“I take it you’re the reason we had a six A.M. briefing this morning?” Dennis asked as he sat down at their usual table.

Taylor had been surprised that nobody was waiting for her when she arrived at school, half expecting Armsmaster himself to ambush her in the office or something. When that hadn’t happened after two classes, she allowed herself to relax. Amy was already at the table, poking at something that was supposed to be meatloaf and Chris was not far behind Dennis. Both looked as sleep-deprived as Amy which was quite the worrying accomplishment.

“Is Armsy mad that video of his little crash made it onto PHO?” Taylor asked. “Or was it the picture of him covered in leftover noodles that did it?”

There was no point being coy with anyone at the table after all, and she wanted to have her fun without tiptoeing around the subjects.

“The noodles,” Chris said with a grimace. “Apparently he had to completely disassemble his armor to get the grease out of the joints.”

Amy snorted, picking at her tater tots. “Maybe that crash helped dislodge the stick from his ass.”

Taylor couldn’t help the barking laughter that followed, uncaring of the attention it drew from those around them. She quickly isolated the video clip and sent it to Lisa, making sure to edit Chris and Dennis from the footage first. She didn’t doubt that Lisa had done similar dives into cape identities, but there was no point in making her job any easier than it already was. A gif of a laughing fox was Lisa’s answer.

“I’m afraid his case is terminal,” Taylor said once her laughter was under control. “Even you wouldn’t be enough to help him.”

Amy rolled her eyes, stabbing a tot with her fork. “Think Surgeon and I working together could do it?”

“You’ve considered the offer?” Taylor asked carefully. “Don’t joke about this, Surgeon would literally turn me inside out if you’re kidding.”

“That might be entertaining,” Amy said with a smirk. “I’m curious, I’ll admit and Carol is extremely controlling about what I can and cannot do. Plus, every dollar paid to me goes to New Wave as a whole, I don’t see any of it.”

“That can’t be right,” Chris said. “Even the Wards get a portion of their merchandise and extra services funds deposited into their trust.”

“Well I don’t,” Amy spat. “Did you know that Vicky’s college fund has four times as much in it as mine? I saw the statements a few months ago because Mark opened the mail and left it on the table. I talked to Aunt Sarah over the weekend and apparently I’m responsible for over ninety percent of New Wave’s funding and see none of it save a hundred dollar weekly allowance.”

“That’s more than I get,” Dennis said.

“Vicky gets five hundred,” Amy seethed. “And she has a Dean to pay for everything.”

Chris and Dennis both winced at the statement and Taylor understood why. The Stansfields were some of the richest people in Brockton, just below the Christners and Anders. Given one of those was the mayor and the other the secret leader of the Empire, it was quite the accomplishment given the economy in Brockton at present.

Amy was the PR darling of New Wave. She was always front and center of any articles about the independent hero team with a plethora of achievements tossed out. The team would have likely folded into the Protectorate if not for her efforts over the last three years. All of that was public information, so one would think that Carol Dallon would be making sure Amy was as happy as she could be instead.

“Well, I can pretty much promise you that Toybox pays better given the bonus I was promised if I got you to sign up,” Taylor said. “Interested in meeting them after school?”

“What bonus?” Amy asked with narrowed eyes.

“Million bucks just to get you in the door,” Taylor admitted. “So I might be a bit biased with trying to get you to agree to join up.”

Chris shot chocolate milk from his nose as he descended into a hacking cough. Dennis was stock still, not even breathing. Amy however had turned contemplative even as she poked Chris in the arm and settled his cough.

“Why so much?” Amy asked.

“Because Dodge is convinced you would bring in billions in short order,” Taylor said. “If you’re interested, meet me outside Mr. Garner’s class after the final bell.”

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

“Okay…” Amy muttered.

She gave Taylor an odd look, but returned to her meal just as the warning bell sounded. Taylor gathered her tray and moved to deposit it by the steam room. Well, she had done what she could, if Amy did join, that bonus would go a long way to setting up her cape plans and settling her debts. She had pretty well accepted that she would be branded a villain in that identity as well, and as a result, she was very much looking forward to the first time she faced off with Armsmaster.

Maybe she could knock him on his egotistical ass a second time.

----------------------------------------

The final bell had sounded and Taylor made her way to Harry’s classroom. She had messaged him to stick around but wasn’t completely sure if Amy would show. Taylor was delightfully surprised to see Amy already waiting for her outside the room, having a conversation with Harry.

She couldn’t help but smile when he caught sight of her and realized exactly what was about to happen. Well, he wouldn’t be able to dodge (heh) this one, she would make sure of that. Taylor waved, weaving around a few students as she caught up with them.

“Amy, you made it,” she said with a grin. “Harry, been a minute.”

“Last night is hardly a minute,” Harry said with an impressive deadpan delivery. “Alright, inside the classroom if we’re going to talk shop.”

“Wait, are you—”

Amy was cut off as Harry raised a finger to his lips. The door was pushed open and Taylor was the first to step inside, followed by a skeptical Amy and finally Harry pulled the door closed behind them. Moving over to his desk, he pulled open a drawer and set a device atop the table and activated it. White noise registered to Taylor’s audio processors and she recognized it as the same privacy screen Melissa employed at their first meeting.

Seeing it through her cyber brain for the first time, Taylor could already imagine combining it with some sort of optical filtering system to hide her presence from casual observation. It would need tweaking, but in theory she could even use it to suppress gunfire, which would make it a fantastic feature for her combat loadout.

“Neat,” Taylor said, taking a seat atop one of the desks. “You’ll have to let me poke at that, because I’m getting some ideas.”

“I’ll put you in touch with the Tinker later,” he said dismissively. “Now, Amy, since Taylor brought you to me like this, am I to assume you’re interested in Toybox?”

“My science teacher is a cape,” Amy said with a sigh. “Why am I surprised? This is goddamn Arcadia. Half the student population seems to be capes lately, so why not the teachers too?”

Huffing, Amy pulled a pack of— Huh. She popped a cigarette out and lit it with practiced ease, taking a deep drag before exhaling in relief. Harry tried to voice an objection but she just held up a finger, her middle one to be precise. That she could still take a drag from the cigarette with her middle finger extended was actually impressive in a way.

“Fuck, I needed that,” Amy said, putting the cigarette out on the desktop. Taylor winced at the scorch marks it left behind. Harry’s eye was twitching at the display even as he kept a forced pleasant smile on his face. “So, what’s the pitch? Do I need to sign something or is this all informal?”

“You have to sign a contract in blood that was authored on human skin,” Taylor couldn’t help but say.

Amy’s eyes widened, and her lips fell slack. Pity she didn’t have a lit cigarette to dangle. Taylor tried to keep a straight face even as Harry sputtered incoherently. Unfortunately, just turning off her face muscles wouldn’t work, she really needed a proper shell for that little trick. Sure enough, her facade broke and Amy cursed.

“You bitch,” Amy said eventually. “I can’t believe I fucking fell for that for even one goddamn second.”

“It was pretty damn funny,” Taylor said.

“Please don’t scare away potential recruits,” Harry groaned. “You probably convinced Amy she was signing up for the Nine or something with a delivery like that.”

“We’re a Tinker hub, not a group of murderers,” Taylor said, dismissively. “So Ames, are you interested in seeing the clubhouse and meeting your biggest fan? Surgeon has the afternoon off but hasn’t been told yet.”

“Sure, why not?” Amy said with a sigh. “Is it bad that I might have said yes even if that was part of the terms?”

“Seriously?” Harry asked. “Christ, I am not equipped for this. Thank god Surgeon’s dad is a therapist, because it sounds like you might need one.”

“Her home life sounds pretty toxic,” Taylor said, sparing a glance for the prickly healer. “Not my place to give more details, however.”

“Can we please just get on with this?” Amy asked. “Carol’s already going to be pissed I’m blowing off a hospital shift for this, let’s at least make it worth me enduring her ire?”

A look of concern crossed Harry’s face before he shook his head muttering something about ‘all the therapy’ before he retrieved a familiar remote and clicked a button revealing a rift in space. An alert pinged her own systems, letting her know the rift would lead to her personal lab, because Harry was the only one with the master key. Then again, she did share her code with Melissa, Cranial and Riley, so it wasn’t quite so exclusive.

“Let me be the first to welcome you to Toybox,” Harry said. “Mind the blonde missile, you may be under fire the moment you enter.”

“Is that normal?” Amy asked.

“It certainly can be,” Taylor admitted. “You’ll understand more once inside.”

“That doesn’t fill me with confidence,” Amy said.