Replaceable Parts: Chapter 1

This is a backpost of the first chapter of Replaceable Parts.

Click here for chapter 2

Chapter 1: This Will Be the Day

I found her right after she stopped a truck with her bare hands.

"Sorry about that." I knocked on the driver's side door, metal clanking against metal. The older man inside looked over at me in surprise. "Hunter Academy, you know how it goes. Here, to cover the dents."

I passed him a lien card. I'd bill it to my 'expense' account.

That's me, Taylor Hebert, government agent. But when you land half-dead in the middle of a shadow conspiracy meeting, you sign up to defend the human race from extinction.

I should know.

"Thank you, miss." The man gave a nod. "Hope you tell her to be a bit more careful in the future."

I gave a put-upon sigh. "Of course I will. Doesn't mean she'll listen. I'm her big sister, after all." We shared a chuckle, and the truck trundled back down the road. That just left me in the middle of the street, looking at the alleyway on the other side, where my sister had pulled another girl.

The one, specifically, she stopped the truck with her bare hands for.

I ran my mechanical hand through my hair, taking a moment to gather myself. I'd never been good at social interaction, but I wanted to… be there for Penny. She didn't deserve the worst of me.

I started walking. Perhaps I could have put in a bit of haste; that kind of impact on Penny's hands, aura or not, would, well…

I had always been an advocate that Penny tell the people she cared about exactly who and what she was.

I caught just the tail end of the conversation. "… just cause you've got gears and pistons instead of squishy guts you're not real?" The other girl's voice was gentle, maybe even a little playful. I paused, leaning against the wall at the mouth of the alley.

Looks like Penny told after all.

"You've got a heart, and a soul, I can feel it! You're just as real as I am."

Penny let out a sound not unlike a teapot boiling over. "OoooOOOOH! Ruby! You're the best friend a girl could ever have!"

Ruby let out a groan as she was trapped in one of Penny's hugs. I'd been on the receiving end of enough of those that I could distinguish them by sound alone. "I can see why your father would want to protect such a delicate flower."

"Of course! That's why he sent my sister along with me to Vale, after all. Though… I should probably..."

I leaned into the mouth of the alley. "Have let her know where you were going?"

"Taylor!"

I smiled as Penny jumped back, snapping halfway into a military salute. I could see the synthetic flesh had been partially ripped from her palms, leaving the gleaming metal underneath clearly visible.

To her left, I caught a flash of red as an unbalanced 'Ruby' fell over.

I gave a fond sigh, walking up to my 'sister'.

I'd been an only child in my last life, but it seemed my penchant for 'adopting' people had worked to my benefit here. The shadowy backers of this world's secretive conspiracy to save humanity (and really, did every reality have one of those?) seemed more competent than the last bunch. I was still holding out final judgement on that score, but when I'd proven myself capable and useful, they'd found a good use for me.

One that I could get behind.

"You should take better care of yourself, Penny."

"I sincerely apologize, sister." The girl drooped slightly; even her ginger hair went limp.

Penny was shorter than me, even though her personality was larger than life. I took one of her arms, gently gripping the fabric of her cream blouse. She kicked one of her mary janes against the ground as I examined the 'wound'.

"I thought I told you to call me Taylor." I pulled a small pouch from my belt. "Here, let's get you patched up." I gave her a small smile. "Then you can tell me about your day, and how you made your first friend."

I'd say it hurt, that I wasn't considered her first friend. But I wasn't a child any longer.

And really, I knew why she didn't feel that way.

Penny brightened immediately, bright green eyes practically shining. Though perhaps they actually were. Had Geppetto included a searchlight function?

I wouldn't put it past the man.

Penny started talking as I applied adhesive strips to her palms. "Of course! This is Ruby Rose, and she is my very first friend!" She reached over, grabbing Ruby from where she was brushing the dust from her skirt. "Ruby, this is my elder sister, Taylor!"

I spared a glance towards the other girl. Short cut black hair that went to red at the tips, reflective silver eyes, and a functional—if a bit frilly—combat ensemble, complete with a well-worn red cloak sized for a much younger girl.

"A pleasure to meet you." I gave Penny's hands a quick spray, sealing the seams between the new material and the old. "There we go. So, how did the two of you meet?"

"Well, I kinda ran into her?" Ruby plucked at the fabric of her sleeve, glancing up at me through her fringe. "Penny is very… solid."

"It's rude to talk about another girl's weight," I said. Ruby blanched, opening her mouth to say something.

Penny raised a hand. "I weigh one hundred and thirty six kilograms."

I held back a laugh. "Yes you do, Penny." I reached out, ruffling her hair. "Every single one of them packed to the brim with energy, no doubt."

She blinked up at me around my hand. "You are being unusually affectionate today, Elder Sister Taylor."

I shrugged. "What can I say, Vale agrees with me."

"I did not know that Vale was a physical entity capable of expressing agreement!"

I shared a glance with Ruby, who had a conflicted expression on her face. She'd had to deal with Penny's… Penny-ness for most of the morning, no doubt. Luckily, I had a bit more experience.

"It means that you enjoy being in a place. In this case, specifically Vale," I told her.

Penny smiled again. "I see! In that case, I think that Vale agrees with me as well! It must be a most agreeable location."

"It really is." So much better than Atlas. I grew up in the bay, and I thought I knew what a cold winter was, but there was a world's difference between that and the arctic wastes of Mantle. Quite literally. I turned to Ruby, "So, have you been showing Penny around?"

"Yes…" She squinted at me, gaze flicking between me and my synthetic arm. "So, are you Penny's sister sister? Because…"

I shrugged. "Not quite." I raised my prosthetic. "Though I guess I did get some prototyping work done on me." I spun my wrist joint 360 degrees.

"So cool…"

"So." Idly, my hand transitioned into a gun, because everything was a gun in this world. "I take it Penny let you in on her secret?"

Ruby eeped. "Yess…"

I started to say something, but Penny stepped in front of me. "Elder Sister Taylor, I will not let you threaten Friend Ruby."

I stopped, then chuckled, letting my hand transform from a hand-canon to just a normal hand. "I wasn't going to threaten her. She just needs to know how important your secret is, and how much trouble it could cause you if it got out." I leaned around Penny slightly, abusing my greater height. "If Ruby's a good friend to you, I'm sure there won't be any problems."

Ruby zipped back to her feet. "Yep! That's me! Ruby Rose, the world's bestest friend, at your service!"

I smiled. "That's all I ask."

I stepped back, stretching slightly. I'd been told it was psychosomatic, but shifting my arm always made it feel a bit stiff. It was a feeling I'd gotten used to, given how much I practiced with the thing, but if I was going to keep Penny safe, I needed to at least keep up with her.

"Anyway. You ran into Penny? How did that go for you?" I asked.

Ruby blinked once, eyes shuttering like lanterns, before a more natural smile broke out across her face. "Well, she kinda knocked me over."

"I did not!" Penny rounded on her friend quickly. "I remained perfectly stationary and did not knock into anyone."

I chuckled as Ruby raved her hands, recounting about how she quite literally ran into my adopted sister. Along the way, I learned that Ruby was apparently a student at Beacon, Vale's Combat Academy. She had a good heart, as befitting of a future Huntress. She'd probably be a good friend for Penny too, god knows the restrictions Atlas placed on her were stifling.

Even if I agreed with those restrictions, I wouldn't begrudge her this little bit of freedom, before I had to do my job, of course.

"And then she was all, crash, bang! And stopped the truck with her bare hands! It was super cool," Ruby finished. "And, uh, here we are."

I nodded. "Here we are." I turned to Penny. "Have you exchanged scroll numbers yet?"

Penny shook her head. "General Ironwood will check my scroll when we go back." She looked down glumly. "It is proper protocol."

"I see." I sighed. I'd been Penny's minder for a few months now, and while I'd done my best, I was not the most sociable person myself. Nevermind that I was her minder first, and her 'sister' a distant second.

Maybe I should do something to fix that.

"Ruby, would you like to exchange scroll numbers with me?" I pulled out my scroll. "I think I'd also like to get to know my sister's friend."

Ruby looked at me in confusion for a second. "But what about…" Then her eyes widened. "Ooooh!" She giggled, tapping her scroll with mine. I accepted the contact info. "You're sneaky, like a spy."

I allowed myself a small smile at that. "I suppose I am."

Penny gave me a thankful smile, before schooling her expression back into something more neutral. "Do we have to return now?"

Before I could reply, my scroll buzzed. "One sec." I turned. "I have to take this."

I turned towards the mouth of the ally, quickly sweeping the surrounding rooftops with eyes and semblance both. There was a reason General Ironwood and the shadowy conspiracy kept me on, and it wasn't simply because I knew too much. There would be no villains sneaking into secret underground chambers while I was on watch.

I didn't know why that particular example came to mind, but it just felt… right.

A quick check of my scroll showed that it was my employer. "General Ironwood, Sir." I greeted the man without issue. I'd left the worst of my antiauthoritarian tendencies behind in my last life.

"Agent Steele. Have you located the package?"

But… only the worst. "I don't have eyes on at the moment," I said. "I caught sight of… her briefly with what looked like a combat academy student. But traffic got in the way."

Behind me, I heard a slight snicker. Penny put a freshly-repaired hand against Ruby's mouth.

"At least there's that." I could practically hear the man frowning. "Ozpin's students should be of assistance, if worse comes to worst. Keep searching. If you locate the—" He cleared his throat. "If you locate her, inform her that she is to return to base at once."

"I will relay that to her, Sir," I said. "Is there anything else, or should I return to my search?"

"That is all, Agent Steele. I'm counting on you."

I allowed myself a wan smile, only because his pet specialist wasn't in the city. "Understood, Sir. Steele out."

Ironwood also hung up without further fanfare.

That's me, Taylor Steele, agent of Atlas, and adoptive big sister.

I turned back to Penny and Ruby, putting on a surprised affect. "Ah, Penny, there you are." The girls giggled again. "I am to inform you that you are to return to base immediately."

Penny looked down at that, features dipping, but then Ruby elbowed her gently. "Penny, she's doing the thing where she tells you that because she has to, without actually making you go through with it!"

Penny tilted her head at me. "Is that a 'thing', as Ruby puts it?"

I hummed, shrugging my shoulders. "I have no idea what you're talking about. My orders are to keep searching for you, and to tell you that you have to return to base." I allowed myself a small smile. "I suppose, if you decide not to obey orders, I'll just have to keep 'looking' for you. How fortunate that I'll be able to locate you quite readily, if there's any trouble."

Penny blinked twice, before her eyes widened. She looked down again, but bashfully. "Thank you." She looked back up. "I think agree, Vale agrees with you very much, Taylor."

I quirked a lip at the good-natured ribbing. Not that Penny would ever intend it as such. "I guess it does."

How could it not.

I turned back towards the edge of the alley. We were close enough to the ocean that I could smell the salt, hear the docks—docks that were surviving and thriving despite a sea full of monsters. Here I was, in a city by the sea that was bright and clean and everything they Bay could never be. Was it any wonder I was so affected?

Some people would wonder why I'd sign on with a shadowy conspiracy bent on saving the world, especially given my experiences with the last one.

But then you'd see this world, one that was in worse shape, in absolute terms, than Earth bet had been: four major population centers, a few handfuls of settlements, and monsters quite literally at the door. And yet there was hope and beauty here that I hadn't ever known. There were people giving all of their heart to defend that fragile hope. And no, things were not some perfect utopia here, but they were trying.

Striving unto dawn.

Really, it was just like me to immediately gear up for another fight. Fighting was all I knew, now. It had taken this city by the sea to shock me out of that mindset, even for a moment. After all, even if fighting was all I knew how to do, I'd made a promise to be better, once upon a time.

"Soo…" Ruby's chipper voice interrupted my musings. "Are you two like, super-secret spies from Atlas?"

I transformed my hand back into a gun. "Please, forget you heard anything."

"Taylor!"

"Thhhaaaaaaat's still so cool! Even the second time!" Ruby threw her hands up in the air. "Oh wow, it's like something out of one of Blake's books, the cool spy with the transforming arm. What caliber is it? Oh, does it have any other modes? Like a grapple gun, or a hammer, or, or maybe a sniper rifle?"

I raised an eyebrow as the girl practically pressed her face to the material of my gun.

"It does have a grapple," I managed. "But the rest is unfortunately classified."

"Awww, really?"

"No." Ruby's eyes snapped back to me with a betrayed expression. "I just don't know how any of it works." I sighed. "I have weekly classes on maintenance."

Penny leaned over, whispering to Ruby. "Taylor is not very good with technology."

I rolled my eyes. "Compared to your father, no one is very good at technology."

"That would be correct!" Penny smiled cheerfully.

It wasn't my fault this world had weird, non-euclidian robotics and literal handwavium. I was doing my best to get up to speed, but between learning how to use my arm, and learning why it worked that way, I'd pick the how every time.

I had plenty of experience with powers that made no sense, after all.

"But how can you not know about your weapon, it's literally your arm!" Ruby practically vibrated in place. "I bet it has all kinds of amazing functionality you're just leaving on the table."

From the corner of my eye, I saw Penny's smile… dim slightly. Yeah, it must be unfortunate to make a new friend, and then have your 'older sister' come along and steal your thunder. I'd had my fair share of experiences like that, back with Emma.

I tapped my side with my normal hand. "Penny, why don't you show Ruby your swords?" Ruby's head snapped up at my words. "They're much more interesting than this old thing."

"Penny, you have sword?!"

"Yes!" Penny nodded happily, her backpack opening up to allow her swords to pop out of her chassis. "Floating Array is a variable, high yield, combination/control-type armament." The eight blades unfolded, hovering around her. "I am capable of controlling each sword individually, or as a group, as part of my programming."

I took a step back at Ruby's 'So Cool!', leaning against the alley wall as Ruby and Penny started to nerd out over the mechanics of the weapon. It all went over my head, so I just did what I usually did and kept watch.

It was good for Penny to make a friend, even though we'd have to go back soon. There was only so long I could make Ironwood believe I hadn't located Penny, given my abilities, but really, what was the harm of letting her have this?

Just because I was a part of the shadowy conspiracy to save all of humanity didn't mean I agreed with them on everything.

I drummed my fingers against my knee, taking in the setting sun.

People might also wonder why a shadowy conspiracy might want to induct me in the first place, but really, any good conspiracy was in need of competent people that didn't exist. We were deniable assets; discardable, replaceable pieces that were useful in all kinds of scenarios.

An explosion shattered the quiet, a plume of smoke rising from the direction of the docks.

I stood.

Scenarios like that one, for instance.

Replaceable Parts

Worm/RWBY