Tinker of Fiction Part 3 (Patreon)

'At least he'll have a chance to calm down before he runs into Alan,' Mist mused as he turned the radio up, trying to avoid listening to the emotionally charged 'discussion' that was taking place downstairs. 'Not my monkey, not my problem,' he told himself as he went back to coding the script he was going to use to make the 3D printer that would let him make a crude replicator that would let him make a decent replicator.

He spent another couple of minutes coding and listening to the annoying music before he changed the station, trying to find something that would block out the noise without making him want to smash the radio. He spent a rather frustrating couple of minutes switching stations before he found a station playing a pop song that he could tolerate.

Mist spent another twenty minutes coding before someone knocked on the door. "Yes?"

"Can I come in?" Taylor asked hopefully, wanting to focus on something other than the argument with her father about what they should do about Emma and Winslow.

Myst saved his progress and turned the music off, figuring his fingers could use a break. "Sure."

Taylor walked in then walked over and sat down on the edge of the bed so she could see the screen for his laptop without hovering. "How's it going?"

"It's going," Mist replied as he adjusted his chair so that he could see Taylor without having to twist his neck an uncomfortable amount. "I finished coding everything for the antigravity system and I'm about halfway done coding everything I need to make a 3D printer that can make the prototype replicator that will let me make a decent replicator so I can mass produce my tech."

"How are you going to make the circuit boards and electronic components?" Taylor asked.

Mist gestured toward the sketch of the inside of the modified 3D printer that he'd drawn in his notebook. "I'm going to print everything I need, then I'm going to steal the electronics from the printer I have and patch the software. That should let me print everything I need for the prototype replicator other than the power source."

"What do you need for the power source?" Taylor asked.

Mist flipped the page to the list of ingredients that would make an arc reactor. "I can get most of the crap by salvaging batteries and cell phones but I'm going to have to wait on the palladium because it's annoyingly expensive."

"You could always rob the gangs," Taylor suggested.

Mist stared at Taylor. "Let me get this straight, you're trying to talk your twelve year old cousin into putting on a mask and robbing a bunch of gangbangers with a slapped together stun pistol and force field belt?"

Taylor shook her head. "Or you could let me borrow the belt and the stun gun and I'll split the take."

"That sounds like a fantastic way to get in trouble," Mist argued, not interested in getting sent to an orphanage because he'd helped Taylor get herself killed or seriously injured.

"I need a win," Taylor admitted in a whisper.

Mist sighed as he realized that Taylor was a lot more screwed up than he'd thought. "Is this because of Emma? She's a worthless piece of shit."

"It doesn't fucking matter," Taylor snapped then sighed, trying to get her temper under control. "I know it shouldn't matter but no one saved me when they stuffed me in a locker, no one cared. It's hard to ignore the voices in my head asking if there's something wrong with me."

"Fuck it, you want to blow some steam off, we can blow off some steam. I need to test my force field belt and I know just the girl to help," Mist said as he swapped over to the PHO tab and ran a search for New Wave.

"Who?" Taylor asked.

"Glory Girl," Mist replied as he clicked on her username so he could send her a message. "She's an open cape and she's a brute with a force field, I doubt she's going to worry about an ambush and her sister is a world renowned healer that could use a force field belt."

"She's not going to believe you," Taylor argued.

"Dragon was nice enough to send a message to the mods, I have a tinker tag," Mist replied with a smile as he wrote Vicky a message.

"Sorry to bother you, I'm a new heroic tinker in the bay and I need help testing a force field belt?" Taylor asked as she read the message he was typing. "I thought you were going to hide your existence?"

"I'm not planning on screaming it to the heavens but I need to test the belt and you need to get out and do something productive," Mist argued as he continued typing his message, 'I'm willing to trade an extra copy of the force field belt for your help.'

"It's a good chance to network," Danny said from where he was standing in the doorway.

Taylor spun and looked at her father wondering how much he'd heard. "Can we go?"

Danny nodded. "You're going to need masks and you'll need to meet somewhere reasonably safe."

"Cool," Mist said as he sent the message. "Do you have any suggestions for masks?"

Danny smiled as he remembered a couple of theater masks in a box in the basement with some stuff from his college days. "I have a couple of ideas."

"I'm not wearing spandex and or wearing a clown mask," Mist stated firmly.

"I can work with that," Danny replied with amusement as he headed towards the stairs.

"I also need to borrow some tinfoil," Mist said as he followed Danny into the hall.

"It's in the kitchen," Danny replied, not particularly worried about him using some of the tinfoil.

0o0o0

Amy looked up from her computer when she felt her sister's aura and frowned when she noticed that Vicky was wearing her costume. "What's up? I thought you were taking the night off."

"I got a message from a new tinker, they want my help testing a force field belt. Do you want to come with me?" Vicky asked, knowing Amy would be more likely to use the belt if she had a chance to meet the tinker.

"In the bay?" Amy asked, a touch surprised that this was the first she was hearing about the new tinker.

Vicky rolled her eyes. "I'm not sure if they're local or if they're from out of town but they're currently in the bay and they're offering an extra force field belt if I help them test the belts. I figured we'd swing by and run some tests then grab some ice cream. If everything works out, you'll have a force field belt."

Amy shook her head. "You're assuming this isn't a trap or a weird attempt at a date."

"They have a tinker tag on their PHO account and they agreed to meet in a public location," Vicky argued. "Besides, it's not like we're hard to track down."

"I'm aware," Amy muttered, not particularly happy about having a public identity since it made making friends awkward.

"Does that mean you'll come with me?" Vicky asked, figuring it would be good for Amy to get out and do things as Panacea other than just healing people at the hospital.

'Damned if I do, damned if I don't,' Amy mused as she stood up and walked over to her closet to grab her costume. "Fine, but you get to explain things to Carol if everything goes sideways."

"No problem," Vicky assured her.

"Where are we going?" Amy asked as she grabbed her costume.

"Fugly Bob's, it's busy and it's close to the beach which means we'll have plenty of space to run some tests," Vicky replied.

"Not the worst idea," Amy admitted as she pulled her robe on.

0o0o0

"We need to work on our costumes," Taylor complained in a whisper as they walked towards the shack at the edge of the market where a crowd of teenagers was hanging out.

"It's on the list," Mist assured her as he pulled an annoyingly bright neon yellow hard hat out of a plastic bag and put it on, being careful not to mess up the tinfoil he'd covered the inside of the hat with.

Taylor shook her head. "No one is going to take you seriously."

"That's the idea," Mist replied with amusement. "Without the rubber boots, mask and the hardhat, I could be anyone."

"We look like kids playing dress up," Taylor complained.

"Pride was never one of my sins," Mist replied with a smile when he noticed Glory Girl and Panacea walking towards them.

"Nice costume," Vicky offered as they got close enough so she didn't have to shout. "Is there a reason you went with Spark?"

Mist shrugged. "We're running out of decent cape names and I figured Spark of Madness works for a tinker and it wasn't taken."

"Do you have any proof that you're actually a tinker?" Amy asked, wondering if the kid was just wasting their time.

Mist reached down and pushed one of the buttons on his belt, causing an almost invisible force field to surround him. "Just a cape and tinker tags on the boards and a force field belt that I need to test."

Amy reached down and picked up a small rock then lobbed it at Mist, a touch surprised when the rock actually bounced off a field an inch or two before it hit his arm.

"Don't mind Amy, we get a lot of crazy messages," Vicky offered, relieved that the cape actually had a working force field device so she didn't have to listen to Amy's 'I told you so' lecture.

"Makes sense," Mist agreed as he pulled the extra belt out of his plastic bag then put the plastic bag in the pocket of his hoodie. "I'm not sure what happens if the field fails or how much 'damage' it can take."

Vicky reached out and flicked the kid's force field with her finger, causing the field to turn a darker blue for a second where she'd hit it. "It seems solid enough." She reached out and punched the force field about as hard as a normal girl might hit something, causing the section of the field she hit to turn blue for a second. "Can you wear armor under the shield?"

"I should be able to as long as it's not too bulky," Mist replied as he glanced at the crowd of people watching them. "We should probably head to the beach unless you want a bunch of posts asking why you were beating up a kid if something goes wrong."

"Yeah, let's avoid that," Vicky replied as she turned and headed for the beach.

"What made you ask Vicky to help with testing?" Amy asked as they headed towards the beach, wanting to put a bit of distance between themselves and the crowd in case something went wrong.

"I tested the force field with a baseball bat and rocks." Mist stopped walking when they reached an empty stretch of beach. "I figured the next step was talking to a brute because they'd survive the belt exploding or failing."

"Are you expecting the belt to explode?" Amy asked, trying to get an idea of what to expect.

Mist turned to look at Amy. "Not particularly but it's a prototype and accidents happen."

Vicky glanced between Taylor and Amy. "You should probably take a couple of steps back in case it explodes."

"Don't kill him," Amy warned Vicky as she took a couple of steps back.

Vicky smiled at Mist. "Don't worry, I'll aim for your arm, Amy should be able to fix everything if it breaks."

"I'm suddenly having second thoughts about this," Mist joked as Taylor took a few steps away from him.

"You'll be fine," Vicky said as she punched the force field covering the kid's arm about twice as hard as a girl her size should be able to, causing that part of the shield to turn blue. "I'm going to see if I can hit the field but not your arm."

"Go for it," Mist told her.

Vicky punched the edge of the field hard enough to send the kid spinning and leave a nasty bruise if she hit, causing her shield to flicker and drop from the force of the impact. "How is the battery doing?"

Mist frowned when he reached down to check and realized he couldn't twist the belt buckle enough to check the power meter. "Can you check the meter?" he asked Taylor.

"Sure," Taylor replied as she walked over to check. "Looks like ninety three or four percent."

"Sounds about right, I ran some tests and I didn't have time to completely charge it," Mist mused, not particularly bothered by the fact that the battery might have lost a percent or two from Vicky's punch. "I'm going to need a better meter."

"Put it on the list," Taylor teased as she walked back over to where Amy was standing.

"Ready?" Vicky asked, then reached out and punched Mist's arm hard enough to break a car window when he nodded, dropping her own shield in the process. "That should have shattered a car window, let's see how far we can push things."

Mist glanced at Taylor who was staring at Vicky then turned and looked at Amy. "Is she always this enthusiastic about breaking things?"

"Generally," Amy admitted. "How much maintenance do you think the belts will need?"

"No clue," Mist admitted as Vicky punched him again, causing the belt to beep.

Vicky took a step back, ready to grab the girls and flee if it looked like it was going to explode. "Is that a bad thing?"

"That depends, how hard did you hit it? It's supposed to beep if it notices a large spike in power usage," Mist explained.

"Hard enough to toss a car sideways a couple of yards," Vicky admitted a touch sheepishly, having gotten a bit carried away.

Amy glared at her sister. "You're supposed to slowly scale things up and check your aura."

"It was obviously fine," Vicky replied a touch defensively as she forced her aura down and checked the meter. "Looks like ninety one percent."

Taylor blinked when she realized that Vicky wasn't stunning. 'Yeah, that's annoying.'

'At least the tinfoil hat seems to help with her aura,' he mused, a touch surprised that the hat counted as proper tech to his power. "That's better than I was expecting considering I haven't had a chance to tweak the battery."

"What type of battery are you using?" Amy asked.

"I'm just using one of the old cell phone batteries that I found," Mist admitted.

"Tinkers are bullshit," Vicky muttered, surprised that he could make a force field that ran on a phone battery. "I don't really want to hit you harder in case it fails. Do you want me to take the extra belt and run some tests or talk to the PRT? I doubt they'd have an objection with running the tests, especially since I'm giving the belt to Amy."

Mist weighed the potential benefits against the drawbacks of letting the belt out of his sight and the chance of someone copying the design. 'Fuck it, worst case, I'll make something that can punch through the force field.'

"What do you think?" Taylor asked Mist.

"I think we're at the point where one mistake would rip my arm off or break my neck so yeah, we should probably leave things for the professionals," Mist agreed, looking forward to reading the test data so he had a better idea what type of things to test for. "I'm going to want a write up."

"I'll see what I can do," Vicky replied with a smile, happy about the idea of getting Amy better protection, even if it only lasted a couple of months before it shorted out. "Have you figured out where you're going to patrol yet?"

"I was planning on waiting until I had a chance to build some actual armor first but I wasn't expecting the belt to be quite this effective," Mist admitted. "Besides, I still need to test my stun pistol."

"Have you tried shooting inanimate objects?" Vicky asked.

"It zapped a dandelion and scattered the seeds but it didn't do anything to a rock," Mist offered.

"Shoot me," Vicky offered.

"We don't…" Amy trailed off as Mist drew his stun blaster and shot her sister with absolutely zero hesitation. "Seriously?"

"It's fine," Vicky replied, surprised that it hadn't even managed to drop her shield. "Try again."

Mist shot Vicky twice, a touch surprised that it was completely useless. "Note to self, don't shoot a brute with the stunner."

Amy reached over and checked Vicky's health, wanting to make sure there weren't any exotic effects from the tinkertech weapon. "You seem fine but that doesn't mean your weapon is safe."

"Do you want me to ask the PRT to test it with the shield?" Vicky offered. "It would be nice to have a decent option to knock people out that doesn't risk brain trauma."

"Might as well," Mist agreed after considering the question for a couple of seconds.

Amy glanced at Taylor's glasses. "Do you want me to fix your eyes before we leave? Being a cape is hard enough without having to worry about your glasses."

"That would be fantastic," Taylor agreed without hesitation.

'I wonder if getting her slightly buzzed would help with therapy,' Mist mused as Amy reached out and touched Taylor's hand. He handed the stun pistol to Vicky along with the extra belt. "Thanks for the help."

"Heroes have to stick together," Vicky replied cheerfully, happy to have more heroes around, especially people that were willing to hand out toys.

"Can I close my eyes?" Taylor asked when her vision started to go weird.

"Probably easier if you do," Amy admitted as she worked on upgrading Taylor's vision, carefully not trying to pay too much attention to her brain.

"What type of patrols do you normally run?" Mist asked Vicky.

"I normally just fly around looking for trouble while staying out of Lung's territory," Vicky admitted.

"Yeah, no reason to piss off the rage dragon or Oni Lee considering he seems a bit free with the explosives," Mist said, not seeing a reason to deal with Oni Lee until he had drones to snipe him from range.

"Yeah, I don't think he quite understands the meaning of collateral damage," Vicky complained, thinking about the last time she'd run into him.

Amy actually bit her tongue to keep from laughing at the irony of her sister saying that.

"All the more reason to wait until I have power armor," Mist muttered, making a mental note to start working on super soldier formulas so he wasn't quite as squishy.

"Not the worst idea if you can afford it but you need to make sure it can stand up to a hit or you're better off not wearing it because the villains will hit you harder thinking you can take it," Vicky warned him.

"Is that why Vista runs around in a skirt?" Mist asked.

"I think they're just trying to make sure she stays out of melee and they don't have anything tough enough to matter considering some of the capes running around the bay." Amy finished upgrading Taylor's eyes, not seeing a reason to mention the fact that she'd placed her in the top point five percent of the world for visual acuity. "That should do it, go ahead and open your eyes."

Taylor opened her eyes then promptly took her glasses off, surprised at how clear everything was and how far she could see. "That's fantastic! Thank you!"

"You're welcome," Amy replied, feeling strangely happy about the entire thing. 'Maybe Vicky had a point, it's nice to do something other than walk around the hospital like a zombie.'

"I'll have to see what I can come up with for making armored clothes…" Mist trailed off as he remembered the high tech clothes from Gurps that were insanely durable.

"Let me guess, you just figured something out?" Vicky asked with amusement, thinking about some of the times Chris zoned out.

"Yeah, I'll let you know if it pans out," Mist promised, not seeing a problem with helping the local heroes. "Before we let you go, do you have any advice for a new cape to the area?"

"Check the forums, there's a decent list of the major gangs and speculation about their powers, it helps to know when to cut and run," Vicky suggested. "You should look at the page that shows the gang territories, it helps to know where to avoid."

"Thanks." Mist turned to look at Taylor. "Ready to head back?"

"Sure," Taylor replied, figuring Danny should be parked in the next lot which should give them a chance to ditch the masks and the rather visible hardhat before they got to the car and without being seen.

'We're going to need a better way to avoid being seen," Mist mused as they headed down the beach.

"Thanks for the help," Taylor told the capes then followed Mist.

"No problem," Vicky replied as she handed Amy the stun pistol and the extra belt. 'We got a force field belt out of it,' she thought as she pulled out her phone and called Chris on his ward number.

Chris pulled his phone out of his pocket and checked the number then answered, "What's up?"

"I need a favor," Vicky admitted.

Chris glanced over at where Dean was sitting at the console. "Shouldn't you be asking Dean?"

"He's not a tinker. I ran into a new tinker that gave me an extra force field belt in trade for helping him test his belt. Can you run some tests on it to make sure it's safe? It took a hit that would have sent a car skidding a couple of feet sideways without exploding and it's powered by a cell phone battery."

"I'll have to clear things with Armsmaster but he should be getting back from talking to Piggot in a couple of minutes. What's their cape name?" Chris asked, fairly sure that Armsmaster wouldn't have an objection with running some tests on something that he'd love to copy.

"Spark of Madness," Vicky replied with amusement.

"That's almost as bad as Clockblocker," Chris said with a snort.

"I'm not going to hold it against him, he's pretty young," Vicky offered, knowing most of the decent names were already taken.

"I'll let him know and I'll call the front desk," Chris assured her. "Do you have anything else you need?"

"I also have a stun pistol that he wants checked, but that one is just on loan," Vicky replied, wanting to make sure the agents were expecting the weapon as they could get a bit twitchy.

"I'll let the desk know," Chris assured her then ended the call.

"What's up?" Dean asked.

"Vicky ran into a tinker and wants me to check a couple of pieces of tinkertech, I'll let you know how it goes," Chris replied then headed for 'his' lab as he called the front desk to let them know to expect Glory Girl.