Crystalized Munchkinry - Act II - Chapter 15 (Patreon)

Madison was worried.

It had been exactly a week since the thing with Taylor, and nary a word had been spoken about it.

That worried her.

She liked to think that she was smart enough to know when things were going her way and when they were not.

For almost the last two years, life had been going her way. She was one of the most popular girls in Winslow, which wasn’t really something to brag about, but it was something. She ingratiated herself with Emma and Sophia, plying them with praise and compliments and offering up ideas about how to make Taylor’s life hell.

It wasn’t like she particularly hated her, but it allowed her to do what she loved to do: collect information and use it to make things better for herself. After all, that is what life is about, creating a great life for yourself.

Though never blackmail. She had read enough fiction and true crime to know that blackmailers never prospered.

Still, taking notes and researching things appealed to her, so she continued to support Emma and Sophia in their endeavors.

When the idea to fill Taylor’s locker with that disgusting gunk was floated, she was the one who looked around to see if they could collect the necessary stuff. But she left the actual work up to Sophia, feeling that Sophia was enough of a thug to do the dirty work.

So when the event happened, she simply made a note in her journal and continued with her life as if nothing had happened.

But when nothing came of it, she began to worry. She had expected many things: police, lawyers, the FBI, maybe even the PRT showing up.

But nobody said anything.

On Tuesday morning, when she checked the locker, it was clean and smelled distinctly of bleach. Yet when she asked the teachers through several proxies, they either didn’t know what she was talking about or were suspiciously silent.

That brought her here, behind the corner of the teacher’s lounge before classes started, just to see if she could overhear something that illuminated the situation.

It was almost time for the first class when she heard the first useful information.

“…yes, Herbert,” said one teacher. “I’m afraid she won’t be returning to us.”

Madison froze upon hearing that.

Taylor was not going to return.

That… explained so much.

The silence.

People not talking about her.

She died.

They killed her.

When she came back to her senses, she found herself in front of her front door, out of breath as if she had run all the way.

She quickly opened the door, slipped in, avoiding her mom, who was working from home that day, and went up to her room.

She had to get rid of the evidence.

She was in the process of piling all of her journals and notes on her bed when her phone rang.

She froze again.

After a few seconds, she looked at it. It came as a great relief to see it was just Emma. Then she realized what that would mean: she probably also heard about Taylor.

She dreaded to imagine how Emma would react to that. She always knew she was a little unhinged, but this could break her, and she didn’t want to be anywhere near when that happened.

Still, she knew she couldn’t put it off. So, with great reluctance, she picked up the phone.

"Hello?"

“Hey, Mads!” came the overly cheerful greeting. “Have you heard the great news?”

She swallowed heavily upon hearing that. “What news, Emma?”

"She is gone!"

“Who?” she asked, hoping she was talking about somebody else.

“Taylor, you silly!” she continued, her voice still the same. “I just overheard some teachers talking about her. Apparently, her dad called the office saying she is not coming back!”

“What?” She was surprised by how happy that made Emma sound.

“Yeah, we finally got rid of her! Can’t wait to tell Sophia! Talk to you later!”

With that, she abruptly hung up, leaving Madison dumbfounded.

This was not the reaction she expected from Emma. She expected panic, threats, and all sorts of things.

But to be so callous about a life… it made Madison want to hurl.

That was when she noticed she was crying. She sniffed a few times, then decided to wash her face, hoping that maybe the cold water would help her think clearly of what to do.

She had been sitting on the edge of her bed, with her head in her hands and journals behind her in a haphazard pile, for almost an hour when she came to a conclusion.

It would definitively come out.

There was no way in hell something like this would stay hidden.

Eventually, somebody would start asking questions, and then everything would be over.

However, if she were to take what information she had – and she had a lot – to somebody who would definitively ask questions, she would come out of it better than if she stayed silent.

And the person who would do that would be Taylor’s father.

Decision made, she collected her journals into a bag and began her trek toward their house. Thankfully, Emma had once mentioned where they lived, in case they wanted to prank her there, and she had written it down.

However, her journey was cut short when, in the foyer, she met her mother, who took one look at her puffy eyes and immediately asked her what had happened.

It rather surprised her mother when, instead of answering, she found her arms full of a hysterically crying Madison.

Officer Crawson hated front desk duty.

But he had gotten himself shot – which happened regularly in Brockton Bay – and the captain had assigned him there for light duty.

That he appreciated, but the crazies not so much, or the chance that a parahuman could come in and ruin their entire day.

At least they were far enough from the Merchants that few druggies visited their station. Instead, he had to worry about the Empire coming in and making some idiotic statement.

So when, on a regular Monday, he saw a stone-faced lawyer escorting a stormy-faced, middle-aged blonde woman and her crying daughter, he just knew nothing good would come from it.

Still, he had a job to do, so he put on his best customer service smile and prepared himself for the shitstorm.

“Hello. I’m Officer Crawson. How can I help you today?”

Taylor spent the morning taking a brisk run through the neighborhood when she realized a walk would be stupidly boring. According to Admin, the exercise would help her developing Brute power.

It surprised her that after three hours of constant running, she was only slightly sweaty and tired.

Not wanting to give away that she had powers, she walked home, pretending to be out of breath.

After a shower, she went down to the basement and started putting together a Tinker energy source under Admin’s direction.

At first, she wanted him to explain every step so she could learn, but then he explained that she didn’t really have enough material to build proper stuff, so he would need to blackbox it and run it on Tinker-magic.

His argument that most Tinkers got discovered because they went salvaging in the wrong place or because of their excessive energy use made sense, so she didn’t really argue, but she did extract a promise from him for Tinker-tech lessons later.

When the bell rang, she was already putting on the finishing touches on the literal black box her power had her construct. The only oddity was a small light on it that was radiating an odd blue color.

Other than that, it had several standard plugs on the top and nothing else.

She put it behind several boxes, then went to see who was at the door.

Watching the guy connect their house to the internet was awesome. She always cursed their dial-up net but never dared to approach her father about it. And now, with the new computer and Tinker knowledge, an entirely new world opened up to her.

She couldn't wait.

After thanking the technician and waiting for him to leave, she ran down to the basement, took her new power source, hauled it up to her room, and connected her PC to it.

After sitting down and turning it on, she immediately began.

She always wanted her own OS.

Thankfully, with her Tinker power, that would be possible.

Just to make sure she could access the net for fun, she used the aforementioned power to upgrade her old computer a little.

So with two monitors in front of her, she started typing.

By the time her father got home, her new OS was already done (named rOSe, after her mother), and she was using a custom-built browser to surf the net.

Showing it off to her dad was awesome.

He was properly awed by what she had achieved and thought the power source was a great idea, though he warned her to leave a few things on the network. If they noticed that their house was using zero electricity, they would definitely suspect something.

She assured him she had thought of that – after Admin warned her, but Danny didn’t need to know that – and had designed a device that would sit between the house and the grid and draw the average amount of electricity they would normally use.

While that was in place, they could connect everything to the alternative power source and wouldn’t need to worry about blackouts or bills.

Of course, that would require her to rewire the house somewhat, so Danny politely told her she should wait for now.

During dinner – ordered again, because she had forgotten to cook in the excitement – Danny told her that the lawyer had called.

“So what did he say?” asked Taylor between two bites.

“He first talked to the school about homeschooling and how much they are willing to pay if we go away.” He took another bite and swallowed it before continuing.

Taylor just kept eating, not wanting to interrupt her father.

“They immediately signed the homeschooling papers, so we are good on that front.”

Taylor gave a silent cheer upon hearing that. With the new computer and her powers, she could breeze through what the government called public education in record time, leaving her time to be a badass parahuman.

“They also agreed to pay for your brief stay at the hospital,” he continued with a tight smile. “Our insurance covered it, but it’s always nice that the premium won’t increase.”

That relieved Taylor. She didn’t even want to think about how much the hospital cost.

Her father stopped talking and started eating again while watching her vibrate in place. She really wanted to know what happened, and her dad was clearly enjoying dragging it out.

After a few minutes of silence, she gave up.

“Come on, Dad! Tell me, what else?”

He gave her a victorious smirk but answered. “They offered to pay us two years’ costs at a private school. So around fifty thousand dollars, if we give up our right to sue them.”

She could only gape at that.

"Are they serious?" she exclaimed incredulously.

“Like a heart attack,” answered her father.

"Did you accept it?"

“Of course not. Steve told them they have until Monday to come up with a better offer, or we are going to court,” he said proudly.

"Could we afford it?"

“I would feel it, but yes. Plus, it is a slam-dunk case, so I doubt they would agree to it.”

Accepting her father’s assurance for now, she took another bite before speaking.

"What about the police?"

“Well, Steve talked to them, and it was a little weird according to him,” he admitted.

"Let me guess. They can't do anything."

Her father shook his head. “No. Surprisingly, it is the exact opposite. They immediately started asking some rather pointed questions.”

"Huh."

"Yeah."

They spent a few minutes contemplating this minor miracle while finishing dinner.

“There is a chance we might need to give a statement. But according to Steve, the copy of the journals and medical records are probably enough for now.”

Her smile was rather vicious after hearing that. Finally, something was happening that favored her, not the three bitches.

“How about we watch a movie, and I can tell you about it in detail?”

“Sure, I’ll get the popcorn.”

She was now prepared to wake up in the virtual space. That didn’t decrease her worry about what she would need to do this time.

This time, she found herself back in her room, perfectly recreated to the smallest detail. The only reason she knew it was virtual was because the sun didn’t shine like it did in January.

As soon as she finished her observations, Admin showed up, fading in from thin air.

"Hello, Taylor!"

"Hello Admin," she answered simply.

“I wanted to congratulate you on the school. You must be happy!”

Taylor couldn’t help but smile at that. “Hell yeah! They are finally getting what they deserve!”

"As a gift, I decided to let you patrol."

"Really?"

"Yes."

"Cool."

Admin smiled at her and explained. “I created a city that bears some resemblance to the Bay, but has no heroes. Only you can save them.”

Taylor found that suspiciously simple and easy. Admin had never done anything without at least a little twist.

“Three different gangs, and civilians. Your goal is to capture the parahumans in gangs without killing anyone.”

Taylor immediately added at least two to that count. It would be totally in Admin’s alley to hide several other gangs to surprise her.

"Are you ready?"

"How do I lose?" she asked.

“If you die, are unmasked, or all the civilians are dead.”

Taylor swallowed heavily at the rather grim answer.

"Understood."

"Ready?"

"Yeah."

“Then go and cleanse the streets!”

She was immediately out of her window, soaring through the sky at breakneck speed, looking for trouble.

Only to stop in embarrassment and float back to get something to cover her face.

When she arrived back, a laughing slime greeted her.

She ignored him and took out a hat and scarf from her wardrobe.

“That won’t be enough,” Admin spoke up still, with a laugh in his voice. “Here, a cloak and mask.”

She looked at the cloak and mask that appeared next to him on a mannequin. It was a simple gray cloak that would cover her from head to toe, and a plain white mask with only eye holes.

Taylor donned them, noted how comfortable they were, and flew out the window again.

She was sure she was going to fail this exercise badly, but that was exactly why these simulations were so useful.

Taylor was rather thankful that Admin made her do them. It made her realize that being a hero was not just about power.

"Director."

Emily hated when someone spoke that word like that. It always brought trouble with it.

"What is it, Renick?"

“Something that the BBPD did triggered an alarm in our systems. And when I looked into it, I found this,” he said, handing over a stack of paper.

For the next few minutes, the only sound that could be heard was the paper in her hands as she flipped through it.

After reading it twice, she sighed and leaned back in her chair rubbing her forehead, already feeling a headache forming.

“Get it to the lawyers, have a team on standby, and get me Armsmaster.”

"Yes, Sir!"