From the top of a nearby parking garage, I dashed down to the street level, startling the few civilians willing to work this week with my sudden appearance. "Sorry…" I sheepishly waved at woman who had gasped and jumped back with fright, causing her to spill some of her coffee. Fortunately, the woman didn't get any on her clothes, but the her scowl told me how how unhappy she was with me.
I felt a little bad, but I didn't have any money to buy her a new coffee and even worse, I didn't have the time to hunt down a coffee shop. Judging by how fast the woman walked away from me, I doubted she would've accepted my offer anyway.
Thus Taylor made her new arch nemesis: COFFEE WYTCH! ("coffee Wetch!-"it's Wytch! WYTCH!")
My guess was that they hid containment foam sprayers since machine gun turrets were probably against the rules
AH-HA! But Tazers Cannons aren't! You thought it was Containment Foam but no- IT WAS PAIN!
No villain action figures though
Huh, you would think they would make a killing on Skidmark and Kaiser dolls.
. I wondered why because how could a kid play super heroes without villains to bring to justice?
That to I guess...
Probably some political reason about not wanting to encourage the villains or be forced to pay them royalties
Yeah... Or it's a Cauldron Plot to encourage Villainy! Also I now have the image of Merchants selling action figures alongside drugs. It would probably be a fairly profitable buisness venture if you think about it.
The man's eyes widened with surprise,
"Oh, this is the girl that Coil wanted to scr- I means Dung- I mean Pedo Basem- I mean Basement- I mean Base... He wants to drug her and make her tell him the Secrets of Life, the Universe, and Everything."
After typing a few words and clicking his mouse a couple times, his face paled and he glanced back to me.
Trap.
instead of the late twenties to early thirties woman Tenno's Threat Assessment report had listed as her probably age range.
Well, he's not wrong.
Height wise, she was above average and if he squinted and tilted his head sideways, she might be as old as twenty-four, maybe.
Wanna know the most Hilarious part this is for me? My mother IRL is 65. She looks almost younger then me and dyes her hair a different color but it's not any greyer then it was when she was my age and she's the oldest of her sisters. My father looks older then her and he's 75 and looks 50 with grey hair but he can deadlift 500PDs (amusingly this is considered weak in his family). I'm fairly sure I'll look 30 when I'm 100. People have actually confused me for being my own father and my father being my grandfather just to fit this false perception of aging being entirely perceptive, it's still amusing the hundreth time since it annoys my father to be called a grandfather when he isn't one yet and he doesn't know who to be angry at and knows it's not the person calling him old that deserves that (if anything he loves being called old, he sees being old as a sigh that he hasn't died yet despite everything trying it's damnest and I do infact mean
damnest to try*. Also the causalty rate in his family is astronomical).
D GENETICS!
So, yeah, don't trust a 30yro to look 30 years old when they may very well look more then half their age and already look like a prepubescent girl.
*He's covered in scars from all the failed attempts going all the way back to an experimental artificial heart from the very day he was born with a hole in the original and having half his skeleton made of medical steel yet none of it slows him down. He's a testiment to the hereditary durability of his family and how much Murphy loathes them. He has stories that show just how much Murphy's Law may very well be sapient and hate his entire family. It's not uncommon for one of his family to have a hole where their chest was and to tell the person looking at them "I'm not dead yet! Let me recite my Will and Testiment while we wait.". So yes an invective or thirteen would be good to describe his surviving to his 70s and being healthier then more people half his age!
Her voice was pleasant the listen to and despite the circumstances, she seemed relaxed and cheerful
All the better to yell Space Mom's ear off once she gets back... My dear.
because a Tinker without their bullshit Tinker tech would be easier to intimidate and handle if she wasn't willing to play ball
Oh you poor sweet summer child, did you even wonder why she's so very confident despite not seemingly having a single piece of Tinkertech or what the implants are for?
Tony knew exactly what Tenno expected to happen
No you don't, Youth Springs.
"Sorry, the conference room I reserved had a burst pipe and is being fixed up right now. This is the best I could get on short notice."
Me in this situation: "I know you're lying and I don't care, bring me to your finest Containment Room! It's up to you to determine if I mean 'fine' as in 'decorated' or 'secure'~"
It was a heavy duty, bare metal chair with zero cushioning and it usually took less than five minutes for the target to start squirming in a futile effort to get comformortable
Your going to be waiting all year if you want her to be uncomfortable. You would have to wait all day if I was sitting there (seriously that sounds pretty comfy to me!).
In addition to the rugged construction of the 'hot seat', it also contained heavy duty rings designed to handcuff a suspect to the chair by their hands and even feet. Tony didn't expect to need to use the safety feature, but the psychological impact from the suspect noticing the features was important and helped send the correct message.
Taylor: cute.
Me: A CHALLENGER APPROACHES! MY BONES BEND EASILY IN THAT DIRECTION! PREPARE FOR PSYCHOLOGICAL TORMENT, INFIDEL! MUHAHAHAHAHAAAaaa...!
That message being, the PRT has all the power right now and if you want to get out of here, you will be cooperative.
Except she's not locked in there with you, you're temporarily locked in there with her!
Additional physiological warfare included the ubiquitous one by three meter, one-way mirror on the target's right hand side and in each corner
That would backfire explosively with me, I love mirrors!
carefully shielding the key pad with his body, punched in his access code.
Won't stop her from being able to escape. Won't even slow her down.
Tony nodded with agreement and pointed to the suspect, "Yes, and calmer that I expected since she hasn't even started to look around the room."
I would wait till I felt like they were in that room and pretend to hear them. Psychological war is always
Fun~
"having trouble getting a reading from the heart rate and respiration monitor. I suspect her suit is somehow blocking the signal."
D
Hilariously those don't actually tell you when someone is lying, the traditional lie detector doesn't tell you anything other then whether your dead or alive and it can't even do that properly. It wasn't even tested whether or not it actually did until half a century after it was used for what it's used for and it failed completely to pass any tests- they even tested it on plants and it got more accurate readings- PLANTS!
Given can lie quite easily I could probably pass this with flying colors.
Something is also blocking the galvanometric facial sensors I added to the camera systems facing Tenno
???
*Searches*
???
*Searches*
Oh... A ranged more sensitive Voltometer/Ampmeter/Ammeter.
"How long are you going to make her wait?" Armsmaster meaningfully glanced over to the young woman who was still calmly sitting in the uncomfortable chair.
I can't find it but I imagine Taylor is playing that song with all the "duns" in it that makes me think of Spanish Flea and Elevator Music for some reason.
"Uh, normally, I'd give a suspect another minute or two, but she's looking exceptionally patient. So, an extra five to ten should have her starting to get a little antsy. I've never met a Tinker who couldn't sit still for more than a minute or two." Tony glanced meaningfully over to his boss who was in the middle of making an adjustment to one of his devices, completely oblivious to his own condition. "I'm going to grab myself cup of joe from the cafeteria and maybe a donut to take into the room and taunt her with, want anything?" He asked, not expecting a reply from the engrossed Tinker.
It's gonna be a
long night if you're going to wait for her to get figety.
Tenno air qouted forgot, showing Tony that she knew what he was trying to do.
Told'Ya. Yer not particularly clever, ain't'cha boyo?
Way more comfortable than most interrogation rooms I've seen.
D make them run, Taylor!
she gushed, returning to acting like the teenage Tinker she appeared to be.
Que them raising her Thinker Rating by 1 for acting skills (and the obvious).
Instead of trying to deny, Tony decided it was time to up the pressure. The girl was either good a pretending to not be concerned about her future or she had an ace up her sleeve. Except, without her tinker tech armor and weapons, he couldn't see what that ace might be. Tenno was here, under the PRT's complete control and effectively helpless.
What do you think those implants are? Because I can tell you her Ace even if this isn't it:
In its place was a mature and serious young woman
Aaand confirmation of the Thinker Rating. Possible Changer if they don't want to accept that she just looks young.
"Well, Lieutenant Walkers, I'm not sure what 'attempted'," the glow in her eyes momentarily brightened, "murder you may be speaking of. Perhaps you can be a little more specific?"
Yeah, that's the thing "attempted" implies you tried and failed. There was no
try, there was only
do. Sophia only lived because Tenno
wanted her to live.
He found it extremely uncharacteristic for a parahuman to not react by going defensive and denying or offensive by accusing the PRT of trying to railroad them into joining.
Double confirmation of a Thinker Rating.
took the easy way out, when it was offered.
...suicide? No, wait, that's the weaklings way out... Self Destruct? Teleport? Leave? It's sure as Void isn't gonna be signing-... Of course you would think that.
As a trained interrogator, he instantly realized that he may have given away a minor advantage,
NO! WAIT! KEEP FAILING, IF YOU FAIL HARD ENOUGH IT WILL WRAP BACK AROUND FROM DISADVANTAGED TO BEING IN ADVANTAGE! IT'S THE PERFECT PLAN!
The girl didn't even flinch as her gaze slowly turned back to him. "You think I'm worried about going to jail?" she calmly asked, frustrating him even more.
Parahumans weren't supposed to be this calm. All the parahuman psychological studies said she should've cracked by now. Tenno was young, she was inexperienced or not as experienced as an adult would be. All the evidence said she should be easy to manipulate. He tried the time tested Tinker incentive by offering her money, tinker tools, materials and safety. He tried using the threat of criminal charges to maneuver her into a plea deal. Tony didn't know what else to do or say to get her to make a mistake.
"Nope, don't need that and not worried about going to jail." Tenno blithely brushed aside his offer and threat.
This will raise questions about her past. This also implies she's another Ageless like the Fairy Queen or Bonesaw.
"You should be! A pretty young thing like you, even in a female prison, you're going to be popular. Especially when they find out you're a parahuman and decide to make you their bitch." Tony sneered with satisfaction when she finally reacted and the first cracks in her false facade began to show.
They'll first have to get to Mars and you lot haven't even got off your own dirt ball, primitive!
She was a cape and capes weren't known to be the most stable.
She seems more stable then you.
Tony had had enough. He would not be spoken to as if he was the child here. The PRT wasn't a gang.
You keep telling yourself that.
Without her bullshit tinker tech armor, she was effectively a normal human female and he was an officer in the PRT, highly trained in hand-to-hand combat
My only response to this stupid since she clearly knows that as well is best summarized as thus:
How sure are you she can't do anything else?
She disappeared. Tenno snuck in a god damned Tinker Tech invisibility or teleportation device.
Fking Told'Ya! She held all the cards
including your own hand! *Smirk*
Tony watched as the barbed darts with their trailing wires shot unerringly toward Tenno's chest. If she had been a brute, he'd be worried about a normal taser not being enough to take her down. His taser wasn't a normal taser though. It had an extra, brute rated kick that he could select if the normal charge wasn't enough.
D
In Taylor's Head: '
Take Down in 3-2-1-'
She was a mover and a blaster? What in the actual fuck?!
Fking Told'Ya! Don't forget Stranger~ (hehehe)
Tenno had to understand that she didn't stand a chance against him and would surrender. She had to surrender. She had no other options and now the PRT had even more leverage to use against her.
ಠ_ಠ Really. Just Really.
Tony grinned with a mix of pain and satisfaction as the girl got schooled by the more experienced Tinker. She had to be missing a few crayons from the box because other than retreating, she hadn't raised her hands and despite the obvious danger she had placed herself in; she still looked utterly unconcerned for her own safety.
ಠ_ಠ how has Hookwolf not accidentally castrated this imbecile yet? This is clearly not a Good Thing although I do love this version of Taylor, she's just so flippant about the (
lack of) danger! Ha!
Except for the inevitable crying, it was all over.
*Twitch*
*Twitch*
To whatever ROBs are out there... Please make this imbecilic Man Child's final moments be at the hand of a Happy Bonesaw. If he gets any worse then a Annoyed Bonesaw. If he still gets worse then an Angry Bonesaw.
Give him all the Smiles, kiddo!
Through the heavily insulated door, Tony heard Armsmaster angrily yelled, "Shut them-" just before his halberd slammed into the door with a loud clang. Glancing up, he was surprised to see the tip had actually punched about an inch through the armored doorway.
Pfft-heh-hnhnhn I imagine it's also spraying it's contents all over their faces.
"Interesting. I forgot that police here used bean bags in their shotguns."
This will raise questions about her past.
Huh. He just 180'd because she fixed his broken arm via Void BS. Sounds almost like he was or now is being Mastered. This kind of Befriending only happens in Nanoha.
...I can now see why they get away with calling her "Piggy" if her name is pronounced "Pig-go". It also makes more sense as to why she's always so pissed.
=[Installed the backdoor.]=
Huh,
Neat. Never seen Tattletale's power represented this way. It seems more appropriate then all the other ways actually!
Kowtow to the CowBow of Brown Mow?
How. Now. Brown. Cow.
Don't worry Lisa, Your Not Perfect.
Wonder how many I gave nightmares to? Don't worry-
it gets worse:
A Tinker without their bullshit tech was helpless. What in the hell was the girl thinking and how could she be so naive? Why was she so calm?
Stupiditis is infectious I see. Then again it's probably just Lisa.
Į̵̞̘̦̬̯͍̹̌̉̋̒͘͢͞ͅṉ̷̢̡͖̹̲̹͉̼͚͊̓͒͂̉̀ṿ͖͔̯͚̙̝̫̟̇́͌͌̽̀̕͡a̸̙̳̰̲͈̘̪̐̅̄̂̇͞ļ̡̣͙̰̝͍͐̓̔͌͗̚i̡͉̠̤͔͔̐̉̊̈́̍d̨̛͖̼̟̳̭̖̲̓̓̑͆̎̏̚ I̸̧̟̯̲͓͚͔͉͗̊̄̂͡͝͝n̵̰̥̦̫͗̄͛͒̌͟͞͠͝p̡̠͎̼̮̫̋̑̌̏͟͝u̵̡̺̥̰̜̥̱̪̎̂̅̄̓͗̕͢ṯ̸̢̡̛̜̣̞͐̿̎̄̓́͢͜
Wouldn't it just be unable to find the information? There's to reason for this, if anything if she was looking at Entity stuff it would just tell her what she's allowed to know and nothing else.
Void? Void. It's the Void talking to her.
A Tenno, not The Tenno. There was more than one. Tenno didn't view herself as singular.
Or... Not? But why is it glitching? If anything an alien threat should make it slightly smoother for the obvious disruption in [Cycle]... Unless that's where this Non-sequitor came from?
Lisa had never had a problem figuring out or getting some very good insights into a cape's power if she was able to witness them using it. Her head was throbbing. Why couldn't she see Tenno's power?!?!
GOOD QUESTION! Your Shard gathers information through observation and creating conclusions... WHY THE FK IS IT ACTING LIKE IT'S DOING INDEPTH SCANS AND GETTING ERROR MESSAGES THAT IT RANDOMLY DECIDES TO SHOW THE [Host]?!
there was only one solution for a curious cat
Food and cuddles?
and that was to satisfy my curiosity.
Normally no, a cat can be distracted with anything to prevent it's curiosity otherwise they may end up a corpse in the road.
Despite the uninvited guest taking extra-ordinary precautions to not be found, Ordis was able to track down the location of my new friend before they closed their VPN tunnel into the PRT's systems. It took Ordis an entire extra two minutes to do so and he had nothing but compliments to heap upon the unknown hacker. He said something about a TOR node and an NSA backdoor. His only complaint, if it could be called one, was that it took the hacker over ten minutes after I had already left the PRT HQ to close down their connection. He called it 'sloppy'.
=.= How is an advanced borderline Magitek AI worse then a human on a sh!tty computer? One moves at the speed of Information the other moves at the speed of human. There is no comparison.
Maybe she expected him to be less confrontational?
Those are pretty high standards for a guy who can only appearently think "Attack Attack Attack" to the point that he Railroaded his own Cliché phrase into an attempt at Descalation.
The man was undoubtedly smart, but seemed to be lacking in the common sense department.
Uh, no, this is an intelligence problem not a Common Sense problem, he blatantly tried to get you into fighting him with little to no information on what you can do. This would be a problem with Common Sense if he did know and didn't care.
I fully expected for Ordis to send me an update, letting me know there was now a city-wide manhunt for me. I hoped not though. I really didn't want to be forced to defend myself against people I had once looked up to.
A month later the Triumvirate shows up to throw down. Because of course they prioritize you over literally everyone else.
Except, I was expecting the hacker to be a guy. I had a mental image of some forty something, overweight guy with his hairy belly showing as he chowed down on chips with a two liter of soda next to him. I suspect it was partially driven by watching Earth Aleph's dinosaur movie with Emma when I was eleven.
...Nedry wasn't a hacker, he was the head technician fully responsible for everything electrical on Isla Sorna. He was also a spy for one of INGEN's competitors and a bit of an Idiot Savant given he couldn't tell what direction goes where after running over a sign and going back to check it yet can code an entire security system with absolute control over everything.
{"Yes. --Kill him now!--"} Ordis helpfully added his opinion on the matter.
Cute. You don't have to hide your opinions in your opinions, Ordy.
"Do secret lairs count?" I asked, my voice sounded electronic and slightly distorted as I used my Warframe's rarely used speaker system.
It's fairly obvious that Warframes were never designed to talk appearently.
Also Lisa just screamed and jumped out the window.
Wow, he is getting his ass kicked today. First Greg gets recruited as a PRT Interrogation Officer then he gets his face handed to him on PHO via Tattletale, then he gets his arm broken by Tenno, now he's getting Rekt'd on in Battlesuits* PVP!
*Obvious reference is obvious
HOW ARE THEY SAYING THE ZERO?! FKING VOID BS!
his eyes momentarily widening with surprise
He just saw you don't have nerves.
FKING VOID BS![/quote][/Quote]