* February 15, 2008 *
Congresswoman Gertrude Schmidt had spent four terms in Congress as a "voice of the people" candidate. She was an old hand at politics, smear campaigns, innuendo, ruining reputations and defending her own. Sometimes all you had to do was speak louder and across more media to win an argument, sometimes repeating a lie made it the truth in the minds of those already primed to listen.
Unfortunately, ForgeTech had a damn good reputation established already. Also unfortunately, her attempts to discreetely discredit the company and the so-called "girl Einstein" had all been ineffective. The girl and ForgeTech had been pretty damn popular prior to an Endbringer trying to end them. Now?
The girl had some titles applied to her in various groups and media. "Girl Einstein", "Hopebringer", "Girl Genius", "New Renaissance Girl", "Scariest Little Girl In Three Galaxies" (which usually had the person using that term virtually eviscerated in the online forums), "the Smartest In Five Galaxies" (which usually had people correcting that to 'Three' or just pointing out that they didn't know anyone outside of Earth, yet), or simply "that girl up in Brockton Bay" who was a multi-talent who hadn't been seen since the likes of Leonardo da Vinci.
She'd been perfectly ready to savage the girl and her family, use the Youth Guard and other resources to rehome her to someone more malleable than the two parents. Except that just before Taylor Hebert had shown up, Gertrude Schmidt of New Jersey had seen the poll numbers.
Between being the genius technologist that could cage the Most Annoying Bird Ever, the girl had a line of bespoke fashion that she was designing and that Dragon up in Canada was able to do limited mass production runs of. Dragon Couture was VERY high-end and pricey but generally agreed to be among the highest sought-after brands. It was pricey, attractive, and very durable - all things to make them fashionable. The girl also had a habit of giving out personally designed jackets or jewelry to those she considered friends. The price tag for some of those personalized things resold by those they were gifted to was enough to put down a down payment on a modest house.
Recordings of her singing while she worked on some device or giving a performance at a Christmas party? Very much sought after.
In short, going after this little girl in any sort of normal manner was political suicide and she was sufficiently savvy to not pursue such a thing.
Getting in touch with her contacts overseas to "vanish" the potential problem? Well, that was another thing altogether.
"It is confirmed," said Congresswoman Schmidt into her burner phone. "The little girl is too confident, too certain of herself. It is one of those robot doubles seen in that compound. The real one must be the one in Brockton Bay."
"Your payment will be in the usual place."
Gertrude Schmidt smiled as she put the phone away and hurried out of the restroom to regain her seat on the floor. If she had an update she would use it again, but at the end of the day she would make sure it was crushed beyond recovery.
She was a survivor after all.
* Congress *
"-and further for the well-being of my constituents and their families, who are no doubt terrified of a preteen child having access to the sort of weaponry we saw deployed on that date-"
"Astartes One is about to have fun," noted Taylor as she checked messages.
"Well, that's good," admitted Danny. "The tougher shadow clones?"
"Yeah, they can take minor damage before dispelling," agreed Taylor. "Pretty sure the kidnappers are the Germans and the ship's underway. Astartes One is onboard using Stealth Mode until they're in international waters."
"Sounds more fun than this," admitted Danny Hebert, his gaze sweeping the ranks of Congress that were here for this investigation.
"-which is why Congressional oversight is needed, nay, mandated for any further usage or developments of these technologies. That they are demonstrably not Tinkertech makes them even more dangerous-"
"Uhm, if I may interrupt the honorable Congressman Sanguijuela from New Mexico for a new development?" asked General Calhoun, standing at the table.
The Speaker of the House looked as if they could use a drink right about now. Or maybe two. "Is it pertinent to the subject at hand?"
"Yes, actually," said General Calhoun. "As most of you know, ForgeTech has hired some well-vetted mercenaries of various nationalities and outfitted them with power armor."
"I believe Congressman Sanguijuela was going to bring up that point when he meandered away from it, but go on," said the Speaker.
"One of Doctor Curlyhair's body doubles and a personal friend were kidnapped by a foreign terrorist organization called Gesellschaft fifteen minutes ago," said General Calhoun. "Using a small freighter outfitted with Tinkertech engines - it is about to cross into international waters."
The Speaker had to pound her gavel a few times at all the exclamations and mutterings going on. "Silence. General Calhoun, you have a point to be made?"
The General touched his earbud, nodding at whatever he was listening to. "As the ship is now in international waters, the Space Marine known as Astartes One is now commencing rescue operations. We will make the video available to you later after review and being able to mask the identities of any innocents involved. Just to let you know - the music was the choice of Astartes One and was not added later."
"'Music'?" asked the Speaker.
* Tinkertech freighter Gletscherbrecher *
Taylor, or her clone at least, smiled a little smile as the first notes began playing. Not that anyone noticed with the bag over her head.
"
When you were young,
And your heart was an open book,
you used to say 'Live and Let Live.'"
Steiniger looked around the hold, the hostage and the target were still in place, still drugged. Still blindfolded, still tied to their chairs. (They were NOT taking any chances with a target as clever as the girl supposedly was.)
"It cannot be some trick of the girl," said Apothe-Karen in German. The chemical Tinker made a gesture of negation, having enough pride in her work that any doubts were an insult. "I gave her the standard dose to make someone of her body weight pliable. The same with her inferior species associate."
"You know you did, you know you did, you know you did..." came the music.
"Unless it was something timed or triggered, but we stripped both of them down and just covered them in blankets," protested Scheiterhaufen. The Blaster/Shaker looked around and then pointed, having to shout over the music. "There, some kind of drone."
"But in this ever-changing world
In which we're living,
Makes you give in and cry."
Scheiterhaufen sent a stream of fire at the drone, which dodged and swept down, going through the ranks of the various crewmembers.
"To Live and Let Die!"
(FWAM!) An energy bolt as thick around as his wrist went through Scheiterhaufen's chest, prompting a scream from the various normals in the room, and a muttered "well crap" from Scheiterhaufen before he collapsed.
(FWAM!) went another energy bolt, going through one of the crew that was standing near the hostage. Steiniger noted that it was being timed to the music. Therefore it was a further insult!
"Live and Let Die!"
(FWAM!) went another energy bolt that struck Steiniger after he'd already turned to stone. It still obviously hurt despite his Changer form.
(FWAM!) went a second energy bolt hitting Steiniger, this time in the face.
Steiniger said a number of things in German that were very impolite.
A seam of wall ripped the rest of the way open, and a Space Marine leapt out.
* Astartes One *
"Force dome grenade launched. Force dome covering area of hostages," said the power armor as Captain Cavill switched from one mode to another. "Rapid Fire selected."
Pings as bullets bounced off his armor, with a few switching to Tinkertech lasers.
One thing that people got wrong about Space Marine power armor was that it looked slow because it was bulky. It was as close to Warhammer 40K power armor as Doctor Curlyhair could make it, which meant that it boosted his speed and strength to at least Brute-4/Mover-2 without factoring in other systems. It wasn't slow and it was loaded with as much protective gadgetry as she could fit in there.
This was not the PAPA armor being built by mundane if skilled military technicians using designs and materials provided by the good Doctor. This was personally made by Doctor Curlyhair at her facility for the purpose of protecting her family and the people of ForgeTech and was capable of things that would have had his old colleagues in their gentlemen's club salivating at the havoc it could withstand and deal out.
"Force Shield at 98%. Reinforcement field at full. Estimated time current fire to pose a danger to occupant: 46 hours," indicated the onboard system.
Captain Cavill grinned inside his helmet as the music continued to play. "Taser grenade."
"Switching to taser grenade," acknowledged the system.
The Tinker was chosen and everyone in one large group except the stone guy went down in the discharge.
"Penetration," said Captain Cavill, not waiting for the acknowledgement before sending several shots into the obvious Brute.
"Filthy American! You cannot defeat Gesellschaft!"
"Switching to chainsword," said Captain Cavill. The pistol went onto his belt and the sword activated with a roar as the music played. "Oh, and I'm British actually."
The stone-skinned Brute took one look at the roaring Sword Of Doom and started to rush the stage with the hostages when he bounced off the forcefield.
After that was pain. Lots of pain.
* Congress *
"Why wait until international waters?" asked one of the Congressmen.
"Because if he killed a bunch of parahuman kidnappers in American territory, there could be legal repercussions. Since they are in international waters, the kidnapping attempt can't be waved off due to some technicality or jurisprudence conflict," said Danny. He shrugged. "We are quite aware of Gesellschaft and the CUI having teams in the United States, among others, who want to forcibly recruit ForgeTech personnel. Until they make a move, we haven't intervened."
"That is exactly the sort of thing we need to address here!" declared Congresswoman Schmidt. "Taking the law into your own hands is exactly the sort of irresponsibility we need to stop right away!"
"Did we get the warrant?" asked General Calhoun.
"Judge just signed off on it," said Danny, tapping his own ear bud.
"'Warrant'?" asked the Speaker of the House.
"ForgeTech works closely with DARPA, the DoD, and a few other agencies," said Danny with a wolf's smile. "Including the FBI and CIA. We have access to lawyers. Lots of lawyers. As well as forensic accountants."
There was a sudden silence and a lot of panicked looks in the halls of Congress.
Then a mad scrambling for cellphones, and those who were doing so were immediately identified by the people in black suits that had been slowly filing into the building.
Taylor sat back, watching data scrolling across the bottom of her Doctor Curlyhair visor, and listened as the noise that only she could normally hear indicated another connection.
Oh! That might actually be quite handy!
* International Waters *
The anti-grav vehicle was one of two ForgeTech transports, a boxy vehicle the size and general shape of a eighteen-wheeler truck. It had anti-grav, inertial dampeners, and a camouflage effect that allowed it some stealth capabilities.
Mainly though it had been designed for bulk item transport that couldn't fit through the teleport ring that had been set up for raw materials and the occasional helicarrier part. The other transport was actually doing that right then, taking parts for the helicarrier Thermopylae that Doctor Curlyhair's autofactory had assembled and shipping them off to the shipyard that was building the vessel.
"Marking the site where the Gletscherbrecher is going down," noted the pilot, "just in case we can come back and salvage it later."
"I don't know," said Astartes One, looking down at where the ship was almost entirely underwater at this point. "I holed it all pretty good. No innocents aboard that thing as far as could be determined."
"The Taylor dispelled so that leaves her friend," said the pilot as they circled once and then engaged the camouflage again. "How's she doing?"
"She's going to need some time recovering," said Astartes One, looking at the girl in the back. "Someone with a lot more training in medical to determine what that chemical Tinker's stuff does and how to counter-act it."
"I'm sending off a message to the Doctor, she doesn't have that many friends so it'll reassure her. Oh. Got back an immediate response that she's copied to her mother."
* February 20, 2008 *
"Ungh." Things were blurry and her mouth felt really dry.
"Here. Sip only." A cup with a straw was handed her and it was difficult to keep it to sipping, but she managed. Between blinks things clicked into focus more and more. "Better. Mom? Dad? Smaug?"
"We're here, honey."
"Wha happened?" Lucy Nguyen paused. "When did Smaug get little wings and learn to fly?"
"You remember what happened?"
"Taylor? Yeah, we... Karen! She was leading us into an ambush!"
"Don't worry. She's been dealt with, as have her parents. They're enjoying stays at the iron bars hotel pending trials for espionage and accessories to kidnapping. Among other things."
Lucy Nguyen reached up and stroked Smaug's head, reassuring the little dragon. "Okay. That doesn't explain." Why Smaug had tiny wings and was cooing at her? Why she was in a room that looked like it belonged on some Star Trek set? Where the guys and gals wearing World War II German knockoff uniforms went?
"Honey, we had a talk with Doctor Curlyhair and ForgeTech. Those bastards gave you some Tinkertech drug that would have left permanent brain damage. Doctor Curlyhair came up with a solution but needed our okay to do it."
"That sounds quite ominous. Just saying."
Doctor Curlyhair looked a little nervous before explaining. "I was able to stabilize the X-Gene and use it to reverse the damage already done to you. Of the three choices for X-Gene expression - your parents deemed the most practical was the ability to phase through solid objects."
"Wait. I got kidnapped and you saved my life and now I have parahuman powers?"
"You're not a parahuman, but essentially yes," allowed Doctor Curlyhair.
"And Smaug is now a dragon?"
"Well, yes, apparently you like dragons so..." Doctor Curlyhair now gave off a degree of nervousness and embarrassment at the same time.
"That is so cool!" enthused Lucy. "So I got kidnapped and now have the ability to get away from kidnappers? That could be really handy."
"See?" her mother asked Doctor Curlyhair. "And here you were so worried she was going to break off your friendship."
Lucy looked around the room, noting the other bed and the occupant. "Who's that?"
"Someone we found and took in," said Doctor Curlyhair/Taylor. "Amnesiac. Had the same drugs used on you but for a longer period. I've been trying to work out a cure so that she's not an emotionless doll. Not helped by her anatomy basically making her skin a layer of plastic and metal. She's one of those Case 53s you hear about every so often."
"Ah," said Lucy at the reminder that her newest friend had a LOT of irons in a lot of fires.
There was a rumble from the complex around her, and Doctor Curlyhair's visor abruptly changed to have a single antennae sticking out from one side.
"Oh, NOW I get this," grumbled Taylor without explaining what had happened at all.
*Perks This Chapter *
27.30.1-Chrysalis(400CP)(Starcraft - The Zerg) (Biotech):
A human sized, pulsating Chrysalis that.... Looks oddly familiar. Wait, you know why now. This was the same kind of pod that was formed around the one known as Sarah Kerrigan, where Abathur remade the Ghost into the Queen of Blades, now it seems you can do the same, any organic subject around the size of an average human will go into a deep sleep when fastened into the Chrysalis, during which you can modify them to a level of detail only seen in individuals like Alexi Stukov. Although you will need the knowledge to properly utilize it, the Chrysalis gives all the benefits of a professional, well-funded surgery room in it's compact organic form.
19.8.1-Broadcast Booster (200CP)(The Avengers Earth's Mightiest Heroes)(Technology Knowledge):
You've discovered a way to make your signals much more effective and efficient, letting you transmit or receive signals and other methods of transmission, such as radio waves, on a global scale. Call your power armor to your exact location, get five bars wherever you go, or make the ultimate remote control.
