Dinner was a bit stilted, with barely a word said between father and daughter. Once the Chinese had been consumed, she returned to her room and settled in with her laptop to work on the assorted projects that had been commissioned by various groups and individuals. She had to smile when she saw Coil’s little overwatch project on the list for around midnight.
That could wait, however, as several other requests had come in for simple programming tasks, and one request for a prosthetic arm from the Protectorate. She pulled that one up first, looking over the supplied details. The man had lost his arm fighting Leviathan and his current arm was not conducive to a civilian life. She immediately sent a confirmation, but mentioned that there was a bit of a wait list.
As she started to go over the programming tasks, she quickly added them to various tabs within her head, a gentle knock at her door drew part of her attention.
“It’s open,” she said.
The door creaked open, her father’s reluctant face greeting her as it did. Looking down, she saw three leather-bound journals tucked under his arm and all her work on the new projects was shuffled into the background. Power assisted multi-tasking did have its benefits.
“Hey kiddo,” he said softly. “I figured, given tonight’s plans were ruined by yours truly, I’d drop these off as a bit of a peace offering.”
The journals were well-worn, having seen a lot of use. Taylor ran a hand over the first of three then carefully opened it. Inside was a ‘Property of Annette Rose’ written in elegant script on the inside cover. Taylor felt her eyes stinging as she turned the pages, looking over the dates on the entries.
“Dad, this is…”
“I know,” he said softly. “I should have shared them with you sooner, but hearing you bring up Lustrum… It reminded me of what I was running from.”
Taylor smiled, then pulled her dad into a hug. “Thank you.”
“Anytime,” he said, then sighed. “This Lisa… How much do you actually know about her?”
“Dad,” she said, tone turning frosty.
“Just hear me out. She’s an admitted Thinker that you met how long ago? You called her your best friend. How do you know she’s not just manipulating you into working with her gang?”
“I think she was, at least when she first approached me,” Taylor admitted. She’d asked Melissa to look into her after that day at the mall, knowing that the woman wouldn’t cut corners. Taylor even gave her the file to review, the one she’d been trying to avoid digging through. “I had Toybox do some digging, bugged Lisa’s room at her base as well. Her boss is a known customer, he knows better than to fuck with Toybox’s Tinkers but we’re playing things safe.”
“That isn’t as reassuring as you think it sounds.”
Taylor shrugged. “I don’t think Lisa is being disingenuous. We might have started off roughly, but she’s been a genuine friend. Her family was shit to her, shit to her sibling who ended up committing suicide over it. I brought her here hoping she’d get to feel like family, so thanks for that.”
Her dad pinched his nose. “Way to make me feel like an ass for reacting to my daughter casually whipping out a handgun at the dinner table.”
Taylor winced. “Okay, not my brightest move, even if we did spend the afternoon at the range making sure I could handle it safely. Sorry about that, Lisa just felt I needed a gun in the event someone tried something stupid again.”
“Which isn’t an unreasonable leap in logic given this is Brockton,” he agreed. “I think we can agree that we both reacted disproportionately here.”
“Yeah…”
Silence reigned for several long moments, and Taylor couldn’t help but fiddle with the journals, wanting to crack them open and start learning more about her mother’s life.
“Alright,” he said, stepping back to the door. “I’m sorry I reacted the way I did. Just, watch out for yourself, that’s all I ask.”
She smiled back to him and nodded, then he bowed out, leaving her alone with the journals. She found herself lost in the details of her mother’s life, from her college girlfriend Kimmie and the time they caved a man’s skull in together to how Kimmie had triggered when she went after Richard Anders and it turned out he was Allfather… Well, that answered a few questions about how the Empire had endured if they controlled the biggest employer in the city. It also explained why Medhall was so interested in helping the DWU. They were making a play for her in some convoluted peace offering. Funny, given the Empire was behind all the scabs stealing work from the Union. She’d need to tell her dad about that, but that could wait for the morning. He needed his sleep.
The biggest surprise to come of it was that her mom was a cape too. Hirschfield. She was the best kept secret of the movement, and her existence was always a rumored ghost. The public files on Lustrum only ever mentioned unpowered black market surgeons helping the movement.
Hirschfield pioneered several gender affirming surgical techniques for both MtF and FtM people, with dozens of patients over the five years she was active with Lustrum, and a few more after the fact. Taylor couldn’t help but wonder if that was how Melissa and Cranial recognized her. None of the patients were named, just a general date and the type of surgery done and the clinical notes attached.
She began cross-referencing the events in the journal with the public record, then for shits and giggles, cracked into the national PRT database and found the classified records as well. The classified records were still heavily skewed in favor of the government, but came closer to the journals than she expected. If it went public, it would create quite the scandal as there was no doubt that Lustrum was falsely imprisoned.
The journals didn’t spare identities like the classified records tended to do with the heroes. The local Protectorate was corrupt, there was no getting around that, not that it was news to Taylor. Armsmaster and Miss Militia had suppressed news about one of the kidnapping victims that was central to the castration conviction. Apparently that was why Ravager and Mouse Protector left the Protectorate, as Ravager was listed as the victim, only they never testified as no proper trial was ever given. That one of the patients listed in the journals overlapped with Ravager…
Taylor didn’t want to take her mom’s journals at face value, as she knew their accounts were going to be biased, but there was enough there to cast doubt on all the official documents. She absently added every name encountered on the PRT database to a document and began to compile files on each. If she was going to release the documents to the public, then she would need to make sure no capes were outed by the information, at least not their civilian identities. She would expose the hell out of their crimes.
Fuck Medhall.
Now she just had to figure out a way to make money from the release of said information. Perhaps Coil could be of further use there, he did seem very willing to throw money at problems after all.
An alarm chimed in her mind and she smiled, Lisa and her team were gearing up and were ready to do a quick systems check. Hopping onto her bed, Taylor laid back and shut her eyes. Digital windows sprung up in her mind’s eye, four camera views soon occupying them. The city skyline lit up the night sky and she could see the four costumed figures of the Undersiders.
“Cyber to Tattle, cameras are good,” she said over the mental connection to their comms.
“Copy Cyber,” Lisa said with forced cheer. “Good to have you watching our backs.”
Taylor frowned, because she could tell Lisa was still down from the earlier argument. Muting the other connections, and disabling Coil’s backdoor into their comms for a moment, Taylor spoke.
“Lise, don’t respond aloud, but I am sorry things went to shit tonight. Dad has somewhat apologized to me, but I’ll make sure he does the same for you. You didn’t deserve to have our issues thrown in your face like that.”
Lisa blinked, looking into Grue’s camera before she pulled her phone out to send a quick message.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
“Don’t worry about it, you didn’t deserve it either.”
Taylor bit her lip. “I’ll make it up to you, promise.”
Lisa rolled her eyes and Taylor reset the comms to their original status before Coil got suspicious. Tattletale ran through a few quick checks and outlined her general plan again for the team and to clue her in, because there was no way that Taylor hadn’t already helped with the planning.
Chuckling, Taylor drew up a list of a dozen alarms spread across the city, some would notify proper authorities, others would notify the Empire directly. To start, she flagged one on the edge of Merchant territory and sounded a broken window.
“First alarm sounded, Operation Timer has begun,” Taylor said. “Grue, the floor is yours.”
“Let’s move,” he said, climbing atop one of the dogs. Regent hopped behind him and Tattletale took a second dog. Bitch of course was on the third dog. “The alarm is dead?”
“Confirmed,” Taylor said. “Feel free to kick their door down.”
Bitch whistled, and the dogs sprung into motion. Taylor triggered a second alarm, this one along ABB territory and signaled the Empire directly. She checked over the few cameras that had network access, not that many still worked. Sighting Rune, she confirmed the direction of her travel and grinned.
The nest had been kicked.
“Empire responding to decoy two,” she said. “Police response to decoy one. Activating decoys three and four.”
Shattered glass was her answer as the dogs burst through the storefront. Tattletale and Grue dismounted immediately, followed by Regent and Bitch who began to set up the bags.
“Priority on cash and drugs,” Grue said.
Taylor understood that, but she had her own wishlist sitting in the display cases. Tattletale nodded, moving to a safe stored behind the counter while Bitch and Regent disappeared into the back. Grue couldn’t deploy his darkness without losing their connection, which was the only reason the front of the store hadn’t been blanketed.
Grue took his own bag and smashed the register and Taylor could only slap her face that there was actually cash inside, because of course there was. Remembering the timeline, she sounded another alarm, but the damage was already done, the Empire capes were regrouping and the Protectorate was now in motion.
Armsmaster was among them, and he seemed to be heading straight for the gun shop. Her eyes narrowed as she checked her systems, all active projects being shuffled off as she conducted a full system and network check and she still almost missed it. A minor data leak from the nearest cell tower. Someone had come up with a way to track when she was sending and receiving large amounts of data. Isolating it, she sent a dummy packet with one of her custom viruses down the stream.
“Tattletale, we had someone listening in,” Taylor said. “Armsmaster is en route. I’m currently tracking the intrusion. You’re on a timer now.”
“Got it,” she said tersely as the safe swung open, revealing stacks of cash and documents. She quickly shoved it into her own bag and moved over to the gun racks, grabbing what Taylor recognized as the items on her own list. “How are we looking?”
Her virus returned a result and she found herself swearing. “The intrusion was Dragon. I’ve locked her out but Armsmaster won’t be fooled by false signals. Recommend immediate exfil.”
“You heard the lady,” Grue said. “We’re leaving.”
Regent and Bitch came out of the back, both with heavy bags in hand which they began to secure to the dogs with practiced ease. Thirty seconds later the four were out the window and moving away from the Protectorate Tinker.
Cursing as he barreled right past the store, Taylor began searching for his own secure signals. Backtracking from the Rig, she found it, but the firewalls were on par with the most secure she had encountered. Cracking her metaphorical knuckles, Taylor got to work.
The dogs circled around towards the docks, Armsmaster still closing the gap, but not yet in sight. “Ditch the cameras and kill your phones, Dragon is tracking them for him.”
“Fuck,” Grue said as they began to fumble for said devices.
The feeds went dead one by one and she decided to tap into her Toybox systems to accelerate the brute force attempt. She tore through the firewall, isolated Dragon’s own encrypted signals and shunted them off to parts unknown and triggered his armor lock using a spoofed signal with his own ID code attached.
As he was attempting to make a sharp turn.
Right into the front of a Chinese restaurant just inside Lung’s territory.
Taylor wasn’t vindictive, not at all.
Isolating Dragon’s signal, she routed it to a quarantined cellular instance in her head. “Naughty, naughty.”
“Ms. Hebert?” Dragon asked.
“Cyber while I’m on the job, please,” she answered. “Care to explain why you were acting in support of the Empire just now?”
“Armsmaster requested my assistance with a Parahuman incident,” she said.
Taylor laughed. “I see Armsy still has a grudge since I turned him down. I suppose I should expect a visit at school or home?”
“Even if he is really interested in your tech, I don’t see him violating the rules like that,” she said.
Taylor chuckled. “Ah, so he will do it when you aren’t aware, got it.”
“Perhaps,” she said. “I am not omnipotent after all.”
Taylor’s eyes narrowed. “Dragon, you control the Birdcage, correct?”
“I do.”
“Explain to me how so many innocents have been imprisoned there in the last decade and a half,” she asked. “I’ve been doing my research for an old family project and I’ve run into some distressing information that directly involves your curbside boyfriend.”
“Everyone has secrets, Cyber, I trust you know when discretion is the better part of valor?”
“Then you won’t mind if I dump some stuff on the web that proves a Birdcage resident is innocent then?”
It was largely a bluff, because Taylor was far from ready to weaponize the journals, but the threat was clear. She would drag the reputations of many heroes if they didn’t leave her alone. Plus, her virus had finally borne results, spreading itself through a complex computer system somewhere in the Canadian wilderness. She immediately began to copy what she could, sending the data to servers the world over before routing it back to a Toybox system for eventual examination.
“Cyber, what are you do—”
The data stream cut off abruptly, as did her connection with Dragon. She’d gotten almost zero data, and wasn’t sure what the signal she’d recorded hitting the servers just before the call dropped meant. Shrugging, Taylor sent Lisa a message that their tracks had been covered. The fun might have been over, but the damage was done, she had a backup completed and Armsy had been shown why he should keep his nose out of a fellow Tinker’s business.
An incoming call had her grimace, however. “Coil,” she answered.
“Cyber, care to explain what happened?”
Biting the metaphorical bullet, she decided to just be upfront. “Dragon exploited a weakness in my own security suite. That vulnerability is already being patched, but the mistake was mine for not spotting it in my own testing.”
“You are fortunate my team was able to escape.”
“I am aware,” Taylor said. “The Undersiders have earned their reputation it seems. Just know that if Dragon was able to infiltrate my systems, she might have access to your own. I would recommend a proper evaluation with whoever provides your services.”
“I will take that under advisement,” he said easily. “Now, for the matter of how your indiscretion affects your payment.”
Taylor grimaced. “I’ll accept a cut to the originally proposed amount for this mistake as well as a discount on the next service or product you request of me.”
“Generous of you,” he said carefully.
“I don’t want a reputation for screwing over my clients. At the same time, the Undersiders did complete their mission and got away unscathed with my assistance. That counts for something, wouldn’t you agree?”
“Very well. Your payment has been transferred and you can expect to hear from me in the future.”
The call cut off and Taylor let out a shaky breath. Coil was a slimy bastard, but she couldn’t burn those bridges just yet. Not until Lisa wasn’t at risk from his machinations. Speaking of, Lisa was calling.
“Lise,” she said softly.
“We’re back at base,” Lisa said. “Everything good on your end?”
“Coil docked my pay, Dragon is covering for Armsy’s dirty laundry and I need a stiff drink,” Taylor chuckled. “So, about the usual, I suppose.”
“Ouch,” she said in sympathy. “If it makes you feel better, I did snag your entire shopping list on the way out.”
Taylor smiled. “That does make me feel better, but not as good as knowing you’re alright. I was worried. If he had gotten you, I couldn’t have done much until my shell was finished, and even then…”
“You would have tried anyway,” Lisa whispered.
“Yeah, I would have.”
Silence reigned for several moments, neither willing to fill it. Finally, Lisa’s soft voice filled the void.
“Thanks. You have no idea what that means to me to hear that.”
Taylor felt her heart clench at the emotion packed into those words, raw and heartfelt. Smiling, she answered, packing every ounce of meaning into the word as she could convey. Because, when it all came down to it, she wouldn’t leave Lisa out to dry, ever. She would be there for her.
“Always.”