With Great Power: Eyes For The Future

Through persistent begging and the morally dubious act of playing up her disability, Emma somehow managed to get her dad to shorten the grounding to only a week. Taylor was luckier, if you could really call it that; her dad was almost never home and she was usually left to her own devices throughout the day. Given her independence, there wasn’t really any way he could feasibly enforce her grounding, meaning she was still free to go out and be a hero when she needed to. She still couldn’t visit Emma – Uncle Alan would definitely tell her dad if she did – but they were allowed to talk over the house phone so she didn’t miss her too much.

Even so, when the week was up, it was a given that the first place Taylor went was straight to her best friend’s house. She and Emma had planned a little excursion over the phone, a way to get some of the much needed supplies that would be required to keep Emma happy given her new fixation. A tinker was nothing without their tools, after all.

Which was why Taylor found herself wheeling the redhead around a hardware store at the crack of dawn, less than an hour after their doors had even opened. Surrounded by shelves of tools that looked as complicated as they were expensive, the brunette was more than a little overwhelmed, but Emma certainly wasn’t. The girl was practically bouncing with excitement as she periodically stopped and plucked things off the shelf, gazing at them like they were the last sip of water in the desert, before seeing the price and deciding that she’d be better off going thirsty.

Emma had saved up quite a bit of allowance over the past few months. Since she had been put into that wheelchair, she hadn’t exactly had the time nor the desire to go shopping for cute clothes like they once did. Add into that the amount of money Taylor had put in from her time heroing, the girl had a pretty big budget to satisfy her cravings.

That being said, her cravings were pretty… expensive. Taylor glanced down into the basket in her friend’s lap, taking in the veritable treasure trove of stuff that the two of them had already gotten. From an entire case of brand new screwdrivers in all shapes and sizes to a brand new soldering kit that was fifty dollars alone, there was at least a few hundred dollars worth of stuff in there, and they weren’t finished yet.

As Taylor watched Emma gush over a drill that she absolutely didn’t need, the brunette found herself sighing fondly. This was definitely monotonous, but it was worth it to see Emma so happy. Especially considering why they were even here in the first place.

Taylor still could barely believe that Emma triggered. It seemed so surreal, that her best friend had gone through the worst day of her life and Taylor hadn’t been there for her. Though it was more like multiple worst days, wasn’t it? A compounding problem that grew and festered in the background and slowly broke her friend down while she was completely unaware. The pit of guilt in Taylor’s stomach had been there for days and she didn’t expect it to go away any time soon. Not that she didn’t deserve it.

Emma turned to her, holding a pair of needle-nose pliers up in askance, and Taylor shook her head, silently telling her that they already had a pair and making the girl pout and put it back. As she did so, Taylor studied her. She seemed to be in a better mood today, but Taylor knew that didn’t really mean anything. Emma was right when she said that she was better at hiding her feelings from Taylor than Taylor was at figuring them out. She could be on the verge of a breakdown right now and Taylor wouldn’t even know.

Taylor reached out, placing one hand on her friend’s shoulder, causing her to stiffen and look back, “What?”

Taylor shrugged, giving her friend a smile, “I just had an idea, is all. You need electronics to do your tinkering, right? And I don’t think your dad would be happy if you decided to dismantle your fridge for spare parts.”

“He might not care. He’s been telling mom that they need to get a new one forever now.” Emma defended. Taylor chuckled, leading her down the next aisle.

“Well just in case he does, how about I visit the junkyard or something to see what I can manage to dig up? I helped dad throw away our old microwave over there a few months ago and there was a ton of stuff that looked pretty much untouched. You could use it to build stuff.”

Emma’s face brightened massively at the suggestion. “Rooting through the trash just so I have something to play with? You really are the best friend a girl could ask for.”

“I try.” Taylor replied wryly, suppressing another wave  of guilt, “We just need a place to put all the stuff so you can use it. We can’t really leave a pillowcase full of junk just laying in your closet. My basement could work, but we’d need to start scheduling our playdates at my house.”

Emma nodded, smiling brightly and Taylor’s resolve deepened. She’d keep an eye on her friend as much as she could and actually make a conscious effort to make sure that she was alright. No more assuming and taking her at face value. She’d seen where that got her, and there was no going back now.

They spend around an hour altogether in the hardware store, grabbing things that Emma insisted she needed. Taylor also grabbed a couple things, though not anywhere near the amount of stuff that her friend had claimed. She figured she’d waited long enough to upgrade her web shooters. Since she was an actual hero now, she couldn’t keep relying on her own shoddy craftsmanship.

The cashier seemed a little surprised as they set their purchases in front of him but didn’t complain, greeting them with the patented customer-service smile as he asked them if they had found everything okay. Knowing how this looked, Taylor pulled out a pre-prepared piece of paper with a list of random items on it, looking over it intently.

“Did we miss anything?” Asked Emma, playing along with her as she pretended to read the list. Taylor waited a second or two, making a show of looking over everything.

I don’t think so.” Taylor replied with a quick shake of the head, putting the note away, “Hopefully this was all dad needed. I really don’t want to have to come back out here and walk around for an hour.”

“At least you can walk.” Emma griped, enjoying the way Taylor twitched in response.

The cashier either bought their ploy or didn’t care enough to actually call them out on it as he began to bag their items without a word. The total came out to an amount that made Taylor wince with sympathy but Emma paid it without a word, surely draining her account to near empty in one fell swoop. Taylor stepped forward and paid for her own stuff, and then they were out of there, ready to head home.

Leaving the store, Taylor glanced down at Emma to find the girl absolutely beaming, bright eyed and rosy cheeked as she stared down at the bags in her lap like they contained a whole closet’s worth of new outfits for her to try on. Taylor found herself smiling at her friend’s joy, glad to see her genuinely happy.

Unfortunately, she was so enamored with her best friend’s happiness that she nearly rolled them both straight into another person standing on the side of the street. Only Taylor’s danger sense let her avoid the near collision, and the handles of Emma’s wheelchair bent under her grip as she brought the chair to a dead stop. 

Emma jerked as she was jostled by the sudden braking. She almost dropped the stuff on her lap but managed to hold onto it as she gave her best friend an annoyed look, “What the hell, Taylor? There’s not a seatbelt on this thing, you know!”

Taylor smiled sheepishly at her friend, noting that she clearly also hadn’t been paying attention or else she would have seen that they were about to ram into someone. She looked up, meeting the eyes of the girl they were about to knock over, “Sorry about that. I wasn’t watching where I was going.”

The girl in question turned out to be a teenager around her age, if a little bit older. She had golden blonde hair and bright green eyes framed by delicate lashes. A smattering of freckles covered the bridge of her nose, stopping just short of drifting onto her cheeks. She was dressed in a modest outfit, but years alongside Emma told Taylor that she knew her stuff when she picked it out.

She didn’t say anything in response to Taylor’s apology, at least at first. Instead, her eyes seemed to catch on the brunette before slowly drifting over towards Emma who was still glaring at her friend behind her. Finally, she looked towards the basket full of goodies sitting in Emma’s lap, and a glint of something strange entered her gaze as a smirk settled on her lips.

Taylor was confused by the continued silence while Emma, finally realizing that there was another person in their midst, turned to eye the blonde who she had almost had an abrupt acquaintance with. She blinked, before her face became exasperated, “Oh. You know, I should say I’m surprised, but honestly I’m more surprised it took you this long to almost knock someone over with my wheelchair.”

Taylor glared at the back of her head, “And what’s that supposed to mean?”

“You know exactly what it means, miss runs-into-poles!”

“That happened like two times!” Taylor said, face burning in embarrassment. 

Emma clicked her teeth, muttering under her breath, “Try six.”

“I will leave you here.” 

“Try it.” Emma dared, “I’d like to see you try to explain to Uncle Danny why I had to roll my crippled self all the way back to your house, which is where I’d be going because it’s closer. Have fun with that talk.”

Taylor went to reply but a giggle cut them off. The bickering pair turned to find the girl responsible for their spat laughing as they argued. The sound cut through the playful hostility and rendered the two feeling a bit awkward and embarrassed that their usual antics had been witnessed by someone else. Or at least Taylor was embarrassed. Emma was more annoyed that lame Taylor’s comeback had been interrupted so she couldn’t dismantle it like she always did.

When the girl looked up at Taylor, she grinning widely, “Those were some pretty personal insults. Childhood friends, I'm guessing?”

Taylor nodded sheepishly, “Yeah, we've known each other for forever.”

“Unfortunately.” Emma said petulantly, earning a flick on the back of her skull.Taylor feigned innocence as the girl turned to glare at her, making Emma growl and the stranger giggled yet again.

“I’m Lisa.” She said with a nod.

“Taylor.” Taylor nodded, “And this is Emma. I'm sorry for almost running into you. I… have a habit of doing that apparently.”

“Pfft, apparently she says.” Emma muttered, causing Lisa’s grin to widen.

“It's fine. I was so lost in thought that I probably wouldn't have even noticed if you did knock me over.”

“Busy day at work?” Taylor queried, making conversation.

Lisa suddenly got a strange look on her face, glancing to the side as if she was expecting to see something before looking back at Taylor, “You could call it that.”

Taylor raised an eyebrow at the reaction but didn’t comment. Lisa glanced down at the stuff in Emma's lap, “So what are two girls my age doing with enough equipment to start your own hardware store? Must be some big project.”

Taylor paused, meeting the girl's eyes briefly as Lisa smirked at her. “Uh, yeah it's not actually for us though.” Taylor covered with a fake laugh, "My dad's got a project going on so we're grabbing some stuff for him. I'm not even sure most of this is right, honestly.”

“Right.” Lisa smiled knowingly,, “Well if you want my advice, you might want to try checking some other stores before buying it all in one place. Some of these stores like to price gouge, so you'd be better off splitting the load, if you know what I mean.”

There was a strange intention in her words, like she knew something she shouldn't, and Taylor felt a flash of warning in the back of her mind that she just barely managed to suppress.

The hiss of hydraulics and squealing breaks broke through the silence that ensued and all three girls turned to watch as a large bus slowed to a halt just in front of them. Lisa walked towards it, glancing back at them, “Just some friendly advice. It was nice meeting you two.”

The doors closed behind her and the bus drove away, leaving Taylor and Emma alone once more. Taylor watched the bus leave, following it with her eyes as it steamed down the street and the turned a corner a block or two away, before she was broken from her thoughts by a pinch on her hand, making her yelp.

“Hey, stop gawking and get me home. I've got a lot of work to do.” Emma chided as Taylor rubbed the red mark on the back of her hand.

“I wasn't gawking.” Taylor said even as she grabbed onto the bars and started pushing her friend again. Emma rolled her eyes, not believing her for a second.

“Uh-huh. You clearly have a type, Tay.”

“What's that supposed to mean?”

“It means take me home before I decide to take my chances and walk there.. It'd probably be faster at this rate.”

Taylor's eye twitched and soon enough the two were bickering once again. Their playful argument continued down the street and soon enough their minds had left the encounter and the strange girl they had just met behind at the bus stop 

~~~

Later that night, after carefully sneaking their purchases past Emma’s mom, the two of them holed up in Emma’s bedroom so that the young tinker could work in peace. Uncle Alan was already in bed and Aunt Zoe was on her way there so hopefully they wouldn’t have to worry about being bothered for the rest of the night. They locked the door, just in case.

Random bits and bobs were sprawled out on Emma’s bed, things that she had salvaged from the microwave and stored for later use. The girl herself was sitting in her wheelchair, using the bed as a makeshift workbench as she fiddled with bits of wires and the goggles of Taylor’s costume as they discussed her recent heroic exploits.

“...and people are recognizing me on the street too. There was even this one couple who asked me for a selfie.” Taylor said, still amazed by the recent experience, “I guess Uber and Leet’s video did better than I thought.”

“Did you give them one?” Emma asked, giving her friend half an ear as she focused on tinkering.

“No, but they got a pretty good picture of me webbing up a purse snatcher.” She laughed, “I’m pretty sure I’m single-handedly sinking the stolen phone market all on my own. I catch like three or four of those guys a day now.”

Really, one would think that they’d find better things to do with their time considering the state of things in the Bay. Petty crime like stealing may not have been as cracked down on as what the ABB or the Empire were doing, but if you got caught, you were still going to the exact same place as the rest of them. Maybe they actually wanted to be in there? Taylor didn't know much about gangs, but she was pretty that you had to do an initiation or something to get in. Was she the initiation?

As Taylor pondered on whether or not she was accidentally contributing to the rising number of gang members within her city, Emma carefully threaded a line of wire into the rubber rim of her goggles, making sure that it was just right so it wouldn’t slip out on accident. With how fast Taylor tended to move, it needed to be extremely secure.

“Have you heard anything about Uber and Leet?” She asked as she worked. Taylor frowned at the mention of the villainous duo.

“No.” Since their stream, Uber and Leet had been laying low. It wasn’t a surprise; those two only tended to come out of hiding when they were about to start streaming so she didn’t really expect to see them for a while and when they did, there was a pretty good chance they’d just get away again. Though they were basically the laughing stock of the city if you didn’t count Skidmark and Squealer, they were pretty tricky thanks to Leet’s tech.

“I don’t know how to feel about it.” Taylor said honestly, laying back on the bed, “Like, that whole adventure with Glory Girl was pretty fun and nobody got hurt, but they’re still villains, right? I don’t know whether to be happy or mad that they got away.”

“Then be both.” Emma replied simply, “Your job is to put bad guys away, but that doesn’t mean you have to be a hardass about it. It’s not the end of the world if they get away and like you said, nobody got hurt. Besides, they won’t stay gone forever. Those two are addicted to clout, you’ll probably catch them doing something stupid next month and bag them then. You might even get featured when they make the highlight reel on ‘World’s Biggest Losers.’”

“That’s mean.” Taylor laughed, “But you’re probably right. They can’t stay off camera for long.”

“You say that like it’s surprising. I’m usually right.” Emma smirked, tossing Taylor’s goggles to her. The brunette caught them deftly, studying them and the modifications Emma had made to them. Small, colorful wires ran throughout the rim, partially hidden by the leather seam. They connected to a small, blinking device above the bridge of the nose, just above the eyes, and on the other side, the lens of a camera was visible through a hole carefully drilled there.

“Looks basic.” she said, turning it back and forth, “Do you think it’ll work?”

“It’ll work.” Emma assured, opening her laptop and giving Taylor a glare, “And don’t call my tech basic. I made that shit in like an hour and it still looks better than what I did last week.”

Taylor snorted as she put on the goggles, “I still can’t believe you actually dismantled your TV. And the microwave too.”

“And I can’t believe you’re still making fun of my traumatic experience.” Emma griped as tapped away on her keyboard, “I thought capes were supposed to try and keep their pet tinkers in a good mood.”

“You’re not my pet, we’re partners.” Taylor frowned, making the redhead roll her eyes.

“Yeah no shit, Tay. I was just joking.” Despite her words, there was a smile on her face that Emma couldn’t quite hide. The word partner made this feel… so much more real than before. 

A few minutes passed in silence before Emma finished typing with one final, decisive click, before reaching down and plugging a tiny device into her laptop’s USB port and grabbing her headset from the floor beside her.

“Okay, here we go.” She said, sliding it on and reaching to the side. She gave her friend a smirk, “Let’s hope it doesn’t fry my brain, yeah? It’s a lot more complicated than the garbage I made last week.”

Taylor blinked, started, “Wait what?”

“And here we go!” Emma clicked the spacebar on her compute, priming the link between her headset and computer. It acted as a bridge and a funnel, guiding the link so that instead of shooting off to who-knows-where, it went exactly where she wanted it to go. She could feel the band on her forehead grow hot as the tinkertech worked, relaying her intentions as it interfaced with her mind in a way that was just not natural.

Taylor nearly jumped off of the bed as a stray spark jumped from the band, making Emma cry out, but the redhead held a hand up, breathing heavily. A knot of tension settled in the brunette’s gut as she watched her friend inhale, before a laugh split through the silence, and then another.

Emma raised her head, eyes wide and staring at seemingly nothing. The blank nature of her gaze was almost concerning, but there was a grin on her face brighter than anything Taylor had ever seen her produce before and she spoke in a reverent whisper, “I can see.”

Taylor looked between the blinking band on Emma’s forehead and the wild look in her eyes, instantly making the connection, “It worked? You’re seeing through my goggles right now?”

Emma gave a slightly mad giggle in response and relief filled Taylor as she realized her friend was just fine. She found herself smiling along with Emma, amazed at her friend's creation, “That's awesome, Em! I'm so happy for you! Can you only see out of it or can you hear too?”

“Just see. Though I'm pretty sure if I tinker with it a bit, I could add a microphone that would let me hear too.” Emma's brow furrowed, a strange sight considering she was staring into space like she couldn't see at all, “Yeah. Yeah I can definitely do that. Ooh! I could also add infrared or even some form of x-ray so I could see through walls! I'd need to change the housing though. My headband is already at its limit; if I add anymore I might burn myself.”

“Still, that's pretty incredible.” Taylor waved a hand in front of her goggles, watching as Emma's eyes flickered back and forth as she followed them, “I wonder what your specialty is.”

“Me too.” Emma said distractedly, clearly stuck in the throes of her power. Taylor waited patiently, knowing that she was probably brainstorming new ideas. After a second, the redhead jolted back to life with a wince. She reached up, powering off her headband, and Taylor watched with fascination as light returned to her eyes along with her sight.

She blinked hard, squinting at Taylor as she pulled off her headband, “That's gonna take some getting used to. My brain really didn't like seeing myself like that.”

“Wouldn't it just be like looking in a mirror?” Taylor asked as she slipped her goggles off. Emma shrugged.

“The problem is the feedback between the headband and the link in your goggles. It should clear up once you're further away.” 

“Well at least now you'll be able to come with me when I'm out heroing.” Taylor grinned as Emma grabbed a screwdriver and began messing with her headband, “Now you'll get a first person view of people shooting at me instead of just hearing it after the fact.”

Emma paused, glancing around her and frowning deeply. Taylor grinned smugly, knowing that her friend was looking for something to throw at her for her remark but was unable to find anything she'd be okay with losing. Emma settled for giving her the stink eye instead. 

“We still need to test this a lot more before then.” She said, returning to her work, “And I'll need to give you a headset or something so I can bitch at you when you do something stupid.”

“Low priority, then.” Taylor nodded, and this time, Emma chucked her screwdriver at her, hitting her in the forehead.

“High priority, dork. If I'm forced to watch you almost die, then I get to scream at you while you do it.” Emma hissed. She held a hand out, “Now give me back my screwdriver and stop talking before I find something heavier to throw at you.”

Taylor rubbed her head, wondering why her friend was so mean, “Yes ma'am.” 

The two continued working for the rest of the night, exchanging banter and barbs well into early morning when they had to scramble to hide everything as Emma's dad woke up to use the bathroom and check on them 

And as they finally tucked in for the night, slipping under the covers at an hour in which most early-risers woke up to go to work, two hearts were looking forward to tomorrow, instead of just one.