Taylor knew she shouldn’t be surprised, she was actually having a good day, weirdness aside. She shut down the recognition program and left a note to run Lisa through it after whatever this ended up being. If only she had her new shell, Emma wouldn’t have even recognized her.

“Oh, is this your ex?”

Taylor hadn’t been sure what she expected, but Lisa opening the conversation with that line wasn’t even on the list. Emma sputtered and Sophia actually snorted, which turned Emma’s baleful gaze upon her supposed ally instead. Sophia’s little speech was still fresh in Taylor’s mind, and recorded for perfect recall, but that didn’t mean anything, they were just words after all.

“Honestly Taylor,” Emma said, clearly trying to ignore Lisa. “I thought I had seen everything, but faking a disability just so you could get away with attacking me? That’s low even for you.”

Technically that was the truth, but Emma didn’t need to know that.

“Someone’s out of the loop,” Taylor said. “I got a visit from Surgeon that Friday. She patched up the damage that Panacea couldn’t fix.”

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Lisa turn an appraising gaze upon her, eyes moving ever so minutely that without her software she would have missed it. There was definitely more to Lisa than she let on.

“Convenient timing,” Emma said with a sneer.

Taylor shrugged. “With how shitty my luck has been lately, something had to go right for once. You certainly did a number on me.”

“You’re jealous,” Lisa said, a grin growing as she tapped her chin. “You’ve got so much makeup on to hide the bruise that Panacea left after she patched your jaw. Don’t want anyone to see that pretty face made as ugly as you are on the inside?”

“Someone likes to run their mouth,” Sophia interjected with narrowed eyes.

Lisa turned her attention onto Sophia and her grin turned positively vulpine. “The shadow speaks. Getting tired of your girlfriend being all jealous over her ex? I mean, no offense, I can see why red here went after you, but just look at what she missed out on.”

Taylor’s systems reported the blush response before she felt it, but she did nothing to suppress it. She was already acting rather different from how she did before her trigger and didn’t need to give her tormentors further clues.

Lisa’s ‘shadow’ comment gave her pause as she considered if Lisa was a more subtle attempt by the Empire to recruit her after the more blatant attempt had failed. She had admitted to being on the bus immediately following that confrontation after all. The theory seemed unlikely given there were other slurs she could have used and the girl hadn’t disparaged a possible lesbian relationship. So, probably not Empire, but could be with a different organization.

“Lisa, I can handle myself,” Taylor said, eyeing her tormentors. “Fun as it is to watch her squirm, Emma and I never dated. She was, however, like a sister to me growing up. I don’t know what happened to make you turn into a hateful bitch, and at this point I don’t care. I’m out of Winslow, you’re out of my life and frankly? I don’t give two fucks about you anymore.”

A lie, and a rather blatant one, but she just wanted this confrontation over with. Already Taylor was commandeering the phone cameras of some onlookers to record their little verbal joust. Her fists were clenched beside her, software overriding her desire to either fold back or lash out.

She refused to give in, to let them win. She would be contacting Calle as soon as she had the footage to use it to swing a restraining order against them, not that they were worth the paper they were printed on for physical protection but they did wonders for when you had to defend yourself.

“You don’t get to say that to me,” Emma seethed. “You’re weak. Nothing but trash and should know your place.”

“Pretty sure the stuff Surgeon used to regrow my muscles made me stronger than Sophia,” Taylor said. “But that’s being pedantic. Here I am, standing up to you, and you don’t really know how to react, do you?”

Absently, Taylor spun up her recognition software and ran Emma through it. The results came quickly. No cape identity unless she was very new, and there was her modeling career. Nothing else of note. Emma was a nobody as far as her software was concerned. Then she turned it on Lisa on a whim.

It took a moment, but a missing person’s report for one Sarah Livsey was the first thing to appear. She filed that away for further digging as a blurry image of a spandex clad woman was pulled. It wasn’t a perfect match, but the biometrics were close enough to be flagged.

Tattletale. Thinker Six in the PRT database.

She turned slightly, to regard the woman that had stepped in to help her with clothes shopping of all things. Lisa had definitely noticed something if her dilating pupils were any indication. That confrontation could wait, and she left the program running to gather more information. She had a former sister to deal with first.

“You’re nobody. Just another pretty face that will peak in high school, become some guy’s trophy wife out of college, and pop out a few kids for him. That will be your life, empty of any true achievements. Left to slowly decay as you use his money to shore up fading looks until one day he leaves you for his twenty-something secretary.”

Emma’s face had darkened through her rant, and she had to give credit to her mom for that one. She had overheard many of those insults yelled into a phone receiver almost a decade prior, but they had stuck with her. She had adapted them slightly, but it seemed effective if Lisa’s slow clap and low whistle was any indication.

Taylor might not have a true Thinker ability, but she could certainly fake one with enough prep time and knowledge of her target. Emma was one of the few people, hell, she WAS the only person that Taylor knew well enough to get under her skin. She just hadn’t used that knowledge before, had told herself she wouldn’t sink to their levels.

Then they almost murdered her.

“If I’m nobody,” Emma snarled. “Then what the fuck does that make you?”

“Better.”

She didn’t wait to see Emma’s reaction, instead grabbing Lisa’s hand and pulling her away. Sophia looked her in the eye as they departed and Taylor could have sworn she saw something akin to respect looking back, but it was gone in an instant as Taylor put distance between them. She was already pulling the footage from the camera that had been aimed in their direction, Calle knew she was a Tinker so it was safe to just send it to him and let him explain the rest.

Melding into the growing crowd, Lisa pulled up beside her, voice low. “That might have been the hottest thing I’ve ever seen. I don’t think I could have done much better myself.”

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“I don’t know,” Taylor mused. “I’m sure you could Think of something.”

“Damn, busted that fast?” Lisa asked with a nervous chuckle. Taylor shrugged. Lisa’s shoulders dropped with a heavy sigh. “Tinkertech is bullshit.”

“It really is,” Taylor agreed, pulling up everything that her deeper scan had found but not looking it over just yet. “I’m sure we could both dredge up all kinds of secrets about one another, but you were nice to me so I’ll give you a chance to explain why you followed me here.”

Lisa stopped and let out a heavy sigh. “If we’re doing this, we’re doing it over shoes.” Taylor had to blink as she processed that. Lisa rolled her eyes and clarified. “You need new shoes, several pairs, right? Both for you and your… Oh wow, a whole new body? Just what do you have planned?”

“That is rather annoying, Lisa,” she said, crossing her arms. “Do me a favor and don’t test my patience, I’m rather thin on it right now.”

“Okay fine, I was just trying to save time,” she said with her arms up in surrender. “Shoes, then a late lunch? All my treat.”

“I can agree to that,” Taylor said. “Is there a place that sells good combat boots here?”

Lisa smiled, but it wasn’t hard for Taylor to see the tension in her face. “There’s a military surplus store just past the Penny’s, follow me.”

Taylor was surprised when Lisa reached out and reclaimed her hand. Before it had been out of necessity to get them away from Emma quickly, this time Lisa had initiated and it didn’t feel urgent, it felt welcoming. Lisa could very well have been trying to recruit her for the Undersiders, but her methodology was certainly different from what other groups had tried.

Lisa pointed out a few shops on their way, and promised a visit in the future, the implication that it would be after she had finished her new shell being clear. Taylor didn’t like being around someone that could fish out secrets better than her, but it was happening and she would just have to roll with it.

“Anything in particular you want while we’re here?” Lisa asked as they arrived at the surplus shop.

Mick’s Military Miscellany was exactly what Taylor had expected it to be, with far more than just boots available. She couldn’t hide the grin without shutting down her face muscles so she just let it happen. Immediately her eyes were drawn to the various holsters, harnesses and clothing. Much of it wasn’t true military gear, but something one would think of when playing soldier. Realization dawned on her that the place probably supplied a lot of street level gang members trying to look more menacing or something.

“Given I haven’t heard of you,” Lisa began, “I’m assuming you aren’t active on the streets?”

“Got a phone?” Taylor asked. Raising an eyebrow Lisa retrieved a simple smartphone, likely a burner based on the limited data she could see on it. Taylor sent a text to the phone, because she didn’t trust anyone in the store to not be listening in for juicy information. “I won’t be active until my new shell is complete. I am, of course, working with Toybox for funding and support.”

“Of course you are,” Lisa muttered as she typed her own reply. “Is your brain actually hooked up to the internet?”

Taylor grinned. “Sure is.”

“That’s all kinds of unfair,” Lisa whined. “Though, I’d be so damn overwhelmed and have a permanent migraine if I had to deal with that.”

Thinking about it, a few ideas came to mind about how she could solve that problem. Her ideas folder got a few new entries, from synthetic compounds to active cyberware that could combat pain. She wondered if Riley would be interested in figuring out a way to block Thinker headaches, but unless she actually did end up working with Lisa, it wouldn’t be worth it to explore.

She still sent her fellow Tinker a message asking about it, but no reply was forthcoming. It was Saturday, so it wasn’t that much of a surprise that she was probably busy with Wards duties or something since she wasn’t at school for the day.

“I was thinking that I would carry a gun,” Taylor said aloud. “Sell myself as a Combat Thinker to throw people off.”

“I carry myself, so I can’t blame you there,” Lisa said. “You never know when some asshole will try to put a gun to your head.”

That was oddly specific and had carried more than a few emotions with it. Her file on Lisa was growing by the moment, and though she had added all the data from her recognition program to the file, she wasn’t digging through it unless necessary.

Lisa moved over to a set of shoulder holsters, looking them over for a moment before she grabbed a fairly basic model. “This one seems to be the best made, the others are just overpriced.”

Taylor nodded, and grabbed two. It was always good to have a backup just to be safe, especially if she was going to actually go out as a cape. Plus, it would be smart to have one in her civilian life as well. Boots were easier, Lisa immediately grabbed two pairs, and Taylor knew they would fit just based on Lisa’s smug grin when she asked if Taylor wanted to try them on.

Rolling her eyes, Taylor also grabbed a thigh holster, a utility belt with ammo pouches and a thigh bag for carrying other things. She took it all to the counter, getting a raised eyebrow but nothing more and once again Lisa paid like it was nothing. That she was willing to drop almost two grand on her was concerning, but she wasn’t going to question it. It wasn’t like two grand was all that much to a Tinker working with Toybox.

“I can source you a gun if you want one,” Lisa said casually as they walked towards a coffee shop near the food court. “No way for it to be traced to your civilian identity and all.”

“Yeah, that might be useful, but let me ask my colleagues first,” Taylor said, eyeing the TV in the corner. The Nine seemed to be attacking some town in Texas, and someone had gotten footage of the Butcher carving their way through a couple of villains while Bonesaw’s spiders swarmed the unpowered support. There was also a glimpse of what looked to be several capes fused together into some abomination that turned her stomach. It was gruesome, and mostly censored thankfully, but the little spiders did give her some ideas for something bigger. Maybe an armored mobile platform for personal use…

“Bet to Tay,” Lisa said with a chuckle, snapping her from the near fugue. “What would you like?”

“Ham and Swiss over rye,” Taylor said. “English breakfast for the drink.”

“Fancy,” Lisa said and relayed the order.

Taking a seat, Taylor kept the news broadcast playing in her mind as she gathered news reports on the attack. Apparently several heroes had been injured while fighting the Nine, but Surgeon would be paying a visit to make sure they were able to recover. Taylor couldn’t help but smirk at that, and it did explain why Riley couldn’t be reached.

“Thanks,” Lisa said absently as their drinks arrived. Her eyes were on the same broadcast, watching with a frown. “You actually met Surgeon? I thought that was just a cover.”

“A bit of a cover,” Taylor admitted. “Surgeon and Cranial helped install my braincase. That was a perk of working with Toybox, besides not having to scrounge for parts or use subpar tools.”

“That makes sense,” Lisa said, sipping on her drink. “Must be nice, working for a group that actually works well together.”

“Are the Undersiders that bad?” Taylor asked. What little she had found on them showed they were great with hit-and-run robberies, never sticking around long enough to get bogged down and captured. Then again, people didn’t know much about their group dynamic otherwise.

Lisa snorted and raised her middle finger. “Regent’s a prick,” a second finger popped up. “Bitch lives up to her name and Grue isn’t very flexible.” With that, she lowered her three fingers and sighed as their sandwiches arrived. “And I’m a know-it-all who likes to prove I’m the smartest in the room.”

A GPS ping came from Lisa’s phone, immediately drawing Taylor’s attention. Taylor checked the signal, following it through the network until it hit a Tinkertech router and was scrambled. Someone was checking up on her location and it didn’t look like it was entirely on the up and up. Checking the program that initiated it, she found it had been discreetly installed via a SMS message that never displayed.

Picking up her ham and swiss, Taylor took a bite and chewed over what she had just learned before deciding to just tell her. “Are you aware that there’s a tracker installed on your phone?”

“What!?” Lisa exclaimed. “How the hell? This was a clean burner I bought yesterday!”

Well, that was certainly concerning, it seemed someone had a rather strong interest in tracking her new friend.