“You brought me to a gun range?”
Lisa had brought her to a nondescript building deep in the heart of downtown. Taylor had been more than concerned after passing the second group of people in Empire colors, but the pair were largely ignored and the skinhead coming out of the range had even held the door for them. She knew that it was only because they fit into their view of the world, and that if she had been just a bit darker skinned, they would have sneered and spit on her at minimum.
Taylor knew Lisa was with the Undersiders, and she had already identified the other members as best she could. Grue was black, which made it far less likely that they were an Empire front in of itself. She hadn’t discounted that Coil might just be a middle man, or a false flag for the Empire. They had done the same when they killed Fleur of New Wave, the assailant being disavowed right up until he got an early release and was promptly welcomed back into the Empire.
“I did, and yes, it is an Empire front,” Lisa confirmed in a hushed whisper. “Almost every range in the city is, unfortunately. That’s how we’re getting you a gun, by playing into their beliefs to circumvent the law a bit.”
That didn’t sit well with Taylor, and she could probably get a gun through Toybox, but Lisa was taking the time to do this with her, which meant there might be a secondary reason. At the very least, Taylor could get intel on an Empire front for when her shell was finished and she started taking action to make the city a better place.
“Alright,” Taylor said, taking a breath. “We can’t spend too long on this, however. I’ve got a project to check on and I want to take Dad out for dinner.”
“We should be out within the hour,” Lisa said, then strode confidently up to the counter where a bald man in his forties sat with a gun magazine. Lisa had a wide grin as he looked up and frowned at the obvious teen girls. “Hi, my friend was looking to get something to protect herself and wanted to try a few different models.”
The man turned back to his magazine. “Go home girlies, you’re too young.”
“Please, she’s being followed home,” Lisa said, her voice turning soft. “I’m afraid they’re going to—”
Lisa’s voice hitched, and Taylor was more than a little impressed with her acting skills. The man looked up again just as Lisa wiped a tear away. He sighed and set his magazine aside before grabbing a set of keys and moving towards the wall of guns behind him. Three handguns were selected and placed in a cubby on the side wall along with two magazines of ammo for each, then the door was closed.
“Room three,” he said as he returned. “One twenty, cash.”
Lisa produced six twenties easily enough and the man handed the key to her through the window. “Thank you so much.”
The man grunted, returning to his seat and magazine as Lisa moved towards the back door. Having a suspicion of what had just happened, Taylor pulled Lisa up on her contacts. Just as they got inside, Lisa’s phone dinged with a message which she was quick to check.
“Did you use your power to con him into helping?”
Lisa nodded, pushing the door to the range open. The three guns and ammo were off to the side as expected and down the room was a long concrete hall with a reinforced backdrop. A paper target was hung from a runner next to what looked to be the firing platform.
“He had a niece that he believes was snatched by Lung’s people,” Lisa explained as she grabbed the tray the guns were set upon and moved it to the table by the shooting range. “Tugged a bit on his sympathy, implied that you might suffer the same. He still charged us extra, but that’s to be expected.”
Taylor shook her head and looked the guns over. Her HUD popped up information on each model: there was a Glock 19, a Beretta 92fs and a HK USP. All three were in 9mm varieties. Picking up the Glock, Taylor felt the weight in her hand then grabbed the appropriate magazine and loaded the weapon, chambering a round as she did. She pulled up a quick tutorial on how the weapon worked and moved to the firing line.
Safety glasses and ear protection followed, with Lisa doing the same. Once ready, Lisa hit a button on the side, sending the target down range and Taylor took aim. Her HUD immediately went to work, giving her a real time feed of where the bullet should impact. A grin came unbidden as she snapped off the first round, surprised at the intensity of the recoil.
Her cyber brain ran the calculations, adjustments fed into her memory and she fired the next round. The moment the gun had one bullet left, she dropped the magazine and loaded the next and continued firing. By the end, she had a proper model of the gun filed away for future reference.
She set the gun aside and Lisa held up an arm. Taylor high-fived her and recalled the target. The grouping for the first set was within the center two rings, while for the second set she had gotten creative, putting bullets along the outer ring at set points.
Lisa whistled. “Okay, that’s impressive for someone that hasn’t shot a gun before.”
“I cheated,” Taylor said, tapping her head. “My HUD tells me exactly where each shot will go.”
“Might as well be a combat thinker,” Lisa said. “Can you do that with martial arts? Like, learn them from videos and books then put it into practice?”
Taylor paused, hand coming to her chin in thought. “I hadn’t even considered it. Huh. I’ll get back to you once I try.”
“You are going to be terrifying once you actually hit the streets,” Lisa said, shaking her head. “USP next?”
Taylor nodded and quickly ran through both magazines, getting similar groupings and then did the same with the Beretta. Once finished, Taylor felt each gun again, testing how it felt to draw each one from an imaginary leg and shoulder holster as well as how quick she could get them on target.
The Glock was the first she discounted. The trigger safety was neat, but delayed her readiness just a fraction too much for her taste. Ultimately, she decided upon the Beretta just because the gun looked more intimidating at first glance. Returning the weapons to the slot in the wall, Lisa practically strutted to the counter with Taylor following behind. Taylor was once again reminded of how she could wear pants like that once she had her shell, because they looked amazing on Lisa.
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Leaning against the counter, Lisa glanced side to side before whispering. “If my friend wanted to purchase a gun that hypothetically couldn’t be traced if she had to pop some asshole in green, where could she do that?”
The man behind the counter looked up, and Taylor did her best to play the shy girl when he regarded her, she didn’t have to pretend much. Sighing, he took out a bit of paper and wrote something on it before handing it to Lisa. Taylor didn’t miss the cash Lisa had slipped him either.
Lisa didn’t say anything as they departed, and only once they were safely around the corner did she check the message. “Huh, the shop is only a block away.”
“I’m not sure if I like funneling money to the Empire like this,” Taylor said with her arms crossed. “The last thing I need is for them to think I’ve reconsidered their offer.”
“Or for the Protectorate to see you,” Lisa said, looking over Taylor’s shoulder.
Taylor wasted little time tapping into a few nearby cameras where she saw two capes making their way down the sidewalk on the other side of the road. She recognized them as Assault and Battery, whom she hadn’t had any interaction with. A few of the Empire people eyed them warily, but nobody made any moves on either side. Shrugging, Taylor started off in the direction of the gun shop because in reality, it just wasn’t her problem. Just for laughs, Taylor tapped into the wireless feeds of the two heroes and listened in to the bored dispatch being provided by Vista.
“Just a PR patrol,” Taylor said after a moment. “They don’t expect to see any crime and can’t do anything about obvious gang activity unless something illegal happens.”
“Sounds about right,” Lisa said. “At least it isn’t Armsy, he still seems to have a hate boner for you if what I’ve accessed is anything to go off of.”
“Any indication Dragon has done anything with the information I pointed her at?” Taylor asked.
“No idea,” Lisa admitted. “Dragon is frankly a step above the software you designed. I tried flagging some of the files, but Armsy investigated who had done that, he almost locked me out in the process.”
“Fucking figures,” Taylor spat. “Bastard couldn’t get me so he’s making sure I don’t get any help. Once again I’m stuck doing it myself.”
“Hey, you aren’t alone,” Lisa said, taking Taylor’s hand in her own. “Just because the heroes threw their hands up and walked away doesn’t mean everyone has. You have me, you have Toybox. You aren’t alone in this, Tay.”
Taylor took a deep breath and forced a brittle smile. “Thanks Lise, I needed to hear that.”
“Anytime,” she answered.
The gun shop was vacant, save for a man with an eighty-eight tattoo on his arm. Taylor really didn’t like that, but she couldn’t do anything at the moment. She definitely bumped the place up on her list of places to hit. Lisa walked straight to the counter and handed the man the note along with another bundle of cash.
Some hushed whispers followed and Lisa was handed three boxes and a few other items. She smiled and thanked the man who just grunted and a moment later they were out of the store and hopping onto a bus. Taking the back seat, Lisa started pulling the items out.
“I got you the Beretta, as well as two additional magazines and two boxes of ammo,” Lisa explained. “That should be enough to get you started, and it was a gun that would have been given to an Empire member otherwise.”
“I still don’t like giving the Empire money,” Taylor explained. Even if it wasn’t her own, she didn’t like it.
“Don’t worry about it,” Lisa said. “The Undersiders are hitting the store tonight, I just needed an excuse to case the joint and that was too good an opportunity to pass up.”
Taylor paused in her examination of the gun and accessories, an incredulous look on her face as she regarded Lisa’s grinning visage. At that same moment, Taylor burst into laughter and began to single out all footage she had gathered from their trips. By the time she calmed down, she had dug up every scrap of public information on both locations and anyone associated with them and forwarded it to Lisa’s email. If that was true, Taylor was determined to make sure they did it right.
“When you do this,” Taylor said, trying to regain her breath, “let me know, I’ll trigger false alarms on the other side of Empire territory to keep their capes busy.”
Pulling out her phone, Lisa looked over the email and her eyes widened the more she read. “Taylor Hebert, where have you been all my life?”
“Brockton,” she said. “It’s a nice enough town but in desperate need of a cleanup.”
“Which you are perfectly willing to help with,” Lisa said, looking back to her phone. “You aren’t even a Thinker, this is all your tech, isn’t it?”
Taylor nodded. “It is. I intend to see about getting cyber brains set up for other members of Toybox soon. If you’re interested, I can get you on that list too.”
Lisa seemed to consider that before shaking her head. “As nice as that sounds, I’d have a permanent Thinker headache if I was that plugged in to the net.”
Taylor was disappointed by that, but could understand where she was coming from. Still, it wasn’t unreasonable to think that Riley and Cranial might be able to discover a workaround for Thinker headaches if they worked with her on a custom cyber brain built specifically for Lisa. They might even enjoy the challenge and she did still have those notes from the last time it came up.
“You mentioned that at the mall,” Taylor said as she sent a message to Riley now that it was becoming clear that Lisa was going to be sticking around in her life. “I can’t make any promises, but we might be able to do something about those issues.”
“You could fix my headaches?” Lisa exclaimed. A few people turned, but she ducked down in embarrassment. “Even Tinker drugs don’t help, trust me, I’ve tried everything.”
“Well, you have three people who have a specialty in dealing with brains,” Taylor said. “Look Lise, you’re my friend and this is something I can actually help with so why wouldn’t I offer?”
Lisa just stared at her and Taylor found herself wanting to shrink back under the complicated look she found directed her way. She was never good with emotions, and couldn’t help but wonder if she had said something wrong when Lisa threw her arms around Taylor, face buried in her shoulder as she cried.
“Thank you. Thank you. Thank you,” Lisa said. “Even if you can’t do anything, just, thank you for actually giving a shit about me.”
Taylor sat there in stunned silence with no idea what to do, so she wrapped her arms around Lisa and began to pat her back. She was at a loss, but she would be there for her friend.
They stayed like that until the bus arrived at Taylor’s stop and thinking on it, she came to a decision. “Hey Lise?”
“Yeah,” Lisa asked, her voice still shaky.
Lisa might not have a family anymore, and her support network was almost non-existent, but that was something Taylor could at least help with. It wasn’t anything major, but Taylor knew how even a small helping hand could make all the difference in the world.
“Want to have dinner with Dad and me?”
Lisa stared at her, lips quivering as she processed the offer. Moments later she found herself wrapped in another hug. Taylor was glad to be there for her friend, because sometimes it was the smallest gestures that held the most impact.