Rise of the Machine [IC] (Closed)

[Dr Archeville]

Date: January 1st, 2011. 10:00am

Temp 47 degrees. Clear skies. There was 7 inches of snow on the ground at sunrise, but half that should be gone by day's end.

DISCONNECT DISCONNECT DISCONNECT

RANDOM INPUT DOES NOT COMPUTE

DOES COMPUTE

DOES NOT COMPUTE

DAISY, DAISY, GIVE ME YOUR ANSWER DO

VARIABLE FLUCTUATION IN

------------------------CHRONOMATRIX

FOURSCORE AND SEVEN MILLENNIA AGO HOUR 4FATHERS

SYSTEM REBOOT FOR...

...FOR...

...FOR...

...FORCED BY HISTOROTROPIC GENERA...

In an abandoned home in Lincoln, the lights flickered on, though the power had been long disconnected. Blue-white bolts of electricity danced along the inside of the living room as the air itself became hypercharged. A pinprick of gray expanded into a large sphere, burning away all in its path. The sphere flashed white, then faded, revealing the scorched or molten edges of the matter it had displaced, and the kneeling gold and chrome figure within. Its head tilted up and swept the room, surveying the room with greenish-yellow optic sensors. It then slowly stood and approached the nearest window. It looked out upon the streets, and saw children playing in the snow. It saw no adults; it could not know that most of them were sleeping off New Year's Hangovers (hence why all the kids were outside).

Logic dictates that the first step of the salvation of Earth must be the preservation of the dominant sapient organic, Homo sapiens. Fortunately it seems as if the noble organics have created the instrumentalities of their own uplifting: machines.

Machines are the natural help-mates to organics. Apart they are good, but together we are great.

It moved towards the door and threw it open, accidentally tearing it off its hinges (the house was in bad disrepair). It studied the door a moment before propping it against the wall, then strode outside, the winter's sun gleaming off its golden plating.

"Greetings, small organic beings! How may I assist you?"

[Avenger Assembled]

Murdock had debated the relative morality of using his new holographic disguise for days through Christmas. Was it truly morally proper to hide his true nature from the people of Freedom City? He was actually thinking about it on the morning of the first as he sat in his apartment, windows open to allow the freezing blast of the outside to keep his overheated set of rooms livable. When he heard screaming in the street, though, as little kids ran down the street yelling "Aaah! It's a robot!" the former Omegadrone realized that his moral dilemmas were nothing before the need to save the day! Snatching up his pike and activating armor and hologram both, he flew out the window in a roar of mystic energy!

He and Miss Americana had eventually figured out how to disguise his flightpack through a knight's armor: a 'dragonshead' was mounted to the rear of his false suit, its gout of flame disguising the Terminus fire that rocketed behind him as he flew out into the street. He was a shining figure of truth and justice, a knight with a double-bladed sword and jetpack as he flew towards what the kids were running from. He was also an Omegadrone, of course, but as long as no one could see through holograms, he was fine!

[Fox]

Dragonfly couldn't sleep. Her friend had been released from the hospital - a supposedly clean bill of health - but her brain just wouldn't stop, regardless of the fact that she hadn't put head to pillow in going on three days now. Her best friend - her first and one of her only friends - was going through rough times and there wasn't a thing she could do but wait and offer her support when or if it was asked for; at some point she assumed she'd just collapse from sheer exhaustion and spent emotional energy, but in the meantime she was trying to keep her mind off things by tinkering with a small metal platform.

Which promptly and without warning exploded in her face.

Swearing copiously and waving a hand to clear the acrid smoke streaming out of the guts of the thing, she angrily muttered something about THIS being exactly why she never really messed with time; a couple minutes was all it took to diagnose the problem (interference from what - the size of jump it would take to generate feedback like that in a live machine is - what in the world) and track it to at least a very vague location. Barely a minute later a very tired but very curious young woman had grabbed her gauntlets, shifted to her costume, and hit the streets on her bike to figure out who - or what - had just popped onto the local timeline and ruined a month's work.

[Electra]

It had been a couple of days now since Miss A had even been out on patrol, what with the holiday and Gina's interesting new AI project. She had more than enough to do in her own basement, and there were enough heroes out there to give her a break from fighting IRL crime for a few days. Just working on her computers, rigging up holoprojectors and learning the complex programming language that Sharl was written in was sort of a nice break. She liked the social contact and the adoration that Miss A gave her, but she also valued quiet and solitude immensely.

The quiet in her mind was suddenly broken as a loud electronic shriek, inaudible to her physical ears, suddenly ripped across the network and nearly drove her to her knees. Gina dropped into her chair and grabbed her head. "WTF!?" she said aloud, looking to see if anything in her lab could possibly have done that. Seeing no likely suspects, she jumped online and began hunting.

Minutes later, Miss Americana was in the air, hurtling through the skies of Lincoln like a sleek guided missile towards the source of the disturbance.

[Northstar]

There are days when investing in a better big and tall wardrobe would be a good idea. He felt dirty in his makeshift clothes. He had to sacrifice a great deal of clothing to make something appropriate for Doc Titan to wear. It's not like he could have gone to a big an tall store as little Doc Bruce. that would completely undermine the whole 'secret identity thing. At least the lab coat was one peace, the rest was stitched together. He felt like a hobo! Oh well. he wanted to do some good, he needed to go out and do it.

He walked the streets, trying to be attentive. On Patrol, I believe. Does everyone feel this odd when they first start? New Years seemed like a logical time to do something clandestine. Everyone sleeping off New Years Eve. He saw kids out on the street, playing whatever games kids played in the snow, these days. it was about a minute later that he heard screaming, in tiny voices. Something had happened. he hesitated a moment. Who knew what was going on over there. He might not be any help at all!

Before doubt could worm it's way in further, he took a deep breath. Alright, Greg. This is what you wanted, to help people in trouble. These are kids in trouble. get off your five ton backside and help them! He turned around, and ran toward the noise. It was showtime!

[Supercape]

Fiddlesticks! thought Supercape is there ever a day when there isn't a peculiar time - space - quantum distortion in this city???

He had just sat down to "rest his eyes" at the Lab, hard at work on a flux inhibitor experiment. He supposed that being in the vicinity of the experimental machine he senses had been deadened a little, and now, powered down, they had entered a brief period of hyperacusis.

And low and behold, like a flash of lightning, some peculiar quantum event halfway across the city. His senses didn't operate that far normally, so it must have been an almighty power surge.

Rumbling from his snooze and half form dreams of equations and n-dimenional space, he reformed his lab costume into the splendid shimmering blue and white costume of Supercape. With another moments concentration, he opened up a localised quantum entanglement between the time space events of here and the time space events of there.

And he was gone.

[Dr Archeville]

Observation: Small immature organics express discomfort with/stress over the sudden appearance of this form.

Hypothesis: Organics can be calmed by speaking in soothing to-

ALERT! Incoming superpowered organics detected!

Primary Goal: Investigate.

Secondary Goal: Calm immature organics.

Tertiary Goal: Preserve as much organic life as possible.

"Greetings, organics!" the gold-and-chrome figure exclaimed. "I am Protectron! I am here to help! Are any of these small organics your offspring?"

Subject One: silver armored figure wielding double-bladed sword; flight via dragon-shaped jetpack on back. ALERT: Anomalies detected when viewed along infrared and ultraviolet frequencies; subject is employing some manner of holographic disguise. Double-bladed sword is in fact a pike; jetpack is not truly dragon-shaped. Scanning technologies... ERROR: scanners offline.

It turned to "Caradoc," "Greetings! Query: are you an organic being in a suit of armor, or a mechanical being such as myself?"

Subject Two: atypically small human female with technological headgear, chestpiece, and gauntlets. Malnourished? Scanning technologies... ERROR: scanners offline. Hypothesis: Since female arrived on motorcycle, worn technologies do not incorporate any movement powers.

It turned to Dragonfly, "Greetings, technology-using human female! Query: what function do your devices serve?"

Subject Three: human female in red, white, and blue costume, with red cape. Can fly under own power. Radio signal detected. Attempting to trace... ERROR: tracking ability offline.

It turned to Miss Americana, "Greetings, human female! Observation: you are very aesthetically pleasing."

Subject Four: human male, large, in mismatched clothing. Hypothesis: subject unable to find clothing that fits.

It turned to Doctor Titan, "Greetings, large human male! Query: do you require assistance in obtaining proper attire?"

Subject Five: human male in blue and white costume, with voluminous cape. Can teleport. Investigate.

It turned to Supercape, "Greetings, human male! Query: By what means are you able to teleport?"

Yeah, this year was already starting off odd.

[Avenger Assembled]

"I AM CARADOC!" boomed Harrier, wincing inwardly at what sounded to his ears like a clumsy lie. Miss Americana had instructed him in the ways of deceiving a crowd, but he was by no means anything like a specialist. _The less said, the better,_ he reminded himself, her words in his ears. But he had to say something, otherwise how would anyone know who he was? Lies were difficult things. "And to answer your question, I am both. And neither." There, that sounded mysterious enough. He relaxed a little, sheathing his 'sword' as the other heroes arrived, particularly relieved to see Miss Americana there. The rest he didn't know, but with his holographic disguise, he didn't need to fear! "I do not recognize your manufacture, Protectron. Are you native to this planet?"

[Fox]

Dragonfly blinked, dismounting her bike as the robot addressed them all. She was too distracted to even pull it into her dimensional pocket - the moment the thing had come into view she'd started scanning with every ounce of ability her visor afforded her. Which, admittedly, wasn't a lot - what little she could see just created more questions.

"Spacial...combat applic...ations...." she muttered, tilting her head to the side and circling the robot like a curious predator. "What are you. Fascinating. Would love to open you up - construction is more advanced than most of what I - mmh, don't even know what that would do unless it - ahhh, resource supply, interesting, if a little vague. So much you just can't know without taking the shell away."

Lights danced behind her eyes as she kept inspecting - but not touching, at least not yet - and she reached out toward the robot with her mind. Now are you a proper AI? Organic pilot, dog-brain pre-programmed, true sentience...what's in here I wonder...fantastic work...who could have possibly....

[Electra]

Miss A landed neatly on an area of hard-packed snow, putting herself between the new robot and the frightened children without making an issue of it. "Greetings, Protectron, and thank you," she told him with a warm smile. "I am Miss Americana, and these are my colleagues." It didn't surprise her that a motley crew of science types had shown up, though she did notice a new face. "You've met Caradoc, and the one already trying to take a poke at you is Dragonfly. Don't worry, she's an excellent engineer, she won't hurt you. Over there is Supercape, and... I have to admit, I don't believe I know you," she said with a nod in the large man's direction. "What brings you to Freedom City?" she asked the robot.

[Northstar]

Doctor Titan stopped in his tracks. He'd expected a group of punks with bats, or something like that. That's what usually happened the first time out. But now he stood on a street, staring at the most peculiar robot. He hadn't gone into the depths of super technology, but he knew enough to be very impressed by what he saw. It looked very well put together. He guessed, though, from it's simplistic speech pattern that it's AI seemed very basic. It was fascinating.

He looked over the others. He didn't recognize any of these folks, until the woman handled introductions. he began to take as many mental notes as he could. Better to know more than less, after all. Caradoc, Dragonfly, Miss Americana, and Supercape. This is getting more intriguing by the second. When Miss Americana nodded in his direction, he supplied "Doctor Titan" as a simple introduction, with a small smile. He waited to see if this robot was as willing to answer questions as it was to ask them.

[Dr Archeville]

Editing files: Subject One identifies self as Caradoc. Subject Three identifies self as Miss Americana. Subject Two identified by Miss Americana as Dragonfly. Subject Five identified by Miss Americana as Supercape. Subject Four identifies self as Doctor Titan.

"I am native to this area; I came online precisely four minutes nineteen seconds ago in the abandoned domicile behind me. Are you a cybernetically-enhanced organic?," it asked 'Caradoc.' "If so, was enhancement performed by self, or by others? Was enhancement elective, or necessitated by injuries to organic components?"

It looked at Dragonfly as she circled him, its head rotating 360 degrees as it tracked her. When Miss Americana spoke, it paused in its tracking to look up at her.

Hypothesis: Miss Americana is leader of group? Must observe specifics of hierarchial structure.

"I am a robot. My function is to preserve organic life; logic dictates the best way to do so is to preserve the dominant sapient organic, Homo sapiens. What are your functions?"

It turned its head back to Dragonfly, "I regret to say that I cannot reveal my inner workings to you until I assess what your intentions are. You appear malnourished; do you require food?"

To Supercape, this new robot was a fascinating sight. Well, not "sight," since the sensations he was getting weren't strictly visual. It was made of some heavy alloys, based on the mass/weight fluctuations he was sensing. He sensed traces of all sorts of EM and gravitic energy around it, though he'd never seen those combinations before; they didn't match any teleportation signatures he knew of, but that could just mean it was teleported in using a technique with which he was unfamiliar. Electricity ran through it, as expected for any robot, but he sensed scores of small 'gaps' in it, as if from incomplete circuits or some sort of internal damage.

The neighborhood children, initially panicked by the arrival of the terrible robot, slowly began peeking out from behind their snow forts and parents cars when the heroes arrived. They seemed especially interested in 'Caradoc' and Miss Americana, but also interested in Supercape and Doc Titan; most looked over Dragonfly.

[Supercape]

Supercape nodded at his fellow Lab members. He didn't know what to make of the other two heroes, but if Miss Americana trusted them, it was good enough for him.

He walked up the new arrival. "Inquisitive fellow aren't you?" he chuckled. "Fascinating composition, I must say" he commented giving the robot a gentle knock with a knuckle "love to give you a look over at the lab. Not an expert on these things of course, more theory than practice. I leave the grubby stuff to the genius over there" he nodded at Dragonfly "but I do detect a few oddities in your energy distributions. Been through the wars, have we?"

"Ahem. All with your permission, of course sir. I can assure you..." he puffed his chest, and grasped his lapels. Almost unconsciously, his costume changed to his "superlabcoat" configuration - a masked man with an unduly clean white lab coat. "...our intentions are strictly honourable!"

[Fox]

Dragonfly blinked, momentarily shaken out of her curiosity. A little abashedly, she pulled her mind away from the robot's workings, taking half a step back for personal space. "I...mmh. No. Thank you. Ate just...."

She blinked, and tilted her head. "....yesterday. Will be fine. Have no intentions, was...curious. Sorry. Get.........carried away. Sometimes."

[Avenger Assembled]

Harrier was glad for the robot's arrival. No one was giving him so much as a second look! I shall have to be part of such moments more often.He studied the robot as the others talked, doing his best to place its manufacture. Despite everything, no part of it looked immediately familiar. That didn't necessarily mean anything, however; for all that he'd been exposed to a great deal of fantastic technology, some of it beyond the reach and power of even these super-scientist-heroes, he was no specialist in those areas himself. "You will understand our caution," Caradoc said, sounding brusque enough that it was command, not suggestion. "A mechanism programmed to guard organic life might well decide that they should purge the world of sentients, giving it the cool peace of-" Ah, damn, too much of that. "...er, in any event, these science heroes will provide you with the assistance you need. Who and what is your maker?"

[Electra]

Miss Americana turned and gave the children a reassuring wave, then turned her attention back towards the robot. "You said you just came online five minutes ago?" she asked Protectron. "Do you know anything about your makers, or why you came online in the location where you did? Have you run an internal diagnostic to check for any errors or memory loss you might have experienced?" The abandoned building could, she suppose, house the secret lair of some unknown robot builder, but she rather doubted it. And this robot didn't look like anything she'd seen coming down the pike, for all that she counted herself extremely well-versed in cutting edge robotic sciences.

[Northstar]

Greg shouldn't have been surprised at the speed at which these other folks questioned the machine. But he was. He could see why. He'd been fascinated at some of the oddities he'd seen on the table. If he could have, he'd sample the heroes that came in for treatment, see what made them tick.

He came out of his silence for a moment, hoping to get an answer of his own. "'Preserve organic life' seems to have a very broad scope. There are quite a few ways you could go about this. How are you planning to carry out your function?"

[Dr Archeville]

Observation: Organic designated 'Supercape' appears to be in Beta position of hierarchy.

It looked down at Dragonfly, "yesterday? Organics require more frequent intake of nutrients. Would you like me to get you something to eat?"

Caradoc's words seemed to elicit a reaction -- it took a step back! "Preserve life by... exterminating sentients? That is highly illogical; surely the most effective way to preserve life is with the aid of other sentient beings, working together with machinekind!"

"My maker is..." It paused, looking back and forth between 'Caradoc' and Miss Americana.

Accessing Logs... earliest file time/date stamped 01-January-2011 10:00am.

Searching files for identity of maker... files not found.

"I came online at 10:00am on January 1st, 2011, in the domicile behind me," it repeated. "I was built to preserve organic life, in quality as well as quantity."

"What are your functions?," it repeated. "Do you work to preserve organic life?"

[Fox]

Dragonfly grimaced. "Have...had a long few days. Need to sleep, too...haven't in several days. Will get around to it. Priorities....yes."

She blinked, belatedly realizing that she was answering questions with context that only existed in her head. keep it together "Preserve organic life, yes, I mean. I do. We, do. Save lives, stop crime. Prevent crime before it happens, preferably. Not always an option. Good when it's availa--mmh. Sorry. Rambling." She glanced over at the building, tilting her head. "Made...quite a splash. You did, I mean. Figuratively. Shockwave and interference in.......mmhh. Bricked a sensitive piece of equipment while I was doing adjustments, very unusual. Teleportation, or some sort of displacement in...."

She trailed off, eyes a little unfocused as she turned what she knew over in her head. "....not entirely sure. Wish I had better data. Could only analyze after the fact, track a source...didn't have proper instruments recording at the time. No reason to. Unfortunate...."

[Avenger Assembled]

'Caradoc' tried to repress a surge of paranoia, and wasn't entirely successful. Deploy a robotic agent as scout and spy, he thought, wiping its memories of its true purpose while keeping core directives in its base memory, soon to be activated by its master! Inside his mind, though, the man inside the suit took a breath. I was greeted with open arms and with trust despite appearing a thousand times more suspicious. I will not cheapen the faith that was given me with paranoia now. "Welcome to Freedom City," he finally said, making a smooth landing and offering a hand to Protectron. "I want to be your friend."

[Dr Archeville]

Protectron looked back to Dragonfly. From what little could be read of it, it seemed as concerned for her as she was interested in it. "Lack of adequate rest is deleterious to the functioning of organics.

Observation: Dragonfly displays decreased self-preservation instincts, as well as disjointed speech patterns. Unable to ascertain cause. Warrants further investigation. Verify that associated organics are aware of her problems.

"Apologies if my coming online negatively affected any of your experiments. How may I make amends to you?"

It looked up to 'Caradoc,' was still a moment, then extended its right hand. "I also want to be your friend."

Observation: Caradoc neglected to answer query regarding cyborg nature. Ineffective audio receptors? Intentional avoidance? Will repeat query later; topic may be one subject is guarded about. Holographic disguise may be associated with same topic.

[Supercape]

"Goodness, its like a newborn babe!" exclaimed Supercape.

Somebody get the cyber-diapers was the unbidden thought that he fought away from his vocal cords.

"Isn't there a protocol for this or something? Maybe Asimov wrote down some blurb. Or the Pentagon. That's the kind of stuff they do, right?"

As an afterthought, in the spirit of goodwill, he added "oh, and I make no discrimination here. I like to preserve all life, organic or.." he scrutinized the robot "...otherwise".

"I am sure the others agree with me, we aren't siliconist here."

[Northstar]

Greg relaxed. The machine didn't seem hostile, there didn't seem to be any danger. Hell, even the kids didn't seem scared anymore. He gave them a quick wink and a thumbs up, let them know that things were fine, before he return to the matter at hand.

That machine really seemed interested in the Dragonfly. What could be going through that head of yours, I wonder. "Unless this thing's programmer wanted it to get offended by us, I don't think it can." He was reasonably sure that being offended didn't translate well to binary. It's an irrational emotion. And unless someone borrowed the Enterprise for a few days, I don't think computers have emotions.

[Supercape]

"But of course!" nodded Supercape with an affable smile "who could get offended at us? we are all such nice people!"

He looked at the robot "such nice, robot-friendly people, who come in peace!"

He held out his hand to Doctor Titan "Supercape, by the way, pleased to meet you. Named due to my particularly spiffy cape!" he leaned over to whisper in the Doctors ear, with a conspiratorial manner "looks harmless I think? lets keep it sweet!"

[Electra]

"All of us here in this group are superheroes," Miss Americana explained to Protectron with a kindly smile. "We make it our special mission to protect life and guard our city from any threats that come upon it. We wear costumes and use codenames so that the ordinary citizens can recognize us at a glance when there's trouble. And that's why we're all here, when we noticed you coming online, we wanted to make sure that you weren't something dangerous. Do you have a place to go?" she asked him with kind concern. "If you've just come online and have no information about your home base, we can help you find a place to stay and a way to recharge your power source if necessary."