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]

"That's not exactly my primary concern. Although I'll admit that the risk does complicate things."

[thinkering]

"Do you have a way to kill Endbringers from inside the Birdcage? I'd think it'd be a very important priority. If I were on a pair patrol right now you'd be in a tight spot."

[tenn_ambar_metta]

"If you were on a pair patrol right now, I wouldn't be here."

[thinkering]

"Eh, let's leave the hypothetical matchups to the population of the cape forum discussions. I doubt very much you're uncatchable. If I thought I had a way to kill Endbringers if only I had the cash equivalent of a few knocked-over jewelry stores, I'd pretend to be eighteen a bit early, and make money doing something unrelated to fund the tech. It'd be at least as time efficient, at least for me, I don't know if your specialty lends itself to fancy hydroelectric dams or crop dusters or anything you could sell. And dramatically safer and less likely to have me Birdcaged and unable to do anything."

[tenn_ambar_metta]

"My specialty isn't a limiting factor. There are other reasons why I haven't gone commercial, none of which are relevant to the topic at hand. Yes, I can kill endbringers - or will be able to, hopefully soon. My - ah - fundraising is an unfortunate necessity. Honestly, it's a waste of my time."

[thinkering]

"So get a sponsor. Me, if you can wait a year without getting arrested and do theoretical work till then. Somebody else, there's plenty of people who have money, if you can convince me it's doable I'll vouch for the technical feasibility to anybody you care to name."

[tenn_ambar_metta]

"And what would that take? Most of my work is at my lab."

[thinkering]

"And I'm guessing you won't let a Ward have a look at it."

[tenn_ambar_metta]

"I won't let you know where it is. I suppose I could arrange for a visit, given time to deal with the security concerns."

[thinkering]

"I'm going to guess Toybox."

[tenn_ambar_metta]

"Not for the past few months. They don't do permanent members, and I prefer to work without interference."

[thinkering]

"Ah. Well, if you figure out how to get me someplace and out again without it looking like it's covered in neon letters reading 'this is a trap', and without me finding out too much for your comfort, drop me a line, I have a public email my bot monitors for me."

[tenn_ambar_metta]

"No offense meant, but if either of us should worry about traps - well, I don't have any incentive to arrest you."

[thinkering]

"And I'm not inviting you to my lab full of my tech where you'd have every reason to expect ambush, am I? Nor, for that matter, am I arresting you."

[tenn_ambar_metta]

"Not yet. As things are, I wouldn't like to stick around and stretch the point."

[thinkering]

"Like I said, unless you pick fights with me or civilians I'm not starting anything with you tonight. I will want to follow you for a bit to make sure of the civilians thing but I don't need to go all the way home with you."

[tenn_ambar_metta]

"Don't worry, I'm done for the night. Besides, if I intended to target any civilians, I'd either wait until stopped tailing me - assuming I'm not a particularly high priority, which I think is reasonable - or find some way to avoid you. I think we can skip the formality without overburdening your conscience."

[thinkering]

"Concerned for the efficient use of my time?"

[tenn_ambar_metta]

"I'm more worried about mine. I'm not going to show you where I work, so I'd have to circle until you stop following me. Not very productive for either of us."

[thinkering]

"I could give you a crippled drone that has been refusing to do anything outside emergency conditions since it got swatted last week. It'll yell if you mug somebody but otherwise it's as good as dead to me anyway. Cannibalize it for parts and think twice before robbing somebody else."

[tenn_ambar_metta]

"You realize I'll be checking it for tracking devices."

[thinkering]

"It is a tracking device, among other things, or at least it's supposed to be. You can check to see if it's broken like I said, of course."

[tenn_ambar_metta]

"Very well. I will, of course. When and how should I contact you?"

[thinkering]

"Send me an email. Try not to sound like a spambot, my filter is still learning." She reaches into a pocket in her suit and pulls out a drone that looks like the rest of her little flock, with one broken foot and a few scratches, and offers it to him.

[tenn_ambar_metta]

He reaches out and takes the robot, keeping as far away from her as he can. "How do you know I won't just dispose of it?"