Chapter 1634: 22
Chapter Text
Danny Hebert stared at the name change confirmation papers in his hand, blinking at his daughter's new name.
Livson.
Who was Livson?
What?
Why?
He looked up to see her and her friend calmly dismantling a pistol on the kitchen table, bickering about how "you are not meant to shoot a gun sideways like a movie gangster", and about how "you totally should because it looks ' cool as fuck '", according to Lisa.
He felt like he should intervene, but his own firearm course had taught him that without a bullet in sight and a dismantled gun, there really wasn't much risk. How would he justify it? Would Taylor even listen?
And who was he to demand his daughter be less prepared for the life of a hero? That wouldn't help her. It might save her life, knowing how to use a gun.
They were also smiling.
It had been a long time since he last saw that. Or at least a smile that genuine, coming out of Taylor. He hadn't known Lisa for long.
With a deep breath, he sighed, and put the papers next to the door.
Then instead of ruining the light mood in the house with his brooding, long face, he decided to call up an old friend or two and head to a bar for a few drinks.
It was Sunday, but bars were always open, and he didn't have much, if any, work to do at the union tomorrow. Like every day.
"Okay, do the thing." Lisa said, munching on a potato chip.
Taylor did the thing.
Namely, dropping the mag, clearing the chamber by pulling the slide back, hitting the slide release and twisting to remove it entirely, removing the spring, and unscrewing the rifled barrel from the pistol base, all in under thirty seconds. There was more to disassembling a gun, but they didn't have any tools here to put the trigger mechanism back in properly, so they skipped that.
"Fucking cheater…" Lisa grumbled, pouting at the mess on the kitchen table, and Taylor chuckled.
"Nope, just focused. Speaking of which, I should probably tell you everything I can do, or at least as much as I can remember at one time. That seems like a pretty big part of cooperation and all that jazz. How many hours do you want to sit and listen for?"
Lisa hummed dubiously.
"Hours huh? Suuuure. Go ahead."
"Okay, no, stop. I'm not even using my power and I have a headache already. You are bullshit. You're a cheating cheater who cheats. Your power makes no sense and its complete fucking bullshit. " Lisa whined from the couch, and Taylor had to push down a surge of pride, because well, she hadn't exactly earned her powers. She just got "lucky" and didn't get something useless for all that mind-fuckery.
"It's not that bullshit, trust me." She laughed, patting Lisa's thigh.
"NOT- YOU CAN LITERALLY DO EVERYTHING!"
She opened her mouth to deny it, then closed it as she slowly began to run through every Legend's capabilities, most of which she abbreviated on flunked a bit to Lisa, not willing to have her think she was insane by mentioning Runeterra itself.
And every possibility she came up with, there was a solution for.
She really could do everything, or close enough to it. As long as it was only one thing, because some problems had very energy-expensive solutions.
"Okay, maybe it's a little bit bullshit. But so is Eidolon."
"You're even worse! "
"I… you know what, nevermind. I'm going to go for a run now, it's like, mid-day. Wanna come?"
Lisa frowned, then hesitated.
"I'd... no, you know what? Yes. I'm coming."
"Bull…shit…" Lisa wheezed, panting as she supported herself with her hands on her knees.
Taylor rolled her eyes.
"Okay, now you're just using excuses. You were a couch potato that got stuck in a room for like a month, you're just atrophied as shit. I'm not using anything, you're just a poro."
Lisa glanced up at her, sweaty orange hair pulled back into a ponytail as she furrowed her brows.
"A what?"
Taylor paused, blinking.
Oh, right.
Poros weren't a thing in Earth Bet.
"Just some dumb saying I saw online, don't worry about it." She waved her hand vaguely, and glanced around the people walking past them.
Going for a run in the middle of the day on the Boardwalk might have been a shit idea.
Not for herself, she didn't care much.
But she had severely underestimated how paranoid and unsafe Lisa felt in public. Any time her eyes were not on Taylor, or if she was falling behind more than a couple feet, she'd tense up and lose her rhythm, and her eyes would twitch all over the place.
Like right now.
"Lisa." She clicked her fingers, and Lisa made an affirmative noise in the back of her throat as she continued scanning every.
Single.
Fucking.
Person.
"I brought you out for a run to exercise and exhaust you so I can drag you to the couch and make a Lisa burrito without you being able to fight me over it, not to give you a headache from your own paranoia. I have a sub-power on. You could get shot with a sniper rifle and it wouldn't go through. Relax. Or if you can't, we can just ditch for someplace less crowded?" She offered quietly, and Lisa turned to her with a blank look on her face, blinking at her.
"Wha… Oh. Oh no, I'm not paranoid or scared or anything. It's just… the fucking Enforcers. They work for Coil, I thought you knew."
Taylor paused. She did not know. She thought it might have been some kind of business union that paid for security or something.
"And the place in general doesn't help. This is where that snake bastard found me the first time, you know? It's setting my teeth on edge." Lisa murmured through her heavy breaths as she straightened, and Taylor took a moment to realize that what Lisa just said was exceedingly obvious if she'd spent a moment to think about it.
"Oh. I thought you were reaching my levels of paranoia or something, sorry. I didn't think about that. Let's get out of here." She mumbled, her own eyes now doing the same thing Lisa had been doing.
Lisa nodded, and began to walk with her, for all about three steps before one of her shaking legs gave out and she yelped as she hurriedly righted herself. Taylor's half-outstretched hand paused, then retreated.
"Okay, no. I'm invoking my little sister privileges. Carry me." Lisa said, lifting a hand to lay on her shoulder for support, still breathless.
"My arms aren't strong enough, no."
"So gimme a piggyback ride."
"Really? Here?"
"Taylor I almost literally cannot feel my legs."
She rolled her eyes.
"Only if you let me burrito you on the couch. I pick the movies." She said.
Lisa snorted a little giggle.
"Yeah, sure. Now kneel, thy mighty steed." Lisa declared without an ounce of enthusiasm, almost sounding sarcastic, and Taylor let out a chuckle as she did so.
"I'm gonna throw you in the bay if you make any more horse jokes."
"Fair."
And then Lisa's arms were around her neck, her cheek resting on her head, and a profound sense of peace washed over her as Lisa's legs wrapped around her, her hands slotting into the crook of her knees to support her.
This felt right.
"Was a kid last time I got one of these so imma savor it." Lisa sighed in contentment.
"Was a kid last time I gave one, so I'm gonna do the same." She hummed, and rose, beginning the long trek back home.
At some point as they neared her house and her back and legs began screaming in protest, she turned into Evelynn and shifted into a different woman just to be safe, keeping her voice the same, and idly thought of how nice this was, feeling less alone than she had in what felt like decades.
"...Hey Lisa?"
"Hnm?" Lisa mumbled into her hair, half-asleep.
"Hope this doesn't seem like I'm coming onto you or something, or being weird, because I'm pretty certain you're not interested, but do you wanna cuddle tonight? I'm honestly really touch-starved, and this is really nice." She mumbled.
It was a tad embarrassing to ask, but, again, thousands of years of memories. Getting embarrassed had almost zero punch to it at this point. Being frank and honest was shockingly easy.
The reply came after ten seconds of complete silence.
"Okay. I'm pretty touch-starved too. Don't make it weird though. Non-negotiable." Lisa breathed out, and let her head slide off Taylor to rest on her shoulder.
"Despite my questionable decisions, I'm not that kinda girl." She huffed.
She elected to have Lisa take a shower first, both because she took far longer, and because she had to take care of a minor chore while Lisa did that.
And Lisa wanted to shower first as well. She hated feeling sweaty.
Her chore was simple. Namely, just making a bunch of tubs of certain chemical compounds that ate rust. She couldn't enchant rusty metal.
Well, she could, but it would likely explode spectacularly or at least melt into slag.
Part of why most mages used good ole unrusting silver or non-rusting, alchemical alloys to do enchantment artifacts like mana batteries, et cetera.
It took about an hour and a half to do, as she already had a bunch of beakers and basic measuring cups and the like, and with the ability to split into multiple functional, hivemind clones of herself thanks to a certain Legend she rather despised, a scheming sorceress by the name of LeBlanc, it did not take much time at all to line up five plastic tubs full of rusty scrap metal and green, bubbling froth.
Then she Teleported back to her basement, finding it more convenient than the attic, and walked out to see Lisa doing her best rendition of a melted slab of butter on her couch, the run and subsequent hour-long shower having turned her to putty as she flipped through TV channels.
She went upstairs to take a blanket, and descended on her unwitting prey.
Lisa lazily blinked at the blanket Taylor was unraveling, and let out a tired, silent chuckle.
"How do ya want me, boss?"
"Get up, sit on the end of the blanket, and prepare to be rolled." She declared, and snapped the blanket down.
"I feel like I'm going to regret this later." Lisa yawned, swaddled in a blanket up to her neck, and currently being used as Taylor's body pillow on the couch.
"Is comfortable." Taylor hummed, barely watching the movie.
Lisa hummed back something vaguely affirmative.
It was far too early to be sleeping though, so eventually, after a couple hours of napping and mindlessly resting, she swapped to Syndra to unravel the Lisa burrito, and then set her friend's boneless body down on the couch as Lisa blinked at her.
"Why is she wearing-"
"She thought she was the hottest bitch around and wanted to flaunt it." She replied easily with a shrug, her voice echoing and imperious with Syndra's trademark power and tone, then changed back to herself, only mildly stumbling when her feet hit the floor.
"Now, sit here and wait, I have a gift but I left it in my villainous lair."
Lisa snorted, nodded, then began to stare incredulously at her when Taylor locked herself in place, purple swirls of energy ramping up around her.
"You're not about to explode right?"
She couldn't actually reply. Or move in general.
Lisa slowly inched onto the opposite end of the couch, squinting at her.
One short Teleport to the bunker and back after, she opened the basement door with their suits in arm.
Lisa took it with a furrowed brow that incrementally raised as she thumbed the material and her power fed her information.
"Pure silk, artificially enhanced beyond what the laws of physics conventionally allow, made less than a day ago, and woven by controlled, altered spiders. Armor made with Lisa Wilbourn in mind. Huh, that's sweet." Lisa hummed with a smile, sounding like she was quoting her powers.
"Sounds about right. Do you want to meet the spiders?"
" No. But thank you. I was idly worried about a random killsquad coming out of nowhere and killing me, this helps."
"You're welcome." She shrugged, then gestured upstairs. "Go wear it, I wanna know if my eyeballing needs work or if it fits you. In case you're wondering, this is bulletproof, stab proof, cut-proof, pretty much fireproof, electricity proof, and I'm pretty sure armor-piercing rounds won't do much more than mess up the weave and make it need repairs, including the big rifle ones."
Lisa grinned, gave her a quick hug, and practically flew upstairs.
"Holy shit this is a perfect fit. Heavier than I expected, but nowhere near actual body armor. How do I look?" Lisa asked, spinning in a slow circle with a rigid T-pose.
She looked good. And with the inlaid lace on the forearms, one could make it as tight as they wanted to.
"You look great and not at all like you could tank a sniper rifle with a cracked rib at worst. Actually, I could probably enchant these too with impact absorption, once my s… once I get more used to exerting my powers without rolling on the floor in pain. Anyway. I might need your help convincing my dad that I need to get a GED and to sign off on it tomorrow morning. The option came to mind way too late, so I'll go to the service center and get the papers early tomorrow, before breakfast. Might need some help if he gets stubborn about 'friendships' and 'socialization' or some crap like that." She explained, idly stretching to get her own suit to fit her properly. It was a bit stiff in that brand-new sort of way.
Stretching also helped with her soreness, needless to say.
Lisa shrugged, then flopped down on the couch next to her.
"Sure. Just let me sleep eight hours. Also, since I want to be of more use... you said you could make all sorts of absurd, completely broken Tinkertech. Is there something that could replay memories? If you go into the Wards and just throw your memories of what you did on duty into some kind of device I could watch, I'm pretty sure I could feed you with a lot of useful information and such."
She frowned, staring at the ceiling.
She did not much like that idea, but she could. Memory crystals were finicky, difficult things to make, but they existed, and Ryze frequently used them to remember things as his lifespan continued marching on. They just took a lot of damn time to make.
"I might be able to. It's really time consuming though, and by the time I make one I'd already be out of the Wards, probably. Why not just sneak in a camera?" She asked, turning her head to Lisa to arch a curious brow.
"Riskier, that's all. Thought you'd appreciate the safer option." Lisa shrugged.
She turned away, humming in thought. Then she shook her head.
"No, making a dimensional storage item to pop some kind of secret camera in and out is much easier and faster. Could be useful too. I don't think Tinkertech detectors work on my stuff either, so It'll probably be safe."
Lisa nodded, rubbing and fiddling with the suit sleeve.
A thought rose, and she frowned.
"I'm going to go check up on my dad real quick. It's almost nine PM, it's not like him to be out for so long."
Lisa glanced up.
"If it helps, I think he was going out for a meeting with friends. Probably drinks or something."
Taylor frowned deeper. Her dad wasn't a drunkard by any means, but he didn't hold his liquor well.
She switched on the Rune of Domination, turned into Evelynn, and flew out from underneath the door as invisible smoke.
Well, she was worried for nothing.
He did look a bit tipsy after parting with Kurt, Lacey, and some other dockworker that came with, but he was driving slow and careful and coming back home, so she was not overly worried.
She took a moment to regroup, considered her headache, then decided to fly back home.
"You're surprisingly huggable." Lisa murmured from behind her, and she snorted.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"That we're both bony, sort of. I was expecting this to be more uncomfortable." Lisa mumbled, adjusting the arm around her neck and the one around her stomach.
"Hm. Any plans for Monday I should be aware of?" She asked quietly in the calm darkness of the room, shifting a little to put less pressure on Lisa's arm with her head.
"Nah. Just gonna go to the bank, deposit the stash money into my account, probably spend the rest of the day researching the kind of assholes you want to be killing, the local villain's powers, et cetera. Save you the time and effort. You do your thing, I'll teach you everything so you don't have to waste time on it. It's perfect. My power will help too, assuming I don't let it make wild assumptions and go off." Lisa breathed out.
She hummed an affirmative, too warm and content and tired to say much.
"Thanks, Lisa."
"No prob."
"Goodnight." She mumbled, and finally closed her eyes.
"Hm."
Notes:
ah, quiet sundays. I'm sure nothing wild and wacky is ever gonna happen on monday
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone