Crystalized Munchkinry - Act II - Chapter 14 (Patreon)

“What? How? No!” she yelled while clambering back to her seat. “What do you mean?”

It didn’t help her panic that Admin was floating behind her dad, smiling smugly.

Her father, however, remained calm, though he didn’t smile.

“Taylor,” he said, “I saw your hair. And your eyes.”

“Oh,” was all Taylor could manage in response. She finished climbing back into her seat and settled in a little more petulantly than she intended.

She slouched back and looked away. “Now what?”

“Well, first you tell me what your power is,” her father answered. “Of course, only if you want to.”

Taylor very much didn’t want to have this conversation, but she could recognize a lost cause when she saw one. Still, it would probably be smart to leave Admin out of her explanation; she didn’t need her father crying ’Master’.

She sat up properly, laced her hands in front of her on the table, and gave her dad a piercing look.

"Very well, I have the power to…"

“Well, that sounds like a rather… unique collection of powers,” her father said after she finished her explanation. He seemed rather shocked.

"Yeah, it's so cool!"

“Indeed,” was her father’s rather dry reply.

“What’s wrong, Dad?” she asked, confused by his reaction.

“Nothing,” he replied immediately. “I just worry about what you would do with it.”

"Why?"

“You are, or rather will be, powerful. That affords you opportunities that would be unavailable to other people,” he started explaining, looking grim. “However, it will also attract attention from people you won’t want.”

Taylor blinked at that. She had never really thought about it. But she could see where her father was coming from, especially since Admin was nodding along with the explanation.

“My first reaction would be to suggest the Wards,” he said, continuing before Taylor could interrupt him. “But seeing your face now, I won’t bring it up.”

Taylor leaned back, her indignation forgotten.

He smiled at her, then went on. “Taylor, I promised to be there for you, and that includes taking into account your wishes.”

Hearing that, a warm feeling rose in her chest. She remembered what he had promised her, but she had feared that if she told him about her power, he would discard everything and insist on the Wards for her protection.

That he kept his word was a pleasant surprise.

Her reply came out as a whisper. “Thank you, Dad.”

“You’re welcome.”

“So what do you want to do?” he asked.

That stumped her.

What did she really want to do with her power? Beat up villains? Save the Bay? How would she achieve that?

As she was internally panicking and her father patiently waited for her reply, she noticed movement behind him. Hoping Admin had some kind of solution, she directed her gaze toward him.

He was holding up several cue cards. She gave them a quick read and quickly realized it was exactly what she needed to say, so she didn’t waste a second.

“I was thinking I’m going to look through the basement and attic to see if there is anything I can use my Tinker power on,” she said, looking at her dad. “And I can still practice most of my powers at home, so I want to wait until the legal stuff is over before doing anything… overt.”

He gave her a look as if trying to figure out whether she was lying. She squirmed a little but stayed silent, hoping her father would accept it.

After a few seconds of silence, Danny nodded.

“I approve. Smart decision.”

She gave him a grateful smile.

“If what you say is true and you don’t suffer from Tinker disease…” he said, then looked at her for confirmation.

“Yeah, I don’t have the urge to disassemble anything. But when I was putting together my new PC, it kicked in and made it easier.”

He nodded again and continued. “Then I’ll feel safe leaving you alone while I’m at work. And if you run out of stuff, I can bring home some from the office. We have warehouses full of things we have no use for. And if anyone asks, I can just tell them my daughter is experimenting with computers.”

She gave him a bright smile at that.

“I talk about you enough that everybody already knows about your talent with computers,” he added.

That was vaguely worrying, but she ignored it for now.

"Thanks, Dad, that would be cool."

“And we can revisit the Wards discussion after we deal with the legal matters.”

Taylor wanted to deny that, but seeing the determination on her father’s face, she decided not to. At least this gave her time to come up with a valid reason for refusing to join the Wards.

“And promise me,” he said again, in a rather grim tone, “that you won’t go out patrolling while I’m not here.”

She immediately nodded. She knew her father well enough to know that when he was like this, there was no use arguing.

“Say it, please, Taylor.”

“I promise, Dad,” she answered promptly.

"Good."

“We will also talk more about this later,” he finished with a tone of finality.

Accepting it, she made a note to look into arguments that would change her father’s mind.

Plus, she still hadn’t heard what Admin’s glorious super-secret plan was. If he was telling the truth and it would help the Bay and her family, then maybe she could use it as an argument.

Maybe.

Her father was a skilled negotiator, so she would need to prepare herself for a tough battle.

“Now why don’t you help me clean up,” her father said while standing up, “then we can do some general cleaning. And maybe check the attic for useful things.”

“Sure,” she answered, and started handing dirty plates to Danny at the sink.

They spent the first part of the day cleaning up the house. Having two depressed people doing only cursory cleaning had left it remarkably dirty.

They also talked a little. Nothing world-changing, but more than they had spoken in the last year or so.

After they cleaned up, they went through the chaotic mess in the attic. With Taylor’s newfound strength and clone power, it went rather quickly. Danny even remarked that it was lucky the clones vanished, because he couldn’t afford shampoo for that many Taylors.

After that, his sparse hair was standing on end because he had accidentally shocked himself with something, and not because of anything she had done – at least, nothing anyone could prove otherwise.

The search in the attic netted them a lone old mixer. It wasn’t a significant find, but it had a motor and minimal circuitry.

After a hearty pizza lunch, they plumbed the depths of the basement. They found several old boxes of moth-eaten, dust-covered clothes and decided they might as well throw out the trash while they were at it, which also allowed Taylor to set up a simple workshop.

For the clothing that was still wearable, they decided to donate it, except for a few pieces that had belonged to her mother, which Taylor kept because they still fit her. Originally, she had wanted to keep everything that belonged to Annette, but Danny talked her down, telling her that Annette wouldn’t have wanted her to cling to things just because they were hers.

So she chose to keep a few dresses, and then a few more when her father was distracted by one of her clones ’accidentally’ dropping a box. She could stitch up a few holes on her own.

The basement, aside from a mountain of trash now sitting in the back of Danny’s pickup, yielded several old kitchen appliances, an old digital camera, several old laptops for some reason, and a heavily modified chainsaw.

And several boxes full of trash whose origin neither of them could identify.

When they took the boxes out to the car, Danny tried to show off a little for Taylor, just to prove that he still had it. Taylor just laughed and helped him carry them anyway, because they were too heavy for him.

After they finished, they lugged all of Danny’s tools into the basement and used some leftover planks from a long-forgotten project to put together a basic table for her to work on.

By the time they were done, it was afternoon, so they decided to spend the rest of the day watching movies and, in Danny’s case, resting.

Taylor was just happy that something which, only a few days ago, would have wiped her out stamina-wise now left her only slightly tired. It seemed Admin’s improvements were coming along nicely.

In her modest opinion, she now looked like a frog that was somewhat in shape, albeit with fabulous hair.

She woke up in a familiar gray hall.

But instead of statues of her former friend, there was only Admin in all his glory, hovering behind a wooden desk in the middle. Above the desk was a sign that read ’Quest Desk’, with a smaller line beneath it: ’The most questingly quests you can ever quest or your money back’. Framing it were two drawings of cute slimes holding swords.

She sighed and prepared herself for something truly ludicrous.

“So what fresh hell did you prepare for me?”

He gave her a very customer-service smile. “Only the best quests for our clients!”

"Only the best quests for our clients!"

She looked back at him with a flat expression, entirely unimpressed.

“Currently we are offering discounts on scouting quests!”

"Scouting what?"

“Excellent question!” he answered, producing a blackboard out of nowhere. It showed a simple floor plan of a building.

“Your task, if you choose, is to find out whether the item marked with an X,” here he produced a small white box with a large X on its side, “is in the room marked with the number two. And if it is, retrieve it without being seen.”

Taylor nodded in understanding but said nothing.

She hated what Admin was doing, but she had to admit it worked. Her knowledge of her power was growing in leaps and bounds. Granted, she had yet to try it in any meaningful way in the real world, but she felt that if she did, it would go very well.

Still, she had to concentrate on the task ahead. Knowing the asshole, it would look straightforward but would have several hidden mechanisms that would trip her up.

Best to be prepared for the worst.

“Are you ready?” he asked after a few minutes of letting her think.

"Think so…" she answered uncertainly.

“I’m glad to hear that. Please proceed through the door to start the quest.”

Taylor was about to ask what door when an antique wooden door faded into view next to the desk. She just sighed at the theatrics and stepped through it.

Immediately, her view changed. A minimalistic mini-map appeared, along with a line at the top that read ’Level 1’.

Looking around, she took in the dark room she found herself in. It was filled with cliché action movie boxes, but the mini-map showed a clear path toward the next door.

She crouched down, because she remembered people crouched when they were sneaking, and made her way toward her goal.

She was about to dash for the door when she noticed a yellow triangle on the mini-map. Curious, she watched it move until it settled on her position.

She heard a yell of “Intruder!” and everything went dark.

When she came back to consciousness, she found herself in front of Admin, who was smiling at her cheekily.

"Care for another try?"

She just growled and stalked back to the door.

It took her an embarrassingly long time – three tries – to figure out what the yellow triangle represented. Then several more attempts to figure out how to open the door without alerting the patrolling person with the sounds or smells of her actions.

Melting metal had a smell. Who knew?

When she finally reached the box and brought it back to Admin, he only asked one thing.

"Ready for Level 2?"

She glumly nodded and tried to prepare herself.

Level 2 was the same as the previous one, only now there were two people patrolling. However, their very regular and predictable path allowed her to proceed with no trouble.

When she arrived back in front of Admin ten minutes later, she was rather smug.

In retrospect, a mistake.

She spent her time sneaking through several different scenarios, terrains, and situations. It became progressively more difficult because, after Level 10, the mini-map stopped showing people.

After Level 20, she lost the mini-map entirely. After Level 30, the guards became much smarter and began patrolling without their previous regularity. And finally, after Level 50, she lost the yellow triangle.

Still, she managed to traverse several buildings filled with guards and traps everywhere – flying finally coming useful – forests littered with watchtowers, city streets with patrolling military units, and bases packed full of enemy combatants.

In one instance, she even went through Santa’s Workshop.

When Admin announced the end of the training exercise, her brain felt like mush.

“How was it, Taylor? Ready to be a ninja?” he asked.

She gave him a tired look. “I just want to go to sleep, Admin…”

“Sure, Taylor.” He gave her a smile, and she instantly felt darkness approaching.

Before she fully embraced Morpheus, she heard him speak up.

"Wonderful work Taylor, I'm proud of you…"

Date:2011 January 10th - Monday - Earth Bet Time

When she woke the next day, something was different. It took her a trip to the bathroom and back to notice it – she was walking differently. It seemed the stealthy walk she had learned last night had partially carried over.

Immediately getting a wicked idea, she dressed for the day and went to surprise her dad.

Using everything she remembered – thanks to her power boosting her brain – she snuck down the stairs without making a sound. Floating made this rather easy.

Luckily, her father was busy making coffee, so his back was turned to her.

She tiptoed up behind him and yelled, “BOO!”

The resulting dropped coffee mug was cleaned up by her while she snickered at her father’s reaction.

After Danny stopped glaring, they started on the breakfast he had laid out.

“So now that you woke me up for the foreseeable future,” he started with a halfhearted glare. Taylor responded with a cheeky grin. “Tell me, what is your plan for the day?”

“I was going to try tinkering, and maybe go for a walk?” she answered.

“Good. The internet people are coming around one, so hide anything that needs to be hidden.”

“Will do, Dad!” she saluted him with another cheery smile.

“Otherwise, have fun, honey. And hopefully by the evening we’ll have some news from Steve.”

When they finished breakfast, Taylor started to clean up, and Danny gave her a kiss on the brow before leaving for work.

After finishing the dishes and some other chores, she went down to the basement.

She couldn’t wait to build something awesome.

Maybe a death ray that shoots rainbow ponies?