212 Blame It On The Rain

212 Blame It On The Rain

By the time a blushing Miss Militia and I came up for air, Armsmaster and Dragon had disassembled the laser completely and registered the parts, the assembly instructions, and what was needed to reproduce it. Since I had removed the parts that had been tinkertech and replaced them with normal materials, the cost was significantly less than the original lasers were.

“I will be depositing quite a sum into your bank account again, Atlas.” Dragon said.

“As will I.” Armsmaster agreed. Having access to an easily created, cost-effective, and replaceable laser, was going to help enormously with their tinkering projects. The possible weapon enhancements might play a huge role, too.

Since I didn't want to ruin their tinker budgets for the year, considering the year only just started a few weeks ago, I decided to not rip them off. “Cut the initial fees by 75%, since you both verified the design for me and worked out how to mass produce it.”

Armsmaster gave me a huge smile, which was a very rare thing.

“If the PRT doesn't pick it up for their own use, say one weapon per squad, Dragon can let The Guild know about it.” I added.

“I'll let Narwhal know anyway.” Dragon said and a typing sound could be heard. “You can never have too many clients, anyway.”

I nodded. “If she picks up the contract, you're going to use one of your own manufacturing plants and retool it to produce them yourself, aren't you?”

“Of course.” Dragon said, smugly. “I'm going to save so much overhead by converting about a third of my own laser-intensive tests and research to use those lasers instead.

“I was thinking the same thing.” Armsmaster said.

Miss Militia patted his armored arm to get his attention. “Please run ballistics on the gun barrel and any bullets you test fire. If the weapon is connected to any crimes, we can tie it back to a perpetrator and maybe clear some cold case files.”

“I looted it from Coil's base.” I said, making Miss Militia smile and nod. “I'm pretty sure he bought the original from Toybox.”

“Was that just the laser attachment or the whole gun?” Armsmaster asked.

“I have no idea.” I said, truthfully.

“Then we can add it to their charges if any crimes come up, if not, Armsmaster can keep it in his lab for comparison.” Miss Militia said.

Armsmaster looked like he appreciated the gesture. “That's very generous of you.”

Miss Militia nodded and motioned for me to follow her. “We should leave them alone to play with their new toy.”

I chuckled and waved to the screen Dragon was on and then nodded at Armsmaster as I followed Miss Militia to the door. “How much do you want to bet they're going to scale that up to cannon range to see if they can somehow generate enough power to fire it?”

“That's a sucker bet.” Miss Militia said with a grin and pulled up her scarf before opening the door. “They have the plans half-drawn on his desk computer already.”

“Ha! I didn't even see that.” I said with a laugh as the door closed behind us.

“To be fair, you were focusing more on using your tongue to check if I had any cavities.” Miss Militia joked, making me laugh.

“We all seek comfort for many reasons.” I responded and she nodded, then waved me to silence as we signed out of the secured area and went to the elevator. “Are we heading to your office to do the paperwork for turning in the assault weapon into PRT custody?”

Miss Militia's eyes widened slightly and then they crinkled at the corners as she smiled and pushed the button for the elevator. “If you keep politely surprising me like that, I might have to break my no dating coworkers or capes rule.”

We stepped into the elevator, the doors closed, and she hit the button for the right floor.

“Hold on, you weren't going to bend me over your desk and have your wicked way with me?” I asked in as innocent of a voice as I could.

Miss Militia looked shocked for a moment, then she made a long snort sound and held both hands over her scarf and mouth to muffle her loud laughter.

“I might be rethinking about going to your office now.” I said and pouted, making her laugh even more. “I thought 'filing your paperwork' was the newfangled way of asking to share a coffee or to borrow a cup of sugar.”

“New... hahaha... fangled...” Miss Militia managed to say between laughs, her voice just as muffled as her laughter.

“Here I was, completely prepared to lose my innocence...” I continued and her laughs were getting harder to keep quiet. “...and let a slightly older woman lead me into depravity and debauchery, like holding hands or over the clothes good and bad touches.”

Miss Militia laughed and laughed, so I stood there and let her get it all out. We reached the right floor and I hit the door stop button, giving her more time to settle herself. I handed her a monogrammed napkin and she wiped at her eyes as she gave me a very pointed look.

“Hey, it's not my fault I'm handsome and stupid... I mean funny.” I quickly corrected.

Miss Militia barked a laugh and touched her eyes again with the napkin, then hit the door release button and tucked the napkin away in a pocket. She led me down the hallway to her office and we settled in to do some paperwork that she was grateful for my help with.

*

Narwhal sat in her large reinforced chair to hold her 7 foot tall frame and chuckled at the notification Dragon has sent to her. Would she be interested in a working laser that wasn't tinkertech and wouldn't cost a fortune for her to license the use of and to buy from her longtime friend? Of course she would!

Half of the tinkers in The Guild would chew off their left arms to get one of them and the other half would kill the first half because one-armed tinkers were easy prey and would take their laser.

After only a short conversation, Narwhal laughed at finding out that it was Atlas that had brought the design to Dragon's attention, even if it was a happy accident that she happened to be teleconferencing with Armsmaster at the time.

“Tea and crumpets? Got it! See you soon!” I shouted back and hung up.

My mother gave me a blank stare at acting so foolish. “At least we're already dressed.”

“Normal travel it is.” I said and looked up a good fast food place that served breakfast items. “I'll call an order in and we can pick it up on the way.”

“I'll grab my keys.” My mother said and we were soon travelling across part of the city to the right place and I picked up the fairly large food order, as well as six large cups of coffee and two boxes of mixed donuts, since I didn't know what kinds they liked. Having two boxes of different donuts would almost guarantee they had at least one donut they liked.

We made it to the Dallon household with a minute to spare and mom and I high-fived each other. We carried the order to the front door and it opened before we reached it. One of the six cups of coffee was scabbed right away and Carol let out a happy sigh after sipping the strong dose of caffeine.

“Why six cups?” Sarah asked and helped us carry everything over to the kitchen table.

“Two coffee nuts means double the cups.” I said and pointed to Carol and my mother.

Sarah chuckled as the other two women enthusiastically nodded several times. She took her own cup and relaxed on one of the chairs at the table and both Carol and my mom slumped down and hungrily sipped at their beverages.

“Food first?” I asked.

“Food first.” Sarah agreed.

We opened everything up and spread it out across the table to make it into a buffet, which made mom and Carol add eating food between their coffee infusions. It was relatively quiet as we ate and I took the opportunity to observe both Sarah and Carol wearing normal clothing. They were both fairly beautiful, even without wearing their skin-tight cape costumes that showed off their toned bodies.

“Do you see something interesting, Greg?” Sarah asked with a knowing smile, letting me know my admiration had not been as subtle as I thought it had been.

“I'm not sure if I can answer that question safely.” I responded, making her softly laugh.

Carol only shrugged her shoulders slightly. “I've been hit on countless times at work and during the cases I handle. I doubt you'll say anything I haven't heard before.”

I really couldn't let that challenge go without responding, so I gave her my best award winning Gilderoy Lockheart smile. “Did you know that poverty isn't the worst thing in the world? Blindness is, because it's a tragedy they'll never be able to see how beautiful you are.”

All three women stopped breathing and stared at me with wide eyes.

“With you as his inspiration, a painter will create his best painting, a writer will create his best novel, and a poet will create his best sonnet. As for a lover...” I reached out and took her hand. “...there are no heights he can't reach if he's with you.”

Carol shivered and blushed hard. Sarah wasn't far behind and my mother looked faint.

With her primed, I went in for the kill. “Now that I've told you I love you, we can work together on all the little details that lead up to it.”

Both Sarah and Carol lost their blushes and then the color drained even more from their faces.

“Dammit, Greg.” My mother said and smacked my shoulder. “Why did you have to ruin it?”

“Ruin what?” I asked and noticed the guilty looks on Sarah's and Carol's faces. I knew then she was right. I had apparently stepped in something I didn't know about. “What happened? Is Amy okay?”

Carol turned her head away from me and started drinking her second cup of coffee.

“We... may have... started to run damage control on... what happened.” Sarah admitted and now looked really guilty. “After we talked to Panacea and she said she definitely didn't love you, or wanted to lead you on, and Vicky took her side to defend her...”

I sat there and listened to them explain their brilliant plan to essentially blame Vicky and Amy for it, while also comparing me with the dumb jocks Vicky liked and set up with her sister, who was less interested in the idiots than she was in cockroaches.

“I need some time to think about this.” I said and stood. “I'll go along with it, just because it will be worse for all of you if I don't.”

Both women nodded and my mom took my hand briefly.

“I won't go far.” I said and she nodded as she let my hand go. I equipped my hero costume and walked out of the kitchen and through the house to the back door, stepped outside, and flew up into the air. When I was far enough out, I made myself invisible and then apparated to above the Parahuman Asylum where my old online friend lived. I made myself visible again and floated down to land at the front door and went inside.

“I'd like to visit with Sveta, please.” I told the receptionist. “Cape name Garrote.”

The older woman nodded and had me sign in as she called for an orderly to take me to Sveta's room. Despite her not having the tendril-like involuntarily-murderous body she used to have, she still had all of her mental problems and needed to work on them, especially causing the deaths of several people and how traumatizing that was for her.

“Void Cowboy.” Sveta whispered when her room's door was opened.

I smiled at her guessing it was me, since I was the only person to ever visit her. “Hey, G-StringGirl.”

She gave me a curious look and then nodded. She waved to her bed and the orderly gave me a pointed look. I chuckled and handed him a hundred dollar bill, which he made disappear, and the door was shut and locked behind me.

“Who broke your heart?” Sveta asked as she settled herself on the bed and hugged her pillow.

“It's a long story.” I said and sat at the far end of the bed and respected her personal space.

“I somehow have all the time in the world to hear it.” Sveta said as everything in the room slowed down to a fraction of what it was supposed to be. She had become quite good with her replacement power in a short time.

I nodded at the offer and started talking.