Monday morning's gossip of choice was split between the container ship move and a short clip someone had captured of Taylor's moped hovering. The latter was enhanced by her arrival to school on said hovering moped, with people having been waiting with phones ready to see if it was true. Amy showing up on a non-hovering version had apparently been largely ignored, since it was well known that she'd 'won' it in Las Vegas.
Taylor wasn't entirely sure how, but the Wards patrolling over the crowd of people watching the container ship move at the shoreline had been almost entirely missed, so nobody was talking about her flying platform. Was the container ship that distracting? Probably not, since Stormtiger had noticed them after all. But no actual clips of her and Missy on the platform had materialized, just people commenting on seeing something.
Still, amongst the gossip was speculation as to whether or not Dragon's mother lived in or had grown up in the Bay, something that Amy and Vicky were finding hilarious for reasons nobody other than Taylor understood. The fact that Taylor kept rolling her eyes as they snickered made people think that there was an inside joke, but nobody knew what it was.
Amy: So, is mommy embarrassed?
Taylor: Don't make me hit you.
Amy: Forcefield belt.
Taylor: Insufficiently solid toggle switch.
Amy: Huh. Ok, point to you. We aren't sharing a class.
Taylor: I can get revenge later.
Amy: Hmmm. I suppose. I can hit you back?
Taylor: True, true. I have access to heavier weapons if push comes to shove.
Amy: Like you'd really hurt me. Heh, I bet Vicky wishes she could needle you without anyone noticing like I can.
Taylor: Speaking of Vicky, I see she's wearing the headphones I originally gave you.
Amy: Yep.
Taylor: Has she figured out that you've been upgraded yet?
Amy: Not that I know of.
Taylor: So what does she think you're doing for listening to music and such now?
Amy: I honestly have no clue.
Taylor did her best to not let anything show on her face as she composed a text message, then fired it off to Vicky. She only let her grin show when she saw Vicky checking her phone a couple minutes later.
"Oh come on Ames," Vicky whined. "Really? You kept that a secret from me?"
"What are you talking about?" Amy asked, obviously confused. Vicky showed her phone to Amy, who narrowed her eyes. "TAYLOR!"
Taylor snickered as she made her way to class, Amy fuming about her fun being ruined.
Amy: Well played, Taylor. Well played.
By lunchtime the morning gossip had been derailed and discarded, as apparently they'd arrested a dozen people in connection with the radiation poisoning. The gang member's ex had apparently worked with several others to obtain the polonium, which had been provided by a tinker in New Jersey. She'd then gone on to ensure that he ate the stuff, working with two others to keep suspicion down. One of those two was in critical condition in Boston due to mishandling of some kind, but details were scarce.
Taylor: Think they'll drag you to Boston?
Amy: Probably not, but they might drag the idiot here, unless they've specifically refused parahuman healing anyway.
On top of that, the tinker had been arrested and they were now looking into their records on who they'd sold materials to. Who the tinker was had been kept a secret for a number of reasons. What those reasons were was also being kept secret. All that was said was that they weren't working for or affiliated with the PRT or Protectorate at the time.
"It says here that they kept the extra they didn't use at first and then tried to feed him more after he was healed," Dennis said, his tone indicating disbelief. "I mean, really? He was saved the first time and they thought they could try again? He'd know the symptoms and book it to the hospital immediately!"
"I'm more amazed where it says that they filed the receipt for the purchase with their accountant," Vicky admitted. "Apparently they thought it was possible the purchase might be tax-deductible?"
Taylor wanted to comment on that, but couldn't come up with a response. This appeared to be a common affliction at their table, to be honest. Some further reading showed that the accountant had, once they saw what the receipt was for, gone straight to the feds with it. Apparently they wanted to ensure that nobody thought they had anything to do with possibly being seen as hiding things.
"Good afternoon Miss Hebert, Miss Dallon," Miss Militia said as Taylor and Amy came in from the Wards garage space. "Miss Hebert, we're hoping you're willing to leave your flying platform up on the roof today."
"Good afternoon," Taylor said. "And why do you want the platform up there?"
"Armsmaster thinks that a landing pad would be a good thing, instead of having it in your room when not in use. That way you wouldn't need to bring it up and down constantly. Beyond that, there are some 'concerns' from some of the PRT officers that having a potential bomb waiting to happen in the Wards area is a problem."
"Oh. The landing pad makes sense, the concerns less so. I mean, Chris tinkers down here as well, right? Still, I like the idea of not having to constantly move it up and down, and I'll even send him details on the homing beacon frequencies so it can find and land in the right place on its own."
Miss Militia and Amy both looked at Taylor at the last comment, though Miss Militia was the one that spoke. "What else can it do that you haven't mentioned?"
"It can supposedly find the armband whenever called, though being in a sealed room might stop it unless 'emergency' mode is active. In the latter case it will do its best to force a path, but that means the safeties are disabled too so it isn't recommended. I demonstrated it catching me during testing, that's an automatic function and didn't require me to directly control it. Finding beacons for landing requires that I use one of the sixteen 'this general area' slots within twenty to twenty five meters of the beacons unless I want to guide it nearby manually first. Oh, and it has enough power for two seconds of 'Plaid' mode, but I don't see myself ever using it as that's an all-or-nothing thing and it's got a ninety-plus percent chance of exploding if I do."
"Plaid mode?"
"Yeah. But going at just under three hundred megameters per second in a straight line doesn't seem like a good idea." Amy blinked at that, apparently stunned.
Miss Militia stared at Taylor. "Three hundred...no, you know what. I don't want clarification. The beacon information sounds wonderful, are you willing to leave the platform unattended up there for measurements and such?"
"No problem, I'll bring it up after I get changed."
"Thank you." Miss Militia turned and walked off, muttering about insane tinkers.
"I should get changed," Taylor said as she turned to head to her room. "Want to join me in the junkyard before your class?"
"Yes please," Amy said, shaking her head. "I'm thinking that getting rid of some stress with violence would be a good thing right now."
Taylor rolled her eyes at that, but didn't comment.
"There's a group of Merchants looking like they want to create issues," Dean said, looking around a corner. "Most of them are armed."
"I wonder if we could scare them off," Missy wondered. "But short of a show of force?"
Taylor blinked, and got a grin on her face. "I don't suppose we could try pranking them?" The other two Wards looked at her. "I mean, I have various Bluetooth sound devices in particular?"
"A little discrete spatial warping to get them into position," Missy said, grinning and rubbing her hands together. "Please tell me some of them are the point-projection kind?"
"Of course," Taylor said as she pulled several out of a pouch. She then pulled out the demon duck speaker. "Think we can slip this next to them after we distract them with others?"
Dean lost his composure at that and started snickering.
Five minutes later they'd very carefully gotten three point-projection units into place, using all three batteries Taylor had on her in the process. This was mostly done via Missy warping space to where they'd place things so that they could more easily stay out of sight. Taylor had even removed her body camera and they had it pointing down at the group from a windowsill. They then waited a few more minutes as more Merchants arrived.
"Oi," Dean said over one of the speakers. "What're you lot doing in our alley?"
"Who said that?" one of the Merchants asked, the group spinning to look at the brick wall Dean's voice seemed to come from.
"It looks like they're gathering to create some trouble," Missy said over another speaker, this one pointing at the ground next to the group.
"Why would they do that in our alley?" Taylor said over the last speaker, which was set to point into the group of Merchants instead of near them. That had the effect of causing them to jump away from the voice in their midst.
"I don't know," Dean replied. "I don't think I like it, though."
"Find them," one of the Merchants said. "And we'll make them pay for this!"
They were able to tell that the group was starting to spread out, which was Missy's cue. She slipped the demon duck speaker into the middle of where they had been. Taylor then started an evil laugh playing from it. That caused the entire group of Merchants to turn to look.
"That wasn't there a minute ago," one of them said.
"Just shoot it," another said. "It's just a stupid speaker, right?"
Five gunshots later the group was staring at the still laughing and more worryingly untouched demon duck, since Missy was warping space around it just enough to keep it safe. The fact that the warping was also distorting the sound probably helped the whole performance, actually.
"I'm outta here," one of the group finally said, turning to run. A minute later the entire group of Merchants had scattered. It took another fifteen minutes for the three Wards to recover from their laughing, and two more to collect everything.
"Huh," Taylor said as she landed on the next roof, having taken the 'scout' role after they'd run into a group of Empire thugs. She moved to the street edge of the roof to take a look, and sure enough she could see Oni Lee just standing there with what appeared to be a non-parahuman child with a green mask of some kind on.
"Spot something?" Dean asked over the radio.
"I think Oni Lee wants to talk to me," Taylor replied. She noticed that both of the other two stopped at that.
"Why do you think he wants to talk to you?" Missy asked.
"Well, I doubt he wants to fight with a kid tagging along."
Dean shifted to calling the potential contact into the console as Taylor moved back down to ground level. He seemed surprised when they got a green light pretty much right away. With the green light given Taylor moved forward towards Oni Lee, keeping an eye out for possible issues anyway.
"Good afternoon," Taylor called when she got close enough.
"Greetings Maul," Oni Lee said, bowing. "Allow me to introduce my niece, who has decided to go by 'Kappa' for now."
"Hello," Taylor said as she got closer. "Why 'Kappa'?"
"She loves swimming and cucumbers. She's a bit shy, though. I wanted to thank you for your part in assisting me, and am hoping you can pass my thanks to Panacea as well. Even if the first few times I used my powers after I'd mostly recovered were a bit embarrassing."
"Unca Lee was nakey," 'Kappa' said, giggling, causing Oni Lee to sigh.
"Yes, I've since learned that I either need to concentrate on bringing all of my clothing with me or wear tighter clothing. It's a small price to pay for having my mind back, though."
"I imagine the concentration slows you down," Taylor commented. "Which is probably intentional, as some of the rapid copying was creating issues."
"There is that. I've had to be more creative with how I approach things, which for some reason makes me feel better. I don't quite understand why, though. Regardless, thank you. It's now time to bring the little Kappa here home, so we must be off. Have a nice evening."
"Good evening to you two too."
Taylor watched as 'Kappa' was picked up, to her apparent protest, and carried off. Dean and Missy came up behind her, a quick glance showing that they both appeared to be confused.
"What just happened?" Missy asked. "Because, well, that was weird?"
"Panacea and I helped out Oni Lee with a medical issue," Taylor replied. "That's part of why New Wave keeps having friendly spars with Lung. I imagine that this means those are likely to continue."
"And now we'll never quite know because you pulled the medical issue card," Dean said, shaking his head. "Right. Let's get moving again, I don't want to be out here all night."
"Is that part of why the ABB has been leaving the Wards alone?" Missy asked.
"Yeah," Taylor answered. "Not sure how long that will last, though. Might only be until I hit Protectorate, or perhaps they'll continue to leave Wards alone and I'll become fair game later?"
"So when are you going to post that video?" Missy asked as the elevator doors closed.
"The Merchant one?" Taylor said. "I dunno. I might wait until their public opinion has dropped again."
"They have been doing community-service type things," Dean admitted. "Though nobody knows why."
"At this point I think the assumption is that they're looking for Squealer. That'll probably stop Wednesday."
"Why Wednesday?" Missy asked. Taylor just grinned.
Taylor had opted to chat with Amy as they both made their way home. She suspected that they were both also listening to music based on overall activity of their respective Bluetooth organs.
Amy: So Oni Lee was out with what we presume was Lung's daughter?
Taylor: Yep. She hasn't triggered, but was running around as 'Kappa'. Because she liked swimming and cucumbers?
Amy: That's kinda cute.
Taylor: Why is it cute?
Amy: Oh, right, you probably haven't had a teacher go on about Japanese mythology. You should look kappas up.
Taylor wasn't sure what to make of that, but made note to do some research when she wasn't on her moped.
Amy: Has Miss Militia asked you about Thursday?
Taylor: No?
Amy: Ah. Maybe she's still clearing use of the Rig then. I kinda wanted to try some of what you did during your testing, if at all possible, and she mentioned some 'requested' larger-scale tests of us working together.
Taylor: Maybe they'll add a second bench to the railgun to properly test that aspect?
Amy: Maybe. Oh, have you tried forward-projecting the gun while side-projecting the bullet?
Taylor blinked. That...huh. That could work to help with aiming. And maybe make it easier to pistol-whip someone on short notice.
Taylor: What made you think of that?
Amy: I, er, accidentally attached the projection to the gun while feeling out the bullets?
Taylor: I thought you were supposed to be learning without powers?
Amy: So I'm curious. I haven't used that trick for aiming at all yet, I was waiting for my turn in the firing range.
Taylor: Well, I do think that it's a good idea. It would be bad to be reliant on it, though.
Amy: Duh.
Taylor pulled into home a couple minutes later, wondering where her father was.
"Hello there," Danny said, poking his head into Taylor's room. She was laying on the bed with her clear visor on, looking up kappas. She understood why Amy found the idea cute now.
"Hi," Taylor replied. "You find the leftovers?"
"Yep. Thanks for making dinner, and I'm sorry I got stuck late. Since I don't think you know, I've been talking with Miss Militia about a security system. I'm staying home from work so it can be installed tomorrow, which is why I was late tonight."
"Oh, cool." She supposed it made sense that they'd talk with her father about that. Technically he was the one who owned the house, after all, so it really did need him involved anyway. "Anything I should know in advance?"
"It'll have per-room monitoring and should be able to identify the two of us, plus anyone else we add in, automatically. Even then it'll have an additional module for arming and disarming with secure Bluetooth, in theory for our phones of course. It'll automatically notify both Dragon and the PRT if something sets it off, in addition to sending alerts to our phones. Apparently we don't qualify for active defenses like automatic taser turrets, and there was some grumbling about needing to build a new home from scratch if we wanted 'proper' structural enhancements?"
"Given that Amy said the Dallon and Pelham households have their deadbolts as their weakest point?"
Danny blinked a couple of times. "Ok, yeah. That sounds a bit extreme. Still, you may want to make sure any cape stuff is hidden before you head to school tomorrow. Like your visor there."
"I'll make sure anything like that is either with me or well-hidden when I leave in the morning."
"Thanks. Oh, do you know why Miss Militia said the PRT would be paying for the system in general?"
Taylor blinked. Huh. "I think it might be because they can argue I've got a history of being targeted out of costume? Not that anyone who's done so has realized it beforehand, but I don't think the relevant regulations actually specify that as a requirement."
"That...ok, that makes sense. I might have to look those up."
Tuesday morning the gossip had decided to shift back towards Taylor's moped. Apparently someone poisoning people with radiation and the container ship having been moved were now boring. Or perhaps it was just because Taylor was seen riding the thing into school again?
This would all be fine, except that everyone wanted to gossip about how it might have come about instead of just asking. She even had a not-quite-a-lie 'answer' provided by the PRT to tell people.
Oh well. Eventually someone might just ask her, right? For now she had classes and such. Though Amy seemed a bit restless?
Taylor: Is something wrong? You seem restless.
Amy: How do normal tinkers deal with their urges?
Taylor: What?
Amy: I mean, I know my urges are a lot lower, yet I still keep thinking about implants or prosthetics and such seemingly at random. How does someone like Chris manage?
Taylor: I have no clue, but someday I'm probably going to tear something that needs work apart. I just hope it isn't at school, and that I'm at least in private or in costume when it happens.
Amy: Ok, now I kinda want to see that.
Taylor: Compared to you potentially giving someone an implant because you haven't done anything with any for a while?
Amy: ...crap. The PRT can help with that, right?
Taylor: I wouldn't be surprised if they've already started planning for it, honestly. I'd still ask, though.
Amy: Yeah. I think I'll send a message before I forget.
"Hey Taylor," a boy in her Math class said just after she'd sat down for lunch. The main issue she had with him was that he was named Greg, but that wasn't his fault. "What's up with your moped?"
Taylor blinked as a number of students stopped talking, many of them about theories on said moped. "What do you mean?"
"It didn't hover before, but now it does. How'd that happen?"
"Ahh. That." About damned time, now to see if the PRT's plan worked. "I don't know why it isn't common knowledge that you should think very carefully before letting a tinker fix something for you. Specifically, one should always ask them what they mean by 'fix'."
"Oooh. That makes sense. Thanks." He wandered off, students processing that as conversations slowly restarted.
Amy: I don't think anyone not already in the know noticed that you did not, in fact, answer the question.
Taylor: The PRT felt it would be a good idea to let people make their own assumptions.
Amy: Oh, I won't argue that it's an effective answer, but now the gossip is going to switch to who the tinker was.
Taylor: That was also expected.
Taylor and Amy smirked a little as they both noticed the gossip shifting in just that direction. But nobody could decide who the tinker had been. Colin and Chris were instantly the two favorites, of course, because they were local 'hero' tinkers that might have been able to pull it off. Vivian was discounted because everyone decided that if she'd done it then the moped would have an Orion drive or something.
Taylor: Tomorrow afternoon is going to be amusing.
Amy: Wait, what? Why?
Taylor: That...is not my secret to tell.
Amy: Damn you.
Amy actually kicked Taylor under the table at that point, but Taylor just grinned in response.
"This is a mixed route," Taylor noted as she looked over the route Carlos had told her she'd be leading the patrol on today. The two of them were currently the only Wards who'd made it to the PRT building, though that was probably because neither of them had stayed for last period studies.
"Yep," Carlos replied. "That a problem?"
"So you want me to play aerial, given that Brian and Dennis are ground-bound?"
"Of course. Armsmaster assures me that the landing pad for your platform has been completed and when he powered it on the thing landed in it. He seemed to find that pleasingly efficient."
"But you also have a request that I make an impact with the crowd we expect to be outside, given rumors that were apparently intentionally spread this morning?"
"Yep."
Taylor gave that some thought. "Am I allowed to do so by jumping off of the building? I never did get to do that properly back when I was introduced."
"I'm not sure how that showcases the flying platform."
"It has a 'please catch me' button."
"Oh. In that case, go for it."
Taylor grinned, then started going back through her mail. She had a bunch of spare parts she was turning into prank-like devices, some that would remain spares, and extra batteries. She'd already dropped the new knife and 'civilian' toolkits with her school bag to bring home.
A quick double-check of the flying platform and Taylor felt she was ready. Brian and Dennis were just leaving the front of the building, and she could hear murmuring from the crowd. Grinning, she ran and jumped off of the roof, giving a cry as she did so. People looked up, at least one person screamed, and then the platform slid into place under her. A moment later she was a block away, waiting for the other two to get to their rendezvous point.
"Really?" Dennis whined once he and Brian arrived. "You did something like that and didn't include me in the planning?"
"Why would I?" Taylor replied. "It isn't like I could have caught both of us unless we were jumping together, and I wouldn't have wanted to test my jump harness doing that."
"Please tell me that Dragon is getting closer to figuring that thing out?"
"No clue. Ask Armsmaster if he knows, maybe? I suspect it's low priority compared to some of her other projects."
Brian just snickered at Dennis's antics before they made their way out.
"What's up with the Empire thugs today?" Brian asked while they waited for a police van to pick up the group they'd found attacking a couple of black kids. "Most of them have been oddly, well, skittish once they see Maul?"
"No clue," Dennis replied. "Not that I'm complaining too much about not having to fight most of them, mind you. But watching three groups of them go from 'willing to attack' to 'back away slowly as they peacefully disperse' just because they spotted her is weird. This group surrendered very politely when she dropped in."
"Mycroft thinks they're spooked about a rumor," Taylor said as she came up behind the other two. "She thinks it stems from when Stormtiger approached me, so some kind of warning might have been passed down or something."
"When did you ask her?" Brian asked. Dennis gestured that he wanted to know as well.
"When we were arranging the police to grab these guys, though I did so with a text channel instead of a voice channel."
"Oh, that makes sense," Dennis said. "Useful when you don't want radio chatter, though that's kinda rare, but I can see how two conversations at once could be nice too."
Taylor stopped off outside of the house, letting her tinker snark inform her of several of the new sensors covering the exterior. From those it seemed to dive into the system they were connected to, telling her about all the various ways it could detect intruders. Nowhere near as much as the PRT had, but she didn't expect anything to that level. It was also currently disarmed.
She shook her head and opened the garage. She knew her father would want to explain things to her either way, even if she got a full understanding of the system from her tinker snark. It was easier to just let him tell her for now. Though she wasn't quite sure why they'd included three different kinds of radiation sensor.
Taylor lay in bed after dinner, not sure what to do. Her homework was done, she wasn't in the mood to browse PHO, and she didn't have any research projects to distract herself with. Amy had poked around in the greenhouse for a few minutes, but most of her projects there were in a 'see what happens' holding pattern, so that hadn't been much of a distraction.
Amy: Vicky just pointed me at a PHO thread. Apparently they're speculating on whether or not you have a boyfriend, and if so who it might be.
Taylor: As far as I'm aware I'm not in a relationship, so what're they using as a basis?
Amy: They don't seem to have a basis beyond you being a teenager.
Taylor: Huh. Pretty sure I've got issues there either way anyway. I already told you about 'social' snarks and all, and then there's my trust issues. The whole bit with Emma...yeah.
Amy: I know you've said that Emma betrayed you, but how else does she matter at this point?
Taylor thought about things. She hadn't spoken to pretty much anyone other than Jessica about Emma, and had honestly been trying to avoid thinking about her. On the other hand, Jessica had recommended that she find someone else to talk to about her former friend.
Taylor: Well, we can't really be certain if my need to trust a potential partner is natural or not, but if so, well. Emma was the only one I really trusted up until she betrayed me. Jessica thinks that she was possibly my first crush?
Amy: Oh. Ouch.
Taylor: Yeah. Still possible that she was firmly in the 'sister' category or something, hard to tell after the fact.
Taylor reached over and grabbed her clear visor, slipping it on. It turned on automatically, and a moment later she was looking for the thread on PHO. Better to be aware of it than to be blindsided, right? It didn't take long to find, and it had been kicking around for a little over two weeks now. It wasn't long, as apparently only a few people cared, but what was there...
Taylor: So I dug up the thread, and I'm not sure if I should be horrified that there are people wondering if the 'trio' were pushing people away from me because they had crushes on me.
Amy: Yeah, I saw that.
Taylor: Apparently not responding to their 'advances' means I'm not attracted to girls, or so says PHO?
Amy: Not sure how that works, given the examples in the thread. I'm not sure anyone would have feelings for someone tormenting them like that. No, wait, this is on the internet, I'm sure someone has a fetish for that kind of thing, but I don't want to know who.
Taylor: We can hope that the only people who like that kind of thing like it from the outside and we never meet someone who likes having that kind of thing done to them for real?
Amy: That sounds good. Let's go with that. It's less disturbing, at least.
Ewww, someone thought she used to date Greg. Luckily someone else had shut that idea down, and she was kinda aware that Greg might have been crushing on her already.
Taylor: Should I reply to clear anything up?
Amy: If you do they'll either ignore you, assume you're lying, or take everything out of context to support their own arguments anyway.
Taylor: So basically there's no way to make them stop, and anything I do will make it worse?
Amy: Yep.
Taylor: Sometimes the internet sucks.
