Step 3.2
"Have you considered switching schools?"
Charlotte shrugged. "Yeah, but no one really accepts transfers in the middle of the year… not with Blackwell saying I'm overreacting and a trouble maker and a bad student and stuff like that." And didn't that sound familiar? "My grades are getting worse too."
"I know. Where's your locker?"
"Three four fifty."
I put that in my phone for later. Always wondered how my homework got stolen out of my locker, but I knew now.
"I'm getting my GED," I said. "That's how I'm getting out. For you, we could just do the same thing, or you could transfer to another school…"
I trailed off, waiting to see if Charlotte got the idea. She did.
Never let it be said Charlotte is stupid.
"They'll just find someone else," she said grimly.
I nodded. "Until we put a stop to it. One way or another." Preferably my way, and without lawyers.
"How?"
"Give me your number."
Charlotte didn't like how I dodged her question. She stood stubbornly for a moment, and I stood stubbornly right back. Eventually she pulled her phone from her pocket. I typed the number in, and sent her a message with mine.
She stared at her phone for a moment. "Do you actually have a plan, or are you just winging it?"
"I have ideas," I said. "When do you leave for, you know?"
"Seventh period. Mrs. Knott doesn't have a class for the last hour. She comes and gets me, and then we leave together."
I nodded. "Do that."
Charlotte and Blue Cosmos were things I didn't want mixing, especially with that damn law suit hanging over me like the blade of Damocles. However, I hardly held any right to dictate that to Charlotte. If I stuck around to deal with the trio like an adult instead of running away the sword might not be there at all. I wouldn't feel uneasy about why it hadn't already gone through.
After we parted ways I skipped my remaining classes. I slipped back up to the roof to play the dazzling game of quantum field calculation with Veda.
I didn't expect the trio to back down for long. The idea of weak little Taylor Hebert forcing them to back down? Unacceptable. They'd push, especially Sophia. I didn't call her a psycho out of bitterness. Sophia came by it honest. They'd reassess, debate on whether to keep bullying Charlotte or switch back to me.
A few days at best before they made up their minds.
sys.t/ we'll try this new set up
sys.v/ specifications received
sys.t/ everything else set?
sys.v/ all arrangements complete
sys.v/ may I ask a question?
sys.t/ of course
sys.v/ do you like school?
sys.t/ I liked school before Winslow
I thought about it for a moment. Not like my attendance or grades mattered much. I already failed the year, and still intended to take the GED first chance I got in the summer. School frankly didn't matter anymore. Not high school anyway. Maybe I'd go to college. Get a degree in engineering or something. My power basically let me cheat though, so maybe I should get a literature degree instead? Something I can actually work for.
Mom might like that.
sys.t/ now I think it's kind of a waste
sys.t/ lots of repetitive tasks
sys.t/ lots of emotional teenage garbage
sys.t/ my power teaches me everything anyway
I asked Dragon about it and she just insisted on power testing, but more than ever I didn't trust the PRT and didn't want them knowing anymore about me than necessary.
sys.v/ is school not a socializing exercise?
sys.t/ that hasn't really worked out for me
I smiled a little.
sys.t/ are you worried about me Veda?
sys.v/ companions are important
sys.t/ I have you Veda
sys.v/ human peers your own age and gender preferable
sys.t/ you are my gender
sys.t/ unless you decided not to be a girl
sys.v/ I am content with feminine affiliation
sys.v/ but I am an AI
sys.v/ I am not a girl
sys.v/ Charlotte and Dinah are girls
sys.v/ Dinah is twelve Veda
My thumbs fumbled slightly. I didn't send the message and deleted it quickly. Charlotte. I blamed her for standing to the side until it became her problem. Guess we had common understanding on that. I tried not to think about anyway. It didn't matter.
sys.t/ I'm okay Veda
sys.t/ Even better once I deal with the trio
sys.t/ I should have dealt with it from the start
Winslow, the gangs, and the PRT.
The amount on my plate felt a bit overwhelming. Going back to Winslow to help Charlotte gave me even less time to work on things too. The sooner I wrapped up the problem of the trio the better. Charlotte or anyone else. No one deserved what I went though, and if the Trio were so hellbent on having someone to pick apart, then I'd take them apart.
From the roof I saw Charlotte leave with Mrs. Knott right before the seventh period bell. My heart picked up a little. No one ever offered me an escape. Being jealous wasn't fair at all, but I suppose I understood Charlotte for a moment.
What you feel and what you know aren't the same thing.
sys.v/ I will help
sys.t/ if that's what you want
With Charlotte gone I didn't need to stick around. I stood up. Bullies are like pack animals, really. I figured the trio and their associates would hang back for a bit until they figured out some fresh way to reassert dominance. A day, maybe two tops, and they'd bring out something.
Blackwell would probably confront me sooner or later.
sys.t/ Charlotte just left
sys.t/ I'll be there soon
My plan for Winslow was solid, but today wasn't the day to make it happen. I needed to focus. Holding off on returning to Winslow till next week might have worked out better schedule wise. I needed to go back before I lost my nerve. The past few days simply made everything complicated. Damn Merchants moved stashes every seven days or so. I planned around that, but with the gang war hitting so many "secret" locations the Merchants suddenly decided to start moving things more frequently.
Five days.
Fast enough that by the time Veda found a stash it be gone already.
So I needed to hit them today, before I lost the ability to keep up, and thus I ended up dealing with everything at once.
Fun times.
I left the roof. As easy to slip from the building as ever. A quick bus ride to Downtown and I walked up the front steps to Arcadia Middle. Principal Greene stood watch by the door as always, nodding to me in response to a wave.
"We can do something on Alexandria," Dinah said. "She's important."
"I think it'll be cooler to do something about someone local, like Miss Militia."
"Miss Militia," Dinah repeated bluntly.
"Yeah. She probably has to deal with all kinds of stuff because of her power. We're supposed to do the project on someone who changed how people see things. How many Heroes actually use guns as a super power?"
Dinah didn't even turn my way before saying, "what about Newtype?"
"Newtype?" The blond girl gave Dinah an odd look. "She hasn't really done much. Yet I mean. Just walking around, and helping with that fire and the gang fights last week."
"She uses a gun."
The blonde waved her hand. "Tinker tech stuff is different."
"Maybe. Hi Taylor. This is Missy."
"Hi," Missy said. She looked at me, her jaw turning. "Have I seen you somewhere before?"
"I don't think so," I said. I didn't recognize her at least. "My dad is with the Union. We go to events sometimes."
"That might be it," Missy said. "Well. I'll see you tomorrow Dinah."
"Sure."
Missy waved and walked away, and Dinah and I went to the bus stop. I gave Dinah a moment to slip the buds into her ears.
"Headaches."
She read my lips and nodded. The bus ride went by silently after that. I think she liked it that way. A moment of quiet for her over busy mind. It felt weird asking questions without asking questions. Honestly I didn't even know if it worked except that Dinah never seemed bothered so long as we kept to statements. I let her enjoy it, speaking only when the stop came up.
"This is us." I tapped her shoulder.
She stood and followed me off onto the street. Her feet abruptly stopped a few steps away from the stop. Her head swiveled, and her brow went up.
"This isn't the library."
"We're not going to the library," I said.
"We're not?"
I gave her an odd look. "Nope."
She normally asked herself what would happen during her day. I didn't blame her with my own experience with paranoia. Gave her ideas about what questions I'd ask, even if she didn't know all of them or thought I'd ask ones I considered and discarded. Good to be reminded Dinah's power worked more like a weather report. Possibilities of the coming currents rather than the certainty of a paranormal horoscope.
When we arrived at O'Neil's I waved her down the side alley. The side door looked as run down as the rest of the exterior, except for the shiny door knob. I replaced the original lock with a quantum one weeks ago. Good luck picking that would be burglars, and good luck breaking down a reinforced E-Carbon door without a brute rating in the range of able to leveling the whole building.
"Come in," I said as I held my phone out to the door. Veda confirmed the authentication and the lock snapped open. "Take out your ear buds."
Dinah entered slowly, eyes glancing around at the plain hallway. I cleaned the place up even more over the past week. Dusted, installed new carpets, new coat of paint on the wall, automated sentry turret with PEP particle pulser hidden in the ceiling, you know normal office stuff.
The Haros helped.
Closing the door behind me I pointed. "In there."
Dinah went ahead, turning the corner into the garage. The Haros all stopped their work and turned to her, an odd silence filling the room.
Dinah took slow steps through the room. I'd rearranged the place a bit. Made room to clear one of the rear facing garage doors, set up the work tables and shelves to be a bit more economical if a little cramped. I tucked fabrication all off on one side, storage on the other by my work station, and the rest of the room went to assembly and storage.
It all fit. For now.
She looked at the rack mounting the three prototype beam rifles I built, and the half dozen or so battery and compressor designs right next to it. My box of enhanced stun grenades came next.
When she started to reach inside I said, "Those hurt. Careful."
She decided not to touch them. She stared at Orange for a bit, and then moved on to the computer monitors of the control station. My map of the city occupied most of the screens, save for the two showing a game.
"Your computer is playing Dungeons and Dragons," Dinah said.
"She likes Dungeons and Dragons," I said. I sat Dinah down in the chair in front of the station. I took a small box from the bench by my keyboard and opened it. "Try this."
Dinah peeked inside.
A pair of glasses and two buds. A bit bigger than the sound deafening ones I gave her originally, but still small enough that you needed to look right into the ear to see them.
"I don't need glasses."
"You'll find these one's helpful."
I set the box down and pulled out the frames. They slid right onto Dinah's face, and she put the buds in when I passed them to her.
"How's that?"
Dinah blinked.
"There are words on the glasses."
"What do they say?"
"A question mark and then request clarification for quality of eye wear," she said.
I smiled. "Good. It's working."
It's a complete pain in the ass to reword questions into statements. Nowhere near as easy as you'd think. My initial attempt to make a basic translation program fell apart within hours.
I settled for letting Veda handle it.
The buds canceled out all noise, sent it to her, and Veda parsed the statements out and sent text to Dinah's glasses. The lens display only worked if you looked at them from the inside. No way to find out she had tinker tech glasses without wearing them. A risk, but lip reading only worked when she looked at someone, and she couldn't wear the old ear plugs in class. Teachers often didn't look at their students while speaking, never mind anyone approaching her from behind.
"Now you can hear what people say. Sort of. This should help you get through school."
"My parents."
"I thought of that," I said. "Fake glasses are a thing and those lenses are just a text screen in disguise. Say you like looking smarter." A finger pointed to my own glasses. "They'll probably just assume we're getting along and you want to imitate me."
Her eyes started moving erratically.
"That works," she said. "Thank you."
I took a deep breath. It's hard trusting anyone after so long.
"Veda's doing all the real work."
"Veda?"
I set the box aside and turned the chair back to the screens.
"Dinah. Veda."
The screens changed, turning black before displaying lines of code and a chat box.
"Hello Dinah," Veda said.
Dinah for her part lifted her head to the camera and stared. She blinked a few times, then turned to me and said, "I thought you were a weirdo who talked to computers."
I shrugged. "I am a weirdo who talks to computers."
"Some of my pictures make more sense."
I raised my brow. "Which ones?"
"The ones where you have an army of robots."
I glanced around the workshop, trying to imagine, "An army of Haros?"
"No. Big ones. With guns and stuff."
"Guns and-"
The idea popped into my head quickly. Command and control system, low level virtual intelligence all managed from above by a higher artificial intelligence. I had one of those, and the Haros already functioned in part as an extension of her. Not a big leap to expand that into broader applications.
I'd need a communications satellite though… or a low atmospheric UAV, which I instantly knew how to build.
"Huh."
"Are you going to make an army of robots?"
"I can," I said. "No idea how I'd ever afford it though. It takes all my money running this place as is." And where could I build and house all of that? "Not sure I want everyone thinking I'm making Sky-net either."
Dinah blinked. "That happens sometimes."
"Of course, it does," I said with a sigh. I waved the Haros off before they crowded. "Go back to work you can play when you're done."
Dinah sat down in the chair, taking another look around the room. She fixed her eyes on the far wall. A van sat in front of the furthest rear door, one of the bigger ones. Just a completely normal van by all appearances with a fake plumbing company logo painted on the side. The Haros switched it up each time it came back to the workshop, harder for anyone to notice that way.
"That's it," Dinah said.
"Yes," I answered.
"I'll see it?"
"You will."
Dinah looked up at me. "Does this mean I'm on the team?"
Did I have a team? Veda and the Haros sure, but did that even count? I built them. As much as I wanted to think of Veda as my friend and partner, I accepted that those words didn't fit. Thinking of myself as a mother felt absurd… but it honestly fit better. I created Veda, and I raised her from a tiny program with no ideas about the world beyond five simple questions.
I didn't think of it as a team. I didn't want to.
But if Dinah really wanted to be here, in this place... who was I to stop her?
"If you want to be."
"Adding Dinah Alcott to authorized operators," Veda said. "Access granted to level five and below."
"Level five?"
"It means you can access Veda and her system as an administrator. The only sections closed off to you are core components of my tech and the data in level seven."
"What's in level seven?"
"The first rule of level seven is that there is no level seven," I said.
Dinah didn't get the reference obviously, but she didn't press. "Do I get a name?"
"We'll think of one." I paused for a moment. "Although, it might be possible for you to simply be Veda's face."
"Face?"
"StarGazer," Veda said. "I am publicly recognized under that name."
"Oh. That makes sense."
"You could still have your own name. Sooner or later someone will probably figure out I'm working with a precog, but blurring the line might protect you both."
Dinah used her power again. No idea what she asked, but when she came out of it her lips turned up.
"I don't mind. Veda is helping me. I can help Veda."
"Thank you," Veda said.
Dinah looked around the room again. "Do I get a costume?"
"I can make you one if you want, but I think it's best for you to stay hidden."
"I know," she said. "I never win fights. My power is too slow."
I nodded in agreement. Dinah needed twenty to forty seconds to view her answers, maybe a minute more to make any sense of them. Far to long to ever be useful on patrol or in a gun fight. At least she realized it. I dreaded the thought of convincing a teenager girl not to do something, given my own experience on the matter.
"Can I have a light saber?"
"Beam saber, and I don't think that's a good idea."
I saw her frown, but I didn't need precognition at this point. Everyone wanted one apparently.
"What I will do, is give you this."
I took one of the grenades from the table. I modified it to look like a flashlight.
"It's not a toy Dinah. It's for an emergency, understand?"
She nodded. I showed her how it worked.
"Thanks to the glasses Veda will know instantly if anything is wrong. If anything happens I swear I'll come get you. I'll come get you, okay?" I let her take the grenade in her hand and said, "This is in case you need to run. It attacks the eardrum, but yours are covered. You can set it off in your hand and it'll burn, but you'd be alright, got it?"
"I understand."
She tucked the grenade into her pocket.
I watched her for a moment. As honest as I wanted to be with Dinah, I still felt bad. A little kid with no one else to confide in but me, and I'd caved in within weeks and started using her power for myself. Telling myself I'd be doing good, and that I'd protect her only helped so much.
"Veda, can you bring up the map for tonight?"
The screens changed.
Dinah looked them over and asked, "What is it?"
"What I'm using your power for. It's your power Dinah. You decide if you're okay with what I'm doing, and if you don't like it you can tell me. Okay?"
Dinah remained as impassive as always.
"I'll stop, if that's what you want me to do."
She asked a question, and a moment later said, "okay."
"I mean it Dinah. I need… I really need you to understand. I don't feel good about asking you questions." I looked her in the eye. "I feel like I'm using you."
Dinah stared back at me. "So?"
"So?"
"So? I'm using you too." She glanced around the room. "As long as I'm here, I'm not there… I don't mind."
"And if I start doing something you don't like?"
"I'll say so," she said.
I remained unconvinced.
Checking the time though, I only had so much.
My guilty conscience waited, yet again.
"We should get going," I said. "Gotta get back to the library before your mom shows up."
"I'll come back."
"If you want to."
"Socialization is a positive experience," Veda announced. I stared at the nearest camera, wondering if my AI decided to push it's own agenda. Some people might be pissed. My thoughts fell more in line with "about damn time." I wondered if Veda would ever do something because she wanted to do it.
"What she said," Dinah answered.
We made it back to the library with time to spare.
"Do you have any questions?"
"Not today," I said.
"I still don't need tutoring."
"I know, especially now that Veda can help you through the day. It's still a useful cover."
"Is Veda alive?"
"I don't know. I decided it doesn't matter."
"It doesn't?"
I decided to take the Turing test to heart at the end. Don't question intelligence. Don't question life. You can try and define those things into categories and you'll fail every time. Stick to practicalities.
"She thinks, therefore she is. Anything else is academic."
Dinah nodded. Her mom pulled up and we walked to meet her. Sure enough she asked about Dinah's glasses and Dinah gave our excuse. It worked. Mrs. Alcott took a glance at me, smiled, and accepted it. Thank god someone had supportive parents.
A fact I took solace in during the evening.
Dad worked late. I set dinner on the table just a few minutes before he arrived, and we went through the motions of our pained routine. He asked a question. I offered a basic bare bones answer. I asked a question. He offered a few sentences… and I didn't know what to say. The same routine between us, except now the positions reversed.
"I'll see you tomorrow," I said.
"A little early for bed, isn't it?"
"Busy day tomorrow."
At least I didn't have to lie about that. Didn't help with the sense of a gaping hole.
Laying down in bed for a few hours I couldn't think of anything. Tell dad the truth? I didn't lie to Charlotte. I really thought he'd freak out and drag me to the PRT the moment the words "I'm" "a" and "cape" left my mouth. Getting things straight with Charlotte, and being clean with Dinah helped ease my mind a lot, but dad… was dad.
"Taylor."
"Yes?"
"It's time."
I sat up. Four in the morning. No sleep for me tonight then.
"On my way."
I blamed the Merchants. Could space all this stuff out more if not for their plan to move their stashes. I pulled my costume from under my bed and got dressed. I didn't want to be spotted coming and going in civilian clothes. Protect dad. If not the truth, at least give him safety I figured.
I threw a normal jacket over myself, and pulled some jeans on over my legs. A few blocks from my house I donned my mask. I turned into an alley, a familiar van waiting for me at the end. Green and Orange rolled back out of the passenger seat when I opened the door.
"Let's go, Veda."
The camera turned to me. "Understood."
The engine started, and the wheel turned. As Veda started our little road trip, I climbed into the back. Problems and solutions. Really should have considered the issue of shining exotic particles when picking my hideout, but I didn't. Worse, the shinning exotic particles came from a seven foot humanoid module weighing just under two tons.
Hard to miss that sort of thing.
Solution, mobile deployment platform. Getting a cheap junker van for a few thousand bucks is hard when you're underage. Have to find someone who isn't too discerning.
Of course any solution came with it's own problems. Hard to explain the unlicensed automated vehicle invented by a girl without a driver's license to any traffic cops. Did they give out tickets for that? No matter.
Veda navigated the turns, pedestrians, and other vehicles perfectly.
Left me free to work. Facing the front of the van, I strapped my thighs in first, and then my torso. The monitor flashes through a long series of system checks. I checked the read outs on the monitor to my left and nodded.
"Everything checks out. " I patted Green's head. "You do good work."
"Good work work good," the robot replied.
"Approaching launch point," Veda said.
"I'm climbing in Veda. Start up the OS."
My heart picked up as I fell back. The chest plate closed around me, and the helmet came down on my head.
sys.v/
sys.v/ linking neural OS…
sys.v/ connected
The HUD lit up. Armor displays, energy read outs, a mini-map, altitude and attitude controls. The corners of my vision stretched out, letting me see nearly three hundred sixty degrees around the suit. Not well mind you. Most of that range of vision lay squished together, but it let me see movement. Enough to notice anyone sneaking up on me.
sys.v/ compressing GN particles
sys.v/ spinning up GNDRIVE to 10%
A soft whine echoed from the spinning flywheel. The compressors along the suit opened, pulling in the particles filling the back of the van and infusing the frame.
Kind of tingly feeling having gravitation weakened in your immediate vicinity.
sys.v/ particles compressed to 15%
I pressed my feet against the pedals, and my hands gripped the controls. A little cramped, but I'd get used to it.
sys.v/ particles compressed to 25%
"Destination reached," Veda said.
Deep breath.
No more hiding. No more waiting.
It's time.
sys.v/ particles compressed to 47%
"I'm ready. Pop the van."
The van came to jerking stop. Might need to work on that. The cabin blew open, green dust and steam spilling into the air. I straightened the suit, white and blue armor shinny and new. Some of the thicker plates bore a red coloring, with golden yellow over the vents and the v shaped head crest. I scanned the empty lot. Abandoned just like I wanted and many blocks away from the workshop. Good.
You have no idea how many hours it took to design the damn van to fit everything inside… Sixty-five hours.
sys.v/ particles compressed to 63%
"Load up."
Mechanical arms whirled, fitting the additive armor in place. Weapons lifted from the floor. The shield stood nearly as tall as me. I took it in one hand and fitted it to the latch on my left pauldron. A beam rifle, really more of a pistol comparatively, slid into a holster on the back. The bazooka I designed locked into a latch on the right pauldron, and another mechanical arm loaded the magazine at the end, with additional canisters attached to the inside of my shield.
sys.v/ particles compressed to 77%
"Start final checks."
sys.v/ testing systems - 99.5% eff
sys.v/ control check - 99.8% eff
sys.v/ power check - 91.3% eff
sys.v/ particles compressed to 93%
sys.v/ GN field check - 54% eff
sys.v/ flight control check - 95.5% eff
sys.v/ armor infusion complete - 99.9% eff
sys.v/ flight operable
"Launching."
I rose. The ground shrunk into the distance below. I saw the van close up and drive off to the final check point, but my mind didn't think much of it. I fixed my gaze on the clouds. They grew bigger each passing second, the faint stream of green following me on my ascent into the heavens.
I always wanted to fly, and when I came to stop several thousand feet up I saw the stars again. The ribbons stretched out into an infinite eternity. They seemed so close I could touch them. Just a little higher. Leave the whole mess of the world behind.
I might do it, if I didn't have such a nagging conscience.
Brockton Bay seemed so small from above. The streets and buildings stood out in the maze of light, but the people might as well be mites. So hard to see them from the outside. It's oddly enlightening in a way, that something so small can mean so much. People. Cities.
Distracting myself, as usual.
sys.v/ targeting system check – 99.9% eff
sys.v/ GN field check.b – 58% eff
sys.v/ all systems cleared
sys.v/ GN-000 O G.U.N.D.A.M. start up complete
I tested the controls briefly. The buttons around my fingers took getting used to. Dozens of combinations to do dozens of things. I'd get used to it.
"Are you ready Taylor?"
"Yeah… just a sec."
Such a strange sensation.
It didn't feel like a suit.
It felt like me.
My arms.
My legs.
My eyes.
My Gundam.
"Bring up the map Veda. Designate targets on an overlay grid. Alphabetical on one plane, numerical on the other."
"Designating."
The city changed before my eyes. The grid took shape in my visor, translucent numbers and letters stretching out. Red dots marked five buildings, yellow dots at a few streets and corners, and a blue dot where I'd meet the van and go back to the garage.
I focused on the red dots. Thirty-five guards total with a possible dozen extra Veda didn't know about for sure.
I'd dealt with more.
"You have been detected," Veda said.
Guess they were ready this time. No idea why the light show from my test flight didn't draw any of the local fliers closer. Everyone seemed more interested in playing a guessing game. Secret love child of Purity and Legend was my favorite guess, quickly followed by Vorgon invasion from Mars.
"Who is it?"
"Dauntless has left the Rig and is heading to your position."
My hands tightened around the controls. No hiding. No running. Not anymore. The words repeated in my head like a mantra. I didn't want to just react to what the world around me did anymore. Not with people dying every day while the gangs fought. Not when I possessed in my hands the kind of power to stop it. The cops endured a city that left them outgunned. The Protectorate went on do nothing patrols. New Wave went through their lives like celebrities...
It felt harsh, but it felt true.
They weren't doing anything to fix the world stretched out below me.
"Doesn't matter. First target."
One of the red markers began to flash, and I spun the suit to face it. Determination seeped into my voice and my hands.
"Spin up. Max output."
The GN Drive whirled behind me, light exploding from the vents and spreading out across the sky.
"Beginning operational clock."
sys.v/ 20:00
sys.v/ 19:59
sys.v/ 19:58
I pressed my feet down. The light exploded, a bright ribbon cutting through the sky.
"Let's see the gangs fight without guns."
