Crystalized Munchkinry - Act II - Chapter 16 (Patreon)

Watching Taylor complete training exercise after exercise made him very satisfied. It also allowed him to make discrete changes and improvements to the power, ensuring that it fit Taylor and the goals he wanted to achieve with it.

And to think that this was only around ten percent of what the power was capable of. Even after more than a decade, it boggled his mind what the Shards and Entities were capable of.

Still, with her current capabilities, Taylor would be capable of completing the first step of the plan.

Running a few simulations gave him a rather good baseline, so he decided he would start this week. After all, the sooner he did it, the more he could change before it became really difficult.

Seeing Taylor incapacitate a bunch of generic henchmen with her paralysis and lightning cage, he decided to spice it up a little.

After a moment’s thought, he added a giant teddy bear that would rampage through the city. Not on the level of Endbringers, but a good start for training.

Also, hearing Taylor curse was music to his ears.

Even then, he had to admit she had come a long way compared to a few days ago. She was starting to show the determination and iron will she was so famous for. He could barely wait until she was fully trained.

While observing Taylor brutally take down the cute teddy bear, he took quick stock of the situation.

Taylor was out of school and had access to better internet. Check.

Danny’s and Taylor’s relationship was on the mend, and Danny even went to a therapist. Surprising, but check.

Taylor was slowly healing from the trauma. Check.

A simple technology base had been created. Check.

The training was going well. Check.

His defenses were holding up, and the Network wasn’t showing anything suspicious. Check.

It was very satisfying to see that, currently, everything was working out for him. Though he couldn’t help but worry that the other shoe would drop any time now.

Noticing that the bear was in fluffy pieces, he let the scenario continue normally.

He then turned his attention to the higher levels of the power set. He wanted to show those morons that he could create much better powers.

Emma watched as Sophia dashed away. Apparently, one of the other Wards had gotten sick or something, so they had called her in for patrol immediately after school. It annoyed her that, because of those weaklings, she couldn’t spend time with her friend.

When she had found out that Taylor wasn’t coming back, she thought it would fill at least some of the emptiness she felt after last Monday, but it didn’t. She couldn’t even remember why they had started on her, she just enjoyed it.

And now, with Taylor gone, she really needed something new to occupy herself. Already she had woken up several times last week from nightmares, always seeing herself with empty eyes, looking into nothingness.

Emma hoped one of the other girls would satisfy her as the new prey.

She would need to consult Sophia in the evening when she got back from patrol. She then started toward her house, idly imagining what new things they could do to the new prey.

Sophia was angry. One of those idiots had gotten the sniffles or something like that, so she had to come in and cover their PR-mandated prissy patrol.

She was in the Wards common room doing the last check when she heard the alarm of the door opening. She glanced at it, but when she saw it was only a PRT staff member, she returned her attention to her gear.

She only looked up when the newly arrived person cleared their throat. It was one of the nameless goons that populated the PRT and proved, through their uselessness, that only a real hunter could save the city.

“Shadow Stalker, Armsmaster wants to see you in his lab,” he stated with no emotion. It didn’t really bother her; she was used to it.

"Why?"

"Didn't say."

“Fine,” she sighed and stood up.

The goon nodded and also started toward the door.

A few minutes later she was in Armsmaster’s lab, watching him work on some fancy equipment at his workbench. Since she didn’t want to be here, she ignored the fact that Armsmaster hated interruptions.

"Well, why am I here?"

After a second of thought, she added, “Sir?”

The man ignored her for a few seconds, then put down whatever he was doing and turned to look at her. She couldn’t really tell what he was thinking, since he was in his armor and she could only see his meticulously maintained memetic beard.

She would forever deny that she laughed at some of the memes when she read them on PHO.

“Stalker, thank you for coming,” he spoke up in an even tone. “I have something for you.”

Before she could ask what it was, he pressed a button and a robotic arm lowered from somewhere, holding a very sleek-looking new crossbow.

“I recently finished this and thought I would ask you to test it.”

She could see it was much smaller than the ones she currently carried, but because it was Armsmaster, she assumed it was superior to them.

“It took some time to get it to be useful without electricity, but I managed,” he explained proudly.

Sophia said nothing. She simply took the new weapon in her hand and began to examine it. It was surprisingly light.

“It is made from an alloy that I developed for my motorcycle, and its yield is at least three times your current ones,” came the explanation as he stood next to her, observing her examination.

“Why don’t you try it out?” He pressed a few buttons and several targets rose at the far end of the lab. “I would like to hear your feedback.”

She again said nothing, simply raised the crossbow, fed in the bolts that Armsmaster handed her, and gleefully fired it several times.

She spent the next half hour talking about it with Armsmaster, strangely enjoying herself.

After Armsmaster signaled he had recorded everything he needed, she was about to put it back in its holder – rather reluctantly; it was a nice weapon – when Armsmaster spoke up.

“There is another thing, Sophia.”

It took her a second to realize he had called her by her actual name, but it was too late. She felt his gloved hand clamp around her wrist, and when it released, a black, inch-thick bracelet remained.

She didn’t know what it was, so instinctively she tried to phase through it. She immediately regretted it when the pain of electricity lanced through her.

“Please don’t try that again,” came the still stoic hero next to her.

She ignored him. The next shock she felt was much stronger, powerful enough that she felt herself falling down and the darkness closing in.

She still heard the beginning of Armsmaster’s speech.

"Sophia Hess, you are under arrest for…"

Then nothing.

Emma hated eating dinner with her family.

Always the same topics.

City this, city that.

As if any of them stood a chance to change anything. Only people like Sophia and she could change things. People who were strong.

She was pretending to listen to her mother, who was going on and on about some college prep courses, when the doorbell rang. As if she couldn’t get into a college, she was not Taylor; she was not weak.

She only looked up from the meatloaf when her father returned with two stone-faced police officers.

"Emma Barnes?" asked one of them.

“That’s me. Why?” she replied, totally bewildered. What would the police want with her?

The officer nodded, then continued. “Miss Barnes, I would like you to come with us because we want to ask you a few questions.”

Ignoring her father’s rather impotent protestations from the background, she raised an eyebrow. “And what if I don’t?”

The officers looked at each other, and after some nonverbal communication, they moved. To her surprise, one of them stepped beside her and the other behind her.

“Then we will ask really nicely, Miss Barnes,” said the one standing behind her.

“I’m not going anywhere,” she answered, looking into the eyes of the one standing next to her and crossing her arms in defiance. No nameless police officer could tell her what to do.

A minute later, when the officers were pushing her into the police car, she was still in disbelief.

"Report!"

“We went over the evidence that BBPD provided, went through our files, and corroborated most of it,” started Renick, standing in front of Piggot’s desk. “BBPD sent a person in secret with some scanners and found several contaminants at the location they were obliged to report to the CDC. Thankfully, due to our request, everything was done silently.”

She nodded in understanding, made a few notes, and motioned for him to continue.

“While Armsmaster distracted her, our team went through her phone and found enough evidence about the school incident and several incidents we have been looking for answers on,” he continued.

“So I instructed Armsmaster to detain her immediately. He did so with an electric bracer that would prevent her from using her power. And currently, she is in a secure room under medical and security observation. What do you want to do with her, sir?”

Absorbing the information, she drummed her fingers on her desk while thinking. After a few minutes of contemplation, she slowly stood and walked to her window. She spoke while watching the city.

“With the CDC involved, there is not much choice. And it would give me a chance to get rid of that idiot girl. No matter what the Chief Director says,” she took a deep breath and continued, “Let the BBPD run the investigation, but impress upon them the need for silence. Nobody wants a scandal. Also, have our lawyers convince the school to give up the case and pay the Herbert family to go away.”

"Hebert."

“I don’t care,” she replied. “Also, arrange for transport out of the city. I want Stalker as far away from here as we can manage.”

Renick nodded in understanding and made some more notes. “What about her family?”

“Standard witness protection. Just make sure they know to keep their mouth shut.”

“Yes, sir,” he answered. “What about the press?”

“Hm.” Piggot spent a few minutes thinking about it while Renick patiently waited. “Tell them… tell them that another department required her services, so we relocated her with express speed.”

"I don't think they would buy it."

“I don’t care,” she snarled. “If you want, you can imply that it’s some undercover operation. That would give us a reason for the sparse details.”

She smiled viciously. “And maybe worry some asshole villain in Nebraska that the PRT is gunning for them.”

"Good idea. I think we can sell it."

“Excellent. Get to it. I have to make a phone call.”

Taylor spent her day registering for the online homeschool program, marveling at the faster-than-snail speed of the internet, and getting everything squared away. She didn’t want to cause any trouble that would allow someone to rescind her homeschooled status.

She spent the rest of the day making a list of things she would need for tinkering, and designing things on her new tinker-enhanced computer and OS.

She created several designs for machines, tools, and other hardware that she could later manufacture after she got her hands on some material. She even created a few things that could be sold to the public, because they lacked the usual tinker black box, according to Admin.

She also went running when the weather warmed up a little later in the day. She spent the run surreptitiously practicing some of her invisible powers in the real world, watching cars drive by in slow motion due to her sped-up thinking and reaction speed.

The most fascinating was her sensing power combined with multitasking. She could sense everything containing electricity around her in a hundred-yard radius while running, paying attention to the things around her, and listening to sounds at the same time.

In addition, she was maintaining and controlling several of her powers that increased her toughness and thinking speed.

It was awesome. And according to Admin, it was just the beginning. Soon she could sense metals, and that would allow her to create an almost 3D map of the surrounding area.

After seeing the results of last night’s training exercise with her current power level, she was starting to believe that eventually she would be crushing villains beneath her.

She devoted the remaining time until dinner to PHO.

For research.

When her father came home, they ate the dinner she had prepared and talked about their day. It was a rather mundane conversation, but to them, it was extremely impressive. She couldn’t even remember when they had last spoken like this before the incident.

After dinner, her father told her that there still wasn’t any news from the police or school. But according to Steve, things were happening.

“I have a gift for you, Taylor,” said her father after they were done with the serious conversation.

“Again?” asked Taylor reproachfully, yet with a small smile. “You are going to spoil me.”

Danny chuckled and motioned her to follow. “Come on, honey. Let me show you.”

Taylor obediently followed her father out to the garage.

“Here it is!” exclaimed Danny, pointing to several rough-looking boxes in the car’s cargo bed.

"What is it?"

“When I dropped off the stuff for recycling, I… liberated several boxes full of old equipment,” he told her smugly.

She gave him a tight hug, then immediately threw herself at the boxes.

This time, when she fell asleep after carrying the boxes down to the basement with her father’s help, she woke up in a boardroom. When she looked out of the window, she only saw the setting sun over a field of clouds.

Looking down at herself, she found she was wearing a very comfortable, but obviously expensive-looking deep blue pantsuit, with an unnaturally white blouse. The only odd thing about the ensemble were the slime-shaped cufflinks.

“Hello, Taylor!” spoke up Admin, dressed in his own slime-sized suit with a golden tie. “Please, take a seat.”

Taylor sat down without argument, knowing it was useless to argue with Admin about this kind of thing.

She had tried it, and it didn’t work.

She linked her hands in front of her face and put on her best poker face. “Why am I here today? No training?” she asked with a little hope. Maybe she could convince him to let her spend a night reading books on a beach.

“Oh no, don’t worry. There will be training,” he reassured her with an evil grin that made her shiver, then continued. “First, I want to go over your first mission.”

That immediately perked Taylor up. “You mean?!”

Admin nodded happily. “Yes, you will finally know part of my super-duper secret plan!”

“Finally. I was starting to think you were just making stuff up as you went!”

“Don’t worry, you will like this.”

“So what is my ‘mission’, M?” she asked sarcastically, but inside she was vibrating with excitement. She was finally going to have some real-world action.

Maybe a mission to take out the Merchants? Or capture an Empire informant? Infiltrate a gang? She could hardly wait.

“You will need to infiltrate a facility without being detected and steal an object.”

Taylor almost cried from disappointment. “That’s it? No fighting bad guys?”

“Taylor,” spoke up Admin, his voice lacking its usual jolliness, “this one theft will allow you to save countless lives, and will allow you to free a young woman from captivity.”

“What? Who?” she asked, ignoring the part about saving lives.

"I will tell you after the mission."

“No, I want to know now. I’m not doing anything unless you tell me!”

“No, operational security requires you to go in without knowing the target,” he continued, ignoring Taylor’s attempt to interrupt. “It’s not about me not wanting to tell you, Taylor. It is important enough that if you know about it, a Thinker could pick it up and foul up the mission.”

That immediately deflated Taylor. “But will you tell me after it?”

“As soon as you are back in your room.”

Taylor watched Admin with wary eyes. She was risking a lot here. Up to now, it had just been simulations and training. With this, she would be announcing to the world that she existed.

If she trusted Admin here and it turned out to be the wrong decision, there wouldn’t be much she could do to rectify it. Still, up to now, he had been all about helping her – except at the beginning – and she couldn’t see why he would train her just to betray her.

“What about the Thinker defenses you told me about?”

“They still work, but I want to make sure,” he answered seriously. “Nothing is ever certain.”

Hearing that, she vowed to make some of her own preparations in case something happened, but nodded in acceptance.

"Okay, I'm in."

“Excellent!” yelled Admin. “To celebrate it, let’s set the simulator from easy to normal.”

"Wait, what?"