Goddamn Teenagers (Worm, AU/time travel)

[dc2008]

Glancing up from his handheld, Alec did a double-take before pointing at his surprise colleague and exclaiming, "You're the sticker girl!"

"Eep!" The girl said, caught applying a sticker to the underside of a shelf.

"I wondered who had stickered the drawer, and the trashcan, and--"

"I didn't do anything wrong!" The girl exclaimed, glancing frantically between Alec and the door. "The doctor said it was okay!"

Alec laughed. "Oh, don't worry about that, god knows this place could use something lighthearted what with all the," Alec made finger quotes, "'things-man-was-not-meant-to-know' and 'surprise villain' and 'weird brains'."

"Oh," the girl said, expression slowly, drifting from alarm to bafflement. "Uh, thanks?"

"Can I see?" Alec asked approaching slowly.

"Sure?" She passed over the colorful sticker.

Alec looked at the multicolor smiley face appreciatively. "Where do you get these? I like the variety."

"I, uh, make them?"

"Ooooohhhhh, did you bring any more?"

The girl glanced around nervously. "I print them as I need them?" She held up an arm awkwardly, and Alec saw a small port on the underside.

"Is that a sticker printing implant?!"

 

[dc2008]

"How do you get your designs in?" Alec asked, peering at the sticker output port. "I don't see a screen or UI?"

"It's an induction thing," Riley said with growing excitement. She shifted her arm to better catch the light, and Alec could just make out some dark shapes under the skin. "There is a bio-electromagnet to help with alignment, and the receiver on both sides has enough cushion to allow a loose enough fit. It goes on a strap thing, and talks to a phone or laptop."

She made a face. "My power wanted me to use a direct neural interface with heads up display and integral OS. The doctor is helping me better understand and manage the power impulses though. Thinking back, putting something like that in now is just asking for problems, what with, uh, growing and stuff." She shuddered. "Especially since I would have to do the brain surgery on myself."

Alec nodded. "Know what you mean, learning how powers influence us definitely freaked me out."

Riley shrugged. "The sticker implant was a sort of compromise with my power, something for us to fiddle with for now." She gestured to the creepy mad science tanks of brain and shit. "All this helps too, of course."

Alec grinned. "Have I told you about my pet Nazi experiments?"

 

[dc2008]

"That's a really persistent master effect," Riley said, as she fiddled with her phone.

"Almost feel sorry for him except, you know, all the human trafficking and murder and being a Nazi…"

Riley nodded decisively. "My power, Chirry, thinks that invasive brain surgery might mitigate the effects, even though," she sighed, "like everyone keeps telling him, just because he can doesn't mean he should."

Alec laughed. "Someone else on the project had a similar thing happen, except their, uh, power's idea somehow involved copying their mind and then vivisecting it or something."

Riley snorted. "And they say we need to grow up."

"It was more fun," Alec observed, "when I could just go 'but he's a Nazi' and do whatever. Then they had to go and teach me this stuff about 'ethics' and 'mental habits' and 'power-influenced psychological driving'."

"You too, huh?" Riley said, not looking up.

"Think a lot of people are getting some version of it.," Alec said, appraisingly. "From what I've heard even the for-realz Protectorate is getting it now, or at least part of it. Not just people with 'spooky master powers'."

"Oh, wow, and here I thought they'd never admit powers influenced us back."

So she is from Bet. Wonder why she's dressed like the offworld Valkyrie capes then?

Still, Alec carefully maintained a light tone. "Part of the whole 'new management kindergarten gentler' thing."

"Hmmmmm," Riley said absentmindedly, focusing on her phone. With one final nod, she unplugged her phone from the induction armband and began putting it away.

"OK," she said with a grin. "The new design is loaded and ready. Now we just need to find a good place to put it!"

---

Alec, as is his habit, completely derailed this scene. It was supposed to be fairly short, leading up to a funny bit with {spoilers}.

Then Riley showed him the sticker-maker and, well, Alec gonna Alec…

 

[dc2008]

Alec watched with interest as Riley carefully removed the light fixture and passed it down. He accepted one-handed, making sure to always keep the other solidly gripping the back of the rolly chair.

It was almost like they didn't want people getting at the light.

The light fixture was, as expected, significantly improved with the insertion on the bar plate of a small, innocuous 'ouchie' sticker, complete with little lightning bolts forming x's where the eyes would normally go.

Alec was particularly proud of the little beret they'd given it.

Before Riley could finish printing the second sticker, however, Alec stiffened. "Shit," he said. "New plan, you get down and we pretend the light was taken apart when we got here.

"Huh?" Riley asked, even as she began to lower herself carefully. Alec approved of her decisiveness.

"Dr. Weaver is coming and she's not alone."

"Sugarpuffs," Riley said with feeling, lowering herself faster.

 

[dc2008]

"Now look busy!" Alec said, helping Riley get settled back on solid ground.

Riley rolled her eyes. "Boys," she scoffed. "Always make things too complicated."

"Huh?"

"Oops!" Riley replied brightly, tipping a tray of instruments onto the floor.

"Warn a guy!" Alec said, jumping back.

A moment later the door opened. "... the 'shouting across a chasm' stage of discourse. Helpful as a proof of concept, but not what we need."

"Impressive nonetheless," replied the formally attired young woman who followed Dr. Weaver through the door. "Now that you mention it, I can sense it myself..."

Riley inhaled suddenly and jumped to attention. Confused, Alec looked more closely. Was something wrong with the lighting in the hall? It would be ironic, what with what they'd been doing to the light, but--fuck that was a ghostly figure, and there were three of them, oh god, there were three of them.

Dr. Weaver had brought THE FAIRY QUEEN for a casual visit, motherfucker.

Dr. Weaver, with a glance, took in the fallen instruments, drifting office chair and obvious panic on the face of Alec and his companion. "As you were," she said crisply, before turning back to THE FAIRY QUEEN and going on about relays and network permissions and ports or something, he wasn't sure what was so interesting about the wifi or whatever, but he wasn't going to ask questions. Not with THE FAIRY QUEEN HERE!!! Sure, she was ignoring them, but one of those ghosts was watching and Alec didn't doubt she saw and heard all in her vicinity.

He couldn't even be mad because Lisa had warned him and he hadn't taken it seriously.

Fuck, she probably knew about the sticker too!

---

Note
A: Fuck, she probably knows about sticker!

Also note: Thinking about it, I'm not sure which of them Riley is more wary of. Could see it going either way.

 

[dc2008]

"Working with humans, it is easy to forget how limited the Fae can be," Dr. Weaver said. "What Scion did to them… It's as bad as anything Cauldron did to fellow humans."

Alec focused intently on his notes, letting the scary ladies' discussions wash over him.

"… and while we have done what we can," the Fairy Queen was saying in response, "to encourage a greater breadth of development, but it is not easy or quick. Especially with Broadcast still unreliable."

That last part got a reaction out of Riley, which was all kinds of interesting. If I was Lisa, that little shudder would bother me to no end.

"… and certainly not without supervision." Dr. Weaver was saying.

And that one not only got a reaction out of Riley, but also a spike in neural activity from the brain-crystal-thing…

Later

"They're out of my range," Alec said with relief, closing his 'observations' notebook.

Riley let out a heartfelt sigh and collapsed into the wandering office chair.

Alec, for his part, took a seat on the counter. He was both relieved and annoyed that The Fairy Queen had totally ignored him, although she had briefly discussed some Fae… something with Riley. Girl had balls of steel, just talking all normal to the scary scary cape queen. For some reason, though, Riley had seemed more nervous about the Doc, which had all sorts of worrying implications.

Something to think about later, no matter how much he would really prefer to forget the whole thing. Anything that worried someone not scared of the Fairy Queen warranted careful thought.

---

Note: Alec didn't survive this long by being stupid or unobservant.

 

[dc2008]

"I don't see why this is necessary," Taylor said petulantly.

Her older counterpart looked unimpressed. "While our power allows significantly heightened situational awareness, you can't rely on that."

"I went most of my life relying on my own senses for that," Taylor insisted, "I'm sure it's fine."

Her older counterpart sighed. "Yes, yes, I know. I also had a whole list of excuses, do we really have to go through them?"

Taylor tried a different approach. "I'm still getting better with the insect senses, surely I should keep working on them?"

"Yes, you should. You should also work on your unpowered awareness."

"Fine," Taylor didn't concede, "I'll talk to Lisa and figure out a training plan."

"Nope," her older counterpart said, "I know she talked to you ages ago and you still haven't done it."

Traitor.

"But why at the PRT?! You said they leak a lot?!"

"It's not hard to figure out what you are doing. Anyone smart enough to infiltrate the PRT will already know." Her counterpart paused before continuing. "Besides, it's a convenient place to establish a bug-proof training room."

"I don't like it."

"Fine, we could also go with the backup plan."

"Which is?" Taylor asked skeptically.

"I give Aisha tinkertech insecticide and ask her to 'help'."

"Fine," Taylor ground out. "I'll try Armsmaster's stupid room."

---

Note:
Aisha: Why do I suddenly feel all disappointed out of nowhere? What'd I miss?

 

[dc2008]

"Hey," Aisha said. "You wouldn't believe who I saw all dressed up? Dave from PRT who drives Alec sometimes. When I said 'hi', he said he's here to do an assembly!"

"Dave is giving an assembly?" Missy said, dumbfounded. "PRT Dave?" The girls stood to the side of the cafeteria, whispering furitively.

"Hey!" Dinah said. "I like Dave! He has the best stories!"

"Sure," Missy said, "that's why I'm surprised."

Later

"Why do I have a pile of parent complaints?" Emily asked.

"Outreach program at the middle school. The one Dr. Weaver designed."

Emily slowly set down the printouts and stared. "What did she do?"

"She had Dave from the motor pool give the presentation."

Emily sighed. "Fine, I even know why she did it. Tell the busybodies to ask their kids to recap the assembly, then ask them to recap literally any other class that day. I guarantee you the little shits will remember more from Dave, God help us all."

Phil looked thoughtful. "Personal experience?"

"There's a reason that Sergeants' safety briefings are so colorful." Emily leaned back.

"Should I write up a response then?"

Emily laughed bitterly. "No, forward the mess to Dr. Weaver. If the parents are stupid enough to complain even after all the recent incidents, they deserve whatever they get."

---

Note: I still vividly remember a STI prevention presentation I sat through in high school, for exactly this reason.

 

[dc2008]

"... and Aleph has agreed to participate in a cross-world working group on M/S protocols." Tagg said wearily.

"What brought them to the table?" Emily asked, suppressing a yawn. The 'informal' strategy sessions had proven invaluable, even if late night was the only time reliably available.

"They're trying to develop a set of protocols that will work reliably even if the subject knows the protocols," Tagg concluded.

Armstrong shook his head. "Best of luck to them, but I'm not holding my breath."

Tagg nodded. "Agreed. We've contributed a few of our information theory experts, just in case, including the guy, what's his name, the one with the thing about Dragon?"

"Yudkowsky?" Emily offered.

"That's the one. Apparently one of his off-world counterparts was independently nominated. Not Aleph—Epsilon or Kappa, maybe?"

"Should keep him busy at least, and away from Weaver's pet Thinker."

Emily snorted. "Fortunately, Weaver forbade her from having anything to do with Aleph."

Tagg blinked. "Why."

"I didn't ask."

"Fair," Kamil replied. "Where are we on Valkyrie's new all-worlds emergency response force?"

"Progressing," Emily said. "You should have a weighty report somewhere in your inbox, but we did finally get Aleph to contribute some personnel. Well, Aleph-Kenya and Aleph-Honduras, to start, on a bilateral basis. Their United Nations is deadlocked, which apparently is not unusual. Alongside a great many 'observers' from various powers."

"Are Valkyrie's people worried about espionage risk there?"

"I'm told various of the Aleph observers will be allowed to 'discover' documentation suggesting that certain key pieces of gear contain tracking and remote monitoring devices which work across dimensional boundaries."

Kamil tilted his head. "How would that even work?"

"It doesn't, but Aleph doesn't know that yet."

---

Note: Whatever posting Valkyrie is putting the foreign observers at might as well put up a sign welcoming the first interplanetary convention of military intelligence officers.

 

[dc2008]

"FBI and CIA will be rolling out a new set of warnings next week on the CUI," Tagg said, flipping a page.

Kamil sighed. "What now?"

"Since the most recent attack, CUI has gone on a 'recruiting' spree, with a focus on dimensional studies. Samples of Haywire tech have gone missing from secure storage in Italy and Australia, and researchers in relevant fields have disappeared in India, Poland, Singapore and Istanbul. No doubt more as well, people are understandably hesitant to talk about it."

"Can we verify any of this?" Emily asked, skeptically. She didn't have a high opinion of the intelligence agencies at the best of times.

"Some indications," Tagg said slowly. "A field theory researcher has gone missing up in Seattle. No signs of parahuman involvement, we only flagged it because a local tinker worked with them regularly. A second might have gone missing at UCLA--we're still looking into that one. There may be others as well, we've put it to a few of the more reliable people at Thinktank."

Emily swore. "And Armsmaster is still bitching about equipment going missing during the clean-up phase, stuff that he and Dragon had put in place specifically to look at dimensional traces. Sure, it could be a simple administrative cock-up..."

"... but as many people as there were underfoot we have to assume the worst," Tagg concluded.

Kamil leaned forward. "You can add Toybox to that, they had a near-miss security incident that has Dodge in particular very, very nervous. Valkyrie personally extended an offer of protection, contingent on fealty, and Dodge at least may well take it. Perhaps others as well."

Tagg couldn't quite conceal his surprise. "How did... Weaver?"

Kamil nodded. "After a fashion. One of the projects she and Valkyrie are personally involved in."

"Elite?" Emily asked, not even trying to hide her distaste.

"They know," Tagg said. "That's how we found out about the one at UCLA."

"Fuck," Emily said, with feeling. "I hate that we work with them but better the devil we know."

---

Note: Why, yes. The CUI absolutely lost their shit after seeing the capabilities Valkyrie and Eidolon displayed at the most recent Endbringer attack. Much as the US would have had it been the CUI that pulled out that stunt...

Had CUI had better relations with the US, they might have expressed those concerns through normal diplomatic channels. Relations being what they are, however, CUI is taking a more "pragmatic" approach...