With Great Power: Safety Net

“See, right there!”

Taylor squinted at Emma's computer, her eyes straining to make anything out last the glare and fatigue filing her bones. The scene played out on the screen again, the same as a million times before, and Taylor was at a loss for what her friend wanted her to see. “I'm not seeing anything, Ems.”

Emma huffed, pulling Taylor away from her computer. The brunette happily fell back on the bed, hair splaying out around her head like a pool of black ink. It was a little after midnight and the two of them were in Emma's room, bellies full, pajamas on, and ready for bed. 

They had no intentions of actually going to bed yet, of course, but unlike most girls their age, it wasn't to gossip or watch movies that they weren't supposed to. Instead, their time was preoccupied by something much more important.

“Here,” Emma turned the laptop toward her again. It was playing the video that she had ripped from Taylor's goggles – displaying the finale of her work to rescue the girls from that warehouse. Taylor watched through her own eyes as the vehicles sped toward the solid wall of the building at the end of the street. Like every time before, just before they smashed themselves flat on the unforgiving concrete, a dome of bright blue energy burst from the lead van and grew to encompass the other two.

Taylor had seen the same scene play out at least thirty times tonight, and just like the last fifteen, she didn't manage to glean anything new from what she was seeing. It was obviously some kind of teleportation, but other than that, nothing seemed special about it.

She turned toward Emma who was staring at her expectantly. Clearly her friend had some kind of epiphany and expected the same of her.

“I still have no clue what I'm supposed to be seeing,” Taylor said honestly. She found a small bit of amusement in the way that Emma's face crumpled into annoyance, before she huffed and grabbed the laptop back. 

Taylor scooted closer to her, leaning over her shoulder to watch as the girl did something with the settings. Emma's hair tickled her face and she blew it away, causing it to dangle in front of Emma's face instead. That earned her a dirty look and she responded with an innocent smile as she watched Emma fiddle with the video settings.

The video played again, only this time, it was in slow motion. Emma tracked through the video, moving up to the point where the vans were just about to hit the wall, and kept it paused for a moment.

“Watch closely, alright?” Emma whispered, and Taylor leaned in closer as she pressed play.

The cars moved forward at a snail's pace, inching closer and closer to the faded brick like a slideshow. Taylor watched, feeling her eyes dropping with boredom as she prepared to witness the same event for the thirty-first time that night, only to pause as something strange happened.

It was fast and almost unnoticeable, even at this speed, but as she watched, the lead vehicle flickered out of existence for a brief moment before the blue energy escaped it. Then the one behind it did the same, and the one behind it as well. The blue bubble that she originally thought came from the van in front instead was a three that popped up so close together they seemed like one giant bubble.

Emma could see on Taylor's face that she saw what she was trying to show her and smiled. “It wasn't just one bubble! There's three of them! There different sets of… whatever it was that teleported them away! You get what this means right?”

Taylor stared at her friend, bemused by her excitement. “I don't but I guess you're gonna tell me?”

​“It means it isn’t a Shaker power like we originally thought!” Emma’s hands flew over the keyboard, pausing on the exact frame of the flicker. “The precision needed to teleport three different objects moving at eighty miles an hour, one after the other, with less than a millisecond of delay? That has to be Tinkertech!”

​Emma’s voice picked up speed, her eyes reflecting the blue light of the screen. “Look at the distance. They all start vanishing exactly one foot from the actual wall. I’d put money on coordinate-based teleportation, and I bet that specific wall was preloaded into whatever machine they used. They knew that once they hit that exact spot, the tech would trigger and send them away. That’s why they were moving so fast! Nobody would trust a normal parahuman to have a good enough reaction time not to turn them into pancakes!”

It was always interesting to see Emma get worked up about technology. Before the incident, the only things that got her anywhere near this excited was clothes or stuff regarding her burger modeling career. 

“So what does that do for us?” Taylor asked. “It’s nice to know what kind of power we’re up against, but we still don't know anything else about these guys.”

Emma rolled her eyes, “Look at their clothes, Tay. Matching colors, matching gear, armed out the ass. Whoever these guys are, they're professional, and people like this don't just pop up out of nowhere. They probably came here from another city and rebranded or something so nobody knows who they are. But there's one thing you can't rebrand.”

“Tinkertech,” Taylor breathed, realizing what Emma was getting at.

“Exactly,” Emma grinned, grabbing her laptop and typing in the search bar. “There’s tons of sites out there dedicated to just keeping tabs on people's powers and junk. I’m sure someone's mentioned a signature blue bubble that causes the whole damn street to shake when it pops up. If they've used it before, we'll be able to find out who they are and hopefully what they're doing here.”

Taylor yawned, feeling the day's events weigh down on her. “That's great. Maybe tomorrow we can get together after school–and she's not listening.”

Emma was already completely absorbed in her search, ignoring Taylor as she scoured the web for any sign of the cape they were looking for. Taylor knew that trying to get her attention would be futile so she heaved a heavy sigh and slid out of the bed, landing on the floor where a mattress of blankets and a sleeping bag had been laid out for her.

She crawled inside, snuggling deep into the bag and squirming like a caterpillar to get comfortable. Above her, Emma didn't even notice that she was gone, completely engrossed in her task. She would likely remain that way for a few hours at least.

Should I remind her that we have a test in the morning? Taylor wondered as she got comfortable. Nah. She can just peek off mine. She always does anyway.

Taylor's eyes slipped shut as she was lulled to sleep by the sounds of frantic typing and hushed muttering.

~~~

The next morning, Taylor awoke to the sounds of knocking on the bedroom door, and her best friend groaning like someone had stabbed her in her sleep. Apparently, Emma's search hadn't been nearly as quick as she thought it would be, and she spent six full hours scrolling forums and websites until she remembered that she had school.

Needless to say, she decided to just copy Taylor's test instead of putting any of her flagging brainpower towards doing it herself. She also slept through just about every other period.

​Taylor arrived at the Barnes house late in the evening and found Emma in her usual spot, but the moment she stepped through the door, she knew something was different.

​“I found him,” Emma said before Taylor could even close the door.

​“The guy with the vans?” Taylor asked, dropping the backpack containing her costume and stripping off her hoodie. Emma nodded, a wide grin on her face.

​“Yes! It took forever, but I found him,” Emma said, spinning her chair around with elation. “I had to dig through dozens of pages – turns out ‘blue teleportation’ isn't really a specific search term – but I finally found something a few hours ago.”

She turned back to her computer, pulling up several tabs. “Three months ago, a villain named Transit ran a string of high-profile thefts in Casper, Wyoming. And by high-profile, I mean in the sense that he hit at least thirty different stores in less than three hours. And he did it all using the same type of teleportation that kept me up all night last night.”

“You're sure?” Taylor asked as she zipped up her suit. “It could just be similar?” 

Emma rolled her eyes. “Nice try, Tay, but you're not taking the wind out of my sails that easily. This guy used tech that was practically one-to-one with what we saw. Big blue bubble, vibrations strong enough to crack stone, not really something you'd want in your tech unless it came baked in.”

Taylor nodded, conceding her point and Emma smirked smugly. She pulled up a news report. “Anyway, he hit a bunch of electronic stores. Pawn shops, phone repair stores, even freaking dealerships. He was getting every piece of tech he could get his hands on and when he had it, he up and disappeared. Nobody's seen him for months.”

​“And now he’s here,” Taylor said, her brow furrowing. “But the guys I saw yesterday… they didn't look like a minor villain’s crew.”

​“That’s what’s bugging me,” Emma agreed. “Transit was small-time. But the gear those men were using tells me he's definitely been busy. Makes me wonder what he's been doing with all of that tech he stole.”

“And what he wants with ours,” Taylor nodded. “He already cleaned out an entire town and he's still coming back for more. Do you think he's making stuff to sell?”

“That, or he's working on a big project. Emphasis on the big,” Emma said, reaching into her desk. “Either way, I don't think he's just gonna stop stealing stuff because you saw him in action. You should probably find this guy before he takes all the good stuff and leaves me with nothing to play with.”

“Glad to see you have your priorities in order,” Taylor said wryly. “But I'm not really sure how you expect me to find him. It's not like I can stake out every electronic shop in the city and wait for him to show up.”

“You totally could, but I was thinking something else,” Emma reached into her desk and pulled out Taylor's goggles, tossing them over. Taylor caught them and blinked. They felt heavier.

​“I worked on those a little bit last night," Emma said as Taylor examined her giggles. “A lot of the forums I visited said Transit’s power tech caused huge spikes in electromagnetic activity.”

“And this will let me see them?”

“It'll let me see them,” Emma corrected. “Night vision and infrared too. That was the most I could pack in there without completely ruining the goggles.”

She said it so flippantly, like it wasn't impressive that she managed to modify Taylor's goggles to see in different spectrums in less than six hours while also browsing every cape site she could get her hands on.

​Taylor wrapped them over her eyes, amazed. “This is incredible, Em.”

​“Don’t thank me yet,” Emma said, her tone suddenly serious. She reached into her desk drawer and pulled out a small, heavy black box, tossing it to Taylor.

​Taylor caught it, finding a ruggedized, blocky device with a thick antenna. “What is it?”

​“A sat phone,” Emma said firmly, making her pause.

“Emma…”

“No, Taylor,” Emma didn't let her finish. “Look, it's un-trackable so don't worry about anything getting back to me. And Taylor? Look at me.”

​Taylor looked up. Emma was staring at her intently, a spot of vulnerability creasing her brow..

​“For me. Please,” Emma spoke earnestly. “It only has two numbers in it: 911, and mine. You can keep it off if you want, but we live in the twenty-first century. Not having a phone in your line of work is borderline suicidal. If you get hurt and I’m not in your ear, I need to know you have a way to call for help that isn't a pay phone.”

​The memory of the dogfighting ring, the cold bite of the blade, and the reaction her friend had when she showed up flashed through Taylor’s mind. She looked at the small black box, then slowly tucked it into one of the pouches on her belt.

​“Alright,” Taylor said softly. “You’re right. I’ll keep it on me.”

​Emma let out a breath, her posture relaxing. “Good. Thank you for not being stupid for once. Now, get out of here. The sun is going down, and those signals aren't going to track themselves.”

​Taylor gave her a quick, grateful nod and headed for the window. As she stepped onto the sill, she looked back. “Don't stay up too late, Em. We still have that history project due on Monday.”

​“Yeah, yeah. Get moving, Spider Girl.”

​Taylor laughed and launched herself into the night, the world transforming into a web of glowing energy as she toggled the EM scan.

​Emma watched the black and gold blur vanish into the shadows of the neighborhood. She stayed by the window for a long time, the silence in the room feeling heavier than usual. She looked down at her wheelchair, then at her legs. She stared for a long time, before an intense look passed over her face and she turned sharply, wheeling herself towards her bed.

Emma reached down and grabbed onto something just underneath the rim of her bedframe, pulling it out with a grunt. The object was long and wrapped tightly in sheets to obscure its true identity. She placed it on her lap and wheeled over to her desk, setting her computer up in front of her. 

She stared at the package for a moment, her fingers tracing the sharp edges of the metal frame hidden beneath the wrapping, countless hours of work wrapped in cloth and fabric.

She carefully unwrapped the piece of technology, staring at the sharpened edges and thick, intimidating wires. It looked like nothing right now, scrap and half-finished solders, but as she stared at it, the image of what it could be spread out before her eyes.

A tool. A support. A crutch. But one that would take her off of the sidelines and put her out there with her friend. It would just take work, and a few more materials.

​“Soon,” she whispered to herself as she powered on her computer and got to work.