Tinker of Fiction Part 5

Taylor looked up from the book she was reading when Mist opened the front door. "How was school?"

"It's still standing," Mist replied as he slipped inside and shut the door behind him. "Ms. Sanders needs her head checked, Romeo and Juliet isn't a tragedy, a tragedy requires you to care about the characters, it's a story about a couple of idiots," he complained as he walked over to the couch and flopped down in front of his laptop.

Taylor shook her head. "Don't worry, you'll probably be done with the story next week."

"Doesn't make it less annoying," Mist replied as he turned the laptop on.

"I'm aware," Taylor replied with amusement. "Have you figured out what you're going to be working on?"

"I was thinking about alternate ways to make the force field and I came up with something that should make it a hell of a lot harder to duplicate while making it harder to damage," Mist replied as he typed in the password and logged in.

"What did you come up with?" Taylor asked, curious about what he’d thought up.

"Crystals," Mist replied smugly. "There are a number of crystals that are hard to create in a gravity well unless you have a replicator or an antigravity device which means even if people could understand the science, they'd have trouble mass producing them."

"How long do you think it's going to take to design?" Taylor asked, looking forward to having a belt that wasn't cobbled together.

"Under twenty minutes," Mist replied as he pulled up the CAD program he was using to design everything, "but I should probably finish assembling the arc reactors before I get carried away so we're not running up a massive electrical bill."

"That would be nice," Taylor agreed as she watched Mist redesign the force field belt. "What else did you come up with?"

"Everything? Nothing, I didn't want to break out the notebook and start tinkering in the middle of class but I came up with a couple of ideas that I want to test."

"Like what?" Taylor asked.

"Transporters, scanners, and hard light holograms," Mist replied as he started working on the design for the new shield belt.

"What are you planning on doing with hard light holograms?" Taylor asked.

"I was thinking about using them to replace a bunch of half trained teenagers and construction workers," Mist admitted.

"Why?" Taylor asked.

"One of the easiest ways to improve the quality of life in the Docks would be to create a network of corner stores that sell things for a reasonable price or even slightly below a reasonable price so that people can get back on their feet. The replicators would cover the goods and the hard light holograms would cover the employees."

"Why not just hire people?" Taylor asked, knowing that people needed jobs and that he'd be putting some people out of business as they wouldn't be able to compete.

Mist sighed. "Because I don't want a bunch of innocent people ending up dead and a couple of dozen low end jobs aren't going to fix the Bay."

"Why would they end up dead?" Taylor asked.

"If I'm going to the trouble of fixing the Bay, I'm getting rid of the gangs. If one of the shopkeepers tells the idiot that shows up to demand protection money that his boss is a fucking gecko and not a dragon, it should draw the capes out."

Taylor stared at Mist. "And get the store destroyed."

"Most of them probably need to be torn down and rebuilt anyways," Mist pointed out, making a mental note to look into making construction bots that he could use to rebuild the Bay's failing infrastructure. "If we can deal with Lung and Oni Lee, the rest of the ABB should fall apart or leave the area which means we can actually start improving things."

"I don't think it's going to be that easy," Taylor warned him.

"It's worth a try," Mist replied with a smile as he pulled up the kludged together program that he was using to make the replicator programs. "Worst case, we lose a couple of abandoned shops and collect some insurance money."

Taylor shook her head. "I'm pretty sure telling a homicidal cape to fuck off violates most policies."

"Depends on the fine print and if they can prove it," Mist replied with amusement, not particularly concerned about the money he might lose on the shop on the off chance that it was destroyed.

"Best of luck," Taylor muttered, knowing it wouldn't be that easy.

"Thanks," Mist replied as he started working on writing the replicator program for the crystal chip he was using to black box the shield and make it more efficient.

0o0o0

"Yes!" Mist exclaimed as over two dozen red dots appeared on the map.

"What's up?" Taylor asked as she walked out of the kitchen.

"I got the cape detector to work," Mist replied with a grin as he pulled up the program that controlled the transporter that he'd cobbled together.

"Cape detector?" Taylor asked warily.

"Yep," Mist replied. "This should let me track down the local villains without even getting close."

"That sounds like a good way to get people to kill you," Taylor argued, hoping she could get him to shut it down before he noticed that she was a cape.

"Probably," Mist agreed as he grabbed the upgraded stun pistol that he'd replicated. 'Screw it, I'm going to need someone to help raid the gangs, might as well put some cards on the table.'

"What do you need the stun pistol for?" Taylor asked.

"Hypothetically, if you could push a button and capture the worst cape in the city, would you?" Mist asked.

"Hypothetically, sure, why?" Taylor asked.

"Cool," Mist replied as he activated the transporter, grabbing the person he was reasonably sure was Coil based on his location and the fact that he shouldn't have any other capes in his house.

Taylor jumped back when a naked middle aged black man appeared on the strange circular platform that Mist had replicated and put in the living room.

"What the-" Thomas managed to say before Mist shot him in the back with the stun pistol.

"What the hell?!" Taylor demanded.

Mist shot Coil in the back a second time as the villain collapsed, wanting to make sure he was unconscious. "That worked better than I was expecting."

"Why is there a naked man in the living room?" Taylor demanded.

"This is Thomas Calvert, a.k.a. Coil," Mist explained as he grabbed the roll of bailing wire off the table then walked over and started tying his hands behind his back.

"How do you know that?!" Taylor demanded, wondering if her cousin had lost his mind.

"I met a precog at school," Mist explained as he worked on making sure Coil wouldn't be getting his hands free. "You can check the map, there are two dots where the house is."

Taylor walked over and checked the map, not sure how to tell him that he'd made a mistake. 'Fuck it, he's going to find out eventually, especially if he's making cape detectors.' She shook her head. "If he was a cape, there would be three dots."

"Three?" Mist asked as he glanced around the room. "Are you telling me there's a stranger around?"

"No, I'm a cape," Taylor admitted.

"I'm aware," Mist replied as he started tying Coil's feet together.

"What?!" Taylor sputtered.

"It's really easy to build a scanner that can detect the dimensional connection each cape has to their power. It's also easy to program a filter so the map doesn't show my connection," he lied, not seeing a point in trying to convince her that he wasn't a parahuman when he couldn't prove it.

"What are you going to do if the precog was lying or wrong?" Taylor asked.

"That depends, how long until Danny gets back?" Mist asked.

Taylor glanced at the clock on the wall. "At least half an hour."

"Plenty of time to run some tests on the Thinking Cap," Mist said cheerfully.

Taylor stared at Mist. "Are you psychotic? You want to give a villain powers?"

"Not particularly but we need to make sure it's safe and I'm planning on shooting him with the stun pistol randomly and often which means he shouldn't wake up," Mist argued as he used his shoe to push Coil's lips back so he could see his teeth.

"What are you doing?" Taylor asked.

"Checking his teeth, Skidmark's mouth looks like a trainwreck according to PHO and Grue is a teenager which means he's most likely Coil," Mist explained.

"He could also be an out of town cape," Taylor pointed out.

"I'll take my chances," Mist replied as he pulled the cell phone sized scanner that he'd replicated the night before and started scanning Coil's brain, wanting to make sure the helmet didn't do anything drastic before he swapped to test subjects that he wasn't planning on killing. "I doubt ten minutes with the cap on is going to give him permanent superpowers but it should let me record his thoughts."

"What happens if we fry his brain?" Taylor asked.

"He was planning on kidnapping a kid and drugging the shit out of her so that he could use her power, I don't actually care if the Cap fries his brain," Mist replied. "Speaking of secrets, what's your power?"

Taylor glanced at the man that was still unconscious then looked at Mist. "Bug control, I can control every bug within four blocks. I can also use their senses to a limited degree."

"Cool, that should help with scouting," Mist replied as he put the scanner in his pocket.

"That's it, cool?" Taylor asked.

Mist glanced at Taylor. "What do you want me to say, I'm a cape and the potential for powers tends to run in families. It could be worse. You could get power by killing people or your power could be turning you into a mutated monster like Crawler."

"No thanks," Taylor complained, trying not to think about the Nine. "Does this mean you could grab the rest of the villains in the city?"

"In theory," Myst admitted as he walked over to the table and grabbed the Thinking Cap he'd been planning on scanning. "In practice, that's a good way to end up dead." He set the helmet in standby mode so that it wouldn't give Coil powers then stuck it on Coil's head. "I'm not willing to give my transporter or scanner to the PRT and I'm not willing to risk grabbing the wrong cape without a decent amount of research or a precog to make sure I get the right person."

Taylor picked up Mist's stun pistol and pointed it at the unconscious man that was tied up with wire, wanting to make sure she could shoot him if he moved. "What are you going to do with him if he's actually Coil?"

"He was facing the other way so he never saw our faces. I figured we can transport him to the Rig with a note after emptying his bank accounts," Mist lied. 'Sorry but it's better for everyone if he never makes it to the Rig.'

"We should probably grab our masks or some duct tape," Taylor pointed out.

"Duct tape?" Mist asked.

"Blindfold," Taylor replied as she headed to the garage to grab some gloves and some duct tape, wanting to make sure that he couldn't see them even if he woke up.

"Duct tape works," Mist agreed as he grabbed his stun pistol and shot Coil, wanting to make sure he was asleep before he started tinkering with the bastard's brain. He worked downloading Coil's recent memories to a flash drive while he waited for Taylor to come back with the duct tape.

0o0o0

"Is it a good thing that he stopped twitching?" Taylor asked as she watched Mist scan the villain's brain.

"No clue," Mist admitted as he glanced at his laptop screen so that he could see the whole picture. 'I should probably hard wire the limiter on the copy we're using,' he mused, fairly sure he didn't want to deal with the side effects of using the Thinking Cap at full power.

Taylor glanced at the slowly spinning brain that was displayed on the screen. "What do you mean, no clue?"

"I'm not a biotinker or a surgeon, I just make the tech but yeah, I doubt the black spots on the scan are a good thing," Mist admitted, fairly sure the black spots on the scan was a result of turning the cap up to full power without giving the man's brain a chance to get used to it.

"Can you fix it?" Taylor asked hopefully.

"With enough research and time…" Mist trailed off when he heard the car door shut. "So much for having time," he muttered as he pulled up the controls for the transporter and transported Coil to the bottom of the Bay. 'Sorry, not sorry. If anyone asks, the beam bounced off the shield.'

"Should I tell him?" Taylor asked, thinking about her powers.

Mist glanced at Taylor. "About what?"

"My powers," Taylor replied, trying not to think about the cape they'd used as a test subject.

"It would certainly make going on patrols easier and you wouldn't have to lie," Mist pointed out.

"Fine," Taylor muttered as her father opened the door.

"Fine?" Danny asked as he walked in and closed the door behind him with his foot.

Taylor smiled when she saw the pizza box. "Pizza."

Danny glanced at the transporter pad then focused on Mist. "Any luck with your inventions?"

Mist shrugged. "I managed to test a couple of things that needed testing and I put the arc reactor together so I can run some experiments without causing the power bill to spike through the roof and start replicating a larger replicator so I can replicate the pieces for some construction bots."

"Don't steal more jobs than you make," Danny warned him as he set the pizza on the coffee table, only half serious about the warning.

"Don't worry, we've actually come up with a fiendish plan to fix the Bay," Mist assured him as he opened the box and grabbed a slice of pizza.

"Fiendish?" Danny asked.

"Exactly, it involves hard light holograms, a couple of dozen stun pistols and a lot of unhappy gang members," Mist replied cheerfully then took a bite of his pizza.

Danny glanced at Taylor. "Do I want to know?"

"He's basically planning on setting up some shops then having the holograms shoot the gang members that show up for protection money until their capes are forced to show up," Taylor explained as she grabbed her own slice.

"Cheap shops using replicators and hard light holograms to keep the costs down. I'm also planning on using a transporter and a bunch of replicators to salvage as much of the boat graveyard as I can so I'll have the material to build starships," Mist added cheerfully, looking forward to seeing how much he could make with his crazy idea.

"You'd run into trouble with the Simurgh," Danny warned him, wanting to avoid a situation where the Simurgh took an interest in the Bay or his nephew.

"Only if we actually go into orbit," Mist pointed out, then took a bite of his pizza, planning on taking care of the Simurgh as soon as he had a chance to dip into some of the more destructive technology he could access.

"What do you need starships for?" Danny asked.

Mist finished chewing his bite and swallowed. "They're awesome and they'd let me build a starbase."

Danny shivered as he thought about Mannequin's moonbase. "No starbases or starships until the Simurgh is dead."

"Fine," Mist complained, mentally pushing up his plans to deal with the Endbringer.

0o0o0

Mist glanced away from his notes when his laptop beeped, indicating a new message.

"I was thinking, hey, Void... I have this super soldier formula I need tested."

"Yeah, right, I wasn't born yesterday. Whoever sells those formulas only sells to the ultra rich."

"Hypothetically, if I blew up an endbringer, would you believe me?"

"If you managed to blow up an endbringer or even just correctly predicted one blowing up I’d probably buy screen doors for my submarine from you."

"Is that a yes?"

"Sure man, sure..."

Mist typed his reply, "Excellent!" and sent the message, rather amused by the discussion. He glanced over at the replicator that was producing another tachyon bomb to go with the rest of the bombs that he'd already replicated. 'Okay, that should give me enough cover, mostly because I doubt she'll be able to predict shit with that many tachyon particles around her.'

He quickly finished off the rest of the program for his temporal slingshot device then copied it to the replicator. He carefully moved the tachyon bomb over to the transporter platform with the rest of the baker's dozen then pushed the button on the replicator.

'I'll just have to let someone know that she'll be back, eventually.' He looked at the contraption that would doom a future civilization, feeling a touch guilty about his plan, mostly because it wouldn't actually fix the problem, merely delay it for a hundred thousand years if his calculations were right. 'Screw it, if we can't figure out how to kill her in a hundred thousand years, we're not trying.'

Mist glanced at the transporter interface then armed all of the bombs and the slingshot and hit the button on the interface that would send everything to the Simurgh's current location. 'At least that particular bit of tech can't be reverse engineered to send her back.'

Myst glanced at the clock on the wall. "Seven oh five. I should have waited until the fourth of July, meh." He swapped to the other page with the message to Greg. "Ding dong, the witch is dead, just wait for official confirmation."

He smiled as he started working on the programs he'd need to replicate a shuttle.

Greg stared at the message for a couple of seconds, wondering if he should post something about the idiot then shook his head. "Yeah, whatever, I'll believe it when I see it. They're probably just trying to start something."

0o0o0

Eidolon stared in disbelief as he watched the video of the Simurgh vanishing and a flash of multicolored light, feeling like he'd been sucker punched. "What the hell was that?!"

Legend dragged the movie over to the large screen on his office wall so his friends could see what he was seeing. "Fourteen devices unleashed something that only barely showed up on Dragon's sensors and the strange device ignited everything, causing everything in the area to cease to exist, including half of an old satellite and the Simurgh."

"Are you telling me that a tinker killed the Simurgh?" Eidolon demanded, trying to wrap his mind around the idea that the Simurgh was gone, without his assistance.

"That's what it looks like," Alexandria offered, wishing not for the first time that she could get drunk or at least pleasantly buzzed because she felt like celebrating. "Dragon ran the numbers and double checked things at least a dozen times, there's no evidence of the Simurgh escaping."

Legend checked the message one of the thinkers sent his phone when it rang. "None of the thinkers have a clue where the devices came from, everything was normal and then it wasn't but they're willing to confirm that the Simurgh is gone."

"Was it Scion?" Eidolon asked, tired of dancing around the elephant in the room.

Legend shook his head. "That was the first thing I checked, he was in the middle of putting out an apartment fire when he stopped for a second, matching the timestamps, he paused right after the Simurgh vanished."

"We need to find the person responsible," Eidolon said anxiously, hoping they could repeat the trick and a bit worried about Scion's reaction if they managed it.

"I'll keep looking," Legend assured him, hoping they could do the same thing with the rest of the Endbringers. "I need to call the President now that we have confirmation."

"Door, my office," Eidolon stated, then stepped through the doorway when it appeared.

Legend waited for the door to close then looked at Rebecca. "He needs to learn to relax."

"I'm aware," Alexandria stated dryly. "Did Dragon have any leads on parahumans that might be able to pull this off?"

"Toy Box might have managed something and there's a bomb tinker in Brockton Bay that deals with exotic effects but she'd have already claimed credit if she'd managed to kill an Endbringer and teleportation isn't one of her specialties as far as we know," Legend offered as he scrolled down to the president's number. "You might want to get back to your office."

"Door, my office," Alexandria said, knowing that she'd have to join the call in her civilian identity once the president got over his shock.

0o0o0