Friends On the Science Side (IC)

[Avenger Assembled]

"I am sorry for your accident, Lance," Murdock spoke suddenly, having been dead silent and nearly still for minutes. "Great misfortune can happen in this beautiful world." Inside his head, Harrier plotted battle strategies for an uncomfortable second before he forced himself to think in new directions. "Would you have preferred to have the damage done to you repaired, rather than to be upgraded?" he asked. "I know many in this world are...uncomfortable with cyberization." His pike traced a slow circle in the air, the glowing tip well away from any of Miss A's sensitive equipment.

[JackgarPrime]

Lance gives an appreciative nod over to Murdok, and his face seems to lighten up a bit. "I appreciate it. And yeah, you're right. There's definitely a lot of misfortune. But at the same time, it makes the ups mean that much more."

He lets Murdok continue, then chuckles, shaking his head. "Nah, I'm happy with how it turned out,to be honest. Being like this means I have my chance to really make a difference. Besides...I've always wanted to fly, ever since I was a kid. Jets are great and all...but to actually be up there yourself, soaring through the clouds? To be able to actually feel it? No way I'd ever give up that feeling...."

After answering, Lance opens his mouth as to ask a question in return, but decides better of it and stops. He was going to ask the a similar question back, but he has a suspicion he knows how Murdok would answer. Thinking of something else, he looks back and forth between the two. "So, how do you know each other?"

[Electra]

"We happened to meet each other during a rescue operation," Miss A said easily, jotting a few more notes. "Harrier would've had the situation quite under control, except that an Omegadrone sighting itself is enough to cause a panic, which exacerbated the situation. Jack of all Blades and his sidekick were in the neighborhood as well, and between all of us, we contained things and got the civilians calmed down. I can understand the reaction, I did shoot him myself when I first made the scene," she admitted with rueful good humor. "Luckily, he's a sturdy guy. Once we get you a public face," she told Murdock, "you'll be an asset to the city."

Turning back to Lance, she began running a handheld scanner over his scalp, just above his hair. "Do you have much pain these days?" she asked him. "From the wounds, or from the implants themselves? Headaches, dizziness, muscle soreness? That's a lot of weight for your body to be hauling around."

[JackgarPrime]

Lance nods, although the nod is cut short when he sees the scanner coming to his head. Not wanting to mess the scan up, he stops moving his head, and does his best to speak without moving it. "Jack of all Blades...? That names sounds familiar. I think he was mentioned in the dossiers I was given. But there were so many supers listed in that, it was hard to keep track."

Keeping his head still, his hand does the bit of opening and closing that it tends to do. "As for pain? Only just after I get a tune-up or an upgrade. The doctors say it's my body getting used to them being there. But after a week or so, I generally feel back to normal."

[Electra]

"That's good," Miss A said absently, studying her data ferociously. "Well, it'll take some doing, but I think I should be able to get a decent analysis done of your cyborg parts that will at least let me field dress you if you're ever injured in a fight. You're quite an impressive feat of technology, Lance." She tucked away the pad for a moment and smiled at him. "I'm done with you for now, though. You can go ahead and get down. Murdock, you want to get up on the table?"

[JackgarPrime]

Lance always gets a bit of a swell of pride when someone compliments the technology inside him. Not for anything he does, of course. But it's always something to let the guys who work on him back at the base hear. Good bunch, but they need to get out more. "Thank you very much. I just wish I knew how it all works. I keep asking the team to give me lessons on how to at least patch up a bit. They do tell me how to do some basic nightly maintenance, at least." Hearing his turn was done, he hops off the table, making a big of a clang as he lands. Giving Murdok some space, he heads over to the other side of the room, to watch from there.

[Avenger Assembled]

Murdock walked up to the observation table, his weight heavy on the floor just as Lance's had been, and looked at Miss A to speak three words. "In or out?" When she told him, he retracted his armor, storing his pike at his waist, and climbed onto the table. His heartrate went up, and he made a conscious choice to rest his hands on his chest. She will not attempt to restrain me. This is not the Happy Hospice.

It soon became obvious that Murdock's internal anatomy was decidedly odd. His bones had been replaced with fractral constructions of impossible depth, Miss A's scanners showing her ever-increasing levels of complexity as far down as she could resolve. A particularly massive construction lay along his spine, while another occupied most of his head, but his entire body was permeated with the Terminus technology. His skin and human organs were more of a shell over an unfolding metal frame than a regular body. It was very little like earthly cyborgs.

[Electra]

With so many scanners pointed his way, it didn't take Miss A long to notice the ex-drone's climbing stress level. She wheeled over a monitor screen and turned on a relaxation program, random patterns of colors and soothing chimes designed to ease tension and relax the mind. "Try and watch this while I'm working, it will help me get clearer results," she told him, tactfully not mentioning that she knew he was afraid. He was obviously trying not to show it, so she wouldn't give it away.

After that, Miss A didn't say anything for long time, caught up in the terrible beauty of the complex fractal build. It was an awful thing that had been done to him, certainly, and it must have been very painful, but the work itself was gorgeous. Her superintelligent mind took in the patterns instantaneously, turning them over and finding new nuances with every angle. Yes he was designed to be a killing machine, yes it had been a terrible invasion of his body, but it made the cyborg implants Lance was wearing look like peg-legs in comparison. For a few minutes, she sort of forgot there were other people in the room.

[JackgarPrime]

While Victory watches with a curiosity, his eyes glance over each of the monitors. With his enhanced sight, he can see them as if they were right in front of his face. His eyebrow quirks, as he has never seen GUI's like Miss. A is using, and it's quite difficult for him to make sense of any of it. But, as he looks at each of them, he feels a very quick, very slight buzz in his head. The buzzes hit with each monitor he looks at, and brings his hand up to rub his head. Whether something was wrong, or if he might just be tired from a long day, he can't be sure. He's guessing the latter, but he speaks up for a moment. "Excuse me, but you didn't see anything weird going on with me when you scanned my head, did you?"

[Electra]

"I didn't take too close a scan of your head," Miss A told him, looking up from her analysis and taking a moment to refocus. "I was concentrating more on your cybernetic limbs. Does it feel like something's wrong?" With concern on her lovely face, she picked up a handheld scanner and took it over to him, running it lightly along his scalp. "I do have a lot of equipment in here, I hope it's not causing any interference."

[JackgarPrime]

Lance shakes his head, not sure if it's to clear out the cobwebs or to say no. After a moment, he feels alright again, and smiles as a reassurance. "Nah, that's alright. I've just had a big day. Between getting fitted for upgrades, a bunch of perps and whatnot, I think I just need to sit for a bit." As he says that, he sees a sturdy-looking chair and tests it. Satisfied that he won't break it, he carefully sits down and tries to relax. "Don't worry about me. I'm sure Murdok's still got plenty more for you to study."

Thinking about the way he said that, he leans over to see Murdok and calls over. "You don't mind me saying that, do you?" He really wasn't sure how sensitive he may or may not be about wording.

[Avenger Assembled]

"Saying what?" Murdock looked at Lance, confusion furrowing his lined brow for a moment, before he focused again on the soothing lights and images. "I am capable of slowing the activation of my armor if you would prefer a longer exposure," the drone added for Miss A's benefit. "I am unfamiliar with your detection equipment's specifications." Miss A could just make out the incredible complexity of the larger units embedded at the base of Murdock's spine, with the suggestion of a treasure box of super-tech buried inside him...even if it was of course Terminus tech. "The only thing I cannot demonstrate safely in this spot is my self-propulsion system."

[Electra]

"That's fine, we'll test that another day," Miss A told Murdock, returning to the cyborg on the table. Looking over at Lance, she added, "If you feel anything else, let me know right away and I'll get some sensors hooked up," she told him. "If you're having minor power fluctuations, I should be able to detect that with the equipment here."

Turning back to Murdock, she told him, "If you could activate your armor one piece at a time, the way you did with your arm and the pike, that would be helpful." She reset some of her equipment, so that, if anything, the data flowed faster than ever across the screens. "How long have you been a cyborg?" she asked Murdock as she worked, sounding almost as though she were just trying to make idle conversation.

[Avenger Assembled]

"I estimate I was assimilated seventy-five years ago by your calendar." At the Omegadrone's words, the armor began slowly sliding out through and over his arms, clearly passing through the lines in his flesh without cutting, a terrible, beautiful origami snowflake of steel and death inside a too-fragile human flesh. "This is a guess. The Terminus uses no calendar but Omega's will. My parents were old enough to remember the date before their world was lost. I have extrapolated what I could since." Both his arms were now covered, the quiet of the lab making the slightly wet clunk-clunk-clunk of his armor unfolding all the louder, inside the fractally-folded metal in his bones opening like a flower as it slid through his skin and out. "I am probably a century old. Without access to the repair systems used for drones, I will likely age and die as a normal man."

[JackgarPrime]

At Murdok's response, Lance just shakes his head with a small smile. "Don't worry about it, then." As he stays sitting, he realizes he still hasn't put his jacket back on. Looking about, he sees that he sat down next to where he threw it. How convenient. Slipping it back on, he nods over to his host. "Thanks. I'll make sure to let you know."

Once his jacket was back on, Lance relaxed, listening to Murdok recall bits and pieces of his story. Curious, he can't help but speak up. "Were you aware at all of the passage of time? Or does being connected to the Terminus make it blur together?"

[Avenger Assembled]

For a second, Lance thought he wasn't going to get any response at all from the taciturn Omegadrone. But then Murdock spoke, his voice slow and distinct, as he replied, "I recall everything that I perceived during my time as an Omegadrone. It is the years before that fade, since they were unnecessary for the continued function of my neurological modifications." And with those words, his helmet erupted from his head, facial skin sliding away to reveal bone and tissue that just as suddenly gave way to a flat, featureless expanse of a face. "I can never forget." His voice was flat and affectless through the synthesizer of his armor, but even then the two could hear the emotion pulling at the edges of the mechanized voice.

[Electra]

Miss A was quiet for a moment, looking over the edge of her pad at the faceless cyborg, her own expression nearly as blank as his for just a second or two. When the animation returned, it was as though nothing had happened. "Well, we'll see about all those long-term adjustments later," she said with brisk professionalism, stepping forward to run a tool over the plates of Harrier's skull. "Right now I just need to figure out what makes you tick. As far as you know, are you fully human under the modifications, or do you have any alien ancestry in you?"

[JackgarPrime]

Victory seems to regret his question at hearing Murdok's answer, and leans his mouth against his hand, in a bit more of a thoughtful pose. Looking to the ground, he begins to wonder what would happen if he got caught in that sort of situation. His own body, as far as he knows, may indeed be ageless as well, and if his body were somehow taken over by the enemy....he may suffer much the same fate. While it's true that his mind is still his own, there's no telling what the future might hold.

Lance looks back up from his thoughts, his voice much quieter, but still audible. "I'm sorry, Murdok. I can't even imagine what that had to have been like....Indeed, what it's like for you even now. But...I'm glad you have the chance to use your power to help. But, remember...don't think of it as any sort of atonement or redemption....none of those actions were your own."

[Avenger Assembled]

"Yes. There can be no redemption. No atonement. It is too much." He thought of billions dead on thousands of worlds, hundreds and thousands dead and worse at his hand. Bloodscreamsbloodscreamsbloodscreamsandthesmellofash...The armor closed over his legs, first one, then another, then gradually over his torso. "But if I can live so that one innocent may live, my life can have a purpose that I choose for myself. And I choose to be free." The armor finished opening, and there was a faceless, souless Omegadrone on Miss A's table. "My heritage is entirely human. My parents' homeworld destroyed all those of alien ancestry, before they were themselves destroyed."

[Electra]

"I imagine at some point, we can modify some of your memories, if you decide that's what you want to do," Miss A said with deceptive offhandedness, running a palm-sized scanner over the armor plates as they appeared. "That's the good thing about pervasive cerebral cyberization, it is possible to therapeutically reprogram the cerebral cortex, the hypothalamus and the lateral interpositus nucleus. Not that we want to do too much tampering, but under the guidance of a trained specialist, it might be possible to excise the worst of the traumatic imprints. And as for the repairs, well, I like to think I'm at least as good a mechanic as any of Omega's minions," she told Harrier with a faint smile.

Looking up, she focused on Victory for a moment. "How's the head?" she asked. "This is the scanner with the broadest wavelength I've got, so if anything's going to get your skull vibrating, this would be it."

[JackgarPrime]

Lance watches in silence as Murdok answers while going through the various parts of his transformation. He hadn't meant what he had said in a way to put any sort of blame. He was trying to try to help take off some of the burden of redemption Murdok has been feeling, but he regrets it. He should've known better than to say something like that. But through it, he still hears how motivated Murdok is to doing good, and that's what really matters.

He stays quiet until Miss. A speaks to him again. He taps his head real quick, and smiles. "It's alright now, don't worry. I just got dizzy from getting up too fast or something."

[Avenger Assembled]

"I am all that is left of those places. If I don't remember them, no one will." He lifted his pike for Miss A's inspection, snapping it open as the blade gleamed wickedly. It soon became obvious that this was much more powerful than the power pikes she'd seen in her high-level sciences courses: this was a weapon powerful enough to fight superhumans on even terms. And its power source seemed...to be absent, and yet it still glowed and hissed. "There are survivors of lost worlds in the Terminus," he added. "It's how beings besides Omega came to live there. But not every world has those who live."

[Electra]

Miss A handled the pike with all the care and caution it deserved, not touching it while she scanned it with a variety of instruments. "Well, it's your decision, Murdock. Nobody is going to make you get any treatment you don't want. But think about it. It's not your responsibility to carry all that on your shoulders. You're free now, you can do anything you want. How do you like working at that restaurant? Things going okay for you there?"

[JackgarPrime]

Lance looks over the pike as Miss. A handles it, his enhanced vision allowing him to get a look at some of the details along the surface. However, he doubts much could be gathered from a passive look. And, in all honestly, due to it being an artifact from the Terminus, he'd rather not touch it, himself. But then, he knows the science-minded like Miss. A tend to have little issue with examining things that may simply be too dangerous. But then, without risk, there'd be no progress.

[Avenger Assembled]

"I like it," replied the Omegadrone, faceplate folding back under his skin at his words. "The customers can be very loud, and usually the tip is small, but the work is easy and there are many people there. No one...no one talks to me unless I want to talk to them, and usually those are only those who work with me. I am learning some of their languages, and some of their cultures." He smiled as the armor folded away. "Sometimes the customers will be angry and swear, and their fat children will scream. It is beautiful." Conscious of their eyes on him as his body slowly returned to normal, he added, "To see them free to be spoiled and fat, it is...I can feel only joy when I see children like that."