In Which Taylor Goes to School and People are Educated
***
Taylor had woken up, taken a shower, and gotten dressed, all before Cass had so much as shifted from her spot on the floor. Right now, Taylor's newest--human--friend was curled around a pillow in a rather compromising position while Taylor fiddled with her phone and tried to take a picture.
Having accomplished her task of obtaining weapons-grade blackmail material, Taylor stepped out of her room, went down the steps, and walked outside.
She paused at the doorway. Part of her wanted to turn right around and head back in. Instead, she firmed her resolve and pushed out onto the street. In no time at all, she was halfway to the school and was noticing a few other teens heading in the same direction.
"Guys, can you two be discreet for a bit?" she whispered while trying to keep her lips from moving too much.
[Can be Sneaky.]
{Unit-02 accepting Temporary Directive to Remain Concealed.}
Taylor nodded, then took in the other students she was seeing. Most of them, especially the girls, looked way different from usual. It took her a moment to realise it was the clothes. Most had skipped on the make-up, and instead of eye-catching clothes they were in jeans and sweaters and basically wore what Taylor usually wore. Clothing that was made for moving and working in a recovering city instead of clothes designed to strut around and look pretty.
It made her feel a little better, actually, to see that she wasn't woefully underdressed. Still, she discreetly grabbed at her paunch of a tummy and shook it. "I could lose a few pounds," she muttered.
[Sad. Cannot help. Unit-03 Requires no Fitness to be Pretty. Can Build Exercise Device? Mental-Reshaping to Discourage Consumption of Food?]
{Host-Queen_Administrator Wants Unit-02 to Prepare Selective Fat-Genocide Protocol?]
"Uh, no, I think I'll just eat a bit less and maybe go for a run sometimes," Taylor decided. She got a few looks for talking out loud and quickly hushed up. Then, before she really had time to register it, she was standing in front of Winslow High School.
Winslow was the same yet different. The building was the same halfway dilapidated mess, but a bit dirtier and rougher around the edges. Someone had taken the time to paint over gang signs but already there were marks appearing on top of fresh paint.
It was like someone had taken the Winslow that would be there in five years and shifted it back to the present day. All the damage that would have accumulated over years in a little over two weeks.
Still, she moved in, aware that there were more security guards than usual by the gates and that the student population had shrunk a fair bit. She was halfway down the main hall when her path was blocked by three familiar figures.
She had been looking down as she walked, old habits pushing her towards making herself as small and as unassuming as possible, so the first sight of Emma was a pair of pristine white running shoes.
She looked up slowly, her heart thumping wildly in her chest and her breathing coming in as short gasps. Emma was in the lead, Madison to her left and Sophia smirking to her right. Taylor's head swam.
"Well, well, look what the cat dragged in," Emma said. There was amusement there, and anticipation.
Taylor froze. This was it, it was all going to start again as if nothing had changed as if--
{Unit-02 activate Targeted Genocide Protocols: Target: Teenaged Local Organisms?}
[Comforting. Can Mind-Rape?]
"No," Taylor whispered.
Emma blinked at the response, then blinked again when Taylor stood taller and took in a deep breath. Then Taylor's face shifted into a grin that showed off every tooth. She had friends, and even if Emma had been important to her, that was a long time ago.
"What are yo--" Emma began, then a fly slid down her throat and she started to cough violently. She doubled over, hands going to her throat as she sputtered for breath.
Taylor rushed forwards. "Emma, are you okay?" she asked.
Sophia, her face wearing its usual frown, stepped up to intercept Taylor. The track star's foot landed in a puddle of water no one had seen and slipped from right under her. She landed on her bum with an undignified squawk.
Taylor ignored Sophia for the moment, focused as she was on Emma. "Are you okay? Do you want to go see the nurse?"
Emma shoved her away. "Leave me alone," she croaked.
Stepping back, Taylor looked at her old friend, then she shared a confused glance with Madison. "Um, okay then. I'll see you around!"
***
Cassandra was, to put it in a word, bored.
She'd woken up when Queenie, Taylor, had been getting ready but had fallen right back asleep. Now, maybe an hour and a bit later, she was fully awake and just... standing in Taylor's room. She'd taken a shower, and gotten changed after picking through Taylor's rather miserable wardrobe, but she didn't know where to go from there.
Taylor was probably going to be back by four-ish, which left her about, oh, seven hours with nothing to do. She walked around the room for a bit, poking at the books and looking at the pictures collecting dust on the walls. Most of the latter had Taylor next to her dad and a pretty woman that had to be her mom.
She moved on, losing interest about as quickly as it took her to study each picture. Falling backwards onto Taylor's bed, Cass was just about to take a nap when her eyes drifted to Taylor's nightstand.
After a short and rather pointless battle against her curiosity, Cass rolled over and jimmied the stand's drawer open, then pulled out the notebooks she'd seen Taylor stuff in there.
The cartoony Leviathan on the cover greeted her with its 'rawr' caption.
Spoiler: RAWR
She snorted and opened it. The majority of the book was completely blank, save for the first dozen pages that were filled with a neat and precise handwriting.
"Unit-02 claims to be able to control all liquids in his range. Test on different liquids. Do frozen liquids count? What's the difference between a liquid that is frozen and a normal solid? Can he control glass? Non-newtonian liquids?" Cass whispered along.
She turned around, laying the notebook flat on the bed to read it more clearly.
"Unit-02 has macro-scale hydrokinesis. Claims to be able to still use micro-scale control at the same time. Test?" Cass blinked. Was that the cleaning tsunami? She snorted. Nah, Taylor wouldn't do something like that. It was silly.
She skipped down a few lines.
"Unit-02's range didn't make sense. It's non-variable. Asked for all future responses to be in metric-type units but still have answers that are hard to understand. Total liquid mass that he can control if measured as a volume of hypercompressed, atomically pure water is a long series of exponentials. That's more water than there is on Earth (according to Google). If he covered the moon in an ocean, could I have my own private island?"
Cass felt her heart thumping in her chest, as if she was about to start a fight. She skipped a few lines of scientific jargon, then a few pages worth of it. The next section had a header. 'How to make people like my friend.' Next to the title was an image of a scaled-down Leviathan giving someone a hug.
"Based on Unit-02's demonstrated ability to control the temperature of liquids, it might be possible to create forms of entertainment that would otherwise be impossible. Also, I want a snow castle. And he can make tentacles with his water. Note to self: Research tentacle-related-entertainment."
Cass snapped the book closed, then placed it back in Taylor's nightstand. She vowed not to talk about it. Ever.
This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
***
Classes were classes. There were less students, and most of the daily events that used to bother her were absent--her usual seat,often covered in pencil shavings or spilled drinks, was so clean it almost sparkled--and the focus seemed more about passing the end of year tests instead of learning new things and doing group work. It was actually a nice change of pace.
No one bothered her all morning, though there were a lot of things preoccupying the other students. Madison had to go to the nurse's office when she choked on a spit-ball-filled straw during World History, and Julia suffered a sudden and very embarrassing bout of hemorrhoids in the middle of computer classes, just as she was about to sit next to Taylor too.
And then the bell rang, classes were dismissed.
The start of lunch arrived.
Taylor was used to eating her lunches alone, off in some corner where nobody would bother her. Sometimes in the girl's bathrooms on the second floor or something. But she'd kinda sorta forgotten something when packing up that morning.
"Guys," she whispered. "I have no lunch!"
[Confusion. Host-Queen_Administrator requires immediate sustenance?]
{Unit-02 preparing Hunger-Genocide Protocols.}
Taylor paused on her way up a staircase. Fortunately, there wasn't anyone nearby. "How would you kill hunger?"
{Unit-02 would remove Host-Queen_Administrator's hunger-inducing organs. Replace with Superior liquid-only organs.}
Taylor blanched. "Let's put that as plan... Z. Um, maybe you could grab me something to eat? Uh, unless you can't. I can go without eating for a bit."
[Unnecessary. Plan created to Obtain Sustenance for Host-Queen_Administrator. Proceed to 'Rooftop' for discreet ease of access.]
"Cool!" Taylor said and she sped up the stairs. She paused at the next landing. "You're not stealing it, right?"
[... New Plan created to Obtain Sustenance for Host-Queen_Administrator!]
"Right," Taylor said. She shook her head as she continued to make her way up.
***
Timothy was doing okay. Not excellent, not incredible, just okay. Yeah, he'd gotten another pat on the back for some quick thinking the day before. That was great.
Then the building exploded, which was less great.
Still, he got to escort Julia the receptionist out of the flaming PRT Headquarters and it earned him a peck on the cheek. That was nice, as far as rewards went.
Now though, he was manning the front desk of the office building serving as a temporary headquarters for the Brockton Bay PRT. It wasn't as nice as the original headquarters, but it would do in a pinch.
He had heard, through the water-cooler grapevine, that they were bringing in some Tinkertech construction equipment to build a new headquarters and that it was only supposed to take a week or so. He didn't really mind the new place, but it certainly didn't have the same allure as the old HQ.
He was just thinking about lunch when the doors at the front of the lobby slammed open.
The troopers stationed on either side of the door spun around, containment foam sprayers already firing when a slip of cardboard and a plastic bag flew into the room. The two objects twisted around the twin sprays on con-foam and across the lobby to land right in between Timothy and his computer screen.
He stared at the cardboard for a few seconds before finally reading the message that seemed to be written using a tube of lipstick.
EMERGENCY!
REQUIRE 18.47 USD FOR PURPOSE OF SAVING HUMANITY.
REMOVE FROM BOUNTY OWED TO BEST FRIEND QUEEN ADMINISTRATOR.
PLACE CURRENCY IN INCLUDED 'NOT STOLEN' PURSE.
PLACE PURSE OUTSIDE.
REJOICE IN CONTINUED EXISTENCE.
-SIMURGH, THE
POSTSCRIPT: 'THANK YOU'
Timothy sighed and reached into his pocket.
***
Joe Jr., from Joe's Quickie Mart, was in a pretty good mood.
Things were finally looking up in the Bay. Sure, they had to beware of the Queen Administrator and her world-ending monster pets, but other than that things were pretty alright for the convenience-store owner.
Ever since she'd appeared in the Bay, he had only been robbed at gunpoint twice!
It was, right now, pretty quiet. That was going to change just as soon as the lunch rush started. He was just expecting his first lunch-hour customers when the door slammed opened and a few watery-tentacles tore into the store like something out of H.P. Lovecraft's wet dreams. They slithered over the floors and ceilings, then whipped around and dropped a few items on the counter before all but one of them retracted.
Joe stared at the pile of food sitting in front of him, then up at the tentacle that promised to do things to him if he didn't get moving.
Joe had watched those japanese cartoons once. He got moving, scanning items at a speed he would have thought impossible for himself not ten minutes ago. He chucked everything into a plastic bag, then watched as the tentacled loomed closer.
"Um, that'll be 18.47? Please?
It dropped a few crumpled bills and some change on the counter, then retracted with the bag.
Joe still thought things were looking up.
***
In one timeline, Coil leaned back into his rather comfortable throne. Really, it was little more than an elaborate office chair, but from this chair came half the decisions that were shaping Brockton Bay's underworld.
Things were going... well.
His early plans to take over the Bay had to be reshaped and re-evaluated as the leaders of every major gang were either dead or in PRT custody, but that was playing out in his favour now. Just about every gram of illicit material being moved into the city was doing so under his purview. He had cornered one of the most important markets and was now making inroads into others.
The remnants of the ABB still had their brothels and the E88 still pushed people into paying protection money, but they were losing ground. The less said about the Merchant's remnants the better.
He actually had to start hiring a lot more men to fill the growing demand in the city. A few more moves would see him at the top of the food chain.
Or almost.
The Queen Administrator was still out there. He had tried to curtail her, to ambush her, to kill her or to get her to work for him and each attempt failed in a most spectacular fashion. Oh, she wasn't unkillable. But the moment a bullet hit her, or she was teleported into Sundancer's sun, Leviathan would lose all control and wipe the city from the maps. Everything with even the tiniest amount of liquid would burst apart. Humans, he had discovered, were made up of a fair amount of liquid.
So he had to play another game, one where he kept his assets out of her sight and made sure that most of his actions were, if not outright legal, then at least not terribly immoral.
A few more moves and he would be at the top, and if that position was subordinate to a partially insane girl then so be it. She was not a deterrent to his plans. If anything, she ensured that no one would have an easy time taking over the city.
Coil pushed himself back into a proper sitting position. He had work to do.
With a key-press the door to his office unlocked and, after a short delay, a rather rotund woman walk in. "Ah, hello Janice," he greeted her. "A pleasure to see you."
The simpering fool gave him a wooden smile. "I'm pleased to see you too, sir," she said.
"Now, I'm afraid I'm a busy man, so let us skip the formalities and get straight to the meat of the matter. Tell me, how was your interview of Queen Administrator with Director Tagg?"
In another timeline, Thomas Calvert was hard at work in the temporary PRT headquarters, talking and ingratiating himself with the short-handed staff of the local PRT.
He was growing so close he could taste victory.
***