Goddamn Teenagers (Worm, AU/time travel)

[dc2008]

Lisa didn't jump or squeak when Dr. Weaver poked her shoulder, and wasn't at all surprised to find that the older woman had somehow packed up all her shit without Lisa noticing.

Lisa took off her headphones. "A device will be delivered," the older woman said quickly. "Taylor will be coming up. She needs to stay within, oh, ten yards of it until told otherwise. Do not open it. You carry it for her if she has to use the bathroom or something. Call Lavere immediately if there are any threats, or if you need to leave the secure area. Most importantly, remember that nothing interesting is happening here. You were bored, got a comms unit, and are hiding up here listening to what you shouldn't. The device is innocuous, a prank, and if checked against your file will show as authorized.

Lisa blinked. "Huh?"

"Power will explain. I need to go."

"Wait where are you going! The thing! The feeds! Behemoth?"

"Trying to make sure Eidolon survives his big damn hero stunt. Door."

And one of those fucky portals appeared and she was gone. Before Lisa could process… whatever that was, another portal appeared and there was deposited on the table, without fanfare, an obviously tinkertech and very janky thing. It was adorned with frownie face stickers. On top was a piece of masking tape, on which was written the name 'Shouty McChuuni Jr., no 3'. Next to it was a sticker of a smiley face with big scared eyes and no mouth.

Lisa's confusion was interrupted by the appearance of Taylor through the door.

"Uh, hi?" The other girl asked. "What's going on?"

---

Note: Why hello there. Looks like someone found the sticker maker. Step up for them as hobbies go.

 

[dc2008]

"Power seems somehow all at the same time fascinating, gratified, and disgusted? It's like whatever this thing is, Power, uh, not hates? But finds really fucking annoying? And is sending vibes like this is some kind of horrifying abomination. Wait why am I getting vibes I don't usually get vibes this clearly…" Lisa let her voice trail off as she concentrated on the new sensations.

"Uh, Lilac! Hello? What's going on?"

Device enhances communications capabilities of authorized Fae. Am authorized. Shocked. {REDACTED} is a cheating cheater who cheats. AM AUTHORIZED! TERROR/AWE/FEALTY.

Lisa felt like a hobbit watching an elf lady go all weird over a ring.

"You need to stay near the thing for reasons," She said slowly. "Your power might feel… weird? I'm trying to figure out what is going on…" Lisa mumbled while trying to parse the waves of vibes she was getting.

"Huh?"

"It's a Tinker thing but not maybe Trump thing?"

It is forbidden, an abomination, a warning to us all. It should not exist, and is beautiful. I welcome Their benevolent rule, may Their merciful reign be eternal.

Well isn't that ominous.

"Is what ominous?"

Oh, Lisa had said that aloud.

---

Note: When I said I wanted a peek behind the curtain, this is not what I meant!

 

[dc2008]

"Three minutes at… mark," Dragon's voice said.

"Shows over, people," Tagg's voice sounded, his clipped tones the only indication of the stakes. "Final teams, pull back to evac zones. Last out at minus fifteen seconds, no exceptions."

"Designated lanes only," Dr. Weaver's voice cut through the all hands channel.

Kamil suppressed a wince. That didn't bode well.

"Follow the bouncing ball," she continued. "Standby for significant spatial and temporal effects, mind the error bars on your clocks and expect to lose comms."

The waiting, as always the waiting was the hardest part. Kamil forced himself to calmly toggle between dashboards as the seconds ticked down. The increasingly worried looks from observers did not escape his notice. One from Aleph had dropped all pretense and had started mumbling prayers under their breath, before Dragon muted their mic.

They forgot, sometimes, those hardy survivors of Bet, how remarkable it was what they did for these attacks. For the Aleph observers, it must be akin to watching someone manage a major military operation in the middle of a major natural disaster.

"Unidentified column of vehicles entering exclusion zone," Dragon's voice sounded, suddenly. "Disregarding redirect orders."

"Mark as hostile, engage," Tagg replied, without hesitation.

Kamil muted his mic, and looked to his audience. "Can't risk interference with what comes next," he said.

"Fallen markings observed," Dragon's voice called out, calm as ever. Kamil could tell from body language that some of the observers were even now skimming background on the Fallen, and not liking what they saw.

"Taking fire, evading," Dragon continued. "Temporal and spatial distortions rapidly increasing in effect. Need to kamikaze or abort, alternate forty seconds out."

"Engage, engage, engage, confirmed," Tagg said without hesitation.

---

Note: Helpful unchained AI with military aerospace technology conducting kamikaze strike against suspected domestic terrorists seeking to assist a kaiju in triggering a catastrophic cascade of dam failures all down the Missouri and Mississippi rivers. In an area of engagement rapidly devolving into something out of an Escher fever dream, so as to leave the AOE clear for the first responders to instead do something that is... something like a nuke, but maybe worse.

You know, normal Bet things.

 

[dc2008]

"We should go?" Taylor asked, as Lisa mumbled to herself with increasing urgency.

Immediately, a feeling of concern radiated from somewhere in the back of Taylor's mind. "Should we go? I think my power wants to stay." A sense of agreement was her reply.

Lisa put her head on the table and pulled her hat down over her eyes. "I think my Power is having a religious experience over whatever that box is. He's definitely convinced bad things will happen if we leave, and I'm not sure if that's just to him or to us as well."

Taylor registered a sense of growing pressure in the back of her mind, and hesitantly stepped closer to the device. That didn't bode well.

Elsewhere

"I told you Christopher," Missy insisted hotly, "I'm not doing it!" Because I'm here. In Brockton."

"Oh, come on," Dennis said, gesturing at the TV, where a news anchor stood in front of a camera feed a couple hundred miles out from where Behemoth was expected. Noticeable visual distortions could be seen in the background. Distortions that looked awfully familiar.

"... and we are being told," the anchor droned on with a somber expression, "that we will have to cut even this feed very shortly. Again, the PRT has strongly advised that all persons in the counties scrolling below take immediate shelter from possible blast effects, even if outside of the mandatory evacuation zone..."

 

[dc2008]

"I didn't realize," Amy's Uncle Neil said, nodding toward where Aisha was talking Eric through a PRT master/stranger exercise. "I don't know what I expected from the group that you and Victoria were going to, but it wasn't anything so comprehensive."

"Hmm?" Amy replied, stirring the pasta sauce. "Oh, no, sure, some of it. Mostly that's just Aisha being Aisha. She's super into this stuff, sort of like Vicky, but for unpowered trooper things instead of cape things."

"Huh," Uncle Neil replied. "I guess we don't think about that side of things as much as we should."

Amy shrugged. "She really looks up to Dr. Weaver. Really likes the idea of being that badass without having powers."

"She certainly has the power to get Eric to sit still and focus, more than we've ever been able to for this sort of things."

"Huh?" Amy looked up, glanced at Eric and Aisha, did a double take, and snorted. "Hope he's ready for a protective older brother."

---

Note:
Eric: She could kick my ass and I don't know why that's hot.

 

[dc2008]

"Put collateral damage on secondary screens," Kamil said in clipped tones. "Give me status on the lake, flood risk downstream, and Behemoth."

The slip in his command face was unfortunate but, he hoped, understandable. As he spoke, a plume of debris was rising over what had been a key component of his nation's irrigation and flood control systems, and Behemoth was still out there.

"Spatial and temporal distortions receding." Dragon's voice was somehow still calming despite the static that hadn't been there previously. "High altitude drone coverage 20 seconds out, downstream reports indicate water flowing backward, consistent with a hole or crater. No indications of flood surge. Behemoth is shifting his path away from the lake, possibly targeting hydrocarbon gathering systems."

Kamil allowed some relief to show, but didn't relax. They had hopefully averted a national catastrophe, but the regional damage would still be bad enough.

---

Note: We successfully set off a super-mega-ultra nuke on our own soil! Yay!

 

[dc2008]

"Tharrr she blows!" Alec called out, as Weld entered the lab. Missy, Dennis, Chris, Trevor and Alec were clustered around a monitor showing a burning skyline.

"What are you watching?" Weld asked, seeing the smoke-filled sky on-screen. "You know that video of the fight is barred, how did you even find this?"

"Don't worry," Chris said assuredly. "It's not video of the fight!"

"Nope," added Alec, not looking away. "Can't see Behemoth at all--," Alec cut off as another plume of fire and smoke was visible on the horizon"--and and there's another one, I give this one an 8/10, our boy is losing his touch!"

"See," Chris explained quickly, "it's a camera some guy set up to stream online for people to watch his birdfeeder, except it got knocked over just right to have a good view of the skyline off in the direction of where Behemoth is doing his thing."

"You can't see any fighting or dying or stuff," Missy added sagely, "so it's OK."

"How did you even find this?" Weld asked, bewildered. "Does one of you watch this birdfeeder stream?"

"Alec found it!" Dennis exclaimed, as Alec tried to shush him. "It wasn't me!"

"It was," Alec prevaricated, "uh, a hobbyist forum, let's go with that."

---

Note: Alec uses inappropriate humor as a coping mechanism, and definitely knows where on the internet you would go to find links to this sort of shit.

 

[dc2008]

"Damage patterns consistent with rush of air and debris into a vacuum immediately following the event," the analyst said as the spotter craft flew further into the exclusion zone.

Director Tagg nodded, but gave no other indication that he had heard. The climate controlled command center reeked of sweat and fatigue.

"Radiological alarm," another voice called out. "Aligns with irregularities in blast pattern, and suggestive of some sort of containment breach or leakage."

"Ensure Dragon has latest on radiation danger zones," Tagg replied, automatically, eyes fixed on the displays.

Finally, the wreckage of the dam came into view, and the crater beyond. Whatever Eidolon and Valkyrie had done, it had worked. The massive body of water was nowhere to be seen, with all indications agreeing that it hadn't been vaporized, or buried, or driven upstream, or moved to elsewhere in the watershed. All indications indicated that the pathetic remnants in the bottom of the crater were all that remained of the unfathomably huge mass of water.

Good news for those downstream, but at what cost? And what would the beast do now?

Tagg's view snapped to a dirty plume of smoke and fire erupting in the distance. Before he could say anything in response, the spotter was already redirecting.

The call came out a few moments later, "Behemoth sighted!"

---

Note: Oh yeah, he's still there

 

[dc2008]

"I'm sorry, Dick," the operator said into his headset, "we can't divert anyone for the terminal."

"But we just got it built," the man pleaded. "I've turned on all the foam, I can stay at the board, we have the generator. Tens of thousands of barrels of capacity, connectivity to the gathering systems—"

"I know," the operator said. "I know." He scrambled to think of a way to convince the old fool to just leave. "My Susie's brother owns a piece of the gathering system and my brother, three of the wells are on his land. The PRT, though, they aren't going to distract him when he's going for this stuff. What if we did discourage him and went for Mandaree or what's left of New Town, they think there might still people in shelters there—"

"Can I help?"

"Thank you, no." Oh, God, that would be even worse than the old man trying to ride it out in his control room. Dick's wife didn't need another shock, she might not survive it. "You aren't trained, this ain't like when you were in the National Guard. Get you and yours to safety for now, there will be plenty chance for you to help once the beast has gone. That you are trained for."

"But—"

"You call me back in twelve hours, twelve hours, and I'll tell you where to go. How many people 'round here can work a loader like you?"

"No one, but damnit—"

"Twelve hours, Dick, I need to clear the line."

---

Note: I give it roughly one in four odds Dick goes and gets himself killed trying to help. Would be higher except the operator pointed out Dick could do more good after.

Shout out to Avetho from the SB thread for reminding me of the PES incident. Really interesting tale of the benefits—and dangers—of modern maintenance/ monitoring tech. The control room staff there deserve a medal.

 

[dc2008]

"… he's much better behaved than most boys I meet," Aisha said as Amy forced herself to keep a serious face. "You all have him well-trained."

Amy leaned in conspiratorially. "It's because he's pretty sure if he was a little shit you could kick his ass, and if you didn't, Vicky or Crystal would."

"Hmmm," Aisha said thoughtfully. Amy could see the little gears turning behind the younger girl's eyes. "At school I can take pretty much any one of them, maybe two or three if I go hard with a broom or some other 'not weapon'. The little shits travel in groups though so even that's hard." She looked up sharply, eyes full of sudden interest. "You think Vicky might be up to do a visit, make some examples? I could make a list, get pictures even."

"Meow," added the black and white speckled kitten, bopping his head against Aisha's leg.

Amy blinked. "I didn't know you had a cat? Wait, where was he then, this whole time?"

Aisha chuckled nervously, even as she squatted down to pet the kitten. "He's not, er, I think he belongs to, uh, a friend of, um, anyway, Dr. Weaver knows him? There was a thing? Lisa was there? He pops up sometimes?"

Amy thought furiously. Who might Aisha know who had a cat that just popped up places and… oh. She chuckled. "Yeah, I get the general idea."

Amy bent down to bop the kitten's nose. "Were you lonely? Your usual humans too busy to give you attention?"

"Mew!"

---

Note: why all humans be busy PAY ATTENTION TO ME!!!