Taylor hobbled back into her home, cursing that she still needed the crutches. Her brace was working out great for her arm and hand, and she already had ideas for covering it in artificial skin to help hide it better. Tomorrow she would return to Toybox and build another brace for her leg as a stop gap, that should be enough until she managed to get everything she needed to build her brain case. That was the creation she needed to work towards, as all of her tech stemmed from it. Fixing her brain in the process would just be a bonus.
Until then, she needed to come up with some easy to make, but still desirable products to fill out her portion of the Toybox catalog. Melissa said she would be by around no later than eight thirty to pick her up, which felt like it was so far away. As weird as things were in the Tinker commune, it was paradise to her.
Booting her computer, Taylor navigated back to their website and began to look over the available tools that were on offer. She ended up filling her cart with well over a million dollars worth of stuff before she realized, her gut roiling at just how much it all cost, but she didn’t remove anything.
She heard the rumble of her father’s truck, and quickly turned her monitor off. Among those supplies had been a laptop that would serve her programming needs far better than her current aging rig. She made it down the stairs just as he made it to the door and let himself in.
“Taylor,” he said with a weak smile. “I got Fugly’s.”
Her stomach sank, because Fugly’s rarely accompanied good news, especially when he got shakes to go along with it. She knew better than to ask; he would tell her after they got done eating. She made her way into the kitchen, pulling her own chair out and took a seat while he set everything out. Taylor reached for her burger and was halfway to unwrapping it when she noticed.
She was still wearing her brace.
Taylor quickly pulled her hand back, and covered it with her sleeve. Naturally, her father was too despondent to notice. He had been spiraling since the hospital, and Taylor couldn’t blame him. Things were going wrong at every turn, and nothing was getting better.
Maybe she should tell him.
He had to suspect she had powers, given how interested the Protectorate was, but Taylor had kept it to herself so far and he hadn’t pried. She wanted something she could show him, to demonstrate that she could create things and didn’t need to join the heroes and she had it, right there on her arm.
Taylor tried to speak, to admit that Armsmaster was right about her, but she couldn’t find the words. Gritting her teeth, she realized that she wasn’t ready to give up that part of herself, because he would ultimately push for the Wards.
If he asked, she would tell him, otherwise she would wait until she had the most invasive of her tech finished. The restrictions on the Wards were clear, Taylor would never be allowed to Tinker on her own body. She couldn’t operate under such restrictions and would go stir-crazy on a good day.
She needed Toybox.
Taylor ate in silence, relishing the greasy burger and thick milkshake that had melted just enough to drink easily through the oversized straw. Packing the last of her meal away, Taylor settled in with the last dregs of her shake and waited for the unpleasant news.
“The PRT has dropped the investigation,” he said without preamble.
Taylor wished she could say that she was surprised, but she really wasn’t. The only hero she had met that wasn’t trying to recruit her had been Panacea. Amy hadn’t kept in touch, because Taylor lacked a cell phone and all, so it wasn’t even her fault, but it still bothered her.
She sat in silence, processing that news, but she had a sneaking suspicion that there was another blow hidden within that bit of news, so she waited.
Her father sighed, slumping in his seat as he did. “Winslow expects you back no later than the thirtieth.”
There it was, she would be sent back to the very same wolves that had seen her hospitalized, that had taken her mobility. The bitches had won, that was the message being sent. Taylor’s fists clenched, and she knew she was on a timer. She needed to get back to Toybox, get the work started on her cyber brain.
The recording capabilities alone would be a lifesaver, as would the hacking that would be seamless with the mental interfaces available. She couldn’t afford to sit around and wait, she had so much work to do.
Standing, her father looked on, all the light having left his eyes. He had given up, but she hadn’t. Not yet. There was still fight left in Taylor Hebert and she was determined to go out kicking if necessary.
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“What is this?” Melissa asked, looking over Taylor’s shoulder.
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Her lab was still very much an in-progress task, but there were enough tools and supplies that she could get started with the preliminary work on her most important projects. She had made her leg brace that next morning in Cranial’s lab while they set up the supply order she had put in. That afternoon, her work shifted to what was now her lab space.
It had started as a nondescript sixty by sixty foot square, but had since been built up into a high-tech workspace that she could only have dreamed of.
“It’s the core of my tech,” Taylor said, moving around the 3D hologram hovering above the table. “A brain case, which will enable me to interface with anything electronic in real time.”
Melissa’s head snapped up, her jaw falling slack and her eyes wide. “A brain— Taylor, will you have to remove your brain to install this!?”
“It shouldn’t be that big of a deal?” Taylor said, moving back to the computer terminal. “The entire process will be automated and I’ll be unconscious for the worst of it.”
Melissa blinked for a moment then shook her head. “Okay, no. I’m bringing Cranial in on this.” Taylor spun, a protest dying on her lips as Melissa cut her off with a firm finger. “Taylor, we have experts you can call on. We aren’t lone Tinkers, we’re a collective. Make use of that. Cranial’s specialty is the mind. We have others you can reach out to. You aren’t alone, so stop acting like you are.”
Every protest she had died an ignoble death, because Melissa was right. Taylor was so used to always being on her own that she hadn’t even thought of asking for help. Melissa had both hands on her shoulders, and Taylor couldn’t look into those shimmering brown eyes of hers without feeling immense guilt welling up.
Taylor pulled her into a hug, whispering thank yous and apologies while the woman gently rubbed her back. Why Melissa had taken such an interest in her was still a mystery, but one she didn’t feel rushed to solve. It could be related to her trigger after all, and she had learned rather quickly how sore of a subject that could be among capes.
“Alright, no self surgery?” Melissa asked after a moment.
“I’ll ask for assistance and do nothing without supervision,” Taylor confirmed.
Melissa nodded. “Good. I’ll let Cranial know to come check on your work and make some calls. I know a few associates of ours that might be interested.”
Taylor nodded, feeling oddly light about the entire thing, but also happy. She wasn’t alone anymore, and that by itself was a huge weight off of her shoulders. She wasn’t ready to talk about how she had ended up in the hospital, or how everyone had failed her so spectacularly, but she would accept help with her Tinkering.
It was a small step, but an important one all the same.
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“You’re lucky you didn’t try this on your own,” Cranial said, looking over the model Taylor had created. “This is functional, but there is so much that can be improved upon at almost every step on the interface level.”
They moved to the controls, bringing up a custom display that Taylor recognized from her time in the other Tinker’s lab and several portions of her project file were highlighted. Notations sprung up, filling in at a breakneck speed. Taylor read them as quickly as she could, but things were going so fast.
Brain Tinker. That was Cranial’s specialty, and it shouldn’t have been a surprise that they had augmented their own mental capabilities or worked in a man/machine interface already. Taylor watched as the entire system was streamlined and overhauled. So much of it made sense to her once it was spelled out, like it had been obvious now that she saw the new approach.
Excitement filled her as she moved to her own terminal and began to add her own notations to the files, and then began to tweak her interface programs to match the improved ideas. There was a lot of work to be done, but each new discovery sent a small thrill through her. Working with others, she decided, was something she could certainly get used to.
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Taylor looked over the programs she had created, from a custom operating system, to a high-end cybersecurity suite. All of them were set to go live on Toybox’s website later that day and finally begin the arduous process of paying back the absolutely absurd amounts of money that the organization was fronting her.
Not one request she had made for materials or tools had been turned down so far, and it was more than a little concerning. She had met a few other Tinkers over the past week, but most were just passing through. The core group that made up Toybox was tight-knit, Taylor knew it would take time for them to trust her fully, even if Melissa and Cranial had already done so, for whatever reasons they had.
She had replaced her glasses with a custom OLED model from Toybox’s extensive catalog, matching her prescription as well as allowing her to program a HUD into them for assisting with her work. It was a pale imitation of what she would have with her cyber brain, but it did allow her to work out some of the kinks with the interface.
Her cyber brain was just the first step after all, and she had begun the preliminary work on her next major project. A full cybernetic body to replace her current one. At first, she had considered a perfect copy of her existing form, but that would be too obvious. No, making it into a second identity would keep her safer, especially once she began to poke into the corruption that had seen her plight ignored.
The Protectorate was corrupt, the gangs were allowed to operate with few restrictions and Emma was going to get away with crippling her permanently. None of that could be allowed to stand. The body would take months to finish, as the entire assembly process had to be created from scratch, but follow-up work would only take a fraction of the time and materials.
Until then, she had a working plan, and while her cyber brain wouldn’t be necessary to success, it would make things a great deal easier. She just had to hope that everyone played along with the script she was drafting up, and if they did, that she could pull off her little coup. Taylor was confident, but she wanted to be as prepared as possible.
“How goes the progress?” Melissa asked.
“Better than I expected,” Taylor admitted. “Thanks to Cranial, the brain case is pretty well complete, we’re just running tests on the interface software while preparing for the surgery I’ll need. It is rather invasive and risky after all.”
Melissa smiled. “That’s actually why I came by today. I’ve got some good news for you.”
“Oh?” Taylor asked, her attention now fully on Melissa.
“How would you like to meet Surgeon?”