Zen and the Art of Automotive Repair

  “It is an unfortunate assumption among the general population that enhanced equals unstoppable. This is far from the truth, even amongst those who throw on a cape and seek adventure, and this is far from the majority of enhanced.”

  “Many enhanced abilities have no benefit in a fight or conflict but are still extremely valuable. Technologically gifted enhanced are among the most obvious of this group and are also the most at risk.”

  “There are unsavory groups that seek to acquire enhanced without protection, preferably young and inexperienced, to make use of their abilities for nefarious profits, essentially an underground human trafficking trade seeking controllable power instead of simple chattel.”

  Jean-Marquis Beaton, Enhanced Security Symposium in Zurich, 2019.

  “Oh, thirty minutes. I have also been told there may be an issue with the water pump.” Kreigsmarine said, as he turned to take himself and the girl out of the city.

  Solaris was unfazed, having long since gotten used to this sort of conversation. “Well, that’s not good. I’ll let them know.” She hung up and dialed Elenore. “Darling, are the lovebird’s home, or are they at the garage?”

  “Garage. So is Badger and me. Why?”

  “Someone stole Kriegsmarine’s super car and apparently shot it up when he took it back, so he said he’s bringing it and a mechanic he allegedly rescued or potentially stole from the chop shop along with him. He asked me to see if we could hire her.”

  “Okay. I will chalk that up to you old school guys being klepto. Souvenirs, people, several airplanes and tanks in your case. Apparently aggressive hiring practices for him.”

  “I’d say you’re wrong, but evidence proves the contrary. He’s going to be there in about a half hour.”

  Hanging up, she turned back to the businessman she’d been chatting with before the call. “I apologize about that, can’t seem to escape the unusual from time to time. Now please, continue. I am always looking for potential investments.”

  Elenore hung up and headed downstairs glad she hadn’t left her office yet. “Levi Erica! We got a client incoming.”

  “Do we have clients?” Levi and Badger nodded, agreeing with Erica’s question. Z listened from where she was going through her tips.

  “Yeah, the boss just called. Kriegsmarine is bringing in a car with bullet damage.”

  “Dude! That is so cool. Did you see the beast he was driving? I wonder if it’s that car.” Anzy said, walking in from shutting down her food truck, her eyes wide.

  “Oh yeah. I am all about looking at it. They only built like two hundred and twenty-five or something of those things. I looked it up.” Levi said, rubbing his hands.

  “Do none of you care that it’s being driven by like, the most well-known, retired super-vil on the planet?” Z asked.

  “I mean, he is retired.” Levi shrugged. Badger nodded with him.

  A short while later Killian pulled up to Griffin Garage. Metallica blinked; she hadn’t really expected him to take her to a garage. She was honestly shocked to still be alive. Still, she wouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth.

  There was a small group of people waiting to watch them as they pulled through the building’s garage door. Four young women and two guys, most of them wearing clothing that showed signs of working around grease and grime, though one more elegant girl was wearing a short skit with hose and a blouse, not really fitting the space.

  She hurried to climb out of the car when she realized the tall, terrifying man next to her had opened his door to exit already. “Ahh, the infamous fledglings. I assume Lady Elizabeth has called ahead. I am Kreigsmarine, though I suspect you knew that. This is Metallica. I thought you should meet her, and since my car happily, or rather unhappily, needs service it seemed convenient to bring both to you. “

  “Yeah, the boss called.” Levi went over to look at the bullet holes. “Hm. This is carbon fiber. That’s a freaking nightmare to fix. We can do it though, just don’t ask us to rush it, or it will never be sound again.”

  “We can also fix that water pump. Sounds like it’s getting ready to be problematic.” Erica added. “Sounds like the bearings are going bad, I’m guessing you don’t baby her when you drive.”

  Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

  “Interesting. She said the same thing.” he said, glancing at the girl, consideringly.

  Metallica gave them a shy wave. “Hi. Sorry to bother you. Mr. Kriegsmarine thought you might have a job for me. I’m good with cars.”

  “She also has common sense, a rare enough trait on its own. And was being forced to work in a chop shop.” The older man shook his head. “Considering how this turned out for her co-workers, I thought she deserved another option, for a more positive work environment, with a better safety record. “

  The skinny brunette smiled her face a bit green as she remembered the smell of crushed tweakers. “I’m an enhanced class D. Minor across the board and midrange enhancement to hearing. I’m also sometimes a brain, but I don’t know what class. It’s kind of stupid and unpredictable.”

  Badger tilted his head. “Sometimes?”

  “Sometimes I’ll just black out and go super brain, or I can trigger it with meth. That's probably how uncle expected me to pull that car apart in a hurry.” She was bright red admitting it. But she didn’t want to piss off or lie to anyone the living dreadnaught was introducing her too.

  Eleanore frowned. “No judgement, but are you a meth addict?”

  “No, I hate the stuff honestly, even if it does work. I am not sure I can be. My parents were both tweakers. I figured one of them took something weird and made me what I am, but it seems to come with being able to process the stupid garbage.”

  “Fair. We can try to sort out less toxic and illegal helpers.” Elenore said, while making a mental note to keep an eye on her, just in case. “So do people call you Metallica?”

  “Uncle called me Tweety. I usually tell people to call me Talia, it’s easier.”

  “We can work with either, Talia.”

  “Yes Ma’am. Should I put it on that lift?” At Eleanor's nod, she climbed into the driver’s side, started the car and wheeled it across the bay to park.

  Elenore turned her attention to Kreigsmarine. “Well, we can start on the car tomorrow. It’s going to take more than a day or two, considering its carbon fiber, and the water pump issue. Parts are going to be interesting to order.”

  “I can imagine.”

  The younger girl listened from inside the car, nervous. Things had been hard at uncle’s place, but they were a known variable. This was unknown, what kind of

  garage had one of the world’s most famous villains brought her to. There was a pointy robot working on something in the corner, and two identical chargers, except for some paint job differences, getting what looked like armored panels replaced in two other bays.

  “I will leave it to you. My aide will check in on the repairs in a few days, just for an update. Worst case, I’ll have it held at my embassy until I can arrange for it to get shipped home.” The villain turned political leader walked out the door to a limo he’d summoned and left without much further conversation.

  “So, got kidnapped by Kreigsmarine, dragged to a random shop, but on the bright side, Hypercar to work on.” Levi said, stepping over to her while two of the girls closed the door. “Weird night.”

  “Yes sir.” she said, getting out of the car. “What would you like me to do?” she asked her fingers nervously toying with the hem of her t-shirt. Her green eyes took in the shop quickly. Everything was top of the line, nothing worn or kit bashed. Well, except for the evil looking spider bot who was crooning to itself as it shelved parts. She looked a fool here with her stained shirt, torn jeans and holey sneakers and she knew it. The other grease monkeys were all wearing Carhart and new steel toes.

  “Okay, first, I am at most only six years older than you, so please don’t call me sir.” begged Levi. “This is my girlfriend, Erica. That’s Badger, Anzy... you’ll see a lot of her.”

  “True.” Anzy winked.

  “And that’s Zoya being all mysterious in the shadowy corner, we all call her Z. She’s probably closer to your age.”

  “Yo.”

  “You’re not eighteen are you.” Erica added, and it wasn’t a question.

  “No, I’m fifteen. Well, fifteen-ish. Might be sixteen. Not entirely sure when my birthday is.”

  “Right. So, we’re taking you home, to our home, to figure out what to do. And stop looking embarrassed. Crazy old German guy probably did right by you here. Guess he must keep his Karma balanced somehow, even if he has to do it by kidnapping a minor.

  “What’s your favorite food?” Anzy asked. The chef was almost twitching at the visibly underfed form of the girl.

  “Um, I love French fries.” she said softly. “So, you don’t work for the Dreadnaught?”

  “Kind of the literal opposite. We work for Solaris. They are kind of Frenemies from back in World War two. Hit each other with cruel and unusual bits of geography from what I understand.”

  “French fries? Never mind. You know what? We’re going to explore that more later.” Anzy muttered.

  Talia scuffed her feet. “Okay. Fairly sure I don’t want to go back to the garage.” She shivered, rubbing her arms and remembering the sound of the Tesla hitting her coworkers, their screams resonating through the building. “Okay, so where are we going?”

  “We’re going to head to the house, and we’ll introduce you to the boss there.” Levi said, ruffling her hair.

  “Well, I’m going to find Nahoa and we’ll go track your uncle down, as we need him to... agree to your residency with us, but I don’t see this being an issue.” Elenore said. “And Honey, terrifying as your encounter with him might have been, I think Kreigsmarine might have saved your life. We can all see the handprint on your cheek, and Anzy isn’t the only one who wants to give you a sandwich.”

  She flushed again. “I told Uncle he was an idiot lifting something as hot as that car. He didn’t like me arguing about chopping it.” She reached up and touched her cheek. “Kriegsmarine saw him hit me. I think that’s part of why he decided not to blame me for his car.”

  “That and he said he heard you talking sense. Let me guess, you thought trying to sell parts from a Hypercar with less than three hundred world-wide examples was, as they say in the industry, stupid as shit.” Erica chuckled.

  “I didn’t know it was that rare, but I saw the light bars, which means cape, and cape means trackers, and not just LoJack. No way that wasn’t getting found before I got rid of them.”

  “Yeah, no kidding. For the record, you’re going to see a lot of cars with those lights around here.” Eleanor admitted.

  “Hell kiddo, when you’re ready to build yourself a car, we’ll make sure to get them on that, too.” Levi joked.

  Anzy giggled and nodded. “We have them on the food truck, just in case.” The Ukrainian girl admitted.

  Talia blinked. “You have a super food truck?” she asked as the fledglings bundled her out the shop's exit.