"I am not actually planning on spending any of this money, I'm just holding onto it until Valerie returns." Verve explained.
"As to your offer of restaurant, I must admit I'm new to the city, so I'm willing to try whatever. I'll let you take the lead."
When the duo goes out into the city, Verve removes her mask once outside the base, which changes her eye colors from one purple and one blue eye to a sea green color in both.
"Of course," Charles replies. He wondered... just what else the Colonel had seen.
Of course, he wasn't sure he actually wanted to know.
Nissa gazes sweetly into Preston’s eyes. “You really think my idea will work? Oh, that’s wonderful! Maybe you can even equip some kind of nanotech so you can see through my eyes in real time.
“I really do love that ship, and it was so thoughtful of you to engrave the name Bombshell on it!” She tries making small talk. “So what do you do when you’re not doing science stuff? When did you get your degree? I’m trying to imagine you as a college girl. When did you graduate?”
Nissa has these questions, but then there’s that murder report on the screen, which prompts another question: “Think I’m ready to be a superhero on my own world? That poor woman… whatever’s going on in that shaky drone video…
“That’s not normal.”
Theo and Verve take a taxi over to the Chinese restaurant. In the taxi, Theo asks, in a quiet whisper, so the driver can't hear. "So what do I call you when your mask is off?"
"You can call me Karen. It's the name on my passport."
Karen and Theo enter O Ya, and have a nice meal. The godling buys the first round of alcohol after the meal, and both transdimensional travelers chat into the evening.
Some of the diners in the restaurant are laughing about an implausible news story--three chickens at a high rise poultry turned into velociraptors and ate 3 floors of Quick-Mature Chickens before they could be stopped. The diners then debate whether it is possible that someone was breeding velociraptors and the event actually happened of if it was just a hoax.
Verve enjoys the meal, but declines any alcohol.
"I have to maintain control on my powers at all times, or really bad things happen." she explains.
Verve overhears the story about the poultry and chuckles, then asks Theo "What do you think about that. I'd say it's impossible, but we live in a world where people can fly and lift aircraft carriers, so who am I to judge?"
Theo, showing superhuman levels of consideration, only has one alcoholic drink before stopping.
Verve overhears the story about the poultry and chuckles, then asks Theo "What do you think about that. I'd say it's impossible, but we live in a world where people can fly and lift aircraft carriers, so who am I to judge?"
"Yeah, Karen, it's not like transdimensional travel. Now THAT would be crazy!" Theo chuckles. "Think it's worth a look, just in case, or am I overthinking?"
"I don't really have anything else to do, so what's the harm?"
Theo goes off to play the bill at the hostess table, with standard tip; then goes back to the table to gather his dinner guest. As they walk out, the godling whispers, "Can you use your mind powers to fly us there, or shall I get another cab?"
"I could, but without control I might fling us off different directions at the speed of sound, so a taxi will work just fine. and I'm a modern girl; I'll pay this time." Verve flagged down a cab and gave them the relative location.
The cab driver has heard the story and flies you right there. It's an old cab. Although the vehicle hovers about 2 feet above the road, the ride is somehow bumpy.
The poultry high-rise is exactly what it sounds like. It's huge and full of genetically modified chickens that go from hatching to maturity in four weeks. It's mostly automatic and humans cannot enter the building unless crawling. Considering it's covered in chicken poop, crawling would not be pleasant.
A group of teens are talking about what happened while watching videos on their hand-screens. The videos show the interior of the high-rise as three dinosaurs screech through pulling chickens from their chambers and munching on them. The teens are wearing serious looking shirts that say #factcheckers. They are circling the building, trying to determine whether the video is a hoax.
“That’s not normal.”[/b]
"What's normal? My co-worker is from another dimension ... reality ... whatever," says Dr. Preston. "This explains so much though! One time I mentioned the book Lord of the Flies and he said something like, 'You should be happy you've never been to the island ... never saw what those boys grew up to become.' It was so weird."
"Hey! If Dr. Moore does figure out how to open another gate and you could go anywhere ... I mean, if that's even how it works ... what book would you go into?"
"Of course," Charles replies. He wondered... just what else the Colonel had seen.
Of course, he wasn't sure he actually wanted to know.
Colonel Greer seems to trust Charles in a way he doesn't trust people. Or, at least, he talks to Charles but mostly orders other people. One time, out of the blue, he says, "Trust your instincts but don't obey them. Hear what they're telling you, but keep focused. There are going to be times when that's all that matters."
Nissa replies giddily, ”Island of the Blue Dolphins!” She doesn’t need to stop and think about it at all. This is the book!
“In my second semester of seventh grade, we read second-millennium lit! There was Dante’s Inferno—don’t wanna go there!—and then the Island of the Blue Dolphins. It’s about a real woman who lived alone on an island for eighteen years, but no one could speak her language and so the author wrote it as fiction peppered with facts. He calls her Karana, and she’s twelve at the beginning, and we follow her through teens and twenties.
“She makes a friend, a girl that’s with seafaring hunters—their cleaning lady, basically—she befriends Karana. I would be the friend. We’d get along, too. Karana’s a barefoot-in-the-sand kind of gal. She skins seals and cormorants to make pretty dresses, which I also liked.
“I mean, she could have dressed dumpy or naked, and who would’ve cared? But she fashionably adorned herself for the pleasure of it. It also gave me hope. Karana coped with loneliness, which I know all too well.”
She leans a little closer to Preston. “This, right here…” She taps her finger on the table. “…is the closest I’ve been to a dating experience.”
Nissa isn’t kidding, and a part of her is hurt by hearing the words fall from her mouth so casually. Her attempt to look endearing, or pass it off as a joke, or out herself to Dr. Preston… it’s not that she fails to pull off the right pose, the smile, the eyes—yes, eyes, despite their fiery glow! It’s that her tone and expression make all three equally implicit.
She maintains her sweet smile as she asks, “What book would you choose?”
....
She leans a little closer to Preston. “This, right here…” She taps her finger on the table. “…is the closest I’ve been to a dating experience.”
...
despite their fiery glow! It’s that her tone and expression make all three equally implicit.She maintains her sweet smile as she asks, “What book would you choose?”
"Tell me about it. I hardly ever leave the lab. I spend more time talking to machines than people," Dr. Preston thinks for a minute. "I mean, not that some machines aren't people! I respect android rights."
"I don't know where I would go. I've never been into fiction because the real world is fascinating enough. I'm kind of excited about seeing what's inside your head! A subatomic view of the real world is more interesting to me than any 'extra-fictional' one."
Nissa sips her coffee, smiling sweetly. It’s too early to define the budding friendship with the woman who made The Bombshell. So she doesn’t define it. She savors it.
“How’d you like to see the inside of your head? Once you have the tech to see my memories, I can fly inside you—or inside anything you want to see up close. I can show you a world you’ve never seen. And maybe we can see The Bombshell on your fingertip—my first time seeing it, I mean! That was a precious moment for me, y’know. You were so thoughtful… I…”
Nissa’s sunfire-yellow eyes brighten to starfire-white.
“When I ended up on Planet Beowulf, I thought I’d never get a chance to thank you. I guess treating you to coffee’s a start, right?”
Colonel Greer seems to trust Charles in a way he doesn't trust people. Or, at least, he talks to Charles but mostly orders other people. One time, out of the blue, he says, "Trust your instincts but don't obey them. Hear what they're telling you, but keep focused. There are going to be times when that's all that matters."
Charles hesitates a long moment, trying to parse out just what the Colonel is getting at.
"Given the wild mix of instincts I've got, I think I know to be careful about them," he answers after a long pause. "Especially when the fox part wants to run and the... alien dinosaur part wants to eat something. Honestly that's part of what I'm hoping the practicing will help with."
Theo looks up at the befouled structure and looks at Karen with a wrinkled nose. "Unless the dinosaurs jump out, I'm thinking a hard 'no'."
Verve chuckled at Theo's joke and said "what's a matter, colonel sanders? chicken?"
Verve took a walk around the tower, trying to see if there was a way that she could get into the tower without smearing herself with chicken feces.
Theo helps Karen in examining the tower.
Verve chuckled at Theo's joke and said "what's a matter, colonel sanders? chicken?"
Verve took a walk around the tower, trying to see if there was a way that she could get into the tower without smearing herself with chicken feces.
The most dramatic part of this strange event is over. The videos seem to come from several hours earlier.
Verve sees that there is an elevator that allows human or android workers to scale the tower and clean it but no way to get into the high-rise itself. A rather large graffito shows a robot beheading a chicken while saying the words "Eat Your Meat."
One of the #factcheck teens decides to film the crowd and starts doing a 360 degree turn with his camera in a hand high over his head.
The others stop their analysis and repeatedly watch the gory part where the robots that run this, ahem, befouled factory grab the small dinosaurs and take them to the processing machine, removing their head and feathers. Someone, somewhere will be eating velociraptor/chicken nuggets.
Theo helps Karen in examining the tower. [dice=Perception]1d20 + 4
Theo notices that a couple of men standing across the road have the Quick-Mature logo on their work-shirts.
The #factcheck teens decide on an "anything is possible" rating, which they stamp onto their versions of the videos before forwarding them.
"Given the wild mix of instincts I've got, I think I know to be careful about them," he answers after a long pause. "Especially when the fox part wants to run and the... alien dinosaur part wants to eat something. Honestly that's part of what I'm hoping the practicing will help with."
"It's incredible that you can function with three competing minds, but, my soldiers tell me they hear me yelling at them when they need to. What's the difference between having ...," he breaks off as he gets an alert on his watch. He takes a minute to read a story and then summarizes it to Charles. "Listen to this. An exotic pet lab downtown made a custom order miniature tiger for a customer. You know the kind I mean? They take a tiger's DNA and alter it so that it turns out cat-sized. Then, after it's born, they usually declaw it. They also had a mini-elephant in the shop. Customer comes to pick up her toy-tiger and it burst out of its cage, full-sized, and does what tigers do, snacking down on the now late Ms. Marple Huston. The elephant also became full-sized and charged into the street trampling two people before it got hit by an auto-convoy."
"Does this sound like PhDestruction? It's not really his Modus Operandi, is it?"
Charles frowns. "No... normal-sized animals are too ordinary for him. Even ones that are mini and then suddenly normal sized. They'd have to have extra heads or octopus tentacles or something to be some of his work."
Charles frowns. "No... normal-sized animals are too ordinary for him. Even ones that are mini and then suddenly normal sized. They'd have to have extra heads or octopus tentacles or something to be some of his work."
"Didn't think so. I don't know if you heard, but the other day a woman was attacked by her own greenhouse and now another is killed by a tiger that shouldn't have been one...I doubt it's anything transdimensional, but I'll need to investigate on behalf of TAROT."
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"If someone's messing with animals, I'd like to get involved," Charles states. "I, uh, was a zookeeper before all this, so I know my way around animals... and I don't really like people using them as weapons."
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Nissa cherishes every moment she and the doctor are together, not as coworkers, but as…?
She says to Preston, “I um… can drive, but I don’t actually own a car. It’d have to be a scooter, or something to accommodate my inability to both see over the wheel and reach the pedal.
“And I won’t lie, I’m really enjoying having you all to myself, getting to know you as more than just the brilliant scientist who created my amazing micro-ship. How about we take a ride out, for both business and pleasure. The pleasure is your company, and the business is just to have a place to drive to. We can go to… well, the greenhouse is rather morbid, but I do want to help prevent other such tragedies.
“If the plants are growing out of control, maybe we should get involved. I’m a size-changer, and you have a better understanding of me than… probably everybody.”
Nissa secretly hopes to see a billboard of herself along the highway. The Stellar Equilibrium 5000 ad should be up now. It is summer.
Of course, it’s up to Preston to venture out there. Seeing a dead woman is not Nissa’s idea of a good time, but isn’t that part of a superheroine’s job?
“It’s up to you, Doc. If you don’t want to chance that the victim is still there, and you might see her—or you simply don’t want to be where an innocent woman just died, we don’t have to go.
“What are your thoughts?”
And your first name? Nissa—ask her her first name!
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Verve approaches the #factcheck crew and asks what their MeTube channel is, so she can watch their video.
She then says "How likely do you think it is someone actually, like, grew dinosaurs? That just sounds silly." she then giggles.
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Theo sighs. "This may have been a waste of time. I'm ready t go when you are", the godling told Karen.
"If someone's messing with animals, I'd like to get involved," Charles states. "I, uh, was a zookeeper before all this, so I know my way around animals... and I don't really like people using them as weapons."
"You'd be welcome to. We're tracking a series of events here involving transmutation of plant and animal. Let's go to the pet-hacking lab first. I'm also heading to the military hospital where they are quarantining the CEO whose greenhouse was attacked. We don't know what he was dosed with, but he's been in a coma ever since," explains Colonel Greer. "He's just come out of it and the doctors are going to let us interview him before the lawyers get there. I'd appreciate an extra pair of eyes on this ... or a few extra pairs!"
Verve approaches the #factcheck crew and asks what their MeTube channel is, so she can watch their video.
She then says "How likely do you think it is someone actually, like, grew dinosaurs? That just sounds silly." she then giggles.
"Sounds silly?" one of the teens says, rolling her eyes. "Maybe, until you look at the MeTube tracking and pairing data. The algorithms have identified four events of interest to the same audience ..."
"Ten minutes in and 12,000 clicks ... ain't much," says another teen looking over her shoulder. "OH YEAH! I see ... plant, plant animal, animal. That is strange!"
"Still doesn't mean it's real!" says another. "Maybe they're all-"
"A woman's dead, Harley!" interrupts a third. "That's hard to fake ..."
Nissa cherishes every moment she and the doctor are together, not as coworkers, but as…?
She says to Preston, “I um… can drive, but I don’t actually own a car. It’d have to be a scooter, or something to accommodate my inability to both see over the wheel and reach the pedal.
“And I won’t lie, I’m really enjoying having you all to myself, getting to know you as more than just the brilliant scientist who created my amazing micro-ship. How about we take a ride out, for both business and pleasure. The pleasure is your company, and the business is just to have a place to drive to. We can go to… well, the greenhouse is rather morbid, but I do want to help prevent other such tragedies.
“If the plants are growing out of control, maybe we should get involved. I’m a size-changer, and you have a better understanding of me than… probably everybody.”
Nissa secretly hopes to see a billboard of herself along the highway. The Stellar Equilibrium 5000 ad should be up now. It is summer.
Of course, it’s up to Preston to venture out there. Seeing a dead woman is not Nissa’s idea of a good time, but isn’t that part of a superheroine’s job?
“It’s up to you, Doc. If you don’t want to chance that the victim is still there, and you might see her—or you simply don’t want to be where an innocent woman just died, we don’t have to go.
“What are your thoughts?”
And your first name? Nissa—ask her her first name!
"We'll get a hovercab," says Dr. Preston. "Call me L.C., by the way! Only my parents call me Doc."
Later, in the cab, L.C. Preston points to a billboard hologram of Nissa. "Do you ever get used to that?"
When the hovercab arrives at the CEO's estate in the countryside, L.C. pays with a swipe of a card and orders the cab to wait for an hour, adding the extra time to the already considerable expense. "TAROT is paying for it. Best thing about working on a military project!"
The signs on the outer gate reveal that this is both a home an "GreenGuard Corp." Within the estate, you see a pair of soldiers standing near the greenhouse. Lights are flooding the greenhouse.
Charles nods. "Might see if an extra nose does anything, too. Though the weird thing is, that's the one sense that *doesn't* seem like it's much better for me even with three heads. I, uh, figure I probably want to keep the cloak on in public and not go around as a chimera, though."
Only her parents call her…? “Is Doc the name you were given at birth?”
Thanks to her training…
…Nissa’s delivery hits that sweet spot that makes an intentionally corny line genuinely humorous. Her starfiery eyes seem to light up even more when Preston points out the holographic billboard.
“Oh! L.C., do you see my eyes?” Nissa’s eyes are ice blue in the ad that was filmed before she gained her powers. “I gotta admit, I’m glad not to be used to it yet. It’s still fun!
“I used to think my modeling career would make an impact on the world. But it pales in comparison to what we’re doing now.”
…
Once at the property, Nissa says to the guards. “I am sorry about the lady of the house. Please extend our condolences to the husband.
“I am Nissa van Donk, the Subatomic Bombshell, and this is Dr. Preston. We work for TAROT and are both experts on size-changing life forms. We’re here to investigate the incident.”
"Do, like, any of you have footage of the dead woman dying?" Verve asked, batting her eyelashes at them.
Charles nods. "Might see if an extra nose does anything, too. Though the weird thing is, that's the one sense that *doesn't* seem like it's much better for me even with three heads. I, uh, figure I probably want to keep the cloak on in public and not go around as a chimera, though."
"It's probably a good idea to keep the cloak on," says Colonel Greer. Later, as you slide into a very comfortable military copter, he says, "The man we are going to meet later is a bio-engineer specializing in transgenic work. His most popular creation just ate his wife. First, to the pet factory."
While the interior of the vehicle looks severe, the ride has a smooth no-expense-spared feel as you zoom just over the tree canopy and rocket towards the city.
The copter sets down beside a three story building. The first floor had a display window, but now has plastic covering shattered glass. "The elephant came through there," Colonel Greer explains."Got five blocks before they tranquilized him. Jungle Pets Labs insists the elephant was 'footstool-sized' this morning."
Colonel Greer punches a few buttons and has the last few hours of security footage on the vehicles display to view. "Watch this and tell me what you see," requests Colonel Greer.
The Colonel shows the video of the incident in which a woman went to pick up her new toy-tiger pet only to have it become a real tiger in less than a minute before attacking the woman.
Only her parents call her…? “Is Doc the name you were given at birth?”
...
"BOTH my parents are ... were doctors. They said I told them, 'Call me Doc.' I don't know. Maybe it's true."
“I used to think my modeling career would make an impact on the world. But it pales in comparison to what we’re doing now.”[/b]
"Well, Colonel Greer is there to make sure we don't have a massive negative impact. I'm sure your modelling career never 'threatened to unleash elder gods from ancient slumbers.' That's a quote from the book of things Colonel Greer actually said could happen if we messed up!"
Once at the property, Nissa says to the guards. “I am sorry about the lady of the house. Please extend our condolences to the husband.“I am Nissa van Donk, the Subatomic Bombshell, and this is Dr. Preston. We work for TAROT and are both experts on size-changing life forms. We’re here to investigate the incident.”
The soldiers recognize Nissa, or one of them does. He seems surprised Nissa is with TAROT.
They were informed TAROT had first dibs on further investigations of the greenhouse to determine whether or not this was a transdimensional invasion.
The guard says, "We have pacified the vicious vines, Ma'am. We removed the plants that...um...assaulted Mrs. Handel but have left the greenhouse untouched. Would you like to see the video footage from the interior?"
"Video? This greenhouse has a full climate control monitoring system, that tracks everything down to the acidity of the water. We want all the data!" snaps Dr. Preston. "But, yeah, first the video."
"Do, like, any of you have footage of the dead woman dying?" Verve asked, batting her eyelashes at them.
One of them blurts out without looking up from his screen, "My ally x3R0x says he's almost finished hacking the handscreen of the soldier guarding the greenhouse. Every time he views the video, he's downloading it again so x3R0x is going to hack the greenhouse's security because that's like ... Got it!"
The excited teenager forgets about Verve and stares in fascination at the video....
The video.
A woman (mid-40s, greying brown hair) hangs in the middle of the greenhouse from vines that writhe and twist around her arms and legs, their thorns leaving deep red cuts.
At first you don't see anyone else, but when someone mumbles something, the footage switches to another camera automatically a half-second later.
You see a young woman (20ish) in a costume that seemed to be made entirely of bark and leaf. Somehow it doesn't look like a compost heap. She's leaning over and whispering in the ear of a man who is bound to a chair by vines. The man in the chair looks to be about 50.
The audio is of such high quality that you can pick out the sound of the fans and the dangling woman whimpering softly. You still can't hear what they're mumbling though. It seems like the woman is asking the man something and he's answering slowly, somewhat dazed.
Another man, dressed in furs, sits, looking bored, on the edge of a very large pot containing a palm tree.
The only female member of the #factcheckers crew recognizes Theo. She looks like she's about to say something, but then one of the vines slashes Mrs. Handel's leg so severely it sprays blood gorily. They complain "eewwwww!" but rewind it three times and complain each time.
"Dumbasses," she mutters to Theo. She looks at him and smiles an "I know a secret" smile but doesn't say anything to her friends.
"That's like, totally no bueno." says Verve, watching the video over the young man's shoulder.
Charles scowls at the video. "Whoever did this didn't make the transformations easy on the animals. Looks like it hurt, and like it resulted in a massive empty stomach. But even so the elephant didn't want to hurt anyone. Unless you do something to make them mad, they're really usually gentle creatures. They don't go killing for no reason. It's like it was forced to--like there was some magic or something compelling it to."
He then proceeds to point out several details he noticed to back his point up.
"Good catch," says Colonel Greer. "I wouldn't have noticed that. Look, the tiger is behaving the same way. You're right, something is controlling them. And, yeah, that transformation is giving them an incredible appetite." Even the Colonel grimaces as he watches the tiger devour its prey.
Charles notices a reflection in the glass of the window as well, before the elephant bursts through it. It looks like a couple of people. A different camera angle might show them more clearly.
"Let's see what else we can find out. Time to talk to people," says Colonel Greer like it's a chore.
When you enter the store Charles sees the camera that would show the people standing outside when this happened.
A man in a lab coat with the Jungle Pets Labs Corporation logo tattooed on his face is shouting into a device. He doesn't even notice Charles and the Colonel coming in. As you reach the counter you hear him say, "What do you mean it's missing? That species is so dangerous it's been banned in some place since the 20th Century, and they still had tigers in the wild! This species of canine kills on sight! They were bred to eat children!!"
The man turns and sees you both and, having kept his cool during both a tiger and a lion attack, finally loses it, "Oh my God, we're going to have to evacuate the lab everyone. WE HAVE A FULL-SIZED PITBULL ON THE LOOSE!"
[dice=Life Science]1d20+4