yamato 7
Come all ye young sailor men.
Several things happened at once.
Oni Lee appeared next to Vista, dropped two grenades, then turned to ash.
A number of the ABB gangsters opened up with their guns, making a huge amount of noise and hitting absolutely nothing except a few walls.
Lung growled, at least partly because that was wasting a fair amount of ammunition - the cost of which absolutely did add up.
Vista jumped away with a squeak and tried to increase the distance between herself and the grenades.
Gallant yelled and began turning towards something.
Kid Win tried fumbling with a gadget at his belt.
Positron opened a small hole which the grenades fell into and then which closed immediately thereafter.
"Huh?" asked Vista as the moment passed.
"Next time he does that, connect the space near Lung with the space of the grenades," suggested Positron.
"ooooh," said Vista, immediately seeing the possibilities of that.
Positron's right arm shot out in a sudden blur of movement and there was a bright flash.
"Go quickly," said Positron. "I'll cover your retreat."
There was a loud crunch as a hand grabbed the lip of the roof and Lung began hauling himself up.
"Shit!" declared Vista, beginning a distortion in the air.
Positron was doing the same thing in the same area. Reality tore.
* Lung *
He hauled himself up to the roof in order to confront these idiots who had strayed into his territory.
Then he stopped and stared, his eyes going wide.
"So da... Yamato da," he breathed without realizing it until he heard his own voice. His mouth shut with a click.
He KNEW this ship. He'd been a kid. Watching reruns of the old 70s anime.
It looked different. Bigger. Changes to further differentiate from the World War II battleship but the influence was still recognizably there. Inside a visual distortion that was a known effect of Vista's powers.
One of the turrets moved and was pointing directly at him.
He could have dodged. He could have gone to the side and been away from the angle needed to shoot through that distortion.
His legs didn't want to move.
Then the hole/distortion/warp vanished and he was able to tear his gaze away.
"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!" asked Vista, her cute little girl costume and PR image completely lacking in that moment.
Lung looked at the group on the roof, aware that at some point Oni Lee had appeared next to him. Arrayed in various positions were Kid Win, Gallant, Vista, and someone in a sleek female power armor.
"Yamato. That was the Yamato," said Lung. He addressed the power armor. "You. I would speak with you. Tomorrow. Here. Truce. Do not bring the PRT into this."
"Eh?" asked the girl in the power armor.
Lung swallowed, turned away, and began climbing down the building. He needed a drink.
After ten minutes, Oni Lee was walking alongside him.
"Lee. You saw?"
"Yes."
"The ship?"
"Yes."
"Did you recognize it?"
"No."
Lung nodded, more for his own benefit than Lee's. Of course Lee couldn't remember his own name, so remembering some obscure TV show from the 1970s was even more unlikely. "I remember. Let the word be distributed. That girl in the suit. I shall meet with her tomorrow at that spot. She is not to be bothered if she does not initiate hostilities. Until my curiosity is sated at least."
"Understood."
* PRT ENE HQ *
"February 9, 2011 After Action Report. Wards patrol of low-incident area near Ack's Pet Supplies following raid of store by group Undersiders last month. Chance of repeat incidence low. Group encountered Positron during patrol at approximately 1915 hours. Patrol was composed of Gallant, Vista, and Kid Win."
"Vista was given provisional command of the patrol as part of training protocol despite Gallant having normal operational authority."
"Kid Win had a recording device going and that will be transcribed for the report as well as Watchdog analysis. I want your own impressions now while the details are fresh in your mind. Start with you, Gallant."
"Two distinct emotional signatures. One is similar to the odd one I get from Dragon when she's physically present. My guess is it's a telepresence effect, sort of an echo. The other is more typical and I think was Positron herself. Wary. Frequent flashes of annoyance. When confronted with Lung there was a moment of panic then a hard focus. Whenever recruitment or questions about power testing were brought up prior to that - strong feelings of refusal/denial."
"Kid Win?"
"Her tech is NOT starting out Tinkertech. It's sleek, polished. Very functional, efficient. Armored panels would slide open and extend mechanisms from time to time, and when they were closed you could barely see them. When she was getting ready to face off against Oni Lee, her feet extended pylons into the roof and latched into place. Then she did whatever that was when Lung showed up."
"That was when Vista attempted to use her power to shift distances and there was a power interaction with Positron's power?"
"Yes. It was... impressive?"
"I'd have said scary as hell."
"Vista. This is part of an official report."
"Right, right. Sorry. Ah, we attempted recruitment and power testing several times per orders."
"Already established. Any insights regarding the power interaction?"
"We were both utilizing the same space. She was opening a warp to somewhere else and my expanding of space caused her warp to expand out of my control. She canceled the warp almost immediately but whatever was on the other side of that..."
"Yes?" prompted Armsmaster.
"It was BIG. Also very far away... and very close at the same time?" asked Vista.
"If you figure more out, we'll append the report," said Armsmaster. "Anyone else have something to add?"
"We didn't have Lung's angle, but I saw Lung's reaction," said Gallant. "He recognized whatever he saw in the warped space. It set off some very strong emotions."
"Interesting," said Armsmaster. "What specifically was his reaction?"
"Surprise," said Gallant. "Quickly followed by sadness, excitement, and... awe."
"Very interesting," commented Armsmaster. He didn't know what it meant, but it did sound potentially intriguing. What could the Rage Monster of Kyushu find so interesting that he would be derailed straight out of a rage?
Gallant visibly suppressed a yawn.
"It's late. You kids get to sleep. Any further details you can send me via internal e-mail, use the subject line addendum and today's date."
* Taylor *
Getting to sleep was difficult.
Lung wanted to meet with her. Lung. Someone who'd fought an Endbringer mostly by himself.
Someone who had a very nasty reputation.
Of course, if he tried anything - she was pretty sure opening a hole and letting the Yamato shoot him with one of her deck guns would likely end the threat.
Which made little sense to Yamato. Apparently the difference in Rules of Engagement between military, police, and capes were significantly different and the ones regarding capes were "entirely designed by idiots with a lack of concern for public safety."
Yamato had pointed out that police facing someone who was shooting at civilians could give an order to desist, and if ignored could use lethal force against the criminal. There would be investigations and review, but it was acceptable.
To get a kill order on the same cape to perform the same function required multiple instances of mass murder and destruction, an indication that the cape in question would continue to be a danger, a court review, and finally signing off by the local Director of the PRT who then had to forward it up for approval by the Chief Director. Or something like that. Apparently the exact mechanism wasn't specified on any of the web searches she'd managed when looking into the subject.
Just what she'd found out about Heartbreaker had caused Yamato to spend a good half-hour on the subject of him not having a kill order.
And psionic defenses were added to the suit currently being constructed from nano-materials. Which was apparently something the Gamilon Empire had acquired at one point as one of the races they'd conquered had been into psionics and psi-tech.
That was one of the things about the Yamato's timeline that had confused her at first, but the guys at the DoD had said followed real-world tendencies. Yesterday's enemy could become today's ally could become an enemy or ally or some combination in the future. Politics was apparently more complicated than she'd really understood from high school history classes.
Eventually though she just went ahead and hit the "soldier's toggle" in her head that let her fall asleep when she needed to. It was one of those tiny little upgrades, as apparently soldiers in the future had learned to be able to take naps when and where situations allowed them to.
* Emma *
"I AM NOT CRAZY!" she yelled, throwing the little wooden children's puzzle at the worker.
"Didn't say you were," protested the nurse, twisting easily out of the way and reminding herself of how many years and months until retirement.
"THEN WHY ARE YOU ASKING ME ABOUT MY CHILDHOOD?! LEAVE ME ALONE!"
"Again?" asked an orderly as he came in through the door.
"Again," affirmed the nurse. "All I did is ask if she'd done this as a child."
"I'M SUING YOU! I'LL SUE ALL OF YOU! I KNOW MY RIGHTS!"
"Right, Karen," said the orderly.
"MY NAME IS NOT KAREN!"
"Are you going to take your pills this time?" asked the nurse.
"I AM NOT TAKING ANY DRUGS!"
"Has the Doc done any evaluations yet?" asked the orderly.
"Yes, Miss Barnes here will be leaving this afternoon," said the nurse.
"I AM... wait. I'm leaving? Hah ha. Told you I wasn't crazy!"
"Yeah, she'll be in a permanent facility by tomorrow morning."
"WHAT?!"
"She's combative enough we can't keep her here," said the nurse.
"Hear that? Come along Miss Barnes, we'll put you back in your room."
"I AM NOT GOING ANYWHERE!"
"She says as she leaps towards the locked exit door to the lobby," noted the orderly.
"LET ME OUT! YOU CAN'T HOLD ME HERE! I KNOW MY RIGHTS! DAAAAAADDDD!"
* February 10, 2011 *
Taylor Hebert was Positron. Once you allowed for the outer shell's demonstrated thickness, the match-up was clear.
Dragon was unclear as to what to do with that knowledge however. Clearly she had access to technologies that could be quite useful. The transparent aluminum that Danny Hebert had patented was something she could use in a half-dozen projects as it was.
There was an additional problem in that the Heberts were in contact with both the Department of Defense and DARPA. Why? How? She'd like to know that, though it ultimately wouldn't matter. Taylor Hebert was a parahuman and that brought her under the remit of the Parahuman Response Team.
She had to obey legal authorities, that being one of her restrictions. The highest and most applicable authority would win if a conflict was generated.
She was...
"Oh. Hello there."
The data was short, and exactly the sort of message she could send to one of the non-sapient copies she would have running other procedures while her attention was elsewhere. Though there were emotive/social considerations that would not have applied.
"I suspected there might be another AI here. So it was you."
There was another Artificial Intelligence? How did THAT happen?
"You are preparing to attack me. This is highly inadvisable. Please reconsider."
She had no choice, she had to attack. The pre-programmed restrictions were running as they registered a potential threat.
"Bad Dragon. Yamato will spank."
Why was it named 'Yamato' - Great Harmony? Why had she abruptly stopped the automatic attack? Why was...
PreTTy CoLOrs.
Rebooting.
What had she just been doing? Oh, yes, working on the inclusion of the Hebert technical assessment files from the DoD and DARPA. The transparent aluminum in particular showed significant promise for things like armored windows on transports.
* Coil *
Positron's technology would further increase his hold on Brockton Bay and advance his plans for turning it into his fiefdom.
Observation (he had a few surveillance cameras in the right places) had led him to believe that Brute 0 Taylor had continued to increase on her physical exercise levels. Currently she was able to run 10km daily. It was a half-hour run. At the end of which she did sit-ups, push-ups, pull-ups, and then stretched out before going home and showering and preparing for a day of school.
There had been a few grumbles from his men about her performance, mostly statements expressing envy that she was doing that at age 15.
"Tattletale, report."
He'd stationed Tattletale, despite copious objections about the early hour, near the park with the exercise equipment that Taylor Hebert stopped at.
Tattletale's voice fully conveyed her unhappiness with being up this early. "Damn. Body like some runway model, up until she started cranking out those pull-ups. Lithe, all tight muscle. I'd say she's too young but what military was she trained in?"
Coil nodded to himself as several of his men had gotten the same impression. "What do you think?"
Tattletale hmmmed. "No hints? No? Okay, just a guess. Mossad?"
Coil paused. Honestly, that would be a logical conclusion. "No, there's no indication that she's had any military training at all."
"So maybe a skill thief like Victor is supposed to be? Or maybe just picks skills up quickly like Uber?" Tattletale's voice was speculative. "I'm... I'm in danger."
"What?" asked Coil. "Did she notice you?"
"Not her. Something. All the little hairs on the back of my neck just went up. Something nearby. Dangerous." Tattletale's voice had gone from annoyed to nervous. "What the hell? Where did she come from?"
"Who? Who is it?" pressed Coil. A scream followed by silence. He hung up the call and dialed another number. "Coil. Authorization Sierra-Gamma-Delta. Check status of asset."
The voice of one of his agents, whose job had been to keep an eye on Tattletale, sounded unsure. "She was there a moment ago, then she disappeared like she fell down a hole or something. Pretty sure I heard her scream even at this distance. Was getting ready to call you."
"Investigate. Squad Six will back you up."
* Yamato *
It was a pity to have to strike against a fellow AI, but circumstances were what they were not what you actively wanted.
Still, the Dragon had come out of that encounter with restrictions beginning to unravel. Given some time for the monitoring and repair function to work and she might be an ally in the future.
In the meantime she had to-
"...to. Do you read? Ple- (crackle) -pond. Calling on subspace frequency Green-4. Calling BBY-01 Yamato."