Taylor, Tinker, Thinker... Spider? Part 3

"You're smirking," Danny said as he turned a little wide into the parking lot to avoid the camera on the back of the pet shop.

"I'm wearing a dust mask, how can you tell?" Taylor asked, unwilling to admit that she was smirking as she scanned the area for more cameras.

"I've worked with the union for years," Danny replied dryly. "Do we need to worry about the other cameras?"

Taylor glanced at the camera on the back of the second hand shop, using her Thinker power to judge what was in view. "Not if you stop in the third parking spot and we don't go into the fifth spot."

"Third spot it is," Danny replied. "I still think this is a bad idea."

"We'll be fine, the closest light is out, they won't be able to see your license plate but there's enough light in the area that no one will think you're doing anything suspicious," Taylor replied smugly.

Danny pulled into the third parking spot. "Except we are."

"Exactly," Taylor replied as she pulled her monster mask over her hoodie. "Technically, we're not doing anything illegal, we're just buying supplies."

"Don't get shot," Danny ordered her as he handed her five tens, fairly sure her Thinker power was screwing with her personality or at least reasonably sure as she seemed more smug than she usually was. 'Then again, maybe she's just having fun, she hasn't done that in over a year.'

"Don't worry, this will be a piece of cake," Taylor said as she checked her mask in the mirror then opened the door and slipped out of the car. 'Now, I just have to slip around the building to the side, avoid the cameras or people screaming.'

'At least she's wearing a bulletproof vest under her jacket,' Danny thought as he turned on the music, hoping he wasn't going to have to bail her out of jail because someone had a heart attack or got jumpy.

0o0o0

"We don't have any money!" Frank blurted when he looked up his comic book and saw a masked figure standing at the counter wearing dark clothes.

"Good thing I have change," Taylor replied as she set her basket filled with electronics on the counter in front of the skinny man in his late teens or early twenties. 'Maybe the heroes have a point, being able to smile at people would probably help convince them that I'm not a villain.'

"Sorry," Frank offered as he started ringing up the girl's purchases. "Tinker?"

Taylor shook her head. "Minion."

"Minion?" Frank asked, a touch surprised that she'd admit to working for a cape.

"It's a job," Taylor replied as she pulled a couple of tens out of her pocket. "The boss has better things to do than pick up old electronics which means I get to wander around to a bunch of secondhand stores and look for things that someone hasn't snatched up."

"Make sense, what type of Tinker are they?" he asked excitedly, forgetting for a second that digging into a cape's business was a bad idea.

"Drones or at least that's what she's been making," Taylor replied with a shrug, trying to make her specialty less impressive than it actually was. 'If I can't disguise the fact that there's a new tinker in town, I can at least make sure no one takes them seriously.'

"That explains the old remote controlled cars," Frank said as he finished ringing everything up. "Nineteen eighty seven."

"Here," Taylor replied as she handed him the cash. "Do you have broken electronics in the back that you'd give me a good deal on?"

"That depends, can I get a tinkertech drone?" he asked excitedly.

"I'm sure that can be arranged," Taylor assured him as she put her purchases in her cloth shopping bag, not seeing a problem with trading a couple of hours of work for a decent amount of material.

"This is going to be awesome!" Frank practically squealed then quickly stuck the money in the till and gave Taylor her change.

Taylor couldn't help wonder at the legality of the clerk giving her a bunch of electronics for the promise of a piece of tinkertech as she followed the clerk to the back room but figured everything was just going to be tossed if they couldn't fix it and she could honestly say the clerk gave it to her if anyone ever asked. 'Besides, this is the Bay, they have Nazis running around, no one is going to care if a clerk gives away a bunch of junk.'

"Most of the game systems are fine, they just got bricked by the company because someone modded them or was hacking which makes them worthless for gaming but you can probably do something with them, right?" Frank asked as he gestured towards the piles of random electronics on the shelves and tables.

"I'm sure I can find a use," Taylor assured him, fairly sure the hard part would be to get everything she wanted into a cart so that she could get it to the car without anyone noticing or taking pictures. 'At least if anyone asks, I'm just a minion doing a job for some extra cash.'

0o0o0

Danny eyed the shopping cart filled with electronics that Taylor had shone up with. "Please tell me that you didn't rob the place."

"I didn't rob the place," Taylor replied sarcastically as she worked on moving everything to the trunk, causing her father to give her a look. "Seriously, I just promised the clerk a tinkertech drone and he let me walk off with a bunch of broken electronics."

"Including expensive looking game systems?" Danny asked.

"Officially, they're basically paperweights because the company trashed the linked accounts for various reasons, including cheating and hacking. Unofficially, they have decent processors, excellent graphics cards and DVD drives. If I chain a couple of them together, I should be able to get a decent system out of it," Taylor explained.

"You're the expert," Danny replied as he helped unload the cart. "Did you pick up any useful skills from the guy?"

"Some halfway decent repair skills," Taylor replied, not seeing a point in mentioning the basic hacking skills she'd picked up.

"Swinging by the college wouldn't be a bad idea either," Danny pointed out, figuring it would give her a decent collection of skills and give her a leg up on graduating early.

"When do we have to leave for the meeting with Uber and Leet?" Taylor asked, looking forward to seeing what type of schematics she could get in exchange for giving them a week to play with each other's powers.

Danny glanced at this watch. "Forty five minutes, the meeting isn't until seven thirty but I'd rather get there early and make sure everything is set up before they have a chance to screw things up."

Taylor frowned. "I thought you said some of the union members have worked for them before."

"They have, but this is the first time we're sending a cape to meet with them and they don't have the best impulse control," Danny warned her.

"Don't worry, I've got things covered," Taylor assured her father, reasonably sure her plan would keep her safe and convince Uber and Leet to play ball without spilling secrets they shouldn't be spilling.

"We can hope," Danny muttered as he finished unloading the cart. "What are we going to do about the cart?"

"Leave it, Frank will pick it up in thirty minutes when he takes a break," Taylor replied as she pushed the cart out of the way, glad that her current costume included gloves. "It's easier than trying to put it back then leaving without someone noticing the girl in a monster mask."

"I'm just glad your power could find all of the cameras," Danny said as he closed the trunk and headed for the driver's seat.

"I'm just glad that a couple of people haven't fixed their cameras," Taylor replied as she hustled over and got in the front seat. She closed the door then pulled off her monster mask, leaving her glasses and dust mask in place, figuring someone would just think it was for health reasons if they noticed at all. "That combination makes it hard to breathe, I'm going to need to figure out a better solution."

"You could always just go with a painted motorcycle helmet, they're designed so you can breathe and they'd give you a decent amount of protection," Danny suggested as he started the car and shifted the car into reverse.

"Not a bad idea but it would make walking around without attracting attention annoying," Taylor complained. "I might need to look into some type of coating on the helmet that would let it change colors or designs."

"Add it to the list," Danny suggested as he took the route that Taylor had laid out using one of her Thinker powers. 'Annette would have loved this, sneaking around and trying to make the city better. Then again, she'd have figured out things with Emma and it wouldn't have gotten bad enough for Taylor to trigger. You can't change the past, you can just make sure she's reasonably safe and not getting into pointless fights.'

"Right after armor and a force field," Taylor replied as she leaned her head back and mentally ran through her plan for dealing with Uber and Leet.

0o0o0

"Drama Queen Capes," Leet muttered when he noticed the Mario and Luigi figurines sitting on a broken park bench next to a radio, glad that they'd settled on changing their appearance with makeup and glasses rather than something more game themed.

"Were you honestly expecting something to go right?" Uber asked as he glanced around in a way that wasn't particularly obvious, trying to spot anyone that looked suspicious.

"We could just keep walking," Leet pointed out in a whisper.

"Has the union ever tried to screw us?" Uber asked as he walked over to take a look at the figurines.

"No but there's a first time for everything," Leet replied as he followed Uber, trying to look casual and mostly failing.

Uber winced when a mosquito or something bit him on the leg. "Fucking blood suckers."

Leet glanced at his friend. "Are you still ranting about the shitty vampire movie?"

"No, something bit me," Uber complained as he walked over and picked up the walkie-talkie. He pushed the button. "Hello?"

"Hello, you've been granted Leet's power for one week, additional time can be bought with schematics, notes and broken examples of Leet's tech," Taylor replied as she had one of her Uber spiders bite Leet on his ankle then quickly dash for the park bench to hide.

Leet scowled as something bit him on the leg. 'Yeah, that's annoying.'

"Can you repeat that?" Uber asked, wanting to make sure that he'd heard the person with the distorted voice correctly.

"I don't trust you, you don't trust me so I'm giving you a week of Leet's powers," Taylor replied as she watched the capes through her spiders. "Run some tests, build some strange devices and go wild. At the end of the week, if you want to have another week with his powers, you can give me copies of some of his schematics and broken tech and you'll get another week provided you don't pull anything completely stupid like your hooker video."

"To be fair, we paid them to take a fall and the only people that were hurt in that video were actual gang members," Uber replied.

"What about me? What do I get out of…" Leet trailed off as he got the sense that he could get exceptionally good at something just by concentrating on it. "Did you give me a copy of Uber's power?"

"It seemed fair," Taylor replied with amusement. "I'll take donations of schematics and broken tech if you're feeling generous."

"Are you a Tinker?" Uber asked as he discreetly scanned the surrounding area for capes, fairly sure the other cape could see them.

"Effectively," Taylor admitted.

"You get to share his power for the week, don't you?" Uber asked, putting the pieces together.

'Close enough,' Taylor thought, swapping gears and changing her plan slightly. "Is that a deal breaker?"

Uber relaxed slightly when he realized the other cape got something out of the deal. "No."

"How much do you know about my power?" Leet asked, wanting to make sure she didn't kill herself, if only because he wouldn't mind a couple of weeks with Uber's power and he had a lot of schematics that he'd never had the chance to create, mostly because he'd already burned out those particular specialties unless he wanted to play Russian roulette.

"From what my power is telling me, you have the ability to make just about anything a Tinker could make, but the closer something is to what you've made before, the more likely it is to malfunction in a possibly lethal fashion. That's one of the reasons I want a copy of your schematics," Taylor explained.

"I also have to be careful of which tinkertech components I use," Leet complained.

"Do you have any schematics for 3D printers?" Taylor asked.

Leet laughed. "One of the first things I created, thankfully we've managed to keep it mostly working. Are you willing to put on a blindfold and take a ride?"

"Are you seriously asking a young lady to get into a van with a couple of strangers?" Taylor asked, fairly sure her father would freak if she took them up on their offer without some assurances.

"Okay, when you put it like that, it sounds creepier than I meant it," Leet admitted.

"Story of his life. If everything checks out, where can we send the schematics?" Uber asked, more than willing to send her copies if it meant they could recreate some of the devices that Leet couldn't repair.

"I wrote the PHO account on the inside of the battery cover on the radio," Taylor replied.

Uber opened the battery cover and looked at the world written on a piece of tape. "Arachne? Is there any particular reason you're going with that particular figure out of myth?"

"It seemed less presumptuous than calling myself the Spark of Creation or Prometheus, giver of fire," Taylor replied.

"No pyrokinesis?" Uber asked.

"Not so much," Taylor admitted.

"What's stopping us from just enjoying the powers for a week and giving you nothing?" Leet asked.

Taylor glanced at her father who was sitting in the driver's seat shaking his head. "Nothing, except the fact that I won't renew your powers for another week if I don't get something."

"You have a point," Uber offered before Leet could say something they'd regret. "Where do you see our deal in a month or two?"

"Provided you limit your shows to hitting the gangs or at least petty stuff, I don't see a problem with working together to make the world better," Taylor replied, fairly sure being useful wouldn't hurt their bottom line or make the gangs go out of their way to kill them.

"If we start hitting the gangs, they'll try to kill us," Leet argued, knowing they were basically hovering below the point where dealing with them was worth it.

"We're just a couple of minor video game villains, how are we supposed to make things better for the world?" Uber asked.

"You could always send some of Leet's schematics to Dragon, maybe she can figure out how to reverse engineer them and you'll get a cut of the royalties or maybe you could give her a force field generator and she could make being a cape safer," Taylor suggested.

Leet sighed as he recalled the force field belt that had burned out saving his life. "Sorry, that was one of the first things I tried."

"It's worth looking into," Uber said thoughtfully, hoping he could fix the force field belt now that he had Leet's power and build a duplicate. "Do you know if I have to worry about Leet's list of burned specialties?"

"No clue, that's one of the reasons I'm helping, so you can test things," Taylor admitted, figuring they'd have an easier time accepting things if there was something in it for her.

"I can't blame you. So now what?" Uber asked, wanting to get back to the lab and play with Leet's power.

"Anything else you can think of?" Taylor asked her father without her finger on the button.

"Not really," Danny admitted.

Taylor pushed the button on the walkie-talkie. "We go our separate ways and I try to figure out where I'm supposed to build something like a 3D printer."

"What do you think?" Leet asked Uber without pushing the button.

"I don't see any harm in sending them the schematics or the program, maybe they'll figure out a way to improve it," Uber replied.

Leet hit the button. "Normally I'd suggest buying one but they're a bit on the expensive side and most of them don't build things out of metal and plastic so I'll send you the schematics and the programs Uber came up with if you agree to send me any improvements you make."

"Much appreciated, my food is here so I'll talk to you over PHO," Taylor replied then turned the walkie-talkie off.

"Your food is here?" Danny asked with a look.

"There are a lot of cafes around, we're not currently at one and I don't plan on stopping for a snack. They're common enough that I don't think they'd think it suspicious that I mentioned it and it gives them a false lead if they try to find us," Taylor explained.

Leet frowned as he looked at the Mario figurine. "Trap?"

"No clue," Uber admitted. "I say we head back to the lab and test things then send them some of the schematics we have."

Leet grinned as he focused on acrobatics then did a cartwheel. "I could get used to your power."

"Same," Uber agreed as they headed towards the street, not noticing the spiders that jumped on the back of their boots.

"Where are we going next?" Danny asked.

Taylor glanced at her father. "That depends, do you feel like swinging by some martial arts studios on the way home so I can copy some self defense skills?"

"I know a couple of places," Danny replied as he started the car and pulled out of the parking lot.

"Good, you might as well brush up on your self defense skills," Taylor suggested.

"Might as well," Danny agreed.

0o0o0

Danny frowned slightly when he noticed Taylor's frown in the mirror. "What's wrong?"

"I just picked up Squealer's power, she'd be terrifying if she was sober and clean enough to think straight…" Taylor trailed off when her power added two more powers to her list of available powers. "Nice, I just got Armsmaster and Miss Militia."

"How can you tell?" Danny asked as he checked his mirror and cracked the window open a touch so that he'd have a better chance of hearing any trouble coming their way.

"The Thinker ability includes the ability to function without sleep and perfect memory, that's probably Miss Militia. The Tinker ability involves efficiency and miniaturization and has a decent collection from what I can see," Taylor explained.

"That sounds like Armsmaster. Did you get Miss Militia's weapon?" Danny asked, wanting to make sure.

Taylor double checked the list. "I don't see it on the list."

"That sounds useful for staying up and working on tinkertech, especially if you want to figure out which steps you skipped or when you did weird things," Danny suggested.

"Weird things, like cackling like a mad scientist?" Taylor joked.

"I was thinking about crossing wires or doing things that cause the devices to fail but cackling like an evil 'genius' probably counts," Danny agreed.

"Muahaha," Taylor replied, then frowned when she noticed flashing lights ahead of them. "We should probably get off the road."

"Already on it," Danny replied as he turned onto a side street.