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The Trio are going to be in so much trouble. The CDC is going to be needed for clean up at a minimum due to what they put in the locker. Add in whatever criminal charges that can be brought up and when the news eventually gets ahold of this story.

And that is not forgetting that the PRT will have to face off against a pissed off tinker and the DWU. Yeah, I don't think the Trio has a chance.
 
We Just Write said:
"Well, we finally managed to get teleporters that can move a human working. Though our version needs a receiver with a vacuum chamber, otherwise there are serious problems. Not submitting them for testing just yet since we want to focus on another project right now."
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Sounds like someone's been readying Larry Niven's "Exercise in Speculation: The Theory and Practice of Teleportation". Or if you haven't, I recommend the audiobook version. It certainly applies for this story.
 
Not so sure on the Taybot concept. Pretty sure that Panacea should be able to sort out pretty much anything that happens to her without problems. The video/audio though will sink the terror trio quite nicely though.

As far as Taylor triggering? 50/50 on that. I can see plenty of ways to avoid it, and just as many for it to happen.

As far as Ruggedizer not being able to magically create tech, it kinda makes sense here. She can take anything that exists and make it damn near indestructible, but it has to exist first before she can rebuild it to her specs. Good thing for her that she already had a decent brain for engineering. She needs to work with another tinker so they can complete the build first, then she can ruggedize it. Leet would be ideal. She'd see the problems with the design that [PROTOTYPE] has caused, point it out, then figure out how to make it bulletproof.
 
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Looks like the Robo-Taylor hypothesis is a no-go, as that project that would convert her is nowhere near ready.

For now.

On the other hand, the likelihood of Taylor needing to be roboticized as a quality-of-life measure after the "Prank" is still very high unless Panacea steps in to undo all the damage said "Prank" is likely to cause, so Emmy may decide to put a hold on her own upload and design a full body prosthetic for Taylor to be put into instead of herself.

Although, quite frankly, given the nature of the upcoming incident, I'd be surprised if Panacea didn't end up being involved at some point.

Also, any perceived value Shadow Stalker may have had as a crime fighter will be more than negated by this stunt, as all previous incidents will likely now be viewed in the light of her going after acceptable victims or getting rid of rivals rather than purposely fighting crime. If anything, a case could be made that Shadow Stalker was trying to create her own gang right under the eyes of the PRT, with Emma Barnes and Madison Clements as her lieutenants. Her probationary status as a Ward was her second chance, and she chose to waste it. She doesn't need a third chance, and Director Piggot is likely to be disinclined to extend her one as she has a low tolerance for loose cannon capes who have a net negative value. Assault gets a pass because, as irritating as his goofing around can be, he did not waste the second chance he had been given and has remained a solid hero ever since he joined the Protectorate.
 
Sometimes I have to wonder if Sophia Hess had come across the Loc Nar at some point...
 
We Just Write said:
C: Wat dat?
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It's a reference to an artifact from beyond the stars that counts as an eldrich horror in its own right, claiming to be a source of various types of conflict and evil. It's mostly from the Heavy Metal movie and was used as a plot device to tie several short stories together.

Such as the Trial of Lincoln F. Sternn:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lqsg1RE6Jag
Although I'd argue that Sternn was arguably more evil than Hanover Fiste, and Sternn never came into contact with the Loc Nar. he was just that corrupt all on his own...
 
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Integration 3-2
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    • Just because it was New Years' Day and a weekend to boot didn't mean we were taking a break from the uploading project. In fact, all our employees being at home meant I could fully join in on the Tinkering without blowing my cover.

    As we looked at the rat cage, I noted,

    "I assigned one of the security robots to feed the rats. I don't think we could avoid getting attached to them otherwise."

    Melissa nodded,

    "Probably a good idea. Right, let's pick out a test subject."

    Unlucky rat selected and prepared, we went down the checklist. We'd accounted for every single issue that we'd spotted with the version 1 QUD, but that was no guarantee version 2 would be remotely safe for me to use.

    That's why we were doing animal testing.

    Checklist complete, Melissa got the honor of pushing the big red button. She could have just sent a wireless signal, but where was the fun in that?

    I quickly bagged the rat carcass, while the robo-rat flailed for a few seconds. It eventually recovered and got to its feet, but something was clearly wrong. That rat was way too still, and didn't seem interested in doing much of anything.

    After a few minutes of staring at the readouts, I remarked,

    "We forgot the hormones, didn't we?"

    Melissa nodded.

    "Didn't do the neural network in the gut either. No wonder that rat's emotions are so screwed up."

    Staring at the almost completely still robo-rat, I sighed.

    "Pretty sure that rat's emotions are completely gone, not just screwed up."

    That's when a perimeter alert went off. I quickly pulled up the footage from one of the discreet surveillance drones we had flying around, and got a look at a group of five neo-nazis approaching. Their leader was himself an unnatural shade of white.

    Alabaster, the faux regenerator.

    Melissa groaned,

    "Want to keep Tinkering while I deal with them?"

    "Sure."
    (Melissa)
    I quickly suited up in my combat armor, got six security robots to flank me, and grabbed the electrolaser rifle I'd built for situations like this. As soon as Alabaster rounded the corner I ordered the wide garage door to open, and projected my voice at full amplification.

    "What the fuck do you want, Alabastard?"

    The four unpowered goons were quaking in their boots, even as their leader frowned slightly.

    "How uncouth. I just wanted to let you know that we've heard of your little charity fund, and we think it's quite admirable. But you're quite new to the scene; don't you think an experienced organization would be better suited to allocating its resources?"

    "No."

    "That wasn't a question. Surely you realize that those uncivilized animals in the ABB are after your head too, to say nothing of your altercation with Squealer? Something horrible could happen."

    "You do realize I fully expect the Nine to take a swing at me at some point, right?"

    Alabaster's eyes widened slightly, but he pressed on,

    "All the more reason to sign up with the Empire and put our dif-"

    I cut him off at 140 decibels.

    "I'm going to be incredibly fucking blunt, because you don't seem to have gotten the message through your thick skull. We'll take the 'or else', thanks. And you'd better bring every last bit of firepower your deplorable little club can scrounge up, or you don't even have a chance to make it stick. Now fuck off before I taze you."

    With that, I slammed the factory's armored garage door right in their faces.
    Melissa and I quickly got down to strategizing.

    "So yeah, we have to assume the entire Empire is coming to have a go at us, and soon too. Thoughts?"

    After a moment, I answered.

    "We need to establish that we're not interested in the cops and robbers nonsense, and also that we're not pushovers. I'm thinking immediate lethal force hitting as many of them simultaneously as possible. Basically, go for a time-on-target strike."

    Melissa thought for a moment.

    "I can definitely see the logic there: cautionary tale by way of smoldering craters. We're going to need some heavier weapons than our current loadout though; I'm thinking anti-tank guided missiles for Hookwolf along with the giantess twins. Probably lidar-guided."

    I nodded, "We could also do with some heavier beam weapons. Sure the electrolasers can kill, but they can't catastrophically demolish a person in an instant like we need them to do. Needs to be something that won't incidentally blind people in the surrounding area too."

    "Really big concussor?"

    I shook my head.

    "Not enough time."

    Melissa shrugged,

    "In that case? Megawatt class UV lasers are probably your best bet. The wavelength is short enough that it can't pass through the air without ionizing it first, so it's relatively eye safe."

    I nodded. We'd already gotten quite skilled with UV lasers courtesy of the electrolasers. IR would be arguably superior, but time was of the escence right now.

    I asked,

    "Division of labor?"

    "I'll get missile production going and modify our robots to carry the new weapons. You design the lasers and get a good night's sleep. It's probably going to take at least a day for the Empire to organize their siege."

    And so we each got on with our part of the preparations. True to our expectations, I was able to prototype a 1.6 MW laser within forty minutes.

    Well, strictly speaking it was four separate 400 kW lasers shoved into a bazooka-style casing. Didn't combine the beams coherently, but for the cutrent job that wasn't really needed.

    The UV lasers in this particular model of death ray were also pulsed, which considerably upped the lethality. A sequence of small explosions drilling into a target was a lot more rapidly lethal than the slow burn-through of a continuous laser after all.

    As soon as I got a laser-maker up and running (which only took another three hours courtesy of robot labor), I went to check in on Melissa.

    "So, I've got the laser production up and running. How are the missiles coming?"

    Melissa groaned.

    "I'm having trouble sourcing the propellant and explosives. We just don't have enough nitrates on hand, and can't get more in on short notice. Don't have the time to implement the Haber-Bosch process to start making them locally, and there's no way in fuck we're breaching the sewer to get them."

    I thought for a moment.

    "Could they be substituted for?"

    Melissa blinked.

    "They can, actually. If I stick a beefy energy receiver in there, I can use an electric rocket with inert propellant, and a similar idea for the warhead. Just need to figure out a shaped charge effect and we're golden."

    I nodded,

    "I've got a few hours before I'm going to bed. Want help on the energy teleportation parts?"

    "Yes please."
     
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    • yea i'm pretty sure that if you kill off their capes right off the bat with weapons, and not powers. there going to stay the fuck away from you. But still try and snipe you first chance they get.
     
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    Hookwolf vs heavy, mobile, artillery - bye bye stabby puppy

    The two of them still might want to reconsider their military response level though. PRT is gonna get all kinds of bent out of shape if they burn down the empire just because of a little kidnapping/extortion attempt. Of course if they miss a few times, and blow giant holes in the landscape, the attackers might just get the idea that continuing to attack will lead to an extremely bad, and very short day.
     
    And that's how Taylor will Trigger. Emmy and Melissa will be tired up with the Empire attack, so they can't rescue her.

    Remember, canonically, Taylor didn't trigger due to the used tampons or bugs. She felt abandoned by everyone. So if the hero she's on a first name basis with doesn't show up to help after she promised to...

    And since we know the locker is going to be worse, this could get ugly.
     
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    as the Founding Entities intended
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    • I own orion-like electrolazer rockets for home defense, just like the founding Entities intended.

    Multiple nazi capes break into my property.

    "What the devil?" As I slip into my power armor.

    I shoot Stormtiger with a supersonic rocket to the face, he's dead all over the walls.

    The second missile hits Alabaster, fails to explode correctly due to power interaction and hits the incoming support van full of thugs (+ Victor) at mach 2.

    There is only one survivor and he he is trapped by the wreckage.

    I have to resort to the UV pulse laser mounted to a truck in the motor pool.

    "Tally ho fuckers!"

    Hookwolf isn't resilient enough to withstand laser ablation, the sound sets orf car alarms for a mile and shrapnel takes out the giant twins.

    Fix power armor and charge the shellshocked Cricket, who dies of internal bleeding because kinetic concussor gauntlets shred bones and organs without breaking the skin while Kaiser runs away.

    Ah... Just as the founding Entities intended.
     
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  • Apocrypha
    • I can't help but think that Emmy and Melissa are going in the wrong direction with their energy teleportation technology. I think they should be looking at the power grid scale, aiming to get rid of the big, high tension, power lines used to transport electricity over long distances. Those sorts of fixed installations would fit better with their Tinker specialty and would have a large overall impact by reducing line losses and maintenance. They could probably get a better profit margin out of it, too.
     
    GBscientist said:
    I can't help but think that Emmy and Melissa are going in the wrong direction with their energy teleportation technology. I think they should be looking at the power grid scale, aiming to get rid of the big, high tension, power lines used to transport electricity over long distances. Those sorts of fixed installations would fit better with their Tinker specialty and would have a large overall impact by reducing line losses and maintenance. They could probably get a better profit margin out of it, too.
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    L: There's inconvenient laws about that sort of application. Better to just license the patent there.
     
    So she's going to stick to the personal scale and she'll license it out of the government for the large scale. Although with large installations like that, I think her hyper reliability would be much appreciated in that area.
     
    Thing is, the Empire Eighty-Eight will be deliberately targeting a Tinker in her own workshop after essentially telling her that they will be attacking her. So the attack will either be happening very soon, or within the next few days of planning. Which they might do since they are attacking a Tinker in her lair, but they don't want to wait too long so as to not give her time to build up her defenses even more than she already has.

    Very few people who aren't either already members of the E88 or their sympathizers are going to be surprised that Ruggedizer opted for lethal defenses in this situation, and even fewer are going top be all that bothered about it if members of the E88, Cape or otherwise, die as a result. The E88 are known to be violent, have known murderers on their cape team, and their capes outnumber any single other cape team in Brockton Bay, so Ruggedizer immediately resorting to lethal force in defense of herself and her employer is fully justified in this case. She may be asked to give a statement afterwards, and she's not likely to get a medal for killing any of them, but I doubt that Director Piggot is going to be all that bothered.

    But yeah, if the upcoming E88 siege on Ruggedizer's workshop happens to overlap the upcoming "Locker Prank," then Taylor remains very likely to trigger when it becomes clear that her promised rescue seems to be failing to arrive. Or she might even trigger after the incident, when she overthinks things and comes to the conclusion that she may have ruined the rest of her life by refusing to let her father withdraw her from Winslow to get her away from the bullying problem...
     
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    Tangent said:
    But yeah, if the upcoming E88 siege on Ruggedizer's workshop happens to overlap the upcoming "Locker Prank," then Taylor remains very likely to trigger when it becomes clear that her promised rescue seems to be failing to arrive.
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    Yeah I definitely see the two events overlapping. But I think that it will cause Ruggedizer to overreact badly.

    Imagine this, the E88 had threaten you to join them. You told them no, and they have implied that they will be attacking you. A few days pass and the expected siege of your home/workshop is starting, and you just got the distress beacon of a close friend. Now it looks like the E88 has just kidnapped your friend to force you to submit to them. What makes this worst is that when you check the location of the distress beacon it shows that it activated at/inside a school, so that must mean that the E88 has just attacked a school that is full of students.

    Yeah I would be going straight to the lethal option. Doubly so if when I try to contact the PRT I am informed that the E88 is launching other attacks as diversions and can't send help to us or the distress beacon.
     
    Integration 3-3
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    • (Melissa)
    It was two in the morning when surveillance indicated that damn near the entire Cape roster of the Empire 88 were on their way to the factory. I quickly donned the gauntlets and helmet of my combat armor, then I woke up Emmy.

    "Emmy."

    "Urgh."

    "The Empire is coming. Get to the escape pod. If the worst happens, at least you'll still be free."

    "'kay."

    There was absolutely no world in which I would let those nazi fucks hurt my big sister. Now, let's just make sure the carnage that was about to ensue was nice and legal.

    I quickly directed one of the unarmed surveillance drones down to where the collection of technicals was trundling along, then activated its lights and speakers.

    "Kaiser, this is Ruggedizer speaking. I wish to clarify matters."

    The column quickly pulled to a stop. An armored man got out of one of the vehicles and walked to the front. Kaiser.

    He asked,

    "Have you finally become more willing to negotiate?"

    In the background, my many robotic minions were locating and identifying the many Empire-affiliated Parahumans in the vicinity and tasking weapons to take them out.

    "I want to make sure you know New Hampshire's self-defense laws before you proceed."

    For example, Kaiser himself had the attention of a laser-armed sniper robot with a targeting lock on his head, ready to turn said cranium to pink mist at a moment's notice.

    Kaiser hesitated for just a moment, before he said, "And just what do you mean by that?"

    "Under New Hampshire law, it is permitted to employ lethal force to stop a threat of death or bodily harm to myself or someone else. It is also permitted to prevent home invasion, kidnapping, and forcible sexual assault. I have no obligation to retreat, so long as I am somewhere I have a legal right to be. The factory you are advancing on is my legally recognized place of residence."

    Kaiser scoffed,

    "You're saying you'll kill me if I attack? How quaint. Lung says he'll kill me at least once a month, and here I am."

    Night and Fog located. Incendiary-armed units tasked; neither Thermite or Napalm needed nitrates, after all.

    "For the legal record, what exactly do you intend to do should your attack succeed?"

    Kaiser looked thoughtful for a moment, even as kill shots were lined up on Othala and Victor. They'd picked a decent overwatch vantage, but it wouldn't save them.

    "Despite what some would believe, attempting to conscript Tinkers is an extremely foolish endeavor. We will simply kill you, then recoup our losses by looting your factory to the bedrock. And you can avoid all that nastiness by simply paying us that lovely little charity fund you've set up."

    All firing solutions were set and ready to go. The instant I sent the command, the entirety of the Empire's Cape lineup would be obliterated. Well, except Purity, who hadn't shown up for some reason. Shame, I'd kind of wanted to remove her from consideration too.

    "To be absolutely and totally clear, the Empire intends to carry out the course of action you described?"

    Kaiser barely got out half a syllable after "Yes" before I sent the firing command.

    Missiles flew, lasers fired, and within a single second the entirety of the Empire's Parahuman lineup was removed from existence. Well, it took a little bit for Night and Fog to burn to death, and 4.2 seconds until I could be sure Alabaster wasn't coming back from having his brain vaporized. A rout of the unpowered muscle quickly ensued. What few maniacs wanted to keep up the fight got blasted where they stood, while those who'd already gone down got trampled. Wasn't legally allowed to fire on the ones who were retreating, so we didn't.

    I informed Emmy she could go back to bed. Now to do a bit of basic video editing and post this to PHO; we had a message to send. I really hoped this wouldn't get the official Ruggedizer account banned; the marketing team were pretty clear that it was good to make me seem approachable.

    …Right, I also need to call for police and ambulances to pick up any survivors. Best to cover all my bases.
    (Melissa)
    It was completely and utterly unsurprising to get a phone call from the PRT less than an hour later. It was Emily Piggot herself.

    It quickly became apparent that Piggot was utterly exhausted from being hauled out of bed far earlier than she would like, and basically just groggily venting at me after being told to do something about me by her superiors. That said, it didn't seem like anything particularly troublesome would actually result from this on account of the ass-covering video. Also the fact that Piggot herself was just glad the E88 were gone.

    So I said,

    "Director, you are clearly exhausted and not thinking clearly. I'll still be here later today; you should go back to sleep."

    Then I hung up.
    (Emmy)
    I'm going to be fully honest in admitting that I was a bit of a useless lump for the rest of Sunday; getting woken up about the siege was something I just couldn't get back to sleep over, and the telephone ringing didn't help. The end result is that I felt like my brain was made out of pudding.

    Melissa's snuggles were nice though.

    After a bit, I asked,

    "Can we please just take a break after all that stuff that happened last night?"

    Melissa gently brushed my hair.

    "Do you really want to put off getting the QUD up and running?"

    "No."

    "Then either leave me to it, or come and watch."

    "I'll at least try and pay attention at least.."

    So yeah, I sat around and ate pudding in the lab while Melissa did all the work. It was good pudding. Though I couldn't help but feel that I'd have a lot of catching up to do once I was properly rested.
     
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