Angry Bird 8.1
February 23, 2011, Lisa's Apartment - Brockton Bay, 11:23 PM
AI assist alert!
TransDimensional Scan detected!
TransDimensional Scan examined.
Processing results archived - ZizTelemetryPassive01
Response generated.
Simulating prepared response as per anonymity protocol!
Stop simulating?
[STOP/Y]
"Shit, shitshitshit SHIT!" Lisa's voice echoed through her bedroom walls as Taylor and I exited the ID in her living room, the girls must have gotten the same anonymity protocol alert too. Did that mean it was here already?
"She came here?" Taylor echoed what I was thinking.
Lisa came out of her bedroom shaking her head, phone in hand, "No, it's still descending from LEO, acceleration isn't stable yet, so no one knows where it'll drop." She was already wearing her 'Minerva' avatar, while Taylor was in her own Swarm themed armor, I was in Maker mode too. Lisa looked at me, "Global reach. She was sandbagging all along. Or maybe she's only sensing, and the telekinesis is limited, I need more data!"
I put a hand on her shoulder, "We will get more data, let's see where it drops first."
"Where what drops first?" Vicky floated in from Amy's room, blearily rubbing her eyelids, must have come to sleep over, Amy herself came out too, looking far more alert.
Taylor replied them, "Guys, the Simurgh is descending, you might want to join up with your team."
"Fuck! Are you shitting me?!" Vicky cursed, and then performed a flawless double take when she noticed who was speaking, "Taylor? Is that you? What're you doing costumed up?"
"She's remote logistics and support, don't worry, we're not liabilities. Maker has us Zizproofed. Go, Sarah will be calling you anytime now." Lisa supplied, eyes still glued to the EB monitoring App that Dragon shared with all PRT and Guild Affiliates.
Amy nodded, she wasn't surprised, after all she did play a supervisory role when we added the latest biomods to our civilian bodies. Taylor's body was easily Brute 3 not counting Gamer stats. Without the threat of the Feathery Terror's mindraping, Brute 3 was good enough. She grabbed Vicky, "Hm. Take care you guys, see you at the staging area when it's announced. Vicky, let's go."
After that it was a game of hurry up and wait, Glory Girl and Panacea left via the balcony, I meditated while Taylor took out her dual phones and got busy with them. After about 15 minutes, Lisa looked up, "The acceleration has been steady for the last 5 minutes or so, if it continues, the Simurgh will make a descending orbit and a half and end up somewhere in Australia, most likely somewhere around Canberra in about half an hour. Taylor, message me points of interest?"
Taylor's hands sped further up on the phones. I set my clone body in Sydney running towards Canberra, that'd take a while, but I'd hopefully make it in time. The other two Endbringers couldn't be pre-empted like this but the winged menace generally (but not always) didn't deviate once it locked a course, and it could also be tracked directly with telescopes, so the monitoring and prediction algorithms for Ziz were more accurate than the Salamander or the Rockosaurus.
Lisa looked up again, "Here!" she messaged me the details of a research lab, where they're working on a project to cure some major diseases following the method of Amy's pills. Retroviruses…
"Damn." I gulped, "Are you sure this is it?"
Lisa gave me a grim nod, "Most probable target, it'd be easy even for me to release a hellvirus from there, let alone the Simurgh… I'll let Dragon Know."
I started to meditate and simultaneously checking out the topography, arrangement of EB shelters and other points of interest around the area she mentioned. The combination of the 'emulation environment' of the Macros and Scripting menu, combined with my high bandwidth smartphone, and the Mana-Computer Interface skill, meant I had a faster-than-anything computer in my mind, which I still had to operate like any other computer instead of some magic technomancy interface… But more importantly, it meant - A Browser in my head! Ha! Greatest thing since any kind of bread! Combined with a dedicated mind-thread for it, it was a font of relevant information, and memes, and so many funny videos, and weird ones…
Ahem. Onto more serious matters. My clone body was almost near Canberra by now, Lisa told me Dragon is taking relevant action based on the tip she gave. The lab in question should be getting torched any moment now, their experimental data already safe offsite.
AI assist alert!
TransDimensional Scan detected!
TransDimensional Scan examined.
Processing results archived - ZizTelepathyActive01
Response generated.
Simulating prepared response as per anonymity protocol!
Stop simulating?
[STOP/Y]
All three of us jerked up… Wait, this doesn't sound good at all. "What now?" Taylor groaned.
Lisa's eyes widened "Shiiit!"
"What?" My voice was devoid of panic, as were my emotions, but I could tell without Gamer's Mind I'd be shitting bricks right now. Things were just seeming under control, and isn't that a bad omen anytime when it comes to the Mindfuck Fairy…
Lisa checked her phone again, she was looking decidedly green, "She's coming over here."
"How long?" Asked Taylor.
"Don't know yet, her vector isn't stable, but I can tell by the fact that it started changing."
"How? It shouldn't be able to sense us!" I didn't want to believe now is when the Anonymity Protocols would choose to quietly fail.
Lisa shook her head, "She figured her main objective just went bust. She started tracking the ripples, she can't trace them back to specifically us, but simple backtracking of information is easy enough to lead to Brockton Bay, to her, it's ripples without an epicenter, she's probably coming over to see if she can narrow it down by shaking things up… Or that's what my power says the most probable motivation is, with Ziz, nothing is certain."
I sighed, "Well then, I'm cloneporting Danny and Dada to India for an indefinite vacation. They're the most unshielded info-leaks as of now, I don't really know what the Plot Armor thing does to them being scanned..."
Taylor nodded grimly, "Yeah, we should go to the PRT HQ, that's the staging area for the Bay. Also, Lisa, Dragon will figure the new vector out even if you don't tell her, right?"
Lisa shrugged, "Yeah, our warning right now would give Dragon about a couple minutes of head start. But I hear you, it's not worth giving an Endbringer any more clues about us." She turned to me, "Do send a clone to the Alley a block southwest of the PRT parking lot, Best to make a walking entrance than appearing via jazzy effects, tensions will be running high."
I nodded, "On it." I went around, locking the apartment up, both Lisa and Taylor stuck to their screens. It was mostly busy work, I could have pretty much stood where I was and done things telekinetically, but I just wanted to waste some time.
No sooner than I was done and heading back to the girls, the sirens started wailing.
"Welp, that's our cue." Taylor quipped as she and Lisa both held their hands out for cloneportation. I grabbed them and they vanished in blue flashes.
