Taylor Hebert Dungeon Girl Part 11

Randal walked into the warehouse where they kept some of Leet’s more interesting failures. “Any luck?”

Kevin turned to look at Randal as he picked up something that looked suspiciously like a toaster. “I haven’t had anything blow up yet so that’s a nice change.”

Randal frowned slightly as he looked at the toaster his friend was holding. “Is that the spare toaster or the home defense system you built when you were first starting?”

Kevin looked at the familiar looking toaster warily. “I thought it was the spare toaster but I’m not sure why we’d leave a normal toaster here.”

“Unless it got buried?” Randal asked with amusement as he walked over and set the bag with Kevin’s hamburger and soda on the bench. 

“Eh, the new toaster works fine, I’ll just salvage it and find out.” Kevin tossed the toaster into the salvage bin and hit accept. He smiled as he got a pattern for making a toaster and a bunch of spare parts. “Just a toaster.” He set the spare parts in a box then grabbed the bag with his food.

“Probably for the best, I seem to recall your home defense device tried to kill you a couple of times.”

Kevin snorted as he unwrapped his burger. “Yeah, that probably should have been a clue.”

“Please tell me that you got a pattern off the power armor?” Randal asked hopefully.

“Oh yeah, I’m going to have to rebuild parts of it but I got a basic pattern and a bunch of patterns for parts which means I should be able to build a decent set of power armor.”

“That’s going to be,” Randal jumped slightly as his phone rang, “cool.” He pulled his cell out of his pocket, looked at the caller ID then answered it, “Hey Lootz, what’s up?”

Kevin started working on eating his burger as he absently listened to Randal’s half of the call with amusement.

Taylor complained as she jogged down the street toward in the general direction of the boardwalk, “I ran into a miniboss that kicked my butt so I figured I’d take a break before I get myself killed.”

Randal winced as he thought about Lootz dying. “Oh? What happened?”

“I was doing fairly well clearing out the Valley of Lightning until the miniboss decided to hit me with a lightning bolt charged windstorm then call down a bunch of lightning bolts.”

“Aren’t you immune to that, thanks to your crown?” Randal asked with concern.

“The electricity part, yeah, the ground zero of the explosion part, not so much, not to mention it left me sort of blind and deaf until I drank a healing potion.”

“At least you’re alive.”

Kevin stopped eating long enough to say, “That doesn’t sound good.”

“Yeah, I tossed some chunks of fire rat meat at the tiger and crawled away,” Taylor admitted as she jumped a pothole and passed an older lady that was walking her dog.

“Fire rats, large tigers, Valley of Lightning? What have you been doing without us?” Randal asked warily.

“Farming dog sized fire rats and lightning cats for elemental infused leather so I could make decent armor for the group. The suits I made should protect everyone from a decent amount of electrical damage. They also have a decent amount of armor so we should have an easier time with the Diablo dungeon, especially now that we know they’re weak to fire. By the way, I can recharge the staff of fireball so we can start using it when we find groups of demons.”

Randal was looking forward to not having to dodge the demons’ various electrical attacks and just gunning them down with the fire elemental pistols. “I’m looking forward to setting them on fire.”

“I can imagine. Have you heard from Kevin about his engineering?” Taylor asked curious things were going for Kevin.

Randal grinned as he looked over at Kevin. “Yeah, he’s been salvaging things all morning; grabbing patterns.”

Kevin spoke up, “It’s going nicely.”

“Good to know that it works on tinkertech.” Taylor wished it was as easy to share the engineering patterns as it was to share the alchemy recipes. “Speaking of tinkertech, do you have anything that can immobilize a large magical tiger and possibly slowly skin it over a series of days?”

Randal chuckled as he mentally reviewed what they had in the warehouse. “Just a second, I’ll ask. Do you we have anything that can immobilize a large magical tiger?”

Kevin shook his head. “Not that I know of. We had a net gun at one point, but it met a tragic end against Armsmaster.”

Randal snickered as he remembered that particular escapade. “That’s a no. You might try some type of net but do you really want to be that close to a tiger?”

Taylor winced as she thought about the fight with the miniboss. “Not particularly; the wind from its claws tossed me through the air like a ragdoll at range, I’d rather not get into melee combat with it.”

“The other option is we ignore the miniboss until we can get better gear, there might be something in the Diablo dungeon we can leverage or maybe we can recruit a ranged blaster to help with the boss. We don’t have to play fair.”

“Point,” she agreed as she stepped out of the way of an older man walking his dog.

“We have a city of capes, we can probably recruit some of them. Hell, if we stuck Vista in a full set of lightning resistant gear, she could twist space so the mini boss would never get to us.”

“We’d have to test to make sure the resistance gear could stand up to the lightning.”

Randal laughed. “I’ve heard Aegis regenerates but he’d probably report us to the PRT.”

Kevin snorted. “He’s pretty by-the-book so yeah, I can’t see that working out.”

“Either way, are we still filming your show tomorrow?” Taylor asked as the walk symbol lit up. She glanced both ways then jogged across, as she didn’t want to be in the crosswalk longer than she had to.

“Yeah, we’re looking forward to it...” Taylor trailed off as her phone beeped indicating another call. “I’m getting another call, gotta go.”

“In that case, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Have fun.” Taylor swapped to the other call. “Hello?”

Danny asked, “Where are you? I tried calling the house and you weren’t there.”

“I needed to get out of the house for a bit so I went for a jog. Something up?” Taylor asked hoping there wasn’t a problem.

“I managed to buy the salvage yard you wanted, do you want me to pick you up so that you can see it?”

“Sweet, yeah, I’ll be home in five minutes.”

Danny laughed. “I’m still at the office and I need to talk to a couple of people but I should be home in twenty to thirty minutes.”

“Sounds good, see you then.” Taylor turned and headed back toward her house, anxious to get started inventorying the contents of the salvage yard.

“Love you.” Danny hung up the phone then started shutting his computer down. He didn’t mind clocking out a little early considering he’d finished going over all of the contracts and the rest of the stuff on his desk could wait until the morning, especially if he could net the Dockworkers some steady income or at least some decent part time work. 

0o0o0

Taylor felt like giggling as she looked around the salvage yard filled with stacks of wrecked cars, boats and the occasional wrecked motorcycle husk. She glanced between the wrecked crane near the water and the two story brick machine shop near the water that they’d probably used to repair cars or boats before they’d went out of business. “At least the fences look in decent shape.”

Danny shrugged. “More or less, the old owner parked a couple of dogs here that didn’t particularly like people after he had some trouble with people stealing scrap.”

“That would discourage people from squatting, hopefully the inside of the shop isn’t too horrible.”

“I know some guys that are hazmat trained, we’ll get it cleaned up if we have to.” Danny knew they’d have to do at least a couple repairs to the building and probably put a new roof on it eventually but the land and salvage were worth more than he’d paid for the property. Of course, the amount of work it would take to sort through the scrap and haul the junk off the property made it less worthwhile for an investor which was one of the reasons it had been sitting for so long.

“How much is that going to cost?” Taylor asked curious how much they’d have to spend before they could take over.

“It depends on how bad things are, probably not more than one hundred an hour,” Danny replied as they headed up the metal stairs toward the office on the second story.

“That doesn’t sound too bad.” Before she’d triggered, a hundred an hour would have seemed rather expensive but it seemed fairly cheap now that she could make money by killing monsters. She glanced at the handwritten sign on the door. “Beware of hornets?”

“It’s like a beware of dog sign,” Danny replied absently as he used the key the old owner’s son had given him and unlocked the door. He sighed in relief as he pushed the door open and saw that the ‘office’ actually looked in decent shape. It smelled a little musty but nothing that airing it out wouldn’t fix. He smiled slightly as he saw the old large green metal desk that would probably survive the end of the world. “This is better than I was expecting.”

“At least the roof doesn’t leak over this part of the building.” Taylor glanced through the crack in the door to make sure someone wasn’t standing there then slipped inside past her father and headed over to look at the small bathroom. The mirror was a little dirty and the sink had some buildup of gunk around the faucets but other than that, it looked decent enough. “Nothing some bleach won’t fix.”

“In that case, let’s check the rest of the building. Leave the door open so it can air out a touch.” Danny was less impressed with the rat infested storeroom and the dusty and mostly empty workshop. He wasn’t sure about the condition of the various lifts but at least it wasn’t as bad as I’d feared from the faded gang tags on the outside of the building. “We might not need the hazmat team, just a mask and gloves for the storeroom.”

“That’s good to know.” She had a feeling most of the useful stuff in the storeroom had already been sold or looted but once they cleaned it up it would make a decent place to store parts. “I’m surprised that the Merchants didn’t loot the place to the ground.”

“I’m not, a lot of dockworkers walk by here and most of the decent parts have probably already been scrapped.” Danny glanced toward the water where the two docks were and the ramp that went into the water. “I’m looking forward to seeing this place running again.”

“We’re going to need to hire someone to keep the books.”

“I’m sure we can find someone to run the books for us. What do you want to do first?”

Taylor glanced at her father, he was almost as giddy as she was about buying the salvage yard, it was nice to see him excited about something other than the ferry. “I wouldn’t mind salvaging everything in the storeroom for parts and patterns but I should probably call the boys and let them know we bought the yard. By the way, how did you pay for the place?”

“Probably. I used a bunch of the gold coins we got from the goblins and sold a couple of the uglier pieces of jewelry that you said weren’t magical.”

“At least that keeps us from having to go through the bank,” Taylor replied as she pulled out her phone and called Randal.

Randal answered before the second ring, “Is everything alright?”

“Yeah, my dad bought the salvage yard.”

“Sweet.” Randal turned and looked at Kevin who was looking through a box of odds and ends. “Lootz got the salvage yard.”

“When can we come see it?” Kevin asked eagerly and loudly enough for Taylor to hear.

Taylor chuckled. “When can you get here?”

Randal said, “Kevin needs to lock up but then we’ll head that way, maybe ten to fifteen minutes?”

“We’ll be here, I’ve got plenty of things in the storeroom I can salvage,” Taylor replied.

“In that case, see you in a few.” Randal ended the call.

Taylor rolled her eyes at the lack of goodbye. “I’d call Amy but she’s probably at the hospital.”

Danny nodded. “Do we have a plan?”

“Get some gloves and cleaning supplies then start dragging the boxes to a clear section of the floor so we can go through them? I want to reorganize the supply room with chests…” Taylor trailed off with a sigh. “I’m an idiot.”

“What?”

“I’ve been salvaging things left and right, this is the first time I thought about salvaging one of the chests to see if I could make enchanted containers.”

Danny laughed at the look on his daughter’s face. “It’s certainly something to look into. You could probably make a decent amount of money selling them.”

“I doubt we’ll have to worry about it. Besides, enchanting requires mana and crystals.”

“Point. I’ll grab the gloves and trashbags.” Danny turned and headed toward his car.

“Thanks,” Taylor replied as she headed toward the storage room to start salvaging things.

0o0o0

Kevin grinned as he looked around at all of the wrecked cars as they pulled into the salvage yard. “This is going to be awesome.”

Randal turned the van off. “At least we’ll have a decent supply of parts.” He was looking forward to selling hoverboards to the nice townsfolk if only because it would give the PRT a headache.

“Good, point,” Kevin replied as he got out of the van. He glanced over at the docks then over at the brick building that could stand a decent paint job. “Decent street and water access.”

Randal grabbed his electrician toolbox and got out of the van. “I figure a bit of work then we can talk her into running a dungeon.”

“Sounds good to me,” Kevin admitted.

Danny stepped out of the garage. “Taylor’s inside trying to organize the storeroom.”

“Do you want me to take a look at the wiring and the lifts?” Randal asked as he walked toward the garage.

“You’re a qualified electrician?” Danny asked with a touch of surprise.

“The tests weren’t that hard.” Sure, he might have cheated a bit with his power to start with but he’d gotten a lot of experience with electronics trying to keep Leet from killing them over the last couple of years.

“In that case, please, I’d love a better idea of what is wrong with the place before I send a work crew tomorrow.”

“I’ll take a look while Kevin helps Taylor with the storeroom.” Randal grinned as he headed into the garage leaving Kevin to help Taylor sort through the junk in the storeroom.

“Fine, I’ll help sort the crap.” Kevin followed Danny and Randal into the garage. He glanced around the mostly empty space, he’d certainly worked in worse places but everything could probably use a scrub and the walls could probably use a fresh coat of paint. “Bit of spit and polish and it will be as good as new.”

Danny said, “Hopefully, there are a few wet spots on the ground which probably means this part of the roof leaks.”

Randal glanced away from the lift and looked up at the ceiling, he couldn’t see any obvious sources of light and the entire floor wasn’t wet so the roof couldn’t be too damaged. “It shouldn’t be too hard to patch until we can afford to replace it.”

Kevin ignored Randal’s comments about the lifts as he headed for the storeroom. He smiled as he saw Taylor going through one of the boxes she’d pulled off the partially empty shelf. “Any luck?”

Taylor turned to look at Kevin as she reached up and pulled her dust mask down so she could talk and breathe easier. “Eh, nothing overly spectacular but I started with the shelf that held car paint and cleaning supplies so I wasn’t expecting to find anything particularly useful.”

“Any patterns?”

“Some cleaning supplies and I unlocked a bunch of paint colors so that’s useful.”

“Cool, where do I start?” Kevin opened his engineering menu.

“Wherever you want.” She gestured toward cardboard boxes that she’d stuck in the middle of the isle. ”First one is metal, next is plastic and the last one is for random containers of crap.”

“Works for me.” Kevin moved down the shelf and started clearing the shelves into his salvage box.

0o0o0

Randal poked his head into the storeroom and looked at the mostly empty shelves. “Ready to take a break?”

Taylor set the box she’d been looking through on the ground then turned to look at Randal and her father who was holding two cardboard pizza boxes. She took her mask off and set it next to the box she’d been sorting. “I could eat. How did the inspection go?”

“I checked the electrical, it’s up to code which is nice, there isn’t any insulation to tear out in the shop and the office is new enough that there isn’t anything to worry about in the walls which is a relief. The controller for the third lift is twitchy but Kevin should be able to salvage the circuit board and make a new one. Either that or I’ll crack it open and see if I can repair it.”

“Eh, I’ll take a look at it after we eat.” Kevin wasn’t overly worried about the controller, worst case they could order a replacement though he doubted it would come to that. 

“Thanks, I’m going to need an extension ladder to check the roof and to change a couple of lights but everything looks surprisingly good.”

“If everything checked out, why did they close?” Taylor asked as she took her gloves off.

Danny said, “I asked when the old owner’s son dropped off the keys, the economy took a nosedive when the tanker sank, there wasn’t enough work to keep everyone working full time then the insurance got too expensive at about the same time the crane broke so he ‘closed’ the shop and ran things himself for a while then kept it as a tax write off. I’m fairly sure he rented the docks out unofficially to cover the taxes.”

“Makes sense,” Kevin agreed.

Danny turned and walked over to the tool cabinet he’d wiped off earlier and set the pizza boxes on it. “Any objections to me sending a group of people by tomorrow to clean the floors and paint everything?”

Randal walked over, opened the top box and grabbed a slice of the supreme pizza and one of the root beers the delivery girl had dropped off. “No objections here.” Normally he probably would have just spray painted over the gang signs then swept and mopped the floor and called it good but were actually trying to start a business and the building needed a fresh coat of paint if they wanted to be at all presentable.

“Not particularly.” Taylor walked out of the storeroom then headed to the bathroom to wash her hands.

“No objection here, it could use a coat of paint.” Kevin took his gloves off then dropped them on the box of random parts he’d been sorting and walked over to grab a piece of pizza.

Danny closed the lid of the box before Kevin could grab a piece. “You should probably wash your hands considering the various chemicals in the storeroom.”

“Point,” Kevin agreed as he thought about the various things he’d been salvaging. He was used to having snack food handy while tinkering but he wasn’t usually playing with toxic waste which some of the old chemicals probably counted as. He turned and headed toward the bathroom to wash his hands just in case something had gotten through his gloves.

Taylor walked over and grabbed a piece of pizza and a root beer. “Does anyone want to hit the Diablo dungeon after we eat?”

Randal finished chewing his bite of pizza. “I’m game.”

Danny glanced down at his watch. “I should probably call the office to arrange a work group for tomorrow and I’d have to pick up my armor but I wouldn’t mind running a dungeon.”

“You can use the extra set of lightning resistance gear I stashed in my workroom.” Taylor took another bite of her pizza.

“In that case, let me make some calls.” Danny pulled out his cell phone and called the office to see if he could arrange a work party for the morning. He picked up a piece of pizza then walked toward the door leading outside so he’d get better reception.

Kevin walked back out of the bathroom and over to the box of pizza. “So Valley of Lightning eh?”

“It seemed like a decent idea at the time, like the damned Gummi Bear forest,” Taylor muttered the last part as Kevin picked up a piece of pizza.

“Gummi Bears?” Kevin asked in surprise.

“I needed a place to relax and blow off steam after dealing with the mini boss from the Valley of Lighting.”

“Did you pick up anything good?” Randal asked.

“A couple Gummi Berries, an enchant and a pattern for a costume that turns the person wearing it into a Gummi Bear.”

Kevin stopped with his piece of pizza an inch from his mouth as he tried to figure out if Taylor was pranking him. “Are you serious?”

Taylor sighed. “It was a themed dungeon, the costume was required to explore the forest in the dungeon.”

“Weird.” Kevin took a bite of his pizza as he tried to wrap his mind around his friend’s power.

Randal laughed as he pictured bouncing around as a bear in their new video. “That could be amusing. I guess the real question is can you ride a hoverboard while you’re a bear?”

“No idea, what are you thinking?” Taylor asked warily then worked on eating the last couple of bites of her pizza.

“I was thinking every good villain needs a hero and what better hero than a cute innocent looking bear?”

Kevin turned and looked at Randal in disbelief. “Cute and innocent?”

Taylor finished chewing then swallowed the last of her pizza. “No clue what the bears look like, I didn’t have a mirror.”

Randal snickered. “It’s probably worth testing, if you look cute and innocent you can be the hero, if not you can grab your lightning gloves and pretend to be a bear Sith Lord.”

Taylor shook her head. “You just want to see the PRT try to catch a bouncing bear.”

Kevin laughed. “Might be amusing.”

“Yeah, until they shoot me with a tranquilizer and I wake up in a zoo.”

“Might be worth it.”

“Yeah, not so much,” Taylor complained then started working on her soda as she waited for her father to finish his call so they could get armored up for Diablo.

0o0o0