Taylor squinted, wishing she had her new eyes so she could just use the optical zoom. Sure, she was nearsighted, which was working in her favor at the moment, but nothing beat proper prosthetics. She was working diligently on her body, pushing ever closer to the day she could swap into it and install a remote operator suite in her current shell.
She couldn’t help but chuckle, because thinking about the body she was born in as a shell to discard was just humorous in some weird way. Not that she planned to discard it just yet, her identity as Taylor Hebert still had its uses, like the now filed lawsuit against the Protectorate. Mr. Calle had been more than eager after showing him the footage of Winslow and the aftermath.
Most of it would be inadmissible, but it still showed that it happened even if it was acquired illegally. Just the threat of leaking it should be enough to get them to settle for a hefty amount. That was what Mr. Calle was banking on at least and she could see the logic in it. Avoid the PR bomb and leave her alone. Simple enough.
Not that she had any faith in Armsmaster to employ such simple logic.
As she was building a combat model, she was avoiding putting too many luxury features into it. She wouldn’t need to eat or drink or even breathe like a normal person in that form, so she could use the space for more interesting features. Like a ballistic grade armored mesh, redundancies for damage and so much more.
Parahumans could pull out all kinds of tricks, so she wanted to be ready for them in the event she wound up in a life or death struggle. More like when, she had done the reading after all. Having permanent internet access in one’s head led to a lot of leisure reading when she wasn’t working.
It also meant she could listen to music whenever she pleased without disturbing anyone. Her mother was raised on classical arrangements, and had made sure to do the same with her, but that wasn’t her true passion. Lustrum’s group had all been metalheads, and that too had been passed on from mother to daughter.
Taylor’s foot tapped in time with the beat, her head bobbing as she welded an armor plate over the shell’s heart. There was nothing critical there, but she still wanted it protected for when someone tried to exploit the supposed weakness. She was still waiting on requisitioned metals to arrive so she could properly armor her skull.
It wasn’t suited for much, but she was going to protect her brain with everything she could pack into that small space.
“Taylor!”
She pulled her attention from the chest cavity of her future body, a smile pulling at her lips as she saw the bouncing bundle of energy stepping through the entry portal. There was someone with her, but Taylor was more concerned with the blonde missile that had just jumped towards her and wrapped herself around her torso. Only a quick recalibration of her balance saved her from being bowled over.
“Riley, good to see you,” she said as she held up her grease covered hands in surrender. “Let me get cleaned up then I can hug you back.”
“Okay,” Riley said, hopping back down, though she hadn’t stopped vibrating with excitement. “Oh wow, you’ve gotten a lot done since I was last here.”
“I sure have,” she said, running her hands under a Tinkertech cleaning station. “I also finished that project you gave me, it’s over at my workstation with your name on it.”
The girl squealed as she ran over and found the box, pulling the lid open and taking the device in hand reverently.
“This is perfect!” she exclaimed. “I am going to put this to such good use!”
“I have been curious as to what you have planned,” Taylor said, ruffling the girl’s hair. “I’d almost think you were planning to build a bunch of drones and control them remotely.”
“Something like that,” Riley said. “It’s a secret though, so don’t tell anyone.”
“What’s there to tell?” Taylor said with a shrug. “All I did was make something nice for a friend.”
“This is why you’re my favorite,” Riley said, putting the gift away in her tool bag. “Oh, forgive my manners, this is my other dad, Kurt.”
Taylor turned to the sandy blonde haired man. He was tall, with a well trimmed goatee and short-cut hair. He was wearing a well pressed suit that spoke of someone important. His brown eyes framed by glasses in the academic style that reminded her of what her mom used to wear. Taylor offered her hand which he quickly grasped and shook firmly.
“A pleasure, sir. Your daughter is a delight to work with.”
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
“Glad to hear it,” he said easily. “Raising Riley has been one of the greatest pleasures in life and I continue to grow more proud of her each and every day.”
“Dad, you’re embarrassing me,” Riley said, hiding her face.
“Part of the job,” he answered with a smile. “We can’t stay long, but Riley insisted on coming by personally. That, and she wanted to see your progress and I had to admit to being curious myself.”
He stepped aside and regarded the half completed shell on the table, Riley bouncing around to the other side as she took out some gadget that Taylor recognized as an analytical tool. She waved it over the muscle fibers and her eyebrows shot up.
“The improvements you made are even better than we expected!”
“Yeah,” Taylor agreed. “Benching a car should be possible, but not sustainable. Good for if someone throws one at me and I can’t dodge. I won’t be a proper Brute, but I could fake it with the best of them.”
“Way better results than that serum I came up with,” Riley said. “You are seeing results, right? I didn’t knock you over so it seems to be working.”
“Yeah,” she confirmed. “I don’t feel weak anymore and I can actually jog without falling over. Could do without the ravenous appetite though.”
“The appetite’s a part of it, I’m afraid,” Riley said, poking at the exposed artificial muscle. “I can’t wait to see the finished product. I have so many ideas for how you could help me with a project of my own.”
With a smirk, Taylor flicked a mental switch and a few screens lit up, showing her project files as well as a composite of what she expected the finished design to look like. Riley and her father both turned to examine them, but Riley was more interested in the technical readouts.
“Smart, not using your actual face,” the man said, looking at the computer attached to the tanks where the artificial skin was currently growing. “You could effectively assume any identity you wish, so you would warrant a Stranger rating too.”
“It gets better,” Taylor said, pulling up another document on that same screen. “Optical camo can be built into a skin suit worn over the body. Light on armor, but it would allow my entire form to blend in with the environment.”
“Okay, I’m really impressed now,” he said. “Getting in with Toybox was probably the best option you could have chosen. The Wards program would have been indignant if you tried to make any of this with them.”
“Yeah, I had considered that,” Taylor admitted. “I assume that’s why Riley works with us on occasion? The Wards don’t approve of her full abilities?”
“Pretty much,” Riley said with a huff. “I have so many fun ideas, but the Director won’t let me use them as a Ward. At least I can—”
Taylor noticed that Kurt squeezed Riley’s shoulder, cutting off whatever she might have said next. The implication was there, however; Riley did have a way to use those ideas, it just wasn’t something she showed the public. Taylor filed that away for later, rather literally, in her case. Perks of having a mind machine interface.
“Well, I’m happy to help you put those ideas into practice,” Taylor said to a beaming Riley. “I should probably get home soon myself, dad is bringing home Italian.”
“Oh, we haven’t had spaghetti in a while!” Riley said, turning to her father. “Antonio’s should be open, can we go?”
“We’ll have to get it to go,” Kurt said. “You know we have a busy weekend planned and have to leave by sunset.”
“I know,” she answered, with that same smile on her face. “Which is why we should go soon!”
Taylor chuckled, shutting the active systems down and switching them to their automated modes. Some parts of her work could continue without her hands on attention, and she would maintain a connection to them to make sure nothing went wrong, but the rest was just an unnecessary drain on the power systems.
It was almost funny, she had only known Riley for a week at that point, but she was far sharper than her age suggested and Taylor counted her as a friend and colleague. Working with Toybox had been the best decision she could have made.
“Sometime, I’ll have to invite the three of you to dinner,” Taylor said, flipping the last switch.
“We just might take you up on that,” Kurt said. “Just make sure to give us some lead time, Riley does have several responsibilities that are scheduled in advance.”
“That’s fair,” Taylor said. “I’ll be a bit busier next week myself, what with starting up at Arcadia.”
“Harry currently teaches there, doesn’t he?” Kurt asked.
“He does, but I won’t be in his classes this year,” Taylor confirmed. She had been a bit upset with that revelation. “Next year for sure, though, if he stays on.”
Kurt hummed, but didn’t answer immediately. Instead, he activated the portal and gestured for Riley to step through. He paused for a moment, then turned back to Taylor. “You’re definitely an interesting girl, I expect great things from you once you get on your new feet.”
He nodded towards the half-finished body on the table, then he stepped through, and the portal winked closed. Taylor stood there for a moment, frowning. She felt like she had just been tested in some way, and she wasn’t sure she had passed.
Regardless, she needed to get home. She grabbed her bag, and hurried back to the portal generator entering the coordinates for her home and soon enough she was back in her living room just in time for her father to pull in. She hurried to the door, letting her father in and caught him in a hug.
“Missed you, Dad,” she said.
He wrapped his free arm around her, returning the embrace. “Hey kiddo, how was your day?”
And so she told him, not that he could really follow along with all the technical stuff, but she refused to keep him out of the loop. Her life was certainly interesting, and it was only going to grow more so, but she wouldn’t forget where she came from, because family was important.