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Life and Light: Shadow-Force Reborn (Updated May 8, 2019)
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<blockquote data-quote="The Shadow" data-source="post: 4950460" data-attributes="member: 16760"><p><strong>6 - Rapid Responses</strong></p><p></p><p>[This was a fairly short session that ended up not fitting neatly onto either the one before or the one after, so it ended up on its own. I like it - you don't often see the immediate aftermath of a super-battle. Also, drama on several fronts.]</p><p></p><p>[Note: This is occurring Saturday night. ]</p><p></p><p>The paramedics arrived and started checking FAQ's vitals. With his helmet and goggles off, you suddenly realized just how young he was; a sandy-haired kid who could've just stepped out of one of Jon's first-year physics classes. (Except, of course, for the fact that he didn't need it.) He offered his hand to Photon and said blearily, "Thanks again, man." Jon clasped it firmly. "Are you kidding? Thank YOU. If you hadn't been here, a big chunk of my city might be gone." The young man nodded faintly but was obviously having trouble focussing. One of the medics said, "Mr. FAQ? We're going to have to take you in for observation tonight." The details of getting in touch with the Protectors and so forth were worked out, with Photon helping fill in a lot of the blanks. FAQ agreed to stop by again in the morning before heading home to Portland.</p><p></p><p>Shortly thereafter, the cops showed up, notably Struthers. Photon shook his hand. "Didn't expect to see you tonight, Captain." "Dispatch thought it sounded like this was worth pulling me in. What happened?" "First things first - I've got an RR Team needing the go-order." "Right - well, give me the run-down first. I'll catch flak if they don't think this was worth it." Jon nodded, and said with a sigh, "It's Technoid. He's gone evil." Struthers rolled his eyes. "What is it with the Super subculture, anyway? You ever hear of anyone else just up and 'going evil'? You guys make it sound like getting a new hairstyle or going through a phase or something."</p><p></p><p>Jon blinked. "I guess it does sound strange, when you put it that way. But for now..." "Right, that's more like a six-beer conversation. So, fill me in." "He's mostly made of nanites now. Can spray them to try to turn you into... something else. Not sure what, but I can tell you it hurts like crazy." "Nanites, huh? Any shapeshifting?" "At least some. He could reconfigure his face at least." "Okay... What'd he want?" "As far as I can tell, he wanted to remake humanity." "Huh, can't say he's not thinking big. Anything that would make him hard to hold in a jail cell?" Jon shrugged wearily. "He's ultra-strong. I saw him lift something that weighs a few tons." "That's good enough. Give me the case number." Jon did so, and soon it was phoned in. Struthers added, "One of you will have to stay here until they show up." "I know the drill." "Right, I'll be leaving one of our boys too. Get in touch Monday." "Will do."</p><p></p><p>After a few more formalities, that was that. Jon felt a terrible weariness crashing down on him. Alpha... Beta... Scott. He told Demeter quietly, "You don't have to stay." She had been hanging back, watching, while Jon handled all the details. ""What're you going to do now?" "I'm... going to prevent the power from coming back on." "...Why?" Jon closed his eyes. "Before the fight went down, Alpha told me Technoid was turning him and Beta. He said he didn't think I could ever trust him again." "Ouch!" "Yeah. He... was a good friend." Jon sobbed once then wiped his eyes and started striding purposefully back to the base.</p><p></p><p>Demeter was awkwardly silent as she followed, and remained so as Photon checked on Technoid (nothing new, except a slight change in color) then on the generator (the repair-bots were still busily at work), then on Beta. Jon blinked as he checked the monitor at Beta's charging station. "Huh, that's funny." "What?" "I was going to put him in lockdown mode so he doesn't wake up on his own... but he's already there." "What does that mean?" "I don't know. And, hm, his radio receiver has been deactivated. That's definitely nonstandard..." Jon pondered. "I suppose Alpha might have put him to sleep so Technoid couldn't use him against us. But he didn't mention it. Hmmm. I wonder if...?" "What?" "Alpha told me once that Beta's programming isn't very sophisticated. Maybe Technoid had a hard time with him and put him out himself."</p><p></p><p>"How can we find out?" Jon shrugged. "Let the power come back on and check him out, I guess. I can take him if I have to." He sounded very weary as he said it. "And Alpha?" "He's one massive program. It takes him nearly a day to boot up from a cold restart. We can turn him off again before he 'comes to'." "Maybe he could be OK too?" Jon shook his head sadly. "I doubt it. Alpha didn't sound at all confident."</p><p></p><p>"Isn't there anything we can do?" Jon shrugged wearily. "Maybe. We'll try. But I'm afraid we may end up having to just pull th-..." Jon suddenly stood stock still, mouth hanging open. "Photon?! What is it?"</p><p></p><p>Jon snickered, then chuckled, then laughed for pure joy. Then he leaped up and started doing an aerial victory dance, laughing like a loon. "Forestrike, I could KISS you!!!" "Photon?!" Jon, heedless, only pirouetted in midair, coruscating with multi-colored beams, and shouted to the heavens, "You hear me, you lovely precognitive bastard?! If you're watching from a few months ago, PUCKER UP!!"</p><p></p><p>Demeter folded her arms and tapped her foot, giving him the evil eye. Jon laughed, at peace with the universe, and non-explained, "'Please don't pull the plug'!" "Are you going to tell me what's going on?" "I just did!" He took pity on her just as the air between them was about to ignite from her glare. "Okay, okay. Have you ever heard of Forestrike?" "...No." "Old enemy of Shadow-Force, especially the Phantom. A precognitive. Anyway, things got really hot for him and he fled the country. But he sends us letters now and then warning us of things to come." "So let me get this straight. He's a villain. He fought you guys a few times..." "Lots of times, actually." "...He fought you guys a bunch of times, and got forced out of the country. And now he's helping you out?" "Yeah, pretty much." "...How much of a villain can he possibly be?" "Plenty. I think it's a pride thing with him - he doesn't want anyone else to succeed where he failed. Plus, well, if Shadow-Force drops the ball on something really big - Diabolus-level big, for example - then being out of the country isn't going to help him much."</p><p></p><p>Demeter wrestled to process all this. "So... He said something about all this in a letter?" "Yeah... here." He dug up the letter and showed her. Her face became very still and impassive when she read it. "This 'Nephrite' line..." "Yes," Jon said candidly, "Alpha and I weren't sure we could trust you." Demeter said softly, "I don't know if I want to punch Forestrike, or thank him." Jon felt a chill down his spine. "...What do you mean?" "Well, how would you have reacted to me if not for this letter?" "Are you kidding? We would have welcomed you with open arms." "That's what I mean."</p><p></p><p>"Well, we certainly weren't positive. The only connection between you and 'nephrite' is the color green..." She studied him quietly, then said, "Do you know, I nearly took the name 'Jade'. I'm not sure why I changed my mind, but I did." Jon blinked and cleared his throat nervously. "Oh... really? Well... at any rate you certainly weren't 'worthless' tonight." She remained silent and still, watching him.</p><p></p><p>Jon asked with sudden sharpness, "Demeter, <em>are</em> you on the team?" Demeter picked up the letter again, not answering. "'You will need to save the world.' Odd phrasing. Does he know his grammar?" "Yes. Answer the question." She pointed out in that quiet, calm voice, "I fought with you. I got FAQ to safety..." "I know all that. And I appreciate it. But it doesn't quite answer the question, does it?" She paused, then asked, apparently changing the subject, "What was it like for you, being on the reserve team?"</p><p></p><p>Jon blinked again, but played along warily. "What do you want to know about it?" "Well, how closely did you work with Shadow-Force? Did you feel like a sidekick or the like?" "No. We were all very new, of course, but we patrolled with each other or with one Shadow-Force regular. We were doing the real thing." Demeter nodded. "Were you fully part of the team?" "After the reserve team more or less petered out, yes, I was. The press may have had a field day with me, but my teammates never did." "I see you still don't wear body armor..." Jon said evenly, "I can dodge a lot better now." "Ah."</p><p></p><p>Jon paused, then said bluntly, "There's a lot of subtext going on in this conversation. How about we just talk about it openly?" She just looked at him and said a bit bleakly, "I should be going." Jon suddenly realized what all this would feel like in her shoes, if she were actually innocent - a reliable precognitive saying she was a traitor, or would end up being one, when she had no such inclination. It had to be quite a shock and lead one to question one's own motives and indeed, just about everything else. (And also: 'I have lied to you once.') He cleared his throat and extended a sprig of olive, if not a full branch: "Well... Shall we get together tomorrow and work out a patrol plan?"</p><p></p><p>Demeter reacted to that for a moment, though he could not read the emotion. "Yes. I would like that. ... Will you need to sleep in, given what a night this has been?" "Noon?" "Sure. I'll see you then."</p><p></p><p>Beta's charging station had its own emergency batteries, enough to keep him going a little while. Jon thought for a bit, then cancelled the lockdown and started the reboot sequence. "Come on, Beta. Work with me here." Even if Forestrike's prophecy is on the level, he thought, that doesn't mean there'll be no hitches. After an interminable time, Beta's eyes began to glow and he stated, "Hard reboot: Online." Jon said carefully, "Beta, there's been a battle. I need you not to turn on your radio receiver, just in case." "Note: I can tune my receiver to tight-beam with my brother." "Yes, I know. But Alpha's down right now, and he warned me he might not be trustworthy any more." Beta took a long moment grinding on that thought, then finally asked, "...We faced a cyberkinetic enemy?" "Yes." "Troubling. Initiating level-2 diagnostic..."</p><p></p><p>Jon waited patiently, relieved. Beta finally said, "Level-2 diagnostic... failed. Do you wish to retry or abort?" "Hmmm. Why did it fail?" "Unknown." "Figures. Retry, I guess." "Initiating level-2 diagnostic... ...Level-2 diagnostic complete. All systems are nominal." "Hmmm. All right. Do you know who put you in lockdown?" "No." "What's your last memory before you were locked down?" "I docked with the charging station and entered power-conservation mode." "Okay... Did Alpha leave you any special instructions on how to proceed in a situation like this?" "No." "Wonderful." Grind, grind. "...I do not see how the situation is 'wonderful'." Jon told him wearily, "It's a figure of speech, never mind." "Noted." "You continue charging, Beta, I'm going to read up on how to help Alpha." "Agreed."</p><p></p><p>Jon grabbed the hefty manual on Alpha and went out to the lobby of the base to read. He was already familiar with the stuff in the first chapter, on the basic reboot sequence and level-1 diagnostics, but he felt sure he was going to need something heftier than that. The cop poked his head in and asked if he wanted coffee; Jon politely declined. After another hour or so, he heard a heavy vehicle pulling up to the base and went out to meet it. [The Rapid Response Teams fly in from Colorado on their own custom VTOL jets, but unfortunately they're a little too large to land safely on the Shadow-Force base's grounds. They land at the nearest safe spot and unload a truck to come the rest of the way.] Out of the cab hopped two grunts wearing blue-and-white Stronghold powered armor and carrying high-powered multi-rifles, and the Team Leader followed them in lighter body armor. Meanwhile two techs in similar body armor came out the back, laden with equipment. Given that there was likely a lightly-armored medic inside, Jon saw that they'd sent the standard six-man complement.</p><p></p><p>The grunts took up positions while the Team Leader approached the cop first, offering a gloved hand. "Officer. Alpha One." Jon smiled. A couple hours ago, the fact he'd gotten Team Alpha, of the six available, would have struck him with crushing irony, given who he was mourning. Now... Not so much, thank God. As the two consulted, the two techs approached him, one of them juggling several pieces of gear to offer a hand. "You're Photon?" Jon shook his hand. "Yeah. Glad to 'meet' you, Alpha Four." The tech just chuckled. "Way of the world, sir. Where are we headed?" Jon jerked his head toward the base. "In there, toward the back. I'll show you." [The RRT's *never* use names in the field. There's too many ways that can be used against them, not least by truename mages. Jon read his number off his helmet.]</p><p></p><p>Alpha One approached and likewise greeted Photon. "I understand that the subject is in a container with a magnetic bottle?" Jon frowned, "No container. It's a free-standing magnetic bottle I created with my powers." The Team Leader sighed. "That wasn't in the briefing. Well, we'll make do." He glanced an order at one of the techs, who scurried off to get some more stuff from the truck. Soon they trooped into the base. "The power's out? Can we get the lights on?" "Oh... sure. Here." Jon lived up to his codename by lighting up the base with his powers.</p><p></p><p>The techs set up instruments around Technoid to get a better feel for what was going on. (It had changed color slightly again.) Meanwhile, the Team Leader asked, "What is his biological status?" Jon shrugged wearily. "I'm not even sure it HAS biology any more." "Hmmm, you'd better tell us everything." Alpha One debriefed him thoroughly; when he heard about the pollen and its effect, he called the medic in, and they concluded they couldn't cut off Technoid's air. That obviously made the techs' lives more difficult, but they set to work. Alpha One also insisted that the medic check Photon out for nanite contamination; Jon sighed and submitted to a scan. "Wow," the medic finally mused, "You're in impressively good health." "Yeah - I can heal myself when I take on my light-form."</p><p></p><p>As they spoke, the techs got an insulated box of high-tech alloy around the metallic blob of Technoid and hooked air bottles up to it. Seeing the box closed up moved Jon unexpectedly. He said quietly to nobody in particular, "He used to be my friend." The nearest tech only nodded and said briskly, "Sorry, sir." Technoid proved to weigh over a ton, so it took the two grunts to carry the box out. Jon signed all the forms, Alpha One saluted him, and that was that. He went back in, dejected, and told Beta, "I'm going to get some sleep. Call me if anything untoward happens." "Acknowledged."</p><p></p><p>Home a split-second later, Jon undressed and fell into bed.</p><p></p><p>---------------------------------------------------------</p><p></p><p>He was awakened early by his cell phone. Glancing at it, he didn't recognize the number. "...Hello?" "Photon, this is Beta. I need you at the base as soon as possible." Jon sighed. "OK." He rubbed the sleep from his eyes, then zipped over to the base in light-form, bringing his costume into being as he materialized. Beta was blocking the door to the base with his body while a man in a suit ranted and raved at him. "Okay," the electromagnetic hero said, "What's this all about?" The man harrumphed and said, "Photon, I INSIST that you tell this... ROBOT... to get out of my way!" "Do you. And who are you to be insisting?"</p><p></p><p>The man scowled and pulled out a card. "Roger Hamilton, Vice President of Research for Carlton Industries." "All right. What do you want, Mr. Hamilton?" "We've decided to decommission this... base... of yours immediately." "Have you. And why would that be?" "It's a radiation health hazard! Very dangerous."</p><p></p><p>Photon folded his arms. "Let me get this straight. When Technoid's lab held a time bomb capable of wiping out half of Seattle, that was fine. But now that the time bomb's gone and the only issue is some background radiation - which I can easily decontaminate, I might add - <em>now</em> it becomes a health hazard?" That just set the man off on another tirade. Photon gathered from the midst of it that in addition to the health issues, he also wanted to remove some 'Carlton property' from the premises. Jon frowned. Given the legal ambiguities around artificial intelligence, he didn't like the sound of that. [I'll get a post up soon in Shadow-Force Files on the legal issues involving non-humans.]</p><p></p><p>"I see. And do you have an itemized list of the property you wish to remove?" "No! ... Not with me, at any rate. It's at my office." Jon said mock-brightly, "Well, tell you what! How about you get things together on your end, and I'll go in and talk with Mr. Carlton on Monday, and we can get this all straightened out." "...FINE! But I insist that the base be sealed!" Jon shrugged. "Have it your way. But Beta needs to get in and out to recharge, and so do I to run diagnostics on him." That set off a further storm of protest, but Photon would not budge. The man eventually went off in a huff... but he seemed too confident of the final issue on Monday by half. We'll see about that, Jon thought to himself.</p><p></p><p>Going in, he found the lights on. "The generator's back up, I guess?" "Confirmed." "Good." Jon locked down the outer door. Beta stated, "I require further power to recharge properly. I am at 13% and falling. My laser and flight-jets are offline." "Understood... You want the grid back up, then?'" "Confirmed." "I'll see what I can do, though Carlton won't like it. Wait for me to figure out how to fix Alpha before we do that?" "Agreed."</p><p></p><p>Jon sat down with the tome again, this time in the Situation Room. Alpha... You'll come back to us, he thought. You have to. I can't lose another friend!</p><p></p><p>Which reminds me... Jon sighed, and picked up a phone to call Bazooka and Brimstone. They need to know about Scott.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="The Shadow, post: 4950460, member: 16760"] [b]6 - Rapid Responses[/b] [This was a fairly short session that ended up not fitting neatly onto either the one before or the one after, so it ended up on its own. I like it - you don't often see the immediate aftermath of a super-battle. Also, drama on several fronts.] [Note: This is occurring Saturday night. ] The paramedics arrived and started checking FAQ's vitals. With his helmet and goggles off, you suddenly realized just how young he was; a sandy-haired kid who could've just stepped out of one of Jon's first-year physics classes. (Except, of course, for the fact that he didn't need it.) He offered his hand to Photon and said blearily, "Thanks again, man." Jon clasped it firmly. "Are you kidding? Thank YOU. If you hadn't been here, a big chunk of my city might be gone." The young man nodded faintly but was obviously having trouble focussing. One of the medics said, "Mr. FAQ? We're going to have to take you in for observation tonight." The details of getting in touch with the Protectors and so forth were worked out, with Photon helping fill in a lot of the blanks. FAQ agreed to stop by again in the morning before heading home to Portland. Shortly thereafter, the cops showed up, notably Struthers. Photon shook his hand. "Didn't expect to see you tonight, Captain." "Dispatch thought it sounded like this was worth pulling me in. What happened?" "First things first - I've got an RR Team needing the go-order." "Right - well, give me the run-down first. I'll catch flak if they don't think this was worth it." Jon nodded, and said with a sigh, "It's Technoid. He's gone evil." Struthers rolled his eyes. "What is it with the Super subculture, anyway? You ever hear of anyone else just up and 'going evil'? You guys make it sound like getting a new hairstyle or going through a phase or something." Jon blinked. "I guess it does sound strange, when you put it that way. But for now..." "Right, that's more like a six-beer conversation. So, fill me in." "He's mostly made of nanites now. Can spray them to try to turn you into... something else. Not sure what, but I can tell you it hurts like crazy." "Nanites, huh? Any shapeshifting?" "At least some. He could reconfigure his face at least." "Okay... What'd he want?" "As far as I can tell, he wanted to remake humanity." "Huh, can't say he's not thinking big. Anything that would make him hard to hold in a jail cell?" Jon shrugged wearily. "He's ultra-strong. I saw him lift something that weighs a few tons." "That's good enough. Give me the case number." Jon did so, and soon it was phoned in. Struthers added, "One of you will have to stay here until they show up." "I know the drill." "Right, I'll be leaving one of our boys too. Get in touch Monday." "Will do." After a few more formalities, that was that. Jon felt a terrible weariness crashing down on him. Alpha... Beta... Scott. He told Demeter quietly, "You don't have to stay." She had been hanging back, watching, while Jon handled all the details. ""What're you going to do now?" "I'm... going to prevent the power from coming back on." "...Why?" Jon closed his eyes. "Before the fight went down, Alpha told me Technoid was turning him and Beta. He said he didn't think I could ever trust him again." "Ouch!" "Yeah. He... was a good friend." Jon sobbed once then wiped his eyes and started striding purposefully back to the base. Demeter was awkwardly silent as she followed, and remained so as Photon checked on Technoid (nothing new, except a slight change in color) then on the generator (the repair-bots were still busily at work), then on Beta. Jon blinked as he checked the monitor at Beta's charging station. "Huh, that's funny." "What?" "I was going to put him in lockdown mode so he doesn't wake up on his own... but he's already there." "What does that mean?" "I don't know. And, hm, his radio receiver has been deactivated. That's definitely nonstandard..." Jon pondered. "I suppose Alpha might have put him to sleep so Technoid couldn't use him against us. But he didn't mention it. Hmmm. I wonder if...?" "What?" "Alpha told me once that Beta's programming isn't very sophisticated. Maybe Technoid had a hard time with him and put him out himself." "How can we find out?" Jon shrugged. "Let the power come back on and check him out, I guess. I can take him if I have to." He sounded very weary as he said it. "And Alpha?" "He's one massive program. It takes him nearly a day to boot up from a cold restart. We can turn him off again before he 'comes to'." "Maybe he could be OK too?" Jon shook his head sadly. "I doubt it. Alpha didn't sound at all confident." "Isn't there anything we can do?" Jon shrugged wearily. "Maybe. We'll try. But I'm afraid we may end up having to just pull th-..." Jon suddenly stood stock still, mouth hanging open. "Photon?! What is it?" Jon snickered, then chuckled, then laughed for pure joy. Then he leaped up and started doing an aerial victory dance, laughing like a loon. "Forestrike, I could KISS you!!!" "Photon?!" Jon, heedless, only pirouetted in midair, coruscating with multi-colored beams, and shouted to the heavens, "You hear me, you lovely precognitive bastard?! If you're watching from a few months ago, PUCKER UP!!" Demeter folded her arms and tapped her foot, giving him the evil eye. Jon laughed, at peace with the universe, and non-explained, "'Please don't pull the plug'!" "Are you going to tell me what's going on?" "I just did!" He took pity on her just as the air between them was about to ignite from her glare. "Okay, okay. Have you ever heard of Forestrike?" "...No." "Old enemy of Shadow-Force, especially the Phantom. A precognitive. Anyway, things got really hot for him and he fled the country. But he sends us letters now and then warning us of things to come." "So let me get this straight. He's a villain. He fought you guys a few times..." "Lots of times, actually." "...He fought you guys a bunch of times, and got forced out of the country. And now he's helping you out?" "Yeah, pretty much." "...How much of a villain can he possibly be?" "Plenty. I think it's a pride thing with him - he doesn't want anyone else to succeed where he failed. Plus, well, if Shadow-Force drops the ball on something really big - Diabolus-level big, for example - then being out of the country isn't going to help him much." Demeter wrestled to process all this. "So... He said something about all this in a letter?" "Yeah... here." He dug up the letter and showed her. Her face became very still and impassive when she read it. "This 'Nephrite' line..." "Yes," Jon said candidly, "Alpha and I weren't sure we could trust you." Demeter said softly, "I don't know if I want to punch Forestrike, or thank him." Jon felt a chill down his spine. "...What do you mean?" "Well, how would you have reacted to me if not for this letter?" "Are you kidding? We would have welcomed you with open arms." "That's what I mean." "Well, we certainly weren't positive. The only connection between you and 'nephrite' is the color green..." She studied him quietly, then said, "Do you know, I nearly took the name 'Jade'. I'm not sure why I changed my mind, but I did." Jon blinked and cleared his throat nervously. "Oh... really? Well... at any rate you certainly weren't 'worthless' tonight." She remained silent and still, watching him. Jon asked with sudden sharpness, "Demeter, [i]are[/i] you on the team?" Demeter picked up the letter again, not answering. "'You will need to save the world.' Odd phrasing. Does he know his grammar?" "Yes. Answer the question." She pointed out in that quiet, calm voice, "I fought with you. I got FAQ to safety..." "I know all that. And I appreciate it. But it doesn't quite answer the question, does it?" She paused, then asked, apparently changing the subject, "What was it like for you, being on the reserve team?" Jon blinked again, but played along warily. "What do you want to know about it?" "Well, how closely did you work with Shadow-Force? Did you feel like a sidekick or the like?" "No. We were all very new, of course, but we patrolled with each other or with one Shadow-Force regular. We were doing the real thing." Demeter nodded. "Were you fully part of the team?" "After the reserve team more or less petered out, yes, I was. The press may have had a field day with me, but my teammates never did." "I see you still don't wear body armor..." Jon said evenly, "I can dodge a lot better now." "Ah." Jon paused, then said bluntly, "There's a lot of subtext going on in this conversation. How about we just talk about it openly?" She just looked at him and said a bit bleakly, "I should be going." Jon suddenly realized what all this would feel like in her shoes, if she were actually innocent - a reliable precognitive saying she was a traitor, or would end up being one, when she had no such inclination. It had to be quite a shock and lead one to question one's own motives and indeed, just about everything else. (And also: 'I have lied to you once.') He cleared his throat and extended a sprig of olive, if not a full branch: "Well... Shall we get together tomorrow and work out a patrol plan?" Demeter reacted to that for a moment, though he could not read the emotion. "Yes. I would like that. ... Will you need to sleep in, given what a night this has been?" "Noon?" "Sure. I'll see you then." Beta's charging station had its own emergency batteries, enough to keep him going a little while. Jon thought for a bit, then cancelled the lockdown and started the reboot sequence. "Come on, Beta. Work with me here." Even if Forestrike's prophecy is on the level, he thought, that doesn't mean there'll be no hitches. After an interminable time, Beta's eyes began to glow and he stated, "Hard reboot: Online." Jon said carefully, "Beta, there's been a battle. I need you not to turn on your radio receiver, just in case." "Note: I can tune my receiver to tight-beam with my brother." "Yes, I know. But Alpha's down right now, and he warned me he might not be trustworthy any more." Beta took a long moment grinding on that thought, then finally asked, "...We faced a cyberkinetic enemy?" "Yes." "Troubling. Initiating level-2 diagnostic..." Jon waited patiently, relieved. Beta finally said, "Level-2 diagnostic... failed. Do you wish to retry or abort?" "Hmmm. Why did it fail?" "Unknown." "Figures. Retry, I guess." "Initiating level-2 diagnostic... ...Level-2 diagnostic complete. All systems are nominal." "Hmmm. All right. Do you know who put you in lockdown?" "No." "What's your last memory before you were locked down?" "I docked with the charging station and entered power-conservation mode." "Okay... Did Alpha leave you any special instructions on how to proceed in a situation like this?" "No." "Wonderful." Grind, grind. "...I do not see how the situation is 'wonderful'." Jon told him wearily, "It's a figure of speech, never mind." "Noted." "You continue charging, Beta, I'm going to read up on how to help Alpha." "Agreed." Jon grabbed the hefty manual on Alpha and went out to the lobby of the base to read. He was already familiar with the stuff in the first chapter, on the basic reboot sequence and level-1 diagnostics, but he felt sure he was going to need something heftier than that. The cop poked his head in and asked if he wanted coffee; Jon politely declined. After another hour or so, he heard a heavy vehicle pulling up to the base and went out to meet it. [The Rapid Response Teams fly in from Colorado on their own custom VTOL jets, but unfortunately they're a little too large to land safely on the Shadow-Force base's grounds. They land at the nearest safe spot and unload a truck to come the rest of the way.] Out of the cab hopped two grunts wearing blue-and-white Stronghold powered armor and carrying high-powered multi-rifles, and the Team Leader followed them in lighter body armor. Meanwhile two techs in similar body armor came out the back, laden with equipment. Given that there was likely a lightly-armored medic inside, Jon saw that they'd sent the standard six-man complement. The grunts took up positions while the Team Leader approached the cop first, offering a gloved hand. "Officer. Alpha One." Jon smiled. A couple hours ago, the fact he'd gotten Team Alpha, of the six available, would have struck him with crushing irony, given who he was mourning. Now... Not so much, thank God. As the two consulted, the two techs approached him, one of them juggling several pieces of gear to offer a hand. "You're Photon?" Jon shook his hand. "Yeah. Glad to 'meet' you, Alpha Four." The tech just chuckled. "Way of the world, sir. Where are we headed?" Jon jerked his head toward the base. "In there, toward the back. I'll show you." [The RRT's *never* use names in the field. There's too many ways that can be used against them, not least by truename mages. Jon read his number off his helmet.] Alpha One approached and likewise greeted Photon. "I understand that the subject is in a container with a magnetic bottle?" Jon frowned, "No container. It's a free-standing magnetic bottle I created with my powers." The Team Leader sighed. "That wasn't in the briefing. Well, we'll make do." He glanced an order at one of the techs, who scurried off to get some more stuff from the truck. Soon they trooped into the base. "The power's out? Can we get the lights on?" "Oh... sure. Here." Jon lived up to his codename by lighting up the base with his powers. The techs set up instruments around Technoid to get a better feel for what was going on. (It had changed color slightly again.) Meanwhile, the Team Leader asked, "What is his biological status?" Jon shrugged wearily. "I'm not even sure it HAS biology any more." "Hmmm, you'd better tell us everything." Alpha One debriefed him thoroughly; when he heard about the pollen and its effect, he called the medic in, and they concluded they couldn't cut off Technoid's air. That obviously made the techs' lives more difficult, but they set to work. Alpha One also insisted that the medic check Photon out for nanite contamination; Jon sighed and submitted to a scan. "Wow," the medic finally mused, "You're in impressively good health." "Yeah - I can heal myself when I take on my light-form." As they spoke, the techs got an insulated box of high-tech alloy around the metallic blob of Technoid and hooked air bottles up to it. Seeing the box closed up moved Jon unexpectedly. He said quietly to nobody in particular, "He used to be my friend." The nearest tech only nodded and said briskly, "Sorry, sir." Technoid proved to weigh over a ton, so it took the two grunts to carry the box out. Jon signed all the forms, Alpha One saluted him, and that was that. He went back in, dejected, and told Beta, "I'm going to get some sleep. Call me if anything untoward happens." "Acknowledged." Home a split-second later, Jon undressed and fell into bed. --------------------------------------------------------- He was awakened early by his cell phone. Glancing at it, he didn't recognize the number. "...Hello?" "Photon, this is Beta. I need you at the base as soon as possible." Jon sighed. "OK." He rubbed the sleep from his eyes, then zipped over to the base in light-form, bringing his costume into being as he materialized. Beta was blocking the door to the base with his body while a man in a suit ranted and raved at him. "Okay," the electromagnetic hero said, "What's this all about?" The man harrumphed and said, "Photon, I INSIST that you tell this... ROBOT... to get out of my way!" "Do you. And who are you to be insisting?" The man scowled and pulled out a card. "Roger Hamilton, Vice President of Research for Carlton Industries." "All right. What do you want, Mr. Hamilton?" "We've decided to decommission this... base... of yours immediately." "Have you. And why would that be?" "It's a radiation health hazard! Very dangerous." Photon folded his arms. "Let me get this straight. When Technoid's lab held a time bomb capable of wiping out half of Seattle, that was fine. But now that the time bomb's gone and the only issue is some background radiation - which I can easily decontaminate, I might add - [i]now[/i] it becomes a health hazard?" That just set the man off on another tirade. Photon gathered from the midst of it that in addition to the health issues, he also wanted to remove some 'Carlton property' from the premises. Jon frowned. Given the legal ambiguities around artificial intelligence, he didn't like the sound of that. [I'll get a post up soon in Shadow-Force Files on the legal issues involving non-humans.] "I see. And do you have an itemized list of the property you wish to remove?" "No! ... Not with me, at any rate. It's at my office." Jon said mock-brightly, "Well, tell you what! How about you get things together on your end, and I'll go in and talk with Mr. Carlton on Monday, and we can get this all straightened out." "...FINE! But I insist that the base be sealed!" Jon shrugged. "Have it your way. But Beta needs to get in and out to recharge, and so do I to run diagnostics on him." That set off a further storm of protest, but Photon would not budge. The man eventually went off in a huff... but he seemed too confident of the final issue on Monday by half. We'll see about that, Jon thought to himself. Going in, he found the lights on. "The generator's back up, I guess?" "Confirmed." "Good." Jon locked down the outer door. Beta stated, "I require further power to recharge properly. I am at 13% and falling. My laser and flight-jets are offline." "Understood... You want the grid back up, then?'" "Confirmed." "I'll see what I can do, though Carlton won't like it. Wait for me to figure out how to fix Alpha before we do that?" "Agreed." Jon sat down with the tome again, this time in the Situation Room. Alpha... You'll come back to us, he thought. You have to. I can't lose another friend! Which reminds me... Jon sighed, and picked up a phone to call Bazooka and Brimstone. They need to know about Scott. [/QUOTE]
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Life and Light: Shadow-Force Reborn (Updated May 8, 2019)
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