Santa's Secret Transfic Anthology Vol. 2 / Everyday Sweets #15 (Part 2)

Good Intentions / Bad Redemptions

by SylkWeaver

Sebastian Tinker is the child of a famous super hero family. A family full of famous inventor supers. But unfortunately for him, his power is underwhelming when compared to the rest of his family.

When he unexpectedly develops a second power that's more suited for hero work, he does the most logical thing. He becomes a villain. And also a girl, to protect his identity of course.

Okay, maybe not the MOST logical thing, but he definitely has a good reason! He'll become a hero eventually, there are just some things to take care of before then.

— SylkWeaver

4. Sarah and Dustin

Sarah’s tail flicks in front of my face once more and I have to brush it away. “Sarah, get a hold of your tail!” I growl gently.

She shrugs, not even turning away from the television. “It’s got a mind of its own.”

I sigh, brushing the tail away once more before clicking through to another forum post. The T.V. switches to commercials, causing Sarah to shift. She flips over in her position on my lap, turning to look at the laptop. I try very hard to focus on the computer and not think at all about Sarah’s choice to lounge around in my lap.

“Are you logged in through my account?” She asks, seeing the page that I’m on. I nod, once, still scrolling. “Gotcha. Don’t make any posts.” I roll my eyes at that, nodding in response. Sarah offered to let me use her laptop once we got to her place and I’m currently looking through forums for any recent posts involving Burnout.

Sarah stretches wide, grabbing my tail gently. I straighten up at that, shooting her a look. “Sorry, I’ll be gentle.” She smiles at me apologetically, running her fingers through the fur. I try my hardest to ignore her, turning back to the computer.

“So, Burnout isn’t a proper speedster?” I say simply, still reading forum posts.

“Nope,” She responds, shifting onto her back while still playing with my tail. “If he was, I probably wouldn’t have been able to escape.”

“So, what, he charges forward at speed, but still moves normally?” I ask, frowning to myself.

“Guess so. Decent hand to hand combat, but he’s no Reflex.” She shrugs.

“There’s something more to those multicolored clouds of fog he leaves around and it doesn’t seem like it’s mentioned here at all.” I drum my fingers against the laptop idly, thinking to myself.

“Why do you say that?” She asks, glancing at me from the corner of her eye.

“The other Wardens kept their distance from it, almost worried about even touching it.” I point out.

She thinks about this, frowning. “Huh, now that you mention it… my power might have been guiding me away from the few he summoned near me during our short fight.” I hum idly at that, shaking the thought away.

“This is some serious Super tech,” Sarah says. I look back to her and she’s holding one of my Tonfas carefully, having pressed the button that makes the blades come out of it. I take it back, closing them up and slipping it back into the holster attached to my boot.

“Yes, it is.” I say simply, not wanting to explain where I got it.

“Damn, you must know someone important. Only Super Inventors in the area are the Tinkers.” I don’t say anything, closing the laptop slowly. There’s no mention of the information I want to know in any of the forum posts yet. I cast my mind away from villain thoughts, thinking about my best friend.

It’s been a couple of days now since I’ve gained my second set of powers and I haven’t told my best friend Dustin yet. I had been planning out how to do it, but then I had gotten caught up in another project (my suit). I need to do it soon.

I sigh, sinking deeper into the couch.

“What’s up?” Sarah asks gently. I smile at that. It’s nice to have another friend, aside from Dustin I’m notorious for having a bad track record concerning friends.

“Nothing. Was just thinking about my best friend. I need to tell him that I’m a villain now.” I explain casually.

“You’re gonna tell him?”

I shrug noncommittally. “I want to. We tell each other everything.” I can’t imagine having to keep this a secret from him.

She smirks gently and I meet her eyes. She reaches up and boops my nose. I go cross-eyed, watching her do that. “Sounds like you like him,” she giggles to herself conspiratorially.

I look at her in confusion at that. “Of course I do? I just said that we’re friends?”

“No, dummy. I mean like like him.”

My eyes go wide and I wave my arms in front of myself. “I- what! No, I, we’re both-” I stop myself, looking at my outfit. Right, she thinks I’m a girl. “I don’t like him. I like girls.” I say simply.

Her eyes widen a bit at that, but she nods. “Right on! Good for you, girl.” She gives me a thumbs up from her position in my lap. After a second, she props herself up on an elbow and looks me in the eye, “Just so long as you don’t get any funny ideas! Sorry to burst your bubble, but I’m Ace through and through.”

I look her in the eyes carefully and she meets my stare dead on. I open my mouth to answer, but I stop myself and close my mouth again. I look at her position in my lap, quirk my eyebrow at that, and gesture to her. “You realize that you put yourself in my lap, right?”

She shrugs, flopping back down and flicking her tail into my face again. “You have a comfy lap, what can I say?”

I brush the tail out of my face, “What does that mean anyways?”

She smirks, glancing up at me, “It means your thighs are thick and soft. Perfect for lounging.”

My cheeks go red at that and I glare at her. “Not that. Ace. That thing you said.”

It’s her turn to look at me strangely now. “Asexual? It means that I’m not attracted to people sexually. I don’t really get it.” She shrugs, “You’ve never heard of it before?”

It’s my turn to shrug. “I’ve never really thought about it. I know that some people like other people of the same gender or whatever, but I’ve never really looked into it or anything.”

“Oh jeez, girl. So you’re really out of touch with this whole LGBTQA+ thing, huh?”

I blink at that. “Is… is that an acronym?”

“You know, Lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, ace, and plus.” She thinks for a second before clarifying, “The plus is referring to more labels, not one label named plus.”

“I… don’t know what half of those are.” I say, tapping my chin in thought. “I think I’ve heard of bisexual? I didn’t really get it when I heard about it.”

Sarah sighs, sitting up in my lap, curling her tail around torso to hold it while she talks. “So, instead of liking either guys or girls, bi, short for bisexual, people don’t make that choice. They just like both.” My eyes go wide as I think about that.

“You can do that?” I ask in surprise. “Wow. I didn’t realize.” She smiles at me knowingly, but she doesn’t say anything further. I shake my head, having gotten sidetracked. “Anyways, yes, I’m going to tell my best friend. I’ll probably message him as soon as I get home that we should talk.”

Sarah nods to herself, glancing at the clock. “Enough time has probably passed for you to make your way back to your house. You can swing by here next time you want to head out. Just not tomorrow, I think I’m still going to be sore tomorrow.” She winces as she hops off of my lap. “Even with my own precognition, Reflex can still manage to land some solid hits.”

I chuckle at that, picking myself off of her couch. “Will do.” I grab my share of the money sitting on Sarah’s coffee table. Easily a couple thousand dollars in twenty dollar bills. A tidy sum.

I go to Sarah’s balcony, jumping down onto a nearby rooftop deftly.

I run into my room quickly, pulling the door shut behind me. Thankfully, no one is around to question why I’m coming through the front door in my underwear. I forgot that all I had been wearing before I put the suit on was my hoodie. I’m going to need to stash clothes somewhere outside when I go out, so I can return through the front door in my normal form.

With that dilemma behind me, I put on some pants and flop onto my bed. After all the excitement, exhaustion is starting to kick in.

-bzzzt bzzzt-

I glance over at my nightstand. My phone is sitting on top of it, still buzzing gently. I pick up the phone, looking at the caller ID.

My eyes go wide as I see who it is and I sit up.

I open my phone, greeting my best friend, “Hey, Dustin!”

“Sebastian! It’s been a while since we talked.” His familiar deep voice responds. “How have you been?”

I shrug, not that he would see that, and look at my bracelet. “I’ve been… good. Busy. Thinking about some stuff.” I gulp down a small lump in my throat and push forward, “Actually, I’ve got something I want to tell you soon.”

His response is bright, “Hey, me too! Don’t suppose I can come by now? It’s kind of a big thing and I shouldn’t say it over the phone.” I light up at that. That’s perfect, I can tell him tonight.

“Yeah, come on by!” I say.

“See you soon then!” He hangs up on me, leaving me to wait for him.

I do some simple picking up around my room, tidying my lab up as much as possible. It exists in a state of somewhat perpetual chaos, an organized chaos, but still somewhat chaotic. I try my best to hide my pile of clean clothes, a mixture of gray and black tee shirts and hoodies. My new superhero suit is the brightest thing I’ve ever worn, and even that’s still mostly black.

I look at my room after I’ve cleaned and it looks… still really cluttered. At least Dustin knows what to expect from my room.

A knock at the door startles me and I look over my shoulder at the door. I open it a crack, glancing through the crack and looking at the figure in the hallway. Six feet tall and in the dim hallway I can see splotches of his skin glowing gently. I smile, opening the door wider. As the light from my room hits his skin, he stops glowing. There’s only one six foot Bioluminescent dork I know.

“Hey, Dustin, come in.” I usher him into my room, slowly closing the door behind him. He opens his arms wide and I hug him tightly.

“Ouch, ouch, careful.” He pulls away slightly, wincing gently. “Hurt my ribs earlier.” I frown at that, poking lightly at a rib. He winces at that, gently batting my finger away.

“What happened?” I ask, concerned.

“That’s part of what I wanted to tell you about! It’s really important though, so you have to promise to keep it a secret.” He says, looking at me seriously.

I smile at that. That fits into my plans too. “Well, what I have to tell you is a secret too! I promise if you promise.”

He nods his head, holding out his hand to shake. “Deal,” he says. I shake his hand and he continues. “So, I was out walking a couple of days ago and I saw a shooting star! I hung around to see where it went and you won’t believe it!” He steps away from me, walking over to the far end of my room. He rushes forward quickly, crossing my room in the blink of an eye. A multicolored fog cloud hangs in the air behind him and I can feel all of the hairs on my body standing at attention.

He continues talking, his expression one of excitement. “I got powers! I joined the local super team the very next day and I’ve been out fighting crime since!” He clutches his rib gently, pointing at it. “One of the local villains, Present Perfect, she got some solid hits on me.”

I close my mouth, realizing that it’s hanging open. I search his face, but he doesn’t seem to have any idea. Of course he doesn’t, why would he. Should I tell him? Before I was sure that I should, but now it sounds like an awful idea. I try to arrange my thoughts, crafting a response. “Oh, yeah? Did you get her?” I say evenly.

He shakes his head sadly, sitting back on my bed. “Nope. She was working with some new Super today. They both got away.”

“Oh,” I say, trying to inflect some surprise into my voice, “Darn.”

He leans back onto his arms, sighing deeply. “Yeah.” He perks up, looking at me. “You had something you wanted to tell me too? Something important?”

Oh. Shoot. I told him that, didn’t I?

“Uh…” I say, looking him straight in the face. Think, think, think. “I wanted to tell you, that…” What’s something that is suitably important enough? I blanch at the thought that comes to mind. I think for a second more, trying to find anything else. Nothing is forthcoming.

I sigh, turning my gaze to the floor. “I wanted to tell you that I was thinking of joining the Wardens too. As an emergency hero and gadgets supplier?”

His eyes widen at that and he embraces me in a hug. “Really? That’s so great! Let’s go sign you up tomorrow!” He lets me go, standing up excitedly. “With my word and your family history, you’re a shoe in!” He looks over at the lab section of my room. “Want my help deciding on what inventions to bring as a showcase of what you can do?”

I shake my head, looking at one of my boxes of gadgets. I’ll need to go through and sort through things that might be useful for my villaining and what would be useful for the heroes. If I’m really going to be living a double life, I’m going to have to be a lot more careful from now on. “No, I can sort through it myself.” I stand up, poking him in the ribs. “You need to get some rest, maybe an ice pack.” I smile good naturedly at him.

He smiles widely, scratching the back of his head. “Yeah, I guess. I just got excited about telling you. I’ll leave you to it then.” He shoots me a thumbs up as he walks towards the door. “See you at the Headquarters tomorrow then!”

I wave goodbye, forcing a smile onto my face. “Yeah… see you.” The door clicks closed behind him and I stare at it impassively for several seconds after he’s gone.

I slump to the floor with a groan, pulling my knees in close. “Well.” I say gruffly, “This sucks.”

5. Wardens

Wardens HQ. A brutalist's wet dream of large concrete slabs, simple and unassuming metal paneling, and it’s all in the shape of an unassuming gray rectangle. Eyesore of downtown Vogate, and my soon to be part time workplace.

I sigh, dragging my locked cart full of inventions behind me. I walk through the front door, earning a side eye from several of the guards at the cart I’m dragging behind me. The guards inside stop me, looking me up and down. “Halt. State your identity and purpose of visit?” The guard asks.

I reach into my pocket, dragging out my ID. “Sebastian Tinker, child of Sniper and Foster. I’m here for my… interview.” The guard’s eyes go wide after hearing that, looking at my ID to see if it’s true.

“Ah, apologies Mr. Tinker. It’s been some time since you’ve been around here.” He nods to me, gently stepping out of the way. I grunt lightly in response, dragging my cart behind me. Even if he’s being polite, I can’t help but hear the slight tinge of judgement that comes through when he says ‘Mr. Tinker’. I liked it better when people were calling me ma’am. At least then I knew they meant it. “Do you need help with that?” The guard asks after a moment.

“No, I’m good.” I tell him, dragging my cart towards the elevator. I look at the eye scanner, pulling out my ID card and inserting it into the slot above the eye scanner. The scanner dings positively, the elevator doors closing and slowly climbing upwards towards the floor I’d be having my meeting on.

Normally meetings would be conducted on the lower floors inside one of the indestructible testing gyms. I’m an exception, seeing as I already have clearance for the upper levels. The interview will instead be taking place in one of the gadget testing rooms on the upper floors, with an additional member of the team present and none of the guards that would normally attend an interview like this.

The elevator jerks to a halt at my floor and I walk off, dragging the cart behind me. I look at the signs, finding utility testing room three. I snort lightly at that. I highly doubt rooms one and two weren’t available. Maybe they’re trying to impress me with how many utility testing rooms they have. I frown at the thought, realizing that there’s a distinct chance that that’s actually the reason.

I find the room I’m looking for, pausing in front of it for a second. I take a deep breath, and then I knock gently. The door opens after a second and I come face to face with Reflex. My body tenses involuntarily, my mind having to remind myself that I’m not fighting him this time. “Hello! You must be Sebastian Tinker. I’m Reflex, I’ll be conducting your interview.” He smiles at me brightly, holding out a gloved hand.

I look at the hand carefully before dragging my own hand up and shaking it gently. He squeezes my hand in that way men do, as if to say that he’s strong and I need to acknowledge that. “Charmed,” I say drolly, looking past him and into the room.

Behind him, I see the familiar demon horned visage of Ballast. She raises a red skinned hand up to wave at me absently. I wince at that, memories of fighting her recently. I take a breath, waving back at her. “As you can see, my teammate Ballast will be joining us for this interview. It’s her day off, so she offered to help test some of your inventions.”

Reflex steps back, gesturing for me to join them in the room. I drag the cart in, leaving it by a nearby table and taking a seat at the table Ballast is sitting at. She smiles at me, looking me in the eye. “Heya, Tinker.” Reflex sits in the third seat at the table, placing one of them on either side of me.

I grimace, holding a hand out to her. “You can, uh, just call me Sebastian.”

“Sebastian then,” She says, taking my hand. She, at least, doesn’t try her hardest to break my hand during our handshake. “Nice to finally meet the infamous child of Sniper.” She smiles.

“Ah, yeah.” I say rubbing the back of my head. “That’s me.” I try to steer the conversation away from my family. “So, how does this work? Do you want to hop into weapon testing, or…”

Reflex clears his throat, picking up a clipboard that had been lying on the table. “Well, first, I have some questions for you.” I gesture for him to continue and he nods at me. “Right, well, the first question is regarding your power? I’m afraid that there’s not much in the public record about your power, just mentions that you’re an inventor like the rest of your family.”

I sigh, leaning back in my chair. “I make things randomly. There’s not much more to it than that. They’re slightly abnormal, basically standard super technology.” I shrug lamely.

Reflex frowns at this, making some notes on the paper in front of him. “That’s it? You just… make things? And you don’t have control over what you make?”

I grimace, nodding despite myself. My inherited ability has always been underwhelming. It’s hard to imagine that I’m supposed to be a part of the famed Tinker Family. “That’s it.” Ballast offers me a reassuring thumbs up while Reflex isn’t looking and I can’t help but appreciate the gesture.

Reflex continues to the next question after a moment. “Okay. Well, what about training? From what I understand, you had combat training growing up?”

“Yeah. I train every week. It’s nothing fancy, but I could probably hold my own against an unpowered combatant. With the proper gear, I could probably spar a guard.” I tap my chin. Despite being a ranged combatant as her hero name implies, my mother, Sniper, is a fearsome hand to hand combatant and in recent years I’ve managed to hold out for upwards of ten minutes.

Reflex nods approvingly, loudly marking something on his clipboard. “Alright then. Do you have any skill with coaching?”

“I dunno,” I shrug, “I could give it a try.”

“If you’re actually as good as you say, it would be a massive help if you could give the others some practical combat training. No powers, just normal training.”

I tilt my head at that, looking at him carefully. “Not to offend, but… why don’t you do it?” I choose my words carefully.

He smiles at that, “You’d think, wouldn’t you. I don’t have any idea how to train people. My power does a lot of the work regarding my combat ability.”

I digest that, nodding to myself. That explains some of the teams incompetencies regarding practical combat. “Ah, I see. Well, I could give it a shot then.”

“Well, that’s nearly all of the questions for now. The next segment will be the practical showcase of your inventions. As I’m sure you can tell, this interview is being held in a utility testing room. The configuration panel is on the wall if you need to rearrange the room accordingly.” I look over at the panel on the wall, nodding slowly at that. The inventions I brought shouldn’t require any serious safety adjustments.

I stand up, walking over to my cart and undoing the security latch. I open it up, pulling a device out. “Alright, I’ll start with these two.” I move over to the panel on the wall, summoning a plastic dummy near one of the walls. One of the items is a large and blunt knife. With the press of a button, the blade glows electric blue. I hold it up, near the dummy for Reflex and ballast to see. “This… doesn’t have a name. I usually call it a laser saw. It can cut through anything.” I gesture to the dummy, dropping my arm slowly and watching the knife cut through the dummy cleanly. “Anything except for people.” I hold my arm out, dropping the knife towards it the same as the dummy.

Reflex and Ballast stand up immediately in alarm, but they can’t stop the knife as it bounces harmlessly off of my skin. I turn my arm, showing where the knife has cut a large hole in my sweater, but not in my arm. Ballast sits back down roughly, “Christ kid, give us a heart attack why don’t ya.”

I shrug, “I trust my inventions. They’re nothing if not reliable.”

Reflex draws closer, looking at the blade. “This is incredible. This could seriously help rescue efforts if we could reproduce this technology!” He looks at me incredulously.

I sigh, taking the knife back from him carefully. “That’s nice, but I can only make one. And if I’m not around to perform upkeep, if it breaks, that’s it.” He visibly deflates at that, becoming thoughtful.

“I see… that is unfortunate.” He says simply.

I roll my eyes, but don’t comment. I point to the other device in my other hand. “This is a self repairing baton.” I use the knife to cut it cleanly in half, the tip clattering to the floor. Slowly, the baton repairs itself, reforming from the base all the way to the tip. After a minute, it looks the exact same as before. “No matter what happens to it, it will return to this shape afterwards. Nothing I know of can stop it from regrowing as long as a large enough chunk survives.”

Ballast gets back up, leaning against the counter and looking at the baton. “What about that side? Why doesn’t it regrow like the one you’re holding?”

I shrug, “Dunno. Just doesn’t.” Reflex is looking at the baton, thoughtful.

“Even if it, for instance, gets bent out of shape?” He asks.

My eyes narrow slightly at that, but I answer evenly. “I don’t know, probably.” He nods approvingly at that. I put the two devices on the table, reaching into my cart for my next device. It’s a small black box. I step back and set it on the ground between me and Reflex. I step on it and a five foot tall, five foot wide holographic wall appears between us. It’s transparent blue and I can see Reflex’s look of amazement through it. “Holographic wall. It can take quite the beating before falling.

I step around to Reflex’s side of the wall, picking up the baton. I strike the wall, the force of my attack traveling back through the baton and up my arm. “Ow. More force than I could hope to put out, unfortunately.” The wall flickers gently in the wake of the attack, several small cracks from the impact site disappearing in an instant.

Reflex looks back at Ballast, gesturing to the wall. She smiles darkly, cracking her knuckles. I step back, not wanting to get caught up in one of her force blasts. She sends out a blast of force directly towards the wall. It whistles through the air for less than a second before hitting the wall and fizzling out, the impact sounding muffled.

She frowns at the wall, charging up a stronger blast and directing it at the wall. With this blast, I can feel displaced air blowing gently against me as it sails through the air towards the wall. Again, the blast dissipates against the wall ineffectively. When I had hit the wall, it had developed small holographic cracks before dissipating them. At least simulating the damage done to it. When her attack had landed, there’s evidence that the force had hit the wall, but the wall didn’t react at all. Almost as if it wasn’t affected by the attack.

“What the fuck? That blast was at least strong enough to dent metal.” Ballast curses, walking up to the wall. She punches it with her bare fist, causing the wall to flicker and crack at the impact zone. “Is this wall immune to powers?” She asks, pointing her thumb back at it.

My eyes go wide at that, looking at the wall. “I… maybe? I wouldn’t know if it does. I haven’t had any way to test that sort of thing.”

Reflex steps forward, looking at the wall in awe. “If this wall is immune to powers, that’s incredibly useful. We’ll need to find someone else that we could test this with.”

The two of them admire the wall for a moment longer and I rummage through my cart. Only two more devices to showcase. I shut down the wall, placing the black box on the table next to the knife and baton. “Okay, next device.” I pull out a weapon shaped like a high tech gun, which, to be fair, it technically is. "Glue gun." I shoot the gun at one of the nearby table legs, where it meets the floor. A glob of slightly yellow sludge splatters against the area, affixing the two points together.

"The leg of that table would sooner break than the glue would wear off." I press the safety, stepping forward and holding the butt of the gun over the glue. I press a button and drip a single drop of a different fluid onto the glue. The moment it touches the glue, the glue sizzles away quickly. "And a solvent, to dissolve the glue. As far as I know, this is the only way to remove the glue."

Reflex holds his hand out reverently and I hand him the gun. He shoots the leg of the table, affixing it to the ground. He pulls on the table roughly, but it doesn't budge. "Fascinating. Is it skin safe?" He asks.

"Yeah." I look away in embarrassment, "I accidentally glued my hand to my desk while testing it." Ballast guffaws at that, pulling at the desk too. It similarly doesn't budge.

"Get one good shot on a villain and you could glue them to the ground." Ballast says, looking at the gun in Reflex's hand. I nod at that, wondering idly if I could just escape as Soft Paw. I wouldn't particularly like to find out.

"You have to land that shot, first. Someone like Reflex who can dodge projectiles with his power wouldn't be easily trapped like that." I explain. Ballast nods solemnly, folding her arms together.

I pull the last device out, holding it up. "Shock absorption gloves." The pair of gloves are the long up to your elbow type of gloves. "They absorb impacts, using those impacts to charge up the gloves. One glove can use the energy as a magnet, pulling items or people closer. The other works the opposite, pushing things farther away." I pull the gloves on, gesturing to Reflex. I hold my arms in an X shape, "hit me."

Reflex looks at the gloves hesitantly, but eventually he nods and punches me. He pulled his punch slightly, which I'm thankful for. As the punch lands, a little bar on the side of the gloves lights up slightly. I point the right glove, the pulling glove, and point it at a nearby table. I press a button while clenching my fist and the table starts dragging across the floor towards me, slowly.

Reflex looks at the table, gaping slightly. "That table is a synthetic plastic, not metal."

I Quirk an eyebrow at that. "Did I say it can only attract metal?"

Ballast snickers, pointing at the gloves on my hand. "Does it pull any faster?"

"If it has more charge." I say, holding my arms in an X shape once more. 

She grins, winding up a force blast. I brace for a strong hit. The blast of force sails through the air and I feel it hit me through the gloves. I grit my teeth and stay standing, but my forearms sting. "Ouch. Definitely doesn't dull the pain much." I comment. I look at the bar on the side of the gloves, but it didn't go up at all. I check the other glove, but the shock didn't go to the auxiliary battery either. Why didn't it power the gloves?

Ballast looks at the gloves with daggers in her eyes, folding her arms. "I think your machine is broken," she comments.

"But it just worked. I've been keeping a close eye on the upkeep, it should be working fine." I say, frowning as I poke at it.

"Sebastian, can we try something?" I look up at Reflex and he's looking over the inventions on the table. I shrug, pulling off the gloves and placing them near the others. Reflex looks over the inventions and picks up the gun, handing it to me. "I'm gonna use my power and I want you to shoot me with this somewhere. Don't tell me where."

I take the gun, Ballast giving Reflex an odd look. He steps back a few feet while I turn off the safety. Reflex holds his breath and I aim the gun. I aim it about chest level for a second, and then I dip it lower and shoot for his leg.

The glob of glue shoots out of the gun and flies through the air at him, moving much slower than normal bullets. It catches him by surprise and he tries to move out of the way ineffectually. The glob hits him in the leg and he stumbles to his knee, affixing him to the ground.

It took him by surprise. While he was using his power.

"Reflex?" Ballast asks, flabbergasted, "why didn't you dodge that?"

I run forward, dripping a drop of the solvent onto the glue. He gets up slowly, looking at the gun warily. "I couldn't. I couldn't react to it." He gestures at the table with a sweeping motion. "Sebastian, your invention quirk is that your inventions can't be affected by powers. For better or for worse." Reflex looks at me significantly and I can only gape at that. I snap my mouth shut, memories of Tempo touching my suit just the other day. She couldn't affect my suit because I made it.

"I… What?" I look at my inventions in shock. My inherited power is much more useful if other powers can't affect them at all. I made a glue gun that can work on Precogs. That's massive. "I had no idea." I whisper quietly.

Ballast picks up the baton, looking it over more carefully. "Yeah, apparently neither did anyone else. Makes some of these gadgets pretty useful at fighting other Supers. You could probably become a full time member if you wanted." She smiles at me more genuinely than before. Reflex frowns, looking at the devices.

He looks up at me, standing up tall. "She's right, you know. You could. I know you were only applying as an emergency hero, but would you be interested in a more permanent placement on the team?"

"I…" My brain stops as I process that. No, not yet. “I can’t.” I say, looking away ashamed. “I need to think about it. Probably not soon, but maybe in the future?” Reflex puts a hand on my shoulder and I look up, meeting his eyes.

“It’s alright. Take as long as you need. We’ll still be around whenever you’re ready.” He releases my shoulder turning to the clipboard. “There’s a couple of papers you need to fill out when it’s convenient, but…” He holds his hand out for me to shake, “Welcome to the team, Sebastian.”

I sigh, letting the tension in my shoulders drop. “Thanks.” I shake his hand gently and he grips mine firmly yet again.

“So,” Ballast says, leaning against one of the tables and pointing my baton at me, “Got a hero name picked out? Even if you’re only an emergency hero, you’ll want that squared away before you have to deal with any of the press.”

I nod, smiling for once. “Yeah, I do. You can call me Toybox.”

Reflex smiles at that while Ballast lets out a deep laugh. “Toybox, then. Welcome to the team, Toybox.”

6. Toybox

I open the door to the testing room, dragging my cart full of inventions behind me. Before I can get too far, I’m accosted by a familiar figure in his super suit. Burnout. My best friend, Dustin. “So, did you get the position?” His voice is hopeful as he’s practically bouncing in the hall. Reflex and Ballast stayed behind me in the room, saying that they had some things to discuss while I get acquainted with the base. They messaged Tempo, saying that she would show me to my new lab space. I hadn’t been expecting Dustin to be waiting outside the door for me.

I scratch idly at the back of my head, looking away. “They offered me a full time position, actually?” I say slowly, still digesting everything that happened.

“Oh my god, Seb, that’s-” Dustin starts saying, his eyes shining. I cut him off before he can finish what he’s about to say.

“But! I didn’t take it.” I explain. “Not yet. I need to think about it. I am an emergency hero for now.”

“Oh. Right, yeah. I guess that is a big decision. Still! Now we’re teammates!” Dustin says, practically bouncing in excitement. I smile sincerely at him. He may be six foot tall and incredibly imposing even when I’m not over half a foot shorter than normal, but he’s a big softy despite that.

“Burnout?” Dustin turns around, looking over at the person who’s just joined us.

“Hey, Tempo. Sorry, I’m about to finish up that paperwork. I just wanted to check up on my friend the moment his interview ended.” Dustin salutes to her, turning back to me briefly. “We’ll catch up later!” He dashes off, not using his power thankfully. Dustin has yet to tell me about what his fog trails actually do, but I’m fairly certain that it does more than just be hard to see through.

Tempo shakes her head at him, sighing deeply. “That boy…” She shakes her head and turns to me with a demure smile. “Hi, you probably know already, but I’m Tempo. You can call me Lily when we’re not on duty if you want.” She holds out her hand and I shake it gently. She winces slightly, but looks grateful that my handshake isn’t hand crushing like Reflex’s. She catches me looking at her hand, and offers an explanation. “Had a run in with a new villain the other day. Took a bad hit to my hand before I could use my power on her. Mostly okay, but that hand is still tender.”

I wince at that, a memory of barrelling into Tempo the other day coming to mind. I guess I had managed to do some damage before they caught me. “Ah,” I say simply, happy to let that topic die.

From up close, I can actually tell that Tempo’s eyes look distinctly reptilian. Looking at the section of skin showing at the end of her sleeves and between her gloves, I can actually tell that she has scales. I hadn’t realized before that Tempo had any non-human features.

“So, you’re the ‘best friend’ that Burnout mentions so often?” I quirk an eyebrow at that.

“He talks about me?” I try not to sound so surprised, but it is genuinely surprising.

She chuckles at that, “all the time. You’re his favorite topic.” I feel myself go a bit red in the face at that.

“That’s… flattering I guess.” I say nervously, unsure what else to say. I didn’t really think I was worth talking about. I clear my throat, shaking thoughts of what Dustin might be saying about me away. “You can call me Toybox. Or Sebastian, I guess.”

She nods at that, gesturing for me to follow her. “Toybox, huh? That’s your hero name?”

“Yup,” I explain further, “Random inventions, it felt fitting.”

Tempo looks over her shoulder at me, “That’s not all your power does, is it?”

I sigh, looking up at the ceiling in thought. “I thought so. Apparently my inventions can’t be affected by other people’s powers?” I look back down at her and she’s looking thoughtfully at me.

“I don’t suppose you’ve ever made a super suit for someone? Maybe black and green, with a skirt?” She asks, staring me in the eyes.

I can feel my heart rate increasing at that question. I keep walking, pretending to think about it. “Nope. Never made a suit.” I shake my head slightly for good effect.

She stares at me for a second longer before sighing. “Yeah, figures. Thought I should ask anyway.” We continue walking and she shows me several rooms along the way. A couple of recreation rooms, gyms for working out, a slightly sturdier sparring room, and several other rooms more commonly used by the non-powered workers of this base. The super team is only a very small portion of the staff at Wardens HQ after all.

“Sensate, we’ve got company.” Tempo leads me into another recreational room one floor up. Sensate is chilling on the couch, playing video games. It’s such a domestic scene, I almost feel out of place seeing him like this. He gets up from the couch, stretching his wings wide as he does so.

He steps forward, holding his hand out for me. There sure is a lot of handshaking involved in this whole meeting my new coworkers thing. “Hey, you must be the new emergency hero I heard about. The Tinker.”

I grimace, shaking his hand. “Yeah. Name’s Sebastian. Hero name is Toybox.”

He smirks at that. “Cute.” I scowl at his back as he walks over to the couch. Next time I’m out as Soft Paw I’m going to need to make sure to kick his ass a bit. “Nice to meet you, Tinker.” Before he can sit down, his watch beeps and he clicks it. “Aw, hell, I’m needed at the mall. Unpowered incident.” He grunts, immediately heading for a door on the opposite wall. He presses a button and it opens up to a balcony. The door closes as he pumps his wings, lifting off of the ground and flying off towards the incident.

Tempo taps my shoulder softly, “Sorry about him. He can be a bit much sometimes. Come on, I’ll show you where your lab is before I have to go out on my patrol.”

I nod, following her out into the hall, picking up the handle of my cart and dragging it after us. “Eh. I’m used to snide comments.” I respond, somewhat bitterly. She blinks at that, looking over at me.

She seems to debate over whether to say anything, but she chooses to say something. “You are?” I nod, humming affirmatively. “But, you’re a Tinker?”

I let out a breath. “Yeah, I am. Thanks for reminding me.” She winces at that and I sigh slightly, shifting apologetically. “Sorry, I just… I can’t seem to do anything without people talking about my family. Without being compared to them.”

She frowns at that, looking at me thoughtfully. “I’m sorry. That must be hard.”

I shrug, “I deal. I try to stay out of the spotlight. The less I have to hear people talking about me, the better.”

“Is that why you became an emergency hero and not a full time one?”

“It’s part of the reason.” I say, looking back at my cart I’m dragging along. “Another part is that I didn’t know my inventions had a resistance to powers. People might look at my power differently if they knew that.”

Tempo nods, the two of us walking in silence for a few seconds. “You didn’t seem to mind when I told you that Burnout talks about you,” she notes, looking over at me curiously.

I sputter gently, waving a hand. “That’s different. Dustin and I go way back. When Dustin talks about me, I know that he’s talking about me. Not whatever the media seems to think about me.” I explain, feeling slightly warmer than before. She just hums in response, returning to looking straight ahead.

Tempo stops us at an unmarked door near the end of the hall. She swipes a card and it opens up. “Well, Toybox, here we are. Your permanent room. It’s actually next to the room your mother uses if she has a reason to be spending time at the base.” She hands me the card, looking me in the eye as she does so. “I hope that’s alright. If not, I’m sure that Reflex would be willing to find you a new room.”

I shrug again, looking around the room. “It’s fine. Nearly the same as when I’m living with her. I doubt that we’ll be spending extensive time here around the same times.” The room is simple, but I note with approval that there’s a small lab area set up. Welders, Soldering guns, a collection of nails and bolts, and some other standard inventors equipment. I drag the cart over to the table, leaving it there.

“Well, if that’s all, please take some time to get acquainted with the facilities. Here is a communication device.” She reaches into her pocket, handing me a bracelet. I slip it on my left wrist, the wrist opposite the bracelet containing my Soft Paw Suit. “Reflex said that he’ll message you in a bit to set up a suit fitting with one of the Wardens designers. He’ll also probably have you sign a bunch of papers regarding the position and go over the rules related to being an Emergency Warden.” I nod slowly, taking her words in.

“Boring stuff then.” She smiles at that, nodding in response. I’ve already had most of it banged into my head when I was younger, and he must know that. It’s a formality if anything. At least the suit designing should be interesting. I hope it looks nice. “Thanks for the tour, Lily. Good luck on your patrol.” I give her a kind smile. Out of the Wardens, she’s been the most friendly and helpful so far. Not counting Dustin.

She nods, turning for the door. “Thanks, Sebastian. And, welcome again to the Wardens, Toybox.” The door closes automatically behind her and I look around my new room. I flop down onto the slightly hard cushion and slightly softer pillow of the bed connected to the far wall. This bed could never compare to how soft I can make the bare ground with my new power. I sigh, thinking through the events of the last few days in my head.

 

Santa's Secret Transfic Anthology Vol. 2 / Everyday Sweets #15 (Part 2)

Follow to catch Good Intentions / Bad Redemptions (Part 3) on June 22nd

Support the authors and get instant access to all stories and more for $6 on itch.io