32

Exposure 2

"Alright, time for us to get to work too," Lisa said as soon as Dad had left for his job.

"I've got my eye on all his bases right now," I said. "Do you at least have a general plan?"

"Are you sure you're watching all the entrances and exits? He has to have an emergency escape, too." Lisa asked.

"All of them except that one shielded area blocking my bots. I'm watching them twenty-four seven. I've seen a bunch of people go in and out, but they all look like mercenaries or PRT employees. Oh, and the Travellers came by once."

"Fake uniforms," Lisa said dismissively. "No man in a black costume with a snake on it? I know he would never reveal his face to his own employees."

"None so far, but there's one section of his main base that I can't see inside. Some kind of field that's blocking me. I've seen a few people walk in and out through the area, but no snake-costume guy."

"Right. Keep a lookout for him. And anyone who goes into or leaves that blind zone of yours. It's obviously his most secure area and his main office."

"But how are we actually going to get him?" I asked.

"Still trying to figure that out. Help me out here. How do you catch a guy who always makes the best decision possible?"

I shrugged. "Make every possible decision a bad one."

"Right. That's how I got the Undersiders to disband. Basically I managed to get a situation where he had to choose to let Bakuda keep bombing the city, or we got the bounty money. Obviously he chose the latter… but at this point I'm not even sure if that was the bad decision. He's already got the Travellers working for him and they seem to be heavier hitters than the Undersiders ever were."

"And how do we guarantee that?"

"Aside from hitting every single one of his bases at once, while he's inside? I don't know. There's got to be something he finds valuable. Really valuable. Force him to choose between that or his own freedom, maybe. But we have to separate them… ahhrg. Let me think about this for a while, I'll be able to figure out more if you can give me surveillance data."

"Alright then, but I have to get to work," I told her. "If you need anything, just shout. My bots will be able to hear you no matter where you are in the house."

"You know some people would find that really creepy, right?" Lisa pointed out.

"And you're creepy when you do your pretend-psychic thing," I retorted.

"As long as you're watching everything around me too," Lisa sighed.

"Big Sister is always watching," I said in as ominous voice as I could manage. "Except when you go to the bathroom."

"I'm older than you," she reminded me.

"Eunoia! Thank goodness you're safe. Are you sure you don't need more rest after… you know…?" Dr. Kardon asked.

"I'll be fine," I said.

"Oh, good, because there's a lot more work to be done," he told me. "We've got a few new studies lined up and ready to go, we're just waiting on you."

"Wait, what?"

"I've got a colleague who's doing research into nerve damage and spinal repair. Lots of Tinkertech solutions out there to alleviate paraplegia and quadriplegia already, but he's hoping for a breakthrough that can eventually be mass-manufactured."

"And I'm another candidate?"

"Well, unlike most other Tinkers, your technology has actually helped me publish an actual paper. He's hoping your brain-mapping abilities translate to nerve-mapping as well. Come on, I'll introduce you to him."

Over in the neurology department, I met up with a gangly, geeky-looking but cheerful man. He shook my hand excitedly. "Eunoia, is it? I'm Dr. Crissom, Jonas Crissom. When I heard about you on the news, I had to call Simon right away to see if he knew you. What do you know, you've already been working with him for months!"

"Uh…"

"Shame on you, Simon, for keeping her a secret!" Dr. Crissom laughed. "Come on, I have a lot of ideas. I need to know if this is possible. This could change millions of lives across the country!"

"Uh…" I was a little overwhelmed by how… enthusiastic this guy was. But it didn't take too long for me to get used to his pace, as it were. He was passionate about his work, and that made it easy to get him to explain what he wanted.

In short, however, it wasn't really that much different from what I was already doing. I probably couldn't have done it when I first started at the hospital. Back then, my bots were only small enough to safely flow through the bloodstream, and later, mimic human neurons. Now, however, they were almost small enough to mimic parts of neurons, namely the axons and dendrites.

That part was kind of important. Unlike building my clone brains, where I had bots act as entire neurons, I couldn't replace a patient's entire cell. I needed to just fix the parts that were injured or severed. Moreover, I couldn't – and didn't want to be – in control of that person, as I would have to be in order to keep it working.

What Dr. Crissom was searching for, basically, was either a healing technology that could cause nerves to repair themselves, or a prosthetic that bridged the broken connection. And, of course, it had to be precise enough that the patient didn't end up with crossed wires inside their body.

"Do you think your technology could do it?" he asked.

"I might. Let me check," I said. What better way than to test with a few of my own body? I didn't actually damage my nerves, of course. I just pinched off the nerves to my left pinky toe. Even if things went wrong, it was no big loss. All it took was a few seconds before it went numb, like it had fallen asleep. I then made a "bridge" with my bots over the gap causing the signal blockage. Another few minutes of a little fine-tuning and adjustment, and I could feel normally with that toe again.

Not too hard, to be honest. It would take more practice and experimentation to make sure it would last without my constant input, and was safe for the general public, but a simple conductive bridge was something my bots could build easily.

I realized that it probably also had some application in surgery as a quick anesthetic, but I could bring that up with the surgical teams later.

"I take it that the proof-of-concept works?" Dr. Crissom asked. I only then realized he had been staring at me as I was poking my own toe repeatedly for the past few minutes.

"Yes," I replied meekly as I hurriedly put my shoe back on.

"Excellent! Now tell me, in detail, exactly what you did. We need all this down in writing. Is it reversible? Could I try? First-hand experience would yield some fabulous data. In fact, I already know several patients who would be willing to volunteer for experimental trials…"

"Hey, don't forget about us," Dr. Kardon said. "Yui and I still haven't finished our own research, you know. And the ER still wants you on-call whenever possible."

I suspected my days at the hospital were not going to get any shorter for a while.

"You've got a message from Dragon, she probably wants a video chat," Lisa told me when I got home. I had been watching her the entire time, and I knew she hadn't gone through my emails. Of course she knew.

It looked like she wanted to do more collaboration while she was sorting out the legal stuff about setting up a temporary workshop in the city. I guess I should have been honoured that one of the foremost Tinkers in the world took the time out of her day to talk to me. And I also didn't want to deal with the throngs of "journalists" who swarmed me every time I was out in public, but I was getting somewhat bored of simply being either at my house or at the hospital. So yes, I accepted. I shouldn't have been surprised when Dragon was able to respond to me almost instantly.

"Good evening, Eunoia!" Dragon looked like she was in her thirties, but difficult to place. She had tan skin, dark hair, and fairly average features. Probably a mixed-race. I guess that wasn't too uncommon given that she was from Vancouver. There wasn't much behind her in the background either; she must have been an exceptionally clean Tinker.

"Good evening, Dragon," I responded. "So, what do you want to talk about?"

"A few things, actually. Some ways you can help me, and some ways I could help you," Dragon said. "First off, I just want to thank you again for leaving me some of those samples. It's an ingenious bot design."

That was actually a surprise. Dragon's specialty was figuring out other Tinkertech and then adapting and mass-manufacturing it. My bots were deliberately made to be as simple as possible; I thought she would have found them boring. I didn't think she was patronizing me, though. "Really? You think so?"

"There were a few things I liked in particular. The micro-solar recharging is actually more efficient than most non-tinkertech solar panels. Do you mind if I utilize the design? I'm willing to help you patent it if you allow me to produce them at a favourable royalty rate."

"Oh. I thought you'd already have better," I said. Dragon's tech was among the top in the world, not just because she could figure out other Tinkers' inventions, but because she could combine elements of several different Tinkers.

"Depends on how you look at it. I have more efficient panels, but I believe your design can be better applied for specific use cases," Dragon clarified.

Just as I was thinking. "What kind of applications are you thinking?"

"Well, microscopic applications for one, obviously. Secondly, high-durability and self-repairing solar panels, which is better for long-term hazardous environments. Also, frequent-shifting or flexible materials, like solar-powered clothing."

I never even thought of those. Well, the solar-powered clothing was technically my costume sometimes. But I wasn't really interested in making them for anyone other than myself... at least, not yet.

"Secondly, I have to ask. The diamond lens system, what gave you the idea?"

"I just needed a really solid cutting tool," I said. "Glass wasn't doing the job any more. But then, you know, to keep things simple..."

"You made it pull double duty. I was just thinking about how well it captures light and improves the overall efficiency of the light-gathering. But I'm curious as to why you chose that shape. Wouldn't it be even more efficient if it was a more symmetrical lens?"

"Oh, I guess it would be. But that wasn't the primary function... or even secondary. I originally designed it as a cutting and gripping tool first, then as armour plating second. The solar power was maybe third? Actually fourth, if you count the camouflage capabilities. Most of the bots can recharge to full in less than an hour of sunlight anyway. The shape is more for the camouflage, it reflects colours differently depending on angle."

Dragon actually chuckled at that. "So that's how you produce different colours in your armour? Simply angling the crystals... ingenious. Armour, light lensing, and camouflage. I would have used multicolour paints, but this is truly efficiency in design."

"I actually started off using paints, but when I realized I could do this, there wasn't much point any more," I mentioned, recalling my first few outings against the Merchants.

"Any other hidden functions you would like to share?"

"I guess I use them to see, too. But it takes close to a million of them working together at once to form a coherent image, at minimum."

"A solar cell also being used as a photodiode - it seems obvious, in retrospect, as long as you can sort through the noise. But how do you coordinate which bot corresponds to which pixel, if they shift around so much?"

I shrugged. "I dunno. I just do." It was a mystery of my power, even to me. I just inherently knew which bot was which if I concentrated, even if they were numbering into the quadrillion and quntillions. Not that I actively kept track of each one all the time, but I just knew I could if I had to. My Master power just sorted them out for me.

For the first time, Dragon actually looked frustrated. "Is it a collective function that requires multiples? Wait, that wouldn't make sense… I don't see any control hardware."

"Oh. Yeah, they don't have any," I said. "I guess I have some kind of... Master power that lets me control the bots inherently."

"Oh. So you're not purely a Tinker, then. Well, that makes much more sense. I've been trying to piggyback a micro-antenna system on each bot, but the system would triple the size of the bot itself and produced too much interference and noise. Tell me, do your bots have any form of memory or onboard processing?"

"No, I just tell them what to do. They don't do anything else otherwise." I didn't want to let her know about the extra brains just yet. She had been curious, but I didn't want to give away all of my best secrets.

"I guess you have a minimum range for that control, then. One that doesn't stretch coast to coast," Dragon chuckled.

"Distance? Just two blocks," I said. I was about to leave it at that, but I remembered there was no point in trying to bullshit Dragon. She knew about Abyssal already, and saw him walking around on the battlefield against Behemoth. "I, uh, managed to find a way to extend my own range, though."

"Interesting. I didn't notice any control signals at Gibraltar because I usually only bring the specialty equipment during Simurgh attacks," Dragon said. "Would you like to share how it works? It must be quite robust if it could survive Behemoth's repeated EMP attacks."

"Umm… I'd rather not for now," I said reluctantly.

"Sorry, I was just curious. Every Tinker has their own secrets. So, can you control any kind of nanobot? Not that I believe you've encountered any other nanite Tinkers operating on the east coast."

"You know, I've never tried. But from what I can tell, I can't seem to control anything I don't make myself," I explained. "I've controlled robots the size of my hand when I first started, so it's not a size issue."

"Curious. I'd like to try an experiment. I'm going to make exact replicas of the bots you left with me as best I can, and I'll send them to you in the mail. Let me know if you can control them at all when you receive them," she said.

Seemed like fun. I never had anyone to help me experiment. Lisa was great for helping me with ideas, but working with another Tinker was something I needed which I didn't even realize I had been missing.

"There's one more thing. When you say that you can only control things that you build, how many degrees of separation qualify? Clearly you can't build all these by hand, by yourself. Do you program an automated production line? Did you use purchased tools, or do you produce them using tools you produced yourself?"

Clearly Dragon thought a lot more deeply about things than I did.

"After I got down to a certain size, I just started getting the bots to build themselves from raw materials," I said. "I think my power considers the bots an extension of my own body, so in a sense, I'm still making them. That's just how it feels when I control them, at least. In my head they're like an extra limb or something."

Dragon paused for a second. "Your bots self-replicate?"

"Self? No, I have to be in control of every step of the process," I said.

Dragon's face went through some… interesting expressions. Surprise? Confusion? Excitement? Hard to tell, but she was thinking hard about whatever it was. "Before I go on, Eunoia, have you ever heard of a villain named Nilbog?"

"Heard of, but I don't really know the details." I think I may have heard the name tossed around online casually and that it was a vaguely bad thing, the same way that Hitler or Slaughterhouse Nine were "bad." Presumably he wasn't as bad as those two because he wasn't as infamous.

"In short, it started in the town of Ellisburg in northwest New York. It's actually not too far from Brockton Bay, but it had nothing noteworthy in it. Population approximately five thousand. Ten years ago, every person living there vanished off the map. Except for one."

I nodded. Five thousand was probably in the range of the Slaughterhouse Nine's kill count, I think. Except it was a single person instead of nine. Bakuda hadn't gone anywhere near that number and she already earned a Kill Order. "Why did he do it?"

"Nobody knows. But it wasn't just the murders. It's the fact that he can create 'goblins,' and he rules over them as the 'goblin king.' These 'goblins' also have their own varying parahuman powers. He's effectively consumed nearly all animals in a forty square mile area, making it a kill-zone for any human that enters. When he consumes, he 'processes' the biological material and turns it into another one of his goblin followers."

"And you think that I would..."

"The point is not whether or not you would. You've been an exemplary hero, saving lives and advancing medical science already, and you've only been a cape for a few months. That's not in question. But people can be… exceptionally paranoid around capes," Dragon explained. "In fact, every local PRT branch has information and potential countermeasures for every cape, including their own employees, in case they turn villain one day."

"They don't even trust their own heroes?"

"It's simply a matter of perception and preparedness. Especially against, say, Masters or even normal mental illness. Fear and paranoia go a long way. I know parahumans have existed your entire life, but for most people in charge – the judges, the politicians, and so on – they are still a new phenomenon that popped up in the middle of their lives. It's still strange and scary to them," Dragon said. "Nilbog has been untouchable for the past decade. Every PRT mission to find or kill him has failed disastrously. He might be content with his little kingdom for now, but if he gets aggressive and attempts to expand again, the government has not ruled out the nuclear option. That's how afraid of him they are, and they are very keen to prevent another threat like him from rising again."

"Duly noted," I said. "But I'm not going to kill anyone with the bots I make."

"You seem like a good person. I'm just giving you a heads-up. Nanobots were a science-fiction doomsday scenario not too long ago, and some people may see that when they learn about you. Even for myself, I have to get approval from dozens of different authorities for what I produce in my factories, and even then they subject me to more surprise inspections than anyone else."

"Thanks for letting me know," I told her. Funnily enough, Dragon had never actually told me to stop, only to not scare people with my powers. Was she trying to imply something here?

"Now, on to actual Tinkering. Have you tried a nanofilament or a polarized graphene mesh to improve the crystal purity?" Dragon asked.

"I have no idea what either of those are," I said.

"Well, let me show you a few things I've been experimenting with," Dragon said with a grin.

I was certain the new designs and suggestions from Dragon would be of major help, even though I could only see a few immediate benefits. Maybe that was just my Tinkering instincts itching to be put to use. To be honest, I wasn't too sure and I couldn't explain it in concrete terms, I was just giddy at the single largest leap in design improvements I'd had in weeks. Even with the suggestions, it was still a game of trial-and-error and multiple rounds of refinement, for both of us.

Lisa was getting a little stir-crazy as I experimented with the new designs for Dr. Crissom and materials that Dragon had introduced. She wanted to take down Coil earlier so she wasn't trapped and hiding in fear, but I still hadn't seen anyone matching his description go in, or out, of any of his bases. There was some movement by the mercenaries, but currently they seemed to be preparing, but not acting yet. Neither of us could figure out what, unless Coil himself could predict our attempt to take him down. I mean, she did figure out that he had a Thinker power capable of making the "right" choice, but without knowing exactly how it worked

In the meantime, Lisa was mainly stuck inside my house - she refused to leave or go anywhere without either me or bots watching every nook and cranny in a five-block radius. I also noticed she was staying away from windows. I would have called her paranoid if it weren't for the fact that Coil had tried to kill her. Not that she could really go anywhere without the press, and therefore Coil, knowing. Hell, he probably had a few mercenaries disguised as reporters. While the number of reporters swarming my house had died down, there were still a few who tried at the hospital, and the occasional one who tried at my house. However, the news story was dying down anyway, and people were losing interest.

"Lisa… I'm seeing movement. Guy in a black costume. Tall, skinny, white snake thing on the front. He just came out of an armored car and went straight for the secure area of the main base.

Lisa's head snapped towards me in an instant. "This is it. That bastard's going down! Quick, check if there's anyone in position for a counterattack or something. Anything in the neighbourhood?"

I shook my head. I'd kept a hundred brains dedicated specifically to a four-block radius plus the hill near around my house to cover any thugs, snipers, or capes looking to pounce on Lisa. I hadn't noticed anything in particular. Even if they showed up, I had enough bots for three copies of Abyssal to handle a multi-pronged attack on my home. "We're safe for now. Let me get my bots into position," I said. "And an alibi for myself. I'm going to volunteer at the hospital for a bit."

While more and more of my bots started seeping into Coil's bases, I ran to the bus stop. She quickly sent a few texts to Vicky while I gathered more bots towards that area of the city.

I got a text from Vicky just as I stepped on to the bus. Hey ur friend Lisa says she wants to take down a big villain, she legit?

I texted her back. Yeah. She's been working with Abyssal to find him.

Gonna need bkup. But mom might not want to work w Abyssal. PRT says they want him

That surprised me. Abyssal hadn't been declared a villain or anything, as far as I was aware. I knew there was a notice out and request for questioning, which I mostly ignored. Really? They still call him a rogue. They just want him for questioning.

Yeah, that's mom. Wait, gonna conf chat

I got a new call now for a conference-video chat. I didn't even know my phone could do that. Lisa and Vicky joined in first, but then Crystal and Eric also joined on a single screen. Along with Mrs. Pelham. Looks like most of the Pelhams might have been on-board. I decided to move to the back of the bus to get a little more privacy. I turned the volume down to nothing and just listened from Lisa's end at home through my bots.

Mrs. Pelham put the brakes on everything. "Okay, before you kids rush in and do anything crazy, do you have any actual evidence of a crime in progress?"

I paused. Technically, we didn't. I glanced at Lisa, urging her to come up with an excuse.

"He's got a secret base, and he's in there right now," Lisa insisted. "I've been working with Abyssal to find it, and he's got mercenaries…"

Mrs. Pelham crossed her arms and shook her head. "Sorry, but mercenaries are actually legal. They may get a shady rap, but paramilitary organizations can be hired for anything from security duty to training exercises to citizen policing. Having mercenaries on hand isn't a crime unless you've witnessed them doing something illegal. In fact, independent hero teams like New Wave itself falls under similar laws."

"So we can't even hit him at his secret base unless… Ahhrg! But this is the perfect time! Abyssal told me he just saw him go inside," Lisa growled angrily. I suspect her anger was more directed at herself than Mrs. Pelham, though. Probably for such a huge miscalculation. Maybe she should have relied on Abyssal alone instead of bringing the rest of New Wave into the mix.

"On that note, having a secret base isn't illegal either, unless it violates building codes. But either way, that doesn't justify a violent raid. Just a call to city hall about the violation. Again, we can't just go trespassing on to private property unless we see a crime in progress."

"What if they have illegal Tinkertech weapons? And they have uniforms for impersonating the PRT?"

"Inside the secret base? Now that's some hard evidence. But can you see it from a public location, like the sidewalk? The main issue is that, if you have to break the law – by trespassing – before you even witness something criminal, then you've basically invalidated the evidence you find afterwards. Not to mention the fact that you've now committed a crime yourself. As far as the uniforms go… some people have managed to get away with saying they were merely fans who wanted realistic memorabilia. For roleplay. As long as they aren't using them to actually impersonate an officer, then there's no crime."

"This stupid hero thing is so much more annoying than I thought it would be," Lisa grumbled.

"Tell me about it," Vicky agreed.

"How do you know all this anyway?" Crystal asked.

"Abyssal's been doing some scouting for me," Lisa answered quickly. "He's been able to see mercenaries with a lot of Tinkertech guns, fake PRT uniforms, even a fake PRT armored truck. He's used these mercenaries to threaten my life, and many others…"

"And you trust him with this information? He's not just… playing you or something? You sure he isn't a hired cape himself?" Crystal added.

"I'd trust him with my life," Lisa said firmly.

"Damnit, why can't we just punch the bastard out? It's obviously a criminal, who the hell else builds secret bases with guns and stuff?" Vicky complained.

"People just blame things on Coil. He's like a bogeyman. Almost everything about him is just rumours. Lisa's word is all we got," Crystal pointed out.

"If you have all this evidence, why not just send it to the PRT? They could get a warrant and raid the place themselves," Mrs. Pelham suggested. "They certainly wouldn't take kindly to people impersonating them."

"Coil's got access to the PRT. A combination of moles and hacking. He'd see the report and have everything cleared out of the location before the warrant gets signed," Lisa explained again.

I was listening quietly this whole time, all while I noticed Assault and Battery patrolling vaguely the area of one of Coil's bases. I got an idea. Probably a bad idea.

"Um, just hypothetically speaking, what would happen if you witness a crime in progress, but when you pursue, you come across an even bigger crime? Like, you see a burglar breaking into a building. Then when you chase him, you find out the building's like, a Merchant meth lab or something. What would happen then?" I asked Lady Photon.

Lady Photon sighed. "I seriously hope you aren't trying to convince some poor chump into breaking the law for you."

"I'm not doing anything, I'm headed to the hospital right now. Just asking," I said.

"But legally speaking…" Lisa said. I suspected she already knew the answer, given the way she was glancing at me and trying to suppress her giddy smile. It was probably for the benefit of the rest of New Wave.

"Legally we would still have to arrest the person who initiated the crime, but it also means we had a reasonable justification for entering the property, so it's… less messy. Please don't tell me you're not going to tell your friend to turn vigilante and break more laws for this. We're trying NOT to let the city descend into anarchy."

Good enough for me. Lisa caught on to my thoughts even though I was trying to control my expressions on video chat.

"Oh no, I wouldn't do such a thing. But hypothetically, if any of you feel like going out for a patrol in the next half-hour, there may be a case of… vandalism around the 2500 block of Birch Avenue."

"By Abyssal?" Eric asked with a sarcastic snort.

"I can neither confirm nor deny."

Vicky had already dropped her phone to get changed.

Mrs. Pelham sighed and rubbed her forehead.

Author's Note: A tiny bit late. The week has gotten busy for me. And I've been playing through FFXII again. It's even better than I remembered. At least, the remastered version is.