patrol

[thinkering]

When Lorica's been a Ward for a few months they start pushing her to go out on patrols. She still hasn't finished the suit for her dad, although hers is good until it gets field-tested and she knows what to add - and there are other projects she'd like to spend PRT money on - but she's playing the game, so she goes patrolling. She's an exemplary member of her little team, mostly because by luck she gets along with the fellow who's appointed leader; they start letting her go alone with a little flock of scout robots.

She's doing a sort of aerial parkour, flying but touching down on roofs and jogging along occasionally to get a closer look at anybody wandering by, in a zigzag over a nest of side streets. Her suit's a little louder than she'd like, some kind of joint deterioration. She can fix that when she gets back in.

Comments

[tenn_ambar_metta]

Aiden dislikes running. It's a waste of time, and unpleasant, even with the suit redistributing most of his weight. This model has flight capability, enough to get him back to the lab, but he can't justify the risk of exposure. Unfortunately. He grimaces, and makes a mental note to work on cloaking. It's a pet project of his, coming in at, oh, about twenty-seventh on his list of Technologies To Revolutionize When Funds Become Available.

Funds - that would just be the operative problem, wouldn't it? He brushes his fingers against an interior pocket, making sure his cut from tonight's job is still there. It is, and it's not much. He ducks into an alley and swears for the tenth time tonight that he's through helping third-rate villains rob jewelry stores just so he can have enough to keep the power running.

[thinkering]

A little robot is following him. It's not beeping or flashing any lights, but it isn't exactly owl-silent through the air.

If he looks farther up than that, there's a cape in a suit of her own up on a roof down the block, tilting her head and taking a flying leap to the next building.

[tenn_ambar_metta]

A light flashes on one of his displays, alerting him to something unusual in a sensory pickup. Aiden usually keeps the interior of the helmet muted. He switches the sound on and grimaces as the auditory feedback hits him.

[thinkering]

Now the cape on the roof is actually chasing him, although she hasn't descended to ground level yet. The little robot rises away from him, whoosh.

[tenn_ambar_metta]

He tracks the robot's ascent, letting the motion sensors compensate for his abysmal visual processing. Above him and behind him. He looks up.

[thinkering]

It is joining a flock of similar robots that surround the probable tinker stalking him. She doesn't seem to want to engage yet, but when he looks up she jumps down from the roof, falling too slowly, and lands.

[tenn_ambar_metta]

Now, that doesn't make very much sense. Some kind of anti-gravity device? The power source would ordinarily be too heavy for use in the field, but if - it only takes him a few seconds to solve the problem. In retrospect, he probably should have used that time to start running.

[thinkering]

"Any chance you want to turn in the stolen goods and get off with a warning?"

[tenn_ambar_metta]

A quick scan confirms that the cape doesn't have company. "Sorry. I would if I could, but I take my pay in cash."

[thinkering]

"Jewelry stores take cash too, if you're having a change of heart."

[tenn_ambar_metta]

"That's not exactly an option for me right now. I don't suppose you'd like to come back to this in five or so years?"

[thinkering]

"What happens between now and then, besides everybody's crime insurance premiums going up?"

[tenn_ambar_metta]

"I avert human extinction. I don't have any specific plans beyond that point, although I'm sure recovering some of my initial investment wouldn't be too difficult."

[thinkering]

"You know there's other ways to earn your nuts and bolts for your grand plans, right? Especially such benevolent ones?"

[tenn_ambar_metta]

"Do you think I'd be in this line of work if I had alternatives? I already spend enough of my time dodging the PRT."

[thinkering]

"Go corporate. Flee the country. Set up a freelance arrangement, Dragon lite, if you don't want them breathing down your neck. If you're addicted to the adrenaline, collect on bounties for kill orders."

[tenn_ambar_metta]

"My tech's not mass produceable, and while I've made some progress towards solving that particular limitation, it's not exactly my first priority. Hardly ideal for a business arrangement, even if my interests tended in that direction. Which they don't.

I might leave the country if it were possible to transport all of my equipment. And if I had contacts. I work alone and I'd like to keep it that way. You of all people should understand that's not a trivial matter for a tinker of any real ability."

[thinkering]

Well, he's actually engaging with the suggestions, that's something. "You're willing to acquire contacts to fence stolen jewels but not to find someplace that'll have you in Europe or a business that'd make a deal within your parameters? Larceny is more where your interests tend?"

[tenn_ambar_metta]

"That's not - I don't deal with that side of the business myself. I'm paid for - ah - consulting, I'm only here in person because I don't trust the people I usually associate with to handle any of my inventions. And usually, they contact me." He glances back towards the swarm of robots. "That's not important. Are you going to arrest me, or stand here and question my life choices?"

[thinkering]

"Second thing. I'm solo, you are not my specialty, potential backup is occupied, don't even know your sub-ratings, I'm not going to start a fight over overpriced diamonds unless you decide you want to attack first or go through civilians on your way out of town. I do seriously question your life choices though."

[tenn_ambar_metta]

"Yes, that I've gathered. Working for the protectorate doesn't put you in much of a position to judge me."

[thinkering]

"I take their money and entertain cancerous children who're into superheroes and wander the city like a supplement cop and when I have enough little robots maybe they'll relax on making the twelve-year-old and the PTSD cases patrol," she says. "Judge me if I'm still doing it when I'm eighteen."

[tenn_ambar_metta]

"They're still using technology you've made for them. Everything you do gives them more power, more legitimacy. And you know that. You may shortsighted, but you don't seem stupid."

[thinkering]

"Between child labor laws in the private sector, the fact that the PRT has had my identity since the minute I triggered, and my philosophical objections to stealing random people's possessions, rock and a hard place. Wards are the best of seriously mediocre options."

[tenn_ambar_metta]

"I suppose that's reasonable, if naive. Unless you really think the benefits of some arbitrary person retaining their property make up the cost of keeping your employers in business. At least admit you're working for them because it's the easiest alternative."