Reality Bites Worm
4.4
Skitter looked at the metal spider and then at Sherrel. Sherrel shrugged "It works its way under your hair, moves itself to the optimum position, then you don't notice it anymore." She leaned down and parted her hair so Taylor could see the flat metal wires.
Taylor nodded "And all that training stuff you were doing this afternoon was testing it in simulated combat conditions?"
Sherrel huffed "Like I am going to let you take something untested into a fight. I'm the head tinker around here. Any tinker piece of shit goes on my girls it is with my approval."
The Dragon suit next to her nodded "Or she finds out how to deactivate your remotes and paints them hot pink." She gave the impression of glaring at Sherrel somehow.
The girls rolled around laughing. The remote still had lines of hot pink around the joints. It actually looked pretty good. Like piping. Taylor sighed and put the armature on her head. "This looks really stupid, doesn't it?"
The others looked at her with big round eyes and their mouths clamped shut, while shaking their heads. Taylor rolled her eyes at them, she was a bit afraid to move. The sensor array wormed off of the armature and while Taylor made disgusted faces it disappeared into her hair. In a moment, it beeped once and Sherrel removed the armature. Taylor swayed for a moment and then straightened with a look of wonder on her face. Dragon moaned. They all looked at the remote. Dragon said "I suspected, but this confirms it. A biological supercomputer. You are using all the extra, or unused, capacity of every creature you have mastered in a cloud based computer array. Hey! Or, apparently, in your network now. No, no, stay out of there. I need that memory and processing to run the suit. Taylor!" Taylor grinned at Lisa.
Lisa rolled her eyes. "Yes, yes, Thinker one trillion. Leave Dragon's stuff alone, we will build in extra processing and memory. Hmm, maybe redundant, off site, backup arrays."
"Dragon continued "Well this just got much easier. Put bugs on everyone and you can track their movements. If she sets off another bomb we will be able to figure out who she is."
Amy snorted "Or find that chemical smelling girl from last night."
Dragon looked at Amy "You knew she was doing this."
Amy sighed "Don't freak. She can't do it to self-aware animals, including people." Amy didn't even think the 'yet' that she knew was possible with just a bit more tweaking. "We hadn't checked electronic processors as we really haven't had access up to now.
Lisa shrugged "She had to have extra processing for all that signal. We figured it out before Lucy and Amanda triggered even. Though I do wonder if now she could code herself."
Taylor finally got back in the conversation "Ack! No making a tAIlor!" She grinned crazily for a second "Yet. OK the problem is it is winter. My size limit won't let me use tiny bugs and I am not sure I can sneak indoor bugs onto everyone and them survive outside."
Dragon shook her head "This is amazing. Your bionetwork I mean. We might be able to do it without the bugs but it will take longer. You have no limit as each sensor you add comes with built in extra capacity. Do you even need to go to school?"
Taylor laughed "Yes, otherwise it's just data. One of the goals of the super coon program is to get them up to where they can read."
"Brain Cats would be less obvious. And if we modify their pads just a little they can turn pages or work a mouse. Well a little modification to their paws too." Amanda put in her argument again.
Rachel rolled her eyes "Cat people. Dogs can do it too. Plus defend themselves better."
Taylor smiled at the ongoing cats versus dogs argument. She liked the raccoons herself. "Plus I like school. And we have a schedule that works when it isn't a world ending crisis. We have years to figure this stuff out."
Dragon paused "Rachel you do the same with the dogs, don't you?"
Rachel shrugged "Something like it. We can try one of those things since you can copy it. I got better and better at schoolwork and then it reached what Mrs. Standard calls a tipping point. I should be able to go to Arcadia next year and in the same grade and AP classes as the others. I am not playing all this teen drama though."
Vicky snorted "Like we do. I haven't even got a clique anymore."
Amy rolled her eyes "We are most of the girls in AP courses. The others are warming up to us. Some of them we probably want to bring into the Watch. Of course you have a clique. It's just a brain clique. Not the cheerleaders or the jocks."
Lisa nodded "I have a few candidates to. The cheerleaders are mad because we are hogging the Wards."
Amy blinked "What? Vicky is the only one dating one."
Lisa waved airily "Girl shit. They won't approach them because they are afraid of rejection, and the guys, well they are guys. Plus, it must be intimidating to have to cut one out of her herd."
The others nodded then laughed at themselves for nodding. Amanda summed it all up "Stupid hormones."
Vicky tapped her chin "We could set some of them up. Cut down on the drama on both sides." Lucy, Amanda and Lisa perked up.
Taylor sighed "Here we go." Rachel nodded, wondering how boy girl stuff was going to reduce the net amount of drama.
RBW
"Master ten, Thinker ten, Tinker ten. Striker Ten." Alexandria said looking at the tactical screen populated with Skitters data.
Legend shrugged "Mover five, Brute five. Don't think classifying them in this way is helpful, and I believe it obscures the full picture."
Alexandria considered that carefully. With David off playing his stupid games, things between her and Paul could not be allowed to go south. "Could you explain that a bit?"
Legend nodded "She doesn't care about conflict other than ending it in favor of the normal people of Brockton Bay."
Alexandria blinked "Bakuda, and they are all signed up to Endbringer agreements."
"Bakuda is close, potentially Asian, probably even, as the population of the university has lots of Asian people, and Lung is in Brockton Bay. Chinese, Japanese, Malaysian, Vietnamese, Pakistani, Indian, all races and ethnicities. I haven't asked her, but I bet they have a thousand plans for Endbringer events, and are waiting to test them out to see if they can kill them. If one comes to Brockton Bay I think it will regret it. I think the Nine would regret it as well. We might, as she would kill Manton first. The others would then get to try to deal with unpowered things that kill with teeth, claws and venom. Not a few at a time, All of them in her zone of influence at once.
"A zone that has now proved to be able to extend hundreds of miles. In that range are black bears and lynx at least, not to mention badgers, wolverines, dogs, who knows what else that is carnivorous.
"You have to wonder if Crawler would survive passing through a thousand carnivores digestive tracts in small pieces.
"Any threats best bet would be to wait and let her come more into her powers. Then she might forget about the other weapons she has available. Right now, if you threaten Brockton Bay, and thereby her father and friends, she is going to unload on you with everything she has and her power apparently never sleeps. At least we haven't see it do that yet." Legend shrugged. "Then there is Hecate. Dogs, coyotes, wolves, all confirmed to be in her ability. She made that zoo wolf into something the zoologist are convinced was a dire wolf, a dire wolf that could prey on dinosaurs. Our ally doesn't see a path to victory if we oppose Skitter."
Alexandria sighed "I must be getting old."
Legend smiled "Skitter and Physis would love to get their hands on you."
Alexandria shocked him into silence "I think I will go see them." She crowed internally at his shocked face. Sadly, with her physiology, they would probably not be able to help her.
RBW
The Wards got together and trotted in to the rock drill. They had an early patrol today so were a bit pressed for time. The rock drill was now a holographic, scale projection. It was very detailed. Sophia moaned and they all chuckled.
RBW
The analyst of both the Watch and the PRT had had a chance to work on the data pouring in and had winnowed it down to four suspects and gotten their schedules. They looked at social media to find their normal activities and added those. The Watch was going to run take downs against all four in zombie land. Legend proved to be correct. Two of the primary suspects were Asian, a male Pakistani and a Far East Asian of some type. No one was sure about her. Maybe a mixed race student. Anyway, those four fit the profile from the publically available, and not so publicly available once the warrants were approved, data.
RBW
Kaiser looked out the window and then sat behind his desk and looked at the capes of the Empire. "The Wards have started a more hazardous patrolling scheme. They have also been reinforced. The PRT has been reinforced as well."
"The ABB got hit by the wards last night but that appears to have been their own fault. If they had left the wards alone and followed instructions they would all probably be back on the street by now. The prosecutors seem to have the bit between their teeth at this point however, they will be lucky to get away with six months or a year."
Hookwolf shrugged "The wards leave us alone we leave them alone, like always. The PRT is not fucking around though. Foam first and question you while you are in the foam. As for the slants, it couldn't happen to a nicer bunch."
Kaiser nodded "An opportunity presents itself however. The Watch are leaving town. Tomorrow evening."
Hookwolf laughed "The DWU has fifty guys who can shoot and Barret's, not foam sprayers. Oh, never mind the wards and the Protectorate. Even if we just took on the DWU they could hold us off with the Barret's and shred our troops, and they would. Hebert hasn't gone anywhere. Neither is Hauser."
Krieg narrowed his eyes "You have an inside move to the Watch."
Kaiser smiled proudly "You would think so, but Purity has made some astute moves and I am afraid money won't get me as far in the face of Thy Bui and Carol Dallon. The Protectorate and PRT, along with the police department and prosecutors, filing friends of the court briefs very nearly had me only doing supervised visits. It was the legal equivalent of walking into a tail rotor. No, I will have to bide my time there, and with my son as well. He will get over his rebellious years in time.
"By the way I do agree with you Hookwolf. The ABB are a different story however, and having suffered another loss of manpower, even if it was not on the front lines, they should be susceptible to some increased pressure."
Victor nodded "Coil even more so, especially if we can draw him into conflict with the ABB."
Everyone looked at him and Kaiser nodded "Well, don't leave us in suspense Victor."
RBW
Thomas Calvert watched the timelines. He was having to end one regularly and was just treading water in his operations. When this had happened before he had stacked up too many enemies in one place, and so had moved on. Brockton Bay was not supposed to be this hard. Lung was his only real opposition.
He needed more capes, but he wasn't getting them. The Travelers were still balking. Faultline was a possibility, but then someone had bought her. She stayed bought. He understood, a mercenary who didn't stay bought was a villain, and a liability. Their lives were short.
The ABB had lost manpower. Perhaps now was the time to use Lung as a weapon against the E88.