***
It would not be heroic, Archer reminded herself firmly, to try and hide behind Neko, or at least keep the tall woman between her and the armored Knight Sabre. It wasn't easy. Silicon Sabre had been the subject of a lot of horror stories back at Crey, after all, with lots of footage of the original Sabre tearing through every type of security Crey had, and upon seeing her in person, the girl realized that the drone duplicates that Crey had built for training purposes looked nowhere near as impressive. They'd been based off the hardsuit she'd worn when she originally escaped from Crey, a somewhat bulky suit that had still been only a prototype itself. This one was a sleek, gleaming suit of silver and white, and she could see a pair of beam emitters on the forearms, most likely for the twin blades the woman used. Archer could remember the solid battle steel blades on the drones, and a time when Seiba hadn't managed to quite get out of the way of one of them, and the thought of what this upgraded model could do was not a pleasant thought indeed.
"So... I guess Neko told you all about me?" she asked nervously, scratching the back of her neck. The armored figure nodded, whatever expression she might have hidden behind the polished helmet. "I guess you didn't think it was all bad if you were willing to even see me."
"If nothing else," Silicon said, her voice modulated and distorted by her suits external speaker in a somewhat distorted, metallic tone, just enough to confuse any voice identifying software her enemies may use, "I felt it would be proper to make certain that you are in good health. Besides Crey, we are the only group with the knowledge and equipment to properly maintain Bumaroid bodies." The helmet tilted to the side, studying her as she felt the blood drain from her face. "Is something the matter?" she asked.
"Um... sorta kinda?" she replied with a weak smile and a slight shrug. "I know it'd sound... suspicious," she admitted as she felt both women looking at her. "But it's the truth. I'll do it of course, I mean it would probably look suspicious if I didn't, it's just that, well, I'm not fond of doctors," she said. "Although it's probably not very fair of me," she said, looking thoughtful despite her current unease. "I mean, the people that maintained us weren't medical doctors. They kept on making a point of telling us that, actually." She cocked her head to the side. "Even when we tried to be polite, because Ruby said you shouldn't be rude to your doctors, which makes sense given how they might have to open you up and do squicky things to your insides, so you don't want them mad at you, it seemed to make them mad. Insisted that they were bio-mechanical experts." Archer tapped a finger against her chin, missing the glance both taller women gave each other. "Seemed like a weird thing to insist on, really."
After a moment, Silicon looked back towards the girl. "Well, if they weren't doctors," she said, her tone an odd sense of forced casualness, "then I suppose you can't hold that against us." Archer considered that, then nodded. "So, if you'll just come this way..." Grabbing onto the casual tone in Silicons voice to help her own self control, Archer smiled faintly and followed. Over the next two hours, with the expected collection of tests where she stood in medical scanners, had eye tests, blood drawn, and run through a series of physical exercises clearly designed to determine her overall fitness (Or was that construction? She wasn't really sure), Archer found herself wondering if maybe her half-crazy theory of doctors being just a little bit evil. Although Silicon wasn't quite a doctor, was she, she considered as she dropped into a chair, sighing in relief as her legs were saved from having to struggle against her weight any longer.
Groaning softly and letting her head hang back, she stared up at the ceiling and thought about that for a moment. The original Sabre, heck, she was the original Scimitar even. From the stories she'd heard when the guards thought she was asleep, she'd broken out of the laboratory where she was built the moment they'd activated her. Then she'd joined Riot Force and begun hunting down other Scimitars, other Sabres, like she'd known they were coming and who that would be. And then, somehow, she'd managed to find more Sabres. Find them, protect them, train them and equip them. The armor she was wearing now was a sleek, advanced weapon, that made her original hardsuit look like a wind up antique. How did she manage that? Had she managed to recruit her own scientists and engineers somehow, establish an R&D department in Riot Force?
Or was the answer even more interesting? She opened her eyes and studied Silicon, who seemed to be ignoring Archer for the moment as she studied one of the computer monitors. Archer found herself considering the woman. A medical examination, and she wasn't leaving it to an experienced employee. In fact, the more Archer thought about it, the more it seemed that Silicon Sabre was actually an expert in Bumaroid design, and potentially in powered armor design. How did a Bumaroid that escaped Crey captivity manage to gain that kind of knowledge and skill?
Sitting back upright, she mentally nodded. Yes, there was more about Silicon Sabre to consider, but all she said out loud was "Is that all of it?"
Turning, the woman regarded her through the smooth metal of her helmet, then nodded. "That should be everything," she said. "If you want to go clean up, the showers are just down that hall." Her voice, although still distorted by her helmets speakers, held some friendly affection, as if she'd let down her guard slightly. The pink haired girl smiled weakly, then pulled herself out of her chair. Wincing at the complaints from her thighs and arms, she walked slowly out of the medbay.
Leaning around the corner, Neko watched her new student step into the showers, the door sliding shut behind her, then nodded to herself and headed back down to the control room of Riot bases Sabre wing. "She's in the shower now," she told Silicon, who was sitting at the main computer terminal, studying a series of readouts and scans taken of Archer over the past few hours. "What's the initial verdict?" she asked.
"Interesting," the Sabre replied. She caught sight of Nekos reflection in one of the powered down monitors, eyebrow raised, ears twitching in amusement, then chuckled lightly. "I wasn't being sarcastic Neko. Her design is quite remarkable. She's obviously part of the latest generation of Crey Bumaroid designs. We've seen a number of them begin to appear in recent months, combining the technology base stolen from GENOM with Creys local biotechnology."
"I really don't like the sound of that." Neko scowled, ears going flat as she considered that observation. "Crey's always had trouble implanting properly obedient personalities in Sabres. If they managed to make their Protector neural cloning techniques compatible with Bumaroids..."
The hardsuited woman nodded in agreement. "Yes. Very worrying indeed. I don't believe they've managed that yet, but even so... She is a mixture of organic and cybernetics. Reinforced bones, enhanced digestive system and lungs, what look like secondary blood vessels and nerves. Along with what looks like an improved version of a standard bumaroid self-repair system. Accelerated restructuring, and what looks like a system to allow safer methods for ingesting critical materials." She tilted her head to the side slightly, the tone of her voice suggesting she was reluctantly impressed. "I suspect they've attempted to develop methods to counter bio-crash syndrome," she mused. "Or at least prevent the traditional method from being discovered."
Ears twitching, Neko snorted. "Yeah, even in this town, old-fashioned blood sucking gets noticed pretty quickly." Silicon chuckled lightly. "So, they're fitting more advanced abilities into the actual Sabres themselves. We've seen small signs of it since... hell, since Net, but from your description, it sounds like a much stronger case this time." Alt-tabbing to another window, Silicon brought up what, to Neko, looked like nothing more then a tangled mess of letters, numbers and symbols next to an image of the classic DNA strand. The catgirl looked at it for a moment, then shrugged. "I'm no geneticist you realize."
The Sabre leader nodded. "Neither am I really, aside from a little light reading on the topic. But between my limited knowledge and these computers -" she tapped an index finger lightly on a case for emphasis, "I can tell you that Archers organic components are not baseline human. Neither are they from any known subject in the Protector program," she added as a thoughtful expression appeared on Nekos face. "I'll need to have some of my associates take a closer look, determine what they can find. But regardless of anything else, I suspect her organic elements regenerate just as well as her mechanical half." Again, there was the tone of reluctant admiration in her voice. "Very nicely done indeed. The people involved in this project are certainly thorough. It's a shame they lack in morals."
"Honestly, I was expecting she'd have Utena's DNA." Silicon looked over her shoulder at her, and the catwoman grinned and shrugged. "Hey, there's a resemblance there."
Pausing to consider that, she nodded. "Hmm. Appearance, powers... attitude." Turning back to the monitor, she added "of course, that last element isn't genetic. Still, I will be running a comparison there, just to see if there is a relation." She paused for a moment as her suits motion sensors flashed a light warning on her HUD. She brought up the camera mounted in the back of her helmet, then smiled very faintly at the sight of Archer, dripping wet and wrapped in a towel, leaning out cautiously from the corridor. "Still, despite the unusual nature of her escape from Crey custody and the question of how her regenerative abilities faked her death for so long, so far I am not seeing anything that might suggest the involvement of a third party. That's not confirmation that there was no meddling," she added, raising a hand to hold off any comment. "I still need to complete my analysis of the scans we took of her neural arrays and cognition programming, to ensure she has no sleeper personalities installed and waiting for a suitable activation." She turned to face Neko, smiling inside her helmet as Archer ducked back into the corridor and out of sight.
The teacher-turned-hero smiled slightly, before her eyes twitched in the general direction of the corridor. "The problem with sleeper personalities is that they're hard to find," she pointed out.
"If you don't know what to look for, and I do," she noted. "For the time being though, I'd recommend against introducing her to the larger Sabre team, or possibly even Riot. There's almost certain to be something or someone that could draw a dangerous response. Major Sabres, team leaders, possible recent escapees..."
"Taking them down before they can get established?" Neko asked casually.
"Or luring them into a situation that leaves them vulnerable to Crey manipulation," she agreed. "I have a number of methods that could be used to counter or remove that sort of programming, but I need time to study these test results properly and make a proper evaluation."
Neko nodded. "So, when she gets out of the shower... give her the health talk, nutritional supplements and such that she needs to get her body back up to a hundred percent?" she suggested. Silicon nodded, then suppressed a chuckle at the flash of movement in the corridor. The taller woman waited a moment, then turned and walked to the doorway and glanced along it, then down at the carpet, noting the damp spots left by her feet. "Ah, kids these days." Stifling a giggle, she walked back over to Silicon. "So much to learn about the art of the Ninja."
***
"So the complaint is that she isn't paying attention in class. When I pointed out her high grades and scores, the teacher got all sulky."
Elizabeth Connor chuckled, tilting her head to the side to hold the phone to her ear as she used both hands to put her laptop away. "And it never occurred to them that she's bored?" she asked her husband. "That reading a section of book out loud is annoying when you've finished the book, twice, waiting for the class to stumble over four letter words?"
"Well, I didn't point it quite so bluntly," he replied dryly. "Seriously Liz, I think we might need to think of something. It's not just that she's bored. That's no way for her to learn."
She sighed, picking up her laptop case. "You might have a point. But I don't want to move her. I mean, her friends all go to the same school-"
"Agent Connor!" Elizabeth sighed at the voice and looked up to see a security officer appear in the door of her office. "There's something here I think you need to see ma'am," he said in a rush, his voice slightly panicky.
Sighing again, she put the case back down. "I think I'm going to be late again Tom."
"Big emergency that needs your immediate attention?" he commented.
"Pretty much. Kiss Sally for me. Love you." She flipped her phone closed and gave the officer a look. "Brad." The young man barely held back a flinch at the cold tone of her voice. He'd gotten her irritated, and while everyone knew Connor was usually a friendly, easy-going boss, she could be a right bitch when someone dragged her away from family time. "Show me the emergency," she added and he nodded quickly, darting out of the office quickly. Rolling her eyes, she followed.
"We were reviewing the security footage from the semi-covert facilities, class fives through sevens," he said as they walked down the hallways. "Just the usual monthly skim and archive. There's something here... well, I'm not sure how to explain it," he admitted. "I mean, I can say what I saw, but it doesn't make any sense..." he waved his hands in the air briefly as they stepped into the monitor room. "It'd just be easier to show you ma'am," he said, nodding to the agent still sitting at the workstation. He nodded and tapped the play button again.
For a moment, Elizabeth was silent, watching as two low-ranking Crey employees shifted crates and boxes from the back of a truck to a trolley, then her eyes narrowed as one of their packages began to shake from several impacts from the inside. By the time the crate had been kicked open and a small, female figure squeezed out, her face looked like it had been carved from stone. "I was under the impression," she said in a surprisingly conversational tone, given her expression, "that we had AIs and programs designed to catch this sort of oddity in security footage."
Shrugging slightly, the agent sitting at the workstation looked up at her. "There is, and I'm checking them now boss. As near as I can tell, the system's working just fine... It just missed a girl breaking out of a box." Elizabeth gave him a look. "I know, hell of a thing for it to miss, but it happens."
"What the heck was she doing there in the first place?" Brad wondered.
"I don't know," his superior replied, hiding her lie easily behind a layer of thoughtful confusion. "But I think I should find out. Brad, check the time sheets, find out just who those two are, then bring them in. Nothing overt, wait until the next time they come in on shift. I want to know why they neglected to mention this. Harry," she continued as Brad left, "Go find the Network Sysadmins, and work out who handles the AIs and surveillance programs. If the systems missed this, I need to know if it was a glitch, or something else." The Crey agent waited for him to leave the room as well, then pulled out her phone and dialed. "This is Agent Connor. Flag Bradley Rogers and Harry Peterson for security oversight. Level Four."
Ending that call, she turned back to watch the footage replay, the mystery girl escaping onto the street and out of sight of the cameras. Young looking, she mused as she scrolled through her phone directory. Small too. Probably not even five feet out of her armor. She shook her head in faint amusement, wondering what the designers reasoning for that was, even as she found the number she was looking for and dialed. The call took longer to go through, with the encryption software taking nearly ten seconds to properly link up with the receiving phone. "This is Connors, Chief of Security, Kings Row Sector," she said, her voice flat and level. "We have a Code Alpha-One-One-Three."
"Subtype?" came the reply, almost as soon as she'd finished speaking.
"Currently unknown. Initial event took place at Disposal Facility Seventeen twelve days ago. The target was wearing a power armor undersuit, so..." she paused, considering. "Sir, I was under the impression there were no Scimitar projects under my area of responsibility."
"There are none to my knowledge either," the man replied, a statement which Elizabeth knew she could accept as virtual confirmation. Only one person truly knew of every project Crey Industries was carrying out, and the odds of Hopkins lying to her about situations involving corporate security in Kings Row were almost nil. "You have command authority for the investigation. Keep me updated."
"Yes sir." Ending the call, she put the phone back in her pocket and turned her attention back to the monitor. Rewinding, she paused the tape and took a good look at the likely Scimitar. Not for the first time, she wondered just why the development people insisted on making those damn things look so human. It never made anything but trouble when the robots malfunctioned and started acting like they were people. "Scientists," she sighed, shaking her head and heading back to her office.
***
Leaping behind a piece of cover, the pink-haired girl took another arrow from the quiver on her back and fitted it into place. With practiced ease, she stepped back out, drew the string back, and released. Her aim was off, ever so slightly, the arrow punching into the shoulder of the combat drone rather then its chest. The machine staggered, the arm twitching as it failed to obey commands, but the drone recovered quickly and continued to move forward, the cannon in its other arm coughing again. Archer didn't move fast enough, and took a hit in her own shoulder, the paint-balls leaving stinging bruises under the light jumpsuit as she hissed in pain.
Behind a tinted window, Neko watched as the girl rubbed at her shoulder, then reached for another arrow. "Well, when it comes to her archery, she's clearly got the skills," said the woman next to her, and Neko glanced over to look at Linna Yamasaki, who was currently studying the combat simulation with a curious expression. "It's very technical though. She's not really improvising. Which might be fine in competition or more conventional archery, but hero-work..."
Nodding, Neko watched as Archer darted back to fresh cover, then took another shot at the drones. "It's been drilled into her," she mused. "Standard Crey operational training. She was intended for group deployments, not solo operations. Heck, from what she's told me of her armor, she didn't have any close range weapons or defenses."
"So, Alice if you hadn't taught her some tricks for breathing room?" Neko chuckled lightly, and nodded. "Although, now that I think about it, I don't think it's what she wants to be doing," Linna added.
"Mmm, I thought that too. She's more aggressive then that. She's the sort of girl that prefers to get in close," Neko agreed, taking the hilt of her vanguard sword out of her jacket. "Offer her that training instead?"
Linna nodded. "I think it's got potential," she commented. "And pain tolerance training." Neko twitched an ear curiously. "You're somewhat durable before your shield and natural skill. I'm good at dodging, with my armor as the second line of defense, but her... She's a regenerator. What do you want to bet her hardsuit was built around advanced self-repair systems like Tenjou's?"
"No bet," the catwoman agreed as Archer tried to get another shot off, only to flinch out of the way of another shot. The offending drone rolled closer, and the girl threw the bow aside in annoyance. Instead, she reached for a nearby metal pipe that had been left in the training room as a possible improvised weapon, using it for just that purpose as she swung it hard enough to dislodge the drones head from its neck. She lost her balance and stumbled, but the drone, realizing it was now blind, followed its programming and shut down. A second drone hesitated, selecting a new combat protocol as it acknowledged the changed threat. That moment cost it as Archer charged, bringing the pipe down on it hard.
Neko and Linna looked at each other. "Scrapper," the Sabre said.
"Oh yes."
***
Transcripts of the interviews with the two disposal workers proved to be utterly boring reading, Elizabeth decided as she turned the page. It was also unsurprising. Both men had decided, after watching a girl break out of a box they'd been about to drop into an incinerator, that their best option was to shut up and never speak of it to anyone. Understandable, given the trouble it would cause with both the authorities and Crey, especially since they didn't know it was actually just a robot.
"It wasn't in the Row." Elizabeth looked up as Sam Weston came in, a folder in his hand. "Project E, one of the more recent branches of the Scimitar project. Believe it or not, they were actually trying to mix in some magic into the design." The man grinned at his bosses expression, running a hand through his graying hair. "Some interesting designs, the sort of thing that would make the Protector divisions panic over their jobs, but then..."
"Wait wait, don't tell me, let me guess," she replied. "They decided they didn't want to work for Crey and left." Sam grinned at her and she shook her head. "Any idea what set it off?"
"Yeah, the disaster investigation noted that several of the Scimitar units had failed their mental evaluations and were going to be liquidated." Dropping into the chair on the other side of Elizabeths desk, Sam grinned. "Investigators figured that the girls found out and, as the report says, 'Objected strongly to the decision of the Review Board.'" The grin turned somewhat bitter. "They almost made it out undetected. Their cover was blown at almost the last moment, it turned into a running battle that most of them didn't survive. To their credit though, they took a lot of security guards with them. Even some Enforcers."
Looking at him, Elizabeth raised an eyebrow. "You almost sound sorry they didn't make it out."
Sam responded with a shrug. "Kids had spirit, and you can't blame them for not wantin' to be scrapped."
"They're machines Sam. Want has nothing to do with it," she said dryly. The man studied her for a long moment, his expression much more neutral then before. His boss met his gaze levelly, then sighed. "Okay Sam, say what you want to say."
"I've worked with some of the Scimitars that stuck with Crey," he said. "Good kids, the lot of 'em. Hard working, loyal, and they're not just machines." He leaned forward to study her, his expression serious. "They're as alive as we are. More then those damn Nemesis Automations that keep fooling everybody, so I figure it's good enough. Dunno if I like the Company making people like that, but..." his expression lightened and he shrugged. "They're people Liz, don't forget that."
Sighing again, she leaned back in her chair. "I'll try to keep that in mind Sam," she promised him. "Do we know which one of them our mystery girl was? And why she was being sent to our disposal unit and not the one in the Canyon?"
"Her name's Archer. Ranged support and a test bed for a new self-repair system. She was one of the ones that was going to be dismantled. Took down almost half a dozen guards, even managed to damage a power suit before she took a hit meant for her teams leader. Afterwards... it gets weird," he admitted. "She was sent off to a lab in Brickstown, officially to have her neural core replaced and the body put back into use. But there's no record of that even being done. And the order to ship her to the Rows disposal site? Signed by a 'John Smith' from the Companies Advanced Technology Division."
"Who doesn't exist," Elizabeth replied flatly, having guessed as much just from the name. Sam smirked and shrugged. "Someone's setting things up for this 'Archer' to get out. Her timing at waking up is too good to be coincidence. And they've infiltrated the company." She scowled. "This just gets better and better. Do we know where her hardsuit is?"
Opening the folder again, Sam skimmed through the printouts. "Saw it here somewhere... aha! One of our covert bases. C4F. Couldn't find details to go with the code," he admitted.
Turning to her computer, Elizabeth fed her access codes to a database that didn't officially exist. "I suppose it should be a good thing you couldn't. You're not supposed to know everything" she told him, a wry smile on her face. She opened up a list and started scrolling. "Cee-Three, Cee-Four... Here we go." Clicking on the base in question, she skimmed the basic details and frowned again. "What in the... It's a tech recovery base in the RWZ," she said, looking up from her computer screen.
"Why would a Scimitar hardsuit be sent to it's John Smith again," Sam said, switching thoughts and sentences without even taking a breath. "If it's still there, and if Archer manages to make contact with Riot..." Elizabeth was reaching for her phone.
***
Legally, Crey Industries had no presence in the region of Paragon now known as the Rikti War Zone. The area was under tight military lockdown, after all, with Vanguard and the heroes and villains it had recruited fighting every day to try and keep the Rikti Restructionists contained within the crashed mothership that served as their primary base.
In reality, the company had between six to ten hidden bases active in the area at any time. Their primary mission was technology raids on everyone in the area, be they Rikti, Arachnos, Malta, Nemesis or even (Some would say especially) Vanguard and the various hero groups. Very little research was performed there, thanks to the need to be able to abandon a base at a moments notice, with any materials acquired sent one to one of the more secure labs in a safer part of the city.
Which meant that when the team at C4F found an odd hardsuit that was clearly designed for a small, female form, as opposed to the bulky unisex design that Crey normally used, packed in one of the delivery crates, they were left scratching their heads. None of them were cleared to know about the Scimitar program after all, which meant they could only guess at its purpose.
“Looks like one of those Sabre suits,” one of the security guards said.
“Those bitches in Riot Force?” an agent commented.
“Mind your mouth Canton,” the Tank squads commander said, picking up the helmet so she could take a closer look at it. “And yeah, I think it is a Sabre suit. Maybe we got rid of one of them.”
“We should be so lucky,” Canton muttered, wincing as he remembered a painful encounter with one of the Sabres in Brickstown. “One less Sabre in the world works for me. So what the hell is her suit doing here?”
The Tank Commander shrugged, dropping the helmet back into the crate. “Shipping error, I’d guess,” she said. “Pack it back up, I’ll call Command and see about getting it sent on to wherever it’s meant to be sent to-” her eyes widened as the building shook from a sudden explosion. “Battle stations!” she ordered, slamming her own helmet on and sprinting for the door. “Overwatch, report!”
“Explosion at the main entrance,” the bases security room responded instantly. “Cameras are down, on duty team isn’t responding.” The commander growled, trying to run faster, even as she checked her weapons systems.
Then, as she ran around a corner, something hit her in the face hard enough to reverse her momentum and throw her backwards into a wall. She fell to the ground as her helmet display turned to static for a moment, then fixed itself in time to see a tall catwoman in a modified Vanguard uniform plant her boot on her chestplate. “You know, I have this feeling you don’t have the authorisation to be in this very important military zone,” Purrfect Shield said dryly.
“Step away from her!” ordered one of the other tanks that had been trailing behind somewhat, as the rest of the Crey security force took aim at the hero. For her part, Shield just looked at them, clearly amused. “Drop the sword and step away from her now, or we open fire,” the tank repeated.
“They don’t really put as much training into you lot as they used to, do they?” the woman commented. “I mean, just take a moment and think about it. Here I am, standing in front of you, sword and shield glowing, wearing my rather attention-getting black and gold armor - Which hugs the curves for extra attention, and because I think Vanguard like annoying Longbow with how much better their uniforms look - and so you all aim your guns at me?” The guns remained aimed at her, although several faces not hidden behind power armor looked rather troubled as they considered that. “It should be obvious, shouldn’t it?” Shield asked, smile widening. “I’m the distraction.”
“That she is,” another voice commented. The guards spun around, but had just enough time to see lightning dance around a red-armored Sabre, and then things became rather exciting.
***
It would not be heroic, Archer reminded herself firmly, to try and hide behind Neko, or at least keep the tall woman between her and the armored Knight Sabre. It wasn't easy. Silicon Sabre had been the subject of a lot of horror stories back at Crey, after all, with lots of footage of the original Sabre tearing through every type of security Crey had, and upon seeing her in person, the girl realized that the drone duplicates that Crey had built for training purposes looked nowhere near as impressive. They'd been based off the hardsuit she'd worn when she originally escaped from Crey, a somewhat bulky suit that had still been only a prototype itself. This one was a sleek, gleaming suit of silver and white, and she could see a pair of beam emitters on the forearms, most likely for the twin blades the woman used. Archer could remember the solid battle steel blades on the drones, and a time when Seiba hadn't managed to quite get out of the way of one of them, and the thought of what this upgraded model could do was not a pleasant thought indeed.
"So... I guess Neko told you all about me?" she asked nervously, scratching the back of her neck. The armored figure nodded, whatever expression she might have hidden behind the polished helmet. "I guess you didn't think it was all bad if you were willing to even see me."
"If nothing else," Silicon said, her voice modulated and distorted by her suits external speaker in a somewhat distorted, metallic tone, just enough to confuse any voice identifying software her enemies may use, "I felt it would be proper to make certain that you are in good health. Besides Crey, we are the only group with the knowledge and equipment to properly maintain Bumaroid bodies." The helmet tilted to the side, studying her as she felt the blood drain from her face. "Is something the matter?" she asked.
"Um... sorta kinda?" she replied with a weak smile and a slight shrug. "I know it'd sound... suspicious," she admitted as she felt both women looking at her. "But it's the truth. I'll do it of course, I mean it would probably look suspicious if I didn't, it's just that, well, I'm not fond of doctors," she said. "Although it's probably not very fair of me," she said, looking thoughtful despite her current unease. "I mean, the people that maintained us weren't medical doctors. They kept on making a point of telling us that, actually." She cocked her head to the side. "Even when we tried to be polite, because Ruby said you shouldn't be rude to your doctors, which makes sense given how they might have to open you up and do squicky things to your insides, so you don't want them mad at you, it seemed to make them mad. Insisted that they were bio-mechanical experts." Archer tapped a finger against her chin, missing the glance both taller women gave each other. "Seemed like a weird thing to insist on, really."
After a moment, Silicon looked back towards the girl. "Well, if they weren't doctors," she said, her tone an odd sense of forced casualness, "then I suppose you can't hold that against us." Archer considered that, then nodded. "So, if you'll just come this way..." Grabbing onto the casual tone in Silicons voice to help her own self control, Archer smiled faintly and followed. Over the next two hours, with the expected collection of tests where she stood in medical scanners, had eye tests, blood drawn, and run through a series of physical exercises clearly designed to determine her overall fitness (Or was that construction? She wasn't really sure), Archer found herself wondering if maybe her half-crazy theory of doctors being just a little bit evil. Although Silicon wasn't quite a doctor, was she, she considered as she dropped into a chair, sighing in relief as her legs were saved from having to struggle against her weight any longer.
Groaning softly and letting her head hang back, she stared up at the ceiling and thought about that for a moment. The original Sabre, heck, she was the original Scimitar even. From the stories she'd heard when the guards thought she was asleep, she'd broken out of the laboratory where she was built the moment they'd activated her. Then she'd joined Riot Force and begun hunting down other Scimitars, other Sabres, like she'd known they were coming and who that would be. And then, somehow, she'd managed to find more Sabres. Find them, protect them, train them and equip them. The armor she was wearing now was a sleek, advanced weapon, that made her original hardsuit look like a wind up antique. How did she manage that? Had she managed to recruit her own scientists and engineers somehow, establish an R&D department in Riot Force?
Or was the answer even more interesting? She opened her eyes and studied Silicon, who seemed to be ignoring Archer for the moment as she studied one of the computer monitors. Archer found herself considering the woman. A medical examination, and she wasn't leaving it to an experienced employee. In fact, the more Archer thought about it, the more it seemed that Silicon Sabre was actually an expert in Bumaroid design, and potentially in powered armor design. How did a Bumaroid that escaped Crey captivity manage to gain that kind of knowledge and skill?
Sitting back upright, she mentally nodded. Yes, there was more about Silicon Sabre to consider, but all she said out loud was "Is that all of it?"
Turning, the woman regarded her through the smooth metal of her helmet, then nodded. "That should be everything," she said. "If you want to go clean up, the showers are just down that hall." Her voice, although still distorted by her helmets speakers, held some friendly affection, as if she'd let down her guard slightly. The pink haired girl smiled weakly, then pulled herself out of her chair. Wincing at the complaints from her thighs and arms, she walked slowly out of the medbay.
Leaning around the corner, Neko watched her new student step into the showers, the door sliding shut behind her, then nodded to herself and headed back down to the control room of Riot bases Sabre wing. "She's in the shower now," she told Silicon, who was sitting at the main computer terminal, studying a series of readouts and scans taken of Archer over the past few hours. "What's the initial verdict?" she asked.
"Interesting," the Sabre replied. She caught sight of Nekos reflection in one of the powered down monitors, eyebrow raised, ears twitching in amusement, then chuckled lightly. "I wasn't being sarcastic Neko. Her design is quite remarkable. She's obviously part of the latest generation of Crey Bumaroid designs. We've seen a number of them begin to appear in recent months, combining the technology base stolen from GENOM with Creys local biotechnology."
"I really don't like the sound of that." Neko scowled, ears going flat as she considered that observation. "Crey's always had trouble implanting properly obedient personalities in Sabres. If they managed to make their Protector neural cloning techniques compatible with Bumaroids..."
The hardsuited woman nodded in agreement. "Yes. Very worrying indeed. I don't believe they've managed that yet, but even so... She is a mixture of organic and cybernetics. Reinforced bones, enhanced digestive system and lungs, what look like secondary blood vessels and nerves. Along with what looks like an improved version of a standard bumaroid self-repair system. Accelerated restructuring, and what looks like a system to allow safer methods for ingesting critical materials." She tilted her head to the side slightly, the tone of her voice suggesting she was reluctantly impressed. "I suspect they've attempted to develop methods to counter bio-crash syndrome," she mused. "Or at least prevent the traditional method from being discovered."
Ears twitching, Neko snorted. "Yeah, even in this town, old-fashioned blood sucking gets noticed pretty quickly." Silicon chuckled lightly. "So, they're fitting more advanced abilities into the actual Sabres themselves. We've seen small signs of it since... hell, since Net, but from your description, it sounds like a much stronger case this time." Alt-tabbing to another window, Silicon brought up what, to Neko, looked like nothing more then a tangled mess of letters, numbers and symbols next to an image of the classic DNA strand. The catgirl looked at it for a moment, then shrugged. "I'm no geneticist you realize."
The Sabre leader nodded. "Neither am I really, aside from a little light reading on the topic. But between my limited knowledge and these computers -" she tapped an index finger lightly on a case for emphasis, "I can tell you that Archers organic components are not baseline human. Neither are they from any known subject in the Protector program," she added as a thoughtful expression appeared on Nekos face. "I'll need to have some of my associates take a closer look, determine what they can find. But regardless of anything else, I suspect her organic elements regenerate just as well as her mechanical half." Again, there was the tone of reluctant admiration in her voice. "Very nicely done indeed. The people involved in this project are certainly thorough. It's a shame they lack in morals."
"Honestly, I was expecting she'd have Utena's DNA." Silicon looked over her shoulder at her, and the catwoman grinned and shrugged. "Hey, there's a resemblance there."
Pausing to consider that, she nodded. "Hmm. Appearance, powers... attitude." Turning back to the monitor, she added "of course, that last element isn't genetic. Still, I will be running a comparison there, just to see if there is a relation." She paused for a moment as her suits motion sensors flashed a light warning on her HUD. She brought up the camera mounted in the back of her helmet, then smiled very faintly at the sight of Archer, dripping wet and wrapped in a towel, leaning out cautiously from the corridor. "Still, despite the unusual nature of her escape from Crey custody and the question of how her regenerative abilities faked her death for so long, so far I am not seeing anything that might suggest the involvement of a third party. That's not confirmation that there was no meddling," she added, raising a hand to hold off any comment. "I still need to complete my analysis of the scans we took of her neural arrays and cognition programming, to ensure she has no sleeper personalities installed and waiting for a suitable activation." She turned to face Neko, smiling inside her helmet as Archer ducked back into the corridor and out of sight.
The teacher-turned-hero smiled slightly, before her eyes twitched in the general direction of the corridor. "The problem with sleeper personalities is that they're hard to find," she pointed out.
"If you don't know what to look for, and I do," she noted. "For the time being though, I'd recommend against introducing her to the larger Sabre team, or possibly even Riot. There's almost certain to be something or someone that could draw a dangerous response. Major Sabres, team leaders, possible recent escapees..."
"Taking them down before they can get established?" Neko asked casually.
"Or luring them into a situation that leaves them vulnerable to Crey manipulation," she agreed. "I have a number of methods that could be used to counter or remove that sort of programming, but I need time to study these test results properly and make a proper evaluation."
Neko nodded. "So, when she gets out of the shower... give her the health talk, nutritional supplements and such that she needs to get her body back up to a hundred percent?" she suggested. Silicon nodded, then suppressed a chuckle at the flash of movement in the corridor. The taller woman waited a moment, then turned and walked to the doorway and glanced along it, then down at the carpet, noting the damp spots left by her feet. "Ah, kids these days." Stifling a giggle, she walked back over to Silicon. "So much to learn about the art of the Ninja."
***
"So the complaint is that she isn't paying attention in class. When I pointed out her high grades and scores, the teacher got all sulky."
Elizabeth Connor chuckled, tilting her head to the side to hold the phone to her ear as she used both hands to put her laptop away. "And it never occurred to them that she's bored?" she asked her husband. "That reading a section of book out loud is annoying when you've finished the book, twice, waiting for the class to stumble over four letter words?"
"Well, I didn't point it quite so bluntly," he replied dryly. "Seriously Liz, I think we might need to think of something. It's not just that she's bored. That's no way for her to learn."
She sighed, picking up her laptop case. "You might have a point. But I don't want to move her. I mean, her friends all go to the same school-"
"Agent Connor!" Elizabeth sighed at the voice and looked up to see a security officer appear in the door of her office. "There's something here I think you need to see ma'am," he said in a rush, his voice slightly panicky.
Sighing again, she put the case back down. "I think I'm going to be late again Tom."
"Big emergency that needs your immediate attention?" he commented.
"Pretty much. Kiss Sally for me. Love you." She flipped her phone closed and gave the officer a look. "Brad." The young man barely held back a flinch at the cold tone of her voice. He'd gotten her irritated, and while everyone knew Connor was usually a friendly, easy-going boss, she could be a right bitch when someone dragged her away from family time. "Show me the emergency," she added and he nodded quickly, darting out of the office quickly. Rolling her eyes, she followed.
"We were reviewing the security footage from the semi-covert facilities, class fives through sevens," he said as they walked down the hallways. "Just the usual monthly skim and archive. There's something here... well, I'm not sure how to explain it," he admitted. "I mean, I can say what I saw, but it doesn't make any sense..." he waved his hands in the air briefly as they stepped into the monitor room. "It'd just be easier to show you ma'am," he said, nodding to the agent still sitting at the workstation. He nodded and tapped the play button again.
For a moment, Elizabeth was silent, watching as two low-ranking Crey employees shifted crates and boxes from the back of a truck to a trolley, then her eyes narrowed as one of their packages began to shake from several impacts from the inside. By the time the crate had been kicked open and a small, female figure squeezed out, her face looked like it had been carved from stone. "I was under the impression," she said in a surprisingly conversational tone, given her expression, "that we had AIs and programs designed to catch this sort of oddity in security footage."
Shrugging slightly, the agent sitting at the workstation looked up at her. "There is, and I'm checking them now boss. As near as I can tell, the system's working just fine... It just missed a girl breaking out of a box." Elizabeth gave him a look. "I know, hell of a thing for it to miss, but it happens."
"What the heck was she doing there in the first place?" Brad wondered.
"I don't know," his superior replied, hiding her lie easily behind a layer of thoughtful confusion. "But I think I should find out. Brad, check the time sheets, find out just who those two are, then bring them in. Nothing overt, wait until the next time they come in on shift. I want to know why they neglected to mention this. Harry," she continued as Brad left, "Go find the Network Sysadmins, and work out who handles the AIs and surveillance programs. If the systems missed this, I need to know if it was a glitch, or something else." The Crey agent waited for him to leave the room as well, then pulled out her phone and dialed. "This is Agent Connor. Flag Bradley Rogers and Harry Peterson for security oversight. Level Four."
Ending that call, she turned back to watch the footage replay, the mystery girl escaping onto the street and out of sight of the cameras. Young looking, she mused as she scrolled through her phone directory. Small too. Probably not even five feet out of her armor. She shook her head in faint amusement, wondering what the designers reasoning for that was, even as she found the number she was looking for and dialed. The call took longer to go through, with the encryption software taking nearly ten seconds to properly link up with the receiving phone. "This is Connors, Chief of Security, Kings Row Sector," she said, her voice flat and level. "We have a Code Alpha-One-One-Three."
"Subtype?" came the reply, almost as soon as she'd finished speaking.
"Currently unknown. Initial event took place at Disposal Facility Seventeen twelve days ago. The target was wearing a power armor undersuit, so..." she paused, considering. "Sir, I was under the impression there were no Scimitar projects under my area of responsibility."
"There are none to my knowledge either," the man replied, a statement which Elizabeth knew she could accept as virtual confirmation. Only one person truly knew of every project Crey Industries was carrying out, and the odds of Hopkins lying to her about situations involving corporate security in Kings Row were almost nil. "You have command authority for the investigation. Keep me updated."
"Yes sir." Ending the call, she put the phone back in her pocket and turned her attention back to the monitor. Rewinding, she paused the tape and took a good look at the likely Scimitar. Not for the first time, she wondered just why the development people insisted on making those damn things look so human. It never made anything but trouble when the robots malfunctioned and started acting like they were people. "Scientists," she sighed, shaking her head and heading back to her office.
***
Leaping behind a piece of cover, the pink-haired girl took another arrow from the quiver on her back and fitted it into place. With practiced ease, she stepped back out, drew the string back, and released. Her aim was off, ever so slightly, the arrow punching into the shoulder of the combat drone rather then its chest. The machine staggered, the arm twitching as it failed to obey commands, but the drone recovered quickly and continued to move forward, the cannon in its other arm coughing again. Archer didn't move fast enough, and took a hit in her own shoulder, the paint-balls leaving stinging bruises under the light jumpsuit as she hissed in pain.
Behind a tinted window, Neko watched as the girl rubbed at her shoulder, then reached for another arrow. "Well, when it comes to her archery, she's clearly got the skills," said the woman next to her, and Neko glanced over to look at Linna Yamasaki, who was currently studying the combat simulation with a curious expression. "It's very technical though. She's not really improvising. Which might be fine in competition or more conventional archery, but hero-work..."
Nodding, Neko watched as Archer darted back to fresh cover, then took another shot at the drones. "It's been drilled into her," she mused. "Standard Crey operational training. She was intended for group deployments, not solo operations. Heck, from what she's told me of her armor, she didn't have any close range weapons or defenses."
"So, Alice if you hadn't taught her some tricks for breathing room?" Neko chuckled lightly, and nodded. "Although, now that I think about it, I don't think it's what she wants to be doing," Linna added.
"Mmm, I thought that too. She's more aggressive then that. She's the sort of girl that prefers to get in close," Neko agreed, taking the hilt of her vanguard sword out of her jacket. "Offer her that training instead?"
Linna nodded. "I think it's got potential," she commented. "And pain tolerance training." Neko twitched an ear curiously. "You're somewhat durable before your shield and natural skill. I'm good at dodging, with my armor as the second line of defense, but her... She's a regenerator. What do you want to bet her hardsuit was built around advanced self-repair systems like Tenjou's?"
"No bet," the catwoman agreed as Archer tried to get another shot off, only to flinch out of the way of another shot. The offending drone rolled closer, and the girl threw the bow aside in annoyance. Instead, she reached for a nearby metal pipe that had been left in the training room as a possible improvised weapon, using it for just that purpose as she swung it hard enough to dislodge the drones head from its neck. She lost her balance and stumbled, but the drone, realizing it was now blind, followed its programming and shut down. A second drone hesitated, selecting a new combat protocol as it acknowledged the changed threat. That moment cost it as Archer charged, bringing the pipe down on it hard.
Neko and Linna looked at each other. "Scrapper," the Sabre said.
"Oh yes."
***
Transcripts of the interviews with the two disposal workers proved to be utterly boring reading, Elizabeth decided as she turned the page. It was also unsurprising. Both men had decided, after watching a girl break out of a box they'd been about to drop into an incinerator, that their best option was to shut up and never speak of it to anyone. Understandable, given the trouble it would cause with both the authorities and Crey, especially since they didn't know it was actually just a robot.
"It wasn't in the Row." Elizabeth looked up as Sam Weston came in, a folder in his hand. "Project E, one of the more recent branches of the Scimitar project. Believe it or not, they were actually trying to mix in some magic into the design." The man grinned at his bosses expression, running a hand through his graying hair. "Some interesting designs, the sort of thing that would make the Protector divisions panic over their jobs, but then..."
"Wait wait, don't tell me, let me guess," she replied. "They decided they didn't want to work for Crey and left." Sam grinned at her and she shook her head. "Any idea what set it off?"
"Yeah, the disaster investigation noted that several of the Scimitar units had failed their mental evaluations and were going to be liquidated." Dropping into the chair on the other side of Elizabeths desk, Sam grinned. "Investigators figured that the girls found out and, as the report says, 'Objected strongly to the decision of the Review Board.'" The grin turned somewhat bitter. "They almost made it out undetected. Their cover was blown at almost the last moment, it turned into a running battle that most of them didn't survive. To their credit though, they took a lot of security guards with them. Even some Enforcers."
Looking at him, Elizabeth raised an eyebrow. "You almost sound sorry they didn't make it out."
Sam responded with a shrug. "Kids had spirit, and you can't blame them for not wantin' to be scrapped."
"They're machines Sam. Want has nothing to do with it," she said dryly. The man studied her for a long moment, his expression much more neutral then before. His boss met his gaze levelly, then sighed. "Okay Sam, say what you want to say."
"I've worked with some of the Scimitars that stuck with Crey," he said. "Good kids, the lot of 'em. Hard working, loyal, and they're not just machines." He leaned forward to study her, his expression serious. "They're as alive as we are. More then those damn Nemesis Automations that keep fooling everybody, so I figure it's good enough. Dunno if I like the Company making people like that, but..." his expression lightened and he shrugged. "They're people Liz, don't forget that."
Sighing again, she leaned back in her chair. "I'll try to keep that in mind Sam," she promised him. "Do we know which one of them our mystery girl was? And why she was being sent to our disposal unit and not the one in the Canyon?"
"Her name's Archer. Ranged support and a test bed for a new self-repair system. She was one of the ones that was going to be dismantled. Took down almost half a dozen guards, even managed to damage a power suit before she took a hit meant for her teams leader. Afterwards... it gets weird," he admitted. "She was sent off to a lab in Brickstown, officially to have her neural core replaced and the body put back into use. But there's no record of that even being done. And the order to ship her to the Rows disposal site? Signed by a 'John Smith' from the Companies Advanced Technology Division."
"Who doesn't exist," Elizabeth replied flatly, having guessed as much just from the name. Sam smirked and shrugged. "Someone's setting things up for this 'Archer' to get out. Her timing at waking up is too good to be coincidence. And they've infiltrated the company." She scowled. "This just gets better and better. Do we know where her hardsuit is?"
Opening the folder again, Sam skimmed through the printouts. "Saw it here somewhere... aha! One of our covert bases. C4F. Couldn't find details to go with the code," he admitted.
Turning to her computer, Elizabeth fed her access codes to a database that didn't officially exist. "I suppose it should be a good thing you couldn't. You're not supposed to know everything" she told him, a wry smile on her face. She opened up a list and started scrolling. "Cee-Three, Cee-Four... Here we go." Clicking on the base in question, she skimmed the basic details and frowned again. "What in the... It's a tech recovery base in the RWZ," she said, looking up from her computer screen.
"Why would a Scimitar hardsuit be sent to it's John Smith again," Sam said, switching thoughts and sentences without even taking a breath. "If it's still there, and if Archer manages to make contact with Riot..." Elizabeth was reaching for her phone.
***
Legally, Crey Industries had no presence in the region of Paragon now known as the Rikti War Zone. The area was under tight military lockdown, after all, with Vanguard and the heroes and villains it had recruited fighting every day to try and keep the Rikti Restructionists contained within the crashed mothership that served as their primary base.
In reality, the company had between six to ten hidden bases active in the area at any time. Their primary mission was technology raids on everyone in the area, be they Rikti, Arachnos, Malta, Nemesis or even (Some would say especially) Vanguard and the various hero groups. Very little research was performed there, thanks to the need to be able to abandon a base at a moments notice, with any materials acquired sent one to one of the more secure labs in a safer part of the city.
Which meant that when the team at C4F found an odd hardsuit that was clearly designed for a small, female form, as opposed to the bulky unisex design that Crey normally used, packed in one of the delivery crates, they were left scratching their heads. None of them were cleared to know about the Scimitar program after all, which meant they could only guess at its purpose.
“Looks like one of those Sabre suits,” one of the security guards said.
“Those bitches in Riot Force?” an agent commented.
“Mind your mouth Canton,” the Tank squads commander said, picking up the helmet so she could take a closer look at it. “And yeah, I think it is a Sabre suit. Maybe we got rid of one of them.”
“We should be so lucky,” Canton muttered, wincing as he remembered a painful encounter with one of the Sabres in Brickstown. “One less Sabre in the world works for me. So what the hell is her suit doing here?”
The Tank Commander shrugged, dropping the helmet back into the crate. “Shipping error, I’d guess,” she said. “Pack it back up, I’ll call Command and see about getting it sent on to wherever it’s meant to be sent to-” her eyes widened as the building shook from a sudden explosion. “Battle stations!” she ordered, slamming her own helmet on and sprinting for the door. “Overwatch, report!”
“Explosion at the main entrance,” the bases security room responded instantly. “Cameras are down, on duty team isn’t responding.” The commander growled, trying to run faster, even as she checked her weapons systems.
Then, as she ran around a corner, something hit her in the face hard enough to reverse her momentum and throw her backwards into a wall. She fell to the ground as her helmet display turned to static for a moment, then fixed itself in time to see a tall catwoman in a modified Vanguard uniform plant her boot on her chestplate. “You know, I have this feeling you don’t have the authorisation to be in this very important military zone,” Purrfect Shield said dryly.
“Step away from her!” ordered one of the other tanks that had been trailing behind somewhat, as the rest of the Crey security force took aim at the hero. For her part, Shield just looked at them, clearly amused. “Drop the sword and step away from her now, or we open fire,” the tank repeated.
“They don’t really put as much training into you lot as they used to, do they?” the woman commented. “I mean, just take a moment and think about it. Here I am, standing in front of you, sword and shield glowing, wearing my rather attention-getting black and gold armor - Which hugs the curves for extra attention, and because I think Vanguard like annoying Longbow with how much better their uniforms look - and so you all aim your guns at me?” The guns remained aimed at her, although several faces not hidden behind power armor looked rather troubled as they considered that. “It should be obvious, shouldn’t it?” Shield asked, smile widening. “I’m the distraction.”
“That she is,” another voice commented. The guards spun around, but had just enough time to see lightning dance around a red-armored Sabre, and then things became rather exciting.
***