Test Date: 10/04/2012
Subject: KK-001 "Belladonner" & KK-002 "Tetsuo"
Location: Manhattan
Target: Dirk Angelos. Known celebrity and Kobber. Any overt attack will draw attention - the test had been set up to ensure that the target could not provide visual identification. Disillusionment charms were cast prior to the test.
Objective: To ensure KK-001 and KK-002 can co-operate in a live environment.
Outcome: Failure.
I cannot even begin to describe how badly the test failed. Suffice to say, the surrounding city block was in more danger than the target itself, who apparently didn't even notice what was happening. The damage caused by the conflict between KK-001 and KK-002 was astounding, and sure to compromise our secrecy. In addition, the use of various illegal curses by KK-001, including sectumsempra and bombarda maxima, will most definitely have been noted. Steps must be taken to ensure cover-up is sufficient enough that neither MACUSA nor the British Ministry of Magic will see fit to get involved.
In the meantime, both KK-001 and KK-002 have been severely repremanded. We are already running incredible risks as it is, with little to no budget on which to operate, and this latest fight has only added to the risk. I blame myself for not recognizing the futility of trying to force these two to co-operate sooner. Belladonner's narcissism and inability to overcome her prejudices has clashed with Tetsuo's various mental issues too much for safety's sake. I have therefore seperated them and partnered KK-002 with KK-006 "Omega". The two seem to co-operate far more efficiently, if only because of their shared common ground concerning technology and machinery.
Development of KK-011 progresses smoothly. KK-010-2 is slower. Must remember to obtain sufficient amounts of materials for construction on next voyage.
-------
“Do either of you read Sherlock Holmes?”
Vent Light swivelled in his chair to face his guests and brushed some hair out of his face. He knew asking this question made him sound like his mother too much, but he couldn’t think of any other way to start the conversation. He was tired and the coffee pot was frustratingly empty.
He had not taken as readily to his mother’s role of scientific advisor as he’d hoped, Between serving time for what happened with Project Zero-One, time with his family and various other duties, he hadn’t had much time to attend to Kobber matters. And now that he had, to his frustration, he was being thrown right into the deep end with invisible mummies and panic attacks. Things that already smelled trouble on the horizon for the Kobbers, if not immediately. Things were never truly quiet around them
He could understand why Lilith was in his lab. He’d asked her to be there after her therapist, Nikki, had forwarded on details of the encounter. But Easter had deliberately requested to be there, too. And aside from her resemblance to his mother, he couldn’t understand why.
Lilith shook her head in response. “I tried. Couldn’t follow along with literally any of it. Pretty sure the writer was making it up as he went. Also, Sherlock’s an arrogant cu-“
“Language, Lilith,” Vent admonished smoothly. Lilith snorted, but said nothing.
“No. I liked the show with Benedict Whathisface, though.”
“Ah, yes. A little overrated, in my opinion, but to each their own.” Vent reached back to his desk and picked up his tablet. “The novels have given me a quote that I’m particularly fond of. ‘When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth’. Now, that doesn’t apply to all situations, obviously - one musn’t jump to wild conclusions just by eliminating the reasonable options. But when it comes to Kobbers, I don’t think any conclusion is unreasonable at this point.”
He scrolled through something on his tablet, then looked up. He noted how relaxed Easter seemed in comparison to the shifty, nervous Lilith, who looked rather claustrophobic.
“Option one,” he began. “Lilith didn’t see what she-“
“I KNOW WHAT I SAW!” shrieked Lilith before she could stop herself, anger flashing in her eyes. Easter recoiled across the room, eyes wide.
Vent raised a hand defensively. “I’m not saying you didn’t, Lilith. I’m just putting the hypothesis out there. That the old woman was having a moment of senility and that you reacted badly to it. You said as much yourself - her actions made you feel uncomfortable, correct? Come back, Easter, she won’t eat you.”
Lilith breathed in, then cast an apologetic look over at Easter.
“In my experience, people who go from zero to bellowing don’t much help their cases, Lilith.” Easter said. “So why were you there, Lilith?”
Lilith shifted in her seat a little. “My, ah… boss, Plague. He told me they did a good… duck in orange? So I thought I should check it out.”
“In any case, option one is eliminated quite swiftly.” Vent went on as though the giant metal woman hadn’t screamed at him. “Because you saw the attacker as well, as you were so quick to remind me. Cases of shared delusions between unrelated individuals are incredibly rare, aside from folie à deux, which itself is extremely rare. And considering who we are, the chances of it being merely that are… slim.”
He scrolled some more on the tablet.
“Option Two. Invisibility device. Perhaps the-“
“So you just happened to be there when someone was attacked by an invisible mummy thing?”
Lilith nodded. Vent looked up sharply, a little irked by the interruption.
“Why does that matter?” he asked.
“Do you guys have an enemy that can make invisible mummies?”
Vent shrugged. “That’s a highly specific requirement. Most of our foes haven’t been anywhere near as subtle as that. And you’d need either some powerful magic or tech to make something like that. Maybe the Haruspices, but…”
“So you just happened to be there, when there was an invisible mummy attack. You must have been meant to be there.” Easter’s tone was blunt, in a “Okay as far as I’m concerned we have decided on the reason.”
Lilith stared, uncomprehending. “I don’t follow.”
“No, no, she has a point.” Vent ran a hand through his hair, sighing irritably, not even bothering to admonish Lilith this time. “Things like this do tend to happen to us around this time of year. Not to mention the other reports I’ve been getting of equally strange activity. A man of fluctuating but otherwise stable health collapses in a bar after one drink and the coroners have no idea why. People turn up with cuts on their bodies that don’t heal, or strange diseases that turn organs into machinery. And then there’s the case of the Rogue Pizza Oven…”
He set the tablet aside.
“I had a whole setup here,” he muttered. “But seeing as we’re apparently skipping all the preamble, I’ll just jump to the likeliest conclusion. Someone or something is moving against us. Lilith sees an invisible mummy monster, and then similar incidents, highly controlled and in obvious stages, occur in locations previously visited by Kobbers? Hardly a coincidence. Seems more like field tests to me.”
“I wonder if they popped up for you first because you have such a temper.”
“Look, I’m in therapy, okay?” retorted Lilith, hotly. “I’m trying! And in any case, that makes no sense! Why didn’t the mummy try attacking me if me freaking out was such a big deal? Why go for a defenseless old lady?”
“Precisely because she was defenseless. Which means,” said Vent, retrieving his tablet, “that our opponent doesn’t have many moral scruples.”
“Plus a crazy robot punching the air that seems to be fighting back? That’s your kind of crazy stuff. A crazy robot seemingly attacking an old woman? That’s the kind that makes people mad, which in turn makes you mad, and nothing good happens at all.”
Vent nodded. “Most likely calculated on our opponent’s part.”
Lilith sighed in irritation. “All I did was scream and grab a bottle. Yes, that wasn’t a good look for me, and I’m working on it. But I wasn’t attacking anyone. Honestly, I felt more… scared than angry. Like, ‘sick to my stomach’ scared.”
“That often a thing?”
A horrified face in an alleyway flashed in Lilith’s memory. She swallowed it down.
“Not… really, no.”
“Huh. I think you proceed assuming that was also planned, Mr. Vent.”
“The fact that Lilith didn’t immediately-“
“Wait, what was that about a crazy pizza oven?”
Vent blinked. “Oh, that. A computer-controlled pizza oven in Manhattan - some new prototype, I assume - suddenly started displaying aberrant behaviour. According to news reports, it suddenly began shooting gouts of fire across the kitchen while, and I quote the news article, ‘laughing like a supervillain’. So either our foe is deliberately targeting the things we hold dear, or they’re scraping the bottom of the barrel.”
“Great. I guess Ryoko was right when she hired those two yahoos. Now I have to eat my words and go find my own bodyguard.”
“...haven’t you made agreements with the Silvers? And, though I disagree with it, Leviathan?” Vent’s nose wrinkled a touch.
“That’s for business. You people are always getting into trouble. Dawn was all “I can sit behind a desk or go out”, but not me. They’re for going out. Ryoko’s two guys just stand around and watch her as she crunches data like crazy. And sometimes play with the new cat she picked up.”
Vent rolled his eyes. “Regardless… If my theory is correct, this all points to two possibilities. One, this new enemy has some ties to Lilith in one way or another. Most likely somebody trying to create new ‘Kobber Killers’, judging from evidence. Two, they’ll be making moves in Agama very soon. And I’m afraid there’s only one way to test this theory…”
He directed a meaningful look at Lilith. It took a moment for her to comprehend what he’d just said, and when she did she seemed to turn a little pale. If she’d seemed awkward and uncomfortable before, she looked even worse now.
“I…” She swallowed, and tried again. “I would have gone down earlier. But I got to the airport, and… it was too much. Too soon. I wasn’t ready. I have a home, a life, people I know, I… I couldn’t just vanish into the jungle for half a year, just like that. it was a lot to face all at once already, and now I have this to worry about? Having to play bait? I-“
Vent raised a hand, silencing her. Perhaps he’d sensed another panic attack coming - his face didn’t show it.
“My family may not be endowed with the endless resources they once had,” he spoke, as calmly as possible. “But I still have plenty of capital and connections. I can arrange anything you need. Accomodation, food, a source of income if you so desire. I have assurances from Nikki that, even if she can’t make the trip, she’ll do everything to ensure your therapy continues and you get the support you need. We’ll do everything we can to help you adjust.”
He set the tablet aside again.
“As for ‘playing bait’? This threat will most likely come for us sooner or later regardless of your presence. I’m more intrigued about the possible link between it and yourself than any attack. And I have full confidence that you and the other Kobbers are more than capable of protecting yourselves and others from this threat. Even if you don’t fully trust us, you know what we can do.”
“Or she could just NOT go.”
Vent look up, eyebrow cocked. “And you think she’s any safer up in Olympia than she would be in Agama?”
“I read your mother’s recount files. It is very rare, it seems, for any real trouble to show up once your lot move on. Or...when they’re not in their strange ‘half year active’ time. By that, if she stays here she’ll be unbothered and can work on more important things.”
“What’s the guarantee of that, though? These attacks haven’t been confined to Agama, they’re in Olympia and all the other previous Kobber haunts. They might come after her regardless of her staying or moving. And judging by how most of their victims end up, they aren’t going to be kind enough to let her sort out her baggage first.”
“Then maybe instead of her leaving, you should form some sort of team to investigate the incidents. And another to look around Agama for the same sort of incidents.”
“That plan was always on the cards, but regardless of-“
“No.”
Lilith had stood up suddenly. There was fire in her eyes.
“Easter, I get it. You want me to not freak out over this and deal with my life first. But I saw what that mummy had tattooed on him. He might have been a Kobber Killer, like me. And if there’s more like him out there, they’re gonna be coming and hurting more people because of me, and they won’t care about me getting my life in order. I’m still not, like… great with Kobbers, but I’m not letting that happen. I wanna go down to Agama just so I can be there when we hunt down the fucker who made them… maybe made me, too... and cave his skull in.”
The Tanden Engine whirred in her stomach, glowing faintly. She turned to Easter.
“If it makes you feel any better,” she added, “I’ll try and keep low. Not draw attention to myself. I was pretty good at that in my first year, and I can keep doing it in Agama.”
Vent stroked his chin thoughtfully.
“Okay then. Want to be my bodyguard?”
Lilith shook her head. “Thanks, but it sounds like you already have arrangements there.”
“No, technically...never mind. Vent, can I speak privately to you for a moment?”
“Of course.” Vent turned and nodded to Lilith. Taking the hint, the android turned and left the room, the automatic doors to the lab sliding shut behind her.
“Okay. It’s this whole Kobber Killer thing. Look, I don’t know you guys that well. You seem to have no limits so maybe this means nothing. But my...clone? Other? Your mom, Dawn, she was made by that Cosine woman to win this giant death tournament you have yearly. And I keep hearing that your family has bad luck with your stuff falling into the wrong hands. Could someone be stealing stuff from you again? Because wouldn’t how Dawn was made make her the original Kobber Killer? Is there any stuff in Lilith that’s in your mother? And hell...if I exist…” Easter scratched at her head. “And you so casually go between all these worlds and places...what if there’s another one of us who’s...bad.”
Vent shook his head slightly. “The Brawl is highly regulated with many safety nets to ensure those who fail come back in one piece. And mother was made to compete in that environment because grandmother was very determined to win. If Dawn was the original Kobber Killer, then you might as well lump in every Secret Fiter or machine that was brought in just for the Brawl. This… this is deliberate targeting of us. This is malicious intent to destroy us, outside of the Brawl’s safety nets. As for stealing...”
Vent recovered the tablet, tapped on the screen a few times, then held it up. It was displaying an anatomical diagram - one of Lilith, detailing her inner workings.
“Lilith appears to have been an attempt to make a Reploid based on my own schematics. Albeit a poor man’s attempt, like asking a five year old to build London Bridge. But the materials are different, and the Tanden Engine is technology that doesn’t exist in our dimension. So if whoever made her, and by extension the others, is stealing from anyone in the family, then it’d probably be a lot more noticable. I’m not discounting the idea, of course, but MAIA’s not reported any missing inventory so far, and her security’s been the most reliable. As for evil versions of us?”
Vent inhaled deeply, clearly trying to block out some painful memory.
“...I hope not.
“Although,” he added, with an almost contemptuous snort, “the mummy is a blatant copy of the Foretold reported on that space train. So I wouldn’t put it past whoever made it to sink that low. Either they haven’t the budget to make more original concepts or they’re a hack.”
“The heck is the Foretold?”
Vent blinked as several different realizations hit him.
Then he groaned and dropped his face into his hands. Talking a lot? Trying to attack a problem from multiple angles? Forgetting that other people might not have supercomputers for brains?
“...God help me, I’m turning into my mother.”
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