I'm off furlough now and back to work tomorrow which means updates are probably going to slow down a lot since time spent at work means time not spent writing. Got double shifts on the weekend too which really cut into the writing.
Chapter 18:
(25th April 2011)
"Huh, the tinker is a little slant halfbreed. Well no matter. She can be made to serve her betters." The racist ass strode away from my aunt and loomed over me threateningly. Okay, the Nazis know you're a tinker and want to kidnap you. Don't panic.
"I guess that makes you superfluous." Krieg said to my aunt, his focus on me instead of her and I glared at the bastard, understanding the not so subtle subtext. I'm not about to let him kill Aunt Rose. I'll have to waste like two whole minutes to revive her, and then I'll have yet another body to hide after I kill these fuckers.
"You will touch my niece over my dead body!" My aunt snarled at him, going full mama bear.
And then shit hit the fan. The Nazi skinhead with the gun and over the top stylistic '88' tattooed on his forehead standing next my aunt was frozen solid and tentacles of water lashed out at the remaining threats.
[Excitement]
Krieg avoided the attack, jumping to the side to avoid the questing water tentacle seeking to grab him. The remaining goons (Captain Mullet and his sidekick Corporal Broken-Nose) weren't so lucky.
As for myself, with the everyone's attention now on Aunt Rose that left me free to test out Null Lance on a live target. Not that I was really thinking much at the time. I was mostly panicking and lashed out with the first thing to pop into my head.
Movement was weird inside the range of his power but it didn't stop me from coalescing the energy around my hand and firing the blast of psionic energy straight through the back of his head.
I'm not sure I like combat when I'm not piloting a giant, expendable war creature. It's a lot less fun and lot more panicky.
Aunt Rose finished off the remaining two Nazis before tugging me behind her and freezing a another thug that had been upstairs. She got shot, but the shield plasmid worked perfectly and there was no harm done.
The whole fight, and it probably shouldn't count as a fight considering how one-sided it was, barely lasted a few moments and now Aunt Rose was on her knees holding me to her tightly. Her adrenaline was wearing off, like mine was.
Yeah I really don't like fights where I'm not controlling Khanivore.
[Disagreement. Excitement. Data]
Also we'll probably need to replace the carpet because Krieg is a messy and inconsiderate corpse and is leaking blood and brain matter all over the floor.
"I'm okay Aunt Rose." I smiled reassuringly at my aunt once the shock of combat had worn off. She ran her hand over my fuzzy head fondly and smiled back, before hugging me some more and thinking.
I spent the time thinking too. I might drop the Possession plasmid and grab something more defensive. I don't really use it aside from changing the channel on the TV and I totally forgot to use it in the fight. I'm feeling torn between Shield or Peeping Tom, the defence versus stealth argument. With the Nazis invading our home being able to hide and escape notice that way might be more useful than giving myself a bulletproof shield. Hmm.
Before I could think much more on the subject my aunt got my attention with the best question ever.
"Addy." She asked, looking at me seriously and her voice firm. "What would you need to build an army of monsters?"
[Excitement. Anticipation]
My return smile was probably a little harsh, but screw it. Nazis had invaded our home and now I get to punish them. This is awesome. "Autonomous or remotely controlled?"
Because that was the important question. Controlled means I'll need to make a lot of bioware processors and we'd be limited to just me and Codi controlling them. Autonomous on the other hand gives us way better numbers, which would be filled by stuff from X-Com. Vipers, Sectoids and Faceless, since they're all relatively sapient and capable of independent thought.
"Both." Aunt Rose answered, and it took a lot of self control not to cackle with glee.
"I'll make a list. Khanivore took nearly a month, but I have a lot of options for smaller stuff. At a guess maybe five days per life support tank you can get me. I might be able to tweak the critters a little to grow faster." I explained. It'll take a day or two away from making dresspheres and other bits, since I'd need to spend that time setting up the advanced life support tanks. Luckily once they're growing I don't need to do anything else.
I'll need to see if I can tweak them a little too, but that'll need some computer work to handle. It must've shown on my face since Aunt Rose let me slip off to get changed and then get to work on the computer while she dealt with the dead Nazis.
If I'm going full Splice, and I really need to have Taylor think up a better name for my scary biotinker persona, then I'll probably want to hold territory to give the gangs opposing to me something to target to lure them in. Plus holding territory means I can prevent other gangs moving in too. I'll probably have to run the idea by Uncle Danny and Aunt Rose but I think I can make a convincing argument.
Anyway as for possible tweaks to my minions the Faceless can stay mostly as is. Not much need to change them and I can just load them with a bunch of plasmids to boost their effectiveness. At two weeks to grow we're not going to have them for a while unfortunately.
Sectoids don't really need much change. Honestly I'm not sure how many I'll make. I can't make the wrist-mounted plasma pistols they use in game since I'm on a different tech tree now, but plasmids should round out that little problem. The small size limits how many plasmids I'd be able to give them, so they'll probably have a support role I think, providing psionic backup to the Vipers that will likely make up the bulk of my autonomous minions.
As for the Vipers there's a bunch of tweaks I can make. The venom will probably have to go unless I can convince my family to let me keep it. Hmm, I'll have to check if Taylor got those Bullet ants she wanted and if I can use their venom instead. Aerosolised pain venom could be really useful for my vipers to have and would definitely teach the Nazis and other scumbags to fuck off.
I could add some more human DNA. They'd look more PR friendly that way and won't creep out the people afraid of snakes and it shouldn't lower combat effectiveness too much. They'll lose the grabby tongue ability but should still be able to spit clouds of venom. Ooh! I can use Lisa's DNA and call them Tattlesnakes. Imagining Coil's face as a group of Tattlesnakes invaded wherever he was now hiding and brought him to justice brought a smile to my face.
It's a pity Taylor banned me from using her DNA in stuff. Ah well, I'll just have to stick with Tattletale-based Tattlesnakes.
Even better if my simulations are correct, and they are because I am a genius, they'll be able to have their own symbiotic sea slugs which means they can handle ADAM production for my all my minions.
Sure I have more than enough ADAM just from Taylor and myself, so much in fact that I'm dumping a lot of the excess down the toilet, but letting the Tattlesnakes cover ADAM production for my inevitable critter army means I can avoid all sorts of logistics issues with having to deliver ADAM from home to wherever the new workshop is going to be.
I wonder if I can make them psionic with a psi-chamber? That might be worth looking into once I get the base properly set up.
Brainstorming for a bit I decided that I'll make a couple different Viper variants. A larger version of the regular viper focused more on melee stuff and constricting enemies, loaded down with defensive and melee plasmids. A small, half-sized version for stealthily scouting things and keeping track enemy movements in my territory. Then a Tattlesnake version to do the general ranged fighting and PR stuff. If I can get the Bullet ant DNA I'll make a version with oversized venom glands to allow for saturating massive areas in venom clouds, possibly using some form of pepper spray or something if I can't get the venom.
[Data. Affection. Anticipation]
I'll need to ask Taylor to try scout out a Nazi weapons stash or something. It'll be far easier to equip the vipers with their shit than build and maintain loads of laser rifles. I'll probably have to waste a lot of time tinkering on the ammunition to keep it to the non-lethal tranquilliser stuff though. I'll need to make sure the Tattlesnakes have plenty of ranged powers.
Actually no. I'll stick to the electricity powers only, like I did with Khanivore. It'd be bad if somebody sees some biotinkered minions using the same powers as Aunt Rose for example.
So far I was feeling good about this. I'd have Faceless for infiltrators and shock troops, Sectoids for psionic support and a variety of Vipers and Tattlesnakes for general purposes. Everything would have Peeping Tom for invisibility so they can keep a low profile when patrolling my territory, since I really doubt the PRT would let my critters patrol without causing a fuss like the control freaks they are.
Then a thought occurred to me. Vipers really are the best minions ever! They're sapient and free-willed enough that I should be able to use them as sacrifices to make Final Fantasy X Aeons. That'll provide a massive amount of force projection, since then I can have a couple specialist Vipers act as summoners as well.
Oh the Nazis, and Brockton Bay in general, have no idea what's about to hit them.
As for remotely controlled critters I'm not actually sure what to design. Most of the bases are covered by the X-Com stuff.
I will be remaking Khanivore as soon as possible though. Piloting it was so much fun and struck so much fear into the hearts of the plebeian masses that it earned Splice, which is still a terrible name, an immediate Kill Order.
The only downside with the manually controlled stuff is I need people with implants to control them, which will probably limit their uses to elite forces or something. Like how I used Khanivore. Then again it might be worth making a second Codex for the express purpose of managing and controlling all my controllable minions if it turns out that works better than the autonomous alien-based ones.
Hopefully it won't imprint so hard on Aunt Rose's mothering tendencies the way Codi did. The last thing I need is a second AI nagging me to clean my room or eat my vegetables.
Seriously being made to eat brussel sprouts should be a war crime! Prove me wrong!
Another alternative might be equipping a couple Vipers with control implants and letting them control some of the big stuff. I'll probably need to keep their critters snake-like so they don't have to deal learning new instincts like how to walk on two legs.
[Intrigue]
Unfortunately that cuts down on a lot of options and the end result would probably just be a bigger Viper. Maybe I will need to make a combat-focused AI after all.
Ah well. I can come back to that later once I settle on the controlled critters I want.
There is however one new critter I'm definitely going to make for my own personal use. A dedicated 'tinker' critter. Fluffles the Third is handy as an extra set of arms, but due to size constraints isn't that useful for remote tinkering and I want to visit wherever this new workshop will be in person as little as possible. If the Nazis track it down by following me I have no doubt they're tattle to the PRT about how they've found Splice's workshop and then I'll have to fight heroes as well as Nazis.
Also ugh. Splice is such a terrible name!
I spent the afternoon working on the my tinker critter, running simulations and generally having fun with tweaking the options. Even better I can grow it in the tank I'm using for Fluffles the Third so I can get started on incubating her as soon as I make the bioware processors, which due to me being amazing I can do right now.
Sure I'm supposed to ask for permission before doing biological stuff but this is important and Aunt Rose hasn't come home yet from her plan to hide the bodies. I headed back downstairs towards to my lab, skirting around the mess Krieg had left on the floor.
Looking at the puddle of blood speckled with brain matter I had an idea and took a sample to add to my DNA library. Who knows, it might be useful to have a sample of his DNA in the future. Anyway, sampling of Nazi DNA complete I headed off to work on the bioware processors for my newest critter.
It was going to be beautiful.
[Agreement. Anticipation]
Taylor arrived home with Codi and Aunt Rose soon after I'd gotten the seeded bioware processors into the life support tank to gestate, Fluffles the Third was curled up in standby mode on my bed.
I was immediately smothered by a hug from my big sister, By the time I escaped her embrace and Codi had been sent off across the internet by Aunt Rose to begin a cyberware campaign against the Empire and Aunt Rose was busy trying to clean up the mess leftover when I'd taken out Krieg, aided by some cockroaches controlled by Taylor. I managed to get myself some tea before Taylor bundled me up in a blanket on the couch like I was about to be kidnapped at any moment. The whole Nazi home invasion thing had shaken her up a lot.
"I'm okay Taylor. It's fine." I tried to reassure my now clingy sister.
"No it's not Addy. The Empire knows you're a tinker. And they broke the Unwritten Rules and came to our home."
"We can always break the rules right back at them. I'm pretty sure Codi can find out all their identities pretty easily." I said, and if Codi couldn't I totally could.
"For the moment we're going to leave the Empire alone." Annette stated, done with cleaning up the mess.
"But Mom-"
Aunt Rose held up a hand to forestall any arguments. "I have a plan Little Owl. At the moment they don't know that Addy is the tinker they're looking for, only that there's a tinker living here. I've set it up so that it looks like the 'recruiters' they sent were ambushed before they arrived, and Codi is setting up a digital trail to corroborate that fact. That should buy us time to plan things more thoroughly." Then her voice hardened. "The next set of goons Kaiser sends out won't find any more success than the first lot."
"Speaking of plans. Can I start claiming territory with my Splice persona when I get my new lot of critters up and running?" I asked, grimacing a little when I used the stupid name the PRT gave me. "I don't really want some out of town gangs moving in after we get rid of the Empire, and ABB too I guess since we'll probably have to deal with them too. Their leader is a nutter."
"Can you make enough creatures to actually hold territory?"
"Yeah, though I'll need Taylor's help to get equipment for them." I said, then began to explain that the Vipers will need guns and the probably Empire has plenty of guns we could take.
"Well it's getting a bit late to cook so we'll order some take-out and discuss things properly when Danny gets home."
Taylor and I nodded in agreement.
We had pizza for dinner, my suggestion of Chinese take-out being vetoed due to an Empire attack on ABB territory putting the place we usually get our Chinese from out of commission.
If today has taught me anything it is that Nazis ruin everything.
[Disagreement. Data]
Aunt Rose filled in Uncle Danny on what happened today, and if he had powers I'm pretty sure he would've stormed Medhall to strangle Kaiser with his own intestines right then and there.
On a related note, Aunt Rose is bullying him into getting some powers from me. He's being weirdly stubborn about it though because he's a wuss and worried about side effects. Seriously it's super powers in a bottle. I could probably make a fortune selling them if it wouldn't risk those asshats in Cauldron finding me.
Also good news! I'm allowed to hold territory and pretend to be a real gang once I can get enough critters to do so, since it'll actually help keep crime down as I'll just be doing the hold territory thing rather than the exploit people living in the territory thing.
Well mostly. Aunt Rose has decided she'll be running things but whatever. I get to make all sorts of critters so I'm happy.
Aunt Rose also pulled me aside before bed to let me know she's sorry I had to kill Krieg and that she's available any time if I want to talk about it, which is nice though unnecessary since she was there so I don't need to brag about taking him out to her. Still the gesture was appreciated and I hugged her, letting her know I was thankful for keeping me safe from the other Nazis. Even if my crows could've handled them.
Today has been a day of many hugs.
Anyway tomorrow is going to be busy because after school Uncle Danny is going to show me and Taylor the warehouse Aunt Rose had bought using some shell company or something to set up as a spare workshop/bug breeding area, which will probably wind up being my Splice workshop.
Note to self: Think up a better villain name than 'Splice'.
(26th April 2011)
"Did you see PHO?" Black Girl asked Brunette #2 who arrived to homeroom a little late.
"Yeah it was a mess." Came the reply from the Brunette that wasn't making googly eyes at that stupid useless mouthbreather, Ryan Turner. Ugh, what does Brunette #1 see in him?
"What happened? I didn't spend any time online yesterday." I asked.
"There was this huge cape fight yesterday evening. According to PHO the ABB killed Krieg so the Empire sent a bunch of their capes for revenge and trashed a whole bunch of ABB territory before the Protectorate arrived." Missy was the one to answer, her face grim.
I felt kinda annoyed by that. The ABB didn't kill Krieg, I did. Stupid kill-stealing jerks.
I kept the irritation off my face though. "How'd their fight go?"
"The heroes eventually chased off all the villains but a lot of business were were destroyed and a lot of ABB gang members and innocent people were killed." Brunette #2 supplied, eyes on her phone looking at the PHO threads detailing whatever must've happened.
It says something about the Bay that an online forum about capes is the best way to get news and that something isn't good.
"I bet the Merchants are enjoying this. They get to sit back and watch the other two gangs kill each other." Tall Girl Karen added her opinion on the matter.
Well they'll probably enjoy this mess a lot, at least until the Murderhobo Nine kill them all. Which reminds me, I need to make plans for when the Murderhobos show up to cause trouble.
Ugh, my to-do list was getting so damn big now. I have to deal with Bakuda and the Empire by creating a scary evil biotinker persona and wage war on them, and probably the PRT since Piggot doesn't like biotinkers. Then I need to figure out a way to take down Leviathan and then deal with the Murderhobo Nine in the aftermath.
Oh yeah, and Coil too. And there's Noelle but if I try interfere with that plot to out Cauldron then Simmy is going to mindrape me.
When did my life get so complicated?
Actually would Simmy even let me kill her brother? Well it can't hurt to ask.
Oi Simmy? You won't get mad at me if I kill Leviathan would you?
{Negation. Data}
Huh that's interesting. I figured she'd be all 'no don't kill my brother', but instead she's all 'nah go ahead, he's a jerk lol'.
Well it's a little more complicated than that, but that was the gist of it. Apparently they like to compete with each other and Leviathan enjoys messing with her plots so she doesn't mind if I actually find a way to break the core. A stance that probably makes more sense when you take into account destroying the core doesn't actually 'kill' him, but rather just prevents him manifesting an avatar and forces him back into standby mode.
In short. Simmy doesn't mind if I beat up Leviathan and put him into enforced naptime.
Endbringers are weird.
"They're not shutting the schools and malls again though because of this right?" I asked, making some doodles in my notebook of critter ideas I could possibly have under AI control. As annoying as school is it's still far more annoying having to catch up schoolwork at home.
"Not that I know of." Karen replied. It looked like she was going to say more but then the bell rang and homeroom started.
"Ooh there's a Ward debut happening later today." Brunette #2 piped up, having continued browsing PHO in the background. "Shadow Stalker is being transferred out on a temporary exchange with New York and we're getting somebody called Flechette."
""Cool."" Black Girl and I replied in unison, though I managed to say 'Jinx' before her this time, getting one up on her. Honestly this was good news. Sophia isn't going to be an issue anymore and we get Flechette which means Sting is in town. I'll need to make sure to get a DNA sample of her so I can vita-chamber her if anything happens.
Taylor walked me home from school, and I have no doubt that anything even vaguely Nazi-like was being tracked by her with a swarm of bees or hornets nearby. As promised Uncle Danny was there when we got home and soon Taylor and I were on the way to check out our new Lair.
Not that Taylor wanted to call it a Lair, the party pooper.
It was a sizeable building that had been a fish packing factory a long time ago but was now basically an empty shell with a couple walkways. Situated a couple blocks away from the Dockworkers Association, it was presumably far enough away that it wouldn't look allied with the Union but close enough that Uncle Danny could regularly pop over to keep an eye on us or whatever. Or Kurt, since he was the only other person 'in the know' about what was actually going to be here, mostly because he was here showing Uncle Danny the work that had been done cleaning the place up.
[Suggestion]
Hmm, I wonder if Kurt wants powers. I should ask him.
"Hey Kurt. I can give you powers if you swear allegiance to me and give me shoulder rides." I offered magnanimously after having completed my exploration of the warehouse space and mentally plotted out where I can install life support tanks. Taylor was busy looking through the loft office section and planning where she'd keep her bugs.
Alas, my offer of powers and minionhood was turned down because he was a giant wuss and thought the list of possible side effects was too much of a risk. That and I guess he's technically Uncle Danny's minion so I probably should stop trying to poach him.
[Disappointment]
I did however get a shoulder ride which was just as awesome as I thought it would be. Pity Uncle Danny is so skinny or I could pester him for shoulder rides too. Seriously Kurt is broad. I'm sitting on his actual shoulder and there's still a little bit of room.
After a explaining some of my ideas to Uncle Danny and Kurt and then being rejoined by Taylor we headed home. This was going to be so cool. Uncle Danny was going to handle having stuff delivered that I could convert into the tanks I need, along with a bunch of other stuff so I could set up a functioning biotinker lab/workshop, which would be ordered online through a different shell company Codi's set up. Taylor was getting some terrariums for her bugs, and overall everything was going to be great.
Aunt Rose was there when we got home and the judging by the lack of dead Nazis the Empire hadn't bothered to come around and try another recruitment attempt just yet. I got some more tinkering on the dresspheres done and overall it was a very productive day.
Except for one part.
"How about Magpie?" My big sister suggested to me. We were all eating dinner and I'd brought up the subject of cape names to her and the fact that I couldn't think of a cool hero name for my hero persona.
Obviously asking Taylor for help was a mistake.
"But Magpie sounds kinda silly. Like I'm all about shiny things and loot."
Everyone at the table just gave me a look.
"Okay fine. Maybe it fits just a tiny bit." I grumbled, but it was hard to be annoyed when I had delicious meatloaf to shove into my face.
"It sounds less pretentious than that Crow Mage name you suggested. Less crazy too. You don't want people thinking you're like Myrddin do you?"
"She's got you there Addy." Uncle Danny added. I shoved more meatloaf into my mouth rather than dignify that with a response.
Aunt Rose on the other hand just found it all hilarious.
Since I was going for Magpie as my cape name, mostly because it wasn't taken and I couldn't think of anything better, it meant I could make tweaks to the Black Mage dressphere to change the colours.
I'd gone with Rikku's version. The skirt was tiny which annoyed me greatly, but the other options seemed worse. Yuna's outfit, while nice, was too restrictive on the legs and would limit my mobility too much to be a decent hero outfit. The less said about Paine's wannabe fetishistic outfits the better. They are completely inappropriate for a twelve year-old girl.
Which meant I had to deal with a miniskirt.
The first thing I did once the dressphere was completed was add some leggings and gym shorts underneath it to make it less indecent. No panty shots happening here, this is not Japan. I'll have to visit Parian on the weekend and see how much it'll cost for her to design a longer skirt or something I can add to the outfit. Something similar to what Tifa wore in Advent Children should work well and look suitably dramatic and badass.
At least I have a cool hat. And a staff to whack people on the head with.
Still, it felt amazing to activate for the first time, especially with the knowledge filling my head on how to use the various Final Fantasy black magic 'spells'. I now have fire, water, electricity, or ice options, each with three levels of power. Thunder would be the basic lighting attack, with Thundara and Thundaga being levels two and three.
On top of that I've also got non-elemental options with Flare and Ultima, both dealing a stupid amount of damage. It's a pity I don't have Meteor, but that isn't an option for this specific Final Fantasy tech tree. Still, with fourteen different spell options excluding the stuff I get from my garment grid I should be able to handle anything the city throws at me.
I probably had a serious blaster rating now, although the bigger spells were likely to be pretty draining, seeming to draw from the same energy reserve my plasmid powers drew from. Luckily my power supplied me with ideas on items I could make that would reduce the drain. To be honest there's loads of items I want to make. Especially the NulTide rings. That should be a nice way to keep people I like alive when Leviathan shows up.
Anyway modifying the colours of the final outfit was actually pretty easy, involving adjusting some settings on the dressphere after hooking it up to the computer, rather than requiring dyes or whatever. It was now a mix a blacks, extremely dark blues (bordering on black) with just a bit of white here and there for accenting. Basically Magpie colours, because I am an uncreative hack too busy to do something else.
I also added a scarf too for hiding my lower face. That way I could easily show of my kickass purple eyes while in costume as well as troll both the Nazis and the ABB because my eyes are blatantly Asian in appearance.
My Freelancer Dressphere I just equiped with basic jeans, shirt and hoodie similar to Taylor. I can always make a variety later on when I can spare materials. I want to finish up the Alchemist and White Mage Dresspsheres first and maybe get one of the special dresspsheres done as well before I make more Freelancer ones.
I've also dropped the Possession power and settled on Peeping Tom, deciding on the stealth option. I can always get it again later when I'm grown enough for my body to handle another plasmid. Plus I can probably grab a human mastering power if I practice more with my psionics and pick up mind control, though that practice time will have to wait for sometime when I'm less busy.
So yeah, I can go invisible now when fights happen, which gives me options to make sure I'm not going to get hurt since I'm still a little worried about that. It's a bit weird really. I have broken as hell OP regeneration and can come back from the dead if something actually manages to kill me but I still would much rather prefer piloting a battle critter than going into combat myself.
Ah well, the life of a hero is tough, so I'll just have to try be more like Taylor and tough it out.
Speaking of hero stuff, I'm unfortunately not allowed to go out on patrol just yet even though my kickass hero outfit is done. I snuck out late at night anyway, but since I'm not going out to do hero stuff I'm totally not breaking any rules.
After all Rule 7 says no going out heroing alone, and since this was more of a villain-ish thing it's totally fine and I can't get in trouble for it. The act of sneaking out was actually really easy. I just opened the basement window and crowported outside, and then quickly crowported off into the darkness.
Anyway it's important. With Shadow Stalker being shipped off to New York that means I can't get revenge on her for hurting Taylor, but there is still one bully that deserves revenge and I have just the right plan to hurt Emma for betraying my big sister the way she did.
Hey Simmy, can you give me directions to Emma's house? I wanna use my psychic powers on her to mess with her head. I asked. If I can make her have a full on mental breakdown then maybe she'll get put in a mental institution and get the actual therapy that she needs.
I'm doing it for her own good really. Not just because I want her to suffer for hurting my big sister.
{Proud. Data}
Huh. I should probably be concerned that I've made the Simurgh proud of me. And I guess there's no point in sneaking out because she's already had a mental breakdown due to what I did the other Saturday. Apparently I hammering her trauma buttons and followed by smacking her with a full strength Psi Panic pushed her over the edge. How fucking weak is her psyche?
Well now my whole planned night-time adventure is ruined. I could probably track down Madison instead, I feel kinda bad at the way the Simurgh approves of my use of psychic powers to screw with Emma's head.
I need to make sure Taylor never finds out. I'll never hear the end of it.
I think I'll just sneak back inside and go to bed.
(27th April 2011)
I was excited for the afternoon. The first lot of stuff Kurt was supervising to be discreetly delivered to the my Splice Lair was going to be delivered this afternoon.
And it's definitely a Lair no matter what Taylor says!
Soon I was going to have Sectoids scurrying about ready to do my will. I'll have to talk to Codi about ordering silly outfits for them online. They need bowler hats at the very least.
But first I had to make it through the school day with my sanity intact. I'd just finished Maths class, where Mr Wildings is going on about fractions or something and why they're vitally important to learn because our very future jobs depend on it or something.
Being the amazing super genius that I am, I already knew this stuff and thus spent the lesson doodling in my notebook to stave off the boredom instead. I ended with a a rather nice sketch of a Faceless stabbing a Nazi skinhead with it's huge claws, very nice picture if I do say so myself. I even managed to capture the perfect look of droopy adorableness on the Faceless' face perfectly.
But with might Maths class behind me it was no lunch time and I was heading off with my friends minions to the cafeteria when the Simurgh decided to share some information.
{Warning. Data}
[Alarm. Concern]
More specifically she decided to share the fact that there was a Bakuda bomb in the school, something that would've been useful to know earlier! Even worse it's set up in the cafeteria to hit as many people as possible. Oh, and there's barely any time left before Bakuda sets it off because she wants to use it as a warning to make the PRT and Empire back off.
I mean, what do I even do about this? There's no way we can evac the school in time.
What would Taylor do?
…
Goddamnit.
I turned to Missy. "There's a tinkertech bomb in the school. Call for help."
Ignoring her demands for further. Then I ran straight for the cafeteria, pushing my way past everyone in the way and ignoring the grumblings of annoyance I left in my wake. I made a slight detour into an empty classroom to grab a chair and ignored the teacher whose classroom I'd just robbed and her demands to know what I was doing.
"Move!" I simultaneously yelled and projected at the crowd milling about the entrance to the cafeteria, barging my way through with the purloined chair. Once inside I ignored the people looking at me like I was crazy, rushed to to correct table and slammed the chair on top of it, shoving some lunch trays out of the way in the process and receiving a lot of shouts of alarm in return. I clambered up and used the increase in height to shove a ceiling tile out the way, reaching in and grabbed the bomb.
It was surprisingly small for something so fucking dangerous.
I hopped off the chair, landing on the table and narrowly missing putting my foot in some boy's mashed potatoes before I hopped onto the floor and ran towards the side of the cafeteria, more specifically the emergency fire exit. I needed to get the bomb outside like right now!
Bursting outside and into the fresh air I ran with my perilous payload. Suddenly it beeped and a couple lights began to flash.
Oh for fuck's sake.
I was going to die quite painfully, but unlike my classmates I have a vita-chamber. Stupid Simurgh warning me so late. If she'd told me earlier I wouldn't be carrying a fucking bomb about to explode. I tossed it away in an instant, not that it really helped.
PAIN!!
A/N
Remember to always ask yourself: What Would Taylor Do?
Then remind yourself that doing the exact opposite it probably the better idea.
