AN: Betaed by
Trek,
Esprit and
hoth. This had a few scenes that were completely removed from this chapter, which is why it shorter then my planned 10k words with the interlude. Perk awards remained in place, which is why there a lot more of them.
0o0
Chapter 05: Contacts
0o0
Tuesday, February 8th, 2011
0o0
*+2 charges for Interlude 03*
*Power Buy Attempt 2.3.3 Counseling Bay (200), Requires 2.3.2 Medical Bay (200). 2.3.3 Counseling Bay (200) Not Bought. 2.3.2 Medical Bay (200). Bought. Banked 100 points. *
Taylor was making breakfast when she felt her powers split again. This time it split into three charges, which was almost enough to buy both the perks her power had attempted to acquire.
She gained a medical bay that could heal anything that was still alive when it got to it, and could semi-reliably revive the recently dead. This only could heal people, it couldn't improve them and if the issue wasn't physiological in nature, it couldn't fix it either.
Focusing on what information about the Counseling Bay was available, Taylor could tell it was the same as the medical bay, but for issues of the mind, so she locked it in, already seeing a perfect use for it.
Curing her father of his depression.
Then her thoughts turned to what else it might help with.
Brainwashing is a mental issue, so her next perk could cure Panacea, provided she was willing to bring the girl into her warehouse.She didn't want to go that far quite yet, but she had a suspicion that more perks might make the risk unnecessary.
Taylor's thoughts turned to what she had finished last night and her plans for the immediate future. The only way she could think of to hide their house's peculiarities from prying eyes was to upgrade everything, so she needed to talk to her father about it.
Having kept note of her father so she could start making breakfast when he got up, Taylor finished cooking just as he arrived in the kitchen, a quick look at him telling her what she already knew from how he moved around the house.
He was extremely tired, having barely slept overnight. Not because she had kept him up, but rather because he had been too busy thinking.
"Morning Dad." Taylor greeted him as she slid him a cup full of coffee.
"Good Morning Taylor." He automatically replied back, as he took the coffee and drew a very long sip.
"You didn't get much sleep last night?"
"I suppose you don't even need your powers to tell that."
"Just my eyes."
"You dropped a real bombshell on me Taylor. I had a lot to think about, and after considering what you can do, and how mature you've been, I decided that I am going to only ask one thing of you, although I know I can't possibly enforce it."
Rather than interrupting his train of thought, Taylor waited for him to continue.
"I want you to tell me what you're doing, at least in general terms. When you're out on patrols, what your long term plans are, and what you're doing to keep yourself and your identity safe. Those sorts of things."
Taylor relaxed at that. "Of course, that is part of the reason I told you. I need someone I can talk to about all of this. I am not some brute that can just hit things well. There's more I need to tell you now that you had a chance to sleep on it."
"Well, I'm all ears, Taylor."
"Not here, inside my warehouse. It's safer there. If we're going to talk over breakfast, we should move inside."
"Do we need to bring the table and chairs in then?"
"No, I made some last night. We just need to bring the food in."
As Taylor picked up the breakfast dishes, carrying them toward the open door of her personal reality, her father got up from the table, taking his cup of coffee and followed.
"Did you duplicate our kitchen table?"
"I did. While getting used to the Alchemiter, I decided that a spare copy of it and our chairs wouldn't be amiss."
*2/3 charges*
"So what did you want to tell me that couldn't wait for later?"
"It can wait a few minutes. Let the coffee have some time to work first." Taylor informed him as she indicated to her food. Thus prompted, they both started to eat.
It was uncomfortably quiet as she waited for her dad to wake up fully, but still better than discussing before the caffeine hit.
Once her dad was awake enough, Taylor carefully considered her words, waiting for her dad to stop sipping his hot coffee. She didn't need to put her new medical bay to the test on coffee burns right now.
"I learned a few things after you went to bed that are quite terrifying and extremely uncomfortable."
"You went out in costume?" Danny asked, Taylor didn't need her powers to tell the disappointment he felt at that from his tone, but she did need them to get the fact he was only hurt because she did that without telling him.
"No, I got a new ability from my powers, one that lets me know if someone is trying to use their thinker powers to read either me or something that I made or own. I found out that someone was using their thinker powers on us last night."
"Please tell me it's just the PRT being annoying."
"It's much worse than that; it turns out that Simurgh's precog has a much larger reach than even the PRT has admitted, which makes a lot of sense. She wasn't targeting us directly. If she was, I think we would have already been attacked, but I got a glimpse of what she looks for, her and any other precogs in existence. The volume was way too much for even a million precogs, so she must have been part of it.
"A glimpse of what she sees? That sounds like…"
"Something only Scion could do?" Taylor offered.
"Taylor, I am willing to accept a lot. You as the next Eidolon? I don't doubt that for a minute, but the next Scion?"
"I am."
"Taylor-"
"No, dad. I am." Taylor interrupted him forcefully.
"I didn't want to tell you this yet. But I've only seen hints of how far I can grow, and it's insane. The only part of the Enterprise from Star Trek that I can't build at this point is a Warp Drive. I can see upgrade paths for everything else. Life support systems, weapons that could destroy entire cities in one shot, devices whose entire purpose is to take apart planets for resources and so on are all easily on the table."
She took a moment to breathe, "You know how I said I can tell if you're lying? I didn't tell you how far that goes. If it's human, I can instantly tell what they are thinking and if they are lying. Animals like cats and dogs are a bit harder as they are not properly sapient, but I could read even a faceless blob from the other side of the galaxy just as well after a few minutes of conversation."
Taylor laughed bitterly, "I haven't even mentioned my senses, which put animals to shame, or my retroactively perfect memory. I can craft sub-sapient minions out of thin air. I can harvest plants without harvesting them, literally eating my cake and having it too. My powers last night tossed me a medical bay that can restore anything that still has a heartbeat to full function.
I didn't even tell you the full truth about the Alchemiter last night either, it's a 3-D printer that can make absolutely anything theoretically possible. Anything. The only reason I can't just print endbringer killing weapons right now is that I don't yet have the necessary blueprints. Otherwise, I could make a thousand of them in the blink of an eye. I could bury the entire planet in them if I wanted to."
Taylor cut off her rant there, waiting quietly as he stared at her, slowly turning her words around in his head. She had kept throwing things out until she could tell that her father was starting to grasp the immensity of the situation, and that last one seemed to stick. However much she might not like ranting at him like this, it was the only way she could think of to get him to properly understand how serious this was.
*Power Buy Attempt 2.3.3 Counseling Bay (200) + 100 Lock in Tax. Bought. Banked 0 points. *
Taylor was happy for the distraction, even if it was extremely brief, as she got the Counseling Bay upgrade for the Medical Bay, and was a bit annoyed to discover that while it could cure any mental issue given enough time, it did require the person to be willing to go through the process, and the time frame could extend to months of active treatment in the worst cases.
Like before, she gained no plans that would help her recreate this, in fact it seemed to her there was nothing new at all other than she just had it.
"Taylor you… I…"
"Dad, you're not the only one that is extremely uncomfortable with this either. You know how Scion never talks to anyone, always doing good. Well, what would happen if he could talk and be told what to do, and could be threatened though his family if he refused. There's a big reason I didn't tell you this before. While I don't think that the PRT would resort to kidnapping you and ordering me to build weapons that could kill the endbringers, that's also something I would rather not discover I was wrong on."
"You say that, like you don't want to build weapons to stop them."
That stabbed at Taylor's heart, and she quickly moved to correct it on seeing her father really did mean what he said.
"No, no, no. I want to do that, it's just. I don't want to give you up; I don't want to be locked in some gilded cage somewhere and only forced to make what I know. Dad, I haven't mentioned this before, but not all of my tinker tech is black boxed. A lot of it, if I had the right nano-technology, could be replicated by anyone with access to my designs. I know how to reach that point given time."
Pausing to breathe and avoid overwhelming her dad with words, Taylor continued, "I am not exaggerating when I say that I am the next Scion here, and I can see you at least get it now. But I don't want to be like him, some faceless man running from one crisis to the next, who has no care for family or friends and only lives for the sake of helping others at the cost of his family. I want to help people, but I want my family more. I have already lost too much. But you know how the Endbringers are. Be serious, if the PRT knew I could reach such heights— Is it really too much to think that they think costing one girl her dreams are worth stopping them?"
Taylor paused again. Seeing how her dad had taken that quickly added in.
"Don't get me wrong dad, I do want to kill them and will work to do so, but I am more concerned about what happens after."
"You somehow think that… wait, forget that. Of course if some random cape just killed an Endbringer they wouldn't force her to do anything she didn't want to."
Taylor let out a soft chuckle as she recalled the rewards she knew of for killing one. Becoming a King or Queen of a large country was an option, with several royal lines more than willing to abdicate in the favor of whomever killed even one.
"But Taylor, can you build that on your own? You said you can duplicate Endbringer killing weapons, but you don't have the plans for them right now."
"That is what I am going to work on dad, in private. My powers only shield me and what I own or make; it provides some protection to you because you're my father, but you need to be wearing a vest I made to be fully protected outside of my warehouse. But this brings up the next big issue I need to address. I don't want to be cooped in here for the rest of my life."
"Why would you need to do that?"
"The protection for things I don't own, like our house, has limits which are even worse when I am not around. I don't know exactly how much worse, since I can only tell what is blocked when I am around, but outside here there are still things that can scan us."
"You have to own the house to make it safe? Consider it done."
Taylor smiled at her father's willingness to just do that, but had to correct him.
"Unfortunately, that's not forus to decide. In this case, ownership is defined by the locals nearby. For your house it is the US government. Otherwise I could just find some random crazy person and have him give me the universe. That means we have to do any such transfer legally and I know the bank is not going to like you transferring it to your 15 year old daughter that doesn't have a legal job yet that could afford the mortgage. But I do have a solution for that."
"Which is?"
"Things I make always count, regardless of owner. In the case of a building I've got to upgrade every room in it enough to count, but that's more than doable."
"That's why we are eating at a copy of our kitchen table? You can already replace everything in the house so it counts?"
"Well, yes and no. If I do a straight one to one replacement, I have to basically take the entire house down and rebuild it from the foundation completely. Otherwise my power just protects the parts I replaced. Making the dining room table invisible to her isn't going to help much if she can still see everyone sitting around it. However, if I upgrade the room, I will have to replace a far smaller portion of the room. But to do that I have to upgrade, not just replace, objects in the house piece by piece. I can make a stove, but it has to be a better stove, a better bathtub, or a better tv."
*Power Buy Attempt 2.1.4 Key Link (50) Bought. Banked 50 points. *
Reroll since last perk was fully bought/brought to some level of ranking and points > 0
*Power Buy Attempt 3.1.26 Workshop (Samurai Jack) (200) Not Bought. Banked 50 points. *
The first perk changed how Taylor could use her warehouse massively. She understood how her situation had changed as soon as she got the perk. The Key Link created a podium in her entrance hall that let her door open anywhere she had accessed it from before, which allowed her to close the door while in her workshop as she was no longer limited to opening it from the outside.
This meant that she could enter her warehouse from her bedroom, change into her costume, walk out any door she had previously used, and close it behind herself. After heroing for a few hours, she could then reverse the process without any risk of people following her home. Her warehouse could now act as a portal to any door she had used her key on before.
The second perk, simply called "workshop," was a research lab designed for both mundane and magical research, which would be indispensable for designing endbringer-rated weaponry. She locked it in.
"Are we talking obvious tinker tech or something subtle enough for guests to miss?"
"So long as you don't intentionally use the special features, all improvements will run in incognito mode, appearing completely mundane and ordinary when anyone besides the two of us is on the property. The cool features will only work when we're alone."
"How so?"
"It's likely better if I just show you when I'm done setting things up, but it'll be things like endless hot water for showers and windows that dampen sound and regulate room temperature.
If I don't build them all, I'll have to start taking apart the outside of the house. That would definitely be noticeable. I'm keeping it to the minimal list. We can talk about other things later, but I need to bring up something else with you first."
"Namely?"
"Well— I don't know if you caught it in my rant, but one of my new acquisitions was a medical bay that can treat any illness, physical and…"
"Mental. You flash a light in my head and suddenly I am all better in the head?"
"No, no, it's not like that, it's a therapist."
"Your powers come with a therapist...."
Taylor found it odd that her father found that harder to believe than her claims that she was the next Scion.
"And a medical doctor to run the medical bay. They are both AIs, not flesh and blood people, but maybe we should go talk to them now that we are done with breakfast?"
Taylor waited as her father considered it, then nodded as he got up. "Lead the way, Taylor."
0o0
The Medical bay was off the entrance hallway, and thus only a short walk for the father daughter pair.
As they entered, there was a shimmer as the default hologram appeared, which Taylor noted was a balding man of all things.
Taylor took in several things about him at once, noting that his uniform looked Star Trek inspired, despite not matching any of the uniforms she knew from the series. The Tricorder in his hand looked like something out of The Next Generation, but the combadge on his shirt didn't fit the show at all.
Taylor wondered if perhaps she should look into the other Star Trek series that were made on Earth Aleph, but hadn't made it here. Maybe she could recognize him from them; she had heard there were another 3 series over there, but the local company that owned them had stopped importing them, so you couldn't watch them legally over here. Taylor hadn't been one to go hunting down illegal copies of shows before now.
She was starting to think it might be a good idea to start hunting down some illegal collections of Aleph movies and books, given how many times perks based on fiction were showing up, she made a mental note to go check the PHO thread later to see what came up in the last few days.
Her last thought before the newly summoned medical doctor addressed them was that she wasn't getting a read on his thoughts even though he looked like a human.
"Please state the nature of the medical emergency."
Thus dispensing with pleasantries, he made his way over and started to scan them both with the tricorder.
"Emergency Counseling?" Danny asked as he looked at his daughter.
"I am afraid that I only practice medicine of the body, if you need Counseling you will need to speak to my counterpart in the other room. Although before you do that, you have several medical problems that should be corrected."
"What kind of concerns?"
"Various minor illnesses and issues, nothing serious right now, but that is no reason not to treat them while you are here. I can have you back in tip top shape in an hour, and you won't need those ugly glass lenses either. If you want more details, either consent to discussing medical issues around your daughter or we can wait for her to leave."
"You can give me the full list in front of her, but first, is there anything wrong with her?"
The Doctor had waved his tricorder over Taylor briefly when they entered, then quickly focused entirely on Danny.
"Extremely minor issues that amount to improper diet— I could have her fixed up and out within minutes. A more detailed list of what is wrong with you, for the layman, includes early stages of cancer, several degraded organs of various causes between age, illness, lack of proper nutrition and exercise, and so on and so forth. If you really want the full list, I can share it, but it would take several hours to list everything medical wrong with you that I could correct."
"Hours?"
"So long as it is still alive, there is nothing I can't treat and bring back to full function." The Doctor replied.
"That's what my powers say about this too, Dad. So long as it is organic that is."
"Fully organic or fully inorganic but alive. I can't blend the two with what I have here, but I can repair metallic life as well. If it is a Hybrid between the two, I do my best to repair both sides, but I need more than I have access to right now before I can mess with organic-inorganic interfaces. I could certainly keep them alive, but how much I could bring them back to full function really depends on both the kind and type of a Hybrid they are."
"You don't have to if you don't want to, Dad. I am not going to make you but…"
"You want me to." Danny noted with a nod. Taylor could see how he was taking it and asked. "Nothing serious in the next few days?"
"So long as you don't decide to start any extreme sports in those days, yes."
"Then can I hold off on those, although I think I do want to try and speak to this therapist… What is your name anyway?"
"I don't have one, you can refer to me as anything you like."
Taylor saw her dad look at her and explained.
"He's an AI designed entirely to do medicine, nothing else. He just came off the default template, so he doesn't have a name yet. We can give him one, much like the therapist in the next room if we want to."
*1.5/3.5*
"Right, lets go talk to him? Her? It?"
"They can look like whatever we want them to… but they default to the most appropriate form to help accelerate their patients' healing." Taylor replied after a brief consideration of her power.
"Right, let's go talk to this supposed great therapist that can fix anything." Danny ordered, and the pair headed into the Counseling Bay to do just that.
0o0
After talking with the sagely woman, who lacked a name and who Taylor could best describe as appearing trustworthy, Danny had agreed to stay and talk to her for a bit, pleasing Taylor quite a bit.
She left her father to it as she got started on her upgrade plans, having enough to do around the house to truly say she made the house and not someone else.
There was a lot more she had to install than she hinted to her dad to get to that point, but those would be hidden in the walls, where neither he nor someone else could casually find them.
She chose something rather significant in it's own way, although rather minor to start with the broken step in the front stairs.
With everything she had to do, it seemed almost an afterthought, because there was no way she could upgrade it to be perfectly anti-slip, to automatically melt any snow that fell on it, or to posessany number of rather mundane improvements that fell under Scientific Solution when mixed with all of her perks, because those would be immediately noticeable to passers-by.
Since someone could be watching her do this, or maybe recording, It was the only thing she had to do at human speeds. Not able to just push the nails in with her bare hand, she had to use a hammer.
As she hit the hammer down, she wished she could say fixing this step would be the last thing she would do at purely human speeds, although she knew that wasn't possible so long as she had a cape identity. As long as she was out of costume she would have to keep to human limitations where people could see her.
Making her way back into the house after the quick fix, she quickly threw up blackout curtains around the house, keeping the speed slow enough that it could be both her and her dad throwing them up, making it so that no one could see what was going on inside.
Then, once she was done, she drew entirely on her planned upgrades for the house that she had been pushing off because her dad would notice.
Since she had powers now, it no longer mattered.
For entirely practical reasons, since her dad might want to go to bed while she was working, she redid his bedroom first.
The speed at which she could get it done was insane.
No longer holding back, Taylor moved 20 times faster than a human could at best, with the same strength and superhuman precision.
Her dad's bedroom was stripped and cleaned, everything replaced with better versions in a way that was trivial for her now that she had access to an Alchemiter, with captchalogue cards completely removing any concerns for how to get the stuff in and out through a door. They could store and withdraw items as fast as she could use them after all.
Taylor had gone overboard on the sleep enchanting bed as much as she could for her dad, the blankets tailored as best she could make, and as she set the bed for him, she made certain to carefully leave the spot that her mother would have slept left the way he kept it, even though her mother had never touched this new bed. She would keep the old bed in a card safe from everything in her warehouse, she had memories of sleeping as a kid in her mother's arms in this bed, letting it get destroyed or lost wouldn't do at all.
An idle thought went to potentially figuring out a way to revive her mother someday, but Taylor didn't let that rest in her mind. Not until she had proof that the domain of life and death itself was in her grasp in some way.
But even if she could, would she want to bring her mother back to this accursed world?
Taylor refused to answer that question, as she diverted all of her attention to the house, upgrading anything and everything she could get her hands on, finally free to cut loose, no longer making tools to fight, but tools for luxury.
Although the reason she dared do this much was to hide their house, she had wanted to do it anyway.
The pipes system was upgraded not to just give endless hot water, but pressures that could let them double as pressure washers if turned the dial up that much, with a safety switch and warning label of course.
Anything that Taylor could put her hands on to upgrade, she did. The soap dispensers in the bathroom were not just limitless, but automagically gave you the right next type of soap, shampoo or whatever you need, no need to worry about the right container, or even being nearby. It would move to drop it right into your hand, including whatever you might drop by mistake, so you always got the perfect amount.
The Living Room's TV was upgraded to a projector that would read the moods of everyone who was going to watch, pick what they most collectively enjoyed and play a copy of it regardless of wherever it was from this universe or another.
Taylor was sure it wasn't limited to Earth Bet, but she hadn't been able to leverage that just yet to turn it into internet access for the new household computers she scattered around.
Hints of how to do it were there, but she couldn't seem to get them to work without an active and constant internet connection to tap into, which meant she would bring it up with her dad after dinner, and have a proper high speed internet service set up so she could try and hook up to other realities.
*2.5/3.5*
She was most proud of the kitchen, with spice racks that would automatically give you the next one, containers that would always pour out exactly the right amount based on the end flavoring of the quality of the spice so it was always perfect; a stove that cooked 10 times faster and would keep anything on it fresh and un-burnt until it was removed; a fridge that was a literal stasis machine that kept the meals inside exactly as they were put in, meaning if they had leftovers, they would always be perfect until they ate them;and a dishwasher that instantly cleaned dishes no matter how soiled they were joined the fray.
Despite the speeds she could move at and everything she had access to, it took Taylor hours to finish, and by the time she put the last touches on her work, she had heard her dad settle into the living room, after finishing with the therapist and taking a nap.
Any concern for incriminating sound carrying to a passerby outside was taken care of, much like heating and cooling thanks to the windows that doubled as heating and air conditioning.and new doors that blocked any sound from within. She could barely hear through them and her hearing was good enough to draw a map of where she was from just the sound echoes of wind in the hallway.
Taylor went to find her dad, finding him watching a documentary on Scion.
She didn't need her emotion sense to get why he was watching that, but she looked at it anyway to confirm. He was comparing her to him.
Taylor studied Scion curious why she didn't get anything from him, the people on the recording she could read as clear as day, but him....
It made her recall her medical doctor, which looked far more human than Scion did, and how she couldn't get a read on him either, which indicated he wasn't human.
Or he had a power that blocked her powers. Taylor wasn't sure which it was, and it would be something she would investigate more when she had free time. She had to push off her final golems to get everything done, but she felt wonderful after finally getting a chance to let loose.
"You will be able to do that, one day."
"Yeah, it looks like it." Taylor agreed with her dad. "Like the TV?"
"It's a bit freaky how it started playing that as soon as I sat down, and I am not sure how we ever have anyone over without some things standing out. But… it was the best night of sleep I ever had, even if it wasn't night."
"Today has been amazing, you don't know how much I've been wanting to do this."
"I think I can guess with the way you were going. Do I still need to arrange for the internet?"
"Yeah, I can't seem to upgrade the computers to get free internet, not without some serious hardware that I think would draw the Protectorate to investigate how I was tapping into their servers or something like that."
"Speaking of the Protectorate." Danny shifted the topic. "Taylor, I get what you told me, and I also get why you don't want to join the wards, so don't think I am telling you to do that. But, can you really design an Endbringer killing weapon on your own?"
"Maybe. I don't know if I can on my own any time soon, and I am not willing to wait until I can get help. I considered what to do, and I did figure out an option that doesn't require me to form my own team or join New Wave or something like that."
"What option is that?"
"I'm going to join the Guild."
"Can you even do that? I thought that they were a Canadian only team?"
"Not since they semi-merged with the Protectorate. They maintain, and expect, a high degree of autonomy. Dragon is a member of the Guild, and doing what she does seems like an ideal model to start with at least. The only things that put me in danger right now, are exactly what the Guild focuses on."
"Well you clearly know more than I do about them, I am quite sure they don't just accept anyone."
"You need 10 recommendations from either Guild Members, PRT Directors or Protectorate Division Leaders, with at least three of them being existing Guild Members."
"Of which, you have none."
"Right, although I am planning to get in contact with Dragon and once I can convince her that it is a good idea, she can tell me who best to work on next. Before you ask why I can just get in touch with her, well I can't. I plan to answer Armsmaster to do such."
"What have you done that would make him do that for you?"
"Nothing personally, but I plan to offer a scanner in trade. Dragon has a list of tinker tech she really wants to study, and scanners are top of the list because they are extremely rare. Those that can make them don't want to lose them, and those that the PRT could get from arrests, rarely have them in a complete enough state to be worthwhile. If I get Armsmaster to agree, I can get him to pass it on to Dragon and we can get in touch."
WhileTaylor would have had concerns about the Simurgh drawing on this scanner, she knew that prior to getting blank the much better scanner she used from Iji was already in her hands, and so unless it was better than the old one in some way, she wasn't revealing anything new.
"I take it you have more than just a scanner to impress her, right?"
"It is what I have to start with, but I need to be somewhat careful with how quickly I share stuff. Doing too much too quickly would cause massive disruptions, but never sharing anything for fear of consequences isn't a valid response either. Dragon is the only one outside of the PRT that could help me with doing that properly, and I need to talk to her about how to go about doing more. However, scanners are listed as items she is extremely interested in, so it will be more than enough on its own."
0o0
Taylor left her father after spending another hour talking to him, to go put her plans into motion.
Before she called Armsmaster, she wanted to confirm a few things about her new medical bay that she didn't want to ask while her father was there, things that might change what she offered the PRT in time.
*Power Buy Attempt 3.1.26 Workshop (Samurai Jack) (200) + 150 Lock in tax Bought. Banked 0 points. *
One of Taylor's thought streams focused on the Lab she got, surprised that it was a lot larger than she was expecting. It was equal in size to her current warehouse; she could tell that without even going inside.
What was more interesting was how it mixed with her other perks, as she could feel it gave out better stuff than would have been provided if she didn't have the other perks. It provided the best she could make if she had all the time and resources she might want to take her upgrades to the limits.
She could see how useful that would be as the Doctor greeted her.
"Please state the nature of the medical emergency."
"Do you have to say that every time?"
"It is my default, if you wish to change it you can."
"How about 'welcome to the medbay'?"
"I will say that next time until you tell me otherwise. Did you need something?"
"Yes, a few questions answered. Can you leave this room? My Warehouse?"
"It is not possible without other perks you don't have yet."
"Which perks?"
"You would need the Reality Extruder."
"I haven't seen that one yet, do you know where it is?" Taylor asked, since to get this doctor that could heal anything outside the medical bay, would be useful enough that if it was only a single charge perk, it was worth the up charge.
"Not a clue, I just know what I would need to leave these walls. You have to figure out where it is on your own."
Taylor sighed at that, only to shift her mood when she saw that she could now see how the Doctor's thoughts went, like he was a real human.
Her thoughts went to the phrase, a faceless blob after a few minutes of conversation, which hadn't really applied before, but now did. Perhaps she should watch a few more videos of Scion when she had some free time.
"I'll see if I can figure it out then.There was something else I needed to know; can you fix someone that has been mind controlled?"
"That depends on the exact method of mind control. I could remove anything that was doing it on a physical level, as long as I could identify it as doing such and repair any physiological effects it had, but any emotional effects, anything related to the mind would have to be handled by my counterpart, and while I could be told to heal someone against their will although I would rather all my patients either agree, or clearly are not able to either consent or refuse treatment for one reason or another first. That is not true of my counterpart. He can't force someone into a better state of mind. "
"What about altering people to resist mind control?"
"Not possible with the tools I have. You have to make them first. I can only fix people to a healthy normal, not make them better, with what I have access to."
Taylor nodded, not bothering to ask about altering powers, since that clearly wasn't an option just yet, and even if it was, getting Glory Girl to agree to such would have been borderline impossible.
0o0
Selene opened a door to one of the random run down doors she had previously used her key on in the downtown area and peeked outside to see if she was alone.
After confirming that she was alone, she quickly used her new strife deck, to swap from her armor to her civilian clothes, since she had set it to clothing-kind.
From a battle perspective, clothing-kind seemed a bit stupid, since it limited her entirely to what she could wear as weapons, but when it came to swap out of armor and into civilian wear, it made it as simple as a thought.
It wasn't something she was limited to for life, she could make new strife decks for other types of weapons, they were just costly.
From there, Taylor made her way to a new café where she could access a private VPN to do some detailed research on Dragon.
Before she called Armsmaster, she wanted to make certain that she could offer something to speak with the woman.
Researching Dragon, Taylor very quickly found something wrong. Dragon, much like Scion, wasn't triggering her lie detection.
Watching a few videos of the woman to be certain, Taylor confirmed that she got nothing from the woman in any of them.
Taylor's first thought after that was the Dragon was an AI like her Doctors, but after she thought about that a bit more, she realized that her answer was one step removed.
An AI didn't just come into an existence, not one as complex as the doctor.
Primitive AI, however, was far easier to create. She knew how to make several of those to support some of the more complex devices she could make. These AIs were even dumber than her golems, which said a lot about how limited they were.
If you kept them within a context, such as public speaking, or fighting, they could do quite well. Ergo, Dragon wasn't an AI, but a Tinker who made AIs that fought for her.
It was a good idea, much like her minions, so long as they were not too advanced.
Taylor eyed Dragon's official PHO account. Even as Selene, she wasn't sure that Dragon would reply to her, but she decided it was worth the try anyway.
Selene said:
Hello Dragon,
I am sure you get messaged by all the new tinkers in the world looking to work with you, and here I am doing the same. I have a few projects I like to work with you on, namely medical gear I think can really help out the PRT in the aftermath of attacks. I can share more details in a more secure medium if you are interested.
With that done, Taylor sent a message off to Glory Girl, indicating that she was happy to go on a patrol with her, and could do it any day after school this week.
*Power Buy Attempt 1.2.1 Heightened Reactions II (100) Bought. Banked 0 points. *
One of Taylor's thought streams considered the new perk, realizing that she now couldn't be surprised by any attack. She could even defend against or dodge any attack, even ones she was not aware of. What was more interesting was with it, she realized that one of her sub-domains, that under her body was finished and there were no more perks she could get there.
She then looked over to see that Dragon, or rather one of Dragon's AIs since she couldn't get anything from the woman behind the message, had responded.
"Dragon" said:
Hello Selene,
It might surprise you to learn that there are far less tinkers than you would expect contacting me. Those that are of a heroic inclination generally reach out to the PRT first and I meet them though them, while those that are not heroically inclined don't tend to message heroes about such things.
Most of what I get on PHO is filtered out by my spam AIs, as it is just from normal people wishing me well or thanking me for what I did, but anyone with a verified cape ID alerts me and I check those messages personally.
I would be extremely interested in any sort of examination of medical tinker tech you managed to create and would like to talk to you over a more secure channel. I can't promise anything I consider secure outside of PRT HQ, but if you have one you're comfortable with, we can use that.
Taylor knew that even that wasn't really secure based on what was hitting her house, but she knew quite well that without physically meeting up, there was no way to secure a private channel that couldn't be eavesdropped on by enough powers.
Blank nicely took care of thinker attacks on a secured channel, so she pulled up one she was familiar with and sent over the link to Dragon.
"Selene" said:
I won't go into the high-level details in this chat, Dragon, but this is secure enough to talk general terms.
"Dragon" said:
Understood, this is one of the better private chat sites. You clearly did your research ahead of time.
"Dragon" said:
That said, I have already talked to Armsmaster about what you showed off, including your sensor and your healing device that you accidently left behind. Would I be correct in assuming those are what you wanted to talk to me about working on?
[/QUOTE="Selene"]
The sensor, yes. I won't share exact details remotely, but I've been working on making a non-tinker tech copy, much like you do. I think I got a similar power to yours, as I was able to get something that was massively inferior to the details my sensor would give, while still providing basic biometric data at a fair distance. Which besides helping to locate people during mass casualty events, should also help doctors narrow in very quickly on the worst wounded and focus on them first.
"Selene" said:
I hadn't had much luck in the healing device to that level just yet, it was too blackboxed for me to understand how it works just yet, but maybe you have some ideas.
"Dragon" said:
You have me even more interested with that, tinkers that can reverse engineer technology of other tinkers are extremely rare. Masamune is the only one that really showed promise in that area. Armsmaster is only able to do such in a very limited context, but even what he can do is extremely unusual for a tinker, showing how good he is. A fourth would be a very big deal.
"Selene" said:
I understand that, which is why I reached out to you. I had a major breakthrough last night, and finally felt like I could prove my claims to you rather than just make a baseless claim. I am sure you're rather busy, and arranging a proper location to arrange a meeting would take a few days?
"Dragon" said:
While I have enough clout that I could arrange a meeting right away for such an item, it would make Director Piggot a lot happier if we scheduled it for this weekend. Armsmaster did mention to me you wished to speak to the local wards as well, perhaps we could combine this? You could have lunch with some of them first, and then afterwards we can head to Armsmaster lab on the RIG to go over your designs and see what you managed to make.
Taylor blinked in surprise as Dragon suddenly clicked for her Empathetic perk, and much like the Doctor, she could now see intention and truthfulness.
Or rather the truthfulness of one of her AIs, Taylor noted as she scanned back everything to see what had come up. This AI wasn't lying, and wanted to believe her claims and let her prove it so she could do more good.
At least until Taylor read the line about checking these messages personally, then she frowned as she read that again.
Truth.
Either this AI believed she was Dragon or… Dragon really was an AI. But if she was an AI, who made her?
Taylor wasn't happy she had yet another mystery to look into, but this one seemed rather critical if she was going to be making a long term relationship with Dragon, as she knew there could be some serious restrictions on AIs that might cause issues.
Well she pondered this on a separate thread of her mind, the one talking to Dragon replied as if nothing had happened.
"Selene" said:
That would be ideal for me, I was going to call Armsmaster to arrange for such a meeting on Saturday, although I hadn't considered lunch with them as an option. How long would it take you to notify him of this, so when I call him to arrange it he knows your onboard?
"Dragon" said:
I'll send him a message right now, it's from me, so he will review it within 5 minutes unless he's tied up in something big.
"Selene" said:
Tell him I'll give him a call in an hour then, and we can work out the final details.
0o0
An hour later, Taylor made her way to another random location in the city, swapped into her armor for safety, then called Armsmaster's number.
*Power Buy Attempt 2.1.18 Improved Regulation (400), Requires 2.1.17 Environmental Controls (200) Not Bought. Banked 100 points. *
Selene briefly considered this perk, and while she could see the use of being able to alter anything in her warehouse from temperature, to gravity and such, the perk made it clear she could change things like that, although not how much, unless she decided to somehow weaponize bring people into her warehouse, it wasn't useful for fighting because if a enemy was in her warehouse she would have already lost.
So she left that one alone and let it drop back into the pool of powers.
"Armsmaster talking."
"Hello Armsmaster, this is Selene."
"Selene, right on time, Dragon told me to expect a call."
Selene noted that he was quite happy she called because it distracted him from what was going on. She could hazard a guess that it had to do with Sophia.
"The PRT recovered all of your thinker-tech healing blankets, and I can have them dispatched anywhere within the city within an hour, are you ready to receive those?"
"I am, you can have them delivered to 8th and Western Street."
"I will be there personally in 15 minutes, we can continue to talk while I travel."
"Okay, I'll be waiting for you. Given what I discussed with Dragon, I assume that me having Lunch with the wards on Saturday is fine?"
"Yes, it will be."
"Saturday at noon for lunch, then the meeting with dragon afterwards? Both are fine, I take it you know which ward you wish to talk with?"
"Yes, Kid Win, Gallant and Vista. I know you warned me that Gallant isn't a normal tinker, but I still would like to talk to him as well."
There was a pause that Selene could hear even over the line was Armsmaster looking up something. She could tell he wasn't expecting all three of them from that.
"Yes, we can do that. If you arrive at the PRT building at 11:30 AM, we can have you all have lunch, and we head over to my Lab on the RIG after you are done."
"That would be fine."
"Do you have any preferences or restrictions I should be aware of?"
"No, and just pizza or something like that is fine. I have no allergies to take note of."
0o0
A few minutes later, Armsmaster arrived, and approached her.
"Selene." He greeted her.
"Armsmaster."
"Here you go." He informed her as he removed a bundle from his bike and handed it to her.
Selene already could tell something was wrong from her scanner, but she took them out to check them over herself carefully.
"Not all of these are my blankets." Selene observed noticing that the truthfulness of her words were being checked by something Armsmaster had on him. Blank II let her control what it would inform him, which she decided to keep everything she said as truthful.
"Are you sure?" Armsmaster asked, and Selene could tell he was surprised and didn't know this himself, which meant he hadn't been the one to swap them out.
"Very much so, these here are clearly mine, I can feel the… remains of my power might be the best word to use, I am not sure what the proper tinker term is, but I know these are mine and what they do. They are correct. These four however, are just normal blankets, convincing fakes, but fakes."
"Perhaps they just stopped working and you are not that familiar with it?"
"No, I had plenty of my tech stop working already. I know what that feels like. Those I can repair this feels like I haven't even started on it."
"Well you're not lying, which means either the PRT officers didn't get the real blanket back and those that had them still do, or someone intercepted them. I will look into it for you."
On seeing that Armsmaster felt that failure to do such reflected poorly on him, she nodded and replied. "Thank you. I certainly want them back, I don't suppose you have any idea who might have taken them?"
"Not at this time, there are no known criminals in Brockton Bay that could have done it, even if they knew the blankets existed. I need to go look deeper into that, and double check the other tinker tech we have secured as well. I apologize for leaving now."
"No, it's fine, that sounds critical."
Once he was gone, Selene brought the blankets back into her warehouse, lowered her helmet to take a deep sniff to be certain who had handled them, then set off to go find out who had replaced them.
0o0
Wednesday, February 9th, 2011
0o0
When morning rolled around, Selene had found everyone that handled them was a PRT officer, which meant either whoever had replaced them hadn't left any scent, or was a PRT officer.
Questioning PRT officers to see who had taken it wasn't an option, but there was a much safer way.If she built a scanner, it could lock onto the magical enchantment in the cloth and tell her exactly where it was, something she hadn't seen a need for yet. Now, however, it would be extremely useful in the search for her missing gear.
0o0
*Power Buy Attempt 2.2.8 The Meaning of Life (100) Not Bought, Requires 2.2.7 The Pond (200) Bought. Banked 0 points. *
While on patrol with Vicky and Amy, who Vicky had invited along, Selene felt her power activating to buy a perk, which gave her a rather nice, although lifeless lake in her warehouse.
She supposed it would be fairly relaxing as it had a nice beach to it, and with her sky simulator it would look rather natural too. Maybe she could store marine vehicles in it or something.
There was no life in it to start with; that was what the perk her power had tried to get first was for. It would add wildlife to her lake.
It was not worth locking in, so Selene let it go, as she noticed that a blonde girl on the path they were on was waiting for them.
She would have wondered how this happened given blank, was it not for the fact she knew that Glory Girl had taken them on her standard route, at first Selene thought she was here about Vicky, but then she noticed that the girl was using a power to study her. To learn things about her, focus on her thoughts, her feelings and her items. Her power was pushing her to study Selene more, and the girl seemed rather desperate to do it as if she was afraid of something bad if she failed.
Had Selene not already known that Glory Girl had posted in their her PHO thread that they would be going on a patrol together at this time on her normal routes, Selene would have wondered how she figured that out. But Blank II didn't protect against someone just sharing information like that. So long as the girl read her PHO thread, she would have learned that.
The fact she was there for her however, was enough to draw Selene's attention to make sure she picked up on the girl's scent, even though her perfect memory and senses would have caught it anyway, by focusing on it she made certain it was in her mind, she wondered what the story behind her was, and wondered where the girl would end up on the ever growing list of things to worry about.
0o0
After the patrol was over, Selene decided to go and look into that blonde girl more. The girl wasn't someone Taylor had seen before, and so she was quite curious who the girl was.
Rather than just start hunting the girl down, she first went into a new door and out another random door to change where she had appeared.
As she did that, she swapped her clothes for a sneaking set she had made, which lacked the armor boosts because it was just clothes, but it was focused entirely on sneaking around and it only took her an instant to change if she got into trouble.
With that in place, she made her way out into the city, smelling around for the girl she had ran into, quickly closing in on her scent near where she had been and moved around to find out where she had come from and where she had gone afterwards, which had been two different directions.
Going where she had come from first, Selene followed the scent trail to a seemingly abandoned building, with the name Redmond Welding, and she could hear two people inside. Drawing on her senses, mostly the smell of those that either lived there or went often enough to count, she concluded that one was male, one was female.
There were also three dogs, along with the scent of hundreds of other dogs that only could come from someone that worked with them.
At this point, Selene had an idea what she had found, given that Hellhound was noted to be in the city. There was nothing indicating that Hellhound and Grue was working together, but finding a random team with at least 2 Capes on it, when she knew that Grue was a part of some 'unknown cape team' according to the tags on her videos?
Occam's razor said that it was more likely to be the same team rather than two different teams, and Selene could guess why said blonde girl was interested in her. Grue had seen her in armor, and there had been a girl who peeked her head out too fast for Selene to look at her, but slow enough to appear on sensors for an instant.
Selene tentatively labeled them Grue's team, then spent a few minutes confirming that neither person inside was going to talk. The boy was playing games and the girl was with her dogs, so she left to go follow the other route the blonde had taken.
That quickly led to an abandoned Endbrigner shelter, which had far too much traffic to be abandoned.
The walls were too thick for her to hear inside, but what she could see with her expanded senses indicated that either this abandoned shelter was far more complete than the sign indicated, or it had been taken over by a Villain.
In either case, the PRT hadn't noticed.
0o0
Back in her warehouse, Taylor had been about to start work on her Golem, when she felt her power trigger and grabbed her a new perk.
*Power Buy Attempt 3.8.18 Tailor Made (Career Model) (100) Bought, Banked 0 points.*
The new perk she got made her pause as she now could make anything look good, without spending any time on appearance whatsoever.
It was a rather interesting perk that didn't give her new options, other than nicer looking creations.
Letting her thoughts of her new perk and what she could do with it go, Taylor focused her entire mind on finishing her first true golem. She should have it ready before morning at this rate, she would stop just before it was finished, captchalogue the almost done golem, and then she could duplicate it almost done state, bring it to her workshop to finish it, and make it finished state fiat-backed.
Which would let her replace the temporary iron golem, with two very good ones, and when she could make at third in about a week, she would just add it to her collection. Leaving them to make Grist well she didn't need them outside.
Taylor smiled as she thought to herself, Exponential growth here we come!
0o0
End of Chapter 05
0o0
Interlude 04: Missy 'Vista' Biron
0o0
Wednesday, February 9th, 2011
0o0
"Did we all forget what time this was supposed to take place at?" Kid Win, as he like the rest of the wards was in costume asked the group.
Vista, like everyone else, glanced at the clock which showed the all hands meeting for the wards. It showed it was five minutes before the time she had been told, and if she had been alone, she might have wondered herself.
"Maybe Sophia decided to skip this meeting." Vista offered back.
"An all hands meeting called by Director Piggot for us to meet with Armsmaster about something critical? She was already on thin ice as it is." Kid Win noted.
Vista didn't bother hiding her sigh at that, as she already knew that. If she never saw Sophia again in her life, it would be way too soon.
After Sophia joined the wards— on probation as they knew— it had taken a few weeks for her to settle down on what was the most she could get away with being rude, abrasive and not a team player, without being punished for such actions.
With Vista herself taking the brunt of it, being the only other girl on the team, allowing the girl more access to her in more private areas then the other wards were allowed to access outside of emergencies.
Female locker rooms and showers were off limits to the men, and given that the recordings of them were written to storage devices that could only be accessed with the direct authorization of Director Piggot, which was for if they disappeared while in them or something like that, meant that anything that happened inside was treated as she said, she said.
Sophia knew better than to do anything that could ever authorize Director Piggot to release those for review to show of her misconduct inside, and while most of the time Vista could just not be in there when Sophia was, any official event that required them to both get ready at the same time meant that they had to be unobserved together far more often than she was comfortable with.
Before she had met Sophia, Vista hadn't really understood what people meant when they said they would give anything to get rid of someone, nor had she really pondered if she could 'mess up her powers' and get away with causing someone injuries without getting in trouble for it.
Sophia had forced her to reconsider both of her viewpoints in that regard, but she had yet to make headway on the latter question. She was too well trained and she knew that Sophia could do far worse in those private areas then she already did, she had done so for the first few months before finally mellowing out about a month ago, which made Vista wonder what had finally caused that.
But the fact was, Vista could see things getting worse for her should she tried something to get back at Sophia and Sophia didn't believe it was really an accident.
Still, it had been quite the revelation to Vista, about exactly how much more she could get away with, and that not being the perfect little good and nice girl she had been raised to be, would be tolerated by those in charge, even if they told her it wouldn't be.
The reason for Kid Win's confusion was quite clear. Sophia could get away with a lot, but Director Piggot had made it quite clear the first time Sophia wasn't early to one of her meetings, that unless she was in the hospital, or in M/S screening, she either had to give proper notice ahead of time that she wouldn't be there, or she would end up satisfying one of the less desirable preconditions for absence.
The door to the room opened, drawing everyone attention that way, and Vista watched as Armsmaster entered first, a glance at the clock with that noting that he wasn't exactly on time, indicating he had arrived with someone, which as she was expecting was Director Piggot just a minute before they were scheduled to start.
Vista watched as they glanced around the room to make sure everyone had arrived, and she was caught off guard when Piggot didn't start by asking where Sophia was.
"Good, you all here on time as you should be. I will be brief and let Armsmaster fill you in on the details as I am still cleaning up the mess."
Piggot paused to glare at the room to make sure everyone was paying their full attention, then she continued.
"Effectively immediately, Sophia Hess is no longer a ward, and has been placed into Federal Prison, pending her trial for the attempted murder of a classmate of her, with the help of at least a dozen other accomplices."
Although it was clear from several wards that they wanted to interrupt. Piggot just got louder to make it clear that they couldn't do such.
"Armsmaster will fill you in on the details you are allowed to know. But let me make one thing clear. Her behavior as a ward hasn't just been unacceptable, but her actions were bad enough that if this leaks to the public, it would cause grave damage to the Protectorate as a whole unless we took extremely drastic actions."
Pausing to glance at each Ward in turn, forceful enough that Vista shifted backwards in her chair slightly at the intensity behind it, the woman then continued.
"Normally I wouldn't be this specific, because I expect you to get what that means, but I will reiterate from the rules and regulations. Extremely grievous offenses can be punished by the Bird Cage or even outright Execution. There is no immunity to such punishments just because you are a ward, and you are supposed to be the example for heroes to live up to. Not villains. I will leave you to Armsmaster now. He will answer any questions you have to the level you are allowed to know."
Vista, much like her fellow wards, was left dumbfounded at that, not speaking, as Director Piggot left.
They had all been warning when they joined that extreme crimes commited as part of a ward could bring about those punishments, but it had been something they didn't really want to drive home to them and while it was made certain they understood it, was also made clear that would require basically outright murder in public in their costume, and after the breifing it wasn't talked about ever again.
"She did this in costume?" Gallant asked.
"No, which is why the PRT has not already had to announce we would be seeking the Bird Cage for such a grievous crime, and we wish to keep it this way. The public story you will tell people is that Shadow Stalker has, after her trial period with the Wards, decided that it took too much time away from her education, and has decided to retire and refocus on her schooling, and plans to consider joining the Protectorate proper when she is an adult."
There was a brief pause then he added.
"You do not wish to know what will be done with you if you leak this, and the PRT will authorize the full use of Watchdog to figure out who did it and how. This is not information that would normally be told to you, but Sophia Hess will get a rather public trial in the upcoming months, and both she and her Lawyer have been made clear that if she tries to out herself as Shadow Stalker, we will push for the Bird Cage. Her friends that know the same already have secured deals that they will not out her either, in exchange for only facing accessory charges, rather than murder in the first degree, bioterrorism and a whole list of other charges. Which leads me to something you all need to know."
For an instant, Vista wondered if they were included in that list, only to realize as soon as she thought such, that if it had been the case, the Director would have already said such.
"At this point in the investigation, we are mostly certain none of you knew what she was going to do. But due to the coverups done by PRT officers that are also facing life in jail for their actions, we are not excluding this either. Chief Director Costa-Brown has agreed to Director Pigott's request for an independent team to investigate this, and they will be arriving tomorrow to go over the case themselves, including interviews with you." Armsmaster paused for a moment to look each of the Wards in the eye.
"If you knew anything about this, or some other crimes that your PRT handler has helped you to cover up, or even unsanctioned patrols that they told you were okay in retrospect, you have 10 days to tell either them, or one of us about, and while this will not absolve you completely of punishment for your actions, we will be extremely lenient to anything you disclose before the investigators find something incriminating. Chief Director Costa-Brown knows how lucky that we are that this hasn't made the news, and we are going to ensure there is nothing similar hiding here in Brockton Bay PRT."
Vista shifted uncomfortably at that, as she recalled that she had the same handler that Sophia did, the highly experienced woman was viewed as best for the new ward under Probation, and it was not like each ward got their own dedicated hander when they reached her level of experience.
The woman had known quite a bit about her own 'unsanctioned patrols', and Armsmaster had called that out.
Vista could see very clearly that it was tell the investigators about that now, or else.
"Any other questions?"
Vista didn't have any, and she could tell from the lack of anyone else saying anything they didn't either.
"Good. Now, there was another reason for this meeting to be called, a much more positive one. As you should all be aware of, namely Selene."
Vista perked up at that. Selene had made quite the splash with her arrival. Well it hardly was a good thing, and there was an implication she could see behind the girl holding off until she could do something big as her first appearance. Saving the lives of 10 people and then posting a recording of her doing such earned her a lot of good will off the bat, plus she had expressed interest in the Wards as well.
Vista really wanted her to join up, have a proper girl peer.
Selene had pulled off an introduction that would have driven the PR people crazy with how good it was.
They had been cleared to talk to her already, and were told there was a non-zero chance that she would show up at the event back on Saturday and they should keep an eye out, and if someone seemed more curious then a random civilian would be about them to consider sharing a bit more than normal.
Vista hadn't noticed anything, but she also expected that Selene would be much more interested in Kid Win or maybe even Gallant, given the first was a tinker and the second was publicly a tinker. If either of them had, Gallant would be better than anyone, and he hadn't told her.
"Selene has contacted me and wishes to speak with several of you over lunch in a more private setting, namely, Kid Win, Gallant and Vista."
"And me?" Vista injected in surprise.
"Correct, I recommended it to her, and she liked the idea. We are hoping that we can cover up Shadow Stalker's reported retirement by announcing she is joining the wards. As such the three of you will be having lunch with her at the PRT HQ on Saturday, and until then you will all be working closely with PR to best prepare you. As I determined from talking to her, she is interested in the wards and just needs assurances she can trust you before she takes the final step. Afterwards, she has agreed to allow Dragon and I to examine her sensor with basic scans."
"Dragon is already interested in her tech?" Kid Win injected.
Vista heard a feeling of surprise in his tone that she fully agreed with. It was rather big deal for Dragon to jump to such.
"Sensors are one of the rarest examples of tinker tech, and one of the few things that Dragon will put off studying other tinkertech for a chance to even just look at one. Sensors like these are not something even she has been able to reverse engineer yet, although she suspects that is more due to how rare they are. Although I don't expect much to come of it, I am hoping that even a brief session with Dragon will eliminate any lingering doubts that the Wards is not the best place for her."
0o0
End of Interlude 04
0o0
Perks earned in this chapter:
2.3.2 Medical Bay
2.3.3 Counseling Bay
2.1.4 Key Link
3.1.26 Workshop (Samurai Jack)
1.2.2 Heightened Reactions II
2.2.7 The Pond
3.8.18 Tailor Made (Career Model)
