[Author's note: to the anonymous reviewer, thank you for your feedback. You have made a very salient point, and as such I am rewriting the chapter. He will still be admitting to being quite powerful, but hes not going to be so in-your-face with how serious a threat he actually is. Given the change from being totally open about his abilities, he's going to have to come up with a plausible excuse regarding his avoidance of nights with a full moon. Also, for the record, i'll be 35 within the month. All hail "Guest" the unnamed hero who saved me from myself!]
PRT ENE Building Wards Base, Hallway to the Common Room; March 15 2008 11:00 AM
Armsmaster led Kotoro through the maze of hallways and stairs back to where the Wards staging area was located. On the way Armsmaster had asked Kotoro to elaborate on what he was able to do, so he could make plans for powers testing.
"There is a long hall here with an assortment of motion detectors and video cameras. When the system detects that someone or something is moving within this space toward the Wards' Common Room, it triggers a warning so the Wards can mask up before the parties arrive. We usually pre-empt the security systems with this button here {he gestures toward a big red button on the wall}, but it actively scans for vibration, visual stimuli, air movements, etc, as well, in case someone either forgets or deliberately doesn't push the button. Its not perfect, but it works even on most strangers. Its utility with movers is questionable, as some are so fast that they render the warning somewhat moot, but if we ever have a hostile mover this close to the wards, we've already failed as guardians on multiple levels. We do what we can to protect them." Armsmaster explained.
As they turned the corner and entered the door to the Common Room, Kotoro noticed several red lights and a keening alarm. There was a couch with a TV and some gaming systems and a small Kitchen off to the side with a dining table, a sink, several cabinets and an oven/stove combo as well as a microwave. There were several smaller halls branching from the shared space that led to personal rooms. There were enough for many more wards than the ones currently employed here.
Epistēmē had previously informed Kotoro that there were currently 3 wards, Triumph, Gallant, and Aegis with some basics about what they usually wore when appearing in public. Their themes apparently translated to their casual-wear masks, as they weren't suited up, but he could still pick them out given that he knew what their usual costumes looked like. Triumph's mask was a yellow gold color and lion themed, Aegis's mask was a rusty blood color which left his eyes exposed, and Gallant's mask had a metallic sheen to it, even though it wasn't his usual helmet. They had been waiting for his arrival, all standing together in the common area near the entry.
Motioning to Triumph, Armsmaster said "Triumph, this young man is a prospective candidate for the Wards. He hasn't chosen a cape name yet. He doesn't speak English very well, but he has the aid of a translator there {points at the drone}." and turning back to face Kotoro he said "This is Triumph, the current leader of the Brockton Bay chapter of the Wards. He will take over from here until I return. I need to be debriefed by the director, and begin arranging for your power testing."
Triumph offered his hand to Kotoro to shake "Hello, would you like anything to eat or drink? we have some leftover pizza in the refrigerator and some soda! Until you select a name I'll be calling you 'mask', or simply use pronouns."
"I will eat" Kotoro said. He had yet to sample any earth cuisine, and he WAS hungry, though they probably wouldn't have enough food on hand to make him full. Most Humans did not eat nearly as much as Saiyajins from what Kotoro had observed. "I hear of you. Good things. Value Honor. Strong principles. Respect!"
Triumph smiled wide, saying "Thanks. You on the other hand are a complete mystery. Usually when someone comes to the wards they were either discovered during cape activities and offered a membership pitch, or dragged in by their parents. What brings you in?"
"difficult to say, will use translate." and began to speak to Epistēmē to lay out what he should tell them.
"We are from an alternate universe. We were trying test newly developed jump drive technology and accidentally landed here. This young man helped me to build and engineer the devices in question, though I am the primary designer. If either of us were to be given a tinker designation I'd probably be the one. He is highly skilled for his age in engineering, though he still needs a more thorough education to round out his natural aptitudes. My skills aren't a power-granted ability, so it would probably be a tinker 0 rating at best. That is NOT to say that I can't make significant contributions here though."
Not sure how to respond to that, Triumph led Kotoro to the Kitchen and heated up the remains of the previous night's dinner. While Kotoro ate, they continued their conversation.
"I'd heard of cases of parahumans from alternate earths, but I've never met anybody who was FROM an alternate universe." Aegis commented.
Triumph spoke again, asking "What are your powers? If I may be bold, are you comfortable talking about your trigger?"
Kotoro spoke to Epistēmē again, telling him to play this close to the chest until they could determine how trustworthy and discreet the wards could be. The AI then began to explain his charge's abilities, "Based on what I've read of your cape slang, he would be most succinctly described as an Alexandria package with blaster powers. He can can manipulate a metaphysical force that we refer to as KI, allowing him to emit energy blasts, withstand powerful impacts, resist damage from EM spectrum lasers and beams and projectiles, resist temperature related damage, fly and run at high speeds. He has a high baseline resistance to damage and accelerated healing."
Epistēmē decides to tell a white lie to avoid the issue of trigger event and lack of corona pollentia & gemma. "As he got his powers as a baby, nobody knows how or why he triggered. There are some minor physical mutations, so he might have undergone something similar to what causes case 53's."
"I don't see any obvious mutations" Aegis said. Upon hearing the translation of that comment, Kotoro pulled his tail out of its hiding place and pointed to it.
"Oh man, sorry for being insensitive. Still... you lucked out there, you look mostly human. There are a lot of case 53s who look like monsters or animals." said Aegis.
Epistēmē continued "As for the reason why we approached the wards; we have no resources here and no legal identities. The PRT and Protectorate appear to be the local authority governing events concerning those with strong powers, and we felt there was sufficient overlap in purpose and precedent for case 53s being helped that it was worth trying out. We intend to try to figure out a way to get back to where we came from, but we have every intention of trying to help out while we're living here, so it seemed the most straightforward thing to do. He'll be going out and participating in cape fights regardless, but we still need a place to live and food to eat."
Triumph interjected suddenly, "Armsmaster mentioned in his briefing to me that he has trouble holding back his strength sometimes. That isn't unusual with brutes actually, but it can be problematic. How bad is it? Definitely make sure the staff are aware of that before doing anything during power testing. They're insured for equipment breakdown, but you need to make sure that you don't risk collapsing the entire room by accident. If that happens we'll have both OSHA and the youth guard breathing down our necks again."
"Your powers!; How get? How work?" Kotoro asked.
Aegis answered first. "I was bullied pretty badly for a long time. I tried to get help with it, but nobody would take it seriously. The bullies banded together one day and paid one of the gangs to mess with me. A bunch of thugs abducted me and beat me for hours. I would have died if I hadn't triggered. I can fly, and my body adapts to damage with redundant functions to keep me going and alive. If someone blinds me, my skin might take over by producing photoreceptors and acting as a makeshift retina. If my liver were damaged, my fat cells might start cleaning my blood and processing nutrients in its place. I don't really feel pain as such anymore. I do get a sensation indicating where I'm damaged and how badly, but it isn't nearly as distressing as I recall pain being before I triggered."
Triumph spoke next. "I don't really like to remember or talk about my trigger, but I'm happy to explain my powers. I can manipulate sound. I can release sonic bursts with customized power and shape to use as an area or precision attack. I'm also stronger than normal, and I heal fast with almost no scarring."
Gallant explained his powers last. "My trigger is too painful to discuss and share, i'm sorry. I can sense emotions and fire beams of emotion manipulating concussive blasts of energy that pack a punch. I can choose how to fire it and shape it to some extent. Don't go spreading that around though. People are spooked by powers like mine, so we tell the public that i'm a tinker. Armsmaster makes me some technical-looking gizmos and I wear metallic armor to fit the whole gallant knight theme".
Seeing that Kotoro was done with the food, Triumph stood and cleared the table for him, and suggested that they occupy the couch and put on the news or some mildly interesting show in the background and chat a bit more to get to know the newcomer better in the time remaining before Armsmaster returned.
PRT ENE Building Armsmaster's lab, Hallway to the Common Room; March 15 2008 11:25 AM
Armsmaster eased back into his chair, having just finished his report on his initial conversation with the prospective ward, including a dump of his lie detector readings and his conclusions based on these. These were wondrous times. He'd never expected something this earth shattering to just walk in and fall into his lap. Assuming this wasn't some kind of elaborate hoax, Humanity had finally been hand delivered evidence that in at least one universe, there was life on other worlds. The Centurion and Saiyajin people could probably have been explained away or hand waved as a lost ancient human culture that had taken to the stars, as all available data pointed to their demonstrably being offshoots of homo sapiens. The data shared from the Galactic patrol database on the other hand had detailed records of a myriad of decisively non-human species, and the recordings of the conversations that Kotoro and Epistēmē had had with the people of Yardrat on several occasions had audio features in the recorded voices that were simply not possible for human anatomy to produce. It was all so fascinating, and he was the one who would be able to write the initial publications on the subject! And that AI! It was so fascinating to be able to hold a conversation with what was essentially highly complex software!
Stop, he reminded himself, you know that at some point of cognitive complexity there is effectively no difference between an AI and a flesh-based person. Don't offend the AI, you're bad enough with regular people as it is. He sighed, having put himself in a bad mood again. His career trajectory was stalling, and he didn't know what to do to salvage it. Those issues were for another time however. He forwarded his report to Director Piggot, and thinking for a moment, sent a copy to Director Costa-Brown as well. He didn't want to anger Piggot, but this was too important to wait to filter up the chain slowly.
With that done, he had some minutes available to tinker before he had to switch to the task of planning the power testing regime he would advise the team to employ for their new prospective ward. He returned to a project he had been thinking of as a possible anti-endbringer weapon utilizing nanotechnology to sever molecular bonds and disintegrate a target into constituent atoms. This project was in the very early stages, pushing the boundaries of both mundane science and his tinker-power driven abilities. It would probably be quite some time before it was ready for deployment. It wasn't just that the concept itself would need to be fleshed out more into a proper blueprint, but it would be likely that he would need to retool his shop and build iterations of the machines that would be needed to construct the technology.
As he worked, he received an incoming connection request with an identifier he recognized well and authorized the call to connect. "working on a new project Colin?" Dragon asked.
"I'm revisiting an idea I had a while ago, its been languishing, but it has real promise." He sent her a copy of the specs, knowing she'd be able to read and understand faster than he could explain with words. "I think it will prove to be extremely useful when I complete it, but i'm really just filling some open time with tinkering to remain efficient and productive. We've had a much more interesting set of developments today."
"Oh? What would that be? Any major issues with the gangs in the city?" Dragon asked?
"Nothing like that no. At least nothing that has been brought to our attention yet. The answer to the Fermi Paradox walked into our offices this morning and asked to join the wards. I'm still not sure how to react to what I've learned. I'll be releasing a copy of the data and records to you as soon as the Protectorate and PRT authorize it."
"What, an alien?"
"Assuming he is telling the truth, yes, and even then only technically. There are confusing complications with regard to that. As far as that, the ward candidate isn't the most interesting bit, although if his powers work the way he claims, he'll be a definite asset for the side of law and order. He has a database full of technological designs the likes of which humanity has never seen, and records from a civilization that is essentially a federation of sapient aliens across most of a galaxy. We still have to verify it all as much as we can, but of those things which I CAN check, everything so far has been accurate. He also had an AI traveling with him. Its so sophisticated that I wouldn't have known if it hadn't told me. Its unlike anything we've seen before. If I hadn't had the chance to comb through this data dump myself and observe everything, I'd have been inclined to declare it all lunacy and a hoax, but every time I try to test an aspect of what he has given us, its turned out to be accurate, at least as far as the scientific principles within my reach at the moment. It makes me inclined to be more trusting, although he could just be a very insane thinker or tinker. We have yet to do power testing."
"An AI sophisticated enough that you couldn't tell it wasn't a human on the other end? How will you be describing this to Piggot and the PRT?" Dragon asked.
[Author's note: As a friendly reminder, the two OCs have not yet revealed the full truth regarding him being an entirely unrestricted and unchained AI, and what that entails. The PRT / Protectorate are thus only aware of the degree to which he is cognitively sophisticated, which is impressive enough by Earth Bet standards.]
"In glowing terms provided he continues to behave as he has so far. I'd be lying if I wasn't concerned about the potential threat that an AI could pose, but it ... he ... revealed itself ... himself? ... willingly. If it ... he... wanted to cause damage it could have done quite a lot before we ever discovered the truth. I'd say that should earn it, I mean him, some amount of credit, barring the influence of paranoia or phobias. I'm so bad at this {he sighed}, he pointed out that he identifies as male and has a name, but my brain keeps defaulting to impersonal pronouns."
Something in Dragon's countenance changed. A wistful look took over her face for several moments, but the moment passed, and she said nothing to acknowledge it. When she did finally speak, it was all business "I'd love the chance to meet him later, after all the paperwork is finished. By the way, your time just ran out, its nearly 12:15. I know you've got to go, so i'll take my leave. If you would like to collaborate on that technology, I think i might be able to help push it along in development. There has been a boom in nanotechnology from new tinkers lately, and I've been able to glean a thing or two from their designs and production techniques. Please don't come back to the lab and fail to sleep again tonight. I won't be able to babysit you and I would really prefer you to be in good health."
PRT ENE Building Wards Base, Common Room; March 15 2008 1:15 PM
As they were chatting, Kotoro had noticed that Gallant had kept sneaking odd looks at the drone and frowning slightly throughout the conversation, but still hadn't said anything about it. "Something wrong?" he asked pointedly?
"My powers are giving me odd signals. I keep getting flickers of emotion coming from your drone. I've never gotten a read on a device like that before." Gallant said.
Armsmaster had silently entered the room a few seconds earlier, observing the conversation without interrupting. He spoke now, hypothesizing "Maybe its because Epistēmē is an advanced AI? His core apparently involves emulation of the cognitive processes that result in consciousness in organic minds. Perhaps your power is picking up on his emotional states, but is getting confused because its not contained by a brain, causing it to be unreliable? You've mentioned in the past that you had trouble with people who weren't neurotypical, and an AI is anything but."
"I've submitted an initial briefing to my superiors and altered the staff in power testing to expect you and have come to collect and escort you there" he said, turning to Kotoro. "Follow me please." with that he turned and exited the room, with Kotoro trailing behind.
