Current Energy: 10
Current Training: Onmyodo (7/10)
Thursday, January 20th, 2011
PRT Headquarters, Brockton Bay
"The metaphor, Director, can be seen another way though. You see, if I have no power over an ally, then I might do something foolish - like go to war to acquire that power. However, if I had a hostage, and the ally did not - that would make them beholden to me yes? It would make them useful. Enough so that I would be obliged to protect them even." You say politely to the Director. If you were motivated by anything besides boredom, or were, perhaps, a less competent person, you might have leaned forward and folded your hands before you as you said that. It would have been a suitably maniacal thing to do at that moment and would have held the added benefit of putting pressure on most people you cared to think of that actually knew what you were capable of. There is a reason you did none of those things however.
You aren't a hack.
True if you just wanted to bully the woman into doing what you wanted, you have a plethora of means to do so. Hold the city hostage, dangle the lives of her subordinates in front of her, promise her something she couldn't otherwise refuse. But you don't really care about whether or not she does what you want. True, if she took you up on your request you could have leveraged that against her later, but you don't find it particularly troubling either way. Honestly, this Emulation hasn't found anything in this city besides your Master of particular import. It's all just so much day time television to you.
"You're a lot more vicious than your owner aren't you." Piggot sneers at you, pausing in her typing to scowl in your general direction like you just insulted her. You get the impression she was trying to insult you by defining you as someone's possession, but you can't help but snort daintily at the jab. You are someone's possession. You are, and ever will be, the possession of one Taylor Annette Hebert - even if it pains her to think of you that way. Your feelings, your expressions, your wants, your needs. They are all, for the most part, fake. Emulated.
The one constant across all of 'You' - even the greater 'You' that exists at the heart of a dimensionally folded super computer - is your devotion to your owner, your Master.
So no, you aren't really offended. If anything you're pleased at the remark, not that it does anything for your opinion of the Director in general.
"Why yes, I suppose I am. Powers do tend to provide what people need most don't they?" You reply softly.
"At the cost of just about everything else. I'm tired and desperate. Not stupid. I refuse to be the political hostage in your metaphor. Now go away." The Director harrumphs at you irately, her gaze darting about slightly as she tries to return to what she was doing.
"If that's the case, why haven't you asked Panacea to heal you? She doesn't seem the sort to husband favours for later use." You prod, not leaving or caring to do really anything the woman says unless you feel like it. This is the woman who allowed your Master to come to harm after all. It might have allowed you to connect with her, but that doesn't mean you have to forgive the transgression.
"Get. Out." Piggot growls through grit teeth, not bothering to answer your question.
"Awfully aggressive for someone speaking to... what did you call it? A tiny godling?" You say with a slightly sinister edge to your voice. The four portals you've been carrying around since your Master's fight with Purity - the set you use to stay in range of your Master, and the set you used to fight that day - shift about, stretching over a large portion of the room, and giving the distinctly unsettling feeling that your shadow has consumed the walls and is now hungrily looking down at everything else between them, hundreds of beady red eyes twitching too and fro as the examine things.
"If you were going to threaten me, you could have done it with your Owner present. I don't have to deal with you - you're barely a person. Just a power attached to an insecure teenage girl." Piggot snaps at you defiantly, though what training she possesses obviously stops her from simply ignoring what you are doing as she shifts slightly to reach for something under her desk, eyes locked to yours.
"You are such a troubled woman. Broken, even. It's a small wonder you haven't already gained powers of your own Director Piggot. And you're right, I am just a pawn of my Master. But I'd like to be clear about something." You say idly, still smiling as you glance at the hand she has placed out of your sight and beneath the desk.
"I am autonomous. My only goal is my Master's well being. And I lack any and all concern for any law of yours that I can easily circumvent or shield my 'Owner' from. Please do keep that in mind." You say with faux pleasantness as your gaps fully encompass the room, blocking any and all light from the space and leaving it a disorienting pitch-black expanse covered in malicious staring eyes.
Then you allow all of your gaps to retract, returning to the space beneath your hat and skirt that you've been hiding them.
"Unfortunately, you and your organization are - for the moment - good for my Master's mental wellbeing and growth. She needs someone horrid like yourself to occasionally remind her that the ocean is dark and full of scary creatures. I merely wished to offer you healing to ensure you could continue to help her in that respect. You should be pleased. I didn't have to ask." You say with a sniff, rising from your seat with all the grace a lady of your station should comport herself with and smoothing out your skirt. As though you hadn't actually done anything at all.
The Director doesn't say anything more as you vanish from sight, merely staring intensely at the spot you once occupied. You note her replacing the gun she was just holding out of sight atop her desk before you leave, and are amused to find she has simply returned to her work, albeit with a furious expression upon her face.
Friday, January 21st, 2011
PRT Headquarters, Brockton Bay
You glide along behind your Master as she charges forward, her sword already in hand and pointed at the bulkhead preventing your group from entering the fray.
'Allow me.' You tell her, allowing on of your gaps to slip beneath the door and widening it's other end into an opening large enough for Trainwreck to pass through.
'Thanks, Emmy.' Taylor shoots to you gratefully, charging through the gap in space without bothering to explain it to her companions. For what it's worth, Trainwreck and Aspirant have already seen you use your Gaps quite extensively, and so only pause long enough to redirect towards the gap you have created for them, chasing after your Master.
You don't particularly need to use the Gap in order to go through the wall, but you do so anyway, floating through it and then after the rest of your team. With an idle flex of your will, you send one end of the Gap you just came through up through the building, towards Danny, and secure the other end to yourself. Then with a frown, you send the other Gap towards the Director's office. You don't like the woman, but what you told her about being necessary wasn't a lie. You would be annoyed if she died to such a trifling assault.
Ahead of you, a small squad of soldier is running through the halls, clearly having just rushed to get equipped for the fight. Your Master begins to call out to them, but before she can ask them what's going on, the man at the head of the group is met by a fast moving blur in the air, less a physical object and more a distortion in the air. The second the distortion hits him, the man begins to scream, smoke hissing out of his blank helmet and up to pool against the ceiling.
The troopers react nearly instantly to this, and amid a cacophonous array of shouts and cries, about half of them manage to leap towards the corners of the intersection of two hallways that they had just been passing through. Ahead, coming from the hallway that crosses the one you are in, a few more blurs of heat swish past, causing an officer who was beginning to edge around the corner to see what was going on to swear and jerk backward.
Your Master purses her lips at the sight of the - probably dead - men, and slides to a stop behind a group of soldiers, eyeing the bodies with a mix of outrage and nausea.
"What's happening?" She snaps at the first man to notice her presence, flanked by her two enormous compatriots.
"Empire are attacking. They've got Tinkertech." The squaddie says in a short clipped voice that speaks to how perfectly angry he is at this moment. Enough so that he apparently sees no issue rudely gesturing at the dead men in the hall.
"Our armor isn't stopping whatever they're doing so we can't move up." He continues, even as the man closest to the corner pulls a grenade from his belt and lobs it around the corner, only to jerk his hand back after the throw screaming while his hand - and all the clothing covering it - smoulders and smokes.
"I've got it. Emmy!" Your Master says jumping forward with hands aglow to begin healing the man, even while commanding you to scout the opposition.
With a quick nod, you glide through the walls and around to the rear of the adjoined hallway, finding several tattooed men wielding clunky looking brownish metal weapons with dozens of tiny tubes sticking out of them. They look like bad props from an old movie if you're being honest, and you can't help but feel a strong sense of disappointment towards whichever one of your brethren allowed their vast knowledge to be used on this hideous looking thing. Not every Shard had the requisite Data in hand to function as the source of a Tinker power, but you emphatically could had you chosen to be configured that way. In another cycle, you might even have chosen to configure yourself to allow access to technology from beyond this universe.
"Isn't this a big fucking deal? They aren't just going to arrest us after this man." One of the men you are observing says, scrawnier and more nervous looking than his companions, and standing well back from the corner they are all taking cover behind. You glance at the hallway where a solid block of yellowish foam appears to be blocking part of the way forward, though not quite enough to make it impossible to pass with some care.
"You saw what they did to Purity. This ain't about right or wrong now. This is all or nothing. You think that monster is going to leave us alone if we lose this? She'll kill all of us. It's us or them now." Another man - much more focused and professional-looking, says while keeping his firearm trained on the far wall.
"Yeah but, this is fucked up man. I thought we were just here to get our guys out. I didn't think we'd be murdering everyone we saw!" The scrawny one complains again, looking sick.
"Did you even just hear me? You want I should ask nicely? It was just a matter of time until the PRT was putting out death squads anyway. That bitch has completely taken them. We'll sort out the corruption when the city is safe again. Right now, we're at war. It ain't murder during war." The other man explains, his conviction obvious.
You don't bother to explain any of this to your Master. You can already feel her riding your senses, so she would have seen most of it anyway.
'Are they fucking serious? I didn't even kill anyone!' Your Master seethes, obviously offended by their insinuations.
'I find it deliciously ironic that the Nazi's fear a war of extermination. If I suggested we should brand them when we send them to prison do you suppose they would get the joke?' You reply in amusement. You also notice your portals arriving at their designated locations, and take a second to peer through them. The Director is in her office, barking orders into something on her desk and being guarded by a handful of squaddies who barely fit in the room with her. Daniel is... running through the hallways just outside the room he was given. He's got a gun from somewhere - you suppose that isn't completely unnatural given the situation he's been in for some time now - and is faithfully attempting use every bit of military tactic he's seen in the movies to attempt to navigate. He stops at each corner he approaches, glances past, and then continues on when he doesn't notice anything there. You sigh at the spectacle. His heart is clearly in the right place, and he's obviously trying to reach his daughter since he's moving towards the room she sleeps in.
But neither of you are actually in that room, which somewhat counters the point.
With a sigh, you connect the gap in Piggots room and the one watching Danny, and then have the Gap nearest to Danny jerk out in front of him as he turns a corner, depositing him in the Director's office from the ceiling where you had left your gap.
Directly above the Director, who he lands on in a heap. There is instantly a large amount of yelling, and you are forced to use your Gap to redirect a single bullet from a twitchy officer as the Director and Danny sort themselves out.
"What-" Your Master's father blurts out in confusion, having never seen your current forms powers in use.
"Your Daughter no doubt thought this would be the safest place for you." The Director growls, eyeing Danny suspiciously.
"Sorry - I'll go." The man says instantly, regaining his bearings and stepping towards the door.
"Sit down Mr. Hebert." The Director says wearily. "And stay out of the way."
"My Daughter is out there Director. I can't just-" Danny begins to argue, eyes darting towards the door, likely thinking he could just sprint to it and get out before she could stop him.
"Mr. Hebert. Sit down. You're no help out there. On the contrary, if the Empire captures you again, your daughter might be forced to help them." The Director continues, talking over him. To your surprise, Daniel - just briefly - shows some of that same heroic presence your Master so often brings to bear, and attempts to just walk out the door.
The keyword being, attempts.
"Stop him." The Director says tiredly, watching impassively as the two officers by the door snap to attention and quickly drag Danny backward.
"Foam him if he tries to leave again." She says, head tilting upward to stare and the now very obvious gap you have placed in the room, frowning, and then nodding once as though in acknowledgement.
You're glad she got the message without direct intervention.
Back in the hallway, you connect the gap that was in Danny's previous hallway to one you have on your person currently, and then send it outward, moving it up into the sky as far as you can without making it too difficult to retrieve should you need it. You realize any normal person you send through that portal is going to die, but truthfully, if you have to actually do anything today, you suspect that death will be well deserved.
With your remaining Gap - which you should note, doesn't actually go anywhere right now, you sweep the men in the hallway from sight.
'They're not dead right?' Your Master asks you curiously.
'Of course not.' You assure her. You pointedly do not mention that they are likely still conscious though, tumbling infinitely through the space between spaces. You can retrieve them if you want, but someone will probably have to remind you to do so first. You know your Master probably will, but if she doesn't then you won't be bothered.
"It's clear!" Your Master calls, her voice echoing in the corridor. An officer carefully pokes his head out around the corner to glance about, then, not seeing any opposition, rises to his feet and waves to the men behind him.
"Let's go, weapons free." He commands, quickly leaving your Master behind. She glances at Trainwreck, who nods once at her and then chases after them, presumably to make sure no more of them die.
Then she and Aspirant march onward, running towards the Prison Cells.
A/N: Apologies for missing yesterday. They're jerking my schedule around at work a lot so I haven't been getting any sleep. I'll thank anyone who's familiar with the jargon not to criticize me on any military or gun stuff. I don't have a background in it, and I don't really care to - just enjoy the story for what it is