You guessed it, insomnia, I'll have to re-edit this when I'm not sleep deprived but I'm happy with what I've managed, please enjoy my hour of sleeplessness induced muse.

Edit: Oh Madison's goggles resemble Tracer's, for those that care.

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Madison was hovering over her workbench in her dad's garage, soldering iron in hand as she continued to tinker with her newest, and quite simply put coolest inventions yet. She muttered equations to herself while her girlfriend lounged on the old couch her dad kept in the corner singing along to the radio seemingly content to just be part of the background noise.

It had been like this since yesterday, when they had somewhat inadvertently become a couple, something Madison wasn't quite curtain what to think about for sure. She hadn't thought she was attracted to girls before she had gained her powers, but on that note did she ever even humor the thought of being gay in a city with the largest Neo-Nazi presence in the country? Self-preservation said no, even if she swung that way would she be willing to silently admit it to herself while attending school at Winslow?

The unofficial Hitler Youth recruitment center with almost no proper supervision by adult authorities?

Yeah, that would be a hard pass, kay, thanks, bye.

Nonetheless she found herself to be in a relationship with a girl she had previously tormented, who had forgiven her, and was now for all intents and purposes dedicated to protecting her, was exceedingly loyal, and gave incredibly satisfying cuddles.

Life was exceedingly unpredictable like that.

Taylor eventually stopped singing and spoke up in her typically blasé tone, "So what exactly are you working on?"

Madison paused, then went back to work on her creations as she replied, "Three things at once, a HUD equipped set of goggles meant to control and monitor the hard light drones linked to it, and a…well… a very PR insensitive multivariable light spectrum pistol."

Taylor stopped kicking her feet in the air, rolled off the couch, and padded over to Madison as she stared down at the half finished pieces with an amused smile gracing her visage.

"You want to show off when we visit the Protectorate, don't you?"

It had been a heavy discussion, but both they and their dads agreed that hearing the local PRT and Protectorate out was if nothing else, good for their image with the feds to show that they were cooperative at the very least.

Madison sputtered for a moment before replying, "Psh, no, of course not! I just want them to take me seriously, and you know, Armsmaster might find it impressive what I've pulled off in such a short time with limited resources…"

Taylor stared at her for a time before she broke out giggling; it was so out of character that Madison actually turned away from the project at hand and met her girlfriends gaze evenly.

"What's so funny Tay?'

Taylor, still giggling, shouted out, "SENPAI NOTICE ME!"

Madison blanched, then blushed, then turned away as she hunched back over her projects, "I hate you, seriously."

Taylor wrapped her arms around her waist, leaned down to her ear, and whispered, "Oh really?"

Then she kissed her cheek and released her as she flounced back to the couch and landed on it without any show of grace as she continued to sing with the radio. This left Madison blushing furiously as she redoubled her efforts on the weapon before her to ignore the fact that this…thing was now a thing.

Hormones, she blamed hormones.

There was a comfortable silence for a time, and eventually Madison let out a tired sigh as she spun her chair around to address Taylor directly, "Are you as worried about this meeting as I am?

Taylor stopped singing, sat up properly, and then tilted her head to the side as her face took up a contemplative visage, "Yes, and no."

"How very helpful," Madison replied dryly.

Taylor rolled her eyes as she replied, "I am not afraid of them directly, I'm worried about the image we present, let's be honest here Mads, we're scary. We aren't a group trigger, but we did trigger within minutes of each other. We don't have to deal with any of the psychotic bullshit Mouse Protector and Ravager do, but…I think our powers are symbiotic rather than stretching us to emotional extremes…"

Madison turned back to the bench and began soldering the last wires of her pistols light variation module as she sighed out her reply, "I think you're right about our powers being symbiotic, not any of that cluster trigger bullshit."

Taylor's response was a simple, "Oh?"

Madison sighed as she slapped the module into the pistol's casing and then went about assembling the outer body while nodding slowly, "Yeah, you my dear are for all intents and purposes, an Eldritch Horror made reality."

"True," Taylor said with a nod and a smile, a nod and a smile echoed from the eyes and teeth of the shadows surrounding her.

"I am a squishy tinker who needs to be protected, who also happens to have a light projection specialization and is currently dating the Mistress of Shadows. You keep me safe, I provide you with the source of your powers…"

There was silence for a few minutes, and then eventually Madison let out a sigh as she turned her head to look over her shoulder towards Taylor who had a rather despondent look about her.

"Taylor, I'm not saying you're using me or I am using you, I'm saying we perfectly support each other and that alone is going to make the PRT nervous. We need each other, so they try that whole 'divide and conquer,' bullshit on us to force us to sign up for the Wards it won't work."

Taylor sighed as she lay back down on the couch muttering, "Which means we took a tool out of their box right from the get go and they may be more…assertive than if otherwise."

Madison snorted at that while taking her screwdriver to the pistol twisting in the last of the screws to make it complete, "Eh, fuck the police."

"Quite eloquent, alth-"

Madison interrupted her there with a vexed his, "NO! No more flouting the fact that your mom was a literature professor making you sound far more intellectual than you actually are."

Taylor replied with a pout, "Hey that isn't necessarily fair."

Madison rolled her eyes at that as she lifted up her completed pistol and spun it cowboy style as she met Taylor's gaze evenly.

"Spaceballs, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and every Earth Aleph mecha anime you can think of are your top cues on Netflix."

Taylor sat up and actually blushed at that, saving face she muttered, "There's a bunch of old monster movies on there too…."

Madison rolled her eyes at the while replying with, "Yes yes, Dracula, Frankenstein, Godzilla a-"

Taylor interrupted her with an indignant, "Gojira!"

Rather than continue that old argument Madison presented her pistol to her girlfriend who took the weapon in hand and looked it over with a curious gaze. Eventually she noticed a side lever that was likely a setting gauge and quickly asked, "What's this?"

Madison took the pistol back, grinned, then flipped the switch in question, "First setting is STUN, second setting is PENETRATE, and then there is the last setting."

Taylor was well aware this was a dramatic set up, so she just smiled and indulged her girlfriend as she asked, "And what is the last setting?"

Flicking the switch the light emitting from the pistol shifted from a calm gold to smoldering red as she smirked and pointed at an unseen target in the distance.

"Oh that's simple hon, it's FUCK YOU. Not you Tay, I mean whoever I'm pointing this wonderful bitch at."

Well…this was certainly something Taylor had to see for herself.