Crystalized Munchkinry - Act IV - Chapter 50 (Patreon)

Taylor woke up feeling refreshed and ready for her day. Though she was a little disappointed because, while her dad made her stay home, it didn't free her from online school.

She went out for her usual run, then did some stretching and yoga exercises, and spent half an hour just meditating.

While Taylor wasn't a great fan of it, she had to admit that it allowed her to process things much better, and she had even noticed that her control over her emotions was continuing to improve.

After only a month of work, it was nice to see some results.

Watching her father come home from his therapy appointments gave her some sense of where she should be, though obviously, an actual therapist would have been better.

Still, as long as she actively worked towards getting better, she would be safe, and when she had the opportunity, she would seek out, as her father called them, the world's strongest therapist.

She was coming out of the shower, enjoying the upgraded facilities and marveling at how her hair was already pristine and perfectly styled, when she heard her father laugh out loud.

She smiled to herself, happy to see the joy returning to their world and their home.

**

She walked down the stairs after getting ready for the day and saw her father sitting at the kitchen table, deep into the morning's newspaper.

"Morning, Dad!" she greeted him while going to get herself some cereal. "What was so funny?"

Danny looked up from the newspaper and gave her a loving smile, but she could see that his eyes were alight with humor.

"Morning, Taylor! I was just reading the news…" he answered while smirking at her.

She turned back from the refrigerator, one hand holding the milk and the other resting on her hip. "And what was so funny about it?"

"They finally got around to talking about what happened on Saturday in more detail," Danny answered, even more amused.

"Really? That's weird…"

"Well, a lot of unusual things happened at the same time, then there were the Grey Boy bubbles and the arguments about medi-gel. They didn't really have time to go into detail about your fight," he explained while laying the newspaper down on the table and showing it to her.

"For example, several organizations in the US are lobbying to ban medi-gel as a Tinker-made medicine…"

"What? But we proved that there was nothing Tinker tech about it. I mean, it was created by a Tinker, but according to Tess, the scientists understand everything about it," she exclaimed angrily.

Danny's smile turned a little sadder. "It's not about that, Taylor. Your medicine could invalidate a lot of services that make a lot of money for a lot of people…"

"Oh, that… now that makes sense," she answered, less angrily. She then sat down with her bowl of cereal made of solidified sugar and chocolate chunks. "It doesn't really matter much. According to Tess, the CUI is definitely using it, and several European countries are integrating it into their forces. The Guild has obviously been using it since the beginning, and the PRT, at least here in the Bay, is building a facility to manufacture it."

"They could still make your life harder…" Danny said, worry evident in his voice.

"Then I will release something even more impressive. Maybe a Tinker healing device that heals everything with the push of a button?" she answered with a wicked smirk. "Tess is making sure they understand this, so this is probably just for appearances."

"Devious! You learned well, dear daughter," said her father with a laugh.

She took a few bites of her, what some may charitably call food, before talking again. "What else?"

"The local news talked about Dragon's facility and the other ones she is in the process of building," he answered while pointing to the article. "I even got some requests for interviews…" he added while shaking his head.

"Oh, yeah! I almost forgot about it! How is it going?"

"Didn't Tess keep you up to date?"

She shrugged in embarrassment. "We mostly talk about Tinker tech or play games."

Danny scowled upon hearing that. "Taylor. Weaver Industries will belong to you, so you need to take this seriously."

"I know that, Dad. I'm studying for that, but for now, it's just construction…"

"Hmm. We will see about that," was her father's only answer, and Taylor could sense, even without her power, that he wasn't exactly happy with her.

"Anything else?" she asked, hoping to salvage the mood.

"There is one other interesting thing in it," said her father, his voice instantly becoming more lighthearted. "They wrote a small article about the new parahuman who saved Panacea."

She sensed a trap, but her curiosity was already aroused. "Really? That's awesome! What did they say?"

"Well, they praised Magnet Girl…" he started to speak, but he was interrupted by Taylor choking on her breakfast.

"What did they call me?" Taylor asked after she swallowed and cleaned her face.

"Magnet Girl," answered her father, with a laugh in his voice and an enormous smile on his face.

Her cursing was joined by Danny laughing himself silly.

"Everybody ready?" came through the radio as Assault checked over his equipment.

He activated his communication device, then answered Armsmaster. "Assault here, ready as I'll ever be."

"Dauntless, ready."

"Miss Militia, ready."

"Triumph, ready."

"Velocity, ready."

"Alpha team, ready."

"Bravo team, ready."

"Bag team, ready."

"HQ, ready."

"Dragon, ready."

He looked around himself, taking in the PRT agents standing ready to fight a small war. Which wasn't really wrong, considering they were here to assault Coil's base, and according to Dragon's intel, it was full of mercenaries armed with Tinker-tech guns.

He was part of the Breach Team and had been tasked with breaking through a wall and leading the team behind him to establish a beachhead for the assault.

He couldn't wait.

Finally, some proper action and some actual results.

He had already planned what kind of cut of meat he would grill as a celebration. Thank God Sherry liked steak as much as he did. Truly a match made in heaven.

"Breach in 60…"

Right, enough fantasizing. He needed to take this seriously.

Colin strode through the facility, not slowing down for anything. Thanks to his weapon, no door was enough to hinder him for long, and the weapons of the mercenaries were not even powerful enough to scorch the new armor he had developed with Dragon, or rather Tess.

He absentmindedly tasered another enemy, then wondered why it had become so silent around him.

He looked around and was surprised to see that all the enemy combatants in the room were down.

He sighed, then chastised himself for not paying proper attention. Apparently, Tess was more distracting than he had thought. Though not in a bad way.

So, with a small smile on his face, he started reporting and began detaining the enemies on the ground.

"This is Armsmaster. Room B7 is clear. Seven enemy combatants, alive but incapacitated."

"Copy that, Armsmaster," came the answer from HQ. "Please proceed to D Zone. Bravo Team requires backup."

"Understood," he answered instantly and started heading toward the mentioned location. "What about the others?"

"Too narrow for them to take care of the enemy without causing structural damage or harming our own. They are evacuating evidence and guarding it."

"Roger."

He arrived to see one of the agents down with a wound from a laser that was bleeding slightly. He said nothing, just knelt beside the man, took out the medi-gel spray he had created from his tool belt, and sprayed the wound with it.

He was happy to see the foam immediately begin to swell over the wound, and the man was already in less pain. He nodded to him, stood up, and walked purposefully toward the action.

By the time he arrived, only a few mercenaries were still firing upon the PRT troopers from their cover.

Without breaking his stride, he spoke to his allies. "Captain, cover me."

And with that, he sped up, heading directly toward the mercenary.

The man had only a second to realize what was happening before the agents began raining hell down on them, and he found himself face-to-face with Colin.

Colin used his halberd to strike the man in the stomach, then continued the movement and used his weapon to disarm him. Thankfully, he managed to avoid taking the man's hand off because PR had always nagged him about it. While the mercenary was still processing what had happened, Colin dropped a ConFoam grenade and immediately headed for the next one.

The man was no fool, so he immediately shot at him, properly from cover this time. Somehow, Colin could feel the lasers impacting his armor, exactly at the center of his body.

He had to give them credit; they were properly trained. Sadly, his armor had been enhanced with a material that he and Tess had developed and was resistant to this paltry amount of firepower.

According to their calculations, it could even withstand Purity's beams for a short while.

So he simply ignored the shots, threw a grenade at the man, and then tasered the other one with his halberd.

Fighting these people was such a waste of his time…

He listened to the sounds of fighting despondently and sighed to himself.

There was nowhere to run, and he had no more cards to play.

So he sat in his office in his cleanest suit, waiting for the PRT and Protectorate to reach him. Because while he might be going down, he still had his dignity.

As he listened, the sounds gradually quieted, leaving him alone with his thoughts. He contemplated setting up a bomb for when they breached the door, but in the end, his desire to live won out.

If he got captured, there was still some chance he could get free. He had, after all, made sure to prepare for such a possibility just in case.

He took a deep breath, walked from his sofa to the space behind his desk, and took a seat.

The door shook slightly when someone attempted to force it open, but it was one of the most reinforced doors in the facility. There was some yelling, a brief silence, and then the motor of the door activated and began opening it.

Oh, right. Dragon. He had almost forgotten about that bitch.

Armsmaster strode in, holding himself arrogantly, flanked by agents pointing their weapons in his direction.

"Coil, you are under arrest for…" he began to recite, but Coil ignored him. He ignored him as more people rushed in to handcuff him, and he even ignored it when they frog-marched him into a waiting reinforced truck.

He had lost this battle, but the war was not over.

And he was prepared to win.

He still had his dead man's switches, which he had set up independently of his base. He couldn't help but look forward to the expressions on their faces when they activated.

And, of course, he was looking forward to avenging himself on Dragon and Serenity.

Nobody fucked him over and got away with it.

Lisa took another look at the screens in front of her, then typed in the data she had gotten from her power. Thankfully, her power, when not directed at Dragon, was working properly. It even seemed to hurt less when she overused it.

She didn't really like being strong-armed into working for the Guild again, but at least their medical care was better, and there was less chance of her boss shooting her. There was also the offer of going free if she managed to keep her nose out of trouble for a while.

And she was getting properly paid, though she had to pay taxes, so that was a bummer. But Dragon told her that, as a consolation prize, she would launder some of Coil's money to make it available to her once she went free. The same went for her friends.

At least she was sure she could trust Dragon's promises more than Coil's.

Currently, she was using her power to assist with the assault on Coil's base, providing extra information for the troops and making sure nobody triggered something they shouldn't have.

Alec was whisked away by Dragon somewhere after a brief conversation with her, while Brian and his sister left after a much longer one. According to Dragon, they would be settled somewhere and looked after as long as Brian joined the Protectorate.

Rachel was a harder nut to crack, but in the end, Lisa managed to convince the feral girl to listen to Dragon. From what she heard, the Guild would take her in, set her up with a dog shelter, and arrange mandatory therapy.

She had weaseled out a promise from Dragon that she would allow Rachel to keep in contact with the others because, while they had been put together as a team by Coil, Lisa still somewhat cared about them and wanted to make sure they were alright. And Dragon was keeping to her promise because Lisa was nobody's fool.

Breaking out of her reminiscing, she glanced at one of the screens and sent a brief message to the team.

No need to trip that hidden detonator…

Vicky zipped up her overnight bag, then picked it up and went to check on Amy. She opened the door to her sister's room and watched as Amy finished packing.

Amy, without looking up, spoke. "Carol still mad?"

"Yup!"

Amy just sighed, and as Vicky turned around, she followed her downstairs. They were met by Carol in the foyer. While she wasn't scowling, she was sporting a rather severe expression.

"Vicky, make sure Amy doesn't do something weird with her new powers!"

"Really, Mom?" she asked exasperatedly. They had gone over the same argument when they asked for permission to visit Taylor.

"Yes! Nobody knows much about second triggers, so who knows what effects it had on Amy?" her mother replied with both hands on her hips.

"But the PRT cleared her!" she rebuked, slightly hovering and getting angry.

"Hmm, I don't trust them!" her mother answered dismissively. "It's not like they know that much about this… So make sure to pay attention to Amy."

"I'm here, you know," said Amy, but she was ignored by both of them.

"Amy won't do anything with her new powers, I'm sure."

Carol just snorted. "I just don't want to hear complaints about suddenly appearing forests or something similar."

"I'm still here."

"Why would she do that?"

"I don't know! It's new, so I don't know how much control she has over it!" Carol replied with a raised voice.

"You know what? I'm going to go wait outside for you, Vicky," said Amy. Then she left the house while her sister and adoptive mother continued to argue ever louder.

Amy watched as Vicky stormed out of the house, slamming the door behind her before leaning against the fence. "Still the same song and dance?

Vicky took a second to calm down, taking a few deep breaths, and gave her a shaky smile. "Yeah." Then she shook her head. "I still don't know what's her problem…"

Amy just shrugged. "I'm used to it."

"But you shouldn't have to be! You are family, and it's horrible that she treats you like that!" Vicky rebuked.

Amy felt warmth spread through her at the knowledge that Vicky was on her side, and she couldn't help but give her a thankful smile.

"Now, come on, Ames. Taylor is waiting!" said Vicky, then, with incredible speed, picked Amy up by her armpits.

As Amy dangled high in the air, carried by her sister, she vowed to figure out a way to fly somehow with her new powers, because this was just way not cool.

They arrived at the Hebert home a few minutes later, just as an older man opened the door. He looked at them in surprise for a moment, then gave them a welcoming smile before turning his head back toward the house. "Taylor, your friends are here!"

He then turned back to them. "Hello, ladies, and welcome to our house. Have fun!"

Vicky, being the ever-friendly girl she was, immediately replied to the man. "Hey, Mr. Hebert! Thanks, we will! But where are you going?"

Amy simply nodded at the man.

"I organized a poker night with some friends, so you guys could spend the night without adults. I know how teenagers are," he replied with a cheeky smile.

"Then have fun, Mr. Hebert!" said Vicky with a beaming smile.

"Thank you!"

Before he walked to his car, he yelled back a goodbye to his daughter, and as the sisters walked into the house, they could hear the car start and then drive away.

Taylor met them at the door, wearing comfortable clothing and a supernaturally perfect hairdo. Amy wondered how many people had noticed it, because to her, it seemed so obvious.

"Hey, thanks for coming!" said Taylor while smiling at them and closing the door behind them.

"Hey there, Magnet Girl!" exclaimed Vicky with the biggest possible smile on her face.

Amy just facepalmed.