Готовый перевод Тейлор Поттер и философский виал / Taylor Potter and the Philosophical Vial: Глава 2. Тойбокс - аллея

Chapter 2. Toybox Alley
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August 2023, Toybox Alley

It's funny to say, but Taylor had never felt better than she did that month. Everyone around her was constantly twitching nervously at the mention of Jack and his gang, and every smart iron with an LCD screen was blaring 3D news about Marquis's crimes. Mostly about past ones, but no one doubted there would be future ones.

3D news and talk shows talked about them and spoke of the Cage, that "miracle of Tinker thought" created by the Dragon back in the days of the Founders, and nervousness and fear were also discernible in the holograms of the hosts and guests. Paranet websites were flooded with theories and "eyewitness accounts" (usually turning out to be nothing more than a prank by some other cape), emitting hysteria and calls for banning everything, shooting and imprisoning everyone, or even abandoning the enclaves altogether and seizing power over ordinary people.

In this atmosphere of fear, hysteria, and suspicion, with attacks in the dark corners of Toybox Alley and crimes in daylight, Taylor lived, relishing the absence of the Dursleys and the Dark Capes jumping out from around corners. She got up whenever she wanted every day, and ate whatever she wanted. Fortunately, the card issued by Minister Glenn also included "unlimited credit."

She strolled through Toybox Alley, enjoying the company of the capes, adults who didn't hide their superpowers and who didn't care about Taylor. Few recognized her as the Girl-Who-Lived, as Taylor, following Lisa's advice, had taken care of a simple disguise. All it took was a visit to the Rainbow Hair Salon, dyeing her hair seven colors, lightly tightening her skin with a flesh-colored bandage, and changing her gait. Even the students at Wormwarts, who regularly frequented Toybox Alley, were fooled, perhaps preparing for the school year and stocking up on gadgets for various pranks.

"Good afternoon," the robot boomed. "The usual?"

"Yes, please," Taylor smiled.

She took Glenn's advice and ate at the robocafé, which was indeed rarely frequented. Why did they even keep them there, Taylor wondered, but never received an answer. Relishing the freedom and solitude, she spent long hours there every day, sipping delicious сocktails and watching 3D films projected directly onto the table.

Tired of watching, she studied, read, and did her homework. She looked out the window, admiring Toybox Alley, always bustling with life, observing superpower displays and capes, spying on them indoors, training insects.

"Would you like me to repeat the cocktail?"

"Absolutely."

Toybox Alley had a dark side. No, not just the Fallen Alleys where Taylor had strayed last year, where ugly-faced criminals, grinning with rotten teeth and knee-deep in mud, committed their vile crimes. It was simply a dark side, where shady dealings took place. Assaults in side alleys. Theft and robbery, and sometimes simply the use of superpowers. Murder and sabotage. Flourishing vices of all kinds, from tinker drugs to "entertainment houses" where a clone of any celebrity could be grown right before your eyes, and then you could do whatever you wanted with it. And they did.

So Taylor tried not to look too closely at such houses, even if they were just casinos, because after gambling and drinking, capes would also start doing... all sorts of things. Oh, how her hands, feet, and superpowers sometimes itched to go out in the evening, collect tons of insects, and fight the bad guys! But no, Glenn asked her not to leave a trace, and Taylor promised herself that when she grew up, she'd graduate from Wormwarts, and go work for the PRT. Or even the Guild, catching the most dangerous criminals!

It's worth noting that due to the general nervousness, the number of PRT patrols was increased. Drones increased, and Taylor's documents were more frequently checked, sometimes even scanned from a distance. Taylor avoided such encounters thanks to her superpowers and left no trace. She was being watched, from afar and silently, not by the PRT, but by one of the Guild's hunters.

An adult woman, practically naked, pretending to be clad in force fields. She wasn't quite as curvy as the beauties from the funhouses, but still—indecent! She even appeared in Taylor's dream once, cornering her, arresting her, and suddenly piercing her with a “horn” made of force fields, shouting that Potter was the Dark Cape and should be executed on the spot. Taylor woke up with her heart pounding and couldn't fall asleep for a long time afterward.

The woman never approached her, apparently waiting patiently for Jack and Marquis to come to Taylor themselves.

"Should I turn on the news for you?" the robot asked.

Taylor frequented the same robot cafe, "Fortress," so regularly that the vending machines even activated a learning and memorization program. It all seemed so captivating that at one point, Taylor even regretted her future electives—Devination and Bestiary—and considered swapping one for Tinkering.

"Turn it on," Taylor agreed.

"The search for those who escaped from the Cage continues," the presenter said immediately, smiling, as if in real life addressing Taylor herself.

Still, regular, flat, two-dimensional television has its advantages, Taylor thought, switching the feed from the hologram to the screen. It's less intense; it doesn't feel as if the events are happening to you personally. The Capes were already struggling mentally, and the hologram news and hysteria on the Paranet were probably exacerbating it to an unreasonable degree.

"Under pressure from the so-called Youth Guard, an unofficial organization uniting some employees of the Ministry, PRT, and simply independent capes, whose members believe that the safety of young capes is being treated with extreme negligence, the Ministry took unprecedented measures."

Where else could they go, Taylor thought. No, it might be worth putting more trolluns and drones on the streets at night, but young capes need to sleep at night. The programs and equipment for recognizing superpowers had already been updated twice. LeBron was given three more capes as assistants - Thinkers for scanning (which led local jokers to make unabashed jokes about holey scanners and what exactly they were scanning each other for), and various identification devices were installed in stores, which even forced Taylor to cut back on her shopping trips.

After all, it’s one thing to feel something through insects, and another to see and touch it in real life!

She desperately wanted to buy a Lightning, the latest jetpack, with eight nozzles, enhanced antigrav, a streamlined design, and a built-in force field generator that protects the user and improves aerodynamics. It accelerates to 100 mph in 3 seconds, has zero-inertia braking, and control with minimal response time and improved reaction times. No need to think, just move your body, and the Lightning will fly where you need to go while you figure out how to knock out the enemy's SNITCH.

"I'm sure all the best Quidditch teams have already bought themselves some," the children whispered at the store window.

"Of course, the world championship finals are next year! Whoever masters the Lightning in time will be considered a winner!"

"Speed ​​isn't everything! A tactician doesn't need speed to catch the snitch!"

"How will he have time to come up with it if his team is crushed by a Lightning attack!"

The argument then got even more heated and silly. The kids might have been fans of Quidditch and cape team battles, but they hadn't played themselves and therefore didn't understand much. But Taylor had played, and what's more, she was the full-time Tactician for the Herofindor team.

"And to conclude our broadcast, we repeat the brief information about the criminal Marcus Black, also known as Marquis," came from the screen.

Marcus's image appeared again. Each time, Taylor stared at it, trying to understand how he could be friends with her parents (whom she didn't remember). Why had he betrayed them? What kind of person was he without his superpower? The crimes were already clear, a long list ending with the murder of a dozen ordinary people and Alec Pettigrew, also a Master and also a friend of the Potters. It was Alec's sacrifice that made it possible to apprehend Marquis, as the Weasley family arrived on the scene and captured Marcus.

On the spur of the moment, she dialed Amy, who finally answered.

"ARE YOU OKAY?!" Amy yelled into the phone first.

In the background, the wind whistled and howled, muffling the words and adding gurgling sounds.

"Yes, I'm fine."

"THIS IS GOOD! I'M ON THE TOP OF THE PYRAMID, SO THERE'S A SIGNAL HERE!" Amy kept yelling. "WE'RE HUNTING MARCUS, BUT THERE'S NOTHING ELSE ALL AROUND US, ALL DESERTS AND CACTUSES!! WHEREVER YOU ARE, STAY THERE AND DON'T POP YOUR LEFT OUT! SEE YOU ON SEPTEMBER 1ST! THE RESPONSIBILITY HERE IS WORSE THAN CACTUSES! LOVE YOU! BYE! MOM'S ALREADY TAKING THE PHONE OUT OF MY HANDS!"

And the call ended. Taylor, sighing and smiling at something at the same time, pulled out her tablet, deciding to study some more. She wasn't worried about Defense Against Dark Powers; she had plenty of practical experience. Working with weapons under Hannah McGonagall required weapons, and Glenn had told her to sit back and not attract attention. So, Taylor couldn't buy some rifles, machine guns, and pistols for self-defense and gun care classes.

Perhaps she should have tackled the assignment from Thomas Snape, the Professor of Intriguebrewing. A long essay on "How I'd Be a Supervillain and Seize Power in the City" wouldn't write itself!

"Hey-ho, beware, little ones, Lisa Granger, the greatest detective of our time, is on the trail!"

Lisa pounced on Taylor with a joyful cry and hugged her tightly, as if she wanted to crush her. She wasn't strong enough, but Lisa's strength was in her head (a Thinker with super-intuition), not her arms.

"Why are you so sad? Oh, we weren't there! That's right, friends always help! Amy, ha-ha, stuck in Mexico, did you hear that? Oh, you heard that, wow, she even got through to me! Well, listen, you've got it set up nicely here. Why didn't you call and invite me? We could live together, without the parents... oops, sorry, Taylor, I didn't mean to, I'm just so jealous of you that I can't stop. But you like it, I can see it, so I won't even think about shutting down my fountain of eloquence and power!"

Taylor truly enjoyed it; she'd missed her friend so much. Even her annoying habit of reading everyone's answers with her power and continuing to talk without interruption was now somehow endearing.

"Yeah, yeah, my parents wouldn't have let me go anyway, they'd heard enough about the maniac and didn't want to let me go anywhere, and they're not supposed to live here, after all, they don't have superpowers, but I think the two of us wouldn't have lost, we'd have prevented robberies and murders, investigated disappearances, visited fun... houses."

Lisa blushed. Taylor blushed back.

"I see, a difficult childhood, relatives who didn't love you very much, insects as your only toys, let's drop the subject, come on, let's go shopping, I still need to buy some costumes, and not spandex ones. Wow, a payment card from the Minister himself! There are advantages to being hunted by maniacs. Well, don't pout. After the Dark Capes of the past two years, what are the prisoners from the Cage? Spit on them, rub them out, and cover them with a million flies!"

Taylor laughed lightly, and they went shopping. More precisely, Lisa would run in with the Minister's card, buy some, and run out.

"Let's run!" she said, running out of the Jetpack store.

Lisa blushed. Taylor blushed back.

They ran into a side alley, scared off a Stranger who was, for some reason, rummaging through a trash can, and only then did Lisa solemnly present the box to Taylor.

"The Lightning?! For me?!" Taylor screamed, unable to contain herself. "Lisa, you're the best!!"

And she hugged her back. Since Taylor had more strength, something inside Lisa crunched, squelched, and made a muffled squeak.

“Don’t forget about this,” Lisa breathed out in the same strangled voice, “when you become a minister.”

"You should be a minister!"

"Me? Hm," Lisa smoothed her blond hair. "Minister Granger! Then you'll head the PRT, and don't argue with the Minister! And Amy can head the health department and treat my headache every morning! Well, well, well, that's worth fighting for! How do you like my genius Thinker plan?"

"I approve!" Taylor exclaimed.

"Exactly!" Lisa raised her index finger importantly. "Shall we continue? A walk down Toybox Alley?"

And they continued. Lisa stopped pretending to be a pretentious Thinker and became her old self, Granger, Taylor's best friend. She even bought Taylor a huge terrarium with an equally huge spider inside. Red, hairy, and scary to everyone except Taylor.

"I name you Crookshanks!" Taylor declared solemnly, watching the spider devour the young mouse. "It's a shame you're an ABC."

Crookshanks, continuing to eat the mouse, watched without blinking with all his eyes.

"Yes, yes, yes, I love you too, my dear," Taylor cooed, although she didn't mean to.

The gift was excellent, and Taylor promised to herself that she would definitely give Lisa something equally valuable.

"Come on, come on out to your mommy," she continued to coo, sticking her hand into the terrarium.

Lisa knew it was ABC. Heck, she'd bought the spider at the Beast Barrel. But even she flinched when it crawled out and settled on Taylor's shoulder like a cat.

But after that, the walk along Toybox Alley immediately became three times more fun!

"How are you going to explain all this to your parents?" Taylor looked at the pile of purchases.

I have a proven method that the entire cape world uses!

"Which one is this?"

"Blame it all on Potter! Bye, see you in a couple of days on the train!"

And Lisa fluttered out of the enclave, leaving Taylor with a slight smile on her lips, the sadness of parting, and a spider on her shoulder.
*

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