Security Precautions (IC)

[Avenger Assembled]

Gina was working in her Archetech lab, in between eating Cool Ranch Doritos in her basement, when the phone rang. With Gina's superhumanly acute intelligence, it was an easy matter to recognize the voice of the guard on her laboratory phone: Greg Landris, wife, no kids, junior desk guard at the Archetech office. "Ms. Americana? There's a man here who wants to see you, but he's refusing to go through security. He says his name is Murdock and it's about the recent business you discussed?" Miss Americana was famous enough that she had her share of cranks, but of course Murdock was a familiar name for the beautiful genius. Harrier did not have an appointment, but given his deep problems with human interaction, it wasn't really a surprise he hadn't made one.

[Electra]

Abandoning her snack, and the lunch she'd planned to have soon, Gina inhabited fully and answered the intercom. "Thank you, Greg," she said politely. "Could you tell him to wait in the lobby and I'll be down in a few moments?" Signing herself out of the lab, she shrugged out of her lab coat and headed down to the lobby, dressed in smartly tailored navy blue slacks and a red blouse with a white crystal snowflake pendant. Passing the security desk, she greeted her ally-cum-experiment with a smile. "Murdock, how good to see you again. How are you?"

[Avenger Assembled]

"I am well." Harrier cocked his head back and forth as he talked, looking at the still-suspicious guards and the machinery just ahead of him. "There are backscatter and rapid electromagnetic scanners in the corridor. I did not wish to alarm anyone." Scanners like that would certainly read the power pike at his hip, much less the Terminus technology with which his body was riddled to the bone and beyond. Murdock was in a Freedom City Comets sweater and sweatpants, one of the several outfits he'd gotten from the Freedom League's charity for the Thanksgiving holiday. He hadn't had a family to dress up for, but he hadn't been about to say no.

[Electra]

"I understand perfectly. You should've called me ahead of time, Miss A told him, walking with him towards the front doors. "I would've told you to come to my private lab and avoid any of those problems. But we can go there now and have a chat," she suggested. "How have you been lately?" she asked conversationally as they walked through the doors and back into the chilly winter weather. "Have things at the restaurant been working out?"

[Avenger Assembled]

Murdock was exposed to the elements without his armor, but he would never have complained about the cold. Besides, even completely unprotected, Freedom City in early December was nothing. "Things are busy with the holidays. The others appreciate that I can work when they need a rest break. No one there has uncovered my identity." He looked straight ahead as he spoke, his voice not rising or falling, but seemed to make an effort to turn and address Miss A. "I assisted in a battle against a wielder of Terminus technology. It was deeply unsettling."

[Electra]

"I can imagine it would be," Miss A replied, not unsympathetically. "For anyone, really, but most specifically for you. What sort of villain was it? Another Omegadrone, or something bigger?" She didn't seem affected by the cold either, though the wind tousled her blond hair artfully as they walked. "It looks like you came through relatively unscathed, though?" she hazarded. "Or is that what you needed to speak with me about?"

[Avenger Assembled]

"I have recovered from the injuries I sustained. They were all to my flesh, not the metal within." When the breeze started, Murdock ran his hands over his bald scalp, fingers brushing against the faint lines that marked where his flesh could split open on his command. He was allowing Victory to handle his own problems, and thus for the moment said nothing. "Your conclusions are correct. It is for a similar matter that I would like to speak with you." He had a rare moment of hesitation before he said, "Perhaps it is better if we wait until we are in your laboratory. I would not wish ot ask you a difficult question before it could be answered."

[Electra]

"Of course," Miss A said with a nod, understanding perfectly. It seemed that her lunch was going to have to be put off a little longer. At least she didn't feel the hunger pangs when she was fully inhabiting the robot. As long as she didn't get dizzy from low blood sugar and fall out, she'd be fine. "Would you like me to give you a lift to my lab? It'll be faster than walking, and we can talk once we're inside. I don't mind flying out of uniform."

[Avenger Assembled]

"I am untroubled by the cold," said Murdock, misunderstanding her intent a bit. "But if you would prefer to make the trip faster, we should do." Murdock was heavy in Miss A's arms, but easily within her lifting capacity: he also went limp in a way that suggested he'd been carried by air before. It is very pleasant to see the city this way." he said out loud, not going into further detail about how nice it was to see a city below without needing to hide himself, or without that city being in flames.

[Electra]

The trip was a very short one, only about a minute to the other side of Hanover and the business park where Miss A kept her lab. Harrier had been here before, but she'd done some expansion since, knocking out one interior wall to enlarge the lab and set in even more equipment. "Help yourself to a drink or a snack," Miss A told him, gesturing to the kitchenette with an expression that almost seemed rueful. "Now what's going on?"

[Avenger Assembled]

Murdock turned his head again, swiveling his whole body at first before turning at the neck, then looked back at Miss A. "I wish to further assist you in your research. None of the surviving Omegadrones who have been assimilated into your culture were as...altered as I was, and none retained the memories I did of my connection to the Voice. I would like to add my technological knowledge to your own." He got up then, and did open the fridge, pulling out a bottle of water. "Beyond that, I would...I would like to know if you can change what I am inside."

[Electra]

"You're interested in proceeding on that camouflage project we discussed back in October?" Miss A asked, moving over to her exam table and clearing off the detritus. "I do have some ideas about how we could cover your origin and make you look more like an Earthly superhero. It will require additional study on you, though, so we can double up the research with that project. It won't," she had to admit, "change what you are inside. I don't have the technology to undo what was done to you, or even to significantly alter it without risking your life. But I can alter its appearance, so you don't have to carry that stigma anymore."

[Avenger Assembled]

"I am unsurprised," said Murdock, and only faint disappointment was in his tone. "So much of me was taken away that..." He looked down at his lined hand, seeming to see right through it to the metal within. "It would be easier to replace the flesh." he added humorlessly. "But if you can change how I look, that would be wonderful." He squeezed his empty hand tight. "There are no worlds, no era, no dimensions where there would not be a hand raised against me beneath that shell. To be able to pass would be...I would be very grateful."

[Electra]

"I understand," Miss A told him simply. "We'll get you fixed up, and things will be much better for you. If you want, we can start the research portion right now. I have some simple aptitude tests that you can take that will let me learn more about your mental faculties, and then we can move on to physical tests. You never know when some small piece of information could be critical in learning about Terminus technology." Truthfully, she didn't expect to learn much from the aptitude tests, but if he'd sit down and take them, it would give her ten or twenty minutes to eat her lunch in peace.

[Avenger Assembled]

Murdock was easily led enough that he didn't object to Miss Americana's suggestion. With his usual laser-like focus, he locked in on the computer that she sat him down at, typing his name with a slow hunt-and-peck before he began taking one of a series of aptitude tests. He'd taken similar examinations with the Freedom League when they'd been studying him to determine if he truly was what he appeared to be, but he raised no objections, trusting that Miss Americana knew what she was doing. He didn't speak, instead facing the computer with grim determination as he went through test after test.

[Electra]

Miss A left him alone to do the tests in peace, after making sure he was comfortable and didn't need anything to eat or drink. She went over to one corner and sat down at a terminal of her own, sitting very quietly while she worked. Blocks away, Gina darted upstairs, still keeping a tenuous connection with the robot, and nuked herself a Hot Pocket which she ate standing up. She guzzled a twenty-ounce bottle of Mountain Dew, ate a banana for potassium, and considered it a healthy lunch. A quick bathroom break (because it was really unfortunate when she got too caught up in Miss A to remember that) and she was back down to the basement and into her favorite robot-inhabiting recliner in less than ten minutes.

"How are you doing?" Miss A asked Murdock after about ten minutes, looking up from her own work.

[Avenger Assembled]

"I do not understand many of these questions. But I have answered them before." Murdock had stayed outside of his armor, despite the advantages it would have given him on the visual acuity and other tests. Without looking up from his work, he added " Recently I met the other Omegadrone in Freedom City. He is in training here. It was difficult in some ways." He hmmed, continuing his slow, methodical hunting and pecking. "He was a product of a creche and so had never had normal mental functions before the loss of his connection to the Voice. He is...impaired in some ways that I am not. And luckier than others. He remembers nothing before his awakening in Daedalus' laboratory."

[Electra]

"He'll have a very different set of challenges," Miss A agreed. "But this research may be beneficial to him as well. If I can get you a functional camouflage, he might be interested in that as well. It's not going to be easy for any free Omegadrone, but there's no sense in making it harder for you than it has to be. I think that's enough aptitude tests for today," she decided, "why don't you get up on the table and I'll do some more in-depth scanning and run some simulations. Could you leave your armor off but produce your power pike, or does it not work that way?"

[Avenger Assembled]

"I have never tried," admitted Murdock, glad to be done with the examination. "It is not something I have ever drawn idly." It turned out Murdock could indeed draw and wield the pike without activating his armor, and soon enough he was sitting on the table with his arm at full extension, holding himself level as he held the crackling pike in his hands.The weapon was designed to target the weaknesses of enemies. The wet skin of a waterbreather, a robot's vulnerability to magnetism. The scanner in the head drives the mechanism. The chameleon circuits are in the butt." He didn't scan Miss Americana with those sensors, of course: she was his friend, and he was in a world where friends didn't work against each other!

[Electra]

"Fascinating. May I?" she asked, sliding on a pair of heavy gloves and holding her hands out for the pike. "This is undoubtedly going to be the most difficult part of the whole getup to disguise, because it channels such amazing amounts of energy. But of course it's also the most vital part, because it's so very iconic. The good thing is that it's quite simple, so I should be able to alter its silhouette in ways that make it less distinguishable. How do you use the pike, typically?"

[Avenger Assembled]

"The weapon is typically used for melee combat," replied Harrier, staring down impassively at the power pike he'd carried for so many years as he passed it off to Miss A, the energy at the tip dying down as it left his fingers. "One uses the scanner to assess the weaknesses of a target before confronting them with an energy strike that matches their greatest vulnerabilities. I primarily use the blasts to attack enemies I can't catch in the air, or those who are far away but need attacking now." He hmmed quietly. "This weapon has survived...considerable damage," he elided. "Its resilience is impressive. Without it, I would have died in the Terminus."

[Electra]

Miss A tested the balance of the weapon in her hands, then carried it over to one of her scanners to run tests on it. The weapon seemed quiescent when it was out of Harrier's hands, but it was still hard for her to suppress a shiver just looking at the thing. Gina had been just five years old when the Terminus had invaded, and far away from the action, but there were some images no one would forget from that day. In school, in popular culture, in museums and even on particularly tasteless Halloween costumes, there probably wasn't a person on Earth who didn't understand something of what that length of metal could do.

Deliberately turning away, she let the scanner run and looked at Harrier. "I think our best option is going to be to disguise the pike as an entirely different, though similar weapon, and then design you an entirely new costume and persona from there," she told him. "If you typically use it to deflect blows and shoot beams of energy, we could call it a scientific-magic staff, and you could be a technowizard. I could teach you enough to make you believable in the role," she assured him. "If you tend to stab and slice and parry with it, I could make it look like a giant sword, and you could be a knight in shining armor type. I could also make it look like a spear and have you become a gladiator type, but that would be both less convincing and possibly too close to the original pike shape and form."

[Avenger Assembled]

Harrier studied Miss Americana impassively, only his segmented eyes showing his inner turmoil. To look different, to really look different, to wear a face that others couldn't see..."I would not want to be a gladiator again, anyway. I have seen too much of that life to wear it as a disguise...a knight in shining armor, then." He hmmed and admitted, "I was raised on the same stories that many on Earth were. That would be a fine thing." He looked at Miss A and added, "And you? You wear the classic style of superheroines. A sensible choice."

[Electra]

"We all wear the camouflage that suits us best," Miss A agreed with a strange little smile. "I can make a knight out of you, no problem." She looked at the results of the pike scan as it finished, nodding a little, then handed the weapon back to him. "The easiest way is going to be with a holographic generator that is activated by the start of your transformation," she decided. "I could try and disguise the pieces themselves, but they fold out of your body in a way that's both distinctive and disturbing to the less-educated masses. With a holographic generator, all anyone would see is a suit of armor shimmering into being. We'll put a separate generator on your pike, just to make sure it doesn't lose visual cohesiveness if you're disarmed or anything like that."

She grabbed her pad and started making notes, her fingers flying across the screen. "It'll need to be shielded against your energy, of course, and be several layers deep to discourage any deeper scrutiny. I've been working on a few concepts like that, I'm really making some progress. Stretch out on the table, would you? I'm going to get some measurements to work with as I build. You thinking standard knight in shining armor, faceplate and feather hat, gauntlets, boots, the whole classic deal?"

[Avenger Assembled]

"I have only seen a few pictures," Harrier admitted, "but your description will be adequate. The disguise will need to be as elaborate as possible, to hide the reality within." He climbed onto the table, staring impassively at the ceiling. "My mother told me those stories. She had a great gift for telling stories, she had been...a writer, back when she and my father had a world to write on. As long ago as that was, I suppose I am the only one left who remembers them. Even those prole children who were not taken to be changed must be gone by now."