"So you're saying you can't tell the difference between broken shit and tinkertech?"
"Yep." She looks around.
"You do realize we're in one of the most rundown sections of the city, right?"
"And it's doing horrible things to my paranoia."
"Yeah, that tracks." As her face goes deadpan. "So what did you expect me to do about it?"
"Help me with power testing? I don't know! I'm sure we could brainstorm something between the two of us."
"So, we going to the waffle place again?"
"I was thinking my storage. I have to see if Dad got the other communication device." She nods and we go to a secluded door to use my key. I go to the earpiece, put it on, and after a moment of hesitation I push the dial button. A couple seconds pass where I think whatever space this is is interfering with the connection, but it does finally connect.
"Hey there! Is this Taylor?" Dad asks.
"Yes! Yes it is. So I've got to tell you about my day." And I proceed to tell him all about the most important bits of it. "So, thoughts?"
"How the hell did New Wave find out about your identity?"
"Really Dad? I was kinda hoping we could talk about my new power." Lisa edges up next to me real close at that. Probably to eavesdrop considering it's on the side with the communicator.
"And we can do that. It's just that I find the fact they know at all suspicious. They couldn't have found out from the PRT. If they knew your secret identity, then Armsmaster would've arrested you, not continue on with his Wards pitch." Huh. He would have, wouldn't he? "And then there's the matter of timing. It looks like they found out right after you were confirmed to survive our house being bombed. And then their daughter demanded answers instead of holding her cards close to her chest like she should have."
"Goddamnit!" From Lisa. "I thought I was supposed to be the smart one here. I can totally see it too, how did I miss this?"
"I take it that's your thinker then? Heh! The energy and vitality of youth is nothing next to the experience and deviousness of old men. Well we can thank our lucky stars that the PRT and New Wave aren't communicating with each other at least. Otherwise Armsmaster would've had a lot more to say to Taylor in particular."
"Yeah yeah yeah. So what do you think about Taylor's power? Because I was thinking I would try getting various broken things. See how far up the tech tree and how badly damaged it has to be to register as broken."
"Good idea little lady. Taylor have you tried fixing anything you see as broken yet?"
"No?"
"Well try it out. Stands to reason there would be a use for this new sense, wouldn't there?"
"What!? No there doesn't! Powers come with lots of dumbass caveats all the goddamn time!"
"Does that make it not worth testing?"
"..." From both me and Lisa
"Well try it out, see how it goes. Talk to you tomorrow Taylor. Try not bringing your friend next time either. She's a bit too excitable for this old man's tastes."
"Wait, dad, what are we going to do if you lose your earpiece or it runs out of battery?"
"Then we'll start the dead drop back up again." And he hangs up. I look over to Lisa who's staring at me intensely.
"I swear to God Taylor, if it turns out you just pulled a tinker power on top of all your other bullshit I might just have to fucking shoot somebody out of pure envy." I nervously laugh at that.
Power testing was innocuous enough. Started with looking at the cracked and broken blacktop on the nearest streets. That didn't trigger my new instinct at first, but I could focus on it and I could tell it was caused by heat buckling and contracting in the cold. Geeze power, what profound insights you give me. Broken security cameras were a given in this part of town, and so were broken locks where places got broken into. We went to a pawn shop to take a look at things. Just about one in ten things here ping my senses as broken in one form or another. And about half of those were in the DVD section.
"Come here Taylor." As she waves to the counter. "Does this catch your fancy?" The code we decided on just before entering. Meaning she found a minor flaw in whatever she's pointing at. She's pointing at a switchblade hand painted in a Hello Kitty motif.
"Nope." Would've said hell no based on the paint job, but that was my answer for me being able to tell something's wrong with it. In the end we bought a switch blade for each of us to deflect suspicion. The cashier was technically supposed to ask for our IDs before the purchase, but nobody in their right mind is gonna deny a couple of teenage girls the ability to defend themselves in this town.
"So, what was wrong with the knife?" Once we were a safe distance away.
"The blade was slightly bent. Nothing deal breaking, but enough to make cutting a little more awkward. So what kind of broken stuff did you see?"
"Mostly DVDs. Couldn't see anything wrong with any of the knives. Sprinkled all around here and there otherwise."
"Mmm. Makes sense. So it probably doesn't care about low quality goods then. Let's move on to the next part of the test." The next part of the test being going to a hardware store, and offering one of the neighbors to fix their broken door handle with a replacement. The neighbor in question being a suspicious sort. Not that I blame him. Free shit doesn't usually fall out of the sky in Brockton Bay after all. Anyways we convinced him with minimal swearing on Lisa's part. He insisted on doing the installation himself though.
After that we brought the stupid thing back to the base. Disassembling it revealed that it was, in fact, not tinkertech. Yippee. It also revealed the problem. Some of the internals were bent. Just enough to make a slight grinding noise whenever the door knob was turned, and prevent the lock from turning completely. The dude this originally belonged to has other locks.
Naturally I got to work bending this into shape right away. Now what I expected to happen was bending it all out of shape into an irreparable mess. A natural conclusion considering my complete lack of appropriate tools and my unfamiliarity with this model of doorknob. What actually happened was I managed to get it more or less in shape. It still ground out when turning the handle even if the lock was fixed. I was not satisfied with this. I know I can roughly fix things, but I want to know if I can do better. I got to work trying to melt the metal into place inside of myself. One piece at a time to avoid any silly fusions. At the end of it, the knob was working perfectly. I also figured out electroplating, but better and with acid. Cool.
"Hey you finally done over there?" From Alec on the couch. Looking at the clock, it seems it's been about an hour and a half since I started. "Wanna play couch co-op?" As he pats the seat next to him. "Or skip straight to bed and have some fun~"
"Nah I'm hungry. Gonna make dinner."
"All right. I'll finish this level and then join you."
Nice. So the fridge is pretty well stocked at the moment. For a given definition of 'well stocked'. Brian or Lisa must've gone out and bought things today. There's some actual ingredients in here. Vegetables, milk, and other basic ingredients. In the cupboard is... a cake mix. Fuck it, yeah, I could go for some cake.
I set some potatoes to boil to start with. Twelve total. Four for each of us in the apartment. Then I remember Bitch's dogs. Twenty potatoes. While that was boiling I preheated the oven to four hundred degrees fahrenheit and mixed up the cake batter. Once that was done I put the cake in the oven, then the potatoes on a cookie sheet with slits in them. Also the heat isn't bothering me at all. Neat. Half an hour for the cake, fifty minutes for the potatoes. Set the cake to cool, then take the potatoes out. Mash some cheese and sour cream into three fifths of the potatoes, while keeping their shape. It's too bad I don't have any bacon bits.
As an afterthought I heat up another pan to test my heat resistance. I test it with oven mitts on. No need to be stupid about things. After a couple of minutes I don't feel any pain or burning. I feel the heat rising and the mitts are singed, but no pain. And no painless burns either. Hmmm. Well the potatoes are done. I just gotta ice the cake once it's done cooling.
"So Alec, so much for joining me after the level, huh?" As I look over. He whips his head over to me and furrows his brow.
"Taylor it hasn't even been five minutes. What the fuck?"
"Huh?"
AN: The New Wave thing wasn't what I was referring to about the previous chapter btw. I don't expect y'all to keep track of the dates even if I keep a spreadsheet for that.
Powers gotten this chapter
Costumer (Terraria - Journey's End) (100CP)
Many objects, especially with regards to armor, place function over form. Now, you don't have to settle for armor that is good but an eyesore. You can take any item you possess and 'overlay' it on top of a similar item, changing the second item's appearance to match the first, while maintaining all of its functionality, protective qualities, etc.
