Log entry 7 11.25.10 ---------------------------------------------
Thanksgiving snuck up on us just days later. We'd met the pass criterion of the sleep learning programs that we'd requested, and some that Freyja had required. Officer training for one thing. Strangely, Sophia had decided to hold off on outings as Shadow Stalker to get in extra time in the training. It turned out she was an avid combat game fan since she could bust heads in the sims.
Emma and I had invited her over after their family had their meal –their tradition was early so they could watch parades and Football after. The Barnes's waited until five o'clock for the Turkey meal. And then they mostly vegged out.
While Freyja was nowhere near ready to create another craft, she was able to create a holoprojector that could handle showing imagery of us crashed out on the couch watching TV after Sophia 'left'. She just told her parents she was 'staying over' which was code to her mom. It meant it was a cape night.
Ems, bless her heart, had settled on the name 'Gingembre'. I would have preferred if she could just go by 'First Officer', but other than Sophia we didn't really have a second or third, let alone regular crew. She took her name from the French term for an orange cat, which was how her cat 'change' appeared, if just a little darker.
I was sticking to my guns over "Captain" although I adopted a little bit of a lilt to saying it that made it sound, well to be honest, like Chekhov. 'Nuke-lee-are Veapons' ish, but not for all my speech. In any documentation it would be "Keptain" to be consistent.
The bridge of the ship was adjustable, with partitions that were moved aside as needed, the couches were mobile and could be used as beds or configured to chairs for many humanoid options. Or cleared away. Freyja had noted that the last two members of her crew that survived the disaster that sent her to this Earth had lived out their days together in this one room.
The ship was not a Tardis, but it was significantly bigger than the one room.
We were running an impromptu obstacle course around the corridors looping the main disc. Turkey is nice, but with our upgrades and their ability to subsist on tiny amounts of food, we needed a lot of activity to burn the calories we ate at school. I was already getting concerned looks from teachers who thought I was "too thin" for someone my height. Being able to eat a single apple and live on it for days was not helping things. So we had to eat like teenagers and do heavy training just to burn off the extras. It was that or bear the burden of having our systems ah eliminate the extras. Personally I think Freyja might have engineered the situation to get more training time in.
"Freyja, are you sure we couldn't just turn down the metabolism just a hair?" I was not going to admit defeat on this.
The arms being able to pace us from the ceiling had been unnerving at first, but the calm answer held a tone of reproach. "Changing settings on the fly would open up paths to control. The current situation is annoying at best. Compare it to finding yourself without resources after an Endbringer attack."
I hopped over a low drawer she pushed into the hallway. Obstacles. Since I dropped the line of questions she returned to the display of her appropriated historical resources. She was fascinated with history, having amassed a huge equivalent of data from libraries all over the world. If she wasn't so advanced, she would probably have the authorities sniffing all over us by now. But she wasn't using Brockton Bay connections to get all this data, every satellite in line of sight was hers to make use of at will. Ground stations for TV could be probed for information. The internet trunks connecting New York and Boston ran through underground links along the railroad, creating alternate junctions routing in places beyond the Bay was child's play.
I was getting better at this. Not good. Ironically, Emma was a natural. That or the memories of the crew member of feline nature seemed to bleed through when she moved in that format. Something to consider, I suppose. Did the memories of her previous Captain bleed through as well? Captains?
"Freyja, how much of the memory storage I have contains the prior Captain, or is it more than one?"
The hallway cleared of obstacles as she considered.
"The 'Captain' package includes the memory engrams of ninety-one previous Captains, although the last was only a few cycles long. They are accessible on demand of the current Captain, but skills that are drilled to second nature will come forward at subconscious desire."
"Have you looked over the heroes and villains detailed on PHO? Particularly the Butcher?"
Freyja paused significantly. "Ah. While there are surface similarities, it is not the personalities encoded. Physical skills need to be calibrated to the body, the length of the limb and such. At no time will there be a voice in your head."
I chuckled a little at her discomfort. "Just in my earpiece."
Sounding downright British, she answered. "Quite."
****************
Armsmaster's workspace.
"There it is again."
"Colin, you can't still be worrying about an anomaly in global downloads and satellite traffic. We've traced these bursts time and again and they turn into chaos and noise with no real source."
Not pausing in his typing, Colin Wallis, otherwise known to the world as Armsmaster, followed the flow of analytical data from one blind corner of the internet to another. "I'm telling you it has to be some kind of intelligence directing these flows. A sudden uptick of data flows from institutions of higher learning? Petabytes of data going nowhere?"
"If it were actionable, we would be taking action." Dragon noted. "There is no crime as yet, all the data accessed has been found to be public domain."
"Dragon, I think someone out there is using all that data to train an artificial intelligence."
The image on his monitor spluttered, at a loss for words. Then it froze for 2.3 seconds. "That is ridiculous. There have been no known instances of AI lasting more than a few days let alone a month now."
Collin frowned. "Not in a single server or even a server farm. This could be a distributed form of intelligence. That would explain the difficulty in pinning down the movements of libraries worth of information."
****************
The next week drifted over into December. With the Christmas break coming up, and our midterms scheduled just before then, the study group was very popular. Julia and Mai had toed the line and were happily above the redline for being cut for Cheerleading. But others were further down and looked for a way to scrabble out of the red they could. The less forthright of those decided to reduce the curve by cutting out the top end of the test scores.
If you cannot cheat on the tests, find ways to remove the honest good scores.
"Taylor Hebert, report to the Principal's Office."
There were a few smirks from the stoners and wannabe Merchants in the class. Gladly's class, or perhaps Gad-fly as some called him. He started to write out a pass but I simply picked up my backpack and headed for the door.
"Taylor, don't you want to get the assignments?" He asked.
I considered a moment. "Why? I've aced every test you've set us. I have three of your extra credit projects done so I could take a zero off anything you throw at the class." It confused me when he attempted to be a teacher in between his buddy-buddy discussions and waste of time projects.
Moving down the hallway I found there were already several people in the offices, all from one of the math classes, mine.
Blackwood was there with hands on her hips. "So! The ringleader is here at last. Come into my office, young woman. Sit."
I came in and sat, not concerned for all her air of smug certainty. "What do you mean, ma'am?"
"Oh, can it with that act. I have sixteen test papers with exactly the same answers, all of them ninety eight out of one hundred and they all belong to your study group! Cheating."
I raised my eyebrows. "Really? From the same class group? Sitting together?" At her faltering look among her papers. "If this is about the Calculus I exam on Monday, it was from problems given in the homework. We were allowed note sheets as long as they were handwritten. Yes my group had nearly identical note sheets –but that is hardly a reason to accuse them of cheating."
She firms up and waves a ruler at me. "Don't give me lip!" She smiled menacingly. "The ones who didn't cheat turned you in."
"Yes. Let me guess, those in the lower sixties results would rather be graded as C work instead of failing." I note. "And you choose to believe them over straight A students, why?"
She blinked then doubled down. "I could have you expelled." Okay, waving big guns now.
"At this time I would like to have my Guardians brought in. You are charging into lawsuit territory already by threatening me with a weapon." I gesture at the ruler. "Throwing my academic standing in question purely on the strength of hearsay. Has Mr. Jenkins been consulted for his opinion on this nonsense?"
"Donald Jenkins was let go this very afternoon. His inability to control his baser urges around female students has been documented…"
I stood up then. "I see." I take a step to and open the door to the office. "You have chosen to embrace the insanity rather than reexamine faulty assumptions."
"Get back in here!"
"No, I think that is not going to happen." I reached for the door. "Not without parental guidance, or at least counsel."
She drew herself up like a bandy little rooster. "Fine then! You are expelled. Leave school property immediately. Paperwork will be sent to your home of residence."
I was already walking out.
What I did not expect was for a group of students to be following me off campus. Emma and Sophia, sure, but Julia? Madison? Mai? Paul? Half the football team was there already and they were quick to assure us that the rest were being gathered up.
Emma gestured at her phone. "I have Dad on the way. He is gathering up a few colleagues, one is already contacting Mr. Jenkins, offering to represent him to the School Board inquiry."
Sophia held up her phone. "Mom is calling in the press. We should have a news van here…" She snorted and pointed. "About now."
I could see several of the Cheerleaders primping on the chance they could be on camera.
Emma held out the phone for me to hear Alan talking. "You can talk to the press but do not give any opinion on Blackwell herself or how she does her job. Stick to the facts."
Fine then. "What about a recording of what she said to me in the office?"
"You recorded it?" He sounded impressed.
I just smiled a little as I saw Mai hold out a hand to Julia who passed over a twenty. "Told you."
"Excuse me!" A woman in a sharp business suit with a microphone in hand approached. "Channel Six. Are you the young woman accused of ma… Cut. Give me a sec hon. Are you the young woman wrongfully accused of leading a cheating ring? Our tips line says there are accusations that a set of test answers were shared among the students of a ga-group led by Taylor Herbert."
Sighing. "Hebert. Only one R in there please." I pause a beat. "I am not in fact sure of what they were accusing. The principal fired our Calculus teacher after our study group got excellent scores on Calculus midterms. The test rules allowed a single hand printed note sheet, which we each wrote out our own copy but yes it was a shared effort in creation. That is the definition of 'study group', isn't it?" I gesture to the kids lined up in solidarity –or the chance to be on air–
"If anything, the fact that sixteen of us scored all but one correct should be cause for celebration. But that is not what is happening." I gesture back to the school. "And since I would not immediately confess to the charge of cheating, I have been expelled."
She nodded at the correct times and the mike swiveled back to her. "All without an investigation? You were questioned without a parent present? Shocking developments at Winslow High School, back to you John."
We repeated this same line for two other outlets, one a print newspaper –okay so they published electronically as well as print– with similar results. The one did try to angle the camera to show all the non-white kids behind me rather than the Cheerleaders and Football team stars. I noted it and signed for Emma and Sophia to shuffle them into frame. When he said cheating, the camera pointed not at me but at Sophia. Right.
It was starting to get dark, afternoons ended quickly with mountains starting just west of the city, when the school superintendent showed up.
Uncle Alan was right there chatting him up as he approached.
"Alan here says you have a recording of what went on in the office itself. That would not be admissible in court…"
"Really? It is a public place." Emma noted. "With no expectation of privacy. They have cameras in the halls –if they still worked."
The man seemed to grind his teeth for a moment, then continued smoothly. "I suppose. Can you email me a copy at this email address?"
"Easily." Alan took the card, but my enhanced vision had already picked it up and I was typing it into the 'To' field on the phone itself. Alan noted further, "You understand that should Taylor be expelled, her college expectations and eventual career could be derailed. That is a large monetary loss."
I hit send on the email, laughing to myself slightly. Freyja had created the phone after all, and it wasn't like it was limited to the quality of other phones or the tiny bandwidth available to normal cellular…
Oh.
Well shit.
Might have just outed ourselves there.
*********************
"Hellooo." Dragon's voice spoke up from her usual humming as she worked.
Armsmaster perked up, shutting off the miniature welding rig he was using. "Do you have something?"
"One of those bursts of data just happened. And it coincides with a rather detailed video being entered into evidence on a school board server."
Frowning, "You monitor school board servers?"
She chuckled. "My systems host many of them at a discount. And this is a cell phone video recording that seems to be five times larger than usual. More pixels per frame, more frames per second. Dedicated CCD cameras are uncommon at this resolution. Oh, it even manages to have true stereo channels in the audio." She paused. "The time stamp is also a little odd. It isn't synched to the cell towers. That is very interesting."
Armsmaster waited. "Something else?"
"No. it just looks like Winslow will be getting a new principal soon."
"Already? Is that a record?"
"Sadly, no. The shortest tenure was a week, but suicide shouldn't count."
"Suicide." Rolling his eyes now. "The BBPD officer who investigated that incident noted the man shot himself three times."
********************
It wasn't two days later that Winter Break was supposed to start. I got extra time in training, and to be honest there was nothing missed that could really affect my grades going on. That Friday, Ex-Principal Blackwell was escorted off school property. And they were looking for the kids that had made up the story about the cheating. She somehow forgot to document who they were.
Calling it a phone tree would be using dated terms but that was what it was in fact. Julia called Emma after checking in with others. I hadn't been at school of course, but Emma and Sophia had. Sophia had been oblivious, checked out watching her video feed on her contacts.
Too bad Freyja didn't consider that against my orders for no 'Ship' stuff during school hours. As long as it was training, education of some sort was allowed at the place of education. Her firm opinions on the curriculum showed.
When Emma got home with Sophia in tow, we went to the Dojo again. Sophia was just about teaching some of the classes. For my sins of extreme patience, I got to teach one of the classes of youngsters.
But as we were getting back into our streetwear Emma brought up the calls going around the phone lists.
"Madison was seen coming to school but never made it to second period." She sounded nervous. "Her phone goes straight to voicemail. None of our friend apps can find her location. Julia tried her home phone and Maddie's parents haven't seen her either. They are, to put it bluntly, freaked."
"Last seen at the school." Sophia noted. "First place to look." She gave me a look.
"I suppose we do have to go out eventually." I noted. "And checking in on someone from the group who is missing makes sense."
Freyja clearly agreed. On my own contact I could see a path of a cell phone traced back over several days. It did come to the school and then seemed to wink out. There was a brief ping a block away and then nothing –and this was at nine AM this morning, well after the first bell.
Emma leaned in. "Are we going like this or fully kitted out?"
I smiled fully, letting out all the tension in my shoulders. We needed this.
"Time to dress for the job you want."
Emma and Sophia high fiving was a little out of decorum.
"Nothing for it but to tell the rents we are going to the theater." I said.
"Nerd." followed by "Ow. Worth it." Sophia may actually like the shocks.
**************************
"Someone!" the wail echoed in the cold empty school. Bang, bang. Her shoe against the steel door. "Let me out of here!"
Covered in soot from the door to the old coal pen behind the furnace in the basement of Winslow, Madison Clements could just see the lantern they'd left in the other room. Her phone was sitting there next to it, the battery out next to it.
The double-door was locked by a metal chair leg wedged through the handles. They'd left her like that.
Narc.
Stoolie.
They said she was the one that turned them in for making up the cheating ring. Her fault they would be expelled for real. So, if she liked school so much, she could live out her remaining hours there. They'd laughed and left candles here and there on the floor or on steps or on the table.
And they'd left her. With a steel can full of wood burning to keep her warm. But they'd also closed the flume, taped the windows and had sprayed expanding foam around the doors. She could feel the carbon monoxide building up in the room. The floor candles had gone out first after about an hour. They hadn't burned down, they'd just gone out.
And she'd been banging on the walls and things all day. No answer.
The janitors had left by midday and never came down to the basement if they could help it.
She was so tired. But there was nowhere to lay down that wasn't the floor. She was sure the carbon monoxide was filling the room by now, getting higher as time went on.
Another candle went out.
The batteries on the lantern dimmed.
Madison cringed as she saw there were spiders climbing up the walls, roaches coming out of cracks and moving up any way they could.
There were roaches ON HER.
*************************
My costume was basically the ship uniform, gold on top and darker pants that sealed into the suit. Unlike the Star Trek similarities our uniform did have sort of a helmet affair, that was more or less a bike helmet made with thinner material with a built in clear visor. There was enough electronics packed in there to make Armsmaster sweat should he ever get a good look.
I had a 'Fleet standard' sidearm, like a bronze colored ergonomic computer mouse made of metal. There was even a ball near the thumb. It locked to my suit at the waist –or anywhere I chose to leave it on the costume.
Differences were there. My hair was changed to the white format, locked into tight curls that made it appear much shorter in a ponytail. Skin is gray with the full changes in effect.
The gloves were fingerless, showing my nails that were a solid ivory shade.
Emma was in a purple topped equivalent, her red hair even more wild and spiky than ever. Cat ears sized up with red fur on them. Her face and neck showed a fringe of striped red fur with a little white at the throat, the 'prosthetic' red fur tail attached from the inside of her suit, moving with her like a pendulum. Her bike helmet was almost lost in that hair of hers. She had fingerless gloves showing cat fur 'fingers' with clawed tips. Her toes showed through her 'shoes'.
Shadow Stalker had on her dark costume, the material upgraded to the same stuff as the ship materials, cut to look more like a jacket over the top of her red ship suit top. Her boltcaster was clipped to her shoulder, but her mouse-like sidearm was integrated to the handgrip of the boltcaster.
We'd each chosen a mode of travel to use. I got flight as Freyja had more than enough power to keep me in the air, if I wasn't as fast as some capes could go. Gingembre –Emma– would parkour and run, being able to lock onto the wall by foot or hand, her weight dropping to negligible amounts as she moved. Shadow Stalker would still run and leap but now she could also shoot out a grapple line that would anchor using gravity tech and reel her into the bolt's location. Or she could swing from the line. Or she could lock her boltcaster into place midair and swing or rappel down from it. Clearly she had the most options for movement among us three.
*****************
Miss Militia.
The Merchants were angry over something or other. They didn't often push south out of the Docks toward the more central areas of Brockton. But here they were, making themselves a nuisance all the way down to … Winslow?
That made no sense.
Miss Militia shrugged. Merchants rarely made any sense anyway.
So she monitored from building tops and made notes about where they were moving, sending a text to the police so they could respond in force. There were no capes visible, yet. Velocity was helping her reposition while he scouted the edges of the movement and checked the other gang ranges.
Or maybe that was premature as she saw a group of younger female capes.
That was different. The Protectorate had seen Shadow Stalker before, but never with a Team? She wasn't much of a socializer. Or a talker. Raising binoculars up she zeroed in on the most interesting item to her military mindset. It was a crossbow if you squinted. It bore looking into if the thing was sold anywhere she might be able to duplicate it.
And then there were the two girls with her. A flying gray girl with white hair. A cat girl Changer bouncing along as if she had little or no weight. Those two had matching costumes color shifted.
Item: Shadow Stalker was wearing something under her jacket that matched as well. One of them is a Tinker?
...They were also heading to Winslow. Joy.
"Console, this is Militia. The Merchant rank and file are coming down past Winslow heading toward the north end of the Boardwalk. And I've just spotted Shadow Stalker out after a month absent. She has two new cape friends. Description follows…"
***********************
It was full dark now. December weather. The barrel of wood had burned low to just a slight glow, now giving off more smoke than heat or light.
And she was so tired.
She barely cared that the bugs were using her to stay above the carbon monoxide. Roaches mostly. Flies. Spiders climbed all about, but they could go higher and did so.
Shivering, even with the insulation of all the roach bodies across her skin, Madison clung to hope.
The room was spinning.
And she was falling.
SHE WAS GOING TO DIE!
[DESTINA…
********************
We'd reached Winslow proper. Shadow Stalker ghosted her way in and opened a door from the inside. There was a smell, like creosote in the building.
"Freyja, can you scan for life signs or something?"
"There is life everywhere my captain. But if you mean Hume there is very little to detect in this area. None on the floors above you. I would suggest moving downward."
Since the comms were on I knew the other two had heard that. "Down we go ladies."
We'd barely reached the chair locked double-doors to the basement when Sophia nearly dropped like her strings were cut. It was just a moment really. She was standing straight again and waved us off as she scanned around for threats.
"Gingembre, cut the lock."
Emma laughed and used her claws to cut the chains. It was a function of the tech in the false fingers and claws, but it still managed to get a whistle out of Stalker.
"Kind of wish I'd had that option." She noted. "Course I would forget and scratch my nose. Does your nose itch?" She added sweetly.
She waltzed past Emma who was now visibly restraining herself from scratching at an itchy nose.
As the door opened a veritable swarm of bugs flew out. Mostly German Cockroaches, moths, flies and gnats. Then a wave of spiders ran across the walls and out. I was somewhat glad to be able to fly. Emma was balanced on one toe, her weight reduced to a feather to avoid them.
"Behind you, Keptain." Emma squeaked as Freyja alerted on the HUD.
I turned, hand weapon at the ready, to find the swarm of bugs forming into a humanoid shape. It turned into a girl –into Madison.
Shit.
She triggered.
"Ohmigod, ohmigod, ohmigod." She was saying. Over and over. She pointed at me, "Famine.", then Stalker, "Death." and then to Emma "War?" Looking down at her own self covered still in roaches of five kinds and spiders mixed in. "Does that make me Pestilence?"
We three looked at her as she began to have a panic attack, then at each other and in unison shook our heads "NO".
I took the lead on talking. "Not part of the Four Horsemen, no." I point at myself. "Keptain." wave to Stalker.
"Shadow Stalker. Sup?"
To Emma.
"Gingembre. Nyan!" She made an air claw pose that would fit right in in Anime.
"Are you all capes?" Madison asked tentatively.
Sophia answered. "Duh, yeah we are."
"Heroes?" She squeaked.
I rolled my eyes. "We aren't villains."
She smiled now. "That's good because it would be a shame to roll on people in the study group…"
"Whut?" Deer in headlights moment for me.
"Taylor, Emma and Sophia. Come on, you totally can't think some gray body paint, fur and even a mask would hide you from someone who hangs out with you. I'm the cute one, not the dumb one."
"It would be advised to not use civilian names. Captain, there is someone entering the main hallway doors." Freyja noted out loud.
"Who said that?" Madison buzz squeaked. Her form writhed and she was made up partially of wasps and ants as well as roaches for a moment.
"Visor, now." I state. The small flash of light leaves a bike helmet like ours with the visor attached. "Put this on and stay bug-like so you won't be recognized."
Madison accepted the helmet, pushing it on easily. All our visors went slightly smoky as the lights in the halls came on. A group of people strode around the corner led by --well I would say 'pimp' but that would be racist. Gaudy. Obnoxious. Oblivious to dress and hygiene standards? Faux Cheetah fur trim and bedazzle in excess of recommended sane levels?
A flamboyant black male voice rang out.
"Greetings, dick schnizzles and douchbags! Skidmark is IN the House!"