Aftermath(Saber)

[Saber]

Saber was taken off guard when he was suddenly hugged by a woman, one he had just met, who was labeling him as her son. Blushing bright red, he didn't know how to react to the hug, remaining stock still with a surprised expression *...This is more awkward than when I first met Katana...* Katana, worried about her new friend, had been sitting on the larger avatar's shoulder like he was a statue, idly kicking her legs while watching her 'mother' greet Saber for the first time, as well as the doctor, who was nisily inspecting the R&D section "Another quirky guy? I thought we had enough of those around here already."

"And as the older brother, your sense of responsibility is spot on. Mirror, until we can do a full virus removal on you, you can't risk the viral code spreading by shape changing. This isn't a 5-minute process, so please revert to default until we're finished." Bit pushed up her glasses as she stepped into the room, surveying everything that was happening "Saber, I see that you've met the cyberblade project's maternal figure and personal counselor. Meet Amaterasu, and the large hulking knight Katana is sitting on is Claymore...I'd introduce you to your other sibling, Chakam, but he's sometimes on the shy side and likes to stay concealed." Arms crossed, she walked over to the doctor and looked up at him, her glasses sliding down again and showing solid amber eyes "And as eager as you are to upgrade my facilities, nothing happens without my approval. I have this layout set to my team's specifications, so unless we are aware of what changes are being made, we won't know where anything will be if you change it around on us."

Kate stood beside Alexi, behind Sam, as she greeted their new arrival. She gave a brief nod of greeting when she was introduced "It's a pleasure to have you aboard, officer Gainsborough."

[Mani4c]

Claymore chuckled slightly when Amaterasu hugged Saber, he voice was deep and commanding, but also held a bit of elegance to it ((Here's a voice sample for you:link)). "It Seems that our Mother's penchant for public displays of affection have claimed another victim. It is a pleasure to meet you brother, I thank you for watching over Katana while we were being constructed, she is truly the heart of our little family." Claymore looked at Katana and gave her a very gentle pat on the head, his gauntleted hand was big enough to cover her whole head. Amaterasu pulled away from Saber and smiled. "And as for Chakram, I think he's around here, he did want to keep Katana company..."

A voice suddenly appeared from seemingly thin air, right behind Saber. "Right here Mother..." Chakram slowly faded into view, clad in his magenta armor. "I have to say Katana, the magenta is actually growing on me a bit..." Chakram's armor disappeared in a flash of light, showing his normal appearance. "It's good to meet you Sir, Mani4c has told me a great deal about you." Amaterasu frowned slightly. "Chakram, Saber is your brother, you don't have to call him "Sir". Chakram just shrugged and walked over to Claymore, who held out his hand and helped Chakram clamber up his chest to rest on his other shoulder, standing in a crouch and holding onto one of the large horns that came off of his shoulder pad.

The Doctor smiled and shook Domain's hand...while scanning him with the other. "Hmm, a terraformer and a shapeshifter, you two must have some very interesting stories..." The Doctor than began  to nod when Bit told him not to upgrade anything without her permission. "Alright, but the programs here are so...inefficient compared to how they could run, they're only operating at 95.78% efficiency, I could get it up to 100% with just a couple of tweaks..."

Henry rubbed the back of his head and blushed slightly, "Oh, please, Doctor Gainsborough. I can barely work a stun gun, calling me an officer would be an insult to your skills Captain." the sound of a heavy thud could be heard, "What the? Is that your droid!?" The Droid in question was a hulking industrial drone, easily 75 years old.((link)) <I am a Modular Medical/Scientific assistance unit, you may call me Maximus.> The drone's voice was cold an mechanical, obviously a holdover from it's original manufacturing purpose((link)). Henry smiled, "I found him all banged up in a scrap yard, and I needed an assistant at the time, so I decided to fix him up and make him into my medical aid and scientific partner. The chassis can withstand firearms, electrical discharges and temperatures up to 2500 degrees centigrade. His arms can be fitted with anything from a plasma torch for cutting steel to a drug injector for painkillers or the like, and even without his arms, his old-style hydraulic limbs can lift over 1000 pounds. I even custom made the limb hydraulics with the help of a few colleagues, he could punch through a cinder-block wall or have the precision to remove shards of glass from a patient's organs using his high dexterity attachments. It's the culmination of 10 years hard work. Allow me to demonstrate his medical scanner, took it off of an old Medical bot, it can diagnose and prescribe treatments for internal and external injuries."

Maximus stepped up to Sam and his optics glowed a gentle blue color. <Body temperature: 32 centigrade, height 5'' 10.25', Blood Pressure: Slightly elevated. Probable Cause: Stress, treatment recommendation: meditation or therapeutic massage. Bust, waist and hip measurements are-> Henry got in front of Maximus and interrupted the scan. "Woah, woah, woah! Maximus, please don't vocalize the body measurements, some people get irritated when you do that." <Treatment restriction has been logged, please inform me if this changes.> "Of course." Henry turned to the NPD officers, Alexi looked like he had to repress a snicker at Sam's embarassment, and Sam looked...understandably pissed. "So, uh. Heh, sorry about that. Anyway, what do you think?"

[Prythian]

"A few, here and there. For me it's mostly just a couple of brawls I got wrapped up in. Mirror here has a bit more interesting of a story from before we both were given places here." Domain said after the handshake, withdrawing and sitting down. As Chakram appeared, Mirror's eyes gleamed, and Domain half-rose from his seat. "Mirror..." He said in a warning tone. "Relax." She giggled. "I've already been him a couple of times." Domain sat back down warily. "The only real interesting part of my story is that I was incomplete when Saber here brought me in. Pretty much no personality, and no cosmetic data at all. Without someone to copy, I wasn't really anyone." Mirror shuddered briefly. "That wasn't a good time in my life. But hey, my life could be worse than this."

She glanced over at Katana. "Hey, Katana! After this, we should run through one of the obstacle course programs. I bet I can get through it faster than you!" Her eyes gleamed with challenge. "Maybe even get Domain to add something to make it more interesting?"

[Saber]

Saber listened to Claymore thanking him for keeping Katana company while the others were being constructed, still being hugged by Amaterasu "...Anytime..." He was somewhat relieved when he was released from the hug, not quite used to the physical attention. He turned his head to the side when Chakram spoke behind saber, a bit caught off guard by the sudden appearance "Well, I know what combat class you are at least." When Chakram climbed up onto Claymore's other shoulder, he walked up to them, smiling calmly "It's an honor to meet all of you. I cannot speak for my other brothers, but I hope that the bar I have set for you all will be met and surpassed with ease."

Katana giggled softly when Claymore patted her head, smirking when Chakram admitted he was starting to like the magenta armor she picked out "And to think, you had doubts about my choice." Katana looked down and smirked when Mirror challenged her to an obstacle race of sorts. Judging by how Mirror has a habit of copying those around her, she could only guess this was going to be a race against herself. confidence in her eyes, she gave Mirror a thumbs up "Just give me the time and place girl, I'll beat my own record any day of the week!"

When Saber welcomed them, she couldn't help but giggle with a blush, smiling cheekily like a child who was given a bag of candy "Well don't make it too easy for us big bro, you gotta give us a challenge!" Saber looked up at Katana and smirked in response, crossing his arms as he tilted his head "I never said the bar I set for you was a low one, did I Katana?"

"You have my terms, Doctor, no changes without informing me of what is being 'tweaked' as you say. I respect the opinions of fellow avatars of research, but I'll not have anyone changing my dominion behind my back." Bit crossed her arms when the doctor criticized the lab's current efficiency, pushing up her glasses and glaring at the doctor "In fact, I've seen to it that only I can. This section of the server is password protected from any alterations, and the password is set with a quadruple-hexadecimal code with a time delayed security protocol. With 5 seconds to enter the passcode, if you don't have it in your database...Well, as a man of science, I'm certain you can understand where I'm coming from."

Kate was slightly unnerved by the robot's entrance, reaching for her handgun on impulse but stopping just short of drawing it when Alexi and Gainsborough spoke. She couldn't help but smirk when the robot's physical diagnosis of Sam went almost too far, leaning close and whispering into Sam's ear "I'm sure that the measurements would have been more complimentary than anything, commissioner, you would certainly outdo me in a Miss America competition." She leaned back and addressed the doctor "You are very talented with machinery, Doctor, I know a certain Mechanical expert and a Net Ops agent who might want to share some mechanical and programming stories respectively."

[Mani4c]

Claymore nodded at Saber when he said that he hoped that the wave two Cyberblades would meet and surpass his bar. "It is a high bar to beat, but I shall give it my all to make you proud brother." Amaterasu nodded, "I shall as well, I very well can't let my son beat me can I?" Amaterasu had a playful smile on her face and gave Saber a pat on the cheek. "I just wish Dagger was here to see this, he needs a family to fall back on, it's dangerous out there and he's all alone." Mani4c looked up and chuckled, "He's doing alright, he helped my friend Lilith force a heavy hitter from the underground into retreat." Amaterasu smiled, "At least he's safe."

When Bit started going on about her lab's security, The Doctor rolled his eyes and toggled the switch on his scanner, it began to whir and the tip also began to glow blue. After about 5 seconds the device beeped and The Doctor switched it off and stowed it in his pocket, he then brought up his hands and clapped twice, the lights in the room immediately shut off without tampering with any of the equipment. He clapped again and the lights switched on, The Doctor had a smirk on his face and a mischievous glint in his eye. "Rule #1 in the scientific arena, there will always be someone smarter than you at some point. The military servers in Britain use a Dual Vigesimal((Base 20)) security protocol, it took me a week to crack it and play maestro with their code, revamped the whole security grid." Mani4c nudged Rotor and whispered so only he could hear. "I should take lesson's from this guy, he's a trolling master, and he's so damn suave about it."

Sam rolled her eyes at Kate's remark about her looks. "Kate you've still got a body that works with a bikini, I've got so many scars that I'd look like the fuckin' bride of Frankenstein." Alexi failed to repress a chuckle, "Well you never know Sam, some people are into that kind of thing." Sam promptly slapped Alexi on the back of the head for his remark. "As much as I appreciate the compliment Sergeant, I don't date subordinates." The sound of a person clearing their throat cut off the three American officers and drew their attention to the newcomer who'd just stepped off of the chopper with three duffel-bags in one hand and a rifle case in the other. He was about 25 years old and had sandy blonde hair, his skin was pale and he was wearing an SAS Close Quarters Combat uniform, though he seemed to have modified it with a hood and longer jacket.He was also not wearing the standard issue gas mask, instead using a Balaclava in it's place.((Here's the outfit with the gas mask)) "Lieutenant Samuel Vickers 22nd SAS and former member of the British NPD at your service Ma'am. I'm sorry about appearing in combat gear, but the weather was shite and the only waterproof clothing I have is this at the moment."

[Saber]

Saber's eyes softened when Dagger's name was mentioned, remembering what Baretta had told him about the incident with Gat and Halberd's minion, Integrate. Knowing now that Dagger wasn't like Halberd made things easier on him, but he still felt duty-bound to bringing him in if he gets the chance. He took a calming breath and tried to push that thought from his mind, not wanting to be rude to his newest family members "...I just wish he would tell us why he hasn't come back to the server, if he isn't a renegade rogue like Halberd is..."

Bit's stern glare immediately turned to one of shock when the doctor managed to crack her security protocols, the corner of her mouth twitching in spasms as he basically made her look like a fool. Her face was beet red in frustration, her glasses almost falling off of her nose as she stared at the doctor in disbelief. When Mani4c made his comment, she turned and looked at him with a cold, spiteful glare "If you don't want to end up fighting the virus I put your other half against, on your own, you'll stop talking."

Kate shrugged when Sam commented on her battle scars, but couldn't help but smirk when she berated Alexi for making his own inappropriate comment. When Samuel introduced himself, Kate acknowledged him in turn "Good to have you, Lieutenant. I'm sure we can get you some street-appropriate garments, so you'll be easier to approach by other officers."

[Mani4c]

When Bit threatened to pit the virus that she sicced on Viral and Lilith against Mani4c, Chakram summoned a Kunai and whipped it at Bit's feet, narrowly missing them by less than an inch. "Bit, I'm not one for impulsive actions, but if you ever try to use that viral monstrosity of yours on one of my friends...I will not hesitate to put a blade through your eye. You're already on Baretta's bad side because of your lunacy that day, it would be wise of you to not get on mine as well." Chakram's voice betrayed no emotion, but the cold glare that he was sending Bit more than made up for it. Amaterasu looked at Charkam and began to scold him. "Chakram! That is no way to act-"

The impending argument was cut off by Mani4c walking up to Bit, he had a fiery look in his eye that hadn't been seen since he traded blows with Noxus. "Hey doc, why is it that every time I tick you off, you threaten to sick one of your experiments on me? Is the great and oh-so-intelligent Bit afraid of little ol' me, or is it because you know that the only thing you have going for you is a high IQ stolen from textbooks and a lack of empathy?" Mani4c stopped in front of Bit and leaned forward until his face was less than an inch away, activating his armor as he did. "I'm through being pushed around by assholes with too much ego and not enough common sense, I'm a member of this department, and you will treat me with the respect that that position deserves. I'm not some little kid that you can bully around with your toys and gizmos, so piss off! Oh, and one more thing..." What happened next was completely uncharacteristic of Mani4c, he slapped Bit across the cheek, leaving a red hand print on the left side of her face. "That's for acting like Mirror and Domain are nothing but things to fucking poke and prod at you bitch, they're avatars like you and me, and I will not let you treat either of them especially Mirror like that ever again. Oh, and Viral says that can also go towards nearly getting him, Chakram and Lilith killed." Mani4c walked towards the door and deactivated his armor, looking at Mirror and shooting her a toothy grin and a thumbs up. "Hey, I heard that that amusement park is done being renovated, how about I take you and Domain there sometime and have some fun?" He didn't even wait for a response. "Oh, who am I kidding? I'm not taking no for an answer! If you guys need me, I'll be in the shooting range, later." With a final wave, Mani4c left the R&D department.

Samuel nodded, "Thank you Ma'am, I appreciate it, I also hear that I'm supposed to receive some kind of special avatar?" Sam nodded, "That's correct, Follow us, we'll show you to R&D." Samuel cleared his throat and looked at the bags in his hands. "Where should I put these?" Henry cut in at this point. "No problem, Maximus, could you Carry Lieutenant Vikers' bags please?" Maximus nodded and relieved the British officer of his burden. "Thank you kindly." <No thanks are necessary.> The helicopter took off, as the officers and droid left the roof and walked towards the R&D department.

[Prythian]

Domain was almost glad that his helmet was up, obscuring his eyes. "Well then..." He murmured after Mani4c had left. "For what it's worth, anything that helps..." He was going to say something about finding the source of AUGMENT, but given the presence of someone who likely didn't know about it... "...figure out more details about how my powers work is fine with me. I'm tough and can take any amount of poking and prodding. What about you, Mirror?"

Mirror threw up her hands. "Are you kidding? You were one of the first interesting personalities I copied, and it's the one that got ME interested in how my powers work! Besides, whatever you do, it means we're getting closer to figuring out how the compatibility works between my memory cache and myself, right? I don't think you just treat us as experiments." Her face turned sheepish. "...though I wouldn't mind a bit more priority on this viral code. It makes me feel... what's the human word? Nauseous?"

Domain shrugged. "The thing about that virus was a bit far... but I'll talk to Mani4c about it. Make sure he understands our feelings on the matter without just seeing what he'd feel like. Don't worry too much about it, Bit."

[Saber]

Bit expected the negative outburst, but was taken by surprise when Mani4c actually slapped her, her glasses actually getting knocked off of her face and exposing her shocked expression as he berated her for her behavior. Her thoughts were returned to her when a kunai landed not even an inch from her feet. Noticing she was starting to get outnumbered, she reigned in her attitude and started walking toward the exit "...Do what you want then, but not a single change to my department without my notification doctor." With that, she exited the room, deciding to get some fresh air.

Saber walked over and picked Bit's glasses up, looking at them for a while before going over and setting them on a shelf "...You have to admit, some of her tests do come off as a bit over the top..."

Kate stopped just short of the elevator and remembered that they had at least 2000 pounds of robot with their combined weight "...Commissioner? Considering our company, I think it would be best if we used the cargo elevator instead of the express."

[Mani4c]

Claymore glanced at Chakram. "That was a bit excessive, don't you think?" Chakram didn't answer, he simply summoned another Kunai and began to balance it on his finger. Amaterasu just sighed in exasperation. "Sometimes I wonder if our more advanced emotional programming is more of a hindrance than a blessing." The Doctor looked at Amaterasu with a puzzled expression. "Well that's a dumb question isn't it?" Amaterasu turned around and looked at the doctor with an insulted expression. The Doctor just shrugged, "You're emotions are what make you who you are, they're one of the most important parts of what makes a person unique, calling them a hindrance because of what just happened is just stupid." 

Sam nodded when Kate mentioned that Maximus' weight would make it necessary to use the freight elevator. "Good point, alright, one sec." Sam walked over to the Freight elevator and opened it with her key-card, the officers(Including Maximus), filed in and continued their trek to R&D, receiving some interesting looks along the way because of their new companions. "Kate, do you mind checking in with Saber and seeing how things are going in R&D?"

[Prythian]

Mirror sighed, resting her chin on her hands. "There goes the person who could possibly speed up this process... no offense to you, Doc, but she's the one that has experience with my code, so I'll have to sit through this whole thing. I'd rather not go through the whole process of explaining its quirks again, and even as smart as you seem to be, I'd still have to do it anyway." Domain walked over to her and put his hand on her shoulder. Well... more than her shoulder, really. Mirror was fairly small as far as avatars go, and he was... fairly large, looming over most. It would be more accurate to say he'd put his hand on her entire arm. He gave it a small, comforting squeeze. "She'll be back."

He turned his head towards the Cyberblades, only his mouth really visible with his helmet covering the upper half of his face. "Keep in mind that while you started out with complex emotions, you should consider yourself lucky. Those of us born with it instead of being simply made had to learn to deal with it without anyone else's help."

[Saber]

Katana looked down at Mirror as she was commenting on how the only one who could speed up her virus cleanup left, giving Chakram the stink eye for his actions "Real smooth, genius."

Saber looked at Chakram as Claymore questioned his actions, seeing that he was either not listening or didn't want to acknowledge the severity of his actions "Claymore's right. As much as I'm not a fan of Bit's tendency to go overboard, threatening an associate isn't something you should readily do. And I'll be speaking with Mani4c as well about his own actions, justified or not."

It was at that time that Kate patched in a video chat with Saber, a video window popping up to show who she was contacting "Saber, what's the status on R&D? Good I hope." Saber rubbed his head and chuckled nervously in the video screen <...Well...Actually...The doctor decided to toy with Bit after she decided to play the tough girl act with her security systems, and stormed out after a bit of friction between her and Mani4c...> Kate sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose, trying to keep calm "...If it's not one thing it's another...Alright, I'll have Baretta try and talk Bit down and get her to cooperate. Think you can handle Mani4c?" <That was my intention from the get go, Captain.> "Very well, get it done. Baretta? You know what to do?" <Yes Kathryn. I'll go talk with Bit now.> Kate pocketed her terminal and sighed again, shaking her head "Sometimes I wonder if those emotion programmings of theirs are a bit too advanced..."

[Mani4c]

Chakram sighed and looked at Saber, "Sir, with all due respect, you weren't there when she sicced that Virus on Viral and Lilith. I was, I had to fight that thing to keep them from getting killed, it had already ripped Viral in half with it's bare hands and taken a miniature artillery round point blank to the skull. Bit took an S-class virus and made it borderline X-class because Viral decided to play some music while training inside her precious pit, I am not going to treat someone like that as anything less than a threat, colleague or not."

Henry chuckled when Kate mentioned the advanced emotional programming that newer avatars were getting. "Comes with the territory I'm afraid, avatars are becoming more human every day, did you know that there's a freeware mod going around that let's avatars eat food and have a sense of taste? I'm hoping that within our lifetimes avatars will have a voice in government, and be seen as more than just tools or programs." Samuel rolled his eyes, "Apologies for his rambling, he's a vocal Unity advocate, he can get a bit hot blooded about it." Henry scoffed, "And why shouldn't I? They have just as much say in the decisions that effect the world as we do."

[Saber]

Saber crossed his arms when Chakram justified his reasonings for acting out toward Bit, and the virus that she sent after Viral and Lilith "Maybe not, but I still can't have you instinctively going straight toward a violent solution when it comes to NPD personnel. If you want to keep her from doing this again, then you have to try the diplomatic option first. THAT separates us from what someone as corrupt as Halberd would make as the first choice of acton." He took a deep breath, calming himself "We may have been programmed for combat, but diplomacy is never not an option when it comes to avatars that might be convinced to cease and desist. All of you should keep this in mind."

Kate shook her head in response to Henry and Samuel's remarks when she mentioned the avatars' emotional programming, clearly, Henry was fairly opinionated when it came to topics like these "In a perfect world maybe. But when any avatar can be at risk of being reformatted within three days' time at the drop of a hat, it's not easy to have solid opinions from a digital life form."

[Prythian]

Mirror nodded, though she was visibly disturbed at what Bit had done. "Almost everyone has something in them. Take it from the expert on how people feel... because I can feel what they do!" She said, grinning. The grin disappeared as quickly as it had appeared, though, as her face turned haunted. "...probably not Halberd, though. Obviously I have no memories of what happened there, given that I was deleted... but the me on that recording was almost insane with rage while I was taking on his form." She shuddered for a moment, Domain stepping forward to put her hand on her. "And now you know not to try a stunt like that again. It wasn't all that bad, though, since it led to us meeting each other, at least." Mirror reached up to wrap her hand around one of his large fingers, smiling up at him faintly.

[Mani4c]

Chakram looked at Mirror when she mentioned what turning into Halberd had done to her, his face was unreadable for a second and he looked away, but Claymore knew that Chakram was slipping into one of his moods again. The rogue members of the cyberblade project made him agitated as well, but Chakram became downright livid at the mention of them, more so with Halberd than with Dagger. But neither one was popular with him and he made it well known. "Easy Chakram, we'll get him eventually." Amaterasu nodded, "Yes, and then Dagger can rejoin us and we can be a family again." Chakram's grip on Claymore's shoulder visibly tightened. "Yes, but we'll still have to deal with people treating us like disasters waiting to happen until then won't we?" And there it was, Chakram's voice betrayed his anger at how all of the cyberblades were seen by the rest of the precinct, and Claymore and Amaterasu had no retort to give him.

Henry scowled when Kate mentioned how easy it was to reformat an avatar, not because he thought that she was wrong, but because he knew that she was right. People had been taking advantage of avatars for as long as they've been able to reformat them. "I know...it doesn't change my views however, I just wish everyone could get along, I became a scientist to try and improve people's lives, but it seems like no matter what we create someone just twists it into something to hurt others." Alexi gave Henry a pat on the back. "Don't worry about it, it's something all scientists have had to grapple with, just remember that you're in it to do good. Don't blame yourself for what others may do with it."

[Saber]

Saber glanced over at Chakram when he expressed his concerns about the cyberblade project, walking over and placing a hand on his shoulder "Your creation does come from a dark past, but it's up to you to change the minds of those who doubt us. I had to deal with the same issues you were worried about, constantly being called back to HQ in for debug tests and defragmentation just because there were people who questioned if my code wast still corrupt from the storm and at risk of going rogue. But if you stay on the right path, you'll have people supporting you from all sides, trust me on this."

The elevator finally managed to reach the rooftop, opening with a ding to allow everyone to walk inside "If that robot of yours can duck, now might be a good time to try and do so. The clearance height for this is 6 feet."

[Mani4c]

Chakram was silent when Saber told him that he had to convince people that he was trustworthy, he simply activated his armor and faded from view. Amaterasu sighed at Chakram's behavior, he was usually the stoic one of the team, but when he was in a funk he would linger there for a while. Claymore just chuckled. "Don't worry Brother, he understands what you said, he just wants to be alone and process it. He'll be back before you know it." The Doctor decided to leave the room and find his work space.

When Kate mentioned Maximus being able to stoop over, the robot nodded. <I am capable of bending down to reduce my height by two feet, this will not be an issue Captain Bale.> To prove his point, he waited until everyone else had left the elevator and easily stooped down to avoid hitting his head on the elevator's doorframe. <Shall we proceed?> (Feel free to skip to them getting to the Labs Saber.)