* February 10, 2008 *
"Okay, testing in one minute, thirty seconds, from MARK."
Taylor frowned as she did her homework. Pesky damn stuff. And why the heck did she need to learn French anyway? She could build a translator that would instantly translate any language on Earth. Except maybe Xhosa, that would be really tricky.
"Airlock evacuated, rover is ready and reads green across the board."
"All systems are go."
Setting up magitech portals was difficult and time-consuming. Also required ingredients. On the other hand, for some reason NASA really liked the idea of a doorway the size of a standard aircraft hangar that had one side opening out onto the surface of the moon with the other side being on Earth.
She just wanted to be able to get spaceships set up there once she'd figured out how to move them from her Supply World/System to Earth.
"Door open. Rover dispatched. Signal is good."
"Telemetry and sensor data agree. Rover is currently on the surface of the Plato Crater."
"Doctor? Why did you choose that location?"
Taylor blinked a couple of times as the question registered. "Huh? Oh. Because there was a section where the dust wasn't thick. Let me know when I can send something to get He-3 from the lunar regolith. I understand you guys are gonna be busy for awhile."
"Ah, you're familiar with the lunar dust problem. Of course you are."
"Obviously going to need some specialized tech to deal with it," agreed Doctor Curlyhair. "I'll let you know if I come up with anything along that line. In the meantime you can play around with this."
She paused, feeling the rumble and shift, but didn't show anything as she considered the possibilities.
Another factory, a robot-specific manufactory. Interesting. She had just the thing to test it out on.
Though that whole 'being Summoned to a Congressional Hearing' thing WAS stressing her out. Just a bit.
Okay, a lot.
She hadn't been served papers yet, but just turning on any television news program would bring up the subject soon enough.
Ugh, time away from research. Time away from building stuff. Time having to deal with nonsense like public opinion when she was already dealing with problems on a global scale. According to her mother and her own research into the matter, it would mainly be used to farm sound-bites for the people who kept them in power.
NOT a productive use of her own precious time. Not at all.
[Factory 436-1337 combining with previous Factory to produce Massive Automated Factory.]
Taylor/Doctor Curlyhair hmphed to herself. She was a little disappointed that she didn't get new blueprints.
* February 15, 2008 *
* A small diner near the Colorado/Texas border *
"It's alive, it's ALIVE, IT'S ALIVE! BWAHAHAHAHAHA!"
"You're having fun, Bonesaw?"
"Yes, actually. I was learning so much. Now, wakie-wakie, Auntie Jackie."
"Wha? Wha happen?"
"You were in a porta-john in Sun-something Colorado," explained Doctor Manton. "Which was hit by a de-orbiting Russian satellite. Most of your body was mixed with things they shouldn't be mixed with. Bonesaw was able to rebuild you using parts she was able to put together by raiding a morgue and a bunch of small places."
"Why can't I move and why do I feel... strange?"
"Because Bonesaw rebuilt you using parts from a morgue, an auto-body shop, what she could scrounge from a plastic surgeon's office and operating room, three truck stops, and a Feed & Farm Supply store. Oh, and you're in five-point restraints because you were freaking out the first time you woke up."
"I see, I see. That explains a lot. It doesn't explain why I feel my breasts move when I breathe. I feel that's probably... I have a tail?"
"Yes, Auntie Jackie."
"Poppet? Why am I of the female persuasion?"
"It's what was available, Auntie."
"I see. Not entirely unexpected I suppose. Beggars and choosers. And the tail?"
"I had some ideas while I was rebuilding you. Really, the flesh had burned away on the outside of your skull. You were pretty much a mess."
"I see. I take it there are some drugs involved which is why I am so extremely calm and mellow?"
"Lots of drugs, some were still in the previous owner's system from her various habits," said Doctor Manton. "So, how do you feel other than that?"
"Like someone beat the utter crap out of me, poured me into a body not my own, and drugged me to the gills with some very nice drugs. I'm pretty sure I will become extremely loud and very unhappy after they've worn off."
"Yes," said Doctor Manton. "I would expect that."
"I see. Yes. Poppet? Would you terribly mind putting me back under? I feel I am going to need some time to come to terms with this."
* Air *
The trip to Washington DC had its good points.
She could have used a personal portal to get there. It would have been fast, safe, easy. She was already known to have teleport technology after all.
She could have used a giant robot vehicle like her Veritech or Mobile Suit (it was frequently called a Gundam in the media but it was not actually a Gundam) to get there. It would have been flashy and made a statement. It would come out of her own budget for fuel, which was a downside.
She could have shown up in her own personal flight-capable hardsuit. Also flashy, also making a statement, also using her own fuel.
Instead she had chosen to take up the offer of a private jet, heavily escorted by people who liked her, with an escort of her Space Marines and an honor guard of regular Marines using the new Powered Augmenting Personal Armor (PAPA) that was being rolled out for elite-squad use as it was too expensive for the rank-and-file. Well, that and the training to use it safely was extensive.
Two of the new X-302 fighter jets were flying beside them, ready to unleash death and ruin upon any who would dare intercept them.
Last, but not least, there had been a parahuman escort assigned last minute. Her mother had suggested that this was more to "show the colors" or just trying to make themselves relevant in the whole mess.
Her mother could be a bit cynical at times.
"So you can duplicate weapons but you have to understand how the weapon works and you have to have seen the weapon in question?" asked Taylor of Miss Militia, the local parahuman who was here in the plane with her and her parents.
"That's right," said Miss Militia, still wrapping her head around the concept of this little 5'6" girl being twelve and a now-world-certified Genius. Also a Doctor in mechanical engineering and having applied for two more Doctorates.
"What about this?" asked Taylor, gesturing to one of the Marines, and then asking for her "growler" which turned out to be a pistol.
The Marine did so, looking curious herself, after performing a quick safety check.
"This is a Mark II Gravity-Ordnance Weapon - Light Enhanced. Semi-automatic in that each time you pull the trigger it shoots. Uses 9mm ammunition, I guess because they get that stuff in bulk. Small ForgeTech battery goes here. Fires a bullet that is then accelerated by a gravitational lens effect... Yes, Lieutenant?"
"The Mark I was 9mm. This Mark II uses a .45 and the gravity-assist function pulses on for a millisecond during the firing process. Reduces recoil and accelerates the bullet, which is not a stock .45 bullet as these are built of heavier materials for greater stopping power."
"Wow. That's great, you're taking my tech and adapting the hell out of it for your own use. I love that you guys are doing that." said Taylor, the evident glee at seeing her tech being further refined being sincerely evident. "What do you think about it?"
"I'm not sure I can say, Doctor," said the Marine.
"Oh yeah, chain of command and all," said Taylor. "Too bad. I get technical reports on stuff, but I never get to hear how the people using the stuff feel about things."
The Marine nodded.
"Okay, so can your power make anything out of this?" asked Taylor, holding up the pistol and giving a brief rundown on what part did what. Which was mostly what a normal pistol could do except firing bullets that hit with a lot more impact.
Miss Militia frowned and there was a greenish swirl around one hand that stopped a moment later. "Apparently not."
"Too complicated I suppose or it's one of those weird Manton limit kind of things," said Taylor, handing the pistol back to the Marine who secured it.
There was a beep and the Marine consulted a display on her forearm armor. "We'll be arriving at the airport in five minutes."
Danny Hebert, her father, was along for this trip and he merely looked up briefly before returning to reading a large binder of papers.
A rumble and a connection, this one to the "Tailoring" constellation but a message that it was on hold during an ongoing situation. While on the one hand, it indicated she wouldn't be facing a bunch of hostile congressmen and getting something showy while on camera, it also would have been a nice distraction.
It was really a pity her mother wasn't here. Her mother would have probably picked up on her nervousness and done something by now. Her father on the other hand was burying himself in some contract work involving NASA using the Lunar Portal.
Taylor was just disappointed in that they were calling it "Hyperspatial Bypass Route - Lunar Plato Crater" and not something cool. Seriously, Moon Gate Alpha or something from Greek mythology or The Lunar Express Route were all easy things to stick on the access point.
Where was something to distract herself with?
Maybe where to stick the next interplanetary portal?
* Dockworkers Union, Admin Office, Docks, Brockton Bay *
Zephron looked over the paperwork he'd already signed, and considered what the future might bring.
Superpowers that didn't require a trauma. Didn't require being part of the government or in a gang. Other than being in the Union which he already was.
He only knew those old two codgers who'd already chosen names out of some 1960s comic book. That wasn't to say that he was the only one in the know.
Zephron was mostly sure that Kurt and Lacey had both gotten the offer. Danny had taken some time off and not been seen for the exact number of days this procedure was supposed to take. If not Danny than he was pretty sure Annette had gotten the treatment.
Certainly they both looked like they were comic book hero types in build and Danny had been losing hair and developing the dreaded middle-aged gut. Now he had a gorram mane of thick hair and looked a lot more fit.
That all the ones he'd seen had looked that much healthier seemed to indicate to him that this was not how parahuman stuff worked.
Yeah, he knew a couple of martial arts styles. Also boxing. He was good at that sort of thing. Against someone like Hookwolf that wouldn't avail him terribly much.
With the knowledge of how much this could change his future, Zephron put the paperwork in the little feeder that took it and locked it away.
That would put him on the list. Now to see whether he passed all the checks.
* Floor of Congress *
Bored, bored, bored, bored, bored, BORED!
They should call this guy Congressman Blather because he talked all over the place without saying a damn thing. Other than vague phrases he'd probably use in campaign slogans.
Danny Hebert stretched his legs a bit, wondering if there was a way to protest his tax dollars being spent like this instead of actually making someone's life better. He began toting up the numbers of what this was all costing and figured getting the ferry back in Brockton Bay working again would probably have been paid for within the first fifteen minutes.
Worse, and making him a little nervous, was seeing how bored Taylor looked in her Doctor Curlyhair costume, even with the visor covering a good portion of her face you could tell how bored she was. His daughter, a super-genius who could build devices that could contain an Endbringer, was fidgeting and bored. Congresswoman Gripey (whatever her name was) had ordered Taylor's microphone cut after the third time Taylor had tried to interrupt one of these rants.
Seriously, why were they even here?
His earbud buzzed. "Total is now 13 attempted assaults and four planned kidnappings," said the voice at the other end of the link. "Looks like an ambush developing on the return route near the jet."
Well, that might be it. The whole thing was a setup to get Taylor into a vulnerable area. Wouldn't be the whole reason but he could see it as a good portion.
There had been eight of those attempted assaults and one kidnapping attempt just on the flight.
"Doctor Curlyhair? Instead of playing with your tablet you should probably be paying attention right now."
"Oh? I was just turning my microphone back on by overriding your controls. Am I allowed to speak now?"
"No, and it's against the law to hack government systems. Just so you know."
"Well, tough. Because you guys, and gals, have been speechifying for the past two hours thirty-seven minutes. My turn. Oh, and I've turned off your microphones since it was only fair. Yes, I'm twelve. No, you cannot have my tech. I already have deals through ForgeTech with DARPA, the Department of Defense, NASA, Brockton Bay University, DragonTech, Brockton Bay General Hospital, and the US Department of Health and Human Services for limited release of my research and some mechanisms that I have made available to them. I have pending contracts with several others. I am overseen by several other agencies as well as my parents. All of whom agree that I cannot give out everything I've come up with as some of this technology is beyond what our modern societies can handle."
Danny decided to speak up. "We're also doing research for both the Department of Agriculture and the Parahuman Response Team."
"I get it. You consider me some out of control twelve year old who needs to fit some mold," said Taylor with a nod at her father. "I am not yours to control. I work WITH those agencies. I do not work FOR those agencies. Oh, and I used a remote to disable the bomb some guy left here. You're welcome."
There was a moment of panic and people checking everywhere around them.
"Oh come on. I already found and dealt with it," complained Taylor/Doctor Curlyhair. "The location has already been sent to building security. You think I've been playing World of Wormcraft on my tablet or something? No, I've got real work, not this posturing. Oh, and that man is playing Galaga. Beat my high score. Well done."
One of the members of the audience looked up, smiled briefly in her direction, and went back to playing Galaga on his own tablet.
"The point I'm trying to make here is that you want control of my tech. You can't have it. You want access to my tech. You've already got it. I'm already involved in four different top secret projects. That are secret. So, no, I won't tell you about them in a televised open House hearing."
"Am I back on? Yes? Okay, you're sufficiently young that you are using a name like 'Doctor Curlyhair' - and are apparently not a parahuman to have an excuse for a secret identity."
"My public identity is 'Doctor Curlyhair' yes. Because I'm a Doctor of Mechanical Engineering, have qualifications in cybernetics, and have pending doctorates while my various theses are being evaluated." Doctor Curlyhair paused for a moment. "And I like my hair."
* Brockton Bay *
"Confirmed. She's up there, grading papers. No guards, just campus security and he's some old fart."
"Perfect, after today everyone's going to know our names and fear the name of the Mockley Crew!"
"Nobody's going to mistake us for some lame pre-Millennium band after this!"
"Or the cast of Gilligan's Island."
"That's only happened once, Mucus Master."
"Twice! It's happened TWICE! And it may not be that often but it's still weird that it's happened twice."
* Nearby *
"Annette, this is Captain Cavill. Looks like a supervillain team arrived on campus and is planning something stupid."
There was a brief pause before the person listening responded. "Well, they're idiots considering the presence of a bunch of bored students working with high-tech devices here ever since the partnership with ForgeTech was announced. Any idea on their objective?"
"Judging from the gestures, probably planning to kidnap you and use you to get ahold of your daughter." Captain Cavill idly tapped on a vambrace's pop-up panel to bring up more information.
"I take it from the lack of shooting noises that these are not high-profile villains?"
"No Ma'am. Ident is for a group calling themselves the 'Mockley Crew' and they're... why do they look like the cast of Gilligan's Island? Never mind. Looks like about twenty normals with them."
"They've got a Ginger and Maryanne?"
"Yes. Skipper is actually Mucus Master - can form balls of adhesive mucus that he can throw, one report says that the mucus is also soporific. Gilligan's actual name is Maximillian Bernard Krebbs but his cape name is Solar Max, a Blaster who shoots concentrated solar energy at targets. The Professor is Brain Trust, photographic memory and some sort of situational awareness ability. Doesn't appear to be able to see through my stealth mode if I'm not moving. Mister and Missus Howell have similar powers, precog but it is all line-of-sight and limited to a little over a minute. Cape name for them is Odds and Evens. Ginger is a human Master, single-target and similar to a Hollywood version of a hypnotic trance, codename... it actually is Ginger. How about that? Finally there's Maryanne, codename of Pâtissier. According to their priors, this is the most competent member of the group. Power is... pastries? Huh. Maybe a chemical Tinker that likes baking."
"That sounds like an unusual parahuman ability," admitted Annette Hebert. "Look, let the BBU geek squadron take care of it. They've been wanting to test out the exotic weaponry like the electro-tangle net and the straitjacket bazooka."
"Are you sure? It won't take me five minutes." Captain Cavill checked the villains again. "Maybe less."
"Positive, they've already been alerted. You can still make the Gesselschaft ship before it gets to international waters."
"That does sound more productive," admitted Captain Cavill as a bunch of geeks with experimental weaponry began charging out of the building.
By the time he cleared the parking lot, it looked as if the only one of the Motleys not captured was Pâtissier - and that was because she was running and throwing donuts around.
An idle shot and she was down too and he could focus on the ship leaving port.
* Congress *
"Thank you for relinquishing control of our microphones, Doctor," said Congresswoman Schmidt. "Now, can you walk us through the weaponry you used to defend the Brockton Base?"
"Sure," said Taylor, brightening visibly. "These are all experimental weapons with prototypes and plans designed by me used by the United States Marines!"
"OORAH!" yelled a bunch of people in the gallery.
"Let me see," said Taylor taking a deep breath. Completely ignoring the crawl at the bottom of her Head's Up Display. "Photon cannon, infrared knife, ultraviolet lasers, gauss cannon, positron emitters, neutrino beam, drill lasers, ship cannon using non-nuclear kiloton shells, force bullets, sonic cannon, AEGIS anti-air, 50mm growler auto-cannon." (deep breath) "and then we have monofilament web missiles, hellfire missiles, ECM missiles, missile-spamming-missiles, gravitic anchor missiles, gravity-tunnelling missiles, and the junk jet."
"That... sounds horrific," said Congresswoman Schmidt.
"Hey, if you attack a superscience weapons development facility, expect to encounter weapons that are kind of 'horrific' being used against you," said Taylor, who then stood up and looked towards the gallery. "AM I RIGHT?!"
"OORAH!"
Taylor/Doctor Curlyhair sat back down with a big smile. "I'm providing medical technology and weapons technology and armor technology to various government agencies including the military. I think that being nice to the people who are there to protect you is a good thing."
"That's right," said President Hayes as he made his way to their table.
"Wait, what?" asked Congresswoman Schmidt.
"Didn't you know? My administration has been backing Doctor Curlyhair's research since it was brought to our attention." President Hayes took a seat next to Danny Hebert and held his hand out for a shake.
Danny passed him a French Vanilla Cappuccino Twist from the ForgeTech-brand cooler.
"How many agencies are you already involved in?" asked Congresswoman Schmidt.
"Classified," said Danny, President Hayes, Taylor, and half the people at her table.
* Perks this chapter *
7.26.1-Factory 436-1337 (400CP)(Smash Up)(Facilities Technology):
Robots building robots? How perverse. This repurposed Boeing plant can operate at all hours of the night and day, churning out robots of any size, function or design you may wish. Automatically updates with local technology in new settings.
Robot Factory 436-1337 is combined with other automated factory perks to produce Massive Automated Factory.
22.3.1-Needlework (100CP)(Earth Girls)(Tailoring):
It wouldn't really be called tailoring, but that's basically what you do. Making thread and basic cloth from scratch, fashioning fur and leather into clothes, and fixing up all the rips and tears the others get running around. The clothing you make is always rugged and neatly made, too.
