Crystalized Munchkinry - Act II - Chapter 09 (Patreon)

Still sporting his placid expression, Admin answered, “Because I need your help.”

“My help?” asked Taylor, confused.

“Yes. Yours.”

“But why?”

Here Administrator lost most of his grin, turning it into a thoughtful frown. “You are in a unique position that would allow me to achieve my goals.”

Taylor couldn’t help but feel hurt. “So you’re using me?”

“Yes and no,” came the quick answer. “I have my goals, Taylor, but that doesn’t mean I can’t help you achieve yours.”

Taylor looked into Admin’s eyes. He held her gaze with surprising calmness, yet she could tell he was leaving a lot unsaid.

After Emma, and after Winslow, she had made a promise to herself never to trust somebody that completely again. And here she was, being asked to trust someone who was telling her the weirdest things imaginable.

Still, the lure of the powers was not something she could simply dismiss.

She closed her eyes and took a shuddering breath, trying to organize her chaotic thoughts. For several minutes, she went over everything she had heard. Thankfully, Admin remained silent, allowing her to sort through her thoughts at her own pace.

That was actually kind of nice.

In the end, she decided to try getting more information out of her supposed power. Opening her eyes, she asked what she considered the most important question. “What are you not telling me?”

Admin chuckled. “A lot, Taylor. More than you can imagine.”

Taylor just huffed. “Let me guess. You have a reason for it?”

“Of course.” Admin flashed her a quick grin before continuing. “Most of it isn’t relevant at the moment.”

Taylor just stared at him incredulously.

“What? Can’t a guy have a private life?” asked Admin with an innocent expression.

Taylor silently crossed her arms. Then she tried to replicate her mother’s glare whenever she was angry at Dad.

Seeing her reaction, Admin gave her an apologetic grin and shrugged his nonexistent shoulders. How that worked, Taylor had no idea.

“Alright,” he began. “I can’t tell you everything right now because you wouldn’t be able to handle it.”

Taylor opened her mouth to object, but he cut her off. “And not in a ‘you’re not old enough’ kind of way.” Taylor closed her mouth and waited for him to continue, still glaring at him but willing to hear him out.

“It’s just...” He paused, as if collecting his thoughts. “If I told you everything outright, it would crush you. You simply wouldn’t be able to make sense of it.” He finished in an ominous tone.

Taylor could only blink at that declaration.

“Plus, I have enemies. Enemies that would crush you without a second thought if they found out you knew about them.”

“Enemies? You? A power?” she asked. “How is that possible?”

“Sadly, that’s the part you wouldn’t understand.”

Taylor couldn’t really argue with that. Instead, she sat there wondering how her life had become so weird.

“Of course, that doesn’t mean I won’t explain things,” he said with a reassuring smile. “Let’s just take this one step at a time, alright?”

The reassuring smile became slightly hesitant when she refused to return it.

She just quirked one of her eyebrows questioningly. “And pray tell, what is the first step?”

Admin nodded. “Let me finish explaining your powers, and then we can go over what I want you to do.”

Taylor considered it for a moment. Seeing no real downside, she nodded and picked up the pen again. Despite being angry, suspicious, and thoroughly confused by the situation, she was still excited to have powers. Yet the persistent feeling that something was wrong, that something important was missing, refused to leave.

“You will have a bevy of Tinker powers, mostly focused on programming and computers,” he explained. “Along with a few fun things that I thought would interest you.”

“I’ll be a Tinker?” she asked.

“Yes. And a thumpin’ good one,” he replied with a weird accent.

Deciding to ignore it, she moved on to her next question, “What about the Tinker... thing?” She fumbled for the word she had only half-heard before. “Where they have to build stuff?” With her eyes lowered, she added quietly, “And it’s not like we’re rich enough to buy materials.”

“Tinker compulsion,” replied the blue slime. “And don’t worry about it. You won’t have one.”

“But every Tinker has one.”

“Yes, and you don’t.”

“Why?”

“Because I said so.”

Taylor stared at him.

She was rapidly becoming fed up with his answers. She couldn’t quite put her finger on what was so irritating about his attitude, but it was seriously grating on her and made her want to throw the notebook at him.

“Can’t you just straight up answer a question?” she asked sharply.

The little slime drooped slightly, the easygoing expression slipping off his face for a moment. Then he recovered, the smile returning as if nothing had happened.

“Of course, Taylor. I’m simply having a little fun.”

“I don’t want to have fun,” she shot back, nearly yelling. “I just want to know what’s going on!”

“Calm down, Taylor. No need to yell,” Admin replied gently.

Realizing she was close to losing control, she took a few shaky breaths. After a moment, she managed to steady herself and refocus on him.

“The simplest explanation,” Admin continued, “is that I’m not constrained by the same rules as those powers. So I can choose not to impose the compulsion.”

“That’s it?” she asked incredulously.

“Well…” he said, hesitating slightly. “I also like you, so I wanted to make it easier for you.”

“You like me?” Taylor asked, as if the concept itself was foreign.

“Indeed,” he replied. “You’re a nice girl who was dealt a bad hand by fate, and I’m here to add a few aces to that hand.” His tone softened. “How you use them is up to you.”

Taylor couldn’t help but feel nice after that. Yet something still kept niggling her. The idea of someone helping her this directly was comforting, but also unsettling in a way she could not ignore. Once bitten, twice shy.

She kept that apprehension to herself for now and waited for him to continue.

Taking the hint, Admin did exactly that.

“I will also open portals for you anywhere on Earth as a Mover ability,” he said. “And I will give you a pocket space where you can store anything you want safely.”

“Anywhere?”

“Yes, anywhere you wish.”

The ability to go anywhere in the world, to places she would never otherwise see, to escape Brockton Bay whenever she needed to. Just the thought made her happy.

That all paled compared to the pocket space. A space where she could store everything precious. Things that could not be taken from her.

The thought of using this could’ve prevented the destruction of her mother’s flute, and her school stuff surfaced in her thoughts unbidden. It seemed she would have the solution for all of her problems, only after the problems themselves became irrelevant.

It was an almost cruel kind of hindsight. As if Admin was mocking her with these powers.

“Anything else?” she asked snidely.

“Only two powers left!” Admin said brightly.

“The first is flying.”

Taylor blinked despite herself. “Flying? Really? I would love to fly!”

“I know,” he said with a smile. “And of course, I saved the best for last.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Which is?”

Admin tapped the blackboard. The previous diagram vanished, leaving a blank surface, then he tapped it again, and a single word slowly wrote itself out.

Electrokinesis.

That brought up her short.

She knew what that meant: control of electricity. It sounded powerful. Immediate possibilities flooded her mind. Still waiting for the other shoe to drop, she looked at the smiling slime.

“Is it powerful?”

“It is,” he answered readily. “I prepared a veritable smorgasbord of a power for you.”

“Yes, but how powerful is it, really?” she asked, voice edged with desperation. The thought of having power – to make a difference, to help people, to help her father – pressed in on her.

She wanted it.

She wanted it desperately.

“Let me put it this way,” Admin began, scratching where his chins should be with one of his stubby hands. “After some considerable training, you would be a match for anyone in the Bay.”

“When you say ‘match,’ what do you mean?”

Administrator gave her a knowing smile. “You will be able to step on anyone you want.” His grin turned a little bloodthirsty. “And they will thank you for it.”

That sounded promising, but she couldn’t let herself get excited. Something in her resisted it – the sense that it was too good, that things like this didn’t just fall out of the sky.

Not for her.

As she considered it, Admin continued hovering in place, bobbing slightly, smiling as he waited for her response. Looking at him, she thought about how bland everything felt. No sound, no variation in temperature, no texture to anything. Even her own body felt distant, as if she were observing the situation from far away.

She had been almost murdered.

And now she was arguing with a sentient blob of slime as if this were normal!

Then the realization hit her.

“What did you do?!” she whispered, rising out of her seat without noticing. “What did you do to me?”

Admin blinked, surprised. “What?”

“What are you doing to me?” she repeated, striding forward. “I’ve been feeling weird since I woke up.” Now she was right in front of him. “So let me ask again. What. Are. You. Doing. To. Me?”

“I don’t understand, Taylor,” he said, confused. “Are you feeling unwell? My diagnostics–”

“Your diagnostics?” she cut him off. “You’re monitoring me?”

“Well, yes,” he answered, a little testily. “As your power, I have to ensure you are in excellent condition.”

She didn’t know what she was feeling anymore, only that it was getting harder to feel it at all. As if something was slowly draining her will to fight, to resist, to protect herself.

“And stop doing that!” she cried. “Stop doing whatever you’re doing to me!”

“Doing what?”

“My emotions,” she said, locking eyes with him. “I’ve been feeling wrong since we met, like something’s missing. And now I can feel it again! I was angry, but it’s going away. I can feel it slip away!

“Taylor.” His voice went flat, the tone careful as if he was explaining something to a child. “You’ve been through a tremendous ordeal. I suppressed them to allow for a more productive discussion.” He offered a wry smile. “I thought I would let you have your mental breakdown after we were finished.”

Shock cut through her.

The thought of somebody messing with her to that level shook her to the core. The thought of how easy it was for Admin to manipulate her and her emotions chilled her to the bone.

She looked down at her feet, at the absurdly adorable socks with flying multicolored slimes, then took a steadying breath and looked back up.

“Stop it.”

“Stop what?” he asked.

“Stop whatever you’re doing to my emotions!” she shouted, frustration flaring again.

“If I do that, you will not like it.”

The words broke out of her in a half-sob. “I don’t care!”

“Taylor, I just wanted to help you.”

“You had no right to do that to me!"

She felt cold and burning at the same time. She felt betrayed. Again. Here she was, getting told she had a parahuman power. And now this. Her own power – if it was even true – trying to tell her what to do.

What to feel.

She turned away from Admin.

She couldn’t hold it together while looking at him. Not that she really wanted to. And still, she could feel it – her emotions trying to slip away, no matter how desperately she tried to grab them and hold onto them.

She didn’t know how long she stood there, staring at the too-perfect rolling hills, waiting for him to do something. Anything.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, he spoke.

“Are you sure?”

She didn’t hesitate. It was her life. Her emotions. Hers.

All those years of being pushed, ignored, walked over…

Something in her finally snapped.

She had had enough of that.

Thinking back to those days, when she just stood, not saying a word. Taking everything. Letting people walk over her.

Well, it was time to put an end to it.

She was Taylor Hebert, daughter of Annette and Daniel Hebert, and this was her first step.

“Yes,” she said simply while closing her eyes in preparation.

Admin only sighed.

“As you wish.”