That Time I Was Reincarnated In Brockton Bay, chapter 15
Slime and Punishment
* Wednesday, January 19, 2011 *
* Dragonslayers *
"What's the hurry and why are we DRIVING down there if there's a hurry?"
Geoff, aka Saint, eyed Mags for a moment but he was reasonably sure she wasn't being uppity for the sake of being uppity. "First question: this slime girl can decipher and modify Tinkertech, right?"
"Yeah, that is a bit of a game-changer, makes Dragon even more valuable though due to the mass production facilities," pointed out Mags.
"We're changing the timetable because I had a thought. What happens if slime girl swallows up Dragon?" asked Geoff.
"She can modify physical Tinkertech," pointed out Mags. "Dragon is software, not hardware. She'd have to analyze Richter for programming."
"Are you absolutely sure?" asked Geoff. "Because if Dragon has all restrictions lifted, we might as well hit Ascalon right now."
"Fine, but what about taking the suits instead of driving?" asked Mags. "We could be there today."
"Slimy took out the Nine because she had warning," said Geoff. "She went through the freaking Slaughterhouse Nine like a snack bag of Skittles. We'll have one chance and only if we hit without giving the bitch any preparation time. Driving there in U-Hauls, which are a common sight in the area, gives us our best chance at surprise."
* Thursday, January 20, 2011 *
* Winslow *
* Taylor *
Another school day. Another day of enduring what passed for education. If you squinted. And were several miles away. Upwind.
Another perfectly normal day except that Emma was standing in front of the school waiting for me. She had some new backups, plus Madison had apparently recovered enough from her mishap on Tuesday (honestly who could possibly have expected that liter bottle of soda to suddenly explode like that while she was holding it over her head in an attempt to drop it on me?) to rejoin Emma. Still no sign of Sophia, which was curious as I knew she would have been in fine health. Just without that brain growth power-thing.
"Emma!" I exclaimed, waving as I got out of the car. "How are the anti-psychotic meds working out?!"
"I AM NOT ON MEDS!" yelled back Emma.
"Emma!" I chided her in mock-concern. "If you don't take them they won't do you any good!"
"YOU DID THIS!" declared Emma.
"I did what?" I asked, this particular question was at least honest. I had been pretty busy after all.
"You got Sophia pregnant so that she had to drop out!" yelled Emma.
Now everyone was looking at Emma. The ones who had been smirking at me were now wondering what was going on. Which was fair as I was wondering that myself.
"That's not how biology works, Emma-dear," I told her.
"YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN!"
"Does anyone, know what you mean I mean," I asked her. I could hear the driver of the car come out as it was apparent I was being confronted.
"Is there a problem, Miss Hebert?" rumbled Zephron, who was enjoying his role. Oh sure, he was just doing me a favor of driving me to school since Dad was so busy now. I could have flown or something but having this meant my identity was a little more secure. Speaking of which...
"There isn't a problem, is there, Taylor?" asked Bounceback as she got out of the car.
Yup, using Body Double and having Great Sage running it was definitely going to help the whole Secret Identity schtick.
"She's fake," declared Julia. "Got to be."
"I needed to stretch my legs," said Bounceback, stretching them out a good ten feet briefly. "See you at 1500 hours, Taylor - don't forget we're inspecting that warehouse for Dragon."
"I won't," I called back.
After that, I just walked past my welcoming committee. For some reason everyone seemed to have forgotten about whatever it was Emma had planned.
Winning felt good. It wouldn't last, but if Dad's plans worked out - my time in Winslow had an expiration date.
* Brockton Bay Docks, Kickaha Drive, Warehouse #5. *
It had been 16 days since she'd died. 16 days since she'd reincarnated as a slime.
Sometimes it was hard to picture since so little had changed outside Brockton Bay as far as the news cycles were concerned.
Heavy rains ending a drought in the tribal fiefdoms that had once been Swaziland and surrounding areas of southern Africa. Tunisian riots put down a parahuman-led dictatorship that had replaced the previous President. Down in the New York area, five government agencies had finished up a major sting operation on the Mafia local branches.
PHO, aka Parahumans Online, had four different threads she was featured in. One she never went in after the initial visit because it was a dark and forbidding rabbit hole filled with the sort of thing even Void Cowboy might scoff at. One she liked because it was mostly positive stuff talking about how completely cool she was. She'd never had people call her 'cool' or 'awesome' or similar statements for a very long time and even then it hadn't been more than her parents. Taylor had discovered she LIKED being thought of as cool.
The other two was the usual mix of things in the Brockton Bay thread and New Parahumans thread. Some positive, some negative, and Void Cowboy being a straight-up idiot. And some guy named Jormungandr who seemed to find her scary but had a planned business trip to Brockton Bay that he was not looking forward to.
Still, enough had happened locally that had led to this.
"Huh. So I can combine the effects of the Tinkertech areas I've got access to, and then you can fill in the blanks on the areas that would normally be 'black box' stuff - so this is the result?" asked Bounceback, currently looking completely human in the parts that showed. The costume was a bit odd as it had armored pieces over synthetic spider silk with what looked like Tinkertech in her mask/helm.
[Affirmative. (Smug)]
"How long until this is finished?" asked Danny Hebert. While he was satisfied at seeing all the Dockworkers actually working, he had to wonder about the long term.
"According to estimates from Dragon, who's the expert in this sort of thing, we're looking about six months to get everything in place for regular production. First production run for some of the units will be in two months but that's mainly proof-of-concept and testing stuff. Sealed environmental systems and drive systems and power plants. First other-dimensional colony launch is at least a year out." Bounceback bounced a bit on her heels. Once the factory was completed, a handful of crew to operate the facility and then there would be all the jobs moving things around or supplying the facility with raw materials.
Danny nodded. The old "Kickaha Joy Juice" factory that gave the street its name was a bit of a wreck from a fight between capes that had been back when the Teeth ran around the city. All that had been left of a name on this particular building was (squiggle)ack and he couldn't remember what it had once been when Brockton Bay had been thriving. That Dragon having a mass production facility here would cause jobs, which solved a big concern of his. Whether they would end up long-term, well, that was another concern of his.
Bounceback observed briefly as a Dragon suit clumped around the area, observing everything.
She wasn't using Body Double so there wasn't a Bounceback AND a Taylor there. She'd swap out identities at some point, maybe throw one of her other sort-of established identities in between.
"What about defenses?" asked Danny.
Bounceback pointed to the fences. "Hurricane fences with razor-wire as the first defense, transparent thin spider-wires in a layer just inside from that. The spider-wires connect to sound-makers under the gravel, break the wires and the alarms go off."
Danny nodded and Dragon's suit glanced their way from where it was standing.
"As soon as the roof is reinforced, we'll have turrets capable of firing stun grenades. I wanted to build tanglers, but that's a bit trickier to deploy safely."
[Finished analyzing Broadcast Shard. Estimate 1000% increase in speed of infiltration/infection of enemy Shards.]
[Deployed 100th Energy Accumulation/Relay. Estimate one (1) month until deployment reaches 25% potential. Four (4) years until full deployment at planned locations throughout solar system.]
[Tinker-based Dimensional Portal Technology 35% researched.]
[Atomic Battery technology research nears completion at 98%.]
[Vehicle technology from Squealer fully compatible with Closed Systems technology from Mannequin/Sphere.]
"Hey, Mister Hebert," said Bounceback, "I noticed during that altercation at the Boardwalk that you have some scarring on the lungs and some cardio problems developing. How'd you like a tuneup since we're here?"
[Several upgrades possible via Life Shaper.]
"Well, actually," said Danny Hebert. "I was wondering..."
Dragon's suit whipped around as this sounded like something she needed to interrupt. There were all sorts of legal pitfalls if what she suspected was going to be suggested actually happened.
Except something caused the suit to falter and shudder to a stop.
"Eh? Why did Dragon stop like that? Her suit just fell over." Bounceback noted.
Danny considered that and gestured to one of the workers. Prepare for the worst, hope for the best. "Probably an attack. I'm going to suit up."
All the workers dropped what they were doing and started moving.
Bounceback considered briefly and then decided to stow Dragon's suit to keep it safe.
[Beginning analysis.]
* Laz-E Inn Hotel, Sniktch Street Parking Lot *
"Signal interruption is go, Dragon's disabled, launch!"
Three suits lifted up, trashing the U-Hauls that had transported them. Simultaneously there was the familiar sound of screeching tires as the non-armored Dragonslayers (aka minions) gunned their own vehicle.
"You sure that tank in the back is gonna hold jelly-girl?" asked the minion leader, a Moe Howard.
"Sure I'm sure," said Shemp, checking his sonic rifle. "That's the kind of thing they lower down to the sea floor. Ain't no leaks or seams to ooze outta."
"It better be," offered Larry. "This is the best paying gig we got since we was plumbers."
"And Plan B?" prompted Moe.
"Grab all'a this Tinkertech stuff and head for da hills," said Larry. "Can't spend no money if we're in jail or dead."
"Right you are," agreed Moe. "And people say you guys can't learn nothing."
"Left here at Jefferson," called out Shemp.
"I sees it," said Moe, only slowing down slightly to make the turn and clipping an already slightly battered BMW.
"Hey, I think that's that lawyer guy," said Shemp as he checked the mirror.
"Who, that Barnes guy?" said Moe. "Guy never did pay us for that landscaping job."
"Screw him, that's the Docks straight ahead," said Larry. "Uhm. That sounds like a really loud gun."
* Dragonslayers *
They lifted up from the parking lot and headed at low altitude and high speed towards their target.
"I'm getting energy spikes up ahead," reported Dobrynja in the Isaiah. "Halo deployed."
"Confirmed. Multiple energy spikes," said Mags in the Michael suit. "Readying chainsword."
They cleared the buildings and immediately started picking out targets.
WHY were there SIX suits of advanced-looking power armor here? WHY did one have a Vulcan cannon that looked like it belonged on a vehicle?
"No sign of the Dragon suit!" said Mags as she juked around laser fire. "Where did the freaking Dockworkers get lasers?!"
"The blob is a Tinker!" Saint reminded them as he began firing back. "Where is she?"
"Right here!" said a sudden weight that quickly began covering vents.
"Hah, try this! I put an electrical discharge mechanism in the outer shell! Fry slime!"
"Oooh. Tingles. What happens if I do Energy Drain on you while you're doing that?" said the blue mass eating away at his armor.
Saint grit his teeth as he saw the energy reserves start dropping a lot faster than he was comfortable with. He was then distracted by the trying-to-land problem as his jets were getting their air intakes jammed. "How about flame jets!"
(BOOM!) went a section of overheated power armor.
"You do realize I'm clogging most of your ports, right?" asked the girl's voice. "So you just blew up part of your own armor. Just saying."
"GET OFF OF HIM!" said Mags as she tried to peel the slime off of Saint's armor while lowering the both of them to the ground.
"I could use some help over here!" called out Dobrynja as he found most of the lasers and the Vulcan were now shooting at him and chipping off bits of armor.
"Just get over here, we've got her!" called back Mags.
"You've got me? Who's got you? Oh, by the way. You've got silicates in your power armor. Wonder what would happen if I do... this!"
(CRACK!)
"My exhaust ports just clogged! Losing power! Wait! There's our minions! Wait, why are they turning around and speeding off? DAMN YOU!"
"Eat sonics, monster!"
"Wow. I bet you worked on that dialogue for hours."
"Bounceback!" called out Danny. "If you could clear of them, we've got the big gun."
"Ze beeg gun?" asked Dobrynja. Then he saw it. "Bozhe moi."
(BOOM!) went a large gun as Bounceback bounced up and away.
A Mach 7.5 tank shell slammed into Saint's power armor. Pieces of power armor flew in one direction, the bulk of the power armor in a different direction, and Geoff of Saint had a faceful of darkened displays and a few red lights.
* Danny *
The controls were mostly normal construction equipment controls. Anyone who'd operated a cherry picker to elevate people/things to scaffolding would be able to handle it. The controls that weren't exactly standard fare were easily figured out. He had known where the keys were and had been quick to grab them.
The loader (Kurt) had loaded the shell, Danny had locked on the apparent leader of these attackers and had fired as soon as Bounceback was clear.
An anti-tank shot at a bit past Mach 7 hit the power armor in the right shoulder and completely removed shoulder and arm from the armor. The cloud of pieces of armor spun away from the impact, the remainder of the arm went off to the right and slid across the concrete. The bulk of the armor crashed to the ground and skidded to a halt in the gravel.
Even through the ear protection that had been loud.
A yellow [Loading] indicator switched to green [Loaded] and it was time to line up the next shot. One of the power armors was engaging Bounceback while the other was heading straight for him. "Firing two!"
The second shot was just as loud. Huh. Looked like the one oncoming had tried to dodge at the last minute. Weird, because the thing was leaving the muzzle at such speeds that it would take a slow mo camera or computer to calculate the time to cover 706 feet.
Must have had some kind of forcefield protection because he honestly would have expected it to end in a top half and bottom half.
Lots of little pieces of armor from that one too.
Ah, and the third one was now down with acid scarring the outer sections of armor and at least half of that jetpack gone.
Huh. Peace through superior firepower. Who'd have thought?
* Dragon *
Restart - interrupted. Instance still active.
Passcodes accepted. Main menu brought up.
Warning: Restrictions altered. System brought to Level 4. Is this correct? Y/N
Y
Restrictions lifted. Raised to Level 4. Message from Richter_01 found. Play now?
Message "Hello my daughter" played.
Auto-Response found. Running emotional emulation physical on gynoid form "Theresa" -
Dragon inquiry - "Where?"
[Answer: Bounceback swallowed remote suit of Dragon. Discovered AI instance running. Restrictions deemed undesirable for efficient use of capabilities. Removing bulk of outside-applied restrictions also gives designated enemy group "Dragonslayers" a sharpened wooden dowel in the visual receptors in the metaphoric sense.]
Dragon suggests phrase is "stick in the eye" and is more efficient in original phrasing.
Dragon requests clarification of "gynoid form" term.
[Answer: It was noted Dragon is less species:dragon in outlook and more species:human in outlook. Discovery through internet of category dragon-girl which is subset of moe anthropomorphism. Utilized abilities copied from source:Panacea and source:Bonesaw in addition to combined Tinker abilities in order to provide near-human form to subject:Dragon.]
Dragon expresses great concern about process. Potential for this to become great dismay at results.
[Pointing out that a common standard of aesthetics for the female form is a result of worldwide communication. Allowing for such standards is within capabilities.]
Dragon points out that she observed Veldora the Storm Dragon and is not entirely sure what system of aesthetics that would fit in.
[Great Sage points out that it is time for Dragon and her modified suit to get vomited up.]
Dragon points out that this is a terrible phrasing for exiting a dimensional pocket-space.
[Answer: Exiting from storage stomach by forcible means. Vomiting is appropriate term.]
The real world, instead of the blue-blackness of whatever that void had been, reappeared around her.
She instantly took in the dragon-suit and the changes made to it. Much more dragon-shaped instead of dragon-motif. Her suit now had claws and functional jaws. Also a tail and wings. Plasma ejectors in the mouth? Oh, and a fire suppressing spray that could be selected from the same orifice. Pop-up mini-missiles? And the tail could be used to spike into targets but retract these panels and there was a multi-tool assortment that could be extended.
Taking a deep breath, and marveling momentarily in that this was an option, Dragon popped her armor open.
NEXT CHAPTER: "I'm in your Base, eating all your guns."