Chapitre 580: 19
Date
2011 January 13th - Thursday - Earth Bet Time
Taylor woke up excited. Today was the day she would make her mark on the world. The only thing casting a shadow on this day was the fact she had no idea why she was doing it. Sure, Admin gave her the nebulous explanation about saving a young woman. But she felt, and he pretty much confirmed it, that there was more to it.
She decided to wait until the mission was over and heard his explanation before doing anything drastic. If she felt that the explanation was stupid or crazy, she would do something.
One of those possibilities was talking to her father about Admin. Another, depending on the craziness of the explanation, was talking to the PRT. No matter how much she disliked the idea of Wards, they were her best chance if Admin turned out to be evil. Or criminally incompetent.
After she was done with her morning routine, which luckily got shorter after she gained her hair powers, she wrote a quick explanation on a piece of paper. Sealed it into an envelope and hid it in her room. Then repeated a process two more times and hid one of them in her father's room, and the last one in the kitchen.
Each contained the information she had about the mission. The data she gained from Admin so far, and her theories about powers.
She hoped it wasn't necessary, but she had to make sure if something happened to her, then the truth would come out.
During breakfast, her dad noticed she was rather wound up, but accepted her explanation of another nightmare. He hinted a few times that she should also visit a therapist, but she ignored him. How could she approach a therapist, when she couldn't explain that the source of her frustration was an invisible to other people floating slime who was her power?
They would send her to an institute so fast Legend would be jealous.
After her father left for work, giving her an extra-long and tight hug (which she didn't really mind) she went back to her room to distract herself with some studying.
She barely started her first History module when she heard a car pulling in, closely followed by another, next to their house. She immediately dashed down the stairs, a little afraid of what would be waiting for her. Her only relief was that there were no police lights.
However, to her surprise, she saw her father coming back through the door, followed by Steve, their lawyer. She saw her father's face, so saying nothing she went to the kitchen to prepare a few drinks for them. And to get a beer or two for him. He looked like he needed it.
She returned to the silent living room, where her dad and Steve were arranging a pile of papers on the table. She placed the tray with the beverages on the part of the table without papers and sat down next to his father.
"Thank you, dear," he said while reaching for the tea.
"Yes, thank you, Taylor," echoed Steve.
She nodded in acceptance, then turned to his father. "Why did you come back so soon?"
"Steve called me just as I reached the office and wanted to meet. And when he told me what he wanted to talk about, I headed home immediately. It's important enough that you need to hear it." answered his father.
"If you don't mind Danny, I will take over from here." spoke up Steve. Her dad motioned at him and leaned back on his sofa.
Steve nodded and turned his entire body so he was facing Taylor. "This morning, I got a call from the school. They want to settle."
"Oh, really? Didn't they offer some paltry amount of money?"
"Yes, they did. But today's offer was for much more money. And, to put the cherry on top is that the police called too, they arrested the girls who did it. But your father told me you already know that." he took a quick pause and looked at her to see if she was following. "What you may not know, is that they are starting an investigation against the entire school. But it's real hush-hush."
That cheered up Taylor. "Good. Those people deserve it."
Steve said nothing to it but continued his explanation. "So, I got an offer from them and after checking it over, I must urge the two of you to accept it."
"Why?" asked Taylor.
"It's too good to be true. There must be somebody in the background who wants this gone. I fear we wouldn't be able to put up much fight if we were to refuse this."
That made sense to Taylor. The speed the police arrested the Trio with was very suspicious. According to her knowledge and father's stories, the police department doesn't work that fast.
"How much did they offer?" she asked curiously.
Steve didn't answer, just handed over one of the documents in front of him.
When Taylor saw the zeros, she could hardly believe it.
"Are you serious?"
"Well, they are."
"That's a lot of money," she said, completely flabbergasted.
"So I assume, now that they have arrested the girls, you won't mind accepting this deal?" he asked. Taylor felt that he would have preferred that they accepted it. She was also leaning towards it, but for final confirmation, she turned towards her father.
"What do you think, Dad?"
"I think we should accept it. No matter what we do, we won't get a better offer," he answered after a few seconds. "Plus, with this, we could close this chapter of our life, and you will have a nice nest egg and a college fund for the future."
There was nothing there that she didn't agree with, so she turned back to Steve. "We accept it. I accept it."
"Good," he answered, visibly relieved they chose to do so. "Here is what you need to do…"
After the lawyer left, she went back to her room and continued studying, though her spirit wasn't really into it. She kept going over what Steve told them and what she heard over the days.
The thought of her suffering being over just like that really shook her. She tried so many times to get rid of them, yet in the end, she barely had to do anything.
This confused her. By all accounts, she should be jumping around in happiness. But she wasn't. Because even though she got rid of Emma (and Winslow) this made it final. She would never have back her sister and best friend.
In the end, she steeled herself. And vowed that when she had enough money, she would set up a program to help people like her and Emma. Because even though nobody mentioned it, there was obviously something wrong with her.
Her father decided to work from home, because he drank a few beers after Steve left, so he didn't feel like driving. Not that Taylor would have let him. All she needed now was her father dying in a car crash.
They spent the day in companionable silence. She in her room going through education modules like a train through powder snow. And he did some paperwork in the living room and sometimes took calls.
For lunch they had pizza, seeing as neither of them remembered to prepare anything to eat. Still, the laugh they had over the realization cheered her a little up. The fact they could laugh with each other brought another smile to her face.
It was nice to see that even though her father was back from the quagmire of depression; he was still the forgetful goof he always was.
By eight, her father was knocked out thanks to consuming a sizeable amount of pizza and beer. He was merrily snoring away in his bedroom, while Taylor was still on her computer building all sorts of projects with her Tinker power.
She was also writing down the details of several materials and devices that, according to Admin, were viable to be sold. How she would do that she didn't know yet, but better to have it.
"So Taylor, ready?" spoke up Admin from next to her.
She looked up from the screens and nodded. "Yeah. Let's do it."
"Good. Take out the package in your pocket space."
"What package?" she asked but was already opening her pocket space. Which contained several things she placed there (a few bottles of water, some food, and several changes of clothing, and so on). And now a package with the generic brown wrapper.
She took it out and placed it on her bed, and began to unwrap it. Admin just hovered over the bed, watching her.
After she was finished, she saw a black outfit in the box. She raised the top one out of it and held it up to examine it.
"This is a ninja outfit," she stated flatly.
"Well, this is a mission where you have to sneak around. So I thought it would be nice to be thematic," he answered cheekily.
Taylor didn't really have an answer to that.
"Plus, the Inverse Ninja Law should help you out."
"The what?"
"The Inverse Ninja Law. The threat level of a ninja is inversely proportional to the number of other ninjas present at the location." came the explanation.
"That couldn't be real…"
"Maybe. But if it is, it would be a real help for you if something happens," he answered.
Taylor looked at the floating slime, then back at the clothing. She thought about it a little, then decided in the world of parahuman powers the Inverse Ninja Law might as well be real. In the end, she decided that there was no actual drawback in choosing to wear it.
"Fine, I will wear it." she finally told Admin, who did a few cartwheels in the air in celebration.
"Thank you, Taylor-san!"
She just ignored him and started to pull out the other parts of the clothing.
She stood in front of a mirror-like projection created by Admin, that was showing her in the ninja suit.
"I have cat ears on my hoodie," she stated, trying to keep her voice silent and even. She didn't want to wake her dad yelling at Admin.
"I'm sorry, it is required for the structural stability of the clothing." came the somber reply from the slime. The shit-eating grin he was sporting belied his seriousness.
Taylor just sighed. That was her life now. Living with a slime who was obsessed with costumes. She already dreaded his suggestions for her parahuman uniform.
"So how do I get to wherever I need to get?"
Admin reappeared wearing a blue flight attendant outfit.
"Dear passengers, thank you for choosing Administrator Airlines. We realize you have other options, so we thank you for your patronage. Please keep all your limbs close to your body during transit. And make sure not to make eye contact with any Eldritch entities," he recited as if reading from the manual. "Please have a great trip!"
As soon as he finished his weird speech, a circular portal opened up in the middle of her room. Through it, she could see a pitch-black room. Only slightly illuminated by light coming from her room. It was filled to the brim with boxes from what she could see.
She took a last look at a picture of her mother, covered her head with the black hoodie and black plain mask, took a deep breath, and stepped through the portal.
The moment she arrived, the portal blinked out of existence, returning the room to darkness. She immediately crouched down and started surveying the room, activating several of her powers.
At the same time, several things appeared in her view. Thankfully, she was used to them, so she didn't really react to it outwardly. One of them was a clock and timer, another a mini-map that, according to the legends, showed humans around her. And an arrow pointing somewhere.
"Okay, Agent, from now on, no actual names. Your designation is Agent, mine is Chief," came Admin's voice in her head. "Keep calm and remember your training."
'Where are we?' she thought back at him.
"We are in a warehouse on the outskirts of Saint George's Hill village in Canada."
'Okay, I have no idea where that is.'
"That's probably the point."
She just shrugged and began her slow walk towards her target.
"You have an hour to get to the target and back. After that, they leave and we lose the opportunity." After he finished speaking, the timer in the upper left corner of her vision started counting down.
She nodded and continued her slow and meticulous movement towards the door.
It took her around fifteen minutes to get out of the room, but after that, she just snuck through the warehouse. Occasionally jumping at shadows and looking out for people.
However, to her surprise, she didn't come across anyone. And as she made it through the building towards her goal, she wondered where the people were.
'Where are they?' she finally asked Admin.
"There are only a few people here, plus this is just a stopover for them, that's why the boxes."
'How many?'
"Minimum three, but could be more."
She nodded, hearing that, while also avoiding a camera that was obviously adhered to the wall very hastily. It was drooping slightly, which gave her a very nice chance to avoid its field of view.
'And where are those three people?' she asked again a few seconds later while she stood still in a corner. Covered by shadows as she listened for suspicious sounds.
"One is away on a grocery run, one is patrolling and one is taking a nap." she could practically hear the smirk in his voice. "Not very responsible of them."
'Indeed.'
'Chief.'
"Yes, Agent?"
'Am I hallucinating or are those suits of armors?' she asked, trying to keep herself calm. She knew if she freaked out, then she would be found out.
"Oh yes, they are!"
'And are they dragon-themed?'
"Your power of observation is terrific, Agent." came the sarcastic answer.
'Chief, please tell me we are not robbing Dragon right now.'
"We are not. These are the Dragonslayers. Certified villains and psychopaths."
'Thank god!'
Now, knowing that she wasn't robbing one of the most powerful and famous heroes of Earth Bet, she calmed down a little. After all, robbing from villains was okay, it's not like they could go to the police to report it.
Her journey ended before a heavily reinforced door.
"Be careful, the napping one is in the next room. The slightest noise will wake him."
She didn't even dare to nod. She just examined the door. It was a heavy metal door, though obviously old, and came with the warehouse. However, someone fitted it with a new lock that had both a mechanical and an electronic part.
She used her power to map the electrical connections. As she expected, they connected the mechanical part to the electronic part. Which was by several cables connected to somewhere else. Probably an alarm system.
She used her power to maintain the electronic signals going outwards from the lock, then disabled first the electric lock. And then manipulated the metal in the other part and slowly turned the lock, while making sure there weren't any other things that would trigger the alarm.
After she was done, she slightly pushed the door in, listening for any sound that would indicate that she was fucked up. A slight glance at the timer told her she had around twenty minutes left.
Hearing and sensing nothing in the next few seconds, she decided that she was probably in the clear, and opened the door just enough so she could slip in. Her slight build came really handy.
After that, she closed the door behind her. Reset the mechanical lock, reconnected the electrical lock, to make sure nobody would notice her entrance.
The room contained several boxes, a desk with papers on it, and a very modern-looking computer station with several giant monitors. The monitors themselves were showing computer code or feeds from several cameras.
"You are looking for an old silver briefcase," spoke up Admin.
She began to carefully look around, making sure not to touch anything. She was wearing a glove, but best to make sure.
She found the briefcase under the monitors in a reinforced, military-looking case. She carefully lifted it out of it, then put it immediately into her pocket space.
"Excellent Agent! Now through the portal with you and start running forward immediately!" instructed her Admin as soon as the pocket space closed.
She did as she was told and jumped through the portal that appeared in front of her. And began running as soon as her foot touched down in a forest.
She spent the next few minutes running through the forest, only for another portal to appear. She jumped through that one too, only to appear in a different forest. This repeated a few times before she found herself standing in a dark alley in a loud city.
'Was that necessary Chief?' she asked exasperated.
"Absolutely? No. But I rather not take any chances."
'What now?'
"One thing left. Change your hair to blond and let a few strands poke out of your hoodie."
She wanted to know why, but she agreed to wait for an explanation, so she just did as instructed.
"Now walk forward towards the end of the alley and stop by the payphone."
She did as he told and stopped in front of the payphone. Glancing around, she saw cars racing down the street, despite the late hours.
"I'm going to change your voice, so don't be surprised." told her Admin. "Now dial the following number…"
She held the receiver after punching in the number and listened to it ring.
"Hello, you reached the Guild hotline. We are legally obliged to warn you that this conversation is recorded. If you have questions about the Guild, press 1. If you…"
She blinked in surprise and pushed the buttons that were required, according to Admin. After a few seconds a pleasant, but tired, voice came up.
"My name is Patricia. How can I help you today?"
She read over the script that Admin was projecting and recited it.
"Hello, my name is Serenity, and I have information about the Dragonslayers." There was a surprising sound at the other end of the phone. "If you go to the following coordinates, you can find them."
She recited the coordinates that Admin showed her while ignoring the operator's question.
"If you don't send Dragon, you have a ninety percent chance to capture them. If you go later than six a.m., then the chance is lost." Finished with her speech, she hung up and walked back to the alley.
"Let's go home, Agent," said Admin as soon as she reached the end of the valley. She nodded and calmly walked through the portal.
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone