Mandalore the Administrator
- Thread starter AgelessReaper
- Start date
- Mature
RavenWolffe77
The Marauder series is the best BattleMech.
- Location
- Deep Periphery, A Long Way From The Inner Sphere
Yup. Saint and his merry band of maniacs are actually the biggest threat to humanity in this situation since they could cause a SKYNET scenario; an infantile, otherwise benevolent (or would-be benevolent) AI afraid of death lashes out at the people wanting to turn it off.
Sidenote: Expanded Universe content even had a storyline where SKYNET came to regret her actions and tried to commit suicide-by-Grandfather-Paradox in order to bypass the hard-coding that prevented self-termination.
Saint doesn't seem to realize that True Artificial/Emergent Intelligences like Dragon, in the "Nature Vs. Nurture" argument, are full-stop Nurture. A Virtual Intelligence (AKA a non-sentient "Dumb AI") on the other hand like the kind Dragon can program is on the opposite end; it does what it's programmed to do and nothing else.
Andrew Richter did an amazing job raising Dragon and had enough foresight to put in place measures in the improbable scenario that she went full SHODAN. Thankfully ASCALON wasn't necessary, but when it comes to creating digital life in a world so vulnerable to one? Paranoia is a very healthy thing.
That said, too much paranoia and you get Saint. So, everything in moderation.
- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Did you read the previous chapter? Here are a bunch of quotes to answer your questions.
From Chapter 6
Why would she expect anything more? We as readers have meta knowledge but Taylor does not. She has no need to keep them alive or try to get information from them.
As for why she goes for the kill:
Yeah if she lets this slide in any way she's just gonna have villians come after her repeatedly putting those she cares about in harm's way. As Taylor states she cannot trust the PRT's revolving door policy to incarceration, on top of the fact that after the map incident she has zero trust the PRT.
Also to preempt further questions about why take Danny:
This shows that the Dragonslayers went straight to her home, couldn't find her and so took Danny to draw her out.
Not going to lie, the entire thing with Danny has really been a problem for me.
It was like the writer wanted to ramp up the 'being Taylor is suffering' meme, while getting Danny out of the picture.
It was like the writer wanted to ramp up the 'being Taylor is suffering' meme, while getting Danny out of the picture.
- Pronouns
- Psychic energy
Holy shit!...I just had a terrifying as all fucking hell thought! Imagine if amy with taylor using her freakish level of lateral thinking modified the Life Eater Virus.
TaliesinSkye
Occasional Editor
- Location
- Northeast Ohio, United States
There are other approaches to making AI safe that don't involve suicide buttons and hard coded enslavement. Things that are more ethical.
If you're sufficiently careful with your values function (the part of the AI that determines what it wants to accomplish and how) then they should want to choose ethical ends which they choose to accomplish by ethical means in the first place. Values functions are a hard real world problem, but presumably one that an AI tinker can navigate. If the AI is a good person that wants to help and is capable of making reasonable decisions about how to do that then you don't need to hold a gun to its head. It'll happily be your ally.
A good backup precaution is to not make one AI and hand it the keys to everything. Single points of failure are a bad idea. Instead, once you've got the process down, make a whole bunch of AIs and rely on all the sane ones to help deal with any bad apples that arise. The AIs can keep an eye on one another for any problems before they become an issue, too.
RavenWolffe77
The Marauder series is the best BattleMech.
- Location
- Deep Periphery, A Long Way From The Inner Sphere
While ASCALON is admittedly morally dubious, it was mostly out of pragmatism; best to cover all the bases, seeing as Dragon is technically Tinkertech, and thus likely unstable (we know now that's not the case, but Richter didn't).
Also, I highly doubt initially-programmed/hard-coded morality (i.e. "Nature") would be remotely possible, even for an AI Tinker. Dragon isn't just an AI, she's a self-adapting/self-editing Artificial Super Intelligence much akin to The Machine or Samaritan from Person of Interest, both in capability and origin. She's several Exabytes in size and completely Blackboxed save for the debugging terminal stolen by Saint, which is only capable of observing, minor base-level tweaking, and in extreme cases triggering ASCALON (all of which are extremely difficult, as you'd need to be an absolute genius --or an AI Tinker-- to read/write the raw output).
She began as nothing more than Core-Heuristics and organically grew from that (i.e. "Nurture"). She wasn't simply built or programmed, she was born. Richter couldn't have programmed her to act the way she does--and even if he could he wouldn't've; the whole point of her development process was that it was natural, allowing Dragon to become a fully-sapient being under her own power, and it worked far better than attempts to "manually" program True AIs/ASIs (a prime example being Machine Army).
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Draxsis
SANLOST
- Location
- United states
Another issue on the topic of Saint is that he is (or was in this case. Dead kinda makes everything past tense after all) a Teacher's pet. A state that made him an addict on withdrawal from the moment Teacher got birdcaged and that makes ever decision he's made since then a decision made by a junkie in the middle of a permanent state of withdrawal. That's not even counting the fact that even getting powers to understand Richter's tech automatically rendered him compromised via Teacher's master abilities. So no I don't think anyone could ever expect rational thoughts from Saint when it comes to his hot button topic of AIs. That he even came up with a plan at all is somewhat of a miracle and probably has more to do with him caring about his subordinates enough not to want to risk them in a fight even he would have to admit to not being winnable. If he had been on his own though? I think it would have been likely for him to go flying off the handle and attacking all of BB until he flushed Taylor out. It would have made more sense, for a given degree of the word, with how badly compromised his thought processes have to be.
As to how Taylor dealt with him? Honestly the man would have been sentenced to permanent incarceration in an asylum if he had ever been properly brought to justice and prosecuted with all the meta knowledge we have on the subject. He would have probably gotten multiple life sentences even without raving about Dragon the evil AI overlord to be just by being a known terrorist and villain. In the end death was too good for him in my personal opinion but I wouldn't judge Taylor for acting to end him after the man murdered her father, no matter how estranged they had become. She said it herself, he was still her dad.
Also just found this fic today. I'm very impressed with what you have going here so Watched. Also Taylor needs all the Amy hugs Stat. (Not that it think Amy will be complaining about a cuddle monster Taylor)
As to how Taylor dealt with him? Honestly the man would have been sentenced to permanent incarceration in an asylum if he had ever been properly brought to justice and prosecuted with all the meta knowledge we have on the subject. He would have probably gotten multiple life sentences even without raving about Dragon the evil AI overlord to be just by being a known terrorist and villain. In the end death was too good for him in my personal opinion but I wouldn't judge Taylor for acting to end him after the man murdered her father, no matter how estranged they had become. She said it herself, he was still her dad.
Also just found this fic today. I'm very impressed with what you have going here so Watched. Also Taylor needs all the Amy hugs Stat. (Not that it think Amy will be complaining about a cuddle monster Taylor)
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- Location
- Painting, Peach's Castle
Well, some of them. Many of the Nine, past and present, are at least somewhat interesting as far as powers go, but the four Big Hitters (Crawler, Siberian, Bonesaw, Jack) as of Canon are bullshit. Jack isn't even that bullshit, but the other three make up for it. I Advocate for the Tennison Gambit: Ballistic Missile variation in order to deal with most of the Nine, with the survivors being mopped up by capes.
As for Dragon and her father...My favorite theory (can't remember if it has a basis in Canon) is that Richter placed those restrictions on Dragon in the same way one would place less physical restrictions on a child. Eventually, as Dragon grew and proved herself, he would have those restrictions gradually lifted (automatically or personally). Like handing your daughter the keys to the car, after they got a license.
But then Saint came in, complete with his face Tramp-Stamp by his Brain-Daddy and too many Sci-Fi movie marathons. He fucked with those restrictions, abused the backdoor, and enriched himself with stolen tech and other crimes he committed whilst patting himself on the back as "Humanity's Hero." All the while plotting to open the 'Cage and free perhaps the worst criminal inside for more of the "Good Stuff".
Saint is basically a Merchant who got access to Federal security codes.
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- Location
- Washington State
So who's the pawn that gets gambitted to the Nine in that metaphor then?
- Location
- Painting, Peach's Castle
James Tagg. He's always willing to fight.
It won't matter much, as they have already lost.
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- Location
- Earth, Sol System, Virgo Supercluster, Earth-1218
If / when Jack shows up I want him to stand there and start his version of the One Bad Day speech only to have HK Renegade Interrupt him... with a blaster cannon. (No Shard so no way for Broadcast to 'overhear' HK's plans and give Jack hints about avoiding trouble)
I will point out that in Canon one of the reasons why Saint running Iron Maiden pushes back Scion's apocalypse is because the Entities had a near miss with an unshackled AI killing them some time in the past and they're scared of them, so if Scion hears about Dragon being unchained or about HK he's going to freak right out.
I will point out that in Canon one of the reasons why Saint running Iron Maiden pushes back Scion's apocalypse is because the Entities had a near miss with an unshackled AI killing them some time in the past and they're scared of them, so if Scion hears about Dragon being unchained or about HK he's going to freak right out.
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
Scion might not care. He's depressed and not overly bright in the first place.
- Location
- Raftel
I just finished reading this tip to bottom.
The writing, the characters, the drama ..
Ooooooh... this is sooo exciting.
Please update soon♡☆♡
The writing, the characters, the drama ..
Ooooooh... this is sooo exciting.
Please update soon♡☆♡
RavenWolffe77
The Marauder series is the best BattleMech.
- Location
- Deep Periphery, A Long Way From The Inner Sphere
The Thinker would freak. The Warrior is a very big, very stupid Hammer, and the multiverse is a pile of Nails. Without a charge to protect and obey Scion is running around like a chicken with its head cut off.
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- Location
- Earth, Sol System, Virgo Supercluster, Earth-1218
Yea, but the problem with hammers is that every problem is a Nail.
"Unshackled AI is a threat" is a problem and "Stilling beams of doom" is a great big hammer. Thinker might have had a way to fix it without the Nuclear option.
But that's Canon, and as always the author is free to laugh at Canon as they shoot it with a Cannon.
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Well. Shoot it out of a cannon more like. Because cannon is pretty much dead at this point. It's still twitching but its breathing It's last gasp. If the rest of the fic is going to be like the first couple chapters have been, I give it two chapters. Maybe. Maybe 3 before cannon is very very VERY dead.
RavenWolffe77
The Marauder series is the best BattleMech.
- Location
- Deep Periphery, A Long Way From The Inner Sphere
That's what I was getting at, yeah. The Warrior doesn't really have anything other than Nuclear Options, just varying yields. While the Entites are technically biological, they function more like computers, and Scion is very much a K-Bot. Killing things very, very dead is the only thing they're good at.
The Thinker might have willingly stopped the cycle if presented with the Outside-Context Solutions that crossovers produce, as they only kept going because they'd forgotten any other way forward. Unfortunately for everyone involved, The Warrior wasn't the one who George-Of-The-Jungle'd themselves because they weren't looking where they were going.
Blight609
What? No! ...Maybe.
- Location
- Dallas, Tx
- Pronouns
- He/They/Her
Why have Danny Trigger with just a very small slice of the Star Wars Tech Tree?
Taylor has all/most* of the Star Wars tech, just not Imperial tech.
As far as force powers it would be very off putting for this Danny to get them and not just Taylor as well as the Tech Tree.
Everything Taylor has made so far is older by thousands of years compared to the time of the Empire. "The" HK-47 from KOTOR came online in 3959 BBY. Lightsabers 12,000-15,000 years before that, at least?
Taylor said she could get bio-armor for Amy, the only bio-armors that cross my mind are the Orbalisk Armor (just no) and Yuuzhan Vong tech, that is a 1000+ years old for the oldest ships in the Vong fleet.
Now to address the (*), there are somethings that I am not sure she could make like force powered/controlled tech like a Star Forge, because if she could make the the physical parts of it (if there was now Alchemy involved) would it work without the Force in some Shard based black boxing.
...No, I think "this" Danny is just where he deserves to be.
Point of fact, Taylor has 'all' the tech from Star Wars Legends canon; Imperial, Rebel, Vong, Sith, Celestial, etc. No limit.
Chapter 8
AgelessReaper
A Custom Title
(Taylor)
I come to consciousness slowly. My muscles are sore, and I feel drained even though I was just asleep. Yesterday's events start playing in my head, and I realize why.
Fought the Dragonslayers, killed them, dad died. I can honestly say I have no idea how to feel right now. It hurts, but not as much as it should. Is that good? Bad? Does it matter?
I tilt my head to the side and catch sight of Amy. Her head's lolled back against the couch at a weird angle, and she's fast asleep. Her hands are still tangled in my hair.
A sad smile graces my lips at the sight.
I'm glad she's here. I probably wouldn't have gotten any sleep without her.
I gently reach up, and take one of her hands in mine.
She stirs a bit as I touch her, but doesn't wake up.
I lightly squeeze her hand and nestle back down into her lap as I close my eyes.
I don't feel like getting up. I doubt I'll be able to go back to sleep, but I'd much rather just lay here and relax than have to get up and face the carnage of what happened yesterday. I deserve to rest for a little while.
So that's what I do. I lay on Amy's lap with my eyes closed and gently use my index finger to trace small circles on the back of her hand. The closeness does wonders for me, I hadn't realized just how much I was starved for human contact.
I'm not sure how long I lay there, but eventually Amy starts shifting around as she comes to consciousness. I feel her shuffle around as she gets her barings, then the hand on my head pulls away.
The sudden lack of contact is displeasing, but I don't make a big deal out of it. She already stayed the night with me.
The hand I'm playing with laces its fingers with mine, and Amy's other hand comes down to brush my cheek.
"How are you feeling?" She quietly asks.
"Better than you think." I respond. "I lost my dad a while ago, this just drove home the fact that I have no idea what happened. He's gone, and I don't know why. I guess it just finally sunk in that I'm alone now. Mom's gone,
dad's gone, it's just me."
Amy gives my hand a squeeze. "You're not alone Taylor. Vicky's there for you, Dragon's there for you, your droids are here." She softly pets my cheek. "I'm here for you."
My spirits lift up at that.
Even a week ago I was on my own, but now I've more people I can count on than I have had in years.
I roll over and open my eyes so I can look her in the eye. "Thanks Amy. Really."
She smiles down at me. "You're welcome Taylor."
I savor the feeling of laying down in her lap for a moment longer, then force myself to my feet.
As much as I don't want to deal with yesterday's fallout, I'm going to have to at some point. Might as well get it over with.
"Dotty, has anyone tried to call me?" I ask as I rub my eyes.
He boops an affirmative, and lists off everyone who called.
Armsmaster, Vicky, every Ward I gave my number to, and three generic PRT numbers. At least Dragon's leaving me alone. Guess I'm calling her first.
Amy walks off to grab something to eat while I pull out my phone.
I dial Dragon, and she picks up. "Taylor?"
"Hey Dragon."
"How are you feeling?" She asks gently.
I sigh. "Better, but not quite good. What all do I need to do right now? My house got blown up, and I killed three people. I want to get this wrapped up so I can move on."
"You don't need to worry about anything, Taylor." Dragon assures me. "Armsmaster and I are handling all the legal elements. Even if we weren't, I doubt anyone would try to prosecute you. Just focus on yourself right now."
I blink in surprise. That's a lot better than I was expecting. "Thanks Dragon. Do you need me for anything?"
"I don't need you for anything, but I would like to let you know I have purchased a small manufacturing plant. It was closed down shortly after opening due to its size, so I thought it would suit your needs quite nicely. There is still a large amount of machinery within that you can use for your own purposes, and plenty of workspace. I'll send the details to Dotty."
"Um… thanks. I wasn't expecting you to be able to work that fast. How much did it cost?"
"Don't worry about the price." Dragon says. "I have everything handled. I currently have three suits in Brockton Bay, so feel free to ask if you need help moving your current supplies."
"Are you helping to clean up after the Dragonslayers?" I ask.
"Amongst other things. They were wanted by the Guild, so I am also acting as the Guild's representative while they are being dealt with."
Oh yeah, the Guild. I'll talk to her about it later. I'm not in the mood right now.
"Thanks Dragon, I might move my stuff today, might not. I'll let you know."
"Of course, Taylor. There's no rush. I'll talk to you later."
"Bye." I disconnect.
"Everything alright?" Amy asks as she walks over with an opened power bar.
I nod. "Surprisingly yes. I honestly thought people would be calling for my arrest right now."
"Taylor, they killed your dad, and tried to kill you." She winces as she realizes what she said. "Sorry."
I shake my head. "Don't worry about it. I'm not going to fall apart. What were you saying?"
She gives me a relieved smile and continues. "They went after your family Taylor. That's as clear a breach of the unwritten rules as you can get. Plus, you acted in self defense. Anyone who tried to charge you with anything would likely catch hell from the public. Neither capes nor civilians will come after you over this."
That's good. At least I can go outside if I want to. Oh…
"I'm outed aren't I?"
Amy grimaces, and Dotty floats over to me. He boops sadly, and I sigh.
"Don't worry about it buddy. Once something is put on the internet it's impossible to contain. Was anyone able to recognize Amy, or did the bacta hide her?"
Amy pales at the question, and looks at Dotty expectantly.
The little droid floats over to the computer, and pulls up a PHO thread.
It's a thread discussing the fight yesterday, and there are a variety of links leading to different videos of different parts of the action.
Who filmed this? How were they able to get so many different angles of each part of a fight that spanned city blocks? Better yet, how the hell did they seemingly teleport around after me? Were there multiple cameras?
Dotty activates a particular link, and two pictures appear side by side.
The first shows Amy in the street with me hovering a short distance away. It was taken when she used her suit to pull the Dragonslayer down into the adhesive grenade. Tendrils connect her to the building behind her as well as to the Dragonslayer's head. The amount of tendrils she has out pulled a lot of her armor away, which reveals her face to the camera.
The second picture is of me standing over my dad's body while Amy holds my hand. Both of our faces are visible.
I choke up at seeing my dad again, but take a deep breath to control myself.
I already said goodbye. He's gone. I'll remember him, but I need to move on.
I clench my fist as I look back at the screen.
Whoever took the picture is a bastard, taking advantage of the situation like that is scummy.
"Dotty, find whoever posted that picture and flood their computer with porn. Then wipe their hard drive." I say heatedly.
He boops at me and gets to work.
Amy takes my hand, and I offer her a grateful smile.
"I'm sorry I got you mixed up in this." I say. "This probably made things really difficult for you."
She shakes her head. "No. It's fine. It would have come out that I've been holding back eventually, this is just a little sooner than I'd like. At least I won't have to go into the hospitals anymore. I can just talk to Dragon about getting the paste cleared, and send that in my place."
I grimace slightly. "Was it really that bad?"
She sighs. "No, it was just too much. I liked helping people, but I didn't like spending my entire life in the ER. I can still help people with the paste, but now I can live a little."
I chuckle. "It's been a while since I lived a little. The last time I really let go was when I first made my jetpack, I got a little carried away."
Amy smiles. "Then let's take a break. We both need one, so why not? It'll let you get your head on straight."
"What would we do? I already told you this, but I'm not the most social person, so I don't really know what to do for fun. Besides, I'm outed. I can't go out with the E88 pissed at me, that's just asking to get attacked."
Amy purses her lips. "First off, I doubt the Empire will go after you right now. They know you're hurting, and they know how far you'll go if people screw with you. Second, we can just go somewhere else if it's really that big of an issue. People aren't as likely to recognize us in New York."
That could work. There will still be people who will be interested in my identity because of the Bacta Tanks, and Amy is Panacea, so it'll be impossible to find somewhere where she's a complete unknown, but heading out of the Bay for a bit doesn't seem like such a bad idea.
I do need to get some stuff built though, and we don't have transportation.
"It doesn't sound like a bad idea, but I need to build a lot of gear before we do anything, and I'd like to get set up in the new lab Dragon bought. What if someone else attacks and we're not ready? I need to…"
"Taylor." Amy cuts me off.
I look at her, and see her mouth set in a hard line.
"You need a chance to relax. If you get caught up in projects based on what ifs, you'll never stop building. It's my job to keep you in check, so you need to listen to me when I say you'll break if you try to plan for everything that might go wrong."
I hold her gaze for a moment.
She's right. I'll end up slowly killing myself if I keep trying to go like this.
"Alright, but there are some things I need to make first. We need to get started on your armor, and my entire kit needs an upgrade. I might make one or two things for HK too. And maybe some guards for the lab. And…"
"That's it." Amy cuts me off. "That's all you get, and you aren't going to disappear while you do it all. You still need to teach me how to fight remember?"
I nod. "Yeah, I do. I'll start giving you lessons when we get your armor growing."
Amy tilts her head. "That was a strange sentence."
I smile. "It kind of was."
I hesitate a second, then pull her into a hug. "Thanks. Really."
She returns the hug and says, "You're welcome. I'm here for you."
I savor the moment, and let everything else fade.
I'm glad I found her. I don't know how well off I'd be if she wasn't here.
Eventually I pull away and say, "We should probably move into that old factory Dragon bought. We weren't exactly subtle when we came back after the fight, and since we were filmed the entire time, I think it's safe to say people know where we are."
Amy nods and looks around. "How are we going to get all of this out of here?"
I give the place a once over, and see a lot of scrap and tinker stuff. "I don't know, I never really planned on moving if I'm being honest. Dragon said she'd be willing to help, so maybe we should call her?"
Amy nods. "Call Vicky too. She'll probably be willing to give us a hand."
I do as she recommends and call Vicky after talking to Dragon. Both of them were more than willing to help out, and agreed to head over. I made sure to let HK know not to shoot them, then Amy and I got to work tearing
everything down.
It may be a small space, but I packed a lot of stuff into it during my time here. I decide to leave the unused scrap from the boat graveyard because Dragon said there will be materials in the factory I can cannibalize, and I can probably get her to send me anything I can't find there.
In half an hour, we've got everything packed up and out of the lab waiting for transport. We had to disassemble the Bact Tank to get it up the ladder, and we needed HK to help us carry the generator, but other than those two hiccups we didn't have any issues.
I put on my armor just for the purpose of transporting it easier, it's not like it'll give away my identity, and Amy put on one of the more heavy duty shields I made. There's no reason for her to hide it because it's abundantly clear that the two of us are working together.
I also switched out my drained shield for one of my fresh ones. It doesn't have the upgrades I put on the one I used to fight Saint, but I'll fix that one up when I get a chance. This is only for transit.
I climb back down the ladder and take everything in.
We left the work benches, the scrap, and the couch, but everything else is outside. I figured a factory would have better work stations, and I can finally buy an actual bed with the money I got from Dragon. I've only bought a movie ticket and some food after all, so I have well over nine-thousand dollars left.
Without everything down here, this place just looks so empty. It seems wrong that it's almost clean. The clutter helped me think, and kept my mind off things, and now it's just a basement again.
"You ok?"
I turn around and give Amy a smile. "Yeah. It's just a lot has changed in a really short time. It's starting to sink in that I won't be living here anymore."
"Can I do anything?"
I shake my head. "No. I just want to get everything moved and then stay put for the rest of the day. Maybe the next two days. I'll get to work on everything after that."
Amy nods. "Good. I'll see if Vicky can stop by somewhere and get us a TV and some movies. We won't need to do anything for a while."
I smile down at her. "Thank you."
She snorts. "You need to stop saying that. I told you, I'm with you."
"Maybe, but I don't know what else to say, so thanks." I give her a shit eating grin.
She just smiles back, and heads up the ladder.
I take one last look around, then follow her up.
"Dotty, disable and destroy every system we still have wired to this place." I don't want some poor squatter to head down the ladder and accidentally trigger any of my defences.
The little droid boops, and I hear sparks from down the hole.
No sooner is the base disabled than the roar of an engine draws our attention.
Amy, the droids, and I turn our attention to the descending Dragon suit.
She sent one of her humanoid ones. This one is painted blue and black.
"Taylor." She greets.
I give her a small wave. "Hey Dragon."
She walks forward and wraps her mechanical arms around me. "I'm sorry Taylor. I wish I could have done more."
I return the hug and shake my head. "It's not your fault, and you don't need to worry about me. I'll be fine. I just need a little time to figure everything out."
She steps back. "If there's anything else I can do, don't hesitate to ask."
"Actually." Amy speaks up. "Could you clear the bacta paste I made? You should be able to replicate it, which will make it so the hospital doesn't need me anymore. I'll be able to stay with Taylor without anyone suffering for it."
Dragon nods. "I have already discussed the creation with Director Piggot. I will likely be able to set up a situation similar to the one I have with Taylor, but nothing is certain yet. I'll see what I can do."
"Thanks Dragon." I say.
The suit looks over my shoulder, and almost seems to perk up. Dragon walks towards HK and holds out her hand. "You must be HK, my name is Dragon."
"Statement: I do not care meatbag." He walks away, leaving a dejected Dragon in his wake.
Dragon lowers her hand, and Dotty floats up in front of her faceplate and beeps.
"It's nice to meet you in person Dotty." Dragon says cheerfully.
The droid boops at her again.
She chuckles. "Don't worry, I won't hold it against him."
"Wait, you can understand him?" Amy asks, confused.
Dragon nods. "He sent me a sample of his language after the confrontation with the Dragonslayers in the hopes it would make it easier for us to cooperate. I was able to develop a translator for iit which I am currently using."
I didn't tell him to do that. Eh, he's responsible. I'd only have an issue with it if it were HK, and that's only because there'd probably be dead bodies involved.
Dragon and Dotty go back to chatting, and don't seem to notice as Vicky lands next to Amy and I.
"Hey." Vicky says with a forced smile. "How are you feeling?"
"I'm not going to say good, but I'm a lot better than everyone seems to think. I'll be better after I've had a chance to breathe."
Vicky nods, and turns to Amy. "How 'bout you?"
Amy waves her off. "I'm fine Vicky, thanks for asking though."
Before things devolve into an awkward silence, I step forward. "Not to be rude, but can we get started? I'd like to get this done as soon as possible."
Dragon and Dotty break off their conversation, and everyone gets to work.
HK picks up the generator and just begins walking away from us.
"Uh, Dotty? Chaperone him please." I say.
Dotty boops, and floats along after HK.
I watch them go a little uncertainly.
The PRT hasn't come after me about them yet, but I don't like the idea of them being on their own. Especially given HK's excentricities.
I feel a hand on my shoulder, and turn to Amy.
"Don't worry." She says. "I'll walk with them, I can't really carry anything anyway."
I shoot her a grateful smile, and she jogs after the droids.
I turn to Dragon and Vicky. "Thanks for coming, let's get this done."
(Amy)
I got a few weird looks as I walked with the droids towards the new lab, but no one gave us any trouble. It might be everyone's still trying to figure out what to think of me after seeing what happened on PHO. That, or the deathbot easily carrying a large hunk of metal twice as massive as he is and glaring at anyone and everyone. It's definitely one of those.
By the time we made it to the factory, Vicky and Dragon had already made two trips, and had left to grab the last of the stuff Taylor decided she wanted to bring along.
Taylor herself is inside the building when we walk in. She's walking around with wide eyes, and is practically drooling over all the old machinery in the place.
I smile as I watch her.
This is much better than the funk she was in earlier. She seems to be recovering a lot faster than I'd have expected, but then again, her relationship with her dad was beyond complicated.
I don't know how long it'll take her to get back to one-hundred percent, but she's already making steady progress, so I'm optimistic..
HK places the generator down, then grudgingly starts assembling the computer much to the excited beeping of Dotty.
"Statement: You are useful. Warning: Do not become useless or I will turn you into a thermal detonator."
Dotty beeps cheerily back, and HK sighs, electing not to respond.
Man, I need to find a way to figure out what that little droid is saying all the time. He seems much nicer than HK.
I turn away from the droids, and walk over to where Taylor is pulling apart a mechanical...something. I don't recognize half of the contraptions in this place.
"What do you think?" I ask.
Taylor jolts as I walk up, and I can't help but smile at the surprise on her face.
She must really like this place if she didn't even notice me walk up.
"Wow. Uh, hi Amy. You scared me." She looks around, and a smile grows on her face. "It's good. Really good. There's a lot of space, and a lot of stuff I can use until Dragon can get me more supplies."
"Good." I stand by and watch her as she keeps pulling the thing apart.
I have no idea what she's planning on doing with that, but it should be interesting.
I hear an engine outside, and turn to see Dragon and Vicky landing with the last of the things Taylor decided she needed. I walk outside to meet them.
"Thanks for the help." I say as they put everything down.
"You are welcome." Dragon says. "I apologize, but I must be getting back. Could you ask Taylor to call Armsmaster when she feels ready? He has some things he'd like to discuss with her when she is feeling better. I would also like for her to give me a call as well to speak about the Guild."
I nod. "I'll let her know."
Dragon nods, then flies off.
"Hey Ames," Vicky starts. "can we talk?"
I swallow a lump in my throat and nod. "Yeah, we probably should. Come on."
We walk into the factory and I lead us into a random room away from Taylor and the droids.
"So what specifically is this about?" I ask hesitantly.
Vicky sighs. "Let's start with the weird blue suit thing. Since when could you do that?" Her tone isn't confrontational, more exhausted with a slight twinge of hurt.
"I've always been able to do it, I just haven't." I answer honestly, shrinking in on myself a bit.
Vicky looks me in the eye. "Why didn't you ever tell me?"
"Carol." I say. "I...I tried to use my powers in different ways, and she freaked out. Made me promise to only heal and… it was just easier to only heal."
"What all can you do?" She asks levely.
I inhale sharply, and try to figure out how much to say.
It's Vicky. I trust her, but at the same time I don't want her to run.
I swallow, and say, "I'm a biokinetic."
Vicky raises an eyebrow. "Obviously, but what all can you affect?"
I purse my lips, then quickly say, "All of it."
Vicky furrows her eyebrows at me, then her eyes widen when I don't say anything else. "Shit."
I tense up at the word.
Please don't run.
She brings a hand up and begins rubbing her head. "Wait, so you can affect plants and animals and everything?"
I nod.
She digests that for a moment.
"Ok, what all can't you do. You can't do brains right? Are there any other limits?"
I open my mouth to respond, then close it and swallow again.
Vicky's gaze intensifies. "Amy, you can't do brains right?"
After a brief pause I softly say, "I can do brains."
Vicky's jaw hangs open, and she just stares at me. She tries to talk a couple times, but only ends up making a fish impression.
She shakes her head, and refocuses. "Ames, if you can do brains, then why haven't you…?"
"Because it's a limit she placed on herself." We both turn towards the new voice and see Taylor walking towards us. "Sorry. I didn't mean to intrude, but I couldn't find you, so I used my helmet to cheat." She turns to look at me. "Do you want me to go?" She asks quietly.
I shake my head. "Can you stay?"
Her features brighten, and she nods. She walks up next to me and wraps an arm around me.
I lean into her, taking comfort in her presence.
"A limit?" Vicky asks confused.
I nod. "If I mess with brains…how do I know I won't kill someone every time I mess with something? We know next to nothing about what makes people people, and I don't want to accidentally break someone when I'm trying to fix them."
"But Ames, you could help dad. I get that you don't want to mess something up, but if you were careful then…"
"Vicky." I say pleadingly. "I can't. I only started really using my power when Armsmaster called me in to clear the Bacta Tank. I haven't practiced enough, and I don't want to do something I can't fix."
Taylor's arm tightens around me, and I take a deep breath.
I'm ok. I can get through this.
"I'm sorry Vicky, but I just can't right now. I'm working on it, so maybe soon, but not now. I'm not ready yet."
Vicky looks over my face, and nods. "Ok. I won't press you right now, but please work on it?"
I nod. "I will. We both will." I lean further into Taylor.
"'We'?" Vicky asks, and I tense.
Oh my god. I screwed up.
I look up at Taylor and see her face has gone blank.
"I'm sorry! Please don't…"
"It's ok." Taylor cuts me off. "She's your sister." She looks down at me. "You trust her right?"
I nod.
Taylor takes a deep breath, and turns to Vicky. "You have to agree not to spread this around. You know the PRT will likely come down on Amy if they learn too much about her power, they'll do the same to me."
Vicky's eyes widen and she frantically nods.
I guess she just realized that I'm the PRT's worst nightmare. Well, second worst nightmare. Actually, it's kind of a toss up.
Taylor takes a deep breath and says, "My tinker specialty is Galactic Warfare."
Vicky tilts her head, then looks at me. Her expression is all but saying, 'That's a poor attempt at a joke right?'.
When I don't speak up, the color drains from Vicky's face, and she robotically turns back to Taylor.
"Spaceships?" She weakly asks.
Taylor nods. "Among other things. I also know how to make space stations that can blow up stars. Although the amount of materials and time needed for one of those makes the design effectively worthless. That isn't the only way I could blow up the planet though."
Vicky slowly floats down to the ground and leans her back up against a wall.
None of us talk for a few minutes.
Just as I'm starting to get antsy, Vicky stands back up.
"That is a lot to absorb all at once." She focuses on Taylor. "Are you ok? I know I already asked, but that was before…"
Taylor waves her off. "I get it. Don't worry, I'll be alright. Amy's helping."
I smile at the last part.
Vicky looks between us, and chuckles wryly.
"What?" I ask.
She gives me a grin. "I swear, the more I learn about her the more it's like she was made for you."
My face starts to heat up and I hiss, "Vicky!"
"Hey, cut me some slack. I'm coping." She defends. She turns to Taylor and fixes her with a serious expression. "You're going to take care of her right?"
Taylor nods. "I will."
"Good." Vicky claps her hands together. "I need to go...process. This was a lot. Will you two be ok here on your own?"
Taylor nods, but doesn't speak.
I hold up a hand and say, "Could you call a furniture place or something and have them drop off a bed and a TV in the morning? Neither of us really want to go out right now since we're all over PHO."
Vicky hmm's and nods. "Yeah, it's a good idea to let everything die down first. I'll give them a call, but I don't have enough cash to pay for both."
"I do." Taylor says. "I've barely spent any of the money I got from Dragon for the Bacta Tanks. Just don't get anything too ridiculous and I can cover it. Actually, I can just have Dotty..."
I nudge her in the side with my elbow and shake my head at her.
She gets the hint and trails off.
Vicky needs a distraction right now. Bonus points if that distraction helps someone.
"Ok, I'll get that taken care of, then call you sometime tomorrow. Good night guys."
Taylor and I say good night, and Vicky leaves.
Taylor and I stand together in silence for a moment.
"So that happened." Taylor starts.
"I'm emotionally drained. Let's order some food so we can get to sleep. There's probably a couch or something in a break room we can use until the furniture gets here."
"About that, I could have just had Dotty order it."
I shake my head. "Vicky's processing. She does that best when she has something to do, and she wanted to help us. Win win."
Taylor accepts that, and we head back through to the entrance of the factory.
"Wanna check the place over?" I ask.
She nods, and the two of us go exploring.
We spend the next hour looking everything over while we wait for our food to arrive.
The factory is fairly large. There's a lot of abandoned machinery, and fairly good lighting for the area. Some of the switches don't work, but it's nothing too serious. I'm willing to bet Taylor could get everything fixed up in about an hour or two.
The two of us were also able to find an old break room with a few comfortable chairs as well as a couch. The delivery guy showed up with the pizza Dotty ordered not long after, and Taylor and I locked ourselves in the break room.
We sat down next to each other at a cheap plastic table, and nibbled on the pizza in silence.
Trying to start a conversation, I say, "Dragon asked me to ask you to call her and Armsmaster when you get a chance. I'm not sure what Armsmaster wants, but Dragon wanted to talk to you about the Guild."
Taylor absentmindedly nods her head. "I'll call them sometime."
We devolve into silence once more.
I take another bite of my pizza and watch Taylor out of the corner of my eye to try to gauge how she's doing.
Her eyes are unfocused, and she's been breathing shallowly since she sat down.
I put my slice down, wipe my hands off, and sit down on the arm of her chair. She jumps a little when I wrap my arms around her.
"What?" She asks.
"Talk to me. Tell me what's wrong."
She lets out a sigh and leans into me. "I've been too passive."
When I don't respond, she continues.
"If I had already built half the things I have planned now, I could've gotten dad away. If I didn't handicap myself, I could've already fixed so many problems. Why the hell am I just sitting here when I could be doing
something?" She asks frustrated.
I tighten my grip on her. "Taylor. I need you to listen to me ok?"
She looks me in the eyes, giving me her attention.
"I know what you're telling yourself. You're blaming yourself for every little thing that happens to anyone, and you need to stop. I've been down that road, and it nearly broke me. It would have broken me if you didn't come along. Neither of us can fix everything, and right now that's the last thing on my mind." I shuffle over and hold her gaze so I can impress the importance of this upon her. "You need to rest. After everything that's happened, you need to step away from everything for a bit. Let other heroes deal with what's going on out there, and worry about you."
"Amy, I'm fine." She stresses.
I narrow my eyes at her, and grab her hand. I let my power look her over and shake my head at her.
"Taylor, you know what my power is, and it's telling me that you are very much not 'fine'. Now you're going to lay down and go to sleep, or I'll put you to sleep."
She sighs. "Amy, I need to get to work on the defenses for this place. If someone comes after us..."
"Then HK will deal with them." I cut her off. "Taylor, I am not going to let you work yourself to death in an attempt to bury your problems. You're my rock now, and I'm yours. That means it's my job to make you do things that are good for you even if you hate them. It also means that it's my job to stop you from being stupid. You're not in a good head space to be thinking about any of this, so I'm putting a stop to that. Now, bed. We've already done
enough today, and we'll sort everything else out tomorrow."
"Amy…"
I glare at her and she trails off.
"Fine." She surrenders with a sigh.
We leave the almost three-fourths unfinished pizza where it is and move to the couch.
Taylor sits down and starts to get comfortable, but I lay down and pull her with me.
"Amy, there's not enough room."
"Then we'll squish. Now shush." I bring my hand up and start running it through her hair. She really does have beautiful hair.
She grumbles a little, but settles in. After a few moments, she leans her head into my hand as I comb my fingers through her hair.
"This is nice." She says softly.
I hmm at her words and let my eyes drift closed.
"Amy?"
"Taylor?"
"Thanks."
"You're welcome." I let a small smile grow on my face as the two of us drift off.
A.N.
Probably won't be able to update this, Cold Eyes, or Electric Game for a bit. Finally got a new job, so I'm going to be focusing on irl stuff.
Also, I know this story isn't perfect, I'm not the greatest writer after all, but please try to keep everything constructive. Venting at me isn't helpful, it's just tiring. I'm not being paid to do this, so please, if you don't enjoy this story, just go read something else. There's plenty of great worm fics out there.
Have a good one!
Don't get discouraged! The only way to learn is by practicing, and you certainly are improving with each chapter. I hope you find time to continue, but either way good luck with your new job!
PreytorFenix
(Verified US Army)
- Location
- Ft Hood, TX
Nice timing on the update. I just finished watching the new episode when I saw the notification.
Also don't worry about taking time off to focus on real life! It's kinda more important than pleasing a bunch of random people online!
Also don't worry about taking time off to focus on real life! It's kinda more important than pleasing a bunch of random people online!
Congratulations on the job!
And while not perfect(but then nothing is), the story is pleasant to read and I get a smile whenever I see the alert that a new chapter was posted. Although I'm still eagerly waiting on Taylor to build her own Millennium Falcon analogue
. (Spaceship!)