Taylor Shard Keeper Part 7 (Patreon)

Richard forced himself to smile rather than curse as the door opened and the director walked into the testing center, wondering if he could convince her to leave before Mystic and Armsmaster got back from testing things with Panacea. "Director."

"Agent Smith," Emily replied as she glanced between the destroyed targets scattered around the room and the lab tech that was standing a foot off the ground and holding what looked suspiciously like a magic wand. "Any problems with the new cape?"

"She's remarkably sane, shows an uncommon amount of restraint for a cape and wants to help the city," Richard assured the director.

"That's not a no, what's the problem?" Emily asked, knowing capes always came with baggage.

Richard sighed. "On paper? Nothing, in reality she's going to be a rather large target."

"Tinker?" Emily asked.

"Worse," Richard replied as he pointed towards the destroyed targets and Franklin. "She's a healer and a trump that can hand out several low to moderate level powers in the form of items that grant powers while you're wearing or using them."

Emily glanced between Franklin and Richard. "Limits?"

"She has to discover the abilities and her collection is currently rather limited," Franklin said as he walked over to the table.

"Currently? You think she'll improve?" Emily asked.

"Probably but I'm not sure it matters," Richard admitted. "Even if she never improves, the gangs are going to try to kidnap her or at least secure her services if they find out what she can do. It took her a minute to imbue Franklin's shoes with the ability to walk on air. They also let him run twice as fast, which is a decent boost."

Emily glanced at Franklin's shoes which looked like normal sneakers. "How long does the effect last?"

"It might be permanent, I haven't noticed any reduction in the wand's output despite repeated testing and she reported that she hasn't had to recharge any of her trinkets," Franklin explained.

Emily turned to look at Richard. "Please tell me that you've recruited her."

Richard shook his head. "I asked, she's unwilling to join because of the rules for tinkertech but she's willing to sell us trinkets at a reasonable price."

"Did you explain about the gangs burning down half the city to acquire someone that can turn everyone into movers?" Emily asked, wondering if she'd ever meet a reasonable cape.

"I covered the possible reactions," Richard assured her. "She's not all that worried about her personal safety thanks to her brute rating."

"How high?" Emily asked.

Franklin shrugged. "In terms of durability, we don't have anything that even scratched her skin which puts her up to at least an eight."

"In terms of strength, she's at best a brute two," Richard offered. "She's about as strong as a world class weight lifter and she can afford to push herself because she can't hurt herself."

"How much does she want for the boots?" Emily asked, figuring she might as well ask.

"If we supply the boots, one hundred dollars," Richard replied. "Probably another one hundred dollars for a ring that lets people jump an extra five feet and land safely from any distance or a necklace that lets people see in the dark as if it was twilight."

Emily raised her eyebrows. "How much light do you need?"

"You don't, we turned the lights out and we could see perfectly fine," Richard replied with a grin.

"I'm starting to understand why she doesn't want to join," Emily mused. "If they last a year, they'd be cheap, if they last longer, they're a steal. How sure are you that her items don't come with hidden tricks or problems?"

"As sure," Richard paused when the door opened. He smiled as Armsmaster walked into the room with Panacea and Mystic following him. "As I can be. Any trouble with the tests?"

Panacea glanced at the director then focused on Richard. "Her ability can't regenerate old injuries or regrow tissue beyond a basic level but it should be exceptionally useful in the case of trauma. Her ability to purge toxins is weird as it reduces or removes them rather than just purging them from the body but there shouldn't be any harmful side effects."

"So you're saying they're safe?" Emily asked.

Panacea nodded. "Safer than most of the healing abilities I've seen, which is a relief, I could use a break from dealing with trauma patients all the time."

Emily glanced at Armsmaster then focused on Mystic. "Do you have any master abilities?"

Taylor shook her head. "Not that I know of."

Emily studied the new cape, trying to figure out if she was lying. "Not that you know of?"

"My powers didn't come with an instruction manual and I'm a trump but I think I would have noticed," Taylor replied, fairly sure she didn't currently have anything that counted as mind control.

"If it makes you feel better, I can check for changes in body chemistry," Panacea offered.

Emily turned to look at Panacea. "Planning on using some of her trinkets yourself?"

"Yeah, I was stabbed yesterday while helping the CDC," Panacea admitted. "Thankfully, the idiot only managed to cut my costume before Vicky grabbed him but that was just the latest attempt and I'm tired of it. I've been lucky so far but luck only gets you so far and she offered defensive gear."

"What type of defensive gear?" Emily asked, focusing on Mystic.

"My costume is difficult to cut and I can make bracelets that create a deflection effect that should help against small arms or melee weapons," Taylor explained.

"You can make force fields?" Emily asked in surprise.

"It's not hard cover but it helps," Franklin offered.

"How much?" Emily asked, thinking of the wards and her strike teams.

"Same as everything else, one hundred dollars," Taylor offered, hoping she'd go for it.

Emily studied Mystic's face. "Why so cheap?"

"Why not? You're trying to keep the gangs from taking over the city and the bracelets are less than twenty dollars to buy, I can get them in bulk and enchant them in about a minute, that's roughly eighty dollars of profit for a couple of minutes of work," Taylor explained. "If I can prove that my trinkets work, I'll have plenty of work."

Emily turned to look at Armsmaster. "What do you think?"

"I think the boots would help with search and rescue and increase our mobility by a decent amount. Being able to land safely would let the agents or heroes drop out of a helicopter or get tossed into the air by Vista which would drastically reduce travel times in an emergency," Armsmaster suggested.

"So, roughly five hundred per agent or hero?" Emily mused, wondering if she needed to toss herself in a M/S cell because she was actually considering buying the cape's gear.

"I can do that," Taylor agreed.

'I can use the fines we leveraged against Sophia's handler to pay for the wards and a unit which means we should be able to cover it without gutting the equipment budget,' Emily mused. "Would they last a month?"

"If they don't, I'll give you a refund provided you haven't destroyed the jewelry," Taylor promised.

"Are you planning on selling your air walking boots to the general public?" Emily asked.

"Not currently," Taylor assured her, "just firefighters and possibly the police if you don't have objections. There are ethical issues letting random people fly when the infrastructure isn't designed for it."

"Thank you, dealing with flying capes is bad enough," Emily complained. "Are you willing to let us test one of your suits to destruction?"

"Of course," Taylor replied with a smile. "If it doesn't stand up to abuse, it's not worth buying."

Emily turned to look at Franklin. "Call Miss Militia and test it to destruction. If it's better than what we've got, I'll buy at least twenty suits and the trinkets and we'll go from there. Can you do custom orders for heroes?"

"I can certainly try," Taylor assured her.

Emily turned to look at Richard. "Make it work."

"Yes ma'am," Richard replied, relieved that she hadn't caused Mystic to storm out or pushed the issue about recruiting her. 'Probably just waiting to see how reliable her power is.'

Taylor sighed in relief after the director left. "Is she always that intense?"

"More or less. Can you check Franklin for health issues?" Armsmaster asked Panacea as he finished sending Miss Militia a text, requesting her help with testing some armor to destruction and power testing.

"Sure," Panacea replied as she walked over. "Permission to check."

"Please do," Franklin replied as he held his hand out, wanting to make sure he hadn't caused himself any health issues using Mystic's trinkets.

Panacea reached out and touched his hand and checked his health. "You could stand to get a bit more exercise but you're in decent shape."

"You should probably monitor him while he uses the wand," Armsmaster suggested, wanting to make sure using the wand was safe, mostly because it would make a nice backup weapon for the wards or Velocity as it was lightweight.

"Not a bad idea," Panacea agreed as she turned to look at Mystic, curious how many powers she'd neglected to mention to the PRT. "Is your healing ability because of an item?"

"Technically," Taylor admitted after a couple of seconds of internal debate.

"Technically?" Armsmaster asked with a raised eyebrow. "You have something that lets you heal?"

"I have a robe that basically teaches the user the ability if they use it enough while wearing it," Taylor admitted, knowing the secret was going to get out eventually.

Panacea stared at Taylor in disbelief. "Are you telling me you could mass produce healers?"

Taylor shook her head. "Not really, you'd need a decent source of injured people and a couple of days or an energy boosting staff just to teach them the basic ability in a reasonable time frame."

Richard winced. "Shit, you just went from an extremely useful cape to recruit into a gang to someone that nations would go to war over."

"Seriously?" Taylor asked in surprise.

"Unfortunately, there are less than twenty healers in the world that don't have severe restrictions on what they can heal," Armsmaster said as Franklin walked over to the table and picked up the wand. "Even if you can't cure diseases, every healer you create would save countless lives."

"It would also be a decent source of income, especially if you make a deal with everyone you give the skill to, you give them the ability to heal and they pay you one percent of any money they make off healing for ten years or for the rest of their lives, it'd be a drop in the bucket to them but every bit adds up," Richard suggested.

Panacea frowned as she did the math. "Assuming your healers make a hundred thousand a year which wouldn't be unreasonable considering what doctors make, that's a thousand a year per healer you create and I can't see any nurse objecting to paying one percent as it bumps them up from like thirty or forty thousand to a hundred thousand."

"At least," Armsmaster mused. "More like two or three thousand, assuming the hospitals don't go into a bidding war. Unfortunately, you'd also be improving the world in a meaningful way which means the Slaughterhouse Nine would try to kill you or twist you into a monster and the CUI would probably try to kidnap you when they find out."

"Lovely," Taylor muttered, thinking of the Siberian. "So, you're saying I'd basically need to vanish and hire a teleporter to transport people to a training site?"

"That's one option but you'd still run into trouble with precogs," Richard pointed out.

Franklin walked back over to where Panacea was standing and held out his hand. "It's probably still worth trying, you're just going to need some help. Ready?"

Panacea grabbed his hand. "Ready."

Franklin raised the wand and pushed his intent into it, sending a blast of 'lightning' at one of the targets. "Anything?"

"Nothing or at least nothing to worry about," Panacea assured him. "You're basically having fun blasting things with lightning, I'd expect the same reaction from a fan watching a decent game or an athlete getting ready to start a race."

"In other words, it's safe?" Richard asked.

Panacea shrugged. "It's safe to use, I wouldn't want to get hit with it."

Franklin sighed in relief. "In that case, let's work on testing her costumes until Miss Militia gets here."

Taylor pulled one of her mostly finished leather jackets out of her belt pouch and handed it to Franklin along with several scraps of the blue leather. "Have fun."

"I plan on it," he replied as he handed Taylor her wand back. "Thanks for letting me test the wand."

"You're welcome," Taylor replied.

"Do you have a PHO account or a cape phone yet?" Richard asked, figuring he should cover some of the problems with maintaining a civilian identity as she was a high value target that he didn't want to fall into the hands of a gang.

"Not yet," Taylor admitted as she slipped her wand into its sheath.

"In that case, let's see what we can find for decent usernames while we wait for Miss Militia," Richard said as he pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and opened the browser.

Panacea tossed out the occasional suggestion for PHO usernames as she watched the tech try and fail to cut the strips of leather with various tools, including a circular saw and set of industrial wire cutters, for a couple of minutes before asking, "How do you cut the leather?"

"I use an enchanted mithral knife," Taylor replied with a shrug. "It's about the only thing I have that will actually cut it."

"So you don't cut it before you imbue it?" Franklin asked, wondering what he'd need to cut the stuff.

Taylor shook her head. "I'd rather not explain the process."

"Why?" Franklin asked.

"I don't need people looking into bulk purchases of various chemicals," Taylor explained, not really wanting to let the PRT know that she had access to dangerous monsters and was jumping between dimensions.

"Makes sense," Franklin admitted as the door opened and Miss Militia walked in.

Miss Militia scanned the room, pausing when she saw the new cape then focused on Armsmaster. "New recruit?"

"Independent hero," Armsmaster replied with a smile. "She's a trump/tinker with the ability to make items that grant minor powers and create armor which is why we need to stress test the armor."

"Nice to meet you," Miss Militia offered.

"Same," Taylor assured her, doing her best not to squeal at getting to meet another one of her heroes.

"Where do you want to set up?" Miss Militia asked Franklin.

"We might as well head to the range, it has the best safety equipment and we need to test it without Mystic being in the room on the off chance that she's subconsciously reinforcing the armor," Franklin explained.

"I'll stay with Mystic," Richard volunteered. "It gives me a chance to go over some of the rules and regulations for independent heroes."

"Thanks Richard," Miss Militia offered then left the room.

Panacea watched the rest of the people leave then turned to look at Taylor. "Are you going to create a bunch of healers?"

Taylor shivered as she thought about the Slaughterhouse Nine. "I'll probably table the idea until I have enough money to start a team or at least hire a teleporter and a group of people to screen the prospective healers. I don't want to be the reason the Slaughterhouse shows up."

"Thanks, they're exceptionally good at sneaking around and ambushing people after Shatterbird plunges the city into chaos," Richard complained as he pulled up the basic 'new cape survival guide' on his phone. "Do you want me to walk you back to the lobby or do you want to stick around and see the results?" he asked Panacea.

"I'll stick around," Panacea said, not seeing a reason to go home when she could avoid it, especially since Vicky was hanging out with Dean.

Richard sent the guide to the PHO account he'd set up for her. "I sent you a guide of important laws, rules and regulations that every new cape should be aware of to your PHO account. Just a heads up, you're going to want to ignore the bit about most of the capes in town following the unwritten rules, they're not going to if they figure out what you can do."

"Lovely," Taylor muttered. 'At least I can shapechange.'

"Has anyone taught you basic self defense yet?" Richard asked.

"Not so much," Taylor admitted, making a mental note to use the copper gauntlets that taught brawling when she got back to her Adventure shard. "I've been a bit too focused working on my gear."

"Makes," Richard paused when he got a call. "Just a second." He stood up and walked out of the room so he could take the call from his mother.

"Don't feel like you have to answer but Is there a reason your appearance doesn't match your genetics?" Panacea asked once the door closed.

Taylor sighed as she reached into her belt pouch and pulled out a silver ring. "One of my rings gives me a changer rating and a costume change, do you want one?"

"My step mom is going to flip about the stuff I already accepted," Panacea admitted.

Taylor dropped the ring in Panacea's hand. "Everyone deserves the chance to have a little anonymity."

Panacea studied the simple silver ring. "How much did the ring cost?"

"Less than you'd expect," Taylor replied with a shrug. "Just consider it a thank you gift for making it a lot easier to get my healing certification."

Panacea briefly considered protesting then put the ring on, mostly because she'd saved her months of annoying tests and legal hoops by checking her work. "How do I use it?"

"You wait until you get somewhere with extra clothes then you focus on changing while thinking about the ring," Taylor explained.

Panacea briefly considered asking her about Winslow before deciding it didn't matter. "Your powers are strange."

"I can't complain," Taylor replied with amusement. 'Immortality and endless adventure, there are certainly worse powers.'

"Sorry about that," Richard said as he walked back into the room. "You should probably pick up a smartphone for cape business and take the batteries out when you're off the clock. It prevents the cell phone from being tracked but lets you call for help and keep track of your contacts when you're running around as a cape. Normally, I'd say turning it off would be fine but your power is valuable enough that you're not going to want to take the chance."

"She's still going to have to worry about precogs," Panacea pointed out.

"Trumps tend to screw with precogs so she might get away with it, if not, you can always relocate," he suggested.

"I'd rather not," Taylor admitted, knowing her parents wouldn't want to leave.

"In that case, let's run through the list of rookie mistakes so you can avoid them," Richard said, making a mental note to talk to the director about burying the report in her personal filing cabinet so there wasn't anything in the system for anyone to find.

"Sure, do you want me to upgrade your boots?" Taylor asked.

"I wouldn't object," Richard replied as he sat down and worked on taking his boots off while he covered what he considered the basics.

0o0o0

Annette looked up from the folder of paperwork she was looking through to get herself declared alive again when the front door opened. "Problem?" she asked when her daughter walked in and shut the door behind her, looking like she was trying to decide if she was supposed to be happy or annoyed and bouncing between the two.

Taylor sighed. "I got paid and I can't spend it."

"Cash or card?" Annette asked.

"Cash," Taylor admitted.

"Then you can spend it, just don't spend too much in one place," Annette replied with amusement. "How much did you get?"

"10,000," Taylor replied cheerfully. "I'll get more after they realize my stuff isn't going to break."

"How much did you sell everything for?" Annette asked.

"One hundred dollars per enchant," Taylor admitted. "I'll probably jack the price up on the costumes later but that should be enough basic supplies."

Annette set the folder down on the coffee table. "That's not a bad rate considering how much time it takes to enchant things. Which heroes did you meet and did you run into any trouble?"

"Armsmaster, Miss Militia and Panacea," Taylor replied with a grin. "I talked Armsmaster into doing research into mithral alloys so I'll probably sell him some mithral depending on what he figures out."

"You know, you could probably do the research yourself if you boosted your alchemy or picked up engineering," Annette pointed out.

Taylor shrugged. "I'll get there. I need to get to a major city to pick up engineering and I'm not quite ready to deal with the monsters in that region. Besides, Beth wanted to do a couple more quests for the guild and work on her skills for a few days before setting off and I wanted to do some research, print off a couple of schematics and try to figure out what I can harvest from my exploration shard so I can boost my alchemy and blacksmithing."

"Hopefully, lots," Annette replied with a grin then frowned when she noticed Taylor's plastic watch. "What's with the toy watch?"

Taylor glanced down at the cheap looking watch she was wearing. "I picked it up from the shop, it should keep me from being scryed on which should include precog and various other methods of gaining information about me that I don't want them to have."

"That's useful, can you replicate it?" Annette asked, figuring it would help against the Simurgh, not that she wanted her daughter anywhere near the endbringers but giving a copy to Legend might let him land a couple decent shots which might be enough to tip the battle in their favor and shorten the fight.

"Not yet," Taylor admitted. "On the upside, I picked up a shirt that should boost my alchemy and lets me turn armored leggings into skirts that offer the same protection and gain the ability to change shape and color which is interesting."

Annette gestured towards the couch. "Grab some ice cream then sit down and tell me about your trip to the PRT and your shopping trip."

"Sure," Taylor replied as she headed for the kitchen to grab some ice cream.