a dramatic diving roll. She came to her feet, crossbow out and pointed at the downed gang members. "Don't move!" she shouted. "I've got you … oh." Walking closer, she stared at the five guys. "Holy shit, uh, girl. Was this all you?"
"I guess?" Emma said with a shrug. "It wasn't really challenging. More like solving a kid's math puzzle, you know? I knew all the answers, I just had to figure out how to make it happen in the shortest possible time." She frowned as she looked Sophia over. "I have to say, it's amazingly coincidental, you bursting in just after some Merchants show up here."
"I was tracking them," Sophia said, almost defensively. "I didn't want to bust them if they weren't doing anything wrong. Soon as I knew they'd gone in, I came in after them."
Really. Emma wondered how much of that was truth, and how much was Sophia trying to grandstand a little within their burgeoning team. Since getting powers of her own, she'd become a lot more cynical about superheroes in general. But it probably wasn't worth calling Sophia on her bullshit, so she changed the subject by hefting the pistol in her hand. "I've never even used one of these things. Should I start? I mean, I don't want to get crossbows and step all over your shtick." She remembered the abortive attempt by Sophia to tutor her in using a crossbow. After six bullseyes in a row, including the one where she'd bounced the arrow off the wall to get it into the target just to see if she could, Sophia had declared the whole thing bullshit and refused her access to the crossbow again.
"No, you shouldn't." From the sour tone of Sophia's voice, she was remembering the same thing. "Heroes carrying guns sends the wrong message, unless you're Miss Militia, and the PRT gets really antsy. Maybe get one of those big-ass compound bows that look like someone's construction project. I figure you could do stuff with arrows that would make 'em all swear blind you were carrying around Tinkertech."
"Yeah, but then I'd be lumbered with a big fragile bit of gear, or I'd have to get an actual Tinker to make me one that could collapse into a small space." Madison, she already knew, was not the right person to ask about something like that. A bow capable of taking out a Mack truck with one arrow; sure. One that could also collapse to hang off her hip? Not so much.
"Pfft, yeah, nope." Sophia shook her head as she bent over the gang members, zip-tying their limbs together. "I still can't see why she can't build one like that for you, though. I mean, if Armsmaster can …"
"Because she's not Armsmaster." Emma wondered if her friend would ever get it. "Her Tinker stuff is always bulky, because it's too tough to … waiiiit a minute." The epiphany that broke across her mind almost blinded her. "Hey, M, could you build a bow that I could also use as a melee weapon?"
Madison looked around at the shouted query. "A bow? I guess. But it wouldn't be a very good one. Not if you also wanted to hit people with it. Why?"
Emma waved the pistol. "Because ranged weapons would be a good idea? I'm currently limited to what I can punch and what I can throw."
"Huh." Madison seemed to think about that. "Can you throw stuff that can bounce back to you? If I made it so it wouldn't break?"
"Sure." Emma tossed up the pistol and caught it again. "Why?"
Madison's grin gleamed in the dying glow of molten metal. "Let me get back to you on that."
End of Part Four
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M. H. Fuzzball
Aperture Science-certified Horrible Person
- Location
- Sector 2814
I know this isn't going to be a Ranma cross, but damn, Ranma would love sparring with this Emma.
Also, Sophia may have done a little too well on changing Emma's mindset, because it looks like Emma's starting to see her as a liability.
Also, Sophia may have done a little too well on changing Emma's mindset, because it looks like Emma's starting to see her as a liability.