Ch.11: Plan Slime From Outer Space
* Jan 15 2011 *
It was a Saturday. No school. No problem.
Not that school was as much of a problem, Emma seemed to be more unstable than ever without Sophia to back her up. Madison without Emma or Sophia was even more at a loss. Their various hangers-on didn't seem to quite know how to go on about things.
"Not needing to sleep except to recover some energy gives me a LOT of free time." Taylor sighed and looked out the window. It was raining that sort of slushy rain like it just couldn't make the commitment to snow.
Bleh, decided Taylor.
[Solved Problem: Reincarnation Blockage.]
"Oh, you figured out what went wrong?" asked Taylor as she began frying hashbrowns.
[Affirmative. Excessive bandwidth transmissions utilizing subspace connections causing interference in 9-space above acceptable error rate.]
[Dimensional barriers in place by Entity to protect alternate Earths where vital functions are stored. In other developments, barriers indicate where vital functions of enemy are located.]
"Signal interference?"
[(Sigh.)]
"Close enough, right?"
[(Sigh.)]
"So what does that mean?" asked Taylor.
[Forwarding problem and potential solutions to Will of the World to avoid similar problems in the future.]
[Means of foiling protective barriers to allow passage being completed.]
[Means of protecting own network from existing methods are in development.]
[Continuing to upgrade spoofing and protective measures while infecting network.]
"Well, that's good I suppose," said Taylor as she stirred the hashbrowns with a spatula. "Not that I'm complaining about not reincarnating in a strange world and just reincarnating here."
"Yeah, I suppose it could be worse," said Danny as he came down the stairs just as Taylor was adding bacon.
[Data on Cycles of Shard Entities available. Summary: Inefficient. Wasteful of resources.]
Taylor smirked at the sound of outrage in Great Sage's comment. Then had to explain all that to her father because Great Sage didn't have a speakerphone as she transferred the hashbrowns and bacon to plates. Eggs were on the frypan by the time the toast popped.
"I'm really not happy with my daughter having died and the people responsible still getting away with it," confessed Danny. "There's only so much legal proceedings can do."
"You started legal proceedings?" asked Taylor.
"Yes, the Union does have a lawyer on retainer, but she usually only deals with contract law and medical lawsuits," admitted Danny.
[Energy drain ability researched. Utilizing Freeze Ray technology can pull energy from objects in order to add to reserves. At present, ability is too inefficient to be useful for energy reclamation.]
"Yeah," said Taylor aloud. "Zephron came up with some old movies he wanted me to watch. I'll put one in later today after doing some work at the Docks."
[More data reveals more problems but also lays the groundwork for solutions.]
"Which one?" asked Danny before sipping on his coffee.
"'Robocop' - Maybe he wants me to build something in it?" asked Taylor.
Danny set the coffee cup down. "Maybe watch it before you do things at the Docks. It's not that long."
* PRT ENE HQ *
"She's a Trump," said Director Piggot. "Who can duplicate powers. And can KEEP the powers she duplicates."
"Yes, Director, that was our conclusion," said Armsmaster.
"And she's a Rogue hero with the Dockworkers Union," stated Director Piggot.
"She is," agreed Armsmaster. "Fortunately, as far as our interview revealed, she can't just duplicate everything. She can't duplicate my own or Dragon's Tinker abilities unless she can examine us by swallowing us. Since we have never entered into an antagonistic approach with her - she has not indicated any interest in doing so."
Director Piggot sat back in her chair, bringing up one hand to massage her forehead. "There was a report she saved Panacea from those idiots at the hospital, so her healing abilities have likely improved."
"Yes, that was part of the data we used to come to this conclusion," admitted Armsmaster.
"We just did a Threat Assessment on the 8th," noted Director Piggot. "One week and it's already outdated. So what powers were you able to add to the previous assessment."
"Tinker at least a 4, with the specialty of being able to decipher and modify Tinkertech to replicable technology," stated Dragon's avatar on the monitor.
Director Piggot looked like she wanted to beat her head against the nearest hard surface. "What?"
"In at least some cases, she can translate Tinkertech to technology that can be replicated with some work. She's also willing to provide troopers with power armor," said Armsmaster, putting some pictures on the table. "Minor compared to what a Tinker might normally produce. Battery life of a few hours at most, but rechargeable and able to run off special hookups. Strength boost to be able to lift roughly 500 pounds, jump jets to leap single-story buildings, the ability to seal systems for full environmental coverage for one hour, armor sufficient to weather small arms fire as long as the... Director - do you require medical assistance?"
* Taylor *
[Flight capability through manifestation of wings - either bat or bird + anti-gravity effect to reduce weight + control of nearby air. The wings themselves would provide control surfaces for better manueverability. Maximum altitude using this method is the thermosphere. Possibility of reaching outside atmosphere and surviving near-vaccuum due to slime body resistances exists though propulsion method requires research. Maximum speed at present is roughly 150mph. Cruising speed at comfortable levels would be below 60mph.]
"Great work, Great Sage!" said Taylor. "What do you think about that bot? Could we make one that isn't so haywire?"
[Pending raw materials - easily.]
"Whoa, such confidence!" said Taylor. "And I can fly up to over 300 miles altitude?
[(Smug)]
"You think offering to make a few of those basic power-armors for the PRT was a good idea?" asked Taylor. "It was kind of a impulse cause they were looking so nervous."
[Capabilities shown were heavily restricted. While a boost to human performance levels, price and availability restrictions would also reduce overall threat to Dockworkers Union while still allowing for increased goodwill from authorities.]
"So... possibly bad and possibly good?"
[Affirmative.]
"Maybe the chitin armor plates? Lighter than kevlar while having about the same penetration resistance?" asked Taylor.
[Potential high but requires specialized manufacturing equipment for layering process.]
"Eh. Maybe something to trade to Dragon for when we could use something of theirs." Taylor looked around, manifested a pair of bat wings because she did NOT want to look anything like the Simurgh, and took off. She started out as a fast blur until she reached a few hundred feet, then just hovered there to get a good look at her neighborhood. Once she did that, a leisurely (roughly 30mph) flight over the city was practically mandated as she got the hang of flying.
"I need something to keep from getting bugs splatting against my face," said Taylor after a few minutes of that.
[You can absorb bio-mass below a certain threshold automatically.]
"That means eating bugs. Not exactly a preferred outcome." Taylor checked the time. Almost time to meet up with Amy.
* Cauldron *
"Contessa."
"Doctor Mother."
"About Bounceback... why are you wearing mourning clothes?"
"Because the path to getting Bounceback to view us in the most favorable light possible includes stopping by a gravesite and leaving flowers today at 1425 hours, where I'll meet Bounceback's father and get into a conversation with him over a late lunch."
"One of your steps involves a lunch date with Bounceback's father..."
"You have to admit it is not the weirdest step on any given path I've been given. Also - business lunch. By a minor investment in the area, I become someone who has an alibi to stop by there and check up on things personally."
"That... is true."
"How do I look?"
"...I'm not sure that I'm qualified to judge fashion."
* Brockton Bay Exit *
"Finally. Are we all still together?"
"I lost track of the car with Shatterbird and Burnscar about 50 miles ago."
"Seriously?"
"I think Burnscar was talking about finding a Tastee-Freeze last pit stop."
"Sonovva..."
"They'll catch up."
"Hey, Mistah Jack, while we're here. I'm thinkin' that Panacea might be someone to recruit."
"Actually. That might work out."
"Goodie!"
"As long as I get to kill some capes, I'm good."
"I had no doubts about that, Hatchetface. No doubts at all."
"So can we get a place with clean sheets this time, Mistah Jack?"
"They won't stay clean for long..." Jack Slash's voice trailed off. "Why do I hear sirens?"
Hatchetface looked in the rearview mirror. "Isn't that the plumbing truck that Shatterbird commandeered?"
"We've got regular police chasing them? What did those two? They obviously didn't reveal who they were or there wouldn't be any pursuit."
"So what do you want to do?" asked Hatchetface.
"Signal Shatterbird to sing... no. Wait. Let's get closer to the hospital first. Less of a walk that way."
* Dragon *
"Colin. Call an alert. Brockton Bay traffic cameras have identified the vehicles stolen by the Nine as taking the Dogbert Avenue off-ramp from the interstate."
Armsmaster straightened immediately. "Confirmed?"
"Same vehicles, mass as they passed over the sensors indicates Crawler level mass discrepancy in the white panel truck," said Dragon.
Not wanting to face this particular menace without a lot more prep, Armsmaster tried to come up with an alternate scenario to hope for. "They could have abandoned the vehicles and left others to..."
"It's odd, something is different. Normally it is much harder to track the Nine. It isn't as if they've changed tactics though," said Dragon. "Turned onto Sunny Drive. Passing Bearded Boulevard. They're... heading for Brockton Bay General Hospital."
"Why hasn't Shatterbird done her thing yet?" asked Armsmaster.
"They're probably getting closer to the hospital first. When Shatterbird causes all the silicon and glass to break, that eliminates most of the vehicles they'd commandeer."
Armsmaster nodded, reaching for the commlink.