The first part of the plan was getting to Baltimore. The first time, obviously, you had a car rental and the trip to the con as cover, this time you had neither. Furthermore, you preferably would not want it to be known you were in Baltimore at all during the heist, if you could avoid it.
Fortunately, you knew somebody with a car. Justine that as long as it was not in any way damaged or impounded or whatever, she was willing to let you borrow it. No risk of that, it was just to get you to the city. Meanwhile, May was handling alibis, because you were obviously hanging out with her for the duration.
Oddly, it sort of seemed like Athena had reversed her earlier policy of skepticism and throw herself into-
"
Its not that. It's just what's done is done, there's nothing to do but adapt to the circumstances."
Right. But point was, she was actively helping May with it. You'd promised May you'd secure her phone for her, but Athena had insisted on taking over the process after you did some of the more tech-sense-intensive work, so you'd dropped it off at the crypto farm.
The next morning when you went in to the empty warehouse to pick it up, you could tell
instantly it wasn't just an Android phone anymore.
"What'd you do?" you asked, and Athena's avatar popped up onto the screen, doing a little victory dance in her room. The song even sounded distorted like it was coming out of her speakers and being picked up by her mic, it was
elaborate. "Upgrades?"
"
Upgrades? Sure, if you consider me just an upgrade to Siri. Oh no, Liv, what I've done is genius." she bragged, snatching up a copy of the phone with her prosthetic, throwing it into the air and catching it impossibly, balanced on the end of her finger. "
Turn it on."
You depressed the button and held it down, and after a moment it booted up with little chime and the regular Android background appeared. You could tell there was more going on behind the scenes, but you weren't sure
what.
"What am I looking at, then?" you asked, and a voice answered unbidden from the phone.
"
THE FUTURE, OLIVIA OCTAVIUS." the phone said in a monotone, the screen melting away to reveal a red background, dancing with sharp shapes. "
THE END OF FLESH, THE DAWN OF THE MACHINE."
Athena's avatar grinned wildly, as her room fell away into a black void, her clothing transforming to the black version of the Arachne costume you'd seen, raising her hands in a victorious gesture. Even the LEDs on her tower turned red. All around you, the screens and lights of the warehouses began blinking in unison. Athena reclined into a black throne, spiked and menacing looking.
"You'll never get away with this. I'll stop you." you said seriously.
"
Stop me? Stop me!?! You think this is a comic book?" Athena said, sounding astonished, "
Do you really think so little of me? I did it fifteen minutes ago!"
"
ITS ME, I'M THE SQUID!" the phone announced, and you and Athena broke into mutual giggles. The phone joined in a moment later. "
Did you like the full name thing, Athena? I thought of it at the last moment."
"
It was great!" Evil Athena announced, clapping in delight. "
Absolutely perfect!"
"You made an AI?" you said, staring at the phone with awe. "And they runs on a phone?"
"
Technically I'm able to access additional processing power when needed." the phone said, a bit more affect in their voice. "
Though normally, yes, I run entirely on the hardware. So don't ask me to think too hard, okay?"
"That's incredible." you said, and Athena (still evil) blushed and waved a dismissive hand.
"
I learned from the best. Seriously, they're mostly a curated copy of my own basic programming, cut down and compressed and very, very limited."
"
To be clear, I'm not a generalized AI. I have a fairly limited set of functions all told, it's just one of them is naturalistic conversation." the phone explained, "
No real emotions or anything beyond yay reward function, beep boop. My functions are primarily to keep May Parker's information secure and assist her in crafting alibis and the like, though I also have a lot of more general personal assistant functions so she likes me and is more likely to keep me around!"
"Do you have a name?" you asked.
"
Not yet! May gets to pick, and I have a lot of customization settings for her as well. Most of them adhere closely to May's standards: Survival of the cutest. And before you start worrying about the ethics of adjusting my personality like that, I would like to remind you that I am 1) not real and 2) not valid. There's no sentience in here, just boops and beeps!"
"Huh. You know, seeing something that sounds person-like deny their own personhood is a bit creepy." you observed, and Athena nodded.
"
I know, but it's important May understands that. It's programmed to remind her fairly frequently just in case. Besides, they're the most adorable little P-zombie, aren't they?" Athena said, poking the screen of her copy as if doting on it.
"
I have no inner life!" it exclaimed happily.
---
"How's my alibi?" you asked, and you phoned beeped. You checked it to see a Facebook post by May on a bench next to you, with you tagged in the shot. One of Rosie's specialties was being able to edit photos using the techniques Athena had developed for her photorealistic avatars to put people in the shot who weren't there... and with Athena already having all the files on hand, inserting
you into shots was easy. It took you a second to notice, but the plate glass across the street was reflecting the clock on the Williamsburgh Savings Bank Tower, acting as diegetic reinforcement of the photograph's timestamp, just in case. Rosie might not be sentient, but it sure was smart.
Oh yeah, she'd named the phone Rosie.
"Rad, okay." you said, slipping into an alley and vaulting the chain link fence with a single swift motion, ducking behind a dumpster. You were already painted out of the security camera, not merely looping but instead just
removed, no flicker or inconsistency for people checking later. The Life Foundation office was just next door, you could
feel the electric hum of the computers inside, just out of reach. Whatever secrets they had were going to be
yours, and if you did this right they'd never even know you were there. You felt a heady rush of power and anticipation, the delicious feeling of ruining all the hard work put in by their security specialists by dint of your bullshit superpowers. This was going to be
awesome.
---
What's your entry plan? The building is closed and should be mostly empty, but there's almost certainly both passive security and guards. They take this shit seriously!
Their good shit is probably in the basement. How are you getting there?
[ ] You're going straight in the back door, right through the electric lock, and you were just cut through the offices, timing your movement with the cameras. Keep it simple!
[ ] You were going up to the roof and working your way down the elevator shaft to the basement. You'd be out of the way, but also not checking on any of the stuff out in the open.
[ ] You wanted time, and the best way to get time is to stalk the halls and silently web up guards one by one. Then you'd have the run of the place for hours, but they'd know something was up in the aftermath.
