Pepper's Ghost [IC]

[Thunder King]

"Regardless of the method, by accident or design, life is life." Voltage said, coldly gazing at Chimera.

"Don't worry, D-Gray, we will protect you, and we will make sure she can't hurt you. We know you're not an 'it'." He said, trying to calm D-Gray down.

"I assume we're going to try to isolate the problematic code and eradicate it? While leaving D-Gray intact?" He asked, turning to Miss A.

"Either way, we need to make sure Chimera and D-Gray stay isolated. I'm not an expert on A.I., but I'm willing to bet there's a way to do what needs to be done."

He scratched his chin. It was hard to believe that this man's entire personality suddenly...evolved, like that. Some outside factor was likely responsible, some form of interference, perhaps? More study was needed, either way.

[Avenger Assembled]

Citizen folded his arms and glared at the robot, thoughts of Tronik, Rogue, and his own brushes with the Labyrinth flashing in his mind. "At least he has the memories of a real person. He's not just some stupid robot Talos programmed in a Lab to wreck human civilization. I'll remember how you people really feel the next time the Labyrinth comes sniffing around. D-Gray, it's going to be okay," he said reassuringly to the frightened man, feeling an empathy that only a citizen of Tronik could for the rapper. "Even if they duped your brain, you're still a person. You're still real. You're not the only human being who lives in a computer," he added.

[Electra]

"Screw this," Miss Americana said, the sudden obscenity rather at odds with her squeaky-clean public image. She hit the remote control and deactivated Chimera, letting the robot slump down inside the shielded cage. "We'll deal with you later, when you might be a little more cooperative." With the villain incapacitated for a moment, she turned her full attention to D-Gray. "Voltage and Citizen are right," she said, using all of her formidable skill to project soothing trustworthiness. "Whatever the Foundry may have done, however this happened, you are more than just an aberrant piece of computer code. Not having an organic body doesn't make you less a person."

She sat down at the terminal underneath the screen D-Gray was projected on. "The first thing we need to do, though, is to decouple you from the virus program that they tied into you. Until that happens, you're too dangerous to allow off this shielded computer. Try not to worry, though," she added. "I know you aren't up to date on Freedom City personalities, but my name is Miss Americana, and there are no better programmers than me anywhere." Perhaps it was a boastful claim, but it was one that stood a decent chance of being true.

[trollthumper]

"I... I..." D-Gray exhaled - as much as a programmed being could exhale - and tried to regain his composure. "All right. Just get this... stuff out of me."

As Miss Americana began the debugging process, D-Gray tried to relax, exerting no more energy than that required to glare daggers at the captive, deactivated Chimera. Cannonade, meanwhile, headed over to the inert robot, rolled in one of the movable walls to keep her from driving D-Gray nuts, and, following Miss Americana's lead, turned her back on. "You just can't make up your mind, can you?" asked the gynoid after her boot-up sequence was complete.

"They're doing what they're good at. Figured I'd try the same."

Chimera looked to the wall behind Cannonade. "You moved a wall. Congratulations. I'll let you know if I need renovations done." She looked past Cannonade, almost as if trying to bore through the wall with her gaze, and smirked.

"What's so funny?"

"I fail to see anything amusing," she said. "If you're referring to my face, I believe this is metal fatigue. The... woman wasn't too gentle."

"Thought you'd be trying to get out of here by now. I mean, you managed to get - what did you call it, 'Proteus' - jumping from point to point, but you're stuck in that tin can."

"All things have their own means of delivery. I am a packet of the greater code, nothing more. Destroy me and my personality shall remain intact elsewhere."

"Good. Hate to think we'd be missing out on that warm charm."

[Electra]

On the other side of the wall, Miss a cocked an ear to hear the conversation between Cannonade and Chimera. She frowned at the exchange even as her fingers worked with unmitigated speed. "If Chimera is telling the truth about having a personality profile uploaded elsewhere," she murmured, only loud enough for those near her to catch it, "there could be another copy of the Proteus code as well." Her glance flicked up to D-Gray on the wall, and she refrained from mentioning the possibility of another entire D-Gray/virus bundle. "I'm going to try and dissect the virus itself and trace where it came from, but we may have to secure it in person, depending on where it is and how secure."

[Avenger Assembled]

Citizen joined Miss Americana in her programming, the two of them more than familiar with the vicissitudes of working together. Sharl lacked Gina's brilliance and raw power, but he was a perfectly competent programmer in his own right, especially with his own ability to interface with machines. "I hate the Foundry," he murmured quietly, but with real emphasis. "Should we alert Dr. Atom?" he asked her a little more loudly. He'd only spoken to the paternal old man a few times, but Alexander Atom was something of a progenitor for him, for all that the elderly scientist had uploaded himself long after the Curator had come and gone from Tronik. "If more attacks are coming, he want to lock his systems down for a while..."

[Electra]

"The lines of communication with Goodman are surely being tapped," Miss A pointed out, sounding distracted as she diverted most of her attention to the ridiculous speed at which she input commands. "The longer we can keep the Foundry in the dark about what we're doing, the better. But you're right that they should be alerted." She looked up for just a second. "Voltage, can you use that console over there and set up a secure call to the Goodman Building? Don't take any chances, even if it takes a bit longer. The Foundry has some excellent hackers, though nothing like what we have."

[Thunder King]

Voltage nodded and turned to the console. His hands flew across the keys as his brow furrowed, seemingly in concentration. This was a delicate, bad situation. If they didn't get the code isolated and neutralized, the damage could be catastrophic. However, he noted to himself, they really did have some of the best people who could stop it.

The Foundry was obviously taking great pains to ensure it's plans went along smoothly. Unfortunately for them, the heroes had smarter people on their side.

He worked in silence for a moment longer.

"Done." He said, nodding to Miss Americana. "Connection is as secure as it's going to get."

[trollthumper]

The screen flashed to life at Miss Americana's command. It called up a lab that looked like it had come out of some monster movie from the Fifties, the technology within being highly advanced but with a strong retro style to it. Citizen and Miss Americana were well-aware of why - the equipment were all extensions of Dr. Atom's programming, algorithms and code visualized in a style that would be innately familiar to him. The Doctor himself was busy amongst the equipment, back turned to the camera. As the connection was rather direct, odds were he was aware of the Lab was calling - but appearances had to be maintained.

After a few seconds, he turned to face the camera, a genial smile quickly spreading over his grandfatherly face. "Ah, Miss Americana," he said. "Good to see you again. Sorry for the delay, I was just finishing some calibrations. And it's good to see you as well, Citizen. I don't believe I've met your guests, but perhaps there's time for introductions. Is this a social call, or...?"

[Electra]

"I'm afraid not, Doctor," Miss Americana told him. "Are you secure?" Upon his assurance, she went on. "We've intercepted a sophisticated virus package developed by the Foundry that specifically targets you and your computer systems. Any AI program there is in danger of being overwritten and replaced with a sophisticated doppelganger version." She spoke obliquely, not willing to give away Dr. Atom's secrets even in a secure forum. "The initial package was delivered in the form of a personality replica of the rapper D-Gray, whose programming unexpectedly crossed the AI threshold. We have him isolated here in the lab and are working to strip out the malicious coding, but I suspect that there may be further iterations of the virus either en route or waiting for deployment. We're currently tracking the dissemination path and trying to locate the source, but until we do, I suggest you lock down your systems as a precaution."

[trollthumper]

Dr. Atom's virtual eyebrows rose at the description of the Foundry's latest scheme. "Well, I must say, that sounds quite serious," he said. "I'll shut down the network and go local. I'll scrub the access points as well, make sure they can't be activated; Jack will likely give me an earful for it, but the Foundry might have some way to reactivate them remotely --"

One of the instruments pinged behind Dr. Atom; he turned to the protesting monitor, and Miss Americana could see his face fall. "Ah," he said. "It would appear that the Foundry has decided to get slightly more forceful."

"Slightly?" asked Cannonade.

"A message from NORAD that arrived just under the wire. Apparently a fleet of unidentified objects roughly the size of MQ-1 Predator drones is on a flight path to intercept my location. I see they've made their way down to direct application of brute force..."

[Avenger Assembled]

Citizen took this opportunity to turn to D-Gray. "Okay, we've got to go deal with this," he told the reanimated rapper. "Don't worry, someone's always trying to blow up something in Freedom City. You stay here and you'll be safe inside the system. This is one of the most secure facilities in Freedom City, you should be fine," he promised him. "If you try and go back into this system, you'll go right into my room. Just don't...you know, mess around in there too much, and you'll be fine." Luckily Lora was in his Claremont system this particular day. He shot a look at Miss A for confirmation as they prepared to go for the Goodman Building, making sure that she wanted D-Gray somewhere safe rather than out in the field.

[Thunder King]

Well, that sounded just awesome. Attack drones, ready to blow up the Goodman Building. And here he thought he'd be enjoying a nice concert today.

"We've got to intercept those drones." He said, more to himself than anyone else. It looked like Miss Americana was in charge of what was going on, so he waited for her lead. Besides, he'd never dealt with anything like this before. Better have someone more experienced on hand to help in case something went...wrong. Last thing he needed was some heavy ordinance explosives going off literally in his face. Having to be buried in pieces was not on his list of things to do.

Whoever the Foundry was, they really wanted Dr. Atom dead. He wasn't about to let that happen, not while he could stop it.

[Electra]

"Intercepting the drones would be ideal," Miss A agreed, already getting up from her seat, "but it's hard to say how much time we're going to have. Cannonade, you may have to come behind us and

handle a second wave. Citizen, give me your projector." She held out a hand to take the holographic projector that held her sidekick when he was away from home. Sharl could fly under his own power, but not nearly as quickly as she could, and carrying a small holoprojector wouldn't be nearly the tactical headache that a full-sized human being would be. Heading to the nearest actual window, she pushed a button to open it and leapt straight out. "Let's move!"

[trollthumper]

The team was soon out of the Lab, taking off across Downtown Freedom. Where the others took to the skies, Cannonade raced across rooftops, clearing the gaps left by the streets below with little effort. The group knew where they were going - it was always easy to make out the Goodman Building, towering high above much of Freedom. And on a day like today, the explosions helped. The drones were strafing the top floors of the building, opening fire with everything they had. Any lesser building would likely be rubble by now, but the Goodman held strong. But it couldn't hold up forever.

As the group got closer, it became clear - especially to the more tech-minded among them - that the drones were not standard issue. The make was similar to a Predator, but shifted and distorted in several places. Such a thing might pass on radar, but not up close and in person. If they came from anywhere, it was more likely they came from the Foundry's own personal stock.

"All right," said Cannonade. "We got a plan beyond 'beat them to scrap'? 'Cause I'm perfectly cool with that one."

[Avenger Assembled]

"Oh, jeez!" exclaimed Citizen as a blast of energy from one of the drones knocked a big hole in the side of the skyscraper. Without hesitation, he threw himself into the breach and took up a position in front of the hole, hoping against hope that the well-reinforced structure would hold out against further attacks. When one of the drones was foolish enough to get close, he flew forward and landed a wild punch with his solidified fist that sent the mechanical monstrosity careening through the skies, temporarily cut off from its masters control. Too fast to take them out by attacking their circuits, he thought, have to do this the Earth way! Now just...well, all the rest of them to go.

[Thunder King]

Voltage observed the targets for a few moments. In any other situation, he might be tempted to try an EMP to drop them all, but with Citizen so close, he couldn't risk hurting someone like that. Ah, well, electricity was as valid as anything, he supposed.

His body coursed with energy for a few moments, before unleashing a massive blast that coursed through the frame of one of the drones. He'd apparently damaged some essential electronic components, as it became sluggish and stopped firing.

With any luck, they could manage this quickly and not let them destroy the building.

[trollthumper]

Voltage's blast did more than disrupt the drone - it caused its thrusters to seize up entirely. The drone suddenly became as aerodynamic as an anchor, plunging to the street below at calamitous speed. It had already reached terminal velocity by the time it was halfway down the Goodman Building; once it hit the hard disaster canopy that the Atom Family had installed to deploy in case of aerial attack, it erupted into a shower of scrap.

Cannonade, meanwhile, studied the drones, taking account of their position and trying to compensate as they jetted around the building. It'd been a while since he'd tried to pull off the flying tackle - the sorceress in Boston, last he remembered. But if he could wrap his arms around one of those things, there was a chance he could try to dismantle it in mid-air and leap off onto a nearby roof - and there was also a chance, even if it was small, that he could wrestle it down onto the roof. After squaring his jump, he took to the air, aiming for the drone's main chassis. He soared just overhead, however, landing with a thud on the roof across the way.

Damn. Gotta adjust for the wind.

The drone, undeterred by Cannonade's aerial display, turned towards the hole blown in the side of the Goodman Building. A rocket shot out of the front of the drone - though to Miss Americana's eyes, it didn't appear to be ordnance. It lodged in the depths of the building, with no resulting explosion or other destructive effect.

[Electra]

"Good work, guys," Miss Americana called, even as she hung back a moment to assess the situation. "Keep an eye on each other, we can't afford any friendly fire up here." Her brow furrowed as she saw the last drone release its payload into the side of the building, but all that assessment had also given her time to aim. A red white and blue laser barrage took it between the eyes, even as the heroine zipped through the sky to remove the missile it had launched. Whatever it was, leaving it there was just asking for trouble. Cracking her knuckles in the pattern that rerouted power from the laser systems to the synthetic muscle tissue, she wrapped her arms around the missile and gave it a mighty heave, wresting it out of the building.

[trollthumper]

Miss Americana almost had the missile out of the building when it began to lash out at her. Steel arms tight like cables grabbed her by the wrists, trying to pry her hands off the casing. "That's quite enough," came a distorted voice from deep within, one that broadcast far and wide - and was instantly familiar to Citizen. The payload began to shift beneath her grip, the casing splitting to reveal a more humanoid form beneath it - and where the warhead should have been, the bronzed face of Keres emerged. "I'm rather done with loose variables." The onslaught managed to break Miss Americana's grip as Keres stood tall, free of its ballistic confines. "It's time for something direct. Something... unsentimental."

Keres clicked his fingers... and down below, the drones that were still in operation took a nosedive, headed for the street below. Cannonade watched as their gaze turned towards the civilians who hadn't been able to get away from the initial carnage, and was already preparing to follow them down.

[Avenger Assembled]

At the sight of the man who'd nearly destroyed his home and most of the people there for the sake of an ideological point about machine intelligences, Citizen immediately went into action. Trusting that Voltage and Cannonade could handle the still-silent drones for a moment, Sharl swooped down out of the sky to engage Keres in hand-to-hand combat, supporting Miss Americana's attacks on the murderous mechanical monster. "Hey, you," sneered Citizen as he swooped down from on high. "Looks like you survived the beating Gal Vanic gave you after all. You know it's funny, for a crusader for mechanical mastery, you sure do spend a lot of time picking on old men in computers and civilians in programs. Maybe you'd be better off fighting something more your speed, like one of your Tetris blocks!" And with that he threw a punch, a solid hit to the chin that rocked Keres back.

[Thunder King]

The moment Keres appeared, Voltage realized that this individual probably had a personal history with Miss Americana and Citizen. That left it up to the rest of them to fight the remaining drones. That was just fine to him.

He watched as the drones dove and narrowed his eyes. Attacking someone else who could defend themselves was one thing. Attacking civilians was an entirely different thing altogether.

Silvery current crackled around him as he extended his hands. He watched, carefully, as the drone dove, waiting for the exact moment to strike best.

A bolt of energy coursed through the air, cracking the air with a sizzle and a pop. The drone jerked and seemingly lost control. It was evident that it was at least struggling to remain aloft. It would be out of the conflict, at least for the moment. He turned to the other drones...

[trollthumper]

The drone, like its other wounded brethren, lost ignition and plummeted towards the earth. Unlike the others, however, this one managed to brace for the impact, merely taking a heavy dent as it collided with a parked van. Downed, but not out, the drone began to rear its VTOL engines, trying to get enough power to take to the air once more. In time, it rose, hovering a foot over the ruined car --

-- at least, until Cannonade, falling from the sky, drove his feet into the wavering drone's back. He didn't go right through it, as he'd kinda been hoping for... but he did knock it back down to the pavement, carving a huge dent in the top in the process. As it tried to remain aloft, Cannonade wrapped his arms around it and fell to the ground, trying to keep it pinned down. "Come on, you overgrown toy plane," he said, "get down here and - gah!"

The drone broke from his grip, rising six feet above the ground - but not much further. Cannonade smiled. "At least we're seeing eye to eye."

[Electra]

"Stupid robots," Miss Americana muttered as she lost her grip on Keres and watched the metal monstrosity attempting to wreak havoc on the city below. "What you need is a more accessible off switch." She cracked her knuckled and pulled out her scanner, flipping it open just like a character out of Star Trek, and pointed it at Keres. "Of course..." she sighed. "It would be that. Citizen!" she ordered her sidekick, "get clear right now and take out that last drone."

Miss A herself rocketed suddenly away from Keres, dropping nearly to street level and almost out of the fight entirely. "Voltage, magnetize Keres!" she called. "He's vulnerable! Do it now!"

[Avenger Assembled]

"Hit with all you've got!" called Citizen, instantly obeying Miss Americana as he rocketed out of the way of Voltage's planned attack the moment the words to do so had left Miss Americana's lips. He dove for the drone and didn't slow down; slamming his shoulder against its midsection like a human football player as he plowed it into the brick wall of the loft apartments across the street from the Goodman Building, driving the robot towards the hard concrete below with all his considerable mechanical might. Got to take it out before it can hurt anyone else, then Voltage can take out Keres 2.0 and we can finally get back to helping D-Gray find a place to live! It was, he was confident, going to be a good day.