If a disinterested observer saw the way Alexis was stumbling around, they might wonder if she was drunk or otherwise intoxicated.
But here in the base of The Legendary, there were only interested observers...
***
I'd never known how disorienting lifeforce scanners could be. Yeah, I'd used them before, but they were external units. External *precalibrated* units. But with the new scanner integrated into my transformation, when it's turned on it's output becomes part of what I see. And with what I was seeing, I'm lucky I managed to get my balance back without injuring myself.
The problem is that there's just plain a lot of life around. Bacteria and viruses are everywhere, and even if they don't have much energy, they make up for it in sheer numbers. The system can filter it out once you tell it to, but I, being an idiot, hadn't thought of doing that before turning it on.
Anyway, that minor technical difficulty solved, no injuries, no mess on the floor to clean up (stomach of steel!), and... the creepy stalker doesn't seem to be around. Whatever sense has been letting me feel it isn't as sharp when I'm transformed, but I think I'd know if it was here now that I'm on to it, and it isn't. Still, now would be a good opportunity to finish the calibrations. I don't expect to use this much in combat - it won't really tell me anything I don't already know, given the way things go around here - but there might be some other things to be learned nonetheless. For instance, I wonder if clockwork will show up on it? Most of the mechanical lifeforms the organization's run into in the past do, but they've also all been far more advanced. No one really understands exactly how L-scanners work yet; maybe this could get us a little closer to understanding them.
I was wandering around the base, whispering correction factors to the interface, when I noticed a glowing spot in one of the database terminals. Now, it could be we've got an AI living here and I just didn't get the memo, but if not then there's no good reason for the terminal to be glowing.
As I stared quizically at it, the spot started moving towards me. I had no idea how to interpret *this*, and before I had a chance to think about it, I found myself flat on my back and with my arms full of girl.
Only a moment passed before the girl lifted her head from my chest, and she looked up at me with bright blue eyes. "Onee-nichan!" she called sweetly before snuggling up again.
"Mirami??"
***
There are some weird aspects to my family. (Like the fact that the two women I call sisters are actually my dimensional counterparts.) But Mirami comes from an even more unusual branch.
It started some years ago. There was a ship whose very existance my sisters and I found objectionable. (Don't ask me to explain, it'd take too long and I don't really want to get into it right now.) Normally, we'd just have blown it up, but the sort of magic that was attached to it made that impractical. So instead, we sunk it to the deepest part of the ocean we could find.
Anyway, to get past some of the security that was in place, we used an experimental biocomputer that actually fused with the ships hull.
It wasn't until months later that we learned that the biocomputer had become sentient. Somehow, she'd also learned how to project holograms of herself, which is how she showed up at the lab looking for her mother. (And didn't the idea of Confusion - Zephyr Talia if you're in Paragon City - being a mother surprise us! Oh, I'm not saying it won't ever happen, but I think it'll probably take a few centuries still before she's ready to settle down.)
She called herself Aigami, or Ai for short. With long blonde hair and blue eyes, she looked absolutely nothing like any of the people she could consider her parents.
Of course, we had no idea who she was or what was going on to start with, but eventually we figured out what was going on. It may seem a bit surprising that she wasn't bitter about being stuck at the bottom of the ocean, but really, with her holographic projection abilities, it doesn't much matter where her physical core is.
Mirami could be considered sort of like Ai's younger sister; she awoke during an experiment in magic-enhanced supercomputing. I'm not sure whether to think we're doing something right or something wrong; we never replicated the design that created Aigami, so we don't know if it was the nature of the design or some other force. And no other intelligences like Mirami have shown up so far.
Oh, and just in case you didn't think the familial arrangements were complicated enough, Mirami considers herself to be the younger sister of myself, Confusion, and Discord. Which would make her Ai's aunt as well as her sister. Kind of makes your head hurt. (Though I think Mirami gets too many of her ideas on being a younger sister from H games...)
Anyway, Mirami's never been too interested in getting involved in operations. She hangs around when we aren't out on assignment, or doing experiments with large EM pulses or things like that. (EMP won't kill her, but it's apparently not a lot of fun.) And I knew she was capable of dimensional transition even if I have no idea how... but I never expected her to follow me to Paragon City.
***
"Mira-chan... It's not that I'm not happy to see you, but why were you hanging around in the database?" I asked.
"I was bored, and wanted to see what you were doing," she responded. It wasn't that surprising an answer. One thing both quasi-immortals like my sisters and AI projections like my other sisters have in common is that they often do things because they get bored and think it'd be a good idea.
That still left a few other questions though. "And why are you wearing a copy of the Operation Sanctuary school uniform?" It wasn't an exact copy, mind you. I'm not sure why, since as a projection she could make it look like whatever she wanted.
"Confusion-neechan said you'd like it."
"Actually," I said, thinking back to the conversation I'd had with Confusion before I left, "I think what I said was that I'd like to cosplay in this uniform sometime."
"Well, when you do, we'll match!" I could almost hear her smile.
I couldn't see it though, which lead into the next question. "Why do you still have your face pressed against me like that?"
"Onee-nichan has really soft breasts..."
I blushed. It can be hard to tell, since my face always looks a bit red, but right then I was definately blushing. "Up!"
Mirami pouted, but got up anyway. Freeing me to get up also, and start worrying about whether there might be any problems with her being considered an intruder. Discretion being the better part of not getting perforated, I waved to her to follow me and start heading for the exit. "So," I asked, "How long have you been watching me?"
She shrugged. "Long enough. It looks kind of fun."
I stared at her like she was crazy. If she were an ordinary human I'd think she really was crazy, but for a bored AI it's... actually not that surprising. "I suppose that means you'll want to register as a superhero and start fighting crime too." Nod nod. "And I suppose you've come up with something to actually do to the criminals."
"Uh huh!" Conveniently (for us), we then passed by a mugging in progress. (Some days it seems like you can't go ten feet without running into one.) Mirami held her hand out towards the mugger. A glowing green circle appeared beneath him, and a moment later... he just fell over.
I thought about what I had just seen. "Mira, you are going to give the field dynamics people back home fits when they see this."
She just smiled at me. Oh well, what can it hurt? (Well, other than the skulls, hellions, council, circle, ... but who cares about that?)
Notes:
I created Mirami a while back, around two basic ideas - "I can make a costume that looks a lot like the Operation Sanctuary school uniform, so I think I'll do it" and "I want to play a rad/rad defender". I hadn't come up with any background or personality for her, and certainly didn't have any plans for linking her to Alexis. But when I started thinking about her testing out her new scanners in the base, and seeing an odd spot in the computers... it just sort of happened. (Though Mirami-in-the-game has the wrong color hair to fit this scenario - I'm not sure what color it should be, but the color it is now just doesn't work.)
Aigami and her history is part of the background for some RP stuff that never quite got the right opportunity to actually happen.
And I think I did mix up my past and present tense usage somewhere in here again. As I've noted before, just because you know you're making a mistake isn't always enough to stop you from making it... ^_^;;;;
-Morgan, still spending more time on FFXI than CoH lately... *shrug*"I have no interest in ordinary humans. If there are any aliens, time travelers, or espers here, come sleep with me."
---From "The Ecchi of Haruhi Suzumiya"
-----(Not really)
But here in the base of The Legendary, there were only interested observers...
***
I'd never known how disorienting lifeforce scanners could be. Yeah, I'd used them before, but they were external units. External *precalibrated* units. But with the new scanner integrated into my transformation, when it's turned on it's output becomes part of what I see. And with what I was seeing, I'm lucky I managed to get my balance back without injuring myself.
The problem is that there's just plain a lot of life around. Bacteria and viruses are everywhere, and even if they don't have much energy, they make up for it in sheer numbers. The system can filter it out once you tell it to, but I, being an idiot, hadn't thought of doing that before turning it on.
Anyway, that minor technical difficulty solved, no injuries, no mess on the floor to clean up (stomach of steel!), and... the creepy stalker doesn't seem to be around. Whatever sense has been letting me feel it isn't as sharp when I'm transformed, but I think I'd know if it was here now that I'm on to it, and it isn't. Still, now would be a good opportunity to finish the calibrations. I don't expect to use this much in combat - it won't really tell me anything I don't already know, given the way things go around here - but there might be some other things to be learned nonetheless. For instance, I wonder if clockwork will show up on it? Most of the mechanical lifeforms the organization's run into in the past do, but they've also all been far more advanced. No one really understands exactly how L-scanners work yet; maybe this could get us a little closer to understanding them.
I was wandering around the base, whispering correction factors to the interface, when I noticed a glowing spot in one of the database terminals. Now, it could be we've got an AI living here and I just didn't get the memo, but if not then there's no good reason for the terminal to be glowing.
As I stared quizically at it, the spot started moving towards me. I had no idea how to interpret *this*, and before I had a chance to think about it, I found myself flat on my back and with my arms full of girl.
Only a moment passed before the girl lifted her head from my chest, and she looked up at me with bright blue eyes. "Onee-nichan!" she called sweetly before snuggling up again.
"Mirami??"
***
There are some weird aspects to my family. (Like the fact that the two women I call sisters are actually my dimensional counterparts.) But Mirami comes from an even more unusual branch.
It started some years ago. There was a ship whose very existance my sisters and I found objectionable. (Don't ask me to explain, it'd take too long and I don't really want to get into it right now.) Normally, we'd just have blown it up, but the sort of magic that was attached to it made that impractical. So instead, we sunk it to the deepest part of the ocean we could find.
Anyway, to get past some of the security that was in place, we used an experimental biocomputer that actually fused with the ships hull.
It wasn't until months later that we learned that the biocomputer had become sentient. Somehow, she'd also learned how to project holograms of herself, which is how she showed up at the lab looking for her mother. (And didn't the idea of Confusion - Zephyr Talia if you're in Paragon City - being a mother surprise us! Oh, I'm not saying it won't ever happen, but I think it'll probably take a few centuries still before she's ready to settle down.)
She called herself Aigami, or Ai for short. With long blonde hair and blue eyes, she looked absolutely nothing like any of the people she could consider her parents.
Of course, we had no idea who she was or what was going on to start with, but eventually we figured out what was going on. It may seem a bit surprising that she wasn't bitter about being stuck at the bottom of the ocean, but really, with her holographic projection abilities, it doesn't much matter where her physical core is.
Mirami could be considered sort of like Ai's younger sister; she awoke during an experiment in magic-enhanced supercomputing. I'm not sure whether to think we're doing something right or something wrong; we never replicated the design that created Aigami, so we don't know if it was the nature of the design or some other force. And no other intelligences like Mirami have shown up so far.
Oh, and just in case you didn't think the familial arrangements were complicated enough, Mirami considers herself to be the younger sister of myself, Confusion, and Discord. Which would make her Ai's aunt as well as her sister. Kind of makes your head hurt. (Though I think Mirami gets too many of her ideas on being a younger sister from H games...)
Anyway, Mirami's never been too interested in getting involved in operations. She hangs around when we aren't out on assignment, or doing experiments with large EM pulses or things like that. (EMP won't kill her, but it's apparently not a lot of fun.) And I knew she was capable of dimensional transition even if I have no idea how... but I never expected her to follow me to Paragon City.
***
"Mira-chan... It's not that I'm not happy to see you, but why were you hanging around in the database?" I asked.
"I was bored, and wanted to see what you were doing," she responded. It wasn't that surprising an answer. One thing both quasi-immortals like my sisters and AI projections like my other sisters have in common is that they often do things because they get bored and think it'd be a good idea.
That still left a few other questions though. "And why are you wearing a copy of the Operation Sanctuary school uniform?" It wasn't an exact copy, mind you. I'm not sure why, since as a projection she could make it look like whatever she wanted.
"Confusion-neechan said you'd like it."
"Actually," I said, thinking back to the conversation I'd had with Confusion before I left, "I think what I said was that I'd like to cosplay in this uniform sometime."
"Well, when you do, we'll match!" I could almost hear her smile.
I couldn't see it though, which lead into the next question. "Why do you still have your face pressed against me like that?"
"Onee-nichan has really soft breasts..."
I blushed. It can be hard to tell, since my face always looks a bit red, but right then I was definately blushing. "Up!"
Mirami pouted, but got up anyway. Freeing me to get up also, and start worrying about whether there might be any problems with her being considered an intruder. Discretion being the better part of not getting perforated, I waved to her to follow me and start heading for the exit. "So," I asked, "How long have you been watching me?"
She shrugged. "Long enough. It looks kind of fun."
I stared at her like she was crazy. If she were an ordinary human I'd think she really was crazy, but for a bored AI it's... actually not that surprising. "I suppose that means you'll want to register as a superhero and start fighting crime too." Nod nod. "And I suppose you've come up with something to actually do to the criminals."
"Uh huh!" Conveniently (for us), we then passed by a mugging in progress. (Some days it seems like you can't go ten feet without running into one.) Mirami held her hand out towards the mugger. A glowing green circle appeared beneath him, and a moment later... he just fell over.
I thought about what I had just seen. "Mira, you are going to give the field dynamics people back home fits when they see this."
She just smiled at me. Oh well, what can it hurt? (Well, other than the skulls, hellions, council, circle, ... but who cares about that?)
Notes:
I created Mirami a while back, around two basic ideas - "I can make a costume that looks a lot like the Operation Sanctuary school uniform, so I think I'll do it" and "I want to play a rad/rad defender". I hadn't come up with any background or personality for her, and certainly didn't have any plans for linking her to Alexis. But when I started thinking about her testing out her new scanners in the base, and seeing an odd spot in the computers... it just sort of happened. (Though Mirami-in-the-game has the wrong color hair to fit this scenario - I'm not sure what color it should be, but the color it is now just doesn't work.)
Aigami and her history is part of the background for some RP stuff that never quite got the right opportunity to actually happen.
And I think I did mix up my past and present tense usage somewhere in here again. As I've noted before, just because you know you're making a mistake isn't always enough to stop you from making it... ^_^;;;;
-Morgan, still spending more time on FFXI than CoH lately... *shrug*"I have no interest in ordinary humans. If there are any aliens, time travelers, or espers here, come sleep with me."
---From "The Ecchi of Haruhi Suzumiya"
-----(Not really)