Taylor was enjoying the novelty of going to school for once. Even as she entered Arcadia, the Major was back in her lab Tinkering. The communication suite she had employed for her remote systems was a collaboration between herself, Dodge and Cranial, resulting in a quantum sync that should bypass the tinkertech systems at Arcadia entirely.
She didn’t want to piss off Dragon longer than she needed to, not that the Tinker had contacted her since that incident. It also wasn’t a surprise that nothing had come from her little talk with the Tinker. She had no doubt found the exact reason that the investigation was halted, after all, Lisa had found it in less than five minutes as she had been informed after figuring out Sophia’s identity.
Lisa had asked her not to dig, saying it would only make her angry, but that if it became truly relevant she would tell her. Taylor hadn’t liked that at the time, but listened to her girlfriend all the same. There was a Ward at Winslow, fucking Sophia of all people, a Ward had been complicit in what happened to her.
It made her want to punch Armsmaster and she could only hope that once hired by Coil she would get that chance. Still, that didn’t mean she couldn’t head out into the city and take her chances while fishing for Coil’s attention. If her luck didn’t pan out, she would just ‘accidentally’ stumble upon the Undersiders during their next job.
“Hey Taylor,” Amy said as she took a seat in the lunchroom.
Dennis grunted a greeting rather than talk with his mouth full and Chris looked dead on his feet. No doubt a late night spent tinkering. He had an idea for a field deployable cannon that would actually prove a threat to Hookwolf which had been interesting enough, but it would overload after two to three shots at best.
Taylor had been endlessly amused that a Ward was talking shop with her, and with him having never set foot in Winslow, she was at least open to working with him on lunchroom side projects unlikely to see the field.
“Hey Ames,” Taylor said, unpacking her lunch. “You look chipper today.”
“Oh, I made some progress on my rose project,” Amy said, a slight blush on her freckled cheeks. “I figured Vivian might like them.”
Taylor couldn’t help but smirk at that, because she would never have called that one and Lisa didn’t even need to meddle. Granted, the pair now had a running bet on how destructive the breakup would end up being, but it was proving an outlet for Amy nonetheless.
“Who’s Vivian?” Dennis asked.
Amy glanced at Taylor for a moment, though all she did was shrug. It was up to Amy how much she wanted to reveal on that front so long as she didn’t out anyone.
“She’s someone I met recently,” Amy said. “She’s a bit of a firecracker, but there’s something about her that has been thrilling.”
Dennis blinked for a moment, his head tilting to the side as the gears turned ever slowly. As Lisa had said, queers attract one another, and Toybox was proving to be a fair example of that stereotype.
Taylor was about to make a joke about the look on Dennis’ face when the intercom chimed. “Taylor Herbert, please report to the office— Taylor Hebert, apologies. Please report to the office.”
“The hell?” Taylor muttered, looking down at her half finished lunch. Her body still needed nutrition despite being a remote platform, and missing lunch would be a detriment to its performance.
“That’s ominous,” Amy added. “You don’t think they’re trying something, do you?”
Taylor shrugged, hurrying to finish her wrap at least. “No idea,” she said between bites. “I’ve been expecting another recruitment attempt for a few weeks now, so it wouldn’t surprise me.”
“I mean, the Wards aren’t that bad,” Chris muttered while chewing on a celery stick.
Taylor rolled her eyes. “Tell me that again after they approve your alternator cannon.”
Chris stuck out his tongue, but didn’t argue the point. She knew he wouldn’t get to deploy it unless a Class S situation were declared. Finishing her food far too quickly, she groaned when a hiccup snuck out and Amy immediately grabbed her arm and suppressed the urge. A thank you was offered but dismissed just as easily and Taylor knew it was time to see what fuckery she was about to walk into.
Her HUD highlighted the path as she checked her messages, Lisa was finally awake, because that girl would never be an early riser. She told Lisa about the meeting, not once stopping her work on said girl’s future shell in the process. Lisa’s cyber brain connected into the Toybox network almost immediately and linked in, and Taylor could practically feel Lisa looking through her eyes.
It was strangely intimate in a way, knowing that her girlfriend was right there with her no matter what was thrown her way. It brought a level of confidence with it that saw her striding into the office with her shoulders squared, only to almost walk into the back of a dark skinned woman.
“Shit, sorry,” she muttered. “I wasn’t expecting someone right in the door.”
The woman chuckled and Taylor got a good look at her face, or what she could see of it under the flag striped bandanna covering the lower half of it. Taylor’s apologetic smile turned into a snarl at the sight of yet another local hero there to harass her.
“No apologies necessary,” Miss Militia said, her eyes crinkling in a way that had Lisa recoiling in her visual feed. “I was just leaving.”
Taylor eyed her warily as she exited the office before turning back to the secretary’s empty desk and the fact that her father was sitting there, waiting. He smiled upon seeing her, but she could see the strain behind that smile.
“Oh, that bastard,” Lisa hissed. “Tay, he hasn’t signed anything, but he’s here to ask you to attend a PRT Wards pitch back at their clubhouse. Militia put him up to it.”
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“In the middle of school, really?” Taylor asked, crossing her arms as she stared him down. “Let me guess, Miss Militia is our ride?”
He looked away.
She huffed. “Fuck that, I’m going back to the lunchroom. I have better things to do than listen to shitty pitches from people that refuse to help me.”
“Taylor,” he tried.
“No,” she snapped. Deep breaths, don’t stoop to their level and out people for petty reasons. Save it for the right time. “Those people covered up a murder attempt aimed at me. I know for a fact it was because of a Ward at Winslow they’re trying to protect.”
“I don’t believe that,” he said with some measure of determination.
“I figured it out on my own,” Taylor snarled. “It’s amazing what you can find out with some basic internet searching. A Ward was directly involved. I’m sure you can figure out the rest.”
Taylor stared her father down, even as Lisa held her breath, but he didn’t flinch. She knew someone must have gotten to him, and she had a suspicion. Two seconds later she had her answer. Miss Militia, aka Hannah Washington.
“Great, you’re dating her,” Taylor grumbled. “Points for that I suppose, assuming you aren’t being Mastered because I wouldn’t put it past the heroes to go that far, but I’m still pissed.”
Her father blinked for a moment, then shook his head. “Taylor, I just want you safe.”
“I am safe,” she said. “I’ve made sure of that and you are trying to sign me up with the very people that did nothing to help. Those people know exactly why I ended up in that locker and covered it up, that was my trigger, so how do you think I feel that you’re trying to drag me into this?”
“Taylor,” he started.
“No,” she interrupted. “You want to have this conversation? Go tell your girlfriend that I’ll sit down and chat after they punish the people that hurt me, not before.”
Taylor didn’t wait for an answer, instead she turned and marched out of the office and looked down the hall. Miss Militia was waiting, so Taylor turned in the opposite direction and continued off, raising a middle finger as she walked. She didn’t have the patience to deal with that level of shit, so she didn’t plan on it.
----------------------------------------
The Major sighed, moving away from Lisa’s eventual shell, pinching the bridge of her nose even as her flesh and blood took the long way to her next class. Taylor knew she needed to let off steam and the automated processes could handle the work, they just weren’t as quick about it. Frankly, she wanted to punch someone, and a patrol would be the quickest way to go about it.
“Taylor,” Lisa said softly. “Please don’t do anything rash.”
“Nothing rash about finding a Nazi to punch, Lise,” she answered.
Her jacket was hung by the door, along with her shoulder holster and pistol. She tossed them on and made her way to the dimensional gateway and input a set of coordinates and popped out in her eventual base. Some preliminary work had been done; a Toybox affiliated company was already making significant progress.
It would still be weeks before she could start working out of it, but the living area on the top floor was at least functional and the first bit of the armory was installed. She would need to work on that a bit, just in case her father signed the Wards paperwork without her consent, because of course the law basically made children the property of their parents, and no court would agree to emancipation in the face of becoming a Ward.
“Hey Lise, do you think he’s going to sign me up without asking?”
“Honestly? He might if Militia gets to him enough. You’re going to have to talk to him sooner than later about it, and rushing off to fight Nazis isn’t conducive to solving your current problems. Come on, let’s just relax and dig more into the Nazi bastards that had a grudge with your mom’s old teammates.”
Taylor tsked, but there wasn’t much she could do there, multitasking would let her do all of the above. Well, that didn’t mean she couldn’t go looking for trouble. It wasn’t hard to find a Nazi bar on the local net, and no doubt they would take offense to someone with purple hair just casually joining them.
“The shakedown run was one thing, but this,” Lisa shook her head. “Don’t let that go to your head, please. There are plenty of things in this city that could demolish you, like Purity or Hookwolf.”
“Purity just had a child, she’s in no condition to fight,” Taylor said as she mapped out the route to the bar, making sure it crossed Coil’s territory on the way. “Hookwolf is currently attending a pit fight which is honestly a bit tempting.”
“Taylor, no.”
“Taylor, yes,” she said, pushing the door open and stepping out into the early spring air. It was still brisk, not that it mattered to her shell. It was certainly more pleasant out than it had been for her flesh and blood body when she left that morning. “I’ll be careful, I just need to let off some steam.”
“Shit, let me call Rachel or something, you can hit one of his dog fighting rings instead. You have a pistol and a chip on your shoulder, that is not enough to take down Hookwolf.”
“You have your power off right now, don’t you?” Taylor asked.
Lisa blinked, then swore. “Dick move. You’re actually just going for a run?”
Taylor began to jog, speeding up into a sprint before she leapt off the roof and took off towards downtown at a brisk pace. Nothing frantic, as she wasn’t in any particular hurry, but running across rooftops in broad daylight was a completely different experience to free running at night.
“I mean, I was serious about the bar, but I won’t start shit unless they do,” Taylor said.
“Want me to call the ambulance now, or wait?”
Taylor snorted before she cleared another building with a gentle leap. “Later, obviously. They’re fucking Nazis, who gives a shit?”
“Got it, knock out the 911 services for the area when they try to call it in,” Lisa said.
The Major smiled fondly. “See Lisa, you get me. I’ll send you the video after.”
“As if I won’t be watching through your eyes,” she answered, then chuckled. “Shadow Stalker’s gonna be pissed when she learns she missed out.”
“She can get over it.”