DoofQuest- a Disney Villains Victorious CK2-Style Quest

The Life and Times of Dr. Alan Bradly Part 2: San Fran Showdown

(Alan POV)

You looked at the Institute and wondered how things had gone in the time since you last saw things, a fire during a tech showcase and many other things that gave the city quite a shock.

But you knew that the Institute of Technology was in many ways as resilient as the city itself.

You've read of the 1906 earthquake and the ensuring aftermath and it almost looks like a Mix of american pride and that one time you visited Seoul during your honeymoon.

You looked at Jet and sighed as you held his hand and walked into the Administration building of the tech collage.

A professor was working the front desk today, it seems,must be important for some reason. "Uh hello are you Professor Trengrove?"

That got his attention as he looked up from administrative work "Oh I'm sorry sir, I didn't see you do you have an appointment?"

You nodded as your son tugged on your sleeve. "I'm Dr. Alan Bradly, I worked at ENCOM, and I'm applying for the computer science teaching position that opened? I sent my resume by mail, so if you didn't get it I have a copy."

He looked up your file. "You're in luck, Dr. Bradly, we have your appointment scheduled in an hour. Dr. Granville will be glad to meet you after hearing all the great things about you from the grapevine."

That sounded great! "I'll just need to get Jethro with someone...his mother passed away and given the circumstances I can't get a babysitter."

A look of understanding came over the Professor as he opened up a file on the computer.
"Oh I think we have someone with a free period that could help you with that little situation...go to Lab7A, I'm sure that Ms. Honey Lemon will be glad to help you."

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The Lab was silent as you walked in as you walked into the massive mess that was Honey Lemon's experiments.

It was absolute chaos, as a massive mess of goop, some godless terrible smelling dried paint.

"Uh...Hello?" You said.

A large pink puff came from the otherside of the room. "NOO We didn't get the mixture right!!"

"Uhh...Hello...I'm Dr.Bradly, I was told you could look after my son Jethro?" You said feeling slightly at odds with the picture or rather lack of one you were getting about her right now.

The young woman was covered in a bit of paint and some kind of soot and she was listening to music, on one of those I-phones..thing, you'll never understand how you could go from the land of Walkman's to that, its confusing you dammit!! "Oh I'm sorry I didn't hear you come in. I would have opened the door!!"

She took off the budds and walked to clear herself off first.

You nodded. "So what were you doing before I came in?"

"Oh just some basic metal oxidation and disintegration." Honey Lemon said as you calmly. "Basically melting metal with chemicals."

"That sounds unsafe...I was told you can help me?" You repeated.

"Oh I'd love to help you Dr. Bradly nothing will happen to your son, we'll get ice cream and everything, and the lounge has a few arcade games to keep him entertained." Honey Lemon said.

"Are you sure that's allowed?" You said.

"I mean, its not but its better then having him endanger himself in the Lab." Honey Lemon deadpanned.

That was a fantastic point. "I'll be done before tonight, thank you Ms. Honey Lemon. Behave Jet, and be nice to her."

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Several flights of stairs and three false starts later, you found Mr. Granville's office and being the man you were listened into the conversation you knew by instinct he was having.

"I don't' care if the budget is getting slashed, we need to find a way to prioritize important classes and pay our Alumni that chose to come back after the incident" It was Dr. Granville talking on the phone with an individual you had no idea about, but you knew three things about the current state of things.

One, Corporations have more power then the government in certain areas, you should know you worked for one and caused trouble for them behind the scenes.

Two, the near breakdown of authority due to the Famine and the corporations need to fill that power vacuum, if only to maintain the grasp on the population.

Some pretended to be benevolent out of PR Reasons or pragmatism, like Xanatos, but others used more crude methods to keep control over areas.

Drakktech's PMC augmented by Capes, came to mind, you wern't blind nor stupid to Miss Go's breaking of the Law, nor her criminal past.

But here...what could be running the show here? Or Rather who?

You knocked on the Door to the good doctor's office and then opened the door. "Dr. Granville I'm Dr. Bradley, I'm here to discuss the opening for the Computer Scientist Job?"

That gave her a hint of an amused smile. "Dr. you've gained a bit of a reputation for making yourself a sleeper commodity that everyone's hunting for under the table, a man of your talents could go far in this day and age. And I'm glad you came, certain external factors are making my job difficult as of late."

It wasn't as much of a compliment as it was an offer, and you were going to review your history on what it meant to be here.

The Zaibatsu, were a powerful conglomeration of technocrats and financial powers that supported the Empire of Japan during the days, during and before the Second World War, and had to be broken up, and supposedly it was also tied to organized crime.

And there was also the matter of this Yokai character that manipulated things from behind the scenes of the criminal underworld and pushed for certain policies and resources to be given to him at frankly erratic times.

You nodded. "I'm just a simple man trying to make my way in the universe Ma'm, no need to overstate my skill set, I'm just a programmer."

"A programmer who has a bright and prosperous future as both a teacher, a consultant at tech giants and much much more...but I'm under a fair bit of fire as of late, Corporations are battering down the door trying to poach our resources and they are battling over a dozen different patents and intellectual properties, not enough want to stay and keep going and pass things along." She said.

You observed the office and looked at the paintings of mythology, the spirits of vengeance that painted the walls and the little microbot that seemed to be in a small covered petri dish.

"What's that?" You said calmly pointing at the Microbot.

"Oh that...that's a Microbot, it's a leftover from a promising student that presented here a while ago, he's no longer with us, but some bit of him remains to inspire me in ways I can't even imagine sometimes. Its all that's left of him. It was from the SFIT incident a while ago, had a lot of potential." She said with a hint of bitterness.

"Shame...I would have loved to meet him." You said. "The mythology on your wall is of Japanese Yokai..witch spirit?"

"The Enenra, the living shadow, a vengeful being witch attacks with a great dark cloud that swallows and consumes the life energy of the person who angers it, leaving naught but a twisted shell of a man behind...if it doesn't straight up kill you that is..HAHA. Sorry office joke from the old days. It belonged to Dr. Callaghan, and I don't have the heart to get rid of it.." She said

"Hmm, it has the mask of that Yokai fellow, never took you for an admirer of someone who erratically steals from people on a whim." You said as you continued to admire the office.

"An artistic licence Robert asked to put in before he died, Supposedly he asked the designer to put in something that terrified him and well, it was before Yokai appeared and terrorized the city, and well one thing led to another and the painter added it in because it terrified him.

"The Enenra fascinated him in the way it inspired terror, and how it could strike without being seen until it was too late for the victim." Dr.Granville said. "Robert was obsessed with it before he died, maybe he was trying to find something in it."

"I've read your resume, but I don't understand how a man of your talents would willingly leave ENCOM after a promising Career?" she asked.

"My wife...died in an accident while working there and I decided that I needed greener pastures for my son. I'm sure you understand." You said.

"Indeed I do, so are you going to take the job?" She said.

"I mean living here runs the risk of being killed by a madman, I'd rather leave my options open in regards to my future, I don't want to have it cut short by the many different ways this city could end my life." You said.

"It has gotten pretty dangerous as of late, I understand if you don't want to live here for the dangers." Dr. Granville said.

"Thanks for being understanding. If you don't mind I want to work on a project using your facilities, is it okay, I'll give you an answer tomorrow morning." You said.

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You sat in the Lab as Jet was eating ice cream. "Alright. Miss Honey Lemon, thank you for letting me use your lab to work on a personal project of mine."

"It's fine Doctor-." She said.

"Alan...Call me Alan, and the first thing is these fiber optics for one of those fancy Smart Glasses, Science Fiction says should exist by now." You pulled out an extra pair of glasses, and started working on it, spending the rest of the hour working on it handing it off to Honey Lemon after you finished it to check the bugs and calibrate it.

Then you moved onto the belt, then the suit jacket and then the back of the jacket. Handing each off to Honey Lemon to check and then worked on the tie.

Even as you worked on the project you made sure to spend a minute with Jet, and finish it by the time night began to rise and the moon grew larger in the sky.

"So..Mr. Alan, what is all of this?" Honey Lemon asked.

"A way to protect the user....as it were, its a weapon, the idea was from something special and close to me. And Hardlight razor edge activates when the Heads up display in the glasses targets what i'm looking at and activates, the fiber optics in the lining of the jacket, deactivate it at a certain range so the blade doesn't cut off my hands,and the belt is a magnet that can call back the blade to my hand." You explained.

"I know pretty Scifi, but coming here is as always pretty Sci Fi and I'm taking advantage of it." You continued.

"And why would you need to build something like this, a passion project?" She asked.

"I'd rather have it and not need it, then need it and not have it, a friend used it, his Name was TRON." You finished as you changed into your impressive looking suit and tie combo with a belt.

"So why did you build it?" She asked.

"I want to protect my son should I make an enemy that will try to hurt me IRL, and not on a computer." You said.

"Can't you just...call the police, hire a bodyguard?" She asked.

"I wish it were that simple." You said.

"How long have you been planning on building all of this?" Honey Lemon asked.

"Ever since I learned you had the technology to do it, and made my plans before I quit my old Job." You said.

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You said goodnight and put Jethro to sleep in the car again, it was going to be a long night.

As you suspected, the powers that be, sent a feeler, a large...police robot thing? More than likely being controlled remotely if we were really going scifi here.

Now it could entirely be a real police bot on a patrol, but you weren't so sure, given the news about rewired bot peddling and remote hacking that made your work at ENCOM look childish compared to the modern gadgetry of the city.

You weren't taking any chances.

God this was getting too sci fi even for you. Looking at the Light Disk you breathed in and turned on the HUD of your new glasses.

Good News was they worked like a charm. Bad News, you never field tested your Light Disk.

Ahh you read about these Buddy Guardians in Popular Mechanics. The Future of Law enforcement, who ever made that is a hack, not even caring about the concept of reasonable force.

Now you had two extremely terrible options in front of you, you could fight, or you could flee.

Fleeing meant endangering Jethro, and him possibly getting hurt or worse.

Fighting, ment, you getting killed and having all your work go up in smoke and leave the Nation and maybe even the world at the hands of ENCOM and the AI that truely ran it.

Well, guess the answer was obvious then.

You were going to die...but you wouldn't go quietly into the night either…

You prepared your Light Disk and breathed in and threw it at the large police robot.

Only to get itself embedded into its face, a clear blow that would have gone through it, had it not been for the thick armor plating that held the head in place. Curses killed by some silicon valley hack's idea of future policing.

Killed by a robot...well it was a cool way to think about going, until it actually happened.

As it moved towards you menacingly ready to kill you like a dog.

At least it was until it was rammed by a Ford SUV with caused it to get impaled onto a parking meter.

That gave you the opportunity to actually get close, retrieve your Light Disk and use it to actually kill it, cutting it over a dozen times with the hard light blade until it finally went quiet. It was a stroke of luck then that you were able to pull it off at all.

"Thanks...whoever you are?" You said as you sat down on the asphalt exhausted at the strain you put your body under in such a short amount of time.

The door opened revealing a face you haven't seen in months. "We fight for the Users after all."

That phrase was known only to a handful of people that worked on and knew of the MCP mainframe. "Roy...is that you?"

Your buddy, Roy Klienberg did something utterly out of character and awesome, and he didn't even need a computer for it. "Yeah...holy crap I actually did it...holy crap.."

"Ram...take a deep breath, was that your car?" You asked.

"No some dumb kid left his keys and door unlocked. And you looked like you were going to get killed, so...I uh, used my head and the resources at hand. So how was your day?" He said.

"I don't think I want to live here anymore, I haven't been here a day and already someone's trying to kill me." You said.

"Hell what did you do?" He said.

"I might have seen something I shouldn't have...but I don't know what. But that's besides the point, This place is a bust and I'm thinking of going East...Xanatos Enterprises? He's got great benefits." You said.

"Great, can I carpool with you, my car got jacked by some guy who liked it and well he took it." Roy said.

"Bad luck, So you see the weird painting that belonged to Professor Callahagn in Granville's office?" You said as you walked to your car and both of you just sighed.

"Yeah...real mood killer, tried going to work as IT, but they were already flooded with people." He said.

"So...what just tried to kill me?" You asked.

"Who knows, Yokai, the Yakuza, some insane guy who stole a thing to kill people, literal aliens or just a malfunctioning machine." Roy said.

"I missed you man." You said calmly.

"I did too brother, I'll say hi to Jet when he wakes up." Roy said.

"So...now that this place is a bust, let's get going." You said.

And you and your friend were off, leaving the city behind, and praying that you didn't get hounded the whole way out of the state.

AN: So yeah, how does Alan know about Light Disk's, he made TRON, he would know more about the Grid then many people including weapons, and as you could see, it didn't really work in the IRL version and it needs the kinks worked out. Oh and Roy quit his old job and tried to get the Job at SFIT too but decided not to.

Did you catch the Painting Symbolism, I thought it fit.

And please give it feedback, I put most of the day into this.

Also this was 10 pages on my docs.

Enjoy.