Taylor paused in her discussion with Riley as Lisa got her attention, tapping the side of her head. Right, all Lisa’s cybernetics were currently in a pass through only mode until Taylor activated them. That included the switch that would turn her power back on.

“Sure thing, Lise!” she said cheerfully. “I’ll get those ideas added to a project file, alright Riley?”

The young blonde pouted but nodded all the same. “Alright.”

“Hey, none of that,” Taylor said, patting her on the head. “Maybe you can go see if Amy has something you can help her with?”

“Okay!” she said, bouncing out of the room as Jacob followed, shaking his head fondly at his daughter’s antics.

“She’s a sweet kid,” Taylor said, walking up to Lisa. “So, is everything working normally? Fingers and toes have the proper feeling and such?”

Lisa blinked for a moment, then began actually checking her digits. Taylor waited patiently as she confirmed that yes, everything was working as she remembered. Better in the case of her left thumb which had once been messed up from an old injury. Amy must have fixed that while they worked.

“Okay, I’m going to activate your interface, don’t go poking at things until I direct you to them, alright?”

Lisa nodded. “I can’t wait to see the world as you do.”

Taylor smiled and reached up behind Lisa’s ear, depressing a small indention that would otherwise go unnoticed and sent the startup signal. Taylor watched as Lisa’s eyes widened, tracking things as they moved across her vision. Taylor had a mirror of the startup playing in her vision, so that she could watch for errors. Finding none, she waited for the systems to sync up with all of Lisa’s senses.

“Everything looks optimal,” Taylor said. “Now, I could walk you through everything as is, or we can activate your power and allow it to assist you. Your call.”

“Walk me through,” Lisa confirmed. “My power bases its inferences off of things I know. I even read an entire thesaurus once just to improve his vocabulary.”

“His?”

“Oh right,” Lisa said with a snap. “I never told you much about how my power actually works. I perceive it as a masculine voice, yet not an actual voice. It’s easier to just think of my power as male.”

“Interesting, I’ll have to add that to the files,” Taylor said. Riley was always interested in any insights to how powers worked after all. “So, the first step will be customizing your UI and HUD to suit your own quirks. Right now you’re running my own layout, but I imagine your power will want you to rearrange things to work better for you.”

“Probably,” Lisa agreed.

So, they spent the next hour going over the various features Taylor had programmed into the cyber brain OS and promised she would receive the same software updates that she applied to Riley’s as well as her own. Cranial was running a custom branch of the software that only made sense to them. Up next was the first real test.

“Alright, network functionality is on,” Taylor said.

Immediately the data coming and going from Lisa’s cyber brain spiked as she began to poke at the net. Thirty seconds later, Taylor received a video of a playfully excited fox and she couldn’t help but grin.

“I see you figured out the phone integration,” Taylor said fondly.

“No wonder you’re such a terror on overwatch,” Lisa muttered. “I don’t even have my power supporting me at the moment and I can do so much. This is just unfair.”

“It really is,” Taylor agreed. “Let me know once you’ve got the hang of all that, then we can see what your power thinks of everything.”

Lisa winced, her eyes downcast before she turned her focus back to Taylor. “You’re sure it will be safe?”

“The part of your brain that it liked to inflame was literally a part of your Gemma that did nothing but feed pain signals into your brain and swell a bit. We isolated it, killed the signals from it and plugged your Corona and Gemma directly into the data feeds of your cyber brain. It’s perfectly safe and having full access to the net should be like foxnip for your power.”

“I promise you a place in my queendom once I rule the world,” Lisa said resolutely. “It shall be my first royal decree once I assume power.”

She held her hand out as if asking Taylor to kiss it, so rather than doing what she expected, and abusing the fact that her power was currently off, Taylor licked it instead. Lisa squeaked, jerking her hand back as she glared at an overly smug Taylor. Naturally, Lisa took the high road by sticking her own tongue out at Taylor.

She ignored the sudden impulse to lick that too.

“Alright, you rascal,” Lisa said as she wiped the back of her hand on the gown. “Power me up.”

Taylor directed Lisa to the software switch and watched as Lisa took a deep breath and activated it. Then her net activity spiked beyond anything Taylor had ever measured before and she was forced to throttle the connection for Lisa’s own safety. Her eyes had dilated considerably as she watched the data flash across her vision.

“Holy shit,” Lisa said after another five minutes. “I think I know who Coil is.”

That was good, she supposed. Taylor hadn’t come any closer to solving that one than Lisa had, so that was something they could work on going forward, but for now she had to make sure her friend’s brain wasn’t about to implode. The technical readouts and sensors were all still good at least and the swelling of her gemma was within expected parameters for such use.

“Any pain or discomfort?” Taylor asked.

Lisa paused in whatever she was working on, a grin splitting her face. “Not even a twinge, like, holy shit Tay, this is amazing!”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Taylor was about to say how happy that made her when Lisa launched herself off the bed and wrapped Taylor in a crushing hug. Emphasis on crushing, because it seemed that Amy had taken the time to implement some of the physical upgrades she had worked out while experimenting on Taylor and Riley. Granted, Riley had a lot of her own upgrades already installed, but that didn’t mean there weren’t other ways to improve base human physiology.

Not that Taylor minded the upgrades, but her next project would absolutely be a proper prosthetic body for her civilian life. As nice as her flesh and blood form was becoming with all the collaborations, there was so much more that she could do without the burdens of meaty bits.

“Careful, Lise,” Taylor squeaked out. “We don’t want to give Amy and Riley more work, do we?”

“Huh?” Lisa pulled back as Taylor finally took a deep and invigorating breath. “Shit, sorry!”

Lisa quickly patted Taylor down, drawing a bit of warmth to her cheeks as Lisa’s hands checked her for injuries. Seemingly satisfied, her friend pulled back, sheepishly rubbing the back of her head.

“I’m alright Lise,” Taylor said fondly. “Just mind the fact that you’re now a minor Brute.”

“I’ll keep it in mind,” Lisa said, then stopped, looking off to the side while biting her lip as she did. Taylor was about to ask what was up when she turned back, an odd intensity to her eyes.

“Is this room secure?” Lisa asked.

“Is it,” Taylor paused, frowning. “Lisa, this is my office in my personal lab. If anywhere in Toybox is secure, it’s this room.”

Lisa let out a shaking breath, clearly considering something but hesitant all the same. Just what had Lisa figured out that left her so rattled? For a moment, Taylor feared Lisa was about to tell her that Coil had infiltrated Toybox or something.

“So, how aware are you of Toybox’s darker secrets?” Lisa asked hesitantly, glancing at the sealed door.

As a precaution, Taylor triggered the added security, only her own code would be able to open the door at that point, when Lisa startled. It took Taylor a moment of looking at Lisa’s panicked expression to realize her power was likely running with some data point related to her locking the door. She quickly added Lisa to the white list for access.

“Sorry,” Taylor said. “We’re the only ones able to open that door now. I take it your power figured some things out?”

“That would be the biggest understatement I have ever heard,” Lisa said, slumping in relief. “How much do you actually know about Toybox?”

Taylor frowned, but thought back to her introduction to the Tinker collective. “I know there’s a shady side, I was told vague details and Melissa made it clear I was to be kept out of it.”

“You see them as family,” Lisa said softly.

“I do. I also know they have things they don’t want me to know, but I trust them enough that if I need to know one of their secrets, they would tell me. I know Cranial and Melissa have ties to my mom in some way, likely through Lustrum, but I haven’t pried.”

Lisa slowly nodded. “What about Jacob and his family?”

“I’m all but certain Jacob is a cape,” Taylor said, sitting back. She wasn’t sure where Lisa was going with it, but she could imagine that Riley might have gotten creative with keeping her safe given it was less than a month prior that Taylor put in the request to investigate Lisa. “I’m sure you figured it out, but please don’t tell me. I trust him to tell me in his own time.”

Lisa’s eyes narrowed. “Are you sure you can trust him? He’s PRT.”

“I’m aware,” Taylor said, letting out a mirthless chuckle. “Hell, I’m half expecting to learn that Toybox is PRT run at this point. My issues are with Armsmaster and the local department. Toybox hasn’t given me a reason to hate them, and I hope they never do. I will be honest though, if it wasn’t for Melissa and Riley, I would have likely cut my losses and run the moment my shell was finished.”

“You care that much for them?” Lisa asked, but Taylor could tell Lisa already knew the answer. “Of course you do. And where do I fit in all of this?”

Taylor blinked. “Lise, you’re my best friend. I won’t rest until you’re free from Coil and able to walk down the street without risk of him deciding to abduct you. If it wasn’t for the risk of disproportionate retaliation, I’d have you move into Toybox full time.”

“He’d kill you, your father and all of your friends,” Lisa said earnestly. “Wards or no, he would do what he needed to drive the point home.”

“Which is why we’re going to play this carefully,” Taylor agreed. “I have Toybox’s support. Kurt is helping me set up an identity and Melissa has promised to let me handle things, but will step in if I’m in over my head. Does that help reassure you?”

“Less than I would like,” Lisa muttered. “But, if you trust them, I’ll try to as well. It’s just difficult, knowing the secrets I do… At least you don’t have any dark secrets that I can see. The worst you did… You asked Melissa to look into me. Damn. Glad I tossed Coil’s orders aside first thing, that could have gone poorly.”

“Probably,” Taylor said. “She treats me like I’m her child, which is weird since she’s barely ten years older than me.”

“There’s a reason for that,” Lisa said.

Taylor held up her hand. “She’ll tell me in her own time. Now, back to Coil?”

“Right!” Lisa said, snapping her fingers. “Your recognition software is amazing by the way. Anyway, with the help of my power and some recordings I kept of our conversations, I figured out who the slimy bastard is!”

“I grasped that,” Taylor said, keeping her voice flat for effect even though she was grinning internally. “Enough suspense, who is the soon-to-be target?”

“Anthony Gibson,” she said, sending a file along with all the supporting documentation. “He fits all the data and then some.”

Scanning everything over, Taylor had to admit that it fit surprisingly well, but it would be best to double and triple verify first. Forwarding that suggestion along, the two traded data at the speed of thought and it didn’t take Taylor long to pick up on where Lisa’s power was contributing to things.

“Alright,” Lisa finally said with a huff. “We’ll keep investigating and make sure we know for sure, as well as try to figure out what his power actually is before we move on him. That satisfactory?”

“Very much so,” Taylor agreed. “My shell is almost ready after all and I would hate to miss out on that particular party.”

“You just want him to hire this ‘Major’ identity you’ve cooked up and have a good laugh over it.”

Taylor gripped her chest as if mortally wounded. “I am hurt that you would think such of me, Lise. It’s almost as if you’re suggesting you don’t also find it hilarious.”

Silence reigned for a beat before both girls broke down into a fit of giggles.

Finally getting themselves under control, Lisa wiped a tear from her eye before speaking. “You know, I half expected to wake up with fox ears or something as a joke.”

“Riley wanted to,” Taylor said, grinning. “We agreed to save that for your eventual shell. Figured you could get a tail out of that too. We could always head back out there and get them to give you one real quick if you’re that disappointed.”

“Brat,” Lisa muttered. “I’ll wait for the shell, because I like having a secret identity, thanks.”

“Sure thing, Lise,” Taylor said. “So, how about some ice cream to celebrate? The freezer here is stocked and Harry has an amazing home theater setup in one of the side rooms.”

“Remind me why we went to the movies again?” Lisa asked.

Taylor shrugged, directing Lisa with a HUD prompt to where her clothes had been stored. “It’s all about appearances. People expect us to act like teens, so we give them what they expect to see.”

“And where do those people think we are right now?” Lisa asked as she laid out her clothes.

“My place,” Taylor said, stepping out the door. “I’ll give you the room, come out once you’re decent!”

Lisa sputtered as Taylor pulled the door closed behind her, laughing to herself as she did.