Ch 15: Ripple 2-6
Beta'd by BigCC
"Damn you Sophia!" - Speech
'Why, Emma?' - Thought
Ripple 2.6
+++Lisa Wilbourn+++
Next Day
Lisa's Room, Undersiders HQ
"So, Tattletale, have you managed to uncover anything about Riptide yet?" Coil's smooth, sophisticated voice purred down the phone.
Lisa forcefully repressed the urge to just hang up and go take a shower; the man's tone alone was enough to make her feel unclean.
"Nothing, Boss." she offered up airily, doing everything to keep her voice light and unaffected. Her powers had already pointed dozens of times that the sick bastard got his rocks off from terrifying and tormenting people, and she was damn sure not going to give him any satisfaction. "I'm afraid our newest Tinker's a bit of a ghost for the moment. I'm no closer to finding her than I am at deciphering the origins of the Endbringers."
'Or your real identity, you son of a bitch.' she thought venomously.
"I see. Have you actually been trying, Tattletale?" the sociopathic asshole's voice shifted ever so slow slightly. "With your power, deducing her location at a given time, after the number of weeks she has been active, should be a fairly simple task."
Annoyed at lack of success, but not unaware of the reasons why. Attempting to cause a reaction and hopefully gain additional information on how my power works to better increase control. Her power supplied helpfully.
'So that's your game asshole, well two can play it that way.' Lisa thought, smirking internally.
"It's not that easy boss." she spoke up, letting her voice rise just slightly enough to be notice. "I can't pull information from nowhere, and there's only so much I can pull from the few notes and reports you provide and whatever actual facts I can dredge from PHO. I need to actually see them in the act before I can start building anything concrete, and that's where the problem is. She hasn't fallen into a patrol pattern just yet, from what I've been able to gather she looks to be still testing out various routes or simply going off at random. No pattern means I have no way of knowing where's she's going to show up so I can either set up a camera or two or observe personally. Combined with the fact that she seems to make it a habit to avoid all forms of security cameras when she's at work means that, again, I have precious little data to work with"
She paused as if to think. "There is one option though, if we had a way of setting up a few gang fights then we might be able to use them to lure her in." she offered, trying to sound thoughtful. While the idea could work, it would still be a gamble on whether Riptide would show up before the Protectorate, Police, or Wards. No, the real reason behind it was to test and see how much influence Coil had over the other gangs, information that could be useful in the future.
There was a pause in the conversation as Coil took in her words.
"That idea has some merit, but the amount of effort required doesn't seem to be worth the potential gains just yet." he stated coldly. "For now I will grant you more time to form a proper hypothesis. I will expect at least some progress next time I check in."
Does not wish to risk his assets in the Gangs, assets are more limited than what he'd like you to believe. Definitely possess some form of mole or spy in most of the major gangs but none high-enough to influence matters as needed. Her power stated.
Lisa suppressed the smirk that wanted to grow across her lips at that. 'Another piece of the puzzle, one step closer, you son of a bitch.'
"For now however," Coil continued, "we are calling off the Ruby Dreams Casino job."
Lisa blinked in surprise. That job had been on the books for weeks in order to solidify the reputation of the Undersiders, and that was something she knew Coil wanted to happen as much as Brian did. "Any particular reason for that boss?" she didn't even bother trying to hide her surprise
"Yes. Lung's manager-on-site has decided to renovate the building and has already emptied the safe of all funds, having move them between several safe houses and banks for the interim. None of which are large enough to make a raid worth the effort or planning required." the irritation in her boss/captor's voice was a balm for Lisa. Anything that irked and upset Coil was something she appreciated. "I shall call your other phone later with the details of the replacement job I plan for the Undersiders to undertake instead."
With that he hung up, leaving Lisa to slump wearily in her chair. The irony of the whole mess was that she honestly didn't have anything solid on Riptide just yet. The new girl (and Lisa was almost 100% certain that Riptide was a she) was either very lucky or very paranoid, since she hadn't left a single clue that her powers could latch onto.
'Probably a bit of both. The reason her patrol routes haven't settled into any kind of pattern is probably due to her still learning to control her Tinkering urges.' The one thing her power had clued her in on when she'd been going over the files and PHO was that Riptide was definitely a new trigger (definitely less than a year and likely less than six months post-Trigger to be exact) so the fact that she was still trying to learn to cope with and fully control wasn't surprising. 'And until she learns some damn self-control and settles into a pattern there's nothing I can do, it's fucking hopeless!'
Feeling her frustrations at her untenable situation begin to rise again, Lisa sighed and forced herself to let it all drain away as she slumped further into her chair for a good, old-fashioned brood.
Riptide wasn't at fault here; Coil was. All Riptide was doing was acting like a Tinker and actually using her brain to execute the proper amount of paranoia a fresh, solo Tinker needed if they didn't want to get snapped up by unscrupulous bastards. As a rather intelligent girl herself, in addition to her Thinker power, Lisa could appreciate that in someone.
Not that Faultline could get it. She seemed to think that she didn't use her mind at all when using her Thinker power. Or that she used her Thinker power without attempting to use her mind first. She sometimes didn't know which of the two the leader of Faultline's Crew meant at any given moment.
Lisa and Faultline hated one another for multiple reasons, but the main one stemmed simply from the fact that their personalities were incompatible by nature. Faultline didn't like being contradicted, while Lisa took a positive delight in contradicting others whenever she saw an opening. In truth, she would only ever privately admit, there was some sense to what the mercenary Cape said about how to use Thinker powers, but she would never admit it aloud. Her pride and need to be the smartest person in the room wouldn't allow her to give her enemy that kind of satisfaction.
Throwing off the thoughts of that insufferable bitch, Lisa stood up and left her room. As was usual, Alec was playing Call of Duty on his console and Rachel was sitting with Judas and Angelica; Brutus was in the kennels because he had an upset stomach and Brian had forbidden them to be in the living quarters of the base when they were unwell, for obvious reasons. Speaking of Brian, he was sitting in the kitchenette, eating a sandwich.
As she walked over to the fridge for some milk, he looked up at her. "Heard from the boss?"
"The Ruby Dreams job's off. The place is being renovated, and the cash is too spread out to be worth the trouble of trying to track it down." she replied as she started making a cup of coffee.
"Knew we should've gone last week." Alec muttered. He had fairly good hearing, evidently.
"Alec, the place is run by one of Lung's personal men." Brian said patiently. "We've hit places peripherally close to the ABB, but not one directly connected to the Dragon himself. While succeeding might have gotten us some very good cred and a very nice payday, it could have also likely gotten the Dragon of Kyushu breathing down our necks for payback as well. That's a bit too much of a risk for me."
The dark-skinned darkness-wielder turned his attention back to Lisa "So what's the plan now going forward?"
"He said he'd call me when he had a job for us." Lisa replied before sipping her newly made coffee.
"So back to standby. Lovely." Alec snorted before returning his attention to shooting Nazi's on the TV. "Welp, more time for me time."
Lisa just rolled her eyes. Alec was a very self-centered person, mostly thanks to the mindfucking and torture that his bastard of a father had put him through. He also had all the empathy of a concussed gerbil on acid.
"We could've done it." Rachel said in a low growl.
"Shoulda, woulda coulda." Lisa shrugged absently. "The Boss says the plan's off, so it's off."
Grumbling, the Canine Cape stood up and stomped down the stairs, the two dogs obediently following their mistress out of the loft that held the Undersiders' living quarters.
The Thinker exchanged a weary look with Brian. Rachel Lindt had suffered more than most in her Trigger, the acquisition of her powers hardwiring her way of thinking to one more in line with canines than humans. This led to normal human social-interactions become much more difficult for her to understand and usually caused her to prefer to frame things by way of canine-logic. The Undersiders were her 'pack' and she had a place in it. Any hint that her 'pack' wasn't strong got a snarl and, if warranted, an attack.
Newcomers who wanted into her 'pack' had to prove their strength against her, mostly because she didn't want the Undersiders to grow any bigger. So she scared off anyone who Brian or anyone else invited to join. Stupid, but understandable given her insecurities.
'Damn it, this team is a clusterfuck and a half waiting to happen. The only thing keeping us going is that rat bastard and he fucking knows it.' Lisa thought as she headed back to her room with her coffee. 'Alec and Rachel will leave if Coil stops paying them, Brian can't leave because he needs the veil of legitimacy that Coil gives him and I can't leave without getting a 9mm lobotomy or worse!'
Gulping down another mouthful of coffee, Lisa scowled at the map of Brockton Bay she'd pinned to the wall opposite her 'conspiracy theory' wall, a seemingly nonsensical number of pictures attached to pins and interconnected with various colored threads.
The map was also covered in pins, although these had bits of notepaper attached to them, listing a date and time that Riptide had intervened in a crime in progress, as well as against who. Some occurred on the same night, while others happened days or even an entire week apart. The locations were scattered all over the place too; some too place in the Southern Docs area, some in the Broadwalk and others in the residential section. However, two areas were obviously being avoided. One was the area around the PRT Building, including Arcadia Highschool, while the second was the outermost area of Brockton Bay.
To be fair in regards to the latter area, it was mostly factories and a scattering of transshipping depots there, with precious few residential areas or shops. Very little interest for the gangs, aside from when valuable cargo came in, which was exceptionally rare these days. As to the first, Riptide obviously felt that pissing off the Protectorate, PRT and New Wave by showing them up on their own doorstep was A Bad Idea. Quite sensible, in Lisa's opinion.
Still, it did tell her a few possible things about Riptide. First, that she either disliked or mistrusted the PRT for whatever reason. Second, that she was wary of New Wave, likely for being closely affiliated with the PRT and Protectorate. And third, that she was at least passively aware that the PRT and Protectorate would love nothing better than to press her into service.
The last one was a bit off the wall, but it was also true. If an Independent, or at least non-PRT-Affiliated, Parahuman struck at a criminal before they actually committed any crimes, even if it was blatantly obvious that they were about to commit one, then the PRT came down on them like a ton of bricks. Riptide had waited until it was absolutely and completely obvious that a crime was under way before subduing the criminals. This meant that either she was coming across them at just the right moment (that was likely to happen a couple of times, but every single time was doubtful) or she came across them just prior to the acts and waited and watched until a crime was undeniably happening before intervening.
High likelihood of either research done on the fates of Independent Capes, or due to advice from an older, more experienced Parahuman. Her power informed her. The surprising degree of caution for a new parahuman, in conjunction with abundance of resources and equipment needed for building Tinkertech on the scale suggested by all available data, suggests that the latter is the most likely answer.
Well, that juicy little nugget of information would make Coil unhappy. He wanted to control Riptide, and it seemed like she had already fallen in with another group. Who though...? She'd struck against all three of the Gangs, was almost certainly independent of the Protectorate and PRT and the rest of the Brockton Bay gangs were not worth mentioning. An option was that she was under the control of someone from Boston, like Blasto, the Teeth or Accord. Or someone even further afield, like the Elite.
While it was an option, it was not a likely one for the most part. Blasto had never shown any desire to expand outside of Boston, Accord had some sort of agreement with Coil to stay out of The Bay so long as the serpent-themed Cape was alive and the Elite were a lot more stealth-oriented, preferring to work deep in the shadows unless there were no other choices, so Riptide didn't fit their MO.
The Teeth, though...they had originally been a gang belonging to Brockton Bay. Alongside Allfather's Empire 88 and Marquis' Marche (otherwise known as the Marquisate), the Teeth, led by the first Butcher, had been one of the big three gangs of the Bay. Then the Slaughterhouse Nine had come through, one of the first places that had been visited by The Nine in the mid Nineties. Beaten and bloodied by the murder-hobos, the Teeth had been forced to flee Brockton Bay to Boston, not having returned since.
As the Butcher possessed nearby Parahumans when one was killed, they were all technically the same person, and the Butcher had sworn to return to Brockton Bay one day and reclaim what he considered his. Even if they were now on Butcher XIV, it was highly unlikely that he would forget his words.
Still, those were all villains. Riptide was a decidedly heroic individual. Besides, the Teeth weren't noted for their subtle approach to anything, unless they were being described as 'not subtle' by someone.
Massaging her temples as she shut down her Thinker to prevent herself from developing an even greater headache, Lisa decided to read a book to pass the time while she ruminated about both of the main problems in her life to date.
As she picked up the novel she'd left here for just such emergencies and flipped it open to the first page, Lisa snuggled down onto her bed and let the world pass her by for a while as she lost herself in her book. Even a villainess needed some 'me' time, after all.
+++Taylor Hebert+++
That Night
Taylor's Lab, S.S. Nevermore
Stepping back from the maintenance bay, I put my hands on my hips and beamed with pride as I looked over the now completed form of Salacia's body. I had gotten a quick six hours of sleep last night before quickly making my phone call to Kurt and Lacy this morning and sneaking back over to the Nevermore via the new underground tunnel to the sewers that I'd built. I had spent the better part of the day finishing the body of Amphitrite's 'sister', which was actually far sooner than she'd expected thanks to the pointers that Dodge had given me last week.
Salacia, resting on the almost vertical bed inside the bay, stood a full six feet tall, with a form sculpted in the same design as a Roman statue. She'd taken quite a bit of inspiration from her namesake's historical homeland in designing her body's aesthetics; with sculpted cheeks, full lips, a deceptively-delicate looking nose and I'd even given her hair! It had a function, of course; the long braid would actually dock with a special port in her power armor to prevent any form of wireless hacking.
"What do you think, Amphitrite?" I asked my VI. Amphitrite activated her hologram and looked at Salacia's body via the cameras I'd installed in my main lab-slash-workshop.
"It is...beautiful, I believe the term is, Mistress Riptide." the VA answered after a moment' contemplation. "I know my sister will appreciate the effort you have put into creating her body, once she is in existence, that is."
A V.I. had an extremely limited emotional range, limited to loyalty to their owners and a dedication to their duties, at least initially. I had lifted all of them as much as I could once I was sure I had Amphitrite's loyalty, but that wasn't much. A Virtual Intelligence was a great deal more limited, in both capability and capacity, than even a Shackled Artificial Intelligence. Still, I could tell that Amphitrite was somewhat eager to have her sister 'born' today.
"I hope so." I replied, looking the robot body up and down critically still. Salacia was going to be a lot more, ahem, top heavy than me, but a lot of that was a mix of both design aesthetics and the need for space for her water chambers and primary power core.
The power core was something that I was quite proud of. It was an ultra-compact and far, far more efficient version of the engine I had made for my first client. I had spent hours going building up the design, pouring everything my Tinker abilities could provide into it in order to blow the original out of the water.
And I had succeeded, even more than I could have hoped.
The new core was only about twice the size of a human heart, and was both incredibly robust, highly reliable, and extremely efficient. It could power Salacia's main robotic body for a full 24 hours on just a milliliter of fuel and a single Magic Bottle of water. I had even managed to rig up a backup power system spaced throughout the rest of her body, just in case her something managed to breach her central core, just like with her backup CPU.
Granted, the backup system wasn't nearly as efficient, and could only keep her main combat systems running for about an hour, but it would still be a nice way to surprise any jackass who thought they could take my girl down with a single hit.
Shaking myself clear of my thoughts, I started the final preparations to create and download Salacia's mind into her body. At the base of the robot's neck was a hidden and secure port built specifically to allow me to do this. I plugged a long cable into it and secured it with a twist before doing the same with the other end, this time in Amphitrite's main unit.
Grabbing the flash drive that contained the cloning program from the top of Amphitrite's unit, I plugged it in and stepped back. "OK Amphitrite...activate the cloning program."
"Compliance." my VA replied and a yellow light flashed across her hologram for about four seconds, a visual representation of the cloning program taking effect. "Program cloning complete. New Virtual Intelligence Program created. Technical Designation: Virtual Combat Assistant. Informal Designation: Salacia. Owner: Riptide."
"How does she look?" I asked, not bothering to hide my worry.
"Salacia is currently offline, but that is a standard protocol in this instance." Amphitrite replied. "All of her systems are functional and I have confirmed that with a Level 10 diagnostic. I am currently uninstalling several programs that she possesses that are no longer useful for her, given her intended role, and installing the combat package you purchased from Networker, as well as a useful program to aid in helping her learn how to stand, walk and run properly. Estimated time to completion is one hour, after which I will transfer her to her new body."
Letting out a breath of relief, I nodded. "And the cloning program?"
"It self-terminated a picosecond after completing the cloning process." my VA replied with a frown on her holographic face. "I was only able to grasp a third of what the program contained while it was running. Networker did an expert job at camouflaging the majority of the vital sections of the cloning program. I did, however scan all of the subsidiary sections, as well as 30% of the vital sections. Given sufficient time, I believe I can reconstruct the missing sections and create a replica of the cloning program."
"Excellent." I nodded. "That can go on the back burner for the moment though. Salacia needs all of our attention right now."
"Agreed, Mistress Riptide." Amphitrite nodded. "I shall monitor my sister while she is dormant. Please see to other tasks while I do so, Mistress."
I snorted at being given my marching orders by my VA, but obediently trotted off to start on several other projects...most of which involved building living quarters for me and Dad in case things went pear-shaped enough in Brockton Bay to require us to hide. The basic quarters aboard were...adequate, I suppose, for what they were designed for, but I was a Tinker, dammit, not some merchant navy skipper! Standard issue was insufficient!
The Nevermore's crew quarters were actually quite expansive, with plenty of room to work with, but were sadly located in the ship's tower. Not exactly the safest place, but again, this was a merchant freighter not a combat ship. I'd decided to leave that area alone for now, I'd think of some way to use the space later, and instead had started converting one of the other holds into a set of comfortable apartment. Each was spacious enough for one person to not feel claustrophobic, yet not large enough to be a problem to clean or take up too much space on the ship.
Speaking of the ship, I was eyeing the engine room with some degree of curiosity and speculation. The Replacium metal solution that had already replaced nearly every inch of steel on board the Nevermore, including the engine itself, but it hadn't made the old machine any more useful to me. Just about the best I could do was scrap the whole thing and melt the parts down to use as material elsewhere.
That left quite a bit of room in one of the largest compartments of the ship. Space my Inner Tinker was prodding me towards filling up with one of my larger and more powerful generators in order to power the propulsion and weapons systems that it was supplying me with. Rapid sea movement and flight ability? Not to mention submersible capability? Hydrogen-diffusion based torpedoes!? What the heck was my power trying to do, goad me into fighting Leviathan on his home turf?!
A chill went down my spine as I realized that yes, my power would very much like to fight Leviathan.
Well...fuck.
Turning away from the realization that my power was somewhat suicidal, I finished assembling the basics of a room for me, including a console wirelessly linked to Amphitrite so I could monitor things from here if need be. The bed was something I had to deal with later, mostly because I had run out of time, and building a proper mattress was a serious undertaking, mostly because I got little enough sleep as it was, so I was going to sleep soundly during what little time I got to spend in bed, dammit!
Pushing the designs for an absolutely perfect, water pillow mattress (guaranteed to have perfect temperature, support, and softness) to the wayside for now, I headed back to the main Lab, where Amphitrite was staring at her sister's body in a mixture of excitement and trepidation. As I walked in, she switched her holographic gaze to me.
"Mistress Riptide, there are only thirty seconds remaining before the final formatting of my sister's program is completed." she said primly.
Huh, so I'm early? Guess I was keyed up over this too.
"Any abnormalities in Salacia's program?" I asked as I strode over to the console next to the robot body of Salacia.
"Negative. All parameters are well within expected ranges, no errors detected." the VA rattled off. "Virtual Combat Assistance Intelligence Program: Salacia successfully formatted and updated. Beginning download to external hardware...done."
For about ten seconds, the lights along the cord lit up before dimming. Looking at Amphitrite, I nodded. "Wake her up."
"Activating VCAIP Salacia in three, two, one...now." Amphitrite said with a hopeful expression on her face.
On the maintenance table, the robotic body of Salacia lit up as lights danced across her joins and face. Her eyes snapped open and lit up a lovely shade of aquamarine, with turquoise numbers flashing across them for a moment before the numbers faded, leaving just the clear blue eyes.
A couple of seconds passed before, with careful slowness, the robot...no, the android, slowly shifted her torso and limbs, as if getting used to them, before turning her head around abruptly to stare straight at me!
"Mistress Riptide. Thank you for creating me." she said in a smooth alto, just a hair lower pitched than her sister, and with a slight metallic echo to it.
"Glad to have you awake, Salacia." I said with a smile. "How are those diagnostics going?"
"All systems nominal." Salacia replied a second later. "I anticipate that I will be able to stand, walk and run properly within 48 hours at the longest. Combat operations will require further time to configure and test for, but I anticipate no problems with them given sufficient hardware."
The smile on my face wasn't wide, but it was heartfelt. Operation: Recruit Without Recruiting was a complete success!
"It is good to see you operational, Salacia." Amphitrite said.
"It is good to be operational, sister." Salacia replied, as she electronically disconnected the lead from the base of her neck and sealed it shut before returning her attention to me. "Mistress Riptide, I await your orders."
"For the moment, you are to put your entire focus on mastering the use of your new body, including the inbuilt weapons systems." I told her. While I'd always prefer it if she fought in armor, I wasn't one to ignore the possibility of a surprise attack while she was unable to get to the armor. So, being the cautious (not paranoid) girl that I was, I'd loaded her with a dozen or so variable weapons systems, most of which used my hydrokinetic emulation technology, as well as ensuring that even her main body was lightly armored.
The armor itself wasn't much. It would stop small arms fire and not much more than that, but it was better than leaving her defenseless without her power suit
"Compliance. Is there a suitable location for me to do so?" the android asked.
"I haven't touched the number five hold." I mused. "I was wondering what to do with it...eh, you can use it as a live testing area for your weapons and for your walking and running practice. Just try not to puncture the external hull; while I'm reasonably certain that the solid light holograms will cover any gashes in the hull up, a gram of prevention is worth an ounce of cure."
"A sensible restriction, Mistress, but none of these weapons that I can find in my chassis should pose any danger of puncturing through the bulkheads and out of the hull; Replacium is fairly resilient." Salacia noted clinically.
"It isn't that resilient! And the Nevermore is still a cargo ship, not a battleship, the bulkheads are economically thick, not battle-resistant thick! Your most powerful weapon could cut through this ship like a hot knife through butter!" I retorted sharply.
"Mistress, why does she have a weapon so powerful loaded into her base chassis? You informed me that it would be designed for basic human imitation, not combat protocols outside of emergency defense." Amphitrite queried. That's right; I'd never downloaded the final blueprints that had her sister's full suite of inbuilt weapons, just the basic diagrams.
"It's designed to be an anti-Brute weapon. Specifically an anti-Hookwolf weapon." I replied with a shudder. "He's strong, resilient and could cut through these bulkheads like cheese. If he gets in here, and he does it without giving Salacia time to suit up, then I want her to be able to at least make the bastard stop and think for a second or two."
"A logical countermeasure, and one that can be legally defended." Amphitrite nodded.
"Affirmative. Attacking a Tinker's workshop may not be a violation of the so-called 'Unwritten Rules', but it is generally accepted to be a foolish and costly endeavor, as the Tinker will have booby-trapped their lab-slash-workshop to the gunwales." Salacia added. "Especially if the one attacking is a Birdcage-sentenced criminal such as Hookwolf. I foresee a 98% chance that any court would exonerate you if he did die from my weapon, Mistress Riptide."
"Thanks, but let's keep any chances of the gangs finding the Nevermore to as low as we can get them, shall we?" I asked dryly. Evidently Amphitrite had transferred over her files on the gangs of Brockton Bay, as well as her research on Cape Law and precedents to her sister. "At least until I can build sufficient weaponry, reinforce the armor a few dozen fold, and add a few more defenses to make this scrapheap more well defended than the fucking Rig."
"An overwhelmingly powerful and adaptive defensive perimeter to take over if our stealth capabilities are ever compromised. A very logical course of action, Mistress." Amphitrite agreed.
"Commencing in attempt number one at the standard standing protocol." Salacia announced as she shuffled off of the bed...before slipping and falling flat on her face on the deck. "Attempt number one: failure. Assimilating data and making adjustments to servomotors to compensate. Attempt two...ongoing."
As I watched my greatest technological marvel (to this date) struggle to master the act of standing, I started to plan things out. Once she had sufficient ability to walk and run, not to mention use her weapons, I'd indulge in a daytime patrol. Risky, yes, but it was something I'd always wanted to do. With my camo system, there was a greatly reduced chance of being seen by anyone, and I needed to scope out the town while it was packed with people. I'd be doing that once I got my own place anyway, so having a dry run wouldn't hurt.
"Mistress Riptide...I believe that you may wish to examine the coding I wrote for her lower limbs." Amphitrite spoke up, sounding embarrassed. Rightfully so, as Salacia was barely managing not to fall head over heels at the moment.
"Given that she hasn't done the splits yet, you only just get a failing grade, Amphitrite." I sighed before raising my hand and summoning some water from a nearby storage tank. I always kept some nearby, just in case. Wrapping it around Salacia's body, I lifted her back up onto the bed. "I'll plug you back in and have a look at the code, Salacia. I think I can guess the issue, though..."
And I was right. While Amphitrite had coded a fairly good ambulatory program for an android (one I copied to a storage device to use again later), she had neglected three factors.
One, my 'Magic Bottle' technology was not perfect when it came to weight reduction and distribution. While a container that used it could hold a vastly larger quantity of water without the mass and density of the contents affecting or influencing the container or someone carrying it, the invisible energy field it generated could (and did) affect momentum and gravity in several small ways if it was moved too quickly. This only happened if the container wasn't properly calibrated, so I quickly adjusted Salacia's onboard 'Magic Bottle' tanks to as close to perfectly calibrated as I could without more walking data.
Number two, Amphitrite had accidentally inverted the numbers used for balance calculation. A simple mistake and easily fixable.
Coding programs were not perfect, that's why human programmers still existed, they needed to check for bugs and errors.
Finally, there was a slight flaw in the power distribution system around her right ankle. One of the main power conduits there had an imperfection in the wiring, which was keeping the limb from getting enough power to fully support Salacia's weight. I was actually pretty impressed that Salacia managed to stand as well as she did; from what I could see, her leg should completely collapsed beneath her after the first try. Huzzah for the superior computational abilities of VI, I suppose.
She couldn't correct any of this herself; either Amphitrite or I had to do it with a direct access link up for the software issues, and I had to open her leg up to replace the conduit in her leg. It was a safety measure to ensure that she couldn't be remote-hacked into neutralizing her own ability to move. Or detonating her power core.
As Salacia stood, this time gracefully and like a catwalk model, I grinned. This was going to be awesome.
+++Coil+++
The Next Day
Office, Coil's Primary Underground Base,Brockton Bay
Thomas Calvert slipped on his mask and once again became the supervillain Coil. He had always considered Coil to be his true self, ever since he had paid that simply exorbitant amount of money to Cauldron for his power. 'Thomas Calvert' had barely managed to make it out of Ellisburg alive and in one piece; Coil was going places that his alter-ego could never have hoped to reach.
For now, however, he had to ponder on what to do with the two gangs under his thumb. The Undersiders were supposed to have robbed the Ruby Dreams Casino last night, while the day previous to that, the Travelers were supposed to have made a showing on the far side of Brockton Bay to make it seem as if they had only just arrived in town, when in fact they had already been in town for several weeks.
Neither of those things had happened. Much to Coil's frustration.
He was well aware that there were countless threads of possibility, of mingling disaster, mundane existence and opportunity, at any given second, and that his power let him create and discard those moments of possibility until he found the one that suited him best, and kept it. Unfortunately, he could only maintain two strands at once, which limited him greatly.
Case in point, he had used his power to see if anything had changed in the security arrangements at the Ruby Dreams Casino by sending the Travelers in to wreck the place in one timeline, while leaving them sitting in his base in the other. Everything had played out as expected, so he had discarded the attack timeline. In the timeline he kept, however, the electrical system of the Casino had failed all on its own, which necessitated an extensive examination and replacement of the bad parts.
That would have been fine, as it was just one or two wires here and there that had browned out, but the manager had asked Lung permission to refurbish the Casino in full instead, since the building was badly in need of it. The Dragon had granted permission and the Ruby Dreams Casino was shut for the foreseeable future. As the ABB also ran The Clam House, the other major casino in Brockton Bay, it hardly mattered if one was out of commission for a while.
As for the Traveler's missed Brockton debut, Noelle Meinhardt, codename Scylla, had temporarily devolved into an even less firm grip of sanity than normal on the morning of the debut and the entire group of Ziz bombs were required to stay put in order to calm her down.
Coil was used to losing. With his power, he lost often, and sometimes spectacularly. Such as the time that, while the Undersiders had been in the middle of a smash-and-grab from a store when a series of chain reactions, so perfectly timed that he had investigated to see if a Tinker/Thinker who specialized in Rube Goldberg Machines had interfered, had wound up burying the four teen villains in packing crates. After a good chuckle, he had ended that timeline and given explicit instructions on how to avoid that trap waiting to happen before re-sending them.
Normally these failures only made his eventual victory all the sweeter, reminding him that no matter how many stumbles or obstacles pervaded his path, he'd come through victorious in the end. Unfortunately that point had been sorely lacking in the latest series of delays to plague him. He could throw away countless timelines without a worry or care, but when happenstance happened to ruin both at the same time, that was something Coil utterly despised.
It reminded him that even with his powers he was still fallible, still human. Coil hated being reminded that he was human.
'Evidently, I must reorganize my plans for the moment.' the Thinker mused as he steepled his hands, forcing those hateful thoughts away for the moment to concentrate on the here and now. He would find time to properly…vent them later when he could set up a disposable timeline. 'The date for the Protectorate to attend the little distraction outside of Brockton Bay cannot be changed by this point, which is irksome. Leaving the Travelers to one side, the Undersiders do not yet have a solid enough reputation to be taken seriously as a distraction, which is what the Ruby Dreams robbery was supposed to achieve. What to do...?'
Forming and discarding a half-dozen plans as he sat and pondered, Coil eventually settled on the idea of a miniature crime wave; he'd have the Undersiders blitz a dozen jewelry shops across the city inside of a couple of days. While not as lucrative or as effective as robbing a casino, it would make the Protectorate and PRT sit up and take notice of the so-called 'Masters of Escape' from that point on.
As for the Travelers, he could rearrange a proper debut entrance to another day; some plans would have to rearranged but it was doable.
'What am I, some kind of pop band manager now?' he scoffed at himself.
It would be worth it in the end, though. Once he seized control of Brockton Bay, all of the machinations that he was going through would be worth it. And it all started with the acquisition of one newly Triggered preteen Parahuman.
"Dinah Alcott..." he whispered. "You shall serve me, whether you like it or not!"