At Play
“If a Tailor isn’t, him or herself a toymaker, she better have a few on the payroll. No matter what hero we’re talking about, they all have a desire for little toys and trinkets to help them with their day. Even in the comic books, you had rings holding costumes, spiffy vehicles, and other little gadgets.”
“Or do you really think a reporter, surrounded by a bunch of other reporters, could hide his ID with normal, unenhanced eyeglasses?”
Cassidy Maynard (AKA Duster), Idiots Guide to Being a Tailor
“Holy crap, is that your shop truck?” Badger asked, staring in admiration at the insane thing.
"That it is." Erica laughed. The limo had been converted into a flat-bed hauler by adding truck shocks and springs, welding several sheets of metal to the frame, with spacers and a widening of the car’s rear allowing them to put the rear quarter panels with the old school ''fins'' and taillights onto the back with it still wide enough to get vehicles on to. "We''re going to resurface the bed and paint the whole thing later... and rebuild its engine, but she works for it right now. Um, ignore the fact that we''re using a canvas and clear plastic mockup for the rear of the driving cabin." She joked “We’re going to call it the Flatbed Royale!”
“Man, I can see where you are going with this. She’s going to be a Lady when you’re done with her. Lemme know if I can help.”
"Figure she''ll take show cars to events when we get that far. A bit of drama with the whole thing." Levi chuckled. "And we''ll hold off on her for a while. She works and that''s enough for now. Our current project is, we''re pulling apart this Lexus to do an LS swap, put a body kit on her so she looks more aggressive, and put performance brakes, suspension, and such on her. We''re also thinking of putting ballistic cloth into the doors and panels. This is our dry run car; we are getting to try out all the shop toys on her.
“Gimme the measurements and weight limitations I may have something better than cloth. Lemme get this girl on the backlot and I can help you pull this one apart. You need to set up cams first?” he asked, looking around.
"Right now, we''re at the pulling the engine stage." He said, gesturing at the car, lifted on a mobile lift. "If you want to start yanking the current brakes and suspension, because both of those are going to need an upgrade."
“Can do, but where are your cameras, even if it’s not exciting it makes good b roll?”
"We set some go-pros up there and there and have another on a stand there." he said. "Evelyn insisted. We figured voice overs might happen, or we''d let you do anything like explain a step. I''ve never done the YouTube thing."
“Ahh. Okay I can help with that,” Badger said, seeing where the camera had been hiding behind the car. The others were on a wall and the pop-ups so he missed them. “So, who’s your face? The one that does the talking. I can work you up a bit.”
Levi pointed at Erica before she could turn towards him. "Not it." he called out.
“Right, so do you even wanna run a channel? If not, we can record for mine. Believe me people can tell when you don’t wanna do something?”
"Record for yours. We honestly just want to work on fun stuff, and whatever the boss wants us to do. Oh, we''re getting a bunch of Chargers from the salvage, we''re thinking we can put four together out of them, for cheap. R/Ts seem to be a dime a dozen on long island. We want to turn them into epic, show quality, security themed vehicles. Here’s a sketch of the paint idea.
“Nice. We can supercharge those and make ‘em mean. Lemme grab the crew. He opened the back of the station wagon he limped in and pulled out a Roomba with a camera mounted to the top of it. “This is my camera bot. I call him Chuck, wake up buddy. He shook it and the front opened and an eye on a long stalk came out. He set it on the ground, “Action.” He said moving over to the Lexus.
“Today we have a treat we are working on this sexy girl here, and don’t get too excited but boys she can even go topless!” He gave some simple stats on the car and a project overview. As he started pulling the tires off to start working on the breaks,Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.
Levi returned to working on disconnecting everything from the engine. Pretty much everything was coming out. Anzy had earlier pulled the stock stereo for him, because that was going to get a major upgrade. She''d since left to go make lunch for everyone. Another Anzy was painting the upstairs offices.
Chuck rolled under the car filming the undercarriage then pulled up next to Levi to film the engine, it nudged his foot the camera turning to him, then nudged him again.
“Man, whoever had this never changed the pads before. Badger said with a bit of irritation.”
"Idiot buys a luxury sports car and does nothing to maintain it. The oil I pulled out of this had the consistency of thick syrup. I mean, this engine runs, and I''m going to clean it up for something later, probably, but I''m glad we''re doing an LS swap on this baby. New engine, new trans, so it''ll be darn near zero. I''m toying with lifting it and sandblasting its underside just to get everything as close to zero miles as I can."
The bot tried the camera around so Levi could see its screen and replayed the undercarriage footage.
"Actually, not bad down there, likely garaged its entire life. Still, a few spots to blow the rust off of, but not as bad as I feared."
“Worth doing, then we can throw a protective coat down there, keep the street salts from wrecking it and make it a bit more fireproof. This lug is locked on, you got a power wrench?”
"We have a hammer drill with the right socket. Here you go."
“Thanks, my tools should be on their way. I had everything in a storage unit. A buddy of mine is shipping them for me.” He grunted as he worked the tool, pulling out a bolt. I love the concept you have here for a communal garage.”
"Well, when you think about it, how many folks are needing space to work on a big project? I mean hell, this thing is big enough to build small aircraft in it. And don''t think I haven''t been trying to figure out how to order a jet kit."
“What kind do you want. I know a grey cape that could get you one,”
Levi blinked... "You know, me and you are talking off camera later. I''m now motivated and curious. I think you just found a place to do those big projects you never thought you could get off the ground."
Badger laughed. “Yeah, I haven’t done a plane before. I did a jet pack, but not the same thing, some of my clients will really like that I could do bigger stuff now.”
"Oh, planes are fun. I''m actually a qualified pilot." Levi said. "Shocking amounts of things are the same, until they aren''t."
Badger nodded stripping the breaks down. Going into his happy place of making cars better. Erica looked at Levi. “How the hell did El find a Baby Toymaker?”
"Who the hell knows, but it''s kind of what she does. It''ll probably entertain Solaris though." he admitted. "And you know some of us are going to want a toymaker around."
“Do you think she knows he’s a toymaker?” Erica said as the camera poked him as he began muttering about hover options.
"I don''t know. You go ask her, we''ll just have to make sure we don''t leave him unmonitored with a project we don''t want to turn weird."
“Will do, she jogged back upstairs. Walls are looking great Anzy. El back in her office?
"Yep." The cook said, A third Anzy was assembling one of the chairs they''d gotten, the conference table still in its box leaned against the wall.
“Thanks, she walked into Elenore’s office, hey El how good is the shop’s insurance?”
Elenore raised an eyebrow. "I sense my answer should be ‘Improving soon.’ Why do you ask?"
“Did you know Badger is a Brain, I am like ninety percent sure he’s a ToyMaker.”
"A breakthrough type, not a kit-basher? I had suspected he was a basher."
“I guess it’s possible he’s a basher, but I’m pretty sure he’s also breakthrough. He has a camera robot. And he was muttering about how to make the Lexus fly and I could half follow what he was saying. Levi was nodding like he got more of it.”
"Well distract him from thator don’t…we should be able to sell a flying car to someone." She chuckled. "We''ll have to get Penny to come watch him, see if she can identify it. Didn''t they say she''s a Catalyst?"
“Yeah. I know she’s working on a battle suit. If Badger is a breakthrough, he’s going to either amuse her or piss her off.”
"I''m more interested in Solaris''s reaction, but that is likely amusement. She''s complained about enough of her little gadgets being missing or stored in Alaska to like the idea of having her own little elf lying about."
“God, only a breakthrough would call something a Twump.”Erica said shaking her head
"I get the impression he might also have been drunk when he built it." Erica noted.
“He was Australian of course he was drunk when he built it!”
Out in the Everglades Solaris was wrestling a giant white serpent that started its genetic existence as a Burmese python. The huge snake thrashing around with her wrapped in its grip.
“Penny! I don’t think they normally get this big, do they?”
"No, they definitely do not get over sixty feet long!" Penny yelled, then ducked as it spit something that hissed when it hit the water. "And they don''t normally spit acid!" The rental boat was already a total loss, having been smashed in the initial attack, and Penny was covered in swamp slime. Luckily, nothing attacked her other than the snake, since it had probably eaten everything in the area.
“Right,” she punched the snake in the head, it released her violently, throwing her into the air. She gasped, wincing as her ribs ached. “Do we need to catch this, or can we kill it?”
"Kill it! If it’s a monster that spits acid, the answer is always kill it!" She had finally gotten her revolver out, shooting only to watch the bullet bounce off the scales of the snake. "God damn it, I really, really need to get my fucking armor done!"