Chapter 13
Expansions
=========
The Boat Graveyard, the beach
December 4th, Thursday
4:21 PM…
The gravel that began where the pockmarked road ended crunched under Taylor's sneakers as she made her way into the Boat Graveyard and its accompanying, trash strewn beach. The shadows of half-sunk hulls intermixed with piles of garbage loomed around her, skeletal reminders of Brockton Bay's slow decay. She'd barely stepped into a clearing amidst the refuse before a black-clad blur slammed into her like a missile.
"Alice—!" Taylor wheezed as the goth girl latched on, squeezing the air out of her like a boa constrictor.
"You saved my life, Skitter-bug!" Alice announced, rocking her side to side in triumph. "That makes you officially un-huggable forever. Deal with it."
Taylor's cheeks burned, stuck between laughter and mortification as she breathlessly groaned out, "You're crushing my ribs—"
"Good. Builds character." Alice immediately retorted without loosening her grip at all.
Alessa, leaning against one rusted hull with her arms crossed and an amused look on her face, finally cut in, smirking. "Alright, Alice, let her breathe already before she passes out. We did kinda bring her here to talk, not murder her with affection."
Alice loosened her grip only slightly. "Fine, but she's mine now. You're just renting her for Cape stuff."
Taylor blinked at that, caught off guard while Alessa rubbed the bridge of her nose with a groan. "This is gonna be a long night."
At least the trip out to the oil tanker itself would (hopefully) be uneventful.
Pushing that thought aside, Taylor followed the two other girls deeper into the Boat Graveyard, and ever closer to the wrecked vessels strewn about the beach. She frowned thoughtfully though when they started to approach one of the boats, one that looked like a patchwork piece of junk at a glance. The boat in question really wasn't much to look at with how it was flat-bottomed and patched together with scavenged panels and welded seams, but when compared to the wobbly "death-raft" Alessa pointed out in its own hidden spot nearby, it was a damn cruise liner.
Alice stomped aboard, arms spread wide like she was claiming territory. "Well, look at this! From 'Gilligan's Last Mistake' to the SS Don't Panic. Progress!"
Taylor blinked, uneasy as the boat rocked underfoot. "It's… safe, right?"
Alessa gave her a sidelong glance, deadpan. "Alice hasn't sunk it yet, so I'll take that as a good sign. Of course, given her piratical leanings, I wouldn't hold out much hope of that staying the case."
"Hey!" Alice jabbed a finger at her. "That's slander! You and I both know I'd make a great pirate. Your sassy PDA even agreed with me."
"PDA?" Taylor asked with a slight tilt of her head.
"Later." Alessa sighed out with an amused roll of her eyes.
The trip across the water was quick, the shadows of skeletal ships passing like silent witnesses. When they clambered up the tanker's side and onto the rusted deck via a makeshift cargo elevator in the shadow of the oil tanker's prow, the laughter and sniping tapered off. Once on the deck before Alessa started towards an open hatch, Taylor couldn't help but hesitate for a moment, having read enough horror stories about haunted ships found by unaware travelers. Shaking that stray thought off at the same time Alice and Alessa pulled out their cellphones, using their flashlights to illuminate the way forward, Taylor silently followed, ever deeper into the giant vessel. The air quickly began to feel heavier after making their winding way down into the tanker's depths, the silence expectant. Soon enough, Alessa nodded her chin towards a pair of heavy doors, and entered what a nearby, partially faded painted on sign declared to be Machine Bay 3.
Machine Bay 3 was a cavern of shadows and half-finished machines. Fluorescent strips buzzed overhead, throwing sharp light across stacks of scavenged steel and the guts of projects in progress. The smell of solder and oil clung to the air. Taylor couldn't help but gawk at the various spider-like robots skittering about, some carrying pieces of scrap towards metallic containers while other robots did their best to sweep up or wipe away any debris or liquids from the various projects that Alessa had finished. Some even did careful maintenance on just as many devices, including the large server racks that dominated a fairly large portion of the cavernous chamber. And… w-was that an actual kiln? With what looked like some kinda fiery spirit thing inside it?!
Alessa, after pulling something out of a bookbag, one Taylor would've sworn hadn't been on the girl's back before, set down an equally strange looking gauntlet on a workbench with a quiet clunk which in turn pulled Taylor's attention back to her in an instant, staring at it like it might turn on her. "This is where it all happens. Where I make the things that, most of which quite frankly, shouldn't exist."
Taylor's gaze moved from the gauntlet to the racks of drones, the suspended frame of something bigger lurking in the shadows. "It… looks like a Tinker's workshop."
"Yeah," Alessa said softly. "Except I'm not a Tinker. I'm not a Cape at all since as far as the MRI results were concerned from when I was still in the hospital, I don't have a Gemma or a Polentia Corona." She drew in a breath, shoulders tight. "The stuff I use? It just… shows up. Out of nowhere. Not built, not salvaged. It's dropped into my lap. Sometimes brilliant. Sometimes dangerous."
Alice leaned against a support beam, arms crossed but eyes gentle. She'd heard the gist before. This wasn't for her. This was for Taylor.
Taylor looked back at Alessa, brow furrowed, not in disbelief, but in searching.
Alessa forced herself to continue. "I.. call it the Forge, whatever… this is." She emphasized that statement by spreading her arms to encompass the entirety of the workshop around them. "I don't control it. I don't even understand it, but I use it, because I have to. And sometimes I can't help but wonder if I'm building things, or if… they're building me. That's why I keep so much locked away. Because one wrong move, one mistake, and…" She trailed off, throat tight. "Judgment Day stops being a movie."
Silence stretched, broken only by the hum of machinery.
Taylor stepped forward, the caution in her eyes real but softened by something else. "That's… a lot to carry. To know you could…" She shook her head. "But you haven't. You've been careful. You've been honest. You saved me. You saved Alice. That counts for more than… whatever this is."
Alessa blinked, clearly having not expected that.
Alice was taken aback too, but she recovered quickly, and softly said, "To be fair, Skitter-bug, you returned the favor just a couple days ago."
Taylor offered a small, shy smile to the both of them before she hesitantly replied, "I-I didn't do much, but my point is that if you trust me enough to tell me all this… then I can trust you enough to believe you'll keep being careful."
"Th-thanks Taylor. I promise I'll do my best to not bring about the end of the world." Alessa managed to stammer out, surprising Taylor a little with the single tear that formed in the corner of her… admittedly pretty emerald eyes. Of course, the moment that thought crossed her mind, Taylor hurriedly looked away in a vain effort to hide her burning cheeks.
Alice finally moved, looping an arm around Taylor's shoulders with a grin that didn't quite hide the lump in her throat while simultaneously pulling her focus back to the moment. "Told you, Taylor. Our girl here's a paranoid genius, but she's got the heart of a big ol' marshmallow. She's not gonna let the world end, except on Mondays since Mondays are evil." She stage whispered the last, earning a soft giggle from Taylor.
At the same time, Alessa managed a shaky laugh. "A marshmallow, huh?"
Taylor's smile grew a little more sure. "Yeah. Just one with a really dangerous toolbox." Eventually though, Taylor couldn't help but let her eyes linger on the strange, almost otherworldly gauntlet, then back to Alessa. Her voice was quiet, careful. "You know… nobody else has ever done this. Told me the whole truth, I mean. Not Dad—" her jaw tightened even if she didn't blame him, not after… mom had passed away, "—not Emma," the vitriol was palpable in that single word, "not anyone. I've had to figure everything out on my own, and most of the time? I was wrong." Alessa's stomach visibly clenched at the bitterness there, though it wasn't aimed at her. Taylor shook her head slowly, a wry, almost self-deprecating laugh slipping out. "So, hearing you just… say it? Not hiding the scary parts, not trying to sugarcoat it? That's… new. It's scary, yeah, but mostly… it feels like you're giving me something no one else has." She swallowed. "It… feels like you trust me."
For once, Alessa didn't have a prepared line, no sarcasm or nervous joke ready. Just a quiet nod, and a softly spoken, "I do."
Having moved towards the workbench, Taylor's fingers tentatively brushed the gauntlet before she looked up, needing them to understand. To truly comprehend the difference between her and the two girls. "I… appreciate it, I really do, but… you've got no idea how hard it's been for me. How… untrusting I've gotten because of them. I've seen how close you all are, how you talk about your dad. You've got him, Alice, Belinda… people who've got your back no matter what. I don't have that…not anymore." The words came out blunt, but not bitter. Just… tired. Taylor swallowed, still caught between disbelief and the faintest hint of hope. "So you saying that you trust me, like it's easy, like it doesn't come with strings? Everyone I've trusted—"
"—has burned you." Alessa finished quietly. "I know." She leaned back against one of the workbenches, arms crossed but not defensive — steady. "That's why I'm not going to give you half-truths or pretty lies. Not now, not ever. If you're going to stand with me and Alice, then you deserve the whole thing. No secrets." Alessa hesitated, then stepped closer, "so maybe it's time you trust us… even if it's not completely, or even remotely. Just… trust us to never stab you in the back if nothing else."
Taylor blinked, caught off guard by the naked sincerity, and the honesty alike.
Alice, grinning like she'd been waiting for the cue, slung an arm around Taylor's shoulders instead of crushing her to death this time around. "Congratulations, Hebert. You're officially adopted. Goth sister package included, no refunds."
Taylor made a strangled sound somewhere between a scoff and a laugh, but Alessa could see the way her shoulders loosened, just a fraction. For the first time in a long while, someone had said the words Taylor never thought she'd hear: You're not alone anymore. Maybe she couldn't give them all of her trust yet, but for the first time in a long time, she wanted to try.
========
The workshop felt different with Taylor there. Alessa had dragged her and Alice deep into Machine Bay Three, past half-lit corridors and banks of sealed doors, until the cavernous chamber opened up around them. Tables cluttered with tools and half-finished drones filled the space, the hum of power conduits echoing in the steel belly of the tanker. For a while, Taylor just stared at the rows of strange devices — some sleek, some crude, all impossible. Finally, her eyes tracked back to Alessa, waiting.
Seeing the silent signal for what it was, Alessa pulled the PDA closer to her side, swiped her finger across the screen a few times, and took a breath before handing it over to Taylor. "That's everything I've ever been given, or have been augmented with in some way or another."
Alessa and Alice watched and waited as Taylor's eyes slowly scanned each Perk's description. This wasn't easy for her, to reveal so much so quickly, especially since the Forge felt like a part of her soul these days, but it was also necessary given what Alessa knew Taylor had been through so far. Besides, Taylor had said it herself, no one had been nearly this honest to her in a long time, and what was worse, she'd been betrayed by who Alessa assumed was someone Taylor had been quite close to given the palpable hatred they'd both heard when she'd been talking earlier. And given how dedicated the Bitches Three seemed to be in tormenting the bug controlling girl, Alessa would bet it was one of them, likely Emma herself now that she thought about it.
"This is insane." Taylor muttered before slowly shaking her head, her gaze still on the blue screen in front of her. Despite the words themselves, Alessa breathed a little easier when all she saw was simple disbelief and awe rather than shock and some flavor of denial.
"User Prime, Alessa Dawson, might indeed be clinically insane, but she is as she's explained herself to be." Taylor gave a yelp and dropped the PDA, but Alessa only rolled her eyes at the sassy AI's remark while Alice simply giggled to herself.
"It talks?!" Taylor exclaimed as she tentatively picked the PDA up, only to marvel at the fact there wasn't even a scuff mark on the gray white casing.
"Only when it decides to be snarky." Alessa grumbled before giving a half hearted if amused glare Alice's way. "What's worse, the AI and Alice might as well be cut from the same cloth with how quickly they bonded."
"It just gets me." Alice sighed dramatically, earning a surprised, shadow of a laugh from Taylor while Alessa shook her head with a roll of her eyes.
"User Two has been quite enlightening. Her chaotic energy is a breath of fresh air." The PDA informs Taylor who can only blink owlishly before letting out a steadying breath. "It helps that an exasperated User Prime is very entertaining."
"Har har." Alessa drawled at the same time Alice tried, and failed, not to laugh. Then again, she suspected, and rightfully so, that Alice didn't try very hard. Regardless, Alessa took a long, deep breath when Taylor reached out and handed the PDA back, then swiped her PDA closed. The cascade of glowing glyphs and diagrams winked out, leaving only the harsh overhead light. "That's everything," she said quietly. "I've got no secrets left. You've seen what I've been given, what I've built. All of it."
Taylor folded her arms across her chest, posture stiff but voice low. "You've got more than anyone should. More than I've ever seen. And now you're telling me you've… made something that changes people? That rewrites them?"
Alessa's mouth tightened. She glanced at Alice, who raised an eyebrow but stayed silent for once. "Like you saw on my Perk list, it's the 'Strange Formula', or to be much more specific, Doctor Erskine's Super Soldier Serum, originally flawed. I fixed it. Well, at least, I think I did."
"Wait, are you… referring to the same stuff that made Captain America?!" A suddenly awestruck Taylor exclaimed quietly.
"Yes," Alessa replied simply. Her voice steadied as she went on. "As you likely know, it's supposed to strengthen the body. Push it to its absolute potential, but the old version—" she exhaled sharply through her nose. "It magnified what was already there. To quote Erskine himself, good became great. Bad became worse. I tore the personality flaws out of it. No brainwashing courtesy of the HYDRA knockoffs they tried to make, no twisted or augmented morality. Just the body, sharpened to what it can be."
Alice broke the silence with a short, humorless laugh. "Translation: she cooked up Marvel's Captain America juice in a rust covered oil tanker's basement, and she's dumb enough to try it on herself."
Alessa shot her a look. "This isn't about playing hero. It's about being ready. I can build machines that could level this city, but if I fall behind, if either of you get caught in the middle of it, or…" She shook her head, unable to finish the thought, and simply changed tact, "I refuse to let that happen."
Taylor's expression flickered — suspicion giving way, just for a second, to something else. Sympathy, maybe. "And if you're wrong? If it kills you?"
"Then that's on me," Alessa said simply. She turned, pulled open one of the cold-storage drawers she'd apparently made during her Time to Cook binge, bolted to the wall. The hiss of the seal breaking seemed deafening. Inside, a single vial glowed faintly in the fluorescent light, liquid the color of burning ice. She held it up between two fingers before palming it, hesitating. It was just as well because she could already hear Taylor's protests long before she could voice them. As such, she simply cradled it with a reverence that was equaled by fear that made Taylor's stomach twist. At least that's what her Mental Resistance enhanced observational skills led her to believe.
So she wasn't surprised when that was exactly what happened.
"Don't you dare," Taylor said suddenly. The words tore out sharper than she intended, but she didn't back down. "You don't even know if it's safe."
Alessa turned her head slowly, eyes narrowing in quiet resolve. "Except I do know. I checked it a dozen times since getting here a little bit ago, before you showed up. The Thinker parsed every string of code, every compound interaction. I rebuilt the serum from the ground up."
"That's not the same as testing it," Taylor shot back. "If you're wrong, if one detail slipped through—" she cut herself off, jaw clenching. "You'd leave Alice alone. You'd leave your dad alone. You'd—"
"—leave you with no one else who gives a damn, except me and my aunt anyway," Alice cut in dryly. She leaned against a workbench, arms folded, trying for levity and failing. Her voice had too much of an edge to it. "Taylor's right. You're not expendable, 'Lessa. You're the crazy glue holding all this together. You really wanna roll the dice on your own brain chemistry?"
Alessa set the vial carefully into the injector cradle, but she didn't position the device's needle against her arm or press the switch. Not yet. Her hands rested on the rig like a pianist poised above the keys. "You think I don't know the risk? You think I don't feel that weight every second? But every fight, every gang war spilling into our streets, every bastard in this city who thinks hurting people is their goddamn birthright—" She swallowed hard. "If I don't keep up, if I can't protect you both, my dad, Aunt B… then what am I even doing?"
Taylor's throat tightened. She wanted to shout, to yank the injector out of Alessa's hands and smash it against the wall. But behind the fear was something harder to fight: the unshakable sincerity in Alessa's voice. The raw, desperate belief that she had to do this.
"That's not fair," Taylor whispered, voice trembling with the effort to keep steady. "It doesn't all have to be on you."
Alessa's gaze softened for just a moment, her dad's words just a few hours ago echoing what Taylor had just said before her steely resolve returned. "It already is."
Alice exhaled sharply, like she was about to keep arguing, but Taylor surprised herself by stepping forward first. "Then at least promise me something," she said. "If you're wrong… you stop. No excuses. No second tries."
Alessa's lips pressed into a thin line, reminded of a similar promise she'd made with Alice not too long ago. She nodded once, solemn, the action heavy with her sincerity as she slowly brought the injector up to her right arm, just below her elbow. "Deal."
The click of the injector loading echoed through the chamber like a gun being cocked.
The injector's hiss as its icy colored, glowing contents were emptied cut through the room like a blade, sharp and final. Alessa clenched her jaw as the needle bit into her arm. For a heartbeat, nothing. Just the faint sting of punctured skin and the cold slide of liquid fire threading through her veins.
Then it hit.
Her breath caught. The cold became heat — not simply warmth, but an inferno, roaring to life inside her chest. Her vision whited out, then snapped back sharp enough to make her gasp. Every nerve sang like lightning running down copper wire.
"Alessa!" Alice's voice cracked with panic, boots scuffing against the deck as she lurched forward.
"Don't touch her!" Taylor's hand shot out, stopping Alice mid-step even though her own voice was shaking. "We don't know what'll—"
Alessa dropped to her knees. Her fingers clawed at the metal floor, gouging faint scratches into the steel plating she'd welded herself. Her heartbeat hammered like a war drum, too fast, too strong. The workshop seemed to shrink around her, every creak of the hull echoing like thunder.
Her breath came ragged, half-snarls, half-gasps. For one terrifying second, Alice swore her friend's emerald eyes glowed faintly in the harsh overhead lights — not with color, but with clarity.
"Come on, 'Lessa, fight through it," Alice urged, crouching low despite Taylor's grip still on her wrist. "You're stronger than some juice in a bottle, you hear me?!"
A guttural sound ripped from Alessa's throat, equal parts pain and defiance. Her muscles spasmed, cords standing out under her skin. Then — slowly, achingly — the tremors eased. Her body went rigid, then slumped, chest heaving. When she lifted her head again, her eyes locked on the two girls watching her with equal terror and awe. Her voice was raw, but steady. "…it worked."
She rose to her feet in a single smooth motion, like gravity had lost its pull on her. Every line of her body hummed with restrained power, as though her very skin was too small to contain what now lived inside. Alice let out a shaky laugh, half-relief, half-hysteria. "Holy shit… you're glowing."
Taylor didn't laugh. She stared, wide-eyed, at the girl who a minute ago had been just another desperate survivor, and now looked like she could bend the world if she wanted to.
"You're not the same," Taylor whispered, almost accusing, almost afraid.
Alessa's gaze softened. "I'm still me." Then, quieter, like she was reassuring herself as much as them: "I'm still me."
She distantly noted that the fire hadn't burned out though, it'd simply changed.
What had started as mind numbing agony had begun to spread into something else, something sharper, cleaner. Every pulse of her heart no longer felt like it was trying to split her chest open, but now sounded like the rhythm of a perfect machine settling into place. She could hear it. Literally hear it. Each thrum of blood through her veins was as loud as the tide outside, steady and powerful. Her lungs dragged in a shuddering breath, and for the first time since the bomb went off just a month and some change ago, it didn't hurt. No wheeze. No dull ache at the bottom of her ribs. Just clean air, filling her like she'd never really breathed before.
The room around her sharpened into impossible focus. She could pick out every scrape and weld mark on the tanker's steel walls, every tiny groove where her tools had worn them smooth. Alice's perfume — faint, faded vanilla mixed with smoke and oil — hit her nose like it was inches away instead of a few feet. Taylor's ragged breath came in staccato bursts, quick and uneven.
And the weight. God, the weight was gone. Her body no longer felt like a burden she dragged through life. It was hers, fully and without compromise. Muscles thrummed under her skin like they were itching to move, begging her to sprint, to climb, to fight. She laughed — short, breathless, and half-wild. The sound startled even her.
"Alessa?" Alice's voice was thin, almost scared.
Alessa turned her head much too quickly and smoothly. Alice flinched back, wide-eyed. Taylor's arms were crossed now, defensive, but her eyes were glued to Alessa with an intensity that was almost painful.
"I can… feel everything," Alessa whispered, flexing her hand, staring at how steady it was. How right. "Every joint, every tendon — it's like the whole system finally woke up. Like I've been asleep my whole damn life and didn't even know it." Her palm brushed against the floor when she knelt of her own volition this time, and she realized she could tell the difference between the chill of steel and the faint warmth where her hand had rested before. Even the air carried texture now. The salt tang of the sea, the oil-thick musk of the tanker, the ozone tingle of her own machines humming in standby.
Alice muttered something that might've been "holy shit" for the third time, but at the moment, her voice was distant to Alessa's sharpened awareness, too caught up in what was happening to her.
Taylor finally found her words although her voice was cautious, edged, not that Alessa could blame her. "That's… not normal. No Tinker I've ever heard of does this, certainly not to themselves."
Alessa smiled faintly when the newest member of their strange little group gestured wildly towards her, but there was an unsteady edge to it — exhilaration tinged with fear. "Yeah. I figured that out a while ago." It took a moment for her to slowly stand to her feet again, if only because Alessa didn't want to startle her two friends more than she already had, but eventually she stood to her full height in one fluid movement that felt as natural as breathing. She frowned though when Alice put a hand to her mouth and did a piss poor job of hiding her giggles. Alessa sighed heavily before asking the obvious, "What? What's so funny?"
"Snrk, you're still shorter than me, Super Shorty!" Alice's ensuing laughter was equal parts relieving as it was infectious. Taylor snorted despite her earlier unease while Alessa merely smirked despite the exasperation all too easy to see on her face. Eventually though silence fell once more, but the earlier fear and unease had mostly dissipated by then as Alice stepped forward, arms crossed loosely across her stomach. "So… think you can bench press us both now?"
Alessa tilted her head slightly at the question, giving it serious consideration given what Captain America and Red Skull had proven themselves capable of. "Probably? I think I'd rather take it slow though since it's gonna take a bit to adjust to… all this." She didn't have to gesture to herself to get her point across, but both girls nodded their heads anyway.
Alice still looked deeply disappointed though. "And this is one of those rare times where I wish you weren't so damn paranoid and cautious, ugh!"
"I for one am glad for it." Taylor retorted moments later before taking one last steadying breath. "Still… I'd be lying… i-if I said I also wasn't curious."
Needing to test her new strength anyway, and to learn some much needed control while she was at it, Alessa took a steadying breath this time before moving over to one of the heavy dumpster sized storage bins that was full of whatever salvaged scrap she hadn't used during her Time to Cook binge the other day. At a glance, the dumpster plus the scrap inside probably weighed several hundred pounds, easy. Taking her first step, Alessa couldn't help but marvel at how smoothly every movement felt now. How… easy it all felt now as she all but glided across the metal floor.
The storage bin's rusted handles were rough against her palms as she crouched down, bracing herself the way her dad had taught her back when she was a kid helping him move scrap. Always bend with your knees, never your back.
She sucked in a steady breath and pulled.
The dumpster came off the floor like it was made of cardboard.
For half a heartbeat, Alessa's brain lagged behind her body, having been expecting strain, resistance, the familiar fight against dead weight. Instead, her arms straightened like pistons, the whole rust-streaked container rising smooth and easy. Her balance almost went with it. The weight wasn't gone. It was there, all several hundred pounds of it, but her body treated it like it was nothing. As such, the shock made her tilt back too far, her heel skidding on the floor with a metallic squeal.
"Shit—!" Alice yelped and darted forward as if she could possibly catch her, Taylor flinched with her bugs rustling instinctively in the rafters, but Alessa corrected herself at the last second. Her foot slammed down, calves and thighs locking like hydraulic jacks. The dumpster thudded back onto the floor with a teeth-rattling clang, echoing through the bay. She stood there, breathing hard although not from the exertion she distantly noted as she stared at her hands in uneasy amazement. Her hands nor her arms were trembling.
Not even a little.
"Holy fuck," Alice whispered, eyes wide. Then, with a grin sharp enough to cut steel: "Okay, first of all, hot. Second of all — please do that again, but without the almost-breaking-your-neck bit?"
Taylor's gaze lingered on the bent steel where Alessa's grip had crushed the handle like tinfoil. Her voice was quiet, edged with awe and unease both. "…You really weren't kidding."
Alessa flexed her fingers slowly, the gouged metal creaking in protest. Her lips pulled into a shaky smile. "Guess I wasn't."
Alice's grin went feral. "Okay, okay — that was impressive, but I gotta know… can you punch through steel?"
Alessa gave her a flat look. "Alice…"
"What?" Alice threw her arms out wide, innocent as a cat caught on the counter. "You've got a whole damn playground here! Sheets of old rusted metal from all those wrecks outside, scrap piles, probably a dozen things practically begging for science. Purely for research purposes, of course."
Taylor pinched the bridge of her nose. "You just want to see her break something."
"Exactly!" Alice beamed. "Come on, Skitter-bug, don't tell me you're not curious."
Taylor hesitated, then glanced at Alessa's still-unshaken hands, the bent steel handle gleaming in the light. "…Maybe a little," she quietly admitted.
"User Prime's entertainment value has clearly been elevated with this new development. I too would like a further demonstration though." Her PDA oh so helpfully chimed in.
Alessa could only groan as she realized she'd been outvoted. "You three are going to get me killed one of these days." Still, she walked over to a warped steel support plate leaning against the wall that they'd set there the day before Alice's abduction. It was thick, an old ship's bulkhead salvaged from the Boat Graveyard. It was easily two inches of partially rust covered solid steel. She braced herself, flexed her right fist a couple times, then looked back at them. "If this dents, you're both cleaning it up."
Alice saluted with mock gravity. "Yes ma'am. We, the Official Chaos Committee, approve this test."
"I didn't agree to this." Taylor quietly drawled, but tellingly made no move to stop what was about to happen either.
Alessa rolled her eyes, drew her fist back… and struck.
The clang was deafening. Sparks spat from the point of impact, the bulkhead screeching against the wall as it skidded half a foot sideways. When the sound faded, a fist-shaped crater sat dead center, edges curled inward like they were made outta foil.
Alice whooped, throwing both arms into the air. "YEAH! That's what I'm talking about! Cap's got nothing on you, Super Shorty!"
Taylor, for her part, just stared at the dent, then at Alessa, and quietly said, "That shouldn't be possible."
Alessa flexed her sore knuckles, wincing despite the serum's rapid healing. "…Ow. Okay. That still hurts."
For all of two seconds anyway.
Alice's laughter only doubled as she turned her head towards Taylor even as she addressed Alessa at the same time. "And yet you still did it, you absolute menace. Did you see that?! Straight-up cartoon physics! One punch and boom, fist crater!"
Taylor didn't move. Her gaze flicked from the dent, to Alessa's hand that had since healed up completely without even a scar to show for what she'd just done, then back again, jaw tight. "…That wasn't a test," she murmured. "That was proof."
Alessa's smirk faltered. The adrenaline still buzzed under her skin, but Taylor's words settled heavily in her chest. She wanted to deny it, joke it away, anything, but instead she let out a long exhale and nodded once. "…Yeah. Proof."
Silence stretched for a beat, the three of them framed in the harsh glow of the fluorescents: Alice's laughter echoing, Taylor's quiet unease simmering, and Alessa standing between them, power humming through every line of her body. There was no going back from this, but… Alessa wondered if she would ever want to. With this, I can do so much more to protect her… to protect everyone I care about.
She just hoped it'd be enough.
That thought aside, a few minutes later, they exited the oil tanker, made their way back to the beach, and started away from the Boat Graveyard, the air heavy but not uneasy. Even so, Taylor hesitated once the wreck-strewn Bay was at their backs, until Alice drifted a few steps ahead, her humming fading under the groan of old hulls. Then she finally asked, quiet but sharp: "How did you even know where I lived?"
Alessa didn't dodge. She wouldn't lie, not about this especially. "I hacked Blackwell's computer."
Taylor blinked, thrown.
Alessa shrugged, voice steady despite some guilt and embarrassment slightly coloring every word. "I was digging for dirt on her and the staff—proof of how deep Winslow's rot goes. While I was in there, I pulled student records. Saw your name. Saw your address. Wrote it down." She glanced over, meeting Taylor's wary eyes with the slightest blush colored her cheeks. "At first I told myself it was leverage on Blackwell. Truth is? I didn't like how easy it would've been for someone to make you vanish, and no one at that school would've lifted a finger. So I made sure I could."
Taylor stared at her. She should've been furious, maybe even scared, but the blunt honesty left her off-balance instead. "…You just say that like it's nothing."
"It isn't nothing," Alessa said quietly. "That's why I did it."
Alice had stopped walking at some point, waiting for them both. For once, there was no grin, no joke. Just a firm nod. "If I'd known she was gonna hack the principal, I would've told her to look you up anyway." Her voice was steady, almost fierce. "Because no one else at that damn school was ever going to look out for you, and you deserve better than being left alone."
The three of them cut through the neighborhood in silence after that, the glow of streetlamps throwing long shadows over the cracked sidewalks. Alice kept a steadying hand hooked into Taylor's arm like she wasn't planning to let go again anytime soon. Alessa walked just off to their left side, eyes flicking toward every passing car and alley like the city itself was waiting to take another shot at them.
It was Taylor who broke first. Her voice was tight, low, but sharp enough to cut. "At school today… Emma, Sophia, Madison. They were talking about what happened. About Alice."
Alice stiffened, grip tightening on Taylor's sleeve. "What the fuck did they say?"
Taylor's jaw worked, not all that surprised by Alice's sudden fury even though this was the first she was seeing it for herself, but it still took her a few seconds to force the words out. "That the Merchants didn't notice the difference. That maybe they kept the eyeliner. That it was… funny." Her hands curled into fists, nails biting her palms. "I almost lost it. I wanted to bury them right there under a thousand bugs and not stop until they screamed."
Alice's face darkened, fury glittering in her pale blue eyes. "Those little bitches think that whole thing was a joke?!" Her voice rose sharply at the end, but Alessa's hand on her shoulder grounded her before she could keep going before her gaze flicked between them, steady, sharp.
"What stopped you?" she gently asked Taylor.
Taylor swallowed hard, shame and her own measure of anger present in her voice. "…My dad. He already barely notices me anymore, but if I'd snapped, if I'd proven them right about me being some kinda freak—" She broke off before shaking her head. "I didn't want him to look at me and see a monster."
The silence that followed was heavy, broken only by their footsteps. Alice's grip softened, and for the second time Taylor had since gotten to know the goth, she didn't reach for a joke. "You shouldn't have had to deal with any of this shit alone, Taylor. No one should."
Taylor blinked at her, caught between disbelief and a flicker of something else.
She was further thrown for a loop when Alessa's voice came low, certain. "They don't get to break you anymore. Not when you've got us. Whatever comes next, we're gonna deal with it together."
For a moment, Taylor just walked in silence, the weight of the words settling in. Then, almost too softly to hear, she whispered, "…together."
The rest of the walk was at least far less emotionally charged, but Alessa wasn't the only one that wanted to punch the Bitches Three so hard all of their teeth flew outta their respective mouths. Thankfully, Alessa had all the evidence she'd ever need to absolutely bury them. Still, she pushed that thought to the side for now, and it was just as well as they soon enough stood in front of Alice's home, the same home that Alessa had been a part of for a while now.
Belinda looked up from the kitchen doorway the moment they entered together, apron still dusted with flour. Her eyes flicked over Alice first, then landed on Taylor, and softened in that way Taylor hadn't seen from anyone in years. "Back again, good. I was starting to think Alice scared you off."
Alice groaned. "Aunt B, c'mon—"
Belinda ignored her, stepping closer to press a warm cookie into Taylor's hand before she could even protest. "Eat. You look like you've had a day and a half."
Taylor blinked down at it, startled, then bit into the cookie almost automatically. The sweetness spread across her tongue, and the warmth seeped into her fingers, grounding her in a way she hadn't been expecting.
Belinda's hand came down gently on her shoulder, steady and sure. "Whatever those girls said, and I know they said something, I can see it all over your face, you don't carry it alone anymore. Not while you've got these two dragging you into my kitchen."
Alice smirked, nudging her with an elbow. "Told you she's scary good at this."
Taylor let out a watery laugh, clutching the cookie like it was proof. For once, she believed it: she wasn't walking this road by herself anymore. The soft, warm smile on Alessa's face only solidified that fact for her.
========
Outside Brockton Bay, the old quarry
5:24 PM…
The quarry stretched out before her, jagged walls catching the last gold light of the sun. The old place was silent now, save for the faint rustle of wind through scrub brush and the crunch of gravel under Alessa's boots. She lifted her phone, tucking it against her ear as she took in the yawning pit that would soon be her stronghold.
"It's official," she said, voice steady, more to herself than the line. "From now on, this place is gonna be called The Bastion."
Static crackled, then Alice's laugh spilled through. "Wow. Look at you, all dramatic. 'The Bastion.' You've been practicing that in the mirror, haven't you?"
Alessa rolled her eyes skyward. "No. It's fitting. Strong. Secure."
"Boring." Alice's tone was smug as ever. "I've got better names."
There was a faint mutter in the background, Belinda's voice carrying the weight of someone already resigned. "Don't encourage her."
"Option one," Alice continued brightly, "Rusty McRustface."
Alessa closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. "…You are not naming my base after a meme boat."
"Fine, fine," Alice sing-songed. "Option two: The Doom Hole."
"…Absolutely not." Flatly retorted Alessa after rubbing a sore spot between her eyes.
"Ooooh, ooooh—" Alessa could practically hear the wicked grin. "Murder Disneyland."
Her sigh echoed against the stone walls. "Alice…"
"What? It's accurate! Big, creepy, dangerous. And I bet the lines are murder." Exclaimed her all too easily excitable friend.
"It's The Bastion," Alessa said flatly. "End of discussion."
"Sure, sure," Alice replied, clearly anything but done. "Until I get a neon sign made. Imagine it: Welcome to Murder Disneyland! Now with 100% more deathbots!"
Belinda's dry voice cut across the connection, closer this time: "If you waste money on a neon sign, I will handcuff you to the bed."
Alice broke into helpless laughter, wheezing into the receiver. "Worth it!"
Alessa stared out at the silent quarry, lips twitching despite herself. The Bastion. Murder Disneyland. Whatever Alice decided to call it, this would be where it all began.
Alessa ended the call, sliding the phone back into her jacket pocket as the last of Alice's laughter echoed in her ear. The quarry lay silent, a great stone wound carved into the earth, its terraced walls dropping down into shadow. Even stripped bare, it had a weight to it — the kind of weight that whispered of permanence. She crouched at the edge and dug her fingers into the gravel. When she closed her fist, the rocks ground against one another, sharp edges biting her skin. She tossed the handful into the pit and listened to the skitter of stone on stone until it was swallowed by silence.
The Bastion, she thought again, letting the name settle in her chest. It fit.
With a steadying breath, she gripped the rusted remains of a collapsed fence panel nearby. Her muscles bunched, and with a smooth pull she wrenched the whole thing free of the earth, concrete post and all. It came loose with a scream of metal, roots snapping, dirt cascading down the slope. A month ago, she'd have needed tools, leverage, maybe Alice pushing from the other side just to budge it. Now? It felt like moving furniture. She tested the weight, flexing her grip until the old steel frame bent with a protesting groan. Then she set it aside like kindling, chest heaving not with effort, but exhilaration.
Every part of her body felt alive, tuned, eager. She could almost see the future machines lining the quarry floor, HK frames resting like skeletal titans, armored plating resting in forges she hadn't built yet. The vision burned bright enough to banish the fatigue of the last few weeks.
"Alright," she muttered, running a hand through her hair. "First things first. Walls. Power. Storage. Then we get to the fun stuff."
Her boots rang against the gravel as she descended the first slope. Each step carried the same careful restraint she'd practiced since the serum, a reminder that the world had become lighter, but she hadn't. One slip, one careless surge, and she'd end up smashing her own scaffolding before she could build a single thing.
At the lowest terrace, she stopped and turned a slow circle. The echoes carried differently here, rolling against the walls like a drum. She crouched again, pressed her palm flat to the cold stone, and let her mind wander. Foundations. Workshop bays. Subterranean storage vaults. The Bastion wasn't just possible, it was inevitable, and for the first time since Alice had been taken, the thought didn't burn with desperation. It felt like clarity.
Alessa dropped down the last ledge, boots crunching against shale as the quarry walls loomed high above. The air here felt still, insulated by stone. Perfect for what she needed. She slid her PDA out of its case, tapped the display, and the AR overlay blinked to life across her goggles once she pulled them out of her bag next and set them on her face. The empty pit lit up with glowing wireframes, pale blue outlines sketching across reality itself. "Alright… let's see what we've got."
She swept her hand, dragging a line of light across the terrace wall. A projected tunnel bloomed, stretching inward like veins branching through stone. She adjusted the angle, narrowing her eyes until the alignment clicked. That could serve as a main access shaft, maybe even connect to existing storm drains if she mapped carefully.
Her boots carried her deeper, across uneven terrain, past piles of broken rebar and rust-streaked machinery left to rot. Machinery she could repurpose, breathing life into them once more. Every so often she stopped to crouch, fingers brushing the ground or tapping her PDA as the Forge-born instincts lined up with her raw, technical knowledge.
A sudden flicker in the AR caught her attention: a faint outline where her scans picked up an older cut into the rock. She pushed closer, pried loose some fallen rubble, and grinned. "…hello there."
The hidden tunnel stretched dark and damp, a relic from when this place had still been worked. Reinforced concrete edges hinted at forgotten expansion. With some clearing, it could serve as a secure ingress, or better yet, an emergency escape. She logged it immediately, dragging new glyphs over the holographic map until it glowed red-lined and marked for expansion.
The next few hours bled away into motion. She stalked the terraces like a predator surveying new territory, pausing only to add another projection:
Anti-air and artillery emplacements along the ridges, autocannons waiting under camouflaged hatches.
Solar panels from the PDA's stored database of schematics, enchanted to ensure they were as magically hidden as possible while not limiting their exposure to the sun during daylight hours.
Banks of batteries that were also stored in her PDA's database, tied into the power grid and placed in reinforced bunker-like structures to serve as emergency power sources.
Space for impressively large power plants since solar energy alone wouldn't cut it forever.
Living quarters for the actual flesh and blood members of their strange little troupe, herself included. Knowing Alice, she'd also demand a heated, Olympian sized swimming pool once she realized Alessa could all too easily make it happen. On that note, Alessa sketched out a library space for them all, even if she'd always preferred e-books to physical ones. She also made a quick note to back up every hard copy of any books that were brought here just so there'd be digital copies of everything.
A space dedicated to letting Taylor breed and maintain giant colonies of insects and arachnids for her own unique needs, complete with the reinforced glass vivariums' own power and water sources, just in case.
Defensive choke points in the tunnels, hard-angled intersections perfect for drone nests and automated killzones.
An advanced forge hall cut deep into the rock, massive enough to house a dedicated hyperalloy foundry.
Server vaults buried below the waterline, insulated by both steel and stone.
Drone bays, hangar bays for aerial HK units and regular fighter craft, and launch silos hidden beneath retractable covers, their launch arcs plotted with surgical precision.By the time she reached the lowest shelf, the quarry wasn't empty anymore. Through her goggles, it was alive, a veritable fortress of steel and fire, layered with contingencies, sprawling, beautiful, and terrible in its efficiency.
The Bastion.
Alessa pulled the goggles off, scrubbing her eyes with the heel of her hand. The AR projections vanished, leaving only scarred stone and silence. But the image lingered in her mind, sharp as if she'd already built it.
She exhaled, slow and steady, and whispered into the echoing dark: "It'll take time, but we'll make it real."
==========
Total Word Count, 8,041 = 700 + 800 = 1500 CP
The Midas Touch (Highschool DxD) (200 CP)
You know what plebeians or Neophytes have to struggle for? Money. You know what gets mortals to move mountains and makes your summer trip for you and your friends amazing? Money. You know things you have trouble with? Money isn't one of those things. While you may be rolling in dosh already from your family's holdings or your own hard-earned cash, you are an amazingly competent businessman (or woman) who can quickly turn a dime into 10k with some time and investment, able to quickly secure a large amount of legal income for yourself with little effort. Of course, illegal activities or certain supernatural powers can make those dividends increase tenfold or more...just try not to get caught.
"Extensive Research Notes" (White Knight Chronicles) (1200 CP)
Not a modification to your Knight itself, no. This is instead a pile of research journals filled with numerous notes and schematics detailing the processes behind the creation and modification of Knights, Knight Weapons and Knight's Arcs. The journals mention an ancient school of magic used to craft these weapons of war, but it bears a heavy resemblance to another school that seems very familiar…
Traditional Genius (SB Dragonball Z) (100 CP)
You're a traditional genius, a master of engineering, biology, and a dozen other sciences at the level of Bulma Briefs in each of them. If you'd been a part of the scientific community of your planet, you'd probably be considered the pinnacle of their scientists for generations to come. In addition to this your mind is far greater than the average person, giving you a base IQ of 250 as well as eidetic memory.
200 - 1200 - 100 = 0 CP
========
End Notes: Well… Alessa just got a Hell of a lot smarter while also getting the means to basically make 'all the money', but HOLY FUCK! I loved the first White Knight Chronicles game, (still need to watch/play through the second one), so the moment that big ass Perk dropped, I HAD to get it. I can already see Alice having a nerdgasm the moment she learns Alessa can make her a giant mecha knight suit of armor lol. Yeah, the actual game didn't come out until I wanna say 2012 or something, so no one knows about it yet, but the fact remains Alice is gonna be all about that Knight life. That aside though, some heavy stuff was discussed with Taylor, and Alessa has laid claim to the start of her totally not Skynet inspired base of operations. (Also Metal Gear Solid, but we'll get to that lol.) Still, hopefully this was as enjoyable as ever folks, for those of you NOT bitching about the AI assistance anyway. (You know who you are.) Anyway sorry, but as always, stay safe, take care, and I'll see ya soon!