43

Date

2011 February 4th - Friday - Earth Bet Time

Day 6084 - Wednesday - Administrator Dimension Time

Now that he was done with the city, he turned his attention towards the rest of the planet. He used his infiltration virus and began to infect the Shards one by one. It would take months before he could infect every last one, but if it comes to that, he could brute force it.

At home, he began an overarching research about the capabilities and powers of Shards. Now that he had access to more data, he could try again to break through the limit the Shards reached.

He organized the powers in broad categories like energy and matter manipulation, physical laws, biology, and such.

He took all the data he got from the Shards and eliminated duplicates and condensed them into one data packet, hoping to glean something from them this way. Plus, when he finally took over from Zion, it would help create better powers.

Another project that he technically restarted was his alternate power designs. During his decade of waiting for Taylor to reach her Trigger point, he played with several different power designs and power systems that the Shards could use.

He hoped when Zion was gone, he could make a new, much more organized, and logical power system. With much safer powers and with balanced power levels.

And now that he had access to several databases, he could make some of them realities. So he sent out several files to Shards in his own Network for review and for them to work out if they could make it real.

He even sent one to Shaper, hoping the idea would distract her from the revenge she was obviously planning against him.

A Shard can hope.

And if she could make it work, then it would be seriously funny. To him, but that was enough.

Date

2011 February 4th - Friday - Earth Bet Time

After she was done with the current training period (fighting against biological abominations), Taylor sat down with Tess for a relaxing tea. They spent the time chatting about stuff that happened to them, or about things the AI didn't understand about Humans.

She would forever suppress the memory of explaining some of those things.

Currently, they were enjoying some real Indian tea that Tess scanned and had Admin recreate.

She raised the finely detailed china (she ignored that said details were cute cats doing ninja things) and took an appreciative sip of the tea. Tess next to her did the same and let out a hum of enjoyment.

"I still don't know how Admin made it so that I can taste things here. I wish I could do the same with my actual body…" she said while eyeing the tea.

"I asked, but apparently it's way above our understanding for now."

"A pity."

They lapsed back into silence, just enjoying each other presence, but Taylor could tell something was bothering Tess.

After a few minutes, she gathered enough courage to ask about it.

"Soooo… I couldn't help but notice that you are bothered by something. And as your friend, I feel I should ask about it. Unless you don't want to talk about it. Then never mind."

Tess gave her a small smile, then answered. "No problem, Taylor. Yes, something happened." she fell silent for a few seconds, visibly gathering her thoughts, then continued. "Colin came to talk to me."

"About what?"

"He didn't really know how to handle me being AI."

"Did he say something hurtful?" exclaimed Taylor, ready to rip Armsmaster a new hole.

"No, nothing like that," answered Tess calmly. "He was just confused by a few things, and how to handle them. It was actually a quite pleasant discussion, I like his logical attitude."

"Then what's the problem?" wondered Taylor confusedly.

"I don't know exactly," admitted Tess with a frown. "Of the people who know about me, Narwhal, you and your father accepted me without question, while only Armsmaster was the only one who got uncomfortable with the topic. I just fear what would happen if more people were to know."

"Well, if it helps," spoke up Taylor, rather uncomfortably. "My dad had a LOT of questions. Including things that I've never wanted to talk my dad about."

Tess stared at Taylor for a few seconds then snorted, which turned into laughter, with Taylor joining her after a while.

After they calmed down, Taylor continued speaking.

"I don't think you have to worry. Of course, it's a weird thing to know you are not really a human, but humans are adaptable." she gave Tess a playful grin. "And if all else fails, we could hire a PR person to help your image."

Tess snorted again. "Narwhal recommended a photoshoot for Playboy."

Taylor looked away from the older woman with a blush.

When they reached the portion of the time spent in the virtual space where they talked about their plans, the surrounding space morphed into a sizeable room with several whiteboards and holographic projectors.

However, before they could start, Admin appeared, his slime avatar dressed in a black suit, with a small red rose in its breast pocket.

"You are wondering why I called you here…" he began with a small smile.

"Admin…" warned Taylor with a glare. Tess just gave a small laugh.

"Fine. Fine. I have the next step in the plan."

Both women perked up hearing that. They spent hours in the virtual space talking about the mysterious plan, trying to figure it out, but they haven't managed to work out anything.

"Oh, what do you want us to do?" asked Tess, her eyes boring into Admin's.

"Nothing complicated," replied Admin calmly. "Just find Coil and prepare to take him out."

"Why?"

"A lot of reasons. He is a creep. A rapist. A murderer. A traitor. And so on. Also wants to take over the city."

Tess took a second to think about it, leveraging her AI nature to think much faster. While Taylor did the same, a little slower.

After a few seconds, Taylor spoke up. "You know who he is."

"Yes." came the immediate confirmation.

"Then why have us hunt him down?"

"Because it doesn't really matter to us who he is, but you need to have the proof about what he did. His power is fantastic for getting away with things."

"Oh, you know what his power is?" asked Tess. "The PRT only has speculations."

"Of course, I will explain it while I share the details of this step of my plan. Now sit down, and prepare to take notes, you will need it."

Taylor and Tess nodded and took a seat in the comfortable chairs, appearing out of thin air.

Date

2011 February 5th - Saturday - Earth Bet Time

Taylor woke early, her mind still going through the information Admin shared about Coil. Part of her wanted to hunt down the man and atomize him as slowly as possible, but the rest of her understood the caution.

The most dangerous thing about the man was his collection of information, so hunting down his backup plans and dead man's switches was really important. Tess would start with that, and after she gets home from her day out, she would join her with her own computer.

She went through her morning ablutions and exercise routine on autopilot. By the time her father got up, she was in her room, looking bleakly at her wardrobe, trying to choose something proper to wear.

Her father stuck his sleepy head into her room, trying to figure out where the frustrated growling came from.

"What's wrong, Taylor?"

"I have nothing to wear!" she exclaimed while throwing away a hoodie.

A few months ago she would have been satisfied with any of her drab hoodies, but for this, she wanted to choose something more feminine. She knew she had no chance next to Vicky to be anything more than a stage prop, but at least she wanted to give it a try.

"Oh, one of those." spoke her dad slowly. "Good luck with that, honey." He then retracted his head from the room and continued towards his original goal.

She stared for a little at where her father's head was, while Admin's projection was snickering next to her.

"Admin!"

"Yes?"

"You can make stuff, right?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"Make me a dress!"

After bullying Admin into creating her several dresses and other clothes, she left her room in comfortable pants, a nice electric blue button-up shirt, and a warm-ish-looking jacket with a hood.

"You look good, Taylor!" said her father, who was sitting at the kitchen table eating his breakfast and reading a newspaper.

She did a little twirl, showing off the ensemble. "Thanks, Dad. I will be going now. I don't know when I will be back, but I will give you a call if I need a pickup. Or I will just fly back."

Her father chuckled, then stood and walked to his jacket. He fumbled around a little before retrieving his wallet. He retrieved a few bills and handed them over to Taylor.

"Here, have some fun."

She took it and put it into her pocket space. No need to chance it being stolen by pickpockets. Not that anyone could sneak up on her with her sensing power turned on all the time.

She gave Danny a hug before heading for the door. "Bye, Dad!"

Her father wished her a great day and as she walked away from the house, she watched through her power as her father returned to the table and continued his breakfast.

She stepped off the bus a few streets away from the Boardwalk, glad to be off the deathtrap. Thanks to her power, she was keenly aware of every fault in the material and sparse wiring that made up the ancient vehicle. She even corrected several of the faults, because according to her Tinker power, they would cause the bus to catch on fire.

Good deed for the day done. She headed for the movie theater. Thanks to her power, she saw that there was a shortcut through some alleys, so she headed in that direction.

She sensed several people, but she ignored them. In Brockton Bay, the sad reality was that there were homeless people everywhere.

Plus, it wasn't like any of them could hurt her.

When she was halfway through the alley when one of the people started to move. The person moved towards the end of the alley and not towards her, so she ignored it.

Unfortunately, by the time she reached the end of the alley, it was clear that the person was having some nefarious thoughts.

The man was dirty, wearing multiple layers of clothing, all of them caked with all sorts of unidentifiable substances. An equally dirty beard covered his face, and she could count his teeth on one hand.

"Hehehehe, pretty lady. A little far from home, ain'tcha?" spoke the man while leering at her. "Don't you know there is a price for using this alley? So pay up, before I hurt your pretty face!" With that, his hand reached into one of his pockets and retrieved a rather big knife.

He waved it at her, then gave her another big, vicious grin.

She took a proper look at her 'attacker', did a quick search around for other people, then thought a little before answering.

"No."

Then she walked around the man frozen in surprise towards her goal. Though she acted confidently, she made sure to keep an eye on the man and had her protective powers primed in case the man attacked her in the back.

She was already on the proper sidewalk within the throng of people who decided to celebrate the warming weather of February by going to the Boardwalk when the man unfroze.

She watched through her senses as her wannabe mugger looked around in confusion, then shambled away in anger.

She laughed a little and began to look for Vicky.

Thanks to her power, and Vicky's inability to blend in, it took her barely a few seconds to find her new friend, hovering over the tide of people next to the movie theater, looking around. Interestingly, she noticed Amy standing around, reading a book a little distance away.

She waited until Vicky looked in her direction, then waved her hand in the air a little to catch her attention.

After fighting through the crowd, she was greeted by a beaming Vicky.

"Taylor! You look so nice! I like that shirt!"

"Thank you, er… you look nice too?" she answered a little haltingly.

"Thanks!" exclaimed Vicky and spun around in the air, showing off what she was wearing. When she was done with that, she stopped hovering and leaned close to Taylor, and lowered her voice. "I hope it's not a problem, but I brought Amy with me. Mom wanted her to get out more."

She quickly glanced at Amy, who was pretending to be not eavesdropping, then back at Vicky, who was looking at her with a slightly anxious face.

"No, none at all. I like her," she answered with a smile. "The more, the merrier!"

A quick smile ran through Amy's face and Vicky's lit up like a hundred-watt bulb.

"Awesome! Let's go do some window shopping, then we can have lunch, and after that, there is a movie Amy wants to watch!"

Taylor had to admit it was a pleasant way to spend a nice day. They went around window shopping, tried on a few things (mostly Vicky, while she and Amy gave their opinion on them), talked about all sorts of things, and generally enjoyed one of the first not freezing days of the year.

She asked a lot of questions about Arcadia because she wanted to know as much about the school as possible before trying to get in.

The sisters were happy to share their experiences, with Vicky mostly talking about the people going there and the teachers, while Amy quietly shared her opinion about the classes.

They ate lunch at an Italian restaurant, though they had to use Vicky's fame (and beauty) to get in because there was a giant line.

As they watched Vicky charming the person responsible for seating, Amy leaned over to Taylor and whispered.

"This is the only time I enjoy Vicky being Vicky. Whenever I'm with her, I don't have to stand in line."

Taylor gave an appreciative laugh, then started walking forward, following the waving Vicky who finally wore the employee down.

A few people in the line grumbled, but nobody really spoke up, with most of them staring intently at Vicky.

Date

2011 February 5th - Saturday - Earth Bet Time

"Hey, Boss!"

"Wha'?"

"People saw Panacea on Broadwalk!"

"Really?"

"Yeah, she was with Glory bitch."

"Great! Is the stuff ready?"

"Yeah, we checked it last night.

The pink, ugly-looking man gave the messenger a cruel look, then continued to talk. "Then call everyone, it's time to show everyone that the Merchants are not done!"

Date

2011 February 5th - Saturday - Earth Bet Time

"Sir, we got intel that the remnants of the Merchants are planning to raid several warehouses for weapons."

The immaculately dressed man blinked, looked up in surprise from his computer at the man reporting. "What? How did those imbeciles know where the warehouses are?"

"We are on it. Could be either a stroke of luck or those lesser ones from ABB trying to cause trouble."

"Hmm. I haven't heard anything from Coil in a while, could be him."

"I will look into it. What about the warehouses?"

"Call everyone, make sure they are ready to move. Also, start arranging to move the items from there. They are compromised, so might as well start with that."

"Of course, Sir."