15

Date:

2011 January 9th - Sunday - Earth Bet Time

"What? How? No!" she yelled while clambering back to her seat. "What do you mean?"

It didn't help her panic that Admin was floating behind her dad, smiling really smugly.

Her father, however, remained calm, though he didn't smile.

"Taylor," he said, "I saw your hair. And the eyes."

"Oh," was all Taylor could manage in response to that. She finished her climb and sat back a little more petulantly than she intended.

She slouched back and looked away. "Now what?"

"Well first, you tell me what your power is," answered her father, "of course, only if you want."

Taylor very much didn't want to have this conversation, but she could recognize a lost cause when she saw one. Still, it would be probably smart to leave Admin out of her explanation. She didn't need her father crying Master.

She sat up properly, laced her hands before her on the table, and gave her dad a piercing look.

"Very well, I have the power to…"

"Well, that sounds like a rather… unique collection of powers," stated her father after she finished her explanation. He seemed rather shocked.

"Yeah, it's so cool!"

"Indeed." was her father's rather dry reply.

"What's wrong, Dad?" she asked, confused by his reaction.

"Nothing." he replied immediately, "I just worry what you would do with it."

"Why?"

"You are, or rather will be, powerful. That affords you opportunities that would be unavailable for other people." he started explained, looking grim. "However, it will also attract attention from people you won't want to."

Taylor blinked at that. She never really thought about it, that was. But she could see where her father was coming from. It helped Admin was nodding along with his explanation.

"My first reaction would be suggesting the Wards," he said. And continued before Taylor could interrupt him. "But seeing your face now, I won't bring it up."

Taylor leaned back, her indignation forgotten.

He smiled at her, then went on. "Taylor, I promised to be there for you, and that includes taking into account your wishes."

Hearing that, a warm feeling rose up in her. She remembered what he promised to her. But feared if she were to tell him about her power, he would discard everything and insist on the Wards. For her protection.

That he kept his word was a pleasant surprise.

Her reply came as a whisper. "Thank you, Dad."

He smiled back at her. "You are welcome."

"So what do you want to do?" he asked.

That stumped her. What did she really want to do with her power? Beat up villains? Save the Bay? How would she achieve that?

As she was internally panicking and her father was patiently waiting for her reply, she noticed a movement behind him. Hoping that Admin had some kind of solution for her problem, she directed her gaze towards him.

He was holding up several cue cards. She gave them a quick read but quickly realized that it was exactly what she needed to say. So she didn't waste a second.

"I was thinking, I'm going to look through the basement and attic to see if there is anything that I can use my Tinker power on." she talked, looking at him. "And I can still practice most of my powers at home, so I want to wait until the legal stuff is over before doing anything… overt."

He gave her a look as if trying to figure out if she was lying. She squirmed a little but kept silent, hoping that her father would accept it.

After a few seconds of silence, Danny nodded.

"I approve, smart decision."

She gave him a grateful smile.

"If what you say is true and you don't suffer from the Tinker disease…" he said, but looked at her for confirmation.

"Yeah, I don't have the urge to disassemble anything. But when I was putting together my new PC it kicked in and made it easier."

He nodded again, hearing her reply, and continued. "Then I will feel safe leaving you alone while I'm at work. And if you run out of stuff, I can bring home some from the office. We have warehouses full of things that we have no use for. And if anyone asks, I can just tell them that my daughter is experimenting with computers."

She gave him a brilliant smile at hearing that.

"After all, I talk about you enough, that everybody heard about your talent with computers."

That was vaguely worrying for her, but she ignored it for now.

"Thanks, Dad, that would be cool."

"And we can revisit the Ward discussion after we dealt with the legal matters."

Taylor wanted to deny that, but seeing the determination on her father's face, she decided not to. At least this gave her enough time to come up with a valid reason for refusing to join the Wards.

"And promise me," he spoke up again, with a rather grim tone, "That you won't go out patrolling while I'm not here."

She immediately nodded. She knew her father and knew when he was like this, there was no use arguing.

"Say it please, Taylor."

"I promise, Dad," she answered promptly.

"Good."

"We will also talk about this later," he finished with a tone of finality.

Accepting it, she made a note to look into arguments that would change her father's mind.

Plus, she still hasn't heard what Admin's glorious super-secret plan was. Because if he was telling the truth and the plan would help the Bay and her family, then maybe she could use it as an argument.

Maybe. Her father was a skilled negotiator, so she would need to prepare herself for a tough battle.

"Now why don't you help me clean up," her father said, while standing up, "then we can do some general cleaning. And maybe check the attic for useful things."

"Sure," she answered, and started handing dirty plates to Danny at the sink.

They spent the first part of the day cleaning up the house. Having two depressed people doing only some cursory cleaning left the house remarkably dirty.

They also talked a little. Nothing world-changing, but it was more than they spoke in the last year or so.

After they cleaned up, they went through the chaotic mess that was in the attic. With Taylor's newfound strength and clone power, it went rather quickly. Danny even remarked that it was lucky the clones vanished. Because he couldn't afford the shampoos for so many Taylors.

After that, her father's sparse hair was standing up in the air because he accidentally shocked himself with something. And not because of something she did. And nobody could prove it otherwise.

The search in the attic netted them one lone old mixer. It wasn't a significant find but had a motor and minimal circuitry.

After a hearty pizza lunch, they plumbed the depths of the basement. They found several old boxes full of moth-eaten and dusty clothes. They decided that they might as well throw out the trash while they were here and going through them. That would also allow for Taylor to set up a simple workshop.

For the old clothing that was still wearable, they decided to donate it. Except a few that belonged to her mother that she kept because they fit her. Originally, she wanted to keep everything that belonged to Annette, but Danny talked her down. He told her that Annette wouldn't want her to cling to trash, just because it was hers.

So she chose to keep some dresses. And a few more when his father was distracted by one of her clones 'accidentally' dropping a box. She could stitch up a few holes on her own.

The basement, aside from a mountain of trash that now was in the back of Danny's pickup, yielded several old kitchen appliances, an old digital camera, and several old laptops for some reason. And a heavily modified chainsaw.

And several boxes full of trash, which neither of them knew the origins of.

When they took the boxes out to the car, Danny wanted to show off for Taylor a little. Just to prove that he still got it. Taylor just laughed and then helped him carry the boxes because they were too heavy for him.

After they finished, they lugged all of Danny's tools into the basement. Then used some leftover planks for some long-forgotten project to put together a basic table for her to work on.

By the time they were done with all of this, it was afternoon. So they decided to spend the remaining day watching movies and, or in Danny's case, resting.

Taylor was just happy that something that even a few days ago would have wiped her out stamina-wise left her only slightly tired. It appeared Admin's improvements were coming along nicely.

In her modest opinion, she now looked like a frog who was somewhat in shape, albeit with fabulous hair.

She woke up in a familiar gray hall. But instead of statues of her former friend, it was only Admin, in all his glory. Hovering behind a wooden desk in the middle. Over the desk was a board with the words 'Quest Desk'. In a smaller script under it 'The most questingly quests you can ever quest or your money back'. Bracketing them were two drawings of cute slimes holding up swords.

She sighed and prepared herself for something really ludicrous.

"So what fresh hell did you prepare for me?"

He gave her a very customer service smile while answering. "Only the best quests for our clients!"

She looked back at him with a flat face, not at all impressed.

"Currently we are offering discounts on scouting quest!"

"Scouting what?"

"Excellent question!" he answered and produced a blackboard out of nowhere. It showed a very simple plan for a building.

"Your task, if you chose, is to find out if the item marked with X - here he produced a small white box with a big X on one of its sides- is in the room marked with the number two. And if it is, retrieve it with nobody finding you."

Taylor nodded in understanding but said nothing.

She hated what Admin was doing, but she had to admit, it worked. Her knowledge of her power was growing in leaps and bounds. Granted, she had yet to try them out in any meaningful way in the actual world. But she felt if she were to try, it would go very well.

Still, she had to concentrate on the task ahead. Knowing the asshole, it would look straightforward, but would have several hidden mechanisms that would trip her up.

Best to be prepared for the worst.

"Are you ready?" he asked after a few minutes of letting her think.

"Think so…" she answered uncertainly.

"I'm glad to hear that. Please proceed through the door to start the quest."

She was about to ask what door when an antique wooden door faded into view next to the desk.

She just sighed at the theatrics and stepped through it.

Immediately, her view changed. It gained a minimalistic mini-map and a line at the top that read 'Level 1'.

Looking around her, she took in the dark room she found herself in. It was filled with cliché action movie boxes, but the mini-map showed a nice way she could reach the next door.

She crouched down because she remembered people crouched down when they were sneaking, then made her way towards her goal.

She was about to dash for the door when she noticed a yellow triangle on the mini-map. Curious, she watched it move until it was on her.

She heard a yell of 'Intruder!' and everything went dark.

When she came back to consciousness, she found herself in front of Admin. Who was smiling at her cheekily.

"Care for another try?"

She just growled and stalked back to the door.

It took her embarrassingly three tries to figure out what the yellow triangle represented. Then several to figure out how to open the door without alerting the patrolling person with the sounds or smells of her action. Melting metal had a smell. Who knew?

When she finally reached the box and got it back to Admin, he only asked one thing.

"Ready for Level 2?"

She glumly nodded and tried to prepare herself.

Level 2 was the same as the previous level, only two people were patrolling. However, their very regular and predictable path allowed her to proceed with no trouble.

When she arrived back in front of Admin in ten minutes, she was rather smug.

In retrospect, a mistake.

She spent her time sneaking through several different scenarios, terrains, and situations. It was made more difficult because after Level 10 the mini-map stopped showing people.

After Level 20, she lost the mini-map entirely. And after Level 30, the guards became much smarter and patrolled without their previous regularity. And finally, after Level 50, she lost the yellow triangle.

Still, she managed to traverse several buildings with guards and traps everywhere (finally flying came useful), forests littered with watchtowers, city streets with patrolling military, bases chock-full of enemy combatants, and in one instance Santa's Workshop.

When Admin announced the end of the training exercise, her brain felt like mush.

"How was it, Taylor? Ready to be a ninja?" he asked.

She just gave him a tired look. "I just want to go to sleep, Admin…"

"Sure, Taylor." he gave her a smile, and she instantly felt darkness approaching.

Before she totally embraced Morpheus, she heard him speak up.

"Wonderful work Taylor, I'm proud of you…"

Date:

2011 January 10th - Monday - Earth Bet Time

When she woke the next day, something was different. It took her a trip to the bathroom and back to notice it. She was walking differently. It seemed the stealthy walk she learned last night carried somewhat over.

Immediately getting a wicked idea, she dressed for the day and went to surprise her dad.

Using everything she remembered, and she remembered everything thanks to her power, she snuck down the stairs. Floating made this rather easy.

Luckily her father was busy making his coffee, so his back was turned to her.

She tiptoed up to him and yelled. "BOO!"

The resulting dropped coffee mug was cleaned up by her while snickering at her father's reaction.

After Danny stopped glaring, they started on the breakfast he laid out.

"So now that you woke me up for the foreseeable future," he started with a halfhearted glare. Taylor just responded with a cheeky grin. "Tell me, what is your plan for the day?"

"I was going to try Tinkering, and maybe a walk?" she answered.

"Good. The Internet people are coming around one, so hide anything that needs to be hidden."

"Will do, Dad!" she saluted at him with another cheery smile.

"Otherwise, have fun, honey. And hopefully, by the evening we will have some news from Steve."

When they finished breakfast, Taylor started to clean up and Danny just gave her a kiss on her brow and left for work.

After finishing washing the dishes and some other chores, she went down to the basement.

She couldn't wait to build something awesome.

Maybe a Death-ray that shoots rainbow ponies?