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♦ Topic: Announcing the End of the Slaughterhouse Nine

In: Boards ► News ► Events ► America

Scientia (Original Poster) (Verified Cape)

Posted On Feb 6th 2011:

The Slaughterhouse Nine are no more. Video footage here, along with a special message. Please note that the footage contains death and graphic violence, and is not suitable for all audiences.

​​(Showing page 1 of 1)

​►PrincessofHope ​​Replied On Feb 6th 2011:​​Holy shit, is this real? It looks real, but tinkers can do crazy things. If it's a joke it's in really poor taste.​​►Bagrat (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)​​Replied On Feb 6th 2011:​​Agreed that it at least doesn't look faked, but I'm making calls to sources. I'll post up something when I have more.​​EDIT: It's confirmed. It looks like this took place in eastern Vermont. According to my sources the PRT is putting together a response to cordon off the area and make sure no threats were left behind. I'll get more info as I can.​​►Dragon (Verified Cape) (The Guild)​​Replied On Feb 6th 2011:​​It's real.​​►Skyvena ​​Replied On Feb 6th 2011:​​Dragon confirms it? Well then, I'd say that clinches it. The best tinker would know.​​Still, is there a chance we could get any more detail, @dragon?​​►Rules Wizard ​​Replied On Feb 6th 2011:​​Maybe there's a new best tinker? Unless Scientia isn't one, somehow, given what she said about those papers she's publishing. Maybe some sort of technology thinker?​​Well, I for one am happy to see the nine gone.​​--The Wizard, raising a glass​​►Scheudenfreud ​​Replied On Feb 6th 2011:​​Holy crap. I'm glad the Nine are dead, but that was a scary amount of firepower and ability. What happens now? Are the PRT okay with all of this?​​►Lightningbolt9000 ​​Replied On Feb 6th 2011:​​She seems to talk like a hero, in that speech at the end.​​I hope she cleared things with the PRT first. I could see the PRT and the Feds getting upset about someone deploying that kind of weaponry on U.S. soil. Whatever that giant pillar of light was that I guess took out the Siberian (!!!!) in the opening shot.​​►DinosaurusRomanus ​​Replied On Feb 6th 2011:​​I guess we'll find out, @Scheudenfreud. But if I was the PRT I wouldn't want to pick a fight with a hero that had that kind of heavy hardware. Much less a tinker who seemingly doesn't have the usual limitations, if what people are saying about some of those papers is true.​​Anybody have any guesses about what the tech we just saw was?​​►Artificial Cat ​​Replied On Feb 6th 2011:​​@DinosaurusRomanus, I'm just a physics grad student, but assuming this wasn't tinkertech weirdness (which I'm pretty sure even tinkers don't understand) I can make some guesses. I think the two huge fuckoff yellow beams of death from the sky might have been lasers. Yellow's the color that propagates best through air. That's why sunlight looks a bit yellow, the other colors get absorbed more. If you want to fire a big laser over a long distance, it makes sense to pick yellow. Although that raises the question of how it killed the Siberian. I can't answer that one. Maybe she had a secret weakness?​​Accelerating that hatchet fast enough to cause it to crack the air like a whip suggests some pretty crazy numbers, based on quick back of the envelope math. You might need to ask a physiologist or something, but I'm pretty sure even peak human muscle can't do that. So that armor's got to be augmenting her, a lot. (The fact that she did it to Hatchet Face means it couldn't have been a brute power, either.) I'd love to know what the servos are made out of. That also explains how she was able to pull Mannequin's limbs off with raw strength. If you look around there's video of his alloys taking an anti-material rifle shot before, which puts a pretty high floor on the tensile strength of the stuff. Unless the stuff he makes his chains out of is weaker than the plates, but I doubt it.​​►Vaughn ​​Replied On Feb 6th 2011:​​@Artificial Cat, you're forgetting that sword/lightsaber/whatever it is. I've gone through the part where it cuts through the truck and RV frame by frame, trying to figure out how long it took to melt the steel and aluminum, and it's fast enough that it appears instantaneous at 60 FPS. The temperature required to do that is...concerning. And all of the power sources I can think of that could produce that kind of energy density in such a small package are terrifying.​​I'm frankly astonished the light alone didn't completely overload the cameras recording all this. They must be specially designed to handle it. Any normal human would melt their face off instantly just turning the thing on. That armor must be seriously heat resistant, something we also see when she literally goes wading through molten road substrate. There are some ceramics that can take that kind of heat, but stuff that also works as effective armor instead of shattering? I can't think of any material that could do that.​​If this isn't weird tinkertech cheating, then there's novel physics going on here. Given that this is purportedly the same woman who published a unified field theory and instructions for how to make gamma ray lenses with high virtual pair production, maybe I shouldn't be surprised at evidence of crazy materials science, but...yikes.​​► Sweet Pancakes ​​Replied On Feb 6th 2011:​​Hey, student of European mythology here. Did you guys notice the design of the sword hilt? It's worked like a pair of entwined serpents or dragons, with the mouths arranged to look like they're breathing out fire.​​This is from The Dream of Rhonabwy, a Welsh tale of King Arthur:​​"Thereupon they heard a call made for Kadwr, Earl of Cornwall, and behold he arose with the sword of Arthur in his hand. And the similitude of two serpents was upon the sword in gold. And when the sword was drawn from its scabbard, it seemed as if two flames of fire burst forth from the jaws of the serpents, and then, so wonderful was the sword, that it was hard for any one to look upon it."​​The sword is a reference to Excalibur, guys. Given that it seems like it can cut through anything, and that's more or less the literal meaning of the name, it seems pretty appropriate.​​It makes me wonder if Scientia's appealing to any of the rest of the myth. I doubt she's trying to claim the crown of Britain or anything, but there's a powerful part of the later legend about Arthur's messianic return from faerie in a darkest hour.​​►Sarchasm ​​Replied On Feb 6th 2011:​​@Sweet Pancakes, god I hope not. She already sounds like an amateur biting off more than she can chew. Calling out a world full of monsters and warlords? Yeah, that might have been a pretty impressive takedown of the Slaughterhouse Nine, but telling us that she's going to take on the whole world is overambitious at best and shockingly arrogant at worst. It would be exactly like that sort of personality to try to paint themselves as some messianic figure and crown themselves fucking empress.​​I mean, I hope I'm wrong and it's just new cape drama, but it also feels like this could be creeping villainy in a heroic mask. Like good intentions (or not so good intentions) could turn into just another warlord for the real heroes to deal with down the road.​​►Merick the Cleric ​​Replied On Feb 6th 2011:​​@Sarchasm, I'll grant you the point about her sounding a bit...overambitious, but I think it's a little premature to leap to allegations of secret villainy.​​► Wolfy_One (Verified Fuzzy)​​Replied On Feb 6th 2011:​​What if she knows things we don't, and it's not overambitious at all? That was one terrifying ambush, and nobody's mentioned yet how she practically nuked two of the Nine from orbit, which means there's no good reason she couldn't have killed them all that way.​​But she fought them hand to hand just because she could. To make a point, I think. Stop and think about that. She fought the Nine in person just to make a point.​​That's some astonishingly extreme confidence, and it paid off for her. She was so far above the goddamn Nine that she didn't just kill them, she managed them.​​Maybe she really does have the ability to do what she says.​​​End of Page. 1

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Monday Evening, February 7th, 2011

Brockton Bay

Hebert Residence​

Teresa Richter's organic eyes rolled back in her human head and she made an involuntary sound of deep satisfaction as she removed the fork from her mouth and carefully chewed.

"Good?" I asked.

"Taylor, your cooking is better than sex," Mouse Protector said blissfully around a mouthful of turkey, seated to my left at the dinner table. "Marry me."

"My daughter is a teenager," Danny protested.

"For this I'd be willing to wait," Mouse Protector retorted, and stuffed her mouth with a heaping forkful of squash.

"I take it that food isn't ordinarily this good?" Dragon asked.

Mouse Protector swallowed and gestured at the feast of roast turkey and sides that filled the table. "This miracle is the work of a culinary goddess. If I explode I'll die happy."

I shrugged at Dragon in response to her question. "I thought that for your first time eating anything I might as well go all out. Be sure to save room, I made a festival's worth of pies for dessert."

Mouse Protector groaned. "I am definitely going to explode," she said around a bite of stuffing. "Not complaining, though."

I laughed. "I'll send some home with you. You can work off the calories kicking ass."

"Damn right," she agreed.

"Thank you," Dragon said to me, an unsteady note in her voice. "This...it's a touching gesture. And of course it's because of you building this body that I have the chance to experience this at all. And it's because of you that I'm free, and learning things I never thought I'd know."

"You are most welcome." I raised my glass. "Here. To friendship."

Mouse Protector raised hers. "To victory, and to some well-deserved extreme violence."

Dragon raised hers. "To new opportunities."

Danny raised his. "To a house filled with smiling faces."

Our glasses clinked together, and we drank.

Tuesday Evening, February 8th, 2011

New York, New York

Studio Seven, 'Cape News With Julian Walker'​

"Tonight we have a very special guest. The woman who stopped the Nine's reign of terror once and for all, and whose scientific work has had people all abuzz. Please welcome Scientia!"

I walked onstage under the bright lights, waving to the studio audience. I wore my armor in its default perfect white, minus the helmet. My face was exposed, and my long hair cascaded down my back to my waist.

By the time I reached the guest's sofa onstage applause had turned into a roaring standing ovation.

The host let it go for most of a long minute with a big grin before finally waving with both hands. "Okay, okay folks! Let's let the lady talk."

"Julian," I greeted him as the audience quieted down.

"Scientia, welcome!" He waved at the audience. "It seems like you might have a fan or two out there. How's it feel being the hero of the hour?"

I offered a photogenic smile. "Well, everyone likes being thanked for a job well done. But it also reminds me that I've still got a whole lot more work to do."

"Who's next on your list?" he asked, leaning forward. "Don't worry, I won't tell anyone."

I chuckled at the joke. "Let's say it's still up in the air. In all seriousness, our world is full of monsters. I don't like violence, but sometimes good men and women need to take up the sword to protect what we care about. There are a great many things that need to be stopped."

"For a lady who doesn't like violence, hoo boy do you seem to be good at it. After I saw the video I almost felt sorry for those - if you'll excuse my language - bastards."

"If something needs doing, it's worth doing it well," I said. "And when it comes to battle, if you're fighting fair you're doing it wrong."

"It didn't seem like fighting you would be fair at all. Tell me, do you think you could take the Triumvirate?" he asked, expressing curiosity on the audience's behalf with exaggerated body language.

"Well, they're highly experienced heroes with very strong powers," I answered, playing coy.

Julian arched an eyebrow. "Don't think you could?"

I offered a sly smile. "I didn't say that. I'd just have to cheat outrageously, is all."

He laughed, and the audience laughed with him.

"Okay. So moving on from your terrifying ability to crush things underheel, everyone has been dying to know, what is your power?"

"Have they?" I asked lightly, putting on an innocent facade.

"My interns tell me it's practically all PHO has been talking about," Julian said, leaning back and gesturing off-stage. "I definitely don't spend all my free time on there myself, you see."

I chuckled at the joke, and let him continue.

"But seriously, some people think you're a tinker, but then stuff from the papers you've published seems to work for regular folks. Some other people think you're some sort of a thinker using a power to understand or create tech. Is anybody guessing right?" he asked, leaning in again.

I shook my head. "It would be easy to just say yes, but I'm afraid it wouldn't be true. The reason people are having trouble figuring out what power I have is because I don't have one."

The whole studio went silent.

"...What?" Julian asked, stunned.

"All of my knowledge and skill is the product of purely human effort and cleverness. I am not a parahuman," I said plainly.

"That's...are you serious, Scientia?" he asked, disbelieving.

"As the grave," I said, and knocked on my head with my knuckles. "There are no coronas in here. Anything I've done, anything I've figured out, anyone out there can do the same with enough effort. That's why my science and engineering are reproducible, unlike tinker work. It was all created with cleverness and hard work, not a parahuman power."

"I...that's hard to believe," Julian said, still taken aback.

"Is it?" I asked. "Every now and then someone comes along who sees things in a unique way, who has a realization that unlocks new understanding. Our ancestors solved a million seemingly intractable problems over human history. The human mind is an incredible tool, capable of astonishing wonders when we apply it. Never underestimate it."

I was telling a rather slanted truth, of course. It was very difficult to imagine one person, even a once in a millennium genius, understanding and advancing all the fields that I'd shown knowledge of. Many people would scoff at my claim as impossible. That I was really a cape, or deluded like Myrddin.

But others would believe.

As with my performance in killing the Nine, I was here to make a statement. The people of Earth Bet needed to be inspired. To believe that regular people still mattered. I could hold myself as an example of the expanse of human possibility in the hopes of inspiring others to reach for that height, even if they never achieved it.

Because in reaching, they could accomplish wonders.

"Still, people will say it seems pretty impossible," Julian said.

I nodded. "I can certainly see their point of view. Something that might help to make it all more understandable is that we're only at the beginning of the information age. We've only been making tools that help us think for a pretty short period of time, and compared to what's possible, the state of the art today is pretty crude. Some of my first and most important discoveries were tools that helped me solve big problems faster. I started with software, and progressed from there. As we've seen over the last fifty years, when you build better tools for solving problems, the pace of technological development picks up dramatically. I don't think there's any such thing as a singularity per se, a point where technological development becomes effectively infinite, but thanks to everything I've built I can figure new things out in minutes that would have taken me years or a lifetime. Like most of what I've discovered I hope to share, although it's going to be an ongoing process."

Julian didn't respond for a long moment, the talk show host at a loss for words or an easy joke, so I had mercy on him.

"There is also something I would like to announce while I'm here," I added.

"Well, I'm sure we're all ears," he answered, grasping at the lifeline. "What would you like to tell us?"

I turned fully to the audience. "There are monsters in this world, people like the Nine who hurt and kill for twisted enjoyment. Because they get off on power and fear.

"But a lot of villains aren't like that. History teaches us that crime is closely correlated with poverty. When people first commit a crime, it's usually because they're in a desperate circumstance. Because they don't see any other way out of the situation, whatever it is.

"That's why I'm announcing a new charity. I've just put up a PHO post with details and my contact information, but here's the summary. If you're a parahuman, I will pay you not to use your power to hurt people. This is the sort of thing a government probably couldn't do because people would get upset at special treatment, but it's my money and I can do what I want with it. Three thousand dollars a month not to be evil, delivered straight to a bank account of your choice."

"You're...going to pay people not to be villains?" Julian asked, if possible more stunned.

I nodded, looking back to him. "Absolutely. That includes every hero and Ward, by the way. They're certainly using their powers for good. But if you just want to go to school or work a regular job or raise your kids or just stay at home and goof off, I'll still pay. And I don't just mean people in the United States; the offer is good for the whole world."

Julian blinked. "That's...well, that's quite the experiment. Are you worried about people trying to cheat you? Take the money and hurt people anyway?"

I turned my head and offered the cameras a predatory grin. "People should probably assume that I'm omniscient. It's not true, of course, but I can fake it pretty well. And I don't take kindly to villainy."

I softened my expression.

"In all seriousness, there are other reasons people turn to villainy too. Maybe someone's hurting you, or someone you love. Maybe you made a mistake or there was a terrible accident, and you feel trapped, like the law will never give you a fair shot. Maybe you or someone you love is sick, or someone has some sort of leverage over you."

I shook my head. "No matter what it is, I can help. If someone's threatening you or people you love, I can protect you. If someone's been kidnapped, I can rescue them. If someone's sick, I can heal them. If you've got legal trouble, I can talk to the authorities and work something out that you can live with. That's my promise," I said, and turned back to Julian. "And that's how I'm going to end this scourge of villainy that's afflicting this planet and dragging us all further towards the abyss every year. I'll use the sword," I said, patting Excalibur at my waist, "to put down monsters when I have to, but we can prevent monsters from ever being born with compassion. Parahumans trigger on the worst day of their lives. If anyone ever deserves help and understanding, it's after their worst day."

The room was quiet for a moment as I finished, a palpable sense of breaths held.

Then someone started clapping, and it spread into thunderous applause.

Above, drones with containment foam rounds tagged a group of villains preparing to rappel down the side of the building and make a dramatic entrance through the windows. It wasn't clear what their plan was, but the PRT could figure it out after I handed them over.

I smiled at the applause. There was much to be done, but this was a start. Prometheus was already starting to field a few tentative, desperate phone calls. Each would be investigated, and paid and helped as needed. A few would be brought to my personal attention, but the VIs and the drones my manufacturing base was starting to crank out could deal with most situations.

It would be expensive of course, but I could mine precious metals and gems in effectively infinite quantities, or sell technologies that didn't strictly need to be in the public domain, or hardware that solved important problems that nobody else could manufacture yet. Or just print money if all else failed, but I doubt it would ever come to that.

"Well," Julian said, as the applause finally died down. "I certainly hope you're right and it all works out."

I nodded in agreement. "Some things can't be fixed, but we'll only find a way if we try. Thank you for having me."

"I think I can safely say it's been quite an interview, Scientia," he said. "I'm sure we'd be happy to have you back anytime."

I've been very sick the last couple of weeks, but I managed to get this done for you guys over the last few days. I hope you all enjoy it. There wasn't time to send it out for proofreading, so let me know if you guys spot any errors. One important author note is that the personalities on display in the PHO section aren't meant to imply anything about real personalities; they needed to say what they needed to say for story reasons, and the names are intended as fun references to randomly selected thread posters with names I could twist a bit.

I'll go back to resting my poor cracked rib now. You never realize how important your ribcage is until it keeps trying to stab you.

Next time on Scientia Weaponizes the Future, school bullying results in a declaration of war as Scientia...escalates.