A Little Eldritch Worm Part 4

Carol pushed the pause button on the remote and turned to look at her daughters as they walked into the living room wearing their genie outfits. She glanced between Vicky and Amy, making note of the fact that Amy had gained a couple of cup sizes and was almost as tall as Vicky then focused on Amy's long wavy blue hair that she'd pulled back with a black scrunchy. "We might have to get your costume adjusted."

"It's not our fault that our Magic Girl forms come with an outfit change," Vicky argued before her mother could start ranting.

"I'm aware, Armsmaster sent me a report," Carol replied, not particularly concerned about the outfits as they covered everything that needed to be covered to avoid legal issues, even if only barely. "You might be able to fit in your costume while you're transformed but Amy's a couple of inches taller than she was, not to mention she picked up a bit of muscle."

"It's actually not that bad, it was designed to fit over my vest," Amy replied as her father walked into the room from the kitchen.

"Which you'll still be wearing, you're only bullet resistant," Mark stated, wanting to make sure Amy stayed safe.

"I don't think my old vest is going to fit anymore," Amy admitted, knowing how snug her old vest had been before her changes.

"Which just means you can keep it for when you're not transformed and we'll get you a new one," Mark stated, not seeing a reason to skip the vest when there were plenty of crazy people running around. "By the way, Armsmaster mentioned your healing device when he called, excellent work."

"It has glitches," Amy admitted.

"It's a prototype, glitches are expected," Mark replied with amusement.

"At least your prototype worked," Vicky offered, knowing that she was going to have to put a couple more days into her project if she wanted something even remotely usable.

"Even if you can't fix the glitches, your prototype will save lives," Carol pointed out, hoping the project would let Amy cut back on the hours she spent at the hospital.

"Speaking of saving lives, how much does Redcap charge for upgrading locations?" Mark asked, wondering if they could afford it.

Vicky yawned. "Nothing yet, she doesn't want to run into legal issues and she hasn't had a chance to talk to a lawyer."

"I might know someone that would give her a free consultation, he's been complaining about some of the anti-cape laws for years," Carol mused.

Vicky frowned as she thought about Emma and her father. "As long as they don't work for your firm, it should be fine."

"What's wrong with the firm?" Carol asked a touch defensively.

"Conflict of interest, Emma Barnes was involved in the attack that caused her trigger," Vicky explained.

"And Alan works for us," Carol muttered. "Armsmaster didn't mention that part, just that Redcap had been attacked at school and triggered. He mentioned that she was something of a grab bag but won't go into details other than assuring me that her power couldn't influence people."

"What exactly is her power?" Mark asked.

"Don't answer that if you've signed an NDA," Carol warned them.

"It's fine, I checked," Vicky assured her. "She can upgrade locations, temporarily turn capes into Tinkers, permanently give people a Breaker form, conjure adorable minions and create a beam that drains stamina from people."

"That's a weird collection of powers, normally grab bags have a collection of small powers, unless you're Eidolon," Carol admitted. "I'm still trying to wrap my head around the idea of someone being able to give out permanent powers."

"Especially since they don't have any negative side effects," Vicky said cheerfully.

"I don't know, the outfits are a bit suspect," Mark teased, finding himself amused at the entire situation and relieved that his girls would be a lot safer.

"It's a small price to pay for being bulletproof," Vicky replied with a shrug, not seeing a problem with wearing her magic girl outfit under her actual costume. "Even if we don't upgrade the entire house, can we at least upgrade the bathroom and our rooms?"

"Of course," Carol agreed, having given the matter a decent amount of consideration over the last couple of hours since Vicky had texted her about it and she'd talked to Armsmaster about Redcap's power. "Can she upgrade the house without making it obvious from the outside?"

"Probably," Vicky replied, figuring it was worth a shot.

"You can call her in the morning," Carol said, knowing she'd sleep better if she didn't have to worry about random gang members burning her house down in the middle of the night or doing a drive-by because someone forgot to take their meds.

"Thank you!" Vicky practically squealed.

"You should get some sleep, it's late," Carol told her, planning on getting some sleep herself since she needed to go into the office in the morning.

"Okay," Vicky replied as she headed for her room, relieved that she wouldn't have to sneak Taylor into the house to upgrade things without her parents' approval.

Carol shook her head then turned to look at Amy. "Get some sleep, you have a long day tomorrow and Armsmaster is hoping that you'll spend some of it working on your prototype."

"That's the plan," Amy assured her as she headed for her room, looking forward to fixing the bugs in the healing device so that she wouldn't have to feel insanely guilty about not being at the hospitals all the time.

Mark watched Amy leave then turned to look at Carol. "Is it just me or did she look more relaxed than she's been in months?"

"It's not just you," Carol assured him, glad that Amy was feeling better.

0o0o0

Danny glanced up from the omelette that he was cooking when Taylor walked into the kitchen wearing a pair of black sweats and an unfamiliar sweatshirt with a picture of a large fluffy dog on the front that he didn't remember seeing before. "New clothes?"

"They were in my dresser," Taylor replied with a smile, rather happy that her dresser and wardrobe were filled with new clothes or at least clothes in excellent condition since all of the ones she'd tried seemed to be 'broken' in just enough to be comfortable.

"That explains the tie I don't recall buying," Danny mused as he went back to paying attention to Taylor's omelet. "How long did your new friends stay?"

"They left a couple of minutes after ten, they have school," Taylor replied, glad that she didn't have to deal with school for the rest of the week thanks to the fact that the district had to replace half of the teachers and most of the office staff.

"Did you have a chance to upgrade the yard last night?" Danny asked, pretty sure the answer was no since the yard hadn't looked different when he'd glanced out the window.

"Not as much as I'd like since I was running low on mana but I pushed what I had into making sure people that want to cause trouble can't find the place," Taylor replied. "Do you want me to upgrade the docks before one of the bean counters complains about my power?"

"I'd have to clear that with a couple of people and you should probably finish upgrading the yard before someone shows up to investigate the changes," Danny replied as he folded the omelet.

"That's easy enough," Taylor replied as she walked over to the door and opened it so that she could see the backyard. She pushed her mana into expanding the yard and shoring up the fence, causing the available space to double and the old wooden fence to change into a ten foot stone wall with a solid oak door leading to the street where the old gate had been. "And I'm out of mana."

Danny walked over and looked at the yard. "I think you just doubled the amount of yard work we're going to have to deal with."

"At least we'll have plenty of space to upgrade the shed," Taylor replied as she shut the door and walked over to flip the omelet.

Danny smiled as he thought about what his wife would say. "Your mother would be laughing."

"Or giggling while tossing out suggestions on what to upgrade next," Taylor agreed as she grabbed a plate from the shelf and put the omelet on it. She turned the burner off then walked over and sat down at the table.

"Are you going to be okay staying home by yourself?" Danny asked.

"I'll be fine, I doubt the gangs are going to jump straight to kidnapping and I have my minions," Taylor assured him as she put ketchup on her omelet, trying to sound confident despite the fact that she was sort of worried about the gangs or one of Emma's minions showing up and causing trouble.

"That's not as reassuring as you think," Danny complained.

"I know," Taylor admitted. "Assault said that the PRT would have some agents in the area for a couple of days, that should give me enough time to upgrade the heck out of the property and build some halfway decent defensive gear."

"Stay inside and lock the doors," Danny told her.

"Locking the princess in a tower never ends well," Taylor warned him with a grin as she finished cutting her omelet into bite sized chunks.

"Are you expecting a prince to rescue you?" Danny asked.

"No but I know a couple of heroes and a dragon," Taylor teased, causing her father to laugh.

"I'm your father, it's my job to worry," Danny told her.

"I know," Taylor replied then dug into her omelet, not sure how to convince her father that she'd be okay, mostly because she didn't trust the gangs to pour piss out of a boot with the instructions on the heel.

Danny sighed and left the kitchen, not particularly happy about leaving Taylor alone but well aware that he had several important meetings today that might actually result in a decent amount of work for the union.

0o0o0

"So much for avoiding notice," Taylor mused when one of her minions noticed a man with chalk white skin getting out of a car in front of the house. 'That should be Alabaster, I think Amy said something about him resetting or having really good regeneration.'

Alabaster scowled as he focused on the grey skilled smurf-like creature that was sitting on top of the fence watching him. "I have a message for your boss," he offered as he walked over to the gate.

"What type of message?" Taylor had her minion ask as she paused the movie she was watching about an author and his mischievous genie that liked walking around naked and causing trouble, wanting to deal with the idiot before she got back to enjoying the movie despite the fact that her multitasking would let her pay attention to both.

"I want to explain why joining the Empire is in her best interest," Alabaster told the minion.

"The master isn't interested in joining any of the gangs, please leave," Taylor told the cape, glad that his name had come up while discussing the local capes with the girls.

"I'm not going to take no for an answer," Alabaster replied as he pulled a gun out of his back pocket and pointed it at the minion.

"Does Kaiser know you're here?" Taylor asked through a different minion, giving her other minion a chance to vanish when he turned to look at the other minion.

"He doesn't concern himself with the small stuff," Alabaster replied, unwilling to admit that he wasn't on an official mission.

"In that case, come in, we can discuss the services she's willing to sell," Taylor had the minion reply as she used another minion to open the gate. She summoned her cane as she walked out of the safe room and over to the window in her room that looked over the front yard. 'So much for doing things the easy way,' she mused as she tapped her cane on the ground, summoning another dozen minions in the yard.

She waited until the cape walked halfway up the stairs then used her power to swap his power to a Tinker ability so that her minions could hurt him if they had to. 'Okay, if no one knows you're here, no one is going to miss you,' she mused as she walked out of her room and headed toward the stairs, glad that she could keep track of him with her minions. 'He shouldn't be used to pain or worrying about getting hurt, that means he won't be expecting me to be able to hurt him.'

Taylor rushed over and got into place around the corner then had a minion open the front door a crack.

The minion dashed under the porch. "Actually, she changed her mind, fuck off and leave!"

Taylor had another minion shout, "You're not welcome!"

"That's not how this works," Alabaster replied as he stepped forward and kicked the door open, causing it to slam into the door stopper. He smirked as he walked inside, deciding that he'd mess the girl up a bit before handing her over to Kaiser for the insult.

Taylor waited until she could see Alabaster's now pink hand then slammed her cane into his wrist as hard as she could, shattering it and causing him to scream in pain and drop the gun. She stepped around the corner and slammed the top of her cane into his face then stepped forward and smashed it into his crotch when he fell over backwards. She hit him a couple more times to make sure he wasn't going to get up then walked over to pick up the phone as she had her minions start trying him up.

She jumped when the phone rang right before she could pick it up, not expecting it to ring. She picked it up on the second ring. "Hello?"

"Redcap, find somewhere safe to hide, Alabaster is looking for you," Ethan told her as he crossed the street toward her house, annoyed that the asshole had waited until he'd been in the bathroom to show up.

"He's unconscious and my minions have him tied up, can you pick him up?" Taylor asked hopefully, not sure what she was supposed to do with the idiot.

"Can you repeat that?" Ethan asked as he got close enough to see what he was guessing was the cape's legs sprawled on the floor.

"He broke in, so I hit him a couple of times," Taylor replied.

"Was anyone with him?" Ethan asked as he approached the door, trying to get a better idea how she'd managed to drop Alabaster unconscious, something that shouldn't have been possible.

"No, just the idiot," Taylor replied. "I'm in the living room, don't shoot."

"Do I have permission to come in?" Ethan asked as he waved, glad that his costume was recognizable.

"I see you and yeah, I'm hanging up," Taylor replied relieved that Assault had shown up.

"What happened?" Assault asked.

"He told one of my minions that he wanted to recruit me, I had my minion tell him that I wasn't interested and he insisted so I swapped his power to a Tinker ability and made sure he wouldn't be able to hurt me," Taylor explained.

"Nasty and effective," Ethan muttered under his breath. "Walk me through everything while the team makes sure he's secure."

"Sure," Taylor replied and proceeded to do exactly that, leaving out mention of her safe room or the exact movie that she'd been watching.

0o0o0

Ethan was almost ready to take off when he saw a giant monster truck pull up, the back filled with masses of electronics. "Great."

Taylor came out unable to believe what she was seeing. "Is that a pacman cabinet?" Taylor asked, a bit surprised by the strange electronics in the back of the truck.

"Looks like it," Ethan agreed as they walked out of her keep.

"We're not looking for trouble," Squealer offered.

“Truce!” Skidmark called out with a gap toothed grin and waved for his girl to do the talkin’.

"Why are you here?" Ethan asked, wondering what the shitstain wanted.

"We heard about her ability to pimp buildin's," Squealer replied.

"Okay, and so you're here to kidnap her?" Ethan asked.

"No, we're here to hire her," Squealer replied cheerfully.

"What?" Ethan asked.

"I can already pimp my rides, we need our base pimped out so we aren’t freezing our tits and other assorted bits off in winter," Squealer replied.

“Those tits are worth protecting!” Skidmark declared.

“I… can’t argue with that,” Ethan reluctantly admitted.

“So you brought over a bunch of tinker fodder in exchange for me making your place weatherproof?” Taylor asked.

“Fuck yeah,” Skidmark said. “We got dealers making rounds just to keep warm some nights and that just ain’t right.”

“Okay, this is beginning to sound like a public service,” Ethan admitted.

“Above and beyond my tits?” Squealer teased, causing Ethan to facepalm and Skidmark to burst out laughing.

“Say the word and all this junk is yours,” Skidmark said. “You can have Redboy escort you so you know it’s all on the up and up.”

"Where did the swag come from?" Ethan asked.

"Condemned buildings and salvage, it's legit," Skidmark replied.

"Legit enough," Ethan mused, figuring he could label this as another example of power testing or a public service since it would be cleaning up their current digs and give some more of their homeless members a place to stay.

"We also have tools," Squealer piped up.

Ethan nodded, figuring that would save Taylor a lot of money and keep her from 'borrowing' tools if she couldn't source everything legitimately. "Let's say we just file this under power testing and call it a public service?"

"You're the expert," Taylor replied, not seeing a problem with it since she needed the electronics.

"Get it unloaded and we'll make it happen," Ethan assured them.

"Fuck yeah," Skidmark exclaimed as he jumped out of the truck and yelled for the half a dozen stoned gang members in the back to get started.

0o0o0

"You realize that she stole two minions, right?" Ethan asked as they drove down the street toward the docks.

"Yeah, she stuffed them in her cleavage," Taylor replied. "Is it wrong that I'm jealous that she can hide a couple of minions in her cleavage?"

"The PRT’s HR department has not instructed me on how to answer that question, probably because they never imagined anyone would ask it, but I will say this… Squealer has a few notable positive features that many are rightfully jealous of,” Ethan carefully said.

Taylor giggled. “Very nicely done,” she complimented him.

"You're not upset about her stealing minions?" Ethan asked, trying to understand the new cape.

"They're not dangerous, they're sort of like tiny monkey pets crossed with parrots because they can talk and seem to enjoy cursing," Taylor replied.

"They should fit in just fine," Ethan replied with amusement.

"What should I concentrate on while I'm upgrading it?" Taylor asked.

"Appearance and comfort, it's already a local landmark, if a bit of an eyesore, you might as well make it into something interesting," Ethan told her.

"I can work with that," Taylor agreed, figuring she had enough in the tank to make that work.

"How far away can you hit it?" Ethan asked, figuring the 'paperwork' he'd have to do for this project would be a lot less problematic if they didn't have to go inside.

"Line of sight, I think," Taylor replied.

"Good, that means we don't have to go inside, you can hit it from across the street," Ethan said as they left the market and headed toward the trainyard.

"This still seems a bit suspect," Taylor admitted.

"It's basically a homeless shelter that the city doesn't have to pay for or manage for the type of people that were going to be using anyway. Life isn't black and white, and this is the Bay, it's mostly shades of gray at best."

"That’s a good point,” she agreed. “Can I subtly improve any homeless shelters we might happen to run across on the way back?”

“I don’t know, can you do subtle?” he teased.

Taylor grinned. “Watch me.”

0o0o0

"Ha!" Amy explained when the debug program showed that she'd fixed the last error.

Vicky looked up from running a test on her force field belt and frowned slightly when she noticed a lighthouse that hadn't been there the last time she looked out the window. "Were we supposed to get a new lighthouse?"

"What?" Amy asked as she looked out the window of the testing center and saw the lighthouse that was near the docks that hadn't been the last time she'd looked. "Isn't that where the tourist trap is?"

"The one we're supposed to avoid because of the Merchants?" Vicky asked.

"That would be the one," Amy replied.

"You know what we say when something strange happens in Brockton Bay?” Vicky asked, obviously quoting something.

Amy’s eyes narrowed. “What?”

“It’s good that Taylor did that,” Vicky said with a shit eating grin.

Amy shook her head when she remembered the Twilight Episode that the original quote came from. "I'm sure she had a reason."

"Exactly," Vicky teased.

"We can ask her later, I need to find a lab rat, I think I figured out why the machine was making fractal patterns," Amy told Vicky as a PRT agent walked in.

"Poor rats," Vicky complained.

"Are you available to heal a prisoner that we just got in?" the PRT agent asked.

"Who?" Amy asked.

"Alabaster, someone worked him over and his power doesn't appear to be working," the PRT agent replied.

Amy smiled.

0o0o0